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Human–Machine Pair Programming (HMPP) is a promising technique in the software development process, which means that software construction can be done in the manner that humans are responsible for developing the program while computer is responsible for monitoring the program in real-time and reporting errors. The Java runtime exceptions in the current version of the software under construction can only be effectively detected by means of its execution. Traditional software testing techniques are suitable for testing completed programs but face a challenge in building a suitable testing environment for testing the partial programs produced during HMPP. In this paper, we put forward a novel technique, called Program Segment Testing (PST) for automatically identifying errors caused by runtime exceptions to support HMPP. We first introduce the relevant involved in this technique to detect index out of bounds exceptions, a representative of runtime exceptions. Then we discuss the methodology of this technique in detail and illustrate its workflow with a simple case study. Finally, we carry out an experiment to evaluate this technique and compare it with three existing fault detection techniques using several programs to demonstrate its effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is considered a promising auxiliary relay for enhancing network coverage due to its easy deployment, agility, and maneuverability. In order to overcome the obstruction of towering buildings and the limitation of relaying energy, this paper proposes a half-duplex decode-and-forward UAV-assisted relaying network based on simultaneous wireless information and power transfer scheme. The power splitting (PS) is implemented at the UAV relay to address the challenge of energy limitation by separating information and energy from the radio frequency signal. We also study the impact of hardware impairments on transmitters, which can actually degrade communication performance. We derive both an exact expression and asymptotic analysis for the outage probability (OP) with energy harvesting and hardware impairments. In addition, we formulate an optimization form to find the optimal PS ratio and minimize the outage probability. Due to the nonconvex nature of this optimization problem, we perform a series of transformations to reformulate it into a convex optimization form. Experimental simulations validate our theoretical results. Specifically, optimal altitude for UAV is about 300 m and relatively constant in different conditions. The OP of our work is nearly 0.33 smaller than that of AF relaying in a given situation. Moreover, we provide practical guidance for the design and deployment of the UAV-assisted communication by exploring the effects of UAV's altitude, hardware impairments level, and power splitting ratio on the outage probability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cellular senescence and fibrosis are two biological processes that are closely related to the development of many diseases. Cellular senescence can occur through mechanisms such as telomere shortening, DNA damage, and oxidative stress, leading to degradation of cell function and decreased ability to repair damage. More and more studies have shown that fibrosis and cell senescence are closely related, and cell senescence has been confirmed to be involved in the occurrence and development of scar fibrosis diseases. An in-depth understanding of the relationship between cellular senescence and scar fibrosis is helpful to find new therapeutic strategies and develop targeted drugs to reduce the process of scar fibrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbohydrates are one of the most important food components, and their flexible and complex molecular structures make it difficult for existing experimental methods to obtain comprehensive and detailed information at the molecular level. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, as a theoretical computational method, have been widely used in the study of carbohydrates in recent years, providing information on the conformation as well as the driving force, binding energy and interaction site of intermolecular interactions, which is an effective supplement and deeper exploration of real experiments. This review introduced the definition, software, force field, methods, general processes and new approaches of MD simulations. Combined with research examples, it focused on the important role of MD simulations in the studies of carbohydrate conformation, aggregation and the effect of processing on carbohydrates, and elucidated the great potential in resolving the interaction mechanisms between carbohydrates and other components. It is expected to provide theoretical guidance for the in-depth analysis of the conformational relationships of carbohydrates and the expansion of their application efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate mathematical modeling of state of charge (SOC) prediction is essential for battery management systems (BMSs) to improve battery utilization efficiency and ensure a good safety performance. The current SOC prediction framework only considers battery-related features but ignores vehicle information. Additionally, in light of the emergence of time-series Transformers (TSTs) that harness the power of multi-head attention, developing a SOC prediction model remains a significant challenge. Therefore, we introduce a new framework that integrates laboratory battery data with mathematical vehicle model features to improve the accuracy of the SOC and propose a prediction model named DLPformer, which can effectively capture variations in the SOC attributed to both trend and seasonal patterns. First, we apply Matlab/Simulink to simulate a mathematical model of electric vehicles and process the generated vehicle data with Spearman correlation analysis to identify the most relevant features, such as the mechanical losses of the electric motor, differential, and aerodynamic drag. Then, we employ a data fusion method to synchronize the heterogeneous datasets with different frequencies to capture the sudden changes in electric vehicles. Subsequently, the fused features are input