Past States Research Articles

«Nude Vita» of the Post-classical Regression of the Culture Industry and Retrocausal Reversibility

The article examines the phenomenon of Western visual practices known as “nude vita.” Using the example of landmark nu-projects, the author analyzes socio-philosophical criticism of cultural-industrial post-classical regression by independent Ukrainian and international scholars who study the entropy of contemporary artistic experience. The researchers discussed emphasize the need for an immediate revision of the self-destructive art episteme of postmodernism and the return to social and individual creative consciousness of the essential reflection as a stratagem of transcendental aesthetics. As an additional argument in favor of the validity of such academic criticism, the article draws on the ideas of the modern quantum-mechanical theory of retrocausality, which highlights the importance of the historical-temporal integrity of cultural memory, since the causal effect of temporal reversibility on a subtle spiritual and intellectual level can change the past states of systems through the transformation of future events, which plays an important role in the cultural and artistic context of the here-and-now nation-building.

Tree height and stem growth dynamics in a Scots pine dominated boreal forest

Tree growth is a key forest ecosystem service and essential for carbon sequestration and biomass production. However, the intra-seasonal dynamics of tree height and stem diameter growth have been difficult to measure hampering the understanding of the interplay between these processes. Here, we investigated the feasibility of a laser scanning system in monitoring tree height development, aiming to study how tree height and stem diameter growth dynamics vary and interact, and how environmental variables explain the tree growth dynamics within a growing season. The experimental design consisted of 40 boreal trees equipped with dendrometers measuring changes in the stem diameter at 15-minutes intervals while a laser scanner fixed to a 35-meter tower was used to measure tree height near-daily during the monitoring period from May to mid-August 2021. We found that vertical changes in the tree-segmented point clouds enabled monitoring of tree height increment and investigation of the temporal dynamics of changes in tree height and stem diameter, when coupled with dendrometer measurements. The experiments revealed that, on average, height increment occurred ahead of diameter increment and deviated more towards the late season. Norway spruce showed more delayed diameter increment than Scots pine during the late season. Silver birch experienced diameter increment ahead of height increment. Based on the dendrometer measurements, we computed a radial change response function that aimed at characterizing the current state of stem diameter development, whether it was increasing or decreasing from its past state. When these radial change responses were compared against environmental variables, we found that the radial change response was mostly controlled by balance between precipitation and evapotranspiration, soil water content, minimum daily temperature, and vapor pressure deficit. Our findings support the utilization of laser scanning time series for measuring intra-seasonal changes in tree height and increase our understanding of the interactions between tree height and stem diameter growth processes.

Lake Sevan. Past, present, and future state of a unique alpine lake

Lake Sevan, a large, deep, alpine lake in the Lesser Caucasus is the focus of this Special Issue of the Journal of Limnology. It was an outstanding ecosystem 100 years ago characterised by excellent water quality, rich biodiversity with a high level of endemism, wide-ranging beds of macrophytes along the shores and a productive and sustainable fish production. Due to its beauty, natural history, and contributions to social and economic welfare it is also a cultural heritage for the Armenian Nation including its large diaspora.

On the Rod Heating Problem by Sources on the Class of Zonal Controls Using the Current and Past State at Measurement Points

We study an optimal feedback control problem for the rod heating process by means of lumped sources. The control actions are the powers of the sources, the values of which are defined on the class of zonal controls. The values of the parameters of zonal control actions are determined by subsets of the state space, to which belong the values of the process state at the measurement points at the current and past time moments. The posed problem is reduced to a parametric optimal control problem on determining a finite-dimensional vector of values of the parameters of zonal control actions. We have obtained optimality conditions for the values of the parameters of zonal control actions. These conditions contain formulas for the gradient of the objective functional with respect to the optimizable parameters. They make it possible to solve the reduced problem numerically with the application of efficient first-order optimization methods.

