Applied Sciences

10 pages, 2028 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Lactoplantibacillus plantarum KG Lysates Inhibit the Internalization of Staphylococcus aureus by Human Keratinocytes through the Induction of Human Beta-Defensin 3

by Kyoung-Ok Jang, Chaeyeon Yu, Hangeun Kim and Dae-Kyun Chung

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12504; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312504 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1818

Abstract

Human β-defensin 3 (hBD3) is an antimicrobial peptide and a chemoattractant molecule expressed in human keratinocytes. Lysates prepared from Lactoplantibacillus plantarum KG (KG lysates), a fermented lactobacillus strain with Ginseng extracts, significantly induced hBD3 in human keratinocytes. hBD3 induced by KG lysates affected [...] Read more.

Human β-defensin 3 (hBD3) is an antimicrobial peptide and a chemoattractant molecule expressed in human keratinocytes. Lysates prepared from Lactoplantibacillus plantarum KG (KG lysates), a fermented lactobacillus strain with Ginseng extracts, significantly induced hBD3 in human keratinocytes. hBD3 induced by KG lysates affected the internalization of Staphylococcus aureus by human keratinocytes. The intracellular pathway for the induction of hBD3 by KG lysates was examined using inhibitors. Briefly, KG lysates stimulated the late signaling pathway including JAK1/2, which might be induced by the EGFR- or IFN-γ-mediated pathway, and affected hBD3 induction. Through this study, we confirmed that KG lysates have the ability to control bacterial infections, especially S. aureus, in human keratinocytes. Thus, KG lysates can be provided in various formulations for the development of food and pharmaceutical materials to control bacterial infection. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Development of Healthy Dairy Products)

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15 pages, 1984 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

An Adaptive Partitioning and Multi-Granularity Network for Video-Based Person Re-Identification

by Bailiang Huang, Yan Piao and Yanfeng Tang

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12503; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312503 - 6 Dec 2022

Viewed by 1482

Abstract

Person re-identification (Re-ID) is a key technology used in the field of intelligent surveillance. The existing Re-ID methods are mainly realized by using convolutional neural networks (CNNs), but the feature information is easily lost in the operation process due to the down-sampling structure [...] Read more.

Person re-identification (Re-ID) is a key technology used in the field of intelligent surveillance. The existing Re-ID methods are mainly realized by using convolutional neural networks (CNNs), but the feature information is easily lost in the operation process due to the down-sampling structure design in CNNs. Moreover, CNNs can only process one local neighbourhood at a time, which makes the global perception of the network poor. To overcome these shortcomings, in this study, we apply a pure transformer to a video-based Re-ID task by proposing an adaptive partitioning and multi-granularity (APMG) network framework. To enable the pure transformer structure better at adapting to the Re-ID task, we propose a new correlation-adaptive partitioning (CAP) of feature embedding modules that can adaptively partition person images according to structural correlations and thus retain the structure and semantics of local feature information in the images. To improve the Re-ID performance of the network, we also propose a multi-granularity (MG) module to better capture people feature information at different levels of granularity. We performed validation trials on three video-based benchmark datasets. The results show that the network structure based on the pure transformer can adapt to Re-ID tasks well, and our APMG network outperforms other state-of-the-art methods. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Computing and Artificial Intelligence)

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15 pages, 2197 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Greenhouse Gas Emission Scenarios and Vehicle Engine Performance in a Main Urban Road in Northwestern Mexico

by Yidanes Alejandra Ibañez-Acevedo, Samantha E. Cruz-Sotelo, David E. Flores-Jiménez, Néstor Santillán-Soto, Ma. de los Ángeles Santos-Gómez and Sara Ojeda-Benitez

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12502; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312502 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1953

Abstract

Transport is one of the sectors with the highest greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) that is imperative to reduce in order to decrease global warming. Although modern vehicles and arterial roads have adopted technological and structural improvements to enhance fuel use efficiency, the emission [...] Read more.

Transport is one of the sectors with the highest greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) that is imperative to reduce in order to decrease global warming. Although modern vehicles and arterial roads have adopted technological and structural improvements to enhance fuel use efficiency, the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere by the transport sector has been increasing in different Mexican cities. In generating mitigation strategies, modeling scenarios of decreased equivalent carbon dioxide, CO₂e emissions, may be useful as an evaluation tool. In this study, the aim was to model a trend scenario and a scenario, including improvements with a projection to the year 2039 on one of the main urban roads of the border city of Mexicali, Mexico. In order to create a dynamic emission model of GHG, including emission factors, the main variables for the simulation were vehicle volume, travels, motor performance, and fuel consumption. These last two parameters were the most important for vehicular emissions estimations and for the projection of them in this period. As a result of the projections, CO₂e was observed to increase in a trend scenario, while modeled improvement actions resulted in emission reductions of up to 5%. The model showed that the key variable to achieve this reduction is vehicle engine performance (Pf), whose increase factor was 1.1% per year. Replicating this methodology to evaluate and mitigate the GHG emissions on different city roads or in other cities, can be a contribution for the urban designers, authorities, and involved institutions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Environmental Sciences)

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10 pages, 542 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Effect of Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum L.) Fortification, Rich in Dietary Fibre and Antioxidants, on Structure and Physicochemical Properties of Biscuits

by Magdalena Krystyjan, Dorota Gumul and Greta Adamczyk

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12501; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312501 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2549

Abstract

In the present study, an attempt was made to enrich cookies with ground seeds of milk thistle (Silybum marianum L.) and to determine the effect of this addition on the quality of cookies. The content of nutrients, fibre, and calorific value, as [...] Read more.

