bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Nitrogen Fertilizer and Nitrapyrin for Greenhouse Gas Reduction in Wolfberry Orchards on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau
Authors: Lu Jiujin , Xu Yunzhang , Sheng Haiyan , Gao Yajun , Moir Jim , Zhang Rong , Xie Shouzhong
Published: July 2022

Wolfberry production has become a major agro-industry on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, causing increased nitrogen (N) pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Appropriate N fertilizer rate and nitrification inhibitors may mitigate GHG emissions and improve N use efficiency. A 2-year field experiment was conducted to measure the effects of N application rate and nitrapyrin on GHG emissions, to reduce GHG emissions and N pollution. We used eight treatments: Control (CK), 667 kg·ha−1 N (Con), 400 kg·ha−1 N (N400), 267 kg·ha−1 N (N267), 133 kg·ha−1 N (N133), 400 kg·ha−1 N plus 2.00 kg·ha−1 nitrapyrin (N400I2.00), 267 kg·ha−1 N plus 1.33 kg·ha−1 nitrapyrin (N267I1.33) and 133 kg·ha−1 N plus 0.67 kg·ha−1 nitrapyrin (N133I0.67). Compared with Con treatment, N400 maintained fruit yield and increased net income, but saved 40% of N fertilizer and decreased the cumulative N2O emission by 14–16%. Compared to N400, N267 and N133 treatments, the cumulative N2O emission of N400I2.00, N267I1.33 and N133I0.67 treatments was reduced by 28.5–45.1%, 26.6–29.9% and 33.8–45.9%, respectively. Furthermore, N400I2.00 resulted in the highest wolfberry yield and net income. The emissions of CH4 and CO2 were not significantly different among treatments. Moreover, the global warming potential (GWP) and the greenhouse gas emission intensity (GHGI) of N400I2.00 declined by 45.6% and 48.6% compared to Con treatment. Therefore, 400 kg·ha−1 N combined with 2.00 kg·ha−1 nitrapyrin was shown to be a promising management technique for maintaining wolfberry yield while minimizing GWP and GHGI.
Research on Hydraulic Properties and Energy Dissipation Mechanism of the Novel Water-Retaining Labyrinth Channel Emitters
Authors: Li Yanfei , Feng Xianying , Liu Yandong , Han Xingchang , Liu Haiyang , Sun Yitian , Li Hui , Xie Yining
Published: July 2022

As a key component of a drip irrigation system, the performance of the drip irrigation emitters is mainly determined by the flow channel structures and structural parameters. In this study, a novel type of circular water-retaining labyrinth channel (CWRLC) structure emitter was proposed, inspired by the effect of roundabouts that make vehicles slow down and turn. Using the single-factor experiment method, the influence of the hydraulic performance of CWRLC emitters was researched under different circular radii. The internal flow characteristics and energy dissipation mechanism were analyzed by a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. It can be seen from the analysis that the energy dissipation abilities of the flow channel depend on the proportion of low-speed vortex areas. The larger the proportion of low-speed vortex areas, the smaller the flow index of the CWRLC emitter. Quadrate water-retaining labyrinth channel (QWRLC) and stellate water-retaining labyrinth channel (SWRLC) structures were obtained by structural improvements for increasing the proportion of low-speed vortex areas. The simulation results showed that the flow indexes of two improved structural emitters were significantly decreased. CWRLC, QWRLC, SWRLC, and widely used tooth labyrinth channel (TLC) emitters were manufactured by using technologies of electrical discharge machining (EDM) and injection molding (IM). The physical test results showed that the SWRLC emitter achieved the best hydraulic performance compared with the other three emitters. Therefore, the SWRLC emitter has a broad prospect of application in water-saving irrigation.
SNP Genotyping for Purity Assessment of a Forage Oat (Avena sativa L.) Variety from Colombia
Authors: Campuzano-Duque Luis Fernando , Bejarano-Garavito Diego , Castillo-Sierra Javier , Torres-Cuesta Daniel Ricardo , Cortés Andrés J. , Blair Matthew Wohlgemuth
Published: July 2022

Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers have multiple applications in plant breeding of small grains. They are used for the selection of divergent parents, the identification of genetic variants and marker-assisted selection. However, the use of SNPs in varietal purity assessment is under-reported, especially for multi-line varieties from the public sector. In the case of variety evaluation, these genetic markers are tools for maintaining varietal distinctness, uniformity and stability needed for cultivar release of multi-line or pure-line varieties of inbred crops. The objective of this research was to evaluate the purity and relationships of one original (AV-25) and two multi-line sub-populations (AV25-T and AV25-S) of the inbreeding species, oats (Avena sativa L.). Both sub-populations could be useful as forages in the central highland region of Colombia (>2000 masl), such as in the departments of Boyacá and Cundinamarca, even though they were derived from an original composite mixture widely used in the mountainsides of the southern department of Nariño named Avena 25. Representative single plant selections (SPS) from the two sub-populations were grown together with SPS harvests from off-type plants (early and late) and plants from the original AV25 composite mixture, to determine their genetic similarity. Plants were genotyped by DNA extraction of a plateful of 96 individual plant samples and SNPs were detected for an Illumina Infinium 6K Chip assay. The data were used for the analysis of genetic structure and population relationships. The grouping observed based on the genetic data indicated that AV25-T and AV25-S were homogeneous populations and somewhat divergent in their genetic profile compared to the original AV25-C mix. In addition, to the two commercial, certified oat varieties (Cajicá and Cayuse) were different from these. The early and late selections were probable contaminants and could be discarded. We concluded that the use of SNP markers is an appropriate tool for ensuring genetic purity of oat varieties.
Hydromulching Enhances the Growth of Artichoke (Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus) Plants Subjected to Drought Stress through Hormonal Regulation of Source–Sink Relationships
Authors: Romero-Muñoz Miriam , Gálvez Amparo , Martínez-Melgarejo Purificación A. , Piñero María Carmen , del Amor Francisco M. , Albacete Alfonso , López-Marín Josefa
Published: July 2022

