bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Actual and Forecasted Vulnerability Assessment to Seawater Intrusion via GALDIT-SUSI in the Volturno River Mouth (Italy)
Authors: Busico Gianluigi , Buffardi Carla , Ntona Maria Margarita , Vigliotti Marco , Colombani Nicolò , Mastrocicco Micòl , Ruberti Daniela
Published: September 2021

Coastal areas have become increasingly vulnerable to groundwater salinization, especially in the last century, due to the combined effects of climate change and growing anthropization. In this study, a novel methodology named GALDIT-SUSI was applied in the floodplain of the Volturno River mouth for the current (2018) and future (2050) evaluation of seawater intrusion accounting for the expected subsidence and groundwater salinization rates. Several input variables such as digital surface model, land use classification, subsidence rate and drainage system have been mapped via remote sensing resources. The current assessment highlights how areas affected by salinization coincide with the semiperennial lagoons and inland depressed areas where paleosaline groundwaters are present. The future assessment (2050) shows a marked increase of salinization vulnerability in the coastal strip and in the most depressed areas. The results highlight that the main vulnerability driver is the Revelle index, while predicted subsidence and recharge rates will only slightly affect groundwater salinization. This case study indicates that GALDIT-SUSI is a reliable and easy-to-use tool for the assessment of groundwater salinization in many coastal regions of the world.
Documentation of Complex Environments Using 360° Cameras. The Santa Marta Belltower in Montanaro
Authors: Teppati Losè Lorenzo , Chiabrando Filiberto , Giulio Tonolo Fabio
Published: September 2021

Low-cost and fast surveying approaches are increasingly being deployed in several domains, including in the field of built heritage documentation. In parallel with mobile mapping systems, uncrewed aerial systems, and simultaneous location and mapping systems, 360° cameras and spherical photogrammetry are research topics attracting significant interest for this kind of application. Although several instruments and techniques can be considered to be consolidated approaches in the documentation processes, the research presented in this manuscript is focused on a series of tests and analyses using 360° cameras for the 3D metric documentation of a complex environment, applied to the case study of a XVIII century belltower in Piemonte region (north-west Italy). Both data acquisition and data processing phases were thoroughly investigated and several processing strategies were planned, carried out, and evaluated. Data derived from consolidated 3D mapping approaches were used as a ground reference to validate the results derived from the spherical photogrammetry approach. The outcomes of this research confirmed, under specific conditions and with a proper setup, the possibility of using 360° images in a Structure from Motion pipeline to meet the expected accuracies of typical architectural large-scale drawings.
Adaptable Convolutional Network for Hyperspectral Image Classification
Authors: Paoletti Mercedes E. , Haut Juan M.
Published: September 2021

Nowadays, a large number of remote sensing instruments are providing a massive amount of data within the frame of different Earth Observation missions. These instruments are characterized by the wide variety of data they can collect, as well as the impressive volume of data and the speed at which it is acquired. In this sense, hyperspectral imaging data has certain properties that make it difficult to process, such as its large spectral dimension coupled with problematic data variability. To overcome these challenges, convolutional neural networks have been proposed as classification models because of their ability to extract relevant spectral–spatial features and learn hidden patterns, along their great architectural flexibility. Their high performance relies on the convolution kernels to exploit the spatial relationships. Thus, filter design is crucial for the correct performance of models. Nevertheless, hyperspectral data may contain objects with different shapes and orientations, preventing filters from “seeing everything possible” during the decision making. To overcome this limitation, this paper proposes a novel adaptable convolution model based on deforming kernels combined with deforming convolution layers to fit their effective receptive field to the input data. The proposed adaptable convolutional network (named DKDCNet) has been evaluated over two well-known hyperspectral scenes, demonstrating that it is able to achieve better results than traditional strategies with similar computational cost for HSI classification.
High-Resolution Mining-Induced Geo-Hazard Mapping Using Random Forest: A Case Study of Liaojiaping Orefield, Central China
Authors: Qin Yaozu , Cao Li , Darvishi Boloorani Ali , Wu Weicheng
Published: September 2021

