bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Phytotoxic Activity and Identification of Phytotoxic Substances from Schumannianthus dichotomus
Authors: Rob Md. Mahfuzur , Hossen Kawsar , Iwasaki Arihiro , Suenaga Kiyotake , Kato-Noguchi Hisashi
Published: January 2020

The phytotoxic potential of plants and their constituents against other plants is being increasingly investigated as a possible alternative to synthetic herbicides to control weeds in crop fields. In this study, we explored the phytotoxicity and phytotoxic substances of Schumannianthus dichotomus, a perennial wetland shrub native to Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar. Leaf extracts of S. dichotomus exerted strong phytotoxicity against two dicot species, alfalfa and cress, and two monocot species, barnyard grass and Italian ryegrass. A bioassay-driven purification process yielded two phenolic derivatives, syringic acid and methyl syringate. Both constituents significantly inhibited the growth of cress and Italian ryegrass in a concentration-dependent manner. The concentrations required for 50% growth inhibition (I50 value) of the shoot and root growth of cress were 75.8 and 61.3 μM, respectively, for syringic acid, compared with 43.2 and 31.5 μM, respectively, for methyl syringate. Similarly, to suppress the shoot and root growth of Italian rye grass, a greater amount of syringic acid (I50 = 213.7 and 175.9 μM) was needed than methyl syringate (I50 = 140.4 to 130.8 μM). Methyl syringate showed higher phytotoxic potential than syringic acid, and cress showed higher sensitivity to both substances. This study is the first to report on the phytotoxic potential of S. dichotomus and to identify phytotoxic substances from this plant material.
Exogenously Applied Ascorbic Acid-Mediated Changes in Osmoprotection and Oxidative Defense System Enhanced Water Stress Tolerance in Different Cultivars of Safflower (Carthamus tinctorious L.)
Authors: Farooq Ayesha , Bukhari Shazia Anwer , Akram Nudrat A. , Ashraf Muhammad , Wijaya Leonard , Alyemeni Mohammed Nasser , Ahmad Parvaiz
Published: January 2020

The present study was conducted to examine the effect of exogenously applied ascorbic acid (AsA) on osmoprotectants and the oxidative defense system in four cultivars (16171, 16183, 16207 and 16246) of safflower under well-watered and water deficit conditions. Water stress (60% field capacity) significantly decreased the shoot and root fresh and dry weights, shoot and root lengths and chlorophyll contents in all four safflower cultivars, while it increased the leaf free proline, total phenolics, total soluble proteins, hydrogen peroxide content and activities of catalase, superoxide dismutase and peroxidase enzymes. Foliar-applied (100 mg L−1 and 150 mg L−1) ascorbic acid caused a marked improvement in shoot and root fresh and dry weights, plant height, chlorophyll and AsA contents as well as the activity of peroxidase (POD) enzyme particularly under water deficit conditions. It also increased the accumulation of leaf proline, total phenolics, total soluble proteins and glycine betaine (GB) content in all four cultivars. Exogenously applied AsA lowered the contents of MDA and H2O2, and the activities of CAT and SOD enzymes. Overall, exogenously applied AsA had a positive effect on the growth of safflower plants under water deficit conditions which could be related to AsA-induced enhanced osmoprotection and regulation of antioxidant defense system.
Cellulose Nanocrystal Reinforced Chitosan Based UV Barrier Composite Films for Sustainable Packaging
Authors: Yadav Mithilesh , Behera Kartik , Chang Yen-Hsiang , Chiu Fang-Chyou
Published: January 2020

In this study, green composite films based on cellulose nanocrystal/chitosan (CNC/CS) were fabricated by solution casting. FTIR, XRD, SEM, and TEM characterizations were conducted to determine the structure and morphology of the prepared films. The addition of only 4 wt.% CNC in the CS film improved the tensile strength and Young’s modulus by up to 39% and 78%, respectively. Depending on CNC content, the moisture absorption decreased by 34.1–24.2% and the water solubility decreased by 35.7–26.5% for the composite films compared with neat CS film. The water vapor permeation decreased from 3.83 × 10−11 to 2.41 × 10−11 gm−1 s−1Pa−1 in the CS-based films loaded with (0–8 wt.%) CNC. The water and UV barrier properties of the composite films showed better performance than those of neat CS film. Results suggested that CNC/CS nanocomposite films can be used as a sustainable packaging material in the food industry.
Characterizing Distributions of Tensile Strength and Crack Precursor Size to Evaluate Filler Dispersion Effects and Reliability of Rubber
Authors: Robertson Christopher G. , Tunnicliffe Lewis B. , Maciag Lawrence , Bauman Mark A. , Miller Kurt , Herd Charles R. , Mars William V.
Published: January 2020

