bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Microwave Emissivity of Typical Vegetated Land Types Based on AMSR2
Authors: Wang Xueying , Wang Zhenzhan
Published: August 2022

To investigate the microwave radiation characteristics of different vegetation types, the “pure pixels” of 12 typical vegetated land types were selected and corresponding emissivity was retrieved under clear sky based on L1C AMSR2 observed brightness temperatures (TBs). According to the retrieved values for the 12 types, the spectral features in summer from 10.65 to 89 GHz were analyzed first. Then, the temporal variations in emissivity at 10.65, 18.7, and 36.5 GHz H-polarized (hereinafter 10H, 18H and 36H) are shown for the period from January 2018 to September 2020. Finally, the responses of 10H emissivity to surface skin temperature (SKT), the normalized differential vegetation index (NDVI), and soil moisture content (SMC) were quantitatively evaluated using a step-by-step analysis method. The general results are as follows: H-polarized (H-pol) emissivity increases with frequency and vegetation biomass, while the polarization differences decrease with frequency and vegetation biomass. The responses of V-pol emissivity to frequency and biomass are different from those of H-pol emissivity, and there are negative correlations with frequency and unusually high low-frequency values in grasslands and open shrublands (OS). The temporal variation amplitude of emissivity seems to be negatively correlated with vegetation biomass, and evergreen broadleaf forests show little variation. In general, the seasonal changes in emissivity are consistent with those of NDVI for most vegetation types. Nevertheless, in some cases, the change in emissivity is obviously ahead or behind that of NDVI, revealing that NDVI and emissivity may be sensitive to different vegetation elements that do not change in sync. In addition, variations in emissivity at different frequencies also show different amplitudes and turning points. Generally, the response of the 10H emissivity to SKT is weak, regardless of whether the response is positive or negative. The relatively large negative responses can be attributed to other indirect causes. NDVI plays a positive role in emissivity of the low-biomass vegetation in drier environments and medium- or high-biomass vegetation with clear seasonal variation. SMC is a complex factor that can have a positive or negative effect on emissivity.
Integrating In Situ and Current Generation Satellite Data for Temporal and Spatial Analysis of Harmful Algal Blooms in the Hartbeespoort Dam, Crocodile River Basin, South Africa
Authors: Ali Khalid , Abiye Tamiru , Adam Elhadi
Published: August 2022

The Hartbeespoort Dam is a discharge point of a catchment that is characterized by urbanization, mining, industrial, and agricultural activities. These activities coupled with fluxes of heavily polluted wastewater from informal settlements, wastewater treatment works, as well as runoff from golf courses have led to the development of recurring harmful algal blooms (HABs). The predominant cyanobacteria scum that is largely covering the Dam water is toxic to fish and poses serious public health risks. Phosphorus is the limiting nutrient in terrestrial aquatic systems and excess concentration in the waters usually results in eutrophication. The productivity level in Hartbeespoort Dam is also a function of total phosphorous (TP) level, showing a positive correlation with chlorophyll-a, an index for phytoplankton which are predominantly HABs in this Dam. Analysis of long-term in situ water quality data (1980–2020) show that TP is not the only driver, changes in surface water temperatures also affect the productivity level, especially, when TP levels are below a threshold of approximately 0.4 mg/L. Chlorophyll-a was retrieved from current generation high resolution satellite (Landsat and Sentinel) at 5-year interval. Standard band ratio-based ocean color model applied to satellite data produced an accuracy of R2 = 0.86 and RMSE of 5.56 µg/L. Time series analysis of in situ and satellite data show similar trends including capturing the effect of biocontrol on productivity levels between the late 1980s and the early 1990s, after which productivity increased with an increased flux of TP. Since 2015, the average annual surface temperature in the Dam has decreased leading to the decline in productivity level despite increasing levels of TP. The spatial dynamics of the HABs is a function of the discharges levels of the various rivers draining into the Dam as well as its geometry. Relatively higher concentrations are observed near river discharges and in areas of restricted water circulation.
SC-CAN: Spectral Convolution and Channel Attention Network for Wheat Stress Classification
Authors: Khotimah Wijayanti Nurul , Boussaid Farid , Sohel Ferdous , Xu Lian , Edwards David , Jin Xiu , Bennamoun Mohammed
Published: August 2022

