Search Results (31,092)

During pregnancy, women are more inclined to modify their habits and lifestyle to find a new balance and promote well-being for themselves and the child-to-be. However, the availability of nutritional and psychological support is often limited by stigma, geographic barriers, and a lack of services. Digital health tools are emerging as possible solutions to cover these needs. This study explores the acceptability, feasibility, and user experience of Demetra, a virtual coach based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), designed to promote healthy lifestyles and mental well-being. Fifty pregnant women will be enrolled in the feasibility study of the intervention. It starts with an educational part on the foundations of healthy eating and suggestions about lifestyle habits, followed by a six-week psychoeducational module. Content is delivered through text, audio, and video formats. User experience and engagement will be measured through validated questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Psychological well-being will be evaluated both before and after the program. The intervention is expected to be well-received, with high levels of satisfaction and engagement, leading to a greater awareness of healthy behaviors, improved psychological flexibility, and enhanced overall well-being. Demetra offers an accessible solution to support women through the transformative experience of motherhood with a multidisciplinary and innovative approach. Full article

Against the backdrop of high-quality urbanization in cities, the rapid expansion of metro networks has led to severe spatial mismatches in land use around station areas, which seriously restricts the full exertion of the comprehensive benefits of the transit-oriented development (TOD) model. Taking 139 operational metro stations in Xi’an in 2024 as the research sample, this study constructs a multi-objective land use optimization model with the richness of public services, transportation accessibility and population distribution balance as the three core maximization objectives. A hierarchically adaptive improved NSGA-III algorithm is proposed, with the following four key technical optimizations implemented: multi-dimensional adaptive reference point adjustment, design of real-integer hybrid coding genetic operators, construction of an enhanced multi-criteria environmental selection mechanism, and dynamic regulation of algorithm iteration. Experimental results show that the performance of the improved algorithm is significantly superior to that of the traditional NSGA-III algorithm: the values of the three core objectives are increased by 59.58%, 12.94% and 7.35% respectively compared with the original data; the algorithm achieves stable convergence after 25 iterations, with the convergence efficiency improved by 30%. The obtained Pareto optimal front features good uniformity (U = 0.92) and coverage (C = 0.95), and all the 80 non-dominated solutions meet all constraint conditions, with the solution set highly coupled with the urban functional zoning and spatial planning of Xi’an. This study proposes a zoned, prioritized and phased hierarchical land use optimization strategy for the areas around metro stations in Xi’an. The research findings provide a replicable research framework and methodological reference for the TOD practice and land use optimization of metro station areas in other rapidly urbanizing central cities in China and developing countries worldwide with the characteristic of rapid rail transit expansion. Full article

This article compares selected fire safety regulatory systems in Japan, China, the United States, and the EU/UK, interpreted through the lens of responsive architecture and the implementation of digital technologies—building information modelling (BIM), digital twins (DTs), artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT). The study adopts a qualitative approach based on a structured review of legal acts, technical standards, public-sector reports, and the scientific and professional literature, organised using a common analytical framework. First, the analysis identifies shared foundations across regimes: the primacy of life safety, mandatory detection and alarm functions, fire compartmentation, requirements for protected means of exit, and the increasing importance of documenting the operational status of protection measures. Then, it contrasts key differences, including the permissibility of performance-based design (PBD), the degree to which digital documentation is formally recognised, organisational enforcement models, and cybersecurity approaches for integrated fire alarm/voice alarm/building management/IoT ecosystems. Japan and selected Chinese cities combine stringent requirements with openness to dynamic solutions and urban-scale data platforms. The USA relies on a decentralised code-based ecosystem with a strong role for professional and industry bodies, while the EU/UK continues to strengthen harmonised standards and digital building registers, reinforced by lessons after the Grenfell Tower fire. Against this background, Poland is discussed as broadly aligned in goals and baseline technical requirements yet lagging behind in implementing PBD pathways, digital registers, formal BIM/DT integration, and minimum cybersecurity requirements. The proposed directions for change aim to create a more predictable regulatory and technical framework for the development of responsive architecture and dynamic fire safety systems in Poland. The study contributes to the sustainability literature by framing regulatory readiness for digital fire safety as a lifecycle resilience strategy, directly relevant to safe, resource-efficient, and inclusive built environments. Full article

