bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Global Mangrove Watch: Monthly Alerts of Mangrove Loss for Africa
Authors: Bunting Pete , Hilarides Lammert , Rosenqvist Ake , Lucas Richard M. , Kuto Edmond , Gueye Yakhya , Ndiaye Laye
Published: April 2023

Current mangrove mapping efforts, such as the Global Mangrove Watch (GMW), have focused on providing one-off or annual maps of mangrove forests, while such maps may be most useful for reporting regional, national and sub-national extent of mangrove forests, they may be of more limited use for the day-to-day management of mangroves and for supporting the Global Mangrove Alliance (GMA) goal of halting global mangrove loss. To this end, a prototype change mangrove loss alert system has been developed to identify mangrove losses on a monthly basis. Implemented on the Microsoft Planetary Computer, the Global Mangrove Watch v3.0 mangrove baseline extent map for 2018 was refined and used to define the mangrove extent mask under which potential losses would be identified. The study period was from 2018 to 2022 due to the availability of Sentinel-2 imagery used for the study. The mangrove loss alert system is based on optimised normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) thresholds used to identify mangrove losses and a temporal scoring system to filter false positives. The mangrove loss alert system was found to have an estimated overall accuracy of 92.1%, with the alert commission and omission estimated to be 10.4% and 20.6%, respectively. Africa was selected for the mangrove loss alert system prototype, where significant losses were identified in the study period, with 90% of the mangrove loss alerts identified in Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Mozambique and Guinea. The primary drivers of these losses ranged from economic activities that dominated West Africa and Northern East Africa (mainly agricultural conversion and infrastructure development) to climatic in Southern East Africa (primarily storm frequency and intensity). The production of the monthly mangrove loss alerts for Africa will be continued as part of the wider Global Mangrove Watch project, and the spatial coverage is expected to be expanded to other regions over the coming months and years. The mangrove loss alerts will be published on the Global Mangrove Watch online portal and updated monthly.
Deception Island 1967–1970 Volcano Eruptions from Historical Aerial Frames and Satellite Imagery (Antarctic Peninsula)
Authors: Prates Gonçalo , Torrecillas Cristina , Berrocoso Manuel , Goyanes Gabriel , Vieira Gonçalo
Published: April 2023

Aerial frames and satellite imagery are widely recognized data sources from which to produce maps. For volcanoes, maps enable the quantification of erupted ash and the destruction caused. The last eruptive sequence on Deception Island was endured from 1967 to 1970. Analogue maps were produced via classical photogrammetric methods with a high degree of human intervention mainly to analyse the volcanic-centres areas only. However, historical aerial frames cover the whole of Deception Island. Structure from motion photogrammetry, a near-automated compilation of digital image processing strategies, minimizes the degree of human intervention to produce orthographic mosaics and digital elevation models from digital aerial frames. Orthographic mosaics were produced from historical aerial frames of 1956 and 1968, and a Kompsat-3 image of 2020. Their shared root-mean-square deviation was 1.8 m and 1.7 m in easting and northing, respectively, at ground control points measured with phase-differential global navigation satellite systems. The digital elevation models were processed with a root-mean-square deviation of 2.3 m and 3.6 m from 1956 and 1968 aerial frames, respectively. As the first application, erupted ashfall and the subsequent destruction, mainly at the former Chilean and British bases, were identified, and the volume of erupted ash was assessed to be over 0.16 km3 within the area mapped by these new digital cartographic products.
Editorial for Special Issue: “In Situ Data in the Interplay of Remote Sensing”
Authors: Morsy Mona , Borg Erik , Dietrich Peter
Published: April 2023

The importance of remote sensing in solving challenges in rural and undeveloped areas where there is a lack of in situ data or financial resources is undeniable [...]
Satellite Data Potentialities in Solid Waste Landfill Monitoring: Review and Case Studies
Authors: Papale Lorenzo Giuliano , Guerrisi Giorgia , De Santis Davide , Schiavon Giovanni , Del Frate Fabio
Published: April 2023

Remote sensing can represent an important instrument for monitoring landfills and their evolution over time. In general, remote sensing can offer a global and rapid view of the Earth’s surface. Thanks to a wide variety of heterogeneous sensors, it can provide high-level information, making it a useful technology for many applications. The main purpose of this paper is to provide a review of relevant methods based on remote sensing for landfill identification and monitoring. The methods found in the literature make use of measurements acquired from both multi-spectral and radar sensors and exploit vegetation indexes, land surface temperature, and backscatter information, either separately or in combination. Moreover, additional information can be provided by atmospheric sounders able to detect gas emissions (e.g., methane) and hyperspectral sensors. In order to provide a comprehensive overview of the full potential of Earth observation data for landfill monitoring, this article also provides applications of the main procedures presented to selected test sites. These applications highlight the potentialities of satellite-borne sensors for improving the detection and delimitation of landfills and enhancing the evaluation of waste disposal effects on environmental health. The results revealed that a single-sensor-based analysis can provide significant information on the landfill evolution. However, a data fusion approach that incorporates data acquired from heterogeneous sensors, including visible/near infrared, thermal infrared, and synthetic aperture radar (SAR), can result in a more effective instrument to fully support the monitoring of landfills and their effect on the surrounding area. In particular, the results show that a synergistic use of multispectral indexes, land surface temperature, and the backscatter coefficient retrieved from SAR sensors can improve the sensitivity to changes in the spatial geometry of the considered site.
Small Zoom Mismatch Adjustment Method for Dual-Band Fusion Imaging System Based on Edge-Gradient Normalized Mutual Information
Authors: Chen Jieling , Liu Zhihao , Jin Weiqi , Yang Jianguo , Li Li
Published: April 2023

