Smart Way Research Articles

"Smart" drug delivery: A window to future of translational medicine.

Chemotherapy is the mainstay of cancer treatment today. Chemotherapeutic drugs are non-selective and can harm both cancer and healthy cells, causing a variety of adverse effects such as lack of specificity, cytotoxicity, short half-life, poor solubility, multidrug resistance, and acquiring cancer stem-like characteristics. There is a paradigm shift in drug delivery systems (DDS) with the advent of smarter ways of targeted cancer treatment. Smart Drug Delivery Systems (SDDSs) are stimuli responsive and can be modified in chemical structure in response to light, pH, redox, magnetic fields, and enzyme degradation can be future of translational medicine. Therefore, SDDSs have the potential to be used as a viable cancer treatment alternative to traditional chemotherapy. This review focuses mostly on stimuli responsive drug delivery, inorganic nanocarriers (Carbon nanotubes, gold nanoparticles, Meso-porous silica nanoparticles, quantum dots etc.), organic nanocarriers (Dendrimers, liposomes, micelles), antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) and small molecule drug conjugates (SMDC) based SDDSs for targeted cancer therapy and strategies of targeted drug delivery systems in cancer cells.

Keep it SMART

Mark Beckwith offers advice on the SMART way to clean, lubricate and sterilise dental handpieces.

Plastic waste management in the smart cities: Poland and Turkey as a case study

Introduction/background: Waste in various forms, such as solid waste, gaseous waste, and liquid waste, increases as a result of population growth, urbanization, and industrialization, and has a global impact. Waste management entails activities such as reuse, recycling, and reducing waste generation, as well as other strategies to combat the effect of waste generation caused by increasing population and industrialization. Monitoring is a critical function of waste management because it is required to address waste management issues such as waste generation, waste collection, waste transportation, waste treatment, and waste disposal. The article presents plastic waste management in the context of smart cities. Purpose: The goal of the article is to present and compare of the production of plastic waste in Poland and Turkey in the context of smart cities. Sustainable and eco-innovation plastic waste management solutions to reduce plastic waste are provided to be implemented in smart cities. In this study, smart cities are explained, how to manage plastic waste by using smart city components, and methods of dealing with plastic waste are explained. Methodology: The article is based on a review of the literature, own observations and own experience. The currently available plastic waste management solutions were analyzed and examples in the implementation of the technology in a smart city are described. Findings: The incorporation of smart city technology into waste management practices provides a smart way to solve waste issues. The main of plastic waste management is to develop methods to transform plastic waste into a circular economy. As estimated by 2030 plastic leakage to ecosystems should be 30% reduced, double the global recovery of plastic (collection and recycling), and shift to sustainable inputs for remaining plastic, including recycled content, sustainably sourced biocontent, advanced products and reducing unnecessary plastic through a business model, innovation, reduction and substitution. Originality: The goal of waste management is to recover as much useful material as possible, including energy. Waste generated in smart cities is a category of municipal waste. Traditional approaches to waste management have failed because they are not reliable or sustainable because they require a lot of input for little or no work output. The incorporation of smart city technology into waste management practices provides a smart way to solve waste issues. The main of plastic waste management is to develop methods to transform plastic waste into a circular economy. Keywords: Plastic wastes, waste management, smart cities, eco-innovation solutions.

A smart and visible way to switch the aromaticity of silicon(IV) phthalocyanines.

Unlike traditional methods of modifying phthalocyanines (Pcs), we herein report a smart and visible way to switch the aromaticity of silicon(IV) phthalocyanines via a reversible nucleophilic addition reaction of the Pc skeleton induced by alkalis and acids, leading to an interesting allochroism phenomenon and the switching of photosensitive activities.

Towards Intelligent Electromagnetic Inverse Scattering Using Deep Learning Techniques and Information Metasurfaces

Electromagnetic inverse scattering (EMIS) is uniquely positioned among many inversion methods because it enables to image the scene in a contactless, quantitative and super-resolution way. Although many EMIS approaches have been proposed to date, they usually suffer from two important challenges, i.e., time-consuming data acquisition and computationally -prohibitive data post processing, especially for large-scale objects with high and even moderate contrasts. To tackle the challenges, we here propose a framework of intelligent EMIS with the aid of deep learning techniques and information metasurfaces, enabling to the efficient data acquisition and instant data processing in a smart way. Towards this goal, as illustrative examples, we considerably extend the canonical contrast source inversion (CSI) algorithm, a canonical EMIS method by updating the contrast via the generative adversarial network (GAN), an unsupervised deep learning approach, leading to a novel physics-informed unsupervised deep learning method for EMIS, referred to as CSI-GAN in short. Compared with existing deep learning solutions for EMIS, our method relies on the supervision of physical law instead of the labeled training dataset, beating the bottleneck arising from the collection of labeled training datasets. Furthermore, we propose a scheme of adaptive data acquisition with the use of information metasurface in a cost-efficiency way, remarkably reducing the number of measurements and thus speeding up the data acquisition but maintaining the reconstruction's quality. Illustrative examples are provided to demonstrate the performance gain in terms of reconstruction quality, showing the promising potentials for providing the intelligent scheme for the EMIS problems.

