bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Statistical Pass-By for Unattended Road Traffic Noise Measurement in an Urban Environment
Authors: Ascari Elena , Cerchiai Mauro , Fredianelli Luca , Licitra Gaetano
Published: November 2022

Low-noise surfaces have become a common mitigation action in the last decade, so much so that different methods for feature extraction have been established to evaluate their efficacy. Among these, the Close Proximity Index (CPX) evaluates the noise emissions by means of multiple runs at different speeds performed with a vehicle equipped with a reference tire and with acoustic sensors close to the wheel. However, signals acquired with CPX make it source oriented, and the analysis does not consider the real traffic flow of the studied site for a receiver-oriented approach. These aspects are remedied by Statistical Pass-By (SPB), a method based on sensor feature extraction with live detection of events; noise and speed acquisitions are performed at the roadside in real case scenarios. Unfortunately, the specific SPB requirements for its measurement setup do not allow an evaluation in urban context unless a special setup is used, but this may alter the acoustical context in which the measurement was performed. The present paper illustrates the testing and validation of a method named Urban Pass-By (U-SPB), developed during the LIFE NEREiDE project. U-SPB originates from standard SPB, exploits unattended measurements and develops an in-lab feature detection and extraction procedure. The U-SPB extends the evaluation in terms of before/after data comparison of the efficiency of low-noise laying in an urban context while combining the estimation of long-term noise levels and traffic parameters for other environmental noise purposes, such as noise mapping and action planning.
Lava Mapping Using Sentinel-1 Data after the Occurrence of a Volcanic Eruption—The Case of Cumbre Vieja Eruption on La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain
Authors: Kyriou Aggeliki , Nikolakopoulos Konstantinos G.
Published: November 2022

Volcanic eruptions pose a great threat to humans. In this context, volcanic hazard and risk assessment constitute crucial issues with respect to mitigating the effects of volcanic activity and ensuring the health and safety of inhabitants. Lava flows directly affect communities living near active volcanoes. Nowadays, remote sensing advances make it possible to effectively monitor eruptive activity, providing immediate and accurate information concerning lava evolution. The current research focuses on the mapping of the surface deformation and the analysis of lava flow evolution occurred on the island of La Palma, during the recent (2021) eruptive phase of the volcano. Sentinel-1 data covering the island were collected throughout the entire eruptive period, i.e., September 2021 until January 2022. The processing was based on amplitude-based and phase-based detection methods, i.e., Synthetic Aperture Radar interferometry (InSAR) and offset tracking. In particular, ground deformation occurred on the island, while Line-Of-Sight (LOS) displacements were derived from Sentinel-1 interferograms. Moreover, the evolution of lava flow velocity was estimated using Sentinel-1 imagery along with offset tracking technique. The maximum lava flow velocity was calculated to be 2 m/day. It was proved that both approaches can provide rapid and useful information in emergencies, especially in inaccessible areas. Although offset tracking seems a quite promising technique for the mapping of lava flows, it still requires improvement.
Application of Patient Reported Outcome Measures in Cochlear Implant Patients: Implications for the Design of Specific Rehabilitation Programs
Authors: Frosolini Andrea , Badin Giulio , Sorrentino Flavia , Brotto Davide , Pessot Nicholas , Fantin Francesco , Ceschin Federica , Lovato Andrea , Coppola Nicola , Mancuso Antonio , Vedovelli Luca , Marioni Gino , de Filippis Cosimo
Published: November 2022

Introduction: Cochlear implants (CI) have been developed to enable satisfying verbal communication, while music perception has remained in the background in both the research and technological development, thus making CI users dissatisfied by the experience of listening to music. Indications for clinicians to test and train music abilities are at a preliminary stage compared to the existing and well-established hearing and speech rehabilitation programs. The main aim of the present study was to test the utility of the application of two different patient reporting outcome (PRO) measures in a group of CI users. A secondary objective was to identify items capable of driving the indication and design specific music rehabilitation programs for CI patients. Materials and Methods: A consecutive series of 73 CI patients referred to the Audiology Unit, University of Padova, was enrolled from November 2021 to May 2022 and evaluated with the audiological battery test and PRO measures: Musica e Qualità della Vita (MUSQUAV) and Nijmegen Cochlear Implant Questionnaire (NCIQ) Italian version. Results: The reliability analysis showed good consistency between the different PRO measures (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.873). After accounting for the epidemiological and clinical variables, the PRO measures showed a correlation with audiological outcomes in only one case (rho = −0.304; adj. p = 0.039) for NCIQ-T with the CI-pure tone average. A willingness for musical rehabilitation was present in 63% of patients (Rehab Factor, mean value of 0.791 ± 0.675). Conclusions: We support the role of the application of MUSQUAV and NCIQ to improve the clinical and audiological evaluation of CI patients. Moreover, we proposed a derivative item, called the rehab factor, which could be used in clinical practice and future studies to clarify the indication and priority of specific music rehabilitation programs.
Parkinson’s Disease Wearable Gait Analysis: Kinematic and Dynamic Markers for Diagnosis
Authors: di Biase Lazzaro , Raiano Luigi , Caminiti Maria Letizia , Pecoraro Pasquale Maria , Di Lazzaro Vincenzo
Published: November 2022

