Information, Volume 14, Issue 8 (August 2023) – 47 articles

In recent years, rapid advancements in both hardware and software technologies have resulted in the ability to execute artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms on low-resource devices. The combination of high-speed, low-power electronic hardware and efficient AI algorithms is driving the emergence of on-device AI. Deep neural networks (DNNs) are highly effective AI algorithms used for identifying patterns in complex data. DNNs, however, contain many parameters and operations that make them computationally intensive to execute. Accordingly, DNNs are usually executed on high-resource backend processors. This causes an increase in data processing latency and energy expenditure. Therefore, modern strategies are being developed to facilitate the implementation of DNNs on devices with limited resources. This paper presents a detailed review of the current methods and structures that have been developed to deploy DNNs on devices with limited resources. Firstly, an overview of DNNs is presented. Next, the methods used to implement DNNs on resource-constrained devices are explained. Following this, the existing works reported in the literature on the execution of DNNs on low-resource devices are reviewed. The reviewed works are classified into three categories: software, hardware, and hardware/software co-design. Then, a discussion on the reviewed approaches is given, followed by a list of challenges and future prospects of on-device AI, together with its emerging applications. Full article

In recent times, the progress of machine learning has facilitated the development of decision support systems that exhibit predictive accuracy, surpassing human capabilities in certain scenarios. However, this improvement has come at the cost of increased model complexity, rendering them black-box models that obscure their internal logic from users. These black boxes are primarily designed to optimize predictive accuracy, limiting their applicability in critical domains such as medicine, law, and finance, where both accuracy and interpretability are crucial factors for model acceptance. Despite the growing body of research on interpretability, there remains a significant dearth of evaluation methods for the proposed approaches. This survey aims to shed light on various evaluation methods employed in interpreting models. Two primary procedures are prevalent in the literature: qualitative and quantitative evaluations. Qualitative evaluations rely on human assessments, while quantitative evaluations utilize computational metrics. Human evaluation commonly manifests as either researcher intuition or well-designed experiments. However, this approach is susceptible to human biases and fatigue and cannot adequately compare two models. Consequently, there has been a recent decline in the use of human evaluation, with computational metrics gaining prominence as a more rigorous method for comparing and assessing different approaches. These metrics are designed to serve specific goals, such as fidelity, comprehensibility, or stability. The existing metrics often face challenges when scaling or being applied to different types of model outputs and alternative approaches. Another important factor that needs to be addressed is that while evaluating interpretability methods, their results may not always be entirely accurate. For instance, relying on the drop in probability to assess fidelity can be problematic, particularly when facing the challenge of out-of-distribution data. Furthermore, a fundamental challenge in the interpretability domain is the lack of consensus regarding its definition and requirements. This issue is compounded in the evaluation process and becomes particularly apparent when assessing comprehensibility. Full article

Resume matching is the process of comparing a candidate’s curriculum vitae (CV) or resume with a job description or a set of employment requirements. The objective of this procedure is to assess the degree to which a candidate’s skills, qualifications, experience, and other relevant attributes align with the demands of the position. Some employment courses guide applicants in identifying the key requirements within a job description and tailoring their experience to highlight these aspects. Conversely, human resources (HR) specialists are trained to extract critical information from numerous submitted resumes to identify the most suitable candidate for their organization. An automated system is typically employed to compare the text of resumes with job vacancies, providing a score or ranking to indicate the level of similarity between the two. However, this process can become time-consuming when dealing with a large number of applicants and lengthy vacancy descriptions. In this paper, we present a dataset consisting of resumes of software developers extracted from a public Telegram channel dedicated to Israeli hi-tech job applications. Additionally, we propose a natural language processing (NLP)-based approach that leverages neural sentence representations, keywords, and named entities to achieve state-of-the-art performance in resume matching. We evaluate our approach using both human and automatic annotations and demonstrate its superiority over the leading resume–vacancy matching algorithm. Full article

