Search Results (13,923)

Interventional Radiology (IR) is increasingly integrated into multidisciplinary care pathways and requires organizational models capable of coordinating procedural appropriateness, patient safety, professional responsibilities, and resource allocation across hospital networks. This study aimed to develop a context-specific, pre-implementation, document-based organizational framework for the planned activation of an oncology-oriented angiographic suite at the Presidio Ospedaliero “Mons. R. Dimiccoli” of Barletta within the Azienda Sanitaria Locale Barletta–Andria–Trani (ASL BT) dual-hospital network. The framework was developed through structured analysis of institutional planning and governance documents, document-based contextual assessment of the two hospital sites, and systematic translation of identified organizational requirements into structural, procedural, governance, safety, and monitoring components. The model was conceptually organized according to the Structure–Process–Outcome framework and normatively aligned with selected international standards relevant to healthcare quality management, risk management, occupational safety, medical-device-related quality processes, and organizational governance. Its theoretical contribution consists of operationalizing the Structure–Process–Outcome model within the pre-implementation design of a network-based IR service, rather than testing, modifying, or validating the theory itself. The resulting framework differentiates emergency and time-dependent IR activity, maintained at the Andria site, from planned elective oncology-oriented angiographic activity at Barletta. It defines network allocation criteria, procedural scope, governance responsibilities, structural and professional requirements, standardized pre-, intra-, and post-procedural pathways, safety architecture, and prospective quality and performance indicators. No post-implementation clinical or organizational outcomes were evaluated, and the framework has not undergone external validation. It should therefore be interpreted as a context-specific service-design model whose feasibility, performance, and applicability to other healthcare settings require prospective evaluation and local adaptation. Full article

Recent advances in Generative AI are creating new opportunities for engineering and geosciences activities. This study examined whether the initial production of Territorial and Environmental Diagnosis (TED) reports could be co-piloted by multi-agent systems. The study proposed a challenge between a classical engineering workflow and a multi-agent framework (MAF) combining specialized agents boosted by LLMs for data retrieval, Data Visualization, writing, statistical description, and publishing within a unified deterministic workflow. To evaluate the effectiveness of the MAF, a blind comparative assessment was conducted using sections of TED reports produced by internal experts for three French municipalities as reference case studies. The framework was tested across several key thematic sections, and MAF outputs were compared with the outputs generated by territorial experts. The evaluation focused on Data Relevance, Writing Quality, Data Visualization, Contextual Relevance, and Overall Rating. The results of our experiments indicate that MAF reduced, within tested conditions, the time required for reporting while maintaining a level of quality comparable to conventional reports. Evaluations confirmed that MAF performed well in themes relying on processing data, while human-produced reports retained an advantage in topics requiring deeper contextual interpretation. These findings support the potential of MAF as co-pilots for TED production in engineering workflows. Full article

Production scheduling in sustainable manufacturing systems must cope with processing time uncertainty while maintaining operational efficiency and controlling operational costs. This paper proposes a Distributionally Robust Optimization (DRO) model for the permutation flow shop scheduling problem with sequence-dependent setup times (PFSP-SDST), where uncertain processing times are represented through multiple scenarios and evaluated under ambiguous probability distributions. An exact solution approach is developed for small-scale instances. For medium and large-scale problems, the Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP), the proposed Hybrid GRASP (HGRASP), Ant Lion Optimizer (ALO) and Slime Mold Algorithm (SMA) are adapted and compared. Computational experiments show that most methods closely reproduce the exact benchmark solutions on small instances. For large-scale problems, the Friedman test reveals significant differences in both solution quality ($p=9.91 \times {10}^{-6}$) and computational time ($p=3.49 \times {10}^{-6}$). Post hoc comparisons indicate that ALO and SMA achieve the best solution quality performance and are statistically indistinguishable from each other, while SMA obtains the most favorable computational time rank. These findings indicate favorable performance of the population-based metaheuristics under the adopted experimental settings for the considered distributionally robust flow shop scheduling problems under processing time uncertainty. The proposed DRO framework offers a practical approach for generating reliable schedules while reducing operational costs in Industry 4.0 manufacturing systems. Full article

