Search Results (126)

Multi-omnidirectional mobile robot formations offer significant advantages for applications in unstructured environments. However, under constraints such as limited field of view and high operator cognitive load, existing teleoperation frameworks struggle to guarantee formation safety and stability. In this study, a bilateral shared control framework for multi-robot formation that integrates intent perception and vortex-field modulation is proposed. First, an Intent-Mediated Asymmetric Vortex Modulation (IM-AVM) strategy is developed, where the operator’s micro-intentions are mapped to determine the topological orientation of a vortex field. By constructing a dynamic asymmetric modulation matrix, saddle points in the potential field are geometrically eliminated, enabling deadlock-free obstacle avoidance while maintaining a rigid formation. Second, a multi-dimensional perception-based dynamic authority arbitration and topological deadlock escape mechanism is constructed, facilitating a seamless transition from assisted deadlock to autonomous escape. Finally, a formation coordination system based on anisotropic flow field modulation and adaptive sliding mode control is designed. Rigid formation constraints are transformed into a tangential safe flow field, and robust tracking is subsequently achieved through an Adaptive Nonsingular Fast Terminal Sliding Mode Controller (ANFTSMC). Theoretical analysis and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed framework achieves collision-free navigation for the formation in simulated environments. Full article

Background: Despite the general interest in WPV against healthcare workers, there is evidence that this topic has comparatively fewer studies conducted in the context of community settings than in hospital settings. Given the current general transition of care from hospital to community, this study aims to analyze whether community settings present different characteristics in comparison with hospital settings on this topic in Italy. Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted from 2020 to 2024 on aggressions reported by HCWs in hospitals and community settings belonging to a Local Health Authority of Turin in Piedmont. For physical and non-physical aggressions, a monthly time trend series was constructed. A Mantel–Haenszel fixed-effect meta-analysis was performed to obtain the odds ratio (OR) in two settings. Variables relative to aggressions included the gender of victims, their professional category (medical doctors, nurses, other HCWs), the type and gender of perpetrators (relative, patient, or unknown person), age groups of perpetrators (under 30, 30–49, ≥50), the nature of aggression (physical, non-physical), recidivism, involvement of law enforcement, and time of occurrence (morning, afternoon, or evening/night). Events within hospitals were further classified into emergency department, psychiatric ward, and other wards, while events within community settings were classified as drug addiction service units (serDs), long-term care (including specialist outpatient services, home services, and nursing homes) (LTC), mental health centres, and penitentiary assistance. Results: The results highlighted that fewer WPV incidents were reported in community settings than in hospital settings, even though reported incidents showed a more pronounced increase over time. Differences were observed in a few characteristics of WPV (age classes of aggressors, recidivism, time of aggression, profession of the assaulted worker, and specific location). Only the gender of the assaulted (female workers) (OR = 3.11, 95% CI: 1.27–7.61; p = 0.013; OR = 0.32, 95% CI: 0.13–0.79; p = 0.013 for non-physical and physical violence, respectively, compared to male workers) was identified as a specific risk factor for community settings. Conclusions: Modern health systems are experiencing a transition from hospital-centred to community-centred care settings. This study suggested that WPV is a significant concern, even outside the hospital. Community-based services often involve direct interaction with frail and chronically ill patients and their caregivers, as well as care delivery in diverse and sometimes less controlled environments, which may influence exposure to aggressive behaviours. The identification of setting-specific risk patterns in both hospital and community contexts provides valuable insights into workplace violence and may support the planning and implementation of targeted interventions aimed at mitigating the frequency and burden of WPV. Full article

