Over the past few decades, aircraft Ground Handling Operations (GHO) have been investigated by numerous researchers. Some aspects of GHO have been more focused on than others due to their importance in the GH processes. For instance, GHO performance has been tackled from different perspectives while workers and vehicles allocation suffer from the lack of research in the area. This paper is a literary review of the research that has been conducted in different areas of GHO. It sheds light on GHO performance, resource allocation and scheduling, operations scheduling, vehicle routing, and workers and vehicles allocation.

The purpose of this work was analysing the compaction of a cohesive material using different DEM simulators to determine the equivalent contact models and identify how some parameters of the simulations affect the compaction results (maximum force and compacts appearance) and computational costs. For that purpose, three cohesion contact models were tested (‘linear cohesion’ in EDEM; ‘SJKR’ and ‘SJKR2’ in LIGGGHTS). The influence of the particle size distribution (PSD) on the results was also investigated. Further assessments were performed on the effect of selecting different timesteps, using distinct conversion tolerances for exporting the 3D models to STL files and moving the punch with different speeds. Consequently, it was possible to determine that a timestep equal to a 10% Rayleigh timestep, a conversion tolerance of 0.01 mm and a punch speed of 0.2 m/s are adequate for simulating the compaction process using the contact models in this work. In addition, the results determined that the maximum force was influenced by the PSD because of the rearrangement of the particles. The PSD was also related to the computational cost because of the number of simulated particles and their sizes. Finally, an equivalence was found between the linear cohesion and SJKR2 contact models

Modelling water vapour flow, heat transfer and porosity in porous adsorbent is somewhat challenging simulation problem. Primary macroscopic water vapour flow models, such as Darcy's law, fail to predict the pressure drop entirely correctly for the reason that many of flow parameters not considered because of the simplifications that remain made for the multi-scale structure of the porous adsorbents. For one to develop a good physical understanding of such water vapour flows and the accuracy of existing 3D simulation models, there is a need for some accurate 3D geometry to be studied. This present work describes two-phase water vapour flow and adsorption/ desorption performed on porous adsorbent by a Dynamic vapour sorption (DVS). The CFD simulation results are associated with experiments results. It is decided that for such complex porous adsorbent CFD simulation problems the use of COMSOL Multiphysics and SolidWorks flow simulation will be utilised.

Soil-structure interaction (SSI) could affect the seismic response of structures. Since liquid storage tanks are vital structures and must continue their operation under severe earthquakes, their seismic behavior should be studied. Accordingly, the seismic response of liquid storage tanks founded on half space soil is scrutinized under different earthquake ground motions. To better comparison, the six considered ground motions are classified based on their pulse like characteristics, into two groups, named far and near fault ground motions. To model the liquid storage tanks, the simplified mass-spring model is used and the liquid is modeled as two lumped masses known as sloshing and impulsive, and the interaction of fluid and structure is considered using two coupled springs and dashpots. The SSI effect, also, is considered using a coupled spring and dashpot. Besides, four types of soils are used to consider wide variety of soil properties. To this end, after deriving the equations of motion, the MATLAB programming is employed to obtain the time history responses. Results show that although the SSI effect leads to decrease the impulsive displacement, overturning moment and normalized base shear, the sloshing (or convective) displacement is not affected by such effects due to its long period.

The spillover of a virus from an animal reservoir to humans requires both molecular and ecological risk factors to align. While extensive research both before and after the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in 2019 implicates horseshoe bats as the significant animal reservoir for the new human coronavirus, it remains unclear why it emerged at this time. One massive disruption to animal-human contacts in 2019 is linked to the on-going African swine fever virus (ASFV) pandemic. Pork is the major meat source in the Chinese diet. We hypothesize that the dramatic shortage of pork following large-scale culling and restrictions of pig movement (resulting in marked price increases) led to alternative sources of meat and unusual animal and meat movements nationwide, e.g., involving wildlife, and thus greatly increased opportunities for human-sarbecovirus contacts. Pork prices were particularly high in southern provinces (Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, and Hubei), where wildlife is farmed and more frequently consumed. Major wildlife farming provinces are spread from Northern to Southern China, which overlaps with horseshoe bat host ranges, potential hosts of the proximal SARS-CoV-2 ancestor, and wildlife sourcing provinces of Wuhan Huanan market and possibly other markets. Trading of SARS-CoV-2 susceptible wildlife in these markets, such as minks, raccoon dogs, foxes and palm civets in Wuhan markets, could have increased the risk of SARS-CoV-2 from an intermediary host. Moreover, large quantities of animals raised for fur could have entered the human food chain undetected and significantly increased risks of animal-human contact. Performing retrospective testing of stored susceptible animals and their meat sold before December 2019 may be helpful in the next stage of tracing the animal origin of SARS-CoV-2 as spillover events are more likely to have taken place in 2019 when China was experiencing the worst effects of the ASFV pandemic.

This work attempted to fabricate superhydrophobic fabric via simple immersion technique. Textile fabrics were coated with silica nanoparticles prepared from tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) to obtain sufficient roughness with hydrophobic surface chemistry. Then the coated fabrics were treated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) to reduce the surface energy. The effects of PDMS concentration on the surface morphology and superhydrophobicity of as-prepared fabric were investigated. The morphology and the composition of superhydrophobic fabric was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDS) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The results revealed the formation of spherical silica nanoparticles with average particle size of 250 nm throughout the fabric surface. The possible interactions between silica nanoparticles and APTES, as well as the fabrics were elucidated. Investigating the hydrophobicity of fabrics via water contact angle (WCA) measurement showed that the treated fabric exhibits excellent water repellency with a water contact angle as high as 151° and a very low water sliding angle. It also found that the treated fabric maintained most of its hydrophobicity against repeated washing. The comfort properties of the obtained superhydrophobic fabrics in term of air permeability and bending length did not reveal any significant changes.

An outbreak caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) occurred in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, in December 2019. Up to March 2, 2020, at least 80180 cases have been reported. Most of the patients had a history of visiting Hubei Province or contacting with people who had ever stayed in or passed by Hubei Province, or exposed to symptoms. Some patients got infected only from asymptomatic contacts. This study aimed to report the epidemic features and lab identification of a patient confirmed with COVID-19 infection only from asymptomatic contact.

Contact tracing has become an indispensable tool of various extensive measures to control the spread of COVID-19 pandemic due to novel coronavirus. This essential tool helps to identify, isolate and quarantine the contacted persons of a COVID-19 patient. However, the existing contact tracing applications developed by various countries, health organizations to trace down the contacts after identifying a COVID-19 patient suffers from several security and privacy concerns. In this work, we have identified those security and privacy issues of several leading contact tracing applications and proposed a blockchain-based framework to overcome the major security and privacy challenges imposed by the applications. We have discussed the security and privacy measures that are achieved by the proposed framework to show the effectiveness against the security and privacy issues raised by the existing mobile contact tracing applications.

The basis of the work of electroencephalography (EEG) is the registration of electrical impulses from the brain or some of its individual areas using a special sensor/electrode. This method is used for the treatment and diagnosis of various diseases. The use of wet electrodes in this case does not seem viable, for several well-known reasons. As a result of this, a detailed analysis of modern EEG sensors developed over the past few years is carried out, which will allow researchers to choose this type of sensor more carefully and, as a result, conduct their research more competently. Due to the absence of any standards in the production and testing of dry EEG sensors, the main moment of this manuscript is a detailed description of the necessary steps for testing a dry electrode, which will allow researchers to maximize the potential of the sensor in the various type of research.

World is now experiencing a major health calamity due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus clade 2 (SARS-CoV- 2). The foremost challenge facing the scientific community is to explore the growth and transmission capability of the virus. Use of artificial intelligence (AI), such as, deep learning, in (i) rapid disease detection from x-ray/computerized tomography (CT)/ high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) images, (ii) accurate prediction of the epidemic patterns and their saturation throughout the globe, (iii) identification of the epicenter in each country/state and forecasting the disease from social networking data, (iv) prediction of drug-protein interactions for repurposing the drugs, and (v) socio-economic impact and prediction of future relapses, has attracted much attention. In the present manuscript, we describe the role of various AI-based technologies for rapid and efficient detection from CT images complementing quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and immunodiagnostic assays. AI-based technologies to anticipate the current pandemic pattern, possibility of future relapses and socio-economic impact are also discussed. We inspect how the virus transmits depending on different factors, such as, population density and mobility among others. We depict how AI-based mobile app for contact tracing and surveys can prevent the transmission. A modified deep learning technique can assess affinity of the most probable drugs to treat COVID-19. Here a few effective antiviral drugs, such as, Geneticin, Avermectin B1, and Ancriviroc among others, have been reported with their appropriate validation from previous investigations.

Almost half of the confirmed COVID-19 cases detected so far in the United Kingdom are part of a large cluster of 13 British nationals who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in the UK, Spain, and France. Transmissions among this cluster occurred at a ski resort in France, and originated from a single infected traveller returning from a conference in Singapore where he acquired the virus. At least 21 individuals were exposed to the virus, tested, and quarantined, with 13 of those testing positive between the period of 6th Feb and 15th Feb. Here, all publicly available information about the primarily UK/France cluster is consolidated, providing a complete and accessible summary of the cases and their connections. Notable in this cluster are the number of individuals infected, the apparent absence of any severe illness among those infected, and a case of a `delayed positive' test during isolation after initially testing negative, at least 7 days after last possible contact.

Contact tracing has become a vital tool for public health officials to effectively combat the spread of new diseases, such asthe novel coronavirus disease COVID-19. Contact tracing is not new to epidemiologist rather, it used manual or semi-manualapproaches that are incredibly time-consuming, costly and inefficient. It mostly relies on human memory while scalabilityis a significant challenge in tackling pandemics. The unprecedented health and socio-economic impacts led researchersand practitioners around the world to search for technology-based approaches for providing scalable and timely answers.Smartphones and associated digital technologies have the potential to provide a better approach due to their high level ofpenetration, coupled with mobility. While data-driven solutions are extremely powerful, the fear among citizens is thatinformation like location or proximity associated with other personal data and can be weaponised by the states to enforcesurveillance. Low adoption rate of such apps due to the lack of trust questioned the efficacy and demanded researchers tofind innovative solution for building digital-trust, and appropriately balancing privacy and accuracy of data. In this paper,we have critically reviewed such protocols and apps to identify the strength and weakness of each approach. Finally, wehave penned down our recommendations to make the future contact tracing mechanisms more universally inter-operable andprivacy-preserving.

Traditional potential transformers have problems of large volume, difficulty in insulation, iron core saturation, ferroresonance overvoltage and poor transient response characteristics. The voltage sensor based on the principle of electric field coupling and differential input structure does not need to contact the measured object or ground, and can avoid the above problems. However, it requires a sufficiently high capacitance between the differential electrodes to obtain sufficient accuracy and a high voltage division ratio. The existing method of using mutual capacitance between the differential electrodes will cause many problems and fail to meet the practical needs. To solve the above problems, this paper innovatively uses multi-layer ceramic capacitor to replace the mutual capacitance and designs a new type of voltage sensor. In addition, by using single bypass small resistance grounding method to increase the input impedance of the differential signal processing circuit, error of the sensor is further reduced. The experimental results show that the sensor has excellent accuracy and great transient response characteristics. The ratio error under power frequency is within ±0.5% and the phase error is within 1. The ratio error in the range of 500 Hz∼30 kHz is within ±5% and the phase error is within 5. Moreover, it has the advantages of low cost, miniaturization, flexible shape and easy to adjust the voltage division ratio. These characteristics indicate that the sensor has good voltage measurement and sensor network potential.

Allometric equations are used to estimate accurate biomass and carbon stock of forests. However, in Ethiopia only few allometric equations as compared to its floral diversity and species-specific allometric equations for Acacia species are still not developed in Ethiopia. The numbers of tree marked for sampling are Fifty-four (54) using preferential sampling. Diameter at breast height, wood density and tree height were collected as independent variables to predict species specific dry biomass of Acacia species. The new species-specific allometric models have been performed using linear regression analysis in the R software. The Above ground biomass (AGB) have been validated using quantitative statically using the pantropic model. Six candidate models have been developed for each species and four best models for each species of dry biomass was selected based on goodness-of-fit statistics and equation performance analysis of the candidate models. The best model for predicting above ground biomass for Acacia seyal is 0.20636*((DBH²)Hρ) ^0.53167, for Acacia polyacantha is 7.26982((DBH)²Hρ)^0.21750, for Acacia ethibcia is 29.01898*((DBH)²Hρ)^0.21518 and for Acacia toritolis is 3.82427*((DBH)²Hρ)^0.16748. The selected models are the best performing (P> 0.01) and higher adjusted R² (>80%) and has lower Akaike’s Information Criteria (AIC) and residual standard error (RSE) values as comparing the rest of the model. The validation of new developed biomass model using Tukey test indicated that significant variation of mean biomass (P<0.05) between the new developed model and the generalized model. The statistics model performance analysis of Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) value is approaching to one, indicating that the new developed model has better performance model as compared with generalized model. Moreover, the percent bias of the new developed models is close to zero which indicates that the site-specific biomass models have more accurate estimator and the generalized biomass models have overestimated biomass for the four Acacia species.

