Search Results (8)

Time-series forecasting is widely recognized as essential for integrating renewable energy, managing emissions, and optimizing demand across energy and environmental applications. Initially, traditional forecasting methods are hindered by limitations including poor interpretability, limited generalization to diverse scenarios, and substantial computational demands. Consequently, a novel minimum-variance self-tuning (MVST) method is proposed, grounded in adaptive control theory, to overcome these challenges. The method utilizes recursive least squares with self-tuning parameter updates, delivering high prediction accuracy, rapid computation, and robust multi-step forecasting without pre-training requirements. Testing is performed on CO₂ emissions (annual), transformer load (15 min), and building electric load (hourly) datasets, comparing MVST against LSTM, ARDL, fixed-PID, XGBoost, and Prophet across varied scales and contexts. Significant improvements are observed, with prediction errors reduced by 3–8 times and computational time decreased by up to 2000 times compared to these methods. Finally, these advancements facilitate real-time power system dispatch, enhance energy planning, and support carbon emission management, demonstrating substantial research and practical value. Full article

Analysis of matrix variate data is becoming increasingly common in the literature, particularly in the field of clustering and classification. It is well known that real data, including real matrix variate data, often exhibit high levels of asymmetry. To address this issue, one common approach is to introduce a tail or skewness parameter to a symmetric distribution. In this regard, we introduce here a new distribution called the matrix variate skew-t distribution (MVST), which provides flexibility, in terms of heavy tail and skewness. We then conduct a thorough investigation of various characterizations and probabilistic properties of the MVST distribution. We also explore extensions of this distribution to a finite mixture model. To estimate the parameters of the MVST distribution, we develop an EM-type algorithm that computes maximum likelihood (ML) estimates of the model parameters. To validate the effectiveness and usefulness of the developed models and associated methods, we performed empirical experiments, using simulated data as well as three real data examples, including an application in skin cancer detection. Our results demonstrate the efficacy of the developed approach in handling asymmetric matrix variate data. Full article

The monophasic variant of S. Typhimurium 4,[5],12:i:- (MVST) is the third most commonly reported Salmonella serovar involved in human infections (8.8%) in the EU and ranks after S. Enteritidis (54.6%) and S. Typhimurium (11.4%). In Italy, in contrast, the MVST has achieved peculiar epidemiological and ecological success which has allowed it to be, since 2011, the serovar most frequently isolated from humans. In the summer of 2022, a foodborne outbreak of the MVST involving 63 people occurred in the Marche Region (Central Italy). A common food exposure source among some human cases was a roasted, ready-to-eat (RTE) pork product, porchetta, which is a typical product of Central Italy. This paper describes the results of investigations conducted to clarify this outbreak. The porchetta was produced by a local manufacturing plant and distributed to at least two local retail stores, one of which was the retail outlet for the manufacturing plant. The MVST was isolated from surface samples collected at the porchetta manufacturing plant and at both local retail stores via bacterial analysis, and the porchetta sampled at one store contained the MVST. These data confirm this type of RTE pork product can be a source of Salmonella infection in humans. Full article

The laboratory miniature vane shear test (MVST) has been widely used to measure the undrained shear strength of marine sediments in offshore engineering. However, the transfer of the soil sample in tube samplers from the seabed to the laboratory releases the in situ confining stress acting on the soil and will decrease the soil strength. In this research, in order to investigate the effects of confining stress on the undrained shear strength of marine sediments, the Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) approach in ABAQUS is used to model the three-dimensional standard and miniature vane shear tests to estimate the undrained shear strength of sensitive clay with different sensitivities under various stress conditions. Based on the numerical simulation results, a linear strength model that not only considers confining stress effects but also can eliminate the size effects caused by vane blades of MVST is proposed. The proposed model can be used to estimate the undrained shear strength of the sensitive clay under shallow seabed surfaces. Full article

Germination of the medicinal and aromatic plant basil raises interesting questions due to its no seed periodicity and dormancy demand, and the seed priming could help to assure the permanent needs for this herb. The study aimed to provide an adapted BBCH (Biologische Bundesanstalt Bundessortenamt and CHemical industry) scale for the germination secondary stages of sweet basil Ocimum basilicum L. (var. MVSt). A standardized germination test was performed with hydropriming, electric field, and magnetic field as priming methods to assess the changes in the secondary stages of germination. The time range for each basil secondary stage was recorded and added to the adapted BBCH, to highlight the daily secondary stage changes. All the seed priming methods increased the germination capacity with 2–3% compared with the control, with the highest value for electropriming. The seed priming methods studied improved the germination and changed the pattern of secondary stages in the BBCH scale. The germination energy was set to more than 90% in all primed seeds, with a maximum of 91.75% in the magnetic field. The time needed for 50% germination of seeds was set to 6.5 days and 90% germinated seeds were recorded after 11.7 days. The 09a BBCH lasted for 9 days in control and hydropriming, 10 days in electric field conditions and 7 days for magnetoprimed seeds. Full article

