bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effect of Multispectral Pulsed Light-Emitting Diodes on the Growth, Photosynthetic and Antioxidant Response of Baby Leaf Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.)
Authors: Miliauskienė Jurga , Karlicek Robert F. , Kolmos Elsebeth
Published: April 2021

The effect of multicolor pulsed light-emitting diode (LED) irradiation on lettuce “Defender” growth, photosynthetic performance and antioxidant properties was studied. The experiments were designed to compare the continuous and pulsed lighting (0.5, 1 kHz; 50% duty ratio) effects of B450, G520, R660 and FR735 lighting components, maintaining total diurnal integral light quantity (DLI 14.4 mol m−2 day−1) constant during the 16-h photoperiod. The results showed that lettuce grown under pulsed irradiation displayed superior growth performance, including a significant enhancement of fresh (~32%) and dry biomass (~36%) and leaf area (~48%). Lettuce cultivated in both pulsed light treatments was characterized by the higher photosynthetic rate, chlorophyll (a,b) and carotenoid concentration. However, the total phenol and antioxidant properties in lettuce were more dependent on the specific pulsed light frequency. Only treatment with 1 kHz frequency was effective for higher phenol content, 2,20-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS) free radical scavenging activity and Fe2+ reducing antioxidant power (FRAP). Thus, our results propose the role of pulsed LED light in improving the photosynthetic efficiency and antioxidative properties of lettuce plants cultivated indoors. In the future, pulsed lighting techniques should be included in the development of artificial lighting systems in controlled environment agriculture (CEA) to produce high-quality crops with the possibility to save electricity.
Investigation of Different Types of Biochar on the Thermal Stability and Fire Retardance of Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate Copolymers
Authors: Matta Samuele , Bartoli Mattia , Frache Alberto , Malucelli Giulio
Published: April 2021

In this work, three biochars, deriving from soft wood, oil seed rape, and rice husk and differing as far as the ash content is considered (2.3, 23.4, and 47.8 wt.%, respectively), were compounded in an ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer (vinyl acetate content: 19 wt.%), using a co-rotating twin-screw extruder; three loadings for each biochar were selected, namely 15, 20, and 40 wt.%. The thermal and mechanical properties were thoroughly investigated, as well as the flame retardance of the resulting compounds. In particular, biochar, irrespective of the type, slowed down the crystallization of the copolymer: this effect increased with increasing the filler loading. Besides, despite a very limited effect in flammability tests, the incorporation of biochar at increasing loadings turned out to enhance the forced-combustion behavior of the compounds, as revealed by the remarkable decrease of peak of heat release rate and of total heat release, notwithstanding a significant increase of the residues at the end of the tests. Finally, increasing the biochar loadings promoted an increase of the stiffness of the resulting compounds, as well as a decrease of their ductility with respect to unfilled ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), without impacting too much on the overall mechanical behavior of the copolymer. The obtained results seem to indicate that biochar may represent a possible low environmental impact alternative to the already used flame retardants for EVA, providing a good compromise between enhanced fire resistance and acceptable mechanical properties.
Evaluation of Techno-Economic Studies on the bioliq® Process for Synthetic Fuels Production from Biomass
Authors: Dahmen Nicolaus , Sauer Jörg
Published: April 2021

Techno-economic studies by various research institutions on the costs for the production of biomass to liquid (BtL) fuels using the bioliq® process were analyzed and evaluated. The bioliq® process consists of decentralized pretreatment by fast pyrolysis plants for biomass energy densification, and of a central gasification and synthesis step for synthesis of gas and synthetic fuel production. For comparison, specific material and energy flows were worked out for both process steps, and conversion efficiencies were calculated for the conversion of straw to diesel fuel via the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. A significant variation of the overall process efficiency in the range of 33–46% was mainly a result of the different assumptions made for electricity generation at the central location. After breaking down the individual cost items to either fixed or variable costs, it turned out that the largest cost items in the production of BtL fuels were attributable to feedstock and capital costs. Comparison of the specific investments showed that, in addition to economies of scale, other factors had a significant influence leading to values between 1000 and 5000 EUR/kW. This, particularly, included the origin of the equipment purchase costs and the factors applied to them. Fuel production costs were found to range between 0.8 and 2.6 EUR/L. Possible cost reduction by learning potential was investigated, leading to an improvement by a few percent of production costs. A sensitivity analysis of the individual cost items by up to 30%, for “investments” and “biomass and transport” cost increases, led to higher manufacturing costs of up to 17% in both cases. By harmonizing the depreciation period and the chosen interest rate, the production costs changed from −16% to +17%. Similarly, effects could be shown by adjusting the costs for maintenance and servicing, and the plant operation time. A superposition of these effects in a best-case scenario led to cost reductions of 21%. The most expensive variant in the opposing worst-case scenario raised costs by up to 27%. This uncertainty contributed already fifty percent to a preliminary cost estimate based on a conceptual design.
JLGBMLoc—A Novel High-Precision Indoor Localization Method Based on LightGBM
Authors: Yin Lu , Ma Pengcheng , Deng Zhongliang
Published: April 2021