Undispersed filler agglomerates or other substantial inclusions/contaminants in rubber can act as large crack precursors that reduce the strength and fatigue lifetime of the material. To demonstrate this, we use tensile strength (stress at break, σb) data from 50 specimens to characterize the failure distribution behavior of carbon black (CB) reinforced styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) compounds. Poor mixing was simulated by adding a portion of the CB late in the mixing process, and glass beads (microspheres) with 517 μm average diameter were introduced during milling to reproduce the effects of large inclusions. The σb distribution was well described with a simple unimodal Weibull distribution for the control compound, but the tensile strengths of the poor CB dispersion material and the compounds with the glass beads required bimodal Weibull distributions. For the material with the lowest level of glass beads—corresponding to less than one microsphere per test specimen—the bimodal failure distribution spanned a very large range of σb from 13.7 to 22.7 MPa in contrast to the relatively narrow σb distribution for the control from 18.4 to 23.8 MPa. Crack precursor size (c0) distributions were also inferred from the data, and the glass beads introduced c0 values in the 400 μm range compared to about 180 μm for the control. In contrast to σb, critical tearing energy (tear strength) was unaffected by the presence of the CB agglomerates and glass beads, because the strain energy focuses on the pre-cut macroscopic crack in the sample during tear testing rather than on the microscopic crack precursors within the rubber. The glass beads were not detected by conventional filler dispersion measurements using interferometric microscopy, indicating that tensile strength distribution characterization is an important complementary approach for identifying the presence of minor amounts of large inclusions in rubber.
Hygro-Thermo-Mechanical Responses of Balsa Wood Core Sandwich Composite Beam Exposed to Fire
Authors: TranVan Luan , Legrand Vincent , Casari Pascal , Sankaran Revathy , Show Pau Loke , Berenjian Aydin , Lay Chyi-How
Published: January 2020

In this study, the hygro–thermo–mechanical responses of balsa core sandwich structured composite was investigated by using experimental, analytical and numerical results. These investigations were performed on two types of specimen conditions: dry and moisture saturation sandwich composite specimens that are composed of E-glass/polyester skins bonded to a balsa core. The wet specimens were immersed in distilled water at 40 °C until saturated with water. The both dry and wet sandwich composite specimens were heated by fire. The mass loss kinetic and the mechanical properties were investigated by using a cone calorimeter following the ISO 5660 standard and three-point bending mechanical test device. Experimental data show that the permeability and fire resistance of the sandwich structure are controlled by two composite skins. Obtained results allow us to understand the Hygro–Thermo–Mechanical Responses of the sandwich structured composite under application conditions.
Physicochemical Properties of Guava Snacks as Affected by Drying Technology
Authors: Leiton-Ramírez Yuri M. , Ayala-Aponte Alfredo , Ochoa-Martínez Claudia I.
Published: January 2020

Guava is widely consumed because of its agro-industrial use, and its antioxidant properties attributed to vitamin C and carotenoids content. However, it has a short shelf life. Guava has been dried by atomization, fluidized bed, lyophilization (FD) and convective drying (CD). CD requires long operation times and the product characteristics are not desirable. In contrast, FD produces high quality products, but requires long processing times, high energy consumption and high operation costs. As an alternative, the Refractance Window® (RW) drying is relatively simple and cheap technique. The objective of this study was to compare the effect of CD, FD and RW techniques, on the moisture content, water activity, color, porosity, volume change, vitamin C and carotenoids content in guava samples. The samples dried by RW required less time to reduce the moisture content and exhibited smaller changes in color than CD or FD. There were greater losses of carotenoids and vitamin C when drying by CD whereas RW had similar losses than FD. Lyophilized products exhibited minor change in volume and greater porosity. RW results in better retention of properties, compared with other drying techniques. Based on this, RW is a promising technique for the development of guava snacks.
A Two-Stage Optimal Scheduling Model of Microgrid Based on Chance-Constrained Programming in Spot Markets
Authors: Li Jiayu , Tan Caixia , Ren Zhongrui , Yang Jiacheng , Yu Xue , Tan Zhongfu
Published: January 2020

Aimed at the coordination control problem of each unit caused by microgrid participation in the spot market and considering the randomness of wind and solar output and the uncertainty of spot market prices, a day-ahead real-time two-stage optimal scheduling model for microgrid was established by using the chance-constrained programming theory. On this basis, an improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm based on stochastic simulation technology was used to solve the problem and the effect of demand side management and confidence level on scheduling results is discussed. The example results verified the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed model, which can provide a theoretical basis in terms of reasonably coordinating the output of each unit in the microgrid in the spot market.
Non-Linear Sliding Mode Controller for Photovoltaic Panels with Maximum Power Point Tracking
Authors: Gohar Ali Hina , Vilanova Arbos Ramon , Herrera Jorge , Tobón Andrés , Peláez-Restrepo Julián
Published: January 2020

