ASP System Research Articles

Precision management influences productivity and nutrients availability in dryland cropping system

AbstractPrecision management (PM) aims to reduce inputs while increasing land productivity and economical return and enhancing cropping system resiliency to climate change. This study evaluated how climate (precipitation) and management influenced yields and soil nutrients in a dryland agricultural system. We compared an “aspirational” (ASP) system (no‐till, 4‐year rotation of winter wheat [Triticum aestivum L.], corn [Zea mays L.], proso millet [Panicum miliaceum L.], and fallow/flex) to a traditional “business‐as‐usual” (BAU) system (reduced tillage, 2‐year rotation of winter wheat and fallow: W–F). Phases of each rotation were included yearly throughout the study period (2018–2022) with three replications. The ASP system incorporated PM by dividing each ASP field into three zones (high‐, medium‐, and low‐PM) according to prior yield and topography. Nitrogen was applied at high, medium, or low application rates within those zones. Under favorable precipitation, wheat, corn, and millet yields responded to PM treatments, with yields increasing proportional to N addition. Years with low in‐season precipitation had a significant reduction in wheat and corn yields (2020 and 2022) and complete millet yield failures (2020 and 2021). Low soil organic matter accumulation (0.1%–0.5%) and a reduction in soil macro‐ and micronutrient status suggested that soil nutrient additions are needed to prevent soil‐nutrient degradation. The ASP treatment added a third crop every 4 years and did so without significantly decreasing wheat yield following fallow. The ASP management shows promise as an alternative to BAU in the Great Plains dryland production region.

Study on the Alkali-Free Three-Component Flooding System in the Daqing Oilfield.

ASP flooding is an important method to further improve oil recovery by a large margin. At present, it has entered the stage of industrial application, but there are still problems of scaling in the injection production system and high production maintenance costs. Based on the industrialized mature technology of weak alkali ASP flooding, sodium chloride is used to replace sodium carbonate, and the alkali-free three-component flooding (TC) system in the Daqing Oilfield is developed by mixing with petroleum sulfonate and partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide. Based on the experiments of viscosity increasing, interface performance, stability, adsorption, and oil displacement effect, the differences between the alkali-free TC system and the weak alkali ASP system are compared and analyzed. The laboratory research results show that both systems are basically the same in terms of viscosity, viscoelasticity, shear resistance, interfacial activity, stability, and flowability. Due to the lack of alkaline water, the adsorption, emulsification, and oil displacement performance of the alkali-free TC system is slightly lower than that of the weak alkali ASP system. The recovery factor of core flooding can be increased by 27.31% over water flooding, which is 2.56 percentage points lower than that of the weak alkali ASP system. On the premise of the same 1% EOR effect, the agent cost of the alkali-free system is 17.02% lower than that of the alkali ASP system. This article innovatively verifies the feasibility of using NaCl instead of Na2CO3 and explains the mechanism of significantly improving oil recovery in composite systems under alkali-free conditions from the ion level. However, the emulsification effect of the alkali-free TC system is relatively weak. The next step of research would be to consider adding an E-surfactant to enhance the emulsification performance of the composite system. By improving the system composition, technical references are provided for the efficient development of other terrestrial sandstone oilfields.

Experimental Investigation of Preformed Particle Gel and Alkali-Surfactant-Polymer Composite System for Enhanced Oil Recovery in Heterogeneous Reservoirs

