Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Challenges To Select Suitable Habitats And Demonstrate ‘Additionality’ In Blue Carbon Projects: A Seagrass Case Study, Anna Lafratta, Oscar Serrano, Pere Masqué, Miguel A. Mateo, Milena Fernandes, Sam Gaylard, Paul S. Lavery

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Seagrass restoration has been suggested as a Blue Carbon (BC) strategy for climate change mitigation. For Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and carbon crediting schemes, BC projects need to demonstrate ‘additionality’, that is enhanced CO2 sequestration and/or avoided greenhouse gas emissions following management actions. This typically requires determining soil carbon accumulation rates (CAR), which is often done using radionuclides or surface elevation tables to estimate sedimentation rates. Here we undertook a case study, using 210Pb and 14C dating, to detect possible changes in Corg stocks and CAR following the loss and partial recovery of Posidonia seagrass meadows …

Gearing Up Impact Assessment As A Vehicle For Achieving The Un Sustainable Development Goals, Angus Morrison-Saunders, Luis E. Sánchez, Francois Retief, John Sinclair, Meinhard Doelle, Megan Jones, Jan-Albert Wessels, Jenny Pope

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This article reflects on the potential for impact assessment (IA) to be a major vehicle for implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While it is acknowledged that the SDGs are intended to deliver broader outcomes than IA currently does, we nevertheless argue there is significant convergence between IA and the SDGs, which we explore utilising the key dimensions of sustainability assessment: comprehensiveness, strategicness and integratedness. We conclude that ‘geared up’ IA might be used as a major vehicle to facilitate achievement of the SDGs. However, IA must become more comprehensive and integrated, such that the full suite of SDGs …

Global Patterns In Seagrass Herbivory: Why, Despite Existing Evidence, There Are Solid Arguments In Favor Of Latitudinal Gradients In Seagrass Herbivory, K. L. Heck Jr, M. Samsonova, A. G. B. Poore, Glenn A. Hyndes

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020, Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation. The ecological paradigm that biological interactions are more intense in the tropics than in temperate or polar regions has existed since the mid-twentieth century, but several recent meta-analyses have provided scant evidence for latitudinal gradients in the intensity of herbivory. This contradictory evidence led us to carefully review the data and results of several of those papers that failed to find latitudinal gradients in rates of seagrass herbivory. To re-evaluate the arguments around the presence or absence of latitudinal gradients in herbivory in seagrass, we began by expanding the selection criteria to include …

Transcriptomic Study For Identification Of Major Nitrogen Stress Responsive Genes In Australian Bread Wheat Cultivars, Nigarin Sultana, Shahidul Islam, Angela Juhasz, Rongchang Yang, Maoyun She, Zaid Alhabbar, Jingjuan Zhang, Wujun Ma

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

High nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in bread wheat is pivotal to sustain high productivity. Knowledge about the physiological and transcriptomic changes that regulate NUE, in particular how plants cope with nitrogen (N) stress during flowering and the grain filling period, is crucial in achieving high NUE. Nitrogen response is differentially manifested in different tissues and shows significant genetic variability. A comparative transcriptome study was carried out using RNA-seq analysis to investigate the effect of nitrogen levels on gene expression at 0 days post anthesis (0 DPA) and 10 DPA in second leaf and grain tissues of three Australian wheat (Triticum …

Toward A Sustainable Cybersecurity Ecosystem, Shahrin Sadik, Mohiuddin Ahmed, Leslie F. Sikos, A.K.M. Najmul Islam

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Cybersecurity issues constitute a key concern of today’s technology-based economies. Cybersecurity has become a core need for providing a sustainable and safe society to online users in cyberspace. Considering the rapid increase of technological implementations, it has turned into a global necessity in the attempt to adapt security countermeasures, whether direct or indirect, and prevent systems from cyberthreats. Identifying, characterizing, and classifying such threats and their sources is required for a sustainable cyber-ecosystem. This paper focuses on the cybersecurity of smart grids and the emerging trends such as using blockchain in …

The K-Means Algorithm: A Comprehensive Survey And Performance Evaluation, Mohiuddin Ahmed, Raihan Seraj, Syed Mohammed Shamsul Islam

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. The k-means clustering algorithm is considered one of the most powerful and popular data mining algorithms in the research community. However, despite its popularity, the algorithm has certain limitations, including problems associated with random initialization of the centroids which leads to unexpected convergence. Additionally, such a clustering algorithm requires the number of clusters to be defined beforehand, which is responsible for different cluster shapes and outlier effects. A fundamental problem of the k-means algorithm is its inability to handle various data types. This paper provides a structured and synoptic overview of …

Nested Ecology And Emergence In Pandemics, Aaron Jenkins, Stacy D. Jupiter, Anthony Capon, Pierre Horwitz, Joel Negin

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

No abstract provided.

