Footprint Research Articles

Validation of CLASS MRI for personalized ACL footprints identification

AbstractPurposeIn modern anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery, the focus is usually on anatomical reconstruction to restore the natural kinematics of the knee. The individual optimal positioning of the ACL footprints (FPs) in primary surgery is still controversial and, especially in revision surgery, difficult to realize surgically. In this regard, a new MRI‐based sequence, the Compressed Lateral and anteroposterior Anatomic Systematic Sequence (CLASS) with marked femoral and tibial FPs as a template, could help. The purpose of this study was to (1) validate the reliability and reproducibility of the localization of femoral and tibial FPs of ACL in the generation of CLASS and (2) compare the identification of ACL FPs by CLASS with previously described methods.MethodsMagnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of uninjured knees from a predominantly young cohort is used to apply the CLASS algorithm. ACL FPs were subsequently identified by a board‐certified radiologist and an orthopaedic knee surgeon. Intraobserver reliability and interobserver reproducibility were assessed. Measurements of the ACL FPs according to established methods were performed and compared with the results from the literature.ResultsIdentification of ACL FPs and generation of CLASS images resulted in ‘almost perfect’ reliability and reproducibility. Most measurements also showed ‘almost perfect’ consistency. Statistical analysis showed significant variations between the deep‐shallow and high‐low positions when compared to the published literature.ConclusionsThe CLASS MRI sequence is a reliable and reproducible method for identifying ACL FPs. The observed variability in the location of the ACL FP underlines the importance of a patient‐specific surgical approach.Level of EvidenceLevel II.

Uncovering uncharacterized binding of transcription factors from ATAC-seq footprinting data

Transcription factors (TFs) are crucial epigenetic regulators, which enable cells to dynamically adjust gene expression in response to environmental signals. Computational procedures like digital genomic footprinting on chromatin accessibility assays such as ATACseq can be used to identify bound TFs in a genome-wide scale. This method utilizes short regions of low accessibility signals due to steric hindrance of DNA bound proteins, called footprints (FPs), which are combined with motif databases for TF identification. However, while over 1600 TFs have been described in the human genome, only ~ 700 of these have a known binding motif. Thus, a substantial number of FPs without overlap to a known DNA motif are normally discarded from FP analysis. In addition, the FP method is restricted to organisms with a substantial number of known TF motifs. Here we present DENIS (DE Novo motIf diScovery), a framework to generate and systematically investigate the potential of de novo TF motif discovery from FPs. DENIS includes functionality (1) to isolate FPs without binding motifs, (2) to perform de novo motif generation and (3) to characterize novel motifs. Here, we show that the framework rediscovers artificially removed TF motifs, quantifies de novo motif usage during an early embryonic development example dataset, and is able to analyze and uncover TF activity in organisms lacking canonical motifs. The latter task is exemplified by an investigation of a scATAC-seq dataset in zebrafish which covers different cell types during hematopoiesis.

Variation of the feeding/resting period in modified vertical treatment wetlands (depth, zeolite as medium) employed for treating rural domestic wastewater in tourist areas.

This work aimed to evaluate the performance of modified vertical flow treatment wetlands (VF-TWs) in terms of depth and medium to assess the effect of the feeding/resting periods and footprint (FP). The modifications were proposed for treating domestic wastewater in rural areas with flow variations such as tourist sites. The experimental setup included six laboratory-scale VF-TWs: (a) normal (VF-N), bed depth 1.0 m, filled with sand and (b) modified (VF-M), bed depth 0.5 m, filled with sand (upper) and zeolite (bottom, saturated). The operation was divided into three phases (3 months each), varying the feeding/resting period and FP: phase I, 5 d/10 d, 2.6 m2/person-equivalent (PE); phase II, 3.5 d/3.5 d, 1.7 m2/PE; and phase III, only feeding no resting, 0.85 m2/PE. Influent and effluent grab samples were taken every 2 weeks. The results showed effective removal (above 60%) of total solids, organic matter, and pathogens for both VF-N and VF-M. Regarding nutrients, VF-M showed a phosphate removal below 60%, but no consistent removal (15-60%) of total nitrogen. Thus, the results suggest that proposed modifications can be an option to be established in tourist sites, but further work should be conducted to improve and optimize total nitrogen removal.

