Tracing Path Research Articles

Champions in the time of COVID-19: tracing paths to recovery in Ibero-America

ObjetivoO objetivo deste estudo é analisar o caso de Ximena Aguilera, uma epidemiologista chilena, como um exemplar único de uma líder em tempos de Covid-19 na Iberoamérica. Nós também aprimoramos nosso entendimento sobre a natureza de uma profissional lider que enfrenta soluções para um problema considerado complexo.MetodologiaNós usamos uma análise de caso quantitativa para examinar as ações de Ximena Aguilera no combate à COVID-19. Nós comparamos suas ações com as características de uma teoria emergente de líderes que enfrentam problemas complexos.ResultadosEste estudo utiliza análises prévias de estudos anteriores de igualdade de gênero e descobre que o profundidade, âmbito e a influência do acolhimento de líderes em tempos de COVID-19 são paralelos aos de igualdade de gênero. Neste estudo também discutimos os resultados sob a perspectiva de problemas considerados complexos.OriginalidadeEste trabalho oferece um estudo profundo de uma líder que enfrenta um problema complexo, como a pandemia global chamada COVID-19, enquanto a crise da pandemia acontece. Através das observações e experiências obtidas pela líder em tempo real, conseguimos obter uma perspectiva única e indisponível de se conseguir por outros métodos.Limitações e implicações da pesquisaé preciso que se façam futuros trabalhos quantitativos para se examinar os limites da teoria de líderes que enfrentam problemas complexos, através de um escopo maior do problema em uma população mais abrangente de líderes que buscam soluções para problemas complexos.Implicações práticasproblemas complexos podem ocorrer em estruturas organizacionais de vários níveis. O entendimento das característica de individuos melhor qualificados que possam contribuir para a definição e solução de tais problemas é de extrema relevância para a seleção, desenvolvimento, regras e práticas organizacionais.Implicações sociaisMuitos dos maiores desafios de nossa sociedade são chamados problemas complexos ou de difíceis soluções. Assim sendo, o entendimento das ações dos líderes que enfrentam esses problemas é crítico para as diretrizes de políticas públicas e esforços sociais avançados para se combater o problema. A natureza desses problemas é considerada neste estudo bem como as implicações das ações dos líderes desses problemas para a sociedade, sendo que práticas gerenciais são particularmente discutidas.

Tracing Paths from Research to Practice in Climate Change Education

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the incorporation of climate change social science research into climate change education practice. Semi-structured interviews with 19 educators from five climate change related professional development programs and networks revealed a high level of awareness of climate change social science research. Educators accessed research through a variety of means and reported both practice change and a sense of validation as a result of the research. They reported shifting toward programs that focused less on climate facts to programs that focused on solutions and that integrated their understanding of audiences’ values and identities. They also reported feeling a conflict between their practice knowledge and the knowledge they gained through professional development and accessing research. This work begins to fill a gap both in our understanding of how nonformal educators communicate about climate change and in how they use research in their practice.

INJECTED WATER ALLOCATION ANALYSIS METHOD BASED ON VIRTUAL TRACER MODELING

In this paper, by «virtual tracers» we mean a technique useful in hydrodynamic simulations. The technique is to trace all injected water in a geological and hydrodynamic model (GHDM) of an oilfield. Firstly, this approach allows one to trace paths of injected and formation water both laterally and vertically. Secondly, it allows one to estimate the «safe» duration of injection, i.e. a period when injection affects without watering neighboring producers. Thirdly, in the context of a GHDM, it can be considered as a tool for forecasting injection effect and planning geological and technical actions. The paper suggests an approach to solving the injector-producer interaction problem in the context of GHDM using virtual tracers. The purpose is not only to estimate injector-producer interaction dynamics but also quantify the separation of produced water into formation water and injected water. An example of integral injected water front simulation is presented and field area distribution of virtual tracers is calculated. We also show how to calculate the injector-producer interaction ratio, the effect of switching a producer to injection, and the forecast of the «safe» duration of injection. Verification of the technique is done by comparing the calculated concentration of a tracer with results of actual chemical analysis of water produced by the same wells. The corresponding statistics is presented.

