The concept of distributed generation has made photovoltaic an integral source of energy in smart grid systems, especially in peer-to-peer energy trading frameworks that exploit excess power to fulfill the energy requirements of consumers in cost-efficient and eco-friendly manner. It is believed that P2P energy trading will dominate a significant portion of research in forthcoming power generation systems due to the excessive rise of energy demands across the globe. Despite a plethora of studies on energy optimization solutions in P2P trading, minimizing nanogrid energy trading cost and efficient energy sharing between consumers and prosumers are deemed among the challenging problems. This study overcomes essential issues overlooked by the contemporary P2P energy trading models by introducing a predictive optimization-oriented nanogrid energy trading model. The proposed study encompasses two stages: (1) predictive optimization model which harnesses BD-LSTM-based forecasted energy parameters (energy load, energy consumption, and PV generation) that are later incorporated in PSO-enabled objective function to reduce nanogrid trading cost, (2) optimal energy sharing plan is devised to decide the role of nanogrids as prosumers or consumers by emphasizing the use of PV-produced energy. The proposed model is validated on the case study containing nanogrid houses data. The simulation provides detailed experiments by comparing the energy demand and response using the proposed energy sharing model. The outcomes yield that the energy sharing plan holds a significant potential to fulfill maximum energy requirements of nanogrid house in P2P cluster and significantly reduces the energy cost compared to grid.

The global process of urbanization, and the modification of social interaction determined by the pandemic crisis poses the issue of the place of vulnerable users, and in particular children, within the contemporary city. This research aims to elaborate a theoretical and methodological framework, based on the concepts of affordance and capability, for analyzing the potential of public spaces to enable and support children’s independent activities. This potential, or meaningful usefulness, is expressed by the Index of Meaningful Usefulness of public Urban Spaces (IUIS). The latter is calculated via the tool ‘Opportunities for Children in Urban Spaces’ (OCUS). This methodology is applied to the analysis of significant public spaces within the historic center of the city of Iglesias in Sardinia, Italy. The results reveal adequate usefulness of the selected spaces, while underlining criticalities related to intrinsic spatial and physical attributes. The application to the case study confirms the validity of the theoretical and methodological framework embodied in the OCUS tool for supporting urban design and planning by orienting place-shaping processes towards the acknowledgement of children’s needs.

The new IoT/IoE (internet of things/everythings) paradigm and architecture permits to rethink about the way the Smart City infrastructures are designed and managed, on the other hand a number of problems have to be solved. In terms of mobility the cities that embrace the sensoring era can take advantage of this disruptive technology to improve the quality of life of their citizen, also thanks the rationalization in the use of their resources. In Sii-Mobility, a national smart city project on mobility and transportation, a flexible platform has been designed and here, in this paper, is presented. It permits to setup heterogeneous and complex scenarios that integrate sensors/actuators as IoT/IoE in an overall scenario of Big Data, Machine Learning and Data Analytics. A detailed and complex case-study has been presented to validate the solution in the context of a system that dynamically reverse the traveling direction of a road segment, with all the safety conditions in place. This case study composes several building blocks of the IoT platform, which demonstrate that a flexible and dynamic set-up is possible, supporting off-grid, security, safety, cloud and mixed solutions.

The access to agricultural information in Sudan continues to be challenging to farmers due to use of inadequate sources and traditional extension approaches. The rapid growth of smart-mobile phones usage in developing countries resulted in several advantages compared to other alternatives in term of costs, geographic coverage and ease of use. This research was conducted in North Kordofan Sate to explore the role of smart-mobile phone in accessing agricultural information. Primary data were obtained by structured questionnaires and focus group discussion through participatory rural appraisal and observation while secondary data were collected from scientific journals, books and authenticated web sources. A number of 230 respondents (10% from total farmers) were interviewed and five focus group discussions were done. Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) version 22 was used to analyze the data with aid of descriptive statistics and Chi-squire Test. The result indicated that most of the respondents fall in age group between 21-40 years, and they depend on farm activity. There was 90% of farmers processed mobile phone since more than three years ago, 90.8%continuedto use smart mobile phone to access agricultural information and showed positive contribution towards income generation. The results also revealed that there was positive perception towards using mobile phones which showed more efficient in use than radio and TVs. The results showed great advantages of using smart mobile phone where 75.2 % of respondents preferred to get agricultural information, logistics and other needs through successful communication in the mid of agricultural season. Results of Chi-squire test showed significant differences between the parameters tested. The study recommended that farmers should be connected with mobile phones to admit ease communication with agricultural extension offices and quick access to their needs and logistics.

This paper presents technical solutions to increase Industry 4.0 maturity. Within the “5G-Enabled Manufacturing” project, a 5G network has been deployed at the shop floor to enable fast and scalable connectivity. This network was used to connect a grinding machine to a private cloud to enable visibility and transparency of the production data, which is the basis for Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing. Results indicate a present lack of commercially available product independent solutions for interconnection and data transfer despite the availability of open standards and well-documented demonstrator projects. The solution is described and discussed regarding technical interoperability, focusing on the system layout, communication standards, and open systems. From the discussion, it is derived that manufacturing end-users are in need to expand and further internalize knowledge on future information and communication technologies to reduce their dependency on equipment and technology providers.

As cities evolve into smarter and more connected environments, there is a growing need for innovative solutions to improve urban mobility. This study examines the potential of integrating blockchain technology into passenger transportation systems within smart cities, with a particular emphasis on a blockchain-enabled Mobility as a Service (MaaS) solution. In contrast to traditional technologies, blockchain's decentralized structure improves data security and guarantees transaction transparency, thus reducing the risk of fraud and errors. The proposed MaaS framework enables seamless collaboration between key transportation stakeholders, promoting more efficient utilization of services like buses, trains, bike-sharing, and ride-hailing. By improving integrated payment and ticketing systems, the solution aims to create a smoother user experience while advancing urban goals of efficiency, environmental sustainability, and secure data handling. This research evaluates the feasibility of a Hyperledger Fabric-based solution, demonstrating its performance under various load conditions and proposing scalability adjustments based on pilot results. The conclusions indicate that blockchain-enabled MaaS systems have the potential to transform urban mobility. Further exploration into pilot projects and the expansion to freight transportation are needed for an integrated approach to city-wide transport solutions.

Abstract: As the policies and regulations currently in place concentrate on environmental protection and greenhouse gas reduction, we are steadily witnessing a shift in the transportation industry towards electromobility. There are, though, several issues that need to be addressed to encourage the adoption of EVs at a larger scale. To this end, we propose a solution capable of addressing multiple EV charging scheduling issues, such as congestion management, scheduling a charging station in advance, and allowing EV drivers to plan optimized long trips using their EVs. The smart charging scheduling system we propose considers a variety of factors such as battery charge level, trip distance, nearby charging stations, other appointments, and average speed. Given the scarcity of data sets required to train the Reinforcement Learning algorithms, the novelty of the recommended solution lies in the scenario simulator, which generates the labelled datasets needed to train the algorithm. Based on the generated scenarios, we created and trained a neural network that uses a history of previous situations to identify the optimal charging station and time interval for recharging. The results are promising and for future work we are planning to train the DQN model using real-world data.

Urban areas are increasingly challenged by the urban heat island effect, resulting in increased energy consumption and reduced efficiency of conventional air source heat pumps (ASHPs). This study explores the integration of ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems with energy piles in urban environments, focusing on small to medium sized residential units. Energy piles combine structural support with geothermal heat exchange capabilities, taking advantage of stable ground temperatures to improve energy efficiency. The research examines key design considerations such as soil thermal properties, heat transfer mechanisms, and the optimal configuration of heat exchangers within the piles. Results indicate that GSHP systems can significantly reduce electricity consumption and operating costs compared to ASHPs, despite higher initial costs. Several factors, including site conditions, pile materials, and heat exchanger designs, are critical to system performance. The study concludes that while GSHP systems offer significant long-term benefits, their widespread adoption in Southeast Asia will require further development of construction methods and design strategies, as well as supportive government policies to mitigate initial costs. This work aims to advance the understanding and implementation of energy piles in urban environments, thereby promoting sustainable energy use in smart city development.

Increasingly, information technology facilitates the storage and management of data useful for risk analysis and event prediction. Studies on data extraction related to occupational health and safety are increasingly available; however, due to its variability, the construction sector warrants special attention. This review is conducted under the research programmes of the National Institute for Occupational Accident Insurance (Inail). Objectives: The research question focuses on identifying which data mining (DM) methods, among supervised, unsupervised, and others, are most appropriate to be applied to certain investigation objectives, types, and sources of data, as defined by the authors. Methods: Scopus and ProQuest were the main sources from which we extracted studies in the field of construction, published between 2014 and 2023. The eligibility criteria applied in the selection of studies, were based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and meta-analysis (PRISMA). For exploratory purposes, we applied hierarchical clustering, while for in-depth analysis, we use principal component analysis (PCA) and meta-analysis. Results: The search strategy based on the PRISMA eligibility criteria, provided us with 61 out of 2,234 potential articles, 202 observation, 91 methodologies, 4 survey purposes, 3 data sources, 7 data types, and 3 resource type. Cluster analysis and PCA organized the information included in the paper dataset into two dimensions and labels: "supervised methods, institutional dataset, and predictive and classificatory purposes" (correlation 0.97÷8.18E-01; p-value 7.67E-55÷1.28E-22) and the second, Dim2 "not-supervised methods; project, simulation, literature, text data; monitoring, decision-making processes; machinery and environment" (corr. 0.84÷0.47; p-value 5.79E-25÷3.59E-06). We answered the research question regarding which method, among supervised, unsupervised, or other, is most suitable for application to data in the construction industry. Conclusions: The meta-analysis provided an overall estimate of the better effectiveness of supervised methods (Odds Ratio = 0.71, Confidence Interval 0.53÷0.96) compared to not-supervised methods.

Modern building automation systems implement plenty of advanced control and monitoring functions considering various parameters like users’ activity, lighting, temperature changes etc. Moreover, new solutions based on Internet of Things and cloud services are also being developed for smart buildings to ensure comfort of use, user safety, energy efficiency improvements and integration with smart grids and smart city platforms. Such a wide spectrum of technologies and functions requires a new approach in building automation systems design to provide effective way of their implementation and flexibility during operation. At the same time, in the building design and operation industries, tools based on building information modeling and digital twins are being developed. In this paper, the authors discuss development directions and application areas of these solutions, identifying new trends and possibilities of their use in smart homes and buildings. In particular, the focus is on procedures for selecting automation functions, effective integration, and interoperability of building management systems with Internet of Things considering organization of prediction mechanisms and dynamic functional changes in buildings and smart networks. Chosen solutions and functions should consider the requirements from EN ISO 52120 standard and the guidelines defined for the Smart Readiness Indicator.

In the dynamic and evolving tourism industry, engaging of stakeholders is essential for fostering innovation and improving service quality. However, tourism companies often struggle to meet expectations for customer satisfaction through interactivity and real-time feedback. While new digital technologies can address the challenge of providing personalized travel experiences, they can also increase the workload for travel agencies due to the maintenance and updates required to keep travel details current. Intelligent chatbots and other Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) tools can help mitigate these obstacles by transforming tourism and travel-related services, offering interactive guidance for both tourism companies and travellers. In this study, we explore and compare the main characteristics of existing responsive AI instruments, applicable in tourism and hospitality scenarios. Then, we propose a new theoretical framework for decision-making in the tourism industry, integrating GAI technologies to enable agencies to create and manage itineraries, and tourists to interact online with these innovative instruments. The advantages of the proposed framework are as follows: 1) providing a comprehensive understanding of the transformative potential of new generation AI tools in tourism and facilitates their effective implementation; 2) offering a holistic methodology to enhance the tourist experience; 3) unifying the applications of contemporary AI instruments in tourism activities and paves their further development. The study contributes to the expanding literature on tourism modernization and offers recommendations for industry practitioners, consumers, and local, regional, and national tourism bodies to adopt a more user-centric approach to enhancing travel services.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are rapidly advancing. These technologies have significantly impacted the consumer goods market, including the smart footwear industry. AI and ML are extensively utilized in the design and production of smart and agile footwear. There are various methods for manufacturing smart footwear, which can be categorized based on their applications. These include medical and healthcare smart footwear, assistive footwear for individuals with impairments, footwear designed for navigation in unfamiliar areas, foot-wear for studying foot movements and gait analysis, safety footwear, anti-skid footwear, foot-wear for the elderly, army shoes, and energy-harvesting footwear, among others. These smart shoes enable real-time patient monitoring and provide appropriate suggestions for their care. Additionally, smart footwear can be classified based on the tools and techniques used in their production, as well as the sensors and Internet of Things (IoT) devices integrated into them. This paper reviews the various tools and techniques used in the creation of smart footwear for dif-ferent applications.

