Current Process Research Articles

Signature of the western boundary currents in local climate variability.

The western boundary currents are characterized by narrow, intense ocean jets and are among the most energetic phenomena in the world ocean. The importance of the western boundary currents to the mean climate is well established: they transport vast quantities of heat from the subtropics to the midlatitudes1, and they govern the structure of the climatological mean surface winds2-6, precipitation4-6 and extratropical storm tracks7-13. Their importance to climate variability is much less clear, as the tropospheric response to extratropical sea surface temperature (SST) variability is generally modest relative to the internal variability in the midlatitude atmosphere12-14. Here we exploit novel local analyses based on high-spatial-resolution data to demonstrate that SST variability in the western boundary currents has a more robust signature in climate variability than has been indicated in previous work. Our results indicate that warm SST anomalies in the major boundary currents of both hemispheres are associated with a distinct signature of locally enhanced precipitation and rising motion anomalies that extend throughout the depth of the troposphere. The tropospheric signature closely mirrors that of ocean dynamical processes in the boundary currents. Thus, the findings indicate a distinct and robust pathway through which extratropical ocean dynamical processes influence local climate variability. The observational relationships are also reproducible in Earth system model simulations but only when the simulations are run at high spatial resolution.

Coastal Chronicles: Journey into the World of Coastal Systems

Coastal systems are complex and dynamic settings where the atmosphere, sea, and land combine to create a variety of landscapes, including coral reefs, beaches, and estuaries. These areas contribute to global sustainability initiatives delineated in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), sustain biodiversity, and play crucial ecological and economic roles. For sustainable management and protection of coastal environments, it is imperative to possess an understanding of the physical attributes, biological constituents, and mechanisms that dictate their dynamics. The natural processes of tides, waves, and currents impact the geomorphology of coastal systems, resulting in the formation of features including dunes, beaches, estuaries, and deltas. Coastal vegetation that stabilizes sediments and supports a variety of habitats, like seagrasses, mangroves, and salt marshes, further enriches these landscapes. Fish, crabs, mollusks, and birds are among the coastal fauna that flourish in these habitats and add to the diversity of coastal life. However, human activities that accelerate natural processes like erosion, accretion, and sea-level riseuch as industrialization, pollution, and climate change pose an increasing threat to coastal systems. Thus, it is essential to use sustainable management techniques that strike a balance between development objectives and conservation initiatives. Coastal ecosystems must be protected and enhanced through the implementation of policies like Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM), habitat restoration, and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). A combination of mitigation and adaptation strategies, such as building coastal fortifications and promoting nature-based solutions, are also necessary for climate change adaption. We can ensure the resilience and vitality of coastal systems for present and future generations, as well as their sustained ecological and economic significance in the global environment, by tackling these intricate concerns cooperatively and comprehensively.

Image Processing Technology Based on Machine Learning

Machine learning is a relatively new field. With the deepening of people's research in this field, the application of machine learning is increasingly extensive. On the other hand, with the development of science and technology, image has become an indispensable medium of information transmission, and image processing technology is also booming. This paper introduces machine learning into image processing, and studies the image processing technology based on machine learning. This paper summarizes the current popular image processing technology, compares various image technology in detail, and explains the limitations of each image processing method. In addition, on the basis of image processing, this paper introduces machine learning algorithm, applies convolution neural network to feature extraction of image processing, and carries out simulation test. In the test, we select voc2007 dataset for image segmentation, Imagenet dataset for target detection, cifar100 dataset for image classification, and ROC curve for performance evaluation. The results show that the algorithm based on deep learning can achieve high accuracy in image segmentation, classification and target detection. The accuracy of image segmentation is 0.984, the accuracy of image classification is 0.987, and the accuracy of target detection is 0.986. Image processing based on machine learning has great advantages.

