Standard Construction Research Articles

Synthetic biology enabling a shift from domination to partnership with natural space

Synthetic biology is a field of science that examines biological systems through the lens of engineering with the explicit objective of rationally designing live objects for either fundamental or biotechnological purposes. Yet, the same conceptual frame also embodies its exact counterpart: the biologization of engineering, i.e., looking at rationally designed systems through the lens – and with the tools – of biology and evolution. Such a creative tension between technology-driven design and biological processes has one of the most conspicuous battlegrounds in modern architecture. Such an edge occurs in a time dominated by the evidence of climate change, ramping environmental deterioration, and the ensuing instability and mass migrations. The most recent influences of biology in architecture have moved from the adoption of biologically inspired shapes and forms in many types of buildings to the incorporation of new biomaterials (often functionalized with qualities of interest) as assembly blocks, to the amalgamation of live materials with other construction items. Yet, the possibility opened by synthetic biology to redesign biological properties à la carte, including large-scale developmental programs, also unlocks the opportunity to rethink our interplay with space, not as one more step in the way of domination, but as a win-win conversation with the natural environment. While various contemporary architectural tendencies clearly move in that direction, we propose a radical approach–exemplified in the so-called Biosynthetic Towers Project–in which complex buildings are designed and erected entirely through biological programming rather than assembled through standard construction technology. To make this scenario a reality, we need not only tackle a dedicated research agenda in the synthetic biology side, but also develop a new attentive mindset toward the environment, not as a space to be conquered for our exclusive own sake, but as one scenario of sustainable co-existence with the rest of the natural world.

A Theory of Formal Choreographic Languages

We introduce a meta-model based on formal languages, dubbed formal choreographic languages, to study message-passing systems. Our framework allows us to generalise standard constructions from the literature and to compare them. In particular, we consider notions such as global view, local view, and projections from the former to the latter. The correctness of local views projected from global views is characterised in terms of a closure property. We consider a number of communication properties -- such as (dead)lock-freedom -- and give conditions on formal choreographic languages to guarantee them. Finally, we show how formal choreographic languages can capture existing formalisms; specifically we consider communicating finite-state machines, choreography automata, and multiparty session types. Notably, formal choreographic languages, differently from most approaches in the literature, can naturally model systems exhibiting non-regular behaviour.

Targeting young driver emotions can reduce their cellphone distractions

ObjectiveThis study sought to evaluate the relationship between young drivers’ intention to engage in cellphone distractions while driving and their emotions towards the associated risks. First, we assessed whether the emotions of guilt, shame, and fear are associated with young drivers’ intention to engage in cellphone distractions, through an extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model. Second, we evaluated whether road signs that may evoke these negative emotions reduce cellphone use intentions among young drivers. MethodsAn online survey was conducted with young drivers (18 to 25 years old) from Ontario, Canada. 403 responses were collected, of which, 99 responses were used to evaluate the first objective and all 403 responses were used to evaluate the second objective. ResultsAnticipating feelings of guilt, shame, and fear negatively predicted the intention to engage in cellphone distractions, above and beyond the standard TPB constructs (i.e., attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control). When prompted with potentially emotion-evoking road signs (children crossing, my mom/dad works here), an increase in anticipated feelings of these emotions corresponded with lower intention to engage in cellphone distractions. ConclusionCountermeasures that target young driver emotions toward distracted driving risks may be effective in reducing their distraction engagement. Future studies in more controlled environments can investigate causal relationships between emotions and distracted driving among young drivers.

Application Analysis of Efficient Water-saving Irrigation Technology in High Standard Farmland Construction

Application Analysis of Efficient Water-saving Irrigation Technology in High Standard Farmland Construction

The Impact of High Standard Farmland Construction Projects on Soil Remediation of Cultivated Land

The Impact of High Standard Farmland Construction Projects on Soil Remediation of Cultivated Land

Comparison of Bootstrap Methods for Estimating Causality in Linear Dynamic Systems: A Review.

