AI Lifecycle Zero-Touch Orchestration within the Edge-to-Cloud Continuum for Industry 5.0

The advancements in human-centered artificial intelligence (HCAI) systems for Industry 5.0 is a new phase of industrialization that places the worker at the center of the production process and uses new technologies to increase prosperity beyond jobs and growth. HCAI presents new objectives that were unreachable by either humans or machines alone, but this also comes with a new set of challenges. Our proposed method accomplishes this through the knowlEdge architecture, which enables human operators to implement AI solutions using a zero-touch framework. It relies on containerized AI model training and execution, supported by a robust data pipeline and rounded off with human feedback and evaluation interfaces. The result is a platform built from a number of components, spanning all major areas of the AI lifecycle. We outline both the architectural concepts and implementation guidelines and explain how they advance HCAI systems and Industry 5.0. In this article, we address the problems we encountered while implementing the ideas within the edge-to-cloud continuum. Further improvements to our approach may enhance the use of AI in Industry 5.0 and strengthen trust in AI systems

Evaluation of visual property specification languages based on practical model-checking experience

Formal verification methods like model checking can provide mathematical proofs of design correctness, so their use is justified in applications where safety or reliability requirements are high. A key challenge for the wider adoption of model checking is the effort and expertise needed in formalizing functional requirements into verifiable properties. A particular challenge in specifying formal properties for industrial instrumentation and control (I&C) logics is accounting for the sequencing and timing issues that arise from, e.g., the dynamic behavior of the plant being controlled. In this paper, we evaluate different visual property specification languages that are aimed at making formal methods more accessible. We have collected 3923 formal properties from practical model checking projects in the nuclear and rail traffic industries and identified the most commonly occurring types of properties. Based on the sample data, a real-world example logic, and our practical experience, we identify requirements for a user-friendly property specification language most suited for our specific domain of industrial I&C

Does social innovation help understand social impacts of communal neighborhoods?

Cities have been studied as a platform for sustainability transformation and social innovation, mainly focusing on environmental sustainability and emphasizing governance and citizen roles as transition actors. Previous studies have paid limited attention to the social aspects of sustainability and the role of business organizations as producers of socially targeted innovation. Our study develops a framework for the identification of social sustainability impacts of communal neighborhoods. Considering the residents' collaborative efforts for creating the sense of community, this paper explores whether the concept of social innovation is useful in conceptualizing the social sustainability impacts of communal neighborhoods. We use the framework to illustrate initial findings of a case analysis of two Finnish communal neighborhood concepts. The findings of our paper contribute to the discussion on social value, which has been identified as a central theme in the development of social innovation research

Production and characterization of novel Anti-HIV Fc-fusion proteins in plant-based systems: Nicotiana benthamiana & tobacco BY-2 cell suspension

Multifunctional anti-HIV Fc-fusion proteins aim to tackle HIV efficiently through multiple modes of action. Although results have been promising, these recombinant proteins are hard to produce. This study explored the production and characterization of anti-HIV Fc-fusion proteins in plant-based systems, specifically Nicotiana benthamiana plants and tobacco BY-2 cell suspension. Fc-fusion protein expression in plants was optimized by incorporating codon optimization, ER retention signals, and hydrophobin fusion elements. Successful transient protein expression was achieved in N. benthamiana, with notable improvements in expression levels achieved through N-terminal hydrophobin fusion and ER retention signals. Stable expression in tobacco BY-2 resulted in varying accumulation levels being at highest 2.2.mg/g DW. The inclusion of hydrophobin significantly enhanced accumulation, providing potential benefits for downstream processing. Mass spectrometry analysis confirmed the presence of the ER retention signal and of N-glycans. Functional characterization revealed strong binding to CD64 and CD16a receptors, the latter being important for antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). Interaction with HIV antigens indicated potential neutralization capabilities. In conclusion, this research highlights the potential of plant-based systems for producing functional anti-HIV Fc-fusion proteins, offering a promising avenue for the development of these novel HIV therapies

Promoting Sustainability through E-Vehicle Procurement: Experiences from Three Continents