Readiness of Indonesian pre-service science teachers for society 5.0

This research aimed to assess the readiness of Indonesian pre-service science teachers by examining their perceptions of impending challenges, desired competencies, and anticipated instructional methodologies in preparing for the challenges of Society 5.0. Using a quantitative survey research methodology, 884 pre-service science teachers from 16 universities were surveyed. The research instrument's validity and reliability were assessed utilizing the Rasch model. Inferential statistics were employed to assess the readiness of pre-service science teachers for future challenges, taking into account their backgrounds. The test outcomes showed the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient reached 0.92, is deemed "excellent", affirming the instrument's high reliability. The findings of the study revealed that the majority of teachers share a consistent perception of future challenges and recognize the importance of mastering 21st-century skills, particularly critical thinking, creative thinking, communication, and collaboration. However, respondents believe that the current learning process does not adequately train these skills. They expressed a desire for an alternative learning method that can enhance their skills while accommodating their diverse backgrounds, including place of residence, economic background, and technological proficiency. Further research is needed to identify alternative teaching methods that can effectively foster these abilities in diverse backgrounds.

HK-SPSA based performance optimization method for steam generator liquid level control

Steam generator level control systems play a crucial role in ensuring safe, economical, and stable operation of nuclear power plants. However, traditional control systems exhibit limited efficiency in commissioning and are susceptible to human error. Additionally, traditional parameter tuning methods are typically experienced-based, cumbersome, and time-consuming, making it challenging to obtain optimal parameters. To address these issues, we propose a hybrid knowledge-guided improved simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation algorithm (HK-SPSA) to optimize the control parameters of steam generator level control systems. Firstly, the algorithm utilizes iteration point adjacency information to approximate the current optimization process status and guide the adaptive adjustment of the iteration step size. Secondly, it utilizes composite gradient information generated by the estimated historical and current gradients to guide the optimization direction and the tuning of iteration step size. Simulation experiments have shown that HK-SPSA improves optimization performance and reduces the costs of optimization and adjustment compared to traditional methods.

Optical and mechanical properties of rutile TiO2 subjected to AC flash processing

Unusual physical properties associated with lattice defects induced by flash sintering and processing of oxide ceramics have attracted attentions. In this study, optical and mechanical properties of undoped and polycrystalline rutile TiO2 subjected to alternating current (AC) flash processing were characterized through diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and nanoindentation experiments at room temperature. The flashed sample exhibited substantial optical blackening and elastic softening but negligible changes in the hardness and crystal structure. The elastic softening demonstrated a significant rate dependence (i.e., elastic moduli decreased with testing rate), which was possibly caused by stress-induced reordering of point defects induced by AC flash processing. This elastic softening suggests that pronounced ionic mobility is obtained by flash processing even in undoped systems, which can potentially be extended to a general understanding of mass transport phenomena in transient metal oxides in strong electric fields.

Climate transformation through feminist ethics of care

Aiming to mitigate negative impacts of climate change, climate adaptation policy and practice increasingly engages with nuanced and differentiated impacts of climate change. Existing adaptation approaches and research informing them largely focus on outcomes of climactic events, but lack consideration of power structures shaping these phenomena and experiences of them. From a feminist peace perspective, I posit that tackling intersectional violences of climate change necessitates greater engagement with underlying knowledge. This paper explores how ways of knowing climate change impact ways of living with it: analyzing the ground on which climate action interventions stand and the paths on which they set us.I theorize ‘climate transformation’ as processual shifts in ways of knowing a problem and solution toward norms of a feminist peace. Theory is developed abductively, based on original fieldwork in Puerto Rico and drawing on conflict transformation theory and elaborating knowledge production through feminist ethics of care. The model developed here enables analyzing orientations of current situations and change processes in relation to desirable futures. I find that actors involved in peace work and climate action in Puerto Rico foster transformation based on: caring in current relations and experience; caring through change processes affectively and reciprocally; and caring for a vision of the future through prefigurative and historicized imagination. The framework advances academic study and policy development on transformative climate action for tackling historic and intersectional violences to influence and enact particular visions of peace.