The liner shipping industry is thriving in the low-carbon transition, and optimizing operational strategies for liquefied natural gas (LNG) dual-fuel ships has become a research hotspot. This research examines the impacts of the carbon tax, emission control area (ECA) policies, fuel price discounts and methane slip rate on fuel management strategies. Firstly, to reduce liner operating costs and adhere to ECA policies, this study develops a basic optimization model. Further, the model is extended to take into account the impact of fuel price discounts. Secondly, by linearizing multiple nonlinear terms, the operational strategies are obtained. Thirdly, taking a real vessel sailing between the Far East and Northwest Europe as a case study, this study identifies the ports for LNG and very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) bunkering, determines the bunkering amounts and calculates the planned speeds. Furthermore, sensitivity analyses are conducted on fuel price difference, carbon tax rate and methane slip rate. Results show that fuel price difference, carbon tax rate, methane slip rate and fuel price discount exert a significant impact on ship operational decisions. To ensure the effectiveness of maritime decarbonization regulations, authorities should monitor ship engines with high methane slip rates. This study offers important references for shipping enterprises to meet ship emission policies and simultaneously cut operational costs. Full article

This paper addresses the question of how many autonomous aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) can safely operate within a bounded three-dimensional airspace. First, we derive the absolute mathematical limits on drone density using geometric arguments from sphere packing and covering theory. Then, we verify these limits empirically by simulating a swarm controlled via model predictive control. We incrementally increase the number of drones until motion becomes impossible. Each drone is modeled as a double-integrator system with a bounded speed and acceleration and is surrounded by a radius spherical safety zone $r>0$. The drones are controlled via model predictive control with hard separation constraints. We formalize complete blockage as the loss of any feasible non-trivial trajectory set, either due to geometric crowding or dynamic limitations. Using tools from discrete geometry, we establish absolute upper bounds on a safe population via sphere-packing results and sufficient conditions for total immobilization via sphere-covering arguments. We extend these static bounds by incorporating dynamics through stopping-distance analysis, leading to an inflated exclusion radius that captures the effect of finite control authority. In addition, we prove min-cut style flow-capacity bounds that limit feasible throughput across bottlenecks and derive horizon-dependent conflict-graph conditions that capture MPC infeasibility at high densities. These results provide a rigorous theoretical framework for determining the transition from feasible multi-drone operation to inevitable gridlock, offering explicit quantitative thresholds that can inform airspace design, drone density regulation, and the tuning of predictive controllers. We evaluate our theoretical findings with a simulation environment. Full article

The paper continues the authors’ efforts to characterize and control the shape memory effect (SME) occurring in 3D printed specimens of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) and polyethylene terephthalate glycol (rPETG). Lamellar and “dog-bone” configuration specimens were 3D printed in the form of stratified composites with five different rPET/rPETG ratios, 100:0, 60:40, 50:50, 40:60, and 0:100, and two different angles between the specimen’s axis and the deposition direction, 0° and 45°. The lamellar specimens were used for: (i) free-recovery SME-investigating experiments, which monitored the variation of the displacement, of the free end of specimens which were bent at room temperature (RT), vs. temperature, during heating, (ii) differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), which emphasized heat flow variation vs. temperature, during glass transition and (iii) dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), which recorded storage modulus vs. temperature in the glass transition interval. Dog-bone specimens were subjected to tensile failure and loading-unloading tests, performed at RT. The broken gauges were metallized with an Au layer and analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that the specimens printed with 0° raster developed larger free-recovery SME strokes, the largest one corresponding to the specimen with rPET/rPETG = 40:60, which experienced the highest storage modulus increase, 872 MPa, and maximum value, 1818 MPa, during heating. The straight lamellar composite specimens experienced a supplementary shape recovery when bent at RT and heated, in such a way that their upper surface became concave, at the end of heating. Most of the specimens 3D printed at 0° raster developed stress failure plateaus, which were associated with the formation of delamination areas on SEM fractographs, while the specimens printed with 45° raster angle experienced necking failures, associated with the formation of crazing areas. The results suggested that 3D printed stratified rPET-rPETG composites, with dedicated spatial configurations, have the potential to serve as executive elements of light actuators for low-temperature operation. Full article