In the present study, an attempt was made to enrich cookies with ground seeds of milk thistle (Silybum marianum L.) and to determine the effect of this addition on the quality of cookies. The content of nutrients, fibre, and calorific value, as well as, texture, spreadability factor, volume, colour and sensory parameters were tested. The biscuits were characterized by lower caloric value, hardness and volume, but higher spreadability. The cookies with 5% of milk thistle gained high consumer acceptance, but greater than 20% addition caused a worsening quality of the product. The biscuit fortification with ground milk thistle seeds seems to be justified, through enrichment of the products with fibre and the antioxidant compounds having health-promoting properties. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Polysaccharides: From Extraction to Applications 2nd Edition)

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13 pages, 5553 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance of Bi₂O₂CO₃ Loaded Activated Carbon for Toluene Removal in Air

by Xiaoyan Wang, Lu Chen, Changfu Li, Yongchao Xiao, Yuchen Gao, Yaochun Liu, Yuanhua Lin and Junping Ding

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12500; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312500 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1545

Abstract

Activated carbon (AC) is one of the most used air purification materials with excellent adsorption capacity for volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In this work, Bi₂O₂CO₃ (BOC) nanomaterials, as a photocatalysis component, are grown on the surface of the [...] Read more.

Activated carbon (AC) is one of the most used air purification materials with excellent adsorption capacity for volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In this work, Bi₂O₂CO₃ (BOC) nanomaterials, as a photocatalysis component, are grown on the surface of the AC to construct BOC/AC composites. The as-synthesized composites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and N₂ adsorption/desorption measurements. The results demonstrate that flower-like BOC can be grown in situ on the surface of AC. The photocatalytic properties for the removal of gaseous toluene (50.0 ppm) in air over the BOC/AC composites were investigated under simulated sunlight illumination. The results show that the BOC/AC photocatalyst can effectively degrade toluene to CO₂ and H₂O, with more than 90% degradation in 3 h. The excellent photocatalytic performance of the BOC/AC composite catalyst can be ascribed to the synergistic effect of the adsorption ability of AC and photocatalytic activity of both BOC nanosheets and AC. This work may provide useful guidance for indoor air purification, particularly for harmful trace gases such as VOCs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic New Research on Detection and Removal of Emerging Pollutants)

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18 pages, 4147 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Climate-Optimised Intermediate Stop Operations: Mitigation Potential and Differences from Fuel-Optimised Configuration

by Zarah Lea Zengerling, Florian Linke, Christian Martin Weder and Katrin Dahlmann

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12499; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312499 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1952

Abstract

Saving fuel by splitting a flight mission with an intermediate stop for refuelling is described by the concept of intermediate stop operations. This can also be beneficial to the climate impact of aviation, if the flight level and intermediate stop airport are selected [...] Read more.

Saving fuel by splitting a flight mission with an intermediate stop for refuelling is described by the concept of intermediate stop operations. This can also be beneficial to the climate impact of aviation, if the flight level and intermediate stop airport are selected accordingly. This study aims to estimate the mitigation potential of an implementation of climate-optimised intermediate stop operations for European long-haul flights and compare it to fuel-optimal operations. For this purpose, fuel consumption and emissions are simulated along four-dimensional trajectories for the selected annual flight plan, and their average temperature response is calculated. A comparison between the reference case and climate-optimised as well as fuel-optimised scenarios shows a significant climate mitigation potential and reveals a shift of trajectories to lower latitudes and altitudes. However, increased flight times and fuel consumption limit implementation from stakeholders’ perspectives. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Impact of Aviation)

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18 pages, 7728 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Settlement and Stress Characteristics of the Ground in the Project of a Double-Line Tunnel Undercrossing an Airport Runway in a Sandy Cobble Region

by Xuwei Zhao, Jia Li, Wei Liu and Wenge Qiu

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12498; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312498 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1996

Abstract

The engineering technology of undercrossing an airport flight area is relatively mature; however, the use of shield tunnels crossing the operating airport flight area in high liquidity sandy cobble stratum has rarely been reported. To discuss the feasibility of a double-line shield tunnel [...] Read more.

The engineering technology of undercrossing an airport flight area is relatively mature; however, the use of shield tunnels crossing the operating airport flight area in high liquidity sandy cobble stratum has rarely been reported. To discuss the feasibility of a double-line shield tunnel undercrossing the airport flight area in a sandy cobble region. Based on the case of the Chengdu Metro Line 10 that undercrosses the Shuang-Liu Airport, which is located in sandy cobble region, the deformation and stress laws of airport runway pavement structures were investigated via a three-dimensional numerical model. Stratum displacement, ground settlement and pavement tensile stress under different tunnel depths were analysed. Then, the pavement tensile stress was taken as the safety evaluation index and the vulnerable area of the pavement structure was proposed. The results show that after excavation of the double-line tunnel, the maximum ground surface settlement occurred above the tunnel centreline and the ground settlement curves presented a V-type settlement trough instead of a W-type. The existence of a runway greatly limited the deformation of the surrounding soil; with increasing depth, the effect degree of the runway pavement on the soil settlement decreased. The most unfavourable region of the runway pavement structure under the influence of tunnel excavation was found. With increasing burial depth, the maximum settlement of the surface centre point decreased continuously. It is recommended that the tunnel burial depth not exceed 23.5 m in this project. According to the displacement and stress control limitation of the airport pavement, it can be judged that the shield construction method meets the structural stability requirements of the pavement. The calculated results provide a reference for the shield tunnel construction in the same geological condition areas. Full article

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19 pages, 6494 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Enhanced Impedance Measurement to Predict Electromagnetic Interference Attenuation Provided by EMI Filters in Systems with AC/DC Converters

by Lu Wan, Simone Negri, Giordano Spadacini, Flavia Grassi and Sergio Amedeo Pignari

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12497; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312497 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2662

Abstract

Due to the widespread integration of renewable energy sources connected to AC and DC power systems by means of power electronics converters, electromagnetic noise propagates along lines, and metallic earth-return structures. EMI filters are commonly used to mitigate the common mode and differential [...] Read more.