The performance of ground heat exchangers systems depends on the knowledge of the thermal parameters of the ground like thermal conductivity, thermal capacity and diffusivity. The knowledge of these parameters often requires quite accurate experimental analysis, known under the name of Thermal Response Test (TRT). In this paper, after a general analysis of the various available types of TRT and the study of the theoretical basics of the method, the perspective of the definition of a simplified routine method of analysis based on the combination of a particular version of TRT and the routine geotechnical tests for the characterization of soil stratigraphy and of the ground characteristics, mandatory before the construction of a new buildings, even if limited to quite short drilling depth (lower than 30 m). The idea of developing TRT in connection with geotechnical test activity has the objective of promoting a widespread use of in-situ experimental analysis and of reducing TRT costs and time duration of the experimental analysis. The considerations exposed in the present paper lead to reconsider a particular variety of the TRT in particular the version known as Thermal Response Test while Drilling (TRTWD).

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), formerly known as the Millennium Dam, is currently under construction and has been filling at a fast rate without sufficient known analysis on possible impacts on the body of the structure. The filling of GERD not only has an impact on the Blue Nile Basin hydrology, water storages and flow but also pose massive risks in case of collapse. Rosaries Dam located in Sudan at only 116 km downstream of GERD, along with the 20 million Sudanese benefiting from that dam, would be seriously threatened in case of the collapse of GERD. In this study, through the analysis of Sentinal-1 satellite imagery we show concerning deformation patterns associated with different sections of the GERD’s Main Dam (structure RCC Dam type) and the Saddle Dam (Embankment Dam type). We processed 109 descending mode scenes from Sentinel-1 SAR imagery, from December 2016 to July 2021, using the Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry technique to demonstrate the deformation trends of both - the GERD’s Main and Saddle Dams. The time-series generated from the analysis clearly indicates different displacement trends at various sections of the GERD as well as the Saddle Dam. Results of the multi temporal data analysis on and around the project area show inconsistent subsidence at the extremities of the GERD Main Dam, especially the west side of the dam where we recorded varying displacements in the range of 10 mm to 90 mm at the crest of the dam. We conducted the current analysis after masking the images with a coherence value of 0.9 and hence, the subsequent results are extremely reliable and accurate. Further decomposition of the subsiding rate has revealed higher vertical displacement over the west side of the GERD’s Main Dam as compared to the east side. The local geological structures consisting of weak zones under the GERD’s accompanying Saddle Dam adds further instability to its structure. We identified seven critical nodes on the Saddle Dam that match the tectonic faults lying underneath it, and which display a varying degree of vertical displacements. In fact, the nodes located next to each other displayed varying displacement trends: one or more nodes displayed subsidence since 2017 while the other node in the same section displayed uplift. The geological weak zones underneath and the weight of the Saddle Dam itself may somewhat explain this inconsistency and the non-uniform vertical displacements. For the most affected cells, we observed a total displacement value of ~90 mm during the whole study period (~20 mm/year) for the Main Dam while the value of the total displacement for the Saddle dam is ~380 mm during the same period (~85 mm/year). Analysis through CoastSat tool also suggested a non-uniformity in trends of surface water-edge at the two extremities of the Main Dam.

Exclosures are used to regenerate native vegetation as a way to reduce soil erosion, increase rain water infiltration and provide fodder and woody biomass in degraded grazing lands. Therefore, this study assessed the impact of grazing exclosure on vegetation biomass, carbon sequestration and soil nutrients under five and ten years of grazing exclosures and freely grazed areas in Tigray, northern Ethiopia. Vegetation biomass, carbon stocks and soil nutrients increased with increasing grazing exclusion. However, open grazing lands and five years of grazing exclosure did not differ in aboveground biomass, above-and-belowground carbon stocks. Moreover, ten years of grazing exclosure had a higher (P<0.01) grass, herb and litter carbon stocks compared to five years exclosure and open grazing lands. The total carbon stock was higher for ten years exclosure (193.3 t C ha-1) than the five years exclosure (154.0 t C ha-1) and in open grazing areas (146.6 t C ha-1). Grazing lands closed for ten years had a higher SOC, organic matter, total N, available P, and exchangeable K+ and Na+ compared to five year’s exclosure and open grazing lands. Therefore, establishment of grazing exclosures had a positive effect in restoring degraded grazing lands, thus improving vegetation biomass, carbon sequestration potentials and soil nutrients under the changing climate and global warming.

The creation of hydrophobic, antifreeze and self-cleaning coatings is currently being pursued by many industrial sectors. The potential applications include the production of liquid and gas separators and filters, new materials, optical and microelectronic devices, and textiles and clothing. These coatings will also have wide application in the construction and automobile industries, shipping, and energy and agricultural sectors. The article proposes a simple approach to the creation of superhydrophobic and antifreeze coatings, by applying powder from multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MW-CNTs) to the sample surface. This method enables combination of the necessary factors: low surface energy, micro–nano-roughness and hierarchical multi-scale. The authors investigated the dependence of the wetting angle of such a surface on the time, type and degree of functionalization. The electrophysical properties of modified MW-CNTs were studied over wide frequency and temperature ranges. This method of obtaining hydrophobic coatings differs from currently available methods in that it is simpler to prepare, is of lower cost and has less environmental impact. The proposed approach can be used to create superhydrophobic coatings that have the additional function of removing static charge and therefore reducing surface heating, and which can be used in the field of energetics for protection against the freezing of wind turbine blades and aircraft surfaces.

Rainfall is the main driver of hydrological processes in dryland environments and characterising the rainfall variability and processes of runoff generation are critical for understanding ecosystem function of catchments. Using remote sensing and in situ data sets, we assess the spatial and temporal variability of the rainfall, rainfall-runoff response, and effects of antecedent soil moisture and ground cover at different spatial scales on runoff coefficients in the Upper Burdekin catchment, northeast Australia, which is a major contributor of sediment and nutrients to the Great Barrier Reef. The high temporal and spatial variability of rainfall exerts significant controls on runoff generation processes. Rainfall amount and intensity are the primary runoff controls, and runoff coefficients for wet antecedent conditions were higher than for dry conditions. The majority of runoff occurred via surface runoff generation mechanisms, with subsurface runoff likely contributing little runoff due to the intense nature of rainfall events. At annual to seasonal temporal scales and for relatively large catchments, we could not detect a significant effect of ground cover on runoff. We conclude that in the range of moderate to large catchments (193 – 36,260 km²) runoff generation processes are sensitive to both antecedent soil moisture and ground cover. A higher runoff-ground cover correlation in drier months with sparse ground cover highlighted the critical role of cover at the onset of the wet season and how runoff generation is more sensitive to cover in drier months than in wetter months. The monthly water balance analysis indicates that runoff generation in wetter months (January and February) is partially influenced by saturation overland flow, most likely confined to saturated soils in riparian corridors, swales, and areas of shallow soil. By March and continuing through October, the soil ‘bucket’ progressively empties by evapotranspiration, and Hortonian overland flow becomes the dominant, if not exclusive, flow generation process. The results of this study can be used to better understand the rainfall-runoff relationships in dryland environments and subsequent exposure of coral reef ecosystems in Australia and elsewhere to terrestrial runoff.

The capabilities of autonomous mobile robotic systems have been steadily improving due to recent advancements in computer science, engineering, and related disciplines such as cognitive science. In controlled environments, autonomous robots have been able to achieve relatively high levels of autonomy. In more unstructured environments, however, the realisation of autonomous mobile robots remains challenging due to limitations in the robots’ external environment understanding. Many autonomous mobile robots use classical, learning-based or hybrid approaches for navigation. The classical navigation approach typically includes robot perception, localisation, environmental mapping, path planning and motion control stages. More recent learning-based methods may replace the complete navigation pipeline or selected stages of the classical approach. For effective deployment, autonomous robots need to be able to understand their external environments at a sophisticated level according to their intended applications. Therefore, in addition to robot perception, scene analysis and higher-level scene understanding (e.g., traversable/non-traversable, and rough or smooth terrain) are required for autonomous robot navigation in unstructured outdoor environments. A wide number of alternative approaches have been proposed in recent years to attempt to address these scene understanding requirements. This paper provides a comprehensive review and critical analysis of these methods in the context of their applications to the problems of robot perception and scene understanding in unstructured environments, and the related problems of localisation, environment mapping and path planning. State-of-the-art sensor fusion methods and multimodal scene understanding approaches are also discussed and evaluated within this context. The paper concludes with an in-depth discussion regarding the current state of the autonomous ground robot navigation challenge in unstructured outdoor environments and the most promising future research directions to overcome these challenges.

Quality control (QC) may be a lengthy and tedious process. As a result, most data users use data from meteorological services without performing data quality checks. The South African Weather Service (SAWS) re-established the national solar radiometric network comprising of 13 new stations within the six climatic zones of the country. This study reports on the performance results of the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) QC procedures applied to the solar radiation data within the SAWS radiometric network. The overall percentage performance of the SAWS solar radiation network based on BSRN QC methodology is 97.79%, 93.64%, 91.6% and 92.23% for Long Wave Downward Irradiance (LWD), Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI), Diffuse Horizontal Irradiance (DHI) and Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) respectively with operational problems largely dominating the percentage of bad data. The overall average performance of the Surface Solar Radiation Dataset – Heliosat (SARAH) data records for the GHI estimation for all the stations showed a Mean Bias Deviation (MBD) of -8.28 Wm^-2, a Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD) of 9.06 Wm^-2 and the Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD) of 11.02 Wm^-2. The correlation (quantified by R²) between ground-based and SARAH-derived GHI time series was ~ 0.98. The established network has the potential of providing high quality minute solar radiation data sets (GHI, DHI, DNI and LWD) and auxiliary hourly meteorological parameters vital for scientific and practical applications in renewable energy technologies in South Africa.

In this work, a tool for estimating the contact angle from the molecular dynamics simulations is developed and presented. The tool (Achilles) can detect water droplet on hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces. The tool can reconstruct the droplets broken across the periodic boundaries. Further a neighbor density based accurate filter is used to find the droplet liquid vapor interface and a circle is fitted using it after removing the dense layers of water next to solid surface. This fitted circle is solved for contact angle and results are outputted in the form of graphical images and text. The entire content of the internal computations of the tool is broken down into 4 phases and users can monitor the outcomes at every phase through output images. The tool is tested using sample molecular dynamics results of water droplet on hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces. We believe this tool can be a good addition to the molecular dynamics simulation community who work on the interfacial physics, droplet evaporation, super hydrophobic surfaces, and wettability etc.

Access to reliable, clean, modern cooking enhances life chances. One option is photovoltaic cooking systems. Accurate solar data is needed to ascertain to what extent these can satisfy the needs of local people. This paper investigates how to choose the most accurate satellite derived solar irradiance database for use in Africa. This is necessary because there is a general shortage of ground measurements for Africa. The solar data is needed to model the output of solar cooking systems, for instance, a solar panel, battery and electric pressure cooker. Four easily accessible satellite databases are validated against ground measurements using a range of statistical tests. Results demonstrate the impact of the mathematical measure used and the phenomenon of balancing errors. Fitting of the satellite model to appropriate climate zone and/or nearby measurements improves accuracy, as does higher spatial and temporal resolution of input parameters. That said, all the four databases reviewed were found to be suitable for simulating PV yield in East Africa.

This paper provides a comparative study between microwave tomography and synthetic time-reversal imaging techniques as applied to ground penetrating radar (GPR) surveys. The comparison is carried out by processing experimental data collected at a controlled test site, with various types of buried targets at given subsurface depths and representative soil conditions. It is shown that the two techniques allow us to obtain complementary information about position, depth and size of the targets from a single GPR survey.

This paper deals with bistatic subsurface probing of a horizontally layered dielectric half-space by means of ultra-wideband electromagnetic pulses. A receiver collects reflections from the air-ground interface and from the gradients of dielectric permittivity in the half-space. This scenario is of interest for ground penetrating radar (GPR) applications. For the analytical description of the received signal, we developed and implemented a novel time-domain version of the coupled-wave Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin approximation. Our solution is in very good agreement with finite-difference time-domain results, radically accelerates calculations, and effectively accounts for the protracted return signals observed in the lower part of the GPR spectrum. The paper includes results showing the application of the proposed technique to two case studies: in particular, the method was employed for the post-processing of experimental radargrams collected on Lake Chebarkul, in Russia, and to simulate GPR probing of the Moon surface, to detect smooth gradients of the dielectric permittivity in lunar regolith.

