Future Technology Trends Research Articles

Vertical Greening Systems: Technological Benefits, Progresses and Prospects

A vertical greening system is becoming increasingly crucial in resolving the energy crisis and environmental problems in a sustainable ecosystem. Researchers have conducted a comprehensive study on vertical greening systems from technology, functional and architectural perspectives. These include ecological, economic and social functions. Most of the current studies emphasize the benefits of vertical greening systems to the environment, while vertical greening technology and its socio-economic benefits receive insufficient attention. In order to study the vertical greening field in depth, this paper comprehensively and systematically summarizes vertical greening technology and functions. Meanwhile, based on the Web of Science (WOS), CiteSpace was used to analyze the relevant literature in the vertical greening field from 2012 to 2022, to explore the hot spots, development status and future trends of vertical greening technology, and to build a knowledge map in the vertical greening field. The research shows that as a low impact development technology, the vertical greening system has received the most extensive attention in the past few years. Air quality, microclimate regulation and energy have always been the focus and hot issues of people’s attention. The future research directions are cooling effect, active system and indoor space. This study is aimed at promoting the future development of vertical greening system technology and providing reference and direction for researchers, planners and developers, as well as individuals interested in future urban and rural planning.

Piezoelectric vibration energy harvester: Operating mode, excitation type and dynamics

Nowadays, with the rapid development of the intelligent era and the concept of Internet of Things being proposed, more and more sensors will play a more important role. Providing a sustainable power source for sensors has become the focus of current research in microsystem power generation. The harvesting of widely available vibrational energy from the environment for use as an alternative power source for sensors is of great significance in efficient energy utilization. Researchers have been working on developing efficient energy harvesters for broadband and efficient energy harvesting. Nonlinear energy harvesting holds more significant promise. In this paper, we summarized and reviewed the research progress of three different harvesting methods from the perspective of varying energy harvesting methods. We also listed the operation of various harvesters under different excitation types. At the same time, nonlinear energy harvesters with different structural characteristics are reviewed, the benefits of nonlinearity on energy harvesting are effectively collected, and the practical applications are summarized. Finally, current methods and mechanisms to improve the collection efficiency of energy harvesters are described and summarized. Briefly, this review introduces the research development of existing energy harvesting technologies, summarizes the technically difficult problems faced by piezoelectric energy harvesting technologies, and provides an outlook for future research and development trends of piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting technologies.

Recent Advances in Space-Deployable Structures in China

Deployable space structure technology is an approach used in building spacecraft, especially when realizing deployment and folding functions. Once in orbit, the structures are released from the fairing, deployed, and positioned. With the development of communication, remote-sensing, and navigation satellites, space-deployable structures have become cutting-edge research topics in space science and technology. This paper summarizes the current research status and development trend of space-deployable structures in China, including large space mesh antennas, space solar arrays, and deployable structures and mechanisms for deep-space exploration. Critical technologies of space-deployable structures are addressed from the perspectives of deployable mechanisms, cable-membrane form-finding, dynamic analysis, reliable environmental adaptability analysis, and validation. Finally, future technology developments and trends are elucidated in the fields of mesh antennas, solar arrays, deployable mechanisms, and on-orbit adjustment, assembly, and construction.

Prospects of borehole NMR instruments and applications

Borehole nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a powerful technology to characterize the petrophysical properties of underground reservoirs in the petroleum industry. The rising complexity of oil and gas exploration and development objectives, as well as the novel application contexts of underground reservoirs, have led to increasingly demanding requirements on borehole NMR technology including instrument design and related processing methods. This mini review summarizes the advances and applications of borehole NMR instruments along with some future possibilities. It may be helpful for researchers and engineers in the petroleum industry to understand the development status and future trends of borehole NMR technology.

Pesticide residue elimination for fruits and vegetables: the mechanisms, applications, and future trends of thermal and non-thermal technologies