Wi-Fi based localization has become one of the most practical methods for mobile users in location-based services. However, due to the interference of multipath and high-dimensional sparseness of fingerprint data, with the localization system based on received signal strength (RSS), is hard to obtain high accuracy. In this paper, we propose a novel indoor positioning method, named JLGBMLoc (Joint denoising auto-encoder with LightGBM Localization). Firstly, because the noise and outliers may influence the dimensionality reduction on high-dimensional sparseness fingerprint data, we propose a novel feature extraction algorithm—named joint denoising auto-encoder (JDAE)—which reconstructs the sparseness fingerprint data for a better feature representation and restores the fingerprint data. Then, the LightGBM is introduced to the Wi-Fi localization by scattering the processed fingerprint data to histogram, and dividing the decision tree under leaf-wise algorithm with depth limitation. At last, we evaluated the proposed JLGBMLoc on the UJIIndoorLoc dataset and the Tampere dataset, the experimental results show that the proposed model increases the positioning accuracy dramatically compared with other existing methods.
Virtual Sensing and Sensors Selection for Efficient Temperature Monitoring in Indoor Environments
Authors: Brunello Andrea , Urgolo Andrea , Pittino Federico , Montvay András , Montanari Angelo
Published: April 2021

Real-time estimation of temperatures in indoor environments is critical for several reasons, including the upkeep of comfort levels, the fulfillment of legal requirements, and energy efficiency. Unfortunately, setting an adequate number of sensors at the desired locations to ensure a uniform monitoring of the temperature in a given premise may be troublesome. Virtual sensing is a set of techniques to replace a subset of physical sensors by virtual ones, allowing the monitoring of unreachable locations, reducing the sensors deployment costs, and providing a fallback solution for sensor failures. In this paper, we deal with temperature monitoring in an open space office, where a set of physical sensors is deployed at uneven locations. Our main goal is to develop a black-box virtual sensing framework, completely independent of the physical characteristics of the considered scenario, that, in principle, can be adapted to any indoor environment. We first perform a systematic analysis of various distance metrics that can be used to determine the best sensors on which to base temperature monitoring. Then, following a genetic programming approach, we design a novel metric that combines and summarizes information brought by the considered distance metrics, outperforming their effectiveness. Thereafter, we propose a general and automatic approach to the problem of determining the best subset of sensors that are worth keeping in a given room. Leveraging the selected sensors, we then conduct a comprehensive assessment of different strategies for the prediction of temperatures observed by physical sensors based on other sensors’ data, also evaluating the reliability of the generated outputs. The results show that, at least in the given scenario, the proposed black-box approach is capable of automatically selecting a subset of sensors and of deriving a virtual sensing model for an accurate and efficient monitoring of the environment.
Reliable Service Function Chain Deployment Method Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning
Authors: Qu Hua , Wang Ke , Zhao Jihong
Published: April 2021

Network function virtualization (NFV) is a key technology to decouple hardware device and software function. Several virtual network functions (VNFs) combine into a function sequence in a certain order, that is defined as service function chain (SFC). A significant challenge is guaranteeing reliability. First, deployment server is selected to place VNF, then, backup server is determined to place the VNF as a backup which is running when deployment server is failed. Moreover, how to determine the accurate locations dynamically with machine learning is challenging. This paper focuses on resource requirements of SFC to measure its priority meanwhile calculates node priority by current resource capacity and node degree, then, a novel priority-awareness deep reinforcement learning (PA-DRL) algorithm is proposed to implement reliable SFC dynamically. PA-DRL determines the backup scheme of each VNF, then, the model jointly utilizes delay, load balancing of network as feedback factors to optimize the quality of service. In the experimental results, resource efficient utilization, survival rate, and load balancing of PA-DRL were improved by 36.7%, 35.1%, and 78.9% on average compared with benchmark algorithm respectively, average delay was reduced by 14.9%. Therefore, PA-DRL can effectively improve reliability and optimization targets compared with other benchmark methods.
A Modular Multirotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Design Approach for Development of an Engineering Education Platform
Authors: Kotarski Denis , Piljek Petar , Pranjić Marko , Grlj Carlo Giorgio , Kasać Josip
Published: April 2021

The development of multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has enabled a vast number of applications. Since further market growth is expected in the future it is important that modern engineers be familiar with these types of mechatronic systems. In this paper, a comprehensive mathematical description of a multirotor UAV, with various configuration parameters, is given. A modular design approach for the development of an educational multirotor platform is proposed. Through the stages of computer-aided design and rapid prototyping an experimental modular multirotor (EMMR) platform is presented. Open-source control system and a novel EMMR enable students to create and test control algorithms for various multirotor configurations. The presented EMMR platform is suitable for students to expand their educational objectives in aerial robotics and control theory.
Flexible Hybrid Electrodes for Continuous Measurement of the Local Temperature in Long-Term Wounds
Authors: Rodes-Carbonell Ana María , Torregrosa-Valls Juan , Guill Ibáñez Antonio , Tormos Ferrando Alvaro , Juan Blanco María Aránzazu , Ferriols Antonio Cebrián
Published: April 2021