To improve water injection effect, microemulsions (MEs) were used to wet coal seam compared with water and sodium dodecyl sulfate solution (SDS). Wetting effects were characterized by contact angle, X-ray diffraction, Fourier infrared spectroscopy. The results showed that the microemulsion has better spreadability on coal surface and has stronger wettability for coals of different ranks and different particle sizes than traditional wetting agents. The W/O type microemulsion is more affinity to coal than the O/W type and the bicontinuous type.Oxygen and hydrogen contents contributed to wetting. Different wetting agents have the greatest impact on the oxygen-containing functional group absorption zone of coal, but have little impact on the change of clay mineral composition.As the content of quartz increased, the content of montmorillonite was decreased, and the hydrophilicity of coal was increased. This research proposes new ideas for solving coal dust problems and reducing coal mine disasters.

In the extra-thick coal seams and multi-layered hard roofs, the longwall hydraulic support yielding, coal face spalling, strong deformations of goaf-side entry, and severe ground pressure dynamic events typically occur at the longwall top coal caving longwall faces. Based on the Key strata theory an overburden caving model is proposed here to predict the multilayered hard strata behaviour. The proposed model together with the measured stress changes in coal seam and underground observations in Tongxin coal mine provides a new idea to analyse stress changes in coal and help to minimise rock bursts in the multi-layered hard rock ground. Using the proposed primary Key and the sub-Key strata units the model predicts the formation and instability of the overlying strata that leads to abrupt dynamic changes to the surrounding rock stress. The data obtained from the vertical stress monitoring in the 38 m wide coal pillar located adjacent to the longwall face indicates that the Key strata layers have a significant influence on ground behaviour. Sudden dynamically driven unloading of strata was caused by the first caving of the sub-Key strata while reloading of the vertical stress occurred when the goaf overhang of the sub-Key strata failed. Based on this findings several measures were recommended to minimise the undesirable dynamic occurrences including pre-split of the hard Key strata by blasting and using the energy consumption yielding reinforcement to support the damage prone gate road areas. Use of the numerical modelling simulations was suggested to improve the key theory accuracy.

Holographic subsurface radar (HSR) is currently not in widespread usage. This is due to an historical perspective in the ground penetrating radar (GPR) community that the high attenuation of electromagnetic waves in most media of interest, and the inability to apply time-varying gain to the continuous wave (CW) HSR signal precludes sufficient effective penetration depth. While it is true that the fundamental physics of HSR, with its use of a CW signal, does not allow amplification of later (i.e. deeper) arrivals in lossy media (as is possible with impulse subsurface radar — ISR), HSR has distinct some distinctive advantages. The most important of these is the ability to do shallow subsurface imaging with a resolution that is not possible with ISR. In addition, the design of an HSR system is simpler than for ISR due to the relatively low-tech transmitting and receiving antennae. This paper provides a review of the main principles of HSR through an optical analogy and describes possible algorithms for radar hologram reconstruction. We also present a review of the history of development of systems and applications for HSR of the “RASCAN” type which is possibly the only holographic subsurface radar that is produced in lots. Among the subsurface imaging and remote sensing applications considered are humanitarian demining, construction inspection, surveys of historic architecture and artworks, nondestructive testing of dielectric aerospace materials, security applications, paleontology, detection of wood-boring insect damage, and others. Each application is illustrated with relevant data acquired in laboratory and/or field experiments.

Vibration measurement serves as the basis for various engineering practices such as natural frequency or resonant frequency estimation. As image acquisition devices become cheaper and faster, vibration measurement and frequency estimation through image sequence analysis continue to receive increasing attention. In the conventional photogrammetry and optical methods of frequency measurement, vibration signals are first extracted before implementing the vibration frequency analysis algorithm. In this work, we demonstrated that frequency prediction can be achieved using a single feed-forward convolutional neural network. The proposed method is verified using a vibration signal generator and excitation system, and the result obtained was compared with that of an industrial contact vibrometer in a real application. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve acceptable prediction accuracy even in unfavorable field conditions.

Acquisition of real-time hydraulic data is an essential component for flood forecasting. However, we frequently face difficulties in obtaining discharge data using classical contact methods during high magnitude floods and for systems experiencing rapid hydro-geomorphological adjustment. Therefore, we developed low-cost, non-contact sensors and platforms that are designed to overcome these difficulties. These advances enable flood flow properties to be monitored at multiple locations across a river catchment, at low-cost, and communicated in near real-time by using an image velocimetry method. This is an optics-based approach for stream flow measurement using commercially available near-infrared digital cameras to acquire video footage in full HD (30fps). Video footage is then subjected to optical flow tracking techniques based on cross-correlation, and feature-based tracking, enabling the displacement rates of detected features (for example natural foam, seeds, woody debris, and turbulent structures) to be computed. This manual provides step by step guidance to install an image-based gauging station. It contains the list of necessary components, the calibration process of a new camera and the assembly procedure of the system.

Pain is a major problem in sick newborn infants, especially for those needing intensive care. Pharmacological pain relief is the most commonly used but may be ineffective, have side effects, including long-term neurodevelopmental sequelae. The effectiveness and safety of alternative analgesic methods are ambiguous. The objective is to review the effectiveness and safety of non-pharmacological methods of pain relief in newborn infants and to identify those that are the most effective. PubMed and Google Scholar were searched using the terms: ‘infant’, ‘premature’, ‘pain’, ‘acupuncture’, ‘skin to skin contact’, ‘sucrose’ ‘massage’, ‘musical therapy’ and ‘breastfeeding’. We included 24 studies assessing different methods of non-pharmacological analgesic techniques. Most resulted in some degree of analgesia but many were ineffective and some were even detrimental. Sucrose, for example, was often ineffective but more effective than music therapy, massage, breast milk (for extremely premature infants) or non-invasive electrical stimulation acupuncture. There were also conflicting results for acupuncture, skin to skin care and musical therapy. Most non-pharmacological methods of analgesia provide some modicum of relief for preterm infants but none are completely effective and there is no clearly superior method. Study is also required to assess potential long-term consequences of any of these methods.

The coastal dry zone areas of Sri Lanka mostly rely on ground water as the potable drinking water source because pipe born water is rarely provided. Most of the domestic units construct dug wells adjacent to houses where the ground water is exposed to fecal contamination due to pit – latrines. There available standards and commonly accepted factors regulating the construction of ground water extraction sources yet there is lack of evidence whether following them effectively prevent ground water fecal contamination. This research focus on applicability of commonly accepted factors on preventing the pit latrines correlated ground water contamination, taking twenty (20) sampling locations of Kalpitiya Peninsula of Sri Lanka as the case study area. The ground water was tested for Total coliform bacteria at 37 °C and E.Coil at 44 °C to identify the water quality level related to fecal contamination. The depth of water table, gap of infiltration layer, depth of latrine pit and distance between dug well and latrine pit were identified as the most commonly considered factors. Accordingly, case specific and area specific reasons apart from the ‘commonly accepted factors’ are highly influencing the pit latrines correlated ground water contamination in Kalpitiya Peninsula, Sri Lanka.

Abstract Due to the relatively low efficiency of thermoelectric (TE) generators, they have mostly been used in niche applications where the unique properties of TE generators outweigh their lack of efficiency, or conditions where it is more reasonable to base the optimal design on maximum generated power rather than maximum efficiency. The aim of this work is to investigate how the different fundamental transport properties (Seebeck coefficient, thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity) in materials with equal figure of merit (ZT) impact TE module design and maximum power output. Further, we discuss and review the strategies to enhance material properties and the latest studies on the TE module performance. It is shown, that by increasing the power factor by a factor of 15 and decreasing the thermal conductivity by 13.33 in order to maintain ZT=1, power output is increased by 45%. This effect is stronger in lower module fill factor and thermal resistance of the heat source and heat sink.

In this paper, an incremental eqivalent contact model is developed for elastic-perfectly plastic solids with rough surfaces. The contact of rough surface is modeled by the accumulation of circular contacts with varying radius, which is estimated from the geometrical contact area and the number of contact patches. For three typical rough surfaces with various mechanical properties, the present model gives accurate predictions of the load-area relation, which are verified by direct finite element simulations. An approximately linear load-area relation is observed for elastic-plastic contact up to a large contact fraction of 15%, and the influence of yield stress is addressed.

We analyzed the characteristics of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infected children during lock-down period in Catalonia (Spain), and their transmission role within the households. Among 295 traced household contacts of 89 pediatric patients, children were classified as final index cases in only 3.4% of the traced homes.

Abstract Introduction:The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) managed the exchange of cross-border contact tracing data between public health authorities (PHA) in Germany and abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic. Aim: We aimed to describe the extent of RKI cross-border contact tracing and the challenges experienced. Methods:We analysed cross-border COVID-19 contact tracing events from 03 February to 05 April 2020 using information exchanged through the European “Early Warning Response System” (EWRS) as well as communication with International Health Regulation (IHR) national focal points. We described events by PHA involved, number of contact persons and exposure context. Results:The RKI processed 467 events, initiating contact to PHA 1,099 times (median 1, IQR [1;2]) and sharing data on 5,099 contact persons. Of 327 (70%) events with known exposure context, most common reported were exposures on aircraft 64 (14%), on cruise ships 24 (5%) and exposures related to non-transport contexts 210 (45%). Cruise ship and aircraft exposures yielded higher median numbers of authorities contacted (10[2;16], 4[2;11]) and contact persons (60 [9;269], 2[1;3]) than non-transport related exposures (1[1;6] and 1[1;2]), respectively. The median time spend on contact tracing activities was the highest for cruise ships: 5 days [IQR 3;9]. Conclusion:In the current COVID-19 pandemic cross-border contact tracing is considered a critical component of the outbreak response. While the majority of international contact tracing activities did not relate to exposure events in transport, they contributed substantially to the workload. The numerous communications highlight the need for fast and efficient global outbreak communication channels between PHA.

Automobile proving ground is important for the research of vehicles which is used for the vehicle dynamics, durability testing, braking testing, etc. However, the roads in automobile proving ground will inevitably be damaged with the extension of the service life. In most previous researches, equipment similar to laser cross-section was used to detect pavement quality, the principle of which was to reflect pavement quality by detecting road surface roughness. This method ignores the elastic deformation of the roads itself when the vehicle is traveling on it and hardly compensate for the amendment. Therefore, this article presents a new method based on force sensor to reduce the impact of elastic deformation such as wheel tyre deformation, pavement deformation, and wheel rim deformation. In which, force sensors mounted on the wheels collect the three-dimensional dynamic load of the wheel.The presented method has been tested with two sets of cobblestone road load data, and the results show that The　incentives imposed by the test vehicle on the target road are 88.3%, 91.0%, and 92.05% of the incentives imposed by the test vehicle on the standard road in three dimensions, respectively. It is clear that the proposed method has strong potential effectiveness to be applied for lose detection of the special road application.

Suitable measures of grazing impacts on ground cover, that enable separation of the effects of climatic variations, are needed to inform land managers and policy makers across the arid rangelands of the Northern Territory of Australia. This work developed and tested a time-series, change-point detection method for application to time series of vegetation fractional cover derived from Landsat data to identify irregular and episodic ground-cover growth cycles. These cycles were classified to distinguish grazing impacts from that of climate variability. A measure of grazing impact was developed using a multivariate technique to quantify the rate and degree of ground cover change. The method was successful in detecting both long term (> 3 years) and short term (< 3 years) growth cycles. Growth cycle detection was assessed against rainfall surplus measures indicating a relationship with high rainfall periods. Ground cover change associated with grazing impacts was also assessed against field measurements of ground cover indicating a relationship between both field and remotely sensed ground cover. Cause and effects between grazing practices and ground cover resilience can now be explored in isolation to climatic drivers. This is important to the long term balance between ground cover utilisation and overall landscape function and resilience.

The widely spread CoronaVirus Disease (COVID)- 19 is one of the worst infectious disease outbreaks in history and has become an emergency of primary international concern. As the pandemic evolves, academic communities have been actively involved in various capacities, including accurate epidemic estimation, fast clinical diagnosis, policy effectiveness evaluation and development of contract tracing technologies. There are more than 23,000 academic papers on the COVID-19 outbreak, and this number is doubling every 20 days while the pandemic is still on-going [1]. The literature, however, at its early stage, lacks a comprehensive survey from a data analytics perspective. In this paper, we review the latest models for analyzing COVID19 related data, conduct post-publication model evaluations and cross-model comparisons, and collect data sources from different projects.

Free-space communication is a leading component in global communications. Its advantages relate to a broader signal spread, no wiring, and ease of engagement. Satellite communication services became recently attractive to mega-companies that foresee an excellent opportunity to connect disconnected remote regions, serve emerging machine-to-machine communication, Internet-of-things connectivity, and more. Satellite communication links suffer from arbitrary weather phenomena such as clouds, rain, snow, fog, and dust. In addition, when signals approach the ground station, it has to overcome buildings blocking the direct access to the ground station. Therefore, satellites commonly use redundant signal strength to ensure constant and continuous signal transmission, resulting in excess energy consumption, challenging the limited power capacity generated by solar energy or the fixed amount of fuel. This research proposes LTSM, an artificial recurrent neural network technology that provides a time-dependent prediction of the expected attenuation level due to rain and fog and the signal strength that remained after crossing physical obstacles surrounding the ground station. The satellite transmitter is calibrated accordingly. The satellite outgoing signal strength is based on the predicted signal strength to ensure it will remain strong enough for the ground station to process it. The instant calibration eliminates the excess use of energy resulting in energy savings.

