Thiol-Functionalized Covalent Organic Frameworks as Thermal History Indictor for Temperature and Time History Monitoring

Various products, including foods and pharmaceuticals, are sensitive to temperature fluctuations. Thus, temperature monitoring during production, transportation, and storage is critical. Facile indicators are required to monitor temperature conditions via color changes in real time. This study aimed to prepare and apply thiol-functionalized covalent organic frameworks (COFs) as a novel indicator for monitoring thermal history and temperature abuse. The COFs underwent obvious color changes from bright yellow to purple after exposure to different temperatures for varying durations. The reaction kinetics are analyzed under isothermal conditions, which reveal that the order of reaction rates is k_−20°C < k_4°C < k_20°C < k_35°C < k_55°C. The activation energy (E_a) of the COFs is calculated using the Arrhenius equation as 50.71 kJ moL⁻¹. The COFs are capable of sensitive color changes and offer a broad temperature tracking range, thereby demonstrating their application potential for the monitoring of temperature and time exposure history during production, transportation, and storage. This excellent performance thermal history indicator also shows promise for expanding the application field of COFs.     

Prediction of fish quality level with machine learning

In this study, sea bream, sea bass, anchovy and trout were captured and recorded using a digital camera during refrigerated storage for 7 days. In addition, their total viable counts (TVC) were determined on a daily basis. Based on the TVC, each fish was classified as ‘fresh’ when it was <5 log cfu per g, and as ‘not fresh’ when it was >7 log cfu per g. They were uploaded on a web-based machine learning software called Teachable Machine (TM), which was trained about the pupils and heads of the fish. In addition, images of each species from different angles were uploaded to the software in order to ensure the recognition of fish species by TM. The data of the study indicated that the TM was able to distinguish fish species with high accuracy rates and achieved over 86% success in estimating the freshness of the fish species tested.     

Development of a stakeholder identification and analysis method for human factors integration in work system design interventions – Change Agent Infrastructure

In any work system design intervention—for example, a physical workplace re-design, a work process change, or an equipment upgrade—it is often emphasized how important it is to involve stakeholders in the process of analysis and design, to gain their perspectives as input to the development, and ensure their future acceptance of the solution. While the users of an artifact or workplace are most often regarded as being the most important stakeholders in a design intervention, in a work-system context there may be additional influential stakeholders who influence and negotiate the design intervention's outcomes, resource allocation, requirements, and implementation. Literature shows that it is uncommon for empirical ergonomics and human factors (EHF) research to apply and report the use of any structured stakeholder identification method at all, leading to ad-hoc selections of whom to consider important. Conversely, other research fields offer a plethora of stakeholder identification and analysis methods, few of which seem to have been adopted in the EHF context. This article presents the development of a structured method for identification, classification, and qualitative analysis of stakeholders in EHF-related work system design intervention. It describes the method's EHF-related theoretical underpinnings, lessons learned from four use cases, and the incremental development of the method that has resulted in the current method procedure and visualization aids. The method, called Change Agent Infrastructure (abbreviated CHAI), has a mainly macroergonomic purpose, set on increasing the understanding of sociotechnical interactions that create the conditions for work system design intervention, and facilitating participative efforts.     

Short-term liveweight changes of dairy cows measured by stationary and walk-over weighing scales