Ethical challenges in family caregivers of patients with advanced cancer \u2013 a qualitative study

BackgroundCaring for patients with advanced or terminal diseases can confront family caregivers (FC) with ethical challenges. The present study aims at tracing paths connected to ethical challenges among FC of advanced cancer patients by exploring morally troubling situations and related burden, as well as strategies to handle the situation and experience of moral distress from the grieving FC’s perspective.MethodsWithin a qualitative design, interviews with 12 grieving FC were conducted using a semi-structured interview guide. Data were analysed using grounded theory and abductive reasoning.ResultsCore phenomena identified were two paths connected to ethical challenges among FC. Ethical challenges occurred in the context of difficult decision-making (Path 1) and in the context of lacking decision-making options when no decision was to be made by FC (Path 2). We found each path to be triggered by distinct sets of morally troubling situations that occurred during the patient’s disease trajectory. In the course of difficult decision-making (Path 1), detrimental external factors could add emotional stress, thus making the decision-making process burdensome. FC used various proactive strategies to overcome those detrimental factors and/or to make the decision. Decisions in conflict with FCs' own moral expectations and values led to moral distress, generating painful emotions. When no decision was to be made by FC (Path 2), FC felt powerless and overrun, which was associated with major emotionality in terms of anxiety and confusion. Either detrimental factors aggravated these feelings to paralyzing shock, or internal resources enabled FC to accept the situation. While acceptance prevented moral distress, paralyzing shock often caused a sense of not meeting their their own moral expectations and values, resulting in moral distress. In both paths, factors were identified that helped FC finding closure and prevented moral residue. Nevertheless, some FC experienced residual moral distress months after the morally troubling situation had occurred.ConclusionFindings provide first information towards understanding paths leading to ethical challenges in FC and can help clinicians to minimize associated emotional burden and moral distress.

Optimal Synthesis of six bar Mechanism using Particle Swarm Optimization

This paper presents the optimal synthesis of a six-bar Watt-II mechanism with rotational joints in which a tracing point on the coupler traces a desired path. The objective of the work is to synthesize a six-bar mechanism whose coupler point generates the path as close to the given path as possible. The tracing path is the combination of two circular arcs with eighteen precision points with prescribed timing. A mathematical model is formed by two vector loop closure equations, and design constrained are imposed to improve the result quality. ‘Particle Swarm Optimization’ (PSO), an evolutionary technique, is used to obtain the optimal solution of the given six bar mechanism at first time, which has been used by various authors in case of four bar mechanism. Final design parameters and convergence rate of the optimal solutions are presented.

Optically enhanced trap assisted hysteretic I-V characteristics of nanocrystalline silicon based p-i-n heterostructure

A p-i-n heterostructure containing electrochemically synthesized silicon (Si) nanorods embedded in a nonstoichiometric silicon oxide matrix sandwiched as i-layer between p-Si and n-type hydrogeneted amorphous Si shows hysteresis in both forward and reverse biases with an additional switching in forward bias. Conductivity in the trace path is lesser than the retrace path. Hysteresis in the reverse bias has been found to get enhanced up to three orders of magnitude under illumination by laser sources of different intensities and wavelengths showing the potential of the structure as an effective memory device. Hysteresis area and conductivity become maximum for red light and gradually decrease for green and violet light for fixed intensity. It is well known that the Si nanocrystal–silicon oxide interface contains a lot of electron and hole trap levels within the bandgap. Trapping and detrapping of photogenerated carriers at the trap/defect states are expected to affect the band bending at the junctions. The observed optically enhanced hysteresis has been explained through formation and destruction of the potential barrier at junctions during trace and retrace paths, respectively. The potential has been estimated by solving Poisson's equation, and the current–voltage (I–V) relation for trace and retrace paths has been derived where the rate of trapping and detrapping becomes different resulting in the observed hysteresis. Theoretically obtained I–V characteristics match well with the experimentally obtained results. The trap density in the i-layer estimated to be ∼1011/cm2 is in good agreement for the trap density in similar systems.

