Slow Fall Research Articles

The Slow Fall of Babel: Languages and Identities in Late Antique Christianity. By Yuliya Minets

<i>The Slow Fall of Babel: Languages and Identities in Late Antique Christianity</i>. By Yuliya Minets

Public choice economics of the Ukraine crisis

We use public choice theory to examine the calculus of the Russian aggression against Ukraine. We hypothesize that Putin’s regime acts as a tinpot dictatorship, using political loyalty and repression to stay in office. During Putin’s first two-term presidency, an improvement in Russia’s economic performance increased the supply of political loyalty and resulted in a slow fall in political repression. The global financial crisis deteriorated Russians’ living standards between Putin’s second and third terms in office. The deterioration in the country’s economic performance unambiguously resulted in a fall in the supply of loyalty and increased repression. Consistent with our hypothesis, we argue that Putin’s regime pursued military conquest to increase the aggregate supply of political loyalty.

Yuliya Minets, The Slow Fall of Babel: Languages and Identities in Late Antique Christianity (Cambridge: CUP, 2022), pp. xvi + 418. $120.00 (hb)/$36.99 (pb)

Yuliya Minets, The Slow Fall of Babel: Languages and Identities in Late Antique Christianity (Cambridge: CUP, 2022), pp. xvi + 418. $120.00 (hb)/$36.99 (pb)

Review: The Slow Fall of Babel: Languages and Identities in Late Antique Christianity, by Yuliya Minets

Review: <i>The Slow Fall of Babel: Languages and Identities in Late Antique Christianity</i>, by Yuliya Minets

The Slow Fall of Babel: Languages and Identities in Late Antique Christianity by Yuliya Minets (review)

The Slow Fall of Babel: Languages and Identities in Late Antique Christianity by Yuliya Minets (review)

The Slow Fall of Babel: Languages and Identities in Late Antique Christianity by Yuliya Minets (review)

The Slow Fall of Babel: Languages and Identities in Late Antique Christianity by Yuliya Minets (review)

Downscaling inversion of GRACE-derived groundwater storage changes based on ensemble learning

ABSTRACT Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite data monitors changes in terrestrial water storage, including groundwater, at a regional scale. However, the coarse spatial resolution limits its applicability to small watershed areas. This study introduces a novel ensemble learning-based model using meteorological and topographical data to enhance spatial resolution. The effectiveness was evaluated using groundwater-level observation data from the Henan rainstorm-affected area in July 2021. The factors influencing Groundwater Storage Anomalies (GWSA) were explored using Permutation Importance (PI) and other methods. The results demonstrate that feature engineering and Blender ensemble learning improve downscaling accuracy; the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) can be reduced by up to 18.95%. Furthermore, Blender ensemble learning decreased the RMSE by 3.58%, achieving an R-Square (R2) value of 0.7924. Restricting the downscaling inversion to June–August data greatly enhanced the accuracy, as evidenced by a holdout dataset test with an R2 value of 0.8247. The overall GWSA variation from January to August exhibited ‘slow rise, slow fall, sharp fall, and sharp rise.’ Additionally, heavy rain exhibits a lag effect on the groundwater supply. Meteorological and topographical factors drive fluctuations in GWSA values and changes in spatial distribution. Human activities also have a significant impact.

Pulsed Laser Spot Welding Thermal-Shock-Induced Microcracking of Inconel 718 Thin Sheet Alloy.

This paper investigates the change in solidification microcrack susceptibility under the influence of thermal-shock-induced effects for pulsed laser spot welding molten pools with different waveforms, powers, frequencies, and pulse widths. During the welding process, the temperature of the molten pool under the effect of thermal shock changes sharply, triggering pressure waves, creating cavities in the molten pool paste area, and forming crack sources during solidification. The microstructure near the cracks was analyzed using a SEM (scanning electron microscope) and EDS (electronic differential system), and it was found that bias precipitation occurred during the rapid solidification of the melt pool, and a large amount of Nb elements were enriched in the interdendritic and grain boundaries, which eventually formed a liquid film with a low melting point, known as a Laves phase. When cavities appear in the liquid film, the chance of crack source formation is further increased. Using a slow rise and slow fall waveform is good for reducing cracks; reducing the peak laser power to 1000 w is good for reducing cracks in the solder joint; increasing the pulse width to 20 ms reduces the degree of crack damage; reducing the pulse frequency to 10 hz reduces the degree of crack damage.