Long-term wounds need a continuous assessment of different biophysical parameters for their treatment, and there is a lack of affordable biocompatible devices capable of obtaining that uninterrupted flow of data. A portable prototype that allows caregivers to know the local temperature behavior of a long-term wound over time and compare it with different reference zones has been developed. Alternative flexible substrates, screen-printing techniques, polymeric inks, and an embedded system have been tested to achieve potential indicators of the status and evolution of chronic wounds. The final system is formed by temperature sensors attached to a flexible and stretchable medical-grade substrate, where silver conductive tracks have been printed as interconnections with the data-acquisition unit. In addition, a specific datalogger has been developed for this system. The whole set will enable health personnel to acquire the temperature of the wound and its surroundings in order to make decisions regarding the state and evolution of the wound.
Energy-Efficient and Reliable Face-Routing Scheme in Wireless Networks
Authors: Cho Hyunchong , Kim Sangdae , Oh Seungmin , Lee Euisin , Kim Sang-Ha
Published: April 2021

Face-routing is one of the reliable recovery schemes when geographic routing fails to transmit data packets. Although studies on face-routing can overcome the failure of the data transmission, they lead to much energy consumption due to frequent data transmissions between adjacent nodes for carrying out the rule of face-routing. To avoid the frequent data transmissions, several face-routing schemes have been recently proposed to transmit data packets to the farthest-neighbor node. However, they happen with many data retransmissions because the farthest-neighbor node has a relatively low transmission success ratio. To solve this problem, we propose a new face-routing scheme that determines the most appropriate neighbor node to balance the trade-off between energy efficiency and transmission reliability with two viewpoints. The first viewpoint focuses on how to increase the distance progress of the data delivery in one-hop range to enhance energy efficiency. After that, the second viewpoint focuses on how to increase the success ratio of the data delivery to enhance the transmission reliability. As a result of the simulation, it was confirmed that the proposed method achieves better performance in terms of energy efficiency than existing face-routing research, and it is better than recent face-routing research in terms of reliability and retransmission.
Braille Block Detection via Multi-Objective Optimization from an Egocentric Viewpoint
Authors: Takano Tsubasa , Nakane Takumi , Akashi Takuya , Zhang Chao
Published: April 2021

In this paper, we propose a method to detect Braille blocks from an egocentric viewpoint, which is a key part of many walking support devices for visually impaired people. Our main contribution is to cast this task as a multi-objective optimization problem and exploits both the geometric and the appearance features for detection. Specifically, two objective functions were designed under an evolutionary optimization framework with a line pair modeled as an individual (i.e., solution). Both of the objectives follow the basic characteristics of the Braille blocks, which aim to clarify the boundaries and estimate the likelihood of the Braille block surface. Our proposed method was assessed by an originally collected and annotated dataset under real scenarios. Both quantitative and qualitative experimental results show that the proposed method can detect Braille blocks under various environments. We also provide a comprehensive comparison of the detection performance with respect to different multi-objective optimization algorithms.
Characterization of Plant Growth-Promoting Traits and Inoculation Effects on Triticum durum of Actinomycetes Isolates under Salt Stress Conditions
Authors: Djebaili Rihab , Pellegrini Marika , Rossi Massimiliano , Forni Cinzia , Smati Maria , Del Gallo Maddalena , Kitouni Mahmoud
Published: April 2021

This study aimed to characterize the halotolerant capability, in vitro, of selected actinomycetes strains and to evaluate their competence in promoting halo stress tolerance in durum wheat in a greenhouse experiment. Fourteen isolates were tested for phosphate solubilization, indole acetic acid, hydrocyanic acid, and ammonia production under different salt concentrations (i.e., 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.25, and 1.5 M NaCl). The presence of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase activity was also investigated. Salinity tolerance was evaluated in durum wheat through plant growth and development parameters: shoot and root length, dry and ash-free dry weight, and the total chlorophyll content, as well as proline accumulation. In vitro assays have shown that the strains can solubilize inorganic phosphate and produce indole acetic acid, hydrocyanic acid, and ammonia under different salt concentrations. Most of the strains (86%) had 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase activity, with significant amounts of α-ketobutyric acid. In the greenhouse experiment, inoculation with actinomycetes strains improved the morpho-biochemical parameters of durum wheat plants, which also recorded significantly higher content of chlorophylls and proline than those uninoculated, both under normal and stressed conditions. Our results suggest that inoculation of halotolerant actinomycetes can mitigate the negative effects of salt stress and allow normal growth and development of durum wheat plants.
Active Commuting: An Opportunity to Fight Both Climate Change and Physical Inactivity
Authors: Figueiredo Nuno , Rodrigues Filipe , Morouço Pedro , Monteiro Diogo
Published: April 2021