Updated Fast Solution for Quasi-Optical Beam Waveguides With Tilted FFT Beam Propagator

An updated fast solution in modeling quasi-optical beam waveguides is reported, where several mirror reflectors are utilized for the beam transformation. The fast Fourier transform Poynting vector ray tracing between virtual apertures (FFT-PVVAs) algorithm has been introduced and applied in modeling the reflected beam, based on the FFT-accelerated beam propagator between parallel apertures, and the Poynting vector ray tracing for the mirror reflection. However, for designing and optimizing a beam path with multireflectors, it is desired that the accumulated precision loss due to the Poynting vector ray tracing can be further reduced. As a modification, angular spectrum transform-based beam propagator between oblique apertures is introduced, so as to reduce the ray tracing path length. The improved method is named as FFT-PVVA-tilted propagation (FFT-PVVA-TP). As validation, beam propagation in a four-mirror beam waveguide is simulated by FFT-PVVA, FFT-PVVA-TP, and physical optics integration. Numerical results suggest that FFT-PVVA-TP provides clearly better accuracy after four times of beam reflection.

The reception of the novel by M. Bulgakov “Master and Margarita” in the Ibero-American cultural space

The objectives of this work is to analyze the reviews of the novel “Master and Margarita” in Latin American criticism; to identify and describe the dominant ways of reception of the novel, to draw conclusions about the features of its literacy and critical interpretation in Latin America. In this paper we have the opportunity to trace path of Bulgakov’s novel through Spain to Latin America and, in particular, to Mexico, since in most cases, Latin American countries first become acquainted with foreign works of literature through translations into Spanish from Spain, which are made for large publishing houses such as “Alianza”, “Mondadori”, “Cátedra”.

Tracing Path: From Conserved/ Museum towards Vivid City– Role of Urban Design

Tracing Path: From Conserved/ Museum towards Vivid City– Role of Urban Design

A High Reliability 3D Object Tracking Method for Robot Teaching Application

3D Object tracking is the task of capturing the 3D position and pose of an object from each time-series image frame. As we known, 3D sensing technique can be realized by stereo vision, structured light, and ToF (time-of-flight) camera. All of them can capture the point cloud data for describing the depth information in a workspace. In past research, the reliability in 3D object tracking was a big problem for real industrial application, therefore, we address a different way to enhance the tracking accuracy and stabilize the tracing path for raising the reliability. In order to build a 3D tracking model and the workspace environment, we adopted an RGB-D camera which is the Intel® RealSense™ D400 Series depth modules to collect the cloud point data and RGB values. The built 3D tracking model should contains the information which includes points, normal and texture for producing many 2D object images with different perspectives. Then the produced images were fed to a SSD (single-shot detector) neural network to learn the object’s features for 2D tracking. In dynamic tracking process, the image frames were through the sematic image segmentation by DeepLabV3+ for only extracting the object information without hands and background. Thus, the reserved data only included object’s cloud point data and texture information in workspace. Then we use the iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm and the RGB intensity correlation method to confirm the object’s position and posture in workspace. The result shows that our method has a better performance than SSD method for tracking a self-predefined object.

Software Test Path Identification for Virtual Assistants Based on Natural Language Conversation Flow Chart

The growth and pervasiveness of the mobile phone usage provides opportunities for new types of communications. The technology is mainly used in the communications between human and electronic assistant is chatbot. A chatbot is a simulated data based that enabled human conversation. The electronic assistant is currently used for a variety of purposes. The chatbot database flow is the important activity for the development of electronic assistants. The process of chatbot testing is based on the well-formalized test paths. The test paths are based on the chatbot trace in the database. Trace path identification during the development of the chatbot software is the challenging process. This paper presents the methodology to identify the test path for electronic assistants using natural language conversation flow chart. Chatbot database flow is one of the few specification languages supporting for formal description into an applied specification. The database natural language conversation flow chart divided into several trace using the proposed algorithm. Finally, the chatbot intent trace has provided the path for software test case generation. In the experiments shows testing based on the generated test paths has yielded the effective coverage criteria in the chatbot software development.