Biotic and abiotic plant stress (e.g., frost, fungi, diseases) can significantly impact crop production. It is thus essential to detect such stress at an early stage before visual symptoms and damage become apparent. To this end, this paper proposes a novel deep learning method, called Spectral Convolution and Channel Attention Network (SC-CAN), which exploits the difference in spectral responses of healthy and stressed crops. The proposed SC-CAN method comprises two main modules: (i) a spectral convolution module, which consists of dilated causal convolutional layers stacked in a residual manner to capture the spectral features; (ii) a channel attention module, which consists of a global pooling layer and fully connected layers that compute inter-relationship between feature map channels before scaling them based on their importance level (attention score). Unlike standard convolution, which focuses on learning local features, the dilated convolution layers can learn both local and global features. These layers also have long receptive fields, making them suitable for capturing long dependency patterns in hyperspectral data. However, because not all feature maps produced by the dilated convolutional layers are important, we propose a channel attention module that weights the feature maps according to their importance level. We used SC-CAN to classify salt stress (i.e., abiotic stress) on four datasets (Chinese Spring (CS), Aegilops columnaris (co(CS)), Ae. speltoides auchery (sp(CS)), and Kharchia datasets) and Fusarium head blight disease (i.e., biotic stress) on Fusarium dataset. Reported experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms existing state-of-the-art techniques with an overall accuracy of 83.08%, 88.90%, 82.44%, 82.10%, and 82.78% on CS, co(CS), sp(CS), Kharchia, and Fusarium datasets, respectively.
Modulation Recognition of Communication Signals Based on Multimodal Feature Fusion
Authors: Zhang Xinliang , Li Tianyun , Gong Pei , Liu Renwei , Zha Xiong
Published: August 2022

Modulation recognition is the indispensable part of signal interception analysis, which has always been the research hotspot in the field of radio communication. With the increasing complexity of the electromagnetic spectrum environment, interference in signal propagation becomes more and more serious. This paper proposes a modulation recognition scheme based on multimodal feature fusion, which attempts to improve the performance of modulation recognition under different channels. Firstly, different time- and frequency-domain features are extracted as the network input in the signal preprocessing stage. The residual shrinkage building unit with channel-wise thresholds (RSBU-CW) was used to construct deep convolutional neural networks to extract spatial features, which interact with time features extracted by LSTM in pairs to increase the diversity of the features. Finally, the PNN model was adapted to make the features extracted from the network cross-fused to enhance the complementarity between features. The simulation results indicated that the proposed scheme has better recognition performance than the existing feature fusion schemes, and it can also achieve good recognition performance in multipath fading channels. The test results of the public dataset, RadioML2018.01A, showed that recognition accuracy exceeds 95% when the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) reaches 8dB.
Image Semantic Segmentation of Underwater Garbage with Modified U-Net Architecture Model
Authors: Wei Lifu , Kong Shihan , Wu Yuquan , Yu Junzhi
Published: August 2022

Autonomous underwater garbage grasping and collection pose a great challenge to underwater robots. To assist underwater robots in locating and recognizing underwater garbage objects efficiently, a modified U-Net-based architecture consisting of a deeper contracting path and an expansive path is proposed to accomplish end-to-end image semantic segmentation. In addition, a dataset for underwater garbage semantic segmentation is established. The proposed architecture is further verified in the underwater garbage dataset and the effects of different hyperparameters, loss functions, and optimizers on the performance of refining the predicted segmented mask are examined. It is confirmed that the focal loss function will lead to a boost in solving the target–background unbalance problem. Eventually, the obtained results offer a solid foundation for fast and precise underwater target recognition and operations.
Visual Servoing Approach to Autonomous UAV Landing on a Moving Vehicle
Authors: Keipour Azarakhsh , Pereira Guilherme A. S. , Bonatti Rogerio , Garg Rohit , Rastogi Puru , Dubey Geetesh , Scherer Sebastian
Published: August 2022

Many aerial robotic applications require the ability to land on moving platforms, such as delivery trucks and marine research boats. We present a method to autonomously land an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle on a moving vehicle. A visual servoing controller approaches the ground vehicle using velocity commands calculated directly in image space. The control laws generate velocity commands in all three dimensions, eliminating the need for a separate height controller. The method has shown the ability to approach and land on the moving deck in simulation, indoor and outdoor environments, and compared to the other available methods, it has provided the fastest landing approach. Unlike many existing methods for landing on fast-moving platforms, this method does not rely on additional external setups, such as RTK, motion capture system, ground station, offboard processing, or communication with the vehicle, and it requires only the minimal set of hardware and localization sensors. The videos and source codes are also provided.
SpecSeg Network for Specular Highlight Detection and Segmentation in Real-World Images
Authors: Anwer Atif , Ainouz Samia , Saad Mohamad Naufal Mohamad , Ali Syed Saad Azhar , Meriaudeau Fabrice
Published: August 2022