The prevalence of cyberbullying on Social Media (SM) platforms has become a significant concern for individuals, organizations, and society as a whole. The early detection and intervention of cyberbullying on social media are critical to mitigating its harmful effects. In recent years, ensemble learning has shown promising results for detecting cyberbullying on social media. This paper presents an ensemble stacking learning approach for detecting cyberbullying on Twitter using a combination of Deep Neural Network methods (DNNs). It also introduces BERT-M, a modified BERT model. The dataset used in this study was collected from Twitter and preprocessed to remove irrelevant information. The feature extraction process involved utilizing word2vec with Continuous Bag of Words (CBOW) to form the weights in the embedding layer. These features were then fed into a convolutional and pooling mechanism, effectively reducing their dimensionality, and capturing the position-invariant characteristics of the offensive words. The validation of the proposed stacked model and BERT-M was performed using well-known model evaluation measures. The stacked model achieved an F1-score of 0.964, precision of 0.950, recall of 0.92 and the detection time reported was 3 min, which surpasses the previously reported accuracy and speed scores for all known NLP detectors of cyberbullying, including standard BERT and BERT-M. The results of the experiment showed that the stacking ensemble learning approach achieved an accuracy of 97.4% in detecting cyberbullying on Twitter dataset and 90.97% on combined Twitter and Facebook dataset. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed stacking ensemble learning approach in detecting cyberbullying on SM and highlight the importance of combining multiple models for improved performance. Full article

The movement of vehicles in and out of the predefined enclosure is an important security protocol that we encounter daily. Identification of vehicles is a very important factor for security surveillance. In a smart campus concept, thousands of vehicles access the campus every day, resulting in massive carbon emissions. Automated monitoring of both aspects (pollution and security) are an essential element for an academic institution. Among the reported methods, the automated identification of number plates is the best way to streamline vehicles. The performances of most of the previously designed similar solutions suffer in the context of light exposure, stationary backgrounds, indoor area, specific driveways, etc. We propose a new hybrid single-shot object detector architecture based on the Haar cascade and MobileNet-SSD. In addition, we adopt a new optical character reader mechanism for character identification on number plates. We prove that the proposed hybrid approach is robust and works well on live object detection. The existing research focused on the prediction accuracy, which in most state-of-the-art methods (SOTA) is very similar. Thus, the precision among several use cases is also a good evaluation measure that was ignored in the existing research. It is evident that the performance of prediction systems suffers due to adverse weather conditions stated earlier. In such cases, the precision between events of detection may result in high variance that impacts the prediction of vehicles in unfavorable circumstances. The performance assessment of the proposed solution yields a precision of 98% on real-time data for Malaysian number plates, which can be generalized in the future to all sorts of vehicles around the globe. Full article

The effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) in eliciting empathy lies in the fact that VR offers possibilities for situating people in a specific context and in the shoes of others. Previous research has investigated the benefits of VR in eliciting empathy and has compared VR with other technologies. However, there is a lack of research on the predictors of empathy in VR experiences. To fill this gap in the literature, this study aimed to identify the predictors of empathy when VR is used as a medium to elicit empathy. A structural model based on hypotheses was validated using partial least squares–structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with data from the interaction of 100 participants in a tailor-made VR experience developed to create empathy toward migration. The results show that our model explains 44.8% of the variance in emotional empathy as a result of the positive influence of compassion and attitudes toward migrants. Moreover, the model explains 36.8% of the variance in cognitive empathy as a result of the positive influence of engagement, attitudes toward migrants, compassion, and immersion. Full article

