Applied System Innovation

This paper addresses the problem of controlling quadcopters operating in an environment characterized by unpredictable disturbances such as wind gusts. From a control point of view, this is a nonstandard, highly challenging problem. Fundamentally, these quadcopters are high-order dynamical systems characterized by an under-actuated and highly nonlinear model with coupling between several state variables. The main objective of this work is to achieve a trajectory by tracking desired altitude and attitude. The problem was tackled using a robust control approach with a multi-loop nonlinear controller combined with extended Kalman filtering (EKF). Specifically, the flight control system consists of two regulation loops. The first one is an outer loop based on the backstepping approach and allows for control of the elevation as well as the yaw of the quadcopter, while the second one is the inner loop, which allows the maintenance of the desired attitude by adjusting the roll and pitch, whose references are generated by the outer loop through a standard PID, to limit the 2D trajectory to a desired set path. The investigation integrates EKF technique for sensor signal processing to increase measurements accuracy, hence improving robustness of the flight. The proposed control system was formally developed and experimentally validated through indoor tests using the well-known Parrot Mambo unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The obtained results show that the proposed flight control system is efficient and robust, making it suitable for advanced UAV navigation in dynamic scenarios with disturbances. Full article

Naive Bayes (NB) classifiers are widely used for their simplicity, computational efficiency, and interpretability. However, their predictive performance can degrade significantly in real-world settings where the conditional independence assumption is often violated. More complex NB variants address this issue but typically introduce structural complexity or require explicit dependency modeling, limiting their scalability and transparency. This study proposes two lightweight ensemble-based extensions—randomized feature naive Bayes (RF-NB) and randomized feature bootstrapped naive Bayes (RFB-NB)—designed to enhance robustness and predictive stability without altering the underlying NB model. By integrating randomized feature selection and bootstrap resampling, these methods implicitly reduce feature dependence and noise-induced variance. Evaluation across twenty real-world datasets spanning medical, financial, and industrial domains demonstrates that RFB-NB consistently outperformed classical NB, RF-NB, and k-nearest neighbor in several cases. Although random forest achieved higher average accuracy overall, RFB-NB demonstrated comparable accuracy with notably lower variance and improved predictive stability specifically in datasets characterized by high noise levels, large dimensionality, or significant class imbalance. These findings underscore the practical and complementary advantages of RFB-NB in challenging classification scenarios. Full article

Phishing attacks continue to pose serious challenges to cybersecurity, with attackers constantly refining their methods to bypass detection systems. One particularly evasive technique is Zero-Font phishing, which involves the insertion of invisible or zero-sized characters into email content to deceive both users and traditional email filters. Because these characters are not visible to human readers but still processed by email systems, they can be used to evade detection by traditional email filters, obscuring malicious intent in ways that bypass basic content inspection. This study introduces a proactive phishing detection tool capable of identifying both traditional and Zero-Font phishing attempts. The proposed tool leverages a multi-layered security framework, combining structural inspection and machine learning-based classification to detect both traditional and Zero-Font phishing attempts. At its core, the system incorporates an advanced machine learning model trained on a well-established dataset comprising both phishing and legitimate emails. The model alone achieves an accuracy rate of up to 98.8%, contributing significantly to the overall effectiveness of the tool. This hybrid approach enhances the system’s robustness and detection accuracy across diverse phishing scenarios. The findings underscore the importance of multi-faceted detection mechanisms and contribute to the development of more resilient defenses in the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity threats. Full article

Privacy-preserving record linkage (PPRL) aims to link records from different data sources while ensuring sensitive information is not disclosed. Utilizing blockchain as a trusted third party is an effective strategy for enhancing transparency and auditability in PPRL. However, to ensure data privacy during computation, such approaches often require computationally intensive cryptographic techniques. This can introduce significant computational overhead, limiting the method’s efficiency and scalability. To address this performance bottleneck, we combine blockchain with the distributed computation of secret sharing to propose a PPRL method based on blockchain-coordinated distributed computation. At its core, the approach utilizes Bloom filters to encode data and employs Boolean and arithmetic secret sharing to decompose the data into secret shares, which are uploaded to the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). Combined with masking and random permutation mechanisms, it enhances privacy protection. Computing nodes perform similarity calculations locally, interacting with IPFS only a limited number of times, effectively reducing communication overhead. Furthermore, blockchain manages the entire computation process through smart contracts, ensuring transparency and correctness of the computation, achieving efficient and secure record linkage. Experimental results demonstrate that this method effectively safeguards data privacy while exhibiting high linkage quality and scalability. Full article