Due to the widespread integration of renewable energy sources connected to AC and DC power systems by means of power electronics converters, electromagnetic noise propagates along lines, and metallic earth-return structures. EMI filters are commonly used to mitigate the common mode and differential mode noise at the interface of distribution lines, and their suppression characteristics are usually assessed in standard test setups, the impedances of which are, however, scarcely representative of real-world applications. In this paper, an online, inductively coupled impedance measurement method is proposed. A sensitivity analysis to highlight the benefits of the proposed setup and experimental verification is performed. The proposed method enables non-intrusive impedance measurement in energized systems, including power converters. These measures, in turn, allow the evaluation of modal insertion losses of EMI filters in real-world operating conditions. The three-phase example considered in this study shows significant deviations from manufacturer specifications, thus justifying the need for more advanced estimation techniques. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue AC/DC Interferences and Transient Analysis in Overhead Transmission Lines and Earth-Return Metallic Structures)

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16 pages, 4933 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Monthly Precipitation over Northern Middle Atlas, Eastern Morocco: Homogenization and Trends

by Rachid Addou, Mohamed Hanchane, Khalid Obda, Nir Y. Krakauer, Bouchta El Khazzan, Ridouane Kessabi and Hassan Achiban

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12496; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312496 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2419

Abstract

The lack of a complete and reliable data series often represents the main difficulty in carrying out climate studies. Diverse causes, such as human and instrumental errors, false and incomplete records, and the use of obsolete equipment in some meteorological stations, give rise [...] Read more.

The lack of a complete and reliable data series often represents the main difficulty in carrying out climate studies. Diverse causes, such as human and instrumental errors, false and incomplete records, and the use of obsolete equipment in some meteorological stations, give rise to inhomogeneities that do not represent climatic reality. This work in the northern part of the Moroccan Middle Atlas used 22 meteorological stations with sometimes-incomplete monthly precipitation data from 1970 to 2019. The homogenization and estimation of the missing data were carried out with the R software package Climatol version 3.1.1. The trends in the series were quantified by the Mann–Kendall nonparametric test. The results obtained show a low root mean square error (RMSE), between the original and homogenized data, of between 0.5 and 38.7 mm per month, with an average of 8.5 mm. Rainfall trends for the months of December through June are generally downward. These negative trends are significantly stronger in the southern and eastern parts of the study area, especially during the month of April (the wettest month). On the other hand, July shows positive trends, with 71% of stations having an increasing precipitation tendency, although only five (or 1/3) of these are statistically significant. From August to November, generally positive trends were also observed. For these months, the percentage of series with a positive and significant trend varied between 55 and 77%. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change on Water Resource)

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39 pages, 6607 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Comparative Study of the Effects of Earthquakes in Different Countries on Target Displacement in Mid-Rise Regular RC Structures

by Ercan Işık, Marijana Hadzima-Nyarko, Hüseyin Bilgin, Naida Ademović, Aydın Büyüksaraç, Ehsan Harirchian, Borko Bulajić, Hayri Baytan Özmen and Seyed Ehsan Aghakouchaki Hosseini

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12495; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312495 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4291

Abstract

Data from past earthquakes is an important tool to reveal the impact of future earthquakes on engineering structures, especially in earthquake-prone regions. These data are important indicators for revealing the seismic loading effects that structures will be exposed to in future earthquakes. Five [...] Read more.

Data from past earthquakes is an important tool to reveal the impact of future earthquakes on engineering structures, especially in earthquake-prone regions. These data are important indicators for revealing the seismic loading effects that structures will be exposed to in future earthquakes. Five different earthquakes from six countries with high seismic risk were selected and were within the scope of this study. The measured peak ground acceleration (PGA) for each earthquake was compared with the suggested PGA for the respective region. Structural analyzes were performed for a reinforced-concrete (RC) building model with four different variables, including the number of storeys, local soil types, building importance class and concrete class. Target displacements specified in the Eurocode-8 were obtained for both the suggested and measured PGA values for each earthquake. The main goal of this study is to reveal whether the proposed and measured PGA values are adequately represented in different countries. We tried to reveal whether the seismic risk was taken into account at a sufficient level. In addition, target displacements have been obtained separately in order to demonstrate whether the measured and suggested PGA values for these countries are adequately represented in structural analysis and evaluations. It was concluded that both seismic risk and target displacements were adequately represented for some earthquakes, while not adequately represented for others. Comments were made about the existing building stock of the countries considering the obtained results. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Natural-Hazards Risk Assessment for Disaster Mitigation)

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19 pages, 8110 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on the Effects of Two-Sided Ground Surcharge/Unloading on Existing Shield Tunnels

by Gang Wei, Pengfei Xiang, Haibo Jiang, Di Sun, Fengjun Xu and Huifang Guo

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12494; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312494 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1517

Abstract

For the effect of two-sided sudden surcharge/unloading on existing shield tunnels, an indoor dimensional reduction model test was conducted at a scale of 1:15.5, measuring the ground settlement, lateral convergence of the shield tunnel, and additional surrounding pressure after changing the location and [...] Read more.

For the effect of two-sided sudden surcharge/unloading on existing shield tunnels, an indoor dimensional reduction model test was conducted at a scale of 1:15.5, measuring the ground settlement, lateral convergence of the shield tunnel, and additional surrounding pressure after changing the location and soil quality of surcharge/unloading, and an analysis was carried out. The results showed that the location of the maximum transverse convergence value of the existing shield tunnel is related to the position of the surcharge; when surcharging on both sides of the tunnel, as the position of the left surcharge’s offset increases from 0.2 m to 0.6 m, the transverse convergence value of the tunnel first increases and then becomes smaller; the ground settlement value of each measurement point in the unloading process also increases and then becomes smaller. The settlement value of each measurement point first increases and then decreases, and the alleviation effect of unloading on ground settlement is not obvious; after surcharge on one side of the tunnel, if the other side continues to surcharge, it will lead to a continued increase in the surrounding pressure. Unloading can effectively reduce the additional surrounding pressure of the tunnel, but the additional surrounding pressure cannot be immediately and completely eliminated; compared with dry sand, the maximum value of lateral convergence of the tunnel in wet sand is significantly decreased, and the peak value of ground settlement on both sides is not significant; when both sides are surcharged to 172 kg, the additional soil pressure of the tunnel’s subsoil shows three peaks, one of which occurs at measurement point 4 at the bottom of the tunnel, which may be due to the occurrence of stress concentration at the location. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Civil Engineering)

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17 pages, 2564 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Human Centred Design Considerations for the Development of Sustainable Public Transportation in Malaysia

by Jo Kuys, Gavin Melles, Abdullah Al Mahmud, Scott Thompson-Whiteside and Blair Kuys

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12493; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312493 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3780

Abstract

The growing trend of private car ownership in Malaysia is increasing traffic congestion. As part of a solution, the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) chose to develop technologies for an electric bus system in Kuala Lumpur and initiated a project to design and engineer [...] Read more.

