bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Protective Effects of Ammannia baccifera Against CCl4-Induced Oxidative Stress in Rats
Authors: Goodla Lavanya , Manubolu Manjunath , Pathakoti Kavitha , Jayakumar Thanasekaran , Sheu Jeon-Rong , Fraker Mike , Tchounwou Paul B. , Poondamalli Parthasarathy R.
Published: April 2019

Ammannia baccifera Linn. is commonly used as a traditional medicine in India and China. The antioxidant potential of an ethanolic extract of A. baccifera (EEAB; 250 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg) was evaluated against CCL4-induced toxicity in rats. Antioxidant activity was assessed by measuring the enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants. Phytochemical constituents of EEAB were also analyzed by using UHPLC-QTOF-MS. EEAB treatment markedly reduced CCl4 effects on lipid peroxidation, cholesterol, triacylglycerides, and protein carbonyls. It increased the levels of phospholipids, total sulfhydryl, and antioxidant enzymes, which were reduced by CCl4 intoxication. Treatment with EEAB significantly alleviated the CCl4 effect on non-enzymatic antioxidants. Isoenzyme pattern analyses revealed that significant alterations in superoxide dismutase (SOD1), glutathione peroxidase (GPx2, GPx3), and catalase (CAT) occurred in rats that were exposed to CCl4 and restored post EEAB treatment. Moreover, CCl4-induced down regulation of SOD, CAT, and GPx gene expression was conversely counteracted by EEAB. Its bioactivity may be due to its incorporation of major compounds, such as chlorogenic acid, quercetin, protocatechuic acid, lamioside, crocetin, and khayasin C. These results suggest that EEAB may be used as a potent antioxidant and hepatoprotective agent since it is a rich source of flavonoids and phenolic compounds.
Transcriptome Sequencing Reveals Potential Mechanisms of the Maternal Effect on Egg Diapause Induction of Locusta migratoria
Authors: Hao Kun , Jarwar Aftab Raza , Ullah Hidayat , Tu Xiongbing , Nong Xiangqun , Zhang Zehua
Published: April 2019

Photoperiod is one of the most important maternal factors with an impact on the offspring diapause induction of Locusta migratoria. Previous studies have shown that forkhead box protein O (FOXO) plays an important role in regulating insect diapause, but how photoperiod stimulates maternal migratory locusts to regulate the next generation of egg diapause through the FOXO signaling pathway still needs to be addressed. In this study, the transcriptomes of ovaries and fat bodies of adult locusts under a long and short photoperiod were obtained. Among the total of 137 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in both ovaries and fat bodies, 71 DEGs involved in FOXO signaling pathways might be closely related to diapause induction. 24 key DEGs were selected and their expression profiles were confirmed to be consistent with the transcriptome results using qRT-PCR. RNA interference was then performed to verify the function of retinoic acid induced protein gene (rai1) and foxo. Egg diapause rates were significantly increased by RNAi maternal locusts rai1 gene under short photoperiods. However, the egg diapause rates were significantly decreased by knock down of the foxo gene in the maternal locusts under a short photoperiod. In addition, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities were promoted by RNAi rai1. We identified the candidate genes related to the FOXO pathway, and verified the diapause regulation function of rai1 and foxo under a short photoperiod only. In the future, the researchers can work in the area to explore other factors and genes that can promote diapause induction under a long photoperiod.
Metabolic Pathway Analysis of Nitrogen and Phosphorus Uptake by the Consortium between C. vulgaris and P. aeruginosa
Authors: Guerra-Renteria A. Suggey , García-Ramírez M. Alberto , Gómez-Hermosillo César , Gómez-Guzmán Abril , González-García Yolanda , González-Reynoso Orfil
Published: April 2019

Anthropogenic activities have increased the amount of urban wastewater discharged into natural aquatic reservoirs containing a high amount of nutrients such as phosphorus (Pi and PO 4 − 3 ), nitrogen (NH 3 and NO 3 − ) and organic contaminants. Most of the urban wastewater in Mexico do not receive any treatment to remove nutrients. Several studies have reported that an alternative to reduce those contaminants is using consortiums of microalgae and endogenous bacteria. In this research, a genome-scale biochemical reaction network is reconstructed for the co-culture between the microalga Chlorella vulgaris and the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Metabolic Pathway Analysis (MPA), is applied to understand the metabolic capabilities of the co-culture and to elucidate the best conditions in removing nutrients. Theoretical yields for phosphorus removal under photoheterotrophic conditions are calculated, determining their values as 0.042 mmol of PO 4 − 3 per g DW of C. vulgaris, 19.43 mmol of phosphorus (Pi) per g DW of C. vulgaris and 4.90 mmol of phosphorus (Pi) per g DW of P. aeruginosa. Similarly, according to the genome-scale biochemical reaction network the theoretical yields for nitrogen removal are 10.3 mmol of NH 3 per g DW of P. aeruginosa and 7.19 mmol of NO 3 − per g DW of C. vulgaris. Thus, this research proves the metabolic capacity of these microorganisms in removing nutrients and their theoretical yields are calculated.
Update on the Genetic Basis of Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy
Authors: Coll Monica , Oliva Antonio , Grassi Simone , Brugada Ramon , Campuzano Oscar
Published: April 2019

