Both the idea and technology for connecting sensors and actuators to a network to remotely monitor and control physical systems have been known for many years and developed accordingly. However, a little more than a decade ago the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) was coined and used to integrate such approaches into a common framework. Technology has been constantly evolving and so has the concept of the Internet of Things, incorporating new terminology appropriate to technological advances and different application domains. This paper presents the changes that the IoT has undertaken since its conception and research on how technological advances have shaped it and fostered the arising of derived names suitable to specific domains. A two-step literature review through major publishers and indexing databases was conducted; first by searching for proposals on the Internet of Things concept and analyzing them to find similarities, differences, and technological features that allow us to create a timeline showing its development; in the second step the most mentioned names given to the IoT for specific domains, as well as closely related concepts were identified and briefly analyzed. The study confirms the claim that a consensus on the IoT definition has not yet been reached, as enabling technology keeps evolving and new application domains are being proposed. However, recent changes have been relatively moderated, and its variations on application domains are clearly differentiated, with data and data technologies playing an important role in the IoT landscape.

Important engineering constructions require geometrical monitoring to predict their structural health during their lifetime. Monitoring by geodetic devices, vibration-based techniques, wireless networks or with GPS technology is not always optimal; sometimes it is impossible as shown in this article. A method based on geodetic measurements automation applying local optical scanners for monitoring is proposed. Its originality and contribution is based on the novel method of precise measurement of plane spatial angles. It considers robust invariant AD-conversion angle-to-code for dynamic angle, signal energetic center search method, initial reference scale adjustment, and uncertainty decrease using mediant fractions formalism for result approximation. An algorithm of electromechanic parts interaction for spatial angle encoding with beforehand set accuracy is described. It is shown that by its nature it is appropriate for practically unlimited uncertainty reduction: it is only limited by reasonable ratio ‘‘uncertainty/operation velocity’’. The operation range, accuracy, scanner operation velocity, and its adaptation to objects are determined and described. The experimental results confirm that optical device of presented passive scanning aperture overcomes all recently known compared optical devices for 3D coordinates recognition in a part of offset uncertainty. It is shown that the presented optoelectronic scanning aperture is a universal tool for various practical solutions.

This paper summarises theoretical and applied studies of the structure of mixtures, formulated as the packing of spheres with different sizes. The effects of the particle size and the shape (fine or coarse) on the packing density are described. We discuss the relationships between the particle size distribution and the packing properties. We also sketch the major approaches, which can be usefully applied in nanotechnologies for the modelling of a material structure. Such a kind of analysis can be used both in the theoretical consideration of material engineering problems and in the chemical industry. Potential applications of these results include a synthesis of nanomaterials, adsorbents, catalyst carriers and packing for chromatography columns.

The purpose of the present study was to synthetize 80 nm diameter TiO2 nanotubes (NTs) on Ti6Al4V alloy using a commercially superoxidized water (SOW) enriched with fluoride to reduce anodization time and promote the antibacterial efficacy against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). The alloy discs were anodized for 5 min and as a result, NTs of approximately 80 nm diameters were obtained with similar morphology as reported in previous studies using longer anodization times (1‐2 h). Filed emission‐scanning electron microscopy (FE‐SEM) and energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDX) were used to characterize the materials surfaces. The NTs showed significantly decreased S. aureus viability after 1, 3, and 5 days of culture in comparison to nonanodized alloy. Likewise, SEM analysis also suggested lower bacterial adhesion on the NTs surface. No differences in bacterial morphology and topography were observed on both materials, as analyzed by SEM and atomic force microscopy (AFM). In conclusion, 80 nm diameter NTs were grown on Ti6Al4V alloy in 5 min by using a SOW solution enriched with fluoride, which resulted in a material with promoted antibacterial efficacy against S. aureus for up to 5 days of in vitro culture when compared to nonanodized alloy.

The filling of channels in porous media with particles of a material can be interpreted in a first approximation as a packing of spheres in cylindrical recipients. Numerous studies on micro- and nanoscopic scales show that they are, as a rule, not ideal cylinders. In this paper, the channels, which have an irregular shape and a circular cross-section, as well as the packing algorithms are investigated. Five patterns of channel shapes are detected to represent any irregular porous structures. A novel heuristic packing algorithm for monosized spheres and different irregularities is proposed. It begins with an initial configuration based on an fcc unit cell and the subsequent densification of the obtained structure by shaking and gravity procedures. A verification of the algorithm was carried out for nine sinusoidal axisymmetric channels with different D_min/D_max ratio by MATLAB^® simulations, reaching a packing fraction of at least 0.67 (for sphere diameters of 5%D_min or less), superior to a random close packing density. The maximum packing fraction was 73.01% for a channel with a ratio of D_min/D_max = 0.1 and a sphere size of 5%D_min. For sphere diameters of 50%D_min or larger, it was possible to increase the packing factor after applying shaking and gravity movements.