Publications

Cetindamar, D, Phaal, R & Probert, D 2016, Technology Management, Macmillan Education UK.
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Cetindamar, D, Phaal, R & Probert, D 2016, Technology Management Activities and Tools, Palgrave Macmillan.
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There is no single best way to manage technology in a company and there is no mechanistic route to success, but this accessible handbook provides a wealth of international examples, up-to-date case studies and activities designed to ...

Chen, F, Zhou, J, Wang, Y, Yu, K, Arshad, SZ, Khawaji, A & Conway, D 2016, Robust Multimodal Cognitive Load Measurement, Springer, Switzerland.
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This book explores robust multimodal cognitive load measurement with physiological and behavioural modalities, which involve the eye, Galvanic Skin Response, speech, language, pen input, mouse movement and multimodality fusions.

Khalilpour, R & Vassallo, A 2016, Community Energy Networks With Storage Modeling Frameworks for Distributed Generation, Springer.
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This book addresses the problem of building an optimal community energy network in a decentralized distributed energy context.

Larsson, M 2016, Leadership in interaction, Panthalassa, Sydney, Australia.
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Reports on research into the leadership practices of twenty-five highly innovative Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Sydney, Australia.

Lei, G, Zhu, J & Guo, Y 2016, Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Methods for Electrical Machines and Drive Systems, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Germany.
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This book presents various computationally efficient component- and system-level design optimization methods for advanced electrical machines and drive systems. Readers will discover novel design optimization concepts developed by the authors and other researchers in the last decade, including application-oriented, multi-disciplinary, multi-objective, multi-level, deterministic, and robust design optimization methods. A multi-disciplinary analysis includes various aspects of materials, electromagnetics, thermotics, mechanics, power electronics, applied mathematics, manufacturing technology, and quality control and management. This book will benefit both researchers and engineers in the field of motor and drive design and manufacturing, thus enabling the effective development of the high-quality production of innovative, high-performance drive systems for challenging applications, such as green energy systems and electric vehicles.

Waldron, KJ, Kinzel, GL & Agrawal, SK 2016, Kinematics, Dynamics, and Design of Machinery, 2nd, John Wiley & Sons, New York, USA.
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Kinematics, Dynamics, and Design of Machinery, Third Edition, presents a fresh approach to kinematic design and analysis and is an ideal textbook for senior undergraduates and graduates in mechanical, automotive and production engineering ...

Woodside, AG & Sood, SC 2016, Storytelling-Case Archetype Decoding and Assignment Manual (SCADAM), Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
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Ying, M 2016, Foundations of Quantum Programming, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
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Drawing upon years of experience and research in quantum computing research and using numerous examples and illustrations, Mingsheng Ying has created a very useful reference on quantum programming languages and important tools and ...

Barua, S & Braun, R 2016, 'Direction of Arrival (DOA) and Channel Estimation' in Diab, A (ed), Advances in Wireless Technologies and Telecommunication, IGI Global, USA, pp. 216-235.
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Future fit demand combined with a flexible technical solution that is by latest wireless technology stands for. Estimating of the user's location is going to be an integral system with the upcoming mobile technology. This chapter shows some techniques for estimating the direction of arrival (DOA) with mathematical elaboration and simulation results as well. Estimating the DOA in this chapter is regarded to the purpose of using Smart antenna system. It is possible to estimate the location of a user by considering the uplink transmission system of the mobile communication system. Estimating the channel and accurate path delay is also an important task which might be done by using 1D Uniform Linear Array (ULA) or 2D Uniform Rectangular (URA) array antenna system. In this chapter, 1D ULA is considered in order to utilize some popular techniques. The performance of a communication system between two ends is substantially determined by the behaviors of the channel characteristics. It determines signal transformation while propagating through the channel between receivers and transmitters. Accurate channel information is crucial for both the transmitter and receiver ends to perform their best services. The ultimate focus of this chapter is to estimate the channel based on 2D parameter estimation. Uniform Rectangular Array (URA) is used to perform the 2D parameter estimation. It is possible to estimate Azimuth and Elevation of a source by using URA model.

Bayat, E, Rodríguez, JF, Saco, PM & de Almeida, GAM 2016, 'Variation of bed grain size distribution under unsteady flow and its effect on the long-term stability of pool-riffle sequences' in River Flow 2016: Iowa City, USA, July 11-14, 2016, pp. 1232-1237.
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Pool-riffle morphology plays an important role in creating a diverse aquatic ecosystem. Therefore, it is of interest to study the long term stability of pool-riffle sequences, and the processes that contribute to the observed self-maintenance mechanisms. Continuous simulations supported by field data are used to track the sand fraction evolution in pools and riffles during a one-year period in order to relate it to self-maintenance. Analysis of several hydrographs indicate that not only unsteadiness can affect the self-maintenance, but also the bed grain size distribution history. The results emphasize the role of sediment size distribution before a potential reversal episode occurs. The larger amount of sand fraction in the pools promotes conditions for self-maintenance as the material will be easier to move by the next flood.

Brun, T & Hsieh, M-H 2016, 'Entanglement-Assisted Quantum Error-Correcting Codes' in Lidar, D & Brun, T (eds), Quantum Error Correction, Cambridge University Press, US, pp. 181-200.
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We provide a self-contained introduction for entanglement-assisted quantumerror-correcting codes in this book chapter.

Calvo, RA, Hussain, MS, Milne, D, Nordbo, K, Hickie, I & Danckwerts, P 2016, 'Augmenting Online Mental Health Support Services' in Gaming and Technology Addiction, IGI Global, pp. 264-285.
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The Internet allows mental health organisations to provide services to more people via new models of care. Amongst these, online support groups are becoming increasingly popular. This model of mental health service provision includes moderators who read posts, recognise those that need attention and provide support via online responses. However, as these groups become more popular they risk becoming more difficult to manage due to the sheer volume of posts. This challenge can be addressed through computational linguistics techniques. This chapter reports on work with a mental health organisation on three components to help scale up the number of people they can support. The design aims to go beyond helping end-users and explores how design can support the wellbeing of the moderators themselves. The design of the three components is discussed: 1) A triage component automatically detects posts that need a prompt response. 2) An intervention generator (IG) generates a draft response for the moderator to use, for example a positive psychology intervention. These two can help in the management of a discussion forum, supporting positive behaviours, not just dealing in situations of distress. 3) A component for synchronous support through an augmented chat system.

Chen, H, Zhang, Y & Zhu, D 2016, 'Identifying Technological Topic Changes in Patent Claims Using Topic Modeling' in Daim, T, Porter, A, Chiavetta, D & Saritas, O (eds), Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management, Springer International Publishing, Switzerland, pp. 187-209.
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Chen, Z, Ngo, HH, Guo, W & Eslamian, S 2016, 'Water Shortages' in Eslamian, S (ed), Urban Water Reuse Handbook, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, USA, pp. 3-14.
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The growing environmental problems, including the diminishing natural water resources, greater water demand triggered by population growth and urbanization, deteriorated water quality, and highly changing climate, have highlighted the importance of considering the sustainability of water resource and supply systems in both the urban and rural areas. Specifically, the world population continues to expand with a growth rate of 1.2% each year, resulting in increased pressure on water quality, safety and health.This chapter overviews the current situations in water availability over the world, which based on information from literature review, recent research studies, and analyses of the case studies. It focuses on the issues related to the deficiency of water quantity and deterioration of water quality. With identified problems and challenges, this chapter also discusses some potential responses, opportunities and solutions to combat with water scarcity.

Cong-cong Xing, Jun Huang & Shui Yu 2016, 'Modeling and tracing events in RFID-enabled supply chains' in Managing the Internet of Things: Architectures, Theories and Applications, Institution of Engineering and Technology, pp. 85-101.
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With cloned tag attacks being a serious problem in radio frequency identification (RFID) supply chains, tracing event records and inspecting them are one of the notably effective means to defense such attacks. Unfortunately, current event formulations are unable to characterize the variety and complexness of the events in real-world RFID supply chains. This chapter identifies the problem of the existing tag event models, reviews the RFID supply chain architecture, proposes a new tag event model, and devises the ensuing event-tracing algorithm. It is our belief that the newly proposed event model together with the event-tracing algorithm based on this model furnish a foundation for future more sophisticated event-record-based clone detection techniques.

Cotta, C, Gallardo, JE, Mathieson, L & Moscato, P 2016, 'Memetic Algorithms: A Contemporary Introduction' in Webster, JG (ed), Wiley Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Wiley, USA, pp. 1-15.
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AbstractMemetic algorithms (MAs) constitute a search and optimization paradigm based on the orchestrated interplay between global and local search components, and have the exploitation of specific problem knowledge as one of their central tenets. MAs can take different forms although a classical incarnation involves the integration of independent search processes within a population‐based optimization approach. We discuss this basic structure as well as several of the issues arising in the design process. This paves the way for providing a glimpse of some algorithmic extensions of this basic scheme. After providing an overview of the numerous practical applications of MAs, we close this article with some current perspectives of these techniques.

Dale-Jones, G, Hancock, P & Willey, K 2016, 'Accounting students in an Australian University improve their writing: But how did it happen?' in Communication in Accounting Education, Routledge, UK, pp. 160-178.
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The ability to communicate - orally and in writing - is a graduate attribute that employers in many countries rank as number one in importance, aside from relevant qualifications. This paper reports the implementation and evaluation of a collaborative peer assessment and self-assessment learning and teaching (L&T) initiative, which was designed to improve postgraduate students' judgment of writing standards and to improve their own writing - according to that standard. The initiative was embedded in an introductory financial accounting unit in an Australian university. In a mixed methods study, the matched pair design revealed improvements in the written communication skills of students as determined by an independent assessor. There was also statistically significant improvement in the ability of students to apply assessment standards to grammatical, structural and presentation components ofwritten communication. Whereas it was not possible to attribute the improvements entirely to the collaborative peer assessment initiative, our observations and students' self-reporting comments suggest that the L&T initiative was effective.

Das, P, Khan, MMK, Saha, SC & Rasul, MG 2016, 'Numerical Study of Flow Through a Reducer for Scale Growth Suppression' in Thermofluid Modeling for Energy Efficiency Applications, Elsevier, pp. 119-148.
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© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Scale formation in alumina refineries is a common phenomenon and it occurs where supersaturated solutions are in contact with solid surfaces. It often leads to serious on-going technical problems and is a major cause of production loss due to equipment downtime required for descaling and cleaning operations.The scale formation mechanism in Bayer process equipment is complex and is not yet fully understood. Numerous researchers indicate that scale growth is strongly affected by fluid velocity while also being influenced by a number of other factors such as the quality of bauxite ore, rheological properties of fluid, turbulence and inertia of suspended particles, and adhesive property of particles. It is common knowledge that, if the particles approach the wall at right angles, the chance to cross the laminar sub-layer to accumulate scale on the solid surface increases. The components (stream-wise (. u'x) and cross-stream (. u'r)) of the fluctuating velocity play a critical role in whether the potential for scale formation is increased or suppressed.In this chapter, a numerical study using the Finite Volume Method to analyze the fluid dynamics behavior of water as it flows through a concentric reducer used in the Bayer plant is presented. The simulation results show a significant variation of the stream-wise (. u'x) and cross-stream (. u'r) components of the fluctuating velocity as flow passes through the concentric reducer. In the reducer, the cross-stream (. u'r) component is greater than that at the walls of the straight pipes connected to the reducer. The variation of the cross-stream component of the fluctuating velocity is believed to be accountable for the increase in scale deposition at the reducer section.

de la Cruz del Río-Rama, M, Peris-Ortiz, M & Merigó-Lindahl, JM 2016, 'Monterrei Wine Tourist Route (Galicia-Spain): Analysis from the Perspective of Offer' in Wine and Tourism, Springer International Publishing, pp. 57-69.
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© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016. In this chapter, the results of an empirical study carried out in establishments (wineries, restaurants, and hotel accommodation) adhered to the Monterrei Wine Route (Galicia-Spain) in 2013 are presented. The objectives of the study were to know the profi le of establishments and the offer of enotourism activities, as well as to analyze the profi le of enotourists from the point of view of the establishments, to measure the level of satisfaction of their adherence to the route, the perceived image of the destination, and the assessment of the enotourism activity of the route. Finally, a SWOT analysis is carried out from the information provided by the establishments that took part in the survey. The methodology consists on a descriptive analysis. The research results have let us respond to all the proposed objectives, showing the adhered establishments of a low level of satisfaction with their adherence to the route.

Devitt, SJ, Stephens, AM, Munro, WJ & Nemoto, K 2016, 'Analysis of an Atom-Optical Architecture for Quantum Computation' in Lecture Notes in Physics, Springer Japan, pp. 407-437.
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El Saliby, I, McDonagh, A, Erdei, L & Kyong Shon, H 2016, 'Water Reclamation by Heterogeneous Photocatalysis over Titanium Dioxide' in Green Technologies for Sustainable Water Management, American Society of Civil Engineers, pp. 679-704.
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© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers. This chapter presents the fundamentals and basic principles of water reclamation by heterogeneous photocatalysis (HP). The effects of important operational parameters on the overall treatment efficiency of photocatalytic system are addressed in the chapter in terms of photocatalyst loading, pollutant concentration, pH and temperature of water, dissolved oxygen, and light intensity. The most popular semiconductor used in HP is Titanium dioxide (TiO2) for being relatively inexpensive, chemically stable, and nontoxic. Most water remediation technologies generate a significant amount of wastewater that requires costly retreatment or discharge to evaporation ponds, rivers, and oceans. HP processes that decompose aqueous contaminants are highly dependent on the reaction conditions and the setup of photocatalytic reactors. Visible-light responsive photocatalysts promise a more effective utilization of solar energy. Doping and co-doping of titania is a practical approach toward obtaining improved visible-light active photocatalysts.

Fitch, R, Alempijevic, A & Peynot, T 2016, 'Global Reconfiguration of a Team of Networked Mobile Robots Among Obstacles', Springer, Berlin, Germany, pp. 639-656.
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© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016. This paper presents a full system demonstration of dynamic sensor-based reconfiguration of a networked robot team. Robots sense obstacles in their environment locally and dynamically adapt their global geometric configuration to conform to an abstract goal shape. We present a novel two-layer planning and control algorithm for team reconfiguration that is decentralised and assumes local (neighbour-toneighbour) communication only. The approach is designed to be resource-efficient and we show experiments using a team of nine mobile robots with modest computation, communication and sensing. The robots use acoustic beacons for localisation and can sense obstacles in their local neighbourhood using IR sensors. Our results demonstrate globally specified reconfiguration from local information in a real robot network, and highlight limitations of standardmesh networks in implementing decentralised algorithms.

Guertler, MR & Lindemann, U 2016, 'Innovationsmanagement' in Lindemann, U (ed), Handbuch Produktentwicklung, Hanser, Munich, pp. 483-512.

Guo, W, Ngo, HH, Chen, C, Pandey, A, Tung, K-L & Lee, DJ 2016, 'Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactors for Future Green Bioprocesses' in Green Technologies for Sustainable Water Management, American Society of Civil Engineers, pp. 867-901.
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© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers. This chapter focuses on the comprehensive overview of the recent progress in anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) applications, including the fundamental aspects and development of AnMBR processes. For a future green bioprocess, the chapter discusses the application development of AnMBRs in domestic and industrial wastewater treatment, opportunities for biogas production and waste minimization and membrane fouling researches. The anaerobic treatment processes are known to have the inherent advantages over the aerobic counterparts, such as sludge minimization and energy savings. The key competitive advantages of AnMBRs over conventional aerobic and anaerobic processes include total biomass retention, excellent effluent quality, bioenergy recovery, smaller footprint, lower energy consumption, high efficiency of wastewater treatment, and strong ability of handling fluctuation in influent quality. Biogas recovery represents one of the key green features of AnMBR technology, particularly for submerged AnMBR (SAnMBR). The compact configure of SAnMBR allows for more convenient collection of biogas.

Guo, YJ & Qin, P-Y 2016, 'Reconfigurable Antennas for Wireless Communications' in Handbook of Antenna Technologies, Springer Singapore, pp. 2987-3032.
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© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016. All rights reserved. With the capability to dynamically change their radiation characteristics, reconfigurable antennas will become indispensable parts for the next-generation wireless communications and sensing systems where the RF front-ends are required to be cognitive in nature. Compared to traditional antennas whose characteristics are fixed, reconfigurable antennas pose new challenges to antenna researchers and designers, such as tuning the operating frequency of an antenna whilst maintaining its radiation pattern. In the last two decades, substantial progress has been made in the development of reconfigurable antennas from both academia and industry. This chapter provides an overview of the state-of-the-art of reconfigurable antennas by elaborating the basic concepts of different reconfigurable antennas and practical techniques to realize them. It is focused on both reconfigurable antenna elements and arrays, and outlines some directions for future research.

Hoang, DT 2016, 'Backscattering Wireless-Powered Communications' in Dusit, N, Ekram, H, Dong, K, Vijay, B & Lotfollah, S (eds), Wireless-Powered Communication Networks, Cambridge University Press, pp. 217-245.
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Hoang, DT 2016, 'Cognitive Radio Networks with Wireless Energy Harvesting' in Dusit, N, Ekram, H, Dong, K, Vijay, B & Lotfollah, S (eds), Wireless-Powered Communication Networks, Cambridge University Press, pp. 338-382.
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Huang, L, Shang, L, Wang, K, Porter, AL & Zhang, Y 2016, 'Identifying Targets for Technology Mergers and Acquisitions Using Patent Information and Semantic Analysis' in Daim, T, Porter, A, Chiavetta, D & Saritas, O (eds), Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management, Springer International Publishing, Germany, pp. 173-186.
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Technology plays an increasingly important role in today’s enterprise competition. Technology mergers and acquisitions (Tech M&A), as an effective way to acquire the external technology resources rapidly, have attracted attention from researchers for their potential realization of value through synergy. A big challenge is how to identify appropriate targets to support the effective technology integration. In this study, we developed a model of target selection of Tech M&A from the perspective of technology relatedness and R&D capability. We present results for the Tech M&A case in China’s cloud computing industry

Huang, S & Dissanayake, G 2016, 'Robot Localization: An Introduction' in Wiley Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Wiley, USA, pp. 1-10.
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Robot localization is the process of determining where a mobile robot is located with respect to its environment. Localization is one of the most fundamental competencies required by an autonomous robot as the knowledge of the robot's own location is an essential precursor to making decisions about future actions. In a typical robot localization scenario, a map of the environment is available and the robot is equipped with sensors that observe the environment as well as monitor its own motion. The localization problem then becomes one of estimating the robot position and orientation within the map using information gathered from these sensors. Robot localization techniques need to be able to deal with noisy observations and generate not only an estimate of the robot location but also a measure of the uncertainty of the location estimate. This article provides an introduction to estimation of theoretic solutions to the robot localization problem. It begins by discussing the mathematical models used to describe the robot motion and observations from the sensors. Two of the most common probabilistic techniques, the extended Kalman filter and the particle filter, that can be used to combine information from sensors to compute an estimate of the robot location are then discussed in detail and illustrated by simple examples. A brief summary of the large body of literature on robot localization is presented next. Appendices that present the essential mathematical background and alternative techniques are provided. The MATLAB code of the localization algorithms is also available.

Huang, X 2016, 'Multiband and Multichannel Aggregation for High‐speed Wireless Backhaul' in Mohammed, K, Huq, S & Rodriguez, J (eds), Backhauling/Fronthauling for Future Wireless Systems, Wiley, United Kingdom, pp. 167-194.
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High-speed and long-range wireless backhaul is a cost-effective alternative to a fibre network. The ever-increasing demand for high-speed broadband services mandates higher spectral efficiency and wider bandwidth to be adopted in wireless backhauls. As the wireless mobile networks evolve toward the fifth generation, employing higher-order modulation and performing multiband and multichannel aggregation for wireless backhauling have become industry trends. However, commercially available wireless backhaul systems do not meet the requirements for both high speed and long range at the same time. In this chapter, the various system architectures for multiband and multichannel aggregation are discussed. The challenges for achieving high-speed wireless transmission in multiband and multichannel systems are addressed. These challenges include how to improve spectrum efficiency and power efficiency, how to prevent inter-channel interference and how to ensure low latency, in-order packet delivery and load balance. Various technical solutions are provided with detailed explanations, illustrations and simulation and experimental results.

Huang, Y, Zhang, Y, Ma, J, Porter, AL, Wang, X & Guo, Y 2016, 'Generating Competitive Technical Intelligence Using Topical Analysis, Patent Citation Analysis, and Term Clumping Analysis' in Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management, Springer International Publishing, Germany, pp. 153-172.
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Because of the flexibility and complexity of Newly Emerging Science and Technologies (NESTs), traditional statistical analysis fails to capture technology evolution in detail. Tracking technology evolution pathways supports industrial, governmental, and academic decisions to guide future development trends. Patents are one of the most important NESTs data sources and are pertinent to developmental paths. This paper draws upon text analyses, augmented by expert knowledge, to identify key NESTs sub-domains and component technologies. We then complement those analyses with patent citation analysis to help track developmental progressions. We identify key sub-domain patents, associated with particular component technology trajectories, then extract pivotal patents via citation analysis. We compose evolutionary pathways by combining citation and topical intelligence obtained through term clumping. We demonstrate our approach with empirical analysis of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), as an example of a promising NESTs, contributing to the remarkable growth in the renewable energy industry. The systematic approach we proposed not only offers a macro-perspective covering technology development levels and future trends, but also makes R&D information accessible for micro-level probes as needed. We work to uncover developmental trends and to compile mentions of possible applications, and this study informs NESTs management by spotting prime opportunities for innovation.

Ismail, MF, Saha, SC & Rashid Sarkar, MA 2016, 'Effects of Perforation Geometry on the Heat Transfer Performance of Extended Surfaces' in Thermofluid Modeling for Energy Efficiency Applications, Elsevier, pp. 103-117.
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In this study heat transfer performances of extended surfaces (fins) having square, circular, hexagonal, and triangular lateral perforations are studied numerically. Simulations are carried out for Reynolds numbers ranging from 100 to 400 based on the fin thickness. Numerical results are first validated with previously published results and a good agreement is observed. For each type, Nusselt number, average drag, and heat removal rate of perforated fins are determined and compared. Results show that perforation geometry has significant effects on the thermal and fluid dynamic performance of the extended surfaces. All types of perforated fins show better heat transfer performance enhancement than the regular solid fins.

Jiang, P, Liu, F & Song, Y 2016, 'Comparison Study of AI-based Methods in Wind Energy' in Ponce, P, Molina, A & Rodriguez, J (eds), New Applications of Artificial Intelligence, InTech.
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Jonasson, OJ, Kandasamy, J & Vigneswaran, S 2016, 'Stormwater Treatment Technology for Water Reuse' in Green Technologies for Sustainable Water Management, American Society of Civil Engineers, pp. 75-105.
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The most common application of stormwater reuse in Australia is for outdoor irrigation, but treated stormwater also can be used to supplement other nonpotable uses, such as flushing toilets, washing clothes, firefighting, and in cooling towers. More recently, instances have emerged where stormwater has been harvested for indirect potable reuse. The water quality criteria depend on the applications, and the treatment required to meet these standards will be affected by the source of the stormwater. The conventional technologies for treating stormwater are traditionally incorporated into a management strategy to meet stormwater quality objectives aiming to protect estuaries and streams. Conventional stormwater treatment systems commonly utilized in harvesting schemes include gross pollutant traps (GPTs), vegetated swales, sediment ponds, constructed wetlands, and biofiltration systems. Some of the high-rate stormwater treatment technologies are fiber filter, deep bed filter, membrane filtration, and membrane hybrid systems.

Kandasamy, J, Kus, B & Vigneswaran, S 2016, 'Rainwater Harvesting in New South Wales, Australia' in Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Surampalli, RY & Zhang, TC (eds), Green Technologies for Sustainable Water Management, American Society of Civil Engineers, USA, pp. 35-74.
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© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers. In Australia, recent droughts and concerns about climate change have highlighted the need to manage water resources more sustainably. Rainwater harvesting has emerged as a new field of sustainable water management, which offers an alternative water supply for at least nonpotable uses. This chapter illustrates a detailed sampling on the concentration of pollutants in metropolitan rainwater tanks located at different parts of Sydney. Some rainwater tanks incorporate simple sand filtration devices to improve water quality for potable uses. Concentrated pollutants remaining after treatment and sludge can be discharged to the sewer, alleviating sludge disposal problems, and is attractive in creating a low maintenance system. It is possible to create a sustainable development with a low demand for town water and low storm water pollution export, as well as reduce storm water discharges. Some of the rainwater treatment technologies discussed include adsorption, pilot scale application, and membrane filtration.

Kankanamge-Gunawardane, K 2016, 'Control loop design of DC-to-DC converters' in DC Power Supplies: Power Management and Surge Protection for Power Electronic Systems, p. 5.

Karimi, M, Croaker, P & Kessissoglou, N 2016, 'Trailing-Edge Noise Prediction Using a Periodic BEM Technique' in Zhou, Y, Lucey, A, Liu, Y & Huang, L (eds), Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 39-44.
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Kim, SH, Lee, SH, Tijing & Shon, H 2016, 'Filtration technologies for pretreatment of seawater desalination based on reverse osmosis' in Efficient desalination by reverse osmosis : a best practice guide to RO, IWA Publishing (International Water Assoc), London, pp. 28-60.
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Efficient Desalination by Reverse Osmosis provides a complete guide to best practice from pre-treatment through to project delivery. It is written for utility managers & professionals.

Leigh, E 2016, 'Bending Time: Using Simulation to Warp Perceptions of Time for Learning Purposes' in Translational Systems Sciences, Springer Singapore, pp. 13-24.
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Li, J & Wong, L 2016, 'Overview and Analysis of Contrast Pattern Based Classifica- tion' in Dong, G & Bailey, J (eds), Contrast Data Mining, Chapman and Hall/CRC, USA, pp. 175-194.
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Lin, J-G, Daverey, A, Dutta, K, Guo, W & Ngo, HH 2016, 'Anammox: A Sustainable Technology for Nitrogen Removal and Water Recycling' in Green Technologies for Sustainable Water Management, American Society of Civil Engineers, pp. 419-453.
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© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers. This chapter discusses developments in the anammox process, since its discovery, including identification of responsible microbes and their physiology, potential process inhibitors, reactor types used, and application to treat different wastewater. Anammox bacteria are coccoid bacteria with an average diameter ranging between 800 and 1100 nm. Anammox bacteria are chemoautotrophic bacteria and use CO2 as the main inorganic carbon source to oxidize ammonium to nitrogen gas using nitrite as the electron acceptor. Ammonium and nitrite are the two substrates for anammox bacteria. The absence of nitrite in wastewater limits the direct application of the anammox process. Applications of anammox or its related processes, such as SHARON-Anammox, CANON, or SNAD have been tested to treat real world wastewaters by many researchers in lab scale reactors. Anammox combined with partial nitrification has been identified as the most efficient, economical, and environmentally friendly nitrogen removal method in recent years.

Lin, J-G, Dutta, K, Daverey, A, Guo, W & Ngo, HH 2016, 'Wastewater: A Potential Resource of Energy' in Green Technologies for Sustainable Water Management, American Society of Civil Engineers, pp. 789-828.
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© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers. This chapter discusses the energy production potential of different wastewater sources and various treatment processes with an aim of establishing sustainable energy management systems. The refractory fraction of wastewater can be converted to energy through thermal, chemical, or electrical processes. The importance of knowing the potential energy available lies in the choice of treatment methods so that most of the energy can be recovered. Some wastes that may be high in energy value, such as halogenated wastes, may be unsuitable or unattractive to some treatment methods. The chapter discusses several systems for energy recovery with simultaneous treatment of wastewater. Some of the systems include anaerobic treatment, microbial fuel cell (MFC), simultaneous algal biomass production, and wastewater treatment. The adverse environmental impacts associated with anaerobic treatment or MFC are mainly because of electricity consumption in the various process units and transportation/disposal of biosolids.

Liu, Y, Wang, Q, Zhang, Y & Ni, B-J 2016, 'Zero Valent Iron Significantly Enhances Methane Production from Waste Activated Sludge by Improving Biochemical Methane Potential Rather Than Hydrolysis Rate' in Environmental Engineering and Activated Sludge Processes, Apple Academic Press, pp. 219-236.
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Lui, ST, Peynot, T, Fitch, R & Sukkarieh, S 2016, 'Enhanced Stochastic Mobility Prediction on Unstructured Terrain Using Multi-output Gaussian Processes', Springer, pp. 173-190.
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© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016. Outdoor robots such as planetary rovers must be able to navigate safely and reliably in order to successfully perform missions in remote or hostile environments. Mobility prediction is critical to achieving this goal due to the inherent control uncertainty faced by robots traversing natural terrain. We propose a novel algorithm for stochastic mobility prediction based on multi-output Gaussian process regression. Our algorithm considers the correlation between heading and distance uncertainty and provides a predictive model that can easily be exploited by motion planning algorithms. We evaluate our method experimentally and report results from over 30 trials in a Mars-analogue environment that demonstrate the effectiveness of our method and illustrate the importance of mobility prediction in navigating challenging terrain.

Marynowsky, W, Knowles, J & Frost, A 2016, 'Robot Opera: A Gesamtkunstwerk for the 21st Century' in Jeffrey T.K.V. Koh, Mari.Velonaki (ed), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer International Publishing, Switzerland, pp. 143-158.
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Robot Opera proposes an avant-garde spectacle of performative media that places robots centre stage as signifiers of high culture within a 21st century total art work of the future. This chapter addresses how framing robotic performance as a Gesamtkunstwerk (and its historical ambitions) contributes to the canon of Cultural Robotics. The notion of robotic performance agency is detailed through the history and theories surrounding representations of the robot in popular culture, representations of robots as performance agents and through the dramaturgical concepts explored in Marynowsky’s previous robotic art works.

Masihpour, M, Agbinya, JI & Abolhasan, M 2016, 'Design Issues in EM Energy Harvesting Systems' in Venkataraman, H & Muntean, GM (eds), Green Mobile Devices and Networks, CRC Press, USA, pp. 201-234.
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Energy scavenging dates back to the use of waterwheels and windmills to harvest the energy from the surrounding environment and convert it to useful forms of energy [1]. Energy scavenging techniques have been around for decades to provide electricity from different natural resources, such as wind power, water flow, heat, sunlight, and vibration. However, there has been a new interest in energy harvesting methods recently, due to the mass increase of wireless sensors and low power electronics [1]. Electronic devices, such as mobile phones, laptops, PDAs (Personal DigitalAssistants),medical implant devices, and differenttypes ofsensor nodes, all require a powersourceto operate.Therefore, they are providedwith eitherwires or disposable/rechargeable batteries to supply the power.Thanks to advanced fabrication technologies, very smallsized batteries areintroduced,which aresmallenough to belocated on a chip to power up a sensor node or a smallelectronic handheld [1]. The problem with batteries is that they havelimited lifetimes or they arerequired to berecharged on a regular basis. However, there have been technology advances to optimizethe battery performance and itslifetime,such as dynamic optimization of voltage and clock rate, hybrid analog digital designs, and clever wake up procedures that allow a deviceto go to inactive mode when it is not required to operate a task [1]

McGloin, D, McDonald, C & Belotti, Y 2016, 'Colloidal Interactions with Optical Fields: Optical Tweezers' in Fluids, Colloids and Soft Materials: An Introduction to Soft Matter Physics, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, USA, pp. 111-130.
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© 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. This chapter reviews the basic physics and design of an optical tweezers system. It shows how the optical tweezers can be used in a range of studies, with emphasis on colloidal systems. The chapter examines how modern optical tweezers are able to take advantage of the ability to shape optical beams into near arbitrary shapes through a range of technological innovations from the acousto-optical modulator to the spatial light modulator. It also discusses other optical techniques that make use of radiation pressure to manipulate particles that are typically dual-beam traps and can offer some flexibility over optical tweezers for certain applications. The chapter explores the developing fields of nanoparticle manipulation, and aerosol trapping and analysis. The use of optical tweezers in colloidal science is particularly useful for the measurement of interaction forces, as opposed to adhesion, binding, or structural forces involved in biological processes.

Moreira, C & Wichert, A 2016, 'The Relation Between Acausality and Interference in Quantum-Like Bayesian Networks' in Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer International Publishing, pp. 129-141.
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Nghiem, LD & Fujioka, T 2016, 'Removal of Emerging Contaminants for Water Reuse by Membrane Technology' in Emerging Membrane Technology for Sustainable Water Treatment, Elsevier, pp. 217-247.
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© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. High-pressure membrane separation processes including reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) have been widely used for drinking water purification and water recycling as well as for the removal of trace organic contaminants (TrOCs). Rejection of TrOCs by NF/RO membranes is governed mainly by size exclusion, electrostatic repulsion and hydrophobic interaction. A detailed characterisation of the membrane and physicochemical properties of the TrOC is key to recognising the dominant mechanism. TrOC rejection by NF/RO membranes can also be influenced by fouling and subsequent chemical cleaning. It is, therefore, essential to understand the transport of TrOCs through NF/RO membranes in order to ensure adequate treatment and at the same time avoid over-engineering. In addition to NF/RO, TrOCs removal by several emerging membrane technologies, including forward osmosis, membrane distillation and membrane electrodialysis, is reviewed briefly.

Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Chen, Z, Surampalli, RY & Zhang, TC 2016, 'Green Technologies for Sustainable Water Management: Introduction and Overview' in Green Technologies for Sustainable Water Management, American Society of Civil Engineers, pp. 1-34.
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© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers. This chapter presents the background, current development and future opportunities of green technologies and issues to facilitate strategic planning of sustainable water management systems. It describes the fundamental concepts and current and future applications of green technologies for sustainable improvement in water management. The chapter discusses the appropriate approaches and policies in achieving sustainable objectives and promoting green design and supplies for water utilization. Sustainable water management has received great attention over recent years because of its substantial benefits to the environment, society, and economy. Improvements in water management are likely to come from green technologies fueled by individual curiosity, dedicated effort, and opportunities within a strategic program supported by national and international agencies, universities, and industries. These innovations can significantly contribute to less nonrenewable resource requirement, reduced carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions and costs, minimized water losses, and enhanced removal of contaminants.

Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Surampalli, RY & Zhang, TC 2016, 'Front Matter', American Society of Civil Engineers, pp. xiii-xiv.
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Ni, B-J, Pan, Y, Guo, J, Virdis, B, Hu, S, Chen, X & Yuan, Z 2016, 'CHAPTER 16. Denitrification Processes for Wastewater Treatment' in Metallobiology, Royal Society of Chemistry, UK, pp. 368-418.
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© The Royal Society of Chemistry 2017. Denitrification processes have been widely recognised as the key processes in biological nitrogen removal from wastewater. In this chapter, the traditional and emerging denitrification processes in wastewater treatment were reviewed in order to illuminate their stoichiometry, microbial community, kinetics, affecting factors, mathematical models and technological applications, including heterotrophic denitrification, anaerobic ammonia oxidation, denitrifying anaerobic methane oxidation, sulphur or hydrogen-based autotrophic denitrification and bioelectrochemical denitrification. Although existing technological denitrification processes still have limitations, their applications will undoubtedly increase in the near future because of increasing attention that is being paid to high-rate, cost-effective nitrogen removal from wastewater.

Noguchi, M, Formoso, C, da Rocha, CG, Andújar-Montoya, MD, Bunster, V, Cameron, R & Imai, C 2016, 'Mass Customisation' in Springer Tracts in Civil Engineering, Springer International Publishing, pp. 95-119.
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© 2016, Springer International Publishing Switzerland. Climate change accompanied by global warming issues necessitates that homes are more environmentally friendly in production and operation, while the drastic hike in energy costs and increasing socio-economic diversity demand housing that is more affordable and more customisable than ever before. Homes need to address social, economic and environmental sustainability issues as a whole. When the revolutionary notion of sustainable development was introduced the concept of mass customisation coincidentally emerged as a means to customise end-user products without sacrificing the production efficiency, effectiveness or low cost. This chapter will introduce the notion of mass customisation and the pragmatic application to housing design and production. This knowledge is essential to the delivery of quality affordable homes in which the level of performance can be determined within the economic constraints of the end-users.

Pencheva, T, Roeva, O & Shannon, A 2016, 'Generalized Net Models of Basic Genetic Algorithm Operators' in Angelov, P & Sotirov, S (eds), Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing, Springer International Publishing, Germany, pp. 305-325.
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© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016. Generalized nets (GN) are applied here to describe some basic operators of genetic algorithms, namely selection, crossover and mutation and different functions for selection (roulette wheel selection method and stochastic universal sampling), different crossover techniques (one-point crossover, two-point crossover, and “cut and splice” technique), as well as mutation operator (mutation operator of the Breeder genetic algorithm). The resulting GN models can be considered as separate modules, but they can also be accumulated into a single GN model to describe a whole genetic algorithm.

Rana, MM, Li, L & Su, S 2016, 'Microgrid State Estimation Using the IoT with 5G Technology' in Mavromoustakis, CX, Mastorakis, G & Batalla, JM (eds), Modeling and Optimization in Science and Technologies, Springer International Publishing, Germany, pp. 175-195.
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Saha, SC, Gu, YT & Khan, MMK 2016, 'Natural Convection Heat Transfer in the Partitioned Attic Space' in Thermofluid Modeling for Energy Efficiency Applications, Elsevier, pp. 59-72.
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© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Heat transfer and air flow through an attic space into or out of buildings is a key issue for attic-shaped houses in different seasons. One of the main objectives for designers and builders is to provide thermal comfort for dwellers. In the present energy-conscious society, it is also a requirement for houses to be energy-efficient, that is, the energy usage for heating or cooling houses must be reduced. Relevant to these objectives, research into heat transfer in attics has been conducted for more than two decades. Numerical simulation is carried out for flow behavior of natural convection in an isosceles triangular enclosure partitioned in the center by a vertical wall with an infinite conductivity. A sudden temperature difference between two zones of the enclosure has been imposed to trigger the natural convection. As a result, heat is transferred between both sides of the cavity through the conducting vertical wall with natural convection boundary layers forming on the middle partition and two inclined surfaces. The Finite Volume-based software Fluent is used for the simulations. The numerical results are obtained for different values of height-base ratio (. 0.2,0.5, and 1.0) with fixed values of Rayleigh number, 108 and Prandtl number, 0.72. It is anticipated from the numerical simulations that the coupled thermal boundary layers development adjacent to the partition undergoes several distinct stages including an initial stage, a transitional stage, and a steady stage. Time-dependent features of the coupled thermal boundary layers, as well as the overall natural convection flow in the partitioned enclosure, have been discussed and compared with the nonpartitioned enclosure. It is found that heat transfer is reduced significantly in the presence of a vertical partition which is placed in the geometrical center line.

Silverman, BG, Sun, DQ, Weyer, N & Bharathy, GK 2016, 'Rapid Generation of Political Conict Simulations for Scenarios around the World' in Modeling Sociocultural Influences on Decision Making, CRC Press, Boca Raton, USA, pp. 365-390.
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This chapter describes a prototype of a rapid scenario generator that has been demonstrated in a field setting in 2014. The generator consists of a set of screens that assists a human in quickly specifying political conflict scenarios around the world. The goal is to produce models that can simulate the scenarios and thereby help to assess the impact of the alternative COA the user might take to influence the scenario outcomes. The generator is able to speed up scenario construction since it uses analogical or case-based reasoning (CBR), and it is built upon a repository of hundreds of past StateSim models of political groups, actors, institutions, and other conhict scenario elements. This chapter introduces the generator purpose in the section 'Introduction and Purpose.' Background on CBR and StateSim are in the section 'Architecture and Cycle of the Case-Based Generator.' This walks through a fictional state use case to create a scenario and a set of StateSim models in the section 'The Generator Elicitation Screens.' We then explain the repository of past models and some tools to explore what is in it in the section 'CBR and the Repository of Past Cases.' Finally, it discusses the results to date and next steps in the section 'Conclusions and Next Steps.' At the end of the chapter, we discuss the detailed application of our platform to the attached megacity use case.

Smith, DB & Abolhasan, M 2016, 'Diversity and cooperative communications in body area networks' in Advances in Body-Centric Wireless Communication: Applications and state-of-the-art, Institution of Engineering and Technology, USA, pp. 7-42.
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In this chapter, we investigate diversity and cooperative communications, and particularly cooperative diversity, for body-centric communications in wireless body area networks (BANs). Cooperative diversity for BANs is vitally important for required communications reliability, as well as increasing network and sensor lifetime by potentially reducing energy consumption, as will be shown here. We describe what is meant by cooperative communications and cooperative diversity, including a brief survey of the state-of-the-art. Description and analysis of the benefits of cooperative diversity in BANs is mainly with respect to the physical layer, but there is also some brief discussion of the MAC layer and network layer. In terms of cooperative receive diversity, feasible in IEEE 802.15.6 Standard compliant BAN, several cooperative receive combining techniques are described, which are all beneficial over single-link communications in terms of firstand second-order statistics. A simple, practical, technique of switch-and-examine combining shows good performance in terms of important metrics, and this can be further enhanced when combined with a simple “sample-and-hold” transmit power control, which can help reduce energy consumption for sensor radios.

Stewart, MG 2016, 'Risk and Decision-Making for Extreme Events: Climate Change and Terrorism' in Multi-hazard Approaches to Civil Infrastructure Engineering, Springer International Publishing, pp. 87-103.
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Terrorism and climate change are extreme events that frighten and alarm. This makes decision-making for these hazards or threats all the more difficult, particularly when decision-makers are risk averse. This chapter will describe how risk-based approaches are well suited to optimising decisions related to these extreme events. Stochastic methods are used to model threat likelihood, vulnerability, effectiveness of protective strategies, exposure and costs. The concepts will be illustrated with current research of risk-based assessment of counterterrorism and climate adaptation strategies. The case studies consider (1) protection of new bridges against terrorist attack and (2) climate change and cost-effectiveness of designing new port facilities to be less vulnerable to severe corrosion.

Stratton-Powell, AA & Tipper, JL 2016, 'Characterization of UHMWPE Wear Particles' in UHMWPE Biomaterials Handbook, Elsevier, pp. 635-653.
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© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Although most total joint prostheses remain stable for many years, a significant proportion experience loosening, with about 10% requiring revision 10 years after primary arthroplasty. It is generally accepted that osteolysis, among other causes, is initiated by the biological response to wear particles, which are released from ultra high molecular weight polyethylene acetabular liners and tibial trays. Wear particles up to 10 μm in size are predicted to be phagocytosed by resident macrophages and cause the release of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, including tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-1beta (IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8. These cytokines stimulate the release of other mediators and the ensuing inflammatory cascade results in the formation of a periprosthetic granulomatous tissue reaction. Histopathological studies have revealed that these inflammatory cytokines facilitate osteoclastagenesis, which results in resorption of bone and a painfully loose implant. Revision surgery is currently the only option for the patient and surgeon.

Subramanian, R, Afroz, F, Sandrasegaran, K & Kong, X 2016, 'SON in Location-Based Services' in Advances in Wireless Technologies and Telecommunication, IGI Global, USA, pp. 115-129.
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This chapter forays into the literature of emerging field of Self-Organization Network (SON) and its application in the area of location-based services. SON is a widely applied technology in the ad hoc networks, wireless sensor networks and automatic computer networks. This chapter deal exclusively about the projects, standards and literature of SON in the context of the cellular networks and how it can aid to achieve higher position accuracy information of the subscriber. Additionally, in this chapter a clear understanding of SON taxonomy and the guidelines for the design of SON has been presented and a comparison of SON with the existing solutions about its strength and weakness has been made in this chapter. The key research areas for further development is also highlighted in this chapter. This literature will provide comprehensive guidance for anyone interested to delve into the research of SON in cellular wireless communication and location based services.

Sullivan, C, Stuart, BH & Thomas, PS 2016, 'An Investigation of the Degradation of Polymeric Grave Goods in Soil Environments' in Kars, H & van den Eijkel, L (eds), Soil Forensics, Springer International Publishing, Germany, pp. 331-341.
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Plastic materials are a source of items that may be located in clandestine grave sites. Knowledge of their type and state of preservation or deterioration may provide a valuable resource for the identification of a victim or perpetrator. This study involves an examination of the effect of the nature of the soil environment on the structural properties of two common polymers, poly(vinyl chloride) and nylon, over a period of 18 months. These polymers represent common types of plastic sheeting and carpet material that may be used to wrap a body. Infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy have been used to monitor the structural changes that occur to these polymers in a soil environment and degradation mechanisms are proposed.

Waldron, KJ & Schmiedeler, J 2016, 'Kinematics' in Springer Handbooks, Springer International Publishing, pp. 11-36.
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Kinematics pertains to the motion of bodies in a robotic mechanism without regard to the forces/torques that cause the motion. Since robotic mechanisms are by their very essence designed for motion, kinematics is the most fundamental aspect of robot design, analysis, control, and simulation. The robotics community has focused on efficiently applying different representations of position and orientation and their derivatives with respect to time to solve foundational kinematics problems. This chapter will present the most useful representations of the position and orientation of a body in space, the kinematics of the joints most commonly found in robotic mechanisms, and a convenient convention for representing the geometry of robotic mechanisms. These representational tools will be applied to compute the workspace, the forward and inverse kinematics, the forward and inverse instantaneous kinematics, and the static wrench transmission of a robotic mechanism. For brevity, the focus will be on algorithms applicable to open-chain mechanisms. The goal of this chapter is to provide the reader with general tools in tabulated form and a broader overview of algorithms that can be applied together to solve kinematics problems pertaining to a particular robotic mechanism.

Wen, M, Yu, S, Li, J, Li, H & Lu, K 2016, 'Big Data Storage Security' in Big Data Concepts, Theories, and Applications, Springer International Publishing, Switzerland, pp. 237-255.
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The demand for data storage and processing is increasing at a rapid speed in the big data era. The management of such tremendous volume of data is a critical challenge to the data storage systems. Firstly, since 60% of the stored data is claimed to be redundant, data deduplication technology becomes an attractive solution to save storage space and traffic in a big data environment. Secondly, the security issues, such as confidentiality, integrity and privacy of the big data should also be considered for big data storage. To address these problems, convergent encryption is widely used to secure data deduplication for big data storage. Nonetheless, there still exist some other security issues, such as proof of ownership, key management and so on. In this chapter, we first introduce some major cyber attacks for big data storage. Then, we describe the existing fundamental security techniques, whose integration is essential for preventing data from existing and future security attacks. By discussing some interesting open problems, we finally expect to trigger more research efforts in this new research field.

Wu, M & Gide, E 2016, 'A Model to Demonstrate the Common CSFs in E-Commerce Business Satisfaction for Measuring E-Commerce Success' in Encyclopedia of E-Commerce Development, Implementation, and Management, IGI Global, pp. 480-495.
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Zhang, Y & Xu, G 2016, 'Singular Value Decomposition' in Encyclopedia of Database Systems, Springer New York, pp. 1-3.
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Zhang, Y, Chen, H & Zhu, D 2016, 'Semi-automatic Technology Roadmapping Composing Method for Multiple Science, Technology, and Innovation Data Incorporation' in Daim, T, Porter, A, Chiavetta, D & Saritas, O (eds), Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management, Springer International Publishing, Switzerland, pp. 211-227.
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Zhu, A, Guo, J, Ni, B-J, Wang, S, Yang, Q & Peng, Y 2016, 'A Novel Protocol for Model Calibration in Biological Wastewater Treatment' in Environmental Engineering and Activated Sludge Processes, Apple Academic Press, pp. 23-47.
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., RMA 2016, 'A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW ON WHAT FEATURES SHOULD BE SUPPORTED BY FITNESS APPS AND WEARABLES TO HELP USERS OVERCOME OBESITY', International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology, vol. 05, no. 09, pp. 197-206.
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Obesity is a major global challenge. It increases the risk of developing health problems such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Its prevalence puts pressure on the healthcare systems and on individuals’ health and finances as well. The use of fitness technology, mobile apps and wearable devices in supporting health behaviour change is promising. Fitness technology not only expands opportunities for users to access health related information but also facilitate cueing behaviour change and collection of ongoing personal data. The objective of this paper is to identify the features that should be supported by health and fitness apps and fitness wearable devices to encourage obese individuals to be active, change their lifestyle and to keep them motivated to overcome obesity. Firstly, it investigates the effectiveness and the efficiency of prevalent fitness apps and fitness wearable devices design features used to encourage physical activity. It then provides a method to evaluate both fitness apps and fitness wearable devices as motivational tools. The results regarding mobile apps highlight that goal setting, monitoring/tracking and feedback are the best features for motivation and that Zombie Run is the best fitness app for the Australian market in 2015. The results in regards to wearable devices emphasise reminders, tracking / monitoring/ feedback and goals / rewards are the best features for motivation and that Garmin Vivofitis the best fitness wearable devices for the American market in 2015. These results are useful for the users; fitness apps’ and fitness wearable devices’ developers because they provide some understanding of the various features needed to motivate individuals.

Abbas, A & Khalilpour, R 2016, 'Special issue on “Flexible operation of carbon capture plants”', International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, vol. 48, pp. 187-187.
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Abdolali, A, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Lu, S, Chen, S-S, Nguyen, NC, Zhang, X, Wang, J & Wu, Y 2016, 'A breakthrough biosorbent in removing heavy metals: Equilibrium, kinetic, thermodynamic and mechanism analyses in a lab-scale study', SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT, vol. 542, pp. 603-611.
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Abdul Halim, NS, Whitten, PG & Nghiem, LD 2016, 'The effect of aging on thermomechanical and metal extraction properties of poly (vinyl chloride)/Aliquat 336 polymer inclusion membranes', Desalination and Water Treatment, vol. 57, no. 7, pp. 3298-3303.
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Abdul, JM, Vigneswaran, S, Kandasamy, J & Mahinthakumar, G 2016, 'Fenton Oxidation of Metsulfuron-Methyl with Application to Permeable Reactive Barriers', Environmental Modeling & Assessment, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 149-158.
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© 2015, Springer International Publishing Switzerland. Laboratory experiments were conducted for removal of metsulfuron-methyl (MeS) by Fenton oxidation using a sand column with multiple sampling points and varied flow rates. The transport and degradation of MeS in a sand column were modeled using an advection diffusion reaction system with rate-limited sorption, hydrolysis and second-order degradation kinetics. Rate constants for MeS adsorption and degradation were obtained by fitting the model to experimental breakthrough curves. Results showed that the residence time is the primary influencing factor in the amount of MeS removal by Fenton oxidation with removal efficiencies exceeding 85 %. The column model was extended to two-dimensional porous media, and simulations were conducted to evaluate the feasibility of in situ chemical oxidation using Fenton’s reagent in permeable reactor barriers. Results show that Fenton oxidation can yield remediation efficiencies exceeding 80 % in permeable reactor barriers when compared to less than 10 % with adsorption only.

Abdul-Halim, NS, Whitten, PG & Nghiem, LD 2016, 'Characteristics and cadmium extraction performance of PVC/Aliquat 336 electrospun fibres in comparison with polymer inclusion membranes', Separation Science and Technology, vol. 51, no. 9, pp. 1-8.
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Abdullahi, S & Pradhan, B 2016, 'Sustainable Brownfields Land Use Change Modeling Using GIS-based Weights-of-Evidence Approach', Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 21-38.
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Abdulwahid, H, Dai, B, Huang, B & Chen, Z 2016, 'Scheduled-links multicast routing protocol in MANETs', Journal of Network and Computer Applications, vol. 63, pp. 56-67.
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Abedin, MJ, Imran, A, Masjuki, HH, Kalam, MA, Shahir, SA, Varman, M & Ruhul, AM 2016, 'An overview on comparative engine performance and emission characteristics of different techniques involved in diesel engine as dual-fuel engine operation', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 60, pp. 306-316.
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Abatement of pollutant emissions from transport sector is one of the major concerns throughout the globe. One of the main technical challenges for transportation sector is to reduce pollutant emissions from diesel engine and to meet satisfactory engine performance, simultaneously. Different technical changes have been introduced in diesel engine to apply alternative biofuels to reduce pollutant emissions. Blend, fumigation, and emulsion are three different dual fuel engine operation techniques, which have been introduced in diesel engine for biofuel application. In the blend mode, biofuel and diesel are mixed in desired proportions before injecting into cylinder, whereas in fumigation mode, biofuel is injected into intake manifold to mix with the intake fresh air. Emulsion is a process wherein two immiscible substances are mixed together. This study provides a comprehensive review on these three techniques of biofuel injection and their comparative effects on the engine performance and emissions. From these studies, it is found that the effects on engine performance and emission mostly depend on biofuel properties. Increase in break specific fuel consumption (BSFC) is common in each method due to the lower calorific value of biofuels. Brake thermal efficiency (BTE) decreases in blend and fumigation modes, but increases in emulsion mode. Nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions decrease in fumigation and emulsion modes, but increase in blend mode. Carbon monoxide (CO) and Hydro carbon (HC) emissions increase in fumigation and emulsion modes, but decrease in blend mode. Particulate Matter (PM) emission decreases in all three modes.

Abedin, MJ, Kalam, MA, Masjuki, HH, Sabri, MFM, Rahman, SMA, Sanjid, A & Fattah, IMR 2016, 'Production of biodiesel from a non-edible source and study of its combustion, and emission characteristics: A comparative study with B5', Renewable Energy, vol. 88, pp. 20-29.
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This investigation deals with the production of Alexandrian laurel (Calophyllum inophyllum) biodiesel (ALB) and study of the effects of its fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) compositions and physicochemical properties on the engine performance, combustion, and emissions. The experiment had been conducted in a four cylinder turbocharged diesel engine under varying speeds and full loading condition. 10% (ALB10) and 20% (ALB20) blends of Alexandrian laurel biodiesel along with the Diesel and B5 fuel (95% diesel and 5% palm biodiesel) were used for this experiment. ALB consisted of 31.6% saturated and 68.4% unsaturated FAME. Longer chain fatty acids and 10.9% oxygen content of ALB greatly influenced the engine combustion and emission characteristics. Brake specific fuel consumption (bsfc) was found on average 6%-20% higher for B5, ALB10, and ALB20 blends compared to diesel fuel. It was observed that ALB operation shortened the ignition delay period, increased the mass fraction burnt (MFB), and reduced the pick cylinder pressure, heat release rate (HRR) and combustion duration. CO and HC emissions were decreased significantly while operating on B5, ALB10, and ALB20 blends compared to diesel fuel. ALB blends produced on average, 2.5%-3% higher NOX emissions with respect to diesel fuel.

Abolhasan, M, Maali, Y, Rafiei, A & Ni, W 2016, 'Distributed Hybrid Coverage Hole Recovery in Wireless Sensor Networks', IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, vol. 16, no. 23, pp. 8640-8648.
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© 2001-2012 IEEE. Coverage holes (CHs) can compromise the reliability and functionality of wireless sensor networks. The recovery of CHs is challenging, especially in distributed applications where sensors have little knowledge about other sensors' actions. We propose a new game theoretic approach for recovering the CHs in a distributed manner. The key idea is that we formulate a potential game between the sensors, where each mobile sensor in the network only depends on local knowledge of its neighboring nodes and takes CH recovery actions recursively with global convergence. An appropriate combined action of physical relocation and sensing range adjustment can be taken by each sensor to reduce the CHs in an energy-efficient way. Simulation results show that the proposed game theoretic approach is able to substantially increase network lifetime and maintain network coverage in the presence of random damage events, as compared with the prior counterpart(s).

Aditiya, HB, Chong, WT, Mahlia, TMI, Sebayang, AH, Berawi, MA & Nur, H 2016, 'Second generation bioethanol potential from selected Malaysia’s biodiversity biomasses: A review', Waste Management, vol. 47, no. Pt A, pp. 46-61.
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Rising global temperature, worsening air quality and drastic declining of fossil fuel reserve are the inevitable phenomena from the disorganized energy management. Bioethanol is believed to clear out the effects as being an energy-derivable product sourced from renewable organic sources. Second generation bioethanol interests many researches from its unique source of inedible biomass, and this paper presents the potential of several selected biomasses from Malaysia case. As one of countries with rich biodiversity, Malaysia holds enormous potential in second generation bioethanol production from its various agricultural and forestry biomasses, which are the source of lignocellulosic and starch compounds. This paper reviews potentials of biomasses and potential ethanol yield from oil palm, paddy (rice), pineapple, banana and durian, as the common agricultural waste in the country but uncommon to be served as bioethanol feedstock, by calculating the theoretical conversion of cellulose, hemicellulose and starch components of the biomasses into bioethanol. Moreover, the potential of the biomasses as feedstock are discussed based on several reported works.

Aditiya, HB, Mahlia, TMI, Chong, WT, Nur, H & Sebayang, AH 2016, 'Second generation bioethanol production: A critical review', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 66, pp. 631-653.
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It is a popular fact that the world's dependency on fossil fuel has caused unfavourable effects, including lessening crude oil reserve, decreasing air quality, rising global temperature, unpredictable weather change, and so on. As the effort to promote sustainability and independency from fossil fuel, bioethanol is now favoured as the blend or fossil petrol substitute. However, the feedstock functionality of first generation bioethanol production is restricted due to its edibleness since it would clash the feeding purpose. Second generation bioethanol production fulfils the impractical gap of first generation since it employs non-edible feedstock sourced from agriculture and forestry wastes. Lignocellulosic and starchy materials in them are convertible to fermentable sugars that are able to be further processed, resulting anhydrous bioethanol as the end product. This paper critically reviews the existing variance of second generation bioethanol production methodologies, namely pre-treatment, hydrolysis, fermentation and distillation, as well as the worth of second generation production for future reference. The discussions in this paper are also fit as the fundamental for feasible planning of second generation bioethanol production plant.

Afzal, MU & Esselle, KP 2016, 'A Low-Profile Printed Planar Phase Correcting Surface to Improve Directive Radiation Characteristics of Electromagnetic Band Gap Resonator Antennas', IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 64, no. 1, pp. 276-280.
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This communication presents a method to enhance the radiation performance of conventional electromagnetic band gap resonator antennas (ERAs) by improving their aperture phase distributions. A lowprofile printed planar phase correcting surface (PCS) was designed and fabricated to demonstrate performance enhancement. Measurements of a prototype demonstrated that the PCS significantly enhances the directive radiation properties of ERAs. This includes an 8 dB increase in peak directivity, 60% reduction in 3 dB beamwidth (from 35° to 14°), and a considerable reduction in side lobe levels.

Aghdam, IN, Varzandeh, MHM & Pradhan, B 2016, 'Landslide susceptibility mapping using an ensemble statistical index (Wi) and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) model at Alborz Mountains (Iran)', Environmental Earth Sciences, vol. 75, no. 7, p. 553.
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Ahadi, A, Brennan, S, Kennedy, PJ, Hutvagner, G & Tran, N 2016, 'Long non-coding RNAs harboring miRNA seed regions are enriched in prostate cancer exosomes', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 1-14.
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AbstractLong non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) form the largest transcript class in the human transcriptome. These lncRNA are expressed not only in the cells, but they are also present in the cell-derived extracellular vesicles such as exosomes. The function of these lncRNAs in cancer biology is not entirely clear, but they appear to be modulators of gene expression. In this study, we characterize the expression of lncRNAs in several prostate cancer exosomes and their parental cell lines. We show that certain lncRNAs are enriched in cancer exosomes with the overall expression signatures varying across cell lines. These exosomal lncRNAs are themselves enriched for miRNA seeds with a preference for let-7 family members as well as miR-17, miR-18a, miR-20a, miR-93 and miR-106b. The enrichment of miRNA seed regions in exosomal lncRNAs is matched with a concomitant high expression of the same miRNA. In addition, the exosomal lncRNAs also showed an over representation of RNA binding protein binding motifs. The two most common motifs belonged to ELAVL1 and RBMX. Given the enrichment of miRNA and RBP sites on exosomal lncRNAs, their interplay may suggest a possible function in prostate cancer carcinogenesis.

Ahadi, A, Khoury, S, Losseva, M & Tran, N 2016, 'A comparative analysis of lncRNAs in prostate cancer exosomes and their parental cell lines', Genomics Data, vol. 9, pp. 7-9.
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© 2016 The Authors. Prostate cancer is the second leading cancer in men world-wide. Due to its heterogeneous nature, a considerable amount of research effort has been dedicated in identifying effective clinical biomarkers with a focus on proteins, messenger RNA and microRNAs [1]. However, there is limited data on the role and expression of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in prostate cancer exosomes [2]. This array dataset which is linked to our publication describes the profiling of human lncRNAs in prostate cancer and their exosomes from five different cell lines [3]. From this dataset, we identified a list of statistically significant prostate cancer lncRNAs which are differentially expressed in the exosomes compared to their parent cell lines. This dataset has been deposited into Gene Expression Omnibus (GSE81034).

Ahamed, R, Ferdaus, MM & Li, Y 2016, 'Advancement in energy harvesting magneto-rheological fluid damper: A review', Korea-Australia Rheology Journal, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 355-379.
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In this paper, a comprehensive review of the present literature on energy generated magnetorheological (MR) fluid based damper, modeling and applications of the MR damper are presented. The review starts with an introduction of the basic of MR fluid and their different modes, consequences with different types of MR fluids based devices, and their relevant applications. Besides, various forms of MR damper and its applications are presented. Following this, the modeling of the MR fluids and the modeling of the MR fluid based damper are deliberated according to arrangement and configurations. Finally, the review ends with the design and advancement issues, performance analysis matters, and analytical modeling of energy generated magnetorheological fluid damper systems.

Ahmed, A, Masjuki, HH, Varman, M, Kalam, MA, Habibullah, M & Al Mahmud, KAH 2016, 'An overview of geometrical parameters of surface texturing for piston/cylinder assembly and mechanical seals', Meccanica, vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 9-23.
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Ahmed, MB, Zhou, JL, Ngo, HH & Guo, W 2016, 'Insight into biochar properties and its cost analysis', Biomass and Bioenergy, vol. 84, pp. 76-86.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Biochars (BCs) are widely produced and used for the remediation of environmental contaminants as bio-sorbents. In this review, statistical analysis of different BC physico-chemical properties was conducted. It was observed that woody materials are the most suitable for preparing BCs, among many other potential raw materials such as food wastes and agricultural materials. Currently BCs are produced through a variety of thermal treatment processes between 300 and 900 °C, among which slow pyrolysis is widely used due to its moderate operating conditions and optimization of BC yields. Hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC) is also an effective approach for BC production under certain conditions. As pyrolysis temperature is increased, the carbon content, ash content, surface area, and pore volume tend to be increased while the yield, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen content, and H/C and O/C molar ratios tend to decrease. The economic feasibility of BCs depends on a range of factors from raw material price to efficient production technologies. Thus, the overall cost equation of a pilot BC production plant together with the cost equation for BC regeneration has been proposed. The future research directions of BCs are also elaborated.

Ahmed, MB, Zhou, JL, Ngo, HH, Guo, W & Chen, M 2016, 'Progress in the preparation and application of modified biochar for improved contaminant removal from water and wastewater', BIORESOURCE TECHNOLOGY, vol. 214, pp. 836-851.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd Modified biochar (BC) is reviewed in its preparation, functionality, applications and regeneration. The nature of precursor materials, preparatory conditions and modification methods are key factors influencing BC properties. Steam activation is unsuitable for improving BC surface functionality compared with chemical modifications. Alkali-treated BC possesses the highest surface functionality. Both alkali modified BC and nanomaterial impregnated BC composites are highly favorable for enhancing the adsorption of different contaminants from wastewater. Acidic treatment provides more oxygenated functional groups on BC surfaces. The Langmuir isotherm model provides the best fit for sorption equilibria of heavy metals and anionic contaminants, while the Freundlich isotherm model is the best fit for emerging contaminants. The pseudo 2nd order is the most appropriate model of sorption kinetics for all contaminants. Future research should focus on industry-scale applications and hybrid systems for contaminant removal due to scarcity of data.

Ai, H, Xu, J, Huang, W, He, Q, Ni, B & Wang, Y 2016, 'Mechanism and kinetics of biofilm growth process influenced by shear stress in sewers', Water Science and Technology, vol. 73, no. 7, pp. 1572-1582.
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Sewer biofilms play an important role in the biotransformation of substances for methane and sulfide emission in sewer networks. The dynamic flows and the particular shear stress in sewers are the key factors determining the growth of the sewer biofilm. In this work, the development of sewer biofilm with varying shear stress is specifically investigated to gain a comprehensive understanding of the sewer biofilm dynamics. Sewer biofilms were cultivated in laboratory-scale gravity sewers under different hydraulic conditions with the corresponding shell stresses are 1.12 Pa, 1.29 Pa and 1.45 Pa, respectively. The evolution of the biofilm thickness were monitored using microelectrodes, and the variation in total solids (TS) and extracellular polymer substance (EPS) levels in the biofilm were also measured. The results showed that the steady-state biofilm thickness were highly related to the corresponding shear stresses with the biofilm thickness of 2.4 ± 0.1 mm, 2.7 ± 0.1 mm and 2.2 ± 0.1 mm at shear stresses of 1.12 Pa, 1.29 Pa and 1.45 Pa, respectively, which the chemical oxygen demand concentration is 400 mg/L approximately. Based on these observations, a kinetic model for describing the development of sewer biofilms was developed and demonstrated to be capable of reproducing all the experimental data.

Al-Abadi, AM, Pradhan, B & Shahid, S 2016, 'Prediction of groundwater flowing well zone at An-Najif Province, central Iraq using evidential belief functions model and GIS', Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, vol. 188, no. 10, p. 549.
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Alam, M, Sanjayan, J, Zou, PXW, Stewart, MG & Wilson, J 2016, 'Modelling the correlation between building energy ratings and heat-related mortality and morbidity', Sustainable Cities and Society, vol. 22, pp. 29-39.
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Climate change has led to an increase in the frequency and intensity of heatwaves as well as the risk of heat stress within buildings. To provide habitable indoor conditions without air-conditioning during heatwave, residential building energy efficiency need to be upgraded. The aim of this research is to investigate the possible correlation of building energy rating upgrading with heat-related health hazard during heatwave, with case data drawing from Melbourne, Australia. Using building simulations, indoor heat stress conditions of different energy rated houses were calculated using wet bulb globe temperature and discomfort index under the Melbourne 2009 heatwave conditions. The results showed that during three days heatwave period, residents of 0.9 star energy rated house were exposed to extreme heat stress conditions for almost 25 h compared to only 6 h experienced by the occupants of 5.4 star energy rated house. Several robust empirical relationships were proposed to predict deaths, ambulance calls, emergency department presentations and after hour doctor calls during heatwave. It was concluded that mortality rate from a Melbourne 2009 type, as well as, future more intense heatwave may reduce by 90% if entire existing lower energy star rated houses can be upgraded to minimum 5.4 star energy rating.

Alarkawi, D, Bliuc, D, Nguyen, TV, Eisman, JA & Center, JR 2016, 'Contribution of Lumbar Spine BMD to Fracture Risk in Individuals With T-Score Discordance', Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 274-280.
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ABSTRACT   Fracture risk estimates are usually based on femoral neck (FN) BMD. It is unclear how to address T-score discordance, where lumbar spine (LS) T-score is lower than FN T-score. The objective of this work was to examine the impact of LS BMD on fracture risk, in individuals with lower LS T-score than FN T-score. Participants aged 60+ years from the Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study with LS and FN BMD measured at first visit, and were followed from 1989 to 2014. Five-hundred and seventy-three (573) of 2270 women and 131 of 1373 men had lower LS than FN T-score by ≥0.6 standard deviation (SD) (low-LS group based on least significant change). In low-LS women, each 1 SD lower LS T-score than FN was associated with a 30% increase in fracture risk (hazard ratio [HR] 1.30; 95% CI, 1.11 to 1.45). For low-LS men there was a 20% nonsignificant increase in fracture risk for each 1 SD lower LS than FN T-score (HR 1.20; 95% CI, 0.10 to 1.67). Low-LS women had greater absolute fracture risks than the rest of the women. This increased risk was more apparent for lower levels of FN T-score and in older age groups. At an FN T-score of –2, low-LS women had a 3%, 10%, and 23% higher 5-year absolute fracture risk than non-low LS women in the 60 to 69 year, 70 to 79 year, and 80+ years age-groups, respectively. Furthermore, an osteoporotic LS T-score increased 5-year absolute fracture risk for women with normal or osteopenic FN T-score by 10% to 13%. Men in the low-LS group had very few fractures; therefore, a meaningful analyses of fracture risk could not be conducted. This study shows the significant contribution of lower LS BMD to fracture risk over and above FN BMD in women. A LS BMD lower than FN BMD should be incorporated into fracture risk calculators at least for women in older age-groups. © 2015 American Society for Bone and Mineral Res...

Alavi, AH, Gandomi, AH & Lary, DJ 2016, 'Progress of machine learning in geosciences: Preface', Geoscience Frontiers, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 1-2.
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Alazigha, DP, Indraratna, B, Vinod, JS & Ezeajugh, LE 2016, 'The swelling behaviour of lignosulfonate-treated expansive soil', Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Ground Improvement, vol. 169, no. 3, pp. 182-193.
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This paper presents results regarding the potential of lignosulfonate (LS) to control the swelling of expansive soil. One-dimensional swell tests were performed on untreated and LS-treated remoulded samples of Australian expansive soil from the state of Queensland. The test results indicated that LS has significant influence on the swelling behaviour of this expansive soil. The results were compared with those of identical cement-treated soil samples, and it was found that LS could be a economical and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional alkaline additives. In addition, the behaviour of LS-treated specimens during repeated freezing and thawing cycles was measured. The results indicated significant improvement in the percentage mass loss in LS-treated specimens compared with cement-treated specimens. The microstructural analysis of the untreated and the LS-treated samples showed soil surface area reduction in the treated specimens, which in turn reduced the affinity of the specimens towards moisture uptake, resulting in a reduction in the swell potential of the otherwise expansive soil. The use of LS as a novel non-traditional stabiliser for expansive soil appears to be a viable solution in view of the sustainable use of waste by-products and green construction.

Alengaram, UJ, Mohottige, NHW, Wu, C, Jumaat, MZ, Poh, YS & Wang, Z 2016, 'Response of oil palm shell concrete slabs subjected to quasi-static and blast loads', Construction and Building Materials, vol. 116, pp. 391-402.
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Alharbi, SK, Price, WE, Kang, J, Fujioka, T & Nghiem, LD 2016, 'Ozonation of carbamazepine, diclofenac, sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim and formation of major oxidation products', Desalination and Water Treatment, vol. 57, no. 60, pp. 29340-29351.
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Ali, A & Lee, JE-Y 2016, 'Electrical characterization of piezoelectric-on-silicon contour mode resonators fully immersed in liquid', Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, vol. 241, pp. 216-223.
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Al-Jubouri, B & Gabrys, B 2016, 'Local Learning for Multi-layer, Multi-component Predictive System', Procedia Computer Science, vol. 96, pp. 723-732.
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This study introduces a new multi-layer multi-component ensemble. The components of this ensemble are trained locally on subsets of features for disjoint sets of data. The data instances are assigned to local regions using the similarity of their features pairwise squared correlation. Many ensemble methods encourage diversity among their base predictors by training them on different subsets of data or different subsets of features. In the proposed architecture the local regions contain disjoint sets of data and for this data only the most similar features are selected. The pairwise squared correlations of the features are used to weight the predictions of the ensemble's models. The proposed architecture has been tested on a number of data sets and its performance was compared to five benchmark algorithms. The results showed that the testing accuracy of the developed architecture is comparable to the rotation forest and is better than the other benchmark algorithms.

Allen, G & Dovey, KA 2016, 'Action Research as a Leadership Strategy for Innovation: The Case of a Global High-Technology Organisation', International Journal of Action Research, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 8-37.
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The paper describes two sets of action research within an iconic global high-tech company. Two teams within the organisation (one in New York and one in Sydney) were selected to participate on the basis of their failure to have achieved any technical innovation over the previous three years. The action research had the practical goal of generating valuable technical innovations and the research goal of gaining insight into any social (leadership) practices that may have facilitated the technical innovation. The research delivered novel insights into the nature of the leadership practices that enabled these two teams to deliver four company-lauded technical innovations. The principal finding of the research - that social innovation precedes technical innovation – highlights the role action research can play in the creation of a social environment conducive to technical innovation within enterprises.

Alnaghy, S, Safavi-Naeini, M, Franklin, DR, Han, Z, Cutajar, DL, Petasecca, M, Lerch, M & Rosenfeld, AB 2016, 'Analytical Modelling and Simulation of Single and Double Cone Pinholes for Real-Time In-Body Tracking of an HDR Brachytherapy Source', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NUCLEAR SCIENCE, vol. 63, no. 3, pp. 1375-1385.
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Al-sharif, AAA & Pradhan, B 2016, 'Spatio-temporal Prediction of Urban Expansion Using Bivariate Statistical Models: Assessment of the Efficacy of Evidential Belief Functions and Frequency Ratio Models', Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 213-231.
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Altaee, A & Hilal, N 2016, 'Dual stage PRO power generation from brackish water brine and wastewater effluent feeds', Desalination, vol. 389, pp. 68-77.
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© 2015. Multi-Stage pumping Dual Stage PRO, MSDSPRO, process was proposed for power generation and brine concentration using brackish water brine and wastewater effluent feeds in stages one and two of the process. MSDSPRO process showed high efficiency for power generation and brackish water brine concentration before disposal. Power density, reverse salt diffusion and brackish water recovery rate were calculated in stages one and two of the DSMSPRO process taking into account the phenomenon of concentration polarization. The results showed that the MSDSPRO process efficiency for power generation was considerable even at relatively low draw solution concentrations. At 73 g/L draw solution concentration, power density was 4 and 6.25 W/m2 in stages one and two, respectively. Reverse salt diffusion was found to increase with draw solution concentration and it was higher in stage two compared to stage one. The ratio of reverse salt diffusion to power density, Js-r/W (mol/Wh) was calculated to determine draw agent loss per unit of power generation in the MSDSPRO process. The results also showed that volume of brackish water brine decreased by 18% after the PRO membrane treatment. As such, MSDSPRO process can be applied for power generation and reducing the volume of brine waste for disposal which is particularly important in inland desalination.

Altaee, A, Ismail, AF, Sharif, A & Zaragoza, G 2016, 'Dual stage PRO process: impact of the membrane materials of the process performance', Desalination and Water Treatment, vol. 57, no. 14, pp. 6172-6183.
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Altaee, A, Ismail, AF, Sharif, A, Zaragoza, G & Carvalho, PC 2016, 'Two-stage FO-BWRO/NF treatment of saline waters', Desalination and Water Treatment, vol. 57, no. 11, pp. 4842-4852.
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Altaee, A, Millar, GJ & Zaragoza, G 2016, 'Integration and optimization of pressure retarded osmosis with reverse osmosis for power generation and high efficiency desalination', Energy, vol. 103, pp. 110-118.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. Salinity gradient power is proposed as a source of renewable energy when two solutions of different salinity are mixed. In particular, Pressure Retarded Osmosis (PRO) coupled with a Reverse Osmosis process (RO) has been previously suggested for power generation, using RO brine as the draw solution. However, integration of PRO with RO may have further value for increasing the extent of water recovery in a desalination process. Consequently, this study was designed to model the impact of various system parameters to better understand how to design and operate practical PRO-RO units. The impact of feed salinity and recovery rate for the RO process on the concentration of draw solution, feed pressure, and membrane area of the PRO process was evaluated. The PRO system was designed to operate at maximum power density of δP=δπ2. Model results showed that the PRO power density generated intensified with increasing seawater salinity and RO recovery rate. For an RO process operating at 52% recovery rate and 35 g/L feed salinity, a maximum power density of 24 W/m2 was achieved using 4.5 M NaCl draw solution. When seawater salinity increased to 45 g/L and the RO recovery rate was 46%, the PRO power density increased to 28 W/m2 using 5 M NaCl draw solution. The PRO system was able to increase the recovery rate of the RO by up to 18% depending on seawater salinity and RO recovery rate. This result suggested a potential advantage of coupling PRO process with RO system to increase the recovery rate of the desalination process and reduce brine discharge.

Altaee, A, Millar, GJ, Sharif, AO & Zaragoza, G 2016, 'Forward osmosis process for supply of fertilizer solutions from seawater using a mixture of draw solutions', Desalination and Water Treatment, vol. 57, no. 58, pp. 28025-28041.
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© 2016 Balaban Desalination Publications. All rights reserved. Novel desalination approaches are required to provide both drinking and agricultural water as there is ever increasing stress upon precious freshwater resources. It was our hypothesis that a modified Forward Osmosis (FO) process had the potential for production of irrigation water comprising of appropriate concentrations of fertilizers from a seawater feed. Four agents, KNO3, Na2SO4, CaNO3, and MgCl2, plus 35 g/L seawater were used as the draw and feed solutions of the FO process. Net Driving Pressure in the FO process was manipulated either by increasing the concentration of draw solution (FO process) or by increasing feed pressure (Pressure Assisted FO (PAFO) process). A series of nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes were used for the regeneration of draw solution. The results suggested that a PAFO process was more energy efficient than simple FO, provided the energy relating to the brine flow from the NF/RO membrane for pressurizing the feed solution of PAFO process was used. Furthermore, this study suggested using a mixture of a primary draw solution, MgCl2, and a secondary draw solution, KNO3, for NO3 supply into the irrigation water was preferable. As such, MgCl2 provided the driving force for fresh water extraction while KNO3 was the source of fertilizer in the irrigation water. Results showed that water quality provided by application of a MgCl2 + KNO3 draw solution was better than that from KNO3 or Ca(NO3)2. The concentrations of NO3 and SO4 in irrigation water were within recommended levels when the diluted draw solution was regenerated by a dual stage low-pressure RO process.

