Practical Problems Research Articles

Mobilization and Interaction: A Case Study of Rural Social Organizations Participating In Rural Governance in Ningxia

Purpose: In this section identified the real factors of which are doing the governance in rural areas of Ningxia. How the governance making goals of development with the help of social organization. This study f ounds the problems which social organizations are facing and people are doing interaction to them and participating in government activities. Design/Methodology/Approach:Here qualitative design was used with convenient sampling which used in Ningxia region. A semi structured in depth interview was conducted in selected areas. Researcher used the thematic analysis and standers questionnaires for the quality of research in selected region. Require respondents were the part of research with convenient sam pling approach in selected region. Findings: Ningxia rural social organizations' participation in rural governance as the entry point. This is based on the practical cases of Ningxia rural areas in selected areas. This paper found rural social organizatio ns' participation in rural governance with low interest. Result concluded that understanding and grasping the practical problems of rural governance in northwest China in the new era and exploring the valuable practices of rural social organizations' parti cipation in rural governance. Implications /Value/Originality:For the community development it is needed that local people’s participation in governance is compulsory. While governance organization should take serious actions for the rural areas of Ningxi a. Policy makers and government agents need to focus on these areas for the welfare and development.

Mathematical Programming-Driven Daily Berth Planning in Xiamen Port

In this paper, we introduce the daily berth planning problem for Xiamen Hai-Tian Container Terminal (XHCT) at the Port of Xiamen, China, and propose the development and implementation of a berth planning system. The aim of the berth planning problem is to optimize daily berth plans by considering various decisions, including berth allocation, quay crane assignment, fairway traffic control, and berthing safety requirements. Among these decisions, the berthing safety requirement is a novel but practical problem in berth allocation that concerns the resource allocation related to berthing safety and interrelation with other decisions. A mathematical programming-driven methodological framework is designed with a 0-1 integer linear programming model for problem formulation and a highly efficient decomposition heuristic algorithm for solving the problem. This framework establishes the core for the berth planning system. The adoption of the berth planning system contributes to the increase of container throughput and berth capacity by transforming the planning process of XHCT. Moreover, the mathematical programming-driven daily berth planning informs further intelligent operations development in the Port of Xiamen and other container ports. History: This paper was refereed. Funding: This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 72394360, 72394362, 72025103, 71831008, 72361137001, 72071173, and 72371221].

A multidimensional comparative study of help-seeking messages on Weibo under different stages of COVID-19 pandemic in China.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, people posted help-seeking messages on Weibo, a mainstream social media in China, to solve practical problems. As viruses, policies, and perceptions have all changed, help-seeking behavior on Weibo has been shown to evolve in this paper. We compare and analyze the help-seeking messages from three dimensions: content categories, time distribution, and retweeting influencing factors. First, we crawled the help-seeking messages from Weibo, and successively used CNN and xlm-roberta-large models for text classification to analyze the changes of help-seeking messages in different stages from the content categories dimension. Subsequently, we studied the time distribution of help-seeking messages and calculated the time lag using TLCC algorithm. Finally, we analyze the changes of the retweeting influencing factors of help-seeking messages in different stages by negative binomial regression. (1) Help-seekers in different periods have different emphasis on content. (2) There is a significant correlation between new daily help-seeking messages and new confirmed cases in the middle stage (1/1/2022-5/20/2022), with a 16-day time lag, but there is no correlation in the latter stage (12/10/2022-2/25/2023). (3) In all the periods, pictures or videos, and the length of the text have a significant positive effect on the number of retweets of help-seeking messages, but other factors do not have exactly the same effect on the retweeting volume. This paper demonstrates the evolution of help-seeking messages during different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in three dimensions: content categories, time distribution, and retweeting influencing factors, which are worthy of reference for decision-makers and help-seekers, as well as provide thinking for subsequent studies.