Automated systems, regulated by algorithmic protocols and predefined set-points for feedback control, require the oversight and fine-tuning of skilled technicians. This necessity is particularly pronounced in automated greenhouses, where optimal environmental conditions depend on the specialized knowledge of dedicated technicians, emphasizing the need for expert involvement during installation and maintenance. To address these challenges, this study proposes the integration of data acquisition technologies using Internet of Things (IoT) protocols and optimization services via Reinforcement Learning (RL) methodologies. The proposed model was tested in an industrial production greenhouse for the cultivation of industrial hemp, applying adapted strategies to the crop, and was guided by an agronomic technician knowledgeable about the plant. The expertise of this technician was crucial in transferring the RL model to a real-world automated greenhouse equipped with IoT technology. The study concludes that the integration of IoT and RL technologies is effective, validating the model's ability to manage and optimize greenhouse operations efficiently and adapt to different types of crops. Moreover, this integration not only enhances operational efficiency but also reduces the need for constant human intervention, thereby minimizing labor costs and increasing scalability for larger agricultural enterprises. Furthermore, the RL-based control has demonstrated its ability to maintain selected temperatures and achieve energy savings compared to classical control methods.

Oracles have been suggested as a vital piece of infrastructure necessary to allow blockchain-based smart contracts to reach their full potential by interacting with real-world data. This paper begins by providing an approachable entry point to the oracle problem and the current landscape of existing solutions. From there, we provide an overview of published research to narrow down unexplored research directions and derive questions for interviews. Finally, the results of 15 unstructured expert interviews are presented and discussed. The focus here is the industry landscape of oracle projects, opportunities for innovation, and challenges needing to be overcome.

Community centers play a crucial role in urban environments, providing physical and educational services to their surrounding communities, particularly for students. Among the many benefits for students are enhanced academic outcomes, improvement of behavioral problems, and increased school attendance. Such centers are also particularly vital for low-income and racial minority students as they are pivotal in giving them outside-of-school learning opportunities. However, determinants influencing attendance at community centers remain largely unexplored. Using census data, Boston Centers for Youth and Families (BCYF) attendance data, and specific center attributes, we develop human mobility gravitational models to predict attendance across the BCYF network. Using those models, we investigate the potential effects on general and student attendance by changing center attributes, such as facilities and operating hours. We also research the impact of changing the walking accessibility to those centers on their respective attendance patterns. After the analysis, we find that the most cost-effective policy to increase BCYF attendance is changing each center’s educational and recreational offerings far beyond any accessibility interventions. Our results provide insights into potential policy changes that could optimize the attendance and reach of BCYF Community Centers to underserved populations.

With the breakthroughs and innovative developments in nanotechnology, research on the application of nanomedicine in cancer therapy has so far seen tremendous expansion and success. Intelligent stimulus-responsive nanocarriers are an emerging field of research and have great interest in cancer therapy owing to the fascinating properties such as excellent targeting function, high drug loading capacity, and targeted on-demand release properties. Responsive nanomaterials can be designed and constructed according to the dosing context and therapeutic needs, at the same time, activated by internal bio-stimuli (pH, redox, and enzymes) and/or external stimuli (ultrasound, light, temperature, and magnetic), respectively. What’s more, smart nanocarriers are also utilized for the precise and controllable release of antitumor drugs from cancer tissues and cells to achieve efficient diagnosis and treatment of tumors. Deeply investigated, responsive nanocarriers have attracted considerable attention due to their ability to release precisely at tumor-specific sites. Herein, we review the recent advances of novel stimuli-responsive nanocarriers in the field of cancer therapy. Finally, the challenges and application prospects of smart nanocarriers are further elaborately discussed.

The teaching and learning environment have changed significantly over the last decade with the integration of an increasing amount of information and communication technologies, especially in distance education due to global pandemics, total lockdowns, isolation, and quarantine periods. The number of numerous virtual and non-virtual tools involved in educational processes is growing day by day. In terms of technological innovations used in learning environments, many researchers and educators are trying their best to bring more creative ideas into the technology- based learning environments. Although higher educational institutions have greatly benefited from the growing number of hardware and software resources in the educational process, they have also faced some setbacks that have harmed the learning processes. These technologies have in turn complicated some of the processes in the learning atmosphere. Therefore, we take Spanish teaching course as an example to present the challenging smarter teaching and learning systems that higher educational institutions face today.

Vulnerabilities in smart contracts may trigger serious security events, and the detection of smart contract vulnerabilities has become a significant problem. In this paper, by using the multi-scale cascade encoder architecture as the backbone, we propose a novel Multi-scale Encoder Vulnerability Detection (MEVD) approach to detect well-known high-risk vulnerabilities in smart contracts. Firstly, we use the gating mechanism to design a unique Surface Feature Encoder (SFE) to enrich the semantic information of code features. Then, by combining a Base Transformer Encoder (BTE) and a Detail CNN Encoder (DCE), we introduce a dual-branch encoder to capture the global structure and local detail features of the smart contract code, respectively. Finally, to focus the model's attention on vulnerability-related characteristics, we employ the Deep Residual Shrinkage Network (DRSN). Experimental results on three types of high-risk vulnerability datasets demonstrate performance compared to state-of-the-art methods, and our method achieves an average detection accuracy of 90%.

UAVs are becoming a crucial tool in modern warfare, primarily due to their cost-effectiveness, risk reduction, and ability to perform a wider range of activities. The use of autonomous UAVs to conduct strike missions against highly valuable targets is the focus of this research. Due to developments in ledger technology, smart contracts, and machine learning, such activities formerly carried out by professionals or remotely flown UAVs are now feasible. Our study provides the first in-depth analysis of challenges and potential solutions for successful implementation of an autonomous UAV mission.

As urbanization continues to accelerate, the concept of smart buildings has transitioned from a futuristic vision to an integral component of modern cities. These buildings, often seen as the building blocks of smart cities, are increasingly relying on cutting-edge technologies like 5G and cloud computing to reach unprecedented levels of energy efficiency, sustainability, and occupant comfort. This paper offers a comprehensive exploration into the marriage of smart building technologies with 5G and cloud computing. It scrutinizes the individual and combined impacts of these technologies, presents various case studies showcasing real-world applications, and anticipates future trends. Moreover, it delves into technical challenges, policy implications, and offers concrete recommendations for stakeholders.

Nano-nitrogen fertilizers (NNFs) have emerged as a promising technology in the field of agriculture, offering potential solutions to improve nutrient uptake efficiency, enhance crop productivity, and reduce environmental impacts. The NNFs showed superior characteristics and performance on crops and therefore, became a potential alternative to conventional nitrogen (N) fertilisers. These fertilizers enhance plant uptake while simultaneously reducing environmental losses. Additionally, their small particle size increases crop acclimation and decreases the application rate. With all these beneficial traits of NNFs, they potentially contribute to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This review article summarises the materials used in NNFs formulation, methods of preparing NNFs, and their crop responses. This review also highlights the limitations identified in the research studies and provides research recommendations for the future. Further, this review provides a critical assessment of the current state of NNFs and their prospects for revolutionizing modern agriculture to attain SDGs.

Smart livestock farming leverages technology to boost production and meet food demand sustainably. This study delves into smart technologies in animal production, covering opportunities, challenges, and solutions. Smart agriculture employs modern technology to enhance efficiency, sustainability, and animal welfare in livestock farming. It includes remote monitoring, GPS-based animal care, robotic milking, smart health collars, predictive disease control, and other innovations to achieve these goals. While smart animal production holds great promise, it does face challenges related to cost, data management, and connectivity. To address these challenges, potential solutions include remote sensing, technology integration, and farmer education. Smart agriculture offers opportunities for increased efficiency, improved animal welfare, and enhanced environmental conservation. A well-planned approach is crucial to maximize the benefits of smart livestock production while ensuring its long-term sustainability. This study confirms the growing adoption of smart agriculture in livestock production, with the potential to support sustainable development goals and deliver benefits such as increased productivity and resource efficiency. To fully realize these benefits and ensure the sustainability of livestock farming, it is essential to address cost and education challenges. Therefore, this study recommends promoting a positive outlook among livestock stakeholders and embracing smart agriculture to enhance farm performance.

Infrastructure and urban network operators, city users and industrialists are faced with complex issues to ensure the sustainability of the service, maintain, operate and develop their urban systems, while integrating environmental, economic and societal impacts and being resilient to unexpected geopolitical and climatic upheavals. Digital Twins are now recognized as the cornerstone of digital transformation. In the field of smart cities, they can enable all stakeholders to collaborate across disciplinary silos and foster digital transformation in urban and territorial projects to ensure sustainability, resilience and increased inventiveness. However, the application of the Digital Twin technology to Smart Cities lacks of standards. This paper proposes a high-level architecture for Digital Twins as an enabler of various levels of interoperation between key stakeholders of a Smart City. Such a technology-agnostic architecture, when implemented for a given Smart City, produces a middleware for large scale interoperability between actors involved in multiple supply chains of this territory.

Deep sky observation is a fascinating activity, but it requires favourable conditions in order to be fully appreciated. Complex equipment, light pollution around urban areas, lack of contextual information often prevents newcomers from making the most of their observations, restricting the field to a niche expert audience. In this paper, we show how combining the usage of smart telescopes with eXplainable Artificial Intelligence makes the practice of astronomy even more accessible and educative, and how it has been applied during outreach sessions In Luxembourg Greater Region.

Τhe building automation control is a crucial factor for improving buildings energy efficiency and management, as well as improving the electricity grid's reliability indices. This paper presents the methodology, describes the necessary technology requirements and presents the decentralized building automation novel algorithm for Efficient demand side management in a building. All these are applied in an experimental university microgrid and the results are presented in terms of energy saving in kWh, money in € and working hours.

Smart farming, as a branch of the Internet of Things (IoT), combines the recognition of agricultural economic competencies, the progress of data and information collected from connected devices with statistical analysis to characterize the essentials of the assimilated information, allowing farmers to make intelligent conclusions that will maximize the harvest benefit. However, the integration of advanced technologies requires the adoption of high-tech security approaches. In this paper, we present a framework that promises to enhance the security and privacy of smart farms by leveraging the decentralized nature of blockchain technology. The framework stores and manages data acquired from IoT devices installed in smart farms using a distributed ledger architecture, which provides secure and tamper-proof data storage and ensures the integrity and validity of the data. The study uses the AWS cloud, ESP32, the smart farm security monitoring framework, and the Ethereum Rinkeby smart contract mechanism, which enables automated execution of pre-defined rules and regulations. As a result of a proof-of-concept implementation, the system can detect and respond to security threats in real time, and the results illustrate its usefulness in improving the security of smart farms.

