Search Results (55)

Quickly designing digital circuits that are both correct and efficient poses significant challenges. Electronics, especially those incorporating sequential logic circuits, are complex to design and test. While Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools aid designers, they do not fully automate the creation of synthesisable circuits that can be directly translated into hardware. This paper introduces a system that employs Grammatical Evolution (GE) to automatically generate synthesisable Hardware Description Language (HDL) code for the Finite State Machine (FSM) of a Multi-Sequence Detector (MSD). This MSD differs significantly from prior work as it can detect multiple sequences in contrast to the single-sequence detectors discussed in existing literature. Sequence Detectors (SDs) are essential in circuits that detect sequences of specific events to produce timely alerts. The proposed MSD applies to a real-time vending machine scenario, enabling customer selections upon successful payment. However, this technique can evolve any MSD, such as a traffic light control system or a robot navigation system. We examine two parent selection techniques, Tournament Selection (TS) and Lexicase Selection (LS), demonstrating that LS performs better than TS, although both techniques successfully produce synthesisable hardware solutions. Both hand-crafted “Gold” and evolved circuits are synthesised using Generic Process Design Kit (GPDK) technologies at 45 nm, 90 nm, and 180 nm scales, demonstrating their efficacy. Full article

The proliferation of digital platforms and interactive technologies has transformed the way service providers engage with their customers, particularly in emerging economies, where digital inclusion is an ongoing process. This study explores the relationship between omnichannel strategies and customer satisfaction, conceptualized here as a proxy for Quality of Experience (QoE), within a smart service station located in a digitally underserved region. Grounded in customer journey theory and the expectancy–disconfirmation paradigm, the study investigates how data integration, digital payment systems, and logistical flexibility—key components of intelligent e-service systems—influence user perceptions and satisfaction. Based on a correlational design with a non-probabilistic sample of 108 customers, the findings reveal a moderate association between overall omnichannel integration and satisfaction (ρ = 0.555, p < 0.01). However, a multiple regression analysis indicates that no individual dimension significantly predicts satisfaction (adjusted R² = 0.002). These results suggest that while users value system integration and interaction flexibility, no single technical feature drives satisfaction independently. The study contributes to the growing field of intelligent human-centric service systems by contextualizing QoE and digital inclusion within emerging markets and by emphasizing the importance of perceptual factors in ICT-enabled environments. Full article

Bike-sharing initiatives play a crucial role in sustainable urban transportation, addressing vehicular congestion, air quality issues, and sedentary lifestyles. However, the connection between bike-sharing facilities and the advantages perceived by users remains insufficiently explored particular in post-industrial regions, such as Silesia, Poland. This study develops a multidimensional framework linking infrastructure elements—such as station density, bicycle accessibility, maintenance standards, and technological integration—to perceived benefits. Using a mixed-methods approach, a survey conducted in key Silesian cities combines quantitative analysis (descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and regression modelling) with qualitative insights from user feedback. The results indicate that the most valuable benefits are health improvements (e.g., improved physical fitness and mobility) and environmental sustainability. However, infrastructural deficiencies—disjointed bike path systems, uneven station placements, and irregular maintenance—substantially hinder system efficiency and accessibility. Inadequate bike maintenance adversely affects efficiency, safety, and sustainability, highlighting the necessity for predictive upkeep and optimised services. This research underscores innovation as a crucial factor for enhancing systems, promoting seamless integration across multiple modes, diversification of fleets (including e-bikes and cargo bikes), and the use of sophisticated digital solutions like real-time tracking, contactless payment systems, and IoT-based monitoring. Furthermore, the transformation of post-industrial areas into cycling-supportive environments presents strategic opportunities for sustainable regional revitalisation. These findings extend beyond the context of Silesia, offering actionable insights for policymakers, urban mobility planners, and Smart City stakeholders worldwide, aiming to foster inclusive, efficient, and technology-enabled bike-sharing systems. Full article

