Common Focal Point Research Articles

Environmental pressure exerted by the petrochemical industry and urban environmental resilience: Evidence from Chinese petrochemical port cities

Based on a multi-source data fusion-driven assessment framework, this study quantitatively evaluates the urban environmental resilience (UER) of seven Chinese petrochemical port cities (PPCs) from 2012 to 2019 under the compound environmental pressures (CEPs) of the petrochemical industry. The findings revealed that Tangshan and Zhangzhou can be classified as high-pressure and low-resilience cities; Lianyungang and Huizhou as high-pressure and medium-resilience cities; Dalian and Ningbo as medium-pressure and medium-resilience cities; and Shanghai as a low-pressure and high-resilience city. From 2012 to 2019, the UER of PPCs exhibited a fluctuating upward trend. However, most cities can currently only withstand single petrochemical environmental pressures and are incapable of managing the CEPs of the petrochemical industry. Except for Shanghai, the UER of all cities is below the average level of 0.106. The implementation of cleaner production and the green petrochemical industry's scale have not yet met the policy expectations set by authorities. Moreover, major ecological initiatives and policy regulations are lagging, relative to the pace of the development of petrochemical industries. Key environmental pressure sources from the petrochemical industry were identified: reinforced dependence on petrochemical fuels (0.0393), high carbon emissions from the petrochemical industry (0.0335), and the instability of fossil energy supplies (0.0328). Insufficient environmental resistance (−0.068) and delayed renewal capacity (0.041) have been identified as weak links limiting the UER of PPCs. Strengthening environmental protection projects, improving urban infrastructure, and controlling petrochemical industry risks were projected as common focal points and effective environmental measures for all PPCs to manage long-term threats and sudden CEPs from the petrochemical industry.

Intersection of domains: Designing a remote-controlled dish antenna

The advent of technology has instigated rapid advances in the field of communications, a prime example being the remote-controlled dish antenna, which embodies a parabolic design intended to intercept and concentrate electromagnetic waves onto a common focal point. The modification towards remote control mandates a core understanding of diverse technological realms as it involves an amalgamation of com-ponents and knowledge. This discourse probes into the nuanced design and implementation of a remote-controlled dish antenna, conceived around the core touchstones of a microcontroller and an array of complementary components. The research work signifies a compounding of several technological do-mains, including microcontroller programming, power electronics, wireless communication, and motor control, necessitating extensive proficiency in these areas and consequently, offering an invaluable foundation to the broader control system applications. The overarching aim of this research is to enable users to effectively control a dish antenna's positioning remotely, leveraging a Bluetooth HC-05 module for optimal convenience and accessibility. This revolutionary project relies on a PIC18F2550 microcon-troller, a high-performance RISC CPU with integrated EEPROM and SRAM, which allows for flexible data storage and retrieval. Considering its compatibility with a variety of peripherals, the PIC18F2550 emerges as a logical choice, significantly enhancing the system's performance efficacy.

THE PLACE WITH THE WORLD’S HIGHEST RAINFALL AS A TOURIST ATTRACTION IN A PERIPHERAL AREA OF NORTHEAST INDIA

This study illustrates the temporal dynamics of tourism development in a peripheral region of Northeast India (Cherrapunjee area) with an extreme rainfall. The analysis indicates that tourism development has accelerated in the last two decades as a result of the administrative opening of Meghalaya State and the dynamic development of tourism throughout India. Peripheral locations with curious environmental features may by potentially attractive tourism localities, with a common focal point for development of marketing opportunities and narratives about the location. A local leader in a strong position pointing the way additionally plays an important role in creating a tourism space.

Cross-Border Tourism and Community Solidarity at a Militarized Border: A Photo Elicitation Approach

Despite increased militarization along international borders, border communities share elements of natural and cultural heritage. This shared heritage invokes a form of solidarity whose influence on cross-border tourism and bordering processes is understudied. The purpose of this study is to analyze how community solidarity influences tourism and border processes at the highly militarized U.S.-Mexico border by using photo-elicitation. Data were collected from 21 participants from Mexico and the U.S. A direct and indirect analysis of the interviews and photos found major themes and common focal points within photos, and the findings demonstrate binational solidarity for heritage and a desire for sharing this heritage with visitors. The paper contributes a conceptual framing of how borders are reinforced through militarization and softened through tourism, cross-border collaboration, and biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration. The implications of these findings for border theories and frameworks are discussed in further detail.

