Ground Location Research Articles

The necropolis of the Casa Romana do Castro de São Domingos (Lousada, Portugal): a funerary space from the Early Middle Ages

Between 2017 and 2021 seventeen graves were identified in the context of the research project ‘Excavation, study, and musealization of the Casa Romana do Castro de São Domingos’ (Lousada, Portugal). Human bones were absent in all the fourteen graves excavated, most likely due to the acidity of the granitic soil, although the tombs length had shown that at least two were built for the burial of non-adult individuals. Only a bronze buckle was recovered as a grave good which may be related to the violation of most of the tombs, but mainly to the presence of a community with few economic resources. The funerary architecture showed three different types of graves, showing a possible older and central area from where the burial ground grew. The proximity of roads is sometimes the main condition for the location of a burial ground and not necessarily the edification of a religious temple. The comparison with the funerary architecture of other Portuguese burial grounds shows that the cemetery of the Casa Romana do Castro de São Domingos may have been in use between the Late Antiquity and the High Middle Ages.

Seasonal Analysis of Spatial Distribution Patterns and Characteristics of Sepiella maindroni and Sepia kobiensis in the East China Sea Region.

Climate change is having important effects on the migration routes and seasonal-spatial distribution patterns of aquatic animals, including the cephalopods Sepiella maindroni de Rochebrune (Hoyle, 1886) and Sepia kobiensis (Hoyle, 1885) in the East China Sea region. We conducted bottom trawling surveys from 2018 to 2019 in the East China Sea region to identify the seasonal-spatial distribution patterns, including the locations of spawning and nursery grounds of both species, and to determine how they are related to environmental variables. We used random forests and boosted regression trees to identify the distribution patterns of both species from spring to winter to estimate the annual mean situations. We also predicted the habitat distribution variations in 2050 and 2100 under the SSP1-2.6 and SSP5-8.5 climate change scenarios. From our survey data, we detected increasing biomass densities of S. maindroni from 29.50° N to 28.50° N, where the largest value of 213.92 g·ind-1 occurred. In spring, juvenile groups were present in coastal areas and larger individuals were found in offshore areas. We identified potential spawning grounds at 29.50°-33.00° N 122.50°-123.00° E adjacent to the Zhejiang coastline, and larger individuals and higher biomass densities in south of the 29.50° N line in summer. In autumn, the average individual weight increased in the 28.00° N 122.00° E→124.00° E area. We located potential S. kobiensis spawning grounds at 27.00° N 122.00°-123.50° E in spring. Growing overwintering juveniles migrated to the area of 29.50°-30.50° N 125.00°-127.00° E in winter. The sea surface temperature of the areas inhabited by both species showed obvious seasonal variation. The SSP1-2.6 and SSP5-8.5 scenarios indicated that the habitat of S. maindroni would shift to the south first and then to the north of the study area with the intensification of CO2 emissions, and it would first expand and then greatly decrease. However, the habitat area of S. kobiensis would increase. Our results will contribute to a better understanding of the life history traits of both species and the changes in their distribution patterns under different climate scenarios to ensure sustainable exploitation and fisheries management.

Investigation of induced electroosmotic flow in small-scale capillary electrophoresis devices: Strategies for control and reversal.

Electroosmotic flow (EOF) is the bulk flow of solution in a capillary or microchannel induced by an applied electric potential. For capillary and microchip electrophoresis, the EOF enables analysis of both cations and anions in one separation and can be varied to modify separation speed and resolution. The EOF arises from an electrical double layer at the capillary wall and is normally controlled through the pH and ionic strength of the background buffer or with the use of additives. Understanding and controlling the electrical double layer is therefore critical for maintaining acceptable repeatability during method development. Surprisingly, in fused silica capillaries at low pH, studies observe an EOF even though the capillary surface should be neutralized. Previous work has suggested the presence of an "induced electroosmotic flow" from radial electric fields generated across the capillary wall due to the separation voltage and grounded components external to the capillary. Using thin-wall (15µm) fused silica separation capillaries to facilitate the study of radial fields, we show that the EOF mobility depends on both the separation voltage and the location of external grounds. This is consistent with the induced EOF model, in which radial electric fields embed positive charges at the capillary walls to create an electrical double layer. The magnitude of the effect is characterized and shown to have long-range influences that are difficult to completely null by moving grounded components away from the separation capillary. Instead, active EOF control using externally applied potentials or a passive approach using a negative separation voltage are discussed as two possible methods for controlling the induced EOF. Both methods can reverse the EOF and improve the resolution and peak efficiency in amino acid separations.

