Search Results (668)

Smart irrigation is an operational technology (OT) problem as much as an Internet of Things (IoT) one: software decisions act directly on valves, pumps, pressure and water delivery, so a spoofed reading or a replayed command has physical consequences. This paper presents a technology-neutral reference architecture that makes those consequences controllable. It is organised into seven functional layers and three cross-cutting planes, six trust-boundary classes that fix which properties must be re-established at each crossing, and an auditable crown-asset inventory with an explicit trust-level rubric. Two governing execution principles enforce this structure: local safety authority, which keeps final actuation permission at the field gateway, remote terminal unit (RTU) or programmable logic controller (PLC), and feedback-aware execution, which treats a command as complete only when independent physical feedback confirms it. Building on process-aware and safety-supervision ideas from industrial control, the architecture makes physical confirmation a mandatory completion condition at the local enforcement point, which catches a fully authorised command that is nonetheless physically unsafe, a failure mode that authorisation checks alone cannot detect. These properties are examined through a deterministic, openly available software proof-of-concept that verifies the design against its own acceptance criteria; it is not a field validation. The software executes six attack and failure scenarios plus one nominal-operation control against an intentionally unsecured negative control and a secure controller, under identical, controlled conditions: the negative control is compromised in all 6 attack scenarios and the secure controller in 0/6, with 0/1 false positives on legitimate operation. Analytically, the design costs 21 bytes and 50–60% additional Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) time-on-air per record, and 78% of single-step perturbations of the trust-scoring inputs leave asset classification unchanged: the actuator class (A2) is completely stable, and the gateway/RTU/PLC class (A3) is stable under 6 of 7 admissible perturbations (86%), changing only when its credential/update authority reaches the trust-anchor threshold. A sensor-level mapping from sampling rate, measurement drift and physical fault modes to the edge-verification controls they dictate, provisions for secure time, counter recovery and the choice between fail-closed and fail-open safe states, an illustrative hypothetical worked deployment example, and a transfer of the model to greenhouse, fertigation, livestock-watering and cold-chain settings show how the architecture could be applied in practice. Full article

Satellite-enabled content delivery networks (S-CDNs) are needed to improve content access for wide-area, remote, and highly dynamic users, for whom relying only on terrestrial CDN infrastructure is often insufficient. However, in conventional CDN systems, request acceptance and origin fetching are not tightly coupled. In satellite–ground environments with high latency, dynamic connectivity, and limited observability of requester state, low-cost and fully protocol-compliant requests may still trigger disproportionate backend work. This paper attributes the problem to open-loop request admission and studies two protocol-compliant paths. The range path is an instance of a known CDN cost asymmetry. The second path, called “Disconnection-induced amplification after request submission,” builds on known connection-decoupling behavior. Its attack realization is a protocol-compliant requester-side stop inspired by satellite coverage motion. The stop emulates the observable effect of a user leaving the service area after task triggering. The experiment evaluates this emulation. Experiments on an in-orbit prototype and a matched terrestrial configuration, together with supplementary analysis, show substantial back-to-origin amplification along both paths: the smallest byte-range request on uncached objects reaches a peak amplification of about 15,000, while the disconnection-induced path causes persistent satellite-side bandwidth occupation, a lower benign completion ratio, and higher downlink overhead. These findings indicate that cache misses in S-CDNs are not only performance events but also security-relevant points of backend commitment. Full article

Freshwater monitoring networks are often biased toward major rivers and chemical indicators, creating blind spots in ecologically sensitive areas. This study tests whether a legacy monitoring network is positioned in the right parts of its catchment, using three lines of evidence independent of the chemical record, remote sensing to look back, biological indices to assess the present, and catchment modelling to look forward, applied to the Rangitīkei catchment, New Zealand. NDVI, NDBSI, and water quality trends were assessed with a Bayesian change-point method; a catchment-wide macroinvertebrate survey extended coverage beyond routine sites; and the InVEST Nutrient Delivery Ratio model, calibrated against measured nitrogen loads, simulated land use change scenarios. Neither remote sensing nor water quality indicated widespread deterioration, with no directional trends detected in either. Macroinvertebrate surveys identified severely degraded sites outside the existing network, including two below the national bottom line in a single survey. Converting suitable land to dairy farming predicted nitrogen export increases of up to 110% at the most exposed site, and cropping conversion up to 69%. Riparian buffers combined with a 20% reduction in nitrogen loss from high-producing grassland predicted reductions of up to 32%. Sites with the greatest predicted risk, primarily Tutaenui Stream and Kawhatau River, are not well covered by the existing network. Network design methods are largely built around statistical representativeness or accessibility rather than catchment process. This framework identified priority gaps such designs would likely miss, offering a transferable basis for auditing networks or informing new ones. Full article