Global health, climate, and ecological conditions cannot be dissociated, and over the last decade, the impacts of climate change on health have been profoundly felt. In 2010, the transport sector has been responsible for the direct emission of 6.7 Gt of carbon dioxide (CO2), and these numbers are expected to double by 2050. Additionally, physical inactivity rates have been growing over the last years, with most individuals in developed countries still relying on their cars for daily transportation, despite the unexplored potential of daily commuting in the promotion of physical activity. Given the well-known link between chronic diseases and sedentary lifestyles, addressing both the upward tendency of public health costs and energy consumption obtained from fossil fuels can be, possibly, one of the greatest public health opportunities over the last century. In this paper, we explore the potential of active commuting as a contemporary approach to address both global issues, considering its benefits on several indicators of health, quality of life, and well-being, as well as environmental-friendly behaviors.
Promoting the Eco-Dialogue through Eco-Philosophy for Community
Authors: Hategan Vasile-Petru
Published: April 2021

The premises of the emergence of concepts about nature and the environment led to the emergence of new directions of philosophy, represented by eco-philosophy and ethics applied to the environment. These ideas result from the interference of philosophy with fields dedicated to studying nature and the environment, all of which have led to new currents of thinking that have shown tendencies toward the development of pro-ecological movements, such as the deep ecology movement or ecological humanism. The paper identifies how philosophy can support humanity, and especially communities, to protect the environment and planet in general through a new specialization—the practice of eco-philosophy applied to communities, supporting the need to promote ecological concepts, based on principles and tools taken from philosophy. In order to achieve the objective of the paper, three research questions were stated, and the methodology used consisted of a comparative study of the concepts and a bibliometric analysis of the literature identified for the analyzed fields. The results showed that in previous research, a network was created between the concepts of ecology, philosophy, and ethics. This fact confirms that, to put them into practice, a training program is needed for philosophical consulting practitioners who will apply the knowledge learned in dialogue with individuals or groups, as well as with organizations and the community. The conclusion of the paper supports the development of a dialogue between various areas as a necessary component for developing a sustainable community by implementing new counseling practices for communities, called Eco-Philosophy for Community (EP4com).
Quantifying Environmental Burdens of Plasters Based on Natural vs. Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) Gypsum
Authors: Baran Edyta , Czernik Sebastian , Hynowski Mariusz , Michałowski Bartosz , Piasecki Michał , Tomaszewska Justyna , Michalak Jacek
Published: April 2021

The ongoing global climate change and the associated environmental degradation pose a threat to Europe and the rest of the world. Raw materials and energy are required to produce building materials, which are used for construction purposes. Resulting buildings and structures generate waste during construction, operation, and demolition, and they emit potentially harmful substances. Thus, the key to achieving climate goals is to support low-emission materials and technologies in the construction sector, significantly impacting the environment. In the European Union, building materials are not yet subject to mandatory sustainability assessment during the assessment and verification of constancy of performance (AVCP). Objective evaluation of construction materials’ environmental impact requires it to be carried out based on production data on an industrial scale. This article presents the environmental impact of premixed gypsum-based plasters, commonly used in modern construction. Nine environmental indicators (global warming potential (GWP), depletion potential of the stratospheric ozone layer (ODP), acidification potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP), formation potential of tropospheric ozone (POCP), abiotic depletion potential (ADP)-elements, ADP-fossil fuels, renewable primary energy resources (PERT), and nonrenewable primary energy resources (PERNT)) of premixed gypsum plasters based on natural and flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum were estimated and discussed. Knowledge of the construction products’ environmental impact is fundamental for creating reliable databases. AVCP of construction materials in the future will use the data collected during the voluntary environmental impact evaluation.
Physical and Mechanical Characteristics of Sustainable Concrete Comprising Industrial Waste Materials as a Replacement of Conventional Aggregate
Authors: Althoey Fadi , Hosen Md. Akter
Published: April 2021

In a sustainable approach, it is essential to reduce waste materials for improving the urban environmental performance leads to development in the livable, sustainable, and greener city. In pursuit of this goal, iron lathe waste was used in this study as a replacement of fine aggregate to produce sustainable concrete. Iron lathe waste is generally a waste material from the lathe machine, which is abundantly available to an extent. These waste materials may lead to environmental and health concerns. Therefore, the main goal of this study is to experimentally examine the physio-mechanical characteristics of sustainable concrete incorporating lathe iron waste. The lathe iron waste dusts (LIWD) were used as a partial replacement of fine aggregate in different levels by weight (5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%) to fabricate the sustainable concrete. The mechanical and physical properties of sustainable concrete were investigated by conducting tests, such as workability, ultrasonic pulse velocity, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and flexural strength to investigate the properties of the alternative concrete comparing with that of conventional concrete. The experimental results showed that the LIWD significantly enhanced the tensile, flexural, and compressive strength of the concrete up to 13%, 19%, and 38%, respectively. Therefore, LIWD can potentially improve the serviceability of the structural elements.
Physical and Mechanical Properties of Granulated Rubber Mixed with Granular Soils—A Literature Review
Authors: Tasalloti Ali , Chiaro Gabriele , Murali Arjun , Banasiak Laura
Published: April 2021

