System Design Research Articles

A Glove-Based Virtual Hand Rehabilitation System for Patients With Post-Traumatic Hand Injuries.

Recent studies have shown that virtual gamified therapy can be a potential adjunct to conventional orthopedic rehabilitation. However, the off-the-shelf gaming consoles used for virtual rehabilitation pose several practical challenges in deploying them in clinical settings. In this article, we present the design of a portable glove-based virtual hand rehabilitation system (RehabRelive Glove) that can be used at both clinics and homes for physiotherapy. We also evaluate the system's efficacy on patients with post-traumatic hand injuries. Thirty patients were randomly categorized into groups A (virtual rehabilitation) and B (conventional physiotherapy). Both groups received fifteen 25-minute sessions of respective therapy over three weeks. The wrist and finger joints' range of motion (ROM) and grip strength were measured every seven sessions to compare the efficacy. Group A showed about 1.5 times greater improvement in flexion/extension ROM of the wrist compared to Group B. While both groups improved finger ROM and grip strength with time, no significant difference was observed between the groups. The results suggest that the proposed virtual rehabilitation system effectively enables patients with hand injuries to recover ROM faster.

Performance of steel protective structure for historical masonry aqueducts against rockfall: Numerical and field studies

This study investigates the design and impact performance of novel steel protection system intended to safeguard historical masonry aqueducts from damage caused by hazardous rocks. The historical aqueduct under consideration is located on the Sumela Monastery campus. To achieve this, we developed a three-dimensional (3D) photogrammetric model of the study area and identified all risky blocks along with their real positions. Subsequently, we conducted 3200 probabilistic rockfall analyses in eight critical trajectories with four different rock sizes to calculate the velocity, kinetic energy, and run-out distance of fallen blocks. In the second part of the study, finite element models of the steel protective structure were created using Abaqus software. A nonlinear dynamic impact analysis method was applied to analyze nine rockfall scenarios with two different geometries and four different sizes. Based on the rockfall and impact analyses, sections of the protection structure were designed using plastic design criteria. The steel protection structure for aqueducts demonstrated high effectiveness against rockfall, with a risk index (Ir) ranging from 0.93 to 1.00 (except for the upper end of the column–beam connection impacts). Even in these scenarios, the structure provided protection by reducing rock energy and altering its trajectory. In the third part, a steel structure was constructed in the field, and a rock cleaning process was carried out. During rock cleaning, punctures occurred while breaking sharp rocks. To mitigate this risk, a parametric study was conducted using a steel angle stopper. The proposed simple steel angle stopper effectively reduced rockfall damage to historical structures by blocking rock passages and rapidly reducing kinetic energy. Ultimately, during the removal of 5000 m³ of hazardous rocks, no damage was inflicted on the historical structure. The protection system showed a near 100 % success rate in safeguarding the aqueduct. This temporary structure can be employed to protect historical structures from rockfall hazards.

Optimal Design of a Hybrid Renewable Power System for a Reverse Osmosis Desalination Plant in Jordan

Optimal Design of a Hybrid Renewable Power System for a Reverse Osmosis Desalination Plant in Jordan

Machine learning-based active control for lightweight antenna with force density method and nested genetic algorithm

This work proposes the integration of a tensegrity structure composed of struts and cables into an antenna, thus achieving a lightweight and optimized design for the large-scale system. Active control is introduced to ensure the deformation accuracy of the cable-strut antenna, while a shape sensing method based on force density information is adopted to obtain the deformation field of actual wind cases from monitoring the cable forces. Numerical simulations are performed to verify the accuracy of the method, and a multi-objective optimization framework is employed to determine the optimal positions and control of actuators for active control. A machine learning-based framework is proposed to achieve rapid response of the active control system under actual wind cases. The framework is composed of a two-stage control system that combines the shape sensing method with the multi-objective optimization approach. The machine learning framework establishes a quick response system that monitors changes in the cable forces, thus ensuring structural accuracy control under wind load without structural analysis.