PU-Detector: A PU Learning-based Framework for Real Money Trading Detection in MMORPG

Massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) have been becoming one of the most popular and exciting online games. In recent years, a cheating phenomenon called real money trading (RMT) has arisen and damaged the fantasy world in many ways. RMT is the sale of in-game items, currency, or even characters to earn real money, breaking the balance of the game economy ecosystem and damaging the game experience. Therefore, some studies have emerged to address the problem of RMT detection. However, they cannot well handle the label uncertainty problem in practice, where there are only labeled RMT samples (positive samples) and unlabeled samples, which could either be RMT samples or normal transactions (negative samples). Meanwhile, the trading relationship between RMTers is modeled in a simple way, leading to some normal transactions being falsely classified as RMT. In this article, we propose PU-Detector, a novel framework based on PU learning (learning from positive and unlabeled data) for RMT detection, considering the fact that there are only labeled RMT samples and other unlabeled transactions. We first automatically estimate the likelihood of one transaction being RMT by developing an improved PU learning method and proposing an assessment rule. Sequentially, we use the estimated likelihood as edge weight to construct a trading graph to learn trader representation. Then, with the trader representations and basic trading features, we detect RMT samples by the improved PU learning method. PU-Detector is evaluated on a large-scale real world dataset consisting of 33,809,956 transaction logs generated by 43,217 unique players. Compared with other approaches, it achieves the state-of-the-art performance and demonstrates its advantages in detecting underlying RMT samples.

Blended learning at scale: co-designing a large postgraduate finance course

PurposeThis paper aims to identify and evaluate resolutions to key learning and teaching challenges in very large courses that involve practical mathematics, such as foundational finance.Design/methodology/approachA design-based research approach is used across three semesters to iteratively identify practical problems within the course and then develop and evaluate resolutions to these problems. Data are collected from both students and teachers and analysed using a mixed-method approach.FindingsThe results indicate that key learning and teaching challenges in large foundational finance courses can be mitigated through appropriate consistency of learning materials; check-your-understanding interactive online content targeting foundational concepts in the early weeks; connection points between students and the coordinator to increase teacher presence; a sustained focus on supporting student achievement within assessments; and signposting relevance of content for the broader program and professional settings. Multiple design iterations using a co-design approach were beneficial to incrementally improve the course and consider multiple perspectives within the design process.Practical implicationsThis paper develops a set of design principles to provide guidance to other practitioners who seek to improve their own courses.Originality/valueThe use of design-based research and mixed-method approaches that consider both student and teacher perspectives to examine the design of very large, foundational finance courses is novel.

Collaborative Technologies to Optimize Scientific Production in High-Quality Bibliographical Databases Worth

The purpose of this research article was to use collaborative technologies to optimize scientific production in high-value bibliographic databases. The problem that was intended to be solved were the practical problems that arose in scientific production in a Peruvian public university, with It was possible to minimize time and effort in detecting, checking scientific documents, and carrying out research reports. It has been developed following a quantitative approach, with a descriptive-correlational scope, non-experimental design, applying statistical analysis. The study was carried out with university researchers who used technological tools for research, who were selected through a sample. In addition, the statistical package SPSS version 28 was used, and the results showed that there is a significant correlation between the study variables.it was concluded that collaborative technologies as research tools allowed to optimize and increase scientific production in the university environment, so its use in the research field is recommended.

TEAR FILM CHANGES FOLLOWING PHACOEMULSIFICATION SURGERY IN PRIMARY EYE CARE CENTER

Abstract
 Introduction & Objectives : Dry eye disease (DED) is one of the most commonly encountered problem in daily ophthalmology practice. One of many risk factors for DED is cataract surgery. Cataract surgery is known to modify tear film and ocular surface through corneal incision and ocular toxicity of peri- and postoperative medications. The aim of this study is to analyze tear film before and after phacoemulsification in primary eye care facility by measuring tear break-up time (TBUT), fluorescein staining, Schirmer I test (ST-I), and ocular surface disease index (OSDI) score.
 Methods : This was a longitudinal observational study with prospective cohort design, which included patients diagnosed with senile cataract and underwent uncomplicated phacoemulsification surgery at primary eye care center Sawangan Eye Clinic within period of June to December 2022. Friedman, Wilcoxon, and Cochran tests were used to analyze the data.
 Results : Thirty nine eyes from 39 patients met the inclusion criteria and were followed up to 3-month postoperatively. Mean age of the patients was 61.1±10.54 years, which consited of 53.8% males and 46.2% females. Mean preoperative OSDI score, corneal staining, TBUT, and ST-I were 24.94±10.24, 1.38±1.99, 2.94±2.17, and 15.46±8.80 respectively; while 3-month postoperative, these parameters’ means were 11.22±13.15 (p=0.0001), 1.38±2.56 (p=0.118), 3.13±1.79 (p=0.192), and 13.31±9.45 (p=0.006) respectively. OSDI was the only parameter which showed statistically significant changes from preoperative to postoperative follow ups (p<0.05).
 Conclusion : Phacoemulsification did not alter corneal staining and TBUT significantly after 3 months postoperatively, even though both of these parameters' preoperative value were already lower; yet OSDI score improved over time after surgery.

