Publications

Kashani, AR, Akhani, M, Camp, CV & Gandomi, AH 2021, 'A neural network to predict spectral acceleration' in Basics of Computational Geophysics, Elsevier, pp. 335-349.
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Martin, R, Oberst, S & Stender, M 2021, 'Numerical analysis of dynamic hysteresis in tape springs for space applications' in Vibration Engineering for a Sustainable Future, Numerical and Analytical Methods to Study Dynamical Systems, Springer International Publishing, Switzerland.
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Antennas for small satellites are often simple tape springs, which have great advantages in terms of cost and space- and energy consumption. However, they are liable to unwanted vibrations, which can jeopardize a satellites' mission. Vibrations of thin elastic structures in space lead to energy dissipation, which is able to change the attitude behavior of a satellite in orbit. The present study investigates the dynamical system of a metal tape spring using a nite element model based on Oberst et al. (2018) and time domain simulations. Mesh convergence studies for element and method selection have been conducted. It is found that linear shell elements S4 provide good enough results for the dynamic analysis. The Hilber- Hughes-Taylor implementation and ABAQUS/Implicit are employed. In a previous study of Oberst and Tuttle (2018) hystereses in the system's response during an excitation amplitude sweep have been experimentally observed, which are repeated here for the numerical model. Similar to the experimental study, hysteresis curves can be generated (Oberst and Tuttle, 2018). Whether the dynamics as well as the static hysteresis curves in opposite and equal sense bending direction obtained from the numerical model are similar to those determined experimentally needs to be studied in the near future.

Salik, T & Gandomi, AH 2021, 'Improvement of shear strength of cohesive soils by additives: A review' in Basics of Computational Geophysics, Elsevier, pp. 189-211.
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Zhang, Z, Oberst, S & Lai, JCS 2021, 'Towards Overcoming the Challenges of the Prediction of Brake Squeal Propensity' in Vibration Engineering for a Sustainable Future, Active and Passive Noise and Vibration Control, Vol. 1, Springer International Publishing, Switzerland.
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Despite significant efforts made in the last two decades for the analysis and prediction of brake squeal propensity, brake squeal remains a major source of customer dissatisfaction and warranty-related costs. Brake squeal is a fugitive nonlinear self excitation phenomenon induced by friction. Traditional linear complex eigenvalue analysis (CEA) combined with noise dynamometer tests has achieved some success in the analysis of brake squeal and in designing countermeasures in suppressing brake squeal. However, prediction of brake squeal propensity without experimental testings is generally unreliable because of three main challenges. Firstly, most conventional analysis methods used are linear but brake squeal could be caused by nonlinearities. Secondly, while non-linear time-domain simulations have achieved some success, they require substantial high-performance computing resources and are too time consuming for practical applications. Thirdly, even if the second challenge can be overcome, there are many determining and interacting factors that are not known exactly such as material properties of pad and disc, operating conditions (brake pad pressure, temperature, speed), contact conditions between pad and disc, non-linear boundary conditions and modelling of friction. In this paper, examples are given to illustrate the success and limitations of the CEA. To address difficulties in predicting brakes squeal posed by nonlinearity, uncertain contact conditions and friction modelling, examples will be given to illustrate how a stochastic approach using the traditional linear eigenvalue analysis could be used to improve the prediction of brake squeal by identifying unstable vibration modes that are not too sensitive to these uncertainties.

Ahmad, S, Alnowibet, K, Alqasem, L, Merigo, JM & Zaindin, M 2021, 'Generalized OWA operators for uncertain queuing modeling with application in healthcare', Soft Computing.
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© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE part of Springer Nature. The weighted averaging operators are one of the popular methods for aggregating information. In recent years, ordered weighted averaging operators (OWA) have attained a great attention by researchers. These OWA operators due to their versatility are very useful to model many real world situations. Several extensions of OWA operators are presented in the literature which can handle a situation with uncertainty. Although many queuing models have been proposed in numerous healthcare studies, the inclusion of OWA operators is still rare. In this research study, we propose a novel method using the uncertain generalized ordered weighted average and illustrate its application to the uncertain queue modeling in a hospital emergency room; where incoming flux of patients and the required level of service for each patient is unknown and uncertain. The model with multilateral decision making process has been described which will provide several alternatives to decision makers to select the best alternative for their challenging situations. The proposed method has resulted an improved performance of the queuing system, increased customer satisfaction as well as a significant reduction in the operational cost. This study will enable decision makers to operate a flexible and cost-effective system in the event of uncertainty, uncontrollable and unpredicted situations.

Ahmed, N, Howlader, N, Hoque, MAA & Pradhan, B 2021, 'Coastal erosion vulnerability assessment along the eastern coast of Bangladesh using geospatial techniques', Ocean and Coastal Management, vol. 199.
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© 2020 Coastal zones are physically, socially, and economically important. However, many coastal zones are highly vulnerable to coastal erosion due to high population density, tourist attractions, developed economy, and lowland. Erosion vulnerability assessment with limited criteria and components cannot provide detailed and accurate results. Therefore, an integrated vulnerability assessment of coastal erosion is essential to produce detailed and accurate erosion vulnerability information to support mitigation strategies. This study aims to prepare an integrated coastal erosion vulnerability approach using geospatial techniques and examine the pattern of vulnerability to coastal erosion effects in the eastern coastal region of Bangladesh. Thirteen spatial criteria under two components of vulnerability, namely, physical and socio-economic vulnerability, were assessed. These criteria were weighted on the basis of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and then combined to generate individual vulnerability indices. Finally, the overall vulnerability map was produced by integrating physical and social vulnerability indices. Results showed that the area of very high vulnerability includes 11% of the region, and the area of high vulnerability was 24%. Parts of Chittagong Port, Cox's Bazar, Kutubdia, Teknaf, Ukhia, Anowara, and some portions of Moheshkhali regions close to the coastline of the study site are likely to experience high vulnerability of coastal erosion impacts. The area was classified as a low- and very-low-vulnerability zone, representing 27% and 8%, respectively. For evaluating the efficiency of the outcome, the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) technique was used to validate the physical erosion vulnerability results, which stated an 85.2% success rate and 80.1% prediction rate of the produced results. The findings can be used by concerned authorities to protect coastal erosion and minimise its effects on properties and coastal environments.

Akther, N, Sanahuja-Embuena, V, Gorecki, R, Phuntsho, S, Helix-Nielsen, C & Shon, HK 2021, 'Employing the synergistic effect between aquaporin nanostructures and graphene oxide for enhanced separation performance of thin-film nanocomposite forward osmosis membranes', DESALINATION, vol. 498.
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Alsalah, A, Holloway, D, Mousavi, M & Lavroff, J 2021, 'Identification of wave impacts and separation of responses using EMD', Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, vol. 151.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Various marine and off-shore structures experience rare extreme, and frequent substantial wave impacts, and these impacts have significant implications respectively for the ultimate strength and fatigue life of these structures. Likewise, many other structures experience forms of impact among their environmental loads that are critical for their design. One way of exploring these impacts is to study the vibration signal of the structure. However, due to the complexity of the non-stationary signal, the wave impacts on marine and off-shore structures are difficult to analyse. Using signals acquired during trials of a high-speed catamaran as a case study, this paper proposes employing the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) to detect, identify and characterise significant wave impacts (known as ‘slams’), which is shown to be significantly better at classifying events than traditional methods of slam detection. With the application of EMD, the vibration signal is decomposed into many components that may be grouped into three categories: (1) the rigid-body response comprising two parts: the quasi-static response to the underlying wave spectrum (hydrostatic) and rigid-body resonance (hydrodynamic); (2) the elastic structural response (hydroelastic); and (3) local high frequency vibrations and/or noise. It is the second category that responds significantly to wave impact loads. By identifying the gap between the rigid body and structural resonant frequencies, a threshold is established to automate the physically rational separation of this hydroelastic response. Wave impact detection methods are then applied to this separated component, showing 94% true positive classification, compared with 64% for a recently published slam detection method that uses traditional filtering applied to the whole signal. Further, it allows for more targeted subsequent characterisation of the impact response. Thus, this paper concludes that EMD is an effective method to d...

Barzegarkhoo, R, Siwakoti, YP, Vosoughi, N & Blaabjerg, F 2021, 'Six-Switch Step-Up Common-Grounded Five-Level Inverter With Switched-Capacitor Cell for Transformerless Grid-Tied PV Applications', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, vol. 68, no. 2, pp. 1374-1387.
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Basaglia, BM, Li, J, Shrestha, R & Crews, K 2021, 'Response Prediction to Walking-Induced Vibrations of a Long-Span Timber Floor', JOURNAL OF STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING, vol. 147, no. 2.
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Bui, XT, Fujioka, T & Nghiem, LD 2021, 'Green Technologies for Sustainable Water (GTSW)', Environmental Technology and Innovation.
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Chakraborty, S, Milner, LE, Zhu, X, Sevimli, O, Parker, AE & Heimlich, MC 2021, 'An Edge-Coupled Marchand Balun with Partial Ground for Excellent Balance in 0.13 μm SiGe Technology', IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs, vol. 68, no. 1, pp. 226-230.
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© 2004-2012 IEEE. An edge-coupled meandered three-coupled-line Marchand balun with a partial ground plane implemented in 0.13 μ {m} SiGe Bi-CMOS technology is presented in this brief. The balance performance of the designed balun is significantly improved by creating a 'no ground plane' beneath the coupled-line structure, which is demonstrated by simulating two baluns: one with a partial ground and the other with a solid ground underneath. The measured amplitude and phase imbalances are less than 0.4 dB and 2.5°, across the 3-dB bandwidth from 21.5 to 95 GHz, surpassing previously reported results of edge-coupled Marchand baluns. The balun occupies 230 μ \text{m}\,\,×370\,\,μ {m}.

Chang, W, Zhang, Q, Fu, C, Liu, W, Zhang, G & Lu, J 2021, 'A cross-domain recommender system through information transfer for medical diagnosis', Decision Support Systems, pp. 113489-113489.
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Chen, B, Guo, R, Yu, S & Yu, Y 2021, 'An active noise control method of non-stationary noise under time-variant secondary path', MECHANICAL SYSTEMS AND SIGNAL PROCESSING, vol. 149.
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Chen, QS, Peng, W, Tao, GL & Nimbalkar, S 2021, 'Strength and Deformation Characteristics of Calcareous Sands Improved by PFA', KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 60-69.
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© 2020, Korean Society of Civil Engineers. Calcareous sand is widely distributed in the islands of the South China Sea, which could be promisingly used as the construction materials. However, particle breakage commonly occurs in calcareous sands, which may significantly influence their mechanical characteristics. To address these issues, an eco-friendly agent, i.e., polyurethane foam adhesive (PFA) is proposed to improve the engineering properties of calcareous sands, compared to the commonly used alkaline stabilizing agents (e.g., lime, cement). The objective of this work is to examine the effectiveness of using PFA in improving the strength-deformation properties of calcareous sand. A series of laboratory tests including direct shear tests, unconfined compression tests, and oedometer tests were performed on the calcareous sands improved by PFA. In addition, A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was conducted to reveal microstructural analysis of using PFA for calcareous sand. The experimental results provided insights into the shear strength, deformation modulus, as well as the micro-structural characteristics of improved calcareous sands with various PFA contents and particle size distributions.

Cheng, D, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Chang, SW, Nguyen, DD, Liu, Y, Liu, Y, Deng, L & Chen, Z 2021, 'Evaluation of a continuous flow microbial fuel cell for treating synthetic swine wastewater containing antibiotics.', Science of the Total Environment, vol. 756, pp. 144133-144133.
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Microbial fuel cell (MFC) systems are promising technologies for wastewater treatment and renewable energy generation simultaneously. Performance of a double-chamber microbial fuel cell (MFC) to treat synthetic swine wastewater containing sulfonamide antibiotics (SMs) was evaluated in this study. The MFC was operated in continuous modes at different conditions. Results indicated that the current was successfully generated during the operation. The performance of MFC under the sequential anode-cathode operating mode is better than that under the single continuous running mode. Specifically, higher removal efficiency of chemical oxygen demand (>90%) was achieved under the sequential anode-cathode operating mode in comparison with that in the single continuous mode (>80%). Nutrients were also be removed in the MFC's cathode chamber with the maximum removal efficiency of 66.6 ± 1.4% for NH₄⁺-N and 32.1 ± 2.8% for PO₄^3--P. Meanwhile, SMs were partly removed in the sequential anode-cathode operating with the value in a range of 49.4%-59.4% for sulfamethoxazole, 16.8%-19.5% for sulfamethazine and 14.0%-16.3% for sulfadiazine, respectively. SMs' inhibition to remove other pollutants in both electrodes of MFC was observed after SMs exposure, suggesting that SMs exert toxic effects on the microorganisms. A positive correlation was found between the higher NH₄⁺-N concentration used in this study and the removal efficiency of SMs in the cathode chamber. In short, although the continuous flow MFC is feasible for treating swine wastewater containing antibiotics, its removal efficiency of antibiotics requires to be further improved.

Cheng, D, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Chang, SW, Nguyen, DD, Nguyen, QA, Zhang, J & Liang, S 2021, 'Improving sulfonamide antibiotics removal from swine wastewater by supplying a new pomelo peel derived biochar in an anaerobic membrane bioreactor.', Bioresource Technology, vol. 319, pp. 124160-124160.
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Sulfonamide antibiotics (SMs), as a class of antibiotics commonly used in swine industries, pose a serious threat to animal and human health. This study aims to evaluate the performance of an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) with and without supplying a new pomelo peel derived biochar to treat swine wastewater containing SMs. Results show that 0.5 g/L biochar addition could increase more than 30% of sulfadiazine (SDZ) and sulfamethazine (SMZ) removal in AnMBR. Approximately 95% of chemical oxygen demand (COD) was removed in the AnMBR at an influent organic loading rate (OLR) of 3.27 kg COD/(m3·d) while an average methane yield was 0.2 L/g CODremoved with slightly change at a small dose 0.5 g/L biochar addition. SMs inhibited the COD removal and methane production and increased membrane fouling. The addition of biochar could reduce the membrane fouling by reducing the concentration of SMP and EPS.