The Industry 4.0 represents new era of production, characterized by a deep integration between digital technologies and physical systems. Cyber physical systems, cyber resilience protection and workers' safety are key elements of this transformation. To ensure the benefits of Industry 4.0 realized in a secure way, it is crucial to focus on workers' safety, cyber resilience protection and human-centric and CPS systems security and privacy. However, to fully realize the potential of Industry 4.0, it is important to address these challenges and ensure that the benefits of digitalization are balanced with the needs of workers and the protection of critical infrastructure. The concept of Industry 5.0 is emerging as the next step in this evolution, emphasizing the importance of sustainability, human-centered design, and a focus on creating a better future for all.

High efficiency and safety are critical factors in ensuring optimal performance and reliability of systems and equipment across various industries. Fault Monitoring (FM) techniques play a pivotal role in this regard by continuously monitoring system performance and identifying the presence of faults or abnormalities. However, traditional FM methods face limitations in fully capturing the complex interactions within a system and providing real-time monitoring capabilities. To overcome these challenges, Digital Twin (DT) technology has emerged as a promising solution to enhance existing FM practices. By creating a virtual replica or digital copy of a physical equipment or system, DT offers the potential to revolutionize fault monitoring approaches. This paper aims to explore and discuss the diverse range of predictive methods utilized in DT and their implementations in FM across industries. Furthermore, it will showcase successful implementations of DT in FM across a wide array of industries, including manufacturing, energy, transportation, and healthcare The utilization of DT in FM enables a comprehensive understanding of system behavior and performance by leveraging real-time data, advanced analytics, and machine learning algorithms. By integrating physical and virtual components, DT facilitates the monitoring and prediction of faults, providing valuable insights into the system’s health and enabling proactive maintenance and decision-making.

In industrial environments, nesting consists in cutting or extracting pieces from a material sheet, with the purpose of minimizing the surface of the sheet used. This problem is present in different types of industries, such as shipping, aeronautics, woodworking, footwear, and so on. In this work, the aim is to find an acceptable solution to solve complex nesting problems. The research developed is oriented to sacrifice accuracy for speed so as to obtain robust solutions in less computational time. To achieve this, a greedy method and a genetic algorithm have been implemented, being the latter responsible for generating a sequence for the placement of the pieces, where each piece is placed in its current optimal position with the help of a representation system for both the pieces and the material sheet.

The exposure to extreme temperatures in workplaces involves physical hazards for workers. A poorly acclimated worker may have lower performance and vigilance and may therefore be more exposed to accidents and injuries. Due to the incompatibility of the existing standards implemented in some workplaces and the lack of thermoregulation in many protective equipment, thermal stress remains one of the most frequent physical hazards in many work sectors. However, many of these problems can be overcome with the use of smart textile technologies that enable intelligent thermoregulation in personal protective equipment. Smart textiles can detect, react and adapt to many external stimuli. Interconnected sensors and actuators that interact and react to existing risks can provide the wearer with increased safety, protection and comfort. Thus, the skills of smart protective equipment can contribute to the reduction of errors and the number and severity of accidents in the workplace, and thus promote improved performance, efficiency and productivity.This review provides an overview and opinions of authors on the current state of knowledge on these types of technologies by reviewing and discussing the state of the art of commercially available systems and the advances made in previous research works.

Modern electronic textiles are moving towards flexible wearable textiles, so-called e-textiles that have micro-electronic elements embedded onto the textile fabric that can be used for varied classes of functionalities. There are different methods of integrating rigid microelectronic components into/onto textiles for the development of smart textiles, which include, but are not limited to, physical, mechanical and chemical approaches. The integration systems must satisfy being flexible, lightweight, stretchable and washable to offer a superior usability, comfortability and non-intrusiveness. Furthermore, the resulting wearable garment needs to be breathable. In this review work, three levels of integration of the microelectronics into/onto the textile structures are discussed, the textile-adapted, the textile-integrated, and the textile-based integration. The textile-integrated and the textile- adapted e-textiles have failed to efficiently meet being flexible and washable. To overcome the above problems, researchers studied the integration of microelectronics into/onto textile at fiber or yarn level applying various mechanisms. Hence, a new method of integration, textile-based, has risen to the challenge due to the flexibility and washability advantages of the ultimate product. In general, the aim of this review is to provide a complete overview of the different interconnection methods of electronic components into/onto textile substrate.

This paper shows the proposal of the use of linked data for smart metering systems. The aim of linked data in smart grid applications such as smart metering systems is to give semantic knowledge of the energy transactions between all participators in the power markets. In combination with other technologies like blockchain, the linked data could improve decentralization and security in the world's energetic future.

In this article, we report how we constructed a dataset that contains the responses to a survey designed for investigating the relationship that humans have with their smart devices. The dataset has been collected in May-July 2020 and is a sample of over 500 respondents of various different ethnicities and backgrounds. These data have been used for modelling the ways people relate to their devices using the notion of agency. However, the data can be used for complementing any study that intends to investigate a tool-mediated communication from the perspective of the users and via a variety of attitudes and expectations the users invest in their devices and in themselves as users. This article presents the survey items as well as some preliminary data insights. The data have been collected in English and answers have been anonymized in order to ensure GDPR compliance. They are stored in a .csv file containing the respondents’ answers to the questions.

Despite the increasing interest in ‘smart city’ initiatives worldwide, current literature still lacks the approaches and models that address challenges in organization and collaboration, which boost sustainability and ‘smartness’ in modern cities. This paper provides an overview of ‘smart city’ ecosystems as a mechanism to promote the expected outcomes of their sustainable development, and highlights the importance of conceptualizing cities from organizational and managerial perspectives. Representative exploratory models of ‘city organization’, which emphasize on the role of ‘governance’ and synergies, are presented to ‘decode’ complex city mechanisms and to determine key components that lead to ‘smart’ initiatives. Interesting case studies and applications are then analysed to examine the practical dimension of these approaches. As a review paper, this article lays out a general framework on the importance of ‘collaboration’, ‘governance’, ‘management’, and ‘ecosystem’. However, 'planning smartly’ and achieving ‘sustainability’ at the level of city ‘organization’ remain as challenges in this pioneering study of smart cities.

The research work hereby presented, emerges from the urge to answer the well-known question of how the uncertainty of intermittent renewable sources affects the performance of a microgrid and how could we deal with it. More specifically, we want to evaluate what could be the impact in performance of a microgrid intended to serve a smart-building (powered by photovoltaic panels and with battery energy storage), when the uncertainty of the photovoltaic-production forecasts is considered in the energy management process. For this, several objectives (or services) are targeted based in a two-step (double-objective) energy management framework, that combines optimization-based and rule-based algorithms. The performance is evaluated based on some particular services proposed as performance indicators. Simulations are performed using data of a study-case microgrid (Drahi-Xnovation center, Ecole Polytechnique, France). The use of quantile forecasts (obtained with an analog-ensemble method) is tested as a mean to deal with (i.e. decrease) the uncertainty of the solar PV production. The proposed energy management framework is compared with basic reference strategies and the results show the superior performance of the former in almost all the services and forecasting scenarios proposed. The contrasting nature among some of the target services is one of the main conclusions of this work, as well as the different requirements in terms of forecasts when optimizing for different services and seasons of the year. This fact highlights the usefulness of the quantile forecasting approach, as a tool to deal with the intrinsic uncertainty of PV power production

We present an automated system for nutrient solution management. Prior arts usually measure only pH and EC of the nutrient solutions for maintenance. When EC drops, they just simply add concentrated nutrient to the horticulture bed. Such approach can maintain the density of nutrient solution but cannot maintain the rates of individual ion particles. To prevent nutrition related disorders, fertilization methods with ion selective electrodes are widely introduced. This trend measures individual ion concentration of nutrient solution to maintain appropriate nutrient composition by supplying only insufficient ions. Many researchers have suggested ISE based automated fertilization systems. However, they failed to control a chemical artifact called ion interference effect, which becomes greater at higher density. Our system measures individual concentration of multiple ions and add only deficient nutrients, while handling the ion interference effect issue. To ensure the performance of ion selective electrodes, the system also performs fully automated 3-point calibration 24 times a day. A machine learning algorithm is applied on the sensory parts to remove ion interference effect which make measurement of complex solution with ISE almost impossible. With automated calibration and signal processing technology, the system robustly and continuously maintains nutrient condition for plants. We suggest applying this system on closed hydroponic systems such as smart farms or plant factory, to reduce water consumption and to provide more appropriate environment for the crops.

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is a new and emerging concept in climate discourse to address the issues of climate change impacts in agriculture. Few researchers and organizations have concentrated on CSA policies and practices in Nepal. This study aims to review and analyze the policies and practices in relation to CSA and define local level CSA indicators in the Central and Western Nepal. This study adopted the scoping review of climate policies and practices in Nepal and also utilized the household survey information particularly focusing on climate adaptation relating to agriculture. Through the scoping review, it is recognized that the number of climate policies in Nepal has specifically prioritized agriculture and food security as an important thematic area. Among those policies, National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA), National Framework for Local Adaptation Plan of Action (LAPA) and National Adaptation Plan (NAP) have specific sections on CSA practices, however, these policies/plans lack specific indicators. Different categories of CSA practices are common in Nepal, but many of these practices are popular as agricultural and environmental practices prior to the CSA concept and approach. The output indicators specific to CSA practices help the communities and policymakers to measure and monitor the progress of its implementation. Additional researches are required in this field to better understand the CSA concept, approaches, and mechanisms in the Nepalese context.

This article presents an in-depth review of Virtual Power Plant (VPP), its organization in the energy system and its prospects in the face of the promising future of the increasing bidirectional complexity exposed in the current scenario. A new paradigm for the operations of modern power distribution and transmission systems requires greater grid flexibility that is accompanying an extensive change in the structure of electricity markets, the fruit of the development of the renewable industry and of the growing photovoltaic systems popularized, but in contrast due to the intermittent nature cause variable uncertainties in the power system. Innovative concepts like VPP are becoming a reality, establishing an efficient and effective mechanism. The objectives and components are described in a comprehensive way, and some of the most important are pointed out and presented in detail to contribute with a description of the energy systems and the implicit research needed for sustainability and resilience in the eminent energy scenario with this technology. In addition, the literature and studies of this technology already indicate a direction of this new tool as a promising solution to manage the uncertainties of the renewable energies.

Wireless sensor networks are widely used in many applications such as environmental monitoring, health care, smart grid and surveillance. Many security protocols have been proposed and intensively studied due to the inherent nature of wireless networks. In particular, Wu et al. proposed a promising authentication scheme which is sufficiently robust against various attacks. However, according to our analysis, Wu et al.'s scheme has two serious security weaknesses against malicious outsiders. First, their scheme can lead to user impersonation attacks. Second, user anonymity is not preserved in their scheme. In this paper, we present these vulnerabilities of Wu et al.'s scheme in detail. We also propose a new scheme by fixing such vulnerabilities and improving the performance of the protocol.

With quick improvement in the field of network, everything becomes online. Remote user authentication is a mechanism in which remote server verify the correctness of user over common or public channel. Remote user authentication can be Single server authentication or Multi server authentication. The disadvantage of single server authentication is that the user needs to recall user id and password for each service, he/she need to utilize, however it can overcome by Multi-server authentication in which user needs to register himself with Registration Center (RC) for the first run through and after that onwards he can utilize each service (which are given by servers, associated with RC) by recollecting only one user id and password. In this paper, we analyze Chen's authentication scheme (based on multi server authentication) and show that this scheme is vulnerable to password guessing attack, replay attack, RC spoofing attack, session key verification attack and perfect forward secrecy attack. In this Paper, we propose a biometric based remote user authentication scheme in multi-server environment. Proposed scheme is more secure and efficient as compared to chen's scheme\cite{23}.

