Desired State Research Articles

Conditional control of measurement-driven machines

The cycle model of a finite-time measurement-driven machine is proposed by repeatedly performing the quantum measurement, interaction of an atom with the single-mode field, and thermalization with heat reservoirs. The trajectories of the evolution of the atom reach a stationary probability distribution after sufficiently many iterations of the cycle, from which the average changes of the internal energy and the entropy of the atom are calculated. By taking the total work input as the sum of the average works during the measurement, unitary evolution, and information erasure processes, the energy conversion efficiencies of the machine as a refrigerator and a heat engine are determined. Results show that the cooperation of the quantum measurement and the unitary operation always turns the state of the atom into a desired state in every trajectory, yielding a high energy conversion efficiency. The investigation on the proposed model has potentially significant applications where the thermal manipulation at the quantum level is required.

Identifying the determinants of carbon emissions of individual airlines around the world

Increasing global demand for flights coupled with a focus on mitigating climate change will soon see the introduction of more stringent policy governing carbon emissions from aviation. Airlines face the challenge of catering to increased demand while achieving carbon reductions. We implement Log-Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) Modelling to identify the most influential factors of contributing to carbon emissions of airlines. We find that changes to capacity account for at least 40% of the changes in emissions for most airlines. We subsequently conduct decoupling analysis to investigate the extent to which individual airlines have been successful in breaking the link between expanding scale and carbon emissions and suggest ways to achieve a desired decoupling state. LMDI at the micro level is more informative in this instance as airlines will be better equipped to achieve the optimal balance of servicing the market while simultaneously reducing emissions to comply with forthcoming policies.

Countermeasures for the Transformation of Migrant Workers to Industrial Workers in the Construction Industry Based on Evolutionary Game Theory

With the rapid development of new construction methods, China’s construction industry is facing the transformation challenges of industrialization and informationization. However, migrant workers are characterized by high mobility, low education, and poor skills in China’s national conditions, which can no longer meet the requirements of operations. The transformation of the low-level manual migrant workers in the construction industry to high-level skilled industrial workers is inevitable. In order to explore how to better achieve the transformation of construction workers, evolutionary game research with construction unit and labor company as the subjects was carried out. Three types of assumptions were introduced into the constructed evolutionary game model: cooperation mechanism, spillover effect, and incentive mechanism (CSI). Simulation experiments and analysis of the model were finally conducted. The results of the game analysis finally show: (1) a higher initial proportion of selected transformed industrial workers; (2) a fair benefit concession from the construction unit to the labor company; (3) a lower revenue spillover effect; (4) that a higher level of regulation and incentives are conducive to the evolutionary game to converge to the desired state at a faster rate. The findings provide ideas for improving the labor system in China’s construction industry and lay the foundation for solving the labor specialization problem of new construction methods.

A framework for dynamical distributed flocking control in dense environments

The bio-inspired flocking model has been widely utilized in self-organized swarms. However, existing potential field methods fail to guarantee safe and orderly swarm movement in dense environments featuring both static and dynamic obstacles. In this study, we propose an innovative, dynamically optimized flocking control framework that integrates an improved and tunable self-propelled flocking model with an enhanced dynamic particle swarm optimization (DPSO) algorithm. Our model incorporates pigeon-inspired obstacle gap selection based on a probability approach to optimize steering decisions. Moreover, we introduce the DPSO algorithm, which combines a collaboration-based particle swarm optimizer with fractional order velocity incorporated history-guided estimation. This hybrid algorithm dynamically determines the optimal set of control parameters to maintain the desired swarm state. Through numerical comparison experiments with state-of-the-art models, we demonstrate that our approach enhances the safety, synchronization, and efficiency of the swarm even within a limited visual field, without prior environmental information. These features bring the simulations closer to real-world experiments.

