Path Conditions Research Articles

Advanced earth grid monitoring for HV network safety compliance

ABSTRACT Electrical energy is a critical component for human comfort, but mismanagement of this energy can lead to human injury and even fatalities. High voltage safety compliance hinges on the presence of an adequate earthing system within the infrastructure. Various factors influence the effectiveness of the earthing system, including soil resistivity in the surrounding area and the availability of auxiliary paths for fault currents. Weather conditions, changes in the surrounding environment, and alterations within the high-voltage network significantly impact these elements. Any modifications to the auxiliary path conditions can have severe consequences on the network’s safety compliance. The current industry practice lacks continuous monitoring of the earth grid and fault current paths, with no provision for frequent current injection tests on the entire earth grid system. To close the existing gap, this paper proposes a novel approach through the introduction of an Earthing IoT Monitoring system. This system enables network owners to monitor safety compliance across the entire network, identify fault current return paths, and pinpoint any necessary preventive maintenance measures. The paper also delves into the crucial roles played by soil resistivity and split factors in the earthing system domain. A case study is included to support the innovative nature of the proposed system.

Investigation of the particle crushing characteristics of stacked stone materials under different stress path conditions

Stone fill materials are widely used in engineering projects such as earth-rock dams, railways, and highway embankments. Nevertheless, they are susceptible to particle breakage, which can lead to a decline in engineering performance. A complete set of studies on crushed stone aggregates was carried out to investigate particle crushing characteristics under various stress path conditions. To quantify the amount of particle crushing, the relative particle crushing rate was utilized as an indicator. The plastic work performed during the trials was compared across different stress routes, and the relationships between particle crushing and average stress p and generalized shear stress q were investigated. In triaxial testing, the differences in particle crushing behavior under different stress routes were thoroughly examined. The results show that particle crushing is substantially lower in the modelling of a rockfill dam constructed with a core wall and subjected to reservoir water pressure pathways than in conventional triaxial tests. A clear relationship was discovered. Across several stress routes, a clear link between plastic work and the relative particle crushing rate was detected, which was successfully characterized by a power function. Notably, the contributions of different stress components to the overall plastic work varied significantly. The plastic work exerted by the generalized shear stress q accounted for a large percentage of traditional triaxial testing, although the proportion of plastic work given by p and q changed significantly in complex stress path tests. This research enhances the understanding of the particle breakage characteristics of stone fill materials under complex stress paths.

Generative Adversarial Networks-Based Ground-Motion Model for Crustal Earthquakes in Japan Considering Detailed Site Conditions

ABSTRACT We develop a ground-motion model (GMM) for crustal earthquakes in Japan that can directly model the probability distribution of ground-motion acceleration time histories based on generative adversarial networks (GANs). The proposed model can generate ground motions conditioned on moment magnitude, rupture distance, and detailed site conditions defined by the average shear-wave velocity in the top 5, 10, and 20 m (VS5, VS10, and VS20) and the depth to shear-wave velocities of 1.0 km/s and 1.4 km/s (Z1.0 and Z1.4). We construct the neural networks based on styleGAN2 and introduce a novel neural network architecture to generate ground motions considering the effect of source, path, and such detailed site conditions. The resulting 5% damped spectral acceleration from the proposed GMM is consistent with empirical GMMs in terms of magnitude and distance scaling. The proposed GMM can also generate ground motions accounting for the shear-wave velocity profiles of surface soil with different magnitudes and distances and represent characteristics that are not explained solely byVS30.

Towards sustainable growth paths for work integration social enterprises in the circular economy

An important presumed social impact of the circular economy (CE) is job-creation for vulnerable groups. This creates opportunities for Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs), which are established to organize economic activities for workers with a distance to the labour market. In this paper, we identify challenges, opportunities, and sustainability aspects for WISEs in the CE. We apply Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model results and conduct 20 expert interviews, providing an empirical contribution to recent research agendas on the social impact of the CE and the role of WISEs in Circular Societies. Our results show that WISEs should not take job-creating opportunities of the CE for granted, most specifically in the business-to-business (B2B) markets they are active in. While WISEs conceive competitive advantages to perform core CE jobs, they need to develop organisational capabilities to convert this potential into high added value activities within regionally embedded circular value chains. When identifying conditions for sustainable growth paths, we reveal a strong interconnectedness between social, environmental, and economic dimensions. We recommend management professionals and policy makers to measure, validate, and communicate social and circularity outcomes and invest in partnerships along value chains and across policy domains.