Nowadays a recognized need for accurate observations of atmospheric aerosols (AEs) and reactive gases (RGs) exists in the framework of regional, national and global near-surface networks based on permanent or mobile measurement stations. In this context, a paramount and not-trivial issue is related to the correct execution of continuous sampling of ambient air and its subsequent distribution to measurement analyzers hosted inside the stations. Sampling artifacts must be minimized for obtaining reliable pictures of ambient air composition. To respond to this need, a suite of novel “smart” and relatively low-cost systems for the continuous sampling of ambient air was developed in the framework of the Project I-AMICA (2012 – 2015, www.i-amica.eu). These systems were designed to execute AE and RG measurements according with WMO/GAW and ACTRIS recommendations and standard operation procedures. A particular attention was dedicated to the stabilization and control of the sampling flow rates and temperatures. The analysis of one full year of operations at the WMO/GAW regional station of Capo Granitola (GAW ID: CGR, Italy), allowed to conclude that these systems are effective in meeting the technical requirements for correct execution of AE and RG measurements

A brain-computer interface for controlling elements commonly used at home is presented in this paper. It includes the electroencephalography device needed to acquire signals associated to the brain activity, the algorithms for artefact reduction and event classification, and the communication protocol.

The unpredictable increase in electrical demand affects the quality of theenergy throughout the network. A solution to the problem is the increase of distributedgeneration units which burn fossil fuels.While this is an immediate solution to theproblem the ecosystem gets affected by the emission of CO2.A promising solutionis the integration of Distributed Renewable Energy Sources (DRES) to the conventionalelectrical system, thus, introducing the concept of smart microgrids (SMG) that requirea safe, reliable and technically planned two-way communication system. This documentpresents a heuristic based on planning capable of providing a bidirectional communicationnear optimal route map, following the structure of an hybrid Fiber-Wireless (FiWi) with thepurpose of obtaining information of electrical parameters that help us to manage the useof energy by integrating conventional electrical system to SMG. A FiWi network is basedon the integration of wireless access and optical networks. This integration increases thecoverage and reliability at a lower cost. The optimization model is based on clusteringtechniques, through the construction of balanced conglomerates. The method is used forthe development of the clusters along with the Nearest-Neighbor Spanning Tree Algorithm(N-NST). Additionally, Optimal Delay Balancing (ODB) model will be used to minimizethe end to end delay of each grouping. In addition, the heuristic observes real designparameters such as: capacity and coverage. Using the Dijkstra algorithm, the routes arebuilt following the minimum shorter path. Therefore, this paper presents a heuristic able to plan the deployment of smart meters (SMs) through a tree-like hierarchical topology for theintegration of SMG at the lowest cost.

Given their severity and non-healing nature, diabetic chronic wounds are a significant concern to the 30.3 million Americans diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (2015). Peripheral arterial diseases, neuropathy, and infection contribute to the development of these wounds, which lead to an increased incidence of lower extremity amputations. Early recognition, debridement, offloading, and controlling infection are imperative for timely treatment. However, wound characterization and treatment are highly subjective and based largely on the experience of the treating clinician. Many wound dressings have been designed to address particular clinical presentations, but a prescriptive method is lacking for identifying the particular state of chronic, non-healing wounds. The authors suggest that recent developments in wound dressings and biosensing may allow for the quantitative, real-time representation of the wound environment, including exudate levels, pathogen concentrations, and tissue regeneration. Development of such sensing capability could enable more strategic, personalized care at the onset of ulceration and limit the infection leading to amputation. This review presents an overview of the pathophysiology of diabetic chronic wounds, a brief summary of biomaterial wound dressing treatment options, and biosensor development for biomarker sensing in the wound environment.

The widespread adoption of electromobility constitutes one of the measures designed to reduce air pollution caused by traditional fossil fuels. However, several factors are currently impending this process, ranging from insufficient charging infrastructure, battery capacity, long queueing and charging time, to psychological factors. On top of range anxiety, the frustration of the EV drivers is further fueled by the lack the uncertainty of finding an available charging point on their route. To address this issue, we propose a solution that comes to bypass the limitations of the Reserve now function of the OCPP standard, enabling drivers to make charging reservations for the upcoming days, especially when planning a longer trip. We created an algorithm that generates reservation intervals based on the charging station's reservation and transaction history. Subsequently, we ran a series of test cases that yielded promising results, with no overlapping reservations.

A conventional electrical grid mostly depends on the electrical power generated from fossil fuels. However, the pollutants from fossil fuels are the key factors for adverse climate change. Most of the developed countries of the world have already recognized the fact that the energy mix requires to be diversified by incorporating renewable energy. This is especially relevant for many of the member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), consisting of 57 countries, whose abundance of fossil fuel reserve indicates that much of their electric power is still generated from fossil fuels. In order to integrate renewable energy sources into the hybrid energy mix, an existing conventional grid needs to undergo drastic changes. Alongside this, the population boom in the OIC member countries has caused higher demand for a steady supply of electricity that the conventional grids have long been struggling to cope with. With a view to solving this multifaceted problem, incorporation of the smart power management schemes is indispensable using a smart electrical grid, where information and communications technology is integrated into its major building blocks. This allows advanced applications of a grid, such as the formation of micro-grids, demand-side management, energy storage, high-tech power electronic converters, etc. As the smart grids are being adopted by many developed countries, it is high time for the OIC member countries to pay due attention to this development, if they have not already done so. This paper explains, with special focus on the OIC member countries, the various smart power management technologies, their operations and applications, and the benefits and challenges. Then it goes on to carry out the Strength-Weakness-Opportunity-Threat with Analytical-Heuristic-Procedure (SWOT-AHP) analysis to evaluate its feasibility of incorporation and the underlying strategies appropriate for its implementation. Furthermore, a Hybrid Multi-Criteria-Decision-Making (MCDM) analysis is performed to evaluate the sequence of the emphasis that should be given on each of the technologies from those available for the smart power management initiative. Finally, the study reinforces the stance by drawing parallels from the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and highlights the importance of the smart grid in line with the global vision of SDG. This paper aims at assisting the decision-makers in implementing smart power management schemes in the OIC member countries, in particular, and other countries of the world, in general.

The implementation of morphing wing mechanisms holds promise in enhancing aircraft perfor-mance, as indicated in current literature. The Clean Sky 2 AirGreen 2 European project is currently conducting ground and wind tunnel tests to validate innovative studies on morphing wing structures. The project aims to showcase the effectiveness of these morphing architectures on a potentially flying demonstrator at true scale. This article describes design methodology and struc-tural testing of a scaled morphing flap structure capable of 3 different morphing modes required for low-speed (take-off/landing) and high-speed (cruise) conditions. A significant scale factor of 1:3 was selected to enhance the importance and relevance of the wind tunnel test campaign. Geometrical scaling to the real flap prototype was deemed impractical due to limitations associated with scaling the embedded mechanisms and actuators responsible for shape changing. Static analyses were performed using the finite element method to address the most critical loads determined through three-dimensional CFD analysis. The Finite Element (FE) analysis results were briefly outlined, and comparisons were drawn between the obtained results and the empirical data collected during the structural test. Good correlations were observed between the results and numerical predictions, encompassing static deflections under applied loads and elastic deformations. Consequently, the modeling approaches utilized during the design and testing phases were considered highly suc-cessful. Therefore, based on the results extrapolated from simulations under ultimate load condi-tions relevant to the wind tunnel test campaign, the scaled flap prototype was deemed suitable for testing.

Technological advancements and innovations have profoundly changed the lives of people giving rise to smart environments, cities, and societies. As homes are the building block of cities and societies, smart homes are critical to establishing smart living and are expected to play a key role in enabling smart cities and societies. The current academic literature and commercial advancements on smart homes have mainly focused on developing and providing smart functions for homes to provide security management and facilitate the residents in their various activities such as ambiance management. Homes are much more than physical structures, buildings, appliances, operational machines, and systems. Homes are composed of families and are inherently complex phenomena underlined by humans and their relationships with each other, subject to individual, intragroup, intergroup, and intercommunity goals. There is a clear need to understand, define, consolidate existing research, and actualize the overarching roles of smart homes, the roles of smart homes that would serve the needs of future smart cities and societies. This paper introduces our data-driven parameter discovery methodology and uses it to provide, for the first time, an extensive, rather fairly comprehensive, analysis of the families and homes landscape seen through the eyes of academics and the public using over a hundred thousand research papers and nearly a million tweets. We develop a methodology using deep learning, natural language processing (NLP), and big data analytics methods and apply it to automatically discover parameters that capture a comprehensive knowledge and design space of smart families and homes comprising social, political, economic, environmental, and other dimensions. The 66 discovered parameters and the knowledge space comprising 100s of dimensions are explained by reviewing and referencing over 300 articles from the academic literature and tweets. The knowledge and parameters discovered in this paper can be used to develop a holistic understanding of matters related to families and homes facilitating the development of better, community-specific, policies, technologies, solutions, and industries for families and homes, leading to strengthening families and homes, and in turn, empowering sustainable societies across the globe.

Background: While exercise is known to promote sleep quality, the specific effects of different types of exercise interventions on the sleep quality of college students remain inadequately researched. Methods: Initially, the sleep quality of 182 college students was evaluated using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Subsequently, 23 volunteers underwent an 8-week exercise intervention. They were randomly assigned to either the aerobic or resistance exercise group to analyze and compare the effects of aerobic and resistance exercises on college students' sleep quality. Sleep quality and exercise safety were monitored using Huawei Band 6 smart wearable devices. Results: The prospective survey highlighted sleep quality challenges among college students, evidenced by elevated PSQI scores. Aerobic exercise and resistance training improved sleep quality and parameters. In the aerobic exercise group, sleep duration increased, with improved blood oxygen saturation and reduced wakefulness. Resistance training increased deep sleep duration and REM sleep. Conclusion: Through smart wearable devices like the Huawei Band, monitoring of both exercise and sleep revealed the beneficial effects of aerobic exercise and resistance training on improving sleep quality among college students. Aerobic exercise increased sleep duration, blood oxygen saturation, and reduced waking frequency, while resistance training significantly increased deep sleep and REM sleep duration.

Pakistan is an agricultural country, and an exporter of crops in many countries. The crop production is an important factor to earn revenue for the country. But the agriculture of Pakistan is still not revolutionized and no modern system has been deployed commonly. Whereas the farmers face difficulty in growing some crops because those crops needs more care and calculated steps. Moreover the farmers face difficulty at different stages of the crop growth like to check fertility of soil and if the soil is non-fertile then which chemical property is lacking. The objective of this research is to provide digitize the agriculture of Pakistan. An emerging technology IoT and Deep learning based system will be developed. The IoT part contains some devices like sensors,gateways and communication technologies whereas the software part consists of Deep learning models that can make predictions about the fertility of the soil. The motive of this system is to provide best results in term of accuracy. Whereas the dataset used is publicly available on kaggle but it was of non-fertile values, so data augmentation is also performed to generate data for fertile values. We have implemented LSTM,RNN,CNN among them LSTM performed best for the prediction of soil fertility.

The severe climate changes due to global warming pushed the world to strive to reduce carbon emissions. This study aims to minimize the carbon emissions for a proposed smart energy hub. This paper prioritizes the minimization of carbon emissions, taking into consideration the minimization of operation running costs, and the maximization of profit. In this paper two optimization scenarios were studied, to compare the results. In the first scenario, the minimization of carbon emissions was achieved, in the second scenario, the minimization of running costs and maximization of profit from the hub assets were studied. The proposed model was designed in MATLAB. Then the results were verified by CPLEX and validated by RTDS. The multi-objective model was presented to obtain the optimal operation. The mitigation of data uncertainty was achieved by applying the Kalman filter. In this work, a novel method was proposed for the estimation of the quarter-hour resolution data from the hourly one via the Kalman filter rather than applying the classic polynomial interpolation methods.