An optimization method for surface urban heat island footprint extraction based on anisotropy assumption

The footprint (FP) is the main indicator used to quantitatively analyse the surface urban heat island (SUHI) effect. Currently, SUHI FP extraction methods ignore the interference caused by the city shape and are mostly based on the isotropic expansion assumption, resulting in an exaggerated range. Therefore, a new approach for an optimization schema that leverages the assumptions of angle segmentation and anisotropy is proposed herein. This method divides an urban area and its buffer rings into 16 sectors with equal central angles and selects appropriate land surface temperature (LST) curves for an exponential decay fit. The final FP was determined using the SUHI extension distance and the reference rural LST. To verify the effectiveness of this method, SUHI FPs of 27 cities in the central region of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) were extracted during the summer of 2019, and the results were compared with those derived from traditional methods. The results showed that the FPs calculated using this method were more detailed because they minimized the influence of urban shape, topography, and the surrounding landscape. Moreover, this method played a vital role in revealing the effect of the land use allocation outside urban area on the SUHI effect. This state-of-the-art method is useful for unveiling SUHI spatial distribution patterns and for providing scientific support for land planning for sustainable urban development.

A comprehensive analysis and performance comparison of CombFET and NSFET for CMOS circuit applications

The performance of comb-like channel field effect transistor (CombFET) and nanosheet FET (NSFET) is addressed at both device and circuit levels at the 3-nm node. The CombFET is realized by combining both FinFET and NSFET structures in the channel area. At the device level, the DC, analog/RF figures of merit (FOMs) are analyzed in detail. From simulations, it is observed that the on current (ION) is enhanced by 42% from NSFET to CombFET at the same off current (IOFF) of 250 pA under the same footprint (FP). CombFET's improvement over NSFET is the result of the channel's wider effective width. Further, an improvement of 30% in cut-off frequency (fT) and a decrement of 20% in intrinsic delay (τ) is noticed from NSFET to CombFET. On top of that dimensional impact on the electrical performance of CombFET analysed in detail. The CMOS circuit behaviour for ring oscillator (RO) is studied using the Verilog-A model for both FETs in the CADENCE tool. An oscillation frequency (fOSC) of 111.9 GHz and 82.7 GHz was noticed for CombFET and NSFET, respectively. Thus, the analyses demonstrate that CombFET offers superior performance over NSFET without increasing the FP.

Exploring the multitemporal surface urban heat island effect and its driving relation in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration

The rapid urbanization process would pose substantial disturbances to local thermal balance and induce severe surface urban heat island (SUHI) effects, which poses adverse impacts on urban ecological security and sustainable development. Therefore, it is necessary to comprehensively understand the characteristics of the SUHI effect and its potential associated factors to benefit scientific urban thermal environmental management. Hence, this study explored the seasonal SUHI effect and its potential association in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) urban agglomeration based on dual indicators, such as intensity (SUHII) and footprint (FP). We found that: (1) SUHII and FP could well characterize the features of the SUHI effect from different perspectives. Both of them generally showed relatively high status in summer (than other seasons) and at nighttime (than daytime) for most case cities in the BTH region. From 2000 to 2020, both their variations showed significant city differences, as SUHII of most cities were declined but FP were still extended in some of them. (2) Urbanization poses a significant influence on the SUHI effect. Social and environmental factors played the main contributors to the variation of both SUHII and FP, but the specific key factor on both SUHII and FP varied across different seasonal and diurnal phrases. This study successfully extended the current cognation on the SUHI effect and its thermal risk by introducing the dual indicators and confirmed that urbanization is still the key to intervening in the local SUHI effect.