Mulching the soil with organic-based formulations (hydromulching) is a sustainable alternative to plastic mulching that is here hypothesized to maintain crop production under drought stress by hormonal and metabolic regulation of source–sink relationships. To test this hypothesis, artichoke plants were grown on non-mulched soil and on soil mulched with polyethylene and three different organic mixtures, and subjected to optimal and reduced irrigation regimes. Under drought stress, the growth parameters were higher in plants grown with the different mulching treatments compared to non-mulched plants, which was related to a higher photosynthetic rate and water-use efficiency. Importantly, mulching-associated growth improvement under stress was explained by higher sucrolytic activity in the leaves that was accompanied by a decline in the active cytokinins. Besides this, salicylic acid decreased in the leaves, and abscisic acid and the ethylene precursor 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid were impaired in the artichoke heads, which is associated with better regulation of photoassimilate partitioning. Taken together, these results help to explain the hydromulching-associated growth improvement of artichokes under water stress through the hormonal regulation of sucrose metabolism, which could be very useful in future breeding programs for drought tolerance.
Rumination and Activity Patterns in Angus and Angus-Cross Beef Calves: Influences of Sex, Breed, and Backgrounding Diet
Authors: Omontese Bobwealth , Zakari Friday , Webb Megan
Published: July 2022

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the influences of sex, breed, and backgrounding diet on rumination and activity patterns in Angus and Angus-cross beef calves; and the daily variations in rumination and activity in Angus and Angus-cross beef calves under different backgrounding systems. A total of 62 freshly weaned calves were vaccinated and randomly stratified by sex (heifers and steers), breed (Angus and Angus × Simmental cross), and assigned randomly to 3 backgrounding treatments for 55 days. The peak values for rumination and activity in heifers, steers, Angus, and Angus × Simmental cross occurred during the dark and light phases of the dark/light cycle, respectively. Beef calves backgrounded on cover crops had higher (p < 0.05) rumination (45.33 ± 1.57 min) compared with calves backgrounded on a perennial pasture (43.96 ± 1.47 min) diet. Similarly, drylot calves (24.16 ± 0.68 min) had higher (p < 0.05) activity compared to perennial pasture (23.49 ± 0.72 min). The results showed that sex and breed did not influence rumination and activity of Angus and Angus-cross beef calves during the study period. We concluded that the time of the day and backgrounding diet influenced rumination and activity patterns of Angus and Angus-cross beef calves.
Assessment of Mutation Drift Equilibrium and the Occurrence of a Recent Genetic Bottleneck in South Indian Zebu Cattle
Authors: Manomohan Vandana , Ramasamy Saravanan , Pichler Rudolf , Nagarajan Murali , Karuppusamy Sivakumar , Krovvidi Sudhakar , Nachiappan Raja K. , Peters Sunday O. , Periasamy Kathiravan
Published: July 2022

During the last few decades, the effective population size of indigenous zebu cattle breeds has declined drastically, resulting in the classification of some of them into the vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered category. Drastic reductions in the effective size of a population may result in genetic bottlenecks and can affect within-breed genetic variability and its viability. The present study was undertaken with the objective of evaluating South Indian zebu cattle populations for mutation drift equilibrium and to detect the occurrence of recent genetic bottleneck events. A total of 293 cattle from eight indigenous breeds were genotyped at 27 FAO/ISAG-recommended microsatellite marker loci. Three different statistical tests, viz., the sign test, standardized differences test, and Wilcoxon sign rank test were performed using allele frequency data to detect loci with heterozygosity excess under the infinite alleles, stepwise, and two-phase mutation models. Under the infinite alleles model, the observed number of loci with heterozygosity excess (He > Heq) ranged between 10 and 19 among the investigated cattle breeds. However, the observed heterozygosity excess was not statistically significant (p > 0.05) in any of the studied breeds. Similarly, the standardized differences test and Wilcoxon sign rank test revealed no concrete evidence for the occurrence of a recent genetic bottleneck in South Indian zebu cattle breeds. The qualitative test for mode-shift distortion revealed a normal L-shaped distribution of allele frequencies, suggesting a lack of evidence for the loss of low-frequency alleles in all the investigated South Indian zebu cattle breeds.
Alternative Paradigms in Animal Health Decisions: A Framework for Treating Animals Not Only as Commodities
Authors: Liz Paola Noguera Z. , Torgerson Paul R. , Hartnack Sonja
Published: July 2022

