Intensity Moments Research Articles

Intertwining Intensity Moments and Orbital Angular Momenta via Astigmatic Transforms of Structured Beams

Intertwining Intensity Moments and Orbital Angular Momenta via Astigmatic Transforms of Structured Beams

Wigner function and intensity moments of spatio-temporal light fields

Abstract The Wigner distribution function and its spatial-angular moments (intensity moments) are known to be efficient instruments for the characterization of complex quasimonochromatic light beams and their transformations. In this paper, a generalization of the Wigner function (WF)-based approach to spatio-temporal (ST) light fields (wave packets, short pulses) is considered. The ST intensity moments are related to important characteristics of the wave-packet structure, especially, with the transverse orbital angular momentum (OAM) being a specific feature of the ST optical vortices (STOVs). The ST moments’ transformations in a paraxial optical system obey simple and unified rules involving the ray-transfer ABCD-matrix of the system. On this basis, and with simple examples of OAM-carrying optical pulses, the schemes and mechanisms of STOV generation and transformation are presented. Examples of nonvortex ST wave packets with transverse OAM, their possible realizations, and the relations between the OAM and the visible pulse rotations are also discussed. The regular and unified formalism, developed in this paper, can be generalized and applied to more complex situations where the ST field propagates through inhomogeneous and random (scattering) media.

Beyond ‘Eat-Pray-Love’: Designing transformative CX for self-discovery in extended service encounters

Transformative experiences are considered to be the most impactful of all customer experience (CX) types. Many consumers seek service experiences that facilitate extraordinary personal revelations, like those depicted in the ‘Eat-Pray-Love’ self-discovery pilgrimage. However, there has been limited research on the design of transformative CX in more accessible, long-term services. Using a service co-design method of three workshops (n = 36), we develop an empirically-based framework for the design of transformative CX in extended service contexts (e.g. fitness, tertiary education, aged care, employee onboarding). Three stages were identified: the Foundation stage, Fortification stage and Fruition stage. This study makes a theoretical contribution presenting the criticality of designing discomfort into the service for transformative CX, and evidences the importance of ordinary, frequent moments (rather than peak-end intense moments) to support self-discovery over time. Managers involved in the design of extended services must highlight the relationship between involvement and expected degree of transformation.

Dive Into the Past: Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage Represented in Chinese Mobile Games

This study delves into the representation of intangible Chinese cultural heritage in Chinese mobile games. Nowadays, even with huge economic potential, Chinese mobile games are still faced with negative comments, especially from parents. To develop their reputation, Chinese mobile games have portrayed considerate Chinese intangible cultural heritage (ICH). The representation of cultural heritage in video games has been a subject of discussion for a long time, while console and computer games and tangible cultural heritage have been at the centre of academic studies. Hence, we strived to investigate how Chinese ICH is depicted in Chinese mobile games. A thematic analysis was conducted on data collected through analytical gameplay of 30 Chinese mobile games selected from Apple’s App Store and the Chinese TapTap platform. Our analysis indicates that Chinese ICH is represented in Chinese mobile games to fulfil the persona of game characters, to create a more engaging and immersive game world experience, to provide more intense combat moments, to offer visually enjoyable virtual goods, and to deliver culturally driven updates during traditional festivals. Among the various forms of Chinese ICH, Chinese traditional craftsmanship is found to be used most frequently because of the huge effort it requires to be mastered, which could be educational to players. Theatrical traditions were found to be depicted in most game elements because they combine visual, audio, and motional elements. Lastly, folk and classical literature is portrayed in Chinese mobile games to provide a narrative resource that culturally resonates with players.

