Time Regime Research Articles

Hematological indicators of the blood of males and females of the Ukrainian scaled carp breed

The research results on hematological indicators of males and females of the Ukrainian scaly breed of carp grown in the conditions of a fish farm in the Dnipropetrovsk region are given. In Ukraine, carp cultivation is becoming an increasingly popular method of commercial fish production. At the same time, the hydrochemical and temperature regimes of the reservoir have important practical significance for the average growth and development of fish since the intensity of respiration, metabolic processes, fish nutrition, motor activity, and resistance to various diseases depend on the chemical composition and temperature of the water. The process of formation of the hydrochemical composition of pond water occurs against the background of climatic changes. Therefore, control of temperature conditions and the physiological state of fish during carp cultivation is an important measure that ensures rational consumption of feed and high growth rates and, in the future, allows to plan of optimal cultivation technology. Therefore, the work aimed to investigate the hematological indicators of blood in males and females of the Ukrainian scaly breed of carp to control their physiological state in the conditions of the hydrochemical and temperature regime of the reservoir of the fish farm. It was established that the main hydrochemical parameters corresponded to the technological standards adopted in fish farming to cultivate carp fish. The hematological parameters of the blood of male and female carp were within the physiological norm. The determined blood composition is natural and characterizes changes in the body of fish according to the season, which reflects adaptation processes in the conditions of seasonal fluctuations in water temperature. Correlative relationships between carp blood's hematological parameters and their keeping temperature conditions were revealed. The pH of the medium (r = 0.28–0.34) has the most significant effect on hematological indicators of carp blood. A positive correlative relationship was established between water temperature and the level of hemoglobin, a color indicator, and the number of erythrocytes and leukocytes in the blood of fish, which was in the range of r = 0.21–0.26. There was a negative relationship between the water temperature indicator and the content of segmented nuclear neutrophils (r = 0.24). The variance analysis of the one-factor complex revealed a significant and most highly probable influence of the conditions of keeping carp on the hemoglobin content, the number of erythrocytes, leukocytes, and the color index of the carp's blood. The share of influence was from 56.14 to 76.90 %. The amplitude of water temperature is essential for favorable conditions for hydrophones and the formation of a natural feed base. In addition, the environment's temperature affects the speed of biological processes in fish. Therefore, the organization of carp feeding, considering scientifically based norms depending on the protein content in compound feed, water temperature, fish weight, and density of its landing, will contribute to ensuring high fish productivity and rational use of feed.

Classification of operational states in porous journal bearings using a semi-supervised multi-sensor Machine Learning approach

Tribosystems are designed for long-lasting operation necessitating condition monitoring to identify critical regimes in time. On the example of porous journal bearings we propose a new approach for the classification of the operational states.Tribometer data from accelerated lifetime tests were used for developing a semi-supervised multi-sensor Machine Learning (ML) classifier. To advance the state-of-the art and gain higher classification accuracy, data from multiple sensors were combined by calculating time and frequency feature sets. The frequencies found in the sensor data were traced using a 3D scanning vibrometer and originated from eigenmodes and vibration states of the system. Relevant features were selected using Sequential Forward Floating Selection (SFFS) to enhance the performance of the model. Labeling was assisted by explorative data analysis techniques, i.e., principal component analysis (PCA) and subsequent hierarchical (Ward) clustering of the feature sets.A tree-based ensemble classifier (Extra-Trees) differentiating four tribological regimes from ‘Run-in’ to ‘Critical’ yielded a classification accuracy of 0.98. The algorithm was able to reliably detect states even when applied to data from previously unseen experiments and to predict terminal failure of a bearing up to 50 h before it occurred.

Trade in critical minerals: Revisiting the legal regime in times of energy transition

A transition towards a low carbon economy is based on increased installation and uptake of renewable energy. Renewable energy technologies depend on critical minerals for raw materials, which are distributed and produced in select jurisdictions. To meet their energy transition targets, countries need affordable and sustainable access to critical minerals making trade inevitable. However, the discourse on the legal regime for international trade has paid little emphasis on minerals and energy transition, except in the WTO raw materials and rare earths disputes. This paper reviews the overall legal regime for ownership and trade in minerals and the key aspects and challenges in light of the growing demand for critical minerals for energy transition.