Managing passenger information during disruption (PIDD) is a significant factor in running effective and quick-to-recover rail operations. Disruptions are unpredictable, and their timely resolution is ultimately dependent on the expert knowledge of experienced frontline staff. The development of frontline employees by their employers usually takes the form of practice reviews and ‘on-the-job’ learning, while academic education majors on theoretical approaches and classroom-based teaching. This paper reports on a novel industry-funded project that has developed a serious game (the ‘Rail Disruption Game’) that combines theory and practice to better manage PIDD for frontline staff in a UK train operating company (TOC). It defines challenges and the development method for the Rail Disruption Game; it also incorporates developer and user feedback. This paper provides insight into how to design, make and deploy a serious game as part of a gamified management process. Full article

Automated vehicles will soon be integrated into our current traffic system. This development will lead to a novel mixed-traffic environment where connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) will have to interact with other road users (ORU). To enable this interaction, external human–machine interfaces (eHMIs) have been shown to have major benefits regarding the trust and acceptance of CAVs in multiple studies. However, a harmonization of eHMI signals seems to be necessary since the developed signals are extremely varied and sometimes even contradict each other. Therefore, the present paper proposes guidelines for designing eHMI signals, taking into account important factors such as how and in which situations a CAV needs to communicate with ORU. The authors propose 17 heuristics, the so-called eHMI-principles, as requirements for the safe and efficient use of eHMIs in a systematic and application-oriented manner. Full article

This paper presents an in-depth study of ChatGPT, a state-of-the-art language model that is revolutionizing generative text. We provide a comprehensive analysis of its architecture, training data, and evaluation metrics and explore its advancements and enhancements over time. Additionally, we examine the capabilities and limitations of ChatGPT in natural language processing (NLP) tasks, including language translation, text summarization, and dialogue generation. Furthermore, we compare ChatGPT to other language generation models and discuss its applicability in various tasks. Our study also addresses the ethical and privacy considerations associated with ChatGPT and provides insights into mitigation strategies. Moreover, we investigate the role of ChatGPT in cyberattacks, highlighting potential security risks. Lastly, we showcase the diverse applications of ChatGPT in different industries and evaluate its performance across languages and domains. This paper offers a comprehensive exploration of ChatGPT’s impact on the NLP field. Full article

This paper addresses the multi-sensor fusion target tracking problem based on maximum mixture correntropy in non-Gaussian noise environments exclusively using Doppler measurements. As Doppler measurements are non-linear, a statistical linear regression model is constructed using the unscented transformation. Then, a centralized measurement model is developed, and the mixture correntropy is determined, which contains the high-order statistics of state prediction and the measurement error caused by noise. Then, a robust fusion filter is proposed by maximizing the mixture-correntropy-based cost. To improve numerical stability, the information filter and corresponding square root version are also derived. Furthermore, the performance of the proposed algorithm is analyzed, and the selection of the kernel width is discussed. Experiments are performed using simulated data and automatic driving software. The results show that the estimation performance of the proposed algorithm is better with respect to outliers and mixture Gaussian noise than that of traditional methods. Full article

We present the InterviewBot, which dynamically integrates conversation history and customized topics into a coherent embedding space to conduct 10 min hybrid-domain (open and closed) conversations with foreign students applying to U.S. colleges to assess their academic and cultural readiness. To build a neural-based end-to-end dialogue model, 7361 audio recordings of human-to-human interviews are automatically transcribed, where 440 are manually corrected for finetuning and evaluation. To overcome the input/output size limit of a transformer-based encoder–decoder model, two new methods are proposed, context attention and topic storing, allowing the model to make relevant and consistent interactions. Our final model is tested both statistically by comparing its responses to the interview data and dynamically by inviting professional interviewers and various students to interact with it in real-time, finding it highly satisfactory in fluency and context awareness. Full article