Mobile inspections conducted by intelligent tunnel robots are instrumental in broadening the inspection reach, economizing on inspection expenditures, and augmenting the operational efficiency of inspections. Despite differences from fixed surveillance, mobile-captured traffic videos have complex backgrounds and device conditions that interfere with accurate traffic event identification, warranting more research. This paper proposes an improved algorithm based on YOLOv9 and DeepSORT for intelligent event detection in edge computing mobile device using the intelligent tunnel robot. The enhancements comprise the integration of the Temporal Shift Module to boost temporal feature recognition and the establishment of logical rules for identifying diverse traffic incidents in mobile video imagery. Experimental results show that our fused algorithm achieves a 93.25% accuracy rate, an inprovement of 1.75% over the baseline. The algorithm is also applicable to inspection vehicles, drones, and autonomous vehicles, effectively enhancing the detection of traffic events and improving traffic safety.

Biomimetic stimuli-responsive materials can respond to various external stimuli in the form of structural or morphological transformations by actively or passively converting input energy into mechanical energy. They are the core element of soft actuators for typical smart devices like soft robots, artificial muscles, intelligent sensors and nanogenerators. While significant progresses have been made in bioinspired stimuli-responsive materials, they have not yet achieved the remarkable properties in biological systems. In this review, we will discuss recent advances in biomimetic stimuli-responsive materials that are instrumental for soft actuators. Different stimuli-responsive principles for soft actuators are firstly discussed, including fluidic, electrical, thermal, magnetic, light and chemical stimuli. We further summarize the state-of-the-art stimuli-responsive materials for soft actuators and explore the advantages and disadvantages of using electroactive polymers, magnetic soft composites, hydrogels, liquid crystal elastomers, shape memory alloys and chemical-responsive materials. Finally, we provide a critical outlook on the field of stimuli-responsive soft actuators, and emphasize the challenges in the process of their implementation to various industries.

Collecting and recording physiological parameters and forwarding this data via telemedicine or remote surveys may significantly increase the health and safety of people working under extreme environmental conditions, like firefighters, mountain rescuers, disaster control employees, military personnel, etc. First, ruggedized systems, as small, lightweight, and flexible as possible, are needed to optimize the goal of increasing occupational health and safety of persons at risk and maximizing their performance during missions. Previous systems could only record a very limited number of parameters, and a few could forward the data online to return information to the user. Therefore, in order to record several meaningful, valid, and reliable physiological parameters synchronized, an extension of existing systems is required. This review highlights this problem and gives an overview of the historical development. The actual status of the systems available was listed and described comparatively. In the end, a proven, promising, and innovative solution is presented that can solve the problem and allow people to work more safely in extreme environments, which may represent the future.

ICT and digital technology adoption, sustainable development, community empowerment and local wisdom and destinations uniqueness are keywords that will be further explored in the de-velopment of tourism villages in Kenderan as the most importance of tourism destinations de-velopment from the village level. Therefor this research is aimed at developing suitable model for post smart or wise tourism village through proposing Culture and Tradition Festival and the application of a circular economy. Circular economy development in tourism villages focuses on the application of sustainable production principles in the tourism value chain, namely in creating tourism experiences together with tourists (co-creation of experience) and integrated in a tourism system that supports environmental sustainability. This research is applied research conducted with a sequential mixed method research by conducting qualitative research through expert judgment and quantitative research by circulating questionnaire to tourists visiting Kenderan village, while the collected data is analyzed by Structural Equation Modelling to see the rela-tionship between variables. The results of this research show that creative event as the locality aspects of tourist village, digital competence, and sustainability practice are the building blocks of post smart tourism village, while digital competence and sustainable practice have significant mediating effect of locality on post smart tourism village. To make tourism village possesses sustainable competitive advantages, the village must explore and promote its locality aspects to differentiate its tourist village by identifying the valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable tourism resources. The implication of this research is that to develop smart tourism destination wiser and distinctive, tourist village should explore their local values and resources, embed them into its tourism basic components and core resources, and co create, distribute, deliver and promote it to global market through technology adoption and global sustainability value.

It is a critical issue to allocate redundancy to critical smart grid infrastructure for disaster recovery planning. In this study, we present a framework to combine statistical prediction methods and optimization models for the optimal redundancy allocation problem. First, we develop statistical simulation methods to identify critical nodes of very large-scale smart grid infrastructure based on the topological features of embedding networks, and then present a linear integer programming model based on generalized assignment problem (GAP) for redundancy allocation of critical nodes in smart grid infrastructure. The model is specifically implemented in the context of smart grid infrastructure. The findings demonstrate that the combined approach of statistical simulation and optimization effectively addresses the size limitations inherent in a sole optimization approach. Notably, the optimal solutions for redundancy allocation in very large grid systems highlight that the cost of redundancy is only a fraction of the economic losses incurred due to weather-related outages.

Remote distributed generation control and demand response is nowadays a basic need, especially for the Distributed Network Operators (DNOs). The integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) with stochastic production characteristics into the grid in conjunction with the newly appeared stochastic demand consumers (i.e., electric vehicles) hardens the ef-forts of the DNOs to keep the grid’s operation within safe limits and prevent cascading black-outs while staying in compliance with the SAIDI and SAIFI indices during maintenance and re-pair operations. Taking also under consideration the aging of the existing grid infrastructure, making it year by year more prone to failure, it is yet of great significance for the DNOs to have access to real-time feedback from grid’s infrastructure, fast, with low-cost upgrade interventions, easily deployed on the field and with fast response potential, in order to be able to perform real-time grid management (RTGM). In this article, we describe the architecture, development and deployment of a hybrid real-time control system of distributed generation (DG) units, which has the potential to be applied easily to DNO’s substations, RES plants and consumers (i.e. electric vehicles’ charging stations), that combines a low-cost minimum intervention into the electricity grid and its components and eliminates all communication interoperability problems between the different vendors’ installed electrical equipment.

According to ISO/TR 23383, smart textiles reversibly interact with their environment and respond or adapt to changes in the environment. The present review and bibliometric analysis was performed on 5,810 documents (1989–2022) from the Scopus database, using VOSviewer and Bibliometrix/Biblioshiny for science mapping. The results show that the field of smart textiles is highly interdisciplinary and dynamic, with an average growth rate of 22% and exponential growth in the last 10 years. Beeby, S.P., and Torah, R.N. have published the highest number of papers, while Wang, Z.L. has the highest number of citations. The leading journals are Sensors, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, and Textile Research Journal, while Advanced Materials has the highest number of citations. China is the country with the most publications and the most extensive cooperative relationships with other countries. Research on smart textiles is largely concerned with new materials and technologies, particularly in relation to electronic textiles. Recent research focuses on energy generation (triboelectric nanogenerators, thermoelectrics, Joule heating), conductive materials (MXenes, liquid metal, silver nanoparticles), sensors (strain sensors, self-powered sensors, gait analysis), specialty products (artificial muscles, soft robotics, EMI shielding), and advanced properties of smart textiles (self-powered, self-cleaning, washable, sustainable smart textiles).

This study focuses on the recently emerged Internet of Vehicles (IoV) concept to provide an integrated agricultural vehicle/machinery tracking system through two leading low power wide area network (LPWAN) technologies, namely LoRa and NB-IoT. The main aim is to investigate the theoretical coverage limits by considering the urban, suburban, and rural environments. Two vehicle tracking units (VTUs) have been designed for LoRa and NB-IoT connectivity technologies that can be used as reference hardware in coverage analysis. On this basis, the closed-form explicit analytical expressions of the maximum transmission range have been derived using the Hata path loss model. Besides, the computer simulation results have been validated via the maps from XIRIO online radio planning tool. In light of the obtained findings, several evaluations have been made to enhance the LPWAN-based agricultural vehicle tracking feasibility in smart farms.

With the rise of serious problems of urbanization and climate change, the call for intelligent and sustainable urban development is increasing nowadays. Therefore, smart cities have become a hot topic in academia, industry, and politics, resulting in the emergency of numerous smart city programs and projects. This study selected 26 evaluation frameworks proposed in recent years or large-scale research projects that have lasted for many years and analyzed and compared them from the 7 aspects of generalizability, comprehensiveness, availability, flexibility, scientific, transparency, and interpretability. The result indicates that the current smart city evaluation framework still needs to be upgraded and updated. These standards can not only guide the development direction and hotspot of the future smart city evaluation model but also serve as a guide for model demanders to test results and an effective tool to verify the framework designed by themselves.

According to the wide variety of internet of things (IoT) devices within smart environments, many challenges face conventional digital forensic investigation (DFI) in smart environments. Challenges in this environment include heterogeneity, distribution, and massive amounts of data, which exceed digital forensic (DF) investigators’ human capabilities to deal with all of these challenges within a short period of time. Furthermore, it significantly slows down or even incapacitates the conventional DFI process. With the increasing frequency of digital crimes, better and more sophisticated DFI procedures are desperately needed, particularly in such environments. Since machine learning (ML) techniques might be a viable option in certain situations, this paper presents the integration of ML into DF. It also explores the potential further use of ML techniques in DF in smart environments to reduce the hard work of human beings, as well what to expect from future ML applications to the conventional DFI process.

Smart Cities leverage technology to address various urban challenges and creating disaster resilience is one of them. Technology is a vast and ever-evolving field, and hence the research on technology for improving disaster resilience is scattered. A major drawback of prevailing studies is that they continue to overlook the bottlenecks to effectively harness the benefits of technological innovations and that includes the need for a holistic and multidisciplinary approach. Therefore, this research intends to address that need by methodising the scattered research to provide meaningful insights towards the linkages between society and technological innovations through an urban scholar’s perspective. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to explore emerging and disruptive technologies for improving disaster resilience in Smart Cities. The review findings identified the emerging and disruptive technologies for improving disaster resilience in Smart Cities which were then classified. The findings suggested 4 key criteria to classify technologies including their impact the society, adoption speed, technology maturity and capabilities offered to the community. A Smart City which plans the technologies/ tools for disaster resilience may conduct the assessments under the aforementioned criteria, together with their context-specific feasibility assessments to make informed decisions and ultimately prioritise the most suitable for them.

Programmable Object Interfaces are increasingly intriguing researchers because of their broader applications, especially in the medical field. In Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN), for example, the patients’ health can be monitored using clinical nano sensors. Exchanging such sensitive data requires a high level of security and protection against attacks. To that end, the literature is rich with security schemes that include the advanced encryption standard, secure hashing algorithm, and digital signatures that aim to secure the data exchange. However, such schemes elevate the time complexity rendering the data transmission slower. Cognitive Radio technology with a medical body area network system involves communication links between WBAN gateways, server and nano sensors rendering the entire system vulnerable to security attacks. In this paper, a novel DNA-based encryption technique is proposed to secure medical data sharing between sensing devices and central repositories. It has less computational time throughout authentication, encryption, and decryption. Our analysis of experimental attack scenarios shows that our technique is better than its counterparts.

The Internet of Things (IoT) technology and devices constitute an exciting field in computer science that is rapidly emerging worldwide. IoT devices function by connecting real-world objects to the internet, resulting in a higher number of interconnected devices than ever witnessed in history. Through internet connectivity, these devices can be utilized in various ways, such as monitoring and tracking. Their prevalence is increasing exponentially, coinciding with advancements in wireless networking technologies. The internet’s enhanced connectivity has played a vital role in fostering the proliferation of IoT devices. Presently, almost any everyday object can be network-connected. The demand for automation and efficiency has also been a contributing factor to the advancements in this technology. This paper aims to review the emergence of IoT devices, analyze their common applications, and explore the future prospects in this promising field of computer science. The examined applications encompass healthcare, agriculture, and smart cities. Although IoT technology exhibits similar deployment trends, this paper will explore different fields to discern the subtle nuances that exist among them. IoT technology can be applied to nearly any domain, and each use case has unique requirements. To comprehend the future of IoT, it is essential to comprehend the driving forces behind its advancements in various industries. By gaining a better understanding of the emergence of IoT devices, readers will develop insights into the factors that have propelled their growth and the conditions that led to technological advancements. Moreover, a comprehensive understanding of the prevalent methodologies will enable readers to distinguish between current practices and future methods. Given the rapid rate at which IoT technology is advancing, this paper aims to provide researchers with an understanding of the factors that have brought us to this point and the ongoing efforts to shape the future of IoT.

