Critical Space Research Articles

Human Factors Considerations in Artificial Intelligence Applications for Nuclear Power Plants

In recent years, there has been a wave of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that offer to solve problems from shopping habits to mortgage approvals to critical systems operations. The rapidity of the development of these systems has led to both excitement and apprehension about the roles these systems should play in our modern societies. This paper focuses on the critical infrastructure industry, in general, and nuclear power generation, in particular, and seeks to scrutinize how we can leverage these novel technologies in human-centered ways to maintain or enhance the established high levels of reliability and resilience in these industries. First, we discuss the broader aspects of cognitive systems and activities that are critical to understanding the human-AI space. Then we explore different approaches to explainability in AI and the notions of trust. We then move on to discuss several human factors concepts and methods and how they can support the design of human-AI teams. We then explore recent research related to nuclear power that has been undertaken and evaluate the current industry and regulatory landscapes. Finally, we discuss identified research gaps and recommendations for solving these for the critical infrastructure space.

Asymptotic Stability in the Critical Space of 2D Monotone Shear Flow in the Viscous Fluid

Asymptotic Stability in the Critical Space of 2D Monotone Shear Flow in the Viscous Fluid

Shaken to the core: trust trajectories in the aftermaths of adverse cyber events

PurposeAdverse cyber events, like death and taxes, have become inevitable. They are an increasingly common feature of organisational life. Their aftermaths are a critical and under-examined context and dynamic space within which to examine trust. In this paper, we address this deficit.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on pertinent theory and reports of empirical studies, we outline the basis of two alternative subsequent trajectories, drawing out the relationships between trust, vulnerability and emotion, both positive and negative, in the aftermath of an adverse cyber event.FindingsWe combine stage theory and social information processing theories to delineate the dynamics of trust processes and their multilevel trajectories during adverse cyber event aftermaths. We consider two response trajectories to chart the way vulnerability arises at different levels within these social systems to create self-reinforcing trust and distrust spirals. These ripple out to impact multiple levels of the organisation by either amplifying or relieving vulnerability.Research limitations/implicationsThe way adverse cyber events aftermaths are managed has immediate and long-term consequences for organisational stakeholders. Actions impact resilience and the ability to preserve the social fabric of the organisations. Subsequent trajectories can be “negative” or “positive”. The “negative” trajectory is characterised by efforts to identify and punish the employee whose actions facilitated the adverse events, i.e. the “who”. Public scapegoating might follow thereby amplifying perceived vulnerability and reducing trust across the board. By contrast, the “positive” trajectory relieves perceived vulnerability by focusing on, and correcting, situational causatives. Here, the focus is on the “what” and “why” of the event.Practical implicationsWe raise the importance of responding in a constructive way to adverse cyber events.Originality/valueThe aftermaths of cyber attacks in organisations are a critical, neglected context. We explore the interplay between trust and vulnerability and its implications for management “best practice”.

Global Existence in the Critical Space for the Space-Time Monopole Equations

We prove the global existence of solutions in the critical space \\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$L^1({\\mathbb {R}})$$\\end{document} for space-time monopole equations under the Lorenz gauge condition. The existence of a global solution was showed in our previous paper. Here we adapt a different function space to allow for a simplified proof. We first prove the local existence in \\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$L^1({\\mathbb {R}})$$\\end{document} and extend the local solution to the global one.

Towards an understanding of the political economy of earlychildhood education platforms. Pro Business or Pro Children?

There is a rapidly expanding and proliferating number of commercial early childhood platforms, competing for market share in what has become a crowded marketplace. Early childhood platforms provide a wide range of functions including an all-in-one digital ecosystem offering a learning management system; social media communication between educators, families and children; invoicing and payment; attendance monitoring; data tracking; individual profiling; documentation; pedagogic advice and even policy interpretation. Platforms are a sociocultural and ideological phenomenon that ‘can replace or profoundly disrupt educational systems’ (Cobo and Rivas) and hence their advent demands urgent critical thinking. However, within early years there is comparatively limited research of platforms' impacts upon families, educators and children. The aims of this colloquium are firstly to open a critical space to think about the political economy of commercial education platforms and secondly, to ask questions about platforms' impacts upon the neoliberal subjectivities of educators, families and children.