Discursive Practices during an Electoral Cycle: Public Opinion and Political Disillusionment on Twitter

Electoral cycles are highly charged, politically intense moments that influence public discourse. Political elites, citizens, and the traditional news media seek to generate opinions and interactions on social networks. This research is motivated by the following questions: What are the communicative and deliberative practices used in these spaces? Is it possible to identify the characteristics that –through deliberative conversations– potentially foster or undermine democratic debate, particularly when using populist and polarizing discourse? Using a mixed methods approach, we apply a social network analysis tool to track conversations and identify the volume of political discourse (N=346,000). Using selective and staged filtering, we identified posts from nine Peruvian Twitter accounts during the September 2022 electoral campaign in Lima: three candidates, three media outlets, and three accounts with high levels of engagement. Our data comprised the comments from these nine accounts and was extracted using an Application Programming Interface (API). Subsequently, we carried out ethnographic content analysis on publications with more than 30 comments. In this phase, we analyzed Twitter comments using a codebook to identify deliberative practices and user responses. Our findings underscore the significant role of principal media outlets in shaping political conversation on Twitter. We also discovered that attempts to interact and deliberate were often overshadowed by heated comments attempting to impose opinions on others. Most importantly, our research reveals a widespread disillusionment with politics, political institutions, and even the political preferences of fellow citizens in Peru, highlighting a key challenge for democratic discourse on social media.

Acoustic variation in Buenos Aires /sC/ production: linguistic and social factors

/s/ debuccalization, or “pre-aspiration,” is well-known in Buenos Aires (Porteño) Spanish. Recent research on Porteño /st/ suggests its most common variant for some young speakers contains both pre- and post-aspiration. Using sociolinguistic interview data from 20 speakers, I explore (i) the prevalence of lengthy VOT in /sC/; (ii) whether variants differ in HNR, intensity, or spectral moments; (iii) whether, accounting for coarticulation, frication in /st/ is different from /sp sk/; and (iv) the role of social factors. A clearer picture of Porteño /sC/ will inform our understanding of why developments in one variety (i.e., Andalusian) may or may not follow suit in another (i.e., Porteño). Intervocalic /sC/, either word-medial or cross-word, were analyzed (n = 4084). With 29ms as lengthy VOT, tokens were codedas: /s/-retention (n = 355); retention with lengthy VOT (n = 59); pre-aspiration (n = 2941); pre-aspiration with lengthy VOT (n = 672); or post-aspiration (n = 33). Note that pre-aspiration is dominant. Preliminary LMER modeling suggests fricative duration plus the interaction of fricative location (pre- versus post-closure) and place of articulation, as linguistic factors, and age, gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, place of origin, and socioeconomic background, as social factors, are significant predictors of the acoustic variation.

The Analysis of The Speech Style Used By Steve Harvey's Talk Show in The Episode “Inspiring Young Man Brings Steve Harvey To Tears”

The purpose of this research is to analyze the speech style used by Steve Harvey in the episode "Inspiring Young Man Brings Steve Harvey to Tears". On Steve Harvey’s official YouTube page called The Steve TV Show, the episode recorded 575,739 views and episodes uploaded on March 24, 2024. The Steve Harvey Show is a television show. This research aims to identify and categorize the various speech styles used by Steve Harvey (Host) and Walter Carr (guest) in the episode, as well as to understand the context and function of each style. The method used in this research is qualitative descriptive analysis for data collection. Data collected from analyzed video and transcripts of talk show episodes were analyzed and then classified based on the theory of Joos Martin (1962), which divides speech style into five levels, namely: frozen style, formal style, consultative style, informal style, and intimate style. Based on Joos Martin’s theory, Steve Harvey and Walter Carr preferred Consultative Speech Style at 84,62%, Casual Speech Style at 7,69%, Formal Speech Style at 15,38%, Intimate Speech Style at 0%, Frozen Speech Style at 0% emerging during intense emotional moments at and the guest. These findings explain how speech style preferences influence interaction and emotional resonance in talk-show situations.

Research on the intensity profiles of high-order Laguerre-Gaussian mode laser beams

Here we analyzed the intensity profile properties of the Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) mode laser beams, to facilitate the intracavity intensity modulation for high-order LG mode laser output. The commonly used definitions of ring-like beam size are discussed, including the second moment of light intensity, power in the bucket, and the peak intensity radius of the ring-like beam. The differences between these methods underscore the importance of selecting appropriate beam size definitions when estimating the mode order, which is particularly worthy of attention when employing certain mode-selection techniques, such as using a defect spot, an aperture, or inducing spherical aberration (SA), to achieve high-order mode outputs. In the experiment, high-order mode LG0,±m output were obtained by utilizing the SA of a short-focal lens in the cavity of an end-pumped Nd:YVO4 laser at 1064 nm. The highest angular indices m reached 355, which is the highest order of LG mode output obtained directly from a laser cavity. The experimental relationship between the mode-order and cavity parameters matched well with the theoretical results, validating the analysis of the intensity profile properties.