This study investigates the convergence of blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), near-field communication (NFC), and mobile technologies in electronic payment (e-payment) systems, proposing an innovative integrative framework to deconstruct the systemic innovations and transformative impacts driven by such technological synergy. Unlike prior research, which often focuses on single-technology adoption, this study uniquely adopts a cross-technology convergence perspective. To our knowledge, this is the first study to empirically map the multi-technology convergence landscape in e-payment using scientometric techniques. By employing bibliometric and thematic network analysis methods, the research maps the intellectual evolution and key research themes of technology convergence in e-payment systems. Findings reveal that while the integration of these technologies holds significant promise, improving transparency, scalability, and responsiveness, it also presents challenges, including interoperability barriers, privacy concerns, and regulatory complexity. Furthermore, this study highlights the potential for convergent technologies to unintentionally deepen the digital divide if not inclusively designed. The novelty of this study is threefold: (1) theoretical contribution—this study expands existing frameworks of technology adoption and digital governance by introducing an integrated perspective on cross-technology adoption and regulatory responsiveness; (2) practical relevance—it offers actionable, stakeholder-specific recommendations for policymakers, financial institutions, developers, and end-users; (3) methodological innovation—it leverages scientometric and topic modeling techniques to capture the macro-level trajectory of technology convergence, complementing traditional qualitative insights. In conclusion, this study advances the theoretical foundations of digital finance and provides forward-looking policy and managerial implications, paving the way for a more secure, inclusive, and innovation-driven digital payment ecosystem. Full article

This paper presents a novel deep learning-based automatic modulation recognition (AMR) model, designed to classify ten modulation types from complex I/Q signal data. The proposed architecture, named CV-CNN-TCN, integrates Complex-Valued Convolutional Neural Networks (CV-CNNs) with Temporal Convolutional Networks (TCNs) to jointly extract spatial and temporal features while preserving the inherent phase information of the signal. An enhanced variant, CV-CNN-TCN-DCC, incorporates dilated causal convolutions to further strengthen temporal representation. The models are trained and evaluated on the benchmark RadioML2016.10b dataset. At SNR = −10 dB, the CV-CNN-TCN achieves a classification accuracy of 37%, while the CV-CNN-TCN-DCC improves to 40%. In comparison, ResNet reaches 33%, and other models such as CLDNN (convolutional LSTM dense neural network) and SCRNN (Sequential Convolutional Recurrent Neural Network) remain below 30%. At 0 dB SNR, the CV-CNN-TCN-DCC achieves a Jaccard index of 0.58 and an MCC of 0.67, outperforming ResNet (0.55, 0.64) and CNN (0.53, 0.61). Furthermore, the CV-CNN-TCN-DCC achieves 75% accuracy at SNR = 10 dB and maintains over 90% classification accuracy for SNRs above 2 dB. These results demonstrate that the proposed architectures, particularly with dilated causal convolutional enhancements, significantly improve robustness and generalization under low-SNR conditions, outperforming state-of-the-art models in both accuracy and reliability. Full article

In modern manufacturing, ensuring quality control for geometric features is critical, yet detecting anomalies in circular components remains underexplored. This study proposes a real-time defect detection framework for metal parts with holes, optimized for deployment on a Raspberry Pi 5 edge device. We fine-tuned and evaluated three deep learning models ResNet50, EfficientNet-B3, and MobileNetV3-Large on a grayscale image dataset (43,482 samples) containing various hole defects and imbalances. Through extensive data augmentation and class-weighting, the models achieved near-perfect binary classification of defective vs. non-defective parts. Notably, ResNet50 attained 99.98% accuracy (precision 0.9994, recall 1.0000), correctly identifying all defects with only one false alarm. MobileNetV3-Large and EfficientNet-B3 likewise exceeded 99.9% accuracy, with slightly more false positives, but offered advantages in model size or interpretability. Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM) visualizations confirmed that each network focuses on meaningful geometric features (misaligned or irregular holes) when predicting defects, enhancing explainability. These results demonstrate that lightweight CNNs can reliably detect geometric deviations (e.g., mispositioned or missing holes) in real time. The proposed system significantly improves inline quality assurance by enabling timely, accurate, and interpretable defect detection on low-cost hardware, paving the way for smarter manufacturing inspection. Full article

