Structural Projects Research Articles

Overcoming Barriers: The AO Foundation’s Role in Latin American Scientific Growth

This manuscript presents an exploratory evaluation of the challenges and opportunities in scientific research among craniomaxillofacial surgeons in Latin America. It focuses on initiatives introduced by the AO Foundation’s Research and Development (R&D) Committee to assess the current state of research involvement among AO Foundation members in the region and identify barriers to research. A survey conducted in 2023 among Latin American members of the AO Foundation gathered data on their interest in research, obstacles faced, and awareness of available opportunities, such as grants, fellowships, and mentorship programs. The outcomes revealed a strong interest in research, with 96.5% of respondents expressing a desire to engage. However, key barriers included limited time (46.5%), difficulties in project structuring and scientific writing (32.6%), and challenges in publishing (30.2%). Notably, 54.7% of respondents were unaware of the AO PEER program, and 65.6% were unfamiliar with the foundation’s research grant opportunities. The AO Foundation aims to enhance scientific development in Latin America by promoting multicenter research studies, training opportunities, and developing research group leaders. These strategies seek to support and encourage surgeons in advancing their scientific activities.

Volume, Risk, Complexity: What Makes Development Finance Projects Succeed or Fail?

Abstract This study presents a quantitative analysis of the determinants of success—and failure—of bilateral development finance projects, based on a unique database covering 5,608 project evaluation results. Linking project success ratings to a comprehensive and partly novel set of explanatory factors along the project life cycle, four research hypotheses are investigated, finding that (I) development finance projects with comprehensive financing are (slightly) more successful, in particular budget funds show a significant positive correlation; (II) the project structure does not significantly influence project success; (III) more-complex development finance projects are less successful, in particular in terms of technical complexity and longer implementation duration; (IV) riskier projects are significantly less successful.

Actinorhodopsin: an efficient and robust light-driven proton pump for bionanotechnological applications

Actinorhodopsins are encoded by a distinct group of microbial rhodopsin (MR) genes predominant in non-marine actinobacteria. Despite their role in the global energy cycle and potential for bionanotechnological applications, our understanding of actinorhodopsin proteins is limited. Here, we characterized the actinorhodopsin RlActR from the freshwater actinobacterium Rhodoluna lacicola, which conserves amino acid residues critical for light-driven proton pumping found in MRs. RlActR was efficiently overexpressed in Escherichia coli in milligram amounts and isolated with high purity and homogeneity. The purified RlActR absorbed green light and its primary proton acceptor exhibited a mildly acidic apparent pKa. Size-exclusion chromatography of RlActR purified in the relatively mild and harsh detergents 5-cyclohexyl-1-pentyl-β-D-maltoside and n-octyl-β-D-glucopyranoside revealed highly homogeneous oligomers and no disruption into monomers, indicating significant robustness of the RlActR oligomer. Cryo-electron microscopy and 2D classification of protein particles provided a projection structure identifying the oligomeric state of RlActR as a pentamer. Efficient establishment of a proton gradient across lipid membranes upon light illumination was demonstrated using RlActR-overexpressing E. coli cells and reconstituted RlActR proteoliposomes. In summary, these features make RlActR an attractive energizing building block for the bottom-up assembly of molecular systems for bionanotechnological applications.

Concentration versus excellence: lessons learned of European R&D &I framework programs