Nanomaterials such as pH-responsive polymers are promising for targeted drug delivery systems, due to the difference in pH between tumor and healthy regions. However, there is a significant concern about the application of these materials in this field due to their low mechanical resistance, which can be mitigated by combining these polymers with mechanically resistant inorganic materials such as mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) and hydroxyapatite (HA). Mesoporous silica has interesting properties such as high surface area and hydroxyapatite has been widely studied to aid in bone regeneration, providing special properties adding multifunctionality to the system. Furthermore, fields of medicine involving luminescent elements such as rare earth are an interesting option in cancer treatment. The present work aims to obtain a pH-sensitive hybrid system based on silica and hydroxyapatite with photoluminescent and magnetic properties. The nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), nitrogen adsorption methods, CHN elemental analysis, Zeta Potential, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), vibrational sample magnetometry (VSM), and photoluminescence analysis. Incorporation and release studies of the antitumor drug doxorubicin were performed to evaluate the potential use of these systems in targeted drug delivery. The results showed the luminescent and magnetic properties of the materials and showed suitable characteristics for application in the release of pH-sensitive drugs.

Smart local energy systems (SLES) have been promoted in policy as a solution to decarbonisation challenges which also bring wider benefits, such as community prosperity and energy affordability. But the combination of conditions required to enable their successful emergence and operation are still to be elaborated. This paper reports on the development of a Theory of Change (ToC) for the “societal project” of emergence of SLES with benefits. ToC is a process of making explicit the causal links by which activities lead to outcomes, surfacing assumptions, and recognising possible unintended consequences. We describe the ToC development process, involving consultation and collaboration across a research consortium. It consists of layers (e.g. users, skills, data and digital), and shows conditions considered necessary to deliver SLES, and for these to deliver wider benefits. It also provides interactive links to evidence emerging from the consortium, as well as policy/governance conditions and metrics. We reflect on potential uses of the ToC – internally to the consortium and externally – along with challenges we encountered in pursuing this approach. Policy implications relate to the importance of enabling conditions across multiple sectors, the absence of any of which could inhibit delivery of either SLES or their ensuing benefits.

Hospital Pulau Pinang is the general hospital in Malaysia which targeting energy savings of 10% within five years from 2015 and other sustainability targets such as 3-star Energy Management Gold Standard and Green Building Certification. The targets are beneficial for the hospital itself to establish the Smart Building Program to improve its energy efficiency concurrent with the green policy of the Ministry of Health Malaysia and Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations. This paper reviews the background of Hospital Pulau Pinang energy data , energy consumption trending, energy-saving trending, and energy conservation measures taken for the hospital from 2015 to December 2021.The yearly energy consumption baseline taken in 2016 was 27,496,731.00 kWh. It reduced significantly to 21,356,063 kWh in 2021 due to energy conservation measures. As a result, Hospital Pulau Pinang has achieved energy-saving about 16% at approximately RM7.3 million reduction in operational expenditure. The main objective of this paper is to provide further potential energy savings by studying the energy reduction by implementing solar photovoltaics using the simulation method. The simulation method can predict that Hospital Pulau Pinang can achieve another 5,130,000 kWh energy savings annually. This type of simulation has never been done before at a public hospital, and it will give further enhancing strategies to the Smart Building Program itself. Furthermore, the potential of smart building can be maximized to the next level by simulation, which helps the hospital energy committee make the potential decision on the energy-saving investment.

During the Covid-19 pandemic in Taiwan, analytical tools of PEST (political, economic, social-cultural, and technological), SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, threat), nine building blocks of a business model canvas, and knowledge management were combined to develop a theoretical framework, and used to assess business, smart and sustainable management of two case companies: Tung Sheng Company Limited and its subsidiary, Strong Basic Enterprise Limited. A heuristic inquiry research design was adopted. In addition to secondary data from the two case companies, major top managers were interviewed to reveal constructive questions about the existing business models and to re-interpret strategy. The results showed that case companies own capabilities of R & D (research and development) as a foundation to further apply new smart ICT (information and communication technology) and execute green manufacturing. Additionally, strong key partnerships are used to diversify business investment for leveraging on limited resources given current insufficient qualified employees. Resilient practices adopted new and green technology to help mitigate the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. This study provides a useful framework and practical information about how to examine business models, smart and sustainable management processes of the two case companies and to make adjustments in strategies for the future.

Brinjal is a beautiful vegetable crop with strong nutritional properties specifically folate concentration and total chlorogenic acid content. These vitamins and minerals are very much effective in building up the immune system, whilst chlorogenic acid content protects the human body against heart illnesses, liver issues and diabetes. The quantity of these chemicals changes from cultivar to cultivar largely based upon the location of growth and changing environmental circumstances. Many plant breeding strategies are used to alleviate the losses but have proved to be less successful. Whereas the use of molecular markers and other biotechnology technologies have created a road for creating climate smart brinjal with maximum yields and nutritious contents.

A position sensing glove, called SmartScan, that creates a 3D virtual model of a real object is presented. The data from the glove is processed by a volume minimization algorithm to validate the position sensor data. This allows only data from the object’s surface to be retained. The data validation algorithm allows the user to progressively improve an image by repeatedly moving their hand over the object. In addition, the user can choose their own balance between feature resolution and invalid data rejection. The SmartScan glove is tested on a foot model and is shown to be robust against motion artifacts, and has a mean accuracy of 2.9 mm (compared to a 3D model generated from optical imaging) without calibration.

One of the main drivers behind the urbanization process is attributed to economic fundamentals of urban growth, which boost migration from rural to urban context. This migration can be studied geographically, with increasing rates of population as the main component in developing countries, over Asia and Africa, specifically. Research has been focusing in creating models and adaptative schemes to manage and plan cities to promote sustainable development for housing large quantities of population and preserve a long-term living environment. The approach from a smart city perspective, adjusted to the rapid urbanization condition can be helpful to deal urban issues by convergence and interaction between urban agents and information technology. At academia, few works have addressed the role of Smart Cities to face the challenge of rapid urbanization. The aim of this study is to research and analyze if strategies with smart city vision can lessen environmental impacts at cases with rapid urbanization, and how can we leverage technology to promote environmental sustainability at rapid urbanization phenomena occurring at developing countries using RIAM environmental assessment method in the case of Beijing, China'.

The booming wearable market and recent advances in material science has led to the rapid development of the various wearable sensors, actuators, and devices that can be worn, embedded in fabric or accessories, or tattoos directly onto the skin. Wearable actuators, a subcategory of wearable technology, have attracted enormous interest from researchers in various disciplines and many wearable actuators and devices have been developed in the past few decades to assist and improve people's everyday lives. In this paper, we review the actuation mechanisms, structures, applications, and limitations of recently developed wearable actuators including pneumatic and hydraulic actuators, shape memory alloys and polymers, thermal and hygroscopic materials, dielectric elastomers, ionic and conducting polymers, piezoelectric actuators, electromagnetic actuators, liquid crystal elastomers, etc. Examples of the recent applications such as wearable soft robots, haptic devices, and personal thermal regulation textiles are highlighted. Finally, we point out the current bottleneck and suggest the prospective future research directions for wearable actuators.

Air pollution contributes to a critical environmental problem in various towns and cities. With the emergence of the smart cities concept, appropriate methods to curb associated with exposure to pollutants must have been a portion of appropriate urban development policy. This study presents a technologically driven air quality solution in smart cities to advertise energy-efficient and cleaner sequestration in these areas. It aims to address the issue of how to integrate the data-based strategies and artificial intelligence into efficient public sector pollution management in smart cities as a core part of the smart city definition. Exploratory research has been used in 152 smart cities, and environmental experts contributed to this study. It further addresses the technical criteria for implementing such a framework that the public administration uses to prepare the renovation of public buildings, minimize energy use and costs, and link these smart police stations to monitor air pollution as a part of integrated cities. Such a digital transition in resource management will increase public governance's energy performance, a higher standard of operation, and a healthier environment.

Concerns of food and environmental security have increased enormously in recent years due to the vagaries of climate change and variability. Efforts to promote food security and environmental sustainability often reinforce each other and enable farmers to adapt to and mitigate the impact of climate change and other stresses. Some of these efforts are based on appropriate technologies and practices that restore natural ecosystems and improve the resilience of farming systems, thus enhancing food security. Climate smart agriculture (CSA) principles, for example, translate into a number of locally-devised and applied practices that work simultaneously through contextualised crop-soil-water-nutrient-pest-ecosystem management at a variety of scales. The purpose of this paper is to review concisely the current state-of-the-art literature and ascertain the potential of the Pfumvudza concept to enhance household food security, climate change mitigation and adaptation as it is promoted in Zimbabwe. The study relied heavily on data from print and electronic media. Datasets pertaining to carbon, nitrous oxide and methane storage in soils and crop yield under zero tillage and conventional tillage were compiled. Findings show that, compared to conventional farming, Pfumvudza has great potential to contribute towards household food security and reducing carbon emissions if implemented following the stipulated recommendations. These include among others, adequate land preparation and timely planting and acquiring inputs. However, nitrous oxide emissions tend to increase with reduced tillage and, the use of artificial fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides is environmentally unfriendly.

Research has shown the multitude of applications that IoT, cloud computing and forecast technologies present in every sector. In agriculture, one application is the monitoring of factors that influence crop development to assist in making crop management decisions. Research on the application of such technologies in agriculture has been mainly conducted at small experimental sites or under controlled conditions. This research has provided relevant insights and guidelines for the use of different types of sensors, application of a multitude of algorithms to forecast relevant parameters as well as architectural approaches of IoT platforms. However, research on the implementation of IoT platforms at the commercial scale is needed to identify platform requirements to properly function under such conditions. This article evaluates an IoT platform (IRRISENS) based on fully replicable microservices used to sense soil, crop and atmosphere parameters, interact with third party cloud services, planning and scheduling irrigation as well as control of irrigation water control devices. The proposed IoT platform was evaluated during one growing season at four commercial scale farms on two different broadacre irrigated crops with very different water management requirements (rice and cotton). Five main requirements for IoT platforms to be used in agriculture at commercial scale were identified from implementing IRRISENS in rice and cotton production: scalability, flexibility, heterogeneity, robustness to failure and security. The platform addressed all these requirements. The results showed that the microservice approach followed in the platform is robust against both intermittent and critical failures in the field that could occur in any of the monitored sites. Further, processing or storage overload caused for any reason at one farm did not affect the performance of the platform regarding the other monitored farms. This paper also discusses how the microservice approach can address the data heterogeneity issue when crops with different management requirements are monitored. Since there are no shared microservices among farms, the IoT platform proposed here also provides data isolation maintaining data confidentiality for each user, which is relevant in a commercial farm scenario.

In this study pH, temperature of the contents of the forestomach of cows and cow activity were measured using specific smaXtec boluses manufactured for animal care. Rumination time, body weight, milk yield, milk fat/protein ratio, milk lactose, milk somatic cell count, milk electrical conductivity and conception of concentrates were registered with the help of Lely Astronaut® A3 milking robots. The following parameters were obtained: base excess in blood, partial carbon dioxide pressure, partial oxygen pressure, bicarbonate, hydrogen potential, total carbon dioxide carbon, base excess in extracellular fluid, sodium, calcium, potassium, packed cell volume, chlorides, hemoglobin concentration and lactate. According to the concentration of lactose in milk, cows were grouped into two groups: group 1 - milk lactose <4.70% (n = 20), group 2 - milk lactose ≥ 4.70% (n = 15). Data of cows were also divided by milk fat and protein ratio: F/P<1.2 (class 1), F/P=1.2 (class 2) and F/P>1.2 (class 3). According our results we can conclude that inline registered milk lactose concentration can be used as indicator for the health status of fresh dairy cows. Cows with higher lactose concentration (≥ 4.70%) developed more activity (54.47%) and had less risk of mastitis (lover milk EC, and SCC) and metabolic disorders according to F/P. Cows with higher lactose concentration showed higher glucose concentrations. Low level of lactose can be used as indicator of mastitis (milk SCC ≥ 100 thousand/ml) and metabolic disorders according to F/P.