Specular highlights detection and removal in images is a fundamental yet non-trivial problem of interest. Most modern techniques proposed are inadequate at dealing with real-world images taken under uncontrolled conditions with the presence of complex textures, multiple objects, and bright colours, resulting in reduced accuracy and false positives. To detect specular pixels in a wide variety of real-world images independent of the number, colour, or type of illuminating source, we propose an efficient Specular Segmentation (SpecSeg) network based on the U-net architecture that is expeditious to train on nominal-sized datasets. The proposed network can detect pixels strongly affected by specular highlights with a high degree of precision, as shown by comparison with the state-of-the-art methods. The technique proposed is trained on publicly available datasets and tested using a large selection of real-world images with highly encouraging results.
A Spatial Analysis of the Voting Patterns in the South Korean General Elections of 2016
Authors: Lee Hyun-Chool , Repkine Alexandre
Published: August 2022

In this study we analyze the spatial patterns in the South Korean voting behavior in the context of the 2016 general election along with the socio-economic determinants of the South Korean voters’ choice. To this end we applied spatial econometric analysis to a unique dataset on the outcomes of the 2016 general elections in South Korea at a highly disaggregate level of 229 provinces. Our empirical model accounts for three types of spatial dependence in the data that has to do with the fact that geographic proximity may imply similar voting behavior. Our empirical findings align well with the existing evidence on South Korean voting behavior, in particular regarding the influence produced by the voters’ region of origin, and their age. Surprisingly, we do not find economic characteristics such as the regional income per capita or the rate of unemployment to produce a statistically significant effect on South Korean voters’ choice. However, our results imply that a sound fiscal policy by the local government may act as a signaling device distinguishing between a conservative and a liberal political agenda. Our finding of the older voters leaning towards the conservative edge of the political spectrum suggests that the “silver democracy” now actively discussed in the South Korean media is increasingly assuming more conservative traits.
Investigating the Effects of Microclimate on Physiological Stress and Brain Function with Data Science and Wearables
Authors: Lim Kenneth Y. T. , Nguyen Duc Minh Anh , Nguyen Thien Minh Tuan , Yuvaraj Rajamanickam , Fogarty Jack S.
Published: August 2022

This paper reports a study conducted by students as an independent research project under the mentorship of a research scientist at the National Institute of Education, Singapore. The aim of the study was to explore the relationships between local environmental stressors and physiological responses from the perspective of citizen science. Starting from July 2021, data from EEG headsets were complemented by those obtained from smartwatches (namely heart rate and its variability and body temperature and stress score). Identical units of a wearable device containing environmental sensors (such as ambient temperature, air pressure, infrared radiation, and relative humidity) were designed and worn, respectively, by five adolescents for the same period. More than 100,000 data points of different types—neurological, physiological, and environmental—were eventually collected and were processed through a random forest regression model and deep learning models. The results showed that the most influential microclimatic factors on the biometric indicators were noise and the concentrations of carbon dioxide and dust. Subsequently, more complex inferences were made from the Shapley value interpretation of the regression models. Such findings suggest implications for the design of living conditions with respect to the interaction of the microclimate and human health and comfort.
Safety and Economic Evaluations of Electric Public Buses Based on Driving Behavior
Authors: Zhou Yiwen , Guo Fengxiang , Wu Simin , He Wenyao , Xiong Xuefei , Chen Zheng , Ni Dingan
Published: August 2022

The widespread adoption of electric public buses has a positive effect on energy conservation and emission reduction, which is significant for sustainable development. This study aims to assess the safety and economy of electric buses based on drivers’ behavior. To this end, based on the remotely acquired travel data of buses, the driving operation behavior is analyzed, and four safety and four economic characteristic indicators are respectively extracted via safety analysis, correlation examination, and an R2 test. Then, the extreme learning machine (ELM) is leveraged to establish the safety evaluation model, and Elman neural network is employed to construct the economic evaluation model. A comparative analysis and a comprehensive evaluation are conducted for the behaviors of ten drivers. The results highlight that the proposed evaluation model that us based on the ELM and Elman neural network algorithm can efficiently distinguish the safety and economy of driving behavior. Furthermore, a graph of driving operation behavior is constructed and the analysis results also manifest that the change of driving operation behavior of buses with higher safety and economy lead to relatively stable characteristics. When the fluctuation of vehicle speed is smooth, the driver can implement moderate driving operation in real-time. One critical conclusion that was revealed through the study is that there exists a certain correlation between driving safety and economy, and buses with higher safety tend to be more economical. This study can provide a theoretical basis for planning the maneuvering and operation of electric buses, including driving speed, braking, and acceleration operations.
Digital Finance and Collaborative Innovation: Case Study of the Yangtze River Delta, China
Authors: Zhao Hongyan , Zheng Wanteng , Loutfoullina Irina
Published: August 2022

