Search Results (3,407)

This paper applies a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model that integrates the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for structured weighting of evaluation criteria with the Net Worth Analysis (NWA) method for value-based aggregation of scores. The proposed framework was employed to evaluate Learning Management Systems (LMS) in higher education, involving two independent expert panels representing management and IT perspectives. Results of the AHP analysis show that cost (28%), security (22%), and usability (17%) are the most influential criteria in the decision-making process, reflecting institutional priorities for financial efficiency, safety and ease of use. Based on the combined AHP-NWA model, Moodle 4.3 emerged as the most sustainable choice (0.586), followed by Atutor 2.2.1 (0.541) and Blackboard (SaaS edition) (0.490). The inclusion of sensitivity and scenario analyses confirmed the robustness of the model, demonstrating that the ranking of alternatives remains stable under variations in weighting factors and different strategic priorities. By framing LMS evaluation within the context of sustainable digital transformation, the study emphasizes how transparent and systematic decision-making supports long-term institutional resilience and aligns with the principles of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). In addition, the framework contributes to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education), by guiding higher education institutions toward inclusive, resilient and cost-effective digital solutions. Full article

Safety and security are major priorities in modern society. Especially for vulnerable groups of individuals, such as the elderly and patients with disabilities, providing a safe environment and adequate alerting for debilitating events and situations can be critical. Wearable devices can be effective but require frequent maintenance and can be obstructive or stigmatizing. Video monitoring by trained operators solves those issues but requires human resources, time and attention and may present certain privacy issues. We propose optical flow-based automated approaches for a multitude of situation awareness and event alerting challenges. The core of our method is an algorithm providing the reconstruction of global movement parameters from video sequences. This way, the computationally most intensive task is performed once and the output is dispatched to a variety of modules dedicated to detecting adverse events such as convulsive seizures, falls, apnea and signs of possible post-seizure arrests. The software modules can operate separately or in parallel as required. Our results show that the optical flow-based detectors provide robust performance and are suitable for real-time alerting systems. In addition, the optical flow reconstruction is applicable to real-time tracking and stabilizing video sequences. The proposed system is already functional and undergoes field trials for cases of epileptic patients. Full article

Consumers and businesses are often connected online in today’s digitally connected world. Fast and barrier-free communication, easier and faster operation, and automation and networking of robots and production offer many competitive advantages. Recognizing the limiting factors of new technology, such as the significant dependency on technology and the vulnerability of IT devices, is crucial. As digitalization might increase the competitiveness of companies and have an impact on both the supply and value chains, we need to consider and assess their vulnerability from an information security perspective. Consequently, competitive advantage is not only about creating value more cost-efficiently and with higher quality but also about extracting the correct information from big data, interpreting and integrating it into business operations, and protecting it. This study proposes a fishbone model to help identify and overcome these challenges. It allows companies to identify the root cause of each information security incident. Full article

This study examines the characteristics of stretch film used to secure palletized cargo, with the aim of rationalizing its use. Growing consumption of packaging materials requires scientifically substantiated film selection that accounts for the forces ensuring cargo stability during transportation. This study used a patented mobile device to measure the static and dynamic forces generated by different types of stretch film. Experimental data revealed a linear relationship between the number of turns, the degree of pre-stretching, and the stabilizing forces, enabling optimization of wrapping parameters and a reduction in material costs. The results contribute to improved transportation safety, reduced energy consumption and carbon footprint, and lower polymer waste. This study is relevant because it develops tools for objectively assessing the effectiveness of packaging materials and for the rational selection of stretch film, thereby supporting sustainable logistics and transportation systems. Full article

