Actual Complex Research Articles

Microscale Half-Cell Modeling of NMC and Graphite Electrodes

Performance of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is strongly influenced by the porous microstructure of their electrodes. Macro-homogeneous models are often used to predict LIB performance, albeit under restrictive limiting assumptions. Based upon porous electrode theory, macro models abstract the microstructure heterogeneity through effective parameters, which are a simplification of the actual complex electrode geometry. The typical 1D macro-homogenous model provides an approximation of heterogeneity in the electrode through-plane direction. The macro model cannot describe heterogeneity in the electrode in-plane direction. This lack of description prevents the macro model from accurately predicting degradation phenomena, such as lithium plating, especially at high C-rate and/or for thick electrodes for which significant in-plane variations of the volume (concentration and potential) and surface (Faraday current, overpotential and potential jump) fields are expected. In this work, a finite element electrochemical microscale model is developed with the solver FEniCS (1) to calculate the concentration and potential fields of half-cell domains. The micromodel is first applied to a sphere-based numerically generated microstructure and its results compared with those of a macro-homogenous model in order to assess its validity. Positive NMC532 and negative graphite calendered electrodes, whose geometries have been obtained through X-ray tomography, are then used with the micromodel (cf. fig. 1). Prior to the simulation, the size of each electrodes’ representative volume element (RVE) is determined through the characterization of microstructure parameters usually employed in macromodels (porosity, particle size, specific surface area and tortuosity). This preliminary analysis allows determining the size of the electrode domain to analyze with the micromodel, as a RVE for the microstructure parameters is likely to be also a RVE for the electrochemical response of the electrode. A volumetric half-cell mesh is generated using the open-source Iso2mesh (2) Matlab toolbox, which allows to enforce a smooth active interface and to control the mesh density. This last feature is required to reduce the number of degree of freedom while preserving a fine resolution at the interface necessary to handle the local high gradients. Lastly, the separator domain of the half-cell model is considered as a homogenous medium with effective parameters taken from the literature. Significant in-plane heterogeneities during charge are found especially for the tortuous graphite which exhibits poor electrolyte diffusion. Furthermore, local geometric features of the microstructure (such as tightening) appear to be over-utilized during charge (i.e. the local Faraday current has been found above its mean value), indicating an irregular surface is detrimental in regards with electrode degradation. In addition to the tomographic-imaged electrodes, several virtual geometries are numerically generated to analyze the effect of specific microstructure geometric features on the electrochemical response. It is found that, while the applied current enforces the overall slope of through-plane electrochemical concentrations and potentials, local microstructure features also cause significant local heterogeneity in electrochemical fields. The analysis provides valuable insight for future microstructure geometry optimization. (1) M. S. Alnaes, J. Blechta, J. Hake, A. Johansson, B. Kehlet, A. Logg, C. Richardson, J. Ring, M. E. Rognes, and G. N. Wells, Archive of Numerical Software, 3 (100), 9–23 (2015). (2) A. P. Tran and Q. Fang, Fast and high-quality tetrahedral mesh generation from neuroanatomical scans,2017 http://iso2mesh.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi?Home Figure 1

Visible Photosensitization of trans-Styrylpyridine Coordinated to fac-[Re(CO)3(dcbH2)]+: New Insights.

A strategic methodology has been developed to effectively synthesize the fac-[Re(CO)3(dcbH2)( trans-stpy)]+ complex, where dcbH2 = 2,2'-bipyridine-4,4'-dicarboxylic acid and trans-stpy = trans-4-styrylpyridine, which has been designed to efficiently absorb visible light. The complex exhibits outstanding trans-to- cis photoisomerization with 436 nm irradiation (Φ trans→ cis = 0.50 ± 0.03), in contrast to the photochemical behavior previously reported in the literature (Faustino, L. A.; et al. Inorg. Chem. 2018, 57, 2933-2941). The main emphasis here is to address the synthetic strategy for obtaining the actual complex, its characterization, and an accurate description of its photochemical and photophysical behavior, which reveal new insights into this complex.