End-of-life tires (ELTs) represent a great source of readily available, low-cost and sustainable construction materials having excellent engineering properties. Their reuse (in the form of granulated rubber mixed with soils) in large-volume recycling civil (geotechnical) engineering applications would be beneficial and should be encouraged. It is estimated that at present worldwide only less than 10% of ELTs are reused in geotechnical applications, while nearly 40% are recycled as tire-derived fuel. Although many studies have focused on the material characterization of soil-rubber mixtures (SRMs), it appears that the results of such investigations have not been properly compiled and compared, making it difficult to fully understand the potential applicability of SRMs. In an attempt to provide useful insights facilitating the use of SRMs as geotechnical construction materials, this review paper presents a comprehensive review of published research on the engineering properties of granular soils (i.e., mainly sand and gravel) blended with various recycled rubber inclusions. Available experimental data are scrutinized, and the results of the analyses are presented and discussed primarily in terms of effects of rubber content and aspect ratio (ratio of rubber to gravel median particle sizes) on compaction, permeability, strength and compression properties along with dynamic and cyclic deformation characteristics of SRMs. This review paper may help to alleviate the concerns of designers and consumers and encourage and further promote the use of recycled rubber tires on a larger scale in civil engineering projects.
A Prescriptive Intelligent System for an Industrial Wastewater Treatment Process: Analyzing pH as a First Approach
Authors: Arismendy Luis , Cárdenas Carlos , Gómez Diego , Maturana Aymer , Mejía Ricardo , Quintero M. Christian G.
Published: April 2021

An important issue today for industries is optimizing their processes. Therefore, it is necessary to make the right decisions to carry out these activities, such as increasing the profit of businesses, improving the commercial strategies, and analyzing the industrial processes performance to produce better goods and services. This work proposes an intelligent system approach to prescribe actions and reduce the chemical oxygen demand (COD) in an equalizer tank of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) using machine learning models and genetic algorithms. There are three main objectives of this data-driven decision-making proposal. The first is to characterize and adapt a proper prediction model for the decision-making scheme. The second is to develop a prescriptive intelligent system based on expert’s rules and the selected prediction model’s outcomes. The last is to evaluate the system performance. As a novelty, this research proposes the use of long short-term memory (LSTM) artificial neural networks (ANN) with genetic algorithms (GA) for optimization in the WWTP area.
Benefits and Critical Knowledge Gaps in Determining the Role of Floating Photovoltaics in the Energy-Water-Food Nexus
Authors: Gadzanku Sika , Mirletz Heather , Lee Nathan , Daw Jennifer , Warren Adam
Published: April 2021

Floating solar photovoltaic (FPV) systems have become an increasingly attractive application of photovoltaics (PV) because of land-use constraints, the cost of land and site preparation, and the perceived energy and environmental co-benefits. Despite the increasing interest in FPV systems, a robust validation of their suggested co-benefits and impacts on the nexus of energy, water, and food (EWF) systems is lacking. This information gap makes it challenging for decision makers to justify its adoption—potentially suppressing FPV deployment. To address this gap and to help de-risk this PV deployment opportunity, we (1) review the suggested co-benefits of FPV systems with a focus on the impacts that could alleviate pressures on EWF systems and (2) identify areas where further research is needed to reduce uncertainty around FPV system performance. Our review reveals that EWF nexus-relevant co-benefits, such as improved panel efficiency and reduced land usage, are corroborated in the literature, whereas others, such as water quality impacts, lack empirical evidence. Our findings indicate that further research is needed to quantify the water-related and broader economic, environmental, social, sustainability, justice, and resilience co-benefits and impacts of FPV systems.
Exploring Challenges and Opportunities of Biophilic Urban Design: Evidence from Research and Experimentation
Authors: Andreucci Maria Beatrice , Loder Angela , Brown Martin , Brajković Jelena
Published: April 2021

Global health emergencies such as Covid-19 have highlighted the importance of access to nature and open spaces in our cities for social, physical, and mental health. However, there continues to be a disconnect between our need for nature and our daily lived experience. Recent research indicates that our connectedness and relationship with nature, and in particular biophilic design, may be key for improving both health and quality of life. Rather than relying on abstract universal ideas of “nature”, using evidence-based biophilic design and policy at a building, neighborhood, and city scale, to link our daily lives with biodiversity, may encourage sense of place and make environmental action more meaningful. Then, improving our natural capital in the urban built environment might help address the current climate and disease crisis, as well as improving our physical and mental health. Drawing from emerging research and innovative practice, the paper describes key research and design paradigms that influence the way we understand the benefits of nature for different environments, including the workplace, neighborhood, and city, and explains where biophilic design theory sits in this field. Examples from recent research carried out in London and Chicago are provided, aiming at demonstrating what kind of research can be functional to what context, followed by a detailed analysis of its application supporting both human and ecological health. The study concludes indicating key policy and design lessons learned around regenerative design and biophilia as well as new directions for action, particularly with regard to climate change, sense of place, and well-being.
The Role of Information Management for the Sustainable Conservation of Cultural Heritage
Authors: Korro Bañuelos Jaione , Rodríguez Miranda Álvaro , Valle-Melón José Manuel , Zornoza-Indart Ainara , Castellano-Román Manuel , Angulo-Fornos Roque , Pinto-Puerto Francisco , Acosta Ibáñez Pilar , Ferreira-Lopes Patricia
Published: April 2021

