Search

BioSentinel is the first biological CubeSat designed and developed for deep space. The main objectives of this NASA mission are to assess the effects of deep space radiation on biological systems and to engineer a CubeSat platform that can autonomously support and gather data from model organisms hundreds of thousands of kilometers from Earth. The articles in this special collection describe the extensive optimization of the biological payload system performed in preparation for this long-duration deep space mission. In this study, we briefly introduce BioSentinel and provide a glimpse into its technical and conceptual heritage by detailing the evolution of the science, subsystems, and capabilities of NASA's previous biological CubeSats. This introduction is not intended as an exhaustive review of CubeSat missions, but rather provides insight into the unique optimization parameters, science, and technology of those few that employ biological model systems.

The biological risks of the deep space environment must be elucidated to enable a new era of human exploration and scientific discovery beyond low earth orbit (LEO). There is a paucity of deep space biological missions that will inform us of the deleterious biological effects of prolonged exposure to the deep space environment. To safely undertake long-term missions to Mars and space habitation beyond LEO, we must first prove and optimize autonomous biosensors to query the deep space radiation environment. Such biosensors must contain organisms that can survive for extended periods with minimal life support technology and must function reliably with intermittent communication with Earth. NASA's BioSentinel mission, a nanosatellite containing the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is such a biosensor and one of the first biological missions beyond LEO in nearly half a century. It will help fill critical gaps in knowledge about the effects of uniquely composed, chronic, low-flux deep space radiation on biological systems and in particular will provide valuable insight into the DNA damage response to highly ionizing particles. Due to yeast's robustness and desiccation tolerance, it can survive for periods analogous to that of a human Mars mission. In this study, we discuss our optimization of conditions for long-term reagent storage and yeast survival under desiccation in preparation for the BioSentinel mission. We show that long-term yeast cell viability is maximized when cells are air-dried in trehalose solution and stored in a low-relative humidity and low-temperature environment and that dried yeast is sensitive to low doses of deep space-relevant ionizing radiation under these conditions. Our findings will inform the design and development of improved future long-term biological missions into deep space.

Shchetnikov et al. recently obtained the first detailed record on the paleo-environment in the Tunka rift valley in the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene. However, when dealing with archaeological data, Shchetnikov et al. (2019) have only presented their final conclusions and have not provided us with a comprehensive analysis of the assemblage itself, which is the reason provoking these comments.

Saat ini, isu penggunaan energi yang berlebihan telah mewabah di masyarakat. Penggunaan energi yang berlebihan banyak ditemukan pada lingkungan rumah tangga. Penerapan rumah yang hemat energi dapat dijadikan solusi dalam mengatasi masalah tersebut. Namun, beberapa masyarakat tidak memprioritaskan konsep tersebut. Penelitian ini dimaksudkan untuk menentukan bagaimana persepsi masyarakat mengenai kepentingan menerapkan konsep rumah hemat energi pada rumah tinggal sehari – hari dan menentukan hal – hal yang perlu diperhatikan dalam menciptakan konsep rumah hemat energi. Metode pengumpulan data dilakukan melalui kuesioner ke beberapa responden lapisan masyarakat baik itu karyawan, wiraswasta, maupun mahasiswa. Data yang telah terkumpul dianalisis menggunakan analisis kualitatif data teks. Hasil dari analisis tersebut akan menghasilkan faktor – faktor yang menjadi alasan kepentingan menerapkan konsep rumah hemat energi dan kriteria dalam penerapan rumah hemat energi.

Pollen-based vegetation, biodiversity, and biome reconstructions over the last 15,500 years from sediment core data at Mbi Crater in the Cameroon highlands (6.089273° N, 10.348549° E; 2015 m above sea level) are used to discuss the behavior of the lower edge of the Afromontane forest facing climate change. The data reveal that the post-glacial forest change gradually happened at Mbi and that the forest-wooded grassland ecotone was highly influenced by the climate variability related to the North Atlantic. The forest disruption and diversity loss intermittently occurred over the whole period, and their vegetation changes temporally match dry-cold events at the northern latitudes during the Younger Dryas, at 9.5–9.1 ka, 8.6–8.0 ka, 6.7–6.0 ka, 3.2 ka, and during the Little Ice Age (LIA). During the LIA, the mountain forest was subject to unprecedented levels of disturbance at all altitudes, unlike the seasonal lowland forests, which appears to have been only marginally affected.

International audience; While the emergence of the Acheulean is well documented in East Africa at ~1.7 Ma, subsequent developments are less well understood and to some extent controversial. Here, we provide robust evidence regarding the time period between 1.6 Ma and 1.2 Ma, based on an interdisciplinary approach to the stratigraphic sequences exposed in the Gombore gully of Melka Kunture, in the upper Awash Valley of Ethiopia. Throughout the Pleistocene, the environment differed significantly from elsewhere in Africa because of the elevation at 2000 m asl, the cooler and rainy climate, the Afromontane vegetation, the development of endemic animal species, and the recurrent impact of volcanic activity. At Gombore IB, dated ~1.6 Ma, remains of Homo erectus/ergaster have been discovered, associated with a rich early Acheulean assemblage. The techno-typological analysis of the lithic record from Gombore Iγ (~1.4 Ma) and Gombore Iδ (~1.3 Ma), where substantial areas have been excavated, and the contrasting evidence from Gombore OAM Test Pit C (~1.2 Ma), suggest that the scarcity or lack of large flakes and large cutting tools at the two earlier sites is possibly not just the outcome of sampling bias, but rather of the adaptation of H. erectus/ergaster to the local resources, in a relatively isolated environment. The sites of Gombore gully provide new evidence on the complex pattern of human evolution and adaptation in East Africa during the Lower Pleistocene.

Speleothem deposits in nowadays arid environments are important climate archives, as they indicate phases of enhanced precipitation and can precisely be dated by uranium-series dating. So far only very few of such archives have been found in the today hyper-arid Saharo-Arabian Desert (SAD). Therefore, the study at hand fills a gap that exists for speleothem climate archives in Northeast Africa. A new record from Saqia Cave (Central Eastern Desert, Egypt) documents for the first-time speleothem growth in Egypt for all sub-stages of MIS 5 and singular phases during MIS 6. Most important growth phases occur during periods of strong increase and maximum orbitally-forced northern hemisphere insolation, but also during phases of low insolation, which are in general attributed to aridity in North Africa. Here, at least semi-arid climate conditions are proposed for periods of low insolation during stadials of MIS 5. This suggests an impact of different possible sources of precipitation, apart from large scale shifts of the African monsoon, such as Red Sea Troughs, tropical plums and a larger spatial extent of the Mediterranean winter-rainfall zone. Concerning the spatial rainfall pattern in Egypt, we propose a considerable east to west rainfall gradient in Egypt for the Last Interglacial and suggest a stronger impact of variable moisture sources in the Eastern Desert near the Mediterranean and Red Sea in comparison to the more continental Western Desert of Egypt. This reveals more favorable pre-conditions for an enhanced land use potential in the past. Therefore, the more sustaining wetter climate in the Eastern Desert point to a recurring feasible dispersal corridor for Homo sapiens from the tropical climate into the temperate climate regime throughout MIS 5. Such a more humid climate provided an ideal basis for long-term, favorable environmental conditions east of the Nile Valley, creating a kind of contiguous landscape corridor that may have been attractive to humans and wildlife alike, linking the East African tropical climate regime with that of the temperate zone in Northeast Africa and Eurasia.

