Search Results (16)

Real-time positioning is a technological field with a multitude of applications, which expand across many scopes: from positioning within a large area to localization within smaller spaces; from locating people to locating equipment; from large-scale industrial or military applications to commercially available solutions. There are at least as many implementations of real-time positioning as there are applications and challenges. Within the domain of Radio Frequency (RF) systems, positioning has been approached from multiple angles. Some of the more common solutions involve using Time of Flight (ToF) and time difference of arrival (TDoA) technologies. Within TDoA-based systems, one common limitation stems from the computational power necessary to run the multi-lateration algorithms at a high enough speed to provide high-frequency refresh rates on the tag positions. The system presented in this study implements a complete hardware and software TDoA-based real-time positioning system, using wireless Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology. This system demonstrates improvements in the state of the art by addressing the above limitations through the use of a hybrid Machine Learning solution combined with algorithmic fine tuning in order to reduce computational power while achieving the desired positioning accuracy. This study presents the design, implementation, verification and validation of the aforementioned system, as well as an overview of similar solutions. Full article

The teaching of human anatomy is experiencing significant transformation. Particularly in recent years, incorporating new digital technologies has drastically changed the approach to education. Our bibliometric study aims to investigate trends and issues from 2004 to 2024 related to digital technology in human anatomy teaching. The publication trend in the field has steadily increased over the years, peaking in 2022 and declining in 2023. Despite the limited statistics for 2024, we do not project an exponential increase in publications. Co-citation analysis identified notable references that significantly influenced the field, emphasizing modernization through innovative methodologies. Leading a significant portion of global collaboration, the United States promoted robust multilateral partnerships. Co-occurrence word analysis highlighted the merging of current technology with student-centered learning approaches, reflecting a shift towards more interactive and immersive learning experiences. Thematic map analysis identified distinct research areas with emerging or declining themes. The analysis of topic trends over the last five years revealed a persistent interest in terms like “palmar” and “carpal”, as well as innovative technologies like “cone beam computed tomography”, “augmented reality”, and “virtual reality”. Our bibliometric study revealed a sector in constant transformation, presenting a scenario where integrating technology with traditional teaching methods could enhance medical students’ comprehension of human anatomy. On the other hand, it also highlighted the anticipated challenges of ensuring equal access to cutting-edge technology, providing sufficient training for academic staff, and addressing emerging ethical issues. Full article

A series of complex horizontal wells have been implemented in challenging gas reservoirs. Multilateral horizontal well technology can be used in multilayer gas reservoirs, facilitating the expansion of the gas drainage area and enhancing productivity. Accurate productivity calculations for multilateral wells in multilayer reservoirs are essential for effective reservoir development. However, there have been few studies in this area. This paper introduces a coupling model for calculating the gas–water two-phase productivity of multilateral wells in multilayer reservoirs, based on the principles of conformal transformation and superposition of potential functions. The accuracy of the model is validated by obtaining the distribution of flow along the horizontal wellbore through numerical simulation cases. The results from the field case and sensitivity analysis indicate that the pressure difference increases nonlinearly from the toe to the heel, and the productivity of multilateral wells decreases as the gas–water ratio increases. The method proposed in this paper is applicable for calculating the productivity of multilateral wells in multilayer reservoirs. Full article

Fishbone drilling (FbD) involves drilling multiple micro-holes branching out in various directions from the primary vertical or deviated wellbore. FbD is similar to multilateral micro-hole drilling and can be employed to boost hydrocarbon production in naturally fractured formations or during refracturing operations by connecting existing natural fractures. Key design elements in fishbones include determining the number, length, and spacing between the branches, and the angle at which the branches deviate from the main borehole. Fishbone wells have emerged as a promising technology for improving well performance and reducing environmental impact. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review of the different applications of fishbone wells in conventional and renewable energy systems. We discuss the potential of fishbone wells for enhanced oil and gas recovery, as well as their application in unconventional resources such as coal bed methane. Moreover, we examine the feasibility of fishbone wells in renewable energy systems, such as geothermal energy and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS). We highlight the various benefits of fishbone wells, including reduced carbon footprint, enhanced efficiency, and increased sustainability. Finally, we discuss the challenges and limitations associated with fishbone wells in different energy systems. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the potential and challenges of fishbone wells in reducing carbon footprint and improving well performance in a wide range of energy systems. Full article