Graph-Based Restricted and Arbitrary Switching for Switched Positive Systems via a Weak CLCLF.

This article studies the stability problem of discrete-time switched positive linear systems (SPLSs) with marginally stable subsystems. Based on the weak common linear copositive Lyapunov function (weak CLCLF) approach, the switching property and the state component property are combined to ensure the asymptotic stability of SPLSs under three types of switching signals. First, considering the transfer-restricted switching signal described by the switching digraph, novel cycle-dependent joint path conditions are proposed in combination with state component digraphs. Second, under the time interval sequence, two types of path conditions are constructed for designing switching schemes. Third, necessary and sufficient conditions for the asymptotic stability of SPLSs under arbitrary switching are established. Finally, three examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Evolution of Material Properties and Residual Stress with Increasing Number of Passes in Aluminium Structure Printed via Additive Friction Stir Deposition.

Additive friction stir deposition (AFSD) is an emerging solid-state additive manufacturing process with a high deposition rate. Being a non-fusion additive manufacturing (AM) process, it significantly eliminates problems related to melting such as cracking or high residual stresses. Therefore, it is possible to process reactive materials or high-strength alloys with high susceptibility to cracking. Although the residual stresses are lower in this process than with the other AM processes, depending on the deposition path, geometry, and boundary conditions, residual stresses may lead to undesired deformations and deteriorate the dimensional accuracy. Thermal cycling during layer deposition, which also depends on the geometry of the manufactured component, is expected to affect mechanical properties. To this day, the influence of the deposit geometry on the residual stresses and mechanical properties is not well understood, which presents a barrier for industry uptake of this process for large-scale part manufacturing. In this study, a stepped structure with 4, 7, and 10 passes manufactured via AFSD is used to investigate changes in microstructure, residual stress, and mechanical property as a function of the number of passes. The microstructure and defects are assessed using scanning electron microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction. Hardness maps for each step are created. The residual stress distributions at the centreline of each step are acquired via non-destructive neutron diffraction. The valuable insights presented here are essential for the successful utilisation of AFSD in industrial applications.

Experimental study on heat and moisture coupling migration behavior of unsaturated bentonite buffer materials for high-level radioactive waste repository

This paper independently developed a set of experimental equipment that can approximately simulate the service working environment of unsaturated bentonite buffer. By conducting heat and moisture transfer experiments on unsaturated bentonite under the combined action of heating-cooling path and water erosion conditions, the evolution laws of temperature, humidity, electrical conductivity at different locations away from the heat source, as well as the heat and moisture coupling migration behavior were studied. The results show that during the heating-cooling process, the temperature evolution laws is similar at different positions away from the heat source. Although the temperature of the heat source reaches 100 °C, its impact range is relatively small. The evolution law of humidity varies greatly at different positions, and is significantly influenced by the temperature field, as well as the coupling effect of hydraulic field. The change in electrical conductivity is basically consistent with the change in humidity, and is also subject to the combined coupling effect of temperature field and hydraulic field. Under the condition of no water erosion and increasing heating/cooling rate, the amplitude of temperature change decreases, and humidity and electrical conductivity show a trend of migration away from the heat source throughout the heating cooling stage.

Assessment of park paths and trails to promote physical accessibility among wheelchair users in Saudi Arabia.