Accessing the Heat Exposure Risk in Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region Based on Heat Island Footprint Analysis

The urbanization process leads to the enhancement of the urban heat island (UHI) effect, and the high temperature brought by it exacerbates the risk of heat exposure and seriously endangers human health. Analyzing the spatiotemporal characteristics and levels of heat exposure risk is important for formulating heat risk prevention and control measures. Therefore, this study analyzes the spatiotemporal characteristics of heat exposure risk based on the UHI footprint (FP) and explores the relationship between it and urbanization factors in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region from 2000 to 2020, and obtains the following conclusions: (1) The BTH region suffers from severe UHI problems, with FP ranging from 6.05 km (Chengde) to 32.51 km (Beijing), and the majority of cities show significant trends of FP increase. (2) With the increase in FP, massive populations are exposed within the heat risk areas, with the average annual population at risk across cities ranging from 269,826 (Chengde) to 166,020,390 (Beijing), with a predominance of people exposed to high risk (more than 65% of the total) and generally showing increasing trends. (3) The population at risk of heat exposure is significantly correlated with urbanization factors, indicating that urbanization is an important reason for the increase in the risk population and the enhancement of the risk level. These results suggest that with the continuous urbanization process, the heat exposure risk problem faced by cities in the BTH region will persist and gradually worsen, which must be paid attention to and effective mitigation measures must be taken.

Spatial patterns and temporal variations of footprint and intensity of surface urban heat island in 141 China cities

l We investigated the spatial patterns and temporal variations of footprint (FP) and intensity of surface urban heat island (SUHI) in 141 China cities. l With the increase of city size, FP showed an increasing trend in medium and small cities, but plateaued in big cities. l SUHI intensity presented spatial and seasonal variations in daytime and nighttime across cities in different climatic zones. l This study is of great help for developing mitigating strategies of SUHI effect in cities with different urbanized levels or climatic background. An improved understanding of urban heat island (UHI) is important in urban ecological and environmental studies. In this study, we investigated footprint (FP) and intensity of surface UHI (SUHI) from 2003 to 2020 in 141 China cities using a Gaussian model and multi-source remote sensing data. Results showed that annual daytime FP in 79% cities was larger than nighttime FP. There were more cities having larger daytime FP than nighttime FP in summer compared to other seasons. With the increase of city size, FP showed an increasing tendency in median or small cities, while plateaued in large cities. We also found that high SUHI intensity occurred in cities with warm climate in daytime but occurred in cities with cold climate in nighttime. Moreover, SUHI intensity in daytime was higher than that of nighttime in all climatic zones in summer, while in other seasons, SUHI intensity in daytime was higher than that of nighttime only in warm climatic zones. Finally, 96% cities showed higher SUHI intensity in daytime than that of nighttime in summer, while proportion of such cities was only 45% in winter. Findings of this study are helpful for mitigating UHI effect in cities with different urbanized levels or climatic background.

Long-Term Evolution of the SUHI Footprint and Urban Expansion Based on a Temperature Attenuation Curve in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration

The rapid growth of urbanization and population has aggravated the urban heat island (UHI) effect in urban agglomerations. However, because scholars have so far focused mainly on the magnitude of the UHI effect, there is still a lack of research on the quantitative evaluation of the relationship between urban expansion and the degree of the UHI effect from the urban agglomeration perspective. This paper analyzed the spatiotemporal characteristics and the interactive mechanism of the surface urban heat island footprint (SUHI FP) in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRDUA). The summer footprints (FPs) of 27 cities were extracted using a logistics model, and the temporal trend was estimated by a standard deviation ellipse (SDE). Furthermore, the authors used the classical machine-learning k-means algorithm to cluster the temperature attenuation curves to reveal development patterns in different cities. The results showed that the degree of FP expansion during the daytime was more apparent than at night, the area of urban growth positively correlated with a city’s population level, and from 2005 to 2018 (the period of the study), the spatial evolution for all cities showed an overall trend from east to west. These cities were divided roughly into three development patterns by clustering their 2018 temperature attenuation curves. These findings can provide a scientific basis for formulating effective land-use policies by giving a deeper understanding of the spatiotemporal changes in the SUHI FPs and their relationship with land cover in the YRDUA.