Mining-induced geo-hazard mapping (MGM) is a critical step for reducing and avoiding tremendous losses of human life, mine production, and property that are caused by ore mining. Due to the restriction of the survey techniques and data sources, high-resolution MGM remains a big challenge. To overcome this problem, in this research, such an MGM was conducted using detailed geological exploration and topographic survey data as well as Gaofen-1 satellite imagery as multi-source geoscience datasets and machine learning technique taking Liaojiaping Orefield, Central China as an example. First, using Gaofen-1 panchromatic and multispectral (PMS) sensor data and Random Forest (RF) non-parametric ensemble classifier, a seven-class land cover map was generated for the study area with an overall accuracy (OA) and Kappa coefficient (KC) of 99.69% and 98.37%, respectively. Next, several environmental drivers including land cover, topography (aspect and slope), lithology, distance from fault, elevation difference between surface and underground excavation, and the difference of spectral information from PMS multispectral data of different years were integrated as predictors to construct an RF-based MGM model. The constructed model showed an excellent prediction performance, with an OA of 98.53%, KC of 97.06%, and AUC of 0.998, and the 85.60% of the observed geo-disaster that have occurred in the predicted high susceptibility class (encompassing 2.82% of the study area). The results suggested that the changes in environmental factors in the high susceptibility areas can be used as indicators for monitoring and early-warning of the geo-disaster occurrence.
Monitoring of Water Level Change in a Dam from High-Resolution SAR Data
Authors: Lee Yoon-Kyung , Hong Sang-Hoon , Kim Sang-Wan
Published: September 2021

Accurate measurement of water levels and variations in lakes and reservoirs is crucial for water management. The retrieval of the accurate variations in water levels in lakes and reservoirs with small widths from high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images such as the TerraSAR add-on for Digital Elevation Measurements (TanDEM-X) and COnstellation of small Satellites for the Mediterranean basin Observation (COSMO-SkyMed) are presented here. A detailed digital surface model (DSM) for the upstream face of the dam was constructed using SAR interferometry with TanDEM-X data to estimate the water level. The elevation of the waterline below that of the interferometric SAR (InSAR) DSM was estimated based on upstream face modeling. The waterline boundary detected using the SAR Edge Detection Hough Transform algorithm was applied to the restored DSM. The SAR-derived water level variations showed a high correlation coefficient of 0.99 and a gradient of 1.08 with the gauged data. The difference between the gauged data and SAR-derived data was within ±1 m, and the standard deviation of the residual was 0.60 m. These results suggest that water level estimation can be used as an operational supplement for traditional gauged data at remote sites.
Carrier Phase-Based Precise Heading and Pitch Estimation Using a Low-Cost GNSS Receiver
Authors: Ding Wei , Sun Wei , Gao Yang , Wu Jiaji
Published: September 2021

Attitude and heading estimation methods using the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) are generally based on multi-antenna deployment, where the installation space and system cost increase with the increase in the number of antennas. Since the single-antenna receiver is still the major choice of the mass market, we focus on precise and reliable heading and pitch estimation using a low-cost GNSS receiver. Carrier phase observations are precise but have an ambiguity problem. A single difference between consecutive epochs can eliminate ambiguity and reduce the measurement errors. In this work, a measurement model based on the time-differenced carrier phases (TDCPs) is utilized to estimate the precise delta position of the antenna between two consecutive epochs. Then, considering the motion constraint, the heading and pitch angles of a moving land vehicle can be determined by the components of the estimated receiver delta position. A threshold on the length of the delta position is selected to avoid large errors in static periods. To improve the reliability of the algorithm, the Doppler-aided cycle slip detection method is applied to exclude carrier phases with possible cycle slips. A real vehicular dynamic experiment using a low-cost, single-frequency GNSS receiver is conducted to evaluate the proposed algorithm. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is capable of providing precise vehicular heading and pitch estimates, with both the root mean square errors being better than 1.5°. This also indicates that the cycle slip exclusion is indispensable to avoid unexpected large errors.
A Framework for Actual Evapotranspiration Assessment and Projection Based on Meteorological, Vegetation and Hydrological Remote Sensing Products
Authors: Liu Yuan , Yue Qimeng , Wang Qianyang , Yu Jingshan , Zheng Yuexin , Yao Xiaolei , Xu Shugao
Published: September 2021

As the most direct indicator of drought, the dynamic assessment and prediction of actual evapotranspiration (AET) is crucial to regional water resources management. This research aims to develop a framework for the regional AET evaluation and prediction based on multiple machine learning methods and multi-source remote sensing data, which combines Boruta algorithm, Random Forest (RF), and Support Vector Regression (SVR) models, employing datasets from CRU, GLDAS, MODIS, GRACE (-FO), and CMIP6, covering meteorological, vegetation, and hydrological variables. To verify the framework, it is applied to grids of South America (SA) as a case. The results meticulously demonstrate the tendency of AET and identify the decisive role of T, P, and NDVI on AET in SA. Regarding the projection, RF has better performance in different input strategies in SA. According to the accuracy of RF and SVR on the pixel scale, the AET prediction dataset is generated by integrating the optimal results of the two models. By using multiple parameter inputs and two models to jointly obtain the optimal output, the results become more reasonable and accurate. The framework can systematically and comprehensively evaluate and forecast AET; although prediction products generated in SA cannot calibrate relevant parameters, it provides a quite valuable reference for regional drought warning and water allocating.
Analyzing Particularities of Sensor Datasets for Supporting Data Understanding and Preparation
Authors: Nieto Francisco Javier , Aguilera Unai , López-de-Ipiña Diego
Published: September 2021