The cold supply chain (CSC) reverse logistics segment remains underexplored in the risk assessment literature. Existing frameworks apply traditional failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) with a three-criterion structure (severity, occurrence, detectability), which inadequately captures the time-sensitive and cost-intensive risk environment of CSC reverse logistics. This study proposes an integrated framework combining hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP)-based node partitioning, an extended five-criterion FMEA incorporating timeliness and economic cost, triangular interval-valued fuzzy number (TIVFN) aggregation via the Aczél–Alsina operator, and cumulative prospect theory (CPT) to prioritize risk modes. Applied to a food-sector reverse CSC, 16 failure modes were identified across six HACCP-based process nodes. Severity and economic cost jointly account for 47.5% of total criterion weight. Monitoring and data management (node P6) consistently emerge as the dominant risk cluster, with data completeness (FM14), sensor accuracy (FM15), and early-warning functionality (FM16) occupying the top three positions across all weight scenarios. Relative to conventional models and the extended RPN, the TIVFN-CPT model assigns FM16 a substantially higher priority, demonstrating that CPT captures asymmetric, loss-averse risk perception that conventional methods fail to encode. Sensitivity analysis across five weight scenarios confirms the structural robustness of the rankings. By extending FMEA to a five-criterion behavioral framework and introducing TIVFNs as an uncertainty-preserving linguistic scale, this study indicates that information quality constitutes a risk factor of comparable priority to physical temperature maintenance, supporting a tiered resource allocation strategy that prioritizes investment at node P6 and targeted upgrades at nodes P1 and P4. Full article

Nitrogen (N) availability strongly influences tea growth and the accumulation of quality-related metabolites, but long-term responses to withdrawal of external N can vary among cultivars. In this study, we characterized phenotypic, spectral, biochemical, and transcriptomic responses of four Camellia sinensis accessions—‘Kolkhida’, ‘Karatum’, and γ-irradiation-derived mutant forms #582 and #619—during two, four, or six months of complete withdrawal of exogenous NH₄NO₃ in greenhouse sand culture. Phenotypic, spectral, and biochemical measurements included all four accessions at all three time points; RNA-seq data were available for all four accessions were represented at four and six months, whereas two-month point were available only for ‘Kolkhida’ and ‘Karatum’. Nitrogen withdrawal decreased L-theanine and caffeine and generally increased simple and gallated catechins, consistent with a change in carbon/nitrogen balance towards phenolic metabolism. The four cultivars exhibited markedly distinct responses. ‘Karatum’ showed the optimum resilience, with minimal phenotypic alteration and a neutral transcriptional response, while #582 demonstrated a stronger stress-associated phenotype and metabolic response. Within the available RNA-seq comparisons, DEG counts were lower at four months than at six months, while the two-month datasets for ‘Kolkhida’ and ‘Karatum’ contained the largest DEG sets for those two cultivars, suggesting a phased acclimation process. CsELIP1, CsSRG1, CsHHO2/4, CsNRT2.4, and CsTAT2 were identified as potential candidate genes associated with nitrogen limitation, flavonoid regulation, and amino acid metabolism. Our findings show that N-deficiency reactions in tea are highly cultivar- and time-dependent, making single-time-point evaluations insufficient. We propose ‘Karatum’ as a promising candidate for further evaluation in low-nitrogen dose–response and field trials based on our combined biochemical and transcriptional findings. Full article

The reproductive stage is a critical time in a plant’s life history when dealing with heat stress as the specific processes of meiosis, gametogenesis, anthesis, pollination, fertilization, and early seed development all occur within comparatively narrow temperature limits. Much of the importance of flowering is tied directly to temperature, both for the timing of reproductive transition and the ability for male and female reproductive tissues to survive exposure to damaging heat. Ambient-temperature sensing is linked to flowering via regulatory modules that involve phytochrome B, EARLY FLOWERING 3 (ELF3), PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR 4 (PIF4), FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT), FLOWERING LOCUS M (FLM), SHORT VEGETATIVE PHASE (SVP), and the light–circadian components. Conversely, when temperature is harmful, protective responses involve other cellular mechanisms such as activation of heat-shock transcription factors (HSFs), heat-shock proteins (HSPs), endoplasmic-reticulum protein quality control, calcium and reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling, antioxidant systems, hormone regulation, metabolic reprogramming, autophagy and DNA-repair pathways. Male reproductive development is often very sensitive, especially at meiosis, during formation of the tetrad, microspore development, during the maturation of pollen, and during the growth of the pollen tubes, although injury to pistils, ovules and the post-fertilization tissues may solely have an effect on the restriction of fertilization and seed set. Phenological heat escape and intrinsic reproductive thermotolerance are genetically separable but can be complementary aspects of adaptation, as revealed by natural allelic variation, QTL mapping, genomic prediction and marker assisted selection. This review summarizes molecular, genetic and physiological evidence, to propose that, to ensure stable yields at high temperatures, there is a need to coordinate optimization of reproductive timing, cell and development thermotolerance, and post-fertilization sink stability. Full article