One of the most common forest disturbances, fire, has a significant influence on the people, societies, economies, and environment of countries all over the world. This study explores the different environmental and socioeconomic effects of forest fires to establish priorities for countries in battling and mitigating the harmful effects of forest fires based on data collected from 382 professionals working in Greece’s forestry and agriculture sectors. Secondary data, especially from Statista, were further utilized to enhance the analytical comparisons and conclusions of this study. Wildfires in Greece destroy agricultural land and greatly impact the rural economy and community. This study showed that forest fires have led to several economic costs, mainly affecting the incomes of different investors in the forest sector in Greece. It was revealed that the overall cost of a fire is determined by the direct and indirect expenditures as well as the price of fire control and preventative methods. Direct expenses are broken down into two categories: direct damage that occurs immediately and direct losses that are caused immediately after a fire. Governments should take the initiative to create and expand bilateral and/or multilateral cooperation and coordination, as well as exchange necessary financial resources, technology, and training, to reduce the effects of forest fires in a fragile international man-made and natural environment. Full article

Widely employed in hydrate exploitation, the single well method is utilized to broaden the scope of hydrate decomposition. Optimizing the well structure and production strategy is necessary to enhance gas recovery efficiency. Complex wells represented by the multilateral wells have great application potential in hydrate mining. This study focused on the impact of multilateral well production methods on productivity, taking the Nankai Trough in Japan as the study area. The spatial distribution of physical parameters such as porosity, permeability, and hydrate saturation in the Nankai Trough has significant heterogeneity. For model accuracy, the Sklearn machine learning and Kriging interpolation methods were used to construct a three-dimensional heterogeneous geological model to describe the structure and physical property parameters in the study area of the hydrate reservoir. The numerical simulation model was solved using the TOUGH + Hydrate program and fitted with the measured data of the trial production project to verify its reliability. Finally, we set the multilateral wells for hydrate high saturation area to predict the gas and water production of hydrate reservoir with different exploitation schemes. The main conclusions are as follows: ① The Sklearn machine learning and Kriging interpolation methods can be used to construct a three-dimensional heterogeneous geological model for limited site data, and the fitting effect of the heterogeneous numerical simulation model is better than that of the homogeneous numerical simulation model. ② The multilateral well method can effectively increase the gas production rate from the hydrate reservoir compared with the traditional single well method by approximately 8000 m³/day on average (approximately 51.8%). ③ In the high saturation area, the number of branches of the multilateral well were set to 2, 3, and 4, and the gas production rate was increased by approximately 51.8%, 52.5%, and 53.5%. Considering economic consumption, the number of branching wells should be set at 2–3 in the same layer. Full article

Multilateral well drilling technology has recently assisted the drilling industry in improving borehole contact area and reducing operation time, while maintaining a competitive cost. The most advanced multilateral well drilling method is Fishbone drilling (FbD). This method has been utilized in several hydrocarbon fields worldwide, resulting in high recovery enhancement and reduced carbon emissions from drilling. FbD involves drilling several branches from laterals and can be considered as an alternative method to hydraulic fracturing to increase the stimulated reservoir volume. However, the expected productivity of applying a Fishbone well from one field to another can vary due to various challenges such as Fishbone well design, reservoir lithology, and accessibility. Another challenge is the lack of existing analytical models and the effect of each Fishbone parameter on the cumulative production, as well as the interaction between them. In this paper, analytical and empirical productivity models were modified for FbD in a dry gas reservoir. The modified analytical model showed a higher accuracy with respect to the existing model. It was also compared with the modified empirical model, which proved its higher accuracy. Finally, machine learning algorithms were developed to predict FbD productivity, which showed close results with both analytical and empirical models. Full article