Healthcare 5.0: A secure and distributed network for system informatics in medical surgery

IntroductionHealth records serve not only as a database of a patient's health history and treatment process but also as a crucial tool for doctors to diagnose and treat patients. However, the storage and sharing of these records are sensitive issues as they involve maintaining patient privacy and ensuring data transparency, security, and interoperability between different parties. Challenges to achieving these goals in the current surgical process can impact the allocation of medical resources and surgical outcomes. MethodsThis article proposes a healthcare 5.0 framework for medical surgery that deploys a secure and distributed network using Blockchain to demonstrate transactions between different parties in the orthopedic surgery process. The proposed network uses the Hyperledger Composer platform for deployment, and a patient-doctor-supplier orthopedic surgery network is designed and implemented to enable the safe sharing of medical records. ResultsA benchmarking tool was implemented for analyzing different scenarios of applying blockchain technology to orthopedic surgery. The application of blockchain technology to orthopedic surgery presents a promising solution for data sharing and supply chain management in the field. The integration of blockchain with cloud storage and hybrid encryption ensures secure and efficient storage of Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Personal Health Record (PHR) data. By leveraging the tamper-proof nature of blockchain and addressing concerns regarding centralized data storage, this scenario demonstrates enhanced security, improved access efficiency, and privacy protection in medical data sharing. ConclusionsThe article demonstrates the feasibility of using an IoT-based blockchain network in orthopedic surgery, which can reduce medical errors and improve data interoperability among different parties. This unique application of blockchain enables secure sharing of medical records, ensuring transparency, security, and interoperability. The network design may also be applicable to other surgeries and medical applications in the future.

GraphScale: Scalable Processing on FPGAs for HBM and Large Graphs

Recent advances in graph processing on FPGAs promise to alleviate performance bottlenecks with irregular memory access patterns. Such bottlenecks challenge performance for a growing number of important application areas like machine learning and data analytics. While FPGAs denote a promising solution through flexible memory hierarchies and massive parallelism, we argue that current graph processing accelerators either use the off-chip memory bandwidth inefficiently or do not scale well across memory channels. In this work, we propose GraphScale, a scalable graph processing framework for FPGAs. GraphScale combines multi-channel memory with asynchronous graph processing (i.e., for fast convergence on results) and a compressed graph representation (i.e., for efficient usage of memory bandwidth and reduced memory footprint). GraphScale solves common graph problems like breadth-first search, PageRank, and weakly connected components through modular user-defined functions, a novel two-dimensional partitioning scheme, and a high-performance two-level crossbar design. Additionally, we extend GraphScale to scale to modern high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and reduce partitioning overhead of large graphs with binary packing.

Effect of Cr on the high-temperature corrosion of dissimilar AISI 904L and Inconel 625 joints employed in the coal-fired thermal power plant tubes

ABSTRACT The hot corrosion behaviours of 5-mm-thick plates of dissimilar AISI 904L and Inconel 625 weldments produced by continuous current gas tungsten arc welding process using Ni-Cr-Mo-enriched filler wires (ERNiCrMo-4 and ERNiCrCoMo-1) were investigated. Optical microscopy was used to examine the microstructure of these weldments. The corrosion performance of the weldments and base metals was determined in the mixture of K2SO4 + 60% NaCl molten salt (MS) and air oxidation conditions at 700°C for 50 cycles. The thermogravimetric plots derived the corrosion kinetics of the weldments. The microstructure and the elemental analysis of the scales formed on the corroded samples were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive spectroscopy. The phases developed on the oxide layers during the corrosion were analysed using X-ray diffraction. The fusion zones of ERNiCrCoMo-1 weldment and AISI 904L base metal were vulnerable to degradation in the MS environment, causing severe cracks and spallation compared to ERNiCrCoMo-1 weldment.