Currently, automatic optical zoom setups are being extensively explored for their applications in search, detection, recognition, and tracking. In visible and infrared fusion imaging systems with continuous zoom, dual-channel multi-sensor field-of-view matching control in the process of synchronous continuous zoom can be achieved by pre-calibration. However, mechanical and transmission errors of the zoom mechanism produce a small mismatch in the field of view after co-zooming, degrading the sharpness of the fusion image. Therefore, a dynamic small-mismatch detection method is necessary. This paper presents the use of edge-gradient normalized mutual information as an evaluation function of multi-sensor field-of-view matching similarity to guide the small zoom of the visible lens after continuous co-zoom and ultimately reduce the field-of-view mismatch. In addition, we demonstrate the use of the improved hill-climbing search algorithm for autozoom to obtain the maximum value of the evaluation function. Consequently, the results validate the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed method under small changes in the field of view. Therefore, this study is expected to contribute to the improvement of visible and infrared fusion imaging systems with continuous zoom, thereby enhancing the overall working of helicopter electro-optical pods, and early warning equipment.
A New Design to Rayleigh Wave EMAT Based on Spatial Pulse Compression
Authors: Jiang Chuanliu , Li Zhichao , Zhang Zeyang , Wang Shujuan
Published: April 2023

The main disadvantage of the electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) is low energy-conversion efficiency and low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). This problem can be improved by pulse compression technology in the time domain. In this paper, a new coil structure with unequal spacing was proposed for a Rayleigh wave EMAT (RW-EMAT) to replace the conventional meander line coil with equal spacing, which allows the signal to be compressed in the spatial domain. Linear and nonlinear wavelength modulations were analyzed to design the unequal spacing coil. Based on this, the performance of the new coil structure was analyzed by the autocorrelation function. Finite element simulation and experiments proved the feasibility of the spatial pulse compression coil. The experimental results show that the received signal amplitude is increased by 2.3~2.6 times, the signal with a width of 20 μs could be compressed into a δ-like pulse of less than 0.25 μs and the SNR is increased by 7.1–10.1 dB. These indicate that the proposed new RW-EMAT can effectively enhance the strength, time resolution and SNR of the received signal.
Procapra Przewalskii Tracking Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Based on Improved Long and Short-Term Memory Kalman Filters
Authors: Luo Wei , Zhao Yongxiang , Shao Quanqin , Li Xiaoliang , Wang Dongliang , Zhang Tongzuo , Liu Fei , Duan Longfang , He Yuejun , Wang Yancang , Zhang Guoqing , Wang Xinghui , Yu Zhongde
Published: April 2023

This paper presents an autonomous unmanned-aerial-vehicle (UAV) tracking system based on an improved long and short-term memory (LSTM) Kalman filter (KF) model. The system can estimate the three-dimensional (3D) attitude and precisely track the target object without manual intervention. Specifically, the YOLOX algorithm is employed to track and recognize the target object, which is then combined with the improved KF model for precise tracking and recognition. In the LSTM-KF model, three different LSTM networks (f, Q, and R) are adopted to model a nonlinear transfer function to enable the model to learn rich and dynamic Kalman components from the data. The experimental results disclose that the improved LSTM-KF model exhibits higher recognition accuracy than the standard LSTM and the independent KF model. It verifies the robustness, effectiveness, and reliability of the autonomous UAV tracking system based on the improved LSTM-KF model in object recognition and tracking and 3D attitude estimation.
Survivors of Commercial Sexual Exploitation Involved in the Justice System: Mental Health Outcomes, HIV/STI Risks, and Perceived Needs to Exit Exploitation and Facilitate Recovery
Authors: Richie-Zavaleta Arduizur Carli , Butler Edina , Torres Kathi , Urada Lianne A.
Published: April 2023

This exploratory retrospective study analyzes the emotional and mental processes, risk behavior for HIV/STIs, and needed services to exit commercial sexual exploitation. Participants were court-referred to the local survivor-led program, Freedom from Exploitation, in southern California. Data were collected (N = 168) using an intake assessment form for a period of five years (2015–2020). Two groups were identified in the data, self-identified survivors of sex trafficking (SST) and non-self-identified survivors of sex trafficking (NSST). Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions examined the associations of HIV/STI risks and emotional and mental processes with these two subgroups. Findings demonstrated that both groups experienced gender-based violence and similar emotional and mental processes as well as HIV/STIs risks. However, in adjusted models, the SST group had three times the odds of experiencing abuse by a sex buyer when asked to use a condom and eight times the odds of feeling hopeless or desperate and experiencing nightmares/flashbacks among other negative mental health outcomes. Both SST and NSST said they needed assistance to obtain legal services and complete a high school equivalency credential, among other services. Findings may be used by social service and law enforcement agencies to better assist survivors of sex trafficking and similar groups in supporting their rehabilitation and protection.
The Mediating Effect of Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction between Future Socio-Economic Status and Undergraduates’ Sense of Meaning in Life
Authors: Zhang Feng , Su Li , Geng Xiaowei
Published: April 2023

