Porous Boundaries Research Articles

Infrastructure first principles for the Anthropocene

Abstract There appears to be a growing decoupling between the conditions that infrastructures were designed for and today’s rapidly changing environments. Infrastructures today are largely predicated on the technologies, goals, and governance structures from a century ago. While infrastructures continue to deliver untold value, there is growing evidence that these critical, basic, and lifeline systems appear ill-equipped to confront the volatility, uncertainty, accelerating conditions, and complexity that define them and their changing environments. Innovative and disruptive first principles are needed to guide infrastructures in the Anthropocene. Drawing from emerging infrastructure research and disciplines that appear better able to confront disruption and change, a novel set of first principles are identified: (1) Plan for complex conditions and surprise; (2) Recouple with agility and flexibility; (3) Govern for exploration and instability; (4) Build consensus as control decentralizes; (5) Restructure to engage with porous boundaries; and, (6) Cyberthreat planning is now mission critical. These principles should guide infrastructure planning recognizing the changing nature and increasingly obsolete boundaries that have defined engineered systems in the modern era.

"This has reinvigorated me": perceived impacts of an innovation training program on employee experience and innovation support.

Innovation is widely desired within healthcare organizations, yet the efficacy of programs aimed at fostering it remain largely unassessed, with little consideration given to their effects on employee experience. The Veterans Health Administration (VA) innovators network (iNET) was established to provide organizational support to improve and reimagine patient care and processes across the VA. We evaluated participant perspectives on how iNET impacted workplace experience and fostered innovation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted using purposive sampling to maximize diversity for program roles and site characteristics, reviewed using a rapid matrixed approach, then analyzed using a hybrid inductive/deductive approach that applied a theoretical framework of innovation supportive domains. 21 project investees, 16 innovation specialists and 13 leadership champions participated from 15 sites nationally. Most participants reported strongly positive impacts including feeling re-energized, appreciating new experiences and expanded opportunities for connecting with others, sense of renewed purpose, better relationships with leadership and personal recognition. Negative experiences included time constraints and logistical challenges. Participants' experiences mapped frequently onto theorized domains of supporting a curious culture, creating idea pathways and porous boundaries, fostering/supporting catalytic leadership and supporting (role) diverse teams. The program's delivery of ready resources was critically supportive though at times frustrating. Participants' experiences support the conclusion that iNET fosters innovation and positively impacts participating employees. In the post-pandemic context of unprecedented challenges of healthcare worker burnout and stress, effective innovation training programs should be considered as a tool to improve worker experience and retention as well as patient care.

Afterlives of Saint-Simonianism: Michel Chevalier and nineteenth-century French liberalism

ABSTRACT This article examines the evolution of nineteenth-century French economist Michel Chevalier’s reputation and self-understanding as a Saint-Simonian. Despite only having served two years as chief editor of the famous Saint-Simonian Globe, Chevalier’s attempt to re-integrate himself into liberal intellectual circles following his split from the Saint-Simonian movement was consistently hindered by his perceived adherence to its illiberal principles. This article mobilizes Chevalier’s reputation as a means to explore the porous boundary between Saint-Simonianism and French liberalism at a time when the contours between the two traditions were still not clearly defined. I also argue that the economist’s continued prioritization of economic development over political liberty grounded a variety of liberalism that many political liberals found intolerable, notably in its willingness to endure Bonapartist authoritarianism for the sake of economic growth. Mobilizing new archival material from the Second Empire, this article illuminates how Chevalier and others understood his relation to Saint-Simonianism and liberalism in the moment when he was at the apogee of his power and influence.

Salafis’ hybrid trajectories of socio-political engagement in Tunisia and Algeria. A social movement perspective

ABSTRACT Over the past decades, numerous studies have enhanced the understanding of the Salafi milieu, revealing a diversity within the movement that goes beyond the traditional classifications of quietist, jihadist, and political Salafism. This research builds on recent scholarly work by exploring the porous boundaries of the Salafi realm, emphasizing the concept of hybridization. It examines the blending of registers and repertoires of action from other social worlds with Salafism, utilizing a social movement perspective and first-hand field data. The study investigates Salafi trajectories of engagement beyond the religious sphere in Tunisia and Algeria during perceived periods of constraint. This comparative analysis is both empirically and theoretically significant, given the distinct socio-political landscapes of the two countries. Tunisia was recognized as a democratic exception in the MENA region in 2011. In contrast, Algeria, rising from the ashes of its civil war, is regarded as a resilient rentier state largely unaffected by the Arab uprisings but significantly impacted by the Hirak movement in 2019. Despite these differences, both countries have experienced revolutionary moments and repressive campaigns, offering opportunities for the transformation of Salafism.

