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Additive manufacturing has revolutionized manufacturing across a spectrum of industries by enabling the production of complex geometries with unparalleled customization and reduced waste. Beginning as a rapid prototyping tool, additive manufacturing has matured into a comprehensive manufacturing solution, embracing a wide range of materials, such as polymers, metals, ceramics, and composites. This paper delves into the workflow of additive manufacturing, encompassing design, modeling, slicing, printing, and post-processing. Various additive manufacturing technologies are explored, including material extrusion, VAT polymerization, material jetting, binder jetting, selective laser sintering, selective laser melting, direct metal laser sintering, electron beam melting, multi-jet fusion, direct energy deposition, carbon fiber reinforced, laminated object manufacturing, and more, discussing their principles, advantages, disadvantages, material compatibilities, applications, and developing trends. Additionally, the future of additive manufacturing is projected, highlighting potential advancements in 3D bioprinting, 3D food printing, large-scale 3D printing, 4D printing, and AI-based additive manufacturing. This comprehensive survey aims to underscore the transformative impact of additive manufacturing on global manufacturing, emphasizing ongoing challenges and the promising horizon of innovations that could further elevate its role in the manufacturing revolution.

This study examines the vital role of environmental services in supporting human life and development in Teluk Bahang, Penang, Malaysia. Utilizing the Penang State Structure Plan 2020 (RSNPP2020) and the Draft Penang State Structure Plan 2030 (DRSNPP2030), it tracks land use patterns and changes over eight years, aiming for social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Data from the Malaysian Development Planning Department (MBPP) and the Penang Geographical Information System Center (PeGIS), along with external sources, inform the analysis. Employing Geospatial Information System (GIS) techniques, the study analyzes land use data from 2010, 2014, and 2018 using overlay and matrix methods. The results reveal a significant 18% increase in agricultural land use between 2014 and 2018 and notable shifts from agricultural to residential and commercial land uses. These changes highlight the dynamic transformation of land utilization in the region. The study recommends integrating environmental concerns into land use planning, emphasizing sustainable development strategies that balance economic growth with environmental conservation. These findings provide practical insights for policymakers to optimize land use while preserving the ecological integrity of Teluk Bahang.

With the rapid development and popularity of information technology, criminals and mischievous computer users are given avenues to commit crimes and malicious activities. One of the commonly used tactics, called steganography, is to hide information under a cover media so that except participants, no one else knows the existence of such information. Many techniques have been proposed for hiding data in images, videos and audios, but there is not much research devoted to data hiding in the popular MS Office documents which have recently adopted Office Open XML (OOXML) format. In this research, we first focus on identifying several data hiding techniques for OOXML documents. Then, we design and develop a fast detection algorithm based on the unique internal structure of OOXML documents, which contains multiple XML files, by using multi-XML query technique. Experimental results show the proposed detection algorithm outperforms the traditional one in terms of detection speed and completeness, where performance is the key to success of detecting hidden data in OOXML documents due to the fact that millions of documents are generated and transferred over the internet every day.

Background Hypertension (HTN) and obesity are leading, interrelated risk factors for cardiovascular disease, stroke, and kidney disease in the United States. Despite advances in medical therapies and public health interventions, the joint mortality burden associated with these conditions remains substantial. We sought to characterize national trends and demographic disparities in obesity- and hypertension-related mortality from 2000 to 2019 using the CDC WONDER database. Methods In this retrospective descriptive study, multiple cause-of-death data for individuals aged ≥ 25 years were extracted from CDC WONDER. Obesity (ICD-10 E66.*) and hypertension (ICD-10 I10–I15)-related deaths were identified as underlying or contributing causes. Crude Mortality Rates (CMRs) and Age-Adjusted Mortality Rates (AAMRs) per 100,000 population were calculated annually and standardized to the 2000 U.S. population. Joinpoint regression was employed to estimate Annual Percent Change (APC) and Average Annual Percent Change (AAPC) in AAMRs, with statistical significance set at p  < 0.05. Trends were stratified by sex, race/ethnicity, urban-rural classification, and U.S. Census region. Results From 2000 to 2019, there were 254,116 obesity- and hypertension-related deaths (54.6% male). The combined AAMR rose from 2.58 to 9.62 per 100,000 (AAPC 7.31*, 95% CI 6.66–7.97). Men experienced higher AAMRs than women (AAPC 8.50* vs. 6.08*, respectively). Non-Hispanic Black individuals exhibited the highest AAMR (11.19), followed by American Indian/Alaska Native (6.62) and non-Hispanic White (5.35) populations. Non-metropolitan counties demonstrated greater mortality (AAMR 6.52) compared to metropolitan areas (5.76), and Southern and rural states bore the highest burdens. Conclusions Over two decades, obesity- and hypertension-related mortality in U.S. adults has increased significantly across all demographic groups, with pronounced disparities by sex, race/ethnicity, and rurality. Targeted, multifaceted interventions are urgently needed to curb this growing public health crisis.