Design of a Novel Delivery Efficiency Feedback System for Biphasic Dissolving Microarray Patches Based on Poly(Lactic Acid) and Moisture‐Indicating Silica (Adv. Healthcare Mater. 17/2024)

Design of a Novel Delivery Efficiency Feedback System for Biphasic Dissolving Microarray Patches Based on Poly(Lactic Acid) and Moisture‐Indicating Silica (Adv. Healthcare Mater. 17/2024)

Techno-economic optimization and working fluid selection of a biogas-based dual-loop bi-evaporator ejector cooling cycle involving power-to-hydrogen and water facilities

Biogas-fueled decentralized energy systems featuring gas turbines emerge as pivotal players in the quest for more adaptable and eco-friendly energy solutions. This study presents the design of a cutting-edge multigeneration system that harnesses the potential of a gas turbine coupled with ejector-driven dual-loop bi-evaporator technology, reverse osmosis desalination, proton exchange membrane electrolysis, and an organic Rankine cycle. The research encompasses an extensive sensitivity analysis and deploys a genetic algorithm-based optimization technique. Through meticulous Optimization, the system achieves remarkable outcomes, including electricity generation, cooling capacity, heating capacity, desalinated water production, and hydrogen yield, measured at 957.3 kW, 231.4 kW, 272.3 kW, 7.336 kg/s, and 0.99 kg/h, respectively. Notably, this performance surpasses the base case by 2% and 8.9%, yielding exergy efficiency and total unit cost improvements of 33.3% and 16.4 $/GJ. Among the critical decisions made was selecting an organic working fluid for the organic Rankine cycle. Through rigorous evaluation, isobutene emerged as the optimal choice, demonstrating significantly improved output power compared to alternatives. Isobutane as the working fluid led to a substantial increase in overall exergy efficiency and a resultant total unit cost of 18.06 $/GJ, accompanied by an impressive 23.48% exergy efficiency.

Evaluation of no-show rate in outpatient clinics with open access scheduling system: A systematic review.

Patients' missed appointments can cause interference in the functions of the clinics and the visit of other patients. One of the most effective strategies to solve the problem of no-show rate is the use of an open access scheduling system (OA). This systematic review was conducted with the aim of investigating the impact of OA on the rate of no-show of patients in outpatient clinics. Relevant articles in English were investigated based on the keywords in title and abstract using PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases and Google Scholar search engine (July 23, 2023). The articles using OA and reporting the no-show rate were included. Exclusion criteria were as follows: (1) review articles, opinion, and letters, (2) inpatient scheduling system articles, and (3) modeling or simulating OA articles. Data were extracted from the selected articles about such issues as study design, outcome measures, interventions, results, and quality score. From a total of 23,403 studies, 16 articles were selected. The specialized fields included family medicine (62.5%, 10), pediatrics (25%, four), ophthalmology, podiatric, geriatrics, internal medicine, and primary care (6.25%, one). Of 16 articles, 10 papers (62.5%) showed a significant decrease in the no-show rate. In four articles (25%), the no-show rate was not significantly reduced. In two papers (12.5%), there were no significant changes. According to this studyresults, it seems that in most outpatient clinics, the use of OA by considering some conditions such as conducting needs assessment and system design based on the patients' and providers' actual needs, and cooperating of all system stakeholders through consistent training caused a significant decrease in the no-show rate.

The impacts of phase noise on a long-baseline cross-eye jammer

Cross-eye jamming is a technique used for deceiving the angle measurement of monopulse radars. Long baseline (i.e., long spacing of jammer antennas) is an attractive option for cross-eye jammers, which can increase the angular error for monopulse radars. Phase error is a key factor restricting the performance of cross-eye jammers. In this paper, one of the sources of the phase error, i.e., local oscillator (LO) phase noise, is analyzed for a long-baseline cross-eye jammer. The effect of LO phase noise on the jamming performance is revealed for the first time. Additionally, the tolerance requirements for the LO phase noise of long-baseline cross-eye jammers are determined through theoretical analyses. Finally, the theoretical analyses are verified by Monte Carlo simulations. The research results can provide theoretical insights for system design and component selection for cross-eye jammers.

Experimental validation of the horizontal resolution improvement by ultra-wideband metasurfaces for GPR systems

Achieving high horizontal resolution is crucial for general non-destructive testing (NDT) applications, and in the domain of ground penetrating radar (GPR), it can be more challenging due to inefficient transmissions of electromagnetic waves into and through complex material under test (MUT). In this study, we showcase the validation results of our recently designed ultra-wideband metasurface (UWM) in improving the horizontal resolution for GPR B-Scan images. This UWM has an ultra-wide working frequency band (100%) from 1 to 3 GHz, in which high-frequency GPR signals can be enhanced and transmitted into MUT. Our fourteen-day consecutive GPR experiments demonstrate that two buried pipes with an edge-to-edge spacing of 8 cm that are hard to distinguish by traditional GPR surveys can be visually identified by depositing the UWM atop the MUT. The underlying mechanism is the sustained and improved transmission of high-frequency signals into the MUT, enabled by the removal of transmission coupling loss by the UWM at the air-MUT interface and the resulting enhanced transmission of more high-frequency components. Our simulations also provide quantitative analysis of such enhanced behavior with a nominal transmittance increase of 30% ∼50%. We believe the horizontal resolution improvement enabled by UWM will open a new corridor for high-resolution GPR system design.