Environmental and socioeconomic footprints of the German bioeconomy

Hoping to support sustainability, countries have established policies to foster the bioeconomy (BE), based on the use of biomass and knowledge on biological principles. However, appropriate monitoring is still lacking. We estimate global key environmental footprints (FPs) of the German BE in a historic analysis from 2000–2015 and in projection until 2030. Overall, the agricultural biomass FP is dominated by animal-based food consumption, which is slightly decreasing. The forestry biomass FP of consumption could potentially shift from net import to total supply from domestic territory. Agricultural land use for consumption is triple that of domestic agricultural land (which covers half of Germany) and induced substantial land use change in other regions from 2000–2015. The FP of irrigation water withdrawals has decreased over 2000–2015 and might continue to decline in absolute terms by 2030, but the share of supply regions with water stress might increase. The climate FP of BE contributes 18–20% to the total climate FP of domestic consumption, while employment makes up 10% and value added only 8% of the total German economy. These findings imply that sufficient monitoring of the BE needs to consider both production and consumption perspectives, as well as global FPs of national economies. An analysis of the German bioeconomy between 2000 and 2015 finds that its environmental footprints are dominated by animal-based food consumption, and agricultural land use for consumption abroad is double the domestic one.

Identidades de desarraigo y diaspora. La travesia de los moriscos granadinos hasta Pastrana

La expulsión de los moriscos del reino de Granada y su dispersión por toda Castilla, fue uno de los de los grandes movimientos masivos de población durante la Edad Moderna castellana. Se trató de una migración ordenada por Felipe II tras la guerra de las Alpujarras que desplazó a más de 80.000 moriscos tras el conflicto armado. En este artículo se analiza el caso concreto de la villa ducal de Pastrana que en 1570 es lugar de destino de una de las partidas más importantes, y los vestigios de arraigo/desarraigo que su presencia deja sobre la estructura urbana de esta población. Se estudia su brusca llegada y la construcción de un nuevo barrio donde acogerlos, patrocinado por el I duque de Pastrana, Ruy Gómez de Silva y financiado por ricos mercaderes moriscos. Y la huella de integración que, silenciosamente, generó su presencia con la reproducción de jardines populares de tradición andalusí.

Eco-efficiency of the hydraulic infrastructure of the ChancayLambayeque system and its impact on the water footprint of agricultural production

Los recursos hidricos se ven afectados por las variaciones climaticas, en particular por la magnitud y distribucion de precipitaciones, aumento de temperatura y mayor probabilidad de ocurrencia de eventos extremos. La huella hidrica es un indicador que expresa el uso de agua tanto en su uso directo, como indirecto y para su calculo se empleo el software CROPWAT 8.0 y la base de datos CLIMWAT 2.0. Se estimo que la huella hidrica total de los cultivos estudiados en m3 .ton-1 de producto generado es de 156, 1 124 y 891 para la cana de azucar, el arroz y el maiz respectivamente; con una contribucion de la huella verde en 1.6%, 0.7% y 3.4%. El cultivo con mayor huella es el arroz y la cana de azucar tiene la menor huella hidrica, explicado por altos rendimiento en biomasa. Con base en la cantidad de agua requerida por superficie cultivada, se aprecia que la cana de azucar es el cultivo con mayor consumo, al requerir 16 000 m3 .ha-1, el arroz y el maiz solo requieren 9 000 y 6 000 m3 .ha-1 de agua respectivamente. Se determino que la eficiencia del arroz es 3.24 m3 .ton-1 de agua por volumen producido. La comision de Morrope presenta una mejor relacion entre volumen de produccion y volumen de agua, con ratios de 2.57 y 2.52 en comparacion con el resto, que tienen valores de 1.25 y 1.21 para el arroz y el maiz, respectivamente.

Process Integration and Climate Change: From Carbon Emissions Pinch Analysis to Carbon Management Networks

Carbon Emissions Pinch Analysis (CEPA) is a branch of Process Integration (PI) that was developed as a systematic methodology for planning the optimal allocation of energy to various demands under carbon-constrained conditions. Since its inception in 2007, the body of CEPA literature has branched out into distinct areas. The first branch consists of direct applications of CEPA to specific geographic regions or nations, which includes early applications in Ireland and New Zealand, leading to more recent applications to parts of China and the United States. The second branch consists of methodological extensions of the original graphical CEPA procedure. These developments include algebraic and Mathematical Programming (MP) variants. The third branch of CEPA literature extends its principles to other measures of sustainability, such as various environmental footprints; recent attempts to allow the methodology to simultaneously handle multiple sustainability metrics have also been published. Finally, in the fourth branch, CEPA has also been extended to handle special problem structures such as segregated targeting for multiple geographic zones, or deployment of CO2 capture and storage (CCS). Also included here are CEPA variants for carbon-constrained planning at different levels, ranging from enterprise scale, to supply chains and sector level (e.g., transportation or waste disposal), and finally to economy-wide analysis when integrated with established tools such as Input-Output Analysis (IOA). This paper discusses key developments in CEPA literature, with emphasis on the most recent developments (2016 to the present), as well as further prospects for the development of this PI sub-area.