into our prediction model, DLPformer, which incorporates a linear model for trend prediction and patch-input attention for seasonal component prediction. Finally, in order to effectively evaluate the extrapolation and adaptability of our model, we utilize different driving cycles and heterogeneous battery datasets for training and testing. The experimental results show that our prediction model significantly improves the accuracy and robustness of SOC prediction under the proposed framework, achieving MAE values of 0.18% and 0.10% across distinct driving cycles and battery types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficient localization plays a significant role in mobile autonomous robots' navigation systems. Traditional visual simultaneous localization systems based on point feature matching suffer from two shortcomings. First one is that the method of tracking features is not robust for environments with frequent changes in brightness. Another one is the large of consecutive visual keyframes can consume expensive computational and storage resources in complex environments. To solve these problems, an end-to-end real-time six degrees of freedom object pose estimation algorithm is proposed to solve the robust and efficient challenges through a deep learning model. First, preprocessing operations such as cropping, averaging, and timestamp alignment are performed on datasets to reduce computational cost and time. Second, the processed dataset is fed into our neural network model to extract the most effective features for matching. Finally, the robot's current 3D translation and 4D angle information are predicted and output to achieve an end-to-end localization system. A broad range of experiments are performed on both indoor and outdoor datasets. The experimental results demonstrate that the translation and orientation accuracy in outdoor scenes improved by 32.9% and 31.4%, respectively. The average improvement of localization accuracy in indoor scenes is 38.4%, and the angle improvement is 13.1%. Moreover, the effectiveness of predicting the global motion trajectories of sequential images algorithm has been verified and is superior to other convolutional neural network methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacterial spores are highly resilient and universally present on earth and can irreversibly enter the food chain to cause food spoilage or foodborne illness once revived to resume vegetative growth. Traditionally, extensive thermal processing has been employed to efficiently kill spores; however, the relatively high thermal load adversely affects food quality attributes. In recent years, the germination‐inactivation strategy has been developed to mildly kill spores based on the circumstance that germination can decrease spore‐resilient properties. However, the failure to induce all spores to geminate, mainly owing to the heterogeneous germination behavior of spores, hampers the success of applying this strategy in the food industry. Undoubtedly, elucidating the detailed germination pathway and underlying mechanism can fill the gap in our understanding of germination heterogeneity, thereby facilitating the development of full‐scale germination regimes to mildly kill spores. In this review, we comprehensively discuss the mechanisms of spore germination of Bacillus and Clostridium species, and update the molecular basis of the early germination events, for example, the activation of germination receptors, ion release, Ca‐DPA release, and molecular events, combined with the latest research evidence. Moreover, high hydrostatic pressure (HHP), an advanced non‐thermal food processing technology, can also trigger spore germination, providing a basis for the application of a germination‐inactivation strategy in HHP processing. Here, we also summarize the diverse germination behaviors and mechanisms of spores of Bacillus and Clostridium species under HHP, with the aim of facilitating HHP as a mild processing technology with possible applications in food sterilization. Practical Application: This work provides fundamental basis for developing efficient killing strategies of bacterial spores in food industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The annual output of steelmaking slag has exceeded 150 million tons. Mass accumulations of slag damage the environment and hinder sustainable development. Preparing cementing materials in the powder form is a promising solution for the large-scale utilization of slag. Our study focused on the effects of MgO and P2O5 on the grindability, soundness, and cementitious activity of steelmaking slags. Experimental results showed that by increasing the P2O5 content in basic oxygen furnace slag from 0.5% to 3%, the free CaO content, grindability index, and early strength decreased from 6.82% to 5.35%, 0.78 to 0.72, and 29.3 MPa to 21.0 MPa, respectively, and the later strength increased from 42.8 MPa to 46.5 MPa. For electric arc furnace slag, the free CaO content, grindability index, and early and later strengths decreased from 4.0% to 1.9%, 0.75 to ~ 0.6, 29.5 MPa to 23.6 MPa, and 31.2 MPa to 27.5 MPa, respectively. The increase in the MgO content insignificantly influenced the grindability of the slag, but led to a deterioration in the soundness and cementitious characteristics of the slag powders. These results provide guidance for optimizing the chemical composition of steel slag during steelmaking to improve its use in cementing materials and thereby alleviate slag pollution and carbon dioxide emissions caused by cement production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the better standardization and widespread application of the determination method of carotenoids in both chili peppers and their products, this work reports for the first time the simultaneous determination of five main carotenoids, including capsanthin, zeaxanthin, lutein, β-cryptoxanthin and β-carotene in chili peppers and their products, with optimized extraction and the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. All parameters in the methodological evaluation were found to be in good stability, recovery and accuracy compliance with the reference values; the R coefficients for the calibration curves were more