Bayesian model updating for bridge engineering applications based on DREAMKZS algorithm and Kriging model

The Differential Evolution Adaptive Metropolis (DREAM) based Bayesian model updating suffers from low convergence speed and high computational cost. This study proposes a Bayesian updating framework based on the DREAM and KZS strategies (DREAMKZS) assisted with the Kriging model to enhance the algorithm’s convergence speed and computational efficiency. The KZS strategies represent the Kalman-inspired proposal distribution, sampling from the past states, and snooker updates. The model updating of a numerical beam and a full-scale bridge were employed to test the DREAMKZS algorithm’s performance. The results demonstrated that DREAMKZS accelerates the chain exploration in high-dimensional target distributions and improves the convergence speed. The DREAMKZS outperforms the DREAM in achieving rapid convergence of the Markov chains while maintaining the precision of the posterior distribution. In the two case studies, the efficiency of model evaluation is improved by 3.66 times and 1.72 times, respectively. Compared with the traditional Bayesian approach without a surrogate model, the computational cost is reduced by 80.04% and 95.37%, respectively.

Experimental Procedure for Determining the Remanent Magnetic Flux Value Using the Nominal AC Energization

The laboratory setup and corresponding experimental procedure for determining the remanent magnetic flux in the magnetic core of a single-phase transformer are presented in this paper. Using the proposed method, the remanent flux can be determined without prior knowledge of any parameter or past states of the transformer which is a significant advantage compared to previously known methods. Furthermore, reliable information about the remanent flux could be obtained using less equipment than other methods. Only electrical measurements are needed, without any physical intervention in the core or some other parts of the transformer. However, the major drawback is that some new unknown value of the remanent flux is set after the measuring procedure. Various initial conditions of the remanent flux and the closing voltage angle are set before each energization of the transformer to prove the validity of the proposed method, which can be used to obtain some characteristics of the remanent flux, such as stability over time or its dependence on some external factors.

The role of long-term power-law memory in controlling large-scale dynamical networks

Controlling large-scale dynamical networks is crucial to understand and, ultimately, craft the evolution of complex behavior. While broadly speaking we understand how to control Markov dynamical networks, where the current state is only a function of its previous state, we lack a general understanding of how to control dynamical networks whose current state depends on states in the distant past (i.e. long-term memory). Therefore, we require a different way to analyze and control the more prevalent long-term memory dynamical networks. Herein, we propose a new approach to control dynamical networks exhibiting long-term power-law memory dependencies. Our newly proposed method enables us to find the minimum number of driven nodes (i.e. the state vertices in the network that are connected to one and only one input) and their placement to control a long-term power-law memory dynamical network given a specific time-horizon, which we define as the ‘time-to-control’. Remarkably, we provide evidence that long-term power-law memory dynamical networks require considerably fewer driven nodes to steer the network’s state to a desired goal for any given time-to-control as compared with Markov dynamical networks. Finally, our method can be used as a tool to determine the existence of long-term memory dynamics in networks.

Herding states and stock market returns

This paper investigates whether herd behaviour states (intense/adverse) affect stock market returns using a fixed effects model to capture cross-sectional and time variability covering the European region. We show that stock market returns depend on past herding states. From December 1992 to December 2020, the mean returns following an intense herding state are 0.26% lower per month over a six-month holding period than following an adverse herding state. Our results are robust to using risk-adjusted returns and a continuous herding variable. We also show that intense herding emerges during periods of lower returns and higher volatility than adverse herding.

A comprehensive review on fractional-order optimal control problem and its solution

AbstractThis article presents a comprehensive literature survey on fractional-order optimal control problems. Fractional-order differential equation is extensively used nowadays to model real-world systems accurately, which exhibit fractal dimensions, memory effects, as well as chaotic behaviour. These versatile features attract engineers to concentrate more on this, and it is widely used in the broad domain of science and technology. The mentioned numerical tools take the necessary optimal conditions into account, which makes it a two-point boundary value problem of non-integer order. In this review article, some numerical approaches for the approximation have been stated for obtaining the solution to fractional optimal control problems (FOCPs). Here, few numerical approaches including Grunwald-Letnikov approximation, Adams type predictor-corrector method, generalized Euler’s method, Caputo-Fabrizio method Bernoulli and Legendre polynomials method, Legendre operational method, and Ritz’s and Jacobi’s method are treated as an advanced method to obtain the solution of FOCP. Fractional delayed optimal control is selected for our investigation. It refers to a type of control problem where the control action is delayed by a fractional amount of time. In other words, the control input at a given time depends not only on the current state of the system but also on its past state at fractional times. The fractional delayed optimal control problem is formulated as an optimization problem that seeks to minimize a cost function subject to a set of constraints that represent the dynamics of the system and the fractional delay in the control input. The solution to this problem typically involves the use of fractional polynomials types, i.e. Chebyshev and Bassel polynomials.