Introduction: Gait features differ between Parkinson’s disease (PD) and healthy subjects (HS). Kinematic alterations of gait include reduced gait speed, swing time, and stride length between PD patients and HS. Stride time and swing time variability are increased in PD patients with respect to HS. Additionally, dynamic parameters of asymmetry of gait are significantly different among the two groups. The aim of the present study is to evaluate which kind of gait analysis (dynamic or kinematic) is more informative to discriminate PD and HS gait features. Methods: In the present study, we analyzed gait dynamic and kinematic features of 108 PD patients and 88 HS from four cohorts of two datasets. Results: Kinematic features showed statistically significant differences among PD patients and HS for gait speed and time Up and Go test and for selected kinematic dispersion indices (standard deviation and interquartile range of swing, stance, and double support time). Dynamic features did not show any statistically significant difference between PD patients and HS. Discussion: Despite kinematics features like acceleration being directly proportional to dynamic features like ground reaction force, the results of this study showed the so-called force/rhythm dichotomy since kinematic features were more informative than dynamic ones.
Sensing Trace-Level Metal Elements in Water Using Chirped Femtosecond Laser Pulses in the Filamentation Regime
Authors: Chen Shanming , Cong Xun , Chen Junyan , Zang Hongwei , Li Helong , Xu Huailiang
Published: November 2022

Femtosecond filament-induced breakdown spectroscopy (FIBS) is an efficient approach in remote and in situ detection of a variety of trace elements, but it was recently discovered that the FIBS of water is strongly dependent on the large-bandgap semiconductor property of water, making the FIBS signals sensitive to laser ionization mechanisms. Here, we show that the sensitivity of the FIBS technique in monitoring metal elements in water can be efficiently improved by using chirped femtosecond laser pulses, but an asymmetric enhancement of the FIBS intensity is observed for the negatively and positively chirped pulses. We attribute the asymmetric enhancement to their different ionization rates of water, in which the energy of the photons participating in the ionization process in the front part of the negatively chirped pulse is higher than that in the positively chirped pulse. By optimizing the pulse chirp, we show that the limit of detection of the FIBS technique for metal elements in water, e.g., aluminum, can reach to the sub-ppm level, which is about one order of magnitude better than that by the transform-limited pulse. We further examine the FIBS spectra of several representative water samples including commercial mineral water, tap water, and lake water taken from two different environmental zones, i.e., a national park and a downtown business district (Changchun, China), from which remarkably different concentrations of Ca, Na, and K elements of these samples are obtained. Our results provide a possibility of using FIBS for direct and fast metal elemental analysis of water in different field environments.
Who Is Willing to Participate in Local Governance? Modernization of Shared Governance in China
Authors: Nan Rui , Yang Yongjiao
Published: November 2022

Citizens’ willingness to participate serves as the endogenous driver of shared governance. During governance modernization in China, shared governance was extensively promoted through various policy agendas. However, few studies have revealed citizens’ attitude toward shared governance in China, which leads to a question: Who is willing to participate in local governance? Based on a large-scale survey in China, this study revealed a high proportion of respondents willing to participate in local governance with certain regional differences, and the willingness was significantly affected by respondents’ age, educational level, CPC membership, and income level. The findings help to identify and incentivize those unwilling to participate in local governance. This study has important implications for the modernization of shared governance both nationally and internationally, and helps enrich the experiences of democratic sustainability beyond the Western context.
Sustainable Fashion and Textile Recycling
Authors: de la Motte Hanna , Ostlund Asa
Published: November 2022

The clothing and textile industry is a resource-intensive industry, and accounts for 3 to 10 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions [...]
Impacts of Climate and Land-Use Changes on Hydrological Processes of the Source Region of Yellow River, China
Authors: Iqbal Mudassar , Wen Jun , Masood Muhammad , Masood Muhammad Umer , Adnan Muhammad
Published: November 2022

Climate variability and land-use change are key factors altering the hydrology of a river basin, which are strongly linked to the availability of water resources and the sustainability of the local ecosystem. This study investigated the combined and individual impacts of land-use changes (LUCs) and climate change (CC) on the hydrological processes in subbasins of the Source Region of the Yellow River (SRYR) through statistical methods and hydrological modeling based on two land-use maps for the period 1990 and 2010, and two climate periods, i.e., 1976–1995 and 1996–2014. The results revealed that the climate is anticipated to be warmer and wetter. Land-use changes were dominated by decreases in sparse grassland. However, the transformation of land-use changes varied spatially within sub-basins. The combined impacts of climate and land-use changes are more noticeable in the Maqu subbasin, where the decrease in runoff reached 18% (32.2 mm) and increase in evapotranspiration (ET) reached 10.4% (34.1 mm), followed by the Tangnaihai and Jimai subbasins. The changes in runoff and ET caused by LUC seemed to be adequate by comparison, and presented a 15.1–19.8% decline in runoff and 21.3–28% increase in ET relative to the totals. Overall, climate change has more influence on hydrological processes in all subbasins of the SRYR than LUC. It is, therefore, considered that the response to changes in hydrological processes in a subbasin can be attributed to changes in individual climate parameters and land-use classes.
Bi-Objective Optimization Problems—A Game Theory Perspective to Improve Process and Product
Authors: Costa Nuno , Lourenço João
Published: November 2022