RF Lens-Embedded Antenna Array for mmWave MIMO: Design and Performance

The requirement of high data rate in 5G calls for utilization of the mmWave frequency band. Researchers seeking to compensate for mmWave's high path loss have proposed that mmWave MIMO systems make use of beamforming. Hybrid beamforming systems demonstrate promising performance in achieving high gain and directivity by using phase shifters. The actual implementation, however, is costly and complex. To reduce such cost and complexity, this article presents actual prototypes of the lens antenna to be used in 5G mmWave beamforming systems. Using a lens as a passive phase shifter enables beamforming without the heavy network of phase shifters, while gain and directivity are achieved by the energy-focusing property of the lens. Proposed in this article are two types of lens antennas, one for static and the other for mobile usage. The lens antennas' sizes are varied to also discuss the lens design. Their performance is evaluated using measurements and simulation data along with link- and system-level analysis. Results show the lens antenna yields high gain, directivity, and improved beam-switching feasibility compared to when a lens is not used.

Das Abendland: The politics of Europe’s religious borders

The religious borders of Europe, which are more evident and controversial than ever, challenge established forms of political legitimacy and the legal requirements for citizenship. Perhaps covertly rather than overtly, they shape politics and policies. While scholars have once again resorted to Edward Said’s Orientalism to describe the dynamic at play, this article argues that the Orientalism narrative of East and West is too simple to capture the actual complexity of Europe’s borders. There are four religious and thus four cultural-symbolic borders, which are increasingly defining the continent: north-western Europe is Protestant, southern Europe is Catholic, the East is Orthodox and increasingly nationalist, and the South and Near East are Muslim. The cultural purity and the values that Europe craves in search of identity and order are simply not available in a world of global interconnectedness and social diversity.

Debate, Prophecy, and Revolution: Notes on Cathleen Kaveny's Prophecy Without Contempt

AbstractIn Prophecy without Contempt, Cathleen Kaveny argues that prevailing scholarly approaches to religious and public discourse misunderstand the actual complexity of moral rhetoric in America. She endeavors to provide a better account through study of the role the Puritan jeremiad has played. Kaveny then offers a normative case for deliberative public moral discourse and the limited exercise of prophetic denunciation. I argue that Kaveny's distinction between deliberation and prophetic denunciation is overdrawn. They are ideal types that elide other rhetorical forms. Moreover, both deliberative discourse and prophetic denunciation assume a social contract or shared tradition. Healthy moral discourse requires revolutionary rhetoric to interrogate and break traditions that are themselves morally compromised.

Trust Value Evolutionary Simulation Based a Whole-process and Multi-round Opinion Propagative Model

As the trust in opinion propagation is very few studied in literatures, based on a complex trust network, a whole-process and multi-round opinion propagative model including four stages from public opinion reporting to trust reward and penalty feedback is presented to study the change trends of trust values. With several source nodes holding different public opinion attitude values and propagating them in an actual complex network Kaitiaki, when a node receives contradictory attitude values, its attitude value is calculated according to a model of public opinion attitude collision. After the correct public opinion attitude value is published, all nodes are rewarded or punished depending on whether get the same direction of public opinion attitude. Based the model, the trends of trust values are obtained, and the trust values are analyzed. The results show that the trend of trust values is affected by the difference of reward and penalty values. The greater the difference is, the more obvious the positive trend of trust value is. The smaller the difference is, the more obvious the negative trend of trust value is. When the difference is zero, the trend of trust is not obviously affected.