Chinese Judicial Reform and Legislative Reform: Conflicts and Mutual Promotion

In the Chinese law context, judicial reform has close consequences on legislation. On the one hand, some judicial reform outcomes have become laws. On the other hand, when some of the measures and policies of the judicial reform are not consistent with the Constitution and other laws, they could cause problems in practice. This paper argues that judicial reform should be coherent with legislative reform in order to ensure consistency with the Constitution, maintain uniformity in the application of law, and prevent the legislature from exceeding its authority. The purpose of this paper is to consider the legitimacy and limit of the judicial reform power, and search for a balance between efficiency and legitimacy in judicial reform.

Математичні моделі локального нагрівання елементів електронних пристроїв

Linear and non-linear mathematical models for the determination of the temperature field, and subsequently for the analysis of temperature regimes in isotropic spatial heat-active media sub-jected to internal and external local heat load, have been developed. In the case of nonlinear boundary-value problems, the Kirchhoff transformation was applied, using which the original nonlinear heat conduction equations and nonlinear boundary conditions were linearized, and as a result, linearized second-order differential equations with partial derivatives and a discontinu-ous right-hand side and partially linearized boundary conditions were obtained. For the final linearization of the partially linearized differential equation and boundary conditions, the ap-proximation of the temperature according to one of the spatial coordinates on the boundary sur-faces of the inclusion was performed by piecewise constant functions. To solve linear bounda-ry-value problems, as well as obtained linearized boundary-value problems with respect to the Kirchhoff transformation, the Henkel integral transformation method was used, as a result of which analytical solutions of these problems were obtained. For a heat-sensitive environment, as an example, a linear dependence of the coefficient of thermal conductivity of the structural material of the structure on temperature, which is often used in many practical problems, was chosen. As a result, analytical relations for determining the temperature distribution in this envi-ronment were obtained. Numerical analysis of temperature behavior as a function of spatial co-ordinates for given values of geometric and thermophysical parameters was performed. The in-fluence of the power of internal heat sources and environmental materials on the temperature distribution was studied. To determine the numerical values of the temperature in the given structure, as well as to analyze the heat exchange processes in the middle of these structures, caused by the internal and external heat load, software tools were developed, using which a ge-ometric image of the temperature distribution depending on the spatial coordinates was made.

PeleMP: The Multiphysics Solver for the Combustion Pele Adaptive Mesh Refinement Code Suite

Abstract Combustion encompasses multiscale, multiphase reacting flow physics spanning a wide range of scales from the molecular scales, where chemical reactions occur, to the device scales, where the turbulent flow is affected by the geometry of the combustor. This scale disparity and the limited measurement capabilities from experiments make modeling combustion a significant challenge. Recent advancements in high-performance computing (HPC), particularly with the Department of Energy's Exascale Computing Project (ECP), have enabled high-fidelity simulations of practical applications to be performed. The major physics submodels, including chemical reactions, turbulence, sprays, soot, and thermal radiation, exhibit distinctive computational characteristics that need to be examined separately to ensure efficient utilization of computational resources. This paper presents the multiphysics solver for the Pele code suite, called PeleMP, which consists of models for spray, soot, and thermal radiation. The mathematical and algorithmic aspects of the model implementations are described in detail as well as the verification process. The computational performance of these models is benchmarked on multiple supercomputers, including Frontier, an exascale machine. Results are presented from production simulations of a turbulent sooting ethylene flame and a bluff-body swirl stabilized spray flame with sustainable aviation fuels to demonstrate the capability of the Pele codes for modeling practical combustion problems with multiphysics. This work is an important step toward the exascale computing era for high-fidelity combustion simulations providing physical insights and data for predictive modeling of real-world devices.