The Slow Fall of Babel: Languages and Identities in Late Antique Christianity. By Yuliya Minets. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2022. xvi + 418 pp. $120.00 cloth; $36.99 paper.

The Slow Fall of Babel: Languages and Identities in Late Antique Christianity. By Yuliya Minets. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2022. xvi + 418 pp. $120.00 cloth; $36.99 paper.

Remote acoustic sizing of tethered fish using broadband acoustics

Remote fish sizing is desirable in fisheries (e.g., pre-catch) and research (e.g., platforms without biological sampling capacity) applications. In those contexts, the high spatial resolution of pulse compressed broadband echoes combined with narrow beamwidth transducers makes it feasible to resolve the scattering from different parts of the fish body and hence can be used to measure the body size. A motorized apparatus was used to suspend individual fish in the acoustic beam of two laterally oriented transducers (45–90 kHz, 160–260 kHz, 12.2 m range) with precise control of rotation angle. Broadband scattering was measured from tethered Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus), saithe (Pollachius virens), and pollack (Pollachius pollachius) ranging in standard length from 239 to 491 mm as a function of orientation angle to validate sizing based on the acoustic resolution of fish body parts. Under these controlled conditions, fish size was underestimated by 11–19 mm, varying with broadband pulse characteristics, orientation angle, species, and fish size. The best remote acoustic sizing results were obtained using 160–260 kHz pulses with a slow rise and fall of pulse amplitude (aka, taper).

Seismic attributes and static reservoir simulation applications for imaging the thin-bedded stratigraphic systems of the Lower-Cretaceous Lower Goru fluvial resources, Pakistan

• Constructed workflow is a vital case for discovery of gas-bearing fluvial stratigraphic traps. • The SRSN resolves the thin-bedded point bar sandstone deposits in the basin. • AI and thicknesses for point bars sandstone are -0.214 to -0.219 g/c.c.*m/s and 17 to 19 m. • SRSN image sedimentary facies during the sea-level rise and fall events. Fluvial depositional systems accommodate a variety of primary stratigraphic-based trapping pools (STP) such as the channelized sands (CS) and point bars (PB). When they are encased within the non-porous and compacted shales, they develop hydrocarbon-bearing reserves. However, these STP are developed during the rapidly rising sea level and very slow fall, which creates hurdles in the development of accommodation space to accumulate the thin-bedded (hydrocarbon-bearing) and coarse-grained PB. PB are the primary stratigraphic traps within the fluvial hierarchy. Therefore, they require sophisticated tools such as reflection-based impedance reservoir simulations to simulate the thickness, accommodation space, proximal and distal locations, and sealing configurations of PB from a 3D perspective. The conventional seismic amplitudes are not sufficient enough to quantitatively portray these seismic sedimentological attributes due to a lack of preserved amplitudes and tuning frequency content aimed at fluvial-dominated clastic sequences. Therefore, the ultimate goal of conducting this research work is to detect thin-beds of PB and CF aimed at accumulating and generating hydrocarbon-posture STP. These thin-bedded reservoir facies are very delicate in tuning the frequency of the sub-surface systems. They require amplitude-based seismic data interpretation tools such as amplitude-based seismic attributes and inverted reservoir simulations. These tools can image the exact thickness of the reservoir lithology and types of fluids compared to the bandlimited geometrical attributes. Generally, the inverted reservoir simulations reconstruct the reflection-based impedances for the stratigraphic reservoirs, which helps in the quantification of the sub-surface thin-bedded stratigraphic systems. Therefore, the amplitude-based seismic attributes and thin-bedded wedge static reservoir simulation (SRSN) tools in Pakistan's Indus Basin. The amalgamated root-mean-square (RMS)-based seismic amplitude and frequency highlighted a full of twist continuous meander channel with a sinuosity index (S.I) > 2.7. Strong low-frequency shadows are observed at 23 Hz magnitudes that authorize the restoration of petroleum-posture fluvial-dominated PB STP. The amplitude attenuation model using the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) showed attenuation of spectral energy below the PB. The SRSN determined a 16 m thickness of STP using a constant velocity of 3449 m/s, which pinched out in the east of the Indus Basin. The predicted physical attributes from SRSN and their cross-plots against the thickness constraint have discriminated against the dominant sedimentary facies of the fluvial system during the significant rising and negligible falling sea levels. The predicted physical parameters have enabled vigorous controls aimed at developing accommodating intervals that have stored a significant amount of hydrocarbon-bearing PB. The quantitative characterization has enhanced acoustic impedance [AI] [g/c.c.*m/s] and thickness of PB with a strong correlation coefficient of R 2 >0.93. The predicted AI [g/c.c.*m/s] and thicknesses [m] aimed at PB were -0.214 to -0.219 g/c.c.*m/s and 16 to 19 m, respectively. Therefore, the SRSN can be used as a dynamic instrument for the accurate prediction of AI [g/c.c.*m/s] and thickness for the characterization of fluvial systems. This workflow may serve as a vital example for exploring the oil and gas-bearing stratigraphic system within the Indus Basin and similar basin settings.