Exploring the Ultrafast Charge-Transfer and Redox Dynamics in Layered Transition Metal Oxides

The rapid development and broad deployment of rechargeable batteries have fundamentally transformed modern society by revolutionizing the sectors of consumer electronics, transportation, and grid energy storage. Redox reactions in active battery cathode materials are ubiquitous, complicated, and functionally very important. While a lot of effort has been devoted to investigating redox heterogeneity and its progressive evolution upon prolonged battery cycling, the ultrafast dynamics in these systems are largely unexplored. In this article, we discuss the potential significance of understanding redox dynamics in battery cathodes in the ultrafast time regime. Here, we outline a conceptual experimental design for investigating the ultrafast electron transport in an industry-relevant layered transition metal oxide battery cathode using a plasma-acceleration-based X-ray free-electron laser (FEL) facility. Going beyond the proposed experiment, we provide our perspectives on the use of compact FEL sources for applied research, which, in our view, is an area of tremendous potential.

Improving estimation of entropy production rate for run-and-tumble particle systems by high-order thermodynamic uncertainty relation.

Entropy production plays an important role in the regulation and stability of active matter systems, and its rate quantifies the nonequilibrium nature of these systems. However, entropy production is hard to experimentally estimate even in some simple active systems like molecular motors or bacteria, which may be modeled by the run-and-tumble particle (RTP), a representative model in the study of active matters. Here we resolve this problem for an asymmetric RTP in one dimension, first constructing a finite-time thermodynamic uncertainty relation (TUR) for a RTP, which works well in the short observation time regime for entropy production estimation. Nevertheless, when the activity dominates, i.e., the RTP is far from equilibrium, the lower bound for entropy production from TUR turns out to be trivial. We address this issue by introducing a recently proposed high-order thermodynamic uncertainty relation (HTUR), in which the cumulant generating function of current serves as a key ingredient. To exploit the HTUR, we adopt a method to analytically obtain the cumulant generating function of the current we study, with no need to explicitly know the time-dependent probability distribution. The HTUR is demonstrated to be able to estimate the steady state energy dissipation rate accurately because the cumulant generating function covers higher-order statistics of the current, including rare and large fluctuations besides its variance. Compared to the conventional TUR, the HTUR could give significantly improved estimation of energy dissipation, which can work well even in the far from equilibrium regime. We also provide a strategy based on the improved bound to estimate the entropy production from a moderate amount of trajectory data for experimental feasibility.

Diffusion of surfactant from a micellar solution to a bare interface. 1. Absorbing boundary

We analyze dynamic adsorption of surfactant from a micellar solution to a rapidly created surface that acts as an absorbing boundary for surfactant monomers (single molecules), along which the monomer concentration vanishes, with no direct micelle adsorption. This somewhat idealized situation is analyzed as a prototype for situations in which strong suppression of monomer concentration accelerates micelle dissociation, and will be used as a starting point for analysis of more realistic boundary conditions in subsequent work. We present scaling arguments and approximate models for particular time and parameter regimes and compare the resulting predictions to numerical simulations of the reaction–diffusion equations for a polydisperse system containing surfactant monomers and clusters of arbitrary aggregation number. The model considered here exhibits an initial period of rapid shrinkage and ultimate dissociation of micelles within a narrow region near the interface. This opens a micelle-free region near the interface after some time τe, the width of which increases as t1/2 at times t≫τe. In systems that exhibit disparate fast and slow bulk relaxation times τ1 and τ2 in response to small perturbations, τe is usually comparable to or greater than τ1 but much less than τ2. Such systems exhibit a wide intermediate time regime τe<t<τ2 in which the remaining micellar region reaches a state of partial local equilibrium, followed by a final stage t≫τ2 in which full local equilibrium is established.

