bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Effects of Physical Activity and Diet Interventions on Body Mass Index in Latin American Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Authors: Godoy-Cumillaf Andrés , Fuentes-Merino Paola , Díaz-González Armando , Jiménez-Díaz Judith , Martínez-Vizcaíno Vicente , Álvarez-Bueno Celia , Cavero-Redondo Iván
Published: May 2020

The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to compare the effect of physical activity only with that of physical activity plus diet interventions on body mass index (BMI) in Latin American children and adolescents. We searched the Medline, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and Scielo databases from their inception until March 2020, including studies examining the effect of physical activity or physical activity plus diet interventions on BMI in children and adolescents and based on data from intervention studies. The DerSimonian and Laird method was used to compute a pooled standardized mean difference for BMI in terms of effect size (ES) and respective 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Eighteen studies were included. Analyses were performed based on intervention (four studies were included for physical activity only and four studies were included for physical activity plus diet). In the analysis of physical activity only versus control, there was no effect on BMI (ES = 0.00; 95% CI −0.17–0.17, I2 = 0.0%; p = 0.443). In the analysis of physical activity plus diet versus control, there was a decrease in BMI in favour of the intervention group (ES = −0.28; 95% CI −0.42–−0.14, I2 = 74.5%; p = 0.001). When ES was estimated considering only the effect in intervention groups, there was no evidence of a decrease in BMI (ES = −0.17; 95% CI −0.44–0.11, I2 = 84.5%; p < 0.001) for physical activity only (eight studies). However, there was a statistically significant decrease in BMI (ES = −0.30; 95% CI −0.50–0.11, I2 = 95.8%; p < 0.001) for physical activity plus diet (ten studies). Some limitations of this review could compromise our results, but the main limitation that should be stated is the quality of the studies (mainly medium/moderate), especially as physical activity and diet interventions cannot be blinded, compromising the quality of these studies. In summary, this meta-analysis offers evidence that physical activity plus diet interventions produced a reduction in BMI in Latin American children and adolescents, but physical activity only interventions did not.
Psychological Factors of Long-Term Dietary and Physical Activity Adherence among Chinese Adults with Overweight and Obesity in a Community-Based Lifestyle Modification Program: A Mixed-Method Study
Authors: Leung Alice W. Y. , Chan Ruth S. M. , Sea Mandy M. M. , Woo Jean
Published: May 2020

There is a paucity of research on factors influencing long-term adherence to lifestyle modification. We conducted a mixed-method study to explore the psychological factors of dietary and physical activity (PA) adherence among Chinese adults with overweight and obesity at 10 months after enrollment of a community-based lifestyle modification program in Hong Kong. We recruited Chinese adults newly enrolled in a culturally adapted lifestyle modification program and followed them for 10 months. For the quantitative study, primary outcomes were dietary and PA adherence scores while secondary outcomes included knowledge, self-efficacy, motivation and stage of change. For the qualitative study, data were collected using semi-structured interviews and observation. A total of 140 participants completed the 10-month follow-up. They reported moderate level of dietary adherence but low level of PA adherence at 10 months. Multivariable regression analyses revealed that greater improvement in nutrition knowledge and diet stage of change predicted higher dietary adherence while greater improvement in PA self-efficacy and PA stage of change predicted higher PA adherence. Qualitative data on 26 participants suggest that participants’ knowledge and self-efficacy but not motivation were enhanced during the program. The findings of this study enhanced our understanding on factors influencing long-term adherence to lifestyle changes.
Novel e-Health Applications for the Management of Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Children and Adolescents in Greece
Authors: Tragomalou Athanasia , Moschonis George , Manios Yannis , Kassari Penio , Ioakimidis Ioannis , Diou Christos , Stefanopoulos Leandros , Lekka Eirini , Maglaveras Nicos , Delopoulos Anastasios , Charmandari Evangelia
Published: May 2020

Obesity in childhood and adolescence represents a major health problem. Novel e-Health technologies have been developed in order to provide a comprehensive and personalized plan of action for the prevention and management of overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence. We used information and communication technologies to develop a “National Registry for the Prevention and Management of Overweight and Obesity” in order to register online children and adolescents nationwide, and to guide pediatricians and general practitioners regarding the management of overweight or obese subjects. Furthermore, intelligent multi-level information systems and specialized artificial intelligence algorithms are being developed with a view to offering precision and personalized medical management to obese or overweight subjects. Moreover, the Big Data against Childhood Obesity platform records behavioral data objectively by using inertial sensors and Global Positioning System (GPS) and combines them with data of the environment, in order to assess the full contextual framework that is associated with increased body mass index (BMI). Finally, a computerized decision-support tool was developed to assist pediatric health care professionals in delivering personalized nutrition and lifestyle optimization advice to overweight or obese children and their families. These e-Health applications are expected to play an important role in the management of overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence.
Current Status and Trends in Prophylaxis and Management of Anthrax Disease
Authors: Savransky Vladimir , Ionin Boris , Reece Joshua
Published: May 2020