Tracking depositional and geochemical variations in the Cambrian North China Platform: Insights from sedimentology, geochemistry, and C-O isotopic records

The Cambrian carbonate sequence in North China is of significant global and regional scientific importance due to its continuous and thick exposure and the data on the major environmental changes and biological events of the early Phanerozoic, which can be gleaned from it. While the well-exposed Cambrian outcrops have been utilized to unravel the processes governing these events, few studies have focused on the outcrops' spatio-temporal depositional patterns and geochemical variations. Therefore, our study address, these issues by integrating fieldwork with petrographic and geochemical analyses. In the North China Platform (NCP), the Cambrian carbonate sequence is predominantly composed of six third-order depositional sequences (~370–400 m thick) that can be divided into nine microfacies, representing three primary microfacies associations, namely tidal flat, lagoon, and shoal. In contrast to the standard carbonate sequence stratigraphy model and many other examples of Cambrian platforms, the deposition of oolitic grainstones in the NCP are overlain by the deep-water calcareous mudstone and shale during a period of slow fall of sea-levels. Such a particular style shows a similar trend to the Schlager model of a type III sequence boundary that formed between a highstand systems tract (HST) and a transgressive system tract (TST). Scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations show an abundance of microbial fossils, a nanosphere, and remnants of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) inside the dark micrite of normal regressive deposits (oolitic grainstone), suggesting the significant role of microbial activity in the formation of ooids. The δ18O isotopic values range from −4.15 to −11.75‰ VPDB, portraying pervasive diagenetic alterations with a variable degree of diagenesis at different localities, and both marine- and burial-related diagenesis. In contrast, the δ13C VPDB values have a very narrow range, from −2 to +2‰ VPDB, suggesting little to no influence of meteoric diagenesis. At the same time, the slight depletion of δ13C isotope values may reflect the role of microbial processes during the genesis of ooids. This study highlights the importance of microbial activity and marine-related diagenetic overprints during the formation of carbonate facies in the Cambrian Period and provides evidence that carbon isotopic excursions observed during different major environmental and biological events in the NCP are related to primary signals and not altered by intensive meteoric diagenesis.

Controlling the characteristics of injected and accelerated electron bunch in corrugated plasma channel by temporally asymmetric laser pulses

In laser-driven plasma wakefield accelerators, the accelerating electric field is orders of magnitude stronger than in conventional radio-frequency particle accelerators, but the dephasing between the ultrarelativistic electron bunch and the wakefield traveling at the group velocity of the laser pulse puts a limit on the energy gain. Quasi-phase-matching, enabled by corrugated plasma channels, is a technique for overcoming the dephasing limitation. The attainable energy and the final properties of accelerated electron beams are of utmost importance in laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA). In this work, using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, the effect of the driving pulse duration on the performance of quasi-phase-matched laser wakefield acceleration (QPM-LWFA) is investigated. It is observed that for a pulse duration around half the plasma period, the maximum energy gain of the beam electrons finds its peak value. However, the results show that for a pulse of that duration the collimation of the bunch is much worse, compared to the case where the pulse duration is twice as long. Furthermore, the dynamics of the laser pulse and the evolution of the quality of the externally-injected electron bunch are studied for a symmetric pulse with sine-squared temporal profile, a positive skew pulse (i.e., one with sharp rise and slow fall), and a negative skew pulse (i.e., one with a slow rise and sharp fall). The results indicate that for a laser pulse with an appropriate pulse length compared with the plasma wavelength, the wakefield amplitude can be greatly enhanced by using a positive skew pulse, which leads to higher energy gain. Initially, this results from the stronger ponderomotive force associated with a fast rise time. Later, due to the distinct evolution of the three pulses with different initial profiles, the wakefield excited by the positive skew pulse becomes even stronger. In our simulations, the maximum energy gain for the asymmetric laser pulse with a fast rise time is almost two times larger than for the temporally symmetric laser pulse. Nevertheless, stronger focusing and defocusing fields are generated as well if a positive skew pulse is applied, which degrade the collimation of the bunch. These results should be taken into account in the design of miniature particle accelerators based on QPM-LWFA.