Abstract Heterogeneity is a significant feature of the reservoirs after polymer flooding, resulting in challenges for further enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in heterogeneous reservoirs. In order to further improve oil recovery in the reservoirs after polymer flooding, a novel EOR system (ASP-PPG composite system) was developed using preformed particle gel (PPG) and alkali-surfactant-polymer system (ASP system). We designed an oil saturation monitoring device and a large-scale 3D heterogeneous physical model to evaluate the performance of the system. The performance of the system and the ASP system were tested. Based on the testing results, the fluid migration patterns and enhanced oil recovery mechanisms of the ASP-PPG system in an actual heterogeneous reservoir were investigated using the oil saturation monitoring device and the 3D physical model. Experimental results indicate that the ASP-PPG system has a higher viscosity and better profile control ability than the ASP system. Additionally, the interfacial tension can be maintained at a low level, around 10−3 mN/m. Flooding experiments using the three-dimensional heterogeneous physical model demonstrated the excellent elastic deformation ability of PPG, which can dynamically block the large pores that formed after the polymer flooding and effectively improve the heterogeneity of reservoirs. After injecting the ASP-PPG system, the recovery factor of the model increased by 15.8%. Specifically, the sweep coefficient of high, medium, and low permeability layers increased by 4.36%, 19.6%, and 37.55%, respectively. Moreover, the oil displacement efficiency increased by 7.4%, 14.4%, and 17.9%, respectively. These results highlight the synergistic effect of combining PPG and ASP systems, significantly enhancing heterogeneous reservoir recovery after polymer flooding.

Multiconfiguration b-AsP-based doping systems with enriched elements (C and O): novel materials for spintronic devices

Black arsenical phosphorus (b-AsP), a derivative of black phosphorus, is a bimetallic alloy compound with the advantage of high carrier mobility, high stability, and tailorable configuration. However, lack of an effective tool to facilitate the application of AsP as a magnetic device. Herein, band gap modulation and the introduction of magnetism can be achieved by doping non-metallic atoms in three different AsP configurations. And the doping of the same atom will cause variation in the electronic structure depending on the configuration. Surprisingly, doping with both enriched elements C and O transforms AsP into a magnetic material. Furthermore, the source of the magnetic moment is explained by solving the wave function of the doped AsP, which is caused by the orbital coupling of the C and O atoms to AsP. To excavate the potentials of this magnetic AsP system for magnetic devices, field-effect transistors based on two doped armchair AsP3 nanoribbons are simulated. The devices show considerable negative differential conductivity effect and good spin filtering efficiency. These findings suggest that AsP doping with enriched elements C and O could be an excellent candidate for future spintronics applications.

First-principles study of gas adsorption and sensing based on noble metal (Ag, Au and Pt) - Decorated α-AsP monolayer

The adsorption behaviors of five small gas molecules (NO, NO2, CO, CO2 and H2O) adsorbed on noble metal (Ag, Au and Pt) - decorated black arsenic phosphorous (α-AsP) was researched using first-principles calculation. The structural optimization models, electronic properties, adsorption, and sensing properties of noble metals-decorated AsP monolayer after adsorbing these gas molecules was methodically discussed. The results show that noble metal absorbing can excessively improve the adsorption ability of α-AsP structure. Meanwhile, the Pt-decorated AsP system exhibits its maximum adsorption energy towards CO of −1.911 eV, for all gas adsorption on the noble metal decorated systems. Especially, the Pt-decorated AsP system has high adsorbability to NO with adsorption energy of −1.442 eV, which is over 18 times larger than the pristine α-AsP monolayer. Moreover, the selectivity and desorption are key factors of gas sensor materials. The most suitable gas sensing system is the Ag-decorated AsP monolayer with the corresponding adsorption energy and recovery time toward NO of −0.608 eV, 0.016 s and CO of −0.770 eV, 8.580 s, respectively. We strongly believe that Ag-decorated AsP can be utilized as potential NO and CO gas sensor.

Experimental investigation on remaining oil distribution and recovery performances after different flooding methods

Nowadays most of the oilfield in China have entered the middle-late development stages with the problem of high water cut and low permeability. Many studies have been conducted on the mechanism of chemical flooding to enhance oil recovery. However, there has been less previous evidence for accurate identification and distribution of remaining oil. Therefore, we proposed a new nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) interpretation method as well as a new residual oil fluorescence analysis method. In this study, we conducted core displacement experiments with different methods. The nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) tests and fluorescence analysis of frozen slides were performed in each stage after flooding to study the effect of different displacement methods on the recovery degree and the remaining oil distribution. The results showed that alkali can only slightly improve the recovery of macropores and free-state oil due to its poor sweep volume and oil washing efficiency. Surfactants can increase oil recovery in mesopores and the type of bound-state remaining oil by reducing interfacial tension (IFT). Although the injection of polymer can enlarge the sweep volume, the effect of displacement efficiency is poor in narrow space. Therefore, it can only improve the recovery factor in smallpores and mesopores as well as the type of free-state remaining oil. The synergistic effect of ASP system not only can form ultra-low interfacial tension to enhance the recovery of bound-state and half-bound state, but also can help surfactants and alkali enter smallpores according to the injection of polymer. Thus, the oil recovery is significantly improved. Moreover, our study provided a micro-level understanding as the occurrence state and distribution of remaining oil. The result also lays the foundation for further enhance oil recovery in oilfield.