Public and private entities face increasing demands to reduce the environmental impacts of mobility. A prominent strategy for meeting these demands is replacing internal combustion engine vehicles with electric vehicles (e-vehicles) in municipality and corporate fleets. Despite its potential, (sustainable) e-vehicle procurement remains an underutilised means of promoting sustainability in mobility. Some of the hurdles relate to lack of knowledge, insufficient commitment from organisations, and the perceived conflict between costs and sustainability. Despite these well-known challenges, a detailed understanding of the global e-vehicle procurement processes and the potential pitfalls and best practices that enable successful procurement is lacking. These limitations impede our understanding of how procurement practices vary globally and hinder future efforts to bring sustainable procurement to the forefront as a worldwide means of tacking global sustainability issues related to mobility, particularly the electrification of transport. To address this shortcoming, we conducted a qualitative case study on e-vehicle procurement drawing on interviews and qualitative survey data of procurers involved in a project aiming to promote urban electric mobility in Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Based on the responses, there are differences in existing regulations and guidelines governing procurements, as well as in the level of e-vehicle maturity, which affects how procurements are carried out. We recommend that procurers find a balance between flexibility and sufficient detail when formulating procurement criteria for successful context-specific solutions, utilize the domain expertise of providers to overcome lack of experience and clarify responsibilities and consolidate differing procedures in joint procurements

On the grain level deformation of BCC metals with crystal plasticity modeling:Application to an RPV steel and the effect of irradiation

Capturing realistic deformation behavior in BCC metals at the polycrystal scale is an important aspect of predicting the material’s strength and failure. Furthermore, local deformation/strength heterogeneity also influences the lifetime and its assessments in reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steels, especially with accumulating irradiation doses during long-term operational conditions. This work utilizes a micromorphic crystal plasticity (CP) model for BCC materials with the capability to address temperature-dependent stress–strain response and irradiation effects relevant to RPV materials. The microstructure of the investigated material was characterized prior to and during testing using electron microscopy experiments, which are used for finite element model generation and simulation result validation. To analyze the validity of the model to predict strain localization under monotonic tensile loading, micro digital image correlation (DIC) was employed jointly with the CP simulations. Different modeling choices, such as the use Schmid/non-Schmid laws and gradient based CP modeling, greatly affected the capability of the model to represent similar magnitudes in strain localization and grain reorientation. The requirement for experimental measurements, including image based analyses, on a microstructural level as a validation tool for CP modeling is clearly demonstrated

Trustworthy Communities for Critical Energy and Mobility Cyber-Physical Applications

The aim of this research has been to enable the management of trustworthy relationships between stakeholders, service providers, and physical assets, which are required in critical energy and mobility cyber–physical systems (CPS) applications. The achieved novel contribution is the concept of trustworthy communities with respective experimental solutions, which are developed by relying on verifiable credentials, smart contracts, trust over IP, and an Ethereum-based distributed ledger. The provided trustworthy community solutions are validated by executing them in two practical use cases, which are called energy flexibility and hunting safety. The energy flexibility case validation considered the execution of the solutions with one simulated and two real buildings with the energy flexibility aggregation platform, which was able to trade the flexibilities in an energy flexibility marketplace. The provided solutions were executed with a hunting safety smartphone application for a hunter and the smartwatch of a person moving around in the forest. The evaluations indicate that conceptual solutions for trustworthy communities fulfill the purpose and contribute toward making energy flexibility trading and hunting safety possible and trustworthy enough for participants. A trustworthy community solution is required to make value sharing and usage of critical energy resources and their flexibilities feasible and secure enough for their owners as part of the energy flexibility community. Sharing the presence and location in mobile conditions requires a trustworthy community solution because of security and privacy reasons, but it can also save lives in real-life elk hunting cases. During the evaluations, the need for further studies related to performance, scalability, community applications, verifiable credentials with wallets, sharing of values and incentives, authorized trust networks, dynamic trust situations, time-sensitive behavior, autonomous operations with smart contracts through security assessment, and applicability have been detected

Measuring digitalization at scale using web scraped data

Measuring digitalization has been a central topic in academic discourse. While evaluating firms' efforts in increasing digitalization is crucial, quantifying it at scale, presents considerable challenges. This paper uses website information as a source of data to operationalize a measure of digitalization. Drawing on a sample of 60,942 firms, our approach proposes two distinct measures of digitalization: one at the product level and the other at the general organizational level. We substantiate these measures using a blend of qualitative and quantitative methods. The study validates the content of websites as a relevant source of innovation indicator data and verifies the indicators using multiple experiments. The developed digitalization indicators offer future research an empirical measure of digitalization that can be run at scale, across industries and regions through time.</p

