Advances in the Standards and Applied Sciences
Volume:2 Issue: 1, Autumn 2023

The surge of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, has raised concerns regarding their widespread adoption without adhering to standard. Unlike traditional currencies, they operate on a decentralized system called blockchain, allowing trustless transactions. Trustless transaction could facilitate their use in social and economic crimes. This letter examines methods to regulate and control the use of cryptocurrencies in social and economic crimes. Additionally, it investigates the environmental impact resulting from the mining process associated with these digital assets. Some strategies are proposed to substitute the current mining process with more environmentally sustainable alternatives

Blockchain technology offers a decentralized database that enables the registration and maintenance of electronic health records (EHRs) through the implementation of encryption policies to ensure privacy. The inherent properties of decentralization and immutability in blockchains make them a practical choice for serving as a database for recording EHRs. Given that EHR files are typically generated by various entities such as hospitals, laboratories, clinics, and mobile applications, it is possible to store each set of collected data in separate blockchains adhering to different standards. However, due to the requirement for real-time access to medical records and concerns surrounding confidentiality and privacy, it is imperative that EHRs registered on different platforms are able to interact with one another online. Therefore, interoperability becomes a fundamental necessity for blockchain-based EHR systems. This paper aims to survey existing research on the implementation of interoperability in EHRs using blockchain technology. The study’s findings suggest that achieving a comprehensive solution involves ensuring that all stakeholders follow standardized EHR protocols when recording information. Furthermore, it is advised to use cloud databases for storing large-scale EHR data, while limiting blockchain data storage to identity information and maintaining the integrity of cloud-stored data. To effectively enforce these processes, blockchain smart contracts are utilized. By employing these mechanisms, blockchain can serve as a suitable platform for recording and maintaining interoperable EHRs. Additionally, a detailed multi-layer software architecture is a common practice in the field, even though there is no consensus on the role of 3rd party auditors in it.

Origanum vulgare (O. vulgare), is a medicinal plant which is traditionally used to treat different diseases. In this study, we evaluated the potential protective effects of O. vulgare against the toxic effects of permethrin (PM) in rats. Thirty adult rats were orally treated with normal saline as a control group, PM (150 mg/kg) as the second group, and (PM (150 mg/kg) + O. vulgare (300 mg/kg)) as the third group, once a day for 21 consecutive days. After completion of the study, clinical signs and body weight were assessed. Tissues and blood samples were collected for histopathological examination, biochemical alterations, and hematological analysis. The findings of this study demonstrated that PM induced some clinical signs and significantly declined the body weight of the treated rats. The tissue sections of animals in the second group showed some tissue complications in the liver, heart, lung, and kidney. In addition, hematological parameters including WBC, RBC, Hb, HCT, MCV, MCH, PLT, and biochemical parameters including ALT, AST, ALP, BUN, and creatinine were significantly changed. On the other hand, in the third group, O. vulgare reduced hematological, biochemical, and histopathological abnormalities, significantly. Furthermore, this plant could improve clinical signs and body weight changes. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that O. vulgare could be a potential herbal medicine for reducing the toxicity of PM.

Today, Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a pivotal role as key drivers of economic growth and innovation in both developed and developing countries. The role of standardization is acknowledged as a robust link between research, innovation and the market, serving as an effective tool for enhancing and disseminating knowledge. Consequently, the standardization process can significantly contribute to economic growth, prosperity and improvement of the performance of these companies. However, a limited number of small and medium-sized companies express interest in participating in the standardization process. Many stakeholders and company executives perceive the standardization system as overly intricate and lack awareness regarding the benefits and importance of standardization in their business operations. In this research, the effective factors affecting lack of standardization of SMEs have been identified using a questionnaire tool. The ordinal weighted average operator and the Shannon entropy method were used in the ranking process to analyze the gathered data. The results reveal that the most substantial constraint in implementing standards is the constrained availability of resources, while the least significant factor is the lack of access to specialized standards. The reasons behind these findings and the recommended solutions are thoroughly discussed.

Generally, burning fossil fuels release large amounts of harmful air pollutants such as carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases into the air. Consequently, detection of feedstock’s and petroleum products’ specification could be essential to utilize the appropriate fuel. The detection of hydrocarbon types provides an insight to predict their performance. There are different gas chromatography based methods to identify the amount of aromatics, naphthenes, olefins and paraffins in the petroleum cuts. This investigation reviews the standard methods to compare the interfering substances, benefits and drawbacks of methods and their precision. Confirming the results of some methods need considering whole physical and chemical parameters as well as monitoring and verifying the method with higher sensitivity. Somewhat, the operative method should be selected regarding the precision of the method and considering the implications of inaccurate measurements. The identification of components contain some compromises and the best results are achievable just by conducting the optimum amounts of effective parameters, for instance the length and polarity of column or temperature programs in gas chromatography methods

Quality needs to be included in the core of the manufactured products; it should not be left to the after-production inspection. Hence this paper aims at changing the structure of the wavemakers which are mainly mechanical to electronically controlled devices from the beginning of the design process in order to lead to increased quality. Besides, to increase the accuracy of the produced waves, servomotor which is better controlled is used instead of stepper motors. Designing a marine structure requires marine laboratories and model testing. In such laboratories, a device called wavemaker is needed to create and model sea waves. In this project, first samples of existing water flume and wavemaker are analyzed. Then basic information about design and construction is extracted. Afterward, the initial outline for the wavemaker is proposed and detailed design is done. The initial goal is to build a scale-appropriate model for use in the laboratory that could generate regular waves with maximum amplitude. This requires a servomotor and ball screw system. Albeit such a scheme was considered so that it would be similar to the original system, which could later, produce irregular waves with the desired spectrum; otherwise, in the case of using other systems, which are much simpler and cheaper than the servo system, we would be able to produce regular waves. Some programs are written to create a regular wave and an appropriate set of controls for generating a regular and irregular wave are created to prepare the system for producing irregular waves, if necessary. Although due to the limitation of the dimensions we might not be able to generate such waves in the laboratory, it can be used in the integrated water flume to generate irregular waves. Given the range of the desired waves, the best system for producing irregular and regular a wave in flume is the paddle wavemaker for which the designs are provided.

Quality control plays a crucial role in various domains, including production, services, and testing. The principles and techniques of quality control can be applied not only to product manufacturing but also to the service sector. One significant area where quality control is vital is in the testing and assessment of standard conformity. In particular, quality control in laboratories holds immense importance. In this review, we will provide an overview and discuss a recently published book titled: “Internal quality control in laboratory”. The review will focus on the book’s content, its application in different areas, and the innovative aspects it presents. The book itself is concise and comprehensive, offering a self-contained resource. It introduces key concepts from statistical quality control, eliminating the need for readers to refer to prerequisite textbooks. The book’s strengths lie in its clarity, simplicity, and brevity, making it accessible for understanding quality control concepts and applying them within a laboratory setting. Additionally, the book includes numerous illustrative numerical examples, which further enhances its usefulness. The book targets quality control personnel in conformity assessment laboratories. However, it is also useful for general audiences with engineering and statistics background. The book covers basic needs of the targeted audience and deemed to be a good starting point for a quality control profession.