bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effect of Different Foliar Particle Films (Kaolin and Zeolitite) on Chemical and Sensory Properties of Olive Oil
Authors: Rotondi Annalisa , Bertazza Gianpaolo , Faccini Barbara , Ferretti Giacomo , Morrone Lucia
Published: December 2022

The use of kaolin foliar treatments in olive growing is a well-established approach that aims at protecting crops from the negative impacts of environmental stresses and from insect pests. The use of zeolite particle films is a far more recent technique. The experimentation was carried out on Correggiolo cv. cultivated in the Emilia-Romagna region (Italy). Foliar treatments were performed in summer until olive harvest. Ripening index, weight, and the oil content of olives were measured. Acidity, peroxide numbers, K232, K270 and total phenols were evaluated as well as fatty acid profiles, determined via GC-FID and phenolic compounds; vitamins and pigments were determined via HPLC-DAD. Quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA) sensory analysis and taint tests were performed. Olives treated with zeolite showed higher oil contents, and the oil obtained exhibited higher contents of total phenols, tyrosol and deacetoxy oleuropein aglycon with respect to the oils produced with kaolin and the control oil. Oils produced from kaolin-treated olives showed sensory profiles characterized by notes of berries (that are not typical of the Correggiolo cultivar). In the scenario of environment-friendly oil production, treatments employing zeolitite particle films represent both a valid alternative to chemical insecticide against olive fly attack and a practice that has a positive influence on the overall oil quality.
“It Almost Makes Her Human”: How Female Animal Guardians Construct Experiences of Cat and Dog Empathy
Authors: Hiestand Karen M. , McComb Karen , Banerjee Robin
Published: December 2022

Understanding how humans perceive and construct experiences of non-human animal empathy (hereafter, ‘animal/s’) can provide important information to aid our understanding of how companion animals contribute to social support. This study investigates the phenomenology of animal empathy by examining how humans construct sense-making narratives of these experiences, with the hypothesis that anthropomorphic attributions would play a key role in these constructions. Comprehensive, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six participants, using established interpretative phenomenological analysis methodology to facilitate deep examination of how they interpreted and reacted emotionally. Participants were consistent in reporting changes to their companion animals’ normal behaviour as the key to the identification of animal empathy experiences, yet they were highly paradoxical in their constructions of perceived internal drivers within their dogs and cats. Explanations were highly dichotomous, from highly anthropomorphic to highly anthropocentric, and these extremes were combined both within individual participant narratives and within some thematic constructs. This research demonstrates that experiences of companion animal empathy can be powerful and meaningful for humans, but the inconsistent mixture of anthropomorphic and anthropocentric reasoning illustrates the confused nature of human understanding of animals’ internal states. Insight into how humans construct animal empathy has implications for the moral status of these animals and an application for companion animals used explicitly for social support, such as in animal-assisted therapy and emotional support animals.
A Fuzzy-Based Co-Incentive Trust Evaluation Scheme for Edge Computing in CEEC Environment
Authors: Xia Geming , Yu Chaodong , Chen Jian
Published: December 2022

With the development of 5G and artificial intelligence, the security of Cloud-Edge-End Collaboration (CEEC) networks becomes an increasingly prominent issue due to the complexity of the environment, real-time variability and diversity of edge devices in CEEC networks. In this paper, we design a lightweight fuzzy collaborative trust evaluation model (LFCTEM) for edge devices, and calculate the trust values of edge devices by fuzzifying trust factors. To alleviate the selfish behavior of edge devices, this paper introduces an incentive mechanism in the trust evaluation model, and achieves a long-term incentive effect by designing an incentive negative decay mechanism, which enhances the initiative of collaboration and improves the interference resistance of CEEC networks. We verify the performance of LFCTEM through simulation experiments. Compared with other methods, our model enhances the detection rate of malicious edge devices by 19.11%, which improves the reliability of the CEEC trust environment. Meanwhile, our model reduces the error detection rate of edge devices by 16.20%, thus alleviating error reporting of the CEEC trust environment.
Static Balance in Female Artistic Gymnasts and Non-Training Girls
Authors: Omorczyk Jaroslaw , Staszkiewicz Robert , Wrzesniewski Krzysztof , Puszczalowska-Lizis Ewa
Published: December 2022

Sports activities can constitute a factor in improving postural control. The aim of this study is to compare static balance in the tandem stance between female artistic gymnasts and non-training girls. This was performed with and without visual control, as well as in a position with open eyes, on a 1.25 m high platform. Two groups of thirty girls participated in the study. The first group consisted of gymnasts (mean age 9.50 ± 1.20 years, body height 133.50 ± 11.40 cm, and body mass 28.90 ± 6.90 kg), while the second group comprised non-training girls (mean age 9.80 ± 1.20 years, body height 142.60 ± 10.90 cm, and body mass 37.40 ± 9.70 kg). Balance measurements were taken using the CQ Stab 2P two-plate stability platform. In the measurements conducted with the subjects’ eyes closed, the gymnasts obtained a lower value for displacement regarding the maximal centre of pressure (COP) in the anterior–posterior direction and a higher frequency of COP displacement (p < 0.05). In the trial performed on a platform, a greater COP displacement frequency was found among the non-training girls (p < 0.001). Differences in the values of the variables characterising the static balance of gymnasts and non-training girls were revealed only in conditions of increasing difficulty concerning the motor task (increasing the height of the position and/or without eye control).
Simulation of a Quadrotor under Linear Active Disturbance Rejection
Authors: Qiao Zheng , Zhuang Keyu , Zhao Tong , Xue Jingze , Zhang Miao , Cui Shuai , Gao Yunlong
Published: December 2022