Bacillus anthracis has been identified as a potential military and bioterror agent as it is relatively simple to produce, with spores that are highly resilient to degradation in the environment and easily dispersed. These characteristics are important in describing how anthrax could be used as a weapon, but they are also important in understanding and determining appropriate prevention and treatment of anthrax disease. Today, anthrax disease is primarily enzootic and found mostly in the developing world, where it is still associated with considerable mortality and morbidity in humans and livestock. This review article describes the spectrum of disease caused by anthrax and the various prevention and treatment options. Specifically we discuss the following; (1) clinical manifestations of anthrax disease (cutaneous, gastrointestinal, inhalational and intravenous-associated); (2) immunology of the disease; (3) an overview of animal models used in research; (4) the current World Health Organization and U.S. Government guidelines for investigation, management, and prophylaxis; (5) unique regulatory approaches to licensure and approval of anthrax medical countermeasures; (6) the history of vaccination and pre-exposure prophylaxis; (7) post-exposure prophylaxis and disease management; (8) treatment of symptomatic disease through the use of antibiotics and hyperimmune or monoclonal antibody-based antitoxin therapies; and (9) the current landscape of next-generation product candidates under development.
A Biodegradable Magnetic Nanocomposite as a Superabsorbent for the Simultaneous Removal of Selected Fluoroquinolones from Environmental Water Matrices: Isotherm, Kinetics, Thermodynamic Studies and Cost Analysis
Authors: Mashile Geaneth Pertunia , Dimpe Kgokgobi Mogolodi , Nomngongo Philiswa Nosizo
Published: May 2020

The application of a magnetic mesoporous carbon/β-cyclodextrin–chitosan (MMPC/Cyc-Chit) nanocomposite for the adsorptive removal of danofloxacin (DANO), enrofloxacin (ENRO) and levofloxacin (LEVO) from aqueous and environmental samples is reported in this study. The morphology and surface characteristics of the magnetic nanocomposite were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) adsorption–desorption and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The N2 adsorption–desorption results revealed that the prepared nanocomposite was mesoporous and the BET surface area was 1435 m2 g−1. The equilibrium data for adsorption isotherms were analyzed using two and three isotherm parameters. Based on the correlation coefficients (R2), the Langmuir and Sips isotherm described the data better than others. The maximum monolayer adsorption capacities of MMPC/Cyc-Chit nanocomposite for DANO, ENRO and LEVO were 130, 195 and 165 mg g−1, respectively. Adsorption thermodynamic studies performed proved that the adsorption process was endothermic and was dominated by chemisorption.
Impact of Ocean Waves on Guanlan’s IRA Measurement Error
Authors: Bai Yining , Wang Yunhua , Zhang Yanmin , Zhao Chaofang , Chen Ge
Published: May 2020

The National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology of China proposed the Guanlan ocean science satellite project in order to observe mesoscale and submesoscale ocean phenomena more effectively. In the project, the interferometric radar altimeter (IRA) is a main payload to be used to retrieve sea surface height (SSH) by means of interferometric imaging technology. Sea state is one of the important factors that affect the accuracy of the SSH that is retrieved by IRA. In the present work, the effects of velocity bunching and layover induced by sea waves are numerically simulated. The results demonstrate that the SSH would be significantly underestimated due to velocity bunching. On the other hand, the layover effect of sea waves along range direction would decrease (destroy) the coherence between the master-slave IRA images and then increase the random altimetry noise. Spatial smoothing is one of the main methods for reducing the residual error of sea waves. Here, we propose a theoretical formula to evaluate the residual error of sea waves for different wavelength, significant wave height and wave direction. The conclusions obtained in this work are helpful for better understanding the influence of sea state on the SSH retrieved by IRA.
Factors Influencing Movement of the Manila Dunes and Its Impact on Establishing Non-Native Species
Authors: Madurapperuma Buddhika , Lamping James , McDermott Michael , Murphy Brian , McFarland Jeremy , Deyoung Kristy , Smith Colleen , MacAdam Sam , Monroe Sierra , Corro Lucila , Magstadt Shayne , Dellysse John , Mitchell Solveig
Published: May 2020

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are being widely used to monitor microtopographic and vegetation changes in coastal habitats using remote sensing techniques. Sand dune habitats are vital ecosystems along the North coast of Humboldt County in California. This study was conducted at the Manila Dunes, west of the Humboldt Coastal Nature Center, in Manila, California. Various factors influence dune movements, including vegetative stabilization and the creation of social trails. The purpose of this paper is to understand the dune movements in relation to social vs. established trails, vegetation density, topography, and also, mapping invasive vs. native species in the Mal-le’l Dunes area of the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge. A DJI Mavic Pro multicopter small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was used to fly a 22.5-acre plot of the Manila Dunes. The images from this flight were used to create an orthomosaic image using a photogrammetry process (Structure-from-Motion (SfM)). From our analysis, the installation of trails lessened the impact of dune movements. Social trails digitized within the study site were found to have more local movements than the established trails when compared to movements across the entire site. We compared two methods of classification, viz., the object-based feature extraction method and a pixel-based supervised maximum likelihood classification method, in order to identify the best way to classify dune vegetation. In conclusion, this study is useful for providing baseline dune movement information that can aid in informing how trail and infrastructure constructions can be impacted in land management or in areas with dynamic communities of flora and fauna.
Automatic Pattern Recognition of Tectonic Lineaments in Seafloor Morphology to Contribute in the Structural Analysis of Potentially Hydrocarbon-Rich Areas
Authors: Kokinou Eleni , Panagiotakis Costas
Published: May 2020