Archiving Facts and Documentary Films: Sites of Memorial Struggle for the October 6, 1976, Massacre in Thailand

None of the perpetrators involved in the October 6, 1976, massacre in Thailand have been brought to justice. It has been this “culture of impunity” that limits the possibility of truth projects. Past state violence has been protected by the country's blanket amnesty laws and libel laws. Additionally, unreleased archival materials are restricted from public release by copyright law. Audiovisual and documentary evidence for counter‐memory projects are thus challenged. On the other hand, evidence collected by activist archivist groups reveals painful memories from the relatives of victims and provides hope for truth‐seeking. Collections of photographs, audio interviews, testimonies, and artifacts are utilized by both archivists and documentary filmmakers to forge claims toward restorative justice. And while the dominant discourse forces society at large to keep silent, historians, archivists, and filmmakers collectively resist forgetting. Together they lay claim to photographic and audio evidence as well as personal painful memories to illustrate and generate public dialogue, telling truths through sight and sound. Some of these archival efforts led to practices in participatory documentary‐making. Collectively, these efforts in archival practice and filmmaking give birth to an ethic of immediation in humanitarianism. Thailand's next generation is engaged in recalling memories of past state violence and questioning the present authoritarian regime through archival filmmaking and exhibition practices.

Ethnopharmacological Overview on Natural Lignan and Neolignan for the Treatment of Cardiovascular Diseases and their Potential Pharmacological Mechanism

Traditional medicine have been used for many disease ailments from the many potentials abilities, and procedures based on assumptions, beliefs, and experiences of traditional societies to preserve their health benefits. Many rural or indigenous populations in many undeveloped nations place a high importance on traditional herbal remedies. Natural products are a common medicinal source that has been used for millennia in Asia, America, and Africa to treat a variety of maladies including high blood pressure, lower cardiac arrest, colic, influenza, dysentery, dyspepsia, and malaria. It contains several photochemical compounds that have distinct and intriguing biological effects. To bridge the gap for future research prospects, this study discusses the past and present state of research on antihypertensive properties of different natural sources of plant based lignan and neolignans in terms of medicinal usage, phytochemistry, pharmacological activities Calcium based, toxicity profile, and therapeutic usage. This assessment is based on a review of the literature in scientific journals and books obtained from libraries and electronic sources. Natural therapeutic properties are just one benefit of medicinal plants; they also provide disease prevention. In this concise overview study research, we are trying to summarize, aggregate the number of plants, and identify their ethnopharmacological properties.

Resolving a puzzle about the fixity of the past

Abstract In his 2022 article ‘A puzzle about the fixity of the past’, Lampert argues that standard views concerning knowledge and the semantics of ‘actually’ conflict with a widely held principle concerning the fixity of the past. I show that his attempt to establish the conflict fails, as it rests on the implicit assumption that a past mental state or utterance involving a modal indexical must have the same content across worlds with a shared past, when in fact it must, given its character, differ in content.

Regression analysis of a future state entry time distribution conditional on a past state occupation in a progressive multistate model.

We present a nonparametric method for estimating the conditional future state entry probabilities and distributions of state entry time conditional on a past state visit when data are subject to dependent censorings in a progressive multistate model where Markovianity of the system is not assumed. These estimators are constructed using the competing risk techniques with risk sets consisting of fractional observations and inverse probability of censoring weights. The fractional observations correspond to estimates of the number of persons who ultimately enter a state from which the future state in question can be reached in one step. We then address the corresponding regression problem by combining these marginal estimators with the pseudo-value approach. The performance of our regression scheme is studied using a comprehensive simulation study. An analysis of existing data on graft-versus-host disease for bone marrow transplant individuals is presented using our novel methodology. A second analysis of another well-known data set on burn patients is also included.