Finding meaning in life helps improve undergraduates’ well-being, hope, and adaptation to life. To investigate the relationship between future socioeconomic status (future SES) and undergraduates’ sense of meaning in life, 333 undergraduates were surveyed using the Meaning in Life Scale, Basic Psychological Needs Scales, and Social Ladder Scale. Results showed that (1) undergraduates’ sense of meaning in life was at the middle level, their current SES was low, but their future SES was high. (2) The sense of meaning in life was significantly predicted by future SES, with sex, age, objective SES, and current SES controlled. (3) Basic psychological needs satisfaction mediated the influence of future SES on sense of meaning in life. Thus, undergraduates expected future SES influenced their sense of meaning in life through satisfying their basic psychological needs, i.e., relatedness need, autonomy need, and competence need.
Application of RBF and GRNN Neural Network Model in River Ecological Security Assessment—Taking the Middle and Small Rivers in Suzhou City as an Example
Authors: Chen Tongfeng , Xiao Liang
Published: April 2023

The analytic hierarchy process is used to construct the health evaluation index system and grading standard of small- and medium-sized rivers in the region. Based on the principles of RBF and GRNN neural network algorithms, the river health evaluation models of radial basis function neural network (RBF) and general regression neural network (GRNN) algorithms are constructed, respectively. The network training samples are constructed by the interpolation method. The standard value of river health classification evaluation is taken as the “prediction” sample to “predict”. Then the results are applied as the division basis of the river health classification evaluation, which is to evaluate and analyze the health status of small and medium rivers in Suzhou Prefecture. The results indicate that: (1) the RBF and GRNN neural network models have exactly the same results in evaluating the health of small and medium rivers in the region, and are basically the same as the back propagation (BP) neural network evaluation results. RBF and GRNN neural network models have the advantages of fast convergence speed, high prediction accuracy, harder to fall into local minima, less adjustment parameters, and only one spread parameter, which can predict and evaluate the network faster, which is a large calculation advantage. (2) The health evaluation level of the main rivers in Suzhou Prefecture is from grades II to III, that is, between healthy and sub-healthy. This grade objectively reflects the health status of small- and medium-sized rivers in the region, which can provide a reference for the sustainable management of regional rivers and ecological environment construction.
COVID-19 and Its Effects on the Management of the Basic Quality Conditions in Universities of Peru, 2022
Authors: Vargas Bernuy Juana , Espinoza Vidaurre Sam , Velásquez Rodriguez Norma , Gambetta Quelopana Renza , Martinez Valdivia Ana , Leo Rossi Ernesto
Published: April 2023

The purpose of this study was to determine the influences of variables, crisis management, distance education, the organizational image, and student satisfaction on the basic quality conditions in Peruvian universities during the COVID-19 pandemic. A quantitative, nonexperimental explanatory approach with stratified random sampling was used. A questionnaire was applied to 513 students from public and private universities in southern Peru who received distance education during the months of September to November 2022. For the analysis of the results, a structural equation model (SEM). A hierarchical linear regression was carried out to test the hypotheses according to the dimensions studied on the student satisfaction scale. The study findings showed that distance education and student satisfaction had positive impacts on the basic quality conditions, while crisis management and the organizational image had a positive relationship but a smaller effect on the quality of the conditions. We concluded that the applied model allows the causal relationships between variables to be explored and that the results will allow university authorities to generate policies that improve their organizational image and crisis management processes and, at the same time, allow them to better plan their crisis management strategies to achieve better satisfaction within the framework of a sustainable university.
A Hybrid Fuzzy AHP-TOPSIS Approach for Implementation of Smart Sustainable Waste Management Strategies
Authors: Demircan Bihter Gizem , Yetilmezsoy Kaan
Published: April 2023

