bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Inhalation of Essential Oil from Mentha piperita Ameliorates PM10-Exposed Asthma by Targeting IL-6/JAK2/STAT3 Pathway Based on a Network Pharmacological Analysis
Authors: Kim Mi Hye , Park Sang Jun , Yang Woong Mo
Published: December 2020

Fine particulate matter (PM) exposure exhibits a crucial risk factor to exacerbate airway epithelial remodeling, fibrosis, and pulmonary destruction in asthma. Based on the use of essential oils from aromatic plants on pain relief and anti-inflammatory properties, we investigated the inhibitory effects of essential oil derived from the Mentha species (MEO) against asthma exposed to PM10. The MEO (0.1 v/v %) was aerosolized by a nebulizer to ovalbumin and PM10-induced asthmatic mice. Histological changes were confirmed in the lung tissues. To define the mode of action of the MEO on asthma, a protein–protein interaction network was constructed using menthol and menthone as the major components of the MEO. Cytokine expression and the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway were analyzed in lung epithelial A549 cells co-treated with MEO and PM10. Inhalation of MEO by nebulization inhibited respiratory epithelium hyperplasia, collagen deposition, and goblet cell activation in asthmatic mice. Through a network pharmacological analysis, cytokine–cytokine receptor interaction and JAK/STAT was expected to be underlying mechanisms of MEO on asthma. Treatment with MEO significantly reduced the IL-6 levels with a decrease in pro-inflammatory and T helper 2-specific cytokines. PM10-induced phosphorylation of JAK2 and STAT3 was significantly decreased by MEO. Collectively, MEO may have an inhibitory effect on asthma under the condition of PM10 exposure through the IL-6/JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway.
Pharmacokinetics of Mephedrone Enantiomers in Whole Blood after a Controlled Intranasal Administration to Healthy Human Volunteers
Authors: Czerwinska Joanna , Parkin Mark C. , Cilibrizzi Agostino , George Claire , Kicman Andrew T. , Dargan Paul I. , Abbate Vincenzo
Published: December 2020

Mephedrone, which is one of the most popular synthetic cathinones, has one chiral centre and thus exists as two enantiomers: R-(+)-mephedrone and S-(−)-mephedrone. There are some preliminary data suggesting that the enantiomers of mephedrone may display enantioselective pharmacokinetics and exhibit different neurological effects. In this study, enantiomers of mephedrone were resolved via chromatographic chiral recognition and the absolute configuration was unambiguously determined by a combination of elution order and chiroptical analysis (i.e., circular dichroism). A chiral liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method was fully validated and was applied to the analysis of whole blood samples collected from a controlled intranasal administration of racemic mephedrone hydrochloride to healthy male volunteers. Both enantiomers showed similar kinetics, however, R-(+)-mephedrone had a greater mean Cmax of 48.5 ± 11.9 ng/mL and a longer mean half-life of 1.92 ± 0.27 h compared with 44.6 ± 11.8 ng/mL and 1.63 ± 0.23 h for S-(−)-mephedrone, respectively. Moreover, R-(+)-mephedrone had a lower mean clearance and roughly 1.3 times greater mean area under the curve than S-(−)-mephedrone. Significant changes in the enantiomeric ratio over time were observed, which suggest that the analytes exhibit enantioselective pharmacokinetics. Even though the clinical significance of this finding is not yet fully understood, the study confirms that the chiral nature, and consequently the enantiomeric purity of mephedrone, can be a crucial consideration when interpreting toxicological results.
Repurposing the McoTI-II Rigid Molecular Scaffold in to Inhibitor of ‘Papain Superfamily’ Cysteine Proteases
Authors: Mishra Manasi , Singh Vigyasa , Tellis Meenakshi B. , Joshi Rakesh S. , Singh Shailja
Published: December 2020

Clan C1A or ‘papain superfamily’ cysteine proteases are key players in many important physiological processes and diseases in most living systems. Novel approaches towards the development of their inhibitors can open new avenues in translational medicine. Here, we report a novel design of a re-engineered chimera inhibitor Mco-cysteine protease inhibitor (CPI) to inhibit the activity of C1A cysteine proteases. This was accomplished by grafting the cystatin first hairpin loop conserved motif (QVVAG) onto loop 1 of the ultrastable cyclic peptide scaffold McoTI-II. The recombinantly expressed Mco-CPI protein was able to bind with micromolar affinity to papain and showed remarkable thermostability owing to the formation of multi-disulphide bonds. Using an in silico approach based on homology modelling, protein–protein docking, the calculation of the free-energy of binding, the mechanism of inhibition of Mco-CPI against representative C1A cysteine proteases (papain and cathepsin L) was validated. Furthermore, molecular dynamics simulation of the Mco-CPI–papain complex validated the interaction as stable. To conclude, in this McoTI-II analogue, the specificity had been successfully redirected towards C1A cysteine proteases while retaining the moderate affinity. The outcomes of this study pave the way for further modifications of the Mco-CPI design for realizing its full potential in therapeutics. This study also demonstrates the relevance of ultrastable peptide-based scaffolds for the development of novel inhibitors via grafting.
Exosomes as Drug Delivery Systems: Endogenous Nanovehicles for Treatment of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
Authors: Ortega Ana , Martinez-Arroyo Olga , Forner Maria J. , Cortes Raquel
Published: December 2020