than 0.998; and the LODs and LOQs varied from 0.020 to 0.063 and from 0.067 to 0.209 mg/L, respectively. The characterization of five carotenoids in chili peppers and their products passed all the required validation criteria. The method was applied in the determination of carotenoids in nine fresh chili peppers and seven chili pepper products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphite carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is a promising photocatalyst for its high catalytic activity, low-cost and high-biosafety characteristics. Due to the complexity of underwater photochemical reaction conditions and the disadvantages of g-C3N4 itself such as low specific surface area, easy recombination of photogenerated electron–hole pairs and insufficient light absorption capacity, the application of g-C3N4 in the field of water purification is limited. For improving underwater photocatalytic performance of g-C3N4, a g-C3N4/carbon nanotubes (CNT-CN) composite photocatalyst with high specific surface area and enhanced light absorption capacity were prepared by in situ solvothermal method. Its photodegradation efficiency at different underwater transmission light was further studied. The results show that CNT has good compatibility with g-C3N4. g-C3N4 can grow in situ on the surface of CNT and form a stable composite structure. Moreover, its degradation efficiency under long-wavelength irradiation is improved significantly. The degradation rate of CNT-CN at 550-700 nm was about 3 times than that of g-C3N4. Furthermore, CNT-CN can maintain higher photocatalytic activity under water. At 40 cm depth where light intensity and ultraviolet spectra were attenuated 63.8% and 80.1%, respectively, the degradation rate of CNT-CN3 can still reach 3.49 times than that of g-C3N4. Based on this study, the introduction of CNT effectively promotes the electron–hole separation efficiency of g-C3N4, widens its spectral response range, and thus improves its underwater degradation efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proteins are important food ingredients that possess both functional and nutritional properties. High hydrostatic pressure (HHP) is an emerging nonthermal food processing technology that has been subject to great advancements in the last two decades. It is well established that pressure can induce changes in protein folding and oligomerization, and consequently, HHP has the potential to modify the desired protein properties. In this review article, the research progress over the last 15 years regarding the effect of HHP on protein structures, as well as the applications of HHP in modifying protein functionalities (i.e., solubility, water/oil holding capacity, emulsification, foaming and gelation) and nutritional properties (i.e., digestibility and bioactivity) are systematically discussed. Protein unfolding generally occurs during HHP treatment, which can result in increased conformational flexibility and the exposure of interior residues. Through the optimization of HHP and environmental conditions, a balance in protein hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity may be obtained, and therefore, the desired protein functionality can be improved. Moreover, after HHP treatment, there might be greater accessibility of the interior residues to digestive enzymes or the altered conformation of specific active sites, which may lead to modified nutritional properties. However, the practical applications of HHP in developing functional protein ingredients are underutilized and require more research concerning the impact of other food components or additives during HHP treatment. Furthermore, possible negative impacts on nutritional properties of proteins and other compounds must be also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, composite pear juice was processed by ultra‐high pressure homogenization (UHPH) at four different pressures (50, 100, 150, and 200 MPa) with six different temperatures (4, 20, 30, 40, 60, and 80°C), then microorganism and physicochemical and nutritional properties of the samples were investigated. The counts of total aerobic bacteria (TAB) and yeasts and molds (Y&M) were reduced by 0.89–4.72 log10 CFU/ml and 0.40–3.03 log10 CFU/ml after processing, respectively. There was no significant change on total soluble solid and color, but significant decreases of pH and particle size value were observed, and the antioxidant activity, total phenolic content, viscosity, and suspension stability significantly increased in treated samples. Compared to the untreated samples, polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and peroxidase (POD) activity of UHPH‐treated samples varied between 97%–126% and 81%–165%, respectively, indicating that the PPO and POD activities could be inactivated or activated by UHPH. This study introduced proper temperature combined with UHPH could improve the microbial inactivation and the quality of the compound juice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This letter studies the resource allocation and passive beamforming for the cloud radio access network (C-RAN) with orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) assisted by intelligent reflecting surface (IRS). Specifically, we consider the uplink transmission where remote radio heads (RRHs) quantize the received signals from the users by independent point-to-point compression and transmit the quantization bits to the baseband unit (BBU) pool through capacity-limited fronthaul links. We jointly optimize the resource allocation and passive beamforming to maximize the uplink sum-rate, using alternating approach and successive convex approximation (SCA) technique. Numerical results verify the performance gain brought by IRS and validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND Recent studies demonstrate that fish byproducts can be used as sources of bioactive peptides for functional foods. Sturgeon skin contains abundant proteins but it has commonly been discarded during sturgeon processing. The objective of the present work was to identify and characterize the bioactive peptides from protein hydrolysates of sturgeon skin. RESULTS: Sturgeon skin protein extract (SKPE) hydrolyzed by flavourzyme for 60 