Cutting-edge Solutions Research Articles

Innovative solutions to enhance safe and green environments for ageing well using co-design through patient and public involvement

BackgroundThere is a need to develop innovative solutions to enhance safe and green physical environments, which optimise health, wellbeing and community participation among older adults. To develop solutions that meet the needs of a diverse ageing population, an interdisciplinary approach is needed. Our aim was to identify the needs of older people in relation to ageing well in the environment by bringing together knowledge from different perspectives using Patient and Public Involvement.MethodsAn international consortium (Retrofit living For ageing well through Understanding and Redesign of Built environments consortium: ReFURB) was established in April 2018, including ten core members, to (i) explore cutting-edge solutions to safe living for ageing populations and (ii) develop innovative approaches to everyday physical environments, which bring about health benefits. We used a co-design, interdisciplinary framework involving older adults, carers, physiotherapists, geriatricians, engineers, human movement experts, geographers and psychologists from the UK and Australia. This engaged people in a 1 day workshop that comprised a series of presentations from international speakers on urban design, social connectedness, hazards and injury prevention, and the physical environment. Small group discussions (facilitated by consortium members) followed presentations to consider the opportunities, challenges and barriers encountered with ageing, which included the use of creative engagement activities (LEGO® Serious Play, mind maps, poster gallery walk), to help participants share personal stories and reflect on the issues raised. Thematic coding was used to synthesise the outputs of the small group work.ResultsFive themes were identified across the workshops: access and transport; involvement of the whole community; restoration rather than redesign; assistive and digital technology; and intergenerational approaches. These dimensions related to the physical, social and nature-based qualities of everyday environments, as they pertain to ageing well.ConclusionsCo-design was a valuable tool that helped understand the perceptions of participants and essential to develop effective interventions and solutions. Participants highlighted several issues affecting people as they age and key environmental considerations to promote wellbeing, activity, and participation. The consortium identified gaps in the existing evidence base and are now planning activities to further develop research ideas in collaboration with our co-design participants.

Evaluation of chemical stability of conducting ceramics to protect metallic lithium in Li/S batteries

Among the different cutting-edge solutions currently under investigation, lithium metal technologies have received a renewed interest. Thorough research work is currently carried out to enhance the safety and cyclability of the lithium metal electrode, targeting high energy post-Li-ion systems such as the lithium/sulfur technology. This study aims at investigating different inorganic protective layers that could be placed at the surface of the lithium metal electrode in a lithium/sulfur system, in order to prevent the detrimental interactions with polysulfide species and electrolyte components. The chemical stability of the selected inorganic materials (amorphous thin films, crystalline ceramics and glass-ceramics) towards ether-based (polysulfides-containing) electrolytes was studied. Although being crucial for long term cycling of Li/S cells, this issue has not been addressed so far. The chemical composition and morphology of the different materials after immersion in different electrolytes were characterized by X-ray diffraction, XPS and SEM, and the most promising materials were evaluated in Li/S cells.

Machine learning for imaging Cherenkov detectors

Imaging Cherenkov detectors are largely used in modern nuclear and particle physics experiments where cutting-edge solutions are needed to face always more growing computing demands. This is a fertile ground for AI-based approaches and at present we are witnessing the onset of new highly efficient and fast applications. This paper focuses on novel directions with applications to Cherenkov detectors. In particular, recent advances on detector design and calibration, as well as particle identification are presented.

Communicating Science: Reform Model of the Gates Open Research Platform

The EU’s scientific potential is increasingly flowing into the world of new scientific knowledge. The object of this paper is the communication interpretation of the Open Science policy, covering not only access and storage of scientific information and preservation of scientific information, but communication aspects also. Purpose of the study: Establish modern trends in the scientific ecosystem oriented towards facilitating the publication and communication of scientific results. Tasks of the study: Compare new solutions in science communication models in the most popular platforms, and explore what is the alternative to traditional scientific journals. Methodology/approach: The qualitative systematic review (qualitative evidence synthesis),scientific criticism of sociological surveys, methods of analytic and synthetic processing of primary and secondary resources, secondary data analysis and overview of scientific publications available in the libraries worldwide, have been used to obtain data about the impact of new EU solutions: the European Road Map for development of the European Research Area (ERA),the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, etc. A comparative analysis of innovation in publishing platforms was conducted with special attention to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Gates Open Research platform. Results: The creators of the Gates Open Research platform defend the view of the rapid and socially beneficial effect of new and publicly-accepted scientific knowledge. The cutting-edge solutions are: transfer power from the hands of editors to the hands of the authors; minimize barriers or gatekeepers on the path of the new scientific outcome for society; assessment of the research not in view of the venue of publication but on the basis of the intrinsic value of the completed study; minimize the funds invested in publishing and dissemination. Implications: The conclusions can be important in identifying technological and ideological regularities for optimizing the model of scientific publications and increasing the speed and visibility of any scientific news.