Zoonoses are diseases transmitted from (vertebrate) animals to humans in the environment. The control and prevention of these diseases require an appropriate way to measure health value for prudent and well-balanced decisions in public health, production costs, and market values. Currently, the impact of diseases and animal disease control measures are typically assessed in monetary values, thus lacking consideration of other values such as emotional, societal, ecological, among others. Therefore, a framework is proposed that aims to explore, understand, and open up a conversation about the non-monetary value of animals through environmental and normative ethics. This method might help us complement the existing metrics in health, which are currently DALY and zDALY, adding more comprehensive values for animal and human health to the “One Health” approach. As an example of this framework application, participants can choose what they are willing to give in exchange for curing an animal in hypothetical scenarios selecting a human health condition to suffer, the amount of money, and lifetime as a tradeoff. Considering animals beyond their monetary value in public health decisions might contribute to a more rigorous assessment of the burden of zoonotic diseases, among other health decisions. This study is structured as follows: after a brief introduction of zoonoses, animal health, and health metrics, briefly, different environmental health perspectives are presented. Based on this, a framework for animal health decisions is proposed. This framework introduces the “anthropozoocentric interface” based on anthropocentrism and zoocentrism perspectives.
Overexpression of DGAT2 Stimulates Lipid Droplet Formation and Triacylglycerol Accumulation in Bovine Satellite Cells
Authors: Zhang Jun-Fang , Choi Seong-Ho , Li Qiang , Wang Ying , Sun Bin , Tang Lin , Wang En-Ze , Hua Huan , Li Xiang-Zi
Published: July 2022

Intramuscular fat (IMF) is closely related to the tenderness, juiciness, and flavor of beef, and is an important indicator for beef quality assessment internationally. The main components of skeletal intramuscular fat (IMF) are phospholipids and triacylglycerols (TAG), and the final step of TAG biosynthesis is catalyzed by diacylglycerol acyltransferase 2 (DGAT2). To explore the effect of DGAT2 on the differentiation of bovine muscle satellite cells (BSCs) and its role in the signaling pathway related to lipid metabolism, the adenovirus overexpression and interference vector of the DGAT2 gene was constructed in this study, and the overexpression adenovirus Ad-DGAT2 and interfering adenovirus sh-DGAT2 were used to infect BSCs. Overexpression of DGAT2 resulted in a significant increase in the contents of TAG and ADP, and the mRNA and protein expression levels of PPARγ, C/EBPα, and SREBF1 (p < 0.05). Interfering with the expression of DGAT2 reduced the intracellular TAG content and lipid droplet accumulation. Furthermore, the mRNA and protein expression levels of PPARγ, C/EBPα, and SREBF1 (p < 0.05) were significantly downregulated. Transcriptome sequencing showed that a total of 598 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened in BSCs infected with Ad-DGAT2, and these DEGs included 292 upregulated genes and 306 downregulated genes. A total of 49 DEGs were screened in BSCs infected with sh-DGAT2, and these DEGs included 25 upregulated and 24 downregulated genes. KEGG enrichment analysis showed that the DEGs, after overexpression of DGAT2, were mainly enriched in the PPAR signaling pathway, and the fat digestion and absorption, glycerophospholipid metabolism, fatty acid biosynthesis, and AMPK signaling pathways. The DEGs obtained after interfering with DGAT2 were mainly enriched in the metabolic pathways, such as the PPAR signaling pathway and PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. In summary, our study demonstrated that the lipid droplet formation, TAG accumulation, and adipogenic gene expression in BSCs overexpressing DGAT2 were higher than those in the control cells. These results highlight the important role of DGAT2 in regulating BSCs during adipogenic transdifferentiation and underscore the complexity of intramuscular adipogenesis.
Assessment of the Compliance of Cystitis Management According to French Recommendations through the Analysis of Prescriptions Collected in Community Pharmacies
Authors: Piraux Arthur , Hammoud Ramy , Riou Jérémie , Lebdai Souhil , Faure Sébastien
Published: July 2022

Urinary tract infections, especially cystitis, are common infections; they are the second most prevalent cause of antibiotic prescriptions in community pharmacies. To reduce antimicrobial resistance, guidelines are revised regularly. This study aims to assess compliance between prescriptions collected in community pharmacies and French cystitis guidelines. A treatment is considered compliant if the nature, dosage, and duration of the antibiotics are correct. Only women aged 18–65 years with a diagnosis of cystitis were eligible. The participation of 16 pharmacies resulted in 303 prescriptions. Most infections were classified as uncomplicated cystitis (79.2%), general practitioners were the prescribers in more than 9 out of 10 cases, and fosfomycin trometamol was the antibiotic dispensed for 1 in 2 women. An average compliance of 66% was observed, but with disparities according to the type of cystitis. Two-thirds of cases of uncomplicated cystitis and recurrent cystitis followed the recommendations, whereas only 15% of cystitis cases that were at risk of complication did so. The inclusion of a urine examination in uncomplicated cystitis decreased the overall compliance rate to 5.8%. These results show the essential role played by pharmacists; they are the last line of defence before dispensing antibiotics. They must know the recommendations in order to apply them.
Profiling Antibiotic Resistance in Acinetobacter calcoaceticus
Authors: Glover Janiece S. , Ticer Taylor D. , Engevik Melinda A.
Published: July 2022