Altaee, A, Sharif, AO & Hamdan, M 2016, 'Nanofiltration separation of highly concentrated multivalent electrolyte draw solution; a pilot plant study', Desalination and Water Treatment, vol. 57, no. 43, pp. 20237-20247.
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© 2015 Balaban Desalination Publications. All rights reserved. Nanofiltration membrane system is proposed for the regeneration of draw solution in a two-stage forward osmosis (FO) process. Pilot plant experiments were carried out on two types of multivalent electrolyte draw solutions, MgSO4 and MgCl2. Two commercial size NF90-4040 Filmtec Nanofiltration (NF) membranes were packed in a high-pressure vessel for the regeneration of draw solution. The concentrations of the draw solution used were between 20 and 118 g/L. The impact of feed concentration, flow rate and feed pressure on the performance of NF membrane was investigated. Both metal salts have shown a high rejection rate by the NF membrane. The rejection rate to the MgSO4 was slightly higher than that to the MgCl2. Experimental results showed that NF rejection rate and permeate flow rate increased with increasing the feed pressure and flow rate but decreased with increasing the concentration of feed solution. However, this was achieved at the expense of higher power consumption. In general, the efficiency of NF system for the regeneration of draw solution was higher at lower feed concentration. This suggests that NF separation method is probably more suitable for the regeneration of low concentration draw solution which is generated from brackish water FO treatment plants. Furthermore, NF application in the regeneration of high-concentration draw solution is not yet feasible due to the limitations in the NF process such operating feed pressure and rejection rate.

Altalyan, HN, Jones, B, Bradd, J, Nghiem, LD & Alyazichi, YM 2016, 'Removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from groundwater by reverse osmosis and nanofiltration', Journal of Water Process Engineering, vol. 9, pp. 9-21.
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Althuwaynee, OF, Pradhan, B & Lee, S 2016, 'A novel integrated model for assessing landslide susceptibility mapping using CHAID and AHP pair-wise comparison', International Journal of Remote Sensing, vol. 37, no. 5, pp. 1190-1209.
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Alvandi, S, Li, W, Schönemann, M, Kara, S & Herrmann, C 2016, 'Economic and environmental value stream map (E²VSM) simulation for multi-product manufacturing systems', International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, vol. 9, no. 6, pp. 354-362.
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Alzoubi, YI, Gill, AQ & Al-Ani, A 2016, 'Empirical studies of geographically distributed agile development communication challenges: A systematic review.', Inf. Manag., vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 22-37.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. There is increasing interest in studying and applying geographically distributed agile development (GDAD). Much has been published on GDAD communication. There is a need to systematically review and synthesize the literature on GDAD communication challenges. Using the SLR approach and applying customized search criteria derived from the research questions, 21 relevant empirical studies were identified and reviewed in this paper. The data from these papers were extracted to identify communication challenges and the techniques used to overcome these challenges. The findings of this research serve as a resource for GDAD practitioners and researchers when setting future research priorities and directions.

Ambusaidi, MA, He, X, Nanda, P & Tan, Z 2016, 'Building an Intrusion Detection System Using a Filter-Based Feature Selection Algorithm', IEEE Transactions on Computers, vol. 65, no. 10, pp. 2986-2998.
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© 1968-2012 IEEE. Redundant and irrelevant features in data have caused a long-term problem in network traffic classification. These features not only slow down the process of classification but also prevent a classifier from making accurate decisions, especially when coping with big data. In this paper, we propose a mutual information based algorithm that analytically selects the optimal feature for classification. This mutual information based feature selection algorithm can handle linearly and nonlinearly dependent data features. Its effectiveness is evaluated in the cases of network intrusion detection. An Intrusion Detection System (IDS), named Least Square Support Vector Machine based IDS (LSSVM-IDS), is built using the features selected by our proposed feature selection algorithm. The performance of LSSVM-IDS is evaluated using three intrusion detection evaluation datasets, namely KDD Cup 99, NSL-KDD and Kyoto 2006+ dataset. The evaluation results show that our feature selection algorithm contributes more critical features for LSSVM-IDS to achieve better accuracy and lower computational cost compared with the state-of-the-art methods.

An, L & Lu, DD-C 2016, 'Analysis of DC Bus Capacitor Current Ripple Reduction in Basic DC/DC Cascaded Two-Stage Power Converters', IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 63, no. 12, pp. 7467-7477.
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Anaissi, A, Goyal, M, Catchpoole, DR, Braytee, A & Kennedy, PJ 2016, 'Ensemble Feature Learning of Genomic Data Using Support Vector Machine', PLOS ONE, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. e0157330-e0157330.
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© 2016 Anaissi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The identification of a subset of genes having the ability to capture the necessary information to distinguish classes of patients is crucial in bioinformatics applications. Ensemble and bagging methods have been shown to work effectively in the process of gene selection and classification. Testament to that is random forest which combines random decision trees with bagging to improve overall feature selection and classification accuracy. Surprisingly, the adoption of these methods in support vector machines has only recently received attention but mostly on classification not gene selection. This paper introduces an ensemble SVM-Recursive Feature Elimination (ESVM-RFE) for gene selection that follows the concepts of ensemble and bagging used in random forest but adopts the backward elimination strategy which is the rationale of RFE algorithm. The rationale behind this is, building ensemble SVM models using randomly drawn bootstrap samples from the training set, will produce different feature rankings which will be subsequently aggregated as one feature ranking. As a result, the decision for elimination of features is based upon the ranking of multiple SVM models instead of choosing one particular model. Moreover, this approach will address the problem of imbalanced datasets by constructing a nearly balanced bootstrap sample. Our experiments show that ESVM-RFE for gene selection substantially increased the classification performance on five microarray datasets compared to state-of-the-art methods. Experiments on the childhood leukaemia dataset show that an average 9% better accuracy is achieved by ESVM-RFE over SVM-RFE, and 5% over random forest based approach. The selected genes by the ESVM-RFE algo...

Angelini, M, Coupland, M, Schuck, S & Prescott, A 2016, 'Engaging Australian Students in Maths Learning', Reflections, vol. 41, no. 1.

Ansari, AJ, Hai, FI, Guo, W, Ngo, HH, Price, WE & Nghiem, LD 2016, 'Factors governing the pre-concentration of wastewater using forward osmosis for subsequent resource recovery', Science of The Total Environment, vol. 566-567, pp. 559-566.
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Ansari, AJ, Hai, FI, Price, WE & Nghiem, LD 2016, 'Phosphorus recovery from digested sludge centrate using seawater-driven forward osmosis', Separation and Purification Technology, vol. 163, pp. 1-7.
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Ara, P, Yu, K, Cheng, S, Dutkiewicz, E & Heimlich, MC 2016, 'Derivation of CRLB for Wireless Capsule Endoscope Localization Using Received Signal Strength', IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 16, no. 24, pp. 9064-9074.
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Argent, RM, Sojda, RS, Giupponi, C, McIntosh, B, Voinov, AA & Maier, HR 2016, 'Best practices for conceptual modelling in environmental planning and management', Environmental Modelling & Software, vol. 80, pp. 113-121.
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Argha, A, Li, L, Su, S & Nguyen, H 2016, 'Stabilising the networked control systems involving actuation and measurement consecutive packet losses', IET Control Theory & Applications, vol. 10, no. 11, pp. 1269-1280.
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© 2016 The Institution of Engineering and Technology. This study is devoted to the problem of designing a robust output-feedback discrete-time sliding mode control (ODSMC) for the networked systems involving both measuring and actuating data packet losses. Packet losses in the networked control systems (NCSs) have been modelled by utilising the probability and the characteristics of the sources and the destinations. Here, the well-known Bernoulli random binary distribution is used to model consecutive packet losses in the NCSs. In this study, first, a robust observer-based discrete-time sliding mode control is proposed for the NCSs including random packet losses. The packet losses occur in the channels from the sensors to the controller and the channels from the controller to the actuators. Then, using the notion of exponential mean square stability, the boundedness of the obtained closed-loop system is analysed with a linear matrix inequality approach. Our proposed robust ODSMC can be applied to unstable NCSs, and there is no need to stabilise the underlying system in advance. Illustrative examples are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Argha, A, Li, L, Su, SW & Nguyen, H 2016, 'On LMI-based sliding mode control for uncertain discrete-time systems', Journal of the Franklin Institute, vol. 353, no. 15, pp. 3857-3875.
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© 2016 The Franklin Institute In this paper, a new approach to design a robust discrete-time sliding mode control (DSMC) is proposed for uncertain discrete-time systems. To this end, an LMI approach is used to develop a new framework to design the sliding function which is linear to the state. Our proposed robust DSMC can be applied to unstable systems, and also there is no need to stabilize the underlying system first. It has been argued in the literature that for the systems involving balanced external disturbances, using switching component is not needed. In this paper, it is shown that with the assumption of smoothness of the external disturbances, a different form of switching element in the controller can outperform the so-called linear controller in terms of the thickness of the boundary layer around the sliding function and the ultimate bound on the system state. Also, this paper extends the idea of disturbance estimation to the uncertain discrete-time systems. The disturbance estimator is exploited in the controller design and the boundedness of the obtained closed-loop system is analyzed. Also, two novel forms of variable structure DSMC are suggested in this paper.

Arslan, A, Masjuki, HH, Kalam, MA, Varman, M, Mufti, RA, Mosarof, MH, Khuong, LS & Quazi, MM 2016, 'Surface Texture Manufacturing Techniques and Tribological Effect of Surface Texturing on Cutting Tool Performance: A Review', Critical Reviews in Solid State and Materials Sciences, vol. 41, no. 6, pp. 447-481.
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The tribological characteristics of sliding surfaces have been remarkably improved by surface texturing. Surface texturing can be beneficial in many ways; for example, it can reduce friction and wear, increase load carrying capacity, and increase fluid film stiffness. The design process for surface texturing is highly correlated to the particular functions of any application for which texturing is required. Texture quality is greatly affected by manufacturing methods, therefore, it is important to have a detailed understanding of the related parameters of any technique. The use of surface texturing to improve the cutting performance of tools is a relatively new application. These textures improve cutting performance by enhancing lubricant availability at the contact point, reducing the tool-chip contact area, and trapping wear debris. Reductions in crater and flank wear, friction force, cutting forces, and cutting temperature are the main benefits obtained by this technique. To date, surface texturing has been successfully used in drilling, milling, and turning operations. This article provides an overview of the techniques that have been used in industry and research platforms to manufacture micro-/nano-textures for tribological applications, and it examines the effects of surface textures on cutting tool performance.

Arslan, A, Masjuki, HH, Varman, M, Kalam, MA, Quazi, MM & Mosarof, MH 2016, 'Effect of change in temperature on the tribological performance of micro surface textured DLC coating – CORRIGENDUM', Journal of Materials Research, vol. 31, no. 6, pp. 820-820.
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Arslan, A, Masjuki, HH, Varman, M, Kalam, MA, Quazi, MM & Mosarof, MH 2016, 'Effect of change in temperature on the tribological performance of micro surface textured DLC coating', Journal of Materials Research, vol. 31, no. 13, pp. 1837-1847.
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Abstract

Arutyunov, N, Bennett, N, Wight, N, Krause‐Rehberg, R, Emtsev, V, Abrosimov, N & Kozlovski, V 2016, 'Positron probing of disordered regions in neutron‐irradiated silicon', physica status solidi (b), vol. 253, no. 11, pp. 2175-2179.
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The vacancy‐rich disordered regions (DR) playing a key role in improving the thermoelectric figure‐of‐merit of silicon thermoelectric generators by reducing (by ∼90%) the thermal conductivity, have been probed with positrons. The DR were created by irradiating n‐Cz‐Si(P) material with the fast reactor neutrons. The parameter of the electron density rs′ ≈ 2.18 a.u. contacting positrons in DR has been reconstructed using the data of the angular correlation of the annihilation radiation (ACAR); the amendments to the rs′ value associated with the ion core electrons were taken into account. It is argued that the ion cores of atoms of silicon as well as the ones of the as‐grown impurities (O, C) are involved in the open vacancy volume to be probed with positrons: a relaxation of the ion cores directed inward toward the vacancy volume seems to take place. These positron traps are formed beyond the vacancy‐rich area of the disordered region. In the course of isochronal annealing, the traps are stable up to Tanneal. ≈ 520 °C when a recovery of ACAR parameters begins and then it continues up to ∼1050 °C.A vacancy center containing positrons in the open vacancy volume beyond the vacancy‐rich area of the disordered region is shown schematically. The emission of electron–positron annihilation gamma‐quanta dominates from within these positron traps. The values of both the electron–positron ion core radius (rm) and electron density (parameter rs′) suggest a relaxation directed toward inwards the open vacancy volume: the impurity atoms o...

Asadnia, M, Kottapalli, AGP, Karavitaki, KD, Warkiani, ME, Miao, J, Corey, DP & Triantafyllou, M 2016, 'From Biological Cilia to Artificial Flow Sensors: Biomimetic Soft Polymer Nanosensors with High Sensing Performance', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1, p. 32955.
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AbstractWe report the development of a new class of miniature all-polymer flow sensors that closely mimic the intricate morphology of the mechanosensory ciliary bundles in biological hair cells. An artificial ciliary bundle is achieved by fabricating bundled polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) micro-pillars with graded heights and electrospinning polyvinylidenefluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric nanofiber tip links. The piezoelectric nature of a single nanofiber tip link is confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Rheology and nanoindentation experiments are used to ensure that the viscous properties of the hyaluronic acid (HA)-based hydrogel are close to the biological cupula. A dome-shaped HA hydrogel cupula that encapsulates the artificial hair cell bundle is formed through precision drop-casting and swelling processes. Fluid drag force actuates the hydrogel cupula and deflects the micro-pillar bundle, stretching the nanofibers and generating electric charges. Functioning with principles analogous to the hair bundles, the sensors achieve a sensitivity and threshold detection limit of 300 mV/(m/s) and 8 μm/s, respectively. These self-powered, sensitive, flexible, biocompatibale and miniaturized sensors can find extensive applications in navigation and maneuvering of underwater robots, artificial hearing systems, biomedical and microfluidic devices.

Asghari, A & Gandomi, AH 2016, 'Ductility reduction factor and collapse mechanism evaluation of a new steel knee braced frame', Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 239-255.
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In this study, the suitability of a new structural system called the knee braced frames (KBFs) is investigated for seismic resistant steel structures. In these structural systems, ends of beams are connected to columns by hinges (simple connection) instead of rigid connections, and ends of knee braced elements are connected to columns and beams by hinges as well. In the present paper, in addition to a comparison between elastic behaviour and elastic fundamental natural period, the ductility reduction factor and the type of collapse mechanism in steel KBFs and steel moment resisting frames (MRFs) are compared. The study revealed that the stiffness of steel buildings can be increased considerably by applying knee braced elements and the effects of knee braced elements are highly dependent on knee braced configuration. By applying the pushover analysis, it was observed that the type of collapse mechanism of KBFs is very similar to the mechanism of MRFs. Furthermore in most cases, the ductility reduction factor, Rμ, obtained from steel KBFs is greater than the ductility reduction factor obtained for steel MRFs. Based on the similarity between type of collapse mechanism and the proximity of ductility reduction coefficients of the KBFs and MRFs systems, it can be concluded that the new steel knee braced frame systems can be categorised as steel MRFs with rigid connections.

Ashe, B, Nguyen, LN, Hai, FI, Lee, D-J, van de Merwe, JP, Leusch, FDL, Price, WE & Nghiem, LD 2016, 'Impacts of redox-mediator type on trace organic contaminants degradation by laccase: Degradation efficiency, laccase stability and effluent toxicity', International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation, vol. 113, pp. 169-176.
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This study compares the effectiveness of seven redox-mediating compounds namely, 1-hydrozybenzotriazole (HBT), N-hydroxyphthalimide (HPI), 2,2,6,6-Tetramethyl-1-piperidinyloxy (TEMPO), violuric acid (VA), syringaldehyde (SA), vanillin (VA), and 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS), which follow distinct oxidation pathways, for the degradation of trace organic contaminants (TrOCs). These redox-mediators were investigated for improved degradation of four TrOCs showing resistance to degradation by crude laccase from the white-rot fungus Pleurotus ostreatus. ABTS and VA achieved the highest degradation of the phenolic compounds (i.e., oxybenzone and pentachlorophenol), whereas the non-phenolic compounds (i.e., naproxen and atrazine) were best removed using VA or HBT. This implies that the non-phenolic compounds are more effectively removed by the radical species generated by the [Formula presented] type mediators (i.e., VA and HBT), while removal of the phenolic compounds may depend more on the stability and the redox potential of the radicals generated from the mediator, irrespective of the type. Notably, enzyme stability was greatly affected by the [Formula presented] type mediators but it was compensated by their rapid degradation capacity. Overall, VA and HBT ([Formula presented] type) appear to be the best mediators for enhanced degradation of the selected compounds without causing significant toxicity in the effluent.

Asheralieva, A & Miyanaga, Y 2016, 'An Autonomous Learning-Based Algorithm for Joint Channel and Power Level Selection by D2D Pairs in Heterogeneous Cellular Networks', IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 64, no. 9, pp. 3996-4012.
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Asheralieva, A & Miyanaga, Y 2016, 'Dynamic Buffer Status-Based Control for LTE-A Network With Underlay D2D Communication', IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 64, no. 3, pp. 1342-1355.
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Asheralieva, A & Miyanaga, Y 2016, 'Dynamic Resource Allocation with Integrated Reinforcement Learning for a D2D-Enabled LTE-A Network with Access to Unlicensed Band', Mobile Information Systems, vol. 2016, pp. 1-18.
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We propose a dynamic resource allocation algorithm for device-to-device (D2D) communication underlying a Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) network with reinforcement learning (RL) applied for unlicensed channel allocation. In a considered system, the inband and outband resources are assigned by the LTE evolved NodeB (eNB) to different device pairs to maximize the network utility subject to the target signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) constraints. Because of the absence of an established control link between the unlicensed and cellular radio interfaces, the eNB cannot acquire any information about the quality and availability of unlicensed channels. As a result, a considered problem becomes a stochastic optimization problem that can be dealt with by deploying a learning theory (to estimate the random unlicensed channel environment). Consequently, we formulate the outband D2D access as a dynamic single-player game in which the player (eNB) estimates its possible strategy and expected utility for all of its actions based only on its own local observations using a joint utility and strategy estimation based reinforcement learning (JUSTE-RL) with regret algorithm. A proposed approach for resource allocation demonstrates near-optimal performance after a small number of RL iterations and surpasses the other comparable methods in terms of energy efficiency and throughput maximization.

Asheralieva, A & Miyanaga, Y 2016, 'Effective resource block allocation procedure for quality of service provisioning in a single-operator heterogeneous LTE-A network', Computer Networks, vol. 108, pp. 1-14.
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Asheralieva, A & Miyanaga, Y 2016, 'Joint Bandwidth and Power Allocation for LTE-Based Cognitive Radio Network Based on Buffer Occupancy', Mobile Information Systems, vol. 2016, pp. 1-23.
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We investigate the problem of resource allocation in a cognitive long-term evolution (LTE) network, where the available bandwidth resources are shared among the primary (licensed) users (PUs) and secondary (unlicensed) users (SUs). Under such spectrum sharing conditions, the transmission of the SUs should have minimal impact on quality of service (QoS) and operating conditions of the PUs. To achieve this goal, we propose to assign the network resources based on the buffer sizes of the PUs and SUs in the uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) directions. To ensure that the QoS requirements of the PUs are satisfied, we enforce some upper bound on the size of their buffers considering two network usage scenarios. In the first scenario, PUs pay full price for accessing the spectrum and get full QoS protection; the SUs access the network for free and are served on a best-effort basis. In the second scenario, PUs pay less in exchange for sharing the bandwidth and get the reduced QoS guarantees; SUs pay some price for their access without any QoS guarantees. Performance of the algorithms proposed in the paper is evaluated using simulations in OPNET environment. The algorithms show superior performance when compared with other relevant techniques.

Asheralieva, A & Miyanaga, Y 2016, 'QoS-Oriented Mode, Spectrum, and Power Allocation for D2D Communication Underlaying LTE-A Network', IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. 65, no. 12, pp. 9787-9800.
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Ashraful, AM, Masjuki, HH, Kalam, MA, Rashedul, HK, Habibullah, M, Rashed, MM, Mosarof, MH & Arslan, A 2016, 'Impact of edible and non-edible biodiesel fuel properties and engine operation condition on the performance and emission characteristics of unmodified DI diesel engine', Biofuels, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 219-232.
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Askari, M, Li, J & Samali, B 2016, 'A compact self-adaptive recursive least square approach for real-time structural identification with unknown inputs', Advances in Structural Engineering, vol. 19, no. 7, pp. 1118-1129.
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A new online tracking technique, based on recursive least square with adaptive multiple forgetting factors, is presented in this article which can estimate abrupt changes in structural parameters during excitation and also identify the unknown inputs to the structure, for example, earthquake signal. The method considers an adaptive rule for each of the forgetting factors assigned to each of the unknown parameters and thus enables simultaneous identification of different time-varying parameters of the system. The method is validated through both linear and nonlinear case studies, with different excitations and damage scenarios. The results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively identify the time-varying parameters such as damping, stiffness as well as unknown excitations with high computational efficiency, even when the measured data are contaminated with different levels of noise. However, when damage occurs while the excitation is small, the identification error remains at a small range, and therefore, covariance cannot be amplified to effectively track the changes in unknown parameters.

Askari, M, Li, J & Samali, B 2016, 'Application of Kalman Filtering Methods to Online Real-Time Structural Identification: A Comparison Study', International Journal of Structural Stability and Dynamics, vol. 16, no. 06, pp. 1550016-1550016.
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System identification refers to the process of building or improving mathematical models of dynamical systems from the observed experimental input–output data. In the area of civil engineering, the estimation of the integrity of a structure under dynamic loadings and during service condition has become a challenge for the engineering community. Therefore, there has been a great deal of attention paid to online and real-time structural identification, especially when input–output measurement data are contaminated by high-level noise. Among real-time identification methods, one of the most successful and widely used algorithms for estimation of system states and parameters is the Kalman filter and its various nonlinear extensions such as extended Kalman filter (EKF), Iterated EKF (IEKF), the recently developed unscented Kalman filter (UKF) and Iterated UKF (IUKF). In this paper, an investigation has been carried out on the aforementioned techniques for their effectiveness and efficiencies through a highly nonlinear single degree of freedom (SDOF) structure as well as a two-storey linear structure. Although IEKF is an improved version of EKF, results show that IUKF generally produces better results in terms of structural parameters and state estimation than UKF and IEKF. Also IUKF is more robust to noise levels compared to the other approaches.

Askari, M, Li, J & Samali, B 2016, 'Semi-active control of smart building-MR damper systems using novel TSK-Inv and max-min algorithms', Smart Structures and Systems, vol. 18, no. 5, pp. 1005-1028.
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Askari, M, Li, J, Samali, B & Gu, X 2016, 'Experimental forward and inverse modelling of magnetorheological dampers using an optimal Takagi–Sugeno–Kang fuzzy scheme', Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures, vol. 27, no. 7, pp. 904-914.
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An evolving encoding scheme is presented in this article for a fuzzy-based nonlinear system identification scheme, using the subtractive fuzzy C-mean clustering and a modified version of non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm. This method is able to automatically select the best inputs as well as the structure of the fuzzy model such as rules and membership functions. Moreover, three objective functions are considered to satisfy both accuracy and compactness of the model. The developed method is then employed to identify both forward and inverse models of a highly nonlinear structural control device, that is, magnetorheological damper. Experimental results showed that the proposed evolving Takagi–Sugeno–Kang fuzzy model can identify and grasp the nonlinear behaviour of magnetorheological damper very well with minimal number of inputs and fuzzy rules.

Atiquzzaman, M & Kandasamy, J 2016, 'Prediction of hydrological time-series using extreme learning machine', JOURNAL OF HYDROINFORMATICS, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 345-353.
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© IWA Publishing 2016. Applying feed-forward neural networks has been limited due to the use of conventional gradientbased slow learning algorithms in training and iterative determination of network parameters. This paper demonstrates a method that partly overcomes these problems by using an extreme learning machine (ELM) which predicts the hydrological time-series very quickly. ELMs, also called single hidden layer feed-forward neural networks (SLFNs), are able to well generalize the performance for extremely complex problems. ELM randomly chooses a single hidden layer and analytically determines the weights to predict the output. The ELM method was applied to predict hydrological flow series for the Tryggevælde Catchment, Denmark and for the Mississippi River at Vicksburg, USA. The results confirmed that ELM's performance was similar or better in terms of root mean square error (RMSE) and normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) compared to ANN and other previously published techniques, namely evolutionary computation based support vector machine (EC-SVM), standard chaotic approach and inverse approach.

Atiquzzaman, M & Kandasamy, J 2016, 'Prediction of inflows from dam catchment using genetic programming', International Journal of Hydrology Science and Technology, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 103-103.
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Application of hydroinformatics tools for managing water resources is common in the water industry. Over the last few decades, several hydroinformatics tools including genetic programming (GP) have been developed and applied in hydrology. GP has been successfully applied for calibration of numerous event-based rainfall and runoff models. However, applying GP to predict long-term time series for the management of water resources is limited. This study demonstrates GP's application in long-term prediction of catchment runoff concerning a dam located in Oberon, New South Wales, Australia. The calibration showed excellent agreement between the observed and simulated flows recorded over 30 years. The model was then applied for the assessment of catchment yields for a future 100 years flows based on two assumed climatic scenarios.

Aung, TH, Khabbaz, H & Fatahi, B 2016, 'Parametric Study of Applied Stresses on Infiltration Modular Cells Installed under Roads', Procedia Engineering, vol. 143, pp. 1325-1332.
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© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Modular geocellular units are applicable for the prevention and minimisation of stormwater runoff and flooding as a sustainable and cost-effective solution of road applications for drainage. The integrated units buried are exposed to the dead loads and live loads emerging from the surrounding soil pressure, pore water pressure and surcharge. Thus, a computer program using MATLAB is developed for the assessment of the total vertical and lateral earth pressure exerting on the modules complying with the Australian Standards AS 4678 (2002) and AS 5100.2(2004). Lateral earth pressure concept based on Rankine's theory is adopted in this model as the analytical approach. Closed-form solutions based on the fundamental soil mechanics are applied in the analytical calculation steps made. The model also considers different guidelines such as AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications (2010) for the stress distribution of vehicular loads according to the selected axle type. In consideration of the interaction of the moving vehicle and the bridge, the dynamic load allowance is also applied in terms of the static equivalent of the dynamic and vibratory effect as prescribed in AS 5100.2 (2004). Based on the results obtained, the numerical and theoretical results generated by the program provide considerable and influential factors in regarding to the parametric study and sensitivity analysis presented in this paper.

Aung, Y, Khabbaz, H & Fatahi, B 2016, 'Review on Thermo-mechanical Approach in the Modelling of Geo-materials Incorporating Non-associated Flow Rules', Procedia Engineering, vol. 143, pp. 331-338.
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© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Recently, there has been a burgeoning interest in developing constitutive soil models from the laws of thermodynamics, mainly due to the benefits that these models automatically obey them and the approach provides a well-established structure and reduces the need for 'ad hoc' postulates. A thermodynamic framework, also known as thermo-mechanical framework, has the capability to predict the behaviour of geotechnical materials, which requires the anticipated incorporation of non-associated flow rules. As it is very challenging to achieve acceptable accuracy in plasticity modelling of granular materials, this paper aims to review this framework not only to discuss the details of the major components but also to highlight the capability of generating non-associated flow rules in a natural way from thermo-mechanical principles. This approach introduces the use of internal variables to develop the two thermodynamic potentials (the free energy and the rate of dissipation functions), sufficient to derive the corresponding yield function, flow rule, isotropic and kinematic hardening rules as well as the basic elasticity law. It is shown that the non-associated flow rule can be derived naturally from the postulated stress-dependent dissipation increment function. Comparison has been made with stress-independent dissipation to demonstrate that the approach can also successfully explain the behaviour of standard materials with associated flow rules. The basic steps for the thermo-mechanical formulation for developing a constitutive model are also reviewed and summarised. Furthermore, the power of conventional mathematical technique, Legendre transformation, in the derivation of constitutive equations has been highlighted.

Avellino, R, Havermans, M, Erpelinck, C, Sanders, MA, Hoogenboezem, R, van de Werken, HJG, Rombouts, E, van Lom, K, van Strien, PMH, Gebhard, C, Rehli, M, Pimanda, J, Beck, D, Erkeland, S, Kuiken, T, de Looper, H, Gröschel, S, Touw, I, Bindels, E & Delwel, R 2016, 'An autonomous CEBPA enhancer specific for myeloid-lineage priming and neutrophilic differentiation', Blood, vol. 127, no. 24, pp. 2991-3003.
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Key Points The CEBPA locus harbors 14 enhancers of which distinct combinations are active in different CEBPA-expressing tissues. A +42-kb enhancer is required for myeloid-lineage priming to drive adequate CEBPA expression levels necessary for neutrophilic maturation.

Azad, AK, Rasul, MG, Khan, MMK, Sharma, SC, Bhuiya, MMK & Mofijur, M 2016, 'A review on socio-economic aspects of sustainable biofuels', International Journal of Global Warming, vol. 10, no. 1/2/3, pp. 32-32.
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Biofuels are renewable eco-fuel, produced from biological resources. They are classified into 1st, 2nd and 3rd generations based on their feedstocks. The 2nd and 3rd generation biofuels are called advanced and sustainable biofuel. The study reviewed and discussed about socio-economic aspects of the sustainable biofuel in Australia because economy is seen to be a key driver for use of biofuels. Recent researches focused on sustainable biofuel production, their commercialisation worldwide. The world biofuel scenario is presented in this study which shows that total biofuel production is progressively moving towards advanced biofuels. Australian total biofuel production, consumption and available present production facilities are also outlined. The study briefly discussed about Australian energy economy such as energy export, import and trades etc. The study concluded that the 2nd generation biofuel can be considered as sustainable alternatives to petroleum fuel in transport sector providing great economic and environmental benefits to Australia.

Azad, AK, Rasul, MG, Khan, MMK, Sharma, SC, Mofijur, M & Bhuiya, MMK 2016, 'Prospects, feedstocks and challenges of biodiesel production from beauty leaf oil and castor oil: A nonedible oil sources in Australia', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 61, pp. 302-318.
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This study critically reviewed the prospects, feedstocks and challenges of biodiesel production from two non-edible oil sources, namely Beauty leaf oil (BLT) (Calophyllum inophyllum) and Castor oil (Ricinus communis). The recent developments and the lifecycle assessment (LCA) of these species such as their habitat, growth, oil content, free fatty acid profile and biodiesel characteristics are briefly discussed. Different oil extraction techniques and biodiesel conversion methods are also presented. The properties of the pure biodiesel and their blends are compared with petroleum diesel under different ASTM and European standards. Furthermore, the literatures on engine performance and emission studies using these biodiesels are reviewed and presented in tabular form. The review found that BLT oil can be catalytically transesterified to produce biodiesel as a potential alternative transport fuel in Australia. The review concludes that castor oil is not only an alternate fuel resource, but it also holds good lubricating properties and hence is a potential bio-lubricant source for internal combustion engines. Further research is needed on combustion, corrosion, tribo-corrosion, long term engine durability tests and tribological performance tests before recommending commercial scale biodiesel production from BLT oil and Castor oil.

Azadeh, A, Aryaee, M, Zarrin, M & Saberi, M 2016, 'A novel performance measurement approach based on trust context using fuzzy T-norm and S-norm operators: The case study of energy consumption', Energy Exploration & Exploitation, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 561-585.
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In today’s economic environment, performance and efficiency assessment is essential for organizations in order to survive and raise their market share. Energy efficient consumption is a major issue in the energy planning of each country which is a big concern of managers, hence, exploitation of a strong approach for efficiency evaluation and assessment seems necessary in the energy section. In this study, a novel performance assessment model is proposed based on the concept of trust, using two popular fuzzy operators called T-norm and S-norm. The developed model is applied for a real case study of energy consumption efficiency assessment for 36 countries. An adaptive network based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is used to measure the efficiencies. Also, to predict efficiency rates of the future time periods, a regression model is applied as a time series model. The obtained results indicate the superiority and applicability of the proposed methodology. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that proposes a novel performance measurement approach based on trust context by using fuzzy T-norm and S-norm operators.

Azari, B, Fatahi, B & Khabbaz, H 2016, 'Assessment of the Elastic-Viscoplastic Behavior of Soft Soils Improved with Vertical Drains Capturing Reduced Shear Strength of a Disturbed Zone', International Journal of Geomechanics, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. B4014001-B4014001.
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© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers. Soil disturbance induced by the installation of vertical drains reduces the horizontal soil permeability and shear strength in the disturbed zone. Thus, the soil disturbance contributes to the reduced overconsolidation ratio (OCR) of the soil in the vicinity of drains, influencing soil deformation. Although a significant amount of research has been conducted on the effect of permeability variations in the smear zone, the influence of the reduced shear strength in the smear zone on the ground behavior has not been investigated. In this study, a numerical solution adopting an elastic-viscoplastic model with nonlinear creep function in combination with the consolidation equations has been developed. Moreover, the effects of shear strength variation in the disturbed zone on the time-dependent behavior of soft soil deposits improved with vertical drains and preloading have been studied. The applied elastic-viscoplastic model is based on the framework of the modified Cam-clay model, capturing soil creep during excess pore-water pressure dissipation. Furthermore, nonlinear variations of the creep coefficient with stress and time as well as the permeability variations during the consolidation process are considered. The predicted results have been compared with available field measurements. According to the results, the OCR profile of the disturbed zone influences the viscoplastic strain rate, the creep strain limit, and consequently the soil deformation.

Baba, AA, Hashmi, RM & Esselle, KP 2016, 'Wideband gain enhancement of slot antenna using superstructure with optimised axial permittivity variation', Electronics Letters, vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 266-268.
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Babaee, M & Castel, A 2016, 'Chloride-induced corrosion of reinforcement in low-calcium fly ash-based geopolymer concrete', Cement and Concrete Research, vol. 88, pp. 96-107.
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Babaee, M & Castel, A 2016, 'Steel Reinforcement Corrosion in a Low Calcium Fly Ash Geopolymer Concrete', Key Engineering Materials, vol. 711, pp. 943-949.
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Geopolymer concrete (GPC) has significant potential as a more sustainable, low-embodied carbon alternative for ordinary Portland cement concrete (PCC). However; as a rather new engineering material, there are some concerns over the durability aspects of geopolymeric binders. In this study, performance of chloride contaminated reinforced GPC specimens manufactured using low calcium fly ash is investigated by long-term monitoring of corrosion parameters such as free corrosion potential and polarization resistance. It was found that low calcium fly ash GPC can perform as well as PCC during the propagation phase of corrosion; although, some conventional reference values of corrosion parameters which are indicative of severity of the steel corrosion in PCC are not suitable for GPC. Additionally, commonly used electrochemical test methods are successfully employed to assess the degree of reinforcement corrosion in geopolymeric binders within an acceptable level of accuracy.

Ball, D, Upcroft, B, Wyeth, G, Corke, P, English, A, Ross, P, Patten, T, Fitch, R, Sukkarieh, S & Bate, A 2016, 'Vision-based Obstacle Detection and Navigation for an Agricultural Robot', JOURNAL OF FIELD ROBOTICS, vol. 33, no. 8, pp. 1107-1130.
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This paper describes a vision-based obstacle detection and navigation system for use as part of a robotic solution for the sustainable intensification of broad-acre agriculture. To be cost-effective, the robotics solution must be competitive with current human-driven farm machinery. Significant costs are in high-end localization and obstacle detection sensors. Our system demonstrates a combination of an inexpensive global positioning system and inertial navigation system with vision for localization and a single stereo vision system for obstacle detection. The paper describes the design of the robot, including detailed descriptions of three key parts of the system: novelty-based obstacle detection, visually-aided guidance, and a navigation system that generates collision-free kinematically feasible paths. The robot has seen extensive testing over numerous weeks of field trials during the day and night. The results in this paper pertain to one particular 3 h nighttime experiment in which the robot performed a coverage task and avoided obstacles. Additional results during the day demonstrate that the robot is able to continue operating during 5 min GPS outages by visually following crop rows.

Bano, M, Zowghi, D & Sarkissian, N 2016, 'Empirical study of communication structures and barriers in geographically distributed teams', IET SOFTWARE, vol. 10, no. 5, pp. 147-153.
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Conway's law asserts that communication structures of organisations constrain the design of the products they develop. This law is more explicitly observable in geographically distributed contexts because distributed teams are required to share information across different time zones and barriers. The diverse business processes and functions adopted by individual teams in geographically distributed settings create challenges for effective communication. Since the publication of Conway's law, a significant body of research has emerged in its relation to the communication structures. When it comes to software projects, the explicit observation about Conway's law has produced mixed results. The research reported in this study explores the communication structures and corresponding challenges faced by teams within a large geographically distributed software development organisation. The data was collected from relevant documents, a questionnaire and interviews with relevant stakeholders. The findings suggest that Conway's law is observable within the communication structures of globally distributed software development teams. The authors have identified the barriers and challenges of effective communications in this setting and have investigated the benefits of utilising an integrated system to overcome these challenges.

Basack, S, Indraratna, B & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2016, 'Analysis of the Behaviour of Stone Column Stabilized Soft Ground Supporting Transport Infrastructure', Procedia Engineering, vol. 143, pp. 347-354.
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Basack, S, Indraratna, B & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2016, 'Modeling the Performance of Stone Column–Reinforced Soft Ground under Static and Cyclic Loads', Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, vol. 142, no. 2, pp. 04015067-04015067.
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Bastidas-Arteaga, E & Stewart, MG 2016, 'Economic assessment of climate adaptation strategies for existing reinforced concrete structures subjected to chloride-induced corrosion', Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 432-449.
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Reinforced concrete (RC) structures placed in chloride-contaminated environments are subjected to deterioration processes that affect their performance, serviceability and safety. Chloride ingress leads to corrosion initiation and its interaction with service loading could reduce its operational life. Chloride ingress and corrosion propagation are highly influenced by weather conditions in the surrounding environment including climate change. Therefore, both structural design and maintenance should be adapted to these new environmental conditions. This study focuses on the assessment of the costs and benefits of climate adaptation strategies for existing RC structures subjected to chloride ingress and climate change. We studied RC structures built at different periods under different construction standards in France. The cost-effectiveness of adaptation measures was measured in terms of the benefit-to-cost ratio (BCR) and the probability that BCR exceeds unity – i.e. Pr(BCR>1). The results of the paper could provide practical advice to policy-makers to improve the management of existing RC structures under a changing climate by discussing the influence of the following factors on the mean BCR and Pr(BCR>1): specific exposure conditions, climate change scenarios, risk reduction due to the implementation of adaptation strategies, type of structural component, years of construction and adaptation, discount rates and damage costs.

Belete, GF & Voinov, A 2016, 'Exploring temporal and functional synchronization in integrating models: A sensitivity analysis', Computers & Geosciences, vol. 90, pp. 162-171.
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Belhaj, D, Athmouni, K, Jerbi, B, Kallel, M, Ayadi, H & Zhou, JL 2016, 'Estrogenic compounds in Tunisian urban sewage treatment plant: occurrence, removal and ecotoxicological impact of sewage discharge and sludge disposal', Ecotoxicology, vol. 25, no. 10, pp. 1849-1857.
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The occurrence, fate and ecotoxicological assessment of selected estrogenic compounds were investigated at Tunisian urban sewage treatment plant. The influents, effluents, as well as primary, secondary and dehydrated sludge, were sampled and analyzed for the target estrogens to evaluate their fate. All target compounds were detected in both sewage and sludge with mean concentrations from 0.062 to 0.993 μg L-1 and from 11.8 to 792.9 μg kg-1dry weight, respectively. A wide range of removal efficiencies during the treatment processes were observed, from 6.3 % for estrone to 76.8 % for estriol. Ecotoxicological risk assessment revealed that the highest ecotoxicological risk in sewage effluent and dehydrated sludge was due to 17β-estradiol with a risk quotient (RQ) of 4.6 and 181.9, respectively, and 17α-ethinylestradiol with RQ of 9.8 and 14.85, respectively. Ecotoxicological risk after sewage discharge and sludge disposal was limited to the presence of 17β-estradiol in dehydrated-sludge amended soil with RQ of 1.38. Further control of estrogenic hormones in sewage effluent and sludge is essential before their discharge and application in order to prevent their introduction into the natural environment.

Belhaj, D, Jerbi, B, Medhioub, M, Zhou, J, Kallel, M & Ayadi, H 2016, 'Impact of treated urban wastewater for reuse in agriculture on crop response and soil ecotoxicity', Environmental Science and Pollution Research, vol. 23, no. 16, pp. 15877-15887.
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© 2015, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. The scarcity of freshwater resources is a serious problem in arid regions, such as Tunisia, and marginal quality water is gradually being used in agriculture. This study aims to study the impact of treated urban wastewater for reuse in agriculture on the health of soil and food crops. The key findings are that the effluents of Sfax wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) did not meet the relevant guidelines, therefore emitting a range of organic (e.g., up to 90 mg L−1 COD and 30 mg L−1 BOD5) and inorganic pollutants (e.g., up to 0.5 mg L−1 Cu and 0.1 mg L−1 Cd) in the receiving aquatic environments. Greenhouse experiments examining the effects of wastewater reuse on food plants such as tomato, lettuce, and radish showed that the treated effluent adversely affected plant growth, photosynthesis, and antioxidant enzyme contents. However, the pollution burden and biological effects on plants were substantially reduced by using a 50 % dilution of treated sewage effluent, suggesting the potential of reusing treated effluent in agriculture so long as appropriate monitoring and control is in place.

Bellmann, A, Schneider, S, Schallow, J, Hartung, J, Litterscheidt, J & Deuse, J 2016, 'Enhanced predictability of agile procedures', WT Werkstattstechnik, vol. 106, no. 7-8, pp. 550-554.
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In academics and industry the use of agile procedures for planning of production systems is a steady upward trend. Besides the potential efficiency improvements new challenges in the predictability of projects arise. The methodology described in this paper increases this by a synchronous collaboration model of all disciplines involved and with the establishment of standardized planning contents with standard times.

Benavides Espinosa, MDM & Merigó Lindahl, JM 2016, 'Organizational design as a learning enabler: A fuzzy-set approach', Journal of Business Research, vol. 69, no. 4, pp. 1340-1344.
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In the literature on organizational learning, very few empirical studies attempt to show how organizational design can enable or hinder learning in organizations. This study uses a fuzzy-set technique (fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis: fsQCA) as an initial approach to analyzing different design variables and how they affect organizational learning. The results prove that themechanical structures are suitable for organizational learning, especially in large companies. Furthermore, qualified workers should have autonomy to learn.

Bengua, JA, Phien, HN, Tuan, HD & Do, MN 2016, 'Efficient tensor completion for color image and video recovery: Low-rank tensor train', IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 2466-2479.
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This paper proposes a novel approach to tensor completion, which recoversmissing entries of data represented by tensors. The approach is based on thetensor train (TT) rank, which is able to capture hidden information fromtensors thanks to its definition from a well-balanced matricization scheme.Accordingly, new optimization formulations for tensor completion are proposedas well as two new algorithms for their solution. The first one called simplelow-rank tensor completion via tensor train (SiLRTC-TT) is intimately relatedto minimizing a nuclear norm based on TT rank. The second one is from amultilinear matrix factorization model to approximate the TT rank of a tensor,and is called tensor completion by parallel matrix factorization via tensortrain (TMac-TT). A tensor augmentation scheme of transforming a low-ordertensor to higher-orders is also proposed to enhance the effectiveness ofSiLRTC-TT and TMac-TT. Simulation results for color image and video recoveryshow the clear advantage of our method over all other methods.

Bengua, JA, Phien, HN, Tuan, HD & Do, MN 2016, 'Matrix Product State for Higher-Order Tensor Compression and Classification', IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, vol. 65, no. 15, pp. 4019-4030.
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This paper introduces matrix product state (MPS) decomposition as a new andsystematic method to compress multidimensional data represented by higher-ordertensors. It solves two major bottlenecks in tensor compression: computation andcompression quality. Regardless of tensor order, MPS compresses tensors tomatrices of moderate dimension which can be used for classification. Mainlybased on a successive sequence of singular value decompositions (SVD), MPS isquite simple to implement and arrives at the global optimal matrix, bypassinglocal alternating optimization, which is not only computationally expensive butcannot yield the global solution. Benchmark results show that MPS can achievebetter classification performance with favorable computation cost compared toother tensor compression methods.

Bennett, NS, Byrne, D, Cowley, A & Neophytou, N 2016, 'Dislocation loops as a mechanism for thermoelectric power factor enhancement in silicon nano-layers', Applied Physics Letters, vol. 109, no. 17, pp. 173905-173905.
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A more than 70% enhancement in the thermoelectric power factor of single-crystal silicon is demonstrated in silicon nano-films, a consequence of the introduction of networks of dislocation loops and extended crystallographic defects. Despite these defects causing reductions in electrical conductivity, carrier concentration, and carrier mobility, large corresponding increases in the Seebeck coefficient and reductions in thermal conductivity lead to a significant net enhancement in thermoelectric performance. Crystal damage is deliberately introduced in a sub-surface nano-layer within a silicon substrate, demonstrating the possibility to tune the thermoelectric properties at the nano-scale within such wafers in a repeatable, large-scale, and cost-effective way.

Bennett, NS, Wong, CS & McNally, PJ 2016, 'Simultaneous depth-profiling of electrical and elemental properties of ion-implanted arsenic in silicon by combining secondary-ion mass spectrometry with resistivity measurements', Review of Scientific Instruments, vol. 87, no. 7, pp. 074702-074702.
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A method is proposed to extract the electrical data for surface doping profiles of semiconductors in unison with the chemical profile acquired by secondary-ion mass spectrometry (SIMS)—a method we call SIMSAR (secondary-ion mass spectrometry and resistivity). The SIMSAR approach utilizes the inherent sputtering process of SIMS, combined with sequential four-point van der Pauw resistivity measurements, to surmise the active doping profile as a function of depth. The technique is demonstrated for the case of ion-implanted arsenic doping profiles in silicon. Complications of the method are identified, explained, and corrections for these are given. While several techniques already exist for chemical dopant profiling and numerous for electrical profiling, since there is no technique which can measure both electrical and chemical profiles in parallel, SIMSAR has significant promise as an extension of the conventional dynamic SIMS technique, particularly for applications in the semiconductor industry.

Bernabé-Rubio, M, Andrés, G, Casares-Arias, J, Fernández-Barrera, J, Rangel, L, Reglero-Real, N, Gershlick, DC, Fernández, JJ, Millán, J, Correas, I, Miguez, DG & Alonso, MA 2016, 'Novel role for the midbody in primary ciliogenesis by polarized epithelial cells', Journal of Cell Biology, vol. 214, no. 3, pp. 259-273.
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The primary cilium is a membrane protrusion that is crucial for vertebrate tissue homeostasis and development. Here, we investigated the uncharacterized process of primary ciliogenesis in polarized epithelial cells. We show that after cytokinesis, the midbody is inherited by one of the daughter cells as a remnant that initially locates peripherally at the apical surface of one of the daughter cells. The remnant then moves along the apical surface and, once proximal to the centrosome at the center of the apical surface, enables cilium formation. The physical removal of the remnant greatly impairs ciliogenesis. We developed a probabilistic cell population–based model that reproduces the experimental data. In addition, our model explains, solely in terms of cell area constraints, the various observed transitions of the midbody, the beginning of ciliogenesis, and the accumulation of ciliated cells. Our findings reveal a biological mechanism that links the three microtubule-based organelles—the midbody, the centrosome, and the cilium—in the same cellular process.

Berta, M, Scholz, VB & Tomamichel, M 2016, 'Rényi divergences as weighted non-commutative vector valued $L_p$-spaces', e, vol. 19, no. 6, pp. 1843-1867.
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We show that Araki and Masuda's weighted non-commutative vector valued$L_p$-spaces [Araki \& Masuda, Publ. Res. Inst. Math. Sci., 18:339 (1982)]correspond to an algebraic generalization of the sandwiched R\'enyi divergenceswith parameter $\alpha = \frac{p}{2}$. Using complex interpolation theory, weprove various fundamental properties of these divergences in the setup of vonNeumann algebras, including a data-processing inequality and monotonicity in$\alpha$. We thereby also give new proofs for the correspondingfinite-dimensional properties. We discuss the limiting cases $\alpha\to\{\frac{1}{2},1,\infty\}$ leading to minus the logarithm of Uhlmann's fidelity,Umegaki's relative entropy, and the max-relative entropy, respectively. As acontribution that might be of independent interest, we derive a Riesz-Thorintheorem for Araki-Masuda $L_p$-spaces and an Araki-Lieb-Thirring inequality forstates on von Neumann algebras.

Beydoun, G & Low, G 2016, 'Centering ontologies in agent oriented software engineering processes', Complex & Intelligent Systems, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 235-242.
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A plethora of Multi Agent Systems (MAS) development methodologies exists and all compete for prominence. This paper advocates unification of best of breed activities from these methodologies and examines two existing approaches for unifying access to them. It proposes an alternative approach that focusses on the use of domain knowledge through ontologies as offering the best potential for unifying access to them. The reliance on ontologies will provide flexibility in the process and workproducts use within the methodology. The focus on domain knowledge will reduce the number of mandatory methodological tasks and at the same time create scope for reuse with respect to both system designs and components. The paper will further sketch and argue for a full software development lifecycle for MAS where ontologies expressing domain knowledge are the central artifacts.

Bhattacharya, S, Saha, T & Hossain, MJ 2016, 'Fault contribution from large photovoltaic systems in building power supply networks', Journal of Building Engineering, vol. 5, pp. 222-230.
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Biabani, MM, Indraratna, B & Ngo, NT 2016, 'Modelling of geocell-reinforced subballast subjected to cyclic loading', Geotextiles and Geomembranes, vol. 44, no. 4, pp. 489-503.
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This paper presents the experimental and numerical studies of geocell-reinforced subballast subjected to cyclic loading. A series of laboratory experiments were conducted using a large-scale prismoidal triaxial apparatus that was subjected to relatively low confining pressures of σ'3 = 10-30 kPa and a frequency of f = 10 Hz. Numerical simulations were performed using the commercial finite element package ABAQUS in three dimensions to realistically model cellular confinement, and to study the effectiveness of geocell reinforcement on subballast. A cyclic loading with a periodic and positive full-sine waveform was adopted to model the geocell-reinforced subballast, which is similar to the load carried out in the laboratory. The results of numerical modelling agreed well with the experimental data, and showed that geocell could effectively decrease the lateral and axial deformations of the reinforced subballast. The numerical model was also validated by the field data, and the results were found to be in good agreement, indicating that the proposed model was able to capture the load-deformation behaviour of geocell-reinforced subballast under cyclic loading. A parametric study was also carried out to evaluate the effect of the subballast strength and geocell stiffness on the mobilized tensile strength in the geocell mattress. It was found that the maximum mobilized tensile stress occurs on the subballast with the lowest degree of stiffness. Also the results revealed that lateral displacement decreased further by increasing geocell stiffness, and geocell with a relatively low stiffness performs very well compared to the geocell with a higher stiffness.

Biabani, MM, Indraratna, B & Nimbalkar, S 2016, 'Assessment of Interface Shear Behaviour of Sub-ballast with Geosynthetics by Large-scale Direct Shear Test', Procedia Engineering, vol. 143, pp. 1007-1015.
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© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.A series of large-scale direct shear test were conducted to study the interface shear strength of subballast reinforced with different types of geomembranes and geogrids. The impact of normal stress (σn), shearing rate (SR), relative density (DR) and open area (OA%) on the behaviour of granular material was investigated in unreinforced and reinforced condition. The results revealed that the performance of material was markedly influenced by σn and OA. The results also showed that geogrids provided a greater value of passive resistance owing to have transverse ribs, but the mobilised passive resistance became smaller with increase in OA. The triaxial grids offered more passive resistance than biaxial geogrid.

Biabani, MM, Ngo, NT & Indraratna, B 2016, 'Performance evaluation of railway subballast stabilised with geocell based on pull-out testing', Geotextiles and Geomembranes, vol. 44, no. 4, pp. 579-591.
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A large-scale apparatus was designed and built at the University of Wollongong to evaluate the pull-out strength of rail subballast reinforced with geocells. A series of tests were carried out to investigate the pull-out resistance, mobilised tensile strength (τtensile) and passive strength (τpassive) of a subballast-geocell assembly under a given range of overburden pressure (1 kPa ≤ q ≤ 45 kPa). The interface was held in a vertical alignment to better simulate the interaction between subballast and geocell in accordance with routine track practices. The test results show that the geocell reinforcement provides a considerable degree of passive resistance, where the opening area (OA) and lateral pressure (σn) over the geocell strip are found to be influential factors. A three-dimensional finite element simulation was also conducted. The numerical results show that the tensile strength mobilised in the geocell will increase as the geocell stiffness increases, but causes a reduction in τpassive. A parametric study was also developed to investigate the impact of geocell stiffness and friction coefficient on the passive resistance and mobilised tensile strength. These results indicate that the passive resistance and mobilised tensile strength increase with the increase in overburden pressure (q) and friction coefficient (δ).

Bidram, E, Sulistio, A, Amini, A, Fu, Q, Qiao, GG, Stewart, A & Dunstan, DE 2016, 'Fractionation of graphene oxide single nano-sheets in water-glycerol solutions using gradient centrifugation', Carbon, vol. 103, pp. 363-371.
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A centrifugation method for the separation and fractionation of graphene oxide (GO) single nano-sheets in the size range of 150-850 nm is reported. The measured electrophoretic mobility of the fractionated single sheets ranges from -0.2 to -1.4 μm cm/V·s where the interpreted zeta potentials vary from -3 mV to -17 mV with increasing sheet size. The single GO sheets show auto-fluorescence in the visible range of 350-650 nm using an excitation wavelength of 200 nm. Furthermore, the GO nano-sheets functionalized using PEG are found to be non-cytotoxic in in-vitro at concentrations up to 90 μg/ml, with a small reduction in cell viability -10%- at 260 μg/ml. The observed concentration-dependence of the cytotoxicity potentially explains the differing conclusions on cytotoxic potential reported in the literature. The GO nano-sheets therefore have the potential to be used as fluorescent drug delivery carriers of specific size.

Binci, L, Tu, C, Zhu, H & Lee, JE-Y 2016, 'Planar ring-shaped phononic crystal anchoring boundaries for enhancing the quality factor of Lamb mode resonators', Applied Physics Letters, vol. 109, no. 20.
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We report the use of planar ring-shaped phononic crystals (PnCs) as anchor boundaries of very-high-frequency band piezoelectric-on-silicon Lamb mode resonators for the purpose of enhancing their quality factor (Q). Here, we exploit the acoustic bandgap associated with the PnC anchoring boundaries to reduce acoustic energy leakage out of the micromechanical resonator. The proposed approach provides greater mechanical robustness (by merit of interlocking the cells in a matrix) and the possibility of electrical routing through the PnC cells. We experimentally show enhancements in Q by a factor of three using the proposed approach of hybridizing planar ring-shaped PnCs with micromechanical resonators. The effect of these PnCs on resonator Q is further corroborated by their effects in suppressing transmission when incorporated into a delay line.

Blanco-Mesa, F, Merigó, JM & Kacprzyk, J 2016, 'Bonferroni means with distance measures and the adequacy coefficient in entrepreneurial group theory', Knowledge-Based Systems, vol. 111, pp. 217-227.
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© 2016 The aim of the paper is to develop new aggregation operators using Bonferroni means, OWA operators and some distance measure. We introduce the BON-OWAAC and BON-OWAIMAM operators. We are able to include coefficient adequacy and the maximum and minimum levels in the same formulation with Bonferroni means and an OWA operator. The main advantages of using these operators are that they allow consideration of continuous aggregations, multiple comparisons between each argument and distance measures in the same formulation. An application is developed using these new algorithms in combination with Moore's families and Galois lattices to solve group decision-making problems. The professional and personal interests of the entrepreneurs who share co-working spaces are taken as an example for establishing relationships and groups. According to the professional and personal profile affinities for each entrepreneur, the results show dissimilarity and fuzzy relationships and the maximum similarity sub-relations to establish relationships and groups using Moore's families and Galois lattice. Finally, this new type of distance family can be used for applications in areas such as sports teams, strategy marketing and teamwork.

Bliuc, D, Tran, T, Alarkawi, D, Nguyen, TV, Eisman, JA & Center, JR 2016, 'Secular Changes in Postfracture Outcomes Over 2 Decades in Australia: A Time-Trend Comparison of Excess Postfracture Mortality in Two Birth Controls Over Two Decades', The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, vol. 101, no. 6, pp. 2475-2483.
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Abstract Context: Hip fracture incidence has been declining and life expectancy improving. However, trends of postfracture outcomes are unknown. Objectives: The objective of the study was to compare the refracture risk and excess mortality after osteoporotic fracture between two birth cohorts, over 2 decades. Design: Prospective birth cohorts were followed up over 2 decades (1989–2004 and 2000–2014). Setting: The study was conducted in community-dwelling participants in Dubbo, Australia. Participants: Women and men aged 60–80 years, participating in Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study 1 (DOES 1; born before 1930) and Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study 2 (DOES 2; born after 1930) participated in the study. Main Outcome Measure: Age-standardized fracture and mortality over two time intervals: (1989–2004 [DOES 1] and 2000–2014 [DOES 2]) were measured. Results: The DOES 2 cohort had higher body mass index and bone mineral density and lower initial fracture rate than DOES 1, but similar refracture rates [age-standardized refracture rates per 1000 person-years: wome...

Blount, Y, Abedin, B, Vatanasakdakul, S & Erfani, S 2016, 'Integrating enterprise resource planning (SAP) in the accounting curriculum: a systematic literature review and case study', Accounting Education, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 185-202.
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© 2016 Taylor & Francis. This study investigates how an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software package SAP was integrated into the curriculum of an accounting information systems (AIS) course in an Australian university. Furthermore, the paper provides a systematic literature review of articles published between 1990 and 2013 to understand how ERP systems were integrated into curriculums of other institutions, and to inform the curriculum designers on approaches for adopting SAP, the benefits and potential limitations. The experiences of integrating SAP into an AIS course from both the students and teaching staff perspectives are described and evaluated. The main finding was the importance of resourcing the instructors with technical and pedagogical support to achieve the learning outcomes. The paper concludes by proposing critical success factors for integrating ERP effectively into an AIS course.

Boixo, S, Isakov, SV, Smelyanskiy, VN, Babbush, R, Ding, N, Jiang, Z, Bremner, MJ, Martinis, JM & Neven, H 2016, 'Characterizing Quantum Supremacy in Near-Term Devices', Nature Physics, vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 595-600.
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A critical question for the field of quantum computing in the near future iswhether quantum devices without error correction can perform a well-definedcomputational task beyond the capabilities of state-of-the-art classicalcomputers, achieving so-called quantum supremacy. We study the task of samplingfrom the output distributions of (pseudo-)random quantum circuits, a naturaltask for benchmarking quantum computers. Crucially, sampling this distributionclassically requires a direct numerical simulation of the circuit, withcomputational cost exponential in the number of qubits. This requirement istypical of chaotic systems. We extend previous results in computationalcomplexity to argue more formally that this sampling task must take exponentialtime in a classical computer. We study the convergence to the chaotic regimeusing extensive supercomputer simulations, modeling circuits with up to 42qubits - the largest quantum circuits simulated to date for a computationaltask that approaches quantum supremacy. We argue that while chaotic states areextremely sensitive to errors, quantum supremacy can be achieved in thenear-term with approximately fifty superconducting qubits. We introduce crossentropy as a useful benchmark of quantum circuits which approximates thecircuit fidelity. We show that the cross entropy can be efficiently measuredwhen circuit simulations are available. Beyond the classically tractableregime, the cross entropy can be extrapolated and compared with theoreticalestimates of circuit fidelity to define a practical quantum supremacy test.

Botezatu, L, Michel, LC, Makishima, H, Schroeder, T, Germing, U, Haas, R, van der Reijden, B, Marneth, AE, Bergevoet, SM, Jansen, JH, Przychodzen, B, Wlodarski, M, Niemeyer, C, Platzbecker, U, Ehninger, G, Unnikrishnan, A, Beck, D, Pimanda, J, Hellström-Lindberg, E, Malcovati, L, Boultwood, J, Pellagatti, A, Papaemmanuil, E, Le Coutre, P, Kaeda, J, Opalka, B, Möröy, T, Dührsen, U, Maciejewski, J & Khandanpour, C 2016, 'GFI136N as a therapeutic and prognostic marker for myelodysplastic syndrome', Experimental Hematology, vol. 44, no. 7, pp. 590-595.e1.
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Bovand, M, Rashidi, S, Esfahani, JA, Saha, SC, Gu, YT & Dehesht, M 2016, 'Control of flow around a circular cylinder wrapped with a porous layer by magnetohydrodynamic', Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, vol. 401, pp. 1078-1087.
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Bowers, ML, Gao, Y, Yang, L, Gaydosh, DJ, De Graef, M, Noebe, RD, Wang, Y & Mills, MJ 2016, 'Corrigendum to “Austenite grain refinement during load-biased thermal cycling of a Ni49.9Ti50.1 shape memory alloy” [Acta Mater. 91 (2015) 318–329]', Acta Materialia, vol. 108, pp. 380-380.
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Bremner, MJ, Montanaro, A & Shepherd, DJ 2016, 'Achieving quantum supremacy with sparse and noisy commuting quantum computations', Quantum, vol. 1, pp. 8-8.
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The class of commuting quantum circuits known as IQP (instantaneous quantumpolynomial-time) has been shown to be hard to simulate classically, assumingcertain complexity-theoretic conjectures. Here we study the power of IQPcircuits in the presence of physically motivated constraints. First, we showthat there is a family of sparse IQP circuits that can be implemented on asquare lattice of n qubits in depth O(sqrt(n) log n), and which is likely hardto simulate classically. Next, we show that, if an arbitrarily small constantamount of noise is applied to each qubit at the end of any IQP circuit whoseoutput probability distribution is sufficiently anticoncentrated, there is apolynomial-time classical algorithm that simulates sampling from the resultingdistribution, up to constant accuracy in total variation distance. However, weshow that purely classical error-correction techniques can be used to designIQP circuits which remain hard to simulate classically, even in the presence ofarbitrary amounts of noise of this form. These results demonstrate thechallenges faced by experiments designed to demonstrate quantum supremacy overclassical computation, and how these challenges can be overcome.

Bremner, MJ, Montanaro, A & Shepherd, DJ 2016, 'Average-Case Complexity Versus Approximate Simulation of Commuting Quantum Computations', PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, vol. 117, no. 8.
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© 2016 American Physical Society. We use the class of commuting quantum computations known as IQP (instantaneous quantum polynomial time) to strengthen the conjecture that quantum computers are hard to simulate classically. We show that, if either of two plausible average-case hardness conjectures holds, then IQP computations are hard to simulate classically up to constant additive error. One conjecture relates to the hardness of estimating the complex-temperature partition function for random instances of the Ising model; the other concerns approximating the number of zeroes of random low-degree polynomials. We observe that both conjectures can be shown to be valid in the setting of worst-case complexity. We arrive at these conjectures by deriving spin-based generalizations of the boson sampling problem that avoid the so-called permanent anticoncentration conjecture. 2016 UK.

Brown, RBK, Beydoun, G, Low, G, Tibben, W, Zamani, R, Garcia-Sanchez, F & Martinez-Bejar, R 2016, 'Computationally efficient ontology selection in software requirement planning', INFORMATION SYSTEMS FRONTIERS, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 349-358.
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Bui, HM, Lech, M, Cheng, E, Neville, K & Burnett, IS 2016, 'Object Recognition Using Deep Convolutional Features Transformed by a Recursive Network Structure', IEEE Access, vol. 4, pp. 10059-10066.
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© 2017 IEEE. Deep neural networks (DNNs) trained on large data sets have been shown to be able to capture high-quality features describing image data. Numerous studies have proposed various ways to transfer DNN structures trained on large data sets to perform classification tasks represented by relatively small data sets. Due to the limitations of these proposals, it is not well known how to effectively adapt the pre-trained model into the new task. Typically, the transfer process uses a combination of fine-tuning and training of adaptation layers; however, both tasks are susceptible to problems with data shortage and high computational complexity. This paper proposes an improvement to the well-known AlexNet feature extraction technique. The proposed approach applies a recursive neural network structure on features extracted by a deep convolutional neural network pre-trained on a large data set. Object recognition experiments conducted on the Washington RGBD image data set have shown that the proposed method has the advantages of structural simplicity combined with the ability to provide higher recognition accuracy at a low computational cost compared with other relevant methods. The new approach requires no training at the feature extraction phase, and can be performed very efficiently as the output features are compact and highly discriminative, and can be used with a simple classifier in object recognition settings.

Bui, XT, Vo, TPT, Ngo, HH, Guo, WS & Nguyen, TT 2016, 'Multicriteria assessment of advanced treatment technologies for micropollutants removal at large-scale applications', Science of The Total Environment, vol. 563-564, pp. 1050-1067.
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© 2016 Elsevier B.V. With the introduction and discharge of thousands of new micropollutants (MPs) every year, traditional water and wastewater treatment plants may be incapable of tackling them all. With their low concentrations and diversity in nature, MP removal encounters numerous challenges. Although some MPs are effectively eliminated via conventional treatment methods, most of them can easily escape and are retained in the discharged effluent. Therefore, advanced methods such as (i) adsorption, (ii) oxidation and advanced oxidation processes (O3 and O3-based advanced oxidation processes, UV/H2O2), (iii) membrane processes, and (iv) membrane bioreactors, become an inevitable approach. Despite the unsurprisingly vast number of papers on MP treatment available at present, most of these studies were carried out at a laboratory scale while only a few pilot- and full-scale studies have experimented. Nevertheless, an in-depth assessment of real-world MP treatment methods is extremely crucial for practitioners. To date, no paper has been dedicated to look at this issue. Therefore, this paper aims to review these large-scale treatment methods. First, the paper goes through the regulations and standards which deal with MPs in water courses. It will then assess these methods in various case-studies with reference to different criteria towards serving as a reference for further practical applications.

Burdon, S, Kang, K & Mooney, G 2016, 'Understanding The Key Attributes for a Successful Innovation Culture', International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 70-82.
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This paper presents the results and findings of a research project on innovation culture in Australian information technology sector organisations. The primary objective of this study was to establish the determinants of a successful enterprise innovation culture in organisations with a strong industry reputation for radical innovation initiatives. The authors obtained 244 responses from 102 member organisations of the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA). The survey explored the internal and external characteristics of a successful innovative organisation. Both employees' and competitors' perspectives on “what makes a particular organisation a successful innovator” were the main focus. The authors' findings indicated that the absence of a successful innovation culture is a serious impediment to growth and success. However, preferences for the key innovation culture attributes varied significantly by executive functions, size of the organization and type of ownership structure. Thus, a mix of key innovation attributes should be deployed and tailored to each organisation, based on their industry and strategic objectives.

Burton, GJ, Pineda, JA, Sheng, D, Airey, DW & Zhang, F 2016, 'Exploring one-dimensional compression of compacted clay under constant degree of saturation paths', Géotechnique, vol. 66, no. 5, pp. 435-440.
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This note presents a novel approach for controlling the degree of saturation during one-dimensional compression of unsaturated soils. This technique offers a simple and versatile way to study the hydro-mechanical response of unsaturated soils as well as the unsaturated–saturated soil transition. By using a multi-stage approach, the same specimen can be used to evaluate the compressibility of unsaturated specimens at different degrees of saturation, which may reduce the long testing periods commonly required for unsaturated soil testing. The experimental results described in this paper show that the proposed technique is capable of controlling the degree of saturation within reasonable limits and provides an interesting approach to analyse the coupled hydraulic and mechanical behaviour of unsaturated soils.

Byrne, D, Bennett, N & Cowley, A 2016, 'The role of annealing conditions on the low temperature photoluminescence properties of CuAlO2', Journal of Luminescence, vol. 170, pp. 212-218.
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CuAlO2 films and powder are prepared using different annealing conditions such as temperature and atmosphere. The effects of varying these parameters on the optical properties including Raman and low temperature photoluminescence, meta-stability and defect emission are examined. We find evidence that the blue emission may result from oxygen vacancies and that the meta-stability arises from Cu+-Cu+ interactions involving excess copper introduced during the annealing steps.

Cabrera-España, FJ & Agrawal, A 2016, 'Hut-like pillar array Si solar cells', Solar Energy, vol. 132, pp. 357-362.
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A good texturing pattern for solar cells needs to combine low Reflectance over a large wavelength range and low surface recombination to maximize the output. Nanowire and pyramid patterns offer low Reflectance in the longer and shorter wavelength regions respectively. This paper introduces an exciting new "hut" like texturing pattern with excellent performance, improving that of nanowires and pyramids; over the long and short wavelength ranges respectively. Furthermore, we analyze the effect of different structural parameters such as height, diameter, Surface Coverage (SC) and θ on the solar cell performance.

Cao, L 2016, 'Data science and analytics: a new era', International Journal of Data Science and Analytics, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1-2.
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Cao, L, Dong, X & Zheng, Z 2016, 'e-NSP: Efficient negative sequential pattern mining', Artificial Intelligence, vol. 235, pp. 156-182.
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© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. As an important tool for behavior informatics, negative sequential patterns (NSP) (such as missing medical treatments) are critical and sometimes much more informative than positive sequential patterns (PSP) (e.g. using a medical service) in many intelligent systems and applications such as intelligent transport systems, healthcare and risk management, as they often involve non-occurring but interesting behaviors. However, discovering NSP is much more difficult than identifying PSP due to the significant problem complexity caused by non-occurring elements, high computational cost and huge search space in calculating negative sequential candidates (NSC). So far, the problem has not been formalized well, and very few approaches have been proposed to mine for specific types of NSP, which rely on database re-scans after identifying PSP in order to calculate the NSC supports. This has been shown to be very inefficient or even impractical, since the NSC search space is usually huge. This paper proposes a very innovative and efficient theoretical framework: Set theory-based NSP mining (ST-NSP), and a corresponding algorithm, e-NSP, to efficiently identify NSP by involving only the identified PSP, without re-scanning the database. Accordingly, negative containment is first defined to determine whether a data sequence contains a negative sequence based on set theory. Second, an efficient approach is proposed to convert the negative containment problem to a positive containment problem. The NSC supports are then calculated based only on the corresponding PSP. This not only avoids the need for additional database scans, but also enables the use of existing PSP mining algorithms to mine for NSP. Finally, a simple but efficient strategy is proposed to generate NSC. Theoretical analyses show that e-NSP performs particularly well on datasets with a small number of elements in a sequence, a large number of itemsets and low...

Cao, Y, Wen, S, Chen, MZQ, Huang, T & Zeng, Z 2016, 'New results on anti-synchronization of switched neural networks with time-varying delays and lag signals', Neural Networks, vol. 81, pp. 52-58.
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This paper investigates the problem of global exponential anti-synchronization of a class of switched neural networks with time-varying delays and lag signals. Considering the packed circuits, the controller is dependent on the output of the system as the inner states are very hard to measure. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the controller based on the output of the neuron cell. Through theoretical analysis, it is obvious that the obtained ones improve and generalize the results derived in the previous literature. To illustrate the effectiveness, a simulation example with applications in image encryptions is also presented in the paper.

Cao, Y, Zeng, Z, Huang, T & Wen, S 2016, 'New Criteria of Robust $$H_\infty $$ H ∞ Stability for Fuzzy Mixed-Delay Systems with Nonlinear Noise Disturbances', Circuits, Systems, and Signal Processing, vol. 35, no. 8, pp. 2810-2831.
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This paper investigates new criteria of the robust H∞ stability for a class of uncertain stochastic fuzzy mixed-delay systems with nonlinear noise disturbances by employing an improved free-weighting matrix approach. The fuzzy system is based on the Takagi–Sugeno model that is often used to represent the complex nonlinear systems in terms of fuzzy sets and fuzzy reasoning. To reflect more realistic dynamical behaviors of the system, both the parameter uncertainties and stochastic disturbances are considered, the stochastic disturbances are given in the form of a Brownian motion. The mixed delays comprise both discrete and distributed time-varying delays. In terms of a stochastic fuzzy Lyapunov functional, a sufficient criterion is proposed to investigate dynamical behaviors of the system in the mean-square sense with an H∞ performance index.

Cao, Z, Lin, C-T, Chuang, C-H, Lai, K-L, Yang, AC, Fuh, J-L & Wang, S-J 2016, 'Resting-state EEG power and coherence vary between migraine phases', The Journal of Headache and Pain, vol. 17, no. 1.
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© 2016, The Author(s). Background: Migraine is characterized by a series of phases (inter-ictal, pre-ictal, ictal, and post-ictal). It is of great interest whether resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) is differentiable between these phases. Methods: We compared resting-state EEG energy intensity and effective connectivity in different migraine phases using EEG power and coherence analyses in patients with migraine without aura as compared with healthy controls (HCs). EEG power and isolated effective coherence of delta (1–3.5 Hz), theta (4–7.5 Hz), alpha (8–12.5 Hz), and beta (13–30 Hz) bands were calculated in the frontal, central, temporal, parietal, and occipital regions. Results: Fifty patients with episodic migraine (1–5 headache days/month) and 20 HCs completed the study. Patients were classified into inter-ictal, pre-ictal, ictal, and post-ictal phases (n = 22, 12, 8, 8, respectively), using 36-h criteria. Compared to HCs, inter-ictal and ictal patients, but not pre- or post-ictal patients, had lower EEG power and coherence, except for a higher effective connectivity in fronto-occipital network in inter-ictal patients (p <.05). Compared to data obtained from the inter-ictal group, EEG power and coherence were increased in the pre-ictal group, with the exception of a lower effective connectivity in fronto-occipital network (p <.05). Inter-ictal and ictal patients had decreased EEG power and coherence relative to HCs, which were “normalized” in the pre-ictal or post-ictal groups. Conclusion: Resting-state EEG power density and effective connectivity differ between migraine phases and provide an insight into the complex neurophysiology of migraine.

Carter, DR, Sutton, SK, Pajic, M, Murray, J, Sekyere, EO, Fletcher, J, Beckers, A, De Preter, K, Speleman, F, George, RE, Haber, M, Norris, MD, Cheung, BB & Marshall, GM 2016, 'Glutathione biosynthesis is upregulated at the initiation of MYCN‐driven neuroblastoma tumorigenesis', Molecular Oncology, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 866-878.
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The MYCN gene is amplified and overexpressed in a large proportion of high stage neuroblastoma patients and has been identified as a key driver of tumorigenesis. However, the mechanism by which MYCN promotes tumor initiation is poorly understood. Here we conducted metabolic profiling of pre‐malignant sympathetic ganglia and tumors derived from the TH‐MYCN mouse model of neuroblastoma, compared to non‐malignant ganglia from wildtype littermates. We found that metabolites involved in the biosynthesis of glutathione, the most abundant cellular antioxidant, were the most significantly upregulated metabolic pathway at tumor initiation, and progressively increased to meet the demands of tumorigenesis. A corresponding increase in the expression of genes involved in ribosomal biogenesis suggested that MYCN‐driven transactivation of the protein biosynthetic machinery generated the necessary substrates to drive glutathione biosynthesis. Pre‐malignant sympathetic ganglia from TH‐MYCN mice had higher antioxidant capacity and required glutathione upregulation for cell survival, when compared to wildtype ganglia. Moreover, in vivo administration of inhibitors of glutathione biosynthesis significantly delayed tumorigenesis when administered prophylactically and potentiated the anticancer activity of cytotoxic chemotherapy against established tumors. Together these results identify enhanced glutathione biosynthesis as a selective metabolic adaptation required for initiation of MYCN‐driven neuroblastoma, and suggest that glutathione‐targeted agents may be used as a potential preventative strategy, or as an adjuvant to existing chemotherapies in established disease.

