Generic Settings Research Articles

Interpretation of MEX additive manufacturing generic control settings impact on the spatial dielectric response of ABS: challenges and opportunities for the defense industry

Interpretation of MEX additive manufacturing generic control settings impact on the spatial dielectric response of ABS: challenges and opportunities for the defense industry

Human-in-the-loop optimization of rocker shoe to reduce plantar pressure and collision work simultaneously

BackgroundRocker shoes can be used to reduce foot pressure and adjust lower limb kinetics for various patient population, such as people with diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Selecting adequate properties of the rocker sole is of great importance for its efficacy. This study investigated the capability of human-in-the-loop optimization (HILO) to individually optimize apex position and angle of rocker shoe to reduce peak pressure and collision work simultaneously. MethodsPeak pressure, kinetic, and kinematic data were recorded from 10 healthy participants while walking at preferred speed wearing rocker shoes with adjustable apex position and angle. An evolutionary algorithm was used to find optimal apex parameters to reduce both peak pressure in medial forefoot and collision work. The optimized shoe (HILO shoe) was compared with generic optimal rocker settings (Chapman settings) and normal shoe. FindingsCompared to normal shoe, the HILO shoe had lower plantar pressure (pHILO = 0.007; pChapman = 0.044) and Chapman shoe showed higher collision work (pHILO = 0.025; pChapman = 0.014). Both HILO and Chapman shoe had smaller push-off work than normal shoe (pHILO = 0.001; pChapman < 0.001) with the Chapman shoe exhibited earlier push-off onset (pHILO = 0.257; pChapman = 0.016). InterpretationThe Human-in-the-loop optimization approach resulted in individualized apex settings which performed on average similar to Chapman settings but, were superior in selected cases. In these cases, medial forefoot could be further offloaded with apex angles larger than generic settings. The larger apex angle might increase the external ankle moment arm and push-off work. However, there is limited room for improvement on collision work compared to generic settings.

Cosmology from random entanglement

We construct entangled microstates of a pair of holographic CFTs whose dual semiclassical description includes big bang-big crunch AdS cosmologies in spaces without boundaries. The cosmology is supported by inhomogeneous heavy matter and it partially purifies the bulk entanglement of two disconnected auxiliary AdS spacetimes. We show that the island formula for the fine grained entropy of one of the CFTs follows from a standard gravitational replica trick calculation. In generic settings, the cosmology is contained in the entanglement wedge of one of the two CFTs. We then investigate properties of the cosmology-to-boundary encoding map, and in particular, its non-isometric character. Restricting our attention to a specific class of states on the cosmology, we provide an explicit, and state-dependent, boundary representation of operators acting on the cosmology. Finally, under genericity assumptions, we argue for a non-isometric to approximately-isometric transition of the cosmology-to-boundary map for “simple” states on the cosmology as a function of the bulk entanglement, with tensor network toy models of our setup as a guide.

Sublinear diffusion in the generalized triangle map.

Diffusion of the orbits in a nonchaotic area-preserving map called a generalized triangle map (GTM) is numerically and analytically investigated. We provide accurate empirical evidence that the mean-squared displacement of the momentum for generic perturbation parameter settings increases sublinearly in time, and that the distribution of the momentum obeys a time-fractional diffusion equation. We show that the diffusion properties in the GTM do not follow any of the known stochastic processes generating sublinear diffusion since two seemingly incompatible features, non-Markovian yet stationary, coexist in the dynamics.

A Qualitative Study Exploring the Experiences of Carers of Service Users With Complex Mental Health Needs

AimsCarers of individuals presenting with complex behavioural and mental health needs report that service users may not receive the provision of care they require, particularly when presenting following suicide attempts and self-harm. Carers are an integral part of the care system and often feel ignored and marginalised by services; there is a lack of involvement of carers and paucity of their views of support needs to be explored. The aim of the study is to understand carers’ experiences of caring for service users with complex mental health needs who self-harm and/or attempt suicide, and the support received from mental health care services.MethodsTen carers of service users with complex mental health needs were interviewed about their views on the psychiatric admission, treatment and discharge process for the people they were caring for. Data were gathered during semi-structured, one-to-one interviews remotely over the phone or online platforms. Interviews were audio-recoded and transcribed verbatim. A transcript-based conceptual analysis was conducted to identify and explore emerging themes.ResultsCarers identified both positive and negative aspects of the psychiatric admission and care within community settings. The following key themes emerged from the interviews: lack of control and information from mental health services, the importance of support from staff, or conversely its absence; concerns about service users’ vulnerability, negative staff attitudes and opportunities for involvement; negative experiences of generic psychiatric settings; positive experiences were encountered when there were supportive and caring staff, good information sharing and satisfactory discharge arrangements.ConclusionImportant areas for service improvements are highlighted. Recommendations included: the need for support; information about suicidal behaviour and advice on managing further incidents at home; more support in coping with regular and escalating self-harming and suicidal behaviours, particularly, severe consequences of staff safeguarding errors and inappropriate discharge, and the importance of supportive and adept staff. These findings identify the need for tailored support for carers regarding the management of self-harm and suicidal behaviours in the community.