Central to the entire discipline of heritage restoration and conservation is the concept of information management. Nevertheless, traditionally, conservation and restoration has been a poorly documented discipline, which has led not only to a lack of standardization and awareness about the processes carried out in the past, but also poses problems both when new restoration works are necessary and for the preventive conservation of the elements of heritage. This study sets out to propose a conceptual framework to explore the relationship between conservation of heritage and information management on the basis of case studies; in particular: a spatial data infrastructure (SDI) of a regional government concerning an endangered plant (wild grapevine) with an important potential for cultural and touristic uses in a wine-making region; an open data guide—the Digital Guide of Andalusian Cultural Heritage; a university repository connected to Europeana, which contains reports and outcomes of projects of geometric documentation of elements of heritage; a repository of an organization in charge of the protection and care of the heritage; and finally, two examples of the use of heritage building information models (HBIM) in complex monuments. After discussing the characteristics of each case, this paper concludes that, although the availability of information and tools is growing, further progress is still necessary concerning the interoperability, outreach and reuse of the different solutions.
On the Synergy between Virtual Reality and Multi-Agent Systems
Authors: Ospina-Bohórquez Alejandra , Rodríguez-González Sara , Vergara-Rodríguez Diego
Published: April 2021

Multi-agent systems integrate a great variety of artificial intelligence techniques from different fields, these systems have made it possible to create intelligent systems more efficiently. On the other hand, virtual reality applications are accepted as viable techniques in different areas such as visualization, simulation, design, and research. The combined use of these two technologies has led to the development of realistic and interactive applications. This work aims to do a Systematic Mapping Study (SMS) relying on the guidelines of Kitchenham and Petersen to analyze the state of the art of VR applications using multi-agent systems. Inclusion and exclusion criteria have been applied to identify relevant papers, 82 articles were selected and categorized according to the publication type, the research type, the asset type, and the purpose of the work. A complete review of the 82 selected articles was performed, based on the research questions that were established. This review made it possible to clarify the open lines of research that exist and to know where research in this field can be directed.
Computing Expectiles Using k-Nearest Neighbours Approach
Authors: Farooq Muhammad , Sarfraz Sehrish , Chesneau Christophe , Ul Hassan Mahmood , Raza Muhammad Ali , Sherwani Rehan Ahmad Khan , Jamal Farrukh
Published: April 2021

Expectiles have gained considerable attention in recent years due to wide applications in many areas. In this study, the k-nearest neighbours approach, together with the asymmetric least squares loss function, called ex-kNN, is proposed for computing expectiles. Firstly, the effect of various distance measures on ex-kNN in terms of test error and computational time is evaluated. It is found that Canberra, Lorentzian, and Soergel distance measures lead to minimum test error, whereas Euclidean, Canberra, and Average of (L1,L∞) lead to a low computational cost. Secondly, the performance of ex-kNN is compared with existing packages er-boost and ex-svm for computing expectiles that are based on nine real life examples. Depending on the nature of data, the ex-kNN showed two to 10 times better performance than er-boost and comparable performance with ex-svm regarding test error. Computationally, the ex-kNN is found two to five times faster than ex-svm and much faster than er-boost, particularly, in the case of high dimensional data.
Symmetry and Its Importance in the Oscillation of Solutions of Differential Equations
Authors: AlGhamdi Ahmed , Cesarano Clemente , Almarri Barakah , Bazighifan Omar
Published: April 2021

Oscillation and symmetry play an important role in many applications such as engineering, physics, medicine, and vibration in flight. The purpose of this article is to explore the oscillation of fourth-order differential equations with delay arguments. New Kamenev-type oscillatory properties are established, which are based on a suitable Riccati method to reduce the main equation into a first-order inequality. Our new results extend and simplify existing results in the previous studies. Examples are presented in order to clarify the main results.
Interpretations and Naturalness in the Radiation-Reaction Problem
Authors: Barceló Carlos , Garay Luis J. , Redondo-Yuste Jaime
Published: April 2021

