Detecting Soldiers’ Fatigue Using Eye-Tracking Glasses: Practical Field Applications and Research Opportunities

ABSTRACT Introduction Objectively determining soldiers’ fatigue levels could help prevent injuries or accidents resulting from inattention or decreased alertness. Eye-tracking technologies, such as optical eye tracking (OET) and electrooculography (EOG), are often used to monitor fatigue. Eyeblinks—especially blink frequency and blink duration—are known as easily observable and valid biomarkers of fatigue. Currently, various eye trackers (i.e., eye-tracking glasses) are available on the market using either OET or EOG technologies. These wearable eye trackers offer several advantages, including unobtrusive functionality, practicality, and low costs. However, several challenges and limitations must be considered when implementing these technologies in the field to monitor fatigue levels. This review investigates the feasibility of eye tracking in the field focusing on the practical applications in military operational environments. Materials and Method This paper summarizes the existing literature about eyeblink dynamics and available wearable eye-tracking technologies, exposing challenges and limitations, as well as discussing practical recommendations on how to improve the feasibility of eye tracking in the field. Results So far, no eye-tracking glasses can be recommended for use in a demanding work environment. First, eyeblink dynamics are influenced by multiple factors; therefore, environments, situations, and individual behavior must be taken into account. Second, the glasses’ placement, sunlight, facial or body movements, vibrations, and sweat can drastically decrease measurement accuracy. The placement of the eye cameras for the OET and the placement of the electrodes for the EOG must be chosen consciously, the sampling rate must be minimal 200 Hz, and software and hardware must be robust to resist any factors influencing eye tracking. Conclusion Monitoring physiological and psychological readiness of soldiers, as well as other civil professionals that face higher risks when their attention is impaired or reduced, is necessary. However, improvements to eye-tracking devices’ hardware, calibration method, sampling rate, and algorithm are needed in order to accurately monitor fatigue levels in the field.

A new method to localise and quantify oxidative stress in live juvenile mussels

Stress and survival of juvenile New Zealand green-lipped mussel, Perna canaliculus, is a poorly-understood bottleneck in the ecological and economic performance of a significant aquaculture crop. This species was therefore selected as a model organism for the development of a new method to quantify oxidative stress in whole individuals. An in vivo ROS-activated stain (CellROX™) was administered to anaesthetised, translucent juveniles that were subsequently formaldehyde-fixed and visualised using confocal microscopy. Subsequent application of image analysis to quantifying ROS-positive tissue areas was successfully used to detect stress differences in juvenile mussels exposed to varying levels of emersion. This integrated method can be used to localise and quantify ROS production in individual translucent bivalve life stages (larval and juvenile), while relative stability following fixation greatly expands potential practical field applications.

Screening the Key Region of Sunlight Regulating the Flavonoid Profiles of Young Shoots in Tea Plants (Camellia sinensis L.) Based on a Field Experiment

Both UV and blue light have been reported to regulate the biosynthesis of flavonoids in tea plants; however, the respective contributions of the corresponding regions of sunlight are unclear. Additionally, different tea cultivars may respond differently to altered light conditions. We investigated the responses of different cultivars (‘Longjing 43’, ‘Zhongming 192’, ‘Wanghai 1’, ‘Jingning 1’ and ‘Zhonghuang 2’) to the shade treatments (black and colored nets) regarding the biosynthesis of flavonoids. For all cultivars, flavonol glycosides showed higher sensitivity to light conditions compared with catechins. The levels of total flavonol glycosides in the young shoots of different tea cultivars decreased with the shade percentages of polyethylene nets increasing from 70% to 95%. Myricetin glycosides and quercetin glycosides were more sensitive to light conditions than kaempferol glycosides. The principal component analysis (PCA) result indicated that shade treatment greatly impacted the profiles of flavonoids in different tea samples based on the cultivar characteristics. UV is the crucial region of sunlight enhancing flavonol glycoside biosynthesis in tea shoots, which is also slight impacted by light quality according to the results of the weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA). This study clarified the contributions of different wavelength regions of sunlight in a field experiment, providing a potential direction for slightly bitter and astringent tea cultivar breeding and instructive guidance for practical field production of premium teas based on light regimes.

A Sustainable Natural Clam Shell Derived Photocatalyst for the Effective Adsorption and Photodegradation of Organic Dyes

In response to the increasing desire for modern industries to be both green and sustainable, there has been increasing research focus on the reutilization of natural waste materials to effectively remove and degrade toxic wastewater effluents. One interesting food industry waste product is clam shells. Here a new photocatalytic nanomaterial derived from marine clam shells was successfully prepared and characterized. Thereafter the material was applied for the removal of two target dyes from aqueous solution, where the effect of both catalyst dose and initial dye concentration on adsorption and photocatalysis properties was investigated. The maximum adsorption capacities of methylene blue (100 mg/L) and Congo red (500 mg/L) were 123.45 mg/g and 679.91 mg/g, respectively, where adsorption followed pseudo second order kinetics predominantly via a chemical adsorption process. The photodegradation removal efficiencies of the two dye solutions under visible light irradiation were 99.6% and 83.3% for MB and CR respectively. These results demonstrated that a clam shell catalyst also exhibited excellent degradation performance in a mixed dye solution with strong degradation capability and low cost, making the material a good candidate for practical field remediation of dye contaminated wastewater.

Combating Cyber Crime

The present paper has proposed a model to show that a synergy of technology and legal procedure can work as deterrent to cybercrime. The fraudulent activities the model considers are of two types. The first one is the case when the processed information gets diverted to reach someone else rather than reaching its targeted destination, thereby creating an incidence of data theft and hacking. The second one is a case of already hacked situation. The model has established that in the present-day context, synergic efforts of technology and legal provisioning can emerge as an effective option to ensure cyber security to some significant extent. The application of the proposed model in practical field is also illustrated with the analysis of a case of cybercrime.

The use of cold plasma technology in the surface disinfection system

The work is devoted to the presentation of the system analysis results of hierarchical processes of the viral pandemic and development, based on the use of cold plasma, of technical means to counteract viral threats. The main place is occupied by the description of the application of cold plasma technologies for the purpose of viral disinfection and countering the spread of viruses in various environments. The results of practical field experiments are presented

The Impact of Process Quality and Quality Control on Organizational Competitiveness at 5-star hotels in Dubai

Hotel industry is seeing many challenges because of the market challenges due to perfect competition market. Among these challenges quality assurance and quality control has significant impact because these factors determine the competitiveness level of the organization. In this research study we explained the hotel industry in the light of process quality and quality control. Interview was arranged and data was collected for interpretation. Results stated that process quality and quality control has significant impact on attaining competitiveness in hotel industry. This study can contribute a lot not just in theoretical field but also in practical field where the hotels can evaluate their own performance and the lacking in their own strategies.

Precision Control of Spraying Quantity Based on Linear Active Disturbance Rejection Control Method

Current methods to control the spraying quantity present several disadvantages, such as poor precision, a long adjustment time, and serious environmental pollution. In this paper, the flow control valve and the linear active disturbance controller (LADRC) were used to control the spraying quantity. Due to the disturbance characteristics in the spraying pipeline during the actual operation, the total disturbance was observed by a linear extended state observer (LESO). A 12 m commercial boom sprayer was used to carry out practical field operation tests after relevant intelligent transformation. The experimental results showed that the LADRC controller adopted in this paper can significantly suppress the disturbance in practical operation under three different operating speeds. Compared with the traditional proportional–integral–differential controller (PID) and an improved PID controller, the response speed of the proposed controller improved by approximately 3~5 s, and the steady-state error accuracy improved by approximately 2~9%.