Individuals with mobility disabilities are less likely to meet physical activity standards and are at greater risk of developing non-communicable chronic diseases at earlier ages. Public parks are an essential resource for participation in physical activity. However, environmental factors may limit the participation of wheelchair users. The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of using the Path Environment Audit Tool (PEAT) and to explore the wheelchair accessibility of five public parks in Saudi Arabia through descriptive analysis. A descriptive study design was implemented to evaluate wheelchair accessibility features of five public parks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and process, resource, and management assessments were conducted. Phone GPS-App Strava was used to track the segments and measure their distances. Audits in multiple parks using PEAT were time-consuming despite being user-friendly. The descriptive analysis of paths and trails across the five parks showed some positive features, such as adequate bollard/gate clearance, but the path slope and condition of the path surfaces were more variable. This study is the first to examine wheelchair accessibility in public parks in Saudi Arabia. Preliminary audits of paths/trials in five public parks revealed the strengths and weaknesses of accessibility and features that promote physical activity participation for wheelchair users. These findings can guide future use of PEAT in large-scale studies and inform environmental modifications.

An inverse analysis of fluid flow through granular media using differentiable lattice Boltzmann method

This study presents a method for the inverse analysis of fluid flow problems. The focus is put on accurately determining boundary conditions and characterizing the physical properties of granular media, such as permeability, and fluid components, like viscosity. The primary aim is to deduce either constant pressure head or pressure profiles, given the known velocity field at a steady-state flow through a conduit containing obstacles, including walls, spheres, and grains. The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) combined with automatic differentiation (AD) (AD-LBM) is employed, with the help of the GPU-capable Taichi programming language. A lightweight tape is used to generate gradients for the entire LBM simulation, enabling end-to-end backpropagation. Our AD-LBM approach accurately estimates the boundary conditions for complex flow paths in porous media, leading to observed steady-state velocity fields and deriving macro-scale permeability and fluid viscosity. The method demonstrates significant advantages in terms of prediction accuracy and computational efficiency, making it a powerful tool for solving inverse fluid flow problems in various applications.

Octopus : Scaling Value-Flow Analysis via Parallel Collection of Realizable Path Conditions

Value-flow analysis is a fundamental technique in program analysis, benefiting various clients, such as memory corruption detection and taint analysis. However, existing efforts suffer from the low potential speedup that leads to a deficiency in scalability. In this work, we present a parallel algorithm Octopus to collect path conditions for realizable paths efficiently. Octopus builds on the realizability decomposition to collect the intraprocedural path conditions of different functions simultaneously on-demand and obtain realizable path conditions by concatenation, which achieves a high potential speedup in parallelization. We implement Octopus as a tool and evaluate it over 15 real-world programs. The experiment shows that Octopus significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms. Particularly, it detects NULL-pointer-dereference bugs for the project llvm with 6.3 MLoC within 6.9 minutes under the 40-thread setting. We also state and prove several theorems to demonstrate the soundness, completeness, and high potential speedup of Octopus . Our empirical and theoretical results demonstrate the great potential of Octopus in supporting various program analysis clients. The implementation has officially deployed at Ant Group, scaling the nightly code scan for massive FinTech applications.

The perceived experience of adhering to vegan diet: a descriptive phenomenological study

BackgroundToday, raw vegetarianism is considered one of the most important socio-cultural developments in contemporary societies. In this regard, the present study was conducted to describe the perceived experience of people adhering to a vegan diet through a phenomenological perspective.MethodsThis qualitative study explores the perceived experiences of individuals who follow a vegan diet and are part of the self-care campaign in Kermanshah, Iran. sampling was purposeful and face-to-face interviews were conducted with 12 individuals who follow a vegan lifestyle. The data were analyzed after being collected using the seven steps of Collizi. MAXQUDA software (version 12) was used for data management.ResultsAfter qualitative data analysis, we identified 567 codes, which were categorized into 15 sub-themes. From these sub-themes, we derived 4 main themes. The main themes include: In pursuit of redemption (Meaningful framework, In awareness path, Unequaled Disappointment, Chronic and complex conditions), Seeking the New World (Starting with doubt and hesitation, The temptation to return, Constant criticism, Unfamiliar appearance), On the path of overcoming difficulties (Associate problems, Matching the new way, Perceived recommendations), and attaining the expected outcomes (Healthy lifestyle, Therapeutic feedback, Enhancing emotional wellbeing, Feeling of youth).ConclusionBased on the participants’ experience, despite the challenging journey, the people with a vegetarian diet experienced partial and complete improvement of all the symptoms of the diseases. They had a healthy lifestyle and felt young and energetic. Likewise, this method had a positive effect on people’s mental state and mood.

