Trade Space Research Articles

An Approach for Predicting Social, Environmental, and Economic Product Impacts and Characterizing the Associated Sustainability Tradespace in Engineering Design

Abstract There is a growing demand for sustainable products and systems. Sustainability encompasses environmental, social, and economic aspects, often referred to as the three pillars of sustainability. To make more sustainable design decisions, engineers need tools to predict the environmental, social, and economic impacts of products and characterize potential sustainability trade-offs. To predict the total impact of a product, the quantity of functional units of the product in society and impact of each product needs to be estimated. This article uses agent-based modeling (ABM), combined with tools such as life cycle assessment (LCA), to predict impacts across all three pillars of sustainability. Using the product impact results the multidimensional sustainability tradespace can be characterized. The approach described in this article is based on three main components for the predictive modeling of product impacts and the characterization of the sustainability trade space, i) ABM of product adoption, ii) the assessment of product impacts, and iii) an approach for the characterization of product sustainability trade-offs at the population level. The tradespace characterization uses a Pareto-based method presented visually to find the non-dominated solutions in the product impact space. To illustrate and describe how to use the method, a case study is presented that predicts the impact of residential solar panels in a region of the United States under various scenarios. The findings of the case study can help policy makers understand suitable implementation strategies for residential solar panels while considering the impact trade-offs involved.

Trade space for time for inspecting an earthquake cycle by modern seismological observation: The central-southern part of the Sichuan-Yunnan rhombic block

The central-southern part of the eastern border of the Sichuan-Yunnan rhombic block provides the research strategy of ‘trade space for time’ with an interesting fault system, where the segments have similar focal mechanisms and cover almost continuous spectra of elapse rates. We experiment to study the seismological characteristics of different segments with different elapse rates. We employed the de-clustered earthquake catalog for the calculation of b values for each segment. The analysis revealed that different segments have similar b values, which implies that, although different segments have different periods of earthquake recurrence, the 'natural time' for the whole fault system elapses with a homogeneous pace. We extended the earthquake potential score (EPS) for nowcasting earthquakes to a quasi-EPS (qEPS). It is found that qEPS increases with the increase of elapse rates, albeit for those fault segments whose elapse rates have exceeded 1, qEPS may better reflect the seismic hazard.

From NAFTA to USMCA: revisiting the market access – policy space trade-off

ABSTRACT This paper contributes to the literature on the evolution of North–South trade agreements, which historically involved countries in the global South relinquishing policy space for activist trade and industrial policies in exchange for locking-in preferential and stable market access. It takes as case study the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), drawing on the agreements, media coverage of the negotiations, and 107 interviews with negotiators and stakeholders in all three countries. I show how the renegotiation resulted in changing conflicts: while the Mexican government attempted to preserve its market access and sought to further restrict its policy space due to path dependence, the Trump administration wanted to reduce market access for Mexico and create uncertainty to re-shore production. The Trump administration partially succeeded by undermining the lock-in effect of trade agreements and including unprecedented provisions in USMCA. The actions of the Biden administration indicate a long-term shift in US trade policy towards protectionism. Combined with the USMCA sunset clause, this creates the risk that the US will use USMCA review periods to create market access uncertainty instead of seizing the opportunities to strengthen North American economic cooperation.

Mapping the urban heritage environment : An explorative case study of the entrepreneurial culture of Hyderabad Sindh, Pakistan

This paper delves into a location’s historiography to learn more about communities and practices that have contributed to the heritage environment, some of which has been degraded as a result of rapid expansion, megacity migration and failure to conserve the built and cultural heritage. Because of its deep and rich urban historical background, the city of Hyderabad, located in the southern province of Pakistan, was chosen as a case study. The professional communities of Sindh, which once played a vital role in the city’s splendour, as well as the region’s rich culture and economy, are of particular interest in this paper. The analysis adopted an exploratory approach to explore historicity to achieve and preserve its long-term viability, which included engaging with the people who live in those areas. This research explored the rich connections between geography, history and emotions associated with any location, and explains how mapping aids in understanding different elements through their various dimensions. According to the findings of this paper, history as an exploratory tool has the potential to play a transformative role in Hyderabad city, boosting economic development, creativity and improving the efficiency of the historic built environment. The findings of this study inform that in view of its historicity, the socioeconomic aspect of Hyderabad city has significantly generated unique trading trends, society and spaces that provide a ‘sense of place’. Five key elements of the historicity framework developed in this paper include: offshoots of old patterns with revised strategies; designing user-friendly spaces that denote true, authentic and factual claims about the past; regenerating the place using its local products as heritage environments; adopting the historic urban landscapes (HUL) approach as a tool to explore for revitalising heritage; and developing integrated planning.