From The Tree Of Knowledge And The Golem Of Prague To Kosher Autonomous Cars: The Ethics Of Artificial Intelligence Through Jewish Eyes, Nachshon Goltz, John Zeleznikow, Tracey Dowdeswell

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This article discusses the regulation of artificial intelligence from a Jewish perspective, with an emphasis on the regulation of machine learning and its application to autonomous vehicles and machine learning. Through the Biblical story of Adam and Eve as well as Golem legends from Jewish folklore, we derive several basic principles that underlie a Jewish perspective on the moral and legal personhood of robots and other artificially intelligent agents. We argue that religious ethics in general, and Jewish ethics in particular, show us that the dangers of granting moral personhood to robots and in particular to autonomous vehicles lie not …

Ecu-Ioht, Mohiuddin Ahmed, Surender Byreddy, Anush Nutakki, Leslie F. Sikos, Paul Haskell-Dowland

Research Datasets

In recent times, cyberattacks on Internet of Health Things (IoHT) have continuously been growing, and so it is important to develop robust countermeasures. However, there is a lack of publicly available datasets reflecting cyberattacks on IoHT, mainly due to privacy concerns. To strengthen the cyber security of IoHT, we have developed the dataset, named ECU-IoHT, that is built upon an IoHT environment having different attacks performed that exploit various vulnerabilities. This dataset was designed to help the healthcare security community in analyzing attack behaviour and developing robust countermeasures. To the best of our knowledge, no other publicly available datasets have …

Review Of The Scientific And Institutional Capacity Of Small Island Developing States In Support Of A Bottom-Up Approach To Achieve Sustainable Development Goal 14 Targets, Rebecca Zitoun, Sylvia G. Sander, Pere Masque Barri, Saul Perez Pijuan, Peter W. Swarzenski

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Capacity building efforts in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are indispensable for the achievement of both individual and collective ocean-related 2030 agenda priorities for sustainable development. Knowledge of the individual capacity building and research infrastructure requirements in SIDS is necessary for national and international efforts to be effective in supporting SIDS to address nationally-identified sustainable development priorities. Here, we present an assessment of human resources and institutional capacities in SIDS United Nations (UN) Member States to help formulate and implement durable, relevant, and effective capacity development responses to the most urgent marine issues of concern for SIDS. The assessment highlights …

Investigation Of Enhanced Double Weight Code In Point To Point Access Networks, Hesham A. Bakarman, Ali Z. Ghazi Zahid, M. H. Mezher, Al Aboud Wahed Al-Isawi, Feras N. Hasoon, Saad H. Al-Isawi, Hussein A. Rasool, Sahbudin Shaari, Maitham Al-Alyawy, S. T. Yousif, Jaber K. Taher, Ali H. Mezher, Hala Musawy, W. Y. Chong, R. Zakaria

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd. In this paper, an investigation and evaluation to enhanced double weight (EDW) code is performed, a new technique for code structuring and building using modified arithmetical model has been given for the code in place of employing previous technique based on Trial Inspections. Innovative design has been employed for the code into P2P networks using diverse weighted EDW code to be fitting into optical CDMA relevance applications. A new developed relation for EDW code is presented, the relation is based on studying and experimenting the effect of input transmission power with …

Denial Of Service Attack Detection Through Machine Learning For The Iot, Naeem Firdous Syed, Zubair Baig, Ahmed Ibrahim, Craig Valli

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Sustained Internet of Things (IoT) deployment and functioning are heavily reliant on the use of effective data communication protocols. In the IoT landscape, the publish/subscribe-based Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol is popular. Cyber security threats against the MQTT protocol are anticipated to increase at par with its increasing use by IoT manufacturers. In particular, IoT is vulnerable to protocol-based Application layer Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, which have been known to cause widespread service disruption in legacy systems. In this paper, we propose an Application layer DoS attack detection framework for the MQTT protocol and test the scheme on …

Investigating The Influence Of Environmental Factors On The Incidence Of Renal Disease With Compositional Data Analysis Using Balances, Jennifer M. Mckinley, Ute Mueller, Peter M. Atkinson, Ulrich Ofterdinger, Chloe Jackson, Siobhan F. Cox, Rory Doherty, Damian Fogarty, J. J. Egozcue, V. Pawlowsky-Glahn

