Structural Projects Research Articles

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.

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.

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.

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.

UROLATAM Project: A multidisciplinary comprehensive care project for prostate cancer

Abstract Introduction Prostate Cancer (PCa) represents a health problem in the world and its management is heterogeneous in care, depending on the resources each country has, modifying its effectiveness in prevention, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. Methods The UROLATAM program was implemented based on the Design Thinking quadruple helix innovation model, consisting of the immersion, design, idea and prototype phases, characterized by being multidisciplinary and comprehensive. Teachers and students from different careers at the Universidad Veracruzana participated. Linkages were made with: Local government, government health institutions, colleges of specialist doctors, private institutions and civil society. This program was broadcast on radio, television and social networks inviting the population to participate in education and prevention activities, in addition to participating in diagnosis, treatment and follow-up actions for men over 40 years of age. The duration of the program was 4 days, including educational sessions for doctors, patients, family members and caregivers, as well as determination of prostate-specific antigen, urological consultation and prostate ultrasound, as well as rehabilitation exercises, diagnostic confirmation and treatment. who needed it. Results During the sessions, 944 patients aged 60.7 (±15.0) years were treated, 443 (47%) had never received a urological consultation, identifying a prevalence of 11.7% of Cap. The human team present with the patient was 25 specialist doctors, 16 medical residents, 38 undergraduate students, 3 rehabilitators and 6 administrative staff. None of the participants received a salary for participating in this project. Conclusions The multidisciplinary UROLATAM linkage project constitutes a useful educational, training and assistance tool for the population, as well as an educational element for the students who are part of the work team. Key messages • The UROLATAM project is replicable in countries that require additional support in the prostate cancer approach. • The structure of the UROLATAM project can be replicated to address other public health problems.

Citizen Science and Multimedia Didactic Resources: Knowledge of Mosquito-Borne Diseases in an Urban Area of Southwestern Colombia.

Citizen science resources have had great relevance in community educational intervention, fostering interest in ecological research projects. This study investigated the influence of the application of multimedia didactic resources focused on citizen science and analysis of sociodemographic variables to improve the levels of ecological knowledge about mosquito-borne diseases. For this, a probabilistic sample of 172 participants from an urban sector in southwestern Colombia was selected. A multimedia didactic material was designed for the educational intervention and evaluated by means of pretest and posttest. To assess whether the educational intervention was statistically significant, the data were processed with statistical inference to determine the influence of various variables (gender, age, marital status, schooling, and occupation) on each person's ecological knowledge. The findings showed a significant increase in the knowledge levels of the participants. The marital status variable (married and cohabiting) significantly influenced ecological knowledge. These participants are more likely to obtain high knowledge, associated with the prevention of their family environment. This study demonstrated that multimedia didactic strategies are an important factor to take into account in the structuring of environmental education and citizen science projects. For future research, it is suggested to deepen the relationship between sociodemographic variables and ecological knowledge.

Topological Entropy and bulging deformation of real projective structures on surface

Topological Entropy and bulging deformation of real projective structures on surface

Theta Bundle, Quillen Connection and the Hodge Theoretic Projective Structure

Theta Bundle, Quillen Connection and the Hodge Theoretic Projective Structure

Divisible convex sets with properly embedded cones

AbstractIn this article we construct many examples of properly convex irreducible domains divided by Zariski dense relatively hyperbolic groups in every dimension at least 3. This answers a question of Benoist. Relative hyperbolicity and non-strict convexity are captured by a family of properly embedded cones (convex hulls of points and ellipsoids) in the domain. Our construction is most flexible in dimension 3 where we give a purely topological criterion for the existence of a large deformation space of geometrically controlled convex projective structures with totally geodesic boundary on a compact 3-manifold.

Projective structures with (Quasi‐)Hitchin holonomy

AbstractIn this paper, we investigate the properties of the real and complex projective structures associated to Hitchin and quasi‐Hitchin representations that were originally constructed using Guichard–Wienhard's theory of domains of discontinuity. We determine the topology of the underlying manifolds and we prove that some of these geometric structures are fibered in a special standard way. In order to prove these results, we give two new ways to construct these geometric structures: we construct them using gauge theory, flat bundles, and Higgs bundles, and we also give a new geometric way to construct them.

Performance comparison of working with a database in Spring Boot version 3.2.3 and Laravel version 8.83.27

The subject of the article is the analysis of the efficiency of working with a database of applications created using programming frameworks: Spring Boot version 3.2.3 and Laravel version 8.83.27. Test applications were prepared in the REST API architecture, which examined the time efficiency of CRUD operations on the original database. Project structure and performance of test applications were compared. After analyzing the obtained results, it was found that in all scenarios, Spring Boot performed data operations on average 12 times faster.