In the rapid process of urbanization, urban agglomerations have become a key driving factor for regional development and spatial reorganization. The formation and development of urban agglomerations rely on communication between cities. However, the spatiotemporal characteristics of intercity travelers are not fully grasped throughout the entire trip chain. This study proposes a spatiotemporal analysis method for intercity travel in urban agglomerations by constructing origin-to-destination (OD) trip chains using smartphone data, with the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei urban agglomeration as a case study. The study employed Cramer’s V and Spearman correlation coefficients for multivariate feature selection, identifying 12 key variables from an initial set of 20. Then, optimal cluster configuration was determined via silhouette analysis. Finally, the K-prototypes algorithm was applied to cluster 161,797 intercity trip chains across six transportation corridors in 2019 and 2021, facilitating a comparative spatiotemporal analysis of travel patterns. Results show the following: (1) Intercity travelers are predominantly males aged 19–35, with significantly higher weekday volumes; (2) Modal split exhibits significant spatial heterogeneity—the metro predominates in Beijing while road transport prevails elsewhere; (3) Departure hubs’ waiting times increased significantly in 2021 relative to 2019 baselines; (4) Increased metro mileage correlates positively with extended intra-city travel distances. The results substantially contribute to transportation planning, particularly in optimizing multimodal hub operations and infrastructure investment allocation. Full article

This research evaluates the performance of six metaheuristic algorithms in the active and reactive power management of wind turbines (WTs) integrated into an AC microgrid (MG). The population-based genetic algorithm (PGA) is proposed as the primary optimization strategy and is rigorously compared against five benchmark techniques: Monte Carlo (MC), particle swarm optimization (PSO), the JAYA algorithm, the generalized normal distribution optimizer (GNDO), and the multiverse optimizer (MVO). This study aims to minimize, through independent optimization scenarios, the operating costs, power losses, or CO₂ emissions of the microgrid during both grid-connected and islanded modes. To achieve this, a coordinated control strategy for distributed generators is proposed, offering flexible adaptation to economic, technical, or environmental priorities while accounting for the variability of power generation and demand. The proposed optimization model includes active and reactive power constraints for both conventional generators and WTs, along with technical and regulatory limits imposed on the MG, such as current thresholds and nodal voltage boundaries. To validate the proposed strategy, two scenarios are considered: one involving 33 nodes and another one featuring 69. These configurations allow evaluation of the aforementioned optimization strategies under different energy conditions while incorporating the power generation and demand variability corresponding to a specific region of Colombia. The analysis covers two-time horizons (a representative day of operation and a full week) in order to capture both short-term and weekly fluctuations. The variability is modeled via an artificial neural network to forecast renewable generation and demand. Each optimization method undergoes a statistical evaluation based on multiple independent executions, allowing for a comprehensive assessment of its effectiveness in terms of solution quality, average performance, repeatability, and computation time. The proposed methodology exhibits the best performance for the three objectives, with excellent repeatability and computational efficiency across varying microgrid sizes and energy behavior scenarios. Full article

Microservice architecture (MSA) has garnered attention in various software communities because of its significant advantages. Organizations have also prioritized migrating their legacy systems to MSA, seeking to gather the intrinsic advantages of this architectural style. Despite the importance of this architectural style, there is a lack of comprehensive studies in the literature on the modernization of legacy systems to MSA. Thus, the principal objective of this article is to present a comprehensive overview of this research theme through a mixed-method investigation composed of a systematic mapping study based on 43 studies and an empirical evaluation by industry practitioners. From these, a taxonomy for the initiatives identified in the literature is established, along with the application domain for which such initiatives were designed, the methods used to evaluate these initiatives, the main quality attributes identified in our investigation, and the main activities employed in the design of such initiatives. As a result, this article delineates a process of modernization based on six macro-activities, designed to facilitate the transition from legacy systems to microservice-based ones. Finally, this article presents a discussion of the results based on the evidence gathered during our investigation, which may serve as a source of inspiration for the design of new initiatives to support software modernization. Full article

This paper presents a novel energy management system for AC microgrids that integrates a parallel implementation of the Multi-Verse Optimizer (MVO) with the Successive Approximations method for power flow analysis. The proposed approach optimally schedules battery energy storage systems (BESSs) in both grid-connected and islanded modes, aiming to minimize energy losses and reduce ${\mathrm{CO}}_2$ emissions. Numerical evaluations on a 33-node AC microgrid demonstrate significant improvements: in the grid-dependent mode, energy losses drop from 2484.57 kWh (base case) to 2374.85 kWh, and emissions fall from 9.8874 Ton(CO₂) to 9.8693 Ton(CO₂). Under the self-powered configuration, energy losses and emissions are curtailed from 2484.57 kWh to 2373.53 kWh and from 16.0659 Ton(CO₂) to 16.0364 Ton(CO₂), respectively. The results highlight that the proposed method outperforms existing metaheuristics in solution quality and consistency. This work advances microgrid scheduling by ensuring technical feasibility, reducing carbon footprint, and maintaining voltage stability under diverse operational conditions. Full article