Gas hydrates are regarded as one of the most promising alternative sources of energy, which have the potential to address the energy demand of a contemporary society. Based on the field explorations in the Eastern Nankai Trough (Japan), a multilayered hydrate reservoir model has been conceptualised and its behaviours during depressurisation production are simulated. This model incorporates the effects of the initial reservoir temperature and permeability on the mechanism of hydrate dissociation, which in turn affects the gas production. It is shown that the dissociation process is largely affected by the initial temperature distribution within the reservoir layers, and the ‘warmer’ reservoirs show (consistently) higher production potential. Furthermore, the gas production could be improved significantly, by increasing the permeability of the wellbore region, which can be achieved through the fracturing process. The close match between the simulation results and the field tests is noteworthy. The proposed multilayered model would be quite useful for analysing the efficacy of the ‘production strategy’, in most real-life situations.

The impact of gas hydrate dissociation on submarine landslides has become an increasingly significant issue. However, previous models cannot interpret the newly discovered non-conformity between the slide surface and the base of the gas hydrate stability zone. Here, the authors design an experimental approach for visualising fluid migration during hydrate dissociation at atmospheric pressure. The results identify the lateral and vertical fluid migration pathways. Weak layers propagate nearly laterally beyond the hydrate zone, which lengthens the potential slide surface. Vertical pathways branch and deviate from their original paths, generating a shallower slide surface. Furthermore, the findings show that fluid overpressure under the overlying layer leads to steepening slopes. The lubrication effect and the underestimated inclination of slopes at failure may account for the low-angle failure of clay slopes. The results support a new conceptual model that reconciles the non-conformity between the slide surface and the base of the gas hydrate stability zone and offer a new perspective for the large-scale failure of low-angle submarine slopes. It will be interesting and important to confirm these implications in the future.

PurposeThis study aims to assess and decompose the sustainable development using the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Iran in 2018, for proposing agenda-setting of public policy.Design/methodology/approachIt ranks the SDGs not only in Iran but also in the region and the world to reveal the synergetic effects.FindingsBased on the results, subaltern-populace generally suffers from the hegemonic domination of ruling elite-bourgeois, lack of strong institutions, heterogeneous policy networks and lack of advocacy role of non-governmental organizations, due to no transparency, issues in law or no rule of law, no stringent regulation, rent, suppression and Mafia, all leading to corruption and injustice.Practical implicationsTo stop the loop of corruption-injustice, Iran should homogenize the structure of the policy network. Furthermore, the failed SDGs of the three-geographic analysis are the same in a character; all of them propose SDG 3, good health and well-being as a serious failed goal.Social implicationsIn this regard, strong evidence is the pandemic Coronavirus, COVID 19 since 2019, due to its highly-disastrous consequences in early 2020 where the public policymakers could not adopt policies promptly in the glob, particularly in Iran.Originality/valueIn Iran, in addition to this, the malfunction of health is rooted in “subjective well-being” and “traffic deaths,” respectively. Concerning the transportations system in Iran, it is underscored that it is damaging the sustainable development from all the three pillars of sustainable development including, economic, social and environmental.

Ancient dental calculus represents one of the most recent and innovative sources of archaeobotanical record. Exploring this matrix, diet, past ecology, and ethnobotanical practices of antique communities may be elucidated. In the present case-study, the tartar of an Imperial Roman man, likely a salt worker, found in the necropolis of Castel Malnome (Rome, Latium, Italy) and affected by bilateral temporo-mandibular joint ankylosis, was investigated. Despite his rare and extremely disabling affection, this male individual reached adulthood thanks to the forced removal of the anterior teeth, which allowed him to eat. Starches of Poeae and Triticeae tribe were detected, although the largest amount of the granules appeared gelatinized, suggesting that maybe the inhumate consumed well-cooked and semi-liquid stuff, due to his non-functional masticatory activity. Urticaceae and clover pollen grains documented unintentional aspiration or voluntary use of these plants as ingredients for meals and therapeutic decoctions. Indeed, since Roman times, written sources have documented nettle as an anti-inflammatory remedy to treat joint and muscle pains. Finally, the identification of secondary metabolites ascribable to the Brassicaceae family, Artemisia L., and Ephedra L. genera, paves the way for hypothesizing the consumption of these Mediterranean species with several nutritional and nutraceutical properties. All this evidence opens a picture window onto the life of this man, which should be well integrated into his community and natural environment despite the functional impairment.

Dental calculus and other preserved microbiome substrates are an attractive target for dietary reconstruction in past populations through a variety of physical, chemical, and molecular means. Recently, studies have attempted to reconstruct diet from archaeological dental calculus using archaeogenetic techniques. While dental calculus may provide a relatively stable environment for DNA preservation, the detection of plants and animals possibly consumed by an individual through DNA analysis is primarily hindered by microbial richness and incomplete reference databases. Moreover, high genomic similarity within eukaryotic groups 1. Introduction 2. Materials and methods 3. Results 3.1. Effects of low read counts on damage patterns 3.2. Identification of dietary reads from synthetic datasets 3.3. Identification of dietary reads from real datasets 4. Discussion and conclusions 4.1. Checklist for authors and reviewers 4.1.1. Field/storage contamination 4.1.2. Is the laboratory methodology suitable for aDNA authentication? 4.1.3. Is the database and pipeline suitable? 4.1.4. Is the taxonomic resolution analyzed sufficient for reliable interpretation? 4.1.5. Have unexpected taxa been reported and evaluated? 4.1.6. Have laboratory controls been evaluated alongside samples? 4.1.7. Has evidence of aDNA authenticity been provided? 4.1.8. Is there other evidence supporting that dietary organisms were consumed?

This is the first work that incorporates recent advancements in "explainability" of machine learning (ML) to build a routing obfuscator called ObfusX. We adopt a recent metric---the SHAP value---which explains to what extent each layout feature can reveal each unknown connection for a recent ML-based split manufacturing attack model. The unique benefits of SHAP-based analysis include the ability to identify the best candidates for obfuscation, together with the dominant layout features which make them vulnerable. As a result, ObfusX can achieve better hit rate (97% lower) while perturbing significantly fewer nets when obfuscating using a via perturbation scheme, compared to prior work. When imposing the same wirelength limit using a wire lifting scheme, ObfusX performs significantly better in performance metrics (e.g., 2.4 times more reduction on average in percentage of netlist recovery).