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF PEDESTRIAN PATHS IN THE COLONIAL HISTORICAL AREA OF KOTA LAMA CIREBON

Pedestrian path conditions are one of the factors that affect willingness to walk and play an important role in supporting historical tourism activities. This study analyzes the performance of pedestrian paths expressed by Pedestrian Level of Service (PLOS) in the colonial historical area of Kota Lama Cirebon. The method used in this study was to conduct a geometric survey of pedestrian paths, pedestrian flow surveys, and pedestrian travel time surveys in 10 segments scattered throughout the study area. The survey results were analyzed regarding the 1985 Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) and PLOS values generated based on available walking space. The study shows that in terms of walking space availability, most of the segments in the study area have a PLOS A score, which means they are performing well. In comparison, some segments have poor PLOS, such as Merdeka Street, Yos Sudarso Street, TJ Street, and Kebumen Street, due to the unavailability of sufficient walking paths to serve pedestrians or the presence of side obstacles that reduce the effective width of the pedestrian path. To overcome these problems, several things need to be done, such as: 1) issue a policy prohibiting selling on pedestrian paths to reduce side obstacles so that the effective width of the pedestrian path can increase; 2) widen the pedestrian path at least according to the applicable standards; and 3) provide pedestrian paths on segments that do not yet have pedestrian paths.

Mineral Composition Effects on Dust Deposition at Realistic Engine Conditions

Abstract In this article, the role of mineral composition was assessed for Air Force Research Laboratory Test Dust (AFRL), for deposition in a realistic gas turbine engine environment. Experiments were performed on an effusion cooling test article with a coolant flow temperature of 894 K and surface temperature of 1144 K. Aerosolized dust with a 0–10 µm particle size distribution was delivered to the test article. The mineral recipe of AFRL was altered such that the presence of each of the five components ranged from 0% to 100%, and capture efficiency, hole capture efficiency, blockage per gram, and normalized deposit height were reported. Results are compared to a previous study of the intermineral synergies in an impingement cooling jet at the same temperature conditions. Despite differences in experimental facility flow geometry, overall agreement was found between the trends in the deposition behavior of the dust blends. The strong deposition effects that were observed were shown to be related to adhesion forces of particles, mechanical properties, and chemical properties of the dust minerals. Supplemental testing was performed in a high-temperature (1425–1650 K) impinging jet (200–260 m/s) to evaluate mineral effects at hot gas path conditions. Capture efficiency and morphology of dust deposits are reported. The capture efficiency in this regime was shown to correlate well with temperature, with chemical effects being secondary. An attempt was made to predict capture efficiency using chemical assessments such as a ratio of bases to acids, Ca:Si ratio, and optical basicity with only modest success.

Identification of homogenous zones using riding speed time-series to reveal the spatial structure of the urban pace

Traffic speed is essential for the measurement of urban pace. The riding speed metric is one of the most effective ways to identify the underlying dynamic patterns and structures of urban pace. However, few studies have explored the patterns of urban pace reflected by riding speed differentiation of public shared bicycle groups. To this end, this study first infers the riding speeds under unknown path conditions based on the origin–destination of large sample riding records in Suzhou, China. Second, an identification model of homogenous zones for urban pace is established by neighboring station search and time-series similarity-based neighboring station merger. Finally, the fluctuation and deviation indexes of the fitted rhythm curves are adopted to measure the heterogeneity degree of the urban pace in each homogenous zone. Results show that the urban paces based on riding speed have significant spatial differentiation characteristics in the city, and the generated homogeneous zones show a certain stable structure in urban space. The old town has the fastest urban pace and is at a consistently high level, the new district has a faster urban pace and a double-peak pattern, the suburb area has a moderate urban pace and shows a single-peak pattern, while the peripheral area has the slowest urban pace with no significant pace spikes. Meanwhile, the waveform of the urban pace in different zones have a delay of approximately one hour. This study proposes an effective approach to reflect the spatiotemporal homogeneity and heterogeneity of urban pace through the dynamic traffic flow elements, which can be universally applied to other cities and is helpful for planning more dynamic urban functional areas and detecting life stress of urban residents.

