bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Real-Time Hybrid Multi-Sensor Fusion Framework for Perception in Autonomous Vehicles
Authors: Shahian Jahromi Babak , Tulabandhula Theja , Cetin Sabri
Published: October 2019

There are many sensor fusion frameworks proposed in the literature using different sensors and fusion methods combinations and configurations. More focus has been on improving the accuracy performance; however, the implementation feasibility of these frameworks in an autonomous vehicle is less explored. Some fusion architectures can perform very well in lab conditions using powerful computational resources; however, in real-world applications, they cannot be implemented in an embedded edge computer due to their high cost and computational need. We propose a new hybrid multi-sensor fusion pipeline configuration that performs environment perception for autonomous vehicles such as road segmentation, obstacle detection, and tracking. This fusion framework uses a proposed encoder-decoder based Fully Convolutional Neural Network (FCNx) and a traditional Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) nonlinear state estimator method. It also uses a configuration of camera, LiDAR, and radar sensors that are best suited for each fusion method. The goal of this hybrid framework is to provide a cost-effective, lightweight, modular, and robust (in case of a sensor failure) fusion system solution. It uses FCNx algorithm that improve road detection accuracy compared to benchmark models while maintaining real-time efficiency that can be used in an autonomous vehicle embedded computer. Tested on over 3K road scenes, our fusion algorithm shows better performance in various environment scenarios compared to baseline benchmark networks. Moreover, the algorithm is implemented in a vehicle and tested using actual sensor data collected from a vehicle, performing real-time environment perception.
A Low-Cost Micro-Volume Nephelometric System for Quantitative Immunoagglutination Assays
Authors: Sun Qiqi , Zheng Wei , Lin Chao , Shen Dongxuan
Published: October 2019

Immunoassays have been widely used in scientific research and clinical diagnosis due to their versatile detection capability and high specificity. Immunoagglutination assays are kinds of immunoassay, which can simply and rapidly measure the concentration of analytes. In this work, we developed a low-cost micro-volume nephelometric system for quantitative immunoagglutination assays. We used off-the-shelf components to build the system, and the total cost of key components is only about 20 US dollars. The total detection volume in our system was as low as 3 µL, which could significantly reduce the reagent cost and required sample volume. We further evaluated the system performance via the immunoagglutination assay to measure the concentration of C-reactive protein, a plasma protein with levels rising in response to inflammation. The results demonstrated that our system could measure the concentration of analytes with relatively high sensitivity and precision within four minutes, and has high potential to be applied for clinical diagnostic tests.
Environmental Stress Testing for China’s Overseas Coal Power Investment Project
Authors: Xiong Minpeng , Yang Xiaowen , Chen Sisi , Shi Fulian , Yuan Jiahai
Published: October 2019

The advance of the Chinese “Belt and Road” initiative encourages increased overseas investment in coal power projects. However, it also brings about external environmental risks. In this paper, we use the approach of environmental stress testing to examine China’s overseas coal power investment projects by focusing on two countries: Indonesia and Vietnam. We first identify five key testing factors (i.e., coal price, utilization hours, exchange rate, carbon tax, and environmental protection requirements) by examining the market regulation and the environmental risks of coal power projects along the “Belt and Road” countries. Then, we observed changes in the enterprise value and internal rate of return (IRR) by setting different scenarios in which the values of the five stress factors varied. The results show that (1) the economics of coal-fired projects in Indonesia is most sensitive to exchange rate, while the economics of coal projects in Vietnam is most sensitive to coal price; (2) the pressure of nationally determined contributions (NDC) goals on environmental protection will push the “Belt and Road” countries to implement more stringent environmental regulation, which will reinforce environmental stress on overseas coal power investment. These results have important policy implications for the enterprise, industry, and Chinese government.
Sustainable Stormwater Management in Existing Settlements—Municipal Strategies and Current Governance Trends in Germany
Authors: Geyler Stefan , Bedtke Norman , Gawel Erik
Published: October 2019

While a policy of more decentralized stormwater management is increasingly being pursued in areas containing new housing developments, the question arises as to how stormwater management is handled in existing settlements, where restructuring the drainage system is a much more complex affair and often requires the active involvement of property owners. Recognizing that the multidimensional objectives of stormwater management in settlements call for a range of local strategies, this article examines the interaction and strategic contribution of two key municipal institutions for regulating stormwater management, namely, compulsory connection and usage and stormwater charges, in order to examine how they meet these objectives when property owners are involved. The following questions are addressed: How do these two key institutions link the varied objectives of stormwater management with practical options for decentralization? Which institutional designs are capable of integrating property owners into a municipal stormwater strategy in a coherent manner? What is current local government practice? This article begins by analyzing the interactions between different objectives of stormwater management, the interplay of the two key institutions, and options for stormwater management on private properties. On this basis, we then present an empirical study of current practice in 44 medium to large cities in Germany. This shows that while local governments devise very different—and often inconsistent—institutional designs, decentralization is quite commonly pursued in existing settlements.
Geographical Modeling of Spatial Interaction between Built-Up Land Sprawl and Cultivated Landscape Eco-Security under Urbanization Gradient
Authors: Cai Han , Ma Kun , Luo Yunjian
Published: October 2019