The operational behavior of micromobility users is a key indicator of the safety performance and design quality of cycling infrastructure; yet, existing video-based methods either require intensive manual processing or locate users coarsely through the centroid of the bounding box. This study presents and validates a semi-automated computer-vision tool that extracts the lateral position and instantaneous speed of micromobility users from bird’s-eye-view video recordings acquired with a single camera. The tool, implemented in Python 3.10.11, integrates bike lane segmentation, background-subtraction-based detection, multi-object tracking, and a heatmap-based contour extraction that places the measurement point at the wheel–pavement contact, providing a physically meaningful reference at predefined control sections. Validation was conducted in controlled tangent and curved sections, against physical distance references and previously verified e-scooter speed readings. In the tangent section, lateral position estimates showed a negligible bias, with a mean error below 1 cm and 99% of observations within ±5.0 cm, while over 70% of speed estimates were within ±2.0 km/h tolerance. In the curved section, the tool slightly underestimated lateral position and overestimated speed, with errors remaining within the practical tolerances. These results support the use of the tool for operational and safety studies of micromobility infrastructure under controlled conditions, reducing processing time without requiring trained detection models. Full article

Mexico’s highly biodiverse agro-industrial sector is a cornerstone of its economy, prominently featuring a robust sugarcane industry that ranks seventh globally in sugar production. This industry utilizes 52% of the country’s industrial water resources, hence producing substantial quantities of complex wastewater. To address this critical environmental challenge, this study evaluates a continuous electrocoagulation process applied to sugarcane mill effluents. The study examines the effectiveness of removing essential water quality indicators, chemical oxygen demand (COD), turbidity, and total solids (TSs), total suspended solids (TSSs), and total dissolved solids (TDSs), by evaluating the influence of the hydraulic retention time (HRT) and current intensity. Investigations were performed in a 20 L continuous-flow Imhoff reactor fitted with aluminum electrodes. Ideal operational parameters were attained with a hydraulic retention time of 120 min and a current intensity of 1.5 amperes. Within these parameters, the system attained notable removal efficiencies: 69% for COD, 78% for turbidity, 60% for total solids, 94% for suspended particles, and 55% for dissolved solids. These findings indicate that the incorporation of continuous electrocoagulation into an Imhoff tank design offers a highly efficient and scalable first treatment to reduce the ecological effects of sugarcane agro-industrial effluents. Full article

Autonomous navigation and mooring in confined waters require a navigation solution that remains reliable when individual sensing channels are delayed, unavailable, or environmentally degraded. A risk- and integrity-aware architecture was developed for joint processing of RTK-GNSS, inertial and heading measurements, short-range radar, LiDAR, camera, AIS, ultrasonic ranging, propulsion feedback, environmental, and mooring-line tension data. Asynchronous time alignment is combined with sensor-quality assessment, innovation-based fault detection and isolation, covariance adaptation, active-set reconfiguration, protection-level monitoring, and risk-dependent allocation of authority between automation and the operator. The system was evaluated during a five-day campaign comprising 40 runs, four operational phases, 480 synchronized evaluation epochs, and 16 controlled single-sensor or combined sensor-degradation events. Under nominal conditions, horizontal-position and heading RMSE were 0.043 m and 0.176°, respectively. All 64 fault-active diagnostic records were identified; mean event-log detection and controlled-recovery latencies were 3.17 s and 6.34 s. Horizontal protection-level coverage was 99.3% for single-fault epochs and 100% for combined-fault epochs. One combined-fault docking run contained five consecutive aborted decision epochs, while no unsafe-autonomy event was recorded. The measurements therefore indicate bounded degradation of the navigation solution and conservative transfer of authority when sensing integrity decreases. Because all injected-fault runs were acquired under adverse weather whereas nominal runs were acquired under calm or moderate conditions, the condition-class RMSE differences reported below are descriptive and must not be interpreted as isolated causal effects of sensor faults. Full article

