Local Assumption Research Articles

A heat pipe calculation method based on the two-phase mixture model of porous medium

This paper proposes a new method for calculating heat pipes, in which the porous wick inside the heat pipe is described by the two-phase mixture model (TPMM) of porous medium based on the modified temperature model that adopts the local thermal equilibrium assumption. The capillary pressure inside the wick is characterized by the Leverett capillary pressure model. This model can calculate the two-phase flow within the heat pipe wick at the macroscopic scale level and achieves a full-field coupled solution for the wick-vapor-wall flow and heat transfer process by a specific coupling method. Finally, the paper conducts a coupled heat transfer calculation for a heat pipe using potassium as the working fluid, verifies the correctness of the model and solution method by comparing it with the experimental results, and studies the flow and phase transition patterns of the heat pipe under multiple heating and different overload conditions. Compared with the traditional single-phase porous medium model of heat pipes, the new model can consider phase transition within the porous wick. While compared with pore-scale methods, the macroscopic research scale of the new model can reduce the computational resources required.

Bell vs. Bell: A Ding-Dong Battle over Quantum Incompleteness

Does determinism (or even the incompleteness of quantum mechanics) follow from locality and perfect correlations? In a 1964 paper, John Bell gave the first demonstration that quantum mechanics is incompatible with local hidden variables. Since then, a vigorous debate has rung out over whether he relied on an assumption of determinism or instead, as he later claimed in a 1981 paper, derived determinism from assumptions of locality and perfect correlation. This paper aims to bring clarity to the debate via simple examples and rigorous results. It is first recalled, via quantum and classical counterexamples, that the weakest statistical form of locality consistent with Bell’s 1964 paper (parameter independence) is insufficient for the derivation of determinism. Attention is then turned to critically assess Bell’s appeal to the Einstein–Rosen–Podolsky (EPR) incompleteness argument to support his claim. It is shown that this argument is itself incomplete, via counterexamples that expose two logical gaps. Closing these gaps via a strong “counterfactual” reality criterion enables a rigorous derivation of both determinism and parameter independence, and in this sense justifies Bell’s claim. Conversely, however, it is noted that whereas the EPR argument requires a weaker “measurement choice” assumption than Bell’s demonstration, it nevertheless leads to a similar incompatibility with quantum predictions rather than quantum incompleteness.

The open effective field theory of inflation

In our quest to understand the generation of cosmological perturbations, we face two serious obstacles: we do not have direct information about the environment experienced by primordial perturbations during inflation, and our observables are practically limited to correlators of massless fields, heavier fields and derivatives decaying exponentially in the number of e-foldings. The flexible and general framework of open systems has been developed precisely to face similar challenges. Building on previous work, we develop a Schwinger-Keldysh path integral description for an open effective field theory of inflation, describing the possibly dissipative and non-unitary evolution of the Goldstone boson of time translations interacting with an unspecified environment, under the key assumption of locality in space and time. Working in the decoupling limit, we study the linear and interacting theory in de Sitter and derive predictions for the power spectrum and bispectrum that depend on a finite number of effective couplings organised in a derivative expansion. The smoking gun of interactions with the environment is an enhanced but finite bispectrum close to the folded kinematical limit. We demonstrate the generality of our approach by matching our open effective theory to an explicit model. Our construction provides a standard model to simultaneously study phenomenological predictions as well as quantum information aspects of the inflationary dynamics.

BundleMoCap++: Efficient, robust and smooth motion capture from sparse multiview videos

Producing smooth and accurate motions from sparse videos without requiring specialized equipment and markers is a long-standing problem in the research community. Most approaches typically involve complex processes such as temporal constraints, multiple stages combining data-driven regression and optimization techniques, and bundle solving over temporal windows. These increase the computational burden and introduce the challenge of hyperparameter tuning for the different objective terms. In contrast, BundleMoCap++ offers a simple yet effective approach to this problem. It solves the motion in a single stage, eliminating the need for temporal smoothness objectives while still delivering smooth motions without compromising accuracy. BundleMoCap++ outperforms the state-of-the-art without increasing complexity. Our approach is based on manifold interpolation between latent keyframes. By relying on a local manifold smoothness assumption and appropriate interpolation schemes, we efficiently solve a bundle of frames using two or more latent codes. Additionally, the method is implemented as a sliding window optimization and requires only the first frame to be properly initialized, reducing the overall computational burden. BundleMoCap++’s strength lies in achieving high-quality motion capture results with fewer computational resources. To do this efficiently, we propose a novel human pose prior that focuses on the geometric aspect of the latent space, modeling it as a hypersphere, allowing for the introduction of sophisticated interpolation techniques. We also propose an algorithm for optimizing the latent variables directly on the learned manifold, improving convergence and performance. Finally, we introduce high-order interpolation techniques adapted for the hypersphere, allowing us to increase the solving temporal window, enhancing performance and efficiency.