Theories can be represented as statistical models for empirical testing. There is a vast literature on model selection and multimodel inference that focuses on how to assess which statistical model, and therefore which theory, best fits the available data. For example, given some data, one can compare models on various information criterion or other fit statistics. However, what these indices fail to capture is the full range of counterfactuals. That is, some models may fit the given data better not because they represent a more correct theory, but simply because these models have more fit propensity - a tendency to fit a wider range of data, even nonsensical data, better. Current approaches fall short in considering the principle of parsimony (Occam’s Razor), often equating it with the number of model parameters. Here we offer a toolkit for researchers to better study and understand parsimony through the fit propensity of Structural Equation Models. We provide an R package (ockhamSEM) built on the popular lavaan package. To illustrate the importance of evaluating fit propensity, we use ockhamSEM to investigate the factor structure of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale.

The restoration of contaminated sites is attracting increasing attention because of environmental considerations. Barrier walls using cement-based solidified soil are a popular and effective method for enclosing contaminated sites. However, the working environment of cement-based solidified soils is often complicated and results in concern about the durability of the walls. Hence, the deterioration behaviour of solidified soils under a working environment should be investigated. A type of marine soft clay deposited in the coastal Lianyungang region of east China was solidified by a cement–metakaolin composite; then, the specimens were cured under standard, saline solution and cycled freeze–thaw environments. When the specimens reached the designed curing periods, the unconfined compressive strength, mass loss, pH value and mesostructure were determined. The results show that (a) both saline soaking and cycled freeze–thaw environments unavoidably reduce the durability of cement-based solidified soils and (b) metakaolin incorporation can effectively resist the deterioration behaviour of solidified soils under such environments. In this case, the optimal incorporation ratio is approximately 3·0%, and (c) although strength enhancement by chloride (Cl−) ions was primarily inhibited by the water medium, metakaolin incorporation suppresses cracking on the surface and strengthens the integrity of the solidified soils.

A study was carried out at CSIR-CIMAP, RC. Hyderabad (India) to study the impact of coppicing time on the oil percent and its chemical composition of different cultivars of lemongrass using a randomized block design. The freshly harvested herb was used for the hydro-distillation for essential oil, and subsequent chemical analysis. The chemical components identification of the essential oil was performed by GC–MS. In the results coppicing time influenced significant changes in the essential oil content, essential oil yield, and its chemical composition especially, total citral, and geraniol content. The four top rankers varieties/cultivars of lemongrass for the essential oil yield were CIM-Shikhar > Krishna > CKP-25 > CIMAP-Suwarna; for the essential oil content CIM–Shikhar > Krishna > CIMAP-Suwarna > Praman; for total citral content Nima > CIM–Shikhar > Krishna > Pragati, and for the total geraniol content Himrosa > CN-5 > Tawirosa > Kalam, respectively. Therefore, we can recommend these varieties/cultivars for commercial cultivation in large areas under the semi-arid region of south India.

In this paper, we propose and analyze SPARQ-SGD, an event-triggered and compressed algorithm for decentralized training of large-scale machine learning models over a graph. Each node can locally compute a condition (event) which triggers a communication where quantized and sparsified local model parameters are sent. In SPARQ-SGD, each node first takes a fixed number of local gradient steps and then checks if the model parameters have significantly changed compared to its last update; it communicates further compressed model parameters only when there is a significant change, as specified by a (design) criterion. We prove that SPARQ-SGD converges as $O\left( {\frac{1}{{nT}}} \right)$ and $O\left( {\frac{1}{{\sqrt {nT} }}} \right)$ in the strongly-convex and non-convex settings, respectively, demonstrating that aggressive compression, including event-triggered communication, model sparsification and quantization does not affect the overall convergence rate compared to uncompressed decentralized training; thereby theoretically yielding communication efficiency for ‘free’. We evaluate SPARQ-SGD over real datasets to demonstrate significant savings in communication bits over the state-of-the-art.

The disposal of metal plating sludge (PS) to landfills is an increasingly common practice in developed and developing countries. This paper presents a novel PS stabilisation technique using fly ash (FA)-based geopolymers as a waste management option. Strength and microstructural evaluations were carried out on PS-FA geopolymers at various values of factors, including liquid alkaline activator (L = sodium silicate (Na2SiO3)/sodium hydroxide (NaOH) ratio), L/FA ratios, FA/PS ratios and curing time. Increasing the amount of PS in PS-FA geopolymers reduced the total porosity, subsequently resulting in higher unconfined compressive strength (UCS) values. The main geopolymerisation product of the FA-based geopolymer was sodium aluminosilicate hydrate (N-A-S-H) gel. Since PS had a high calcium content, it would react with the high amount of silica and alumina present in FA to generate calcium aluminosilicate hydrate (C-A-S-H) gel in PS-FA geopolymers. This C-A-S-H gel coexisted with the N-A-S-H gel from FA-based geopolymers and hence significantly accelerated UCS development of PS-FA geopolymers over time. The UCS values of PS-FA geopolymers were found to meet the US Environmental Protection Agency requirement for disposal to landfills. The outcomes from this research can be translated into a regulatory framework for managing PS and diverting this industrial waste from landfills.

Issuing a disaster certificate, which is used to decide the contents of a victim’s support, requires accuracy and rapidity. However, in Japan at large, issuing of damage certificates has taken a long time in past earthquake disasters. Hence, the government needs a more efficient mechanism for issuing damage certificates. This study developed an estimation system of roof-damaged buildings to obtain an overview of earthquake damage based on aero-photo images using deep learning. To provide speedy estimation, this system utilized the trimming algorithm, which automatically generates roof image data using the location information of building polygons on GIS (Geographic Information System). Consequently, the proposed system can estimate, if a house is covered with a blue sheet with 97.57 % accuracy and also detect whether a house is damaged, with 93.51 % accuracy. It would therefore be worth considering the development of an image recognition model and a method of collecting aero-photo data to operate this system during a real earthquake.