Exosomes, nanometer-sized lipid-bilayer-enclosed extracellular vesicles (EVs), have attracted increasing attention due to their inherent ability to shuttle proteins, lipids and genes between cells and their natural affinity to target cells. Their intrinsic features such as stability, biocompatibility, low immunogenicity and ability to overcome biological barriers, have prompted interest in using exosomes as drug delivery vehicles, especially for gene therapy. Evidence indicates that exosomes play roles in both immune stimulation and tolerance, regulating immune signaling and inflammation. To date, exosome-based nanocarriers delivering small molecule drugs have been developed to treat many prevalent autoimmune diseases. This review highlights the key features of exosomes as drug delivery vehicles, such as therapeutic cargo, use of targeting peptide, loading method and administration route with a broad focus. In addition, we outline the current state of evidence in the field of exosome-based drug delivery systems in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), evaluating exosomes derived from various cell types and engineered exosomes.
Nanoparticles Based on Quaternary Ammonium Chitosan-methyl-β-cyclodextrin Conjugate for the Neuropeptide Dalargin Delivery to the Central Nervous System: An In Vitro Study
Authors: Migone Chiara , Mattii Letizia , Giannasi Martina , Moscato Stefania , Cesari Andrea , Zambito Ylenia , Piras Anna Maria
Published: December 2020

Peptide oral administration is a hard goal to reach, especially if the brain is the target site. The purpose of the present study was to set up a vehicle apt to promote oral absorption of the neuropeptide dalargin (DAL), allowing it to cross the intestinal mucosal barrier, resist enzymatic degradation, and transport drugs to the brain after crossing the blood–brain barrier. Therefore, a chitosan quaternary ammonium derivative was synthesized and conjugated with methyl-β-cyclodextrin to prepare DAL-medicated nanoparticles (DAL-NP). DAL-NP particle size was 227.7 nm, zeta potential +8.60 mV, encapsulation efficiency 89%. DAL-NP protected DAL from degradation by chymotrypsin or pancreatin and tripled DAL degradation time compared to non-encapsulated DAL. Use of DAL-NP was safe for either Caco-2 or bEnd.3 cells, with the latter selected as a blood–brain barrier model. DAL-NP could also cross either the Caco-2 or bEnd.3 monolayer by the transepithelial route. The results suggest a potential DAL-NP ability to transport to the brain a DAL dose fraction administered orally, although in vivo experiments will be needed to confirm the present data obtained in vitro.
Endogenous Antioxidant Cocktail Loaded Hydrogel for Topical Wound Healing of Burns
Authors: Soriano José L. , Calpena Ana C. , Rodríguez-Lagunas María J. , Domènech Òscar , Bozal-de Febrer Nuria , Garduño-Ramírez María L. , Clares Beatriz
Published: December 2020

The main goal of this work is the study of the skin wound healing efficacy of an antioxidant cocktail consisting of vitamins A, D, E and the endogenous pineal hormone melatonin (MLT), with all of these loaded into a thermosensitive hydrogel delivery system. The resulting formulation was characterized by scanning electron microscopy. The antioxidant efficacy and microbiological activity against Gram positive and Gram negative strains were also assayed. The skin healing efficacy was tested using an in vivo model which included histological evaluation. Furthermore, atomic force microscopy was employed to evaluate the wound healing efficacy of rat skin burns through the determination of its elasticity at the nanoscale using force spectroscopy analysis. The resulting hydrogel exhibited sol state at low temperature and turned into a gel at 30 ± 0.2 °C. The hydrogel containing the antioxidant cocktail showed higher scavenging activity than the hydrogel containing vitamins or MLT, separately. The formulation showed optimal antimicrobial activity. It was comparable to a commercial reference. It was also evidenced that the hydrogel containing the antioxidant cocktail exhibited the strongest healing process in the skin burns of rats, similar to the assayed commercial reference containing silver sulfadiazine. Histological studies confirmed the observed results. Finally, atomic force microscopy demonstrated a similar distribution of Young’s modulus values between burned skin treated with the commercial reference and burned skin treated with hydrogel containing the antioxidant cocktail, and all these with healthy skin. The use of an antioxidant cocktail of vitamins and MLT might be a promising treatment for skin wounds for future clinical studies.
The Concept of “Tradition” in Edmund Husserl
Authors: Claudio Rossi
Published: December 2020

That of tradition is a so-called limit problem of Husserlian phenomenology. The text is based on an investigation of the existential and historical character of the formal ego, which implies its temporal and historical stratification and personal constitution. The ego is essentially situated in a spiritual context historically determined by a transmission of ideas and values that have a communitarian character. The fundamental point of this study is to affirm that, in Husserlian thought, tradition, being a transcendental prerequisite of the existential dimension of the formal ego, is consequently a constitutive moment of the human being. The study also brings to light the important concept of “Vergemeinschaftung” and provides an interpretation of the theme of the crisis of European mankind, which seems to correspond to an oblivion of its tradition.
Natural Variation and Domestication Selection of ZmCKX5 with Root Morphological Traits at the Seedling Stage in Maize
Authors: Wang Houmiao , Sun Hui , Xia Haofeng , Wu Tingting , Li Pengcheng , Xu Chenwu , Yang Zefeng
Published: December 2020