This paper analyzes the potential of solar thermal systems for being employed for process heating in cotton-based textile industries. The technological capability of a flat plate collector (FPC) to meet the solar industrial process heating (SIPH) requirement in yarn production is assessed. Moreover, the usability of a parabolic trough collector (PTC) in meeting the technological mandates of SIPH in fabric processing units is critically examined. Further, this paper reports the findings of a study on the potential cost advantage of solar process heating over the conventional process heating practices in cotton-based textile industries. The approach involves the selection of the locations of sample textile industries and the employable solar collector technologies, as well as assessment of financial reward, if any. Eight different cotton-based textile industries located in different geographical domains (in India) are selected. The selected textile industries are situated within the textile hubs existing in different states across India. Analysis of technoeconomic benefit derivable in selected textile industries using FPC for hot water generation and PTC for steam generation is presented. In the case of FPC-based SIPH systems, the maximum value of solar fraction is estimated to be 0.30 and the corresponding estimation for the levelized cost of useful thermal energy (LCUTE) delivered comes out as INR 790/GJ to INR 1020/GJ. On the other hand, in case of parabolic-trough-solar-concentrator-based SIPH systems, LCUTE is estimated in the range of INR 1030/GJ to INR 1610/GJ. From a critical analysis of financial viability in consideration of related factors such as payback time and return on investment in SIPH, it appears that the SIPH systems for hot water generation may be a good choice, whereas SIPH systems for steam generation are seen to have longer payback periods and lower returns on investment, and, therefore, it seems that adequate financial support from central and state governments with additional supports from bilateral or multilateral organizations may enable them to become a sustainable technology option. Full article

In this paper, we present the first place solution for the Aircraft Localization Competition, which was held on the AIcrowd platform between 15 June 2020 and 31 January 2021 and was organized by the OpenSky Network and the Cyber-Defence Campus of armasuisse Science and Technology. The data for the competition was collected by the OpenSky Network from hundreds of crowdsourced low-cost receivers with nanosecond precision timestamps. Many receivers experienced clock drift and random walk and even provided fully broken timestamps. The solution combines well-known multilateration positioning with a variety of filtering methods and two tailored models for radio wave propagation and receiver clock drift to predict unknown aircraft locations. In this solution, we managed to synchronize 241 receivers, including 36 GPS-equipped, and achieved 81.9 m RMSE 2D distance prediction accuracy on $70\%$ of samples on the private leaderboard. Full article

About 90% of the world’s natural gas hydrates (NGH) exist in deep-sea formations, a new energy source with great potential for exploitation. There is distance from the threshold of commercial exploitation based on the single well currently used. The complex structure well is an efficient and advanced drilling technology. The improvement of NGH productivity through various complex structure wells is unclear, and there is no more complete combing. Thus, in order to evaluate their gas production characteristics, we establish a mathematical model for exploitation of NGH, and then 13 sets of numerical models based on the geological parameters of the Nankai Trough in Japan are developed and designed, including a single vertical well, a single horizontal well, 1~4 branch vertical wells, 1~4 branch horizontal wells, and 2~4 branch cluster horizontal wells. The research results indicate that wells with complex structures represented by directional wells and multilateral wells can significantly increase the area of water and gas discharge, especially cluster wells, whose productivity can be increased by up to 2.2 times compared with single wells. Complex structural wells will play an irreplaceable role in the future industrialization of NGH. Full article

The increasing complexity of building projects, with high quality standards, integrated technologies and strong management restrictions, demands the intervention of numerous and diverse specialists. This requires an intense leadership, organization and coordination effort. However, building regulations, such as the Spanish Law on Building Management (LOE) 38/1999, only formally consider developers, project designers, project and work supervisors, quality control entities, construction companies, owners and final users as building agents. However, these categories are insufficient to represent the interests of all the stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to carry out an analysis of the agents that are currently part of the entire building process. If their relationship of influence and dependence, as well as their alignment with the overall objectives of the project are studied, potential convergences, divergences, agreements and disagreements can be established. To do this, the authors conducted a prospective analysis through the MACTOR (Matrix of Alliances and Conflicts: Tactics, Objectives and Recommendations) strategic planning simulation tool, for which the rules of the Delphi technique were applied and a consultation with technical experts, both professionals and academics, was held. The research provides insight to assess the power relationships between the building agents, as well as to measure the alignment of objectives with their interests. Results show that, in the context of integrated project management (IPM), the influence of technical agents is reduced by limiting their functions to those marked by their regulatory framework, allowing them to focus on their legal powers, and the room for manoeuvre of the professional agents, who are subject to systematized monitoring and control, is also reduced. The prospective analysis also highlights the importance of defining the scope from its early stages, as well as the need to reach multilateral agreements based on the other two main constraints: time and cost. Full article