Abstract Framework programs (FPs) are the main research policy tools of the European Union (EU), attracting substantial attention from policy-makers and scholars. Therefore, an increasing number of studies have investigated the EU’s FPs from various angles; however, very few studies address the effect of the complex nature of the concentration of resources and their implementation. While several studies have examined the concentrations of collaboration structures, much less attention has been given to institutions, especially the concentrations that appear during implementation. Institutions that have been awarded several projects at the same time are forced to share their resources between the running projects, which can make the implementation of the projects riskier and thus jeopardize the project’s outcome. Therefore, the role of project management, which must allocate resources among complex implementation structures, such as multiprojects and programs, across portfolios, is appreciated. The aim of this study was to analyze the progression of the nature of concentration, such as institutional concentration in the four most recent framework programs (FPs), namely, FP5, FP6, FP7, and Horizon 2020 (H2020), and the structural and implementation concentrations in the last two framework programs. The study employed the CORDIS database, which encompasses both institutional and project-related information derived from four distinct framework programs. The findings indicated that the parameters of the collaboration network exhibited minimal changes; however, the concentrations of institutions experienced significant alterations. The concentration of complex project structures increased along with institutional concentration, which in turn led to greater efficiency and productivity and, in this way, excellence. Hence, it can be inferred that the output-increasing effect of the program structure is undermined in the deployment of other implementation structures by the need to share resources among several projects running in parallel. The strategy of using parallel projects involves inherent hazards because of the finite nature of resources, which consists primarily of human talent in the form of researchers. The results currently support policy-makers in three ways: (1) an improved understanding of how implementation structures evolve in EU-funded Framework Programs; (2) strengthened linkages among institutional concentration, productivity and excellence; and (3) insights into the design of the EU FP ecosystem.

Action of the Euclidean versus projective group on an agent’s internal space in curiosity driven exploration

According to the Projective Consciousness Model (PCM), in human spatial awareness, 3-dimensional projective geometry structures information integration and action planning through perspective taking within an internal representation space. The way different perspectives are related to and transform a world model defines a specific perception and imagination scheme. In mathematics, such a collection of transformations corresponds to a ‘group’, whose ‘actions’ characterize the geometry of a space. Imbuing world models with a group structure may capture different agents’ spatial awareness and affordance schemes. We used group action as a special class of policies for perspective-dependent control. We explored how such a geometric structure impacts agents’ behaviors, comparing how the Euclidean versus projective groups act on epistemic value in active inference, drive curiosity, and exploration. We formally demonstrate and simulate how the groups induce distinct behaviors in a simple search task. The projective group’s nonlinear magnification of information transformed epistemic value according to the choice of frame, generating behaviors of approach toward objects with uncertain locations due to limited sampling. The Euclidean group had no effect on epistemic value: no action was better than the initial idle state. In structuring a priori an agent’s internal representation, we show how geometry can play a key role in information integration and action planning. Our results add further support to the PCM.

Structuring data analysis projects in the Open Science era with Kerblam!

Background Structuring data analysis projects, that is, defining the layout of files and folders needed to analyze data using existing tools and novel code, largely follows personal preferences. Open Science calls for more accessible, transparent and understandable research. We believe that Open Science principles can be applied to the way data analysis projects are structured. Methods We examine the structure of several data analysis project templates by analyzing project template repositories present in GitHub. Through visualization of the resulting consensus structure, we draw observations regarding how the ecosystem of project structures is shaped, and what salient characteristics it has. Results Project templates show little overlap, but many distinct practices can be highlighted. We take them into account with the wider Open Science philosophy to draw a few fundamental Design Principles to guide researchers when designing a project space. We present Kerblam!, a project management tool that can work with such a project structure to expedite data handling, execute workflow managers, and share the resulting workflow and analysis outputs with others. Conclusions We hope that, by following these principles and using Kerblam!, the landscape of data analysis projects can become more transparent, understandable, and ultimately useful to the wider community.

MULTIMEDIA SPECIAL PROJECTS ON HISTORICAL TOPICS IN RUSSIAN MEDIA (2018–2023)

This article aims to examine the changes in structure and content of historical multimedia special projects in three leading Russian publications: TASS (41 longreads), Lenta.ru (22 longreads), and Izvestia (11 longreads) over the past six years. Emphasizing the impact of social changes on historical narratives, we identified specific trends in each. TASS offers a broad thematic scope, covering space, military campaigns, and expeditions, thus standing out among the others for its range of topics. Lenta.ru takes a more informal approach, focusing on nostalgia for the 1990s and leaning into personal stories and emotional narratives. Izvestia adheres to a patriotic perspective, concentrating on significant events in Russian history, with a notable emphasis on the Great Patriotic War. Across all outlets, most longreads exhibit verballycentered or media-centered narratives. Each project contributes to preserving cultural and political identity, helping audiences engage with critical aspects of history.