Estimating human sensitivity to curving of segmented paths within room-size environment

The curvature gain of the redirected walking (RDW) technique can map a straight virtual path to an arced real path, which enables users to real walk in large virtual space. However, the human perceptual abilities for curvature gain are mainly estimated on single walking paths in some large spaces, showing a lack of understanding the cognitive performance for more complex path conditions in room-size spaces. To explore this issue, this paper conducts three studies by using a novel psychophysical method of limits to evaluate human perception of curvature gain under different conditions of virtual paths. First, we evaluate the perception of path curving under a single path condition and reveal the impact of the path curving direction. Second, we study the ability to perceive curvature gain on a postorder path when the curving direction and degree of its preorder path vary. Our results show a moderation effect on the perceptual ability for the postorder path if both paths are in the same curving direction. Finally, we explore the effect of the preorder path length on the human sensitivity to the postorder curvature gain and demonstrate that longer preorder paths can increase the ability of users to adapt to postorder path curving. This paper reveals the adaptation characteristic of the curvature gain under complex path conditions, contributing to the development of path-based RDW methods.

Environmental regulation, green credit, and farmers’ adoption of agricultural green production technology based on the perspective of tripartite evolutionary game

The adoption of agricultural green production technologies (AGPTs) is crucial for achieving agricultural green development in developing countries. This paper establishes a tripartite game model to explore the evolutionary influence mechanism of government environmental regulation policies and bank green credit policies on farmers’ adoption of AGPT under different initial conditions and strategy choices. Through theoretical analysis and numerical simulation, we systematically deduce the evolutionary path and equilibrium conditions, as well as examine the synergistic evolutionary effect of these policies. The results demonstrate that government environmental regulation and banks’ implementation of the green credit policies effectively encourage farmers to adopt AGPT. However, conflicts may arise during the dynamic evolution process when banks choose to implement the green credit policy. These conflicts can be mitigated by utilizing market-oriented mechanisms such as loan interest rates, improving bank supervision efficiency, and enhancing farmers’ expected income. The findings of this research provide valuable insights into the development of external incentive mechanisms to promote the adoption of AGPT among farmers and foster green agricultural development.

Analysis of the Function and Convenience of Pedestrian Public Transport Support the City of Bogor

By looking at the conditions of the pedestrian paths located on the road section of Rd. KH. Sholeh Iskandar, the center point is at the Uika bus stop and the drug monument stop 2, as well as Rd. KH. R. Abdullah bin nuh, the center point is at the Bubulak terminal, Yasmin shop shelter and Bogor radar shelter. the author analyzes the pedestrian path as a supporting access for public transport users. The research objectives to be achieved, among others, are to analyze existing conditions, calculate the level of pedestrian service, and analyze the perceptions of pedestrian lane users. In this study, researchers analyzed the level of pedestrian service referring to the technical planning guidelines, 1991 and produced the Level of service (LOS) for the performance of pedestrian facilities.

Fault localization in DSLTrans model transformations by combining symbolic execution and spectrum-based analysis

The verification of model transformations is important for realizing robust model-driven engineering technologies and quality-assured automation. Many approaches for checking properties of model transformations have been proposed. Most of them have focused on the effective and efficient detection of property violations by contract checking. However, there remains the fault localization step between identifying a failing contract for a transformation based on verification feedback and precisely identifying the faulty rules. While there exist fault localization approaches in the model transformation verification literature, these require the creation and maintenance of test cases, which imposes an additional burden on the developer. In this paper, we combine transformation verification based on symbolic execution with spectrum-based fault localization techniques for identifying the faulty rules in DSLTrans model transformations. This fault localization approach operates on the path condition output of symbolic transformation checkers instead of requiring a set of test input models. In particular, we introduce a workflow for running the symbolic execution of a model transformation, evaluating the defined contracts for satisfaction, and computing different measures for tracking the faulty rules. We evaluate the effectiveness of spectrum-based analysis techniques for tracking faulty rules and compare our approach to previous works. We evaluate our technique by introducing known mutations into five model transformations. Our results show that the best spectrum-based analysis techniques allow for effective fault localization, showing an average EXAM score below 0.30 (less than 30% of the transformation needs to be inspected). These techniques are also able to locate the faulty rule in the top-three ranked rules in 70% of all cases. The impact of the model transformation, the type of mutation and the type of contract on the results is discussed. Finally, we also investigate the cases where the technique does not work properly, including discussion of a potential pre-check to estimate the prospects of the technique for a certain transformation.