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This research uses an urban soil geochemistry database of elemental concentration to examine the potential relationship between Standardised Incidence Rates (SIRs) of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) of uncertain aetiology (CKDu), and cumulative low level geogenic and diffuse anthropogenic contamination of soils with PTEs. A compositional data analysis approach was applied to determine the elemental balance(s) of the geochemical data showing the greatest association with CKDu. The research concludes that both anthropogenic and geogenic factors may be contributing influences to explain high incidences of CKDu, up to 12 times greater in some Super Output Areas (SOAs) than would be expected for …

The Relationship Between Strategic Information Systems Planning (Sisp) And Facilitators To Achieve Successful Business Outcomes In South Korean Organizations, Jungho Yang, Nelson K. Y. Leung, Bill Young

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP) is an important process in the implementation and use of IT systems in today’s dynamic and increasingly digitalized organizations. However, SISP is not a straightforward task, it is a process that covers simultaneous multiple planning issues often in changing environmental and organizational climates. Although SISP has been widely studied, and evaluating the SISP process has matured, theory on SISP facilitators that enable successful outcomes remain sparse. The main objective of this paper is to explore such facilitators and to investigate their relationshipand contribution in achieving SISP success. By postal surveying a random sample of managers …

To What Extent Can Mine Rehabilitation Restore Recreational Use Of Forest Land? Learning From 50 Years Of Practice In Southwest Australia, Josianne Claudia Sales Rosa, Davide Geneletti, Angus Morrison-Saunders, Luis Enrique Sánchez, Michael Hughes

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

When mining affects natural or semi-natural ecosystems such as forests, rehabilitation often aims at restoring biodiversity. However, to what extent does rehabilitation also restore cultural ecosystem services? This paper investigates the perception of two groups of recreationists that use rehabilitated bauxite mine areas in southwest Australia, bushwalkers and mountain bikers. The area has been continuously mined and progressively rehabilitated for over 50 years. Research was developed through: (i) mapping the distribution of recreation trails, mined areas and rehabilitated areas; (ii) conducting in-depth interviews with recreationists regarding perceptions and usage of forest areas and; (iii) an online survey to gauge forest …

Imwa Insight: Understanding Public Perceptions Of A New Pit Lake In As Pontes, Spain, Xaquin Perez Sindin Lopez, Melanie L. Blanchette

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The introduction of coal mining in the 1940’s transformed the landscape and economy of As Pontes, Spain. Industrialisation created successive waves of economic and population booms, but when the mining slowed in the 1990s, the region experienced economic depression. Real and perceived social divisions and environmental abuses on the part of the mining company remained entrenched in people’s memories. This paper provides an overview of the factors that likely affected community acceptance of the new pit lake in As Pontes, Spain. Pit lakes are often attractive closure options for companies, and community opinion of pit lakes can influence pit end …

Packet Analysis For Network Forensics: A Comprehensive Survey, Leslie F. Sikos

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Packet analysis is a primary traceback technique in network forensics, which, providing that the packet details captured are sufficiently detailed, can play back even the entire network traffic for a particular point in time. This can be used to find traces of nefarious online behavior, data breaches, unauthorized website access, malware infection, and intrusion attempts, and to reconstruct image files, documents, email attachments, etc. sent over the network. This paper is a comprehensive survey of the utilization of packet analysis, including deep packet inspection, in network forensics, and provides a review of AI-powered packet analysis methods with advanced network traffic …

Architectural Heritage Images Classification Using Deep Learning With Cnn, Mohammed Hamzah Abed, Muntasir Al-Asfoor, Zahir M. Hussain

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Digital documentation of cultural heritage images has emerged as an important topic in data analysis. Increasing the size and number of images to be processed making the task of categorizing them a challenging task and may take an inordinate amount of time. This research paper proposes a solution to the mentioned challenges by classifying the subject of the image of the study using Convolutional Neural Network. Classification of available images leads to improve the management of the images dataset and …

Automated Smart Home Assessment To Support Pain Management: Multiple Methods Analysis, Roschelle L. Fritz, Marian Wilson, Gordana Dermody, Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe, Diane J. Cook