Climate change and food security are the most relevant issues to be considered in sustainable agricultural development. The FAO’s initiative of climate-smart agriculture has attracted international attention. Since then, the smart agriculture (SA) has been recognized as the most influential trends in contributing to agricultural development. Therefore, encouraging farmers to adopt digital technologies and mobile devices into farming practices becomes a policy priority worldwide. However, there is limited literature available on psychologic factors that drive farmers’ intentions to adopt SA technologies. The purpose of this study is to investigate how farmer’s knowledge and attitude toward SA affects their adoption of smart technologies in Taiwan. A total of 321 farmers participated in the project’s survey in 2017 and 2018, from which the data was used to perform an OLS regression model of SA adoption. This study contributes to a preliminary understanding of relationship between innovation and adoption of SA technologies in a small-scale farming economic context. The findings suggest that the policy makers and R&D institutes need to concentrate on improving market access for well-known and high important SA technologies.

Wearable computing is a fast evolving segment of computing that includes smart watches, head mounted wearables such as Magic Leap headsets, Microsoft Hololens, and VR goggles from various vendors. In this report, we present ideas for a smart wearable device that also doubles as a virus protection device. Instead of using the filtering approach that is predominantly used by virus protection equipments such as face masks, we propose to use a computational approach where the device maintains an awareness of the real-time virus spread and use that information to steer the wearer away from the virus. As the wearable has a head enclosing design, viral infection can only happen through the air that is inhaled by the wearer. The objective of the smart wearable is to maintain a repository for clean air and switch the operating modes between stored and fresh air modes depending on the environmental conditions. It can augment this basic operating procedure by recycling the exhaled air to maximize it operating capacity (i.e., time duration for which it could supply the wearer with safe air) and by cleaning the stored air using UVC to further reduces the chance of infection. To maintain an awareness of the virus spread in the environment, the smart wearable will rely on an edge computing framework that will be distributed to cover areas frequented by people. The smart wearable will have modular design so that it can be reconfigured to add or subtract functionality that the wearer wants for a particular situation so that the design remains relevant even after the virus threat recedes.

Buildings have started to play a critical role in the stability and resilience of modern smart grids, leading to a refocusing of large scale energy management strategies from the supply side to the consumer side. When the buildings integrate local renewable energy generation in the form of renewable energy resources they become prosumers and this reflects into additional complexity into the operation of the interconnected complex energy systems. A class of methods of modelling the energy consumption patterns of the building have recently emerged as black-box input-output approaches with the ability to capture underlying consumption trends. These make use and require large quantities of quality data produces by non-deterministic processes underlying the energy consumption. We present an application of a class of neural networks, namely deep learning techniques for time series sequence modelling with the goal of accurate and reliable building energy load forecasting. The Recurrent Neural Network implementation uses Long Short-Term Memory layers in increasing density of nodes to quantify prediction accuracy. The case study is illustrated on four university buildings from temperate climates over one year of operation using a reference benchmarking dataset that allows replicable results. The obtained results are discussed in terms of accuracy metrics and computational and network architecture aspects and are considered suitable for further used in future in situ energy management at the building and neighbourhood levels.

The UK food industry faces significant challenges to remain sustainable. With major challenges such as Brexit on the horizon, companies can no longer rely on a low labour cost workforce to maintain low production costs and achieve economic sustainability. Smart Systems (SS) is being seen as an approach towards achieving significant improvements in both economic and environmental sustainability. However, there is little evidence to indicate whether UK food companies are prepared for the implementation of such systems. The purpose of this research is to explore the applicability of Smart Systems in UK food manufacturing companies and, to identify the key priority areas and improvement levers for the implementation of such systems. A triangulated primary research approach is adopted and includes a questionnaire, follow up interviews and visits to thirty-two food manufacturing companies in the UK. The questionnaire and interviews are guided by the development of a unique measuring instrument created by the authors that is focusses upon SS technologies and systems. This paper makes an original contribution in that it is one of few academic studies to explore the implementation of SS in the industry and, provides a new perspective on the key drivers and inhibitors around its implementation. Findings suggest that the current turbulence in the industry could be bringing food companies closer to the adoption of such systems, hence it is a good time to define and develop the optimum SS implementation strategy.

The introduction of innovative digital tools for supporting manufacturing processes has far-reaching effects on an organizational and an individual level due to the development of Industry 4.0. The FACTS4WORKERS project funded by H2020, i.e. Worker-Centric Workplaces in Smart Factories, aims to develop user-centered assistance systems in order to demonstrate their impact and applicability at the shop floor. To do so it is important to understand how to develop such tools and how to assess if advantages can be derived from the created ICT system. This study introduces the technology of a workplace solution that is linked to a specific industrial challenge. Subsequently, a 2-stepped approach to evaluate the presented system is discussed. Heuristics, which are an output of project “Heuristics for Industry 4.0”, are used to test if the developed solution covers critical aspects of socio-technical system design. Insights into the design, development and holistic evaluation of digital tools at the shop floor should be shown.

Indonesia is among the countries developing the concept of smart city. The national government envisions Indonesia 2030 which shall implement the smart city towards sustainable development. Many regions in Indonesia have already implemented the concept of smart city, but still on the level of smart government and smart technology, lacking on the smart citizen component of a smart city. This paper aims to analyze the citizens behavior of using technology on Sleman smart citizen 2021 through the lapor sleman mobile application. This research uses mixed method of quantitative and qualitative approaches in examining the data. The authors distributed 100 questionares and conducted interviews to the government which is department of communication and information, Sleman and the several community that ever use the lapor sleman application. The result of the study reveals the following: firstly, performance expectancy, social influence, and behavioral intention are three independent variables which affect the users’ behavior. Secondly, the behavioral intention has the biggest significant effect on users’ behavior. Thirdly, the citizen behavior of using technology has affect the making a smart citizen. Therefore, using technology in term of lapor sleman mobile application can make the citizens as active participants in public life, in terms of social cooperation, freedom of expression and flexibility. However, there are still many problems in the use of lapor sleman mobile application such as the limited access to only android smartphones, lack of technical know-how, and people’s reluctance to use the lapor sleman mobile application.

Thermal infrared imagery provides temperature information on target objects, and has been widely applied in non-destructive testing. However, thermal infrared imagery is not always able to display detailed textures of inspected objects, which hampers the understanding of geometric entities consisting of temperature information. Although some commercial software has been developed for 3D thermal model displays, the software requires the use of expensive specific thermal infrared sensors. This study proposes a cost-effective method for 3D thermal model reconstruction based on image-based modeling. Two smart phones and a low-cost thermal infrared camera are employed to acquire visible images and thermal images, respectively, that are fused for 3D thermal model reconstruction. The experiment results demonstrate that the proposed method is able to effectively reconstruct a 3D thermal model which extremely approximates its corresponding entity. The total computation time for the 3D thermal model reconstruction is intensive while generating dense points required for the creation of a geometric entity. Future work will improve the efficiency of the proposed method in order to expand its potential applications to in-time monitoring.

This paper examines an important problem in smart grid energy scheduling; peaks in power demand are proportionally more expensive to generate and provision for. The issue is exacerbated in local microgrids that do not benefit from the aggregate smoothing experienced by large grids. Demand-side scheduling can reduce these peaks by taking advantage of the fact that there is often flexibility in job start times. We focus attention on the case where the jobs are non-preemptible, meaning once started, they run to completion. The associated optimization problem is called the Peak Demand Minimization problem and has been previously shown to be NP-hard. Our results include an optimal fixed-parameter tractable algorithm, a polynomial-time approximation algorithm, as well as an effective heuristic that can also be used in an online setting of the problem. Simulation results show these methods can reduce peak demand by up to 50% versus on-demand scheduling for household power jobs.

In Data Science we are concerned with the integration of relevant sciences in observed and empirical contexts. This results in the unification of analytical methodologies, and of observed and empirical data contexts. Given the dynamic nature of convergence, described are the origins and many evolutions of the Data Science theme. The following are covered in this article: the rapidly growing post-graduate university course provisioning for Data Science; a preliminary study of employability requirements, and how past eminent work in the social sciences and other areas, certainly mathematics, can be of immediate and direct relevance and benefit for innovative methodology, and for facing and addressing the ethical aspect of Big Data analytics, relating to data aggregation and scale effects. Associated also with Data Science is how direct and indirect outcomes and consequences of Data Science include decision support and policy making, and both qualitative as well as quantitative outcomes. For such reasons, the importance is noted of how Data Science builds collaboratively on other domains, potentially with innovative methodologies and practice. Further sections point towards some of the most major current research issues.

The overarching vision of Society 5.0 seeks to integrate technology to enhance the quality of life and address social issues, with the primary goal of creating human-centered communities, which nowadays represent the inhabitants of Smart Cities. In this context, this work addresses the design of a modular strategic platform for the smart supervision of public expenditure, to be used by the Directorate of Information, Analysis, and Immediate Reaction (DIARI) of the General Comptroller of the Republic (CGR) of Colombia as a significant contribution towards the country’s transition into the Society 5.0. The design was performed by conducting a detailed literature review on fiscal control; a comprehensive analysis of the legal, organizational, and technological aspects of the country and the CGR; and developing six functional modules focused on topics such as continuous learning, strategic decision-making, distinctive value, strategic achievements, capacity building, and organization, within a three-year implementation plan, through a participatory approach. This plan aims to integrate the platform to enable real-time monitoring, early detection of irregularities, and increased transparency in the management of data and public resources. The strategic platform for the DIARI of the CGR is useful for Smart Cities and the transition into Society 5.0 since it ensures efficient public expenditure management, enhancing transparency and citizen empowerment through modern technologies, data analytics, and active participation in governance processes.

This paper presents the development of a prescriptive digital twin model designed to optimize building environments by leveraging advanced smart technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things. The study identifies critical factors affecting user activities, including lighting, HVAC, indoor air quality, and acoustics, and incorporates these into the model to enhance user productivity and comfort in workspaces. Our findings demonstrate that the integration of smart technologies can significantly improve workspace efficiency and user satisfaction, providing actionable insights for future implementations. This study not only highlights the potential benefits of prescriptive digital twins in smart buildings but also emphasizes the importance of comprehensive data gathering and analysis from various sources to support further research. Ultimately, our work offers valuable contributions to the field of building management and underscores the need for continued exploration of digital twin technologies.

This paper addresses challenges and solutions in urban development and infrastructure resilience, particularly in the context of Japan's rapidly urbanizing landscape. It explores the integration of smart city concepts to combat land subsidence and liquefaction, phenomena highlighted by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Using advanced technologies such as smart sensing and predictive analytics through kriging and ensemble learning, the study aims to improve the accuracy of geotechnical investigations and urban planning. By analyzing data from 433 geotechnical surveys in Setagaya, Tokyo, it develops predictive models to accurately determine the depth of bearing layers critical to urban infrastructure. The results demonstrate the superiority of ensemble learning in predicting the depth of bearing layers, with significant implications for smart city development and the sustainability of urban environments. This interdisciplinary approach not only seeks to mitigate risks associated with geological disturbances, but also promotes sustainable urban growth that prioritizes safety and prosperity. Through advanced technology and comprehensive research, the study underscores the potential of smart cities to address urban complexities and ensure a resilient, sustainable future.