Clinician perspectives on what constitutes good practice in community services for people with complex emotional needs: A qualitative thematic meta-synthesis.

The need to improve the quality of community mental health services for people with Complex Emotional Needs (CEN) (who may have a diagnosis of 'personality disorder') is recognised internationally and has become a renewed policy priority in England. Such improvement requires positive engagement from clinicians across the service system, and their perspectives on achieving good practice need to be understood. To synthesise qualitative evidence on clinician perspectives on what constitutes good practice, and what helps or prevents it being achieved, in community mental health services for people with CEN. Six bibliographic databases were searched for studies published since 2003 and supplementary citation tracking was conducted. Studies that used any recognised qualitative method and reported clinician experiences and perspectives on community-based mental health services for adults with CEN were eligible for this review, including generic and specialist settings. Meta-synthesis was used to generate and synthesise over-arching themes across included studies. Twenty-nine papers were eligible for inclusion, most with samples given a 'personality disorder' diagnosis. Six over-arching themes were identified: 1. The use and misuse of diagnosis; 2. The patient journey into services: nowhere to go; 3. Therapeutic relationships: connection and distance; 4. The nature of treatment: not doing too much or too little; 5. Managing safety issues and crises: being measured and proactive; 6. Clinician and wider service needs: whose needs are they anyway? The overall quality of the evidence was moderate. Through summarising the literature on clinician perspectives on good practice for people with CEN, over-arching priorities were identified on which there appears to be substantial consensus. In their focus on needs such as for a long-term perspective on treatment journeys, high quality and consistent therapeutic relationships, and a balanced approach to safety, clinician priorities are mainly congruent with those found in studies on service user views. They also identify clinician needs that should be met for good care to be provided, including for supervision, joint working and organisational support.

Coastal Landfills and Rising Sea Levels: A Challenge for the 21st Century

Populated coastal areas worldwide have a legacy of numerous solid waste disposal sites. At the same time, mean sea level is rising and likely to accelerate, increasing flooding and/or erosion. There is therefore concern that landfill sites located at and near the coast pose a growing risk to the environment from the potential release of liquid and solid waste materials. This paper aims to assess our present understanding of this issue as well as research and practice needs by synthesizing the available evidence across a set of developed country cases, comprising England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States (Florida). Common insights gained here include: (1) a lack of data and limited appreciation of waste release from coastal landfill as a potential problem; (2) recognition of the scale and diversity of coastal landfill waste within a range of generic settings (or situations); and (3) a lack of robust protocols that allow the impact of different categories of waste release to the coast to be assessed in a consistent and evidence-based manner, most particularly for solid waste. Hence, a need for greater understanding of the following issues is identified: (1) the amount, character and impact of waste that could be released from landfill sites; (2) the acceptability and regulation of waste eroding from coastal landfills; (3) present and future erosion rates at landfill sites suggesting the need for more monitoring and relevant predictive tools; (4) the full range of possible management methods for dealing with waste release from landfills and the science to support them; and (5) relevant long-term funding mechanisms to address this issue. The main focus and experience of current management practice has been protection/retention, or removal of landfills, with limited consideration of other feasible solutions and how they might be facilitated. Approaches to assess and address solid waste release to the marine/coastal environment represent a particular gap. Lastly, as solid waste will persist indefinitely and sea levels will rise for many centuries, the long timescale of this issue needs wider appreciation and should be included in coastal and waste policy.