Fully immersive engine room simulators are increasingly recognised as prominent tools in advancing maritime education and training. However, end-users’ acceptance of these innovative technologies remains insufficiently explored. To address this research gap, this case-specific pilot study applied the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to explore maritime engineering students’ intentions to adopt the newly introduced head-mounted display (HMD) virtual reality (VR) engine room simulator as a training tool. Sampling (N = 84) was conducted at the Faculty of Maritime Studies, University of Rijeka, during the initial simulator trials. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) revealed that perceived usefulness was the primary determinant of students’ behavioural intention to accept the simulator as a tool for training purposes, acting both as a direct predictor and as a mediating variable, transmitting the positive effect of perceived ease of use onto the intention. By providing preliminary empirical evidence on the key factors influencing maritime engineering students’ intentions to adopt HMD-VR simulation technologies within existing training programmes, this study’s findings might offer valuable insights to software developers and educators in shaping future simulator design and enhancing pedagogical practices in alignment with maritime education and training (MET) standards. Full article

Generative AI is an emerging tool in higher education; however, its connection with transversal competencies, as well as their sustainable adoption, remains underexplored. The study aims to analyze the scientific and conceptual development of generative artificial intelligence in higher education to identify the most relevant transversal competencies, strategic processes for its sustainable implementation, and global trends in academic production. A systematic literature review (PRISMA) was conducted on the Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed, analyzing 35 studies for narrative synthesis and 897 publications for bibliometric analysis. The transversal competencies identified were: Academic Integrity, Critical Thinking, Innovation, Ethics, Creativity, Communication, Collaboration, AI Literacy, Responsibility, Digital Literacy, AI Ethics, Autonomous Learning, Self-Regulation, Flexibility, and Leadership. The conceptual framework connotes the interdisciplinary nature and five key processes were identified to achieve the sustainable integration of Generative AI in higher education oriented to the development of transversal competencies: (1) critical and ethical appropriation, (2) institutional management of technological infrastructure, (3) faculty development, (4) curricular transformation, and (5) pedagogical innovation. On bibliometric behavior, scientific articles predominate, with few systematic reviews. China leads in publication volume, and social sciences are the most prominent area. It is concluded that generative artificial intelligence is key to the development of transversal competencies if it is adopted from a critical, ethical, and pedagogically intentional approach. Its implications and future projections in the field of higher education are discussed. Full article

The progressive advancements in education due to the advent of transformative technologies has led to the emergence of customized/personalized learning systems that dynamically adapts to an individual learner’s preferences in real-time mode. The learning route and style of every learner is unique and their understanding varies with the complexity of core components. This paper presents a hybrid approach that integrates generative adversarial networks (GANs), feedback-driven personalization, explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) to enhance knowledge component (KC) prediction and to improve learner outcomes as well as to attain progress in learning. By using these technologies, this proposed system addresses the challenges, namely, adapting educational content to an individual’s requirements, creating high-quality content based on a learner’s profile, and implementing transparency in decision-making. The proposed framework starts with a powerful feedback mechanism to capture both explicit and implicit signals from learners, including performance parameters viz., time spent on tasks, and satisfaction ratings. By analysing these signals, the system vigorously adapts to each learner’s needs and preferences, ensuring personalized and efficient learning. This hybrid model dynamic knowledge component prediction system (DKPS) exhibits a 35% refinement in content relevance and learner engagement, compared to the conventional methods. Using generative adversarial networks (GANs) for content creation, the time required to produce high-quality learning materials is reduced by 40%. The proposed technique has further scope for enhancement by incorporating multimedia content, such as videos and concept-based infographics, to give learners a more extensive understanding of concepts. Full article