Skin involvement is an overlooked aspect in the management of paediatric patients with type 1 diabetes. A comprehensive search of published literature using the PubMed database was carried out using the following key terms: “children”, “pediatric/paediatric patients”, “skin”, “skin disorders”, “type 1 diabetes”. Dermatological side effects are frequently observed among diabetic children and adolescents. Insulin-induced lipodystrophies and allergic contact dermatitis caused by insulin pumps or glycaemic sensors are the most common skin reactions in these patients. Furthermore, several diabetes-associated skin diseases such as necrobiosis lipoidica, granuloma annulare, vitiligo, and bullosis diabeticorum may already be present in paediatric age. Paediatric diabetes specialists should pay attention to their patients’ skin so as to recognize these disorders, identify the potential causes, and choose the most suitable treatment. Finally, the evaluation of skin concentrations of advanced glycation end-products using non-invasive diagnostic techniques may be used to assess the risk of chronic complications of diabetes as early as adolescence.

Polluted rivers are a primary problem in Changhua County, Taiwan, due to rapid and massive developments in agriculture and industry. In this study, samples consisted of water influent from the Yangzi-Cuo River, Ci-Tong Jiao, Changhua County. Ecology technology, a combination of gravel contact oxidation and surface flow constructed wetlands, was employed to enhance the water quality. Ecology technology is a useful and ordinary process that focuses on original treatment of pollution through chemical, physical, and biological procedures based on the mediums of soil, plant, water, and microorganisms from pure environments. Moreover, this study aimed to minimize the river pollution index (RPI) of the Yangzi-Cuo River by using combinations of gravel contact oxidation and surface flow constructed wetlands. The inflow volume of the water samples in situ was found to be 1534–2261 cubic meters per day (CMD). The pollution in the water sample mostly involved suspended solid (SS), ammoniacal nitrogen (NH₃–N), total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and the values of the above indexes were found to be 10.0–26.7 mg/L, 0.9–14.0 mg/L, 1.2–14.1 mg/L, 11.1–18.2 mg/L, and 0.5–3.6 mg/L, respectively. Efficiencies of pollution elimination in SS, NH₃–N, TP, TN, and BOD were found to be 24.2–93.1%, 58.3–86.2%, 5.2–85.0%, 59.4–77.2%, and 46.3–76.4%, correspondingly, after purification treatment via ecology technology. Thus, ecology technology is a valid means of purification treatment for polluted rivers.

True contact between solids with randomly rough surfaces tends to occur at a large number of microscopic contact patches. So far, two scaling regimes have been identified for the number density n(A) of contact-patch sizes A in elastic, non-adhesive, self-affine contacts. At small A, n(A) is approximately constant, while n(A) decreases as a power law at large A. Using Green’s function molecular dynamics, we identify a characteristic (maximum) contact area Ac above which a superexponential decay of n(A) becomes apparent if the contact pressure is below the pressure p_cp at which contact percolates. We also find that A_c increases with load relatively slowly far away from contact percolation. Results for A_c can be estimated from the stress autocorrelation function G_σσ (r) with the following argument: the radius of characteristic contact patches, r_c, cannot be so large that G_σσ (r_c) is much less than p_c². Our findings provide a possible mechanism for the breakdown of the proportionality between friction and wear with load at large contact pressures and/or for surfaces with a large roll-off wavelength.

The function of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) can be impaired by the alternation of the extra- and intracellular environment such as disruption of calcium homeostasis, expression of mutated proteins and oxidative stress. In response to disruptions to ER homeostasis, eukaryotic cells activate canonical branches of signal transduction cascades, collectively termed the unfolded protein response (UPR). The UPR attempts to recover the protein folding capacity and avoid irreversible cellular damage. Additionally, the UPR has been shown to play unique physiological roles in the regulation of diverse cellular events, including cell differentiation and development and lipid biosynthesis. Recent studies have indicated that these important cellular events are also regulated by contact and communication among organelles. These reports suggest strong involvement among the UPR, organelle communication and regulation of cellular homeostasis. However, the precise mechanisms for the formation of contact sites and the regulation of its dynamics by UPR remain unresolved. In this review, we summarized the current understanding of how the UPR regulates morphological changes to the ER and the formation of contact sites between the ER and other organelles. We also review how UPR-dependent connections between the ER and other organelles affect cellular and physiological functions.

Subsurface drainage systems remove excess water from the soil profile thereby improving crop yields in poorly drained farmland. Knowledge of the position of the buried drain lines is important: 1) to improve understanding of leaching and offsite release of nutrients and pesticides, and 2) for the installation of a new set of drain lines between the old ones for enhanced soil water removal efficiency. Traditional methods of drainage mapping involve the use of tile probes and trenching equipment. While these can be effective, they are also time-consuming, labor-intensive, and invasive, thereby entailing an inherent risk of damaging the drainpipes. Non-invasive geophysical soil sensors provide a potential alternative solution. Previous research has focused on the use of time-domain ground penetrating radar (GPR), with variable success depending on local soil and hydrological conditions and the central frequency of the specific equipment employed. The objectives of this study were 1) to test the use of a stepped-frequency continuous wave (SFCW) 3D-GPR (GeoScope Mk IV 3D-Radar with DXG1820 antenna array) for subsurface drainage mapping, and 2) to evaluate the performance of a 3D-GPR with the use of a single-frequency multi-receiver electromagnetic induction (EMI) sensor (DUALEM) in-combination. The 3D-GPR system offers more flexibility for application to different (sub)surface conditions due to the coverage of wide frequency bandwidth. The EMI sensor simultaneously provides information about the apparent electrical conductivity (EC_a) for different soil volumes, corresponding to different depths. This sensor combination was evaluated on twelve different study sites with various soil types with textures ranging from sand to clay till. While the 3-D GPR showed a high success rate in finding the drainpipes at five sites (sandy, sandy loam, loamy sand, and organic topsoils), the results at the other seven sites were less successful due to limited penetration depth (PD) of the 3D-GPR signal. The results suggest that the electrical conductivity estimates produced by the inversion of EC_a data measured by the DUALEM sensor could be a useful proxy to explain the success achieved by the 3D-GPR in finding the drain lines. The high attenuation of electromagnetic waves in highly conductive media limiting the PD of the 3D-GPR can explain the findings obtained in this research.

An innovative wireless sensor network (WSN) based on Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) technology for 3D accurate superficial monitoring of ground deformations, as landslides and subsidence, is proposed. The system has been designed and developed as part of an European Life+ project, called Wi-GIM (Wireless Sensor Network for Ground Instability Monitoring). The details of the architecture, the localization via wireless technology and data processing protocols are described. The flexibility and accuracy achieved by the UWB two-way ranging technique is analysed and compared with the traditional systems, such as robotic total stations (RTSs), Ground-based Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (GB-InSAR), highlighting the pros and cons of the UWB solution to detect the surface movements. An extensive field trial campaign allows the validation of the system and the analysis of its sensitivity to different factors (e.g., sensor nodes inter-visibility, effects of the temperature, etc.). The Wi-GIM system represents a promising solution for landslide monitoring and it can be adopted in conjunction with traditional systems or as an alternative in areas where the available resources are inadequate. The versatility, easy/fast deployment and cost-effectiveness, together with the good accuracy, make the Wi-GIM system a possible solution for municipalities that cannot afford expensive/complex systems to monitor potential landslides in their territory.

The active layer thickness (ALT) is affected by local soil material and surface vegetation coverage in Tibetan plateau permafrost region. The human activities and engineering construction along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway (QTH) destroyed the surface vegetation coverage, which have seriously influenced the ALT and heat exchange balance. Meanwhile, the changes of the detailed internal structure in the active layer will affect the stability of engineering infrastructure. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) was used to detect the ALT in the permafrost region. However, researches on the detailed structure of the active layer and spatial variation information of ALT are rare, the main reason given for this is that the lack of advanced imaging techniques to enhance the GPR images. In this paper, the researchers focus on solving this problem by applying the reverse time migration (RTM) method to GPR field data acquired in the Beiluhe region. Analyses of the results led to conclusions as follows: a) The RTM algorithm is proved to be accurate for imaging the characteristics of the active layer through the dielectric constant model obtained by common midpoint and GPR data velocity analysis. b) The result of RTM profiles show the loose structure and graben-like fine internal structure. Combining with drill data and soil materials information, the researchers deduce the graben-like structure might be coarse gravel layer, which may be related to subgrade settlements in some local area. c) The 2D contour maps not only show the spatial variation feature of ALT at two sides of the highway, but also can compensate the defect of the research for single 2D survey line. The ALT is about 0.6~0.8 m in most areas, and about 0.8~0.9 m near the highway at west side of the QTH on the 2D contour maps. From the RTM interpretation profile, the closer to the plash, the deeper thawed active layer. The detailed internal structure of the active layer and 2D contour maps of ALT have great significance for the study of fine internal structure and the characteristic of ALT spatial variation in the Tibetan plateau under the background of climatic change.

In the world industry plant, solid and solid metals are always in contact even their motions not independent. Modeling of rolling die contact with slab primarily needs to describe the Tribology of contact phenomena. Consideration of continuum theory of rolling contact how a contact region is formed between rolling die and slab, and how the tangential force is distributed over the contact area with coefficient of friction is important. The central concern of numerical model is used in this work to indicate a set of equations, derived from the contact principle, that transfer the physical event into the mathematical equations including the laws of nature, such as newton’s laws, boundary conditions, state of stresses and their derivatives at particular time and locations. In this paper the elasticity stress behavior of rolling die contact with slab for number of cyclic loads is modeled. The model is including new proposed constitutive equations for discontinuity of the velocity, pressure distribution in rolling contact from the enter side to exit side of the neutral point. To verify the model, finite element simulation and experimental data from the literature are considered. The results show good agreement with finite element simulation and experimental data.

Particle deposition on the surface of the drying chamber poses the main drawback in the spray drying process, which reduces the product recovery and affects the quality of the product. In view of this, the potential application of chemical surface modification to produce a hydrophobic surface that reduces the powder adhesion (biofouling) on the wall of the drying chamber was investigated in this study. The hydrophobic Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) solution was used in the vertical dipping method at room temperature to determine the optimum coating parameters on borosilicate glass and stainless-steel substrates, which were used to mimick the wall surface of the drying chamber, to achieve highly hydrophobic surfaces. A single-factor experiment was used to define the range of the PDMS concentration and treatment duration using the Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The Central Composite Rotatable Design (CCRD) was used to study the effects of the concentration of the PDMS solution (X1, %) and the treatment duration (X2, hr) on the contact angle of the substrate (°), which reflected the hydrophobicity of the surface. A three-dimensional (3D) response surface was constructed to examine the influence of the PDMS concentration and treatment duration on the contact angle readings, which serve as an indicator of the surface's hydrophobic characteristic. Based on the optimisation study, the PDMS coating for the borosilicate glass achieved an optimum contact angle of 99.33° through the combination PDMS concentration: X1 = 1% (w/v) and treatment time X2 = 4.94 hr, while the PDMS coating for the stainless-steel substrate achieved an optimum contact angle of 98.31° with PDMS concentration: X1 = 1% (w/v) and treatment time X2 = 1 hr. Additionally, the infrared spectra identified several new peaks that appeared on the PDMS-treated surfaces, which represented the presence of Si-O-Si, Si-CH3, CH2, and CH3 functional groups for the substrates coated with PDMS. Furthermore, the surface morphology analysis using the Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) showed the presence of significant roughness and uniform nanostructure on the surface of PDMS-treated substrates, which indicated the reduction of wettability and the potential effect on unwanted biofouling on the spray drying chamber.

This paper gives a new unified formula for the Newtonian fluids valid for all pipe flow regimes from laminar to the fully rough turbulent. It includes laminar, unstable sharp jump from laminar to turbulent, and all types of the turbulent regimes: smooth turbulent regime, partial non-fully developed turbulent and fully developed rough turbulent regime. The formula follows the inflectional form of curves as suggested in Nikuradse’s experiment rather than monotonic shape proposed by Colebrook and White. The composition of the proposed unified formula consists of switching functions and of the interchangeable formulas for laminar, smooth turbulent and fully rough turbulent flow. The proposed switching functions provide a smooth and a computationally cheap transition among hydraulic regimes. Thus, the here presented formulation represents a coherent hydraulic model suitable for engineering use. The model is compared to existing literature models, and shows smooth and computationally cheap transitions among hydraulic regimes.