Improvement of Concrete Construction Work Performance Through Employment of Lean Logistics Principles

ABSTRACTIn logistics systems, the use of methods, approaches, and management procedures with the aim of optimizing all activities has increasingly been promoted. In the case studies, the logistics of the concrete construction work during the implementation of concrete frame structures of residential building projects is analyzed. The examination of the logistics of concrete construction work was carried out using a combination of monitoring, measurement, comparison, and modeling methods. In addition to obtaining real data on the mentioned logistics of concrete construction work, by applying the Just in Time method, as one of the methods of lean logistics, the optimal logistics of ready‐mix concrete transport to construction sites was simulated. In order to reveal the most significant wastages during concrete construction work, the essential parameters of real logistics were compared with the parameters of simulated optimal logistics of ready‐mix concrete transport. The goal of the research is to evaluate the intensity of the application of logistics and its elements in the implementation of construction and to point out the importance of the involvement of lean production methods and thus also lean logistics in the construction industry. Based on this study results from construction projects in Slovakia and also based on the experience of the authors of this work, it can be concluded that the use of logistic management in the supply of the main construction material in the production of monolithic concrete structures is poor, and this causes a lot of unnecessary waste, having an adverse effect not only on the construction time, but also on the management of individual construction resources. It has been proven that investment in planning and management of logistics can lead to increased overall efficiency of the construction and can bring profit in the form of system, synchronization of construction process resources.

Evaluating time-cost trade-off in a resource constraint GERT-type project scheduling problem considering rework

In practice, rework is a major threat to projects’ performance and increases the risk of not delivering the outcomes on time and budget. The classical project scheduling methods are incapable of considering the rework and stochastic structure for projects in the planning phase. The current study models the stochastic projects through a GERT network in which the occurrence of rework is allowed. The aim is to find the optimal execution mode for each activity so that the project is completed within the desired time and the resource constraint is satisfied. We develop a multi-mode time–cost trade-off resource constraint project scheduling problem under uncertainty to find a here-and-now solution to minimise project completion time. The problem is solved using a combination of flow-graph theory and a branch and bound method for the developed integer programming model. As the project structure is stochastic, a distinct set of all possible realised paths is considered. To the best of our knowledge, there is no similar test instance in the literature, hence, the solution methodology is implemented on a randomly generated numerical example. The reported computational results exhibit the sensitivity of objective function to the changes in available resource amount.

Projective toric designs, quantum state designs, and mutually unbiased bases

Toric t-designs, or equivalently t-designs on the diagonal subgroup of the unitary group, are sets of points on the torus over which sums reproduce integrals of degree t monomials over the full torus. Motivated by the projective structure of quantum mechanics, we develop the notion of t-designs on the projective torus, which have a much more restricted structure than their counterparts on full tori. We provide various new constructions of toric and projective toric designs and prove bounds on their size. We draw connections between projective toric designs and a diverse set of mathematical objects, including difference and Sidon sets from the field of additive combinatorics, symmetric, informationally complete positive operator valued measures and complete sets of mutually unbiased bases (MUBs) from quantum information theory, and crystal ball sequences of certain root lattices. Using these connections, we prove bounds on the maximal size of dense Btmodm sets. We also use projective toric designs to construct families of quantum state designs. In particular, we construct families of (uniformly-weighted) quantum state 2-designs in dimension d of size exactly d(d+1) that do not form complete sets of MUBs, thereby disproving a conjecture concerning the relationship between designs and MUBs (Zhu 2015). We then propose a modification of Zhu's conjecture and discuss potential paths towards proving this conjecture. We prove a fundamental distinction between complete sets of MUBs in prime-power dimensions versus in dimension 6 (and, we conjecture, in all non-prime-power dimensions), the distinction relating to group structure of the corresponding projective toric design. Finally, we discuss many open questions about the properties of these projective toric designs and how they relate to other questions in number theory, geometry, and quantum information.