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy, also known as SUDEP, is the main cause of death in patients with epilepsy. SUDEP has an incidence of 1.2 per 1000 person-years in adults and 0.2 per 1000 person-years in children. SUDEP accounts for 8–17% of deaths in patients with epilepsy. It is commonly associated with a history of generalized tonic-clonic seizures, and its risk may be increased by other factors such as postictal electroencephalographic suppression, prone sleeping position, altered heart rate variability, conduction abnormalities, gender, or antiepileptic medications. Recently, electrocardiograms, electroencephalograms, and imaging markers have helped clinicians stratify SUDEP risk and identify patients in need of close monitoring. However, the pathophysiology of SUDEP is likely multifactorial and still unknown. Improving the knowledge of SUDEP incidence, risk factors, and biomarkers can help design and implement effective prevention strategies.
Clinically Relevant Immune Responses against Cytomegalovirus: Implications for Precision Medicine
Authors: Lérias Joana R. , Paraschoudi Georgia , Silva Inês , Martins João , de Sousa Eric , Condeço Carolina , Figueiredo Nuno , Carvalho Carlos , Dodoo Ernest , Jäger Elke , Rao Martin , Maeurer Markus
Published: April 2019

Immune responses to human cytomegalovirus (CMV) can be used to assess immune fitness in an individual. Further to its clinical significance in posttransplantation settings, emerging clinical and translational studies provide examples of immune correlates of protection pertaining to anti-CMV immune responses in the context of cancer or infectious diseases, e.g., tuberculosis. In this viewpoint, we provide a brief overview about CMV-directed immune reactivity and immune fitness in a clinical context and incorporate some of our own findings obtained from peripheral blood or tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) from patients with advanced cancer. Observations in patients with solid cancers whose lesions contain both CMV and tumour antigen-specific T-cell subsets are highlighted, due to a possible CMV-associated “bystander” effect in amplifying local inflammation and subsequent tumour rejection. The role of tumour-associated antibodies recognising diverse CMV-derived epitopes is also discussed in light of anti-cancer immune responses. We discuss here the use of anti-CMV immune responses as a theranostic tool—combining immunodiagnostics with a personalised therapeutic potential—to improve treatment outcomes in oncological indications.
Celebrating 25 Years of MicroRNA Research: From Discovery to Clinical Application
Authors: Sempere Lorenzo F.
Published: April 2019

In 1993, the Ambros lab reported the cloning and developmental function of lin-4, the first microRNA [...]
Drosophila Temperature Preference Rhythms: An Innovative Model to Understand Body Temperature Rhythms
Authors: Goda Tadahiro , Hamada Fumika N.
Published: April 2019

Human body temperature increases during wakefulness and decreases during sleep. The body temperature rhythm (BTR) is a robust output of the circadian clock and is fundamental for maintaining homeostasis, such as generating metabolic energy and sleep, as well as entraining peripheral clocks in mammals. However, the mechanisms that regulate BTR are largely unknown. Drosophila are ectotherms, and their body temperatures are close to ambient temperature; therefore, flies select a preferred environmental temperature to set their body temperature. We identified a novel circadian output, the temperature preference rhythm (TPR), in which the preferred temperature in flies increases during the day and decreases at night. TPR, thereby, produces a daily BTR. We found that fly TPR shares many features with mammalian BTR. We demonstrated that diuretic hormone 31 receptor (DH31R) mediates Drosophila TPR and that the closest mouse homolog of DH31R, calcitonin receptor (Calcr), is essential for mice BTR. Importantly, both TPR and BTR are regulated in a distinct manner from locomotor activity rhythms, and neither DH31R nor Calcr regulates locomotor activity rhythms. Our findings suggest that DH31R/Calcr is an ancient and specific mediator of BTR. Thus, understanding fly TPR will provide fundamental insights into the molecular and neural mechanisms that control BTR in mammals.
CaDHN5, a Dehydrin Gene from Pepper, Plays an Important Role in Salt and Osmotic Stress Responses
Authors: Luo Dan , Hou Xiaoming , Zhang Yumeng , Meng Yuancheng , Zhang Huafeng , Liu Suya , Wang Xinke , Chen Rugang
Published: April 2019

Dehydrins (DHNs), as a sub-family of group two late embryogenesis-abundant (LEA) proteins, have attracted considerable interest owing to their functions in enhancing abiotic stress tolerance in plants. Our previous study showed that the expression of CaDHN5 (a dehydrin gene from pepper) is strongly induced by salt and osmotic stresses, but its function was not clear. To understand the function of CaDHN5 in the abiotic stress responses, we produced pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) plants, in which CaDHN5 expression was down-regulated using VIGS (Virus-induced Gene Silencing), and transgenic Arabidopsis plants overexpressing CaDHN5. We found that knock-down of CaDHN5 suppressed the expression of manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) and peroxidase (POD) genes. These changes caused more reactive oxygen species accumulation in the VIGS lines than control pepper plants under stress conditions. CaDHN5-overexpressing plants exhibited enhanced tolerance to salt and osmotic stresses as compared to the wild type and also showed increased expression of salt and osmotic stress-related genes. Interestingly, our results showed that many salt-related genes were upregulated in our transgenic Arabidopsis lines under salt or osmotic stress. Taken together, our results suggest that CaDHN5 functions as a positive regulator in the salt and osmotic stress signaling pathways.
RSK2-Mediated ELK3 Activation Enhances Cell Transformation and Breast Cancer Cell Growth by Regulation of c-fos Promoter Activity
Authors: Yoo Sun-Mi , Lee Cheol-Jung , An Hyun-Jung , Lee Joo Young , Lee Hye Suk , Kang Han Chang , Cho Sung-Jun , Kim Seung-Min , Park Juhee , Kim Dae Joon , Cho Yong-Yeon
Published: April 2019