Casanovas, M, Torres-Martínez, A & Merigó, JM 2016, 'Decision Making in Reinsurance with Induced OWA Operators and Minkowski Distances', Cybernetics and Systems, vol. 47, no. 6, pp. 460-477.
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Castel, A & Turatsinze, A 2016, 'Discussion of the paper titled “Evaluation of the predictive ability of the in situ concrete strength through core drilling and its effects on the capacity of the RC columns by M. Vona and D. Nigro”', Materials and Structures, vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 1569-1571.
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Castel, A, Foster, SJ, Ng, T, Sanjayan, JG & Gilbert, RI 2016, 'Creep and drying shrinkage of a blended slag and low calcium fly ash geopolymer Concrete', Materials and Structures, vol. 49, no. 5, pp. 1619-1628.
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Abstract The main purpose of this research is to study the time dependent behaviour of a geopolymer concrete. The geopolymer binder is composed of 85.2 % of low calcium fly ash and only 14.8 % of ground granulated blast furnace slag. Both drying shrinkage and creep are studied. In addition, different curing conditions at elevated temperature were used. All experimental results were compared to predictions made using the Eurocode 2. The curing regime plays an important role in the magnitude and development of both creep and drying shrinkage of class F fly ash based geopolymer concrete. A minimum of 3 days at 40 °C or 1 day at 80 °C is required to obtain final drying shrinkage strains similar to or less than those adopted by Eurocode 2 for ordinary Portland cement (OPC) concrete. Creep strains were similar or less than those predicted by Eurocode 2 for OPC concrete when the geopolymer concrete was cured for 3 days at 40 °C. After 7 days at 80 °C, creep strains became negligible.

Castel, A, Khan, I, François, R & Gilbert, RI 2016, 'Modeling Steel Concrete Bond Strength Reduction Due to Corrosion', ACI Structural Journal, vol. 113, no. 5, pp. 973-982.
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Catchpoole, D 2016, '‘Biohoarding’: treasures not seen, stories not told', Journal of Health Services Research & Policy, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 140-142.
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This article raises the concern that biobanks are failing to realize the expected research and health service outcomes. Rather than biobanking, we have been engaging in ‘biohoarding’, where building a quantifiable collection of tissue samples is the primary basis of the bio-resource. The root cause of ‘biohoarding’ is an ideological and motivational confusion as to the purpose for collecting the tissue in the first place. We have lost sight of the knowledge gain that biobanks should generate. The obligation to prevent ‘biohoarding’ lies not with researchers, funders or managers but with policy makers.

Cecez-Kecmanovic, D & Marjanovic, O 2016, 'Ethical Implications of IT-enabled Information Flows Conceived as Intermediaries or Mediators.', CoRR, vol. abs/1606.03506.
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This paper contributes to a better understanding of ethical concerns regarding the deployment of complex public sector IT systems and the information flows they instigate. The paper aims to reveal how different views on IT and IT-enabled information flows allow us to see differently their social implications and to construe different ethical questions. This is achieved by i) defining two opposing views on IT-enabled information flows as ‘intermediaries’ and ‘mediators’; ii) by analysing the controversial case of My School – a web portal that provides performance data of 9,500 Australian schools – that introduces new information flows in the education sector; and iii) by revealing and explaining how some unintended negative social implications emerge and how the articulation of ethical concerns depends on the view on My School-enabled information flows. The paper concludes with theoretical and practical implications, with particular emphasis on responsibilities of all involved, setting up foundations for an important area of future IS research.

Cetindamar, D, Phaal, R & Probert, DR 2016, 'Technology management as a profession and the challenges ahead', Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, vol. 41, pp. 1-13.
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Chaczko, Z, Suleman Slehat, S & Salmon, A 2016, 'Application of Predictive Analytics in Telecommunications Project Management', Journal of Networks, vol. 10, no. 10, pp. 551-566.
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This paper addresses a prevalent issue in technologybased industries of underperforming or even totally failing projects. There is strong evidence that a major influencing factor to the situation is the incorrect assumption about availability of effective technology that can assist management in project planning. The aim of the paper is to demonstrate and discuss effective approaches for using Predictive Analytics methods and tools in the Telecommunications industry to mitigate project planning issues and avoid possible project failures. Although, these methods and tools are not new, as the traditional statistical models form the core of the application, however, the novelty stems from the new processes and methods used by these tools for presentation and workflow. This change in the approach allowes to lower the usage barrier by providing an access to a wider community of end-users. Thanks to embeding a formalised approach into the workflow, users are guided through complex analytical processes more easily, thus allowing less technically advanced users to draw valuable conclusions without necessarily requiring a formal training in advanced statistical methods. Discussed case studies demonstrate suitability of Predictive Analytics as a powerful and highly accessible tool for project planning in the telecommunications domain.

Chakraborty, S, Mengersen, K, Fidge, C, Ma, L & Lassen, D 2016, 'A Bayesian Network-based customer satisfaction model: a tool for management decisions in railway transport', Decision Analytics, vol. 3, no. 1.
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Chakraborty, S, Milner, LE, Zhu, X, Hall, LT, Sevimli, O & Heimlich, MC 2016, 'A $K$ -Band Frequency Doubler With 35-dB Fundamental Rejection Based on Novel Transformer Balun in 0.13- $\mu \text{m}$ SiGe Technology', IEEE Electron Device Letters, vol. 37, no. 11, pp. 1375-1378.
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© 2016 IEEE. A compact balanced frequency doubler with more than 35 dB odd-harmonic rejection and fractional bandwidth of 73% is presented in this letter. Wide bandwidth and high odd-harmonic suppression is achieved by adopting a new technique for the transformer balun design, resulting in a very low magnitude imbalance of 0.13 dB and a phase imbalance of 0.4° over 7-15 GHz. The balun performance is improved by offsetting the radius of the primary and secondary coils, which reduces the parasitic coupling capacitance. The input and output frequency ranges for the doubler are 7-15 GHz and 14-30 GHz respectively. The circuit was fabricated in 0.13-μm SiGe technology. The chip size is 0.6 mm ×, 0.4 mm.

Chakraborty, S, Yang, Y, Zhu, X, Sevimli, O, Xue, Q, Esselle, K & Heimlich, M 2016, 'A Broadside-Coupled Meander-Line Resonator in 0.13-$\mu \text{m}$ SiGe Technology for Millimeter-Wave Application', IEEE Electron Device Letters, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 329-332.
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© 2016 IEEE. An on-chip resonator is designed and fabricated using a standard 0.13- μ m SiGe technology for millimeter-wave applications. The designed resonator is based on a unique structure, which consists of two broadside-coupled meander lines with opposite orientation. The equivalent LC circuit of the resonator is given, while the impact of the structure on the resonance frequencies is investigated. Using this structure along with capacitors, a compact bandpass filter (BPF) is also designed and fabricated. The measured results show that the resonator can generate a resonance at 57 GHz with the attenuation better than 13.7 dB, while the BPF has a center frequency at 31 GHz and a insertion loss of 2.4 dB. The chip size of both the resonator and the BPF, excluding the pads, is only 0.024 mm2 ( 0.09× 0.27 mm2.

Chan, B, Guan, H, Hou, L, Jo, J, Blumenstein, M & Wang, J 2016, 'Defining a conceptual framework for the integration of modelling and advanced imaging for improving the reliability and efficiency of bridge assessments', Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 703-714.
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© 2016, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. Current bridge inspection practices are typically predicated upon manual paper-based data collection methods, which significantly limit the ability to transfer knowledge gained throughout the lifecycle of the asset, to benefit the assessment of the inspector or engineer. This study aims to overcome the limitations of current practices and proposes a conceptual framework to improve the reliability and efficiency of current bridge asset management practices through the integration of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and advanced computing and imaging technologies. As a tool for bridge inspections, BIM offers significant potential when integrated with laser scanning and keypoint-based texture recognition, which allows for the detection of such defects as cracking, corrosion or settlement in bridge components. In recent years, the construction industry has seen an increased use of BIM technology on-site to aid the construction process. However, the applications of it are deficient through the asset management phases of a project. Given the ability of BIM to house all component specific information gathered from the construction, inspection and maintenance phases, BIM is envisioned to allow emphasis to be placed on retrieving the relevant information throughout the project lifecycle, ultimately enabling engineers and bridge inspectors to make more informed decisions about the current condition of the structure. Using BIM as the focal point for information collection throughout the project lifecycle, findings from advanced imaging and data processing are proposed to be stored within the model for recall at future bridge assessments.

Chan, KY & Ling, SH 2016, 'A forward selection based fuzzy regression for new product development that correlates engineering characteristics with consumer preferences', JOURNAL OF INTELLIGENT & FUZZY SYSTEMS, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 1869-1880.
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© 2016 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved. Fuzzy regression models have commonly been used to correlate engineering characteristics with consumer preferences regarding a new product. Based on the models, product developers can determine optimal engineering characteristics of the new product in order to satisfy consumer preferences. However, they have a common limitation in that they cannot guarantee to include significant regressors with significant engineering characteristics or significant nonlinear terms. The generalization capability of the model can be reduced, when too few significant regressors are included and too many insignificant regressors are included. In this paper, a forward selection based fuzzy regression (FS-FR) is proposed based on the statistical forward selection to determine significant regressors. After the significant regressors are determined, the fuzzy regression is used to generate the fuzzy coefficients which address the uncertainties due to fuzziness and randomness caused by consumer preference evaluations. The developed model includes only significant regressors which attempt to improve the generalization capability. A case study of a tea maker design demonstrated that the FS-FR was able to generate consumer preference models with better generalization capabilities than the other tested fuzzy regressions. Also simpler consumer preference models can be provided for the new product development.

Chandrakanthan, V, Yeola, A, Kwan, JC, Oliver, RA, Qiao, Q, Kang, YC, Zarzour, P, Beck, D, Boelen, L, Unnikrishnan, A, Villanueva, JE, Nunez, AC, Knezevic, K, Palu, C, Nasrallah, R, Carnell, M, Macmillan, A, Whan, R, Yu, Y, Hardy, P, Grey, ST, Gladbach, A, Delerue, F, Ittner, L, Mobbs, R, Walkley, CR, Purton, LE, Ward, RL, Wong, JWH, Hesson, LB, Walsh, W & Pimanda, JE 2016, 'PDGF-AB and 5-Azacytidine induce conversion of somatic cells into tissue-regenerative multipotent stem cells', PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, vol. 113, no. 16, pp. E2306-E2315.
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Chapman, RJ, Ferrie, C & Peruzzo, A 2016, 'Experimental Demonstration of Self-Guided Quantum Tomography', Physical Review Letters, vol. 117, no. 4.
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Chaturvedi, I, Ong, Y-S, Tsang, IW, Welsch, RE & Cambria, E 2016, 'Learning word dependencies in text by means of a deep recurrent belief network', Knowledge-Based Systems, vol. 108, pp. 144-154.
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We propose a deep recurrent belief network with distributed time delays for learning multivariate Gaussians. Learning long time delays in deep belief networks is difficult due to the problem of vanishing or exploding gradients with increase in delay. To mitigate this problem and improve the transparency of learning time-delays, we introduce the use of Gaussian networks with time-delays to initialize the weights of each hidden neuron. From our knowledge of time delays, it is possible to learn the long delays from short delays in a hierarchical manner. In contrast to previous works, here dynamic Gaussian Bayesian networks over training samples are evolved using Markov Chain Monte Carlo to determine the initial weights of each hidden layer of neurons. In this way, the time-delayed network motifs of increasing Markov order across layers can be modeled hierarchically using a deep model. To validate the proposed Variable-order Belief Network (VBN) framework, it is applied for modeling word dependencies in text. To explore the generality of VBN, it is further considered for a real-world scenario where the dynamic movements of basketball players are modeled. Experimental results obtained showed that the proposed VBN could achieve over 30% improvement in accuracy on real-world scenarios compared to the state-of-the-art baseline

Chaudhuri, PK, Ebrahimi Warkiani, M, Jing, T, Kenry, K & Lim, CT 2016, 'Microfluidics for research and applications in oncology', The Analyst, vol. 141, no. 2, pp. 504-524.
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Cancer is currently one of the top non-communicable human diseases, and continual research and developmental efforts, particularly in microfluidics technology, are being made to better understand and manage this disease.

Chaves, IA, Melchers, RE, Peng, L & Stewart, MG 2016, 'Probabilistic remaining life estimation for deteriorating steel marine infrastructure under global warming and nutrient pollution', Ocean Engineering, vol. 126, pp. 129-137.
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The longer-term serviceability and structural safety of steel infrastructure exposed to seawater conditions may be affected by global warming and by seawater nutrient pollution. These may affect abiotic and biotic (microbial) corrosion. A model for long-term corrosion is developed from data obtained from steel piling exposed for 33 years in a seawater harbour. The effects on corrosion losses on the structural reliability of steel sheet piling as used in harbours world-wide were investigated as a function of seawater temperature rise from global warming and of seawater nutrient pollution. The results show that structural reliability is more sensitive to likely nutrient pollution than to predicted increases in seawater temperature, noting also that global warming also could increase nutrient pollution from anthropological sources.

Chehreh Chelgani, S, Matin, SS & Hower, JC 2016, 'Explaining relationships between coke quality index and coal properties by Random Forest method', Fuel, vol. 182, pp. 754-760.
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Chehreh Chelgani, S, Matin, SS & Makaremi, S 2016, 'Modeling of free swelling index based on variable importance measurements of parent coal properties by random forest method', Measurement, vol. 94, pp. 416-422.
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Chekli, L, Bayatsarmadi, B, Sekine, R, Sarkar, B, Shen, AM, Scheckel, KG, Skinner, W, Naidu, R, Shon, HK, Lombi, E & Donner, E 2016, 'Analytical characterisation of nanoscale zero-valent iron: A methodological review', ANALYTICA CHIMICA ACTA, vol. 903, pp. 13-35.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. Zero-valent iron nanoparticles (nZVI) have been widely tested as they are showing significant promise for environmental remediation. However, many recent studies have demonstrated that their mobility and reactivity in subsurface environments are significantly affected by their tendency to aggregate. Both the mobility and reactivity of nZVI mainly depends on properties such as particle size, surface chemistry and bulk composition. In order to ensure efficient remediation, it is crucial to accurately assess and understand the implications of these properties before deploying these materials into contaminated environments. Many analytical techniques are now available to determine these parameters and this paper provides a critical review of their usefulness and limitations for nZVI characterisation. These analytical techniques include microscopy and light scattering techniques for the determination of particle size, size distribution and aggregation state, and X-ray techniques for the characterisation of surface chemistry and bulk composition. Example characterisation data derived from commercial nZVI materials is used to further illustrate method strengths and limitations. Finally, some important challenges with respect to the characterisation of nZVI in groundwater samples are discussed.

Chekli, L, Brunetti, G, Marzouk, ER, Maoz-Shen, A, Smith, E, Naidu, R, Shon, HK, Lombi, E & Donner, E 2016, 'Evaluating the mobility of polymer-stabilised zero-valent iron nanoparticles and their potential to co-transport contaminants in intact soil cores', ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION, vol. 216, pp. 636-645.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd The use of zero-valent iron nanoparticles (nZVI) has been advocated for the remediation of both soils and groundwater. A key parameter affecting nZVI remediation efficacy is the mobility of the particles as this influences the reaction zone where remediation can occur. However, by engineering nZVI particles with increased stability and mobility we may also inadvertently facilitate nZVI-mediated contaminant transport away from the zone of treatment. Previous nZVI mobility studies have often been limited to model systems as the presence of background Fe makes detection and tracking of nZVI in real systems difficult. We overcame this problem by synthesising Fe-59 radiolabelled nZVI. This enabled us to detect and quantify the leaching of nZVI-derived Fe-59 in intact soil cores, including a soil contaminated by Chromated-Copper-Arsenate. Mobility of a commercially available nZVI was also tested. The results showed limited mobility of both nanomaterials; <1% of the injected mass was eluted from the columns and most of the radiolabelled nZVI remained in the surface soil layers (the primary treatment zone in this contaminated soil). Nevertheless, the observed breakthrough of contaminants and nZVI occurred simultaneously, indicating that although the quantity transported was low in this case, nZVI does have the potential to co-transport contaminants. These results show that direct injection of nZVI into the surface layers of contaminated soils may be a viable remediation option for soils such as this one, in which the mobility of nZVI below the injection/remediation zone was very limited. This Fe-59 experimental approach can be further extended to test nZVI transport in a wider range of contaminated soil types and textures and using different application methods and rates. The resulting database could then be used to develop and validate modelling of nZVI-facilitated contaminant transport on an individual soil basis suitable for site specific...

Chekli, L, Phuntsho, S, Kim, JE, Kim, J, Choi, JY, Choi, J-S, Kim, S, Kim, JH, Hong, S, Sohn, J & Shon, HK 2016, 'A comprehensive review of hybrid forward osmosis systems: Performance, applications and future prospects', JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE, vol. 497, no. 1, pp. 430-449.
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Forward osmosis (FO) has been increasingly studied in the past decade for its potential as an emerging low-energy water and wastewater treatment process. However, the term “low-energy” may only be suitable for those applications in where no further treatment of the draw solution (DS) is required either in the form of pretreatment or post-treatment to the FO process (e.g. where the diluted DS is the targeted final product which can be used directly or simply discarded). In most applications, FO has to be coupled with another separation process in a so-called hybrid FO system to either separate the DS from the final product water or to be used as an advanced pre-treatment process to conventional desalination technologies. The additional process increases the capital cost as well as the energy demand of the overall system which is one of the several challenges that hybrid FO systems need to overcome to compete with other separation technologies. Yet, there are some applications where hybrid FO systems can outperform conventional processes and this study aims to provide a comprehensive review on the current state of hybrid FO systems. The recent development and performance of hybrid FO systems in different applications have been reported. This review also highlights the future research directions for the current hybrid FO systems to achieve successful implementation.

Chen, C, Guo, W & Ngo, HH 2016, 'Advances in Granular Growth Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor (G-AnMBR) for Low Strength Wastewater Treatment', Journal of Energy and Environmental Sustainability, vol. 1, pp. 77-83.
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Chen, C, Guo, W, Ngo, HH, Lee, D-J, Tung, K-L, Jin, P, Wang, J & Wu, Y 2016, 'Challenges in biogas production from anaerobic membrane bioreactors', Renewable Energy, vol. 98, pp. 120-134.
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© 2016 Spectacular applications of anaerobic membrane bioreactors (AnMBRs) are emerging due to the membrane enhanced biogas production in the form of renewable bioresources. They produce similar energy derived from the world's depleting natural fossil energy sources while minimizing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. During the last decade, many types of AnMBRs have been developed and applied so as to make biogas technology practical and economically viable. Referring to both conventional and advanced configurations, this review presents a comprehensive summary of AnMBRs for biogas production in recent years. The potential of biogas production from AnMBRs cannot be fully exploited, since certain constraints still remain and these cause low methane yield. This paper addresses a detailed assessment on the potential challenges that AnMBRs are encountering, with a major focus on many inhibitory substances and operational dilemmas. The aim is to provide a solid platform for advances in novel AnMBRs applications for optimized biogas production.

Chen, F, Sun, J, Wang, Y, Khawaja, MA, Li, Z & Zhou, J 2016, 'Making machine learning useable by revealing internal states update - a transparent approach', International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 378-378.
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Chen, G, Deng, Y, He, X, Wang, Y & Zhang, J 2016, 'Zero‐voltage‐switching buck converter with low‐voltage stress using coupled inductor', IET Power Electronics, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 719-727.
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Chen, G, Wang, Z, Li, X-M, Song, J, Zhao, B, Phuntsho, S, Shon, HK & He, T 2016, 'Concentrating underground brine by FO process: Influence of membrane types and spacer on membrane scaling', Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 285, pp. 92-100.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. Forward osmosis (FO) is a low energy process when recovery of the draw solutes is not necessary. This study focused on the performance of the FO process for concentrating underground brine (UGB) with saturated sodium chloride as draw solution (DS) using two membranes: commercialized flat sheet cellulose triacetate (CTA) membrane and tailor-made thin film composite (TFC) FO membrane. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and powder X-ray diffractometry (XRD) analysis indicate that, majority of the scaling components were calcium sulfate and sodium chloride crystals formed both through surface and bulk crystallization. The spacer in the FO test cell also promoted scaling. Without spacer, a sharp flux decline of TFC membrane occurred at a higher concentration factor while no sharp flux drop was observed for CTA membrane. It was hypothesized that the rough TFC membrane surface may initiate nucleation and aggregation of the crystals in the active surface, and eventually resulting in scaling.

Chen, H, Liu, Y, Ni, B-J, Wang, Q, Wang, D, Zhang, C, Li, X & Zeng, G 2016, 'Full-scale evaluation of aerobic/extended-idle regime inducing biological phosphorus removal and its integration with intermittent sand filter to treat domestic sewage discharged from highway rest area', Biochemical Engineering Journal, vol. 113, pp. 114-122.
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Biological phosphorus removal (BPR) has been demonstrated to be successfully achieved in the aerobic/extended-idle (AEI) wastewater treatment regime in previous bench-scale studies. To date, however, its feasibility has never been evaluated by any full-scale investigation. Here we report a first full-scale (180 m3/day) evaluation of the AEI process and its integration with intermittent sand filter to treat highway rest area sewage that is often neglected but actually brings significant impacts on receiving water bodies in China. The results showed that 70-99% of influent phosphate was removed in the AEI zone, although the sewage contained 23-37% of carbohydrate that is usually considered to be detrimental for BPR. Batch experimental investigation revealed that the presence of glucose (model compound of carbohydrate) promoted the AEI-inducing BPR efficiency, as opposed to deteriorating the conventional anaerobic/oxic regime-inducing BPR performance. Although the performance of AEI zone was affected by seasonal variation, the efficiencies of contaminant removal were stable and excellent (total nitrogen > 86%, others > 92%) in the integrated system. This study offers an attractive option for BPR from carbohydrate-rich wastewaters and also provides a prototype for wastewater treatment in remote areas.

Chen, J, Guo, C, Ji, Z, Poon, Y-T, Yu, N, Zeng, B & Zhou, J 2016, 'Joint product numerical range and geometry of reduced density matrices', Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron., vol. 60, no. 2, p. 020312.
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The reduced density matrices of a many-body quantum system form a convex set,whose three-dimensional projection $\Theta$ is convex in $\mathbb{R}^3$. Theboundary $\partial\Theta$ of $\Theta$ may exhibit nontrivial geometry, inparticular ruled surfaces. Two physical mechanisms are known for the origins ofruled surfaces: symmetry breaking and gapless. In this work, we study theemergence of ruled surfaces for systems with local Hamiltonians in infinitespatial dimension, where the reduced density matrices are known to be separableas a consequence of the quantum de Finetti's theorem. This allows us toidentify the reduced density matrix geometry with joint product numerical range$\Pi$ of the Hamiltonian interaction terms. We focus on the case where theinteraction terms have certain structures, such that ruled surface emergenaturally when taking a convex hull of $\Pi$. We show that, a ruled surface on$\partial\Theta$ sitting in $\Pi$ has a gapless origin, otherwise it has asymmetry breaking origin. As an example, we demonstrate that a famous ruledsurface, known as the oloid, is a possible shape of $\Theta$, with two boundarypieces of symmetry breaking origin separated by two gapless lines.

Chen, J-Y, Ji, Z, Liu, Z-X, Qi, X, Yu, N, Zeng, B & Zhou, D 2016, 'Physical origins of ruled surfaces on the reduced density matrices geometry', Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron. (2017) 60: 020311, vol. 60, no. 2.
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The reduced density matrices (RDMs) of many-body quantum states form a convexset. The boundary of low dimensional projections of this convex set may exhibitnontrivial geometry such as ruled surfaces. In this paper, we study thephysical origins of these ruled surfaces for bosonic systems. The emergence ofruled surfaces was recently proposed as signatures of symmetry-breaking phase.We show that, apart from being signatures of symmetry-breaking, ruled surfacescan also be the consequence of gapless quantum systems by demonstrating anexplicit example in terms of a two-mode Ising model. Our analysis was largelysimplified by the quantum de Finetti's theorem---in the limit of large systemsize, these RDMs are the convex set of all the symmetric separable states. Todistinguish ruled surfaces originated from gapless systems from those caused bysymmetry-breaking, we propose to use the finite size scaling method for thecorresponding geometry. This method is then applied to the two-mode XY model,successfully identifying a ruled surface as the consequence of gapless systems.

Chen, J-Y, Ji, Z, Yu, N & Zeng, B 2016, 'Dichotomy of entanglement depth for symmetric states', Phys. Rev. A, vol. 94, no. 4, p. 042333.
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Entanglement depth characterizes the minimal number of particles in a systemthat are mutually entangled. For symmetric states, we show that there is adichotomy for entanglement depth: an $N$-particle symmetric state is eitherfully separable, or fully entangled---the entanglement depth is either $1$ or$N$. This property is even stable under non-symmetric noise. We propose anexperimentally accessible method to detect entanglement depth in atomicensembles based on a bound on the particle number population of Dicke states,and demonstrate that the entanglement depth of some Dicke states, for examplethe twin Fock state, is very stable even under a large arbitrary noise. Ourobservation can be applied to atomic Bose-Einstein condensates to infer thatthese systems can be highly entangled with the entanglement depth that is ofthe order of the system size (i.e. several thousands of atoms).

Chen, L, Li, X, Yang, Y, Kurniawati, H, Sheng, QZ, Hu, H-Y & Huang, N 2016, 'Personal health indexing based on medical examinations: A data mining approach', Decision Support Systems, vol. 81, pp. 54-65.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. We design a method called MyPHI that predicts personal health index (PHI), a new evidence-based health indicator to explore the underlying patterns of a large collection of geriatric medical examination (GME) records using data mining techniques. We define PHI as a vector of scores, each reflecting the health risk in a particular disease category. The PHI prediction is formulated as an optimization problem that finds the optimal soft labels as health scores based on medical records that are infrequent, incomplete, and sparse. Our method is compared with classification models commonly used in medical applications. The experimental evaluation has demonstrated the effectiveness of our method based on a real-world GME data set collected from 102,258 participants.

Chen, Q, Indraratna, B & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2016, 'Behaviour of lignosulfonate-treated soil under cyclic loading', Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Ground Improvement, vol. 169, no. 2, pp. 109-119.
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In this paper, the effectiveness of an environmentally-friendly stabilising agent for soil, lignosulfonate (LS), is examined through a series of cyclic triaxial tests. The deformation characteristics of the contents of LS-treated sandy silt when subjected to undrained cyclic triaxial loading are investigated at different confining pressures and cyclic stress levels. Test results indicate that under a given confining pressure and cyclic deviator stress, the rate of increase in axial strain is controlled by the addition of LS, which results in a smaller value of plastic axial strain (εa,p). For all the untreated and LS-treated specimens, the rate of increase in εa,p increases with the increasing cyclic stress ratio (CSR). A critical value of CSR exists for a given LS content (i.e. CSRCR), below which the specimens could remain stable irrespective of the number of load cycles. The longevity of treated specimens is improved significantly, especially for the specimens with LS = 2% by weight. As the treated specimens are subjected to a high level of cyclic stress, the excess pore pressure shows a decreasing trend with the increasing number of cycles, but then increases again rapidly when the failure becomes imminent. Compared with the untreated soil, the resilient modulus increases significantly as a result of LS treatment, especially for LS = 2%. When the LS > 2%, there is no additional advantage, implying that 2% LS treatment is an optimum for this soil.

Chen, Q, Indraratna, B & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2016, 'Behaviour of lignosulfonate-treated soil under cyclic loading', Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Ground Improvement, vol. 169, no. 2, pp. 109-119.
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In this paper, the effectiveness of an environmentally-friendly stabilising agent for soil, lignosulfonate (LS), is examined through a series of cyclic triaxial tests. The deformation characteristics of the contents of LS-treated sandy silt when subjected to undrained cyclic triaxial loading are investigated at different confining pressures and cyclic stress levels. Test results indicate that under a given confining pressure and cyclic deviator stress, the rate of increase in axial strain is controlled by the addition of LS, which results in a smaller value of plastic axial strain (εa,p). For all the untreated and LS-treated specimens, the rate of increase in εa,pincreases with the increasing cyclic stress ratio (CSR). A critical value of CSR exists for a given LS content (i.e. CSRCR), below which the specimens could remain stable irrespective of the number of load cycles. The longevity of treated specimens is improved significantly, especially for the specimens with LS = 2% by weight. As the treated specimens are subjected to a high level of cyclic stress, the excess pore pressure shows a decreasing trend with the increasing number of cycles, but then increases again rapidly when the failure becomes imminent. Compared with the untreated soil, the resilient modulus increases significantly as a result of LS treatment, especially for LS = 2%. When the LS > 2%, there is no additional advantage, implying that 2% LS treatment is an optimum for this soil.

Chen, Q, Indraratna, B, Carter, JP & Nimbalkar, S 2016, 'Isotropic–kinematic hardening model for coarse granular soils capturing particle breakage and cyclic loading under triaxial stress space', Canadian Geotechnical Journal, vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 646-658.
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In this paper, a simple but comprehensive cyclic stress–strain model that incorporates particle breakage for granular soils including ballast and rockfill has been proposed on the basis of bounding surface plasticity theory within a critical state framework. Particle breakage and its effects are captured by a critical state line that is translated in voids ratio–stress space according to the dissipated energy (plastic work), through a hyperbolic function. A comprehensive equation related to particle breakage is proposed for the stress–dilatancy relationship to capture the complex dilatancy of granular soils. By extending Masing’s rule to bounding surface plasticity theory and introducing a generalized homological centre, a combined isotropic–kinematic hardening rule and a mapping rule have been established to simulate more realistically the response of gravelly soils under cyclic loading. The applicability and accuracy of this model are demonstrated by comparing its predictions with experimental results for different types of granular soils, including rockfill, under both monotonic and cyclic loading conditions. This study shows that the model can capture the characteristic features of coarse granular soils under complex loading paths.

Chen, S, Yuan, X, Wang, Z, Guo, C, Liang, J, Wang, Z, Zhang, X & Zhang, J 2016, 'Interactive Visual Discovering of Movement Patterns from Sparsely Sampled Geo-tagged Social Media Data', IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 270-279.
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© 1995-2012 IEEE. Social media data with geotags can be used to track people's movements in their daily lives. By providing both rich text and movement information, visual analysis on social media data can be both interesting and challenging. In contrast to traditional movement data, the sparseness and irregularity of social media data increase the difficulty of extracting movement patterns. To facilitate the understanding of people's movements, we present an interactive visual analytics system to support the exploration of sparsely sampled trajectory data from social media. We propose a heuristic model to reduce the uncertainty caused by the nature of social media data. In the proposed system, users can filter and select reliable data from each derived movement category, based on the guidance of uncertainty model and interactive selection tools. By iteratively analyzing filtered movements, users can explore the semantics of movements, including the transportation methods, frequent visiting sequences and keyword descriptions. We provide two cases to demonstrate how our system can help users to explore the movement patterns.

Chen, W, Wu, G, He, T, Li, Z, Guo, Z, Liu, H, Huang, Z & Chen, P 2016, 'An improved synthesis of unsolvated NaB 3 H 8 and its application in preparing Na 2 B 12 H 12', International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, vol. 41, no. 34, pp. 15471-15476.
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Octahydrotriborates are potential hydrogen storage materials and chemical vapor deposition precursors to boride films. Their syntheses have been quite challenging, however. In this paper, an improved facile route for the preparation of unsolvated sodium octahydrotriborate (NaB3H8), which is an important precursor to other octahydrotriborates and derivatives, is reported. The key steps in the synthesis involve dispersing Na finely in inert media and preparing fresh tetrahydrofuran (THF)·BH3at room temperature. High purity unsolvated NaB3H8can be obtained in tens of grams or more in one batch, depending on the reactor size. Using NaB3H8as the precursor, sodium dodecaborate (Na2B12H12) has been successfully synthesized. Both octahydrotriborates and dodecaborates have been observed as intermediates during the thermal dehydrogenation of borohydrides, and their facile syntheses would facilitate mechanistic studies on the hydrogen storage of borohydrides, among other potential applications.

Chen, W, Yu, H, Wu, G, He, T, Li, Z, Guo, Z, Liu, H, Huang, Z & Chen, P 2016, 'Ammonium Aminodiboranate: A Long‐Sought Isomer of Diammoniate of Diborane and Ammonia Borane Dimer', Chemistry – A European Journal, vol. 22, no. 23, pp. 7727-7729.
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AbstractAmmonium aminodiboranate ([NH4][BH3NH2BH3]) is a long‐sought isomer of diammoniate of diborane ([NH3BH2NH3][BH4]) and ammonia borane (NH3BH3) dimer. Our results show that [NH4][BH3NH2BH3] is stable in tetrahydrofuran at −18 °C and decomposes rapidly to NH3BH2NH2BH3 and H2 at elevated temperatures. The decomposition pathway is dictated by the dihydrogen bonding between Hδ+ on NH4+ and Hδ− on BH3, as confirmed by theoretical calculations. This is in contrast to the interconversion between [NH3BH2NH3][BH4] and (NH3BH3)2, although all three have dihydrogen bonds and the same stoichiometry.

Chen, X & Ni, B-J 2016, 'Anaerobic conversion of hydrogen and carbon dioxide to fatty acids production in a membrane biofilm reactor: A modeling approach', Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 306, pp. 1092-1098.
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Biological conversion of gaseous compounds (e.g., H2/CO2) into valuable liquid fuels or chemicals using mixed culture is a promising technology, which could be effectively and efficiently implemented in a membrane biofilm reactor (MBfR) with gas being supplied from inside of membranes. In this study, a model integrating multiple production pathways of fatty acids (including acetate, butyrate, and caproate) was developed and tested using reported mixed culture experimental data from a lab-scale MBfR fed with 60% H2 and 40% CO2. The uncertainty of the four estimated model parameters was explored by a sensitivity analysis. With the developed model, the impacts of key process parameters (i.e., gas supply and hydraulic retention time (HRT)) on the performance of the MBfR converting H2/CO2 to fatty acids were then investigated. The results show that a high HRT is imperative for chain elongation to produce a higher proportion of caproate with a higher added value. A proper gas supply should be provided to favour the speciation of biological gas conversion products as well as to fully exploit the conversion capacity of the MBfR. The findings of this work provide useful information for a better understanding and further applications of this MBfR technology for mixed culture syngas fermentation.

Chen, X & Ni, B-J 2016, 'Model-based evaluation on simultaneous nitrate and arsenite removal in a membrane biofilm reactor', Chemical Engineering Science, vol. 152, pp. 488-496.
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Nitrate (NO3-) and arsenite (As(III)) are two major contaminants in groundwater, which could cause significant risks to human wellbeing and ecological system. In this work, a single-stage membrane biofilm reactor (MBfR) coupling denitrifying anaerobic methane (CH4) oxidation (DAMO) and autotrophic As(III) oxidation processes was proposed for the first time to achieve the in-situ or ex-situ simultaneous removal of NO3- and As(III) from groundwater. CH4 is supplied to the MBfR through gas-permeable membranes while NO3- and As(III) are provided in the bulk liquid. A mathematical model was developed by integrating the well-established biokinetics of DAMO microorganisms with the kinetics of As(III)-oxidizing bacteria (AsOB). The key parameter values of AsOB were specifically estimated using the batch experimental data of an enriched pure AsOB culture in conjunction with thermodynamic state calculations. The maximum specific growth rate of AsOB (μAsOB) and the yield coefficient for AsOB (YAsOB) were determined to be 0.00161 h-1 and 0.016 g COD g-1 As, respectively. The modeling results demonstrated that both influent surface loading (or hydraulic retention time (HRT)) and CH4 surface loading played important roles in controlling the steady-state microbial community structure and thus significantly affected the system performance. The As(III)/NO3- ratio between 0.1 and 2 g As g-1 NO3--N in the influent would have no significant impact on the overall system performance despite the varying microbial composition in the biofilm. Through properly adjusting the influent surface loading (or HRT) and CH4 surface loading whilst maintaining a sufficient biofilm thickness at a suitable influent As(III)/NO3- ratio, the maximum removal efficiencies of total nitrogen and As(III) could both reach above 95.0%, accompanied by a high CH4 utilization efficiency of up to 99.0%.

Chen, X, Guo, J, Xie, G, Yuan, Z & Ni, B 2016, 'Achieving complete nitrogen removal by coupling nitritation‐anammox and methane‐dependent denitrification: A model‐based study', Biotechnology and Bioengineering, vol. 113, no. 5, pp. 1035-1045.
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ABSTRACTThe discovery of denitrifying anaerobic methane oxidation (DAMO) processes enables the complete nitrogen removal from wastewater by utilizing the methane produced on site from anaerobic digesters. This model‐based study investigated the mechanisms and operational window for efficient nitrogen removal by coupling nitritation‐anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox) and methane‐dependent denitrification in membrane biofilm reactors (MBfRs). A mathematical model was applied to describe the microbial interactions among Anammox bacteria, DAMO archaea, and DAMO bacteria. The model sufficiently described the batch experimental data from an MBfR containing an Anammox‐DAMO biofilm with different feeding nitrogen compositions, which confirmed the validity of the model. The effects of process parameters on the system performance and microbial community structure could therefore be reliably evaluated. The impacts of nitritation produced NO2−/NH4+ ratio, methane supply, biofilm thickness and total nitrogen (TN) surface loading were comprehensively investigated with the model. Results showed that the optimum NO2−/NH4+ ratio produced from nitritation for the Anammox‐DAMO biofilm system was around 1.0 in order to achieve the maximum TN removal (over 99.0%), independent on TN surface loading. The corresponding optimal methane supply increased while the associated methane utilization efficiency decreased with the increase of TN surface loading. The cooperation between DAMO organisms and Anammox bacteria played the key role in the TN removal. Based on these results, the proof‐of‐concept feasibility of a single‐stage MBfR coupling nitritation‐Anammox‐DAMO for complete nitrogen removal was also tested through integrating the model with ammonia‐oxi...

Chen, X, Li, J, Li, Y & Gu, X 2016, 'Lyapunov-based Semi-active Control of Adaptive Base Isolation System employing Magnetorheological Elastomer base isolators', Earthquakes and Structures, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 1077-1099.
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© 2016 Techno-Press, Ltd. One of the main shortcomings in the current passive base isolation system is lack of adaptability. The recent research and development of a novel adaptive seismic isolator based on magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) material has created an opportunity to add adaptability to base isolation systems for civil structures. The new MRE based base isolator is able to significantly alter its shear modulus or lateral stiffness with the applied magnetic field or electric current, which makes it a competitive candidate to develop an adaptive base isolation system. This paper aims at exploring suitable control algorithms for such adaptive base isolation system by developing a close-loop semi-active control system for a building structure equipped with MRE base isolators. The MRE base isolator is simulated by a numerical model derived from experimental characterization based on the Bouc-Wen Model, which is able to describe the forcedisplacement response of the device accurately. The parameters of Bouc-Wen Model such as the stiffness and the damping coefficients are described as functions of the applied current. The state-space model is built by analyzing the dynamic property of the structure embedded with MRE base isolators. A Lyapunov-based controller is designed to adaptively vary the current applied to MRE base isolator to suppress the quakeinduced vibrations. The proposed control method is applied to a widely used benchmark base-isolated structure by numerical simulation. The performance of the adaptive base isolation system was evaluated through comparison with optimal passive base isolation system and a passive base isolation system with optimized base shear. It is concluded that the adaptive base isolation system with proposed Lyapunov-based semi-active control surpasses the performance of other two passive systems in protecting the civil structures under seismic events.

Chen, X, Liu, Y, Peng, L, Yuan, Z & Ni, B-J 2016, 'Model-Based Feasibility Assessment of Membrane Biofilm Reactor to Achieve Simultaneous Ammonium, Dissolved Methane, and Sulfide Removal from Anaerobic Digestion Liquor', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1.
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AbstractIn this study, the membrane biofilm reactor (MBfR) is proposed to achieve simultaneous removal of ammonium, dissolved methane, and sulfide from main-stream and side-stream anaerobic digestion liquors. To avoid dissolved methane stripping, oxygen is introduced through gas-permeable membranes, which also from the substratum for the growth of a biofilm likely comprising ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB), anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox) bacteria, denitrifying anaerobic methane oxidation (DAMO) microorganisms, aerobic methane oxidizing bacteria (MOB), and sulfur oxidizing bacteria (SOB). A mathematical model is developed and applied to assess the feasibility of such a system and the associated microbial community structure under different operational conditions. The simulation studies demonstrate the feasibility of achieving high-level (>97.0%), simultaneous removal of ammonium, dissolved methane, and sulfide in the MBfRs from both main-stream and side-stream anaerobic digestion liquors through adjusting the influent surface loading (or hydraulic retention time (HRT)) and the oxygen surface loading. The optimal HRT was found to be inversely proportional to the corresponding oxygen surface loading. Under the optimal operational conditions, AOB, DAMO bacteria, MOB, and SOB dominate the biofilm of the main-stream MBfR, while AOB, Anammox bacteria, DAMO bacteria, and SOB coexist in the side-stream MBfR to remove ammonium, dissolved methane, and sulfide simultaneously.

Chen, X, Ni, W, Wang, X & Sun, Y 2016, 'Optimal Quality-of-Service Scheduling for Energy-Harvesting Powered Wireless Communications', IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 15, no. 5, pp. 3269-3280.
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Chen, Y, Wang, J, Xu, M, He, X & Lu, H 2016, 'A unified model sharing framework for moving object detection', Signal Processing, vol. 124, pp. 72-80.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Millions of surveillance cameras have been installed in public areas, producing vast amounts of video data every day. It is an urgent need to develop intelligent techniques to automatically detect and segment moving objects which have wide applications. Various approaches have been developed for moving object detection based on background modeling in the literature. Most of them focus on temporal information but partly or totally ignore spatial information, bringing about sensitivity to noise and background motion. In this paper, we propose a unified model sharing framework for moving object detection. To begin with, to exploit the spatial-temporal correlation across different pixels, we establish a many-to-one correspondence by model sharing between pixels, and a pixel is labeled into foreground or background by searching an optimal matched model in the neighborhood. Then a random sampling strategy is introduced for online update of the shared models. In this way, we can reduce the total number of models dramatically and match a proper model for each pixel accurately. Furthermore, existing approaches can be naturally embedded into the proposed sharing framework. Two popular approaches, statistical model and sample consensus model, are used to verify the effectiveness. Experiments and comparisons on ChangeDetection benchmark 2014 demonstrate the superiority of the model sharing solution.

Chen, Y, Yang, J, Luo, L, Zhang, H, Qian, J, Tai, Y & Zhang, J 2016, 'Adaptive noise dictionary construction via IRRPCA for face recognition', Pattern Recognition, vol. 59, pp. 26-41.
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Chen, Y, Zhen, YG, Hu, HY, Liang, J & Ma, KL 2016, 'Visualization technique for multi-attribute in hierarchical structure', Ruan Jian Xue Bao/Journal of Software, vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 1091-1102.
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Nowadays, there is increasing need to analyze the complex data with both hierarchical and multi-attributes in many fields such as food safety, stock market, and network security. The visual analytics appeared in recent years provides a good solution to analyze this kind of data. So far, many visualization methods for multi-dimensional data and hierarchical data, the typical data objects in the field of information visualization, have been presented to solve data analyzing problems effectively. However, the existing solutions can't meet requirements of visual analysis for the complex data with both multi-dimensional and hierarchical attributes. This paper presents a technology named Multi-Coordinate in Treemap (MCT), which combines rectangle treemap and multi-dimensional coordinates techniques. MCT uses treemap created with Squarified and Strip layout algorithm to represent hierarchical structure, uses four edges of treemap's rectangular node as the attribute axis, and through mapping property values to attribute axis, connecting attribute points and fitting curve, to achieve visualization of multi-attribute in hierarchical structure. This work applies MCT technology to visualize pesticide residue detection data and implements the visualization for detecting excessive pesticide residue in fruits and vegetables distributed in each provinces of China. This technology provides an efficient analysis tool for field experts. MCT can also be applied in other fields which require visual analysis of complex data with both hierarchical and multi-attribute.

Chen, Y, Zhou, Y, Yang, S, Li, JJ, Li, X, Ma, Y, Hou, Y, Jiang, N, Xu, C, Zhang, S, Zeng, R, Tu, M & Yu, B 2016, 'Novel bone substitute composed of chitosan and strontium-doped α-calcium sulfate hemihydrate: Fabrication, characterisation and evaluation of biocompatibility', Materials Science and Engineering: C, vol. 66, pp. 84-91.
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Calcium sulfate is in routine clinical use as a bone substitute, offering the benefits of biodegradability, biocompatibility and a long history of use in bone repair. The osteoconductive properties of calcium sulfate may be further improved by doping with strontium ions. Nevertheless, the high degradation rate of calcium sulfate may impede bone healing as substantial material degradation may occur before the healing process is complete. The purpose of this study is to develop a novel composite bone substitute composed of chitosan and strontium-doped α-calcium sulfate hemihydrate in the form of microcapsules, which can promote osteogenesis while matching the natural rate of bone healing. The developed microcapsules exhibited controlled degradation that facilitated the sustained release of strontium ions. In vitro testing showed that the microcapsules had minimal cytotoxicity and ability to inhibit bacterial growth. In vivo testing in a mouse model showed the absence of genetic toxicity and low inflammatory potential of the microcapsules. The novel microcapsules developed in this study demonstrated suitable degradation characteristics for bone repair as well as favourable in vitro and in vivo behaviour, and hold promise for use as an alternative bone substitute in orthopaedic surgery.

Chen, Y-C, Chen, W-H, Lin, B-J, Chang, J-S & Ong, HC 2016, 'Impact of torrefaction on the composition, structure and reactivity of a microalga residue', Applied Energy, vol. 181, pp. 110-119.
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Cheng, H-C & Hsieh, M-H 2016, 'Characterisations of Matrix and Operator-Valued $Φ$-Entropies, and Operator Efron-Stein Inequalities', Proc. R. Soc. A, vol. 472, no. 2187, p. 2187.
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We derive new characterisations of the matrix $\mathrm{\Phi}$-entropyfunctionals introduced in [Electron.~J.~Probab., 19(20): 1--30, 2014]. Notably,all known equivalent characterisations of the classical $\Phi$-entropies havetheir matrix correspondences. Next, we propose an operator-valuedgeneralisation of the matrix $\Phi$-entropy functionals, and prove theirsubadditivity under L\'owner partial ordering. Our results demonstrate that thesubadditivity of operator-valued $\Phi$-entropies is equivalent to theconvexity of various related functions. This result can be used to demonstratean interesting result in quantum information theory: the matrix $\Phi$-entropyof a quantum ensemble is monotone under unital quantum channels. Finally, wederive the operator Efron-Stein inequality to bound the operator-valuedvariance of a random matrix.

Cheng, H-C & Hsieh, M-H 2016, 'On the Concavity of Auxiliary Function in Classical-Quantum Channels', IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory, 62(10), 5960 - 5965, 2016, vol. 62, no. 10, pp. 5960-5965.
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The auxiliary function of a classical channel appears in two fundamentalquantities that upper and lower bound the error probability, respectively. Acrucial property of the auxiliary function is its concavity, which leads toseveral important results in finite block length analysis. In this paper, weprove that the auxiliary function of a classical-quantum channel also enjoysthe same concave property, extending an earlier partial result to its fullgenerality. The key component in our proof is a beautiful result of geometricmeans of operators.

Cheng, HC, Hsieh, MH & Yeh, PC 2016, 'The learnability of unknown quantum measurements', Quantum Information and Computation, vol. 16, no. 7-8, pp. 615-656.
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In this work, we provide an elegant framework to analyze learning matrices in the Schatten class by taking advantage of a recently developed methodology—matrix concentration inequalities. We establish the fat-shattering dimension, Rademacher/Gaussian complexity, and the entropy number of learning bounded operators and trace class operators. By characterising the tasks of learning quantum states and two-outcome quantum measurements into learning matrices in the Schatten-1 and ∞ classes, our proposed approach directly solves the sample complexity problems of learning quantum states and quantum measurements. Our main result in the paper is that, for learning an unknown quantum measurement, the upper bound, given by the fat-shattering dimension, is linearly proportional to the dimension of the underlying Hilbert space. Learning an unknown quantum state becomes a dual problem to ours, and as a byproduct, we can recover Aaronson’s famous result [Proc. R. Soc. A 463, 3089–3144 (2007)] solely using a classical machine learning technique. In addition, other famous complexity measures like covering numbers and Rademacher/Gaussian complexities are derived explicitly under the same framework. We are able to connect measures of sample complexity with various areas in quantum information science, e.g. quantum state/measurement tomography, quantum state discrimination and quantum random access codes, which may be of independent interest. Lastly, with the assistance of general Bloch-sphere representation, we show that learning quantum measurements/states can be mathematically formulated as a neural network. Consequently, classical ML algorithms can be applied to efficiently accomplish the two quantum learning tasks.

Cheng, J, Kim, J, Jiang, Z & Che, W 2016, 'Dual quaternion-based graphical SLAM', Robotics and Autonomous Systems, vol. 77, pp. 15-24.
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Cheng, S, Yu, L, Zhang, D, Huo, L & Ji, J 2016, 'Consensus of second-order multi-agent systems using partial agents' velocity measurements', NONLINEAR DYNAMICS, vol. 86, no. 3, pp. 1927-1935.
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Cheng, X, Jiang, Z, Monaghan, BJ, Wei, D, Longbottom, RJ, Zhao, J, Peng, J, Luo, M, Ma, L, Luo, S & Jiang, L 2016, 'Breakaway oxidation behaviour of ferritic stainless steels at 1150°C in humid air', Corrosion Science, vol. 108, pp. 11-22.
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Chitambar, E & Hsieh, M-H 2016, 'Round Complexity in the Local Transformations of Quantum and Classical States', Nature Communications, vol. 8, no. 1.
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A natural operational paradigm for distributed quantum and classicalinformation processing involves local operations coordinated by multiple roundsof public communication. In this paper we consider the minimum number ofcommunication rounds needed to perform the locality-constrained task ofentanglement transformation and the analogous classical task of secrecymanipulation. Specifically we address whether bipartite mixed entanglement canalways be converted into pure entanglement or whether unsecure classicalcorrelations can always be transformed into secret shared randomness usinglocal operations and a bounded number of communication exchanges. Our maincontribution in this paper is an explicit construction of quantum and classicalstate transformations which, for any given $r$, can be achieved using $r$rounds of classical communication exchanges but no fewer. Our results revealthat highly complex communication protocols are indeed necessary to fullyharness the information-theoretic resources contained in general quantum andclassical states. The major technical contribution of this manuscript lies inproving lower bounds for the required number of communication exchanges usingthe notion of common information and various lemmas built upon it. We propose aclassical analog to the Schmidt rank of a bipartite quantum state which we callthe secrecy rank, and we show that it is a monotone under stochastic localclassical operations.

Choi, S, Tran, TT, Elbadawi, C, Lobo, C, Wang, X, Juodkazis, S, Seniutinas, G, Toth, M & Aharonovich, I 2016, 'Engineering and Localization of Quantum Emitters in Large Hexagonal Boron Nitride Layers', ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES, vol. 8, no. 43, pp. 29642-29648.
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Hexagonal boron nitride is a wide-band-gap van der Waals material that has recently emerged as a promising platform for quantum photonics experiments. In this work, we study the formation and localization of narrowband quantum emitters in large flakes (up to tens of micrometers wide) of hexagonal boron nitride. The emitters can be activated in as-grown hexagonal boron nitride by electron irradiation or high-temperature annealing, and the emitter formation probability can be increased by ion implantation or focused laser irradiation of the as-grown material. Interestingly, we show that the emitters are always localized at the edges of the flakes, unlike most luminescent point defects in three-dimensional materials. Our results constitute an important step on the roadmap of deploying hexagonal boron nitride in nanophotonics applications.

Choi, Y, Vigneswaran, S & Lee, S 2016, 'Evaluation of fouling potential and power density in pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) by fouling index', Desalination, vol. 389, pp. 215-223.
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Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is an osmotically-driven membrane process to utilize salinity gradient power (SGP), which is renewable energy originated from the different salt concentration between seawater and fresh water. However, PRO suffers from membrane fouling, leading to decreased water permeability and energy density. Although prediction of fouling is important for its mitigation and control, little information is available on fouling potential in PRO process. Accordingly, this study aims at the investigation of fouling propensity of PRO membranes under different conditions. Feed solutions that have different fouling potential were used in a laboratory-scale PRO system. Silt density index (SDI) and modified fouling index (MFI) were applied as indicators for assessing PRO membrane fouling. Results showed that the power density of PRO decreases with an increase of the fouling potential of the feed waters. MFI was proposed to be a fouling index for PRO because it showed a better correlation with the power density than SDI and turbidity. When MFI value is lower than 1400s/L2, the efficiency is higher than 70%, indicating that 30% loss in energy recovery compared to the case with D.I. water. This suggests that pretreatment requirements for PRO may be determined based on MFI results.

Choo, Y, Hu, H, Toth, K & Osuji, CO 2016, 'Sequential deposition of block copolymer thin films and formation of lamellar heterolattices by electrospray deposition', Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics, vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 247-253.
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ABSTRACTThe delivery of sub‐micron droplets of dilute polymer solutions to a heated substrate by electrospray atomization enabled precisely controlled and continuous deposition, or growth, of block copolymer thin films. It also provided, in principle, the ability to fabricate heterolattice materials using sequential depositions. This possibility was explored and the morphology of resulting composite films produced by such sequential electrospray deposition (ESD) of lamellar diblock copolymers of poly(styrene‐b‐4‐vinylpyridine) with differing molecular weights was examined. The structure of the heterolattice interface was a strong function of temperature. Sharp interfaces with abrupt changes in the lamellar period were observed at lower deposition temperatures, while higher temperatures produced a smooth variation in the lamellar period from one molecular weight to the next. The ordering kinetics of a secondary high molecular weight layer could be substantially enhanced depending on the molecular weight of the polymer present in the underlying primary layer. These findings were discussed in the context of temperature and molecular weight dependent diffusion dynamics of the polymers in the melt which control the inter‐mixing of the layers and therefore the structure of the heterolattice interface. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2016, 54, 247–253

Choudhary, K, Indraratna, B & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2016, 'Pore pressure based method to quantify smear around a vertical drain', Géotechnique Letters, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 211-215.
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Radial consolidation testing of Ballina clay (New South Wales, Australia) was carried out using a large-scale consolidometer 650 mm in diameter. In this study, the characteristics of the smear zone were evaluated on the basis of hydraulic gradient changes derived from the measured excess pore pressure data in the radial direction. The extent of the smear zone determined using this technique is compared with past approaches, where the variations in water content and lateral permeability were adopted to evaluate smear. The approach proposed herein based on the change of hydraulic gradient coincides with the previous two methods, and the smear zone could be established at almost 2·5 times the effective mandrel diameter. A good agreement is also found between the theoretical radial consolidation predictions, after incorporating the smear zone characteristics and the measured time–settlement curve. The proposed method for the determination of smear zone extent can be carried out during consolidation with minimum disturbance to soil, provided a sufficient number of pore pressure transducers are installed. It also eliminates the need for a number of soil samples and high-quality soil sampling technique after the installation of the drain.

Chowdhury, L, Khan, MI, Deb, K & Kamal, S 2016, 'MetaG: a graph-based metagenomic gene analysis for big DNA data', Network Modeling Analysis in Health Informatics and Bioinformatics, vol. 5, no. 1.
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Chua, L, Head, K, Thomas, P & Stuart, B 2016, 'Micro-characterisation of the colour palette of ceremonial objects from the Papua New Guinea Highlands: Transition from natural to synthetic pigments', Microchemical Journal, vol. 124, pp. 547-558.
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Chua, L, Maynard-Casely, HE, Thomas, PS, Head, K & Stuart, BH 2016, 'Characterisation of blue pigments from ceremonial objects of the Southern Highlands in Papua New Guinea using vibrational spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction', Vibrational Spectroscopy, vol. 85, pp. 43-47.
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Chuang, S-W, Chuang, C-H, Yu, Y-H, King, J-T & Lin, C-T 2016, 'EEG Alpha and Gamma Modulators Mediate Motion Sickness-Related Spectral Responses', International Journal of Neural Systems, vol. 26, no. 02, pp. 1650007-1650007.
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Motion sickness (MS) is a common experience of travelers. To provide insights into brain dynamics associated with MS, this study recruited 19 subjects to participate in an electroencephalogram (EEG) experiment in a virtual-reality driving environment. When riding on consecutive winding roads, subjects experienced postural instability and sensory conflict between visual and vestibular stimuli. Meanwhile, subjects rated their level of MS on a six-point scale. Independent component analysis (ICA) was used to separate the filtered EEG signals into maximally temporally independent components (ICs). Then, reduced logarithmic spectra of ICs of interest, using principal component analysis, were decomposed by ICA again to find spectrally fixed and temporally independent modulators (IMs). Results demonstrated that a higher degree of MS accompanied increased activation of alpha ([Formula: see text]) and gamma ([Formula: see text]) IMs across remote-independent brain processes, covering motor, parietal and occipital areas. This co-modulatory spectral change in alpha and gamma bands revealed the neurophysiological demand to regulate conflicts among multi-modal sensory systems during MS.

Clegg, SR, Burdon, S & Nikolova, N 2016, 'The Outsourcing Debate: Theories and Findings', Journal of Management and Organization, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 37-52.
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This paper addresses the issue of services outsourcing by looking at both theoretical and empirical arguments. Previous debates have often concentrated on the motives for adopting the practice rather than the outcomes. These various themes can be discussed under the twin concepts of the cost and efficiency argument and the fashion and isomorphism approach. Our research provides strong evidence to support the cost efficiency argument. On average, significant cost advantages were sought and delivered, as well as improvements in service levels and systems. Many organisations in the current environment in Australia look at outsourcing not only as a method of increasing efficiency but also as gaining competitive advantage through harnessing the superior specialist skills and experience of the outsourcing provider who takes someone's back office function and transforms them into their front office. A 10% net cost saving was considered necessary by an organisation before embarking on an organisational change that was disruptive and in some cases involved downside risks. Even if other efficiency gains such as service levels or systems improvements were required, so were 10%+ cost savings. A number of the organisations thought their skills in managing outsourcing had improved considerably such that they were in a position to move from a client/server relationship to a partnership model (i.e. an alliance).

Clement, S, Deng, W, Camilleri, E, Wilson, BC & Goldys, EM 2016, 'X-ray induced singlet oxygen generation by nanoparticle-photosensitizer conjugates for photodynamic therapy: determination of singlet oxygen quantum yield', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1, p. 19954.
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AbstractSinglet oxygen is a primary cytotoxic agent in photodynamic therapy. We show that CeF3 nanoparticles, pure as well as conjugated through electrostatic interaction with the photosensitizer verteporfin, are able to generate singlet oxygen as a result of UV light and 8 keV X-ray irradiation. The X-ray stimulated singlet oxygen quantum yield was determined to be 0.79 ± 0.05 for the conjugate with 31 verteporfin molecules per CeF3 nanoparticle, the highest conjugation level used. From this result we estimate the singlet oxygen dose generated from CeF3-verteporfin conjugates for a therapeutic dose of 60 Gy of ionizing radiation at energies of 6 MeV and 30 keV to be (1.2 ± 0.7) × 108 and (2.0 ± 0.1) × 109 singlet oxygen molecules per cell, respectively. These are comparable with cytotoxic doses of 5 × 107–2 × 109 singlet oxygen molecules per cell reported in the literature for photodynamic therapy using light activation. We confirmed that the CeF3-VP conjugates enhanced cell killing with 6 MeV radiation. This work confirms the feasibility of using X- or γ- ray activated nanoparticle-photosensitizer conjugates, either to supplement the radiation treatment of cancer, or as an independent treatment modality.

Cliff, OM, Prokopenko, M & Fitch, R 2016, 'An Information Criterion for Inferring Coupling in Distributed Dynamical Systems', Front. Robot. AI 3(71), 2016, vol. 3, no. NOV, pp. 1-9.
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The behaviour of many real-world phenomena can be modelled by nonlineardynamical systems whereby a latent system state is observed through a filter.We are interested in interacting subsystems of this form, which we model by aset of coupled maps as a synchronous update graph dynamical systems.Specifically, we study the structure learning problem for spatially distributeddynamical systems coupled via a directed acyclic graph. Unlike establishedstructure learning procedures that find locally maximum posterior probabilitiesof a network structure containing latent variables, our work exploits theproperties of dynamical systems to compute globally optimal approximations ofthese distributions. We arrive at this result by the use of time delayembedding theorems. Taking an information-theoretic perspective, we show thatthe log-likelihood has an intuitive interpretation in terms of informationtransfer.

Connerty, P, Bajan, S, Remenyi, J, Fuller-Pace, FV & Hutvagner, G 2016, 'The miRNA biogenesis factors, p72/DDX17 and KHSRP regulate the protein level of Ago2 in human cells', Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Gene Regulatory Mechanisms, vol. 1859, no. 10, pp. 1299-1305.
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© 2016 Elsevier B.V. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short (21–23 nt long) RNAs that post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression in plants and animals. They are key regulators in all biological processes. In mammalian cells miRNAs are loaded into one of the four members of the Argonaute (Ago) protein family to form the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC). RISCs inhibit the translation of mRNAs that share sequence complementarity with their loaded miRNAs. miRNA processing and miRNA-mediated gene regulation are highly regulated processes and involve many RNA-binding proteins as auxiliary factors. Here we show that the two RNA-binding proteins, p72 and KHSRP, both with known roles in promoting miRNA biogenesis, regulate the protein level of human Ago2 in transformed human cells. We determined that p72 and KHSRP influence Ago2 stability by regulating miRNA levels in the cell and that loss of p72/KHSRP results in a decrease of unloaded Ago2.

Consoli, NC, da Rocha, CG & Maghous, S 2016, 'Strategies for Developing More Sustainable Dosages for Soil–Coal Fly Ash–Lime Blends', Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, vol. 28, no. 11, pp. 04016130-04016130.
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Cooper, O, Wang, B, Brown, CL, Tiralongo, J & Iacopi, F 2016, 'Toward Label-Free Biosensing With Silicon Carbide: A Review', IEEE Access, vol. 4, pp. 477-497.
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© 2013 IEEE. Recent innovation in microelectrical-mechanical systems (MEMSs) and plasmonics-based technologies has opened up perspectives for label-free sensing of biological and chemical analytes. Label-free sensing would enable increased sensitivity and miniaturization capabilities for biosensing devices. Silicon carbide is a semiconductor material that happens to possess ideal properties for augmenting both the MEMS/nanoelectromechanical systems and the plasmonics routes. It has remarkable chemical and biological inertness resulting in a high degree of biocompatibility, as well as pronounced mechanical resilience. In addition, it is an efficient (low loss) plasmonic metamaterial. Its cubic polytype can be grown on silicon wafers, allowing easy micromachining into building blocks for sensing devices, scalable to large volume production. Finally, silicon carbide is an ideal starting material for a controlled, wafer-scale growth of graphene, offering an additional wealth of excellent properties for nanosensing. The combination of all of these capabilities makes silicon carbide an outstanding material platform for the realization of label-free, analyte-specific, and highly sensitive biochemical molecule detection systems. These technologies will open exciting horizons in terms of high throughput, efficient drug screening, and early pathogen detection.

Corsetti, S, McGloin, D & Kiefer, J 2016, 'Comparison of Raman and IR spectroscopy for quantitative analysis of gasoline/ethanol blends', Fuel, vol. 166, pp. 488-494.
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Ethanol is commonly admixed to petrochemical gasoline, and its amount in the fuel blend can influence the performance of an engine. The ethanol content in a commercial fuel can vary. To ensure reliable engine operation, control strategies based on a measurement of the composition need to be developed. Two possible methods to determine the ethanol content in ethanol/gasoline blends are Raman and IR spectroscopy. We compare both techniques for quantitative measurements in systematically varied blends of ethanol and a gasoline surrogate. For each method, two different approaches for data evaluation are tested and compared: Firstly, the calibration of the intensity ratio of characteristic peaks as function of composition; secondly, a principal component regression (PCR). Both methods are found to have comparable uncertainty. For the evaluation of the Raman spectra, the PCR method yielded better accuracy than the intensity ratio approach. In addition, a detailed investigation of the influence of noise in the signal is presented. When the full IR spectra were evaluated by PCR, even high noise levels did not reduce the measurement accuracy significantly.

Cowley, A, Ivankovic, A, Wong, CS, Bennett, NS, Danilewsky, AN, Gonzalez, M, Cherman, V, Vandevelde, B, De Wolf, I & McNally, PJ 2016, 'B-Spline X-Ray Diffraction Imaging — Rapid non-destructive measurement of die warpage in ball grid array packages', Microelectronics Reliability, vol. 59, pp. 108-116.
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Next generation 'More than Moore' integrated circuit (IC) technology will rely increasingly on the benefits attributable to advanced packaging (www.itrs.net [1]). In these increasingly heterogeneous systems, the individual semiconductor die is becoming much thinner (25 to 50 μm, typically) and multiple dies can be stacked upon each other. It is difficult to assess non-destructively, non-invasively and in situ the stress or warpage of the semiconductor die inside these chip packages and conventional approaches tend to monitor the warpage of the package rather than the die. This paper comprises an account of a relatively new technique, which we call B-Spline X-Ray Diffraction Imaging (B-XRDI) and its application, in this instance, to the non-destructive mapping of Si semiconductor die lattice misorientation inside wire bonded encapsulated Low-profile Fine-pitch Ball Grid Array (LFPGA) packages. B-XRDI is an x-ray diffraction imaging technique which allows the user to reconstruct from a series of section x-ray topographic images a full profile of the warpage of the silicon semiconductor die inside such a chip package. There is no requirement for pre-treatment or pre-processing of the chip package and we show that synchrotron-based B-XRDI mapping of wafer warpage can be achieved with angular tilt resolutions of the order of 50 μrad - 0.003° in times as short as 9-180 s (worst case X-Y spatial resolution = 100 μm) for a full 8.7 mm × 8.7 mm semiconductor die inside the fully encapsulated LFBGA packages. We confirm the usefulness of the technique by correlating our data with conventional warpage measurements performed by mechanical and interferometric profilometry and finite element modelling (FEM). We suggest that future developments will lead to real-time, or near real-time, mapping of thermomechanical stresses during chip packaging processes, which can run from bare wafer through to a fully encapsulated chip package.

Cropley, JE, Eaton, SA, Aiken, A, Young, PE, Giannoulatou, E, Ho, JWK, Buckland, ME, Keam, SP, Hutvagner, G, Humphreys, DT, Langley, KG, Henstridge, DC, Martin, DIK, Febbraio, MA & Suter, CM 2016, 'Male-lineage transmission of an acquired metabolic phenotype induced by grand-paternal obesity', Molecular Metabolism, vol. 5, no. 8, pp. 699-708.
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© 2016 The Author(s) Objective Parental obesity can induce metabolic phenotypes in offspring independent of the inherited DNA sequence. Here we asked whether such non-genetic acquired metabolic traits can be passed on to a second generation that has never been exposed to obesity, even as germ cells. Methods We examined the F1, F2, and F3 a/a offspring derived from F0 matings of obese prediabetic Avy/a sires and lean a/a dams. After F0, only lean a/a mice were used for breeding. Results We found that F1 sons of obese founder males exhibited defects in glucose and lipid metabolism, but only upon a post-weaning dietary challenge. F1 males transmitted these defects to their own male progeny (F2) in the absence of the dietary challenge, but the phenotype was largely attenuated by F3. The sperm of F1 males exhibited changes in the abundance of several small RNA species, including the recently reported diet-responsive tRNA-derived fragments. Conclusions These data indicate that induced metabolic phenotypes may be propagated for a generation beyond any direct exposure to an inducing factor. This non-genetic inheritance likely occurs via the actions of sperm noncoding RNA.

Cui, H, Wang, X, Lin, W, Zhou, J, Eberl, S, Feng, D & Fulham, M 2016, 'Primary lung tumor segmentation from PET–CT volumes with spatial–topological constraint', International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 19-29.
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Cui, P, Liu, H, Aggarwal, C & Wang, F 2016, 'Uncovering and Predicting Human Behaviors', IEEE Intelligent Systems, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 77-88.
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da M. Costa, LP, McKenzie, TG, Schwarz, KN, Fu, Q & Qiao, GG 2016, 'Observed Photoenhancement of RAFT Polymerizations under Fume Hood Lighting', ACS Macro Letters, vol. 5, no. 11, pp. 1287-1292.
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Given the recent findings of exogenous radical initiator/catalyst-free reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) radical polymerization under both UV and visible light irradiation, the effect of standard laboratory lighting conditions (fluorescent tube lights) on traditional RAFT reactions, that is, those conducted in the presence of a thermally activated radical initiator, remains unknown. This is investigated in the current study, where a significant 'photoenhancement' is observed for most cases under typical RAFT reaction conditions, indicating that fume hood lights can contribute to the generation of radicals in RAFT reactions. Given the observed emission spectrum of a typical fluorescent light source, the photoenhancement is proposed to occur through a visible light activation pathway. These findings are crucial for ensuring maximum reproducibility of controlled polymerizations conducted in the presence of typical sources of irradiation encountered in a standard chemical laboratory.

da Rocha, CG, Passuello, A, Consoli, NC, Quiñónez Samaniego, RA & Kanazawa, NM 2016, 'Life cycle assessment for soil stabilization dosages: A study for the Paraguayan Chaco', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 139, pp. 309-318.
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Dackermann, U, Elsener, R, Li, J & Crews, K 2016, 'A comparative study of using static and ultrasonic material testing methods to determine the anisotropic material properties of wood', CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING MATERIALS, vol. 102, no. 2, pp. 963-976.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. This paper presents a comparative study using static and ultrasonic testing for the determination of the full set of orthotropic material properties of wood. In the literature, material properties are typically only available in the longitudinal direction, and most international standards do not provide details on the testing of the other two secondary directions (radial and tangential). This work provides a comprehensive study and discussions on the determination of all twelve orthotropic material properties of two hardwood species using static testing and an alternative testing approach based on ultrasonic waves. Recommendations are given on the execution of the tests and the interpretation and calibration of the results.

Dackermann, U, Li, J, Rijal, R & Crews, K 2016, 'A dynamic-based method for the assessment of connection systems of timber composite structures', CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING MATERIALS, vol. 102, pp. 999-1008.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. This paper presents a dynamic-based method for the evaluation of connection systems of timber composite structures. The good bonding of the composite elements is crucial for the proper functioning of timber composite structures, as the design capacity and performance of the system cannot be achieved unless an adequate connection condition can be assured. The proposed dynamic method provides an alternative to traditional static load testing and uses vibration measurements to derive a Loss of Composite Action Index, based on an expanded Damage Index method, indicating the reduction in composite action due to the failure of shear connectors. The proposed method is validated on experimental and numerical models of a timber composite beam structure and a timber-concrete composite flooring system. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed dynamic-based approach that can achieve a good agreement between statically and dynamically derived composite action indicators.

Dahou, Z, Castel, A & Noushini, A 2016, 'Prediction of the steel-concrete bond strength from the compressive strength of Portland cement and geopolymer concretes', Construction and Building Materials, vol. 119, pp. 329-342.
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Dang, LC, Fatahi, B & Khabbaz, H 2016, 'Behaviour of Expansive Soils Stabilized with Hydrated Lime and Bagasse Fibres', ADVANCES IN TRANSPORTATION GEOTECHNICS III, vol. 143, pp. 658-665.
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© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Soil stabilization is the most common ground improvement technique adopted to improve problematic soil properties. This investigation exhibits a series of laboratory tests conducted to evaluate the influences of bagasse fibres and hydrated lime addition on the engineering properties and shrink-swell behaviour of stabilised expansive soils. Bagasse fibre is industrial waste by-product left after the crushing of sugar cane for juice extraction that was used in this study as reinforcing component for expansive soil stabilization. The expansive soils used in this investigation were collected from Queensland, Australia. In order to investigate the influences of bagasse fibres on the engineering behaviour of expansive soil, varying proportions of randomly distributed bagasse fibres of 0.5%, 1.0%, and 2.0% were added to expansive soil and hydrated lime-expansive soils mixed with different bagasse fibre proportions were also investigated. Although, an array of experimental tests have been undertaken on untreated and treated expansive soil samples, merely the outcomes of linear shrinkage, unconfined compressive strength (UCS) tests after various curing periods of 3, 7 and 28 days are presented in this paper. Other test results have been identified as follow up research. The findings of this experimental investigation indicate that bagasse fibre reinforcement blended with hydrated lime increased the compressive strength of expansive soil with increase in curing time and additives contents, whereas the linear shrinkage of stabilised expansive soils decreased with increasing hydrated lime and bagasse fibre proportions and curing periods. Based on the reasonable laboratory test results, it can be noted that the expansive soils can be successfully stabilized by combination of hydrated lime and bagasse fibres.

Dang, LC, Hasan, H, Fatahi, B, Jones, R & Khabbaz, H 2016, 'Enhancing the engineering properties of expansive soil using bagasse ash and hydrated lime', International Journal of GEOMATE, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 2447-2454.
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The main objective of this paper is to investigate the influence of hydrated lime and bagasse ash on engineering properties of expansive soil obtained from an array of laboratory tests. Bagasse ash is a readily available waste by-product of the sugar-cane refining industry posing risks to environment. Bagasse ash is considered in this investigation in order to evaluate the potential benefits of its pozzolanic material for stabilisation of expansive soil. The preparation of stabilised soil specimens was conducted by changing the bagasse ash contents from 0 to 25% by dry weight of expansive soil along with an increase in hydrated lime. The bearing capacity and shrinkage properties of stabilised expansive soil were examined through a series of experimental tests including linear shrinkage and California bearing ratio (CBR) after various curing periods of 3, 7 and 28 days. The results reveal that the additions of hydrated lime and bagasse ash improved the strength and bearing capacity of stabilised expansive soil remarkably, and meanwhile significantly reduced the linear shrinkage of treated expansive soil. Hence, the application of hydrated lime and bagasse ash as reinforcing material can not only enhance the engineering properties of expansive soil, but also facilitate sustainable development by using sugarcane waste by-product to improve unusable clay material in road construction.

Dantanarayana, L, Dissanayake, G & Ranasinghe, R 2016, 'C-LOG: A Chamfer distance based algorithm for localisation in occupancy grid-maps.', CAAI Trans. Intell. Technol., vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 272-284.
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Das, A, Ferrer, MA, Pal, U, Pal, S, Diaz, M & Blumenstein, M 2016, 'Multi‐script versus single‐script scenarios in automatic off‐line signature verification', IET Biometrics, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 305-313.
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Das, A, Pal, U, Ferrer, MA & Blumenstein, M 2016, 'A framework for liveness detection for direct attacks in the visible spectrum for multimodal ocular biometrics', Pattern Recognition Letters, vol. 82, no. 2, pp. 232-241.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. In this research a new framework for software-based liveness detection for direct attacks in multimodal ocular biometrics across the visible spectrum is proposed. The framework aims to develop a more realistic method for liveness detection compared to previous frameworks proposed in the literature. To fulfil the above highlighted aims in this framework, intra-class level (i.e. user level) liveness detection is introduced. To detect liveness, a new set of image quality-based features is proposed for multimodal ocular biometrics in the visible spectrum. A variety of transformed domain (focus related) aspect and contrast-related quality features are employed to design the framework. Furthermore a new database is developed for liveness detection of multimodal ocular biometrics, which has the prominent presence of multimodal ocular traits (both sclera and iris). Moreover this database is comprised of a larger variety of fake images; those were prepared by employing versatile forging techniques which can be exhibited by imposters. Therefore the proposed schema has dealt with versatile categories of spoofing methods, which were not considered previously in the literature. The database contains a set of 500 fake and 500 genuine eye images acquired from 50 different eyes. An appreciable liveness detection result is achieved in the experiments. Furthermore, the experimental results conclude that this new framework is more efficient and competitive when compared to previous liveness detection schemes.

Dehbari, N, Tavakoli, J, Zhao, J & Tang, Y 2016, 'Enhancing water swelling ability and mechanical properties of water‐swellable rubber by PAA/SBS nanofiber mats', Journal of Applied Polymer Science, vol. 133, no. 47.
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ABSTRACTInvestigation of the potential use of nanofibers to reinforce composites has gained significance in many applications. In this article, the nanofiber mats of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and styrene–butadiene–styrene (SBS) triblock copolymer with composites structure were interweaved by double needle electrospinning process. The multiple nanofiber mats were added to conventional water‐swellable rubber (WSR). Improved mechanical and physical properties of WSR were obtained. Enhancement of the swellability of WSR + PAA/SBS nanofiber mats was derived from the PAA constituent absorbing water from the surface into the bulk and introducing random internal water channels between discontinuous superabsorbent polymers. The role of SBS nanofibers in the composite of WSR + PAA/SBS nanofiber mats was more related to the mechanical properties, where the breaking force of the composite increased to twice that of the conventional WSR. Interestingly, after immersion of the WSR + PAA/SBS nanofiber mats in water for 1 week, there was only a slight decrease in their mechanical properties of less than 5% compared to the dry state. The mechanisms and effects of the nanofiber mats in enhancing the mechanical and water swelling properties of WSR are also discussed. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 44213.

Deng, C, Ding, F, Li, X, Guo, Y, Ni, W, Yan, H, Sun, K & Yan, Y-M 2016, 'Templated-preparation of a three-dimensional molybdenum phosphide sponge as a high performance electrode for hydrogen evolution', Journal of Materials Chemistry A, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 59-66.
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A sponge-shaped three-dimensional MoP (3D MoP) electrocatalyst is prepared and used as a binder-free electrode for the HER, exhibiting promising catalytic activity.