The upcoming generation of communications can provide richer mobility, high data rate, reliable security, better quality of services, and supporting mobility requirements in the Internet of Things (IoT) environment. Integrating modern communication with IoT demands more secure, scalable, and resource-efficient mobility solutions for better business opportunities. In a massive 6G-enabled IoT environment, modern mobility solutions such as proxy mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) have the potential to provide enhanced mobility and resource efficiency. For supporting richer mobility, a cost-effective and resource-efficient mobility solution is required in a massive 6G-enabled IoT environment. The main objective of the presented study is to provide a resource-friendly mobility solution for supporting the effective integration of future communication in the massive IoT domain. In that context, a location-based, resource-efficient PMIPv6 extension protocol is proposed to provide resource efficiency in terms of required signaling, packet loss, and handover latency. To compare and analyze the proposed model’s effectiveness, mathematical equations are derived for the existing as well as for the proposed solution, and such equations are implemented. Based on the comparison among existing and proposed solutions, the results show that the proposed location-based service-oriented proxy mobile IPv6 extension is resource efficient for supporting mobility in 6G-enabled IoT. Full article

Facing global market competition and supply chain risks, many production companies are leaning towards distributed manufacturing because of their ability to utilize a network of manufacturing resources located around the world. Deriving from information and communication technologies and artificial intelligence, the digital twin shop-floor (DTS) has received great attention from academia and industry. DTS is a virtual shop-floor that is almost identical to the physical shop-floor. Therefore, multiple physical shop-floors located in different places can easily be interconnected to realize a DT that is a distributed digital twin shop-floor (D2TS). However, some challenges still hinder effective and efficient resource allocation among D2TSs. In order to attempt to address the issues, firstly, this paper proposes an information architecture for D2TSs based on cloud–fog computing; secondly, a novel mechanism of D2TS resource allocation (D2TSRA) is designed. The proposed mechanism both makes full use of a digital twin to support dynamic allocation of geographic resources and avoids the centralized solutions of the digital twin which lead to a heavy burden on the network bandwidth; thirdly, the optimization problem in D2TSRA is solved by a BP neural network algorithm and an improved genetic algorithm; fourthly, a case study for distributed collaborative manufacturing of aero-engine casing is employed to validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method of resource allocation for D2TS; finally, the paper is summarized and the relevant research directions are prospected. Full article

With the increasing use of smartphones for a wide variety of online services, states and countries are issuing official applications to store government-issued documents that can be used for identification (e.g., electronic identity cards), health (e.g., vaccination certificates), and transport (e.g., driver’s licenses). However, the privacy and security risks associated with the storage of sensitive personal information on such apps are a major concern. This work presents a thorough analysis of official Android wallet apps, focusing mainly on apps used to store identification documents and/or driver’s licenses. Specifically, we examine the security and privacy level of such apps using three analysis tools and discuss the key findings and the risks involved. We additionally explore Android app security best practices and various security measures that can be employed to mitigate these risks, such as updating deprecated components and libraries. Altogether, our findings demonstrate that, while there are various security measures available, there is still a need for more comprehensive solutions to address the privacy and security risks associated with the use of Android wallet apps. Full article

To improve the randomness of the Chebyshev chaotic sequences by coupling the Logistic map and the Chebyshev map, a new one-dimensional Logistic–Chebyshev chaotic map (LCCM) is first presented in this paper. Several tests, including the bifurcation diagram, Lyapunov exponents, and information entropy, are employed to analyze the dynamics of the LCCM. The proposed LCCM has better ergodicity and unpredictability than the traditional Chebyshev map. Next, a new image encryption algorithm based on the LCCM and multi-level manipulation is proposed. The LCCM is used to control the pixel permutation, bit-level shuffling, and subsequent pixel diffusion based on the modulo and XOR operation. Extensive experiments, including histogram analysis, information entropy, adjacent pixel correlation, and key sensitivity, show that the image encryption algorithm has high security and can effectively resist malicious attacks. Full article

The problem of orthogonal waveform construction in multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) radar communication integration greatly limits the realization of integration technology. In the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) MIMO antenna scenario, an orthogonal integrated waveform suitable for a MIMO antenna is designed using a sub−LFM−BPSK waveform combined with a chaotic spread spectrum code. After spread spectrum processing, each MIMO antenna transmits different communication data for orthogonal spread spectrum processing, which is suitable for the omnidirectional detection of MIMO application scenarios; moreover, the closed-form expressions of the integrated orthogonal waveform under certain constraints are derived. Finally, the simulation proves that the integrated orthogonal waveform set in the UAV MIMO scenario has excellent radar detection and communication capabilities. Full article