min exhibited high antioxidant activity, dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP‐IV) and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activity. The sequences of peptides from flavourzyme hydrolysates were identified using high‐performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Gly‐Asp‐Arg‐Gly‐Glu‐Ser‐Gly‐Pro‐Ala (P1) showed the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity (DPPH IC50 = 1.93 mmol L−1). Gly‐Pro‐Ala‐Gly‐Glu‐Arg‐Gly‐Glu‐Gly‐Gly‐Pro‐Arg (P11) (DPP‐IV IC50 = 2.14 mmol L−1) and Ser‐Pro‐Gly‐Pro‐Asp‐Gly‐Lys‐Thr‐Gly‐Pro‐Arg (P12) (DPP‐IV IC50 = 2.61 mmol L−1) exhibited the strongest DPP‐IV inhibitory activity. Gly‐Pro‐Pro‐Gly‐Ala‐Asp‐Gly‐Gln‐Ala‐Gly‐Ala‐Lys (P6) displayed the highest ACE inhibitory activity (ACE IC50 = 3.77 mmol L−1). The molecular docking analysis revealed that DPP‐IV inhibition of P11 and P12 are mainly attributed to hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions, whereas ACE inhibition of P6 is mainly attributed to strong hydrogen bonds. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that SKPE hydrolysates generated by flavourzyme are potential sources of bioactive peptides that could be used in the health food industry. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers and cooking oil fumes (COF) are considered as the potential dangerous contributing factors. This study, a meta-analysis was conducted to analyse the correlation between exposure to COF and risk of lung cancer. Literature from 1980 to 2020 were searched and 29 studies were selected for analysis. Results showed that population exposed to COF had significant differences in lung cancer prevalence (P < 0.05). The odds ratio (OR) values of different periods (before 2000, 2000–2010 and 2010–2020) were significantly different. Using ventilation equipment had the OR of 0.54. Liao cuisine, Fujian cuisine, Shanghai cuisine, Jingdong cuisine and Shaanxi cuisine had the ORs (95% confidence interval) of 1.91 (1.62, 2.25), 2.38 (1.80, 3.16), 1.56 (1.29, 1.89), 2.58 (1.63, 4.09) and 1.57 (1.16, 2.11), respectively. These results revealed that exposure to COF could increase the risk of lung cancer, but the risk was gradually reduced with the changes of the times and the use of ventilation equipment. Different cooking methods in different regions caused different risks of lung cancer. The risk of lung cancer caused by COF mainly produced by deep-frying, quick-frying, stir-frying and pan-frying is higher than in other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Gram positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis and its relatives are capable of forming a durable dormant long-lasting spore. Although spores can remain dormant for years, they possess the remarkable capacity to rapidly resume life and convert into actively growing cells. This cellular transition initiates with a most enigmatic irreversible event, termed germination, lasting only for a few minutes. Germination is typified by a morphological conversion that culminates in loss of spore resilient properties. Yet, the molecular events occurring during this brief critical phase are largely unknown. The current widely accepted view considers germination to occur without the need for any macromolecule synthesis; however, accumulating data from our laboratory and others, highlighted here, provide evidence that both transcription and translation occur during germination and are required for its execution. We further underline numerous overlooked studies, conducted mainly during the 1960s–1970s, reinforcing this notion. We propose to revisit the fascinating process of spore germination and redefine it as a pathway involving macromolecule synthesis. We expect our perspective to shed new light on the awakening process of a variety of spore-forming environmental, commensal, and pathogenic bacteria and possibly be applicable to additional organisms displaying a quiescent life form. In this review, we synthesize old and current data to evoke that, in contrast to current dogma, bacterial spore germination demands macromolecule synthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are global trends for developing green and sustainable technologies in food processing, due to the growing awareness of the importance of environmental preservation and the consumer demand for natural high-value food products. Meeting these particular requirements, supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) has emerged as an innovative and promising technology for the processing of food ingredients and products. Over the last two decades, applications of SC-CO2 have attracted much attention and made great advancements at both laboratory and industrial level. These advances include the extraction of target bioactive compounds from various food matrices, microencapsulation, or extrusion to produce fine particles, and the inactivation of pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms and endogenous enzymes for food preservation. An example of successfully applying SC-CO2 at the commercial level is the decaffeination of coffee. In this article, an overview of the SC-CO2 applications in food processing including extraction, transformation, preservation, and drying are presented. For each application category, principles, processing parameters, characteristics, and latest applications are critically reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rain removal is an important operation in intelligent visual surveillance systems. Many rain removal algorithms based on convolution neural networks (CNNs) are rarely deployed on resource constrained devices. One of the limiting factors is that memory access leads to high energy consumption. To reduce memory access during computation, previous works usually use a fixed computation pattern for different layers in CNN. For different and massive input and output feature maps, fixed computation pattern would lower the power efficiency. Thus, we propose a reconfigurable architecture to support different convolution mapping method. We use hybrid data reuse pattern to reduce energy consumption by 2.4–5.9 times over fixed computation pattern. The hardware is synthesized in the area of 9.83 mm2 at TSMC 65 nm technology and can