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The photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline in aqueous solution is a typical heterogeneous reaction, and thus the design of efficient photocatalysts for tetracycline degradation should revolve the process features of heterogeneous reaction closely. In the present work, TiO2-P/g-C3N4 composites with abundant surface hydroxyls were prepared by coupled g-C3N4 nanosheets with plasma treated TiO2 (TiO2-P) nanoparticles. The resultant TiO2-P/g-C3N4 as photocatalysts showed higher activity for the degradation of tetracycline in aqueous solution than g-C3N4, TiO2, TiO2-P and TiO2/g-C3N4 under visible light irradiation. The better activity of TiO2-P/g-C3N4 photocatalysts for tetracycline degradation could be ascribed to the good synergy between TiO2-P and g-C3N4. Specifically, due to the presence of surface hydroxyls on TiO2-P, the tetracycline adsorption activity, electrons-holes separation property as well as H2O2 activating activity of TiO2-P/g-C3N4 during tetracycline degradation were improved. By integrating the property of g-C3N4 photocatalyst in H2O2 production, as well as the property of TiO2-P in activating H2O2 into •OH and •O2-, efficient photo-Fenton degradation of tetracycline was achieved in the TiO2-P/g-C3N4 photocatalytic system. Our study on TiO2/g-C3N4 composite photocatalyst provides helpful inspiration to design photocatalysts with high-activity for the photo-Fenton degradation of organic pollutants.

Purpose Smart manufacturing is the prime gripper for the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry. Smart manufacturing systems (SMSs) largely determine how smart manufacturing evolves in technical and organizational dimensions and how it realizes values in products, production or services. SMSs are growing rapidly and receiving tons of attention from academic research and industrial practice. However, the development of SMSs is still in its fancy, and many issues wait to be identified and solved, such as single point failures, low transparency and ineffective resource sharing. Blockchain, an emerging technology deriving from Bitcoin, is competent to aid SMSs to conquer troubles due to its decentralization, traceability, trackability, disintermediation, auditability and etc. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the blockchain applications in SMSs, seek out the challenges faced by blockchain-enabled SMSs (BSMSs) and provide referable research directions and ideas. Design/methodology/approach A comprehensive literature review as a survey is conducted in this paper. The survey starts by introducing blockchain concepts, followed by the descriptions of a literature review method and the blockchain applications throughout the product life cycle in SMSs. Then, the key issues and challenges confronting BSMSs are discussed and some possible research directions are also proposed. It finally presents qualitative and quantitative descriptions of BSMSs, along with some conclusions and implications. Findings The findings of this paper present a deep understanding about the current status and challenges of blockchain adoption in SMSs. Furthermore, this paper provides a brand new thinking for future research. Originality/value This paper minutely analyzes the impacts that blockchain exerts on SMSs in view of the product life cycle, and proposes using the complexity science thinking to deal with BSMSs qualitatively and quantitatively, including tackling the current major problems BSMSs face. This research can serve as a foundation for future theoretical studies and enterprise practice.

With the ongoing progress in cloud computing, big data analytics (BDA) and other burgeoning technologies, the integration of intelligence and e-commerce systems now makes it possible to build e-commerce systems with enhanced efficiency, reduced transaction costs and smart information-processing patterns. However, despite the fact that smart e-commerce systems (SESs) offer great opportunities to the business field, the development of SESs is still in its infancy. Numerous issues still need to be resolved. To offer a better comprehension of SESs and facilitate future research, this paper first describes the holistic architecture of these systems and analyzes the main enablers underlying the development of SESs in terms of internet of things (IoT), social media, mobile internet, big data analytics and cloud computing. Then, the key challenges and issues pertaining to current SESs are presented, and some possible research directions are also proposed. Finally, the paper presents qualitative and quantitative depictions of SESs from a complex systems perspective, which provides a brand new idea of how to address the current SES issues.

The data quality in information systems affects system robustness significantly. Although a large body of research focuses on the issue of data quality, seldom has literature been done to develop effective control policies to manage system robustness associated with data errors. A process-oriented methodology is proposed to manage system robustness measured by performance, control cost and control time, which is achieved through establishing formal model of information systems and mathematical optimization models of system robustness. The proposed methodology captures how structural and functional characteristics of tasks affect system robustness and finds the optimal control policies, which facilitates the robustness-based design and management of information systems respectively. The methodology is illustrated in the case study.

Determining the importance of information subsystems is critical to the construction and maintenance of the information systems in manufacturing companies. From the perspective of the interactions among subsystems, several centrality models are developed to assess the importance of subsystems by using software called Code Blocks. A case study is done to test the methods. The results can provide an objective basis for decision making in management activities of an information system, such as information system planning and maintenance, resource allocation and utilization in manufacturing enterprises. The proposed methods will provide new approaches to the quantitative evaluation of the importance of information subsystems.

To solve the problem that available methods of order degree evaluation ignore the heterogeneous information interactions between subsystems, an improved method of order degree evaluation, based on structural entropy, is proposed from the perspective of heterogeneous interactions between subsystems. A case study is proposed to test our model, and order degree under the two scenarios is contrasted. Result shows that directed information flow increases timeliness of information and decreases accuracy of information, which is repeatedly verified in practice. The proposed model, which is more in line with the actual structure of information system, not only further improves order degree evaluation in theory, but also provides operational method to order degree evaluation in real-world information systems.