Incorporating theory into practice: A historical assessment of layout design and Bürolandschaft with practical applications to modern office landscapes using performance metrics

The historical upbringing of the theoretical foundations of layout planning and optimization provided several core principles from which other theories have been derived. Naturally, the development and transformation of layouts following modern tastes have unlocked new types of capabilities, but these benefits are not exempt from drawbacks. This study critically examines layout characterization and performance from both the historical and practical application perspectives. In fulfilling this objective, this study conducts an assessment of the existing body of foundational work in the domain of layout planning and Bürolandschaft, a German term that characterizes the conceptual nature of an office landscape, to capture the underlying motivations, insights, and benefits that are offered by this foundation. These theories are examined under the lens of a common focal point for many modern-day corporations: obtaining an ideal office layout. The historical findings imply that the manifestation of Bürolandschaft is closely related to the concept of an open office layout. Given these insights, an application of an open office layout to a modern-day organization is proposed. Furthermore, the resulting layout is assessed based on a variety of qualitative and quantitative layout performance metrics to observe the impact emerging from the application of theory to practice. More broadly speaking, the theoretical outcomes as suggested by historical developments are assessed in comparison to the outcomes resulting from a practical application.

Gardening Motivations of U.S. Plant Purchasers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract Plant purchases experienced a surge during the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine of 2020. Researchers used an online survey instrument completed by 1,211 U.S. respondents to investigate the diverse motivations for making plant purchases. Researchers compared three age cohorts to understand which plant benefits they derived from their plant purchases. Millennials (born 1981 to 1995) derived the greatest social benefit from their plant purchases, followed by educational, physiological, and psychological benefits. Gen Z (born 1996 to 2012) derived more educational and physiological benefits compared to Baby Boomers (born 1946 to 1964). Individuals experiencing a high level of social benefits from plants may have contributed to the extensive use of social media during pandemic isolation, as plants appear to be a common interest or focal point for online social interaction. In other words, plants bought by Millennials (and to a lesser extent by Gen Z) served as an online social connection to others. The youngest age group, Gen Z, experienced the greatest boredom proneness and the most food insecurity. In comparing plant buyers with non-buyers, we found no difference in boredom proneness or shopping anxiety. Plant purchasers experienced greater food security compared to non-plant purchasers and individuals who purchased edible plants or food-producing plants or both a flowering plant and a food-producing plant had greater food security compared to non-plant buyers and individuals who purchased flowering plants. Results provide relevant topics (e.g., food security, boredom relief, and social connections) to inform on- and off-line communications with consumers. Index words: consumer, online survey.

Fractal Laser Cone Structures Proposed to Confine Antimatter

Flat, straight sheets of paper, standing vertically on edge cannot support any load placed upon their top edge, but once formed into fractal tube conic sections, they have been measured to support up to 97.52 (± 2.27) kilograms (215 (± 5) pounds) of weight with strength-per-weight ratio up to 10,336 (± 240). So, strength has been discovered to be an emergent characteristic arising solely from addition of intelligent order. It is proposed to impose such intelligent order upon, preferably, at least 6 laser beams by focusing each of them to form cones of light, arranging the cones to form a wall of a larger fractal cone, and converging all of them to a common focal point inside a vacuum chamber to give them sufficient strength near this focal point to attract, hold, and move neutral antimatter, preferably anti-lithium. This opens the new field of structural engineering of light and re-defines the concept of strength. Means of cancelling out radiation pressure by reflection of laser beams back to the common focal point are proposed to enable laser confinement of particles having low polarizability, such as anti-hydrogen. Counter-circulation of light by reflection at grazing incidence is proposed as a means of returning escaping antimatter back to the common focal point containment area. Means are proposed to inject a stream of matter into the contained antimatter to create a matter-antimatter reactor and propulsion engine. Since anti-lithium is not available, yet, means are proposed to test these structures by confining ordinary lithium, instead, and by hitting it with anti-protons and/or positrons. Means are proposed to modulate the matter-antimatter reaction with information to create modulated gravitational waves for communication. The proposed structures would enable efficient, stable, safe confinement of antimatter, which would allow better study of antimatter, and make possible renewable, clean, safe, matter-antimatter reactor generators and propulsion engines, antimatter-assisted fusion reactors, and modulated gravitational wave generators.