The growing trend of private car ownership in Malaysia is increasing traffic congestion. As part of a solution, the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) chose to develop technologies for an electric bus system in Kuala Lumpur and initiated a project to design and engineer an electric bus system with a focus on Human Centred Design (HCD) principles. In order to fulfil this a total of 28-hours of user observation was conducted in Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia. Alongside this field research an online questionnaire study of future users (n = 102, Age 21–35) was conducted to further substantiate findings. As a result, we address the need for HCD considerations to be included in sustainable public transport systems in Malaysia. User observation revealed six key issues associated with the daily routine of a commuter which were then used to inform the questionnaire survey. Alarmingly, the survey revealed that over 60 per cent of respondents had never used the bus system in Kuala Lumpur stating problems such as frequency, comfort, driver attitude and bus shelter access. This provided a necessary platform for improvement resulting in eight key recommendations ranked by importance with the aim to increase bus usage in Malaysia. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart, Safe and Reliable Transportation Systems)

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Graphical abstract

13 pages, 1469 KiB

Open AccessArticle

STALITA: Innovative Platform for Bank Transactions Analysis

by David Jesenko, Štefan Kohek, Borut Žalik, Matej Brumen, Domen Kavran, Niko Lukač, Andrej Živec and Aleksander Pur

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12492; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312492 - 6 Dec 2022

Viewed by 2343

Abstract

Acts of fraud have become much more prevalent in the financial industry with the rise of technology and the continued economic growth in modern society. Fraudsters are evolving their approaches continuously to exploit the vulnerabilities of the current prevention measures in place, many [...] Read more.

Acts of fraud have become much more prevalent in the financial industry with the rise of technology and the continued economic growth in modern society. Fraudsters are evolving their approaches continuously to exploit the vulnerabilities of the current prevention measures in place, many of whom are targeting the financial sector. To overcome and investigate financial frauds, this paper presents STALITA, which is an innovative platform for the analysis of bank transactions. STALITA enables graph-based data analysis using a powerful Neo4j graph database and the Cypher query language. Additionally, a diversity of other supporting tools, such as support for heterogeneous data sources, force-based graph visualisation, pivot tables, and time charts, enable in-depth investigation of the available data. In the Results section, we present the usability of the platform through real-world case scenarios. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fraud Detection or Prevention Technologies)

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20 pages, 5401 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Flexural Behavior of One-Way Slab Reinforced with Grid-Type Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics of Various Geometric and Physical Properties

by Kyung-Min Kim and Ju-Hyun Cheon

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12491; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312491 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1492

Abstract

Textile-reinforced concrete (TRC) has many advantages, including corrosion resistance, but TRC is a novel composite material and there is limited experimental research on the flexural behavior of TRC members. This paper aims to experimentally evaluate the flexural behavior of TRC slabs reinforced with [...] Read more.

Textile-reinforced concrete (TRC) has many advantages, including corrosion resistance, but TRC is a novel composite material and there is limited experimental research on the flexural behavior of TRC members. This paper aims to experimentally evaluate the flexural behavior of TRC slabs reinforced with nine types of grid-type carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) (hereafter referred to as carbon grid) with varying cross-sectional areas, spacings, tensile strengths, and elastic moduli of longitudinal strands. The experimental results show that the maximum load tends to be higher in specimens reinforced with carbon grids with small cross-sectional areas and spacings of strands but high tensile strength. Cross-sectional area and spacing were also revealed to influence the crack-formation stage behavior. On the other hand, stiffness decreased to approximately 8% or lower than the initial stiffness, with cracking in all carbon grid-reinforced specimens; post-peak behavior also exhibited dependency on tensile stress acting on the carbon grids under the maximum load, based on 80% of the tensile strength. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances on Structural Engineering, Volume III)

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14 pages, 1495 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Influence of Subcritical Water Extraction Parameters on the Chemical Composition and Antioxidant Activity of Walnut (Juglans regia L.) Bark Extracts

by Piotr Kamiński, Katarzyna Tyśkiewicz, Zygmunt Fekner, Marcin Gruba and Zbigniew Kobus

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12490; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312490 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1527

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of subcritical water extraction parameters on the polyphenols and flavonoids content in extracts made of the bark of walnut (Juglans regia L.), as well as antioxidant activity measured using the DPPH and FRAP methods. The total polyphenols [...] Read more.

This study investigated the impact of subcritical water extraction parameters on the polyphenols and flavonoids content in extracts made of the bark of walnut (Juglans regia L.), as well as antioxidant activity measured using the DPPH and FRAP methods. The total polyphenols (TPC) and flavonoid (TFC) were determined using the spectrophotometric (UV-Vis) method. The response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to optimize the yield of bioactive compounds. On the basis of developed model, the highest polyphenols (192.2 mg (GAE)/100 g (dry mass)) (GAE—gallic acid equivalent), flavonoids (88.3 mg(QE)/100 g (dry mass)) (QE—quercetin equivalent) contents and antioxidant activity (21.3 × 10⁻⁶ MTE/1 g (dry mass)) (TE-Trolox equivalent) were obtained under the following extraction conditions: temperature 131.6 °C, raw material fraction size 0.9 mm and process time 10 min. The greatest impact on the extraction yield was observed in the case of the temperature, whereas the raw material fraction size and the process time had a secondary impact. Obtained results indicate that a smaller particle size and a shorter time may improve the process; however, a reduction in particle size can be challenging for a pressure cell filtration system and consequently increase the cost of the raw material pretreatment process. With the reduction in the process time, a lower cost of extract production can be achieved. This study confirmed the importance of a proper selection of extraction parameters to obtain the demanded extract composition. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Agricultural Science and Technology)

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13 pages, 607 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Fresher Experience Plays a More Important Role in Prioritized Experience Replay

by Jue Ma, Dejun Ning, Chengyi Zhang and Shipeng Liu

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12489; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312489 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2054

Abstract

Prioritized experience replay (PER) is an important technique in deep reinforcement learning (DRL). It improves the sampling efficiency of data in various DRL algorithms and achieves great performance. PER uses temporal difference error (TD-error) to measure the value of experiences and adjusts the [...] Read more.

