Definite Conditions Research Articles

Hostile Work Environment Rules: Comparative Analysis of U.S. and Canadian Laws

The MeToo Movement shocked the world and encouraged multiple victims of workplace harassment to disclose the severity of the problem. A few years have come since the onset of this notorious process, and it is reasonable to investigate if modern countries have adequate legislation to address the selected problem. Therefore, the legislation of the United States and Canada is the object of this research. The comparative research methodology is used to identify the applicable laws, compare them, and comment on the notable findings. This approach is practical and helpful since it highlights efficient strategies that other countries can use to succeed in the selected area. The research has identified that the two countries differ in the sources of law, enforcement, remedies, and definition conditions. Canada impresses with a more tailored approach to satisfy its local needs, but the two countries should regularly update and improve their legislation to address new harassment manifestations and challenges.

Difference of two sinc Schell-model cross-spectral density matrices

We propose a convenient method for modeling what we believe to be novel classes of cross-spectral density (CSD), in which the difference between two CSD matrices belonging to the same class represents a supposed novel valid CSD matrix under sufficient conditions. Using such a method, we introduce what we think is a new class of CSD matrix relating to the difference of two sinc Schell-model CSD matrices, and derive the sufficient conditions for the non-negative definiteness of the resulting CSD matrix. The statistical characteristics of such electromagnetic stochastic beams propagating in free space were investigated using weighted superposition and numerical simulation methods. It is demonstrated that this new light fields with any admissible choice of source parameters possess very peculiar evolution characteristics. The results illustrate new opportunities for study new classes of electromagnetic stochastic beams.

Agrypnia excitata: a human model to explore the derailment of sleep-wake cycle integrated control.

The commemoration of the 70th anniversary of rapid eye movement sleep discovery offers a unique possibility to reassess the peculiar organic condition of agrypnia excitata. Agrypnia excitata is characterized by a severe loss of sleep leading to a complete derangement of physiological sleep-wake cycle and body homeostasis. Agrypnia excitata is a definite clinico-neurophysiological condition characterized by: (1) slow-wave sleep loss with disruption of sleepwake cycle; (2) a 24-hr motor and autonomic overactivity; and (3) peculiar episodes of oneiric stupor. Agrypnia excitata may happen within different pathophysiologies, such as delirium tremens, Morvan's syndrome and fatal familial insomnia, suggesting some general reflections on the composition and function of the cerebral neuronal network generating wake and sleep behaviour and regulating body homeostasis, with a focus on rapid eye movement sleep.

Physics-informed quantum neural network for solving forward and inverse problems of partial differential equations

Recently, physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) have aroused an upsurge in the field of scientific computing including solving partial differential equations (PDEs), which convert the task of solving PDEs into an optimization challenge by adopting governing equations and definite conditions or observation data as loss functions. Essentially, the underlying logic of PINNs is based on the universal approximation and differentiability properties of classical neural networks (NNs). Recent research has revealed that quantum neural networks (QNNs), known as parameterized quantum circuits, also exhibit universal approximation and differentiability properties. This observation naturally suggests the application of PINNs to QNNs. In this work, we introduce a physics-informed quantum neural network (PI-QNN) by employing the QNN as the function approximator for solving forward and inverse problems of PDEs. The performance of the proposed PI-QNN is evaluated by various forward and inverse PDE problems. Numerical results indicate that PI-QNN demonstrates superior convergence over PINN when solving PDEs with exact solutions that are strongly correlated with trigonometric functions. Moreover, its accuracy surpasses that of PINN by two to three orders of magnitude, while requiring fewer trainable parameters. However, the computational time of PI-QNN exceeds that of PINN due to its operation on classical computers. This limitation may improve with the advent of commercial quantum computers in the future. Furthermore, we briefly investigate the impact of network architecture on PI-QNN performance by examining two different QNN architectures. The results suggest that increasing the number of trainable network layers can enhance the expressiveness of PI-QNN. However, an excessive number of data encoding layers significantly increases computational time, rendering the marginal gains in performance insufficient to compensate for the shortcomings in computational efficiency.