In this paper, nonlinear sliding mode control (SMC) techniques formulated for extracting maximum power from a solar photovoltaic (PV) system under variable environmental conditions employing the perturb and observe (P and O) maximum power point tracking (MPPT) technique are discussed. The PV system is connected with load through the boost converter. A mathematical model of the boost converter is derived first, and based on the derived model, a SMC is formulated to control the gating pulses of the boost converter switch. The closed loop system stability is verified through the Lyapunov stability theorem. The presented control scheme along with the solar PV system is simulated in MATLAB (matric laboratory) (SMC controller and PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) part) and PSIM (Power electronics simulations) (solar PV and MPPT algorithm) environments using the Simcoupler tool. The simulation results of the proposed controller (SMC) are compared with the classical proportional integral derivative (PID) control scheme, keeping system parameters and environmental parameters the same.
Distance between Bound Entangled States from Unextendible Product Bases and Separable States
Authors: Wieśniak Marcin , Pandya Palash , Sakarya Omer , Woloncewicz Bianka
Published: January 2020

We discuss the use of the Gilbert algorithm to tailor entanglement witnesses for unextendible product basis bound entangled states (UPB BE states). The method relies on the fact that an optimal entanglement witness is given by a plane perpendicular to a line between the reference state, entanglement of which is to be witnessed, and its closest separable state (CSS). The Gilbert algorithm finds an approximation of CSS. In this article, we investigate if this approximation can be good enough to yield a valid entanglement witness. We compare witnesses found with Gilbert algorithm and those given by Bandyopadhyay–Ghosh–Roychowdhury (BGR) construction. This comparison allows us to learn about the amount of entanglement and we find a relationship between it and a feature of the construction of UPBBE states, namely the size of their central tile. We show that in most studied cases, witnesses found with the Gilbert algorithm in this work are more optimal than ones obtained by Bandyopadhyay, Ghosh, and Roychowdhury. This result implies the increased tolerance to experimental imperfections in a realization of the state.
Satellite ASTER Mineral Mapping the Provenance of the Loess Used by the Ming to Build their Earthen Great Wall
Authors: Cudahy Tom , Shi Pilong , Novikova Yulia , Fu Bihong
Published: January 2020

The earthen border wall (Great Wall) built by the Ming is largely made of wind-blown loess. However, does the composition of this loess change along the length of the wall in response to variations in regional sediment transport pathways and impacting on the wall’s erosional durability? To date, defining these sediment transport pathways has been a challenge because of the paucity of spatially-comprehensive, compositional information. Here, we show that satellite ASTER mineral maps, combined with field sample measurements along a 1200 km section of the Ming’s earthen wall, reveal both the compositional heterogeneity of loess as well as the complexity of the sediment transport pathways of individual loess components, including: (i) quartz sand from Cretaceous sandstones in the Gobi Desert; (ii) gypsum from evaporative lakes in the Tengger Desert; (iii) kaolinite from Devonian Molasse in the Qilian Shan; and (iv) chlorite and muscovite from meta-volcanic rocks exposed across the Alashan Block. Sediment transport pathways involve a combination of colluvial, aeolian and fluvial (ephemeral and permanent) processes shaped by the topography. ASTER enabled mapping of compositional gradients related to two pathways, namely: (i) quartz sand driven by aeolian saltation in concert with the Yellow River; and (ii) clay and fine silt travelling large distances (>500 km) by long-term wind suspension. The most intact section of wall is found along the Hexi Corridor, which is poor in quartz sand and rich in (kaolinitic) clay and fine-silt, driven by wind-shielding by the Alashan Block. We also found evidence that the Ming: (i) mined loess from close by the wall (<1 km); (ii) targeted loess richer in finer fractions; and (iii) routinely applied a Ca-rich additive (probably lime).
Crop Classification Based on Temporal Signatures of Sentinel-1 Observations over Navarre Province, Spain
Authors: Arias María , Campo-Bescós Miguel Ángel , Álvarez-Mozos Jesús
Published: January 2020

Crop classification provides relevant information for crop management, food security assurance and agricultural policy design. The availability of Sentinel-1 image time series, with a very short revisit time and high spatial resolution, has great potential for crop classification in regions with pervasive cloud cover. Dense image time series enable the implementation of supervised crop classification schemes based on the comparison of the time series of the element to classify with the temporal signatures of the considered crops. The main objective of this study is to investigate the performance of a supervised crop classification approach based on crop temporal signatures obtained from Sentinel-1 time series in a challenging case study with a large number of crops and a high heterogeneity in terms of agro-climatic conditions and field sizes. The case study considered a large dataset on the Spanish province of Navarre in the framework of the verification of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies. Navarre presents a large agro-climatic diversity with persistent cloud cover areas, and therefore, the technique was implemented both at the provincial and regional scale. In total, 14 crop classes were considered, including different winter crops, summer crops, permanent crops and fallow. Classification results varied depending on the set of input features considered, obtaining Overall Accuracies higher than 70% when the three (VH, VV and VH/VV) channels were used as the input. Crops exhibiting singularities in their temporal signatures were more easily identified, with barley, rice, corn and wheat achieving F1-scores above 75%. The size of fields severely affected classification performance, with ~14% better classification performance for larger fields (>1 ha) in comparison to smaller fields (<0.5 ha). Results improved when agro-climatic diversity was taken into account through regional stratification. It was observed that regions with a higher diversity of crop types, management techniques and a larger proportion of fallow fields obtained lower accuracies. The approach is simple and can be easily implemented operationally to aid CAP inspection procedures or for other purposes.
Harmonization of Landsat and Sentinel 2 for Crop Monitoring in Drought Prone Areas: Case Studies of Ninh Thuan (Vietnam) and Bekaa (Lebanon)
Authors: Nguyen Minh , Baez-Villanueva Oscar , Bui Duong , Nguyen Phong , Ribbe Lars
Published: January 2020

