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Demonstrating software early and responding to feedback is crucial in agile development. However, it is difficult for stakeholders who are not on‐site customers but end users, marketing people, or designers, and so forth to give feedback in an agile development environment. Successful graphical user interface (GUI) test executions can be documented and then demonstrated for feedback. In our new concept, GUI tests from behavior‐driven development (BDD) are recorded, augmented, and demonstrated as videos. A GUI test is divided into several GUI unit tests, which are specified in Gherkin, a semi‐structured natural language. For each GUI unit test, a video is generated during test execution. Test steps specified in Gherkin are traced and highlighted in the video. Stakeholders review these generated videos and provide feedback, for example, on misunderstandings of requirements or on inconsistencies. To evaluate the impact of videos in identifying inconsistencies, we asked 22 participants to identify inconsistencies between (1) given requirements in regular sentences and (2) demonstrated behaviors from videos with Gherkin specifications or from Gherkin specifications alone. Our results show that participants tend to identify more inconsistencies from demonstrated behaviors, which are not in accordance with given requirements. They tend to recognize inconsistencies more easily through videos than through Gherkin specifications alone. The types of inconsistency are threefold: The mentioned feature can be incorrectly implemented, not implemented, or an unspecified new feature. We use a fictitious example showing how this feedback helps a product owner and her team manage requirements. We conclude that GUI test videos can help stakeholders give feedback more effectively. By obtaining early feedback, inconsistencies can be resolved, thus contributing to higher stakeholder satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phase field modeling of fracture is able to simulate the nucleation and the propagation of complex crack patterns. However, the relatively small internal lengths that are required usually lead to very fine meshes and high computational costs, especially for three‐dimensional applications. In the present work, additional cost also comes from the implicit dynamics regularization of unstable crack propagations which potentially leads to a large variation of time steps when switching from quasi‐static to dynamic regimes. To reduce the time to solution in this context, this study proposes a domain decomposition framework and acceleration techniques for the phase field fracture staggered solver. The displacement subproblem and the phase field one are solved with parallel domain decomposition solvers. Dual domain decomposition methods provide low cost preconditioner well adapted to the phase field subproblem. For displacement subproblems undergoing unstable crack propagations, primal domain decomposition methods are preferred to be less sensitive to the treatment of floating substructures. Preconditioners performances are assessed and scalability studies over academic test cases, up to 324 subdomains, are presented. Finally, the robustness of the approach is illustrated on two semi‐industrial simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, an optical majority/minority circuit has been designed using four electro‐optic Mach‐Zehnder interferometers. The binary decision diagram (BDD) is used to optimize the Boolean logical expression. In this design we get two outputs, one performs majority logic and the other performs minority logic simultaneously. Numerical simulation has been done with the obtained data from the beam propagation method. Pseudo‐eye diagram is also plotted to find amplitude modulation (AM) and extinction ratio (ER). AM and ER are found nearly 0.4 and 13 dB, respectively. A new parameter, the optical circuit complexity factor (OCC) factor has been calculated and from the result, it has been shown that the proposed design is more optimized than other majority/minority gate designs so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last years, an increasing attention has been devoted to the utilization of anodic oxidation (AO) technologies for the treatment of wastewater polluted by recalcitrant organics. Recently, Ti4O7 was proposed as a promising anode for AO for the treatment of various organics. Here the potential utilization of commercial Ti4O7 anodes has been evaluated considering the electrochemical treatment of synthetic wastewater contaminated by three very different organic molecules (namely, oxalic acid, phenol and Acid Orange 7), all characterized by a very high resistance to AO. The performances of Ti4O7 were compared with that of two largely investigated anodes: Boron‐doped diamond (BDD), which is probably the most effective electrode for AO, and an Ir‐based anode which presents a relatively low cost. Moreover, the effect of various operative conditions (current density, mixing rate and initial concentration of the organic) was evaluated by both experimental studies