Ribosomal S6 kinase 2 (RSK2), regulated by Ras/Raf/MEKs/ERKs, transmits upstream activation signals to downstream substrates including kinases and transcription and epigenetic factors. We observed that ELK members, including ELK1, 3, and 4, highly interacted with RSK2. We further observed that the RSK2-ELK3 interaction was mediated by N-terminal kinase and linker domains of RSK2, and the D and C domains of ELK3, resulting in the phosphorylation of ELK3. Importantly, RSK2-mediated ELK3 enhanced c-fos promoter activity. Notably, chemical inhibition of RSK2 signaling using kaempferol (a RSK2 inhibitor) or U0126 (a selective MEK inhibitor) suppressed EGF-induced c-fos promoter activity. Moreover, functional deletion of RSK2 by knockdown or knockout showed that RSK2 deficiency suppressed EGF-induced c-fos promoter activity, resulting in inhibition of AP-1 transactivation activity and Ras-mediated foci formation in NIH3T3 cells. Immunocytofluorescence assay demonstrated that RSK2 deficiency reduced ELK3 localization in the nucleus. In MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells, knockdown of RSK2 or ELK3 suppressed cell proliferation with accumulation at the G1 cell cycle phase, resulting in inhibition of foci formation and anchorage-independent cancer colony growth in soft agar. Taken together, these results indicate that a novel RSK2/ELK3 signaling axis, by enhancing c-Fos-mediated AP-1 transactivation activity, has an essential role in cancer cell proliferation and colony growth.
Assessing Food Systems and Their Impact on Common Pool Resources and Resilience
Authors: Augstburger Horacio , Käser Fabian , Rist Stephan
Published: April 2019

The ongoing expansion of agro-industrial food systems is associated with severe socio-ecological problems. For a closer look at the socio-ecological impacts, we analyze the capacity of six food systems to provide farm-based agroecosystem services with the Agroecosystem Service Capacity (ASC) approach. At the same time, we analyze how food systems affect the management of common pool resources (CPR). Our findings show that indigenous peoples and agroecological food systems can have up to three times the ASC-index of agro-industrial food systems. Through their contribution to the sustainable management of cultural landscapes with robust institutions for the management of CPRs, food systems contribute to socio-ecological integrity. On the other hand, regional and agro-industrial food systems with a lower ASC-index contribute less to socio-ecological integrity, and they undermine and open up common property institutions for robust CPR management. As a result, they appropriate (or grab) access to CPRs that are vital for food systems with higher ASC-indexes resulting from a robust management of CPRs. Strengthening a robust management of CPRs could put a halt to the ongoing expansion of food systems with a low ASC-index by replacing them with a high ASC-index to prevent an exacerbation of the current socio-ecological situation.
Facile Preparation of Charcoal Nanomaterial from Fishery Waste with Remarkable Adsorption Ability
Authors: Wang Yaning , Zhou Yarui , Cai Lu , Guo Jian , Xu Yong , Zhang Hailong , Ji Lili , Song Wendong
Published: April 2019

In this study, modified activated fishbone charcoal (MAFC) was successfully prepared to remove emulsified oil from oily wastewater. Various characteristic techniques, including SEM, XRD, FTIR, and BET, were employed to investigate the morphology, texture, and surface properties of as-prepared samples. BET results demonstrated that the specific surface area of fishbone charcoal increased from 69.8 m2/g to 206.0 m2/g after treatment with K2CO3 as an activating agent, while the total pore volume of MAFC increased from 0.003 cm3/g to 0.3 cm3/g, accompanied by the formation of abundant pore structures. It was observed that 90.1% of emulsified oil (100 mg/L) was successfully removed by MAFC under our experimental conditions. The results of a kinetic and isotherm model analysis indicated that the adsorption experimental data were not only consistent with the Langmuir adsorption isotherm but were also well-described by the pseudo-second-order adsorption model. It is expected that this highly efficient and inexpensive MAFC can be a promising bio-adsorbent for removing organic pollutants from industrial wastewater.
Food Insecure College Students and Objective Measurements of Their Unused Meal Plans
Authors: van Woerden Irene , Hruschka Daniel , Vega-Lόpez Sonia , Schaefer David R. , Adams Marc , Bruening Meg
Published: April 2019

