The Mechanistic Framework of Alignment: A Unified Model.

As a conceptualization of the characteristics of an accident, the accident model indicates the hazard factors in the systems and describes the process of system accidents. Therefore, accident models are the basis of system safety analysis and assessment. This paper presents a mission-oriented accident model to adopt the complex characteristics in the socio-technical system. Based on the principles that an accident is regarded as an emergent phenomenon and the dynamic relationships and interactions between the system entities are the key to building a systemic accident model, a two-stage modeling procedure is described in the paper including the qualitative and quantitative models. First, to build a qualitative conceptual model of the accident, the system mission process is decomposed to identify the system entities, such as equipments, facilities and human, involved in the mission, as well as their states and behaviors. By classifying the types of entity behaviors, the interactions between them are defined and utilized to construct the qualitative conceptual model based on Systems Modeling Language (SysML). Secondly, the accident systemic model is built for quantity analysis based on hybrid dynamic system (HDS) theory, which includes the discrete state transformation of the system and the continuous or discrete behaviors of the system entities. The entity behaviors promote the changes of system states that can be used to determine the system hazard, and the accident process is modeled through the interactions between the entities along the mission process. A case study is also presented including an analysis conclusion to verify the feasibility of the accident model.

The harmonic state-space (HSS), the dynamic phasor (DP), and the generalized dq (GDQ) modeling are three widely used methods for small-signal analysis of ac power electronic systems. By reviewing their principles and deriving their mathematical relationships, this paper proposes a unified framework for all the three approaches. The unified modeling reveals that the linearization and transformation can be exchanged flexibly in the modeling process, and the initial phase takes a role in transforming the GDQ model into the HSS or DP model. Case studies on a three-phase voltage-source converter in unbalanced power grids are provided for validation. The relationships of three modeling methods are verified by mathematical proofs and time-domain simulations. The unified frequency-domain model is further validated through the frequency scan in experiments. Insights of the unified modeling framework and recommendations from engineering perspectives are finally discussed.

We present linear spectropolarimetry in the wavelength range 4.5-4.8 μm of the embedded infrared source W33A. Our observations show for the first time the presence of polarization associated with the CO and XCN ice features, demonstrating that the absorbers reside in or on aligned grains. Both narrow and broad components of the solid CO feature near 4.67 μm are polarized. The detection of polarization associated with the narrow CO component is particularly significant, as the ices responsible are thought to exist only in dense, cold regions of molecular clouds, where gas and grain temperatures are expected to be closely coupled and traditional grain alignment mechanisms should become ineffective. We discuss the significance of this result with regard to current grain alignment theories. Mechanisms in which grain rotational energy is enhanced by interaction with cosmic rays merit further investigation.

Both child maltreatment and childhood injuries affect large numbers of children each year. In a seminal paper, Peterson and Brown (1994) drew parallels in the antecedents of both forms of harm and suggested a more unified approach in research efforts and intervention development. This article provides a unified cognitive model that would both guide research and inform interventions directed at parents. This article overviews information-processing elements that may explain parental oversights that would increase risk to children, including maladaptive parental schema, executive functioning problems, and maladaptive appraisals. Contextual variables that may negatively impact on information processing are also included. Studies supporting the validity of the model are presented, and implications for interventions are drawn. Data supporting the effectiveness of cognitive enhancements to current interventions are given. The promise of such a unified model is discussed, and obstacles to its dissemination are presented.

The morphology and surface ages of talus‐derived rock glaciers are investigated to establish the timing of rock glacier formation in the central Southern Alps. Samples of rock weathering rinds show that all rock glaciers studied were formed during the Neoglacial period, but differences exist between sites in the number of new rock glacier lobes formed by Holocene climatic fluctuations. A qualitative conceptual model is proposed to explain rock glacier formation in terms of two thresholds. An external threshold relates to the presence of a cool climate capable of allowing internal ice to form within talus slopes. An internal threshold relates to the presence of sufficiently thick talus at a site to generate a shear stress capable of overcoming internal friction within the talus/ice mass. The model produces a non‐steady‐state response to explain why unmodified talus, single‐lobed and double‐lobed rock glaciers developed at adjacent sites under the same climatic regime. Individual landforms have different sensitivities to formation, which depend partly on the previous history of talus accumulation and rock glacier activity at a site. The model demonstrates how successive cool climate periods may be fully represented by rock glacier lobes at sensitive sites but under‐represented at insensitive sites. Sensitivity (and therefore climatic representativeness) is favoured by high rates of debris supply. By implication, the timing of formation of rock glacier lobes in regions of prolonged cool climate and low debris production is less likely to correspond to the timing of climatic cooling and more likely to follow the ‘rules’ of deterministic chaos.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the potential of making the systems approach fertile for the future of our world(s).Design/methodology/approachUnderpinned by a significant case study, the idea of the paper is to show how a systems study changed the basis for deciding on an incisive interference planned for a lovely alpine valley. The study builds on a qualitative conceptual model and reverts to a quantitative, system‐dynamics simulation model, as well as standard economic evaluation methods. The decision process is explained with its outcomes and implications.FindingsThe study found, among others, the following concrete result: The optimal variant (Case B) required an additional investment for its realization. According to the calculations that were carried out, the period needed for the amortization of the pertinent amount was found to be no more than 0.9 to 1.6 years. It became clear that the most expensive variant was indeed a very good business proposition for the Austrian Republic.Practical implicationsThe results of the study were integrated into the General Traffic Plan of the Austrian Ministry of Transportation, Innovation and Technology, i.e. the study's conclusions obtained legal status. This meant a shift toward a long‐term orientation. In addition, new insights for the realization of similar studies and interventions were gained.Originality/valueThe study described in the paper shows both rigor and relevance. It illuminates a methodology that combines the qualitative and the quantitative, as well as careful analysis and powerful synthesis. Beyond the methods and procedures used in the inquiry, its outcomes and impact on the concrete system under study are demonstrated.