Underwater chemical plume tracing based on partially observable Markov decision process

Chemical plume tracing based on autonomous underwater vehicle uses chemical as a guidance to navigate and search in the unknown environments. To solve the key issue of tracing and locating the source, this article proposes a path-planning strategy based on partially observable Markov decision process algorithm and artificial potential field algorithm. The partially observable Markov decision process algorithm is used to construct a source likelihood map and update it in real time with environmental information from the sensors on autonomous underwater vehicle in search area. The artificial potential field algorithm uses the source likelihood map for accurately planning tracing path and guiding the autonomous underwater vehicle to track along the path until the source is detected. This article carries out simulation experiments on the proposed algorithm. The experimental results show that the algorithms have good performance, which is suitable for chemical plume tracing via autonomous underwater vehicle. Compared with the bionic method, the simulation results show that the proposed method has higher success rate and better stability than the bionic method.

Computational Synthesis of Large Deformation Compliant Mechanisms Undergoing Self and Mutual Contact

Topologies of large deformation contact-aided compliant mechanisms (CCMs), with self and mutual contact, exemplified via path generation applications, are designed using the continuum synthesis approach. Design domain is parameterized using honeycomb tessellation. Assignment of material to each cell, and generation of rigid contact surfaces, are accomplished via suitably sizing and positioning negative circular masks using the stochastic hill-climber search. To facilitate contact analysis, boundary smoothing is implemented. Mean value coordinates are employed to compute shape functions, as many regular hexagonal cells get degenerated into irregular, concave polygons as a consequence of boundary smoothing. Both geometric and material nonlinearities are considered. The augmented Lagrange multiplier method with a formulated active set strategy is employed to incorporate both self and mutual contact. Synthesized contact-aided compliant continua trace paths with single, and importantly, multiple kinks and experience multiple contact interactions pertaining to both self and mutual contact modes.

Design complexity of DPN patterning with Cr3+ and Co2+ metallic ions on Au (111) thin film

We present in this work a fabrication chain of an electrochemical sensor platform based on detection of Cr3+ and Co2+ metallic ions species. Through molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) technique, a high quality Au (111) thin film was firstly fabricated in ultra-high vacuum (UHV) conditions, and used as support for chemical SAMs functionalization with 1,4-dithiothreitol (DTT) spacers. On the formed hybrid surface/linker structures, we employed Dip Pen Nanolithography (DPN) for patterning various templates of Cr3+ and Co2+ metallic ion species. Coated AFM tips with metallic molecular inks were used to fabricate different paths on the Au substrate, offering a unique functional design complexity. By varying the tip speed and/or dwell time, micro-nano-scale templates of both species were patterned in the form of square, double-square, triangle and lines. A full control of molecular ink transport mechanisms during the drawing process was assured, succeeding the writing of Cr3+ and Co2+ metallic ions on Au film substrate. Surface topology analyzed by Lateral Force Microscopy demonstrated the chemical contrast of patterned species, being a clear indicative of DPN tracing paths. Molecular recognition of both Cr3+ and Co2+ metallic ions has been made by potentio-electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (PEIS) measurements. The Nyquist plots were compared and the equivalent circuits obtained in both conformations (Cr3+/DTT/Au, Co2+/DTT/Au) were discussed in the light of experimental parameters.

Fast routing verification with complexity effect for SOC

Integrated circuit (IC) fabrication technology has improved to 7 nm resulting that IC can accommodate more transistors to implement system-on-a-chip (SOC). SOC generally consists of a great quantity digital circuits with specific functions. Diverse signals not only convey inside but also communicate outside among circuits. For hundreds of thousands interlaced and complicated signals, it is an extreme big challenge to route in shrink channel. In this work, we propose a complexity effect routing algorithm based on the Lee algorithm to achieve fast verification for SOC. The advantages are to gain fast evaluated for various architectures of route, trace path from origin to destination and set diverse complexity to simulate SOC architectures. Experimental results demonstrate the achievements on five complexity sets of routing benchmarks.