SUSTAFIT – Sustainability Strategies for Nonwovens

Nonwovens play a vital role in various industries, such as hygiene, geotextiles, automotive, and construction, and in the last decade, there has been a high increase in the production and consumption of nonwovens. Due to complex nature of products and applications, the recycling rates of nonwovens have remained low, and a lot is needed to enable fully circular value chains. Legislation and regulations are pushing towards more sustainable actions inside the EU, especially focusing on single-use products, thus more sustainable approaches have to be found. In many sectors sustainability has become a critical property, however, it has been noticed that there are no clear guidelines to improve sustainability likely due to the varying needs, lifetimes and functionalities associated with nonwovens. The focus of this report is on clarifying how different types of nonwovens can be made more sustainably from environmental point of view, considering existing sustainability strategies focusing on textiles, requirements in different nonwoven segments and the lifetime of the products. Drivers for more sustainable practices are considered – some regulations and existing sustainability strategies. After background information, the study subsequently dives into a range of sustainability strategies that have been proposed to enhance the sustainability of nonwoven products. The selected sustainability strategies were tailored to the specific combination of product lifetime, technical requirements, and other needs for each nonwoven segment. Regarding product lifetime, the target on single-use or disposable nonwovens to reduce the environmental impacts is high in material choices. Multi-use and longer-lasting products are required to be durable and withstand repeated or long-lasting use, and here, the focus is more on high durability and repairability to maximize the product’s lifespan without losing its functional properties. Regarding technical requirements, if the structure is more complex or more specific performance are needed, more important is to keep desired performance for proposed lifetime, or even lengthening the lifetime if the performance can be preserved longer. It was also found that sustainability must be considered in all parts of the product cycle. Proper lifecycle assessment (LCA) should be made when deciding use of new raw materials or production technologies case-by-case to validate if the new approach is truly more sustainable choice

Measuring sustainability in manufacturing value chain

Sustainability is a key driver and challenge for the manufacturing industry in the 21st century. Manufacturing companies face increasing demands and expectations from various stakehold-ers, such as customers, investors, regulators and society, to improve their sustainability per-formance and contribute to the global sustainable development goals. Sustainability encom-passes the environmental, social and economic dimensions of the impacts and benefits of manufacturing activities, products and services. Sustainability management requires a holistic and systemic approach that con-siders the entire value chain, from raw material sourcing to end-of-life man-agement, and interactions among the actors and stakeholders involved.To effectively manage and improve sustainability, manufacturing companies need to measure and monitor their sustainability performance and value. These functions require the identifica-tion, collection and analysis of relevant data and information on sustainability impacts and bene-fits, as well as the use of appropriate indicators and metrics to communicate and report them. However, measuring and reporting sustainability are not straightforward tasks. Many challenges and gaps hinder the availability, reliability, comparability and usability of sustainability data and indicators. Examples include the lack of clear and consistent sustainability definitions and frameworks, standardised and comparable indicators and metrics of sustainability performance and value, and adequate methods for measuring sustainability. Additionally, there are difficulties in integrating and aligning sustainability goals and indicators across all value-chain actors. This white paper aims to address these challenges and gaps and to provide an understanding of and guidance for measuring sustainability in the manufacturing value chain. This paper is based on the research findings and publications of the projects Towards Transparent and Sus-tainable Value Chains (GG_Sustis2023, funded by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland), Sustainable Data-Based Business for Manufacturing Industry (DataAsset, funded by VTT Tech-nical Research Centre of Finland and Business Finland), Prestudy for Optimization for Extended Sustainability Requirements (PreOptimi, funded by the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra) and Kes-tävän kehityksen Nyrkki (Sustainability First) workshops. This paper focuses on the research findings on the wood-fibre-based value chain, obtained from a literature review, stakeholder in-terviews and workshops, covering the following topics: • the background of and drivers for measuring sustainability in the manufacturing indus-try, focusing on the wood-fibre-based value chain;• the sustainability data in the value chain; • the sustainability key performance indicators (KPIs) in the value chain; • the Scope 3 emission calculation as a more detailed example of a sustainability KPI; and• the conclusion and future research topics on measuring sustainability in the manufac-turing value chain.This white paper is intended for manufacturing companies that want to improve their sustaina-bility management and reporting, as well as for researchers, policymakers and other stakehold-ers interested in the topic of sustainability measurement. The paper provides practical infor-mation, examples and models for measuring sustainability, as well as insights for future re-search and development. The authors thank all parties behind the GG_Sustis2023, DataAsset, PreOptimi and Kestävän kehityksen nyrkki projects, the company representatives participating in the discussions and the researchers involved in the previous joint publications (Rantala et al., 2022, 2023, 2024) under these projects.Tampere, Wednesday, 24 April 2024 The Authors<br/