In this study, we present a thorough comparison of the performance of four different bootstrap methods for assessing the significance of causal analysis in time series data. For this purpose, multivariate simulated data are generated by a linear feedback system. The methods investigated are uncorrelated Phase Randomization Bootstrap (uPRB), which generates surrogate data with no cross-correlation between variables by randomizing the phase in the frequency domain; Time Shift Bootstrap (TSB), which generates surrogate data by randomizing the phase in the time domain; Stationary Bootstrap (SB), which calculates standard errors and constructs confidence regions for weakly dependent stationary observations; and AR-Sieve Bootstrap (ARSB), a resampling method based on AutoRegressive (AR) models that approximates the underlying data-generating process. The uPRB method accurately identifies variable interactions but fails to detect self-feedback in some variables. The TSB method, despite performing worse than uPRB, is unable to detect feedback between certain variables. The SB method gives consistent causality results, although its ability to detect self-feedback decreases, as the mean block width increases. The ARSB method shows superior performance, accurately detecting both self-feedback and causality across all variables. Regarding the analysis of the Impulse Response Function (IRF), only the ARSB method succeeds in detecting both self-feedback and causality in all variables, aligning well with the connectivity diagram. Other methods, however, show considerable variations in detection performance, with some detecting false positives and others only detecting self-feedback.

KG-Hub-building and exchanging biological knowledge graphs.

Knowledge graphs (KGs) are a powerful approach for integrating heterogeneous data and making inferences in biology and many other domains, but a coherent solution for constructing, exchanging, and facilitating the downstream use of KGs is lacking. Here we present KG-Hub, a platform that enables standardized construction, exchange, and reuse of KGs. Features include a simple, modular extract-transform-load pattern for producing graphs compliant with Biolink Model (a high-level data model for standardizing biological data), easy integration of any OBO (Open Biological and Biomedical Ontologies) ontology, cached downloads of upstream data sources, versioned and automatically updated builds with stable URLs, web-browsable storage of KG artifacts on cloud infrastructure, and easy reuse of transformed subgraphs across projects. Current KG-Hub projects span use cases including COVID-19 research, drug repurposing, microbial-environmental interactions, and rare disease research. KG-Hub is equipped with tooling to easily analyze and manipulate KGs. KG-Hub is also tightly integrated with graph machine learning (ML) tools which allow automated graph ML, including node embeddings and training of models for link prediction and node classification. https://kghub.org.

ECOCIDE

Over time, ecocide was considered mainly through the praxiology of command. This paper will demonstrate that actions aiming to prevent ecocide are hindered by the existing reference point in the construction of environmental standards. In order to build ecological safety, the illusory and short-term nature of environmental projects should be neutralised. Ecocide is a threat that requires solutions both at the level of national law and a forward-oriented global strategy. The discussion will show that ecocide is a virulent and pejorative phenomenon that currently goes beyond classically understood ecocrime. Preventing ecocide is an urgent necessity of a civilisational nature. The intergeneration component will be highlighted in considerations, which should encourage the updating and implementation of a strategy with a view to ensuring ecological safety on a continuous basis. The formal-dogmatic and comparative method in interpretation legal acts of international law with legal documents in the field of environmental protection has been applied in order to justify the hypothesis. Scientific research are accompanied by an analyze the relationship between the nature and human world.

Corpus creation and language identification for code-mixed Indonesian-Javanese-English Tweets.

With the massive use of social media today, mixing between languages in social media text is prevalent. In linguistics, the phenomenon of mixing languages is known as code-mixing. The prevalence of code-mixing exposes various concerns and challenges in natural language processing (NLP), including language identification (LID) tasks. This study presents a word-level language identification model for code-mixed Indonesian, Javanese, and English tweets. First, we introduce a code-mixed corpus for Indonesian-Javanese-English language identification (IJELID). To ensure reliable dataset annotation, we provide full details of the data collection and annotation standards construction procedures. Some challenges encountered during corpus creation are also discussed in this paper. Then, we investigate several strategies for developing code-mixed language identification models, such as fine-tuning BERT, BLSTM-based, and CRF. Our results show that fine-tuned IndoBERTweet models can identify languages better than the other techniques. This is the result of BERT's ability to understand each word's context from the given text sequence. Finally, we show that sub-word language representation in BERT models can provide a reliable model for identifying languages in code-mixed texts.

The Impact of High Standard Farmland Construction Projects on the Improvement of Farmland Quality and Grain Production Capacity

On the basis of analyzing the basic situation and construction conditions of high standard farmland construction in Qishan County, this article focuses on studying the social and economic benefits after construction, and estimates the new production capacity of high standard farmland construction projects. The results show that the implementation of the project is conducive to improving agricultural production conditions, improving the quality of arable land, increasing farmers' income, achieving a production value of 2.2747 million yuan, and achieving an additional grain production capacity of 532 tons, greatly enhancing the efficiency of high standard farmland construction projects.