Intelligent criminal investigation system based on both footprint recognition and surveillance video analysis

Intelligent criminal investigation system based on both footprint recognition and surveillance video analysis

Low-Carbon Footprint Hydrogen Production from Natural Gas: A Techno-Economic Analysis of Carbon Capture and Storage from Steam-Methane Reforming

Enabling cost-efficient low-carbon footprint hydrogen production is key to achieve the ambition of the Paris Agreement. This study aims to understand the techno-economic performances of hydrogen production from natural gas without and with carbon capture and storage. A hydrogen plant, based on steam-methane reforming and located in Northern Norway, producing 450 t H2/d is here modelled and evaluated. Hydrogen production costs without and with carbon emissions capture and storage of 12.2 and 18.1 c€/Nm3 are obtained. This hydrogen cost increase results in a CO2 avoidance of 67 €/tCO2,avoided. The main contributor to the CO2 avoidance cost is the CO2 capture and conditioning (57 %), while pipeline transport and the storage contribute to 17 % and 26 %. Equally important, a semi-detailed cost breakdown is presented to provide a deeper understanding of the key contributors to the cost of the whole chain and to identify points which if reduced could have the most impact.

A pegada ecológica como instrumento comparativo dos níveis de sustentabilidade ambiental em escolas pública e privada do Município de Pombal, Paraíba, Brasil

Os impactos ambientais causados pelo homem e o avanço do conceito de sustentabilidade ambiental tornou necessário a classificação e a quantificação do desempenho de governos e da população no tocante à sustentabilidade. Os chamados ‘indicadores de sustentabilidade’ servem para analisar o grau dos impactos ambientais causados em diversos meios. A pegada ecológica é um dos principais indicadores de sustentabilidade conhecidos, pois avalia os recursos naturais, o padrão de consumo das populações e verifica se esses padrões estão dentro da capacidade ecológica do país. O objetivo foi realizar o cálculo da pegada ecológica de duas escolas do município de Pombal, no estado da Paraíba, sendo uma escola pública e outra privada. A pegada ecológica foi calculada por meio da aplicação de um questionário de múltipla escolha relacionando diferentes temas. A Pegada Ecológica dos estudantes da escola privada foi superior aos da escola pública, mas ambas superaram a média mundial. Foi possível observar que a renda dos estudantes é positivamente relacionada aos impactos ambientais por eles causados. Promover maior sensibilização aos estudantes de ambas às escolas é primordial para reduzir os impactos ambientais.

Cleaner Process and Entrainer Screening for Bioethanol Dehydration by Heterogeneous Azeotropic Distillation

Greenhouse gas footprint of fuels is due to both the burning fuel and its production process. Bioethanol is a sustainable biofuel but it is obtained diluted in water and its dehydration consumes large amounts of energy. Heterogeneous azeotropic distillation is a well-known suitable option for dehydration of bioethanol (separation of ethanol from water). Many entrainers for this process are studied in literature but unfortunately, there is no critical comparison in terms of the corresponding process efficiency. The distillation efficiency assessment is necessary as it has a great impact on the energy consumption and sustainability of bioethanol production. The process scheme and entrainer are screened following a fast-to-rigorous procedure: feasibility checking using the infinite/infinite analysis, screening based on the Distillation Sequence Efficiency (DSE) method and rigorous simulation using AspenPlus®. Different process schemes are assessed taking into account also that some gasoline additives, used as entrainers, could remain in bioethanol, which is to be included in the gasoline formulation. Some examples of commonly used ethers as gasoline additives are methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE), diisopropyl ether (DIPE) and tert-amyl methyl ether (TAME). The study shows that when the entrainer is a gasoline additive, collecting the distillation product as a mixture of ethanol and additive consumes 27 % less energy than collecting pure ethanol. Performing the ethanol dehydration and gasoline additive mixing together in the same process leads to a 27 % decreasing of CO2 emissions.