Analysis of the Relationship between Fuel Prices and Vehicle Numbers in Urban Road Networks

The article presents an analysis of the relationship between the price of fuel and diesel oil and traffic intensity in the city. First, an analysis of fuel prices was prepared over fourteen months and the number of passenger cars and trucks per day was examined at the same time. From the results obtained, the highest, lowest, and average values were obtained. On this basis, it was noticed that when the price of fuel was the highest, there were fewer passenger cars, but when the price dropped, the number of vehicles increased. Another conclusion from the analysis is that when the price of fuel dropped even more than the average, there were no more cars. Based on the analysis, it was noticed that the number of vehicles may vary by up to 8000 passenger vehicles per day within one intersection. Then, a microsimulation model was performed in the PTV Vissim program to check the amount of pollution generated by vehicles in three variants: the highest, lowest, and average traffic intensities. The results show that the average daily CO pollution at the moment of the lowest traffic intensity is 15,000 g lower than the average, so the high price of fuel causes much less pollution for the consumer.

Workload, general perceived stress, body function, musculoskeletal pain, and their mutual relationships in nurses - a pilot study.

Both physical and psychosocial risk factors contributing to musculoskeletal disorders occur in the professional nursing group, and previous literature suggested that their interaction may increase the risk of musculoskeletal pain among nurses. The aim of the study was to examine perceived workload and stress as well as physical findings and musculoskeletal complaints in nurses. The participants consisted of 42 female nurses, age range 23-60 years. They marked on a pain drawing the site/sites that was/were painful at the moment of testing, its duration and intensity. Thereafter they were examined using the movement and respiration domains from the Global Physiotherapy Examination (GPE). Furthermore, a subjective workload measure was made using the paper version of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index and stress was assessed using the Perceived Stress Questionnaire. Almost the entire study group declared that pain experienced in at least 1 location was chronic, i.e., had lasted ≥1 year (97%). The most frequent locations of pain were low back (22.4%) and cervical/head (21.6%) regions. In the GPE, most scores indicated restricted and reduced movement, with the subdomain flexibility having the highest deviation from the predefined standard. Furthermore, the results indicated hampered respiration, especially visible in standing position. Out of all workload scores, the highest was obtained for temporal demand. Perceived stress level was found to be moderate and significantly associated to chronic chest/ thoracic pain. Interestingly, the compression of thorax test positively correlated with mental (r = 0.42, p < 0.05) and physical demand (r = 0.35, p < 0.05), whereas the elbow drop test and temporal demand correlated negatively (r = -0.37, p < 0.05). To sum up, the majority of nurses participating in this study had long-lasting pain and limited flexibility of the body and hampered respiration, which both may enhance intensity of experienced musculoskeletal pain. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2024;37(3):257-70.

A reduced-order model for nonlinear radiative transfer problems based on moment equations and POD-Petrov-Galerkin projection of the normalized Boltzmann transport equation