The Kuril Islands stretch southwest from Kamchatka, Russia, to Hokkaido, Japan and separate the Sea of Okhotsk from the northern Pacific Ocean. A series of transgressions and regressions linked to variations in climatically affected global ice volume are among the most important drivers of Holocene environmental changes in the region. Despite a long research history, reconstructions of the Holocene palaeoenvironment are sparse with inconsistent interpretations, arising from insufficient dating control, different temporal resolutions, and specific local geographical features, such as high tectonic activity and the isolated nature of the area. We have investigated a 550 cm lake sediment section from Iturup Island, the largest among the Kuril Islands. The 6600 year old sediment section was studied using sedimentological, geochemical, chironomid, diatom, and pollen analyses to reconstruct environmental and climatic changes and sea level fluctuations (transgression – regression stages). During the warm late phase of the Middle Holocene (6600–4400 cal BP) an open bay or lagoon with shallow overgrown littorals existed at the sampling site. The cooling between 5600 and 4400 cal BP can be correlated with Neoglacial cooling. The cool period between 4200 and 3200 cal BP was a transition towards the formation of a freshwater lagoon and can be related to a decline of the Japan Late Jomon transgression (Sakaguchi, 1983). Between 3200 and 2800 cal BP the lagoon separated from the marine environment in response to a further sea level decrease during the Japan Latest Jomon cold stage and regression. The following increase in the share of broad-leaved pollen indicated a slight warming (Yayoi transition stage) that was interrupted by a short-term cooling spell between 1500 and 1400 cal BP (cold Japan Kofun stage). The period between ca 1100 and 800 cal BP can be related to the European Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) or relatively dry Japan Nara-Heian-Kamakura warm stage. The Little Ice Age cooling and Edo regression were evident after ca 800 cal BP. Modern warming however is not well seen in the investigated core.

The high-resolution biochemical records (SRXRF, ICP-MS and FTIR analyses) of bottom sediments were used for the reconstruction of clastic flux into Lake Baikal via the Barguzin River as moisture and glacier indexes from 1631 ka BP. According to the obtained data, proxies of a high supply of clastic flux by the river are high: the content of feldspar and LREE/HREE, Rb/Sr and Th/Mo ratios. We sampled a sediment core extremely close to the estuary of the Barguzin River. It seems that the water budget of the Baikal tributaries dramatically reduced ca. 34–30 ka BP, and the lake water level was minimum (less than 35–40 m compared to the present) for the last 34 ka. The lake water level has gradually increased from ca. 30 to 25–23 ka BP, and it was likely linked with the activity of the East Asia Monsoon. The very contrasting changes in chemical and mineralogical records were ca. 29.5 ka BP, and these changes were very likely associated with the Heinrich-3; however, there were no significant changes in the records around the Heinrich-2. Our records revealed some intensification of the clastic flux of the Barguzin River into the Barguzin Bay ca. 25–23 ka BP. The Baikal event ca. 21.5–22.5 ka BP was characterized by a sharp reduction of the influx of clastic material into the Barguzin Bay. The time span of 19.5–18 ka BP was the last time that the Barguzin River inflow increased during the Late Pleistocene. This increase in the water budget was at arid regional conditions, and we assumed it could occur due to the contribution of meltwater from glaciers of the Barguzin Ridge. It is most likely that at the regional Late Pleistocene/Holocene transition (around 12–13 ka BP), a rapid rise of the water budget of the Barguzin River occurred, while the lake level was not high, and the sediments deposited from 12(13)–16.5 ka BP could be directly eroded by a kill of the Barguzin River. In general, the obtained records show that an increase in the water budget of the Barguzin River was gradual. The duration of high inflow into the Barguzin Bay was ca. 1.5 ka, while the reductions of this inflow were dramatic.

Supply chain collaborations may generate substantial cost savings. Many such initiatives cease to exist, however, due to not reaching an agreement on how to share the gains. We describe an exercise to understand the challenges in collaborative gain sharing. Funding: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Programme for research, technological development and demonstration (FP7 Transport) [Grant Agreement 284926].

We introduce a cross-entropy (CE) indicator to quantify the extent to which two input-output tables or two tables with results based on input-output analysis differ from each other. Our work deploys a unique feature of the CE indicator: it can be decomposed, allowing for matrix comparisons at various levels within one coherent framework. To illustrate the power of this approach, we apply the technique to five multi-region input-output (MRIO) tables for 2011, derived from the Eora, EXIOBASE, GTAP, OECD and WIOD databases. We make pairwise comparisons between MRIOs and between global value chain (GVC) computations based on these MRIOs. We find that answers to questions related to broader aggregates are generally quite similar, but that answers to questions at the level of single industries can be rather different across MRIOs.

The vicinity of the Rozprza archaeological site (central Poland) has been the area of a series of palaeoecological studies tracking the environmental history of the Luciąża River valley up to ca. 13,200 cal. BP. Numerous subfossil palaeomeanders of different sizes have been discovered in the valley floor. Here, we present the first results of multiproxy research on the paleo-oxbow lake fill, one of the oldest in the region. The wide range of palaeoecological analyses resulted in reconstructions of vegetation history, climatic, hydrological and habitat changes. The studied oxbow was an aquatic ecosystem with diverse invertebrate fauna until the end of Younger Dryas when it transformed into a limno-telmatic habitat. The sediment composition indicates active denudation processes and several episodes of turbulent hydrological conditions. Such an increased river activity could have caused flooding, resulting in an allochthonous matter supply to the oxbow lake in Late Vistulian. Environmental changes were strictly related to the regional features of the catchment, the transformation of soils, and the hydrogeological conditions. The chironomid- and pollen-inferred climatic reconstructions indicate periods of high and low continentality. The chironomid record indicates relatively cool summer conditions in the Allerød, especially ca. 13,000 cal. BP, possibly related to the Gerzensee Oscillation. On the other hand, a distinct increase of summer temperatures in Younger Dryas (up to 16 °C) was recorded. Such a situation was also confirmed in some other studies from the region, suggesting that it might be the effect of some specific, local palaeoclimatic conditions. Fundator badań: Fundator badań: Optional.empty

This paper presents a techno-economic model of two interconnected hybrid microgrids (MGs) whose electricity and thermal dispatch strategy are managed with Sequential Least Squares Programming (SLSQP) optimization technique. MGs combine multiple thermal and electric power generation, transmission, and distribution systems as a whole, to gain a tight integration of weather-dependent distributed renewable generators with multiple stochastic load profiles. Moreover MGs allow to achieve an improvement in the return of investment and better cost of energy. The first part of the work deals with a method to obtain an accurate prediction of climate variables. This method makes use of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and polynomial regression to manipulate climate datasets issued by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). The second part of the work is focused on the optimization of interconnected MGs operations through the SLSQP algorithm. The objective is to obtain the best financial performance (IRR) when clean distributed energy resources (DERs) are exchanging both thermal and electric energy. SLSQP optimizes the energy flows by balancing their contribution with their nominal Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE). The proposed algorithm is used to simulate innovative business scenarios where revenue streams are generated via sales of energy to end users, sell backs and deliveries of demand response services to the other grids. A business case dealing with two MGs providing clean thermal and electric energies to household communities nearby the city of Bremen (Germany) is examined in the last part of the work. This business case with a payback in two years, an internal rate of return (IRR) at 65% and a LCOE at 0.14 €/kWh, demonstrates how the interconnection of multiple hybrid MGs with SLSQP optimization techniques, makes renewable and DERs outcompeting and could strand investments in fossil fuel generation, shaping the future of clean energy markets.