This work presents novel pattern recognition techniques applied on bathymetric data from two large areas in Eastern Mediterranean. Our objectives are as follows: (a) to demonstrate the efficiency of this methodology, (b) to highlight the quick and accurate detection of both hydrocarbon related tectonic lineaments and salt structures affecting seafloor morphology, and (c) to reveal new structural data in areas poised for hydrocarbon exploration. In our work, we first apply a multiple filtering and sequential skeletonization scheme inspired by the hysterisis thresholding technique. In a second stage, we categorize each linear and curvilinear segment on the seafloor skeleton (medial axis) based on the strength of detection as well as the length, direction, and spatial distribution. Finally, we compare the seafloor skeleton with ground truth data. As shown in this paper, the automatic extraction of the bathymetric skeleton allows the interpretation of the most prominent seafloor morphological features. We focus on the competent tracing of tectonic lineaments, as well as the effective distinction between seafloor features associated with shallow evaporite movements and those related to intense tectonic activity. The proposed scheme has low computational demand and decreases the cost of the marine research because it facilitates the selection of targets prior to data acquisition.
A Virtual Geostationary Ocean Color Sensor to Analyze the Coastal Optical Variability
Authors: Bracaglia Marco , Santoleri Rosalia , Volpe Gianluca , Colella Simone , Benincasa Mario , Brando Vittorio Ernesto
Published: May 2020

In the coastal environment the optical properties can vary on temporal scales that are shorter than the near-polar orbiting satellite temporal resolution (~1 image per day), which does not allow capturing most of the coastal optical variability. The objective of this work is to fill the gap between the near-polar orbiting and geostationary sensor temporal resolutions, as the latter sensors provide multiple images of the same basin during the same day. To do that, a Level 3 hyper-temporal analysis-ready Ocean Color (OC) dataset, named Virtual Geostationary Ocean Color Sensor (VGOCS), has been created. This dataset contains the observations acquired over the North Adriatic Sea by the currently functioning near-polar orbiting sensors, allowing approaching the geostationary sensor temporal resolution. The problem in using data from different sensors is that they are characterized by different uncertainty sources that can introduce artifacts between different satellite images. Hence, the sensors have different spatial and spectral resolutions, their calibration procedures can have different accuracies, and their Level 2 data can be retrieved using different processing chains. Such differences were reduced here by adjusting the satellite data with a multi-linear regression algorithm that exploits the Fiducial Reference Measurements data stream of the AERONET-OC water-leaving radiance acquired at the Acqua Alta Oceanographic Tower, located in the Gulf of Venice. This work aims to prove the suitability of VGOCS in analyzing the coastal optical variability, presenting the improvement brought by the adjustment on the quality of the satellite data, the VGOCS spatial and temporal coverage, and the inter-sensor differences. Hence, the adjustment will strongly increase the agreement between the satellite and in situ data and between data from different near-polar orbiting OC imagers; moreover, the adjustment will make available data traditionally masked in the standard processing chains, increasing the VGOCS spatial and temporal coverage, fundamental to analyze the coastal optical variability. Finally, the fulfillment by VGOCS of the three conditions for a hyper-temporal dataset will be demonstrated in this work.
An Efficient Processing Approach for Colored Point Cloud-Based High-Throughput Seedling Phenotyping
Authors: Yang Si , Zheng Lihua , Gao Wanlin , Wang Bingbing , Hao Xia , Mi Jiaqi , Wang Minjuan
Published: May 2020

Plant height and leaf area are important morphological properties of leafy vegetable seedlings, and they can be particularly useful for plant growth and health research. The traditional measurement scheme is time-consuming and not suitable for continuously monitoring plant growth and health. Individual vegetable seedling quick segmentation is the prerequisite for high-throughput seedling phenotype data extraction at individual seedling level. This paper proposes an efficient learning- and model-free 3D point cloud data processing pipeline to measure the plant height and leaf area of every single seedling in a plug tray. The 3D point clouds are obtained by a low-cost red–green–blue (RGB)-Depth (RGB-D) camera. Firstly, noise reduction is performed on the original point clouds through the processing of useable-area filter, depth cut-off filter, and neighbor count filter. Secondly, the surface feature histograms-based approach is used to automatically remove the complicated natural background. Then, the Voxel Cloud Connectivity Segmentation (VCCS) and Locally Convex Connected Patches (LCCP) algorithms are employed for individual vegetable seedling partition. Finally, the height and projected leaf area of respective seedlings are calculated based on segmented point clouds and validation is carried out. Critically, we also demonstrate the robustness of our method for different growth conditions and species. The experimental results show that the proposed method could be used to quickly calculate the morphological parameters of each seedling and it is practical to use this approach for high-throughput seedling phenotyping.
Regional Recognition and Classification of Active Loess Landslides Using Two-Dimensional Deformation Derived from Sentinel-1 Interferometric Radar Data
Authors: Meng Qingkai , Confuorto Pierluigi , Peng Ying , Raspini Federico , Bianchini Silvia , Han Shuai , Liu Haocheng , Casagli Nicola
Published: May 2020