Built-up land sprawl is the most intuitive manifestation and main cause of cultivated land pattern change. Understanding spatiotemporal change and its driving factors in the impact of built-up land sprawl on cultivated landscape eco-security under the urbanization gradient can reveal the nature of cultivated landscape ecological risk caused by urban sprawl and promote the scientific implementation of urban planning and cultivated land protection policies. Taking Yangzhou, a medium-sized city with rapid urbanization, as an example, we used multi-sources data (30 m resolution Landsat images in 1998, 2008, and 2018) to analyze the sprawl intensity and direction of built-up land and cultivated landscape ecological risk areas under the urbanization gradient and the spatiotemporal characteristics of the relationship between them. Further, we employed the boosted regression tree (BRT) model to quantify the effects of geographic, social, and economic factors on the impact of built-up land sprawl on cultivated landscape eco-security under different urbanization gradients. Results showed that built-up land sprawl rate increased first and then decreased from 1998 to 2018, forming the sprawl gradients of no. 1–8, no. 8–16, and no. 16–30 urban circle. Its sprawl direction is mainly 20°–90°, 190°–240°, and 305°–355°, whereas cultivated landscape ecological risk area is a continuous sprawl, and the sprawl gradient and direction of the main risk area are consistent with the built-up land. In 1998–2008, the main areas where built-up land sprawl affects cultivated landscape eco-security are located in no. 1–16 urban circle, 20°–55°. From 2008 to 2018, it was located in no. 16–26 urban circle, 305°–355°. In this process, the influence of geospatial factors decreases gradually over time but increases outwardly with the urbanization gradient. The influence of social factors decreases first with time and then increases with the urbanization gradient outward in space. Economic factors increase with time but decrease with the urbanization gradient. The influence of each factor varies greatly over time and with the urbanization gradient.
Interspecies Sustainability to Ensure Animal Protection: Lessons from the Thoroughbred Racing Industry
Authors: Bergmann Iris M.
Published: October 2019

There is a disconnect between dominant conceptions of sustainability and the protection of animals arising from the anthropocentric orientation of most conceptualisations of sustainability, including sustainable development. Critiques of this disconnect are primarily based in the context of industrial animal agriculture and a general model of a species-inclusive conception of sustainability has yet to emerge. The original contribution of this article is two-fold: First, it develops a theoretical framework for interspecies sustainability. Second, it applies this to a case study of the thoroughbred racing industry. Interviews were conducted with thoroughbred industry and animal advocacy informants in the US, Australia and Great Britain. While industry informants claim thoroughbred welfare is seminal for industry sustainability, they adopt a market-oriented anthropocentric conception of sustainability and do not consider animal welfare a sustainability domain in its own right. Animal advocacy informants demonstrate a deeper understanding of welfare but some express discomfort about linking sustainability, welfare and racing. Eight analytical layers have been identified in the discourse in the interface of sustainability and animal protection, of which two have transformational potential to advance interspecies sustainability. Interspecies sustainability urgently needs to be advanced to ensure animal protection in the sustainability transition, and to not leave the defining of animal welfare and sustainability to animal industries.
Sustainable Development of a Peripheral Mountain Region on the State Border: Case Study of Moravské Kopanice Microregion (Moravia)
Authors: Vaishar Antonín , Šťastná Milada
Published: October 2019

The sustainability of rural areas is considered to be most threatened in peripheral, hardly accessible microregions with insufficient economical sources. The paper analyses one such rural area in the eastern part of Moravia from the viewpoint of individual economic, social, and environmental sustainability pillars. The area under study is the mountain territory on the border with Slovakia, which is under large-scale landscape protection. The area with very limited economic sources has been impacted with a change to the geopolitical situation after 1993 (from the centre of Czechoslovakia to the fringe of Czechia). It was stated that the environmental pillar is in the best of conditions; however, perhaps threatened with missing technical infrastructure in relation to the disposal of solid, liquid, and gaseous waste, the social pillar is improving in relation to the post-productive transition, whereas the economic pillar is the most fragile because of its dependence on exogenous jobs in surrounding towns. In general, the microregion seems to be sustainable at the moment. Long-term sustainability will depend on the general economic, demographic, and climatic development of the country and Europe.
Local Clusters as “Building Blocks” for Smart Specialization Strategies: A Dynamic SWOT Analysis Application in the Case of San Diego (US)
Authors: Bevilacqua Carmelina , Anversa Ilaria Giada , Cantafio Gianmarco , Pizzimenti Pasquale
Published: October 2019