Co-production in climate change has arisen in response to improving climate knowledge. Climate service co-production provides climate knowledge for decision-making, benefiting vulnerable communities with useful and usable information such as flooding risk areas. A climate service co-production project, including mapping technologies, has been conducted in Jakarta, Indonesia. However, it has not been integrated into mainstream spatial planning. This paper investigates an enabling environment for the integration of climate service co-production and spatial planning using a collaborative governance framework. We conducted semi-structured interviews, photovoice, and focus group discussions. The results highlight factors to enable integration; (1) an institutional reform to put climate service co-production on the agenda, (2) top-down priorities aligned with local-level needs, (3) local government will and leadership to execute the tasks and actions towards climate resilience, (4) trust of the local government with the community, (5) integrated geospatial data to have an effective climate knowledge to spatial planning.

A study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) and off-specification fly ash (FA) in remediating acid mine drainage (AMD). The pH and AMD concentrations of calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn) and zinc (Zn) were assessed. The effects of RCA particle size on pH and AMD metal concentrations were also investigated. Results showed that RCAs were effective in neutralising the acidic pH and lowering the AMD concentrations of iron, chromium, copper and zinc. The concentrations of calcium increased, but magnesium and manganese concentrations varied in the treatment process. FA acted as an additional source of metals and increased the concentrations of iron, copper and manganese significantly. Finer RCA particles were the most effective in raising the pH and reducing the AMD concentrations of magnesium, manganese and zinc. The concentrations of calcium, iron, chromium and copper remained unaffected by the RCA particle size. In addition, geochemical modelling indicated that sorption was the leaching controlling mechanism in untreated and FA-treated AMD, whereas it was solubility-controlled leaching in RCA-treated AMD. Finally, the research reported in this study suggests the use of RCA as an effective alternative to the conventional treatment methods for AMD remediation.

Contextual information, such as the co-occurrence of objects and the spatial and relative size among objects, provides rich and complex information about digital scenes. It also plays an important role in improving object detection and determining out-of-context objects. In this work, we present contextual models that leverage contextual information (16 contextual relationships are applied in this paper) to enhance the performance of two of the state-of-the-art object detectors (i.e., Faster RCNN and YOLO), which are applied as a post-processing process for most of the existing detectors, especially for refining the confidences and associated categorical labels, without refining bounding boxes. We experimentally demonstrate that our models lead to enhancement in detection performance using the most common dataset used in this field (MSCOCO), where in some experiments PASCAL2012 is also used.We also show that iterating the process of applying our contextual models also enhances the detection performance further.

International audience; Using an approach that embodies an explicit tradeoff between need and governance considerations, we propose an optimal aid allocation formula. We first assume exogenous, then endogenous governance. In the former case, a central concept is need-adjusted aid effectiveness while in the second case the donor has policing instruments under the form of monitoring and sanctioning capacities. We show that external disciplining has two advantages when the donor is sensitive enough to poverty intensity: (1) to cater to poor countries to a greater extent than is possible when local governance cannot be influenced by external forces, and (2) to respond (non-perversely) to improvements in the local governance of a country by raising its aid share. In institutionally weak countries, populations should welcome wisely applied donor's discipline as a way not only to get access to financial support but also to constrain their elites to refrain from abusing their position excessively. Imposing discipline when the release of externally-provided development funds is at stake seems more acceptable than aid directed to the explicit purpose of combatting corruption.

Urban expansions into natural habitats have forced many carnivores to adapt to the modified areas; however, our understanding of their ecology in such areas is limited. The Indian fox (Vulpes bengalensis) is a small carnivore species that can adapt and exploit urban areas due to its generalist nature, but there is a paucity of data on Indian foxes in these human-modified areas. To understand the resource requirement of Indian foxes in urban habitats, we conducted a diet analysis by examining 119 scats of Indian foxes in a peri-urban habitat of Baripada town, Odisha, eastern India. To determine the diet composition of Indian foxes, we analyzed scat contents by their frequency occurrence (%FO), the relative frequency of occurrence (%RF) and mean percent volume (%Vm). Indian foxes consumed a wide range of food categories, including arthropods, rodents, reptiles, birds, plant parts and anthropogenic resources. In %Vm, rodents showed the highest volume, followed by polythene, Spondias pinnata fruit and Coleoptera. We found anthropogenic foods in considerable quantities, including polythene and paper. The diet of Indian foxes indicates that the species has opportunistic and generalist feeding habits consisting primarily of easily accessible foods. Furthermore, management efforts should focus on the proper management of waste and control of anthropogenic food sources in urban habitats.

Plants sustain several ecosystem functions thereby playing a crucial role in conservation management. Lantana camara an invasive weed has become the common part of a bushes. The mutualistic relationship between this weed plant and butterflies are well known. Butterflies depend on Lantana camara for food, oviposition site, larval development etc. In this context we are highlighting the role of this invasive weed for butterfly conservation and maintaining total butterfly abundance. In this study the species richness highest for the site where the bushes were dominated by Lantana camara and lowest for the site where LCA abundance was low. The butterfly abundance and LCA abundance maintain a strong positive relationship and LCA abundance, species richness and and butterfly abundance are strongly correlated and dominance is negatively correlated with other three variables. So we can use the Lantana camara as a model organism for conservation and maintaining the butterfly abundance in Purulia, West Bengal, India.

Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.) is recognized as a valuable food crop due to its nutraceutical potential, rich pigment content, and medicinal properties. However, there is limited information on planting dates and suitable genotypes for roselle cultivation in arid and semi-arid regions. The objective of this field study was to investigate the influence of five planting dates (March, April, May, June, and July) on morphological and phytochemical characteristics of different roselle genotypes. Among genotypes, eight (Jiroft, Dalgan, Bampoor, Iranshahr, Nikshahr, Roodbar, Saravan, and Qaleganj) were Iranian landraces, and HA and HS-24 were originated from Ghana and Bangladesh, respectively. Planting date significantly influenced the number of branches, bolls and seeds per plant, sepal fresh weight, calyx and biomass yields, and harvest index in tested roselle landraces. The greatest morphological growth, fresh sepal weight (50.6 g plant−1) and calyx yield (1519 kg ha−1) were observed with the roselle planted in early May. Moreover, amounts of chlorophyll, flavonoids and antioxidant remained higher in roselle when planted between April–May. The number of branches/plant was found to be an important determinant of calyx yield (r = 0.707) in roselle. Dalgan resulted in the greatest growth and yields within a comparatively shorter period of time compared to other tested landraces. Both principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis also indicated that Dalgan landrace possessed most suitable morphological and phytochemical traits among tested landraces, and therefore, it could be planted adopted for extensive cultivation settings in the arid and semi-arid regions.