Human–machine shared control has been widely adopted to enhance driving performance and facilitate smooth transitions between manual and fully autonomous driving. However, existing authority allocation strategies often neglect real-time assessment of scenario complexity and driver workload. To address this gap, we leverage non-invasive eye-tracking devices and the 3D virtual driving simulator Car Learning to Act (CARLA) to collect multimodal data—including physiological measures and vehicle dynamics—for the real-time classification of scenario complexity and cognitive workload. Feature importance is quantified using the SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) values derived from Random Forest classifiers, enabling robust feature selection. Building upon a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) for workload inference and a Model Predictive Control (MPC) framework, we propose a novel human–machine shared control architecture with adaptive authority allocation. Human-in-the-loop validation experiments under both high- and low-workload conditions demonstrate that the proposed strategy significantly improves driving safety, stability, and overall performance. Notably, under high-workload scenarios, it achieves substantially greater reductions in Time to Collision (TTC) and Time to Lane Crossing (TLC) compared to low-workload conditions. Moreover, the adaptive approach yields lower controller load than alternative authority allocation methods, thereby minimizing human–machine conflict. Full article

Interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) encompass a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by varying degrees of inflammation and fibrosis. Despite advances in understanding the pathogenesis, therapeutic options remain limited, particularly for patients with progressive phenotypes. Current international guidelines for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and progressive pulmonary fibrosis (PPF) emphasize the need for antifibrotic strategies and call for novel pharmacological interventions targeting key molecular pathways involved in fibrogenesis. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the most promising emerging pharmacological agents for ILDs, with particular attention to their mechanisms of action, efficacy, and safety profiles as reported in recent preclinical and clinical studies. The recent approval of Nerandomilast and the ongoing phase III trials of other agents mark a pivotal transition toward a new generation of antifibrotic therapies, aiming to achieve more effective disease control and improved patient outcomes. In view of an enlargement of active drugs aiming at controlling the disease with different mechanisms, the Authors underline the need for a “precision medicine” model to be applied to each ILD phenotyped patient, mirroring what already happens for other respiratory diseases. Full article

This paper proposed an end-effector (EE)-driven whole-body tele-operation framework based on linear and angular motion decomposition. The proposed EE-driven tele-operation method enables intuitive control of a mobile manipulator using only EE commands, unlike conventional systems where the mobile base and manipulator are controlled by separate interfaces that directly map user inputs to each component. The proposed linear and angular motion decomposition mechanism significantly reduces the computational burden compared to conventional optimization-based whole-body control algorithms. Also, EE position is evaluated relative to the manipulator’s WS, and control authority is automatically switched between the manipulator and mobile base to ensure feasible motion. A blending-based transition strategy is introduced to prevent discontinuous switching and chattering near WS boundaries. Simulation results confirm that the method accurately reproduces tele-operation commands while maintaining stable whole-body coordination, demonstrating smooth transitions between control authorities and effective WS regulation. Simulation results confirm that the method accurately reproduces tele-operation commands while maintaining stable whole-body coordination, verifying the feasibility of the proposed approach. Future work will focus on experimental validation using a physical mobile manipulator. Full article

People are exposed to pesticides daily through food, drinking water, and the environment, both in urban and rural settings. These chemicals, while offering economic and agricultural benefits through pest control and increased productivity, may pose a growing risk to human health and ecosystem biodiversity. While the European regulatory framework offers a robust foundation for risk assessment, significant limitations persist, especially in addressing cumulative exposure, low-dose effects, and chemical mixtures. This review focuses on selected scientific and regulatory challenges by reviewing recent European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) conclusions, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) test guidelines updates, and current European legislative approaches. Particular attention is given to the regulation of endocrine-disrupting and reprotoxic substances, highlighting progress and remaining gaps in implementation. A brief mention will also be made of immuno-toxic substances, for which no specific hazard class has yet been established. Building on official reports and peer-reviewed literature, this review provides a structured evaluation of the scientific and regulatory landscape, including underexplored issues like the transition to animal-free toxicology and integration of biomonitoring with health data. The goal is to propose realistic, evidence-based improvements to current frameworks using integrated, interdisciplinary approaches that connect toxicology, policy, and implementation science. A shift to a holistic, systems-based, and precautionary paradigm is vital to address emerging challenges and ensure strong protection of health and environment, as well as supporting the needs of the agricultural sector. Full article