and the adoption of a theoretical model previously developed for BDD anodes. It was shown that the performances of the process can be improved by a proper selection of operative conditions. Moreover, it was found that the proposed model can be effectively used to predict the effect of operative parameters at Ti4O7 anodes, thus helping the process optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The presence of micro‐pollutants in conventional wastewater treatment plants raises environmental concerns due to their insufficient removal. Non‐biological methods are needed to treat such compounds and this work demonstrates the use of electrochemical oxidation for the degradation of the drug dexamethasone (DEX). RESULTS: A cell consisting of a boron‐doped diamond anode and a stainless steel or carbon cloth cathode was employed, with Na2SO4 being the electrolyte. DEX degradation rate, at the low level of mg L−1 (0.25–2 mg L−1), increases with increasing current (0.02–0.2 A m−2), as well as in the presence of sodium persulfate (50–250 mg L−1); the latter is electrochemically activated to produce additional oxidants and enhances degradation in a synergistic way. A rate constant of 0.194 min−1 was recorded for 0.5 mg L−1 DEX degradation at 0.2 A m−2 with 150 mg L−1 persulfate. The water matrix had little effect on performance compared to experiments in pure water; the only exception was the presence of chloride (50–250 mg L−1), which substantially improved rates due to the formation of active chlorine species (up to about five times). Carbon cloth accelerated DEX removal by up to three times compared to stainless steel and this was partly due to its adsorptive capacity; similarly, reactions involving DEX transformation products (TPs) also occurred faster. Seven TPs were identified and profiles were followed; reaction pathways involve hydroxylation, oxidation, decarboxylation and ring‐opening reactions, followed by fluorine release in the liquid phase. CONCLUSION: A hybrid technology based on electrochemical oxidation and persulfate activation is proposed for the treatment of residual pharmaceuticals in environmental matrices. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Nowadays, due to the inappropriate use of antibiotics, significant quantities have been detected in environmental samples. Therefore there is a need for a technology to eliminate the accumulation of pharmaceuticals in receiving water bodies. In recent years electrochemical oxidation showed superior efficiency for the purification of water from pharmaceuticals. RESULTS: boron doped diamond (BDD) showed better efficiency than platinum electrode and stainless steel for the degradation of 500 µg L−1 tetracycline (TC) with 0.1 mol L−1·Na2SO4. The presence of 200 mg L−1 bicarbonates decreased the apparent kinetic constant from 0.328 to 0212 min−1. Instead, the addition of 200 mg L−1 NaCl increased the kinetic constant by almost four times, while the presence of 10 mg L−1 of humic acid decreased the kinetic constant by 18%. The process was favored in real environmental matrices like bottled water and wastewater in comparison with ultrapure water. The use of BDD as both anode and cathode enhanced the efficiency by almost 20%. The presence of UVA or solar radiation increased the decomposition of tetracycline by 14%. Changes in toxicity to Vibrio fisheri bacteria during treatment of TC in the secondary effluent are mainly attributed to the formation of intermediates of the water matrix itself and does not follow the TC removal. CONCLUSIONS: Electrochemical oxidation was favored for removal of TC in real water matrices due to the presence of chlorides. The use of BDD as both anode and cathode with simultaneous solar irradiation is a promising technology for water remediation from TC. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This work presents a simple and low‐cost method for fast and selective determination of Verapamil (VP) in tablets and human urine samples using a boron‐doped diamond working electrode (BDD) coupled to a flow injection analysis system with multiple pulse amperometric detection (FIA‐MPA). The electrochemical behaviour of VP in 0.1 mol L−1 sulfuric acid showed three merged oxidation peaks at around +1.4 V and upon reverse scan, one reduction peak at 0.0 V (vs. Ag/AgCl). The MPA detection was performed applying a sequence of three potential pulses on BDD electrode: (1) at +1.6 V for VP oxidation, (2) at +0.2 V for reduction of the oxidized product and (3) at +0.1 V for cleaning of the working electrode surface. The FIA system was optimized with injection volume of 150 μL and flow rate of 3.5 mL min−1. The method showed a linear range from 0.8 to 40.0 μmol L−1 (R>0.99) with a low limit of detection of 0.16 μmol L−1, good repeatability (RSD<2.2 %; n=10) and sample throughput (45 h−1). Selective determination of VP in urine was performed at+0.2 V due to absence of interference from ascorbic and uric acids in this potential. The addition‐recovery tests in both samples were close to 100 % and the results were similar to an official method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We