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Found 6341 publications
Conceptual Framework for Adaptive Bacterial Memetic Algorithm Parameterization in Storage Location Assignment Problem
Publication Name: Mathematics
Publication Date: 2024-12-01
Volume: 12
Issue: 23
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
Recognized as an NP-hard combinatorial challenge, Storage Location Assignment Problem (SLAP) demands heuristic or algorithmic solutions for effective optimization. This paper specifically examines the enhancement of SLAP through the utilization of evolutionary algorithms, as they are particularly suitable for complex cases. Among others, the genetic algorithm (GA) is typically applied to solve this problem. This paper investigates the Bacterial Memetic Algorithm (BMA) as a possible solution for optimization. Though the comparative analysis of the BMA with the previously well-used GA algorithm under certain test parameters reveals that BMA is suitable for SLA optimization, BMA failed to achieve better results. We attribute the unsatisfactory results to the parameter settings, as illustrated by a few specific examples. However, the complexity of the problem and the parameterization does not allow for continuous manual parameter adjustment, which is why we have identified the need for a concept that automatically and adaptively adjusts the parameter settings based on the statistics and fitness values obtained during the execution. The novelty of this paper is to specify the concept of adaptive BMA parameterization and rules.
Open Access: Yes
DOI: 10.3390/math12233688
Residents’ attitudes and behaviours on private green spaces in the suburban areas of Central European countries
Publication Name: Regional Sustainability
Publication Date: 2024-12-01
Volume: 5
Issue: 4
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
Green spaces in urban and suburban areas play a significant role in helping settlements adapt to climate change. The design, quantity, quality, and location of green spaces influence their ability to provide benefits to people and enhance the quality of life. Private green spaces, if adequately managed, can enhance the environmental quality. This study, based on a questionnaire survey and the Motivation/Attitude-Driven Behaviour (MADB) model, investigated how the attitudes and behaviours of residents shape private green spaces in 12 settlements of the 4 city regions (Cluj region, Nitra region, Kecskemét region, and Győr region) in 3 Central European countries (Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania). The results showed that beautiful natural environment, abundance of green spaces, beautiful settlement and streetscape, and village atmosphere were mentioned most often, along with good quality of life, with a mention rate of over 70.00% in the four city regions. Convenience also played a significant role in the management of green spaces, showing that convenience factors (less work, less waste, and cheaper management) more important for those who live in settlements nearer to the cities. The importance of biodiversity and ecology was positively correlated with socio-economic status such as education and financial situation. However, the importance of the utility of green spaces was less prevalent among original villagers and settlers. Moreover, we found that the percentage of green spaces of settlers is slightly higher than that of original villagers. The results of factor analysis revealed that socio-economic status can influence respondents’ attitudes towards green spaces. It suggests to increase ecological awareness of residents, especially for new settlers, and promote good management techniques for green spaces. This study can improve the awareness of urban planners about the importance of green spaces in suburban areas.
Open Access: Yes
A Novel Method to Improve the Defense Security of Railway Transportation
Publication Name: International Journal of Safety and Security Engineering
Publication Date: 2024-12-01
Volume: 14
Issue: 6
Page Range: 1667-1678
Description:
Rail transport is used not only by the civil sector but also by military transportation. This duality makes it crucial to maintain the functionality and security of the system. This research aims to determine the combined impact on maintaining the sector's functionality by analyzing the elements of civil transport safety and military defense security. The result of the research is the definition of a new evaluation index (RDSI) as a synthesis of the security and security factors, which can consider transport safety and defense security requirements. The calculated value of the index provides an idea of the civil safety and military security improvements needed on a railway line, thus increasing the level of protection and resilience of a country. Further use of the index can help to identify weak points of the rail transport system, give an idea of the protective utility of a railway line, find bypasses, and improve the impact of climate change on rail transport. The effectiveness of the index is demonstrated through a case analysis.
Open Access: Yes
Precision agriculture: A bibliometric analysis and research agenda
Publication Name: Smart Agricultural Technology
Publication Date: 2024-12-01
Volume: 9
Issue: Unknown
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
The emergence of precision agriculture (PA) has brought a radical change in the agriculture sector and significantly contributed to agronomic development. In recent years, academic research on PA has increased at an unprecedented pace. However, a comprehensive picture of how PA can benefit the agriculture sector is still lacking. In addition, there is a clear scarcity of studies on PA that evaluate the impact of this paradigm on agriculture resources and inform practitioners about the importance of data-driven farming and agriculture. Therefore, we attempted to employ a bibliometric method to ascertain the current state-of-the-art and dynamics of PA. The findings of the analysis highlighted four distinct phases and the most predominant enabling technologies in PA. Additionally, we reviewed the key trends and put forth insightful recommendations for future research by researchers and practitioners. In terms of contributions, this review developed an integrative framework comprising PA-related technologies, PA application areas, and PA advantages. Furthermore, the challenges of PA were identified and categorized into four broad groups. Finally, the study's novelty resides in its systematization of the PA literature and its recommendations of several research directions for advancing PA in the agriculture sector.
Open Access: Yes
Impact of proximity from chemical and pharmaceutical universities on startup founding: empirical evidence from the Visegrad countries
Publication Name: Discover Sustainability
Publication Date: 2024-12-01
Volume: 5
Issue: 1
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
This paper examines the spatial distribution of chemical startups in the Visegrad Countries (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary), highlighting their potential to drive technological innovation by creating new products or services under conditions of high uncertainty. The study focuses on the proximity of these startups to medical or chemical universities and those with biotechnological research fields to better understand their geographical patterns and potential knowledge spillovers. Data were drawn from Crunchbase, a comprehensive startup database, resulting in a final sample of approximately 333 operational chemical, pharmaceutical, or biotechnological startups. Companies were identified using keyword-based searches, while startup locations and distances to the nearest medical universities were recorded. Statistical methods were applied to assess spatial patterns. Results indicate that these startups are frequently located in cities with biotechnological, chemical, or medical universities. Our findings highlight different types of startup activities and levels of financial support across the Visegrad countries, emphasising the role of chemical startups in fostering technological advancement and sustainable development.