Monitoring and detecting individual cows' liveweight (LW) and liveweight change (LWC) are important for estimation of nutritional requirements and health management, and could be useful to measure short-term feed intake, water consumption, defecation, and urination. Walk-over weighing (WOW) systems can facilitate measurements of LW for these purposes, providing automated LW recorded at different times of the day. We conducted a field study to (1) quantify the contribution of feed and water intake, as well as urine and feces excretions, to short-term LWC and (2) determine the feasibility of stationary and WOW scales to detect subtle changes in LW as a result of feed and water intake, urination, and defecation. In this experiment, 10 cows walked through a WOW system and then stood individually on a stationary scale collecting weights at 10 and 3.3 Hz, respectively. Cows were offered 4 kg of feed and 10 kg of water on the stationary scale. For each animal, LW before and after eating and drinking was then calculated using different approaches. Liveweight change was calculated as the difference between the initial and final LW before and after eating and drinking for each statistical measure. The weights of feed intake, water consumption, urination, and defecation were measured and used as predictors of LWC. Urine and feces were collected from individual cows while the cow was on the scale, using a container, and weighed separately. The agreement between LWC measured using either stationary or WOW scales was assessed to determine the sensitivity of the scales to detect subtle changes in LW using the coefficient of determination (R²), Lin's concordance correlation coefficient (CCC), and mean bias. The prediction model showed that most of the regression coefficients were not significantly different from +1.0 for feed and water, or ?1.0 for urine and feces. The R² and CCC values demonstrated a satisfactory agreement between calculated and stationary LWC and values ranged from 0.60 to 0.92 and 0.71 to 0.94, respectively. A moderate agreement was achieved between calculated and automated LWC with R² and Lin's CCC values of 0.45 to 0.63 and 0.60 to 0.74, respectively. Therefore, results demonstrated that new algorithms and data processing methods need to be continuously explored and improved to obtain accurate measurements of LW to measure changes in LW, especially from WOW scales.     

道在山林，周弥六合——浙东天台山“洞天福地”的山岳景观流变及文化意象研究

道教洞天福地作为中国名山风景的经典类型之一，在宗教山岳景观中占据独特地位。浙东天台山水神秀，历代高道以入山隐修为主要目的，形成了道教在区域山林的景观文化基础。从天台山“神仙之乡”的文化背景出发，从“想象与实践”的视角切入，梳理了天台山洞天福地的景观流变：分析其“不死之福庭”地域性景观的形成经历了“赤城→桐柏”的信仰转移过程；以天台山为坐标，洞天福地格局打破了区域“层级”分布特征，而呈现大范围“州郡”空间格局。作为“联结点”的天台山，洞天世界沟通了宇宙、山、人3个基本场域，由此衍生出“洞宫”式和“周回”式山岳空间营建典范。旨在挖掘洞天福地中典型案例的价值，为中国洞天福地体系的构建提供理论依据。     

Bootstrap procedures for detecting multiple persistence shifts in heteroskedastic time series

This article proposes new bootstrap procedures for detecting multiple persistence shifts in a time series driven by non-stationary volatility. The assumed volatility process can accommodate discrete breaks, smooth transition variation as well as trending volatility. We develop wild bootstrap sup-Wald tests of the null hypothesis that the process is either stationary [I(0)] or has a unit root [I(1)] throughout the sample. We also propose a sequential procedure to estimate the number of persistence breaks based on ordering the regime-specific bootstrap p-values. The asymptotic validity of the advocated procedures is established both under the null of stability and a variety of persistence change alternatives. A comparison with existing tests that assume homoskedasticity illustrates the finite sample improvements offered by our methods. An application to OECD inflation rates highlights the empirical relevance of the proposed approach and weakens the case for persistence change relative to existing procedures.     

Physicochemical and microbial changes during storage of smoke-flavoured salmon obtained by a new method

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a new smoking-salting method employing water vapour permeable (WP) bags on the physicochemical and microbial quality of smoke-flavoured salmon in refrigerated storage. Fresh salmon was subjected to a smoking process in the WP at 5 °C. Physicochemical and microbiological analyses were periodically carried out during the subsequent 40 days of refrigerated storage of the product. The WP bags enabled the evaporation of the exudate during the smoking-salting stage, enabling the drying of the product to take place at the same time. A slight increase of trimethylamine nitrogen (TMA-N) and total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) contents was observed over the storage period. The concentration of TVB-N ranged from 14.26 to 21.48 mg N/100 g of fish, values far below the upper limits of acceptability. The low values of the thiobarbituric acid (TBA) index (final level of 0.71 mg MDA/kg) indicate that the lipid oxidation in the smoke-flavoured salmon was limited throughout the period studied. The initial K₁-value was high and only a slight increase was observed during storage. Counts of mesophilic, psychrotrophic, Enterobacteriaceae and lactic acid bacteria were low throughout the study. Given the changes observed for the physicochemical and microbiological parameters, it can be said that no spoilage took place in the smoke-flavoured salmon during the 40 days of storage. This new method could be of interest to producers as it enables smoke-flavoured salmon to be produced to a good standard of hygiene, minimizing handling and reducing processing steps and brine wastes.     