Aperture Synthesis Imaging of Ionospheric Irregularities Using Time Diversity MIMO Radar

AbstractAperture‐synthesis images of ionospheric irregularities in the equatorial electrojet are computed using multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) radar methods at the Jicamarca Radio Observatory. MIMO methods increase the number of distinct interferometry baselines available for imaging (by a factor of essentially three in these experiments) as well as the overall size of the synthetic aperture. The particular method employed here involves time‐division multiplexing or time diversity to distinguish pulses transmitted from different quarters of the Jicamarca array. The method comes at the cost of a large increase in computation time and complexity and a reduced signal‐to‐noise ratio. We discuss the details involved in the signal processing and the trade space involved in image optimization.

Fan and Motor Co-Optimization for a Distributed Electric Aircraft Propulsion System

An integrated modeling approach is presented for the conceptual design of electric aircraft propulsors, with application to NASA’s hydrogen fuel-cell powered transport aircraft concept, being developed under the CHEETA (Center for High-Efficiency Electrical Technologies for Aircraft) program. The distributed boundary layer ingesting (BLI) fan module and the fan-hub embedded MgB2 based fully superconducting (SC) electric motors are modeled together using Signomial Programming (SP). An all-at-once SP optimization eliminates external design iterations between modules and provides sensitivities to design parameters as part of the optimization solution. In addition, the approach developed here is modular and component models can be easily added to study various aircraft architectures. A trade space exploration of CHEETA propulsors indicates a highly-distributed 32 wing and fuselage mounted propulsors configuration, powered by 0.5 MW and 1.6 MW motors, respectively, as the optimal, yielding 16% reduction in the aircraft electric energy consumption relative to a conventional twin electric under-wing propulsors design. However, the design selected is a 9 propulsors configuration with 2.4 MW motors (power range more suitable for fully SC architecture), with about 14% power savings. The fan-embedded motor architecture leads to fan hub-to-tip ratios of up to 0.5, which are higher than typical.

ПОЛИТИКО-ПРАВОВЫЕ АСПЕКТЫ РАЗВИТИЯ МЕЖДУНАРОДНОГО СОТРУДНИЧЕСТВА В РАМКАХ ЕВРАЗИЙСКОГО ПРОСТРАНСТВА

The article examines the ideological, geopolitical and international legal factors of Eurasian cooperation and reasons for the low pace of its development. As a leading barrier to the deepening of trade and economic integration of the post-Soviet countries, the desire of the post-Soviet states to prevent the restriction of national sovereignty and infringement of national economic interests is highlighted. The purpose of the study is to identify political and legal problems of deepening Eurasian cooperation and ways to eliminate them. The history of relations between Russia and Kazakhstan through the creation of a single trade and economic space is used as an empirical base that allows us to fully reveal the content of interaction between the leaders of Eurasian integration and barriers to its development. Methods: formallegal, historical-legal and comparative-legal.

ПОЛИТИКО-ПРАВОВЫЕ АСПЕКТЫ РАЗВИТИЯ МЕЖДУНАРОДНОГО СОТРУДНИЧЕСТВА В РАМКАХ ЕВРАЗИЙСКОГО ПРОСТРАНСТВА

The article examines the ideological, geopolitical and international legal factors of Eurasian cooperation and reasons for the low pace of its development. As a leading barrier to the deepening of trade and economic integration of the post-Soviet countries, the desire of the post-Soviet states to prevent the restriction of national sovereignty and infringement of national economic interests is highlighted. The purpose of the study is to identify political and legal problems of deepening Eurasian cooperation and ways to eliminate them. The history of relations between Russia and Kazakhstan through the creation of a single trade and economic space is used as an empirical base that allows us to fully reveal the content of interaction between the leaders of Eurasian integration and barriers to its development. Methods: formallegal, historical-legal and comparative-legal.

Публичный и/или частный характер торгового пространства в истории: от древности до современности