The integration of smart city technologies into waste management is a challenging field for decision makers due to its multivariate, multi-limiting, and multi-stakeholder structure, despite its contribution to the ecological and economic sustainability understanding of cities. The success of smart sustainable waste management strategies depends on many environmental, technical, economic, and social variables, and many stakeholders are involved in these processes. Using fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods helps decision makers determine effective, affordable, and acceptable smart waste management strategies. Although MCDM methods are widely used in various environmental engineering applications, the determination of smart sustainable waste management strategies using these methods has not yet received enough attention in the literature. This study aims to contribute to this gap in the literature by evaluating four different smart waste management strategies using a hybrid fuzzy MCDM method. The performance of the proposed strategy alternatives according to fifteen sub-criteria (under four main criteria selected from the literature) was evaluated using a combined application of fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (fuzzy AHP) and fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to obtain the ideal solution (fuzzy TOPSIS). For this evaluation, the subjective opinions of ten different experts working in academia, in the private sector, or in the public sector were obtained using prepared questionnaires. As a result, the sub-criteria of fewer atmospheric emissions (0.42), operational feasibility (0.64), initial investment costs (0.56), and increased awareness of sustainable cities (0.53) had the highest weight values in their main criteria groups. The performance ranking of the alternatives according to the closeness coefficient (CCi) values was obtained as A2 (0.458) > A3 (0.453) > A4 (0.452) > A1 (0.440), with A3 being slightly ahead of A4 due only to a 0.001 higher CCi value. To test the reliability and stability of the obtained performance ranking results, a sensitivity analysis was also performed using eighteen different scenarios, in which the weights of the different sub-criteria were increased by 25% or decreased by 50%, or they were assumed to be 1 and 0, or all sub-criteria in the same group had equal weight values. Since the performance ranking of the alternatives did not change, the ranking obtained at the beginning was found to be robust against the sub-criterion weight changes.
The European Solar Communication—Will It Pave the Road to Achieve 1 TW of Photovoltaic System Capacity in the European Union by 2030?
Authors: Chatzipanagi Anatoli , Jäger-Waldau Arnulf
Published: April 2023

The urgency of a clean energy transition in the European Union is now not only driven by concerns about climate change, but also by using local renewable energy resources to reduce the dependency on foreign energy imports. Solar photovoltaic electricity generation is acknowledged as one of the pillars of this transition and various policy measures were implemented over the last two years to not only accelerate the deployment of solar photovoltaic electricity generation systems, but also to rebuild a competitive solar value chain in Europe to hedge against solar photovoltaic component supply chain disruptions. However, the current political ambitions still do not pay sufficient attention to the importance of solar photovoltaics as a major contributor to the necessary future renewable energy supply. According to the market trend between 2017 and 2022, the currently average EU installed capacity of 474.55 Wp/capita will not reach the necessary 2246 Wp/capita or 1 TWp target by 2030. At the moment, only seven member states have an installed capacity per capita higher than the average EU value.
Environmental Observations at the First Offshore Solar Farm in the North Sea
Authors: Vlaswinkel Brigitte , Roos Pauline , Nelissen Mei
Published: April 2023

Offshore solar emergence is driven by a lack of available land and the immense decarbonisation targets. It is a promising area of solar photovoltaic application, with multiple benefits when co-located with offshore wind, and with almost unlimited potential for nations living close to the sea. Research to understand the environmental implications of offshore solar must be carried out in parallel with the realization of the first pilot demonstrations. Such pilots provide important opportunities to learn to collect field data that can be used to verify untested assumptions about possible negative and positive impacts on the marine ecosystem and serve as input data for models that can forecast the effects of much larger-scale offshore solar. This paper reports on (1) the monitoring methods and first results of water quality parameters collected underneath a small (50 kWp and 400 m2) floating solar farm and at a reference location in the open sea; (2) observations of birds on top of the floating solar platforms and (3) biogeochemistry characteristics of the seabed around the solar farm. Both the water quality and the seabed characteristics studied here did not show a clear trend or deviation from normal conditions. The observations of birds on the floating platform were first-of-its-kind; no comparison is made to other floating infrastructure or other locations. Useful insights were gathered with respect to monitoring approaches around floating solar structures in high wave conditions.
Forecasting and Uncertainty Analysis of Day-Ahead Photovoltaic Power Based on WT-CNN-BiLSTM-AM-GMM
Authors: Gu Bo , Li Xi , Xu Fengliang , Yang Xiaopeng , Wang Fayi , Wang Pengzhan
Published: April 2023

Accurate forecasting of photovoltaic (PV) power is of great significance for the safe, stable, and economical operation of power grids. Therefore, a day-ahead photovoltaic power forecasting (PPF) and uncertainty analysis method based on WT-CNN-BiLSTM-AM-GMM is proposed in this paper. Wavelet transform (WT) is used to decompose numerical weather prediction (NWP) data and photovoltaic power data into frequency data with time information, which eliminates the influence of randomness and volatility in the data information on the forecasting accuracy. A convolutional neural network (CNN) is used to deeply mine the seasonal characteristics of the input data and the correlation characteristics between the input data. The bidirectional long short-term memory network (BiLSTM) is used to deeply explore the temporal correlation of the input data series. To reflect the different influences of the input data sequence on the model forecasting accuracy, the weight of the calculated value of the BiLSTM model for each input data is adaptively adjusted using the attention mechanism (AM) algorithm according to the data sequence, which further improves the model forecasting accuracy. To accurately calculate the probability density distribution characteristics of photovoltaic forecasting errors, the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) method was used to calculate the probability density distribution of forecasting errors, and the confidence interval of the day-ahead PPF was calculated. Using a photovoltaic power station as the calculation object, the forecasting results of the WT-CNN-BiLSTM-AM, CNN-BiLSTM, WT-CNN-BiLSTM, long short-term memory network (LSTM), gate recurrent unit (GRU), and PSO-BP models were compared and analyzed. The calculation results show that the forecasting accuracy of the WT-CNN-BiLSTM-AM model is higher than that of the other models. The confidence interval coverage calculated from the GMM is greater than the given confidence level.
Solutions for an Ecological and Healthy Retrofitting of Buildings on the Campus of the University of Oradea, Romania, Built Starting from 1911 to 1913
Authors: Bungau Constantin C. , Bungau Constantin , Toadere Mihaela Teodora , Prada-Hanga Ioana Francesca , Bungau Tudor , Popescu Daniela Elena , Prada Marcela Florina
Published: April 2023