The quadrotor aircraft has the characteristics of simple structure, high attitude maintenance performance and strong maneuverability, and is widely used in air surveillance, post−disaster search and rescue, target tracking and military industry. In this paper, a robust control scheme based on linear active disturbance rejection is proposed to solve the problem that the quadrotor is susceptible to various disturbances during the take−off process of non−horizontal planes and strong disturbances. Linear Active Disturbance Rejection Control (LADRC) is a product of a tracking differentiator (TD), a linear extended state observer (LESO) and an error feedback control law (PD) and is a control technique for estimating compensation for uncertainty. Radial Basis Function Neural Networks (RBFNN) is a well−performing forward network with best approximation, simple training, fast learning convergence and the ability to overcome local minima problems. Combined with the advantages and disadvantages of LADRC, Adaptive Control and Neural Network, the coupling force between each channel, gust crosswind disturbance and additional resistance of offshore platform jitter in the flight state of the quadrotor are optimized. In the control, the RBF neural network is designed, the nonlinear control signal is wirelessly approximated and the uncertain disturbance to the quadrotor is identified online. Finally, the real−time estimation and compensation are performed by LESO to realize the full−attitude take−off of the quadrotor. In addition, this paper uses adaptive control to optimize the parameters of LADRC to reduce the problem of many LADRC parameters and difficulty to integrate. Finally, the robust control system mentioned in this paper is simulated and verified, and the simulation results show that the control scheme has the advantages of simple parameter adjustment and stronger robustness.
Time-Resolved Analysis of the Electron Temperature in RF Magnetron Discharges with a Pulsed Gas Injection
Authors: Sadek Thibault , Vinchon Pierre , Durocher-Jean Antoine , Carnide Guillaume , Kahn Myrtil L. , Clergereaux Richard , Stafford Luc
Published: December 2022

Pulsed gas injection in a plasma can affect many fundamentals, including electron heating and losses. The case of an asymmetric RF magnetron plasma with a pulsed argon injection is analyzed by optical emission spectroscopy of argon 2p-to-1s transitions coupled with collisional-radiative modeling. For a fully detailed population model of argon 2p levels accounting for direct and stepwise electron-impact excitation in optically thick conditions, a rapid decrease in the electron temperature, Te, is observed during each gas injection with the sudden pressure rise. The opposite trend, with unrealistic Te values before and after each pulse, is observed for analysis based on simple corona models, thus emphasizing the importance of stepwise excitation processes and radiation trapping. Time-resolved electron temperature variations are directly linked to the operating parameters of the pulsed gas injection, in particular the injection frequency. Based on the complete set of data, it is shown that the instantaneous electron temperature monotonously decreases with increasing pressure, with values consistent with those expected for plasmas in which charged species are produced by electron-impact ionization of ground state argon atoms and lost by diffusion and recombination on plasma reactor walls.
Chromatic Number of Fuzzy Graphs: Operations, Fuzzy Graph Coloring, and Applications
Authors: Gong Zengtai , Zhang Jing
Published: December 2022

We focus on fuzzy graphs with crisp vertex sets and fuzzy edge sets. This paper introduces a new concept of chromatic number (crisp) for a fuzzy graph G˜(V,E˜). Moreover, we define the operations of cap, join, difference, ring sum, direct product, semiproduct, strong product, and Cartesian product of fuzzy graphs. Furthermore, the exact value or the upper boundary of the chromatic number of these fuzzy graphs is obtained based on the α-cuts of G˜. Finally, two applications of the chromatic number to solve the timetabling problem and the traffic light problem are analyzed.
Verification of the Modified Degradation Mode Identification Technique by Employing Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy and Differential Voltage Analysis
Authors: Tasnim Mowri Sadia , Barai Anup , Gupta Aniruddha , Marco James
Published: December 2022

For retired automotive lithium-ion batteries, state of health (SoH) is currently utilised to grade them for a second-life application. However, researchers previously challenged this and expressed that, in addition to SoH, the actual degradation mechanism, also known as degradation mode (DM), should be considered for grading, for efficient second-life operation. To date, there is little evidence to support this. A validated DM detection technique for cell/module grading does not exist. A modified DM detection technique by tracking and indexing the incremental capacity (IC) curves was previously proposed by the authors; nevertheless, it was difficult to validate. Researchers previously proposed DM identification using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) and Differential Voltage (DV) analysis. With a direct comparison of the techniques made exploiting IC, DV, and EIS, a correlation can be made, which is presented in this article. The correlation suggests that cells identified as having the same (or different) DM by the proposed technique also identified as having the same (or different) DM growth by EIS technique proposed by other researchers. Likewise, DV analysis suggests that the DV peak’s standard deviation of similar DM cells is smaller than that of the different DM cells.
Evolution of Hip Muscles Strength in Femoroacetabular Impingement Patients Treated by Arthroscopy or Surgical Hip Dislocation: A Retrospective Exploratory Study
Authors: Servant Guillaume , Fourchet François , Pernoud Anthony , Bothorel Hugo , Christofilopoulos Panayiotis
Published: December 2022