Despite the spread of digital payment systems, banknotes still play a vital role in the lives of people, financial institutions, and businesses. Automation is crucial in all cases where a large number of deposits/withdrawals need to be handled. In spite of the large number of cash recyclers worldwide and their continuous evolution, one of the most significant parts of their design, i.e., the interaction with banknotes, is still predominantly based on a lengthy iterative process that includes testing. This has detrimental effects not only on time-to-market but also on the costs and on the willingness to explore multiple design solutions, thus potentially reducing the quality of the final product. The testing phase is made necessary by the lack of an effective and predictive model for the banknote and of its contact with the components of the cash recycler. The purpose of this work is to bridge this gap in the literature by introducing and validating an original multibody model of the banknote-cash recycler system. The proposed approach includes the possibility of including the nonlinear orthotropic paper material curves and of customizing quantities such as paper thickness and friction coefficients at specific locations, with potential applications in optimizing banknote validation, reducing wear in cash handling systems, and improving the design of next-generation cash recyclers. Full article

Future generations of wireless networks at high-frequency spectrum suffer from limited coverage and Non-Line- of-Sight signal blockage, challenging emerging applications, such as smart industries and intelligent automation systems. Collaborative and cooperative communications with smart relays via Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) could be a breakthrough solution to this challenge. This paper presents a blockchain-integrated framework for NOMA wireless communication systems that incentivizes cooperation among users serving as relays. By leveraging Ethereum-based smart contracts, we introduce a Service Verification Contract featuring a Proof of Quality of Experience (PQoE) mechanism. The contract uses trust scores, weighted verifications, and dynamic validation thresholds to ensure honest behavior and deter malicious activities. The simulation results show that honest participants gradually increase their trust scores and require fewer verifications, while malicious verifiers lose influence over repeated rounds. Our findings indicate that combining trust-based incentives with a decentralized ledger can effectively promote reliable data-relaying services and streamline payment processes in collaborative and smart wireless networking systems. Full article

Current data trading systems only support plaintext or unaudited private transactions. To overcome these, we present a confidential batch payment scheme with integrated auditing for enhanced data trading security. We use Castagnos–Laguillaumie (CL) homomorphic encryption and batch zero-knowledge proofs to construct the scheme. The scheme reduces decryption complexity and ciphertext length while enabling malicious model operations. In addition, it supports efficient batch payments to multiple recipients and includes features for payment statistic analysis and auditing. Experimental results indicate that the system efficiently handles encryption, decryption, and auditing tasks, completing each operation in an average of 0.89, 1.55, and 1.55 milliseconds, respectively. Full article

With the rapid rise in the gig economy driven by advancements in digital technology and financial technology, this study focuses on the work experiences and psychological perceptions of food delivery riders in platform-based employment. This study used a sample of food delivery riders from 19 cities in China (such as Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, etc.) and multiple delivery platforms (such as Meituan, Ele.me) to collect data through a combination of online and offline questionnaires. The impact relationship between perceived fairness, organizational trust, and organizational identity of food delivery riders was examined through factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and mediation effect modeling. The results of the survey and statistical analysis indicate that fairness perception and its dimensions (distributive fairness, procedural fairness, and interactional fairness) significantly influence riders’ organizational identification, with organizational trust serving as a critical mediating factor. The integration of digital technology has substantially enhanced the operational efficiency of platform-based employment by enabling real-time tracking, transparent communication, and data-driven decision-making. Innovations in financial technology, such as digital payment systems and financial management tools, offer riders safer and more convenient compensation methods, thereby contributing to their financial stability and fostering trust in the platform. The establishment of trust alleviates the riders’ concerns regarding compensation stability and bolsters their optimistic attitudes toward accessing platform resources and meeting their needs. This study provides significant insights and recommendations for leveraging digital technology and financial technology to improve the relationship and operational efficiency between riders and platform enterprises. Full article

The net return from milk to the producers is defined as the aggregate market income from dairy products, after deducting all processing and marketing costs. The way to distribute this net return is through the payment system, which is usually based on multiple components, mainly with a reward for fat and protein and, in the case of the New Zealand dairy industry, a penalty for milk volume. Traditionally, the value of genetic improvement is evaluated using selection index theory assuming that there is an unlimited market where all dairy products can be sold in unlimited amounts at a fixed price and therefore economic values for fat and protein are assumed to be independent of demand. The objective of this study was to estimate the value of continuous genetic improvement evaluated using a model encompassing all the dairy producers in the industry where prices of the dairy products were determined by product specific supply-demand curves. Over 10 years of genetic improvement, the present value of the benefit (10% discount rate) was estimated to be $123,000 per farm. The corresponding benefit when the markets were assumed to have fixed commodity prices was $183,000 per farm. The model revealed that systematic genetic gains had a finite duration during which incremental benefits progressively declined and would be exhausted eventually. Full article