In an agricultural system, finding suitable watering, pesticide, and soil content to provide the right nutrients for the right plant is a mystery so far. Plants cannot speak and cannot ask which food they require. These problems can be addressed by applying intelligent (fuzzy logic) controllers to IoT devices in order to enhance communication between crops, ground mobile robots, aerial robots, and the entire farm system. The application of fuzzy logic in agriculture is a promising technology that can be used to optimize crop yields and reduce water usage. It was developed based on language and the air properties in the agricultural fields were formulated. The entire system was simulated in the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment with Cisco Packet Tracer integration. The inputs for the system were soil moisture sensors, temperature sensors, humidity sensors, and outputs were pump flow, valve opening, water level, and moisture in sounding. The obtained results were the output of opening valve, moisture in sound, pump flow rate, outflows, water level, and ADH values, which are 10.00000013 rad/sec, 34.72%, 4.494%, 0.025 m^3/sec, 73.31 cm^3, and 750 values respectively. The outflow rate increase indicates that the water is released from the tanks, and the control signal fluctuates, indicating that the valve is opening.

This study aims to determine the Antecedent of employee engagement among police officers in Tanjung Perak Police Station. The approach used in this research is quantitative with survey and correlation methods. The sampling technique used is purposive sampling which obtained by respondents as many as 146 employees of Police officers in Tanjung Perak Police Station which include all the population. The data analysis technique used in this research is descriptive statistics and inferential statistical analysis. Inferential statistical analysis using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach using Smart PLS application. Furthermore, the measurement of the model (outer model). The test findings suggest that internal and external job transitions improve capital mobility. Movement capital boosts internal employability. Movement capital boosts external employability. Employee engagement and participation are negatively impacted by perceived external employability.

Sustainable agriculture has become increasingly important in Tunisia due to the drought that has been affecting the country's climate in recent years. This has become a major threat to the economy, making it necessary to explore alternative methods of agriculture that are more sustainable. Moreover, smart hydroponic cultivation based on renewable energies has become increasingly widespread, promoting the quality and efficiency of agricultural production despite weather parameters variations and global warming. This work aims to create a sustainable agriculture system in Tunisia through the design and implementation of a smart photovoltaic (PV) hydroponic greenhouse. The greenhouse will utilize advanced technology to optimize plant growth and reduce water usage, while also incorporating solar panels to generate renewable energy. The end goal is to create a self-sufficient and eco-friendly agricultural system that can provide fresh produce to local communities year-round. In this work, we are interested to the automation of the hydroponic greenhouse (HG)’s thermal conditioning system based on an asynchronous motor pump and powered by a PV generator. In the first stage, we analyzed the mathematical modeling of a stand-alone PV-HG system that consists of a PV generator, a three-phase inverter, an asynchronous motor pump, and a hydroponic system. After that, we developed a Field Oriented Control based on proportional integral (PI) regulators to adjust the rotation speed of the asynchronous motor pump, which aimed to provide the cooling and heating needs of the plant. The simulation results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed system . Additionally, we designed and implemented a smart system based on the internet of things (IoT) to enable remote control of internal and external parameters of the HG. This intelligent solution utilizes sensors, microcontrollers, and other devices and ensures the monitoring and the maintaining of the ideal growing conditions for our plants, guaranteeing that they receive the proper amount of temperature, humidity, and lighting. This type of system can be an invaluable tool for maximizing yields and achieving optimal results. With the right approach and attention to detail, we can create a sustainable and efficient growing environment that will help our plants flourish year-round.

Consumer IoT (CIoT) manufacturers seek customer feedback to enhance their products and services, creating a smart ecosystem like a smart home. Due to security and privacy concerns, Blockchain-based federated learning (BCFL) ecosystems can let CIoT manufacturers update their Machine Learning (ML) model using end-user data. FL uses privacy-preserving ML techniques to forecast customers' needs and consumption habits, and blockchain replaces the centralised aggregator to safeguard the ecosystem. However, Blockchain technology (BCT) struggles with scalability and quick ledger expansion. In BCFL, local model generation and secure aggregation are other issues. This research contributes a novel architecture emphasising Gateway Peer (GWP) in blockchain network to resolve scalability, ledger optimisation and secure model transmission issues. In the architecture we replace the centralised aggregator by the blockchain network, while GWP restricts the number of local transactions to execute in BCN. Considering the security and privacy of FL processes, we have added differential privacy and advanced normalisation techniques to ML processes. The approaches strengthen end-users' cyber security and encourage the adoption of technological innovation standards by service providers. The proposed approach has been tested extensively using a well-respected Stanford Cars dataset. We experimentally demonstrate that the proposed architecture makes the network scalable and optimises the ledger significantly. In addition, the normalisation technique outperforms batch normalisation when features are under DP protection.

The future of intelligent manufacturing machines involves autonomous selection of process parameters to maximize productivity while maintaining quality within specified constraints. To effectively optimize process parameters, these machines need to adapt to existing uncertainties in the physical system. This paper proposes a novel framework and methodology for feedrate optimization that is based on a physics-informed data-driven digital twin with quantified uncertainty. The servo dynamics are modeled using a digital twin, which incorporates the known uncertainty in the physics-based models and predicts the distribution of contour error using a data-driven model that learns the unknown uncertainty on-the-fly by sensor measurements. Using the quantified uncertainty, the proposed feedrate optimization maximizes productivity while maintaining quality under desired servo error constraints and stringency (i.e., the tolerance for constraint violation under uncertainty) using a model predictive control framework. Experimental results obtained using a 3-axis desktop CNC machine tool and a desktop 3D printer demonstrate significant cycle time reductions of up to 38% and 17% respectively, while staying close to the error tolerances compared to the existing methods.

This paper aims to analyze the intellectual structure and research fronts in application information security in smart cities to identify research boundaries, trends, and new opportunities in the area. It applies bibliometric analyses to identify the main authors and their influences on the information security and smart city area. Moreover, this analysis focuses on journals indexed in Scopus databases. The results indicate that there is an opportunity for further advances in the adoption of information security policies in government institutions. Moreover, the production indicators presented herein are useful for the planning and implementation of information security policies, and the knowledge of the scientific community about smart cities. The bibliometric analysis provides support for the visualization of the leading research technical collaboration networks among authors, co-authors, countries, and research areas. The methodology offers a broader view of the application information security in smarty city areas and makes it possible to assist new research that may contribute to further advances. The smart city topic has been receiving much attention in recent years, but to the best of our knowledge, there is no research on reporting new possibilities for advances. Therefore, this article may contribute to an emerging body of literature that explores the nature of application information security and smart city research productivity to assist researchers in better understanding the current emerging of the area.

Recently, there has been remarkable progress in the development of smart textiles, especially knitted strain sensors, to achieve reliable sensor signals. Stable and reliable electro-mechanical properties of sensors are essential for using textile-based sensors in medical applications. How-ever, challenges associated with significant hysteresis and low gauge factor (GF) values remain for using strain sensors for motion capture. To evaluate these issues, a comprehensive investiga-tion of the cyclic electro-mechanical properties of weft-knitted strain sensors was conducted in the present study to develop a drift-free elastic strain sensor with a robust sensor signal for mo-tion capture for medical devices. Several variables were considered in the study, including the variation of the basic knit pattern, the incorporation of the electrically conductive yarn, and the size of the strain sensor. The effectiveness and feasibility of the developed knitted strain sensors are demonstrated through experimental evaluation, by determining the gauge factor, its non-linearity, hysteresis and drift. The developed knitted piezoresistive strain sensors have a GF of 2.4, a calculated drift of 50 %, 12,5 % hysteresis, and 0.3 % nonlinearity in parts.

Development of agriculture in Russia and Belarus is based on the practical implementation of "smart" systems in agriculture based on the use of modern wireless, intelligent technologies and Internet of Things. This review presents research articles (mainly, in Russian) published in the period of 2013 – 2022 on the use of cloud technologies and Internet of Things for the development of agriculture in Russia and Belarus. An analysis of the use of cloud technologies and Internet of Things in the modern world is given on the basis of research articles and reviews published in English in the period of 2017 – 2022. The main directions of digitalization of modern agriculture are listed. The uses of cloud technologies and Internet of Things in agriculture are described along with promising directions for further research and applications.

This research investigates the potential benefits of integrating machine learning algorithms and IoT sensors in modern agriculture. The focus is on optimizing crop production and reducing waste through informed decisions about planting, watering, and harvesting crops. The paper discusses the current state of machine learning and IoT in agriculture, highlighting key challenges and opportunities. It also presents experimental results that demonstrate the impact of changing labels on the accuracy of data analysis algorithms. The findings recommend that by analyzing wide-ranging data collected from farms, including real-time data from IoT sensors, farmers can make more informed verdicts about factors that affect crop growth. Eventually, the integration of these technologies can transform modern agriculture by increasing crop yields while minimizing waste. In our studies, we achieve a classification accuracy of 99.59% using the Bayes Net algorithm and 99. 46% using Naïve Bayes Classifier, and Hoeffding Tree algorithms. Our results indicate that we achieved high accuracy results in our experiments in order to increase crop growth.

The use of intelligent sensor-based packaging in food products provide quick evaluation of the quaility of the food. This study was done to develop bio-based color sensor from surimi-based color sensor incorporated with sappan wood extract (SWE) for smart food packaging. The SWE with different concentration (0.15%, 0.25%, and 0.35%) was incorporated to the myofibrillar protein-based edible film. The sappan wood-surimi edible film (SSEF) was subjected to physical properties analysis and the color changes at different pH values and soaking time at different condition were evaluated. Based on the results, different concentration of the SWE significantly (p<0.05) affected the physical properties of the film. With the increasing of pH values, the darkness, redness, and blueness of the film was increased. Based on the evaluation of the SSEF with different soaking condition, the color changes of the film in acidic condition were more stable than in neutral and alkaline condition. The results from this study showed that SSEF have the possibilities to be used as a smart food packaging possessing the capabilities to act as color sensor due to its sensitivity to the changes in pH condition of the product.

Magneto-rheological dampers (MR-dampers) are increasingly used in construction applications to reduce the dynamic response of structures to seismic activities or severe wind loading. Sensors attached to the structure will signal the computer to supply the dampers with electric charge that transfers the MR fluid to a near-solid material with different physical and mechanical properties (viscoelastic behavior). Control algorithms govern the fluid to near-solid conversion, which controls the behavior of the damper, and the performance of the structure under the seismic or wind loading event. The successful optimization of control parameters minimize the overall structural response to dynamic forces. The main objective of this research is to change the output behavior of specific floors within a building subjected to seismic excitation by optimizing the MR-dampers control parameters to impact the behavior of a specific floor or number of floors within the building. The adjustment of control parameters to attain this objective was validated in multiple case studies throughout this research. The successful implementation of the research outcome will result in optimized MR-damper design to meet the performance-based criteria of building projects.

Transportation, environmental conditions, quality of human life within smart cities, and system infrastructure have all needed practical and dependable smart solutions as urbanization has accelerated in recent years. In addition, the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) provides access to a plethora of cutting-edge, all-encompassing apps for smart cities, all of which contribute significantly to lowering energy consumption and other negative environmental impacts. For smart cities to meet the challenge of using less energy, the authors of this research article suggest planning and implementing an integrated power and heat architecture that puts renewable energy infrastructure and energy-storage infrastructure at the top of the list. To address these issues, we describe a smart proposed NEOSRD architecture that uses a distributed smart area domain to optimize renewable demand energy in a smart city across a wide area network. The energy requirements of desalination procedures are negligible when compared to the total local energy consumption and transportation, a feat accomplished by the proposed NEOSRD system. Here, the computational model shows how the established system is a valuable response to our problems and a cost-effective strategy for creating smarter structural elements that cut down on overall smart cities' energy costs.