Background: Acinetobacter spp. have emerged as troublesome pathogens due to their multi-drug resistance. The majority of the work to date has focused on the antibiotic resistance profile of Acinetobacter baumannii. Although A. calcoaceticus strains are isolated in the hospital setting, limited information is available on these closely related species. Methods & Results: The computational analysis of antibiotic resistance genes in 1441 Acinetobacter genomes revealed that A. calcoaceticus harbored a similar repertoire of multi-drug efflux pump and beta-lactam resistance genes as A. baumannii, leading us to speculate that A. calcoaceticus would have a similar antibiotic resistance profile to A. baumannii. To profile the resistance patterns of A. calcoaceticus, strains were examined by Kirby–Bauer disk diffusion and phenotypic microarrays. We found that Acinetobacter strains were moderately to highly resistant to certain antibiotics within fluoroquinolones, aminoglycosides, tetracyclines, and other antibiotic classes. These data indicate that A. calcoaceticus has a similar antibiotic resistance profile as A. baumannii ATCC 19606. We also identified that all Acinetobacter species were sensitive to 5-fluoroorotic acid, novobiocin, and benzethonium chloride. Conclusion: Collectively, these data provide new insights into the antibiotic resistance in A. calcoaceticus and identify several antibiotics that could be beneficial in treating Acinetobacter infections.
Antimicrobial Activity of Essential Oils Evaluated In Vitro against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus
Authors: Galgano Michela , Capozza Paolo , Pellegrini Francesco , Cordisco Marco , Sposato Alessio , Sblano Sabina , Camero Michele , Lanave Gianvito , Fracchiolla Giuseppe , Corrente Marialaura , Cirone Francesco , Trotta Adriana , Tempesta Maria , Buonavoglia Domenico , Pratelli Annamaria
Published: July 2022

The spread of extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus has caused a reduction in antibiotic effectiveness and an increase in mortality rates. Essential oils (EOs), known for their therapeutic efficacy, can be configured as novel broad-spectrum biocides. Accordingly, the bacteriostatic–bactericidal activity of Citrus Lemon (LEO), Pinus Sylvestris (PEO), Foeniculum Vulgaris (FEO), Ocimum Basilicum (BEO), Melissa Officinalis (MEO), Thymus Vulgaris (TEO), and Zingiber Officinalis Rosc. (GEO), at concentrations ranging from 1.25 to 40% (v/v), were tested in vitro against different E. coli and S. aureus strains using minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBCs). The chemical compositions of the EOs were analyzed using GC/MS. The major components of all seven tested oils were limonene, α-pinene, anethole, estragole, citral, thymol, and zingiberene, respectively. We found that the bacteriostatic–bactericidal activity of the EOs was related to their chemotypes and concentrations, as well as the strain of the bacteria. A dose–effect correlation was found when testing GEO against S. aureus strains, whilst FEO was found to have no activity regardless of concentration. PEO, MEO, and BEO were found to have bactericidal effect with a MIC and MBC of 1.25% (v/v) against S. aureus strains, and LEO was found to have values of 1.25% (v/v) and 5% (v/v) against ATCC and clinical isolate, respectively. Interestingly, the antimicrobial activity of TEO was not related to oil concentration and the complete inhibition of growth across all E. coli and S. aureus was observed. Although preliminary, our data demonstrate the efficacy of EOs and pave the way for further investigations on their potential synergistic use with traditional drugs in the human and veterinary fields.
Loss of KEAP1 Causes an Accumulation of Nondegradative Organelles
Authors: Uribe-Carretero Elisabet , Martinez-Chacón Guadalupe , Yakhine-Diop Sokhna M. S. , Duque-González Gema , Rodríguez-Arribas Mario , Alegre-Cortés Eva , Paredes-Barquero Marta , Canales-Cortés Saray , Pizarro-Estrella Elisa , Cuadrado Antonio , González-Polo Rosa Ana , Fuentes José M. , Niso-Santano Mireia
Published: July 2022

KEAP1 is a cytoplasmic protein that functions as an adaptor for the Cullin-3-based ubiquitin E3 ligase system, which regulates the degradation of many proteins, including NFE2L2/NRF2 and p62/SQSTM1. Loss of KEAP1 leads to an accumulation of protein ubiquitin aggregates and defective autophagy. To better understand the role of KEAP1 in the degradation machinery, we investigated whether Keap1 deficiency affects the endosome-lysosomal pathway. We used KEAP1-deficient mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) and combined Western blot analysis and fluorescence microscopy with fluorometric and pulse chase assays to analyze the levels of lysosomal-endosomal proteins, lysosomal function, and autophagy activity. We found that the loss of keap1 downregulated the protein levels and activity of the cathepsin D enzyme. Moreover, KEAP1 deficiency caused lysosomal alterations accompanied by an accumulation of autophagosomes. Our study demonstrates that KEAP1 deficiency increases nondegradative lysosomes and identifies a new role for KEAP1 in lysosomal function that may have therapeutic implications.
Optimization of Conventional Extraction Parameters for Recovering Phenolic Compounds from Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Peels and Their Application as an Antioxidant in Yogurt Formulation
Authors: Brahmi Fatiha , Mateos-Aparicio Inmaculada , Garcia-Alonso Alejandra , Abaci Nadjet , Saoudi Salima , Smail-Benazzouz Leila , Guemghar-Haddadi Hayate , Madani Khodir , Boulekbache-Makhlouf Lila
Published: July 2022

