text: Environmental & Earth Sciences http://www.mdpi.com/journal/environment Latest open access articles published in Environmental & Earth Sciences at http://www.mdpi.com/journal/environment http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/539 Osteomyelitis in children is a serious disease in children requiring early diagnosis and treatment to minimize the risk of sequelae. Therefore, it is of primary importance to recognize the signs and symptoms at the onset and to properly use the available diagnostic tools. It is important to maintain a high index of suspicion and be aware of the evolving epidemiology and of the emergence of antibiotic resistant and aggressive strains requiring careful monitoring and targeted therapy. Hereby we present an instructive case and review the literature data on diagnosis and treatment. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2016-05-27 13 6 Review 10.3390/ijerph13060539 539 1660-4601 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/ijerph13060539 Elena Chiappini Greta Mastrangelo Simone Lazzeri http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/538 Background: Several studies have investigated the prevalence and awareness of diabetes mellitus (DM) in China, but little is known about the situation of DM in the northeastern rural areas. Our present study investigated the prevalence, awareness and associated characteristics of DM in rural areas of Jilin Province, aiming to suggest more efforts for the prevention and control of DM. Methods: A multistage stratified random cluster sampling design was used in this cross-sectional study which took place in 2012. Data were collected by face-to-face interviews and physical examinations. Rao-Scott Chi-square test, t test and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used. Results: The estimated prevalence of DM in rural areas of Jilin province was 7.2%. DM was positively associated with age, Body mass index (BMI), hypotension, dyslipidemia and was high in participants with a family history of diabetes and those who exercise frequently, but low for high education level and married participants. 69.0% participants with DM were aware of their diabetes status, 88.2% of whom received treatment and 34.4% of whom had received treatment controlled their DM status. Conclusions: We observed a high prevalence and low awareness status of DM among the rural residents in Jilin Province, but the rate of effective control in those who have received treatment was considerable. The low rate of disease surveillance should draw health authority's attention. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2016-05-27 13 6 Article 10.3390/ijerph13060538 538 1660-4601 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/ijerph13060538 Rui Wang Peng Zhang Xin Lv Lingling Jiang Chunshi Gao Yuanyuan Song Yaqin Yu Bo Li http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/540 Obesity contributes to reduced kidney function; however, whether this is due to obesity itself or the metabolic abnormalities that accompany it is unclear. Besides, most previous studies enrolled participants with moderate or severe stage of chronic kidney disease. In the present study, we aim to investigate the possible relationship between obesity, metabolic abnormalities and mildly reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). A total of 11,127 Chinese participants (age ≥ 35 years) were enrolled in a survey conducted from January 2012 to August 2013. eGFR 60–90 mL/min/1.73 m2 was defined as mildly reduced eGFR. Obese phenotype was divided into four types: metabolically healthy non-obese (MHNO), metabolically healthy obese (MHO), metabolically abnormal non-obese (MANO) and metabolically abnormal obese (MAO). Among all participants, 1941 (17.4%) of them had mildly reduced eGFR (16.7% for men and 18.1% for women, p = 0.025). The prevalence of obese phenotype was 22.5% for MHNO, 9.1% for MHO, 32.1% for MANO and 36.4% for MAO. The prevalence of mildly reduced eGFR was 9.0% among MHNO, 7.0% among MHO, 22.6% among MANO and 20.7% among MAO (p < 0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that obese phenotype did not statically contributed to mildly reduced eGFR (MHO: OR = 1.107, p = 0.662; MANO: OR = 0.800, p = 0.127; MAO: OR = 1.119, p = 0.525). However, gender (OR = 1.475, p < 0.001), aging (OR = 1.283, p < 0.001), dyslipidemia (OR = 1.544, 95%CI: 1.315, 1.814, p < 0.001) and hyperglycemia (OR = 1.247, 95%CI: 1.068, 1.455, p = 0.005) was associated with increased risk of mild reduced eGFR. Among the general population from rural Northeast China, mildly reduced eGFR was associated with metabolic disorders like dyslipidemia and hyperglycemia, but not obesity. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2016-05-27 13 6 Article 10.3390/ijerph13060540 540 1660-4601 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/ijerph13060540 Shasha Yu Hongmei Yang Xiaofan Guo Liqiang Zheng Yingxian Sun http://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/6/2/25 Phosphorus (P) is an essential element, and the majority of animal feed phosphate is derived from phosphate rock that is a non-renewable resource. Current global P reserves may be depleted in 50–100 years. This poses the challenge of securing future P supply for the global animal feed industries. Currently, nutritionists formulate diets with substantial safety margins to guarantee that animals do not become P deficient. Excessive dietary P concentrations increase, not only the cost of diets, but also P excretion and pollution of the environment. We contend that understanding P bioavailability is central to the sustainable use of this mineral in animal agriculture. Poultry accounts for approximately 50% of animal feed phosphate consumption worldwide and for this reason we use the meat chicken or broiler as a case study to explore the nuances of P bioavailability. We conclude that, to tackle the challenge of dietary P bioavailability, cooperative research on a global scale is needed to standardise measurement procedures in order to produce a robust and reliable database which can be used by nutritionists to formulate diets to meet the bird's P requirements precisely. Achievement of this goal will assist endeavours to sustain the global supply of phosphorus. Agriculture 2016-05-27 6 2 Review 10.3390/agriculture6020025 25 2077-0472 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/agriculture6020025 Xiuhua Li Dagong Zhang Tsung Yang Wayne Bryden http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/8/6/452 Studies related to vegetation dynamics in heterogeneous landscapes often require Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) datasets with both high spatial resolution and frequent coverage, which cannot be satisfied by a single sensor due to technical limitations. In this study, we propose a new method called NDVI-Bayesian Spatiotemporal Fusion Model (NDVI-BSFM) for accurately and effectively building frequent high spatial resolution Landsat-like NDVI datasets by integrating Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Landsat NDVI. Experimental comparisons with the results obtained using other popular methods (i.e., the Spatial and Temporal Adaptive Reflectance Fusion Model (STARFM), the Enhanced Spatial and Temporal Adaptive Reflectance Fusion Model (ESTARFM), and the Flexible Spatiotemporal DAta Fusion (FSDAF) method) showed that our proposed method has the following advantages: (1) it can obtain more accurate estimates; (2) it can retain more spatial detail; (3) its prediction accuracy is less dependent on the quality of the MODIS NDVI on the specific prediction date; and (4) it produces smoother NDVI time series profiles. All of these advantages demonstrate the strengths and the robustness of the proposed NDVI-BSFM in providing reliable high spatial and temporal resolution NDVI datasets to support other land surface process studies. Remote Sensing 2016-05-27 8 6 Article 10.3390/rs8060452 452 2072-4292 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/rs8060452 Limin Liao Jinling Song Jindi Wang Zhiqiang Xiao Jian Wang http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/8/6/457 Recent satellite observations yield estimates of the distribution of sea ice thickness across the entire Arctic Ocean. While these sensors were only placed in operation within the last few years, information from other sensors may assist us with estimating the distribution of sea ice thickness in the Arctic beginning in the 1980s. A previous study found that the age of sea ice is correlated to sea ice thickness from 2003 to 2006, but an extension of the temporal analysis is needed to better quantify this relationship and its variability from year to year. Estimates of the ice age/thickness relationship may allow the thickness record to be extended back to 1985, the beginning of our ice age dataset. Comparisons of ice age and thickness estimates derived from both ICESat (2004–2008) and IceBridge (2009–2015) reveal that the relationship between age and thickness differs between these two campaigns, due in part to the difference in area of coverage. Nonetheless, sea ice thickness and age exhibit a direct relationship when compared on pan-Arctic or regional spatial scales. Remote Sensing 2016-05-27 8 6 Article 10.3390/rs8060457 457 2072-4292 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/rs8060457 Mark Tschudi Julienne Stroeve J. Stewart http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/8/6/455 The body of scientific literature on slum mapping employing remote sensing methods has increased since the availability of more very-high-resolution (VHR) sensors. This improves the ability to produce information for pro-poor policy development and to build methods capable of supporting systematic global slum monitoring required for international policy development such as the Sustainable Development Goals. This review provides an overview of slum mapping-related remote sensing publications over the period of 2000–2015 regarding four dimensions: contextual factors, physical slum characteristics, data and requirements, and slum extraction methods. The review has shown the following results. First, our contextual knowledge on the diversity of slums across the globe is limited, and slum dynamics are not well captured. Second, a more systematic exploration of physical slum characteristics is required for the development of robust image-based proxies. Third, although the latest commercial sensor technologies provide image data of less than 0.5 m spatial resolution, thereby improving object recognition in slums, the complex and diverse morphology of slums makes extraction through standard methods difficult. Fourth, successful approaches show diversity in terms of extracted information levels (area or object based), implemented indicator sets (single or large sets) and methods employed (e.g., object-based image analysis (OBIA) or machine learning). In the context of a global slum inventory, texture-based methods show good robustness across cities and imagery. Machine-learning algorithms have the highest reported accuracies and allow working with large indicator sets in a computationally efficient manner, while the upscaling of pixel-level information requires further research. For local slum mapping, OBIA approaches show good capabilities of extracting both area- and object-based information. Ultimately, establishing a more systematic relationship between higher-level image elements and slum characteristics is essential to train algorithms able to analyze variations in slum morphologies to facilitate global slum monitoring. Remote Sensing 2016-05-27 8 6 Review 10.3390/rs8060455 455 2072-4292 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/rs8060455 Monika Kuffer Karin Pfeffer Richard Sliuzas http://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/6/2/50 In order to better understand the role of coal gangue in potential environmental and ecological risks, the leaching behavior of trace elements from coal gangue has been investigated in an open-cast coal mine, Inner Mongolia, China. Four comparative column leaching experiments were conducted to investigate the impacts of leaching time, pH values and sample amount on the leaching behavior of trace elements. Enrichment factors (EF), maximum leached amount (Lam), maximum leachability (Lrm), effects range low (ERL) and effects range median (ERM) were employed to evaluate potential environmental and ecological hazards resulting from the leaching behavior of environment-sensitive trace elements from coal gangue. Leaching time and sample amount display important effects on trace element concentrations, leached amounts and leachability. The pH values exhibit a weak influence on the leaching behavior of the selected trace elements (e.g., As, V, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Se, Cd, Sn, Pb and Hg). The coal gangue are enriched in As, Co, Se and Pb and, in particular, show higher environmental pollution levels of As and Se (EF > 2). Lam values suggest that all of the elements investigated do not show potential risk to soils and vegetation, but have a high hazard risk for ground water. Elements including Ni, As, Cr and Zn are inclined to show high or moderate biological toxicity. Minerals 2016-05-27 6 2 Article 10.3390/min6020050 50 2075-163X 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/min6020050 Liu Yang Jianfei Song Xue Bai Bo Song Ruduo Wang Tianhao Zhou Jianli Jia Haixia Pu http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/8/6/451 Brazil has one of the largest mangrove surfaces worldwide. Due to a wide latitudinal distribution, Brazilian mangroves can be found within a large range of environmental conditions. However, little attention has been given to the description of environmental variables driving the distribution of mangrove species in Brazil. In this study, we present a novel and unprecedented description of environmental conditions for all mangroves along the Brazilian coast focusing on species limits. We apply a descriptive statistics and data-driven approach using Self-Organizing Maps and we combine data from terrestrial and marine environmental geodatabases in a Geographical Information System. We evaluate 25 environmental variables (21 bioclimatic variables, three sea surface temperature derivates, and salinity). The results reveal three groups of correlated variables: (i) air temperature derivates and sea surface temperature derivates; (ii) air temperature, potential evapotranspiration and precipitation derivates; and (iii) precipitation derivates, aridity and salinity. Our results unveil new locations of extreme values of temperature and precipitation. We conclude that Rhizophora harrisonii and Rhizophora racemosa are more limited by precipitation and aridity and that they do not necessarily follow a latitudinal gradient. Our data also reveal that the lowest air temperatures of the coldest month are not necessarily found at the southernmost limits of mangroves in Brazil; instead they are localized at the Mesoregion of Vale do Itajaí. However, the minimum sea surface temperature drops gradually with higher latitudes in the Brazilian southern hemisphere and is probably a better indicator for the decrease of species at the latitudinal limits of mangroves than the air temperature and precipitation. Remote Sensing 2016-05-27 8 6 Article 10.3390/rs8060451 451 2072-4292 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/rs8060451 Arimatéa Ximenes Eduardo Maeda Gustavo Arcoverde Farid Dahdouh-Guebas http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/6/511 In today's era of information technology, human computer interaction and interface design are critical factors for a successful retail business. In a virtual world, the purpose of store layout is to create an environment that fascinates customers, entices them to spend more time in the store and encourages them to purchase from the store. The accomplishment of a successful retail business relies on a quick response and the adoption of new technologies that simplify the customer's shopping experience. Virtual stores play a vital role in enhancing the success of a retail business. Nowadays, digital signage is widely used to publicize different store contents. The aim of this paper is to select a distinct layout that can be used in digital signage. To enhance Customer Relationship Management (CRM), digital signage can be installed in various contexts, such as metro stations, shopping centers, airplane terminals, and so on. The proposed system scans the Quick Response (QR) code of a product, and the product then arrives at the user end. The tree, pipeline and guiding pathway layouts are employed in the context of digital signage. A questionnaire is used to determine customers' opinions on the most efficient layout. The statistical results show that layout significantly affects customer's behavior. Moreover, human computer interaction can help understand more about the customer's interaction with digital signage. Sustainability 2016-05-27 8 6 Article 10.3390/su8060511 511 2071-1050 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/su8060511 Muhammad Ijaz Wu Tao Jongtae Rhee Yong-Shin Kang Ganjar Alfian http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/8/6/453 The rapid and accurate assessment of above ground biomass (AGB) of woody vegetation is a critical component of climate mitigation strategies, land management practices and process-based models of ecosystem function. This is especially true of semi-arid ecosystems, where the high variability in precipitation and disturbance regimes can have dramatic impacts on the global carbon budget by rapidly transitioning AGB between live and dead pools. Measuring regional AGB requires scaling ground-based measurements using remote sensing, an inherently challenging task in the sparsely-vegetated, spatially-heterogeneous landscapes characteristic of semi-arid regions. Here, we test the ability of canopy segmentation and statistic generation based on aerial LiDAR (light detection and ranging)-derived 3D point clouds to derive AGB in clumps of vegetation in a juniper savanna in central New Mexico. We show that single crown segmentation, often an error-prone and challenging task, is not required to produce accurate estimates of AGB. We leveraged the relationship between the volume of the segmented vegetation clumps and the equivalent stem diameter of the corresponding trees (R2 = 0.83, p < 0.001) to drive the allometry for J. monosperma on a per segment basis. Further, we showed that making use of the full 3D point cloud from LiDAR for the generation of canopy object statistics improved that relationship by including canopy segment point density as a covariate (R2 = 0.91). This work suggests the potential for LiDAR-derived estimates of AGB in spatially-heterogeneous and highly-clumped ecosystems. Remote Sensing 2016-05-27 8 6 Article 10.3390/rs8060453 453 2072-4292 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/rs8060453 Dan Krofcheck Marcy Litvak Christopher Lippitt Amy Neuenschwander http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/6/515 The wide-ranging literature on food systems provides multiple perspectives and world views. Various stakeholders define food and food systems in non-equivalent ways. The perception of the performance of food systems is determined by these specific perspectives, and a wide variety of policies responding to different aims are proposed and implemented accordingly. This paper sets out to demonstrate that the pre-analytical adoption of different narratives about the food system leads to non-equivalent assessments of the performance of food supply chains. In order to do so, we (i) identify a set of relevant narratives on food supply chains in Spanish and Catalan contexts; (ii) identify the pertinent attributes needed to describe and represent food supply chains within the different perspectives or narratives; and (iii) carry out an integrated assessment of three organic tomato supply chains from the different perspectives. In doing so, the paper proposes an analysis of narratives to enable the analyst to characterize the performance of food supply chains from different perspectives and to identify the expected trade-offs of integrated assessment, associating them with the legitimate-but-contrasting views found among the social actors involved. Sustainability 2016-05-27 8 6 Article 10.3390/su8060515 515 2071-1050 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/su8060515 Gonzalo Gamboa Zora Kovacic Marina Di Masso Sara Mingorría Tiziano Gomiero Marta Rivera-Ferré Mario Giampietro http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/8/6/454 Sea surface temperature (SST) retrievals from satellite imager measurements are often performed using only two or three channels, and employ a regression methodology. As there are 16 thermal