China has been facing a contradiction between its water supply and demand for a long time, and it is urgent that it builds a “water-saving society”. Previous research on water pricing mainly focused on the policy level, only considering the supply and demand sides and ignoring the participation of local governments. Due to the inconsistent approval mechanisms, different times of cost formation, and lack of a scientific pricing relationship between multiple water sources and multiple users, with the current water pricing in China, it is difficult to solve the complex problem of water resource allocation. This study aimed to promote the qualitative supply of water and the reuse of reclaimed water, achieve a high-quality and low-cost water supply, and explore the role of water-pricing mechanisms in the regulation of multi-source water supply configurations. The mechanism of regulation is constructed for the complex, multi-source, multi-user water resource system, and a three-party game model is established among local governments, water supply enterprises, and water users. A reasonable pricing system with a rational price relationship is obtained, and Pinghu City in Zhejiang Province is taken as the research area. The prices of the external water supply to residential users, non-resident users, and special users are 4.48 CNY/m³, 6.28 CNY/m³, and 7.12 CNY/m³. The external supply prices for resident users, non-resident users, and special users are 3.81 CNY/m³, 5.25 CNY/m³, and 6.05 CNY/m³. The external supply price for non-resident users is 2.62 CNY/m³ for reclaimed water. The results of the study showed that when the government’s contribution did not exceed the amount that it would have been without the inclusion of recycled water and the annual payment of water users did not exceed their ability to pay, the income of water suppliers increased by 69%. The three balanced objectives of rational water resource configuration by the local government, reasonable profit for the water supply enterprise, and reasonable payment by water users have been achieved. This study provides theoretical and methodological support for the implementation of water pricing for multi-source and multi-user water supplies in water-scarce areas. Full article

The implementation of prefabricated housing (PH) has become prevalent in China recently due to its advantages in enhancing production and energy-saving efficiency within the construction system. However, stakeholders may not always fully realize the benefits of adopting PH due to the emergence of transaction costs (TCs) in the development process of such projects. This study investigated the strategies for developers to make rational choices for minimizing the TCs of the PH project considering their own attributes and external constraints. A Bayesian Belief Network model was applied as the analytical method, based on surveys conducted in China. A single sensitivity analysis indicated that developers influence the TCs of PH through the following three most impactful factors: prefabrication rate, PH experience, and contract payment method. Integrated strategies are recommended for developers in various situations based on a multiple sensitivity analysis. Developers facing challenges due to high prefabrication rates are advised to reduce the risks by procuring highly qualified general contractors and adopting unit-price contracts. For developers with limited PH experience, adopting the Engineering–Procurement–Construction procurement method is the most efficient way to reduce their TCs in the context of China’s PH market. This study contributes to the current body of knowledge concerning the effect of traders’ attributes and choices on TCs, expanding the application of TC theory and fulfilling the study on the determinants of TCs in construction management. Full article

Permanent grasslands (PG) feature in the European rural landscape and represent a major agricultural production resource. They support multiple non-provisioning ecosystem services (ES), including climate regulation, flood control, biodiversity, and pollination. PG are at risk of loss or degradation due to agricultural land use and land management changes. The objective of this systematic review is to identify the main economic influences shaping management and maintenance of PG, and the risks and opportunities for delivery of a range of ES. A total of 51 papers were included. Relevant policy interventions and economic drivers are identified in relation to how they shape the management of EU grasslands over time and across farming systems, countries, or biogeographic zones. A high reliance on public payments from the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), with uneven impact on mitigating PG losses and associated ES provisions, was identified, which needs to be considered in relation to ongoing CAP reform. There is a gap in the literature regarding economic tipping points for change. Future research needs to identify and map ES provisions by PG along with trade-offs and synergies, and link this to policy. There are substantive challenges to maintaining Europe’s PG area and management, which must be addressed through EU-wide instruments. Full article