• Thermal and non-thermal technologies would eliminate pesticide residues. • Non-thermal technologies are superior to thermal technologies in pesticide residues decrease and quality attributes of fruits and vegetables retain. • Combined technologies are more effective than individual technologies. • Elimination efficiency is dependent on product types, pesticide characteristics, and operation parameters. • Green and pollution-free technologies and combined processing technologies are trends. Pesticide residues on food are threatening human health and wellbeing, ecological security. Food processing is one of the necessary ways to eliminate residues to guarantee the safety and sustainable development of the environment. This review outlines the mechanisms, applications, and factors influencing the efficiency as well as their limitations of pesticide residue elimination technologies. Conventional thermal processing technologies like drying, blanching, baking, and roasting have been proved to reduce pesticides extensively whereas sometimes concentration effects occur, and more toxic metabolites or by-products are generated. Additionally, the negative effects on quality attributes of fruits and vegetables (F&V) should be considered. Several innovative non-thermal processing technologies like ultrasound, cold plasma, high-pressure processing, and pulsed electric fields have flourished currently, which show great ability to eliminate pesticide residues significantly with minimal impact on the quality of F&V. In particular, heat-sensitive nutrients like ascorbic acid, phenolics, and carotenoids would retain to a great extent. Similarly, these technologies have their limitations. Furthermore, there is much information about combined processing technology affecting the pesticide behaviors of F&V. Finally, the future developments for pesticide elimination of these technologies are identified and discussed.

Federated learning review: Fundamentals, enabling technologies, and future applications

Federated Learning (FL) has been foundational in improving the performance of a wide range of applications since it was first introduced by Google. Some of the most prominent and commonly used FL-powered applications are Android’s Gboard for predictive text and Google Assistant. FL can be defined as a setting that makes on-device, collaborative Machine Learning possible. A wide range of literature has studied FL technical considerations, frameworks, and limitations with several works presenting a survey of the prominent literature on FL. However, prior surveys have focused on technical considerations and challenges of FL, and there has been a limitation in more recent work that presents a comprehensive overview of the status and future trends of FL in applications and markets. In this survey, we introduce the basic fundamentals of FL, describing its underlying technologies, architectures, system challenges, and privacy-preserving methods. More importantly, the contribution of this work is in scoping a wide variety of FL current applications and future trends in technology and markets today. We present a classification and clustering of literature progress in FL in application to technologies including Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, blockchain, Natural Language Processing, autonomous vehicles, and resource allocation, as well as in application to market use cases in domains of Data Science, healthcare, education, and industry. We discuss future open directions and challenges in FL within recommendation engines, autonomous vehicles, IoT, battery management, privacy, fairness, personalization, and the role of FL for governments and public sectors. By presenting a comprehensive review of the status and prospects of FL, this work serves as a reference point for researchers and practitioners to explore FL applications under a wide range of domains.

A review: Application and research progress of bioimpedance in meat quality inspection

AbstractBioimpedance is an effective analytical technique for electrochemical system, which has the advantages of rapid, nondestructive, inexpensive, and easy to implement, and has shown a wide application for food quality and safety assessment recently. The main objectives of this review are to review recent progress in the application of bioimpedance in the detection of various meat quality attributes, and conduct a classification review in accordance with detection indicators of meat products, including carcass composition (IMF, fat, water, etc.) and physicochemical properties (TVB‐N, pH, shear force, etc.). In addition, we describe the basic principle of bioimpedance and factors affecting the measurement of impedance. Finally, we discussed the challenges of bioimpedance technology applied to meat quality inspection. The measurement device should be further optimized to reduce the effects of electrode polarization and muscle anisotropy, while more effective equivalent circuit models and data processing methods should be investigated. And the integration of other technologies and the development of certain bio‐detection devices, as well as the point‐of‐need diagnostic devices, are expected to be future trends in impedance technology.

Review on recent progress in on-line monitoring technology for atmospheric pollution source emissions in China

Emissions from mobile sources and stationary sources contribute to atmospheric pollution in China, and its components, which include ultrafine particles (UFPs), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and other reactive gases, such as NH3 and NOx, are the most harmful to human health. China has released various regulations and standards to address pollution from mobile and stationary sources. Thus, it is urgent to develop online monitoring technology for atmospheric pollution source emissions. This study provides an overview of the main progress in mobile and stationary source monitoring technology in China and describes the comprehensive application of some typical instruments in vital areas in recent years. These instruments have been applied to monitor emissions from motor vehicles, ships, airports, the chemical industry, and electric power generation. Not only has the level of atmospheric environment monitoring technology and equipment been improving, but relevant regulations and standards have also been constantly updated. Meanwhile, the developed instruments can provide scientific assistance for the successful implementation of regulations. According to the potential problem areas in atmospheric pollution in China, some research hotspots and future trends of atmospheric online monitoring technology are summarized. Furthermore, more advanced atmospheric online monitoring technology will contribute to a comprehensive understanding of atmospheric pollution and improve environmental monitoring capacity.