The development of China’s digital finance provides new ideas for solving the financial constraints faced by some collaborative innovation activities in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD). Therefore, based on the panel data of 41 cities in the YRD from 2011 to 2020, this study empirically tests the impact and transmission mechanisms of digital finance on collaborative innovation through GMM and a dynamic mediation model. The results show that in the YRD region, digital finance significantly stimulates collaborative innovation, but the effect of the decomposition index varies. The effect of depth of use is the strongest, followed by breadth of coverage and degree of digitization. In terms of the transmission mechanism, digital finance can increase the scale of credit, social consumption, and industrial upgrading to form a positive local effect. It can also improve the development of collaborative innovation, and lead to a spillover effect through the flow of R&D capital and R&D personnel. The conclusion indicates that it is necessary to stimulate the digital transformation in the financial field, giving full play to liquidity, facilitating the upgrading of credits, consumption, and industries. This study enriches the theoretical framework of digital finance and collaborative innovation. Moreover, the empirical test provides data and evidence for the construction of a world-class science and technology innovation center in the YRD. The paper also presents limitations, including the influence of factors such as urban heterogeneity and financial supervision, worthy of further research.
The Influence of Social Media on Perceived Levels of National Security and Crisis: A Case Study of Youth in the United Arab Emirates
Authors: Al Naqbi Nadir , Al Momani Naill , Davies Amanda
Published: August 2022

The increase in the use of social media as a 21st century communication tool is in parallel increasing the threat to national security globally. This study explores the perception of United Arab Emirate community members (specifically youth) on the influence of social media as a threat; the wide use of SM platforms for Emirate of Sharjah (Dibba Al-Hisn, Khor Fakkan, Kalba) were analyzed utilizing a descriptive-analytical method. The results of the study on the effects and consequences of social media on national security in the UAE, rates social media as having the highest level of influence on political implications followed in decreasing order of influence by, economic, cultural and societal, ethical and religious dimensions, and the least potential influence being on perceived national security implications. Further, the results of a one-way variance analysis indicate the potential for the perceived level of national security experienced by youth community members in the UAE to be predicted through social media. A unique feature of this study is the analysis of the influence of the five dimensions of national security on each other and national security collectively from an Arab youth perspective. Further, the study design is replicable and offers, (a) an opportunity for wider utilization as an avenue for contributing to understanding the impact of social media on the perception of a country’s national security, and (b) a fundamental baseline for future research.
Towards Sustained and Sustainable Management of COVID-19: An Alternative to the Simplified Return to Pre-Pandemic “Normality’’
Authors: Adam Frane , Gorišek Maruša
Published: August 2022

The article is focusing on current processes, models, and possible consequences of the easing or cancelling of measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic that we have seen by the end of July 2022. This is observed in the broader context of selected European countries, allowing us to detect differences, similarities, and, especially, the different ways in which these processes have been legitimized by politicians (governments) and experts. The authors agree with a group of biomedical and other experts, scientists, who consider the rapid abolishment of epidemiological measures as a strategy that is considered a too-simplified solution, so are searching for a more sustainable way of managing the pandemic and also “pandemic fatigue”. In the text, the authors advocate a strategy, based on the principles of calibration, combination, and continuity of measures, which is compatible with the sustainable organization of the healthcare system. However, the implementation must be viable and long-term oriented.
Attitudes towards Slum Tourism in Mumbai, India: Analysis of Positive and Negative Impacts
Authors: Cardoso António , da Silva Amândio , Pereira Manuel Sousa , Sinha Neeta , Figueiredo Jorge , Oliveira Isabel
Published: August 2022

Tourism has grown exponentially in the 21st century and continues to be one of the rapidly growing industries in the world in terms of revenue generation and employment opportunities. It covers not only travel services and boarding-lodging activities but a wide range of independent but related sectors like transport, accommodation, food and beverage, and entertainment, among others. Modern tourism is diversified and includes several odd types of tourism, like slum tourism, dark tourism, and sex tourism. This paper analyzes the case of slum tourism to Dharavi, India’s commercial capital and largest city as well as the benefits and disadvantages that such kind of tourism has. It also attempts to understand the opinion of the common people and slum dwellers on slum tourism, while observing if the ten principles of the “Global Code of Ethics for Tourism” (GCET) have been fulfilled in the country. The results show that overall, the principles of GCET are fulfilled but much is still left to be done. On the other side, most of the slum residents accept slum tourism as a reality that brings more benefits than damage to their living environment and are of the opinion that tourism brings prosperity to them and to the country.
Green Behavior: Factors Influencing Behavioral Intention and Actual Environmental Behavior of Employees in the Financial Service Sector
Authors: Hasebrook Joachim P. , Michalak Leonie , Wessels Anna , Koenig Sabine , Spierling Stefan , Kirmsse Stefan
Published: August 2022