The Equivalence Method of Overload Characteristics of Detonation Control System based on High-speed Deep Penetration of Composite-medium Thick Target

Abstract In response to the improvement of the penetration ability for kinetic energy projectiles, the projective structures have been continuously increasing in thickness and developing in the direction of composite-medium materials, resulting in increasing complexity in testing the overload characteristics of the detonation control system. Addressing this difficulty, this paper analyses the range test data of the high-speed deep penetration of the composite-medium thick target. It is found that the overload characteristics has the long pulse width and multiple overload peaks, which is quite different from penetrating the single-medium target. Taking the overload characteristics of the detonation control system when penetrating composite-medium thick targets as the starting point, the influence of the thickness of the medium layer on overload characteristics is analysed, based on the deep penetration overload theoretical model of composite-medium thick target. It is found that by changing the medium layer in the composite-medium thick target, the overload peak and pulse width can be better considered in the equivalence study of overload characteristics. The equivalence composite-medium thick target is designed by the FE simulation, the overload characteristics of double overload peaks and long pulse width in the range test are well simulated. The equivalence method of the overload characteristics of the detonation control system is formed based on the composite-medium thick target, and it can also provide technical support for the reliability design of the anti-thick detonation control system.

Topological entropy and bulging deformation of real projective structures on surface

In this paper, we study the deformation of strictly convex real projective structures on a closed surface. Especially, we study the deformation in terms of the entropy on bulging deformations and show that the topological entropy converges to some positive number as the parameter goes to infinity. As a byproduct we construct a sequence of divergent structures whose topological entropy converges to a designated number between 0 and 1. This result is complementary to the ones in [T. Zhang, Degeneration of Hitchin representations along internal sequences, Geom. Funct. Anal. 25 (2015) 1588–1645; X. Nie, Entropy degeneration of convex projective surfaces, Conform. Geom. Dyn. 19 (2015) 318–322] where they used internal parameter and cubic holomorphic differentials as parameters.

Semi-supervised multi-view feature selection with adaptive similarity fusion and learning

Existing multi-view semi-supervised feature selection methods typically need to calculate the inversion of high-order dense matrices, rendering them impractical for large-scale applications. Meanwhile, traditional works construct similarity graphs on different views and directly fuse these graphs from the view level, ignoring the differences among samples in various views and the interplay between graph learning and feature selection. Consequently, both the reliability of graphs and the discrimination of selected features are compromised. To address these issues, we propose a novel multi-view semi-supervised feature selection with Adaptive Similarity Fusion and Learning (ASFL) for large-scale tasks. Specifically, ASFL constructs bipartite graphs for each view and then leverages the relationships between samples and anchors to align anchors and graphs across different views, preserving the complementarity and consistency among views. Moreover, an effective view-to-sample fusion manner is designed to coalesce the aligned graphs while simultaneously exploiting the neighbor structures in projection subspaces to construct the joint graph compatible across views, reducing the adverse effects of noisy features and outliers. By incorporating bipartite graph fusion and learning, label propagation, and l2,0-norm multi-view feature selection into a unified framework, ASFL not only avoids the expensive computation in the solution procedures but also enhances the quality of selected features. An effective optimization strategy with fast convergence is developed to solve the objective function, and experimental results validate its efficiency and effectiveness over state-of-the-art methods.