Coatings of reliable materials of thickness in few atoms to several microns on a viable substrate is the basic need of society which attend regular attention of scientific community working in various fields. Decorative and protective coatings, transparent and insulating coatings, coatings of medical implants and surgical instruments, coatings for drug delivery and security purposes, ultra-precision machine coatings and coatings of other miscellaneous uses are in routine demand for research and commercial purposes. Different hard coatings develop with significant composition of different nature atoms where their force-energy behaviors when recovering certain transition states provide provision for electron of outer ring belonging to gas atom to react for another clamp of energy knot clamping unfilled state of outer ring belonging to solid atom. Set suitable process conditions regulate switching force-energy behaviors of different nature atoms, which are nearly opposite to the ones originally existing in them. Thus, different nature transition state atoms locate points of developing hard coating between their original ground points as the gaseous nature atoms increase their potential energy as per increasing the gravitational force exerting at electron level while the solid atoms decrease their potential energy as per decreasing the gravitational force exerting at electron level. Ti-atom to Ti-atom binding is taken place under the difference of expansion level of lattice in the just land atom and landed atom where the position of nitrogen atoms becomes nearly at their interstitial site. Thus, different nature transition state atoms accommodate to be deposited at substrate surface positioned in the deposition chamber under suitable set parameters. In random arc-based vapor deposition system, depositing different nature atoms at substrate surface depends on the supplied energy where non-conserved forces are remained engage to keep adherence. On undertaking electron (of gas atom), another clamp of energy knot (of solid atom) is being endorsed by the mutually adjusting expansion-contraction of lattices belonging to two different nature atoms developing structure in the form of hard coating, which is known since antiquity. Different properties and characteristics of hard coatings emerged as per engaged forces under the set conditions of involved energy. The present study sets new trends not only in the field of films and coatings but also in the diversified class of materials, wherever, atoms recall their roles.

Holographic subsurface radar (HSR) is currently not in widespread usage. This is due to an historical perspective in the ground penetrating radar (GPR) community that the high attenuation of electromagnetic waves in most media of interest, and the inability to apply time-varying gain to the continuous wave (CW) HSR signal precludes sufficient effective penetration depth. While it is true that the fundamental physics of HSR, with its use of a CW signal, does not allow amplification of later (i.e. deeper) arrivals in lossy media (as is possible with impulse subsurface radar — ISR), HSR has distinct some distinctive advantages. The most important of these is the ability to do shallow subsurface imaging with a resolution that is not possible with ISR. In addition, the design of an HSR system is simpler than for ISR due to the relatively low-tech transmitting and receiving antennae. This paper provides a review of the main principles of HSR through an optical analogy and describes possible algorithms for radar hologram reconstruction. We also present a review of the history of development of systems and applications for HSR of the “RASCAN” type which is possibly the only holographic subsurface radar that is produced in lots. Among the subsurface imaging and remote sensing applications considered are humanitarian demining, construction inspection, surveys of historic architecture and artworks, nondestructive testing of dielectric aerospace materials, security applications, paleontology, detection of wood-boring insect damage, and others. Each application is illustrated with relevant data acquired in laboratory and/or field experiments.

The paper presents a new procedure for assessing the polarity and hydrophobicity of deep eutectic solvents (DESs) based on the measurement of the DES contact angle on glass. DESs consisting of benzoic acid derivatives and quaternary ammonium chlorides – tetrabutylammonium chloride (TBAC) and benzyldimethylhexadecylammonium chloride (16-BAC) in selected mole ratios were chosen for the study. To investigate the DESs polarity, an optical goniometer and an ET(30) solvatochromic scale based on the Reichardt’s dye were used. The research demonstrated the high accuracy and precision of the developed procedure. The simplicity of the examination and the availability of basic equipment allow the implementation of the developed procedure in routine investigations of DESs.

Meixner's historical remark in 1969 "... it can be shown that the concept of entropy in the absence of equilibrium is in fact not only questionable but that it cannot even be defined...." is investigated from today's insight. Several statements --such as the three laws of phenomenological thermodynamics, the embedding theorem and the adiabatical uniqueness-- are used to get rid of non-equilibrium entropy as a primitive concept. In this framework, Clausius inequality of open systems can be derived by use of the defining inequalities which establish the non-equilibrium quantities contact temperature and non-equilibrium molar entropy which allow to describe the interaction between the Schottky system and its controlling equilibrium environment.

Different contact materials along with optimization of the deposition techniques expand the possibilities to obtain high performance room temperature CdTe-based X/γ-ray detectors. The heterostructures with ohmic (MoOx) and Schottky (MoOx, TiOx, TiN, and In) contacts, created by DC reactive magnetron sputtering and vacuum thermal evaporation, as well as In/CdTe/Au diodes with a p-n junction, formed by laser-induced doping, were developed and investigated. Depending on the pre-treatment of the surface of semi-insulating p-CdTe crystals, deposition of a MoOx film formed an ohmic or Schottky contact. Based on the calculations and IV characteristics of the fabricated Mo-MoOx/р-CdTe/MoOx-Mo, In/CdTe/MoOx-Mo, Ti-TiOx/р-CdTe/MoOx-Mo, and Ti-TiN/р-CdTe/MoOx-Mo Schottky-diode detectors, the current transport processes were described in the models of the carrier generation-recombination within the space-charge region (SCR) at low bias voltages, and space-charge limited current at higher voltages, respectively. The energies of generation–recombination centers, density of trapping centers, and carrier lifetimes were determined. A sharp increase in the reverse current in the Mo-MoOx/р-CdTe/MoOx-Mo, Ti-TiOx/р-CdTe/MoOx-Mo, and Ti-TiN/р-CdTe/MoOx-Mo heterostructures at high bias was discussed in frames of the Poole–Frenkel emission model. Nanosecond laser irradiation of the In electrode, pre-deposited on the p-CdTe crystals, resulted in an increase in the voltage range, corresponding to the carrier generation-recombination in the SCR, in the IV characteristics of the In/CdTe/Au diodes. Such In/CdTe/Au p-n junction diodes demonstrated high energy resolutions (7%@59.5 keV, 4%@122 keV, and 1.6%@662 keV).

It is known that the elastic characteristics of polyamides change with increasing temperature, in particular, the Young's modulus decreases significantly. This fact is practically not taken into account in design calculations of metal-polymer plain (MP) bearings, operating under conditions of the boundary and dry friction. The purpose of the study is the analysis of the effect of temperature on the change of the Young's modulus and, accordingly, the contact strength and triboresource according to the developed method of calculating MP bearings. MP bearings with a bushing made of polyamide PA6 reinforced with glass or carbon dispersed fibers were investi-gated. Quantitative and qualitative regularities of change of the maximum contact pressures and resource of the bearings at temperature increase under conditions of boundary and dry friction are established. The pressures in the bearing bushing made of PA6+30GF will be lower than for the bushing made of PA6+30CF. The resource of the bushing made of PA6+30CF will be significantly greater than for PA6+30GF. For thermoplastic polymers, the increase in temperature will have a useful practical effect due to the decrease in the rigidity of the polymer composites of the bearing bushing.

This communication reports an improvement of the quality of the electrical data obtained from the application of electrical resistivity tomography method on archaeological studies. The electrical contact between ground and electrode enhances significantly by using carbomer-based gel during the electrical resistivity tomography measurements. Not only does the gel promote the conservation of the building surface under investigation, but it also virtually eliminates the necessity of conventional spike electrodes, which in many archaeological studies are inadequate or not permitted. Results evidenced an enhancement in the quality of the electrical data obtained in the order of thousands of units compared with those without using the carbomer-based gel. The potential and capabilities of this affordable gel make it appropriate to be applied to other geoelectrical studies beyond archaeological investigations. Moreover, it might solve corrosion issues on conventional spike electrodes, and electrical multicore cables usually provoked for added saltwater attempting to improve the electrical contact.

Non-destructive testing of metallic objects that may contain embedded defects of different sizes is an important application in many industrial branches for quality control. Most of these techniques allow defect detection and its approximate localization, but very few give enough information for its 3D reconstruction. Here we present a hybrid laser – transducer system that combines remote laser-generated ultrasound excitation and non-contact ultrasonic transducer detection. This fully non-contact method gives access to separating scan areas on different object’s faces and defect details from different angles/perspectives can be analysed. This hybrid system can analyse the whole object’s volume data and allow a 3D reconstruction image of the embedded defects. As a novelty for the signal processing improvement, we use a 2D apodization window filtering technique, applied along with the synthetic aperture focusing algorithm in order to remove the undesired effects of side lobes and wide-angle reflections of propagating ultrasound waves, thus, enhancing the resulting 3D image of the defect. We provide both qualitative and quantitative volumetric results with high accuracy and resolution compared with conventional techniques.

The UNESCO World Heritage Hadrian’s Villa lies over the Colli Albani volcanic district near Rome. Magnetic, paleomagnetic, radar, and electric resistivity surveys were performed in the Plutonium–Inferi sector to detect buried buildings and outline a segment of the underground system of tunnels that link different zones of the villa. In particular, a paleomagnetic analysis of the bedrock unit allowed to accomplish an accurate geomagnetic field modelling and characterize the archaeological sources of the magnetic field anomalies. We used a computer-assisted forward modelling procedure to generate a structural model of the sources of the observed anomalies. The intrinsic ambiguity of the magnetic field modelling was reduced with the support of ground penetrating radar amplitude slices and an analysis of radar and electric resistivity profiles. The bedrock lithology in this area is an ignimbrite tuff characterized by abundant iron oxides. The high-amplitude magnetic anomalies observed in the Plutonium–Inferi area are due to strong bedrock remnant magnetization and susceptibility contrasts between topsoil infill of cavities and the surrounding tuff. The resulting magnetization model of the Plutonium–Inferi complex shows that the observed anomalies are mostly due to the presence of tunnels, skylights and a system of ditches excavated in the tuff.

The COVID-19 is an exponentially growing disease that has intentioned nations to use technologies to detect the coronavirus infection. Several nations are working greatly to fight against COVID-19. Many nations have been using a range of devices to combat the pandemic, seeking information about growth, monitoring as well as the leaking the confidential information of the residents. This research aims to assist infected people online using the Internet of Things (IoT) and Blockchain technologies through smart devices. IoT-based healthcare devices gather useful information, provide additional insight through symptoms and behaviors, allow remote monitoring, and simply give people better self - determination and healthcare. Blockchain allows the secure transfer of patient health information, regulates the medical distribution network. A four-layer architecture is proposed using IoT and Blockchain to detect and prevent individuals to be COVID 19. This research provides a framework for patients with COVID-19 infectious disease and recognizes health issues and diagnoses online. Smart devices such as smartphones can install any mobile apps such as Aarogya Setu, Tawakkalna, and so on. These applications can track COVID-19 patients properly. The installation of mobile apps on smart devices focuses to reduce the time and cost and increase the performance of the infectious patient's condition. A four-layer architecture is proposed using IoT and Blockchain technologies. Many research works focus on investigating, analyzing, and highlighting the affected individuals through guiding the COVID-19 infection. Eventually, various mobile apps are recognized and addressed in this paper.

In this study, the changes in mass, compressive strength and length were analyzed to investigate sulfate resistance according to ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) blending ratio and type of sulfate solution. All alkali activated mortars showed excellent sulfate resistance when immersed in sodium sulfate (Na₂SO₄) solution. However, when immersed in magnesium sulfate (MgSO₄) solution, different sulfate resistance results were obtained depending on the presence of GGBFS. Alkali activated GGBFS blended mortars showed a tendency to increase mass, increase length and decrease compressive strength when immersed in magnesium sulfate solution, but the alkali activated FA mortars did not show any significant difference depending on the types of sulfate solution. The deterioration of alkali activated GGBFS blended mortars in the immersion of magnesium sulfate solution was confirmed by the decomposition of C-S-H which is the reaction product by magnesium ion and the formation of gypsum (CaSO₄·2H₂O) and brucite (Mg(OH)₂).

Total hip arthroplasty is a complex procedure. The achievements of implantology enabled the development of a faithful representation of hip joint physiology as well as the production of materials that can successfully replace damaged natural tissues. A very important issue is the correct selection of the geometry of the endoprosthesis adequate to the load of the joint. Materials used for endoprosthesis are a metal head and a polymer cup (e.g. PE-UHMW). The main interactions in the endoprosthesis are friction and surface pressure, which must be limited, exceeding them causes the destruction of the biomechanical system - plastic deformation of the polymer and the formation of too large and unacceptable radial clearances. Based on the author's developed calculation method of hip joint endoprosthesis contact parameters, the impact on maximum contact pressure and the angle of contact of the joint load was estimated depending on the diameter of the endoprosthesis and radial clearance. The correctness of changing the values of maximum contact pressure from the mentioned parameters was determined. Correspondingly: an increase in joint load causes a linear increase in the maximum contact pressure; increasing the diameter of the endoprosthesis head - their non-linear decrease, and increasing radial clearance - their increase

This study addresses an alternative use of viscous dampers (VDs) associated with buckling restrained braces (BRBs) as the innovative seismic protection devices. For this, 4, 8 and 12 storey steel frames were designed with 6.5 m equal span length and 4 m storey height. Thereafter, the VDs and BRBs were placed over the height of each frame considering three different configurations. The structures were modeled using SAP2000 finite element program and evaluated by the nonlinear time history analyses subjected to the six natural accelerograms (1976 Gazlı, 1978 Tabas, 1987 Superstition Hills, 1992 Cape Mendocino, 1994 Northridge and 1999 Chi-Chi). The structural response of the structures with and without VDs and BRBs were studied in terms of variation in the displacement, interstorey drift, absolute acceleration, maximum base shear, time history of roof displacement. The results clearly indicated that the application of VDs and BRBs had remarkable improvement in the earthquake performance of the case study frames by reducing the local/global deformations in the main structural systems and satisfied the serviceability.