An Analysis on the Efficiency of Alternative Dispute Resolution in Criminal Justice System with Emphasis on Plea Bargaining

Courts have long been severely overburdened with cases. It has been established that there are gaps in our current processes, and it is necessary to provide new ADR mechanisms so that conflicts can be resolved without the involvement of the court directly. ADR in criminal cases has failed to pick up speed, even though it is steadily becoming the norm for resolving civil issues. Plea bargaining is one of the ADR techniques used in the criminal judicial system. In the USA, plea bargaining is highly popular and accounts for over 90% of case resolutions. Plea bargaining has a solid track record in the United States of America for ensuring swift justice and access for all socioeconomic classes. Despite the fact that the idea of plea bargaining was first introduced to our criminal justice system back in 2005, India has not had much success with it. The many ADR techniques used in the criminal justice system are listed in this essay, along with an evaluation of their efficacy. It also compares plea bargaining practices across several nations, including Germany, the United Kingdom, France, India, and the United States, and examines whether India's current plea-bargaining system is effective enough to address the issue of the backlog of cases in our courts. The paper also makes recommendations to the legislative body to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of plea negotiations.

High‐Performance Nd: AIZO/Al2O3 Dual Active Layer Design Without Thermal Annealing: High‐Speed Electron Transport and Defect Modification in Thin Film Transistors

Flexible wearable electronics have been developing rapidly in recent years, and one of its core devices, thin‐film transistor (TFT), is also attracting attention. Current TFT preparation processes usually require high annealing temperatures (>350 °C), which is not conducive to their application on most flexible substrates (PET, PEN, nanopaper, etc.). In this article, a strategy for the room temperature preparation of Nd:AIZO/Al2O3 dual‐layer TFT devices is proposed, which has appreciable electrical properties without additional annealing treatment. Taguchi orthogonal experimental methods are used to investigate the effects of three essential process parameters on the performance of the films and devices. As Nd:AIZO deposition time decreases and Al2O3 oxygen percentage and time during deposition increase, the μsat and SS of TFT devices are improved. With the preferred combination of parameters applied to the device preparation, the device exhibits a saturation mobility μsat of 24.3 cm2 V−1 s−1, a threshold voltage Vth of −1.4 V, a subthreshold swing SS of 0.21 V decade−1 and an Ion/Ioff ratio of 4.26 × 108. The ultra‐thin Al2O3 layer act as defect modification and form high‐speed electron transport in channel layer. The room temperature preparation of the dual‐layer TFT process proposed in this article is compatible with large‐size low‐cost flexible substrates. It has great potential for application in green flexible wearable electronics.

Examining information systems use to facilitate the workplace accommodation process.

The workplace accommodation process is often affected by ineffective and inefficient communications and information exchanges among disabled employees and other stakeholders. Information systems (IS) can play a key role in facilitating a more effective and efficient accommodation process since IS has been shown to facilitate business processes and effect positive organizational changes. Since there is little to no research that exists on IS use to facilitate the workplace accommodation process, this paper, as a critical first step, examines how IS have been used in the accommodation process. Thirty-six interviews were conducted with disabled employees from various organizations. Open, axial, and selective coding were part of the analysis. Fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis was used to identify different levels of IS use based on participants' descriptions. An IS used in the workplace accommodation process consists of electronic request form, accommodation checklist, special budget, specific role, ancillary service, formal policy and procedure. There are different levels of IS use in the current accommodation process. The high-level IS use often results in a better accommodation performance than the low-level IS use, including high efficiency, high effectiveness, and low emotional tolls. Nevertheless, the high-level IS use often uses a specific, inflexible template as well as disregards human elements in the accommodation process. This work provides implications that future IS design should raise awareness of disability and accommodation, account for individual differences, involve multiple stakeholder inputs, as well as address the fundamental social issues in the accommodation process.

Review of the application of the most current sophisticated image processing methods for the skin cancer diagnostics purposes.