Root system architecture plays a crucial role in water and nutrient acquisition in maize. Cytokinins, which can be irreversibly degraded by the cytokinin oxidase/dehydrogenase (CKX), are important hormones that regulate root development in plants. In this study, ZmCKX5 was resequenced in 285 inbred lines, 68 landraces, and 32 teosintes to identify the significant variants associated with root traits in maize. Sequence polymorphisms and nucleotide diversity revealed that ZmCKX5 might be selected during domestication and improvement processes. Marker–trait association analysis in inbred lines identified 12 variants of ZmCKX5 that were significantly associated with six root traits, including seed root number (SRN), lateral root length (LRL), total root area (RA), root length in 0 to 0.5 mm diameter class (RL005), total root volume (RV), and total root length (TRL). SNP-1195 explained the most (6.01%) phenotypic variation of SRN, and the frequency of this allele G increased from 6.25% and 1.47% in teosintes and landraces, respectively, to 17.39% in inbred lines. Another significant variant, SNP-1406, with a pleiotropic effect, is strongly associated with five root traits, with the frequency of T allele increased from 25.00% and 23.73% in teosintes and landraces, respectively, to 35.00% in inbred lines. These results indicate that ZmCKX5 may be involved in the development of the maize root system and that the significant variants can be used to develop functional markers to accelerate the improvement in the maize root system.
Mechanistic Insight of Allantoin in Protecting Tomato Plants Against Ultraviolet C Stress
Authors: Dawood Mona F. A. , Tahjib-Ul-Arif Md. , Sohag Abdullah Al Mamun , Abdel Latef Arafat Abdel Hamed , Ragaey Marwa M.
Published: December 2020

Allantoin ((AT) a purine metabolite)-mediated ultraviolet C (UVC) stress mitigation has not been studied to date. Here, we reported the physicochemical mechanisms of UVC-induced stress in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) plants, including an AT-directed mitigation strategy. UVC stress reduced plant growth and photosynthetic pigments. Heatmap and principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that these toxic impacts were triggered by the greater oxidative damage and disruption of osmolyte homeostasis. However, pre-treatment of AT noticeably ameliorated the stress-induced toxicity as evident by enhanced chlorophyll, soluble protein, and soluble carbohydrate contents in AT-pretreated UVC-stressed plants relative to only stressed plants leading to the improvement of the plant growth and biomass. Moreover, AT pre-treatment enhanced endogenous AT and allantoate content, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, non-enzymatic antioxidants, and the enzymatic antioxidants leading to reduced oxidative stress markers compared with only stressed plants, indicating the protective effect of AT against oxidative damage. Moreover, PCA displayed that the protective roles of AT strongly associate with the improved antioxidants. On the other hand, post-treatment of AT showed less efficacy in UVC stress mitigation relative to pre-treatment of AT. Overall, this finding illustrated that AT pre-treatment could be an effective way to counteract the UVC stress in tomato, and perhaps in other crop plants.
Novel Terahertz Spectroscopy Technology for Crystallinity and Crystal Structure Analysis of Cellulose
Authors: Yang Rui , Dong Xianyin , Chen Gang , Lin Feng , Huang Zhenhua , Manzo Maurizio , Mao Haiyan
Published: December 2020

Crystallinity is an essential indicator for evaluating the quality of fiber materials. Terahertz spectroscopy technology has excellent penetrability, no harmful substances, and commendable detection capability of absorption characteristics. The terahertz spectroscopy technology has great application potential in the field of fiber material research, especially for the characterization of the crystallinity of cellulose. In this work, the absorption peak of wood cellulose, microcrystalline cellulose, wood nano cellulose, and cotton nano cellulose were probed in the terahertz band to calculate the crystallinity, and the result compared with XRD and FT-IR analysis. The vibration model of cellulose molecular motion was obtained by density functional theory. The results showed that the average length of wood cellulose (WC) single fiber was 300 μm. The microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) was bar-like, and the average length was 20 μm. The cotton cellulose nanofiber (C-CNF) was a single fibrous substance with a length of 50 μm, while the wood cellulose nanofiber (W-CNF) was with a length of 250 μm. The crystallinity of cellulose samples in THz was calculated as follows: 73% for WC, 78% for MCC, 85% for W-CNF, and 90% for C-CNF. The crystallinity values were obtained by the three methods which were different to some extent. The absorption peak of the terahertz spectra was most obvious when the samples thickness was 1 mm and mixed mass ratio of the polyethylene and cellulose was 1:1. The degree of crystallinity was proportional to the terahertz absorption coefficients of cellulose, the five-movement models of cellulose molecules corresponded to the five absorption peak positions of cellulose.
The Impact of Wood Waste on the Properties of Silicone-Based Composites
Authors: Mrówka Maciej , Szymiczek Małgorzata , Skonieczna Magdalena
Published: December 2020

