bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The response of rumen pH, fermentation parameters and rumen bacteria to feeds of different concentrate to roughage ratios in buffalos
Authors: Wang Rongjiao , He Shichun , Huang Dan , Wu Dongwang , Peng Hongen , He Shaoying , Guo Taiqing , Chen Tao , Fu Xianhai , Chen Changguo , Jiaka Latie , He Min , Song Dingzhou , Huang Xiujun , Mao Huaming , Li Qing
Published: January 2023

This experiment was conducted to study the regularity influence in apparent digestibility, rumen fermentation parameters, and relative bacterial abundance in buffaloes with different concentrate to roughage ratios. Three adult female barren buffaloes with permanent rumen fistulas were fed five diets with concentrate to roughage ratios of 20:80, 35:65, 50:50, 65:35, and 80:20 according to an incomplete Latin square design of 3×5, respectively. The pre-feeding period of each period was 12 d. From day 13 to 15 of the experiment, the feed intake of each buffalo was accurately recorded and all feces were collected. Samples of diet and feces were collected for nutrient analysis. Rumen fluid was collected to determine rumen fermentation parameters, and rumen bacteria were analyzed by 16S rRNA sequencing. After 2 hours of feeding in the morning on the 15th day of the experiment, rumen bacteria were analyzed. The daily gain and DMI (G/kgW0.75) reached the highest at the concentrate to roughage ratio of 50:50, and the apparent digestibility of ADF NDF NDICP ADICP reached the highest at the concentrate to roughage ratio of 35:65. The weight loss of the experimental animals when the concentrate to roughage was 80:20. Rumen pH decreased with the increase of concentrate level, starch content and NFC content. The rumen ammonia nitrogen concentration increased with the increase in the concentrate to roughage ratio and protein content. The concentration of total volatile fatty acids (mmol/L) in the rumen decreased with the increase of NDF but increased with the increase of NFC and CP, and the acetic acid proportion increased with the increase of NDF. There were differences in the relative abundance of rumen bacterial microbiota with the different concentrate to roughage ratios. Moreover, the relative abundance of each bacterial microbiota changed regularly with the change of concentrate to roughage ratio. The relative abundance of Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and other rumen core microbiota varied linearly or nonlinearly with the change of concentrate to roughage ratio. This suggests that the relative abundance of the ratio of rumen microbiota can be used to specify or measure rumen health and subacute rumen acidosis/rumen acidosis.
Ant-Balanced Multiple Traveling Salesmen: ACO-BmTSP
Authors: de Castro Pereira Sílvia , Solteiro Pires Eduardo J. , de Moura Oliveira Paulo B.
Published: January 2023

A new algorithm based on the ant colony optimization (ACO) method for the multiple traveling salesman problem (mTSP) is presented and defined as ACO-BmTSP. This paper addresses the problem of solving the mTSP while considering several salesmen and keeping both the total travel cost at the minimum and the tours balanced. Eleven different problems with several variants were analyzed to validate the method. The 20 variants considered three to twenty salesmen regarding 11 to 783 cities. The results were compared with best-known solutions (BKSs) in the literature. Computational experiments showed that a total of eight final results were better than those of the BKSs, and the others were quite promising, showing that with few adaptations, it will be possible to obtain better results than those of the BKSs. Although the ACO metaheuristic does not guarantee that the best solution will be found, it is essential in problems with non-deterministic polynomial time complexity resolution or when used as an initial bound solution in an integer programming formulation. Computational experiments on a wide range of benchmark problems within an acceptable time limit showed that compared with four existing algorithms, the proposed algorithm presented better results for several problems than the other algorithms did.
Finite-Time Distributed Control of Non-Triangular Stochastic Nonlinear Multi-Agent Systems with Input Constraints
Authors: Zhang Yuhang , Liu Yifan , Cui Guozeng , Li Ze , Hao Wanjun
Published: January 2023

This paper investigates the problem of finite-time distributed consensus control for non-triangular stochastic nonlinear multi-agent systems (SNMASs) with input constraints. Fuzzy logical systems are used to identify the unknown nonlinear dynamics of non-triangular SNMASs. A finite-time command filter is utilized to eliminate the issue of “explosion of complexity” in the conventional backstepping-based distributed control algorithm, and a fractional power error compensation mechanism is constructed to improve the distributed control performance of SNMASs. It is proved that the proposed distributed controller enables all of the closed-loop system’s signals to be semi-globally finite-time bounded in probability, and the consensus tracking errors will converge to a sufficiently small neighborhood of the origin in a finite time. Finally, the effectiveness of the presented finite-time distributed control scheme is illustrated with a simulated example.
Admissible Control for Non-Linear Singular Systems Subject to Time-Varying Delay and Actuator Saturation: An Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Approach
Authors: Kchaou Mourad , Regaieg Mohamed Amine , Jerbi Houssem , Abbassi Rabeh , Stefanoiu Dan , Popescu Dumitru
Published: January 2023