Talleres integradores para la conciliación de la vida laboral-familiar como factor de calidad de los servicios estomatológicos

Introduction: Work-life balance has a positive impact on work, family and quality of services. The aim of this study was to propose an intervention through workshops as a contribution to work-life balance as a determinant of the quality of stomatological services.Methods: An intervention study was carried out using non-probability sampling based on selection criteria. The study universe included 10 female stomatologists, five female managers and their respective partners. The proposal was evaluated by experts and workshops were designed to integrate theoretical and practical knowledge, taking as a starting point the experiences of the participants, promoting reflection and collective transformation of the problems.Results: The experts evaluated the proposal as applicable, feasible, generalizable, relevant, valid and original. Six conference sessions and 27 group discussion sessions were held, distributed in three workshops: workshop 1, focused on the action plan as a key factor for the transformation of the current state towards the desired state; workshop 2, focused on conciliation as a determining factor in the quality of stomatological services; and workshop 3, oriented to the systematic follow-up of the tasks of the action plan. The intervention evaluated and implemented allowed contributing to the reconciliation of work and family life through the incorporation of new knowledge and active participation in the processes of organizational change.

Career urgency and turnover intention among young adult workers: a comparison by gender and employment status

BackgroundThis study aimed to analyze, by grouping young adult workers by gender and employment status, the model that states that the tendency for impatience in situations such as “stagnation in career exploration,” “low evaluation from affiliation,” “upward comparison of careers between friends and acquaintances,” and “lack of work–life balance” leads to turnover intention through career urgency such as the “feeling of being pressurized,” having the “urge to develop one’s career,” and having “concern for one’s career.”MethodsAn online survey was conducted targeting 400 young adult workers. A simultaneous multi-population analysis was performed.ResultsFor both male and female regular employees, the tendency for impatience when their career exploration stagnated led to their turnover intention by the “feeling of being pressurized.” However, for both male and female non-regular employees, although the tendency for impatience promotes the “feeling of being pressurized” upon stagnation in career exploration, it does not lead to turnover intention. Further, the results showed that in the case of female non-regular employees, the tendency for impatience when comparing their own career to those of friends and acquaintances, who are in a more desirable state than their own, leads to turnover intention through “concern for one’s career.”ConclusionsFuture research should consider marital status and the presence or absence of children in addition to gender and employment. Future studies should consider whether non-regular employees are of the involuntary type and whether they wish to change their status as regular employees.

Closed-loop optimal control based on two-phase pseudospectral convex optimization method for swarm system

The swarm system offers superior flexibility and versatility compared to individual agents. However, to enable the swarm to execute the mission efficiently and cooperatively, it's essential to design an efficient control strategy considering key factors such as computational complexity, speed, and accuracy. This paper summarizes several prominent problems faced by generic swarms, and proposed a two-phase pseudospectral convex optimal closed-loop control method. Firstly, the discrete modalities of cooperative goal, dynamics model, collision avoidance constraint, and control capability constraint are established using the Radau pseudospectral method. Then, these models and constraints are convexified, constructing a pseudospectral convex programming problem model, which can be applied to various types of swarms. To enhance the robustness and computation speed of the control, a two-phase receding horizon method is introduced. In the way, the optimization outcome of the first phase is executed in the subsequent control step, while the simplified second phase will be discarded. The control interval and the initial state of the swarm are continuously updated within the receding horizon until the desired state is reached. Finally, through comprehensive simulation analysis and comparison, the proposed method demonstrates distinct advantages of collision avoidance, optimality, robustness, and high computational efficiency.

Consensus control of nonlinear multi‐agent systems with semi‐Markov switching topology and incremental quadratic constraints

AbstractThe consensus problem of nonlinear multi‐agent systems with incremental quadratic constraints and semi‐Markov switching topology is discussed in this article. In order to simulate the delay of the communication network in the actual system, the nonlinear function, which contains the delay term is considered in this article. The control protocol is designed based on the dynamics of the adjacent agent states and the desired agent states. Through the use of the characteristics of the Kronecker product, the distributed system is converted to a centralized system. It is worth mentioning that for saving computational resources, the slack variable method is used to deal with the time‐varying transition rate, and the sufficient condition is expressed by the standard linear matrix inequality. Finally, the effectiveness of the control protocol is demonstrated by numerical simulations.