The food and beverage (FOODBEV) manufacturing industry is a significant contributor to global economic development, but it is also subject to major global competition. Manufacturing technology evolution is rapid and, with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), ever accelerating. Thus, the ability of companies to review and identify appropriate, beneficial technologies and forecast the skills required is a challenge. 4IR technologies, as a collection of tools to assist technological advancement in the manufacturing sector, are essential. The vast and diverse global technology knowledge base, together with the complexities associated with screening in technologies and the lack of appropriate enablement skills, makes technology selection and implementation a challenge. This challenge is premised on the knowledge that there are vast amounts of information available on various research databases and web search engines; however, the extraction of specific and relevant information is time-intensive. Whilst existing techniques such as conventional bibliometric analysis are available, there is a need for dynamic approaches that optimise the ability to acquire the relevant information or knowledge within a short period with minimum effort. This research study adopts smart knowledge management together with artificial intelligence (AI) for knowledge extraction, classification, and adoption. This research defines 18 FOODBEV manufacturing processes and adopts a two-tier Natural Language Processing (NLP) protocol to identify technological substitution for process optimisation and the associated skills required in the FOODBEV manufacturing sector in South Africa. Full article

Right from the beginning, attendance has played an important role in the education systems, not only in student success but in the overall interest of the matter. Although all schools try to accentuate good attendance, still some schools find it hard to achieve the required level (96% in UK) of average attendance. The most productive way of increasing the pupils′ attendance rate is to predict when it is going to go down, understand the reasons—why it happened—and act on the affecting factors so as to prevent it. Artificial intelligence (AI) is an automated machine learning solution for different types of problems. Several machine learning (ML) models like logistic regression, decision trees, etc. are easy to understand; however, complicated (Neural Network, BART etc.) ML models are not transparent but are black-boxes for humans. It is not always evident how machine intelligence arrived at a decision. However, not always, but in critical applications it is important that humans can understand the reasons for such decisions. In this paper, we present a methodology on the application example of pupil attendance for constructing explanations for AI classification algorithms. The methodology includes building a model of the application in the Isabelle Insider and Infrastructure framework (IIIf) and an algorithm (PCR) that helps us to obtain a detailed logical rule to specify the performance of the black-box algorithm, hence allowing us to explain it. The explanation is provided within the logical model of the IIIf, thus is suitable for human audiences. It has been shown that the RR-cycle of IIIf can be adapted to provide a method for iteratively extracting an explanation by interleaving attack tree analysis with precondition refinement, which finally yields a general rule that describes the decision taken by a black-box algorithm produced by Artificial intelligence. Full article

The paper presents the data on lipid fraction extraction from the raw fat of hibernating hunting animals. The processing of valuable raw materials must be maximized. For this purpose, various methods of rendering are used. As a result of temperature exposure, the protein part of raw fat undergoes significant changes. The protein denatures under the influence of temperature, and the dross formed during the rendering process absorbs and retains up to 30% of the fat. The authors propose using proteolytic enzyme preparations for a more complete extraction of fats, as the enzymes will hydrolyze the protein into compounds of lower molecular weight both before and during the rendering process. The experiment proved that the biocatalytic method allows achieving a fat yield of more than 95%. The best result can be obtained if the rendering is carried out at optimal parameters, which can be defined using a mathematical model. Mathematical modeling was carried out using an artificial neural network. During the study, a fully connected neural network was designed; it had eight hidden layers with 64 neurons in each, and its accuracy was measured by mean relative error, which amounted to 5.16%. With the help of the network, the optimal values of applied concentration, temperature and duration of rendering, at which a fat yield of more than 98% is achieved, were determined for each enzyme preparation. After that, the obtained values were confirmed experimentally. Thus, the study showed the efficiency of using artificial neural networks for modeling the biocatalytic method of lipid extraction. Full article