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

©Roschelle L Fritz, Marian Wilson, Gordana Dermody, Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe, Diane J Cook. Objective: This study aimed to determine if a smart home can detect pain-related behaviors to perform automated assessment and support intervention for persons with chronic pain.Background: Poorly managed pain can lead to substance use disorders, depression, suicide, worsening health, and increased use of health services. Most pain assessments occur in clinical settings away from patients’ natural environments. Advances in smart home technology may allow observation of pain in the home setting. Smart homes recognizing human behaviors may be useful for quantifying functional pain interference, thereby creating new ways …

Cooperative Co-Evolution For Feature Selection In Big Data With Random Feature Grouping, A.N.M. Bazlur Rashid, Mohiuddin Ahmed, Leslie F. Sikos, Paul Haskell-Dowland

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020, The Author(s). A massive amount of data is generated with the evolution of modern technologies. This high-throughput data generation results in Big Data, which consist of many features (attributes). However, irrelevant features may degrade the classification performance of machine learning (ML) algorithms. Feature selection (FS) is a technique used to select a subset of relevant features that represent the dataset. Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are widely used search strategies in this domain. A variant of EAs, called cooperative co-evolution (CC), which uses a divide-and-conquer approach, is a good choice for optimization problems. The existing solutions have poor performance because …

Correction To: Cooperative Co‑Evolution For Feature Selection In Big Data With Random Feature Grouping (Journal Of Big Data, (2020), 7, 1, (107), 10.1186/S40537-020-00381-Y), A. N.M.Bazlur Rashid, Mohiuddin Ahmed, Leslie F. Sikos, Paul Haskell‑Dowland

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020, The Author(s). Following publication of the original article [1], the author reported that the 2nd author affiliation was incorrect. It should only be “School of Science, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA, Australia”. The affiliation is presented correctly in this correction article. The original article [1] has been corrected.

Anti-Uterine Fibroid Effect Of Standardized Labisia Pumila Var. Alata Extracts In Vitro And In Human Uterine Fibroid Cancer Xenograft Model, Norfahana Zakaria, Khamsah S. Mohd, Mohammed A. A. Saeed, Loiy E. A. Hassan, Armaghan Shafaei Darestani, Fouad S. R. Al-Suede, Abdul H. Memon, Zhari Ismail

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background: Uterine fibroids are a common type of solid tumor presenting in women of reproductive age. There are very few alternative treatment available from conventional treatment involving surgeries. Labisia pumila var. alata or locally known as ‘Kacip Fatimah’ was widely used as traditional medicine in Malaysia. This plant has been used to maintain a healthy female reproductive system. The present study aimed to evaluate anti fibroid potential of L. pumila extracts through in vitro apoptosis activity against uterine leiomyoma cells (SK-UT-1) and in uterine leiomyoma xenograft model. Evaluation of bioactive markers content were also carried out. Methods: Apoptotic induction of …

Which Dual-Band Infrared Indices Are Optimum For Identifying Aerosol Compositional Change Using Himawari-8 Data?, Miles Sowden, D Blake

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Aerosol optical depth algorithms predominantly use the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. However, quantifying sporadic dust events throughout the full 24-h period requires using continuous wavelengths such as infrared (IR). Identifying aerosols, using IR from geostationary data, has relied on subtraction indices rather than normalised differences. Limited attention has been given to determining which IR indices could be suitable for identifying aerosol compositional change. Suitable IR indices could potentially result in multi-spectral data from geostationary satellites, such as Himawari, being used to separate dust from other types of aerosols.

This study evaluated three index types: subtraction (brightness temperature difference …

A Novel Penalty-Based Wrapper Objective Function For Feature Selection In Big Data Using Cooperative Co-Evolution, A.N.M. Bazlur Rashid, Mohiuddin Ahmed, Leslie F. Sikos, Paul Haskell-Dowland

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The rapid progress of modern technologies generates a massive amount of high-throughput data, called Big Data, which provides opportunities to find new insights using machine learning (ML) algorithms. Big Data consist of many features (also called attributes); however, not all these are necessary or relevant, and they may degrade the performance of ML algorithms. Feature selection (FS) is an essential preprocessing step to reduce the dimensionality of a dataset. Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are widely used search algorithms for FS. Using classification accuracy as the objective function for FS, EAs, such as the cooperative co-evolutionary algorithm (CCEA), achieve higher accuracy, even …

Trade-Off Assessments Between Reading Cost And Accuracy Measures For Digital Camera Monitoring Of Recreational Boating Effort, Ebenezer Afrifa-Yamoah, Stephen M. Taylor, Ute Mueller