The paper aimed at exploring the role of local industrial clusters as a part of an important evidence-based pathway for operationalizing smart specialization policy. Hitherto, the scientific debate has been largely focused on the relationship of clusters with the local business environment to boost competitiveness and has mostly searched for the operationalization of smart specialization policy in economically successful regions. However, the understanding of the role of local clusters (LCs), in terms of cluster industries that serve local businesses and residents, as potential “building-blocks” of Smart Specialization Strategies (S3) still lacks interpretive studies. We proposed a conceptual framework to unveil those factors of LCs that may be enhanced in the S3 policy design, around the concepts of adaptiveness and responsiveness to structural and influencing features of a local economic system. The distinction between Local and Traded clusters, applied in the US context, allows the identification of Local Cluster performance because of the availability of a robust data set. Accordingly, a tool is proposed to investigate those factors that are likely empowering smart specialization strategies: The dynamic SWOT analysis on the case of San Diego provides interesting insights toward building this conceptual framework. The findings may help explain how to relate LCs with smart specialization as building-blocks, based on potential risks and opportunities associated with the local economic system.
Optimum Design and Energy Performance of Hybrid Triple Glazing System with Vacuum and Carbon Dioxide Filled Gap
Authors: Baek Sanghoon , Kim Sangchul
Published: October 2019

This study develops a hybrid triple glazing technology that combines vacuum and carbon dioxide (CO2) gaps to help store CO2 in buildings. We determine the optimal thickness of glazing and calculate its thermal transmission (U-value). The amount of energy saved by using the proposed glazing system is then compared with that when using conventional insulating gases (air, argon, and krypton). Therm & Window, a modeling and analysis program for glazing, and EnergyPlus, a building environment and energy evaluation program, were used for the analysis. The optimal thickness determined for the vacuum and CO2 sections is 6.2 mm and 19 mm, respectively. The latter section comprises a 15-mm CO2 gap and 4 mm of glass. The total thickness of the glazing is 25.2 mm and the U-value is 0.259 W/m2∙K. The energy performance of the triple glazing using vacuum and CO2 gaps is between that of glazing using vacuum and air and that using vacuum and krypton gas gaps. Further, its performance is comparable to that of triple glazing using vacuum and argon gas gaps. Therefore, the hybrid triple glazing proposed in this paper represents an advanced glazing technique that can absorb CO2 and reduce energy consumption in buildings.
Analyzing the Intention of Consumer Purchasing Behaviors in Relation to Internet Memes Using VAB Model
Authors: Lee Hsin-Hui , Liang Chia-Hsing , Liao Shu-Yi , Chen Han-Shen
Published: October 2019

The proliferation of Internet has accelerated the dissemination of information, which has given birth to the term “Internet meme”. Social network is one of the pivotal media in spreading an Internet meme. Marketers utilize Internet memes to carry out marketing activities to significantly improve their Internet exposure. We thus verify whether consumers generate purchase intention after being attracted to an Internet meme, as no such research prevails. We employ the value–attitude–behavior model as its theoretical core and discuss how the values formed by consumers under the impact of an Internet meme influence their purchasing behaviors through their attitudes. The participants of the study are Internet users who are habitual to checking Facebook. We adopted convenience sampling and developed 380 valid questionnaires. Structural equation modeling is applied to verify the study’s hypotheses. The research results reveal that utilitarian and hedonic values influence the Purchase Intention through utilitarian and hedonic attitudes. In light of the aforementioned findings, it is suggested that marketers and relevant participants focus on the hedonic value brought by an Internet meme and design fun and witty Internet memes to attract consumers.
Factors That Explain the Utilization of the Nagoya Protocol Framework for Access and Benefit Sharing
Authors: Avilés-Polanco Gerzaín , Jefferson David J. , Almendarez-Hernández Marco Antonio , Beltrán-Morales Luis Felipe
Published: October 2019

One of the primary concerns of countries with high levels of biodiversity is the conservation of species and natural environments. This prioritization is based in part on a recognition of the importance of ecosystem services, understood as the various benefits that humans derive from ecosystems, which may be developed into goods and services that are transacted in markets. The Nagoya Protocol is an international agreement whose purpose is to provide a framework under which countries can support biodiversity conservation by regulating access to native genetic materials. Such materials may be of interest to companies, organizations, and institutions for commercial, non-commercial, or both purposes. Furthermore, genetic resources constitute important inputs in numerous industries, including those in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, botany and horticultural, agricultural, personal hygiene and cosmetics, and food and beverage sectors. The present study explores whether there is a relationship between biodiversity, the implementation of systems to protect natural areas and the quality of institutions, and the utilization of the Nagoya Protocol framework in individual countries. A Probit model was estimated to test these relationships, and a Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) was conducted to identify whether the aforementioned factors explain the execution of access and benefit sharing (ABS) agreements, as measured through the lodging of Internationally Recognized Certificates of Compliance (IRCC) in the Access and Benefit-Sharing Clearing-House (ABSCH) of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The findings indicated that biodiversity conservation policies, specifically the designation of protected natural areas, are important factors that might motivate actors in Nagoya Protocol member countries to utilize the protocol system. The CCA also revealed that the quality of institution factors such as the protection of property rights, the efficiency of legal frameworks for dispute resolution, investor protection, and a low government regulation burden. also help to explain the utilization of ABS agreements.
Application of a Big Data Framework for Data Monitoring on a Smart Campus
Authors: Villegas-Ch William , Molina-Enriquez Jhoann , Chicaiza-Tamayo Carlos , Ortiz-Garcés Iván , Luján-Mora Sergio
Published: October 2019