Field and numerical investigations at Happisburgh, East coast of England, UK, sought to characterize beach thickness and determine geologic framework controls on coastal change. After a major failure of coastal protection infrastructure, removal of about 1 km of coastal defense along the otherwise protected cliffed coastline of Happisburgh triggered a period of rapid erosion over 20 years of ca. 140 m. Previous sensitivity studies suggested that that beach thickness plays a major role in coastal recession. These studies were limited, however, by a lack of beach volume data. In this study, we have integrated the insights gained from our understanding of the Quaternary geology of the area, a novel non-intrusive passive seismic survey method, and a 3D novel representation of the subsurface source and transportable material into a coastal modelling environment to explore the role of beach thickness on the back wearing and down wearing of the cliffs and consolidated platform, respectively. Results show that beach thickness is non-homogeneous along the study site: we estimate that the contribution to nearshore sediment budget via platform down wearing is of a similar order of magnitude as sediment lost from the beach and therefore non-negligible. We have provided a range of evidence to support the idea that the Happisburgh beach is a relatively thin layer perched on a sediment rich platform of sand and gravel. This conceptualization differs from previous publications, which assumes that the platform was mostly till and fine material. This has direct implication on the regional sediment management of along this coastline. The present study contributes to our understanding of a poorly known aspect of coastal sediment budgeting and outlines a quantitative approach that allows for simple integration of geological understanding for coastline evolution assessments worldwide.

Currently the majority of studies on vision-based measurement has been conducted under ideal environments so that an adequate measurement performance and accuracy is ensured. However, vision-based systems may face some adverse influencing factors such as illumination change and fog interference, which can affect the measurement accuracy. This paper develops a robust vision-based displacement measurement method which can handle the two common and important adverse factors given above and achieve sensitivity at the subpixel level. The proposed method leverages the advantage of high-resolution imaging incorporating spatial and temporal context aspects. To validate the feasibility, stability and robustness of the proposed method, a series of experiments was conducted on a two-span three-lane bridge in the laboratory. The illumination change and fog interference are simulated experimentally in the laboratory. The results of the proposed method are compared to conventional displacement sensor data and current vision-based method results. It is demonstrated that the proposed method gives better measurement results than the current ones under illumination change and fog interference.

Predator-prey interactions present heightened opportunities for pathogen spillover, as predators are exposed to novel parasites through consumption of prey harboring potentially infectious agents. Epizootics with high morbidity and mortality have been recorded following prey-to-predator spillover events with significant conservation implications, particularly for sensitive species. However, relatively few virulent infections following prey consumption are reported, given the very large number of exposures that presumably occur. Further, many transmitted agents are infectious but clinically silent and thus go unrecognized. Mechanisms that determine outcome of predator exposure to prey-based pathogens therefore represent an important, understudied component of disease dynamics that should be considered in modeling approaches and empirical research to better understand disease risk and emergence, particularly in vulnerable or threatened species.

Desktop fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printers have been growing in popularity among hobbyist and professional users as a prototyping and low-volume manufacturing tool. One issue these printers face is the inability to determine when a defect has occurred rendering the print unusable. Several techniques have been proposed to detect such defects but many of these approaches are tailored to one specific fault (e.g., filament runout/jam), use expensive hardware such as laser distance sensors, and/or use machine vision algorithms which are sensitive to ambient conditions, and hence can be unreliable. This paper proposes a versatile, reliable, and low-cost system, named MTouch, to detect millimeter-scale defects that tend to make prints unusable. At the core of MTouch is an actuated contact probe designed using a low-power solenoid, magnet, and hall effect sensor. This sensor is used to check for the presence, or absence, of the printed object at specific locations. The MTouch probe demonstrated 100% reliability, which was significantly higher than the 74% reliability achieved using a commercially available contact probe (the BLTouch). Additionally, an algorithm was developed to automatically detect common print failures such as layer shifting, bed separation, and filament runout using the MTouch probe. The algorithm was implemented on a Raspberry Pi mini-computer via an Octoprint plug-in. In head-to-head testing against a commercially available print defect detection system (The Spaghetti Detective), the MTouch was able to detect faults 44% faster on average while only increasing the print time by 8.49%. In addition, MTouch was able to detect faults The Spaghetti Detective was unable to identify such as layer shifting and filament runout/jam.

We describe a novel machine that uses the greater-than-100% efficiency of air/ground-source heat pumps to recursively generate electricity via steam-powered generators, taking thermal energy from the ambient environment to convert into electrical power. The invention of a machines that generate clean power at low costs will be fundamental to the future of electricity. We estimate efficiency and calculate minimum efficiencies for unknown parts to consider the applicability of this machine to the real world.

Victor Vasarely’s (1906-1997) important legacy to the study of human perception is brought to the forefront and discussed. A large part of his impressive work conveys the appearance of striking three-dimensional shapes and structures in a large-scale pictorial plane. Current perception science explains such effects by invoking brain mechanisms for the processing of monocular (2D) depth cues. Here in this study, we illustrate and explain the local effects of 2D color and contrast cues on the perceptual organization in terms of figure-ground assignments, i.e. which local surfaces are likely to be seen as “nearer” or “bigger” in the image plane. Paired configurations are embedded in a larger, structurally ambivalent pictorial context inspired by some of Vasarely’s creations. The figure-ground effects these configurations produce reveal a significant correlation between perceptual solutions for “nearer” and “bigger” when no other monocular depth cues are given in the image. In consistency with previous findings on similar, albeit simpler visual displays, a specific color may compete with luminance contrast in resolving the planar ambiguity of a complex pattern context. Vasarely intuitively understood, and successfully exploited, this kind of subtle context effect in his art, well before empirical investigations had set out to study and explain their genesis in terms of information processing by the visual brain.

Drylands are arid and semiarid ecosystems, where the lack of rains imposes harsh conditions for the survival of organisms. These ecosystems are also susceptible to degradation and desertification, and their conservation depends on the understanding of the ecological functioning of vegetation and soil. In drylands, the vegetation is spatially structured as a mosaic of patches (vegetation) and interpatches (bare soil), a consequence of plant-plant interactions (facilitation and competition). Empirical data and modeling approaches reinforce the role of ecological facilitation for the maintenance of all organisms in drylands. However, the actual range of facilitation is still poorly known. Here, we explored data of meso- and micro-arthropods found in soil as bioindicators to infer the range of facilitation provided by plants to soil. We regarded data of abundances and species densities (independent samples) collected in random patches and bare soil places as dependent variables. Data of patch size and distances between bare soil and patches were arranged in a single shuffle, producing a 1-d coordinate system centered at the border of the patch. Discrete portions of this system are taken to calculate averages and variances of abundance and species density, and we investigated how soil communities variate across the patch border. We employ techniques of signal analysis to reduce the data noise and obtain a smooth and continuous behavior, which allowed us to fit a logistic function. Our findings indicate that soil communities suddenly change from simple patterns to numerous and diverse communities in bare soil regions, meaning that the influence of vegetation on soil goes beyond the patch border. We interpreted the variations in fauna as a consequence of the positive influence provided by plants (or its lack) on surrounding bare soil. We observe a fast decaying of fauna quantities at 0.35 m outside the patch border, a threshold that reveals the mean range of facilitation provided by plants. However, the changes in soil communities outside the patches seem not necessarily related to the efficiency of soil processes mediated by arthropods, which seem to be more active inside large patches. Concluding, we found a minimum patch-size (radius ~ 0.5 m) able to maintain high diverse communities in soil, and an average distance of vegetation influence along the patch border (halo between 0.35 and 0.50 m). This information can be interpreted in terms of facilitation provided by plants to soil conditions, which seems to differ from the quantitative functionality of soil processes. Our findings contribute to the general understanding of the ecological functioning of drylands, as well as to better plan conservation actions.

The function of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) can be impaired by the alternation of the extra- and intracellular environment such as disruption of calcium homeostasis, expression of mutated proteins and oxidative stress. In response to disruptions to ER homeostasis, eukaryotic cells activate canonical branches of signal transduction cascades, collectively termed the unfolded protein response (UPR). The UPR attempts to recover the protein folding capacity and avoid irreversible cellular damage. Additionally, the UPR has been shown to play unique physiological roles in the regulation of diverse cellular events, including cell differentiation and development and lipid biosynthesis. Recent studies have indicated that these important cellular events are also regulated by contact and communication among organelles. These reports suggest strong involvement among the UPR, organelle communication and regulation of cellular homeostasis. However, the precise mechanisms for the formation of contact sites and the regulation of its dynamics by UPR remain unresolved. In this review, we summarized the current understanding of how the UPR regulates morphological changes to the ER and the formation of contact sites between the ER and other organelles. We also review how UPR-dependent connections between the ER and other organelles affect cellular and physiological functions.

The current study assessed the influence of Anti Stripping Agents (ASA), Ground Tire Rubber (GTR) and waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET) on performance behavior of binder and Stone Matrix Asphalt (SMA) mixtures. Through this paper, the 85/100 penetration grade bitumen was utilized as original bitumen. Also, three liquid ASA’s (ASA (A), ASA (B), ASA (C)) were used as a mixture modifier. For this purpose, softening point, penetration, rotational viscosity, Dynamic Shear Rheometer, Multi Stress Creep Recovery (MSCR) and Linear Amplitude Sweep (LAS) tests were implemented to investigate the rheological properties of modified bitumen. For evaluating the behavior of modified mixtures several tests such as; Resilient Modulus, Tensile Strength, dynamic creep, wheel track and four-point beam fatigue tests were implemented. Based on MSCR test results, utilization of mentioned polymers enhanced the elasticity of bitumens and therefore the permanent deformation resistance of binders increases. Also by the addition of PET percentage, the rutting resistance improves. Results indicated that utilization of ASAs, PET and Crumb Rubber (CR) enhance the Resilient Modulus (Mr), Indirect Tensile Strength (ITS), rutting resistance, fatigue life and Fracture Energy (FE) of asphalt mixtures. Also based on results, modification of binder by PET/CR with a ratio of 50%/50% and ASA (B) have the highest fatigue life which indicates that this mixture has highest resistance against fatigue cracking.

This study aimed to evaluate the hazards posed by foodborne bacteria of the Listeria genus by analyzing prevalence, diversity and virulence of Listeria spp. in food and food manufacturing plants. Seventy five isolates obtained from the routine analysis of 653 samples by three diagnostic laboratories in Northern Italy were genotipically differentiated by Repetitive Extragenic Palindrome (rep) PCR with the GTG5 primer, identified by sequencing the 16S rRNA gene and examined by specific PCR tests for the presence of L. monocytogenes virulence determinants occasionally found to occur in other species of the genus. The identity of the amplification products was confirmed by sequencing. Fifty seven isolates were identified as L. innocua, 12 as L. monocytogenes, 5 as L. welshimeri and one as L. seeligeri. All L. monocytogenes isolates belonged to the serotype 1/2a and were predicted to be virulent for the presence of the inlJ internalin gene. Potentially virulent strains of L. innocua, L. seeligeri and L. welshimeri, carrying the L. monocytogenes inlA gene and/or hly gene, were identified, and most isolates were found to possess the toxin-antitoxin system mazEF for efficient adaptation to heat shock. Results indicated the need to reinforce food contamination prevention measures against all Listeria species by efficiently defining their environmental distribution.

Tumorigenesis is a complex biological phenomenon that includes extensive genetic and phenotypic heterogeneities and complicated regulatory mechanisms. In the recent few years, our studies demonstrate that tumor-initiating cells are similar to neural stem/progenitor cells in regulatory networks, tumorigenicity and pluripotent differentiation potential. In the review, I will make further discussion on these observations and propose a rule of cell biology by integrating these findings with evidence from developmental biology, tumor biology and evolution, which suggests that neural stemness underlies two coupled cell properties, tumorigenicity and pluripotent differentiation potential. Tumorigenicity and phenotypic heterogeneity in tumor is a result of acquirement of neural stemness in cells. The neural stemness property of tumor-initiating cells can hopefully integrate different concepts/hypotheses underlying tumorigenesis. Neural stem cells/neural progenitors and tumor-initiating cells share regulatory networks; both exhibit neural stemness, tumorigenicity and differentiation potential; both are dependent on expression or activation of ancestral genes (the atavistic effect); both rely primarily on aerobic glycolytic metabolism; both can differentiate into various cells or tissues that are derived from three germ layers, resembling severely disorganized or more severely degenerated process of embryonic development; both are enriched in long genes with more splice variants that provide more plastic scaffolds for cell differentiation, etc. The property of neural stemness might be a key point to understand tumorigenesis and pluripotent differentiation potential, and possibly explain certain pathological observations in tumors that have been inexplicable. Therefore, behind the complexity of tumorigenesis might be a general rule of cell biology, i.e., neural stemness represents the ground state of cell tumorigenicity and pluripotent differentiation potential.