We report the fabrication and electrochemical characterization of TiO₂-based impedimetric sensors for the analysis of artificial sweat compositions. Two-electrode topologies were patterned on indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates: an interdigitated electrode (IDE) configuration and a Hilbert fractal electrode (HFE) geometry. TiO₂ thin films with thickness up to 350 nm were deposited by dip-coating and evaluated as photoactive sensing layers. The impedimetric response of the sensors was investigated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in artificial sweat with composition varied in terms of ionic content (0–100 mM Na⁺) and organic content (2.5–30 mM lactic acid and 5–50 mM urea). Regardless of TiO₂ thickness, the high-frequency response is predominantly governed by electrode topology, with the HFE design exhibiting up to 2.5-fold higher modulation compared to the IDE configuration. Under UV illumination, a low-frequency, photo-assisted response emerges, influenced by the TiO₂ layer thickness and primarily sensitive to the organic components of the solution, particularly lactic acid. These results suggest that frequency-resolved impedance measurements in TiO₂|ITO structures may enable partial differentiation between ionic conductivity and organic contributions in sweat, providing a promising basis for multi-parameter sweat analysis. Full article

Single image dehazing remains challenging because haze simultaneously distorts global illumination, scene structure, and fine textures, making rigid low–high frequency decoupling prone to error propagation and detail inconsistency. To address this issue, we propose CoFiWaveMamba, a coarse-to-fine wavelet-guided Mamba network for single image dehazing. The proposed method first employs wavelet decomposition to separate low- and high-frequency components. For low-frequency restoration, a 2D selective-scan Mamba-based module is introduced to capture long-range dependencies, combined with lightweight high-frequency-guided spatial modulation and Shuffle-guided Sequence Attention, we design a progressive coarse-to-fine refinement strategy that combines Fourier-domain global spectral consistency with wavelet-domain directional detail representation, enabling more targeted recovery of edges and textures. Experiments on synthetic and real dehazing benchmarks, including Haze4K, RESIDE-6K, HSTS-SYNTHETIC, I-Haze, NH-Haze, Dense-Haze, and O-HAZE, as well as ablation studies, verify the effectiveness of the proposed design. Overall, CoFiWaveMamba provides a more coordinated solution for global haze removal and local detail reconstruction, helping suppress residual haze, ringing artifacts, oversharpening, and texture inconsistency while restoring clearer and more natural images. Full article

As global urbanization accelerates, biophilic urbanism has emerged as a key nature-based strategy for enhancing public health. While plants are critical active agents for psychological restoration, the specific pathways through which vegetation characteristics influence human–environment interactions remain fragmented. This knowledge gap hinders the evidence-based translation of biophilic principles into actionable urban design and governance. This study conducts a systematic bibliometric analysis of 443 peer-reviewed articles (2000–2025) at the intersection of restorative landscapes, urban settings, and plant-based interventions retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. Employing multiple visualization tools (VOSviewer, bibliometrix, and CiteSpace), we map publication trends, international collaborations, and thematic evolution. The results demonstrate a significant shift in the field, moving beyond the validation of foundational restorative theories (e.g., ART and SRT) to a more precise, implementation-oriented framework. This shift is characterized by the operationalization of vegetation attributes as controllable design variables, increasingly relating biophilic principles to broader nature-based solutions (NbS) agendas and evidence-informed urban governance. Thematic clustering analysis identified three core knowledge domains: (1) the role of plants as active exposure agents and behavioral mediators in psychological restoration; (2) the impact of specific plant characteristics—such as canopy structure, species diversity, and seasonal variation—on therapeutic outcomes; and (3) the integration of urban green spaces into broader governance frameworks to promote health equity and inclusive well-being. Our analysis highlights that plant-based interventions are evolving from aesthetic ornaments into precision design levers for fostering human–nature interactions. This study provides a science-based foundation for developing practical design guidelines and policy frameworks, shifting biophilic urbanism toward a robust governance strategy for creating equitable, restorative, and resilient cities. Full article