The impact of wood waste on the mechanical and biological properties of silicone-based composites was investigated using wood waste from oak, hornbeam, beech, and spruce trees. The density, abrasion resistance, resilience, hardness, and static tensile properties of the obtained WPC (wood–plastic composites) were tested. The results revealed slight changes in the density, increased abrasion resistance, decreased resilience, increased hardness, and decreased strain at break and stress at break compared with untreated silicone. The samples also showed no cytotoxicity to normal human dermal fibroblast, NHDF. The possibility of using prepared composites as materials to create structures on the seabed was also investigated by placing samples in a marine aquarium for one week and then observing sea algae growth.
Effect of Cyclotriphosphazene-Based Curing Agents on the Flame Resistance of Epoxy Resins
Authors: Zarybnicka Lucie , Machotova Jana , Kopecka Radka , Sevcik Radek , Hudakova Martina , Pokorny Jaroslav , Sal Jiri
Published: December 2020

Epoxy resins are characterized by excellent properties such as chemical resistance, shape stability, hardness and heat resistance, but they present low flame resistance. In this work, the synthesized derivatives, namely hexacyclohexylamino-cyclotriphosphazene (HCACTP) and novel diaminotetracyclohexylamino-cyclotriphosphazene (DTCATP), were applied as curing agents for halogen-free flame retarding epoxy materials. The thermal properties and combustion behavior of the cured epoxy resins were investigated. The obtained results revealed that the application of both derivatives significantly increased flame resistance. The epoxy resins cured with HCACTP and DTCATP exhibited lower total heat release together with lower total smoke production compared to the epoxy materials based on conventional curing agents (dipropylenetriamine and ethylenediamine). Comparing both derivatives, the HCACTP-cured epoxy resin was found to provide a higher flame resistance. The designed novel class of epoxy materials may be used for the preparation of materials with improved flame resistance properties in terms of flame spreading and smoke inhibition.
Electrostatic Self-Assembly of Composite Nanofiber Yarn
Authors: Wang Wei-Chih , Cheng Yen-Tse , Estroff Benjamin
Published: December 2020

Electrospinning polymer fibers is a well-understood process primarily resulting in random mats or single strands. More recent systems and methods have produced nanofiber yarns (NFY) for ease of use in textiles. This paper presents a method of NFY manufacture using a simplified dry electrospinning system to produce self-assembling functional NFY capable of conducting electrical charge. The polymer is a mixture of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), polyvinyl acrylate (PVA) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS). When treated with ethylene glycol (EG) to enhance conductivity, fibers touching the collector plate align to the applied electrostatic field and grow by twisting additional nanofiber polymers injected by the jet into the NFY bundle. The longer the electrospinning continues, the longer and more uniformly twisted the NFY becomes. This process has the added benefit of reducing the electric field required for NFY production from >2.43 kV cm−1 to 1.875 kV cm−1.
Regulation of Polyvinyl Alcohol/Sulfonated Nano-TiO2 Hybrid Membranes Interface Promotes Diffusion Dialysis
Authors: Liang Yuxia , Huang Xiaonan , Yao Lanzhong , Xia Ru , Cao Ming , Ge Qianqian , Zhou Weibin , Qian Jiasheng , Miao Jibin , Wu Bin
Published: December 2020

It is important to emphasize that the adjustment of an organic–inorganic interfacial chemical environment plays an important role during the separation performance of composite materials. In this paper, a series of hybrid membranes were prepared by blending polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) solution and sulfonated nano-TiO2 (SNT) suspension. The effects of different interfacial chemical surroundings on ions transfer were explored by regulating the dosage content of SNT. The as-prepared membranes exhibited high thermal and mechanical stability, with initial decomposition temperatures of 220–253 °C, tensile strengths of 31.5–53.4 MPa, and elongations at break of 74.5–146.0%. The membranes possessed moderate water uptake (WR) values of 90.9–101.7% and acceptable alkali resistances (swelling degrees were 187.2–206.5% and weight losses were 10.0–20.8%). The as-prepared membranes were used for the alkali recovery of a NaOH/Na2WO4 system via the diffusion dialysis process successfully. The results showed that the dialysis coefficients of OH− (UOH) were in a range of 0.013–0.022 m/h, and separate factors (S) were in an acceptable range of 22–33. Sulfonic groups in the interfacial regions and –OH in the PVA main chains were both deemed to play corporate roles during the transport of Na+ and OH−.
Modified Electrospun Polymeric Nanofibers and Their Nanocomposites as Nanoadsorbents for Toxic Dye Removal from Contaminated Waters: A Review
Authors: Thamer Badr M. , Aldalbahi Ali , Moydeen A Meera , Rahaman Mostafizur , El-Newehy Mohamed H.
Published: December 2020