Towards a resilience assessment framework for the airport passenger terminal operations

Airport terminals can generate and intensify the undesired phenomena that take place on transportation networks in the wake of disruptive events. The more resilient a terminal is, the more easily it will bounce back to the desired state, causing less nuisance to the users. In this study, we expand the state-of-the-art airport terminal resilience assessment through fast-time simulation and tailored resilience metrics. From the point of view of simulation, we establish delay management strategies based on flight schedule alterations as a response to a disruptive event. In the baseline scenario, no disruption is set, whereas passenger arrival to the airport is blocked for 1 or 2 h in the disrupted scenarios. A previously verified and validated simulation model of a Brazilian domestic airport was used to represent the passenger departing flow, encompassing check-in and security screening. From the resilience perspective, a systematic assessment procedure for new resilience metrics is unveiled, providing means for exploring the metrics’ formulations and their relationship to the operational strategies. Following the simulation runs, resilience metrics for individual passenger and aircraft delays were investigated, something yet scarcely explored in the literature. The results show that the proposed metrics deliver significantly different outcomes from those associated with the current literature. Consequently, we can conclude that a resilience assessment concerning the airport terminal that disregards individual delays may be missing important information. The systematic approach we propose is a contribution in that sense, even though this topic requires more research, considering the vast nature of the possible disruptive events and their subsequent operational impacts.

PB Discussion Club “MY FUTURE HOME”

A roundtable discussion on the topic “My future home” was held in the editorial office of Project Baikal on February 28, 2023. A number of issues related to the topic of housing were proposed for the discussion: what housing is perceived as the most comfortable, cozy and convenient. Various opinions have been expressed, but the common denominator characterizes optimal housing as a place where you can feel safe and secure in the long term. At the same time, young architects have demonstrated that mobility, the ability to change their place and lifestyle is also of high value to them. In general, it can be said that the most desirable state is a balance between stability and mobility without having to choose either one.

The Contradictions of “Civilizing” Consumption: Colonial Wine and Race in Britain’s Nineteenth-Century Imperial Project

ABSTRACT This article will consider the discourse of wine as a “civilizing tool” in Britain’s imperial project, specifically in South Australia and Cape Colony. Historically, wine was recollected as a symbol of Greco-Roman civility, reified as the lifeblood of Christ, romanticized as the superiority of Southern European regions, and reimagined as a promoter of nineteenth-century Victorian sensibility. Beyond moral “improvement,” wine was also seen as a method to improve physical health. The vine was depicted as a safe, stable, and highly civilized enterprise, with far-reaching consequences. In the violent spaces of wine farms and colonial canteens, this intersected with racialized conceptions of colonized persons needing to be “improved” (and ultimately, controlled) through wine consumption. The networks which connected the global temperance movement often crossed with colonial conversations on race, health, and consumption. The interest in policing consumption of indigenous populations combined with a cultural of paying workers in alcohol, illustrated that along racial lines, accessibility to this desired state of “civilization” was unattainable.

Floquet spectrum and universal dynamics of a periodically driven two-atom system

We investigate the Floquet spectrum and excitation properties of a two-ultracold-atom system with periodically driven interaction in a three-dimensional harmonic trap. The interaction between the atoms is changed by varying the s-wave scattering length in two ways, the cosine and the square-wave modulations. It is found that as the driving frequency increases, the Floquet spectrum exhibits two main features for both modulations, the accumulating and the spreading of the quasienergy levels, which further lead to different dynamical behaviors. The accumulation is associated with collective excitations and the persistent growth of the energy, while the spread indicates that the energy is bounded at all times. The initial scattering length, the driving frequency and amplitude can all significantly change the Floquet spectrum as well as the dynamics. However, the corresponding relation between them is valid universally. Finally, we propose a mechanism for selectively exciting the system to one specific state by using the avoided crossing of two quasienergy levels, which could guide preparation of a desired state in experiments.