Ding, W, Jin, W, Zhou, X, Yang, Q, Chen, C & Wang, Q 2021, 'Role of extracellular polymeric substances in anaerobic granular sludge: Assessing dewaterability during Fe(II)-peroxydisulfate conditioning and granulation processes', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 286.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd In this study, Fe(II) activated peroxydisulfate (PDS) conditioning and sludge granulation were conducted to investigate the dewaterability of anaerobic granular sludge (AGS). After Fe(II)-PDS conditioning, the dewaterability of three AGS from different sources was enhanced. The specific resistance to filtration (SRF) reduction rates were achieved (98.30% ± 0.19%, 99.51% ± 0.17% and 96.47% ± 1.25%, respectively) under the optimal Fe(II) and PDS additions; And the optimal reductions of capillary suction time (CST) were 93.49% ± 2.49%, 95.33% ± 0.02% and 88.04% ± 2.95%, respectively. The mechanism of improving AGS dewaterability by Fe(II)-PDS conditioning was proposed. The radical SO4⋅−/OH⋅ destroyed the structure of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) layers and microbial cells, resulting in the bound water released from AGS. Thereafter, the generated Fe(III) facilitated the sludge re-flocculation and decreased the electrostatic repulsion. During a 132-day granulation, the CST value showed a positive correlation with protein (S-EPS), polysaccharide and zeta potential, and a negative correlation with protein (LB-EPS), protein (TB-EPS), particle size and VSS. Collectively, the protein was the primary component in AGS and showed a strong correlation with dewaterability. The variations of protein in TB-EPS during the conditioning and the granulation were consistent with the changes of sludge dewaterability.

Dong, W, Li, W, Shen, L, Zhang, S & Vessalas, K 2021, 'Integrated self-sensing and self-healing cementitious composite with microencapsulation of nano-carbon black and slaked lime', MATERIALS LETTERS, vol. 282.
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Dong, W, Li, W, Vessalas, K, He, X, Sun, Z & Sheng, D 2021, 'Piezoresistivity deterioration of smart graphene nanoplate/cement-based sensors subjected to sulphuric acid attack', Composites Communications, vol. 23.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Smart cement-based sensors with self-sensing capacity have been explored for structural health monitoring (SHM) with the intrinsic piezoresistive performance. However, few studies had studied the piezoresistivity degradation of cement-based sensors after exposure to the aggressive environments, especially under sulphate acid attacks. In this study, graphene nanoplate (GNP)/cementitious composites were immersed in sulphuric acid solutions (concentrations of 0, 1%, 2%, and 3%) for 90 and 180 days. Then surface appearance, weight loss, mechanical properties, piezoresistivity and microstructure were investigated and compared before and after sulphuric acid immersion. The results show that after acid immersion, the surface deterioration and mass loss were increased, and the compressive strength was significantly decreased. As for the intact GNP/cementitious composite, the piezoresistivity exhibited excellent linearity and repeatability, demonstrating the great potential to act as intelligent cement-based sensors for SHM. After 90 and 180 days of acid immersion, the piezoresistivity was sensitive to the initial low load initially but then turned less sensitive to the later high load. The highly corroded GNP/cementitious composites exhibited porous microstructures associated with the low compressive strength. The fractional changes to resistivity (FCR) under the low load could be attributed to the compressed pores and voids filled with erosion products that would form conductive passages. In contrast, with the increase of applied load, the intact cement matrix became much denser, which in turn constrained the further development of conductive passages in the GNP/cementitious composites.

Dorji, U, Tenzin, U, Dorji, P, Pathak, N, Johir, MAH, Volpin, F, Dorji, C, Chernicharo, CAL, Tijing, L, Shon, H & Phuntsho, S 2021, 'Exploring shredded waste PET bottles as a biofilter media for improved on-site sanitation', Process Safety and Environmental Protection, vol. 148, pp. 370-381.
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© 2020 Institution of Chemical Engineers This study explores an improved alternative on-site treatment for unsewered urban Bhutan. The system combines up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket for blackwater treatment and anaerobic biofilter for a mixture of up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket effluent and greywater. Shredded waste plastic bottles are used as novel biofilter media that provides a large surface area for attached growth while addressing waste plastic problems. A bench-scale up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (operated at hydraulic retention time or HRT of 1–10 days) and anaerobic biofilter (HRT of 0.25–3 days) study were conducted for 188 days. At 2-d HRT, up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket removed 70–80 % of chemical oxygen demand (COD) while anaerobic biofilter achieved 90–98 % COD removal at eight-hour HRT. Combined up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket and anaerobic biofilter achieved final effluent with COD less than 50 mg/L and turbidity of less than 3 NTU that meets the discharge standard of Bhutan. The study shows that shredded waste plastic bottles can be an effective biofilter support medium for low-cost on-site treatment while helping address waste plastic problems.

Du, M, Liu, X, Wang, D, Yang, Q, Duan, A, Chen, H, Liu, Y, Wang, Q & Ni, B-J 2021, 'Understanding the fate and impact of capsaicin in anaerobic co-digestion of food waste and waste activated sludge.', Water Research, vol. 188, pp. 116539-116539.
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Anaerobic co-digestion is an attractive option to treat food waste and waste activated sludge, which is increasingly applied in real-world situations. As an active component in Capsicum species being substantially present in food waste in many areas, capsaicin has been recently demonstrated to inhibit the anaerobic co-digestion. However, the interaction between capsaicin and anaerobic co-digestion are still poorly understood. This work therefore aims to deeply understand the fate and impact of capsaicin in the anaerobic co-digestion. Experiment results showed that capsaicin was completely degraded in anaerobic co-digestion by hydroxylation, O-demethylation, dehydrogenation and doubly oxidization, respectively. Although methane was proven to be produced from capsaicin degradation, the increase in capsaicin concentration resulted in decrease in methane yield from the anaerobic co-digestion. With an increase of capsaicin from 2 ± 0.7 to 68 ± 4 mg/g volatile solids (VS), the maximal methane yield decreased from 274.6 ± 9.7 to 188.9 ± 8.4 mL/g VS. The mechanic investigations demonstrated that the presence of capsaicin induced apoptosis, probably by either altering key kinases or decreasing the intracellular NAD⁺/NADH ratio, which led to significant inhibitions to hydrolysis, acidogenesis, and methanogenesis, especially acetotrophic methanogenesis. Illumina Miseq sequencing analysis exhibited that capsaicin promoted the populations of complex organic degradation microbes such as Escherichia-Shigella and Fonticella but decreased the numbers of anaerobes relevant to hydrolysis, acidogenesis, and methanogenesis such as Bacteroide and Methanobacterium.

Fang, C, Liu, W, Zhang, P, Rajabzadeh, S, Kato, N, Sasaki, Y, Shon, HK & Matsuyama, H 2021, 'Hollow fiber membranes with hierarchical spherulite surface structure developed by thermally induced phase separation using triple-orifice spinneret for membrane distillation', Journal of Membrane Science, vol. 618.
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© 2020 Elsevier B.V. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) hollow fiber membranes were developed by the thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) process using a triple-orifice spinneret with solvent co-extrusion at the outermost channel for applications in membrane distillation (MD). The polymer surface concentration during membrane preparation was controlled by exploiting the interfacial interactions of the diluent and polymer at the extruded solvent surface. The membrane surface was controlled from a dense to a porous structure with a large pore size and a high porosity, which considerably enhanced the membrane water vapor permeability to 13.5 L m−2 h−1. Furthermore, the solvent co-extrusion was responsible for the formation of surface spherulites with different shapes, such as contacted spherulites, isolated spherulites, and isolated spherulites with humps. The spherulites with humps constructed a novel hierarchical structure, which created a superhydrophobic surface that conferred upon the PVDF membrane a remarkable wetting resistance in the MD process toward low-surface-tension saline water. More significantly, all the unique structures were achieved using the one-step membrane fabrication process of solvent co-extrusion without additional processes and materials. Thus, this work provides a new, simple, and useful alternative for the preparation of hollow fiber membranes with high performances for MD desalination.

Fang, C, Liu, W, Zhang, P, Yao, M, Rajabzadeh, S, Kato, N, Kyong Shon, H & Matsuyama, H 2021, 'Controlling the inner surface pore and spherulite structures of PVDF hollow fiber membranes in thermally induced phase separation using triple-orifice spinneret for membrane distillation', Separation and Purification Technology, vol. 258.
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© 2020 Elsevier B.V. In this study, we controlled the inner surface structures of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) hollow fiber membranes via a thermally induced phase separation process using a triple-orifice spinneret for direct-contact membrane distillation (DCMD). The coextrusion of propylene carbonate (PC) through the outermost channel of the spinneret led to porous outer surfaces with similar pore sizes and spherulitic structures for all the PVDF hollow fiber membranes. In the innermost channel, the extrusion of solvents having different compatibilities with PVDF and the diluent (PC) as the bore liquids controlled the inner surface pore sizes and spherulite structures, and the effects of these inner surface structures on the DCMD performance were investigated in detail. Increasing the compatibility of the bore liquids toward the diluent led to an increase in the inner surface pore size because of the formation of loose, isolated spherulites, which remarkably enhanced the water vapor permeability from 4 to 8.3 L m−2 h−1, while reducing the membrane hydrophobicity, liquid entry pressure, and salt rejection. When increasing the bore liquid compatibility with the polymer, the surface pore size decreased because of the tight spherulite contact, enhancing membrane salt rejection and wetting resistance. Given the significance of bore liquid compatibility with the diluent and the polymer in controlling the inner surface structures, a useful guideline is presented for selecting the appropriate bore liquids to prepare hollow fiber membranes with the desired inner surface structures for high MD performance.

Fernandez, E, Hossain, MJ, Mahmud, K, Nizami, MSH & Kashif, M 2021, 'A Bi-level optimization-based community energy management system for optimal energy sharing and trading among peers', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 279.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd The economic and environmental benefits of renewable energy have increased in significance over the past decade. Local energy markets can play a vital role in energy transition by facilitating the rapid proliferation of renewable-based energy resources, thereby increasing the renewable energy hosting capacity of the power grid. This paper proposes an energy management system for a smart locality that facilitates local energy trading involving consumers with renewable energy units, a central storage facility, and a power grid. Two optimization frameworks for sharing surplus onsite produced energy are developed here. The first framework maximizes the combined revenue of sellers and buyers, while the second, a game theoretical model, maximizes consumer utilization at the lower level and the revenue of the common storage facility at the higher level. An intensive study is carried out to investigate the benefits of energy sharing that maximizes overall revenue. The results indicate that the grid pricing scheme is a major factor that determines the revenue sharing between the central storage facility entity and the consumers. The first framework results in optimal resource allocation, while the second framework concentrates only on revenue generation. Results indicate that the energy seller profits are higher if the real-time grid prices are used and if the consumers are not charged according to their willingness to pay.

Fu, Q, Wang, D, Li, X, Yang, Q, Xu, Q, Ni, B-J, Wang, Q & Liu, X 2021, 'Towards hydrogen production from waste activated sludge: Principles, challenges and perspectives', RENEWABLE & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY REVIEWS, vol. 135.
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Gao, G, Yu, Y, Xie, J, Yang, J, Yang, M & Zhang, J 2021, 'Constructing multilayer locality-constrained matrix regression framework for noise robust face super-resolution', PATTERN RECOGNITION, vol. 110.
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Ge, Z, Chen, L, Yang, L, Gomez-Garcia, R & Zhu, X 2021, 'On-Chip Millimeter-Wave Integrated Absorptive Bandstop Filter in (Bi)-CMOS Technology', IEEE ELECTRON DEVICE LETTERS, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 114-117.
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Ghobadi, R, Altaee, A, Zhou, JL, McLean, P, Ganbat, N & Li, D 2021, 'Enhanced copper removal from contaminated kaolinite soil by electrokinetic process using compost reactive filter media', JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS, vol. 402.

Gonzales, RR, Abdel-Wahab, A, Adham, S, Han, DS, Phuntsho, S, Suwaileh, W, Hilal, N & Shon, HK 2021, 'Salinity gradient energy generation by pressure retarded osmosis: A review', Desalination, vol. 500.
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© 2020 Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) has gained attention due to its use as a salinity gradient energy-generating membrane process. This process can convert difference in salinity between two streams into energy as it allows water transport through a semi-permeable membrane against the application of hydraulic pressure. This review provides a comprehensive look at the history and latest developments in preparation of membranes and modules for the PRO process, as well as the various applications of PRO. This review also explored the influence of feed characteristics and pretreatment strategies on water permeation and power generation during PRO operation. The current status and technological advancements of PRO as a process were reviewed, revealing how PRO can be operated as a stand-alone process or in integration with other hybrid processes. Despite the recent advancements in material and process development for PRO, membrane performance, wide-scale implementation, and commercialization efforts still leave much to be desired. Recognizing the current challenges facing the PRO technology, the advancements in PRO membrane and module development, and the various applications of the process, this review also draws out the future direction of PRO research and generation of osmotic salinity gradient energy as a viable energy source.

Goodswen, SJ, Kennedy, PJ & Ellis, JT 2021, 'Computational antigen discovery for eukaryotic pathogens using vacceed', vol. 2183, pp. 29-42.
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© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021. Bioinformatics programs have been developed that exploit informative signals encoded within protein sequences to predict protein characteristics. Unfortunately, there is no program as yet that can predict whether a protein will induce a protective immune response to a pathogen. Nonetheless, predicting those pathogen proteins most likely from those least likely to induce an immune response is feasible when collectively using predicted protein characteristics. Vacceed is a computational pipeline that manages different standalone bioinformatics programs to predict various protein characteristics, which offer supporting evidence on whether a protein is secreted or membrane -associated. A set of machine learning algorithms predicts the most likely pathogen proteins to induce an immune response given the supporting evidence. This chapter provides step by step descriptions of how to configure and operate Vacceed for a eukaryotic pathogen of the user’s choice.