A data-driven projection-based reduced-order model (ROM) for nonlinear thermal radiative transfer (TRT) problems is presented. The TRT ROM is formulated by (i) a hierarchy of low-order quasidiffusion (aka variable Eddington factor) equations for moments of the radiation intensity and (ii) the normalized Boltzmann transport equation (BTE). The multilevel system of moment equations is derived by projection of the BTE onto a sequence of subspaces which represent elements of the phase space of the problem. Exact closure for the moment equations is provided by the Eddington tensor. A Petrov-Galerkin (PG) projection of the normalized BTE is formulated using a proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) basis representing the normalized radiation intensity over the whole phase space and time. The Eddington tensor linearly depends on the solution of the normalized BTE. By linear superposition of the POD basis functions, a low-rank expansion of the Eddington tensor is constructed with coefficients defined by the PG projected normalized BTE. The material energy balance (MEB) equation is coupled with the effective gray low-order equations which exist on the same dimensional scale as the MEB equation. The resulting TRT ROM is structure and asymptotic preserving. A detailed analysis of the ROM is performed on the classical Fleck-Cummings (F-C) TRT multigroup test problem in 2D geometry. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the ROM's effectiveness in the simulation of radiation wave phenomena. The ROM is shown to produce solutions with sufficiently high accuracy while using low-rank approximation of the normalized BTE solution. Essential physical characteristics of supersonic radiation wave are preserved in the ROM solutions.

Psychedelic Mysticism and Christian Spirituality: From Science to Love

The scientific claim that psychedelic drugs like psilocybin reliably occasion mystical experiences was justified using the Mystical Experiences Questionnaire (the MEQ), a survey first developed in the 1960s by Walter Pahnke using W.T. Stace’s Mysticism and Philosophy. Scholars in Christian mysticism reject the adequacy of Stace’s work for Western theistic mysticism, especially Christianity. One objection is that Stace follows William James in focusing on intense and unusual moments of mystical experience rather than the somewhat more ordinary mystical life. A greater concern is that Stace more adequately reflects non-Western traditions than Western theistic traditions like Christianity. For Stace, mysticism centers on the concept of union with external reality or with the absolute, a union in which the human creature is absorbed or fused. Christian mysticism, by contrast, involves a sense of presence rather than union, experienced in a most intimate relationship as a felt loving closeness with the divine, but not as fusion or absorption into the divine. While love of God is central to the Christian view, it is ignored in Stace and the MEQ30. Finally for Christianity, mysticism is not found in the momentary experience, but in the lifelong interpretation that leads to transformation.

Comparative neuroprotective effects of royal jelly and its unique compound 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid on ischemia-induced inflammatory, apoptotic, epigenetic and genotoxic changes in a rat model of ischemic stroke

ABSTRACT Objectives This study aimed to compare the efficacy of royal jelly (RJ) and its major fatty acid 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid (10-HDA) on ischemic stroke-related pathologies using histological and molecular approaches. Methods Male rats were subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo) to induce ischemic stroke and were supplemented daily with either vehicle (control group), RJ or 10-HDA for 7 days starting on the day of surgery. On the eighth day, rats were sacrificed and brain tissue and blood samples were obtained to analyze brain infarct volume, DNA damage as well as apoptotic, inflammatory and epigenetic parameters. Results Both RJ and 10-HDA supplementation significantly reduced brain infarction and decreased weight loss when compared to control animals. These effects were associated with reduced levels of active caspase-3 and PARP-1 and increased levels of acetyl-histone H3 and H4. Although both RJ and 10-HDA treatments significantly increased acetyl-histone H3 levels, the effect of RJ was more potent than that of 10-HDA. RJ and 10-HDA supplementation also alleviated DNA damage by significantly reducing tail length, tail intensity and tail moment in brain tissue and peripheral lymphocytes, except for the RJ treatment which tended to reduce tail moment in lymphocytes without statistical significance. Conclusions Our findings suggest that neuroprotective effects of RJ in experimental stroke can mostly be attributed to 10-HDA.

Assessment of genotoxicity biomarkers in gasoline station attendants due to occupational exposure.