Propagation effects on the Narrow Bipolar Pulses (NBPs) or the radiation fields generated by compact cloud discharges as they propagate over finitely conducting ground are presented. The results are obtained using a sample of NBPs recorded with high time resolution from close thunderstorms in Sri Lanka. The results show that the peak amplitude and the temporal features such as the Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM), zero crossing time and the time derivative of NBPs can be significantly distorted by propagation effects. For this reason the study of peak amplitudes and temporal features of NBPs and the remote sensing of current parameters of compact cloud discharges should be conducted using NBPs recorded under conditions where the propagation effects are minimal.

To investigate the effect of acidic nanoparticles on proton conductivity, permeability and fuel cell performance, a commercial Nafion® 117 membrane was impregnated with zirconium phosphates (ZrP) and sulfated zirconium (S-ZrO2) nanoparticles. The tensile test, water uptake, methanol crossover, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) were used to assess the ca-pacity of nanocomposite membrane to function in a fuel cell. The modified Nafion® membrane obtained the higher water uptake and a lower water content angle than the commercial Nafion® 117 membrane, indicating that it has a greater impact on conductivity. Under strain rates of 40, 30 and 20 mm/min, the nanocomposite membranes demonstrate more stable thermal deterioration and higher mechanical strength, which offers tremendous promise for fuel cell applications. When compared to 0.113 S/cm and 0.013 S/cm, respectively, of commercial Nafion® 117 and Nafion® ZrP membranes, the modified Nafion® membrane with ammonia sulphate acid had the highest proton conductivity of 7.891 S/cm. When tested using a direct single cell methanol fuel cell, it had the highest power density of 183 m. cm-2 which is better than commercial Nafion® 117 and Nafion® ZrP membranes.

Accurately quantifying the above-ground volume (AGV) and thus above-ground biomass (AGB) of forest stands is an important aspect in the conservation of mangrove ecosystem owing to their ecological and economic benefits. However, the number of studies focusing on quantifying mangrove forests’ biomass has been relatively low due to their marshy terrain, making exploratory studies challenging. In recent times, the use of LiDAR technologies in forest inventory studies has become increasingly popular, due to the reliability of LiDAR as a highly accurate means of 3D spatial data acquisition. In this study, we propose an end-to-end methodology for estimating AGV of mangrove forest stands from terrestrial LiDAR data. Many of the recent studies on this topic effectively employ machine learning algorithms such as multi layer perceptron, random forests, etc. for filtering foliage in the point cloud data of single trees. This study further extends that approach by incorporating the impact of class imbalance of forest point cloud data in a weighted random forest classifier. For the task of segmentation of wood/foliage points in a single tree point cloud, this approach yielded an average increase of 2.737% in the balanced accuracy score, 0.007 in the Cohen’s kappa score, 2.745% in the ROC AUC score and 0.857% in the F1 score. For the task of AGV estimation of a single tree, this approach resulted in an average coefficient of determination of 0.93 with respect to the ground truth volumes. For the task of counting pneumatophores in a plot-level point cloud, the proposed breadth-first searching method yielded an average coefficient of determination of 0.9391. Also, the machine learning classifier and geometric features used in this study were invariant to tree species and hence could be generalised for the classification of point clouds of other tree species as well. Finally, a breadth-first graph-search segmentation based approach is also proposed as part of this pipeline to estimate the contribution of pneumatophores to the AGB of mangrove forest stands. Since pneumatophores are a special adaptation of mangrove forests for gaseous exchange in marshy environments, this study aims to incorporate the detection and AGB estimation of pneumatophores in the inventory of mangrove forest stands. Studying the contribution of pneumatophores to the AGB of mangrove forest plots could also aid future mangrove forest inventory studies in modeling the underlying root network and estimating the below-ground biomass of mangrove trees.

The contact materials in high-voltage vacuum interrupter require properties such as high conductivity, high density, and high hardness to minimize arc heat damage. In this study, copper–molybdenum-chromium alloys contact materials are examined for a high voltage contact material. Ball milling process was carried out after analyzing the raw materials of copper, chromium, and molybdenum powders. A green compact was produced using a high press with the mixed powder. Afterwards, composite was produced by sintering method according to temperature and infiltration method according to Cu content in green compact. The composite of sintering method showed a density of 8.55 g/cm3 (relative density 93%) a hardness of 217 HV, and an electrical conductivity of 40.7 IACS% at 1200 °C. The composite of 10 wt.% Cu produced by the Cu infiltration method showed a density of 8.7 g/cm3 (relative density 94%), Hardness of 274HV and electrical conductivity of 39 IACS% at 1300 °C. The measurements of physical properties showed the new possibility of using the Cu–Cr–Mo alloy as a contact material for high-voltage vacuum interrupters.

Mereotopology is a concept rooted in analytical philosophy. The phase-field concept is based on mathematical physics and finds applications in materials engineering. The two concepts seem to be disjoint at a first glance. While mereotopology qualitatively describes static relations between things like x isConnected y (topology) or x isPartOf y (mereology) by first order logic and Boolean algebra, the phase-field concept describes the geometric shape of things and its dynamic evolution by drawing on a scalar field. The geometric shape of any thing is defined by its boundaries to one or more neighboring things. The notion and description of boundaries thus provides a bridge between mereotopology and the phase-field concept. The present article aims to relate phase-field expressions describing boundaries and especially triple junctions to their Boolean counterparts in mereotopology and contact algebra. An introductory overview on mereotopology is followed by an introduction to the phase-field concept already indicating first relations to mereo- topology. Mereotopological axioms and definitions are then discussed in detail from a phase-field perspective. A dedicated section introduces and discusses further notions of the isConnected relation emerging from the phase-field perspective like isSpatiallyConnected, isTemporallyConnected, isPhysicallyConnected, isPathConnected and wasConnected. Such relations introduce dynamics and thus physics into mereotopology as transitions from isDisconnected to isPartOf can be described.

Impact of the Corona, dielectric barrier discharge and low pressure radiofrequency air plasmas on the chemical composition and wettability of the medical grade polyvinylchloride was investigated. Corona plasma treatment exerted the most pronounced increase in the hydrophilization of polyvinylchloride. The specific energy of adhesion of the pristine and plasma treated PVC tubing is reported. The kinetics of hydrophobic recovery following the plasma treatment was explored. The time evolution of the apparent contact angle under the hydrophobic recovery is satisfactorily described by the exponential fitting. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy of the chemical composition of the near-surface layers of the plasma treated catheters revealed their oxidation. The effect of the hydrophobic recovery is hardly correlated with oxidation of the polymer surface, which is irreversible.

In this paper, we introduce a non-invasive approach for monitoring bridge infrastructure with ground-based interferometric radar. This approach is called the mirror mode, since it utilises the flat surface of the bridge underside as a mirror to reflect the signal to a corner reflector on the ground placed opposite of the radar sensor. For proving the feasibility of this approach, a measurement campaign has been carried out at an exemplary bridge in Karlsruhe (Germany) including a radar sensor in mirror mode, a second radar sensor in the default mode and a laser profile scanner. We investigate the potential of this approach to monitor the bridge displacement in vertical direction and compare the results with the two other sensors. The derived results reveal the potential for monitoring bridge infrastructure. Finally, we propose further research aspects of this approach to analyse its capabilities and limitation in the context of non-invasive infrastructure monitoring.

We construct families of ground state representations of the U(1)-current net and of the Virasoro nets Vir_c with central charge c ≥ 1. We show that these representations are not covariant with respect to the original dilations, and those on the U(1)-current net are not solitonic. Furthermore, by going to the dual net of with respect to the ground state representations of Vir_c, one obtains possibly new family of Möbius covariant nets on S¹.

The growing market penetration of heat pumps indicates the need for a performance test method which better reflects the dynamic behavior of heat pumps. In this contribution, we developed and implemented a dynamic test method for the evaluation of the seasonal performance of heat pumps by means of laboratory testing. Current standards force the heat pump control inactive by fixing the compressor speed. In contrast, during dynamic testing, the compressor runs unfixed while the heat pump is subjected to a temperature profile. The profile consists of the different outdoor temperatures of a typical heating season based on the average European climate and also includes temperature changes to reflect the dynamic behavior of the heat pump. The seasonal performance can be directly obtained from the measured heating energy and electricity consumption making subsequent data interpolation and recalculation with correction factors obsolete. The method delivers results with high precision and high reproducibility and could be an appropriate method for a fair rating of heat pumps.

This study aims to explore the possibility of estimating a multitude of kinematic and dynamic quantities using subject-specific musculoskeletal models in real-time. The framework was designed to operate with marker-based and inertial measurement units enabling extensions far beyond dedicated motion capture laboratories. We present the technical details for calculating the kinematics, generalized forces, muscle forces, joint reaction loads, and predicting ground reaction wrenches during walking. Emphasis was given to reduce computational latency while maintaining accuracy as compared to the offline counterpart. Notably, we highlight the influence of adequate filtering and differentiation under noisy conditions and its importance for consequent dynamic calculations. Real-time estimates of the joint moments, muscle forces, and reaction loads closely resemble OpenSim's offline analyses. Model-based estimation of ground reaction wrenches demonstrates that even a small error can negatively affect other estimated quantities. An application of the developed system is demonstrated in the context of rehabilitation and gait retraining. We expect that such a system will find numerous applications in laboratory settings and outdoor conditions with the advent of predicting or sensing environment interactions. Therefore, we hope that this open-source framework will be a significant milestone for solving this grand challenge.

We review and refine the geological setting of an area located nearby the Tyrrhenian seacoast, in the inner zone of the Northern Apennines (southern Tuscany), where a Neogene monzogranite body (estimated in about 3 km long, 1.5 km wide, and 0.7 km thick) emplaced during early Pliocene. This magmatic intrusion, known as the Gavorrano pluton, is partially exposed in a ridge bounded by regional faults delimiting broad structural depressions. A widespread circulation of geothermal fluids accompanied the cooling of the magmatic body and gave rise to an extensive Fe-ore deposit (mainly pyrite) exploited during the past century. The tectonic setting which favoured the emplacement and exhumation of the Gavorrano pluton is strongly debated with fallouts on the comprehension of the Neogene evolution of this sector of the inner Northern Apennines. Data from a new fieldwork dataset, integrated with information from the mining activity, have been integrated to refine the geological setting of the whole crustal sector where the Gavorrano monzogranite was emplaced and exhumed. Our review, implemented by new palynological, petrological and structural data pointed out that: i) the age of the Palaeozoic phyllite (hosting rocks) is middle-late Permian, thus resulting younger than previously described (i.e. pre-Carboniferous); ii) the P-T conditions at which the metamorphic aureole developed are estimated at about 660 °C and at a maximum depth of c. 5 km; iii) the tectonic evolution which determined the emplacement and exhumation of the monzogranite is constrained in a transfer zone, in the frame of the extensional tectonics affecting the area continuously since Miocene.

Ensuring a protection scheme in DC distribution is more difficult to achieve against pole-to-ground fault than in AC distribution system because of the absence of zero crossing points and low line impedance. To complement the major obstacle of limiting the fault current, several compositions have been proposed related to mechanical switching and solid-state switching. Among them, solid-state circuit breakers(SSCBs) are considered a possible solution to limit fast fault current. However, they may cause problems in circuit complexity, reliability and cost-related troubles due to the use of multiple power semiconductor devices and additional circuit configuration to commutate current. This paper proposes the SSCB with a coupled inductor(SSCB-CI) which has symmetrical configuration. The circuit is comprised of passive components like commutation capacitors, a CI and damping resistors. Thus, proposed SSCB-CI offers the advantages of simple circuit configuration and fewer utilized power semiconductor devices than another typical SSCBs in LVDC microgrid. For analysis, six operation states are described for the voltage across main switches and fault current. The effectiveness of the SSCB-CI against a short-circuit fault is proved via simulation and experimental results in a lab-scale prototype.

The many-body problem in quantum physics originates from the difficulty of describing the non-trivial correlations encoded in the exponential complexity of the many-body wave function. Motivated by the Giuseppe Carleo's work titled solving the quantum many-body problem with artificial neural networks [Science, 2017, 355: 602], we focus on finding the NNQS approximation of the unknown ground state of a given Hamiltonian $H$ in terms of the best relative error and explore the influences of sum, tensor product, local unitary of Hamiltonians on the best relative error. Besides, we illustrate our method with some examples.