Proper satellite-based crop monitoring applications at the farm-level often require near-daily imagery at medium to high spatial resolution. The combination of data from different ongoing satellite missions Sentinel 2 (ESA) and Landsat 7/8 (NASA) provides this unprecedented opportunity at a global scale; however, this is rarely implemented because these procedures are data demanding and computationally intensive. This study developed a robust stream processing for the harmonization of Landsat 7, Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2 in the Google Earth Engine cloud platform, connecting the benefit of coherent data structure, built-in functions and computational power in the Google Cloud. The harmonized surface reflectance images were generated for two agricultural schemes in Bekaa (Lebanon) and Ninh Thuan (Vietnam) during 2018–2019. We evaluated the performance of several pre-processing steps needed for the harmonization including the image co-registration, Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Functions correction, topographic correction, and band adjustment. We found that the misregistration between Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2 images varied from 10 m in Ninh Thuan (Vietnam) to 32 m in Bekaa (Lebanon), and posed a great impact on the quality of the final harmonized data set if not treated. Analysis of a pair of overlapped L8-S2 images over the Bekaa region showed that, after the harmonization, all band-to-band spatial correlations were greatly improved. Finally, we demonstrated an application of the dense harmonized data set for crop mapping and monitoring. An harmonic (Fourier) analysis was applied to fit the detected unimodal, bimodal and trimodal shapes in the temporal NDVI patterns during one crop year in Ninh Thuan province. The derived phase and amplitude values of the crop cycles were combined with max-NDVI as an R-G-B false composite image. The final image was able to highlight croplands in bright colors (high phase and amplitude), while the non-crop areas were shown with grey/dark (low phase and amplitude). The harmonized data sets (with 30 m spatial resolution) along with the Google Earth Engine scripts used are provided for public use.
Monitoring Plant Status and Fertilization Strategy through Multispectral Images
Authors: Cardim Ferreira Lima Matheus , Krus Anne , Valero Constantino , Barrientos Antonio , del Cerro Jaime , Roldán-Gómez Juan Jesús
Published: January 2020

A crop monitoring system was developed for the supervision of organic fertilization status on tomato plants at early stages. An automatic and nondestructive approach was used to analyze tomato plants with different levels of water-soluble organic fertilizer (3 + 5 NK) and vermicompost. The evaluation system was composed by a multispectral camera with five lenses: green (550 nm), red (660 nm), red edge (735 nm), near infrared (790 nm), RGB, and a computational image processing system. The water-soluble fertilizer was applied weekly in four different treatments: (T0: 0 mL, T1: 6.25 mL, T2: 12.5 mL and T3: 25 mL) and the vermicomposting was added in Weeks 1 and 5. The trial was conducted in a greenhouse and 192 images were taken with each lens. A plant segmentation algorithm was developed and several vegetation indices were calculated. On top of calculating indices, multiple morphological features were obtained through image processing techniques. The morphological features were revealed to be more feasible to distinguish between the control and the organic fertilized plants than the vegetation indices. The system was developed in order to be assembled in a precision organic fertilization robotic platform.
Defending Against Randomly Located Eavesdroppers by Establishing a Protecting Region
Authors: Li Tao , Xue Chaozheng , Li Yongzhao , Dobre Octavia A.
Published: January 2020

The security problem in wireless sensor networks faces severe challenges, due to the openness of the sensor network channel and the mobility and diversity of the terminals. When facing randomly located eavesdroppers, the situation is much more complex. This paper studies the security performance of a wireless sensor network where randomly located passive and active eavesdroppers are both considered. Compared to a passive eavesdropper, an active eavesdropper can perform both eavesdropping and malicious jamming simultaneously in a wireless sensor network. Based on beamforming and artificial noise (AN), we propose a practical way to defend against the eavesdropper by establishing a protecting region. An appropriate metric, the hybrid outage probability, which takes both the transmission outage probability and the secrecy outage probability into consideration, is utilized to evaluate the security performance. In addition, the concept of safe transmission range is defined to evaluate the security performance. Simulation results are provided to depict the insecure region and verify the harm of the active eavesdropper to the transmission in the wireless sensor network.
Iterative Learning-Based Path and Speed Profile Optimization for an Unmanned Surface Vehicle
Authors: Yang Yang , Li Quan , Zhang Junnan , Xie Yangmin
Published: January 2020

