Abstract
More than a century after the discovery of superconductors (SCs), numerous studies have been accomplished to take advantage of SCs in physics, power engineering, quantum computing, electronics, communications, aviation, healthcare, and defence-related applications. However, there are still challenges that hinder the full-scale commercialization of SCs, such as the high cost of superconducting wires/tapes, technical issues related to AC losses, the structure of superconducting devices, the complexity and high cost of the cooling systems, the critical temperature, and manufacturing-related issues. In the current century, massive advancements have been achieved in artificial intelligence (AI) techniques by offering disruptive solutions to handle engineering problems. Consequently, AI techniques can be implemented to tackle those challenges facing superconductivity and act as a shortcut towards the full commercialization of SCs and their applications. AI approaches are capable of providing fast, efficient, and accurate solutions for technical, manufacturing, and economic problems with a high level of complexity and nonlinearity in the field of superconductivity. In this paper, the concept of AI and the widely used algorithms are first given. Then a critical topical review is presented for those conducted studies that used AI methods for improvement, design, condition monitoring, fault detection and location of superconducting apparatuses in large-scale power applications, as well as the prediction of critical temperature and the structure of new SCs, and any other related applications. This topical review is presented in three main categories: AI for large-scale superconducting applications, AI for superconducting materials, and AI for the physics of SCs. In addition, the challenges of applying AI techniques to the superconductivity and its applications are given. Finally, future trends on how to integrate AI techniques with superconductivity towards commercialization are discussed.

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The rapid expansion of Asian hornets poses a high threat for the honey bee survival, as these invaders pray on them. Furthermore, they also pose a threat to people who are allergic, whose sting can lead to death. This study proposes a Decision Support System that uses Computer Vision techniques to automatically detect signs of Vespa velutina through images from GPS equipped camera. The goal of the system is to provide timely information about the presence of these invaders, allowing park managers and beekeepers to act quickly in removing the Vespidae. The proposed methodology obtained an 85% accuracy in the detection of V. velutina using the Mask RCNN architecture, enabling the system to perform detection at 3 FPS. © 2020 MIR Labs.

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The domain of Production Planning and Control, or in a broader sence Production Management has been deserving a special and increasing attention by the companies, which intend to continuously achieve better results through continuous improvement, which also fits in the context of Industry 4.0. Companies tend to implement management systems with the purpose of achieving greater competitiveness and, consequently, greater sustainability in their sector. The selection of the appropriate production management system is a serious problem for the companies. The main objective of this study is to support companies in the correct choice of a Decision Support System. The method used to achieve the proposed objective consists on formulating a model for comparing functionalities and specifications, where selection of criteria were also defined and analyzed. Based on a large Company scenario, the model is applied to three production execution systems: SAP PP (Systems Applications and Products - Production Planning), Prodsmart and GenSYS. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019.

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