Hasanpour, S, Siwakoti, YP, Mostaan, A & Blaabjerg, F 2021, 'New Semiquadratic High Step-Up DC/DC Converter for Renewable Energy Applications', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 433-446.
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Hill, M & Tran, N 2021, 'Global miRNA to miRNA Interactions: Impacts for miR-21', Trends in Cell Biology, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 3-5.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd miRNAs inherently alter the cellular environment by regulating target genes. miRNAs may also regulate other miRNAs, with far-reaching influence on miRNA and mRNA expression. We explore this realm of small RNA regulation with a focus on the role of the oncogenic miR-21 and its impact on other miRNA species.

Hossain Lipu, MS, Hannan, MA, Karim, TF, Hussain, A, Saad, MHM, Ayob, A, Miah, MS & Indra Mahlia, TM 2021, 'Intelligent algorithms and control strategies for battery management system in electric vehicles: Progress, challenges and future outlook', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 292, pp. 126044-126044.
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Hossain, SM, Park, H, Kang, H-J, Mun, JS, Tijing, L, Rhee, I, Kim, J-H, Jun, Y-S & Shon, HK 2021, 'Facile synthesis and characterization of anatase TiO2/g-CN composites for enhanced photoactivity under UV-visible spectrum', CHEMOSPHERE, vol. 262.
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Hu, Y, Xiong, F, Pan, S, Xiong, X, Wang, L & Chen, H 2021, 'Bayesian personalized ranking based on multiple-layer neighborhoods', Information Sciences, vol. 542, pp. 156-176.
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Huang, J & Ji, J 2021, 'Vibration control of coupled Duffing oscillators in flexible single-link manipulators', JVC/Journal of Vibration and Control.
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© The Author(s) 2020. Motion-induced oscillations of the flexible single link and its payload at the tip have negative impact on the anticipated performance of the flexible manipulators and thus should be suppressed to achieve tip positioning accuracy and high-speed operation. Because of the structural flexibility, the dynamics of the flexible manipulator can be described by coupled Duffing oscillators when considering the inherent structural nonlinearity of the flexible link into the dynamic modeling. However, little research has been focused on addressing the dynamic coupling issue in the nonlinear modeling of flexible-link manipulators using coupled Duffing oscillators. This article presents coupled Duffing oscillators for the nonlinear modeling of flexible single-link manipulators and then proposes a control method for suppressing the nonlinear vibrations of the coupled Duffing oscillators. Simulated and experimental results obtained from a flexible single-link manipulator test bench are in good agreement with the proposed nonlinear modeling and also demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control techniques for vibration suppression of the flexible manipulator.

Huang, S, Samali, B & Li, J 2021, 'Numerical and experimental investigations of a thermal break composite façade mullion under four-point bending', Journal of Building Engineering, vol. 34.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd This paper presents numerical and experimental investigations on a typical thermal break composite façade profile under four-point bending. The purpose of this study is to gain the knowledge of the interfacial behaviour between aluminum extrusion and polyamide insert beyond elastic range. Understanding the behaviour of this energy efficient façade profile within plastic range is important for the design under extreme loading, such as earthquakes, strong wind conditions and even blast loads. The experimental investigation was carried out on four types of beam specimens. The specimens were grouped by their span lengths with three specimens for each span length. As the specimens’ geometry and composite action are complicated, seven strain gauges were used per specimen including small strain gauges to fit in the limited space of the thermal break section. A three stage failure process was observed during the experiments. A numerical investigation was carried out by using Finite Element modelling to simulate behaviour of the thermal break composite façade profile under similar loading condition in order to compare with the testing results as well as to capture the corresponding failure mechanisms. Numerical simulations were setup by applying a proposed partitioned multi-phase failure model to simulate three stage failure process discovered by experiments. The results from FE models were compared and discussed with experimental counterparts. In summary, FE models showed consistent results to the experimental counterparts and it also provided the insight and more details of failure mechanism and stress distribution including interfacial condition details. Behaviour of the thermal break façade profile in the plastic range displayed excellent ductility and high strength capacity of this type of thermal break section in the plastic range after slip.

Ibrahim, I, Seo, DH, McDonagh, AM, Shon, HK & Tijing, L 2021, 'Semiconductor photothermal materials enabling efficient solar steam generation toward desalination and wastewater treatment', Desalination.
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© 2020 Elsevier B.V. Water scarcity issues around the world have renewed interest in the use of solar water evaporation as a means of providing fresh water. Advances in photothermal materials and thermal management, together with new interfacial system designs, have considerably improved the overall efficiency of solar steam generation (SSG) for desalination and wastewater treatment. Several classes of rationally-designed photothermal materials (PTMs) and nanostructures have enabled effective absorption of broad solar spectrum resulting in improved solar evaporation efficiency. Among several classes of PTMs, semiconductor-based PTMs have demonstrated great potential for SSG. In this review, we highlight the progress and prospects in SSG with emphasis on the use and evolution of advanced semiconductor materials for PTMs and their various designs and engineered architectures. Applications and future prospects for desalination and wastewater treatment are also discussed.

Islam, MR, Lu, H, Hossain, MJ & Li, L 2021, 'Optimal Coordination of Electric Vehicles and Distributed Generators for Voltage Unbalance and Neutral Current Compensation', IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 57, no. 1, pp. 1069-1080.
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© 1972-2012 IEEE. To maximize renewable energy usage to combat climate change, the penetration of electric vehicles (EVs) has increased significantly in developed countries. This can cause serious power quality issues, such as increased voltage imbalance and neutral currents, which severely impact the operation of power systems. Although the power quality issue is not a new problem, it requires an improved strategy for the growing penetration of photovoltaic solar energy and EVs in low-voltage distribution grids and their uncoordinated operation. This article presents a new control strategy to reduce the number of coordinated EVs to mitigate voltage unbalance and compensate for the neutral current. The proposed control strategy consists of two controllers arranged in a hierarchical structure with the central controller at the top layer and the local controller at the bottom layer. It is evident that the proposed control strategy reduces the number of EVs that need to be coordinated, and further, EV coordination is not required if the grid imbalance is less. This new hierarchical control strategy can improve power quality and reduce data processing overhead and computational complexity.

Jamil, S, Loganathan, P, Khan, SJ, McDonald, JA, Kandasamy, J & Vigneswaran, S 2021, 'Enhanced nanofiltration rejection of inorganic and organic compounds from a wastewater-reclamation plant's micro-filtered water using adsorption pre-treatment', Separation and Purification Technology, vol. 260.
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© 2020 Elsevier B.V. Adsorption pre-treatment to enhance the nanofiltration (NF) removal of inorganic ions, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and organic micropollutants (OMP) from microfiltered (MF) wastewater was investigated using NF 90 membrane (contact angle 79% and molecular weight cut off value of 90–200 Da). The NF showed greater rejection for divalent cations (Ca2+, Mg2+) and anions (SO42−) compared to monovalent cations (Na+, K+) and anions (Cl−, NO3−). The degree of total DOC removal was: GAC adsorption + NF (86%) > an ion exchange resin (Purolite) adsorption + NF (81%) > NF operation alone (72%). GAC + NF removed biopolymers and hydrophobic substances almost completely and the highest percentage of LMW neutral substances. In contrast, Purolite + NF almost completely removed humic substances. The degree of membrane fouling order was: LMW neutrals > building blocks > biopolymers > hydrophobics > humics. Adsorption pre-treatment reduced membrane fouling and increased solution flux, the outcome being better with GAC compared to Purolite. Of the 10 MOPs in the MF water, seven were rejected > 90% by NF without any pre-treatment. Conversely, Purolite and GAC pre-treatments rejected > 90% of all OMPs.

Jankowska, K, Grzywaczyk, A, Piasecki, A, Kijeńska-Gawrońska, E, Nguyen, LN, Zdarta, J, Nghiem, LD, Pinelo, M & Jesionowski, T 2021, 'Electrospun biosystems made of nylon 6 and laccase and its application in dyes removal', Environmental Technology & Innovation, vol. 21, pp. 101332-101332.
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Jaradat, Y & Far, H 2021, 'Optimum Stiffness Values for Impact Element Models to Determine Pounding Forces between Adjacent Buildings', Structural Engineering and Mechanics, vol. 77, no. 2.
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Structural failure due to seismic pounding between two adjacent buildings is one of the major concerns in the context of structural damage. Pounding between adjacent structures is a commonly observed phenomenon during major earthquakes. When modelling the structural response, stiffness of impact spring elements is considered to be one of the most important parameters when the impact force during collision of adjacent buildings is calculated. Determining valid and realistic stiffness values is essential in numerical simulations of pounding forces between adjacent buildings in order to achieve reasonable results. Several impact model stiffness values have been presented by various researchers to simulate pounding forces between adjacent structures. These values were mathematically calculated or estimated. In this study, a linear spring impact element model is used to simulate the pounding forces between two adjacent structures. An experimental model reported in literature was adopted to investigate the effect of different impact element stiffness k on the force intensity and number of impacts simulated by Finite Element (FE) analysis. Several numerical analyses have been conducted using SAP2000 and the collected results were used for further mathematical evaluations. The results of this study concluded the major factors that may actualise the stiffness value for impact element models. The number of impacts and the maximum impact force were found to be the core concept for finding the optimal range of stiffness values. For the experimental model investigated, the range of optimal stiffness values has also been presented and discussed.

Kamali, S & Far, H 2021, 'Numerical Investigation on Shear Deflection of Steel Welded I Sections with Varying Span to Depth Ratios International Journal of Steel Structures', International Journal of Steel Structures, vol. 21, no. 1.
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Deflection of the steel I-sections is an important phenomenon that needs to be taken into account to ensure that the serviceability limit state criteria of the Australian Standards are met. The method that is widely used to calculate the deflection of steel I-sections is by the use of existing formulae that only accommodate the bending stiffness of the beams. A numerical investigation is performed in this study to find the contribution of shear effects in the final deflection of the Welded-Beams (WB) and Welded-Columns (WC). The numerical analyses were carried out in SAP2000 and numerical model was first validated using the experimental results of welded plate girders. The model was then used to analyse simply supported WB and WC sections under uniformly distributed load (UDL) with varying span lengths. The results of the numerical analyses are reported in this study which compare the mid-span deflection values from the simply supported deflection formula with the numerical model deflection values. The data acquired from the numerical analyses were used to establish a span to depth ratio for WB and WC sections below which the shear deflection becomes significant. The analysis of the results obtained from the numerical investigation suggests that a predication error begins to emerge in the result that is acquired from flexure deflection formulae at a certain span-depth ratio.

Karki, D & Far, H 2021, 'State-of-the-Art on Composite Cold-formed Steel Flooring Systems', Steel Construction: Design and Research, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 1-11.
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The current study presents a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art on composite cold-formed steel flooring research over the past couple of years. The most relevant and significant literature references were reviewed to provide some profundity in the trends and development of the composite cold-formed steel floors. Advantages of this type of composite flooring system are also highlighted. A broad description of mainly two types of the composite floors mainly consisting cold-formed steel and concrete, and cold-formed steel and timber-based floorboards have been outlined in this study. The experimental and numerical investigations that have been carried out worldwide is likewise discussed in the paper. The most important aspects covered are shear connection behaviour, flexural and dynamic behaviour of the floors, and a brief description of fire testing.

Kaw, HY, Jin, X, Liu, Y, Cai, L, Zhao, X, Wang, J, Zhou, JL, He, M & Li, D 2021, 'Gas-liquid microextraction coupled with magnetic-assisted dispersive solid-phase extraction clean-up for multi-residue pesticide analysis in fatty foods of animal origin', LWT-FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, vol. 137.
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Krishankumar, R, Nimmagadda, SS, Rani, P, Mishra, AR, Ravichandran, KS & Gandomi, AH 2021, 'Solving renewable energy source selection problems using a q-rung orthopair fuzzy-based integrated decision-making approach', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 279.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd This paper proposes an integrated decision-making framework for the systematic selection of a renewable energy source (RES) from a set of RESs based on sustainability attributes. A real case study of RES selection in Karnataka, India, using the framework is demonstrated, and the results are compared with state-of-the-art methods. The main reason for developing this framework is to handle uncertainty and vagueness effectively by reducing human intervention. Systematic selection of RESs also reduces inaccuracies and promotes rational decision-making. In this paper, q-rung orthopair fuzzy information is adopted to minimize subjective randomness by providing a flexible and generalized preference style. Further, the study found systematic approaches for imputing missing values, calculating attributes’ and decision-makers’ weights, aggregation or preferences, and prioritizing RESs, which are integrated into the framework. Comparing the proposed framework with state-of-the-art-methods shows that (i) biomass and solar are suitable RESs for the process under consideration in Karnataka, (ii) the proposed framework is consistent with state-of-the-art methods, (iii) the proposed framework is sufficiently stable even after weights of attributes and decision makers are altered, and (iv) the proposed framework produces broad and sensible rank values for efficient backup management. These results validate the significance of the proposed framework.

Labeeuw, L, Commault, AS, Kuzhiumparambil, U, Emmerton, B, Nguyen, LN, Nghiem, LD & Ralph, PJ 2021, 'A comprehensive analysis of an effective flocculation method for high quality microalgal biomass harvesting', SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT, vol. 752.
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Le, NP, Tran, LC, Huang, X, Dutkiewicz, E, Ritz, C, Phung, SL, Bouzerdoum, A, Franklin, D & Hanzo, L 2021, 'Energy-Harvesting Aided Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Reliable Ground User Localization Under Lognormal-Nakagami-m Fading Channels', IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, pp. 1-1.
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Liu, J, Wu, C, Liu, Z, Li, J, Xu, S, Liu, K, Su, Y & Chen, G 2021, 'Investigations on the response of ceramic ball aggregated and steel fibre reinforced geopolymer-based ultra-high performance concrete (G-UHPC) to projectile penetration', Composite Structures, vol. 255.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd This paper presents experimental and numerical studies on projectile impact resistance of ceramic ball aggregated and steel fibre reinforced geopolymer-based ultra-high performance concrete (G-UHPC) targets. Compared with plain G-UHPC, ceramic ball aggregated G-UHPC enhanced projectile impact resistance regarding crack propagation, crater damage and depth of penetration (DOP). A further improvement of projectile impact resistance was observed if a combined addition of steel fibres and ceramic balls was used. Numerical simulations were then performed to further comprehend the projectile impact on G-UHPC targets using the HJC constitutive model in the finite element software LS-DYNA. Numerically simulated DOP, projectile velocity and displacement histories were obtained and then validated through comparing with the existing models. The numerical perforation limits for 20 vol-% ceramic ball aggregated and 1.5 vol-% steel fibre reinforced G-UHPC were 240 mm at 568 m/s and 380 mm at 798 m/s, respectively.