Types, applications and future developments of gravity energy storage

In recent years, the clean and environmentally-friendly renewable energy technologies have developed rapidly. How to ensure balance and flexible output of power system has become a new challenge after all kinds of volatile power sources are connected to the power system. Among different forms of stored energy, gravity energy storage, as a kind of physical energy storage with competitive environmental protection and economy, has received wide attention for its advantages such as high safety, high cost-performance, great environmental-friendliness and strong environmentally adaptation. This paper firstly introduces the basic principles of gravity energy storage, classifies and summarizes dry-gravity and wet-gravity energy storage while analyzing the technical routes of different types of gravity energy storage. Separated into groups of dry and wet gravity energy storage, these storage shows similar features and promising advantages in both environmental and economical way. Among them, LEM-GES shows a new concept of storage and will be the target for future study. Then follows an analysis of the practical applications of gravity energy storage in real scenarios such as mountains, wind farms, oceans, energy depots and abandoned mines, and finally an outlook on the future development trends of gravity energy storage technology.

A survey of Digital Twin techniques in smart manufacturing and management of energy applications

With the continuous advancement and exploration of science and technology, the future trend of energy technology will be the deep integration of digitization, networking, intelligence with energy applications. The increasing maturity of digital technologies, such as the Internet of Things, big data, and cloud computing, has given rise to the creation and use of a potential technology – Digital Twin. Currently, research on Digital Twin has produced many concepts and outcomes that have been applied in many fields. In the energy sector, while some relevant ideas and case studies of Digital Twin have been generated, there are still many gaps to be explored. As a potential technology with advantages in many aspects, Digital Twin is bound to generate more promotion and applications in the energy fields. This paper systematically reviews the existing Digital Twin approaches and their possible applications in the energy fields. In addition, this paper attempts to analyze Digital Twin from different perspectives, such as definitions, classifications, main features, case studies and key technologies. Finally, the directions and challenges of possible future applications of Digital Twin in the energy fields have been presented.

Current and Future Trends of Information Technology and Sustainability in Logistics Outsourcing

Sustainability awareness across various economic sectors requires firms to use logistics outsourcing to reduce logistics-related emissions with compliant logistics service providers (LSPs). LSPs apply advanced information technologies to help achieve high efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability goals. While logistics outsourcing has received considerable attention from researchers, limited research has identified the elements of logistics outsourcing and established research trends regarding technology and sustainability aspects of logistics outsourcing. This study aims to establish trends in technology and sustainability in logistics outsourcing and identify the important elements of logistics outsourcing. A bibliometric analysis technique using the Biblioshiny package in R. A SCOPUS search resulted in 2019 documents. Research on technology and sustainability in logistics outsourcing is growing, especially in developed countries, with little or no research from developing countries. Sustainable supply chains and third-party logistics themes dominated the past research. Current research is on reverse logistics, circular economy, and green logistics; the latter is likely to dominate the future, focusing on risk management, pollution control, and innovation through advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data. Essential elements of logistics outsourcing are identified as maintaining a good relationship based on trust and cooperation, LSP multi-selection criteria that include sustainability and technology capabilities, proper contract management, and an appropriate in-house versus outsourcing balance for competitiveness. LSP managers are advised to develop sustainability and technology capabilities, including reverse logistics. The paper contributes to logistics management theory by identifying the elements of logistics outsourcing and presenting a bibliometric result to guide future research on sustainability and technology capabilities in logistics outsourcing.

Impacts of COVID-19 on construction project management: a life cycle perspective

PurposeThe impacts of COVID-19 on construction projects have attracted much attention in the construction management research community. Nevertheless, a systematic review of these studies is still lacking. The purpose of this paper is to systematically analyze the impacts of COVID-19 on the different stages of a project life-cycle, and comprehensively sort out the epidemic response measures adopted by project participants. In addition, the study also attempts to explore the challenges and opportunities faced by project management practitioners under the context of COVID-19.Design/methodology/approachThis study comprehensively demonstrates the systematic review process of COVID-19 related research in the construction industry, systematically summarizes the research status of the impact of COVID-19 on construction projects, and defines the strategies to deal with COVID-19 in project management; and through the visualization research, determines the current key research topics and future research trends.FindingsThis study identifies 11 construction activities in the project management life cycle that are affected by COVID-19 and finds that the COVID-19 epidemic has the greatest impact on construction workers, construction standards, construction contracts and construction performance. The study further summarizes the six main epidemic countermeasures and mitigation measures taken within the construction industry following the arrival of the epidemic. In addition, the results of this study identify opportunities and future trends in intelligent construction technology, rapid manufacturing engineering and project management in the construction industry in the post-epidemic era through literature results, which also provide ideas for related research.Practical implicationsCOVID-19 has brought severe challenges to society. It is of great significance for the future sustainable development of the construction industry to identify the impact of COVID-19 on all phases of the project and to promote the development of coping strategies by project stakeholders.Originality/valueFirst of all, there is little study comprehensively reviewing the impacts of COVID-19 on the different stages of construction projects and the strategies to deal with the negative impacts. In addition, from a life cycle perspective, the used articles in this study were grouped into different categories based on project stages. This promotes an integrated and comprehensive understanding of historical studies. Moreover, on the basis of a comprehensive review, this paper puts forward future research directions to promote the sustainable development of the construction sector.