Human Versus Machine Intelligence: Assessing Natural Language Generation Models Through Complex Systems Theory.

The introduction of Transformer architectures - with the self-attention mechanism - in automatic Natural Language Generation (NLG) is a breakthrough in solving general task-oriented problems, such as the simple production of long text excerpts that resemble ones written by humans. While the performance of GPT-X architectures is there for all to see, many efforts are underway to penetrate the secrets of these black-boxes in terms of intelligent information processing whose output statistical distributions resemble that of natural language. In this work, through the complexity science framework, a comparative study of the stochastic processes underlying the texts produced by the English version of GPT-2 with respect to texts produced by human beings, notably novels in English and programming codes, is offered. The investigation, of a methodological nature, consists first of all of an analysis phase in which the Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis and the Recurrence Quantification Analysis - together with Zipf's law and approximate entropy - are adopted to characterize long-term correlations, regularities and recurrences in human and machine-produced texts. Results show several peculiarities and trends in terms of long-range correlations and recurrences in the last case. The synthesis phase, on the other hand, uses the complexity measures to build synthetic text descriptors - hence a suitable text embedding - which serve to constitute the features for feeding a machine learning system designed to operate feature selection through an evolutionary technique. Using multivariate analysis, it is then shown the grouping tendency of the three analyzed text types, allowing to place GTP-2 texts in between natural language texts and computer codes. Similarly, the classification task demonstrates that, given the high accuracy obtained in the automatic discrimination of text classes, the proposed set of complexity measures is highly informative. These interesting results allow us to add another piece to the theoretical understanding of the surprising results obtained by NLG systems based on deep learning and let us to improve the design of new informetrics or text mining systems for text classification, fake news detection, or even plagiarism detection.

Guest Editorial: Special Issue on “Sustainable urban energy systems – Governance and citizen involvement”

Cities are responsible for over 75% of the total amount of global greenhouse gas emissions. They are also home to the majority of the Earth's population. Ambitious climate mitigation goals can only be realized by transforming fossil based urban energy systems into sustainable, low-carbon ones. This is a multidisciplinary challenge that goes way beyond the technological dimension. In the Special Issue to which this Guest Editorial contributes, a multi-disciplinary perspective is used, exploring governance, institutional, ethical and other aspects, pertaining to citizen involvement in sustainable urban energy systems. The main research questions are, “How can we address key challenges to the analysis and design of sustainable urban energy systems, as regards their governance and institutions, values, social acceptance, and citizen involvement?”, and “How can this contribute to shaping a multi-disciplinary academic research agenda?” Based on the main findings from the ten contributions to the Special Issue key challenges to sustainable urban energy system design, planning, and implementation are presented, including suggestions for future research.

Design and characterization of Glypican-3 targeted liposomes with cantharidin encapsulation for hepatocellular carcinoma treatment

Targeted delivery of chemotherapeutic agents to the cancerous cells is of fundamental importance and the key step of the targeted delivery system design is to choice a specific receptor. Glypican-3 (GPC3) is a known cell membrane-associated oncofetal proteoglycan that is specifically up-regulated in the fast-growing hepatocarcinoma cells but rarely expressed in the normal healthy liver. Therefore, GPC3 may be a perfect targeting receptor for delivery treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In the present study, a GPC3 specific-targeting nanoliposomal drug delivery system was constructed with GPC3 targeting peptide (named as L5 peptide) modification and anticancer drug cantharidin encapsulation, which aims to realize cantharidin targeted treatment of liver cancer. In our study, nanoliposome specifically targeting GPC3 receptor was successfully constructed with particle size of 127.9 nm and a spherical shape. The targeted liposomes were stable under 4 °C or room temperature for almost 15 days. The drug release from L5-modified liposomes was controlled and delayed. Their targeted delivery properties were characterized by relatively more accumulation in the GPC3 highly expressed HepG2 cells than that of GPC3 lowly expressed Huh-7 cells. The competition results also indicated that the liposomes with L5 peptide modification could competitively bind to GPC3 receptor. Moreover, the liposomes showed colocalization with the lysosome after 3 h incubation. The L5-modified liposomal CTD had an augmented cell growth inhibition and tumor inhibition than that of the free CTD on HepG2 cells and GPC3 highly expressed tumor mice. Our study establishes a new strategy for improving HCC treatment and chemotherapeutic agent targeting delivery.