Applied in many fields, nonlinear systems involving delay and algebraic equations are referred to as singular systems. These systems remain challenging due to saturation constraints that affect actuators and cause harm to their operation. Furthermore, the complexity of the problem will increase when uncertainty also simultaneously affects the system under consideration. To address this issue, this paper investigated a feasible control strategy for nonlinear singular systems with time-varying delay that are subject to uncertainty and actuator saturation. The IT-2 fuzzy model was adopted to describe the dynamic of the non-linear delayed systems using lower and upper membership functions to deal with the uncertainty. Moreover, the polyhedron model was applied to characterize the saturation function. The goal of the control approach was to design a relevant IT2 fuzzy state feedback controller with mismatched membership functions so that the closed-loop system is admissible. On the basis of an appropriate Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional, sufficient delay-dependent conditions were established and an optimization problem was formulated in terms of linear matrix inequality constraints to optimize the attraction domain. Simulation examples are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.
An Improved Super-Twisting Sliding Mode for Flexible Upper-Limb Exoskeleton
Authors: Zhang Saihua , Zhang Xinghua , Sun Zhenxing
Published: January 2023

Aiming at the decrease of tracking accuracy caused by nonlinear friction and strong coupling of the flexible upper-limb exoskeleton, an improved super-twisting sliding mode controller (ISTSMC) is proposed. Compared with the conventional super twisted sliding mode controller (STSMC), this method can replace the switching function under the integral term with a nonsmooth term, resulting in a faster response, less vibration when performing trajectory tracking, and reduced steady-state error. The introduction of the nonsmooth term causes the controller to have a stronger anti-interference ability. At the same time, the parameters of the ISTSMC can be adjusted in order to achieve the expected control performance. The effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed control algorithm are verified through experiments.
Oil Palm Fresh Fruit Bunch Ripeness Detection Methods: A Systematic Review
Authors: Lai Jin Wern , Ramli Hafiz Rashidi , Ismail Luthffi Idzhar , Wan Hasan Wan Zuha
Published: January 2023

The increasing severity of the labour shortage problem in the Malaysian palm oil industry has created a need to explore other avenues for harvesting oil palm fresh fruit bunches (FFBs) such as through autonomous robots’ deployment. However, the first step in using an autonomous system to harvest FFBs is to identify which FFBs have become ripe and are ready to be harvested. In this work, we reviewed previous and current methods of identifying the maturity of fresh fruit bunches as found in the literature. The different methods were then compared in terms of the types of sample data used, sensor modalities, and types of classifiers used with a particular focus on the feasibility of each method for on-field application. From the 51 papers reviewed, which include a total of 11 unique approaches, it was found that the most feasible method for detecting ripe FFBs in the field is a combination of computer vision and deep learning. This system has the advantages of being a noncontact approach that is low cost while also being able to operate in real time with high accuracy.
4-Disubstituted Pyrazolin-3-Ones—Novel Class of Fungicides against Phytopathogenic Fungi
Authors: Lopat’eva Elena R. , Budnikov Alexander S. , Krylov Igor B. , Alekseenko Anna L. , Ilovaisky Alexey I. , Glinushkin Alexey P. , Terent’ev Alexander O.
Published: January 2023

The search for fungicides of novel classes is the long-standing priority in crop protection due to the continuous development of fungal resistance against currently used types of active compounds. Recently, 4-nitropyrazolin-3-ones were discovered as highly potent fungicides, of which activity was believed to be strongly associated with the presence of a nitro group in the pyrazolone ring. In this paper, a series of 4-substituted pyrazolin-3-ones were synthesized and their fungicidal activity against an important species of phytopathogenic fungi (Venturia inaequalis, Rhizoctonia solani, Fusarium oxysporum, Fusarium moniliforme, Bipolaris sorokiniana, and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum) was tested in vitro. We discovered that 4-mono and 4,4-dihalogenated pyrazolin-3-ones demonstrate fungicidal activity comparable to that of 4-nitropyrazolin-3-ones and other modern fungicides (such as kresoxim methyl). This discovery indicates that NO2 moiety can be replaced by other groups of comparable size and electronic properties without the loss of fungicidal activity and significantly expands the scope of potent new fungicides based on a pyrazolin-3-one fragment.
Photoinactivation of Planktonic Cells, Pseudohyphae, and Biofilms of Candida albicans Sensitized by a Free-Base Chlorin and Its Metal Complexes with Zn(II) and Pd(II)
Authors: Cordero Paula V. , Alvarez María G. , Gonzalez Lopez Edwin J. , Heredia Daniel A. , Durantini Edgardo N.
Published: January 2023