Design and commissioning of the exhaust detritiation system for the Large Helical Device

The Large Helical Device (LHD) is the largest helical fusion test device with superconducting magnets. During deuterium plasma experiments using the LHD, tritium and neutrons are produced by the deuterium–deuterium reaction. Thus, an exhaust detritiation system (EDS) using conventional oxidation–adsorption tritium removal was designed and installed to ensure safe tritium handling and public acceptance. The EDS consisted of a vacuum exhaust gas processing system for deuterium plasma experiments and a maintenance purge gas processing system for LHD maintenance. The vacuum exhaust gas processing system used molecular sieves as the dryer unit, whereas the maintenance purge gas processing system used a polymer permeable membrane. The key technique for receiving the complex exhaust gas stream from the LHD was feedback control of the pressure in the piping line to keep the process flow constant. To validate the recovery performance and feedback control system for the EDS prior to using deuterium gas, we used hydrogen gas to simulate tritium gas and actual exhaust gas stream from the LHD. The specified hydrogen recovery rate of more than 95% was satisfied and the actual complex exhaust gas stream was received by the proposed feedback control system in the EDS.

Characterizing air traffic networks via large-scale aircraft tracking data: A comparison between China and the US networks

Air travel demand has continued to increase rapidly over the past decade, causing severe flight delays. To reduce such delays, Air Navigation Service Providers need to first understand the operational capacity and congestion risks associated with a network, and then develop strategies accordingly. However, limited studies have been conducted due to lack of data. New opportunities have arisen given the availability of large-scale aircraft tracking data and many other digitalized records of operations. In response, we develop a novel data-driven framework that characterizes the operational structure and dynamics of an air traffic network using actual tracking data. The framework includes several new statistical measures and data analytic techniques to summarize airspace availability, network structure, and utilization patterns. We then apply the framework to analyze the air traffic networks in China and the US. The results reveal distinctive characteristics of these two networks. Airspace availability for commercial flights is much more restricted in China than the US. The network in China has a clear structure with distinct utilization patterns, while the network in the US has a more flexible structure featuring complex dynamics. These operational differences indicate that China faces a greater chance of en-route congestion when compared with the US. The results also demonstrate that the data-driven approach is effective to identify the actual behavior and complexity of an air traffic network, which are not captured by existing methods.

Experimental and statistical investigation of drilling fluids loss in porous media–part 1

Drilling fluids Invasion and mud filtration is a complex process that is influenced by several variables, and has NPT (Non-Productive Time) implications. Most of these variables are either within operational control limits (mud type, LCM type/concentration, and rotary speed) or pre-existing limits (temperature, fracture width, and rock type/permeability/porosity). It is unclear which of these variable(s) have significant positive or negative impact on dynamic fluid loss, filtration patterns, invasion rates, and plastering effect.The primary objective of the study presented in this paper is to quantify the contributing effects of temperature change, lost circulation material (LCM) type, concentration, size (particle size distribution), and variation in porous media on dynamic drilling fluids invasion. Statistical methods were used to determine the magnitude and significance of these independent variables. The fluid loss experiments reported herein were performed with a dynamic-radial system that accounts for rotary speed, eccentricity, torque, pressure, and temperature. The effects of the variables mentioned above were studied using ceramic filter tubes and thick-walled cylindrical limestone, sandstone, and chalk rock specimens.The results from the experiments showed that a change in temperature significantly affects fluid loss. The importance of rock mineralogy, porosity, and permeability in dictating dynamic fluid loss profiles, mud invasion rates, and plastering effects were also revealed by the fluid loss results. The results from the ceramic filter tubes, often undermines the effect of rock type which can be misleading. Statistical analyses showed no significant change in dynamic fluid loss with the two treatment levels of pore throat diameters that were investigated. These results cannot represent the actual porous media complexities. In the cases where vertical fractures were created and sealed, the combined effects of LCM and low permeability of rock specimen were defined in the reduced dynamic mud filtration results and filter cake plastering effects.

Niepełnosprawność, reprezentacja i translacja - jak socjologia może wyjść poza model społeczny niepełnosprawności?