Learning fluid physics from highly turbulent data using sparse physics-informed discovery of empirical relations (SPIDER)

We show how a complete mathematical model of a physical process can be learned directly from data via a hybrid approach combining three simple and general ingredients: physical assumptions of smoothness, locality and symmetry, a weak formulation of differential equations and sparse regression. To illustrate this, we extract a complete system of governing equations of fluid dynamics – the Navier–Stokes equation, the continuity equation and the boundary conditions – as well as the pressure-Poisson and energy equations, from numerical data describing a highly turbulent channel flow in three dimensions. Whether they represent known or unknown physics, relations discovered using this approach take the familiar form of partial differential equations, which are easily interpretable and readily provide information about the relative importance of different physical effects. The proposed approach offers insight into the quality of the data, serving as a useful diagnostic tool. It is also remarkably robust, yielding accurate results for very high noise levels, and should thus be well suited for analysis of experimental data.

Angle-dependent image-domain least-squares migration through analytical point spread functions

Image-domain least-squares migration (IDLSM) is an established approach to recover high-fidelity seismic images of subsurface reflectors; this is achieved by removing the blurring effects of the Hessian operator in the standard migration approach with the help of so-called point spread functions (PSFs). However, most of the existing IDLSM approaches recover an angle-independent image of the subsurface reflectors, which is not suitable for subsequent amplitude-variation-with-angle (AVA) analysis. To overcome this limitation, we have developed an angle-dependent IDLSM approach, denoted as AD-IDLSM, which can recover a high-fidelity and high-resolution angle-dependent reflectivity image of subsurface reflectors. The problem is formulated here as an angle-dependent image-domain inversion with PSFs computed by means of full-wave Green’s function. More specifically, we derive an analytical expression to compute angle-dependent PSFs by means of a wave-equation-based Kirchhoff migration (WEBKM) engine, where a localization assumption is made in both spatial directions to decrease the computational cost and memory overhead. The amplitude and traveltime of the Green’s functions involved in the WEBKM approach are estimated by the excitation amplitude and excitation time of the full-wave wavefield. The scattering angle is then approximately estimated from the Poynting vector of the excitation-time field. To stabilize the solution of AD-IDLSM, we use a regularization scheme that applies a second derivative along the direction of the reflection angle of angle-domain common-image gathers (ADCIGs) to ensure continuity in the amplitude variations versus angle and suppress migration artifacts. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the AD-IDLSM approach through two synthetic and one field marine data set; the presented results confirm that AD-IDLSM can create ADCIGs with higher spatial resolution, better amplitude fidelity, and fewer migration artifacts compared with those obtained by its migration counterpart. Moreover, AD-IDLSM amplitude variations with angle are shown to closely resemble the theoretical AVA curve of the reflectors.

Coplane-constrained sparse depth sampling and local depth propagation for depth estimation

Depth estimation with sparse reference has emerged recently, and predicts depth map from a monocular image and a set of depth reference samples. Previous works randomly select reference samples by sensors, leading to severe depth bias as this sampling is independent to image semantic and neglects the unbalance of depth distribution in regions. This paper proposes a Coplane-Constrained sparse Depth (CCD) sampling to explore representative reference samples, and design a Local Depth Propagation (LDP) network for complete the sparse point cloud map. This can capture diverse depth information and diffuse the valid points to neighbors with geometry prior. Specifically, we first construct the surface normal map and detect coplane pixels by superpixel segmenting for sampling references, whose depth can be represented by that of superpixel centroid. Then, we introduce local depth propagation to obtain coarse-level depth map with geometric information, which dynamically diffuses the depth from the reference to neighbors based on local planar assumption. Further, we generate the fine-level depth map by devising a pixel-wise focal loss, which imposes the semantic and geometry calibration on pixels with low confidence in coarse-level prediction. Extensive experiments on public datasets demonstrate that our model outperforms SOTA depth estimation and completion methods.