Prioritized experience replay (PER) is an important technique in deep reinforcement learning (DRL). It improves the sampling efficiency of data in various DRL algorithms and achieves great performance. PER uses temporal difference error (TD-error) to measure the value of experiences and adjusts the sampling probability of experiences. Although PER can sample valuable experiences according to the TD-error, freshness is also an important character of experiences. It implicitly reflects the potential value of experiences. Fresh experiences are produced by virtue of the current networks and they are more valuable for updating the current network parameters than the past. The sampling of fresh experiences to train the neural networks can increase the learning speed of the agent, but few algorithms can perform this job efficiently. To solve this issue, a novel experience replay method is proposed in this paper. We first define that the experience freshness is negatively correlated with the number of replays. A new hyper-parameter, the freshness discounted factor

μ

, is introduced in PER to measure the experience freshness. Further, a novel experience replacement strategy in the replay buffer is proposed to increase the experience replacement efficiency. In our method, the sampling probability of fresh experiences is increased by raising its priority properly. So the algorithm is more likely to choose fresh experiences to train the neural networks during the learning process. We evaluated this method in both discrete control tasks and continuous control tasks via OpenAI Gym. The experimental results show that our method achieves better performance in both modes of operation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Deep Reinforcement Learning for Robots and Agents)

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14 pages, 2062 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Configuration Design and Kinematic Performance Analysis of a Novel Spatial 8R Hip Joint Rehabilitation Mechanism

by Zengyu Jia, Ruiqin Li, Yuan Wang, Juan Liu and Hailong Liang

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12488; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312488 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1520

Abstract

Lower limb movement disorders caused by various reasons are an important public health problem currently facing the world. To solve this problem, a novel spatial 8R mechanism with a stable structure and motion performance for human hip joint rehabilitation is proposed. Since the [...] Read more.

Lower limb movement disorders caused by various reasons are an important public health problem currently facing the world. To solve this problem, a novel spatial 8R mechanism with a stable structure and motion performance for human hip joint rehabilitation is proposed. Since the human body mainly performs coronal and sagittal plane movements, a spatial 8R mechanism with 2-DOF was designed to assist patients in rehabilitation training considering their actual circumstances. Based on the analysis of the Jacobian matrix and its condition number, the kinematics model and kinematics equation of the 8R mechanism in space were established. The mechanism has complete isotropic kinematics in single abduction and adduction, forward flexion and backward extension, and good dexterity and operability within the scope of the workspace; the correctness of the kinematics equation of the spatial 8R mechanism was verified by using the ADAMS software and theoretical calculation, and the regular variations of the mechanism’s movement in one period under different motions were obtained. We concluded that the spatial 8R mechanism has a stable performance and can move smoothly. Full article

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20 pages, 5189 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Predicting the Mine Friction Coefficient Using the GSCV-RF Hybrid Approach

by Chenyang Guo, Xiaodong Wang, Dexing He, Jie Liu, Hongkun Li, Mengjiao Jiang and Yu Zhang

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12487; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312487 - 6 Dec 2022

Viewed by 1346

Abstract

The safety and reliability of a ventilation system relies on an accurate friction resistance coefficient (α), but obtaining α requires a great deal of tedious measurement work in order to determine the result, and many erroneous data are obtained. Therefore, it is vital [...] Read more.

The safety and reliability of a ventilation system relies on an accurate friction resistance coefficient (α), but obtaining α requires a great deal of tedious measurement work in order to determine the result, and many erroneous data are obtained. Therefore, it is vital that α be obtained quickly and accurately for the ventilation system design. In this study, a passive and active support indicator system was constructed for the prediction of α. An RF model, GSCV-RF model and BP model were constructed using the RF algorithm, GSCV algorithm and BP neural network, respectively, for α prediction. In the GSCV-RF and BP models, 160 samples complied with the prediction indicator system and were used to construct a prediction dataset and, this dataset was divided into a training set and a test set. The prediction results were based on the quantitative evaluation models of MAE, RMSE and R². The results show that, among the three models, the GSCV-RF model’s prediction result for α was the best, the RF model performed well and the BP model performed worst. In the prediction for all the datasets obtained by GSCV-RF model, all the values of MAE and RMSE were less than 0.5, the values of R² were more than 0.85 and the value of R² of the passive and active support test sets were 0.8845 and 0.9294, respectively. This proved that the GSCV-RF model can offer a more accurate α and aid in the reasonable design and the safe operation of a ventilation system. Full article

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15 pages, 7414 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Controlled Muscle Activation in a Unilateral Vocal Fold Polyp Setting on Vocal Fold Vibration

by Mingjun Ji, Boquan Liu, Jack Jiang, Matthew R. Hoffman, Jinwei Lan and Jin Fang

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12486; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312486 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1681

Abstract

Unilateral vocal fold polyps can lead to incomplete glottal closure and irregular vocal fold vibration. Depending on polyp size and resulting dysphonia severity, voice therapy or surgery may be recommended. As part of voice therapy, patients may learn how to optimize intrinsic and [...] Read more.

Unilateral vocal fold polyps can lead to incomplete glottal closure and irregular vocal fold vibration. Depending on polyp size and resulting dysphonia severity, voice therapy or surgery may be recommended. As part of voice therapy, patients may learn how to optimize intrinsic and extrinsic laryngeal muscle use to mitigate benign lesion effects, increase vocal efficiency, and improve voice quality. In this study, we used a low-dimensional mass model with a simulated unilateral vocal fold polyp and varied intra-laryngeal muscle activity to simulate vocal fold vibration across varied conditions. Differing muscle activation has different effects on frequency, periodicity, and intensity. Accordingly, learning how to optimize muscle activity in a unilateral polyp setting may help patients achieve the best possible periodic and most efficiently produced voice in the context of abnormal vocal fold morphology. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modelling, Simulation and Data Analysis in Acoustical Problems–Volume 3)

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12 pages, 709 KiB

Open AccessArticle

New Statistical Results of Partial Sums of Ordered Gamma-Distributed RVs for Performance Evaluation of Wireless Communication Systems

by Seyeong Choi, Duckdong Hwang and Sung Sik Nam

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12485; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312485 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1488

Abstract

With the increase in the complexity of communication systems, order statistics have become increasingly significant in performance evaluation, especially for advanced diversity techniques over fading channels. However, existing analytical approaches are not useful owing to their high complexity. In this paper, we present [...] Read more.