Designing propulsion systems for agricultural drones involves a repetitive process that is both expensive and time-intensive. At the same time, conducting comprehensive experimental tests demands specialized equipment and strict safety protocols. In this work, the design and assessment of the propulsion system (propeller, motor, and battery) for large-sized drones in agricultural applications are conducted using numerical methods. To properly predict and validate the performance of a brushless direct current motor, a three half-bridge inverter circuit, featuring a trapezoidal commutation, is implemented and constructed. First, the propeller is studied using the finite volume method, obtaining a maximum variation of 6.32% for thrust and 10.1% for torque. Additionally, an electromagnetic analysis on a commercial brushless direct current motor (BLDC) using JMAG software from JSOL corporation (JMAG designer 23.2, Cd.Obregón, México) resulted in 4.43% deviation from experimental electrical measurements. The selected propulsion system is implemented in a 30 kg drone, where motor performance is evaluated for two instants of time in a typical agriculture trajectory. The findings demonstrate that numerical methods provide valuable insights in large-sized unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) design, decreasing the experimental tests conducted and accelerating implementation time. Full article

This paper presents the development and validation of a high-resolution photonic and wireless monitoring system for knee-referenced gait cycle analysis. The proposed system integrates a single optical Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensor with a resonance wavelength of 1547.76 nm and electronic modules with inertial and magnetic sensors, achieving a 10 p.m. wavelength resolution and 1° angular accuracy. The innovative combination of these components enables a direct correlation between wavelength variations and angular measurements without requiring goniometers or motion capture systems. The system’s practicality and versatility were demonstrated through tests with seven healthy individuals of varying physical attributes, showcasing consistent performance across different scenarios. The FBG sensor, embedded in a polymeric foil and attached to an elastic knee band, maintained full sensing capabilities while allowing easy placement on the knee. The wireless modules, positioned above and below the knee, accurately measured the angle formed by the femur and tibia during the gait cycle. The experimental prototype validated the system’s effectiveness in providing precise and reliable knee kinematics data for clinical and sports-related applications. Full article

This paper uses a nature-inspired optimization algorithm to discuss the automatic selection of control structure parameters. The commonly used quality indicators are presented and analyzed for the optimization process of the control system. Moreover, the possibilities of formulating objective functions for nature-inspired optimization algorithms that can be successfully used to solve multi-objective constrained optimization problems are presented. The proposed general methodology was presented and discussed in detail using an example, which is published in the open-source repository Mathwork FileExchange. Theoretical aspects are validated in the case studies for automatic tuning of the hysteresis and PI controller. Full article

Early detection of morbidities that complicate pregnancy improves health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. Automatic revision of electronic health records (EHRs) can help identify such morbidity risks. There is a lack of corpora to train models in Spanish in specific domains, and there are no models specialized in maternal EHRs. This study aims to develop a fine-tuned model that detects clinical concepts using a built database with text extracted from maternal EHRs in Spanish. We created a corpus with 13.998 annotations from 200 clinical notes in Spanish associated with EHRs obtained from a reference institution of high obstetric risk in Colombia. Using the Beginning–Inside–Outside tagging scheme, we fine-tuned five different transformer-based models to classify between 16 classes associated with eight entities. The best model achieved a macro F1 score of 0.55 ± 0.03. The entities with the best performance were signs, symptoms, and negations, with exact F1 scores of 0.714 and 0.726, respectively. The lower scores were associated with those classes with fewer observations. Even though our dataset is shorter in size and more diverse in entity types than other datasets in Spanish, our results are comparable to other state-of-the-art named entity recognition models fine-tuned in Spanish and the biomedical domain. This work introduces the first fine-tuning of a model for named entity recognition specifically designed for maternal EHRs. Our results can be used as a base to develop new models to extract concepts in the maternal–fetal domains and help healthcare providers detect morbidities that complicate pregnancy early. Full article

Innovation-driven development is the main driving strategy for promoting high-quality economic development. Technological innovation is the core of innovation-driven development. Financial innovation is an important aspect of promoting financial development. As such, the coupling and coordination of the technological innovation and financial development in developing countries, such as China, is an important issue. The topic has been extensively studied over the last decade in the context of China, and a dominating method has emerged on how to model the technological innovation subsystem and the financial development subsystem, and how to quantitatively determine the degree of coupling and coordination of the two subsystems. A variety of predictors have been proposed to model each subsystem. The coupling degree and the coordination degree are then calculated, and then they are used to analyze the current development status for potential issues. However, we make an effort to validate the calculated degree of coupling and coordination before the results are used for the analysis.Without validation, the outcomes of the analysis not only might not be useful but also could lead to inappropriate governmental policies. That said, it is tremendously challenging to validate the results due to the lack of the ground truth. The goal of this study is to work towards objectively determining the reliability of the degree of coupling and coordination from an engineering perspective. Specifically, we accomplish this task by evaluating the regression performance and projection performance. We demonstrate that the use of a carefully crafted set of predictors for each subsystem is the foundation for deriving the reliable coordination degree of the two subsystems. Full article