Boreholes in the Teleghma region of northeastern Algeria discharge thermal water with temperatures between 40 and 49 °C and total dissolved solids (TDS) ranging from 570 to 940 mg/L. The stable isotope compositions range from –7.8‰ to –6.2‰ for δ¹⁸O and –52.6‰ to –43.3‰ for δ²H, indicating a meteoric origin. Based on these isotopic signatures, the water is classified as immature and undersaturated with respect to the equilibrium line on the Giggenbach Na–K–Mg ternary diagram. The water exhibits a sodium–chloride (Na–Cl) facies, closely associated with Triassic formations rich in evaporitic deposits. This association was confirmed by the IIGR method, which illustrates the chemical evolution of the hydrothermal fluid as it ascends from the karstic carbonate reservoir through conduits and traverses clay formations. Consequently, computed saturation indices and applied inverse modeling significantly contributed to understanding the interactions between the hydrothermal water and the traversed rock. At the local scale, halite dissolution is the primary mineral phase driving chemical changes. Regionally, however, the processes are dominated by gypsum dissolution and cation exchange reactions between calcium and sodium ions. These findings offer valuable insights into the geochemical processes that shape the Teleghma geothermal system, with implications for resource management and potential applications. Full article

The Internet of Vehicles (IoV) revolutionizes transportation by enabling real-time communication and data exchange among vehicles (V2V), infrastructure (V2I), and other entities (V2X). These capabilities are crucial for improving road safety and traffic efficiency. However, achieving reliable and secure consensus across network nodes remains a significant challenge. Consensus mechanisms are essential in IoV for ensuring agreement on the network’s state, enabling applications such as autonomous driving, traffic management, and emergency response. This paper presents a systematic review of IoV consensus mechanisms, examining 78 peer-reviewed publications from 2010 to June 2025 using the PRISMA framework. Our analysis highlights challenges, including scalability, latency, and energy efficiency and identifies trends such as the adoption of lightweight algorithms, edge computing, and AI-assisted techniques. Unlike previous reviews, this work introduces a structured comparative framework specifically designed for IoV environments, enabling a detailed evaluation of consensus mechanisms across key features such as latency, fault tolerance, communication overhead and scalability to identify their relative strengths and limitations. Full article

Today, vaccines play a crucial role in ensuring personal safety and are the most effective method for preventing related diseases. The ages over which vaccines are efficacious, from infancy to the old, is of utmost importance. With the recent outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019, the demand for vaccines and their usage has significantly increased. This surge in demand has led to issues such as vaccine counterfeiting and related problems, which have raised concerns among the public regarding vaccine administration. As a result, this has also resulted in a lack of trust in vaccine manufacturing companies and raised doubts about production processes. To address these concerns, this study proposed a vaccine production supervision system with Internet of Things (IoT) device based on blockchain. By utilizing IoT devices, vaccine-sensitive production data can be collected and encrypted and leaks that could lead to great benefit losses for vaccine manufacturing companies can also be prevented. This system adopts a digital signature technique to import immutable characteristics to the data, offering conclusive evidence in case any issues occur with the vaccine in the future. Finally, the system also integrates with the Inter Planetary File System (IPFS) with a blockchain solution, storing manufacturing plant vaccine production records in a secure, publicly accessible, and decentralized storage space, and also enabling public verification. Full article

Cyber physical systems (CPSs) increasingly depend on complex hardware IP cores to perform critical functions. However, triggered hardware Trojans’ stealthy, malicious modifications activated under rare conditions pose significant threats to the safety and reliability of these systems. This research paper introduces a novel detection framework that integrates multi-modal side-channel analysis with trigger-aware machine learning to identify Trojans embedded within IP cores. A lightweight runtime monitoring mechanism enables real-time Trojan detection while adhering to the stringent safety constraints of CPSs. To further strengthen resilience, cryptographic integrity verification and dynamic mitigation through partial reconfiguration are incorporated. Experimental validation on two representative IP cores, AES-128 and RS232, demonstrates the framework’s effectiveness by achieving high detection accuracy (over 96%) with minimal hardware overhead (<3% LUT utilization) and latency increase of 4.95%. It can also be seen that our trigger-aware methodology more than doubles the toggling probability of rare Trojan trigger nets compared to conventional approaches. Furthermore, results from FPGA prototypes and standard Trojan benchmarks confirm the effectiveness of the proposed framework, and the proposed approach achieves high detection accuracy with minimal resource and performance penalties. This work advances the state of the art in securing CPS hardware against Trojan-based attacks. Full article