The financial sector is a key industry to invest in sustainable products and services, and to help other companies to make sustainable investments. So far, research sheds little light on environmental attitudes and the behavioral patterns of employees in this sector. We investigated what motivation and motivators promote or inhibit “green” behavior among professionals in the financial service industry. A smartphone friendly online survey concerning the intention to improve and show ‘green behavior’ was sent to 1200 professionals working in 17 locations in 13 European countries, 470 of which responded to the survey (39%). From these participants, 20% are convinced of the need to act in a “green” manner, and only 5% are hardly accessible. Monetary benefits combined with social motives contribute to sustainable living, whereas financial benefits alone actually hinder it. The result of this study points to an intention-behavior gap; intention is built from various influences including moderating factors like sex, age and family status influencing individual decisions. It is recommended that we should evaluate the green attitude and behavioral patterns of employees based on a practical typology of “green behavior”, which is suggested in this study, helping companies to know what actions can be taken to close the intention-behavior gap.
Localisation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Bangladesh: An Inclusive Framework under Local Governments
Authors: Sarkar Md. Sujahangir Kabir , Okitasari Mahesti , Ahsan Md. Rajibul , Al-Amin Abul Quasem
Published: August 2022

To accelerate the implementation of SDGs at the national level, policymakers and practitioners are focusing on localisation, where the local government (LG) can play a critical role. This paper examines the LG’s capacity and its existing link with the implementation of SDGs at the local level in Bangladesh, and it offers an inclusive framework for the SDGs’ localisation. The data was gathered through an in-depth interview of 10 chairmen of the Union Council (lowest tier of LG) in Northern Bangladesh’s Nilphamari district. An SWOT analysis of the local government was conducted to determine the organisation’s effectiveness and capacity in light of its vulnerabilities, threats, strengths, and opportunities. The data indicate that while the majority of LG representatives have some knowledge, participation, and perceptions about the SDGs, they demonstrate a great desire to gain additional knowledge and participation. The study ascertains SDG 1 (No poverty), SDG 2 (Zero hunger), and SDG 6 (Clean water and sanitation) as the most locally important SDGs relevant to the LG’s actions, based on the opinions of the surveyed respondents. The LG’s strengths were identified in their familiarity with local problems and the environment, as well as the presence of potential local stakeholders, while their weaknesses included a lack of capacity, resources, funding, and a lack of decentralisation and empowerment of the LG. This study develops an inclusive framework for the localisation of the SDGs under the leadership of LGs based on the findings. To expedite the localisation of the SDGs in Bangladesh, the framework recommends forming an SIC (SDG implementation committee) by including all key local stakeholders, and asking the national government to increase local competence and resources through an appropriate decentralisation of the LG.
The Impact of Carbon Emissions Trading Pilot Policy on Industrial Structure Upgrading
Authors: Zhao Zhaoyang , Zhou Shuning , Wang Siying , Ye Chong , Wu Tuolei
Published: August 2022

Using the carbon emissions trading pilot policy implemented since 2011 as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper constructs a multi-period DID model based on panel data of 280 prefecture-level cities from 2006–2019 to explore the impact of the carbon emissions trading pilot policy on industrial structure upgrading and conducts a heterogeneity test and mechanism test. This study finds that the carbon emissions trading pilot policy significantly promotes the upgrading of industrial structures, especially for larger cities and non-resource-based cities. Further exploration of the impact mechanism shows that the carbon emissions trading pilot policy promotes industrial structure upgrading mainly through green innovation. The findings of the study have significant implications for the construction of a high-quality, modernized economic system in China.
Chrysotile-Asbestos-Induced Damage in Panicum virgatum and Phleum pretense Species and Its Alleviation by Organic-Soil Amendment
Authors: Saleem Khansa , Asghar Muhammad Ahsan , Saleem Muhammad Hamzah , Raza Ali , Kocsy Gábor , Iqbal Nadeem , Ali Baber , Albeshr Mohammed Fahad , Bhat Eijaz Ahmed
Published: August 2022

Asbestos is an industrially important microfiber present in cement industries and some mining sites and is very toxic to plant growth and development, but it has been neglected over the years. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the hazardous effects of asbestos on the growth and development of two important grass species (switchgrass and timothy grass). In order to mitigate the toxic effects of asbestos, a compost (bio-fertilizer) was also used. The asbestos soil samples were collected within a 10 km area of a cement factory. The results revealed that the asbestos-contaminated soils displayed a considerable increment in heavy metal uptake including chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), vanadium (V), arsenic (As), and barium (Ba), which led to stunted plant growth. Consequently, the activities of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPX), and catalase (CAT) were stimulated to kept the redox balance under control. Among all the contaminated soils, the soil that was taken within a 0 Km area, closest to the cement factory, was the most toxic one. However, a compost amendment (25%) as a bio-fertilizer substantially reduced the toxic effects of asbestos fiber on the overall growth and development of plants, by reducing the metals’ uptake. Moreover, it was found that the roots of both grass species experienced higher heavy metal accumulation relative to the shoots. Collectively, it can be proposed that the studied grass species can be used for phytoextraction purposes, since both of them absorbed the heavy metals from the asbestos-contaminated soils.
Hell Is Empty, and All the Devils Are Here: Nexus between Toxic Leadership, Crisis Communication, and Resilience in COVID-19 Tourism
Authors: Koo Inhyouk , Anjam Mahwish , Zaman Umer
Published: August 2022