With the characteristic of “decentralized distribution and local power supply”, small hydropower (SHP) in China has become a core means of solving the problem of insufficient power supply in rural and remote mountainous areas, effectively promoting the improvement of local livelihoods. However, for a long time, SHP has had many problems, such as irrational development, old equipment, and poor economic efficiency, resulting in some rivers with connectivity loss and reduced biodiversity, etc. The Chishui River Watershed is an ecologically valuable river in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. As an important habitat for rare fish in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the only large-scale tributary that maintains a natural flow pattern, the SHP plants’ dismantling and ecological restoration practices in the Chishui River Watershed can set a model for regional sustainable development. This paper adopts the methods of literature review, field research, and case study analysis, combined with the comparison of ecological conditions before and after the dismantling, to systematically analyze the effectiveness and challenges of SHP rectification in the Chishui River Watershed. The study found that after dismantling 88.2% of SHP plants in ecologically sensitive areas, the number of fish species upstream and downstream of the original dam site increased by about 6.67% and 70%, respectively; the natural hydrological connectivity has been restored to the downstream of the Tongzi River, the Gulin River and other rivers, but there are short-term problems such as sediment underflow, increased economic pressure, and the gap of alternative energy sources; the retained power stations have achieved the success and challenges of power generation and ecological management ecological flow control and comprehensive utilization, achieving a balance between power generation and ecological protection. Based on the above findings, the author proposes dynamic monitoring and interdisciplinary tracking research to fill the gap of systematic data support and long-term effect research in the SHP exit mechanism, and the results can provide a reference for the green transition of SHP. Full article

This article offers a comparative analysis of authoritarian governance in Egypt and Türkiye through the lens of two pivotal state–Islamist alliances: the early partnership and eventual rupture between Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), and the strategic collaboration followed by confrontation between Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Gülen Movement (GM). Despite operating in different historical and institutional settings—a postcolonial military regime in Egypt and an electoral, hybrid regime in Türkiye—both leaders allied with influential religious actors during moments of transition to gain popular support and dismantle entrenched power structures. These alliances were instrumental and temporary: once religious movements developed autonomous influence, they were recast as threats and suppressed through legal, institutional, and religious mechanisms. This study traces how religious institutions like Egypt’s al-Azhar and Türkiye’s Diyanet were co-opted to delegitimize these former allies and justify state repression. While the MB pursued overt political goals and the GM functioned through civic and technocratic channels, both were ultimately excluded from the political order once they had been considered as threats to the central authority of the regime. This comparison underscores the strategic use of religion in authoritarian statecraft and the enduring tension between religious autonomy and centralized political control in Muslim-majority polities. Full article

Chromaffin cells are neuroendocrine cells found in the adrenal medulla and paraganglia. They represent enigmatic cell population with origins and properties that have undergone a change in scientific interpretations over the last few decades. Earlier concepts consider that chromaffin cells derive from neuronal progenitors, and their cell fate is similar to neurons that lack the ability to proliferate and maintain renewal of cell population in postnatal life. Growing evidence of postnatal proliferation and response to proliferative stimuli were inconsistent with traditional views and required their reassessment and further research on chromaffin cell regeneration sources. The present review summarizes data on embryonic origin and development and transcriptional control of the adrenal chromaffin cells as well as available information about their postnatal proliferation. The authors also represent their findings in cellular and molecular events associated with the physiological transition from organ growth to self-maintenance of cell populations in intact rats and in experimental dismorphogenesis of the adrenals. The authors familiarize readers with available information about the early development and molecular changes in chromaffin cells in postnatal period and propose their new theories concerning mechanisms of adrenomedullary chromaffin cell regeneration. Further research on induction and management of these mechanisms will allow us to maintain cultured chromaffin cells in vitro, which will obviously make a significant contribution to practical regenerative medicine. Full article

