Modern embedded computing systems tend to be heterogeneous in the sense of being composed of subsystems with very different characteristics, which communicate and interact in a variety of ways-synchronous or asynchronous, buffered or unbuffered, etc. Obviously, when designing such systems, a modeling language needs to reflect this heterogeneity. Today's modeling environments usually offer a variant of what we call amorphous heterogeneity to address this problem. This paper argues that modeling systems in this manner leads to unexpected and hard-to-analyze interactions between the communication mechanisms and proposes a more structured approach to heterogeneity, called hierarchical heterogeneity, to solve this problem. It proposes a model structure and semantic framework that support this form of heterogeneity, and discusses the issues arising from heterogeneous component interaction and the desire for component reuse. It introduces the notion of domain polymorphism as a way to address these issues.

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This paper explores the effects of finance on environmental degradation and investigates environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) of each country among 52 that participate in the One Belt and One Road Initiative (OBORI) using the latest long panel data span (1980-2016). We utilized panel long run econometric models (fully modified ordinary least square and dynamic ordinary least square) to explore the long-run estimates in full panel and country level. Moreover, the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) causality test is applied to examine the short-run causalities among our considered variables. The empirical findings validate the EKC hypothesis; the long-run estimates point out that finance significantly enhances the environmental degradation (negatively in few cases). The short-run heterogeneous causality confirms the bi-directional causality between finance and environmental degradation. The empirical outcomes suggest that policymakers should consider the environmental degradation issue caused by financial development in the One Belt and One Road region.

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Carrot, cucumber, and broccoli seed flours were extracted with 50% acetone and evaluated for their phytochemical compositions along with their potential gut microbiota modulating, free radical scavenging, and anti-inflammatory capacities. Nine and ten compounds were detected in the broccoli and carrot seed flour extracts, with kaempferol-3- O-rutinoside and glucoraphanin as the primary component of each, respectively. All three seed flour extracts enhanced total number of gut bacteria and altered the abundance of specific bacterial phylum or genus in vitro. The broccoli seed flour extract had the greatest relative DPPH radical scavenging capacity, oxygen radical absorbing capacity, and hydroxyl radical (HO) scavenging capacity values of 85, 634, and 270 μmol trolox equivalent (TE)/g, respectively. Carrot seed flour extract showed the greatest ABTS scavenging capacity of 250 μmol TE/g. Also, three seed flour extracts suppressed LPS induced IL-1β and COX-2 mRNA expressions in J774A.1 cells. The results might be used to promote the value-added utilization of these vegetable seed flours in improving human health.

Additional energy demand is needed to accomplish the mega-projects of the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI). As energy consumption is one of the prime determinants of environmental degradation, the present study investigates the impact of energy inequalities on environmental degradation along with financial development. The entropy approach is applied to quantify the three energy consumption inequalities; average, between, and total energy consumption inequality respectively. The energy consumption inequality of BRI economies follows an uprising temporal trend. The estimates reveal that East Asia and South Asia have the highest and lowest energy consumption inequality among the BRI regions. Within regions, it is found that Central Asia has the lowest, and East Asia has the highest energy inequality among the BRI regions, respectively. Based on bootstrapping, the generalized least square (GLS) is applied to quantify the impact of energy consumption inequalities on environmental degradation along financial development. The energy inequalities have a statistically positive impact on environmental degradation in BRI regions, East Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East and North African region (MENA), and Southeast Asia respectively. In contrast, South Asian economies are sustaining environmental quality despite the energy consumption inequalities. Financial development also has a significantly major impact on environmental degradation in BRI, and its regions except for Central Asia, and MENA.

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Since growing evidence has manifested that bisphenol A (BPA) may adversely affect human health, numerous BPA replacement compounds have been gradually introduced into the industry. Although BPA replacement compounds have been detected in various environmental media, foodstuffs, and human biological samples, investigations on their health effects and the underlying mechanisms are scarce. The present perspective outlines the current status of knowledge on the occurrence of BPA replacement compounds and also the associations between their exposure and adverse health outcomes, including endocrine disruption, reproduction problems, development abnormity, metabolic diseases, and other health effects. The mechanisms underlying the toxicity of BPA replacement compounds may be explained by their chemical properties, such as induction of oxidative stress, interactions with estrogen receptors, and regulations of gene expression. Nevertheless, further analysis on these novel BPA replacement compounds regarding human health is still required in order to fill the knowledge gaps and promote their better applications.