Reading Between the Lines: Investigating the Ability of JWST to Identify Discerning Features in exoEarth and exoVenus Transmission Spectra

The success of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission has led to the discovery of an abundance of Venus Zone terrestrial planets that orbit relatively bright host stars. Atmospheric observations of these planets play a crucial role in understanding the evolutionary history of terrestrial planets, past habitable states, and the divergence of Venus and Earth climates. The transmission spectrum of a Venus-like exoplanet can be difficult to distinguish from that of an Earthlike exoplanet however, which could severely limit what can be learned from studying exoVenuses. In this work we further investigate differences in transmission between hypothetical exoEarths and exoVenuses, both with varying amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). The exoEarths and exoVenuses were modeled assuming they orbit TRAPPIST-1 on the runaway greenhouse boundary. We simulated James Webb Space Telescope Near-Infrared Spectrograph PRISM transit observations of both sets of planets between 0.6 and 5.2 μm, and quantified the detectability of major absorption features in their transmission spectra. The exoEarth spectra include several large methane (CH4) features that can be detected in as few as six transits. The CH4 feature at 3.4 μm is the optimal for feature for discerning an exoEarth from an exoVenus since it is easily detectable and does not overlap with CO2 features. The sulfur dioxide (SO2) feature at 4.0 μm is the best indicator of an exoVenus, but it is detectable in atmospheres with reduced CO2 abundance.

Adaboosting graph attention recurrent network: A deep learning framework for traffic speed forecasting in dynamic transportation networks with spatial-temporal dependencies

In construction engineering, transportation is a key factor affecting the construction schedule, and Transportation Speed Prediction (TSP) provides essential information for the precise scheduling of construction transportation. TSP is a challenging task due to the complex spatial-temporal traffic correlations and the dynamic variation of transportation routes. Given the superiority in topology representation of traffic networks, graph-based networks are becoming the prevalent traffic prediction solutions. However, existing methods have difficulty in dealing with dynamic transportation network structures and insufficiency in extracting representative spatial-temporal features. To address such issues, in this article, an Adaboosting Graph Attention Recurrent Network (Ada-GARN) is proposed. In the network, a graph attention recurrent unit is developed that integrates graph attention convolution with gated recurrent structures to extract spatial-temporal features of the transportation network with changing structures. On this basis, considering the effect of the time lag in traffic propagation, the attention space of graph convolution is extended to the past state of neighboring nodes based on traffic feature graphs, which enhances the representation of spatial evolution characteristics. Furthermore, to effectively integrate the multi-scale spatial-temporal information, the model uses an Adaboost framework to ensemble graph attention recurrent units instead of directly stacking spatial-temporal layers, which measures the feature differences among layer-wise neighbors and adaptively adjusts node weights in training. Experiments conducted on a large infrastructure project transportation dataset and a highway dataset show the model's adaptability to different scenarios. The proposed model outperforms state-of-the-art methods and reduces 11.2%–28% and 23%–23.1% in terms of RMSE and MAE metrics, respectively.

The role of space-based data in European climate policies

Space-based data provide essential information on the past, current, and future state of climate change. Satellite data widely contribute to scientific research conducted by recognized institutions such as the IPCC, which underpin most climate policies in Europe. In addition, half of the Essential Climate Variables (ECVs), which are necessary to monitor climate change, directly come from satellite data. However, the role of space is not always accurately reflected in Europe's climate policies, with only a few direct references to ESA's or EU's space programmes and data.Against this background, this paper aims to provide an in-depth assessment on the actual role played by space-based data in the definition and implementation of European climate policies. Based on the outcomes of a year-long research conducted in collaboration with the European Space Agency, the paper will first analysed the use and references to space-based data in over 500 climate policy documents of the 22 ESA Member States. Subsequently, it will address some potential blocking points to the use of space in the climate policymaking process in the analysed European countries. By doing so, the paper will also look into aspects related to science communication, the science-to-policy divide as well as the climate governance in ESA Member States. Finally, this paper will provide recommendations to increase the use of space-based data in the climate policymaking process.

