Search Results (3,338)

This study examines how the seven pillars of ZTA are implemented in a CDS environment that demands high security reliability, similar to the defense and finance sectors, and identifies the technological advancements and integration patterns that emerge during this process. With the introduction of user- and device-centric authentication methods like distributed identity and RF fingerprinting in the Identity and Device areas, there is a growing trend towards strengthening trust even in domains where distrust is prevalent. In the Network and Application domains, the focus is on using micro-segmentation and SDN to segment and control internal traffic flows, while dynamically enforcing the principle of least privilege. In the Data, Visibility, and Orchestration domains, AI analysis is being applied in real-time, leveraging log and visibility data, and orchestration is automating policy execution and response. In conclusion, it is clear that each pillar of ZTA operates in tandem with the others, rather than as isolated components within the CDS environment. This fusion structure demonstrates its ability to function as a unified security strategy that balances trust with comprehensive coverage of diverse domains. Full article

This paper addresses the knowledge gap on the beginning of the history of contact with extraterrestrial intelligent beings in international astronautics. In the mid-1950s, the world’s space law practitioner, Andrew G. Haley, proposed the concept of Metalaw, the law governing interactions between all beings in the Universe, as he represented the American Rocket Society in the International Astronautical Congress, the single largest gathering of space-faring nations. Haley, with experience in radio communications law dating back to the 1930s, played a pivotal role in pushing for the international allocation of radio frequencies in space. Haley was, too, an agile mediator with the Soviet Union and its bloc, acting across various organizations and forums. This article, in contextualizing Haley’s introduction of Metalaw, shows how the onset of the Space Age coincided with the emergence of a contact scenario involving extraterrestrial intelligence enabled by the corresponding techno-scientific capabilities of the time. It demonstrates how extraterrestrial intelligence discursively addressed outer space regulation as a bone of contention between the two geopolitically divided parts, a regulation upon which the US’s global satellite system would depend. The analysis in this article recounts the birth of the Metalaw concept at the intersection of outer space imaginary, law, international organizations, science and technology, diplomacy, the Space Race, the Cold War, and radio astronomy’s Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Full article

Introduction: Nursing informatics aims to improve patient care through rapid access to patient data, systematic assessment, a reduction in clinical errors, evidence-based practice, cost-effectiveness, and improved patient outcomes and safety. Background: Despite being the largest workforce in healthcare, nurses are not being adequately prepared to use nursing informatics, and this has been attributed to poor digital literacy, limited professional development, and a lack of undergraduate informatics education. Objectives: This scoping review aims to review contemporary published literature on the benefits, barriers, and enablers for embedding nursing informatics into undergraduate nursing education with a focus on the Australian healthcare context. Methods: A scoping review was conducted using the PRISMA-ScR checklist and the JBI Manual for evidence synthesis in adherence with an a priori scoping review protocol. A comprehensive search of JBI, Cochrane, CINAHL, Ovid, ProQuest, PubMed, and Scopus databases was performed. Two reviewers independently screened the results via Covidence, with discrepancies resolved via a third reviewer. Results: Two searches were conducted for this scoping review. In the first search, a total of 3227 articles were identified through database searches, with an additional 76 articles identified through bibliographic and grey literature searches. Following duplicate removal and screening, 46 articles met the inclusion criteria. In the second search, a total of 1555 articles were identified, and after duplicate removal and screening, 16 articles met the inclusion criteria. Duplicate removal during the second search round included those articles identified in the first search. The combined searches resulted in a total of 62 sources for this review. Conclusions: Despite the early adoption of nursing informatics in Australia in the 1980s, barriers remain to effective nursing informatics engagement and proficiency, including a lack of understanding of nursing informatics, limited infrastructure and resources, inadequate digital literacy of students and faculty, and the evolving nature of nursing informatics. Definitions of nursing informatics and associated fields, development of university faculty competency, access to digital health technologies, competency standards, digital literacy of the student cohort, faculty digital proficiency, and leadership from professional nursing bodies are all viewed as integral foundations for the development of student competency in nursing informatics. Full article

This study examines the conceptualization of sustainability in heritage tourism in Saudi Arabia following the introduction of the Saudi Vision 2030 program and the country’s opening to tourism in 2019, both of which aim to diversify the economy and promote cultural heritage. A scoping review methodology based on the Arksey & O’Malley framework has been adopted; data were charted according to the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) charting method based on the PRISMA-ScR reporting protocol. Publications from 2019 to 2025 were systematically collected from the database and manual research, resulting in 25 fully accessible studies that met the inclusion criteria. Data were analyzed thematically, revealing six main areas of investigation, encompassing both sustainability outcomes and cross-cutting implementation enablers: heritage conservation and tourism development, architecture and urban planning, policy and governance, community engagement, marketing and technology, and geoheritage and environmental sustainability. The findings indicate that Saudi research in this field is primarily qualitative, focusing on ecological aspects. The studies reveal limited integration of social and technological dimensions, with significant gaps identified in standardized sustainability indicators, longitudinal monitoring, policy implementation, and digital heritage tools. The originality of this study lies in its comprehensive mapping of Saudi heritage tourism sustainability research, highlighting emerging gaps and future agendas. The results also provide a roadmap for policymakers, managers, and scholars to enhance governance policies, community participation, and technological integration, which can contribute to sustainable tourism development in line with Saudi Vision 2030 goals, thereby fostering international competitiveness while preserving cultural and natural heritage. Full article