Data scientists spend much time with data cleaning tasks, and this is especially important when dealing with data gathered from sensors, as finding failures is not unusual (there is an abundance of research on anomaly detection in sensor data). This work analyzes several aspects of the data generated by different sensor types to understand particularities in the data, linking them with existing data mining methodologies. Using data from different sources, this work analyzes how the type of sensor used and its measurement units have an important impact in basic statistics such as variance and mean, because of the statistical distributions of the datasets. The work also analyzes the behavior of outliers, how to detect them, and how they affect the equivalence of sensors, as equivalence is used in many solutions for identifying anomalies. Based on the previous results, the article presents guidance on how to deal with data coming from sensors, in order to understand the characteristics of sensor datasets, and proposes a parallelized implementation. Finally, the article shows that the proposed decision-making processes work well with a new type of sensor and that parallelizing with several cores enables calculations to be executed up to four times faster.
A Temperature-Compensation Technique for Improving Resolver Accuracy
Authors: Petchmaneelumka Wandee , Riewruja Vanchai , Songsuwankit Kanoknuch , Rerkratn Apinai
Published: September 2021

Variation in the ambient temperature deteriorates the accuracy of a resolver. In this paper, a temperature-compensation technique is introduced to improve resolver accuracy. The ambient temperature causes deviations in the resolver signal; therefore, the disturbed signal is investigated through the change in current in the primary winding of the resolver. For the proposed technique, the primary winding of the resolver is driven by a class-AB output stage of an operational amplifier (opamp), where the primary winding current forms part of the supply current of the opamp. The opamp supply-current sensing technique is used to extract the primary winding current. The error of the resolver signal due to temperature variations is directly evaluated from the supply current of the opamp. Therefore, the proposed technique does not require a temperature-sensitive device. Using the proposed technique, the error of the resolver signal when the ambient temperature increases to 70 °C can be minimized from 1.463% without temperature compensation to 0.017% with temperature compensation. The performance of the proposed technique is discussed in detail and is confirmed by experimental implementation using commercial devices. The results show that the proposed circuit can compensate for wide variations in ambient temperature.
Neural-Network Based Modeling of I/O Buffer Predriver under Power/Ground Supply Voltage Variations
Authors: Souilem Malek , Tripathi Jai Narayan , Melicio Rui , Dghais Wael , Belgacem Hamdi , Rodrigues Eduardo M. G.
Published: September 2021

This paper presents a neural-network based nonlinear behavioral modelling of I/O buffer that accounts for timing distortion introduced by nonlinear switching behavior of the predriver electrical circuit under power and ground supply voltage (PGSV) variations. Model structure and I/O device characterization along with extraction procedure were described. The last stage of the I/O buffer is modelled as nonlinear current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance voltage (C-V) functions capturing the nonlinear dynamic impedances of the pull-up and pull-down transistors. The mathematical model structure of the predriver was derived from the analysis of the large-signal electrical circuit switching behavior. Accordingly, a generic and surrogate multilayer neural network (NN) structure was considered in this work. Timing series data which reflects the nonlinear switching behavior of the multistage predriver’s circuit PGSV variations, were used to train the NN model. The proposed model was implemented in the time-domain solver and validated against the reference transistor level (TL) model and the state-of-the-art input-output buffer information specification (IBIS) behavioral model under different scenarios. The analysis of jitter was performed using the eye diagrams plotted at different metrics values.
Investigation of Factors Causing Nonuniformity in Luminescence Lifetime of Fast-Responding Pressure-Sensitive Paints
Authors: Egami Yasuhiro , Yamazaki Yuya , Hori Naoto , Sugioka Yosuke , Nakakita Kazuyuki
Published: September 2021

Factors that cause nonuniformity in the luminescence lifetime of pressure-sensitive paints (PSPs) were investigated. The lifetime imaging method of PSP does not theoretically require wind-off reference images. Therefore, it can improve measurement accuracy because it can eliminate errors caused by the deformation or movement of the model during the measurement. However, it is reported that the luminescence lifetime of PSP is not uniform on the model, even under uniform conditions of pressure and temperature. Therefore, reference images are used to compensate for the nonuniformity of the luminescence lifetime, which significantly diminishes the advantages of the lifetime imaging method. In particular, fast-responding PSPs show considerable variation in luminescence lifetime compared to conventional polymer-based PSPs. Therefore, this study investigated and discussed the factors causing the nonuniformity of the luminescence lifetime, such as the luminophore solvent, luminophore concentrations, binder thickness, and spraying conditions. The results obtained suggest that the nonuniformity of the luminophore distribution in the binder caused by the various factors mentioned above during the coating process is closely related to the nonuniformity of the luminescence lifetime. For example, when the thickness of the binder became thinner than 8 μm, the fast-responding PSPs showed a tendency to vary significantly in the luminescence lifetime. In addition, it was found that the luminescence lifetime of fast-responding PSP could be changed in the depth direction of the binder depending on the coating conditions. Therefore, it is important to distribute the luminophore uniformly in the binder layer to create PSPs with a more uniform luminescence lifetime distribution.
Flexible Wearable Composite Antennas for Global Wireless Communication Systems
Authors: Zhang Rui , Liu Jingwen , Wang Yangyang , Luo Zhongbao , Zhang Binzhen , Duan Junping
Published: September 2021