Aerothermodynamic similarity criteria for turbines operating within non-periodic transition processes

The aerothermodynamic performance test is a prerequisite for investigating the turbine transition process. To enhance the safety and feasibility of the experiments while reducing energy costs, the target high-temperature transition processes must be converted to low-temperature ones based on the similarity criteria. However, the commonly used similarity criteria for turbine aerothermal performance are only applicable to steady states, rather than transition processes. This study presents a set of similarity criteria for turbines operating within non-periodic transition processes, according to the similarity of the dimensionless Navier-Stokes equations and time-variant definite conditions. Furthermore, the proposed similarity method ensures the similarity of the hysteresis effect by maintaining the uniformity of the dimensionless moments between the high- and low-temperature operating conditions. Comprehensive validations are carried out on two different turbines operating within transition processes, covering periodic processes with different pulsating frequencies and amplitudes, as well as non-periodic ones. Both the proposed and commonly used similarity methods are applied to obtain low-temperature performance curves, and the two curves are compared with the target high-temperature curve to evaluate the similarity accuracy of the corresponding methods. Regarding the deviations in the reduced power output between the high- and low-temperature operating conditions, the proposed similarity method exhibits similarity errors of no more than 2 %, which is only approximately 20 % of the errors produced by the commonly used method. Thus, the proposed similarity method has a high accuracy and is applicable to non-periodic transition processes.

Fixed-time control and estimation of discontinuous fuzzy leakage-delayed networks: Indefinite and economical conditions of Filippov systems

This paper considers the fixed-time stability of Filippov systems and discontinuous networks described by the Filippov systems. Firstly, the more generalized and economical inequality condition on Lyapunov function is proposed, which can not only improve the previous negative definite conditions, but also the indefinite conditions. Based on the definition of the Lyapunov stability and finite-time convergence, new fixed-time stability lemmas are proposed and the settling-time is also estimated. In order to apply the new fixed-time stability lemmas to the neural networks, fixed-time stabilization of a class of fuzzy leakage-delayed neural networks with discontinuous activations is considered which is rarely studied since the delay is leakage and activations are discontinuous and they are not easy to deal with simultaneously. By means of the Filippov regularization and differential inclusions theory, new criteria on the stabilization of the considered networks are derived via the new modified non-chattering controller, which can improve the previous ones with parameter and symbolic function. Finally, example and numerical simulations further examine the correctness of the main results.

A Degree-Dependent Polynomial-Based Reciprocally Convex Matrix Inequality and Its Application to Stability Analysis of Delayed Neural Networks.

In this article, several improved stability criteria for time-varying delayed neural networks (DNNs) are proposed. A degree-dependent polynomial-based reciprocally convex matrix inequality (RCMI) is proposed for obtaining less conservative stability criteria. Unlike previous RCMIs, the matrix inequality in this article produces a polynomial of any degree in the time-varying delay, which helps to reduce conservatism. In addition, to reduce the computational complexity caused by dealing with the negative definite of the high-degree terms, an improved lemma is presented. Applying the above matrix inequalities and improved negative definiteness condition helps to generate a more relaxed stability criterion for analyzing time-varying DNNs. Two examples are provided to illustrate this statement.

Magnetic hybrid spheres of glauconite/calcium alginate interface for methylene blue adsorption: Synthesis, characterization, and novel physicochemical insights through theoretical treatment

Fe3O4 nanoparticles were embedded within a glauconite‑calcium alginate (G/CA) matrix to create magnetic hybrid spheres (MNPs-G/CA), with the aim of purifying water from methylene blue (MB) at temperatures of 25, 40, and 50 °C. MNPs-G/CA adsorbent was characterized using numerous techniques, including elemental mapping, zeta potential, FTIR, FESEM, XRD, EDX, and TEM. The greatest amount of the removed MB was achieved under definite conditions of solution pH 8.0, MNPs-G/CA mass (25 mg), interaction time (2 h), and 200 mg/L of MB concentration. The MB uptake process kinetic followed a pseudo-second-order equation (R2 > 0.99) at all tested temperatures. The equilibrium data were fitted to a statistical physics multilayer model in conjunction with the Langmuir and Freundlich equations. The steric n parameter reveals that MNPs-G/CA adsorbent possesses a mixed adsorption orientation (i.e., ranging from 0.69 to 0.93) across various temperatures. The amount of MNPs-G/CA active positions (the NM parameter) was progressively increased from 245 mg/g to 419 mg/g. The measured adsorption capacities (Qsat) ranged from 466.49 to 664.37 mg/g, and the removal of MB molecules was consistent with an endothermic interaction. The interface between the MNPs-G/CA-MB was principally dictated by electrostatic attractions, as evidenced by the values of adsorption energies (∆E), which varied from 16.75 to 21.52 kJ/mol. The regenerated MNPs-G/CA offered over 80 % of its adsorption strength after the fourth adsorption–desorption cycle. This study contributes to our understanding of the physicochemical parameters controlling the MB adsorption mechanism on multifunctional hybrid adsorbents, like the interface between glauconite, alginate, and MNPs.