Invasive candidiasis is an important cause of morbidity and mortality, and its occurrence is increasing due to the growing complexity of patients. In particular, Candida albicans exhibits several virulence factors that facilitate yeast colonization in humans. In this sense, the photodynamic inactivation of yeasts is a promising new alternative to eliminate fungal infections. Herein, the photodynamic activity sensitized by a free-base chlorin (TPCF16) and its complexes with Zn(II) (ZnTPCF16) and Pd(II) (PdTPCF16) was investigated in order to eliminate C. albicans under different forms of cell cultures. A decrease in cell survival of more than 5 log was found in planktonic cells incubated with 5 μM TPCF16 or ZnTPCF16 upon 15 min of white-light irradiation. The mechanism of action mainly involved a type II pathway in the inactivation of C. albicans cells. In addition, the photodynamic action induced by these chlorins was able to suppress the growth of C. albicans in a culture medium. These photosensitizers were also effective to photoinactivate C. albicans pseudohyphae suspended in PBS. Furthermore, the biofilms of C. albicans that incorporated the chlorins during the proliferation stage were completely eradicated using 5 μM TPCF16 or ZnTPCF16 after 60 min of light irradiation. The studies indicated that these chlorins are effective photosensitizing agents to eliminate C. albicans as planktonic cells, pseudohyphae, and biofilms.
An Improvement in the Antimicrobial Resistance Patterns of Urinary Isolates in the Out-Of-Hospital Setting following Decreased Community Use of Antibiotics during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Authors: Tedeschi Sara , Sora Elena , Berlingeri Andrea , Savini Denis , Rosselli Del Turco Elena , Viale Pierluigi , Tumietto Fabio
Published: January 2023

After the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, a decrease in antibiotic consumption in the out-of-hospital setting was observed. However, data about the impact of this reduction on antimicrobial resistance are lacking. The aim of this study was to assess antibiotic consumption and antibiotic resistance at the community level in an Italian province before and after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. We carried out an observational study, comparing antibiotic consumption in the community during 2019 and 2020 and the antibiotic resistance patterns of Enterobacterales cultured from urine samples from the out-of-hospital setting during the first semester of 2020 and 2021. Overall, antibiotic consumption decreased by 28% from 2019 to 2020 (from 13.9 to 9.97 DDD/1000 inhabitants/day). The main reductions involved penicillins (ATC J01C, from 6.9 to 4.8 DDD/1000 inhabitants/day, −31%), particularly amoxicillin/clavulanate (ATC J01CR02, −30%) and amoxicillin (J01CA04, −35.2%). Overall, 6445 strains of Enterobacterales were analyzed; in 2020, the susceptibility rate of amoxicillin/clavulanate increased from 57.5% to 87% among isolates from the primary care setting (p < 0.001) and from 39% to 72% (p < 0.001) among isolates from LTCF. The reduction in the community use of antibiotics observed in 2020 was followed by a change in the antimicrobial resistance patterns of urinary isolates.
Antibiofilm and Anti-Quorum-Sensing Activities of Novel Pyrazole and Pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine Derivatives as Carbonic Anhydrase I and II Inhibitors: Design, Synthesis, Radiosterilization, and Molecular Docking Studies
Authors: Ragab Ahmed , Fouad Sawsan A. , Ammar Yousry A. , Aboul-Magd Dina S. , Abusaif Moustafa S.
Published: January 2023

Nowadays, searching for new anti-infective agents with diverse mechanisms of action has become necessary. In this study, 16 pyrazole and pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine derivatives were synthesized and assessed for their preliminary antibacterial and antibiofilm activities. All these derivatives were initially screened for their antibacterial activity against six clinically isolated multidrug resistance by agar well-diffusion and broth microdilution methods. The initial screening presented significant antibacterial activity with a bactericidal effect for five compounds, namely 3a, 5a, 6, 9a, and 10a, compared with Erythromycin and Amikacin. These five derivatives were further evaluated for their antibiofilm activity against both S. aureus and P. aeruginosa, which showed strong biofilm-forming activity at their MICs by >60%. The SEM analysis confirmed the biofilm disruption in the presence of these derivatives. Furthermore, anti-QS activity was observed for the five hybrids at their sub-MICs, as indicated by the visible halo zone. In addition, the presence of the most active derivatives reduces the violacein production by CV026, confirming that these compounds yielded anti-QS activity. Furthermore, these compounds showed strong inhibitory action against human carbonic anhydrase (hCA-I and hCA-II) isoforms with IC50 values ranging between 92.34 and 168.84 nM and between 73.2 and 161.22 nM, respectively. Finally, radiosterilization, ADMET, and a docking simulation were performed.
Innovative Tool for Automatic Detection of Arterial Stenosis on Cone Beam Computed Tomography
Authors: Simoni Agnese , Barcali Eleonora , Lorenzetto Cosimo , Tiribilli Eleonora , Rastrelli Vieri , Manetti Leonardo , Nardi Cosimo , Iadanza Ernesto , Bocchi Leonardo
Published: January 2023

Arterial stenosis is one of the main vascular diseases that are treated with minimally invasive surgery approaches. The aim of this study was to provide a tool to support the medical doctor in planning endovascular surgery, allowing the rapid detection of stenotic vessels and the quantification of the stenosis. Skeletonization was used to improve vessels’ visualization. The distance transform was used to obtain a linear representation of the diameter of critical vessels selected by the user. The system also provides an estimate of the exact distance between landmarks on the vascular tree and the occlusion, important information that can be used in the planning of the surgery. The advantage of the proposed tool is to lead the examination on the linear representation of the chosen vessels that are free from tortuous vascular courses and from vessel crossings.
The MADAG Strategy for Fault Location Techniques
Authors: Wu Shih-DA , Lo Jung-Hua
Published: January 2023