The aim of this article is to propose a new conceptual tool and an inspiration for sociological analysis of disability as an alternative to the predominant social model. It first discusses the social model and argues that in spite of its numerous merits it may be regarded as a manifestation of sociological reductionism of the actual complexity of disability. The notions of representation and translation are then contrasted, the former being the core of the social constructionist accounts and the latter being deeply rooted in a post‑constructivist perspective of actor‑network theory. Next, examples of translation, related to data visualization, disability simulation technologies and disability certification schemas are presented and discussed, emphasizing the action possibilities they enable by this impacting both the situation of people with disabilities and policy‑making processes. Finally, it is argued that sociology could engage in not only the examination but also the development of translational tools, which could be an important and welcome contribution of the discipline to disability policies.

Tolerance analysis of assemblies with sculptured components in composites materials: comparison between an analytical method and a simulation approach

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to compare two different tools for tolerance analysis. Tolerance analysis is an important task to design and manufacture high-precision mechanical assemblies; it has received considerable attention in the literature. Many are the tools required to carry out a tolerance analysis, and may be divided into two categories: the analytical models and the statistical software packages. No comparison exists in the literature among these two categories.Design/methodology/approachThis work presents a comparison between two different approaches to tolerance analysis: an analytical method, the variational model, and a statistical software, eM-Tolmate. The comparison has been developed on the same aeronautical case study that constitutes an actual product.FindingsThe proposed approach has been applied to an aeronautical case study. The results of the case study show how, when 2D tolerance analysis problems need to be solved, the two adopted tools give the same results. When the complexity of the tolerance analysis problems increases, the statistical software becomes the only choice to use. The new findings of the present paper are related to the fact that computer-aided tolerance analysis software packages remain the only choice to approach actual complex industrial products despite the extensive development of theoretical research.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper deals with a unique case study. However, the two adopted approaches and the obtained results are general, that is, they may be applied to any assembly.Practical implicationsTolerance analysis is a valid tool to foresee geometric interferences among the components of an assembly, before getting the physical assembly. It involves a decrease of the manufacturing costs.Originality/valueMany are the tools for tolerance analysis, such as different analytical models and different commercial software packages. Some are the comparisons among the different tools in the literature, but they are not exhaustive. Therefore, when a user has to solve an assembly problem to foresee the geometric interferences during the design stage, he/she does not know what to choose. The original contribution of the paper is to address the user’s choice through a comparison between an analytical model and a statistical software to solve the tolerance analysis problems of an actual aeronautical assembly.

Numerical Validations of Flaw Shape Idealization Methods to Burst Pressure Estimations of Steam Generator Tube With Axial Surface Flaws

This work investigates the applicability of the flaw shape idealization methods to carry out the structural integrity assessment of steam generator (SG) tubes under internal pressure with complicated axial inner and outer surface flaws that were typically found during the in-service-inspection (ISI). In terms of flaw shape, three different shapes of flaws which can be detected during an actual ISI are considered, i.e., long symmetric flaw, asymmetric inclined flaw and narrow, symmetric deep flaw. As for flaw shape idealization methods for the predictions of burst pressures of these flaws, four different flaw shape idealization models, i.e., semi-elliptical, rectangular, maximum length with effective flaw depth and weakest subcrack model proposed by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) are employed in this work. In order to validate the applicability of these idealization methods, the burst pressures of SG tubes with these flaws are investigated by using the finite element (FE) analyses. By comparing the predictions of the burst pressures based on the four different flaw shape idealization methods with those based on actual flaw shapes, it is found that the weakest subcrack model proposed by the EPRI and maximum length with effective flaw depth model provide the better agreement with actual complex flaw.