Most path-planning algorithms can generate a reasonable path by considering the kinematic characteristics of the vehicles and the obstacles in hydrographic survey activities. However, few studies consider the influence of vehicle dynamics, although excluding system dynamics may considerably damage the measurement accuracy especially when turning at high speed. In this study, an adaptive iterative learning algorithm is proposed to optimize the turning parameters, which accounts for the dynamic characteristics of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). The resulting optimal turning radius and speed are used to generate the path and speed profiles. The simulation results show that the proposed path-smoothing and speed profile design algorithms can largely increase the path-following performance, which potentially can help to improve the measurement accuracy of various activities.
A Fail-Operational Control Architecture Approach and Dead-Reckoning Strategy in Case of Positioning Failures
Authors: Matute-Peaspan Jose Angel , Perez Joshue , Zubizarreta Asier
Published: January 2020

Presently, in the event of a failure in Automated Driving Systems, control architectures rely on hardware redundancies over software solutions to assure reliability or wait for human interaction in takeover requests to achieve a minimal risk condition. As user confidence and final acceptance of this novel technology are strongly related to enabling safe states, automated fall-back strategies must be assured as a response to failures while the system is performing a dynamic driving task. In this work, a fail-operational control architecture approach and dead-reckoning strategy in case of positioning failures are developed and presented. A fail-operational system is capable of detecting failures in the last available positioning source, warning the decision stage to set up a fall-back strategy and planning a new trajectory in real time. The surrounding objects and road borders are considered during the vehicle motion control after failure, to avoid collisions and lane-keeping purposes. A case study based on a realistic urban scenario is simulated for testing and system verification. It shows that the proposed approach always bears in mind both the passenger’s safety and comfort during the fall-back maneuvering execution.
External Deformation Monitoring and Improved Partial Least Squares Data Analysis Methods of High Core Rock-Fill Dam (HCRFD)
Authors: Cheng Xiang , Li Qingquan , Zhou Wei , Zhou Zhiwei
Published: January 2020

External deformation monitoring of high core rock-fill dams (HCRFDs) is an important and difficult part of safety monitoring. The traditional method of external deformation monitoring and data analysis for HCRFDs is to use a total station for small angle observations and establish a regression model to analyze the results. However, the small angle method has low accuracy and a low automation degree, and there is multicollinearity between the independent variables, which affects the parameter estimation and leads to the failure of model establishment. The angle forward intersection method is adopted in this paper for observation, and an improved partial least squares method (IPLS) is proposed to eliminate the multicollinearity of the independent variables. Compared to the traditional method, the improved observation method exhibits high accuracy and a high automation degree. The new data analysis method can not only eliminate multicollinearity but also improve the interpretation ability of the model. The data from the initial stage of water storage shows that the displacement increases with the increase in the upstream water level and time, and the speed of water storage is proportional to the displacement. The water level and time are the main influencing factors. This conclusion provides a theoretical basis for reservoir management departments to control water levels and gate opening and closing. The method in this paper can be applied to arch dams, gravity dams, and other types of waterpower engineering systems.
Metamaterial Cell-Based Superstrate towards Bandwidth and Gain Enhancement of Quad-Band CPW-Fed Antenna for Wireless Applications
Authors: Al-Bawri Samir Salem , Islam Md Shabiul , Wong Hin Yong , Jamlos Mohd Faizal , Narbudowicz Adam , Jusoh Muzammil , Sabapathy Thennarasan , Islam Mohammad Tariqul
Published: January 2020

A multiband coplanar waveguide (CPW)-fed antenna loaded with metamaterial unit cell for GSM900, WLAN, LTE-A, and 5G Wi-Fi applications is presented in this paper. The proposed metamaterial structure is a combination of various symmetric split-ring resonators (SSRR) and its characteristics were investigated for two major axes directions at (x and y-axis) wave propagation through the material. For x-axis wave propagation, it indicates a wide range of negative refractive index in the frequency span of 2–8.5 GHz. For y-axis wave propagation, it shows more than 2 GHz bandwidth of near-zero refractive index (NZRI) property. Two categories of the proposed metamaterial plane were applied to enhance the bandwidth and gain. The measured reflection coefficient (S11) demonstrated significant bandwidths increase at the upper bands by 4.92–6.49 GHz and 3.251–4.324 GHz, considered as a rise of 71.4% and 168%, respectively, against the proposed antenna without using metamaterial. Besides being high bandwidth achieving, the proposed antenna radiates bi-directionally with 95% as the maximum radiation efficiency. Moreover, the maximum measured gain reaches 6.74 dBi by a 92.57% improvement compared with the antenna without using metamaterial. The simulation and measurement results of the proposed antenna show good agreement.
Design and Implementation of an On-Chip Low-Power and High-Flexibility System for Data Acquisition and Processing of an Inertial Measurement Unit
Authors: Gao Zhenyi , Zhou Bin , Li Yang , Yang Lei , Li Xiang , Wei Qi , Chu Hongyang , Zhang Rong
Published: January 2020