Although wearable antennas have made great progress in recent years, how to design high-performance antennas suitable for most wireless communication systems has always been the direction of RF workers. In this paper, a new approach for the design and manufacture of a compact, low-profile, broadband, omni-directional and conformal antenna is presented, including the use of a customized flexible dielectric substrate with high permittivity and low loss tangent to realize the compact sensing antenna. Poly-di-methyl-siloxane (PDMS) is doped a certain proportion of aluminum trioxide (Al2O3) and Poly-tetra-fluoro-ethylene (PTFE) to investigate the effect of dielectric constant and loss tangent. Through a large number of comparative experiments, data on different doping ratios show that the new doped materials are flexible enough to increase dielectric constant, reduce loss tangent and significantly improve the load resistance capacity. The antenna is configured with a multisection microstrip stepped impedance resonator structure (SIR) to expand the bandwidth. The measured reflection return loss (S11) showed an operating frequency band from 0.99 to 9.41 GHz, with a band ratio of 146%. The antenna covers two important frequency bands, 1.71–2.484 GHz (personal communication system and wireless body area network (WBAN) systems) and 5.15–5.825 GHz (wireless local area network-WLAN)]. It also passed the SAR test for human safety. Therefore, the proposed antenna offers a good chance for full coverage of WLAN and large-scale development of wearable products. It also has potential applications in communication systems, wireless energy acquisition systems and other wireless systems.
Joint Optimization of Multi-Hop Broadcast Protocol and MAC Protocol in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks
Authors: Pei Zhonghui , Wang Xiaojun , Lei Zhen , Zheng Hongjiang , Du Luyao , Chen Wei
Published: September 2021

Beacon messages and emergency messages in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) require a lower delay and higher reliability. The optimal MAC protocol can effectively reduce data collision in VANETs communication, thus minimizing delay and improving reliability. In this paper, we propose a Q-learning MAC protocol based on detecting the number of two-hop neighbors. The number of two-hop neighbors in highway scenarios is calculated with very little overhead using the beacon messages and neighbor locations to reduce the impact of hidden nodes. Vehicle nodes are regarded as agents, using Q-learning and beacon messages to train the near-optimal contention window value of the MAC layer under different vehicle densities to reduce the collision probability of beacon messages. Furthermore, based on the contention window value after training, a multi-hop broadcast protocol combined with contention window adjustment for emergency messages in highway scenarios is proposed to reduce forwarding delay and improve forwarding reliability. We use the trained contention window value and the state information of neighboring vehicles to assign an appropriate forwarding waiting time to the forwarding node. Simulation experiments are conducted to evaluate the proposed MAC protocol and multi-hop broadcast protocol and compare them with other related protocols. The results show that our proposed protocols outperform the other related protocols on several different evaluation metrics.
Data-Driven Object Pose Estimation in a Practical Bin-Picking Application
Authors: Kozák Viktor , Sushkov Roman , Kulich Miroslav , Přeučil Libor
Published: September 2021

This paper addresses the problem of pose estimation from 2D images for textureless industrial metallic parts for a semistructured bin-picking task. The appearance of metallic reflective parts is highly dependent on the camera viewing direction, as well as the distribution of light on the object, making conventional vision-based methods unsuitable for the task. We propose a solution using direct light at a fixed position to the camera, mounted directly on the robot’s gripper, that allows us to take advantage of the reflective properties of the manipulated object. We propose a data-driven approach based on convolutional neural networks (CNN), without the need for a hard-coded geometry of the manipulated object. The solution was modified for an industrial application and extensively tested in a real factory. Our solution uses a cheap 2D camera and allows for a semi-automatic data-gathering process on-site.
CrossFuNet: RGB and Depth Cross-Fusion Network for Hand Pose Estimation
Authors: Sun Xiaojing , Wang Bin , Huang Longxiang , Zhang Qian , Zhu Sulei , Ma Yan
Published: September 2021