European Capitals of Culture. Visual Standardization Through Generic Images

Cities representing European Capitals of Culture (ECCs) are chosen to promote the diversity and multiculturalism of a global city. But this multicultural and international character comes with the price of standardization, a concept enhanced by the EU through the idea of togeth- erness, and individuals belonging to the same cultural space. Therefore, the visual communication of those cities can be more homogenized, less descriptive and without particularities related to a culture of a specific geo- graphic area. Following Jewitt, Bezemer and O`Halloran (2016), this paper aims to employ a multimodal analysis of images used by the local authori- ties of Plovdiv and Matera (European Capitals of Culture in 2019) on their websites. Therefore, it aims to demonstrate how these two cities communi- cate use generic images, focusing on what Machin and van Leeuwen (2007) identify as characteristics of global images, namely timelessness, low mo- dality, decontextualization and also relying on generic attributes, models and settings. As a result, images become more symbolical and conceptual, causing national identities to diminish in the viewers’ eyes, making cities seem familiar, thus enriching the togetherness of globalization.

Hidden lives and deaths: the last months of life of people with intellectual disabilities living in long-term, generic care settings in the UK.

This paper concerns mortality and needs for end-of-life care in a population of adults with ID living in generic care homes. Various sampling strategies were used to identify a difficult to find a population of people with ID in generic care homes. Demographic and health data were obtained for 132 people with ID. This included the Surprise Question. At T2, 12months later, data were obtained on the survival of this sample. The average age was 68.6years, and the majority were women (55.3%). Their health was typically rated as good or better. Responses to the Surprise Question indicated that 23.3% respondents might need EoLC. At T2, 18.0% of this population had died. The average of death was 72.2years. The majority died within the care setting (62.9%). The implications for end-of-life care and mortality research are discussed.

Mathematical programming models for scheduling multiple cascaded waterway locks

Two mixed integer programming (MIP) models are proposed to optimally solve the cascaded-lock scheduling problem (CLSP) with generic settings on inland waterways, innovatively from job shop scheduling (JSS) and multi-commodity flow (MCF) perspectives. Real-data-based instances with various traffic properties and lock configurations are employed to test the two proposed models on the branch-and-bound framework, which demonstrate that on average the JSS formulation outperforms MCF. Furthermore, a comparison study conducted between the JSS-based model and an existing MIP model which was proposed for the CLSP with a specific setting proves the superiority of the proposed JSS-based CLSP formulation.

The value of a pragma-functional approach to intercultural conflict discourses

Abstract Systemic functional linguistics focuses on the study of language use within its registerial context of situation. The theory offers a meaning-based approach for the analysis of discourses in generic and culture-specific settings. When it comes to the analysis of conflict discourses across cultural boundaries, SFL may be integrated into a framework that relates language use to the notions of power and ideology and the dimensions of culture and history to provide a broader picture to inform future political decision-making. This paper presents a pragma-functional approach combining systemic functional linguistics, argumentation theory, critical theory and postcolonial insights. The analytical tool is illustrated with reference to the New Caledonian independence debate through the analysis of salient linguistic patterns and discursive moves in two open letters, published in April 1988 by Kanak independence leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou and former French President François Mitterrand.

Distributionally robust fault detection design and assessment for dynamical systems

We present a novel distributionally robust optimization approach for integrated design and assessment of fault detection system. Its salient feature is the guaranteed robustness against the inexactness of probability distribution of unknown disturbances. The integrated design problem is formulated as a distributionally robust chance constrained program (DRCCP). It maximizes fault detectability subject to the constraint on the worst-case false alarm rate among a continuum of probability distributions. The moment-based and Wasserstein ambiguity sets are used as two different ways of uncertainty description, which differ manifestly from generic settings where disturbances follow either Gaussian or norm-bounded assumptions. We show that the use of two different ambiguity sets in fault detection leads to specific statistical properties. To solve DRCCPs efficiently, we develop exact reformulations and tailored solution algorithms, and in some cases the optimal solution turns out to be classical fault detection design. In addition, a distributionally robust assessment strategy is developed, which evaluates the worst-case and best-case detectability under known faults by solving tractable convex programs. The efficacy of the proposed approach is illustrated on the fault detection of a laboratory three-tank system.