Sustainable Development as a Cornerstone of Cities' Engagement with International Law

Sustainable development may safely be regarded as a cornerstone of cities’ engagement with international law, an engagement which is certainly bound to increase in the time of COVID-19. This article revisits the historical trajectory of cities’ and local governments’ participation in sustainable development processes. It particularly focuses on the contemporary involvement of cities and their transnational networks in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and associated Sustainable Development Goals. Subsidiarity and public participation are fully discussed as conceptual underpinnings of cities’ growing role in the pursuit of sustainability. The article concludes that, as long as cities continue to demonstrate leadership and innovation in advancing cutting-edge solutions to problems of sustainability as a result of mechanisms that secure the meaningful participation of the communities of people concerned, their place in the global partnership for sustainable development will inevitably become ever more prominent.

Foreword: Special Section on Advanced Packaging, Materials, Processing, and Reliability: Cutting-Edge Solutions for High-Density Wafer-/Panel-Level and Thin, Flexible, Mobile Packages

This special section is built from the selected work initially presented at the 7th Electronics System-Integration Technology Conference (ESTC), a premier biannual European scientific conference event in the field of microelectronics packaging and system integration, held on September 18–20, 2018, at the Westin Bellevue Hotel in Dresden, Germany, co-sponsored and co-organized by the IEEE Electronics Packaging Society (EPS). This year, ESTC 2020 will be held on September in Vestfold, Norway. ESTC aims to attract new and original contend contributions and to support authors in the publication process. Therefore, ESTC is very grateful to the IEEE Transactions On Components, Packaging, And Manufacturing Technology (CPMT) Editor, Ravi Mahajan, and to EPS Executive Director Denise Manning, who enabled such an additional extended publication process. Selected ESTC 2018 conference contributions, identified by the technical program committees and by the votes of the audience, have been peer-reviewed for publication as significantly extended versions in this special section of the IEEE EPS CPMT journal. The following articles cover advanced packaging, materials, processing, and reliability topics toward cutting-edge solutions for high-density wafer-/panel-level as well as thin, flexible, mobile packages.

Cutting-edge solutions

Cutting-edge solutions

Cutting-edge solutions for dental professionals

Cutting-edge solutions for dental professionals

Foreword: Special Section on Packaging and Interconnects: Cutting-Edge Solutions in Modeling, Design, and Characterization—Part II

Following the previous issue of the IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging, and Manufacturing Technology, this second part of the Transactions continues the Special Section on Packaging and Interconnects: Cutting-Edge Solutions in Modeling, Design, and Characterization. This special section is built from selected works that were initially presented at the IEEE Workshop on Signal and Power Integrity (SPI) 2018, the IEEE Conference on Electrical Performance of Electronic Packaging Systems (EPEPS) 2018, and the IEEE Electrical Design of Advanced Packaging Systems (EDAPS) Symposium 2018. The three conferences are cosponsored by the IEEE Electronics Packaging Society (EPS) and represent the ideal forums in Europe, North America, and Asia to exchange innovative ideas and discuss the state-of-the-art research and development of electrical modeling, design, and other related fields for packaging and interconnects.

Testing methods and equipment for palletized products

The ability to present cutting-edge solutions for packaging in the field of palletized products has to be considered as the result of the investments in research infrastructures and advances in applied researches. In the present article, main equipment and all the other testing facilities used to optimize palletized product are detailed. Tests are implemented in accordance with standard and no standard procedures up to fully innovative methods. This approach is able to provide advice both on the most appropriate palletizing scheme to pack the load, either on the best packaging methods able to conserve intact the product to the consumer. For customer it represents a great added value that allows to experience first-hand palletizing solutions, packaging and stability of the load, reducing production costs and optimizing efficiency.