Hip arthroscopy and surgical hip dislocation (SHD) can be adequate surgical options for patients suffering from femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) syndrome, but there is to date no published data on their impact on hip muscles strength. The purpose of this retrospective study was, therefore, to evaluate it on a consecutive series of 50 FAI patients treated either by arthroscopy (n = 29, aged 27.4 ± 7.5 years, 76% of women) or SHD (n = 21, aged 25.9 ± 6.5 years, 38% of women) at La Tour Hospital between 2020 and 2021. The bilateral isometric strengths of eight hip-related muscles were evaluated before and three months after surgery (halfway through the rehabilitation program). For arthroscopy, a statistically significant (p < 0.05) reduction in hip muscles strength could be noted on the operated hamstrings (1.49 ± 0.43 vs. 1.39 ± 0.38 Nm/kg), flexors (1.88 ± 0.46 vs. 1.73 ± 0.41 Nm/kg), abductors (1.97 ± 0.42 vs. 1.72 ± 0.40 Nm/kg) and external rotators (1.17 ± 0.40 vs. 1.04 ± 0.37 Nm/kg). The abductors were the most affected muscles, with 45% of the patients suffering from a strength reduction ≥15%. The non-operated external rotators were also affected but to a lesser extent (1.21 ± 0.38 vs. 1.10 ± 0.36 Nm/kg). For SHD, a statistically significant strength reduction could be noted on the operated extensors (2.28 ± 0.84 vs. 2.05 ± 0.70 Nm/kg), abductors (1.87 ± 0.49 vs. 1.65 ± 0.41 Nm/kg), quadriceps (2.96 ± 0.92 vs. 2.44 ± 0.89 Nm/kg), external rotators (1.16 ± 0.42 vs. 0.93 ± 0.36 Nm/kg) and internal rotators (1.26 ± 0.38 vs. 0.96 ± 0.30 Nm/kg). The internal rotators were the most affected muscles, with 75% of the patients suffering from a strength reduction ≥15%. To conclude, particular attention should be paid to operated abductors for patients treated by arthroscopy as well as operated internal/external rotators, abductors and quadriceps for those treated by surgical hip dislocation. It reinforces that a rehabilitation method based on isolated muscle reinforcement and functional exercises that goes beyond three postoperative months is needed.
Targeting of the ELR+CXCL/CXCR1/2 Pathway Is a Relevant Strategy for the Treatment of Paediatric Medulloblastomas
Authors: Penco-Campillo Manon , Molina Clément , Piris Patricia , Soufi Nouha , Carré Manon , Pagnuzzi-Boncompagni Marina , Picco Vincent , Dufies Maeva , Ronco Cyril , Benhida Rachid , Martial Sonia , Pagès Gilles
Published: December 2022

Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common and aggressive paediatric brain tumour. Although the cure rate can be as high as 70%, current treatments (surgery, radio- and chemotherapy) excessively affect the patients’ quality of life. Relapses cannot be controlled by conventional or targeted treatments and are usually fatal. The strong heterogeneity of the disease (four subgroups and several subtypes) is related to innate or acquired resistance to reference treatments. Therefore, more efficient and less-toxic therapies are needed. Here, we demonstrated the efficacy of a novel inhibitor (C29) of CXCR1/2 receptors for ELR+CXCL cytokines for the treatment of childhood MB. The correlation between ELR+CXCL/CXCR1/2 expression and patient survival was determined using the R2: Genomics Analysis and Visualization platform. In vitro efficacy of C29 was evaluated by its ability to inhibit proliferation, migration, invasion, and pseudo-vessel formation of MB cell lines sensitive or resistant to radiotherapy. The growth of experimental MB obtained by MB spheroids on organotypic mouse cerebellar slices was also assayed. ELR+CXCL/CXCR1/2 levels correlated with shorter survival. C29 inhibited proliferation, clone formation, CXCL8/CXCR1/2-dependent migration, invasion, and pseudo-vessel formation by sensitive and radioresistant MB cells. C29 reduced experimental growth of MB in the ex vivo organotypic mouse model and crossed the blood–brain barrier. Targeting CXCR1/2 represents a promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of paediatric MB in first-line treatment or after relapse following conventional therapy.
Cross-Generational Impact of Innate Immune Memory Following Pregnancy Complications
Authors: Lodge-Tulloch Nakeisha A. , Toews Alexa J. , Atallah Aline , Cotechini Tiziana , Girard Sylvie , Graham Charles H.
Published: December 2022

Pregnancy complications can have long-term negative effects on the health of the affected mothers and their children. In this review, we highlight the underlying inflammatory etiologies of common pregnancy complications and discuss how aberrant inflammation may lead to the acquisition of innate immune memory. The latter can be described as a functional epigenetic reprogramming of innate immune cells following an initial exposure to an inflammatory stimulus, ultimately resulting in an altered response following re-exposure to a similar inflammatory stimulus. We propose that aberrant maternal inflammation associated with complications of pregnancy increases the cross-generational risk of developing noncommunicable diseases (i.e., pregnancy complications, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic disease) through a process mediated by innate immune memory. Elucidating a role for innate immune memory in the cross-generational health consequences of pregnancy complications may lead to the development of novel strategies aimed at reducing the long-term risk of disease.
Diverse Biological Activities of 1,3,4-Thiadiazole Scaffold
Authors: Anthwal Tulika , Paliwal Sarvesh , Nain Sumitra
Published: December 2022