EVALUATION OF SPATIAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE CENTER OF LVIV ON THE EXAMPLE OF SVOBODY AVENUE

Since Lviv is a popular tourist destination, a major IT center, and a temporary residence for refugees from the eastern part of the state during the war, its role attracts people, and an active modern lifestyle can come in conflict with the restrictions of the preservation of the city's historical heritage. Therefore, the modern state of the city's historical core needs to be evaluated and compared to its past state. This research evaluates spatial metamorphosis by analyzing the old to modern city shift. Svobody Avenue, Lviv’s main street, was chosen to represent the area of analysis. Evaluation of Svobody Avenue was done by the quality criteria of public space, types of subspaces, and spatial problems of the current state of the avenue. The quality criteria were chosen liveliness, identity, comfort, and functionality, subspaces were based on Carmona’s classification, and a systematization of the problems as the outcome of transformation is presented in the end. This work's primary value is considering transformation as a comprehensive process from different angles, which gives a complete picture of the change in the city's main street.

Stability of multi-link delayed impulsive stochastic complex networks with Markovian switching

This article presents an analysis of p-th moment exponential stability for a class of stochastic functional differential systems with Markovian switching on complex multi-link networks using multi-delayed impulsive control. The multi-delayed impulsive control scheme implies that the impulsive jumps are related to multiple past states of the systems, which increases the complexity of the analysis. Additionally, single-link networks are extended to complex multi-link networks, which are more extensive. By combining graph theory and the Razumikhin method, several criteria for achieving p-th moment exponential stability for systems are derived. The criteria are related to the maximum upper bound of delays, impulsive interval, and network topology. Subsequently, the stability of multi-link stochastic complex networks with time delays and Markovian switching is studied using delayed impulsive control. Finally, the exponential stability of a class of stochastic coupled multi-link oscillators with Markovian switching is analyzed, and several numerical simulations are provided to verify the validity of the theoretical results.

Codimension-2 Bifurcations in a Quantum Decision Making Model

We consider a discrete-time model of a population of agents participating in a minority game using a quantum cognition in an approach with binary choices. As the agents make decisions based on both their present and past states, the model is inherently two-dimensional, but can be reduced to a one-dimensional system governed by a bi-valued function. Through this reduction, we prove how the complex bifurcation structure in the model’s 2D parameter space can be explained by a few codimension-2 bifurcation points of a type not yet reported in the literature. These points act as organizing centers for period-adding structures that partially overlap, leading to bistability.

Anomalous Northward Energy Transport due to Anthropogenic Aerosols during the Twentieth Century

Abstract In the tropics, the absorbed solar radiation is larger than the outgoing longwave radiation, while the opposite is true at high latitudes. This basic fact implies a poleward energy transport (PET) in both hemispheres, which is accomplished by the atmosphere and oceans. The magnitude of PET is determined by the top of atmosphere gradient in the net radiation flux, and small changes to this quantity must change the total PET in the absence of changes in heat uptake. We analyze a large ensemble of 50 historic climate simulations from the CESM LENS2 project and find a significant PET anomaly in the latter half of the twentieth century. The temporal evolution of this anomaly—with a rapid increase after 1950, a peak near 1975, and a rapid decrease in the 1990s—mirrors the historic trend of sulfur dioxide (SO2, a significant aerosol predecessor) emissions from Europe and North America. This anomaly also appears in an analysis of the PET calculated from ERA5 reanalyses and from the CESM2 Single Forcing Large Ensemble. Consistent with previous studies, we find that historic SO2 emissions from Europe and North America brightened clouds, which reflected additional solar radiation back to space in the midlatitudes: this shortwave anomaly increased the meridional gradient in the net TOA radiation flux and induced an anomalous northward energy transport. Finally, our results suggest that cryosphere processes become an additional important factor in setting the PET anomaly during the first years of the twenty-first century by contributing to the difference in absorbed solar radiation between hemispheres alongside cloud radiative effects. significance statement In this study, we analyze a large group of climate model simulations from 1850 to 2014 and find that this historical pollution changed the way that heat was transported from the tropics to Earth’s poles. We also find this change in heat transport when we analyzed an atmospheric reanalysis, which is a historical dataset that combines many meteorological observations into a best estimate of the past climate state. This extra reflection of sunlight from polluted clouds cooled the Northern Hemisphere, and we hypothesize that this cooling caused more heat transport out of the tropics. Last, we find that similar pollution emitted from China and India in more recent decades has not led to a change in Earth’s heat transport because of counteracting changes in snow and ice in the Northern Hemisphere.