At present, university campuses integrate technologies such as the internet of things, cloud computing, and big data, among others, which provide support to the campus to improve their resource management processes and learning models. Integrating these technologies into a centralized environment allows for the creation of a controlled environment and, subsequently, an intelligent environment. These environments are ideal for generating new management methods that can solve problems of global interest, such as resource consumption. The integration of new technologies also allows for the focusing of its efforts on improving the quality of life of its inhabitants. However, the comfort and benefits of technology must be developed in a sustainable environment where there is harmony between people and nature. For this, it is necessary to improve the energy consumption of the smart campus, which is possible by constantly monitoring and analyzing the data to detect any anomaly in the system. This work integrates a big data framework capable of analyzing the data, regardless of its format, providing effective and efficient responses to each process. The method developed is generic, which allows for its application to be adequate in addressing the needs of any smart campus.
Leadership and Governance Tools for Village Sustainable Development in China
Authors: Liu Yi , Yang Wei
Published: October 2019

The Chinese central government has recognized that village–government networks are promising for the sustainable development of rural villages. Though many local governments tend to deploy various hands-on or hand-off governance tools to influence the sustainable development of village-governance networks, the number of villages successfully achieving “good governance” is still rare. Therefore, this study empirically elaborates on the application of three classic tools of governance networks, analyzing how leaders of local government and village communities influence the effectiveness of these tools. The data were collected by snowball interviews, careful observations, and documentary analysis in Xiaonan village, a representatively successful case of rural-village governance networks in China. We detected that governance tools are often inadequately used and under-development in Chinese rural-village governance networks, accompanying a strong interaction between the effectiveness of tools and leadership. Excellent leadership is necessary for a successful rural-village governance network and its scaling-up.
Carbon Emissions of China’s Cement Packaging: Life Cycle Assessment
Authors: Ma Xiaowei , Li Chuandong , Li Bin
Published: October 2019

China is the largest producer of cement in the world. With this tremendous production of cement, the extensively used cement packaging embodies significant carbon dioxide emissions. However, this has scarcely been investigated. This paper presents the first investigation into three types of cement packaging in China using the life cycle assessment methodology. The carbon dioxide emissions in each production phase of cement packaging were calculated and compared to the emissions in the western, middle, and eastern regions in China. The results show that in the production phase, the consumption of electricity accounted for the highest proportion of total carbon dioxide emissions (23.39–35.14%), followed by the consumption of polypropylene-based material (23.39%). From a packaging perspective, laminated plastic woven bags emitted the most carbon dioxide (0.637 kg/bag), followed by paper–plastic composite bags (0.536 kg/bag) and paper bags (0.022 kg/bag). In regional terms, the western region emitted the most carbon dioxide (3.06 million tons) compared with the eastern (2.01 million tons) and middle (1.81 million tons) regions due to the low bulk rate. Our findings indicate that using paper–plastic composite bags instead of laminated plastic woven bags and using recycled materials instead of new materials in certain production phases can considerably reduce the environmental impacts of cement packaging. The government should encourage the use of non-coal energy power generation for the production phase. Further improvements could focus on the use of bulk cement instead of packaged cement.
Research on Risky Driving Behavior of Novice Drivers
Authors: Yang Longhai , Zhang Xiqiao , Zhu Xiaoyan , Luo Yule , Luo Yi
Published: October 2019

Novice drivers have become the main group responsible for traffic accidents because of their lack of experience and relatively weak driving skills. Therefore, it is of great value and significance to study the related problems of the risky driving behavior of novice drivers. In this paper, we analyzed and quantified key factors leading to risky driving behavior of novice drivers on the basis of the planned behavior theory and the protection motivation theory. We integrated the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the theory of planned behavior (PMT) to extensively discuss the formation mechanism of the dangerous driving behavior of novice drivers. The theoretical analysis showed that novice drivers engage in three main risky behaviors: easily changing their attitudes, overestimating their driving skills, and underestimating illegal driving. On the basis of the aforementioned results, we then proposed some specific suggestions such as traffic safety education and training, social supervision, and law construction for novice drivers to reduce their risky behavior.
Diagnosing Barriers and Enablers for the Flemish Energy Transition
Authors: Laes Erik , Valkering Pieter , De Weerdt Yves
Published: October 2019