The chemistry of 1,3,4-thiadiazole is one of the most interesting scaffolds for synthesizing new drug molecules due to their numerous pharmacological activities. Several modifications in the thiadiazole ring have been made, proving it to be more potent and highly effective with a less toxic scaffold for various biological activities. There are several marketed drugs containing 1,3,4-thiadiazole ring in their structure. In this review article, we have tried to compile the newly synthesized 1,3,4-thiadiazole derivatives possessing important pharmaceutical significance since 2014.
Food Neophobia in Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD): A Nationwide Study in Brazil
Authors: de Almeida Priscila Claudino , Zandonadi Renata Puppin , Nakano Eduardo Yoshio , Vasconcelos Ivana Aragão Lira , Botelho Raquel Braz Assunção
Published: December 2022

Food neophobia (FN) is common among children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), potentially impairing their health and diet quality. This study aimed to investigate and classify the prevalence of FN among 4-to-11-year-old Brazilian children with ASD. This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed by applying online a validated instrument to identify FN in Brazilian children with ASD through their caregivers’ responses for a national prevalence of FN in this group. The final sample included 593 children with ASD, 80.1% of boys, with a mean age of 6.72 ± 2.31 years, and 83% having only ASD. Almost 75% (n = 436) of the children with ASD had high food neophobia scores. The fruit neophobia domain had the lowest prevalence of high neophobia (63.7%). No significant difference in FN (total, fruit, and vegetable domains) was found, considering gender and age. There was no statistical difference in FN (all domains) by the number of residents in the same household, income, or the caregivers’ educational level. FN did not decrease in older children with ASD. FN is a more complex problem, requiring a multidisciplinary trained team to face the problem.
Development of a German Physical Literacy Assessment for Children in the Context of Health Promotion—An Explorative Approach
Authors: Krenz Leonie , Grauduszus Martin , Klaudius Marlen , Stolz Isabel , Wessely Stefanie , Joisten Christine
Published: December 2022

Addressing physical literacy (PL) has become increasingly relevant to counteract sedentary behaviour in children and youth. We developed an assessment tool to measure and evaluate the promotion of individual PL and its four subdomains: motivation and confidence (the affective dimension), physical competence (physical dimension), knowledge and understanding (cognitive dimension), and participation in physical activity. Within this cross-sectional study, we tested 567 children aged 6–12 years from four primary schools that differed in socioeconomic status (SES). A subsequent exploratory factor analysis conducted to examine the conformity revealed a five-factor structure. The five factors explained 39.8% of the total cumulative variance. Children with a low SES yielded lower scores in all subdomains except participation in physical activity. This effect was most pronounced in motor skills (p < 0.001, r = 0.28). Among the children with a low SES, 16.9% were overweight and 17.4% were obese, compared to 11.5% and 5.4%, respectively, for those with a high SES (p < 0.001). In conclusion, although the assessment tool was largely in line with the postulated structure, further adjustments are necessary in terms of participation and motivation. Nevertheless, this holistic view of PL, taking SES into account, should enable the focused promotion of health and health literacy.
On the Feasibility of Real-Time HRV Estimation Using Overly Noisy PPG Signals
Authors: Esgalhado Filipa , Vassilenko Valentina , Batista Arnaldo , Ortigueira Manuel
Published: December 2022

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is a biomarker that can be obtained non-invasively from the electrocardiogram (ECG) or the photoplethysmogram (PPG) fiducial points. However, the accuracy of HRV can be compromised by the presence of artifacts. In the herein presented work, a Simulink® model with a deep learning component was studied for overly noisy PPG signals. A subset with these noisy signals was selected for this study, with the purpose of testing a real-time machine learning based HRV estimation system in substandard artifact-ridden signals. Home-based and wearable HRV systems are prone to dealing with higher contaminated signals, given the less controlled environment where the acquisitions take place, namely daily activity movements. This was the motivation behind this work. The results for overly noisy signals show that the real-time PPG-based HRV estimation system produced RMSE and Pearson correlation coefficient mean and standard deviation of 0.178 ± 0.138 s and 0.401 ± 0.255, respectively. This RMSE value is roughly one order of magnitude above the closest comparative results for which the real-time system was also used.
Two-Temperature Semiconductor Model Photomechanical and Thermal Wave Responses with Moisture Diffusivity Process
Authors: Alhashash Abeer , Elidy E. S. , El-Bary A. A. , Tantawi Ramdan S. , Lotfy Khaled
Published: December 2022

In the context of the two-temperature thermoelasticity theory, a novel mathematical–physical model is introduced that describes the influence of moisture diffusivity in the semiconductor material. The two-dimensional (2D) Cartesian coordinate is used to study the coupling between the thermo-elastic plasma waves and moisture diffusivity. Dimensionless quantities are taken for the main physical fields with some initial conditions in the Laplace transform domain. The linear solutions are obtained analytically along with unknown variables when some conditions are loaded at the surface of the homogenous medium according to the two-temperature theory. The Laplace transform technique in inversion form is utilized with some numerical algebraic approximations in the time domain to observe the exact expressions. Due to the effects of the two-temperature parameter and moisture diffusivity, the numerical results of silicon material have been introduced. The impacts of thermoelectric, thermoelastic, and reference moisture parameters are discussed graphically with some physical explanations.
Effect of Plant Nanocellulose Electrolyte, Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles, and Nano-Chlorophyll Sensitiser on the Dye-Sensitised Solar Cell Performance
Authors: Alanazi Abdullah K. , Abo-Dief Hala M. , Alothman Zeid A. , Mohamed Ashraf T. , Pramanik Tanay , Alotaibi Saad H.
Published: December 2022