Market Liquidity: An Elusive Variable

Equity prices depend on risk, expected return, and market liquidity. Market liquidity, however, is an elusive variable. Prevailing thinking relates primarily to revealed liquidity (e.g., posted orders). The authors propose the concept of latent liquidity to complement this definition and discuss liquidity in terms of its empirical assessment, dependence on market structure, and effect on asset pricing. Regarding regulatory policy concerning market structure, the objective should be to enhance market quality, which is tantamount to liquidity provision. This should lead to extended economic benefits because one thing is widely agreed on: All financial markets would benefit from being more liquid. TOPICS:Portfolio theory, portfolio construction, equity portfolio management Key Findings • The title itself says it: Liquidity is an elusive variable. It is hard to define, measure, and find. • A large and important component of liquidity is latent liquidity: orders that are not posted on a lit book. Consequently, it is not possible to quantify liquidity empirically. • Illiquidity leaves its footprints in the transaction record: accentuated intraday price volatility and returns autocorrelation. These are affected by the structural design of a financial market and by market structure regulation.

Single channel high transmission optical band-pass filter based on plasmonic Nano-cavities

This paper is concerned with the investigation of an optical band-pass filter based on subwavelength surface plasmon polaritons. The transmission characteristics are numerically analyzed by the finite-difference time-domain method, and simulation results reveal that the structure has a band-pass filtering characteristic. The metal–insulator–metal plasmonic nanostructure is implemented by several vertical rectangular cavities across an optical waveguide. The metal and dielectric materials utilized for the realization of the filter are silver and air, respectively. Furthermore, the performance can be efficiently modified by tuning the geometric parameters such as the cavities’ length and width and the coupling distance between them. The output transmission spectrum shows a single transmission peak over a wide wavelength range of 400 to 2000 nm, while the full width at half-maximum is about 200 nm. The high extinction ratio beyond 40 dB with the low insertion loss makes this filter comparable to those of other proposed band-pass filters. Besides, the operating wavelength of this filter can be expeditiously tuned by adjusting the geometric parameters, mainly the length of the center cavity. The small footprint of the structure contributes to the achievement of wavelength selection systems for optical communications in ultradense plasmonic integrated circuits.

Mikromobilność w systemie transportowym miasta

Mikromobilność to wykorzystywanie w systemie transportowym miast małych i lekkich środków transportu umożliwiających pokonywanie krótkich dystansów. Dzięki niewielkim gabarytom i małej masie ułatwiają one poruszanie się po wąskich i zatłoczonych odcinkach miast, a ich alternatywny napęd eliminuje hałas i redukuje tzw. ślad węglowy. Do środków tych zaliczają się m.in. rowery, hulajnogi, deskorolki, skutery, motorowery, a także małe, lekkie samochody (ang. microcar, quadricycle). Celem artykułu jest wyjaśnienie, czym jest mikromobilność, wskazanie jej miejsca i zastosowania w systemie transportowym miasta oraz zaprezentowanie stanu mikromobilności w Polsce. W realizacji tego celu przydatne były: analiza wybranej literatury przedmiotu i próbne badania z wykorzystaniem kwestionariusza ankietowego. W podsumowaniu zwrócono uwagę na duże zainteresowanie mikromobilnością i jej wpływem na obsługę pierwszego i ostatniego kilometra transportu w mieście, a także na liczne bariery związane z jej wdrażaniem. Zdaniem autora artykułu w postępie mikromobilności bardzo istotnymi zagadnieniami są rozbudowa tzw. niezmotoryzowanej infrastruktury, poszerzenie dostępności do niej, uzupełnianie, modyfikowanie i szybkie przyjmowanie stosownych uregulowań prawnych, opracowanie standardów bezpieczeństwa, homologowanie urządzeń mikromobilności oraz kontrolowanie i nadzór nad tymi urządzeniami w ruchu.