Cost-effective manufacturing processes or products are no longer the only requirements for business sustainability. An approach based on Game Theory is suggested to find solutions for bi-objective problems. In particular, Stackelberg’s technique is employed and complemented with the Factors Scaling tool to help the users in defining its strategy for optimizing process and product quality characteristics. No subjective information (shape factors, weights, and/or any other preference information) is required from the users, and basic computational background is enough for implementing it. Two case studies provide evidence that the suggested easy-to-use approach can yield nondominated solutions from a small number of Leader–Follower cycles, what reinforces its usefulness for bi-objective optimization problems.
Adaptive PI Control Strategy for Optimal Microgrid Autonomous Operation
Authors: Hussien Ahmed M. , Kim Jonghoon , Alkuhayli Abdulaziz , Alharbi Mohammed , Hasanien Hany M. , Tostado-Véliz Marcos , Turky Rania A. , Jurado Francisco
Published: November 2022

The present research produces a new technique for the optimum operation of an isolated microgrid (MGD) based on an enhanced block-sparse adaptive Bayesian algorithm (EBSABA). To update the proportional-integral (PI) controller gains online, the suggested approach considers the impact of the actuating error signal as well as its magnitude. To reach a compromise result between the various purposes, the Response Surface Methodology (RSMT) is combined with the sunflower optimization (SFO) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms. To demonstrate the success of the novel approach, a benchmark MGD is evaluated in three different Incidents: (1) removing the MGD from the utility (islanding mode); (2) load variations under islanding mode; and (3) a three-phase fault under islanding mode. Extensive simulations are run to test the new technique using the PSCAD/EMTDC program. The validity of the proposed optimizer is demonstrated by comparing its results with those obtained using the least mean and square root of exponential method (LMSRE) based adaptive control, SFO, and PSO methodologies. The study demonstrates the superiority of the proposed EBSABA over the LMSRE, SFO, and PSO approaches in the system’s transient reactions.
Impact of High Resolution Radar-Obtained Weather Data on Spatio-Temporal Prediction of Freeway Speed
Authors: Attallah Mustafa , Kianfar Jalil , Wang Yadong
Published: November 2022

Inclement weather and environmental factors impact traffic operations resulting in travel delays and a reduction in travel time reliability. Precipitation is an example of an environmental factor that affects travel conditions, including traffic speed. While Intelligent Transportation Systems services aim to proactively mitigate congestion on roadways, these services are often not sensitive to weather conditions. This paper investigates the application of high-resolution weather data in improving the performance of proactive transportation management models and proposes short-term speed prediction models that fuse real-time high-resolution weather surveillance radar data with traffic stream data to conduct spatial and temporal prediction of the speed of roadway segments. Extreme gradient boosting weather-aware speed prediction models were developed for a 7-km segment of Interstate 270 in St. Louis, MO, USA. The performance of the weather-aware models was compared with the performance of weather-insensitive speed prediction models that did not take precipitation into account. The results indicated that in the majority of instances, the weather-aware models outperformed the weather-insensitive models. The extreme gradient boosting models were compared with the K-nearest neighbors algorithm and feed-forward neural network models. The extreme gradient boosting model consistently outperformed the other two methods. In addition to speed prediction models, van Aerde speed-flow traffic stream models were developed for rain and no-rain conditions to study the impact of precipitation on the traffic stream across the corridor. Results indicated that the impact of precipitation is not identical across the corridor, which was mirrored in the results obtained from weather-aware speed prediction models.
Supply Chain Quality Decisions with Reference Effect under Supplier Competition Environment
Authors: Li Yiling , Lin Xiaowei , Zhou Xideng , Jiang Minglin
Published: November 2022