Identification and classification of landslides is a preliminary and crucial work for landslide risk assessment and hazard mitigation. The exploitation of surface deformation velocity derived from satellite synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) is a consolidated and suitable procedure for the recognition of active landslides over wide areas. However, the calculated displacement velocity from InSAR is one-dimensional motion along the satellite line of sight (LOS), representing a major hurdle for landslide type and failure mechanism classification. In this paper, different velocity datasets derived from both ascending and descending Sentinel-1 data are employed to analyze the surface ground movement of the Huangshui region (Northwestern China). With global warming, precipitation in the Huangshui region, geologically belonging to the loess basin in the eastern edge of Qing-Tibet Plateau, has been increasing, often triggering a large number of landslides, posing a potential threat to local citizens and natural and anthropic environments. After processing both SAR data geometries, the surface motion was decomposed to obtain the two-dimensional displacements (vertical and horizontal E–W). Thus, a classification criterion of the loess landslide types and failure mode is proposed, according to the analysis of deformation direction, velocities, texture, and topographic characteristics. With the support of high-resolution images acquired by remote sensing and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), 14 translational slides, seven rotational slides, and 10 loess flows were recognized in the study area. The derived results may provide solid support for stakeholders to comprehend the hazard of unstable slopes and to undertake specific precautions for moderate and slow slope movements.
U-Net-Id, an Instance Segmentation Model for Building Extraction from Satellite Images—Case Study in the Joanópolis City, Brazil
Authors: Wagner Fabien , Dalagnol Ricardo , Tarabalka Yuliya , Segantine Tassiana , Thomé Rogério , Hirye Mayumi
Published: May 2020

Currently, there exists a growing demand for individual building mapping in regions of rapid urban growth in less-developed countries. Most existing methods can segment buildings but cannot discriminate adjacent buildings. Here, we present a new convolutional neural network architecture (CNN) called U-net-id that performs building instance segmentation. The proposed network is trained with WorldView-3 satellite RGB images (0.3 m) and three different labeled masks. The first is the building mask; the second is the border mask, which is the border of the building segment with 4 pixels added outside and 3 pixels inside; and the third is the inner segment mask, which is the segment of the building diminished by 2 pixels. The architecture consists of three parallel paths, one for each mask, all starting with a U-net model. To accurately capture the overlap between the masks, all activation layers of the U-nets are copied and concatenated on each path and sent to two additional convolutional layers before the output activation layers. The method was tested with a dataset of 7563 manually delineated individual buildings of the city of Joanópolis-SP, Brazil. On this dataset, the semantic segmentation showed an overall accuracy of 97.67% and an F1-Score of 0.937 and the building individual instance segmentation showed good performance with a mean intersection over union (IoU) of 0.582 (median IoU = 0.694).
Massive MIMO Systems for 5G and beyond Networks—Overview, Recent Trends, Challenges, and Future Research Direction
Authors: Chataut Robin , Akl Robert
Published: May 2020

The global bandwidth shortage in the wireless communication sector has motivated the study and exploration of wireless access technology known as massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO). Massive MIMO is one of the key enabling technology for next-generation networks, which groups together antennas at both transmitter and the receiver to provide high spectral and energy efficiency using relatively simple processing. Obtaining a better understating of the massive MIMO system to overcome the fundamental issues of this technology is vital for the successful deployment of 5G—and beyond—networks to realize various applications of the intelligent sensing system. In this paper, we present a comprehensive overview of the key enabling technologies required for 5G and 6G networks, highlighting the massive MIMO systems. We discuss all the fundamental challenges related to pilot contamination, channel estimation, precoding, user scheduling, energy efficiency, and signal detection in a massive MIMO system and discuss some state-of-the-art mitigation techniques. We outline recent trends such as terahertz communication, ultra massive MIMO (UM-MIMO), visible light communication (VLC), machine learning, and deep learning for massive MIMO systems. Additionally, we discuss crucial open research issues that direct future research in massive MIMO systems for 5G and beyond networks.
Comparison of Filtering Methods for Enhanced Reliability of a Train Axle Counter System
Authors: Grzechca Damian , Szczeponik Adam
Published: May 2020