Industrialised economies are currently confronted with the challenge of transitioning to a low-carbon energy system. Starting from the insight that ‘system innovation’ rather than incremental change is needed, we diagnose barriers and enablers for energy system transformation for the case of Flanders (Belgium). We thereby combine multiple perspectives: a techno-economic perspective to derive a technology-based vision on the energy transition, a technology innovation perspective to assess barriers and enablers regarding the upscaling of technological niche-innovations, and a system innovation perspective to address fundamental barriers and enablers associated with transformative system change. We highlight the complementary features of the three perspectives and describe how insights can feed into the development of energy transition pathways.
The Sustainable Development of Land-Lost Peasants’ Citizenization: A Case Study of Dongbang Town, China
Authors: Xu Zhiguo , Liu Zheng , Qin Hua , Ma Lei
Published: October 2019

Urbanization can be categorized as “spontaneous” and “compulsory” according to its mode of occurrence. In the latter case, the local government acquires the agricultural land and then promotes the transformation of the land-lost peasants to urban residents by enforcing various policy combinations. Based on an empirical case analysis of compulsory urbanization in China, this study proposes that the material assistance and guarantee mechanism provided by the local government is of great significance in the process of rapid conversion of land-lost peasants to citizens. However, the local government needs to continue adopting various policy measures to support the land-lost peasants in order to further adapt to urban life and develop their identities as urban citizens. The local government should also maintain the balance between “compulsive” and “spontaneous” policy styles in the midst of urbanization, and transform the concept of urbanization from “economy-oriented” to “people-oriented”.
Antimatter Quantum Interferometry
Authors: Giammarchi Marco
Published: October 2019

The wave–particle duality hypothesis for massive particles has been confirmed by an overwhelming variety of indirect experimental evidence. In addition, direct interferometric tests have been made on particles like electrons, neutrons and even a few molecules, explicitly showing wave-like diffraction and interference phenomena. Of particular interest in this direction, single particle interference has also been demonstrated, but only for the electron case. No such kind of direct information was available for antiparticles or antimatter in general. After briefly discussing the subjects of antimatter research and interferometry, I present here the first evidence of single particle antimatter interference, made with positrons.
A Novel Lattice-Based CP-ABPRE Scheme for Cloud Sharing
Authors: Li Juyan , Ma Chunguang , Zhang Kejia
Published: October 2019

The ciphertext-policy attribute-based proxy re-encryption (CP-ABPRE) scheme supports access control and can transform a ciphertext under an access policy to a ciphertext under another access policy without decrypting the ciphertexts, which is flexible and efficient for cloud sharing. The existing CP-ABPRE schemes are constructed by bilinear pairing or multi-linear maps which are fragile when the post-quantum future comes. This paper presents an efficient unidirectional single-hop CP-ABPRE scheme with small public parameters from a lattice. For the transformation between two access structures, they are required to be disjoint. This paper uses the trapdoor sampling technique to generate the decryption key and the re-encryption key in constructing the scheme, and uses the decompose vectors technique to produce the re-encrypted ciphertexts in order to control their noise. Finally, we extended the scheme to a unidirectional single-hop CP-ABPRE scheme with keyword search for searching the encrypted data. Both schemes were proved secure under the learning with errors assumption, which is widely believed to be secure in quantum computer attacks. To the best of our knowledge, our scheme is the first CP-ABPRE scheme based on the learning with errors assumption.
In Vitro Activity of Neem (Azadirachta indica) Oil on Growth and Ochratoxin A Production by Aspergillus carbonarius Isolates
Authors: Rodrigues Mariana Paiva , Astoreca Andrea Luciana , Oliveira Águida Aparecida de , Salvato Lauranne Alves , Biscoto Gabriela Lago , Keller Luiz Antonio Moura , Rosa Carlos Alberto da Rocha , Cavaglieri Lilia Renée , Azevedo Maria Isabel de , Keller Kelly Moura
Published: October 2019

Aspergillus carbonarius is a saprobic filamentous fungus, food spoiling fungus and a producer of ochratoxin A (OTA) mycotoxin. In this study, the in vitro antifungal activity of neem oil (0.12% p/p of azadirachtin) was evaluated against the growth of six strains of A. carbonarius and the production of OTA. Four different concentrations of neem oil were tested in addition to three incubation times. Only the concentration of 0.3% of neem oil inhibited more than 95% of the strain’s growth (97.6% ± 0.5%), while the use of 0.5% and 1.0% of neem oil showed lower antifungal activity, 40.2% ± 3.1 and 64.7% ± 1.1, respectively. There was a complete inhibition of OTA production with 0.1% and 0.3% neem oil in the four strains isolated in the laboratory from grapes. The present study shows that neem essential oil can be further evaluated as an auxiliary method for the reduction of mycelial growth and OTA production.
A Current Update on Human Papillomavirus-Associated Head and Neck Cancers
Authors: Tumban Ebenezer
Published: October 2019