The aim of this work was to optimize the conventional parameters for the extraction of phenolic compounds from potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) peels (PP). A central composite design (CCD) was used to establish the impacts of ethanol concentration (%), extraction time (min), and liquid/solid ratio (mL/g). The optimal experimental conditions that maximized extraction were ethanol at a concentration of 80% (v/v) for a time of 150 min with a ratio of 1 g/30 mL. Under optimal conditions, the total phenolic content (TPC) and the total flavonoid content (TFC) were 204.41 ± 8.64 mg GAE/100 g DW and 21.47 ± 0.76 mg QE/100 g DW, respectively. The PP extract had a potent antioxidant capacity tested by phosphomolybdate and DPPH assays with IC50 of 10.65 ± 0.21 and 179.75 ± 3.18 µg/mL, respectively. Furthermore, by fortifying yogurt with PP as a natural ingredient, an improvement ofits physical, nutritional, antioxidant, and sensorial qualities was attempted in this study. The yogurts formulated with PP revealed significantly higher (p ≤ 0.05) TPC, TFC, and antioxidant capacity in comparison with the control sample. In addition, the sensory evaluation showed that the yogurts enriched with PP were preferred over the control yogurt. The results indicate that PP can be considered an interesting byproduct since it can improve the nutritional, bioactive, and sensorial profile of yogurt, highlighting that PP, due to its high phenol content, can substantially improve the antioxidant effect of the new formulated yogurt.
Dietary Selenium and Its Antioxidant Properties Related to Growth, Lipid and Energy Metabolism
Authors: Ojeda María Luisa , Nogales Fátima
Published: July 2022

Selenium (Se) is an essential trace element mainly known for its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic properties [...]
Resistance to Obesity in SOD1 Deficient Mice with a High-Fat/High-Sucrose Diet
Authors: Sato Atsushi , Shiraishi Yasunaga , Kimura Toyokazu , Osaki Ayumu , Kagami Kazuki , Ido Yasuo , Adachi Takeshi
Published: July 2022

Metabolic syndrome (Mets) is an important condition because it may cause stroke and heart disease in the future. Reactive oxygen species (ROSs) influence the pathogenesis of Mets; however, the types of ROSs and their localization remain largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the effects of SOD1, which localize to the cytoplasm and mitochondrial intermembrane space and metabolize superoxide anion, on Mets using SOD1 deficient mice (SOD1−/−). SOD1−/− fed on a high-fat/high-sucrose diet (HFHSD) for 24 weeks showed reduced body weight gain and adipose tissue size compared to wild-type mice (WT). Insulin secretion was dramatically decreased in SOD1−/− fed on HFHSD even though blood glucose levels were similar to WT. Ambulatory oxygen consumption was accelerated in SOD1−/− with HFHSD; however, ATP levels of skeletal muscle were somewhat reduced compared to WT. Reflecting the reduced ATP, the expression of phosphorylated AMPK (Thr 172) was more robust in SOD1−/−. SOD1 is involved in the ATP production mechanism in mitochondria and may contribute to visceral fat accumulation by causing insulin secretion and insulin resistance.
Development and Application of Standard Device for Calibrating Steel Measuring Tape Based on Machine Vision
Authors: Wang Peng , Zhao Hongliang , Ren Guoying
Published: July 2022

Aiming to address the disadvantages of the low automation degree of the traditional steel measuring tape verification device, as well as the high labor intensity of metrologists, high time costs, and low measurement accuracy, this paper develops a new automatic steel measuring tape calibration device based on machine vision technology. In this study, the key components, such as the tape-winding mechanism, machine vision system, force measuring device, and tape-retracting device, were designed. Three different scribed line identification and location algorithms, processing the longest line, the closest to the starting line, the highest line, etc., were designed to adapt to different types of steel measuring tape. Lastly, indication error and measurement repeatability tests were carried out. The results showed that the standard device can carry out the verification and calibration of steel measuring tape, and the maximum repeatability of the indication error of the test objects was 0.025 mm, 0.038 mm, and 0.030 mm, respectively, and the indication error of each object was within the allowable error limits. The uncertainty evaluation of the indication error of each test object was 0.16 mm, 0.54 mm, 0.78 mm, which was not more than one third of the maximum permissible error value. Hence, the measuring principle, method, and procedure of the calibration device are shown to be scientific and feasible.
Study on the Energy Efficiency Improvement and Operation Optimization of a Solar Water Heating System
Authors: Huang Dawei , Ma Hongting , Ma Shuo , Chen Mo , Xu Chang , Zhang Yongyichuan , Yan Cong
Published: July 2022