Deng, L, Guo, W, Ngo, HH, Du, B, Wei, Q, Tran, NH, Nguyen, NC, Chen, S-S & Li, J 2016, 'Effects of hydraulic retention time and bioflocculant addition on membrane fouling in a sponge-submerged membrane bioreactor', Bioresource Technology, vol. 210, pp. 11-17.
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The characteristics of activated sludge and membrane fouling were evaluated in a sponge-submerged membrane bioreactor (SSMBR) at different hydraulic retention times (HRTs) (6.67, 5.33 and 4.00h). At shorter HRT, more obvious membrane fouling was caused by exacerbated cake layer formation and aggravated pore blocking. Activated sludge possessed more extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) due to excessive growth of biomass and lower protein to polysaccharide ratio in soluble microbial products (SMP). The cake layer resistance was aggravated by increased sludge viscosity together with the accumulated EPS and biopolymer clusters (BPC) on membrane surface. However, SMP showed marginal effect on membrane fouling when SSMBRs were operated at all HRTs. The SSMBR with Gemfloc® addition at the optimum HRT of 6.67h demonstrated superior sludge characteristics such as larger floc size, less SMP in mixed liquor with higher protein/polysaccharide ratio, less SMP and BPC in cake layer, thereby further preventing membrane fouling.

Deng, L, Guo, W, Ngo, HH, Zhang, H, Wang, J, Li, J, Xia, S & Wu, Y 2016, 'Biofouling and control approaches in membrane bioreactors', Bioresource Technology, vol. 221, pp. 656-665.
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Deng, L, Guo, W, Ngo, HH, Zhang, X, Wang, XC, Zhang, Q & Chen, R 2016, 'New functional biocarriers for enhancing the performance of a hybrid moving bed biofilm reactor–membrane bioreactor system', Bioresource Technology, vol. 208, pp. 87-93.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. In this study, new sponge modified plastic carriers for moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) was developed. The performance and membrane fouling behavior of a hybrid MBBR-membrane bioreactor (MBBR-MBR) system were also evaluated. Comparing to the MBBR with plastic carriers (MBBR), the MBBR with sponge modified biocarriers (S-MBBR) showed better effluent quality and enhanced nutrient removal at HRTs of 12 h and 6 h. Regarding fouling issue of the hybrid systems, soluble microbial products (SMP) of the MBR unit greatly influenced membrane fouling. The sponge modified biocarriers could lower the levels of SMP in mixed liquor and extracellular polymeric substances in activated sludge, thereby mitigating cake layer and pore blocking resistances of the membrane. The reduced SMP and biopolymer clusters in membrane cake layer were also observed. The results demonstrated that the sponge modified biocarriers were capable of improving overall MBBR performance and substantially alleviated membrane fouling of the subsequent MBR unit.

Deng, W, Kautzka, Z, Chen, W & Goldys, EM 2016, 'PLGA nanocomposites loaded with verteporfin and gold nanoparticles for enhanced photodynamic therapy of cancer cells', RSC Advances, vol. 6, no. 113, pp. 112393-112402.
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Enhanced ¹O₂ generation from PLGA loaded with verteporfin and gold nanoparticles under light illumination has the potential to improve cancer cell-killing effect.

Devitt, SJ 2016, 'Performing Quantum Computing Experiments in the Cloud', Phys. Rev. A, vol. 94, no. 3, p. 032329.
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Quantum computing technology has reached a second renaissance in the pastfive years. Increased interest from both the private and public sector combinedwith extraordinary theoretical and experimental progress has solidified thistechnology as a major advancement in the 21st century. As anticipated by many,the first realisation of quantum computing technology would occur over thecloud, with users logging onto dedicated hardware over the classical internet.Recently IBM has released the {\em Quantum Experience} which allows users toaccess a five qubit quantum processor. In this paper we take advantage of thisonline availability of actual quantum hardware and present four quantuminformation experiments that have never been demonstrated before. We utilisethe IBM chip to realise protocols in Quantum Error Correction, QuantumArithmetic, Quantum graph theory and Fault-tolerant quantum computation, byaccessing the device remotely through the cloud. While the results are subjectto significant noise, the correct results are returned from the chip. Thisdemonstrates the power of experimental groups opening up their technology to awider audience and will hopefully allow for the next stage development inquantum information technology.

Devitt, SJ 2016, 'Programming quantum computers using 3-D puzzles, coffee cups, and doughnuts', XRDS, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 45-50.
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The task of programming a quantum computer is just as strange as quantummechanics itself. But it now looks like a simple 3D puzzle may be the futuretool of quantum software engineers.

Dharma, S, Masjuki, HH, Ong, HC, Sebayang, AH, Silitonga, AS, Kusumo, F & Mahlia, TMI 2016, 'Optimization of biodiesel production process for mixed Jatropha curcas–Ceiba pentandra biodiesel using response surface methodology', Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 115, pp. 178-190.
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Exploring and improvement of biodiesel production from non-edible vegetable oil is one of the effective ways to solve limited amount of traditional raw materials and their high prices. The main objective of this study is to optimize the biodiesel production process parameters (methanol-to-oil ratio, agitation speed and concentration of the potassium hydroxide catalyst) of a biodiesel derived from non-edible feedstocks, namely Jatropha curcas and Ceiba pentandra, using response surface methodology based on Box-Behnken experimental design. Based on the results, the optimum operating parameters for transesterification of the J50C50 oil mixture at 60 °C over a period of 2 h are as follows: methanol-to-oil ratio: 30%, agitation speed: 1300 rpm and catalyst concentration: 0.5 wt.%. These optimum operating parameters gives the highest yield for the J50C50 biodiesel with a value of 93.33%. The results show that there is a significant improvement in the physicochemical properties of the J50C50 biodiesel after optimization, whereby the kinematic viscosity at 40 °C, density at 15 °C, calorific value, acid value and oxidation stability is 3.950 mm2/s, 831.2 kg/m3, 40.929 MJ/kg, 0.025 mg KOH/g and 10.01 h, respectively. The physicochemical properties of the optimized J50C50 biodiesel fulfill the requirements given in the ASTM D6751 and EN14214 standards.

Dharma, S, Ong, HC, Masjuki, HH, Sebayang, AH & Silitonga, AS 2016, 'An overview of engine durability and compatibility using biodiesel–bioethanol–diesel blends in compression-ignition engines', Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 128, pp. 66-81.
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The realization of declining fossil fuel supplies and the adverse impact of fossil fuels on the environment has accelerated research and development activities in renewable energy sources and technologies. Biofuels are renewable fuels made from edible, non-edible or waste oils, as well as animal fats and algae, and these fuels have been proven to be good substitutes for fossil fuels in the transportation sector. Bioethanol and biodiesels have gained worldwide attention in order to address environmental issues associated with fossil fuels, provide energy security, reduce imports and rural employment, as well as improve agricultural economy. Bioethanol has high oxygen content and octane content up to 35% and 108, respectively and hence, it increases oxygenation and improves combustion of fuel. In addition, bioethanol has lower vaporization pressure, which reduces the risks associated with evaporative emissions. In contrast, biodiesel has good lubricity, which helps protect the surface of engine components from wear and friction. The use of biodiesel–bioethanol–petroleum diesel blends poses a greater challenge with regards to improving the compatibility of the materials with the fuel system in compression ignition (CI) and spark ignition (SI) engines. In this work, the technical conditions of an engine (i.e. engine deposits, wear of the engine components and quality of the lubrication oil) are assessed by the application of with biodiesel–bioethanol–petroleum diesel blends. It is deemed important to evaluate the effects of using bioethanol and biodiesels in diesel engines. This paper provides insight on the feasibility of biodiesel and bioethanol feedstocks, the compatibility of biodiesels, bioethanol and their blends with diesel engines as well as the physicochemical properties of these fuels.

Dias, A, Skinner, J, Crews, K & Tannert, T 2016, 'Timber-concrete-composites increasing the use of timber in construction', European Journal of Wood and Wood Products, vol. 74, no. 3, pp. 443-451.
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Diez, A, Khoa, NLD, Makki Alamdari, M, Wang, Y, Chen, F & Runcie, P 2016, 'A clustering approach for structural health monitoring on bridges', Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 429-445.
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© 2016, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. Structural health monitoring is a process for identifying damage in civil infrastructures using sensing system. It has been increasingly employed due to advances in sensing technologies and data analytic using machine learning. A common problem within this scenario is that limited data of real structural faults are available. Therefore, unsupervised and novelty detection machine learning methods must be employed. This work presents a clustering based approach to group substructures or joints with similar behaviour on bridge and then detect abnormal or damaged ones, as part of efforts in applying structural health monitoring to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, one of iconic structures in Australia. The approach is a combination of feature extraction, a nearest neighbor based outlier removal, followed by a clustering approach over both vibration events and joints representatives. Vibration signals caused by passing vehicles from different joints are then classified and damaged joints can be detected and located. The validity of the approach was demonstrated using real data collected from the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The clustering results showed correlations among similarly located joints in different bridge zones. Moreover, it also helped to detect a damaged joint and a joint with a faulty instrumented sensor, and thus demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed clustering based approach to complement existing damage detection strategies.

Ding, G & Forsythe, P 2016, 'A comparative study of floor construction on sloping sites: an analysis of cumulative energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions', Construction Economics and Building, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 33-49.
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In order to make environmentally aware decisions, there is growing interest in the comparative energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) performance of competing construction methods. Little research has been done concerning competing ground floor construction methods, especially given different site variables, such as slope and soil type. A life cycle assessment approach was adopted to analyse environmental impacts, including cumulative energy demand and GHG emissions for detached housing construction in Australia. Data was drawn from 24 case study housing projects, including 12 reinforced concrete and 12 suspended timber floor projects. The data presented in the paper compares cumulative energy demand, GHG and the constituent parts of competing construction methods. The findings indicate that the timber floors use/create significantly less cumulative energy demand and GHG emissions than concrete floors—approximately 2.1 to 2.7 times less energy and 2.3 to 2.9 times less GHG. These findings are limited to the site slope and foundation soil types identified in the paper. The main application of the work is in guidance concerning the lowest environmental impact options for detached housing construction.

Ding, W-P, Lin, C-T, Prasad, M, Chen, S-B & Guan, Z-J 2016, 'Attribute Equilibrium Dominance Reduction Accelerator (DCCAEDR) Based on Distributed Coevolutionary Cloud and Its Application in Medical Records', IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems, vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 384-400.
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© 2013 IEEE. Aimed at the tremendous challenge of attribute reduction for big data mining and knowledge discovery, we propose a new attribute equilibrium dominance reduction accelerator (DCCAEDR) based on the distributed coevolutionary cloud model. First, the framework of N-populations distributed coevolutionary MapReduce model is designed to divide the entire population into N subpopulations, sharing the reward of different subpopulations' solutions under a MapReduce cloud mechanism. Because the adaptive balancing between exploration and exploitation can be achieved in a better way, the reduction performance is guaranteed to be the same as those using the whole independent data set. Second, a novel Nash equilibrium dominance strategy of elitists under the N bounded rationality regions is adopted to assist the subpopulations necessary to attain the stable status of Nash equilibrium dominance. This further enhances the accelerator's robustness against complex noise on big data. Third, the approximation parallelism mechanism based on MapReduce is constructed to implement rule reduction by accelerating the computation of attribute equivalence classes. Consequently, the entire attribute reduction set with the equilibrium dominance solution can be achieved. Extensive simulation results have been used to illustrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed DCCAEDR accelerator for attribute reduction on big data. Furthermore, the DCCAEDR is applied to solve attribute reduction for traditional Chinese medical records and to segment cortical surfaces of the neonatal brain 3-D-MRI records, and the DCCAEDR shows the superior competitive results, when compared with the representative algorithms.

Ding, Y, Huang, W, Sheng, D & Sloan, SW 2016, 'Reply to discussion on “Numerical study on finite element implementation of hypoplastic models” by Yutang Ding, Wenxiong Huang, Daichao Sheng, and Scott W. Sloan [Comput. Geotech. 68 (2015) 78–90]', Computers and Geotechnics, vol. 71, pp. 278-280.
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Dong, M, Lei, J, Wang, K & Li, Y 2016, 'Highly efficient VLSI architecture for DWT with low-storage implementation', Xi'an Dianzi Keji Daxue Xuebao/Journal of Xidian University, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 35-40.
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With the gradual increase in image resolution of the spacecraft camera, it is highly required to figure out the problem how to process a huge amount of image data on board at a high speed. As a solution, the CCSDS proposes a space-oriented image-coding standard. For the sake of high image-coding performance, it adopts wavelet transformation as a method of image data transformation. However, wavelet transformation contains multi-level data processing, which causes more computational time consumption and more memory utilization. In order to solve this problem, we propose a highly efficient VLSI architecture for DWT with low-storage. By revising the traditional lifting structure and employing time-multiplex data processing strategy to perform the second and third level of wavelet transformation by the same logic module, the usage of logic resource is reduced with no sacrifice on speed.Using a small amount of on-chip memory instead of off-chip memory to save certain parts of DWT coefficients and sending the coefficients in a specific sequence to entropy coder timely, the off-chip memory for storage of DWT coefficients is no longer required. The proposed VLSI architecture of DWT is already implemented on the Xilinx FPGA XC4VSX55, which can achieve a high performance, in terms of data throughput, reaching 95.91MPixels/s.

Du, F, Zhang, J, Li, H, Yan, J, Galloway, S & Lo, KL 2016, 'Modelling the impact of social network on energy savings', Applied Energy, vol. 178, pp. 56-65.
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Du, J, He, R & Sugumaran, V 2016, 'Clustering and ontology-based information integration framework for surface subsidence risk mitigation in underground tunnels', Cluster Computing, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 2001-2014.
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Du, W, Su, QP, Chen, Y, Zhu, Y, Jiang, D, Rong, Y, Zhang, S, Zhang, Y, Ren, H, Zhang, C, Wang, X, Gao, N, Wang, Y, Sun, L, Sun, Y & Yu, L 2016, 'Kinesin 1 Drives Autolysosome Tubulation', Developmental Cell, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 326-336.
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© 2016 Elsevier Inc. Autophagic lysosome reformation (ALR) plays an important role in maintaining lysosome homeostasis. During ALR, lysosomes are reformed by recycling lysosomal components from autolysosomes. The most noticeable step of ALR is autolysosome tubulation, but it is currently unknown how the process is regulated. Here, using an approach combining in vivo studies and in vitro reconstitution, we found that the kinesin motor protein KIF5B is required for autolysosome tubulation and that KIF5B drives autolysosome tubulation by pulling on the autolysosomal membrane. Furthermore, we show that KIF5B directly interacts with PtdIns(4,5)P2. Kinesin motors are recruited and clustered on autolysosomes via interaction with PtdIns(4,5)P2 in a clathrin-dependent manner. Finally, we demonstrate that clathrin promotes formation of PtdIns(4,5)P2-enriched microdomains, which are required for clustering of KIF5B. Our study reveals a mechanism by which autolysosome tubulation was generated.

Du, X, Yan, Y, Pan, P, Long, G & Zhao, L 2016, 'Multiple graph unsupervised feature selection', Signal Processing, vol. 120, pp. 754-760.
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© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Feature selection improves the quality of the model by filtering out the noisy or redundant part. In the unsupervised scenarios, the selection is challenging due to the unavailability of the labels. To overcome that, the graphs which can unfold the geometry structure on the manifold are usually used to regularize the selection process. These graphs can be constructed either in the local view or the global view. As the local graph is more discriminative, previous methods tended to use the local graph rather than the global graph. But the global graph also has useful information. In light of this, in this paper, we propose a multiple graph unsupervised feature selection method to leverage the information from both local and global graphs. Besides that, we enforce the ll2,pl norm to achieve more flexible sparse learning. The experiments which inspect the effects of multiple graph and ll2,pl norm are conducted respectively on various datasets, and the comparisons to other mainstream methods are also presented in this paper. The results support that the multiple graph could be better than the single graph in the unsupervised feature selection, and the overall performance of the proposed method is higher than the other comparisons.

Duan, L, Liu, D, Zhang, Y, Chen, S, Liu, RP, Cheng, B & Chen, J 2016, 'Secure Data-Centric Access Control for Smart Grid Services Based on Publish/Subscribe Systems', ACM Transactions on Internet Technology, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 1-17.
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The communication systems in existing smart grids mainly take the request/reply interaction model, in which data access is under the direct control of data producers. This tightly controlled interaction model is not scalable to support complex interactions among smart grid services. On the contrary, the publish/subscribe system features a loose coupling communication infrastructure and allows indirect, anonymous and multicast interactions among smart grid services. The publish/subscribe system can thus support scalable and flexible collaboration among smart grid services. However, the access is not under the direct control of data producers, it might not be easy to implement an access control scheme for a publish/subscribe system. In this article, we propose a Data-Centric Access Control Framework (DCACF) to support secure access control in a publish/subscribe model. This framework helps to build scalable smart grid services, while keeping features of service interactions and data confidentiality at the same time. The data published in our DCACF is encrypted with a fully homomorphic encryption scheme, which allows in-grid homomorphic aggregation of the encrypted data. The encrypted data is accompanied by bloom-filter encoded control policies and access credentials to enable indirect access control. We have analyzed the correctness and security of our DCACF and evaluated its performance in a distributed environment.

Duan, L, Zhang, Y, Chen, S, Zhao, S, Wang, S, Liu, D, Liu, RP, Cheng, B & Chen, J 2016, 'Automated Policy Combination for Secure Data Sharing in Cross-Organizational Collaborations', IEEE Access, vol. 4, pp. 3454-3468.
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© 2016 IEEE. During business collaborations, multiple participating organizations often need to share data for common interests. In such cases, it is necessary to combine local policies from different organizations into a global one in order to manage access to the shared data. However, local policies of organizations may be different or even conflicting, due to diverse rules and rule combining algorithms chosen. Few existing methods for policy combination are able to automatically combine multiple local policies into a global one. In this paper, we propose a bottom-up approach to address the issues of multiple policy combinations. The key idea is to first classify the rules based on attribute constraints in each policy, and then reduce the rules of the corresponding classes to one with the same attribute constraints. The reduced rules are then combined into a new global policy by choosing the appropriate rule combining algorithm in XACML. The latter ensures compliance with each of the local policies at syntax and semantic levels. To validate our approach, we develop a proof-of-concept implementation of the automated policy combination. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach is highly scalable and supports a number of attribute constraints in each local policy.

Duong, HC, Cooper, P, Nelemans, B, Cath, TY & Nghiem, LD 2016, 'Evaluating energy consumption of air gap membrane distillation for seawater desalination at pilot scale level', Separation and Purification Technology, vol. 166, pp. 55-62.
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This study aimed to optimise an air gap membrane distillation (AGMD) system for seawater desalination with respect to distillate production as well as thermal and electrical energy consumption. Pilot evaluation data shows a notable influence of evaporator inlet temperature and water circulation rate on process performance. An increase in both distillate production rate and energy efficiency could be obtained by increasing the evaporator inlet temperature. On the other hand, there was a trade-off between the distillate production rate and energy efficiency when the water circulation rate varied. Increasing the water circulation rate resulted in an improvement in the distillate production rate, but also an increase in both specific thermal and electrical energy consumption. Given the small driving force used in the pilot AGMD, discernible impact of feed salinity on process performance could be observed, while the effects of temperature and concentration polarisation were small. At the optimum operating conditions identified in this study, a stable AGMD operation for seawater desalination could be achieved with specific thermal and electrical energy consumption of 90 and 0.13 kW h/m3, respectively. These values demonstrate the commercial viability of AGMD for small-scale and off-grid seawater desalination where solar thermal or low-grade heat sources are readily available.

Duong, HC, Duke, M, Gray, S, Cooper, P & Nghiem, LD 2016, 'Membrane scaling and prevention techniques during seawater desalination by air gap membrane distillation', Desalination, vol. 397, pp. 92-100.
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Duong, HC, Duke, M, Gray, S, Nelemans, B & Nghiem, LD 2016, 'Membrane distillation and membrane electrolysis of coal seam gas reverse osmosis brine for clean water extraction and NaOH production', Desalination, vol. 397, pp. 108-115.
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Dzeng, R-J, Lin, C-T & Fang, Y-C 2016, 'Using eye-tracker to compare search patterns between experienced and novice workers for site hazard identification', Safety Science, vol. 82, pp. 56-67.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. The construction industry accounts for a high number of accidents. Although identifying hazards prior to commencing construction is widely employed to prevent accidents, it typically fails because of insufficient safety experience. The experience helps in training novice inspectors, although extracting and describing tacit knowledge explicitly is difficult. This study created a digital building construction site, and designed a hazard-identification experiment involving four workplaces featuring obvious and unobvious hazards (e.g., falls, collapses, and electric shocks), and an eye-tracker was used to compare the search patterns of the experienced and novice workers. The results indicated that experience assisted the experienced workers in assessing both obvious (p<. 0.001) and unobvious hazards (p= 0.004) significantly faster than the novice workers could; however, it did not improve the accuracy with which they identified hazards, indicating that general work experience is not equivalent to safety-specific experience, and may not necessarily improve workers' accuracy in identifying hazards. Nevertheless, the experienced workers were more confident in identifying hazards, they exhibited fewer fixations, and their scan paths for assessing hazards were more consistent. The experienced workers first assessed the high-risk targets-laborers working at heights-and subsequently assessed those working on the ground, followed by the equipment or environment. Furthermore, they typically inspected openings later than novice workers did. The search strategies identified may be incorporated into the training courses to improve the hazard awareness for novice workers.

Eager, D, Pendrill, A-M & Reistad, N 2016, 'Beyond velocity and acceleration: jerk, snap and higher derivatives', European Journal of Physics, vol. 37, no. 6, pp. 065008-065008.
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© 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd. The higher derivatives of motion are rarely discussed in the teaching of classical mechanics of rigid bodies; nevertheless, we experience the effect not only of acceleration, but also of jerk and snap. In this paper we will discuss the third and higher order derivatives of displacement with respect to time, using the trampolines and theme park roller coasters to illustrate this concept. We will also discuss the effects on the human body of different types of acceleration, jerk, snap and higher derivatives, and how they can be used in physics education to further enhance the learning and thus the understanding of classical mechanics concepts.

Editorial Board of Landslides 2016, 'Editors and reviewers working for Landslides in 2015', Landslides, vol. 13, pp. 1585-1591.

Ekong, U, Lam, HK, Xiao, B, Ouyang, G, Liu, H, Chan, KY & Ling, SH 2016, 'Classification of epilepsy seizure phase using interval type-2 fuzzy support vector machines', NEUROCOMPUTING, vol. 199, pp. 66-76.
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An interval type-2 fuzzy support vector machine (IT2FSVM) is proposed to solve a classification problem which aims to classify three epileptic seizure phases (seizure-free, pre-seizure and seizure) from the electroencephalogram (EEG) captured from patients with neurological disorder symptoms. The effectiveness of the IT2FSVM classifier is evaluated based on a set of EEG samples which are collected from 10 patients at Peking university hospital. The EEG samples for the three seizure phases were captured by the 112 2-s 19 channel EEG epochs, where each patient was extracted for each sample. Feature extraction was used to reduce the feature vector of the EEG samples to 45 elements and the EEG samples with the reduced features are used for training the IT2FSVM classifier. The classification results obtained by the IT2FSVM are compared with three traditional classifiers namely Support Vector Machine, k-Nearest Neighbor and naive Bayes. The experimental results show that the IT2FSVM classifier is able to achieve superior learning capabilities with respect to the uncontaminated samples when compared with the three classifiers. In order to validate the level of robustness of the IT2FSVM, the original EEG samples are contaminated with Gaussian white noise at levels of 0.05, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.5. The simulation results show that the IT2FSVM classifier outperforms the traditional classifiers under the original dataset and also shows a high level of robustness when compared to the traditional classifiers with white Gaussian noise applied to it.

Elbadawi, C, Tran, TT, Kolíbal, M, Šikola, T, Scott, J, Cai, Q, Li, LH, Taniguchi, T, Watanabe, K, Toth, M, Aharonovich, I & Lobo, C 2016, 'Electron beam directed etching of hexagonal boron nitride', Nanoscale, vol. 8, no. 36, pp. 16182-16186.
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High resolution directed electron beam etching of hBN using water as the precursor gas.

Elizabeth Tome, M & Vassallo, AM 2016, 'The effect of individual and communal electricity generation, consumption and storage on urban community renewable energy networks (CREN): An Australian case study', International Journal of Sustainable Energy Planning and Management, vol. 11, pp. 15-32.
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Community Renewable Energy Networks, in which households and businesses in a local community share energy resources, are an attractive platform for optimising renewable energy use and reducing dependence on the wider electricity grid. However, the optimal use of local power generation and energy storage is critically dependent on the load characteristics and location of the community. In this work we compare the simulated energy generation, consumption and independence of two model developments in Melbourne and Sydney. The analysis looks at 6 basic scenarios, from the default grid dependence through to a community approach with both individual and communal photovoltaic (PV) generation and battery energy storage. The results show that a combination of household and community owned PV and storage can reduce grid electricity import by up to 93% for Melbourne and 96% for Sydney, but that neither development could independently meet all its power requirements without shortfall. The shortfall arises during the winter months when PV generation is at its lowest, and no practical amount of energy storage can mitigate this. Interestingly, Melbourne, which is at a higher latitude than Sydney and receives less solar insolation, achieves more months of grid independence than Sydney.

Entezari, A, Fang, J, Sue, A, Zhang, Z, Swain, MV & Li, Q 2016, 'Yielding behaviors of polymeric scaffolds with implications to tissue engineering', Materials Letters, vol. 184, pp. 108-111.
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Entezari, A, Roohani-Esfahani, S-I, Zhang, Z, Zreiqat, H, Dunstan, CR & Li, Q 2016, 'Fracture behaviors of ceramic tissue scaffolds for load bearing applications', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1.
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AbstractHealing large bone defects, especially in weight-bearing locations, remains a challenge using available synthetic ceramic scaffolds. Manufactured as a scaffold using 3D printing technology, Sr-HT-Gahnite at high porosity (66%) had demonstrated significantly improved compressive strength (53 ± 9 MPa) and toughness. Nevertheless, the main concern of ceramic scaffolds in general remains to be their inherent brittleness and low fracture strength in load bearing applications. Therefore, it is crucial to establish a robust numerical framework for predicting fracture strengths of such scaffolds. Since crack initiation and propagation plays a critical role on the fracture strength of ceramic structures, we employed extended finite element method (XFEM) to predict fracture behaviors of Sr-HT-Gahnite scaffolds. The correlation between experimental and numerical results proved the superiority of XFEM for quantifying fracture strength of scaffolds over conventional FEM. In addition to computer aided design (CAD) based modeling analyses, XFEM was conducted on micro-computed tomography (μCT) based models for fabricated scaffolds, which took into account the geometric variations induced by the fabrication process. Fracture strengths and crack paths predicted by the μCT-based XFEM analyses correlated well with relevant experimental results. The study provided an effective means for the prediction of fracture strength of porous ceramic structures, thereby facilitating design optimization of scaffolds.

Erami, Z, Herrmann, D, Warren, SC, Nobis, M, McGhee, EJ, Lucas, MC, Leung, W, Reischmann, N, Mrowinska, A, Schwarz, JP, Kadir, S, Conway, JRW, Vennin, C, Karim, SA, Campbell, AD, Gallego-Ortega, D, Magenau, A, Murphy, KJ, Ridgway, RA, Law, AM, Walters, SN, Grey, ST, Croucher, DR, Zhang, L, Herzog, H, Hardeman, EC, Gunning, PW, Ormandy, CJ, Evans, TRJ, Strathdee, D, Sansom, OJ, Morton, JP, Anderson, KI & Timpson, P 2016, 'Intravital FRAP Imaging using an E-cadherin-GFP Mouse Reveals Disease- and Drug-Dependent Dynamic Regulation of Cell-Cell Junctions in Live Tissue', Cell Reports, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 152-167.
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Erfani, SS, Blount, Y & Abedin, B 2016, 'The influence of health-specific social network site use on the psychological well-being of cancer-affected people', JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL INFORMATICS ASSOCIATION, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 467-476.
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Erkmen, RE, Saleh, A & Afnani, A 2016, 'INCORPORATING LOCAL EFFECTS IN THE PREDICTOR STEP OF THE ITERATIVE GLOBAL-LOCAL ANALYSIS OF BEAMS', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR MULTISCALE COMPUTATIONAL ENGINEERING, vol. 14, no. 5, pp. 455-477.
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The aim of the study is to develop a stiffness modification technique that considers the effects of local deformations/damages within the predictor step of iterative global-local analysis. The procedure is based on internal springs introduced in a beam element formulation whose constants are obtained according to the force vs. displacement results of the global-local analysis. Within the beam element formulation, strong discontinuities are introduced in the form of an internal enrichment considering additional local degrees of freedom associated with the deformations of local springs. Determination of the spring constants introduced in this study is an inverse problem, as given independent end-displacements and end-forces, corresponding spring stiffness terms are sought. Discussions on the heuristic nature of this problem are included and a regularization option is introduced to give rise to a unique solution for the problem. Nevertheless, it is shown that by using the proposed approach the number of iterations can be significantly reduced within the iterative global-local analysis algorithm. In the corrector step of the global-local analysis a local membrane finite element model is used to obtain the internal stress field.

Fabian, J, Opitz, D, Althoff, K, Lodrini, M, Hero, B, Volland, R, Beckers, A, de Preter, K, Decock, A, Patil, N, Abba, M, Kopp-Schneider, A, Astrahantseff, K, Wünschel, J, Pfeil, S, Ercu, M, Künkele, A, Hu, J, Thole, T, Schweizer, L, Mechtersheimer, G, Carter, D, Cheung, BB, Popanda, O, von Deimling, A, Koster, J, Versteeg, R, Schwab, M, Marshall, GM, Speleman, F, Erb, U, Zoeller, M, Allgayer, H, Simon, T, Fischer, M, Kulozik, AE, Eggert, A, Witt, O, Schulte, JH & Deubzer, HE 2016, 'MYCN and HDAC5 transcriptionally repress CD9 to trigger invasion and metastasis in neuroblastoma', Oncotarget, vol. 7, no. 41, pp. 66344-66359.
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The systemic and resistant nature of metastatic neuroblastoma renders it largely incurable with current multimodal treatment. Clinical progression stems mainly from the increasing burden of metastatic colonization. Therapeutically inhibiting the migration-invasion-metastasis cascade would be of great benefit, but the mechanisms driving this cycle are as yet poorly understood. In-depth transcriptome analyses and ChIP-qPCR identified the cell surface glycoprotein, CD9, as a major downstream player and direct target of the recently described GRHL1 tumor suppressor. CD9 is known to block or facilitate cancer cell motility and metastasis dependent upon entity. High-level CD9 expression in primary neuroblastomas correlated with patient survival and established markers for favorable disease. Low-level CD9 expression was an independent risk factor for adverse outcome. MYCN and HDAC5 colocalized to the CD9 promoter and repressed transcription. CD9 expression diminished with progressive tumor development in the TH-MYCN transgenic mouse model for neuroblastoma, and CD9 expression in neuroblastic tumors was far below that in ganglia from wildtype mice. Primary neuroblastomas lacking MYCN amplifications displayed differential CD9 promoter methylation in methyl-CpG-binding domain sequencing analyses, and high-level methylation was associated with advanced stage disease, supporting epigenetic regulation. Inducing CD9 expression in a SH-EP cell model inhibited migration and invasion in Boyden chamber assays. Enforced CD9 expression in neuroblastoma cells transplanted onto chicken chorioallantoic membranes strongly reduced metastasis to embryonic bone marrow. Combined treatment of neuroblastoma cells with HDAC/DNA methyltransferase inhibitors synergistically induced CD9 expression despite hypoxic, metabolic or cytotoxic stress. Our results show CD9 is a critical and indirectly druggable suppressor of the invasion-metastasis cycle in neuroblastoma.

Fadavi Boostani, A, Tahamtan, S, Yazdani, S, Khosroshahi, RA, Wei, D, Sahamirad, H, Zhang, XM & Jiang, ZY 2016, 'Graphene tweaking Hamaker constant of SiC nanoparticles: A new horizon to solve the conflict between strengthening and toughening', Scripta Materialia, vol. 118, pp. 65-69.
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Fadavi Boostani, A, Taherzadeh Mousavian, R, Tahamtan, S, Yazdani, S, Azari Khosroshahi, R, Wei, D, Xu, J, Zhang, X & Jiang, ZY 2016, 'Solvothermal-assisted graphene encapsulation of SiC nanoparticles: A new horizon toward toughening aluminium matrix nanocomposites', Materials Science and Engineering: A, vol. 653, pp. 99-107.
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© 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V. Agglomeration of ceramic nanoparticles is a key challenge during manufacturing aluminium matrix composites in both solid and liquid methods. This study presents an innovative fabrication route to diminish the agglomeration of SiC nanoparticles using graphene encapsulating method stimulated by a solvothermal process. The produced SiC nanoparticles were then incorporated into A357 molten alloy using a liquid processing route. HRTEM investigations have shown the uniform distribution of SiC nanoparticles wrapped by onion-liked graphene shells within the matrix of composite, conferring 273% and 400% enhancement in yield strength and tensile ductility, respectively, compared to the unreinforced one. This is attributed to the manipulation of solidification mechanism of SiC nanoparticles from pushing to engulfment, ensued from imparting higher thermal conductivity to these particles by onion-liked graphene sheets. Fractographic observations have revealed the transgranular facture mode activated due to nano-void coalescence fracture mechanism in composites reinforced with graphene sheets associated with prolonged ductility. A devised analytical strengthening model has also demonstrated the profound efficacy of thermal activated dislocation mechanism in fortifying the matrix, brought about by the exceptional negative thermal expansion coefficient of graphene sheets.

Faed, A, Chang, E, Saberi, M, Hussain, OK & Azadeh, A 2016, 'Intelligent customer complaint handling utilising principal component and data envelopment analysis (PDA)', Applied Soft Computing, vol. 47, pp. 614-630.
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Fan, J, Zhang, J, Guo, W, Liang, S & Wu, H 2016, 'Enhanced long-term organics and nitrogen removal and associated microbial community in intermittently aerated subsurface flow constructed wetlands', Bioresource Technology, vol. 214, pp. 871-875.
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Fan, J, Zhang, J, Ngo, HH, Guo, W & Yin, X 2016, 'Improving low-temperature performance of surface flow constructed wetlands using Potamogeton crispus L. plant', Bioresource Technology, vol. 218, pp. 1257-1260.
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Fang, G, Orgun, MA, Shankaran, R, Dutkiewicz, E & Zheng, G 2016, 'Truthful Channel Sharing for Self Coexistence of Overlapping Medical Body Area Networks', PLOS ONE, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. e0148376-e0148376.
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As defined by IEEE 802.15.6 standard, channel sharing is a potential method to coordinate inter-network interference among Medical Body Area Networks (MBANs) that are close to one another. However, channel sharing opens up new vulnerabilities as selfish MBANs may manipulate their online channel requests to gain unfair advantage over others. In this paper, we address this issue by proposing a truthful online channel sharing algorithm and a companion protocol that allocates channel efficiently and truthfully by punishing MBANs for misreporting their channel request parameters such as time, duration and bid for the channel. We first present an online channel sharing scheme for unit-length channel requests and prove that it is truthful. We then generalize our model to settings with variable-length channel requests, where we propose a critical value based channel pricing and preemption scheme. A bid adjustment procedure prevents unbeneficial preemption by artificially raising the ongoing winner's bid controlled by a penalty factor λ. Our scheme can efficiently detect selfish behaviors by monitoring a trust parameter α of each MBAN and punish MBANs from cheating by suspending their requests. Our extensive simulation results show our scheme can achieve a total profit that is more than 85% of the offline optimum method in the typical MBAN settings.

Fang, J, Gao, Y, An, X, Sun, G, Chen, J & Li, Q 2016, 'Design of transversely-graded foam and wall thickness structures for crashworthiness criteria', Composites Part B: Engineering, vol. 92, pp. 338-349.
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Fang, J, Gao, Y, Sun, G, Xu, C & Li, Q 2016, 'Multiobjective sequential optimization for a vehicle door using hybrid materials tailor-welded structure', Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, vol. 230, no. 17, pp. 3092-3100.
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To achieve lightweight vehicle door, this paper presents a novel design with a hybrid material tailor-welded structure (HMTWS). A multiobjective optimization procedure is adopted to generate a set of solutions, in which the door stiffness and mass are taken as objective functions, and the material types and plate thicknesses are regarded as the discrete and continuous design variables, respectively. To improve the optimization efficiency, Kriging algorithm is used for generating surrogate model through a sequential sampling strategy. The non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) is employed to perform the multiobjective optimization. It is found that for the same computational cost, the sequential sampling strategy can yield more accurate optimization results than the conventional one-step sampling strategy. Most importantly, HMTWS is found more competent than the traditional thin-walled configurations made of steel or other lighter mono-materials for maximizing the usage of materials and stiffness of the vehicular door structures.

Fanos, AM & Pradhan, B 2016, 'Multi-scenario Rockfall Hazard Assessment Using LiDAR Data and GIS', Geotechnical and Geological Engineering, vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 1375-1393.
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Fanos, AM, Pradhan, B, Aziz, AA, Jebur, MN & Park, H-J 2016, 'Assessment of multi-scenario rockfall hazard based on mechanical parameters using high-resolution airborne laser scanning data and GIS in a tropical area', Environmental Earth Sciences, vol. 75, no. 15, p. 1129.
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Farizal, F, Eka Septia, W, Rachman, A, Nasruddin, N & Indra Mahlia, TM 2016, 'Optimization of Electricity Generation Schemes in the Java-Bali Grid System with Co2 Reduction Consideration', Makara Journal of Technology, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 49-49.
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Farley, J & Voinov, A 2016, 'Economics, socio-ecological resilience and ecosystem services', JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, vol. 183, pp. 389-398.
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Farzan, P, Izadi, M, Gomes, C & Hesamian, M 2016, 'Malaysia solar energy experience: Intelligent fault location algorithm for unbalanced radial distribution network including PV systems', Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 045503-045503.
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Due to environmental issues and the upward trend of fossil fuel prices, the study of renewable energy (RE) based generation and their effects on the electrical system has become an important part of the government's energy policies and university projects. In RE generation, as solar photovoltaic (PV) systems are modular, silent, and transportable and demonstrate ease of installation, they have attracted a greater amount of attention specifically in those areas which receive considerable average solar radiation per day such as Malaysia. However, connecting solar PV farms to the grid like any other distributed generation (DG) units poses serious issues which arise in the distribution network. This paper presents a novel fault location algorithm based on the recording of short circuit power values at the primary substation of unbalanced radial distribution networks including PV systems. The recorded values are evaluated by a designed and tuned multi-layer feed forward neural network and the fault distances from the source are estimated accordingly. In order to highlight the accuracy of the presented method, the scenario is also repeated by recording the peak values of short circuit current which have been mostly used in the published intelligent fault location studies and the obtained results via two different values are compared with each other. The results reveal that the presented algorithm using a small scale input set is able to precisely locate different fault types in the unbalanced distribution networks including DG units.

Fauzi, H, Metselaar, HSC, Mahlia, TMI, Chyuan Ong, H, Nasruddin & Khanlou, HM 2016, 'Preparation and thermal characteristics of eutectic fatty acids/ Shorea javanica composite for thermal energy storage', Applied Thermal Engineering, vol. 100, pp. 62-67.
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In this study, two types of fatty acid based composite phase change material (CPCM) have been prepared by mixing-impregnation method. Myristic acid/palmitic acid/sodium palmitate (MA/PA/SP) and myristic acid/palmitic acid/sodium stearate (MA/PA/SS) were used as base eutectic PCMs and Shorea javanica (SJ) was used as a porous material to improve the thermal conductivity and thermal performance of CPCM. Thermal properties, thermal conductivity, and thermal stability of prepared CPCMs were measured using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) thermal analysis, thermal conductivity analysis, and simultaneous thermal analyzer (STA). Furthermore, a chemical compatibility analysis has been done using Fourier transform infra-red spectrophotometer (FT-IR) and a fabricated test rig was used to determine thermal performance. It was seen that CPCMs with addition of 3 wt.% SJ presented a good improvement on thermal conductivity without any significant effect on thermal properties. No chemical reaction between initial eutectic fatty acids and SJ occurred as evidenced by FT-IR and CPCMs show a good thermal stability as well. Therefore, it is concluded that addition of Shorea javanica (SJ) into fatty acid eutectic CPCMs is appropriate to improve the thermal performance of CPCM and it can be acceptable for use as porous material for other PCMs.

Flynn, A, Dwight, T, Harris, J, Benn, D, Zhou, L, Hogg, A, Catchpoole, D, James, P, Duncan, EL, Trainer, A, Gill, AJ, Clifton-Bligh, R, Hicks, RJ & Tothill, RW 2016, 'Pheo-Type: A Diagnostic Gene-expression Assay for the Classification of Pheochromocytoma and Paraganglioma', The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, vol. 101, no. 3, pp. 1034-1043.
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Abstract Context: Pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas (PPGLs) are heritable neoplasms that can be classified into gene-expression subtypes corresponding to their underlying specific genetic drivers. Objective: This study aimed to develop a diagnostic and research tool (Pheo-type) capable of classifying PPGL tumors into gene-expression subtypes that could be used to guide and interpret genetic testing, determine surveillance programs, and aid in elucidation of PPGL biology. Design: A compendium of published microarray data representing 205 PPGL tumors was used for the selection of subtype-specific genes that were then translated to the Nanostring gene-expression platform. A support vector machine was trained on the microarray dataset and then tested on an independent Nanostring dataset representing 38 familial and sporadic cases of PPGL of known genotype (RET, NF1, TMEM127, MAX, HRAS, VHL, and SDHx). Different classifier models involving between three and six subtypes were compared for their discrimination potential. Results: A gene set of 46 genes and six endogenous controls was selected representing six known PPGL subtypes; RTK1–3 (RET, NF1, TMEM127, and HRAS), MAX-like, VHL, and SDHx. Of 38 test cases, 34 (90%) were correctly predicted to six subtypes based on the known genotype to gene-expression subtype association. Removal of the RTK2 subtype from training, characterized by an admixture of tumor and normal adrenal cortex, improved the classific...

Forman, LV, Bland, PA, Timms, NE, Collins, GS, Davison, TM, Ciesla, FJ, Benedix, GK, Daly, L, Trimby, PW, Yang, L & Ringer, SP 2016, 'Hidden secrets of deformation: Impact-induced compaction within a CV chondrite', Earth and Planetary Science Letters, vol. 452, pp. 133-145.
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Forouzesh, M, Siwakoti, YP, Blaabjerg, F & Hasanpour, S 2016, 'Small-Signal Modeling and Comprehensive Analysis of Magnetically Coupled Impedance-Source Converters', IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 31, no. 11, pp. 7621-7641.
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Foster, SJ, Stewart, MG, Loo, M, Ahammed, M & Sirivivatnanon, V 2016, 'Calibration of Australian Standard AS3600 Concrete Structures: part I statistical analysis of material properties and model error', Australian Journal of Structural Engineering, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 242-253.
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© 2016 Engineers Australia. Assessment of the reliability of design models developed for Australian Standards is of paramount importance for determination of public safety. Poorly calibrated models and safety factors can lead to overly safe and uneconomic construction or, worse, to an insufficient level of safety. This study investigates the reliability of the models used in the Australian Concrete Structures Standard AS3600–2009 for the design of beams and slabs in bending and shear and columns under combined bending and axial loading. The study is in two parts; in Part I, strength and variability of over 20,000 concrete cylinders cured under standard conditions and tested at 28 days are statistically analysed. The data were collected from all cities and regional areas in Australia and for all concrete strength grades; similarly, variability of reinforcement product is analysed. Next, reliable databases of laboratory tests for beams, slabs and columns were established for members failing in flexure, shear and compression and model errors, and their variability, determined for the code design models. It is concluded that improvements in the production of concrete and of bar products, over time, have led to reduced variability in their materials properties–with potential for increasing code strength reduction factors and, thus, reducing excessive conservatism in design. This is assessed in Part II of this study.

Frawley, JK, Dyson, LE, Wakefield, J & Tyler, J 2016, 'Supporting Graduate Attribute Development in Introductory Accounting with Student-Generated Screencasts', International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning (IJMBL), vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 65-82.
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In recent years educational, industry and government bodies have placed increasing emphasis on the need to better support the development of “soft” skills or graduate attributes within higher education. This paper details the adoption of a student-generated multimedia screencast assignment that was found to address this need. Implemented within a large introductory accounting subject, this optional assignment allowed undergraduate students to design, develop and record a screencast so as to explain a key accounting concept to their peers. This paper reports on the trial, evaluation and redesign of this assignment. Drawing on data from student surveys, practitioner reflections and descriptive analysis of the screencasts themselves, this paper demonstrates the ways that the assignment contributed to the development and expression of a number of graduate attributes. These included the students' skills in multimedia, creativity, teamwork and self-directed learning. Adopting free-to-use software and providing a fun and different way of learning accounting, this novel approach constitutes a sustainable and readily replicable way of supporting graduate attribute development. This paper contributes understandings that will be relevant to both researchers and practitioners.

Fu, Q, Kim, J, Gurr, PA, Scofield, JMP, Kentish, SE & Qiao, GG 2016, 'A novel cross-linked nano-coating for carbon dioxide capture', Energy & Environmental Science, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 434-440.
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Defect-free and cross-linked ultra-thin (sub 100 nm) film composite membranes have been prepared. The membrane materials formed exhibited significantly high CO₂ permeances of over 1200 GPU as well as excellent CO₂/N₂ selectivity of over 40.

Fu, Q, McKenzie, TG, Ren, JM, Tan, S, Nam, E & Qiao, GG 2016, 'A novel solid state photocatalyst for living radical polymerization under UV irradiation', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1, p. 20779.
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AbstractThis study presents the development of a novel solid state photocatalyst for the photoinduced controlled radical polymerization of methacrylates under mild UV irradiation (λmax ≈ 365 nm) in the absence of conventional photoinitiators, metal-catalysts or dye sensitizers. The photocatalyst design was based on our previous finding that organic amines can act in a synergistic photochemical reaction with thiocarbonylthio compounds to afford well controlled polymethacrylates under UV irradiation. Therefore, in the current contribution an amine-rich polymer was covalently grafted onto a solid substrate, thus creating a heterogeneous catalyst that would allow for facile removal, recovery and recyclability when employed for such photopolymerization reactions. Importantly, the polymethacrylates synthesized using the solid state photocatalyst (ssPC) show similarly excellent chemical and structural integrity as those catalysed by free amines. Moreover, the ssPC could be readily recovered and re-used, with multiple cycles of polymerization showing minimal effect on the integrity of the catalyst. Finally, the ssPC was employed in various photo-“click” reactions, permitting high yielding conjugations under photochemical control.

Fu, Q, Xie, K, Tan, S, Ren, JM, Zhao, Q, Webley, PA & Qiao, GG 2016, 'The use of reduced copper metal–organic frameworks to facilitate CuAAC click chemistry', Chemical Communications, vol. 52, no. 82, pp. 12226-12229.
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A reduced copper metal–organic framework (rCu-MOF) containing Cu^I ions was prepared and employed as a catalyst for ‘Click’ reactions. The rCu-MOF presents higher catalytic activity, good structural stability as well as facile recyclability compared to traditional copper halide catalysts.

Fujioka, T, Takeuchi, H, Tanaka, H, Nghiem, LD, Ishida, KP & Kodamatani, H 2016, 'A rapid and reliable technique for N -nitrosodimethylamine analysis in reclaimed water by HPLC-photochemical reaction-chemiluminescence', Chemosphere, vol. 161, pp. 104-111.
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Gan, C, Yang, Y, Zhu, L, Zhao, D & Zhuang, Y 2016, 'Recognizing an Action Using Its Name: A Knowledge-Based Approach', International Journal of Computer Vision, vol. 120, no. 1, pp. 61-77.
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© 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York. Existing action recognition algorithms require a set of positive exemplars to train a classifier for each action. However, the amount of action classes is very large and the users’ queries vary dramatically. It is impractical to pre-define all possible action classes beforehand. To address this issue, we propose to perform action recognition with no positive exemplars, which is often known as the zero-shot learning. Current zero-shot learning paradigms usually train a series of attribute classifiers and then recognize the target actions based on the attribute representation. To ensure the maximum coverage of ad-hoc action classes, the attribute-based approaches require large numbers of reliable and accurate attribute classifiers, which are often unavailable in the real world. In this paper, we propose an approach that merely takes an action name as the input to recognize the action of interest without any pre-trained attribute classifiers and positive exemplars. Given an action name, we first build an analogy pool according to an external ontology, and each action in the analogy pool is related to the target action at different levels. The correlation information inferred from the external ontology may be noisy. We then propose an algorithm, namely adaptive multi-model rank-preserving mapping (AMRM), to train a classifier for action recognition, which is able to evaluate the relatedness of each video in the analogy pool adaptively. As multiple mapping models are employed, our algorithm has better capability to bridge the gap between visual features and the semantic information inferred from the ontology. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our method achieves the promising performance for action recognition only using action names, while no attributes and positive exemplars are available.

Gandomi, AH, Sajedi, S, Kiani, B & Huang, Q 2016, 'Genetic programming for experimental big data mining: A case study on concrete creep formulation', Automation in Construction, vol. 70, pp. 89-97.
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This paper proposes a new algorithm called multi-objective genetic programming (MOGP) for complex civil engineering systems. The proposed technique effectively combines the model structure selection ability of a standard genetic programming with the parameter estimation power of classical regression, and it simultaneously optimizes both the complexity and goodness-of-fit in a system through a non-dominated sorting algorithm. The performance of MOGP is illustrated by modeling a complex civil engineering problem: the time-dependent total creep of concrete. A Big Data is used for the model development so that the proposed concrete creep model—referred to as a “genetic programming based creep model” or “G-C model” in this study—is valid for both normal and high strength concrete with a wide range of structural properties. The G-C model is then compared with currently accepted creep prediction models. The G-C model obtained by MOGP is simple, straightforward to use, and provides more accurate predictions than other prediction models.

Gandomi, AH, Yang, XS, Alavi, AH & Wang, GG 2016, 'A new hybrid method based on krill herd and cuckoo search for global optimisation tasks', International Journal of Bio-Inspired Computation, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 286-286.
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Gandomi, M, Soltanpour, M, Zolfaghari, MR & Gandomi, AH 2016, 'Prediction of peak ground acceleration of Iran's tectonic regions using a hybrid soft computing technique', Geoscience Frontiers, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 75-82.
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A new model is derived to predict the peak ground acceleration (PGA) utilizing a hybrid method coupling artificial neural network (ANN) and simulated annealing (SA), called SA-ANN. The proposed model relates PGA to earthquake source to site distance, earthquake magnitude, average shear-wave velocity, faulting mechanisms, and focal depth. A database of strong ground-motion recordings of 36 earthquakes, which happened in Iran's tectonic regions, is used to establish the model. For more validity verification, the SA-ANN model is employed to predict the PGA of a part of the database beyond the training data domain. The proposed SA-ANN model is compared with the simple ANN in addition to 10 well-known models proposed in the literature. The proposed model performance is superior to the single ANN and other existing attenuation models. The SA-ANN model is highly correlated to the actual records (R = 0.835 and ρ = 0.0908) and it is subsequently converted into a tractable design equation.

Gao, C, Huang, L, Yan, L, Kasal, B & Li, W 2016, 'Behavior of glass and carbon FRP tube encased recycled aggregate concrete with recycled clay brick aggregate', Composite Structures, vol. 155, pp. 245-254.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd In literature, there are few studies which investigated compressive behavior of fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) tube confined recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) where the recycled aggregates (RAs) mainly came from demolished old concrete components. Study which considered FRP tube confined RAC using recycled clay brick aggregates (RCBA) originating from demolished brick masonry components is rare. Thus, this paper reports a systematic study on axial compressive behavior of FRP tube encased RAC containing RCBA (termed as FRP-confined RAC-RCBA). The experimental variables considered are, i.e., replacement ratio of RCBA (r = 0, 50, 70 and 100%), FRP tube thickness (nf=2, 4 and 6 layers) and type of fibre material (GFRP and CFRP). This study shows that both GFRP and CFRP tubes enhanced strength and deformation of the confined RAC-RCBA specimens remarkably. The ultimate compressive stress of the confined specimens decreased with an increase of RCBA replacement ratio but their axial deformation kept approximately constant. Failure mode and the compressive stress-strain behavior of G/CFRP-confined RAC-RCBA were similar to these tube confined normal aggregate concrete (NAC) and the ultimate compressive strength of G/CFRP tube confined RAC-RCBA specimens enhanced with an increase in FRP tube thickness. The CFRP-confined specimens showed higher ultimate strength but lower ultimate axial strain than those of GFRP-confined specimens. The applicability of eight widely used confinement models, i.e., 5 design-oriented and 2 analysis-oriented models, for FRP-confined NAC to FRP-confined RAC-RCBA was also evaluated.

Gao, S, Duan, L & Tsang, IW 2016, 'DEFEATnet—A Deep Conventional Image Representation for Image Classification', IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 494-505.
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Gao, S-H, Peng, L, Liu, Y, Zhou, X, Ni, B-J, Bond, PL, Liang, B & Wang, A-J 2016, 'Bioelectrochemical reduction of an azo dye by a Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 formed biocathode', International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation, vol. 115, pp. 250-256.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd Presently there is great interest to develop pure culture cathodes in bioelectrochemical systems (BES) for achieving decolorization/reduction of azo dyes. In this study, we investigated the decolorization of a model azo dye, acid orange 7 (AO7) in a biocathode inoculated with a model electrogenic microorganism Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 (MR-1). The decolorization efficiency of AO7 reached 95.8 ± 4.6%, 86.4 ± 2.0%, and 77.8 ± 1.0% in 46 h in the biocathode fed with lactate, in the biocathode without lactate, and in the abiotic cathode respectively. Thus, enhanced decolorization of AO7 occurred in the biocathode, compared to the abiotic cathode, regardless of the presence of lactate. To further investigate the AO7 reduction mechanism and electron transfer between the electrode and S. oneidensis, the cathode potential was controlled such that hydrogen was not produced. In the absence of lactate, the AO7 decolorization efficiency (78.5 ± 0.8%) and sulfanilic acid (SA) production efficiency (70.9 ± 1.5%) in the biocathode were higher than the AO7 decolorization efficiency (63.7 ± 3.6%) and the SA production (56.1 ± 1.9%) efficiency in the abiotic cathode. This suggests that the reduction of AO7, with electrode as the sole electron donor, was enhanced by electron transfer between the cathode and the S. oneidensis formed biofilm on the cathode surface. This study demonstrated that S. oneidensis enhanced the capture of electrons from the cathode electrode for the reduction of the organic pollutant AO7.

Gao, T, Chen, R, Wang, X, Ngo, HH, Li, Y-Y, Zhou, J & Zhang, L 2016, 'Application of disease burden to quantitative assessment of health hazards for a decentralized water reuse system', Science of The Total Environment, vol. 551-552, pp. 83-91.
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© 2016 Elsevier B.V. The aim of this article is to introduce the methodology of disease burden (DB) to quantify the health impact of microbial regrowth during wastewater reuse, using the case study of a decentralized water reuse system in Xi'an Si-yuan University, located in Xi'an, China. Based on field investigation findings, Escherichia coli (E. coli), Salmonella and rotavirus were selected as typical regrowth pathogens causing potential health hazards during the reuse of reclaimed water. Subsequently, major exposure routes including sprinkler irrigation, landscape fountains and toilet flushing were identified. Mathematical models were established to build the relationship between exposure dose and disease burden by calculating the disability adjusted life year (DALY). Results of disease burden for this case study show that DALYs attributed to E. coli were significantly greater than those caused by other pathogens, and DALYs associated with sprinkler irrigation were higher than those originating from other routes. A correlation between exposure dose and disease was obtained by introducing a modified calculation of morbidity, which can extend the assessment endpoint of health risk to disease burden from the conventional infection rate.

Garcia, JA, Schoene, D, Lord, SR, Delbaere, K, Valenzuela, T & Navarro, KF 2016, 'A Bespoke Kinect Stepping Exergame for Improving Physical and Cognitive Function in Older People: A Pilot Study', Games for Health Journal, vol. 5, no. 6, pp. 382-388.
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© 2016 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Background: Systematic review evidence has shown that step training reduces the number of falls in older people by half. This study investigated the feasibility and effectiveness of a bespoke Kinect stepping exergame in an unsupervised home-based setting. Materials and Methods: An uncontrolled pilot trial was conducted in 12 community-dwelling older adults (mean age 79.3 ± 8.7 years, 10 females). The stepping game comprised rapid stepping, attention, and response inhibition. Participants were recommended to exercise unsupervised at home for a minimum of three 20-minute sessions per week over the 12-week study period. The outcome measures were choice stepping reaction time (CSRT) (main outcome measure), standing balance, gait speed, five-time sit-to-stand (STS), timed up and go (TUG) performance, and neuropsychological function (attention: letter-digit and executive function:Stroop tests) assessed at baseline, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and trial end (12 weeks). Results: Ten participants (83%) completed the trial and reassessments. A median 8.2 20-minute sessions were completed and no adverse events were reported. Across the trial period, participants showed significant improvements in CSRT (11%), TUG (13%), gait speed (29%), standing balance (7%), and STS (24%) performance (all P < 0.05). There were also nonsignificant, but meaningful, improvements for the letter-digit (13%) and Stroop tests (15%). Conclusions: This study found that a bespoke Kinect step training program was safe and feasible for older people to undertake unsupervised at home and led to improvements in stepping, standing balance, gait speed, and mobility. The home-based step training program could therefore be included in exercise programs designed to prevent falls.

Gardner, A & Willey, K 2016, 'Framing the academic identity of emerging researchers in engineering education', International Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 32, no. 6, pp. 2332-2351.
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Our research investigates the developing academic identity of engineering academics within the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE) community. This paper draws on data from interviews with nine 'emerging' authors with a first degree in engineering, from three types of Australian universities where they discuss their 2012 AAEE conference paper and the peer reviews of their paper. Identity-trajectory was used to analyse interview transcripts by focussing on the various elements of this framework of academic identity development. The findings and discussion focus on those aspects of the reviews and the authors' circumstances that appear to either enable or constrain their development as engineering education researchers. The study finds that authors belonging to a discipline-based educational research group made substantial changes to their papers before final submission and we argue that these research groups support these authors in developing their academic identity as an engineering education researcher.

Gentile, C 2016, 'Filling the Gaps between the In Vivo and In Vitro Microenvironment: Engineering of Spheroids for Stem Cell Technology', Current Stem Cell Research & Therapy, vol. 11, no. 8, pp. 652-665.
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Engineering of in vitro three-dimensional cultures of stem cells and their progenies has offered promising alternatives to recapitulate the in vivo microenvironment, or stem cell niche, and has provided more specific cues for proper stem cell differentiation, maintenance and culture. In particular, tissue spheroids are cellular aggregates with defined cellular and extracellular features and have provided optimal conditions for stem cell technology, both in culture and for potential engraftment. Recent studies have focused on spheroid formation and the developmental roles played by cellular and extracellular signals necessary for cellular aggegation into spheroids. This review will provide insights into the factors that regulate in vitro spheroid formation by comparing them with their developmental counterparts in vivo. At the same time, we will identify cellular and extracellular signals that could be used to bioengineer spheroids with improved features according to their application. Finally, this review will provide an overview of the applications to date of spheroid cultures of stem cells and their progenies, providing insights for future studies.

George, L, Gargiulo, GD, Lehmann, T & Hamilton, TJ 2016, 'A 0.04 mm Buck-Boost DC-DC Converter for Biomedical Implants Using Adaptive Gain and Discrete Frequency Scaling Control', IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 668-678.
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© 2015 IEEE. This paper presents the design of a reconfigurable buck-boost switched-capacitor DC-DC converter suitable for use in a wide range of biomedical implants. The proposed converter has an extremely small footprint and uses a novel control method that allows coarse and fine control of the output voltage. The converter uses adaptive gain control, discrete frequency scaling and pulse-skipping schemes to regulate the power delivered to a range of output voltages and loads. Adaptive gain control is used to implement variable switching gain ratios from a reconfigurable power stage and thereby make coarse steps in output voltage. A discrete frequency scaling controller makes discrete changes in switching frequency to vary the power delivered to the load and perform fine tuning when the output voltage is within 10% of the target output voltage. The control architecture is predominately digital and it has been implemented as part of a fully-integrated switched-capacitor converter design using a standard bulk CMOS 0.18 μm process. Measured results show that the converter has an output voltage range of 1.0 to 2.2 V, can deliver up to 7.5 mW of load power and efficiency up to 75% using an active area of only 0.04 mm2, which is significantly smaller than that of other designs. This low-area, low-complexity reconfigurable power converter can support low-power circuits in biomedical implant applications.

Gerami, A, Mostaghimi, P, Armstrong, RT, Zamani, A & Warkiani, ME 2016, 'A microfluidic framework for studying relative permeability in coal', International Journal of Coal Geology, vol. 159, pp. 183-193.
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A significant unconventional energy resource is methane gas stored in shallow coal beds, known as coal seam gas. The flow and transport of fluid in coal beds occur in a well-developed system of natural fractures, called cleats. In this study, we developed an efficient workflow for the fabrication of microfluidic chips based on X-ray micro-Computed Tomography (micro-CT) images of coal. A dry and wet micro-CT imaging technique is utilized to image coal cleats that would be otherwise non-resolvable. The obtained image of the cleat network is then etched into silicon wafers and used to fabricate poly dimethyl siloxane (PDMS) microfluidic devices. Fluid transport and displacement efficiency are visualized and quantified in real time by injecting water with a flow rate of 1 μl min-1 into the fabricated cleat structure initially saturated with air. A microfluidic approach is used to measure the relative permeability of a realistic coal cleat system by monitoring the liquid recovery at recorded saturations after the breakthrough. Relative permeability curves show the cross and end point values for the water and gas flow, and predict a maximum relative permeability of 0.15 for the water phase. Understanding the relationship between coal cleat structure and the resulting relative permeability is crucial for the optimization of methane gas extraction and to reduce the environmental concerns of excess surface water production. Also, pore network modelling based on the Maximal Ball (MB) concept is applied to predict relative permeability curves numerically. Our experimental results are in good agreement with pore network modelling outcomes and provide consistent and smooth macro-scale relationships along with direct observation of the pore-scale physics. Therefore not only can the microfluidic approach be used as a validation tool for multiphase flow numerical models but it can also provide direct visualization of transport properties unique to coals. Overall, our d...

Ghasemi, M, Aghaei, J, Akbari, E, Ghavidel, S & Li, L 2016, 'A differential evolution particle swarm optimizer for various types of multi-area economic dispatch problems', Energy, vol. 107, pp. 182-195.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. This paper proposes a new, efficient and powerful heuristic-hybrid algorithm using hybrid DE (differential evolution) and PSO (particle swarm optimization) techniques DEPSO (differential evolution particle swarm optimization) designed to solve eight optimization problems with benchmark functions and the MAED (multi-area economic dispatch), RCMAED (reserve constrained MAED) and RCMAEED (reserve constrained multi area environmental/economic dispatch) problems with reserve sharing in power system operations. The proposed hybridizing sum-local search optimizer, entitled HSLSO, is a relatively simple but powerful technique. The HSLSO algorithm is used in this study for solving different MAED problems with non-smooth cost function. The effectiveness and efficiency of the HSLSO algorithm is first tested on a number of benchmark test functions. Experimental results showe the HSLSO has a better quality solution with the ability to converge for most of the tested functions.

Gholami, MF, Daneshgar, F, Low, G & Beydoun, G 2016, 'Cloud migration process-A survey, evaluation framework, and open challenges', JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS AND SOFTWARE, vol. 120, pp. 31-69.
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Ghosh, B, Fatahi, B & Khabbaz, H 2016, 'Mechanical Model to Analyse Multilayer Geosynthetic Reinforced Granular Layer in Column Supported Embankments', ADVANCES IN TRANSPORTATION GEOTECHNICS III, vol. 143, pp. 387-394.
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© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. The objective of this paper is to develop a mechanical model to predict the behaviour of a multilayer geosynthetic reinforced granular fill soft soil system improved with controlled modulus columns beneath the embankment. Deformation of geosynthetics embedded granular layer due to bending and shear is considered in this study. Therefore, geosynthetic reinforced granular fill has been idealised as a reinforced Timoshenko beam while the columns and the soft soil have been idealised as a layer of linear springs with varied stiffness. Plane strain conditions are considered for the loading and reinforced foundation soil system. Tension developed in the geosynthetics, rotation and settlements of the improved soft ground are predicted using the proposed model. This study shows the effects of multilayer geosynthetics on the settlement response of the granular layer. A notable reduction of the settlement has been observed as a result of the using multilayer weaker geosynthetic reinforcement system when compare to one stronger geosynthetics layer. It is also observed that the top reinforcement layer is subjected to maximum mobilised tension at the column edge whereas bottom reinforcement layer is more effective in controlling the deflection in the middle of two columns.

Ghosh, S, Feng, M, Nguyen, H & Li, J 2016, 'Hypotension Risk Prediction via Sequential Contrast Patterns of ICU Blood Pressure', IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 1416-1426.
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© 2013 IEEE. Acute hypotension is a significant risk factor for in-hospital mortality at intensive care units. Prolonged hypotension can cause tissue hypoperfusion, leading to cellular dysfunction and severe injuries to multiple organs. Prompt medical interventions are thus extremely important for dealing with acute hypotensive episodes (AHE). Population level prognostic scoring systems for risk stratification of patients are suboptimal in such scenarios. However, the design of an efficient risk prediction system can significantly help in the identification of critical care patients, who are at risk of developing an AHE within a future time span. Toward this objective, a pattern mining algorithm is employed to extract informative sequential contrast patterns from hemodynamic data, for the prediction of hypotensive episodes. The hypotensive and normotensive patient groups are extracted from the MIMIC-II critical care research database, following an appropriate clinical inclusion criteria. The proposed method consists of a data preprocessing step to convert the blood pressure time series into symbolic sequences, using a symbolic aggregate approximation algorithm. Then, distinguishing subsequences are identified using the sequential contrast mining algorithm. These subsequences are used to predict the occurrence of an AHE in a future time window separated by a user-defined gap interval. Results indicate that the method performs well in terms of the prediction performance as well as in the generation of sequential patterns of clinical significance. Hence, the novelty of sequential patterns is in their usefulness as potential physiological biomarkers for building optimal patient risk stratification systems and for further clinical investigation of interesting patterns in critical care patients.

Gill, AQ, Phennel, N, Lane, D & Phung, VL 2016, 'IoT-enabled emergency information supply chain architecture for elderly people: The Australian context.', Inf. Syst., vol. 58, pp. 75-86.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. The effective delivery of emergency information to elderly people is a challenging task. Failure to deliver appropriate information can have an adverse impact on the well-being of the elderly people. This paper addresses this challenge and proposes an IoT-enabled information architecture driven approach, which is called 'Resalert'. Resalert offers IoT-enabled emergency information supply chain architecture pattern, IoT device architecture and system architecture. The applicability of the Resalert is evaluated by the means of an example scenario, a portable Raspberry Pi based system prototype and user evaluation. The results of this research indicate that the proposed approach seems useful to the effective delivery of emergency information to elderly people.

Giwa, A, Akther, N, Dufour, V & Hasan, SW 2016, 'A critical review on recent polymeric and nano-enhanced membranes for reverse osmosis', RSC Advances, vol. 6, no. 10, pp. 8134-8163.
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Current and recent advances in polymeric and nano-enhanced membrane developments for reverse osmosis are reported in terms of membrane performance and fouling.

Giwa, A, Akther, N, Housani, AA, Haris, S & Hasan, SW 2016, 'Recent advances in humidification dehumidification (HDH) desalination processes: Improved designs and productivity', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 57, pp. 929-944.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. One of the innovative methods for decentralized low-scale purification of water is the humidification dehumidification (HDH) desalination technology. Many research activities have been carried out recently with the aim of improving this technology. The economic and environmental benefits of the HDH technology are enormous including feasibility of being powered by sustainable energy sources such as solar and geothermal, ability to operate at low temperature, low maintenance requirements, and simple construction needs. The principal HDH components, latest research on HDH systems driven by renewable energy, and recent innovations on HDH design for sustainable water production are discussed in this paper. It is worth noting that the development of the key features and sustainability aspects of HDH desalination technology are still under research and more improvements are needed to optimize process performance parameters in terms of quantity of water produced, specific renewable energy required, and specific cost of water produced. However, HDH technology has been proven to be an inexpensive and reliable desalination system in terms of environmental friendliness for small scale applications.

Goldsmith, R & Willey, K 2016, ''It's not my job to teach writing': Activity theory analysis of [invisible] writing practices in the engineering curriculum', JOURNAL OF ACADEMIC LANGUAGE AND LEARNING, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. A118-A129.
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Although writing is still the main form of assessment at university, the prac-tice of writing continues to be marginalised, particularly in technical disci-plines such as engineering, notwithstanding decades of reports identifying gaps in graduate communication abilities in these fields, and diverse inter-ventions to address these gaps. The assumption underlying many of the re-ports and interventions is that engineering students neither value nor are in-terested in writing, but actually many engineering students are not provided with the opportunity to develop or practise disciplinary writing in the sub-jects they study, despite being required to write in a range of genres as part of their assessment. This implies that writing practices are neither seen as developmental nor as intrinsic to the engineering curriculum. This demands the question: why not? This paper reports on a study investigating percep-tions of writing practices in the engineering curriculum at the level of engi-neering academics. Using activity theory to capture the dynamic interactions of the various participants in engineering subjects, the study analyses the perspectives of engineering subject coordinators about writing practices in their subjects through interviews and documents. Current findings show ten-sions between the value of propositional or technical knowledge and that of writing practices. These findings can be used to develop a discussion with engineering academics to emphasise the developmental nature of writing and to make writing practices more visible in the engineering curriculum.

Golsorkhi, MS & Lu, DD-C 2016, 'A Decentralized Control Method for Islanded Microgrids Under Unbalanced Conditions', IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 1112-1121.
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© 1986-2012 IEEE. Unbalanced load currents not only give rise to unbalanced voltages but also adversely affect the performance of the conventional current-limiting mechanisms. The latter might result in overcurrent stress on the distributed energy resources (DERs) or current harmonics. In this paper, a novel decentralized control method is proposed to improve the power quality and protect DERs from overload. The proposed controller makes use of the model predictive control (MPC) technique to minimize the voltage unbalance, improve current limiting, and prevent active power overload. The MPC is combined with the V-I droop method to realize coordinated operation with fast dynamic response. The proposed method is tested on the CIGRE benchmark microgrid. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method improves power quality but also allows for operation close to the maximum load capacity without imposing DERs to overload.

Gong, C, Tao, D, Maybank, SJ, Liu, W, Kang, G & Yang, J 2016, 'Multi-Modal Curriculum Learning for Semi-Supervised Image Classification', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON IMAGE PROCESSING, vol. 25, no. 7, pp. 3249-3260.
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© 1992-2012 IEEE. Semi-supervised image classification aims to classify a large quantity of unlabeled images by typically harnessing scarce labeled images. Existing semi-supervised methods often suffer from inadequate classification accuracy when encountering difficult yet critical images, such as outliers, because they treat all unlabeled images equally and conduct classifications in an imperfectly ordered sequence. In this paper, we employ the curriculum learning methodology by investigating the difficulty of classifying every unlabeled image. The reliability and the discriminability of these unlabeled images are particularly investigated for evaluating their difficulty. As a result, an optimized image sequence is generated during the iterative propagations, and the unlabeled images are logically classified from simple to difficult. Furthermore, since images are usually characterized by multiple visual feature descriptors, we associate each kind of features with a teacher, and design a multi-modal curriculum learning (MMCL) strategy to integrate the information from different feature modalities. In each propagation, each teacher analyzes the difficulties of the currently unlabeled images from its own modality viewpoint. A consensus is subsequently reached among all the teachers, determining the currently simplest images (i.e., a curriculum), which are to be reliably classified by the multi-modal learner. This well-organized propagation process leveraging multiple teachers and one learner enables our MMCL to outperform five state-of-the-art methods on eight popular image data sets.

González, LO, Rodríguez Gil, LI, Martorell Cunill, O & Merigó Lindahl, JM 2016, 'The effect of financial innovation on European banks' risk', Journal of Business Research, vol. 69, no. 11, pp. 4781-4786.
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© 2016 Elsevier Inc. This study examines the effect of the use of securitization and credit derivatives on the risk profile of European banks. Using information from 134 listed European banks during the period of 2006–2010, the results show that securitization and trading with credit derivatives have a negative effect on financial stability. The main findings also show the dominance of trading positions over hedging positions for credit derivatives. The results of this study support the higher capital requirements of the new Basel III international banking regulations. Furthermore, accounting measures do not readily indicate market risks, and thus the results support central banks’ use of market-solvency measures to monitor financial stability.

Gopinadhan, M, Choo, Y & Osuji, CO 2016, 'Strong Orientational Coupling of Block Copolymer Microdomains to Smectic Layering Revealed by Magnetic Field Alignment', ACS Macro Letters, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 292-296.
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Gourlay, ML, Overman, RA, Fine, JP, Filteau, G, Cawthon, PM, Schousboe, JT, Orwoll, ES, Wilt, TJ, Nguyen, TV, Lane, NE, Szulc, P, Taylor, BC, Dam, T-T, Nielson, CM, Cauley, JA, Barrett-Connor, E, Fink, HA, Lapidus, JA, Kado, DM, Diem, SJ & Ensrud, KE 2016, 'Time to Osteoporosis and Major Fracture in Older Men', American Journal of Preventive Medicine, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 727-736.
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© 2016 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Introduction For older men who undergo bone mineral density (BMD) testing, the optimal osteoporosis screening schedule is unknown. Time-to-disease estimates are necessary to inform screening intervals. Methods A prospective cohort study of 5,415 community-dwelling men aged ≥65 years without hip or clinical vertebral fracture or antifracture treatment at baseline was conducted. Participants had concurrent BMD and fracture follow-up between 2000 and 2009, and additional fracture follow-up through 2014. Data were analyzed in 2015. Time to incident osteoporosis (lowest T-score ≤ -2.50) for men without baseline osteoporosis, and time to hip or clinical vertebral fracture or major osteoporotic fracture for men without or with baseline osteoporosis, were estimated. Results Nine men (0.2%) with BMD T-scores >-1.50 at baseline developed osteoporosis during follow-up. The adjusted estimated time for 10% to develop osteoporosis was 8.5 (95% CI=6.7, 10.9) years for those with moderate osteopenia (lowest T-score, -1.50 to -1.99) and 2.7 (95% CI=2.1, 3.4) years for those with advanced osteopenia (lowest T-score, -2.00 to -2.49) at baseline. The adjusted times for 3% to develop a first hip or clinical vertebral fracture ranged from 7.1 (95% CI=6.0, 8.3) years in men with baseline T-scores > -1.50 to 1.7 (95% CI=1.0, 3.1) years in men with baseline osteoporosis. Conclusions Men aged 65 years and older with femoral neck, total hip, and lumbar spine BMD T-scores >-1.50 on a first BMD test were very unlikely to develop osteoporosis during follow-up. Additional BMD testing may be most informative in older men with T-scores ≤-1.50.

Green, D, Naidoo, E, Olminkhof, C & Dyson, LE 2016, 'Tablets@university: The ownership and use of tablet devices by students', AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 50-64.
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Tablet devices have made a dramatic impact in the computing industry, and have been widely adopted by consumers, including tertiary students. Published research surrounding the use of tablet computers in tertiary settings appears to be largely centred on the advantages of integrating tablets into university pedagogies. However, there appears to have been very little research into the current level of ownership and use amongst students beyond university-sponsored adoption programs. This paper sets out to provide baseline data on the level of ownership and the current usage of tablets by students at an Australian university. A survey of 200 undergraduate and postgraduate students and interviews with five students showed high tablet ownership and significant engagement with educational uses. The findings of this study have implications for the incorporation of tablets into university education

Gu, X, Li, J, Li, Y & Askari, M 2016, 'Frequency control of smart base isolation system employing a novel adaptive magneto-rheological elastomer base isolator', Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures, vol. 27, no. 7, pp. 849-858.
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In the past decades, base isolation techniques have become increasingly popular for seismic protection of civil structures owing to its capability of decoupling buildings from harmful ground motion. However, it has been recognised recently that the traditional passive base isolation technique could encounter a serious problem during earthquakes due its incapability in adjusting the isolation frequency to cope with the unpredictability and diversity of earthquakes. To address this challenge, a great deal of research efforts have been conducted to improve traditional base isolation systems, most of which focused on hybrid supplementary devices (passive, active and semi-active types) for the isolators to control displacement or to dissipate seismic energy. On the other hand, the most effective approach to address the aforementioned challenge should lay on varying isolator stiffness in real-time to achieve real-time spontaneous decoupling. A recent advance of the development of an adaptive magneto-rheological elastomer base isolator has brought such idea to reality as the new magneto-rheological elastomer base isolator is capable to alter its stiffness significantly in real-time. In this article, an innovative smart base isolation system employing such magneto-rheological elastomer isolator is proposed and a novel frequency control algorithm is developed to shift the fundamental frequency of the structure away from the dominant frequency range of earthquakes. Such design enables the building to avoid resonant state in real-time according to the on-coming spectrum of the earthquakes. Extensive simulation has been conducted using a five-storey benchmark model with the isolation system, and testing results indicate that the proposed control system is able to significantly suppress both the floor accelerations and inter-storey drifts simultaneously under different earthquakes.