Energy-Harvesting for IoT-based Wireless Nodes: A Progress Study

Energy-harvesting technology is a promising renewable energy source for many applications through deriving energy from ambient environments. In IoT-based devices, this plays a significant role in providing sustainable energy and overcomes the need for battery maintenance and replacement, leading to increased efficiency, reliability, and operation time. This paper focuses on energy- harvesting in the context of IoT-based wireless nodes, its current progress, and future expectations. The main components, energy dissipations, and powering sources of IoT-based nodes are, first, identified. Then, the various ambient energy-harvesting sources and general architecture of the IoT-based energy-harvesting node are presented and concisely discussed. Finally, a progress discussion on the current and future trends of energy-harvesting technology for IoT devices is provided from different aspects, while shedding light on the key challenges facing the growth of energy harvesting for IoT-based systems. Overall, the paper provides a contemporary study that helps researchers who are working in this area and aiming to participate in its developments.

Review on Intelligent Diagnosis Technology of Electronically Controlled Fuel Injection System of ME Diesel Engine

ME diesel engine plays an important role in realizing energy conservation and environmental protection and improving the intelligent level of ship engine room. Because of its high technical content and high added value, using intelligent diagnosis technology to ensure safe and reliable work is an important means to realize intelligent engine room. Taking the ship electronic fuel injection system as an example, this paper introduces its working principle and common faults, analyzes and summarizes the research status of intelligent diagnosis technology at home and abroad in four aspects: fault mechanism, data measurement and feature extraction, fault mode classification and residual life prediction. Then, it analyzes the problems and future development trend of intelligent diagnosis technology, and points out that developing a health management system integrating weak fault signal extraction, multi-source data analysis, quantitative judgment of fault mode, remaining life prediction and maintenance suggestions is an important development goal in the future.

A Brief Analysis of the Development of Chinese Virtual Idol Industry Empowered by 5G+Motion Capture Technology——Taking the Virtual Idol Group A-SOUL as an Example

A-SOUL, a virtual idol girl group, debuted in December 2020, and in just one year, it has turned around from a very poor reputation to become the most influential subculture IP in China today. virtual idols are real people performing in virtual spaces on the internet using virtual images, and the superior motion capture technology, visual design, and 5G network are the key reasons why A-SOUL has been able to stand out from the crowd of virtual anchors. A-SOUL’s superior motion capture technology, visual design, and 5G network are what make it stand out from the crowd of virtual hosts. This paper will use A-SOUL as an example to analyze the current situation, dilemmas, and future development trends of virtual anchor technology in China, and explore the possibilities of virtual idols as an opportunity to drive technological and social change in China.

Effects of osmotic dehydration pretreatment on freezing characteristics and quality of frozen fruits and vegetables

AbstractOsmotic dehydration (OD) is a process of soaking products in an aqueous solution containing salt or sugar, which is normally applied to fruits and vegetables. The combination of OD pretreatment with freezing, or osmotic dehydrofreezing (ODF), is a novel technology to shorten the freezing process and prolong the preservation of fruits and vegetables. However, the effectiveness of ODF is affected by process parameters and nature of the product, thus information on freezing characteristics and quality of osmotically dehydrated frozen fruits and vegetables is useful to the food industry. This review intends to provide an overview of the effects of OD pretreatment on freezing characteristics such as freezing rate, thermal properties, and quality of frozen fruits and vegetables. Fundamentals of ODF technology, including significance of OD to freezing, and mechanism and factors affecting ODF are summarized. In addition, hurdle technologies comprising of ODF and other innovative nonthermal techniques, such as ultrasound and pulsed electric field (PEF) are presented, and future trends of the combined technology are briefly discussed. ODF can accelerate the freezing process and enhance the quality of osmotically dehydrated frozen fruits and vegetables. The novel ultrasound and PEF techniques, which can provide cryoprotection from in situ interference, were proposed for the production of product with many‐functional characteristics, by incorporating bioactive compounds like plants sterols, probiotics, and dietary fibers, into the matrix of cellular tissues during ODF process. However, these techniques can enhance the performance of the ODF to promote fast freezing, produce small ice crystals, and raise glass transition temperature of cellular tissues. The future trends of ODF technology should mainly focus on controlling the mass and heat transfer processes, improving quality stability during glassy state storage condition and development of product with many‐functional characteristics.Practical ApplicationsFruits and vegetables are subject to freezing damage, particularly tissue softening and drip loss when thawing, thus reducing their quality and market value. OD pretreatments to freezing or ODF has great potentials in preservation of fruits and vegetables, with the advantage of minimum quality loss due to the reduction in freezing loads. Currently, innovative studies have been carried out on the combined use of OD pretreatments and emerging freezing techniques to improve the freezing process, achieve better quality with extended shelf life, and produce products with many‐functional characteristics. However, the findings presented in this review work can provide detail insights on the quality of fruits and vegetables that were frozen by ODF and give some guidance for further developments of ODF technology.