This study addresses the challenge of temperature non-uniformity during carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite patch repair, which compromises curing quality and process efficiency. A coupled heat transfer–curing kinetics finite element model was developed and experimentally validated to investigate the heat sink effect of support structures. Key findings reveal that temperature differences concentrate near aluminum components and increase with curing temperature. For the present scarf-repair configuration, global sensitivity analysis identified the second-stage holding temperature (T₂) and heating rate (r₂) as the dominant factors governing temperature uniformity, whereas the holding times (dt₁ and dt₂) primarily determine the total curing time (t_total). A novel multi-objective optimization framework combining optimal Latin hypercube sampling, radial basis functions, and NSGA-II was established. The optimized curing profile achieves a surrogate-predicted reduction of 22.5% in maximum temperature difference (22.0% when confirmed by high-fidelity finite element verification) and 36% in total curing time, while maintaining a minimum degree of cure above 0.98. These results provide a validated, surrogate-based framework for designing curing protocols that resolve metal-induced thermal non-uniformity in composite repairs without sacrificing cure quality. Full article

In response to the increasing quality demands of consumers amid technological advancements in manufacturing, manufacturers must manage the quality and lifespan of their products. In practical applications, various methods have been developed to assess product quality performance. This study employs process capability indices (PCIs) to evaluate product quality. This research explores scenarios involving products with multiple quality characteristics or multiple production lines under a Rayleigh lifetime distribution. Using the progressive Type-I interval censored sample, we assess whether the overall lifetime performance index meets a predetermined target. Given a specified significance level and statistical power, the minimum required sample size is derived. Under either fixed or unfixed total testing times, this study identifies the minimum number of observation intervals and the sample size that minimizes the total experimental cost, or the minimum number of observation intervals, equal-length interval time, and sample size. Finally, an illustrative practical example from two production lines is used to demonstrate how to apply the optimal experimental design proposed in this study to construct the progressive Type-I interval censored sample to test whether the overall lifetime performance index achieves the specified target. Full article

Drinking water is essential for humans; its quality determines the health and proper functioning of the body. In order to obtain drinking water in accordance with the legislation in force, the performance of the technology applied for water treatment and the infrastructure for transport and distribution to the consumer are equally important. Particular importance to this last aspect was given by the introduction of European Directive 2020/2184. Infrastructure can significantly influence water quality due to the fact that there are periods when water stagnates in the pipe and electro-corrosion processes, and salt deposits or degradation/corrosion of the pipes can occur, or periods when water circulates under pressure, when deposits but also particles from the pipes are mechanically detached and transported to the consumer. In this article, we aim to present the behavior of asbestos-cement pipes, AC, special steel for pipes OLT 37, galvanized steel, OLT 37.1, and high-density polyethylene, HDPE, in contact with drinking water. The study was conducted in Calarasi city, Calarasi county, Romania, where some of the old pipes were replaced. A comparative study of new pipes of the same type with pipes in use for more than 20 years, up to 46 years, was conducted, and at the same time the changes that the pipes (which have not yet been replaced) have on the quality of drinking water for street consumers were also analyzed. Following the analyses performed, it can be stated that the water quality is within the maximum permissible limits, but the micropollutants that appear can accumulate in the body (such as AC microfibers, microplastics, metallic zinc, zinc ions, iron ions, manganese, aluminum) with effects that can be evident after a long period of consumption through bioaccumulation. Full article