The evolution of industrial automation toward Industry 3.0 and 4.0 has driven the emergence of Industrial Edge-Cloud Platforms, which increasingly depend on web interfaces for managing and monitoring critical operational technology. This convergence introduces significant security risks, particularly from Broken Access Control (BAC)—a vulnerability consistently ranked as the top web application risk by the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP). BAC flaws in industrial contexts can lead not only to data breaches but also to disruptions of physical processes. To address this urgent need for robust web-layer defense, this paper presents VeriFlow, a static verification framework for access control in web applications. VeriFlow reformulates access control verification as a consistency problem between two core artifacts: (1) a Formal Access Control Policy (P), which declaratively defines intended permissions, and (2) a Navigational Graph, which models all user-driven UI state transitions. By annotating the graph with policy P, VeriFlow verifies a novel Path-Permission Safety property, ensuring that no sequence of legitimate UI interactions can lead a user from an authorized state to an unauthorized one. A key technical contribution is a static analysis method capable of extracting navigational graphs directly from the JavaScript bundles of Single-Page Applications (SPAs), circumventing the limitations of traditional dynamic crawlers. In empirical evaluations, VeriFlow outperformed baseline tools in vulnerability detection, demonstrating its potential to deliver strong security guarantees that are provable within its abstracted navigational model. By formally checking policy-graph consistency, it systematically addresses a class of vulnerabilities often missed by dynamic tools, though its effectiveness is subject to the model-reality gap inherent in static analysis. Full article

The abnormal pore pressures in ultra-deep wells in the Junggar Basin, China are constantly causing drilling incidents for both the drilling engineers and geologists. Formation pore-pressure is an important parameter in wellbore stability analysis, and accurate prediction of pore pressure before drilling is of great significance for effectively controlling wellbore instability. In this paper, the authors utilize seismic velocity inversion and rock mechanics prediction to evaluate the three pressure parameters, i.e., pore pressure, collapse pressure, and fracture pressure. Seismic data were inversed and the velocity model was constructed. Then, the layering models of the relationships between seismic velocity and logging data of the whole formation layers were constructed using seismic attributes and the corresponding acoustic logging data. Finally, the acoustic logging data, or interval transit time of ten corresponding formations, were predicted using layering models of seismic data. In an ultra-deep well, two abnormal highly pressurized sections were confirmed. This shows great potential for realizing real-time prediction of acoustic and density log data of undrilled formations in this area. Field applications confirm that the proposed method enhances prediction accuracy and computational efficiency compared to the Eston method. Two abnormal high-pressure zones were successfully identified in the Huqian-1 well, i.e., the Taxihe Formation (1.38 g/cm³) and the Anjihaihe Formation (1.50 g/cm³). Full article

Under the background of “dual-carbon” strategy and global energy transition, the metallurgical industry, which accounts for 15–20% of industrial energy consumption, urgently needs to reduce the energy consumption and emission of DC power supply of electric furnaces. Aiming at the existing 400–800 V/≥3000 A industrial-frequency transformer-rectifier system with low efficiency, large volume, heat dissipation difficulties and other bottlenecks, this thesis proposes and realizes a high-frequency integrated DC power supply scheme for high-power electric furnaces: high-frequency transformer core and rectifier circuit are deeply integrated, which breaks through and reduces the volume of the system by more than 40%, and significantly reduces the iron consumption; multiple cores and three windings in parallel are used for the system. The topology of multiple cores and three windings in parallel enables several independent secondary stages to share the large current of 3000 A level uniformly, eliminating the local overheating and current imbalance; the combination of high-frequency rectification and phase-shift control strategy enhances the input power factor to more than 0.95 and cuts down the grid-side harmonics remarkably. The authors have completed the design of 100 kW prototype, magneto-electric joint simulation, thermal structure coupling analysis, control algorithm development and field comparison test, and the results show that the program compared with the traditional industrial-frequency system efficiency increased by 12–15%, the system temperature rise reduced by 20 K, electrode voltage increased by 10–15%, the input power of furnace increased by 12%, and the harmonic index meets the requirements of the traditional industrial-frequency system. The results show that the efficiency of this scheme is 12–15% higher than the traditional IF system, the temperature rise in the system is 20 K lower, the voltage at the electrode end is 10–15% higher, the input power of the furnace is increased by 12%, and the harmonic indexes meet the requirements of GB/T 14549, which verifies the value of the scheme for realizing high efficiency, miniaturization, and reliable DC power supply in metallurgy. Full article