High-dimensional multi-fidelity Bayesian optimization for quantum control

We present the first multi-fidelity Bayesian optimization (BO) approach for solving inverse problems in the quantum control of prototypical quantum systems. Our approach automatically constructs time-dependent control fields that enable transitions between initial and desired final quantum states. Most importantly, our BO approach gives impressive performance in constructing time-dependent control fields, even for cases that are difficult to converge with existing gradient-based approaches. We provide detailed descriptions of our machine learning methods as well as performance metrics for a variety of machine learning algorithms. Taken together, our results demonstrate that BO is a promising approach to efficiently and autonomously design control fields in general quantum dynamical systems.

Computational tool for analyzing stress in thin films

A computational model has been developed to analyze calculations of residual stress in thin films determined from in-situ wafer curvature measurements. The model is based on several physical mechanisms that have been proposed to control the stress, including the effect of growth kinetics, grain growth and energetic particle bombardment. From a set of data, the program determines a set of kinetic parameters that can be used to understand the processes controlling stress. These parameters can be used to estimate the stress that will develop under different processing conditions in order to obtain a desired stress state. Several examples are described that illustrate the program's capabilities, including the effects of growth rate, growth temperature and particle energy (via chamber pressure in sputter deposition). Interested researchers may obtain the program and associated documentation to use the program to analyze their own data.

Boosting quantum amplitude exponentially in variational quantum algorithms

We introduce a family of variational quantum algorithms, which we coin as quantum iterative power algorithms (QIPAs), and demonstrate their capabilities as applied to global-optimization numerical experiments. Specifically, we demonstrate the QIPA based on a double exponential oracle as applied to ground state optimization of the H 2 molecule, search for the transmon qubit ground-state, and biprime factorization. Our results indicate that QIPA outperforms quantum imaginary time evolution (QITE) and requires a polynomial number of queries to reach convergence even with exponentially small overlap between an initial quantum state and the final desired quantum state, under some circumstances. We analytically show that there exists an exponential amplitude amplification at every step of the variational quantum algorithm, provided the initial wavefunction has non-vanishing probability with the desired state and that the unique maximum of the oracle is given by , while all other values are given by the same value (here λ can be taken as eigenvalues of the problem Hamiltonian). The generality of the global-optimization method presented here invites further application to other problems that currently have not been explored with QITE-based near-term quantum computing algorithms. Such approaches could facilitate identification of reaction pathways and transition states in chemical physics, as well as optimization in a broad range of machine learning applications. The method also provides a general framework for adaptation of a class of classical optimization algorithms to quantum computers to further broaden the range of algorithms amenable to implementation on current noisy intermediate-scale quantum computers.

Z-Type Control Methods on a Three-Species Model with an Invasive Prey

The process by which nature and evolution discriminate between species bound to survive or become extinct has always been an interesting phenomenon. One example of this selection is represented by biological invasions, when alien species spread into new environments causing ecological disruptions, alteration of native population dynamics and ecosystem dysfunctioning. In this paper, we concentrate on the introduction of the Eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) into the regions of northern and central Italy. This has influenced the local predator–prey dynamics of the indigenous European hares (Lepus europaeus) and red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), consequently producing a “hyperpredation” effect on hares. In this framework, we investigate this scenario with the objective of mitigating the negative effects of the invasion. Specifically, we devise and apply a Z-control technique in order to drive chosen populations toward a desired state that at least theoretically can ensure the survival of native species. The purpose of such a study is twofold: on one hand, this approach is employed with the aim of reducing the invasive population; secondly, it aims to avoid the extinction of native prey, i.e., the hare population.