Remaking urban village through culture: the politics of urban aesthetics in Shenzhen, China

ABSTRACT This paper delves into the evolving governance dynamics of urban villages in China through a case study of the heritage-rich Nantou urban village in Shenzhen. Drawing on the Rancierian politics of aesthetics, the study examines the government’s repositioning of urban villages as cultural and aesthetic assets. The research highlights the state’s emerging approach to urban village redevelopment which combines aesthetics regime and cultural governance. The intricate interplay between consensus construction and dissensus destruction reveals the fluid and porous boundaries between policing and politicization. The findings contribute to a more dynamic approach to analyzing urban village governance in China, expanding the frameworks for understanding the diverse possibilities inherent in urban redevelopment.

The “virtual” child: The unconscious functions of child sexual exploitation material

AbstractThe narratives of individuals using child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) highlight the individual and unconscious functions of this type of sexual offense. Fluid cycles of projection into and identification with the children in the imagery were evident, as were marked differences in the intensity and exclusivity of pedophilic sexual preference. Anger was a common trigger, but conscious awareness of any associated hostilities toward the child in the imagery was vigorously defended against. The Internet, the now dominant context of child sexual abuse, offers a distinct type of environment, on the porous boundary between the internal and the external, that seems to encourage regression to early, varied paraphilic sexuality and part‐object relations. Interactions in online forums facilitated the projection of pedophilic interests and sadistic impulses into other users. Broad empirical findings on the characteristics of those who use CSEM, coupled with this study and clinical experience, suggest that many who engage in this activity have an essentially neurotic structure.

Perturbation method for laminar flow of viscous incompressible fluid between two porous boundary walls

The present study focuses on the investigation of the velocity profile of viscous fluid between two parallel porous walls while fluid is being ejected from both channel walls at the same rate. The distributions of velocity, pressure and shear stress were determined theoretically for incompressible, steady, fully developed laminar flow past a porous boundary wall. Due to the pressure difference across the porous wall, there is ejection or injection into the wall. The velocity specified as the boundary condition at the wall has been used to explore fluid flow phenomena in porous tubes and ducts. The variable wall velocity is based on the pressure differential across the wall, the fluid characteristics, the thickness of the wall, and the permeability of the structure. An appropriate wall condition must take these factors into account. This paper discusses a Reynolds number solution. We seek formulas for the velocity component. The perturbation approach is used to solve the governing differential equation and the general solution of the velocity is obtained for higher terms of Re. Fifth term of perturbation is used in the perturbation method. The velocity of the fluid is analyzed for different values of Re for a boundary condition. Finally, the result is analysis graphically for the range of Re from .1 to 50. In addition, another strategy is used to keep the Reynolds number constant when the diameter of the hole in the porous wall changes, i.e., changing the value of λ.

The Implications of Increasingly Porous Boundaries for Workplace Relationships

The Implications of Increasingly Porous Boundaries for Workplace Relationships

Modeling of EMHD ternary hybrid Williamson nanofluid flow over a stretching sheet with temperature jump and magnetic induction

This study explores the heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics of an incompressible Williamson ternary hybrid nanofluid (WTHNF) over an unsteady stretching surface, influenced by external electric and magnetic fields, thermal radiation, and a porous boundary. The WTHNF consists of ZrO2, MoS2, and GO nanoparticles suspended in water. By applying suitable transformations, the fundamental equations are simplified and solved numerically using the Explicit Runge Kutta Method (ERKM). The research investigates how various physical parameters, such as electric and magnetic field strengths, thermal radiation, porous plate permeability, velocity slip, and temperature jump, impact the velocity, temperature, skin friction coefficient, and local Nusselt number. The findings offer valuable insights into the interactions between WTHNF and external factors, which can inform the design and optimization of advanced heat transfer and fluid flow systems in engineering. Additionally, this study demonstrates the potential of WTHNF to enhance heat transfer rates, making it a promising candidate for cooling systems, heat exchangers, and energy storage devices. The research contributes to developing more efficient and sustainable technologies in aerospace, biomedical engineering, and renewable energy. Moreover, the results provide a foundation for future research on the behavior of complex fluids under various external influences. This could lead to the creation of more advanced fluid flow systems, improving efficiency and performance across numerous applications.