Developing an integrated simulator and optimizer model for liquid desiccant dehumidification system “LDDSim”

This study introduces “Liquid Desiccant Dehumidification Simulator” (LDDSim), a novel software tool aimed at simplifying the construction of adiabatic liquid desiccant systems, with a particular focus on innovative series two-stage regenerator configurations. LDDSim enables parametric studies and optimizations, enhancing system design and selection. Moreover, LDDSim facilitates thorough system analyses through informative graphical outputs and employs multi-objective optimization tools to boost efficiency. This paper outlines the software’s main inputs, outputs, subroutines, inference engine, and complexity analysis and verification using a real case study utilizing multiple-effect regeneration (MER). Results highlight the advantages of employing a series two-stage regenerator, such as lower power consumption and more flexibility in space compared to single-stage setups. Furthermore, system optimization efforts led to a significant reduction in power consumption while maximizing dehumidifier efficiency and moisture removal rate, yielding promising results with a 36.2 % decrease in power consumption, alongside a dehumidifier efficiency of 94.02 % and a moisture removal rate of 9.84 g/s. LDDSim is a valuable tool for engineers and researchers in liquid desiccant dehumidification systems for design, simulation and optimization.

Evaluasi dan Pengembangan Model Sistem Informasi Manajemen Skrining Resep di Instalasi Farmasi RSUD Dr. Hasri Ainun Habibie Gorontalo dengan Metode EUCS

Introduction: Management information systems (SIMs) can provide data and information that can help facilitate prescription screening such as administrative, pharmaceutical, and clinical data. Data and information from the hospital management information system (SIMRS) are also to make it easier to screen prescriptions and prevent medication errors. Objective: This study aims to evaluate the need for a screening management information system at dr. Hasri Ainun Habibie Gorontalo and developed. As well as seeing the level of user satisfaction after the development of a prescription screening management information system Methods: The research conducted is quantitative descriptive. The data collection of system needs analysis was carried out by looking directly at the system at dr. Hasri Ainun Habibie Gorontalo Hospital. As well as evaluating the system using the End User Computing Satisfaction (EUCS) method by distributing questionnaires to pharmaceutical officers. After obtaining an analysis of the system needs, the design of the prescription screening management system was made using context diagrams, data flow diagrams (DFD), and entity relationship data (ERD). Data analysis to see the increase in satisfaction using the wilcoxon signed rank test. Results: The results of the observation of the completeness of prescription screening in the system at dr. Hasri Ainun Habibie Gorontalo Hospital show that administrative, pharmaceutical and clinical screening has not been fully completed. Meanwhile, the pretest results of the evaluation of the system that has been implemented in the hospital show that the frequency of respondents' answers in the dissatisfaction scale category in variable content is 97.2% and accuracy is 55.6%. However, after system development and re-evaluation as a result of the posttest, the results were obtained that the suitability of administrative, pharmaceutical and clinical screening on the satisfactory scale in variable content was 58.3%, format 51.9%, ease of use 66.7%, timeliness 55.8%, and very satisfied scale at variable accuracy 55.6%. Analysis of pretest and posttest data using the Wilcoxon test showed a significant value (p) of 0.007. Conclusion: The results of the evaluation and design of the prescription screening management information system have met the criteria and received increased satisfaction from system users. So that the system is ready to be implemented at dr. Hasri Ainun Habibie Gorontalo Hospital.

Design and simulation of solar pumping system using PVsyst, case study: TSABIT - ADRAR in Algeria

In isolated sites, the extension of the electricity network requires a very high capital cost. For agriculture work, irrigation is a necessity. A possible solution is using renewable energy sources like solar power, which is environmentally friendly and available for free. This paper presents the design and simulation of a photovoltaic water pumping system for irrigation of a farm located at a place named Tsabit in Adrar southwest Algeria. A detailed approach for the design of an optimized PV water pumping system based on real water usage data is proposed. Besides, system design work and performance assessment were carried out based on hourly climatic conditions. PV SYST software is used to carry out this work. A comparison was also made between two water pumping systems with and without use of a sun tracker. From the obtained results, the use of this kind of system could have an important contribution in the social and economic development of a country, especially in the presence of a sun tracker device, where we recorded more efficiency.