ВПЛИВ УГОДИ ПРО ЗОНУ ВІЛЬНОЇ ТОРГІВЛІ З ДЕРЖАВОЮ ІЗРАЇЛЬ НА РОЗВИТОК ІНТЕГРАЦІЙНОГО ПОТЕНЦІАЛУ УКРАЇНИ

The paper focuses on the trade in goods between Ukraine and Israel in the context of the Free Trade Agreement signed between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of the State of Israel, as well as on the impact of the Agreement on the development of Ukraine’s integration potential. The data taken from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine allows to examine the commodity patterns of exports and imports, to analyze the dynamics of exports, imports, balance of trade and volumes of trade in goods between Ukraine and the State of Israel for 2016–2021. During 2016–2020 exports of goods from Ukraine exceed imports from Israel by 300–400 mln USD, while in 2021 – by 500 mln USD. The share of Ukraine's exports of goods to Israel in all merchandise exports of Ukraine has been slightly above 1%, while the share of imports from Israel has declined – from 0.5% in 2016 to 0.3% in 2021; the goods turnover has reached USD 956.0 mln USD. The analysis of commodity pattern of Ukraine's trade with the State of Israel demonstrates that the raw material nature of exports has been preserved: the share of сereals (commodity group 10) increased from 36% in 2016 to 37.9% in 2021; the share of ferrous metals (commodity group 72) decreased from 30.5% in 2016 to 23.4% in 2021. At the same time some improvements have been observed in the exports structure: the share of certain types of processing industries goods has slightly grown during the period under analysis, e.g. grain products (commodity group 19 – part of finished food industry products section); semi-finished goods from ferrous metals (commodity group 73); nuclear reactors, boilers, machines (commodity group 84); furniture (commodity group 94 – wood products, part of different industrial products section), etc. The Agreement resulted in Ukraine’s joining the Pan-Euro-Med (Regional Convention or protocols on the rules of origin of goods) which opens up “diagonal rules of origin” enabling more opportunities not only to offer the world raw materials, human capital, but also to be included in smart way in global value chains which increases the efficiency of the functioning of the national economy within the world economy based on the fragmentation of production and its subsequent digital cooperation using modern information and communication technologies; ensures a better division and cooperation of labor between producers of goods and services thus offering possibilities and creating conditions for more efficient fulfilment of Ukraine’s integration potential.

Study of Velocity, Flow Depth and Froude Number of HDPE Diagonal Modular Pavement Using FLOW 3D

Modular pavement studies traditionally using physical modelling appear to be relatively expensive and risk substantial losses. Because of that, numerical simulation studies are a smart way to either create a new design or build a modular pavement on site before starting. This research examined the correlation of xyz velocity, flow depth and Froude number in a diagonal HDPE modular pavement using FLOW 3D. The simulations use Malaysian actual rainfall data to assess the ability of diagonal pavements to diffuse rainfall. The parameters xyz velocity, flow depth and Froude number were taken to see the absorbed rainfall capacity and the results show that the velocities x and y are greater than the velocities z. The flow depth was maintained at 425.6522 mm during the 600s and 6000s throughout the rainfall events for rainfall intensities of 5 mm/h and 85mm/h. Froude’s number is lower than zero. This FLOW 3D software is suitable as a modular pavement modelling since the velocity, flow depth and Froude number are closely related to the previous study. FLOW 3D can be used as an preliminary method for designing modular pavements.

LEXICAL COMPLEX IN KHMER: «UNNECESSARY VERBOSITY» OR ELABORATION OF MEANING?