On university campuses, retrofitting studies have historically concentrated on individual buildings (or building components) instead of the entire campus. In the present paper, we examine how an incorporated strategic planning strategy might be used to investigate the socio-technical construction of a campus retrofit operation throughout multiple scale/sectors. The campus of the University of Oradea (CUO), Romania, with its beginnings in the 1910s was investigated using its new master plan. The developed strategies for a “green” and “healthy” campus depict a CUO redesign involving complex solutions for the green renovation of old buildings. In addition, the improvement effects of the modernization interventions already carried out were analyzed and quantified. Sixteen buildings (30% of the built area) were consolidated/rehabilitated/modernized, and/or equipped in the last decade, seven educational spaces being included in the circuit of the buildings fund (totaling 5491.59 sq m). For the renovated spaces, energy consumption was reduced by 20–88% and CO2 emissions by 41.82–86%, depending on the specifics of each space. The reconfiguration, rehabilitation, and energy efficiency of the entire heating system of CUO (which uses geothermal water as a specific characteristic) significantly improved (20% decrease in energy and 21% decrease in geothermal water consumption). Our findings offer new directions and design solutions for the ecological modernization of other outdated university campuses, highlighting new perspectives in the green university campuses’ management, as a way to implement sustainability in the higher education environment. Data presented give professionals in the field (architects, designers, engineers, planners, and decision makers) a clear picture of the benefits due to ecological renovation, also offering the necessary tools to implement new solutions for reducing the impact of urban areas on the environment.
Differences in Pathogenesis-Related Protein Expression and Polyphenolic Compound Accumulation Reveal Insights into Tomato–Pythium aphanidermatum Interaction
Authors: Soliman Seham A. , Al-Askar Abdulaziz A. , Sobhy Sherien , Samy Marwa A. , Hamdy Esraa , Sharaf Omaima A. , Su Yiming , Behiry Said I. , Abdelkhalek Ahmed
Published: April 2023

Plant diseases significantly reduce crop yields, threatening food security and agricultural sustainability. Fungi are the most destructive type of phytopathogen, and they are responsible for major yield losses in some of the most crucial crops grown across the world. In this study, a fungus isolate was detected from infected tomato plants and molecularly identified as Pythium aphanidermatum (GenBank accession number MW725032). This fungus caused damping-off disease and was shown to be pathogenic. Moreover, the expression of five pathogenesis-related genes, namely PR-1, PR-2, PR-3, PR-4, and PR-5, was quantitatively evaluated under the inoculation of tomato with P. aphanidermatum. The quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) showed that the expression levels of PR-1, PR-2, and PR-5 genes went up significantly at 5 days post-inoculation (dpi). The expression of the PR-1 gene also increased the variably, which reached its highest value at 20 dpi, with a reported relative expression level 6.34-fold higher than that of the control. At 15 dpi, PR-2 and PR-5 increased the most, while PR-1, PR-3, and PR-5 also increased noticeably at 20 dpi. On the contrary, PR-4 gene expression significantly decreased after inoculation, at all time intervals. Regarding PR-5 gene expression, the data showed a variable change in PR-5 gene expression at a different sample collection period. Still, it was highly expressed at 15 dpi and reached 3.99-fold, followed by 20 dpi, where the increasing percentage reached 3.70-fold, relative to the untreated control. The HPLC analysis indicated that the total concentration of all detected polyphenolic compounds was 3858 µg/g and 3202.2 µg/g in control and infected plant leaves, respectively. Moreover, the HPLC results concluded that Pythium infection decreased phenolic acids, such as chlorogenic and ellagic acids, which correlated with the infection–plant complex process. Based on the results, P. aphanidermatum could be a biotic stress pathogen that causes the expression of pathogen-related genes and stops the regulation of defensin phenolic compounds.
Slot-Die Coated Copper Indium Disulfide as Hole-Transport Material for Perovskite Solar Cells
Authors: Mahmoodpour Sajjad , Heydari Mahsa , Shooshtari Leyla , Khosroshahi Rouhallah , Mohammadpour Raheleh , Taghavinia Nima
Published: April 2023