With the increase in the complexity of communication systems, order statistics have become increasingly significant in performance evaluation, especially for advanced diversity techniques over fading channels. However, existing analytical approaches are not useful owing to their high complexity. In this paper, we present novel and insightful statistical results of the partial sums of ordered Gamma-distributed random variables. By adopting a unified analytical framework to obtain the desired joint probability density function from the joint moment-generating function, we redefine and derive the common key functions specialized for the Gamma distribution. The derived formula is presented in the form of either general closed-form expressions or at least a single integral form instead of the originally complicated multiple-integral form. In terms of a feasible application of our results, we present a complete and general closed-form analysis of the statistics of the combined received signal-to-noise ratio of the distributed cyclic delay diversity with the cyclic prefix single-carrier scheme. We also show that our analytical results can provide potential mathematical solutions for other wireless communication systems. Selected numerical examples are presented and discussed to illustrate the effectiveness of the applied approach and related results. All the derived analytical results were compared and verified by using Monte Carlo simulations to verify the accuracy of our analysis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering)

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22 pages, 6483 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Transmission Removal from a Single Glass Scene and Its Application in Photographer Identification

by Zhen Li, Heng Yao, Ran Shi, Tong Qiao and Chuan Qin

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12484; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312484 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1339

Abstract

In daily life, when taking photos of scenes containing glass, the images of the dominant transmission layer and the weak reflection layer are often blended, which are difficult to be uncoupled. Meanwhile, because the reflection layer contains sufficient important information about the surrounding [...] Read more.

In daily life, when taking photos of scenes containing glass, the images of the dominant transmission layer and the weak reflection layer are often blended, which are difficult to be uncoupled. Meanwhile, because the reflection layer contains sufficient important information about the surrounding scene and the photographer, the problem of recovering the weak reflection layer from the mixture image is of importance in surveillance investigations. However, most of the current studies mainly focus on extracting the transmission layer while often ignoring the merit of the reflection layer. To fill that gap, in this paper, we propose a network framework that aims to accomplish two tasks: (1) for general scenes, we attempt to recover reflection layer images that are as close as possible to the ground truth ones, and (2) for scenes containing portraits, we recover the basic contour information of the reflection layer while improving the defects of dim portraits in the reflection layer. Through analyzing the performance exhibited by different levels of feature maps, we present the first transmission removal network based on an image-to-image translation architecture incorporating residual structures. The quality of generated reflection layer images is improved via tailored content and style constraints. We also use the patch generative adversarial network to increase the discriminator’s ability to perceive the reflection components in the generated images. Meanwhile, the related information such as edge and color distribution of transmission layer in the mixture image is used to assist the overall reflection layer recovery. In the large-scale experiments, our proposed model outperforms reflection removal-based SOTAs by more than 5.356 dB in PSNR, 0.116 in SSIM, and 0.057 in LPIPS. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multimedia Smart Security)

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17 pages, 1801 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Influence of Paraprobiotics-Containing Moisturizer on Skin Hydration and Microbiome: A Preliminary Study

by Chaiyavat Chaiyasut, Bhagavathi Sundaram Sivamaruthi, Chawin Tansrisook, Sartjin Peerajan, Khontaros Chaiyasut and Muruganantham Bharathi

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12483; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312483 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2674

Abstract

The skin is a physical barrier to protect the human body and is rich in microbial niches. Skin is damaged due to several factors, including poor nutrition and exposure to harsh environments resulting in dryness, acidic skin, and infections. Studies have shown that [...] Read more.

The skin is a physical barrier to protect the human body and is rich in microbial niches. Skin is damaged due to several factors, including poor nutrition and exposure to harsh environments resulting in dryness, acidic skin, and infections. Studies have shown that probiotics and their derivatives could protect the skin. Skin care products with probiotic components are the latest approach to developing cosmetic products with health benefits. The current study aimed to examine the moisturizing effect of paraprobiotics (moist heat-inactivated Bifidobacterium lactis (B. lactis), Lactobacillus plantarum (L. plantarum))-containing moisturizer (APM) and its influences on the skin microbiome of healthy subjects. Fifty healthy subjects were randomly divided into treatment (n = 25) and control (n = 25) groups. The APM or placebo (without paraprobiotics; PM) was applied on the skin of the right forehand of subjects, and the changes in transepidermal water loss (TEWL) and stratum corneum moisture (SCM) levels every 1 h for 4 h and after 4 weeks of treatment were observed. Skin swab samples were collected before and after the treatments (4 weeks) and subjected to microbiome analysis through next-generation sequencing technology. The results indicated that the APM treatment significantly reduced the TEWL and increased the SCM values compared to the respective baseline values and controls. The sequencing study showed significant changes in Cutibacterium (p = 0.0431), Corynebacterium (p = 0.0431), and Acinetobacter (p = 0.0431) in the treatment group. The changes in phylum were not statistically significant. Still, based on the relative frequency, the abundance of phylum Proteobacteria and Firmicutes and Cyanobacterial was decreased, and the abundance of Planctomycetes, Chloroflexi, Verrucomicrobia, and Gemmatimonadetes was increased after treatment. Additionally, the APM treatment suppressed C. tuberculostearicum in healthy subjects. The results suggested that APM could improve skin hydration and skin-beneficial microbial composition. The study has limitations such as a small sample size and treatment period, so further extensive studies are required to confirm the findings of the current study, which could aid in developing paraprobiotics-based skin care formulations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Skin Care and Cosmetics: Chemical Analysis and Dermatology)

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22 pages, 6781 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An On-Site-Based Opportunistic Routing Protocol for Scalable and Energy-Efficient Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

by Rongxin Zhu, Xiwen Huang, Xiangdang Huang, Deshun Li and Qiuling Yang

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12482; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312482 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1725

Abstract

With the advancements in wireless sensor networks and the Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT), underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs) have attracted much attention, which has also been widely used in marine engineering exploration and disaster prevention. However, UASNs still face many challenges, including [...] Read more.