Nowadays, in such a competitive business environment, under the pursuit of high quality and high standards, every enterprise has clearly realized that the quality of products is directly related to the interests of the enterprise, the development of the enterprise, and the survival of the enterprise. The idea that quality is life has long been deeply rooted in every enterprise. Based on the aforementioned reality, this paper first constructs a demand function affected by product quality, service quality, reference effect and quality competition, and studies the optimal product quality and service quality under centralized decision-making and decentralized decision-making. By comparing the decision values and profit difference between centralized decision making and decentralized decision making, a bilateral cost sharing contract is proposed, and its application scope is discussed. The major findings entail that the centralized decision-making mode of supply chain will be more conducive to improving service quality. However, it is not necessarily conducive to improving product quality, which depends on the marginal profits of competitors, since supply chain decision-makers are more willing to invest resources in products with high marginal profits, thereby improving product quality. The increase of reference effect is conducive to improving the quality of products and services, but it may also lead to higher production costs in the case of centralized decision-making. Therefore, when the reference effect is high, supply chain enterprises should adopt decentralized decision-making mode. Excessive competition is not conducive to improving the profits and increases internal friction among enterprises. Therefore, when the competition is fierce, enterprise alliance is a better choice. Finally, the bilateral cost sharing contract can coordinate the supply chain, that is to say, the system profit is equal to the profit of centralized decision-making. However, only when the supplier’s share rate meets certain conditions can the bilateral cost sharing contract achieve Pareto optimization, that is to say, when it is greater than the profit of the enterprise under decentralized decision-making.
Effects of Drought Stress on Annual Herbaceous Plants under Different Mixed Growth Conditions in Desert Oasis Transition Zone of the Hexi Corridor
Authors: Gou Qianqian , Song Bing , Li Yuda , Xi Lulu , Wang Guohua
Published: November 2022

Annual herbaceous plants are frequently layered under the artificial sand-fixing forest within the desert oasis transition zone of the Hexi Corridor. The effect of drought stress on annual herbaceous plants is of great significance to the restoration of artificial vegetation as well as the stability of the ecosystem in the desert oasis transition zone. Setaria viridis, Chloris virgata, Halogeton arachnoideus, and Bassia dasyphylla are the typical annual herbaceous plants that occur naturally in the Caragana korshinskii forest and were used as the research subject in this study. Concentration gradient tests were conducted under different mixed growth conditions: 0 (blank control group), 5, 10, and 15 C. korshinskii seeds, and different drought stress conditions: 0%, 2%, 5%, 10%, and 15%, in order to explore the interactive effects of drought stress on annual herbaceous plants. The results demonstrated that the germination percentage and germination rate of annual herbaceous plants was significantly affected by the number of C. korshinskii seeds (p < 0.05), whereby the germination effect was optimal when no C. korshinskii seeds were present. Furthermore, we found that the germination percentage and germination rate of the annual Gramineae was higher than that of the Chenopods. In the growth stage, the biomass and root-shoot ratio of the chenopods were significantly affected by the number of C. korshinskii seeds and drought stress (p < 0.05). We found that the biomass of annual herbaceous plants was the highest at 2% drought stress, and the root-shoot ratio displayed a positive correlation with an increase in drought stress. Notably, the survival rate of annual herbaceous plants was higher when grown in combination with five C. korshinskii seeds, thus indicating a positive interaction; in contrast, the survival rate decreased significantly when they were grown in combination with more than five C. korshinskii seeds, indicating a negative interaction. We observed a decreasing trend in root activity and chlorophyll content when annual herbaceous plants were grown in combination with an increasing number of C. korshinskii seeds and drought stress. The reduced root activity and decline in photosynthetic ability resulted in the inhibition of seedling growth. Furthermore, we found that the root activity and chlorophyll content of the Gramineae was ~1.3–2.0 times higher than that of the Chenopods, which may be the reason behind the lower survival rate of the chenopods.
Determinants of Entrepreneurial Risk among Young Emiratis
Authors: Smail Linda , Alawad Mouawiya , Ferreira Aleciane da Silva Moreira , Puga Jorge López , García Ana María Ruiz-Ruano
Published: November 2022

This work aimed to investigate the determinants of entrepreneurial risk among Emirati youth enrolled in a university in the United Arab Emirates. This was a quantitative study, which used a survey of 324 university students with an average age of 20.7 years and a standard deviation of 3.1 years. The collected data were analyzed using two methods—Ordinal Probit Regression Estimation and Structural Equation Modeling—to identify the factors that may determine entrepreneurial risk and assess the research hypotheses among this group of Emirati youth. The results showed that Emirati youth are risk-averse when (a) they do not receive government support, (b) they have a perception of low self-efficacy, (c) they are afraid of failure, and d) they perceive considerable obstacles and barriers. In addition, it is concluded that it is necessary to stimulate creativity and an innovative mindset among students.
Introducing Research Loop to Achieve Open Innovation for Research Centers in Quintuple Helix
Authors: Arvaniti Eleni N. , Dima Agapi , Stylios Chrysostomos D. , Papadakis Vagelis G.
Published: November 2022