Gu, X, Li, Y & Li, J 2016, 'Investigations on response time of magnetorheological elastomer isolator for real-time control implementation', Smart Materials and Structures, vol. 25, no. 11, pp. 11LT04-11LT04.
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© 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd. Utilising the unique features of MRE materials for vibration isolators has been intensively studied over the last several years. Real-time control of the MRE isolators holds the key to unlock MRE materials' unique characteristics, i.e. instantly changeable shear modulus in continuous and reverse fashion. However, one of the critical issues for the applications of real-time control is the response time delay of MRE vibration isolators, which has not yet been fully addressed and studied. This paper identified the inherent response time of the MRE isolator and explored two feasible approaches to minimise the response time delay. Experiments were designed and conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches on minimising time delay on: (i) the transient response of current of a large coil that generates magnetic field and (ii) the transient response of shear force from the MRE isolator. The results show that the proposed approaches are effective and promising. For example, the proposed approach is able to reduce the force response time from 421 ms to 52 ms at rising and from 400 ms to 48 ms falling edges respectively. Such level of short response time of the MRE isolators demonstrates the feasibility of application of real-time control and hence is the essential step on the realisation of real-time control of vibration suppression system based on MRE isolator.

Gu, X, Yu, Y, Li, J, Li, Y & Alamdari, MM 2016, 'Semi-active storey isolation system employing MRE isolator with parameter identification based on NSGA-II with DCD', Earthquakes and Structures, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 1101-1121.
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© 2016 Techno-Press, Ltd. Base isolation, one of the popular seismic protection approaches proven to be effective in practical applications, has been widely applied worldwide during the past few decades. As the techniques mature, it has been recognised that, the biggest issue faced in base isolation technique is the challenge of great base displacement demand, which leads to the potential of overturning of the structure, instability and permanent damage of the isolators. Meanwhile, drain, ventilation and regular maintenance at the base isolation level are quite difficult and rather time- and fund- consuming, especially in the highly populated areas. To address these challenges, a number of efforts have been dedicated to propose new isolation systems, including segmental building, additional storey isolation (ASI) and mid-storey isolation system, etc. However, such techniques have their own flaws, among which whipping effect is the most obvious one. Moreover, due to their inherent passive nature, all these techniques, including traditional base isolation system, show incapability to cope with the unpredictable and diverse nature of earthquakes. The solution for the aforementioned challenge is to develop an innovative vibration isolation system to realise variable structural stiffness to maximise the adaptability and controllability of the system. Recently, advances on the development of an adaptive magneto-rheological elastomer (MRE) vibration isolator has enlightened the development of adaptive base isolation systems due to its ability to alter stiffness by changing applied electrical current. In this study, an innovative semi-active storey isolation system inserting such novel MRE isolators between each floor is proposed. The stiffness of each level in the proposed isolation system can thus be changed according to characteristics of the MRE isolators. Nondominated sorting genetic algorithm type II (NSGA-II) with dynamic crowding distance (DCD) is utili...

Guan, D, Zhang, Y, Qian, Z, Li, Y, Asaadi, M & Ding, C 2016, 'A Novel 2-D Multibeam Antenna Without Beamforming Network', IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 64, no. 7, pp. 3177-3180.
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© 2016 IEEE. A novel design of multibeam array antenna without feeding network is presented in this communication. This array antenna consists of 3 × 3 microstrip patches as radiators. In this design, a feeding network is avoided where each patch is fed by a probe. Furthermore, whatever patch is excited, the input power can be coupled to all patches through four microstrip lines located between the radiating elements. In addition, nine radiation beams can be implemented depending on different field distributions that are generated by exciting each patch individually. The proposed antenna has a simple single-layered structure and does not suffer from a complex feeding network compared with traditional multibeam antennas. The experimental results demonstrate that the scanning ranges of the nine beams are ±24° and ±45° in the vertical and horizontal directions, respectively. Moreover, measured gain for the nine beams of the implemented antenna varies from 9.06 to 10.45 dBi.

Guan, D-F, Ding, C, Qian, Z-P, Zhang, Y-S, Jay Guo, Y & Gong, K 2016, 'Broadband High-Gain SIW Cavity-Backed Circular-Polarized Array Antenna', IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 64, no. 4, pp. 1493-1497.
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© 2016 IEEE. A circularly polarized (CP) 4 × 4 array antenna based on substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology is presented. Circular polarization is achieved by applying the sequential rotation technique (SRT) with a well-designed sequential feed network and linear-polarized array elements. The proposed 4 × 4 array has a wide axial ratio (AR) bandwidth of 14% from 18.3 to 21.1 GHz with gain > 13 dBic. Then, the array is expanded to achieve higher gains. A 16 × 16-element array is designed, fabricated, and tested. Test results show that the 16 × 16 array has an AR bandwidth of 13.8% from 18.5 to 21.25 GHz and a peak gain of 25.9 dBic at 20.5 GHz.

GUERTLER, MR & LINDEMANN, UDO 2016, 'IDENTIFYING OPEN INNOVATION PARTNERS: A METHODOLOGY FOR STRATEGIC PARTNER SELECTION', International Journal of Innovation Management, vol. 20, no. 05, pp. 1640011-1640011.
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By opening a company’s innovation process, and allowing purposeful collaboration with external partners, Open Innovation (OI) offers several advantages, such as the use of external expertise, shorter time-to-market and reduced failure rates. However, the success of OI projects is directly linked to the selection of suitable partners, who operationally or strategically contribute to reach the goal of the OI project. Despite this relevance of OI-partner selection, methodical support has hitherto been limited — it is either too abstract to be helpful in practice, or too focused on single aspects. This paper presents a methodical approach to close this gap by combining identification and selection approaches from different fields, such as stakeholder analysis, lead-user identification and systems engineering. The methodology was evaluated in an industrial OI-project with an SME from plant manufacturing.

Guertler, MR, Michailidou, I & Lindemann, U 2016, 'How to assess a company’s open innovation situation?', Design Science, vol. 2.
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Open Innovation (OI) supports companies in systematically collaborating with external partners, offering various advantages. However, companies still face several challenges when applying OI, e.g., identifying relevant OI partners, collaboration methods, and project risks. Often, insufficient planning is the reason for subsequent deficits in OI projects. The analysis of relevant context factors (‘situation’) is important, which affect and constrain OI. To date, a general approach for analyzing (open) innovation situations or guidelines for developing one do not exist. Usually researchers develop their own situation analysis, including extensive literature reviews and experiencing similar challenges. This publication sets the basis for successfully planning OI projects. It focuses on developing an analysis approach for OI situations and supports other researchers in developing their own analysis approaches. The resultant objectives of the publication are to: (1) provide a list of potential situation analysis criteria; (2) provide a guideline for developing a situation analysis; (3) provide initial indications of relevant OI-specific situation criteria. The criteria were derived from the literature and qualitatively evaluated by three industry partners to assess their usability. Although this work is exploratory, and the results are not automatically generalizable, it is an important contribution for ensuring the success of OI, and for analyzing enablers and barriers to knowledge transfer from academia to industry.

Gulzar, M, Masjuki, HH, Kalam, MA, Varman, M, Zulkifli, NWM, Mufti, RA & Zahid, R 2016, 'Tribological performance of nanoparticles as lubricating oil additives', Journal of Nanoparticle Research, vol. 18, no. 8.
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The prospect of modern tribology has been expanded with the advent of nanomaterial-based lubrication systems, whose development was facilitated by the nanotechnology in recent years. In literature, a variety of nanoparticles have been used as lubricant additives with potentially interesting friction and wear properties. To date, although there has been a great deal of experimental research on nanoparticles as lubricating oil additives, many aspects of their tribological behavior are yet to be fully understood. With growing number of possibilities, the key question is: what types of nanoparticles act as a better lubricating oil additive and why? To answer this question, this paper reviews main types of nanoparticles that have been used as lubricants additives and outlines the mechanisms by which they are currently believed to function. Significant aspects of their tribological behavior such as dispersion stability and morphology are also highlighted.

Gulzar, M, Masjuki, HH, Varman, M, Kalam, MA, Zulkifli, NWM, Mufti, RA, Liaquat, AM, Zahid, R & Arslan, A 2016, 'Effects of biodiesel blends on lubricating oil degradation and piston assembly energy losses', Energy, vol. 111, pp. 713-721.
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Guntuku, SC, Zhou, JT, Roy, S, Lin, W & Tsang, IW 2016, 'Understanding Deep Representations Learned in Modeling Users Likes', IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 25, no. 8, pp. 3762-3774.
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© 1992-2012 IEEE. Automatically understanding and discriminating different users' liking for an image is a challenging problem. This is because the relationship between image features (even semantic ones extracted by existing tools, viz., faces, objects, and so on) and users' likes is non-linear, influenced by several subtle factors. This paper presents a deep bi-modal knowledge representation of images based on their visual content and associated tags (text). A mapping step between the different levels of visual and textual representations allows for the transfer of semantic knowledge between the two modalities. Feature selection is applied before learning deep representation to identify the important features for a user to like an image. The proposed representation is shown to be effective in discriminating users based on images they like and also in recommending images that a given user likes, outperforming the state-of-the-art feature representations by ∼ 15%-20%. Beyond this test-set performance, an attempt is made to qualitatively understand the representations learned by the deep architecture used to model user likes.

Guo, J, Wang, S, Lian, J, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Liu, Y & Song, Y 2016, 'Rapid start-up of the anammox process: Effects of five different sludge extracellular polymeric substances on the activity of anammox bacteria', Bioresource Technology, vol. 220, pp. 641-646.
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© 2016 This study investigated the rapid start-up of the anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) strategy by inoculating different biomass ratios of denitrifying granular sludge and anammox bacteria. The results demonstrated that two reactors (R1 and R2) were rapidly and successfully started-up on days 25 and 28, respectively, with nitrogen removal rates (NRRs) of 0.70 kg/(m3·d) and 0.72 kg/(m3·d) at biomass ratios of 10:1 (R1) and 50:1 (R2). The explanation for rapid start-up was found by examining the effect of five different sludge extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) on the activity of anammox bacteria in the batch experiments. Batch experiments results first demonstrated that the denitrification sludge EPS (DS-EPS) enhanced the anammox bacteria activity the most, and NO2−-N, NH4+-N removal rates were 1.88- and 1.53-fold higher than the control with optimal DS-EPS volume of 10 mL. The rapid start-up strategy makes possible the application of anammox to practical engineering.

Guo, L, Zhu, H & Abbosh, A 2016, 'Wideband Phase Shifter With Wide Phase Range Using Parallel Coupled Lines and L-Shaped Networks', IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, vol. 26, no. 8, pp. 592-594.
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A planar broadband phase shifter with wide range of differential phase is proposed. To achieve this performance, the design uses quarter wavelength parallel coupled lines combined with two L-shape networks. The L-shaped network includes a short-ended stub and a section of transmission line as an impedance transformer. The value of the differential phase can be adjusted through varying the coupling coefficient of the coupled lines along with the length and impedance of the short-ended stubs and transformer. The theory of operation for the proposed design is explained. To validate the theory, a phase shifter is designed and manufactured to realize 180° differential phase. The simulated and measured results agree well with the theory and show less than b° phase deviation and 1.3 dB insertion loss across the band 1-3 GHz.

Guo, L, Zhu, H & Abbosh, AM 2016, 'Wideband Tunable In-Phase Power Divider Using Three-Line Coupled Structure', IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, vol. 26, no. 6, pp. 404-406.
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Guo, Q, Zhang, Y, Celler, BG & Su, SW 2016, 'Backstepping Control of Electro-Hydraulic System Based on Extended-State-Observer With Plant Dynamics Largely Unknown', IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 63, no. 11, pp. 6909-6920.
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Guo, S, Yu, S, Li, J & Ansari, N 2016, 'Big data for networking [Guest Editorial]', IEEE Network, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 4-5.
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Guo, Y, Ma, Z, Al-Jubainawi, A, Cooper, P & Nghiem, LD 2016, 'Using electrodialysis for regeneration of aqueous lithium chloride solution in liquid desiccant air conditioning systems', Energy and Buildings, vol. 116, pp. 285-295.
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Gupta, B, Di Bernardo, I, Mondelli, P, Della Pia, A, Betti, MG, Iacopi, F, Mariani, C & Motta, N 2016, 'Effect of substrate polishing on the growth of graphene on 3C–SiC(111)/Si(111) by high temperature annealing', Nanotechnology, vol. 27, no. 18, pp. 185601-185601.
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Guzman-Quiros, R, Weily, AR, Gomez-Tornero, JL & Guo, YJ 2016, 'A Fabry–Pérot Antenna With Two-Dimensional Electronic Beam Scanning', IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 64, no. 4, pp. 1536-1541.
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© 2016 IEEE. A novel fixed-frequency electronically steerable Fabry-Pérot Antenna (FPA) with electronic two-dimensional (2-D) (azimuth and elevation) steering capability is presented. The configuration is based on a centrally fed Fabry-Pérot cavity (FPC) loaded with a tunable high impedance surface (HIS). Varactor diodes are used to electronically tune the HIS reflection coefficient, forming four azimuthal sectors that are independently controlled by four control signals, respectively. It is demonstrated that this simple configuration generates a pencil beam that can be pointed to eight discrete azimuthal directions, whereas continuous elevation scanning is also attained simultaneously for each azimuthal direction by controlling the leaky-wave propagation constant. The theory, simulation analysis, and experimental results obtained from a prototype operating at 5.5 GHz are presented to validate the antenna design.

Habibullah, M, Lu, DD-C, Xiao, D & Rahman, MF 2016, 'A Simplified Finite-State Predictive Direct Torque Control for Induction Motor Drive', IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 63, no. 6, pp. 3964-3975.
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© 2016 IEEE. Finite-state predictive torque control (FS-PTC) is computationally expensive, since it uses all voltage vectors (VVs) available from a power converter for prediction and actuation. The computational burden is rapidly increased with the number of VVs and objectives to be controlled. Moreover, designing a cost function with more than two control objectives is a complex task. This paper proposes a simplified algorithm based on a new direct torque control (DTC) switching table to reduce the number of VVs to be predicted and objectives to be controlled. The new switching table also assists to reduce average switching frequency and its variation range. As a result, the cost function is simplified by not requiring to include the frequency term. Experimental results show that the average execution time and the average switching frequency for the proposed algorithm are greatly reduced without affecting the torque and flux performances achieved in the conventional FS-PTC.

Hagelstein, B, Abolhasan, M, Franklin, D, Safaei, F & Ni, W 2016, 'Analytic Performance Model for State-Based MAC Layer Cooperative Retransmission Protocols', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MOBILE COMPUTING, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 32-44.
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© 2015 IEEE. Cooperative retransmission can significantly improve link reliability over lossy and time-varying wireless links. However, comparing retransmission protocols is challenging, and generally requires simplistic assumptions specific to each protocol. In this paper, we develop a general model to evaluate cooperative retransmission protocols with distributed, slot-based contention algorithms. Specifically, we propose to calculate the relay time-out probabilities at a MAC time-slot scale, formulate retransmission outcomes as functions of the time-out probabilities, and derive the probability of a retransmission process for every data frame. We also propose a Markov extension of our model to characterise the dependency between retransmissions of multiple frames. This enables our model to analyse continuous retransmissions of successive frames. Validated by QualNet simulations, our model can analytically predict the probabilities of cooperative retransmissions with an accuracy of ± 1%. As a result, direct comparisons between cooperative retransmission protocols become tangible, without implementing the full protocol in a state-based simulator.

Hajializadeh, D, OBrien, EJ & Stewart, MG 2016, 'The sensitivity of bridge safety to spatial correlation of load and resistance', Structures, vol. 5, pp. 23-34.
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Random Field theory has emerged in recent years to model the statistical correlation of resistance in concrete structures and to determine its influence on the probability of structural failure. A major shortcoming in the work carried out to date is the spatial variability and corresponding correlation associated with applied traffic loads. In this paper the influence of spatial correlation of both traffic load and resistance is considered in the context of bridge safety assessment. The current study, explores, the nature of the problem by three theoretical examples. As a general trend, examples show that while traffic loads are weakly correlated, load effects are strongly correlated as the same heavy vehicle often causes extremes of load effect in different parts of the bridge which is due to the transverse sharing of load (measured here using a load sharing factor). It is found that the strength of correlation of load effect depends greatly on the load sharing factor which is treated in a simple way in many studies. In a more sophisticated beam-and-slab bridge example, load sharing factors are derived from a finite element analysis to assess transverse load sharing, and are shown to vary by girder number, girder segment and by load location. Despite the fact that load effect at points along the length of a bridge is strongly correlated, the combined influence of correlation in load and resistance on probability of failure is small.

Hajializadeh, D, Stewart, MG, Enright, B & OBrien, E 2016, 'Spatial time-dependent reliability analysis of reinforced concrete slab bridges subject to realistic traffic loading', Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, vol. 12, no. 9, pp. 1137-1152.
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Resistance and loads are often correlated in time and space. The paper assesses the influence of these correlations on structural reliability/probability of failure for a typical two-lane reinforced concrete (RC) slab bridge under realistic traffic loading. Spatial variables for structural resistance are cover and concrete compressive strength, which in turn affect the strength and chloride-induced corrosion of RC elements. Random variables include pit depth and model error. Correlation of weights between trucks in adjacent lanes and inter-vehicle gaps are also included and are calibrated against weigh-in-motion data. Reliability analysis of deteriorating bridges needs to incorporate uncertainties associated with parameters governing the deterioration process and loading. One of the major unanswered questions in the work carried out to date is the influence of spatial variability of load and resistance on failure probability. Spatial variability research carried out to date has been mainly focused on predicting the remaining lifetime of a corroding structure and spatial variability of material, dimensional and environmental properties. A major shortcoming in the work carried out to date is the lack of an allowance for the spatial variability of applied traffic loads. In this article, a two-dimensional (2D) random field is developed where load effects and time-dependent structural resistance are calculated for each segment in the field. The 2D spatial time-dependent reliability analysis of an RC slab bridge found that a spatially correlated resistance results in only a small increase in probability of failure. Despite the fact that load effect at points along the length of a bridge is strongly correlated, the combined influence of correlation in load and resistance on probability of failure is small.

Hajinoroozi, M, Mao, Z, Jung, T-P, Lin, C-T & Huang, Y 2016, 'EEG-based prediction of driver's cognitive performance by deep convolutional neural network', Signal Processing: Image Communication, vol. 47, pp. 549-555.
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© 2016 Elsevier B.V. We considered the prediction of driver's cognitive states related to driving performance using EEG signals. We proposed a novel channel-wise convolutional neural network (CCNN) whose architecture considers the unique characteristics of EEG data. We also discussed CCNN-R, a CCNN variation that uses Restricted Boltzmann Machine to replace the convolutional filter, and derived the detailed algorithm. To test the performance of CCNN and CCNN-R, we assembled a large EEG dataset from 3 studies of driver fatigue that includes samples from 37 subjects. Using this dataset, we investigated the new CCNN and CCNN-R on raw EEG data and also Independent Component Analysis (ICA) decomposition. We tested both within-subject and cross-subject predictions and the results showed CCNN and CCNN-R achieved robust and improved performance over conventional DNN and CNN as well as other non-DL algorithms.

Han, S, Middleton, PF, Tran, TS & Crowther, CA 2016, 'Assessing use of a printed lifestyle intervention tool by women with borderline gestational diabetes and their achievement of diet and exercise goals: a descriptive study', BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, vol. 16, no. 1.
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Hanh, LTM, Binh, NT & Tung, KT 2016, 'A Novel Fitness function of metaheuristic algorithms for test data generation for simulink models based on mutation analysis', Journal of Systems and Software, vol. 120, pp. 17-30.
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Hanif, M, Mahlia, TMI, Aditiya, HB, Chong, WT & Nasruddin 2016, 'Techno-economic and environmental assessment of bioethanol production from high starch and root yield Sri Kanji 1 cassava in Malaysia', Energy Reports, vol. 2, pp. 246-253.
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Transportation played a significant role in energy consumption and pollution subsequently. Caused by the intense growth of greenhouse gas emission, efficient and sustainable improvement of the transportation sector has elevated the concern in many nations including Malaysia. Bioethanol is an alternative and renewable energy that has a great potential to substitute for fossil gasoline in internal combustion engine (ICE). Although bioethanol has been widely utilized in road transport worldwide, the production and application of bioethanol in Malaysia is yet to be considered. Presently there is comprehensive diversity of bioethanol research on distillation, performance and emission analysis available worldwide. Yet, the study on techno-economic and feasibility of bioethanol fuel in Malaysia condition is unavailable. Thus, this study is concentrated on bioethanol production and techno-economic analysis of cassava bioethanol as an alternative fuel in Malaysia. Furthermore, the current study attempts to determine the effect of bioethanol employment towards the energy scenario, environmental and economy. From the economic analysis, determined that the life cycle cost for 54 ktons cassava bioethanol production plant with a project life time of 20 years is $132 million USD, which is equivalent to $0.11 USD per litre of bioethanol. Furthermore, substituting 5 % of gasoline fuel with bioethanol fuel in road transport can reduce the CO2 emissions up to 2,038 ktons in year 2036. In case to repay the carbon debt from converting natural forest to cassava cropland, cassava bioethanol required about 5.4 years. The cassava bioethanol is much cheaper than gasoline fuel even when 20 % taxation is subjected to bioethanol at current production cost. Thus, this study serves as a guideline for further investigation and research on bioethanol production, subsidy cost and other limitation factors before the extensive application of bioethanol can be implemented in Malaysia.

Hao, H, Hao, Y, Li, J & Chen, W 2016, 'Review of the current practices in blast-resistant analysis and design of concrete structures', Advances in Structural Engineering, vol. 19, no. 8, pp. 1193-1223.
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In contemporary society, industrialization and rising of terrorism threats highlight the necessity and importance of structural protection against accidental and intentionally malicious blast loads. Consequences of these extreme loading events are known to be catastrophic, involving personnel injuries and fatalities, economic loss and immeasurable social disruption. These impacts are generated not only from direct explosion effects, that is, blast overpressure and primary or secondary fragments, but also from the indirect effects such as structural collapse. The latter one is known to be more critical leading to massive losses. It is therefore imperative to enlighten our structural engineers and policy regulators when designing modern structures. Towards a better protection of concrete structures, efforts have been devoted to understanding properties of construction materials and responses of structures subjected to blast loads. Reliable blast resistance design requires a comprehensive knowledge of blast loading characteristics, dynamic material properties and dynamic response predictions of structures. This article presents a state-of-the-art review of the current blast-resistant design and analysis of concrete structures subjected to blast loads. The blast load estimation, design considerations and approaches, dynamic material properties at high strain rate, testing methods and numerical simulation tools and methods are considered and reviewed. Discussions on the accuracies and advantages of these current approaches and suggestions on possible improvements are also made.

Hao, L, Jiang, Z, Chen, Z, Wei, D, Cheng, X, Zhao, J, Luo, M, Ma, L, Luo, S & Jiang, L 2016, 'High Temperature Oxidation of Indefinite Chill Roll Material Under Dry and Humid Atmospheres', steel research international, vol. 87, no. 3, pp. 349-358.
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© 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim. In this paper, the isothermal oxidation of the indefinite chill (IC) roll is investigated by using a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) from 550 to 700 C under dry and humid atmospheres. It is found that the oxidation kinetics follow a linear trend and the oxide scale consists of two layers after the oxidation in dry air but three layers in humid air above 600 C. In dry air, the graphite is covered by the oxide scale above 650 C. The water vapor accelerates the oxidation of the matrix and the graphite. The graphite is covered by the extension of the oxide scale above 600 C in humid air. The as-treated samples are examined with SEM and XRD, while the kinetics is based on TGA results. The isothermal oxidation of the indefinite chill (IC) roll (shown in Figure 1) is investigated by using a thermogravimetric analyzer. Results show that the oxidation kinetics follow a linear trend, and the oxide scale consists of two layers after the oxidation in dry air but three layers in humid air above 600 C. The water vapor accelerated the oxidation of the matrix and the graphite.

Hao, L, Jiang, Z, Wei, D, Gong, D, Cheng, X, Zhao, J, Luo, S & Jiang, L 2016, 'Experimental and Numerical Study on the Effect of ZDDP Films on Sticking During Hot Rolling of Ferritic Stainless Steel Strip', Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, vol. 47, no. 10, pp. 5195-5202.
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Hasan, H, Dang, L, Khabbaz, H, Fatahi, B & Terzaghi, S 2016, 'Remediation of Expansive Soils Using Agricultural Waste Bagasse Ash', Procedia Engineering, vol. 143, pp. 1368-1375.
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© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Bagasse is a fibrous material remaining after crushing sugarcane to extract its juice; and bagasse ash is produced after burning bagasse. Improper disposal of this material can create environmental problems around sugar manufacturing plants. Bagasse ash, comprising a high percentage of silica (SiO2), is considered as a sensible pozzolanic material with non-reactive behaviour and has potential to be used in road subgrade stabilisation. One of the main challenges for transportation organisations in Australia is to treat subgrades including expansive soils. Expansive soils exhibit significant movements when the moisture content changes, and hence it causes substantial damage to road pavements constructed over these type of soils. Road engineers need to employ materials having acceptable strength, relatively low price and being eco-friendly. In order to demonstrate the potential ability of bagasse ash in curtailing the adverse effects of expansive soils on roads, an array of experimental tests using bagasse ash have been conducted. In this study to activate and improve the effectiveness of bagasse ash, hydrated lime was used and mixed with black soil samples, collected from Queensland Australia. Samples were prepared using different contents of bagasse ash and hydrated lime (0%, 6%, 10%, 18% and 25% by the dry mass of soil), at a ratio of 3:1, respectively. The results of free swell ratio (FSR) test, unconfined compression strength (UCS) and California bearing ratio (CBR) tests are presented for untreated and treated samples after various curing time periods of 3, 7 and 28 days. The outcomes of these tests clearly demonstrate that stabilisation of expansive soils using bagasse ash and hydrated lime not only improves the strength, but also facilitates to cope with environmental concerns through reduction of sugar industry waste material.

Hashmi, RM & Esselle, KP 2016, 'A Class of Extremely Wideband Resonant Cavity Antennas With Large Directivity-Bandwidth Products', IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 64, no. 2, pp. 830-835.
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Hashmi, RM & Esselle, KP 2016, 'Enhancing the performance of EBG resonator antennas by individually truncating the superstructure layers', IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation, vol. 10, no. 10, pp. 1048-1055.
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Hashmi, RM & Esselle, KP 2016, 'Single‐feed low‐profile resonant cavity antenna covering entire Ku‐band', Electronics Letters, vol. 52, no. 9, pp. 683-684.
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Hassanzadeh-Barforoushi, A, Shemesh, J, Farbehi, N, Asadnia, M, Yeoh, GH, Harvey, RP, Nordon, RE & Warkiani, ME 2016, 'A rapid co-culture stamping device for studying intercellular communication', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1, p. 35618.
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AbstractRegulation of tissue development and repair depends on communication between neighbouring cells. Recent advances in cell micro-contact printing and microfluidics have facilitated the in-vitro study of homotypic and heterotypic cell-cell interaction. Nonetheless, these techniques are still complicated to perform and as a result, are seldom used by biologists. We report here development of a temporarily sealed microfluidic stamping device which utilizes a novel valve design for patterning two adherent cell lines with well-defined interlacing configurations to study cell-cell interactions. We demonstrate post-stamping cell viability of >95%, the stamping of multiple adherent cell types, and the ability to control the seeded cell density. We also show viability, proliferation and migration of cultured cells, enabling analysis of co-culture boundary conditions on cell fate. We also developed an in-vitro model of endothelial and cardiac stem cell interactions, which are thought to regulate coronary repair after myocardial injury. The stamp is fabricated using microfabrication techniques, is operated with a lab pipettor and uses very low reagent volumes of 20 μl with cell injection efficiency of >70%. This easy-to-use device provides a general strategy for micro-patterning of multiple cell types and will be important for studying cell-cell interactions in a multitude of applications.

Hastings, C, Wortley, L, Ryan, R & Grant, B 2016, 'Community expectations for the role of local government in Regional Australia: Meeting the challenges of 'slow burn'', Australasian Journal of Regional Studies, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 158-180.
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Regional Australia is confronted by specific demographic, social, economic and infrastructure challenges, which we are denoting as 'slow-burn' threats. This article interrogates a recent national survey concerned with the value of local government to Australian communities, focusing upon differences in responses for regional and remote areas compared to those from urban capital cities. Findings indicate that regional and remote residents place more importance on local government delivering services that specifically focus on the long-term development and sustainability of the community than their urban counterparts, particularly economic and community development roles. We argue that this constitutes a demonstration of the different expectations that regional and remote communities have of local government in the face of 'slow burn' in regional and remote areas. Further, we suggest that the relationship between local governments in regional Australia and the communities they serve is usefully conceived in terms of what we denote as 'the close economy' and 'the local state'.

Hawari, AH, Kamal, N & Altaee, A 2016, 'Combined influence of temperature and flow rate of feeds on the performance of forward osmosis', Desalination, vol. 398, pp. 98-105.
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© 2016 The effect of the membrane orientation, feeds flow rate, feeds temperature, and combining effect of both temperature and flow rate on the membrane flux was investigated in order to enhance the performance of forward osmosis (FO) process. Results from experimental work demonstrated that the concentrative internal concentration polarization (CICP) could be mitigated by increasing the feed solution flow rate and using a spacer. On contrary, the severity of dilutive internal concentration polarization (DICP) phenomena was aggravated by increasing the draw solution flow rate. It was also found that when increasing the draw solution (DS) temperature from 20 °C to 26 °C the flux increased linearly and then started decreasing when temperature increased over 26 °C due to the development of a temperature gradient. The experimental results also showed that the membrane flux increased by 93.3% due to temperature increase from 20 to 26 °C and the flow rate from 1.2 to 3.2 L/min using a 0.5 M NaCl solution as the draw solution and distilled water as the feed solution (FS).

He, H, Lin, C-T, Tan, KC, Kendall, G & Cangelosi, A 2016, 'CIS Publication Spotlight [Publication Spotlight]', IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 15-17.
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Heijboer, M, van den Hoven, E, Bongers, B & Bakker, S 2016, 'Facilitating peripheral interaction: design and evaluation of peripheral interaction for a gesture-based lighting control with multimodal feedback', PERSONAL AND UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 1-22.
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© 2015, The Author(s). Most interactions with today’s interfaces require a person’s full and focused attention. To alleviate the potential clutter of focal information, we investigated how interactions could be designed to take place in the background or periphery of attention. This paper explores whether gestural, multimodal interaction styles of an interactive light system allow for this. A study compared the performance of interactions with the light system in two conditions: the central condition in which participants interacted only with the light system, and the peripheral condition in which they interacted with the system while performing a high-attentional task simultaneously. Our study furthermore compared different feedback styles (visual, auditory, haptic, and a combination). Results indicated that especially for the combination feedback style, the interaction could take place without participants’ full visual attention, and performance did not significantly decrease in the peripheral condition. This seems to indicate that these interactions at least partly took place in their periphery of attention and that the multimodal feedback style aided this process.

Heitor, A, Indraratna, B & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2016, 'Small Strain Behaviour of a Compacted Subgrade Soil', Procedia Engineering, vol. 143, pp. 260-267.
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Heitor, A, Indraratna, B, Kaliboullah, CI, Rujikiatkamjorn, C & McIntosh, GW 2016, 'Drained and Undrained Shear Behavior of Compacted Coal Wash', Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, vol. 142, no. 5, pp. 04016006-04016006.
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Hepburn, S, Wright, MJP, Boyder, C, Sahertian, RC, Lu, B, Zhang, R, White, CP & Horvath, AR 2016, 'Sex steroid hormone stability in serum tubes with and without separator gels', Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM), vol. 54, no. 9, pp. 1451-1459.
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AbstractBackground:A pilot study showing a decrease in androstenedione concentration in serum collected into gel-containing serum tubes (STs) triggered an investigation of the effect of serum collection tube on steroid hormone stability.Methods:In the main study, two tube types were examined: BD Vacutainer®SST™IIAdvanceand BD Vacutainer®Serum Tube. Forty-seven serum samples from apparently healthy volunteers were collected and analysed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for testosterone, androstenedione, 17-hydroxyprogesterone (17-OHP) (n=20); and oestradiol (n=27). Primary specimens were centrifuged once, maintained at room temperature and extracted within 2 h for day zero (d0) results. To assess stability following refrigeration (2–8 °C), aliquots were taken from the primary tube on day one (d1) and day five (d5) and analysed immediately. Differences in measurand concentration between tubes at d0 and following storage (d1 and d5) were evaluated for statistical significance.Results:There was a progressive and statistically significant decrease in androstenedione concentration from d0 to d5 (p<0.001) in the SST™II tubes. In addition, there was a statistically significant reduction in testosterone, 17-OHP and oestradiol concentrations at d5 (p<0.01). Interestingly, oestradiol and testosterone concentrations increased with time in plain STs (p<0.01). The only change likely to have a clinical impact was that of androstenedione in serum gel tubes.Conclusions:To optimise conditions and to reduce pre-analytical error we recommend the ...

Hesari, Z, Soleimani, M, Atyabi, F, Sharifdini, M, Nadri, S, Warkiani, ME, Zare, M & Dinarvand, R 2016, 'A hybrid microfluidic system for regulation of neural differentiation in induced pluripotent stem cells', Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A, vol. 104, no. 6, pp. 1534-1543.
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AbstractControlling cellular orientation, proliferation, and differentiation is valuable in designing organ replacements and directing tissue regeneration. In the present study, we developed a hybrid microfluidic system to produce a dynamic microenvironment by placing aligned PDMS microgrooves on surface of biodegradable polymers as physical guidance cues for controlling the neural differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). The neuronal differentiation capacity of cultured hiPSCs in the microfluidic system and other control groups was investigated using quantitative real time PCR (qPCR) and immunocytochemistry. The functionally of differentiated hiPSCs inside hybrid system's scaffolds was also evaluated on the rat hemisected spinal cord in acute phase. Implanted cell's fate was examined using tissue freeze section and the functional recovery was evaluated according to the Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan (BBB) locomotor rating scale. Our results confirmed the differentiation of hiPSCs to neuronal cells on the microfluidic device where the expression of neuronal‐specific genes was significantly higher compared to those cultured on the other systems such as plain tissue culture dishes and scaffolds without fluidic channels. Although survival and integration of implanted hiPSCs did not lead to a significant functional recovery, we believe that combination of fluidic channels with nanofiber scaffolds provides a great microenvironment for neural tissue engineering, and can be used as a powerful tool for in situ monitoring of differentiation potential of various kinds of stem cells. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 104A: 1534–1543, 2016.

Hesson, LB, Ng, B, Zarzour, P, Srivastava, S, Kwok, C-T, Packham, D, Nunez, AC, Beck, D, Ryan, R, Dower, A, Ford, CE, Pimanda, JE, Sloane, MA, Hawkins, NJ, Bourke, MJ, Wong, JWH & Ward, RL 2016, 'Integrated Genetic, Epigenetic, and Transcriptional Profiling Identifies Molecular Pathways in the Development of Laterally Spreading Tumors', MOLECULAR CANCER RESEARCH, vol. 14, no. 12, pp. 1217-1228.
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Hiai, F, Koenig, R & Tomamichel, M 2016, 'Generalized Log-Majorization and Multivariate Trace Inequalities', Annales Henri Poincare, vol. 18, no. 7, pp. 7-2521.
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We show that recent multivariate generalizations of the Araki-Lieb-Thirringinequality and the Golden-Thompson inequality [Sutter, Berta, and Tomamichel,Comm. Math. Phys. (2016)] for Schatten norms hold more generally for allunitarily invariant norms and certain variations thereof. The main technicalcontribution is a generalization of the concept of log-majorization whichallows us to treat majorization with regards to logarithmic integral averagesof vectors of singular values.

Hjerrild, NE, Mesgari, S, Crisostomo, F, Scott, JA, Amal, R & Taylor, RA 2016, 'Hybrid PV/T enhancement using selectively absorbing Ag–SiO 2 /carbon nanofluids', Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, vol. 147, pp. 281-287.
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© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Optical filters can be used to increase solar conversion efficiency in hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) collectors by partitioning incident light into two spectra: one desirable for direct electrical conversion and one for thermal collection. This article is the first to present both modeled and experimental results for a spectrally-tailorable, multi-particle nanofluid filter positioned between a concentrated light source and a silicon cell. The nanofluid is composed of suspended core-shell silver-silica (Ag-SiO2) nanodiscs and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in water. The core-shell particles were specifically synthesized and designed to absorb the majority of the visible spectrum, while transmitting the light which corresponds to the PV cell. The silver nanodiscs strongly absorb visible light with minimal scattering, whereas the silica shell maintains the shape and absorption spectrum of the silver cores. Alternatively, low-concentration carbon nanotube (CNT) solutions were used to enhance absorption (particularly of ultra-violet light) and to provide a comparison for selective filters versus broadband absorbers. Varying dilutions of the Ag-SiO2 nanofluid are compared to solutions diluted with dispersed CNTs. The CNTs enhance the heating rate of the nanofluid with the caveat of non-selective light absorption, which reduces the electrical output. Ag-SiO2 nanofluids (0.026 wt%) increased combined efficiencies by 30% compared to the base fluid filter alone. For a small additional cost of <$1/L of nanofluid, the developed system represents a highly efficient hybrid generator which can be dynamically tailored to meet variable thermal energy and electricity prices.

Ho, L & Fatahi, B 2016, 'One-Dimensional Consolidation Analysis of Unsaturated Soils Subjected to Time-Dependent Loading', International Journal of Geomechanics, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 04015052-04015052.
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Ho, L, Fatahi, B & Khabbaz, H 2016, 'Analytical solution to axisymmetric consolidation in unsaturated soils with linearly depth-dependent initial conditions', Computers and Geotechnics, vol. 74, pp. 102-121.
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© 2016. This paper introduces an analytical solution for the axisymmetric consolidation of unsaturated soils subjected to constant external loading. The analytical procedure employs variables separation and Laplace transformation techniques while capturing the uniform and linear initial excess pore pressure distributions with depth. Excess pore-air and pore-water pressures as functions of time, radial and vertical flows are determined using Laplace transforms, Fourier Bessel and sine series, respectively. In this study, the consolidation behavior, in terms of changes in excess pore-air and pore-water pressures and the average degree of consolidation, are investigated against the air to water permeability ratio. The effects of radial distance from the drain well on the dissipation rate are likewise highlighted in worked examples. Excess pore pressure isochrones and the matric suction varying with time are also presented.

Hokmabadi, AS & Fatahi, B 2016, 'Influence of Foundation Type on Seismic Performance of Buildings Considering Soil-Structure Interaction', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF STRUCTURAL STABILITY AND DYNAMICS, vol. 16, no. 8, pp. 1-29.
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© 2016 World Scientific Publishing Company. In selecting the type of foundation best suited for mid-rise buildings in high risk seismic zones, design engineers may consider that a shallow foundation, a pile foundation, or a pile-raft foundation can best carry the static and dynamic loads. However, different types of foundations behave differently during earthquakes, depending on the soil-structure interaction (SSI) where the properties of the in situ soil and type of foundation change the dynamic characteristics (natural frequency and damping) of the soil-foundation-structure system. In order to investigate the different characteristics of SSI and its influence on the seismic response of building frames, a 3D numerical model of a 15-storey full-scale (prototype) structure was simulated with four different types of foundations: (i) A fixed-based structure that excludes the SSI, (ii) a structure supported by a shallow foundation, (iii) a structure supported by a pile-raft foundation in soft soil and (iv) a structure supported by a floating (frictional) pile foundation in soft soil. Finite difference analyzes with FLAC3D were then conducted using real earthquake records that incorporated material (soil and superstructure) and geometric (uplifting, gapping and P-Δ effects) nonlinearities. The 3D numerical modeling procedure had previously been verified against experimental shaking table tests conducted by the authors. The results are then presented and compared in terms of soil amplification, shear force distribution and rocking of the superstructure, including its lateral deformation and drift. The results showed that the type of foundation is a major contributor to the seismic response of buildings with SSI and should therefore be given careful consideration in order to ensure a safe and cost effective design.

Holgaard, JE, Hadgraft, R, Kolmos, A & Guerra, A 2016, 'Strategies for education for sustainable development – Danish and Australian perspectives', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 112, pp. 3479-3491.
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Hong, H, Naghibi, SA, Pourghasemi, HR & Pradhan, B 2016, 'GIS-based landslide spatial modeling in Ganzhou City, China', Arabian Journal of Geosciences, vol. 9, no. 2, p. 112.
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Hong, H, Pradhan, B, Jebur, MN, Bui, DT, Xu, C & Akgun, A 2016, 'Spatial prediction of landslide hazard at the Luxi area (China) using support vector machines', Environmental Earth Sciences, vol. 75, no. 1, p. 40.
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Ho-Pham, LT, Hans, D, Doan, MC, Mai, LD & Nguyen, TV 2016, 'Genetic determinant of trabecular bone score (TBS) and bone mineral density: A bivariate analysis', Bone, vol. 92, pp. 79-84.
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Ho-Pham, LT, Lai, TQ, Mai, LD, Doan, MC & Nguyen, TV 2016, 'Body Composition in Individuals with Asymptomatic Osteoarthritis of the Knee', Calcified Tissue International, vol. 98, no. 2, pp. 165-171.
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© 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York. Greater body mass index (BMI) is associated with a greater risk of osteoarthritis (OA). This study sought to investigate whether the association is mediated by fat mass or lean mass. The study involved 170 men and 488 women aged between 20 and 90 (average age: 55) who were randomly recruited from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The presence of knee OA was radiographically diagnosed based on the Kellgren–Lawrence criteria. Lean mass (LM) and fat mass (FM) were obtained from the DXA whole body scan (Hologic QDR-4500). The relationship between OA, LM, and FM was analyzed by a series of multiple linear regression models which take into account the effects of gender and age. As expected, men and women with knee OA were older than those without OA (65 vs 51 year in men, and 64 vs 52 year in women). After adjusting for age, OA was associated with greater FM and percent body fat (PBF), but the association was only observed in women, not in men. There was no statistically significant difference in LM between OA and non-OA individuals. Moreover, after adjusting for age and BMI or PBF, bone density in OA patients was not significantly different from non-OA individuals. Women with OA of the knee have greater fat mass than non-OA individuals, and that there is no significant difference in bone density between OA and non-OA individuals. Thus, the association between body mass index and OA is mainly mediated by fat mass.

Hoque, MA-A, Phinn, S, Roelfsema, C & Childs, I 2016, 'Assessing tropical cyclone impacts using object-based moderate spatial resolution image analysis: a case study in Bangladesh', International Journal of Remote Sensing, vol. 37, no. 22, pp. 5320-5343.
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Hossain, MJ, Mahmud, MA, Milano, F, Bacha, S & Hably, A 2016, 'Design of Robust Distributed Control for Interconnected Microgrids', IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, vol. 7, no. 6, pp. 2724-2735.
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Hou, S, Zhou, S, Chen, L, Feng, Y & Awudu, K 2016, 'Multi-label learning with label relevance in advertising video', Neurocomputing, vol. 171, pp. 932-948.
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The recent proliferation of videos has brought out the need for applications such as automatic annotation and organization. These applications could greatly benefit from the respective thematic content depending on the type of video. Unlike the other kinds of video, an advertising video usually conveys a specific theme in a certain time period (e.g. drawing the audience׳s attention to a product or emphasizing the brand). Traditional multi-label algorithms may not work effectively with advertising videos due mainly to their heterogeneous nature. In this paper, we propose a new learning paradigm to resolve the problems arising out of traditional multi-label learning in advertising videos through label relevance. Aiming to address the issue of label relevance, we firstly assign each label with label degree (LD) to classify all the labels into three groups such as first label (FL), important label (IL) and common label (CL), and then propose a Directed Probability Label Graph (DPLG) model to mine the most related labels from the multi-label data with label relevance, in which the interdependency between labels is considered. In the implementation of DPLG, the labels that appear occasionally and possess inconspicuous co-occurrences are consequently eliminated effectively, employing λ-filtering and τ-pruning processes, respectively. And then the graph theory is utilized in DPLG to acquire Correlative Label-Sets (CLSs). Lastly, the searched Correlative Label-Sets (CLSs) are utilized to enhance multi-label annotation. Experimental results on advertising videos and several publicly available datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for multi-label annotation with label relevance

Hu, L, Yang, Z, Cui, L, Li, Y, Ngo, HH, Wang, Y, Wei, Q, Ma, H, Yan, L & Du, B 2016, 'Fabrication of hyperbranched polyamine functionalized graphene for high-efficiency removal of Pb(II) and methylene blue', Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 287, pp. 545-556.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. Multifunctional hyperbranched polyamine modified graphene oxide (HPA-GO) was successfully prepared and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), zeta potential and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyses. HPA-GO exhibited excellent adsorption performance for the removal of a heavy metal (Pb(II)) and a dye (methylene blue (MB)). The equilibrium adsorption capacity was 819.7 mg g-1 for Pb(II) and 740.7 mg g-1 for MB under the optimal conditions. The pseudo-second order equation and the Langmuir model exhibited good correlation with the adsorption kinetic and isotherm data, respectively, for these two pollutants. The thermodynamic results (ΔG<0, ΔH>0, ΔS>0) implied that the adsorption process of Pb(II) and MB was feasible, endothermic and spontaneous in nature. A possible adsorption mechanism has been proposed where chelation and electrostatic attraction dominated the adsorption of Pb(II) and π-π stacking interactions and electrostatic attraction dominated the adsorption of MB. In addition, the excellent reproducibility endowed HPA-GO with the potential for application in water treatment.

Hu, Y, Gan, C, Cao, W, Zhang, J, Li, W & Finney, SJ 2016, 'Flexible Fault-Tolerant Topology for Switched Reluctance Motor Drives', IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 31, no. 6, pp. 4654-4668.
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Hu, Y, Wang, XC, Tian, W, Ngo, HH & Chen, R 2016, 'Towards stable operation of a dynamic membrane bioreactor (DMBR): Operational process, behavior and retention effect of dynamic membrane', Journal of Membrane Science, vol. 498, pp. 20-29.
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Hu, Y, Wang, XC, Yu, Z, Ngo, HH, Sun, Q & Zhang, Q 2016, 'New insight into fouling behavior and foulants accumulation property of cake sludge in a full-scale membrane bioreactor', Journal of Membrane Science, vol. 510, pp. 10-17.
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Hu, Y, Zeng, R, Cao, W, Zhang, J & Finney, SJ 2016, 'Design of a Modular, High Step-Up Ratio DC–DC Converter for HVDC Applications Integrating Offshore Wind Power', IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 63, no. 4, pp. 2190-2202.
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Huang, J, Yin, Y, Zhao, Y, Duan, Q, Wang, W & Yu, S 2016, 'A Game-Theoretic Resource Allocation Approach for Intercell Device-to-Device Communications in Cellular Networks', IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 475-486.
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Device-to-device (D2D) communication is a recently emerged disruptive technology for enhancing the performance of current cellular systems. To successfully implement D2D communications underlaying cellular networks, resource allocation to D2D links is a critical issue, which is far from trivial due to the mutual interference between D2D users and cellular users. Most of the existing resource allocation research for D2D communications has primarily focused on the intracell scenario while leaving the intercell settings not considered. In this paper, we investigate the resource allocation issue for intercell scenarios where a D2D link is located in the overlapping area of two neighboring cells. Furthermore, we present three intercell D2D scenarios regarding the resource allocation problem. To address the problem, we develop a repeated game model under these scenarios. Distinct from existing works, we characterize the communication infrastructure, namely, base stations, as players competing resource allocation quota from D2D demand, and we define the utility of each player as the payoff from both cellular and D2D communications using radio resources. We also propose a resource allocation algorithm and protocol based on the Nash equilibrium derivations. Numerical results indicate that the developed model not only significantly enhances the system performance, including sum rate and sum rate gain, but also shed lights on resource configurations for intercell D2D scenarios.

Huang, K-C, Huang, T-Y, Chuang, C-H, King, J-T, Wang, Y-K, Lin, C-T & Jung, T-P 2016, 'An EEG-Based Fatigue Detection and Mitigation System', International Journal of Neural Systems, vol. 26, no. 04, pp. 1650018-1650018.
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Research has indicated that fatigue is a critical factor in cognitive lapses because it negatively affects an individual’s internal state, which is then manifested physiologically. This study explores neurophysiological changes, measured by electroencephalogram (EEG), due to fatigue. This study further demonstrates the feasibility of an online closed-loop EEG-based fatigue detection and mitigation system that detects physiological change and can thereby prevent fatigue-related cognitive lapses. More importantly, this work compares the efficacy of fatigue detection and mitigation between the EEG-based and a nonEEG-based random method. Twelve healthy subjects participated in a sustained-attention driving experiment. Each participant’s EEG signal was monitored continuously and a warning was delivered in real-time to participants once the EEG signature of fatigue was detected. Study results indicate suppression of the alpha- and theta-power of an occipital component and improved behavioral performance following a warning signal; these findings are in line with those in previous studies. However, study results also showed reduced warning efficacy (i.e. increased response times (RTs) to lane deviations) accompanied by increased alpha-power due to the fluctuation of warnings over time. Furthermore, a comparison of EEG-based and nonEEG-based random approaches clearly demonstrated the necessity of adaptive fatigue-mitigation systems, based on a subject’s cognitive level, to deliver warnings. Analytical results clearly demonstrate and validate the efficacy of this online closed-loop EEG-based fatigue detection and mitigation mechanism to identify cognitive lapses that may lead to catastrophic incidents in countless operational environments.

Huang, S & Dissanayake, G 2016, 'A critique of current developments in simultaneous localization and mapping', International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 172988141666948-172988141666948.
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The number of research publications dealing with the simultaneous localization and mapping problem has grown significantly over the past 15 years. Many fundamental and practical aspects of simultaneous localization and mapping have been addressed, and some efficient algorithms and practical solutions have been demonstrated. The aim of this paper is to provide a critical review of current theoretical understanding of the fundamental properties of the SLAM problem, such as observability, convergence, achievable accuracy and consistency. Recent research outcomes associated with these topics are briefly discussed together with potential future research directions.

Huang, TN, Boon, CC, Zhu, FX, Yi, X, He, X, Feng, G, Lim, WM & Liu, B 2016, 'A 65 nm CMOS LNA for Bolometer Application', Journal of Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 356-372.
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Huang, X, Guo, YJ & Zhang, JA 2016, 'Transceiver I/Q Imbalance Self-Calibration With Phase-Shifted Local Loopback for Multichannel Microwave Backhaul', IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 15, no. 11, pp. 7657-7669.
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© 2002-2012 IEEE. Frequency-dependent I/Q imbalance estimation and compensation are of significant practical importance to low-cost wideband systems with an I/Q modulation architecture. To enable multichannel transmission without inter-channel interference, transmitter I/Q imbalance must be pre-compensated to meet stringent transmit mask requirement. In this paper, a simple frequency domain joint transmitter and receiver I/Q imbalance estimation method is proposed for self-calibration of such wideband multichannel transceivers. Using two frequency domain training signals and a phase shifter inserted in the transceiver local loopback channel, the transmitter and receiver I/Q imbalances can be estimated separately. The estimation errors are also analyzed and the mean square error lower bounds are derived. Simulation results are in good agreement with analytical ones. Compared with existing methods, the proposed technique demonstrates better image rejection performance and quicker adaptation to parameter changes, making it more applicable to many wireless systems, especially the multichannel microwave backhaul, for achieving high data rates with high-order modulation and wide transmission bandwidth.

Huang, X, Zhang, J, Fan, L, Wu, Q & Yuan, C 2016, 'A Systematic Approach for Cross-source Point Cloud Registration by Preserving Macro and Micro Structures', IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 26, no. 7, pp. 3261-3276.
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We propose a systematic approach for registering cross-source point clouds.The compelling need for cross-source point cloud registration is motivated bythe rapid development of a variety of 3D sensing techniques, but many existingregistration methods face critical challenges as a result of the largevariations in cross-source point clouds. This paper therefore illustrates anovel registration method which successfully aligns two cross-source pointclouds in the presence of significant missing data, large variations in pointdensity, scale difference and so on. The robustness of the method is attributedto the extraction of macro and micro structures. Our work has three maincontributions: (1) a systematic pipeline to deal with cross-source point cloudregistration; (2) a graph construction method to maintain macro and microstructures; (3) a new graph matching method is proposed which considers theglobal geometric constraint to robustly register these variable graphs.Compared to most of the related methods, the experiments show that the proposedmethod successfully registers in cross-source datasets, while other methodshave difficulty achieving satisfactory results. The proposed method also showsgreat ability in same-source datasets.

Huang, Y & Hong, G 2016, 'Investigation of the effect of heated ethanol fuel on combustion and emissions of an ethanol direct injection plus gasoline port injection (EDI + GPI) engine', Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 123, pp. 338-347.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd Ethanol direct injection plus gasoline port injection (EDI + GPI) is a new technology to utilise ethanol fuel more efficiently and flexibly in spark ignition engines. One issue needs to be addressed in the development of EDI + GPI is the ethanol fuel's low vapour pressure and large latent heat which slow down the ethanol's evaporation and result in the mixture unready for combustion by the time of spark ignition and the consequent increase of CO and HC emissions. Heating the ethanol fuel to be directly injected (EDI heating) has been proposed to address this issue. This paper reports the investigation of the effect of EDI heating on the combustion and emissions of a research engine equipped with EDI + GPI. The results showed that EDI heating effectively reduced the CO and HC emissions of the engine due to the increase of evaporation rate and reduced fuel impingement and local over-cooling. The reduction of CO and HC became more significant with the increase of ethanol ratio. When the temperature of the ethanol fuel was increased by 40 °C, the CO and HC were reduced by as much as 43% and 51% respectively in EDI only condition at the original spark timing of 15 CAD BTDC, and 15% and 47% respectively at the minimum spark advance for best torque (MBT) timing of 19 CAD BTDC. On the other hand, the NO emission was slightly increased, but still much smaller than that in GPI only condition due to the strong cooling effect and low combustion temperature of EDI. The IMEP and combustion speed were slightly reduced by EDI heating due to the decrease of injector fuel flow rate and spray collapse of flash-boiling. The largest decrease of IMEP was 5% at the original spark timing and 3% at the MBT timing. Moreover, at the MBT timing, the IMEP increased continuously with the increase of ethanol ratio in the entire range from 0% to 100%. This indicated that the decrease of IMEP in high ethanol ratio conditions at the original spark timing could be avo...

Huang, Y, Hong, G & Huang, R 2016, 'Effect of injection timing on mixture formation and combustion in an ethanol direct injection plus gasoline port injection (EDI+GPI) engine', Energy, vol. 111, pp. 92-103.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. Ethanol direct injection plus gasoline port injection (EDI+GPI) is a new technology to utilise ethanol fuel more effectively and efficiently in spark-ignition engines by taking the advantages of ethanol fuel and direct injection, such as the cooling effect and anti-knock ability. A full cycle numerical modelling including both port and direct injection sprays was performed to understand the mechanisms behind the experimental results of the EDI+GPI engine. The turbulence-chemistry interaction of the two-fraction-mixture partially premixed combustion was solved by a five-dimensional presumed Probability Density Function table. Effects of direct injection timing on fuel evaporation, mixing, wall-wetting, combustion and emission processes were investigated. The results showed that when the direct injection timing was retarded, the mixture around the spark plug became leaner and the distribution of equivalence ratio became more uneven. Moreover, late direct injection resulted in severe fuel impingement and caused local over-cooling effect and over-rich mixture. Consequently, the combustion speed and temperature were decreased by retarded direct injection timing, leading to reduced NO emission and increased HC and CO emissions. Finally, numerical modelling was performed to investigate the strategy of injecting small amount of ethanol fuel on reducing the fuel impingement and incomplete combustion caused by late direct injection.

Huang, Y, Huang, S, Huang, R & Hong, G 2016, 'Spray and evaporation characteristics of ethanol and gasoline direct injection in non-evaporating, transition and flash-boiling conditions', Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 108, pp. 68-77.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Ethanol direct injection plus gasoline port injection (EDI + GPI) represents a more efficient and flexible way to utilize ethanol fuel in spark ignition engines. To exploit the potentials of EDI, the mixture formation characteristics need to be investigated. In this study, the spray and evaporation characteristics of ethanol and gasoline fuels injected from a multi-hole injector were investigated by high speed Shadowgraphy imaging technique in a constant volume chamber. The experiments covered a wide range of fuel temperature from 275 K (non-evaporating) to 400 K (flash-boiling) which corresponded to cold start and running conditions in an engine. The spray transition process from normal-evaporating to flash-boiling was investigated in greater details than the existed studies. Results showed that ethanol and gasoline sprays demonstrated the same patterns in non-evaporating conditions. The sprays could be considered as non-evaporating when vapour pressure was lower than 30 kPa. Ethanol evaporated more slowly than gasoline did in low temperature environment, but they reached the similar evaporation rates when temperature was higher than 375 K. This suggested that EDI should only be applied in high temperature engine environment. For both ethanol and gasoline sprays, when the excess temperature was smaller than 4 K, the sprays behaved the same as the subcooled sprays did. The sprays collapsed when the excess temperature was 9 K. Flash-boiling did not occur until the excess temperature reached 14 K. The fuel temperature changed not only the spray evaporation modes but also the breakup mechanisms.

Huang, Y, Thoms, JAI, Tursky, ML, Knezevic, K, Beck, D, Chandrakanthan, V, Suryani, S, Olivier, J, Boulton, A, Glaros, EN, Thomas, SR, Lock, RB, MacKenzie, KL, Bushweller, JH, Wong, JWH & Pimanda, JE 2016, 'MAPK/ERK2 phosphorylates ERG at serine 283 in leukemic cells and promotes stem cell signatures and cell proliferation', LEUKEMIA, vol. 30, no. 7, pp. 1552-1561.
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© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited. Aberrant ERG (v-ets avian erythroblastosis virus E26 oncogene homolog) expression drives leukemic transformation in mice and high expression is associated with poor patient outcomes in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and T-acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). Protein phosphorylation regulates the activity of many ETS factors but little is known about ERG in leukemic cells. To characterize ERG phosphorylation in leukemic cells, we applied liquid chromatography coupled tandem mass spectrometry and identified five phosphorylated serines on endogenous ERG in T-ALL and AML cells. S283 was distinct as it was abundantly phosphorylated in leukemic cells but not in healthy hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). Overexpression of a phosphoactive mutant (S283D) increased expansion and clonogenicity of primary HSPCs over and above wild-type ERG. Using a custom antibody, we screened a panel of primary leukemic xenografts and showed that ERG S283 phosphorylation was mediated by mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (MAPK/ERK) signaling and in turn regulated expression of components of this pathway. S283 phosphorylation facilitates ERG enrichment and transactivation at the ERG +85 HSPC enhancer that is active in AML and T-ALL with poor prognosis. Taken together, we have identified a specific post-translational modification in leukemic cells that promotes progenitor proliferation and is a potential target to modulate ERG-driven transcriptional programs in leukemia.

Huang, Y, Zhang, Y, Youtie, J, Porter, AL & Wang, X 2016, 'How Does National Scientific Funding Support Emerging Interdisciplinary Research: A Comparison Study of Big Data Research in the US and China', PLOS ONE, vol. 11, no. 5, pp. e0154509-e0154509.
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How do funding agencies ramp-up their capabilities to support research in a rapidly emerging area? This paper addresses this question through a comparison of research proposals awarded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) in the field of Big Data. Big data is characterized by its size and difficulties in capturing, curating, managing and processing it in reasonable periods of time. Although Big Data has its legacy in longstanding information technology research, the field grew very rapidly over a short period. We find that the extent of interdisciplinarity is a key aspect in how these funding agencies address the rise of Big Data. Our results show that both agencies have been able to marshal funding to support Big Data research in multiple areas, but the NSF relies to a greater extent on multi-program funding from different fields. We discuss how these interdisciplinary approaches reflect the research hot-spots and innovation pathways in these two countries.

Huang, ZL, Jiang, C, Zhou, YS, Luo, Z & Zhang, Z 2016, 'An incremental shifting vector approach for reliability-based design optimization', Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 523-543.
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© 2015, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. This paper proposes a decoupling algorithm for reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) with high performance in terms of efficiency and convergence, which provides an effective tool for reliability design of many complex structures. The algorithm proceeds by performing a shifting vector calculation and then solving a deterministic design optimization in each step, and eventually converges to the optimal solution. An incremental shifting strategy is proposed to ensure stable convergence in the iteration process. In each step, the shifting vector preserves the information from the previous step, and only an adjustment is made for it through a shifting vector increment. A computation method is given for the shifting vector increment, avoiding solving an optimization problem during the reliability analysis and thus greatly reducing the computational cost of the iteration process. Six numerical examples and two engineering applications are presented to validate the effectiveness of the method proposed in this paper.

Hunt, A, Thomas, P, James, D, David, B, Geneste, J-M, Delannoy, J-J & Stuart, B 2016, 'The characterisation of pigments used in X-ray rock art at Dalakngalarr 1, central-western Arnhem Land', Microchemical Journal, vol. 126, pp. 524-529.
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© 2016 Elsevier B.V. The chemistry of pigments used to create rock art at a rock shelter in northern Australia has characterised so as to gain a better understanding of the origins of the colours used. The site, Dalakngalarr 1, located in Jawoyn Country in Arnhem Land contains hundreds of paintings in various colours and styles. Striking and well-preserved X-ray images were painted across the site using ochre pigments that contain an iron oxide colourant mixed with clay to produce yellow, red and a distinctive purple colour. Infrared and Raman microscopy were used to confirm that the yellow pigment colouration is due to the presence of goethite. Both the red and purple pigments were shown to contain haematite, but there are microstructural differences between the two that account for the differences in the observed colour. Optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy also demonstrate differences in the morphologies of the red and purple pigments. The purple pigment was found to a have a pure haematite structure, which is proposed to result from heating of the pigment source.

Husev, O, Blaabjerg, F, Roncero-Clemente, C, Romero-Cadaval, E, Vinnikov, D, Siwakoti, YP & Strzelecki, R 2016, 'Comparison of Impedance-Source Networks for Two and Multilevel Buck–Boost Inverter Applications', IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 31, no. 11, pp. 7564-7579.
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© 2016 IEEE. Impedance-source networks are an increasingly popular solution in power converter applications, especially in single-stage buck-boost power conversion to avoid additional front-end dc-dc power converters. In the survey papers published, no analytical comparisons of different topologies have been described, which makes it difficult to choose the best option. Thus, the aim of this paper is to present a comprehensive analytical comparison of the impedance-source-based buck-boost inverters in terms of passive component count and semiconductor stress. Based on the waveform of the input current, i.e., with or without a transformer, and with or without inductor coupling, the impedance-source converters are classified. The main criterion in our comprehensive comparison is the energy stored in the passive elements, which is considered both under constant and predefined high frequency current ripple in the inductors and the voltage ripple across the capacitors. Two-level and multilevel solutions are described. The conclusions provide a 'one-stop' information source and a selection guide of impedance-source-based buck-boost inverters for different applications.

Hussain, W, Hussain, FK, Hussain, OK & Chang, E 2016, 'Provider-Based Optimized Personalized Viable SLA (OPV-SLA) Framework to Prevent SLA Violation', The Computer Journal, vol. 59, no. 12, pp. 1760-1783.
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Service level agreement (SLA) is an essential agreement formed between a consumer and a provider in business activities. The SLA defines the business terms, objectives, obligations and commitment of both parties to a business activity, and in cloud computing it also defines a consumer's request for both fixed and variable resources, due to the elastic and dynamic nature of the cloud-computing environment. Providers need to thoroughly analyze such variability when forming SLAs to ensure they commit to the agreements with consumers and at the same time make the best use of available resources and obtain maximum returns. They can achieve this by entering into viable SLAs with consumers. A consumer's profile becomes a key element in determining the consumer's reliability, as a consumer who has previous service violation history is more likely to violate future service agreements; hence, a provider can avoid forming SLAs with such consumers. In this paper, we propose a novel optimal SLA formation architecture from the provider's perspective, enabling the provider to consider a consumer's reliability in committing to the SLA. We classify existing consumers into three categories based on their reliability or trustworthiness value and use that knowledge to ascertain whether to accept a consumer request for resource allocation, and then to determine the extent of the allocation. Our proposed architecture helps the service provider to monitor the behavior of service consumers in the post-interaction time phase and to use that information to form viable SLAs in the pre-interaction time phase to minimize service violations and penalties.

Hussaini, SKK, Indraratna, B & Vinod, JS 2016, 'A laboratory investigation to assess the functioning of railway ballast with and without geogrids', Transportation Geotechnics, vol. 6, pp. 45-54.
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Idrees, M & Pradhan, B 2016, 'Hybrid Taguchi-Objective Function optimization approach for automatic cave bird detection from terrestrial laser scanning intensity image', International Journal of Speleology, vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 289-301.
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This paper proposes an optimized Taguchi-objective function segmentation-based image analysis to detect bird nests in a cave from high resolution terrestrial laser scanning intensity images. First, the Taguchi orthogonal array was used to design 25 experiments with three segmentation parameters: scale, shape, and compactness, each having five variable factor levels. Then, a plateau objective function was computed for each experiment using their respective level combinations. A merger of the factor level combination in the orthogonal array and the computed plateau objective function values was used to generate main effects and interaction plots for signal-to-noise ratios, which provided a measure of robustness for scale, shape, and compactness factors. The optimized parameters were used in the segmentation process in eCognition. The image object was then classified into nest and cave-wall on the basis of laser return intensity and area index using knowledge-based rule sets, and the detection accuracy was evaluated. The result produced area under ROC curve of 0.93 with P<0.0001 at 95% confidence level. This indicates that the proposed method is effective for distinguishing birds from cave-wall with high precision. The classification result was transferred to ArcGIS where the detected nests were counted after post-classification editing. A total number of 25,959 nests were counted from the seven scan scenes used. This shows that the fusion of Taguchi and objective function is indeed an effective method to determine optimal segmentation parameters to group image objects as small as birds within a segment. Moreover, the use of segments’ spectral intensity value and area index increased classification accuracy significantly. Further, the method was tested for reliability using six additional images. The test of heterogeneity using Cochran’s Q and Inconsistency tests produced a P value of 0.384 and I2 value of 5.10% at 95% confidence interval, respectively. Th...

Idrees, MO, Pradhan, B, Buchroithner, MF, Shafri, HZM & Khairunniza Bejo, S 2016, 'Assessing the transferability of a hybrid Taguchi-objective function method to optimize image segmentation for detecting and counting cave roosting birds using terrestrial laser scanning data', Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 035023-035023.
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Imdadul, HK, Masjuki, HH, Kalam, MA, Zulkifli, NWM, Alabdulkarem, A, Kamruzzaman, M & Rashed, MM 2016, 'A comparative study of C4 and C5 alcohol treated diesel–biodiesel blends in terms of diesel engine performance and exhaust emission', Fuel, vol. 179, pp. 281-288.
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Imdadul, HK, Masjuki, HH, Kalam, MA, Zulkifli, NWM, Alabdulkarem, A, Rashed, MM & Ashraful, AM 2016, 'Influences of ignition improver additive on ternary (diesel-biodiesel-higher alcohol) blends thermal stability and diesel engine performance', Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 123, pp. 252-264.
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Imdadul, HK, Masjuki, HH, Kalam, MA, Zulkifli, NWM, Alabdulkarem, A, Rashed, MM, Teoh, YH & How, HG 2016, 'Higher alcohol–biodiesel–diesel blends: An approach for improving the performance, emission, and combustion of a light-duty diesel engine', Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 111, pp. 174-185.
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Pentanol is a long-chain alcohol with five carbons in its molecular structure and is produced from renewable feedstock, which may help to improve the challenging problems of energy security and environmental issues. In this investigation, the performance, emission, and combustion characteristics of a single-cylinder, four-stroke, water-cooled, direct-injection diesel engine were evaluated by using 10%, 15%, and 20% pentanol and Calophyllum inophyllum (CI) biodiesel blends in diesel under different speed conditions. The fuel properties of the blended fuels were measured and compared. Combustion attributes, such as cylinder pressure and heat-release rate, were also analyzed. Results indicated that increasing the proportion of pentanol in biodiesel blends improved the fuel properties compared with 20% blend of CI biodiesel (CI 20). The modified blends of pentanol showed reduced brake-specific fuel consumption with higher brake thermal efficiency and brake power than CI 20. Although the modified test blends showed a slightly higher nitric oxide emission, the carbon monoxide emission and unburned hydrocarbon emission for 15% and 20% blends of pentanol showed even better reduction than CI 20. Smoke emission was also reduced significantly. The carbon dioxide emission of the test blends were reduced at the maximum speed condition compared to CI 20. In terms of combustion, the modified test fuels exhibited a significant improvement, thus indicating better performance and emission. This study concluded that the 15% and 20% blends of biodiesel, diesel, and pentanol can optimize engine performance and emission without any engine modification.

Indraratna, B 2016, '1st Proctor Lecture of ISSMGE:', Transportation Geotechnics, vol. 7, pp. 74-114.
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Indraratna, B, Kan, ME, Potts, D, Rujikiatkamjorn, C & Sloan, SW 2016, 'Analytical solution and numerical simulation of vacuum consolidation by vertical drains beneath circular embankments', Computers and Geotechnics, vol. 80, pp. 83-96.
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Indraratna, B, Nguyen, TT, Carter, J & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2016, 'Influence of biodegradable natural fibre drains on the radial consolidation of soft soil', Computers and Geotechnics, vol. 78, pp. 171-180.
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Natural prefabricated vertical drains (NPVDs) produced from biodegradable materials such as jute and coir have some distinct advantages over conventional polymeric prefabricated vertical drains (CPVDs). For instance, NPVDs are not only able to discharge excess pore pressure effectively but are also beneficial to the environment thanks to their biodegradability. However, due to the biodegradability of the natural fibres, NPVDs can sometimes deteriorate too quickly in an adverse environment such as in highly acidic clay, which hampers the dissipation of excess pore pressure. In this paper, an analytical solution for radial consolidation that considers the time-dependent decay of drain discharge capacity is therefore proposed. The solution is applied to an exponential form of reduction of the drain discharge capacity, and then verified with the experimental results obtained in previous studies. The effect of drain degradation on soil consolidation is simulated using a finite element method (ABAQUS) and these numerical results are then compared to those obtained from the analytical approach. In addition, a new and flexible method using a matching factor to convert the parameters from axisymmetric to plane strain models is introduced and applied to radial consolidation. The modelling outcomes indicate a significant retardation of excess pore pressure dissipation due to drain degradation and this suggests the need to exercise caution when using biodegradable NPVDs.

Indraratna, B, Nimbalkar, S & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2016, 'A critical review of rail track geotechnologies considering increased speeds and axle loads', Geotechnical Engineering, vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 50-60.
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Ballasted railroads are designed to provide high speed commuter and heavy haul transportation. Ballast is one of most important load bearing components of the track substructure. However, it often experiences excessive settlement, lateral deformation and particle breakage when subjected to large dynamic (cyclic and impact) stresses. In addition, tracks constructed along coastal areas often undergo large settlements over soft compressible estuarine deposits, leading to frequent and costly track maintenance. The use of artificial inclusions such as geogrids, geocomposites, shock-mats (rubber) and prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) are attractive options to maintain the vertical and horizontal alignment of tracks and to curtail excessive maintenance costs. This critical review paper provides a deeper insight to the recent advancements in rail track geotechnology at increased train speeds and axle loads.

Indraratna, B, Nimbalkar, SS, Ngo, NT & Neville, T 2016, 'Performance improvement of rail track substructure using artificial inclusions – Experimental and numerical studies', Transportation Geotechnics, vol. 8, pp. 69-85.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd Large and frequent loads from heavy freight and passenger trains often lead to the progressive track deterioration. The excessive deformation and degradation of ballast and unacceptable differential settlement of track and/or pumping of underlying soft subgrade soils necessitates frequent and costly track maintenance. However, artificial inclusions such as geogrids and shockmats can mitigate ballast degradation and improve track performance. A quantitative assessment of the influence of breakage, fouling, and the effects of artificial inclusions on the shear behaviour of ballast can be performed either experimentally or numerically. Numerical modelling can simulate these aspects subject to various types of loading and boundary conditions for a range of material properties so in this study, the stress–strain and degradation response of ballast was analysed through discrete element (DEM) and finite element (FEM) methods. In DEM, irregularly shaped ballast aggregates were simulated by clumping together spheres in appropriate sizes and positions. In FEM, a composite multi-layer track system was simulated and an elasto-plastic model with a non-associative flow rule was used to capture ballast degradation. These DEM and FEM simulations showed a good agreement with large-scale laboratory tests. This paper outlines the advantages of the proposed DEM and FEM models in terms of capturing the correct stress–strain and degradation response of ballast with particular emphasis on particle breakage and fouling, as well as applications of geosynthetic grids and shockmats.

Indraratna, B, Sun, Y & Nimbalkar, S 2016, 'Laboratory Assessment of the Role of Particle Size Distribution on the Deformation and Degradation of Ballast under Cyclic Loading', Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, vol. 142, no. 7, pp. 04016016-04016016.
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© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers. The deformation and degradation of ballast is influenced by the size of the aggregates. In this study, a series of cyclic drained triaxial tests was conducted on ballast with different sizes using the large-scale cylindrical triaxial apparatus designed and built at the University of Wollongong, and two different frequencies of cyclic loading were used to simulate low-speed and high-speed trains. From the laboratory results, coarse particles experience less vertical and lateral strains, whereas the volumetric strains decrease and then increase as the coefficient of uniformity increases, regardless of the loading frequency. Resistance to deformation and degradation is found to be improved by increasing ballast density. Different trends between the extent of breakage and particle size are observed for different breakage indices, and accordingly the extent of breakage is characterized into two distinct zones, depending on the coefficient of uniformity (Cu), where the significantly reduced breakage corresponds to a value of Cu larger than 1.8. The variation of particle shape before and after test is also quantified. A new particle size distribution that incorporates the size characteristics is proposed, as a result of this study.

Indraratna, B, Zhong, R & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2016, 'An Analytical Model of PVD-assisted Soft Ground Consolidation', Procedia Engineering, vol. 143, pp. 1376-1383.
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Iranmanesh, S, Mehrali, M, Sadeghinezhad, E, Ang, BC, Ong, HC & Esmaeilzadeh, A 2016, 'Evaluation of viscosity and thermal conductivity of graphene nanoplatelets nanofluids through a combined experimental–statistical approach using respond surface methodology method', International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 79, pp. 74-80.
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Irfansyah, AN, Nicholson, AP, Iberzanov, A, Jenkins, J, Lehmann, T & Hamilton, TJ 2016, 'Automatic tuning of digitally-controllable positive-feedback OTAs in continuous-time sigma–delta modulators', Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing, vol. 89, no. 2, pp. 469-483.
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© 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York. This paper proposes a technique suitable for on-chip tuning of digitally-tunable positive-feedback operational transconductor amplifiers in a continuous-time sigma–delta modulator (CT-SDM) with active-RC integrator stages. The work we present relies on phase shift and offset measurement of individual active-RC integrator stages output using comparators to estimate output conductance, DC-gain, and common mode level of the differential output signals. The tuning methodology aims to tune the integrator stages to achieve sufficient DC-gain as required by the SDM. We present experimental results to confirm the correlation of our integrator phase and output offset detection technique with the operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) DC gain. We employ this technique in a tuning process of two digitally-tunable OTA chips implemented in complementary metal-oxide semiconductor 180 nm process configured in a second-order CT-SDM circuit with discrete components. The tuning algorithm results in a measured signal-to-noise and distortion ratio (SNDR) of 46.97 dB, which is close to the maximum SNDR of 47.83 dB achievable across a subset of the digitally-tunable OTA code space. High-speed operation of the CT-SDM and tuning circuitry has been verified through circuit simulations.