Liu, X, Wu, Y, Xu, Q, Du, M, Wang, D, Yang, Q, Yang, G, Chen, H, Zeng, T, Liu, Y, Wang, Q & Ni, BJ 2021, 'Mechanistic insights into the effect of poly ferric sulfate on anaerobic digestion of waste activated sludge', Water Research, vol. 189.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Poly ferric sulfate (PFS), one of the typical inorganic flocculants widely used in wastewater management and waste activated sludge (WAS) dewatering, could be accumulated in WAS and inevitably entered in anaerobic digestion system at high levels. However, knowledge about its impact on methane production is virtually absent. This study therefore aims to fill this gap and provide insights into the mechanisms involved through both batch and long-term tests using either real WAS or synthetic wastewaters as the digestion substrates. Experimental results showed that the maximum methane potential and production rate of WAS was respectively retarded by 39.0% and 66.4%, whereas the lag phase was extended by 237.0% at PFS of 40 g per kg of total solids. Mechanism explorations exhibited that PFS induced the physical enmeshment and disrupted the enzyme activity involved in anaerobic digestion, resulting in an inhibitory state of the bioprocess of hydrolysis, acidogenesis, and methanogenesis. Furthermore, PFS's inhibition to hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis was much severer than that to acetotrophic methanogenesis, which could be supported by the elevated abundances of Methanosaeta sp and the dropped abundances of Methanobacterium sp in PFS-present digester, and probably due to the severe mass transfer resistance of hydrogen between the syntrophic bacteria and methanogens, as well as the higher hydrogen appetency of PFS-induced sulfate reducing bacteria. Among the derivatives of PFS, “multinucleate and multichain-hydroxyl polymers” and sulfate were unveiled to be the major contributors to the decreased methane potential, while the “multinucleate and multichain-hydroxyl polymers” were identified to be the chief buster to the slowed methane-producing rate and the extended lag time.

Mishra, DK, Ghadi, MJ, Azizivahed, A, Li, L & Zhang, J 2021, 'A review on resilience studies in active distribution systems', RENEWABLE & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY REVIEWS, vol. 135.
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Mo, W, Wu, J, Walker, PD & Zhang, N 2021, 'Shift characteristics of a bilateral Harpoon-shift synchronizer for electric vehicles equipped with clutchless AMTs', MECHANICAL SYSTEMS AND SIGNAL PROCESSING, vol. 148.
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Mousavi, M, Holloway, D, Olivier, JC & Gandomi, AH 2021, 'Beam damage detection using synchronisation of peaks in instantaneous frequency and amplitude of vibration data', MEASUREMENT, vol. 168.
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Muhammad, G, Alam, MA, Mofijur, M, Jahirul, MI, Lv, Y, Xiong, W, Ong, HC & Xu, J 2021, 'Modern developmental aspects in the field of economical harvesting and biodiesel production from microalgae biomass', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 135.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Microalgae have been widely explored because of the diverse number of their worthwhile applications and potential as a source biomass for the production of biofuels and value-added materials. However, downstream techniques have yet to be fully developed to overcome techno-economic barriers. Flocculation is a superior method for harvesting microalgae from growth medium because of its harvesting efficiency, economic feasibility. Various kind of bio-flocculation harvesting methods are consider as attractive low cost and environmentally friendly options and able to harvest >90% biomass. Lipid recovery from microalgal cells is a major barrier for the biofuel industry because of process complexity and algae cell structure. Thus, the pretreatment method is necessary to disrupt the cell walls of microalgae and enhance lipid extraction. Many techniques, including dry methods of extraction, are already being implemented but found out that they are not efficient and cost-effective. Various new wet harvesting strategies have been claimed to extract major lipids in cost-efficient (30% less than conventional) way as wet technologies can eliminate the cost of cell drying and associated instruments. It is necessary to develop new methods which are energy and cost-effective, and environmentally friendlier for the commercialization of biofuels. Therefore, this review presents the advances in the progress of various flocculation harvesting methods with special emphasis on innovative bio-flocculation, the underlying mechanism of microalgae and flocculation. In this study also summarize the recent progress on microalgal oil extraction processes, and comparison was made between the processes in terms of sustainability, technology readiness, and applications in larger scales.

N.Usefi, Sharafi, P, Mortazavi, M, Ronagh, H & Samali, B 2021, 'Structural performance and sustainability assessment of hybrid-cold formed modular steel frame', Journal of Building Engineering, vol. 34.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Hybrid cold-formed steel (HCFS) structures are new structural systems in the light steel construction industry offering new possibilities, in particular with regard to the applications in mid-rise construction. The structural performance, sustainability as well as the economic and social costs of these structures are of great importance for decision-makers when it comes to deciding on employing these systems and comparing them with their conventional counterparts. In this study, the HCFS systems are evaluated with respect to sustainability, structural performance, economic cost, and social impacts. The results then are compared with those of Ordinary Moment Resisting Frames (OMRF), as the most popular conventional HRS framed system. The methodology consists of both qualitative and quantitative analyses that include the overview of the positive and negative points of each construction method in the form of a comparative study. The results of the structural analysis of the two construction systems show that the hybrid system exhibits better structural performance with regard to the storey shear and drift. It is also shown that in terms of most environmental performance indicators, HCFS framed structures can lead to less environmental impact than OMRF systems. Moreover, the economic assessment demonstrates that HCFS framed structures can save up to the 23% in framing costs, compared to OMRF systems, primarily owing to the fact that lightweight flooring system can be easily incorporated to the design of HCFS structure. Their great potential for prefabrication, on the other hand, makes HCFS a better option with respect to many social compact indicators such as noise, air, vibration and dust pollution and traffic.

Nekoei, M, Moghaddas, SA, Golafshani, EM & Gandomi, AH 2021, 'Introduction of ABCEP as an automatic programming method', INFORMATION SCIENCES, vol. 545, pp. 575-594.
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Nie, X, Takalkar, MA, Duan, M, Zhang, H & Xu, M 2021, 'GEME: Dual-stream multi-task GEnder-based micro-expression recognition', Neurocomputing, vol. 427, pp. 13-28.
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© 2020 Elsevier B.V. Recognition of micro-expressions remains a topic of concern considering its brief span and low intensity. This issue is addressed through convolutional neural networks (CNNs) by developing multi-task learning (MTL) method to effectively leverage a side task: gender detection. A dual-stream multi-task framework called GEME is introduced that recognises micro-expressions by incorporating unique gender characteristics and subsequently improves the micro-expression recognition accuracy. This research aims to examine how gender differences influence the way micro-expressions are displayed. The current study proves that selecting relevant features of micro-expressions distinctive to the gender and added to the micro-expression features improves the micro-expression recognition accuracy. This network learns gender-specific features and micro-expression features and adds them together to learn the combination of shared and task-specific representations. A multi-class focal loss is used to mitigate the class imbalance issue by down-weighing the easy samples and concentrate more on misclassified samples. The Class-Balanced (CB) focal loss is also implemented for a better class balancing during Leave-One-Subject-Out (LOSO) validations where CB loss re-balances and re-weights the loss. The experimental results on three widely used databases demonstrate the improved performance of the proposed network and achieve comparable results with the state-of-the-art methods.

Nizami, MSH, Hossain, MJ & Mahmud, K 2021, 'A Nested Transactive Energy Market Model to Trade Demand-Side Flexibility of Residential Consumers', IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 479-490.
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© 2010-2012 IEEE. A nested transactive energy (TE) market methodology is presented in this paper for the effective utilization of demand-side flexibility of small-scale residential consumers. The consumers' flexibilities are traded in a local flexibility market to prevent transformer overloading, whereas the demand-side flexibilities are traded in an event-triggered central wholesale demand response market after successive aggregation in the intermediate layers. A two-stage optimization-based scheduling model is presented to optimize the transactive bidding of residential consumers with on-site distributed energy resources and controllable loads. The optimal market methodologies are presented for the integrated TE markets to ensure economic trading for all involved stakeholders. The proposed methodology is numerically validated by simulation studies for different consumer participation levels, and the case studies indicate the efficacy of the proposed methodology for economically feasible procurement of consumer flexibility for transformer overloading and wholesale peak-price events. Results also illustrate that the proposed method offers 2.8-14 times more profits to the participating consumers than the energy-supply incentives according to existing retail tariff structures even considering their thermal discomfort and cycle-aging of storage units for the flexibility support.

Peng, L, Fan, SQ, Xie, GJ, Ni, BJ, Liu, Y, Xu, Y, Liu, BF, Xing, DF, Han, HJ, Song, S & Ren, NQ 2021, 'Modeling nitrate/nitrite dependent anaerobic methane oxidation and Anammox process in a membrane granular sludge reactor', Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 403.
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© 2020 Elsevier B.V. The granular bioreactor, characterized by excellent settling velocity, high rate and low cost is an ideal choice for achieving coupled nitrate/nitrite dependent denitrifying anaerobic methane oxidation (n-DAMO) and anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox) process. To fundamentally understand its underlining mechanisms and provide suggestions for process optimization, a granule-based model framework was developed to describe simultaneous anaerobic methane and ammonium oxidation by functional microbes. The proposed model was evaluated based on long-term experimental data from two membrane granular sludge reactors (MGSRs) with different operational conditions. The model possessed of good predictive ability to reproduce removal rates and effluent concentrations of nitrogen species. The predicted biomass abundance in two MGSRs and stratified microbial distribution along granule depth were consistent with experimental observations. The estimated parameter values, with good identifiability and reliability indicated a stimulated growth of DAMO archaea in MGSRs. Both hydraulic retention times (HRTs) and granule sizes have influences on microbial abundance in the MGSR and community distribution inside granules. Within the investigated HRTs from 1.4 h to 20 h and granule sizes from 500 μm to 2900 μm, it was revealed that a proper control of relatively short HRTs and small granule sizes resulted in an increased fraction of DAMO archaea and a reduced DAMO bacteria abundance with AnAOB less impacted, which would lower the required nitrite nitrogen to ammonium nitrogen ratio in the nitritation reactor (prior unit) and thus minimize operational cost in sidestream treatment lines.

Qian, H, Zong, Z, Wu, C, Li, J & Gan, L 2021, 'Numerical study on the behavior of utility tunnel subjected to ground surface explosion', Thin-Walled Structures, vol. 161.
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© 2021 Elsevier Ltd Over the past few decades, underground utility tunnels have become increasingly popular in many countries, especially in North America and China. Utility tunnels host multiple services’ infrastructures inside an accessible underground space that allows regular inspection, maintenance, and easy replacement. Previous studies on the safety of underground utility tunnels were mainly focused on the seismic performances, their dynamic behaviors under accidental/hostile blast loads were seldomly investigated. TM 5-855-1 is frequently employed to calculate the ground shock load and responses of buried structures. However, it is only applicable for the cases with a scaled distance larger than 0.4 m/kg1/3. The present study performs a comprehensive numerical investigation on the blast performance of utility tunnel subjected to ground surface explosion with small scaled distance. With validated material and structural models, a FEM model based on a utility tunnel project is established. The influence of charge weight on blast resistance of the utility tunnel is studied numerically. The effect of the reinforcement ratio, shear reinforcement arrangement, buried depth and wall thickness are investigated under the scenario of a sedan car bomb overhead explosion. It is found that over 200 kg TNT ground surface explosion will cause a great threat to the utility tunnel with 2 m burial depth (scaled distance smaller than 0.4 m/kg1/3). The shear reinforcement arrangement is of great importance to the blast resistance of the utility tunnel. The failure mode of the roof can be changed from combined shear and flexural failure to flexural failure, with an increased reinforcement ratio. Increased wall thickness and buried depth can improve the blast resistance of the utility tunnel as expected. Safety buried depth, and wall thickness for a sedan car bomb overhead explosion are discussed in the present study.

Qiu, S, Ji, J, Sun, W, Pei, J, He, J, Li, Y, Li, JJ & Wang, G 2021, 'Recent advances in surface manipulation using micro-contact printing for biomedical applications', Smart Materials in Medicine, vol. 2, pp. 65-73.
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Rafiee, A, Khalilpour, KR, Prest, J & Skryabin, I 2021, 'Biogas as an energy vector', BIOMASS & BIOENERGY, vol. 144.
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Rahman, ML, Zhang, JA, Huang, X, Guo, YJ & Lu, Z 2021, 'Gaussian-Mixture-Model Based Clutter Suppression in Perceptive Mobile Networks', IEEE COMMUNICATIONS LETTERS, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 152-156.
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Rahman, SMA, Fattah, IMR, Maitra, S & Mahlia, TMI 2021, 'A ranking scheme for biodiesel underpinned by critical physicochemical properties', Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 229.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Diminishing oil reserve, escalating energy dependence, and the environmental impact of fossil fuel utilization has led to research on renewable energy resources with a cleaner carbon footprint. Biofuel, especially biodiesel, has become a feasible substitute for petroleum diesel as it can be directly used in existing transport infrastructure without significant alteration. This paper starts by discussing some critical physicochemical properties and their effect on engine performance and emission. The research then proposes a ranking scheme to select the most suitable biodiesel based on six vital physicochemical properties: density, viscosity, heating value, flash point, cetane number and oxidation stability. The solution developed is independent of supervision, contrary to popular learning algorithms and can operate on the only intelligence whether an attribute is favourable by its higher/lower values. The novelty of the work consists in ensuring that the rarer properties pick up the greater weights and in establishing a simple ranker based on descriptive statistics. This scheme first generates transactions against each biodiesel which helps in association rule mining, which is later used to score/rank the biodiesels. The three phases and their subordinate sub-steps have been carried out using the platforms: Python, R and Tableau, respectively. The study endorses Brassica juncea, Cardoon (Cynara cardunculu), and poppyseed oil as the most desirable biodiesel feedstocks. On the other hand, cedar, castor and hiptage were ranked as least desirable in the list of 71 feedstocks based on the proposed ranking scheme. The proposed ranking scheme will help decision-makers such to analyze and obtain tailored biodiesel feedstock for their purposes.