Sustainable travel has been redefined by the pandemic, as tourism destinations continue their struggle to stay resilient and vibrant. The COVID-19 crisis has fueled a lackluster performance and declined tourism growth worldwide while imposing serious threats to employees’ resilience across the globe. However, little is known about the interaction between the global tourism crisis and employees’ resilience in toxic leadership environments. To augment the existing understanding of the way employee resilience unfolds to respond to a crisis under toxic leadership, we draw on predictive research involving the UAE tourism industry. The UAE’s economy was forced to shrink largely due to its long-lasting dependency on inbound tourism. Hence, the study data were collected from 412 employees working in the hospitality and tourism industry in the UAE. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the impact of toxic leadership on crisis communication and employees’ resilience in the UAE’s tourism industry. The results showed that both employee resilience and crisis communication are negatively influenced by toxic leadership in COVID-19 tourism. Furthermore, crisis communication positively influences employee resilience, and significantly mediates its relationship with toxic leadership. Interestingly, the findings suggest that the toxic work culture constantly blurs the lines of communication, and, ultimately, the contagious behavior of toxic leaders overwhelms the resilience of employees while they respond to a crisis. The theoretical and practical implications of this research are not confined to toxic leadership; however, the strategies to nurture crisis communication and employee resilience for sustainable tourism are presented in an evolutionary perspective based on the conservation of resources theory.
A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship between Financing Efficiency and Entrepreneurial Vitality: Evidence from Chinese College Students
Authors: Ge Xinming , Wang Jinbo
Published: August 2022

Entrepreneurial financing has a profound impact on young college students’ involvement in entrepreneurial practice and entrepreneurial performance. A certain amount of research literature about the relationship between financing efficiency and entrepreneurial vitality of college students has been accumulated, but the relevant analysis and research conclusions are not unified, which requires us to summarize general conclusions through the meta-analysis method. Based on 444,106 samples from 21 studies on the relationship between financing and entrepreneurship in college students from 2015 to 2022, this study conducts a meta-analysis on the relationship between their financial efficiency and entrepreneurial vitality. The moderating effects of five variables, entrepreneurial competence, entrepreneurial education level, age, entrepreneurial location environment and entrepreneur social capital are analyzed. The results of meta-analysis show that financing efficiency has a significant positive impact on the entrepreneurial vitality of college students. Entrepreneurial competence, entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial location environment have significant positive moderating effects on the relationship between financing efficiency and the entrepreneurial vitality of college students, Financing effectiveness and availability have significant positive effects on entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial performance. On the basis of these conclusions, this study puts forward relevant suggestions from the perspective of government, universities and entrepreneurs.
Urban nullius? Urban Indigenous People and Climate Change
Authors: Nursey-Bray Melissa , Parsons Meg , Gienger Ariane
Published: August 2022

Climate change is impacting cities and urban regions in significant ways, and people living within them must work out how to live with and adapt to the changes they bring. Indigenous peoples are increasingly moving to and living in cities, yet how they experience climate change within them is not understood. While literature explores Indigenous experiences of climate change and how Indigenous knowledge is being used to combat it, this work is geographically located in rural and remote Indigenous territories—not cities. This paper presents the results of a review that sought to find out why this is the case. Our aim was to identify scholarship that discussed how Indigenous people are affected by climate change in cities. To do so, we undertake a narrative literature review, which analyses content to distil key concepts in the literature, which are then presented in the paper to form a narrative. We find a significant gap in the literature addressing Indigenous experiences and voices concerning climate change in cities. We argue that this is due to the ongoing legacy of settler colonization, which has erased Indigenous peoples from urban territories to the extent that even when they are visible, urban Indigenous people are characterized as inauthentic and vulnerable. We call for action to overturn this insidious form of urban nullius to reclaim and assert Indigenous voices on and about climate change and policy in cities.
The Role of Innovation Capability in Enhancing Sustainability in SMEs: An Emerging Economy Perspective
Authors: Heenkenda HMJCB , Xu Fengju , Kulathunga KMMCB , Senevirathne WAR
Published: August 2022