Despite recent successes in hand pose estimation from RGB images or depth maps, inherent challenges remain. RGB-based methods suffer from heavy self-occlusions and depth ambiguity. Depth sensors rely heavily on distance and can only be used indoors, thus there are many limitations to the practical application of depth-based methods. The aforementioned challenges have inspired us to combine the two modalities to offset the shortcomings of the other. In this paper, we propose a novel RGB and depth information fusion network to improve the accuracy of 3D hand pose estimation, which is called CrossFuNet. Specifically, the RGB image and the paired depth map are input into two different subnetworks, respectively. The feature maps are fused in the fusion module in which we propose a completely new approach to combine the information from the two modalities. Then, the common method is used to regress the 3D key-points by heatmaps. We validate our model on two public datasets and the results reveal that our model outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.
Design of a Reconfigurable Wall Disinfection Robot
Authors: Sang Ash Wan Yaw , Moo Chee Gen , P. Samarakoon S. M. Bhagya , Muthugala M. A. Viraj J. , Elara Mohan Rajesh
Published: September 2021

During a viral outbreak, such as COVID-19, autonomously operated robots are in high demand. Robots effectively improve the environmental concerns of contaminated surfaces in public spaces, such as airports, public transport areas and hospitals, that are considered high-risk areas. Indoor spaces walls made up most of the indoor areas in these public spaces and can be easily contaminated. Wall cleaning and disinfection processes are therefore critical for managing and mitigating the spread of viruses. Consequently, wall cleaning robots are preferred to address the demands. A wall cleaning robot needs to maintain a close and consistent distance away from a given wall during cleaning and disinfection processes. In this paper, a reconfigurable wall cleaning robot with autonomous wall following ability is proposed. The robot platform, Wasp, possess inter-reconfigurability, which enables it to be physically reconfigured into a wall-cleaning robot. The wall following ability has been implemented using a Fuzzy Logic System (FLS). The design of the robot and the FLS are presented in the paper. The platform and the FLS are tested and validated in several test cases. The experimental outcomes validate the real-world applicability of the proposed wall following method for a wall cleaning robot.
The Undoped Polycrystalline Diamond Film—Electrical Transport Properties
Authors: Łoś Szymon , Fabisiak Kazimierz , Paprocki Kazimierz , Szybowicz Mirosław , Dychalska Anna
Published: September 2021

The polycrystalline diamonds were synthesized on n-type single crystalline Si wafer by Hot Filament CVD method. The structural properties of the obtained diamond films were checked by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. The conductivity of n-Si/p-diamond, sandwiched between two electrodes, was measured in the temperature range of 90–300 K in a closed cycle cryostat under vacuum. In the temperature range of (200–300 K), the experimental data of the conductivity were used to obtain the activation energies Ea which comes out to be in the range of 60–228 meV. In the low temperature region i.e., below 200 K, the conductivity increases very slowly with temperature, which indicates that the conduction occurs via Mott variable range hopping in the localized states near Fermi level. The densities of localized states in diamond films were calculated using Mott’s model and were found to be in the range of 9×1013 to 5×1014eV−1cm−3 depending on the diamond’s surface hydrogenation level. The Mott’s model allowed estimating primal parameters like average hopping range and hopping energy. It has been shown that the surface hydrogenation may play a crucial role in tuning transport properties.
An Adaptive Protection System for Sensor Networks Based on Analysis of Neighboring Nodes
Authors: Gamec Ján , Basan Elena , Basan Alexandr , Nekrasov Alexey , Fidge Colin , Sushkin Nikita
Published: September 2021

Creation and operation of sensor systems is a complex challenge not only for industrial and military purposes but also for consumer services (“smart city”, “smart home”) and other applications such as agriculture (“smart farm”, “smart greenhouse”). The use of such systems gives a positive economic effect and provides additional benefits from various points of view. At the same time, due to a large number of threats and challenges to cyber security, it is necessary to detect attacks on sensor systems in a timely manner. Here we present an anomaly detection method in which sensor nodes observe their neighbors and detect obvious deviations in their behavior. In this way, the community of neighboring nodes works collectively to protect one another. The nodes record only those parameters and attributes that are inherent in any node. Regardless of the node’s functionality, such parameters include the amount of traffic passing through the node, its Central Processing Unit (CPU) load, as well as the presence and number of packets dropped by the node. Our method’s main goal is to implement protection against the active influence of an internal attacker on the whole sensor network. We present the anomaly detection method, a dataset collection strategy, and experimental results that show how different types of attacks can be distinguished in the data produced by the nodes.
Design of a Broadband Array Pattern of Underwater Cymbal Transducers
Authors: Kim Donghyun , Shim Hayeong , Oh Changmin , Kim Kyungseop , Seo Heeseon , Roh Yongrae
Published: September 2021