An Olympic Fairytale: The Zimbabwean Women’s Field Hockey Victory at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games

In July 1980, an all-white Zimbabwean women’s hockey team made history by unexpectedly winning gold at the Olympic Games in Moscow. The 1980 games had been overshadowed by cold war political tensions which manifested in the boycott by several western countries in protest over the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. This politicization of the Olympics set the stage for Zimbabwe’s participation and the eventual politicization of the women’s field hockey victory. This victory was unexpected partially because the Zimbabwean women’s field hockey team had very little time to prepare for the tournament. The ramifications of the victory extended beyond the playing field as it became intertwined with racial and gender discourses that dominated the post-independence political narrative. Therefore, the events connected with this 1980 Olympic victory by the Zimbabwean women’s hockey team demonstrate how the victory transformed women’s field hockey from being a relatively obscure white minority sport, into a critical social space where political rhetoric was enunciated. This effectively increased the standing of the sport in the eyes of the ruling ZANU PF regime as demonstrated by investment in hockey infrastructure as well as attempts to continue its association with the 1980 Olympic victory.

Dynamic Spatiotemporal Scheduling for Construction Building Projects

For building projects, the manager is responsible for coordinating the work of subcontractors at the construction site. This includes operations, material flows, and storage. In summary, one of their main roles is to ensure smooth team rotation, maintain fluid circulation, and avoid congestion or relaxation on the site. However, traditional tools lack the ability to consider the planning and management of worksite spaces when calculating the execution schedule and critical path. Consequently, three-week planning is usually carried out separately on independent plans, often using spreadsheets. In addition, a construction site is highly dynamic and mobile in nature, and the positioning of resources and workers can change daily. This makes the management of available space even more complex, and effective space management becomes an imperative. To address this challenge, this paper develops visual dynamic artifacts that present different operation types. The methodology and the conceptual framework facilitate the calculation of the Occupancy Rate (OR) that enables construction project managers to create simple yet dynamic spatiotemporal models of the construction schedule. By incorporating factors such as crew turnover and occupancy evolution, managers can simplify the calculation process and effectively optimize construction work by utilizing site occupancy rates. In summary, this paper presents the Dynamic Model of the Occupancy Rate Schedule (DMORS), a methodology developed through design science. This model utilizes created artifacts representing various operation types to ensure accurate calculations of dynamic occupancy by floor and sector in a site. Consequently, it enables the construction of a more realistic schedule based on critical space ideologies. The DMORS enables managers to use the OR for different floors and sectors of a site, allowing for better space management. A proof of concept demonstrates that this tool can enhance the efficiency and productivity of construction projects by optimizing crew schedules and resource allocation based on site OR.

Exploring Literature in Islam Beyond (Secularized) Christian Normativity in Western Academia

Anyone specialising in Islamic theology at a Western university is aware of the fact that their teaching and research will either be recognised by the institution as falling under the category of “Islamic Studies” or “Divinity”. In the first case, Islam is predominantly considered a cultural phenomenon and studied as such. In the second case, for reasons that have to do with what Marianne Moyaert in her latest book Christian Imaginations of the Religious Other has conceptualised as “Christian normativity” and the “religionisation” of other faiths, Islamic theology is de facto understood as Islamic speculative theology (kalām). In both cases, the understanding of how Islam theorises and practices theology is significantly restricted, when not altogether ignored. This article unpacks the genealogy of the secular version of a Christian epistemic framework that dominates the study of Islamic theology in the West and engages with the issues related to its application in the field of Islamic theology. In doing so, it opens a critical space for the investigation of Islamic literary productions as both dissensual and consensual theological terrains, through the analysis of the poetry of two theologians and polymathic scholars from two different periods of Islamic history, namely Ibn al-Fāriḍ (d. 632/1235) and Sidi Muḥammad Ibn al-Ḥabīb (d. 1390/1971).