Leading the car market in the Southeast Asia region, Indonesian automotive industry is considered as one of important pillars of manufacturing sector due to its significant contribution to national economic growth. Along with the presence of the next wave industrial revolution, Industry 4.0 creates an opportunity for the Indonesian government to not only stimulate further growth of the sector, but also increase energy efficiency simultaneously. However, the complexity of structural challenges that exists in the automotive industry has raised a question, what aspects or factors that could accelerate the technology adoption process? This paper aims to explore the policy structure that could influence the growth of Industry 4.0 technology adoption in improving energy efficiency in the Indonesian automotive industry. The exploration will be explored through a qualitative conceptual model, developed within system dynamics modeling approach, to provide an understanding of the causal relationship and dynamics between factors included in the fourth industrial ecosystem creation in Indonesia.

ABSTRACTThe health and resilience of the Great Barrier Reef ecosystems are affected by complex dynamics and interconnected processes. A systems thinking approach can aid to comprehensively understand the past, current and future system behaviour, thereby informing effective decision‐making. A qualitative conceptual model was developed based on the theory of systems thinking approach and critical literature reviews, giving consideration to the complex non‐linear feedbacks that determine the structure and behaviour of the system. The model indicates that the feedback structure of the system is governed by agricultural production, pesticide applications, pesticide residues, water quality improvement policies and climate change. The findings highlight the inherent challenges of achieving water quality goals in a complex and dynamic environment, constantly influenced by many factors (e.g., climate change). This underscores the critical need for ongoing research, adaptation and a shift towards a systems perspective, enabling decision makers to avoid the unintended consequences emerging from linear thinking, thereby initiating more flexible and adaptive management strategies for saving this iconic system.

We present a unified, market-complete model that integrates both Bachelier and Black–Scholes–Merton frameworks for asset pricing. The model allows for the study, within a unified framework, of asset pricing in a natural world that experiences the possibility of negative security prices or riskless rates. Unlike the classical Black–Scholes–Merton, we show that option pricing in the unified model differs depending on whether the replicating, self-financing portfolio uses riskless bonds or a single riskless bank account. We derive option price formulas and extend our analysis to the term structure of interest rates by deriving the pricing of zero-coupon bonds, forward contracts, and futures contracts. We identify a necessary condition for the unified model to support a perpetual derivative. Discrete binomial pricing under the unified model is also developed. In every scenario analyzed, we show that the unified model simplifies to the standard Black–Scholes–Merton pricing under specific limits and provides pricing in the Bachelier model limit. We note that the Bachelier limit within the unified model allows for positive riskless rates. The unified model prompts us to speculate on the possibility of a mixed multiplicative and additive deflator model for risk-neutral option pricing.

A unified computational model of the development of object unity, object permanence, and occluded object trajectory perception

The geotechnical earthquake engineering profession has struggled with the inherent complexity of the multiphase soil response to cyclic loading owing to the progressive nature of the generation of excess pore pressure (EPP) and degradation of soil stiffness and strength. One approach to improve understanding of the cyclic response and correlate the transition from a two-phase saturated soil to a single, fluid-phase liquefied soil is to treat the soil as a non-Newtonian viscous liquid. However, the work to date suggests that the viscous fluid model approach can only be implemented following the onset of sustained soil liquefaction. This paper presents a unified thixotropic fluid model and framework that effectively links the pre-shear soil fabric and its progressive cyclic response to the onset and maintained state of soil liquefaction. The framework treats the soil fabric as a fluid net-type structure proposed for use with thixotropic fluids, and presents the constitutive state and rate equations describing the deconstruction of the liquefiable soil fabric in response to cyclic loading. The unified framework uses physically meaningful soil parameters that can be obtained from common cyclic laboratory tests to seamlessly link the state-dependent and shear-strain-rate-dependent nature of soils to the generation of EPP, the latter of which is shown to increase in significance as EPP accumulates. The proposed thixotropic-induced excess pore pressure model should prove advantageous for use in forward modelling of the stress–strain rate response of liquefiable soil and generation of EPP.