Some researchers have proposed the prevalence of food insecurity among college students is high due to students’ meal plans providing insufficient meals. The association between college students’ food security status and their meal plans have not yet been examined. In this study, United States (US) first year college students (N = 534) self-reported their food security status in the Fall 2015 and/or Spring 2016 semester(s). Objective measures of students’ meal plans were obtained from the university. Logistic generalized estimating equations (GEEs) were used to determine if students’ meal plan, and meal plan use, predicted food insecurity. Linear GEEs were used to examine several potential reasons for lower meal plan use. We found that students did not use all of their available meals. Compared to students on the most expensive (unlimited) meal plan, students on the cheapest (8 meals/week) meal plan were the most likely to report food insecurity (OR = 2.2, 95% CI = 1.2, 4.1). However, in the Fall semester, 26% of students on unlimited meal plans also reported food insecurity. For students on the 180 meals/semester meal plan, food insecurity was associated with using fewer meals (OR = 0.9, 95% CI = 0.8, 1.0). Students who worked tended to use their meal plan less (β = −1.3, 95% CI = −2.3, −0.3). Students are reporting food insecurity while having meals left in their meal plan.
Feasibility and Preliminary Efficacy of the Eating Advice to Students (EATS) Brief Web-Based Nutrition Intervention for Young Adult University Students: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
Authors: Whatnall Megan C , Patterson Amanda J , Chiu Simon , Oldmeadow Christopher , Hutchesson Melinda J
Published: April 2019

Young adult university students are a priority population for nutrition intervention. This study assessed the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of the EATS (Eating Advice to Students) brief (i.e., single use) web-based nutrition intervention for young adult university students. A 3-month pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted with 124 students aged 17–35 from the University of Newcastle, Australia. Participants were randomized to EATS (n = 62) or attention control (n = 62). EATS aimed to improve four target eating behaviors (vegetables, fruit, discretionary foods, breakfast). Primary outcomes were feasibility (recruitment, retention, usage, program acceptability). Recruitment and retention numbers were recorded, the program acceptability was assessed by a process evaluation survey and the website usage was objectively tracked. Preliminary efficacy was assessed via changes in diet quality (primary), fruit, vegetables, discretionary foods and breakfast intake, measured using Food Frequency Questionnaire. Recruitment was completed in five weeks. Retention was 73% (90/124) at 3-months. Intervention participants used EATS 1.5 ± 1.0 times. Satisfaction with EATS was rated at 4.04 ± 0.74 (maximum five). Intervention participants significantly decreased the percentage energy/day from discretionary foods compared with control (−4.8%, 95%CI −8.6, −1.1, p = 0.012, d = −0.34). No significant between-group differences were observed for diet quality, fruit, vegetable or breakfast intakes. EATS demonstrated high feasibility, particularly for reach and acceptability. The university setting and a brief web-based intervention show promise in engaging young adults to improve their eating behaviors.
Tailoring the Chemistry of Plasma-Activated Water Using a DC-Pulse-Driven Non-Thermal Atmospheric-Pressure Helium Plasma Jet
Authors: Oh Jun-Seok , Szili Endre J. , Hatta Akimitsu , Ito Masafumi , Shirafuji Tatsuru
Published: April 2019

We investigate the use of a DC-pulse-driven non-thermal atmospheric-pressure He plasma jet in the regulation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), nitrite (NO2−), nitrate (NO3−), and oxygen (O2) in deionized (DI) water. The production of these molecules is measured by in situ UV absorption spectroscopy of the plasma-activated water (PAW). Variations in the pulse polarity and pulse width have a significant influence on the resultant PAW chemistry. However, the trends in the concentrations of H2O2, NO2−, NO3−, and O2 are variable, pointing to the possibility that changes in the pulse polarity and pulse width might influence other plasma variables that also impact on the PAW chemistry. Overall, the results presented in this study highlight the possibility of using DC-pulse-driven plasma jets to tailor the chemistry of PAW, which opens new opportunities for the future development of optimal PAW formulations across diverse applications ranging from agriculture to medicine.
Photo Actuation Performance of Nanotube Sheet Incorporated Azobenzene Crosslinked Liquid Crystalline Polymer Nanocomposite
Authors: Bi Meng , He Yifan , Wang Yuchang , Yang Wenlong , Qin Ban , Xu Jiaojiao , Wang Xiuxiu , Wang Binsong , Dong Yinmao , Gao Yachen , Li Chensha
Published: April 2019

Crosslinked liquid crystalline polymers (CLCPs) containing azobenzene (AZO-CLCPs) are a type of promising material due to their significance in the design of light-driven smart actuators. Developing AZO-CLCP composites by incorporating AZO-CLCPs with other materials is an effective way of enhancing their practicability. Herein, we report an AZO-CLCP/CNT nanocomposite prepared by the in situ polymerization of diacrylates containing azobenzene chromophores on carbon nanotube (CNT) sheets. The liquid crystal phase structure of CLCP matrix was evidenced by the two-dimensional X-ray scattering. The prepared pure AZO-CLCP films and AZO-CLCP/CNT nanocomposite films demonstrated strong reversible photo-triggered deformation under the irradiation of UV light at 366 nm of wavelength, as a result of photo-induced isomerization of azobenzene moieties in the polymer network. But compared to pure AZO-CLCP films, the AZO-CLCP/CNT nanocomposite films could much more rapidly return to their initial shapes after the UV light irradiation was removed due to the elasticity effect of CNT sheets. The deformation behavior of AZO-CLCP/CNT nanocomposite films under the light irradiation was also different from that of the pure AZO-CLCP films due to the interfacial interaction between a polymer network and CNT sheet. Furthermore, incorporation of a CNT sheet remarkably increased the mechanical strength and robustness of the material. We also used this AZO-CLCP/CNT nanocomposite as a microvalve membrane actuator, which can be controlled by light, for a conceptual device of a microfluidic system. The results showed that this AZO-CLCP/CNT nanocomposite may have great potential in smart actuator applications for biological engineering, medical treatment, environment detection and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), etc.
Increase of Atmospheric Methane Observed from Space-Borne and Ground-Based Measurements
Authors: Zou Mingmin , Xiong Xiaozhen , Wu Zhaohua , Li Shenshen , Zhang Ying , Chen Liangfu
Published: April 2019