Bacteria are considered as foremost bioremediating agents among microorganisms, encompassing simple biological mechanism to tolerate higher concentration of heavy metal and favoring conservative strategies to substitute the usage of chemicals. Relating this implication, the present study is designed to identify, screen and characterize bacteria from industrial site soil to tolerate multimetals. Almost 108 colonies were obtained at various concentrations (0.5–2.0 mM) of heavy metals (cadmium, nickel and lead) and were thrived in the reformed minimal media. Bacterial isolates that grown in the higher concentration of heavy metals (2.0 mM) were taken for further studies. Among ten bacterial colonies, one isolate was selected for each heavy metal and further screened for their multi metal tolerance. Isolate, C20 alone survived in heavy metal mixture fortified medium with high recovery rate and increased colony forming units. Molecular level characterization and phylogenetic tree analysis revealed that the isolate is identical to Bacillus thuringiensis. The study highlights that the multi metal tolerant B. thuringiensis could be used as an effective bioremediating agent to manage heavy metals particularly cadmium, nickel and lead in industrial area. Further, attributed to be a plant growth promoting rhizobacteria, this organism can promote dual stratagems as a bio remediating agent and fertility enhancer in agricultural field due to its dual functions.

Indian summer monsoon (ISM) variability in the late Holocene (last 4000 years) is of great interest as the arid phase of ISM and cultivation of kharif (rainy season) crops started in this period. The present study aims to revisit the available speleothem records to study ISM rainfall variations and possible controlling factors in different Indian regions viz., core monsoon zone (CMZ), peninsular, the Himalaya, and the Bay of Bengal in the last 4000 years. The late Holocene encompasses notable global warm periods viz., Medieval Climate Anomaly, Roman Warm Period (RWP) & Minoan Warm Period, and cold periods viz., Dark Age cold period and Little Ice Age (LIA). ISM rainfall declines until the middle of RWP in all the regions. The decline is linked with the southward migration of the Intertropical convergence zone caused by the northern Hemisphere summer insolation. Though the Solar insolation follows the same trend, all the records show large variability with the disappearance of the declining trend around the middle of RWP. This change coincided with the reversal in the north Atlantic Sea surface temperature (SST) trend, northern hemisphere temperature, and abrupt changes in the southeastern Indian Ocean SST. This period also witnessed high El-Nino Southern Oscillation activities. This synergy of ISM variations in the characterized zones falls apart during the pre-LIA with a slight increasing (decreasing) trend in CMZ and Bay of Bengal (peninsular and Himalayan). The spatially variable response of ISM rainfall in recent centuries might be caused by the interaction between internal variability and external forcing and also by anthropogenic-induced warming and aerosol forcing.

Paleoclimatic constraints from mountain ranges separating major climate systems are important in understanding past climatic changes. Using the present-day glacial geomorphology combined with the GlaRe model, the last glacial maximum (LGM) of seven representative valley glaciers of the Pir Panjal Range (PPR), Kashmir Himalaya was reconstructed. The Range lies at the interface of the tropical and temperate climates in the NW Himalayas. The glacier reconstructions showed that the glaciers in the Range advanced ~10 km down the present-day cirque margins and attained a thickness of more than 200 m during the LGM. Using six different methods, the equilibrium line altitude (ELA) changes in the selected valleys of the PPR were estimated for which the LGM was reconstructed. ELA depressions calculated for the LGM vary from 374 m to 416 m with a mean of 395 m. The weighted average ELA of the Range lies at an altitude of 3922 m a.s.l showing a general increasing trend from SE to NW of the Range. The published chronology of the loess deposits, a proxy for glacial aridity, shows the evidence of significant glacial advances starting around 350 kya in the valley, which is consistent with the evidence of both the pre- and post-LGM advances observed in this study. The presence of extensive glacier features all across the PPR and the presence of a few small heavily debris-covered glaciers in the Range points towards the rapid deglaciation in the area.

Years of community-driven research and participatory action have shed an important light on the copious negative health issues burdening communities adjacent to industrial agriculture. Rural commun...

The central equatorial Indian Ocean (CEIO) is influenced by both, summer and winter monsoon and is known for cross basin exchange of water between the Arabian Sea (AS) and the Bay of Bengal (BoB). Here, we present planktic foraminiferal assemblage record from a sediment core (SSD-044/GC-01, 5°N; 77°E) from the CEIO, which is in the pathway of this cross-basin water exchange, in order to reconstruct changes in upper water column structure during the last 43 ka, at millennial year timescales. Our data displays an increase in ratio of mixed layer eutrophic to mixed layer oligotrophic foraminifer species from MIS (Marine Isotope Stage) 3 to MIS 2 which further decreased sharply during the last deglaciation and remained low thereafter. This trend matches well with the sedimentary Corg content which is interpreted as a productivity signal, in line with other studies from this region. Furthermore, the relative abundance of thermocline foraminifer species displayed highest values during MIS 3, a decrease through the MIS 2, a sharp decrease through the early deglaciation and an increase thereafter into the Holocene. Our records suggest that the increased productivity at this site seems to be fed by nutrient injection from nutricline to the photic zone which manifests in a corresponding increase in thermocline foraminifera species. The nutrient injection to the photic zone maybe a result of increased vertical/convective mixing due to increased flow of cooler/high-salinity BoB water probably caused by decreased freshening of the BoB during glacials. Furthermore, our data suggests a warm, stratified upper water column and low surface nutrient (oligotrophic) conditions during the last deglaciation and the Holocene.

Canola meal is a low-value agricultural residue obtained after oil extraction from canola, the utilization of which requires further attention. On the other hand, plastic waste disposal is also another leading issue that creates severe environmental challenges. Supercritical water gasification is considered an environmentally friendly technology to produce hydrogen from plastic residues and organic wastes. This study deals with hydrothermal co-gasification of canola meal and plastic wastes (i.e., low-density polyethylene) while exploring the influence of temperature (375–525°C), residence time (15–60 min) and plastic-to-biomass ratio (0:100, 20:80, 50:50, 80:20 and 100:0) on hydrogen yield. Maximum hydrogen yield (8.1 mmol/g) and total gas yield (17.9 mmol/g) were obtained at optimal temperature and residence time of 525°C and 60 min, respectively. A change in the gas yield with variable plastic-to-biomass ratio showed synergistic effects between both feedstocks. The trend of catalytic performance towards improving hydrogen yield was in the following order: WO3–TiO2 (18.5 mmol/g) > KOH (16.9 mmol/g) > TiO2 (9.5 mmol/g) > ZrO2 (7.8 mmol/g) > WO3–ZrO2 (7.4 mmol/g).