Complexity of language units in Mon- Khmer and other Asian languages of isolating profile is their prominent feature. The article deals with a specific type of Khmer complex units that is lexical complex, in particular verbal lexical complex which has an exceptionally high frequency in Khmer text. In linguistic literature dealing with isolating languages of Asia, including Khmer, this type of complex units is not recognized due to the fact that they do not look different from complex words and serial verb constructions being also sequences of verbs without any means of subordination or coordination. A most characteristic feature of Khmer is chains consisting of several verbs. Their presence in discourse is often seen as unnecessary verbosity, having nothing to do with expression of meaning. Russian linguist D. I. Yelovkov was the first to introduce the concept of lexical complex in Khmer. According to him, a lexical complex consists of two or more lexemes which make up a structural and semantic unity of a special kind [Еловков 2006, с. 106]. He singled out several types of lexical complexes and described their functional potential in detail. It was a real breakthrough in Khmer studies. This article defines the verbal lexical complex as a unit comprised of several verbs with a unified semantic structure without formal links but connected on the semantic level. Two specific types of semantic derivation by means of lexical complexes are analyzed: polysemantic lexical complexes and lexical complexes that eliminate word ambiguity. Data from Modern Khmer, Middle Khmer and Old Khmer is used. Polysemantic lexical complex derivatives are used to characterize different aspects of one single action. Analysis presented in the article allows us to draw the conclusion that the Khmer lexical complex is a well-structured and effective nomination unit which allows the speaker to accurately, concisely and in a smart way express meanings in the amount required. Lexical complex is a language unit which has no analogues in languages of other typological profile.

Nature-Based Solutions: A Smart Way to Improve Urban Resilience in the Face of Climate Change

This paper provides an overview of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), a new emerging concept in climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. It introduces a typology of NBS, from minimal intervention to the highest degree of engineering, and provides examples of each. It also provides an overview of the ‘Life Metro Adapt’ project, which focused on the climate problems of the Milan Metropolitan City and supported the development of climate change adaptation strategies through alternative, nature-based solutions. Finally, the paper stresses the need for increased awareness of environmental issues, in order to ensure that NBS become ‘commonplace’ today and can be perfected in the future.

Smarter Ways with Water: To address an onslaught of crises, people must tune into natural ways to repair water cycles that human development has severely disrupted.

Smarter Ways with Water: To address an onslaught of crises, people must tune into natural ways to repair water cycles that human development has severely disrupted.

Solar-Energized Smart Umbrella for Street Vendors

This article introduces the concept of a solar-energized smart umbrella tailored for street vendors, incorporating features to improve comfort and convenience. The umbrella integrates renewable energy technology to power its functionalities, such as a fan activated when the temperature exceeds a predetermined threshold that is 35ºC, a light that activates during rainfall and dark, and a mobile charging facility. By utilizing solar panels, the umbrella harnesses solar energy to charge an internal battery, enabling the operation of these features. The fan provides a cooling effect to alleviate discomfort caused by high temperatures, while the light ensures visibility and protection from rain. Additionally, the umbrella includes a mobile charging facility, allowing street vendors to conveniently charge their devices using renewable energy. This innovative solution enhances the working experience of street vendors, promoting their well-being and productivity. By combining renewable energy and smart features, the solar-energized smart umbrella for street vendors offers a sustainable and efficient solution, contributing to a more comfortable and technologically advanced street environment. The increasing day by day world population and demand for urban cities, due to this also becoming smarter way as compared to it before. The smart umbrella is one such example to serve the purpose of recent generations. It can open up on its own by using sensory signals to the processor to control the situation such as during rain, hot, and dark, situation using respective sensors and also for individual need with the option of connectivity with charging USB and switch on the fan for cooling in summer and light during the night.

J-Aggregation induced NIR-II fluorescence: an aza-BODIPY luminogen for efficient phototheranostics.

The development of organic dyes with emission peaks in the second near-infrared window (NIR-II 1000-1700 nm) is highly desirable for in vivo imaging and imaging-guided phototheranostics. However, the lack of appropriate molecular frameworks and the challenges associated with complex synthesis critically hinder the development of new candidate fluorophores. J-Aggregation is considered as a smart and straightforward way to construct such a therapeutic agent with NIR-II fluorescence imaging properties. Here, we present the design and synthesis of an aza-BODIPY probe (TA). Upon encapsulation within the amphiphilic polymer DSPEG-PEG2000-NH2, TA underwent self-assembly and formed J-aggregates (TAJ NPs), which showed emission at 1020 nm. High spatial resolution and adequate signal-to-noise ratio of the TAJ NPs are demonstrated for noninvasive bioimaging of the vasculature, lymph nodes and bones of mice in the NIR-II region. Moreover, the TAJ NPs exhibited good tumor enrichment efficiency with reduced liver accumulation and significant imaging-guided phototherapy performance against lung cancer cells. Taken together, this work not only introduces a new NIR-II imaging and phototheranostic agent based on J-aggregates, but also provides insight into the development of versatile organic dyes for future clinical implementation.