Karenia brevis, a harmful algal bloom (HAB) organism behind Florida’s red tide, persists in the Gulf of Mexico year-round at low concentrations. It can rapidly multiply and cause toxic outbreaks that harm marine life and human respiratory health. Red tide has been observed to suppress or intensify following tropical cyclones. Hurricanes Helene and Milton made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast 13 days apart in fall 2024, whereafter K. brevis proliferated along southwest Florida, with cell concentrations reaching millions of cells per liter. Remote sensing (MODIS Aqua ocean-color and sea surface temperature, 2024–2025 hurricane seasons), in situ, and hurricane best-track/reanalysis data were examined with time series analysis, statistical analysis, and spatial analysis. We found a hurricane-associated cascade within 18 days of Milton’s landfall: wind forcing, then river discharge, then chlorophyll a and K. brevis peaks, followed ~6 weeks later by another K. brevis peak within ~2% of the near-term peak in magnitude. These findings indicate that elevated wind speed and river discharge, used as a proxy for potential nutrient delivery, during and after hurricane passage are associated with a long-term K. brevis response. Full article

Background and Objectives: Exercise is central to axSpA management, but whether live remote delivery preserves effects of the same face-to-face program is uncertain. Methods: Five databases were searched until 9 September 2026; registry, reference, and citation searches ended on 11 September 2026. Reports from one trial were linked; contextual studies were illustrative. Results: Of 214 database records, 123 unique records were screened, and 11 reports representing eight studies were selected from the five databases. A ClinicalTrials.gov record and doctoral thesis linked to the Karaca trial were obtained separately and were not counted among those 11 database-selected reports. One assessor-blinded RCT compared the same individualized clinical Pilates program by videoconference or in clinic. Fifty participants were randomized, 46 assessed at eight weeks, and 40 at six months. Median BASFI improvement was 3.0 versus 2.5 points at eight weeks (p = 0.587) and 2.0 versus 2.0 points at six months (p = 0.838). Mann–Whitney U tests used α = 0.017; between-group effect estimates and 95% confidence intervals were unavailable. All-randomized attendance was 93.8% versus 94.0%. Five participants reported transient symptoms; three serious events were judged unrelated, and no intervention-related serious adverse event was reported. Conclusions: Remote delivery was implementable with high short-term attendance among digitally eligible participants. This trial does not establish equivalence, non-inferiority, preserved effect, broad accessibility, or a safety profile. Adequately powered non-inferiority trials are needed. Full article

Conventional magnetic-induction transmission is limited to short-range delivery, failing to meet the long-distance weak magnetic wake-up signal transmission demands of distributed off-grid sensors. Although extremely low frequency (ELF) fields feature low attenuation and theoretically support ultra-long propagation, existing ELF antennas suffer inherent limitations of mechanical abrasion, exclusive material dependence, and near-field-restricted coupling. This paper proposes a novel spatial-gradient transmitting antenna with four groups of coaxial, identically wound gradient coils in a tangential–parallel layout for long-distance weak magnetic wake-up signal transmission. A coaxial symmetric mutual coupling circuit model is established and analyzed via systematic parametric simulations. Field experiments demonstrate stable ELF signal transmission at 153 Hz over 650 m. The proposed fully static coil structure eliminates mechanical wear and material reliance and achieves extended coupling range using superimposed quasi-static magnetic fields. This low-complexity design fills the research gap in meter-to-kilometer-scale weak magnetic signal transmission, enabling reliable remote wake-up of ultra-low-power sensors powered by their on-board local batteries in complex propagation environments such as underground and conductive media. Full article