Open Access: Yes
EStreams: An integrated dataset and catalogue of streamflow, hydro-climatic and landscape variables for Europe
Publication Name: Scientific Data
Publication Date: 2024-12-01
Volume: 11
Issue: 1
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
Large-sample hydrology datasets have become increasingly available, contributing to significant scientific advances. However, in Europe, only a few such datasets have been published, capturing only a fraction of the wealth of information from national data providers in terms of available spatial density and temporal extent. We present “EStreams”, an extensive dataset of hydro-climatic variables and landscape descriptors and a catalogue of openly available stream records for 17,130 European catchments. Spanning up to 120 years, the dataset includes streamflow indices, catchment-aggregated hydro-climatic signatures and landscape attributes (topography, soils, geology, vegetation and landcover). The catalogue provides detailed descriptions that allow users to directly access streamflow data sources, overcoming challenges related to data redistribution policies, language barriers and varied data portal structures. EStreams also provides Python scripts for data retrieval, aggregation and processing, making it dynamic in contrast to static datasets. This approach enables users to update their data as new records become available. Our goal is to extend current large-sample datasets and further integrate hydro-climatic and landscape data across Europe.
Open Access: Yes
Physicochemical and textural properties of gummy candies prepared with fruit vinegar
Publication Name: Applied Food Research
Publication Date: 2024-12-01
Volume: 4
Issue: 2
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
Foods with additional functional value derived from natural sources are becoming more and more in demand these days, including confectionary products. Therefore, the study aimed to develop a gummy candy recipe, enriched with different fruit vinegars and determine the components' effect on the products' mineral, acid, sugar, antioxidant, and polyphenol content, and texture of the confectionery products with analytical methods. In terms of macroelement content, potassium was present in the largest amount in the tested candies (167.87 and 178.83 mg kg-1) and liquid ingredients (57,71–306.93 mg kg-1). In the case of microelements, iron (4.81, 4.79 mg kg-1) and boron (4.62, 4.49 mg kg-1) were significant in the products, iron is also found in gelatin in significant quantities (3.51 mg kg-1), however, boron came exclusively from fruit-derived components (1.02–9.40 mg kg-1). Among the tested organic acids, malic acid (21.67–46.12 mg g-1), and acetic acid (47.74–50.06 mg g-1) were significant in both the raw materials and products, while the fructose content (2.44–439.35 mg g-1) was prominent among the sugars, but the glucose (75.99–163.44 mg g-1) and sucrose (73.61–157.00 mg g-1) content were also significant. Unfortunately, the polyphenol (1.37–1.46 mg GAE/g) and antioxidant (0.29–0.75 mg AAE/g) content of the products was not significant, maybe because of their heat sensitivity. In terms of the texture of the candies, the two candies prepared with different fruit vinegars had similar textural properties, however, in terms of hardness (3523.10 N/m2), gumminess (3266.25 N/m2), and chewiness (3425.33 N/m2) the gummy candy with apple cider vinegar proved to be better. Unlike many other confectionery products, the sugar content of the developed product is provided only by the used the apple concentrate, it does not contain added sugar or sweeteners. The addition of fruit vinegars has been proven to have a positive effect on the nutritional values of candies. By replacing gelatin with another gelling agent, the product can also be prepared in a vegan form.
Open Access: Yes
Assessing the effectiveness of RS, GIS, and AI data integration in analysing agriculture performance to enable sustainable land management
Publication Name: Discover Sustainability
Publication Date: 2024-12-01
Volume: 5
Issue: 1
Page Range: Unknown
Description:
The integration of Earth Remote Sensing (ERS) data with advancements in artificial intelligence has revolutionised sustainable land management. Current research in this field focuses on analysing remotely sensed data. This paper presents the results of effectively using spectral reflectance values of soil samples from several climatic zones in Kazakhstan to classify the content of macronutrients in soil, including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and humus. The analysis of macronutrient content in the soil, combined with spectral data from Sentinel-2 L2A satellite imagery, has been integrated with geoinformation systems and mathematical modelling. The results of the macronutrient classification have been visualised in the form of cartograms. The classification analysis involved mathematical modelling of statistical data arrays on the content of phosphorus, potassium, humus, and nitrogen in the soil using the BN-BPNN neural network model, compared with data obtained from agrochemical soil sampling. The model tests demonstrate high efficiency for two soil types. For chernozem soil, the accuracy of nitrogen determination was 90.55%, phosphorus 98.1%, potassium 57.06%, and humus 90.54%. For chestnut soil, the accuracy was nitrogen 98.19%, phosphorus 42.16%, potassium 89.81%, and humus 98.88%. These results highlight the significant potential of this methodology for adaptation to various soil and climatic conditions. The “smart” technique developed for remote determination of macronutrient content, with automated express construction of cartograms, provides real-time information on soil nutrient levels. This research significantly enhances the integration efficiency of RS (remote sensing), GIS (geographical information systems), and AI (artificial intelligence) data in agriculture, contributing to sustainable land management.
Open Access: Yes
Overview of Hungarian operations research based on the VOCAL 2022 conference
Publication Name: Central European Journal of Operations Research
Publication Date: 2024-12-01
Volume: 32
Issue: 4
Page Range: 897-902
Description:
The latest results of the Hungarian operations research community is reviewed based on the presentations given at the VOCAL 2022 conference. International collaborations and the continuation of research published at previous conferences of the series are also summarized.
Open Access: Yes