The Impact of High Standard Farmland Construction Projects on the Improvement of Farmland Quality

The People's Government of Shaanxi Province issued a notice on the issuance of the Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Construction of High Standard Farmland (Shaanxi Government Office [2020] No. 18), proposing to vigorously promote the construction of high standard farmland and lay a solid foundation for ensuring food security in the province. By 2022, the province will build 6 million acres of high standard farmland with centralized contiguous areas, drought and flood protection, efficient water-saving, stable and high yield, and ecological friendliness.Improving the quality of farmland through the construction of high standard farmland will become an important task in the new era.

Использование армогрунта в конструкции устоев деревянного моста лесовозной автомобильной дороги

Wooden bridges have been used quite frequently on logging roads, regardless of their low durability and weak fire resistance. The preference is determined by the application of local materials in the construction and reparation, thus reducing the cost of the structure. However, the standard construction of the wooden bridge demands large amounts of conditioned draining bulk materials to support the cones, stone materials, or reinforced concrete slabs to protect against soil erosion. Besides, pile foundations are used on soft ground, involving heavy construction machinery. Reinforced soil foundations don’t have disadvantages of this kind. The application of innovative mounds for coastal support may reduce construction costs and increase operational capability. The purpose of the study is to estimate the potential of reinforced soil foundations in the construction of wooden bridge abutments. The results of the calculation for an abutment using reinforced support are presented. The calculations were performed for the standard loads A11, N11, and a forwarder. Additional research was performed to determine the parameters for the forwarder. According to the results, a mark of the forwarder with the maximum load on the abutment was identified. The maximum applied force was exerted by the load H11, and the minimum was A11. The stress from the timber truck Iveco-AMT 633920 (6×6) significantly exceeded the characteristic load A11, yet it was slightly lower compared to H11. The calculations for the abutment were done using the finite element method of the Plaxis 2D software. The parameters were limited to two groups of states. The calculations contained the external and internal stability factors along with the vertical and horizontal displacements of the reinforced structure. The external stability coefficient for the first loading scheme was 2.14; for the second loading scheme, it was 1.44. They exceed the permitted limit that is 1.375. In general, the results demonstrated that the reinforced soil abutment totally meets the requirements of the regulatory documents. For citation: Burgonutdinov A.M., Burmistrova O.N., Kleveko V.I., Litsinger Yu.K. Application of Reinforced Soil Foundations in the Construction of Wooden Bridge Abutments Along Logging Road. Lesnoy Zhurnal = Russian Forestry Journal, 2023, no. 3, pp. 113–125. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.37482/0536-1036-2023-3-113-125

An Anatomical Template for the Normalization of Medical Images of Adult Human Hands.

During medical image analysis, it is often useful to align (or 'normalize') a given image of a given body part to a representative standard (or 'template') of that body part. The impact that brain templates have had on the analysis of brain images highlights the importance of templates in general. However, templates for human hands do not exist. Image normalization is especially important for hand images because hands, by design, readily change shape during various tasks. Here we report the construction of an anatomical template for healthy adult human hands. To do this, we used 27 anatomically representative T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) images of either hand from 21 demographically representative healthy adult subjects (13 females and 8 males). We used the open-source, cross-platform ANTs (Advanced Normalization Tools) medical image analysis software framework, to preprocess the MR images. The template was constructed using the ANTs standard multivariate template construction workflow. The resulting template image preserved all the essential anatomical features of the hand, including all the individual bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, as well as the main branches of the median nerve and radial, ulnar, and palmar metacarpal arteries. Furthermore, the image quality of the template was significantly higher than that of the underlying individual hand images as measured by two independent canonical metrics of image quality.

INNOVATIVE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES AS IMPROVEMENT OF ORGANIZATIONAL PROCESSES OF CONSTRUCTION