The Hertzian contact theory, as well as most of the other classical theories of normal and tangential contact, provides displacements and the distribution of normal and tangential stress components directly in the contact surface. However, other components of the full stress tensor in the material may essentially influence the material behaviour in contact. Of particular interest are principal stresses and the equivalent von Mises stress, as well as the gradient of the hydrostatic pressure. For many engineering and biomechanical problems, it would be important to find these stress characteristics at least in the contact plane. In the present paper, we show that the complete stress state in the contact plane can be easily found for axially symmetric contacts under very general assumptions. We provide simple explicit equations for all stress components and the normal component of the gradient of hydrostatic pressure in the form of one-dimensional integrals.

Remote sensing is one of the modern methods that have significantly developed over the last two decades and nowadays provides a new means for forest monitoring. High spatial and temporal resolutions are demanded for accurate and timely monitoring of forests. In this study multi-spectral Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) images were used to estimate canopy parameters (definition of crown extent, top and height as well as photosynthetic pigment contents). The UAV images in Green, Red, Red-Edge and NIR bands were acquired by Parrot Sequoia camera over selected sites in two small catchments (Czech Republic) covered dominantly by Norway spruce monocultures. Individual tree extents, together with tree tops and heights, were derived from the Canopy Height Model (CHM). In addition, the following were tested i) to what extent can the linear relationship be established between selected vegetation indexes (NDVI and NDVIred edge) derived for individual trees and the corresponding ground truth (e.g., biochemically assessed needle photosynthetic pigment contents), and ii) whether needle age selection as a ground truth and crown light conditions affect the validity of linear models. The results of the conducted statistical analysis show that the two vegetation indexes (NDVI and NDVIred edge) tested here have a potential to assess photosynthetic pigments in Norway spruce forests at a semi-quantitative level, however the needle-age selection as a ground truth was revealed to be a very important factor. The only usable results were obtained for linear models when using the 2nd year needle pigment contents as a ground truth. On the other hand, the illumination conditions of the crown proved to have very little effect on the model’s validity. No study was found to directly compare these results conducted on coniferous forest stands. This shows that there is a further need for studies dealing with a quantitative estimation of the biochemical variables of nature coniferous forests when employing spectral data acquired by the UAV platform at a very high spatial resolution.

This paper proposes a contact force controller for a constrained flexible manipulator in three-dimensional motion. This controller used the conversion formula obtained empirically and experimental results showed the effectiveness of the proposed contact force controller. First, the manipulator was operated with the tip of the second link restrained, then, time response of the root strain, joint angles and contact force were used to derive the relational between the three quantities. The effectiveness of the relational expression was verified by conducting a target contact force tracking experiment by inputting the angle from the relational expression. The contact force control using the strain feedback method was proposed with the strain amount estimated from the target contact force as the target value, and its effectiveness was verified by experiments. From the results obtained, controller using the strain feedback method was designed for the purpose of controlling the contact force at the tip of a flexible manipulator with two links and three degrees of freedom that performs three-dimensional spatial motion, and its effectiveness was shown by comparison with the contact force feedback method.

A software defined radio (SDR) is a communication system that makes use of components that can be configured through software, in contrast to traditional systems where these components are variable through hardware, these radio devices are much more versatile, this article describes the factors that must be considered when implementing a communication system based on Software Defined Radios (SDR), in order to reduce the attenuation factors and thus obtain the maximum distance for a transmission of data effectively in the UHF band. The calculations made for the first Fresnel zone and for the design of the Ground Plane type antennas used in the transmission/reception stages of the x40 bladeRF platforms are also presented. The tests were carried out at the facilities of the Huarangal Nuclear Center of the Peruvian Institute of Nuclear Energy, obtaining favorable results that allow ratifying the versatility and performance of the SDRs.

Dry eye disease (DED) is a multifactorial disorder in which tear fluid homeostasis is lost, resulting in increased tear film osmolarity and ocular surface irritation. In Asia, the short tear film breakup time type-DED is common, and stabilization of the tear film is the first goal of treatment. Treatment of DED begins with eye drops. Until now, artificial tears and steroid eye drops have been the main treatment for DED. However, artificial tears require frequent administration of eye drops and thus pose adherence problems, while steroids have problems with side effects (cataracts, increased intraocular pressure). This review evaluates the new generation of DED therapies in Asia based on what is known about them and demonstrates that they are more effective for DED than traditional therapies such as artificial tears and steroids. Based on these considerations, it is proposed that the optimal treatment for DED in Asia is the initial application of mucin secretion enhancing eye drops (long-acting diquafosol) and oral supplements, and if additional treatment is needed, cyclosporine eye drops and the adjunctive therapies presented in this review are added.

In cross-country skiing the time difference between a race winner and the person coming second is typically very small. Since much of the energy is spent on overcoming resistive forces, a relatively small reduction of these can have a significant impact on the results. The resistive forces come partly from the friction in the tribological interface, between the ski and the snow, and as with many tribological applications the characterisation of its origin, plays an important role in determining the frictional properties. Also in cross-country ski friction, there are several scales impacting the frictional performance, with the major contributors being the ski-camber profile and ski-base structure. Macro-scale measurements of the ski's camber profile under load, are often used to determine how adequate the ski is for a specific condition. The characteristic properties usually obtained are, the force required to collapse the ski to a certain camber height, the topography of the kick-wax zone, and by simple means a determined lengths of the frictional interface, i.e., the apparent contact length. To this date, there are some mathematical models, but there is no robust way of determining the macro-scale contact properties between a cross-country ski and a counter surface using simulations. In the present paper an Artificial neural networks (ANN) is trained to predict the ski-camber profile for various loads placed at different positions, and a well established deterministic approach is used to simulate the contact between the ANN-predicted ski-camber profile and a linearly elastic body with a flat surface, representing the snow. The results suggest that this method is feasible for the determination of the apparent contact characteristics of different skis. Moreover, we show that the apparent contact area does not linearly depend on the load, and that the elastic properties of the counter surface also has a large impact on the apparent contact area and the average apparent contact pressure.

Over the last few years, Earth Observation (EO) data has shifted towards increased use to produce official statistics, particularly in the agriculture sector. National statistics offices worldwide, including in Asia and the Pacific, are expanding their use of EO data to produce agricultural statistics such as crop classification, yield estimation, irrigation mapping, and crop loss estimation. The advances in image classification, such as pixel-based and phenology-based classifications, and machine learning create new opportunities for researchers to analyze EO data applied to agriculture statistics. However, it requires the ground truth (GT) data because classification result mainly depends on the quality of GT. Therefore, in this study, we introduced a random sampling approach to design and collect GT data using EO imagery and ancillary data. As a result of data collection, GT data improve the algorithms and validates classification results. Nevertheless, despite the importance of GT data, they are rarely disseminated as a data product in themselves. Thus, this results in an untapped opportunity to share GT data as a global public good, and improved use of survey and census data as a source of GT data.

In the first part of this talk we review some prerequisites for and essential arguments involved in the construction of the thermal-ground-state estimate for the deconfining phase in the thermodynamics of SU(2) Quantum Yang-Mills theory and how this structure supports its distinct excitations. The second part applies deconfining SU(2) Yang-Mills thermodynamics to the Cosmic Microwave Background in view of (i) a modified temperature-redshift relation with an interesting link to correlation-length criticality in the 3D Ising model, (ii) the implied minimal changes in the dark sector of the cosmological model, and (iii) best-fit parameter values of this model when confronted with the spectra of the angular two-point functions TT, TE, and EE, excluding the low-$l$ physics. The latter, which is treated in an incomplete way because of the omission of radiative effects, is addressed in passing towards future work.

In our study we used the data set on morphimetric traits in beetles species. It has been constantly replenishing for 20 years by the samples, received from different regions of Russia and abroad. In this case we have selected data on nine species for which the left and right sides had been measured and fluctuating asymmetry (FA) could be estimated. The samples were from 6 provinces of Russia and Belarus, which ranged in 3 degrees in latitude and 57 degrees in longitude and included more than 150 plots in different types of biotopes. FA was assessed according to the standard method in 5265 specimen in one dimensional trait and one - meristic. ANOVA showed that biotope, species and their interaction affected FA in both traits, that is different species reacted differently to biotope type. In uncommon biotopes (according to accepted in carabidology classification) FA was increased. In forest species the negative relationship between FA in dimensional and meristic traits in the range in biotopes was revealed. In those species only FA values were higher in males than in females. In generalist species FA varieв similarly in both sexes and in both traits being the highest in open biotopes. In eudomonant of arable lands biotopes – Poecilus cupreus – the highest values of FA were recorded in the meadows, being about equal in all types of crops.

Carbon sequestration is associated with plant biomass and soils. The amount of carbon sequestration in the Atewa Range Forest Reserve (ARFR) is affected by varied anthropogenic activities like logging, mining and farming. This study estimate the above and below ground carbon stock and assess human-induced stress impacts on the Highly Stressed Vegetation (HSV), Moderately Stressed Vegetation (MSV), and Non-Stressed Vegetation (NSV) in the ARFR. The above ground biomass of trees was determined using the allometric model of (Henry, et al., 2010) whereas plants root biomass was calculated using Cairns et al. (1997). Soil organic carbon was determined using the Walkley–Black method. We observed that carbon stock was higher in the above-ground than the below-ground component. The MSV, recorded the highest stock of carbon followed by the NSV and the HSV whilst sequestrated carbon stocks was generally high and varied across the three stress levels. Within the forest, the intensity of anthropogenic activities has negatively impacted the amounts of carbon sequestrated at various levels.

Artificial groundwater recharge is commonly used for drinking water supply. The resulting water quality is highly dependent on the raw water quality. In many cases, pre-treatment is required. Pre-treatment improves the drinking water quality, although how and to what extent it affects the subsequent pond water quality and infiltration process, is still unknown. We evaluated two treatment systems by applying different pre-treatment methods for raw water from a eutrophic and temperate lake. An artificial recharge pond was divided into two parts, where one received raw water, only filtered through a micro-screen with 500 µm pores (control treatment), while the other part received pre-treated lake water using chemical flocculation with polyaluminium chloride (PACl) combined with sand filtration, i.e. continuous contact filtration (contact filter treatment). Water quality such as cyanobacterial biomass, microcystin-LR as well as organic matter and nutrients were measured in both treatment processes. We found cyanobacterial biomass and microcystin-LR level after the contact filter treatment was significantly different from the control treatment and also significantly different in the pond water. In addition, with contact filter treatment, total phosphorus (TP) and organic matter removal were significantly improved in the end water, TP was reduced by 96 % (< 20 µg/L) and the total organic carbon (TOC) was reduced by 66 % instead of 55 % (TOC content around 2.1 mg/L instead of 3.0 mg/L). This full-scale onsite experiment demonstrated effective pre-treatment would benefit a more stable water quality system, with less variance and lower cyanotoxin risk. In a broader drinking water management perspective, the presented method is promising to reduce cyanotoxin risk, as well as TP and TOC, which are all predicted to increase with global warming and extreme weather.

Contact tracing is one of the oldest social network health interventions used to reduce the diffusion of various infectious diseases. However, some infectious diseases like COVID-19 amass at such a great scope that traditional methods of conducting contact tracing (e.g., face-to-face interviews) remain difficult to implement, pointing the need to develop reliable and valid survey approaches. The purpose of this research is to test the effectiveness of three different egocentric survey methods for extracting contact tracing data: (1) a baseline approach, (2) a retrieval cue approach, and (3) a context-based approach. A sample of 397 college students were randomized into one of each condition and were prompted to anonymously provide contacts and populated places visited from the past four days. After controlling for various demographic, social identity, psychological, and physiological variables, participants in the context-based condition were significantly more likely recall more contacts (medium effect size) and places (large effect size) than the other two conditions. Theoretically, the research supports suggestions by field theory that assume network recall can be significantly improved by activating relevant activity foci. Practically, the research contributes to developing innovative social network data collection methods for contract tracing survey instruments.

Solid particles immersed in a fluid can be found in many engineering, environmental or medical fields. Applications are suspensions, sedimentation processes or procedural processes in the production of medication, food or construction materials. While homogenized behavior of these applications is well understood, contributions in the field of pore-scale fully resolved numerical simulations with non-spherical particles are rare. Using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) as a simulation framework, we therefore present a modelling approach for Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) of single-phase fluid containing non-spherically formed solid aggregates. Notable and discussed model specifications are the surface-coupled fluid-solid interaction forces as well as the contact forces between solid aggregates. The focus of this contribution is the numerical modelling approach and its implementation in SPH. Since SPH presents a fully resolved approach, the construction of arbitrary shaped particles is conveniently realizable. After validating our model for single non-spherical particles, we therefore investigate the motion of solid bodies in a Newtonian fluid and their interaction with the surrounding fluid by analyzing velocity fields of shear flow with respect to hydromechanical and contact forces. Results show a dependency of the motion and interaction of solid particles on their form and orientation. While spherical particles move to the centerline region, ellipsoidal particles move and rotate due to vortexes formation in the fluid flow in between.