Industrial predictive maintenance programs often rely on SCADA historian signals characterized by low-frequency sampling and asynchronous reporting intervals. These data constraints, specifically non-uniform scan rates and inter-tag time misalignment, limit the applicability of high-resolution or sensor-intensive prognostic models. This study proposes a lightweight, physics-informed health proxy, the temperature-weighted work (TWW) index, designed to monitor motor stator-winding degradation within these industrial limitations. The TWW index accumulates mechanical work derived from torque and speed measurements, weighted by an adaptive exponential temperature-emphasis function that penalizes operation at elevated temperatures. The formulation is inspired by practical thermal-aging heuristics such as Montsinger’s rule in the qualitative sense that higher temperatures are treated as disproportionately more damaging, but it is not intended as a direct implementation of a fixed absolute-temperature life law. Instead, it is designed as a lightweight adaptive index suitable for online SCADA-based implementation. To address SCADA-specific irregularities, the framework incorporates data synchronization and resampling techniques to align heterogeneous tags, alongside power-thresholding to isolate degradation-relevant load periods. The resulting cumulative index is mapped to a normalized health/RUL proxy using failure-referenced thresholds identified from historical events. Validation using field data from industrial three-phase motors demonstrates that the TWW index provides a monotonic degradation profile that is consistent with documented winding-related failures and proactive removals. Case studies confirm that the model enabled proactive maintenance interventions by signaling the terminal phase of insulation life before catastrophic breakdown, offering a hardware-free and scalable solution for real-time asset management. Full article

Labor shortages and the need for increased productivity have accelerated the development of robotic harvesting systems for greenhouse crops; however, reliable operation under fruit occlusion and clustered arrangements remains a major challenge, particularly due to the limited integration between perception and motion planning modules. The paper presents the design and experimental validation of an autonomous robotic system for greenhouse tomato harvesting. The proposed platform integrates a rail-guided mobile base, a six-degrees-of-freedom robotic manipulator, and an adaptive end effector with a hybrid vision framework that combines convolutional neural networks and watershed-based segmentation to enable robust fruit detection and localization under occluded conditions. The proposed approach enables improved separation of overlapping fruits and provides accurate spatial localization through stereo vision combined with IMU-assisted camera-to-robot coordinate transformation. An occlusion-aware trajectory planning strategy was developed to generate collision-free manipulation paths in the presence of leaves and stems, enhancing harvesting safety and reliability. The system was trained and evaluated using a dataset of real greenhouse images supplemented with synthetic data augmentation. Experimental trials conducted under practical greenhouse conditions demonstrated a fruit detection precision of 96.9%, recall of 93.5%, and mean Intersection-over-Union of 79.2%. The robotic platform achieved an overall harvesting success rate of 78.5%, reaching 85% for unobstructed fruits, with an average cycle time of 15 s per fruit in direct harvesting scenarios. The rail-guided mobility significantly improved positioning stability and repeatability during manipulation compared with fully mobile platforms. The results confirm that integrating hybrid perception with occlusion-aware motion planning can substantially improve the functionality of robotic harvesting systems in protected cultivation environments. The proposed solution contributes to the advancement of automation technologies for greenhouse vegetable production and supports the transition toward more sustainable and labor-efficient agricultural practices. Full article