With the advancements in wireless sensor networks and the Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT), underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs) have attracted much attention, which has also been widely used in marine engineering exploration and disaster prevention. However, UASNs still face many challenges, including high propagation latency, limited bandwidth, high energy consumption, and unreliable transmission, influencing the good quality of service (QoS). In this paper, we propose a routing protocol based on the on-site architecture (SROA) for UASNs to improve network scalability and energy efficiency. The on-site architecture adopted by SROA is different from most architectures in that the data center is deployed underwater, which makes the sink nodes closer to the data source. A clustering method is introduced in SROA, which makes the network adapt to the changes in the network scale and avoid single-point failure. Moreover, the Q-learning algorithm is applied to seek optimal routing policies, in which the characteristics of underwater acoustic communication such as residual energy, end-to-end delay, and link quality are considered jointly when constructing the reward function. Furthermore, the reduction of packet retransmissions and collisions is advocated using a waiting mechanism developed from opportunistic routing (OR). The SROA realizes opportunistic routing to choose candidate nodes and coordinate packet forwarding among candidate nodes. The scalability of the proposed routing protocols is also analyzed by varying the network size and transmission range. According to the evaluation results, with the network scale ranging from 100 to 500, the SROA outperforms the existing routing protocols, extensively decreasing energy consumption and end-to-end delay. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Wireless Sensor Networks)

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22 pages, 9804 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Modelling of a Resonant Charging Circuit for a Solid-State Marx Generator

by Martin Sack, Johannes Ruf, Dennis Herzog and Georg Müller

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12481; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312481 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3574

Abstract

For the pulsed electric field treatment of plant material on an industrial scale, Marx-type pulse modulators are used as a pulse source. The combination of a conventional Marx generator design equipped with solid-state switches with the concept of resonant charging via current-compensated chokes [...] Read more.

For the pulsed electric field treatment of plant material on an industrial scale, Marx-type pulse modulators are used as a pulse source. The combination of a conventional Marx generator design equipped with solid-state switches with the concept of resonant charging via current-compensated chokes enables the set-up of a Marx generator having only one active semiconductor switch per stage. Thereby, the pulse shape is defined by the passive components of the RLC-pulse circuit. In the course of the design of such a resonant charging circuit, common-mode current components through the current-compensated chokes need to be considered. Moreover, especially for a generator having its ground connection at its centre, induced voltages versus ground need to be addressed. Therefore, an investigation based on circuit simulations has been made. The simulations showed that the common-mode current components decay to zero just after the resonant charging process and cause a voltage transient at the terminal of the power supply, which needs to be floating versus ground. In order to reduce the amplitude of this transient, the effects of adding a damping resistor have been studied. However, adding this resistor may involve an increase in the common-mode current components. Moreover, the common-mode current components of different chokes are influenced by the on-time of the switches. In the paper, based on the simulation results, different operation modes with and without the damping resistor are discussed. Thereby, the on-time of the switches has been varied. Selected simulation results have been verified by means of measurements. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Solid-State Pulsed Power Applications)

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14 pages, 3730 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Modified Hand–Eye Calibration Using Dual Quaternions

by Guozhi Li, Shuizhong Zou, Shuxue Din and Bin Qi

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12480; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312480 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2146

Abstract

This paper presents a modified model for hand–eye calibration based on dual quaternion algebra. By using dual quaternions to represent the rotations and translations of a rigid body simultaneously in the task space, the formulation is elegant for the analysis of the hand–eye [...] Read more.

This paper presents a modified model for hand–eye calibration based on dual quaternion algebra. By using dual quaternions to represent the rotations and translations of a rigid body simultaneously in the task space, the formulation is elegant for the analysis of the hand–eye equation. The hand–eye transformation derived in this study is represented in a compact manner, which uses a combination of the dual part and the real part of the dual quaternion. Although the hand–eye equation can be solved by using six elements of a dual quaternion without using its scalar parts, the scaler numbers in both the real and dual parts of a dual quaternion contain part of the pose information. The originality is based on the derivation of the construct of the identification algorithm of external parameters of the camera by using all eight elements of a dual quaternion. Then, the data transformation between the cameras of the dual-arm hand–eye robot system is presented. The corresponding results demonstrate that the proposed hand–eye calibration algorithm can process measurement data with noise and can also improve the identification accuracy to verify its efficiency. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Robotics and Automation)

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36 pages, 2322 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Controller-Driven Approach for Opportunistic Networking

by MariaCarmen de Toro, Carlos Borrego and Sergi Robles

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12479; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312479 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1432

Abstract

Opportunistic networks (OppNets) leverage opportunistic contacts to flow data across an infrastructure-free network. As of yet, OppNets’ performance depends on applying the most suitable forwarding strategy based on the OppNet typology. On the other hand, software-defined networking (SDN) is a paradigm for wired [...] Read more.