Islam, MM, Hassan, MH, Kalam, MA, Zulkifli, NWBM, Habibullah, M & Hossain, MM 2016, 'Improvement of cold flow properties of Cocos nucifera and Calophyllum inophyllum biodiesel blends using polymethyl acrylate additive', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 137, pp. 322-329.
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Islam, MT, Abdullah, AB, Shahir, SA, Kalam, MA, Masjuki, HH, Shumon, R & Rashid, MH 2016, 'A public survey on knowledge, awareness, attitude and willingness to pay for WEEE management: Case study in Bangladesh', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 137, pp. 728-740.
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Islam, SU, Rahman, H, Abbasi, WS, Saha, SC & Shahina, T 2016, 'Numerical investigation of flow past a row of rectangular rods', Alexandria Engineering Journal, vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 2351-2365.
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Israr, J, Indraratna, B & Rujikiatkamjorn, C 2016, 'Laboratory Investigation of the Seepage Induced Response of Granular Soils Under Static and Cyclic Loading', Geotechnical Testing Journal, vol. 39, no. 5, pp. 20150288-20150288.
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Izadyar, N, Ong, HC, Chong, WT & Leong, KY 2016, 'Resource assessment of the renewable energy potential for a remote area: A review', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 62, pp. 908-923.
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Izadyar, N, Ong, HC, Chong, WT, Mojumder, JC & Leong, KY 2016, 'Investigation of potential hybrid renewable energy at various rural areas in Malaysia', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 139, pp. 61-73.
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Jaber, HS, Mansor, S, Pradhan, B & Ahmad, N 2016, 'Evaluation of SEBAL model for Evapotranspiration mapping in Iraq using remote sensing and GIS', International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 3950-3955.
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Evapotranspiration is one of the major parameter in the hydrologic cycle. Standard measurements of this parameter is quite complex due to various factors such as variation of precipitation amount, spatial variation by latitude and longitude and changes in environment and specific site conditions. Although of this complexity, various methods were developed to estimate actual and potential Evapotranspiration such as Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) method. SEBAL model calculates heat latent flux mostly from remotely sensed data. This paper aims to evaluate the SEBAL model for actual Evapotranspiration estimation in Al-babil city in Iraq using a SEBAL toolbox developed for ArcGIS software. The toolbox was evaluated with two reference actual Evapotranspiration datasets from Al-babil metrological stations. Overall accuracy of (R2 = 0.86) for the first dataset on March and (R2 = 0.85) for the second dataset on September were achieved. The result of this research indicates that the SEBAL model is effective for estimating actual Evapotranspiration in the studied area.

Jamil, S, Jeong, S & Vigneswaran, S 2016, 'Application of pressure assisted forward osmosis for water purification and reuse of reverse osmosis concentrate from a water reclamation plant', SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY, vol. 171, pp. 182-190.
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Jangid, J, Bera, AK, Joseph, M, Singh, V, Singh, TP, Pradhan, BK & Das, S 2016, 'Potential zones identification for harvesting wind energy resources in desert region of India – A multi criteria evaluation approach using remote sensing and GIS', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 65, pp. 1-10.
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Renewable energy is considered to be one of the viable options in consideration of intense economic development and increasing energy consumption. With maturity of advanced technologies, economical viable and environmental friendly, wind energy has become one of the fastest growing sources of renewable energy in the world. This study focuses on the combined use of geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial multi-criteria decision analysis for selecting the most appropriate sites for wind-farm development projects. This paper utilized wind speed data over a period of almost 20 years between 1991 and 2010 from different stations to assess the wind power potential sites. The wind energy potential zones were grouped into four categories as “high suitable”, “moderate suitable”, “low suitable” and “not suitable”. The results show that the study area has 12.20% (2787.78 km2) as high suitable, 17.06% (3899.78 km2) as moderate suitable and 11.06% (2528.61 km2) as low suitable. The most potential suitable sites were located in the northwestern (along Osian, Shergargh, Dechu, and Shaitrawa, Phalodi) of Jodhpur district, India. This scientific approach will enable resource managers during planning process to make informed decisions.

Jayakodi, K, Bandara, M, Perera, I & Meedeniya, D 2016, 'WordNet and Cosine Similarity based Classifier of Exam Questions using Bloom’s Taxonomy', International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET), vol. 11, no. 04, pp. 142-142.
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Assessment usually plays an indispensable role in the education and it is the prime indicator of student learning achievement. Exam questions are the main form of assessment used in learning. Setting appropriate exam questions to achieve the desired outcome of the course is a challenging work for the examiner. Therefore this research is mainly focused to categorize the exam questions automatically into its learning levels using Bloom’s taxonomy. Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques such as tokenization, stop word removal, lemmatization and tagging were used before generating the rule set to be used for this classification. WordNet similarity algorithms with NLTK and cosine similarity algorithm were developed to generate a unique set of rules to identify the question category and the weight for each exam question according to Bloom’s taxonomy. These derived rules make it easy to analyze the exam questions. Evaluators can redesign their exam papers based on the outcome of the evaluation process. A sample of examination questions of the Department of Computing and Information Systems, Wayamba University, Sri Lanka was used for the evaluation; weight assignment was done based on the total value generated from both WordNet algorithm and the cosine algorithm. Identified question categories were confirmed by a domain expert. The generated rule set indicated over 70% accuracy.

Jayasinghe, C, Fonseka, WMCDJ & Abeygunawardhene, YM 2016, 'Load bearing properties of composite masonry constructed with recycled building demolition waste and cement stabilized rammed earth', Construction and Building Materials, vol. 102, pp. 471-477.
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Jayawardana, D, Kharkovsky, S, Liyanapathirana, R & Zhu, X 2016, 'Measurement System With Accelerometer Integrated RFID Tag for Infrastructure Health Monitoring', IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, vol. 65, no. 5, pp. 1163-1171.
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This paper presents a measurement system for measuring dynamic acceleration of infrastructure remotely using semipassive radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag. This measurement is critical to the vibration-based method for infrastructure health monitoring. Design considerations of accelerometer integrated ultrahigh-frequency RFID tag and dynamic acceleration measurements through an RFID wireless link are discussed. Measurement results of the system for a structural specimen have shown that it is capable of acquiring data which provides the information of natural frequency of the structural specimen. Moreover, the system can distinctively identify the state changes of the structural specimen by natural frequency shifts. These results are benchmarked against the results obtained with two commercial systems. It is shown that the standard deviation of the measurement of the natural frequency is ±0.01 Hz which is very close to the standard deviation of the commercial measurement systems.

Jayawickrama, BA, Dutkiewicz, E, Mueck, M & He, Y 2016, 'On the Usage of Geolocation-Aware Spectrum Measurements for Incumbent Location and Transmit Power Detection', IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, vol. 65, no. 10, pp. 8177-8189.
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© 2017 IEEE. Determining the geographical area that needs to be excluded due to incumbent activity is critical to realize high spectral utilization in spectrum sharing networks. This can be achieved by estimating the incumbent location and transmit power. However, keeping the hardware complexity of sensing nodes to a minimum and scalability are critical for spectrum sharing applications with commercial intent. We present a discrete-space l1-norm minimization solution based on geolocation-aware energy detection measurements. In practice, the accuracy of geolocation tagging is limited. We capture the impact as a basis mismatch and derive the necessary condition that needs to be satisfied for successful detection of multiple incumbents' location and transmit power. We find the upper bound for the probability of eliminating the impact of limited geolocation tagging accuracy in a lognormal shadow fading environment, which is applicable to all generic I1-norm minimization techniques. We propose an algorithm based on orthogonal matching pursuit that decreases the residual in each iteration by allowing a selected set of basis vectors to rotate in a controlled manner. Numerical evaluation of the proposed algorithm in a Licensed Shared Access (LSA) network shows a significant improvement in the probability of missed detection and false alarm.

Jeong, S, Cho, K, Bae, H, Keshvardoust, P, Rice, SA, Vigneswaran, S, Lee, S & Leiknes, T 2016, 'Effect of microbial community structure on organic removal and biofouling in membrane adsorption bioreactor used in seawater pretreatment', Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 294, pp. 30-39.
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Jeong, S, Naidu, G, Vollprecht, R, Leiknes, T & Vigneswaran, S 2016, 'In-depth analyses of organic matters in a full-scale seawater desalination plant and an autopsy of reverse osmosis membrane', Separation and Purification Technology, vol. 162, pp. 171-179.
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Jeong, S, Nguyen, TV, Vigneswaran, S, Kandasamy, J & Dharmabalan, D 2016, 'Removal of natural organic matter at the Gunbower water treatment plant in northern Victoria, Australia', Desalination and Water Treatment, vol. 57, no. 20, pp. 9061-9069.
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© 2015 Balaban Desalination Publications. All rights reserved. Advanced treatment processes are vital if organic matter is to be removed from water as efficiently as possible. To produce high quality water that has low concentrations of natural organic matter (NOM), the Gunbower water treatment plant (WTP) in northern Victoria, Australia has implemented a number of processes including magnetic ion exchange (MIEX), coagulation, clarifier, ultrafiltration (UF), and granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration. This research evaluated the efficiencies of these processes in removing NOM employing various analytical methods, namely liquid chromatography–organic carbon detector (LC–OCD) and three-dimensional fluorescence excitation emission matrix (3D-FEEM). In addition, the fouling potential of source water and treated water was assessed using a modified fouling index with ultrafiltration (MFI-UF). Biological stability was also tested using a modified assimilable organic carbon (AOC) detection method. The combination of MIEX, clarifier, coagulation, UF membrane, and GAC filtration resulted in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) being removed (from 6.01 to 0.47 mg/L). Furthermore 3D-FEEM analysis revealed that these treatment processes reduced humic and fulvic-like organics. AOC and MFI-UF decreased from 79.94 μg-C glucose equivalents/L and 46,350 s/L2 in the source water to 4.06 μg-C glucose equivalents/L and 2,057 s/L2 in the treated water, respectively.

Jeong, S, Vollprecht, R, Cho, K, Leiknes, T, Vigneswaran, S, Bae, H & Lee, S 2016, 'Advanced organic and biological analysis of dual media filtration used as a pretreatment in a full-scale seawater desalination plant', Desalination, vol. 385, pp. 83-92.
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Ji, L-Y, Qin, P-Y, Guo, YJ, Ding, C, Fu, G & Gong, S-X 2016, 'A Wideband Polarization Reconfigurable Antenna With Partially Reflective Surface', IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 64, no. 10, pp. 4534-4538.
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© 2016 IEEE. A novel partially reflective surface (PRS) antenna is proposed, which can electronically alter its polarization between linear polarization, left-hand circular polarization (CP), and right-hand CP. The antenna consists of a shorted annular patch antenna as the source, a PRS structure to enhance the gain, and a reconfigurable Wilkinson power divider as the feed network. Four p-i-n diodes are inserted into each branch of the power divider to change its electrical length. By switching the p-i-n diodes ON and OFF, a phase difference of 0°, 90°, or -90° can be realized at the two output ports of the feed network, hence enabling the antenna to radiate either a linearly polarized signal or left/right-handed circularly polarized signal. A prototype antenna with the biasing network is designed, fabricated, and measured. Good agreement between the simulated and measured results is achieved. Measurement results show that the proposed antenna has an overlapped 10-dB impedance bandwidth and 3-dB axial-ratio bandwidth of 4.7-5.36 GHz (13.1%). The average realized gains are ∼9 dBi/dBic, which remain reasonably stable for different polarizations. The proposed antenna outperforms most of the reported polarization reconfigurable antennas for its wide bandwidth and relatively high gain.

Jia, H, Yang, G, Wang, J, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Zhang, H & Zhang, X 2016, 'Performance of a microbial fuel cell-based biosensor for online monitoring in an integrated system combining microbial fuel cell and upflow anaerobic sludge bed reactor', Bioresource Technology, vol. 218, pp. 286-293.
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© 2016. A hybrid system integrating a microbial fuel cell (MFC)-based biosensor with upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) was investigated for real-time online monitoring of the internal operation of the UASB reactor. The features concerned were its rapidity and steadiness with a constant operation condition. In addition, the signal feedback mechanism was examined by the relationship between voltage and time point of changed COD concentration. The sensitivity of different concentrations was explored by comparing the signal feedback time point between the voltage and pH. Results showed that the electrical signal feedback was more sensitive than pH and the thresholds of sensitivity were S = 3 × 10-5 V/(mg/L) and S = 8 × 10-5 V/(mg/L) in different concentration ranges, respectively. Although only 0.94% of the influent COD was translated into electricity and applied for biosensing, this integrated system indicated great potential without additional COD consumption for real-time monitoring.

Jia, Y, Liu, Y, Guo, YJ, Li, K & Gong, S-X 2016, 'Broadband Polarization Rotation Reflective Surfaces and Their Applications to RCS Reduction', IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 64, no. 1, pp. 179-188.
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© 2015 IEEE. A novel broadband polarization rotation (PR) reflective surface (PRRS) with a high polarization conversion ratio (PCR) is proposed, which can reflect the linearly polarized incident wave with 90° PR. The proposed PRRS consists of a periodic array of square patches printed on a substrate, which is backed by a metallic ground. By connecting the square patch with the ground using two nonsymmetric vias, a 49% PR bandwidth is achieved with a high PCR of 96%, which is a significant improvement from the state-of-the-art 29% PR bandwidth. Moreover, the frequency responses within the operation frequency band are consistent under oblique incident waves. Furthermore, another ultra-wideband PRRS with a periodic array of quasi-L-shaped patches is proposed, which increases the PR bandwidth further to 103%. In addition, the designed PRRS is applied to wideband radar cross section (RCS) reduction. Different arrangements of the unit cells of the PRRS are proposed and their effects on RCS reduction are investigated. To validate the simulation results, prototypes of the PRRSs are fabricated and measured. The measured results are in good agreement with the simulated ones.

Jialin, H, Guangquan, Z, Yaoguang, H & Jie, L 2016, 'A solution to bi/tri-level programming problems using particle swarm optimization', INFORMATION SCIENCES, vol. 370, pp. 519-537.
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© 2016 Elsevier Inc. Multilevel (including bi-level and tri-level) programming aims to solve decentralized decision-making problems that feature interactive decision entities distributed throughout a hierarchical organization. Since the multilevel programming problem is strongly NP-hard and traditional exact algorithmic approaches lack efficiency, heuristics-based particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms have been used to generate an alternative for solving such problems. However, the existing PSO algorithms are limited to solving linear or small-scale bi-level programming problems. This paper first develops a novel bi-level PSO algorithm to solve general bi-level programs involving nonlinear and large-scale problems. It then proposes a tri-level PSO algorithm for handling tri-level programming problems that are more challenging than bi-level programs and have not been well solved by existing algorithms. For the sake of exploring the algorithms' performance, the proposed bi/tri-level PSO algorithms are applied to solve 62 benchmark problems and 810 large-scale problems which are randomly constructed. The computational results and comparison with other algorithms clearly illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed PSO algorithms in solving bi-level and tri-level programming problems.

Jian, S, Hossein Rashidi, T, Wijayaratna, KP & Dixit, VV 2016, 'A Spatial Hazard-Based analysis for modelling vehicle selection in station-based carsharing systems', Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, vol. 72, pp. 130-142.
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Carsharing, as an alternative to private vehicle ownership, has spread worldwide in recent years due to its potential of reducing congestion, improving auto utilization rate and limiting the environmental impact of emissions release. To determine the most efficient allocation of resources within a carsharing program, it is critical to understand what factors affect the users’ behavior when selecting vehicles. This study attempts to investigate the importance of users’ attributes and fleet characteristics on choice set formation behavior in selecting vehicles using a Spatial Hazard Based Model (SHBM). In the SHBM model, “distance to a vehicle” is considered as the prospective decision criteria that carsharing users follow when evaluating the set of alternative vehicles. This variable is analogous to the duration in a conventional hazard-based model. In addition, user socio-demographic attributes, vehicle characteristics, land use type of the trip origin, etc., collected from the Australian carsharing company GoGet are utilized to parameterize the shape/scale/location parameter of the hazard function. A number of forms of parametric SHBMs are tested to determine the best fit to the data. The accelerated failure time model with a Log-logistic distribution was found to provide the best fit. The estimation results of the coefficients of the parameters can provide a starting point for carsharing organizations to optimize their pod locations and types of cars available at different pods to maximize usage.

Jiang, J, Chen, Q & Nimbalkar, S 2016, 'Field Data Based Method for Predicting Long-Term Settlements', American Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 466-476.
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© 2016 Jianping Jiang, Qingsheng Chen and Sanjay Nimbalkar. The estimation of the long-term foundation settlement in soft soil is very complex, which is attributed to a number of uncertainties associated with various factors, such as: (i) The compressibility parameters obtained in the laboratory from samples of relatively small size that are more homogeneous compared to heterogeneous field sediments in which various soil types may be interlayered at random and may occur without exhibiting any real stratification; (ii) limitations and unrealistic assumptions prevailing in the conventional consolidation analysis. These have often resulted in the large discrepancy between actual in-situ settlements and the predictions from the conventional consolidation models (e.g., Terzaghi’s model). In this study, a field data based method inspired from an observational approach is proposed and validated against a number of high quality long-term field settlement data. Moreover, the corresponding geological soil properties obtained from field and laboratory tests have been presented, with the aim of providing useful practical references for other projects with similar geological profile. Furthermore, the proposed model is compared with existing prediction models. The results show that the newly proposed model can provide more reliable and accurate prediction of foundation settlements compared with other methods established in practice.

Jiang, P, Liu, F & Song, Y 2016, 'A Hybrid Multi-Step Model for Forecasting Day-Ahead Electricity Price Based on Optimization, Fuzzy Logic and Model Selection', Energies, vol. 9, no. 8, pp. 618-618.
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The day-ahead electricity market is closely related to other commodity markets such as the fuel and emission markets and is increasingly playing a significant role in human life. Thus, in the electricity markets, accurate electricity price forecasting plays significant role for power producers and consumers. Although many studies developing and proposing highly accurate forecasting models exist in the literature, there have been few investigations on improving the forecasting effectiveness of electricity price from the perspective of reducing the volatility of data with satisfactory accuracy. Based on reducing the volatility of the electricity price and the forecasting nature of the radial basis function network (RBFN), this paper successfully develops a two-stage model to forecast the day-ahead electricity price, of which the first stage is particle swarm optimization (PSO)-core mapping (CM) with self-organizing-map and fuzzy set (PCMwSF), and the second stage is selection rule (SR). The PCMwSF stage applies CM, fuzzy set and optimized weights to obtain the future price, and the SR stage is inspired by the forecasting nature of RBFN and effectively selects the best forecast during the test period. The proposed model, i.e., CM-PCMwSF-SR, not only overcomes the difficulty of reducing the high volatility of the electricity price but also leads to a superior forecasting effectiveness than benchmarks.

Jiang, P, Liu, F, Wang, J & Song, Y 2016, 'Cuckoo search-designated fractal interpolation functions with winner combination for estimating missing values in time series', Applied Mathematical Modelling, vol. 40, no. 23-24, pp. 9692-9718.
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Jiang, YB, He, N, Zhou, YZ, Xu, BH & Lin, ZQ 2016, 'Concept and measuring technique of groundwater level in vacuum preloading', Yantu Gongcheng Xuebao/Chinese Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, vol. 38, no. 10, pp. 1917-1922.
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Nowadays there are controversial viewpoints on variation rules of groundwater level in vacuum preloading technique due to insufficient analysis of concepts and shortcomings of measuring techniques. In this study, based on the status of the water in soil, the potential energy condition of the groundwater level and the reference datum, the groundwater level in vacuum preloading is redefined as the absolute elevation of a surface where the gravity field hydraulic pressure component of the gravity water in the soil is zero. In addition, two basic conditions, which are required to meet the accuracy criteria of groundwater level measurements in vacuum preloading, are proposed. Then, the water lifting function in filter pipe section and the confining effect in impermeable pipe section, which are two negative effects of the existing measuring techniques of groundwater level affected by the distribution of the filter pipe, are analyzed. Consequently, a sectional type buoy groundwater measuring technique is put forward, including the full outer filter tube installed in the foundation and the built-in partition sectional type buoy water level indicator with the special rubber concave-convex partition. It is a method which can keep sealing while measuring, overcoming the negative effects of the distribution of the filter pipe. This proposed technique is theoretically suitable for measuring groundwater level under negative pressure and sealing membrane in vacuum preloading practice.

Jin, P, Wang, X, Zhang, Q, Wang, X, Ngo, HH & Yang, L 2016, 'A new activated primary tank developed for recovering carbon source and its application', Bioresource Technology, vol. 200, pp. 722-730.
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Johir, MAH, Nguyen, TT, Mahatheva, K, Pradhan, M, Ngo, HH, Guo, W & Vigneswaran, S 2016, 'Removal of phosphorus by a high rate membrane adsorption hybrid system', Bioresource Technology, vol. 201, pp. 365-369.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd Membrane adsorption hybrid system (MAHS) was evaluated for the removal of phosphate from a high rate membrane bioreactor (HR-MBR) effluent. The HR-MBR was operated at permeate flux of 30 L/m2 h. The results indicated that the HR-MBR could eliminate 93.1 ± 1.5% of DOC while removing less than 53% phosphate (PO4-P). Due to low phosphate removal by HR-MBR, a post-treatment of strong base anion exchange resin (Dowex∗21K-XLT), and zirconium (IV) hydroxide were used as adsorbent in MAHS for further removal of phosphate from HR-MBR effluent. It was found that the MAHS enabled to eliminate more than 85% of PO4-P from HR-MBR effluent. Hence, HR-MBR followed by MAHS lead to simultaneous removal of organics and phosphate in a reliable manner. The experiments were conducted only for a short period to investigate the efficiency of these resins/adsorbents on the removal of phosphorus and high rate MBR for organic removal.

Johir, MAH, Pradhan, M, Loganathan, P, Kandasamy, J & Vigneswaran, S 2016, 'Phosphate adsorption from wastewater using zirconium (IV) hydroxide: Kinetics, thermodynamics and membrane filtration adsorption hybrid system studies', JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, vol. 167, pp. 167-174.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Excessive phosphate in wastewater should be removed to control eutrophication of water bodies. The potential of employing amorphous zirconium (Zr) hydroxide to remove phosphate from synthetic wastewater was studied in batch adsorption experiments and in a submerged membrane filtration adsorption hybrid (MFAH) reactor. The adsorption data satisfactorily fitted to Langmuir, pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order models. Langmuir adsorption maxima at 22 °C and pHs of 4.0, 7.1, and 10.0 were 30.40, 18.50, and 19.60 mg P/g, respectively. At pH 7.1 and temperatures of 40 °C and 60 °C, they were 43.80 and 54.60 mg P/g, respectively. The thermodynamic parameters, δG° and δS° were negative and δH° was positive. FTIR, zeta potential and competitive phosphate, sulphate and nitrate adsorption data showed that the mechanism of phosphate adsorption was inner-sphere complexation. In the submerged MFAH reactor experiment, when Zr hydroxide was added at doses of 1-5 g/L once only at the start of the experiment, the removal of phosphate from 3 L of wastewater containing 10 mg P/L declined after 5 h of operation. However, when Zr hydroxide was repeatedly added at 5 g/L dose every 24 h, satisfactory removal of phosphate was maintained for 3 days.

Johir, MAH, Shim, WG, Pradhan, M, Vigneswaran, S & Kandasamy, J 2016, 'Benefit of adding adsorbent in submerged membrane microfiltration treatment of wastewater', Desalination and Water Treatment, vol. 57, no. 44, pp. 20683-20693.
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In this study, the effect of coupling ion-exchange resin (purolite) and powdered activated carbon (PAC) in a submerged membrane reactor was investigated in terms of (i) removal of different classes of organic matter and (ii) reduction of membrane fouling. The degree of fouling in a membrane hybrid system was modelled in terms of transmembrane pressure development and organic removal efficiency using a simple semi-empirical model. Among these three absorbents, PAC was the most effective with higher removal efficiency for DOC (almost 100% reduction of hydrophobic organic compounds). Excitation–emission matrix analysis and LC–OCD were employed for the detailed organic characterisation.

Johnston, A 2016, 'Opportunities for Practice-Based Research in Musical Instrument Design', Leonardo, vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 82-83.
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This paper considers the relationship between design, practice and research in the area of New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME). The author argues that NIME practitioner-researchers should embrace the instability and dynamism inherent in digital musical interactions in order to explore and document the evolving processes of musical expression.

Johnston, A & Ferguson, S 2016, 'Practice-Based Research and New Interfaces for Musical Expression', Leonardo, vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 71-71.
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Joshi, RG, Chelliah, J, Sood, S & Burdon, S 2016, 'Nature and spirit of exchange and interpersonal relationships fostering grassroots innovations', The Journal of Developing Areas, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 399-409.
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Exchange and interpersonal relationships are central to the functioning and sustainability of socio-economic activities, including innovation. Grassroots innovations (GI) are dynamic and relational phenomena that evolve with grassroots innovators’ beliefs, expectations and obligatory relationships for varied resources, and the actualization of their desire to make novel and beneficial products. In this paper, the dynamics of exchange and interpersonal relationships that underpin the GI phenomenon are explored through the lens of exchange theory and the consideration of the psychological contract. While exchange theory provides an explanation for the interdependent and dyadic socio-economic relations present in GI, the psychological contract provides a view on the perceptions and expectations that are embedded in exchange and innovation activities. These two theoretical lenses serve as a foundation for the research to engage with the subjective reality of the grassroots innovators’ experiences. In examining the subjective reality of the innovation experiences of the grassroots innovators; the research thereby discerns the dominant form of exchange and socio-economic structure that fosters GI from ideation to commercial scaling. Through the use of phenomenological exploration and detailed thematic analysis of the innovation experiences of the thirteen Indian grassroots innovators, the research determined the nature and spirit of the relational commercial exchanges that both entail and foster GI. The paper starts off with the discussion of the theoretical foundations of the research. Thereafter, the paper briefly discusses the research methodology and the exchange dynamics present in GI. In assimilating the research findings, the paper enlists the features of exchanges embedded in GI phenomenon and highlights the capacity of relational commercial exchanges in fostering GI. The paper further proposes, through this discussion, an interpretive framework for u...

Juang, C-F, Jeng, T-L & Chang, Y-C 2016, 'An Interpretable Fuzzy System Learned Through Online Rule Generation and Multiobjective ACO With a Mobile Robot Control Application', IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, vol. 46, no. 12, pp. 2706-2718.
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Jupp, JR 2016, 'Cross industry learning: a comparative study of product lifecycle management and building information modelling', International Journal of Product Lifecycle Management, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 258-258.
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© Copyright 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Discrete manufacturing industries have made significant improvements in productivity and management efficiency over the past three decades in part due to the application of product lifecycle management (PLM). This progress has not been matched in the construction industry. As construction firms continue to adopt building information modelling (BIM) and strive to achieve similar improvements, learning from the experiences of discrete manufacturing and implementations of PLM could prove valuable. Based on a review of existing literature, this paper provides a typology for comparing PLM and BIM so as to discuss and associate findings from existing studies. The review of 56 papers contrasts the underlying concepts, objectives, methods and supporting technologies of PLM and BIM. In addition, their intended impacts and criticisms are also explored. Discussion centres on elucidating the differences and similarities between PLM and BIM relative to the unique characteristics of their application domains. The paper shows that whilst the differences are significant, their similarities merit further research into the transfer of lessons learned.

Kaiwartya, O, Abdullah, AH, Cao, Y, Altameem, A, Prasad, M, Lin, C-T & Liu, X 2016, 'Internet of Vehicles: Motivation, Layered Architecture, Network Model, Challenges, and Future Aspects', IEEE Access, vol. 4, pp. 5356-5373.
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© 2013 IEEE. Internet of Things is smartly changing various existing research areas into new themes, including smart health, smart home, smart industry, and smart transport. Relying on the basis of 'smart transport,' Internet of Vehicles (IoV) is evolving as a new theme of research and development from vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). This paper presents a comprehensive framework of IoV with emphasis on layered architecture, protocol stack, network model, challenges, and future aspects. Specifically, following the background on the evolution of VANETs and motivation on IoV an overview of IoV is presented as the heterogeneous vehicular networks. The IoV includes five types of vehicular communications, namely, vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-roadside, vehicle-to-infrastructure of cellular networks, vehicle-to-personal devices, and vehicle-to-sensors. A five layered architecture of IoV is proposed considering functionalities and representations of each layer. A protocol stack for the layered architecture is structured considering management, operational, and security planes. A network model of IoV is proposed based on the three network elements, including cloud, connection, and client. The benefits of the design and development of IoV are highlighted by performing a qualitative comparison between IoV and VANETs. Finally, the challenges ahead for realizing IoV are discussed and future aspects of IoV are envisioned.

Kalam, MA, Rashed, MM, Imdadul, HK & Masjuki, HH 2016, 'Property development of fatty acid methyl ester from waste coconut oil as engine fuel', Industrial Crops and Products, vol. 87, pp. 333-339.
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Kalaruban, M, Loganathan, P, Shim, WG, Kandasamy, J, Naidu, G, Nguyen, TV & Vigneswaran, S 2016, 'Removing nitrate from water using iron-modified Dowex 21K XLT ion exchange resin: Batch and fluidised-bed adsorption studies', SEPARATION AND PURIFICATION TECHNOLOGY, vol. 158, pp. 62-70.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Elevated concentrations of nitrate in surface waters can cause eutrophication, while in drinking water they pose a threat to human health, especially causing blue baby syndrome in infants. An anion exchange resin - Dowex 21K XLT - was surface modified by incorporating Fe (Dowex-Fe) and tested to remove nitrate from aqueous solutions in batch and fluidised-bed adsorption experiments. Solution pH in the 4.0-7.5 range had no effect on nitrate adsorption. The adsorption data at pH 6.5 fitted well to the Langmuir model with maximum adsorption capacities of 27.6 mg N/g, and 75.3 mg N/g for Dowex and Dowex-Fe resins, respectively. Energy dispersion spectrometry and zeta potential measurements indicated that the increase in adsorption due to Fe impregnation was caused by additional surface positive charges induced on the resin by Fe. In both batch and fluidised-bed experiments, nitrate adsorption capacity declined markedly when sulphate was added, but phosphate and chloride additions had little effect. Batch kinetic data fitted well to the pseudo-first, pseudo-second and homogeneous surface diffusion models. Data from the fluidised-bed experiments satisfactorily fitted to the Thomas and plug-flow models. More than 95% of adsorbed nitrate was desorbed by 1 M KCl in all three adsorption/desorption cycles and the resins were successfully regenerated in each cycle with little reduction in adsorption capacity. No significant reduction in the Fe content of Dowex-Fe occurred during the regeneration.

Kalaruban, M, Loganathan, P, Shim, WG, Kandasamy, J, Ngo, HH & Vigneswaran, S 2016, 'Enhanced removal of nitrate from water using amine-grafted agricultural wastes', SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT, vol. 565, pp. 503-510.
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© 2016 Elsevier B.V. Adsorption using low-cost adsorbents is a favourable water treatment method for the removal of water contaminants. In this study the enhanced removal of nitrate, a contaminant at elevated concentration affecting human health and causing eutrophication of water, was tested using chemically modified agricultural wastes as adsorbents. Batch and fixed-bed adsorption studies were performed on corn cob and coconut copra that were surface modified by amine-grafting to increase the surface positive charges. The Langmuir nitrate adsorption capacities (mg N/g) were 49.9 and 59.0 for the amine-grafted (AG) corn cob and coconut copra, respectively at pH 6.5 and ionic strength 1 × 10-3 M NaCl. These values are higher than those of many commercially available anion exchange resins. Fixed-bed (15-cm height) adsorption capacities (mg N/g) calculated from the breakthrough curves were 15.3 and 18.6 for AG corn cob and AG coconut copra, respectively, for an influent nitrate concentration 20 mg N/L at a flow velocity 5 m/h. Nitrate adsorption decreased in the presence of sulphate, phosphate and chloride, with sulphate being the most competitive anion. The Thomas model fitted well to the fixed-bed adsorption data from four repeated adsorption/desorption cycles. Plug-flow model fitted well to the data from only the first cycle.

Kalhori, H, Ye, L, Mustapha, S, Li, J & Li, B 2016, 'Reconstruction and Analysis of Impact Forces on a Steel-Beam-Reinforced Concrete Deck', Experimental Mechanics, vol. 56, no. 9, pp. 1547-1558.
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Kamal, S & Arefin, MS 2016, 'Impact analysis of facebook in family bonding', Social Network Analysis and Mining, vol. 6, no. 1.
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Kamal, S, Ripon, SH, Dey, N, Ashour, AS & Santhi, V 2016, 'A MapReduce approach to diminish imbalance parameters for big deoxyribonucleic acid dataset', Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, vol. 131, pp. 191-206.
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Kamaleswaran, R, Collins, C, James, A & McGregor, C 2016, 'PhysioEx: Visual Analysis of Physiological Event Streams', Computer Graphics Forum, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 331-340.
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AbstractIn this work, we introduce a novel visualization technique, the Temporal Intensity Map, which visually integrates data values over time to reveal the frequency, duration, and timing of significant features in streaming data. We combine the Temporal Intensity Map with several coordinated visualizations of detected events in data streams to create PhysioEx, a visual dashboard for multiple heterogeneous data streams. We have applied PhysioEx in a design study in the field of neonatal medicine, to support clinical researchers exploring physiologic data streams. We evaluated our method through consultations with domain experts. Results show that our tool provides deep insight capabilities, supports hypothesis generation, and can be well integrated into the workflow of clinical researchers.

Kang, K & Ng, T 2016, 'A New Collaborative Digital Social Space', Journal of Internet Social Networking and Virtual Communities, vol. 2015, pp. 1-10.
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To understand the web design principles in a Digital Social Space (DSS) that can attract multiple national cultures into one SNS platform, Internet communication users from different cultures were chosen as targets for this investigation, using questionnaires to collect user preferences on a digital social space. Social network sites (SNS) evolved within a short time into a popular Internet-mediated tool that is being used worldwide on a daily basis. Though presumptions in interaction through SNS create bias in web design that does not translate well into foreign cultures. Results revealed that different culture groups have different understandings of online communication tools in a Digital Social Space (DSS).

Kang, K & Sohaib, O 2016, 'Individualists vs. Collectivists in B2C E-Business Purchase Intention', Journal of Internet and e-business Studies, vol. 2016, pp. 1-11.
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The purpose of this study is to propose an interpersonal trust (iTrust) model to better understand the online consumer cognitive and affective reactions in a B2C website. This study provides proposition on the influence of culture (Individualistic and Collectivistic) on the relationship between cognitive-based and web design and affect-based trust to buyer behavior aspects towards purchase intention in B2C e-business website. It is important to understand online purchasing perceptions between two different cultural groups because the Individualistic online consumer trust may be higher than the Collectivistic and vice versa.

Kanimozhi, C, Kim, M, Larson, SR, Choi, JW, Choo, Y, Sweat, DP, Osuji, CO & Gopalan, P 2016, 'Isomeric Effect Enabled Thermally Driven Self-Assembly of Hydroxystyrene-Based Block Copolymers', ACS Macro Letters, vol. 5, no. 7, pp. 833-838.
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Karimi Galougahi, K, Liu, C, Garcia, A, Gentile, C, Fry, NA, Hamilton, EJ, Hawkins, CL & Figtree, GA 2016, 'β3 Adrenergic Stimulation Restores Nitric Oxide/Redox Balance and Enhances Endothelial Function in Hyperglycemia', Journal of the American Heart Association, vol. 5, no. 2.
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Background Perturbed balance between NO and O 2 •− . (ie, NO/redox imbalance) is central in the pathobiology of diabetes‐induced vascular dysfunction. We examined whether stimulation of β 3 adrenergic receptors (β 3 ARs), coupled to endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) activation, would re‐establish NO/redox balance, relieve oxidative inhibition of the membrane proteins eNOS and Na + ‐K + (NK) pump, and improve vascular function in a new animal model of hyperglycemia. Methods and Results We established hyperglycemia in male White New Zealand rabbits by infusion of S961, a competitive high‐affinity peptide inhibitor of the insulin receptor. Hyperglycemia impaired endothelium‐dependent vasorelaxation by “uncoupling” of eNOS via glutathionylation (eNOS‐GSS) that was dependent on NADPH oxidase activity. Accordingly, NO levels were lower while O 2 •− levels were higher in hyperglycemic rabbits. Infusion of the β 3 AR agonist CL316243 (CL) decreased eNOS‐GSS, reduced O 2 •− , restored NO levels, and improved endothelium‐dependent relaxation. CL decreased hyperglycemia‐induced NADPH oxidase activation as suggested by co‐immunoprecipitation experiments, and it increased eNOS co‐immunoprecipitation w...

Karimi, M, Croaker, P & Kessissoglou, N 2016, 'Boundary element solution for periodic acoustic problems', Journal of Sound and Vibration, vol. 360, no. 6, pp. 129-139.
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This work shows when using the boundary element method to solve 3D acoustic scattering problems from periodic structures, the coefficient matrix can be represented as a block Toeplitz matrix. By exploiting the Toeplitz structure, the computational time and storage requirements to construct the coefficient matrix are significantly reduced. To solve the linear system of equations, the original matrix is embedded into a larger and more structured matrix called the block circulant matrix. Discrete Fourier transform is then employed in an iterative algorithm to solve the block Toeplitz system. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the formulation for periodic acoustic problems, two exterior acoustic case studies are considered. The first case study examines a continuous structure to predict the noise generated by a sharp-edged flat plate under quadrupole excitation. Directivity plots obtained using the periodic boundary element method technique are compared with numerical results obtained using a conventional boundary element model. The second case study examines a discrete periodic structure to predict the acoustic performance of a sonic crystal noise barrier. Results for the barrier insertion loss are compared with both finite element results and available data in the literature.

Karmokar, DK, Esselle, KP & Bird, TS 2016, 'Wideband Microstrip Leaky-Wave Antennas With Two Symmetrical Side Beams for Simultaneous Dual-Beam Scanning', IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 64, no. 4, pp. 1262-1269.
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Karmokar, DK, Esselle, KP & Hay, SG 2016, 'Fixed-Frequency Beam Steering of Microstrip Leaky-Wave Antennas Using Binary Switches', IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 64, no. 6, pp. 2146-2154.
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Kashani, AR, Gandomi, AH & Mousavi, M 2016, 'Imperialistic Competitive Algorithm: A metaheuristic algorithm for locating the critical slip surface in 2-Dimensional soil slopes', Geoscience Frontiers, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 83-89.
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In this study, Imperialistic Competitive Algorithm (ICA) is utilized for locating the critical failure surface and computing the factor of safety (FOS) in a slope stability analysis based on the limit equilibrium approach. The factor of safety relating to each trial slip surface is calculated using a simplified algorithm of the Morgenstern-Price method, which satisfies both the force and the moment equilibriums. General slip surface is considered non-circular in this study that is constituted by linking random straight lines. To explore the performance of the proposed algorithm, four benchmark test problems are analyzed. The results demonstrate that the present techniques can provide reliable, accurate and efficient solutions for locating the critical failure surface and relating FOS. Moreover, in contrast with previous studies the present algorithm could reach the lower value of FOS and reached more exact solutions.

Kehrel, U, Klischan, K & Sick, N 2016, 'Why Research Partnerships Fail in the Biotechnology Sector — An Empirical Analysis of Strategic Partnerships', International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management, vol. 13, no. 01, pp. 1650003-1650003.
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Over half of all research-oriented partnerships in the biotechnology industry fail due to problems in inter-organizational relationships. The analysis of factors that determine the success of strategic partnerships can help companies to reduce the high failure rates. Based on the resource-oriented and relationship-oriented approach, this study examines the influence of three structural factors and three dynamic factors on the success of strategic, research-oriented partnerships in the biotechnology industry. In the empirical study, data of 48 research collaborations by 28 companies were collected and analyzed. The results confirm the significant influence of the factors “complementary resources”, “operational compatibility”, “bilateral exchange of information” and “opportunistic behavior”. On the basis of these findings, companies can find approaches to influence the success of their own research collaborations. In particular, appropriate recommendations for action can be formulated in the areas of the structural design of partnerships and the dynamic exchange process.

Kermany, AR, Bennett, JS, Brawley, GA, Bowen, WP & Iacopi, F 2016, 'Factors affecting the f × Q product of 3C-SiC microstrings: What is the upper limit for sensitivity?', Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 119, no. 5, pp. 055304-055304.
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The fn × Q (Hz) is a crucial sensitivity parameter for micro-electro-mechanical sensing. We have recently shown a fn × Q product of ∼1012 Hz for microstrings made of cubic silicon carbide on silicon, establishing a new state-of-the-art and opening new frontiers for mass sensing applications. In this work, we analyse the main parameters influencing the frequency and quality factor of silicon carbide microstrings (material properties, microstring geometry, clamping condition, and environmental pressure) and investigate the potential for approaching the theoretical upper limit. We indicate that our previous result is only about a factor 2 lower than the thermoelastic dissipation limit. For fully reaching this upper limit, a substantial reduction of the defects in the silicon carbide thin film would be required, while maintaining a high residual tensile stress in the perfect-clamped strings.

Keshavarz, R, Mohammadi, A, Abdipour, A & Mirzavand, R 2016, 'A DUAL BAND E-CRLH FREQUENCY MULTIPLIER WITH TWO MULTIPLICATION FACTORS', Progress In Electromagnetics Research Letters, vol. 64, pp. 99-104.
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Keshavarzi, A, Hamidifar, H & Ball, J 2016, 'Bed morphology in vegetated estuarine river with mild-curved meander bend', Hydrological Sciences Journal, vol. 61, no. 11, pp. 2033-2049.
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In this study, the effect of single and double row piles for reducing scouring in a mild-curved river meander was studied experimentally. The experimental study focused on the effect of vegetation on bed topography in a mild-curved meander bend. The experimental tests were conducted in a laboratory flume under clear water flow conditions. A series of experimental tests were carried out with a fixed bed and non-vegetated and vegetated moveable beds with different vegetation patterns. Analysis of the flow characteristics indicated that when the bed was mobile with vegetation on the inner bank, the core of maximum streamwise velocity shifted towards the centreline of the bend. Additionally, the cross-sectional kinetic energy increased from 0.05% for the fixed-bed test to 4.30% for the test with a double row of vegetation. Furthermore, the presence of vegetation was found to increase the uniformity of the distribution of turbulence intensity and to reduce the Reynolds shear stress along the test section. Also, the mass fluxes increased from the outer bank to the inner bank and from the upstream towards the downstream of the bend. Finally, comparison of bed topography in vegetated and non-vegetated channels showed that the maximum scour depth at the bend apex was reduced by 77% and 62% for the cases with one row and two rows of vegetation, respectively. The results of this study were compared with previously proposed models for predicting the vertical distribution of the streamwise velocity at the bend apex. It was found that Johannesson and Parker’s model (JPM) gave the lowest value of standard error. The above findings are useful in river training works and, in particular, for restoration of meandering rivers. Editor D. M.C. Acreman; Associate editor C. Cudennec

Keshavarzi, A, Omran, E-SE, Bateni, SM, Pradhan, B, Vasu, D & Bagherzadeh, A 2016, 'Modeling of available soil phosphorus (ASP) using multi-objective group method of data handling', Modeling Earth Systems and Environment, vol. 2, no. 3, p. 157.
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The accurate estimation of available soil phosphorus (ASP) is required for the effective management of environmental resources and improving agricultural productivity. Direct measurement of ASP at large scales is time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, many empirical models or pedotransfer functions (PTFs) have been developed to obtain ASP. This study introduces a new model that estimates ASP from easily measurable soil properties by using the multi-objective group method of data handling (mGMDH) approach. Organic carbon, clay content, calcium carbonate equivalent, pH and ASP were obtained from 100 soil samples, which were collected by the stratified random sampling strategy in Mashhad Plain, Khorasan-e-Razavi Province, Northeast Iran. The suggested model for the prediction of ASP generated satisfactory results in terms of the statistical performance criteria. The coefficient of determination (R2) and mean square error (MSE) values of the mGMDH model in training step were 0.606 and 4.9671 mg kg−1, respectively, whereas those were 0.504 and 5.6685 mg kg−1, in the testing step. It was concluded that only 50 % of variations of ASP could be described by selecting easy-to-measure soil variables and owing to the key role of phosphorus in soil fertility and precision agriculture, the other related factors such as terrain attributes and fertilizer management should also be considered as they influence the distribution of the soil phosphorus.

Khabbaz, H & Fatahi, B 2016, 'Environmental geotechnics challenges in Australia', Environmental Geotechnics, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 2-3.
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Khalilpour, KR & Vassallo, A 2016, 'A generic framework for distributed multi-generation and multi-storage energy systems', ENERGY, vol. 114, no. C, pp. 798-813.
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We have introduced a generic decision support tool for concurrent optimal selection, sizing, and operation scheduling of grid-connected or off-grid multi-generation/multi-storage distributed generation and storage (DGS) systems with respect to the dynamics of historical/projected periodical weather data, electricity price, DGS system cost, DGS aging, and the major critical design and operational parameters. This decision support program enables the consumer (ranging from a small house to large-scale industrial plants) to implement the most efficient electricity management strategy while achieving the goal of minimizing the electricity bill.

Khalilpour, KR & Vassallo, A 2016, 'Technoeconomic parametric analysis of PV-battery systems', RENEWABLE ENERGY, vol. 97, no. C, pp. 757-768.
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Application of integrated PV-battery systems for off-grid locations has a history exceeding four decades. With the observed fast reduction of PV and battery system prices in recent years, however, interest in the use of PV-battery systems has notably increased even at on-grid locations. The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of various technoeconomic parameters, such as geographic location, weather condition, electricity price, feed-in tariff, PV/battery system cost, and PV/battery specifications on the economic feasibility of grid-connected PV-battery systems. For this, we have used our inhouse decision support tool for investment decision making, optimal sizing, and operation scheduling of grid-connected PV/battery system with respect to these parameters. The results show that decision on the selection of the right PV-battery system is significantly sensitive to each and every one of these parameters. Within various price scenarios that we carried out, battery shows positive impact on NPV only at low installation costs (e.g. ≤750 $/kWh). Neither the sales electricity tariff nor the feed-in tariff has alone a direct impact on the feasibility of installing a battery system. Rather, the magnitude of the difference between electricity price and feed-in tariff is the detrimental element in battery attractiveness. A case-study for Sydney, Australia, showed that at current sales/feed-in electricity tariffs, PV systems with prices of 2700 $/kW, or less, not only reach parity with the grid electricity price but also reach parity with feed-in tariff. This implies the viability of installing large PV systems merely for selling the generated electricity to the grid.

Khalilpour, R & Vassallo, A 2016, 'Planning and operation scheduling of PV-battery systems: A novel methodology', RENEWABLE & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY REVIEWS, vol. 53, no. C, pp. 194-208.
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The aim of this paper is to develop a decision support tool for investment decision making, optimal sizing, and operation scheduling of grid-connected PV/battery system with respect to dynamics of periodical weather data, electricity price, PV/battery system cost, PV/battery specifications, desired reliability, and other critical design and operational parameters.

Khan, I, Castel, A & Gilbert, RI 2016, 'Prediction of early-age creep and cracking age of concrete: a proposed modification for AS3600 provisions', Australian Journal of Structural Engineering, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 151-166.
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© 2016 Engineers Australia. Early-age thermal and shrinkage-induced cracking is a major problem in concrete structures. The risk of early-age thermal cracking is increased if the degree of restraint to early-age contraction is increased. At this early age, tensile creep plays a key role in relaxing shrinkage-induced stresses and delaying the time to cracking. However, limited data are available concerning tensile creep of concrete and the magnitude and rate of development of the early-age shrinkage of Australian concrete. As a consequence, tensile creep is often poorly modelled in predictions of early-age cracking. The current method to calculate creep in the Australian Standard AS3600 is based on compressive creep data obtained from specimens loaded at ages generally greater than 14 days and cannot be used to predict very early-age creep confidently. In order to accurately quantify the early-age shrinkage and creep of concrete, a comprehensive experimental programme is being conducted at the UNSW Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Safety. Creep and shrinkage strains were measured on different specimens subjected to sustained loading. Tests were conducted on two different concrete mixes of normal strength concrete (32 and 45 MPa). Restrained ring specimens were tested to observe the cracking age of concrete. A model is proposed to predict the early-age tensile creep of concrete.

Khan, MA, Ngo, HH, Guo, WS, Liu, Y, Nghiem, LD, Hai, FI, Deng, LJ, Wang, J & Wu, Y 2016, 'Optimization of process parameters for production of volatile fatty acid, biohydrogen and methane from anaerobic digestion', Bioresource Technology, vol. 219, pp. 738-748.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd The anaerobic digestion process has been primarily utilized for methane containing biogas production over the past few years. However, the digestion process could also be optimized for producing volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and biohydrogen. This is the first review article that combines the optimization approaches for all three possible products from the anaerobic digestion. In this review study, the types and configurations of the bioreactor are discussed for each type of product. This is followed by a review on optimization of common process parameters (e.g. temperature, pH, retention time and organic loading rate) separately for the production of VFA, biohydrogen and methane. This review also includes additional parameters, treatment methods or special additives that wield a significant and positive effect on production rate and these products’ yield.

Khan, MA, Ngo, HH, Guo, WS, Liu, YW, Zhou, JL, Zhang, J, Liang, S, Ni, BJ, Zhang, XB & Wang, J 2016, 'Comparing the value of bioproducts from different stages of anaerobic membrane bioreactors', Bioresource Technology, vol. 214, pp. 816-825.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd The anaerobic digestion process in anaerobic membrane bioreactors is an effective way for waste management, energy sustainability and pollution control in the environment. This digestion process basically involves the production of volatile fatty acids and biohydrogen as intermediate products and methane as a final product. This paper compares the value of bioproducts from different stages of anaerobic membrane bioreactors through a thorough assessment. The value was assessed in terms of technical feasibility, economic assessment, environmental impact and impact on society. Even though the current research objective is more inclined to optimize the production of methane, the intermediate products could also be considered as economically attractive and environment friendly options. Hence, this is the first review study to correlate the idea into an anaerobic membrane bioreactor which is expected to guide future research pathways regarding anaerobic process and its bioproducts.

Khan, MH, Casillas, G, Mitchell, DRG, Liu, HK, Jiang, L & Huang, Z 2016, 'Carbon- and crack-free growth of hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets and their uncommon stacking order', Nanoscale, vol. 8, no. 35, pp. 15926-15933.
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The quality of hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets (h-BNNS) is often associated with the most visible aspects such as lateral size and thickness. Less obvious factors such as sheet stacking order could also have a dramatic impact on the properties of BNNS and therefore its applications. The stacking order can be affected by contamination, cracks, and growth temperatures. In view of the significance of chemical-vapour-decomposition (CVD) assisted growth of BNNS, this paper reports on strategies to grow carbon- and crack-free BNNS by CVD and describes the stacking order of the resultant BNNS. Pretreatment of the most commonly used precursor, ammonia borane, is necessary to remove carbon contamination caused by residual hydrocarbons. Flattening the Cu and W substrates prior to growth and slow cooling around the Cu melting point effectively facilitate the uniform growth of h-BNNS, as a result of a minimal temperature gradient across the Cu substrate. Confining the growth inside alumina boats effectively minimizes etching of the nanosheet by silica nanoparticles originating from the commonly used quartz reactor tube. h-BNNS grown on solid Cu surfaces using this method adopt AB, ABA, AC', and AC'B stacking orders, which are known to have higher energies than the most stable AA' configuration. These findings identify a pathway for the fabrication of high-quality h-BNNS via CVD and should spur studies on stacking order-dependent properties of h-BNNS.

Khan, MI, Kamal, MS & Chowdhury, L 2016, 'MSuPDA: A Memory Efficient Algorithm for Sequence Alignment', Interdisciplinary Sciences: Computational Life Sciences, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 84-94.
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Khan, MSH, Castel, A, Akbarnezhad, A, Foster, SJ & Smith, M 2016, 'Utilisation of steel furnace slag coarse aggregate in a low calcium fly ash geopolymer concrete', Cement and Concrete Research, vol. 89, pp. 220-229.
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This paper evaluates the performance of steel furnace slag (SFS) coarse aggregate in blended slag and low calcium fly ash geopolymer concrete (GPC). The geopolymer binder is composed of 90% of low calcium fly ash and 10% of ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS). Mechanical and physical properties, shrinkage, and detailed microstructure analysis were carried out. The results showed that geopolymer concrete with SFS aggregate offered higher compressive strength, surface resistivity and pulse velocity than that of GPC with traditional aggregate. The shrinkage results showed no expansion or swelling due to delayed calcium oxide (CaO) hydration after 320 days. No traditional porous interfacial transition zone (ITZ) was detected using scanning electron microscopy, indicating a better bond between SFS aggregate and geopolymer matrix. Energy dispersive spectroscopy results further revealed calcium (Ca) diffusion at the vicinity of ITZ. Raman spectroscopy results showed no new crystalline phase formed due to Ca diffusion. X-ray fluorescence result showed Mg diffusion from SFS aggregate towards geopolymer matrix. The incorporation of Ca and Mg into the geopolymer structure and better bond between SFS aggregate and geopolymer matrix are the most likely reasons for the higher compressive strength observed in GPC with SFS aggregate.

Khanahmadi, S, Yusof, F, Chyuan Ong, H, Amid, A & Shah, H 2016, 'Cocoa pod husk: A new source of CLEA-lipase for preparation of low-cost biodiesel: An optimized process', Journal of Biotechnology, vol. 231, pp. 95-105.
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Khare, V, Shivakumara, P, Raveendran, P & Blumenstein, M 2016, 'A blind deconvolution model for scene text detection and recognition in video', Pattern Recognition, vol. 54, pp. 128-148.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. Text detection and recognition in poor quality video is a challenging problem due to unpredictable blur and distortion effects caused by camera and text movements. This affects the overall performance of the text detection and recognition methods. This paper presents a combined quality metric for estimating the degree of blur in the video/image. Then the proposed method introduces a blind deconvolution model that enhances the edge intensity by suppressing blurred pixels. The proposed deblurring model is compared with other state-of-the-art models to demonstrate its superiority. In addition, to validate the usefulness and the effectiveness of the proposed model, we conducted text detection and recognition experiments on blurred images classified by the proposed model from standard video databases, namely, ICDAR 2013, ICDAR 2015, YVT and then standard natural scene image databases, namely, ICDAR 2013, SVT, MSER. Text detection and recognition results on both blurred and deblurred video/images illustrate that the proposed model improves the performance significantly.

Khezri, N, Mohamad, H & Fatahi, B 2016, 'Stability assessment of tunnel face in a layered soil using upper bound theorem of limit analysis', Geomechanics and Engineering, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 471-492.
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Underground tunnelling is one of the sustainable construction methods which can facilitate the increasing passenger transportation in the urban areas and benefit the community in the long term. Tunnelling in various ground conditions requires careful consideration of the stability factor. This paper investigates three dimensional stability of a shallow circular tunnel in a layered soil. Upper bound theorem of limit analysis was utilised to solve the tunnel face stability problem. A three dimensional kinematic admissible failure mechanism was improved to model a layered soil and limiting assumptions of the previous studies were resolved. The study includes calculation of the minimum support pressure acting on the face of the excavation in closed-face excavations. The effects of the characteristics of the layers on the minimum support pressure were examined. It was found that the ratio of the thickness of cover layers particularly when a weak layer is overlying a stronger layer, has the most significant influence on the minimum tunnel support pressure. Comparisons have been made with the results of the numerical modelling using FLAC3D software. Results of the current study were in a remarkable agreement with those of numerical modelling.

Khoo, BL, Chaudhuri, PK, Ramalingam, N, Tan, DSW, Lim, CT & Warkiani, ME 2016, 'Single‐cell profiling approaches to probing tumor heterogeneity', International Journal of Cancer, vol. 139, no. 2, pp. 243-255.
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Tumor heterogeneity is a major hindrance in cancer classification, diagnosis and treatment. Recent technological advances have begun to reveal the true extent of its heterogeneity. Single‐cell analysis (SCA) is emerging as an important approach to detect variations in morphology, genetic or proteomic expression. In this review, we revisit the issue of inter‐ and intra‐tumor heterogeneity, and list various modes of SCA techniques (cell‐based, nucleic acid‐based, protein‐based, metabolite‐based and lipid‐based) presently used for cancer characterization. We further discuss the advantages of SCA over pooled cell analysis, as well as the limitations of conventional techniques. Emerging trends, such as high‐throughput sequencing, are also mentioned as improved means for cancer profiling. Collectively, these applications have the potential for breakthroughs in cancer treatment.

Khorsandnia, N, Valipour, H, Schänzlin, J & Crews, K 2016, 'Experimental Investigations of Deconstructable Timber–Concrete Composite Beams', Journal of Structural Engineering, vol. 142, no. 12, pp. 04016130-04016130.
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Khosoussi, K, Huang, S & Dissanayake, G 2016, 'A Sparse Separable SLAM Back-End', IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol. 32, no. 6, pp. 1536-1549.
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© 2004-2012 IEEE. We propose a scalable algorithm to take advantage of the separable structure of simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). Separability is an overlooked structure of SLAM that distinguishes it from a generic nonlinear least-squares problem. The standard relative-pose and relative-position measurement models in SLAM are affine with respect to robot and features' positions. Therefore, given an estimate for robot orientation, the conditionally optimal estimate for the rest of the state variables can be easily computed by solving a sparse linear least-squares problem. We propose an algorithm to exploit this intrinsic property of SLAM by stripping the problem down to its nonlinear core, while maintaining its natural sparsity. Our algorithm can be used in conjunction with any Newton-based solver and is applicable to 2-D/3-D pose-graph and feature-based SLAM. Our results suggest that iteratively solving the nonlinear core of SLAM leads to a fast and reliable convergence as compared to the state-of-the-art sparse back-ends.

Khoury, S, Ahadi, A, Zhang, X & Tran, N 2016, 'Expression of microRNAs in HPV negative tonsil cancers and their regulation of PDCD4', Genomics Data, vol. 8, pp. 93-96.
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© 2016. Global rates of tonsil cancer have been increasing since the turn of the millennia, however we still have a limited understanding of the genes and pathways which control this disease. This array dataset which is linked to our publication (Zhang et al., 2015) describes the profiling of human miRNAs in tonsil and normal adjacent tissues. With this dataset, we identified a list of microRNA (miRNA) which were highly over represented in tonsil cancers and showed that several miRNAs were able to regulate the tumour suppressor PDCD4 in a temporal manner. The dataset has been deposited into Gene Expression Omnibus (GSE75630).

Khuat, TT & Le, MH 2016, 'A Novel Technique of Optimization for the COCOMO II Model Parameters using Teaching-Learning-Based Optimization Algorithm', Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, vol. 1, no. 2016, pp. 84-89.
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Software cost estimation is a critical activity in the development life cycle for controlling risks and planning project schedules. Accurate estimation of the cost before the start-up of a project is essential for both the developers and the customers. Therefore, many models were proposed to address this issue, in which COCOMO II has been being widely employed in actual software projects. Good estimation models, such as COCOMO II, can avoid insufficient resources being allocated to a project. However, parameters for estimation formula in this model have not been optimized yet, and so the estimated results are not close to the actual results. In this paper, a novel technique to optimize the coefficients for COCOMO II model by using teaching-learning-based optimization (TLBO) algorithm is proposed. The performance of the model after optimizing parameters was tested on NASA software project dataset. The obtained results indicated that the improvement of parameters provided a better estimation capabilities compared to the original COCOMO II model.

Khuat, TT & Le, MH 2016, 'Optimizing parameters of software effort estimation models using directed artificial bee colony algorithm', Informatica (Slovenia), vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 427-436.
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Effective software effort estimation is one of the challenging tasks in software engineering. There have been various alternatives introduced to enhance the accuracy of predictions. In this respect, estimation approaches based on algorithmic models have been widely used. These models consider modeling software effort as a function of the size of the developed project. However, most approaches sharing a common thread of complex mathematical models face the difficulties in parameters calibration and tuning. This study proposes using a directed artificial bee colony algorithm in order to tune the values of model parameters based on past actual effort. The proposed methods were verified with NASA software dataset and the obtained results were compared to the existing models in other literature. The results indicated that our proposal has significantly improved the performance of the estimations.

Khuat, TT, Le, QC, Nguyen, BL & Le, MH 2016, 'Forecasting Stock Price using Wavelet Neural Network Optimized by Directed Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm', Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, vol. 2, no. 2016, pp. 43-52.
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Stock prediction with data mining techniques is one of the most important issues in finance. This field has attracted great scientific interest and has become a crucial research area to provide a more precise prediction process. This study proposes an integrated approach where Haar wavelet transform and Artificial Neural Network optimized by Directed Artificial Bee Colony algorithm are combined for the stock price prediction. The proposed approach was tested on the historical price data collected from Yahoo Finance with different companies. Furthermore, the prediction result was found satisfactorily enough as a guide for traders and investors in making qualitative decisions.

Khushaba, RN, Al-Timemy, A, Kodagoda, S & Nazarpour, K 2016, 'Combined influence of forearm orientation and muscular contraction on EMG pattern recognition', EXPERT SYSTEMS WITH APPLICATIONS, vol. 61, pp. 154-161.
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Kiani, B, Gandomi, AH, Sajedi, S & Liang, RY 2016, 'New Formulation of Compressive Strength of Preformed-Foam Cellular Concrete: An Evolutionary Approach', Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, vol. 28, no. 10, pp. 04016092-04016092.
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In the present study, new empirical models are derived to predict the compressive strength of preformed foam cellular concrete using volumetric and weighted approaches. The proposed models are generated by utilizing a robust predictive tool known as genetic programming. A comprehensive database is collected from the literature to cover a wide range of mixture components (such as sand and pozzolans) and mix proportions. The models link the compressive strength to binder, water, and foam volume. Validation of the best model is carried out by using a portion of the data set that is not employed in the calibration process. A comparative study is conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed model versus other models presented in the literature. Sensitivity and parametric analyses were conducted. The final model has a simple formulation and provides better prediction performance than the other models in the literature.

Kianinia, M, Tawfik, SA, Regan, B, Tran, TT, Ford, MJ, Aharonovich, I & Toth, M 2016, 'Robust Solid State Quantum System Operating at 800 K', ACS Photonics, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 768-773.
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Realization of Quantum information and communications technologies requiresrobust, stable solid state single photon sources. However, most existingsources cease to function above cryogenic or room temperature due to thermalionization or strong phonon coupling which impede their emissive and quantumproperties. Here we present an efficient single photon source based on a defectin a van der Waals crystal that is optically stable and operates at elevatedtemperatures of up to 800 K. The quantum nature of the source and the photonpurity are maintained upon heating to 800 K and cooling back to roomtemperature. Our report of a robust high temperature solid state single photonsource constitutes a significant step to-wards practical, integrated quantumtechnologies for real-world environments.

Kim, J, Fu, Q, Scofield, JMP, Kentish, SE & Qiao, GG 2016, 'Ultra-thin film composite mixed matrix membranes incorporating iron(iii)–dopamine nanoparticles for CO₂separation', Nanoscale, vol. 8, no. 15, pp. 8312-8323.
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Iron dopamine nanoparticles (FeDA NPs) are incorporated into a nanoscale thick polyethylene glycol (PEG) matrix for the first time, to form ultra-thin film composite mixed matrix membranes (UTFC-MMMs) via a recently developed continuous assembly of polymers (CAP) nanotechnology. The FeDA NPs are prepared by in situ nano-complexation between Fe(3+) and DA and have a particle size that can be varied from 3 to 74 nanometers by adjusting the molar ratio of DA to Fe(3+) ion. The cross-linked selective layer with sub 100 nanometer thickness is prepared by atom transfer radical polymerisation of a mixture of PEG macrocross-linkers and FeDA NPs on top of a highly permeable poly(dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) prelayer, which is spin-coated onto a porous polyacrylonitrile (PAN) substrate. The incorporation of the FeDA NPs within the PEG-based selective layer is confirmed by XPS analysis. The UTFC-MMMs (thickness: ∼45 nm) formed present excellent gas separation performance with a CO2 permeance of ∼1200 GPU (1 GPU = 10(-6) cm(3) (STP) cm(-2) s(-1) cmHg(-1)) and an enhanced CO2/N2 selectivity of over 35, which is the best performance for UTFC membranes in the reported literature.

Kim, J, Fu, Q, Xie, K, Scofield, JMP, Kentish, SE & Qiao, GG 2016, 'CO2 separation using surface-functionalized SiO2 nanoparticles incorporated ultra-thin film composite mixed matrix membranes for post-combustion carbon capture', Journal of Membrane Science, vol. 515, pp. 54-62.
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CO2 separation across polyethylene glycol (PEG)-based ultra-thin film composite mixed matrix membranes (UTFC-MMMs) containing surface-functionalized SiO2 nanoparticles (SFSNPs) were investigated. The SFSNPs were prepared by physicochemical adsorption of polyethyleneimine (PEI), polydopamine (PDA) and codeposition of PEI and PDA onto the porous SiO2 nanoparticles (diameter of ~10 nm). A cross-linked PEG-based polymer incorporating the SFSNPs was formed into an ultra-thin, CO2 selective layer of ~ 55 nm via a novel nano-coating technology, namely continuous assembly of polymers (CAP). The resulting PEG-based UTFC-MMMs demonstrate the potential of ultra thin films prepared by the CAP nanotechnology to enhance CO2 separation. The mixed matrix membranes achieved a CO2 permeance of ~1300 GPU (1 GPU=10-6 cm3 (STP) cm-2 s-1 cmHg-1) and a favorable CO2/N2 selectivity of 27, which is a 30% and 25% rise in CO2 permeance and CO2/N2 selectivity respectively above the values obtained from simple PEG-based UTFC membranes.

Kim, J, Park, M, Shon, HK & Kim, JH 2016, 'Performance analysis of reverse osmosis, membrane distillation, and pressure-retarded osmosis hybrid processes', Desalination, vol. 380, pp. 85-92.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. A performance analysis of a tri-combined process that consists of reverse osmosis (RO), membrane distillation (MD), and pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) was conducted by using numerical approaches in order to evaluate its feasibility. In the hybrid process, the RO brine is partially used as the MD feed solution, and the concentrated MD brine is then mixed with the rest of the RO brine to be considered as the PRO draw solution. Here, the brine division ratio, incoming flow rate of RO, dimensions of the MD and PRO processes, and the supply cost of the MD heat source were considered as influential parameters. Previously validated process models were employed and the specific energy consumption (SEC) was calculated to examine the performance of the RO-MD-PRO hybrid process. The simulation results confirmed that the RO-MD-PRO hybrid process could outperform stand-alone RO in terms of reducing the SEC and the environmental footprint by dilution of the RO brine in locations where free or low-cost thermal energy can be exploited. Despite the need for further investigations and pilot-tests to determine its commercial practicability, this study provides insights into future directions for water and energy nexus processes for energy efficient desalination.

Kim, J, Park, MJ, Park, M, Shon, HK, Kim, S-H & Kim, JH 2016, 'Influence of colloidal fouling on pressure retarded osmosis', Desalination, vol. 389, pp. 207-214.
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© 2016 Elsevier B.V. In this study, colloidal fouling behavior in pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) was systematically investigated in terms of the effects of draw solution concentration, applied hydraulic pressure at the draw side, feed solution pH, and particle size. Commercially-available cellulose triacetate (CTA) membranes were fouled with feed solution containing silica colloidal particles. Two different silica particles with mean diameter of 27 and 152 nm were used as model foulants. Our findings demonstrated that the colloidal fouling in PRO was dominantly affected by the cake layer buildup at the membrane surface. Fouling was further exacerbated by diffused salts from the draw side because retained salts within the cake layer elevated the salt concentration on the membrane surface, and consequently reduced the driving force of PRO. Substantial flux decline with the smaller particles was attributed to the high cake layer resistance due to the formation of the void-less cake layer. In addition, our approaches to mitigate the colloidal fouling revealed that the hydraulic cleaning by increasing the cross-flow rates was not effective to eliminate the compact cake layer. However, adjusting the feed solution pH showed the high potential to relieve the colloidal fouling resulting from the more stabilization of particles at low solution pH.

Kim, Y, Chekli, L, Shim, W-G, Phuntsho, S, Li, S, Ghaffour, N, Leiknes, T & Shon, HK 2016, 'Selection of suitable fertilizer draw solute for a novel fertilizer-drawn forward osmosis-anaerobic membrane bioreactor hybrid system', BIORESOURCE TECHNOLOGY, vol. 210, pp. 26-34.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. In this study, a protocol for selecting suitable fertilizer draw solute for anaerobic fertilizer-drawn forward osmosis membrane bioreactor (AnFDFOMBR) was proposed. Among eleven commercial fertilizer candidates, six fertilizers were screened further for their FO performance tests and evaluated in terms of water flux and reverse salt flux. Using selected fertilizers, bio-methane potential experiments were conducted to examine the effect of fertilizers on anaerobic activity due to reverse diffusion. Mono-ammonium phosphate (MAP) showed the highest biogas production while other fertilizers exhibited an inhibition effect on anaerobic activity with solute accumulation. Salt accumulation in the bioreactor was also simulated using mass balance simulation models. Results showed that ammonium sulfate and MAP were the most appropriate for AnFDFOMBR since they demonstrated less salt accumulation, relatively higher water flux, and higher dilution capacity of draw solution. Given toxicity of sulfate to anaerobic microorganisms, MAP appears to be the most suitable draw solution for AnFDFOMBR.

Klenner, F, Lenze, D, Schwarzer, S, Deuse, J & Friedrich, T 2016, 'Smart Data Analytics zur Identifikation dynamischer Engpässe in Flexiblen Fertigungssystemen', at - Automatisierungstechnik, vol. 64, no. 7, pp. 540-554.
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Zusammenfassung Flexible Fertigungssysteme (FFS) bilden die konzeptionelle Grundlage einer hoch flexiblen und produktivenGroßserienproduktion. Die inhärente Komplexität dieser Systeme erschwert die Lokalisierung von Engpässenund damit den produktiven Systembetrieb. Dieser Artikel beschreibt eine Methode, welche mithilfe eines Smart-Data-Modellsdynamische Engpässe in FFS identifiziert. Die damit verbundene Beherrschung der Komplexität bildet die Grundlagefür einen produktiven Betrieb.

Knee, GC, Combes, J, Ferrie, C & Gauger, EM 2016, 'Weak-value amplification: state of play', Quantum Measurements and Quantum Metrology, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 32-37.
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AbstractWeak values arise in quantum theory when the result of a weak measurement is conditioned on a subsequent strong measurement. The majority of the trials are discarded, leaving only very few successful events. Intriguingly those can display a substantial signal amplification. This raises the question of whether weak values carry potential to improve the performance of quantum sensors, and indeed a number of impressive experimental results suggested this may be the case. By contrast, recent theoretical studies have found the opposite: using weak-values to obtain an amplification generally worsens metrological performance. This survey summarises the implications of those studies, which call for a reappraisal of weak values’ utility and for further work to reconcile theory and experiment.

Knight, DB, Cameron, IT, Hadgraft, RG & Reidsema, C 2016, 'The influence of external forces, institutional forces, and academics' characteristics on the adoption of positive teaching practices across australian undergraduate engineering', International Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 695-711.
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This study investigates how academics' personal beliefs, perspectives on institutional forces, and perspectives on external influences relate to their teaching and learning decision-making. Using a national-level survey of Australian engineering academics (n = 591; 16% of Australia's engineering academics), analyses investigate (1) how influences external and internal to the university environment vary across characteristics of academics, and (2) how academics' characteristics, organizational features, and external drivers relate to issues informing academics' teaching and their actual teaching practices. External and internal influences differed across academics based on their individual characteristics and university contexts, and academics' individual characteristics explained the greatest variability in their teaching considerations and practices. For external influences (e.g., accreditation), promoting awareness of educational goals for undergraduate engineering-as opposed to forcing outcomes into course planning-relates to more desirable teaching and learning practices. No internal institutional policy driver related to teaching practice variables. This study points to informed, professional development that seeks to capitalize on academics' personal interests and characteristics and assists in helping them understand how curricula and outcomes may better align to help student learning. Findings support working from a bottom-up model of change to improve the teaching and learning culture within engineering programs.

Kodagoda, S, Sehestedt, S & Dissanayake, G 2016, 'Socially aware path planning for mobile robots', Robotica, vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 513-526.
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SUMMARYHuman–robot interaction is an emerging area of research where a robot may need to be working in human-populated environments. Human trajectories are generally not random and can belong to gross patterns. Knowledge about these patterns can be learned through observation. In this paper, we address the problem of a robot's social awareness by learning human motion patterns and integrating them in path planning. The gross motion patterns are learned using a novel Sampled Hidden Markov Model, which allows the integration of partial observations in dynamic model building. This model is used in the modified A* path planning algorithm to achieve socially aware trajectories. Novelty of the proposed method is that it can be used on a mobile robot for simultaneous online learning and path planning. The experiments carried out in an office environment show that the paths can be planned seamlessly, avoiding personal spaces of occupants.

Kodikara, J, Valls Miro, J & Melchers, R 2016, 'Failure Prediction of Critical Cast Iron Pipes', Advances in Water Research, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 6-11.
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In 2011, a consortium of Australian water utilities led by Sydney Water (SW) joined forces with WRF and UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR) to initiate a five-year research program, Advanced Condition Assessment and Pipe Failure Prediction Project (ACAPFP).

Kolmos, A, Hadgraft, RG & Holgaard, JE 2016, 'Response strategies for curriculum change in engineering', International Journal of Technology and Design Education, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 391-411.
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© 2015, The Author(s). During the last 25 years, there have been many calls for new engineering competencies and a corresponding gradual change in both curriculum and pedagogy in engineering education. This has been a global trend, in the US, Europe, Australia and now emerging in the rest of the world. Basically, there have been two main types of societal challenges that many engineering institutions have responded to: the employability skills of graduates and the need for a sustainability approach to engineering. These are two very different challenges and societal needs; however, the ways engineering institutions have responded form a consistent pattern across many of the content aspects. No matter the specific character of change, three very different curriculum strategies seem to have evolved: an add-on strategy, an integration strategy or a re-building strategy; the latter involves substantial curriculum re-design. The add-on strategy and integration strategy are the ones most commonly used, whereas the re-building strategy is at an emerging stage in most engineering education communities. Most engineering schools find it very challenging to re-build an entire curriculum, so smaller changes are generally preferred. The purpose of this article is to conceptualise these institutional response strategies in a wider literature and present examples of curriculum change within both employability and sustainability. We will maintain that all these strategies are based on management decisions as well as academic faculty decisions; however the implications for using the various strategies are very different in terms of system change, role of disciplines, leader interventions and faculty development strategies. Furthermore, institutions might use all types of response strategies in different programs and in different semesters. The conceptual framework presented here can provide analytical anchors, hopefully creating more awareness of the complexity of systemic change.

Kong, Y, Zhang, M & Ye, D 2016, 'An Auction-Based Approach for Group Task Allocation in an Open Network Environment', The Computer Journal, vol. 59, no. 3, pp. 403-422.
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Krebs, M, Hartung, J, Hengstebeck, A, Kuske, P & Deuse, J 2016, 'Time data management in machine tool industry', Productivity Management, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 25-28.
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Time data management is a significant success factor to unlock elusive potentials for productivity management in lean production systems. Nevertheless, the importance was underestimated for a long time and in many companies essential organizational structures as well as know-how were neglected. Reliable and precise times, however, can be estimated by using standard data building blocks with low effort in every phase of the product development process.

Kulasinghe, A, Perry, C, Warkiani, ME, Blick, T, Davies, A, O'Byrne, K, Thompson, EW, Nelson, CC, Vela, I & Punyadeera, C 2016, 'Short term ex-vivo expansion of circulating head and neck tumour cells', Oncotarget, vol. 7, no. 37, pp. 60101-60109.
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Minimally invasive techniques are required for the identification of head and neck cancer (HNC) patients who are at an increased risk of metastasis, or are not responding to therapy. An approach utilised in other solid cancers is the identification and enumeration of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in the peripheral blood of patients. Low numbers of CTCs has been a limiting factor in the HNC field to date. Here we present a methodology to expand HNC patient derived CTCs ex-vivo. As a proof of principle study, 25 advanced stage HNC patient bloods were enriched for circulating tumour cells through negative selection and cultured in 2D and 3D culture environments under hypoxic conditions (2% O2, 5% CO2). CTCs were detected in 14/25 (56%) of patients (ranging from 1-15 CTCs/5 mL blood). Short term CTC cultures were successfully generated in 7/25 advanced stage HNC patients (5/7 of these cultures were from HPV+ patients). Blood samples from which CTC culture was successful had higher CTC counts (p = 0.0002), and were predominantly from HPV+ patients (p = 0.007). This is, to our knowledge, the first pilot study to culture HNC CTCs ex-vivo. Further studies are warranted to determine the use of short term expansion in HNC and the role of HPV in promoting culture success.