Electrospun polymer nanofibers (EPNFs) as one-dimensional nanostructures are characterized by a high surface area-to-volume ratio, high porosity, large number of adsorption sites and high adsorption capacity. These properties nominate them to be used as an effective adsorbent for the removal of water pollutants such as heavy metals, dyes and other pollutants. Organic dyes are considered one of the most hazardous water pollutants due to their toxic effects even at very low concentrations. To overcome this problem, the adsorption technique has proven its high effectiveness towards the removal of such pollutants from aqueous systems. The use of the adsorption technique depends mainly on the properties, efficacy, cost and reusability of the adsorbent. So, the use of EPNFs as adsorbents for dye removal has received increasing attention due to their unique properties, adsorption efficiency and reusability. Moreover, the adsorption efficiency and stability of EPNFs in aqueous media can be improved via their surface modification. This review provides a relevant literature survey over the last two decades on the fabrication and surface modification of EPNFs by an electrospinning technique and their use of adsorbents for the removal of various toxic dyes from contaminated water. Factors affecting the adsorption capacity of EPNFs, the best adsorption conditions and adsorption mechanism of dyes onto the surface of various types of modified EPNFs are also discussed. Finally, the adsorption capacity, isotherm and kinetic models for describing the adsorption of dyes using modified and composite EPNFs are discussed.
Characterization of the Quality Factor Due to the Static Prestress in Classical Caputo and Caputo–Fabrizio Fractional Thermoelastic Silicon Microbeam
Authors: Youssef Hamdy M. , El-Bary Alaa A. , Al-Lehaibi Eman A. N.
Published: December 2020

The thermal quality factor is the most significant parameter of the micro/nanobeam resonator. Less energy is released by vibration and low damping, which results in greater efficiency. Thus, for a simply supported microbeam resonator made of silicon (Si), a thermal analysis of the thermal quality factor was introduced. A force due to static prestress was considered. The governing equations were constructed in a unified system. This system generates six different models of heat conduction; the traditional Lord–Shulman, Lord–Shulman based on classical Caputo fractional derivative, Lord–Shulman based on the Caputo–Fabrizio fractional derivative, traditional Tzou, Tzou based on the classical Caputo fractional derivative, and Tzou based on the Caputo–Fabrizio fractional derivative. The results show that the force due to static prestress, the fractional order parameter, the isothermal value of natural frequency, and the beam’s length significantly affect the thermal quality factor. The two types of fractional derivatives applied have different and significant effects on the thermal quality factor.
Are Roadside Crosses in Poland a Religious or Cultural Expression?
Authors: Przybylska Lucyna
Published: December 2020

The paper contributes to the discourse on roadside memorialisation in the countries of Christian heritage in Europe, Australia, and North America. The aim of the paper is to assess the social perception of the motivation of people constructing roadside crosses at the places of fatal car accidents along public roads in Poland. Is it religious, cultural or both religious and cultural? The uniqueness of this survey lies in its representativeness of the population of one country and the religiosity variable incorporated into a public opinion poll. The study proves that there exists a relationship between one’s declaration of faith and the perception of memorial crosses. Believers more often than atheists opt for both a religious and a cultural meaning of roadside crosses. Atheists and agnostics more often than believers associate roadside crosses only with a cultural meaning—the custom of marking places of death with crosses.
Mapping Bioclimatic Indices by Downscaling MODIS Land Surface Temperature: Case Study of the Saint-Emilion Area
Authors: Morin Gwenaël , LE ROUX Renan , Lemasle Pierre-Gilles , Quénol Hervé
Published: December 2020

Thermal conditions, influenced by the local environment, impact the development of the vine and determine the composition of the grapes. Bioclimatic indices, based on cumulative air temperatures, are modelled and mapped using statistical methods integrating local factors. Air temperature data from sensors networks are limited in space and time. We evaluated the potential of land surface temperature (LST) to identify comparable spatial distribution, and not to replace air temperature, by using a support vector machine algorithm to compare bioclimatic indices calculated from air temperature or LST. This study focused on the 2012–2018 period in the Saint-Emilion winegrowing area of France. The use of several digital elevation models with high spatial resolution (i.e., GMTED10 (1000, 500 and 250 m) and SRTM (90 and 30 m)) enabled LST to be downscaled at each resolution. The same topographic variables (elevation, slope, orientation coordinates) were used as predictors, and identical algorithms and cross-validation parameters were implemented in both mapping methods. Bioclimatic indices were calculated from daily air temperature, daily LST or weekly LST. The results of the daily and weekly downscaling of the MODIS time series at several spatial resolutions are encouraging for application to viticulture and have allowed to identify an optimal resolution between 500 m and 250 m limiting bias.
Examining the Economic and Environmental Impacts of COVID-19 Using Earth Observation Data
Authors: Straka William , Kondragunta Shobha , Wei Zigang , Zhang Hai , Miller Steven D. , Watts Alexander
Published: December 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has infected almost 73 million people and is responsible for over 1.63 million fatalities worldwide since early December 2019, when it was first reported in Wuhan, China. In the early stages of the pandemic, social distancing measures, such as lockdown restrictions, were applied in a non-uniform way across the world to reduce the spread of the virus. While such restrictions contributed to flattening the curve in places like Italy, Germany, and South Korea, it plunged the economy in the United States to a level of recession not seen since WWII, while also improving air quality due to the reduced mobility. Using daily Earth observation data (Day/Night Band (DNB) from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Suomi-NPP and NO2 measurements from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument TROPOMI) along with monthly averaged cell phone derived mobility data, we examined the economic and environmental impacts of lockdowns in Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; Washington DC from February to April 2020—encompassing the most profound shutdown measures taken in the U.S. The preliminary analysis revealed that the reduction in mobility involved two major observable impacts: (i) improved air quality (a reduction in NO2 and PM2.5 concentration), but (ii) reduced economic activity (a decrease in energy consumption as measured by the radiance from the DNB data) that impacted on gross domestic product, poverty levels, and the unemployment rate. With the continuing rise of COVID-19 cases and declining economic conditions, such knowledge can be combined with unemployment and demographic data to develop policies and strategies for the safe reopening of the economy while preserving our environment and protecting vulnerable populations susceptible to COVID-19 infection.
A Review of Remote Sensing Challenges for Food Security with Respect to Salinity and Drought Threats
Authors: Wen Wen , Timmermans Joris , Chen Qi , van Bodegom Peter M.
Published: December 2020