Foreword: Special Section on Packaging and Interconnects: Cutting-Edge Solutions in Modeling, Design, and Characterization—Part I

In a world of digitally native citizens, processors and memory are common topics of conversation, no longer restricted to the engineering community. It is only natural. After all, one does not need to be an architect to appreciate the skyline of a modern metropolis. But behind this postcard image is a complex world of substrates and interconnects and buffers and packages. Smartphones and self-driving vehicles require advanced printed circuit board (PCB) and IC design. Advanced design relies on specialized computer-aided design (CAD) tools. CAD requires modeling and an entire field of mathematical know-how. But technology exists in the physical realm. Progress is also driven by the advance of materials and manufacturing techniques. Prototyping requires accurate measurements and precise characterization. Layers upon layers of knowledge and expertise make the intricate infrastructure of modern electronics possible. We seek to give an overview of the recent innovations across these layers. This special section is built from selected work initially presented at the SPI 2018, EPEPS 2018, and EDAPS 2018, conferences that are co-sponsored by the IEEE Electronics Packaging Society (EPS).

Innovative Solutions for the Control of Leishmaniases: Nanoscale Drug Delivery Systems.

Leishmania are sandfly-transmitted protozoan parasites that harbour within the macrophages of a mammalian host and cause leishmaniasis, a serious zoonotic disease that threatens the lives of millions worldwide. Its numerous forms (cutaneous, mucocutaneous, and visceral) are currently treated with a sparse arsenal of drugs, specifically antimonials, amphotericin B, miltefosine, and paromomycin, for which drug resistance and clinical failure are rampant. Medicine is presently trending towards nanotechnology to aid in the successful delivery of drugs. Vehicles such as lipid-based nanocarriers, polymer-based nanoparticles, and metal ions and oxides have been previously demonstrated to improve bioavailability of drugs and decrease toxicity for the patient. These cutting-edge solutions can be combined with existing active molecules, as well as novel drugs or plant extracts with promising antileishmanial activity. This review explores the current evidence for the treatment of leishmaniases using nanoscale drug delivery systems (specifically lipid-, polymer- and metal-based systems) and encourages further development of the aforementioned nanotechnologies for treatment of Leishmania.

Technology Focus: Natural Gas Processing and Handling (April 2019)

Technology Focus To cater to the seasonal highs and lows in demand throughout a year, natural gas is stored in underground storage facilities. The need for such facilities arose because increasing (or decreasing) gas production to mirror changes in demand is neither practical nor economical. Therefore, gas is produced and stored during low-demand times and retrieved to meet the highs during winters. This cyclic trend can be observed also in gas-storage inventories [as reported by the Energy Information Administration (EIA)]. The northeast US has the highest concentration of such storage facilities, close to the biggest market. Most of the underground gas-storage facilities are depleted reservoirs, but aquifers and leached salt caverns are also used. The US and Canada were the pioneers in realizing the potential of depleted reservoirs for gas storage and, hence, have several well-developed facilities. What makes depleted reservoirs attractive is the presence of existing wells used to produce the reservoir, plus the geologic and engineering knowledge acquired during the development of the field. All that information is leveraged when repurposing the field for gas storage. Depleted reservoirs also contain some amount of gas already in the reservoir, which decreases the requirement to inject gas as cushion gas. (Cushion gas is immobile gas that remains in the reservoir and allows the reservoir to be used for storage.) Depleted reservoirs are also the most abundant. I would be remiss not to touch upon the Aliso Canyon incident of 2015. Aliso Canyon was the second-largest storage facility in the US at the time. The industry learned a harsh lesson about the repercussions when containment is lost for such facilities. The loss of containment was because of the casing failure of one of the wells (along with having subsurface safety valves removed in the past). This led to 109,000 tonnes of methane emissions by some estimates. One measure that was proposed to reduce such risks is to use offshore reservoirs nearing abandonment for gas storage (instead of onshore ones that are close to populated urban areas). At the time of this writing, the week-to-week change in the natural gas storage inventory was –237 Bcf, and levels remained lower than the 5-year historical average, according to the EIA. This withdrawal from the inventory was less than most forecasts based on the extreme cold temperatures faced by the US. The Henry Hub natural gas prices reached highs of more than $4.5/million Btu in 2018 because of record gas demand. The price has since dipped to $2.57/million Btu because of abatement in the extreme weather leading to lower demand for heating. To learn more, visit the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in Calgary, 30 September–2 October, and the Gastech Exhibition and Conference in Houston, 17–19 September. Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org. SPE 190838 Comprehensive Evaluation of the Dynamic Sealing Capacity of Clayey Caprocks in a Large Underground Gas Storage by Junchang Sun, PetroChina, et al. SPE 192961 Maintaining Flare-Tip Health by Venugopal Bakthavachsalam, ADNOC, et al. SPE 192783 Cutting-Edge Solutions for Sour-Gas Treatment: A Retrospective Study by Kuwait Oil Company by Fahad Al-Ghanem, Kuwait Oil Company, et al.