An analytical model of longitudinal joints in the segmental lining of shield tunnels with considering geometric nonlinearity

The previous mechanical analysis on the longitudinal joint of segmental linings commonly used the plane section assumption, in which the strains on the normal section are linearly and continuously distributed. This was proven to be overidealized according to a series of full-scale tests in existing literatures. In this paper, the nonlinear characteristics of deformation behavior for longitudinal joint were investigated with emphasis on the geometric nonlinearity of joint. A new analytical model of longitudinal joint was proposed with considering the geometric nonlinearity via employing the local plane section assumption to describe the strain distribution of joint section. The effectiveness of the proposed model was validated and parametric study (e.g. loading cycles and peak bending moment) was conducted. The results indicated the geometric nonlinearity of longitudinal joint refers to the increase area of free surface for the joint section. This nonlinearity will cause the discontinuous change of contact state which can be intuitively charactered by the height of concrete compression zone. Without considering the geometric nonlinearity, the area of concrete compression zone and bending capacity of the joint are overestimated by 45% to 100% based on the calculation result of the verification case. The increasing load cycles and peak load value deteriorate the deformation recoverability and ultimate capacity of joints. The degree of geometric nonlinearity is intensified with the increase of load cycles and peak load value but it can be alleviated if the concrete in external edge contact during overloading process.

A Comparison of Limited Information Estimation Methods for the Two-Parameter Normal-Ogive Model with Locally Dependent Items

The two-parameter normal-ogive (2PNO) model is one of the most popular item response theory (IRT) models for analyzing dichotomous items. Consistent parameter estimation of the 2PNO model using marginal maximum likelihood estimation relies on the local independence assumption. However, the assumption of local independence might be violated in practice. Likelihood-based estimation of the local dependence structure is often computationally demanding. Moreover, many IRT models that model local dependence do not have a marginal interpretation of item parameters. In this article, limited information estimation methods are reviewed that allow the convenient and straightforward handling of local dependence in estimating the 2PNO model. In detail, pairwise likelihood, weighted least squares, and normal-ogive harmonic analysis robust method (NOHARM) estimation are compared with marginal maximum likelihood estimation that ignores local dependence. A simulation study revealed that item parameters can be consistently estimated with limited information methods. At the same time, marginal maximum likelihood estimation resulted in biased item parameter estimates in the presence of local dependence. From a practical perspective, there were only minor differences regarding the statistical quality of item parameter estimates of the different estimation methods. Differences between the estimation methods are also compared for two empirical datasets.

Synthetic approach to Bell's inequalities and a fundamental Bell-type theorem

A fundamental Bell-type inequality is derived by referring solely to laws of logic, tertium non datur and the transitivity axiom, that are used to express the local realism assumption. The general form of the achieved inequality makes it a root of other more specific Bell-type theorems involving additional mathematical formalism and experimental conditions. Its universality is demonstrated explicitly by showing that the most famous theorems provided by Bell, Clauser, Horne, Shimony and Holt (CHSH), Clauser and Horne (CH), Eberhard, d'Espagnat and Maccone are direct corollaries of the general inequality. The method to retrieve Bell's inequalities of different kinds, as being based on a single scheme of reasoning, unifies diversity of proofs presented in the literature. Additionally, some of the known inequalities can be easily achieved in a more general form compared to their original versions and still suitable, or possibly even more convenient, for experimental investigations. By extracting local realism in the form of an explicit logical propositions and making it a cornerstone of a systematic reasoning leading to the universal Bell's inequality, the paper offers a synthetic perspective on Bell-type theorems and their logical basis.

INDONESIAN VERSION OF SATISFACTION WITH LIFE SCALE, A PSYCHOMETRIC EVALUATION WITH RASCH MODEL

Previous studies on The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) showed inconsistency, primarily related to the justice principle based on gender when using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the psychometric property of the Indonesian version of SWLS using the Rasch model. This model can be used as an evaluation technique for psychological instruments. The Rasch model showed a more detailed analysis than CFA, explaining person-item fit statistics, rating scale diagnosis, item calibration, and differential item functioning. The total participants after person fit checking were 1,154 university students who completed an online survey consisting of demographic data and a five-item Indonesian version of SWLS. The Rasch Rating Scale Analysis (RSM) showed that the Indonesian version of SWLS fulfilled unidimensional and local independence assumptions. The items delivered a good item fit index with a five-point rating scale, and there were no gender biases in moderate level and high differential item functioning (DIF). Therefore, the Indonesian version of SWLS is recommended for further research measuring life satisfaction. This research implies that using the Indonesian version of SWLS, especially in Indonesia, can use a five-point rating scale for future research.