Synthesis and feasibility studies of doping U at Ti site of Y2Ti2O7 as a radioactive waste immobilization matrix.

In pursuit of clean and green nuclear energy one of the major challenges is to effectively immobilize the nuclear waste. In this context A2B2O7 type pyrochlore owing to its structural flexibility, ability to accommodate ions at both A/B-sites and high radiation tolerance has demonstrated excellent capability to store highly radioactive actinide ions. To fill the major gap area of actinide doping at the B site we have taken up the challenge of doping uranium ions at the Ti site of Y2Ti2O7 type pyrochlore. An yttria titanate (Y2Ti2-xUxO7; x = 0.05, 0.075, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3) based matrix with uranium doped at the Ti site was synthesized using a simple gel combustion route under an air atmosphere. Rietveld refined X-ray diffraction (XRD) demonstrated that Y2Ti2O7 can accommodate U up to 5 mol% in the Ti site without any phase separation, which was further confirmed using Raman spectroscopy. Y2Ti2O7 based matrices are found to be radiation stable up to 1000 kGy and at the same time they are moderately thermally stable and on a par with the values reported for pyrochlores. Uranium in Y2Ti2O7 stabilizes in +6 oxidation state in the form of uranyl ion distributed near and far off from titanium vacancies with distinct excited state lifetime. This work could provide a smart and strategic way for selecting a suitable advanced ceramic matrix for immobilization of high level waste with additional and important information on solubility limit, actinide speciation, radiation/thermal stability, actinide concentration, etc.

Green Architecture - Solution for Sustainable Urban Developments in Viet Nam

The future of the world has been shaped by urban cities while the sustainable urban life is a raising global goal. In recent years, Vietnam has achieved certain achievements in its urban growth and development strategies. However, due to the consequences of rapid and uncontrolled urban growths, concurrently this nation has faced with a heavy challenging pressure and visible barriers to the ability to housing’s supply and construction, environmental pollutions, greenhouse effects, climate change … So that, urban development in a smart and sustainable way has being called on efforts to find a solution for these difficult and polemic problems in Vietnam recently. As a persistent effort, the model of green architecture, the green buildings play an important role to strengthen strategies and solutions for sustainable urban development. This study was based on an urban ecology approach; get along with the exploitation of secondary data sources, as well as observations of the authors from development practices in some major cities in Vietnam.

IoT-Smart Agriculture: Comparative Study on Farming Applications and Disease Prediction of Apple Crop using Machine Learning

Recently, the Internet of Things has emerged as an encouraging technology that is scaling up new heights towards the modernization of real word physical objects into smarter devices in several domains. Internet of Things (IoT) based solutions in agriculture drives farming into a smart way through the proliferation of smart devices to enhanced production with minimal human involvement. This paper presents a comprehensive study of the role of IoT in prominent applications of farming, wireless communication protocols, and the role of sensors in precision farming. In this research article, the existing frameworks in IoT-based agriculture systems with relevant technologies are presented. Furthermore, the comparative analysis of the apple disease prediction system concerning different types of disease found in the apple crop are discussed. In addition, this paper presents the contributions made by numerous researchers over the past few years in the apple disease prediction system. The aim of this research is to support the development of smart agriculture applications that would be helpful in precision farming for the optimization of resources with the help of IoT in agriculture and early disease prediction in apple crops.

Vehicle parking: A smart solution

The system proposed in this paper provides an effective solution in finding the vacant space and manages the vehicles entering in and out of parking area. The system consists of Arduino Uno, Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), Servo motor and Infrared (IR) Sensors. Two IR Sensors placed just before and after the entrance of the gate which detects the motion of the vehicle either entering or leaving the gate or slot area. The Arduino Uno, a microcontroller counts the number of available slots based on the entry or exit of the vehicle and the state of each slot i.e., either the slot is empty or full and provides a feedback which is displayed on the LCD. This whole process makes the system fully automated and thus provides a solution for vehicle parking in a smart way. The proposed automated system causes the driver to navigate in reaching to the vacant slot using display thus reduces search time. The proposed system can be implemented at places where heavy number of vehicles needs to be parked.