How to Build Your Own ASP-based System?!

AbstractAnswer Set Programming, or ASP for short, has become a popular and sophisticated approach to declarative problem solving. Its popularity is due to its attractive modeling-grounding-solving workflow that provides an easy approach to problem solving, even for laypersons outside computer science. However, in contrast to ASP’s ease of use, the high degree of sophistication of the underlying technology makes it even hard for ASP experts to put ideas into practice whenever this involves modifying ASP’s machinery. For addressing this issue, this tutorial aims at enabling users to build their own ASP-based systems. More precisely, we show how the ASP system clingo can be used for extending ASP and for implementing customized special-purpose systems. To this end, we propose two alternatives. We begin with a traditional AI technique and show how metaprogramming can be used for extending ASP. This is a rather light approach that relies on clingo’s reification feature to use ASP itself for expressing new functionalities. The second part of this tutorial uses traditional programming (in Python) for manipulating clingo via its application programming interface. This approach allows for changing and controlling the entire model-ground-solve workflow of ASP. Central to this is clingo’s new Application class that allows us to draw on clingo’s infrastructure by customizing processes similar to the one in clingo. For instance, we may apply manipulations to programs’ abstract syntax trees, control various forms of multi-shot solving, and set up theory propagators for foreign inferences. A cross-sectional structure, spanning meta as well as application programming, is clingo’s intermediate format, aspif, that specifies the interface among the underlying grounder and solver. We illustrate the aforementioned concepts and techniques throughout this tutorial by means of examples and several nontrivial case studies. In particular, we show how clingo can be extended by difference constraints and how guess-and-check programming can be implemented with both meta and application programming.

Experimental Study on Optimization of Polymer Preslug Viscosity of ASP Flooding in Interlayer Heterogeneous Well Group Artificial Sandstone Core

An artificial sandstone core model of large well group of positive rhythmic heterogeneous reservoir was designed and made for the simulation of ASP flooding experiment in the moderate heterogeneous reservoir. The well layout of one injection and one production was employed for the core model, to simulate the influence of polymer preslugs with different viscosity on ASP flooding effect. The experimental results show that the injectability of the polymer preslug and the effect of relieving the conflict of remaining oil production in each layer are related to the viscosity of the system. In the heterogeneous core model with the coefficient of variation of 0.65, under the constraint of the same amount of polymer agent, the ASP flooding effect of the 0.075 PV, 60 mPa·s polymer preslug was better than that of the 0.093 PV, 40 mPa·s and 0.064 PV, 80 mPa·s polymer preslugs. The change in the viscosity of the polymer preslug did not enable the ASP system to effectively exploit the low-permeability layer though. As the viscosity increased, the pressure difference between injection and production increased; the remaining oil could be exploited effectively at the bottom of the high-permeability layer and the medium-permeability layer as well as the injection end of the medium-permeability layer. If the viscosity is too small, the high-permeability area cannot be effectively blocked by the injected chemical agent, and if the viscosity is too large, the injected chemical agent cannot produce good elastic displacement relationship, which will lead to ineffective chemical agent flow. Therefore, the polymer preslug viscosity of the ASP flooding system should be moderate, and cores with different heterogeneity should have a reasonable viscosity matching range.