PFAS Porewater concentrations in unsaturated soil: Field and laboratory comparisons inform on PFAS accumulation at air-water interfaces

Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) leaching from unsaturated soils impacted with aqueous film-forming foams (AFFFs) is an environmental challenge that remains difficult to measure and predict. Complicating measurements and predictions of this process is a lack of understanding between the PFAS concentrations measured in a collected environmental unsaturated soil sample, and the PFAS concentrations measured in the corresponding porewater using field-deployed lysimeters. The applicability of bench-scale batch testing to assess this relationship also remains uncertain. In this study, field-deployed porous cup suction lysimeters were used to measure PFAS porewater concentrations in unsaturated soils at 5 AFFF-impacted sites. Field-measured PFAS porewater concentrations were compared to those measured in porewater extracted in the laboratory from collected unsaturated soil cores, and from PFAS concentrations measured in the laboratory using batch soil slurries. Results showed that, despite several years since the last AFFF release at most of the test sites, precursors were abundant in 3 out of the 5 sites. Comparison of field lysimeter results to laboratory testing suggested that the local equilibrium assumption was valid for at least 3 of the sites and conditions of this study. Surprisingly, PFAS accumulation at the air-water interface was orders of magnitude less than expected at two of the test sites, suggesting potential gaps in the understanding of PFAS accumulation at the air-water interface at AFFF-impacted sites. Finally, results herein suggest that bench-scale testing on unsaturated soils can in some cases be used to inform on PFAS in situ porewater concentrations.

Thermal lattice Boltzmann approach-based numerical study of nanofluid magnetohydrodynamic forced convection in a back-facing stepped porous channel

Unsteady laminar magnetohydrodynamic forced convection and entropy generation inside a backward-facing step (BFS) porous channel with Cu-H2O nanofluid under a tilted magnetic field is numerically handled using a thermal lattice Boltzmann method (TLBM) with two distribution functions. The Darcy-Brinkman-Forchheimer (DBF) equations filled up with the energy equation (with local thermal equilibrium assumption) have been drawn up as the governing equations model. Their numerical solutions unveiled streamlines, Nusselt number, pumping power, performance index and entropy generation, and impacts of influential parameters (Hartmann number (Ha = 0; 10; 20; 100, 200), Darcy number (Da = 10−3; 10−2; 10−1), magnetic tilt angle (γ = 0, π∕4, π∕2), nanoparticles’ volume fraction (φ = 1 − 4%), medium porosity (ε = 0.6, 0.7, 0.8). The irreversibility analysis is also addressed to highlight the flow behavior. Regarding the validation of the modeling approach deemed, a consensus has been achieved with results available in the literature. Computations revealed that the volume fraction provides a fair performance rating with moderate pumping power. Likewise, the average Nusselt number, the average entropy generation, the pumping power and the performance index have a direct relationship with the Hartmann number, the nanoparticles volume fraction and the magnetic field tilt. Moreover, it can be stated the Cu-H2O nanofluid that seems worthwhile in terms of heat transfer efficiency compared to other examined nanofluids. Entropy generation due to the magnetic field was identified as the main source of irreversibility processes in all cases. Based on the outcomes, it is thought that applying a magnetic field can help minimize entropy generation in practical applications.

Lyapunov-like functions for almost global convergence in discrete-time systems

This paper presents new results on discrete-time almost global convergence to an invariant set. First, we present new sufficient conditions for almost global convergence using density functions. In contrast to existing density-function results, the new results in this paper do not rely on a local convergence assumption, and they do not require knowledge of the inverse map of the difference equation. Next, we present new sufficient conditions for almost global convergence using Lyapunov-like functions rather than density functions. These Lyapunov-like results can be useful because constructing and analyzing density functions is often difficult in comparison to Lyapunov-like analysis. This paper also presents a variety of simple examples to illustrate these new methods for almost global convergence analysis.

Understanding earthquake precursors: from subcritical instabilities to catastrophic events

The collapse of man-made and natural structures is a complex phenomenon that has been studied for centuries. Existing models often focus on a ‘critical point’ where failure becomes imminent. This work presents a radically different perspective: large earthquakes may not arise from critical states, but instead develop dynamically from the subcritical regime as rare, extreme events. Our approach hinges on an extension of Onsager’s reciprocal theorem, allowing us to delve into this subcritical realm. We demonstrate that within such a regime, excitable systems, like those underlying earthquakes, are dynamically renormalised towards a nonlocal equilibrium. For these systems, the maximum entropy production of at least two interacting phases is used to replace the local equilibrium assumption for the subcritical state. Typically, dissipative processes at larger scales arrest these self-amplifying feedbacks. However, in rare instances, they can morph into intricate tensor networks of instabilities that ripple from microscopic scales to the entire system, culminating in an extreme event like a catastrophic earthquake. This novel framework offers a potentially deeper understanding of earthquake precursors and paves the way for exploring earthquake prediction based on the statistics of subcritical dynamics.