Open Innovation has great significance and so far several definitions have been proposed, the most widely accepted definition referring to the correlation of Open Innovation with research organizations. Helix models have been proposed to analyze how collaborations work among key stakeholders and research centers and they were found to have a prominent part in all their iterations. This work presents the challenges that research organizations face in terms of interaction with other organizations, their operations (resources, funding issues), and how they determine the research directions to be followed, and analyzes how the adoption of Open Innovation practices can tackle these challenges and the effects it has. The Open Innovation practices of outsourcing and co-creation are mentioned, with the latter needing to be further developed and elaborated. We propose a novel process, called Research Loop, which aims and succeeds to provide Open Innovation for research organizations. It achieves to involve several different organizations, identify existing research gaps, and produce new knowledge. The proposed process includes the various advantages of applying Open Innovation to the analyzed research centers.
Algorithm for Measuring the Outer Contour Dimension of Trucks Using UAV Binocular Stereo Vision
Authors: Li Shiwu , Han Lihong , Dong Ping , Sun Wencai
Published: November 2022

Promoting the management of the over-limit of freight transport vehicles plays an important role in the sustainable development of the highway industry. Vehicle outer contour dimension measurement is a key element in highway over-limit detection. The current detection approaches and research methods, however, are insufficient for high-precision flow detection. Therefore, this study proposes an algorithm for measuring the dimensions of a truck’s outer contours, using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) binocular stereo vision. First, this study leverages a binocular camera mounted on a UAV to reconstruct the 3D point clouds of the truck. Second, the point cloud data are clustered using an FoF (Friends-of-Friends algorithm); this recognizes the cluster of truck points according to the truck’s characteristics. Finally, the principal component analysis and the Gaussian kernel density estimation are used to generate the outer contour dimensions of the trucks. Twenty model vehicles are selected as test objects to verify the reliability of the algorithm. The average error of the algorithm is represented by calculating the average value of the difference between the real size and the predicted size of the three dimensions. The experimental results demonstrate that the average error of this measurement approach is less than 2.5%, and the method is both stable and robust. This approach aligns with national regulations for over-limit detection.
Fiscal Pressure and Public–Private Partnership Investment: Based on Evidence from Prefecture-Level Cities in China
Authors: Gong Junjiao , Lu Yingyu , Xu Yang , Fu Jincun
Published: November 2022

Public–private partnership (PPP) policy is essential to alleviating the local government debt burden and improving resource allocation efficiency. This paper empirically examines the impact of fiscal pressure on PPP investment in Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2014 to 2019 using the ordinary least-squares (OLS) module. Moreover, we also investigate how fiscal pressure influences PPP investment and test the influenced mechanism from other perspectives. The results show the following. (1) Fiscal pressure on the government has a significant positive effect on PPP investment at the prefectural level. (2) The marketization process is the mediated effect of the relationship between fiscal pressure and PPP investment. Fiscal pressure will stimulate the regional marketization process, thus promoting PPP investment. (3) Fiscal pressure has a significant positive effect on PPP investment in the middle region, while the effect is not significant in the eastern and western regions. Meanwhile, the effect is not significant in central cities, but there is a significant positive effect in ordinary cities. (4) The effect of fiscal pressure on PPP investment is not significant in the private reward mode of government payment, but there is a significant positive effect in the mode of user payment and feasibly insufficient subsidies. Our studies could also provide practical suggestions for sustainable development of PPP policy and solving the fiscal pressure of the current economic recession under the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Review of Research and Practice on the Theory and Technology of Reservoir Dam Risk Assessment
Authors: Zhang Shichen , Hou Wenang , Yin Jiangshan , Lin Zifeng
Published: November 2022

A current trend is to implement dam risk management. Dam risk analysis is the premise of dam risk management. Methods such as PRA, FMEA/FMECA, FTA, ETA, and group dam risk analysis have been proposed in studies at home and abroad. In practice, it is found that dam breaks or accidents occur even though the dam risk calculated by the existing methods meets the acceptable risk standard, and that many occurred accidents are at variance with dam risk analysis. This indicates that the existing methods have systematic defects, and the dam risk calculated based on such methods is only a part of the actual risk. This paper reviews the dam risk analysis theory and technical research and practice, discusses and analyzes the applicability and existing defects of the dam risk analysis theory, and proposes the future development direction of the dam risk analysis theory. It is concluded that the current dam risk assessment theories are tantamount to the traditional safety factor method coupled with probability analysis. The correlation among influencing factors of dam system risk, as well as the uncertainties of the said factors are not fully considered. Difficulties and opportunities coexist in China to link the existing dam safety standard system with the dam risk management system. The next step is to use system theory to carry out theoretical research on dam operation risk assessment, strengthen the connection between dam risk theory and management status, and formulate risk prevention regulations and technical standards.
Examining Criteria for Choosing Subcontractors for Complex and Multi-Systems Projects
Authors: Fridkin Shimon , Kordova Sigal
Published: November 2022