Cymbal transducers are frequently used as an array rather than a single element because of their high quality factor and low energy conversion efficiency. When used as an array, cymbal transducers are likely to have a big change in their frequency characteristics due to the interaction with neighboring elements. In this study, we designed an array pattern of cymbal transducers to achieve a wide frequency bandwidth using this property. First, cymbal transducers with specific center frequencies were designed. Next, a 2 × 2 planar array was constructed with the designed transducers, where dielectric polarity directions of the transducers were divided into two cases (i.e., same and different). For the array, the effect of the difference in the center frequencies and the spacing between the transducers on the acoustic characteristics of the entire array was analyzed. Based on the results, the structural pattern of the array was optimized to have the maximum fractional bandwidth while maintaining the transmitting voltage response over a given requirement. The design validity was verified by making cymbal array prototypes, followed by measuring their performances and comparing them with that of the design.
Luminol Doped Silica-Polymer Sensor for Portable Organic Amino Nitrogen and Ammonium Determination in Water
Authors: Bocanegra-Rodríguez Sara , Molins-Legua Carmen , Campíns-Falcó Pilar
Published: September 2021

We propose a portable sensor, obtained by embedding luminol into the tetraethylorthosilicate/trietoxymethylsilane (TEOS/MTEOS) composite, for the quantitative determination of organic amino nitrogen and ammonium in water with the goal of achieving low levels of concentration. The method is based on the reaction between amino nitrogen compounds and hypochlorite to produce chloramino derivatives. Then, the remaining hypochlorite reacts with luminol sensor by producing a luminescence signal, which was measured by using a portable luminometer, being inversely proportional to nitrogen concentration. The liberation of the luminol from sensor is higher than 90% and the sensor is stable for at least a week at room temperature. This portable method was successfully validated and applied to the analysis of several real waters: fountain, river transition, lagoon, and seawater with recovery values between 92% and 112%, which indicated that the matrix effect was absent. The achieved limit of detection was around 10 µg·L−1, expressed as N. This sensor allows in situ monitoring owing to its simplicity, rapidity, and portability.
Rapidly Containing the First Indigenous Outbreak of Chikungunya in Taiwan—Lessons Learned
Authors: Chan Ta-Chien , Hsu Yu-Fen , Huang Shao-Chun , Chen Ran-Chou
Published: September 2021

The first indigenous outbreak of chikungunya in Taiwan occurred in New Taipei City, northern Taiwan, from August to October 2019. This study identified important containment strategies for controlling the outbreak. The outbreak investigation and ovitrap data were collected from the Department of Health, New Taipei City Government. A geographic information system (GIS) was applied for spatial analysis, and descriptive statistics were used to compute the demographic features and medical visits of confirmed cases. There were 19 residents infected during the outbreak. The source of this outbreak was a mountain trail with abundant Aedes albopictus. The atypical symptoms and lack of a rapid test led to multiple clinical visits by the patients (mean: 2.79; standard deviation: 1.65). The clinical symptoms of chikungunya are very similar to those of dengue fever. We noted that only eight patients were polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-positive in their first blood collection, and an average of 3.13 days between illness onset and PCR-positive results. The improved laboratory panel test, targeted and rapid insecticide spraying at the households and their communities, strict closure of the mountain trail, and ovitrap surveillance for evaluating intervention were important approaches to rapidly contain the outbreak.
Robust Control Design of Active Front-Wheel Steering on Low-Adhesion Road Surfaces
Authors: Zhang Chuanwei , Chang Bo , Wang Jianlong , Li Shuaitian , Zhang Rongbo , Ma Jian
Published: September 2021

In order to improve the stability of vehicle steering on low-adhesion road surfaces, this paper designed a hybrid robust control strategy, H2/H∞, for active front-wheel steering (AFS) based on robust control theory. Firstly, we analyzed the influence of the sidewall stiffness and road adhesion coefficient of the tires on vehicle stability, through which we can study the wheel deflection characteristics of low-adhesion roads. Secondly, the reference yaw velocity of the vehicle was calculated using the three-degrees-of-freedom model as the reference model, through which, taking the norm H∞ as the objective function and the norm H2 as the limit to control the output, the hybrid robust control strategy H2/H∞ of the AFS system on a low-adhesion road surface was developed. Finally, the simulation experiment was carried out by the Simulink/CarSim co-simulation platform and a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) experiment. In this paper, the results show that the AFS control strategy can improve the vehicle handling stability on low-adhesion road surfaces, and the controller has good path tracking performance and robustness.
CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT OF «PEDAGOGICS OF GOOD»
Authors: Filipchuk Georgy
Published: September 2021