report on the electrochemical generation of ferrate species in a batch reactor at neutral conditions (pH ∼7) using boron‐doped diamond (BDD) electrodes and Fe (III) salts for applications in drinking water treatment. The impact of several relevant variables, including current density (5–55 mA cm−2), pH (5–8), and type and concentration of the dissolved iron salts on the production of ferrates were examined. In addition, linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) studies were conducted using buffered electrolytes with and without the presence of iron (III) to decouple the parasitic oxygen evolution reaction. The LSV measurements in the presence of iron (III) and with a neutral electrolyte exhibit oxidation peaks centered ∼2.0 V (versus SHE), indicating the production of ferrates at this pH. The rate of ferrate generation is not strongly affected by the pH condition (≤ 20 %); however, current density and the source of iron were found to have a higher impact on the production rate of ferrates. The efficacy of the process was higher using FeCl3 instead of other sources of iron such as Fe2O3 and FeO(OH). The batch reactor results were successfully interpreted by a simple model that considered the kinetics of the ferrate generation and degradation reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the computation of guaranteed lower bounds of the error in the framework of finite element and domain decomposition methods. In addition to a fully parallel computation, the proposed lower bounds separate the algebraic error (due to the use of a domain decomposition iterative solver) from the discretization error (due to the finite element), which enables the steering of the iterative solver by the discretization error. These lower bounds are also used to improve the goal-oriented error estimation in a substructured context. Assessments on 2D static linear mechanic problems illustrate the relevance of the separation of sources of error and the lower bounds' independence from the substructuring. We also steer the iterative solver by an objective of precision on a quantity of interest. This strategy consists in a sequence of solvings and takes advantage of adaptive remeshing and recycling of search directions. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrochemical oxidation (EO) of olive processing wastewater (OPW) samples was carried out using a boron-doped diamond anode. The treatment was performed in a batch system with recirculation, using an up-flow single-compartment electrochemical cell. The influence of the wastewater dilution, the applied current density ( j) and the recirculation flow rate (RFR) on the EO performance was investigated. Although OPW is a complex mixture of organic compounds, its chemical oxygen demand (COD) decay with time followed the theoretical models developed for single organic compound solutions, in particular when EO is diffusion controlled. The average mass transfer coefficients determined at this regime were found to increase with RFR, being independent of j. Regarding the mineralization index of the final samples, after 7 h a decrease was observed with the increase in j or RFR. Specific energy consumption was also evaluated and it increased with dilution and j, being lower for higher RFR. The lowest specific energy consumption observed, obtained with the raw sample at j = 20 mA cm−2, was 24 Wh gCOD−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: In recent years, the application of electrochemical wastewater treatment processes has proven to be very efficient in the removal of recalcitrant organic compounds. However, the scale-up of the boron-doped diamond (BDD) anode system for industrial applications has not been sufficiently evaluated. This study assesses the effect of increasing the number of compartments in the same electrochemicalmodule (DiaCell® 1001) on the treatment of synthetic wastewater with pesticide 2,4-D and chlorides. This commercial module can be considered to be a stack of cells, in which the number of single cells varies from 2-10 and the anode areas range from 140-700 cmâ'2. RESULTS: The results of the study demonstrate that an increase in the number of cells and a decrease in the resulting current density at the same current intensity caused an increase in the removal and mineralisation rates. Complete mineralisation was attained in all configurations tested. The production of hazardous species, such as chlorates and perchlorates, are also affected by the number of stacked cells, which causes them to be positioned lower in the stack due to the large number of cells. CONCLUSIONS: No distinct differences in electrochemical efficiency are observed among the different configurations tested. However, a distinct improvement in the energy efficiency (g kWhâ'1) with an increase in the number of stacked cells is observed due to the reduced stack potential caused by applying the same current intensity to the stack with the higher number of cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by five major dimensions, including contamination/washing, harm/checking, symmetry/ordering, hoarding, and