Perovskite photovoltaics have the potential to significantly lower the cost of producing solar energy. However, this depends on the ability of the perovskite thin film and other layers in the solar cell to be deposited using large-scale techniques such as slot-die coating without sacrificing efficiency. In perovskite solar cells (PSCs), Spiro-OMeTAD, a small molecule-based organic semiconductor, is commonly used as the benchmark hole transport material (HTL). Despite its effective performance, the multi-step synthesis of Spiro-OMeTAD is complex and expensive, making large-scale printing difficult. Copper indium disulfide (CIS) was chosen in this study as an alternative inorganic HTL for perovskite solar cells due to its ease of fabrication, cost-effectiveness, and improvements to the economic feasibility of cell production. In this study, all layers of perovskite solar cell were printed and compared to a spin-coating-based device. Various parameters affecting the layer quality and thickness were then analyzed, including substrate temperature, print head temperature, printing speed, meniscus height, shim thickness, and ink injection flow rate. The small print area achieved spin-coating quality, which bodes well for large-scale printing. The printed cell efficiencies were comparable to the reference cell, having a 9.9% and 11.36% efficiency, respectively.
Mechanisms and Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Soil and Water Conservation on the Livelihood and Well-Being of Farmer Households: A Case Study in Desert–Loess Transition Zone of China
Authors: Jiang Biyao , Shi Xingmin , Qin Yuhan
Published: April 2023

Climate change brings great uncertainty to the sustainable livelihood of farmers. Soil and water conservation measures are the key measures to adapt to climate change, and studying their effects is of great significance to formulating and adjusting future work. Based on the analysis framework of sustainable livelihood, this study constructed a path model to analyze the influence path among soil and water conservation, farmers’ livelihood and well-being from the perspective of model integration and discussed the mechanism of the effect of soil and water conservation well-being. The results show that (1) soil and water conservation has a significant effect on both the livelihood and well-being of farmer households. Soil and water conservation has a positive effect on farmer households’ livelihood capital, and farmers who participated in soil and water conservation prefer to engage in agricultural activities, with a cumulative effect of livelihood capital and livelihood strategies dependence. However, the direct effect of soil and water well-being is not significant, but only in terms of farmers’ security and health. (2) Through the “livelihood capital accumulation mechanism”, “livelihood strategies dependence mechanism” and “livelihood chain mechanism”, soil and water conservation affects the basic material needs, safety and health, freedom of choice and movement of farmers’ well-being. (3) In order to further promote soil and water conservation measures, relevant policy makers can indirectly enhance the soil and water conservation well-being effect by optimizing the livelihood portfolio of farmers, thus attracting the extensive participation of farmers. This study provides analytical ideas for exploring the role of the relationship between soil and water conservation, livelihood and well-being, and offers suggestions for increasing the participation of farmers in soil and water conservation.
I Can Feel Your Pain: Investigating the Role of Empathy and Guilt on Sustainable Behavioral Intentions to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle Plastic Bags among College Students
Authors: Yan Zhuxuan , Cortese Juliann
Published: April 2023

Plastic bag pollution in the marine environment is an urgent issue that has negatively impacted the sustainability of marine biodiversity. Studying effective ways to design advocacy messages that can promote individuals’ intentions to reduce, reuse, and recycle plastic bags in order to mitigate plastic bag pollution in the effort to help restore marine biodiversity is necessary. Utilizing emotional appeal messages, such as messages that are designed to elicit audiences’ feelings of empathy, can promote a variety of pro-environmental behaviors. To investigate an effective way to generate empathy, this online experiment study conducted with 257 college students in the U.S. examined whether messages that encourage perspective-taking can successfully elicit empathy among participants. Additionally, the study explored whether messages that encourage perspective-taking can promote viewers’ behavioral intentions to engage in the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle plastic bags) via the mediating roles of empathy and guilt. Results indicated that perspective-taking messages can increase viewers’ empathy, which was positively associated with feelings of guilt, which in turn was positively associated with viewers’ 3Rs behavioral intentions. The study also investigated the influence of self-efficacy on guilt as well as the interaction of self-efficacy and perspective-taking on guilt. Results suggested that self-efficacy did not have an effect on guilt, and the effects of self-efficacy and perspective-taking on guilt were independent of each other. These findings demonstrate that messages encouraging perspective-taking can positively affect individuals’ 3Rs behavioral intentions to reduce plastic waste as a means to restore marine biodiversity.
Impact of River Chief System on Green Technology Innovation: Empirical Evidence from the Yangtze River Economic Belt
Authors: Ding Rui , Sun Fangcheng
Published: April 2023

The River Chief System (RCS) is an innovative environmental governance system with Chinese characteristics that is significant for green and sustainable development, and green technology innovation (GTI) is a key step to achieve this goal. However, existing studies have not proved the effect of RCS on GTI. Therefore, this paper takes the implementation of RCS as a quasi-natural experiment and the progressive spatial difference-in-differences model is used to empirically investigate the effect of water environment governance policies on GTI, based on the panel data of 108 prefecture-level cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 2004 to 2019. The results of this research show that: (1) GTI in the YREB shows a rapid growth trend, and the lower reaches are generally higher than the middle and upper reaches; (2) RCS can improve the local GTI by 19.43% and has a significant positive incentive effect on adjacent regions’ GTI, while the GTI itself can generate a positive spillover effect for adjacent regions; (3) Heterogeneity analyses indicate that RCS has a stronger facilitation in the spontaneous parallel diffusion form cities and middle and lower reaches, while having an inhibition in riverine cities. In terms of spatial effects, RCS has a stronger positive spillover effect in the adjacent untreated area and upper reaches, while having a negative spillover effect in the spontaneous parallel diffusion form cities; (4) Government governance, official incentive and social supervision can enhance the effect of RCS on GTI. This study provides useful empirical evidence for environmental governance and green sustainable development of the YREB.
Cooperation of Fruit Farms with the Institutional Environment toward Sustainable Development
Authors: Szymańska Elżbieta Jadwiga , Rysz Maria , Utnik-Banaś Katarzyna
Published: April 2023