This study presents a compact navigation electronic seal system employing the Iridium SBD9603 radio modem and a specialized antenna for transmitting Short Burst Data (SBD) messages. The primary objective was to integrate a satellite antenna within the constrained space of the device enclosure. Due to the impossibility of the manufacturer-recommended horizontal antenna placement, the antenna was installed at a 70° angle. Experimental results confirmed the feasibility of this configuration. In open-space conditions, a stable signal level sufficient for communication was observed 88.6% of the time, while inside a protective enclosure made of PA12 + GF composite material, this value decreased to 65.3%. The average data packet delivery time ranged from 8 to 14 s. These results are explained by the dielectric properties of the enclosure material and partial signal shielding. At the same time, short-term signal fading (on average up to 43 s) was considered acceptable, since a typical SBD transaction takes less than 10 s, allowing efficient use of message retransmission. An important finding of the study is that when the seal is mounted on a steel container door, the inclined antenna performs more efficiently than the horizontal configuration (65.3% versus 61.1%). This effect is attributed to the metallic surface acting as a reflective screen, optimizing the electromagnetic conditions for the inclined antenna aperture. The obtained results can be applied in remote monitoring and identification systems for cargo transported in containers and trucks, including operation under challenging environmental conditions. Full article

Green hydrogen–ammonia production offers a promising pathway for large-scale renewable energy utilization and the decarbonization of energy-intensive industries. The geographical mismatch between renewable resources and suitable industrial locations creates a key challenge for the coordinated planning of renewable energy and green hydrogen–ammonia production. This paper proposes a multi-site stochastic planning framework in which multiple renewable energy bases jointly supply a hydrogen–ammonia production base through inter-site transmission. A location and capacity optimization model is developed to determine the production-base location and the capacities of wind power, photovoltaic generation, inter-site transmission, electrolyzers, hydrogen storage, and ammonia-synthesis facilities while maintaining electricity, hydrogen, and ammonia balances. The resulting two-stage stochastic program is solved using a multi-cut Benders decomposition method that separates location-and-capacity decisions from scenario-based operational subproblems. Case studies show that the proposed framework exploits the spatial complementarity of geographically dispersed renewable resources. Compared with conventional single-site planning, it improves system economics and reduces the balancing requirement for hydrogen storage by coordinating local renewable supply with remote power delivery. Full article

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) remains one of the most important staple crops worldwide and serves as a primary source of calories and protein for billions of people. Global wheat production, however, continues to be threatened by rust diseases caused by Puccinia triticina, Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici and Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici. These pathogens are highly adaptive and frequently give rise to new virulent races, causing resistance in wheat cultivars to breakdown. Under favorable environmental conditions, severe epidemics can develop and substantial yield losses may occur. In response to these challenges, traditional management approaches such as resistant cultivars, crop rotation, sanitation and fungicide application have long been employed in wheat production systems. Yet these strategies have increasingly been constrained by resistance breakdown, genetic uniformity in modern cultivars, and climate-driven changes in pathogen distribution. Conventional management practices are evaluated alongside emerging technological solutions including genomic-assisted breeding, gene pyramiding, CRISPR-based genome editing, biological control agents and precision agriculture tools. In addition, nanotechnology has emerged as a promising tool in plant disease management, where nanoparticles such as silver, copper and zinc oxide exhibit strong antifungal activity and enable targeted delivery of agrochemicals. Nano-enabled formulations can enhance fungicide efficiency, reduce chemical inputs and improve plant defense responses, offering a sustainable complement to existing wheat rust management strategies. Particular attention is given to integrated disease management strategies, which combine traditional agronomic practices with modern surveillance technologies such as remote sensing, artificial intelligence-based forecasting models, and pathogen genomics. These combined approaches can improve resistance durability and build more resilient wheat production systems. Future directions emphasize climate adaptation, global surveillance and collaborative breeding. In an era of increasing climatic uncertainty and evolving pathogen populations, durable rust management will depend on coordinated global efforts that align scientific innovation, farmer adoption, and policy support to safeguard wheat productivity and global food security. Full article