Semantic Approach for Multifarious Ranked Novelty and Diversity in News Recommendations

Information overload on web creates lots of inconvenience for end users to unearth requisite information which instigate the demand of personalized recommendations. Recommender systems strive to attain just accuracy in recommendations based on the history of user preferences, resulting in over specialized recommendations. This leads to gradual loss of user’s interest in the system. These approaches also fail to recommend other products in long list which could be of user interest but user is not aware of. This in-turn leads to sparse user profiles.In dynamic domains, novelty and diversity in coverage can handle over specialization problem. To bring useful novelty and diversity, it is proposed to semantically expand the user preferences. For this purpose our designed multi level ontology is used with linkages among concepts, entities and properties, carrying different weights. Ontology is also enriched with different relations from online semantic lexicon and annotated with additional information about entities from open and linked external knowledge source.For relevant accurate recommendations in highly dynamic domains, we propose semantic approach to implicitly capture individual user preferences in separate profiles. One profile is to capture short term dynamic interests with temporal effects and another is to capture long term static interests. Semantic profiling helps to handle preferences in manageable number of news categories which are arranged hierarchically. It also helps to handle synonymy and polysemy problems, reducing ambiguity in profiling. An additional important step of outlier analysis and rectification is proposed to handle the effects of sudden unexpected temporary drifts in dynamic user preferences. This focused analysis helps to maintain correct ranking of user preferences which is generally overlooked. The rectified ranking of user interests is fetched for semantic expansion of user preferences, to bring correct ranking in diversity and novelty.Proposed approach semantically brings reasonable multifarious novelty and diversity by analyzing different features of item. Testing is based on live data gathered from RSS feeds of popular news providers for trustworthiness. Transparency is achieved by presenting new recommendations in separate sections along with explicit trace path options, based on difference in approaches. Transparency assists end user in making decision. User’s interests in diverse and novel recommendations are updated in their individual profiles, resulting in reduction of sparsity.

VISUOMOTOR INTEGRATION IN PRESYMPTOMATIC FAMILIAL ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

As we enter an era of prevention trials for Alzheimer's disease (AD), it is vital to have sensitive cognitive tests that can identify and track subtle cognitive decline in preclinical AD. A circle-tracing task has identified visuomotor integration deficits in presymptomatic mutation carriers for Huntington's disease. As there is some evidence that visuomotor integration is impaired in early AD, we tested for similar deficits in presymptomatic individuals carrying mutations for autosomal dominant familial AD (FAD). Thirty-one participants at risk of FAD were recruited: 19 presymptomatic mutation carriers (MC) and 12 non-carriers (NC). MC were on average 7.0 years from expected symptom onset and were well matched with NC for mean age and performance on standard cognitive tests (Table). Participants completed 12 45-second circle-tracing trials, half with serial-subtraction, using a stylus to trace as quickly and accurately as possible round an annulus on a tablet screen. Six trials were ‘direct’: participants could see their arm and their tracing path on the tablet. Six trials were ‘indirect’: the participant's arm was covered by a box, but they could view a copy of the annulus and their tracing path on a monitor positioned behind the tablet (Figure 1). Outcome variables were tracing speed (number of rotations) and error rate (number of deviations outside the annulus per rotation). GEE models were used to compare outcomes between groups after adjustment for age, gender and education. As expected, the indirect condition was more difficult than the direct condition, with slower tracing (p<0.001) and higher error rates (p<0.01). There was no evidence of an interaction between mutation status and task condition. Across both conditions, MC made more errors than NC (difference=0.297 (95% CI 0.062–0.532), p=0.013) (Figure 2); there was no significant difference in tracing speed. Within MC, error rate did not correlate with years to expected onset. Subtle deficits in visuomotor integration are an early feature of cognitive decline that can be detected in presymptomatic FAD. These deficits may appear at a similarly early stage to subtle memory decline. Computerised tasks measuring visuomotor integration may be suitable outcome measures in AD prevention trials. Set-up of the circle-tracing task (reprinted from Figure 1A in Say et al., Visuomotor integration deficits precede clinical onset in Huntington's disease. Neuropsychologia 2011, Vol. 49, No. 2, 264–270, Elsevier). In the indirect condition the participant's arm was covered by a box, not shown here. Comparison of mutation carriers and non-carriers for speed and accuracy on the Direct and Indirect conditions of the circle-tracing task. Error bars show 95% confidence intervals for the mean. Asterisk shows significant difference between the groups.

Evolutionary morphology in shape and size of haptoral anchors in 14 Ligophorus spp. (Monogenea: Dactylogyridae).