In the pursuit of sustainable and flexible electronics, polymer-based conductive films offer a promising solution due to their biodegradability, mechanical flexibility, and cost-effective fabrication. This study presents the development of a highly conductive and flexible nanocomposite material based on polyaniline-grafted chitosan (PANI-g-Chs) and Vinavil (Vi, a vinyl glue specifically designed for enhancing the sealability of textiles and paper), serving as a matrix for applications in flexible electronics. The PANI-g-Chs nanocomposite was synthesized via in situ oxidative polymerization, where chitosan nanoparticles (Chs) served as a stabilizing template to prevent PANI aggregation, reducing the particle size from 1700 nm (pristine PANI) to 180 nm (PANI-g-Chs). The resulting composite exhibited exceptional electrical conductivity (77.79 S/m at 25 wt% PANI-g-Chs). Hall effect measurements showed that the carrier mobility increased up to 1162.7 cm²/V·s and the carrier density rose to 6.5.1017 cm⁻³, confirming efficient charge transport and network formation. Mechanical analysis revealed a 300% increase in the storage modulus for PANI-g-Chs, and thermal studies confirmed stability up to 300 °C. Optical characterization showed a reduced bandgap (3.6 eV) and extended π-conjugation, which are critical for optoelectronic applications. Application tests demonstrated stable conductivity under mechanical deformation, highlighting the material’s potential for use in flexible electronics, sensors, and sustainable conductive coatings. This work offers a viable alternative to conventional conductive polymers. Full article

Nano-tweezers, especially those based on photonic crystals and plasmonic structures, are powerful tools for trapping, manipulating, or accelerating nano-sized objects. However, the precise control of the inter-distance between trapped nanoparticles has rarely been considered. In this paper, we propose a mirror-symmetric optical conveyor belt, in which each unit contains three graded nano-slots. Through the optimized design of spacing between these nano-slots, the structure generates multiple trapping centers, enabling wavelength-selective control over trapping positions. The results show that, through dynamically shifting excitation wavelengths, the programmable bidirectional optical manipulation of nanoparticles can be achieved. Also, the inter-distance between trapped particles can be tuned with subwavelength precision. The proposed structure provides a versatile solution for lab-on-a-chip systems, especially for systems aiming to study the interactions between objects. Full article

This study examines institutional processes in digital justice through a mixed conceptual approach that integrates bibliometric analysis and technology-adoption modeling, incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) as a projected component rather than an implemented system. A corpus of approximately 200 Scopus-indexed documents (2003–2024) was analyzed, identifying five dominant thematic clusters: advanced technologies, institutional justice, digital government, judicial information management, and digital criminal justice. The results reveal persistent gaps in the literature, particularly in rural and underserved communities, where connectivity barriers and the limited application of adoption models hinder inclusive digital transformation. As an institutional contribution, the study presents the conceptual design of the digital solution “Travel Permits—Accessible Justice”, developed under a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and projected for future integration with AI-supported components to automate judicial authorizations through biometric validation, electronic signatures, and digital delivery. To evaluate its potential acceptance, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is analytically adapted and extended to the community-based judicial context, framing institutional learning processes as a prospective form of learning analytics focused on user interaction, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and behavioral intention. Taken together, the integration of bibliometric evidence with an extended TAM, along with the projected incorporation of AI-supported institutional learning processes, offers a coherent foundation for future studies on inclusive digital innovation in justice environments. Full article

This article investigates the housing precarity of EU migrant workers in the Dutch–German border region, focusing on the Venlo Greenport area. Drawing on documentary analysis, 28 interviews, field observations, and stakeholder engagement, it explores how local governance, market dynamics, and framing practices shape housing outcomes. While EU law guarantees free movement, housing remains excluded from the EU rights frameworks, leaving workers dependent on employer-linked or agency-controlled short-stay facilities. These arrangements—often overcrowded, surveilled, and formally temporary—become long-term solutions, producing what we term short-stay sedentarism: prolonged residence in housing designed to deny permanence. The study conceptualises the local “battleground” where municipalities, employers, housing providers, NGOs, and residents negotiate competing interests. Seven interpretive frames—nuisance/disorder, cowboys, human rights, NIMBY, shadow power, integration, and unwanted accumulation—structure these debates, legitimising certain strategies while obscuring structural deficiencies. Findings reveal that certification and enforcement, while intended to improve standards, often entrench precariousness by sustaining the short-stay model. Emerging integration-oriented policies signal a shift but remain fragile amid economic imperatives and spatial constraints. The paper argues that addressing housing precarity requires structural reforms: expanding access to regular housing, reducing employer dependency, and recognising migrant workers as long-term residents rather than temporary labour inputs. Full article