Analysis of Reliable Transmission Performance Optimization Methods for Satellite-to-Ground Laser Communication Links

The satellite-to-ground laser communication link plays a crucial role in addressing the technical bottleneck of high-speed information transmission between satellite and ground networks. However, the impact of atmospheric channel conditions poses challenges to the link performance. To overcome these challenges, this paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the characteristics and influencing factors of the satellite-to-ground laser communication link. It summarizes methods for optimizing the transmission performance of the link and proposes approaches for optimizing, monitoring, and predicting the link performance through factors such as the optimization of ground station quantity and location, link availability, link transmission quality, and adaptive coding and modulation. These methods enable the optimization of the transmission performance of the satellite-to-ground laser communication link, thus significantly contributing to the realization of high-speed and reliable laser communication between satellite and ground networks.

Northeast Arctic haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) spawning grounds and drift to nursery areas in the Barents Sea

AbstractThe Northeast Arctic stock of haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) is the most northerly stock of the species. It is one of the largest haddock stocks but not the most studied. Similar to the more extensively studied sympatric cod (Gadus morhua) and herring (Clupea harengus) stocks, it relies on Atlantic currents for egg and larvae transportation from spawning grounds to nursery areas in the Barents Sea. The exact locations of the spawning grounds have not been known and the maps that have been published differ substantially. Here, we present results from the first survey dedicated to exploring the spawning habitat of Northeast Arctic (NEA) haddock, and a particle drift and larvae growth model with physical forcing from a high‐resolution ocean model. Gadoid eggs, later identified as haddock by DNA analyses, as well as spawning individuals were sampled at the survey. Spawning haddock was found in Atlantic water in temperatures 3.6–6.2°C and depths of 240–560 m. Sampled eggs were mostly in early development stages, suggesting that they were largely spawned in the surveyed area. Using the drift model, we found that most of the modelled particles released as eggs at our surveyed area ended up in the nursery area in the Barents Sea. A crude estimate of the spawning stock biomass based on the survey suggests that the most updated spawning ground map of NEA haddock might be too restricted in its extent. Particle drift and growth with physical forcing for the years 2012–2022 indicated small interannual variation in aberrant drift, and that growth driven by ambient temperature could be important in explaining interannual variation in haddock recruitment.

Ground Exploration and Location Detection (G.E.L.D) and Its Influence on the Optimization of Incident Response in Confined Spaces

Ground Exploration and Location Detection (G.E.L.D) and Its Influence on the Optimization of Incident Response in Confined Spaces

Extended Lambert-Based Approach for Ground-Track Adjustment with Specified Overflight Altitude

This paper presents an extended Lambert-based approach for ground-track adjustment under J2 perturbation, aiming to achieve a satellite flyby over a designated ground location at a predetermined altitude. Extended equations are developed in the orbital plane based on Lagrange’s form for the unperturbed Lambert’s problem to address the J2-perturbed two-body motion. By combining them with the out-of-plane flight time equation constraint regarding the ground-track adjustment, a nonlinear system of equations with two unknowns and two equations is established and split into different modes. To solve these modes, a modified Newton–Raphson method is used, and a necessary condition is established to determine the maximum allowable number of revolutions. To enhance computational efficiency, a radius restriction method is proposed to narrow down the allowable range of the number of revolutions. The proposed algorithm is applicable to various scenarios, including single- or multiple-day flights, ascending or descending overflights, coplanar or non-coplanar transfers, and initial or reverse-initial directional transfers. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is effective and accurate for the perturbed adjustment problem.