This paper presents the most current and innovative solutions applying modern digital image processing methods for the purpose of skin cancer diagnostics. Skin cancer is one of the most common types of cancers. It is said that in the USA only, one in five people will develop skin cancer and this trend is constantly increasing. Implementation of new, non-invasive methods plays a crucial role in both identification and prevention of skin cancer occurrence. Early diagnosis and treatment are needed in order to decrease the number of deaths due to this disease. This paper also contains some information regarding the most common skin cancer types, mortality and epidemiological data for Poland, Europe, Canada and the USA. It also covers the most efficient and modern image recognition methods based on the artificial intelligence applied currently for diagnostics purposes. In this work, both professional, sophisticated as well as inexpensive solutions were presented. This paper is a review paper and covers the period of 2017 and 2022 when it comes to solutions and statistics. The authors decided to focus on the latest data, mostly due to the rapid technology development and increased number of new methods, which positively affects diagnosis and prognosis.

Fluorescence confocal microscopy-complete digitization of pathology

Fluorescence-based confocal microscopy (FCM) can be used to create virtual H&E sections in real time. So far, FCM has been used in dermato-, uro-, and gynecopathology. FCM allows the creation of acompletely digitized frozen section, which could potentially replace conventional frozen sections in the future. The aim of the current work is to implement FCM technology as acomponent of fully digitized processes in the pathological workflow. For this purpose, the current use of FCM in liver transplant pathology will be extended to other disciplines such as urology and otorhinolaryngology. The FCM technique continues to be used prospectively on native tissue samples from potential donor livers. Conventional frozen sections are used comparatively to virtual FCM scans. The data show anearly perfect agreement for the detection of cholangitis, fibrosis, and malignancy, and ahigh level of agreement for, e.g., macrovesicular steatosis, inflammation, steatohepatitis, and necrosis between virtual FCM scans and conventional routine diagnostic frozen sections. Since the availability of time- and cost-intensive frozen section diagnostics in the context of transplant pathology in continuous operation (24/7) is now only established at very few university centers in Germany due to an increasing shortage of specialists, the use of FCM could be an important building block in the current process leading towards afully digitized pathology workflow and should thus be extended to various disciplines.

Bordering Democracies, Democratising Borders

Over the past 30 years, border scholars have written extensively on what borders are, where they are located, and how they operate, not just to critically understand their changing role, but also to criticise and denounce their violence and discrimination. Yet borders continue to proliferate, in particular as a response to alleged crises affecting Europe. If borders have always constituted markers of social and cultural identity, the more recent process of European re-bordering, I argue, constitutes a challenge for the democratic system as a whole. Implemented by left-wing and right-wing parties alike, this process seems indeed to have been taken away from public discourse and treated as a technical necessity to solve the crises. Far from being neutral or non-political, however, it has disclosed new forms of racial discrimination, political and economic power, and colonial violence. In order to substantiate my argument, I will 1) provide a brief examination of the recent changes in the concept and practice of democracy, as well as their interrelations with the process of European re-bordering, 2) investigate the socio-political and economic conditions under which the current process of European re-bordering has come about, with particular attention to the increasing role of media and political discourses in shaping public opinion, and 3) discuss the repercussions of the process of European re-bordering on the democratic system. The article will conclude by inviting scholars, civil society members, and any interested party to open up a more open and democratic debate around the unequal and discriminatory practices of bordering.

Sustainability Evaluation of the Al-Qasab Playa by Integrating Hydrogeochemical and Graphical, ArcGIS Watershed, and Thermodynamic Geochemical Modeling Approaches

Drawing development plans requires evaluating the available resources and assessing their sustainable and subsequent utilization-driven environmental impacts. The current work is concerned with evaluating the sustainability of the halite harvesting process from Al-Qasab Playa, Shaqra, Central Saudi Arabia. The authors integrated, conceptually and quantitatively, ArcGIS-processed SRTM-DEM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission-Digital Elevation Model) data, hydrogeochemical and thermodynamic-based geochemical modelling, and graphical approaches to achieve the ultimate aims of the study. The watershed is identified as a nonmarine closed basin with a drainage area of 1290 km2, with the slope controlling recharge to the Playa. The Chadha plot including the rainwater exhibits linear regression, with an R2 value of 0.9947, confirming the rainwater origin of the Playa water. The hardness-forming ions are primarily removed in pond 3, eliminating the need for costly and power-consuming steps of softening with ion exchange resins or nanofiltration as it can be used directly as a readily available feed for the chlor-alkali process for producing NaOH, Cl2, and H2 gases through electrolysis. XRD (X-ray diffraction) analysis and the SEM-EDS (Scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy) of the harvested halite confirmed its purity. An improved design of the current folkloric harvesting process has been proposed based on the saturation indices calculated thermodynamically to provide a readily available feed intake for the electrolysis chlor-alkali process with or without minimal pretreatment to produce higher value chemicals. The methodological aspects presented here are deemed robust and valid for applications in other study areas, including the assessment of the exploitation of the rejected brine from the desalination plants to achieve the zero liquid discharge approach, as well as other types of sabkhas, regardless of their geographical location.