Abnormal Hot Carrier Decay via Spin-Phonon Coupling in Intercalated van der Waals Ferromagnetic Fe1/3TaS2.

Spin-phonon coupling is a fundamental interaction in ferromagnets/antiferromagnets and plays a key role in hot carrier decay. Normally, spin transfers its excess energy to a lattice via spin-phonon coupling in hot carrier decay in ferromagnets/antiferromagnets. However, the reverse energy transfer process (i.e., from lattice to spin) is feasible in principle but rarely reported. Here, we observe an abnormal hot carrier decay with a slow fall (80 ps) in ΔR(t)/R0 time series in ferromagnet Fe1/3TaS2, which is a result of the lattice of TaS2 vdW layer transfering its energy to spin via spin-phonon coupling. The Fe ions inserted between TaS2 vdW layers with very weak bonding with TaS2 vdW layer, are the origin of the ferromagnetism and give rise to its weak electron-spin and spin-phonon couplings which in turn lead to the observed abnormal hot carrier decay in the ferromagnetic phase Fe1/3TaS2.

Enhanced Aquila optimizer algorithm for global optimization and constrained engineering problems.

The Aquila optimizer (AO) is a recently developed swarm algorithm that simulates the hunting behavior of Aquila birds. In complex optimization problems, an AO may have slow convergence or fall in sub-optimal regions, especially in high complex ones. This paper tries to overcome these problems by using three different strategies: restart strategy, opposition-based learning and chaotic local search. The developed algorithm named as mAO was tested using 29 CEC 2017 functions and five different engineering constrained problems. The results prove the superiority and efficiency of mAO in solving many optimization issues.

Processing and evaluation of the results of a psychological experiment using PPP Statistica in the study of the seed separator of oil seeds

As a result of the analysis of technological methods of seed material separation and their technical support it is established that the main trends in the development of precision seed cleaning equipment are the creation of adaptive control systems that allow dynamic optimization of working modes without operator intervention. The process of separation of oilseeds is a complex system that is influenced by a large number of independent variables, and only some of them significantly affect the original parameter studied. Therefore, starting to find the optimal parameters or conditions of the studied phenomenon, it is necessary to determine in advance which independent variables are to be studied. The article presents the definition of the Kendall concordance coefficient and its statistical assessment with a priori ranking of the estimates of the influence of independent variables in a psychological experiment for a multivariate active experiment using Friedman's nonparametric analysis of variance with the use of PPP Statistica in the study of an oilseed separator. A method is proposed for determining the number of significant factors for obtaining the response function by resolving the exponential equations of transgression into areas of fast and slow fall using the proportionality coefficient of the linear equation. It was found that the assessment of the results of the psychological experiment by Friedman's analysis of variance using the PPP Statistica allows us to determine the Kendall concordance coefficient and perform its statistical assessment. To obtain a determination of the number of significant factors of the response function, it is proposed to use the exponential and linear equations of transgression together. So, for the case under consideration with a significance level of p = 0.000001, it can be argued that experts with a concordance coefficient W = 0.66967 argue that four factors - the length of the working chamber of the separator, the air flow speed, the height of the fan and the number of intake chambers most of all affect the performance of the oilseed separator. cultures.

Design of Intelligent Building Scheduling System for Internet of Things and Cloud Computing

The cloud computing (CC) and Internet of Things (IoT) are widely utilized and provided for intelligent perception and on-demand utilization like industries and public areas. The full sharing, free circulation and various manufacturing resources allocation are investigated in manufacturing. In order to ensure the real-time and effectiveness of resource storage scheduling in Internet of things information system, there are many kinds and quantities of building equipment. An improved ant colony algorithm is presented to remove the shortcomings of the existing ant colony algorithm with slow speed and fall into local optimum. The improved ant colony algorithm is transplanted into cloud computing environment. The advantages of fast computing and high speed storage of cloud computing can realize the real-time resource scheduling of building equipment. The experimental results present that the improved ant colony algorithm can obviously improve the efficiency of resource scheduling in cloud computing environment.All the experiments are performed on the MATLAB.