Local continuous extension of proper holomorphic maps: Low-regularity and infinite-type boundaries

We prove a couple of results on local continuous extension of proper holomorphic maps F:D→Ω, D,Ω⊊Cn, making local assumptions on ∂D and ∂Ω. The first result allows us to have much lower regularity, for the patches of ∂D,∂Ω that are relevant, than in earlier results. The second result (and a result closely related to it) is in the spirit of a result by Forstnerič–Rosay. However, our assumptions allow ∂Ω to contain boundary points of infinite type.

Diffusive stability and self-similar decay for the harmonic map heat flow

In this paper we study the harmonic map heat flow on the euclidean space Rd and we show an unconditional uniqueness result for maps with small initial data in the homogeneous Besov space B˙p,∞dp(Rd) where d<p<∞. As a consequence we obtain decay rates for solutions of the harmonic map flow of the form ‖∇u(t)‖L∞(Rd)≤Ct−12.Additionally, under the assumption of a stronger spatial localization of the initial conditions, we show that the temporal decay happens in a self-similar way. We also explain that similar results hold for the biharmonic map heat flow and the semilinear heat equation with a power-type nonlinearity.

Influences of Carry-Over Effects Across Scales on Mediation Analyses

ABSTRACT Many education tests and psychological surveys elicit respondent views of similar constructs across scenarios (e.g., story followed by multiple choice questions) by repeating common statements across scales (one-statement-multiple-scale, OSMS). However, a respondent’s earlier responses to the common statement can affect later responses to it (recursive carry-over effect), which violates the local item independence assumption of most measurement models. Ignoring this carry-over effect can bias both estimated item parameters for later scales and relations among scales. This study investigates the consequences of model misspecification for OSMS questions in mediation analyses via real data from the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) and simulations. The results showed that failing to consider carry-over effects in a mediation model yielded biased relations between latent variables. Moreover, our MMCEO mediation model corrected the inflated correlations caused by carry-over effects and yielded superior estimates of the mediation effects. We discuss implications for appropriately addressing carry‑over effects.

Pairwise Likelihood Estimation of the 2PL Model with Locally Dependent Item Responses

The local independence assumption is crucial for the consistent estimation of item parameters in item response theory models. This article explores a pairwise likelihood estimation approach for the two-parameter logistic (2PL) model that treats the local dependence structure as a nuisance in the optimization function. Hence, item parameters can be consistently estimated without explicit modeling assumptions of the dependence structure. Two simulation studies demonstrate that the proposed pairwise likelihood estimation approach allows nearly unbiased and consistent item parameter estimation. Our proposed method performs similarly to the marginal maximum likelihood and pairwise likelihood estimation approaches, which also estimate the parameters for the local dependence structure.

Melting performance analysis of finned metal foam thermal energy storage tube under steady rotation

The latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) technology based on solid-liquid phase change material (PCM) is of great significance for the efficient utilization of thermal energy. To address the issues of slow thermal response and non-uniform melting of the LHTES technology, a hybrid heat transfer enhancement method combined with finned metal foam and steady rotation is proposed in this work. An enthalpy-porosity model considering non-Darcy porous effects and mechanical rotation is established based on the local thermal equilibrium assumption and the fixed grid system. Four different structures (uniform metal foam, graded metal foam, finned metal foam with uniform porosity, and finned metal foam with graded porosity) are investigated firstly to identify the optimal structural arrangement under the same volume of PCM. Numerical results demonstrate that the LHTES units strengthened by the finned metal foam with graded porosity achieve the shortest melting time and largest thermal energy storage rate (TESR). The graded porous structure reduces thermal resistance, rotation enhances flow and heat transfer inside the container, and the fins expand the heat source area. Moreover, the effect of different fin types, graded porosities, and rotational speeds are further considered. The findings suggest that the increase of these three parameters does not correspond to better thermal performance; instead, there is an optimal value. Compared with the base case, the optimal configuration (fin length of 20 mm, fin width of 1.5 mm, porosity gradient of 2%, and rotational speed of 0.5 rpm) can shorten the melting time by 46.68%, increase the TESR and Nu by 74.06% and 69.02%, respectively. This paper validates the feasibility of the hybrid heat transfer enhancement method with finned metal foam and steady rotation, which can offer new insights into the engineering practice of the LHTES technology.