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the cause of a growing percentage of head and neck cancers (HNC); primarily, a subset of oral squamous cell carcinoma, oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, and laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma. The majority of HPV-associated head and neck cancers (HPV + HNC) are caused by HPV16; additionally, co-factors such as smoking and immunosuppression contribute to the progression of HPV + HNC by interfering with tumor suppressor miRNA and impairing mediators of the immune system. This review summarizes current studies on HPV + HNC, ranging from potential modes of oral transmission of HPV (sexual, self-inoculation, vertical and horizontal transmissions), discrepancy in the distribution of HPV + HNC between anatomical sites in the head and neck region, and to studies showing that HPV vaccines have the potential to protect against oral HPV infection (especially against the HPV types included in the vaccines). The review concludes with a discussion of major challenges in the field and prospects for the future: challenges in diagnosing HPV + HNC at early stages of the disease, measures to reduce discrepancy in the prevalence of HPV + HNC cases between anatomical sites, and suggestions to assess whether fomites/breast milk can transmit HPV to the oral cavity.
Adverse Events Following Measles-Mumps-Rubella-Varicella Vaccination and the Case of Seizures: A Post Marketing Active Surveillance in Puglia Italian Region, 2017–2018
Authors: Stefanizzi Pasquale , Stella Paolo , Ancona Domenica , Malcangi Katia Nicoletta , Bianchi Francesco Paolo , De Nitto Sara , Ferorelli Davide , Germinario Cinzia Annatea , Tafuri Silvio
Published: October 2019

Since 2012, the Italian Ministry of Health has recommended to improve the surveillance of adverse events following the measles-mumps-rubella-varicella (MMRV) tetravalent vaccine that was provided in the official immunization schedule of some Italian regions for children during the second year of life. This recommendation was based on data from some surveys that showed an additional risk of seizure following the administration of this vaccine. Responding to the Ministry commitment, the Puglia Region launched, from May 2017 to November 2018, a post-marketing active surveillance program of adverse events following MMRV immunization (AEFIs). Immunized children (second year of life) were enrolled on a voluntary basis, AEFIs diaries were used, and their parents were interviewed 25 days after the immunization. There were 2540 children enrolled; 2149/2540 (84.6%) completed the post-vaccination follow-up. Of these, 992 AEFIs were registered with a reporting rate of 46.2 × 100 doses: 883/992 (89.0%) AEFIs were not serious, while 109/992 (11.0%) were serious. For serious AEFIs, the evaluation of causality assessment was performed using the algorithm proposed by the World Health Organisation (WHO): 82/109 consistent causal associations to MMRV immunization were detected (reporting rate of consistent AEFIs: 3.8 × 100 follow-up). All serious AEFIs consistently associated with immunization resulted completely resolved at the follow-up. The reporting rate of seizure consistently associated with immunization was 0.05 × 100, lower than data previous published in the literature that did not report the causality assessment. Because no emerging signals were detected, our data from the active surveillance program confirmed the safety profile of the MMRV vaccine.
Tackling Biological Risk in the Workplace: Updates and Prospects Regarding Vaccinations for Subjects at Risk of Occupational Exposure in Italy
Authors: Durando Paolo , Dini Guglielmo , Massa Emanuela , La Torre Giuseppe
Published: October 2019

Occupational activities may expose workers to a variety of risks. Exposure to biological agents constitutes a traditional risk in numerous occupational settings. Legislative Decree (D.Lgs.) 81/2008 constitutes the main Italian legislative basis for the management and the prevention of biological risk in occupational settings and lists the available vaccinations against each single biological agent. The 2017–2019 National Vaccination Prevention Plan (PNPV) identifies some categories of workers for whom specific vaccinations are indicated. In this context, the occupational physician identifies work processes that are at risk—identifying susceptible workers and providing information on health monitoring—and is responsible for ensuring that vaccinations are carried out. Adequate and thorough evaluation of risk are indispensable to appropriate consultation by the occupational physician in order to enable the employer to provide efficacious vaccinations. Close collaboration among the services of occupational medicine, vaccination clinics, and healthcare management together with the implementation of vaccination programs that are agreed upon at the institutional level provides an opportunity to reduce the number of workers who are susceptible to vaccine-preventable diseases, thereby yielding benefits in terms of biological risk management in the workplace and contributing to increasing vaccination coverage rates, which in many cases are currently unsatisfactory.
Early IgG Response to Foot and Mouth Disease Vaccine Formulated with a Vegetable Oil Adjuvant
Authors: Cui Xuemei , Wang Yong , Maqbool Babar , Yuan Lijia , He Shanshan , Zhang Cenrong , Xu Wei , Hu Songhua
Published: October 2019