restore a $1280 \times 720$ real world image in 0.57 s which achieves $56.1 \,\, \times $ and $2.1 \,\, \times $ speed-up comparing to CPU and GPU implementations. The simulation results show that the power efficiency is 287.7 GOPS/W running rain removal network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Event-B is a formal modeling language that is very suitable for software engineering, but it lacks the ability of modeling time. Researchers have proposed some methods for modeling time constraints in Event-B. The limitations with existing methods are that, first of all, the existing research work lacks a systematic time refinement framework based on Event-B; secondly, the existing methods only model time in the Event-B framework and cannot be smoothly converted to automata-based models such as timed automata that facilitate the verification of time properties. These limitations make it more difficult to model and verify real-time systems with Event-B because it is very time-consuming to prove time properties in the Event-B framework. In this paper, we firstly proposed a systematic time refinement framework to express and refine time constraints in Event-B. Secondly, we also proposed various vertical refinement patterns and horizontal extension patterns to guide modelers to refine the Event-B real-time model step by step. Finally, we use a real-time system case to demonstrate the practicality of our method. The experimental results show that the proposed method can make the real-time system modeling in Event-B more convenient and the models are easier to convert to the timed automata model, thereby facilitating the verification of various time properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High pressure processing (HPP) as a nonthermal processing (NTP) technology can ensure microbial safety to some extent without compromising food quality. However, for vegetative microorganisms, the existence of pressure‐resistant subpopulations, the revival of sublethal injury (SLI) state cells, and the resuscitation of viable but nonculturable (VBNC) state cells may constitute potential food safety risks and pose challenges for the further development of HPP application. HPP combined with selected hurdles, such as moderately elevated or low temperature, low pH, natural antimicrobials (bacteriocin, lactate, reuterin, endolysin, lactoferrin, lactoperoxidase system, chitosan, essential oils), or other NTP (CO2, UV‐TiO2 photocatalysis, ultrasound, pulsed electric field, ultrafiltration), have been highlighted as feasible alternatives to enhance microbial inactivation (synergistic or additive effect). These combinations can effectively eliminate the pressure‐resistant subpopulation, reduce the population of SLI or VBNC state cells and inhibit their revival or resuscitation. This review provides an updated overview of the microbial inactivation by the combination of HPP and selected hurdles and restructures the possible inactivation mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Broflanilide (BFL) is a new type of pesticide with broad prospects. However, it is not yet fully understood. With its wide application in the paddy field, it might pose a threat to the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to research its environmental behaviors including adsorption-desorption and leaching behaviors in the soil to evaluate its risks on that basis. Materials and methods: Soil samples were obtained from the farmland surface layer in four different regions of China. Adsorption-desorption experiments were conducted according to the equilibrium oscillation method and OECD guidelines. Leaching experiments were designed on the basis of the OECD guidelines. Based on the guidelines of CIPAC, the proposed method was verified and calibrated. BFL residue was analyzed using UHPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS. Results and discussion: The Freundlich model was used to fit the BFL's adsorption-desorption parameters in all soil samples with adsorption constant of BFL ranging from 0.152 to 5.017. The decreasing trends of the BFL adsorption capacity are Phaeozems > > Anthrosols > Gleysols > Luvisols. A linear positive correlation of BFL's Freundlich desorption and adsorption between organic matter content (R2 = 0.893 and 0.851) and soil clay content (R2 = 0.765 and 0.686). Nevertheless, nonsignificant relationships (R2 = 0.428 and 0.384) between the BFL parameter and the cation exchange capacity of soils were observed. Moreover, soil pH exhibits negative relationships (R2 = 0.095 and 0.089) with BFL's adsorption and desorption constants. Furthermore, either above or below 287 K reduced the adsorption capacity of BFL by soil. The leaching of BFL in Anthrosols, Gleysols, and Luvisols was easy, while difficult for Phaeozems. Conclusion: Except for Phaeozems which contain high organic matter, BFL posed threats to groundwater and surface water owing to their either intermediate or high mobility within the soils in the agriculture system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, we present a method for the quantitative analysis of broflanilide residues in water, soil, and rice samples from a paddy field in Jiangxi Province, China. The quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) method was optimized for the extraction and purification of broflanilide residues. Residual broflanilide concentrations in different matrices were then determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The calibration curve of broflanilide showed good linearity in all matrices for concentrations between 0.005 and 1 mg·L−1, with a correlation coefficient greater than 0.99. The matrix effect varied from −69% to −54%, indicating matrix suppression. The average recoveries ranged between 85.82% and 97.46%, with relative standard deviations of 3.29%–8.15%. The limits of detection ranged from 0.16 to 1.67 μg·kg−1, and the limits of quantification were in the range of 0.54 to 5.48 μg·kg−1. Dissipation dynamic tests indicated broflanilide half-lives of 0.46–2.46, 2.09–5.34, and 1.31–3.32 days in soil, water, and rice straw, respectively. Broflanilide was dissipated more rapidly in water than in soil and rice straw. More than 90% of broflanilide residues dissipated within 