A coarse-to-fine multi-view stereo network with Transformer (MVS-T) is proposed to solve the problems of sparse point clouds and low accuracy in reconstructing 3D scenes from low-resolution multi-view images. The network uses a coarse-to-fine strategy to estimate the depth of the image progressively and reconstruct the 3D point cloud. First, pyramids of image features are constructed to transfer the semantic and spatial information among features at different scales. Then, the Transformer module is employed to aggregate the image’s global context information and capture the internal correlation of the feature map. Finally, the image depth is inferred by constructing a cost volume and iterating through the various stages. For 3D reconstruction of low-resolution images, experiment results show that the 3D point cloud obtained by the network is more accurate and complete, which outperforms other advanced algorithms in terms of objective metrics and subjective visualization. Full article

Nontyphoidal salmonellosis (NTS) is the second most commonly reported gastrointestinal infection in humans and an important cause of food-borne outbreaks in Europe. The use of antimicrobial agents for animals, plants, and food production contributes to the development of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella strains that are transmissible to humans through food. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence and the potential dissemination of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Salmonella strains isolated in the Marche Region (Central Italy) via the food chain. Strains were isolated from different sources: food, human, food animal/livestock, and the food-processing environment. Among them, we selected MDR strains to perform their further characterization in terms of resistance to tetracycline agent, carriage of tet genes, and plasmid profiles. Tetracycline resistance genes were detected by PCR and plasmid replicons by PCR-based replicon typing (PBRT). A total of 102 MDR Salmonella strains were selected among the most prevalent serovars: S. Infantis (n = 36/102), S. Derby (n = 20/102), S. Typhimurium (n = 18/102), and a monophasic variant of S. Typhimurium (MVST, n = 28/102). Resistance to sulfisoxazole (86%) and tetracycline (81%) were the most common, followed by ampicillin (76%). FIIS was the most predominant replicon (17%), followed by FII (11%) and FIB (11%) belonging to the IncF incompatibility group. Concerning the characterization of tet genes, tetB was the most frequently detected (27/89), followed by tetA (10/89), tetG (5/89), and tetM (1/89). This study showed the potential risk associated with the MDR Salmonella strains circulating along the food chain. Hence, epidemiological surveillance supported by molecular typing could be a very useful tool to prevent transmission of resistant Salmonella from food to humans, in line with the One Health approach. Full article

The magnitude of pollution in Lake Hawassa has been exacerbated by population growth and economic development in the city of Hawassa, which is hydrologically closed and retains pollutants entering it. This study was therefore aimed at examining seasonal and spatial variations in the water quality of Lake Hawassa Watershed (LHW) and identifying possible sources of pollution using multivariate statistical techniques. Water and effluent samples from LHW were collected monthly for analysis of 19 physicochemical parameters during dry and wet seasons at 19 monitoring stations. Multivariate statistical techniques (MVST) were used to investigate the influences of an anthropogenic intervention on the physicochemical characteristics of water quality at monitoring stations. Through cluster analysis (CA), all 19 monitoring stations were spatially grouped into two statistically significant clusters for the dry and wet seasons based on pollution index, which were designated as moderately polluted (MP) and highly polluted (HP). According to the study results, rivers and Lake Hawassa were moderately polluted (MP), while point sources (industry, hospitals and hotels) were found to be highly polluted (HP). Discriminant analysis (DA) was used to identify the most critical parameters to study the spatial variations, and seven significant parameters were extracted (electrical conductivity (EC), dissolved oxygen (DO), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorous (TP), sodium ion (Na⁺), and potassium ion (K⁺) with the spatial variance to distinguish the pollution condition of the groups obtained using CA. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to qualitatively determine the potential sources contributing to LHW pollution. In addition, three factors determining pollution levels during the dry and wet season were identified to explain 70.5% and 72.5% of the total variance, respectively. Various sources of pollution are prevalent in the LHW, including urban runoff, industrial discharges, diffused sources from agricultural land use, and livestock. A correlation matrix with seasonal variations was prepared for both seasons using physicochemical parameters. In conclusion, effective management of point and non-point source pollution is imperative to improve domestic, industrial, livestock, and agricultural runoff to reduce pollutants entering the Lake. In this regard, proper municipal and industrial wastewater treatment should be complemented, especially, by stringent management that requires a comprehensive application of technologies such as fertilizer management, ecological ditches, constructed wetlands, and buffer strips. Furthermore, application of indigenous aeration practices such as the use of drop structures at critical locations would help improve water quality in the lake watershed. Full article