This paper presents signal filtering methods that can be effectively applied to train detection systems based on the axle counter systems that are currently in operation for train detection and provide information on the unoccupied status of railway tracks and turnouts. Signals from the wheel detectors contain noise, may be impulsive and time-varying, which means that even for the same train, the signals from the following wheels may be different. A problem appears when already homologated hardware (axle counter system) is working in a harsh environment, exposed to disturbances whose parameters significantly exceed standard thresholds. Despite this, the system must continue to provide reliable information. The authors present research on the application of such filters as median, Savitzkey-Golay, and moving average which can be implemented in the equipment currently in use under specific constraints (e.g., limited computational resources). The research results show that appropriately adjusted filters, for example, in terms of type and window size, increase the signal quality and thereby provide reliable information about passing trains, as well as enhance the availability and safety of the axle counter system performance.
Enhancing Energy Saving in Smart Farming through Aggregation and Partition Aware IoT Routing Protocol
Authors: Fathallah Karim , Abid Mohamed , Ben Hadj-Alouane Nejib
Published: May 2020

Internet of things (IoT) for precision agriculture or Smart Farming (SF) is an emerging area of application. It consists essentially of deploying wireless sensor networks (WSNs), composed of IP-enabled sensor nodes, in a partitioned farmland area. When the surface, diversity, and complexity of the farm increases, the number of sensing nodes increases, generating heavy exchange of data and messages, and thus leading to network congestion, radio interference, and high energy consumption. In this work, we propose a novel routing algorithm extending the well known IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low power and Lossy Networks (RPL), the standard routing protocol used for IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPAN). It is referred to as the Partition Aware-RPL (PA-RPL) and improves the performance of the standard RPL. In contrast to RPL, the proposed technique builds a routing topology enabling efficient in-network data aggregation, hence dramatically reducing data traffic through the network. Performance analysis of a typical/realistic precision agriculture case, considering the potato pest prevention from the well-known late blight disease, shows that PA-RPL improves energy saving up to 40 % compared to standard RPL.
Analysis of a Serial/Parallel Type of Electromagnetic Actuator
Authors: Takei Kenta , Kitagawa Wataru , Takeshita Takaharu , Fujimura Yoshio
Published: May 2020

This paper describes the design and analysis of a small-sized and high thrust electromagnetic actuator. The proposed actuator is supposed to be used for application control of the hotmelt adhesive. The hotmelt has different characteristics for each material and the electromagnetic actuator is required variable characteristics. However, the problem seems to lie in the fact that it is necessary to remake another mold again to change the characteristics of the conventional electromagnetic actuator. Therefore, this paper presents small-sized electromagnetic actuator called a basic model that can stack it in the axial direction or in the radial direction. As the analysis comparison at the same size, the characteristics of conventional two serial model which stack two basic models in the axial direction and proposed three serial models have been compared by three-dimensional finite element method. In the proposed model, characteristics have been improved by reducing the core volume and increasing the number of stacks in the basic model from the viewpoint of magnetic flux density. In addition, various electromagnetic actuators that stack basic models in the axial direction or in the radial direction have been analyzed. The analysis results have been clearly shown as characteristics mapping and it has indicated that the proposed electromagnetic actuator can be constructed easily by stacking the basic model.
A Review on Potential Plant-Based Water Stress Indicators for Vegetable Crops
Authors: Parkash Ved , Singh Sukhbir
Published: May 2020

Area under vegetable cultivation is expanding in arid and semi-arid regions of the world to meet the nutritional requirements of an ever-growing population. However, water scarcity in these areas is limiting vegetable productivity. New water-conserving irrigation management practices are being implemented in these areas. Under these irrigation management practices, crops are frequently exposed to some extent of water stress. Vegetables are highly sensitive to water stress. For the successful implementation of new irrigation practices in vegetable crops, it is of immense importance to determine the threshold water deficit level which will not have a detrimental effect on plant growth and yield. Along with this, plant response and adaptation mechanisms to new irrigation practices need to be understood for the successful implementation of new irrigation practices. To understand this, water stress indicators that are highly responsive to water stress; and that can help in early detection of water stress need to be identified for vegetable crops. Plant-based water stress indicators are quite effective in determining the water stress level in plants because they take into account the cumulative effect of water stress due to declining soil moisture status and increased evaporative demand of the atmosphere while determining the water stress level in plant. Water stress quantification using plant-based approaches involves direct measurements of several aspects of plant water status and indirect measurements of plant processes which are highly sensitive to water deficit. In this article, a number of plant-based water stress indicators were critically reviewed for (1) their efficacy to determine the level of water stress, (2) their potential to predict the yield of a crop as affected by different water-deficit levels and (3) their suitability for irrigation scheduling in vegetable crops.
The Impact of Recycled Concrete Aggregate on the Stiffness, Fatigue, and Low-Temperature Performance of Asphalt Mixtures for Road Construction
Authors: Radević Aleksandar , Isailović Ivan , Wistuba Michael P. , Zakić Dimitrije , Orešković Marko , Mladenović Goran
Published: May 2020