Complete and Voluntary Abandonment of the Criminal Purpose in the Notes to the Articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on Terrorist Crimes: Grounds for Application

The norms of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on exemption from criminal liability or noninvolvement therein are an important tool for countering crimes in general. The relevant norms contained in the notes to the articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation providing for liability for terrorist crimes are no exception. Of the articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation providing for liability for terrorist crimes, the relevant notes are given to Articles 205–206 and 208. However, the effective use of the possibilities contained in the listed articles may be hindered by the confusion of grounds for exemption from criminal liability and grounds excluding criminal liability inherent in them. The author make a conclusion on the need to coordinate the notes to Articles 205–206, 208 of the Criminal Code with the provisions on voluntary abandonment of a crime (Article 31 of the Criminal Code) and complete abandonment of the criminal purpose (part 2 of Article 75 of the Criminal Code). Such coordination is a necessary condition for a clear definition of the legal nature of the circumstances set out in the notes to the above articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Currently, unambiguous grounds for differentiating these circumstances into exempting from criminal liability and excluding criminal liability are absent, which leads to contradictory and controversial conclusions when judicial authorities make decisions on cases of terrorist crimes provided for in Articles 205–206, 208 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Vagueness and relative truth

Abstract According to a view called ‘nihilism’, sentences containing vague expressions cannot strictly speaking be true or false, because they lack definite truth conditions. While most theorists of vagueness tend to regard nihilism as a hopeless view, a few isolated attempts have been made to defend it. This paper aims to develop such attempts in a new direction by showing how nihilism, once properly spelled out, can meet three crucial explanatory challenges that, respectively, concern truth, assertibility, and communication.

A novel equivalent reciprocal convex combination technique to sampled‐data master–slave synchronization for chaotic Lur'e systems with time‐varying delays

AbstractFor a class of master–slave (M‐S) systems in chaotic Lur'e systems with time‐varying delays, a sampled‐data synchronization controller is designed, and a new synchronization stability condition is proposed in the form of linear matrix inequality. A novel Lyapunov‐Krasovskii functional (LKF) is constructed by using the looped‐functional method, and the positive definiteness condition of LKF including sampled‐data parts is exchanged with a looping condition by constructing a functional, which should be equal at adjacent sampling times. The M‐S synchronization condition is obtained utilizing the equivalent reciprocal convex combination approach combined with Bessel‐Legendre integral inequality to estimate the LKF derivative. Different from previous methods, due to fully utilizing both nonlinearity and state information at the sampling time via the integral of error systems from the sampling time to current one, the M‐S synchronization condition is less conservative, and obtained sampled‐data controller possesses a longer sampling period. Finally, two numerical examples verify the superiority and validity of the approach.

Delayed analogue of three-parameter pseudo-Mittag-Leffler functions and their applications to Hilfer pseudo-fractional time retarded differential equations

Delayed analogue of three-parameter pseudo-Mittag-Leffler functions and their applications to Hilfer pseudo-fractional time retarded differential equations

Evaluation of Prehospital Undertriage in Relation to Trauma Team Activation-Results from a Prospective Study in 12 Level one German Trauma Centers.

Background/Objective: This prospective, multicenter observational cohort study was carried out in 12 trauma centers in Germany and Switzerland. Its purpose was to evaluate the rate of undertriage, as well as potential consequences, and relate these with different Trauma Team Activation Protocols (TTA-Protocols), as this has not been done before in Germany. Methods: Each trauma center collected the data during a three-month period between December 2019 and February 2021. All 12 participating hospitals are certified as supra-regional trauma centers. Here, we report a subgroup analysis of undertriaged patients. Those included in the study were all consecutive adult patients (age ≥ 18 years) with acute trauma admitted to the emergency department of one of the participating hospitals by the prehospital emergency medical service (EMS) within 6 h after trauma. The data contained information on age, sex, trauma mechanism, pre- and in-hospital physiology, emergency interventions, emergency surgical interventions, intensive care unit (ICU) stay, and death within 48 h. Trauma team activation (TTA) was initiated by the emergency medical services. This should follow the national guidelines for severe trauma using established field triage criteria. We used various denominators, such as ISS, and criteria for the appropriateness of TTA to evaluate the undertriage in four groups. Results: This study included a total of 3754 patients. The average injury severity score was 5.1 points, and 7.0% of cases (n = 261) presented with an injury severity score (ISS) of 16+. TTA was initiated for a total of 974 (26%) patients. In group 1, we evaluated how successful the actual practice in the EMS was in identifying patients with ISS 16+. The undertriage rate was 15.3%, but mortality was lower in the undertriage cohort compared to those with a TTA (5% vs. 10%). In group 2, we evaluated the actual practice of EMS in terms of identifying patients meeting the appropriateness of TTA criteria; this showed a higher undertriage rate of 35.9%, but as seen in group 1, the mortality was lower (5.9% vs. 3.3%). In group 3, we showed that, if the EMS were to strictly follow guideline criteria, the rate of undertriage would be even higher (26.2%) regarding ISS 16+. Using the appropriateness of TTA criteria to define the gold standard for TTA (group 4), 764 cases (20.4%) fulfilled at least one condition for retrospective definition of TTA requirement. Conclusions: Regarding ISS 16+, the rate of undertriage in actual practice was 15.3%, but those patients did not have a higher mortality.