Selective Laser Melting (SLM), as a common metal additive manufacturing (AM) technology, achieves high-precision complex part formation by layer-by-layer melting of metal powder using a laser. However, the dynamic behavior of the melt pool during the SLM process is influenced by the heat source model, which is crucial for suppressing porosity defects and optimizing process parameters, directly determining the reliability of numerical simulations. To address the issue of traditional surface heat source models overestimating the melt pool width and volume heat source models underestimating the melt pool depth, this study constructs a three-dimensional transient heat conduction finite element model based on ANSYS Parametric Design Language (APDL) to simulate the evolution of the temperature field and melt pool geometry under different laser parameters. First, the temperature fields and melt pool morphology and dimensions of four heat source models—Gaussian surface heat source, volumetric heat source models (rotating Gaussian volumetric heat source, double ellipsoid heat source), and a combined heat source model—were investigated. Subsequently, a dynamic heat source model was proposed, combining a Gaussian surface heat source with a rotating volumetric heat source. By dynamically allocating the laser energy absorption ratio between the powder surface layer and the substrate depth, the influence of this heat source model on melt pool size was explored and compared with other heat source models. The results show that under the dynamic heat source, the melt pool width and depth are 128.6 μm and 63.13 μm, respectively. The melt pool width is significantly larger compared to other heat source models, and the melt pool depth is about 17% greater than that of the combined heat source model. At the same time, the predicted melt pool width and depth under this heat source model have relative errors of 1.0% and 5.5% compared to the experimental measurements, indicating that this heat source model has high accuracy in predicting the melt pool’s lateral dimensions and can effectively reflect the actual melt pool morphology during processing. Full article

Lithium-ion batteries are the most widely used electrochemical energy storage technology due to their excellent performance. They play a crucial role in enabling the widespread adoption of sustainable transportation and renewable energy storage. Comprehensive battery monitoring, encompassing both performance and safety aspects, presents various challenges. Generally, this task is handled by a battery management system (BMS). Therefore, this paper provides a brief introduction to the key battery state parameters, such as the state of charge (SOC), state of health (SOH), and state of power (SOP). Subsequently, after a brief overview of BMS structural and software architectures, this work focuses on a detailed description of equivalent circuit models (ECMs) and artificial neural networks (ANNs), which represent part of the modeling approaches available in the literature, providing a characterization of the complex and nonlinear dynamics underlying lithium-ion batteries. These approaches are systematically evaluated, including hybrid methods to highlight their respective advantages, limitations, and suitability for different BMS functionalities. Full article

In response to the International Maritime Organization’s strengthened regulations on carbon emissions, the introduction of novel eco-friendly technologies for ship operators has become necessary. In this context, various energy saving devices such as wind-assisted propulsion systems (e.g., wing/rotor sails), propeller-rudder efficiency enhancers (e.g., pre-swirl stators or ducted propellers), and the gate rudder system have been proposed. Among various energy-saving technologies, the air lubrication system has been widely investigated as an effective means of reducing hull frictional resistance through air injection beneath the hull. The performance of air lubrication systems can be evaluated through experimental testing or computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. However, accurately simulating air lubrication systems in CFD remains challenging. Therefore, this study aims to quantitatively evaluate the influence of numerical parameters on the CFD implementation of air lubrication systems. To evaluate these influences, CFD simulations employing the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) method were conducted to investigate air layer formation and sweep angle on a flat plate. The numerical predictions were systematically compared with experimental results by varying key numerical parameters. These quantitative estimations of the effects of numerical variables are expected to serve as a useful benchmark for CFD simulations of air lubrication systems. Full article