Design and development of small-scale linear Fresnel solar concentrator for medium temperature applications

In recent years, Even if the CSP industry (Concentrated Solar Power) has not been yet developed as it should be in Morocco, this country is attaching an increasing importance and have launched ambitious development goals by the year 2020. Many applications of CSP technology needs operating temperatures up to 300 °C [1]. These applications include water heat especially for domestic needs.The present article shows the results of a work about the development of a low-cost concentrator taking into account Moroccan socio-economic context. The system designed and developed a combination uses of two CSP technologies: Parabolic Dish and Linear Fresnel Concentrator. To develop the prototype, a simplified model was used to define the dimensions as well as the number of mirrors that compose the system. The system is autonomous, modular and makes it possible to concentrate the solar radiation with automatic tracking of the sun. A set of mirrors focus sunlight onto a fixed absorber located at a common focal point which is adjustable and allows connecting different types of absorbers. This paper is detailing the design of the devloped prototype. The system is innovative and operates at temperatures up to 250 °C. It is easy to meet the household hot water needs as per Moroccan natural conditions.The paper describes the modelling approach, presents the comparison of simulation results with real measurements and evaluates the results.

Slowness curve surface acoustic wave transducers for optimized acoustic streaming.

Surface acoustic waves can induce force gradients on the length scales of micro- and nanoparticles, allowing precise manipulation for particle capture, alignment and sorting activities. These waves typically occupy a spatial region much larger than a single particle, resulting in batch manipulation. Circular arc transducers can focus a SAW into a narrow beam on the order of the particle diameter for highly localised, single-particle manipulation by exciting wavelets which propagate to a common focal point. The anisotropic nature of SAW substrates, however, elongates and shifts the focal region. Acousto-microfluidic applications are highly dependent on the morphology of the underlying substrate displacement and, thus, become dependent on the microchannel position relative to the circular arc transducer. This requires either direct measurement or computational modelling of the SAW displacement field. We show that the directly measured elongation and shift in the focal region are recapitulated by an analytical model of beam steering, derived from a simulated slowness curve for 128° Y-cut lithium niobate. We show how the negative effects of beam steering can be negated by adjusting the curvature of arced transducers according to the slowness curve of the substrate, for which we present a simple function for convenient implementation in computational design software. Slowness-curve adjusted transducers do not require direct measurement of the SAW displacement field for microchannel placement and can capture smaller particles within the streaming vortices than can circular arc IDTs.

Astigmatism correction with an adaptive quadrupole and an expander lens for electron accelerators

Astigmatism is a type of aberration in beam optics which causes asymmetry in transverse coordinates. This asymmetric beam often shows an elliptical profile instead of circular, which may cause differences between the major and minor ellipse axes diameters and ellipse azimuth angle. In this research work, a novel astigmatism correction system is proposed for electron accelerators with a minimum number of electromagnetic lenses. An adaptive quadrupole lens is designed by coaxially locating two quadrupoles 45 degrees apart from each other. The focusing and defocusing axes and the azimuth angle of the resultant adaptive quadrupole are determined adaptively by the vector sum of created magnetic fields of two coaxially located quadrupoles. The adaptive quadrupole lens is placed on the common focal point of two solenoids as part of an expander lens. In this way, the focal points of the major and minor axes of an elliptical beam are slightly changed from the common focal point of the expander. This act helps to increase the minor axis diameter of the electron beam while decreasing the major one, resulting in a circular profile. Both a 2D beam trajectory model in MATLAB and a 3D Particle Accelerator simulation with Computer Simulation Technology (CST) tool show that the proposed method successfully corrects the astigmatism having any elliptical parameters for a sample electron beam.

A slanted-nanoaperture metal lens: subdiffraction-limited focusing of light in the intermediate field region

Diffraction of light limits the resolution of beam focusing with conventional lenses, as dictated by the Abbe limit, that is, approximately half the wavelength. Numerous techniques have been explored to overcome this limit. One of the most intensively explored approaches is to design a lens that operates in the near-field region, that is, with a focal length on the order of 10 nm, where evanescent fields can carry and project large in-plane wave-vectors (greater than free-space wave-vectors) to a focal plane. From a practical perspective, however, the requirement of such an ultra-short focal length puts too much constraint, since much longer focal length is commonly desired for intermediate or far-field operation. Here we report a method to beat the Abbe limit while operating with focal length greater than wavelength λ. Our approach is to tailor the radiation patterns of nanoaperture transmission by tilting aperture axes away from the surface of a metal film such that each slanted aperture transmits a highly directed, tilt-oriented beam onto a common focal point carrying maximal in-plane wave-vector components. The proposed nanoaperture array lens was fabricated by forming tilted nanoslits in a Ag, Al, or Cr film. We demonstrate minimal spot size of λ/3 (210-nm or 110-nm full-width half-maximum at λ = 633 nm or 325 nm, respectively) with 1–4λ focal length in air, beating the Abbe limit.