Owing to ecological concerns and the rapid increase in fossil fuel consumption, sustainable and efficient generation technologies are being developed. The present work aimed at manufacturing DSSC that is based on natural elements for converting the sun energy into electrical energy. ZnO nano materials are used in solar cells as binary compound semiconductor according to their stability, better conductivity, excellent mobility, the best affinity of electrons, and lower cost compared to other semiconductors. Recently, nanocellulose has shown potential as an advanced nanomaterial used in electrochemical conversion devices since it is considered the best abundant Earth biopolymer and is inexpensive and versatile. The constructed DSSC composed of plant nanocellulose (PNC) extracted from banana peel and nano-chlorophyll dye extracted from aloe vera were evaluated as the electrolyte and sensitiser, respectively. With increasing PNC content from 0 to 32 wt.%, both PV parameters and lifetime increase, and voltage decay decreases. The nano particles size modification for three materials carried by ultrasonic waves. Increasing the ultrasonic wave exposure time reduced the size of the Chl particles. The addition of PNC from banana peel to DSSC electrolyte is shown effective. The effect of varying the PNC/nano-chlorophyll content (0–32 wt.%) on the photovoltaic parameters of the DSSC was investigated. The addition of PNC significantly increased the fill factor and sunlight conversion efficiency. The DSSCs showed acceptable performance under relatively low irradiation conditions and different light intensities, indicating that they are suitable for outdoor applications.
Pathologic Findings at Risk Reducing Surgery in BRCA and Non-BRCA Mutation Carriers: A Single-Center Experience
Authors: Cassani Chiara , Rossi Chiara , Camnasio Cristina Angela , Urtis Mario , Fiandrino Giacomo , Grasso Maurizia , Zanellini Francesca , Lucioni Marco , D’Ambrosio Gioacchino , Di Toro Alessandro , Rossi Margherita , Roccio Marianna , Ferrari Alberta , Secondino Simona , Nappi Rossella Elena , Arbustini Eloisa , Paulli Marco , Spinillo Arsenio , Cesari Stefania
Published: December 2022

Risk-reducing surgery (RRS) is recommended in BRCA-mutated carriers because of their increased risk of developing ovarian cancer, while its role is still discussed for women harboring mutations in non-BRCA homologous repair genes. The aim of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the occurrence of pathological findings in a high-risk population undergoing RRS in San Matteo Hospital, Pavia between 2012 and 2022, and correlate their genetic and clinical outcomes, comparing them with a control group. The final cohort of 190 patients included 85 BRCA1, 63 BRCA2, 11 CHEK2, 7 PALB2, 4 ATM, 1 ERCC5, 1 RAD51C, 1 CDH1, 1 MEN1, 1 MLH1 gene mutation carriers and 15 patients with no known mutation but with strong familial risk. Occult invasive serous carcinoma (HGSC) and serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma (STIC) were diagnosed in 12 (6.3%) women, all of them BRCA carriers. No neoplastic lesion was diagnosed in the non-BRCA group, in women with familial risk, or in the control group. Oral contraceptive use and age ≤45 at surgery were both found to be favorable factors. While p53 signature and serous tubal intraepithelial lesion (STIL) were also seen in the control group and in non-BRCA carriers, STIC and HGSC were only found in BRCA1/2 mutation carriers.
Advanced HEVC Screen Content Coding for MPEG Immersive Video
Authors: Samelak Jarosław , Dziembowski Adrian , Mieloch Dawid
Published: December 2022

This paper presents the modified HEVC Screen Content Coding (SCC) that was adapted to be more efficient as an internal video coding of the MPEG Immersive Video (MIV) codec. The basic, unmodified SCC is already known to be useful in such an application. However, in this paper, we propose three additional improvements to SCC to increase the efficiency of immersive video coding. First, we analyze using the quarter-pel accuracy in the intra block copy technique to provide a more effective search of the best candidate block to be copied in the encoding process. The second proposal is the use of tiles to allow inter-view prediction inside MIV atlases. The last proposed improvement is the addition of the MIV bitstream parser in the HEVC encoder that enables selecting the most efficient coding configuration depending on the type of currently encoded data. The experimental results show that the proposal increases the compression efficiency for natural content sequences by almost 7% and simultaneously decreases the computational time of encoding by more than 15%, making the proposal very valuable for further research on immersive video coding.
An Intrusion Detection System for RPL-Based IoT Networks
Authors: Garcia Ribera Eric , Martinez Alvarez Brian , Samuel Charisma , Ioulianou Philokypros P. , Vassilakis Vassilios G.
Published: December 2022