Model and solution approach to coordinate production-inventory strategies considering nonlinear price-sensitive demand: application to Canadian pulp and paper industry

This study addresses a practical problem within a multi-level supply chain where a wide range of customers can be served through different strategies such as make-to-stock, make-to-order, or vendor-managed inventory. The customer demand is stochastic, and sensitive to pricing associated with different production-inventory strategies. We propose a two-stage stochastic mixed-integer non-linear programming model. In the first stage, decisions are made regarding the selection of production-inventory strategies and pricing to maximise the expected profit. The second stage involves decisions related to production, inventory, and distribution, which are used to evaluate the first-stage decisions under various scenarios with different levels of accuracy. To solve the model, a metaheuristic approach based on the Simulated Annealing algorithm is developed. To showcase the practical applicability of our model and solution approach, we use a real case study in a Canadian pulp and paper supply chain. The results revealed that both the production-inventory strategy assigned to customers and the sales price underwent changes across scenarios. Furthermore, we demonstrated that by implementing the SA algorithm, we could improve the initial profit by up to 1.43% through slight adjustments in the sales price and assigned strategies for customers.

To study the effect of polypropylene fibre in concrete to increase the strength of concrete structures

The research project on the impact of polypropylene Fibercon on the strength of concrete structures will be beneficial in its potential application in conventional construction works as well as repair works, as the scarcity of conventional construction materials is causing many problems in construction practices like refurbishment or the construction of new structures. In the proposed effort, the use of polypropylene fibers as a reinforcing material for concrete buildings will be thoroughly examined. Flexural strength, tensile strength, and compressive strength are the parameters that will be examined in order to analyze the performance. Key Words: Compressive strength, Eco -friendly, Economical, Polypropylene fibre, seismic resistance.

The Chinese surveillance state in Latin America? Evidence from Argentina and Ecuador

Western authors fear that Chinese exports of surveillance technologies to Global South countries may lead to reproduction of the problematic surveillance practices that the Chinese state practices within its borders. However, much of this literature is not based on empirically-grounded research. To examine such concerns, we investigated two surveillance projects built in Argentina and Ecuador in cooperation with Chinese enterprises—JSeI in Argentina and ECU 911 in Ecuador. Based on empirical evidence, we argue for a more situated and differentiated approach for examining such projects that considers the distributed agency among local and Chinese actors, as well as the economic, social, and political factors that led to their deployment.

Review and Reflection: The Perfection of the Legal Protection System for Representative Inheritors of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ethnic Minorities

The protection of representative inheritors of intangible cultural heritage of ethnic minorities is the basis of inheriting intangible cultural heritage. By combing the provisions on the representative inheritors of intangible cultural heritage in China’s existing legal norms, combining with practical problems, examining the shortcomings of existing provisions, this paper puts forward optimization ideas from three aspects: improving the identification mechanism of inheritors, stipulating the rights of inheritors clearly, and strengthening the protection of the rights of inheritors, so as to realize the research goal of protecting the representative inheritors of intangible cultural heritage of ethnic minorities.

A Multi-strategy Enhanced Arithmetic Optimization Algorithm and Its Application in Path Planning of Mobile Robots