DiscASP: A Graph-based ASP System for Finding Relevant Consistent Concepts with Applications to Conversational Socialbots

We consider the problem of finding relevant consistent concepts in a conversational AI system, particularly, for realizing a conversational socialbot. Commonsense knowledge about various topics can be represented as an answer set program. However, to advance the conversation, we need to solve the problem of finding relevant consistent concepts, i.e., find consistent knowledge in the "neighborhood" of the current topic being discussed that can be used to advance the conversation. Traditional ASP solvers will generate the whole answer set which is stripped of all the associations between the various atoms (concepts) and thus cannot be used to find relevant consistent concepts. Similarly, goal-directed implementations of ASP will only find concepts directly relevant to a query. We present the DiscASP system that will find the partial consistent model that is relevant to a given topic in a manner similar to how a human will find it. DiscASP is based on a novel graph-based algorithm for finding stable models of an answer set program. We present the DiscASP algorithm, its implementation, and its application to developing a conversational socialbot.

Experimental study on capability and start-up characteristic of advanced secondary passive residual heat removal system

Safety systems play a key role in the nuclear industry. In the past decades, various safety systems have been designed and built to enhance safety level in nuclear power plants. The advanced secondary passive residual heat removal system (ASP) is one of several passive safety systems designed to ensure the safety of the reactor core. Experimental study on transient and steady-state characteristics as well as relevant influence factors of ASP system were conducted by using the high temperature high pressure thermal-hydraulic test facility. The results showed that the C-type heat exchanger could effectively remove the residual heat, and get stronger with the increase of loop pressure. The results also showed natural circulation could be set up with good stability, and get little influence from movement of isolating valves, relief valve as well as water volume in steam generator. Besides, to certificate the reasonability and reliability of the ASP system directly, an integral test was conducted.

Emotions analysis in public spaces for urban planning

Scientists have been attempting to apply emotions in the urban planning process with qualitative methods (surveys, interviews, questionnaires and the like) since the mid-1900s. However, at that time, there were no possibilities for applying biometric or other kinds of tracking and remote technologies to detect and recognize the emotions felt by other people. The 21st century brought forth such opportunities. Nonetheless, even currently, the remotely integrated, emotional, affective and physiological states, arousal and valence (MAPS) of individuals residing or visiting urban areas are very seldom analysed. Meanwhile stakeholder groups are unable to receive digital advice with a goal to upgrade urban areas to be more pleasant, comfortable and sustainable. In such a context, the authors of this study developed an Affective System for Researching Emotions in Public Spaces for Urban Planning (ASP System). This System has added to the body of knowledge on research in several ways. ASP can prove a helpful supplement to urban planning and public participation practice by gathering and analysing MAPS data of passersby, weather conditions, pollution and other data. This unique combination of MAPS data can assist city stakeholders in initiating effective planning solutions based on an inhabitant-centric method. Additionally ASP employs a neuro decision matrix, which assisted in deriving a comprehensive analysis of the urban areas under deliberation by MAPS parameters. This article also submits eight avenues of practical use for urban planners when employing MAPS data and the ASP Method and System. The case studies on cultural heritage sustainability confirm the accuracy of the developed ASP Method and System.

Application and Evaluation of Ternary System Deep Profile Control Technology

The development process of ASP flooding is strong in stages, and the contradictions in each injection stage are prominent. In the profile adjustment stage, there are still some wells and layers with poor plugging control effect, and the injection system is inefficient and ineffective, which not only causes the waste of high-cost injection system, but also can not effectively displace the remaining oil, which affects the expansion of swept volume and enhanced oil recovery. Therefore, deep profile control technology should be adopted to further assist profile control adjustment, but conventional profile control agents are not applicable due to the existence of alkali in ternary injection system. In this paper, the type of profile control agent suitable for ternary injection system is optimized by laboratory test, and the principle of well and layer selection is optimized. The profile control opportunity is summarized by comparing the profile control effects of four ternary industrial blocks. Through deep profile control technology, the inter-layer and intra-layer contradictions in an industrial block of ASP flooding were alleviated, and the utilization ratio of ASP system in reservoir production degree was effectively improved, and the development effect was improved.