The author of the article draws attention to the formation and development of consumption culture and its embodiment in architectural forms. The development of the consumer space and the retail space as its form developed in parallel throughout the history. The purpose of the article is to analyze the dynamics of organizational methods of the trading space from antiquity to the present day. The study is based on the wave theory presented in the works of E. Toffler, Yu. M. Lotman, where history is represented as a pendulum motion. However, each of the oscillations of the pendulum appears at a new point. The author examines the evolution of the retail space, starting from antiquity and one of its forms: the retail space or market. This type of space combined many functions: trade, political and religious. It was a type of public space accessible to everyone. The sellers and buyers in market conditions could also constantly change their roles. The spread of shops and stalls in the Middle Ages and at the beginning of modern times represented the movement of trade into private space, organized according to the principle of the public. It combined a place of residence and a place of work. The movement of trade inward meant a change: in the past, goods came to the consumer, but now the buyer went to get the goods. To a large extent, trade in small shops was monofunctional. The second half of the 19th century gave rise to two forms of retail space: a street (passage) and a building. In terms of architecture, they replaced palaces and temples, had a very simple structure, used a large amount of glass, iron, and light. They were the first to use gas heating and elevators. These spaces were private but functioned according to the principle of a public space: open to everyone. The twentieth century introduced malls and supermarkets that combined many different functions: trade, entertainment, food service, credit institution, pharmacy, etc. As a result, we can conclude that the development of retail space throughout history proceeded according to the principle of a pendulum: from the free public space of the market, with its multifunctionality through the closed private space of shops and small shops with their monofunctional purpose, to the private-public or quasi-public space of modern malls and supermarkets, but on a different level.

Pasar 16 Ilir: Ruang Perdagangan di Kota Palembang Awal Abad 20

This research is based on the lack of narrative regarding the market as an important space for trade in the Palembang City area. In fact, the market is one of the most important trading spaces in the transaction process, meeting sellers and buyers, and cultural exchange. Palembang as a trading city has a fairly well-known market, especially during the Dutch colonial period, namely the Pasar 16 Ilir Palembang area. Merchants from various ethnic backgrounds trade at Pasar 16 Ilir, such as: Local traders from the Archipelago, Arabs, India, China, to Europe. This study aims to reveal the role of Pasar 16 Ilir as a trading space in the Palembang region. This research uses historical methods by utilizing a variety of literature, such as: archives, journals, and books. The results of this study indicate that the Pasar 16 Ilir area began to form in 1900 (early 20th century). The market became lively and growing because of its strategic location on the outskirts of the Musi River and the development being carried out by the colonialists. New, more modern stalls were built to replace the old booths by paying attention to hygienic aspects. Apart from that, the bustling market was also caused by an increase in trading commodities. The increasing number of buyers and the large number of commodities being traded are the impact of the enactment of the 1870 Agrarian Law. In its development, Pasar 16 has not only become a meeting point for traders and buyers from various social and ethnic backgrounds. More than that, there has been social interaction that has an influence, especially on the socio-economic.

Risk trade-space analysis for safe human expeditions to Mars

We assessed the integrated safety, health, and performance risk to crews on long-duration missions, specifically to Mars. Using a systems approach rather than one focused on individual countermeasures, we examined the trade space around several such risks to identify high-potential risk mitigation strategies and characterize aspects of Mars mission architectures that could lower aggregated risk. Current Mars Design Reference missions would require durations well over two years and would increase crew exposure to radiation and microgravity well beyond ISS levels, likely resulting in significantly reduced performance beyond our current capability to mitigate that could jeopardize mission success. A “fast Mars transit” round-trip mission concept was studied using an innovative flight dynamics approach to quantify the minimum total mission energy required for a Mars transit with total mission duration less than 400 days. This approach holds promise for sending humans to Mars and returning them safely with acceptable, potentially mitigatable, exposure to microgravity and radiation using current or near-term technologies. The fast transit concept would also result in fewer time-driven vehicle failures and enable sustainable deployment of humans and infrastructure to Mars on a regular cadence, allowing steady exploration and colonization of Mars. Finally, we conclude that reliance on the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) mission operations paradigm – i.e., one of near-complete real-time dependence on experts at Mission Control to manage the combined state of the mission, vehicle, and crew – is high risk given the communication delays and limited resupply of any Mars mission, and this risk is not eliminated by the shorter missions durations of fast transit scenarios. Based on historical trends, it is highly likely that the crew will face a high-consequence problem of uncertain origin during Mars transit when ground support will be greatly reduced. While it may be possible to reduce anomaly rates through improved reliability analysis and testing, and to reduce anomaly impacts through added robustness, such mitigations address only known failure modes and known uncertainties. Therefore, a radical shift in the Human-Systems Integration Architecture (HSIA) that defines the operational paradigm, systems design, and human-systems interactions is required to improve the risk posture to an acceptable level regardless of mission duration.