infrared (IR) channels available for MODIS, we demonstrate a new SST retrieval methodology using more channels and a physically deterministic method, the modified total least squares (MTLS), to improve the quality of SST. Since cloud detection is always a part of any parameter estimation from IR satellite measurements, we hereby extend our recently-published novel cloud detection technique, which is based on both functional spectral differences and radiative transfer modeling for GOES-13. We demonstrate that the cloud detection coefficients derived for GOES-13 are working well for MODIS, while further improvements are made possible by the extra channels replacing some of the previous tests. The results are compared with available operational MODIS SST through the Group for High Resolution SST website–the data themselves are originally processed by the NASA Goddard Ocean Biology Processing Group. It is observed the data coverage can be more than doubled compared to the currently-available operational product, and at the same time the quality can be improved significantly. Two other SST retrieval methods, offline-calculated coefficients using the same form of the operational regression equation, and radiative transfer based optimal estimation, are included for comparison purposes. Remote Sensing 2016-05-27 8 6 Article 10.3390/rs8060454 454 2072-4292 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/rs8060454 Prabhat Koner Andy Harris http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/8/6/227 Over three million hectares of salt-affected soils characterized with high salinity and sodicity caused serious land degradation in Songnen Plain, northeast China. Soil salinity–sodicity heterogeneous distribution under microtopography is usually influenced by several environmental factors. The side direction movement of soil water driven by water from depression is the key factor that aggravates the soil salinization under microtopography in dry condition. In this study, the differences in surface soil salinity–sodicity (0–10 cm) between dry year and wet year were compared, and the relationship between soil salinity–sodicity and environment factors such as ground elevation, surface ponding time, surface ponding depth, and soil moisture at four soil layers (0–10, 10–30, 30–60, and 60–100 cm) were analyzed using redundancy analysis (RDA) and simple correlation analysis (Pearson analysis) for two different hydrological years. Analyzed soil salinity–sodicity parameters include soluble ions (Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, CO32−, HCO3−, Cl− and SO42−), salt content (SC), electrical conductivity (EC), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), and pH. Results showed that values of SAR, Cl−, and SO42− were significantly higher in dry year than in wet year, while Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, and HCO3− showed the opposite results. Values of Na+, CO32−, and EC were significantly higher at higher ground elevation gradient (20–40 cm) in dry year than wet year. Redundancy analysis indicated that spatial distributions and variations of salinity and sodicity in surface soil layer were related with environmental factors of ponding depth, ponding time and ground elevation in wet year, and they were related with ground elevation, ponding depth, ponding time, and soil moisture at 30–60 and 60–100 cm soil layer in dry year. Ponding depth and ground elevation rank first and second as the influential factors of the spatial distribution and variation of soil salinity–sodicity in wet year. However in dry year, primary and secondary influential factors are ground elevation and soil moisture at 60–100 cm soil layer. Water 2016-05-27 8 6 Article 10.3390/w8060227 227 2073-4441 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/w8060227 Fan Yang Fenghua An Hongyuan Ma Zhichun Wang Xia Zhou Zhijun Liu http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/8/6/226 This study develops water footprint scenarios for Europe for 2050, at the country level, based on projections regarding population and economic growth, production and trade patterns, consumption patterns (diets and bioenergy use) and technological development. The objective is to estimate possible future changes in the green, blue and grey water footprint (WF) of production and consumption, to analyze the main drivers of projected changes and to assess Europe's future dependence on water resources elsewhere in the world. We develop four scenarios, considering globalization versus regional self-sufficiency, and development driven by economic objectives versus development driven by social and environmental objectives. The study shows that the most critical driver of change affecting Europe's future WF is the consumption pattern. The WFs of both production and consumption in Western Europe increase under scenarios with high meat consumption and decrease with low-meat scenarios. Besides, additional water demands from increasing biofuel needs will put further pressure on European water resources. The European countries with a large ratio of external to total WF of consumption in 2000 decrease their dependencies on foreign water resources in 2050. Water 2016-05-27 8 6 Article 10.3390/w8060226 226 2073-4441 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/w8060226 A. Ercin Arjen Hoekstra http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/6/514 Currently, strategies to mitigate urban heat island (UHI) effects and reduce building energy consumption are implemented worldwide. In Japan, as an effective means of mitigating UHI effects and saving energy of buildings, highly reflective (HR) roofs have increasingly been used. In this study, in order to evaluate the effect of HR roofs on building energy conservation, we investigated the solar reflectivity of a subject school roof in Osaka, Japan, in which HR roofing sheets were installed on the roof from 2010. Additionally, monthly and annual thermal loads, including the cooling load and heating load of the top floor of the school, were calculated using the thermal load calculation software New HASP/ACLD-β. Comparing the calculated thermal loads of the school after HR roofing sheet installation to before, the annual thermal load decreased about 25 MJ/m2/year, and the cooling load decreased about 112 MJ/m2/year. However, the heating load increased about 87 MJ/m2/year in winter. To minimize the annual thermal load, thermal insulation of the roof was also considered to be used together with HR roofing sheets. Thermal load calculations showed that the combination of HR roofing sheets and thermal insulation can be effective in further reducing the annual thermal load. Sustainability 2016-05-27 8 6 Article 10.3390/su8060514 514 2071-1050 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/su8060514 Jihui Yuan Kazuo Emura Craig Farnham http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/6/510 Changing societies' minds about sustainability requires knowledge about the situation, awareness of what needs to be done and actions to change today's unsustainable behaviors. Universities are challenged to develop students' ability to appreciate the complexities of sustainability and translate sustainability knowledge of education into systemic, anticipatory and critical thinking and actions. To meet this challenge, universities provide specific study programs and courses and integrate sustainability in education and activities. There is limited research on the results of such efforts from a student perspective. The study focused on an identical cohort of 108 undergraduate students who answered a survey about their self-perceived knowledge, awareness and actions before and after their studies in a Swedish university. All 108 students had sustainability integrated into their study programs; forty-eight also attended specific sustainability courses. The test model explains variations in students' self-perceived sustainability actions at the end of their studies. There were differences already in students' initial self-perceived knowledge between the groups. The students' female gender, self-perceived initial actions, studying sustainability courses as well as the increase in self-perceived sustainability knowledge contribute significantly to the later sustainability actions. The results show student development, which can encourage those working with education for sustainable development in universities. Sustainability 2016-05-27 8 6 Article 10.3390/su8060510 510 2071-1050 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/su8060510 Kaisu Sammalisto Agneta Sundström Robin von Haartman Tove Holm Zhilei Yao http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/416 Most distributed-generation facilities are performed on pre-built distribution grids. The design conditions of these existing grids may limit the ability of new users to get a connection due to technical and/or cost constraints. This work proposes a simple solution, adjusted to the relevant regulations and embodied in a radial distribution grid of Spanish low voltage, to improve the interconnection of distributed generation, usually grid connected photovoltaic systems. The proposed solution, based on increasing the section of the neutral line, achieves a capacity of increasing the length of the supply grid by more than 20%. Energies 2016-05-27 9 6 Article 10.3390/en9060416 416 1996-1073 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/en9060416 José Agüero-Rubio Javier López-Martínez José Rojas-Sola Ángel Callejón-Ferre http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/536 Safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) are fundamental to an improved standard of living. Globally, 91% of households used improved drinking water sources in 2015, while for improved sanitation it is 68%. Wealth disparities are stark, with rural populations, slum dwellers and marginalized groups lagging significantly behind. Service coverage is significantly lower when considering the new water and sanitation targets under the sustainable development goals (SDGs) which aspire to a higher standard of 'safely managed' water and sanitation. Lack of access to WASH can have an economic impact as much as 7% of Gross Domestic Product, not including the social and environmental consequences. Research points to significant health and socio-economic consequences of poor nutritional status, child growth and school performance caused by inadequate WASH. Groundwater over-extraction and pollution of surface water bodies have serious impacts on water resource availability and biodiversity, while climate change exacerbates the health risks of water insecurity. A significant literature documents the beneficial impacts of WASH interventions, and a growing number of impact evaluation studies assess how interventions are optimally financed, implemented and sustained. Many innovations in behavior change and service delivery offer potential for scaling up services to meet the SDGs. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2016-05-27 13 6 Review 10.3390/ijerph13060536 536 1660-4601 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/ijerph13060536 Guy Hutton Claire Chase http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/397 This paper presents improvement of a harmonics extraction algorithm, known as the fundamental active current (FAC) adaptive linear element (ADALINE) neural network with the integration of photovoltaic (PV) to shunt active power filters (SAPFs) as active current source. Active PV injection in SAPFs should reduce dependency on grid supply current to supply the system. In addition, with a better and faster harmonics extraction algorithm, the SAPF should perform well, especially under dynamic PV and load conditions. The role of the actual injection current from SAPF after connecting PVs will be evaluated, and the better effect of using FAC ADALINE will be confirmed. The proposed SAPF was simulated and evaluated in MATLAB/Simulink first. Then, an experimental laboratory prototype was also developed to be tested with a PV simulator (CHROMA 62100H-600S), and the algorithm was implemented using a TMS320F28335 Digital Signal Processor (DSP). From simulation and experimental results, significant improvements in terms of total harmonic distortion (THD), time response and reduction of source power from grid have successfully been verified and achieved. Energies 2016-05-27 9 6 Article 10.3390/en9060397 397 1996-1073 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/en9060397 Muhammad Mohd Zainuri Mohd Mohd Radzi Azura Che Soh Norman Mariun Nasrudin Abd Rahim Shahrooz Hajighorbani http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/6/513 Studying the driving factors and contributions of carbon emissions peak volume and time is essential for reducing the cumulative carbon emissions in developing countries with rapid economic development and increasing carbon emissions. Taking Jilin Province as a case study, four scenarios were set in this paper respectively: Business as Usual Scenario (BAU), Energy-Saving Scenario (ESS), Energy-Saving and Low-Carbon Scenario (ELS), and Low-Carbon Scenario (LCS). Furthermore, the carbon emissions were predicted according to the energy consumption based on the application of LEAP system. The research result showed that the peak time of carbon emissions would appear in 2045, 2040, 2035 and 2025 under the four different scenarios, respectively. The peak volumes would be 489.8 Mt, 395.2 Mt, 305.3 Mt and 233.6 Mt, respectively. The cumulative emissions by 2050 are respectively 15.632 Bt, 13.321 Bt, 10.971 Bt and 8.379 Bt. According to the forecasting, we analyzed the driving factors of and contributions to carbon emissions peak volume and time. On the premise of moderate economic growth, the "structural emission reduction", namely the adjustment of industrial structure and energy structure, and "technology emission reduction", namely the reduction of energy intensity and carbon emission coefficient could make the peak volume reduced by 20%–52% and cumulative carbon emissions (2050) reduced by 15%–46% on the basis of BAU. Meanwhile, controlling the industrial structure, energy structure and energy intensity could make carbon emissions reach the peak 5–20 years ahead of the time on the basis of BAU. Controlling GDP, industrial structure, energy structure, energy intensity and coefficient of carbon emissions is the feasible method to adjust the carbon emissions peak volume and time in order to reduce the cumulative emissions. Sustainability 2016-05-27 8 6 Article 10.3390/su8060513 513 2071-1050 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/su8060513 Lei Tian Zhe Ding Yongxuan Wang Haiyan Duan Shuo Wang Jie Tang Xian'en Wang http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/6/509 Increasingly pertinent linkages of cities via knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) in the 21st century have opened a new window for academia to reconsider the approach to achieving urban sustainability. In this study, city network was investigated with an aim of identifying its attributes in the framework of sustainable urban development. Data about China's KIBS, which are compiled in an inter-regional input–output table, were calculated following the procedure of social network analysis. It was found that: (1) the degree of nodes (i.e., out-degree, in-degree and betweenness) in China varies distinctively from city to city; (2) the hierarchy of the city network is very tiny; and (3) that the network structure is subject to both "a small world" and core–periphery effects. Furthermore, city nodes in China fall into four categories, namely high centrality and power, high centrality and low power, low centrality and high power, and low centrality and power. The implication is that governmental efforts should be made to secure a reasonable decentralization of key city nodes to ensure that urban sustainability is built on a city-to-city basis. Sustainability 2016-05-27 8 6 Article 10.3390/su8060509 509 2071-1050 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/su8060509 Kunhui Ye Guo Liu Yongwei Shan http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/537 Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is common among pre-school children in Shanghai. This study aimed to identify the risk factors for childhood AD from the perspectives of home environment, demographics and parents-grandparents' atopic disease. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Shanghai in April–June, 2010. Preschool children's parents or guardians were invited to participate a questionnaire survey in six districts (two urban and four suburban/rural) and 6624 children were finally recruited (51.3% boys). AD diagnosis was based on the U.K. Working Party's (UKWP) criteria. Adjusted odds ratios (AOR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated by multiple logistic regression. Results: A total of 8.5% of children ever had AD. Around 10.2% of the mothers had lived in newly renovated/decorated homes (NRDH) during the prenatal period (one year before or during pregnancy) and 9.5% got new home furniture (NHF) during the same period. AD was more common in children when mothers had lived in NRDH homes during the prenatal period (AOR = 1.41; 95% CI 1.03–1.93), the current home had indoor mold (2.00, 1.48–2.70), parents-grandparents' had atopic diseases (3.85, 3.05–4.87), the children had food allergy (3.40, 2.63–4.40) or children lived in urban area (1.52, 1.18–1.96). Associations between AD and NRDH, NHF and indoor molds were only significant in children without parents-grandparents' atopic diseases. There was an interaction effect between parents-grandparents' atopic diseases and NRDH (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Home renovation/ redecoration, new furniture and indoor mold, urban residency, heredity disposition and food allergy can be risk factors for childhood AD in Shanghai. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2016-05-27 13 6 Article 10.3390/ijerph13060537 537 1660-4601 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/ijerph13060537 Feng Xu Shuxian Yan Qile Zheng Fei Li Weihan Chai Minmin Wu Haidong Kan Dan Norback Jinhua Xu Zhuohui Zhao http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/413 Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technology is developing in order to achieve higher energy efficiency, reduced economic costs, and improved firmness and dispatchability in the generation of power on demand. To this purpose, a research project titled HYSOL has developed a new power plant, consisting of a combined cycle configuration with a 100 MWe steam turbine and an 80 MWe gas-fed turbine with biomethane. Technological developments must be supported by the identification, quantification, and evaluation of the environmental impacts produced. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the environmental performance of a CSP plant based on HYSOL technology using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology while considering different locations. The scenarios investigated include different geographic locations (Spain, Chile, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and South Africa), an alternative modelling procedure for biomethane, and the use of natural gas as an alternative fuel. Results indicate that the geographic location has a significant influence on the environmental profile of the HYSOL CSP plant. The results obtained for the HYSOL configuration located in different countries presented significant differences (between 35% and 43%, depending on the category), especially in climate change and water stress categories. The differences are mainly attributable to the local availability of solar and water resources and composition of the national electricity mix. In addition, HYSOL technology performs significantly better when hybridizing with biomethane instead of natural gas. This evidence is particularly relevant in the climate change category, where biomethane hybridization emits 27.9–45.9 kg CO2 eq per MWh (depending on the biomethane modelling scenario) and natural gas scenario emits 264 kg CO2 eq/MWh. Energies 2016-05-27 9 6 Article 10.3390/en9060413 413 1996-1073 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/en9060413 Blanca Corona Diego Ruiz Guillermo San Miguel http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/414 In this study, variable injection-rate technology was numerically investigated in a pre-existing discrete fracture network (DFN) formation, the Tarim Basin in China. A flow-stress-damage (FSD) coupling model has been used in an initial attempt towards how reservoir response to variable injection-rates at different hydraulic fracturing stages. The established numerical model simultaneously considered the macroscopic and microscopic heterogeneity characteristics. Eight numerical cases were studied. Four cases were used to study the variable injection-rate technology, and the other four cases were applied for a constant injection-rate in order to compare with the variable injection-rate technology. The simulation results show that the variable injection-rate technology is a potentially good method to a form complex fracturing networks. The hydraulic fracturing effectiveness when increasing the injection-rate at each stage is the best, also, the total injected fluid is at a minimum. At the initial stage, many under-fracturing points appear around the wellbore with a relatively low injection-rate; the sudden increase of injection rate drives the dynamic propagation of hydraulic fractures along many branching fracturing points. However, the case with decreasing injection rate is the worst. By comparing with constant injection-rate cases, the hydraulic fracturing effectiveness with variable flow rate technology is generally better than those with constant injection-rate technology. This work strongly links the production technology and hydraulic fracturing effectiveness evaluation and aids in the understanding and optimization of hydraulic fracturing simulations in naturally fractured reservoirs. Energies 2016-05-27 9 6 Article 10.3390/en9060414 414 1996-1073 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/en9060414 Yu Wang Xiao Li Bo Zhang http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/527 Waterborne disease outbreaks attributed to various pathogens and drinking water system characteristics have adversely affected public health worldwide throughout recorded history. Data from drinking water disease outbreak (DWDO) reports of widely varying breadth and depth were synthesized to investigate associations between outbreak attributes and human health impacts. Among 1519 outbreaks described in 475 sources identified during review of the primarily peer-reviewed, English language literature, most occurred in the U.S., the U.K. and Canada (in descending order). The outbreaks are most frequently associated with pathogens of unknown etiology, groundwater and untreated systems, and catchment realm-associated deficiencies (i.e., contamination events). Relative frequencies of outbreaks by various attributes are comparable with those within other DWDO reviews, with water system size and treatment type likely driving most of the (often statistically-significant at p < 0.05) differences in outbreak frequency, case count and attack rate. Temporal analysis suggests that while implementation of surface (drinking) water management policies is associated with decreased disease burden, further strengthening of related policies is needed to address the remaining burden attributed to catchment and distribution realm-associated deficiencies and to groundwater viral and disinfection-only system outbreaks. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2016-05-27 13 6 Review 10.3390/ijerph13060527 527 1660-4601 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/ijerph13060527 Grant Ligon Jamie Bartram http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/8/6/225 An adequate estimation of the extreme behavior of basin response is essential both for designing river structures and for evaluating their risk. The aim of this paper is to develop a new methodology to generate extreme hydrograph series of thousands of years using an event-based model. To this end, a spatial-temporal synthetic rainfall generator (RainSimV3) is combined with a distributed physically-based rainfall–runoff event-based model (RIBS). The use of an event-based model allows simulating longer hydrograph series with less computational and data requirements but need to characterize the initial basis state, which depends on the initial basin moisture distribution. To overcome this problem, this paper proposed a probabilistic calibration–simulation approach, which considers the initial state and the model parameters as random variables characterized by a probability distribution though a Monte Carlo simulation. This approach is compared with two other approaches, the deterministic and the semi-deterministic approaches. Both approaches use a unique initial state. The deterministic approach also uses a unique value of the model parameters while the semi-deterministic approach obtains these values from its probability distribution through a Monte Carlo simulation, considering the basin variability. This methodology has been applied to the Corbès and Générargues basins, in the Southeast of France. The results show that the probabilistic approach offers the best fit. That means that the proposed methodology can be successfully used to characterize the extreme behavior of the basin considering the basin variability and overcoming the basin initial state problem. Water 2016-05-27 8 6 Article 10.3390/w8060225 225 2073-4441 2016-05-27 doi: 10.3390/w8060225 Isabel Flores-Montoya Álvaro Sordo-Ward Luis Mediero Luis Garrote http://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/7/6/112 Changes in forest stand structure may alter the activity of invertase, urease, catalase and phenol oxidase after thinning Pinus tabuliformis (Carriére) plantations in Yanqing County of Beijing, China. We examined changes in these soil enzymes as influenced by time since thinning (24, 32, and 40 years since thinning) for 3 seasons (spring, summer and autumn) following harvesting at two depths in the mineral soil (0–10 cm and 10–20 cm). Invertase and urease increased significantly with time since thinning. Catalase activity was highest in the 24-year-old stand and there were no statistically significant differences between the 32- and 40-year-old stands. In addition, maximum invertase, urease, catalase, and phenol oxidase activities occurred during the summer; minimum activities occurred in autumn. Invertase and urease were positively correlated with each other, as were catalase and phenol oxidase. Most soil enzyme activity was higher in the 0–10 cm layer than at the 10–20 cm depth. As time from thinning increased, differences among soil depth became less significant. These results suggest that seasonal changes of these enzymes have different roles, as the time since thinning and thinning treatments may have both short- and long-term impacts on soil microbial activity. Forests 2016-05-26 7 6 Article 10.3390/f7060112 112 1999-4907 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/f7060112 Weiwei Wang Deborah Page-Dumroese Ruiheng Lv Chen Xiao Guolei Li Yong Liu http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/535 Driven by rising income and urban population growth, China has experienced rapid urban expansion since the 1980s. Urbanization can have positive effects on the urban environment; however, improvement of urban environment quality, especially its divergence between relatively developed and undeveloped cities in China, is currently a rather rudimentary and subjective issue. This study analyzed urban environmental benefits among China's prefectural cities based on their structure of urban land use in 2000 and 2010. First, we divided 347 prefectural cities into two groups, 81 coastal and capital cities in the relatively developed group (RD) and 266 other prefectural cities in the undeveloped group (RP). Then, we defined three areas of urban environmental benefits, including green infrastructure, industrial upgrade, and environmental management, and developed an assessment index system. Results showed that all prefectural cities saw improvement in urban environmental quality in 2000–2010. Although the RD cities had higher income and more population growth, they had less improvement than the RP cities during the same period. We also found that demographic and urban land agglomeration among RD cities restrained green infrastructure expansion, making green infrastructure unsuitable as a permanent solution to environmental improvement. It is therefore urgent for China to promote balanced improvement among the three areas of urban environmental benefits and between the RD and RP cities through regional differentiation policies. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2016-05-26 13 6 Article 10.3390/ijerph13060535 535 1660-4601 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/ijerph13060535 Xiaoqing Song Kang-tsung Chang Liang Yang Jürgen Scheffran http://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/6/2/24 The success of precision agriculture relies largely on our ability to identify how the plants' growth limiting factors vary in time and space. In the field, several stress factors may occur simultaneously, and it is thus crucial to be able to identify the key limitation, in order to decide upon the correct contra-action, e.g., herbicide application. We performed a pot experiment, in which spring wheat was exposed to water shortage, nitrogen deficiency, weed competition (Sinapis alba L.) and fungal infection (Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici) in a complete, factorial design. A range of sensor measurements were taken every third day from the two-leaf stage until booting of the wheat (BBCH 12 to 40). Already during the first 10 days after stress induction (DAS), both fluorescence measurements and spectral vegetation indices were able to differentiate between non-stressed and stressed wheat plants exposed to water shortage, weed competition or fungal infection. This meant that water shortage and fungal infection could be detected prior to visible symptoms. Nitrogen shortage was detected on the 11–20 DAS. Differentiation of more than one stress factors with the same index was difficult. Agriculture 2016-05-26 6 2 Article 10.3390/agriculture6020024 24 2077-0472 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/agriculture6020024 Gerassimos Peteinatos Audun Korsaeth Therese Berge Roland Gerhards http://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/6/2/23 In this study, responses of rice under drought stress correlating with changes in chemical compositions were examined. Among 20 studied rice cultivars, Q8 was the most tolerant, whereas Q2 was the most susceptible to drought. Total phenols, total flavonoids, and antioxidant activities, and their accumulation in water deficit conditions were proportional to drought resistance levels of rice. In detail, total phenols and total flavonoids in Q8 (65.3 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE) and 37.8 mg rutin equivalent (RE) were significantly higher than Q2 (33.9 mg GAE/g and 27.4 mg RE/g, respectively) in both control and drought stress groups. Similarly, the antioxidant activities including DPPH radical scavenging, β-carotene bleaching, and lipid peroxidation inhibition in Q8 were also higher than in Q2, and markedly increased in drought stress. In general, contents of individual phenolic acids in Q8 were higher than Q2, and they were significantly increased in drought stress to much greater extents than in Q2. However, p-hydroxybenzoic acid was found uniquely in Q8 cultivars. In addition, only vanillic acid was found in water deficit stress in both drought resistant and susceptible rice, suggesting that this phenolic acid, together with p-hydroxybenzoic acid, may play a key role in drought-tolerance mechanisms of rice. The use of vanillic acid and p-hyroxybenzoic acid, and their derivatives, may be useful to protect rice production against water shortage stress. Agriculture 2016-05-26 6 2 Article 10.3390/agriculture6020023 23 2077-0472 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/agriculture6020023 Nguyen Quan La Anh Do Khang Phung Tuyen Nguyen Toan Truong Minh Luong Minh Do Bach Pham Ha Abdelnaser Elzaawely Tran Khanh Khuat Trung Tran Xuan http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/409 Remaining useful life (RUL) estimation is considered as one of the most central points in the prognostics and health management (PHM). The present paper describes a nonlinear hybrid ABC–MARS-based model for the prediction of the remaining useful life of aircraft engines. Indeed, it is well-known that an accurate RUL estimation allows failure prevention in a more controllable way so that the effective maintenance can be carried out in appropriate time to correct impending faults. The proposed hybrid model combines multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS), which have been successfully adopted for regression problems, with the artificial bee colony (ABC) technique. This optimization technique involves parameter setting in the MARS training procedure, which significantly influences the regression accuracy. However, its use in reliability applications has not yet been widely explored. Bearing this in mind, remaining useful life values have been predicted here by using the hybrid ABC–MARS-based model from the remaining measured parameters (input variables) for aircraft engines with success. A correlation coefficient equal to 0.92 was obtained when this hybrid ABC–MARS-based model was applied to experimental data. The agreement of this model with experimental data confirmed its good performance. The main advantage of this predictive model is that it does not require information about the previous operation states of the aircraft engine. Energies 2016-05-26 9 6 Article 10.3390/en9060409 409 1996-1073 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/en9060409 Paulino García Nieto Esperanza García-Gonzalo Antonio Bernardo Sánchez Marta Menéndez Fernández http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/8/6/450 Snow on Antarctic sea ice plays a key role for sea ice physical processes and complicates retrieval of sea ice thickness using altimetry. Current methods of snow depth retrieval are based on satellite microwave radiometry, which perform best for dry, homogeneous snow packs on level sea ice. We introduce an alternative approach based on in-situ measurements of total (sea ice plus snow) freeboard and snow depth, which we use to compute snow depth on sea ice from Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) total freeboard observations. We compare ICESat snow depth for early winter and spring of the years 2004 through 2006 with the Advanced Scanning Microwave Radiometer aboard EOS (AMSR-E) snow depth product. We find ICESat snow depths agree more closely with ship-based visual and air-borne snow radar observations than AMSR-E snow depths. We obtain average modal and mean ICESat snow depths, which exceed AMSR-E snow depths by 5–10 cm in winter and 10–15 cm in spring. We observe an increase in ICESat snow depth from winter to spring for most Antarctic regions in accordance with ground-based observations, in contrast to AMSR-E snow depths, which we find to stay constant or to decrease. We suggest satellite laser altimetry as an alternative method to derive snow depth on Antarctic sea ice, which is independent of snow physical properties. Remote Sensing 2016-05-26 8 6 Article 10.3390/rs8060450 450 2072-4292 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/rs8060450 Stefan Kern Burcu Ozsoy-Çiçek http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/8/6/444 We investigate terrestrial water storage (TWS) changes over the Sichuan Basin and the related impacts of water variations in the adjacent basins from GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment), in situ river level, and precipitation data. Although GRACE shows water increased over the Sichuan Basin from January 2003 to February 2015, two heavy droughts in 2006 and 2011 have resulted in significant water deficits. Correlations of 0.74 and 0.56 were found between TWS and mean river level/precipitation within the Sichuan Basin, respectively, indicating that the Sichuan Basin TWS is influenced by both of the local rainfall and water recharge from the adjacent rivers. Moreover, water sources from the neighboring basins showed different impacts on water deficits observed by GRACE during the two severe droughts in the region. This provides valuable information for regional water management in response to serious dry conditions. Additionally, the Sichuan Basin TWS is shown to be influenced more by the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) than the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), especially for the January 2003–July 2012 period with a correlation of −0.66. However, a strong positive correlation of 0.84 was found between TWS and ENSO after August 2012, which is a puzzle that needs further investigation. This study shows that the combination of other hydrological variables can provide beneficial applications of GRACE in inter-basin areas. Remote Sensing 2016-05-26 8 6 Article 10.3390/rs8060444 444 2072-4292 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/rs8060444 Chaolong Yao Zhicai Luo Haihong Wang Qiong Li Hao Zhou http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/8/6/448 In Lesotho, snow cover is not only highly relevant to the climate system, but also affects socio-economic factors such as water storage for irrigation or hydro-electricity. However, while sound knowledge of annual and inter-annual snow dynamics is strongly required by local stakeholders, in-situ snow information remains limited. In this study, satellite data are used to generate a time series of snow cover and to provide the missing information on a national scale. A snow retrieval method, which is based on MODIS data and considers the concept of a normalized difference snow index (NDSI), has been implemented. Monitoring gaps due to cloud cover are filled by temporal and spatial post-processing. The comparison is based on the use of clear sky reference images from Landsat-TM and ENVISAT-MERIS. While the snow product is considered to be of good quality (mean accuracy: 68%), a slight bias towards snow underestimation is observed. Based on the daily product, a consistent time series of snow cover for Lesotho from 2000–2014 was generated for the first time. Analysis of the time series showed that the high annual variability of snow coverage and the short duration of single snow events require daily monitoring with a gap-filling procedure. Remote Sensing 2016-05-26 8 6 Article 10.3390/rs8060448 448 2072-4292 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/rs8060448 Stefan Wunderle Timm Gross Fabia Hüsler http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/8/6/449 The European Space Agency has acquired 10 years of data on the temporal and spatial distribution of phytoplankton biomass from the MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) sensor for ocean color. The phytoplankton biomass was estimated with the MERIS product Algal Pigment Index 1 (API 1). Seasonal-Trend decomposition of time series based on Loess (STL) identified the temporal variability of the dynamical features in the MERIS products for water leaving reflectance (ρw(λ)) and API 1. The advantages of STL is that it can identify seasonal components changing over time, it is responsive to nonlinear trends, and it is robust in the presence of outliers. One of the novelties in this study is the development and the implementation of an automatic procedure, stl.fit(), that searches the best data modeling by varying the values of the smoothing parameters, and by selecting the model with the lowest error measure. This procedure was applied to 10 years of monthly time series from Sagres in the Southwestern Iberian Peninsula at three Stations, 2, 10 and 18 km from the shore. Decomposing the MERIS products into seasonal, trend and irregular components with stl.fit(), the ρw(λ) indicated dominance of the seasonal and irregular components while API 1 was mainly dominated by the seasonal component, with an increasing effect from inshore to offshore. A comparison of the seasonal components between the ρw(λ) and the API 1 product, showed that the variations decrease along this time period due to the changes in phytoplankton functional types. Furthermore, inter-annual seasonal variation for API 1 showed the influence of upwelling events and in which month of the year these occur at each of the three Sagres stations. The stl.fit() is a good tool for any remote sensing study of time series, particularly those addressing inter-annual variations. This procedure will be made available in R software. Remote Sensing 2016-05-26 8 6 Article 10.3390/rs8060449 449 2072-4292 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/rs8060449 Sónia Cristina Clara Cordeiro Samantha Lavender Priscila Costa Goela John Icely Alice Newton http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/411 Hybrid powertrain technologies are successful in the passenger car market and have been actively developed in recent years. Optimal topology selection, component sizing, and controls are required for competitive hybrid vehicles, as multiple goals must be considered simultaneously: fuel efficiency, emissions, performance, and cost. Most of the previous studies explored