In this work, we introduce an innovative Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) classifier, a synergistic combination of Bayesian machine learning and Apache Spark, highlighting the novel use of this methodology in the spectrum of big data management and environmental analysis. By employing a large dataset of air pollutant concentrations in Madrid from 2001 to 2018, we developed a Bayesian Logistic Regression model, capable of accurately classifying the Air Quality Index (AQI) as safe or hazardous. This mathematical formulation adeptly synthesizes prior beliefs and observed data into robust posterior distributions, enabling superior management of overfitting, enhancing the predictive accuracy, and demonstrating a scalable approach for large-scale data processing. Notably, the proposed model achieved a maximum accuracy of 87.91% and an exceptional recall value of 99.58% at a decision threshold of 0.505, reflecting its proficiency in accurately identifying true negatives and mitigating misclassification, even though it slightly underperformed in comparison to the traditional Frequentist Logistic Regression in terms of accuracy and the AUC score. Ultimately, this research underscores the efficacy of Bayesian machine learning for big data management and environmental analysis, while signifying the pivotal role of the first-ever MCMC Classifier and Apache Spark in dealing with the challenges posed by large datasets and high-dimensional data with broader implications not only in sectors such as statistics, mathematics, physics but also in practical, real-world applications. Full article

Knowledge graphs (KGs) serve as a crucial resource for numerous artificial intelligence tasks, significantly contributing to the advancement of the AI field. However, the incompleteness of existing KGs hinders their effectiveness in practical applications. Consequently, researchers have proposed the task of KG completion. Currently, embedding-based techniques dominate the field as they leverage the structural information within KGs to infer and complete missing parts. Nonetheless, these methods exhibit limitations. They are limited by the quality and quantity of structural information and are unable to handle the missing entities in the original KG. To overcome these challenges, researchers have attempted to integrate pretrained language models and textual data to perform KG completion. This approach utilizes the definition statements and description text of entities within KGs. The goal is to compensate for the latent connections that are difficult for traditional methods to obtain. However, text-based methods still lag behind embedding-based models in terms of performance. Our analysis reveals that the critical issue lies in the selection process of negative samples. In order to enhance the performance of the text-based methods, various types of negative sampling methods are employed in this study. We introduced prompt learning to fill the gap between the pre-training language model and the knowledge graph completion task, and to improve the model reasoning level. Simultaneously, a ranking strategy based on KG structural information is proposed to utilize KG structured data to assist reasoning. The experiment results demonstrate that our model exhibits strong competitiveness and outstanding inference speed. By fully exploiting the internal structural information of KGs and external relevant descriptive text resources, we successfully elevate the performance levels of KG completion tasks across various metrics. Full article

This study examined the relationship between transformational leadership, learning orientation, creative self-efficacy, and employee creativity in manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in China. A survey involving 742 employees was conducted, and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was employed to analyze the data. The result showed that transformational leadership has s significantly positive effect on employee creativity. Moreover, both individual and team-level learning orientations are positively related to employee creativity significantly. Creative self-efficacy (CSE) mediates the relationship between transformational leadership, team learning orientation, and individual learning orientation on employee creativity. These findings suggest that transformational leadership, learning orientation, and CSE enhance employee creativity in Chinese MSMEs. We discuss the implications of these findings and offer suggestions for future research. Full article

