Critical data detection for dynamically adjustable product quality in IIoT-enabled manufacturing

The IIoT technologies, due to the widespread use of sensors, generate massive data that are key in providing innovative and efficient industrial management, operation, and product quality control processes. The significance of data has prompted relevant research communities and application developers how to harness the values of these data in secure manufacturing. Critical data analysis, identification of critical factors to improve the manufacturing process and critical data associated with product quality have been investigated in the current literature. However, the current works on product quality control are mainly based on static data analysis, where data may change, but there is no way to adjust them dynamically. Thus, they are not applicable for product quality control, at which point their adjustment is instantly required. However, many manufacturing systems exist, like beverages and food, where ingredients must be adjusted instantaneously to maintain product quality. To address this research gap, we introduce a method that identifies the critical data based on their ranking by exploiting three criticality assessment criteria that capture the instantaneous product quality change during manufacturing. These three criteria are - (1) correlation, (2) percentage quality change and (3) sensitivity for the assessment of data criticality. The product quality is estimated using polynomial regression (POLY), SVM, and DNN. The proposed method is validated using wine manufacturing data. Our proposed method accurately identifies critical data, where SVM produces the lowest average production quality prediction error (10.40%) compared with that of POLY (11%) and DNN (14.40%). © 2013 IEEE

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

An IIoT-Based Networked Industrial Control System Architecture to Secure Industrial Applications

Behind the great success of the current internet, Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) and Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) standards play the most important role. Whereas, due to a lack of standard architectures, industrial internet is lagging behind. This makes industrial internet applications experience increased security risks due to their integration with the information technology and exposure to the public internet. In this research, we propose a layered architecture for industrial internet of things (IIoT) based networked industrial control systems (n-ICS). Layer-wise functionality of this architecture could be useful in identifying necessary security protocols for each layer. Subsequently, this might assist in allocating resources towards the secure operation of industrial applications. To validate the proposed architecture, we modelled a water flow control system, where we demonstrated a data deception attack on its operation at the physical layer. This demonstration validates that from within the close proximity of networked control systems, threat actors can launch possible attacks to deceive physical industrial applications. Our proposed system includes a network communication architecture and a corresponding security architecture aligning with the network architecture. This will facilitate the design of security suites and/or the allocation of security resources on the basis of layered network functionalities. © 2021 IEEE

Subsurface colloids in groundwater contamination: a mathematical model

In this paper, a new role of subsurface colloidal fines on the transport of contaminants in groundwater flows has been presented. Here, an equilibrium three-phase model based on colloidal induced release, migration and finally capture of these colloidal fines at pore constrictions has been developed. This model is more realistic than the existing models in that the physics of release, migration and finally capture at pore constrictions leading to plugging phenomenon has been adequately incorporated. Presence of colloids can either facilitate or inhibit the spreading of contaminants depending on the values of the parameters, such as the inlet colloid concentration, the release coefficient and more significantly on the sensitivity of the permeability to the concentration of captured fines at the pore constrictions. For a range of conditions, plugging of the porous media occurs resulting in retardation of contaminant transport. The plugging-based retardation of contaminant transport can be used to develop a new containment technique.© Elsevie

A novel triage tool : optic nerve sheath diameter in traumatic brain injury and its correlation to rotterdam computed tomography (CT) scoring

BACKGROUND: Optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) evaluated in CT imaging as well as Rotterdam CT Score (RCTS) are proven independent predictors of outcome in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). To date, no study has correlated ONSD on admission CT scan with RCTS. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Retrospective cohort study comprised of consecutive patients undergoing CT imaging for traumatic brain injury recruited between January and October 2015. Bilateral ONSD was measured 3 mm behind the eyeball in axial and sagittal planes and mean value was calculated. RCTS was assessed on the same CT images, bias was eliminated by blinding RCTS to ONSD measurement. RESULTS: 150 patients were included; mean age in the group was 42.94±16.7 years. ONSD in mild TBI, RCTS 2 and 3 were 3.3 mm (SD 0.39 mm) and 4.1 mm (0.047 mm), respectively. Mean ONSD in moderate and severe TBI (RCTS score 4 and above) was 4.83 mm and above, SD 0.4 mm. Mean ONSD correlated with occurrence of diffuse cerebral oedema, presence of subdural and extradural hematoma; however in isolation there was no statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: Higher ONSD was observed in patients with moderate and severe TBI, correlating with admission RCTS of 4 and above. Subsequent increase in ONSD was also found with increase in RCTS. ONSD could serve as an initial triage tool in the emergency department as well as a method of determining the need for sequential CT in patients with mild TBI

Does bridging geometry influence interfacial electron transfer dynamics? Case of the enediol-TiO₂ system

We have employed femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy in enediol-TiO₂ systems (catechol, resorcinol, and quinol) to understand localized vs delocalized interfacial electron transfer dynamics in dye-nanoparticle systems. Optical absorption studies confirmed the formation of a charge transfer (CT) complex between the enediols and TiO₂ nanoparticles. CT interaction between enediols and TiO₂ was found to be decreased from catechol to resorcinol to quinol. The decrease in interaction strength from catechol to quinol was explained on the basis of a reduced overlap between the HOMO localized on the enediol and the conduction band of TiO₂. Femtosecond transient absorption studies confirmed an ultrafast electron injection (<50 fs) into the conduction band of TiO₂ in all enediol-TiO₂ systems. Interestingly back electron transfer (BET), which follows multiexponential dynamics, is faster in the catechol-TiO₂ system as compared to the other two enediol-TiO₂ systems. As we increase the distance between the bridging ligand from catechol to quinol, we find that decay time increases proving the influence of bridging distance between enediols and TiO₂. Our theoretical studies indicate an increase in the delocalization of the injected electron over several Ti atoms as the distance between the bridge linkers increases. Analysis of BET results in the framework of the Marcus theory indicated a significant influence of electronic coupling on BET in the enediol-TiO₂ systems

A strongly coupled anisotropic fluid from dilaton driven holography

We consider a system consisting of 5 dimensional gravity with a negative cosmological constant coupled to a massless scalar, the dilaton. We construct a black brane solution which arises when the dilaton satisfies linearly varying boundary conditions in the asymptotically AdS(5) region. The geometry of this black brane breaks rotational symmetry while preserving translational invariance and corresponds to an anisotropic phase of the system. Close to extremality, where the anisotropy is big compared to the temperature, some components of the viscosity tensor become parametrically small compared to the entropy density. We study the quasi normal modes in considerable detail and find no instability close to extremality. We also obtain the equations for fluid mechanics for an anisotropic driven system in general, working upto first order in the derivative expansion for the stress tensor, and identify additional transport coefficients which appear in the constitutive relation. For the fluid of interest we find that the parametrically small viscosity can result in a very small force of friction, when the fluid is enclosed between appropriately oriented parallel plates moving with a relative velocity