An exploration of diffusion-thermo and radiation absorption impacts on non-Newtonian MHD flow towards two distinct geometries with biot number

Temperature and liquid flow monitoring are required in many industrial applications in order to maximize machine performance. When exploring polymers, fabricating synthetic films and transparent materials, and manufacturing metal-based equipment, frictional forces and thermal flow rates need to be controlled. The significance of the study of prominent characteristics of Diffusion-Thermo, Quadratic thermal radiation and radiation absorption over a permeable stretching geometry are discussed. Similarity transformations reduced the boundary layer partial differential to an ODE. The acquired system of ODEs is solved in numerical-manner using MATLAB bvp4c. The distributions f '(η), θ(η) and φ(η) are described graphical aspect, with specified governed parameters. As Diffusion thermo parameter raises, temperature field enhances. As radiation absorption raises, the temperature and velocity enhance and concentration decreases. A rise in radiation absorption parameter causes a raise in the buoyancy, which in turn raises the flow rate, and that this is reflected in the velocity profiles. The radiation absorption parameter raises temperatures nearer porous boundary layer and lowers concentration. Rising temperature ratio parameter θw values were accompanied by rising temperatures. Temperature is enhancing when improving of Biot parameter. The skin-friction is heightened with raising ‘n’ values. Nusselt number is declined, raising values of Df. The Sherwood number is enhanced with raising values of ‘Sc’. An incorporation of Diffusion thermo, Quadratic thermal radiation and radiation absorption effects in a nano-Carreau flow across Wedge and Cone is the novelty. The flow of a boundary-layer across a wedge gets made growingly significant, not long ago, owing to its many practical applications, including those in medical, bioengineering, crude oil extraction, nuclear power plants, a polymer extrusion process, production of plastic sheet, metal spinning, friction drag of a ship, and electronic gadgets, etc. This study will be extended by incorporating micro-polar, tangent hyperbolic, Sutterby, with distinct non-Newtonian fluids.

Infrared visitor counts: data validation and algorithm development

ABSTRACT Visitor counts, while critical for tourism management, are plagued by methodological complexities that negatively impact reliability, particularly at sites with porous boundaries. The purpose of this study is to advance the understanding of visitor counting techniques by analyzing the accuracy challenges specific to infrared sensors installed in outdoor settings. University researchers tested the reliability of infrared counters installed in four diverse locales. Factors that influenced accuracy included sensor location, extraneous devices, entrance modalities, and technology failure. The results confirm the necessity of onsite validations and data algorithms, as adjustments resulted in significantly improved accuracy.

Navigating an emerging innovation ecosystem: a case study of fuel cell innovation in Taiwan

ABSTRACT The Taiwanese government has actively promoted and established policies for developing fuel cell research and industrial activities since the early 2000s. The activities, including those of Taiwanese policy actors, private firms, and research institutions, are part of a fuel cell innovation ecosystem. Through an embedded case study, this paper examines past national policies, sectoral-level developments, and how a firm has navigated the environment. The analysis is based on the notion of an innovation ecosystem, which analytically covers micro, meso, and macro levels and has more porous boundaries than a national innovation system. Hence, the contribution of this paper relates to creating a deeper understanding of what is happening under the surface of government policy and what path firms can take. Thus, it contributes to studies on latecomer strategies in technology sectors of the dynamic interaction between policy, sectoral development, and firm strategy.