Volumetric changes in the focal areas of seismic events corresponding to destress blasting

The typical development of total volumetric change in the focal areas of seismic events, corresponding to destress blasting, is characterized as an explosive phase followed by an implosive phase and with alternating additional phases following on from that. In a few cases, a non-typical development of volumetric change was identified, where the first phase was implosive and the second phase, explosive. This development is mainly typical for induced seismic events recorded during mining, not for destress blasting.Seismic events were recorded during longwall mining in the Czech part of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin, where the destress blasting technique is used as a rockburst prevention active measure.Kinematic source processes in the focal areas of selected seismic events were analyzed by the seismic moment tensor inversion method, as well as by studying geomechanical rock mass conditions at the localities of the seismic events. The main goal of the analysis was to attempt to identify the reasons for non-typical development of volumetric changes in these cases. Volumetric changes were analyzed for seismic events with energy greater than 104 J, recorded in the period of time from 1993 to 2009(1109 events). 80%(891) of the recorded seismic events were induced seismic events that were registered during longwall mining and 20%(218) corresponded to destress blasting events. Research shows that the main reason for the non-typical development of volumetric changes in the focal areas of seismic events is an association with destress blasting in the rock mass, which is very close to rock mass overstressing. The detonation of explosives in boreholes, which would dominate the first phase of volumetric changes, probably obscured stress release in the rock mass, as manifested in the first implosion phase of the volumetric changes in this case.     

Understanding the structural characteristics,pasting and rheological behaviours of pregelatinised cassava starch

The structural characteristics, pasting and rheological behaviours of cassava starch before and after pregelatinisation were determined by various modern analysis techniques. Pregelatinisation, especially in an ultrasonic environment, can disrupt the granule structure, crystalline structure and short‐range ordered molecular structure of cassava starch. Compared with native starch, pregelatinisation had significantly decreased viscosities and weakened gel structures of starch pastes. Not only did native and pregelatinised starch pastes exhibit shear‐thinning behaviours but also the pregelatinised treatment resulted in the formation of weak gel structures. This study enabled us to acquire the desired pasting and rheological properties of pregelatinised starch by modulating its hierarchical structural changes.     

Development of an image evaluation method for skin color distribution in facial images and its application: Aging effects and seasonal changes of facial color distribution

In this article, we present an evaluation method for the skin color distribution in the face area. Unlike previous methods that extract a specific area, our method subdivides the entire face into small regions and analyzes detailed, per-frame textures. Our evaluation method for skin color distribution is based on facial feature points and includes segmentation that takes into account the facial skeleton and muscle orientation. The use of facial feature points enables a comparison at relatively equal positions on the face without depending on the shape or size of the individual's face. Our evaluation method is versatile, and as an application, we clarified age-specific features and seasonal variations of facial color distribution. As a result of applying this evaluation method to the facial images of women aged 20 to 78 years, we confirmed that the lightness of the face decreased as age increased. In particular, the decrease in lightness was remarkable in the region along the cheekbone, from the temple to the center of the cheek. Furthermore, we analyzed the seasonal changes of melanin distribution in the face area. This showed that the melanin index increased particularly in the cheekbone area in the summer when the influence of ultraviolet rays became large. Our novel methodology and the data presented in this article will be useful in various fields, such as dermatology, cosmetics, and computer vision.