EFFECT OF PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP FINANCING STRUCTURE ON COMPLETION OF GEOTHERMAL ENERGY DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN KENYA

Objective: To determine the effect of Public Private Partnership (PPP) financing structure on the completion of geothermal energy development projects in Kenya. Theoretical Framework: The study used agency and public choice theories to analyze the dynamics between PPP financing structure and completion of geothermal energy development projects. Methodology: A cross-sectional census survey in Kenya surveyed 48 geothermal energy development projects, collecting quantitative data through structured questionnaires and qualitative insights from industry regulators, financiers, and practitioners. A combination of descriptive, correlation, and linear regression statistical models were applied. Multiple diagnostics tests and data triangulation were performed. Results and Discussion: The study results provide strong statistical evidence depicting a positive relationship between PPP financing structure and the completion of geothermal energy development projects in Kenya. The findings suggest that as the level of PPP involvement increases, so does the likelihood of faster project completion. The study also reveals that a balanced PPP financing structure has a substantial effect on the completion of geothermal energy development projects. The analysis demonstrates that a hybrid PPP financing structure comprising recommended proportions of private and government equity, commercial and concessional loans, hybrid finance, and grants significantly affects project completion outcomes. Research Implications: The study emphasizes the significance of a structured PPP financing model, comprising private and government equity, concessional and commercial loans, hybrid finance, and mixed grants, in mitigating inherent PPP risks for enhanced project completion outcomes. In addition, effective government support measures and robust delivery capability of developers jointly influence the two variables in a significant manner. Originality/Value: This study uniquely analyzes the influence of PPP financing structure on the completion of geothermal energy development projects in Kenya, integrating quantitative and qualitative data for a comprehensive perspective, thus offering essential insights for stakeholders.

Visualizing the human olfactory projection and ancillary structures in a 3D reconstruction

Visualizing in 3D the histological microanatomy of the human olfactory projection from the olfactory mucosa in the nasal cavity to the olfactory bulbs in the cranial cavity necessitates a workflow for handling a great many sections. Here, we assembled a 3D reconstruction of a 7.45 cm3en-bloc specimen extracted from an embalmed human cadaver. A series of 10 µm coronal sections was stained with quadruple fluorescence histology and scanned in four channels. A trained anatomist manually segmented six structures of interest in a subset of the sections to generate the ground truth. Six convolutional neural networks were then trained for automatic segmentation of these structures in 1234 sections. A high-performance computing solution was engineered to register the sections based on the fluorescence signal and segmented structures. The resulting 3D visualization offers several novel didactic opportunities of interactive exploration and virtual manipulation. By extrapolating manual counts of OSNs in a subset of sections to the calculated volume of the envelope of the entire olfactory epithelium, we computed a total of ~2.7 million OSNs in the specimen. Such empirically derived information helps assess the extent to which the organizational principles of the human olfactory projection may differ from those in mice.

Среднемасштабное интернет-картографирование почвенного покрова

The article presents the results of the development of an open geoinformation system of soil cover based on a medium-scale soil map. The scale of the map is 1:100 000. Coverage of the territory—Okhansky Urban District of the Perm Krai. The relevance of the work performed is caused by the growing demand for digital soil-cartographic information on a medium scale, which is characterized by representativeness in the conduct of a land cadastre, environmental impact assessment, obtaining information about the thickness of the fertile layer in civil, industrial and road construction, as well as in the development of adaptive landscape farming systems. The purpose of the research is to develop and test a method for integrating archival soil-cartographic materials with open web GIS solutions for a modern level of visualization and efficient use of soil maps (using the example of a medium-scale level within the boundaries of the Okhansky Urban District of the Perm Krai). For vectorization, the scanned map was defined in the coordinate system of the Pulkovo 1942/Gauss-Kruger zone 10 projection. As a result of vectorization, the total number of soil contours was 648. The source of attributive information is the soil outlines of land uses in the Okhansky District of the Perm Krai. The structure of the GIS project, in addition to the layer of soil contours, contains thematic layers characterizing the granulometric composition and quality classes of soils, calculated by the method of A.S. Fatyanov. The developed technological scheme for creating an open soil web GIS has two main blocks: the development of a GIS project and web design. Between them is the result of the functioning of the qgis2web module, which allows you to create a web map from a GIS project. Open access to GIS is organized at the web page [Web resource: https://chascshin.github.io/Ohansk-GIS (accessed 27.09.24)]. Using GitHub Pages to host a site with a web map significantly reduces the cost of the final geoinformation project. However, the main disadvantage of GitHub hosting is the limitations on the count and amount of data.