Solid distribution in fluidized and fixed beds with horizontal high speed gas jets

High speed jet penetration in fluidized beds can be used for particle size control or comminution processes. Thus, particle breakage is determined by the kinetic energy of the solids and the frequency of particle-particle impacts inside the flow. Both aspects are influenced by the solid concentration inside the jets and at the boundary. For understanding the fundamental breakage mechanism, the determination of the solid distribution in those complex flows is an important contribution.In order to access the turbulent and delicate multiphase flow, a modern fast X-ray computed tomography unit was used in this work. To obtain quantitative solid concentrations, the measurement system was optimized by means of hardware filtering, exposure time and reconstruction algorithm. These methods allowed the investigation of influencing parameters like jet velocity, fluidization velocity or particle size on the solid distribution in a single jet. With the obtained experimental data, correlations for the axial and radial solid distribution were developed. In addition, the influence of multiple jet injection with a common focal point is presented.

The Fragmentation-Energy Fan Concept and the Swebrec Function in Modeling Drop Weight Testing

A recent concept called the fragmentation-energy fan has been used to analyze drop weight testing (DWT) data and to obtain both the mathematical form of the breakage index equation, i.e., t10 versus impact energy and the parameter values needed for making an actual prediction with it. The fan is visualized by plotting the progeny size corresponding to a set of percent passing values versus scaled drop energy in log–log scale and fitting straight, i.e., linear fan lines with a common focal point to these data. The fan behavior lies inherent in the fact that the DWT sieving data closely follow the Swebrec distribution. A mathematical expression for t10 in closed form follows directly from a functional inversion, and this expression differs from the forms it has been given by the JKMRC. In most cases five fan lines suffice to provide a very accurate t10 equation. When applied to a suite of eight rocks, ores mostly, the coefficient of determination R^{2} for the equation lies in the range 0.97–0.99 or almost as high as when JKMRC’s size-dependent breakage model is used. To obtain such a high fidelity a generalization of the original linear fan concept to so-called double fans with piecewise linear rays is developed. The fragmentation-energy fan approach is more compact and general in that t_{n} for an arbitrary value of the reduction ratio n is obtained at the same time as t10 and with t_{n} the complete closed-form solution for mass passing Pleft( {x,D,E_{text{cs}} } right).

Unwelcome Change: Coming to Terms with Democratic Backsliding

Scholars have paid increasing attention to democratic backsliding, yet efforts to explain this phenomenon remain inchoate. This article seeks to place the study of democratic backsliding on sturdier conceptual, operational, and theoretical foundations. Conceptually, the challenge of backsliding is to define changes that take place within a political regime. Methodologically, the challenge involves measurement of intraregime changes, as alternative coding schemes change the population of units that have experienced democratic backsliding. Theoretical challenges are dual: First, despite a rich and diverse literature, we lack readily available theories to explain backsliding, and second, the theoretical debates that do exist—centered on the causes of democratic transitions, democratic breakdowns, authoritarian resilience, and democratic consolidation—remain unresolved. We consider how these theories might be called into service to explain backsliding. By doing so, the article aims to set the terms of the debate to create a common focal point around which research can coalesce.

Gravity in View of the Theory of Orbiting Binary Stars

In this paper, we investigate orbiting of two stars having equal masses. We consider two models: with a circular orbit and with two elliptical orbits having a common center of a mass located in a common focal point. In the case of the circular orbit, we applied the notion of the instantaneous complex frequency. The paper is illustrated with numerous formulas, derivations and discussion of results.

Shaw's Joan of Arc and Heaney's Antigone as Classically Modern Heroines

ABSTRACT Literary critics have paid little attention to the similar artistic goals of Bernard Shaw and Seamus Heaney, who were both critical of the state of humanity. This article examines various aspects of their work, focusing specifically on the employment of the classical form in Shaw's Saint Joan and Heaney's The Burial at Thebes. Since the essential action in Greek drama relies on discourse and verbal interaction, its form appealed to both Shaw and Heaney, who are remembered today as masters of the spoken word. This article shows that their use of classical forms and themes sheds light on the power politics of their respective times. While the two plays significantly differ, one being a bona fide history play and the other an adaptation of the famous classic, their authors share a common focal point: they want to cure humanity of a disease whose main symptom is the repetition of History's mistakes.