It has been found that the concentration of atmospheric methane (CH4) has rapidly increased since 2007 after a decade of nearly constant concentration in the atmosphere. As an important greenhouse gas, such an increase could enhance the threat of global warming. To better quantify this increasing trend, a novel statistic method, i.e. the Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) method, was used to analyze the CH4 trends from three different measurements: the mid–upper tropospheric CH4 (MUT) from the space-borne measurements by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), the CH4 in the marine boundary layer (MBL) from NOAA ground-based in-situ measurements, and the column-averaged CH4 in the atmosphere (XCH4) from the ground-based up-looking Fourier Transform Spectrometers at Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) and the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC). Comparison of the CH4 trends in the mid–upper troposphere, lower troposphere, and the column average from these three data sets shows that, overall, these trends agree well in capturing the abrupt CH4 increase in 2007 (the first peak) and an even faster increase after 2013 (the second peak) over the globe. The increased rates of CH4 in the MUT, as observed by AIRS, are overall smaller than CH4 in MBL and the column-average CH4. During 2009–2011, there was a dip in the increase rate for CH4 in MBL, and the MUT-CH4 increase rate was almost negligible in the mid-high latitude regions. The increase of the column-average CH4 also reached the minimum during 2009–2011 accordingly, suggesting that the trends of CH4 are not only impacted by the surface emission, however that they also may be impacted by other processes like transport and chemical reaction loss associated with [OH]. One advantage of the EEMD analysis is to derive the monthly rate and the results show that the frequency of the variability of CH4 increase rates in the mid–high northern latitude regions is larger than those in the tropics and southern hemisphere.
SPICE-Based SAR Tomography over Forest Areas Using a Small Number of P-Band Airborne F-SAR Images Characterized by Non-Uniformly Distributed Baselines
Authors: Peng Xing , Li Xinwu , Wang Changcheng , Zhu Jianjun , Liang Lei , Fu Haiqiang , Du Yanan , Yang Zefa , Xie Qinghua
Published: April 2019

Synthetic aperture radar tomography (TomoSAR) has been proven to be a useful way to reconstruct vertical structure over forest areas with P-band images, on account of its three-dimensional imaging ability. In the case of a small number of non-uniformly distributed acquisitions, compressive sensing (CS) is generally adopted in TomoSAR. However, the performance of CS depends on the selected hyperparameter, which is closely related to the noise of a pixel. In this paper, to overcome this limitation, we propose a sparse iterative covariance-based estimation (SPICE) approach based on the wavelet and orthogonal sparse basis (W&O-SPICE) for application over forest areas. SPICE is a sparse spectral estimation method that achieves a high vertical resolution, and takes account of the noise adaptively for each resolution cell. Thus, it does not require the user to select a hyperparameter. Furthermore, the used sparse basis not only ensures the sparsity of the forest canopy scattering contribution, but it can also keep the original sparse information of the ground contribution. The proposed method was tested in simulated experiments and the results demonstrated that W&O-SPICE can successfully reconstruct the vertical structure of a forest. Moreover, three P-band fully polarimetric airborne SAR images with non-uniformly distributed baselines were applied to reconstruct the vertical structure of a tropical forest in Mabounie, Gabon. The underlying topography and forest height were estimated, and the root-mean-square errors (RMSEs) were 6.40 m and 4.50 m with respect to the LiDAR digital terrain model (DTM) and canopy height model (CHM), respectively. In addition, W&O-SPICE showed a better performance than W&O-CS, beamforming, Capon, and the iterative adaptive approach (IAA).
Building Corner Detection in Aerial Images with Fully Convolutional Networks
Authors: Song Weigang , Zhong Baojiang , Sun Xun
Published: April 2019

In aerial images, corner points can be detected to describe the structural information of buildings for city modeling, geo-localization, and so on. For this specific vision task, the existing generic corner detectors perform poorly, as they are incapable of distinguishing corner points on buildings from those on other objects such as trees and shadows. Recently, fully convolutional networks (FCNs) have been developed for semantic image segmentation that are able to recognize a designated kind of object through a training process with a manually labeled dataset. Motivated by this achievement, an FCN-based approach is proposed in the present work to detect building corners in aerial images. First, a DeepLab model comprised of improved FCNs and fully-connected conditional random fields (CRFs) is trained end-to-end for building region segmentation. The segmentation is then further improved by using a morphological opening operation to increase its accuracy. Corner points are finally detected on the contour curves of building regions by using a scale-space detector. Experimental results show that the proposed building corner detection approach achieves an F-measure of 0.83 in the test image set and outperforms a number of state-of-the-art corner detectors by a large margin.
Optimization of Spectrum Utilization in Cooperative Spectrum Sensing
Authors: Ali Mohsin , Nam Haewoon
Published: April 2019