Numerous companies from diverse industries use subcontracting in their operations. In complex projects, subcontractor selection is a crucial managerial decision that significantly impacts project success. The current mixed-methodology study examines that criteria that high-tech defense and civilian companies use to choose optimal subcontractors. The qualitative aspect derives from semi-structured interviews; the quantitative findings were obtained using three statistical methods: Friedman’s two-way analysis of variance by ranks, hierarchical cluster analysis, and multidimensional scaling (PROXSCAL). Data analysis yielded twelve leading criteria for subcontractor selection, categorized into four clusters of varying strength. The three highest-rated criteria were significantly stronger than the others and included system reliability and quality, level of service, and flexibility to change. The lowest rated criteria were leadership and innovation, and number of systems supplied in the past. The findings provide practical insights applicable to subcontractor selection and expand our knowledge of complex project management.
Effectiveness of Passivator Amendments and Optimized Fertilization for Ensuring the Food Safety of Rice and Wheat from Cadmium-Contaminated Farmland
Authors: Hu Hanxiu , Gao Linlin , Zhang Huimin , Zhou Xiaotian , Zheng Jing , Hu Jingyi , Hu Hongxiang , Ma Youhua
Published: November 2022

The effect of various soil amendments on cadmium (Cd)-contaminated farmland was evaluated in terms of effectiveness, safety, economics, and simplicity. Experiments were conducted in May 2020, on Cd-contaminated land in Tong Ling, An Hui, China. The efficacy of optimized fertilization and heavy metal passivators—gypsum, bamboo charcoal, lime, and a compound passivator (mixture of bamboo charcoal, silicon fertilizer, gypsum, furfural residue, plant ash, and chicken manure)—was evaluated as amendments to reduce the uptake of Cd in rice. The results indicate that all treatments reduced the Cd bioavailability in Cd-contaminated soil and rice grain Cd accumulation to levels that meet national food safety standards. Moreover, the rice yield increased by 4.80 to 14.27% and the Cd content in rice grains decreased by 23.53 to 36.83%. The efficacy of Cd reduction in rice was as follows: optimized fertilization > lime > compound passivator > bamboo charcoal > gypsum powder. Wheat was planted after the rice season to test the effect of the soil amendment measures implemented during the rice season on crop growth in the next season. Wheat yield improved by 3.46 to 10.96%, and the grain Cd content decreased by 6.47 to 41.03%. The efficacy of Cd reduction in wheat was as follows: lime > compound passivator > optimized fertilization > gypsum powder > bamboo charcoal. Following the lime treatment, the wheat grain Cd content met national food safety standards. A comprehensive comparison was conducted to evaluate the safe utilization and economic effect of the passivator and optimized fertilization. The results reveal that optimized fertilization was the most effective treatment. The findings from this study provide a scientific basis for safe rice–wheat rotation systems on mildly Cd-contained farmland (0.3 mg/kg < Cd < 1.0 mg/kg) in the Yangtze River Basin.
Personalized Relationships-Based Knowledge Graph for Recommender Systems with Dual-View Items
Authors: Liu Zhifeng , Zhong Xianzhan , Zhou Conghua
Published: November 2022

The knowledge graph has received a lot of interest in the field of recommender systems as side information because it can address the sparsity and cold start issues associated with collaborative filtering-based recommender systems. However, when incorporating entities from a knowledge graph to represent semantic information, most current KG-based recommendation methods are unaware of the relationships between these users and items. As such, the learned semantic information representation of users and items cannot fully reflect the connectivity between users and items. In this paper, we present the PRKG-DI symmetry model, a Personalized Relationships-based Knowledge Graph for recommender systems with Dual-view Items that explores user-item relatedness by mining associated entities in the KG from user-oriented entity view and item-oriented entity view to augment item semantic information. Specifically, PRKG-DI utilizes a heterogeneous propagation strategy to gather information on higher-order user-item interactions and an attention mechanism to generate the weighted representation of entities. Moreover, PRKG-DI provides a score feature as a filter for individualized relationships to evaluate users’ potential interests. The empirical results demonstrate that our approach significantly outperforms several state-of-the-art baselines by 1.6%, 2.1%, and 0.8% on AUC, and 1.8%, 2.3%, and 0.8% on F1 when applied to three real-world scenarios for music, movie, and book recommendations, respectively.
Research on a Vehicle Authentication and Key Transmission Protocol Based on CPN
Authors: Zheng Lu , Feng Tao
Published: November 2022

With the rapid development of the Internet of Vehicles, the increase in vehicle functional requirements has led to the continuous increase in complex electronic systems, and the in-vehicle network is extremely vulnerable to network attacks. The controller area network (CAN) bus is the most representative in-vehicle bus technology in intra-vehicular networks (IVNs) for its flexibility. Although the current framework to protect the safety of CAN has been proposed, the safety communication mechanism between electronic control units (ECUs) in the vehicle network is still weak. A large number of communication protocols focus on the addition of safety mechanisms, and there is a lack of general protocol formal modeling and security assessment. In addition, many protocols are designed without considering key updates and transmission, ECUs maintenance, etc. In this work, we propose an efficient in-vehicle authentication and key transmission scheme. This scheme is a certificateless framework based on identity cryptography, which can not only ensure the security of the in-vehicle network but also meet the real-time requirements between ECUs. Moreover, this scheme can reduce the complexity of key management for centralized key generators. To evaluate the security of this scheme, we adopt a protocol model detection method based on the combination of the colored Petri net (CPN) and the Dolev–Yao attack model to formally evaluate the proposed protocol. The evaluation results show that the proposed scheme can effectively prevent three types of man-in-the-middle attacks.
Pollution and Health Risk Assessments of Potentially Toxic Elements in the Fine-Grained Particles (10–63 µm and <10 µm) in Road Dust from Apia City, Samoa
Authors: Jeong Hyeryeong , Ra Kongtae
Published: November 2022