Kuruneru, STW, Sauret, E, Saha, SC & Gu, Y 2016, 'Numerical investigation of the temporal evolution of particulate fouling in metal foams for air-cooled heat exchangers', Applied Energy, vol. 184, pp. 531-547.
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Metal foams have gained popularity in the renewable energy industry due to their superior thermo-physical properties. In the present study, a coupled finite volume and discrete element numerical method is used to numerically investigate the mechanisms that govern particle-laden gas flows and particulate fouling in idealized metal foam air-cooled heat exchangers. This paper provides a systematic analysis of the foulant distribution and the pressure drop due to the metal foam structure and the presence of fouling. The idealized Weaire-Phelan metal foam geometry serves as a good approximation to a real metal foam geometry. The pressure drop and deposition fraction follows a linear relation for sandstone cases, whereas for the sawdust cases, the pressure drop is sensibly invariant with time although a noticeable increase in deposition fraction with time is realized. The foulant residence time in addition to the correlations between pressure drop, deposition fraction, and inlet velocity can be used to optimize metal foam heat exchanger designs. Optimum heat exchanger performance is achieved by keeping the same fiber thickness of 0.17 mm at a high porosity at 97.87%. An increase in fluid carrier velocity promotes particle transport by means of particle interception thereby reducing the deposition fraction irrespective of foam geometry.

Kyong Shon, H, Duc Nghiem, L, Kim, S, Akmar Zakaria, Z, Tijing, L, Shu, L & Jegatheesan, V 2016, 'Editorial', Desalination and Water Treatment, vol. 57, no. 60, pp. 29192-29192.
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Lal, S, Hall, RM & Tipper, JL 2016, 'A novel method for isolation and recovery of ceramic nanoparticles and metal wear debris from serum lubricants at ultra-low wear rates', Acta Biomaterialia, vol. 42, pp. 420-428.
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Lan, C, Chen, Q & Li, J 2016, 'Grouping miRNAs of similar functions via weighted information content of gene ontology', BMC Bioinformatics, vol. 17, no. S19, pp. 159-295.
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BACKGROUND: Regulation mechanisms between miRNAs and genes are complicated. To accomplish a biological function, a miRNA may regulate multiple target genes, and similarly a target gene may be regulated by multiple miRNAs. Wet-lab knowledge of co-regulating miRNAs is limited. This work introduces a computational method to group miRNAs of similar functions to identify co-regulating miRNAsfrom a similarity matrix of miRNAs. RESULTS: We define a novel information content of gene ontology (GO) to measure similarity between two sets of GO graphs corresponding to the two sets of target genes of two miRNAs. This between-graph similarity is then transferred as a functional similarity between the two miRNAs. Our definition of the information content is based on the size of a GO term's descendants, but adjusted by a weight derived from its depth level and the GO relationships at its path to the root node or to the most informative common ancestor (MICA). Further, a self-tuning technique and the eigenvalues of the normalized Laplacian matrix are applied to determine the optimal parameters for the spectral clustering of the similarity matrix of the miRNAs. CONCLUSIONS: Experimental results demonstrate that our method has better clustering performance than the existing edge-based, node-based or hybrid methods. Our method has also demonstrated a novel usefulness for the function annotation of new miRNAs, as reported in the detailed case studies.

Lancia, G, Mathieson, L & Moscato, P 2016, 'Separating Sets of Strings by Finding Matching Patterns is Almost Always Hard', Theoretical Computer Science, vol. 665, pp. 73-86.
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We study the complexity of the problem of searching for a set of patternsthat separate two given sets of strings. This problem has applications in awide variety of areas, most notably in data mining, computational biology, andin understanding the complexity of genetic algorithms. We show that the basicproblem of finding a small set of patterns that match one set of strings but donot match any string in a second set is difficult (NP-complete, W[2]-hard whenparameterized by the size of the pattern set, and APX-hard). We then perform adetailed parameterized analysis of the problem, separating tractable andintractable variants. In particular we show that parameterizing by the size ofpattern set and the number of strings, and the size of the alphabet and thenumber of strings give FPT results, amongst others.

Lary, DJ, Alavi, AH, Gandomi, AH & Walker, AL 2016, 'Machine learning in geosciences and remote sensing', Geoscience Frontiers, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 3-10.
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Learning incorporates a broad range of complex procedures. Machine learning (ML) is a subdivision of artificial intelligence based on the biological learning process. The ML approach deals with the design of algorithms to learn from machine readable data. ML covers main domains such as data mining, difficult-to-program applications, and software applications. It is a collection of a variety of algorithms (e.g. neural networks, support vector machines, self-organizing map, decision trees, random forests, case-based reasoning, genetic programming, etc.) that can provide multivariate, nonlinear, nonparametric regression or classification. The modeling capabilities of the ML-based methods have resulted in their extensive applications in science and engineering. Herein, the role of ML as an effective approach for solving problems in geosciences and remote sensing will be highlighted. The unique features of some of the ML techniques will be outlined with a specific attention to genetic programming paradigm. Furthermore, nonparametric regression and classification illustrative examples are presented to demonstrate the efficiency of ML for tackling the geosciences and remote sensing problems.

Le Thi Minh, T, Nguyen Phuoc, D, Dinh Quoc, T, Ngo, HH & Do Hong Lan, C 2016, 'Presence of e-EDCs in surface water and effluents of pollution sources in Sai Gon and Dong Nai river basin', Sustainable Environment Research, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 20-27.
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© 2016 This study aimed to assess the presence of estrogenic endocrine disrupting compounds (e-EDCs) including estriol, bisphenol A (BPA), atrazine (ATZ), octylphenol, octylphenol diethoxylate, octylphenol triethoxylate, nonylphenol, Nonylphenol triethoxylate (NPE3), nonylphenol diethoxylate (NPE2) and 17β-estradiol in: (i) Sai Gon and Dong Nai river waters which have been major raw water sources for drinking water supply for Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and neighbouring provinces, and (ii) water pollution sources located in their catchment basin. NPE3 and NPE2 were detected in most of the surface water samples. Concentrations of NPE3 were in a range of less than 5.9–235 ng L −1 , whereas BPA was detected at significantly high concentrations in the dry season in canals in HCMC. In the upstream of Sai Gon and Dong Nai Rivers, ATZ concentrations were observed at water intake of water treatment plants served for HCMC water supply system. Similarly, high potential risk of NPE2 and NPE3 contamination at Phu Cuong Bridge near Hoa Phu water intake was identified. The significant correlation between NPE2, dissolved organic carbon and total nitrogen was found. Estrogenic equivalent or estrogenic activity of Sai Gon and Dong Nai Rivers was lower than those of the previous studies. Compared with other studies, e-EDCs of pollution in Sai Gon river basin were relatively low.

Le, TM & Fatahi, B 2016, 'Trust-region reflective optimisation to obtain soil visco-plastic properties', Engineering Computations, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 410-442.
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Purpose A non-linear creep function embedded in an elastic visco-plastic (EVP) model can simulate the decrease of creep compression rate with time. It overcomes the limitation of a linear logarithmic creep function, by which creep continuously increases to infinite value as time approaches infinity. However, the determination of the creep model parameters is a challenging task to apply the EVP model. Therefore, this paper presents a new numerical solution to determine the EVP model parameters applying trust-region reflective least square optimisation algorithm and the finite difference scheme to simulate stress-strain behaviour of soft soil. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the developed method is verified against the field case study of Väsby test fill. A set of EVP model parameters is obtained by applying the developed method to the available laboratory consolidation results of Väsby clay. Then, the predictions of settlement and the excess pore water pressure at different depths are compared to the available field measurement. Findings The analysis results show the developed method is a reliable tool to evaluate the long-term performance of soft soils under embankments. Practical implications Practicing engineers can use the proposed optimisation algorithm to increase the accuracy of the soil visco-plastic model parameters by utilising all laboratory results of several loading stages during and after the...

Lee, E-J, An, AK, He, T, Woo, YC & Shon, HK 2016, 'Electrospun nanofiber membranes incorporating fluorosilane-coated TiO2 nanocomposite for direct contact membrane distillation', JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE, vol. 520, pp. 145-154.
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© 2016 Elsevier B.V. The electrospinning technique as a method for fabricating hydrophobic membranes for membrane distillation (MD) has received much attention in recent times. In this study, TiO2 functionalized with 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyltriethoxysilane was added directly to the dope solution for electrospinning in order to increase the hydrophobicity of the resulting MD membranes. Three concentrations (10%, 15% and 20%) of polyvinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene (PH) dope solution were used for electrospinning with various amounts of TiO2 (1%, 5% and 10%) to generate nanofibers. The electrospun nanofiber membrane (ENM) of 20% PH with 10% TiO2 exhibited the highest surface hydrophobicity (contact angle=149°) resulting from good dispersion of the TiO2 particles, while the highest liquid entry pressure of 194.5 kPa was observed for the ENM comprising 10% PH with 10% TiO2 due to its reduced pore sizes. Furthermore, the ENMs containing 10% TiO2 exhibited better flux and stable salt rejection than commercial and ENMs without TiO2. Notably, there was no severe wetting in the 20% PH ENM with 10% TiO2 over seven days of operation, despite the high salt concentration (7.0 wt% NaCl) of the feed water.

Lee, H, Juan, J, Yun Hin, T-Y & Ong, H 2016, 'Environment-Friendly Heterogeneous Alkaline-Based Mixed Metal Oxide Catalysts for Biodiesel Production', Energies, vol. 9, no. 8, pp. 611-611.
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The critical problem arising from the depletion of fossil fuels has stimulated recent interests in alternative sources for petroleum-based fuel. An alternative fuel should be technically feasible, readily available, sustainable, and techno-economically competitive. Biodiesel is considered as a potential replacement of conventional diesel fuel, which is prepared from non-edible and high-acid feedstock via transesterification technology. The focus of this study is to investigate the catalytic activity of mixed metal oxides (MMOs) as catalysts for biodiesel production by using non-edible jatropha oil as feedstock. Various types of MMOs (CaO-MgO, CaO-ZnO, CaO-La2O3, and MgO-ZnO) were synthesized via a co-precipitation method. In this study, transesterification activities are closely related to the physicochemical properties of catalysts. The presence of different active metals in the binary system greatly influenced the surface area, basicity, and the stability of catalysts. The catalytic activity of MMO catalysts was increased in the order of CaO-ZnO (94% ± 1%) > CaO ~ CaO-MgO ~ CaO-La2O3 (~90% ± 2%) > MgO-ZnO (83% ± 2%) > MgO (64% ± 1%) > ZnO (41% ± 2%) > La2O3 (23% ± 1%). In addition, the MMO catalysts, especially CaO-ZnO, demonstrated high reusability and catalyst stability for four cycles of transesterification reaction of jatropha oil.

Lee, J, Jeong, S, Naidu, G, Ye, Y, Chen, V, Liu, Z & Vigneswaran, S 2016, 'Performance evaluation of carbon nanotube enhanced membranes for SWRO pretreatment application', Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, vol. 38, no. 8, pp. 123-131.
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© 2016 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Multi-wall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) membrane was tested for SWRO pretreatment. The MWCNT membrane itself showed a superior permeate flux (321.3. LMH/bar), which was 4-times as polyethersulfone ultrafiltration (PES-UF) membrane. Reduction of dissolved organic matter improved to 66% with fewer amounts of powder activated carbon (PAC) (0.5. g/L) in MWCNT membrane filtration maintaining a high permeate flux of 600. LMH/bar. It was due to the increased porosity (84.5%) and hydrophilicity (52.9°) by incorporating MWCNT/polyaniline into PES membrane. Ionic strength affected organic removal in seawater filtration by altering electrostatic interaction between organic matter and surface charge of the positively charged MWCNT membrane.

Lee, KY, Park, SM, Kim, JB, Saliby, IE, Shahid, M, Kim, G-J, Shon, HK & Kim, J-H 2016, 'Synthesis and Characterisation of Porous Titania-Silica Composite Aerogel for NO<SUB><I>x</I></SUB> and Acetaldehyde Removal', Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 4505-4511.
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Copyright © 2016 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved. In this study, the synthesis of porous titania-silica (TiO2-SiO2) composite aerogel at ambient pressure by using non-hazardous chemicals as a source of silica was investigated. TiO2-SiO2 composite aerogels were characterised and their photocatalytic performances were investigated for the removal efficiency of acetaldehyde and NOx under UV light. Results showed that porous composite aerogel with aggregated morphology, high surface area and an increased mesoporosity were formed. TiO2-SiO2(1.8) composite, with high Ti/Si ratio, showed the best results in terms of photocatalytic removal of acetaldehyde and nitrogen oxide.

Lee, T, Leonardos, N, Saks, M & Wang, F 2016, 'Hellinger volume and number-on-the-forehead communication complexity', Journal of Computer and System Sciences, vol. 82, no. 6, pp. 1064-1074.
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Lei, C, Bie, H, Fang, G, Gaura, E, Brusey, J, Zhang, X & Dutkiewicz, E 2016, 'A Low Collision and High Throughput Data Collection Mechanism for Large-Scale Super Dense Wireless Sensor Networks', Sensors, vol. 16, no. 7, pp. 1108-1108.
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Super dense wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become popular with the development of Internet of Things (IoT), Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications and Vehicular-to-Vehicular (V2V) networks. While highly-dense wireless networks provide efficient and sustainable solutions to collect precise environmental information, a new channel access scheme is needed to solve the channel collision problem caused by the large number of competing nodes accessing the channel simultaneously. In this paper, we propose a space-time random access method based on a directional data transmission strategy, by which collisions in the wireless channel are significantly decreased and channel utility efficiency is greatly enhanced. Simulation results show that our proposed method can decrease the packet loss rate to less than 2 % in large scale WSNs and in comparison with other channel access schemes for WSNs, the average network throughput can be doubled.

Lei, G, Liu, C, Guo, Y & Zhu, J 2016, 'Robust Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of PM Machines With Soft Magnetic Composite Cores for Batch Production', IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 52, no. 3, pp. 1-4.
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© 1965-2012 IEEE. This paper presents a robust approach for multidisciplinary design optimization of permanent magnet (PM) motors with soft magnetic composite (SMC) cores to improve their manufacturing quality in batch production. First, a general multidisciplinary design analysis framework is developed for PM-SMC motors, which includes electromagnetic, thermal, modal, and manufacturing analyses. Second, an improved multilevel optimization method is presented to improve the efficiency of the robust optimization. Finally, to demonstrate the effectiveness, a PM-SMC transverse flux machine is investigated. The numerical solutions, including electromagnetic and thermal analyses, are validated by the experimental results. As shown, the proposed method can significantly increase motor's reliability and greatly reduce the computation cost, which benefits the mass production in industrial applications.

Lei, G, Liu, C, Jafari, M, Zhu, J & Guo, Y 2016, 'Multilevel Robust Design Optimization of a Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage Based on a Benchmark Study', IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, vol. 26, no. 7, pp. 1-5.
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© 2016 IEEE. Superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) systems with different superconducting materials are attracting great attentions and funding from the governments around the world because they are promising large-scale energy storage devices for future smart grid. Due to the high cost of SMES, its manufacturing quality and operation reliability have to be investigated in the design optimization stage. This paper presents a robust design optimization method to solve this issue based on a benchmark problem, TEAM problem 22. The proposed method is based on a technique called design for Six Sigma. Meanwhile, a three-level optimization framework is employed to reduce the computation cost of a finite-element analysis due to high-dimensional design space and Monte-Carlo analysis. As shown, the manufacturing reliability and quality of the investigated SMES after robust optimization have been increased greatly.

Leong, KY, Ong, HC, Amer, NH, Norazrina, MJ, Risby, MS & Ku Ahmad, KZ 2016, 'An overview on current application of nanofluids in solar thermal collector and its challenges', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 53, pp. 1092-1105.
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Levy, MC, Garcia, M, Blair, P, Chen, X, Gomes, SL, Gower, DB, Grames, J, Kuil, L, Liu, Y, Marston, L, McCord, PF, Roobavannan, M & Zeng, R 2016, 'Wicked but worth it: student perspectives on socio‐hydrology', Hydrological Processes, vol. 30, no. 9, pp. 1467-1472.
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Li, A, Pi, S, Wei, W, Chen, T, Yang, J & Ma, F 2016, 'Adsorption behavior of tetracycline by extracellular polymeric substrates extracted from Klebsiella sp. J1', Environmental Science and Pollution Research, vol. 23, no. 24, pp. 25084-25092.
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The extracellular polymeric substrate (EPS) extracted from Klebsiella sp. J1 was used to adsorb low concentrations of tetracycline, and the efficiency and mechanism of tetracycline adsorption by EPS from strain J1 were studied. Adsorption efficiency was evaluated at different conditions. Results showed that optimal adsorption efficiency was 71.68 % with 60 mg L-1 of EPS from strain J1 and 90 μL of 10 % (w/v) CaCl2 in 100 mL of tetracycline solution (80 μg L-1) with pH of 8.0. Experimental data was fitted well with Langmuir, Freundlich isotherm, and pseudo-second-order models. Analyses of E value, Ea value, thermodynamics, zeta potential variation, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra proved that chemisorption was the main adsorption type and bridging was the main adsorption mechanism. Thermodynamic analysis indicated that adsorptive reaction was exothermic from 20 to 40 °C. In addition, humic acid (HA) showed little effect on the tetracycline adsorption by MFX.

Li, D, He, X, Cao, L & Chen, H 2016, 'Permutation anonymization', Journal of Intelligent Information Systems, vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 427-445.
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In data publishing, anonymization techniques have been designed to provide privacy protection. Anatomy is an important techniques for privacy preserving in data publication and attracts considerable attention in the literature. However, anatomy is fragile under background knowledge attack and the presence attack. In addition, anatomy can only be applied into limited applications. To overcome these drawbacks, we propose an improved version of anatomy: permutation anonymization, a new anonymization technique that is more effective than anatomy in privacy protection, and in the meanwhile is able to retain significantly more information in the microdata. We present the detail of the technique and build the underlying theory of the technique. Extensive experiments on real data are conducted, showing that our technique allows highly effective data analysis, while offering strong privacy guarantees.

Li, D-L, Prasad, M, Lin, C-T & Chang, J-Y 2016, 'Self-adjusting feature maps network and its applications', Neurocomputing, vol. 207, pp. 78-94.
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© 2016 Elsevier B.V. This paper, proposes a novel artificial neural network, called self-adjusting feature map (SAM), and develop its unsupervised learning ability with self-adjusting mechanism. The trained network structure of representative connected neurons not only displays the spatial relation of the input data distribution but also quantizes the data well. The SAM can automatically isolate a set of connected neurons, in which, the used number of the sets may indicate the number of clusters. The idea of self-adjusting mechanism is based on combining of mathematical statistics and neurological advantages and retreat of waste. In the training process, for each representative neuron has are three phases, growth, adaptation and decline. The network of representative neurons, first create the necessary neurons according to the local density of the input data in the growth phase. In the adaption phase, it adjusts neighborhood neuron pair׳s connected/disconnected topology constantly according to the statistics of input feature data. Finally, the unnecessary neurons of the network are merged or remove in the decline phase. In this paper, we exploit the SAM to handle some peculiar cases that cannot be handled easily by classical unsupervised learning networks such as self-organizing map (SOM) network. The remarkable characteristics of the SAM can be seen on various real world cases in the experimental results.

Li, E, Chen, J, Zhang, Z, Fang, J, Liu, GR & Li, Q 2016, 'Smoothed finite element method for analysis of multi-layered systems – Applications in biomaterials', Computers & Structures, vol. 168, pp. 16-29.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. In general, the biologic system can be rather sophisticated and commonly present in hierarchical layers. Hence, the quadrilateral or brick elements are very difficult to precisely capture the anatomic details for mechanobiologic modeling. Further, the conventional finite element method (FEM) could possibly give poor solutions using triangular or tetrahedral elements due to its overly-stiff property. In addition, the biologic soft tissues are often considered as 'incompressible' materials, where conventional FEM could suffer from volumetric locking in numerical solution. For these reasons, smoothed finite element methods (SFEM) are proposed here to solve the multi-layered bio-systems for softening conventional FEM models.

Li, F, Xu, G & Cao, L 2016, 'Two-level matrix factorization for recommender systems', Neural Computing and Applications, vol. 27, no. 8, pp. 2267-2278.
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© 2015, The Natural Computing Applications Forum. Many existing recommendation methods such as matrix factorization (MF) mainly rely on user–item rating matrix, which sometimes is not informative enough, often suffering from the cold-start problem. To solve this challenge, complementary textual relations between items are incorporated into recommender systems (RS) in this paper. Specifically, we first apply a novel weighted textual matrix factorization (WTMF) approach to compute the semantic similarities between items, then integrate the inferred item semantic relations into MF and propose a two-level matrix factorization (TLMF) model for RS. Experimental results on two open data sets not only demonstrate the superiority of TLMF model over benchmark methods, but also show the effectiveness of TLMF for solving the cold-start problem.

Li, H, Luo, Z, Zhang, N, Gao, L & Brown, T 2016, 'Integrated design of cellular composites using a level-set topology optimization method', Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, vol. 309, pp. 453-475.
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© 2016 Elsevier B.V. This paper proposes a hierarchical multi-scale topology optimization method for the design of integrated materials and structures by taking advantage of both cellular composites and functionally graded materials. The topology optimization involves two scales: firstly, macrostructural design using SIMP to generate an overall multilayered layout with free material distribution involving intermediate densities; and secondly, microstructural design to produce periodic cellular composite for each layer, by integrating the numerical homogenization into a level set approach. Thus, the cellular composites will be characterized by variation in microstructures and the corresponding changes of properties over layers. The proposed method can generate new artificial composites similar to functionally graded materials but layer-based, to achieve multifunctional properties for energy absorption, anti-impact, thermal isolation, etc. Several numerical examples are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of this method.

Li, H, Öchsner, A, Ni, G, Wei, D & Jiang, Z 2016, 'Analysis of surface asperity flattening based on two different methods', Continuum Mechanics and Thermodynamics, vol. 28, no. 6, pp. 1623-1634.
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The stress state is an important parameter in metal forming processes, which significantly influences the strain state and microstructure of products, affecting their surface qualities. In order to make the metal products have a good surface quality, the surface stress state must be optimised. In this study, two classical methods, the upper bound method and the crystal plasticity finite element method, were investigated. The differences between the two methods were discussed in regard to the model, the velocity field, and the strain field. Then the related surface roughness is deduced.

LI, HAO, LIU, Y, JIAO, Y, GUO, A, XU, X, QU, X, WANG, S, ZHAO, J, LI, YE & CAO, Y 2016, 'Resveratrol sensitizes glioblastoma-initiating cells to temozolomide by inducing cell apoptosis and promoting differentiation', Oncology Reports, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 343-351.
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Li, J, Fong, S, Siu, S, Mohammed, S, Fiaidhi, J & Wong, KKL 2016, 'WITHDRAWN: Improving classification of protein binders for virtual drug screening by novel swarm-based feature selection techniques', Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. Drug design involves classification of protein binding which is usually done in a computer simulation prior to extensive actual tests. Accurate classification of protein binding is essential but it is obstructed with a very challenging task of feature selection (FS) because there are too many potential features. Dorothea as a case of virtual screening in drug design, has 100,000 features that inflate to a very huge (of size 2100,000 possible candidate feature subsets to be selected) but very sparse search space. In this paper, this computational challenge is tackled by a new model of feature selection called Two-stage Swarm Search-FS (TSS-FS). The novelty of TSS-FS is the use of adaptive search space shrinking mechanism which is the first stage of the TSS-FS to reduce computing cost and increase classification accuracy. Reducing the very huge and sparse search space enables the swarm feature selection operate more efficiently. Results demonstrated in the paper confirms the efficacy of the new algorithms.

Li, J, Stewart, MG, Masia, MJ & Lawrence, SJ 2016, 'Spatial Correlation of Material Properties and Structural Strength of Masonry in Horizontal Bending', Journal of Structural Engineering, vol. 142, no. 11.
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Spatial variability of material properties might significantly affect the structural performance and reliability of unreinforced masonry (URM) walls. The paper develops a computational method to predict the strength for URM walls subject to one-way horizontal bending considering unit-to-unit spatial variability of the material properties of mortar joints and bricks. In this context, the term unit is being used to describe the location in the wall associated with a single brick and the adjacent mortar joints. In this way, the material properties are assumed to be uniform along the length, height, and thickness of individual bricks but may vary from brick to brick within the wall. Tensile strength, shear bond strength, and associated fracture energies of the mortar joints and tensile strength and fracture energy of the bricks are the main parameters considered herein. The authors examine how correlation and spatial variability in unit strengths (mortar joints and bricks) affect the variability of ultimate strength and damage progression of clay brick URM walls in one-way horizontal bending. Stochastic analysis in the form of Monte Carlo simulations used a three-dimensional (3D) nonlinear finite-element analysis. The results were validated from a database of available experimental results on masonry four-course beams. It was found that good agreement of peak load exists between the stochastic simulation and the experimental results for the four-course beam subject to horizontal bending.

Li, J, Wu, C, Hao, H, Su, Y & Liu, Z 2016, 'Blast resistance of concrete slab reinforced with high performance fibre material', Journal of Structural Integrity and Maintenance, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 51-59.
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Concrete is now the most abundantly used material in construction. Despite good compressive strength, concrete is marked with brittleness and low tensile strength. A widely adopted method to enhance the concrete material performance especially the tensile strength and ductility is fibrous material addition. In the present study, concrete mix designs with different fibre additions have been developed, and high-performance polyethylene fibre and micro steel fibre are considered with varying volume fractions in the concrete matrix. Material static properties are obtained from laboratory tests, and further study on the dynamic performance of theses fibre reinforced concrete materials is investigated through field blast tests. Concrete slabs with high-performance polyethylene fibre reinforcement and hybrid steel and polyethylene reinforcement are casted and tested under close-in blast scenarios. Discussion on the structural damage and material performance is briefed based on the test results.

Li, J, Wu, C, Hao, H, Wang, Z & Su, Y 2016, 'Experimental investigation of ultra-high performance concrete slabs under contact explosions', International Journal of Impact Engineering, vol. 93, pp. 62-75.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Unlike ductile behaviour under static loads, a reinforced concrete structure can respond in a brittle manner with highly localised damage like concrete spalling, cratering and reinforcement rupturing under close-in or contact explosions. High speed fragmentation resulting from concrete spall may cause severe casualties and injuries. It is therefore important to have a better understanding of the concrete spall phenomena and fragments distribution. In the present study, contact explosion tests were carried out on concrete slabs to observe the concrete crater and spall damage. Seven slabs including two control specimens made of normal strength concrete (NRC) and five ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) slabs are tested. The superior blast resistance capacity of UHPC slabs is verified through comparison against NRC slabs. The influence of longitudinal reinforcement spacing and slab depth on the spall resistance of UHPC slabs is investigated. Predictions through available empirical methods are made and compared with the test observations. The accuracy of these empirical methods is discussed. All fragments resulting from the contact blast tests are collected and analysed through sieve analysis. It is found that Weibull distribution can be used to model the fragments size distribution of NRC slabs while Log-normal distribution better models the fragments size distribution of UHPC slabs.

Li, J, Zhao, B, Deng, C & Xu, RYD 2016, 'Time Varying Metric Learning for visual tracking', Pattern Recognition Letters, vol. 80, pp. 157-164.
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Li, JJ, Roohani-Esfahani, S-I, Dunstan, CR, Quach, T, Steck, R, Saifzadeh, S, Pivonka, P & Zreiqat, H 2016, 'Efficacy of novel synthetic bone substitutes in the reconstruction of large segmental bone defects in sheep tibiae', Biomedical Materials, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 015016-015016.
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The treatment of large bone defects, particularly those with segmental bone loss, remains a significant clinical challenge as current approaches involving surgery or bone grafting often do not yield satisfactory long-term outcomes. This study reports the evaluation of novel ceramic scaffolds applied as bone graft substitutes in a clinically relevant in vivo model. Baghdadite scaffolds, unmodified or modified with a polycaprolactone coating containing bioactive glass nanoparticles, were implanted into critical-sized segmental bone defects in sheep tibiae for 26 weeks. Radiographic, biomechanical, μ-CT and histological analyses showed that both unmodified and modified baghdadite scaffolds were able to withstand physiological loads at the defect site, and induced substantial bone formation in the absence of supplementation with cells or growth factors. Notably, all samples showed significant bridging of the critical-sized defect (average 80%) with evidence of bone infiltration and remodelling within the scaffold implant. The unmodified and modified baghdadite scaffolds achieved similar outcomes of defect repair, although the latter may have an initial mechanical advantage due to the nanocomposite coating. The baghdadite scaffolds evaluated in this study hold potential for use as purely synthetic bone graft substitutes in the treatment of large bone defects while circumventing the drawbacks of autografts and allografts.

Li, K, Ni, W, Wang, X, Liu, RP, Kanhere, SS & Jha, SK 2016, 'Energy-Efficient Cooperative Relaying for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.', IEEE Trans. Mob. Comput., vol. 15, no. 6, pp. 1377-1386.
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© 2002-2012 IEEE. Airborne relaying can extend wireless sensor networks (WSNs) to remote human-unfriendly terrains. However, lossy airborne channels and limited battery of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are critical issues, adversely affecting success rate and network lifetime, especially in real-time applications. We propose an energy-efficient cooperative relaying scheme which extends network lifetime while guaranteeing the success rate. The optimal transmission schedule of the UAVs is formulated to minimize the maximum (min-max) energy consumption under guaranteed bit error rates, and can be judiciously reformulated and solved using standard optimisation techniques. We also propose a computationally efficient suboptimal algorithm to reduce the scheduling complexity, where energy balancing and rate adaptation are decoupled and carried out in a recursive alternating manner. Simulation results confirm that the suboptimal algorithm cuts off the complexity by orders of magnitude with marginal loss of the optimal network yield (throughput) and lifetime. The proposed suboptimal algorithm can also save energy by 50 percent, increase network yield by 15 percent, and extend network lifetime by 33 percent, compared to the prior art.

Li, M, Chen, XM & Ni, W 2016, 'An extended generalized filter algorithm for urban expressway traffic time estimation based on heterogeneous data', Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems, vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 474-484.
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Li, Q, Ling, X & Sheng, D 2016, 'Elasto-plastic behaviour of frozen soil subjected to long-term low-level repeated loading, Part I: Experimental investigation', Cold Regions Science and Technology, vol. 125, pp. 138-151.
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Li, Q, Ling, X & Sheng, D 2016, 'Elasto-plastic behaviour of frozen soil subjected to long-term low-level repeated loading, Part II: Constitutive modelling', Cold Regions Science and Technology, vol. 122, pp. 58-70.
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Li, Q, Zheng, C, Mesgari, S, Hewkuruppu, YL, Hjerrild, N, Crisostomo, F, Rosengarten, G, Scott, JA & Taylor, RA 2016, 'Experimental and numerical investigation of volumetric versus surface solar absorbers for a concentrated solar thermal collector', Solar Energy, vol. 136, pp. 349-364.
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A low-profile concentrated solar thermal collector (<15 cm in height) was proposed and investigated to demonstrate its potential to deliver heat energy in the range of 100–250 °C. We use both experimental and numerical methods to investigate of the effect of modifying the absorber in this collector. As such, a volumetric absorber (consisting of a multi-walled carbon nanotube nanofluid contained within a glass tube) was compared against a conventional surface absorber (consisting of a black chrome-coated copper tube). The experimental and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results were found to be in good agreement for the thermal efficiency of these two receivers. The analysis revealed that the vacuum-packaged volumetric receiver had an efficiency of 54% and 26% operating at 80 °C and 200 °C, respectively. This lower than a vacuum-packaged black chrome-coated receiver, which had an efficiency of 68% and 47% in the same concentrator, operating at the same temperatures, respectively. [Note that commercial linear concentration systems typically have efficiency in the range 44–57% at 200 °C.] The inferior performance of the volumetric receiver was found to be due to higher reflective optical and radiative heat loss from the surface of glass tube. Overall, this study reveals that the proposed low-profile collector design is suitable for utilisation in industrial and commercial heating applications, but that volumetric absorbers will require anti-reflective and good selective coatings to be competitive with surface absorbers. If these challenges can be overcome, nanofluid receivers may have a cost/manufacturing advantage since glass-to-glass vacuum sealing is easier to achieve than metal-to-glass.

Li, R-H, Qin, L, Yu, JX & Mao, R 2016, 'Optimal Multi-Meeting-Point Route Search.', IEEE Trans. Knowl. Data Eng., vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 770-784.
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© 1989-2012 IEEE. Real-time ride-sharing applications (e.g., Uber and Lyft) are very popular in recent years. Motivated by the ride-sharing application, we propose a new type of query in road networks, called the optimal multi-meeting-point route (OMMPR) query. Given a road network G , a source node s , a target node t , and a set of query nodes U, the OMMPR query aims at finding the best route starting from s and ending at t such that the weighted average cost between the cost of the route and the total cost of the shortest paths from every query node to the route is minimized. We show that the problem of computing the OMMPR query is NP-hard. To answer the OMMPR query efficiently, we propose two novel parameterized solutions based on dynamic programming (DP), with the number of query nodes l (i.e., l=|U|) as a parameter, which is typically very small in practice. The two proposed parameterized algorithms run in O(3 m+ 2 n (l+\log (n))) and O(2 (m + n (l+\log (n)))) time, respectively, where n and m denote the number of nodes and edges in graph G, thus they are tractable in practice. To reduce the search space of the DP-based algorithms, we propose two novel optimized algorithms based on bidirectional DP and a carefully-designed lower bounding technique. We conduct extensive experimental studies on four large real-world road networks, and the results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithms.

Li, S, Winters, H, Jeong, S, Emwas, A-H, Vigneswaran, S & Amy, GL 2016, 'Marine bacterial transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) and TEP precursors: Characterization and RO fouling potential', Desalination, vol. 379, pp. 68-74.
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Li, W, Alvandi, S, Kara, S, Thiede, S & Herrmann, C 2016, 'Sustainability Cockpit: An integrated tool for continuous assessment and improvement of sustainability in manufacturing', CIRP Annals, vol. 65, no. 1, pp. 5-8.
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Li, W, Huang, Z, Zu, T, Shi, C, Duan, WH & Shah, SP 2016, 'Influence of Nanolimestone on the Hydration, Mechanical Strength, and Autogenous Shrinkage of Ultrahigh-Performance Concrete', Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 04015068-04015068.
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© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers. The influence of nanolimestone/nanoCaCo3 (NC) on the properties of ultrahigh-performance concrete (UHPC) cured at standard and heat conditions was experimentally investigated. The NC was used at ratios of 1, 2, and 3% as partial mass replacement for cement. Incorporating NC accelerated the hydration reactions of UHPC because of the nucleation effect. On the mechanical properties aspect, a threshold value of the NC content was found so that the compressive, flexural strengths, and flexural to compressive strength ratio of the UHPC were found to increase as the NC content increased towards the threshold content, and then to decrease with the increase of NC contents when the threshold was surpassed. Conversely, replacing cement with NC decreased flowability and increased the amount of autogenous shrinkage of the UHPC. While the NC accelerated the cement hydration process, it also acted as an effective filling material, resulting in enhanced mechanical properties and denser microstructure compared with the control UHPC mixture. Thus, through the use of NC, more environmentally friendly UHPC can be produced by reducing its cement factor and achieving enhanced engineering properties.

Li, W, Kawashima, S, Xiao, J, Corr, DJ, Shi, C & Shah, SP 2016, 'Comparative investigation on nanomechanical properties of hardened cement paste', Materials and Structures, vol. 49, no. 5, pp. 1591-1604.
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© 2015, RILEM. Three types of nanomechanical methods including static nanoindentation, modulus mapping and peak-force quantitative nanomechanical mapping (QNM) were applied to investigate the quantitative nanomechanical properties of the same indent location in hardened cement paste. Compared to the nanoindentation, modulus mapping and peak-force QNM allow for evaluating local mechanical properties of a smaller area with higher resolution. Beside, the ranges of elastic modulus distribution measured by modulus mapping and peak-force QNM are relatively greater than that obtained from nanoindentation, which may be due to a result of the shaper probe and local confinement effect between multiple phases. Moreover, the average value of elastic modulus obtained using peak-force QNM were consistent with those obtained by modulus mapping, while the different in modulus probability distribution could be related to the different nanomechancial theories and contact forces. The probability distributions of elastic modulus measured using nanomechanical methods to provide a basis for the different types of phases existing in cement paste. Based on the observation with high spatial resolution, cement paste can be likely found as nanocalse granular material, in which different submicron scale or basic nanoscale grain units pack together. It indicates that the peak-force QNM can effectively provide an effective insight into the nanostructure characteristic and corresponding nanomechanical properties of cement paste.

Li, W, Luo, Z, Long, C, Wu, C, Duan, WH & Shah, SP 2016, 'Effects of nanoparticle on the dynamic behaviors of recycled aggregate concrete under impact loading', Materials & Design, vol. 112, pp. 58-66.
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A 100 mm-diameter split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) was applied to investigate effects of nanoparticles on the dynamic mechanical properties of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) under impact loading. The nano-SiO2 (NS) and nano-CaCO3 (NC) were incorporated to replace cement by mass of 1 and 2% in RACs. The impact velocities were set as 7.7, 9.8 and 11.6 m/s in the SHPB tests. The effects of nanoparticles on failure patterns, compressive strengths, elastic modulus, peak strain and dynamic increase factor (DIF) of RACs under different strain rates were analyzed and discussed. The results show that nanomodified RACs exhibit higher both quasi-static and dynamic compressive strengths compared to control RAC. Dynamic elastic modulus of RAC seems not be affected by nanoparticle dosages and impact velocities. Compared to NC, NS is more effective to improve dynamic compressive strengths of RAC. On the other hand, the nanoparticles modified RACs exhibit lower DIF values than that of the control RAC. Moreover, NC obviously more reduces the DIF values of nanomodified RAC than NS.

Li, W, Zhang, Y, Sun, Y, Wang, W, Zhang, W & Lin, X 2016, 'Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search on High Dimensional Data --- Experiments, Analyses, and Improvement (v1.0)', IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, vol. 32, no. 8, pp. 1475-1488.
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Approximate Nearest neighbor search (ANNS) is fundamental and essentialoperation in applications from many domains, such as databases, machinelearning, multimedia, and computer vision. Although many algorithms have beencontinuously proposed in the literature in the above domains each year, thereis no comprehensive evaluation and analysis of their performances. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive experimental evaluation of manystate-of-the-art methods for approximate nearest neighbor search. Our study (1)is cross-disciplinary (i.e., including 16 algorithms in different domains, andfrom practitioners) and (2) has evaluated a diverse range of settings,including 20 datasets, several evaluation metrics, and different queryworkloads. The experimental results are carefully reported and analyzed tounderstand the performance results. Furthermore, we propose a new method thatachieves both high query efficiency and high recall empirically on majority ofthe datasets under a wide range of settings.

Li, X, Ni, W, Mao, F, Wang, W & Li, J 2016, 'A Metal‐free Approach to 3‐Aryl‐3‐hydroxy‐2‐oxindoles by Treatment of 3‐Acyloxy‐2‐oxindoles with Diaryliodonium Salts', Chemistry – An Asian Journal, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 226-230.
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AbstractA mild, metal‐free approach has been realized for the facile construction of highly valuable 3‐(hetero)aryl‐3‐hydroxy‐2‐oxindoles. Direct arylations of 3‐acyloxy‐2‐oxindoles with diaryliodonium salts as arylation reagents are implemented in the presence of K2CO3 at room temperature without using an organometallic promoter to deliver an array of 3‐(hetero)aryl‐3‐hydroxy‐2‐oxindoles in good yields.

Li, Y, Qiao, Y, Wang, X & Duan, R 2016, 'Tripartite-to-bipartite Entanglement Transformation by Stochastic Local Operations and Classical Communication and the Structure of Matrix Spaces', Communications in Mathematical Physics, vol. 358, no. 2, pp. 791-814.
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We study the problem of transforming a tripartite pure state to a bipartiteone using stochastic local operations and classical communication (SLOCC). Itis known that the tripartite-to-bipartite SLOCC convertibility is characterizedby the maximal Schmidt rank of the given tripartite state, i.e. the largestSchmidt rank over those bipartite states lying in the support of the reduceddensity operator. In this paper, we further study this problem and exhibitnovel results in both multi-copy and asymptotic settings. In the multi-copyregime, we observe that the maximal Schmidt rank is strictlysuper-multiplicative, i.e. the maximal Schmidt rank of the tensor product oftwo tripartite pure states can be strictly larger than the product of theirmaximal Schmidt ranks. We then provide a full characterization of thosetripartite states whose maximal Schmidt rank is strictly super-multiplicativewhen taking tensor product with itself. In the asymptotic setting, we focus ondetermining the tripartite-to-bipartite SLOCC entanglement transformation rate,which turns out to be equivalent to computing the asymptotic maximal Schmidtrank of the tripartite state, defined as the regularization of its maximalSchmidt rank. Despite the difficulty caused by the super-multiplicativeproperty, we provide explicit formulas for evaluating the asymptotic maximalSchmidt ranks of two important families of tripartite pure states, by resortingto certain results of the structure of matrix spaces, including the study ofmatrix semi-invariants. These formulas give a sufficient and necessarycondition to determine whether a given tripartite pure state can be transformedto the bipartite maximally entangled state under SLOCC, in the asymptoticsetting. Applying the recent progress on the non-commutative rank problem, wecan verify this condition in deterministic polynomial time.

Li, Y, Zeng, Z & Wen, S 2016, 'Asymptotic stability analysis on nonlinear systems with leakage delay', Journal of the Franklin Institute, vol. 353, no. 3, pp. 757-779.
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The global asymptotic stability problem for a class of nonlinear dynamical systems with leakage delay is studied in this paper. By constructing the Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional involving triple integral terms, then employing convex combination technique, model transformation and the free-weighting matrix approach, the delay-dependent stability criteria depending on the upper bound of the leak delay and its derivative are proposed and derived, the effect of leakage delay on stability is analyzed by comparing with the existed literatures. All results are expressed in terms of Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMIs), which can be solved by standard numerical software. Three examples and their simulations are provided to illustrate the low conservatism and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Li, Z, Zhao, G, Li, S, Sun, H, Tao, R, Huang, X & Guo, YJ 2016, 'Rotation Feature Extraction for Moving Targets Based on Temporal Differencing and Image Edge Detection', IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, vol. 13, no. 10, pp. 1512-1516.
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© 2016 IEEE. A rotation parameter extraction method based on temporal differencing and image edge detection from range-Doppler images is presented in this letter. The proposed method first detects the motion trail of the moving pixels caused by the rotating parts in temporal differential range-Doppler images using image edge detection. A Doppler-slow-time image is then generated from the edge pixels on the motion trail. Finally, the rotation parameters are extracted from the Doppler-slow-time image. The proposed method is simple, rapid, and practical. Computer simulations and experimental results demonstrate its effectiveness in terms of computation time compared with existing methods.

Li, ZG, Cai, C, Menon, AK, Xu, Y & Chen, F 2016, 'Estimation of Link Speed Distribution from Probe Vehicle Data', Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, vol. 2595, no. 1, pp. 98-107.
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Probes with GPS devices reveal useful information for traffic conditions, but the high level of noise and the sparsity of observations make it challenging to estimate speed distribution from the data collected. This paper proposes a Bayesian approach for estimating link speed distribution from GPS-equipped probe data. The key contribution of the study is a generic hierarchical Monte Carlo Markov chain algorithm for sampling from probe speed distribution, with Gaussian mixture models for probe speed clustering. The algorithm combines Gibbs sampling and Metropolis–Hastings sampling to improve convergence speed. A rigorous mathematical discussion is provided for the simulation approach. The algorithm is evaluated with synthetic data and real-world probe data and shows the feasibility of the approach. Results also confirm the computational advantages of the proposed algorithm and suggest its potential for real-time extension.

Liang, J, Huang, ML & Nguyen, QV 2016, 'Navigation in large hierarchical graph through chain-context views', Journal of Visualization, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 543-559.
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© 2016, The Visualization Society of Japan. Abstract: The most commonly used interaction techniques in space-filling visualization are drilling-down + semantic-zooming and focus + context methods. However, under these schemes, users often have insufficient knowledge about contextual information to guide them exploring through very large and deep hierarchical structures. This paper proposes an efficient interaction method called “chain-context view” (CCV) for the navigation in space-filling visualizations. Instead of displaying a no or one context views, we provide users with a progressive sequence of context views, which maximize the display area of contextual information. The rich contextual information provided in the exploration path could greatly increase the accuracy of user’s decisions and reduce the “unsuccessful trips” and “unnecessary views” while locating the target object by browsing in deep levels of hierarchical structures with CCVs. The new method allows the users to trace each step of their interactions and make it easy to jump or return to any level of the hierarchy that they have previously visited. A usability study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the CCV, by measuring the user performance and satisfaction on the navigation of deep levelled relational structures. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]

Liang, J, Wu, J, Zhang, N, Luo, Z & Zhu, S 2016, 'Interval uncertain analysis of active hydraulically interconnected suspension system', Advances in Mechanical Engineering, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 168781401664633-168781401664633.
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Uncertainty exists in many industry fields and needs to be dealt properly to avoid unexpected failure. This article proposes a new approach to deal with the uncertain problems encountered by the mathematical modeling of an active hydraulically interconnected suspension system. As the need for both riding comfort and the controllability is soaring nowadays, the traditional passive and semi-active suspension system could barely keep up with the pace, and the proposed active hydraulic system could be one of the solutions. In order to deal with the uncertain factors in the hydraulic system, an interval analysis method for the dynamic responses of nonlinear systems with uncertain-but-bounded parameters using Chebyshev polynomial series is introduced. The comparisons conducted in this article demonstrate the accuracy and computational efficiency of the proposed uncertain problem solver and reveal the influences of uncertain parameters in fluid and mechanical components on the dynamic responses of active hydraulically interconnected suspension.

Lienhard, B, Schröder, T, Mouradian, S, Dolde, F, Tran, TT, Aharonovich, I & Englund, D 2016, 'Bright and photostable single-photon emitter in silicon carbide', Optica, vol. 3, no. 7, pp. 768-768.
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Light, A, Pedell, S, Robertson, T, Waycott, J, Bell, J, Durick, J & Leong, TW 2016, 'What's special about aging', Interactions, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 66-69.
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Community + Culture features practitioner perspectives on designing technologies for and with communities. We highlight compelling projects and provocative points of view that speak to both community technology practice and the interaction design field as a whole. --- Christopher A. Le Dantec, Editor

Lin, C-T, Chuang, C-H, Kerick, S, Mullen, T, Jung, T-P, Ko, L-W, Chen, S-A, King, J-T & McDowell, K 2016, 'Mind-Wandering Tends to Occur under Low Perceptual Demands during Driving', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1.
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AbstractFluctuations in attention behind the wheel poses a significant risk for driver safety. During transient periods of inattention, drivers may shift their attention towards internally-directed thoughts or feelings at the expense of staying focused on the road. This study examined whether increasing task difficulty by manipulating involved sensory modalities as the driver detected the lane-departure in a simulated driving task would promote a shift of brain activity between different modes of processing, reflected by brain network dynamics on electroencephalographic sources. Results showed that depriving the driver of salient sensory information imposes a relatively more perceptually-demanding task, leading to a stronger activation in the task-positive network. When the vehicle motion feedback is available, the drivers may rely on vehicle motion to perceive the perturbations, which frees attentional capacity and tends to activate the default mode network. Such brain network dynamics could have major implications for understanding fluctuations in driver attention and designing advance driver assistance systems.

Ling, SH, Chan, KY, Leung, FHF, Jiang, F & Nguyen, H 2016, 'Quality and robustness improvement for real world industrial systems using a fuzzy particle swarm optimization', ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, vol. 47, pp. 68-80.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. This paper presents a novel fuzzy particle swarm optimization with cross-mutated (FPSOCM) operation, where a fuzzy logic system developed based on the knowledge of swarm intelligence is proposed to determine the inertia weight for the swarm movement of particle swarm optimization (PSO) and the control parameter of a newly introduced cross-mutated operation. Hence, the inertia weight of the PSO can be adaptive with respect to the search progress. The new cross-mutated operation intends to drive the solution to escape from local optima. A suite of benchmark test functions are employed to evaluate the performance of the proposed FPSOCM. Experimental results show empirically that the FPSOCM performs better than the existing hybrid PSO methods in terms of solution quality, robustness, and convergence rate. The proposed FPSOCM is evaluated by improving the quality and robustness of two real world industrial systems namely economic load dispatch system and self-provisioning systems for communication network services. These two systems are employed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed FPSOCM as they are multi-optima and non-convex problems. The performance of FPSOCM is found to be significantly better than that of the existing hybrid PSO methods in a statistical sense. These results demonstrate that the proposed FPSOCM is a good candidate for solving product or service engineering problems which have multi-optima or non-convex natures.

Ling, SH, San, PP & Nguyen, HT 2016, 'Non-invasive hypoglycemia monitoring system using extreme learning machine for Type 1 diabetes', ISA TRANSACTIONS, vol. 64, pp. 440-446.
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© 2016 ISA Hypoglycemia is a very common in type 1 diabetic persons and can occur at any age. It is always threatening to the well-being of patients with Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) since hypoglycemia leads to seizures or loss of consciousness and the possible development of permanent brain dysfunction under certain circumstances. Because of that, an accurate continuing hypoglycemia monitoring system is a very important medical device for diabetic patients. In this paper, we proposed a non-invasive hypoglycemia monitoring system using the physiological parameters of electrocardiography (ECG) signal. To enhance the detection accuracy, extreme learning machine (ELM) is developed to recognize the presence of hypoglycemia. A clinical study of 16 children with T1DM is given to illustrate the good performance of ELM.

Liu, B, Zhou, W, Zhu, T, Gao, L, Luan, TH & Zhou, H 2016, 'Silence is Golden: Enhancing Privacy of Location-Based Services by Content Broadcasting and Active Caching in Wireless Vehicular Networks', IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. 65, no. 12, pp. 9942-9953.
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Liu, B, Zhou, W, Zhu, T, Zhou, H & Lin, X 2016, 'Invisible Hand: A Privacy Preserving Mobile Crowd Sensing Framework Based on Economic Models', IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. 66, no. 5, pp. 1-1.
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Liu, C, Han, K, Lee, D-J & Wang, Q 2016, 'Simultaneous biological removal of phenol, sulfide, and nitrate using expanded granular sludge bed reactor', Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, vol. 100, no. 9, pp. 4211-4217.
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Biological removal of sulfide, nitrate, and phenol at loading rates of 600 g S/(m(3) day), 900 g N/(m(3) day), and 450 g C/(m(3) day), respectively, from synthetic wastewaters was achieved in an expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) reactor, whose rates are much higher than literature works and are considered feasible for handling high-strength petrochemical wastewaters without dilution. Effects of C/S ratio (2-2.5:1) on EGSB performance were noted insignificantly. The strains Bacillus sp., Thauera sp., and Pseudomonas sp. were the heterotrophic denitrifiers and the strains Thiobacillus sp., Azoarcus sp., and Sulfurovum sp. were the autotrophic denitrifiers in the EGSB granules. The EGSB reactor experienced biological breakdown at loadings higher than 1200 g S/(m(3) day), 1800 g N/(m(3) day), and 900 g C/(m(3) day) by the following mechanism: high sulfide first inhibits heterotrophic denitrifies (Bacillus sp. and Pseudomonas sp.), thereby accumulating nitrite in the system; then, the accumulated nitrite inhibits autotrophic denitrifiers (Thiobacillus sp., Azoarcus sp., and Sulfurovum sp.) to complete breakdown of the system.

Liu, C, Zhao, D, Ma, W, Guo, Y, Wang, A, Wang, Q & Lee, D-J 2016, 'Denitrifying sulfide removal process on high-salinity wastewaters in the presence of Halomonas sp.', Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, vol. 100, no. 3, pp. 1421-1426.
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Biological conversion of sulfide, acetate, and nitrate to, respectively, elemental sulfur (S(0)), carbon dioxide, and nitrogen-containing gas (such as N2) at NaCl concentration of 35-70 g/L was achieved in an expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) reactor. A C/N ratio of 1:1 was noted to achieve high sulfide removal and S(0) conversion rate at high salinity. The extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) quantities were increased with NaCl concentration, being 11.4-mg/g volatile-suspended solids at 70 mg/L NaCl. The denitrifying sulfide removal (DSR) consortium incorporated Thauera sp. and Halomonas sp. as the heterotrophs and Azoarcus sp. being the autotrophs at high salinity condition. Halomonas sp. correlates with the enhanced DSR performance at high salinity.

Liu, C, Zhu, J, Wang, Y, Lei, G & Guo, Y 2016, 'Cogging Torque Minimization of SMC PM Transverse Flux Machines Using Shifted and Unequal-Width Stator Teeth', IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 1-4.
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Liu, C, Zhu, J, Wang, Y, Lei, G & Guo, Y 2016, 'Design Considerations of PM Transverse Flux Machines With Soft Magnetic Composite Cores', IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 1-5.
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Liu, D, Xu, X, Du, Y, Qin, X, Zhang, Y, Ma, C, Wen, S, Ren, W, Goldys, EM, Piper, JA, Dou, S, Liu, X & Jin, D 2016, 'Three-dimensional controlled growth of monodisperse sub-50 nm heterogeneous nanocrystals', Nature Communications, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 1-8.
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AbstractThe ultimate frontier in nanomaterials engineering is to realize their composition control with atomic scale precision to enable fabrication of nanoparticles with desirable size, shape and surface properties. Such control becomes even more useful when growing hybrid nanocrystals designed to integrate multiple functionalities. Here we report achieving such degree of control in a family of rare-earth-doped nanomaterials. We experimentally verify the co-existence and different roles of oleate anions (OA−) and molecules (OAH) in the crystal formation. We identify that the control over the ratio of OA− to OAH can be used to directionally inhibit, promote or etch the crystallographic facets of the nanoparticles. This control enables selective grafting of shells with complex morphologies grown over nanocrystal cores, thus allowing the fabrication of a diverse library of monodisperse sub-50 nm nanoparticles. With such programmable additive and subtractive engineering a variety of three-dimensional shapes can be implemented using a bottom–up scalable approach.

Liu, D, Xu, X, Wang, F, Zhou, J, Mi, C, Zhang, L, Lu, Y, Ma, C, Goldys, E, Lin, J & Jin, D 2016, 'Emission stability and reversibility of upconversion nanocrystals', Journal of Materials Chemistry C, vol. 4, no. 39, pp. 9227-9234.
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We report the emission stability and reversibility of NaYF₄:Yb³⁺,Er³⁺ core and core–shell nanocrystals at different temperatures and pH values.

Liu, H, Boon, CC, He, X, Zhu, X, Yi, X, Kong, L & Heimlich, MC 2016, 'A Wideband Analog-Controlled Variable-Gain Amplifier With dB-Linear Characteristic for High-Frequency Applications', IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 64, no. 2, pp. 1-8.
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© 2015 IEEE. A higher frequency, over 2 GHz, is suggested for current 4G or 5G wideband applications. By adopting a unique gain control method, an analog-controlled variable-gain amplifier (VGA) with an accurate dB-linear characteristic is presented. The designed VGA not only features large bandwidth, but also has accurate gain adjustment with a relatively wide control voltage range. The VGA has a measured gain range of 24 dB, of which 17.3 dB is dB-linear with less than ±0.3-dB gain error. The -3-dB bandwidth is relatively constant from 2 to 2.2 GHz for the entire dB-linear range. An output 1-dB compression point of 1.8 dBm and a noise figure of 24 dB are measured. Due to the simple structure, the current consumption of the VGA core is only 2.9 mA from a 1.2-V supply, and the size is only 225 μm ×45 μm, excluding pads. Moreover, the robustness of the designed VGA is verified by means of Monte Carlo simulation.

Liu, H, Hu, Z, Zhang, J, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Liang, S, Fan, J, Lu, S & Wu, H 2016, 'Optimizations on supply and distribution of dissolved oxygen in constructed wetlands: A review', Bioresource Technology, vol. 214, pp. 797-805.
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© 2016 Dissolved oxygen (DO) is one of the most important factors that can influence pollutants removal in constructed wetlands (CWs). However, problems of insufficient oxygen supply and inappropriate oxygen distribution commonly exist in traditional CWs. Detailed analyses of DO supply and distribution characteristics in different types of CWs were introduced. It can be concluded that atmospheric reaeration (AR) served as the promising point on oxygen intensification. The paper summarized possible optimizations of DO in CWs to improve its decontamination performance. Process (tidal flow, drop aeration, artificial aeration, hybrid systems) and parameter (plant, substrate and operating) optimizations are particularly discussed in detail. Since economic and technical defects are still being cited in current studies, future prospects of oxygen research in CWs terminate this review.

Liu, H, Xu, M, Wang, J, Rao, T & Burnett, I 2016, 'Improving Visual Saliency Computing With Emotion Intensity', IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, vol. 27, no. 6, pp. 1201-1213.
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Liu, J, Ji, J & Zhou, J 2016, 'Synchronization of networked multibody systems using fundamental equation of mechanics', APPLIED MATHEMATICS AND MECHANICS-ENGLISH EDITION, vol. 37, no. 5, pp. 555-572.
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© 2016, Shanghai University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. From the analytical dynamics point of view, this paper develops an optimal control framework to synchronize networked multibody systems using the fundamental equation of mechanics. A novel robust control law derived from the framework is then used to achieve complete synchronization of networked identical or non-identical multibody systems formulated with Lagrangian dynamics. A distinctive feature of the developed control strategy is the introduction of network structures into the control requirement. The control law consists of two components, the first describing the architecture of the network and the second denoting an active feedback control strategy. A corresponding stability analysis is performed by the algebraic graph theory. A representative network composed of ten identical or non-identical gyroscopes is used as an illustrative example. Numerical simulation of the systems with three kinds of network structures, including global coupling, nearest-neighbour, and small-world networks, is given to demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed control methodology.

Liu, Q, Song, J & Li, J 2016, 'Using contrast patterns between true complexes and random subgraphs in PPI networks to predict unknown protein complexes', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 1-15.
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AbstractMost protein complex detection methods utilize unsupervised techniques to cluster densely connected nodes in a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, in spite of the fact that many true complexes are not dense subgraphs. Supervised methods have been proposed recently, but they do not answer why a group of proteins are predicted as a complex, and they have not investigated how to detect new complexes of one species by training the model on the PPI data of another species. We propose a novel supervised method to address these issues. The key idea is to discover emerging patterns (EPs), a type of contrast pattern, which can clearly distinguish true complexes from random subgraphs in a PPI network. An integrative score of EPs is defined to measure how likely a subgraph of proteins can form a complex. New complexes thus can grow from our seed proteins by iteratively updating this score. The performance of our method is tested on eight benchmark PPI datasets and compared with seven unsupervised methods, two supervised and one semi-supervised methods under five standards to assess the quality of the predicted complexes. The results show that in most cases our method achieved a better performance, sometimes significantly.

Liu, S, Li, W, Davis, S, Ritz, C & Tian, H 2016, 'Planogram Compliance Checking Based on Detection of Recurring Patterns', IEEE MultiMedia, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 54-63.
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In this paper, a novel method for automatic planogram compliance checking inretail chains is proposed without requiring product template images fortraining. Product layout is extracted from an input image by means ofunsupervised recurring pattern detection and matched via graph matching withthe expected product layout specified by a planogram to measure the level ofcompliance. A divide and conquer strategy is employed to improve the speed.Specifically, the input image is divided into several regions based on theplanogram. Recurring patterns are detected in each region respectively and thenmerged together to estimate the product layout. Experimental results on realdata have verified the efficacy of the proposed method. Compared with atemplate-based method, higher accuracies are achieved by the proposed methodover a wide range of products.

Liu, W, Chen, X, Wu, Q & Yang, J 2016, 'Fast robust detection of edges in noisy depth images', Journal of Electronic Imaging, vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 053003-053003.
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© 2016 SPIE and IS & T. Depth edges play an important role in depth image upsampling. Many recent upsampling methods rely on the prior images of depth edges to preserve sharp depth edges in restored depth images. However, recent depth edge detection methods are not robust against the noise in depth images. Some methods are also too time-consuming. We propose a method to efficiently detect edges in depth images. The proposed method is very simple but very robust against the noise in depth images. It is also fast and has near O(1) implementation. We apply the proposed method to the existing edge guided depth image upsampling. Experimental results on both simulated and real data show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Liu, W, Gao, C, Chang, X & Wu, Q 2016, 'Unified discriminating feature analysis for visual category recognition', Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation, vol. 40, pp. 772-778.
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Visual category recognition (VCR) is one of the most important tasks in image and video indexing. To deal with high dimension image/video data, feature analysis algorithms have been widely used for visual category recognition. In this paper, to enhance the flexibility regarding the exploitation of labeled or unlabeled data, we propose a unified feature analysis framework that can be applied to both supervised and semi-supervised scenarios. Furthermore, by revealing intrinsic relationships of traditional feature analysis methods, our framework not only integrates traditional methods, but also introduces an ℓ2,1-norm regularization term for sparse learning. Extensive experiments report that the proposed method obtains advantageous performance in comparison with other state-of-the-art supervised and semi-supervised feature selection algorithms.

Liu, W, Luo, X, Gong, Z, Xuan, J, Kou, NM & Xu, Z 2016, 'Discovering the core semantics of event from social media', Future Generation Computer Systems, vol. 64, pp. 175-185.
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Liu, W, Luo, X, Xuan, J, Xu, Z & Jiang, D 2016, 'Cognitive memory-inspired sentence ordering model.', Knowl. Based Syst., vol. 104, pp. 1-13.
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Liu, X, Wang, Y, Zhu, J, Guo, Y, Lei, G & Liu, C 2016, 'Calculation of Capacitance in High-Frequency Transformer Windings', IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 52, no. 7, pp. 1-4.
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Liu, X, Wang, Y, Zhu, J, Guo, Y, Lei, G & Liu, C 2016, 'Calculation of core loss and copper loss in amorphous/nanocrystalline core-based high-frequency transformer', AIP Advances, vol. 6, no. 5, pp. 055927-055927.
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Amorphous and nanocrystalline alloys are now widely used for the cores of high-frequency transformers, and Litz-wire is commonly used as the windings, while it is difficult to calculate the resistance accurately. In order to design a high-frequency transformer, it is important to accurately calculate the core loss and copper loss. To calculate the core loss accurately, the additional core loss by the effect of end stripe should be considered. It is difficult to simulate the whole stripes in the core due to the limit of computation, so a scale down model with 5 stripes of amorphous alloy is simulated by the 2D finite element method (FEM). An analytical model is presented to calculate the copper loss in the Litz-wire, and the results are compared with the calculations by FEM.

Liu, X, Zeng, Z & Wen, S 2016, 'Implementation of Memristive Neural Network With Full-Function Pavlov Associative Memory', IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers, vol. 63, no. 9, pp. 1454-1463.
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In this paper, implementation of memristive neural network with full-function Pavlov associative memory is designed based on a proposed associative memory rule. The designed neural network can well perform the Pavlov associative memory in the network with at least three interconnected neurons. This neural network and the associative memory rule that is partly based on spike-rate-dependent plasticity (SRDP) protocol are inspired by the famous Pavlov's dog-experiment that demonstrated the interrelation between the 'sight of food' and the 'ringing.' Besides the learning activity, the proposed network can also perform two kinds of forgetting activities after the learning process is completed: on one hand, when the salivation neuron is stimulated by the food neuron alone, after a period of time, the ring neuron can no longer trigger the salivation neuron; on the other hand, when the salivation neuron is stimulated by the ring neuron alone, at first the salivation neuron can be triggered but after the salivation neuron realizes that the 'ringing' is not associated with 'food,' the salivation neuron will not be triggered any longer. How to integrate the proposed network into large scale memristive neural network with multiple associations is also introduced. Simulations results demonstrate the correctness of the designs.

Liu, Y, Guo, J, Wang, Q & Huang, D 2016, 'Prediction of Filamentous Sludge Bulking using a State-based Gaussian Processes Regression Model', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1, p. 31303.
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AbstractActivated sludge process has been widely adopted to remove pollutants in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). However, stable operation of activated sludge process is often compromised by the occurrence of filamentous bulking. The aim of this study is to build a proper model for timely diagnosis and prediction of filamentous sludge bulking in an activated sludge process. This study developed a state-based Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) model to monitor the filamentous sludge bulking related parameter, sludge volume index (SVI), in such a way that the evolution of SVI can be predicted over multi-step ahead. This methodology was validated with SVI data collected from one full-scale WWTP. Online diagnosis and prediction of filamentous bulking sludge with real-time SVI prediction was tested through a simulation study. The results showed that the proposed methodology was capable of predicting future SVIs with good accuracy, thus providing sufficient time for predicting and controlling filamentous sludge bulking.

Liu, Y, Li, K, Jia, Y, Hao, Y, Gong, S & Guo, YJ 2016, 'Wideband RCS Reduction of a Slot Array Antenna Using Polarization Conversion Metasurfaces', IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 64, no. 1, pp. 326-331.
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© 2015 IEEE. A new approach to reducing the monostatic radar cross section (RCS) and preserving the radiation characteristics of a slot array antenna by employing polarization conversion metasurfaces (PCMs) is presented in this communication. The PCM is arranged in a chessboard configuration consisting of fishbone-shaped element. It is placed on the surface of the slot array antenna. The characteristics and mechanism of the RCS reduction are analyzed. Simulated and experimental results show that the monostatic RCS reduction band of the antenna with PCM ranges between 6.0 and 18.0 GHz for normally impinging both x-and y-polarized waves. The radiation characteristics of the antenna are well preserved simultaneously in terms of the impedance bandwidth, radiation patterns, and realized boresight gains.

Liu, Y, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Peng, L, Pan, Y, Guo, J, Chen, X & Ni, B-J 2016, 'Autotrophic nitrogen removal in membrane-aerated biofilms: Archaeal ammonia oxidation versus bacterial ammonia oxidation', Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 302, pp. 535-544.
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© 2016 Elsevier B.V. Recent discovery of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) not only substantially improved our understanding of the global nitrogen cycle, but also provided new possibilities for nitrogen removal from wastewater. In particular, compared to ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), the high ammonia oxidation under oxygen-limited conditions driven by AOA is potentially more suitable for autotrophic nitrogen removal in a single-stage membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) through coupling with anaerobic ammonia oxidation (Anammox). In this work, mathematical modeling is applied to assess the system performance and associated microbial community structure of an AOA–Anammox MABR under low- (30 mg N L−1) and high-strength (500 mg N L−1) ammonium conditions, with a side-by-side comparison to an AOB–Anammox MABR system under the same conditions. Results demonstrate that both ammonium surface loading (or hydraulic retention time) and oxygen surface loading significantly affect the system performance. In contrast to AOB–Anammox system, the AOA–Anammox MABR shows higher total nitrogen (TN) removal and lower oxygen supply, with much better repression of NOB and substantially wider operating window for high-level TN removal (>80%) in terms of varied oxygen and ammonium loadings. These results provide first insights and useful information for design and operation of this novel AOA–Anammox MABR system in its potential future applications.

Liu, Y, Peng, L, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Wang, D, Pan, Y, Sun, J & Ni, B-J 2016, 'Evaluation of Nitrous Oxide Emission from Sulfide- and Sulfur-Based Autotrophic Denitrification Processes', Environmental Science & Technology, vol. 50, no. 17, pp. 9407-9415.
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© 2016 American Chemical Society. Recent studies have shown that sulfide- and sulfur-based autotrophic denitrification (AD) processes play an important role in contributing to nitrous oxide (N2O) production and emissions. However, N2O production is not recognized in the current AD models, limiting their ability to predict N2O accumulation during AD. In this work, a mathematical model is developed to describe N2O dynamics during sulfide- and sulfur-based AD processes for the first time. The model is successfully calibrated and validated using N2O data from two independent experimental systems with sulfide or sulfur as electron donors for AD. The model satisfactorily describes nitrogen reductions, sulfide/sulfur oxidation, and N2O accumulation in both systems. Modeling results revealed substantial N2O accumulation due to the relatively low N2O reduction rate during both sulfide- and sulfur-based AD processes. Application of the model to simulate long-term operations of activated sludge systems performing sulfide- and sulfur-based AD processes indicates longer sludge retention time reduced N2O emission. For sulfide-based AD process, higher initial S/N ratio also decreased N2O emission but with a higher operational cost. This model can be a useful tool to support process operation optimization for N2O mitigation during AD with sulfide or sulfur as electron donor.

Liu, Y, Sun, J, Peng, L, Wang, D, Dai, X & Ni, B-J 2016, 'Assessment of Heterotrophic Growth Supported by Soluble Microbial Products in Anammox Biofilm using Multidimensional Modeling', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1, p. 27576.
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AbstractAnaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) is known to autotrophically convert ammonium to dinitrogen gas with nitrite as the electron acceptor, but little is known about their released microbial products and how these are relative to heterotrophic growth in anammox system. In this work, we applied a mathematical model to assess the heterotrophic growth supported by three key microbial products produced by bacteria in anammox biofilm (utilization associated products (UAP), biomass associated products (BAP), and decay released substrate). Both One-dimensional and two-dimensional numerical biofilm models were developed to describe the development of anammox biofilm as a function of the multiple bacteria–substrate interactions. Model simulations show that UAP of anammox is the main organic carbon source for heterotrophs. Heterotrophs are mainly dominant at the surface of the anammox biofilm with small fraction inside the biofilm. 1-D model is sufficient to describe the main substrate concentrations/fluxes within the anammox biofilm, while the 2-D model can give a more detailed biomass distribution. The heterotrophic growth on UAP is mainly present at the outside of anammox biofilm, their growth on BAP (HetB) are present throughout the biofilm, while the growth on decay released substrate (HetD) is mainly located in the inner layers of the biofilm.

Liu, Y, Tugtas, AE, Sharma, KR, Ni, B-J & Yuan, Z 2016, 'Sulfide and methane production in sewer sediments: Field survey and model evaluation', Water Research, vol. 89, pp. 142-150.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. Sewer sediment processes have been reported to significantly contribute to overall sulfide and methane production in sewers, at a scale comparable to that of sewer biofilms. The physiochemical and biological characteristics of sewer sediments are heterogeneous; however, the variability of in-sediments sulfide and methane production rates among sewers has not been assessed to date. In this study, five sewer sediment samples were collected from two cities in Australia with different climatic conditions. Batch assays were conducted to determine the rates of sulfate reduction and methane production under different flow velocity (shear stress) conditions as well as under completely mixed conditions. The tests showed substantial and variable sulfate reduction and methane production activities among different sediments. Sulfate reduction and methane production from sewer sediments were confirmed to be areal processes, and were dependent on flow velocity/shear stress. Despite of the varying characteristics and reactions kinetics, the sulfate reduction and methane production processes in all sediments could be well described by a one-dimensional sewer sediment model recently developed based on results obtained from a laboratory sewer sediment reactor. Model simulations indicated that the in-situ contribution of sewer sediment emissions could be estimated without the requirement of measuring the specific sediment characteristics or the sediment depths.

Liu, Y, Wang, Y, Sowmya, A & Chen, F 2016, 'Soft Hough Forest-ERTs: Generalized Hough Transform based object detection from soft-labelled training data', Pattern Recognition, vol. 60, pp. 145-156.
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Classical supervised object detection methods learn object models from labelled training data. This is tedious to create especially when the training dataset is large. Detection methods such as background subtraction and headlight detection can detect potential positive blobs that may contain the object without labelled training data. However, such blobs are not always accurate. They may include noise such as part of an object, multiple objects and other types of objects. Therefore, soft labels that indicate their probability of being positive may be more useful. A modified soft label estimation method based on Maximum Mean Discrepancy is introduced in this work. Based on it, a Generalized Hough Transform based object detection method from soft-labelled training data is proposed to utilize potential detections and their estimated soft labels. Experimental results show that the method can achieve comparable performance to supervised methods. It outperforms both Generalized Hough Transform based object detection with hard-labelled training blobs, and a state-of-the-art weakly supervised method.

Liu, Y, Xiao, H, Pan, Y, Huang, D & Wang, Q 2016, 'Development of multiple-step soft-sensors using a Gaussian process model with application for fault prognosis', Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems, vol. 157, pp. 85-95.
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Predicting the degradation of working conditions and trending of fault propagation before they reach the alarm or failure control limit is significantly important to optimize the operational capacity of a chemical process. However, traditional one-step-ahead (OS) soft-sensors render such benefits inadequate. Direct, Recursive and Direct-recursive strategies are proposed to generalize the Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) model for multi-step-ahead (MS) prediction, thereby supporting the fault diagnosis and prognosis of the product qualities control for chemical processes. The proposed methodology was firstly demonstrated by applying the designed algorithm to a wastewater plant (WWTP) simulated with the well-established model, i.e., Benchmark Simulation Model 1 (BSM1), then extended to a full-scale WWTP with data collected from the field influenced by filamentous sludge bulking. Results showed that the proposed strategies significantly improved the prediction performance.

Liu, Y-T, Lin, Y-Y, Wu, S-L, Chuang, C-H & Lin, C-T 2016, 'Brain Dynamics in Predicting Driving Fatigue Using a Recurrent Self-Evolving Fuzzy Neural Network', IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 347-360.
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© 2012 IEEE. This paper proposes a generalized prediction system called a recurrent self-evolving fuzzy neural network (RSEFNN) that employs an on-line gradient descent learning rule to address the electroencephalography (EEG) regression problem in brain dynamics for driving fatigue. The cognitive states of drivers significantly affect driving safety; in particular, fatigue driving, or drowsy driving, endangers both the individual and the public. For this reason, the development of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) that can identify drowsy driving states is a crucial and urgent topic of study. Many EEG-based BCIs have been developed as artificial auxiliary systems for use in various practical applications because of the benefits of measuring EEG signals. In the literature, the efficacy of EEG-based BCIs in recognition tasks has been limited by low resolutions. The system proposed in this paper represents the first attempt to use the recurrent fuzzy neural network (RFNN) architecture to increase adaptability in realistic EEG applications to overcome this bottleneck. This paper further analyzes brain dynamics in a simulated car driving task in a virtual-reality environment. The proposed RSEFNN model is evaluated using the generalized cross-subject approach, and the results indicate that the RSEFNN is superior to competing models regardless of the use of recurrent or nonrecurrent structures.

Liu, Z, Liang, J & Wu, C 2016, 'The diffraction of Rayleigh waves by a fluid-saturated alluvial valley in a poroelastic half-space modeled by MFS', Computers & Geosciences, vol. 91, pp. 33-48.
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Llopis-Albert, C, Merigó, JM & Xu, Y 2016, 'A coupled stochastic inverse/sharp interface seawater intrusion approach for coastal aquifers under groundwater parameter uncertainty', Journal of Hydrology, vol. 540, pp. 774-783.
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© 2016 Elsevier B.V. This paper presents an alternative approach to deal with seawater intrusion problems, that overcomes some of the limitations of previous works, by coupling the well-known SWI2 package for MODFLOW with a stochastic inverse model named GC method. On the one hand, the SWI2 allows a vertically integrated variable-density groundwater flow and seawater intrusion in coastal multi-aquifer systems, and a reduction in number of required model cells and the elimination of the need to solve the advective-dispersive transport equation, which leads to substantial model run-time savings. On the other hand, the GC method allows dealing with groundwater parameter uncertainty by constraining stochastic simulations to flow and mass transport data (i.e., hydraulic conductivity, freshwater heads, saltwater concentrations and travel times) and also to secondary information obtained from expert judgment or geophysical surveys, thus reducing uncertainty and increasing reliability in meeting the environmental standards. The methodology has been successfully applied to a transient movement of the freshwater-seawater interface in response to changing freshwater inflow in a two-aquifer coastal aquifer system, where an uncertainty assessment has been carried out by means of Monte Carlo simulation techniques. The approach also allows partially overcoming the neglected diffusion and dispersion processes after the conditioning process since the uncertainty is reduced and results are closer to available data.

Llopis-Albert, C, Palacios-Marqués, D & Merigó, JM 2016, 'Decision making under uncertainty in environmental projects using mathematical simulation modeling', Environmental Earth Sciences, vol. 75, no. 19.
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© 2016, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. In decision-making processes, reliability and risk aversion play a decisive role. The aim of this study is to perform an uncertainty assessment of the effects of future scenarios of sustainable groundwater pumping strategies on the quantitative and chemical status of an aquifer. The good status of the aquifer is defined according to the terms established by the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). A decision support systems (DSS) is presented, which makes use of a stochastic inverse model (GC method) and geostatistical approaches to calibrate equally likely realizations of hydraulic conductivity (K) fields for a particular case study. These K fields are conditional to available field data, including hard and soft information. Then, different future scenarios of groundwater pumping strategies are generated, based on historical information and WFD standards, and simulated for each one of the equally likely K fields. The future scenarios lead to different environmental impacts and levels of socioeconomic development of the region and, hence, to a different degree of acceptance among stakeholders. We have identified the different stakeholders implied in the decision-making process, the objectives pursued and the alternative actions that should be considered by stakeholders in a public participation project (PPP). The MonteCarlo simulation provides a highly effective way for uncertainty assessment and allows presenting the results in a simple and understandable way even for non-experts stakeholders. The methodology has been successfully applied to a real case study and lays the foundations to perform a PPP and stakeholders’ involvement in a decision-making process as required by the WFD. The results of the methodology can help the decision-making process to come up with the best policies and regulations for a groundwater system under uncertainty in groundwater parameters and management strategies and involving stakeh...