Ensuring the protection of critical infrastructure energy facilities from explosions

Purpose. Analysis of the protection of critical energy infrastructure facilities, which are often destroyed under the influence of a shock wave, which affects the stability of Ukraine's energy systems. Determination of the state of security of critical infrastructure, which ensures the functionality, continuity of work, integrity and stability, which is reflected in the life support of the population. Methodology. To achieve this goal, a simulation of a detonation explosion and the distribution of shock waves within prismatic bodies simulating urban development using the ANSYS AUTODYN software product were carried out. In conditions of dense urban development, measures to ensure the protection of critical infrastructure facilities are selected based on the interaction of liquids, gases and solids, phase transitions, propagation of shock waves, etc. The results of the study were obtained. The calculated parameters of the shock wave distribution limit in 15 ms after detonation were determined, the pressure data corresponding to the measurement sensors T1 and T2 were recorded, it was determined that the values of the pressure of the blast wave at the manometric points T1 and T2 are the highest about 5 ms, аt the same time, the pressure on the underground structure is almost 50% less than on the ground. Protection of critical energy infrastructure facilities in the form of construction of underground transformer substations and their modernization in conditions of dense urban development is proposed. This is the optimal solution to eliminate problems, which arise with an increase in loads in city power grids and protect them from the action of a blast wave PCT. Originality. The dependencies of the pressure distribution on the shock wave in time for two variants of shading of critical energy infrastructure objects, namely underground location and ground location in the urban environment, are obtained. At the same time, the parameters of the materials of the structure and the characteristics and amount of explosives were taken into account. Practical value. The construction of underground transformer substations and their modernization in dense urban areas is the optimal solution for eliminating the problems that arise with an increase in loads in city power grids and protecting them from the effects of a blast wave.

Machine-learning aiding sustainable Indian Ocean tuna purse seine fishery

Among the various challenges facing tropical tuna purse seine fleet are the need to reduce fuel consumption and carbon footprint, as well as minimising bycatch of vulnerable species. Tools designed for forecasting optimum tuna fishing grounds can contribute to adapting to changes in fish distribution due to climate change, by identifying the location of new suitable fishing grounds, and thus reducing the search time. While information about the high probability to find vulnerable species could result in a bycatch reduction. The present study aims at contributing to a more sustainable and cleaner fishing, i.e. catching the same amount of target tuna with less fuel consumption/emissions and lower bycatch. To achieve this, tropical tuna catches as target species, and silky shark accidental catches as bycatch species have been modelled by machine learning models in the Indian Ocean using as inputs historical catch data of these fleets and environmental data. The resulting models show an accuracy of 0.718 and 0.728 for the SKJ and YFT, being the absences (TPR = 0.996 for SKJ and 0.993 for YFT, respectively) better predicted than the high or low catches. In the case of the BET, which is not the main target species of this fleet, the accuracy is lower than that of the previous species. Regarding the silky shark, the presence/absence model provides an accuracy of 0.842. Even though the model's performance has room for improvement, the present work lays the foundations of a process for forecasting fishing grounds avoiding vulnerable species, by only using as input data forecast environmental data provided in near real time by earth observation programs. In the future these models can be improved as more input data and knowledge about the main environmental conditions influencing these species becomes available.