A roadmap for present focus and future trends of blockchain technology in the built environment

Blockchain technology has gained attention across the globe within the last 10 years and has taken centre stage in the financial technology sector. Even though innovation that applies to the construction industry is sometimes different from what is obtainable in other sectors, they share the same unique features. Therefore, this makes blockchain technology relevant to the built environment. This study aims to assess the research studies carried out on blockchain technology in the built environment domain in a bid to draw knowledge from the present focus of these studies while identifying research gaps for future studies. To achieve this, a scientometric review was carried out, and SCOPUS database was searched for studies related to blockchain technology in the built environment. The retrieved documents showed the first publication on this study area was made in 2017. Hence, this study covered research publications from 2017 to 2021. The findings revealed that most of these studies are not experimental as they only rely on literature from other sectors to draw conclusions for the built environment. The study further revealed that most of the publications in this domain are from the USA, Australia, India and the United Kingdom with only two publications from the African continent. This shows a research gap that can be explored from the African perspective. From the cluster analysis, research in this domain has focused primarily on blockchain technology components and only a few practical fields of its application. It was thus recommended that experimental and case study research should be carried out on its application in asset management and transfer, smart city development, land use, data/information management, cyber-physical systems, among others. Practically, the study highlighted blockchain technology usefulness in promoting social and economic sustainability of the built environment through its different applicabilities.

Present and Future Trends in Polymer Blends Technology

Abstract The plastics industry shows the highest growth rate of all industrial materials. Within this group the engineering resins (ER) are developing fastest. The review focuses on polymer alloys and blends (PAB) of ER. After the discussion of the economic aspect of PAB the patent literature is briefly reviewed and illustrated by a summary of selected, recent patents on polyphenylene ether blends. There is little doubt that the future trend in PAB technology will require control of morphology, especially in most common multiphase systems. For this reason the last part of the article summarizes the available information of criteria for rheological and thermodynamic control of morphology. The review ends with a brief description of the methods and equipment used by industry to compound and form the PAB.

Perceptions of Indonesian Nurses Toward the Application of the Internet of Things in the Future

In the healthcare industry, Internet of Things (IoT) based systems are utilized for phone care delivery, smart healthcare, smart health sensors and wearable technology, preventative systems, and distant monitoring. No studies have assessed nurses’ perspectives of IoT applications in Indonesia. The purpose of this study was to identify health professionals’ perspectives on future health and technology trends, to identify their readiness to adopt new health technologies, and to identify the use of IoT technology in healthcare applications. This study was conducted using a descriptive and cross-sectional approach. Nurses with a Diploma III and at least one year of experience were selected from three different departments (medical surgical, pediatrics, maternity). About 76% of 350 nurses had little knowledge of IoT technology and 95% said they do not keep up to date with IoT publications. About 50% of nurses believed that IoT technology will have a large impact on the health and education sectors. These results indicated that IoT technology and informatics should be included in nursing education and further studies should be conducted to integrate technological trends into healthcare and nursing practices.
 Keywords: perceptions, nurses, internet of things, healthcare

Recent Research Progress in Piezoelectric Vibration Energy Harvesting Technology

With the development of remote monitoring technology and highly integrated circuit technology, the achievement and usage of self-powered wireless low-power electronic components has become a hot research topic nowadays. Harvesting vibration energy from the environment can meet the power consumption requirements of these devices, while it is also of great significance to fully utilize the hidden energy in the environment. The mechanism and three typical working modes of piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting technology are introduced, along with the classification of different excitation types of collectors. The progress of research related to piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting technology is reviewed. Finally, challenging problems in the study of piezoelectric energy harvesting technology are summarized, and the future research and development trend of piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting technology is discussed in the light of the current research status of piezoelectric vibration energy harvesting technology.