Rezaei, M, Razavi Bazaz, S, Zhand, S, Sayyadi, N, Jin, D, Stewart, MP & Ebrahimi Warkiani, M 2021, 'Point of Care Diagnostics in the Age of COVID-19.', Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland), vol. 11, no. 1.
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The recent outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its associated serious respiratory disease, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), poses a major threat to global public health. Owing to the lack of vaccine and effective treatments, many countries have been overwhelmed with an exponential spread of the virus and surge in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. Current standard diagnostic methods are inadequate for widespread testing as they suffer from prolonged turn-around times (>12 h) and mostly rely on high-biosafety-level laboratories and well-trained technicians. Point-of-care (POC) tests have the potential to vastly improve healthcare in several ways, ranging from enabling earlier detection and easier monitoring of disease to reaching remote populations. In recent years, the field of POC diagnostics has improved markedly with the advent of micro- and nanotechnologies. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, POC technologies have been rapidly innovated to address key limitations faced in existing standard diagnostic methods. This review summarizes and compares the latest available POC immunoassay, nucleic acid-based and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats- (CRISPR)-mediated tests for SARS-CoV-2 detection that we anticipate aiding healthcare facilities to control virus infection and prevent subsequent spread.

Salehpour, MJ, Alishavandi, AM, Hossain, MJ, Hosseini Rostami, SM, Wang, J & Yu, X 2021, 'A stochastic decentralized model for the privately interactive operation of a multi-carrier energy system', Sustainable Cities and Society, vol. 64.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Multi-carrier energy systems have received wide attentions due their flexibility and sustainable characteristics. Although these systems show significant efficiency in providing and consuming energy, the performance of the whole system can be degraded owing to uncertainties arising from different sources. This paper presents a stochastic decentralized model for considering the uncertainties of a system including different types of thermal and electrical private loads using a multi-agent framework. In other words, agents have private ownership and seek for social welfare as well as optimized personal profits. In the proposed model, the gradient projection method is used to implement a fully-decentralize energy trading model. Also, various stochastic scenarios of solar irradiance, prices, and loads are considered using the fast-forward selection algorithm to take into account the uncertainties. Then, to assess the proposed stochastic multi-agent model, “AnyLogic” is used for conducting the simulation studies. The numerical results show that the clearing price is directly affected by the renewable agent without any supervisory control. Moreover, the total operating cost of the considered multi-carrier energy system decreases by ∼7 % considering these uncertainties compared with a deterministic one. However, social welfare declines due to the intrinsically beneficial behavior in private cooperation.

Salgotra, R, Singh, U, Saha, S & Gandomi, AH 2021, 'Self adaptive cuckoo search: Analysis and experimentation', Swarm and Evolutionary Computation, vol. 60, pp. 100751-100751.
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Samani, BH, Behruzian, M, Najafi, G, Fayyazi, E, Ghobadian, B, Behruzian, A, Mofijur, M, Mazlan, M & Yue, J 2021, 'The rotor-stator type hydrodynamic cavitation reactor approach for enhanced biodiesel fuel production', Fuel, vol. 283.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Today renewable energies such as biodiesel have considerable role in the bio-based economy. Long production time and low efficiency are a number of problems in biodiesel production that is essential to be considered when designing and operating the biodiesel production systems. In this study, using safflower oil in a hydrodynamic cavity reactor, biodiesel fuel was produced in the possible shortest time and maximum efficiency. The effect of reaction time (30, 60 and 90 s), concentration of potassium hydroxide catalyst (0.75%, 1% and 1.25%), alcohol to oil ratio (6, 8 and 10) and rotor-stator distance (1 cm, 2 cm and 3 cm) on the reaction yield were analyzed. The results were analyzed by response surface methodology. Among the independent variables, reaction time was the most important factor on the reaction yield, which had a positive impact on the quality of methyl ester. The optimum values obtained were: 63.88 s reaction time, 0.94% catalyst concentration, 1: 8.36 alcohol to oil molar ratio, 1.53 cm rotor-stator distance, and 89.11% yield. Several properties and compounds of biodiesel obtained were measured and compared with ASTM D6751 (American Society for Testing and Materials) and EN 14214 standard (European Standards). The results showed that most of the features conform to the afore-mentioned standard. Therefore, transesterification of safflower oil with a hydrodynamic cavitation reactor can function as a good alternative to the diesel.

Sang, L, Xu, M, Qian, S & Wu, X 2021, 'Knowledge graph enhanced neural collaborative recommendation', Expert Systems with Applications, vol. 164.
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© 2020 Existing neural collaborative filtering (NCF) recommendation methods suffer from severe sparsity problem. Knowledge Graph (KG), which commonly consists of fruitful connected facts about items, presents an unprecedented opportunity to alleviate the sparsity problem. However, pure NCF models can hardly model the high-order connectivity in KG, and ignores complex pairwise correlations between user/item embedding dimensions. To address these problems, we propose a novel Knowledge graph enhanced Neural Collaborative Recommendation (K-NCR) framework, which effectively combines user–item interaction information and auxiliary knowledge information for recommendation task into three parts: (1) For items, the proposed propagating model learns the representation of item entity. It recursively aggregates information from its multi-hop neighbours in KG, and employs an attention mechanism to discriminate the importance of the relation type to mine users’ potential preferences. (2) For users, another heterogeneous attention weights are leveraged to strengthen the embedding learning of users. (3) The user and item embeddings are then fed into a newly designed two-dimensional interaction map with convolutional hidden layers to model the complex pairwise correlations between their embedding dimensions explicitly. Extensive experimental results on three benchmark datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our K-NCR framework.

Saputra, YM, Hoang, DT, Nguyen, DN & Dutkiewicz, E 2021, 'A Novel Mobile Edge Network Architecture with Joint Caching-Delivering and Horizontal Cooperation', IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 19-31.
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Mobile edge caching/computing (MEC) has been emerging as a promising paradigm to provide ultra-high rate, ultra-reliable, and/or low-latency communications in future wireless networks. In this paper, we introduce a novel MEC network architecture that leverages the optimal joint caching-delivering with horizontal cooperation among mobile edge nodes (MENs). To that end, we first formulate the content-access delay minimization problem by jointly optimizing the content caching and delivering decisions under various network constraints (e.g., network topology, storage capacity and users’ demands at each MEN). However, the strongly mutual dependency between the decisions makes the problem a nested dual optimization that is proved to be NP-hard. To deal with it, we propose a novel transformation method to transform the nested dual problem to an equivalent mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) optimization problem. Then, we design a centralized solution using an improved branch-and-bound algorithm with the interior-point method to find the joint caching and delivering policy which is within 1 percent of the optimal solution. Since the centralized solution requires the full network topology and information from all MENs, to make our solution scalable, we develop a distributed algorithm which allows each MEN to make its own decisions based on its local observations. Extensive simulations demonstrate that the proposed solutions can reduce the total average delay for the whole network up to 40 percent compared with other current caching policies. Furthermore, the proposed solutions also increase the cache hit ratio for the network up to 4 times, thereby dramatically reducing the traffic load on the backhaul network

Satya, A, Harimawan, A, Sri Haryani, G, Johir, MAH, Nguyen, LN, Nghiem, LD, Vigneswaran, S, Ngo, HH & Setiadi, T 2021, 'Fixed-bed adsorption performance and empirical modelingof cadmium removal using adsorbent prepared from the cyanobacterium Aphanothece sp cultivar', Environmental Technology and Innovation.
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© 2020 Elsevier B.V. Water contamination by cadmium (Cd), which is a toxic heavy metal widely used in many industrial processes, is a pervasive environmental problem. This study investigated the removal of Cd by dry cyanobacterium Aphanothece sp cultivar in adsorption columns The effect of inlet Cd concentrations (1.00 – 4.85mg/L), flow rates (0.30-0.60 L/h) and bed height (4.6 -7.2 cm) on the breakthrough characteristics of the adsorption column was investigated. The maximum adsorption capacity and efficiency were found to be 8.20 mg/g and 89.07 %, respectively with a flow rate of 0.60 L/h and 4.85 mg/L inlet concentration of Cd. The fixed bed adsorption data were fitted to three well known fixed bed empirical models namely Thomas, Adam–Bohart and Yoon–Nelson. The experimental results well fitted with the models mentioned above with R2 of greater than 0.98 at different conditions. The regeneration efficiency of benthic cyanobacterium Aphanothece sp cultivar based adsorbent was studied using 0.1 M HCl. Repetitive adsorption–regeneration experiment show that, at the end of the fifth cycle, the desorption efficiency decreased by 21%. Thus, further research is necessary to improve the reusability of dried biomass of cyanobacterium Aphanothece sp adsorbent.

Scheuermann Filho, HC, Beck Saldanha, R, Gravina da Rocha, C & Cesar Consoli, N 2021, 'Sustainable Binders Stabilizing Dispersive Clay', Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 06020026-06020026.
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Seo, DH, Xie, M, Murdock, AT, van der Laan, T, Lawn, M, Park, MJ, Woo, YC, Pineda, S, Hong, JM, Grigore, M, Yick, S, Han, Z, Millar, G, Gray, S, Ostrikov, K, Shon, HK & Bendavid, A 2021, 'Rejection of harsh pH saline solutions using graphene membranes', Carbon, vol. 171, pp. 240-247.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Water security is a pressing issue for global citizens in the 21st century. Concerns over clean water supply, and the environmental impact of industrial waste water, make water treatment a world-wide problem requiring a simple and effective solution. Membrane distillation is an emerging water purification technique that complements state-of-the-art reverse osmosis processes. Membrane distillation achieves high rejection over a range of salt concentrations while maintaining flux, using a temperature differential as opposed to pressure across the membrane. Importantly the process can be driven using low grade waste heat energy. Current membranes used in membrane distillation do not guarantee stable membrane performance under harsh (high salt and acid or base concentrations) conditions. Here we report, a permeable graphene membrane operating in harsh conditions with no observable degradation. A permeate of pH neutral water with a flux of 25 ± 1 L m−2 h−1 is produced by this membrane through near (99.9 ± 0.1%) ion rejection from 0.6 M sodium chloride at pH 1 and pH 13, over 144 h. More complex ion solutions, including real acid mine drainage waste-water, were also successfully purified. These findings may present a membrane that is suitable to improve water supply and reduce the environmental impact of industrial waste-water.

Singh, AK, Gramann, K, Chen, HT & Lin, CT 2021, 'The impact of hand movement velocity on cognitive conflict processing in a 3D object selection task in virtual reality', NeuroImage, vol. 226.
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© 2020 Detecting and correcting incorrect body movements is an essential part of everyday interaction with one's environment. The human brain provides a monitoring system that constantly controls and adjusts our actions according to our surroundings. However, when our brain's predictions about a planned action do not match the sensory inputs resulting from that action, cognitive conflict occurs. Much is known about cognitive conflict in 1D/2D environments; however, less is known about the role of movement characteristics associated with cognitive conflict in 3D environment. Hence, we devised an object selection task in a virtual reality (VR) environment to test how the velocity of hand movements impacts human brain responses. From a series of analyses of EEG recordings synchronized with motion capture, we found that the velocity of the participants’ hand movements modulated the brain's response to proprioceptive feedback during the task and induced a prediction error negativity (PEN). Additionally, the PEN originates in the anterior cingulate cortex and is itself modulated by the ballistic phase of the hand's movement. These findings suggest that velocity is an essential component of integrating hand movements with visual and proprioceptive information during interactions with real and virtual objects.

Singh, M, Indraratna, B & Nguyen, TT 2021, 'Experimental insights into the stiffness degradation of subgrade soils prone to mud pumping', Transportation Geotechnics, vol. 27.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Recent laboratory investigations conducted on soils prone to mud pumping have shown that the subgrade soil experiences softening associated with an internal redistribution of moisture when the cyclic stress ratio (CSR) exceeds a certain critical level. This article aims to evaluate the stiffness degradation of these problematic subgrade soils subjected to a wide range of loading conditions. The test results revealed that the instability of the specimens is caused by the early softening behaviour, and this is accompanied by a sharp reduction in the specimen stiffness. As high as 70–80% reduction in the initial small-strain stiffness was observed even for densely compacted specimens (ρd = 1790 kg/m3). In this regard, a new method for predicting the threshold number of cycles, Nthr and residual axial strains required for the onset of subgrade instability is proposed. As a useful practical guide, a quasi-linear relationship between the threshold strain and Nthr is also determined.