Electrical power consumption and distribution and ensuring its quality are important for industries as the power sector mandates a clean and green process with the least possible carbon footprint and to avoid damage of expensive electrical components. The harmonics elimination has emerged as a topic of prime importance for researchers and industry to realize the maintenance of power quality in the light of the 7th Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper implements a Hybrid Shunt Active Harmonic Power Filter (HSAHPF) to reduce harmonic pollution. An ANN-based control algorithm has been used to implement Hardware in the Loop (HIL) configuration, and the network is trained on the model of pq0 theory. The HIL configuration is applied to integrate a physical processor with the designed filter. In this configuration, an external microprocessor (Raspberry PI 3B+) has been employed as a primary data server for the ANN-based algorithm to provide reference current signals for HSAHPF. The ANN model uses backpropagation and gradient descent to predict output based on seven received inputs, i.e., 3-phase source voltages, 3-phase applied load currents, and the compensated voltage across the DC-link capacitors of the designed filter. Moreover, a real-time data visualization has been provided through an Application Programming Interface (API) of a JAVA script called Node-RED. The Node-RED also performs data transmission between SIMULINK and external processors through serial socket TCP/IP data communication for real-time data transceiving. Furthermore, we have demonstrated a real-time Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system for testing HSAHPF using the topology based on HIL topology that enables the control algorithms to run on an embedded microprocessor for a physical system. The presented results validate the proposed design of the filter and the implementation of real-time system visualization. The statistical values show a significant decrease in Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) from 35.76% to 3.75%. These values perfectly lie within the set range of IEEE standard with improved stability time while bearing the computational overheads of the microprocessor.

Whipple procedure is one of the major surgeries performed in tertiary care centers. Once considered a high mortality procedure is now being practicing with mortality declining to less than 5%. This study describes our five-year experience of the Whipple procedure in terms of preoperative, operative, and postoperative parameters of patients undergoing surgery in a local tertiary care setting. This was a non-randomized interventional study that was conducted at the Surgical Department of Services Hospital Lahore from January 2014 to December 2018. A total of 57 Whipple procedures were performed during this period. Demographic data, presenting symptoms, physical signs, past medical history, preoperative stenting details, intra-operative duration of surgery, postoperative course and complications, pathology, and causes of postoperative death were collected on a pre-designed questionnaire. Data were entered and analyzed by using SPSS 22 (IBM Corp., Armonk, USA). Out of 57 patients, 19 were females and 38 were males. The mean age of patients was 53±05 years. The most common presenting symptom was jaundice 39 (68.4%), followed by abdominal pain 32 (56.1%). The mean size of the tumor on CT-scan was 2.8±1.4 cm, the mean operation time was 315±38.3 min, mean blood loss during surgery was 500±130 ml, and mean hospital stay was 10±6 days. The major postoperative complication was the pancreatic fistula (12%). Twenty-one out of 39 patients presented with jaundice had undergone preoperative biliary stenting by endoscopic retrograde biliary stenting. The most common histological diagnosis was adenocarcinoma of pancreas 19 (33.3%). Out of 57 patients, nine (15.8%) patients expired in the first 30 days and the most frequent cause of mortality was septic shock. In this study, the most common presentation of patients undergoing Whipple procedure was obstructive jaundice, the most frequent operative complication was pancreatic fistula, and the most prevalent histopathology was carcinoma of the pancreas. Perioperative parameters such as mean operative time, mean blood loss during surgery, and mean length of hospital stay were comparable with other studies. However, mortality in this study was slightly higher. It can be concluded that with meticulous surgical technique, securing hemostasis strictly and standard critical care postoperatively can decrease morbidity and mortality after the Whipple procedure.

The ultimate aim of this study was to investigate the effect of surface finish for a machined part which was programmed by two popular Computer Aided Design / Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) software namely as Catia V5 and Delcam (Delcam for Solidworks - DFS) by using scanned data obtained from one of the Reverse Engineering methods namely Three-Dimensional (3D) scanning process. A crank case cover was chosen as the physical part to be scanned and machined because of its sculptured shape and complex geometry. In this study, simultaneous three-axis machining programs were created and machined using threeaxis Computer Numerical Control (CNC) Milling machine; DMC 635 Ecoline. Furthermore, all machining parameters are remained the same for both programs. Initially, the physical crank case cover gone through the first process called scanning process using a 3D scanner; model 700 CX in order to capture the 3D CAD data in points cloud form. The raw scanned data then gone through editing process to obtain better surfaces using Geomagic Studio software. Moreover, the stable and edited CAD model then undergone CAD/CAM programming process for both mentioned software respectively. On the other hand, there were seven random points chosen to be analyzed for the surface roughness analysis. The arithmetic mean value (Ra) was used as the roughness value reference using Mitutoyo Surface Tester. Ultimately, it could be concluded that Catia V5 producing better surface finish compared to Delcam software concluded from the analysis carried out as presented in this paper.