The research problem adopted in this study concerns the limited cooperation of fruit farms with the institutional environment. The aim of the study was to identify the scope and to evaluate the cooperation of fruit farms with the institutional environment and to identify barriers to developing this cooperation. This is an important issue because the increasingly complex and dynamic economic environment makes the results of fruit farms largely dependent on the influence of various organizations and institutions of the agricultural sector. The review of the literature shows that this issue is not recognized. The study’s novelty is developing an original indicator of relations with the institutional environment. It considers the number and frequency of contacts between fruit growers and organizations, as well as the forms of cooperation. The basic research area covered the region of Małopolska and Pogórze, characterized by high agrarian fragmentation and the development of orchard production. The research covered 45 farms and was conducted based on a survey questionnaire. Descriptive and statistical methods were used in the data analysis, such as the chi-square test and the Kruskal–Wallis test, supplemented with post hoc analysis (Dunn test with Bonferroni correction) and the Pearson correlation coefficient. Research shows that the relationship between fruit growers and agricultural organizations is limited. The size of the indicator depends on the level of education of fruit growers and the area of the orchards. Fruit growers most often use advice and seek information about European Union programs. The development of cooperation between fruit farms and institutional environmental organizations reduces the mismatch between the offers of these organizations and the needs of fruit growers.
Effect of Codend Design and Mesh Size on the Size Selectivity and Exploitation Pattern of Three Commercial Fish in Stow Net Fishery of the Yellow Sea, China
Authors: Yu Mengjie , Herrmann Bent , Liu Changdong , Zhang Liyou , Tang Yanli
Published: April 2023

To address the issue of minimum mesh size regulations of the stow net fishery for croaker species, we tested and compared the size selectivity and exploitation pattern for diamond- and square-mesh codends with mesh sizes 35, 45 and 55 mm for little yellow croaker (Larimichthys polyactis), silver croaker (Pennahia argentata), and flower croaker (Nibea albiflora) in the Yellow Sea, China. Our results showed that the legal codend (35 mm diamond-mesh) was inadequate to protect the juvenile croaker species because more than 75% of undersized individuals were retained, and the discard ratios were as high as approximately 60%. Irrespective of mesh shape, increasing the codend mesh sizes could significantly improve the size selectivity and exploitation pattern of croaker species. Between codends with the same mesh size, the square-mesh codends had higher size selectivity than diamond-mesh codends. Based on results, the 55 mm square-mesh codend was recommended for rational exploitation of croaker stocks. This study can provide feasibility and insight for the enforcement and reform of management strategies for sustainable fishing in Chinese stow net fisheries.
Modified Generalized Feistel Network Block Cipher for the Internet of Things
Authors: Mohammad Shah Isma Norshahila , Ismail Eddie Shahril , Samat Faieza , Nek Abd Rahman Normahirah
Published: April 2023

With the advent of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies, millions of low-resource devices are constantly used at the network’s edge. As a result, the large amount of private and sensitive data generated by these devices must be securely transported, stored, and processed, posing a challenge because these resource-constrained IoT devices cannot meet the criteria of conventional encryption ciphers. Due to this limitation on IoT-enabled devices, lightweight cryptography has emerged as a new area of study. Lightweight block ciphers, a subfield of lightweight cryptography, include the substitution–permutation network (SPN) and Feistel-based networks. Feistel networks are further divided into two types: classical Feistel networks and generalized Feistel networks (GFN). While classical Feistel ciphers divide a message into two sub-blocks, GFN divides a message into k sub-blocks for some k > 2 called the partition number. One popular form of GFN is the so-called Type-II. Unfortunately, this type of Feistel structure needs a large number of rounds to obtain a full diffusion property. A full diffusion means all output sub-blocks are affected by all input sub-blocks. Therefore, this paper proposed a new lightweight block cipher by modifying the GFN structure, focusing on providing optimal security to the cipher with a small number of rounds. The algorithm was subjected to a series of statistical and cryptographic randomization analyses in order to investigate the avalanche effect on the ciphertext and the algorithm’s random properties, such as confusion, diffusion, and independence. The avalanche criterion and output randomness results show that this algorithm meets the fundamental security requirement for a lightweight block cipher.
Preliminary Design of a Space Habitat Thermally Controlled Using Phase Change Materials
Authors: Borshchak Kachalov A. , Salgado Sánchez P. , Martínez U. , Ezquerro J. M.
Published: April 2023