To increase the probability of computers communicating reliably with one another, protocol implementations must be tested for conformance to the standards on which they are based. Test case generation and trace analysis are two important topics in protocol testing research. Most of the work so far has focused on test case generation rather than trace analysis. Furthermore, most of the work has dealt only with the sequential aspects of the protocol specifications. In this thesis, a model that combines the two functions of test case generation and trace analysis in a unified framework is presented. The model, which is based on single module extended finite state machines, handles both control and data flows for single module specifications. Symbolic evaluation is used to detect and delete infeasible paths that may be generated. Practical considerations which may occur in a real test environment, such as out of order message sequences, are also addressed. A prototype implementation of the unified model was completed. The application of this method to X.25 LAPB shows that it can manage frame collision and control and data flows of the protocol rigorously. The model is extended to study the trace analysis of concurrent specifications based on multi-module extended finite state machines. This is done by introducing two additional models--concurrency and traceability. The concurrency model deals with concurrent properties such as concurrent events, concurrency blocks, global states, concurrency measures, deadlocks and dataraces which do not arise in sequential or single module specifications. The concurrency model allows a high-level abstraction to be used for understanding and analyzing concurrent behaviors. We also show how concurrency measures can be computed efficiently based on the concept of concurrency blocks. The traceability concept is needed to obtain the precise order of input/output messages of a module without state space explosion. This model for the trace analysis of concurrent specifications without translating them into their sequential equivalence is formalized and proposed for application to multi-module specification, multi-party testing and interoperability testing. The viability of the proposed methodology which can be applied to any specifications based on extended finite state machines is demonstrated using Estelle specifications in the thesis.

Magnetic fields via polarimetry: progress on grain alignment theory

Spike trains and local field potentials (LFPs) resulting from extracellular current flows provide a substrate for neural information processing. Understanding the neural code from simultaneous spike-field recordings and subsequent decoding of information processing events will have widespread applications. One way to demonstrate an understanding of the neural code, with particular advantages for the development of applications, is to formulate a parametric statistical model of neural activity and its covariates. Here, we propose a set of parametric spike-field models (unified models) that can be used with existing decoding algorithms to reveal the timing of task or stimulus specific processing. Our proposed unified modeling framework captures the effects of two important features of information processing: time-varying stimulus-driven inputs and ongoing background activity that occurs even in the absence of environmental inputs. We have applied this framework for decoding neural latencies in simulated and experimentally recorded spike-field sessions obtained from the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) of awake, behaving monkeys performing cued look-and-reach movements to spatial targets. Using both simulated and experimental data, we find that estimates of trial-by-trial parameters are not significantly affected by the presence of ongoing background activity. However, including background activity in the unified model improves goodness of fit for predicting individual spiking events. Uncovering the relationship between the model parameters and the timing of movements offers new ways to test hypotheses about the relationship between neural activity and behavior. We obtained significant spike-field onset time correlations from single trials using a previously published data set where significantly strong correlation was only obtained through trial averaging. We also found that unified models extracted a stronger relationship between neural response latency and trial-by-trial behavioral performance than existing models of neural information processing. Our results highlight the utility of the unified modeling framework for characterizing spike-LFP recordings obtained during behavioral performance.

This paper presents a theoretically unifying meta-theoretical framework, Dialectically Integrated Psychotherapy, supporting single-model and integrative practice. Current perspectives on integration and unification tend to side-step the relevance of therapy specific theory. In contrast this work pays close dialectical attention to the theoretical contributions of five major perspectives: attachment, psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioural and humanistic. It systematically identifies significant overlaps between them, and draws on their compatible differences. Five trans-theoretical core constructs are defined on an integrative basis, synthesizing theory across epistemologies. One of these, unconscious internal models of self, others, relationships and the outside world integrates the theoretical constructs of schemas, the inner world of object relations, internal working models and complex learning histories, and sits at the heart of a unifying dialectical model of human psychological functioning. All effective therapies are deemed to facilitate constructive change within these models, and a meta-framework connects the unifying model with the impacts of different approaches to therapy. The paper introduces the literature on psychotherapy integration and the principles underlying this work. It describes the methodology used to identify overlaps; the trans-theoretical core constructs; the unifying model of psychological functioning; the meta-framework and the processes that help unhelpful unconscious internal models to change for the better. Implications for practice and empirical research are discussed, and current limitations are addressed. In conclusion, the work provides a dialectical rationale for the complementary value of different theories in routine practice and offers a basis for greater consensus within the profession.