Management of innovative projects to ensure innovative development of enterprises

The subject of the study is theoretical provisions, methodology of adaptive management of innovation projects and innovative development of enterprises, methodological basis, practical proposals for its research in modern conditions. The purpose of the article is to summarize generalization of the theoretical basis of the features of innovative projects, the expediency of using organizational structures for managing the processes of their formation and implementation, analysis of adaptive methodologies for managing innovative projects to ensure the employment of workers, their innovative development, and development of practical recommendations on these issues for a working enterprise. The purpose is revealed by solving the following tasks: generalize the features of innovative projects that determine the success of their implementation; determine the feasibility of using organizational structures of enterprise management for the formation and implementation of innovative projects to ensure innovative development; identify and propose the use of adaptive management methodologies for innovative projects to achieve successful innovative development of enterprises; develop a hybrid organizational structure for innovation management; the main directions of innovative personnel management of enterprises to promote their employment and management of innovative development are proposed. To solve the tasks, the following methods were used: theoretical generalization, analysis, synthesis, induction and deduction, structural and logical analysis, systemic and situational approaches, the method of working day photography, Agile adaptive management methodology, graphic method, and the authors' own practical experience. The conclusions and results of the article are as follows: it is proved that the management of innovation projects should take into account their features, be based on the use of project, matrix and hybrid organizational management structures and the application of adaptive methodologies for managing innovation development and the formation and implementation of innovation projects, such as Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Lean. For the operating enterprise Nebozvid LLC, using adaptive management methodologies, a hybrid organizational structure of the project department has been developed to ensure the innovative development of the enterprise through the implementation of innovative projects with the organization of small project teams. The main trends in innovative personnel management of enterprises are proposed, the use of which contributes to the success of innovative project management to ensure the innovative development of enterprises.

Speech Generation for Indigenous Language Education

As the quality of contemporary speech synthesis improves, so too does the interest from language communities in developing text-to-speech (TTS) systems for a variety of real-world applications. Much of the work on TTS has focused on high-resource languages, resulting in implicitly resource-intensive paths to building such systems. The goal of this paper is to provide signposts and points of reference for future low-resource speech synthesis efforts, with insights drawn from the Speech Generation for Indigenous Language Education (SGILE) project. Funded and coordinated by the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), this multi-year, multi-partner project has the goal of producing high-quality text-to-speech systems that support the teaching of Indigenous languages in a variety of educational contexts. We provide background information and motivation for the project, as well as details about our approach and project structure, including results from a multi-day requirements-gathering session. We discuss some of our key challenges, including building models with appropriate controls for educators, improving model data efficiency, and strategies for low-resource transfer learning and evaluation. Finally, we provide a detailed survey of existing speech synthesis software and introduce EveryVoice TTS, a toolkit designed specifically for low-resource speech synthesis.

Properties of the connected components in projections of random bipartite networks: effects of clique size fluctuations

Projection is a helpful description for treating bipartite networks as (monopartite) networks with pairwise interactions. Projections induce correlation spontaneously, avoiding negative degree correlation, even if bipartite networks are entirely random. In this study, we examined the structure of projections of random bipartite networks characterized by the degree distribution of individual and group nodes through the generating function method. We decomposed a projection into two subgraphs, the giant component, and finite components and analyzed their degree correlation. We demonstrate that positive degree correlations in projections originating from the clique size fluctuation remain after the decomposition at the set of finite components, although the values of their clustering coefficient are still finite. The giant component can exhibit either positive or negative degree correlations based on the structure of the projection. However, they are positively correlated in most cases. In addition, we found that a projection removed the giant component coincides with one in the subcritical phase, i.e., the discrete duality relation, when the degree distributions for group and individual are of Poisson.

How do partner selection strategies affect the amount of funding in collaborative research projects? Evidence using the dual-projection approach

The selection of partners plays a crucial role in determining the success of collaborative projects. This study makes a valuable contribution to the existing literature on collaborative research and development by examining the impact of different partner selection strategies on the funding received in collaborative research projects. Previous studies have not shown sufficiently how collaborating with new partners as opposed to existing ones influences the amount of funding received. To bridge this gap, we use the innovative dual-projection approach from Social Network Analysis. Specifically, we analyze the network structure of projects funded by Horizon 2020, the eighth European Framework Programme. Our findings show that compared to collaborating with established partners, collaborating with new ones increases the likelihood of securing more funding when entering a new project. Moreover, projects coordinated by private or public organizations rather than research centers and higher education institutions have a higher probability of obtaining greater funding. However, the significance of partner connections diminishes with decreasing proximity to the focal organization. Ultimately, our results offer valuable insights into the effectiveness of the European Research and Technological Development Policy in fostering excellent science through cross-collaboration among a diverse group of actors.