Purpose. Analysis of the main advantages and proposals for the use of innovative information technologies to increase the efficiency of organizational construction processes. Methodology. Along with the spread of organizational processes of technology and construction organization of modern well-known Ukrainian and foreign IT firms in Ukraine, there is a need to improve the image of construction by using high-tech methods of standard and non-standard construction of civil and industrial buildings and structures. The tasks currently facing the country in the field of capital construction are the revival of renovation and reconstruction of domestic industrial and civil construction, the introduction of advanced technologies on a large scale, the rise of the culture of construction production, the training of a new generation of professional builders who are able to solve these tasks using IT in construction. The successful implementation of such a course is facilitated by measures to improve the technology and organization of construction, the introduction of new IT methods for managing renovations and reconstructions, and solving financing problems. Findings. The paper analyzes the scientific research of IT in construction, in particular during the renovation and reconstruction of buildings and structures, which reflect the advantages of using innovative technologies, VIM technologies at various stages of renovation and reconstruction from the technology of construction organization, and provides examples of the use of innovative technologies. Originality. Analysis of the results of the application of the most common IT components in industrial and civil construction makes it possible to use them at different stages, taking into account various software and technical support. Practical value. Technical, technological and organizational solutions in construction technology and organization, which have already been developed and implemented, allow the use of innovative technologies or their parts regardless of the technical or software equipment of construction organizations in the design and construction of construction objects. The methodological structure of analysis, quantitative evaluation and modeling of processes was developed, which made it possible to identify the dependencies that characterize the level of efficiency of works and allows for variant design of construction works with the help of these technologies.

In the construction of socialist rule of law culture, we should actively explore new ways to enhance citizens' rule of law literacy

To comprehensively rule the country by law and build a country ruled by law is an important goal of socialist modernization with Chinese characteristics. The socialist rule of law culture with Chinese characteristics is the spiritual heritage of the socialist country under the rule of law with Chinese characteristics, and the construction of the socialist rule of law culture with Chinese characteristics is the cultural support of the construction of the socialist country under the rule of law with Chinese characteristics. Therefore, the construction of socialist legal culture with Chinese characteristics is not only an important content of the study of the Sinicization of Marxism, but also an important issue of the theory and practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The construction of socialist legal culture with Chinese characteristics is a dynamic process. In order to achieve the standardization and scientific construction, we must establish a set of mutual coordination and mutual influence operating mechanisms, including: dynamic mechanism, communication mechanism, innovation mechanism and guarantee mechanism.

The Three Lives of Electronic Money Institutions

Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) are non-banking financial institutions specialized in the issuing of electronic money and the provision of payment services. They were introduced in 2000 and revised in 2009, but the MiCA Regulation proposal will amend their legal framework. Through a legal analysis of the “lives” of EMIs, this paper argues that the European framework for EMIs has, over time, levelled market conditions for business entities professionally providing the issuance of e-money, but still lacks a consistent construction and application of European standards and waivers, suffering from a dystopian approach between public and private enforcement. e-money, fintech, PSD 2015, MiCA, EMIs, crypto-assets, money as a social institution, level playing field, financial stability, monetary function

Validation of the Korean Version of Patient-Centered Care Tool: For Outpatients.

The objective of this study was to assess the validity and reliability of the Korean version of the patient-centered care (K-PCC) instrument for outpatients. The study was conducted due to the absence of a measurement tool specifically designed to evaluate patient-centered care for outpatients. This study is a methodological study to verify the validity and reliability of the Korean version of Patient-Centered Care (K-PCC) to measure patient-centeredness for outpatients. As a first step for the evaluation of the tool, the content validity was verified by expert panel. Then, a total of 400 outpatients were recruited, and construct validity was verified through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) as the second step for the evaluation of the tool. The convergent and discriminant validity of the tool was verified by calculating the standardized factor loads, construct reliability (CR), and average variance extracted (AVE), and calculating the correlation square between the factors as the third and fourth steps for the evaluation of the tool. And as a fifth step for the evaluation of the tool, criterion validity was evaluated by comparing the correlation with the patient-centeredness measurement tool for inpatients (PEx-inpatient). In estimating reliability, internal consistency reliability coefficients were calculated. The confirmatory factor analysis supported good fit for the Korean patient-centered care instrument (K-PCC), and the eight-factor structure was validated. The scale comprises 21 items across eight factors: patient preferences (4 items), physical comfort (2 items), coordination of care (2 items), continuity and transition (3 items), emotional support (2 items), access to medical care (3 items), information and education (2 items), and family and friends (3 items). The Cronbach's alphas ranging between 0.73 and 0.88. The Korean patient-centered primary care instrument is a valid and reliable scale to measure patient-centered care for outpatients in the Korean medical environment.