The solar-assisted electric boiler water heating systems adopted in student apartments at universities have some shortcomings, such as unsuitable system designs, unstable water supply temperature, and excessive power consumption. As discussed in this paper, the hot water supply system was reformed, and two apartments with the same building area, same solar collector area, and similar water consumption were selected to be used in comparative experiments. The auxiliary heat source for one of the apartments was changed from an electric boiler to three air source heat pumps, and a constant temperature water tank was added to form a double-tank water supply system. In addition, the operation strategy was adjusted. The other apartment was not modified. The energy consumption, solar fraction, water supply quality and economy of the two systems were analyzed and compared. The results showed that the transformation plan is reasonable and feasible. The solar fraction of the reformed system was significantly improved. The water supply temperature of the original system ranged from 35 °C to 60 °C, but it was shown to stabilize between 40 °C and 50 °C after the transformation. The average power saving rate of the reformed system reached 72.70%, and this economic benefit is highly significant. Additionally, the TRNSYS simulation software was used to model and optimize the control of the system.
Self-Anti-Disturbance Control of a Hydraulic System Subjected to Variable Static Loads
Authors: Wang Xigui , Zhang Jian , Wang Yongmei , Li Chen
Published: July 2022

A hydraulic system’s lubricating oil is subject to serialized variable static loads with performance. An improved self-turbulent flow algorithm, based on the real-time acquisition and monitoring of lubricating oil static pressure in a hydraulic system to simulate variable static loads, is proposed. A mathematical model of the electrohydraulic servo control system for lubricating oil static pressure acquisition is presented, and the self-turbulent flow controller is designed for numerical analysis. The self-anti-disturbance control strategy for the lubricating oil static pressure of an electrohydraulic servo system is discussed, which is used for quadratic optimization, pole placement, PID, and self-turbulent flow control, and the lubricating oil static pressure simulation model of self-turbulent flow control is constructed by a SIMULINK module. The numerical simulation results indicate that the overshoot is significantly reduced. The proposed self-anti-disturbance control algorithm is verified by experiments, and the lubricating oil static pressure acquisition followability and monitoring accuracy are greatly improved. Variable hydraulic lubricating oil static pressure acquisition and monitoring can be effectively and stably adjusted by a predesigned electrohydraulic servo control system in the field of power hydraulic fluid lubrication.
Screening of Plants and Indigenous Bacteria to Improve Arsenic Phytoextraction
Authors: Franchi Elisabetta , Barbafieri Meri , Petruzzelli Gianniantonio , Ferro Sergio , Vocciante Marco
Published: July 2022

Arsenic (As) is one of the most common inorganic pollutants; unfortunately, it is also one of the most toxic and is therefore a cause of great concern for the health risks that could result from it. Removing arsenic from the soil using phytoremediation approaches is an effective strategy, and several studies demonstrate the ability of Cannabis sativa (TSN 19109, hemp) to tolerate this harmful contaminant. The aim of this work was to identify the best experimental conditions for a phytoremediation plan to be applied in a disused area located in Sicily (Italy) and contaminated by As, comparing Cannabis sativa with Brassica juncea (TSN 23059) and Zea mays (TSN 42269, corn). To assist the process, several chelating agents were tested to improve arsenic mobility, and two different sets of arsenic-tolerant bacteria were isolated from the rhizospheric soil of indigenous herbaceous species and used to promote plant growth, leading to a significant improvement in terms of biomass produced and phytoextraction. After the combined treatment, the arsenic content in the aerial part of the plants increased by more than two orders of magnitude (e.g., from 0.05 to 6.57 mg kg−1, from 0.04 to 6.69 mg kg−1, and from 0.03 to 5.57 mg kg−1 for brassica, corn, and hemp, respectively), confirming the marked increase in the total absorption of As by plants.
An Improved Algorithm for Low-Light Image Enhancement Based on RetinexNet
Authors: Tang Hao , Zhu Hongyu , Tao Huanjie , Xie Chao
Published: July 2022

Due to the influence of the environment and the limit of optical equipment, low-light images produce problems such as low brightness, high noise, low contrast, and color distortion, which have a great impact on their visual perception and the following image understanding tasks. In this paper, we take advantage of the independent nature of YCbCr color channels and incorporate RetinexNet into the brightness channel (Y) to reduce color distortion in the enhanced images. Meanwhile, to suppress the image noise generated during the enhancement, the enhanced image is also denoised. Finally, the original color and the enhanced brightness are recombined in the channel direction, converted back to the RGB color space, and adjusted to generate an enhanced result. The proposed algorithm is compared with other recently published counterparts on the LOL dataset. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieved better performance in terms of both quantitative metrics and visual quality.
A Blockchain-Enabled Distributed Advanced Metering Infrastructure Secure Communication (BC-AMI)
Authors: Islam Nahida , Rahman Md. Sazzadur , Mahmud Imtiaz , Sifat Md. Nur Amin , Cho You-Ze
Published: July 2022

The world is facing an urgent need to provide secure communication and data access control in advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) because conventional cryptographic key management and authentication protocols are at stake. The cryptography schemes entirely rely on trusted third parties (TTPs), leading to a single point of failure and increasing network overhead. In response to this inefficiency and security compromise, this study proposes a blockchain-enabled distributed AMI secure communication scheme. In the proposed work, smart contract (SC), an integrated part of the blockchain, is programmed to substitute traditional TTP-based transaction systems, which operate in a distributed, immutable, and trustworthy manner. In this paper, we implemented practical Byzantine fault tolerance (PBFT) consensus algorithm and Hyperledger Fabric (HLF) blockchain platform to ensure Byzantine fault tolerance in the blockchain transaction. Performance analysis shows that the proposed BC-AMI scheme has the advantage of incurring the least amount of communication and time costs compared with similar studies while ensuring security against some common cyber-attacks.
Assessment of Diagnostic Radiology Facilities Technical Radiation Protection Requirements in KSA
Authors: Alyami Jaber , Nassef M. H.
Published: July 2022