forbidden thoughts. How these dimensions may relate etiologically to the symptoms of other obsessive-compulsive related disorders (OCRDs) and anxiety disorders (ADs) is not well known. The aim of this study was to examine the genetic and environmental overlap between each major obsessive-compulsive dimension with the symptoms of other OCRDs and ADs.Methods: Two thousand four hundred ninety-five twins of both sexes, aged between 18 and 45 years, were recruited from the Australian Twin Registry. Measures used scores on four dimensions (obsessing (forbidden thoughts), washing, checking, and ordering) of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised, Dysmorphic Concerns Questionnaire, Hoarding Rating Scale, Anxiety Sensitivity Index, Social Phobia Inventory, and Stress subscale of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale. Multivariate twin modeling methods using continuous and categorized variables were performed, also controlling for age and gender.Results: Our findings suggested that forbidden thoughts and washing demonstrated the strongest genetic overlap with other AD symptoms, while ordering was genetically related to OCRD symptoms. Common genetic influences on checking symptoms were best estimated when modeling OCRDs together with AD symptoms. Common environmental factors of ordering and checking were shared with AD symptoms.Conclusions: Important shared genetic and environmental risk factors exist between OCD, OCRDs, and ADs, but which vary alongside the expression of its major dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domain decomposition methods often exhibit very poor performance when applied to engineering problems with large heterogeneities. In particular, for heterogeneities along domain interfaces, the iterative techniques to solve the interface problem are lacking an efficient preconditioner. Recently, a robust approach, named finite element tearing and interconnection (FETI)-generalized eigenvalues in the overlaps (Geneo), was proposed where troublesome modes are precomputed and deflated from the interface problem. The cost of the FETI-Geneo is, however, high. We propose in this paper techniques that share similar ideas with FETI-Geneo but where no preprocessing is needed and that can be easily and efficiently implemented as an alternative to standard domain decomposition methods. In the block iterative approaches presented in this paper, the search space at every iteration on the interface problem contains as many directions as there are domains in the decomposition. Those search directions originate either from the domain-wise preconditioner (in the simultaneous FETI method) or from the block structure of the right-hand side of the interface problem (block FETI). We show on two-dimensional structural examples that both methods are robust and provide good convergence in the presence of high heterogeneities, even when the interface is jagged or when the domains have a bad aspect ratio. The simultaneous FETI was also efficiently implemented in an optimized parallel code and exhibited excellent performance compared with the regular FETI method. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Furosemide is a widely prescribed diuretic whose unambiguous presence in water appointed it as an emerging pollutant. This work focuses on the electrochemical degradation of this drug in aqueous solutions by electrochemical advanced oxidation processes, electro-Fenton and anodic oxidation, using Pt/carbon-felt and boron doped diamond (BDD)/carbon-felt cells with H2O2 electrogeneration. The higher oxidation power of the electro-Fenton process using a BDD anode was demonstrated. The oxidative degradation of furosemide by electrochemically generated •OH radicals follows a pseudo-first order kinetics. The absolute rate constant of the oxidation reaction of furosemide by •OH was determined using a competition kinetics method and found to be 3.4 × 109 M−1 s−1. The evolution of the total organic carbon removal during the treatment as a mineralization efficiency parameter was investigated. It was found that the electrochemical degradation of furosemide yields formation of aromatic by-products which are oxidized afterwards to aliphatic carboxylic acids before their conversion to CO2 and inorganic ions (NH4+, NO3-, Cl-, and SO42-). The toxicity assessment by the Microtox® method revealed formation of oxidation reaction intermediates more toxic than the parent molecule. Nevertheless, the overall results confirm the high effectiveness of anodic oxidation and electro-Fenton processes for the removal of furosemide and its by-products from aqueous media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Binary decision diagrams (BDDs) are the most frequently used data structure for the representation and manipulation of Boolean functions in the area of Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) CAD. In this paper, we propose the reversed-signal-propagation (RSP) BDD-based low-power pass-transistor logic (PTL) synthesis. In RSP BDD, the signal flow direction is opposite to that of the forward BDD. So the power supply is taken