The present study evaluated soybean oil (SO) containing vitamin E (VE) and ginseng saponins (GS) (SO-VE-GS) for their adjuvant effect on foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccine. Since mineral oil ISA 206 is a common adjuvant used in the FMD vaccine, it was used as a control adjuvant in this study. VE and GS were found to have a synergistic adjuvant effect. When mice were immunized with the FMD vaccine emulsified in SO with VE and GS, significantly higher serum IgG, IgG1, and IgG2a were found than VE and GS used alone. SO-VE-GS and ISA 206 behaved differently in adjuvant activities. When mice were immunized with the FMD vaccine adjuvanted with SO-VE-GS, significantly higher and earlier production of serum IgG was found than that adjuvanted with ISA 206. Although both adjuvants significantly increased the number of bone marrow plasma cells, a stimulation index of lymphocytes (SI) as well as the production of IL-4 and IL-6, SO-VE-GS promoted significantly higher SI and the ratio of CD4+/CD8+ T cells with production of increased IFN-γ and decreased TGF-β1 as compared with the ISA 206 group. The data suggested that SO-VE-GS activated Th1/Th2 immune responses. Transcriptome analysis of splenocytes showed that differentially expressed genes (DEGs), immune-related gene ontology (GO) terms, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways were significantly enriched in the SO-VE-GS group. Therefore, the potent adjuvant effect of SO-VE-GS on the FMD vaccine may be attributed to the immune-related gene profile expressed in lymphocytes. Due to its plant origin and due to being much cheaper than imported mineral oil ISA 206, SO-VE-GS deserves further study in relation to vaccines used in food animals.
Friction-Induced Vibration in a Bi-Stable Compliant Mechanism
Authors: Niknam Alborz , Farhang Kambiz
Published: October 2019

This paper investigates friction-induced self-excited vibration in a bi-stable compliant mechanism. A single-degree-of-freedom oscillator, hanged vertically, vibrates on a belt moving horizontally with a constant velocity. The oscillator is excited through the frictional input provided by the belt. The friction coefficient is defined as an exponentially decaying function of the sliding velocity. Due to the specific configuration of spring and damper, the normal contact force is variable. Therefore, the friction force is a function of the system states, namely, slider velocity and position. Employing eigenvalue analysis gives an overview of the local stability of the linearized system in the vicinity of each equilibrium point. It is shown that the normal force, spring pre-compression and belt velocity are bifurcation parameters. Since the system is highly nonlinear, a local analysis does not provide enough information about the steady-state response. Therefore, the oscillating system is studied numerically to attain a global qualitative picture of the steady-state response. The possibility of the mass-belt detachment and overshoot are studied. It is shown that one equilibrium point is always dominant. In addition, three main questions, i.e., possible mass-belt separation, location of stick-slip transition and overshoot are answered. It is proven that the occurrence of overshoot is impossible.
A Comparative Assessment of Random Forest and k-Nearest Neighbor Classifiers for Gully Erosion Susceptibility Mapping
Authors: Avand Mohammadtaghi , Janizadeh Saeid , Naghibi Seyed Amir , Pourghasemi Hamid Reza , Khosrobeigi Bozchaloei Saeid , Blaschke Thomas
Published: October 2019

This research was conducted to determine which areas in the Robat Turk watershed in Iran are sensitive to gully erosion, and to define the relationship between gully erosion and geo-environmental factors by two data mining techniques, namely, Random Forest (RF) and k-Nearest Neighbors (KNN). First, 242 gully locations we determined in field surveys and mapped in ArcGIS software. Then, twelve gully-related conditioning factors were selected. Our results showed that, for both the RF and KNN models, altitude, distance to roads, and distance from the river had the highest influence upon gully erosion sensitivity. We assessed the gully erosion susceptibility maps using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve. Validation results showed that the RF and KNN models had Area Under the Curve (AUC) 87.4 and 80.9%, respectively. As a result, the RF method has better performance compared with the KNN method for mapping gully erosion susceptibility. Rainfall, altitude, and distance from a river were identified as the most important factors affecting gully erosion in this area. The methodology used in this research is transferable to other regions to determine which areas are prone to gully erosion and to explicitly delineate high-risk zones within these areas.
Incidence of Subsidies in Residential Public Services in Mexico: The Case of the Water Sector
Authors: Borja-Vega Christian , Garcia Morales Emmanuel , Gonzalez Julio
Published: October 2019

Access to safe water has tremendous direct and indirect impacts on poverty-related outcomes. In Mexico, economies of scale in water provision justify bulk provision of water, such that it is collectively rational to invest heavily in capital for infrastructure development. This is compounded by the fact that water utilities are highly capital-intensive. We analyze two distinct types of subsidies prevalent in the residential water sector. We exploit a household socio-economic module with detailed water services information from the 2014 National Income and Expenditure Survey in Mexico. We combined this data with a unique dataset from water operators in Mexico (PIGOO). We estimate economic (considering operating costs) and direct (considering household’s water payments) subsidies targeted to residential water tariff subsidies. Large heterogeneity in the direct subsidy incidence is found, which partly explains the distortions and wide differences in tariffs and total amount paid for water among different segments of the income distribution. The Omega Indicators (Ω), defined as the proportion of the subsidies received by the poor divided by the proportion of households in the total population in poverty, is less than one, implying that wealthy populations benefit more from water subsidies (economic and direct) than the poor.
Effects of Physical Forcing on Summertime Hypoxia and Oxygen Dynamics in the Pearl River Estuary
Authors: Huang Jia , Hu Jiatang , Li Shiyu , Wang Bin , Xu Yongji , Liang Bo , Liu Dehong
Published: October 2019