The need for road (re)construction materials is constantly growing. At the same time, there is a limited quantity of new, high-quality materials available and a buildup of secondary/recycled construction materials. One possible solution may be the use of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) in asphalt mixtures instead of natural aggregate (NA), which also promotes economic and environmental sustainability. The potential use of fine and coarse RCA in road asphalt mixtures is analyzed in this work. Nine asphalt mixtures were tested for base course layers, where RCA was used as a NA substitute. The impact of the quantity of RCA (up to 45% by mass) on the resulting physical and mechanical properties of asphalt mixtures was investigated, and consequently compared with the properties of a reference control mixture produced with NA only. Results reveal that the addition of RCA requires higher bitumen in comparison to the control mixture (up to 1%). Consequently, mixtures with RCA had 15−20% lower stiffness and up to 26% higher critical fatigue strain value (ε6). Although RCA mixtures contained more bitumen, their low-temperature resistance was slightly inferior compared with the control mixture (failure temperatures were up to 4.3 °C higher). In conclusion, asphalt mixtures with up to 45% RCA can be used without substantially reducing performance.
Smart Tourism City: Developments and Transformations
Authors: Lee Pam , Hunter William Cannon , Chung Namho
Published: May 2020

Cities and tourism entities invest massive resources into smart system initiatives as information technologies are a key factor for a city’s destination competitiveness. Moreover cities around the world are increasingly recognizing the smart tourism city concept and related strategies as means of optimizing sustainable environments. Particularly for cities facing emerging issues of residents’ negative perceptions towards tourism, smart tourism city empowers a city to rise to this challenge by creating urban spaces that residents and visitors can enjoy together. However, smart tourism city research initiatives still fail to address the full spectrum of related and potential developments. This study presents a conceptual approach to defining smart tourism city: the smart city and its components are defined and contrasted with smart tourism and its components. The resulting convergence—smart tourism city—is then examined in light of a number of pioneering examples of smart tourism cities and its vital roles in the age of sustainable development. The main purpose of this study is to show the interests of locals and tourists context and the roles of ‘smart’ government leadership to researchers and practitioners.
An Information Management Conceptual Approach for the Strategies Alignment Collaborative Process
Authors: Andres Beatriz , Poler Raul
Published: May 2020

This paper proposes an information management approach to deal with the strategies alignment collaborative process. Much attention has been given to the information management in collaborative networks (CNs), resulting in a wide variety of information management approaches and frameworks. The treatment, estimation, and collection of data are key issues that still need to be addressed, due to the complexity associated with the information exchange and the need to build trust relationships within the CN. In order to address this literature gap, this paper presents an approach to manage information in the specific collaborative process of strategies alignment. The approach is composed of a methodology, that enables to identify the roles participating in the application of the collaborative process, select the collaborative application context, determine the level of collaboration to be applied, and estimate and gather the data required to feed the strategies alignment process. The proposed information management approach bridges the conceptual model of strategies alignment process, with its application in real-world CNs.
Sustainable and Community-Centred Development of Smart Cities and Villages
Authors: Zavratnik Veronika , Podjed Dan , Trilar Jure , Hlebec Nina , Kos Andrej , Stojmenova Duh Emilija
Published: May 2020

The article highlights the need to rethink and reconceptualise the accepted concepts of smart cities and villages by shifting the attention from technology and technological solutions and moving it towards understanding the significance of communities and sustainability. The conceptual framework combines four essential features—community, village, city and sustainability—and analyses the links and relationships between them. A new community-centred approach to development is suggested in order to emphasise that sustainable living cannot be achieved only through technological solutions. Instead, we suggest that to ensure social sustainability, appropriation, and effectiveness of new solutions in the long term, the process has to start, be adapted and led by people and their needs. In this light, the article analyses three dimensions of smart living—energy, mobility, waste—through the prism of rural–urban linkages and the role of ICT. Core principles and recommendations (calm technology, community size, identification of community leaders, surveillance and control issues, community building) for designers of ICT solutions and developmental projects in smart cities and villages are presented. These principles take into account people and communities and combine findings of engineering and social sciences, especially anthropology, psychology, and sociology.
The Impact of the Weight Status on Cardiovascular Parameters Related to Physical Effort in Young Athletes
Authors: Mascherini Gabriele , Petri Cristian , Stefani Laura , Toncelli Loira , Bini Vittorio , Calà Piergiuseppe , Galanti Giorgio
Published: May 2020

Excess weight leads to an impaired cardiovascular response to physical exertion even at a young age. Sports training during youth promotes cardiovascular adaptations. The aim of the study is to verify the impact of weight status on cardiovascular parameters related to physical effort in young people who engage in competitive sports. A retrospective study was conducted on 8307 young athletes (5578 males and 2729 females) aged 6–18 years (mean age 13.9 ± 2.2 years). The data concerning graded exercise tests of young athletes in normal weight and overweight were compared. Approximately, 13.4% of the sample had excess weight. Young overweight athletes show a higher resting heart rate as well as systolic and diastolic pressure than young normal weight athletes. Excess weight condition leads to a reduction in the duration of the graded exercise test, reaching higher blood pressure values at the end of the test compared to those with normal weight. After four min from the end of the test, heart rate and systolic/diastolic blood pressure remained higher in the young overweight athletes. Excess weight affects cardiovascular parameters both at rest and in response to physical exertion during youth; however, competitive sport seems to be able to keep these parameters within the normal range even in young overweight athletes.
Trees with Minimum Weighted Szeged Index Are of a Large Diameter
Authors: Atanasov Risto , Furtula Boris , Škrekovski Riste
Published: May 2020