A multi-strategy enhanced arithmetic optimization algorithm called MSEAOA is proposed to address the issues of low population diversity, imbalanced exploration and exploitation capabilities, and low accuracy of optimal solution in the Arithmetic Optimization Algorithm. Firstly, using the good point set strategy for population initialization to improve population diversity and thus accelerate convergence speed. Secondly, we integrate the exploration and exploition capabilities of differential self-learning strategy, best example learning strategy, and second-order differential perturbation strategy balancing algorithm. Finally, the introduction of somersault foraging strategy improves the accuracy of the optimal solution. We select 14 classical benchmark test functions and the CEC2019 function test set to test the optimization ability of MSEAOA, and apply MSEAOA to the path planning problem of mobile robots. MSEAOA is compared with other meta-heuristic optimization algorithms, and the experimental results are statistically analyzed by the Wilcoxon rank-sum test. The simulation experimental results show that MSEAOA performs the best among 14 benchmark functions, but for 10 CEC2019 functions, MSEAOA has the best optimization performance among 5 of them (50%). In the path optimization problem of mobile robots, the path obtained by MSEAOA is also the best among all algorithms, its path shortening rate exceeds 8.8% in 83% of environments. The results indicate that MSEAOA is a reliable algorithm suitable for function optimization and practical optimization problems.

Providing a cavitation-free regime when flushing ship pipelines with a two-phase mixture

It is noted that during the flushing of ship systems and their elements, the mixed flow of water and air has proven itself well as a flushing medium. It has been experimentally established that there is a significant acceleration of the washing process and an increase in the number of flushed-out dirt particles. At the same time, the two-phase flushing method currently has a number of unsolved theoretical and practical problems. One of such tasks is to ensure a cavitation-free flushing regime. The issue of ensuring a cavitation-free regime when flushing ship pipelines with a twophase mixture during the passage of narrownesses stream is considered in the paper. It is known that the cavitation occurrence depends on a number of factors. The degree of each factor influence on the probability of cavitation occurrence is investigated. In this paper, an attempt to theoretically assess the development of cavitation in narrow technological jumpers is made. The main theoretical dependence of the maximum permissible diameter of the jumper on the main parameters of the mixed flow, as well as on the initial pressure of the flushing flow is determined. The main parameters of the mixed flow are the mass flow rate of the flushing water, the densities of the mixture phases, the mass content of air in the flow, the initial diameter of the pipeline and the compression ratio of the jet in a narrow section. A homogeneous mixture model is used in the theoretical study of cavitation phenomena in a two-phase flow. The main design dependencies for determining the maximum allowable diameter of the jumper depending on the main factors of the two-phase flow are defined in the paper. The influence of various factors on the development of cavitation phenomena is evaluated. Particular attention is paid to the choice of the flow diameter of the technological jumper depending on the mass flow rate of the flushing stream, the air content and the initial pressure.

Differences in surgical outcomes between cervical goiter and retrosternal goiter: an international, multicentric evaluation.

Goiter is a common problem in clinical practice, representing a large part of clinical evaluations for thyroid disease. It tends to grow slowly and progressively over several years, eventually occupying the thoracic inlet with its lower portion, defining the situation known as retrosternal goiter. Total thyroidectomy is a standardized procedure that represents the treatment of choice for all retrosternal goiters, but when is performed for such disease, a higher risk of postoperative morbidity is variously reported in the literature. The aims of our study were to compare the perioperative and postoperative outcomes in patients with cervical goiters and retrosternal goiters undergoing total thyroidectomy. In our retrospective, multicentric evaluation we included 4,467 patients, divided into two groups based on the presence of retrosternal goiter (group A) or the presence of a classical cervical goiter (group B). We found statistically significant differences in terms of transient hypoparathyroidism (19.9% in group A vs. 9.4% in group B, p < 0.001) and permanent hypoparathyroidism (3.3% in group A vs. 1.6% in group B, p = 0.035). We found no differences in terms of transient RNLI between group A and group B, while the occurrence of permanent RLNI was higher in group A compared to group B (1.4% in group A vs. 0.4% in group B, p = 0.037). Moreover, no differences in terms of unilateral RLNI were found, while bilateral RLNI rate was higher in group A compared to group B (1.1% in group A vs. 0.1% in group B, p = 0.015). Wound infection rate was higher in group A compared to group B (1.4% in group A vs. 0.2% in group B, p = 0.006). Based on our data, thyroid surgery for retrosternal goiter represents a challenging procedure even for highly experienced surgeons, with an increased rate of some classical thyroid surgery complications. Referral of these patients to a high-volume center is mandatory. Also, intraoperative nerve monitoring (IONM) usage in these patients is advisable.