Nitrogen accountancy in space agriculture.

Food production and pharmaceutical synthesis are posited as essential biotechnologies for facilitating human exploration beyond Earth. These technologies not only offer critical green space and food agency to astronauts but also promise to minimize mass and volume requirements through scalable, modular agriculture within closed-loop systems, offering an advantage over traditional bring-along strategies. Despite these benefits, the prevalent model for evaluating such systems exhibits significant limitations. It lacks comprehensive inventory and mass balance analyses for crop cultivation and life support, and fails to consider the complexities introduced by cultivating multiple crop varieties, which is crucial for enhancing food diversity and nutritional value. Here we expand space agriculture modeling to account for nitrogen dependence across an array of crops and demonstrate our model with experimental fitting of parameters. By adding nitrogen limitations, an extended model can account for potential interruptions in feedstock supply. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis was used to distill key consequential parameters that may be the focus of future experimental efforts.

Resilience of code compliant reinforced concrete buildings to progressive collapse: A numerical analysis investigation

This study investigates the resilience of dual-system reinforced concrete (RC) structures impacted by progressive collapse where the local failure of a primary structural component leads to the sequential collapse of adjoining elements. The study is conducted on buildings designed in the United Arab Emirates in the context of extreme events. Nonlinear dynamic analysis of twenty-seven different building models is performed to evaluate the impact of critical variables, building height, and column spacing on progressive collapse potential under the Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC) regulations. The research methodology aims to study impacts associated with sudden removal of critical columns (corner, edge, and internal) that replicate severe accident scenarios in buildings. The structural responses were assessed based on the ASCE 41 performance design criteria. The formation of plastic hinges was analyzed to determine the ductility and resilience of the structures. The study finds that buildings with removed corner columns exhibit more significant vertical displacements than those with edge or internal column removals. The results also indicate that columns adjacent to the removed ones generally remained elastic and within their structural capacities, showing structural resilience to localized damage. However, the flexural strength of RC flat slabs near removed or adjacent columns demonstrates insufficient flexural capacities. This study underscores the imperative for enhanced design strategies and emphasizes the critical importance of bolstering structural resilience against extreme events. Moreover, it intends to draw the attention of policymakers locally to the need to consider progressive collapse when designing reinforced concrete structures.

Well‐posedness and large‐time behavior for the two‐phase system with magnetic field in critical Besov spaces

AbstractThis paper is dedicated to the study of the two‐phase system with magnetic field in multi‐dimensional spaces . We investigate the local and global well‐posedness of strong solutions to the Cauchy problem in critical Besov spaces. Moreover, a Lyapunov‐type energy argument can be developed, which leads to the time‐decay estimates of solutions without additional smallness assumptions. We improve the previous effects obtained by Wen and Zhu (JDE‐2018), Wang and Cheng (AMS‐2022), where they established the global well‐posedness of strong solutions in the ‐norm Sobolev spaces.

Assessment of Solubility Behavior of a Copolymer in Supercritical CO2 and Organic Solvents: Neural Network Prediction and Statistical Analysis.