Founders' flow: A qualitative study on the role of flow experience in early start-up stages.

Flow experience is a state of complete absorption while performing an optimally challenging and enjoyable task. It is often experienced at work-both in the form of individual and team flow-and can have a positive effect on performance and well-being. However, start-up founders' work situation differs from that in established companies, facing not only great autonomy but also new challenges, uncertainty, and risks. It can be assumed that flow also provides benefits in start-ups, however, this has not yet been examined in depth and the factors that may operate differently in start-ups in comparison to other work contexts have not yet been explored in detail. Using a qualitative research approach, 21 founders from different industries were interviewed. Enhancing and inhibiting factors of flow and team flow as well as consequences for the founders and the start-up in general were examined and structured with the help of a qualitative content analysis. A variety of contexts was identified in which founders experienced flow and team flow. Various factors on the individual, task-related and organizational sphere were found to be perceived as promoting or hindering flow and team flow, e.g. well-being, autonomy or the environment. The findings regarding the consequences of flow and team flow show that these mainly are very desirable states for founders, e.g. leading to better results, progress or team processes. Only few negative consequences were identified, e.g. perfectionism. Thus, it is helpful to foster flow in the start-up context. Possible approaches derived from the participants' statements to this could be, for example, to design flow-promoting environments or participation in specific workshops.

The Potential of the Metaverse to Transform Education and Training

The Metaverse, profoundly and closely related to VR technology, is attracting attention as a space where social activities can be realized online, and among its various applications, its use in education and training is highly anticipated. However, educational and training applications using the Metaverse should not serve as alternatives to the physical world but rather demonstrate their true value in things that can only be realized in VR or are first made possible in the Metaverse. This article discusses the Metaverse's potential and desired state through new educational and training initiatives enabled by it.

Sedition or Mere Dissent? Linguistic Analysis of a Political Slogan

This paper reports the first case in which a linguist served as an expert witness in Hong Kong, a former British colony that has operated as a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since 1997. The dispute was on the meaning of the political slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times”, which was widely adopted during the 2019–2020 protests. The keywords “liberate” and “revolution” are smoking gun evidence for the prosecution in a large cluster of cases that involve sedition law and national security offences. Section I of the paper provides background information about a case the author was involved in, which was concerned with whether the slogan was seditious. Section II describes the analysis conducted, which concludes that the slogan as a whole refers to a need to rectify a problem and to return to the original, a more desirable state of affairs for Hong Kong, without specifying what problem there is and what the desirable state of affairs looks like. Section III highlights some critical issues in the analysis, discussing challenges faced and ethical questions for the expert witness. Section IV is a postscript that briefly describes the outcome of the case.

Matrix stability and bifurcation analysis by a network-based approach.

In this paper, we develop a network-based methodology to investigate the problems related to matrix stability and bifurcations in nonlinear dynamical systems. By matching a matrix with a network, i.e., interaction graph, we propose a new network-based matrix analysis method by proving a theorem about matrix determinant under which matrix stability can be considered in terms of feedback loops. Especially, the approach can tell us how a node, a path, or a feedback loop in the interaction graph affects matrix stability. In addition, the roles played by a node, a path, or a feedback loop in determining bifurcations in nonlinear dynamical systems can also be revealed. Therefore, the approach can help us to screen optimal node or node combinations. By perturbing them, unstable matrices can be stabilized more efficiently or bifurcations can be induced more easily to realize desired state transitions. To illustrate feasibility and efficiency of the approach, some simple matrices are used to show how single or combinatorial perturbations affect matrix stability and induce bifurcations. In addition, the main idea is also illustrated through a biological problem related to T cell development with three nodes: TCF-1, GATA3, and PU.1, which can be considered to be a three-variable nonlinear dynamical system. The approach is especially helpful in understanding crucial roles of single or molecule combinations in biomolecular networks. The approach presented here can be expected to analyze other biological networks related to cell fate transitions and systematic perturbation strategy selection.