Vidensamfundets forhistorie. En introduktion til nyere, international udforskning af tidligmoderne videnskulturer ca. 1500-1800

The scope of this review essay on The pre-history of the Knowledge Society is to introducenew explorations (writings, research projects and web resources) into early moderncultures of knowledge c. 1500 to 1800. It focuses mainly on German and Anglo-Americanscholarship from the last two decades. The dialogue between these traditions,e.g. the material-orientated ‘information history’ and the often more anthropologicalinformed field of ‘Wissensgeschichte’, has been almost non-existent. Bringing the twotraditions together is a purpose in itself with this essay. A common focal point in theexploration of early modern knowledge cultures, it is argued, is an emphasis partly onthe practices of knowledge management, whether practical or mental, and partly onthe hybridity of knowledge. Notable and exemplary books, articles and projects fromthis broad field are divided into thematic headings: actors of knowledge, practices ofknowledge, places of knowledge and media. Finally, the burgeoning interest in earlymodern practices and norms of scholarly production is suggested as representing botha reorientation and a retro-orientation of Humanities in the digital age.

Percentile Fragment Size Predictions for Blasted Rock and the Fragmentation\u2013Energy Fan

It is shown that blast fragmentation data in the form of sets of percentile fragment sizes, xP, as function of specific charge (powder factor, q) often form a set of straight lines in a log(xP) versus log(q) diagram that tend to converge on a common focal point. This is clear for single-hole shots with normal specific charge values in specimens of virgin material, and the phenomenon is called the fragmentation–energy fan. Field data from bench blasting with several holes in single or multiple rows in rock give data that scatter much more, but examples show that the fragmentation data tend to form such fans. The fan behavior implies that the slopes of the straight size versus specific charge lines in log–log space depend only on the percentile level in a given test setup. It is shown that this property can be derived for size distribution functions of the form P[ln(xmax/x)/ln(xmax/x50)]. An example is the Swebrec function; for it to comply with the fragmentation–energy fan properties, the undulation parameter b must be constant. The existence of the fragmentation–energy fan contradicts two basic assumptions of the Kuz-Ram model: (1) that the Rosin–Rammler function reproduces the sieving data well and (2) that the uniformity index n is a constant, independent of q. This favors formulating the prediction formulas instead in terms of the percentile fragment size xP for arbitrary P values, parameters that by definition are independent of any size distribution, be it the Rosin–Rammler, Swebrec or other. A generalization of the fan behavior to include non-dimensional fragment sizes and an energy term with explicit size dependence seems possible to make.

Novel focal point multipass cell for absorption spectroscopy on small sized atmospheric pressure plasmas.

A novel focal point multipass cell (FPMPC) was developed, in which all laser beams propagate through a common focal point. It is exclusively constructed from standard optical elements. Main functional elements are two 90(∘) off-axis parabolic mirrors and two retroreflectors. Up to 17 laser passes are demonstrated with a near-infrared laser beam. The number of laser passes is precisely adjustable by changing the retroreflector distance. At the focal point beams are constricted to fit through an aperture of 0.8 mm. This is shown for 11 beam passes. Moreover, the fast temporal response of the cell permits investigation of transient processes with frequencies up to 10 MHz. In order to demonstrate the applicability of the FPMPC for atmospheric pressure plasma jets, laser absorption spectroscopy on the lowest excited argon state (1s5) was performed on a 1 MHz argon atmospheric pressure plasma jet. From the obtained optical depth profiles, the signal-to-noise ratio was deduced. It is shown that an elevation of the laser pass number results in an proportional increase of the signal-to-noise ratio making the FPMPC an appropriate tool for absorption spectroscopy on plasmas of small dimensions.

The interrelations of feminist, postfeminist, psychoanalytic and theoretical psychoanalytic positions: Dialogues and tensions

The fields of feminism/postfeminism and psychoanalysis/theoretical psychoanalysis share common focal points oriented toward the questions around the gendered subjectivity and the mechanisms which subject the subject and his/her body to the socially accepted/prefered gender standards. Speaking about that, feminism and psychoanalysis, as theoretical strategies, enter into mutual interrelation of both dialogue and tension. Working with some of the basic hypotheses of those disciplines, this paper aims to show the potential of analytical-comparative approach to feminist and psycho?analytic theoretical strategies, accentuating at the same time the importance of their dialogue as the means of better understanding of the femaleness and gender in general in the actual context of living.