Recently, the so-called new type Euler polynomials have been studied without considering Euler polynomials of a complex variable. Here we study degenerate versions of these new type Euler polynomials. This has been done by considering the degenerate Euler polynomials of a complex variable. We also investigate corresponding ones for Bernoulli polynomials in the same manner. We derive some properties and identities for those new polynomials. Here we note that our result gives an affirmative answer to the question raised by the reviewer of the paper. Full article

A large amount of phosphorus was found in the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) of activated sludge used in enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR), so the role of EPS and extracellular phosphorus in EBPR should not be neglected. The composition and properties of tightly bound EPS (TB-EPS) and loosely bound EPS (LB-EPS) were significantly different, and it was necessary to study the adsorption performance of EPS through the fractionating of activated sludge into LB-EPS, TB-EPS and microbial cells. In this study, the adsorption performance of LB-EPS and TB-EPS for phosphate was explored by extracting LB-EPS and TB-EPS via sonication and cation exchange resin (CER), respectively. The results indicated that the sonication-CER method was an efficient and reliable extraction method for EPS with a synergistic effect. The performance of EPS in the adsorption/complexing of phosphate was excellent because of its abundant functional groups. Specifically, the type and content of metal elements and functional groups in TB-EPS were much greater than those in LB-EPS, which led to the key role of TB-EPS in the adsorption/complexing of phosphate. Finally, a metabolic model for EBPR with consideration of the adsorption performance of LB-EPS and TB-EPS was proposed. Full article

This article presents a multiplatform application for the tele-operation of a robot hand using virtualization in Unity 3D. This approach grants usability to users that need to control a robotic hand, allowing supervision in a collaborative way. This paper focuses on a user application designed for the 3D virtualization of a robotic hand and the tele-operation architecture. The designed system allows for the simulation of any robotic hand. It has been tested with the virtualization of the four-fingered Allegro Hand of SimLab with 16 degrees of freedom, and the Shadow hand with 24 degrees of freedom. The system allows for the control of the position of each finger by means of joint and Cartesian co-ordinates. All user control interfaces are designed using Unity 3D, such that a multiplatform philosophy is achieved. The server side allows the user application to connect to a ROS (Robot Operating System) server through a TCP/IP socket, to control a real hand or to share a simulation of it among several users. If a real robot hand is used, real-time control and feedback of all the joints of the hand is communicated to the set of users. Finally, the system has been tested with a set of users with satisfactory results. Full article

Emissivity is a key parameter if one intends to use quantitative thermography. The importance of temperature, surface characteristics, wavelength and the direction of the emitted radiation in the emissivity is well documented in the literature. However, no research was found concerning the effect of moisture content. In this research, an experimental campaign was carried out with two main objectives: compare the emissivity value measured with an emissometer with the value measured with infrared thermography; assess the importance of moisture content in the emissivity value measured with an emissometer. A ceramic brick was used as an example case. Full article

Infrared thermography (IRT) has been widely employed to identify the defects illustrated in building facades. However, the IRT covered with a shadow is hard to be applied to determine the defects shown in the IRT. The study proposed an approach based on the multiplicated model to describe quantitively the shadow effects, and the IRT can be segmented into few classes according to the surface temperature information recorded on the IRT by employing a thermal infrared camera. The segmented results were compared with the non-destructive method (acoustic tracing) to verify the correctness and robustness of the approach. From the processed results, the proposed approach did correctly identify the defects illustrated in building facades through the IRTs were covered with shadow. Full article

Moisture is one of the major causes of building decay, compromising the indoor air quality and the durability of building components. Infrared thermography is a non-destructive technique that can be used to prevent damage caused by the presence of water. In this study, the potential of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was assessed as a quantitative technique for processing the thermal images captured during 24 hours of water absorption by a lightweight concrete specimen. PCA showed that the first principal component is the one that better explains the phenomenon. The initial instant was the most interesting to identify the water level in the sample and the final instant allowed defining the first 8h as the most relevant. Full article

Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae have been a global public health issue in recent years. Here, a carbapenem-resistant Kluyvera cryocrescens strain SCW13 was isolated from hospital sewage, and was then subjected to whole-genome sequencing (WGS). Based on WGS data, antimicrobial resistance genes were identified. Resistance plasmids were completely circularized and further bioinformatics analyses of plasmids were performed. A conjugation assay was performed to identify a self-transmissible plasmid mediating carbapenem resistance. A phylogenetic tree was constructed based on the core genome of publicly available Kluyvera strains. The isolate SCW13 exhibited resistance to cephalosporin and carbapenem. bla_NDM-1 was found to be located on a ~53-kb self-transmissible IncX3 plasmid, which exhibited high similarity to the previously reported pNDM-HN380, which is an epidemic bla_NDM-1-carrying IncX3 plasmid. Further, we found that SCW13 contained a chromosomal bla_KLUC-2 gene, which was the probable origin of the plasmid-born bla_KLUC-2 found in Enterobacter cloacae. Phylogenetic analysis showed that K. cryocrescens SCW13 exhibited a close relationship with K. cryocrescens NCTC10483. These findings highlight the further dissemination of bla_NDM through clonal IncX3 plasmids related to pNDM-HN380 among uncommon Enterobacteriaceae strains, including Kluyvera in this case. Full article

Leonardo has been involved in the realization of several infrared payloads for Earth Observation since 1990. Among the currently in orbit operative instruments we find the two SLSTRs and PRISMA. The SLSTRs are high accuracy radiometers of the Copernicus mission related to ESA Sentinel-3 space component to provide Sea Surface Temperature (SST) data continuity respect to previous (A)ATSRs for climatology in the next 20-years. The PRISMA Program is the first ASI (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana) optical hyperspectral mission for Earth observation. It is based on a high spectral resolution spectrometer operating in the VIS-SWIR channels optically integrated with a panchromatic camera. Full article

The electrification of bus-based public transportation contributes to the goal of reducing the adverse environmental impacts caused by urban transportation. However, the penetration of electric vehicles has been slow due to their lower vehicle range and total costs in comparison to vehicles driven by internal combustion engines. By improving the powertrain efficiency, the total costs can be reduced for the same vehicle range. Therefore, this paper proposes a holistic design exploration approach to investigate and identify the optimal powertrain concept for electric city buses based on the component costs and energy consumption costs. The load profiles of speed, slope, and passenger occupancy profiles are derived for a selected bus route in Singapore, which is used in a powertrain design exploration for a 30-passenger vehicle. Six different powertrain architectures are analyzed, together with single and multi-speed gearbox configurations, to identify the optimal powertrain architecture and the resulting component sizes. The powertrain configurations are further analyzed in terms of their influence on the vehicle characteristics and total costs. Multi-motor configurations were found to have better vehicle characteristics and lower total costs in comparison to single rear motor configurations. Concepts with motors on the front and a rear axle could shift the load points to a higher efficiency region, resulting in lower energy consumption and energy costs. The optimal powertrain concept was a fixed-speed two-motor configuration, with a booster motor on the front axle and a motor on the rear axle. Full article

The purpose of this article is to introduce a fixed point result for a general contractive condition in the context of complex valued metric spaces. Also, some important corollaries under this contractive condition are obtained. As an application, we find a unique solution for Urysohn integral equations, and some illustrative examples are given to support our obtaining results. Our results extend and generalize the results of Azam et al. Previous known related results in the literarure and some other known results in the literature. Full article

Marine polar lipids (PLs) have exhibited promising cardioprotection. In this study, marine by-products such as salmon heads (SHs), their brain, eyes and main optic nerves (SBEON), and head-remnants after SBEON removal (RemSH), as well as herring fillets (HFs), herring heads (HHs) and minced boarfish (MB), were evaluated as potential sustainable sources of such bioactive PLs. The antithrombotic bioactivities of PLs derived from these marine by-products were assessed for the first time in human platelets against platelet-activating factor (PAF), thrombin, collagen, and adenosine diphosphate (ADP), while their fatty acid composition was evaluated by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). PLs from all marine by-products tested possess strong antithrombotic activities against aggregation of human platelets induced by all platelet agonists tested. RemSH, SBEON, HHs, HFs, and MB exhibited strong anti-PAF effects, similar to those previously reported for salmon fillets. PLs from MB had the strongest anti-collagen effects and PLs from SHs and SBEON were the most active against thrombin and ADP. PLs from HHs had similar antithrombotic effects with those from HFs in all agonists. RemSH was less active in all agonists, suggesting that SBEON is the main source of bioactive PLs in SHs. All PLs were rich in omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω3PUFA), such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic (EPA) acid, with favourable low values of the ω6/ω3 ratio. Salmon, herring, and boarfish by-products are rich sources of bioactive marine PLs with potent antithrombotic and cardioprotective properties. Full article