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a solid-state joining process widely used for aluminum alloys due to its low heat input, reduced distortion, and ability to produce high-quality joints. However, excessive tool forces generated during the welding process can increase machine loading, accelerate tool wear, and negatively affect the process efficiency. Therefore, understanding the relationship between welding parameters, tool forces, and the joint performance is essential for achieving high-quality welds while avoiding unnecessary mechanical loads. In this study, 4 mm thick AA5754 aluminum alloy plates were joined using the FSW process, and the feasibility of using tool force measurements for process optimization was investigated. A comprehensive experimental matrix consisting of nine different rotational speeds and ten different tool travel speeds was established based on preliminary studies and previous literature. During each welding operation, forces acting on the tool in the F_x, F_y, and F_z directions were continuously recorded. The welded joints were evaluated through tensile testing (Zwick Z300 universal testing machine, ZwickRoell, Ulm, Germany), hardness measurements, and microstructural characterization using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) (ZEISS Merlin scanning electron microscope, Carl Zeiss Microscopy GmbH, Oberkochen, Jena, and Göttingen, Germany). A Pearson correlation analysis and a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were performed at a 95% confidence level to quantify the relationships and statistical significance of the process parameters. The results showed that F_z was the dominant force component during welding. The rotational speed had a statistically significant effect on the tensile strength, yield strength and hardness (p < 0.05), accounting for 99.39% of the total variation in hardness. For the mean tool force, both the rotational speed and the tool travel speed were statistically significant (p < 0.0001), contributing 38.48% and 47.16% of the total variation, respectively. The rotational speed also accounted for 81.55% of the variation in the maximum axial force. The Pearson correlation analysis showed a strong negative correlation between the rotational speed and hardness (r = −0.73), whereas the tool travel speed showed positive correlations with F_x (r = 0.61), F_z (r = 0.62), and the mean tool force (r = 0.68). Despite the increased tool loading associated with higher travel speeds, no corresponding improvement in the mechanical performance was observed. The results demonstrated that appropriately selected welding conditions produced joints with a yield strength and hardness exceeding 90% of the corresponding base material properties while maintaining relatively lower tool forces. SEM observations confirmed grain refinement in the stir zone. Overall, the combined correlation and ANOVA results demonstrate that real-time tool force monitoring can provide a quantitative basis for selecting FSW parameters that achieve an adequate mechanical performance while minimizing unnecessary machine and tool loading. Full article

Background/Objectives: Energy drinks are marketed to adolescents as products that enhance alertness, concentration, and physical or sports performance, yet their use may also represent a visible marker of sleep debt and a potential contributor to disrupted 24 h behavioral patterns. This narrative review examines evidence linking energy drink consumption with adolescent sleep disturbance and considers implications for obesity risk, cognition, and physical activity. Methods: Targeted literature searches were conducted in PubMed/MEDLINE, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, and reference lists to identify reviews, consensus statements, policy documents, and adolescent-relevant observational or experimental studies. Evidence was synthesized narratively and classified as strong, moderate, limited, or hypothesis-generating according to study design, consistency, age specificity, and directness to the proposed pathway. Results: The strongest evidence supports associations between energy drink use and short or poor-quality sleep, and between sleep dimensions and adolescent adiposity. Experimental adolescent studies support links between sleep restriction, food choice, reward processing, cognition, and self-regulation. Evidence linking energy drink use directly to reduced physical activity is weaker and likely depends on timing, context, and user subgroup. Sugary and sugar-free products require separate interpretation: sugar-containing drinks may contribute directly to energy intake, whereas sugar-free products may still disrupt sleep through caffeine and may not remove behavioral risk. Conclusions: Energy drink use should be considered not only as caffeine or sugar exposure, but also as a screening cue for sleep debt, fatigue, sedentary behavior, and physical activity readiness. Reducing energy drink use alone is unlikely to resolve adolescent sleep debt; multifactorial interventions that combine caffeine-timing guidance, sleep hygiene, screen management, physical activity support, and policy-level access strategies are needed. Full article

This paper presents the design and implementation of an automated quality inspection system based on rotary indexing and inline dimensional measurement. The proposed system integrates a rotary table for precise part positioning with a contact displacement sensor for high-resolution measurement, enabling real-time evaluation of critical geometric parameters during the production cycle. A PLC-based control architecture ensures synchronized operation between mechanical motion and measurement acquisition, utilizing industrial communication over PROFINET for reliable data exchange. A dedicated decision algorithm is implemented to classify parts as acceptable or defective based on predefined tolerance thresholds, allowing immediate feedback and process control. Experimental validation demonstrates high repeatability and measurement stability under continuous operation, confirming the suitability of the system for industrial applications requiring fast and reliable quality control. The results highlight the effectiveness of combining rotary indexing mechanisms with inline measurement techniques for improving production efficiency and reducing inspection time. Full article