We explore the preliminary design of a space habitat thermally controlled using phase change materials (PCMs). The PCM is used to maintain a suitable, habitable temperature inside the habitat by isolating it from the external solar radiation. The system is studied numerically considering only diffusive heat transport (conduction), a scenario with practical application to microgravity or reduced gravity environments. The system dynamics are explored for a wide range of governing parameters, including the length of the PCM cell L, the thermo-optical properties—absorptivity α and emissivity ε—at the external boundary of the habitat wall exposed to solar radiation, the eclipse (illumination) fraction τe (τi) of the solar cycle, and the PCM used. We find that the thermo-optical properties at the external radiated boundary, characterized by the absorptivity–emissivity ratio (α/ε), play a key role in the system response and largely define the optimal design of the habitat. This optimum balances the heat absorbed and released by the PCM during repeated illumination and eclipse cycles.
Loss of In Vivo Replication Fitness of HIV-1 Variants Resistant to the Tat Inhibitor, dCA
Authors: Ling Lijun , Leda Ana R. , Begum Nurjahan , Spagnuolo Rae Ann , Wahl Angela , Garcia J. Victor , Valente Susana T.
Published: April 2023

HIV resistance to the Tat inhibitor didehydro-cortistatin A (dCA) in vitro correlates with higher levels of Tat-independent viral transcription and a seeming inability to enter latency, which rendered resistant isolates more susceptible to CTL-mediated immune clearance. Here, we investigated the ability of dCA-resistant viruses to replicate in vivo using a humanized mouse model of HIV infection. Animals were infected with WT or two dCA-resistant HIV-1 isolates in the absence of dCA and followed for 5 weeks. dCA-resistant viruses exhibited lower replication rates compared to WT. Viral replication was suppressed early after infection, with viral emergence at later time points. Multiplex analysis of cytokine and chemokines from plasma samples early after infection revealed no differences in expression levels between groups, suggesting that dCA-resistance viruses did not elicit potent innate immune responses capable of blocking the establishment of infection. Viral single genome sequencing results from plasma samples collected at euthanasia revealed that at least half of the total number of mutations in the LTR region of the HIV genome considered essential for dCA evasion reverted to WT. These results suggest that dCA-resistant viruses identified in vitro suffer a fitness cost in vivo, with mutations in LTR and Nef pressured to revert to wild type.
Seroprevalence of IgG and Subclasses against the Nucleocapsid of SARS-CoV-2 in Health Workers
Authors: Cortés-Sarabia Karen , Palomares-Monterrubio Kenet Hisraim , Velázquez-Moreno Jesús Omar , Luna-Pineda Víctor Manuel , Leyva-Vázquez Marco Antonio , Vences-Velázquez Amalia , Dircio-Maldonado Roberto , Del Moral-Hernández Oscar , Illades-Aguiar Berenice
Published: April 2023

Background: The nucleocapsid protein of SARS-CoV-2 participates in viral replication, transcription, and assembly. Antibodies against this protein have been proposed for the epidemiological analysis of the seroprevalence of COVID-19 associated with natural infection by SARS-CoV-2. Health workers were one of the most exposed populations, and some had an asymptomatic form of the disease, so detecting IgG antibodies and subclasses against the N protein can help to reclassify their epidemiological status and obtain information about the effector mechanisms associated with viral elimination. Methods: In this study, we analyzed 253 serum samples collected in 2021 and derived from health workers, and evaluated the presence of total IgG and subclasses against the N protein of SARS-CoV-2 by indirect ELISA. Results: From the analyzed samples, 42.69% were positive to anti-N IgG antibodies. A correlation between COVID-19 asymptomatic infection and IgG antibodies was observed (p = 0.006). The detected subclasses were: IgG1 (82.4%), IgG2 (75.9%), IgG3 (42.6%), and IgG4 (72.6%). Conclusions: This work provides evidence about the high seroprevalence of total IgG and subclasses of anti-N and their relations with the asymptomatic infection of SARS-CoV-2 and related symptoms.
Development of MVA-d34 Tetravalent Dengue Vaccine: Design and Immunogenicity
Authors: Mintaev Ramil R. , Glazkova Dina V. , Orlova Olga V. , Ignatyev Georgiy M. , Oksanich Alexey S. , Shipulin German A. , Bogoslovskaya Elena V.
Published: April 2023

Dengue fever, an infectious disease that affects more than 100 million people every year, is a global health problem. Vaccination may be the most effective prevention strategy for the disease. However, the development of vaccines against dengue fever is complicated by the high risk of developing an antibody-dependent increase in infection. This article describes the development of an MVA-d34 vaccine against the dengue virus based on a safe and effective MVA viral vector. The DIII domains of the envelope protein (E) of the dengue virus are used as vaccine antigens, as antibodies against these domains do not cause an enhancement of infection. The use of the DIII domains of each of the four dengue virus serotypes made it possible to generate a humoral response against all four dengue virus serotypes in immunized mice. We also showed that the sera of vaccinated mice present virus-neutralizing activity against dengue serotype 2. Thus, the developed MVA-d34 vaccine is a promising candidate vaccine against dengue fever.