Image Processing-Based Center Calculation Method for General and Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Systems

Despite being a good method against uncertainties, the high complexity of the operations in type-2 fuzzy system makes it slow. So, it should be reduced to use type-2, especially in real-time problems. In this study, a method based on image digitization has been proposed for type-reduction and defuzzification steps, which are forming the actual computational complexity in type-2 fuzzy systems. Instead of solutions using iterative and complex methods, the problem is converted into image processing problem by digitizing the fired outputs. The deduction methods such as the center of gravity are computed easily on digitized images. Example scenarios show that the work done is superior to KM algorithm in terms of both precision and computational complexity. In addition, different simulations were conducted to demonstrate the superiority of the study over real problems, and the study was tested for a complex human model motion control problem.

Characteristics of human auditory model based on compensation of glottal features in speech emotion recognition

The speech signal carries emotional message during its production. With the analysis on relation between sound production and glottis, the paper has introduced the glottal features into speech emotion recognition, proposed the model where the glottis is used for compensation of glottal features, and extracted the feature of Glottal Compensation to Zero Crossings with Maximal Teager Energy Operator (GCZCMT). Two experiments have been designed, including that: firstly, the single emotional speech databases of TYUT and Berlin are respectively used for experiment (the purpose of such experiment is to research the emotion recognition capability of GCZCMT feature, and the experimental results show that GCZCMT feature is a feature possibly and effectively distinguishing emotional state); secondly, this experiment is one of mixing speech database (the purpose of such experiment is to research the emotion recognition capability of GCZCMT feature on ross-database language, and the experimental results show that the database dependency of GCZCMT feature is the minimum, and such feature is more suitable for actual complex language environment, and has the higher practical value.

Gut Fermentation of Dietary Fibres: Physico-Chemistry of Plant Cell Walls and Implications for Health.

The majority of dietary fibre (DF) originates from plant cell walls. Chemically, DF mostly comprise carbohydrate polymers, which resist hydrolysis by digestive enzymes in the mammalian small intestine, but can be fermented by large intestinal bacteria. One of the main benefits of DF relate to its fermentability, which affects microbial diversity and function within the gastro-intestinal tract (GIT), as well as the by-products of the fermentation process. Much work examining DF tends to focus on various purified ingredients, which have been extracted from plants. Increasingly, the validity of this is being questioned in terms of human nutrition, as there is evidence to suggest that it is the actual complexity of DF which affects the complexity of the GIT microbiota. Here, we review the literature comparing results of fermentation of purified DF substrates, with whole plant foods. There are strong indications that the more complex and varied the diet (and its ingredients), the more complex and varied the GIT microbiota is likely to be. Therefore, it is proposed that as the DF fermentability resulting from this complex microbial population has such profound effects on human health in relation to diet, it would be appropriate to include DF fermentability in its characterization—a functional approach of immediate relevance to nutrition.

A common neighbor based technique to detect protein complexes in PPI networks.

Detection of protein complexes by analyzing and understanding PPI networks is an important task and critical to all aspects of cell biology. We present a technique called PROtein COmplex DEtection based on common neighborhood (PROCODE) that considers the inherent organization of protein complexes as well as the regions with heavy interactions in PPI networks to detect protein complexes. Initially, the core of the protein complexes is detected based on the neighborhood of PPI network. Then a merging strategy based on density is used to attach proteins and protein complexes to the core-protein complexes to form biologically meaningful structures. The predicted protein complexes of PROCODE was evaluated and analyzed using four PPI network datasets out of which three were from budding yeast and one from human. Our proposed technique is compared with some of the existing techniques using standard benchmark complexes and PROCODE was found to match very well with actual protein complexes in the benchmark data. The detected complexes were at par with existing biological evidence and knowledge.