This paper presents an analytical framework for the probability of spectrum hole utilization (PSHU) of a cognitive radio system with soft cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) under a practical consideration of fixed frame structure. In practical systems, the length of a time-frame is generally fixed, where the time-frame consists of sensing, reporting, and transmission durations. Thus, increasing sensing and reporting time duration in cooperative spectrum sensing improves the probability of successful detection of the primary user’s (PU) presence or the absence but reduces transmission time duration, which results in a lower PSHU. A large reporting duration is required when more secondary users (SUs) report their sensed information to the fusion center (FC) and/or multiple bits are used by each SU in soft cooperative spectrum sensing. Thus, reporting time in terms of the number of SUs and reporting bits also have a similar effect on PSHU. Based on this interesting trade-off between PSHU and the sensing and reporting time duration, this paper analyzes the impact of an increasing number of SUs and reporting bits on PSHU.
Are Sustainable Banks Efficient and Productive? A Data Envelopment Analysis and the Malmquist Productivity Index Analysis
Authors: Shah Akber Aman , Wu Desheng , Korotkov Vladmir
Published: April 2019

Corporate sustainability is the integration of environmental protection, financial benefit, and social responsibility into management and business operations. There is insufficient evidence for its relationship with operating performance and productivity. Furthermore, it becomes doubtful when investors standardize corporate sustainable strategies. This study evaluates the performance and productivity of sustainable banks, exploring practical issues by providing supporting evidence. A two-stage performance evaluation is employed with the integration of data envelopment analysis (DEA) and Malmquist productivity index (MPI) to evaluate sustainable bank performance and productivity for 9 years (2010–2018) in comparison with non-sustainable banks. DEA is used to define dynamic benchmarking, and MPI builds on time-series analysis. The results of our study reveal that sustainable banks are more efficient and productive. The productivity of sustainable banks and non-sustainable banks was influenced by external and internal factors, respectively.
A Threat of Farmers’ Suicide and the Opportunity in Organic Farming for Sustainable Agricultural Development in India
Authors: Mariappan Karthikeyan , Zhou Deyi
Published: April 2019

Agriculture is the main sources of income for humans. Likewise, agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy. In India, Tamil Nadu regional state has a wide range of possibilities to produce all varieties of organic products due to its diverse agro-climatic condition. This research aimed to identify the economics and efficiency of organic farming, and the possibilities to reduce farmers’ suicides in the Tamil Nadu region through the organic agriculture concept. The emphasis was on farmers, producers, researchers, and marketers entering the sustainable economy through organic farming by reducing input cost and high profit in cultivation. A survey was conducted to gather data. One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) has been used to test the hypothesis regards the cost and profit of rice production. The results showed that there was a significant difference in profitability between organic and conventional farming methods. It is very transparent that organic farming is the leading concept of sustainable agricultural development with better organic manures that can improve soil fertility, better yield, less input cost and better return than conventional farming. The study suggests that by reducing the cost of cultivation and get a marginal return through organic farming method to poor and small scale farmers will reduce socio-economic problems such as farmers’ suicides in the future of Indian agriculture.
A Bibliometric Review of Research on Higher Education for Sustainable Development, 1998–2018
Authors: Hallinger Philip , Chatpinyakoop Chatchai
Published: April 2019

Over the last twenty years, higher education for sustainable development (HESD) has attracted increasing interest from scholars, students, and academic institutions globally. This bibliometric review of research analyzed 1459 Scopus-indexed documents related to higher education for sustainable development. The goals of the review were to document the volume, growth trajectory, and geographic distribution of the HESD literature, identify key authors, journals, and publications, analyze the intellectual structure of this knowledge base, and highlight emerging research issues. The review documented a rapidly growing knowledge base of recent vintage, mostly authored by scholars located in developed societies. Four core journals were identified, based on the volume of HESD publications and citation impact. Author co-citation analysis revealed three research clusters that underlie this knowledge base: Managing for Sustainability in Higher Education, HESD Competencies, and Implementation of HESD. This review provides a benchmark for future reviews of research on HESD, reveals the emerging intellectual structure of this inter-disciplinary field, and offers reference points for scholars entering this discipline.
Perception and Preference Analysis of Fashion Colors: Solid Color Shirts
Authors: Jiang Qianling , Chen Li-Chieh , Zhang Jie
Published: April 2019