After more than a century of history, the radiation-reaction problem in classical electrodynamics still surprises and puzzles new generations of researchers. Here, we revise and explain some of the paradoxical issues that one faces when approaching the problem, mostly associated with regimes of uniform proper acceleration. The answers we provide can be found in the literature and are a synthesis of a large body of research. We only present them in a personal way that may help in their understanding. Besides, after the presentation of the standard answers, we motivate and present a twist to those ideas. The physics of emission of radiation by extended charges (charges with internal structure) might proceed in a surprising oscillating fashion. This hypothetical process could open up new research paths and a new take on the equivalence principle.
Disassembly Sequence Planning for Intelligent Manufacturing Using Social Engineering Optimizer
Authors: Zhang Cheng , Fathollahi-Fard Amir Mohammad , Li Jianyong , Tian Guangdong , Zhang Tongzhu
Published: April 2021

Product disassembly and recycling are important issues in green design. Disassembly sequence planning (DSP) is an important problem in the product disassembly process. The core idea is to generate the best or approximately optimal disassembly sequence to reduce disassembly costs and time. According to the characteristics of the DSP problem, a new algorithm to solve the DSP problem is proposed. Firstly, a disassembly hybrid graph is introduced, and a disassembly constraint matrix is established. Secondly, the disassembling time, replacement frequency of disassembly tool and replacement frequency of disassembly direction are taken as evaluation criteria to establish the product fitness function. Then, an improved social engineering optimizer (SEO) method is proposed. In order to enable the algorithm to solve the problem of disassembly sequence planning, a swap operator and swap sequence are introduced, and steps of the social engineering optimizer are redefined. Finally, taking a worm reducer as an example, the proposed algorithm is used to generate the disassembly sequence, and the influence of the parameters on the optimization results is analyzed. Compared with several heuristic intelligent optimization methods, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified.
Parallelization of Finding the Current Coordinates of the Lidar Based on the Genetic Algorithm and OpenMP Technology
Authors: Mochurad Lesia , Kryvinska Natalia
Published: April 2021

The problem of determining the position of the lidar with optimal accuracy is relevant in various fields of application. This is an important task of robotics that is widely used as a model when planning the route of vehicles, flight control systems, navigation systems, machine learning, and managing economic efficiency, a study of land degradation processes, planning and control of agricultural production stages, land inventory to evaluations of the consequences of various environmental impacts. The paper provides a detailed analysis of the proposed parallelization algorithm for solving the problem of determining the current position of the lidar. To optimize the computing process in order to accelerate and have the possibility of obtaining a real-time result, the OpenMP parallel computing technology is used. It is also possible to significantly reduce the computational complexity of the successive variant. A number of numerical experiments on the multi-core architecture of modern computers have been carried out. As a result, it was possible to accelerate the computing process about eight times and achieve an efficiency of 0.97. It is shown that a special difference in time of execution of a sequential and parallel algorithm manages to increase the number of measurements of lidar and iterations, which is relevant in simulating various problems of robotics. The obtained results can be substantially improved by selecting a computing system where the number of cores is more than eight. The main areas of application of the developed method are described, its shortcomings and prospects for further research are provided.
Structural Analysis and Whole Genome Mapping of a New Type of Plant Virus Subviral RNA: Umbravirus-Like Associated RNAs
Authors: Liu Jingyuan , Carino Elizabeth , Bera Sayanta , Gao Feng , May Jared P. , Simon Anne E.
Published: April 2021

We report the biological and structural characterization of umbravirus-like associated RNAs (ulaRNAs), a new category of coat-protein dependent subviral RNA replicons that infect plants. These RNAs encode an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) following a −1 ribosomal frameshift event, are 2.7–4.6 kb in length, and are related to umbraviruses, unlike similar RNA replicons that are related to tombusviruses. Three classes of ulaRNAs are proposed, with citrus yellow vein associated virus (CYVaV) placed in Class 2. With the exception of CYVaV, Class 2 and Class 3 ulaRNAs encode an additional open reading frame (ORF) with movement protein-like motifs made possible by additional sequences just past the RdRp termination codon. The full-length secondary structure of CYVaV was determined using Selective 2’ Hydroxyl Acylation analyzed by Primer Extension (SHAPE) structure probing and phylogenic comparisons, which was used as a template for determining the putative structures of the other Class 2 ulaRNAs, revealing a number of distinctive structural features. The ribosome recoding sites of nearly all ulaRNAs, which differ significantly from those of umbraviruses, may exist in two conformations and are highly efficient. The 3′ regions of Class 2 and Class 3 ulaRNAs have structural elements similar to those of nearly all umbraviruses, and all Class 2 ulaRNAs have a unique, conserved 3′ cap-independent translation enhancer. CYVaV replicates independently in protoplasts, demonstrating that the reported sequence is full-length. Additionally, CYVaV contains a sequence in its 3′ UTR that confers protection to nonsense mediated decay (NMD), thus likely obviating the need for umbravirus ORF3, a known suppressor of NMD. This initial characterization lays down a road map for future investigations into these novel virus-like RNAs.
Quinine Inhibits Infection of Human Cell Lines with SARS-CoV-2
Authors: Große Maximilian , Ruetalo Natalia , Layer Mirjam , Hu Dan , Businger Ramona , Rheber Sascha , Setz Christian , Rauch Pia , Auth Janina , Fröba Maria , Brysch Ekkehard , Schindler Michael , Schubert Ulrich
Published: April 2021