Curriculum Making Across Sites of Activity in Upper Secondary School Vocational Education and Training: A Review of the Research in Sweden

Purpose: This paper presents a qualitative systematic review of Swedish research on vocational education and training (VET) at the upper secondary school level over the past 20 years. The review is based on a theoretical model on curriculum making as social practice that may serve as model for comparative studies between countries. By introducing the model, the ambition is to open for new perspectives on VET curriculum in policy and practice. Questions regarding key themes and the interplay of discourses and processes across multiple sites in the education system have not been addressed in previous systematic reviews of Swedish VET research. Methods: The methodological approach in the present paper is a qualitative systematic research review with an integrative and interpretative purpose and research design. The qualitative review is based on the conceptual model of curriculum making as social practice, seeking to capture the inherent complexity and porous boundaries of education systems and movements of ideas, discourses and actors between sites of activity. The model is used for mapping the research, and a content analysis for identifying main themes and emphases and exploring and discussing the potential gaps that may inform future international research studies. Findings: The results show that the research is focused on the micro and nano sites of curriculum making, with connections to macro site activities of national curriculum policy enactment. Research focusing on the macro site of activity has an emphasis on national policy and policymaking regarding the relationship between academic and vocational knowledge/programmes and apprenticeship and employability. In the micro and nano sites of activity – which comprise the majority of the research – the main themes are vocational knowing and identity, teaching, learning and assessment practices and work-based learning. Conclusion: An observation is the absence of principals and middle leaders as actors and informants in the studies. There is little evidence of actors moving between sites of activity and the meso site of activity only comprise a very small part of the research. In this respect, there is a potential gap to be explored, not least regarding how local curricula and syllabi are made and shaped in terms of the influence of representatives from local authorities, companies, trade unions, employer associations, universities and regional agencies. Curriculum making as social practice has the potential to be used for comparative international studies and as a framework that takes national differences in VET education systems into account.

Direct numerical simulation of compressible turbulent channel flows over porous boundaries

The impact of porous boundaries on skin friction and heat transfer in compressible turbulent channel flows is explored through direct numerical simulations. Utilizing the volume-averaged Navier–Stokes equations for the porous media, we examine flows at Mach numbers Mb=0.3 and Mb=1.5, with friction Reynolds numbers ranging from 176 to 220, across three permeability levels: 0 (impermeable), 1.6×10−5, and 1.0×10−4. Our findings reveal a dual impact of porous boundaries on skin friction: a direct reduction due to averaged slip velocity at the interface and an indirect increase from amplified Reynolds shear stress due to enhanced wall-normal permeability. This permeability weakens the wall-blocking effect, leading to intensified wall-normal velocity fluctuations and consequently higher Reynolds stress. Additionally, the Mach number significantly influences flow structures, particularly at higher permeabilities, where it disrupts near-wall streaks at Mb=0.3 but has a diminished effect at Mb=1.5. Thermal analysis confirms the validity of the generalized Reynolds analogy for the mean temperature in these flows, with the turbulent Prandtl number approximating 1, in line with the strong Reynolds analogy. Moreover, a strong spatial correlation between heat flux and wall shear stress fluctuations underscores the intertwined dynamics of momentum and thermal transport at the porous–fluid interface.

A novel membrane-free electrochemical separation-filtering crystallization coupling process for treating circulating cooling water

The traditional electrochemical descaling process exhibits drawbacks, including low OH− utilization efficiency, constrained cathode deposition area, and protracted homogeneous precipitation time. Consequently, this study introduces a novel membrane-free electrochemical separation-filtering crystallization (MFES-FC) coupling process to treat circulating cooling water (CCW). In the membrane-free electrochemical separation (MFES) system, OH− is rapidly extracted by pump suction from the porous cathode boundary layer solution, preventing neutralization with H+, thereby enhancing the removal of Ca2+ and Mg2+. Experimental results indicate that the pH of the pump suction water can swiftly increase from 8.13 to 11.42 within 10 min. Owing to the high supersaturation of the pump suction water, this study couples the MFES with a filtration crystallization (FC) system that employs activated carbon as the medium. This approach captures scale particles to enhance water quality and expedites the homogeneous precipitation of hardness ions, shortening the treatment time while further augmenting the removal rate. After the MFES-FC treatment, the single-pass removal rates for total hardness, Ca2+ hardness, Mg2+ hardness, and alkalinity in the effluent reached 92 %, 97 %, 64 %, and 67 %, respectively, with turbidity of 3 NTU, current efficiency of 86.6 %, and energy consumption of 7.19 kWh·kg−1 CaCO3. This coupling process facilitates an effective removal of hardness and alkalinity at a comparatively low cost, offering a new reference and inspiration for advancements in electrochemical descaling technology.

Does selection favour the maintenance of porous species boundaries?