Opportunistic networks (OppNets) leverage opportunistic contacts to flow data across an infrastructure-free network. As of yet, OppNets’ performance depends on applying the most suitable forwarding strategy based on the OppNet typology. On the other hand, software-defined networking (SDN) is a paradigm for wired networks that decouples the control and data planes. The control plane oversees the network to configure the data plane optimally. Our proposal uses SDN-like controllers to build a partial overview of the opportunistic network. The forwarding strategy uses this context information to achieve better network performance. As a use case of our proposal, in the context of an OppNet quota-based forwarding algorithm, we present a controller-driven architecture to tackle the congestion problem. Particularly, the controller-driven architecture uses the context information on the congestion of the network to dynamically determine the message replication limit used by the forwarding algorithm. A simulation based on real and synthetic mobility traces shows that using context information provided by the controller to configure the forwarding protocol increments the delivery ratio and keeps a good latency average and a low overhead compared with the baseline forwarding protocols based on message replication. These results strengthen the benefits of using supervised context information in the forwarding strategy in OppNets. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancements in Wireless Communications, Networks and Signal Processing)

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14 pages, 691 KiB

Open AccessArticle

FNNS: An Effective Feedforward Neural Network Scheme with Random Weights for Processing Large-Scale Datasets

by Zhao Zhang, Feng Feng and Tingting Huang

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12478; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312478 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4445

Abstract

The size of datasets is growing exponentially as information technology advances, and it is becoming more and more crucial to provide efficient learning algorithms for neural networks to handle massive amounts of data. Due to their potential for handling huge datasets, feed-forward neural [...] Read more.

The size of datasets is growing exponentially as information technology advances, and it is becoming more and more crucial to provide efficient learning algorithms for neural networks to handle massive amounts of data. Due to their potential for handling huge datasets, feed-forward neural networks with random weights (FNNRWs) have drawn a lot of attention. In this paper, we introduced an efficient feed-forward neural network scheme (FNNS) for processing massive datasets with random weights. The FNNS divides large-scale data into subsets of the same size, and each subset derives the corresponding submodel. According to the activation function, the optimal range of input weights and biases is calculated. The input weight and biases are randomly generated in this range, and the iterative scheme is used to evaluate the output weight. The MNIST dataset was used as the basis for experiments. The experimental results demonstrate that the algorithm has a promising future in processing massive datasets. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intelligent Control Using Machine Learning)

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17 pages, 2342 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Transfer-Learning-Based Opinion Mining for New-Product Portfolio Configuration over the Case-Based Reasoning Cycle

by Shui Ming Li and Carman Ka Man Lee

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12477; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312477 - 6 Dec 2022

Viewed by 1454

Abstract

Due to the ever-changing business environment, enterprises are facing unprecedented challenges in their new-product development (NPD) processes, while the success and survival of NPD projects have become increasingly challenging in recent years. Thus, most enterprises are eager to revamp existing NPD processes so [...] Read more.

Due to the ever-changing business environment, enterprises are facing unprecedented challenges in their new-product development (NPD) processes, while the success and survival of NPD projects have become increasingly challenging in recent years. Thus, most enterprises are eager to revamp existing NPD processes so as to enhance the likelihood of new products succeeding in the market. In addition to the determination of sustainable new-product ideas and designs, new-product portfolio management (NPPM) is an active research area for allocating adequate resources to boost project development, while projects that perform poorly can be terminated. Since the existing new-product portfolio configuration is manually decided, this study explores the possibility of standardising NPPM, particularly the configuration mechanism, in a systematic manner. Subsequently, case-based reasoning can be applied to structure the entire NPPM process, in which past knowledge and successful cases can be used to configure new projects. Furthermore, customer feedback was analyzed using the transfer-learning-based text classification model in the case-retrieval process to balance the values of enterprises and customers. A new-product portfolio was therefore configured to facilitate NPPM under an agile–stage-gate model. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed system, a case study in a printer manufacturing company was conducted, where positive feedback and performances were found. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Artificial Intelligence in Smart Industrial Diagnostics and Manufacturing)

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21 pages, 2726 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Improved YOLOX Model and Domain Transfer Strategy for Nighttime Pedestrian and Vehicle Detection

by Kefu Yi, Kai Luo, Tuo Chen and Rongdong Hu

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12476; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312476 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2835

Abstract

Aimed at the vehicle/pedestrian visual sensing task under low-light conditions and the problems of small, dense objects and line-of-sight occlusion, a nighttime vehicle/pedestrian detection method was proposed. First, a vehicle/pedestrian detection algorithm was designed based on You Only Look Once X (YOLOX). The [...] Read more.

Aimed at the vehicle/pedestrian visual sensing task under low-light conditions and the problems of small, dense objects and line-of-sight occlusion, a nighttime vehicle/pedestrian detection method was proposed. First, a vehicle/pedestrian detection algorithm was designed based on You Only Look Once X (YOLOX). The model structure was re-parameterized and lightened, and a coordinate-based attention mechanism was introduced into the backbone network to enhance the feature extraction efficiency of vehicle/pedestrian targets. A feature-scale fusion detection branch was added to the feature pyramid, while a loss function was designed, which combines Complete Intersection Over Union (CIoU) for target localization and Varifocal Loss for confidence prediction to improve the feature extraction ability for small, dense, and low-illumination targets. In addition, in order to further improve the detection accuracy of the algorithm under low-light conditions, a training strategy based on data domain transfer was proposed, which fuses the larger-scale daylight dataset with the smaller-scale nighttime dataset after low-illumination degrading. After low-light enhancement, training and testing were performed accordingly. The experimental results show that, compared with the original YOLOX model, the improved algorithm trained by the proposed data domain transfer strategy achieved better performance, and the mean Average Precision (mAP) increased by 5.9% to 82.4%. This research provided effective technical support for autonomous driving safety at night. Full article

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22 pages, 537 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Property-Based Quality Measures in Ontology Modeling

by Anita Agárdi and László Kovács

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12475; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122312475 - 6 Dec 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1914

Abstract

The development of an appropriate ontology model is usually a hard task. One of the main issues is that ontology developers usually concentrate on classes and neglect the role of properties. This paper analyzes the role of an appropriate property set in providing [...] Read more.

The development of an appropriate ontology model is usually a hard task. One of the main issues is that ontology developers usually concentrate on classes and neglect the role of properties. This paper analyzes the role of an appropriate property set in providing multi-purpose ontology models with a high level of re-usability in different areas. In this paper, novel quality metrics related to property components are introduced and a conversion method is presented to map the base ontology into models for software development. The benefits of the proposed quality metrics and the usability of the proposed conversion methods are demonstrated by examples from the field of knowledge modeling. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Artificial Intelligence for Complex Systems: Theory and Applications)

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Appl. Sci., Volume 12, Issue 23 (December-1 2022) – 631 articles

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