In the industrial sector, understanding the behavior of block copolymers in supercritical solvents is crucial. While qualitative agreement with polymer solubility curves has been evaluated using complex theoretical models in many cases, quantitative predictions remain challenging. This study aimed to create a rapid and accurate artificial neural network (ANN) model to predict the lower critical solubility and upper critical solubility space of an atypical block copolymer, poly(styrene-co-octafluoropentyl methacrylate) (PSOM), in different supercritical solvent systems over a wide range of temperatures (51.75-182.05 °C) and high pressure (3.28-200.86 MPa). The experimental data set used in this study included one copolymer, five supercritical solvents, one cosolvent, and one initiator. It consisted of seven unique copolymer-solvent combinations (252 cloud point pressures) used to predict the model quantitatively and qualitatively. To predict the PSOM-solvent interactions, the study considered two different input systems: a six-variable system, a five-variable system, and one target output. Initially, we used a three-layer feed-forward neural network to select the best learning algorithm (Levenberg-Marquardt) from 14 different algorithms, considering one sample PSOM-solvent system. Then, the network topology was optimized by varying hidden neuron numbers from 2 to 80 for all seven PSOM-solvent combination systems. The predicted cloud point pressures were in excellent agreement with the experimental cloud point pressures, confirming the model's accuracy. It is clear from the results of a minimum mean square error (≤1.90 × 10-27) and maximum linear regression R 2 (≥0.99) during training, validation, and testing of all the data sets. Further, the ANN model accuracy was tested by statistical analysis, confirming the model's ability to accurately capture the miscibility regions of polymers, enabling efficient processing of various polymer materials. This data-driven approach facilitates the prediction of coexistence curves for other polymers and complex macromolecular systems.

Singular extension of critical Sobolev mappings under an exponential weak-type estimate

Given m∈N∖{0} and a compact Riemannian manifold N, we construct for every map u in the critical Sobolev space Wm/(m+1),m+1(Sm,N), a map U:B1m+1→N whose trace is u and which satisfies an exponential weak-type Sobolev estimate. The result and its proof carry on to the extension to a half-space of maps on its boundary hyperplane and to the extension to the hyperbolic space of maps on its boundary sphere at infinity.

Encryption algorithm based on improved four-dimensional chaotic system and dynamic DNA encoding

An image encryption algorithm is proposed based on the combination of genetic (DNA) random coding and chaotic mapping. An image encryption algorithm based on an improved new four-dimensional chaotic system and DNA coding is proposed to address the problem that a single coding method is prone to selecting plaintext attacks. Based on a four-dimensional chaotic system existing in the literature, a new four-dimensional hyperchaotic system is obtained through improvement. The initial value of the system is generated based on SHA-256, zigzag transform. The input key and four pseudo-random chaotic sequences are generated iteratively. DNA chunking encoding, arithmetic operation, and decoding are implemented for the image disrupted based on the zigzag transform. The two-dimensional matrix constituted based on the Chaotic Sequence of Chebyshev to obtain the scrambled and diffused ciphertext image. Simulation experiments and security performance analysis show that the algorithm enhances the correlation between the key and the plaintext, the randomness of the encryption process, and effectively improves the anti-attack capability [H. Chen, J. Zhao et al., Appl. Res. Comput. 10, 0434 (2021)]. In this paper, 512 × 512 × 3 peppers color images are used for testing, and the correlation coefficients of adjacent pixels of the encrypted images are all close to 0, and the information entropy is all more significant than 7.997, which is relative to the theoretical value of 8. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm improves the security of the ciphertext, increases the critical space, and, at the same time, resists various attack methods.

Sonic Electromagnetism

The author describes their sound art practice, which uses the electromagnetic field (EM) to explore concepts of the body toward a feminist and pro-trans future. This practice stands in contrast to hidden consumer “black box” culture and mediated digital telepresence. Three specific art projects are explored that fuse visual design, printed circuitry, and interactivity to build critical space for participatory exploration. The author explores concepts of the body in relation to spatialized sound and queer phenomenology of sound. Lastly, the author suggests that the creative exploration of sonic electromagnetism is a larger movement by a disparate community of artists who aim to challenge existing systems of power. In their exploration of the electromagnetic field, the author argues that these artists strive to harness a new source of empowerment and spirit.

On the fractional heat semigroup and product estimates in Besov spaces and applications in theoretical analysis of the fractional Keller–Segel system

This paper is concerned with the fractional Keller–Segel system in temporal and spatial variables. We consider fractional dissipation for the physical variables including a fractional dissipation mechanism for the chemotactic diffusion, as well as a time fractional variation assumed in the Caputo sense. We analyze the fractional heat semigroup obtaining time decay and integral estimates of the Mittag–Leffler operators in critical Besov spaces, and prove a bilinear estimate derived from the nonlinearity of the Keller–Segel system, without using auxiliary norms. We use these results in order to prove the existence of global solutions in critical homogeneous Besov spaces employing only the norm of the natural persistence space, including the existence of self-similar solutions, which constitutes a persistence result in this framework. In addition, we prove a uniqueness result without assuming any smallness condition on the initial data.