The endpoint of speciation has been viewed as complete isolation and the absence of gene flow between species. If the influx of genes from another species is maladaptive because species have different adaptations and genetic backgrounds, selection should favour the closing of species boundaries and zero gene flow, a process known as reinforcement. Recently, numerous cases of gene flow between species have been identified, many of which involved adaptive introgression of beneficial alleles. These cases could reflect transient states on the way to closed species boundaries or the result of declining strength or efficacy of selection for reinforcement as the level of gene flow approaches zero. An alternative hypothesis, however, is that selection favours porous species boundaries that allow beneficial alleles to cross, especially in changing environments. This perspective evaluates the conditions that would be needed for selection to favour porous species boundaries and the evidence for them. A contrast is made between hybridization in sexual eukaryotes and gene transfer via homologous recombination in bacteria. Current evidence is inconclusive on whether non-zero gene flow is favoured by selection. Studies are needed that quantify selection gradients on rates of gene flow and test for evolution towards intermediate values, especially experiments that manipulate conditions and track evolution for multiple generations. Estimation of gene flow networks for more clades and regional assemblages using emerging genome data will also allow the evolutionary determinants of interspecific gene flow to be better understood.

On the Berman Slip-Flow in a Parallel-Sided Channel with Porous Boundaries

On the Berman Slip-Flow in a Parallel-Sided Channel with Porous Boundaries

Materializing Magic: How the Witches of Instagram Make the Invisible Visible Through Digital Photography and Editing Techniques

Recently, contemporary witchcraft has become increasingly subject to commodification, with many practitioners criticized for their pursuit of the “witch aesthetic” on social media. With Instagram feeds featuring carefully staged photographs of tools, materials, and spaces related to the craft, these “Insta-witches” or “#witchesofinstagram” often use photo editing applications like Photoshop to digitally manipulate these images in order to enhance their magical or otherworldly dimensions. In this article, I argue that the excessive use of magical “stuff,” along with the staging and editing of images shared on social media does not have to be superficial or devoid of meaning. Rather, I explore how these Witches of Instagram participate in what anthropologist Jennifer Deger refers to as “thick photography”—a process of image creation and alteration that gives rise to multilayered stories capable of extending beyond the bounds of the ordinary. In this context, photography foregrounds the intuitive, imaginative, and embodied ways of knowing central to the practice of magic, making visible that which may otherwise remain invisible. These digital images thus become relationally constituted material surfaces where networks of bodies, objects and energies are visualized, revealing the porous boundaries between categories such as human and nonhuman, internal and external, material and immaterial, and mundane and magical.

Adequate viscosity-induced porous boundary layer flow and heat transfer over a permeable wedge

Adequate viscosity-induced porous boundary layer flow and heat transfer over a permeable wedge

Unlikely Qualities of Writing Qualitatively: Porous Stories of Thresholds, In-Betweeness and the Everyday

In this paper, we seek to intervene in the proposition that there are recognisable or abstract-able modes of doing qualitative writing, and instead affirm that writing from a feminist scholarly perspective is often an embodied, domestic, haptic and serendipitous gesture. Occurring in in-between spaces and moments, in which personal and professional life frequently meld, with porous boundaries, our writing practices appear to talk back rhetorically to the notion of writing qualitatively. What are the qualities of qualitative writing? Within education (our field) quality can seem to masquerade as a measurable, generalizable thing, implying a ‘gold standard’ or that different writing practices or products can or should be compared or ranked. For us, writing is frequently encountered as serendipitous, messy and intricately entwined with daily life at numerous scales. This is not to suggest that writing magically takes shape, but rather it is un-abstract-able from daily routines, situations and energies at local and global scales. In the middle of these situations, writing happens when it takes precedence, at whatever cost that might be to bodies, relationships and domestic schedules. Working with a range of feminist philosophers, we draw the temporal, situated, mattering of writing into focus. This paper engages in non-linear story-telling about the processes of our collaborative writing of this paper. We are particularly inspired by Stewart’s (2007:75) approach to writing to convey moments of ordinary life, which she describes as ‘a circuit that is always tuned into some little something, somewhere. A mode of attending to the possible and the threatening’. We dwell upon the somethings and the somewheres as a means to draw out the temporal passing by of life in all its messiness, as a piece of writing comes together, tracing moments of shimmering intensity and mundane frustration and distraction throughout the work.