Fine road dust is a major source of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) pollution in urban environments, which adversely affects the atmospheric environment and public health. Two different sizes (10–63 and <10 μm) were separated from road dust collected from Apia City, Samoa, and 10 PTEs were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Fine road dust (<10 μm) had 1.2–2.3 times higher levels of copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), antimony (Sb), lead (Pb), and mercury (Hg) than 10–63 μm particles. The enrichment factor (EF) value of Sb was the highest among PTEs, and reflected significant contamination. Cu, Zn, and Pb in road dust were also present at moderate to significant levels. Chromium (Cr), cobalt (Co), and nickel (Ni) in road dust were mainly of natural origins, while Cu, Zn, Sb, and Pb were due to traffic activity. The levels of PTEs in road dust in Samoa are lower than in highly urbanized cities, and the exposure of residents in Samoa to PTEs in road dust does not pose a noncarcinogenic health risk. Further studies of the effects of PTEs contamination in road dust on the atmosphere and living organisms are needed.
Reduced Birth Weight and Exposure to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances: A Review of Possible Underlying Mechanisms Using the AOP-HelpFinder
Authors: Gundacker Claudia , Audouze Karine , Widhalm Raimund , Granitzer Sebastian , Forsthuber Martin , Jornod Florence , Wielsøe Maria , Long Manhai , Halldórsson Thórhallur Ingi , Uhl Maria , Bonefeld-Jørgensen Eva Cecilie
Published: November 2022

Prenatal exposure to per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) may impair fetal growth. Our knowledge of the underlying mechanisms is incomplete. We used the Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP)-helpFinder tool to search PubMed for studies published until March 2021 that examined PFAS exposure in relation to birth weight, oxidative stress, hormones/hormone receptors, or growth signaling pathways. Of these 1880 articles, 106 experimental studies remained after abstract screening. One clear finding is that PFAS are associated with oxidative stress in in vivo animal studies and in vitro studies. It appears that PFAS-induced reactive-oxygen species (ROS) generation triggers increased peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)γ expression and activation of growth signaling pathways, leading to hyperdifferentiation of pre-adipocytes. Fewer proliferating pre-adipocytes result in lower adipose tissue weight and in this way may reduce birth weight. PFAS may also impair fetal growth through endocrine effects. Estrogenic effects have been noted in in vivo and in vitro studies. Overall, data suggest thyroid-damaging effects of PFAS affecting thyroid hormones, thyroid hormone gene expression, and histology that are associated in animal studies with decreased body and organ weight. The effects of PFAS on the complex relationships between oxidative stress, endocrine system function, adipogenesis, and fetal growth should be further explored.
Determination of 19 Steroid Hormones in Human Serum and Urine Using Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry
Authors: Li Zhong-Min , Kannan Kurunthachalam
Published: November 2022

This paper describes a methodology for simultaneous determination of 19 steroid hormones, viz. estrone, estradiol, estriol, testosterone, 5α-dihydrotestosterone, androstenedione, androstenediol, dehydroepiandrosterone, progesterone, pregnenolone, 17α-OH-progesterone, 17α-OH-pregnenolone, cortisone, cortisol, 11-deoxycortisol, 11-deoxycorticosterone, 11-dehydrocorticosterone, aldosterone, and corticosterone, in 500-µL of urine or serum/plasma. The method was optimized using isotopically labeled internal standards and liquid-liquid extraction followed by detection using liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Dansylation of estrogens significantly improved their sensitivities (~11- to 23-fold) and chromatographic separation. The respective limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) of all analytes were 0.04–0.28 and 0.14–0.92 ng/mL in human urine, and 0.11–0.35 and 0.38–1.18 ng/mL in human serum/plasma. Recoveries of all analytes (except for progesterone) fortified at 10, 20, and 200 ng/mL in urine and serum were 80–120%, with standard deviations ranging from 0 to 17.3%. Repeated analysis of similarly fortified urine and serum samples yielded intra-day and inter-day variations of 0–21.7% and 0.16–11.5%, respectively. All analytes except cortisone exhibited weak matrix effects in urine and serum (−13.9–18.2%). The method was further validated through the analysis of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) plasma Standard Reference Material (SRM1950) with certified concentrations for cortisol, progesterone, and testosterone (coefficient of variation: 3–11%). The developed method was applied in the analysis of urine samples from 20 volunteers, which revealed the occurrence of 16 analytes with detection frequencies (DFs) > 80%. Furthermore, 15 analytes were found in plasma SRM1950, indicating the feasibility of our method in the analysis of steroid hormones in urine and serum/plasma. This method will facilitate analysis of steroid hormones in population-based biomonitoring studies.
Management and Prevention of Traveler’s Diarrhea: A Cross-Sectional Study on Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices in Italian Occupational Physicians (2019 and 2022)
Authors: Riccò Matteo , Zaniboni Alessandro , Satta Elia , Baldassarre Antonio , Cerviere Milena Pia , Marchesi Federico , Peruzzi Simona
Published: November 2022