Drought and salinity stress are considered to be the two main factors limiting crop productivity. With climate change, these stresses are projected to increase, further exacerbating the risks to global food security. Consequently, to tackle this problem, better agricultural management is required on the basis of improved drought and salinity stress monitoring capabilities. Remote sensing makes it possible to monitor crop health at various spatiotemporal scales and extents. However, remote sensing has not yet been used to monitor both drought and salinity stresses simultaneously. The aim of this paper is to review the current ability of remote sensing to detect the impact of these stresses on vegetation indices (VIs) and crop trait responses. We found that VIs are insufficiently accurate (0.02 ≤ R2 ≤ 0.80) to characterize the crop health under drought and salinity stress. In contrast, we found that plant functional traits have a high potential to monitor the impacts of such stresses on crop health, as they are more in line with the vegetation processes. However, we also found that further investigations are needed to achieve this potential. Specifically, we found that the spectral signals concerning drought and salinity stress were inconsistent for the various crop traits. This inconsistency was present (a) between studies utilizing similar crops and (b) between investigations studying different crops. Moreover, the response signals for joint drought and salinity stress overlapped spectrally, thereby significantly limiting the application of remote sensing to monitor these separately. Therefore, to consistently monitor crop responses to drought and salinity, we need to resolve the current indeterminacy of the relationships between crop traits and spectrum and evaluate multiple traits simultaneously. Using radiative transfer models (RTMs) and multi-sensor frameworks allow monitoring multiple crop traits and may constitute a way forward toward evaluating drought and salinity impacts.
Clustering Code Biases between BDS-2 and BDS-3 Satellites and Effects on Joint Solution
Authors: Chen Liang , Li Min , Zhao Ying , Zheng Fu , Zhang Xuejun , Shi Chuang
Published: December 2020

China’s BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) has finished global constellation construction and can achieve joint solution, simultaneously relying on the B1I + B3I signals of the BDS-2 and BDS-3 satellites. For reasons mostly related to chip shape distortions, navigation satellite observations are corrupted by receiver-dependent code biases. Those biases are brought into observation residuals and degrade the pseudorange correction accuracy. Herein, we present a code bias estimation algorithm, using what we found to be an obvious clustering code bias phenomenon between the BDS-2 and BDS-3 satellites, leading to the systematic biases existing in the BDS-2+3 joint solution. Therefore, we propose a BDS-2+3 joint solution with code bias self-calibration, which can accurately strip off clustering code biases between the BDS-2 and BDS-3 satellites, and can greatly improve precise point positioning (PPP) convergence speed and accuracy. The statistics showed that the residual biases and root mean square (RMS) improved by 36% and 15% and the convergence time improved by approximately 35%. In the convergence stage, the positioning accuracy improved by approximately 38% and 21% in the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively. Meanwhile, in the post-convergence stage, the accuracy improved by approximately 10%.
Monitoring the Vertical Land Motion of Tide Gauges and Its Impact on Relative Sea Level Changes in Korean Peninsula Using Sequential SBAS-InSAR Time-Series Analysis
Authors: Palanisamy Vadivel Suresh Krishnan , Kim Duk-jin , Jung Jungkyo , Cho Yang-Ki , Han Ki-Jong
Published: December 2020

The relative sea-level changes from tide gauges in the Korean peninsula provide essential information to understand the regional and global mean sea-level changes. Several corrections to raw tide gauge records are required to account for coastal vertical land motion (VLM), regional and local coastal variability. However, due to the lack of in-situ measurements such as leveling data and the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), making precise assessments of VLM at the tide gauges is still challenging. This study aims to address the above limitation to assess the VLM in the Korean tide gauges using the time-series Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) technique. For 10 tide gauges selected in the Korean peninsula, we applied the Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers (StaMPS)—Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) method to C-band Sentinel-1 A/B Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data acquired during 2014/10–2020/05, with the novel sequential interferograms pair selection approach to increase the slowly decorrelating filtered phase (SDFP) pixels density near the tide gauges. Our findings show that overall the tide gauges in the Korean peninsula are stable, besides the largest VLM observed at Pohang tide gauge station (East Sea) of about −26.02 mm/year; also, higher rates of uplift (>1 mm/year) were observed along the coast of Yellow Sea (Incheon TG and Boryeong TG) and higher rates of subsidence (<−2 mm/year) were observed at Jeju TG and Seogwipo TG. Our approach estimates the rate of VLM at selected tide gauges with an unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution and is applicable when the in-situ and GNSS observations are not available.
Design of an Unmanned Ground Vehicle and LiDAR Pipeline for the High-Throughput Phenotyping of Biomass in Perennial Ryegrass
Authors: Nguyen Phat , Badenhorst Pieter E. , Shi Fan , Spangenberg German C. , Smith Kevin F. , Daetwyler Hans D.
Published: December 2020