Smart chemical industry parks in China: Current status, challenges, and pathways for future sustainable development

The chemical industry has been pivotal to the rapid economic expansion and high standards of living in China. As an important carrier of the chemical industry, China has designated as many as 723 chemical industrial parks (CIPs). Unfortunately, safety concerns have become an obstacle to the sustainability of China's CIPs. Ever since the two devastating hazardous chemical accidents, namely “Tianjin Port 8·12 Explosion” and “Jiangsu 3·21 Explosion,” which occurred in 2015 and 2019 respectively, China has prioritized the safety of CIPs. The smart chemical industrial parks (SCIPs) are considered the optimal strategies toward the goal of sustainable development in China's CIPs. However, there has been a lack of research and subsequent discussion on the role of SCIPs in the forthcoming years. The period between 2020 and 2025 is considered a crucial period for the future development of CIPs and SCIPs in China mainly because the country has released a series of important government documents and national standards (such as “Fourteenth Five-Year (2020–2025) Plan for Hazardous Chemical Safety” and “Guidelines of SCIPs construction”) to promote hazardous chemical safety. With the aim of analyzing the future sustainable development for the construction of SCIPs in China, this paper proposes a systematic methodology in order to conduct an integrated and in-depth review on the standardization construction status (framework with Chinese characteristics, key events, spatial features, and national pilots), future tasks, problems, and sustainable development pathways of China's SCIPs. The method is implemented in accordance with the current scenarios of hazardous chemical safety in China and the latest government documents, regulations, and standards. Furthermore, this study provides basic data and a basis for future studies associated with the safety and sustainability of the SCIPs construction and chemical industry, both within China and in other countries.

Systematic investigation of the material basis, multiple mechanisms and quality control of Simiao Yong'an decoction combined with antibiotic in the treatment of sepsis

BackgroundSepsis is one of the major threats to human health with high mortality. Simiao Yong'an decoction (SMYAD) has the efficacy of anti-inflammation, improving coagulation and microcirculation, which is applicable for the clinical assistance treatment of sepsis. Yet, its material basis and relevant mechanisms are still vague. PurposeExplore the quality markers (Q-markers), biomarkers and potential mechanisms of SMYAD combined with imipenem/cilastatin sodium for anti-sepsis. MethodsLinear-Trap-LC/MSn was employed to profile the compounds in the extract and medicated serum of SMYAD. Then, the components and targets obtained from databases were applied to network pharmacology. Q-markers’ range was narrowed via the affinity of three times docking and determined as per its screening criteria. Also, the content of them was detected by HPLC. Next, cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) model was reproduced to observe the effect of SMYAD united antibiotic by survival rate, histopathology score, ELISA, western blot and qPCR. Finally, metabolomics based upon GC–MS was exerted to discover the differential endogenous metabolites, metabolic pathway and joint pathway of SMYAD combined with antibiotic for sepsis. ResultsThe 25 serum migrant ingredients derived from 113 chemical compounds of SMYAD were identified for the first time, and 6 components were determined as the Q-markers of SMYAD. The enrichment analysis indicated that the potential mechanism was mainly associated with the IL-17 signaling pathway, complement-coagulation cascades signaling pathway and VEGF signaling pathway. Then, SMYAD united antibiotic declined the mortality of septic rats, restored cytokine levels, ameliorated histopathological lesions and decreased the mRNA and protein expression of target proteins in a dose-dependent way. Furthermore, 8 differential metabolites were regarded as latent biomarkers related to the antiseptic effect of SMYAD united antibiotic, which were mainly involved in the Citrate cycle (TCA cycle) metabolic pathway. ConclusionsDifferent skeletons of compounds, including iridoids, phenylpropanoids, organic acids, triterpenes and others, were the main compositions of SMYAD. Among them, 6 components were determined as the Q-markers, which provided a basis for the construction of quality standards for this ancient classic formula. The combination therapy of SMYAD and antibiotic obviously ameliorated inflammatory reaction, coagulation dysfunction and microcirculation abnormalities for sepsis by inhibiting IL-17 signaling pathway, complement-coagulation cascades signaling pathway and VEGF signaling pathway.

When nilpotent elements generate nilpotent ideals

We study the natural class of rings where each nilpotent element generates a nilpotent ideal, calling them the strongly 2-primal rings. We derive many basic properties of these rings, analyze their behavior under standard ring constructions and extensions, and taxonomize their relationship to other natural generalizations of commutativity. A slightly stronger condition is to assume that any nilpotent element generates a nilpotent ideal of the same index of nilpotence. We find that the difference between these two properties explains divergent behaviors in direct products, polynomial rings, Morita contexts, and other constructions.