Villa Castelli - Transformation of Historical Building into Nearly Zero Energy Building

What Americas Cup and a heritage building have in common? They both aim at innovative technologies and cutting-edge solutions. The owner of the project, an ex-crew member of the most famous sailing match race in the world, pushed the planning team to develop extraordinary solutions for his house. The house, Villa Castelli, is an historical listed building located on the Como lake. During its history, it has been transformed many times, giving as results a non-uniform structure composed by different construction technologies. The aims of the owner were: an overall refurbishment particularly focused on energy efficiency, the exploitation of renewable energy sources based on-site production and a fixed budget. To reach these goals, the energy needs have been reduced improving the performance of the thermal envelope. Then, the building's technical systems have been re-developed in order to exploit as much as possible available renewable energy sources. From the very beginning, it was clear that, for finding optimal solutions, a multidisciplinary approach was necessary. The design approach should be the result of a shared approach integrating different fields, such as creative design, technology, knowledge of material properties, building physics. The great synergy among building envelope retrofitting, innovative technological solutions and the deployment of renewable energy sources allows the transformation of this historical listed building into an outstanding example of a nearly zero energy building (nZEB).

A Survey on 5G Millimeter Wave Communications for UAV-Assisted Wireless Networks

In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have received considerable attention from regulators, industry and research community, due to rapid growth in a broad range of applications. Particularly, UAVs are being used to provide a promising solution to reliable and cost-effective wireless communications from the sky. The deployment of UAVs has been regarded as an alternative complement of existing cellular systems, to achieve higher transmission efficiency with enhanced coverage and capacity. However, heavily utilized microwave spectrum bands below 6 GHz utilized by legacy wireless systems are insufficient to attain remarkable data rate enhancement for numerous emerging applications. To resolve the spectrum crunch crisis and satisfy the requirements of 5G and beyond mobile communications, one potential solution is to use the abundance of unoccupied bandwidth available at millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies. Inspired by the technique potentials, mmWave communications have also paved the way into the widespread use of UAVs to assist wireless networks for future 5G and beyond wireless applications. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey on current achievements in the integration of 5G mmWave communications into UAV-assisted wireless networks. More precisely, a taxonomy to classify the existing research issues is presented, by considering seven cutting-edge solutions. Subsequently, we provide a brief overview of 5G mmWave communications for UAV-assisted wireless networks from two aspects, i.e., key technical advantages and challenges as well as potential applications. Based on the proposed taxonomy, we further discuss in detail the state-of-the-art issues, solutions, and open challenges for this newly emerging area. Lastly, we complete this survey by pointing out open issues and shedding new light on future directions for further research on this area.

Przyszłość bibliotek i biblioteki przyszłości, czyli trendy kształtujące innowacyjne usługi biblioteczno-informacyjne w bibliotekach akademickich

The future of libraries and the libraries of the future — new trends shaping innovative library and information services in academic librariesThe development of libraries and their services depends on technological development, the users’ needs and socioeconomic conditions. Innovative libraries as the pioneers in implementing cutting-edge solutions lead the way in showing the direction of changes. The innovations implemented by libraries are aresponse to global trends, changing needs and users’ expectations. The article presents an overview of factors and phenomena which inspire libraries to use cutting-edge solutions and create new initiatives that will define the roles and responsibilities of the libraries of the future re­garding research libraries, with particular reference to academic libraries. The analyses were based on the research institutions and libraries’ reports which define the trends and recommendations in shaping the structures and tasks of the innovative libraries. The main document of this type is the report prepared by Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT defining the library of the future as an open and interactive library of knowledge which create aglobal network. The analyzed docu­ments describe the research tasks of libraries and highlight the development of research and aca­demic libraries’ responsibilities towards transforming libraries into cultural centres. The documents also emphasize the libraries’ social role not only in the research and academic community, but also at the local and national levels.

The Evolution of Integrated Interfaces for MEMS Microphones.

Over the last decade, MEMS microphones have become the leading solution for implementing the audio module in most portable devices. One of the main drivers for the success of the MEMS microphone has been the continuous improvement of the corresponding integrated interface circuit performance in terms of both dynamic range and power consumption, which enabled the introduction in mobile devices of additional functionalities, such as Hi-Fi audio recording or voice commands. As a result, MEMS microphone interface circuits evolved from just simple amplification stages to complex mixed-signal circuits, including A/D converters, with ever improving performance. This paper provides an overview of such evolution based on actual design examples, focusing, finally, on the latest cutting-edge solutions.