Spit-Inlet migration and storm-driven stacking at Praia de Leste Holocene barrier, southern Brazil

The interaction between coastal drift-dependent features, such as spit and inlet systems and the dynamics of estuaries, under the effect of tides, produces significant changes in coastal barriers depositional architecture. Extreme events associated with these autogenic factors insert elements of variability into the depositional architecture of these deposits. OSL (Optically Stimulated Luminescence) dating in the Holocene barrier of Praia de Leste, in the southern region of Brazil, associated with GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) subsurface surveys and stratigraphic profiles at outcrops, identified a pattern of retrogradational stacking and truncation in the beach ridges, formed by local patterns of erosion and deposition, between the last relative maximum sea level and the beginning of progradation of the Holocene barrier. The predominance of a longshore drift in an opposite direction to the current one between 5.1 ± 0.3 ka and 4.1 ± 0.3 ka is suggested by the migration of spits and the displacement of a paleo-inlet to the southwest, later abandoned during the slow and gradual fall of the relative sea level (RSL) and consequent diminution of the estuary tidal prism.

Flood forecasting scheme of Nanshui reservoir based on Liuxihe model

China experiences one of the most frequent flood disasters in the world. Establishing accurate and reliable flood prediction program is the key to deal with flood disasters. Nanshui Reservoir Basin, in southern China, belongs to subtropical monsoon climate, with more rain in spring, concentrated rainstorm in summer and typhoon storm in autumn. Floods at dam site are mostly small and medium-sized floods with steep rise and slow fall as typical mountain flood. In order to explore the applicability of Liuxihe model in flood prediction of Nanshui Reservoir, this paper builds up Liuxihe model for Nanshui Reservoir based on DEM, land use and soil type data, and selects a typical flood event to optimize the parameters using particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and verifies the accuracy of the model by simulating the other floods. Liuxihe model established in this paper indicates a satisfactory performance for flood prediction for Nanshui Reservoir, which can meet the accuracy requirement of flood prediction. Finally, the effects of different river grading and PSO algorithm on flood prediction are discussed. The results show that the PSO algorithm can obviously improve the accuracy of the Liuxihe model for flood forecast in Nanshui Reservoir. The simulation based on four-level channel grading has better results than that based on three-level channel, which indicates increased peak flood value, delayed peak time and closer simulation to the measured value.

Mathematical Modeling of Delayed Relaxation in Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction (HF‐pEF)‐ an Effect or a Cause?

The pathophysiological mechanisms underlying heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HF-pEF) remain incompletely understood. One proposed hypothesis is that prolonged pressure decay of left ventricle during isovolumic relaxation, due to loss of enhancement of the ventricle, may lead to elevation of left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) and a reduction in stroke volume in HF-pEF subjects. However, while impaired relaxation is commonly observed in HF-pEF, it is unclear whether it is a contributing cause of HF-pEF or perhaps a consequence of other impairments. We sought to evaluate whether direct impairment in cardiac relaxation can contribute to a state of HF-pEF using a mathematical modeling approach. We utilized an existing mathematical model of cardio-renal hemodynamics in which a rectified sinusoidal twitch shape function drives left ventricular contraction and relaxation. To evaluate the effect of impaired relaxation, we altered the falling side of the twitch shape function so that isovolumetric relaxation time (IVRT) increased from 100 ms to 150 ms. In addition, we also evaluated the effect of delayed relaxation coupled with other ventricular changes associated with HF-pEF, including increased ventricular stiffness. Our simulations showed that when IVRT was increased, left ventricular pressure (LV pressure) fell more slowly during diastole. However, there was minimal effect on LVEDP. Pulmonary venous pressure also fell more slowly during diastole, and the peak pulmonary venous pressure during systole was slightly increased. Ejection fraction (EF) was minimally changed. The simulated presence of hypertension, hypertrophy, and/or increased cardiac stiffness did not impact the effect of slowed relaxation. While experimental validation is needed, our simulations suggest that impaired relaxation alone may not be a primary cause for increased preload experienced by many HF-pEF patients. It is possible that delayed relaxation is a consequence of other contributing mechanisms (e.g. impaired bioenergetics, calcium handling, or fibrosis which may impact ventricle stiffness and contractility) rather than a direct cause for elevated LV preload. While impaired relaxation had minimal effect on LVEDP, the small increases in peak pulmonary venous pressure and slower fall during diastole could impact pulmonary and atrial function in HF-pEF.