Perennial ryegrass biomass yield is an important driver of profitability for Australian dairy farmers, making it a primary goal for plant breeders. However, measuring and selecting cultivars for higher biomass yield is a major bottleneck in breeding, requiring conventional methods that may be imprecise, laborious, and/or destructive. For forage breeding programs to adopt phenomic technologies for biomass estimation, there exists the need to develop, integrate, and validate sensor-based data collection that is aligned with the growth characteristics of plants, plot design and size, and repeated measurements across the growing season to reduce the time and cost associated with the labor involved in data collection. A fully automated phenotyping platform (DairyBioBot) utilizing an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) equipped with a ground-based Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensor and Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) positioning system was developed for the accurate and efficient measurement of plant volume as a proxy for biomass in large-scale perennial ryegrass field trials. The field data were collected from a perennial ryegrass row trial of 18 experimental varieties in 160 plots (three rows per plot). DairyBioBot utilized mission planning software to autonomously capture high-resolution LiDAR data and Global Positioning System (GPS) recordings. A custom developed data processing pipeline was used to generate a plant volume estimate from LiDAR data connected to GPS coordinates. A high correlation between LiDAR plant volume and biomass on a Fresh Mass (FM) basis was observed with the coefficient of determination of R2 = 0.71 at the row level and R2 = 0.73 at the plot level. This indicated that LiDAR plant volume is strongly correlated with biomass and therefore the DairyBioBot demonstrates the utility of an autonomous platform to estimate in-field biomass for perennial ryegrass. It is likely that no single platform will be optimal to measure plant biomass from landscape to plant scales; the development and application of autonomous ground-based platforms is of greatest benefit to forage breeding programs.
Social-Ecological Archetypes of Land Degradation in the Nigerian Guinea Savannah: Insights for Sustainable Land Management
Authors: Adenle Ademola , Ifejika Speranza Chinwe
Published: December 2020

The Nigerian Guinea Savannah is the most extensive ecoregion in Nigeria, a major food production area, and contains many biodiversity protection areas. However, there is limited understanding of the social-ecological features of its degraded lands and potential insights for sustainable land management and governance. To fill this gap, the self-organizing map method was applied to identify the archetypes of both proximal and underlying drivers of land degradation in this region. Using 12 freely available spatial datasets of drivers of land degradation—4 environmental; 3 socio-economic; and 5 land-use management practices, the identified archetypes were intersected with the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-derived land-degradation status of the region, and the state administrative boundaries. Nine archetypes were identified. Archetypes are dominated by: (1) protected areas; (2) very high-density population; (3) moderately high information/knowledge access; (4) low literacy levels and moderate–high poverty levels; (5) rural remoteness; (6) remoteness from a major road; (7) very high livestock density; (8) moderate poverty level and nearly level terrain; and (9) very rugged terrain and remote from a major road. Four archetypes characterized by very high-density population, moderate–high information/knowledge access, and moderate–high poverty level, as well as remoteness from a major town, were associated with 61.3% large-area degradation; and the other five archetypes, covering 38.7% of the area, were responsible for small-area degradation. While different combinations of archetypes exist in all the states, the five states of Niger (40.5%), Oyo (29.6%), Kwara (24.4%), Nassarawa (18.6%), and Ekiti (17.6%), have the largest shares of the archetypes. To deal with these archetypical features, policies and practices that address increasing population in combination with poverty reduction; and that create awareness about land degradation and promote sustainable practices and various forms of land restoration, such as tree planting, are necessary for progressing towards land-degradation neutrality in the Nigerian Guinea Savannah.
Individualised Responsible Artificial Intelligence for Home-Based Rehabilitation
Authors: Vourganas Ioannis , Stankovic Vladimir , Stankovic Lina
Published: December 2020

Socioeconomic reasons post-COVID-19 demand unsupervised home-based rehabilitation and, specifically, artificial ambient intelligence with individualisation to support engagement and motivation. Artificial intelligence must also comply with accountability, responsibility, and transparency (ART) requirements for wider acceptability. This paper presents such a patient-centric individualised home-based rehabilitation support system. To this end, the Timed Up and Go (TUG) and Five Time Sit To Stand (FTSTS) tests evaluate daily living activity performance in the presence or development of comorbidities. We present a method for generating synthetic datasets complementing experimental observations and mitigating bias. We present an incremental hybrid machine learning algorithm combining ensemble learning and hybrid stacking using extreme gradient boosted decision trees and k-nearest neighbours to meet individualisation, interpretability, and ART design requirements while maintaining low computation footprint. The model reaches up to 100% accuracy for both FTSTS and TUG in predicting associated patient medical condition, and 100% or 83.13%, respectively, in predicting area of difficulty in the segments of the test. Our results show an improvement of 5% and 15% for FTSTS and TUG tests, respectively, over previous approaches that use intrusive means of monitoring such as cameras.
Proof-of-PUF Enabled Blockchain: Concurrent Data and Device Security for Internet-of-Energy
Authors: Asif Rameez , Ghanem Kinan , Irvine James
Published: December 2020