Spectrum-based fault localization (SBFL), which utilizes spectrum information of test cases to calculate the suspiciousness of each statement in a program, can reduce developers’ effort. However, applying redundant test cases from a test suite to fault localization incurs a heavy burden, especially in a restricted resource environment, and it is expensive and infeasible to inspect the results of each test input. Prioritizing/selecting appropriate test cases is important to enable the practical application of the SBFL technique. In addition, we must ensure that applying the selected tests to SBFL can achieve approximately the effectiveness of fault localization with whole tests. This paper presents a test case prioritization/selection strategy, namely the Minimal Aggregate of the Diversity of All Groups (MADAG). The MADAG strategy prioritizes/selects test cases using information on the diversity of the execution trace of each test case. We implemented and applied the MADAG strategy to 233 faulty versions of the Siemens and UNIX programs from the Software-artifact Infrastructure Repository. The experiments show that (1) the MADAG strategy uses only 8.99 and 14.27 test cases, with an average of 18, from the Siemens and UNIX test suites, respectively, and the SBFL technique has approximate effectiveness for fault localization on all test cases and outperforms the previous best test case prioritization method; (2) we verify that applying whole tests from the test suite may not achieve the better effectiveness in fault localization compared with the tests selected by MADAG strategy.
The Influence of Rotor Overlapping Azimuth on Compound Coaxial Helicopter Performance Based on Unsteady CFD Simulation
Authors: Li Liang , Zhou Chenglong , Chen Ming , Wang Fang , Xu Anan
Published: January 2023

In this paper, a computational fluid dynamics simulation method is developed to study the influence of the rotor overlapping azimuth on the aerodynamic performance of compound coaxial helicopter. The simulation method is verified by comparing the numerical simulation results with the wind tunnel experiment data of the NASA coaxial rotor. Two overlapping azimuths of the upper and lower blades are considered, and the aerodynamic performance of the isolated rotor and the compound coaxial helicopter in hover and forward are analyzed respectively. State 1 means the upper and lower blades overlap at azimuth 0/180° or 90/270°, state 2 means the upper and lower blades overlap at azimuth 45/225° or 135/315°. It is found that the performance of isolated rotors is not affected by rotor overlapping azimuth in hover, but the total thrust fluctuation amplitude of isolated rotors in state 2 is 76.3% smaller than that in state 1 in forward. In the hovering flight of compound coaxial helicopter, compared with state 1, the fluctuation amplitude of the lift of the wing in state 2 is 42.7% smaller; the lift fluctuation amplitude of the flat tail in state 2 is 52.4% smaller. In the forward flight of compound coaxial helicopter, compared with state 1, the total thrust fluctuation amplitude in state 2 is 83.5% smaller; the fluctuation amplitude of the lift of the wing in state 2 is 61.2% smaller. It can be concluded that the compound coaxial helicopter working in state 2 has better aerodynamic performance than the compound coaxial helicopter working in state 1; changing the rotor overlapping azimuth of the upper and lower rotors has a high engineering application value, which can increase aerodynamic stability and reduce lift fluctuations.
Robot Formation Performing a Collaborative Load Transport and Delivery Task by Using Lifting Electromagnets
Authors: Barcelos Celso Oliveira , Fagundes-Júnior Leonardo Alves , Villa Daniel Khéde Dourado , Sarcinelli-Filho Mário , Silvatti Amanda Piaia , Gandolfo Daniel Ceferino , Brandão Alexandre Santos
Published: January 2023

This paper presents a practical validation of a heterogeneous formation of mobile robots in performing a load lifting, transportation, and delivery task. Assuming that an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) is unable to perform a mission by itself due to the presence of an obstacle in the navigation route, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is then assigned to lift the cargo over this UGV, transport the obstacle, and deliver over another UGV. The UAV uses an electromagnetic actuator supported by a cable to pick up the load, the mass of which is 32% of that of the UAV. Experimental results demonstrate that the developed system is capable of performing cargo transport missions and can be scalable for applications such as package delivery in urban or remote areas and supply delivery in conflict or disaster zones.
Behavior of Confined Headed Bar Connection for Precast Reinforced Concrete Member Assembly
Authors: Liang Zihao , Gong Chao , Liang Weiqiao , Zhang Sumei , Li Xiaozhong
Published: January 2023

The mechanical performance of precast RC structures relies on the connections, especially the connections of steel bars, between precast RC members. Grouted sleeve splices and grouted spiral-confined overlap connections are widely used in engineering practice in China. Both of these two connection splices require on-site grouting. The process is concealed and invisible, leading to difficult on-site inspection. The unseen defects cause a challenge for detection and repair, which may impair the reliability of precast RC members’ behavior. This paper presents an RC member assembly connection with visible on-site construction quality-monitoring. The proposed confined headed-bar connection (CHBC) consists of two overlapping headed bars and confinement stirrup. With CHBC, the potential construction defects are diminished, and subsequently the construction quality as well as the reliability is upgraded. Experimental investigation on 18 CHBC specimens was carried out; the main parameters considered were overlap length and bar-head size. The failure modes, bearing capacity, stirrup strain development and bond versus slip response are studied. Working mechanism of CHBC is investigated in terms of bond behavior force and concrete compression force at head experimentally and numerically; distributive relationship of these two forces is revealed. The results show that for Φ12 reinforcement, a 90 mm overlap length under test parameters is adequate to reach headed bar ultimate strength in CHBC. Finally, a CHBC-bearing capacity prediction method is suggested based on the superposition method and strut-and-tie model theory.
Adaptive Fault-Tolerant Control of Hypersonic Vehicles with Unknown Model Inertia Matrix and System Induced by Centroid Shift
Authors: Ye Hui , Meng Yizhen
Published: January 2023