The adoption of emerging technologies in healthcare systems plays a crucial part in anti-obesity initiatives. COVID-19 has intensified the Body Mass Index (BMI) discourses in AI (Artificial Intelligence)-powered social media. However, few studies have reported on the influence of digital content on obesity prevention policies. Understanding the nature and forums of obese metaphors in social media is the first step in policy intervention. The purpose of this paper is to understand the mutual influence between obesity and COVID-19 and determine its policy implications. This paper analyzes the public responses to obesity using Twitter data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. The emotional nature of tweets is analyzed using the NRC lexicon. The results show that COVID-19 significantly influences perceptions of obesity; this indicates that existing public health policies must be revisited. The study findings delineate prerequisites for obese disease control programs. This paper provides policy recommendations for improving social media interventions in health service delivery in order to prevent obesity. Full article

At present, there is no suitable instrument available to simulate modeling the thermal performance of various areas of our states due to its complicated meteorological behavior. To accurately predict a heatwave, we studied the research gaps and current ongoing research on the prediction of heatwaves. For the accurate prediction of a heatwave, we considered two soft computing concepts, (a) Rough Set Theory (RST) and (b) Support Vector Machine (SVM). All the ongoing research on the prediction of heatwaves is based on future predictions with an error margin. All the available techniques use a particular pattern of heatwave data, and these methods do not apply to vague data. This paper used an innovative RST and SVM technique, which can be applied to vague and imprecise datasets to produce the best outcomes. RST is helpful in finding the most significant attributes that will be alarming in the future. This analysis identifies the heat wave as the most prominent characteristic among various meteorological data. SVM is responsible for the future prediction of heat waves, which includes various parameters. By further classification of heatwaves, we found that a lack of greenery will increase the heatwave in the future. Although the survey was conducted based on a sampling distribution, we expect this result to represent the population as we collected our sample in a heterogeneous environment. These outcomes are validated using a statistical method. Full article

In the digital age, ensuring the authenticity and security of academic certificates is a critical challenge faced by educational institutions, employers, and individuals alike. Traditional methods for verifying academic credentials are often cumbersome, time-consuming, and susceptible to fraud. However, the emergence of blockchain technology offers a promising solution to address these issues. The proposed system utilizes a blockchain network, where each academic certificate is stored as a digital asset on the blockchain. These digital certificates are cryptographically secured, timestamped, and associated with unique identifiers, such as hashes or public keys, ensuring their integrity and immutability. Anyone with access to the blockchain network can verify a certificate’s authenticity, using the MetaMask extension and Ethereum network, eliminating the need for intermediaries and reducing the risk of fraudulent credentials. The main strength of the paper is that the data that are stored in the blockchain are unique identifiers of the encrypted data, which is encrypted by using an encryption technique that provides more security to the academic certificates. Furthermore, IPFS is also used to store large amounts of encrypted data. Full article

The increase and diversity of low-cost air quality (AQ) sensors, as well as their flexibility and low power consumption, offers us the opportunity to integrate them into broad AQ wireless sensor networks, with the aim of enabling real-time monitoring and higher spatial sampling density of pollution in all parts of cities. Considering that the vast majority of the population lives in cities and the increase in respiratory/allergic problems in a large part of the population, it is of great interest to offer services and applications to improve their quality of life by avoiding pollution exposure in their movements in the open air. In the ECO4RUPA project, we focus on this kind of service, proposing an inclusive and intelligent routing ecosystem carried out using a network of low-cost AQ sensors with the support of 5G communications along with official AQ monitoring stations, using spatial interpolation techniques to enhance its spatial resolution. The goal of this service is to calculate healthy walking and/or cycling routes according to the particular citizen’s profile and needs. We provide and analyse the results of the proposed route planner under different scenarios (different timetables, congestion road traffic, and routes) and different user profiles, with a special interest in citizens with asthma and pregnant women, since both have special needs. In summary, our approach can lead to an approximately average reduction in pollution exposure of 17.82% while experiencing an approximately average increase in distance travelled of 9.8%. Full article