The Internet of Things (IoT) has become very popular during the last decade by providing new solutions to modern industry and to entire societies. At the same time, the rise of the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has provided various benefits by linking infrastructure around the world via sensors, machine learning, and data analytics. However, the security of IoT devices has been proven to be a major concern. Almost a decade ago, the IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) was designed to handle routing in IoT and IIoT. Since then, numerous types of attacks on RPL have been published. In this paper, a novel intrusion detection system (IDS) is designed and implemented for RPL-based IoT. The objective is to perform an accurate and efficient detection of various types of routing and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks such as version number attack, blackhole attack, and grayhole attack, and different variations of flooding attacks such as Hello flood attack, DIS attack, and DAO insider attack. To achieve this, different detection strategies are combined, taking advantage of the strengths of each individual strategy. In addition, the proposed IDS is experimentally evaluated by performing a deep analysis of the aforementioned attacks in order to study the impact caused. This evaluation also estimates the accuracy and effectiveness of the IDS performance when confronted with the considered attacks. The obtained results show high detection accuracy. Furthermore, the overhead introduced in terms of CPU usage and power consumption is negligible. In particular, the CPU usage overhead is less than 2% in all cases, whereas the average power consumption increase is no more than 0.5%, which can be considered an insignificant impact on the overall resource utilisation.
Classification of Plates and Trihedral Corner Reflectors Based on Linear Wavefront Phase-Modulated Beam
Authors: Wang Xiaodong , Zhang Yi , Zhu Kaiqiang , Zhang Xiangdong , Sun Houjun
Published: December 2022

Wavefront-modulated beams such as vortex beams have attracted much attention in the field of target recognition due to the introduced degrees of freedom. However, traditional wavefront-modulated beams are doughnut shaped, and are not suitable for radar detection or tracking. To solve this problem, a linear wavefront phase-modulated beam with a maximum radiation intensity in the center was proposed in a previous study. In this paper, we continue to study target characteristics under the linear wavefront phase-modulated beam. Through analysis of the target scattering based on the physical optics (PO) method, we find that a part of the monostatic or bistatic radar cross-section (RCS) of the target could be obtained by changing the phase gradient of the modulated beam. Taking this part of RCS for feature extraction, we recognize the plates and trihedral corner reflectors through the support vector machine (SVM) method. For data visualization, we use the t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) method for data dimensionality reduction. The results show that the recognition probability of the plates and trihedral corner reflectors can reach 91% with an antenna array having an aperture of 20 wavelengths when the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is 20 dB, while the traditional plane beam cannot classify these two targets directly.
The Effect of CO2 Gas Emissions on the Market Value, Price and Shares Returns
Authors: Salehi Mahdi , Fahimifard Seyed Hamed , Zimon Grzegorz , Bujak Andrzej , Sadowski Adam
Published: December 2022

One thing that should be considered in environmental considerations and climate change is the transportation sector’s contribution to producing carbon dioxide. Unfortunately, in developing countries such as Iran, due to high tariff support, manufacturers have no incentive to improve the combustion quality of their products. Most likely, significant restrictions on CO2 emissions will be applied in the coming years, and companies whose activities or products are related to high-level greenhouse gas emissions will be affected by these restrictions. Therefore, due to the application of these restrictions, investors are most concerned about the risk associated with the return of purchased shares. Considering these cases, it can be expected that the risk related to carbon emissions will be reflected in the yield level and, thus, the stock price. Therefore, the present study deals with the effect of CO2 gas emissions on the market value, price and stock returns of Iranian automobile companies. The data collected as tabular data include six automobile companies from 2018–2019. By conducting various tests and panel data estimations, especially the dynamic panel data method, it was determined that CO2 emissions reduce stock prices, returns and market value of automobile companies. In addition, the results of the causality test indicate that the direction of causality is only from CO2 emissions to stock returns.
Distributed Energy as a Megatrend of Audit of Investment Processes of the Energy Complex
Authors: Gryzunova Natalie , Vedenyev Kirill , Manuylenko Victoria , Keri Igor , Bilczak Michał
Published: December 2022

The global trend is constantly increasing investments in strategic sectors of the economy, for example the electric power industry, which, in many countries, is becoming diversified and dispersed due to the multitude of entities investing in energy production and renewable resources, which leads to an increase in the heterogeneity of investment decisions. There is an urgent need to control the movement of investments, budget funds, as well as their development in the process of implementing investment programs of energy companies. The control of the movement of investments is the most promising direction of studying the subject of finance and audit. The increasing volume of public and private targeted investments in the energy sector and the lack of control over the effectiveness of investment projects (since each program contains several thousand lists of projects) necessitated the introduction of additional regulation of budget spending. The development of a mathematical apparatus for such regulation led to the creation in the Russian Federation of an institute of an independent public technological and price audit (TPA). The TPA is seen as a mechanism to ensure an effective project evaluation and selection process. This article describes methodological improvements using power system optimization models. The Integrated MARKAL-EFOM System (TIMES) was developed as part of the Energy Technology Systems Analysis Program of the IEA-ETSAP, an international community that uses long-term energy scenarios to conduct in-depth energy and environmental analyzes. This approach includes two different but complementary systematic approaches to energy modeling: an engineering approach and an economic approach. The same approach is used when conducting a TSA, when an investment object is evaluated as a set of technological and price parameters. The article considers a model of resource allocation in the energy sector and a mechanism for using TPA for investment projects with state participation in a natural monopoly. An approach to the financial and long-term distribution of investments of electric power companies based on the search for a balance of interests of the supplier and consumer and available energy sources is proposed. A model has been developed to find the optimal plan of technical solutions, taking into account the balance of the possibilities of the electric power industry and the needs of the economy. The relevance of the article is due to the requirements of investment efficiency, since the prevailing share in the costs is occupied by the costs of equipment and the construction of power plants.
Sustainable Energy Systems
Authors: Fortuna Luigi , Buscarino Arturo
Published: December 2022