In this paper, the fault-tolerant control problem of hypersonic vehicle (HSV) in the presence of unexpected centroid migration, actuator failure and external interference is studied in depth. First, the proposed dynamics for HSV with the aforementioned unexpected factors are modeled to demonstrate the peculiar nature of the subject under study. The adverse effects of accidental centroid migration are mainly reflected in the following aspects: (1) the change of inertia matrix of the system, (2) the uncertainty of the system and (3) the eccentric moment, which are coupled and unknown. Subsequently, to account for the effect of unexpected centroid shifts, a sliding-mode observer and an adaptive estimator are designed to obtain unknowns useful for subsequent FTC controller designs. Later, we derived an innovative adaptive FTC scheme by employing the observer in conjunction with a specific adaptive controller consisting of a sixth-order dynamic compensator, which can guarantee the achievement of the control objective without resorting to the exact knowledge of the inertial matrix. Moreover, the analysis of boundedness with respect to the entire signal in this closed system is performed by means of the Lyapunov stability theory. Ultimately, simulation results show that the proposed FTC strategy is efficient and powerful.
An Enhanced and Secure Trust-Aware Improved GSO for Encrypted Data Sharing in the Internet of Things
Authors: Selvaraj Prabha , Burugari Vijay Kumar , Gopikrishnan S. , Alourani  Abdullah , Srivastava Gautam , Baza Mohamed
Published: January 2023

Wireless sensors and actuator networks (WSNs) are the physical layer implementation used for many smart applications in this decade in the form of the Internet of Things (IoT) and cyber-physical systems (CPS). Even though many research concerns in WSNs have been answered, the evolution of the WSN into an IoT network has exposed it to many new technical issues, including data security, multi-sensory multi-communication capabilities, energy utilization, and the age of information. Cluster-based data collecting in the Internet of Things has the potential to address concerns with data freshness and energy efficiency. However, it may not offer reliable network data security. This research presents an improved method for data sharing and cluster head (CH) selection using the hybrid Vlsekriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method in conjunction with glowworm swarm optimization (GSO) strategies based on the energy, trust value, bandwidth, and memory to address this security-enabled, cluster-based data aggregation in the IoT. Next, we aggregate the data after the cluster has been built using a genetic algorithm (GA). After aggregation, the data are encrypted and delivered securely using the TIGSO-EDS architecture. Cuckoo search is used to analyze the data and choose the best route for sending them. The proposed model’s analysis of the results is analyzed, and its uniqueness has been demonstrated via comparison with existing models. TIGSO-EDS reduces energy consumption each round by 12.71–19.96% and increases the percentage of successfully delivered data packets from 2.50% to 5.66%.
Joint Extraction of Entities and Relations via Entity and Relation Heterogeneous Graph Attention Networks
Authors: Jiang Bo , Cao Jia
Published: January 2023

Entity and relation extraction (ERE) is a core task in information extraction. This task has always faced the overlap problem. It was found that heterogeneous graph attention networks could enhance semantic analysis and fusion between entities and relations to improve the ERE performance in our previous work. In this paper, an entity and relation heterogeneous graph attention network (ERHGA) is proposed for joint ERE. A heterogeneous graph attention network with a gate mechanism was constructed containing word nodes, subject nodes, and relation nodes to learn and enhance the embedding of parts for relational triple extraction. The ERHGA was evaluated on the public relation extraction dataset named WebNLG. The experimental results demonstrate that the ERHGA, by taking subjects and relations as a priori information, can effectively handle the relational triple extraction problem and outperform all baselines to 93.3%, especially overlapping relational triples.
Heat Transfer Characteristics of Modular Heat Storage Wall Solar Greenhouse Based on Active Heat Storage System
Authors: Wu Delin , Cui Bowen , Zhang Yao , Wu Xue , Zou Zhirong , Bao Encai
Published: January 2023

