The integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into agriculture has emerged as a transformative approach to enhance resource efficiency and enable precision farming. UAVs are used for various agricultural tasks, including monitoring, mapping and spraying of pesticides, providing detailed data that support targeted and sustainable practices. However, effective deployment of UAVs in these applications faces complex control challenges. This paper presents a comprehensive review of UAVs in agricultural applications, highlighting the sophisticated control strategies required to address these challenges. Key obstacles, such as modelling inaccuracies, unstable centre of gravity (COG) due to shifting payloads, fluid sloshing within pesticide tanks and external disturbances like wind, are identified and analysed. The review delves into advanced control methodologies, with particular focus on adaptive algorithms, backstepping control and machine learning-enhanced systems, which collectively enhance UAV stability and responsiveness in dynamic agricultural environments. Through an in-depth examination of flight dynamics, stability control and payload adaptability, this paper highlights how UAVs can achieve precise and reliable operation despite environmental and operational complexities. The insights drawn from this review underscore the importance of integrating adaptive control frameworks and real-time sensor data processing, enabling UAVs to autonomously adjust to changing conditions and ensuring optimal performance in agriculture. Future research directions are proposed, advocating for the development of control systems that enhance UAV resilience, accuracy and sustainability. By addressing these control challenges, UAVs have the potential to significantly advance precision agriculture, offering practical and environmental benefits crucial to sustaining global food production demands.

A wrist-hand exoskeleton designed to assist individuals with wrist and hand limitations is presented in this paper. The novel design is developed based on specific selection criteria, addressing all the Degrees of Freedom (DOF). In the conceptual design phase, design concepts are created and assessed before being screened and scored to determine which concept is the most promising. Performance and possible restrictions are assessed using kinematic and dynamic analysis. Using polylactic acid material, the exoskeleton is prototyped to ensure structural integrity and fit. Manual control, master-slave control, and electroencephalography (EEG) dataset-based control are among the control strategies that have been investigated. Direct manipulation is possible with manual control, nevertheless, master-slave control uses sensors to map user motions. Brain signals for hand opening and closing are interpreted by EEG dataset-based control, which manages the hand open-close of the exoskeleton. This study introduces a novel wrist-hand exoskeleton that improves usefulness, modularity, and mobility. While the numerous control techniques give versatility based on user requirements, the 3D printing process assures personalization and flexibility in design.

The RDA for dietary protein is likely insufficient for individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF). This study sought to characterise protein intake and diet quality in adults with cystic fibrosis (awCF), before and after elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor (ETI) therapy, compared with healthy controls. Dietary intake was assessed by diet diary in awCF at baseline (BL, n 40) and at follow-up > 3 months post ETI therapy (follow-up (FUP), n 40) and in age-matched healthy controls (CON, n 80) free from known disease at a single time point. Protein intake dose and daily distribution, protein quality, protein source and overall diet quality were calculated for each participant. Both CON (1·39 (sd 0·47) g·kg–1·day–1) and CF (BL: 1·44 (sd 0·52) g·kg–1·day–1, FUP: 1·12 (sd 0·32) g·kg–1·day–1) had a higher mean daily protein intake than the protein RDA of 0·75g·kg–1·day–1. There was a significant reduction in daily protein intake in the CF group at FUP (P = 0·0003, d = 0·73), with levels below the alternative suggested dietary intake of ≥ 1·2 g·kg–1·day–1. There were no sex differences or noticeable effects on protein quality or source following the commencement of ETI therapy when compared with CON (all P > 0·05), although overall diet quality decreased between time points (P = 0·027, d = 0·57). The observed reduction in daily protein intake in the present cohort emphasises the importance of ensuring appropriate dietary protein intake to promote healthy ageing in adults with CF. More research is needed to evidence base dietary protein requirements in this at-risk population.

Aspectual verbs with infinitival complements are often considered ambiguous when it comes to the question of whether they should be classified as raising or control verbs. In present-day German, argument structure properties seem to favor a raising analysis, but arguments for a control analysis cannot be dismissed. Word order properties do not provide conclusive evidence either and seem to support the ambiguity of aspectual verbs in present-day German. However, new diachronic evidence on word order properties of infinitival complements in uncontested raising and control constructions shows that well-established word order differences between raising and control constructions are a fairly recent development in the history of infinitival constructions (De Cesare 2021): Until about the mid eighteenth century, infinitival complements of both raising and control verbs tend to precede the finite verb in final position, with the preference of control verbs for extraposition developing only later. In present-day German, the extraposition of infinitival complements is considered a strong criterion for the sentential nature of the postposed infinitive and thus of the biclausal structure of the infinitival pattern, at least since the influential work of Bech (1983). In the present article, we look into the word order properties of ingressive aspectualizers over time and evaluate them against the emergence of a systematic distinction of raising and control verbs in the recent history of German, aiming at a deeper understanding of the syntactic behavior of aspectual verbs in present-day German.