The article argues that the life-creativity of Academician Ivan Andriiovych Ziaziun was subordinated to the ideals of serving his people. His "Pedagogy of good" is valuable for his natural synthesis of the principles of nationality, citizenship, patriotism, endowed with transcendental educational functions for "living and unborn" generations. It serves as a solid foundation for national education in the context of strengthening Ukrainian identity. It is substantiated that the disappearance of ethnic identity, manifested in aspects of language, national memory, traditions, symbols, culture, makes it impossible to perceive and motivate belonging to Ukrainian ethnic identity and pride for it. In the academic and pedagogical environment of this strategy, I. Ziaziun always adhered to his traditional "sense of honor, dignity and significance of education in society." He clearly understood how important it is for a teacher, a pupil, a student, and finally a state who seeks subjectivity in the world community, to balance the fundamental components of real and humane education in order to "take on the challenge of time with dignity." These ideas are designed on the conscious experience of the adoption of the principles of culture and nature compatibility and multiculturalism. The attention is paid to foreign achievements in improving the quality of educational systems through the dialogue of cultures that stimulates the development of education, industrialization, democratization, innovation of technological processes. By giving a general assessment of the results of cultural contacts, you can find numerous universal achievements of countries and peoples related to various cultural and philosophical models.
ORGANIZATION OF PEDAGOGICAL SUPPORT OF FUTURE PRESCHOOL TEACHERS IN THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS
Authors: Karapuzova Iryna , Bursova Svitlana
Published: September 2021

The main direction of improving the content of education in the higher educational establishment is the implementation of the idea of the full development of the future preschool teacher’s personality. Only the harmonious development of the student ensures his/her preparation for life and future activities, and serves as a guarantee of conscious and creative fulfilling professional and social functions by the graduate, forms his/her need for self-education, and for continuous improvement of his/her scientific and professional level.The article demonstrates the original technology of organization of pedagogical support of future preschool teachers in the process of education, which provides the step-by-step (there are preparatory, activity and analytical stages) interaction of a teacher and a student through an integrated, purposeful combination of methods and means of organizing the educational process aimed at increasing its efficiency (overcoming difficulties) and achieving the planned results with obligatory maintenance of favorable conditions for all participants of the pedagogical process.General types of difficulties that students have during their studies are determined: educational and cognitive ones (definition of the purpose, drawing up a plan of activities, perception, analysis and generalization of information, summarizing lectures, the need to use scientific terms, logical structuring of educational material for speaking, using modern information search tools, rational organization of mental work, etc.); educational and research ones (formulation of the purpose, research tasks, establishing the connections between new and mastered knowledge, modeling, inadequate practising research methods, writing summaries, abstracts, course papers and diploma papers, orthography and design of the scientific paper); related to self- development (analysis of their own activities, reflection, organization of self- education, overcoming exhaustion, etc.). The pedagogical support of students in the process of self-overcoming the difficulties while studying is described.
TRAINING IN NON-FORMAL EDUCATION OF TEACHERS OF THE NEW UKRAINIAN SCHOOL
Authors: Makhnovets Yuliia
Published: September 2021

The article reveals peculiarities of non-formal education of primary school teachers. The essence of the training is revealed as one of the forms of non-formal education of primary school teachers in the conditions of formation of the New Ukrainian School. The practical use of active training methods in the training is described. The practical experience of using the training as one of the forms of non- formal education of primary school teachers in the conditions of the formation of the New Ukrainian School by the example of Kvitneva's OTG of Zhytomyr region of Popilnyansky district is shown.In the article it is states that non-formal education is a voluntary, self- determined prospect for primary school teachers in the context of the formation of the New Ukrainian School based on experience, improves competences, deepens professionalism and is carried out in accordance with their interests and needs.The article examines already tested training in the conditions of the formation of the New Ukrainian School, which was held in Kvitneva’s OTG of Zhytomyr region of Popilnyansky district. The purpose of the training was to familiarize the pedagogues of Kvitneva's OTG with the ways of creating the optimal and psychological environment in the class, developed on the basis of modern theoretical approaches and pedagogical practice.The main objectives of training were aimed at getting acquainted with the notion of a “new educational environment”, plans for the effective organization of the educational environment, the organization of educational materials, the importance of using the walls of the classroom as a means of communication and creating a list of educational materials for educational centers.The article shows that the practice of conducting training sessions promotes active creative work of primary school teachers, namely: formation of the ability to use skills in the new context, comprehensive cultural development, intellectual needs, the growth of educational potential and an important impetus for professional development of teachers.
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE ALL-UKRAINIAN CENTER OF EMBROIDERY AND CARPET WEAVING IN RESHETYLIVKA: HISTORICAL MILESTONES AND PROSPECTS
Authors: Blyzniuk M. , Vakulenko N.
Published: September 2021

The article describes the origins and prospects of the All-Ukrainian Center for Embroidery and Carpet Making in Reshetylivka, Poltava region. Its creation contributes to the implementation of state policy in the field of culture and provides the basis for the revival and preservation of embroidery and carpet weaving traditions as the oldest artistic craft. There is a problem of public awareness of the elements of intangible cultural heritage. The reason is the lack of information sources, communication technologies, and educational activities on relevant topics, as well as insufficient motivation to study these issues.