The effect of interfacial tension of ASP system on the initial migration of film-like microscopic residual oil

Use glass etching microscopic visualization model to carry out oil displacement experiment to detect the interfacial tension and viscoelasticity of the ASP system with different surfactant concentrations. By recording dynamic images during the displacement process, the effect of interfacial tension on the initiation of the film-like residual oil migration was studied. The results show that under the condition of the same concentration of polymer and surfactant, the higher the concentration of surfactant, the lower the interfacial tension of the ASP system, and the lower the storage modulus and energy consumption modulus; when the interfacial tension is 0.188mN/m, the film-like residual oil is slightly deformed at the enriched part of the displacement front; when the interfacial tension is 0.0188mN/m, the oil displacement system reduces the contact area between the oil film and the wall by changing the wettability of the residual oil in the film-like shape, and the overall migration; when the interfacial tension is 0.00188mN/m, the oil displacement system breaks out oil droplets and starts to migrate the residual oil in a thin film.

Study on Influencing Factors of Throat-like Residual Oil

The microscopic visualization model is used to carry out oil displacement experiments, to test the interfacial tension of the ASP system, and to study the effect of different conditions on the throat-like residual oil by recording dynamic images of the residual oil during the displacement process. The results show that: when the concentration of polymer and alkali is unchanged, the higher the concentration of surfactant, the lower the interfacial tension of the ASP system; the water-wet attribute model is more conducive to the oil displacement system's use of residual oil. The lower the interfacial tension of the ASP system, the better the effect on the throat-like residual oil. when the interfacial tension reaches 10-2, the effect is obvious; after water flooding, the pore-throat ratio and the maximum diameter of the pores have little effect on the residual oil distribution. It has an effect on the residual oil distribution of the minimum diameter of the pores. After the ASP flooding, the large pore-to-throat ratio, the small minimum diameter, and the small maximum diameter have a greater impact on pores with different wettability.

Learning higher-order logic programs

A key feature of inductive logic programming is its ability to learn first-order programs, which are intrinsically more expressive than propositional programs. In this paper, we introduce techniques to learn higher-order programs. Specifically, we extend meta-interpretive learning (MIL) to support learning higher-order programs by allowing for higher-order definitions to be used as background knowledge. Our theoretical results show that learning higher-order programs, rather than first-order programs, can reduce the textual complexity required to express programs, which in turn reduces the size of the hypothesis space and sample complexity. We implement our idea in two new MIL systems: the Prolog system text {Metagol}_{ho} and the ASP system text {HEXMIL}_{ho}. Both systems support learning higher-order programs and higher-order predicate invention, such as inventing functions for map/3 and conditions for filter/3. We conduct experiments on four domains (robot strategies, chess playing, list transformations, and string decryption) that compare learning first-order and higher-order programs. Our experimental results support our theoretical claims and show that, compared to learning first-order programs, learning higher-order programs can significantly improve predictive accuracies and reduce learning times.

Effect of emulsifying property of an alkaline-surfactant-polymer system without ultra-low interfacial tension on enhanced oil recovery

The objectives of the work were to establish a new method of evaluating emulsifying property of ASP system, design a new-type ASP system without ultra-low interfacial tension (IFT) based on its emulsifying property, and test its capability to enhance oil recovery. A new-type ASP system without ultra-low IFT was designed. The composite performance indexes of the new-type ASP system named formula 1 and conventional ultra-low IFT ASP system named formula 2 applied in Daqing oilfield were evaluated. The Turbiscan Stability Index (TSI) parameter was utilized to characterize the stability of emulsions. Also, the emulsions were evaluated in terms of droplet size distribution, ζ potential, and rheology. The average droplet sizes of formula 1 emulsion and formula 2 emulsion were 4.6 μm and 11.4 μm respectively. Results showed that formula 1 had a better emulsifying power, a better stability of emulsion with lower TSI, smaller average droplet size, and higher absolute value of ζ potential than formula 2; thus, it had a higher composite performance index compared with formula 2. Furthermore, the formula 1 emulsion viscosity gave values higher than the viscosity of formula 2 emulsion. The experimental results showed that the additional oil recovery of formula 1 was always higher than that of formula 2. The non-ultra-low IFT ASP system with better emulsifying property had an approximately similar effect on enhanced oil recovery compared with the conventional ultra-low IFT ASP system. This research examines and analyzes the new outcomes from implementing the new-type ASP system without ultra-low IFT to improve oil recovery. Ultimately the gained results from this work indicate that the new-type ASP system can be applied to enhance oil recovery, and project a roadmap for ongoing and future work; however, more investigations are required to be conducted.