This study introduces two compact wideband substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) filters fabricated using thin-film technology. The wideband bandpass response is achieved by incorporating interdigital capacitor (IDC) structures into a half-mode SIW (HMSIW) transmission line. An equivalent LC circuit model is formulated to analyze the influence of IDC parameters on the generation of transmission zeros. For the first filter (BPF 1), a third-order IDC coupling configuration is employed, resulting in a 1 dB passband spanning 11 GHz to 18 GHz, a minimum insertion loss of 0.66 dB, three transmission zeros that enhance stopband performance, and a compact core dimension of $0.49{\lambda }_g\times 0.29{\lambda }_g$. For further miniaturization, a modified HMSIW transmission line incorporating a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor at the equivalent magnetic wall is proposed. This design effectively reduces the transverse dimension of the waveguide while maintaining the original cutoff frequency. Utilizing this configuration, the second bandpass filter (BPF 2) was designed and fabricated employing double-layer ceramic thin-film technology. The resulting filter exhibits a 1 dB passband spanning 10 GHz to 18 GHz, a compact footprint measuring $0.44{\lambda }_g\times 0.23{\lambda }_g$, a minimum insertion loss of 0.58 dB, and features three transmission zeros. The fabricated and measured results of both filters show good agreement with simulations. Compared with previously reported wideband SIW filters, the proposed designs demonstrate comprehensive advantages in fractional bandwidth, insertion loss, out-of-band suppression, and circuit size, providing effective filtering solutions for high-density integration of microwave and millimeter-wave RF systems. Full article

Underwater multi-sensor passive tracking faces two critical challenges: the strong nonlinearity of Doppler–bearing measurements and underwater acoustic propagation delays. To address these issues, this paper proposes a distributed fusion filtering method based on extended measurement space modeling and delay compensation. First, an extended measurement space comprising range, Doppler frequency, bearing, and bearing rate is constructed to transform the nonlinear measurements into a linear framework. Within this space, linear prediction equations for constant velocity (CV) motion are derived to facilitate linearized local filtering. Furthermore, a closed-form linear solution for propagation delay is established within the constructed state space. To resolve the incompatibility of multi-node estimates caused by local coordinate frame discrepancies, a distributed architecture based on the Unscented Transform (UT) is designed. In this architecture, local states are transformed into a unified Cartesian coordinate system for temporal compensation and fast Covariance Intersection (FCI) fusion, followed by an inverse mapping back to the local space. Simulation results demonstrate that, compared with traditional nonlinear methods based on mixed coordinate systems, the proposed method significantly reduces nonlinear approximation errors, thereby enhancing tracking accuracy and robustness. Full article

The rapid growth of cities and expansion of impervious surfaces have intensified surface runoff problems and urban flooding risk. This scenario, exacerbated by the effects of climate change, demands sustainable and integrated solutions. Thus, this study evaluates the pre-feasibility of implementing sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) in the Monteverde neighborhood in Montería, Colombia; an area that is critically affected by floods during rainfall events. Using the storm water management model (SWMM) and hydrological simulations based on design hyetographs for different return periods, the performance of a conventional drainage system was compared with five scenarios using SUDS. To determine the modeling scenarios, a decision-making method through the analytic hierarchy process, AHP, was used to select the most appropriate SUDS. The results showed that implementing storage tanks reduces peak flows at outlets 1 and 2 up to 50%, while bioretention zones and rain gardens in isolation showed reduced effectiveness (<6%). Combining strategies slightly improves overall efficiency, although the impact keeps being dominated by tanks. This study demonstrates that the incorporation of SUDS in vulnerable urban areas lessens water risks, strengthens urban resilience, promotes rainwater harvesting, and eases the transition to a more sustainable infrastructure. In addition, it proposes a methodology that can be replicated in other similar Latin American cities. Full article