Immiscible dual ionic liquid-ionic liquid mineral separation of rare-earth minerals

Abstract The potential of ionic liquid-ionic liquid mineral separation process as a novel ionic liquid-based system to beneficiate rare earth element (REE) bearing minerals was investigated. This multiphase beneficiation system was prepared using two mutually immiscible ionic liquids (IL) as dispersed and continuous phases. A phosphonium/ammonium based ionic liquid as droplet phase and three different ionic liquids as continuous phase were applied to evaluate this approach of beneficiation of REE complex ore. Ionic liquid-ionic liquid mineral separation tests were performed on an actual rare earth complex ore with its main composing minerals consisting of monazite, bastnasite, ankerite, calcite and dolomite. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) analyses were performed to unveil the nature of interactions between IL droplet phase and each of the minerals composing the ore. Bastnasite and monazite have been found to exhibit stronger chemisorption interactions with phosphonium/ammonium based ionic liquid in comparison with calcite, ankerite and dolomite. Density Functional Theory (DFT) simulations were also conducted to reveal the configuration of ionic liquid moieties on the surface of the minerals through ionic liquid adsorption. It was found that the IL anionic moiety directly interacts with the metal cations on the mineral surfaces through covalent bonds, at the expense of the cationic moiety which is only involved in weaker solvophobic interactions. DFT simulation also indicated that the adsorption geometry of IL is based on cis-conformation where the cationic and anionic moieties adsorb next to each other on the mineral surfaces.

Славяно-Балтский раннетрадиционный меломассив: полиэтнические морфологические пересечения в западном секторе

Ukrainian ethnomusicologist Iryna Klymenko (Iрина Клименко) presents her continuous research work results on Slavic-Baltic early traditional melodic lines in this article, discovering common ethnic and morphologic similarities here from the cross-border West side of actual complex ethnic region. Author is planning publication series of so called “Area of Slavic and Baltic Early Tradition Tunes (SBRM)” genre registers. In terms of macro-arealogy SBRM showing several morphological contacts with the adjacent Polish and Belarusian traditions, and one of the intersection – Lithuanians (Dzūkija ethnic region). The author proposes the new classification system for the calendar folk songs forms primarily for their initial (basic) rhythmic figures. Key words: ritual melodies, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Lithuanians, structural typology of traditional melodies, sylabo-rhythmic type, melo-geography, macro-area. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15181/td.v12i0.1539

Seismic imaging and statistical analysis of fault facies models

Interpretation of seismic responses from subsurface fault zones is hampered by the fact that the geologic structure and property distributions of fault zones can generally not be directly observed. This shortcoming curtails the use of seismic data for characterizing internal structure and properties of fault zones, and it has instead promoted the use of interpretation techniques that tend to simplify actual structural complexity by rendering faults as lines and planes rather than volumes of deformed rock. Facilitating the correlation of rock properties and seismic images of fault zones would enable active use of these images for interpreting fault zones, which in turn would improve our ability to assess the impact of fault zones on subsurface fluid flow. We use a combination of 3D fault zone models, based on empirical data and 2D forward seismic modeling to investigate the link between fault zone properties and seismic response. A comparison of spatial statistics from the geologic models and the seismic images was carried out to study how well seismic images render the modeled geologic features. Our results indicate the feasibility of extracting information about fault zone structure from seismic data by the methods used.

Complexity of Secure Sets

A secure set S in a graph is defined as a set of vertices such that for any Xsubseteq S the majority of vertices in the neighborhood of X belongs to S. It is known that deciding whether a set S is secure in a graph is mathrm {text {co-}NP}-complete. However, it is still open how this result contributes to the actual complexity of deciding whether for a given graph G and integer k, a non-empty secure set for G of size at most k exists. In this work, we pinpoint the complexity of this problem by showing that it is mathrm {Sigma ^P_2}-complete. Furthermore, the problem has so far not been subject to a parameterized complexity analysis that considers structural parameters. In the present work, we prove that the problem is mathrm {W[1]}-hard when parameterized by treewidth. This is surprising since the problem is known to be FPT when parameterized by solution size and “subset problems” that satisfy this property usually tend to be FPT for bounded treewidth as well. Finally, we give an upper bound by showing membership in mathrm {XP}, and we provide a positive result in the form of an FPT algorithm for checking whether a given set is secure on graphs of bounded treewidth.