Steady state correlations and induced trapping of an inertial AOUP particle

We study the dynamics of an inertial active Ornstein–Uhnlenbeck particle self-propelling in a confined harmonic well. The transport behavior of the particle is investigated by analyzing the particle trajectories, steady state correlations and mean square displacement (MSD). The steady state correlation functions for the position as well as velocity are exactly calculated using different methods. We explore how the inertia affects the dynamical behavior, when the particle is confined in a harmonic trap as well as when it is set free. From the exact calculation of MSD, it is observed that the initial time regimes are ballistic for both harmonically confined particle and free particle, whereas the long time regimes are diffusive for a free particle and nondiffusive for a harmonically confined particle. One of our interesting observations is that the harmonically confined particle gets more and more confined with increase in the self-propulsion time or activity time of the dynamics and finally it gets trapped for very large value of the self-propulsion time. For a free particle, the velocity correlation decays by the complex interplay between the inertial time scale and the self-propulsion time scale of the dynamics. Moreover, decorrelation in velocity happens only when these two time scales are of equal order.

Optimal quantum control via genetic algorithms for quantum state engineering in driven-resonator mediated networks

We employ a machine learning-enabled approach to quantum state engineering based on evolutionary algorithms. In particular, we focus on superconducting platforms and consider a network of qubits—encoded in the states of artificial atoms with no direct coupling—interacting via a common single-mode driven microwave resonator. The qubit-resonator couplings are assumed to be in the resonant regime and tunable in time. A genetic algorithm is used in order to find the functional time-dependence of the couplings that optimise the fidelity between the evolved state and a variety of targets, including three-qubit GHZ and Dicke states and four-qubit graph states. We observe high quantum fidelities (above 0.96 in the worst case setting of a system of effective dimension 96), fast preparation times, and resilience to noise, despite the algorithm being trained in the ideal noise-free setting. These results show that the genetic algorithms represent an effective approach to control quantum systems of large dimensions.

Analysis of temporal structure of laser chaos by Allan variance.

Allan variance has been widely utilized for evaluating the stability of the time series generated by atomic clocks and lasers, in time regimes ranging from short to extremely long. This multiscale examination capability of the Allan variance may also be beneficial in evaluating the chaotic oscillating dynamics of semiconductor lasers- not just for conventional phase stability analysis. In the present study, we demonstrated Allan variance analysis of the complex time series generated by a semiconductor laser with delayed feedback, including low-frequency fluctuations (LFFs), which exhibit both fast and slow dynamics. While the detection of LFFs is difficult with the conventional power spectrum analysis method in the low-frequency regime, the Allan variance approach clearly captured the appearance of multiple time-scale dynamics, such as LFFs. This study demonstrates that Allan variance can help in understanding and characterizing diverse laser dynamics, including LFFs, spanning a wide range of timescales.

Diffusion Properties of a Brownian Ratchet with Coulomb Friction

The motion of a Brownian particle in the presence of Coulomb friction and an asymmetric spatial potential was evaluated in this study. The system exhibits a ratchet effect, i.e., an average directed motion even in the absence of an external force, induced by the coupling of non-equilibrium conditions with the spatial asymmetry. Both the average motion and the fluctuations of the Brownian particle were analysed. The stationary velocity shows a non-monotonic behaviour as a function of both the temperature and the viscosity of the bath. The diffusion properties of the particle, which show several time regimes, were also investigated. To highlight the role of non-linear friction in the dynamics, a comparison is presented with a linear model of a Brownian particle driven by a constant external force, which allows for analytical treatment. In particular, the study unveils that the passage times between different temporal regimes are strongly affected by the presence of Coulomb friction.