Today, we are living in the knowledge century. Knowledge-based intangible resources in enhancing sustainable growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is presently a significant scope of research. Innovation capability is the intuitive skill of an individual or a firm to transform an explicit concept towards value orientation that carries an economic value. This economic value would then lead to wealth creation and eventually result in sustainable SMEs. The SME sector has been highlighted for its significant contribution towards the creation of employment, opportunity for innovation and economic dynamism. In this study, evidence derived from knowledge-based view and knowledge creation theory was used to construct a structured model to analyze the relationships among innovation capability, disruptive technology and knowledge creation and their impacts on SMEs sustainability. A sample of 384 owners of SMEs in Sri Lanka was included in the study. The outcome of structural equation modelling (SEM) discovered positive effects of innovation capability, disruptive technology and knowledge creation on sustainability. Innovation capability also emerged as a predictor of disruptive technology and knowledge creation. Moreover, disruptive technology and knowledge creation were found to be partial mediators of the association between innovation capability and SMEs’ sustainability. These findings pave the way for policy makers to promote sustainability in SMEs, by assisting to enhance their performance in competitive and innovative economic environments. Further, the validated model can be empirically tested in future research.
Highly Efficient Numerical Integrator for the Circular Restricted Three-Body Problem
Authors: Tu Xiongbiao , Wang Qiao , Tang Yifa
Published: August 2022

The dynamic equation of a mass point in the circular restricted three-body problem is governed by Coriolis and centrifugal force, in addition to a co-rotating potential relative to the frame. In this paper, we provide an explicit, symmetric integrator for this problem. Such an integrator is more efficient than the symplectic Euler method and the Gauss Runge–Kutta method as regards this problem. In addition, we proved the integrator is symplectic by the discrete Hamilton’s principle. Several groups of numerical experiments demonstrated the precision and high efficiency of the integrator in the examples of the quadratic potential and the bounded orbits in the circular restricted three-body problem.
Magnonic Activity of Circularly Magnetized Ferromagnetic Nanotubes Induced by Dzyalonshinskii-Moriya Interaction
Authors: Yang Mingming , Zeng Xiaoyan , Yan Ming
Published: August 2022

Magnonic activity, a chiral effect in magnetization dynamics, was recently reported in ferromagnetic nanotubes. Being a perfect analogy to the optical activity, it refers to the continuous rotation of a standing-waves pattern formed in the circumferential direction during the wave propagation along the tube. This effect only occurs when the tube is longitudinally magnetized. Here we report that a similar phenomenon can also take place in circularly magnetized nanotubes with the presence of Dzyalonshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI). While in the former case, the chiral-symmetry breaking is caused by the curvilinear shape of the tube, it is attributed to the intrinsic asymmetry of the DMI in the latter one. We present the results obtained in both numerical simulations and semi-analytical calculations, which are in great agreement. This work provides new aspects for the manipulation of spin waves, which may bear potential applications in the development of novel spintronic devices.
Several Dynamic Properties for the gkCH Equation
Authors: Wang Ying , Guo Yunxi
Published: August 2022

In this paper, we focus on a generalized Camassa–Holm equation (also known as a gkCH equation), which includes both the Camassa–Holm equation and Novikov equation as two special cases. Because of the potential applications in physics, we will further investigate the properties of the equation from a mathematical point of view. More precisely, firstly, we give a new wave-breaking phenomenon. Then, we present the theorem of existence and uniqueness of global weak solutions for the equation, provided that the initial data satisfy certain sign conditions. Finally, we prove the Hölder continuity of a solution map for the equation.
Lagrangian Zero Truncated Poisson Distribution: Properties Regression Model and Applications
Authors: Irshad Muhammed , Chesneau Christophe , Shibu Damodaran , Monisha Mohanan , Maya Radhakumari
Published: August 2022

In this paper, we construct a new Lagrangian discrete distribution, named the Lagrangian zero truncated Poisson distribution (LZTPD). It can be presented as a generalization of the zero truncated Poissson distribution (ZTPD) and an alternative to the intervened Poisson distribution (IPD), which was elaborated for modelling both over-dispersed and under-dispersed count datasets. The mathematical aspects of the LZTPD are thoroughly investigated, and its connection to other discrete distributions is crucially observed. Further, we define a finite mixture of LZTPDs and establish its identifiability condition along with some distributional aspects. Statistical work is then performed. The maximum likelihood and method of moment approaches are used to estimate the unknown parameters of the LZTPD. Simulation studies are also undertaken as an assessment of the long-term performance of the estimates. The significance of one additional parameter in the LZTPD is tested using a generalized likelihood ratio test. Moreover, we propose a new count regression model named the Lagrangian zero truncated Poisson regression model (LZTPRM) and its parameters are estimated by the maximum likelihood estimation method. Two real-world datasets are considered to demonstrate the LZTPD’s real-world applicability, and healthcare data are analyzed to demonstrate the LZTPRM’s superiority.
An Efficient Technique to Solve Time-Fractional Kawahara and Modified Kawahara Equations
Authors: Koppala Pavani , Kondooru Raghavendar
Published: August 2022