The national regulatory body in the state regulates the source of ionizing radiation such as diagnostic radiology to minimize exposure to the operators and the patients. The Saudi Food and Drug Authority (KSA-SFDA) cover all medical regulatory aspects of ionizing radiation such as diagnostic X-ray facilities for all practices and intervention requirements. The study presents an assessment and analysis of the level of technical radiation protection requirements and the status of applying the national regulatory standards for different diagnostic facilities in KSA. Based on the online scientific recent database published in the field of radiation protection regulations and dose assessment for diagnostic radiology in KSA, and from the data published by the KSA-SFDA report in 2015. About 109 diagnostic X-ray facilities were selected from 35 governorates distributed in the kingdom. More than 95% of the examined facilities were in good condition concerning the national radiological protection technical regulation. About 11.9% of the facilities had a radiation leakage or cracks in the wall of the X-ray room/entrance door of the room. 16.5% of the facilities did not have a radiation warning sign written in Arabic/English languages. About 21.9% of the operators did not use any personal radiation dosimeter such as TLD or OSL. More than 40.7% of those facilities do not keep a record of the personal dosimeter reading at their facilities. Only 11.1% of the examined facilities do not have any personal protective tools such as a lead apron or thyroid shield. About 38.2% of the examined facilities do not carry out the annual periodic maintenance for the used X-ray machines at those facilities. From the obtained results, it was concluded that the majority of the radiation protection, radiation safety requirements and physical security measures undertaken in these facilities were in good implementation of the national and international technical regulations. The study suggests a need to apply for a quality control test procedures program regularly at those facilities.
Feature-Level Camera Style Transfer for Person Re-Identification
Authors: Liu Yang , Sheng Hao , Wang Shuai , Wu Yubin , Xiong Zhang
Published: July 2022

The person re-identification (re-ID) problem has attracted growing interest in the computer vision community. Most public re-ID datasets are captured by multiple non-overlapping cameras, and the same person may appear dissimilar in different camera views due to variances of illuminations, viewpoints and postures. These differences, collectively referred to as camera style variance, make person re-ID still a challenging problem. Recently, researchers have attempted to solve this problem using generative models. The generative adversarial network (GAN) is widely used for the pose transfer or data augmentation to bridge the camera style gap. However, these methods, mostly based on image-level GAN, require huge computational power during the training of generative models. Furthermore, the training process of GAN is separated from the re-ID model, which makes it hard to achieve a global optimal for both models simultaneously. In this paper, the authors propose to alleviate camera style variance in the re-ID problem by adopting a feature-level Camera Style Transfer (CST) model, which can serve as an intra-class augmentation method and enhance the model robustness against camera style variance. Specifically, the proposed CST method transfers the camera style-related information of input features while preserving the corresponding identity information. Moreover, the training process can be embedded into the re-ID model in an end-to-end manner, which means the proposed approach can be deployed with much less time and memory cost. The proposed approach is verified on several different person re-ID baselines. Extensive experiments show the validity of the proposed CST model and its benefits for re-ID performance on the Market-1501 dataset.
Calculation of Displacement-Dependent Active Earth Pressure for Deep Excavations in Soft Soil
Authors: Lu Nan , Li Weibin , Zhou Jingfeng , Zhou Sen
Published: July 2022

In the urban environment, there are strict control requirements for deep foundation pit deformation, resulting in earth pressure on the flexible supports often being in a nonlimiting state. Therefore, it is important to consider displacement when calculating earth pressure. In this study, lateral unloading stress path triaxial compression tests were performed to investigate the radial stress–strain relationship of soft clay in an active region. Herein, a displacement-dependent earth pressure model is proposed with the assumption of the soil strain distribution in the disturbed area. From the surface of the ground to the deepest part of the support structure, the sufficient active displacement inversed by the proposed model decreased, which confirmed that the earth pressure along the entire wall could not achieve its active conditions simultaneously. The efficacy of the proposed model is demonstrated through a comparison of the predicted earth pressure with the experimental results reported in the published literature.
The Space-Time Metric Outside a Pulsating Charged Sphere
Authors: Funaro Daniele
Published: July 2022

We consider the problem of determining the dynamics of the electromagnetic field generated outside a ball whose charge changes depending on time. We are in conditions of perfect symmetry and the electric field is considered to be radial. This is not a simplification since, under such a hypothesis, the magnetic field does not develop. Thus, it is first necessary to find out the appropriate modeling equations. These are obtained by writing a suitable energy tensor that combines the classical electromagnetic stress-energy tensor with a special kind of mass tensor. The next step is to show that it is possible to solve Einstein’s equations by plugging the new tensor on the right-hand side. Interesting connections with some classical solutions related to black holes are finally established.
Theoretical Study of Surrounding Rock Loose Zone Scope Based on Stress Transfer and Work–Energy Relationship Theory
Authors: Lei Gang , Wang Guanqing , Luo Jianjun , Hua Fucai , Gong Xiaonan
Published: July 2022