The influence of team commitment on client satisfaction in construction project organisations

Team commitment (TC) is a significant influencing factor on the success of a construction project. Mainly, the previous works have been for more generic organisational settings, whereas none has focused on the construction project organisations (CPOs) context. Using Bayesian model averaging (BMA) technique and 195 completed construction project's data, this study reveals that contractor's commitment to project quality, client's commitment to payment, and supervisor's commitment to work contribute to improving client satisfaction with project quality. Similarly, contractor's commitment to project budget, client's commitment to payment, and supervisor's commitment to work can predict the client's satisfaction with the project budget. Additionally, contractor's commitment to project schedule and supervisor's commitment to work have a significant effect on client satisfaction with the project schedule. Additionally, contractor's commitment and supervisor's commitment are relatively significant influencing factors on all aspects of client satisfaction. The findings of this study contribute to theoretical and practical project management in order to improve construction project performance.

Community-Aware Graph Signal Processing: Modularity Defines New Ways of Processing Graph Signals

The emerging field of graph signal processing (GSP) allows one to transpose classical signal processing operations (e.g., filtering) to signals on graphs. The GSP framework is generally built upon the graph Laplacian, which plays a crucial role in studying graph properties and measuring graph signal smoothness. Here, instead, we propose the graph modularity matrix as the centerpiece of GSP to incorporate knowledge about graph community structure when processing signals on the graph but without the need for community detection. We study this approach in several generic settings, such as filtering, optimal sampling and reconstruction, surrogate data generation, and denoising. Feasibility is illustrated by a small-scale example and a transportation network data set as well as one application in human neuroimaging where community-aware GSP reveals relationships between behavior and brain features that are not shown by Laplacian-based GSP. This work demonstrates how concepts from network science can lead to new, meaningful operations on graph signals.

‘I Was a Tape Recorder. I Was a Mailing Box.’: Jan Karski’s Interviews

ABSTRACT Jan Karski, a courier for the Polish government in exile, secretly entered the Warsaw ghetto and transit camp Izbica to observe the suffering there. Making a careful record of his visit, he traveled the world to tell its leaders what he had witnessed. Karski is one of the most significant witnesses of the Holocaust, whose experiences have been documented innumerable times. To date, however, no comparative study exists of Karski’s interviews. To what extent do Karski’s versions of his heroic story differ? Does it matter? What does this case teach us about Holocaust ‘celebrity witnessing’? In this article, we trace shifts in a well-known Holocaust narrative to illustrate how even a very well-established story, divided into three well-established smaller stories, changes significantly depending on the archiving institution that collects the account and the interviewers who conduct each interview. Our investigation demonstrates the effects of the archive on oral testimony and narrative history. These effects are always part of the oral testimony setting, but in the case of well-known interviewees such as Karski, who have testified a number of times in different contexts, they are especially evident. Conducted over a seventeen-year period in very different institutional and generic settings, Karski’s testimonies illustrate both internal heterogeneity, integral to his own development as a person, an intellectual, and a witness, and ‘external’ heterogeneity, shaped by the interviewing institution and the interviewer’s methodology. We study the production of Karski’s interviews from ‘the contact zone’ of Holocaust testimony to identify how the details of his story shift in relation to his listener. Although it has been suggested that Karski’s ‘performances’ become more wooden over time, we find the opposite: that he becomes more animated, sure of himself, and, by the time of his last interview, ready to fully inhabit the role of the ‘celebrity witness.’

Non-Hermitian Floquet second order topological insulators in periodically quenched lattices

Higher-order topological phases are characterized by protected states localized at the corners or hinges of the system. By applying time-periodic quenches to a two-dimensional lattice with balanced gain and loss, we obtain a rich variety of non-Hermitian Floquet second order topological insulating phases. Each of the phases is characterized by a pair of integer topological invariants, which predict the numbers of Floquet corner modes at zero and $\pi$ quasienergies. We establish the topological phase diagram of the model, and find a series of non-Hermiticity induced transitions between different Floquet second order topological phases. We further generalize the mean chiral displacement to two-dimensional non-Hermitian systems, and use it to extract the topological invariants of our model dynamically. This work thus extend the study of higher-order topological matter to more generic nonequilibrium settings, in which the interplay between Floquet engineering and non-Hermiticity yields fascinating new phases.

Characterisation and composition identification of waste-derived fuels obtained from municipal solid waste using thermogravimetry: A review.

Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is the most widespread thermal analytical technique applied to waste materials. By way of critical review, we establish a theoretical framework for the use of TGA under non-isothermal conditions for compositional analysis of waste-derived fuels from municipal solid waste (MSW) (solid recovered fuel (SRF), or refuse-derived fuel (RDF)). Thermal behaviour of SRF/RDF is described as a complex mixture of several components at multiple levels (including an assembly of prevalent waste items, materials, and chemical compounds); and, operating conditions applied to TGA experiments of SRF/RDF are summarised. SRF/RDF mainly contains cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyethylene terephthalate. Polyvinyl chloride is also used in simulated samples, for its high chlorine content. We discuss the main limitations for TGA-based compositional analysis of SRF/RDF, due to inherently heterogeneous composition of MSW at multiple levels, overlapping degradation areas, and potential interaction effects among waste components and cross-contamination. Optimal generic TGA settings are highlighted (inert atmosphere and low heating rate (⩽10°C), sufficient temperature range for material degradation (⩾750°C), and representative amount of test portion). There is high potential to develop TGA-based composition identification and wider quality assurance and control methods using advanced thermo-analytical techniques (e.g. TGA with evolved gas analysis), coupled with statistical data analytics.

A Simple Approach to Stiffness Enhancement of a Printable Shape by Hamilton-Jacobi Skeletonization

The 3D-Printing technology is ready to produce parts with specific properties like individual stiffness. Based on a predefined outer shape, the inner structure of a printed part defines mainly the mechanical features. By Hamilton-Jacobi skeletonization, a stiffness enhancement of a printable shape can be achieved in a way, that a novel AM-corner includes linear axis function. Originating in the field of shape analysis in computer vision and graphics, the so-called medial axis transform (MAT) is designed for the computation of a structure that resembles the bone structure of biological shapes. The input for MAT computation is typically a shape’s boundary. The arising topological skeletons have proven to provide a useful concept for many applications; however, their computation is generally intricate and also known to rely on many parameters, diminishing the accessibility of skeletonization methods. In this work, the classical Hamilton-Jacobi skeletonization approach is adopted to compute a stability enhancing shape structure. As the basic method has not been designed for the context of additive manufacturing, a set of suitable modifications are introduced to design an algorithm that suits our intended purpose. Unlike the traditional skeletonization schemes, the resulting method appears to be robust and in practice almost completely automated as we can identify useful generic parameter settings. By a finite element method (FEM) study, the elastic stress properties of the AM-corner with linear axis function is validated and printed with in metal (1.4404) with the 3D Selected Laser Melting (SLM) system AconityMIDI. The AM-knot with skeletonization guides approximately 20 times better than a standard knot. While the first obtained results are shown as 2.5 dimensional shapes, it is emphasized that the proposed algorithm offers many possibilities for extensions to three dimensions and variations in context of additive manufacturing.

Modelling optimal behavioural strategies in structured populations using a novel theoretical framework

Understanding complex behavioural patterns of organisms observed in nature can be facilitated using mathematical modelling. The conventional paradigm in animal behavior modelling consists of maximisation of some evolutionary fitness function. However, the definition of fitness of an organism or population is generally subjective, and using different criteria can lead us to contradictory model predictions regarding optimal behaviour. Moreover, structuring of natural populations in terms of individual size or developmental stage creates an extra challenge for theoretical modelling. Here we revisit and formalise the definition of evolutionary fitness to describe long-term selection of strategies in deterministic self-replicating systems for generic modelling settings which involve an arbitrary function space of inherited strategies. Then we show how optimal behavioural strategies can be obtained for different developmental stages in a generic von-Foerster stage-structured population model with an arbitrary mortality term. We implement our theoretical framework to explore patterns of optimal diel vertical migration (DVM) of two dominant zooplankton species in the north-eastern Black Sea. We parameterise the model using 7 years of empirical data from 2007-2014 and show that the observed DVM can be explained as the result of a trade-off between depth-dependent metabolic costs for grazers, anoxia zones, available food, and visual predation.

Derivation of Holographic Negativity in AdS_{3}/CFT_{2}.

We present a derivation of the holographic dual of logarithmic negativity in AdS_{3}/CFT_{2} that was recently conjectured in Phys. Rev. D 99, 106014 (2019PRVDAQ2470-001010.1103/PhysRevD.99.106014). This is given by the area of an extremal cosmic brane that terminates on the boundary of the entanglement wedge. The derivation consists of relating the recently introduced Rényi reflected entropy to the logarithmic negativity in holographic conformal field theories. Furthermore, we clarify previously mysterious aspects of negativity at a large central charge seen in conformal blocks and comment on generalizations to generic dimensions, dynamical settings, and quantum corrections.