Jaw fracture management significantly advanced with the introduction of Erich Arch Bars (EABs) during World War II, becoming the gold standard for maxillomandibular fixation (MMF). EABs, however, are time-consuming, pose risks of sharps injuries, and hinder oral hygiene and patient comfort. This study tested the Minne Ties Hybrid Arch Bar System (MTHAB), a novel MMF technology. This cadaveric study used specimens with near-complete dentition to compare MTHAB and EABs. The technologies were applied by trained surgeons to measure occlusal forces, increasing elastic loads, and application and removal times. Surgeons completed structured usability surveys. The results indicated that MTHAB significantly reduced application time (19.8 ± 4.1 min versus 35.2 ± 5.7 min, p = 0.0027) and removal time (1.6 ± 0.4 min versus 5.1 ± 2.1 min, p = 0.0465) compared to EABs, while also being rated higher for ease of use and safety. Both technologies achieved acceptable occlusion forces, although MTHAB needed more elastics to achieve comparable forces to EABs. While MTHAB appears promising, future clinical trials are needed to evaluate long-term outcomes, fixation stability, and patient selection. MTHAB represents a potential advancement in MMF technology, balancing surgical efficiency, safety, and fixation strength. Full article

Smartphones are ubiquitous and continuously carried high-performance devices equipped with speech recognition capabilities that enable the analysis of surrounding conversations. When leveraged for public purposes, networks of smartphones can function as a large-scale sensing infrastructure capable of detecting and reporting early signs of serious crimes or terrorist activities. This paper proposes the concept of “Smartphone as Societal Safety Guard” as an approach to substantially enhancing public safety through relatively low additional cost and the combination of existing technologies (first pillar). At the same time, this concept entails serious risks of privacy infringement, as exemplified by the potential introduction of always-on eavesdropping through operating system updates. The originality of this study lies in redefining smartphones not merely as personal tools but as public safety infrastructure within democratic societies, and in systematizing the conditions for their social acceptability from the perspective of institutional design. This research presents a reference architecture and a regulatory framework, and organizes six key challenges that must be addressed to reconcile public safety with privacy protection: external attacks, mitigation of privacy information, false positives, expansion of the scope of application, discriminatory use, and misuse by authorized insiders. In particular, misuse by authorized insiders is positioned as the core challenge. As a necessary condition for acceptance in democratic societies (second pillar), this paper proposes a privacy-protective infrastructure centered on the Verifiable Record of AI Output (VRAIO). By combining on-device two-stage urgency classification with the review and recording of AI outputs by independent third-party entities, the proposed framework aims to provide a mechanism that can ensure, as a design requirement, that information unrelated to emergencies is not released outside the device. In summary, this paper presents a design framework for reconciling enhanced public safety with the protection of privacy. Full article

Traditional complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) logic gates serve as the fundamental building blocks of modern computing, operating through the electron charge manipulation wherein binary information is encoded as distinct high- and low-voltage states. However, as physical dimensions approach the quantum limit, conventional logic gates encounter fundamental bottlenecks, including power consumption barriers, memory limitations, and a significant increase in static power dissipation. Consequently, the pursuit of novel low-power computing methodologies has emerged as a research hotspot in the post-Moore era. Logic gates based on magnetic skyrmions constitute a highly promising candidate in this context. Magnetic skyrmions, nanoscale quasiparticles endowed with topological protection, offer ideal carriers for information transmission due to their exceptional stability and mobility. In this work, we provide a concise overview of the current development status and underlying operating principles of magnetic skyrmion logic gates across various magnetic materials, including ferromagnetic, synthetic antiferromagnetic, and antiferromagnetic systems. The introduction of magnetic skyrmion-based logical operations represents a paradigm shift from traditional Boolean logic to architectures integrating memory and computation, as well as brain-inspired neuromorphic computing. Although significant challenges remain in the synthesis of materials, fabrication, and detection, magnetic skyrmion-based logic computing holds considerable potential as a future ultra-low-power computing technology. Full article

In recent years, diagnostic technologies that utilize noninvasively collected sweat have garnered significant interest. However, the concentration of components in sweat is lower than that in blood, making the introduction of a concentration step as a sample pretreatment crucial for achieving highly sensitive detection. In this study, we developed a PDMS-based microchannel filled with silica gel, a desiccant particle, to concentrate liquid samples at room temperature without requiring an external power source or heating. The evaluation of the basic characteristics of the fabricated microchannel confirmed that filling it with silica gel efficiently removed the solvent vapor from the liquid samples. In concentration tests using the fluorescent dye uranine as a model for sweat sugar, a maximum 1.4-fold concentration was achieved in DPBS solution and a 1.2-fold concentration in artificial sweat at room temperature. In contrast, no similar concentration effect was observed in microchannels without silica gel packing. The proposed silica-gel-packed PDMS microchannel features a simple structure and requires no external equipment, making it easily integrable with existing microfluidic devices as a sample pretreatment module. This method is considered useful as a passive and simple sample concentration technique for the analysis of low-molecular-weight components in sweat. Full article