Gasoline station attendants are exposed to numerous chemicals that might have genotoxic and carcinogenic potential, such as benzene in fuel vapor and particulate matter and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in vehicle exhaust emission. According to IARC, benzene and diesel particulates are Group 1 human carcinogens, and gasoline has been classified as Group 2A "possibly carcinogenic to humans." At gas stations, self-service is not implemented in Turkey; fuel-filling service is provided entirely by employees, and therefore they are exposed to those chemicals in the workplace during all working hours. Genetic monitoring of workers with occupational exposure to possible genotoxic agents allows early detection of cancer. We aimed to investigate the genotoxic damage due to exposures in gasoline station attendants in Turkey. Genotoxicity was evaluated by the Comet, chromosomal aberration, and cytokinesis-block micronucleus assays in peripheral blood lymphocytes. Gasoline station attendants (n = 53) had higher tail length, tail intensity, and tail moment values than controls (n = 61). In gasoline station attendants (n = 46), the frequencies of chromatid gaps, chromosome gaps, and total aberrations were higher compared with controls (n = 59). Increased frequencies of micronuclei and nucleoplasmic bridges were determined in gasoline station attendants (n = 47) compared with controls (n = 40). Factors such as age, duration of working, and smoking did not have any significant impact on genotoxic endpoints. Only exposure increased genotoxic damage in gasoline station attendants independently from demographic and clinical characteristics. Occupational exposure-related genotoxicity risk may increase in gasoline station attendants who are chronically exposed to gasoline and various chemicals in vehicle exhaust emissions.

A recursive method for fractional Hawkes intensities and the potential approach of credit risk

This article explores the potential approach for credit risk, which is an alternative to structural and reduced models. In the context of credit risk, it consists in assuming that the survival probability of a company is equal to the ratio of the expected value of a supermartingale divided by its initial value. This approach, that was previously used for modeling the term structure of interest rates, is extended by the use of a fractional self-exciting process, or fractional Hawkes process. This is a self-exciting process that is time-changed by the inverse of an alpha-stable subordinator. A self-exciting process allows to take into account the clustering of economic events such as defaults, whereas the time-change allows to properly fit highly convex survival probability curves. We derive a new recursive method that allows to compute all the moments of a self-exciting process intensity, as well as its time-changed counterpart. We show that this method can be used to approximate the survival probabilities in the potential approach. More specifically, we prove that the approximation converges and we provide a bound on the numerical error. Finally, we calibrate the model and show that it allows to properly fit survival probability curves that are highly convex.

Response time of soil moisture to rain in a vineyard with permanent cover

The time elapsed between the moments of maximum rainfall intensity and maximum soil moisture, known as peak to peak (P2P), is part of the hydrological response of the soil, but literature has missed this metric in any woody crop. In a vineyard with permanent vegetation cover (humid climatic conditions), the influence of two cultivars (Agudelo and Blanco Legítimo) and two zones (rows and inter-row areas) on the values of soil moisture response time, absolute change in moisture (ΔS) and P2P was evaluated for 118 rainfall events in three soil layers. 12 capacitance probes and a weather station were used, and data measured every 15 min. A positive response (ΔS > 0) was observed in 79 %, 73 % and 67 % of all events at soil depth of 5, 15 and 25 cm, decreasing ΔS with increasing soil depth. Differences of ΔS were significant among layers, but not among cultivars and zones. The maximum ΔS occurred at 15 cm, while the minimum was observed at 25 cm. No response was evident when specific thresholds were not reached: rainfall depth (0.60 mm event−1), maximum intensity (1.20 mm h−1) or duration (30 min). Topsoil conditions –high rainfall interception by the dense cover and high soil organic matter content– influenced the results at 5 cm. Rain parameters correlated well with ΔS, but weak with the response time and P2P. P2P occurred earlier in the rows than between the rows, especially at 15 cm. Shorter P2P appeared in Agudelo, with significant differences in the rows at 5 cm. P2P differed significantly among layers, increasing P2P with soil depth. Similar ΔS values appeared in Spring and Autumn, and were significantly different than those in Summer, but P2P did not differ significantly among seasons. Therefore, the magnitude and timing of the soil hydrological response were independent processes.