3D isogeometric indirect BEM solution based on virtual surface sources on the boundaries of Helmholtz acoustic problems

AbstractA solution for 3D Helmholtz acoustic problems is introduced based on an indirect boundary element method (indirect BEM) coupled with isogeometric analysis (IGA). The novelty of this work arises from using virtual surface sources placed directly on the scatterer boundaries, producing robust results. These virtual surface sources are discretized by the same Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) approximating the scatterer CAD model. This allows modeling of general irregular geometries. The proposed solution has the same features of BEM approaches, which do not need any domain discretization or truncation boundaries at the far-field. It shows an additional merit by arranging the linear system of equations directly depending on a single coefficient matrix, consuming less computational time compared to other BEM methods. A Greville abscissae collocation scheme is proposed with offsets at $$C^0$$ C 0 -continuities. This collocation scheme allows for easy evaluation for both free-terms and normals at the collocation points. The performance of the proposed solution is discussed on 3D numerical exterior problems and compared against other BEM methods. Then, the practical interior muffler problem with internal extended thin tubes is studied and the obtained results are compared against other numerical methods in addition to the available experimental data, showing the capability of the proposed solution in handling thin-walled geometries.

Integrity in public administration: doubtful practical value of ethical and philosophical categories in preventing corruption (on the example of the public integrity council activity)

There has been tried in the article to systemize various approaches to the concept of integrity (in Ukrainian literally – kind-honesty), which is relatively new to the science of public administration, and to find out the sources and reasons for its appearance. A brief linguistic analysis of the integrity definitions contained in Ukrainian- and English-language sources has been carried out. There has been analyzed a variety of numerous definitions of the integrity concept, both ethical and philosophical, and normative and legal as well. A historical excursion has been made to prove rapid evolution of integrity criteria. There has been emphasized that the criteria of integrity in many cases are perceived exceptionally at an intuitive level, often being manipulative and unstable, depend on the person of evaluator and may differ even within small social groups. There has been cast doubt on the expedience of including changing ethical and philosophical categories in the national legislation and establishing legal liability for their non-observance. Based on the Public Integrity Council activity during the qualification evaluation of judges through the judicial reform of 2016-2019 and unsuccessful attempts to resume this procedure in 2023, practical problems in the evaluation of integrity criteria and subjectivity in approaches to such evaluation have been highlighted. There has been attempted to find out the practical value of integrity category in preventing corruption. The indisputable obligation of exclusive morality and ethics of those who are responsible for evaluating the public officials’ integrity has been emphasized. There has been demonstrated an example when mistrust to evaluators, their arbitrary and destructive application of moral criteria, placed in the legal sphere, cause personnel turbulence and public servants’ reluctance to continue their professional careers in conditions of uncertainty, what leads to the public administration mechanism disbalance. There has been suggested during the further modernization of the institute of public service in Ukraine and introduction of new anti-corruption mechanisms to avoid borrowing such categories that are not typical to the national context.

The Relationship Between Mental Health and Drugs used in Dermatology

INTRODUCTION: Dermatological diseases are a common clinical problem in medical practice. Various groups of medications are used in their treatment. Psychiatric disorders also present a significant challenge for modern medicine, some of them may have iatrogenic origins. This study analyzes drugs used in dermatological diseases and their impact on mental health. REVIEW METHODS: This review of the literature collects data from PubMed and Google Scholar about medications used for treating dermatological conditions and their potential impact on mental health. THE STATE OF KNOWLEDGE: Acyclovir, valacyclovir, chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, tetracyclines, retinoids, glucocorticoids, 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors, dapsone and methotrexate are mentioned in the literature as possible, but rare causes of the onset /exacerbation of various psychiatric symptoms. Comparing to general population, patients with skin disorders suffer more often from depression and anxiety. Those two diseases are mentioned most frequently in the context of psychiatric side effect of drugs discussed in the article. SUMMARY: Psychiatric side effects of drugs used in dermatology are not common. However, given the rising incidence of mental health disorders worldwide, it is important to be aware of them.