Graph-Clustering Method for Construction of the Optimal Movement Trajectory under the Terrain Patrolling

The method of the optimal movement trajectory construction in the terrain patrolling tasks is proposed. The method is based on the search of the Hamiltonian circuit on the graph of the terrain map and allows automatic construction of the optimal closed path for arbitrary terrain map. The distinguishing feature of the method is the use of the modified algorithm for the Hamiltonian circuit search. The algorithm can be scaled for the maps corresponding to the graphs with a large (more than 100) number of the vertices, for which the standard brute-force algorithm of the Hamiltonian circuit search requires significantly higher execution time than the proposed algorithm. It is demonstrated that the utilized algorithm possesses 17 times less constant of the time complexity growth than the standard brute-force algorithm. It allows more than one order of magnitude (from 30 to 500 vertices, i.e., approximately to the 17 times) increase of the graph vertices that is used for the Hamiltonian circuit search in the real time (0.1–100 s) regime.

A VLSI Digital Circuit Platform for Performing Deterministic Stochastic Computing in the Time Dimension Using Fraction Operations on Rational Numbers

Stochastic computing (SC) is a method of expressing values in streams of random bits and performing computation with bitwise operations on the streams. Recently, it was found that SC can be conducted on deterministic bitstreams where a numerical value is represented uniformly by sections of 1s and 0s. This leads to deterministic SC, where the computing result can be 100% accurate. However, at the current stage, its circuit implementation has not reached the level of practicality. Moreover, the expressible values for operands are theoretically limited. An all-digital frequency synthesizer, time-average-frequency direct period synthesis (TAF-DPS), is proposed here as a hardware platform for performing deterministic SC in the time dimension. The TAF-DPS is used as a rational-number-to-time converter (RNTC), transforming a rational number into an electrical waveform. Waveforms of unique frequencies and duty cycles are then generated according to the operand values. Instead of digital bitwise operations, each computation is carried out in the time regime on waveforms. Hence, it can be regarded as an “analog-like” logical operation. This RNTC-based time-domain operation opens up a subfield of SC: rational number stochastic computing (RN-SC). In RN-SC, fraction computation can be executed with logic gates, and the result is 100% accurate. The enabling factor is the improvement in resource utilization since the time dimension is exploited more efficiently. With this extra resource of time, expansion of the scope of SC is expected. In this article, the working principle is elucidated, and the circuit is discussed. Furthermore, a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) prototype is created to validate this platform for SC. The aim of this work is to create a practical tool for broadening the use of SC.

Improving medical processes in healthcare facilities in Poland

Purpose: The work aimed to identify problems occurring in a Polish medical facility, and then to take action to improve its functioning to improve the quality of services and staff satisfaction with work in standard conditions and a crisis. Design/methodology/approach: The research identified communication bottlenecks and delays caused by them. The action was taken focused on improving communication between employees and at the level of the medical facility - patient. A strategy of actions improving logistic and organizational processes for the medical facility was adopted. Findings: The implementation of Lean Management (LM) tools in a medical facility improves its functioning, which is also evidenced by literature studies of completed projects. Research limitations/implications: The medical staff of the medical clinic was examined: communication problems were found that hinder the work and quick service of patients were found. The problems at the facility were found to be due to a lack of standards. Practical implications: Improving the efficiency of a medical facility is of particular importance during a pandemic, when work is carried out in an increased sanitary and time regime, most often with a shortage of medical staff. Social implications: The use of lean tools in health care improves the efficiency of medical staff, making them more efficient and more focused on the patient. This ultimately improves not only the comfort of work but also its safety. Originality/value: The training game for medical facilities (Koromo LeanHealtcare) developed during the research will be a tool supporting the efficient implementation of LM tools in professional medical practice. Keywords: Lean Healthcare, Lean Management, Six Sigma, Koromo Lean, flow efficiency. Category of the paper: Research paper.

“Time Is Out of Joint”: EU and Russia in Quest of Themselves in Time

The current direct confrontation between Russia and the Western countries in Europe was not unexpected, but its possible consequences are frightening. In this article the author suggests looking at the conflict between Russia and the EU through the lens of Aleida Assmann’s concept of “temporal breach” in the “modern time regime” (modernity). One of the reasons for the escalation is that the conflicting sides have different visions of the past, present and future, as well as of their place in the new world. The author also traces the development of modernization theory and analyzes the modernization practices Russia and EU countries chose to use after 1991 Russia has largely been practicing conservative modernization, where the state is the main actor relying on certain public demand. The EU countries have been implementing a multi-vector liberal modernization model in line with the goals of post-industrial society, with a variety of state and non-state actors involved and the focus put on the human rights value.