Siwakoti, Y, Shaw, P, Hasan, S & Khan, MNH 2021, 'A New Single-Stage Continuous Input Current Based High Gain Boost Inverter: Analysis and Implementation', International Journal of Circuit Theory and Applications.
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Stender, M, Tiedemann, M, Spieler, D, Schöpflin, D, Hoffmann, N & Oberst, S 2021, 'Deep learning for brake squeal: Brake noise detection, characterization and prediction', Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, vol. 149, pp. 107181-107181.
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Despite significant advances in modeling of friction-induced vibrations and brake squeal, the majority of industrial research and design is still conducted experimentally, since many aspects of squeal and its mechanisms involved remain unknown. In practice, measurement data is available in large amounts. We report here for the first time on novel strategies for handling data-intensive vibration testings to gain better insights into friction brake system vibrations and noise generation mechanisms. Machine learning-based methods to detect and characterize vibrations, to understand sensitivities and to predict brake squeal are applied with the aim to illustrate how interdisciplinary approaches can leverage the potential of data science techniques for classical mechanical engineering challenges. In the first part, a deep learning brake squeal detector is developed to identify several classes of typical friction noise recordings. The detection method is rooted in recent computer vision techniques for object detection based on convolutional neural networks (CNN). It allows to overcome limitations of classical approaches that solely rely on instantaneous spectral properties of the recorded noise. Results indicate superior detection and characterization quality when compared to a state-of-the-art brake squeal detector. In the second part, a recurrent neural network (RNN) is employed to learn the parametric patterns that determine the dynamic stability of an operating brake system. Given a set of multivariate loading conditions, the RNN learns to predict the noise generation of the structure. The validated RNN represents a virtual twin model for the squeal behavior of a specific brake system. It is found that this model can predict the occurrence and the onset of brake squeal with high accuracy and that it can identify the complicated patterns and temporal dependencies in the loading conditions that drive the dynamical structure into regimes of instability. Large data se...

Stewart, MG & Li, J 2021, 'Risk-based assessment of blast-resistant design of ultra-high performance concrete columns', Structural Safety, vol. 88.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd In conventional structural protective design against blast loads conservative structural designs are anticipated. However, unknown factors that include threat uncertainty, blast load variation, construction methods, material quality, etc., could impact the accuracy of assessment and design, sometimes even leading to an overestimation of structural capacity to explosive blast effects or an underestimation of actual blast pressures. In the present study, structural safety and reliability analyses of Ultra-high Performance Concrete (UHPC) columns under varying blast scenarios are performed. The variation in column dimensions, steel reinforcement, UHPC material strength, explosive range and mass, and numerical and blast load model errors are considered. The peak reflected pressure and impulse from the selected blast scenarios are derived based on variation in the explosive mass and standoff distance. Failure probabilities of columns made of this emerging high performance concrete material are then estimated. It was found that for a UHPC column designed for blast the probability of major damage given an explosive blast load varies from 1 × 10−2 to 1 × 10−5 for explosive ordnance and terrorism blast scenarios. This provides a reasonable margin of safety against major structural damage. It was also found that the risk reducing benefit of blast-resistant UHPC columns can be considerable.

Sun, X, Shi, Z, Lei, G, Guo, Y & Zhu, J 2021, 'Multi-Objective Design Optimization of an IPMSM Based on Multilevel Strategy', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, vol. 68, no. 1, pp. 139-148.
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Sun, Z, Yao, Y, Xiao, J, Zhang, L, Zhang, J & Tang, Z 2021, 'Exploiting textual queries for dynamically visual disambiguation', PATTERN RECOGNITION, vol. 110.
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Syed, MS, Marquis, C, Taylor, R & Warkiani, ME 2021, 'A two-step microengineered system for high-density cell retention from bioreactors', SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY, vol. 254.
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Taghikhah, F, Voinov, A, Shukla, N, Filatova, T & Anufriev, M 2021, 'Integrated modeling of extended agro-food supply chains: A systems approach', EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF OPERATIONAL RESEARCH, vol. 288, no. 3, pp. 852-868.
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van den Hoven, E, Orth, D & Zijlema, A 2021, 'Possessions and memories', Current Opinion in Psychology, vol. 39, pp. 94-99.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd People often acquire souvenirs and photographs to facilitate remembering, but possessions and memories can relate to each other in a variety of ways. This review paper presents four different connection types found between meaningful things in our everyday lives and our personal memories. Each connection type either focuses on possessions or memories and the connection between the two is either active or lost. These perspectives will be detailed through examples of studies and design cases from different fields and research areas. More studies have been found focusing on existing connections between possessions and memories, such as in human-computer interaction, design, material culture, psychology and marketing, than those lost, which were specifically focused around ageing, forgetting, heirlooms, identity and hoarding behaviour. Our review of connections between possessions and memories accumulate to suggest the attachment people ascribe to certain possessions is mirrored by the ability of objects to fulfil people's desire to preserve, embody, showcase and recollect certain memories.

Vu, HP, Nguyen, LN, Vu, MT, Labeeuw, L, Emmerton, B, Commault, AS, Ralph, PJ, Mahlia, TM & Nghiem, LD 2021, 'Harvesting Porphyridium purpureum using polyacrylamide polymers and alkaline bases and their impact on biomass quality', SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT, vol. 755.
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Vu, MT, Nguyen, LN, Hasan Johir, MA, Ngo, HH, Skidmore, C, Fontana, A, Galway, B, Bustamante, H & Nghiem, LD 2021, 'Phosphorus removal from aqueous solution by steel making slag – Mechanisms and performance optimisation', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 284.
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© 2020 This study aims to evaluate a passive inexpensive process to remove the residual phosphorus (P) from wastewater treatment effluents prior to discharge to the environment. This work also differentiates between surface adsorption and chemical precipitation in the bulk solution as key P removal mechanisms by steel-making slag. Experimental results show that P removal efficiency is governed by steel-making slag particle size, initial P content and ratio of steel-making slag mass to aqueous solution volume. The results demonstrate the potential of steel-making slag for removing dissolved phosphate from wastewater especially as a polishing step. Even at an elevated concentration of P of 5 mg/L, 90% P removal was achieved using 5 kg steel-making slag with particle size of 0.15–0.6 mm for each m3 aqueous solution. Higher removal efficiency was also achievable through process optimisation. In particular, P removal by steel-making slag can be significantly enhanced, and nearly complete removal (>99%) can be achievable by buffering the aqueous solution at pH of 5.6. This study also established the isotherms and kinetics of the adsorption of P to steel-making slag to identify key removal mechanisms. Experimental data systematically indicate that P removal by steel-making slag is governed by both adsorption and chemical precipitation. At the early stage of the removal process, adsorption is the dominating removal mechanism, while the P removal via chemical precipitation can occur once the release of Ca2+ calcium into the aqueous phase is sufficient to form calcium phosphate precipitates. Overall, P removal by chemical precipitation depends on both pH and Ca2+ concentration in aqueous solution.

Wang, C, Park, MJ, Seo, DH & Shon, HK 2021, 'Inkjet printing of graphene oxide and dopamine on nanofiltration membranes for improved anti-fouling properties and chlorine resistance', Separation and Purification Technology, vol. 254.
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© 2020 Elsevier B.V. Anti-fouling properties and chlorine resistance nature are highly desirable features for membranes used in nanofiltration (NF). Conventional polymeric NF membranes often suffer from fouling issues and poor stability under chlorine based chemicals. Therefore, in this work, a thin film composite (TFC) NF membrane was modified by coating a binding agent polydopamine (PDA) and graphene oxide (GO) using a simple and scalable inkjet printing process where the GO deposition was controlled by the number of printing cycles. The NF test results revealed the PDA-GO printed NF membranes exhibited higher salt rejection while achieving slightly lower permeate flux compared to control membrane. Moreover, the PDA-GO printed membrane exhibited enhanced anti-fouling properties where only 20% of permeate flux reduction was observed while the control membrane displayed significant reduction in flux up to 48%. Furthermore, chlorine resistance of the PDA-GO printed membrane showed reduction in salt rejection was effectively suppressed compared to the control membrane for the chlorination time of 1 and 3 h. Our work demonstrates an effective strategy to mitigate fouling and chlorine stability issues in NF membranes as well as validate inkjet printing as a versatile technique for the formation of advanced nanomaterial based membranes with high controllability of membrane properties.

Wang, L-K, Chen, X, Wei, W, Xu, Q, Sun, J, Mannina, G, Song, L & Ni, B-J 2021, 'Biological Reduction of Nitric Oxide for Efficient Recovery of Nitrous Oxide as an Energy Source.', Environmental science & technology.
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Chemical absorption-biological reduction based on Fe(II)EDTA is a promising technology to remove nitric oxide (NO) from flue gases. However, limited effort has been made to enable direct energy recovery from NO through production of nitrous oxide (N₂O) as a potential renewable energy rather than greenhouse gas. In this work, the enhanced energy recovery in the form of N₂O via biological NO reduction was investigated by conducting short-term and long-term experiments at different Fe(II)EDTA-NO and organic carbon levels. The results showed both NO reductase and N₂O reductase were inhibited at Fe(II)EDTA-NO concentration up to 20 mM, with the latter being inhibited more significantly, thus facilitating N₂O accumulation. Furthermore, N₂O accumulation was enhanced under carbon-limiting conditions because of electron competition during short-term experiments. Up to 47.5% of NO-N could be converted to gaseous N₂O-N, representing efficient N₂O recovery. Fe(II)EDTA-NO reduced microbial diversity and altered the community structure toward Fe(II)EDTA-NO-reducing bacteria-dominated culture during long-term experiments. The most abundant bacterial genus Pseudomonas, which was able to resist the toxicity of Fe(II)EDTA-NO, was significantly enriched, with its relative abundance increased from 1.0 to 70.3%, suggesting Pseudomonas could be the typical microbe for the energy recovery technology in NO-based denitrification.

Wang, Q, Liu, J & Ying, M 2021, 'Equivalence checking of quantum finite-state machines', Journal of Computer and System Sciences, vol. 116, pp. 1-21.
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© 2020 Elsevier Inc. In this paper, we introduce the model of quantum Mealy machines and study the equivalence checking and minimisation problems of them. Two efficient algorithms are developed for checking equivalence of two states in the same machine and for checking equivalence of two machines. As an application, they are used in equivalence checking of quantum circuits. Moreover, the minimisation problem is proved to be in PSPACE.

Wen, D, Yang, B, Qin, L, Zhang, Y, Chang, L & Li, R 2021, 'Computing K-Cores in Large Uncertain Graphs: An Index-based Optimal Approach', IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, pp. 1-1.
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Woo, YC, Yao, M, Shim, WG, Kim, Y, Tijing, LD, Jung, B, Kim, SH & Shon, HK 2021, 'Co-axially electrospun superhydrophobic nanofiber membranes with 3D-hierarchically structured surface for desalination by long-term membrane distillation', Journal of Membrane Science, vol. 623.
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© 2021 Elsevier B.V. Electrospun nanofiber membranes (ENMs) have gained increasing interest in membrane distillation (MD) applications due to their high surface area, high hydrophobicity and porosity, and controllable pore size and membrane thickness. However, despite these advantages, ENMs still suffer from wetting issues in MD. Co-axial electrospinning is an attractive strategy for the one-step fabrication of non-woven membranes with core-sheath structures and improved wetting resistance for MD application. In the present study, we investigated poly (vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PH) as the core and PH/silica aerogel (SiA) as the sheath to obtain superhydrophobic co-axial composite ENMs. The surface characterization results indicated that the active layer (i.e., PH) of the co-axial ENMs was rough, highly porous (>80%), and superhydrophobic (contact angle >160°). Further, the co-axial ENMs possessed small pore sizes (<0.39 μm) and a suitable liquid entry pressure (>1.72 bar). Upon the application in long-term (one month) direct contact MD testing using a 3.5 wt% NaCl solution as the feed, high water vapor flux and salt rejection of 14.5 L/m2h and 99.99% were achieved, respectively, when applying the optimal 4 wt% SiA solution loading at the sheath. The ENMs fabricated using the versatile co-axial electrospinning showed great potential for long-term applications in direct contact MD desalination.

Wu, L, Wei, W & Ni, BJ 2021, 'Response to Comment on "a Critical Review on Nitrous Oxide Production by Ammonia-Oxidizing Archaea"', Environmental Science and Technology.
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Wu, L, Wei, W, Xu, J, Chen, X, Liu, Y, Peng, L, Wang, D & Ni, B-J 2021, 'Denitrifying biofilm processes for wastewater treatment: developments and perspectives', ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE-WATER RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 40-67.
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Wu, M, Sun, X, Zhu, J, Lei, G & Guo, Y 2021, 'Improved Model Predictive Torque Control for PMSM Drives Based on Duty Cycle Optimization', IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 57, no. 2, pp. 1-5.
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Xu, Q, Fu, Q, Liu, X, Wang, D, Wu, Y, Li, Y, Yang, J, Yang, Q, Wang, Y, Li, H & Ni, BJ 2021, 'Mechanisms of potassium permanganate pretreatment improving anaerobic fermentation performance of waste activated sludge', Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 406.
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© 2020 Elsevier B.V. Potassium permanganate (KMnO4), one typical strong oxidant, is used extensively in various applications. However, its impact on anaerobic fermentation of waste activated sludge is unknown. This paper therefore aims to investigate its effect on generation of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and qualities of fermentation liquor and fermented solid sludge. Experimental results showed that when KMnO4 increased from 0 to 0.1 g/TSS, the highest SCFAs production enhanced from 33.9 to 251.8 mg COD/g VSS. The mechanism analysis revealed that KMnO4 addition increased the disintegration of sludge cells and the degradation of substantial recalcitrant organics in sludge such as humus and lignocellulose, thereby provided more substances for SCFAs generation. Ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy analysis showed that KMnO4 addition destroyed unsaturated conjugated bonds and decreased organics aromaticity, thereby promoting humus and lignocellulose degradation. GC/MS analyses showed that several micro-molecular substances (e.g., acid-like, alkane-like, and alcohol-like organics) were generated from KMnO4 pretreated humus and lignocellulose, and some of them were demonstrated to serve as substrates to produce SCFAs. The enzyme activity and model-based analyses showed that although KMnO4 restrained all the microorganisms to some extends, the activities of SCFAs generators were much higher than those of SCFAs consumers. In addition, the sludge mixture was separated into liquid and solid fraction after anaerobic fermentation, and the components in fermentation liquid and solid sludge were tested. It was found that the addition of KMnO4 effectively reduced the categories and total detected frequency of refractory organic pollutants in fermentation liquid, which improved the quality of the produced SCFAs. KMnO4 addition also increased the inactivation of fecal coliforms and degradation of emerging contaminants in fermented sludge, which were helpful to its final disp...