International audience; The Anthropocene was conceptualized in 2000 to reflect the extensive impact of human activities on our planet, and subsequent detailed analyses have revealed a substantial Earth System response to these impacts beginning in the mid-20 th century. Key to this understanding was the discovery of a sharp upturn in a multitude of global socioeconomic indicators and Earth System trends at that time; a phenomenon termed the 'Great Acceleration'. It coincides with massive increases in global human-consumed energy and shows the Earth System now on a trajectory far exceeding the earlier variability of the Holocene Epoch, and in some respects the entire Quaternary Period. The evaluation of geological signals similarly shows the mid-20 th century as representing the most appropriate inception for the Anthropocene. A recent mathematical analysis has nonetheless challenged the significance of the original Great Acceleration data. We examine this analytical approach and reiterate the robustness of the original data in supporting the Great Acceleration, while emphasizing that intervals of rapid growth are inevitably time-limited, as recognised at the outset. Moreover, the exceptional magnitude of this growth remains undeniable, reaffirming the centrality of the Great Acceleration in justifying a formal chronostratigraphic Anthropocene at the rank of series/epoch.

New indigenous bacteria, extracted from soil samples that had been collected from different parts of Iran, were introduced to improve dune sand using microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) as an environmental engineering method. In order to isolate urease-producing bacteria from local alkaline soils, a series of standard tests was conducted to evaluate the urease performance and potential of calcium carbonate (calcite) sedimentation. Based on their properties, the bacteria with the best performance were identified by 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid sequencing. To achieve a better understanding of the performance of the selected isolates, Sporosarcina pasteurii was employed as the control sample. The geotechnical behaviour of bio-mediated sand was studied through a series of geotechnical experiments, including unconfined compressive strength (UCS), constant-head permeability and wind erosion tests. The influence of freeze–thaw cycles and the durability of specimens on the UCS was also investigated. It is worth noting that sand MICP-treated by Bacillus sp. UTMC 2623 gave a performance relatively equal to that of the control sample during all UCS tests. Scanning electron microscopy images and X-ray diffraction were also used to observe calcite precipitation formation using Bacillus sp. UTMC 2623, which indicated precipitation of calcite throughout the sand column.

Enormous biotic stresses, such as uncontrolled grazing, logging, use of plants for timber and fuelwood, deforestation for cultivation, and road constructions have drastically deteriorated forests in the Kashmir Himalaya. On the basis of the intensity of biotic stress, three differently forest sites, protected, unprotected and roadside forest, were studied. Random vegetation sampling was done to record herbaceous diversity in the Tangmarg Forest Division of Kashmir valley in 2019. Six diversity indices were negatively correlated with increasing levels of anthropogenic disturbance. The values further elucidated by the Renyi diversity profiles, indicated that the protected forest sites had significantly higher diversity as compared to the road side forest sites. Scaling based on an increased order of total number of species in the forest richness and diversity – on top were protected forest sites, followed by unprotected forest sites, while road side forest sites were on the lower end of this spectrum. The Principal component analysis (PCA) showed two distinct groups based on the composition and IVI of the plant species. The results of this study identify diverse biotic stresses and could help in framing the policies for forest management.

Clove basil (Ocimum gratissimum L.) is an aromatic, perennial herb belonging to the family Lamiaceae. The plant is indigenous to tropical areas especially India and West Africa. In Nigeria, it is found in the Savannah and coastal areas. The whole herbs of the plant contain essential oils and it is cultivated for various purposes. The plant is a rich source of eugenol in its essential oil. It is also used in the preparation of tea and infusions. It is also used in the treatment of fungal infections, fever, cold, and cough. Eugenol (4-allyl-2-methoxy phenol) is a phenolic compound from the class of phenylpropanoids. It is used in the food industry as a preservative, mainly due to its antioxidant property, and flavoring agent. The fresh herb × winter season/environment produced the highest essential oil 2.07 mL/plot with essential oil content 0.41% followed by fresh herb × summer season/environment (M1S2) = 1.68 mL. For the eugenol content, the autumn season/environment was found highly favorable = 74.52% (leaves = 69.024, stem = 74.531, and in inflorescence = 80.012) followed winter season/environment 72.30% (leaves = 71.841, stem 69.389, inflorescence 76.042, mean = 72.42%). These seasons are recommended for harvesting to obtain the optimum benefit for the quality essential oil yield.

Desiccation cracks in clay play an important role in many geoenvironmental applications such as clay liners in engineered landfills, preferential flows and contaminant transport. In this study, a comprehensive series of experiments was conducted to investigate the desiccation cracks due to the combined effects of initial water content and layer thickness on bentonite clay. Slurries of bentonite were prepared with initial water contents ranging from 1200 to 2200%. The slurry was placed in a glass Petri dish and dried at a temperature of 30 ± 2°C. Results from the experiments were illustrated in a phase diagram, and it was found that the interplay between the initial water content and layer thickness has a significant effect on the formation and prevention of desiccation cracks. More specifically, a phase boundary distinguishing between cracked and non-cracked samples was obtained in the constructed phase diagram. A theoretical model based on the critical cracking thickness was developed and then was used to predict this observed phase boundary. Furthermore, a detailed morphology of crack patterns was investigated by employing image analysis techniques followed by statistical analyses. Findings from this study have potential use in clay liner design, where bentonite is used as the main material, as well as in other problems associated with drying soils.

The species Schleichera oleosa (Kusum), being rich in nutritional, medicinal and processing qualities can play a very important role in the livelihood security of the rural communities through enhanced household income, employment generation and environmental protection. People of many states of India are becoming increasingly aware about the potential importance of this species in terms of its ethnobotany and lac production in their livelihood security. Value addition of all the components especially seed oil for biodiesel production, lac production and processing of bark for exploiting their nutritional and medicinal properties is a long-term strategy. There is need of increasing the area and plantation of this valuable species and enhancing their processed products. Moreover, to domesticate this species on farmer's field, there is a need to develop good cultivars. Hence, there is an ample scope in developing propagation methods and suitable good cultivars through nursery management programme. Dissemination of improved production technologies, value addition and marketing strategies regarding Kusum trees and its products to the farmers/entrepreneurs/lac based industries is of utmost importance for promoting it as agribusiness.

Spirulina is a filamentous, multi-cellular and autotrophic cyanobacterium having distinct features of helical shape filaments (i.e. trichomes). An investigation is to isolate a marine, Spirulina subsalsa from Vellar estuary, South East Coast zone of India. The isolated strain sub-cultured in Zarrouk medium with optimum conditions for sustaining growth. Pure cultures were examined in a research microscope for morphometric studies through 16S rRNA sequencing and the sequence was submitted to NCBI-GENBANK, the accession number is MW037197 which displays the maximum similarity as 100% with a diverse sequence in databank i.e. LC 215280. The investigation is the first record for the existence of Spirulina subsalsa in Vellar Estuary, South East Coast, Tamil Nadu (India) as affirmed by a molecular nucleotide sequence.