Civic Practices to Honour the Dead – New Forms of Urban Commemoration in the Conditions of Russian-Ukrainian War

The social cataclysms of the up-to-date history of Ukraine, first of all, the modern Russian-Ukrainian war, and the scale of the mass death of people connected with it, could not help but leave an imprint on the mentality of Ukrainians. Death and burial in this context are considered as a crisis situation (event), first of all, for the family group, as well as the other social communities in which the deceased has been involved: local, professional, friend groups and others. New forms of commemoration are emerging and gaining permanent features in the conditions of Russian-Ukrainian war, especially in the format of a large-scale invasion. Civilian burials in extreme conditions, spontaneous memorials, anti-war performances, a change in the toponymy of the settlements in order to commemorate military defenders, natives of these localities are among such forms. The network martyrologies have become one of the types of memory preservation and honoring victims among civilians of Ukraine and the military men. Modern IT technologies allow expressing mourning in a new format: both publicly and privately, in communities those are not limited to family or friend circles of relations. The groups of followers, colleagues or acquaintances, official or private persons form their virtual heritage on the Internet in the real time regime building virtual connections on the Internet in the form of social networks, forums. This heritage remains online for an indefinite time, allowing other users to mourn and attach to reminiscences and the obituaries using emotional likes or comments under the posts. The headlines of obituaries of Ukrainian municipal websites contain emotional commitments to encourage community members to express collective mourning for dead fellow villagers. Emphasis is placed on the civilian position of the dead. Obituary texts are aimed at the reader’s empathetic response, focused on the moral virtues of the deceased; premature death is stated, and hence the failure to realize certain life plans. Nobility and determination, courage and boundless cheerfulness – these are the epithets abounding in the official obituaries on the fallen Defenders.

A contactless method to study carrier kinetics in SnS thin films

Contactless methods to study laser-induced carrier kinetics present important advantages for materials characterization without necessity for contact fabrication. For example, mobility and lifetime of photogenerated carriers are studied by the transient grating method and by the transient photoluminescence technique. In this report we will mainly discuss the Microwave Transient Reflection (MWTR) technique in the nanosecond time regime applied to thin films of undoped and Ga-doped tin sulphide, SnS.As described in detail in previous publications, the SnS thin films were produced by Chemical Bath Deposition (CBD) from appropriate precursor solutions, and characterized with respect to morphological, structural, and optoelectronic properties by optical transmission, SEM and AFM, XRD, XPS, and RBS. We also add a detailed analysis of the optical properties from Spectral Ellipsometry (SE).The kinetics of photoinduced carriers after high-power laser pulses was monitored for a series of SnS samples after different anneal procedures with temperatures up to 600 °C. Overall power law decays observed in the MWTR signals is discussed in relation to trap state distributions by applying a simple recombination and reemission model. The results are compared to conventional time-resolved photocurrent measurements, TPC, which show similar power law decays.

A Comprehensive Review of Variability in the Thermal Resistance (D-Values) of Food-Borne Pathogens-A Challenge for Thermal Validation Trials.

The thermal processing of food relies heavily on determining the right time and temperature regime required to inactivate bacterial contaminants to an acceptable limit. To design a thermal processing regime with an accurate time and temperature combination, the D-values of targeted microorganisms are either referred to or estimated. The D-value is the time required at a given temperature to reduce the bacterial population by 90%. The D-value can vary depending on various factors such as the food matrix, the bacterial strain, and the conditions it has previously been exposed to; the intrinsic properties of the food (moisture, water activity, fat content, and pH); the method used to expose the microorganism to the thermal treatment either at the laboratory or commercial scale; the approach used to estimate the number of survivors; and the statistical model used for the analysis of the data. This review focused on Bacillus cereus, Cronobacter sakazakii, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, and Clostridium perfringens owing to their pathogenicity and the availability of publications on their thermal resistance. The literature indicates a significant variation in D-values reported for the same strain, and it is concluded that when designing thermal processing regimes, the impact of multiple factors on the D-values of a specific microorganism needs to be considered. Further, owing to the complexity of the interactions involved, the effectiveness of regimes derived laboratory data must be confirmed within industrial food processing settings.