Optimizing Answer Set Computation via Heuristic-Based Decomposition

AbstractAnswer Set Programming (ASP) is a purely declarative formalism developed in the field of logic programming and non-monotonic reasoning: computational problems are encoded by logic programs whose answer sets, corresponding to solutions, are computed by an ASP system. Different, semantically equivalent, programs can be defined for the same problem; however, performance of systems evaluating them might significantly vary. We propose an approach for automatically transforming an input logic program into an equivalent one that can be evaluated more efficiently. One can make use of existing tree-decomposition techniques for rewriting selected rules into a set of multiple ones; the idea is to guide and adaptively apply them on the basis of proper new heuristics, to obtain a smart rewriting algorithm to be integrated into an ASP system. The method is rather general: it can be adapted to any system and implement different preference policies. Furthermore, we define a set of new heuristics tailored at optimizing grounding, one of the main phases of the ASP computation; we use them in order to implement the approach into the ASP systemDLV, in particular into its grounding subsystemℐ-DLV, and carry out an extensive experimental activity for assessing the impact of the proposal.

Az önkormányzati ASP rendszer bevezetésének és használatának tapasztalatai The experiences of the introduction and application of the Municipality ASP system

The thought of the nationwide introduction of the Municipality ASP system (hereafter: ASP) emerged in 2014 as a governmental objective. Between 2015 and 2019 - with the exception of the capital - every local government joined the ASP, which now has approximately 30.000 daily users. The main point of the ASP is that the state provides a standardized IT solution for the local governments through a remote service provider technology, in order to support different municipality functions. The novelty of the ASP is that the different management systems operate as part of an integrated system. The ASP supports the magisterial and administrational tasks of the local governments in the following areas: local tax management, financial management, estate cadaster, trade, inheritance, record management. One of the main objectives of the ASP is the widespread implementation of electronic administration. The state provides the ASP system free of charge for the local governments.

Optimal Control of Small Size Single Tank Activated Sludge Process with Regulated Aeration and External Carbon Addition

Appropriate control of activated sludge process is crucial for achieving desired effluent quality in the treatment of municipal and industrial wastewater. This paper deals with the development of a feedforward open loop optimal control strategy for a small size single tank ASP system used for the treatment of small volumes of industrial wastewater. The work presented in this paper is a deviation from the usual alternating mode of operation reported in the literature for single tank ASP systems, in which the oxygen supply to the aeration tank is switched on and off in a cyclic manner. The present work has highlighted that regulating the oxygen supply rate alone is ineffective for achieving the desired quality of treated effluent. Further, the need for adding soluble carbon from an external source in addition to regulating the oxygen supply rate is emphasized in this work for effective control of COD and TKN in the treated effluent stream. The proposed control scheme is tested on a single tank ASP model rep...

Synthesis and characterization of supramolecular systems containing nifedipine, β-cyclodextrin and aspartic acid

The purpose of this work was to characterize complexes of nifedipine with β-cyclodextrin (β-CD), with and without auxiliary agents, to improve aqueous solubility and the dissolution profile of nifedipine. Complexes were characterized using infrared spectroscopy, thermoanalytical methods, powder X-Ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, phase solubility analysis and dissolution studies. Spatial configurations were determined by NMR and further examined using computational techniques. This investigation showed that the amino acid Asp was the most efficient auxiliary agent for multicomponent complexes. The spatial configurations were consistent with those obtained by molecular modelling; evidencing that nifedipine inserted its aromatic ring into β-CD, in all complexes, with Asp interacting with the wide hydrophilic rim of β-CD. The dissolution rates of nifedipine:β-CD:Asp complexes were significantly increased compared to those of the pure drug or nifedipine:β-CD. These results indicate that the nifedipine:β-CD:Asp system is a promising approach for the preparation of optimized formulations of nifedipine.