The search for phylogenetic signal in morphological traits using geometric morphometrics represents a powerful approach to estimate the relative weights of convergence and shared evolutionary history in shaping organismal form. We assessed phylogenetic signal in the form of ventral and dorsal haptoral anchors of 14 species of Ligophorus occurring on grey mullets (Osteichthyes: Mugilidae) from the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. The phylogenetic relationships among these species were mapped onto the morphospaces of shape and size of dorsal and ventral anchors and two different tests were applied to establish whether the spatial positions in the morphospace were dictated by chance. Overall significant phylogenetic signal was found in the data. Allometric effects on anchor shape were moderate or non-significant in the case of evolutionary allometry. Relatively phylogenetically distant species occurring on the same host differed markedly in anchor morphology indicating little influence of host species on anchor form. Our results suggest that common descent and shared evolutionary history play a major role in determining the shape and, to a lesser degree in the size of haptoral anchors in Ligophorus spp. The present approach allowed tracing paths of morphological evolution in anchor shape. Species with narrow anchors and long shafts were associated predominately with Liza saliens. This morphology was considered to be ancestral relative to anchors of species occurring on Liza haematocheila and M. cephalus possessing shorter shafts and longer roots. Evidence for phylogenetic signal was more compelling for the ventral anchors, than for the dorsal ones, which could reflect different functional roles in attachment to the gills. Although phylogeny and homoplasy may act differently in other monogeneans, the present study delivers a common framework to address effectively the relationships among morphology, phylogeny and other traits, such as host specificity or niche occupancy.

Development of an Optimized Ray Tracing Path Loss Model in the Indoor Environment

The various multipath mechanisms such as multiple reflections, diffraction, and scattering strongly degrade the radio signals in the indoor propagation environment. Although the deterministic ray tracing technique is widely used for modeling multiple reflections, it does not effectively describe the contributions of diffuse scattering from the rough surfaces. In this paper, measurements are performed in an indoor corridor environment with glass partitions to analyze the losses of WLAN mobile radio signals at 2.4 GHz. The path loss is estimated using the ray tracing deterministic N ray model. To improve its accuracy, the N ray model is merged with wavelet analysis to minimize the error between the model estimated and measured path loss. Although the wavelet merged ray tracing model has a better performance, there is a large variance in the reconstructed output. To have a better accuracy, the N ray model is modified by including the losses due to diffraction and scattering effects. The modified ray tracing model has an RMSE of 0.0590 and percentage relative error of 0.2009. The modified model is further optimized by including the statistical analysis of Rayleigh rough surface scattering to derive modified Fresnel’s reflection coefficients. The optimized model has the least values of RMSE (0.0385), standard deviation of error (0.0347) and percentage relative error (0.1312). The path loss estimated from the optimized model has the best agreement with the measured data and the values of the error metrics suggest the efficiency of the proposed optimized model.

FlowTrace: measuring round-trip time and tracing path in software-defined networking with low communication overhead

In today’s networks, load balancing and priority queues in switches are used to support various quality-of-service (QoS) features and provide preferential treatment to certain types of traffic. Traditionally, network operators use ‘traceroute’ and ‘ping’ to troubleshoot load balancing and QoS problems. However, these tools are not supported by the common OpenFlow-based switches in software-defined networking (SDN). In addition, traceroute and ping have potential problems. Because load balancing mechanisms balance flows to different paths, it is impossible for these tools to send a single type of probe packet to find the forwarding paths of flows and measure latencies. Therefore, tracing flows’ real forwarding paths is needed before measuring their latencies, and path tracing and latency measurement should be jointly considered. To this end, FlowTrace is proposed to find arbitrary flow paths and measure flow latencies in OpenFlow networks. FlowTrace collects all flow entries and calculates flow paths according to the collected flow entries. However, polling flow entries from switches will induce high overhead in the control plane of SDN. Therefore, a passive flow table collecting method with zero control plane overhead is proposed to address this problem. After finding flows’ real forwarding paths, FlowTrace uses a new measurement method to measure the latencies of different flows. Results of experiments conducted in Mininet indicate that FlowTrace can correctly find flow paths and accurately measure the latencies of flows in different priority classes.