Lloret‐Cabot, M, Sloan, SW, Sheng, D & Abbo, AJ 2016, 'Error behaviour in explicit integration algorithms with automatic substepping', International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, vol. 108, no. 9, pp. 1030-1053.
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SummaryThis paper studies the behaviour of the error incurred when numerically integrating the elasto‐plastic mechanical relationships of a constitutive model for soils using an explicit substepping formulation with automatic error control. The correct update of all the variables involved in the numerical integration of the incremental stress–strain relationships is central to the computational performance of the integration scheme, and, although often missed in the literature, all variables (including specific volume) should be explicitly considered in the algorithmic formulation. This is demonstrated in the paper by studying, in the context of the Cam clay formulations for saturated soils, the influence that the updating of the specific volume has on the accuracy of the numerical solution. The fact that the variation of the local error with the size of the integrated strain depends on the order of local accuracy of the numerical method is also used in the paper to propose a simple and powerful strategy to verify the correctness of the implemented mathematical formulation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Loke, L & Kocaballi, AB 2016, 'Choreographic Inscriptions: A Framework for Exploring Sociomaterial Influences on Qualities of Movement for HCI', Human Technology, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 31-55.
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© 2016 Lian Loke & A. Baki Kocaballi, and the Agora Center, University of Jyväskylä. With the rise of ubiquitous computing technologies in everyday life, the daily actions of people are becoming ever more choreographed by the interactions available through technology. By combining the notion of inscriptions from actor-network theory and the qualitative descriptors of movement from Laban movement analysis, an analytic framework is proposed for exploring how the interplay of material and social inscriptions gives rise to movement patterns and behaviors, translated into choreographic inscriptions described with Laban effort and shape. It is demonstrated through a case study of an affective gesture mobile device. The framework provides an understanding of (a) how movement qualities are shaped by social and material inscriptions, (b) how the relative strength of inscriptions on movements may change according to different settings and user appropriation over time, and (c) how transforming inscriptions by design across different mediums can generate action spaces with varying degrees of openness.

Long, Z, Duckham, M, Li, S & Schockaert, S 2016, 'Indexing large geographic datasets with compact qualitative representation', International Journal of Geographical Information Science, vol. 30, no. 6, pp. 1072-1094.
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© 2015 Taylor & Francis. This paper develops a new mechanism to efficiently compute and compactly store qualitative spatial relations between spatial objects, focusing on topological and directional relations for large datasets of region objects. The central idea is to use minimum bounding rectangles (MBRs) to approximately represent region objects with arbitrary shape and complexity and only store spatial relations that cannot be unambiguously inferred from the relations of corresponding MBRs. We demonstrate, both in theory and practice, that our approach requires considerably less construction time and storage space, and can answer queries more efficiently than the state-of-the-art methods.

Lopez-Lorca, A, Beydoun, G, Valencia-Garcia, R & Martinez-Bejar, R 2016, 'Automating the reuse of domain knowledge to improve the modelling outcome from interactions between developers and clients', COMPUTING, vol. 98, no. 6, pp. 609-640.
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Lopez-Lorca, AA, Beydoun, G, Valencia-Garcia, R & Martinez-Bejar, R 2016, 'Supporting agent oriented requirement analysis with ontologies', INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN-COMPUTER STUDIES, vol. 87, pp. 20-37.
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© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Requirements analysis activities underpin the success of the software development lifecycle. Subsequent errors in the requirements models can propagate to models in later phases and become much costlier to fix. Errors in requirement analysis are more likely in developing complex systems. Particularly, errors due to miscommunication and misinterpretation of a client's intentions are common. Ontologies relying on formal descriptions of semantics have often been used in multi agent systems (MAS) development to support various activities and generally improve the complex systems produced. However, their use during requirements analysis to validate match with the client's conceptualisation is largely unexplored. This article presents an ontology driven validation process to support requirement analysis of MAS models. This process is underpinned by an agent-based metamodel that describes commonly used informal agent requirement models. The process concurrently and incrementally validates the informal MAS requirement models produced. The synthesis of the process is first justified and illustrated in a manual tracing of the process. The paper then describes an interactive support tool to harness the formal semantics of ontologies and by pass the costly manual effort. The validation process is evaluated and illustrated using three case studies.

Lozano, FJ, Freire, P, Guillén-Gozalbez, G, Jiménez-Gonzalez, C, Sakao, T, Dowell, NM, Ortiz, MG, Trianni, A, Carpenter, A & Viveros, T 2016, 'New perspectives for sustainable resource and energy use, management and transformation: approaches from green and sustainable chemistry and engineering', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 118, pp. 1-3.
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Lu, DD-C 2016, 'High Voltage Stress in Single-Phase Single-Stage PFC Converters: Analysis and an Alternative Solution', IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 63, no. 1, pp. 133-143.
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© 2015 IEEE. Single-stage power-factor-corrected (S2PFC) power supplies usually suffer from high voltage stress, due to lack of control on the intermediate bus capacitor voltage. In the past, analysis of such voltage stress was mostly based on steady-state condition without providing sufficient explanation during the transient circuit operation. This paper revisits the problem at circuit level and reports that the root cause is due to the inherent negative current feedback property of the output inductor or the transformer operating in continuous conductionmode (CCM). Based on the finding, this paper further proposes a new approach to reducing the voltage stress by adding an auxiliary circuit branch to existing S2PFC converters. The additional circuit branch limits the effect of negative current feedback by suppressing the change of output current slope due to change of load. This assists the pulsewidth modulation controller to track the change of load better such that the bus capacitor voltage range is reduced through duty cycle control. The auxiliary circuit branch also reduces reverse-recovery-related losses of the converter under CCM operation. A laboratory prototype using the popular boost PFC converter combined flyback dc/dc converter was built and tested to confirmthe analysis and effectiveness of the approach.

Lu, DD-C, Soon, JL & Verstraete, D 2016, 'Derivation of Dual-Switch Step-Down DC/DC Converters With Fault-Tolerant Capability', IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 31, no. 9, pp. 6064-6068.
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Lu, G, Wang, G, Wang, P-H, Yang, Z, Yan, H, Ni, W, Zhang, L & Yan, Y-M 2016, 'Enhanced capacitive deionization performance with carbon electrodes prepared with a modified evaporation casting method', Desalination, vol. 386, pp. 32-38.
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Lu, J, Han, J, Hu, Y & Zhang, G 2016, 'Multilevel decision-making: A survey', INFORMATION SCIENCES, vol. 346, pp. 463-487.
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© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Multilevel decision-making techniques aim to deal with decentralized management problems that feature interactive decision entities distributed throughout a multiple level hierarchy. Significant efforts have been devoted to understanding the fundamental concepts and developing diverse solution algorithms associated with multilevel decision-making by researchers in areas of both mathematics/computer science and business areas. Researchers have emphasized the importance of developing a range of multilevel decision-making techniques to handle a wide variety of management and optimization problems in real-world applications, and have successfully gained experience in this area. It is thus vital that a high quality, instructive review of current trends should be conducted, not only of the theoretical research results but also the practical developments in multilevel decision-making in business. This paper systematically reviews up-to-date multilevel decision-making techniques and clusters related technique developments into four main categories: bi-level decision-making (including multi-objective and multi-follower situations), tri-level decision-making, fuzzy multilevel decision-making, and the applications of these techniques in different domains. By providing state-of-the-art knowledge, this survey will directly support researchers and practical professionals in their understanding of developments in theoretical research results and applications in relation to multilevel decision-making techniques.

Lu, M, Liang, J, Wang, Z & Yuan, X 2016, 'Exploring OD patterns of interested region based on taxi trajectories', Journal of Visualization, vol. 19, no. 4, pp. 811-821.
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© 2016, The Visualization Society of Japan. Abstract: Traffics of different regions in a city have different Origin-Destination (OD) patterns, which potentially reveal the surrounding traffic context and social functions. In this work, we present a visual analysis system to explore OD patterns of interested regions based on taxi trajectories. The system integrates interactive trajectory filtering with visual OD patterns exploration. Trajectories related to interested region are selected by a suite of graphical filtering tools, from which OD clusters are detected automatically. OD traffic patterns can be explored at two levels: overview of OD and detailed exploration on dynamic OD patterns, including information of dynamic traffic volume and travel time. By testing on real taxi trajectory data sets, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our system. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]

Lu, M, Sloan, SW, Indraratna, B, Jing, H & Xie, K 2016, 'A new analytical model for consolidation with multiple vertical drains', International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, vol. 40, no. 11, pp. 1623-1640.
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SummaryVarious analytical theories of consolidation for soils with vertical drains have been proposed in the past. Most conventional theories are based on a cylindrical unit cell that contains only a single vertical drain. This paper described a new analytical model where a vertical drain located at the centre (the ‘inner vertical drain’) and is surrounded by two or three vertical drains (the ‘outer vertical drains’), the number of which depends on whether the configuration is triangular or rectangular. Both types of drains are combined into a cylindrical unit cell, and the water is assumed to flow both inwards to the inner vertical drain and outwards to the outer vertical drains distributed around the circumference. The outer radial boundary of the unit cell is regarded as a permeable boundary, with a drainage capacity of two or three separate vertical drains for triangular and rectangular configurations, respectively. The smear effects and the drainage resistances for both the inner and outer vertical drains are considered in the analysis as well. In this way, the equations governing the consolidation process with multiple vertical drains are derived, and the corresponding analytical solutions are obtained for instantaneously loading, ramp loading and multi‐stage of instantaneously loading and multi‐stage of ramp loading. The present solutions are finally compared with several conventional solutions for a single vertical drain in the literature. The results show that the present model predicts the same average degree of consolidation as conventional models do, which verifies the correctness of this new model. Finally, the settlement predicted by the present solution is compared with the measured settlement from a field test at the Port of Brisbane, Australia, which shows a good agreement between them. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Lu, N, Lu, J, Zhang, G & Lopez de Mantaras, R 2016, 'A concept drift-tolerant case-base editing technique', ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, vol. 230, pp. 108-133.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. The evolving nature and accumulating volume of real-world data inevitably give rise to the so-called 'concept drift' issue, causing many deployed Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) systems to require additional maintenance procedures. In Case-base Maintenance (CBM), case-base editing strategies to revise the case-base have proven to be effective instance selection approaches for handling concept drift. Motivated by current issues related to CBR techniques in handling concept drift, we present a two-stage case-base editing technique. In Stage 1, we propose a Noise-Enhanced Fast Context Switch (NEFCS) algorithm, which targets the removal of noise in a dynamic environment, and in Stage 2, we develop an innovative Stepwise Redundancy Removal (SRR) algorithm, which reduces the size of the case-base by eliminating redundancies while preserving the case-base coverage. Experimental evaluations on several public real-world datasets show that our case-base editing technique significantly improves accuracy compared to other case-base editing approaches on concept drift tasks, while preserving its effectiveness on static tasks.

Lu, S, Chen, F, Ngo, HH, Guo, W, Feng, C, Wu, J & Zheng, B 2016, 'Effect of straw and polyacrylamide on the stability of land/water ecotone soil and the field implementation', Ecological Engineering, vol. 94, pp. 12-21.
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Luccio, F, Mans, B, Mathieson, L & Pagli, L 2016, 'Complete Balancing via Rotation', The Computer Journal, vol. 59, no. 8, pp. 1252-1263.
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Luo, L, Jiang, Z, Wei, D, Manabe, K-I, Zhao, X, Wu, D & Furushima, T 2016, 'Effects of surface roughness on micro deep drawing of circular cups with consideration of size effects', Finite Elements in Analysis and Design, vol. 111, pp. 46-55.
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© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Surface roughness, compared with tiny sizes of micro products, can be relatively large and has significant influences on micro forming processes and products' quality. In this study, a voronoi finite element model that considers size effects of material was developed. Next the surface roughness information was assigned to this voronoi model through different elemental thickness distributions. Furthermore, springback simulation was conducted for the micro deep drawn circular cups. Simulation results demonstrate that the surface roughness with consideration of size effects has significant influences on the overall springback, the drawability represented by the minimum thickness and products' quality regarding thickness evenness and shape accuracy. This study also shows that the results from the new models are close to the experimental results concerning the diameter of cup mouth and the maximum drawing force. The developed model for the micro deep drawing is accurate and beneficial for the development of micro deep drawing process.

Luo, L, Wang, XC, Ngo, HH & Guo, W 2016, 'Thermodynamic entropy of organic oxidation in the water environment: experimental evaluation compared to semi-empirical calculation', Environmental Science and Pollution Research, vol. 23, no. 21, pp. 21350-21359.
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Luo, Q & Tong, L 2016, 'Elimination of the Effects of Low Density Elements in Topology Optimization of Buckling Structures', International Journal of Computational Methods, vol. 13, no. 06, pp. 1650041-1650041.
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This paper presents an algorithm for structural topology optimization involving linear buckling. In this algorithm, finite element analysis (FEA) is conducted only in a domain with solid and gray elements, eliminating the contribution of low density elements; and the response function is constructed in the full design domain accounting the contribution of removed low density elements. The errors induced by removing void elements in FEA on eigenvalue and eigenvectors are analyzed. By introducing a dynamic low bound of the first eigenvalue and a load-path coefficient, the algorithm allows converged, nondisjointed and accurate solutions for topology optimization of structures involving buckling. Numerical results are presented for plate and column-beam structures against linear buckling to illustrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the present algorithm. Buckling experiments of the plates manufactured from the obtained topologies further verify the present algorithm.

Luo, Q & Tong, L 2016, 'Solutions for Clamped Adhesively Bonded Single Lap Joint With Movement of Support End and Its Application to a Carbon Nanotube Junction in Tension', The Journal of Adhesion, vol. 92, no. 5, pp. 349-379.
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Luo, S, Yu, H, Zhao, Y, Wang, S, Yu, S & Li, L 2016, 'Towards Practical and Near-Optimal Coflow Scheduling for Data Center Networks', IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, vol. 27, no. 11, pp. 3366-3380.
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In current data centers, an application (e.g., MapReduce, Dryad, search platform, etc.) usually generates a group of parallel flows to complete a job. These flows compose a coflow and only completing them all is meaningful to the application. Accordingly, minimizing the average Coflow Completion Time (CCT) becomes a critical objective of flow scheduling. However, achieving this goal in today's Data Center Networks (DCNs) is quite challenging, not only because the schedule problem is theoretically NP-hard, but also because it is tough to perform practical flow scheduling in large-scale DCNs. In this paper, we find that minimizing the average CCT of a set of coflows is equivalent to the well-known problem of minimizing the sum of completion times in a concurrent open shop. As there are abundant existing solutions for concurrent open shop, we open up a variety of techniques for coflow scheduling. Inspired by the best known result, we derive a 2-approximation algorithm for coflow scheduling, and further develop a decentralized coflow scheduling system, D-CAS, which avoids the system problems associated with current centralized proposals while addressing the performance challenges of decentralized suggestions. Trace-driven simulations indicate that D-CAS achieves a performance close to Varys, the state-of-the-art centralized method, and outperforms Baraat, the only existing decentralized method, significantly.

Luo, W, Hai, FI, Price, WE, Elimelech, M & Nghiem, LD 2016, 'Evaluating ionic organic draw solutes in osmotic membrane bioreactors for water reuse', Journal of Membrane Science, vol. 514, pp. 636-645.
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Luo, W, Hai, FI, Price, WE, Guo, W, Ngo, HH, Yamamoto, K & Nghiem, LD 2016, 'Phosphorus and water recovery by a novel osmotic membrane bioreactor–reverse osmosis system', Bioresource Technology, vol. 200, pp. 297-304.
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Luo, W, Phan, HV, Hai, FI, Price, WE, Guo, W, Ngo, HH, Yamamoto, K & Nghiem, LD 2016, 'Effects of salinity build-up on the performance and bacterial community structure of a membrane bioreactor', Bioresource Technology, vol. 200, pp. 305-310.
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Luo, W, Xie, M, Hai, FI, Price, WE & Nghiem, LD 2016, 'Biodegradation of cellulose triacetate and polyamide forward osmosis membranes in an activated sludge bioreactor: Observations and implications', Journal of Membrane Science, vol. 510, pp. 284-292.
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Luo, X, Xuan, J, Lu, J & Zhang, G 2016, 'Measuring the Semantic Uncertainty of News Events for Evolution Potential Estimation', ACM TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION SYSTEMS, vol. 34, no. 4.
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© 2016 ACM. The evolution potential estimation of news events can support the decision making of both corporations and governments. For example, a corporation could manage its public relations crisis in a timely manner if a negative news event about this corporation is known with large evolution potential in advance. However, existing state-of-the-art methods are mainly based on time series historical data, which are not suitable for the news events with limited historical data and bursty properties. In this article, we propose a purely content-based method to estimate the evolution potential of the news events. The proposed method considers a news event at a given time point as a system composed of different keywords, and the uncertainty of this system is defined and measured as the Semantic Uncertainty of this news event. At the same time, an uncertainty space is constructed with two extreme states: the most uncertain state and the most certain state. We believe that the Semantic Uncertainty has correlation with the content evolution of the news events, so it can be used to estimate the evolution potential of the news events. In order to verify the proposed method, we present detailed experimental setups and results measuring the correlation of the Semantic Uncertainty with the Content Change of news events using collected news events data. The results show that the correlation does exist and is stronger than the correlation of value from the time-series-based method with the Content Change. Therefore, we can use the Semantic Uncertainty to estimate the evolution potential of news events.

Luong, NC, Hoang, DT, Wang, P, Niyato, D, Kim, DI & Han, Z 2016, 'Data Collection and Wireless Communication in Internet of Things (IoT) Using Economic Analysis and Pricing Models: A Survey', IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 2546-2590.
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This paper provides a state-of-the-art literature review on economic analysis and pricing models for data collection and wireless communication in Internet of Things (IoT). Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are the main components of IoT which collect data from the environment and transmit the data to the sink nodes. For long service time and low maintenance cost, WSNs require adaptive and robust designs to address many issues, e.g., data collection, topology formation, packet forwarding, resource and power optimization, coverage optimization, efficient task allocation, and security. For these issues, sensors have to make optimal decisions from current capabilities and available strategies to achieve desirable goals. This paper reviews numerous applications of the economic and pricing models, known as intelligent rational decision-making methods, to develop adaptive algorithms and protocols for WSNs. Besides, we survey a variety of pricing strategies in providing incentives for phone users in crowdsensing applications to contribute their sensing data. Furthermore, we consider the use of some pricing models in machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. Finally, we highlight some important open research issues as well as future research directions of applying economic and pricing models to IoT.

Lyu, H, Gong, Y, Tang, J, Huang, Y & Wang, Q 2016, 'Immobilization of heavy metals in electroplating sludge by biochar and iron sulfide', Environmental Science and Pollution Research, vol. 23, no. 14, pp. 14472-14488.
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Electroplating sludge (ES) containing large quantities of heavy metals is regarded as a hazardous waste in China. This paper introduced a simple method of treating ES using environmentally friendly fixatives biochar (BC) and iron sulfide (FeS), respectively. After 3 days of treatment with FeS at a FeS-to-ES mass ratio of 1:5, the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP)-based leachability of total Cr (TCr), Cu(II), Ni(II), Pb(II), and Zn(II) was decreased by 59.6, 100, 63.8, 73.5, and 90.5 %, respectively. After 5 days of treatment with BC at a BC-to-ES mass ratio of 1:2, the TCLP-based leachability was declined by 35.1, 30.6, 22.3, 23.1, and 22.4 %, respectively. Pseudo first-order kinetic model adequately simulated the sorption kinetic data. Structure and morphology analysis showed that adsorption, electrostatic attraction, surface complexation, and chemical precipitation were dominant mechanisms for heavy metals immobilization by BC, and that chemical precipitation (formation of metal sulfide and hydroxide precipitates), iron exchange (formation of CuFeS2), and surface complexation were mainly responsible for heavy metals removal by FeS. Economic costs of BC and FeS were 500 and 768 CNY/t, lower than that of Na2S (940 CNY/t). The results suggest that BC and FeS are effective, economic, and environmentally friendly fixatives for immobilization of heavy metals in ES before landfill disposal.

Lyu, M, Zhu, X & Yang, Q 2016, 'Dynamic field monitoring data analysis of an ancient wooden building in seismic and operational environments', Earthquakes and Structures, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 1043-1060.
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The engineering background of this article is an ancient wooden building with extremely high historic and cultural values in Tibet. A full understanding of the dynamic behaviour of this historic building under in-service environments is the basis to assess the condition of the structure, especially its responses to earthquake, environmental and operational loading. A dynamic monitoring system has been installed in the building for over one year and the large amounts of high quality data have been obtained. The paper aims at studying the dynamic behaviour of the wooden building in seismic and operational conditions using the field monitoring data. Specifically the effects of earthquake and crowd loading on the structure's dynamic response are investigated. The monitoring data are decomposed into principal components using the Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA) technique. The relationship between the average acceleration amplitude and frequencies of the principle components and operational conditions has been discussed. One main contribution is to understand the health condition of complex ancient building based on large databases collected on the field.

Ma, C, Xu, X, Wang, F, Zhou, Z, Wen, S, Liu, D, Fang, J, Lang, CI & Jin, D 2016, 'Probing the Interior Crystal Quality in the Development of More Efficient and Smaller Upconversion Nanoparticles', The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, vol. 7, no. 16, pp. 3252-3258.
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© 2016 American Chemical Society. Optical biomedical imaging using luminescent nanoparticles as contrast agents prefers small size, as they can be used at high dosages and efficiently cleared from body. Reducing nanoparticle size is critical for the stability and specificity for the fluorescence nanoparticles probes for in vitro diagnostics and subcellular imaging. The development of smaller and brighter upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) is accordingly a goal for complex imaging in bioenvironments. At present, however, small UCNPs are reported to exhibit less emission intensity due to increased surface deactivation and decreased number of dopants. Here we show that smaller and more efficient UCNPs can be made by improving the interior crystal quality via controlling heating rate during synthesis. We further developed a unique quantitative method for optical characterizations on the single UCNPs with varied sizes and the corresponding shell passivated UCNPs, confirming that the internal crystal quality dominates the relative emission efficiency of the UCNPs.

Ma, J, Ni, W, Yin, J, Liu, RP, Yuan, Y & Fang, B 2016, 'Modeling Mobile Cellular Networks Based on Social Characteristics', International Journal of Computers Communications & Control, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 480-480.
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Social characteristics have become an important aspect of cellular systems, particularly in next generation networks where cells are miniaturised and social effects can have considerable impacts on network operations. Traffic load demonstrates strong spatial and temporal fluctuations caused by users social activities. In this article, we introduce a new modelling method which integrates the social aspects of individual cells in modelling cellular networks. In the new method, entropy based social characteristics and time sequences of traffic fluctuations are defined as key measures, and jointly evaluated. Spectral clustering techniques can be extended and applied to categorise cells based on these key parameters. Based on the social characteristics respectively, we implement multi-dimensional clustering technologies, and categorize the base stations. Experimental studies are carried out to validate our proposed model, and the effectiveness of the model is confirmed through the consistency between measurements and model. In practice, our modelling method can be used for network planning and parameter dimensioning to facilitate cellular network design, deployments and operations.

Ma, Q, Zhang, S, Zhou, W, Yu, S & Wang, C 2016, 'When Will You Have a New Mobile Phone? An Empirical Answer From Big Data', IEEE Access, vol. 4, pp. 10147-10157.
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When and why people change their mobile phones are important issues in mobile communications industry, because it will impact greatly on the marketing strategy and revenue estimation for both mobile operators and manufactures. It is a promising way to take use of big data to analyze and predict the phone changing event. In this paper, based on mobile user big data, first through statistical analysis, we find that three important probability distributions, i.e., power-law, log-normal, and geometric distribution, play an important role in the user behaviors. Second, the relationships between eight selected attributes and phone changing are built, for example, young people have greater intention to change their phones if they are using the phones belonging to the low occupancy phones or feature phones. Third, we verified the performance of four prediction models on phone changing event under three scenarios. Information gain ratio was used to implement attribute selection and then sampling method, cost-sensitive together with standard classifiers were used to solve imbalanced phone changing event. Experiment results show our proposed enhanced backpropagation neural network in the undersampling scenario can attain better prediction performance.

Ma, X, Jackson, T, Zhou, H, Chen, J, Lu, D, Mazurek, MD, Fisher, KAG, Peng, X, Kribs, D, Resch, KJ, Ji, Z, Zeng, B & Laflamme, R 2016, 'Pure State Tomography with Pauli Measurements', Phys. Rev. A, vol. 93, no. 3, p. 032140.
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We examine the problem of finding the minimum number of Pauli measurementsneeded to uniquely determine an arbitrary $n$-qubit pure state among allquantum states. We show that only $11$ Pauli measurements are needed todetermine an arbitrary two-qubit pure state compared to the full quantum statetomography with $16$ measurements, and only $31$ Pauli measurements are neededto determine an arbitrary three-qubit pure state compared to the full quantumstate tomography with $64$ measurements. We demonstrate that our protocol isrobust under depolarizing error with simulated random pure states. Weexperimentally test the protocol on two- and three-qubit systems with nuclearmagnetic resonance techniques. We show that the pure state tomography protocolsaves us a number of measurements without considerable loss of fidelity. Wecompare our protocol with same-size sets of randomly selected Pauli operatorsand find that our selected set of Pauli measurements significantly outperformsthose random sampling sets. As a direct application, our scheme can also beused to reduce the number of settings needed for pure-state tomography inquantum optical systems.

Ma, XY, Wang, XC, Wang, D, Ngo, HH, Zhang, Q, Wang, Y & Dai, D 2016, 'Function of a landscape lake in the reduction of biotoxicity related to trace organic chemicals from reclaimed water', Journal of Hazardous Materials, vol. 318, pp. 663-670.
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Mahdavi, H, Fatahi, B, Khabbaz, H, Vincent, P & Kelly, R 2016, 'Comparison of Coupled Flow-deformation and Drained Analyses for Road Embankments on CMC Improved Ground', Procedia Engineering, vol. 143, pp. 462-469.
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© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. The use of controlled modulus columns (CMC) is gaining increased popularity in the support of rail and road bridge approach embankments on soft soils. The further columns are driven into the competent firm soils, the further the design will rely on the inclusions to take the bulk of the vertical loads, as they become rigid inclusions. The advantage of this design approach is that it produces increased control over the settlement, but as a result the columns will attract greater loads, including bending moment and shear force in situations where non-uniform loading or ground conditions exist. The load on the composite soil-CMC is uniformly distributed by the upper layer of granular load transfer platform (LTP), which also includes a layer of reinforcement. Finite difference program FLAC3D has been used to numerically simulate an embankment on the improved ground with end-bearing CMC. A geosynthetic reinforcement layer has been simulated using the inbuilt FLAC3D geogrid element. In this paper, a comparison has been made between the drained and coupled flow-deformation analyses. The force in the reinforcement layer, in particular, has been compared for the two analysis approaches. It was found that according to the numerical simulation, the drained analysis provides lower estimates of the settlement, lateral displacement; and therefore, predicts less tension in the geosynthetic layer.

Mahidin, M, Gani, A, Hani, MR, Syukur, M, Hamdani, H, Khairil, K, Rizal, S, Hadi, A & Mahlia, TMI 2016, 'Use of Green Mussel Shell as a Desulfurizer in the Blending of Low Rank Coal-Biomass Briquette Combustion', Makara Journal of Technology, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 97-97.
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Majeed, T, Phuntsho, S, Chekli, L, Lee, S-H, Kim, K & Shon, HK 2016, 'Role of various physical and chemical techniques for hollow fibre forward osmosis membrane cleaning', DESALINATION AND WATER TREATMENT, vol. 57, no. 17, pp. 7742-7752.
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© 2015 Balaban Desalination Publications. All rights reserved. Fouling is an inevitable phenomenon with most of the water treatment systems. Similar to RO, NF and other membrane-based systems, fouling also seriously affects the performance of low-cost forward-osmosis (FO) systems and disturbs the overall efficiency of these systems, and various cleaning practices have been evaluated to restore their designed performances. This study evaluates the performance of various physical and chemical cleaning techniques for hollow fibre forward-osmosis (HFFO) membrane. HFFO membrane was subjected to various fouling conditions using different brackish groundwater qualities and model organic foulants such as alginate, humic acid and bovine serum albumin. Results indicated that physical cleaning affects differently the flux restoration according to the type of foulants (i.e. inorganic or organic) and the crossflow rates play an important role in membrane cleaning in both membrane orientation. The higher cross flow Re values at any particular area seem important for the cleaning. With hydraulic flushing, the flux performances of HFFO were recovered fully when operated in AL-FS orientation, as high shear force helps to detach all scaling layers from the surface; however, the lower shear force did not fully restore the flux for the FS membrane in AL-DS orientation. Chemical cleaning was planned for the fouled HFFO membrane, and HCl and NaOH were used in various combination sequences. It was found that HCl did not clean the membrane used for AL-DS orientation for combined fouling. HCl cleaning (at pH 2) was found to be more effective for removing inorganic scale, whereas NaOH cleaning (at pH 11) for a similar period successfully restored the flux for all the membranes used for FS with inorganic and/or organic foulants. ethylenediamine tetra acetic acid (EDTA) was also evaluated for its cleaning performances and it was found that compared to NaOH, EDTA cleaning (1 mM con...

Majeed, T, Phuntsho, S, Jeong, S, Zhao, Y, Gao, B & Shon, HK 2016, 'Understanding the risk of scaling and fouling in hollow fiber forward osmosis membrane application', Process Safety and Environmental Protection, vol. 104, pp. 452-464.
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© 2016 Institution of Chemical Engineers Fouling studies of forward osmosis (FO) were mostly conducted based on fouling evaluation principals applied to pressure membrane processes such as reverse osmosis (RO)/nanofiltration (NF)/microfiltration (MF)/ultrafiltration (UF). For RO/NF/MF/UF processes, the single flux driving force (hydraulic pressure) remains constant, thus the fouling effect is easily evaluated by comparing flux data with the baseline. Whilst, the scenario of fouling effects for FO process is entirely different from RO/NF/MF/UF processes. Continuously changing driving force (osmotic pressure difference), the changes in concentration polarization associated with the varying draw solution/feed solution concentration and the fouling layer effects collectively influence the FO flux. Thus, usual comparison of the FO flux outcome with the baseline results cannot exactly indicate the real affect of membrane fouling, rather presents a misleading cumulative effect. This study compares the existing FO fouling technique with an alternate fouling evaluation approach using two FO set-ups. Scaling and fouling risk for hollow fiber FO was separately investigated using synthetic water samples and model organic foulants as alginate, humic acid and bovine serum albumin. Results indicated that FO flux declines up to 5% and 49% in active layer-feed solution and active layer-draw solution orientations respectively.

Majumdar, B & Esselle, KP 2016, 'A dual-mode reconfigurable patch antenna and an extended transmission line model', Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, vol. 58, no. 1, pp. 57-61.
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Majumdar, B & Esselle, KP 2016, 'EXTENDED TRANSMISSION-LINE MODELLING OF INSET-FED RECONFIGURABLE RECTANGULAR MICROSTRIP ANTENNAS', Progress In Electromagnetics Research B, vol. 68, no. 1, pp. 123-140.
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An extended transmission-line model is presented for an inset-fed rectangular microstrip patch antenna. The transmission-line model agrees to the cos4 impedance variation for inset-fed microstrip antennas with an addition of a corrective extended feed length upto the inner radiating edge. Verification of the model's complex reflection coefficient is concluded with good agreements with measured results. Further extension of the transmission-line model with for or more thin shorting post connected to multiple varactor diodes have been conducted. Fourty two test cases across five independent antenna designs have been worked upon. Results obtained using the transmission-line model are compared with those obtained with a 3D full-wave solver and measurements. In 69% of the test cases, the transmission-line models have less than 3% deviation to the measured or simulated results. 41% of them have less than 1% deviation. For the first two antennas, both simulated and measured results were compared with the transmission-line model. For the rest of three, results from the transmission-line model were compared to the simulated ones.

Majumdar, B & Esselle, KP 2016, 'Fixed frequency broadside–endfire beam steerable antennas', Electronics Letters, vol. 52, no. 15, pp. 1282-1284.
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Majumdar, B, Baer, D, Chakraborty, S, Esselle, KP & Heimlich, M 2016, 'ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING OF A DUAL-RIDGED HORN ANTENNA', Progress In Electromagnetics Research Letters, vol. 59, pp. 109-114.
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© 2016, Electromagnetics Academy. All rights reserved. A 3D printed dual-ridged horn antenna (DRHA) is presented. The antenna design is optimized for additive manufacturing and is 3D printed using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and then painted with nickel based aerosol spray. The coaxial transition is also included in the 3D printed prototype. The antenna was manufactured with the intention of improving learning and education of electromagnetism and antennas for undergraduate students using a low-cost personal desktop 3D printer. The painted DRHA has a 10 dB return-loss bandwidth of 6621 MHz (1905 MHz–8526 MHz) with a peak gain of 11 dBi. This prototype is the first known ABS-based horn antenna with the coaxial transition embedded into it.

Majumdar, B, Baer, D, Chakraborty, S, Esselle, KP & Heimlich, M 2016, 'Advantages and limitations of 3D printing a dual‐ridged horn antenna', Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, vol. 58, no. 9, pp. 2110-2117.
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ABSTRACTConventional and additive manufacturing (three‐dimensional [3D] printing) techniques for a dual‐ridged horn antenna (DRHA) are presented. The different aspects of the conventional manufacturing of a DRHA and the limitations incurred during additive manufacturing are discussed in detail. The antenna design was further optimized for fused deposition modeling and was 3D printed using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). The polymer‐based print was painted with nickel‐based aerosol spray. The coaxial transition is also included in the 3D printed prototype. The antenna was manufactured with the intention of improving the learning and education of electromagnetism and antennas of undergraduate students using a low‐cost personal desktop 3D printer. The painted DRHA has a 10 dB return‐loss bandwidth of 6621 MHz (1905–8526 MHz) with a peak gain of 11 dBi. The average cross‐polarization isolation achieved was more than 25 dB. Rapid prototyping was possible with additive manufacturing, and limitations were addressed with conventional machining processes whenever required. This prototype is the first known ABS‐based horn antenna with the coaxial transition embedded into it. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:2110–2117, 2016

Makki Alamdari, M, Samali, B, Li, J, Kalhori, H & Mustapha, S 2016, 'Spectral-Based Damage Identification in Structures under Ambient Vibration', Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 04015062-04015062.
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Malomo, L, Pietroni, N, Bickel, B & Cignoni, P 2016, 'FlexMolds: automatic design of flexible shells for molding.', ACM Trans. Graph., vol. 35, pp. 223:1-223:1.
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Marjanovic, O 2016, 'Using Collaborative Visual Analytics for Innovative Industry-inspired Learning Activities.', CoRR, vol. abs/1606.01427.
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Inspired by leading industry practices, this paper describes an innovative learning activity designed to combine data visualisation and cross-functional collaboration supported by enterprise social media. The activity is structured around sharing, co-creation and negotiation of departmental/disciplinary insights across data silos, using both internal and external data. In addition to giving students access to state-of-the-art tools for visualisation (SAS-VA) and collaboration (Yammer), an even more important educational objective is to expose students to the complexities of deriving information (i.e. meaning) from enterprise-wide (meaning-free) data stored by business intelligence & analytics systems. This human-driven and human-centric process of making sense of data in context requires collaboration across functional silos, especially when dealing with complex multi-disciplinary challenges. Starting from an industry-informed business scenario, the paper describes the main steps of an innovative data visualisation and collaboration activity, discusses possible alternative software platforms and offers some ideas for the future work.

Marjanovic, O & Murthy, V 2016, 'From product-centric to customer-centric services in a financial institution - exploring the organizational challenges of the transition process', INFORMATION SYSTEMS FRONTIERS, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 479-497.
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Masjuki, HH, Ruhul, AM, Mustafi, NN, Kalam, MA, Arbab, MI & Rizwanul Fattah, IM 2016, 'Study of production optimization and effect of hydroxyl gas on a CI engine performance and emission fueled with biodiesel blends', International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, vol. 41, no. 33, pp. 14519-14528.
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Depletion and environmental impacts of the fossil fuel are the major concerns to think about the alternative energy sources to reduce the load on petroleum fuel. Researchers worldwide are working years to improve the biodiesel fuel economy and emission characteristic. At the same time, they are working on fuel development so that can be used in the IC engine without significant modification in vehicle design. Among different alternative fuels biodiesel as well as hydroxyl gas (HHO, also known as Oxyhydrogen gas) are renewable, recyclable and non-polluting fuel. In this study, HHO gas has been introduced with ordinary diesel (OD) and 20% (v/v) palm biodiesel blended with OD (PB20) for evaluating the engine performance and emission characteristics. Optimum yield of HHO was found using single anode and two cathodes from a solution containing 1% KOH and 100 ml of water producing 2150 cc of HHO gas when electrolysis was carried out for 15 min. Using the HHO generator, about 2% more power and 5% less consumption was observed for biodiesel blended fuel in a single cylinder CI engine at full load variable speed operating conditions. Besides, on an average 20% and 10% reduction of CO and HC emission were observed respectively.

Mathieson, L 2016, 'Synergies in critical reflective practice and science: Science as reflection and reflection as science', Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 1-13.
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The conceptions of reflective practice in education have their roots at least partly in the work of Dewey, who describes reflection as “the active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends” (Dewey 1933, p.9). This conception of reflection has carried on into more-focused efforts to describe critical reflection as a tool for improving professional practice (where academic and educational practice is the particular interest of this study); “… some puzzling or troubling or interesting phenomenon” allows the practitioner to access “the understandings which have been implicit in his action, understandings which he surfaces, criticizes, restructures, and embodies in further action” (Schön 1983, p. 50). Both of these descriptions embody a central idea of critical reflective practice: that the examination of practice involves the divination (in a rational, critical sense) of order and perhaps meaning from the facts at hand (which, in turn, are brought to light by the events that occur as the results of implementation of theory). As part of a lecture series, Gottlieb defined science as “an intellectual activity carried out by humans to understand the structure and functions of the world in which they live” (Gottlieb 1997). While science and critical reflective practice attempt to build models about different parts of our world – the natural world and the world of professional (educational) practice respectively – both embody certain underlying aims and methodologies. Indeed, it is striking that in these definitions the simple replacement of the terminology of reflective practice with the terminology of science (or vice versa) leads to a perfectly comprehensible definition of either.It is this confluence that this paper studies, building from two separate foundations, critical reflective practice and science. Via their models and exem...

Matin, SS & Chelgani, SC 2016, 'Estimation of coal gross calorific value based on various analyses by random forest method', Fuel, vol. 177, pp. 274-278.
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Matin, SS, Hower, JC, Farahzadi, L & Chelgani, SC 2016, 'Explaining relationships among various coal analyses with coal grindability index by Random Forest', International Journal of Mineral Processing, vol. 155, pp. 140-146.
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McGahan, WT, Ernst, H & Dyson, LE 2016, 'Individual Learning Strategies and Choice in Student-Generated Multimedia', International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 1-18.
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There has been an increasing focus on student-generated multimedia assessment as a way of introducing the benefits of both visual literacy and peer-mediated learning into university courses. One such assessment was offered to first-year health science students but, contrary to expectations, led to poorer performance in their end-of-semester examinations. Following an analysis, the assignment was redesigned to offer students a choice of either a group-based animation task or an individual written task. Results showed improved performance on the assignment when students were offered a choice of assignments over when they were offered only the multimedia assignment. Student feedback indicated that students adopt deliberate individual learning strategies when offered choices in assessment. The study suggests that assumptions regarding the superiority of student-generated multimedia over more traditional assessments are not always correct, but that students' agency and individual preferences need to be recognized.

McKenzie, TG, Costa, LPDM, Fu, Q, Dunstan, DE & Qiao, GG 2016, 'Investigation into the photolytic stability of RAFT agents and the implications for photopolymerization reactions', Polymer Chemistry, vol. 7, no. 25, pp. 4246-4253.
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The photolytic stability of RAFT agents under blue LED irradiation has been investigated with regard to photopolymerization reactions.

McKenzie, TG, Fu, Q, Uchiyama, M, Satoh, K, Xu, J, Boyer, C, Kamigaito, M & Qiao, GG 2016, 'Beyond Traditional RAFT: Alternative Activation of Thiocarbonylthio Compounds for Controlled Polymerization', Advanced Science, vol. 3, no. 9, pp. 1500394-1500394.
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Recent developments in polymerization reactions utilizing thiocarbonylthio compounds have highlighted the surprising versatility of these unique molecules. The increasing popularity of reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) radical polymerization as a means of producing well‐defined, ‘controlled’ synthetic polymers is largely due to its simplicity of implementation and the availability of a wide range of compatible reagents. However, novel modes of thiocarbonylthio activation can expand the technique beyond the traditional system (i.e., employing a free radical initiator) pushing the applicability and use of thiocarbonylthio compounds even further than previously assumed. The primary advances seen in recent years are a revival in the direct photoactivation of thiocarbonylthio compounds, their activation via photoredox catalysis, and their use in cationic polymerizations. These synthetic approaches and their implications for the synthesis of controlled polymers represent a significant advance in polymer science, with potentially unforeseen benefits and possibilities for further developments still ahead. This Research News aims to highlight key works in this area while also clarifying the differences and similarities of each system.

Merenda, A, Ligneris, ED, Sears, K, Chaffraix, T, Magniez, K, Cornu, D, Schütz, JA & Dumée, LF 2016, 'Assessing the temporal stability of surface functional groups introduced by plasma treatments on the outer shells of carbon nanotubes', Scientific Reports, vol. 6, no. 1, p. 31565.
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AbstractPlasma treatments are emerging as superior efficiency treatment for high surface to volume ratio materials to tune functional group densities and alter crystallinity due to their ability to interact with matter at the nanoscale. The purpose of this study is to assess for the first time the long term stability of surface functional groups introduced across the surface of carbon nanotube materials for a series of oxidative, reductive and neutral plasma treatment conditions. Both plasma duration dose matrix based exposures and time decay experiments, whereby the surface energy of the materials was evaluated periodically over a one-month period, were carried out. Although only few morphological changes across the graphitic planes of the carbon nanotubes were found under the uniform plasma treatment conditions, the time dependence of pertinent work functions, supported by Raman analysis, suggested that the density of polar groups decreased non-linearly over time prior to reaching saturation from 7 days post treatment. This work provides critical considerations on the understanding of the stability of functional groups introduced across high specific surface area nano-materials used for the design of nano-composites, adsorptive or separation systems, or sensing materials and where interfacial interactions are key to the final materials performance.

Merigó, JM & Núñez, A 2016, 'Influential journals in health research: a bibliometric study', Globalization and Health, vol. 12, no. 1, p. 46.
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Background

There is a wide range of intellectual work written about health research, which has been shaped by the evolution of diseases. This study aims to identify the leading journals over the last 25 years (1990-2014) according to a wide range of bibliometric indicators.

Methods

The study develops a bibliometric overview of all the journals that are currently indexed in Web of Science (WoS) database in any of the four categories connected to health research. The work classifies health research in nine subfields: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health, Health Management and Economics, Health Promotion and Health Behavior, Epidemiology, Health Policy and Services, Medicine, Health Informatics, Engineering and Technology, and Primary Care.

Results

The results indicate a wide dispersion between categories being the American Journal of Epidemiology, Environmental Health Perspectives, American Journal of Public Health, and Social Science & Medicine, the journals that have received the highest number of citations over the last 25 years. According to other indicators such as the h-index and the citations per paper, some other journals such as the Annual Review of Public Health and Medical Care, obtain better results which show the wide diversity and profiles of outlets available in the scientific community. The results are grouped and studied according to the nine subfields in order to identify the leading journals in each specific sub discipline of health.

Conclusions

The work identifies the leading journals in health research through a bibliometric approach. The analysis shows a deep overview of the results of health journals. It is worth noting that many journals have entered the WoS database during the last years, in many cases to fill some specific niche that has emerged in the literature, although the most popular ones have been in the database for a long time.

Merigó, JM, Cancino, CA, Coronado, F & Urbano, D 2016, 'Academic research in innovation: a country analysis', Scientometrics, vol. 108, no. 2, pp. 559-593.
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Merigó, JM, Gil-Lafuente, AM & Gil-Lafuente, J 2016, 'Business, industrial marketing and uncertainty', Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 325-327.
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PurposeThis special issue of the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, entitled “Business, Industrial Marketing and Uncertainty”, presents selected extended studies that were presented at the European Academy of Management and Business Economics Conference (AEDEM 2012).Design/methodology/approachThe main focus of this year was reflected in the slogan: “Creating new opportunities in an uncertain environment”. The objective was to show the importance that uncertainty has in our current world, strongly affected by many complexities and modern developments, especially through the new technological advances.FindingsOne fundamental reason that explains the economic crisis is that the government and companies were not well prepared for these critical situations. And the main justification for this is that they did not have enough information. Otherwise, they would have tried any possible strategy to avoid the crisis. Usually, uncertainty is defined as the situation with unknown information in the environment.Originality/valueFrom a theoretical perspective, the problem here is that enterprises and governments should assess the information and the uncertainty in a more appropriate way. Usually, they have some studies in this direction, but many times, it is not enough, as it was proved in the last economic crisis.

Merigó, JM, Palacios-Marqués, D & Ribeiro-Navarrete, B 2016, 'Corrigendum to “Aggregation systems for sales forecasting” [J. Bus. Res. 68(11) (2015) 2299–2304]', Journal of Business Research, vol. 69, no. 6, pp. 2325-2325.
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Merigó, JM, Palacios-Marqués, D & Zeng, S 2016, 'Subjective and objective information in linguistic multi-criteria group decision making', European Journal of Operational Research, vol. 248, no. 2, pp. 522-531.
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Linguistic decision making systems represent situations that cannot be assessed with numerical information but it is possible to use linguistic variables. This paper introduces new linguistic aggregation operators in order to develop more efficient decision making systems. The linguistic probabilistic weighted average (LPWA) is presented. Its main advantage is that it considers subjective and objective information in the same formulation and considering the degree of importance that each concept has in the aggregation. A key feature of the LPWA operator is that it considers a wide range of linguistic aggregation operators including the linguistic weighted average, the linguistic probabilistic aggregation and the linguistic average. Further generalizations are presented by using quasi-arithmetic means and moving averages. An application in linguistic multi-criteria group decision making under subjective and objective risk is also presented in the context of the European Union law.

Merigó, JM, Peris-Ortíz, M, Navarro-García, A & Rueda-Armengot, C 2016, 'Aggregation operators in economic growth analysis and entrepreneurial group decision-making', Applied Soft Computing, vol. 47, pp. 141-150.
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© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. An economic crisis can be measured from different perspectives. A very commonly used measure is that of a country's economic growth. When growth is lower than desired, the economy is assumed to be near stagnation or in an economic recession. This paper connects entrepreneurship and economic growth in decision-making problems assessed with modern aggregation systems. Aggregation techniques can represent information more comprehensively in uncertain and imprecise environments. This paper suggests several practical aggregation operators for this purpose, such as the ordered weighted average and the probabilistic ordered weighted averaging weighted average. Other aggregation systems based on macroeconomic theory are also introduced. The paper concludes with an application in an entrepreneurial uncertain multi-criteria multi-person decision-making problem regarding the selection of optimal markets for creating a new company. This approach is based on the use of economic growth as the fundamental variable for determining the preferred solution.

MERIGÓ, JM, ROCAFORT, A & AZNAR-ALARCÓN, JP 2016, 'BIBLIOMETRIC OVERVIEW OF BUSINESS & ECONOMICS RESEARCH', Journal of Business Economics and Management, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 397-413.
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Bibliometrics is the quantitative study of bibliographic information. It classifies the information according to different criteria including authors, journals, institutions and countries. This paper presents a general bibliometric overview of the most influential research in business & economics according to the information found in the Web of Science. It includes research from different subcategories including business, business finance, economics and management. For doing so, four general lists are presented: the 50 most cited papers in business & economics of all time, the 40 most influential journals, the 40 most relevant institutions and the most influential countries. The results permit to obtain a general picture of the most significant research in business & economics. This information is very useful in order to identify the leading trends in this area.

Merigó, JM, Yang, J-B & Xu, D-L 2016, 'Demand Analysis with Aggregation Systems', International Journal of Intelligent Systems, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 425-443.
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Mesgari, S, Taylor, RA, Hjerrild, NE, Crisostomo, F, Li, Q & Scott, J 2016, 'An investigation of thermal stability of carbon nanofluids for solar thermal applications', Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, vol. 157, pp. 652-659.
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Carbon nanofluids are engineered materials with controllable thermal and optical properties. Stable, high temperature operation (>20) of these fluids would enable them to improve upon – and eventually replace – pure fluids in many important commercial and industrial applications including applications in solar thermal collectors. To date, however, much of the nanofluids research focuses on low temperature (<100 °C) applications and testing. For solar thermal collector applications, carbon nanofluids are uniquely well-suited due to their high absorptivity over the entire solar spectral range. This study pushes well beyond the 100 °C mark by conducting a range of experiments to identify appropriate base fluids and functionalization methods to produce stable carbon nanotube (CNT)-based nanofluid dispersions at temperatures of up to 250 °C to ensure their suitability for industrial heating applications (typically 100–250 °C). Different forms of CNTs including, single-walled carbon nanotubes, double-walled carbon nanotubes and multi-walled carbon nanotubes were chemically functionalized to obtain stable dispersions in water, glycol and Therminol (a synthetic heat transfer oil). The stability of chemically functionalized carbon nanotube dispersions at different temperatures, 20, 80, 100, 150, 200 and 250 °C, was investigated. The results of broadband UV–VIS–NIR spectroscopy showed no agglomeration in mildly oxidized multi-walled carbon nanotubes dispersed in Therminol when heated to 250 °C, highlighting this low-cost composite medium as a potential candidate for use in high temperature nanofluid-based solar thermal collectors.

Meter, RV & Devitt, SJ 2016, 'Local and Distributed Quantum Computation', IEEE Computer 49(9), 31-42, Sept. 2016, vol. 49, no. 9, pp. 31-42.
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Experimental groups are now fabricating quantum processors powerful enough toexecute small instances of quantum algorithms and definitively demonstratequantum error correction that extends the lifetime of quantum data, addingurgency to architectural investigations. Although other options continue to beexplored, effort is coalescing around topological coding models as the mostpractical implementation option for error correction on realizablemicroarchitectures. Scalability concerns have also motivated architects topropose distributed memory multicomputer architectures, with experimentalefforts demonstrating some of the basic building blocks to make such designspossible. We compile the latest results from a variety of different systemsaiming at the construction of a scalable quantum computer.

Metia, S, Oduro, SD, Duc, HN & Ha, Q 2016, 'Inverse Air-Pollutant Emission and Prediction Using Extended Fractional Kalman Filtering', IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND REMOTE SENSING, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 2051-2063.
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© 2016 IEEE. It is essential to maintain air-quality standards and to take necessary measures when air-pollutant concentrations exceed permissible limits. Pollutants such as ground-level ozone (O3), nitrogen oxides (NOX), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from various sources can be estimated at a particular location through integration of observation data obtained from measurement sites and effective air-quality models, using emission inventory data as input. However, there are always uncertainties associated with the emission inventory data as well as uncertainties generated by a meteorological model. This paper addresses the problem of improving the inverse air pollution emission and prediction over the urban and suburban areas using the air-pollution model with chemical transport model (TAPM-CTM) coupled with the extended fractional Kalman filter (EFKF) based on a Matérn covariance function. Here, nitrogen oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and O3 concentrations are predicted by TAPM-CTM in the airshed of Sydney and surrounding areas. For improvement of the emission inventory, and hence the air-quality prediction, the fractional order of the EFKF is tuned using a genetic algorithm (GA). The proposed methodology is verified with measurements at monitoring stations and is then applied to obtain a better spatial distribution of O3 over the region.

Milano, J, Ong, HC, Masjuki, HH, Chong, WT, Lam, MK, Loh, PK & Vellayan, V 2016, 'Microalgae biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuel for power generation', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 58, pp. 180-197.
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Mirmomeni, M, Heidarpour, A, Zhao, X-L, Hutchinson, CR, Packer, JA & Wu, C 2016, 'Fracture behaviour and microstructural evolution of structural mild steel under the multi-hazard loading of high-strain-rate load followed by elevated temperature', Construction and Building Materials, vol. 122, pp. 760-771.
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Mishra, N, Boeckl, J, Motta, N & Iacopi, F 2016, 'Graphene growth on silicon carbide: A review', physica status solidi (a), vol. 213, no. 9, pp. 2277-2289.
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Graphene has been widely heralded over the last decade as one of the most promising nanomaterials for integrated, miniaturized applications spanning from nanoelectronics, interconnections, thermal management, sensing, to optoelectronics. Graphene grown on silicon carbide is currently the most likely candidate to fulfill this promise. As a matter of fact, the capability to synthesize high‐quality graphene over large areas using processes and substrates compatible as much as possible with the well‐established semiconductor manufacturing technologies is one crucial requirement. We review here, the enormous scientific and technological advances achieved in terms of epitaxial growth of graphene from thermal decomposition of bulk silicon carbide and the fine control of the graphene electronic properties through intercalation. Finally, we discuss perspectives on epitaxial graphene growth from silicon carbide on silicon, a particularly challenging area that could result in maximum benefit for the integration of graphene with silicon technologies.

Mishra, N, Boeckl, J, Motta, N & Iacopi, F 2016, 'Graphene growth on silicon carbide: A review (Phys. Status Solidi A 9∕2016)', physica status solidi (a), vol. 213, no. 9, pp. 2269-2269.
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Mofijur, M, Rasul, MG, Hyde, J, Azad, AK, Mamat, R & Bhuiya, MMK 2016, 'Role of biofuel and their binary (diesel–biodiesel) and ternary (ethanol–biodiesel–diesel) blends on internal combustion engines emission reduction', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 53, pp. 265-278.
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Exhaust emission from transportation sector affects the human health. It is the main contributor to degrade the air quality. Biofuel is promising alternative to maintain both human health and environment quality better by reducing harmful emission from biofuel runs diesel engines. This study explores the global and Australian greenhouse gas (GHG) emission scenario along with the contribution of transportation sector to the GHG emission in Australia. Besides, the world biofuel standard with the target and mandate taken by the government of different countries to use biofuel are also discussed in the paper. This review indicated that engine emission is dependant on some factors such as engine operating condition, biofuel types, blending etc. Both biodiesel-diesel and ethanol-biodiesel-diesel blending plays a significant role in reducing the exhaust gas emission such as carbon monoxides (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), particulate matter (PM). But ethanol-biodiesel-diesel and biodiesel-diesel blends produce higher carbon dioxides emission, which is absorbed by the crops and considered as lower net CO2 emission. Finally, about 5-10% of ethanol with 20-25% biodiesel can be added with petro-diesel effectively and efficiently to reduce global GHG emission, thus to maintain environment and human health better.

Mohammadi, I, Khabbaz, H & Vessalas, K 2016, 'Enhancing mechanical performance of rubberised concrete pavements with sodium hydroxide treatment', MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 813-827.
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© 2015, RILEM. This research evaluates performance of rubberised concrete prepared with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) treated rubber. Numerous studies have investigated the method of treating rubber with NaOH. However, the level of improvement achieved by this method has not been consistent between different studies. Hence, it is worthwhile to study application of this treatment method. Ten series of concrete specimens with different water cement ratios and a variety of rubber content were prepared. The fresh and hardened mechanical tests were conducted on concrete samples. It was found that the duration of 24 h for treatment of crumb rubber was the most promised duration, which resulted in favourable fresh and hardened concrete characteristics. Compared to rubberised concrete prepared with untreated rubber, rubberised concrete prepared with the 24-h NaOH treated method had 25 and 5 % improvement in compressive and flexural strength, respectively. It is experimentally indicated that using this treatment method resulted in notable improvement for the compressive strength, and moderate enhancement in the flexural strength.

Mohammadi, MS, Zhang, Q & Dutkiewicz, E 2016, 'Reading Damaged Scripts: Partial Packet Recovery Based on Compressive Sensing for Efficient Random Linear Coded Transmission', IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 64, no. 8, pp. 3296-3310.
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© 2016 IEEE.Random linear coding (RLC) can improve the performance of multicast transmissions in terms of throughput and energy efficiency. However, RLC and linear codes in general cannot necessarily attain the optimal performance in arbitrary networks. In this regard, partial packet recovery can be considered as a nonlinear strategy to complement such approaches for more general networks. In this paper, we propose a partial packet recovery scheme that benefits from the sparsity of bit errors in partially corrupted RLC packets. As opposed to many previous schemes, it performs without introducing preliminary checksums or preambles, demanding physical layer soft information, or requesting post-redundancy from the transmitter. It relies only on algebraic coding and data processing techniques, the existing knowledge at the receiver, and the conventional acknowledgment messages in RLC. By reconstructing and utilizing the partially corrupted packets that are usually discarded, it can reduce the average number of transmitted RLC packets required for successful decoding by typically 50%, which improves throughput and energy efficiency at the transmitter. We formulate our partial packet recovery in the form of a sparse recovery problem, present its different solutions using compressive sensing theory, discuss their complexity, and present and evaluate a Markov chain model for its performance.

Mohammed Oludare, I & Pradhan, B 2016, 'A decade of modern cave surveying with terrestrial laser scanning: A review of sensors, method and application development', International Journal of Speleology, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 71-88.
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Mojumder, JC, Chong, WT, Ong, HC, Leong, KY & Abdullah-Al-Mamoon 2016, 'An experimental investigation on performance analysis of air type photovoltaic thermal collector system integrated with cooling fins design', Energy and Buildings, vol. 130, pp. 272-285.
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Mojumder, JC, Ong, HC, Chong, WT, Shamshirband, S & Abdullah-Al-Mamoon 2016, 'Application of support vector machine for prediction of electrical and thermal performance in PV/T system', Energy and Buildings, vol. 111, pp. 267-277.
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Mojumder, S, Rabbi, KM, Saha, S, Hasan, MN & Saha, SC 2016, 'Magnetic field effect on natural convection and entropy generation in a half-moon shaped cavity with semi-circular bottom heater having different ferrofluid inside', Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, vol. 407, pp. 412-424.
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In this study magneto-hydrodynamic convection in a half-moon shaped cavity filled with ferrofluid has been analyzed numerically. The cavity has two semi-circular bottom heaters and effect of the distance between these two heaters (λ = 0.1, 0.4) has been thoroughly investigated. Numerical simulation has been carried out for a wide range of Rayleigh number (Ra = 103 ∼ 107), Hartmann number (Ha = 0 ∼ 100) and inclination angle of magnetic field (γ = 0°∼ 90°) to understand the flow field, thermal field and entropy generation respectively. Cobalt-kerosene and Fe3O4 -water ferrofluids are used for the present investigation and considered as a single phase fluid. Galerkin weighted residual method of finite element analysis has been used for numerical solution. The code validation and grid independency test have been carried out to justify the numerical accuracy. It has been observed that increment of magnetic field reduces the heat transfer rate, whereas increment of heater distance augments the heat transfer rate significantly. Results are discussed on the basis of Nusselt number (Nu), Bejan number (Be) and shown by contours and 3D plots. It has also been found that λ = 0.4 always shows better heat transfer rate and entropy optimization.

Mokgonyana, L, Zhang, J, Zhang, L & Xia, X 2016, 'Coordinated two-stage volt/var management in distribution networks', Electric Power Systems Research, vol. 141, pp. 157-164.
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Mols, I, van den Hoven, E & Eggen, B 2016, 'Ritual Camera: Exploring Domestic Technology to Remember Everyday Life', IEEE PERVASIVE COMPUTING, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 48-58.
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Monirul, IM, Masjuki, HH, Kalam, MA, Mosarof, MH, Zulkifli, NWM, Teoh, YH & How, HG 2016, 'Assessment of performance, emission and combustion characteristics of palm, jatropha and Calophyllum inophyllum biodiesel blends', Fuel, vol. 181, pp. 985-995.
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Moore, I & Sheng, D 2016, 'Note of appreciation / Note de reconnaissance', Canadian Geotechnical Journal, vol. 53, no. 12, pp. v-vii.
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Mosarof, MH, Kalam, MA, Masjuki, HH & Ashraful, AM 2016, 'Evaluation of Lubricating Performance of Biodegradable Moringa Oleifera Oil', Modern Environmental Science and Engineering, vol. 2, no. 08, pp. 530-536.
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Mosarof, MH, Kalam, MA, Masjuki, HH, Alabdulkarem, A, Ashraful, AM, Arslan, A, Rashedul, HK & Monirul, IM 2016, 'Optimization of performance, emission, friction and wear characteristics of palm and Calophyllum inophyllum biodiesel blends', Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 118, pp. 119-134.
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A running automobile engine produces more friction and wear between its sliding components than an idle one, and thus requires lubrication to reduce this frictional effect. Biodiesel is an alternative diesel fuel that is produced from renewable resources. Energy studies conducted over the last two decades focused on solutions to problems of rising fossil fuel price, increasing dependency on foreign energy sources, and worsening environmental concerns. Palm oil biodiesel is mostly used in Malaysia. This study conducted engine performance and emission tests with a single-cylinder diesel engine fueled with palm and Calophyllum inophyllum biodiesel blends (PB10, PB20, PB30, CIB10, CIB20, and CIB30) at a full-load engine speed range of 1000-2400 rpm, and then compared the results with those of diesel fuel. Friction and wear tests were conducted using the four-ball tester with different temperatures at 40 and 80 kg load conditions and a constant speed of 1800 rpm. The average brake specific fuel consumption increased from 7.96% to 10.15% while operating on 10%, 20%, and 30% blends of palm and C. inophyllum biodiesel. The respective average brake powers for PB20 and PB30 were 9.31% and 12.93% lower compared with that for diesel fuel. PB20 produced relatively lower CO and HC emissions than the diesel and biodiesel blends. Diesel produced low amounts of NOX emission, and the CIB blend produced a lower frictional coefficient compared with the diesel and PB blends. PB30 showed high average FTP and low average WSD, both of which enhanced lubricating performance. An average metal element composition was found in PB20 under the 40 and 80 kg load conditions. PB20 showed lower worn scar surface areas compared with the diesel and biodiesel blends. Results indicated that PB20 has better engine performance, lower emission, and good lubrication properties compared with diesel and biodiesel blends. Thus, PB20 is suitable for use in diesel engines without the need for any en...

Mosarof, MH, Kalam, MA, Masjuki, HH, Alabdulkarem, A, Habibullah, M, Arslan, A & Monirul, IM 2016, 'Assessment of friction and wear characteristics of Calophyllum inophyllum and palm biodiesel', Industrial Crops and Products, vol. 83, pp. 470-483.
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Motes, KR, Mann, RL, Olson, JP, Studer, NM, Bergeron, EA, Gilchrist, A, Dowling, JP, Berry, DW & Rohde, PP 2016, 'Efficient recycling strategies for preparing large Fock states from single-photon sources --- Applications to quantum metrology', Phys. Rev. A, vol. 94, no. 1, p. 012344.
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Fock states are a fundamental resource for many quantum technologies such asquantum metrology. While much progress has been made in single-photon sourcetechnologies, preparing Fock states with large photon number remainschallenging. We present and analyze a bootstrapped approach fornon-deterministically preparing large photon-number Fock states by iterativelyfusing smaller Fock states on a beamsplitter. We show that by employing staterecycling we are able to exponentially improve the preparation rate overconventional schemes, allowing the efficient preparation of large Fock states.The scheme requires single-photon sources, beamsplitters, number-resolvedphoto-detectors, fast-feedforward, and an optical quantum memory.

Mousavi, M & Gandomi, AH 2016, 'A hybrid damage detection method using dynamic-reduction transformation matrix and modal force error', Engineering Structures, vol. 111, pp. 425-434.
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Movassaghi, S, Majidi, A, Jamalipour, A, Smith, D & Abolhasan, M 2016, 'Enabling interference-aware and energy-efficient coexistence of multiple wireless body area networks with unknown dynamics', IEEE Access, vol. 4, pp. 2935-2951.
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© 2016 IEEE. This paper presents an adaptive interference mitigation scheme for multiple coexisting wireless body area networks (WBANs) based on social interaction. The proposed scheme considers the mobility of nodes within each WBAN as well as the relative movement of WBANs with respect to each other. With respect to these mobile scenarios traffic load, signal strength, and the density of sensors in a WBAN are incorporated to optimize transmission time with synchronous and parallel transmissions to significantly reduce the radio interference and energy consumption of nodes. This approach leads to higher packet delivery ratio (PDR) and longer network lifetime even with nodes dynamically moving into and out of each others interference region. We make channel assignment more energy-efficient and further reduce power consumption using transmit power control with simple channel prediction. Simulation results show that our approach maintains optimum spatial reuse with a range of channel dynamics within, and between, coexisting BANs. This protocol based on social interaction is shown to mitigate interference and minimize power consumption, and increase the spatial reuse and PDR of each WBAN, while increasing network lifetime. In the context of the adaptive interference mitigation scheme proposed, this paper also reviews the state of the art in literature on mobility, MAC layer, and power control solutions for WBANs, as well as providing a summary of interference mitigation schemes previously applied for the coexistence of WBANs.

Moyle, W, Jones, C, Sung, B, Bramble, M, O’Dwyer, S, Blumenstein, M & Estivill-Castro, V 2016, 'What Effect Does an Animal Robot Called CuDDler Have on the Engagement and Emotional Response of Older People with Dementia? A Pilot Feasibility Study', International Journal of Social Robotics, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 145-156.
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© 2015, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. The development of companion animal robots is of growing interest. These robots have recently been marketed to older adults with dementia as a means of encouraging social engagement and reducing behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia. This paper outlines the results of a pilot study that sought to assess the feasibility and effect of using a robotic companion animal called CuDDler on engagement and emotional states of five older adults with dementia living in nursing home care. CuDDler is a prototype robot developed in Singapore. Despite their cognitive decline, the study participants raised a number of concerns regarding the feasibility and tolerability of CuDDler. The effectiveness of CuDDler was also limited in these participants, although one participant with visual agnosia benefited greatly from the one-on-one experience. The findings demonstrate the importance of companion robots being developed that are of an appropriate size, weight and shape for older people, including those with dementia, and a realistic animal shape that does not encourage thoughts of it being a toy. Our conclusions indicate the need for further studies on the development and use of companion robots, and investigation of the comparative benefits of social robots both compared to and in association with human interactions.

Mueller, J & Stewart, MG 2016, 'The curse of the Black Swan', Journal of Risk Research, vol. 19, no. 10, pp. 1319-1330.
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When unexpected and emotion-engaging events become Black Swans and carry an ‘extreme impact,’ this derives not so much those qualities or from their intrinsic size or importance as from reaction, or overreaction, they generate; but one that is often as extreme and unpredictable as the event itself. Most consequential development in human history, however, stems not from such events, but from changes in thinking and behavior that are gradual and often little-noticed as they occur. In addition, when an unexpected, emotion-grabbing event becomes a Black Swan, the response is likely to become internalized, and getting people to re-evaluate through sensible risk analysis and risk communication is extremely difficult. As part of this, events that are aberrations are often unwisely taken instead to be harbingers – and continue to be so even in the face of repeated disconfirming evidence. An examination of the 9/11 response in the US illustrates these points.

Mueller, P, Huang, C-T, Yu, S, Tari, Z & Lin, Y-D 2016, 'Cloud Security', IEEE Cloud Computing, vol. 3, no. 5, pp. 22-24.
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Murray, A, Castel, A, Gilbert, RI & Chang, Z-T 2016, 'Time-dependent changes in the instantaneous stiffness of reinforced concrete beams', Engineering Structures, vol. 126, pp. 641-651.
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Musa, IA, Mashiri, FR & Zhu, X 2016, 'Fatigue behaviour of concrete-filled steel tubular joints - a review', International Journal of Lifecycle Performance Engineering, vol. 2, no. 1/2, pp. 22-22.
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Mutta, GR, Popuri, SR, Maciejczyk, M, Robertson, N, Vasundhara, M, Wilson, JIB & Bennett, NS 2016, 'V₂O₅as an inexpensive counter electrode for dye sensitized solar cells', Materials Research Express, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 035501-035501.
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In pursuit of an abundant, inexpensive and stable counter electrode as an alternative to platinum for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), we report a new, low-cost substitute material. Here for the first time, we demonstrate that V2O5 can be used as a counter electrode material in DSSCs. We note that the efficiency of DSSCs with commercialV2O5 and hydrothermal treatedV2O5 are upto 1.2% and 1.6%, respectively. The results indicate that, with optimization, V2O5 can be a promising choice to replace platinum from a cost perspective. The innovation of new economical counter electrodes offers a potential way to cut down the industrial costs which is crucial for large-scale production and commercial applications of DSSCs.

Mutta, GR, Popuri, SR, Vasundhara, M, Maciejczyk, M, Racu, AV, Banica, R, Robertson, N, Wilson, JIB & Bennett, NS 2016, 'Facile hydrothermal synthesis of economically viable VO 2 (M1) counter electrode for dye sensitized solar cells', Materials Research Bulletin, vol. 83, pp. 135-140.
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In this study, we focus at reducing the fabrication cost of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Sphere-like VO2(M1) polymorph was synthesized by single step facile hydrothermal approach using citric acid as the reducing agent. Phase purity, charge state and surface morphology of the synthesized product were confirmed by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy respectively. The electrochemical impedance and cyclic voltammograms of VO2 films indicated a good electrocatalytic activity towards redox reaction of the I-/I3- shuttle. Owing to the low cost, low-temperature processing and good catalytic activity, in this work we propose to use VO2 as a counter electrode to substitute the expensive platinum electrode in DSSCs. By means of VO2 based DSSCs we achieved a fivefold reduction in the cost to energy conversion efficiency ratio. It is expected that with further optimization, VO2 can be exploited as a good candidate for counter electrode in DSSC technology.

Mutta, GR, Popuri, SR, Wilson, JIB & Bennett, NS 2016, 'Sol-gel spin coated well adhered MoO3 thin films as an alternative counter electrode for dye sensitized solar cells', Solid State Sciences, vol. 61, pp. 84-88.
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In this work, we aim to develop a viable, inexpensive and non-toxic material for counter electrodes in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). We employed an ultra-simple synthesis process to deposit MoO3 thin films at low temperature by sol-gel spin coating technique. These MoO3 films showed good transparency. It is predicted that there will be 150 times reduction of precursors cost by realizing MoO3 thin films as a counter electrode in DSSCs compared to commercial Pt. We achieved a device efficiency of about 20 times higher than that of the previous reported values. In summary we develop a simple low cost preparation of MoO3 films with an easily scaled up process along with good device efficiency. This work encourages the development of novel and relatively new materials and paves the way for massive reduction of industrial costs which is a prime step for commercialization of DSSCs.

Naderpour, M, Lu, J & Zhang, G 2016, 'A safety-critical decision support system evaluation using situation awareness and workload measures', RELIABILITY ENGINEERING & SYSTEM SAFETY, vol. 150, pp. 147-159.
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© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. To ensure the safety of operations in safety-critical systems, it is necessary to maintain operators' situation awareness (SA) at a high level. A situation awareness support system (SASS) has therefore been developed to handle uncertain situations [1]. This paper aims to systematically evaluate the enhancement of SA in SASS by applying a multi-perspective approach. The approach consists of two SA metrics, SAGAT and SART, and one workload metric, NASA-TLX. The first two metrics are used for the direct objective and subjective measurement of SA, while the third is used to estimate operator workload. The approach is applied in a safety-critical environment called residue treater, located at a chemical plant in which a poor human-system interface reduced the operators' SA and caused one of the worst accidents in US history. A counterbalanced within-subjects experiment is performed using a virtual environment interface with and without the support of SASS. The results indicate that SASS improves operators' SA, and specifically has benefits for SA levels 2 and 3. In addition, it is concluded that SASS reduces operator workload, although further investigations in different environments with a larger number of participants have been suggested.

Nagayama, S, Choi, B-S, Devitt, S, Suzuki, S & Van Meter, R 2016, 'Interoperability in encoded quantum repeater networks', Physical Review A, vol. 93, no. 4.
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The future of quantum repeater networking will require interoperability between various error-correcting codes. A few specific code conversions and even a generalized method are known, however, no detailed analysis of these techniques in the context of quantum networking has been performed. In this paper we analyze a generalized procedure to create Bell pairs encoded heterogeneously between two separate codes used often in error-corrected quantum repeater network designs. We begin with a physical Bell pair and then encode each qubit in a different error-correcting code, using entanglement purification to increase the fidelity. We investigate three separate protocols for preparing the purified encoded Bell pair. We calculate the error probability of those schemes between the Steane [[7,1,3]] code, a distance-3 surface code, and single physical qubits by Monte Carlo simulation under a standard Pauli error model and estimate the resource efficiency of the procedures. A local gate error rate of 10-3 allows us to create high-fidelity logical Bell pairs between any of our chosen codes. We find that a postselected model, where any detected parity flips in code stabilizers result in a restart of the protocol, performs the best.

Nagayama, S, Fowler, AG, Horsman, D, Devitt, SJ & Meter, RV 2016, 'Surface Code Error Correction on a Defective Lattice', New Journal of Physics, 19(2):023050, 2017, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 1-29.
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The yield of physical qubits fabricated in the laboratory is much lower thanthat of classical transistors in production semiconductor fabrication. Actualimplementations of quantum computers will be susceptible to loss in the form ofphysically faulty qubits. Though these physical faults must negatively affectthe computation, we can deal with them by adapting error correction schemes. Inthis paper We have simulated statically placed single-fault lattices andlattices with randomly placed faults at functional qubit yields of 80%, 90% and95%, showing practical performance of a defective surface code by employingactual circuit constructions and realistic errors on every gate, includingidentity gates. We extend Stace et al.'s superplaquettes solution againstdynamic losses for the surface code to handle static losses such as physicallyfaulty qubits. The single-fault analysis shows that a static loss at theperiphery of the lattice has less negative effect than a static loss at thecenter. The randomly-faulty analysis shows that 95% yield is good enough tobuild a large scale quantum computer. The local gate error rate threshold is$\sim 0.3\%$, and a code distance of seven suppresses the residual error ratebelow the original error rate at $p=0.1\%$. 90% yield is also good enough whenwe discard badly fabricated quantum computation chips, while 80% yield does notshow enough error suppression even when discarding 90% of the chips. Weevaluated several metrics for predicting chip performance, and found that theaverage of the product of the number of data qubits and the cycle time of astabilizer measurement of stabilizers gave the strongest correlation withpost-correction residual error rates. Our analysis will help with selectingusable quantum computation chips from among the pool of all fabricated chips.

Naidu, G, Jeong, S, Vigneswaran, S, Hwang, T-M, Choi, Y-J & Kim, S-H 2016, 'A review on fouling of membrane distillation', Desalination and Water Treatment, vol. 57, no. 22, pp. 10052-10076.
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© 2015 Balaban Desalination Publications. All rights reserved. Membrane distillation (MD) has been developed for the past 40 years. Nevertheless, only in recent times, MD technology has shown substantial progress, including the development of a few commercial systems. In this study, a comprehensive review is carried out on the application of MD for the production of drinking water. Based on a broad perspective, this review describes the applications of MD for drinking water production, its advantages, and limitations. Specifically, this review focuses on the scaling and organic fouling phenomena in MD for drinking water production as one of the major challenge to MD implementation. The fouling and wetting phenomena in MD is discussed in detail as well as fouling detection methods, the influence of feed solution characteristics, and operational parameters on MD fouling and related areas requiring future investigations. The study highlights a number of approaches on fouling reduction in MD.

Naidu, G, Jeong, S, Vigneswaran, S, Jang, E-K, Choi, Y-J & Hwang, T-M 2016, 'Fouling study on vacuum-enhanced direct contact membrane distillation for seawater desalination', Desalination and Water Treatment, vol. 57, no. 22, pp. 10042-10051.
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© 2015 Balaban Desalination Publications. All rights reserved. Vacuum-enhanced direct contact membrane distillation (VE-DCMD) has been proposed to improve the DCMD system performance with better effective energy efficiency. However, the higher driving forces by the presence of vacuum pressure at permeate side of the VE-DCMD system could contribute to higher fouling development. In this study, thus, the biochemical fouling development of VE-DCMD with different vacuum pressures (700, 500, and 300 mbar) for seawater desalination was investigated in comparison with DCMD (1,000 mbar of pressure applied). VE-DCMD showed a significant increase in initial permeate flux while its flux decline was faster than DCMD. Low molecular weight (LMW) organics were found to be a dominant organic foulant on DCMD with thermally disaggregated humic substances (HS) to LMW HS-like organics. On the other hand, the presence of vacuum reduced the disaggregation HS to LMW HS-like organics. However, high driving force of VE-DCMD caused higher deposition of organic foulant including the LMW organics as well as HS. It also led to the higher LMW organic contents in permeate. Fluorescence excitation–emission matrix (F-EEM) analysis result showed that fulvic-like organic is a dominant HS foulant in VE-DCMD. Fouling development on membrane was observed using scanning electron microscope, contact angle, and confocal laser scanning microscope.

Naidu, G, Loganathan, P, Jeong, S, Johir, MAH, To, VHP, Kandasamy, J & Vigneswaran, S 2016, 'Rubidium extraction using an organic polymer encapsulated potassium copper hexacyanoferrate sorbent', C