Leadership Transitions and its Implications For Strategic Planning

Dotlich and Ciampa contend that “Business is a relay race that never ends. Of all the important transitions an organization must face, repeatedly and over time, perhaps the most difficult is the passing of the baton from one leader to the next"1 . An organization must institutionalize and continually improve its leadership transition plan in order to excel. My research focused on the role that HR could play to improve KAU’s leadership transitions by finding out how “front-line” stakeholders, i.e. middle management and their employees, experience existing organizational changes. My findings led me to the following observations: 1) effective leadership transitions are important to an organization’s ability to achieve strategic goals, and can be generalized to Saudi culture and organizations 2) Problematic transitions cause the same kinds of problems for employee stakeholders across cultures 3) Cultural factors can be a great obstacle to organizational success. This study provides some preliminary insights into the role that culture plays in determining the feasibility of applying “best practices” in Human Resource Management. I have made some recommendations that I judged to have merit and a good possibility for providing some improvement to the current KAU dysfunctional transition processes. Keywords: Strategic planning; Leadership transitions; Higher education; Modeling SWOT .

Human leucocytes processed by fast-rate inertial microfluidics retain conventional functional characteristics.

The manufacturing of clinical cellular therapies is a complex process frequently requiring manipulation of cells, exchange of buffers and volume reduction. Current manufacturing processes rely on either low throughput open centrifugation-based devices, or expensive closed-process alternatives. Inertial focusing (IF) microfluidic devices offer the potential for high-throughput, inexpensive equipment which can be integrated into a closed system, but to date no IF devices have been approved for use in cell therapy manufacturing, and there is limited evidence for the effects that IF processing has on human cells. The IF device described in this study was designed to simultaneously separate leucocytes, perform buffer exchange and provide a volume reduction to the cell suspension, using high flow rates with high Reynolds numbers. The performance and effects of the IF device were characterized using peripheral blood mononuclear cells and isolated monocytes. Post-processing cell effects were investigated using multi-parameter flow cytometry to track cell viability, functional changes and fate. The IF device was highly efficient at separating CD14+ monocytes (approx. 97% to one outlet, approx. 60% buffer exchange, 15 ml min-1) and leucocyte processing was well tolerated with no significant differences in downstream viability, immunophenotype or metabolic activity when compared with leucocytes processed with conventional processing techniques. This detailed approach provides robust evidence that IF devices could offer significant benefits to clinical cell therapy manufacture.

Business enterprise architecture in fitness center using the open group architecture framework

<span>Sports currently have an impact on human life, especially in the health sector. One way of exercising that is popular with many people today is by exercising at the fitness center. One of them is a fitness center located in Bandung. This research aims to obtain design results that can adapt business processes in fitness centers and can help the company's performance so that its vision and mission are achieved. The current business process is still experiencing problems because business has not yet been integrated with information technology (IT), so a business process proposal was made using the business architecture method. By conducting interviews and observations, data can be collected. From this data, it can be seen that business implementation in fitness centers is not yet optimal, so it is necessary to develop information system technology that is in line with the company's business. This technology development is based on business architecture which produces a company blueprint and is assisted by the open group architecture framework (TOGAF) which can help analyze company needs. The results of this research are in the form of recommendations which will later be proposed so that benefits for the company can be achieved more quickly.</span>