Xu, S, Liu, Z, Li, J, Yang, Y & Wu, C 2021, 'Dynamic behaviors of reinforced NSC and UHPC columns protected by aluminum foam layer against low-velocity impact', Journal of Building Engineering, vol. 34.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Two strategies were proposed in this study to improve the safety of RC columns under low-velocity impact loading. One is setting up the protective closed-cell aluminum foam (CCAF) layer on the surfaces of RC columns for general structures, and the other one is utilizing the combination of the CCAF layer and UHPC for important structures. For verifying the effectiveness of these two strategies, both experimental and numerical investigations on the dynamic behaviors of reinforced normal strength concrete (R–NSC) and ultra-high-performance concrete (R–UHPC) columns protected by the CCAF layer against low-velocity impact were presented in this study. Two R–NSC columns and two R–UHPC columns were tested by the free-falling drop-weight system. The failure modes, failure process, time history of impact force and deflection were discussed in detail. Moreover, a 3D finite element model was developed to further investigate the impact dynamic behaviors of R–NSC columns and R–UHPC columns protected by the CCAF layer. The test results demonstrated that the CCAF layer can protect both R–NSC columns and R–UHPC columns effectively by reducing the impact force and absorbing a large amount of impact energy. Correspondingly, the safety of RC columns was also effectively improved since the impact force between the target and the impactor was reduced significantly by the adoption of the aluminum foam layer, and it verified strategy one. Furthermore, R–UHPC columns showed a better impact-resistant performance than R–NSC columns, especially, R–UHPC columns with the CCAF layer showed superior impact-resistant performance, and it verified strategy two. The finite element model can predict the dynamic behaviors of aluminum foam protecting R–NSC and R–UHPC columns with reasonable accuracy. Eventually, the energy absorption of the specimens was investigated by the numerical model.

Xu, Z, Xia, Y, Zhou, P, Li, JJ, Yang, M, Zhang, Y, Zhang, Y, Xie, Y, Li, L, Pan, H, Xu, S & Wang, G 2021, 'Silicon incorporation into hydroxyapatite nanocarrier counteracts the side effects of vancomycin for efficient chronic osteomyelitis treatment', Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 406.
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© 2020 Elsevier B.V. Local administration of antibiotics is a primary approach for treating chronic osteomyelitis (CO). However, clinically used antibiotic delivery systems exhibit suboptimal osteoinductivity, ascribed to the carrier material itself and the cytotoxicity of the loaded antibiotic, often leading to unsatisfactory treatment efficiency. To overcome this problem, we introduced Si into hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanocarriers by surface wrapping with a certain thickness of mesoporous bioactive glass (MBG). This facilitates controlled and sustained antibiotic release, while more importantly, silicon (Si) released from MBG counteracts the side effects of having a high antibiotic concentration at the defect site. Vancomycin-loaded HAp nanocarriers wrapped with MBG were shown to have a higher loading efficiency and more sustained antibiotic release behaviour. In vitro experiments using MC3T3-E1 cells showed that Si ions were effective in counteracting the negative effects of vancomycin on cell proliferation and osteogenic differentiation. In vivo implantation into a CO rat model showed that vancomycin-loaded MBG-wrapped HAp nanocarriers efficiently eliminated the infection and promoted superior bone healing at the fracture site compared to the control that did not release Si. This study highlights the important role of Si in neutralising the side effects of antibiotics, thus opening up a new design concept for biomaterials as antibiotic carriers for treating infection.

Xue, C, Li, W, Luo, Z, Wang, K & Castel, A 2021, 'Effect of chloride ingress on self-healing recovery of smart cementitious composite incorporating crystalline admixture and MgO expansive agent', Cement and Concrete Research, vol. 139.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd In this study, the effect of chloride environment containing various concentrations of chloride ion (Cl−) on self-healing performance of pre-cracked cementitious composite containing crystalline admixture (CA) and MgO expansive agent (MEA) was investigated under wet-dry cycles in chloride solutions. The results revealed that the Cl− changed the mineralogy of self-healing products, and consequently, affected the crack closure ratio and mechanical strength recovery. When self-healing occurred in distilled water, a large amount of ettringite (AFt) were detected, whereas in Cl− solution, monosulfate (AFm) was consumed by Cl− to form Friedel's salt (Fs), and then the Fs was decomposed to Al(OH)3(AH3) due to carbonation. During the multiphase conversion process, hydroxide (OH−) was released into crack solution, therefore the dissolved carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration was increased. The carbonation of the crystals formed in cracks was accelerated with the volume expansion, which achieved rapid crack sealing but contributed little to the mechanical performance recovery.

Ye, D, Zhu, T, Shen, S & Zhou, W 2021, 'A Differentially Private Game Theoretic Approach for Deceiving Cyber Adversaries', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION FORENSICS AND SECURITY, vol. 16, pp. 569-584.
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Ye, G, Yin, H, Chen, T, Chen, H, Cui, L & Zhang, X 2021, 'FENet: A Frequency Extraction Network for Obstructive Sleep Apnea Detection.', IEEE journal of biomedical and health informatics, vol. PP.
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Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is a highly prevalent but inconspicuous disease that seriously jeopardizes the health of human beings. Polysomnography (PSG), the gold standard of detecting OSA, requires multiple specialized sensors for signal collection, hence patients have to physically visit hospitals and bear the costly treatment for a single detection. Recently, many single-sensor alternatives have been proposed to improve the cost efficiency and convenience. Among these methods, solutions based on RR-interval (i.e., the interval between two consecutive pulses) signals reach a satisfactory balance among comfort, portability and detection accuracy.

Ye, K, Ji, JC & Brown, T 2021, 'A novel integrated quasi-zero stiffness vibration isolator for coupled translational and rotational vibrations', Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, vol. 149.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Quasi-zero stiffness (QZS) vibration isolators can provide better isolation performance in the low frequency range than linear vibration isolators. Currently, most of the designed QZS isolators perform vibration isolation only in one direction and few papers are focused on simultaneously isolating the vibrations in two directions. In this paper, an integrated translational-rotational QZS vibration isolator is designed by using the cam-roller mechanism. The proposed QZS system is able to provide the high-static-low-dynamic stiffness in two directions simultaneously. The excitations in both translational and rotational directions are considered independent but with mutual interaction to their induced vibration response. The workable ranges of the QZS system and its limitations are first numerically identified. Then the static characteristics and typical nonlinear dynamic response with jump phenomena are theoretically investigated. The jump-down frequencies for small amplitude oscillations are determined from their amplitude-frequency relationships. Furthermore, the force transmissibility and moment transmissibility of the proposed QZS system are compared with those of the corresponding linear system without the cam-roller mechanism, which clearly demonstrate better isolation performance in both translational and rotational directions.

Yin, H, Yang, S, Song, X, Liu, W & Li, J 2021, 'Deep fusion of multimodal features for social media retweet time prediction', World Wide Web.
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© 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. The popularity of various social media platforms (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Weibo) has led to the generation of millions of micro-blogs each day. Retweet (message forwarding function) is considered to be one of the most effective behavior for information propagation on social networks. The task of retweet behavior prediction has received much attention in recent years, such as modelling the followers’ preference to predict if a tweet from others would be retweeted or not. But one important aspect in retweet behavior prediction is still being overlooked: the followers’ retweet time prediction, which is helpful to understand the popularity of a tweet, the relationships between users, and the influence of users on their followers. However, due to the complex entanglement of multimodal features in social media such as text, social relationships, users’ active time and many others, it is nontrivial to effectively predict the retweet time of followers. In this work, in order to predict the followers’ retweet time on Twitter, we present an end-to-end deep learning model, namely DFMF (Deep Fusion of Multimodal Features), to implicitly learn the latent features and interactions of tweets, social relationships, and the posting time. Specifically, we adopt a word embedding layer to learn the high-level semantics of tweets and a node embedding layer to learn the hidden representations of the complex social relationships. Then, together with the one-hot representation of a tweet’s posting time, the multimodal information is concatenated and fed into fully-connected forward neural networks for implicit cross-modality feature fusion, which is used to predict the retweet time. Finally, we evaluate the proposed method with a real-world Twitter dataset, the experimental results demonstrate that our proposed DFMF is more accurate in predicting the retweet time and can achieve as much as 11.25% perf...

You, X, Wang, CX, Huang, J, Gao, X, Zhang, Z, Wang, M, Huang, Y, Zhang, C, Jiang, Y, Wang, J, Zhu, M, Sheng, B, Wang, D, Pan, Z, Zhu, P, Yang, Y, Liu, Z, Zhang, P, Tao, X, Li, S, Chen, Z, Ma, X, Chih-Lin, I, Han, S, Li, K, Pan, C, Zheng, Z, Hanzo, L, Shen, XS, Guo, YJ, Ding, Z, Haas, H, Tong, W, Zhu, P, Yang, G, Wang, J, Larsson, EG, Ngo, HQ, Hong, W, Wang, H, Hou, D, Chen, J, Chen, Z, Hao, Z, Li, GY, Tafazolli, R, Gao, Y, Poor, HV, Fettweis, GP & Liang, YC 2021, 'Towards 6G wireless communication networks: vision, enabling technologies, and new paradigm shifts', Science China Information Sciences, vol. 64, no. 1.
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© 2020, The Author(s). The fifth generation (5G) wireless communication networks are being deployed worldwide from 2020 and more capabilities are in the process of being standardized, such as mass connectivity, ultra-reliability, and guaranteed low latency. However, 5G will not meet all requirements of the future in 2030 and beyond, and sixth generation (6G) wireless communication networks are expected to provide global coverage, enhanced spectral/energy/cost efficiency, better intelligence level and security, etc. To meet these requirements, 6G networks will rely on new enabling technologies, i.e., air interface and transmission technologies and novel network architecture, such as waveform design, multiple access, channel coding schemes, multi-antenna technologies, network slicing, cell-free architecture, and cloud/fog/edge computing. Our vision on 6G is that it will have four new paradigm shifts. First, to satisfy the requirement of global coverage, 6G will not be limited to terrestrial communication networks, which will need to be complemented with non-terrestrial networks such as satellite and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication networks, thus achieving a space-air-ground-sea integrated communication network. Second, all spectra will be fully explored to further increase data rates and connection density, including the sub-6 GHz, millimeter wave (mmWave), terahertz (THz), and optical frequency bands. Third, facing the big datasets generated by the use of extremely heterogeneous networks, diverse communication scenarios, large numbers of antennas, wide bandwidths, and new service requirements, 6G networks will enable a new range of smart applications with the aid of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data technologies. Fourth, network security will have to be strengthened when developing 6G networks. This article provides a comprehensive survey of recent advances and future trends in these four aspects. Clearly, 6G with additional technical requireme...

Yu, H, Lu, J & Zhang, G 2021, 'An Online Robust Support Vector Regression for Data Streams', IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, pp. 1-1.
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Yu, H, Ye, L, Guo, Y & Su, S 2021, 'An Effective In-Field Calibration Method for Triaxial Magnetometers Based on Local Magnetic Inclination', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, vol. 70.
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Yu, S, Peng, L, Xu, Y, Song, S, Xie, GJ, Liu, Y & Ni, BJ 2021, 'Optimizing light sources for selective growth of purple bacteria and efficient formation of value-added products', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 280.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd The slow growth and inefficient productivity of value-added products are the main obstacles to industrialization of purple non-sulfur bacteria (PNSB)-based technology for clean production from wastewater. To overcome these, a strain of PNSB was obtained through selective cultivation and purification, which was subsequently identified as Rhodobacter sphaeroides. The impacts of different light sources (i.e. halogen lamp, incandescent lamp, infrared light, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) of white, red, blue, green and yellow) were investigated on the production of biomass, pigments and protein by Rb. sphaeroides. Results suggested that, in addition to infrared light, green and yellow LED, most light sources managed to keep the purity of Rb. sphaeroides above 96%. After 7-day cultivation, halogen lamp and infrared light yielded the highest concentrations of biomass (5.78 g SS L−1) and pigments (22.6 mg L−1), respectively. Highest protein-to-biomass ratio (82%) was observed under blue LED, while maximum protein concentration (4.43 g protein L−1) was obtained under incandescent lamp. The infrared light and incandescent lamp might account for the higher production of pigments and protein, respectively. Considering the culture screening, productivity of biomass, pigments and protein as well as energy efficiency together, incandescent lamp was the optimal light source in lab scale. It also gave rise to the highest net profit of $ 14.43 per ton of wastewater treated in a desktop extrapolation evaluating economic benefit of full-scale PNSB-based wastewater recovery process. The results jointly demonstrated that appropriate light source (i.e. incandescent lamp) would boost the microbial protein production and enhance the protein content, which is of great importance to cost control in practice.

Yu, Y, Nguyen, TN, Li, J, Sanchez, LFM & Nguyen, A 2021, 'Predicting elastic modulus degradation of alkali silica reaction affected concrete using soft computing techniques: A comparative study', Construction and Building Materials, vol. 274.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Alkali silica reaction (ASR) is a harmful distress mechanism which results in expansion and reduction of mechanical properties of concrete. The latter may cause loss of serviceability and load carrying capacity of affected concrete structures. Influences of ASR on concrete are known to be complex in nature, for which the traditional empirical and curve-fitting approaches are insufficient to provide adequate models to capture such complexity. Recent advancement in soft computing (SC) offers a new tool for tackling the complexity of ASR affected concrete. Most of previous experimental studies agreed that as a result of ASR, the elastic modulus suffers a significant reduction compared with other properties such as compressive and tensile strength of the affected concrete. In this study, an investigation has been conducted, utilising different SC models to quantify ASR-induced elastic modulus degradation of unrestrained concrete. Five SC techniques, namely support vector machine (SVM), artificial neural network (ANN), adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), M5P model and genetic expression programming (GEP), are investigated comparatively in this research. The models, on basis of SC techniques, are developed and tested using a comprehensive dataset collected from existing publications. In order to demonstrate the superiorities of SC techniques, the proposed approaches are compared to several empirical models developed using same dataset. The comparative results show that the developed SC models outperform empirical models in a wide range of evaluation indices, which indicates promising applications of the proposed approach.