For sustainable economic development, a continuous and successful economic transformation is critical, and supporting economic transformation requires a better understanding of the close interaction between technology and skill at the micro- and macro-levels. The technology-skill links should especially be important in today’s globalized world. This paper develops a large-scale global Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model by incorporating recent theoretical advances in international trade: Heterogeneous workers endogenously sort into different technologies based on their comparative advantage, and aggregate productivity is determined by skill-technology assignment in equilibrium. We then calibrate our model to a real-world data set, and investigate how multilateral free trade agreements affect individual member states, as well as outside countries and regions in the case of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Overall, the results show considerable real productivity gains and economic transformation effects, due to technology-upgrading mechanisms. Full article

Accurate, inexpensive, and reliable real-time indoor localization holds the key to the full potential of the context-aware applications and location-based Internet of Things (IoT) services. State-of-the-art indoor localization systems are coping with the complex non-line-of-sight (NLOS) signal propagation which hinders the use of proven multiangulation and multilateration methods, as well as with prohibitive installation costs, computational demands, and energy requirements. In this paper, we present a novel sensor utilizing low-range infrared (IR) signal in the line-of-sight (LOS) context providing high precision angle-of-arrival (AoA) estimation. The proposed sensor is used in the pragmatic solution to the localization problem that avoids NLOS propagation issues by exploiting the powerful concept of the wireless sensor network (WSN). To demonstrate the proposed solution, we applied it in the challenging context of the supermarket cart navigation. In this specific use case, a proof-of-concept navigation system was implemented with the following components: IR-AoA sensor prototype and the corresponding WSN used for cart localization, server-side application programming interface (API), and client application suite consisting of smartphone and smartwatch applications. The localization performance of the proposed solution was assessed in, altogether, four evaluation procedures, including both empirical and simulation settings. The evaluation outcomes are ranging from centimeter-level accuracy achieved in static-1D context up to 1 m mean localization error obtained for a mobile cart moving at 140 cm/s in a 2D setup. These results show that, for the supermarket context, appropriate localization accuracy can be achieved, along with the real-time navigation support, using readily available IR technology with inexpensive hardware components. Full article

International genebanks have a collection of over 760 K conserved accessions of various plants, most of these accessions are within the multi-lateral system governed by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). However, in spite of the success in collection and conservation, only a small portion of the genetic diversity has been used in crop breeding programs. As climate change-induced new or enhanced constraints seriously hamper crop productions, researchers and breeders should be able to swiftly choose an appropriate set of genetic resources from the genebank and use them for improving crop varieties. Here, we present some advanced technologies that can effectively promote the use of diverse rice accessions held at national/international genebanks. High throughput phenotyping using multispectral imaging systems and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) can quickly screen large numbers of accessions for various useful traits. Such data, when combined with that from the digital rice genebank consisting of genome sequencing data, will significantly increase the efficiency in breeding efforts. Recent genome sequencing data of the rice wild species will also add to the resources available for pre-breeding efforts such as the introgression of useful genes into modern rice varieties. We expect that these advanced technologies and strategies developed through the global rice research programs will be applicable for many closely related species as well. Full article

The innovative economy is based on effective interaction between the scientific and educational sphere and the business environment, free flow of innovative ideas, and active commercialization of developments in order to constantly update and develop the domestic economy through new technologies. At the moment, a model of effective interaction between universities, business structures, and government in Russia has not been built. This research is aimed to develop a mechanism for multilateral interaction between universities and other participants in the innovation system, which ensures the activation of scientific and innovative activities, acceleration of the transfer process, and effective commercialization of innovative ideas. Methods. To evaluate the effectiveness of the offered interaction mechanism based on the open innovation platform we conducted a complex multi-criteria assessment of forecast indicators of a university’s innovation activity effectiveness. We conducted two online surveys. Heads of scientific laboratories at the university (N = 4) and representatives of business (N = 3) acted as experts. The first survey was intended to indicate the weight of innovation activity indicators reflecting the significance of these indicators in the framework of innovation development. In the second survey, experts defined the forecast indicators of the university’s innovation activity after implementation of the proposed interaction mechanism. Results. The conducted study revealed the importance of enhancing cooperation between universities and other innovation system actors for achieving higher results of innovation activity. The calculation of the effectiveness of the offered interaction mechanism showed positive influence on the university’s innovation activity indicators. Thus, the mechanism can be used by multidisciplinary universities to increase their innovation activity indicators as well as the potential of all interacting entities. Full article