When it comes to pollution, we do not usually think about the clothes we wear, but the clothing industry is really endangering our planet. The market economy has transferred the decision-making power of the garment industry from enterprises to consumers. To make the fashion industry sustainable, in addition to technological innovation, it is also necessary to conduct research on the service objects of the industry. Consumer clothing preference research is an important part of the sustainable development of the clothing industry, and it will also have an impact on environmental and design sustainability. Hence, a psychophysical experiment based on solid color shirts is carried out to analyze people’s perceptions and preferences concerning fashion colors, including the aesthetic differences and similarities between males and females, and establish a hierarchical feed-forward model of color preferences relating to solid color shirts. Firstly, 480 colors of solid shirts from different clothing brands were collected, and the mean shift clustering algorithm was used to classify them into 19 clusters in the CIELAB color space. Secondly, another 22 solid colors, combined with the 19 colors of the cluster centers, formed a solid color scheme. Thirdly, 41 solid male and female shirts and fabrics were simulated as stimuli in three dimensions, and they were presented on a calibrated computer display. The simulations were assessed by 34 observers (consisting of 17 males and 17 females) in terms of 11 semantic scales, including cold/warm, heavy/light, passive/active, dirty/clean, tense/relaxed, plain/gaudy, traditional/modern, masculine/feminine, slim-look/fat-look, hard-to-match/easy-to-match, and dislike/tike. The experimental results demonstrated that the hard-to-match/easy-to-match response was found to be highly correlated with dislike/like. Furthermore, the response of the females concerning hard-to-match/easy-to-match had a strong correlation with two adjective pairs (plain/gaudy and slim-look/fat-look), while that of the males also had a strong correlation with two adjective pairs (plain/ gaudy and masculine/feminine). Finally, a hierarchical feed-forward model of aesthetic perception for solid color shirts was established to predict the shirt preference degree. These findings could be used to develop a more robust and comprehensive theory of fashion color preferences and provide a reference for the design of solid color shirts. A more comprehensive color preference theory is not only an effective tool to solve the problem of pollution in the clothing industry, but also an important theoretical basis for the “sustainable design” of clothing, which is of great significance to the sustainable development of the clothing industry.
Monitoring of Landscape Transformations within Landscape Parks in Poland in the 21st Century
Authors: Krajewski Piotr
Published: April 2019

One of the most problematic forms of nature protection in Poland relates to landscape parks. They include the most valuable landscapes, but the areas within the landscape park still have economic uses. Therefore, the monitoring of landscape changes within landscape parks is necessary in order to properly manage these forms of protection. The main objective of the study was to monitor the scale and nature of landscape transformations within the boundaries of landscape parks in Poland during the period 2000–2018 and to assess the possibility of using the landscape change index (LCI) to monitor the intensity of landscape transformations within this type of protected area. Preliminary analyses of the transformations within all landscape parks in Poland showed an upward trend, both in terms of the number of types of identified landscape changes as well as their area. In spite of the large diversity and degree of transformation in landscape parks, several dominant processes can be observed. The largest number and area of changes during each of the analyzed periods were found in transformations within forest landscapes (temporary and permanent deforestation and forest maturation), which constitute the dominant type of land cover within most of the landscape parks. In open landscapes, changes mainly relate to afforestation and natural succession in meadows, pastures, and arable land, as well as the transformation of arable land into mining areas. Twelve case studies, covering all landscape parks in Lower Silesia, have shown that the LCI is an excellent tool for monitoring the intensity of landscape changes, but it is dependent on the accuracy of the source data. The analyses confirmed that, during the study periods, the changes in all 12 Lower Silesian landscape parks were at a low level, but their particular intensification took place in the years from 2012 to 2018. The highest LCI was found in the area where a natural disaster had occurred (air tornado), which destroyed huge areas of forest in landscape parks. After changes in the forest landscape, the most frequently identified type of change in 2006–2012 was the transformation of non-forest landscapes into forest landscapes. The main reason for such changes was the expansion of forest into abandoned arable land, meadows, and pastures. The use of the Corine Land Cover database to calculate the LCI and monitor the intensity of landscape change revealed a low usability of the database for the year 2000 and a high usability for data from 2006 to 2018.
Authentic Leadership and Job Satisfaction: A Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA)
Authors: Baquero Asier , Delgado Beatriz , Escortell Raquel , Sapena Juan
Published: April 2019

The relationship between leadership and job satisfaction has attracted considerable scientific interest, especially in relation to the quality of tourism businesses. This study investigated this relationship within the framework of authentic leadership. The study also explored differences between outsourced workers and internal hotel employees in terms of the influence of authentic leadership on job satisfaction. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) offered valuable new insight. This study was based on a sample of 58 heads of department of four/five star hotels in the Canary Islands, Spain. The results suggest that high levels of leadership in the four subscales of authentic leadership (balanced processing, relational transparency, self-awareness, and internalized moral perspective) are sufficient to increase job satisfaction. The same outcome is achieved with high levels of balanced processing, even though it is accompanied by low transparency and low levels of internalized moral perspective. There are no major differences between outsourced workers and internal employees, except in terms of the importance of self-awareness. These results can help hotel managers reflect upon leadership and can provide new approaches for scientific research in this area.
Product Operations on q-Rung Orthopair Fuzzy Graphs
Authors: Yin Songyi , Li Hongxu , Yang Yang
Published: April 2019

The q-rung orthopair fuzzy graph is an extension of intuitionistic fuzzy graph and Pythagorean fuzzy graph. In this paper, the degree and total degree of a vertex in q-rung orthopair fuzzy graphs are firstly defined. Then, some product operations on q-rung orthopair fuzzy graphs, including direct product, Cartesian product, semi-strong product, strong product, and lexicographic product, are defined. Furthermore, some theorems about the degree and total degree under these product operations are put forward and elaborated with several examples. In particular, these theorems improve the similar results in single-valued neutrosophic graphs and Pythagorean fuzzy graphs.
A Bioinformatics View of Glycan–Virus Interactions
Authors: Le Mercier Philippe , Mariethoz Julien , Lascano-Maillard Josefina , Bonnardel François , Imberty Anne , Ricard-Blum Sylvie , Lisacek Frédérique
Published: April 2019