Yuan, Z, Yu, Y, Wei, L, Wang, C, Zhong, X, Sui, X, Yu, Z, Han, DS, Shon, H & Chen, Y 2021, 'Thermo-osmosis-Coupled Thermally Regenerative Electrochemical Cycle for Efficient Lithium Extraction.', ACS applied materials & interfaces.
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Lithium (Li) production based on the soda evaporation process is time-consuming and unsustainable. The emerging electrochemical Li extraction is time-efficient but requires high-concentration Li sources and significant electrical energy input. Here, we demonstrate a fast, energy-saving, and environment-friendly Li production process by coupling a thermally regenerative electrochemical cycle (TREC) using lithium manganese oxide (LMO) and nickel hexacyanoferrate (NiHCF) electrodes with poly(vinylidene fluoride) membrane-based thermo-osmosis (denoted as TO-TREC). The characterization of LMO and NiHCF electrodes confirmed that the relatively high temperature of TO-TREC has negligible adverse effects on the ion intercalation in LMO and NiHCF electrodes. The LMO/NiHCF pair has a positive temperature coefficient of 0.843 mV K-1. In the TO-TREC process, Li ions are selectively extracted from a Li-containing brine warmed by low-grade heat and then released into a room-temperature recovery solution such as LiCl with a production rate of 50-60 mmol Li+ m-2 h-1. Li source solutions are concentrated by thermo-osmosis simultaneously, making it possible to utilize previously unusable Li-containing sources, such as concentrated brines from desalination plants and industrial effluents. Besides, the TREC harvests thermal energy from the heated brine, saving >20% of electrical energy compared to conventional electrochemical methods. The new process shows the potential to meet the growing global Li demands for many applications.

Zavahir, S, Elmakki, T, Gulied, M, Ahmad, Z, Al-Sulaiti, L, Shon, HK, Chen, Y, Park, H, Batchelor, B & Han, DS 2021, 'A review on lithium recovery using electrochemical capturing systems', Desalination, vol. 500, pp. 114883-114883.
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Zeweldi, HG, Bendoy, AP, Park, MJ, Shon, HK, Johnson, EM, Kim, H-S, Kim, H, Chung, W-J & Nisola, GM 2021, 'Forward osmosis with direct contact membrane distillation using tetrabutylphosphonium p-toluenesulfonate as an effective and safe thermo-recyclable osmotic agent for seawater desalination', CHEMOSPHERE, vol. 263.
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Zhang, G, Ngo, HH, Peng, Y, Bux, F & Mannina, G 2021, 'Biological nutrients removal and recovery.', Bioresource technology, vol. 320, no. Pt B, p. 124377.
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Zhang, M, Gao, Y, Sun, C & Blumenstein, M 2021, 'Robust Tensor Decomposition for Image Representation Based on Generalized Correntropy', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON IMAGE PROCESSING, vol. 30, pp. 150-162.
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Zhang, X, Liu, L, Long, G, Jiang, J & Liu, S 2021, 'Episodic memory governs choices: An RNN-based reinforcement learning model for decision-making task', Neural Networks, vol. 134, pp. 1-10.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Typical methods to study cognitive function are to record the electrical activities of animal neurons during the training of animals performing behavioral tasks. A key problem is that they fail to record all the relevant neurons in the animal brain. To alleviate this problem, we develop an RNN-based Actor–Critic framework, which is trained through reinforcement learning (RL) to solve two tasks analogous to the monkeys’ decision-making tasks. The trained model is capable of reproducing some features of neural activities recorded from animal brain, or some behavior properties exhibited in animal experiments, suggesting that it can serve as a computational platform to explore other cognitive functions. Furthermore, we conduct behavioral experiments on our framework, trying to explore an open question in neuroscience: which episodic memory in the hippocampus should be selected to ultimately govern future decisions. We find that the retrieval of salient events sampled from episodic memories can effectively shorten deliberation time than common events in the decision-making process. The results indicate that salient events stored in the hippocampus could be prioritized to propagate reward information, and thus allow decision-makers to learn a strategy faster.

Zhang, Y, Tsang, IW, Li, J, Liu, P, Lu, X & Yu, X 2021, 'Face Hallucination with Finishing Touches', IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 30.
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IEEE Obtaining a high-quality frontal face image from a low-resolution (LR) non-frontal face image is primarily important for many facial analysis applications. However, main-streams either focus on super-resolving near-frontal LR faces or frontalizing non-frontal high-resolution (HR) faces. It is desirable to perform both tasks seamlessly for daily-life unconstrained face images. In this paper, we present a novel Vivid Face Hallucination Generative Adversarial Network (VividGAN) for simultaneously super-resolving and frontalizing tiny non-frontal face images. VividGAN consists of coarse-level and fine-level Face Hallucination Networks (FHnet) and two discriminators, i.e., Coarse-D and Fine-D. The coarse-level FHnet generates a frontal coarse HR face and then the fine-level FHnet makes use of the facial component appearance prior, i.e., fine-grained facial components, to attain a frontal HR face image with authentic details. In the fine-level FHnet, we also design a facial component-aware module that adopts the facial geometry guidance as clues to accurately align and merge the frontal coarse HR face and prior information. Meanwhile, two-level discriminators are designed to capture both the global outline of a face image as well as detailed facial characteristics. The Coarse-D enforces the coarsely hallucinated faces to be upright and complete while the Fine-D focuses on the fine hallucinated ones for sharper details. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our VividGAN achieves photo-realistic frontal HR faces, reaching superior performance in downstream tasks, i.e., face recognition and expression classification, compared with other state-of-the-art methods.

Zhao, C, Yang, Y, Upadrashta, D & Zhao, L 2021, 'Design, modeling and experimental validation of a low-frequency cantilever triboelectric energy harvester', Energy, vol. 214, pp. 118885-118885.
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In this paper, a novel cantilever triboelectric energy harvester (TEH) working on the contact-separation mode is proposed for low-frequency vibration energy harvesting. An electro-mechanical model of TEH with non-parallel contact surfaces is derived by evaluating the total electrical energy between two surfaces. One merit of the proposed harvester is its simple design for easy implementation. The performance of TEH is investigated theoretically and experimentally, and the results show that it can harvest energy from broadband vibration sources. A peak output voltage of 25 V is achieved from the harvester under a base acceleration of 0.5 g with excitation frequency of 8 Hz. Good agreement is observed between the experimental results and analytical predictions. The performance of TEH can be improved by adjusting the gap distance between the top plate and the beam. The proposed triboelectric harvester is shown to be cost-effective to scavenge the low-frequency vibration energy from the ambient environment.

Zhao, F, Ji, J, Ye, K & Luo, Q 2021, 'An innovative quasi-zero stiffness isolator with three pairs of oblique springs', International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, vol. 192.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd This paper presents an innovative design of the quasi-zero stiffness (QZS) isolator with three pairs of oblique springs. Formulations of stiffness are firstly derived and parameter study is then conducted to obtain an optimal design of the proposed isolator. The proposed isolator initially has five independent parameters. By imposing stiffness and its second order derivative to be zero at the static equilibrium position, there exist three independent parameters that can be optimised to design this type of QZS isolator. A distinctive feature of the proposed isolator is that there exists a nearly horizontal straight line near the equilibrium position in the stiffness curve as the nonlinear coefficient of the Taylor expansion up to the third order of the elastic force or the Duffing differential equation is very small; thus a wider QZS region with lower transmissibility can be achieved in the present isolator. Static and dynamic analyses are presented with focusing on dynamic response in terms of displacement transmissibility. A prototype is fabricated and tested to evaluate the proposed design. The experimental results validate the present formulations in static and dynamic analyses and show lower transmissibility as compared to the corresponding QZS isolator with one pair of oblique springs and the linear isolator.

Zhao, S, Qiu, X, Burnett, I, Rigby, M & Lele, A 2021, 'A lumped-parameter model for sound generation in gas metal arc welding', MECHANICAL SYSTEMS AND SIGNAL PROCESSING, vol. 147.
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Zhao, Y, Lian, H, Tian, C, Li, H, Xu, W, Phuntsho, S & Shih, K 2021, 'Surface water treatment benefits from the presence of algae: Influence of algae on the coagulation behavior of polytitanium chloride', Frontiers of Environmental Science and Engineering, vol. 15, no. 4.
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© 2020, Higher Education Press. Titanium-based coagulation has proved to be effective for algae-laden micro-polluted water purification processes. However, the influence of algae inclusion in surface water treatment by titanium coagulation is barely reported. This study reports the influence of both Microcystis aeruginosa and Microcystis wesenbergii in surface water during polytitanium coagulation. Jar tests were performed to evaluate coagulation performance using both algae-free (controlled) and algae-laden water samples, and floc properties were studied using a laser diffraction particle size analyzer for online monitoring. Results show that polytitanium coagulation can be highly effective in algae separation, removing up to 98% from surface water. Additionally, the presence of algae enhanced organic matter removal by up to 30% compared to controlled water containing only organic matter. Polytitanium coagulation achieved significant removal of fluorescent organic materials and organic matter with a wide range of molecular weight distribution (693–4945 Da) even in the presence of algae species in surface water. The presence of algae cells and/or algal organic matter is likely to function as an additional coagulant or flocculation aid, assisting polytitanium coagulation through adsorption and bridging effects. Although the dominant coagulation mechanisms with polytitanium coagulant were influenced by the coagulant dosage and initial solution pH, algae species in surface water could enhance the charge neutralization capability of the polytitanium coagulant. Algae-rich flocs were also more prone to breakage with strength factors approximately 10% lower than those of algae-free flocs. Loose structure of the flocs will require careful handling of the flocs during coagulation-sedimentation-filtration processes. [Figure not available: see fulltext.].

Zhou, X, Sun, J, Cui, P, Lu, Y, Lu, M & Yu, Y 2021, 'A Fast and Robust Open-Switch Fault Diagnosis Method for Variable-Speed PMSM System', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 2598-2610.
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Zhu, R, Samuel, A, Wang, P, Li, S, Oun, BK, Li, L, Lv, P, Xu, M & Yu, S 2021, 'Protected Resource Allocation in Space Division Multiplexing-Elastic Optical Networks with Fluctuating Traffic', JOURNAL OF NETWORK AND COMPUTER APPLICATIONS, vol. 174.
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Zuo, L, Yao, H, Li, H, Jia, F, Wei, W, Liu, Y, Ni, BJ & Chen, X 2021, 'Modeling of completely autotrophic nitrogen removal process with salt and glycine betaine addition', Chemosphere, vol. 264.
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© 2020 Elsevier Ltd The susceptibility of the completely autotrophic nitrogen removal over nitrite (CANON) process to high salinity limits its widespread application. The addition of glycine betaine (GB), a type of compatible solutes that could resist osmotic stress, could be an effective strategy to enhance the salt tolerance ability of aerobic and anaerobic ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB and anammox bacteria) involved in the CANON process. This study aims to make use of mathematical modeling to systematically investigate the effects of salt and GB addition on the activities of AOB and anammox bacteria and the treatment performance of the CANON process. To this end, a series of dedicated batch tests and long-term experiments for the CANON process with salt and GB additions were conducted and the data was used to calibrate and validate the model established to consider the relationships between salt and GB concentrations and bacterial growth in the CANON process. The calibrated/validated CANON process model was then applied to simulate the long-term impacts of GB addition concentration and sludge retention time (SRT) on the CANON process. The results showed that 1 mM GB addition and a SRT of 50 days would be sufficient to protect AOB and anammox bacteria under the high salinity (30 g/L NaCl) conditions studied and therefore reduce the time needed to recover the treatment performance of the CANON process from exposure to salt inhibition by 35%–40%.

Gowripalan, N, Cao, J, Sirivivatnanon, V & South, W 2021, 'Comparison of the effect of ASR deterioration on the load carrying capacity of concrete structural elements in accelerated laboratory tests and in the field', 16th International Conference on Alkali Aggregate Reaction 2021, Lisbon, Portugal.

Tomidei, L, Sick, N, Guertler, M, Schallow`, J, Lenze, D & Deuse, J 2021, 'Dynamic value stream analysis. How Industry 4.0 can help us to learn to see better.', Daejeon City, South Korea.

Tran Thanh, H, Li, J & Zhang, YX 2021, 'Numerical Evaluation the Effect of Specimen Thickness on Fibre Orientation in Self-consolidating Engineered Cementitious Composites', RILEM Bookseries, pp. 661-669.
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© 2021, RILEM. The orientation of distributed synthetic fibres in the matrix of engineered cementitious composites (ECCs) governs their capability of bearing stress and bridging micro-cracks. Understanding the orientation of synthetic fibres in ECCs matrix of different thickness specimens, therefore, is necessary. In the present work, the effect of specimen thickness on the orientation of synthetic fibres in self-consolidating (SC) ECC, a typical member of family ECC materials, is numerically investigated through the simulation of the casting of fresh SC-ECC into different thicknesses of moulds. The moulding of fresh SC-ECC, which is discretised by a limit number of separated mortar and fibre particles, is simulated using the mesh-free smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method. The synthetic fibre utilised in SC-ECC is considered as flexible fibre and virtually connected by a drag force between two adjacent fibre particles. The SPH allows tracking the movement of mortar and fibre particle during their flow, thus providing the real image of flexible synthetic fibres orientation in specimens during the casting process. A simple method is proposed to evaluate the orientation of flexible synthetic fibres at various sections of specimens after the SC-ECC stop flowing in the moulds. The results of this study reveal that thin specimens tend to have higher fibre orientation factors than thick specimens. Synthetic fibres tend to parallel with the longitudinal direction of specimens at the bottom of the formwork and rotate freely at the top surface of specimens.

Eager, D 2021, 'AS 16630:2021 Permanently install outdoor fitness equipment - Safety requirements and test methods'.