The Internet of Responsibilities-Connecting Human Responsibilities using Big Data and Blockchain

Accountability in the workplace is critically important and remains a challenging problem, especially with respect to workplace safety management. In this paper, we introduce a novel notion, the Internet of Responsibilities, for accountability management. Our method sorts through the list of responsibilities with respect to hazardous positions. The positions are interconnected using directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) indicating the hierarchy of responsibilities in the organization. In addition, the system detects and collects responsibilities, and represents risk areas in terms of the positions of the responsibility nodes. Finally, an automatic reminder and assignment system is used to enforce a strict responsibility control without human intervention. Using blockchain technology, we further extend our system with the capability to store, recover and encrypt responsibility data. We show that through the application of the Internet of Responsibility network model driven by Big Data, enterprise and government agencies can attain a highly secured and safe workplace. Therefore, our model offers a combination of interconnected responsibilities, accountability, monitoring, and safety which is crucial for the protection of employees and the success of organizations

Risk assessment of specific heavy metals cumulative exposure to dendrobium officinale in nine provinces in China

ObjectiveTo understand the consumption of dendrobium officinale， by residents in nine Chinese provinces， and assess the cumulative levels of exposure related to four heavy metals （lead， cadmium， mercury， and arsenic） in dendrobium officinale consumers.MethodsConsumption data from nine Chinese provinces from 2019 and 2022 and a literature review were used based on a simple distribution model and the hazard index （HI） method to assess the health risk of four heavy metals .ResultsConsumers mainly preferred dried dendrobium officinale （37.3%） and commonly consumed it by brewing tea or cooking soup. The average value of a single consumption amount was 8.2 g/person. Fresh dendrobium officinale was consumed by 12.9% of the surveyed population， primarily through juicing with an average single serving size of 30.8 g/person. The exposure assessment results indicate that in the case of dendrobium officinale （dried/fresh）， the exposure levels of four heavy metals exposure in dried products were consistently higher than in fresh ones. Additionally， the average exposure level of lead （dried/fresh） was the highest； arsenic exposure levels for different gender-age groups were above the health guidance value or 5% reference dose ［Margin of exposure （MOE>1）］. Average lead exposure exceeded the standard （MOE>1）， whereas the 95th percentile （P95） values exposure were below 1 （MOE<1）. Cadmium and mercury exposure levels are below the 5% health guidance value.The assessment results of heavy metal exposure in residents consuming dendrobium officinale in different provinces indicate that residents in Jiangxi Province have the highest levels of exposure to four types of heavy metals. The MOE values for high-end exposure to lead in both Jiangxi Province and Zhejiang Province are less than 1. The cumulative assessment of 4 elements indicates that the HI values for consumers of dendrobium officinale are all less than 1.ConclusionConsumers of dendrobium officinale in China have low health risks associated with arsenic， cadmium， and mercury exposure. However， individuals with high food intake individuals should pay attention to the health risks associated with lead exposure

Assessing the Effectiveness of Direct Data Merging Strategy in Long-Term and Large-Scale Pharmacometabonomics

Because of the extended period of clinic data collection and huge size of analyzed samples, the long-term and large-scale pharmacometabonomics profiling is frequently encountered in the discovery of drug/target and the guidance of personalized medicine. So far, integration of the results (ReIn) from multiple experiments in a large-scale metabolomic profiling has become a widely used strategy for enhancing the reliability and robustness of analytical results, and the strategy of direct data merging (DiMe) among experiments is also proposed to increase statistical power, reduce experimental bias, enhance reproducibility and improve overall biological understanding. However, compared with the ReIn, the DiMe has not yet been widely adopted in current metabolomics studies, due to the difficulty in removing unwanted variations and the inexistence of prior knowledges on the performance of the available merging methods. It is therefore urgently needed to clarify whether DiMe can enhance the performance of metabolic profiling or not. Herein, the performance of DiMe on 4 pairs of benchmark datasets was comprehensively assessed by multiple criteria (classification capacity, robustness and false discovery rate). As a result, integration/merging-based strategies (ReIn and DiMe) were found to perform better under all criteria than those strategies based on single experiment. Moreover, DiMe was discovered to outperform ReIn in classification capacity and robustness, while the ReIn showed superior capacity in controlling false discovery rate. In conclusion, these findings provided valuable guidance to the selection of suitable analytical strategy for current metabolomics