Human Body Electrode Enabled Direct Current Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Self‐Powered Wireless Human Motion and Environment Monitoring

AbstractTriboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is a promising technology, which can convert biokinetic energy into electricity and be utilized as self‐powered sensors and power sources for wearable electronics. The existing designs of conventional TENGs require complex fabrication processes and device structures, and they need to be attached on human body for wearable application, which is uncomfortable and may lead to malfunction under intense body moment. Here, a direct current TENG is proposed by utilizing natural human body, basketball, shoes, and ground floor. A unidirectional peak voltage and current output up to 700 V and 23 µA can be generated when a player plays a basketball, which can lighten up an array of 240 LEDs, and charge a 100 µF capacitor to 3.2 V in 1 min. The output of TENG is utilized to identify different movements of a basketball player using machine learning algorithm with an accuracy up to 96.7%. Moreover, the human body enabled direct current TENG (HBDC‐TENG) is used as a self‐powered sensor and an energy harvester for a wireless sensing system, which can collect human motion and environmental information, and transmit them wirelessly. The HBDC‐TENG has a great significance for self‐powered wearable electronics, providing a viable solution for human motion status and ambient environment monitoring.

Principle and application of holographic modal wavefront sensor for extended objects and general aberration modes

By employing a computer-generated hologram (CGH) to modulate the incident wavefront, the holographic modal wavefront sensor (HMWFS) can efficiently measure multiple aberration modes in a single shot, providing significant advantages such as computational simplicity, rapid measurement speed, and customizable assessment of aberration modes. However, the current HMWFS is confined to point-like objects and aberrations with specific orthogonality, thereby limiting its application scope. In this paper, we introduce a novel HMWFS that, to the best of our knowledge, is compatible with extended objects and general aberration modes. We establish the theoretical relationship between the second moment of the image intensity and the coefficients of general aberration modes for extended objects. Simulation and experimental results confirm the feasibility and performance of the proposed HMWFS. Additionally, we demonstrated its practical use in measuring misalignments of the secondary mirror of a space telescope. Simulations show that the misalignments can be effectively corrected within 2∼3 iterations.

Development of intensity–duration–frequency relationships in Khon Kaen City, Thailand under changing climate using GCMs and a simple scaling method

Abstract This study analyses the annual maximum (AM) rainfall series (1991–2022) in Khon Kaen City, Thailand. The AM rainfall series ranging from 3 to 24 h was best fitted to the Log-Pearson Type-III distribution. Notably, our findings reveal linear relationships between the moments of rainfall intensities and durations establishing the practicality of the simple scaling method for disaggregating 24-h AM rainfall data. Additionally, the results of this method are influenced by factors such as sample size, rainfall durations and the chosen probability distribution. Comparisons between intensity–duration–frequency (IDF) curves obtained through the simple scaling method and those derived from traditional frequency analysis provide valuable insights. Furthermore, this method was applied to bias-corrected rainfall data of 15 global climate models facilitating the generation of future IDF curves under SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0 and SSP5-8.5 scenarios. Our results highlight that rainfall events in the SSP5-8.5 scenario are projected to exhibit higher intensities emphasizing the need to understand and prepare for increased rainfall extremes in the context of climate change. This research contributes valuable insights into rainfall analysis and prediction techniques, which are crucial for effective water resource management and climate adaptation strategies in the Khon Kaen region.

Polynomial chaos expansions for modelling the statistics of acoustic propagation in random waveguides

The use of Polynomial Chaos expansions to model the transfer of the statistical properties of the sound speed in ocean waveguides to those of acoustic waves passing through them is described. A perturbational framework approximating the interaction of acoustic normal modes with fluctuations around a background sound speed is used, with the fluctuations being represented vertically by empirical orthogonal functions and horizontally by correlation functions. The Polynomial Chaos expansions are derived to second order in the uncorrelated random variable representing the sound speed fluctuations for the generalized phase of the complex modal amplitudes, and to third order for the modal amplitudes themselves. The ability of the second order polynomial chaos expansion for the generalized model phase to accurately model acoustic propagation statistics is closely coupled to the accuracy of the adiabatic approximation in light scattering regimes. The weights of the Polynomial Chaos expansions are obtained using both direct (theoretical) and indirect (least-squares fit) methods. Divergence between these two sets of weights increases with combinations of increasing strength of sound speed fluctuations, increasing frequency, or increasing range, indicating where a higher order expansion may be necessary. Modelling results for the first and second moments of the acoustic intensity and the Scintillation Index in random waveguides are presented and compared to Monte Carlo results.