For signal processing of a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), a digital-analog hybrid system-on-chip (SoC) with small area and low power consumption was designed and implemented in this paper. To increase the flexibility of the processing circuit, the designed SoC integrates a low-power processor and supports three startup or debugging modes for different application scenarios. An application-specific computing module and communication interface are designed in the circuit to meet the requirements of IMU signal processing. The configurable clock allows users to dynamically balance computing speed and power consumption in their applications. The chip was taped out under SMIC 180 nm CMOS technology and tested for performance. The results show that the chip’s maximum running frequency is 105 MHz. The total area is 33.94 mm 2 . The dynamic and static power consumption are 0.65 mW/MHz and 0.30 mW/MHz, respectively. When the system clock is 25 MHz, the dynamic and static power consumption of the chip is 76 mW and 66 mW, and the dynamic and static power consumption of the FPGA level are 634 mW and 520 mW. The results verify the superiority of the application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) solution in terms of integration and low power consumption.
GNSS-ISE: Instruction Set Extension for GNSS Baseband Processing
Authors: Marcinek Krzysztof , Pleskacz Witold A.
Published: January 2020

This work presents the results of research toward designing an instruction set extension dedicated to Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) baseband processing. The paper describes the state-of-the-art techniques of GNSS receiver implementation. Their advantages and disadvantages are discussed. Against this background, a new versatile instruction set extension for GNSS baseband processing is presented. The authors introduce improved mechanisms for instruction set generation focused on multi-channel processing. The analytical approach used by the authors leads to the introduction of a GNSS-instruction set extension (ISE) for GNSS baseband processing. The developed GNSS-ISE is simulated extensively using PC software and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) emulation. Finally, the developed GNSS-ISE is incorporated into the first-in-the-world, according to the authors’ best knowledge, integrated, multi-frequency, and multi-constellation microcontroller with embedded flash memory. Additionally, this microcontroller may serve as an application processor, which is a unique feature. The presented results show the feasibility of implementing the GNSS-ISE into an embedded microprocessor system and its capability of performing baseband processing. The developed GNSS-ISE can be implemented in a wide range of applications including smart IoT (internet of things) devices or remote sensors, fostering the adaptation of multi-frequency and multi-constellation GNSS receivers to the low-cost consumer mass-market.
Signaling Response to Transient Redox Stress in Human Isolated T Cells: Molecular Sensor Role of Syk Kinase and Functional Involvement of IL2 Receptor and L-Selectine
Authors: Secchi Christian , Orecchioni Marco , Carta Marissa , Galimi Francesco , Turrini Francesco , Pantaleo Antonella
Published: January 2020

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are central effectors of inflammation and play a key role in cell signaling. Previous reports have described an association between oxidative events and the modulation of innate immunity. However, the role of redox signaling in adaptive immunity is still not well understood. This work is based on a novel investigation of diamide, a specific oxidant of sulfhydryl groups, and it is the first performed in purified T cell tyrosine phosphorylation signaling. Our data show that ex vivo T cells respond to –SH group oxidation with a distinctive tyrosine phosphorylation response and that these events elicit specific cellular responses. The expression of two essential T-cell receptors, CD25 and CD62L, and T-cell cytokine release is also affected in a specific way. Experiments with Syk inhibitors indicate a major contribution of this kinase in these phenomena. This pilot work confirms the presence of crosstalk between oxidation of cysteine residues and tyrosine phosphorylation changes, resulting in a series of functional events in freshly isolated T cells. Our experiments show a novel role of Syk inhibitors in applying their anti-inflammatory action through the inhibition of a ROS-generated reaction.
Monitoring the Whole Cycle Length Change of Cement Mortar Incorporated with SRA by CMOS Image Sensor
Authors: Wu Hao , Yao Yan , Wang Ling , Gao Ruijun , Lu Shuang
Published: January 2020

This paper introduces a new method to measure whole cycle length change non-destructively and continuously using a digital image analysis system. The macroscale length changes of mortars containing different shrinkage-reducing admixture (SRA) dosages (0%, 1%, 2% and 5% by cement weight) were first determined using a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor under alternating dry and wet curing conditions. After that, the length change was calculated using developed digital image processing technology (DIPT) software. After that, several significant conclusions could be drawn by combining with the results of systematic tests of the macroscopic and microscale physical properties of the cement mortar using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods. The test results indicated that SRAs exhibited significant effects on the shrinkage inhibition of cement mortars, whereas the shrinkage reduction behaviour was also affected by varying the curing conditions. The MIP and NMR analyses demonstrated that SRAs reduced the irreversible shrinkage of the cement mortars by decreasing the volume percentage of the 3–50 nm pores and promoting the conversion of calcium silicate hydrate gel from an oligomeric to a high polymerization state thereby improving the volume stability of cement mortars.
Feedback Bits Allocation for Guaranteed Bit Rate Services in Cooperative Cognitive Radio Networks
Authors: Lee Deokhui , So Jaewoo
Published: January 2020