The weighted Szeged index ( w S z ) has gained considerable attention recently because of its unusual mathematical properties. Searching for a tree (or trees) that minimizes the w S z is still going on. Several structural details of a minimal tree were described. Here, it is shown a surprising property that these trees have maximum degree at most 16, and as a consequence, we promptly conclude that these trees are of large diameter.
Unified Inflation and Late-Time Accelerated Expansion with Exponential and R2 Corrections in Modified Gravity
Authors: Granda Luis
Published: May 2020

Modified gravity models with and exponential function of curvature and R 2 corrections are proposed. At low curvature, the model explains the matter epoch and the late time accelerated expansion while at the inflation epoch the leading term is R 2 . At R → 0 the cosmological constant disappears, giving unified description of inflation and dark energy in pure geometrical context. The models satisfy the stability conditions, pass local tests and are viable in the ( r , m ) -plane, where the trajectories connect the saddle matter dominated critical point ( r = − 1 , m = 0 ) with the late time de Sitter attractor at r = − 2 and 0 < m ≤ 1 . Initial conditions were found, showing that the density parameters evolve in a way consistent with current cosmological observations, predicting late time behavior very close to the Λ CDM with future universe evolving towards the de Sitter attractor.
Frequency Response Evaluation of Guitar Bodies with Different Bracing Systems
Authors: Mihălcică Mircea , Stanciu Mariana D. , Vlase Sorin
Published: May 2020

Wood is a natural composite, having a porous structure, with a complex elastic symmetry specific to orthotropic solid, influenced by three mutually perpendicular planes of elastic symmetry. The classical guitar is obtained from different wooden species, each of them having their own elastic properties and, as a whole, forming a lignocellulosic composite structure. Generally, some constructive parts of the classical guitar body are based on symmetry, starting from the structural features of wooden plates, which are symmetrically cut, and some patterns of the stiffening bars. The other elements, such as the strings system, are not symmetric. This study aims to evaluate the frequency responses of the guitar body as a symmetrical mechanical system from constructive points of view. Because theoretical results (analytic and numeric) regarding the symmetrical systems cannot be applied to quasi-symmetric systems, the dynamic response was analyzed from experiments performed on four types of classical guitar body (without neck), different from each other by the pattern of stiffening bars placed inside of the top plate. The experiments were performed using a Brüel&Kjær mini-shaker to excite the structure, and the signal was captured with accelerometers. The symmetric behavior of coupled plates from the guitar body was noticed in the case of an applied dynamic force of 110 Hz and 440 Hz, but in the case of 146 Hz, 588 Hz, 720 Hz, quasi skew symmetrical modes were recorded.
Correction: Pulyalina, A.; Tataurov, M.; Faykov, I.; Rostovtseva, V.; Polotskaya, G. Polyimide Asymmetric Membrane vs. Dense Film for Purification of MTBE Oxygenate by Pervaporation, Symmetry 2020, 12(3), 436
Authors: Pulyalina Alexandra , Tataurov Maksim , Faykov Ilya , Rostovtseva Valeriia , Polotskaya Galina
Published: May 2020

The authors wish to make the following corrections and explanations to this paper [1]: (1) The authors in the Funding section of [...]
Micromachined Rate-Integrating Gyroscopes: Concept, Asymmetry Error Sources and Phenomena
Authors: Qi Zhenxiang , Wu Jin , Li Chong , Zhao Wanliang , Cheng Yuxiang
Published: May 2020

Rate-integrating gyroscope (RIG) operation is an attractive operation scheme for micro gyroscopes, because it can provide direct angle measurement and a high dynamic range. However, its zero rate output (ZRO) has a severe drift issue. This work compared the difference between rate and rate-integrating gyroscope operations, and further modeled the gyroscope with asymmetric error terms. Then the influences of these non-ideal factors were analyzed to abridge the ZRO drift phenomena and the sources. The numerical verification proved the theory that such an oscillation pattern is caused by the stiffness mismatch, and decaying to X/Y axis manner resulted from the damping errors. The conclusions can contribute to aiding engineers to rapidly locate the bottlenecks of RIG operations.
Classification of Body Constitution Based on TCM Philosophy and Deep Learning
Authors: Li Yung-Hui , Aslam Muhammad Saqlain , Yang Kai-Lin , Kao Chung-An , Teng Shin-You
Published: May 2020