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Digital camera monitoring is increasingly being used to monitor recreational fisheries. The manual interpretation of video imagery can be costly and time consuming. In an a posteriori analysis, we investigated trade-offs between the reading cost and accuracy measures of estimates of boat retrievals obtained at various sampling proportions for low, moderate and high traffic boat ramps in Western Australia. Simple random sampling, systematic sampling and stratified sampling designs with proportional and weighted allocation were evaluated to assess trade-offs in terms of bias, accuracy, precision, coverage rate and cost in estimating the annual total number of powerboat retrievals in 10,000 jackknife …

Interrelations Among Leadership Competencies Of Bim Leaders: A Fuzzy Dematel-Anp Approach, Seyed Armin Mirhosseini, Reza Kiani Mavi, Neda Kiani Mavi, Behzad Abbasnejad, Farzaneh Rayani

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 by the authors. The use of new, digitally enabled innovations, such as building information modeling (BIM), raises issues such as the delineation of a competent leader. Even though BIM-based competency assessment models have become essential tools for maximizing the potential values of BIM implementation, the current competency models provide limited focus on leadership aspects that facilitate and enhance the BIM implementation efforts. This paper seeks to identify the specific competencies required for BIM implementation and examines the relationships between these competencies. Thirty-two experts from around the globe investigated a total of 15 leadership competencies under three categories pertaining …

Morphological And Heartwood Variation Of Santalum Macgregorii In Papua New Guinea, T. Page, G. K. Jeffrey, P. Macdonell, D. Hettiarachchi, Mary C. Boyce, A. Lata, L. Oa, G. Rome

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Santalum macgregorii (sandalwood), which is endemic to the southern part of Papua New Guinea (PNG), has been heavily exploited for its fragrant heartwood and is classified as threatened across its natural range. Domestication and smallholder agroforestry offer the means to preserve remaining diversity. This study was undertaken to understand the extent of remaining natural variation to support the species’s conservation and domestication. We evaluated morphological, heartwood and essential oil characters in 126 S. macgregorii trees in five populations (districts) in PNG’s Central, Gulf and Western …

Enhanced Magneto-Optic Properties In Sputtered Bi-Containing Ferrite Garnet Thin Films Fabricated Using Oxygen Plasma Treatment And Metal Oxide Protective Layers, V. A. Kotov, Mohammad Nur-E-Alam, M. Vasiliev, Kamal Alameh, D. E. Balabanov, V. I. Burkov

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Magneto-optic (MO) imaging and sensing are at present the most developed practical applications of thin-film MO garnet materials. However, in order to improve sensitivity for a range of established and forward-looking applications, the technology and component-related advances are still necessary. These improvements are expected to originate from new material system development. We propose a set of technological modifications for the RF-magnetron sputtering deposition and crystallization annealing of magneto-optic bismuth-substituted iron-garnet films and investigate the improved material properties. Results show that standard crystallization annealing for the as-deposited ultrathin (sputtered 10 nm thick, …

Sampling Device-Dependence Of Prokaryotic Community Structure On Marine Particles: Higher Diversity Recovered By In Situ Pumps Than By Oceanographic Bottles, Viena Puigcorbe, Clara Ruiz-Gonzalez, Pere Masque´, Josep M. Gasol

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Microbes associated with sinking marine particles play key roles in carbon sequestration in the ocean. The sampling of particle-attached microorganisms is often done with sediment traps or by filtration of water collected with oceanographic bottles, both involving a certain time lapse between collection and processing of samples that may result in changes in particle-attached microbial communities. Conversely, in situ water filtration through submersible pumps allows a faster storage of sampled particles, but it has rarely been used to study the associated microbial communities and has never been compared to other particle-sampling methods in terms of the recovery of particle microbial …

Factors Influencing Carbon Stocks And Accumulation Rates In Eelgrass Meadows Across New England, Usa, A. B. Novak, M. C. Pelletier, P. Colarusso, J. Simpson, M. N. Gutierrez, A. Arias-Ortiz, M. Charpentier, Pere Masque, P. Vella

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Increasing the protection of coastal vegetated ecosystems has been suggested as one strategy to compensate for increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere as the capacity of these habitats to sequester and store carbon exceeds that of terrestrial habitats. Seagrasses are a group of foundation species that grow in shallow coastal and estuarine systems and have an exceptional ability to sequester and store large quantities of carbon in biomass and, particularly, in sediments. However, carbon stocks (Corg stocks) and carbon accumulation rates (Corg accumulation) in seagrass meadows are highly variable both spatially and temporally, making it difficult to extrapolate this …