Abstract
This paper introduces a deep learning approach for detecting plant leaf diseases. The objective is to develop robust models capable of accurately identifying plant diseases across various image backgrounds, thereby overcoming the limitations of existing methods that often rely on controlled laboratory conditions. To achieve this, a combination of the PlantDoc dataset and Web-sourced data of plant images from online platforms was used. This paper implemented and compared state-of-the-art *cnn architectures, including EfficientNet-B0, EfficientNet-B3, ResNet50, and DenseNet201, all fine-tuned specifically for leaf disease classification. A significant contribution is the application of enhanced data augmentation techniques, such as adding Gaussian noise, to improve model generalisation. Results indicated varied performance across the datasets, with EfficientNet models generally outperforming others. When trained and tested on the PlantDoc dataset, EfficientNet-B3 achieved the highest accuracy of 73.31%. In cross-dataset evaluation, EfficientNet-B3 reached 76.77% accuracy when trained on PlantDoc and tested on the Web-sourced dataset. The best performance occurred when training on the combined dataset and testing on the Web-sourced data, resulting in an accuracy of 80.19%. Class-wise F1-scores revealed consistently high performance (>0.90) for diseases such as apple rust leaf and grape leaf across models. This paper contributes to the comparative analysis of various datasets and model architectures for effective leaf disease detection

Abstract
Considering the rising energy needs and the depletion of conventional energy sources, microgrid systems combining wind energy and solar photovoltaic power with diesel generators are promising and considered economically viable for usage. To evaluate system cost and dependability, optimizing the size of microgrid system elements, including energy storage systems connected with the principal network, is crucial. In this line, a study has already been performed using a uni-objective optimization approach for the techno-economic sizing of a microgrid. It was noted that, despite the economic criterion, the environmental criterion can have a considerable impact on the elements constructing the microgrid system. In this paper, two multi-objective optimization approaches are proposed, including a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) and the Pareto Search algorithm (PS) for the eco-environmental design of a microgrid system. The k-means clustering of the non-dominated point on the Pareto front has delivered three categories of scenarios: best economic, best environmental, and trade-off. Energy management, considering the three cases, has been applied to the microgrid over a period of 24 h to evaluate the impact of system design on the energy production system's behavior.

Abstract
Lock-freedom offers significant advantages in terms of algorithm design, performance and scalability. A fundamental building block in software development is the usage of hash map data structures. This work extends a previous lock-free hash map to support a new simplified design that is able to take advantage of most state-of-the-art safe memory reclamation methods, thus outperforming the previous design. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.

Abstract
PurposeThe purpose of the article is to develop an innovative pedagogic tool: an escape room board game to be played in-class, targeting an introduction to an ethics course for engineering students. The design is student-centred and aims to increase students' appreciation, commitment and motivation to learning ethics, a challenging endeavour for many technological students.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology included the design, development and in-class application of the mentioned game. After application, perception data from students were collected with pre- and post-action questionnaire, using a quasi-experimental method.FindingsThe results allow to conclude that the developed game persuaded students be in class in an active way. The game mobilizes body and mind to the learning process with many associated advantages to foster students' motivation, curiosity, interest, commitment and the need for individual reflection after information search.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of the game is its applicability to large classes (it has been successfully tested with a maximum of 65 students playing simultaneously in the same room).Originality/valueThe originalities and contributions include the presented game that helped to captivate students to ethics area, a serious problem felt by educators and researchers in this area. This study will be useful to educators of ethics in engineering and will motivate to design tools for a similar pedagogical approach, even more so in areas where students are not especially motivated. The developed tool is available from the authors at no expense.

Abstract
Hyper-parameter tuning of machine learning models has become a crucial task in achieving optimal results in terms of performance. Several researchers have explored the optimisation task during the last decades to reach a state-of-the-art method. However, most of them focus on batch or offline learning, where data distributions do not change arbitrarily over time. On the other hand, dealing with data streams and online learning is a challenging problem. In fact, the higher the technology goes, the greater the importance of sophisticated techniques to process these data streams. Thus, improving hyper-parameter self-tuning during online learning of these machine learning models is crucial. To this end, in this paper, we present MESSPT, an evolutionary algorithm for self-hyper-parameter tuning for data streams. We apply Differential Evolution to dynamically-sized samples, requiring a single pass-over of data to train and evaluate models and choose the best configurations. We take care of the number of configurations to be evaluated, which necessarily has to be reduced, thus making this evolutionary approach a micro-evolutionary one. Furthermore, we control how our evolutionary algorithm deals with concept drift. Experiments on different learning tasks and over well-known datasets show that our proposed MESSPT outperforms the state-of-the-art on hyper-parameter tuning for data streams.

Abstract
The trends of the 21st century are challenging the traditional production process due to the reduction in the life cycle of products and the demand for more complex products in greater quantities. Industry 4.0 (I4.0) was introduced in 2011 and it is recognized as the fourth industrial revolution, with the aim of improving manufacturing processes and increasing the competitiveness of industry. I4.0 uses technological concepts such as Cyber-Physical Systems, Internet of Things and Cloud Computing to create services, reduce costs and increase productivity. In addition, concepts such as Smart Factories are emerging, which use context awareness to assist people and optimize tasks based on data from the physical and virtual world. This article explores and applies the capabilities of context-aware applications in industry, with a focus on production lines. In specific, this paper proposes a context-aware application based on a microservices approach, intended for integration into a context-aware information system, with specific application in the area of manufacturing. The manuscript presents a detailed architecture for structuring the application, explaining components, functions and contributions. The discussion covers development technologies, integration and communication between the application and other services, as well as experimental findings, which demonstrate the applicability and advantages of the proposed solution.