LINGO-Space: Language-Conditioned Incremental Grounding for Space

We aim to solve the problem of spatially localizing composite instructions referring to space: space grounding. Compared to current instance grounding, space grounding is challenging due to the ill-posedness of identifying locations referred to by discrete expressions and the compositional ambiguity of referring expressions. Therefore, we propose a novel probabilistic space-grounding methodology (LINGO-Space) that accurately identifies a probabilistic distribution of space being referred to and incrementally updates it, given subsequent referring expressions leveraging configurable polar distributions. Our evaluations show that the estimation using polar distributions enables a robot to ground locations successfully through 20 table-top manipulation benchmark tests. We also show that updating the distribution helps the grounding method accurately narrow the referring space. We finally demonstrate the robustness of the space grounding with simulated manipulation and real quadruped robot navigation tasks. Code and videos are available at https://lingo-space.github.io.

ASSESSMENT OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE INTENSITY OF TRAFFIC FLOWS ON THE STATE OF THE STREET AND ROAD NETWORK OF THE CITY

The article is devoted to the assessment and forecasting of the level of atmospheric air pollution in street canyons in Kyiv by controlling the parameters of traffic flow. Today, road transport is the main anthropogenic source of environmental pollution. The specificity of air pollution by traffic flows lies in their ground location, close proximity to people's homes, which leads to the accumulation of pollutants near the ground surface - in the breathing zone of people. The article analyzes the main approaches to modeling the dispersion of pollutants in the atmosphere from motor vehicles. It is advisable to assess the level of urban air pollution in homogeneous elements of the urban area - street canyons. Based on the urban street canyons model (OSPM), the level of pollution in the street canyons of the Pechersk district of Kyiv by the main harmful substances contained in car exhaust gases is determined. The critical intensity of traffic flows for each of the street canyons at which the level of pollution by the corresponding harmful substance reaches the maximum permissible value was determined. Thus, the obtained results of the study allow us to quickly predict the level of air pollution in the roadside space of cities and prevent environmentally hazardous situations by controlling the parameters of the traffic flow.

Evidence of marine predation on silver New Zealand longfin eels, Anguilla dieffenbachii

AbstractThe use of Pop‐up Satellite Archival Tags (PSATs) has provided considerable new information about the behaviour of migrating (silver) eels (Anguilla spp.) at sea, with 9 of 19 recognised species or subspecies tagged to date. However, such studies often reported premature tag detachment and relatively high rates of predation. Since 2000, several PSAT‐tagged New Zealand longfin eels, Anguilla dieffenbachii, were released to understand migratory behaviour and location of potential spawning grounds. Of 20 PSAT‐tagged eels released in 2019, all tags detached prematurely, but 7 (58%) were likely eaten or injured by predators 1–81 days after release. Two eels were probably eaten by sperm whales, whereas other tagged eels were likely eaten by lamniform and non‐lamniform sharks, and southern bluefin tuna. Because of the high rate of predation, we recommend that future releases should be from smaller catchments or offshore.

Revisiting the leeway of shipping containers: a case study of the M/V Zim Kingston incident

On 22 October 2021, 109 shipping containers fell overboard from the M/V Zim Kingston in rough seas off the coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. While afloat, these shipping containers pose a significant risk to marine traffic in addition to being a source of marine pollution. Out of the 109 shipping containers, 4 were discovered on the beaches of northwest Vancouver Island 5 days later. Drift simulations were made using the standard leeway tables for shipping containers that vary with the immersion fraction of the shipping container. These leeway values over the expected range of immersion levels underestimated the travelled distance of the shipping containers relative to the observed grounding locations. An increase in the leeway of 1.5% of the wind speed improves the agreement between the simulations and observations, which is consistent with the addition of the Stokes drift to the leeway of the shipping container. It is argued that the leeway measured using the direct method, which was used to calculate the leeway of shipping containers, does not implicitly include the Stokes drift as previously suggested. This result suggests that the Stokes drift should be added to the leeway calculated with the direct method. While the error is small over timescales of 24 to 48 h, it accumulates in time and is appreciable for drift prediction greater than 48 h.