While vaccination campaigns are ongoing worldwide, there is still a tremendous medical need for efficient antivirals against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Among several drug candidates, chloroquine (CQN) and hydroxychloroquine (H-CQN) were tested intensively, and any contentious therapeutic effect of both has been discussed controversially in the light of severe side effects and missing efficacy. Originally, H-CQN descended from the natural substance quinine, a medicinal product used since the Middle Ages, which actually is regulatory approved for various indications. We hypothesized that quinine also exerts anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity. In Vero cells, quinine inhibited SARS-CoV-2 infection more effectively than CQN, and H-CQN and was less toxic. In human Caco-2 colon epithelial cells as well as the lung cell line A549 stably expressing ACE2 and TMPRSS2, quinine also showed antiviral activity. In consistence with Vero cells, quinine was less toxic in A549 as compared to CQN and H-CQN. Finally, we confirmed our findings in Calu-3 lung cells, expressing ACE2 and TMPRSS2 endogenously. In Calu-3, infections with high titers of SARS-CoV-2 were completely blocked by quinine, CQN, and H-CQN in concentrations above 50 µM. The estimated IC50s were ~25 µM in Calu-3, while overall, the inhibitors exhibit IC50 values between ~3.7 to ~50 µM, dependent on the cell line and multiplicity of infection (MOI). Conclusively, our data indicate that quinine could have the potential of a treatment option for SARS-CoV-2, as the toxicological and pharmacological profile seems more favorable when compared to its progeny drugs H-CQN or CQN.
Broad-Spectrum Antiviral Activity of 3D8, a Nucleic Acid-Hydrolyzing Single-Chain Variable Fragment (scFv), Targeting SARS-CoV-2 and Multiple Coronaviruses In Vitro
Authors: Lee Gunsup , Budhathoki Shailesh , Lee Geum-Young , Oh Kwang-ji , Ham Yeon , Kim Young-Jun , Lim Ye , Hoang Phuong , Lee Yongjun , Lim Seok-Won , Kim Jun-Mo , Cho Seungchan , Kim Tai-Hyun , Song Jin-Won , Lee Sukchan , Kim Won-Keun
Published: April 2021

The virus behind the current pandemic, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the etiology of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and poses a critical public health threat worldwide. Effective therapeutics and vaccines against multiple coronaviruses remain unavailable. Single-chain variable fragment (scFv), a recombinant antibody, exhibits broad-spectrum antiviral activity against DNA and RNA viruses owing to its nucleic acid-hydrolyzing property. The antiviral activity of 3D8 scFv against SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses was evaluated in Vero E6 cell cultures. Viral growth was quantified with quantitative RT-qPCR and plaque assay. The nucleic acid-hydrolyzing activity of 3D8 was assessed through abzyme assays of in vitro viral transcripts and cell viability was determined by MTT assay. We found that 3D8 inhibited the replication of SARS-CoV-2, human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43), and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV). Our results revealed the prophylactic and therapeutic effects of 3D8 scFv against SARS-CoV-2 in Vero E6 cells. Immunoblot and plaque assays showed the reduction of coronavirus nucleoproteins and infectious particles, respectively, in 3D8 scFv-treated cells. These data demonstrate the broad-spectrum antiviral activity of 3D8 against SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses. Thus, it could be considered a potential antiviral countermeasure against SARS-CoV-2 and zoonotic coronaviruses.
Screening of FDA-Approved Drugs Using a MERS-CoV Clinical Isolate from South Korea Identifies Potential Therapeutic Options for COVID-19
Authors: Ko Meehyun , Chang So Young , Byun Soo Young , Ianevski Aleksandr , Choi Inhee , Pham Hung d’Alexandry d’Orengiani Anne-Laure , Ravlo Erlend , Wang Wei , Bjørås Magnar , Kainov Denis E. , Shum David , Min Ji-Young , Windisch Marc P.
Published: April 2021

Therapeutic options for coronaviruses remain limited. To address this unmet medical need, we screened 5406 compounds, including United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs and bioactives, for activity against a South Korean Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) clinical isolate. Among 221 identified hits, 54 had therapeutic indexes (TI) greater than 6, representing effective drugs. The time-of-addition studies with selected drugs demonstrated eight and four FDA-approved drugs which acted on the early and late stages of the viral life cycle, respectively. Confirmed hits included several cardiotonic agents (TI > 100), atovaquone, an anti-malarial (TI > 34), and ciclesonide, an inhalable corticosteroid (TI > 6). Furthermore, utilizing the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), we tested combinations of remdesivir with selected drugs in Vero-E6 and Calu-3 cells, in lung organoids, and identified ciclesonide, nelfinavir, and camostat to be at least additive in vitro. Our results identify potential therapeutic options for MERS-CoV infections, and provide a basis to treat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and other coronavirus-related illnesses.