Research on Turning Motion Targets and Velocity Estimation in High Resolution Spaceborne SAR

The development of high resolution SAR makes the influence of moving target more prominent, which results in defocusing and other unexplained phenomena. This paper focuses on the research of imaging signatures and velocity estimation of turning motion targets. In this paper, the turning motion is regarded as the straight line motion of continuous change of moving direction. Through the analysis of the straight line motion with constant velocity and the geometric modeling of the turning motion in spaceborne SAR, the imaging signatures of the turning motion target are obtained, such as the broken line phenomenon at the curve. Furthermore, a method for estimating the turning velocity is proposed here. The radial velocity is calculated by the azimuth offset of the turning motion target and the azimuth velocity is calculated by the phase error compensated in the refocusing process. The amplitude and direction of the velocity can be obtained by using both of them. The results of simulation and GF-3 data prove the accuracy of the analysis of turning motion imaging signatures, and they also show the accuracy and validity of the velocity estimation method in this paper

Focusing and Parameter Estimation of Fluctuating Targets in High Resolution Spaceborne SAR

Complex motion can cause serious defocusing phenomena in high resolution spaceborne SAR cases, which then lead to decreased image resolution. In this study, we built a simulation model to quantitatively analyze the signature and effect on maritime fluctuating targets in high resolution cases. To deal with formed Single-Look Complex (SLC) SAR images containing fluctuating targets, we implement a motion-compensation and fine-focusing method to obtain refocused images and the fluctuation parameters. We demonstrate the effectiveness and correctness of the proposed approach in focusing and estimating the parameters of fluctuating targets by processing the simulation results and archived images acquired by Terra-SAR in hybrid spotlight mode

An Improved BAQ Encoding and Decoding Method for Improving the Quantized SNR of SAR Raw Data

When the original echo data of SAR are saturated for quantization, the performance of the commonly used block adaptive quantization (BAQ) algorithm will be degraded, which will degrade the imaging quality. This article proposes an improved Llody-Max codec method, which only needs to change the codec look-up table to get better quantization performance when the original echo is saturated. The simulation results show that the proposed method can reduce the quantization power loss, improve the echo signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and reduce the influence of quantization saturation on the scattering mechanism of polarized SAR data, which have good practical application value

A Range Ambiguity Suppression Processing Method for Spaceborne SAR with Up and Down Chirp Modulation

Range ambiguity is one of the factors which affect the SAR image quality. Alternately transmitting up and down chirp modulation pulses is one of the methods used to suppress the range ambiguity. However, the defocusing range ambiguous signal can still hold the stronger backscattering intensity than the mainlobe imaging area in some case, which has a severe impact on visual effects and subsequent applications. In this paper, a novel hybrid range ambiguity suppression method for up and down chirp modulation is proposed. The method can obtain the ambiguity area image and reduce the ambiguity signal power appropriately, by applying pulse compression using a contrary modulation rate and CFAR detecting method. The effectiveness and correctness of the approach is demonstrated by processing the archive images acquired by Chinese Gaofen-3 SAR sensor in full-polarization mode

Elucidation of the Biosynthetic Gene Cluster and the Post-PKS Modification Mechanism for Fostriecin in Streptomyces pulveraceus

SummaryFostriecin is a unique phosphate monoester antibiotic that was isolated from Streptomyces pulveraceus as a protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) and PP4A selective inhibitor. However, its biosynthetic mechanism remains to be elucidated. In this study, a 73 kb gene cluster encoding a six modular Type I polyketide synthases (PKS) and seven tailoring enzymes was identified by cosmid sequencing from the producer. The functions of two tailoring enzymes were characterized by gene disruption and an in vitro enzyme activity assay. Remarkably, the isolation of three malonylated fostriecin analogs from post-PKS gene knockout mutants indicated malonylated-polyketide formation could be a normal biosynthetic process in the formation of the unsaturated six-membered lactone in fostriecin. Based on this study, a comprehensive post-PKS modification mechanism for fostriecin biosynthesis was proposed