Entanglement Dynamics of Coupled Quantum Oscillators in Independent NonMarkovian Baths.

This work strives to better understand how the entanglement in an open quantum system, here represented by two coupled Brownian oscillators, is affected by a nonMarkovian environment (with memories), here represented by two independent baths each oscillator separately interacts with. We consider two settings, a 'symmetric' configuration wherein the parameters of both oscillators and their baths are identical, and an 'asymmetric' configuration wherein they are different, in particular, a 'hybrid' configuration, where one of the two coupled oscillators interacts with a nonMarkovian bath and the other with a Markovian bath. Upon finding the solutions to the Langevin equations governing the system dynamics and the evolution of the covariance matrix elements entering into its entanglement dynamics, we ask two groups of questions: (Q1) Which time regime does the bath's nonMarkovianity benefit the system's entanglement most? The answers we get from detailed numerical studies suggest that (A1) For an initially entangled pair of oscillators, we see that in the intermediate time range, the duration of entanglement is proportional to the memory time, and it lasts a fraction of the relaxation time, but at late times when the dynamics reaches a steady state, the value of the symplectic eigenvalue of the partially transposed covariance matrix barely benefit from the bath nonMarkovianity. For the second group of questions: (Q2) Can the memory of one nonMarkovian bath be passed on to another Markovian bath? And if so, does this memory transfer help to sustain the system's entanglement dynamics? Our results from numerical studies of the asymmetric hybrid configuration indicate that (A2) A system with a short memory time can acquire improvement when it is coupled to another system with a long memory time, but, at a cost of the latter. The sustainability of the bipartite entanglement is determined by the party which breaks off entanglement most easily.

Quantum uncertainty effects in the dynamics of supercooled liquids: A molecular dynamics study.

Dynamics of density fluctuations in quantum supercooled liquids is analyzed using molecular dynamics simulations. In contrast to the classical case, the uncertainty in the particle position (delocalization of quantum particle in space) leads to significant differences in the dynamics of quantum liquids, both in the short- and long-time limits. The effect of uncertainty is found to be significant for length scales smaller than the uncertainty itself, and diminishes as the length scale grows. The dynamic heterogeneity of the system at short times is enhanced due to uncertainty. In the intermediate (β-relaxation) time regime, the heterogeneity tends to get suppressed due to quantum uncertainty. The probability distribution of particle displacements shows highly nonclassical behavior with double-peak structure at short timescales.

Influence of silicon particle morphology on laser-induced plasma properties

In this work, Si particles of varying sizes and a bulk Si wafer are exposed to high-energy nanosecond-pulsed laser excitation. The subsequent laser-induced plasma is characterized using a suite of diagnostic techniques, including spatiotemporal species imaging via high-speed videography and high-resolution gated spectroscopy. The intensity and location of various species in the plasma (e.g., Si I and Si II) are tracked as a function of time over two time regimes, 2–10 μs and 20–80 μs, and show differences in impurities and peak intensities between the various particle sizes and compared to the Si wafer. Electron densities under these conditions decrease from ≈1.8 to 0.8 × 1017 cm−3 from 2 to 8 μs, while plasma excitation temperatures determined from the Boltzmann method range from 9200 to 8000 K over the same time window. The powdered Si samples have characteristically larger and more intense plasmas than the wafer sample. The laser-induced air-shock from energetic materials (LASEM) method was employed on these materials, in concert with their acoustic response, to establish their relative microsecond energy releases. While the powders have similar laser-induced shock velocities, they appear to have differences in their acoustic response which roughly scales as a function of plasma carbon content. The proposed reasons for these shock and acoustic trends are discussed, which include particle size and morphology, surface impurities, and dispersion and flow within the plasma.