Digital technologies are reshaping companion-animal healthcare by expanding access to veterinary services and enabling more connected, data-driven models of care. This narrative review synthesizes current evidence on digital veterinary care, with a focus on the integration of telemedicine, artificial intelligence (AI), and remote patient monitoring (RPM) in companion-animal practice. A targeted narrative literature search of PubMed, Scopus, CAB Abstracts, Google Scholar, and relevant professional guidelines published between 2010 and 2026 was conducted to identify evidence on digital veterinary healthcare; the synthesis was narrative, and no formal risk-of-bias or study-quality assessment was undertaken. Current evidence suggests that telemedicine has shown the greatest value for teletriage, follow-up consultations, chronic disease management, specialist referral, and postoperative care, while RPM extends longitudinal monitoring beyond clinic visits and AI has been evaluated for applications in diagnostic imaging, predictive analytics, clinical decision support, and workflow efficiency, largely in retrospective, pilot-scale, or single-center veterinary studies. However, widespread implementation remains constrained by limited veterinary-specific validation of AI algorithms and commercial biosensors, evolving veterinarian–client–patient relationship (VCPR) regulations, cybersecurity and data privacy concerns, interoperability challenges, and the need for robust clinical evidence. Emerging concepts—including AI-integrated RPM, digital phenotyping, digital twins, federated learning, and One Health interoperability—remain largely prospective or extrapolated from human healthcare but have the potential to advance precision companion-animal medicine, strengthen disease surveillance, and improve preventive healthcare. Overall, digital veterinary care should complement rather than replace conventional veterinary practice. Future progress will depend on rigorous clinical validation, interoperable digital infrastructure, transparent AI governance, harmonized regulatory frameworks, and evidence-based implementation to improve animal welfare, veterinary service delivery, and One Health outcomes. Full article

Background: Taxanes have been a cornerstone in the management of a wide range of cancers, including ovarian, breast, and lung cancer, owing to their microtubule-stabilizing mechanism. Despite their clinical success, their therapeutic utility remains constrained by poor aqueous solubility, a need for toxic solubilizing vehicles, unpredictable pharmacokinetics, and systemic toxicity. Nanomedicine has redefined chemotherapeutic delivery paradigms, with liposomal systems emerging as leading platforms due to their safety and scalability. Purpose: This review aims to critically evaluate the physicochemical and formulation barriers that have limited the successful development of taxane-loaded nanoformulations and to highlight how model-informed principles can be leveraged to improve drug retention, stability, and translational potential. Review Scope: Early liposomal systems faced challenges, including premature drug release and rapid carrier opsonization, limitations that are particularly relevant for compounds with unfavorable biopharmaceutical properties. For taxanes such as paclitaxel, strong partitioning into the lipid bilayer can result in membrane destabilization and premature leakage. Conventional passive loading approaches have shown limited success for these molecules, prompting exploration of active loading strategies. Remote loading utilizes transmembrane gradients to improve drug retention and loading efficiency by concentrating therapeutics within the liposomal core; however, the non-ionizable nature of taxanes restricts the applicability of this approach. Conclusions: These limitations highlight the need for a rational nanocarrier design focused on drug–lipid interactions, physicochemical optimization, surface engineering, controlled release, manufacturing feasibility, and regulatory considerations. Integrating these principles may facilitate the development of robust, scalable, and clinically relevant taxane liposomal formulations, supporting the effective translation of these natural-product-derived therapeutics into improved cancer treatment strategies. Full article

South Africa’s (SA) quadruple disease burden comprises communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, maternal and child mortality, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and injury and violence. Two of these components, HIV and NCDs, generate demand for long-term medicines and are the focus of the review. To improve access to chronic medicines and to alleviate the pressure on overburdened public health facilities, the National Department of Health launched the Central Chronic Medicines Dispensing and Distribution (CCMDD) programme. Stable, compliant patients were granted access to patient medicine parcels (PMPs) via decentralised community pick-up points (PUPs), thereby reducing clinic congestion and improving patient convenience. Despite considerable scale-up, implementation has been inconsistent among provinces. While regional syntheses of differentiated service delivery models exist, no synthesis has yet consolidated the barriers and facilitators specific to the CCMDD across the full decade of its implementation. To understand the barriers and facilitators, a scoping review was conducted for studies published in English between 2014 and 2024. The search was filtered primarily for duplicates, then title and abstract screening, of which 31 articles met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis; resulting themes were subsequently mapped to the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) to contextualise findings within implementation science. A grey literature search was also conducted through Google Scholar and Sabinet. Key facilitators of implementation included decentralised service delivery and community-based distribution, reduced patient waiting times, enhanced treatment adherence, reduced patient-borne transport and time costs and improved access to medicines. Limited access to pick-up points in remote areas, miscommunication regarding pick-up dates and poor staff service were cited as barriers. The findings revealed a gap between planned activities and implementation and have significant implications for policy and practice. It further highlighted the need for ongoing optimisation strategies to enhance the programme. Full article