Digital transformation has already begun to play a significant role in helping EU countries to achieve sustainable values by promoting environmental, social and governance (ESG) efficiency. It is rapidly changing the economic landscape, which leads to changes in all sectors and at all levels. The European Union (EU) has set ambitious goals for sustainable development and climate change mitigation, such as the European Green Deal and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The paper aims to test the spatial spillover effect of digitalization on ESG performance for EU countries for 2008–2020. The study applies the spatial Durbin model to check the research hypothesis. The empirical results revealed that the EU exhibits varying levels of ESG performance. Digital transformation has the potential to enhance ESG performance and has shown significant spatial spillover effects. The SDM estimates that a 1% increase in digital inclusion results in a minimal 0.001% increase in the ESG index. The statistically significant positive effects observed in key enablers, digital public services for businesses and citizens, highlight the contribution of digitalization to improving ESG performance. In addition, technological innovation serves as a critical conduit for transmitting digital transformation in the business and public sphere to ESG performance. Given these findings, policymakers are advised to strengthen digitalization efforts to narrow the digital divide, leveraging the digital economy as a potent instrument. Additionally, a dynamic and targeted strategy for digital economic development should be implemented to address ESG performance disparities effectively. Full article

The hybrid step-up converter is a fifth-order system with a dc gain greater than the traditional second-order step-up configuration. Considering their high order, several state variables are accessible for feedback purposes in the control of such systems. Therefore, choosing the best state variables is essential since they influence the system’s dynamic response and stability. This work proposes a methodical method to identify the appropriate state variables in implementing a sliding-mode (SM) controlled hybrid boost converter. A thorough comparison of two SM controllers based on various feedback currents is conducted. The frequency response technique is used to demonstrate how the SM method employing the current through the output inductor leads to an unstable response. The right-half s-plane poles and zeroes in the converter’s inner-loop transfer function, which precisely cancel one another, are what is causing the instability. On the other hand, a stable system may result from employing a SM controller with the current through the input inductor. Lastly, some experimental outcomes using the preferred SM control method are provided. Full article

The global economy operates as a complex and interconnected system, necessitating the application of sophisticated network methods for analysis. This study examines economic data from all countries across the globe, representing each country as a node and its exports as links, covering the period from 2008 to 2019. Through the computation of relevant indices, we can discern shifts in countries’ positions within the world trade network. By interpreting these changes through geopolitical perspectives, we can gain a deeper understanding of their root causes. The analysis reveals a notable trend of slow growth in the world trade network. Additionally, an intriguing observation emerges: countries naturally form stable groups, shedding light on the underlying structure of global trade relations. Furthermore, this research highlights the trade balance as a reflection of geopolitical strength, making it a valuable contribution to the study of the evolution of global geopolitical stability. Full article

A major challenge in cognitive science and AI has been to understand how intelligent autonomous agents might acquire and predict the behavioral and mental states of other agents in the course of complex social interactions. How does such an agent model the goals, beliefs, and actions of other agents it interacts with? What are the computational principles to model a Theory of Mind (ToM)? Deep learning approaches to address these questions fall short of a better understanding of the problem. In part, this is due to the black-box nature of deep networks, wherein computational mechanisms of ToM are not readily revealed. Here, we consider alternative hypotheses seeking to model how the brain might realize a ToM. In particular, we propose embodied and situated agent models based on distributed adaptive control theory to predict the actions of other agents in five different game-theoretic tasks (Harmony Game, Hawk-Dove, Stag Hunt, Prisoner’s Dilemma, and Battle of the Exes). Our multi-layer control models implement top-down predictions from adaptive to reactive layers of control and bottom-up error feedback from reactive to adaptive layers. We test cooperative and competitive strategies among seven different agent models (cooperative, greedy, tit-for-tat, reinforcement-based, rational, predictive, and internal agents). We show that, compared to pure reinforcement-based strategies, probabilistic learning agents modeled on rational, predictive, and internal phenotypes perform better in game-theoretic metrics across tasks. The outlined autonomous multi-agent models might capture systems-level processes underlying a ToM and suggest architectural principles of ToM from a control-theoretic perspective. Full article