14 days. The final residues of broflanilide in rice were all below LOQ at harvest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, we present a method for the quantitative analysis of broflanilide residues in water, soil, and rice samples from a paddy field in Jiangxi Province, China. The quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) method was optimized for the extraction and purification of broflanilide residues. Residual broflanilide concentrations in different matrices were then determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The calibration curve of broflanilide showed good linearity in all matrices for concentrations between 0.005 and 1 mg·L−1, with a correlation coefficient greater than 0.99. The matrix effect varied from −69% to −54%, indicating matrix suppression. The average recoveries ranged between 85.82% and 97.46%, with relative standard deviations of 3.29%–8.15%. The limits of detection ranged from 0.16 to 1.67 μg·kg−1, and the limits of quantification were in the range of 0.54 to 5.48 μg·kg−1. Dissipation dynamic tests indicated broflanilide half-lives of 0.46–2.46, 2.09–5.34, and 1.31–3.32 days in soil, water, and rice straw, respectively. Broflanilide was dissipated more rapidly in water than in soil and rice straw. More than 90% of broflanilide residues dissipated within 14 days. The final residues of broflanilide in rice were all below LOQ at harvest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of boron carbon nitride–pyromellitic dianhydride (BCNPA) composites were successfully synthesized for the first time, where BCNPA3 exhibited the best adsorption and photodegradation performances for tetracycline (TC) under visible-light irradiation. 1H NMR characterization confirmed the fact that BCNPA3 was formed via the dehydration reaction between the OH groups in BCN and COOH groups in PA. Elemental N in BCNPA3 could capture protons and increase the pH of the TC solution from 3.73 to 6.80; consequently, TC changed from the positive state (pH 3.73) to the neutral state (pH 6.80). Subsequently, the adsorption capacity of BCNPA3 for TC increased from 66.24 mg g−1 (at pH 3.73) to 74.66 mg g−1 (at pH 6.80). This may be attributed to the fact that these captured protons can work as adsorption sites, too. Furthermore, the photodegradation efficiency of BCNPA3 for TC at pH 6.80 under visible-light irradiation was also higher than that at pH 3.73 (95% vs. 87%), because TC at pH 6.80 is less stable than that at pH 3.73. More interestingly, Cr(VI) could only be photoreduced into Cr(III) by BCNPA3 under visible-light irradiation when it coexisted with TC. This could be attributed to the fact that the photodegradation of TC increased the separation efficiency of the photoinduced electron and hole; consequently, the photoinduced electrons had sufficient time to reduce Cr(VI). Photoinduced ˙O2− and holes had the main contribution toward TC photodegradation by BCNPA3, while photoinduced electrons were responsible for Cr(VI) photoreduction. The adsorption and photodegradation performances of BCNPA3 for TC and Cr(VI) could be easily recovered under visible-light irradiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the heterogeneous material model, an integrated analysis method was introduced to predict the service life of propeller. The morphology and distribution characteristic of non-continuous defects (porosity & inclusion) were calculated and mapped into the finite element model by 3D-mapping algorithm, and the fatigue life was predicted based on the heterogeneous material model. In this paper, the coupling analysis of casting process and fatigue prediction of marine propeller was done. The results show that porosity and mass inclusions in blade roots of propeller form serious heterogeneous characteristics in those parts, which increased the maximum stress of the propeller and decreased its theoretical fatigue life by 1/2, indicating that the effect of non-continuous defects on the service performance of casting is notable and cannot be ignored. Based on the integrated analysis method, the inference of the pouring temperature and gating system on the service life of propeller was studied further. The integrated analysis method brings the influence of the casting defects into structural analysis and fatigue analysis, which can improve the accuracy of the fatigue life prediction significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The viable but nonculturable (VBNC) state has been recognized as a strategy for bacteria to cope with stressful environments; in this state, bacteria fail to grow on routine culture medium but are actually alive and can resuscitate into a culturable state under favorable conditions. The VBNC state may pose a great threat to food safety and public health. To date, more than 100 VBNC microorganism species have been proven to exist in fields of food safety, environmental application, and agricultural diseases. Most harsh conditions can induce these microorganisms into the VBNC state, including food processing and preservation methods, adverse environmental conditions, and plant‐disease controlling means. The characteristics of VBNC state cells differ from those of normally growing cells and dead cells, based on which of the various detection methods are developed, and they are of great significance for potential risk assessment. To provide molecular level insights into this state, many studies on induction and resuscitation mechanisms have emerged over the past three decades, including research on omics, specific genes, or proteins involved in VBNC state formation and the roles of promoters in resuscitation from the VBNC state. In this review, microorganism species, induction and resuscitation factors, detection methods, and formation and resuscitation mechanisms of the VBNC state are comprehensively and systematically summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to overcome photocatalytic technology application limitations in water due to weak light intensity, it is crucial to synthesize photocatalysts that respond to weak light. In this study, porous and oxygen-doped carbon nitride (CN-MC) was synthesized via supramolecular preassembly technology using melamine and cyanuric chloride. The