As the number of users using multimedia sharing services increases, the need to ensure the minimum data rate of wireless users increases. Meanwhile, in the cooperative cognitive radio (CR) network, it is important to provide the quality-of-services for secondary users (SUs) while satisfying the inter-network interference constraint from secondary transmitters to primary users (PUs). Under the limited feedback resource constraint, this paper proposes a feedback bits allocation scheme for the guaranteed bit rate services of SUs while satisfying the inter-network interference constraint. This paper investigates how many feedback bits between the ST and PUs are required to guarantee the minimum data rate of SUs and then proposes a feedback bits allocation scheme that maximizes the average sum rate of SUs while reducing the outage probability of SUs.
A Weld Joint Type Identification Method for Visual Sensor Based on Image Features and SVM
Authors: Zeng Jiang , Cao Guang-Zhong , Peng Ye-Ping , Huang Su-Dan
Published: January 2020

In the field of welding robotics, visual sensors, which are mainly composed of a camera and a laser, have proven to be promising devices because of their high precision, good stability, and high safety factor. In real welding environments, there are various kinds of weld joints due to the diversity of the workpieces. The location algorithms for different weld joint types are different, and the welding parameters applied in welding are also different. It is very inefficient to manually change the image processing algorithm and welding parameters according to the weld joint type before each welding task. Therefore, it will greatly improve the efficiency and automation of the welding system if a visual sensor can automatically identify the weld joint before welding. However, there are few studies regarding these problems and the accuracy and applicability of existing methods are not strong. Therefore, a weld joint identification method for visual sensor based on image features and support vector machine (SVM) is proposed in this paper. The deformation of laser around a weld joint is taken as recognition information. Two kinds of features are extracted as feature vectors to enrich the identification information. Subsequently, based on the extracted feature vectors, the optimal SVM model for weld joint type identification is established. A comparative study of proposed and conventional strategies for weld joint identification is carried out via a contrast experiment and a robustness testing experiment. The experimental results show that the identification accuracy rate achieves 98.4%. The validity and robustness of the proposed method are verified.
Prediction of Satellite Shadowing in Smart Cities with Application to IoT
Authors: Hornillo-Mellado Susana , Martín-Clemente Rubén , Baena-Lecuyer Vicente
Published: January 2020

The combination of satellite direct reception and terrestrial 5G infrastructure is essential to guarantee coverage in satellite based-Internet of Things, mainly in smart cities where buildings can cause high power losses. In this paper, we propose an accurate and fast graphical method for predicting the satellite coverage in urban areas and SatCom on-the-move scenarios. The aim is to provide information that could be useful in the IoT network planning process, e.g., in the decision of how many terrestrial repeaters are really needed and where they should be placed. Experiments show that the shadowed areas predicted by the method correspond almost perfectly with experimental data measured from an Eutelsat satellite in the urban area of Barcelona.
Innovations in Electrodermal Activity Data Collection and Signal Processing: A Systematic Review
Authors: Posada-Quintero Hugo F. , Chon Ki H.
Published: January 2020

The electrodermal activity (EDA) signal is an electrical manifestation of the sympathetic innervation of the sweat glands. EDA has a history in psychophysiological (including emotional or cognitive stress) research since 1879, but it was not until recent years that researchers began using EDA for pathophysiological applications like the assessment of fatigue, pain, sleepiness, exercise recovery, diagnosis of epilepsy, neuropathies, depression, and so forth. The advent of new devices and applications for EDA has increased the development of novel signal processing techniques, creating a growing pool of measures derived mathematically from the EDA. For many years, simply computing the mean of EDA values over a period was used to assess arousal. Much later, researchers found that EDA contains information not only in the slow changes (tonic component) that the mean value represents, but also in the rapid or phasic changes of the signal. The techniques that have ensued have intended to provide a more sophisticated analysis of EDA, beyond the traditional tonic/phasic decomposition of the signal. With many researchers from the social sciences, engineering, medicine, and other areas recently working with EDA, it is timely to summarize and review the recent developments and provide an updated and synthesized framework for all researchers interested in incorporating EDA into their research.
Disability, Mobility and Transport in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Thematic Review
Authors: Kett Maria , Cole Ellie , Turner Jeff
Published: January 2020

This paper discusses issues affecting the transport and mobility needs of people with disabilities in middle- and low-income countries and how disability intersects with a range of other factors to impact on transport needs, use and engagement. The paper is intended to stimulate discussion and identify areas for further research, and identifies a number of key issues that are salient to discussions around equitable and inclusive transport provision, including patterns of transport use, behaviour and experiences, solutions and policy directions, measuring access and inclusion, policies and intersectionality. The paper also identifies gaps in knowledge and provision, barriers to addressing these gaps, and some possible solutions to overcoming these barriers. These include shifting the focus from access to inclusion, reconceptualising how ‘special’ transport might be provided, and most importantly listening to the voices and experiences of adults and children with disabilities. Despite lack of transport often being cited as a reason for lack of inclusion of people with disabilities, there is surprisingly little evidence which either quantifies this or translates what this lack of access means to people with disabilities in their daily lives in low- and middle-income countries.
Exploring CEO Messages in Sustainability Management Reports: Applying Sentiment Mining and Sustainability Balanced Scorecard Methods
Authors: Na Hyung Jong , Lee Kun Chang , Choi Seung Uk , Kim Seong Tae
Published: January 2020