The world is currently in the age of energy [...]
Evaluation of Internal Stresses in Modified Near-Surface Layer of 20Kh13 Steel during Incubation Period of Water Droplet Impact Erosion
Authors: Mednikov Alexey , Zilova Olga , Tkhabisimov Aleksandr , Kachalin Gennady , Ryzhenkov Artem , Grigoriev Sergey
Published: December 2022

This study investigates the change in internal stresses of ion nitrided and Cr–CrC ion-plasma-coated 20Kh13 steel samples during the incubation period of the droplet impact erosion. To obtain internal stress values, a method based on measuring the deformation (curvature) of the sample along the surface profiles before and after its modification/coating, as well as during the subsequent droplet impact has been applied. The results suggest that the initial droplet impact on the uncoated, nitrided and coated material leads to a sharp increase in the initial internal stress values. The rate of increase in internal stress decreases with the surface damage development and accumulation. The proposed method of stress evaluation can be used in selecting a criterion for comparing the erosion resistance of a material and a method for modifying its surface.
Gait Improvement by Alerted Push-Off via Heating of Insole Tip
Authors: Oshita Kazushige
Published: December 2022

This study investigated the change in the joint angles of the lower limb during gait by heating the tip of the insole to make a conscious push-off with the warm part. Fifteen healthy males performed treadmill walking under three different conditions: CONTROL walked as usual, INST was instructed to extend the stride with a push-off from the ball of foot to the toe, and HEAT was asked to walk while attempting to push off the warm area, which was attached to the disposable warmer to the area from the ball of foot to the toe of the insole. A 3D-motion capture system with infrared cameras was used to analyze the gait. The hip joint angle increased significantly under the INST and HEAT. Although the ankle dorsi-flexion at heel strike did not differ significantly for these conditions, ankle plantar-flexion significantly increased at toe-off under the INST and HEAT. Especially, effect size (d) in increased plantar-flexion was large in HEAT (=1.50), whereas it was moderate in INST (=0.68). These results suggest that a heated stimulus during gait enhanced the consciousness of push-off and increased leg swing and ankle plantar-flexion during the terminal stance phase, which may increase the stride length.
Tobacco Use and Cessation Counseling among Dental Professionals in Saudi Arabia
Authors: Aljubran Hussain , Alkoudemi Mohammed , Althunayan Mustafa , Aljeraisy Abdulrahman , Asiri Amal , Nazir Muhammad
Published: December 2022

The study aimed to assess the prevalence of tobacco use among dental professionals and their attitudes and behaviors about tobacco cessation counseling in Saudi Arabia. A total of 359 male and female dental professionals participated in this cross-sectional study. A pretested self-administered questionnaire was administered among study participants by visiting dental hospitals and clinics in Saudi Arabia. In the study, 15.9% of the participants were current tobacco users and 50.4% had a tobacco user at home or the workplace. Most participants reported that tobacco use is associated with bad breath (88.9%), oral cancer (88.3%), dryness of the mouth (80.8%), and bad taste (79.9%). Most participants asked patients about their tobacco habits (86.6%), mentioned tobacco habits in patient records (71.3%), and explained the benefits of quitting tobacco (79.9%). Less than half the sample (47.1%) referred patients to tobacco quitting services/programs. Male gender (Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 5.50, 95% CI 2.48–12.23, p < 0.001), having a tobacco user at home/the workplace (AOR 3.18, 95% CI 1.57–6.45, p 0.001), and believing that tobacco cessation counseling was a waste of time (AOR 2.32, 95% CI 1.13–4.76, p 0.021) were associated with significantly increased odds of tobacco use among dental professionals. The study concluded that tobacco use was common among dental professionals despite their awareness of the adverse effects of tobacco. Reduction in tobacco use and promotion of counseling skills among dental professionals should be achieved through public health measures.
Enhancing Mechanisms of the Plant Growth-Promoting Bacterial Strain Brevibacillus sp. SR-9 on Cadmium Enrichment in Sweet Sorghum by Metagenomic and Transcriptomic Analysis
Authors: Li Xiao-Qi , Liu Yong-Qi , Li Ying-Jun , Han Hui , Zhang Hao , Ji Ming-Fei , Chen Zhao-Jin
Published: December 2022