carbon nitride catalyst produced via this technology has a relatively high surface area (63.2 m2 g−1), irregular pores, and oxygen doping characteristics, which enhance the light capture capacity, increase the number of reactive sites, and accelerate electron–hole separation efficiency. Thus, the CN-MC exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity during the degradation of organic pollutants Rhodamine B (RhB, 95% removal within 6 h) and tetracycline hydrochloride (TC-HCl, 70% removal within 6 h) under low-intensity light (the light intensity = 0.8~1.8 mW cm−2 with a wavelength range of 300–700 nm). Mechanistic analysis showed that ·O2− and ·OH were the dominant active free radicals during RhB and TC-HCl photocatalytic degradation over CN-MC. The proposed synthesis strategy effectively improves the photocatalytic activity of graphite carbon nitride under weak light by producing a porous morphology and oxygen atom doping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, we present the preparation of nano-TiO2-silicone resin composite films by double liquid phase spray deposition. The films exhibit better adhesion stability and photocatalytic activity under a hydrodynamic erosion condition than conventional nano-TiO2 composite films. The TiO2 layer morphology and effective TiO2 coverage ratio (CR) were affected by the initial curing time (ICT) of the silicone resin, e.g., the increase in an ICT from 10 to 40 min resulted in a CR change from 79.1 to 98.7%. The surface morphology evolution of composite films was studied under a hydrodynamic erosion period of 4 weeks. Obtained results allowed the 4-week evolution to be divided into four stages (pitting, crack pregnant, banded stripping, and surface stripping periods), additionally revealed that the CR of all samples was remained above 65%. The photocatalytic activity of composite films before and after 4-week hydrodynamic erosion was evaluated by rhodamine B degradation experiments. The 4-week erosion only led to the decrease of the photodegradation efficiencies by less than 40% in all cases. Thus, the fabricated TiO2-silicone composite films demonstrated excellent durability and photocatalytic activity under the conditions of long-term hydrodynamic erosion, allowing one to conclude that this work paves the way to the fabrication of next-generation photocatalytic materials for industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The two essential terms in environmental sciences - dematerialization and decoupling - have always been controversial. This study aims to trace the evolution path on the methodologies, the evidences and the policies, and to reflect on the implications of the development. We specifically present several classical definitions so as to summarize the similarities and differences thereinafter. Several commonly used methodologies, which are employed for evaluating the levels of dematerialization and decoupling, are discussed. As expected, the empirical evidences rarely support the absolute dematerialization and decoupling, which challenge the relevant policies implemented worldwide. In this context, the rebound effect, which is regarded as the main obstacle, is necessary to be examined in the various sectors and areas. However, the results of the rebound levels are far from unanimous. This article has a further discussion on the possible direction for the inconclusive debate in a broader perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A TiO2/g-C3N4 composite photocatalytic film was prepared by in situ synthesis method and its photocatalytic capability under weak-visible-light condition was studied. The co-precursor with different ratio of melamine and TiO2 sol-gel precursor were treated using ultrasonic mixing, physical deposition, and co-sintering method to form the smooth, white-yellow, and compact TiO2/g-C3N4 composite films. The prepared TiO2/g-C3N4 materials were characterized by SEM, TEM, EDS, XRD, BET, VBXPS, and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra. The results of composite showed that TiO2 and g-C3N4 have close interfacial connections which are favorable to charge transfer between these two semiconductors with suitable band structure, g-C3N4 retard the anatase-to-rutile phase transition of TiO2 significantly, the specific surface area were increased with g-C3N4 ratio raised. Under weak-light irradiation, composite films photocatalytic experiments exhibited RhB removal efficiency approaching 90% after three recycles. Powders suspension degradation experiments revealed the removal efficiency of TiO2/g-C3N4 (90.8%) was higher than pure TiO2 (52.1%) and slightly lower than pure g-C3N4 (96.6%). By control experiment, the enhanced photocatalysis is ascribed to the combination of TiO2 and g-C3N4, which not only produced thin films with greater stability but also formed heterojunctions that can be favorable to charge transfer between these two semiconductors with suitable band structure. This study presents the potential application of photocatalytic film in the wastewater treatment under weak-light situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Event-B, people need to use control variables to constrain the order of events, which is a time-consuming and error-prone process. This paper presents a method of combining labeled transition system and iUML-B to complete the behavior modeling of system, which is more convenient and practical for engineers who are accustomed to using the automaton to build a system behavior model. First, we use labeled transition system to establish the behavior model of the system. Then we simulate and verify the event traces of the labeled transition system behavior model. Finally, we convert labeled transition system model into iUML-B state machine and use it to generate the corresponding control flow model. We use Abrial’s bounded retransmission protocol to demonstrate the practicality of our approach. The simulation results show that the system behavior model generated by the iUML-B state machine has the same event trace as the corresponding labeled transition system model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In vehicular cyber-physical systems (CPS), safety information, including vehicular speed and location