Exact solution methods for the Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem with a flexible Project Structure

The Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem with a flexible Project Structure (RCPSP-PS) is a generalization of the Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP). In the RCPSP, the goal is to determine a minimal makespan schedule subject to precedence and resource constraints. The generalization introduced in the RCPSP-PS is that, instead of executing all activities, only a subset of all activities has to be executed. We present a model that is based on two graphs: one representing precedence relations and one representing the activity selection structure. The latter defines which subset of activities has to be executed. Additionally, we present theoretical properties of this model and give an exact solution method that makes use of these properties by generating cutting planes and setting bounds on variables. Furthermore, three problem properties are introduced to classify problems in the literature. We compare our model to a model from literature on instances that possess a subset of these three problem properties and find a reduction in computing time. Furthermore, by comparing results on instances that possess all problem properties, it is shown that the computing times are decreased and better lower bounds are found by the cutting planes and variable bounds presented in this paper.

Identifying the characteristics of public-private partnership projects on green energy in developing countries with different incomes

The object of the study is public-private partnership projects in green energy in developing countries. The problematics of the study is based on the intersection of the current problems of improving energy efficiency and environmental friendliness of energy innovations. The problem of analyzing such projects was solved with the following results: The findings of the study indicate the importance of country income as a factor influencing investment in public-private partnership projects in green energy. The analysis indicates the importance of the country's income as a factor influencing the established technological structure of public-private partnership projects in the green energy sector. It is proved that energy efficiency significantly depends on the technological structure of public-private partnership projects in green energy. The obtained results are explained by assuming the dependence of public-private partnership projects in green energy on the income level of the economy, based on Wallis one-way analysis of variance and cross-tabulation. Mann-Whitney U test was used to explain the dependence of energy efficiency on the technological structure of such projects. The particularity of this study is the analysis of the technological structure of public-private partnership projects in green energy, taking into account the specifics of developing countries and the application of their clustering. This research is of practical significance in the possibility of applying the results obtained by the authorities for the creation and implementation of public-private partnership projects in the field of green energy, as well as by energy companies implementing new technologies using water, wind and solar energy.

Moduli spaces of marked branched projective structures on surfaces

Moduli spaces of marked branched projective structures on surfaces

Cross-cutting integration of equity and diversity lens in public health: a novel approach of JACARDI

Abstract Issue/Problem Health inequities persist across European countries, impacting the distribution, prevention, and management of non-communicable diseases. With increasing population diversity and improved understanding of the intersectional nature of drivers of health inequities, narrowing inequities calls for systematic integration of diversity perspectives into equity-driven policy and practice. Description of the problem The EU-co-funded Joint Action on CVDs and diabetes (JACARDI, 11/2023-10/2027) project with 76 partners from 21 countries and 142 national-level projects (later pilots), applies a structured approach for integrating equity and diversity perspectives within all project structures. This is achieved through design of a common methodological framework and terminology glossary for all thematic work packages (WPs) and their pilots, which are further supported through capacity building sessions and consultations. Results The “4Cs” framework (Critical reflection; Context and data; Co-design; and inclusive and accessible Communications) for integrating equity and diversity principles in JACARDI was developed based on results of focus group interviews with WP leaders (n = 24) and review of previous literature. This framework was applied as a lens to be applied in the planned activities by WPs and pilots, elaborated in an equity and diversity maturity matrix aligned with the XV methodological steps for pilot implementation. Additionally, equity and diversity indicators were integrated into harmonized context analysis questionnaires for national focal points of each partner country, as well as into the methodology for pilot assessment and reporting. Lessons Equity and diversity perspectives should be integrated into the core structures of project implementation, supported by practical tools, trainings and practical consultations to improve adherence and collaborative understanding across project partners. Key messages • Equity and diversity integration into core structures are essential for tackling health inequities and the NCD-related social gradient in Europe. • Encouraging critical reflection among JACARDI partners is pivotal for initiating a paradigm shift towards equity and diversity inclusion.