Evidence of the mediation of glycan molecules in the interaction between viruses and their hosts is accumulating and is now partially reflected in several online databases. Bioinformatics provides convenient and efficient means of searching, visualizing, comparing, and sometimes predicting, interactions in numerous and diverse molecular biology applications related to the -omics fields. As viromics is gaining momentum, bioinformatics support is increasingly needed. We propose a survey of the current resources for searching, visualizing, comparing, and possibly predicting host–virus interactions that integrate the presence and role of glycans. To the best of our knowledge, we have mapped the specialized and general-purpose databases with the appropriate focus. With an illustration of their potential usage, we also discuss the strong and weak points of the current bioinformatics landscape in the context of understanding viral infection and the immune response to it.
ПРОВОКУЮЧА ПРОТИПРАВНА ПОВЕДІНКА ЗАСУДЖЕНИХ – ОДНА З ПІДСТАВ ЗАСТОСУВАННЯ ДО НИХ ЗАСОБІВ ПРИБОРКАННЯ
Authors: Колб І.
Published: April 2019

У статті здійснено аналіз типових віктимологічних ситуацій, що спричиняють та обумовлюють застосування до засуджених, позбавлених волі, визначених у законі заходів фізичного впливу, спеціальних засобів та зброї, а також розроблено науково обґрунтовані пропозиції, спрямовані на зниження рівня віктимності в установах виконання покарань.
Political Systems and a Continuing Account for Elusive Peace in Republic of Macedonia
Authors: Gurra Hyreme
Published: April 2019

This research paper is going to elaborate the five most common political systems of the world and the second part of the mainstream headlines preoccupying the public opinion, which continued the saga for entire population of Republic of Macedonia. The country is internationally known as FYROM, and its government as a whole in the recent days after New Year’s Holidays of 2018 was expecting an act of resignation by the Prime minister Nikolla Gruevski and a massive unrest took place by NGO asking to close factories that were polluting the air. The leading political parties of the government consisting of VMRO (IMRO) (ethnic Macedonian political party) and BDI (DUI) (ethnic Albanian political party) were in the verge of a complete breakdown. These two coalition members were accused by the opposition political party LSDM (SDUM) (left party) for a great number of scandals; corruption, leading autocratic zests policy, not enjoying EU and NATO, spending public money in non-productive means and finally the phone tapping become sources of constant conflict. Social dialogue between the position and opposition was undermined by the head of the government, considered as a roguishly human hobble. The deterioration of the already unfavorable international position of the country endangered the progress leading up to national an interethnic cleansing. These events eventually would shape the future of the state. After the elections the government changed the leading stream, which is seen as a last chance for survival.

The research methods being used throughout this paper are; the method of interview, narrative method, qualitative and quantitative method.
FROM THE ABSOLUTE SEMANTICORDER’ OF SOCIALIST SYSTEM TO AUTOMATIONS AS FORMS OF HARDENING OF DISCOURSE IN THE POETICS OF SOCIALIST REALISM
Authors: Sulko Lirim
Published: April 2019

At all times, the socialist society, based on Marxist-Leninist ideology principles, claimed to be the master of the truth, having into the service of itself the conviction that the truth is one and every variant that competes with it is a lie. So the socialist system, as a semantic order (the way it understands the world, the human relationship with it), takes the place of truth, becomes the truth itself, after it has falsified the truth and itself. If a system is not falsified, as it happens in a normal society, its meaning in general is always below the truth, along with other orders of alternative meanings, with which it enjoys the same status of credibility. All these orders of meanings have the same opportunity to be true, but it is not possible to be all true. If we relocate or rather extend the concept of the order of prevailing meanings from the existential plane to that lecture plane, we notice that the prevailing order of meanings is embedded and transformed into a a habit (even as a vice), wherein the arbitrary relationship between the mark (the word) and the marked (the object) penetrate obligations that arise from the dominance of the order of meanings in power. This means that within the discourse there is the possibility that the prevailing meanings of the socialist order can guarantee themselves privileged and automatic places and positions.
TEACHING SHAKESPEARE AT TERTIARY LEVEL: PRIMARY AND SECONDARY BENEFITS
Authors: Neshkovska Silvana
Published: April 2019

Teaching Shakespeare at all levels of education (primary, secondary and tertiary) has a long history not only in English but in non-English speaking countries as well. The inclusion of mandatory courses on Shakespeare in the curriculum of university studies of English as a second/foreign language has proven to be particularly beneficial and worthwhile, although some concerns are voiced about the outdatedness of Shakespeare‘s works. What we propose in this paper is that Shakespeare should be preserved in the curriculum of English majors, especially in the curriculum of English majors of EFL as the benefits for the students are, in fact, multifarious. In fact, on the basis of careful class observation, introspection and self- evaluation, as well as students’ feedback, whatwe suggest here is that there are two types of benefits of teaching Shakespeare at university level – primary and secondary benefits. The former affect students’ knowledge of the English language, i.e. improve the development of students’ language skills (writing, reading, speaking and listening). The latter are more general and influence the development of students’ personality by improving their thinking processes, emotional intelligence and cultural awareness. All of these, we believe, are pivotal in generating well-rounded future English professionals who at the same time will be well-balanced individuals capable of handling all sorts of life challenges.