Novel method to manage weeds in the rainfed groundnut (var. VRI 8 and TMV 14) using nano encapsulated herbicide formulations

The groundnut crop harbours heavy weed infestation due to its small stature and slow growing nature. The current weed management practices of hand weeding and use of commercial herbicides are unsuitable because of high labour cost and inadequate moisture availability to activate herbicides. In order to release the herbicide in a smart way, this experiment aimed to study the efficacy of encapsulated herbicides . Field experiments were conducted during Kharif 2021 and late Rabi 2022 under rainfed conditions in randomised block design with three replications. The treatments consisted of sulfentrazone, oxyfluorfen, diclosulam and metolachlor in both commercial and encapsulated form using two doses, hand weeding at 20 and 40 DAS, weed free plot and weedy check. Minimum weed density (28.33 and 17.30 No./m2 at 90 DAS during Kharif and late Rabi respectively) and weed dry weight (65.33 and 61.25 g/m2 at 90 DAS during Kharif and late Rabi respectively) were observed in hand weeding at 20 and 40 DAS (T19) followed by diclosulam @ 25 g ha-1 with encapsulation (T7). Maximum weed density and weed dry weight was observed in metolachlor @ 1 kg/ha with encapsulation (T8). Higher productivity was observed in hand weeding at 20 and 40 DAS (T19) (1802 kg ha-1 and 1753 kg ha-1 pod yield during Kharif and late Rabi respectively) and higher profitability was obtained in diclosulam @ 25 g ha-1 with encapsulation (T7) (1.80 and 2.01 B:C ratio during (Kharif and late Rabi respectively). Nano-encapsulated herbicides can thus significantly improve weed control in rainfed groundnut.

How formal and informal open innovation impact innovation performance: the moderating role of appropriability

ABSTRACT Open innovation (OI) is a smart way for firms to explore new opportunities, develop new products and new processes to create value. When firms keep open to reveal knowledge for collaborating with external partners, they simultaneously protect their innovations from being copied, i.e. appropriability. The understanding of whether appropriability enables or hinders open innovation to impact innovation performance still remains inconsistent. OI can be divided into formal and informal OI. Specifically, formal OI is based on contractual agreements, informal OI is involved in non-contractual and unplanned knowledge exchange. The different dimensions of OI may impact innovation performance differently when interact with appropriability. It is necessary to study how the interplay between formal/informal OI and appropriability impact innovation performance. An empirical study is performed based on an innovation survey with a sample of 764 manufacturing firms. The results suggest that both formal and informal OI enhance innovation performance, and informal OI is found to exert a stronger impact on innovation performance compared to formal OI. The interaction between formal OI and appropriability enhances innovation performance. In contrast, the combination of informal OI and appropriability reduces innovation performance.

Imaging Cloaked Objects: Diffraction Tomography of Realistic Invisibility Devices

AbstractInvisibility cloaks have become one of the most outstanding developments among the wide range of applications in the field of metamaterials. So far, most efforts in invisibility science have been devoted to achieving practically realizable cloak designs and to improving the effectiveness of these devices in reducing their scattering cross‐section (SCS), a scalar quantity accounting for the total electromagnetic energy scattered by an object. However, little attention has been paid to the opposite side of the technology: the development of more efficient techniques for the detection of invisibility devices. For instance, the SCS ignores the phase change introduced by the cloak, as well as the angular dependence of the incident and scattered waves. Here, a different path is proposed, which takes advantage of the smarter way in which diffraction tomography processes all this overlooked information to improve the efficiency in unveiling the presence of invisibility devices. This approach not only results in a considerable sensitivity enhancement in the detection of different kinds of cloaks based on both scattering cancellation and transformation optics, but also enables us to obtain images depicting the approximate shape and size of the cloak. The proposed method can be extended to the detection of sound cloaks.

Improving the formability during ultrasonic-assisted multi-stage incremental sheet forming

Multi-stage sheet forming is an encouraging technique to obtain complex geometries by change of the design of intermediate stages. Due to the occurrence of stepped feature during multi-stage forming, the final geometry shape is affected and the formability is deteriorated. To eliminate fracture and enhance formability, ultrasonic assistance is integrated with the multi-stage sheet forming process. The present work aims to investigate the effect of ultrasonic-vibrations (UV) on formability and thickness evolution using two multi-stage strategies through experiments. A frequency of 29 kHz and an amplitude of 10 μm are taken for the ultrasonic-assisted incremental forming process. Firstly, two distinct strategies are compared by experiments. Secondly, thorough investigation of formability experiments is performed by applying the UV at only one or two stages instead of the complete multi-stage forming process. The results show that formability of the part is increased while applying UV at intermediate stages. Similarly, it is confirmed that UV is more advantageous during latter stage of experiment. This work provides an effective strategy to improve the formability of the incremental sheet forming process by using the ultrasonic vibrations in a smart way.