Thinking in alternatives and reflecting possible futures in German nuclear waste management: insights from technology assessment

Abstract. The disposal of highly radioactive waste in Germany is a task that extends beyond the near future and is a task on which high demands are placed. In addition to the central paradigm of “safety first”, the quality characteristics of being science-based, transparent, participatory, step by step, and facilitating learning are defined as guiding principles for the process in the German law on site selection. In a project of the TRANSENS (transdisciplinary research on the disposal of high-level radioactive waste in Germany) research network, the boundary conditions for these quality characteristics are being analysed. The focus is on the question of how the ability to act flexibly can be ensured in the German site selection procedure without jeopardising the goal of nuclear waste disposal in the deep geological underground. It is taken into account that, in modern Western societies, contradiction and protest are continuously to be expected as part of ongoing processes of interest aggregation. Stakeholders and collective actors from civil society will also participate with self-confidence over time, with respect to the system of multi-level governance, just as politicians and experts traditionally do in the established system of radioactive waste (Radwaste) governance (Hocke and Brunnengräber, 2019). In order to be able to ensure the capability to act flexibly, it seems sensible to think of the future in terms of being an open space that can be shaped in a particular way. In this context, it is advantageous to recognise that thinking in alternatives (even with a fixed goal such as deep underground nuclear waste disposal) can be a reflexive practice by all interested actors. Conceptually, and in terms of planning, this changes the present and, from the perspective of the technology assessment, removes the restriction of the principle path dependency through collective learning processes (Grunwald, 2019; Böschen et al., 2021). In this respect, various futures are possible that provide orientation, especially in the case of technical infrastructures that must be created, operated, and monitored over several decades. Mid-term futures, which are to be operated until 2080 or possibly into the next century, thus become designable spaces. In the TRANSENS sub-project “Capability to act and flexibility in a reversible site selection process”, these analyses serve to provide knowledge about possible futures in the form of orientation knowledge. Following the existing research about socio-technical processes, imagination and narratives are very influential, as they steer the framing of problems in the public debate. Initial empirical results show that representatives of the interested public in addition to young adults are able to play through images for the future and think about the boundary conditions for different decision paths. Based on explorative and evaluative methods, intermediate results were empirically determined, which are linked with path heuristics to three plausible and goal-oriented selected disposal paths (Scheer et al., 2023). This showed that repository-related narratives are nodes that can support the processes of understanding about collective action, according to the Repository Site Selection Act (StandAG). At the same time, they are also sites of hegemonic disputes. Regardless of this, young adults can deal with images for the future without being hindered by dystopian fantasies. These results based on the images and narratives are furthermore integrated into a political–sociological innovation model, which integrates the socio-technical processes of decision preparation and decision-making.

Hands-off, artificial construction, or penalty? How to deal with the increasingly polluted coastal wetland ecosystem in China

As the destruction of coastal wetlands in China becomes more and more serious, the government needs to strengthen the management of the wetland ecosystem. Considering that pollution is an important factor in the destruction of coastal wetlands in China, the government can deal with the problem of wetland pollution through three modes: hands-off, artificial construction, and penalty. In this article, the differential game model is constructed under these three modes. The balanced social benefits of the government and polluting enterprises under the three modes are obtained, and the applicable conditions of various wetland treatment paths are compared. The results show that when the revenue generated by taxation and the indirect income generated by artificial construction are small, the government will choose the laissez-faire mode. However, with the gradual increase of indirect income generated by artificial construction, the government will be inclined to choose the artificial construction mode. When the income from government fines is small, the social benefits of polluters in the hands-off mode are greater than those in the penalty mode. With the increase of fines, the social benefits of polluting enterprises will first decrease and then increase, which will eventually be greater than the social benefits under the hands-off mode.