Postglacial flooding and Holocene climate shifts in the Persian Gulf

ABSTRACTPostglacial flooding of the Persian Gulf (PG) was important in shaping human history and driving landscape changes in the region. However, there is a paucity of data regarding the postglacial transgression. The position of the PG at the edge of major synoptic systems of the Indian Ocean Summer Monsoon (IOSM) and Mid‐latitude Westerlies (MLW) makes the environment particularly sensitive to Holocene climate shifts. To investigate the timing of the flooding and to detect the impacts of significant climate shifts on the regional environment during the Holocene, a multiproxy study was conducted on three short sediment cores from two deep sites in the PG. Sedimentological, palynological and geochemical analyses were performed on the cores. The results show that inundation of the western part of the PG that started from ca. 11.5 ka bp continued with successive prominent phases of transgression centered on 10.4 and 9.2 ka cal bp, and definitive marine conditions were established around 8.8 ka cal bp. The IOSM was the dominant system in the region until about 9 to ~6.3 ka cal bp. After that time, the intensity of the IOSM declined, as MLW dominated the region after ~6.3 ka cal bp. These climatic shifts induced significant changes in regional vegetation and hydrology, and possibly triggered socio‐cultural transformations.

Research on precise and standardized numerical simulation strategy for vehicle aerodynamics

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to propose a precise and standardized strategy for numerically simulating vehicle aerodynamics.Design/methodology/approachError sources in computational fluid dynamics were analyzed. Additionally, controllable experiential and discretization errors, which significantly influence the calculated results, are expounded upon. Considering the airflow mechanism around a vehicle, the computational efficiency and accuracy of each solution strategy were compared and analyzed through numerous computational cases. Finally, the most suitable numerical strategy, including the turbulence model, simplified vehicle model, calculation domain, boundary conditions, grids and discretization scheme, was identified. Two simplified vehicle models were introduced, and relevant wind tunnel tests were performed to validate the selected strategy.FindingsErrors in vehicle computational aerodynamics mainly stem from the unreasonable simplification of the vehicle model, calculation domain, definite solution conditions, grid strategy and discretization schemes. Using the proposed standardized numerical strategy, the simulated steady and transient aerodynamic characteristics agreed well with the experimental results.Originality/valueBuilding upon the modified Low-Reynolds Number k-e model and Scale Adaptive Simulation model, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, a precise and standardized numerical simulation strategy for vehicle aerodynamics is proposed for the first time, which can be integrated into vehicle research and design.

On the Hard Boundary Constraint Method for Fluid Flow Prediction based on the Physics-Informed Neural Network

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, the physics-informed neural network (PINN) has gradually emerged as an effective and potential method for solving N-S equations. The treatment of constraints is vital to the PINN prediction accuracy. Compared to soft constraints, hard constraints are advantageous for the avoidance of difficulties in guaranteeing definite conditions and determining penalty coefficients. However, the principles on the formulation of hard constraints of PINN currently remain to be formed, which hinders the application of PINN in engineering fields. In this study, hard-constraint-based PINN models are constructed for Couette flow, plate shear flow and stenotic/aneurysmal flow with curved geometries. Particular efforts have been devoted to assessing the impact of the model parameters of hard constraints, i.e., degree and scaling factor, on the prediction accuracy of PINN at different Reynolds numbers. The results show that the degree is the most important factor that influences the prediction accuracy, followed by the scaling factor. As for the N-S equations, the degree of hard constraints should be at least two, while the scaling factor is recommended to be maintained around 1.0. The outcomes of the present work are of reference value for the development of PINN methods in fluid mechanics.

