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The state of Wisconsin has existing pulp mill infrastructure capable of converting wood into biofuel and value-added products such as lumber, pulp, and paper. Each day, pulp and paper mills produce a waste material that is commonly referred to as sludge. Sludge is typically sent to a landfill or concentrated for burning to produce steam. The primary material present in pulp and paper mill sludge is fiber, which is mostly cellulose. This study showed how to convert pulp mill waste to fermentable sugars using commercially available enzymes. Preliminary economic analysis has shown that sludge can be converted into a fermentable sugar with chemicals costing less than $0.10 per pound of sugar produced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Iran is a country with a high rate of natural disasters like earthquake. The environmental conditions slow down the delivery of health services, especially in the event of disasters. The modern technologies such as telemedicine are appropriate for facilitating disaster relief operations after an earthquake. This study aimed to develop a model for the implementation of telemedicine in an earthquake. Materials and Methods: The study was carried out using a mixed-methods research in three phases: 1. Review of the literature; 2. Qualitative study (modeling); and 3. Delphi method (validation of the model). Databases of Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed were searched from 1990 to 2019 with the keywords of "telemedicine" AND "disaster" OR "emergency" AND "earthquake". After screening of the retrieved records, 13 articles met the eligibility criteria and were included in the review study. Ten experts extracted all key elements of telemedicine in the disaster from the articles and categorized them in 6 themes with 38 subthemes. The model of telemedicine in the earthquake was finalized with 2 rounds of Delphi with groups of selected volunteer experts. Results: In the first phase of the study, 6 key themes (telecommunication infrastructure, technical infrastructure, financial infrastructure, health infrastructure, organizational infrastructure, social infrastructure, and cultural infrastructure) with 38 subthemes of telemedicine for implementing in the disaster were obtained. At the conclusion of the third phase of the study, 6 key themes with 33 subthemes contributed to the model of telemedicine in the earthquake. Telecommunication infrastructure with a maximum score of 9.24 earned the priority, and social and cultural infrastructure themes with the minimum score of 7.53 came in the end. Conclusion: The model derived from this study can be used as an applied telemedicine model in an earthquake. We suggest that the results of this study be implemented as a theoretical model, or in a pilot study in a region of the country, and to be evaluated by regarding mortality reduction. We also recommend that a comparative study for using telemedicine in other types of disasters be undertaken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The autonomous vehicle (AV) technology has the potential to significantly improve safety and efficiency of the transportation and logistics industry. Full-scale AV testing is limited by time, space, and cost, while simulation-based testing often lacks the necessary accuracy of AV and environmentalmodeling. In recent years, several initiatives haveemerged to test autonomous software and hardware on scaled vehicles. This systematic literature review provides an overview of the literature surrounding small-scale self-driving cars, summarizing the current autonomous platforms deployed and focusing on the software and hardware developments in this field. The studies published in English-language journals or conference papers that present small-scale testing of self-driving cars were included. Web of Science, Scopus, Springer Link, Wiley, ACM Digital Library, and TRID databases were used for the literature search. The systematic literature search found 38 eligible studies. Research gaps in the reviewed papers were identified to provide guidance for future research. Some key takeaway emerging from thismanuscript are: (i) there is a need to improve themodels and neural network architectures used in autonomous driving systems, as most papers present only preliminary results; (ii) increasing datasets and sharing databases can help in developing more reliable control policies and reducing biasand variance inthe trainingprocess; (iii) small-scaledvehicles to ensure safety is a major benefit, and incorporating data about unsafe driving behaviors and infrastructure problems can improve the accuracy of predictive models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The entire world seems to have responded to COVID-19 pandemic in a knee-jerk manner with a short mindset without building on the existing strengths of public health infrastructure. National governments cannot be blamed for this as we are dealing with a crisis that comes once in a lifetime. Realising this, the Organized Medicine Academic Guild (OMAG) an association of major health associations in this country has suggested measures for long-term solutions to COVID-19-like pandemics in the form of a policy paper by OMAG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Cracks, as structural defects or fractures in materials like concrete, asphalt, and metal, pose significant challenges to the stability and safety of various structures. Addressing crack detection is of paramount importance due to its implications for public safety, infrastructure integrity, maintenance costs, asset longevity, preventive maintenance, economic impact, and environmental considerations. Methods: In this survey paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of recent advancements and developments in crack detection technologies for structures, with a specific focus on articles published between 2022 and 2023. Our methodology involves an exhaustive search of the Scopus database using keywords related to crack detection and machine learning techniques. Among the 129 papers reviewed, 85 were closely aligned with our research focus. Results: We explore datasets that underpin crack detection research, categorizing them as public datasets, papers with their own datasets, and those using a hybrid approach. The prevalence and usage patterns of public datasets are presented, highlighting datasets like Crack500, Crack Forest Dataset (CFD), and Deep Crack. Furthermore, papers employing proprietary datasets and those combining public and proprietary sources are examined. The survey comprehensively investigates the algorithms and methods utilized, encompassing CNN, YOLO, UNet, ResNet, and others, elucidating their contributions to crack detection. Evaluation metrics such as accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, and IoU are discussed in the context of assessing model performance. The results of the 85 papers are summarized, demonstrating advancements in crack detection accuracy, efficiency, and applicability. Discussion: Notably, we observe a trend towards using modern and novel algorithms, such as Vision Transformers (ViT), and a shift away from traditional methods. The conclusion encapsulates the current state of crack detection research, highlighting the integration of multiple algorithms, expert models, and innovative data collection techniques. As a future direction, the adoption of emerging algorithms like ViT is suggested. This survey paper serves as a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and engineers working in the field of crack detection, offering insights into the latest trends, methodologies, and challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) serve as a common aim that brings many nations together, led by the United Nations with the purpose to achieve a set of 17 targets by 2030. One very important factor in achieving these aims is finance. The advancement in financial development all around the world will be able to speed up achieving SDGs where governments, policymakers, and people will be able to grow the economic development and infrastructure of the country, provide adequate job opportunities for many people, reduce poverty, as well as improve sustainability around the world. In opposition to that, some researchers see the advancement in financial development as an activity that will jeopardize achieving SDGs as financial development might lead to the production of carbon footprints at a faster rate. Using bibliometric analysis, this paper was able to discover that there is an increase in attention and interest in the field with the rise in publications in recent years, especially in 2022. Furthermore, this paper also identifies research hotspots within the field while also finding and analyzing the most impactful authors and publications on the topic. Ultimately, this paper hopes to provide a better definition for the relationship between financial development and SDGs with the use of bibliometric analysis, where data is collected from the Scopus database and analyzed using VOSviewer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The total demand for freight transport in Europe has increased significantly in recent decades, but most of it has been handled by road transport. To fulfil the modal shift targets set in the EU White Paper 2011, it will be necessary to double rail's market share from today's 18 %, by 2050. Translating this into reality means rail will have to handle 3 to 4 times the cargo volume it does today. With this in mind, the paper develops a vision of an efficient rail freight system in 2050. Methodology: To achieve the above objective, the research applies literature survey and group discussion methodology and applying a system approach. Keeping on board the EU Transport White Paper 2011 modal shift targets, as well as future freight demand and customer requirements, the current research attempts to answer the following three critical questions: Results: The authors find that the service quality can be improved by better planning, application of appropriate ICT-systems and adoption of an integrated supply chain approach. A more customer-orientated service can also be achieved by further deregulation of rail. There is also an urgent need for a faster implementation of Rail Freight Corridors (RFC). As well as liner trains, future rail freight services should be offering end-point trains, with semi/ fully automated loading/unloading equipment in hub-terminals, as well as terminals at sidings to improve the availability of intermodal operation. Conclusion: To offer a competitive price and reliable service, a reduction in operating costs will be vital by implementing a number of measures, including operation of heavier and longer trains, wider loading gauge, higher average speed, and better utilisation of wagon space and all assets. This will bring increased capacity, as well as better timetable planning, signalling systems and infrastructure improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper is increasingly recognized as a user-friendly and ubiquitous substrate for construction of microfluidic devices. Microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (μPADs) provide an alternative technology for development of affordable, portable, disposable and low-cost diagnostic tools for improving point of care testing (POCT) and disease screening in the developing world, especially in those countries with no- or low-infrastructure and limited trained medical and health professionals. We in this review present fabrication techniques for microfluidic devices and their respective applications for biological detection as reported to date. These include: (i) fabrication techniques: examples of devices fabricated by using two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) methods; (ii) detection application: biochemical, immunological and molecular detection by incorporating efficient detection methods such as, colorimetric detection, electrochemical detection, fluorescence detection, chemiluminescence (CL) detection, electrochemiluninescence (ECL) detection, photoelectrochemi (PEC) detection and so on. In addition, main advantages, disadvantages and future trends for the devices are also discussed in this review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academics have been devoting a growing attention to different matters involving public-private partnerships (PPPs), and, as the use of PPPs for delivering infrastructure evolves worldwide, so does the number and type of papers addressing this procurement model. The objective of this paper is to undertake a comprehensive literature review of papers relating to PPPs and private finance initiatives (PFIs), using a bibliometric analysis. More than 600 papers published between 1990 and 2014 were examined. None of the previously existing studies analyzed such a large sample of papers. The research found that PPP studies appear to have a steady momentum toward growth. Engineering journals (and engineering as a research area) have been particularly active in this field. Authors based in Europe and Asia had written almost two-thirds of the papers, with transportation and health sectors at the top of sector-based papers. Most of the existing work is focused on aspects of contract design, risk sharing, and analyzing the contract performance and benefits, and neglects areas such as contract termination and renegotiation. The management of PPPs will be the next big challenge for PPP scholars and professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]