The rise in trusted machine learning has prompted concerns about the security, reliability and controllability of deep learning, especially when it is applied to sensitive areas involving life and health safety. To thoroughly analyze potential attacks and promote innovation in security technologies for DNNs, this paper conducts research on adversarial attacks against medical images and proposes a medical image attack method that focuses on lesion areas and has good transferability, named LatAtk. First, based on the image segmentation algorithm, LatAtk divides the target image into an attackable area (lesion area) and a non-attackable area and injects perturbations into the attackable area to disrupt the attention of the DNNs. Second, a class activation loss function based on gradient-weighted class activation mapping is proposed. By obtaining the importance of features in images, the features that play a positive role in model decision-making are further disturbed, making LatAtk highly transferable. Third, a texture feature loss function based on local binary patterns is proposed as a constraint to reduce the damage to non-semantic features, effectively preserving texture features of target images and improving the concealment of adversarial samples. Experimental results show that LatAtk has superior aggressiveness, transferability and concealment compared to advanced baselines. Full article

Ensuring the structural reliability and interception efficiency of trash-intercepting nets (TINs) is crucial for the security of the water withdrawal engineering of the nuclear power station (NPS). The numerical model of a flexible TIN using the lumped mass method was developed, and its high accuracy in simulating the tension distribution of the net and its deformation was validated through physical model tests. A systematic analysis was performed to investigate the effect of key parameters (i.e., water depth, intercepting rate, and diameter of longitudinal/transversal ropes) on the structural response, including the total anchor force, the main cable tension, the rope tension, and the netting tension. The results show that the tension forces acting on the transversal ropes are dramatically larger than those acting on the longitudinal ropes, and the net experiences the smallest tension force when the diameter of transversal ropes is the same as the diameter of the longitudinal ropes. This study is useful for the safety design of the TIN of the NPS. Full article

Roof instability in coal mines is one of the primary causes of mining disasters, casualties, and environmental damage. Accurately assessing its reliability is crucial for achieving safe production and sustainable development in coal mining. Based on 192 small measured samples from multiple domestic coal mines (including Anhui, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Inner Mongolia), this study constructs multidimensional Gaussian Copula and t Copula models to characterize the complex correlation structure of mechanical parameters. The hybrid adaptive multi-method data augmentation (HAMDA) method with three distinct weighting strategies is proposed. Through Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS), systematic reliability assessments are conducted for different roof locations. The results indicate that multidimensional elliptical Copulas effectively simulate the correlation structure of highly variable multidimensional coal mine roof mechanical parameters. Roof system instability is primarily triggered by failure in the bottom zone, accompanied by sidewall instability in approximately 60% of cases, while the top zone remains relatively secure. This provides crucial insights for optimizing support design. The HAMDA method significantly overcomes the limitations of small sample data, with its expanded statistical characteristics closely matching measured data. Failure probability estimates vary across different HAMDA schemes: conservative programs may underestimate risks, while diverse programs tend toward conservatism in lateral zones. These results provide theoretical support for refined roof support design in coal mines, holding significant theoretical and practical value for advancing safety, environmental sustainability, and sustainable development in the coal industry. Full article

Intensifying urbanization in Central Europe is increasingly pushing flood retention areas onto private farmland, yet the agronomic and socio-economic trade-offs remain poorly quantified. We conducted a narrative review of published field data and post-event assessments from 2014–2023 along the transboundary Sava River. Information was collected from research articles, case studies, and environmental monitoring reports, and synthesized in relation to national and EU regulatory thresholds to evaluate how floods altered soil functions and agricultural viability. Water erosion during floods stripped up to 30 cm of topsoil in torrential reaches, while stagnant inundation deposited 5–50 cm of sediments enriched with potentially toxic elements, occasionally causing food crops to exceed EU contaminant limits due to uptake from the soil. Flood sediments also introduced persistent organic pollutants: 13 modern pesticides were detected post-flood in soils, with several exceeding sediment quality guidelines. Waterlogging reduced maize, pumpkin, and forage yields by half where soil remained submerged for more than three days, with farm income falling by approximately 50% in the most affected areas. These impacts contrast with limited public awareness of long-term soil degradation, raising questions about the appropriateness of placing additional dry retention reservoirs—an example of nature-based solutions—on agricultural land. We argue that equitable flood-risk governance in the Sava River Basin requires: (i) a trans-boundary soil quality monitoring network linking agronomic, hydrological, and contaminant datasets; (ii) compensation schemes for agricultural landowners that account for both immediate crop losses and delayed remediation costs; and (iii) integration of strict farmland protection clauses into spatial planning, favoring compact, greener cities over lateral river expansion. Such measures would balance societal flood-safety gains with the long-term productivity and food security functions of agricultural land. Full article