these three design dimensions separately. In this paper, two novel frameworks combining these three design dimensions together are presented and compared. One approach is nested optimization which searches through the whole design space exhaustively. The second approach is called enhanced iterative optimization, which executes the topology optimization and component sizing alternately. A case study shows that the later method can converge to the global optimal design generated from the nested optimization, and is much more computationally efficient. In addition, we also address a known issue of optimal designs: their sensitivity to parameters, such as varying vehicle weight, which is a concern especially for the design of hybrid buses. Therefore, the iterative optimization process is applied to design a robust multi-mode hybrid electric bus under different loading scenarios as the final design challenge of this paper. Energies 2016-05-26 9 6 Article 10.3390/en9060411 411 1996-1073 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/en9060411 Weichao Zhuang Xiaowu Zhang Huei Peng Liangmo Wang http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/6/502 This study assessed the environmental effects and cost of the Industrial Waste addictive Blast Furnace Slag (W-BFS) using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and compared it to general BFS. The environmental impacts of W-BFS were as follows: 1.12 × 10−1 kg-CO2 eq/kg, 3.18 × 10−5 kg-Ethylene eq/kg, 4.79 × 10−4 kg-SO2 eq/kg, 7.15 × 10−4 kg-PO43− eq/kg, 7.15 × 10−4 kg-CFC11 eq/kg and 3.94 × 10−3 kg-Antimony eq/kg. Among the environmental impact category, GWP and AP were 9.28 × 10−2 kg-CO2 eq/kg and 3.33 × 10−4 kg-SO2 eq/kg at a raw material stage, accounting for 80% and 70% of total environmental impact respectively. In EP, POCP and ADP, in addition, raw material stage accounted for a great portion in total environmental impact because of "W" among input materials. In ODP, however, compared to the environmental impact of raw materials, oil, which was used in transporting BFS to the W-BFS manufacturing factory, was more influential. In terms of GWP, POCP and ODP, W-BFS was higher than general BFS. In terms of AP, EP and ADP, in contrast, the former was lower than the latter. In terms of cost, W-BFS (41.7 US$/ton) was lower than general BFS by about 17% because of the use of waste additives comprised of industrial wastes instead of natural gypsum ,which has been commonly used in general BFS. In terms of GWP and POCP, the W-BFS mixed (30%) concrete was lower than plain concrete by 25%. In terms of AP and EP, the former was lower than the latter by 30%. In terms of ADP, furthermore, W-BFS mixed (30%) concrete was lower than plain concrete by 11%. In aggregate-related ODP, however, almost no change was found. In terms of cost, when W-BFS was added by 10% and 30%, it was able to reduce cost by 3% and 7% respectively, compared to plain concrete. Compared to BFS-mixed concrete as well, cost could be saved by 1% additionally because W-BFS (US$41.7/ton) is lower than common cement (US$100.3/ton) by about 60% in terms of production costs. Sustainability 2016-05-26 8 6 Article 10.3390/su8060502 502 2071-1050 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/su8060502 Tae Kim Sung Tae Chang Chae Won Choi http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/6/508 In the context of "new normal" economy and frequent "haze", the strategy of energy conservation and emission reduction aiming to lower costs and reduce pollution is currently still a major strategic direction in China and the world, and will remain so for some time in the future. This paper uses the annual data of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil price in 1987–2014 as samples. We firstly present the direction and mechanism of the influence of oil price change on total consumption of every kind of energy by path analysis, and then consider establishing a Structural Vector Autoregression model of energy conservation and emission reduction in three statuses. Research shows that if the international oil price increases by 1%, the energy consumption per GDP and carbon dioxide emission increase by 0.092% and 0.053% respectively in the corresponding period. In the status of high energy consumption and high emission, if the international oil price increases by 1%, the energy consumption per GDP and carbon dioxide emission increase by 0.043% and 0.065% respectively in the corresponding period. In the status of low energy consumption and low emission, if the international oil price increases by 1%, the energy consumption per GDP per unit increases by 0.067% and carbon dioxide emission decreases by 0.085% in the corresponding period. Sustainability 2016-05-26 8 6 Article 10.3390/su8060508 508 2071-1050 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/su8060508 Jian Chai Youhong Zhou Ting Liang Limin Xing Kin Lai http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/7/6/75 Large explosive volcanic eruptions are capable of injecting considerable amounts of particles and sulfur gases above the tropopause, causing large increases in stratospheric aerosols. Five major volcanic eruptions after 1960 (i.e., Agung, St. Helens, El Chichón, Nevado del Ruiz and Pinatubo) have been considered in a numerical study conducted with a composition-climate coupled model including an aerosol microphysics code for aerosol formation and growth. Model results are compared between an ensemble of numerical simulations including volcanic aerosols and their radiative effects (VE) and a reference simulations ensemble (REF) with no radiative impact of the volcanic aerosols. Differences of VE-REF show enhanced diabatic heating rates; increased stratospheric temperatures and mean zonal westerly winds; increased planetary wave amplitude; and tropical upwelling. The impact on stratospheric upwelling is found to be larger when the volcanically perturbed stratospheric aerosol is confined to the tropics, as tends to be the case for eruptions which were followed by several months with easterly shear of the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO), e.g., the Pinatubo case. Compared to an eruption followed by a period of westerly QBO, such easterly QBO eruptions are quite different, with meridional transport to mid- and high-latitudes occurring later, and at higher altitude, with a consequent decrease in cross-tropopause removal from the stratosphere, and therefore longer decay timescale. Comparing the model-calculated e-folding time of the volcanic aerosol mass during the first year after the eruptions, an increase is found from 8.1 and 10.3 months for El Chichón and Agung (QBO westerly shear), to 14.6 and 30.7 months for Pinatubo and Ruiz (QBO easterly shear). The corresponding e-folding time of the global-mean radiative flux changes goes from 9.1 and 8.0 months for El Chichón and Agung, to 28.7 and 24.5 months for Pinatubo and Ruiz. Atmosphere 2016-05-26 7 6 Article 10.3390/atmos7060075 75 2073-4433 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/atmos7060075 Giovanni Pitari Glauco Di Genova Eva Mancini Daniele Visioni Ilaria Gandolfi Irene Cionni http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/534 Dichlorprop-P and bentazone have been widely used in the prevention and control of weeds in wheat field ecosystems. There is a concern that pesticide residues and metabolites remain on or in the wheat. Thus, the study of the determination and monitoring of their residues in wheat has important significance. A rapid, simple and reliable QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe) method was modified, developed and validated for the determination of dichlorprop-P, bentazone and its metabolites (6-hydroxy-bentazone and 8-hydroxy-bentazone) in wheat (wheat plants, wheat straw and grains of wheat) using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). The average recoveries of this method ranged from 72.9% to 108.7%, and the limits of quantification (LOQs) were 2.5–12 μg/kg. The dissipation and final residue of four compounds in three provinces (Shandong, Jiangsu and Heilongjiang) in China were studied. The trial results showed that the half-lives of dichlorprop-P and bentazone were 1.9–2.5 days and 0.5–2.4 days in wheat plants, respectively. The terminal residues in grains of wheat and wheat straw at harvest were all much below the maximum residue limit (MRL) of 0.2 mg/kg for dichlorprop-P and 0.1 mg/kg for bentazone established by the European Union (EU, Regulation No. 396/2005). International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2016-05-26 13 6 Article 10.3390/ijerph13060534 534 1660-4601 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/ijerph13060534 Xiaoxiao Feng Jianlei Yu Lixiang Pan Guochun Song Hongyan Zhang http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/410 The main objective of this paper was to study a bidirectional direct current to direct current converter (BDC) topology with a high voltage conversion ratio for electric vehicle (EV) batteries connected to a dc-microgrid system. In this study, an unregulated level converter (ULC) cascaded with a two-phase interleaved buck-boost charge-pump converter (IBCPC) is introduced to achieve a high conversion ratio with a simpler control circuit. In discharge state, the topology acts as a two-stage voltage-doubler boost converter to achieve high step-up conversion ratio (48 V to 385 V). In charge state, the converter acts as two cascaded voltage-divider buck converters to achieve high voltage step-down conversion ratio (385 V to 48 V). The features, operation principles, steady-state analysis, simulation and experimental results are made to verify the performance of the studied novel BDC. Finally, a 500 W rating prototype system is constructed for verifying the validity of the operation principle. Experimental results show that highest efficiencies of 96% and 95% can be achieved, respectively, in charge and discharge states. Energies 2016-05-26 9 6 Article 10.3390/en9060410 410 1996-1073 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/en9060410 Ching-Ming Lai http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/412 A physics-based explicit mathematical model for the external voltage-dependent forward dark current in bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells is developed by considering Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recombination and solving the continuity equations for both electrons and holes. An analytical model for the external voltage-dependent photocurrent in BHJ organic solar cells is also proposed by incorporating exponential photon absorption, dissociation efficiency of bound electron-hole pairs (EHPs), carrier trapping, and carrier drift and diffusion in the photon absorption layer. Modified Braun's model is used to compute the electric field-dependent dissociation efficiency of the bound EHPs. The overall net current is calculated considering the actual solar spectrum. The mathematical models are verified by comparing the model calculations with various published experimental results. We analyze the effects of the contact properties, blend compositions, charge carrier transport properties (carrier mobility and lifetime), and cell design on the current-voltage characteristics. The power conversion efficiency of BHJ organic solar cells mostly depends on electron transport properties of the acceptor layer. The results of this paper indicate that improvement of charge carrier transport (both mobility and lifetime) and dissociation of bound EHPs in organic blend are critically important to increase the power conversion efficiency of the BHJ solar cells. Energies 2016-05-26 9 6 Article 10.3390/en9060412 412 1996-1073 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/en9060412 Mesbahus Saleheen Salman Arnab M. Kabir http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/4/2/37 Remodeling of rocky coasts and erosion rates have been widely studied in past years, but not all the involved processes acting over rocks surface have been quantitatively evaluated yet. The first goal of this paper is to revise the different methodologies employed in the quantification of the effect of biotic agents on rocks exposed to coastal morphologic agents, comparing their efficiency. Secondly, we focus on geological methods to assess and quantify bio-remodeling, presenting some case studies in an area of the Mediterranean Sea in which different geological methods, inspired from the revised literature, have been tested in order to provide a quantitative assessment of the effects some biological covers exert over rocky platforms in tidal and supra-tidal environments. In particular, different experimental designs based on Schmidt hammer test results have been applied in order to estimate rock hardness related to different orders of littoral platforms and the bio-erosive/bio-protective role of Chthamalus ssp. and Verrucariaadriatica. All data collected have been analyzed using statistical tests to evaluate the significance of the measures and methodologies. The effectiveness of this approach is analyzed, and its limits are highlighted. In order to overcome the latter, a strategy combining geological and experimental–computational approaches is proposed, potentially capable of revealing novel clues on bio-erosion dynamics. An experimental-computational proposal, to assess the indirect effects of the biofilm coverage of rocky shores, is presented in this paper, focusing on the shear forces exerted during hydration-dehydration cycles. The results of computational modeling can be compared to experimental evidence, from nanoscopic to macroscopic scales. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 2016-05-26 4 2 Review 10.3390/jmse4020037 37 2077-1312 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/jmse4020037 Marta Pappalardo Markus Buehler Alessandro Chelli Luca Cironi Federica Pannacciulli Zhao Qin http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/6/512 This paper uses a market potential approach to examine the evolution of the rail transport network of China and its spatial distributional impacts on local accessibility, with a particular focus on high-speed rail improvements. Accessibility is measured by using a "market potential" function that was derived from the general equilibrium model of the economic geography literature, and is empirically calculated based on Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques. A key finding, albeit from a highly stylized model, is that rail improvements may help raise territorial polarizing patterns across counties. The results point to the profound implications of railroad network expansion on the accessibility dynamics in periphery regions relative to core regions. Sustainability 2016-05-26 8 6 Article 10.3390/su8060512 512 2071-1050 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/su8060512 Wenjie Wu Yutian Liang Di Wu http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/6/507 With the development of new generation technology and the low-carbon economy, the smart low-carbon city has become one of the academic hotspots. Many studies on it have begun; however, the dynamic mechanism is rarely involved. Therefore, this paper uses the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method to creatively take a quantitative study on a Chinese smart low-carbon city's dynamic mechanism. The results show that: (1) the three main dynamics of smart low-carbon city development in China are institutional and cultural conditions, facilities and functions conditions and economy and industry conditions, but the overall utility is relatively low; (2) the level of the dynamic operation mechanism of the Chinese smart low-carbon city is distinct between regions, indicating a diminishing spatial law from east to west and differences within regions; (3) the imbalance of the comprehensive dynamic mechanism and the operation status between smart low-carbon cities is prominent, showing a decreasing urban scale law of from big to small and differences within each scale, and a descending administration hierarchy law from high to low and differences within each class; (4) seven basic development patterns can be obtained, and most of the cities belong to the external strong/internal weak mode, which basically matches with its development realities. Finally, general policy recommendations and countermeasures of optimization and improvement are proposed. Sustainability 2016-05-26 8 6 Article 10.3390/su8060507 507 2071-1050 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/su8060507 Bo Pang Chuanglin Fang Haimeng Liu http://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/5/6/77 The recent urban growth of Florence was mainly oriented northward, thus determining the urbanization of the flatland and the inclusion within a unique conurbation of a number of pre-existing urban nuclei. Over time, the congestion of the inner core has caused more and more prominent activities to shift towards this developing area, which is today one of the most attractive parts of the whole settlement, counterbalancing the representativeness and the touristic attractiveness of the historic center of Florence. This paper is concerned with the use of space syntax in order to reconstruct the genesis of the configurational geography of Florence. Configurational values at different dates will be cross-referenced with vehicular traffic data, so as to pinpoint the actual inclusion of the motorway A1, touching Florence on its western side, within the urban grid of Florence and its influence in the distribution of local traffic flows. Aside from this case study, this method can be extended to the general issue of the management of motorways in metropolitan areas. More in general, this approach is proposed as a suitable tool for interconnecting spatial issues and traffic questions, so as to concur in bridging the gap between urban design, focused on the morphologic features of blocks and buildings, and transport analysis, strictly concerned with the distribution of movement flows on the street network. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 2016-05-26 5 6 Article 10.3390/ijgi5060077 77 2220-9964 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/ijgi5060077 Valerio Cutini http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/399 Repowering is a process for transforming an old power plant for greater capacity and/or higher efficiency. As a consequence, the repowered plant is characterized by higher power output and less specific CO2 emissions. Usually, repowering is performed by adding one or more gas turbines into an existing steam cycle which was built decades ago. Thus, traditional repowering results in combined cycles (CC). High temperature fuel cells (such as solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC)) could also be used as a topping cycle, achieving even higher global plant efficiency and even lower specific CO2 emissions. Decreasing the operating temperature in a SOFC allows the use of less complex materials and construction methods, consequently reducing plant and the electricity costs. A lower working temperature makes it also suitable for topping an existing steam cycle, instead of gas turbines. This is also the target of this study, repowering of an existing power plant with SOFC as well as gas turbines. Different repowering strategies are studied here, repowering with one gas turbine with and without supplementary firing, repowering with two gas turbines with and without supplementary firing and finally repowering using SOFC. Plant performances and CO2 emissions are compared for the suggested repowered plants. Energies 2016-05-26 9 6 Article 10.3390/en9060399 399 1996-1073 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/en9060399 Masoud Rokni http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/8/6/224 Water has often been the source of crises and their frequency will intensify due to climate change impacts. The Niagara River Watershed provides an ideal case to study water crises as it is an international transboundary system (Canada-United States) and has both historical and current challenges associated with water quantity and quality, which resonates broadly in water basins throughout the world. The aim of this study was to understand how stakeholders perceive ecosystems and the relationship with preferences for governance approaches in the context of water governance. An online survey instrument was employed to assess perceptions of the system in terms of resilience (engineering, ecological, social-ecological, or epistemic), preferences for governance approaches (state, citizen, market, and hybrid forms), and the most pressing issues in the watershed. Responses showed that, despite demographic differences and adherence to different resilience perspectives, support was strongest for governance approaches that focused on state or state-citizen hybrid forms. The validity of the resilience typology as a grouping variable is discussed. The roles of institutional constraints, pragmatism in governance approach preferences, and the influence of multiple crises are explored in relation to the context of the study site, as well as to water governance scholarship more broadly. Water 2016-05-26 8 6 Article 10.3390/w8060224 224 2073-4441 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/w8060224 Julia Baird Ryan Plummer Ryan Bullock Diane Dupont Tim Heinmiller Marilyne Jollineau Wendee Kubik Steven Renzetti Liette Vasseur http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/404 A novel modular arc-linear flux-switching permanent-magnet motor (MAL-FSPM) used for scanning system instead of reduction gearboxes and kinematic mechanisms is proposed and researched in this paper by the finite element method (FEM). The MAL-FSPM combines characteristics of flux-switching permanent-magnet motor and linear motor and can realize the direct driving and limited angular movement. Structure and operation principle of the MAL-FSPM are analyzed. Cogging torque model of the MAL-FSPM is established. The characteristics of cogging torque and torque ripple are investigated for: (1) distance (dend) between left end of rotor and left end of stator is more than two rotor tooth pitch (τp); and (2) dend is less than two rotor tooth pitch. Cogging torque is an important component of torque ripple and the period ratio of the cogging torque to the back electromotive force (EMF) equals one for the MAL-FSPM before optimization. In order to reduce the torque ripple as much as possible and affect the back EMF as little as possible, influence of period ratio of cogging torque to back EMF on rotor step skewing is investigated. Rotor tooth width and stator slot open width are optimized to increase the period ratio of cogging torque to back EMF. After the optimization, torque ripple is decreased by 79.8% for dend > τp and torque ripple is decreased by 49.7% for dend < τp. Finally, 3D FEM model is established to verify the 2D results. Energies 2016-05-26 9 6 Article 10.3390/en9060404 404 1996-1073 2016-05-26 doi: 10.3390/en9060404 Xiangdong Liu Zhongxin Gu Jing Zhao http://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/6/6/36 The objective was to describe the incidence of failure to finish a race in flat-racing Thoroughbreds in New Zealand as these are summary indicators of falls, injuries and poor performance. Retrospective data on six complete flat racing seasons (n = 188,615 race starts) of all Thoroughbred flat race starts from 1 August 2005 to 31 July 2011 were obtained. The incidence of failure to finish events and binomial exact 95% confidence intervals were calculated per 1000 horse starts. The association between horse-, rider- and race-level variables with the outcomes failure to finish, pulled-up/fell and lost rider were examined with a mixed effects Poisson regression model. A total of 544 horses failed to finish in 188,615 race starts with an overall incidence of 2.88 per 1000 horse starts (95% CI 2.64–3.12). The incidence of failure to finish horses across each race year showed little variability. In the univariable analysis race distance, larger field size, season, and ratings bands showed association with failing to finish a race. The overall failure to finish outcome was associated with season, race distance and ratings bands (horse experience and success ranking criteria). In the multivariable analysis, race distance and ratings bands were associated with horses that pulled-up/fell; season, apprentice allowances and ratings bands were associated with the outcome lost rider. The failure to finish rate was lower than international figures for race day catastrophic injury. Racing and environmental variables were associated with failure to finish a race highlighting the multifactorial nature of race-day events. Further investigation of risk factors for failure to finish is required to better understand the reasons for a low failure to finish rate in Thoroughbred flat races in New Zealand. Animals 2016-05-25 6 6 Article 10.3390/ani6060036 36 2076-2615 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/ani6060036 Jasmine Tanner Chris Rogers Charlotte Bolwell Naomi Cogger Erica Gee Wayne Mcllwraith http://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/7/6/111 Urban trees have gained in importance during recent decades, but little is known about the temporal dynamic of tree growth in urban areas. The present study investigated the allometric relationships of stem diameter, tree height, and crown radius for six different tree species in six metropolises worldwide. Increment cores of the trees were used for identifying the relationship of basal area and basal area increment and for extrapolating the temporal dynamics for each species in relation to the allometric parameters and growth extensions. Space limitation and its direct influence on growth were quantified, as well as the aboveground woody biomass and the carbon storage capacity. The results show that, among the investigated species, Quercus nigra and Khaya senegalensis have the highest growth rates for stem diameter and crown radius, whereas Tilia cordata and Aesculus hippocastanum remain on a lower level. A significant reduction of tree growth due to restricted non-paved area was found for Aesculus hippocastanum and Khaya senegalensis. Estimations of aboveground biomass were highest for Quercus nigra and lowest for Tilia cordata. These results show the species-specific allometries of urban trees over a projected time period. Thus, the data set is highly relevant for planners and urban green managers. Forests 2016-05-25 7 6 Article 10.3390/f7060111 111 1999-4907 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/f7060111 Jens Dahlhausen Peter Biber Thomas Rötzer Enno Uhl Hans Pretzsch http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/8/6/223 This study investigates the runoff-sediment relationship (RSR) of the Weihe River, a sandy waterway originating from the Loess Plateau, and considers the potential variations in RSR under an evolving environment. The double mass curve method was used to investigate RSR inflection points at six hydrologic stations located in the Weihe River basin (WRB) spanning the period from 1956 to 2010. Because of its ability to accurately define nonlinear and asymmetric correlations between variables, the Copula function provided the joint probability distributions and revealed the joint probabilities of annual runoff and sediment yield through different periods. The results indicated: (1) The sediment yield and runoff exhibit decreasing trends, which was principally related to human activity such as soil and water conservation measures, water projects and industrial and domestic water use, (2) the RSR inflection points principally occurred around 1983 at the Weijiabu, Xianyang, Huaxian and Zhuangtou stations, whereas they were non-significant at the Linjiacun and Zhangjiashan stations. Changes in RSR are attributed to the irregular effect of human activity reducing the runoff and sediment output; and (3) the joint probability distributions of annual runoff and sediment yield varied under an evolving environment and were characterized by spatial variability, which is more evident in the mainstream areas of the Weihe River than in the tributary regions. Water 2016-05-25 8 6 Article 10.3390/w8060223 223 2073-4441 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/w8060223 Aijun Guo Jianxia Chang Yimin Wang Qiang Huang http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/8/6/446 Lake levels in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) provide valuable records for climate change studies. We use two decades of measurements (January 1993–December 2014) from the TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P)-family satellite altimeters (T/P, Jason-1 and -2) to detect lake level variations at 23 lakes along their repeat ground tracks every 10 days. We employ an optimal processing technique to obtain quality measurements, including outlier detection, averaging and filtering. The lake level accuracies are improved by subwaveform retracking. Jason-1 delivers few measurements after waveform retracking and a cluster classification at most lakes. From January 1993 to December 2014, most lake levels in eastern Tibet rose, while those in western Tibet declined. In Qinghai, lake levels dropped before 2005 and then rose afterwards, coinciding with the measure in 2005 that protects the Qinghai ecosystem (e.g., grassland conservation). The overall pattern of lake level change in the QTP is largely affected by monsoons and lake locations. Most lake levels show clear annual and inter-annual oscillations. Certain lakes show alternating level highs and lows in the same seasons and varying amplitudes of annual oscillations due to lake level changes. We detect a sudden rise of lake level by 7 m caused by floods, varying lake level trends associated with the 1997‒98 El Niño and other factors, and persistently rising and declining lake levels associated with the long-term precipitation trends in the QTP. The T/P-family satellites will continue to monitor lake levels here as long as the sea level monitoring program lasts, collecting a long-term climate record at highlands echoing sea level change. Remote Sensing 2016-05-25 8 6 Article 10.3390/rs8060446 446 2072-4292 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/rs8060446 Cheinway Hwang Yung-Sheng Cheng Jiancheng Han Ricky Kao Chi-Yun Huang Shiang-Hung Wei Haihong Wang http://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/5/6/76 Urban density must be considered a key concept in the description of a city's urban spatial structure. Countless studies have provided evidence of a close relationship between built density and activity densities, on the one hand, and urban environmental conditions or social practices, on the other hand. However, despite the concept's common use in urban research, urban density is a rather fuzzy and highly complex concept that is accompanied by a confusing variety of indicators and measurement approaches. To date, an internationally-accepted standard for the implementation of density indicators that permits a robust comparison of different countries, regions or cities is widely missing. This paper discusses the analytical opportunities that recent remote sensing data offer in regard to an objective and transparent measurement of built density patterns of city regions. It furthermore clarifies the interrelations between built and activity densities. We apply our approach to four German city regions to demonstrate the analytical capacity of spatially-refined density indicators for the purposes of comparative urban research at a regional scale. In so doing, we contribute to a more encompassing and robust understanding of the urban density concept when analyzing regional morphology. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 2016-05-25 5 6 Article 10.3390/ijgi5060076 76 2220-9964 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/ijgi5060076 Angelika Krehl Stefan Siedentop Hannes Taubenböck Michael Wurm http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/401 With the recent shale gas boom, the U.S. is expected to have very large natural gas resources. In this respect, the key question is would it be better to rely completely on free market resource allocations which would lead to large exports of natural gas or to limit natural gas exports so that more could be used in the U.S.. After accounting for the cost of liquefying the natural gas and shipping it to foreign markets, the current price difference leaves room for considerable profit to producers from exports. In addition, there is a large domestic demand for natural gas from various sectors such as electricity generation, industrial applications, and the transportation sector etc. A hybrid modeling approach has been carried out using our version of the well-known MARket ALlocation (MARKAL)-Macro model to keep bottom-up model richness with macro effects to incorporate price and gross domestic product (GDP) feedbacks. One of the conclusion of this study is that permitting higher natural gas export levels leads to a small reduction in GDP (0.04%–0.17%). Higher exports also increases U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and electricity prices (1.1%–7.2%). We also evaluate the impacts of natural gas exports in the presence of a Clean Energy Standard (CES) for electricity. In this case, the GDP impacts are similar, but the electricity and transport sector impacts are different. Energies 2016-05-25 9 6 Article 10.3390/en9060401 401 1996-1073 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/en9060401 Kemal Sarıca Wallace Tyner http://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/5/2/41 Volatile composition of essential oils from dill, parsley, coriander, and mint were investigated at different harvest dates to determine the most suitable harvest time for each these herbs. Hydrodistillation (HD), using a Deryng system, was used for isolating the essential oils. Isolation and identification of the volatile compounds were performed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) instrument. The results of gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID) analysis (quantification) showed that the main components in the essential oil of dill shoots were α-phellandrene, dill ether, and β-phellandrene, and the optimal harvest date was D2 (second harvest, fourth week of February 2015). For parsley shoots, the main compounds were 1,3,8-p-menthatriene, β-phellandrene, and P1 (first harvest, third week of November 2014) was the sample with the highest essential oil. For coriander, the main compounds were E-2-dodecenal, dodecanal, and octane and the highest contents were found at C2 (second harvest, 5 February 2015); while, the main two components of mint essential oil were carvone and limonene, and the highest contents were found at M1 (first harvest, second week of December 2014). The present study was the first one reporting data on descriptive sensory analysis of aromatic herbs at this optimal harvest date according to the content of volatile compounds of their essential oils. Foods 2016-05-25 5 2 Article 10.3390/foods5020041 41 2304-8158 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/foods5020041 Hussein El-Zaeddi Juan Martínez-Tomé Ángel Calín-Sánchez Francisco Burló Ángel Carbonell-Barrachina http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/6/500 In 2011, the Departments of Architecture, Physics and Engineering began the development of a small Passivhaus standard, renewable energy self-sufficient studio at the University Botanical Gardens in Dundee. The prototype was conceived as an experimental, integrated technical platform to monitor the performance of an ultra-low-energy consumption, energy positive building in the Scottish climate, and understand user behaviour in relation to managing energy in-use and reducing occupant's energy consumption. The building fabric has been constructed using regional sustainable materials, including a low-thermal bridging timber kit relying on Scottish small cross-section timber and a novel foam concrete (air entrained) slab foundation. While further work is required to complete the installation of the renewable energy system, predictive modelling indicates that energy autonomy can be largely achieved. With the recent introduction of the new Passivhaus 2009 criteria in October 2015, this project provides an insight into the practical application of an autarkic energy system in a northern European climate. The following paper describes the research rationale, the processes and decision making in the development of the formal and technical design of the building and discusses our current thinking in the design and quantification of the energy system. Sustainability 2016-05-25 8 6 Article 10.3390/su8060500 500 2071-1050 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/su8060500 Neil Burford Rod Jones Stephen Reynolds David Rodley http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/6/506 How to accurately measure the interprovincial CO2 emissions is key to achieving the task of energy saving and emission reduction. Electric power is very important for economy development. At the same time, the amount of interprovincial electric power dispatching is very large in China, so it is obligatory to measure the CO2 emissions from both electricity production and consumption perspectives. We have measured China's interprovincial CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion during 2000–2014, in which the revised regional electric power CO2 emissions are used to adjust interprovincial CO2 emissions. The obtained results show that: no matter from which perspective one considers the situation, the overall CO2 emissions of China are almost the same amount. From different perspectives, the interprovincial CO2 emissions are different. In terms of the production perspective, CO2 emissions of Beijing, Hebei, Shandong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong are underestimated. However, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Shaanxi are overestimated. If the electric power dispatching is not considered, it is unfairly portrayed as transferring CO2 emissions from the electricity input provinces to the output ones, because the electricity input provinces enjoy clean energy, but the electricity production ones pay for the environmental pollution. Sustainability 2016-05-25 8 6 Article 10.3390/su8060506 506 2071-1050 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/su8060506 Xueping Tao Ping Wang Bangzhu Zhu http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/531 Male osteoporosis in Malaysia is a largely neglected problem. Therefore, a bone health study in men using quantitative ultrasonometry was launched as part of the Malaysian Aging Men Study in 2009–2012. This review aimed to summarize the findings of the aforementioned bone health study. The study examined the bone health of Chinese and Malaysian men aged 20 years and above living in Kuala Lumpur using a quantitative ultrasound device. Participants answered a questionnaire on their demographic details and physical activity status. Body anthropometry of the participants was measured and their blood collected for biochemical analysis. Results showed that a significant proportion of the Malaysian Chinese and Malay men had suboptimal bone health indicated by calcaneal speed of sound and vitamin D status. Age-related decline of the calcaneal speed of sound in these men was gradual and biphasic without ethnic difference. Body anthropometry such as height, weight, body mass index, and body fat percentage contributed to the variation of the calcaneal speed of sound in Malaysian men. Age-related changes in testosterone, insulin-like growth factor 1, and thyroid stimulating hormone also influenced the calcaneal speed of sound in these men. This study serves as a reminder that male osteoporosis in Malaysia should be an issue of concern. It is also a basis for a more comprehensive study on bone health in men in the future. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2016-05-25 13 6 Review 10.3390/ijerph13060531 531 1660-4601 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/ijerph13060531 Kok-Yong Chin Wan Wan Ngah Soelaiman Ima-Nirwana http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/533 Referring to the comments of Svingen [1] on our latest publication about Effects of in utero Exposure to Dicyclohexyl Phthalate on Rat Fetal Leydig Cells [2], we would like to give some comments.[...] International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2016-05-25 13 6 Reply 10.3390/ijerph13060533 533 1660-4601 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/ijerph13060533 Xiaoheng Li Xiaomin Chen Guoxin Hu Linxi Li Huina Su Yiyan Wang Dongxin Chen Qiqi Zhu Chao Li Junwei Li Mingcang Wang Qingquan Lian Ren-Shan Ge http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/532 Profiling the expression levels of genes or proteins in tissues comprising two or more cell types is commonplace in biological sciences. Such analyses present particular challenges, however, for example a potential shift in cellular composition, or 'cellularity', between specimens. That is, does an observed change in expression level represent what occurs within individual cells, or does it represent a shift in the ratio of different cell types within the tissue? This commentary attempts to highlight the importance of considering cellularity when interpreting quantitative expression data, using the mammalian testis and a recent study on the effects of phthalate exposure on testis function as an example. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2016-05-25 13 6 Comment 10.3390/ijerph13060532 532 1660-4601 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/ijerph13060532 Terje Svingen http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/530 Women tend to gain weight at midlife (40–60 years) increasing risk of obesity-related chronic diseases. Within specific eating occasions, needs related to the physical and social environment may result in less healthy eating behavior, which can lead to weight gain over time. The purpose of this study was to determine if a dietitian-delivered nutrition counseling intervention tailored to eating occasion needs could improve diet and prevent weight gain among midlife women over two years. A randomized controlled trial was conducted with healthy midlife women (n = 354) in one U.S. metropolitan area. The intervention group (n = 185) received ten hours of individual nutrition counseling from dietitians over six months, while women in a control group (n = 169) received no counseling. Measured height, weight and waist circumference, and dietary intakes were collected at baseline and every six months over two years. Mixed linear models were used to test for intervention effect on change in outcome variables over time. Dietary intakes of fruit, reduced/low-fat dairy foods and refined grains were significantly improved over time in the intervention compared to control group. However, the intervention had no effect on weight over time (p = 0.48). Nutrition counseling tailored to address eating occasion needs improved self-reported diet but did not significantly affect weight change. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2016-05-25 13 6 Article 10.3390/ijerph13060530 530 1660-4601 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/ijerph13060530 Courtney Perry Dennis Degeneffe Cynthia Davey Grace Kollannoor-Samuel Marla Reicks http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/8/6/222 One of the aspects highlighted in the Framework for Action and other key documents produced by the Groundwater Governance Project (funded by GEF and implemented by UNESCO, FAO, World Bank and IAH) is the interdependence between groundwater and human activities related to other physical components of the real world. Consequently, it is important in groundwater governance to make essential linkages with other components of the water cycle (IWRM), with sanitation and wastewater management, with land use and land use practices, with energy and with the uses of subsurface space and other subsurface resources. This paper presents an overall description of the multiple uses of the subsurface space and of the exploitation and management of subsurface resources. It attempts to give an impression of intensities and trends in use and exploitation, of the possible interactions and of current and potential efforts to control negative impacts of such interactions. It concludes by briefly summarizing in three simple steps how to improve groundwater governance by making appropriate linkages with uses of the subsurface space and subsurface resources. Water 2016-05-25 8 6 Review 10.3390/w8060222 222 2073-4441 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/w8060222 Jac van der Gun Alice Aureli Andrea Merla http://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/5/2/40 As nations seek to address obesity and diet-related chronic disease, understanding shifts in food intake over time is an imperative. However, quantifying intake of basic foods is not straightforward because of the diversity of raw and cooked wholefoods, processed foods and mixed dishes actually consumed. In this study, data from the Australian national nutrition surveys of 1995 and 2011, each involving more than 12,000 individuals and covering more than 4500 separate foods, were coherently disaggregated into basic foods, with cooking and processing factors applied where necessary. Although Australians are generally not eating in a manner consistent with national dietary guidelines, there have been several positive changes. Australians are eating more whole fruit, a greater diversity of vegetables, more beans, peas and pulses, less refined sugar, and they have increased their preference for brown and wholegrain cereals. Adult Australians have also increased their intake of nuts and seeds. Fruit juice consumption markedly declined, especially for younger Australians. Cocoa consumption increased and shifts in dairy product intake were mixed, reflecting one of several important differences between age and gender cohorts. This study sets the context for more detailed research at the level of specific foods to understand individual and household differences. Foods 2016-05-25 5 2 Article 10.3390/foods5020040 40 2304-8158 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/foods5020040 Bradley Ridoutt Danielle Baird Kathryn Bastiaans Gilly Hendrie Malcolm Riley Peerasak Sanguansri Julie Syrette Manny Noakes http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/405 Rising demand, climate change, growing fuel costs, outdated power system infrastructures, and new power generation technologies have made renewable distribution generators very attractive in recent years. Because of the increasing penetration level of renewable energy sources in addition to the growth of new electrical demand sectors, such as electrical vehicles, the power system may face serious problems and challenges in the near future. A revolutionary new power grid system, called smart grid, has been developed as a solution to these problems. The smart grid, equipped with modern communication and computation infrastructures, can coordinate different parts of the power system to enhance energy efficiency, reliability, and quality, while decreasing the energy cost. Since conventional distribution networks lack smart infrastructures, much research has been recently done in the distribution part of the smart grid, called smart distribution grid (SDG). This paper surveys contemporary literature in SDG from the perspective of the electricity market in addition to power system considerations. For this purpose, this paper reviews current demand side management methods, supply side management methods, and electrical vehicle charging and discharging techniques in SDG and also discusses their drawbacks. We also present future research directions to tackle new and existing challenges in the SDG. Energies 2016-05-25 9 6 Review 10.3390/en9060405 405 1996-1073 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/en9060405 Poria Hasanpor Divshali Bong Choi http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/6/505 This paper discusses the assessment of various biofuel crop production alternatives on the island of Fuerteventura using Jatropha crops. It adopts an integrated approach by carrying out a multi-criteria assessment with the support of participatory techniques and geographical information systems. Sixteen production alternatives were analyzed for growing Jatropha, and the results suggest that the best alternative involves using typical torrifluvent soils irrigated with recycled urban wastewater using surface drip irrigation covering 100% evapotranspiration. It was also determined that a potential area of 2546 ha could be used for cultivation within a radius of 10 km from a wastewater treatment plant. This level of production would supply 27.56% of the biofuel needs of Fuerteventura, thereby contributing to the 2020 target of the European Commission regarding biofuels for land transport. Sustainability 2016-05-25 8 6 Article 10.3390/su8060505 505 2071-1050 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/su8060505 Serafin Corral David Romero Manrique de Lara Marisa Tejedor Salguero Carmen Jimenez Mendoza David Legna-de la Nuez María Dorta Santos Francisco Díaz Peña http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/8/6/447 This paper presents a new approach for the registration of airborne LiDAR point clouds by finding and matching corresponding linear plane features. Linear plane features are a type of common feature in an urban area and are convenient for obtaining feature parameters from point clouds. Using such linear feature parameters, the 3D rigid body coordination transformation model is adopted to register the point clouds from different trajectories. The approach is composed of three steps. In the first step, an OpenStreetMap-aided method is applied to select simply-structured roof pairs as the corresponding roof facets for the registration. In the second step, the normal vectors of the selected roof facets are calculated and input into an over-determined observation system to estimate the registration parameters. In the third step, the registration is be carried out by using these parameters. A case dataset with a two trajectory point cloud was selected to verify the proposed method. To evaluate the accuracy of the point cloud after registration, 40 checkpoints were manually selected; the results of the evaluation show that the general accuracy is 0.96 m, which is approximately 1.6 times the point cloud resolution. Furthermore, two overlap zones were selected to measure the surface-difference between the two trajectories. According to the analysis results, the average surface-distance is approximately 0.045–0.129 m. Remote Sensing 2016-05-25 8 6 Article 10.3390/rs8060447 447 2072-4292 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/rs8060447 Hangbin Wu Hongchao Fan http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/8/6/443 An advanced SAR interferometric analysis has been combined with a methodology for the automatic classification of radar reflectors phase histories to interpret slope-failure kinematics and trend of displacements of slow-moving landslides. To accomplish this goal, the large dataset of radar images, acquired in more than 20 years by the two European Space Agency (ESA) missions ERS-1/2 and ENVISAT, was exploited. The analysis was performed over the northern sector of Island of Malta (central Mediterranean Sea), where extensive landslides occur. The study was assisted by field surveys and with the analysis of existing thematic maps and landslide inventories. The outcomes allowed definition of a model capable of describing the geomorphological evolution of slow-moving landslides, providing a key for interpreting such phenomena that, due to their slowness, are usually scarcely investigated. Remote Sensing 2016-05-25 8 6 Article 10.3390/rs8060443 443 2072-4292 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/rs8060443 Matteo Mantovani Stefano Devoto Daniela Piacentini Mariacristina Prampolini Mauro Soldati Alessandro Pasuto http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/400 Voltage source converter (VSC)-based high voltage direct current (VSC-HVDC) interconnectors can realize accurate and fast control of power transmission among AC networks, and provide emergency power support for AC networks. VSC-HVDC interconnectors bring exclusive fault characteristics to AC networks, thus influencing the performance of traditional protections. Since fault characteristics are related to the control schemes of interconnectors, a fault ride-through (FRT) strategy which is applicable to the interconnector operating characteristic of working in four quadrants and capable of eliminating negative-sequence currents under unbalanced fault conditions is proposed first. Then, the additional terms of measured impedances of distance relays caused by fault resistances are derived using a symmetrical component method. Theoretical analysis shows the output currents of interconnectors are controllable after faults, which may cause malfunctions in distance protections installed on lines emanating from interconnectors under the effect of fault resistances. Pilot protection is also inapplicable to lines emanating from interconnectors. Furthermore, a novel pilot protection principle based on the ratio between phase currents and the ratio between negative-sequence currents flowing through both sides is proposed for lines emanating from the interconnectors whose control scheme aims at eliminating negative-sequence currents. The validity of theoretical analysis and the protection principle is verified by PSCAD/EMTDC simulations. Energies 2016-05-25 9 6 Article 10.3390/en9060400 400 1996-1073 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/en9060400 Shimin Xue Jingyue Yang Yanxia Chen Cunping Wang Zhe Shi Miao Cui Botong Li http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/403 This paper investigated the prospects of biodiesel production from macadamia oil as an alternative fuel for diesel engine. The biodiesel was produced using conventional transesterification process using the base catalyst (KOH). A multi-cylinder diesel engine was used to evaluate the performance and emission of 5% (B5) and 20% (B20) macadamia biodiesel fuel at different engine speeds and full load condition. It was found that the characteristics of biodiesel are within the limit of specified standards American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM D6751) and comparable to diesel fuel. This study also found that the blending of macadamia biodiesel–diesel fuel significantly improves the fuel properties including viscosity, density (D), heating value and oxidation stability (OS). Engine performance results indicated that macadamia biodiesel fuel sample reduces brake power (BP) and increases brake-specific fuel consumption (BSFC) while emission results indicated that it reduces the average carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC) and particulate matter (PM) emissions except nitrogen oxides (NOx) than diesel fuel. Finally, it can be concluded that macadamia oil can be a possible source for biodiesel production and up to 20% macadamia biodiesel can be used as a fuel in diesel engines without modifications. Energies 2016-05-25 9 6 Article 10.3390/en9060403 403 1996-1073 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/en9060403 Md Rahman Mohammad Rasul Nur Hassan Justin Hyde http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/528 Background: Hemorrhage is a leading cause of preventable trauma death. In this study, we used the reverse shock index (RSI), a ratio of systolic blood pressure (SBP) to heart rate (HR), to evaluate the hemodynamic stability of trauma patients. As an SBP lower than the HR (RSI < 1) may indicate hemodynamic instability, the objective of this study was to assess the associated complications in trauma patients with an RSI < 1 upon arrival at the emergency department (ED) (indicated as (A)RSI) and at the time of departure from the ED (indicated as (L)RSI) to the operative room or for admission. Methods: Data obtained from all 16,548 hospitalized patients recorded in the trauma registry system at a Level I trauma center between January 2009 and December 2013 were retrospectively reviewed. A total of 10,234 adult trauma patients aged ≥20 were enrolled and subsequently divided into four groups: Group I, (A)RSI ≥ 1 and (L)RSI ≥ 1 (n = 9827); Group II, (A)RSI ≥ 1 and (L)RSI < 1 (n = 76); Group III, (A)RSI < 1 and (L)RSI ≥ 1 (n = 251); and Group IV, (A)RSI < 1 and (L)RSI < 1 (n = 80). Pearson's χ2 test, Fisher's exact test, or independent Student's t-test was conducted to compare trauma patients in Groups II, III, and IV with those in Group I. Results: Patients in Groups II, III, and IV had a higher injury severity score and underwent a higher number of procedures, including intubation, chest tube insertion, and blood transfusion, than Group I patients. Additionally, patients of these groups had increased hospital length of stay (16.3 days, 14.9 days, and 22.0 days, respectively), proportion of patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) (48.7%, 43.0%, and 62.5%, respectively), and in-hospital mortality (19.7%, 7.6%, and 27.5%, respectively). Although the trauma patients who had a SBP < 90 mmHg either upon arrival at or departure from the ED also present a more severe injury and poor outcome, those patients who had a SBP ≥ 90 mmHg but an RSI < 1 had a more severe injury and poor outcome than those patients who had a SBP ≥ 90 mmHg and an RSI ≥ 1. Conclusions: SBP lower than heart rate (RSI < 1) either upon arrival at or departure from the ED may indicate a detrimental sign of poor outcome in adult trauma patients even in the absence of noted hypotension. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2016-05-25 13 6 Article 10.3390/ijerph13060528 528 1660-4601 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/ijerph13060528 Wei-Hung Lai Shao-Chun Wu Cheng-Shyuan Rau Pao-Jen Kuo Shiun-Yuan Hsu Yi-Chun Chen Hsiao-Yun Hsieh Ching-Hua Hsieh http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/406 The effects of using a wind acceleration device (wind lens) with vertical-axis wind turbines in wind tunnel experiments were examined. A wind lens consists of a diffuser and flanges, and this study investigated the optimum parameters of their configuration with regard to the power augmentation of the turbines. The wind lens with a flat-panel-type diffuser demonstrated power augmentation by a factor of 2.0 compared with an open wind turbine. An increase from 5° to 20° in the semi-open angle of the diffuser made it possible to generate a 30% high power output over a wide range of tip speed ratios. On that basis, an optimum semi-open angle was determined. For the flat-panel-type diffuser, a recommended diffuser length is the half of the throat width, and its semi-open angle is 20°.The inlet enhanced power augmentation over a wide range of tip speed ratios. The optimum location for the wind lens in the streamwise direction was aligned with the center of the vertical-axis wind turbines. The diffuser with a curved surface was more effective regarding power augmentation than flat-panel-type diffusers. The wind lens with a curved surface diffuser demonstrated power augmentation by a factor of about 2.1 compared with an open wind turbine. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that a two-bladed wind turbine with symmetric NACA0024-type airfoils was most suitable for the incorporation of a wind lens to generate higher power output. Energies 2016-05-25 9 6 Article 10.3390/en9060406 406 1996-1073 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/en9060406 Koichi Watanabe Shuhei Takahashi Yuji Ohya http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/396 The investigation of various aspects of the wave climate at a wave energy test site is essential for the development of reliable and efficient wave energy conversion technology. This paper presents studies of the wave climate based on nine years of wave observations from the 2005–2013 period measured with a wave measurement buoy at the Lysekil wave energy test site located off the west coast of Sweden. A detailed analysis of the wave statistics is investigated to reveal the characteristics of the wave climate at this specific test site. The long-term extreme waves are estimated from applying the Peak over Threshold (POT) method on the measured wave data. The significant wave height and the maximum wave height at the test site for different return periods are also compared. In this study, a new approach using a mixed-distribution model is proposed to describe the long-term behavior of the significant wave height and it shows an impressive goodness of fit to wave data from the test site. The mixed-distribution model is also applied to measured wave data from four other sites and it provides an illustration of the general applicability of the proposed model. The methodologies used in this paper can be applied to general wave climate analysis of wave energy test sites to estimate extreme waves for the survivability assessment of wave energy converters and characterize the long wave climate to forecast the wave energy resource of the test sites and the energy production of the wave energy converters. Energies 2016-05-25 9 6 Article 10.3390/en9060396 396 1996-1073 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/en9060396 Wei Li Jan Isberg Rafael Waters Jens Engström Olle Svensson Mats Leijon http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/407 The estimation and policy use of spatially explicit discrete choice models has yet to receive serious attention from practitioners. In this study we aim to analyze how geographical variables influence individuals' sensitivity to key features of heating systems, namely investment cost and CO2 emissions. This is of particular policy interest as heating systems are strongly connected to two major current environmental issues: emissions of pollutants and increased use of renewable resources. We estimate a mixed logit model (MXL) to spatially characterize preference heterogeneity in the mountainous North East of Italy. Our results show that geographical variables are significant sources of variation of individual's sensitivity to the investigated attributes of the system. We generate maps to show how the willingness to pay to avoid CO2 emissions varies across the region and to validate our estimates ex-post. We discuss why this could be a promising approach to inform applied policy decisions. Energies 2016-05-25 9 6 Article 10.3390/en9060407 407 1996-1073 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/en9060407 Cristiano Franceschinis Riccardo Scarpa Mara Thiene John Rose Michele Moretto Raffaele Cavalli http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/8/6/221 Satellite-based precipitation monitoring at high spatial resolution is crucial for assessing the water and energy cycles at the global and regional scale. Based on the recently released 7th version of the Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) product of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), and the monthly precipitation data (3B43) are evaluated using observed monthly precipitation from 65 meteorological stations in Jiangsu Province, China, for the period 1998–2014. Additionally, the standardized precipitation index (SPI), which is derived by a nonparametric approach, is employed to investigate the suitability of the TRMM 3B43 precipitation data for drought monitoring in Jiangsu Province. The temporal correlations between observations and the TRMM 3B43 precipitation data show, in general, reasonable agreement for different time scales. However, in summer, only 50% of the stations present correlation coefficients that are statistically significant at the 95% confidence interval. The overall best agreement of TRMM 3B43 precipitation data at seasonal scale tends to occur in autumn (SON). The comparative analysis of the calculated SPI time series suggests that the accuracy of TRMM3B43 decreases with increasing time scale. Stations with significant correlation coefficients also become less spatially homogeneous with increasing time scale. In summary, the findings demonstrate that TRMM 3B43 precipitation data can be used for reliable short-term drought monitoring in Jiangsu province, while temporal-spatial limitations exist for longer time scales. Water 2016-05-25 8 6 Article 10.3390/w8060221 221 2073-4441 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/w8060221 Hui Tao Thomas Fischer Yan Zeng Klaus Fraedrich http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/8/6/220 Previous studies that quantified variations in runoff have mainly focused on the combined impacts of climate and human activities or climate and land cover change. Few have separated land cover change from human activities, which is critical for effective management of water resources. This study aims to investigate the impact of changing environmental conditions on runoff using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model; we examined three categories: climate, land cover change and direct human activities. The study area was the Wei River Basin, a typical arid to semi-arid basin that was divided into five sub-zones (UZ, MZ, DZ, JZ and BZ). Our results showed the following: (1) the calibrated SWAT model produced satisfactory monthly flow processes over the baseline period from 1978 to 1986; (2) compared to the baseline period, the impact of climatic variations decreased and the impact of direct human activities increased from the 1990s to the 2000s, while the impact of land cover change was generally stable; and (3) climatic variations were the main cause of runoff declines over the entire basin during the 1990s and in the UZ, MZ and JZ areas during the 2000s, while direct human activities were most important in the DZ and BZ areas during the 2000s. Water 2016-05-25 8 6 Article 10.3390/w8060220 220 2073-4441 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/w8060220 Yunyun Li Jianxia Chang Yimin Wang Wenting Jin Aijun Guo http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/7/6/74 Welding is an important and widely used process in the manufacturing and maintenance of various works involving metals and alloys. While welding has broad applications, the welding fume generated during the process has impacts on workers' health, which needs to be addressed. One of the major steps that can be undertaken to take care of this issue is the use of ventilation, which requires knowledge of characteristics and dispersion of the welding fume in the workers' breathing zone. It is difficult to assess welding fume dispersion from manual measurement due to numerous welding processes and sufficient data requirement. Numerical prediction of welding fume is dubious due to several errors. This paper considers the use of numerically predicted CO2 concentrations to indirectly predict welding fume distribution in workshops. This is based on the assumption that if the particles are sufficiently small size, they follow the diffusion pattern of gases. Experiments are carried out in a room with an opening and a welding fume generation system for measurement of CO2 and fume diffusion. The results show high possibility of predicting welding fume concentration based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulated CO2 concentration with a correlation coefficient of 0.74. Atmosphere 2016-05-25 7 6 Article 10.3390/atmos7060074 74 2073-4433 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/atmos7060074 Sujit Dahal Taehyeung Kim Kwangseog Ahn http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/529 Children are becoming less likely to have direct contact with nature. This ongoing loss of human interactions with nature, the extinction of experience, is viewed as one of the most fundamental obstacles to addressing global environmental challenges. However, the consequences for biodiversity conservation have been examined very little. Here, we conducted a questionnaire survey of elementary schoolchildren and investigated effects of the frequency of direct (participating in nature-based activities) and vicarious experiences of nature (reading books or watching TV programs about nature and talking about nature with parents or friends) on their affective attitudes (individuals' emotional feelings) toward and willingness to conserve biodiversity. A total of 397 children participated in the surveys in Tokyo. Children's affective attitudes and willingness to conserve biodiversity were positively associated with the frequency of both direct and vicarious experiences of nature. Path analysis showed that effects of direct and vicarious experiences on children's willingness to conserve biodiversity were mediated by their affective attitudes. This study demonstrates that children who frequently experience nature are likely to develop greater emotional affinity to and support for protecting biodiversity. We suggest that children should be encouraged to experience nature and be provided with various types of these experiences. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2016-05-25 13 6 Article 10.3390/ijerph13060529 529 1660-4601 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/ijerph13060529 Masashi Soga Kevin Gaston Yuichi Yamaura Kiyo Kurisu Keisuke Hanaki http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/398 The proposed framework enables innovative power management in smart campuses, integrating local renewable energy sources, battery banks and controllable loads and supporting Demand Response interactions with the electricity grid operators. The paper describes each system component: the Energy Management System responsible for power usage scheduling, the telecommunication infrastructure in charge of data exchanging and the integrated data repository devoted to information storage. We also discuss the relevant use cases and validate the framework in a few deployed demonstrators. Energies 2016-05-25 9 6 Article 10.3390/en9060398 398 1996-1073 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/en9060398 Antimo Barbato Cristiana Bolchini Angela Geronazzo Elisa Quintarelli Andrei Palamarciuc Alessandro Pitì Cristina Rottondi Giacomo Verticale http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/408 Functionally-graded electrodes (FGEs) have shown great potential in improving solid oxide fuel cells' (SOFCs) performance. In order to produce predictions of real FGE operations, a comprehensive numerical model that takes into account all the microstructure parameters, together with two sub model correlations, i.e., porosity-tortuosity, and porosity-particle size ratio, is utilized, aiming to provide a novel approach to demonstrate the advantages of FGEs for SOFCs. Porosity grading and particle size grading are explored by using this implemented model as a baseline. Multiple types of grading cases are tested in order to study the FGEs at a micro-scale level. Comparison between the FGEs and conventional non-graded electrodes (uniform random composites) is conducted to investigate the potential of FGEs for SOFCs. This study essentially focuses on presenting a new perspective to examine the real-world FGEs performance by involving the correlations of physically connected micro-structural parameters. Energies 2016-05-25 9 6 Article 10.3390/en9060408 408 1996-1073 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/en9060408 Chao Wang http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/402 In this paper, we propose a chemically grown titanium oxide (TiO2) on Si to form a heterojunction for photovoltaic devices. The chemically grown TiO2 does not block hole transport. Ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy was used to study the band alignment. A substantial band offset at the TiO2/Si interface was observed. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) revealed that the chemically grown TiO2 is oxygen-deficient and contains numerous gap states. A multiple-trap-assisted tunneling (TAT) model was used to explain the high hole injection rate. According to this model, the tunneling rate can be 105 orders of magnitude higher for holes passing through TiO2 than for flow through SiO2. With 24-nm-thick TiO2, a Si solar cell achieves a 33.2 mA/cm2 photocurrent on a planar substrate, with a 9.4% power conversion efficiency. Plan-view scanning electron microscopy images indicate that a moth-eye-like structure formed during TiO2 deposition. This structure enables light harvesting for a high photocurrent. The high photocurrent and ease of production of chemically grown TiO2 imply that it is a suitable candidate for future low-cost, high-efficiency solar cell applications. Energies 2016-05-25 9 6 Article 10.3390/en9060402 402 1996-1073 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/en9060402 Yu-Tsu Lee Fang-Ru Lin Ting-Chun Lin Chien-Hsun Chen Zingway Pei http://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/6/2/49 The most exciting advances in biohydrometallurgy are occurring in the field of microbiology. The two main technologies employed in biohydrometallurgy, agitated tanks for the processing of refractory concentrates and heaps and dumps for the processing of low-grade ores, are technologically sound and widely practised at commercial scale, but their development began at a time when very little was known of the microorganisms that assisted metals extraction from sulfide ores. During and subsequent to those developments it has been shown that microbial communities in metals extraction are more diverse than originally thought, and extremely robust and adaptable to different and variable environments. Recent advances in genomics and proteomics, exploiting hugely increased computing power and speed, have made it possible to describe not only which microorganisms are present in bioleaching systems, but also what physiological functions are being exercised. The body of knowledge being acquired through the application of molecular biology methods will be used increasingly to monitor microbial behaviour, optimise conditions for more appropriate microbiological activity and/or infer the "microbiological health" of bioreactors (tanks and heaps). Minerals 2016-05-25 6 2 Review 10.3390/min6020049 49 2075-163X 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/min6020049 Helen Watling http://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/6/2/48 A performance monitoring study of an electric rope shovel operating in an open pit coal mine was conducted. As the mining industry moves toward higher productivity, profitability and predictability, the need for more reliable, productive and efficient mining shovels increases. Consequently, it is critical to study the productivity of these machines and to understand the effect of different operational parameters on that. In this paper a clustering analysis is performed to classify shovel digging effort and behaviour based on digging energy, dig time and payload per pass. Then the influence of the operator on the digging efficiency and productivity of the machine is analyzed with a focus on operator technique during digging. A statistical analysis is conducted on different cycle time components (dig time, swing time, return time) for different operators. In addition to time components, swing and return angles as well as loading rate and mucking rate are observed and analyzed. The results of this study help to understand the effect of different operators on the digging productivity of the shovel and then to set the best operator practice. Minerals 2016-05-25 6 2 Article 10.3390/min6020048 48 2075-163X 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/min6020048 Mohammad Babaei Khorzoughi Robert Hall http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/4/2/38 Grain size on the surface of natural beaches has been observed to vary spatially and temporally with morphology and wave energy. The stratigraphy of the beach at Duck, North Carolina, USA was examined using 36 vibracores (~1–1.5 m long) collected along a cross-shore beach profile. Cores show that beach sediments are finer (~0.3 mm) and more uniform high up on the beach. Lower on the beach, with more swash and wave action, the sand is reworked, segregated by size, and deposited in layers and patches. At the deepest measurement sites in the swash (~−1.4 to −1.6 m NAVD88), which are constantly being reworked by the energetic shore break, there is a thick layer (60–80 cm) of very coarse sediment (~2 mm). Examination of two large trenches showed that continuous layers of coarse and fine sands comprise beach stratigraphy. Thicker coarse layers in the trenches (above mean sea level) are likely owing to storm erosion and storm surge elevating the shore break and swash, which act to sort the sediment. Those layers are buried as water level retreats, accretion occurs and the beach recovers from the storm. Thinner coarse layers likely represent similar processes acting on smaller temporal scales. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 2016-05-25 4 2 Article 10.3390/jmse4020038 38 2077-1312 2016-05-25 doi: 10.3390/jmse4020038 Edith Gallagher Heidi Wadman Jesse McNinch Ad Reniers Melike Koktas http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/524 Objective: The present study aimed to estimate prevalence of hypertension among adults in rural remote areas of Xinjiang, China and evaluate the associated factors of hypertension. Methods: The survey was based on questionnaire interviews and clinical measurements of 11,340 individuals (≥18 years old), and was conducted during 2009–2010 via a stratified cluster random sampling method in the remote rural areas of Xinjiang, about 4407 km away from the capital Beijing. Hypertension was defined according to WHO/ISH criteria. Results: Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) of the population were (126.3 ± 21.4) and (80.9 ± 13.4) mmHg. Compared with Han nationality subjects, SBP and DBP of Kazakh nationality subjects were significantly high (p < 0.05), while the SBP and DBP of Uyghur subjects were significantly low (Kazakh: (128.7 ± 23.9) and (83.0 ± 14.6) mmHg, Uyghur: (123.6 ± 19.3) and (77.4 ± 12.7) mmHg, Han: (126.5 ± 20.5) and (82.6 ± 11.9) mmHg, p < 0.05). Prevalence of hypertension of the population was 32.1%, and was greater among Kazakhs and lower among Uyghur than Han (Kazakh: 36.9%, Uyghur: 26.1%, Han: 33.7%, p < 0.05). The age-standardized prevalence of hypertension was 30.2%, and was greater among Kazakhs while lower among Uyghurs than Han subjects (Kazakh: 37.0%, Uyghur: 26.0%, Han: 33.8%, p < 0.05, p < 0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed Gender (OR = 1.324), age (OR = 2.098, 3.681, 6.794, 9.473, 14.646), nationality (OR = 1.541), occupation (OR = 1.659, 1.576), education (OR = 1.260), BMI (OR = 1.842), WC (OR = 1.585), WHR (OR = 1.188), WHR (OR = 1.188), diabetes (OR = 1.879), hypertriglyceridemia (OR = 1.361), hypercholesterolemia (OR = 1.131) and high blood low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (OR = 1.956) were all positively correlated with hypertension, while low blood high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (OR = 0.765) was negatively correlated with hypertension. Conclusions: Prevalence of hypertension among adults in remote rural areas of Xinjiang was higher than the national average. Prevalence of hypertension was greater among Kazakhs and lower among Uyghurs than Han nationals, thus indicating significant differences between regions and nationalities. Gender, age, nation, occupation, education, overweight or obesity, abdominal obesity, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, high LDL-C were positively correlated with hypertension, low HDL-C was negatively correlated with hypertension. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2016-05-24 13 6 Article 10.3390/ijerph13060524 524 1660-4601 2016-05-24 doi: 10.3390/ijerph13060524 Yulin Wang Jingyu Zhang Yusong Ding Mei Zhang Jiaming Liu Jiaolong Ma Heng Guo Yizhong Yan Jia He Kui Wang Shugang Li Rulin Ma Bek Murat Shuxia Guo http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/526 School playgrounds are important physical activity (PA) environments for children, yet only a small number of children reaches the target of 40% of moderate-to-vigorous PA time during recess. The aim of this study was to explore children's perspectives (i.e., child-identified determinants) of activity-friendly school playgrounds. We conducted participatory research with children as co-researchers, framed as a project to give children the opportunity to discuss their views and ideas about their school playgrounds. At three schools, six children (9–12 years old) met over five to seven group meetings. Data analysis included children's conclusions obtained during the project and the researcher's analysis of written reports of all meetings. Children indicated a strong desire for fun and active play, with physical playground characteristics and safety, rules and supervision, peer-interactions, and variation in equipment/games as important determinants. Our results indicate that improving activity-friendliness of playgrounds requires an integrated and multi-faceted approach. It also indicates that children, as primary users, are able to identify barriers for active play that are easily overlooked, unknown or differently perceived by adults. Hence, we believe that structural involvement of children in designing, developing and improving playgrounds may increase children's' active play and consequently PA levels during recess. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2016-05-24 13 6 Article 10.3390/ijerph13060526 526 1660-4601 2016-05-24 doi: 10.3390/ijerph13060526 Helena Caro Teatske Altenburg Christine Dedding Mai Chinapaw http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/523 We reviewed patient records with a first-listed diagnosis of urolithiasis—also known as urinary tract or kidney stone disease, nephrolithiasis—upon discharge from Guam's sole civilian hospital during 2006 to 2010 and urinary cancer mortality records from the Guam Cancer Registry for 1970 to 2009 to determine the source of municipal water supplied to the patients' residence. The objective was to investigate a possible relationship between the sources of municipal water supplied to Guam villages and the incidence of urolithiasis and urinary cancer. We analyzed hospital discharge diagnoses of urolithiasis or renal calculi by calculating the incidence of first-mentioned discharge for urolithiasis or renal calculi and comparing rates across demographic or geographic categories while adjusting by age, sex, and ethnicity/race. We reviewed cancer registry records of urinary cancer deaths by patient residence. The annual incidence of hospitalization for urolithiasis was 5.22 per 10,000. Rates adjusted for sex or age exhibited almost no change. The rate of 9.83 per 10,000 among Chamorros was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than the rates among any other ethnic group or race. When villages were grouped by water source, rates of patients discharged with a first-listed diagnosis of urolithiasis, adjusted for ethnicity/race, were similar for villages using either well water (5.44 per 10,000) or mixed source water (5.39 per 10,000), and significantly greater than the rate for villages using exclusively reservoir water (1.35 per 10,000). No statistically significant differences were found between the water source or village of residence and urinary cancer mortality. Some Guam residents living in villages served completely or partly by deep well water high in calcium carbonate may be at increased risk for urolithiasis compared with residents living in villages served by surface waters. Although the risk appears to be highest in villagers of Chamorro ethnicity, residents should be aware of other contributing risk factors and steps to take to avoid developing this health problem. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2016-05-24 13 6 Article 10.3390/ijerph13060523 523 1660-4601 2016-05-24 doi: 10.3390/ijerph13060523 Robert Haddock David Olson Lorraine Backer Josephine Malilay http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/525 Our objective was to assess the impact of preconceptional heme and non-heme iron on gestational diabetes mellitius (GDM) in the Boston University Slone Epidemiology Birth Defects Study (BDS). This retrospective cohort analysis included 7229 participants enrolled in the BDS between 1998 and 2008 who gave birth to non-malformed infants and were free of pre-existing diabetes. All data were collected through structured interviews conducted within 6 months of delivery. Calorie-adjusted and multivariable odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using logistic regression models. Preconceptional dietary heme iron was modestly associated with an elevated risk of GDM among those (multivariable OR comparing the fifth quintile to the first: 1.55; 95% CI 0.98, 2.46). Conversely, preconceptional dietary non-heme iron was associated with a decreased risk of GDM among those in the fifth quintile of intake compared to the first (multivariable OR: 0.48; 95% CI 0.28, 0.81). Women who consumed supplemental iron during preconception also had a decreased risk of GDM (multivariable OR: 0.78; 95% CI 0.60, 1.02). In conclusion, our data support a positive association between preconceptional heme iron intake and GDM and an inverse association between preconceptional non-heme iron intake from foods and preconceptional intake from supplements. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2016-05-24 13 6 Article 10.3390/ijerph13060525 525 1660-4601 2016-05-24 doi: 10.3390/ijerph13060525 Anne Darling Allen Mitchell Martha Werler http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/6/522 Epidemiological and experimental studies have consistently linked alcoholic beverage consumption with the development of several chronic disorders, such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus and obesity. The impact of drinking is usually dose-dependent, and light to moderate drinking tends to lower risks of certain diseases, while heavy drinking tends to increase the risks. Besides, other factors such as drinking frequency, genetic susceptibility, smoking, diet, and hormone status can modify the association. The amount of ethanol in alcoholic beverages is the determining factor in most cases, and beverage types could also make an influence. This review summarizes recent studies on alcoholic beverage consumption and several chronic diseases, trying to assess the effects of different drinking patterns, beverage types, interaction with other risk factors, and provide mechanistic explanations. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2016-05-24 13 6 Review 10.3390/ijerph13060522 522 1660-4601 2016-05-24 doi: 10.3390/ijerph13060522 Yue Zhou Jie Zheng Sha Li Tong Zhou Pei Zhang Hua-Bin Li http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/6/503 This paper explores the cumulative sustainable supply chain (SC) capabilities and their effects on supply chain performance, including economic, environmental, and social performance. Using empirical analyses with data from 198 small- and medium-sized suppliers in Korea, this paper provides evidence about the cumulative sustainable SC capabilities, indicating that economic, social, and environmental capabilities in the supply chain mutually reinforce each other rather than traded off. This study also presents the positive effect of cumulative sustainable SC capabilities on supply chain sustainability performance. This paper identifies four distinctive groups of cumulative capabilities: the laggard, environmental-focused, social-cautious, and all-round. This study provides a better understanding about sustainable capabilities and important guidelines for managers of suppliers and buyers who wish to build strong social/environmental management capabilities without compromising economic capability throughout the entire supply chain. Sustainability 2016-05-24 8 6 Article 10.3390/su8060503 503 2071-1050 2016-05-24 doi: 10.3390/su8060503 Jung Lee Soo Kim Su-Yol Lee http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/8/6/219 The present paper provides an extensive literature review on water related health issues in Central Asia. Even though the per capita amount of available freshwater is substantial in all Central Asian states the uneven distribution in time and space creates problems for water availability. Due to this, the Central Asian economies are developing under increasing water deficiency. The degradation of water supply systems and sewage treatment plants is often severe leading to potentially high water loss rates and inadequate accessibility to safe water supply. In this context, rural areas are the most affected. Low tariffs in combination with absent metering and low collection rates for water fees mean that operation and maintenance costs for basic services of water supply and sanitation are not covered. Unsafe water supply contains both microbiological and non-microbiological contaminants. Helminthiasis and intestinal protozoa infections are of considerable public health importance in Central Asia. Agricultural and industrial pollution is especially affecting downstream areas of Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers. In large areas copper, zinc, and chromium concentrations in water exceed maximum permissible concentration. Thus, there is an urgent need to strengthen the environmental monitoring system. Small-scale water supply and sanitation systems need to be developed in line with more efficient public spending on these. Water 2016-05-24 8 6 Review 10.3390/w8060219 219 2073-4441 2016-05-24 doi: 10.3390/w8060219 Zakir Bekturganov Kamshat Tussupova Ronny Berndtsson Nagima Sharapatova Kapar Aryngazin Maral Zhanasova http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/8/6/445 The identification of tree species can provide a useful and efficient tool for forest managers for planning and monitoring purposes. Hyperspectral data provide sufficient spectral information to classify individual tree species. Two non-parametric classifiers, support vector machines (SVM) and random forest (RF), have resulted in high accuracies in previous classification studies. This research takes a comparative classification approach to examine the SVM and RF classifiers in the complex and heterogeneous forests of Muir Woods National Monument and Kent Creek Canyon in Marin County, California. The influence of object- or pixel-based training samples and segmentation size on the object-oriented classification is also explored. To reduce the data dimensionality, a minimum noise fraction transform was applied to the mosaicked hyperspectral image, resulting in the selection of 27 bands for the final classification. Each classifier was also assessed individually to identify any advantage related to an increase in training sample size or an increase in object segmentation size. All classifications resulted in overall accuracies above 90%. No difference was found between classifiers when using object-based training samples. SVM outperformed RF when additional training samples were used. An increase in training samples was also found to improve the individual performance of the SVM classifier. Remote Sensing 2016-05-24 8 6 Article 10.3390/rs8060445 445 2072-4292 2016-05-24 doi: 10.3390/rs8060445 Laurel Ballanti Leonhard Blesius Ellen Hines Bill Kruse http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/8/6/441 The Tibetan Plateau (TP) has been observed by satellite optical remote sensing, altimetry, and gravimetry for a variety of geophysical parameters, including water storage change. However, each of these sensors has its respective limitation in the parameters observed, accuracy and spatial-temporal resolution. Here, we utilized an integrated approach to combine remote sensing imagery, digital elevation model, and satellite radar and laser altimetry data, to quantify freshwater storage change in a twin lake system named Chibuzhang Co and Dorsoidong Co in the central TP, and compared that with independent observations including mass changes from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data. Our results show that this twin lake, located within the Tanggula glacier system, remained almost steady during 1973–2000. However, Dorsoidong Co has experienced a significant lake level rise since 2000, especially during 2000–2005, that resulted in the plausible connection between the two lakes. The contemporary increasing lake level signal at a rate of 0.89 ± 0.05 cm·yr−1, in a 2° by 2° grid equivalent water height since 2002, is higher than the GRACE observed trend at 0.41 ± 0.17 cm·yr−1 during the same time span. Finally, a down-turning trend or inter-annual variability shown in the GRACE signal is observed after 2012, while the lake level is still rising at a consistent rate. Remote Sensing 2016-05-24 8 6 Article 10.3390/rs8060441 441 2072-4292 2016-05-24 doi: 10.3390/rs8060441 Kuo-Hsin Tseng Chung-Pai Chang C. Shum Chung-Yen Kuo Kuan-Ting Liu Kun Shang Yuanyuan Jia Jian Sun http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/8/6/442 The "polar data gap" is a region around the North Pole where satellite orbit inclination and instrument swath for SMMR and SSM/I-SSMIS satellites preclude retrieval of sea ice concentrations. Data providers make the irregularly shaped data gap round by centering a circular "pole hole mask" over the North Pole. The area within the pole hole mask has conventionally been assumed to be ice-covered for the purpose of sea ice extent calculations, but recent conditions around the perimeter of the mask indicate that this assumption may already be invalid. Here we propose an objective, partial differential equation based model for estimating sea ice concentrations within the area of the pole hole mask. In particular, the sea ice concentration field is assumed to satisfy Laplace's equation with boundary conditions determined by observed sea ice concentrations on the perimeter of the gap region. This type of idealization in the concentration field has already proved to be quite useful in establishing an objective method for measuring the "width" of the marginal ice zone—a highly irregular, annular-shaped region of the ice pack that interacts with the ocean, and typically surrounds the inner core of most densely packed sea ice. Realistic spatial heterogeneity in the idealized concentration field is achieved by adding a spatially autocorrelated stochastic field with temporally varying standard deviation derived from the variability of observations around the mask. To test the model, we examined composite annual cycles of observation-model agreement for three circular regions adjacent to the pole hole mask. The composite annual cycle of observation-model correlation ranged from approximately 0.6 to 0.7, and sea ice concentration mean absolute deviations were of order 10 − 2 or smaller. The model thus provides a computationally simple approach to solving the increasingly important problem of how to fill the polar data gap. Moreover, this approach based on solving an elliptic partial differential equation with given boundary conditions has sufficient generality to also provide more sophisticated models which could potentially be more accurate than the Laplace equation version. Such generalizations and potential validation opportunities are discussed. Remote Sensing 2016-05-24 8 6 Article 10.3390/rs8060442 442 2072-4292 2016-05-24 doi: 10.3390/rs8060442 Courtenay Strong Kenneth Golden http://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/5/6/74 Increasingly, social media data are linked to locations through embedded GPS coordinates. Many local governments are showing interest in the potential to repurpose these firsthand geo-data to gauge spatial and temporal dynamics of public opinions in ways that complement information collected through traditional public engagement methods. Using these geosocial data is not without challenges since they are usually unstructured, vary in quality, and often require considerable effort to extract information that is relevant to local governments' needs from large data volumes. Understanding local relevance requires development of both data processing methods and their use in empirical studies. This paper addresses this latter need through a case study that demonstrates how spatially-referenced Twitter data can shed light on citizens' transportation and planning concerns. A web-based toolkit that integrates text processing methods is used to model Twitter data collected for the Region of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada) between March 2014 and July 2015 and assess citizens' concerns related to the planning and construction of a new light rail transit line. The study suggests that geosocial media can help identify geographies of public perceptions concerning public facilities and services and have potential to complement other methods of gauging public sentiment. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 2016-05-24 5 6 Article 10.3390/ijgi5060074 74 2220-9964 2016-05-24 doi: 10.3390/ijgi5060074 Shanqi Zhang Rob Feick http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/6/395 In power system control unicontrol with single storage units or centralized control with multiple storage units to meet different level targets is challenging. Considering the charge and discharge characteristics of storage devices, this paper proposes a hierarchical configuration structure of a battery and supercapacitor mixed storage scenario, and develops a convenient control method for accessing various DC loads and can central manage mass batteries in one place. Aiming at the optimal management of large scale battery storage, the paper proposes a three-layer battery hierarchical control structure and the control objects and control circuits are discussed. Simulation studies are used to verify the control effect of the hierarchical storage system and the results show that the strategy can effectively decrease photovoltaic output fluctuation. Energies 2016-05-24 9 6 Article 10.3390/en9060395 395 1996-1073 2016-05-24 doi: 10.3390/en9060395 Chang Ye Shihong Miao Qi Lei Yaowang Li http://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/6/2/22 Research has proven that, at a national scale in Cameroon, arable crop production is either declining or stagnant. In the face of these trends, governments, local and international organizations, communities and peasant farmers have developed adaptation options to sustain arable production and reduce poverty. Given this general context, and based on population perceptions and four study sites in the Southwest region of Cameroon, this study aims at verifying current trends in arable production and farmers' adaptation options based on their indigenous knowledge. These analyses are based on the administration of 200 questionnaires and two focus group discussions (FGDs). The data were analysed using SPSS version 20 in which frequencies, percentages and means were calculated. In addition, the chi-squared statistical test of goodness of fit was calculated and the stated hypothesis was validated accordingly. The FGDs were analysed through verbatim transcriptions and with the aid of the context analysis software, Wordstat 7. The results show that current yields (2010–2014) in all the study sites are declining due to deforestation, poor governance, inadequate access to farm inputs such as fertilizers, increased economic opportunities elsewhere and a breakdown of cultural practices, while 10 years (2000–2010) previously, they had been increasing. It has also been found that the main adaptation options/coping mechanisms reported by the respondents in order of highest frquencies are: expansion of farm size, help from relatives and dependents that live on the farm, supplemental occupations or livelihood diversification and usage of organic fertilizers. From the chi-squared test, the alternate hypothesis that, "there is some difference between population proportions for different adaptation options or coping mechanisms" is validated. Agriculture 2016-05-24 6 2 Article 10.3390/agriculture6020022 22 2077-0472 2016-05-24 doi: 10.3390/agriculture6020022 Terence Epule Christopher Bryant http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/8/6/218 A large number of reservoirs have been built in the Yangtze River basin in the last few decades, the operation of which inevitably impacts on natural runoff. It is important to quantify the impacts of a cascade reservoir group operation on the hydrological regime in the downstream Yangtze River. The indicators of hydrologic alteration (IHA), range of variability approach (RVA), and Dundee hydrological regime assessment (DHRA) methods, which are based on five essential characteristics, i.e., magnitude, time, frequency, retardation, and rates of change, have been widely used to quantitatively analyze variation in the hydrological regime before and after the dam construction. The observed flow series at Yichang and Datong hydrological stations, located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, respectively, are divided into pre- and post-dam construction periods by the Mann-Kendall (MK) rank correlation method. The results of the MK test reveal that the annual minimum discharge at Yichang Station has significantly changed since 2000. The analysis results of the IHA, RVA, and DHAR methods show that the hydrologic regime changed moderately after 1999 and is close to severe change after 2008 at Yichang station; and changed slightly after 1999 (the post-dam construction period) and moderately after 2008 at Datong station. A new typical year assessment method that can avoid the requirement for a long data series was proposed and compared with the RVA and DHAR methods. The results indicate that the hydrologic regime severely changed at Yichang station and moderately changed at Datong in 2014, which is consistent with the results of the above methods. This study further demonstrates that the changes are mainly reflected in the factors related to low flow such as mean discharge from January to March, minimum discharge, frequency and duration of low pulse, and so on. It is expected that further hydrological alterations will occur as the number of large cascade reservoirs constructed and operated in the Yangtze River basin increases. Water 2016-05-24 8 6 Article 10.3390/w8060218 218 2073-4441 2016-05-24 doi: 10.3390/w8060218 Weixin Duan Shenglian Guo Jun Wang Dedi Liu http://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/6/6/35 This opinion paper considers the relative validity and utility of three concepts: the Five Freedoms (FF), Five Domains (FD) and Quality of Life (QoL) as tools for the analysis of animal welfare. The aims of FF and FD are different but complementary. FD seeks to assess the impact of the physical and social environment on the mental (affective) state of a sentient animal, FF is an outcome-based approach to identify and evaluate the efficacy of specific actions necessary to promote well-being. Both have utility. The concept of QoL is presented mainly as a motivational framework. The FD approach provides an effective foundation for research and evidence-based conclusions as to the impact of the things we do on the mental state of the animals in our care. Moreover, it is one that can evolve with time. The FF are much simpler. They do not attempt to achieve an overall picture of mental state and welfare status, but the principles upon which they are based are timeless. Their aim is to be no more than a memorable set of signposts to right action. Since, so far as the animals are concerned, it is not what we think but what we do that counts, I suggest that they are likely to have a more general impact. Animals 2016-05-24 6 6 Opinion 10.3390/ani6060035 35 2076-2615 2016-05-24 doi: 10.3390/ani6060035 John Webster