Even though Italian Occupational Physicians (OP) are increasingly involved in the managing of overseas workers, their knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) in travel medicine are mostly undefined. We, therefore, permed a KAP study specifically targeting the management of travelers’ diarrhea (TD) by OP. A total of 371 professionals (43.4% males; mean age 40.8 ± 10.9 years) completed in 2 rounds (2019 and 2022) a specifically designed web questionnaire that inquired participating OP on their knowledge status (KS), risk perception, and management of TD through pre- and post-travel advice and interventions. Multivariable odds ratios (aOR) for predictors of a better knowledge status were calculated through regression analysis. Eventually, the majority of participants (53.4%) had participated in the management of cases of TD in the previous months, but only 26.4% were reportedly involved in pre-travel consultations. The overall knowledge status was unsatisfying (potential range: 0–100%, actual average of the sample 59.6% ± 14.6), with substantial uncertainties in the management of antimicrobial treatment. Interestingly, only a small subset of participants had previously prescribed antimicrobial prophylaxis or treatment (3.5% and 1.9%, respectively). Main effectors of a better knowledge status were: having a background qualification in Hygiene and Public Health (aOR 14.769, 95%CI 5.582 to 39.073), having previously managed any case of (aOR 3.107, 95%CI 1.484 to 6.506), and having higher concern on TD, reported by acknowledging high frequency (aOR 8.579, 95%CI 3.383 to 21.756) and severity (aOR 3.386; 95%CI 1.741 to 6.585) of this disorder. As the adherence of participating OP to official recommendations for TD management was unsatisfying, continuous Education on Travel Medicine should be improved by sharing up-to-date official recommendations on appropriate treatment options for TD.
A Correction Algorithm of the Sampling Effect and Its Application in High-Precision Astrometry
Authors: Sun Yunqi , Zhou Jianfeng
Published: November 2022

The sampling effect of the imaging acquisition device is an integration of the input signal within the pixel, resulting in an additional error in the pixel value. Additionally, a sampler with asymmetric intra-pixel quantum efficiency leads to position errors in high-precision astrometry. This paper proposes a model for the integral sampling process. An algorithm that solves the sampling effect, as well as the position error with high accuracy, is also provided. This algorithm provides an accuracy increase of 106 for Gaussian images with a uniform integral sampler. The accuracy limit of the Gaussian image comes from the truncation error. Also, this algorithm provides about 4 times accuracy improvement by eliminating the systematic error caused by the integral sampler with asymmetric intra-pixel quantum efficiency.
Intramuscular [18F]F-FDG Administration for Successful PET Imaging of Golden Hamsters in a Maximum Containment Laboratory Setting
Authors: Wang Hui , Seidel Jurgen , Bartos Christopher , Byrum Russell , Sayre Philip J. , Cooper Kurt , Cong Yu , Kim Dong-Yun , Calcagno Claudia , Kuhn Jens H. , Crane Anya , Wada Jiro , Johnson Reed F. , Hammoud Dima A. , Lee Ji Hyun
Published: November 2022

Positron emission tomography (PET) is becoming an important tool for the investigation of emerging infectious diseases in animal models. Usually, PET imaging is performed after intravenous (IV) radiotracer administration. However, IV injections are difficult to perform in some small animals, such as golden hamsters. This challenge is particularly evident in longitudinal imaging studies, and even more so in maximum containment settings used to study high-consequence pathogens. We propose the use of intramuscular (IM) administration of 2-deoxy-2[18F]fluoro-D-glucose ([18F]F-FDG) for PET imaging of hamsters in a biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory setting. After [18F]F-FDG administration via IM or IV (through surgically implanted vascular access ports), eight hamsters underwent static or dynamic PET scans. Time–activity curves (TACs) and standardized uptake values (SUVs) in major regions of interest (ROIs) were used to compare the two injection routes. Immediately after injection, TACs differed between the two routes. At 60 min post-injection, [18F]F-FDG activity for both routes reached a plateau in most ROIs except the brain, with higher accumulation in the liver, lungs, brain, and nasal cavities observed in the IM group. IM delivery of [18F]F-FDG is an easy, safe, and reliable alternative for longitudinal PET imaging of hamsters in a BSL-4 laboratory setting.