Research as Healing: Reflections of a Teacher Educator of Color on Critical Race Praxis

Framed through the four tenets of Jayakumar and Adamian’s critical race praxis as educational research, this article explores how the Institute for Teachers of Color Committed to Racial Justice, a critical race professional development space, was supportive of the racial literacy growth and well-being of K-12 teachers of Color. The author additionally engages in a process of autoethnographic reflection to show how engaging in research and praxis in this way was also healing to her as a teacher educator of Color, helping her to mitigate the overwhelming whiteness of teacher education and advance racial justice in policy and practice.

Collective Unbelonging: Late Arrival Chinese Migrant Youths’ Civic Identities and Their Social Studies Learning

The ongoing US-China geopolitical tension occupies news headlines in both states. In the US, suspicion and hostility against China have become a bipartisan agreement. The historically-rooted ostracization against Chinese Americans means that US-China relationship has deep implications on Chinese Americans’ lives, but research into how they negotiate this geopolitical tension is scant. Meanwhile, teaching transnational citizenship through social studies education can challenge the normative discourses of citizenship that often sustain nationalism and neglect migrants’ affiliation with multiple states, but how transnational citizenship is affected by geopolitical tension is an underexplored topic. Using Asian Critical Theory and transnational citizenship, this study interviewed Chinese migrant youths who received social studies education in both China and the US. While the youths reconstructed “Chineseness” and “Americanness” based on their lived experiences across borders, they also shared a pessimistically optimistic outlook toward the prospect of the US-China relationship. The youths developed a transnational citizenship that is characterized by their collective unbelonging in neither the US nor China. Their social studies curriculum failed to challenge the normative discourses of citizenship and failed to provide a critical space for them to discuss migration. This study also discusses the theoretical and pedagogical implications of the youths’ experiences.

Protecting the play: An integrative review of cybersecurity in and for sports events

Although sport has become an important topic in management research, academics have not fully examined the area of cybersecurity and its strategic relevance in sports management, in particular in and for sports events. In the present study, we examined the relationship between sports and cybersecurity and conducted an integrative literature review that categorizes the research that has been published to date, based on technology-organisation-environment (TOE) framework. The findings show that the role of cybersecurity in and for sports events is a heavily under-researched area that provides an abundance of scientific opportunities. It is also one that deserves further attention, because cyber-attacks on sports events and associated organisations are increasing. Our integrative literature review offers a more structured understanding of this field of investigation and led to the development of a comprehensive research agenda at the intersection between sports management and information security. As one of the first studies to use a literature review that specifically focuses on cybersecurity in and for sports events, we advance the state-of-the-art scholarship in this critical space, and we take the first step to disseminate best practices in cybersecurity and sports management.

Global solutions to the three-dimensional inhomogeneous incompressible Phan-Thien–Tanner system with a class of large initial data

In this paper, we consider the global well-posedness of the three-dimensional inhomogeneous incompressible Phan-Thien–Tanner (PTT) system with general initial data in the critical Besov spaces. The question of whether or not PTT system is globally well posed for large data is still open. When the density ρ is away from zero, we denote by ϱ:=1ρ−1. More precisely, we prove that the PTT system admits a unique global solution, provided that the initial data ϱ 0, the initial horizontal velocity uh0 , the product ωu30 of the coupling parameter ω and the initial vertical velocity u 30, and the initial symmetric tensor of constraints τ 0 are sufficiently small. In particular, this result includes the global well-posedness of the PTT system for small initial data in the case where ω∈[0,1) and for large initial vertical velocity in the case where ω tends to zero. As a by-product, our results can be applied to the so-called Oldroyd-B system.