The modular heat storage wall is a new type of solar greenhouse wall structure, which has the advantages of fast construction and good heat storage ability. This study provides data reference and practical value for producing modular heat storage wall in the construction of a solar greenhouse. In this paper, we used different heat storage materials to construct the modular wall. In the winter thermal environment test, soil module solar greenhouse (SG) and stone module solar greenhouse (PG) were controlled against each other in two greenhouses. The test results for 28 consecutive days (31 January 2021 9:00 to 28 February 2021 9:00) showed that both greenhouses could effectively increase the temperature in greenhouse by 10–12 °C. The average temperature of SG was 0.86 °C lower than that of PG during the daytime (09:00–17:00) and 0.44 °C higher than that of PG during the nighttime (17:00–09:00). Under typical sunny conditions, the average temperature differences between the inlet and outlet of SG in the heat storage and exothermic stage was less than that of PG, and the relative humidity difference was greater than that of PG. This indicated that SG had a better performance of heat preservation than PG and could raise the nighttime temperature rapidly. Under the condition of a typical cloudy day, the average temperature difference between the inlet and outlet was SG < PG and the relative humidity difference was SG > PG in the exothermic stage, which was consistent with the conclusion of sunny days. In the storage and exothermic stages of typical sunny days and cloudy days, the total heat exchange of SG was 464.87, 110.44 and 54.82 MJ and the total heat exchange of PG was 264.16, 61.60 and 46.89 MJ, respectively. Moreover, the heat storage and release of SG were more than that of PG in all stages. In summary, the thermal performance of the modular heat storage wall heliogreenhouse could meet the growth of tomato crop, in which the heat transfer performance of SG was optimum.
Attention-Based Active Learning Framework for Segmentation of Breast Cancer in Mammograms
Authors: Fu Xianjun , Cao Hao , Hu Hexuan , Lian Bobo , Wang Yansong , Huang Qian , Wu Yirui
Published: January 2023

Breast cancer is one of most serious malignant tumors that affect women’s health. To carry out the early screening of breast cancer, mammography provides breast cancer images for doctors’ efficient diagnosis. However, breast cancer lumps can vary in size and shape, bringing difficulties for the accurate recognition of both humans and machines. Moreover, the annotation of such images requires expert medical knowledge, which increases the cost of collecting datasets to boost the performance of deep learning methods. To alleviate these problems, we propose an attention-based active learning framework for breast cancer segmentation in mammograms; the framework consists of a basic breast cancer segmentation model, an attention-based sampling scheme and an active learning strategy for labelling. The basic segmentation model performs multi-scale feature fusion and enhancement on the basis of UNet, thus improving the distinguishing representation capability of the extracted features for further segmentation. Afterwards, the proposed attention-based sampling scheme assigns different weights for unlabeled breast cancer images by evaluating their uncertainty with the basic segmentation model. Finally, the active learning strategy selects unlabeled images with the highest weights for manual labeling, thus boosting the performance of the basic segmentation model via retraining with new labeled samples. Testing on four datasets, experimental results show that the proposed framework could greatly improve segmentation accuracy by about 15% compared with an existing method, while largely decreasing the cost of data annotation.
CPM-GFDM: A Novel Combination of Continuous Phase Modulation and Generalized Frequency Division Multiplexing for Wireless Communication
Authors: Tasadduq Imran A.
Published: January 2023

In this paper, continuous phase modulation-generalized frequency division multiplexing (CPM-GFDM) is proposed. The performance of CPM-GFDM is evaluated over Gaussian and frequency selective fading channels. In the proposed technique, the mapper in the transmitter and the de-mapper in the receiver of traditional GFDM are replaced by a CPM mapper and de-mapper, respectively. Using Monte-Carlo simulations, the bit error rate performance is evaluated for several rational values of the modulation index. We establish the superiority of CPM-GFDM over traditional GFDM using error performance plots through extensive simulations. We demonstrate that there are several values of the modulation index that give a performance superior to the conventional GFDM, with h=12,310,516,716 giving the best performance for additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels, while for the frequency-selective channels the best performance is observed when h=310,516,716.
Targeting Lane-Level Map Matching for Smart Vehicles: Construction of High-Definition Road Maps Based on GIS
Authors: Lei Tian , Xiao Gaoyao , Yin Xiaohong
Published: January 2023

The development of smart vehicles has increased the demand for high-definition road maps. However, traditional road maps for vehicle navigation systems are not sufficient to meet the requirements of intelligent vehicle systems (e.g., autonomous driving). The present work comes up with a method of generating high-definition map models based on the geographic information system (GIS). A systematic map construction framework including the road layer, intersection connection layer, and lane layer is proposed based on the GIS database. Specifically, the constrained Delaunay triangular network method is applied to extract road layer network models, which are then used as linear reference networks to construct lane-level road maps. To further examine the feasibility of the proposed framework, a field experiment is then conducted to build a high-definition road map. Furthermore, a lane-level map matching test is conducted in the constructed road map using the trajectory data collected from a probe vehicle. The results show that the proposed method provides an efficient way of extracting lane-level information from urban road networks and can be applied for lane-level map matching with good performance.
Straight-Line Path Tracking Control of Agricultural Tractor-Trailer Based on Fuzzy Sliding Mode Control
Authors: Huang Wenyue , Ji Xin , Wang Anzhe , Wang Yefei , Wei Xinhua
Published: January 2023