Ensuring the reliability of energy systems through the application of a new method for introducing soil-replacement mixtures during the installation of deep grounding devices

This paper discusses a method for using mixtures to optimize the electrical parameters of grounding devices during the installation of vertical composite ground electrodes. The authors propose a design for the coupling and tip for vertical composite ground electrodes. Various techniques for artificially reducing the resistance of the grounding circuit are examined. Results from vertical electrode soundings of the soil at grounding locations are presented. The proposed method allows for the introduction of a mixture simultaneously with the vertical composite grounding electrode, including designs for the coupling, tip, and auxiliary device. Experimental studies of the proposed design have been conducted, and results measuring the resistance to current spread of such grounding devices are presented for both standard and proposed couplings.

Damage Proxy Mapping with SAR interferometric coherence change

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) can be combined interferometrically to estimate the coherence of the SAR phase. The coherence of the phase over time depends on the stability of the major objects and surface that are reflecting the SAR signal, at spatial scales near the radar wavelength and larger. When there are major changes in the radar reflection, it causes a loss of interferometric coherence, so we use methods of detecting coherence change as a proxy for damage or other sudden change to buildings, other structures, or the land surface, which we call a damage proxy map (DPM). The most common method for estimating the interferometric coherence is with spatial phase correlation measures over small areas. The simplest damage proxy map method is to calculate the coherence of an interferometric SAR (InSAR) pair before the event and another pair that spans the event and take the difference of the coherence to measure the change likely due to the event. This method can be effective for areas where the InSAR coherence is normally very high at the radar wavelength used. SAR at L-band (24 cm) wavelength has high coherence in a wider variety of environments than the shorter wavelengths. A more advanced, but requiring more computational resources, damage proxy map method involves calculating the coherence of all possible InSAR pairs for an interval of some months or years before the event to develop statistics about the coherence of each ground location as a function of InSAR pair interval and other parameters such as interferometric spatial baseline. Then InSAR pairs that span the event are compared to the pre-event statistics to estimate the likelihood that the co-event coherence has been reduced by damage or other surface changes. We have found that damage proxy maps are useful for detecting likely damage from many different types of events, including earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, tsunami inundation, large landslides, or other causes.

Will most suitable spawning grounds for coastal fishes be impacted by climate change? A larval drift modelling approach

For many fishes, their early life stages are transported (passively) by currents between spawning areas and coastal nurseries, but also potential dispersal towards new habitats. Therefore, species have developed strategies to enhance the recruitment success, including the selection of appropriate spawning grounds. However, increased temperature due to climate change may lead to changes in hydrodynamics, shorter larval drifts, and earlier spawning, and consequently the location of the most suitable spawning grounds may change. We investigated whether the location of the most favourable spawning areas (allowing higher rates of larvae reaching coastal nurseries) was stable over time, and if differences could be found between environmentally contrasted years. We used a larval drift model taking into account hydrodynamics, larval characteristics and behaviour for three commercially exploited fish species (sole Solea solea, flounder Platichthys flesus and seabass Dicentrarchus labrax) in the Western Europe (encompassing the Bay of Biscay, the Celtic Sea and the English Channel). According to our model, we conclude that despite contrasting environmental conditions, the location of spawning grounds allowing the best chance of recruitment to nurseries for the offspring was fairly similar. However, even if the location of the main spawning grounds is stable over time, their relative effectiveness varies greatly between years. This would suggest that natural selection may favour the emergence of homing behaviour. This stability in this fish essential habitat location could facilitate protection measures. Going further, it could be interesting to study the variations occurring in spawning grounds (in terms of recruitment success, and retention/dispersion) during the course of a spawning season.

Non-canonical structures in locative and existential predication in the Ob-Ugric languages

The study at hand deals with different structures applied for expressing locative and existential predication in Khanty and Mansi, analysing a comparably large amount of data from various databases. Apart from the “expected” and traditionally described pattern “figure (theme) + ground (location) + copula”, the paper also accounts for posture verbs and transitive habeo-verbs playing a role in the named functional domain. Additionally, it is shown that a significant number of relevant clauses are structurally ambiguous between a locative and an existential reading. Finally, the paper underlines that the Ob-Ugric languages show a clear polarity split in the expression of locative and existential predication since the observed variation mainly touches affirmative clauses. In contrast, negative clauses are, as a rule, formed with negative existential particles.