It is known that interval type-2 fuzzy logic controllers (IT2FLC) with footprint of uncertainty (FOU) in terms of membership function (MF) have been developed as an effective control method to ensure control in systems where uncertainties and nonlinear situations are high, such as quadrotor control, and have been the subject of many studies. Designing and optimising parameters of IT2FLC controllers is complex and time-consuming. To overcome this situation, an optimisation method based on NSGA-II (Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm) was applied. ITAE (Integral Time Absolute Error) was chosen as the performance criterion. IT2FLC-NSGA-PID and NSGA-PID controllers were compared and it was observed that the IT2FLC-NSGA-PID controller gave better results. As a result, the superiority of the proposed controller over the other controllers is a better overshoot ratio, a faster settling time, a lower steady state error and a robust system response against uncertainties and disturbances in nonlinear systems.

The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) occupies an integral position in the memory politics of the People's Republic of China (PRC). In recent years, dominant representations of the war create a memory discourse which portrays the heroic triumph of the Chinese people led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over Japan. This article shows how the war has been remembered from the victory of the Communist revolution in 1949 to the present in the PRC. It contributes to the debate on the effectiveness and limitations of the monopoly of war memory by the CCP.

Despite its relative invisibility to most people living in the urban Asia-Pacific, endemic malaria occurs across the region. The unique character of Asian-Pacific malaria includes a serious problem of drug resistance, dominance of a particularly difficult species to control and treat, and another that normally dwells in monkeys but often infects humans. Most nations in the region with endemic malaria have called for its elimination by the year 2030. Meeting that ambitious goal will require mobilizing technical and financial resources, and social and political will. Malaria is a formidable foe fully capable of defeating halfhearted efforts to eliminate it.

We report four repetitions of Falk and Kosfeld's (Am. Econ. Rev. 96(5):1611—1630, 2006) low and medium control treatments with 476 subjects. Each repetition employs a sample drawn from a standard subject pool of students and demographics vary across samples. We largely confirm the existence of hidden costs of control but, contrary to the original study, hidden costs of control are usually not substantial enough to significantly undermine the effectiveness of economic incentives. Our subjects were asked, at the end of the experimental session, to complete a questionnaire in which they had to state their work motivation in hypothetical scenarios. Our questionnaires are identical to the ones administered in Falk and Kosfeld's (Am. Econ. Rev. 96(5):1611—1630, 2006) questionnaire study. In contrast to the game play data, our questionnaire data are similar to those of the original questionnaire study. In an attempt to solve this puzzle, we report an extension with 228 subjects where performance-contingent earnings are absent i.e. both principals and agents are paid according to a flat participation fee. We observe that hidden costs significantly outweigh benefits of control under hypothetical incentives.

We conduct a field experiment with Amazon Mechanical Turk (“AMT”) workers to causally assess the effect of introducing a control mechanism in an existing work relationship on workers’ performance on tasks of varying difficulty. We find that introducing control significantly reduces performance. This reduction occurs primarily on challenging tasks, while performance on simple tasks is unaffected. The negative effects are primarily driven by workers who exhibit non-pecuniary motivation in the absence of control. Our results show that there are adverse effects of control, and they suggest that these adverse effects are of particular concern to firms that rely on high performance on challenging tasks.

This paper constitutes the first economic investigation into the potential detrimental role of smartphones in the workplace based on a field experiment. We exploit the conduct of a nationwide telephone survey, for which interviewers were recruited to work individually and in single offices for half a day. This setting allows to randomly impose bans on the use of interviewers’ personal smartphones during worktime while ruling out information spillovers between treatment conditions. Although the ban was not enforceable, we observe substantial effort increases from banning smartphones in the routine task of calling households, without negative implications linked to perceived employer distrust. Analyzing the number of conducted interviews per interviewer suggests that higher efforts do not necessarily translate into economic benefits for the employer. In our broad discussion of smartphone bans and their potential impact on workplace performance, we consider further outcomes of economic relevance based on data from employee surveys and administrative phone records. Finally, we complement the findings of our field experiment with evidence from a survey experiment and a survey among managers.

This study investigates the influence of seismic activities on the optical synchronization system of the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser. We analyze the controller input/output data of phase-locked loops in length-stabilized links, focusing on the response to earthquakes, ocean-generated microseism and civilization noise. By comparing the controller data with external data, we were able to identify disturbances and their effects on the control signals. Our results show that seismic events influence the stability of the phase-locked loops. Even earthquakes that are approximately 5000 km away cause remarkable fluctuations in the in-loop control signals. Ocean-generated microseism in particular has an enormous influence on the in-loop control signals due to its constant presence. The optical synchronization system is so highly sensitive that it can even identify vibrations caused by civilization, such as road traffic or major events like concerts or sport events. The phase-locked loops manage to eliminate more than 99% of the existing interference.

Understanding the complex dynamics of climate patterns under different anthropogenic emissions scenarios is crucial for predicting future environmental conditions and formulating sustainable policies. Using Dynamic Mode Decomposition with control (DMDc), we analyze surface air temperature patterns from climate simulations to elucidate the effects of various climate-forcing agents. This improves upon previous DMD-based methods by including forcing information as a control variable. Our study identifies both common climate patterns, like the North Atlantic Oscillation and El Niño Southern Oscillation, and distinct impacts of aerosol and carbon emissions. We show that these emissions’ effects vary with climate scenarios, particularly under conditions of higher radiative forcing. Our findings confirm DMDc’s utility in climate analysis, highlighting its role in extracting modes of variability from surface air temperature while controlling for emissions contributions and exposing trends in these spatial patterns as forcing scenarios change.