In order to solve the labor shortage problem, unmanned agricultural vehicles have been widely promoted in China. Among these vehicles, unmanned tractor-trailers have garnered the most interest thanks to their flexibility and efficiency. However, trapped by the factors of vehicle parameter uncertainties, unstructured farmland roads, etc., the current unmanned tractor-trailers have shown poor tracking accuracy and longer online times in straight-line path tracking. To overcome the aforementioned issues, a fuzzy sliding mode control (FSMC) approach is proposed in this paper. First, the tractor-trailer path tracking error model was established based on the kinematic model and a reference model. Then, according to the sliding mode control (SMC) theory, the FSMC was designed. Through a Lyapunov theory analysis, the proposed control method can ensure that the articulated angle, the position error, and the heading error all converge to zero. Finally, field tests and Simulink simulations demonstrated the effectiveness and robustness of the suggested control mechanism. According to field experiments, the proposed control method can increase the trailer steady-state tracking accuracy by between 10.5 and 36.8% and the tractor steady-state tracking accuracy by between 11.1 and 50%.
Implementation of Biomimicry for Detecting Composite Structure Damage Using Impedance-Based Non-Destructive Testing Method
Authors: Kim Yi-Seul , Na Wongi S.
Published: January 2023

Up to date, biomimicry has aided in designing novel ideas and solving various problems in the field of civil engineering. For example, the concept of a load carrying process from a tree can be used to design an effective bridge. Inspired by nature, the authors have adopted the concept of how spiders use vibrations to monitor the state of the web and the presence of prey. A nondestructive testing method known as the electromechanical impedance technique has been proven to be effective when detecting local damage. However, the aforementioned technique uses a high frequency which results in a limited sensing range. Thus, to overcome this problem, an idea using the piezoelectric transducer combined with wires was introduced and tested against composite plates subjected to debonding damage. From the experiment results, the concept introduced from this research shows that biomimicry can increase the sensing range for electromechanical impedance technique which may allow one to create a monitoring system with minimal cost.
Study on Dynamic Characteristics of the Bistable Nonlinear Damper
Authors: Liu Yunan , Li Xianhui , Yang Min , Zhao Junjuan , Wang Wenjiang
Published: January 2023

A conventional dynamic vibration absorber based on resonance effect can hardly satisfy the requirement for low-frequency and broadband vibration control in actual engineering. Combined with passive and nonlinear vibration absorption strategy, this study employed nonlinear characteristics of the magnetic force, bistable structure to establish the dynamic model of the main system with a bistable vibration absorber. The nonlinear motion states of the structure under different excitation conditions were analyzed to explore the inherent relation between the chaotic and large amplitude motion and the vibration absorber’s operating performance. The effect laws of the structural parameters on the dynamic characteristics of the nonlinear vibration absorber and the main system were developed to obtain the optimal parameter settings in the case of resonance and off-resonance of the main system. These results provide an insightful theoretical foundation for the optimal design of the nonlinear vibration absorber.
Special Issue on Novel Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and Health
Authors: Pereira Tania , Cunha António , Oliveira Hélder P.
Published: January 2023

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the big hopes for the future of a positive revolution in the use of medical data to improve clinical routine and personalized medicine [...]
Magnetic Vortex Phase Diagram for a Non-Optimized CaKFe4As4 Superconductor Presenting a Wide Vortex Liquid Region and an Ultra-High Upper Critical Field
Authors: Galluzzi Armando , Leo Antonio , Masi Andrea , Varsano Francesca , Nigro Angela , Grimaldi Gaia , Polichetti Massimiliano
Published: January 2023

To draw a complete vortex phase diagram for a CaKFe4As4 polycrystalline iron-based superconductor, different kinds of magnetic measurements have been performed focusing on the critical parameters of the sample. Firstly, magnetic moment versus field measurements m(H) were performed at low fields in order to evaluate the lower critical field Hc1. After that, by performing relaxation measurements m(t), a field crossover Hcross was detected in the framework of a strong pinning regime. The irreversibility field Hirr as a function of the temperature curve was then drawn by plotting the critical current densities Jc versus the field for temperatures near Tc. Jc(H) has demonstrated a second magnetization peak effect phenomenon, and the second peak field Hsp has been identified and plotted as a function of temperature, providing information about an elastic to plastic transition in the vortex lattice. Finally, the upper critical field Hc2 as a function of the temperature has been obtained. Hc1, Hcross, Hsp, Hirr, Hc2 have been fitted and used for drawing the complete vortex phase diagram of the sample. It can be helpful for the understanding of the applicative ranges in the field and temperature of the materials with not-optimized fabrication characteristics, as usually is found in superconducting wires and cables for power applications.
Effects of Xanthan Gum Biopolymer on Soil Mechanical Properties
Authors: Bagheri Pouyan , Gratchev Ivan , Rybachuk Maksym
Published: January 2023