To explore the mechanism by which the plant growth-promoting bacterium Brevibacillus sp. SR-9 improves sweet sorghum tolerance and enriches soil cadmium (Cd) under pot conditions, the effect of strain SR-9 inoculation on the microbial community of sorghum rhizosphere soil was analyzed by metagenomics. Gene expression in sweet sorghum roots was analyzed using transcriptomics. The results showed that strain SR-9 promoted the growth of sweet sorghum and improved the absorption and enrichment of Cd in the plants. Compared with the uninoculated treatment, the aboveground part and root dry weight in strain SR-9 inoculated with sorghum increased by 21.09% and 17.37%, respectively, and the accumulation of Cd increased by 135% and 53.41%, respectively. High-throughput sequencing showed that strain SR-9 inoculation altered the rhizosphere bacterial community, significantly increasing the relative abundance of Actinobacteria and Firmicutes. Metagenomic analysis showed that after inoculation with strain SR-9, the abundance of genes involved in amino acid transport metabolism, energy generation and conversion, and carbohydrate transport metabolism increased. KEGG functional classification showed that inoculation with strain SR-9 increased the abundance of genes involved in soil microbial metabolic pathways in the rhizosphere soil of sweet sorghum and the activity of soil bacteria. Transcriptome analysis identified 198 upregulated differentially expressed genes in sweet sorghum inoculated with strain SR-9, including those involved in genetic information processing, biological system, metabolism, environmental information processing, cellular process, and human disease. Most of the annotated differentially expressed genes were enriched in the metabolic category and were related to pathways such as signal transduction, carbohydrate metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and biosynthesis of other secondary metabolites. This study showed that plant growth-promoting bacteria can alter the rhizosphere bacterial community composition, increasing the activity of soil bacteria and upregulating gene expression in sweet sorghum roots. The findings enhance our understanding of the microbiological and botanical mechanisms by which plant growth-promoting bacterial inoculation improves the remediation of heavy metals by sorghum.
Correction: McKinlay et al. Effects of Post-Exercise Whey Protein Consumption on Recovery Indices in Adolescent Swimmers. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 7761
Authors: McKinlay Brandon J. , Theocharidis Alexandros , Adebero Tony , Kurgan Nigel , Fajardo Val A. , Roy Brian D. , Josse Andrea R. , Logan-Sprenger Heather M. , Falk Bareket , Klentrou Panagiota
Published: December 2022

The authors of “Effects of Post-Exercise Whey Protein Consumption on Recovery Indices in Adolescent Swimmers” report an error in Table 1 of their article [...]
DP-CSM: Efficient Differentially Private Synthesis for Human Mobility Trajectory with Coresets and Staircase Mechanism
Authors: Yao Xin , Yu Juan , Han Jianmin , Lu Jianfeng , Peng Hao , Wu Yijia , Cao Xiaoqian
Published: December 2022

Generating differentially private synthetic human mobility trajectories from real trajectories is a commonly used approach for privacy-preserving trajectory publishing. However, existing synthetic trajectory generation methods suffer from the drawbacks of poor scalability and suboptimal privacy–utility trade-off, due to continuous spatial space, high dimentionality of trajectory data and the suboptimal noise addition mechanism. To overcome the drawbacks, we propose DP-CSM, a novel differentially private trajectory generation method using coreset clustering and the staircase mechanism, to generate differentially private synthetic trajectories in two main steps. Firstly, it generates generalized locations for each timestamp, and utilizes coreset-based clustering to improve scalability. Secondly, it reconstructs synthetic trajectories with the generalized locations, and uses the staircase mechanism to avoid the over-perturbation of noises and maintain utility of synthetic trajectories. We choose three state-of-the-art clustering-based generation methods as the comparative baselines, and conduct comprehensive experiments on three real-world datasets to evaluate the performance of DP-CSM. Experimental results show that DP-CSM achieves better privacy–utility trade-off than the three baselines, and significantly outperforms the three baselines in terms of efficiency.
Genome-Wide Analysis and Functional Characterization of Pyruvate Kinase (PK) Gene Family Modulating Rice Yield and Quality
Authors: Dong Nannan , Chen Luna , Ahmad Shakeel , Cai Yicong , Duan Yingqing , Li Xinwei , Liu Yongqiang , Jiao Guiai , Xie Lihong , Hu Shikai , Sheng Zhonghua , Shao Gaoneng , Wang Ling , Tang Shaoqing , Wei Xiangjin , Hu Peisong
Published: December 2022

Pyruvate kinase (PK) is one of the three rate-limiting enzymes of glycolysis, and it plays a pivotal role in energy metabolism. In this study, we have identified 10 PK genes from the rice genome. Initially, these genes were divided into two categories: cytoplasmic pyruvate kinase (PKc) and plastid pyruvate kinase (PKp). Then, an expression analysis revealed that OsPK1, OsPK3, OsPK4, OsPK6, and OsPK9 were highly expressed in grains. Moreover, PKs can form heteropolymers. In addition, it was found that ABA significantly regulates the expression of PK genes (OsPK1, OsPK4, OsPK9, and OsPK10) in rice. Intriguingly, all the genes were found to be substantially involved in the regulation of rice grain quality and yield. For example, the disruption of OsPK3, OsPK5, OsPK7, OsPK8, and OsPK10 and OsPK4, OsPK5, OsPK6, and OsPK10 decreased the 1000-grain weight and the seed setting rate, respectively. Further, the disruption of OsPK4, OsPK6, OsPK8, and OsPK10 through the CRISPR/Cas9 system showed an increase in the content of total starch and a decrease in protein content compared to the WT. Similarly, manipulations of the OsPK4, OsPK8, and OsPK10 genes increased the amylose content. Meanwhile, the grains of all CRISPR mutants and RNAi lines, except ospk6, showed a significant increase in the chalkiness rate compared to the wild type. Overall, this study characterizes the functions of all the genes of the PK gene family and shows their untapped potential to improve rice yield and quality traits.