information, is shared among vehicles via wireless waves at specific frequency. This helps control vehicle to alleviate traffic congestion and road accidents. However, Doppler shift existing between vehicles with high relative speed causes an apparent frequency shift for the received wireless wave, which consequently decreases the reliability of the recovered safety information and jeopardizes the safety of vehicular CPS. Passive confrontation of Doppler shift at the receiver side is not applicable due to multiple Doppler shifts at each receiver. In this paper, we provide a proactive Doppler shift compensation algorithm based on the probabilistic graphical model. Each vehicle pre-compensates its carrier frequency individually, so that there is no frequency shift from the desired carrier frequency between each pair of transceiver. The pre-compensated offset for each vehicle is computed in a distributed fashion in order to be adaptive to the distributed and dynamic topology of vehicular CPS. Besides, the updating procedure is designed in a broadcasting fashion to reduce communication burden. It is rigorously proved that the proposed algorithm is convergence guaranteed even for systems with packet drops and random communication delays. Simulations based on real map and transportation data verify the accuracy and convergence property of the proposed algorithm. It is shown that this method achieves almost the optimal frequency compensation accuracy with an error approaching the Cramér-Rao lower bound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introducing periodic Ag gratings in the rear side of thin-film silicon excites localized surface plasmon (LSP) and Fabry-Perot (FP) effect. These two effects as well as an intrinsic one pass through absorption overlay together and all contribute to the light absorption in silicon. On the basis of electromagnetic field's linear superposition, the absorptivity caused by LSP effect is separated from the overall absorptivity of a 500-nm-thick silicon and quantized by short current density. Finite difference time domain (FDTD) calculations were performed to obtain the absorptivity of silicon with different Ag grating parameters. The contribution of LSP effect to the light absorption is evaluated by photocurrent ratio and investigated under different Ag grating parameters. It is found that, as LSP effect is excited most intensively, the light absorption of silicon will also be enhanced extremely. By careful design, the overall short current density of silicon is optimized up to 25.4 mA/cm, where the contribution of LSP effect accounts for 38.6 %. Comparing to 14.5 mA/cm for a reference silicon stack, it increases up to almost 75 %. These results may give design suggestions in implementation of plasmonic solar cell as high efficiency devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing study shows that safety applications supported by vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications have the potential to address 80% of all road crash issues. IEEE 802.11p is a key enabling technology to support V2V safety applications. To meet the stringent delay and reliability requirements of these applications, rate adaptation (RA) approaches have been proposed to determine the optimal data transmission rate, according to the channel conditions such as packet losses. However, existing RA solutions cannot be directly applied to V2V safety communications in highway scenarios, which exhibit lots of dynamics and severe packet losses. Moreover, physical (PHY)-layer channel fading and medium-access-control (MAC)-layer interference contribute differently to the packet losses and, thus, should be treated separately. To address these issues, in this paper, we propose a LOss differentiation RA (LORA) scheme. LORA can estimate the average packet loss rate (PLR) for each sender and differentiate the fading losses from the interference losses. Extensive evaluation results demonstrate that LORA can provide reliability guarantees for V2V safety applications, as well as a response to environment changes in a real-time manner. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We theoretically studied a three-layer configuration composed of a semiconductor layer sandwiched between air and metal substrate. Using full-field calculations, it is shown that near-zero reflectivity and near-unity absorptivity occur at the same wavelength of 532 nm in a 12 nm thick a-Si on Ag substrate. The behind physical origin is that the reflection on the a-Si/Ag interface is modulated both on amplitude and phase by the thickness of a-Si, which can cancel out the reflection on the air/a-Si interface by suitable thickness choice. The polar diagrams and absorption spectra prove that near-unity absorption at any target wavelength and high absorption at wide wavelength range can be achieved by selecting appropriate semiconductor and metal substrate. Two application scenarios in photo-absorber and solar cell fields are proposed in the end. The devised concept can extremely save the raw materials (total thickness around 100 nm) and realize the component functionalities. Our findings serve as a guide for designing planar perfect absorbers for potential optical absorber and photovoltaic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-pressure CO2(HPCD) is a nonthermal technology that can effectively inactivate the vegetative forms of pathogenic and spoilage bacteria, yeasts, and molds at pressures less than 30 MPa and temperatures in the range of 20°C to 40°C. However, HPCD alone at moderate temperatures (20–40°C) is often insufficient to obtain a substantial reduction in bacterial spore counts because their structures are more complex than those of vegetative cells. In this review, we first thoroughly summarized and discussed the inactivation effect of HPCD treatment on bacterial spores. We then presented and discussed the kinetics by which bacterial spores are inactivated by HPCD treatment. We also summarized hypotheses drawn by different researchers to explain the mechanisms of spore inactivation by HPCD treatment. We then summarized the current research status and future challenges of spore inactivation by HPCD treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]