The necessary application of sustainable engineering methodologies has been increasing as the number of environmental hazards caused by global warming is on the rise. Cement as a traditional common additive for soil improvement has several negative impacts on the environment. This led to an urge for alternative sustainable solutions. The use of biopolymers as environmentally friendly materials is one of the potential options. This study aims to investigate the effect of xanthan gum biopolymer as a sustainable solution for soil properties enhancement. The Atterberg limits, unconfined compression, CU and UU triaxial tests were performed to examine the effect of xanthan gum on the soil strength and plasticity. Additionally, the durability of biopolymer-treated and untreated soils under wetting and drying cycles and moisture susceptibility were assessed. The results showed that the compressive strength of soil increased by increasing the xanthan gum concentration and curing time and reached its peak value after a specific curing time. The addition of xanthan gum resulted in significant improvement in soil cohesion and caused a reduction in the internal friction angle of the soil. While increasing the number of wetting/drying cycles decreased the soil strength, the biopolymer-treated soil exhibited higher soil strength than the untreated soil. This study provides valuable experiences in the use of xanthan gum biopolymer in practical engineering applications.
A Convolutional Neural Network-Based Broad Incremental Learning Filter for Attenuating Physiological Tremors in Telerobot Systems
Authors: Lai Guanyu , Liu Weizhen , Yang Weijun , Zhang Yun
Published: January 2023

While master-slave teleoperated robotic systems have extensive applications in practice, the physiological tremors can easily affect the control accuracy and even destroy the stability of the closed-loop control systems during operation. Hence, the development of some effective approaches for counteracting physiological tremors is of both theoretical and practical importance. In this paper, a broad learning network-based filter integrating a deep learning network and modified incremental learning algorithms is proposed to reconstruct and compensate for tremor signals. To strengthen the recognition of correlations between different moments, the lateral connectivity structure is adopted to obtain multi-scale feature maps. Each feature window is obtained from multi-scale feature maps generated by the convolutional neural network, which has an advantage that makes the feature nodes fuse the feature information of long time series and short time series by the lateral connection. The broad learning network is a unique construction, which only needs to obtain the input and the output to conveniently calculate the connection weights by the pseudo-inverse without involving backpropagation. It is known that the relation between the data X and the label Y can be represented as XW=Y, and the solution W can be obtained by the pseudo-inverse W=X+Y. In addition, to guarantee the ill-posed problem, a ridge regression algorithm is used for the pseudo-inverse calculation. The effectiveness of our raised network architecture is illustrated by comparative simulation and experiment results.
Oscillating Laser-Arc Hybrid Additive Manufacturing of AZ31 Magnesium Alloy
Authors: Gao Ming , Cen Ling , Jiang Laihege , Zhao Suning , Gong Mengcheng
Published: January 2023

To overcome the instability of the traditional magnesium alloy additive process, the research on oscillating laser-arc hybrid additive manufacturing (O-LHAM) for AZ31 Mg alloy was developed first, and it focused on the effect of beam oscillation on process characteristics, such as macroscopic morphology, porosity defects, microstructure, and mechanical properties of thin-walled components. The increasing oscillation frequency was effective in suppressing the defects, including lack of fusion, wavy hump, internal porosity, etc. Compared with the case without oscillation, the average grain size of O-LHAM samples was refined from 22–32 μm to 18–20 μm at 300 Hz, while the percentage of Al8Mn5 and Mg17Al12 precipitation increased from 1.42–1.61% to 2.55–3.32%. For this reason, a stirring laminar flow was induced using the oscillating laser in the melt pool, with the ability to disrupt the grain structure and provide more nucleation sites, which is beneficial in reducing the average grain size and promoting the precipitation of the precipitated phase. Meanwhile, for the component without pores, the ultimate tensile strength is 205 MPa, slightly less than the base, but the elongation is 20.7%, twice that of the base. The tensile fracture is characterized by a large number of dimples and some ductile tearing ridges, demonstrating good ductility, which is associated with the grain refinement and precipitation strengthening induced using the oscillating laser. The results indicated that O-LHAM would be an effective method for manufacturing Mg alloy fast and well.
Decision-Making Based on Multi-Dimensional Quality Control for Bridges
Authors: Lajevardi Seyed Mohammad Sadegh , Lourenço Paulo B. , Sousa Hélder S. , Matos José C.
Published: January 2023

Quality control (QC) may be applied as a framework for maintenance planning when assigning different intervention measures to single structural elements or systems. This work proposes a reliability-based maintenance decision-making process for planning visual inspections on bridges based on the value of information and prior inspection data, and also promotes updating and improvement cycles for subsequent planning. To that aim, an integration between SHM (Structural Health Monitoring) data with a multidisciplinary approach is proposed to obtain a reliability index attending to QC. The data analysis was mainly carried out with respect to an existing measurement database and structural assessments, which were combined to obtain weighted importance coefficients for each component according to their significance in the structure. The Iranian railway network has a built stock of nearly 28,200 bridges from which a database obtained from 104 bridges was studied in this work, considering the data obtained from technical identification checklists. The results were then calibrated and validated with a dataset of seven bridges, which were inspected onsite. The inspection comprised the identification and grading of damages and defects on each element. Observed defects were considered as input for the risk analysis of each component of the network by considering the probability of detection, occurrence and its likely consequences. Decision making with inspection and intervention costs optimization was then performed, for a specific case study, using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) together with the value of information (VOI) for data filtering. With this approach, several parameters with lower values reduced from inspection and other valuable data remain for bridge quality assessment with optimum maintenance cost.