In fiscal year 2020, new national Medicare payment models were implemented in the two most common post-acute care settings (i.e., skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and home health agencies (HHAs)), which were followed by the emergence of COVID-19. Given concerns about the unintended consequence of these events, this study protocol will examine how organizations responded to these policies and whether there were changes in SNF and HHA access, care delivery, and outcomes from the perspectives of leadership, staff, patients, and families. We will conduct a two-phase multiple case study guided by the Institute of Medicine’s Model of Healthcare Systems. Phase I will include three cases for each setting and a maximum of fifty administrators per case. Phase II will include a subset of Phase I organizations, which are grouped into three setting-specific cases. Each Phase II case will include a maximum of four organizations. Semi-structured interviews will explore the perspectives of frontline staff, patients, and family caregivers (Phase II). Thematic analysis will be used to examine the impact of payment policy and COVID-19 on organizational operations, care delivery, and patient outcomes. The results of this study intend to develop evidence addressing concerns about the unintended consequences of the PAC payment policy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Full article

An Integrated Assessment Model (IAM) was employed to develop a Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) and a quantitative model to investigate the changes in land use within the Brazilian Amazon. The process began by creating a theoretical NPF using a ‘systems thinking’ approach. Subsequently, a ‘system dynamic model’ was built based on an extensive review of the literature and on multiple quantitative datasets to simulate the impacts of the NPF, specifically focusing on the conversion of forests into open land for ranching and the implementation of soil management practices as a macro-level policy aimed at preserving soil quality and ranching yields. Various fallow scenarios were tested to simulate their effects on deforestation patterns. The results indicate that implementing fallow practices as a policy measure could reduce deforestation rates while simultaneously ensuring sustainable long-term agricultural productivity, thus diminishing the necessity to clear new forest land. Moreover, when combined with payments for avoided deforestation, such as REDD+ carbon offsets, the opportunity costs associated with ranching land can be utilized to compensate for the loss of gross income resulting from the policy. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the significance of different model variables, revealing that lower cattle prices require resources for REDD+ payments, and vice-versa. The findings indicate that, at the macro level, payments between USD 2.5 and USD 5.0 per MgC ha⁻¹ have the potential to compensate the foregone cattle production from not converting forest into ranching land. This study demonstrates that employing an IAM with a systems approach facilitates the participation of various stakeholders, including farmers and landowners, in policy discussions. It also enables the establishment of effective land use and management policies that mitigate deforestation and soil degradation, making it a robust initiative to address environmental, climate change, and economic sustainability issues. Full article

Accounts Payable (AP) is a time-consuming and labor-intensive process used by large corporations to compensate vendors on time for goods and services received. A comprehensive verification procedure is executed before disbursing funds to a supplier or vendor. After the successful conclusion of these validations, the invoice undergoes further processing by traversing multiple stages, including vendor identification; line-item matching; accounting code identification; tax code identification, ensuring proper calculation and remittance of taxes, verifying payment terms, approval routing, and compliance with internal control policies and procedures, for a comprehensive approach to invoice processing. At the moment, each of these processes is almost entirely manual and laborious, which makes the process time-consuming and prone to mistakes in the ongoing education of agents. It is difficult to accomplish the task of automatically processing these invoices for payment without any human involvement. To provide a solution, we implemented an automated invoicing system with modules based on artificial intelligence. This system processes invoices from beginning to finish. It takes very little work to configure it to meet the specific needs of each unique customer. Currently, the system has been put into production use for two customers. It has handled roughly 80 thousand invoices, of which 76 percent were automatically processed with little or no human interaction. Full article

In this paper, a sustainability framework for global and scalable payment systems is introduced. It is based on energy and resource consumption and pollutant classes and is inspired by ISO14040 principles. This paper aims to provide guidance for the implementation of blockchain-based technologies in a Life-Cycle Assessment methodology. The impact criteria adopted in this first approximation are at the stakeholders’ level. Enhancement through Enterprise Resource Planning software integration is considered to extend the impact allocation to the level of products and services. The system is designed on environmental economic models based on resources. A continuous depletion in the quality of exchangeable output is also modelled with respect to raw material consumption. We also consider the geophysical coordinates of pollutant emissions and the concurrent emission of pollutants affecting the quality of such outputs. This framework aims to be initially applied to the CO_2eq indicator, which is identified by a set of aerial pollutants with global warming potential as proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Nonetheless, an incentive scheme within the so-defined payment system is possible and herein suggested, including the extension to other impact criteria (e.g., pollutants released in water and soil). Multiple approximations are made in order to overcome the difficulty in sampling reservoirs of natural resources, such as (1) disregarding regeneration rate and physical limits of raw material reservoirs and (2) estimating the minimum amount of pollutants affecting the perceived quality of economic transactions. Eventually, sampling policies are outlined as fundamental tactics to foster the effectiveness of this framework. Full article