There is a growing demand for alternative or complementary medicine in health care disciplines that uses a non-invasive instrument to evaluate the health status of various organs inside the human body. In this regard, we proposed a real-time, non-invasive, and painless technique to assess an individual’s health condition. Our approach is based on the combination of iridology and the philosophy of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). The iridology chart presents perfect symmetry between the left and right eyes, and such a unique representation reveals the body constitution based on TCM philosophy, which classifies the aforementioned body constitution into a combination of nine categories to describe the varieties of genomic traits. In addition, we applied a deep-learning method along with the combination of iridology and TCM to predict the possible physiological or psychological strength or weakness of the subjects and give advice to them about how to take care of their health according to the body constitution assessment. We used several pre-trained convolutional neural networks (CNNs, or ConvNet), such as a residual neural network (ResNet50), InceptionV3, and dense convolutional network (DenseNet201), to classify the body constitution using iris images. In the experiments, the CASIA-Iris-Thousand database was used to perform this task. The experimental results showed that the proposed iris-based health assessment method achieved an 82.9% accuracy.
Solutions of Optimization Problems on Hadamard Manifolds with Lipschitz Functions
Authors: Ruiz-Garzón Gabriel , Osuna-Gómez Rafaela , Rufián-Lizana Antonio
Published: May 2020

The aims of this paper are twofold. First, it is shown, for the first time, which types of nonsmooth functions are characterized by all vector critical points as being efficient or weakly efficient solutions of vector optimization problems in constrained and unconstrained scenarios on Hadamard manifolds. This implies the need to extend different concepts, such as the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker vector critical points and generalized invexity functions, to Hadamard manifolds. The relationships between these quantities are clarified through a great number of explanatory examples. Second, we present an economic application proving that Nash’s critical and equilibrium points coincide in the case of invex payoff functions. This is done on Hadamard manifolds, a particular case of noncompact Riemannian symmetric spaces.
Inflation in Supergravity from Field Redefinitions
Authors: Artymowski Michał , Ben-Dayan Ido
Published: May 2020

Supergravity (SUGRA) theories are specified by a few functions, most notably the real Kähler function denoted by G ( T i , T ¯ i ) = K + log | W | 2 , where K is a real Kähler potential, and W is a holomorphic superpotential. A field redefinition T i → f 1 ( T i ) changes neither the theory nor the Kähler geometry. Similarly, the Kähler transformation, K → K + f 2 + f ¯ 2 , W → e − f 2 W where f 2 is holomorphic and leaves G and hence the theory and the geometry invariant. However, if we perform a field redefinition only in K ( T i , T ¯ i ) → K ( f ( T i ) , f ( T ¯ i ) ) , while keeping the same superpotential W ( T i ) , we get a different theory, as G is not invariant under such a transformation while maintaining the same Kähler geometry. This freedom of choosing f ( T i ) allows construction of an infinite number of new theories given a fixed Kähler geometry and a predetermined superpotential W. Our construction generalizes previous ones that were limited by the holomorphic property of W. In particular, it allows for novel inflationary SUGRA models and particle phenomenology model building, where the different models correspond to different choices of field redefinitions. We demonstrate this possibility by constructing several prototypes of inflationary models (hilltop, Starobinsky-like, plateau, log-squared and bell-curve) all in flat Kähler geometry and an originally renormalizable superpotential W. The models are in accord with current observations and predict r ∈ [ 10 − 6 , 0.06 ] spanning several decades that can be easily obtained. In the bell-curve model, there also exists a built-in gravitational reheating mechanism with T R ∼ O ( 10 7 G e V ) .
Oral Chronic Toxicity of the Safe Tetrodotoxin Dose Proposed by the European Food Safety Authority and Its Additive Effect with Saxitoxin
Authors: Boente-Juncal Andrea , Otero Paz , Rodríguez Inés , Camiña Mercedes , Rodriguez-Vieytes Mercedes , Vale Carmen , Botana Luis M.
Published: May 2020

Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is a potent natural toxin causative of human food intoxications that shares its mechanism of action with the paralytic shellfish toxin saxitoxin (STX). Both toxins act as potent blockers of voltage-gated sodium channels. Although human intoxications by TTX were initially described in Japan, nowadays increasing concern about the regulation of this toxin in Europe has emerged due to its detection in fish and mollusks captured in European waters. Currently, TTX is only regularly monitored in Dutch fishery products. However, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has established a safety level of 44 µg/kg TTX as the amount of toxin that did not cause adverse effects in humans. This level was extrapolated considering initial data on its acute oral toxicity and EFSA remarked the need for chronic toxicity studies to further reduce the uncertainty of future toxin regulations. Thus, in this work, we evaluated the oral chronic toxicity of TTX using the safety levels initially recommended by EFSA in order to exclude potential human health risks associated with the worldwide expanding presence of TTX. Using internationally recommended guidelines for the assessment of oral chronic toxicity, the data provided here support the proposed safety level for TTX as low enough to prevent human adverse effects of TTX even after chronic daily exposure to the toxin. However, the combination of TTX with STX at doses above the maximal exposure level of 5.3 µg/kg body weight derived by EFSA increased the lethality of TTX, thus confirming that both TTX and paralytic shellfish toxins should be taken into account to assess human health risks.