INTEGRATED IMAGING APPROACHES SUPPORTING THE EXCAVATION ACTIVITIES. MULTI-SCALE GEOSPATIAL DOCUMENTATION IN HIERAPOLIS (TK)

Abstract. The paper focuses on the exploration of the suitability and the discretization of applicability issues about advanced surveying integrated techniques, mainly based on image-based approaches compared and integrated to range-based ones that have been developed with the use of the cutting-edge solutions tested on field. The investigated techniques integrate both technological devices for 3D data acquisition and thus editing and management systems to handle metric models and multi-dimensional data in a geospatial perspective, in order to innovate and speed up the extraction of information during the archaeological excavation activities. These factors, have been experienced in the outstanding site of the Hierapolis of Phrygia ancient city (Turkey), downstream the 2017 surveying missions, in order to produce high-scale metric deliverables in terms of high-detailed Digital Surface Models (DSM), 3D continuous surface models and high-resolution orthoimages products. In particular, the potentialities in the use of UAV platforms for low altitude acquisitions in aerial photogrammetric approach, together with terrestrial panoramic acquisitions (Trimble V10 imaging rover), have been investigated with a comparison toward consolidated Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) measurements. One of the main purposes of the paper is to evaluate the results offered by the technologies used independently and using integrated approaches. A section of the study in fact, is specifically dedicated to experimenting the union of different sensor dense clouds: both dense clouds derived from UAV have been integrated with terrestrial Lidar clouds, to evaluate their fusion. Different test cases have been considered, representing typical situations that can be encountered in archaeological sites.

Learning from Nature: Bioinspired Strategies Towards Antimicrobial Nanostructured Systems

Microbial contamination still remains a major issue of the modern era, due to the widespread of drug-resistant pathogens. This has prompted researchers to come up with novel antimicrobial systems that could overcome antibiotic-resistance. In this context, nature can provide inestimable source of inspiration to design high-performance multifunctional materials with potent activity against drug-resistant pathogens. Actually, integrating the bio-inspired-approach with nanotechnology can provide cutting-edge solutions for drug-resistant infections. In this context, this review will examine recent advances in the development of bio-inspired antimicrobial nanostructures. Advantages of bioinspired approach to nanomaterials over conventional routes have been highlighted. Generally, bionspired synthesis can be carried out either by mimicking the functions of natural materials/ structures or by mimicking the biological processes employed to produce substances or materials. The review provides an overview of both strategies as applied to the synthesis of inorganic, organic as well as hybrid nanostructures. Antimicrobial efficacy and biological properties of these systems have been highlighted. Antimicrobial and antibiofouling nanostructured surfaces are also discussed.

Search-based Tier Assignment for Optimising Offline Availability in Multi-tier Web Applications

Web programmers are often faced with several challenges in the development process of modern, rich internet applications. Technologies for the different tiers of the application have to be selected: a server-side language, a combination of JavaScript, HTML and CSS for the client, and a database technology. Meeting the expectations of contemporary web applications requires even more effort from the developer: many state of the art libraries must be mastered and glued together. This leads to an impedance mismatch problem between the different technologies and it is up to the programmer to align them manually. Multi-tier or tierless programming is a web programming paradigm that provides one language for the different tiers of the web application, allowing the programmer to focus on the actual program logic instead of the accidental complexity that comes from combining several technologies. While current tierless approaches therefore relieve the burden of having to combine different technologies into one application, the distribution of the code is explicitly tied into the program. Certain distribution decisions have an impact on crosscutting concerns such as information security or offline availability. Moreover, adapting the programs such that the application complies better with these concerns often leads to code tangling, rendering the program more difficult to understand and maintain. We introduce an approach to multi-tier programming where the tierless code is decoupled from the tier specification. The developer implements the web application in terms of slices and an external specification that assigns the slices to tiers. A recommender system completes the picture for those slices that do not have a fixed placement and proposes slice refinements as well. This recommender system tries to optimise the tier specification with respect to one or more crosscutting concerns. This is in contrast with current cutting edge solutions that hide distribution decisions from the programmer. In this paper we show that slices, together with a recommender system, enable the developer to experiment with different placements of slices, until the distribution of the code satisfies the programmer's needs. We present a search-based recommender system that maximises the offline availability of a web application and a concrete implementation of these concepts in the tier-splitting tool Stip.js.