In view of the actual gap between the theoretical solution and the measured value of the range of the surrounding rock loose zone excavated by blasting, the formation process and influencing factors of the surrounding rock loose zone after blasting are analyzed by combining theoretical analysis, numerical simulation, and field tests. It is proposed that the formation of the surrounding rock loose zone can be divided into two parts: the stress loose zone formed by in situ stress release after chamber excavation and the blasting–expansion loose zone formed by blasting, corresponding to the stress loose zone crack propagation. In this paper, the stress method and work–energy relationship method based on the Fenner solution were used to study the range of the surrounding rock loose zone formed after chamber excavation. A theoretical formula for determining the range of the surrounding rock loose zone is presented. These methods can clearly explain the formation mechanism of the loose zone, and the parameter selection method is simple and fast, which can be used for the theoretical prediction of the loose zone of surrounding rock in tunnel engineering in rock areas. Finally, the two methods were used to calculate the range of surrounding rock loose zone under three different working conditions in the Qingdao Metro single-track section, and the results were compared with the field monitoring results to verify the applicability of the proposed methods.
Identification of Areas of Anomalous Tremor of the Earth’s Surface on the Japanese Islands According to GPS Data
Authors: Lyubushin Alexey
Published: July 2022

Statistical properties of Earth surface tremors measured by means of GPS were investigated. This article considers measurements of the Earth’s surface displacements in three orthogonal directions relayed by a network of GPS sensors with about 1200 points distributed across Japan in 2009–2021. Next, the following characteristics of the tremors were considered: the entropy of the distribution of squared orthogonal wavelet coefficients, the entropy of the distribution of power spectrum values, and the spectral index. The anomalous regions of maxima of probability densities of the distribution of extreme values of the tremor statistics were determined: entropy minima and spectral index maxima. The average density maps of the distribution of extreme value tremor statistics were found to be highly correlated with one another. This made it possible to consider a weighted average density map and identify five anomalous regions in the center and south of Japan. A trajectory of visiting anomalous regions by a sequence of points realizing local maxima of the average probability density was obtained, for which seasonal periodicity was set. Estimates of changes in the average and maximum values of the correlation coefficients of tremor properties in an auxiliary network of 16 reference points in a semi-annual time window were obtained.
Energy Prediction and Energy Management in Kinetic Energy-Harvesting Wireless Sensors Network for Industry 4.0
Authors: Mouapi Alex , Mrad Hatem
Published: July 2022

Real-time control and monitoring are some of the main goals of Industry 4.0. To meet these requirements, sensors are needed at every step of the production process. Wireless sensors (WS) are better suited due to their flexibility but are limited in energy. In this work, kinetic energy harvesting using piezoelectric technologies are considered to ensure the energy autonomy of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). First, unlike most existing works, this paper focuses on WSN rather than a single WS since the control of the entirety of most industrial processes requires several WSs. The solution proposed here is based on deep learning of the harvestable power signals at each sensor deployed on the monitoring system. Specifically, vibration measurements were performed at 12 locations on an ore crushing mill in a mine. From there, a mechanical–electrical conversion model considering the system’s dynamics was set up to evaluate the power profile each of the WSs can harvest. Considering that the harvestable power has many peaks due to the different operating states of the engine, we first proposed a Predictor of the Harvestable Power from Vibrations (PHPV). Using a large database, compared to a state-of-the-art predictor, the Predictor of the Harvestable Energy from vibrations (PHEV) allows for significantly reducing the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). More specifically, the lowest reduction achieved for RSME ranged from 9.4 μW (with PHEV) to 5.9 μW (with PHPV). A decrease in RMSE ranging from 18.45 to 4 μW was obtained for another measurement point. Since harvest rates differ from one location to another, a Hierarchical Energy-Balancing Protocol (HEBP) is proposed to maximize the number of WS capable of transmitting information about the system’s state, thus avoiding an interruption of the network coverage. In the HEBP, it is envisaged that some WSs, besides transmitting data, will supply other nodes with an energy deficit to allow them to communicate information about their location. For a minimum packet size of up to 1100 bits, the energy autonomy of all the WSs is ensured, unlike only 66% of the nodes with the previous protocols.
Stray Light Nonuniform Background Elimination Method Based on Image Block Self-Adaptive Gray-Scale Morphology for Wide-Field Surveillance
Authors: Wang Jianing , Wang Xiaodong , Li Yunhui
Published: July 2022

Space-based wide-field surveillance systems are of great significance in maintaining the security of space resources by avoiding collisions between space targets. However, their performance is hindered by stray light phenomena. The nonuniform background noise caused by stray light significantly hampers subsequent target detection, leading to a high frequency of false alarms. To solve this problem, we propose a robust and accurate nonuniform background elimination method based on image block self-adaptive gray-scale morphology (IBSGM). First, we define two kinds of structural operators with different sizes and domains, which make full use of the difference between the target pixels and surrounding background pixels. Then, we block the original surveillance image and find the size of the largest target in each block by the minimum bounding rectangle method to determine the optimal size of the structural operator suitable for each block. Finally, we perform morphological processing using the defined structural operators to eliminate nonuniform backgrounds from images. Experimental results on simulated and real image datasets demonstrate that the proposed IBSGM method has higher precision in eliminating the nonuniform background when compared to other methods.