Public acceptance remains a critical barrier to the adoption of genetically modified (GM) foods. This study investigates whether communication strategies that establish different forms of technological legitimacy, specifically regulative, normative, and cognitive legitimacy, can effectively overcome this barrier. Using the contingent valuation method (CVM) with a nationally representative sample of 1194 individuals, this study examined the effect of communication strategies on Chinese consumers’ willingness to pay for GM soybean oil. The results revealed a striking asymmetry. Information emphasizing the safety regulations of GM foods, which aims to build regulative legitimacy, significantly reduced WTP, likely by activating consumer anxieties. Conversely, narratives highlighting technology’s role in ensuring national food security, which builds normative legitimacy, effectively increased WTP for domestic GM oil. Information about the advanced level of GM technology, intended to establish cognitive legitimacy, had no significant impact. The effects were heterogeneous. Females and less knowledgeable consumers were most sensitive to safety messages. Our findings demonstrate that building legitimacy through normative appeals to collective welfare is more effective than relying on regulatory assurances. This study provides a legitimacy-based framework for understanding public perception and offers policymakers crucial insights for communicating about controversial agricultural technologies. Full article

Maize (Zea mays L.) is a cornerstone of food security and livestock production in Paraguay. However, its productivity and grain safety are increasingly threatened by Fusarium species because of their pathogenic capacity and ability to produce mycotoxins. In this study, symptomatic maize leaves collected from commercial fields in Pirapó, Itapúa, during the 2022 growing season were processed to isolate and characterize fungal pathogens. Three isolates displaying typical Fusarium morphology were obtained and examined through macroscopic and microscopic traits. Molecular identification was conducted using translation elongation factor 1-α 1-α (TEF) sequences, followed by phylogenetic inference using maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods. The Paraguayan isolates (PYF-MZE22-01, -02, -03) clustered with the ex-type strain Fusarium awaxy CBS139380 in a strongly supported clade, confirming species identity. This finding constitutes the first record of F. awaxy associated with maize in Paraguay, thereby expanding its known geographical distribution. Considering that members of the Fusarium fujikuroi species complex are recognized producers of regulated mycotoxins, the detection of F. awaxy raises concerns regarding its pathogenic potential and possible implications for food safety. These results underscore the importance of integrating molecular diagnostics, toxigenic profiling, and surveillance programs to monitor emerging Fusarium taxa in South American agroecosystems. Full article

The European Union (EU)’s commitment to promoting social, economic, and environmental sustainability in the agri-food system prompts this study to recognize young farmers as essential stakeholders in maintaining agricultural productivity and a steady supply of healthy food. It addresses their under-representation in practice and research, as Romania transitions to a greener agricultural model, particularly regarding fertilizer use. Data were collected in 2025 targeting Romanian farmers aged up to 45 years. The research mapped fertilizer usage practices and perceptions, awareness of environmental measures, and access to EU subsidies, utilizing descriptive and inferential statistics. More precisely, this aims at identifying those behavioral determinants influencing fertilizer reduction among young Romanian farmers, with a focus on sustainability, food safety, and security implications. The findings reveal that while young Romanian farmers show potential for adopting sustainable practices, their chemical fertilizer usage is complex, as 21% reported reductions, 49% maintained, and 30% increased their use of chemical fertilizers. Despite their awareness of environmental impacts, their practices are often misaligned with the sustainability objectives of the EU and the Farm to Fork Strategy, highlighting the intersection of education, policy support, and broader agricultural realities necessary to achieve a more resilient and sustainable food system in Romania and beyond. The results are intended to inform targeted policy interventions and capacity-building programs that can better align young farmers’ actions with EU sustainability goals. Full article