Humanity in Diversity: A Simple Basic Complementary Act to Help the Marginalized and Lonely Elderly Living in a Private, Non-Profit Nursing Home

Aims: To describe a simple basic complementary humanity act such as nursing home visit that can help a group of marginalized and abandoned elderly with no family who live together as residents of a non-profit nursing home feel better with simple but universal human touch and also to maintain or improve the functional status of elderly and reduce the use of institutional care services; an approach that can be consider as an alternative that complement the medical management of the elderly Study Design: Interventional cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Private non-profit nursing home Yayasan Bunga Bakung, north Jakarta, Indonesia, between November-December 2023. Methodology: 12 individuals (1 man, 11 women; age range 65-85 years) with geriatric syndrome whose previously live alone with no family, no social security, abandoned and marginalized, which are then accommodated and maintained by a non-profit foundation in a nursing home as subject to our visit. Three out of these 12 residents have definite post-stroke condition with weakness or paralysis on one side of their body, and having problems with co-ordination and balance. 7 out of 12 suffer from hypertension. We conducted five simple and basic nursing home visit to maintain and improve the functional status of elderly and minimize the use of institutional care services. In the first two visit, a small advanced team conducted simple focus group discussion (to the management in the first visit, and to the inmates during the second visit) regarding the daily management of the continuity of nursing homes as well as the advantages and disadvantages and future hopes felt by the inmates. The third visit is our main social activity which centered on all the elderly and followed by the fourth and fifth visit where simple observation and analysis of the inmate’s response to the previous visit conducted. Results: Observation conducted during the fourth and fifth showed a slight improvement. This basic risk limitation group intervention) related to the performance of the elderly, such as in the context of topics of conversation among themselves as well as increased personal perceptions regarding feelings of worth, being given attention, being considered present and important. A risk limitation group approach like the one that we did seems promising, but further scientific evidence is needed Conclusion: Non-invasive complementary humanitarian approach for maintaining and even improving functional status of elderly is a possible approach that may produce happiness and well-being, and reduce medical as well as financial burden, hence improving the real time psycho-biological welfare is part of the management of geriatric problem. This approach, however, need further work to validate reliability.

Locally unitarily invariantizable NEPv and convergence analysis of SCF

We consider a class of eigenvector-dependent nonlinear eigenvalue problems (NEPv) without the unitary invariance property. Those NEPv commonly arise as the first-order optimality conditions of a particular type of optimization problems over the Stiefel manifold, and previously, special cases have been studied in the literature. Two necessary conditions, a definiteness condition and a rank-preserving condition, on an eigenbasis matrix of the NEPv that is a global optimizer of the associated optimization problem are revealed, where the definiteness condition has been known for the special cases previously investigated. We show that, locally close to the eigenbasis matrix satisfying both necessary conditions, the NEPv can be reformulated as a unitarily invariant NEPv, the so-called aligned NEPv, through a basis alignment operation — in other words, the NEPv is locally unitarily invariantizable. Numerically, the NEPv is naturally solved by a self-consistent field (SCF)-type iteration. By exploiting the differentiability of the coefficient matrix of the aligned NEPv, we establish a closed-form local convergence rate for the SCF-type iteration and analyze its level-shifted variant. Numerical experiments confirm our theoretical results.

Suppressing filamentation instability due to laser beam self-filtering

Abstract The development of small-scale self-focusing in a nonlinear Kerr medium after preliminary self-filtering of a laser beam propagating in free space is studied numerically. It is shown that, under definite conditions, due to self-filtering, filamentation instability (beam splitting into filaments) either occurs at significantly larger values of the B-integral, or does not occur at all. In the latter case, there develops the honeycomb instability revealed in this work. This instability is the formation of a random honeycomb structure in the beam cross-section. It is shown that self-filtering can significantly increase the permissible values of the B-integral, at which the beam quality remains acceptable.

О корректировке алгоритма расчета высоты сортировочной горки

At present the height of marshalling yards is calculated basing on the determination of the power of resistance to the movement of cars when rolling down a hill on definite conditions. Wherein the calculation norms of the main specific resistance to movement, used until present time, were accepted more than 40 years ago. Therefore, their use for the description of the modern car park driving characteristics may lead to the results of unsuitable current operating conditions, as well as to the increase of the emergency appearance when disbanding. The article suggests the adjustment of the algorithm of a marshalling yard height calculation based on the results of up-to-date researches of the main specific resistance to movement made by the specialists of the Siberian Transport University and JSC «NIIAS» and the correction of the methods of calculation of the height of the marshalling yard.