A detailed review on the technological aspects of Blockchain and Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) is presented in this article. It stipulates an emerging concept of Blockchain that integrates hardware security primitives via PUFs to solve bandwidth, integration, scalability, latency, and energy requirements for the Internet-of-Energy (IoE) systems. This hybrid approach, hereinafter termed as PUFChain, provides device and data provenance which records data origins, history of data generation and processing, and clone-proof device identification and authentication, thus possible to track the sources and reasons of any cyber attack. In addition to this, we review the key areas of design, development, and implementation, which will give us the insight on seamless integration with legacy IoE systems, reliability, cyber resilience, and future research challenges.
The Influence of Climate Parameters on Maintenance of Wind Farms—A Galician Case Study
Authors: Orosa José A. , Costa Ángel M. , Vergara Diego , Fraguela Feliciano
Published: December 2020

There are different monitoring procedures in wind farms with two main objectives: (i) to improve energy production by the capability of the national electrical network and (ii) to reduce the stooped hours due to preventive and or corrective maintenance activities. In this sense, different sensors are employed to sample in real-time the working conditions of equipment, the electrical production and the weather conditions. Despite this, just the anemometer measurement can be related to the more important errors of interruption of power regulation and anemometer errors. Both errors are related to gusty winds and contribute to more than 33% of the cost of a wind farm. The present paper reports some mathematical relations between weather and maintenance but there are no extreme values of each variable that let us predict a near failure and its corresponding loss of working hours. To achieve this, statistical analysis identifies the relation between weather variables and errors and different models are obtained. What is more, due to the difficulty and economic implications involving the implementation of complex algorithms and techniques of artificial intelligence, it is still a challenge to optimize this process. Finally, the obtained results show a particular case study that can be extrapolated to other wind farms after different case studies to adjust the model to different weather regions, and serve as a useful tool for weather maintenance.
Crack Identification in Necked Double Shear Lugs by Means of the Electro-Mechanical Impedance Method
Authors: Winklberger Markus , Kralovec Christoph , Humer Christoph , Heftberger Peter , Schagerl Martin
Published: December 2020

This contribution investigates fatigue crack detection, localization and quantification in idealized necked double shear lugs using piezoelectric transducers attached to the lug shaft and analyzed by the electro-mechanical impedance (EMI) method. The considered idealized necked lug sample has a simplified geometry and does not includes the typical bearing. Numerical simulations with coupled-field finite element (FE) models are used to study the frequency response behavior of necked lugs. These numerical analyses include both pristine and cracked lug models. Through-cracks are located at 90∘ and 145∘ to the lug axis, which are critical spots for damage initiation. The results of FE simulations with a crack location at 90∘ are validated with experiments using an impedance analyzer and a scanning laser Doppler vibrometer. For both experiments, the lug specimen is excited and measured using a piezoelectric active wafer sensor in a frequency range of 1 kHz to 100 kHz. The dynamic response of both numerical calculations and experimental measurements show good agreement. To identify (i.e., detect, locate, and quantify) cracks in necked lugs a two-step analysis is performed. In the first step, a crack is detected data-based by calculating damage metrics between pristine and damaged state frequency spectra and comparing the resulting values to a pre-defined threshold. In the second step the location and size of the detected crack is identified by evaluation of specific resonance frequency shifts of the necked lug. Both the search for frequencies sensitive to through-cracks that allow a distinction between the two critical locations and the evaluation of the crack size are model-based. This two-step analysis based on the EMI method is demonstrated experimentally at the considered idealized necked lug, and thus, represents a promising way to reliably detect, locate and quantify fatigue cracks at critical locations of real necked double shear lugs.
Reactions of Prison Staff to the Needs of Culturally Different Convicts
Authors: Urbanek Arkadiusz
Published: December 2020

This article presents trends in penitentiary work with convicts of different cultures and focuses on their activation, individualization of work, and organizational difficulties. The purpose of this research was to discover the ways in which prison staff react to situations requiring flexibility justified by cultural differences of some inmates. The research questions included the following: How do prison staff respond to the needs of culturally different inmates? How do the respondents’ reactions correlate with professional experience? Based on the literature, a hypothesis was established that prison staff avoid individualized treatment of convicted foreigners. Despite the perceived differences in culture and religion, and their different mentality, prison procedures aim for uniformity. Tendencies towards resistance and stiffness to the needs of culturally different people become prevailing. The research method used included a diagnostic survey (n = 232, F: 40, M: 192) conducted with prison officers in Poland. A written interview technique was used, where the respondents reacted to 3 situations involving convicts, reflecting their national, religious, and cultural distinctiveness. In their responses, the respondents decided on their method of action in the situation as well as their motivation. Operationalization of the source material was performed in two ways. The content analysis method was applied according to the grounded theory (B.G. Glaser, A.L. Strauss), resulting in the creation of categories marking actions and motives. A multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) of the built categories using the Statistica program as well as a correlation analysis of variables with Cramer’s V coefficient were carried out. The results of the analysis show statistically created, indicated manners of reacting that occurred in the studied sample. Additionally, they point out an independent variable—seniority—which correlated with the quality of the response.