The purpose of this study is to apply a combination of sentiment mining techniques and a sustainability balanced scorecard to CEO messages in sustainability management reports to predict corporate financial ratios. We classify the contents of CEO messages into the six perspectives suggested by the sustainability balanced scorecard (SBSC). From the sentiment mining results, we first document that positive words dominate CEO messages in sustainability management reports. Moreover, words related to the sustainability perspective do not generally exhibit a significant relationship with financial ratios. This finding indicates that CEOs’ messages in sustainability management reports seemingly fail to properly represent the firms’ current financial status. Therefore, the results indicate that a stronger supervisory standard may be required to induce CEO disclosures that are more responsible for sustainable management reports.
Climate Change Education: Mapping the Nature of Climate Change, the Content Knowledge and Examination of Enactment in Upper Secondary Victorian Curriculum
Authors: Eilam Efrat , Prasad Veerendra , Widdop Quinton Helen
Published: January 2020

Climate change (CC) is widely accepted as the major threat of our time, posing unprecedented challenges to humanity. Yet very little is known regarding the ways in which upper-secondary curricula address the need to educate about this crisis. This study contributes to the field of CC education theoretically and empirically. From the theoretical perspective, the study contributes two CC conceptualisation frameworks: a characterisation of the nature of CC, and a mapping of the scope of CC content knowledge. The empirical contribution consists of examining CC education implementation within upper-secondary curriculum in the state of Victoria, Australia. Specifically we examined the CC conceptualisation and the scope of content present in the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) study designs. A total of 10 out of 94 study designs qualified for examination through referencing CC. The findings suggest that none of the study designs present a complete conceptualisation of the nature of CC. Common conceptualisations within the study designs perceive CC as a cause or an outcome, a problem of management, or of technological efficiency. CC content within the study designs is limited, and presents misconceptions, including the assumption that CC is a natural change caused by astronomical and solar systems. A cross-curriculum integration approach within the study designs is found to be ineffective. We conclude that CC presents a paradigm shift which brings about the new discipline of CC. There is a need for curricula reforms to address and incorporate CC as a coherent body of knowledge.
Integrating Circularity in the Sustainability Assessment of Asphalt Mixtures
Authors: Mantalovas Konstantinos , Di Mino Gaetano
Published: January 2020

Rising concerns about the impacts that the road engineering industry is imposing to the environment have redirected national road authorities to firmly re-consider the sustainability implications of their operations. Lately, though, sustainability has established a forceful correlation with the Circular Economy and its principles. The road engineering industry, therefore, is moving towards more circular approaches. However, this is occurring without the assessment of the potential impacts of such a transition. For this reason, in this study, a composite indicator, namely, Environmental Sustainability and Circularity indicator (ESCi), for investigating the potential effects that increased circularity could have at the environmental sustainability of asphalt mixtures is developed. It can be utilized as a decision-making support tool from stakeholders involved in both asphalt mixture production and road pavement management. In addition, in this study, four asphalt mixtures with different percentages of Reclaimed Asphalt (RA) were assessed in terms of their “cradle-to-gate” environmental impacts and circularity, by means of Life Cycle Assessment, and Material Circularity Index, respectively. Their fatigue and permanent deformation performances play a key role in the assessment and distinctive results obtained for the asphalt mixtures with increasing RA% and thus, significant environmental benefits and increased circularity are observed after specific RA% thresholds.
Money, Vouchers, Public Infrastructures? A Framework for Sustainable Welfare Benefits
Authors: Bohnenberger Katharina
Published: January 2020

While the social consequences of environmental policies are extensively evaluated in sustainability research, few studies exist on the ecological impact of social benefits and the welfare state. Sustainable welfare is a novel research field that seeks to close this knowledge gap and develop integrated eco-social policies. Within this, researchers are starting to ask how citizen’s needs can be guaranteed in an environmentally sustainable way and how their welfare benefits should be delivered. Should citizens receive a universal basic income, be given vouchers for ecologically beneficial or socially needed goods and services, or be provided with access to socio-ecological infrastructures and services? This article develops a framework for sustainable welfare benefits with six criteria of sustainable welfare and nine different types of welfare benefits that belong to the domains of universal basic income (UBI), universal basic services (UBS), and universal basic vouchers (UBV). Using this framework, existing policy proposals are categorized and evaluated. The advantages and disadvantages of the different types of welfare benefits are discussed and new application areas highlighted. The analysis shows that a successful policy will likely include all forms of welfare benefits, with certain types being more adequate for certain fields and societal circumstances. The framework for sustainable welfare benefits can serve as a starting point for further research on integrated policy design and inform policymakers on the selection of eco-social policies.