QR Code-Based Attendance System for Contact Tracking Post-Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about profound changes in daily life and introduced new challenges to public health maintenance. Despite ongoing uncertainties, with certain regions easing or completely lifting community activity restrictions, persistent concerns about the virus's continued threat prompt the need for robust health monitoring measures. In this context, the use of contact tracing apps becomes pivotal for organizing individuals' movements, monitoring social distancing, and ensuring adherence to health protocols. This study introduces a QR code-based attendance system, a meticulously designed web and Android application aimed at efficiently and accurately tracking individuals' whereabouts. The system leverages QR code scanning technology, and to enhance security, employs the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) method for data encryption. This ensures the safe encryption of sensitive data, preserving its confidentiality and integrity during transmission and storage. The research outcome is a versatile application facilitating seamless access across diverse locations, allowing real-time tracking of individuals' presence. This capability proves crucial for contact tracing efforts in the event of positive cases, contributing to the implementation of post-pandemic security and surveillance policies. The system's design and features align with the evolving landscape of the pandemic, emphasizing adaptability and comprehensive support for public health initiatives.

Lane Line Detection System for Vehicle Using Python

Abstract: This research presents a real-time collision detection and lane assistance system implemented using Python and OpenCV. The system leverages computer vision techniques to detect vehicles and lane lines, calculate distances to detected objects, and issue timely alerts to prevent collisions. The implementation aims to enhance driver safety by providing real-time feedback about the vehicle's surroundings. This paper details the system's design, methodology, and performance evaluation.

Energy, Exergetic, and Thermoeconomic Analyses of Hydrogen-Fueled 1-kW Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

Exergy analysis evaluates the efficiency of system components by quantifying the rate of entropy generation. In general, the exergy destruction rate or irreversibility rate was directly obtained through the exergy balance equation. However, this method cannot determine the origin of the component’s entropy generation rate, which is a very important factor in system design and improvement. In this study, a thorough energy, exergy, and thermoeconomic analysis of a proton-exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) was performed, providing the heat transfer rate, entropy generation rate, and cost loss rate of each component. The irreversibility rate of each component was obtained by the Gouy–Stodola theorem. Detailed and extensive exergy and thermoeconomic analyses of the PEMFC system determined that water cooling units experience the greatest heat transfer among the components in the studied PEMFC system, resulting in the greatest irreversibility and, thus, the greatest monetary flow loss.

DEVELOPMENT OF A WEB-BASED APPLICATION FOR MANAGING ASSESSMENT AND INTERVIEW ACTIVITIES AT PT. GAIA SOLUTIONS

Information systems have significantly evolved in tandem with advancements in information technology. This evolution has led PT Gaia Solution to transform from conventional business practices to digital systems, particularly for managing assessments and interviews. The transformation aims to create a web application dedicated to handling assessment and interview operations at PT Gaia Solution. This study adopts the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) methodology using the waterfall model, which consists of the stages of requirements analysis, system design, implementation, testing, and evaluation. Application evaluation shows satisfactory results, with blackbox testing achieving a 100% success rate and high UI/UX satisfaction among users. The application was completed on time according to the set deadline and provides speed and performance that meet expectations. The outcome is a fully functional website that effectively addresses PT Gaia Solution's requirements for managing assessments and interview activities. By overcoming the limitations of the conventional system, this transformation boosts the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the company's processes. This success demonstrates that the implementation of SDLC with a waterfall approach can produce an effective web-based application as a form of transformation from conventional to digital systems at PT Gaia Solution, particularly for assessment and interview activities. This transformation can be immediately implemented and provides significant benefits to the company, including improved operational performance, data accuracy, and flexibility.

PENGELOLAAN KUALITAS LAYANAN PERGURUAN TINGGI MELALUI RANCANG BANGUN PROTOTiPE VISITOR MANAGEMENT SYSTEM BERBASIS WEB

The concept of guest service in higher education includes various aspects aimed at welcoming, providing information, and ensuring comfort for guests who come to campus. Generally, university guest registration services are still manual, through direct visits, telephone calls, emails, or letters. Manual recording uses conventional paper logs or guest books, so it takes longer and is inefficient in archiving. In addition, security problems are caused by the lack of activities to verify the identity of each visitor. This research aims to improve the quality of service in higher education by developing a web-based visitor or guest management system (Visitor Management System). This system is designed to manage visits to the campus environment efficiently and effectively. The development method used is a prototype design-build approach. This system is expected to help monitor and control visitor traffic, facilitate the registration process, and provide accurate and timely information to visitors. Thus, this web-based visitor management system can significantly improve service quality management in higher education. The object of this research is the Directorate of Education at one of the state universities in Surabaya. The research method starts with problem identification, system design, program code design, and system testing. System requirements analysis analyses service needs, constraints, and system objectives through interviews, literature studies, and field observations. This research results in the availability of a WEB-based Visitor Management System with several user functions where each user can enter data on an online form to request to be a guest.