Ground fault identification and location of autotransformer traction network for high‐speed railway based on multi‐terminals synchronous measure information

AbstractWith the rapid development of high‐speed railway, the auto‐transformer traction network (ATN) is also expanding. However, due to the improved performance of electric multiple units (EMUs) and the non‐linear relationship between impedance and ground fault distance, distance protection has limited coverage and cannot accurately locate the fault distance by measuring impedance. This paper presents a model of the ATN considering the presence of EMUs, which effectively demonstrates the characteristics of current distribution under the ground faults. Furthermore, a ground fault identification method based on multi‐terminal currents is proposed to enhance the accuracy of fault identification and differentiate faults and EMUs. The mapping relationship between current distribution and fault location is derived, and an accurate fault location method is proposed. Compared to existing methods, this method is not affected by EMUs and AT parameters. The fault identification and location scheme for ATN employs multi‐terminal synchronous information. Finally, through simulation and experimental setups, case studies have been conducted to verify the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method in various fault scenarios. Certainly, this research has significant application prospects in fault analysis and detection for HSR.

Yield analysis of spring barley varieties under conditions of environmental variability

In conditions of increasing continentality of climate in recent decades, spring barley breeding should be aimed at creating drought-resistant, early-ripening, high-yielding varieties with sufficiently high technological qualities of grain. In addition to the economic and biological properties of the variety established by the breeders, external conditions in the region of cultivation also have a significant impact on the stabilization of the yields. The variability of productivity of spring barley varieties was assessed in terms of such traits as stability, ecological plasticity and adaptability in different ecological and geographical conditions. The research was conducted in 2020–2022 on 17 varieties of spring barley in ecological trial in Samara and Rostov regions. The experiment was laid in fourfold repetition with a plot area of 10 m². In the years of research, the "growing region" factor (98.7%) had the greatest influence. Evaluation of the index of environmental conditions (Ij) revealed that the best conditions for the vegetation of spring barley plants were formed in the experiment in the Rostov region (Zernogradsky district) (Ij = +0.99). The yield of the varieties depended not only on the location of the seed-trial ground but also on the year of cultivation. The linear regression coefficient ranged from 0.67 to 1.36, dividing the varieties into responsive, weakly responsive and adaptive to changes in the cultivation conditions. The varieties Zernogradsky 1717 and Zernogradsky 1724 formed the highest yield in the experimental plots and were classified as stable under cultivation under different soil and climatic conditions, with high breeding value, stress tolerance and level of variety stability.

Deep reinforcement learning based trajectory design and resource allocation for task-aware multi-UAV enabled MEC networks

Computing tasks in the air is an important form of mobile edge computing (MEC) to improve the quality of service and enhance network coverage. In this paper, we investigate a multi-UAV cooperative computing model and massive devices access scenario in a service area without infrastructure. There are various types of ground devices with different tasks. Moreover, we consider that the UAV executing tasks of devices need to cache the content that task required. Therefore, we propose a multi-UAV enabled MEC network based on task awareness where each UAV caches some programs to execute tasks offloaded from devices. To minimize completion time, a joint UAV trajectory design, access decision and resource allocation problem is formulated. To address this intractable mixed integer non-linear programming problem, a multi-agent trajectory design and resource allocation (MATR) algorithm is proposed, where the multi-agent deep deterministic policy gradient (MADDPG) is applied. Considering the complexity of high-dimensional continuous action space, we introduce the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to jointly optimize access decisions, and computation resource allocation to reduce action space. In addition, we discuss the impact of the size of UAV cache space and the location of ground devices on the completion time. Simulation results show that the MATR algorithm can significantly reduce the completion time compared to the baselines.