It is emphasized that at the present stage of development of society in the world cultural space, there are significant changes associated with the comprehensive process of globalization, under the pressure of which languages disappear, traditions are forgotten and lost, weakened local cultures are on the verge of extinction. Traditional branches of Ukrainian culture contribute to the preservation of national identity, are a consolidating factor in the development of the nation, as well as an essential component of economic development.

It is emphasized that due to the efforts of talented people, who make up the cultural center of Reshetylivka, the technology of «white-on-white embroidery» in 2017 was included in the National Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ukraine, and «traditions of plant carpet weaving» of Reshetylivka was also included in the National Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ukraine in 2018. On October 3, 2018, in accordance with the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine № 987, the state non-profit institution «All-Ukrainian Center of Embroidery and Carpet Making» was established in Reshetylivka on the basis of a former factory; this center of embroidery and carpet weaving is a cultural, educational, artistic, and research institution of culture, which belongs to the sphere of management of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine.

In the future, it is planned to study the history of famous Ukrainian families, dynasties, individual masters of embroidery, carpet weaving, weaving, publishing periodicals, scientific works on folk arts and crafts of embroidery and carpet heritage; participation in the training of scientific staff, in particular, craft researchers, museum specialists, culturologists, technology teachers; production of products and souvenirs decorated with artistic and national embroidery (clothing, interior, and ceremonial fabrics, hats, table and bedding accessories), manufacturing of carpets and artistic weaving products.
WAYS OF IMPROVING PROFESSIONAL AND PEDAGOGICAL TRAINING OF FUTURE VOCATIONAL EDUCATION TEACHERS
Authors: Myronenko T. , Kuzmenko P.
Published: September 2021

The article is devoted to the issues of professionals in the field of vocational education training and the factors that affect the students’ and lecturers’ activities. Research of well-known scientists who deal with future professionals in the field of vocational education training (masters of vocational education, teachers of technology) in higher educational institutions (HEI) is analyzed; the formation of the teacher (lecturer) in the process of training is revealed.

The content and forms of educational motivation, which has specific components, are considered; the statement concerning the reasons of better results of the received knowledge when students consciously aspire to get a profession, to get competencies, to receive pleasure from the process of knowledge, to have material prosperity in the future is substantiated.

Emphasis is placed on the formation of the appropriate level of professional and pedagogical competence, including the basics of pedagogical skills of future professionals in the field of vocational education.

One of the main factors influencing the activities of both students and lecturers is the appropriate scientific and logistical base of higher education, which allows improving the quality of education through the use of various modern technologies, multimedia equipment, and technical means in the educational process.

It is proved that professional in the field of vocational education training is currently based on the formation of the necessary set of competencies: knowledge, skills, and methods of their use, personality traits, and pedagogical values to solve professional and pedagogical issues by mastering new technologies, techniques, and types of professional activities. It has been found that the activity of a modern professional in the field of vocational education as a teacher and an organizer is constantly expanding, so the ways to improve this activity are determined by the professional orientation of the educational process and compliance with the requirements for specialists to the social order; creating an atmosphere of partnership, joint productive activities of lecturers and students of higher education; modernization and improvement of technologies and methods of professional and personal development of vocational education teachers in the process of professional training.
SCIENTIFIC BASES OF STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS OF EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES IN LABOR EDUCATION ORGANIZATION METHODOLOGY DETERMINATION
Authors: Rutkovska O. , Tsyna A.
Published: September 2021

The article considers the organization of pupils’ extracurricular activities in labor education to substantiate its structural components, which make up a holistic system of extracurricular work organization. The main structural components of extracurricular activities in labor education organization methodology are analyzed. They are the following: aim, objectives, functions, content, forms, methods, and means of implementation.

It is proved that the aim of extracurricular activities in labor education is the initial component of its organization methodology, which determines pupils’ knowledge, skills, personal qualities (character traits), and mental, sensory, and motor qualities. General and specific objectives are the means of achieving the goal. The content component of pupils’ extracurricular activities in labor education is determined by the Standard educational program, school curriculum and curricula of labor education, subject, and interdisciplinary groups, electives, labor and creative associations of pupils. Organizational features of extracurricular activities in labor education structure are due to the number of pupils (mass, group, individual forms), and the time of its implementation (regular and periodic classes). To the organization methods of extracurricular activities labor education, we have selected the following teaching methods: upbringing and stimulation of pupils’ cognitive activity and independence. Organization means of pupils’ extracurricular activities in labor education are defined. They are the following: didactic (posters, technical documentation, presentations, samples, models, models of objects and processes to be studied), technical, means of material and technical support of work (simulators, ICT means, multimedia, television); means of material and technical support of pupils’ work (tools, devices, technological and auxiliary equipment, materials for laboratory and practical work in extracurricular activities).