Sea surface temperature (SST) variation in the Persian Gulf (PG) is investigated based on Mg/Ca ratio measured in the planktonic foraminifera Globigerina bulloides tests from a sediment core spanning the past 5000 years recovered from west of the Strait of Hormoz. The Mg/Ca SST data indicate a 3 °C fluctuation range with an overall temperature increase trend since the mid-Holocene. The average SST of the PG in the intervals of 5–4.2, 4.2–3, 3–1.8, 1.8–1 and 1 cal kyr BP to present, was 26.1, 26.8, 25.8, 26.3 and 26.7 °C, respectively. SST increase trend in the PG is attributed to seasonally opposing insolation changes led to northern hemisphere extra-tropics cooling and tropics warming. The short spells of decreased (increased) SST indicate a high correlation with an increase (decrease) in terrigenous silt deposited in the PG, representing humid (dry) climate conditions in the Middle East. Likely, northward migration of the Inter-tropical convergence zone during the warmer episodes of the mid to late Holocene results in a change to a drier climatic regime in S Iran. Although Arabian Sea SST has a considerable role in SST variations in the PG, however, SST of this landlocked water body is mainly controlled by a continental climate.

We consider Bandits with Knapsacks (henceforth, BwK), a general model for multi-armed bandits under supply/budget constraints. In particular, a bandit algorithm needs to solve a well-known knapsack problem: find an optimal packing of items into a limited-size knapsack. The BwK problem is a common generalization of numerous motivating examples, which range from dynamic pricing to repeated auctions to dynamic ad allocation to network routing and scheduling. While the prior work on BwK focused on the stochastic version, we pioneer the other extreme in which the outcomes can be chosen adversarially. This is a considerably harder problem, compared to both the stochastic version and the "classic" adversarial bandits, in that regret minimization is no longer feasible. Instead, the objective is to minimize the competitive ratio: the ratio of the benchmark reward to the algorithm's reward. We design an algorithm with competitive ratio O(log T) relative to the best fixed distribution over actions, where T is the time horizon; we also prove a matching lower bound. The key conceptual contribution is a new perspective on the stochastic version of the problem. We suggest a new algorithm for the stochastic version, which builds on the framework of regret minimization in repeated games and admits a substantially simpler analysis compared to prior work. We then analyze this algorithm for the adversarial version and use it as a subroutine to solve the latter., The extended abstract appeared in FOCS 2019. The definitive version was published in JACM '22. V8 is the latest version with all technical changes. Subsequent versions fixes minor LATEX presentation issues

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) connected in the form of Internet of Things (IoT) are vulnerable to various security threats, due to the infrastructure-less deployment of IoT devices. Device-to-Device (D2D) authentication of these networks ensures the integrity, authenticity, and confidentiality of information in the deployed area. The literature suggests different approaches to address security issues in CPS technologies. However, they are mostly based on centralized techniques or specific system deployments with higher cost of computation and communication. It is therefore necessary to develop an effective scheme that can resolve the security problems in CPS technologies of IoT devices. In this paper, a lightweight Hash-MAC-DSDV (Hash Media Access Control Destination Sequence Distance Vector) routing scheme is proposed to resolve authentication issues in CPS technologies, connected in the form of IoT networks. For this purpose, a CPS of IoT devices (multi-WSNs) is developed from the local-chain and public chain, respectively. The proposed scheme ensures D2D authentication by the Hash-MAC-DSDV mutual scheme, where the MAC addresses of individual devices are registered in the first phase and advertised in the network in the second phase. The proposed scheme allows legitimate devices to modify their routing table and unicast the one-way hash authentication mechanism to transfer their captured data from source towards the destination. Our evaluation results demonstrate that Hash-MAC-DSDV outweighs the existing schemes in terms of attack detection, energy consumption and communication metrics.

Funding Information: This research has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement (EnergyMatching project number 768766), and J. Gust. Richert foundation in Sweden (grant number: 2020-00586). Funding Information: This research has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement (EnergyMatching project number 768766 ), and J. Gust. Richert foundation in Sweden (grant number: 2020-00586 ). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s) Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy sharing among neighboring households is a promising solution to mitigating the difficulties of renewable power (such as solar Photovoltaics (PV)) penetration on the power grid. Until now, there is still a lack of study on the impacts of future climate change on the P2P energy trading performances. The future climate change will cause variances in the renewable energy production and further lead to changes in the economic performances of households with various energy uses and affect the decision making in PV ownership and pricing strategies. Being unaware of these impacts could potentially hinder the P2P energy sharing application in practice. To bridge such knowledge gap, this paper conducts a systematic investigation of the climate change impacts on the energy sharing performance in solar PV power shared communities. The future weather data is generated using the Morphine method, and an agent-based modeling method is used for simulating the energy trading behaviors of households. Four comparative scenarios of different PV ownerships and pricing strategies are designed. The detailed energy trading performances (including the PV power self-sufficiency, cost saving, revenues, and compound annual growth rate) for the four comparative scenarios are analyzed under both the present and future climates and compared. The study results of a building community located in Sweden show that the future climate change is more beneficial to large energy use households while less beneficial to small households. High price of energy trading can improve the fairness of the economic performances in the community, especially when some of the households do not have any PV ownership. This study can help understand the future climate impacts on the energy sharing performances of building communities, which can in turn guide decision making in PV ownership and price setting for different households under the future climate change to facilitate real applications.

Spatial downsampling layers are favored in convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to downscale feature maps for larger receptive fields and less memory consumption. However, for discriminative tasks, there is a possibility that these layers lose the discriminative details due to improper pooling strategies, which could hinder the learning process and eventually result in suboptimal models. In this paper, we present a unified framework over the existing downsampling layers (e.g., average pooling, max pooling, and strided convolution) from a local importance view. In this framework, we analyze the issues of these widely-used pooling layers and figure out the criteria for designing an effective downsampling layer. According to this analysis, we propose a conceptually simple, general, and effective pooling layer based on local importance modeling, termed as {\em Local Importance-based Pooling} (LIP). LIP can automatically enhance discriminative features during the downsampling procedure by learning adaptive importance weights based on inputs. Experiment results show that LIP consistently yields notable gains with different depths and different architectures on ImageNet classification. In the challenging MS COCO dataset, detectors with our LIP-ResNets as backbones obtain a consistent improvement ($\ge 1.4\%$) over the vanilla ResNets, and especially achieve the current state-of-the-art performance in detecting small objects under the single-scale testing scheme., Comment: ICCV 2019 camera ready version. Code: https://github.com/sebgao/LIP