In this article, we analysed the approximate solutions of the time-fractional Kawahara equation and modified Kawahara equation, which describe the propagation of signals in transmission lines and the formation of nonlinear water waves in the long wavelength region. An efficient technique, namely the natural transform decomposition method, is used in the present study. Fractional derivatives are considered in Caputo, Caputo–Fabrizio, and Atangana–Baleanu operative in the Caputo manner. We have presented numerical results graphically to demonstrate the applicability and efficiency of derivatives with fractional order to depict the water waves in long wavelength regions. The symmetry pattern is a fundamental feature of the Kawahara equation and the symmetrical aspect of the solution can be seen from the graphical representations. The obtained outcomes of the proposed method are compared to those of other well-known numerical techniques, such as the homotopy analysis method and residual power series method. Numerical solutions converge to the exact solution of the Kawahara equations, demonstrating the significance of our proposed method.
Symmetry of Sampling Problem Based on Epistemic Uncertainty and Ellsberg Urn
Authors: Lio Waichon , Kang Rui
Published: August 2022

A general sampling problem can be described by an Ellsberg urn, which is a mathematical model that assumes that balls are randomly drawn from an urn with an uncertain numbers of colored balls. This means that the Ellsberg urn is essentially an intricate model with simultaneous randomness and epistemic uncertainty, and this is the core problem discussed in this paper. Since practical sampling is usually processed in an intricate environment, the solution for an equivalent mathematical problem is necessary. Suppose an Ellsberg urn contains three unknown numbers of colored balls (i.e., a two-degrees-of-freedom Ellsberg urn), and three balls are randomly drawn from the urn. Compared to the published papers, this paper first constructs a chance space with two-dimensional uncertainty space and three-dimensional probability space to rigorously calculate the color distributions for those drawn balls by uncertainty theory, probability theory, and chance theory. Moreover, it is interesting to find that all cases of the drawn balls are symmetric in such a specific situation of a sample problem with epistemic uncertainty.
A Catalog of Enumeration Formulas for Bouquet and Dipole Embeddings under Symmetries
Authors: Ellingham Mark N. , Ellis-Monaghan Joanna A.
Published: August 2022

Motivated by the problem arising out of DNA origami, we give a general counting framework and enumeration formulas for various cellular embeddings of bouquets and dipoles under different kinds of symmetries. Our algebraic framework can be used constructively to generate desired symmetry classes, and we use Burnside’s lemma with various symmetry groups to derive the enumeration formulas. Our results assimilate several existing formulas into this unified framework. Furthermore, we provide new formulas for bouquets with colored edges (and thus for bouquets in nonorientable surfaces) as well as for directed embeddings of directed bouquets. We also enumerate vertex-labeled dipole embeddings. Since dipole embeddings may be represented by permutations, the formulas also apply to certain equivalence classes of permutations and permutation matrices. The resulting bouquet and dipole symmetry formulas enumerate structures relevant to a wide variety of areas in addition to DNA origami, including RNA secondary structures, Feynman diagrams, and topological graph theory. For uncolored objects, we catalog 58 distinct sequences, of which 43 have not, as far as we know, been described previously.
A Robust and Non-Fragile Observer Design for Nonlinear Fractional-Order Systems
Authors: Kahouli Omar , Naifar Omar , Makhlouf Abdellatif Ben , Bouteraa Yassine , Aloui Ali , Rebhi Ali
Published: August 2022

The challenge of developing observers for classical integer-order systems that are both resilient and non-fragile has received a lot of attention in the literature. However, only a few articles have addressed the topic of developing observers for Fractional-Order (FO) systems that are both H-infinity H∞ and non-fragile. The current work handles the Caputo fractional-order systems as the first work, to our knowledge, which treats such problems. The authors provide a novel result for building non-fragile and robust observers for nonlinear Caputo fractional-order systems. For this, the H∞ performance method is utilized. Simulations for a numerical example confirm the efficacy of the suggested technique. The primary advantage of the current work is that it is the first to address the Caputo fractional-order system problem.
Digitalizing Structure–Symmetry Relations at the Formation of Endofullerenes in Terms of Information Entropy Formalism
Authors: Sabirov Denis Sh. , Tukhbatullina Alina A. , Shepelevich Igor S.
Published: August 2022

Information entropy indices are widely used for numerical descriptions of chemical structures, though their applications to the processes are scarce. We have applied our original information entropy approach to filling fullerenes with a guest atom. The approach takes into account both the topology and geometry of the fullerene structures. We have studied all possible types of such fillings and found that information entropy (ΔhR) and symmetry changes correlate. ΔhR is negative, positive or zero if symmetry is increased, reduced or does not change, respectively. The ΔhR value and structural reorganization entropy, a contribution to ΔhR, are efficient parameters for the digital classification of the fullerenes involved into the filling process. Based on the calculated values, we have shown that, as the symmetry of the fullerene cage becomes higher, the structural changes due to the filling it with a guest atom become larger. The corresponding analytical expressions and numerical data are discussed.