High frame rate imaging of synthetic aperture radar (SAR), also known as video SAR (ViSAR), has attracted extensive research in recent years. When ViSAR system parameters are fixed, there is a technical trade-off between high frame rates and high resolution. In traditional ViSAR, the frame rate is usually increased by increasing the carrier frequency to increase the azimuth modulation frequency and reducing the synthetic aperture time. This paper attempts to propose a strip non-overlapping mode ViSAR based on Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) beams, which uses the topological charge of vortex electromagnetic wave (VEW) to improve the azimuth modulation frequency, to improve the frame rate. By introducing the concept of VEW frame splitting, a corresponding time-varying topological charge mode is designed for ViSAR imaging. This design successfully introduces an additional azimuth modulation frequency while maintaining the original imaging resolution, thus significantly improving the frame rate performance of the ViSAR system. However, the Bessel function term in VEW causes amplitude modulation in the echo signal, while the additional frequency modulation causes the traditional matching filter to fail. To address these problems, an improved Range-Doppler algorithm (RDA) is proposed in this paper. By employing the range cell center approximation method, the negative effect of the Bessel function on imaging is reduced effectively. Furthermore, for the introduction of tuning frequency, the azimuth matched filter is specially improved, which effectively prevents the defocusing issues caused by the mismatch of tuning frequency. Finally, the computer simulation results prove that the ViSAR system and imaging algorithm based on VEW can effectively improve the frame rate of ViSAR and maintain the imaging resolution, which provides a research direction for the development of ViSAR technology. Full article

This study investigates the application of nanofluid (iNanoW)–polymer binary flooding system to enhance oil recovery efficiency in medium-to-high permeability reservoirs. Traditional polymer flooding technologies still have the potential for further improvement in these types of reservoirs. Therefore, this study combines iNanoW with the polymer flooding system to examine its effects on the rheological properties, injectability, interfacial performance, sweep volume, and recovery factor of the polymer solution. Experimental results show that iNanoW significantly improves the injectability of the polymer solution. The introduction of iNanoW reduces the size of polymer aggregates, as demonstrated by aggregate size and rheological performance experiments. Power-law model analysis reveals that the flow behavior of the polymer solution is further improved with the introduction of iNanoW, manifested by weakened shear-thinning behavior, reduced viscosity, and optimized flowability, which in turn helps to improve oil recovery efficiency. Moreover, iNanoW interacts with polymer molecules, lowering the surface tension and enhancing wettability, thereby improving oil–water separation efficiency. Core flooding experiments show that the introduction of iNanoW significantly increases sweep volume, particularly in medium- and small-pore spaces, where oil recovery efficiencies reached 57.97% and 61.54%, respectively. These results indicate that iNanoW not only optimizes the rheological properties of the polymer solution but also improves fluid distribution during the flooding process, significantly enhancing the overall oil recovery performance. This study provides a new approach to optimizing polymer flooding technology and highlights the potential of iNanoW in improving oil recovery efficiency. Full article

Side flaps are critical structural components of flat freight wagons, directly affecting cargo safety during transportation and playing an essential role in loading and unloading operations. Over the years, their reliability has been well established, with standardized designs available in UIC technical datasheets. Despite this standardization, the introduction of newly manufactured or redesigned components necessitates technological validation through Finite Element Method (FEM) simulations and/or physical testing. This requirement holds irrespective of whether the component in question adheres to existing standards or is a novel development. This study presents the creation and application of computational models for the structural sizing and strength assessment of side flaps for flat wagons. The models are verified through a series of physical tests conducted by a research team at the Technical University of Sofia. Full article

The early diagnosis and treatment of civilizational diseases remain a significant challenge worldwide. Although advances in medical technology have led to the introduction of more screening options over time, these measures are still insufficient to effectively reduce mortality from deadly diseases such as lung cancer (LC), cardiovascular diseases (CVD), diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). These conditions pose a major public health burden, underlying the urgent need for more comprehensive and efficient prevention strategies. Recently, the concept of ‘multiscreening’ has emerged as a promising approach. Multiscreening involves the simultaneous screening for multiple diseases using integrated diagnostic methods, potentially improving early detection rates and optimizing resource utilization. In 2024, Rzyman W. et al. launched the MULTIPREVENT epidemiological study, which aims to develop and validate a low-dose computed tomography (LDCT)-based screening test for civilizational diseases. This study represents a step forward in the pursuit of more effective, minimally invasive diagnostic tools that could facilitate earlier intervention and improve patient outcomes. To better understand the potential of multiscreening approaches and their clinical utility, it is essential to evaluate the existing predictive models used for identifying individuals at high risk for these diseases. This narrative review focuses primarily on lung cancer risk prediction models used in LDCT screening while situating these approaches within the broader conceptual framework of the MULTIPREVENT project, aimed at future integration of multi-disease prevention strategies. With this analysis, we aim to provide insights that will guide the development of more accurate, integrative screening tools that could reduce the global burden of these diseases. Full article