Uncrewed aerial vehicles increasingly rely on on-board deep object detectors for applications such as surveillance, delivery, agriculture, and traffic monitoring. The vulnerability of these detectors to adversarial patches has therefore become a practical safety concern. Research on adversarial patch and camouflage attacks against aerial object detection has expanded rapidly, yet existing reviews consider aerial systems only as one application domain among many and do not examine the unique geometric conditions of aerial imagery. This review surveys adversarial patch and camouflage attacks, together with the corresponding defense mechanisms, for aerial, UAV, and remote sensing object detection. The literature is organized using a taxonomy based on two dimensions: the physical medium of the perturbation and the application domain it targets. Existing methods are then compared with respect to physical robustness, evaluation datasets and detectors, threat models, and their treatment of viewpoint variation. A recurring observation across the literature is that viewpoint variation is represented primarily through object scale, while explicit modeling of viewing geometry remains limited. This trend is closely linked to the characteristics of the aerial datasets used for evaluation, which typically provide realistic imagery but limited geometric information. Consequently, questions concerning viewpoint-dependent placement, degradation, and naturalness remain only partially explored. The review concludes by identifying the major research gaps, future directions, and deployment challenges that are likely to shape the next generation of aerial adversarial attack and defense research. Full article

Background/Objectives: Breast cancer (BC) survivors frequently experience persistent psychological and physical symptoms and reduced health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Yoga has emerged as a promising supportive intervention in this context; however, evidence regarding remotely delivered yoga programs remains limited. This systematic review aimed primarily to evaluate the effects of remotely delivered yoga interventions on HRQoL among women with BC. Secondary outcomes included psychological and physical symptoms, as well as feasibility, adherence, and safety. Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and non-randomized studies assessing remote, home-based, or hybrid yoga interventions delivered through digital platforms, videos, or remote support were searched in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library (PROSPERO registration number: CRD420261362619). Methodological quality was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) critical appraisal tools. A random-effects meta-analysis was performed for HRQoL outcomes from independent RCT populations, using standardized mean differences (Hedges’ g). Results: Twenty-six publications representing 19 independent study cohorts were included. Eighteen publications reported randomized controlled trials and eight reported non-randomized studies. In the meta-analysis, the 9 RCTs that reported effects on HRQoL showed a moderate improvement in this outcome (Hedges’ g = 0.56, 95% CI 0.17–0.96), with substantial between-study heterogeneity (I² = 72.4%). Secondary psychological and physical outcomes showed potential benefits, but findings varied across studies. Feasibility and adherence were generally favorable, while no serious yoga-related adverse events were reported among studies assessing safety. Conclusions: Remote and home-based yoga interventions may improve HRQoL in women with BC; however, the consistency and generalizability of this effect are limited by substantial between-study heterogeneity and variability in intervention delivery. Further standardized and adequately powered RCTs are needed to confirm clinical effectiveness and inform long-term implementation in breast cancer care. Full article

Controller Area Network (CAN) is widely used in in-vehicle communication systems because of its reliability and robustness. However, conventional CAN networks are primarily designed for wired communication and do not directly support wireless access for local visualization, remote monitoring, or connected-vehicle services. This paper presents an embedded CAN–Wi-Fi gateway architecture for connected-vehicle monitoring applications. The proposed system integrates a CAN interface, an embedded gateway controller, a wireless communication module, a mobile human–machine interface (HMI), and an edge-server-based remote monitoring service. A modular hardware and software framework is developed to support CAN message acquisition, identifier-based filtering, priority classification, queue-based buffering, structured packet generation, wireless transmission, local visualization, and remote data access. To reduce unnecessary wireless traffic and improve the responsiveness of urgent monitoring traffic, the gateway selectively forwards monitoring-related CAN identifiers and applies strict-priority dispatch using separate High-, Medium-, and Low-priority queues. The system is verified using representative Saab P-bus-based vehicle data packets derived from publicly available reverse-engineering information. Controlled wireless experiments achieved 100% packet delivery under offered traffic rates of 20, 50, and 100 frames/s, with application-level throughput increasing from approximately 33.8 to 170.0 kbps and round-trip time (RTT)-based estimated one-way wireless delay ranging from approximately 4.1 to 10.8 ms. Under transient burst contention, priority-based dispatch reduced the mean High-priority warning-traffic queue waiting time from 31.116 ms with single-FIFO forwarding to 2.268 ms, reduced the P95 value from 53.560 to 4.808 ms, and reduced the 25 ms threshold-exceedance ratio from approximately 61.7% to 0%. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed CAN–Wi-Fi gateway for integrated local and remote vehicle monitoring and show that strict-priority dispatch can substantially improve the responsiveness of urgent monitoring traffic under temporary gateway contention. Full article