A validated hydrodynamic-biogeochemical model was applied to investigate the effects of physical forcing (i.e., river discharge, winds, and tides) on the summertime dissolved oxygen (DO) dynamics and hypoxia (DO < 3 mg L−1) in the Pearl River estuary (PRE), based on a suite of model sensitivity experiments. Compared with the base model run in 2006 (a wet year), the simulated hypoxic area in the moderate year (with 75% of river discharge of the base run) and the dry year scenario (with 50% of river discharge of the base run) was reduced by ~30% and ~60%, respectively. This is because under the lower river discharge levels, less particulate organic matter was delivered to the estuary that subsequently alleviated the oxygen demand at the water–sediment interface, and in the meantime, the water stratification strength was decreased, which facilitated the vertical diffusion of DO. Regarding the effect of winds, the highly varying and intermittent strong winds had a significant impact on the replenishment of bottom DO by disrupting water stratification and thus inhibiting the development of hypoxia. Sensitivity experiments showed that the hypoxic area and volume were both remarkably increased in the low wind scenario (with a bottom hypoxic zone extending from the Modaomen sub-estuary to the western shoal in Lingdingyang Bay), whereas hypoxia was almost absent in the strong wind scenario. The DO budget indicated that winds altered the bottom DO mostly by affecting the DO flux due to vertical diffusion and horizontal advection, and had a limited influence on the DO consumption processes. Moreover, the DO concentration exhibited remarkable fluctuations over the spring-neap tidal cycles due to the significant differences in vertical diffusion. The results of a tide-sensitivity experiment indicated that without tide forcing, most of the shallow areas (average water depth < 5 m) in the PRE experienced severe and persistent hypoxia. The tides mainly enhanced mixing in the shallow areas, which led to higher vertical diffusion and enhanced replenishment of bottom DO.
Statistical Analysis of Bed Load Transport over an Armored Bed Layer with Cluster Microforms
Authors: Zhu Zhenhui , Zhang Shiyan , Chen Dong
Published: October 2019

River engineers have long been challenged by the need to predict sediment transport, especially over armored riverbeds. This study investigates the statistical properties of bed load transport over an armored bed layer with cluster microforms in laboratory experiments. Particle clusters on the sediment bed were formed by widely graded particles under constant flow. A series of key kinematic parameters computed from particle trajectories recorded by a digital camcorder, including mean squared particle displacement (MSD), particle number activity, particle velocities, step length, and rest period, were analyzed. The scaling growth of the MSD with time showed that the particle diffusion regime was superdiffusive at small time scales, but became subdiffusive at larger time scales. The particle number activity follows a negative binomial distribution, and the probability distributions of streamwise and transverse particle velocities displayed heavy asymptotic tails, which indicates the particle clusters might exert a dual impact on bed load transport: some particles are accelerated in the preferential paths between particle clusters, while others were obstructed by the particle clusters. In addition, the bed load diffusion regime varied with observation time scales. The findings of this study can gain insight into the bed load transport processes over armored riverbeds.
DESENVOLVIMENTO DE FERRAMENTA DE GERENCIAMENTO DE FUNCIONALIDADES DE SWITCHES, ROTEADORES E CME DA CISCO PARA OTIMIZA��O DE PROCESSO DE CONFIGURA��O PARA GARANTIA DE QUALIDADE COM USO DA LINGUAGEM PYTHON.
Authors: Campos Gabriel De Souza , Da Paix�o Filipe Carvalho
Published: October 2019

O presente artigo demonstra como desenvolver uma ferramenta capaz de otimizar os processos de configura��o e garantir qualidade nos comandos efetuados em equipamentos de rede Cisco, limitando-se a switches, routers e callmanager. Para tanto, � utilizado um m�dulo espec�fico em Python, denominado Paramiko. Trata-se de um m�dulo capaz de habilitar conex�es remotas em equipamentos de rede atrav�s do protocolo SSH. Os testes s�o efetuados em um ambiente Linux, respeitando as devidas hierarquias de acessos de usu�rios, como root ou configurador global da Cisco. Deu-se �nfase na import�ncia do uso do protocolo SSH ao inv�s do Telnet, para que qualquer acesso remoto seja criptografado e por tanto seguro. O Artigo trata-se de uma demonstra��o simples de otimiza��o, por�m sem pretens�o de respostas conclusivas em ambiente Cisco.