as a root node and the terminal nodes 0 and 1 represent the function in its normal and complement form. We propose an efficient way to construct the multi-output function RSP BDD and its PTL realization. Simulation results of the proposed method give lower power consumption and high performance as a result of reduced switching activity than the existing techniques. The power improvement is about 70-80% compared to the existing techniques. © 2013 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY We introduce spectral coarse spaces for the balanced domain decomposition and the finite element tearing and interconnecting methods. These coarse spaces are specifically designed for the two-level methods to be scalable and robust with respect to the coefficients in the equation and the choice of the decomposition. We achieve this by solving generalized eigenvalue problems on the interfaces between subdomains to identify the modes that slow down convergence. Theoretical bounds for the condition numbers of the preconditioned operators, which depend only on a chosen threshold, and the maximal number of neighbors of a subdomain are presented and proved. For the finite element tearing and interconnecting method, there are two versions of the two-level method: one based on the full Dirichlet preconditioner and the other on the, cheaper, lumped preconditioner. Some numerical tests confirm these results. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Microcystin- LR ( MC-LR) is very stable under natural sunlight and resistant to high temperatures and UV radiation. Conventional treatment techniques are found to be inefficient in removing these toxins from potable water systems. Advanced oxidation technologies ( AOTs) are considered a promising technique for the destruction of microcystins. Among the various AOTs, electrochemical oxidation ( EO) has been proved to be very successful in degrading the organic pollutants. The purpose of this study was therefore, to determine the feasibility of MC-LR removal and its mechanism by EO. The effect of operational parameters on the degradation efficiency of MC-LR has been studied. Results The degradation of MC-LR followed a pseudo-first-order kinetic with a rate constant ( k1) of 0.017 min−1. Current density and electrolytes can affect the degradation rate; the pH of the different anionic solutions had a negligible effect on the degradation of MC-LR. The destruction of the key functional groups of MC-LR effectively inhibits its toxicity, which is confirmed by toxicity tests. Conclusion The results demonstrated the feasibility of electrochemical oxidation on boron-doped electrode for the removal of MC-LR from the aquatic environment. © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Au/chitosan fiber was firstly prepared by electrospinning and chemical reduction method and used to modify BDD electrode for the detection of methyl parathion. The results indicated that Au/chitosan fiber-modified BDD electrode could improve the electrocatalytic activity, accelerate response, enhance the sensitivity, and reduce the detection limit, as compared with the bare BDD electrode. The repeatability and stability of Au/chitosan fiber-modified BDD electrode was also studied. For the detection of methyl parathion in the apple juice samples, Au/chitosan fiber-modified BDD electrode obtained favorable results and ideal recovery rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors propose a system to evaluate multiple output logic functions using hardware based on a decision diagram. In addition, the authors propose a PMDD (Paged reduced ordered Multivalued Decision Diagram) as a data structure. Methods to evaluate a logic function in hardware include methods based on an SBDD (Shared reduced ordered Binary Decision Diagram). The method based on a PMDD evaluates multiple output functions using several computational units, and as a result is faster compared to methods based on an SBDD. The multiple output logic function to be created is represented using a PMDD and stored in memory. Then a control circuit which can search the PMDD is added. The authors compare the memory capacity and processing time required for various benchmark functions for the SBDD and their PMDD. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 3, 87(9): 73–81, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecjc.20097 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A probabilistic equivalence checking method is developed based on the use of partial Haar Spectral Diagrams (HSDs). Partial HSDs are defined and used to represent a subset of Haar spectral coefficients for two Boolean functions. The resulting coefficients are then used to compute and to iteratively refine the probability that two functions are equivalent. This problem has applications in both logic synthesis and verification. The method described here can be useful for the case where two candidate functions require extreme amounts of memory for a complete BDD representation. Experimental results are provided to validate the effectiveness of this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]