Electronic procurement as a method to manage trading activities

This study is devoted to the analysis of the main components and structure of e-commerce, the legal principles of e-commerce, the composition of the subjects of commercial relations and the process of e-procurement on electronic trading platforms. The relevance of the work is due to the fact that in the context of digitalization there is a need to improve the principles of developing Internet platforms, adjusting distribution channels and media marketing tools to promote goods and services. The goal is to analyze and predict e-commerce business processes in a complex automated information system. The key players in the Russian electronic market, the factors that led to the positive dynamics of e-commerce in Russia, the system for modernizing the procurement process were identified. As a result of the study, an analysis was made of the ways of interaction between the subjects of commercial relations, the e-procurement process and the procurement process algorithm. The organization of procurement activities begins with an analysis of the activities by the customer, as well as its correlation with the activity plans for the coming period. In the event of a need for the object of procurement, the organizer assesses the possibility of satisfaction without carrying out the procurement procedure (stocks formed under current contracts with suppliers). However, if it is impossible to satisfy the need on its own, the customer notifies the control body in the field of procurement. The author emphasizes that electronic trading platforms are an integrated trade and information space that provides e-commerce entities with a range of necessary electronic services that increase competitiveness and business efficiency, which are a flexible tool for conducting competitive procurement procedures. The final part of the article concludes that e-procurement, as a way of managing external and internal procurement activities, forms a complex structured system by combining information, communication and electronic technologies. A harmonious combination of all economic and social aspects will contribute to building a rational economic system of commercial relations in a «transparent» digital environment.

Performance of Additively Manufactured Fuels for Hybrid Rockets

Hybrid rocket engine (HRE) performance is dependent on fuel/oxidizer selection and fuel grain geometry. A literature review was performed to identify key trends and findings related to the application of the additive manufacturing (AM) of fuel systems for HREs. The effects of complex combustion port geometries, embedded structures, and end-burning systems, along with the use of metallic additives, turbulators, diaphragms, gel-like fuels, powdered fuels, liquid fuels, and liquifying fuels and their impact on regression rates, combustion efficiencies, and/or mechanical strength are thoroughly documented here. In general, the application of AM to HRE fuels can be implemented to increase regression rates and combustion efficiency, and tailor HRE designs. Chemical equilibrium analysis computations were completed to characterize the theoretical performance of HTPB and common AM fuels (ABS, PLA, PC, PMMA, Nylon 6, and a UV-based fuel) with common oxidizers (LOX and N2O). AM fuels exhibit a similar theoretical performance as the commonly used HTPB fuel, and proper selection of the fuel can yield improved performance and design metrics. Development of AM approaches for HRE fuel design have significantly expanded their design trade space and should enable the competitive application of HREs for future propulsion missions.

Analisis Yuridis Terhadap Tindak Pidana Penipuan Dalam Transaksi Elektronik Melalui Media Sosial (Twitter)

The widespread use of social media among the public has created a new need, namely the urgency to create space for conducting business activities, causing the platform to turn into a place for communication, interaction, as well as a trading space. These changes bring various impacts, one of which is the formation of new types of crime in cyberspace. Fraud in electronic transactions via social media (Twitter) is a crime that targets the internet, computers and related technology as its target. Based on the position of the case, the fraud that occurs can be classified as a crime of computer-related fraud or a crime to gain personal gain and/or harm others. The handling of fraud cases can be carried out using the legal basis contained in Law Number 19 of 2016 concerning Information and Electronic Transactions, namely Article 28 paragraph (1) in conjunction with Article 45 paragraph (2). The use of these two articles is based on the principle of lex specialist derogat legi generali. In addition, if examined using a victimological point of view, victims of fraud cases that occur are included in the category of participating victims where the tendency of victims to be unaware of their attitudes/behaviors in certain circumstances is a reason for someone to act. commit crimes against them. The research method used to answer these problems is normative legal research with a case study approach in the form of legal behavior products.
 

Holistic fleet optimization incorporating system design considerations

AbstractThe methodology described in this article enables a type of holistic fleet optimization that simultaneously considers the composition and activity of a fleet through time as well as the design of individual systems within the fleet. Often, real‐world system design optimization and fleet‐level acquisition optimization are treated separately due to the prohibitive scale and complexity of each problem. This means that fleet‐level schedules are typically limited to the inclusion of predefined system configurations and are blind to a rich spectrum of system design alternatives. Similarly, system design optimization often considers a system in isolation from the fleet and is blind to numerous, complex portfolio‐level considerations. In reality, these two problems are highly interconnected. To properly address this system‐fleet design interdependence, we present a general method for efficiently incorporating multi‐objective system design trade‐off information into a mixed‐integer linear programming (MILP) fleet‐level optimization. This work is motivated by the authors' experience with large‐scale DOD acquisition portfolios. However, the methodology is general to any application where the fleet‐level problem is a MILP and there exists at least one system having a design trade space in which two or more design objectives are parameters in the fleet‐level MILP.

Determining optimal probability distributions for gridded precipitation data based on L-moments

Understanding the probability distributions of precipitation is crucial for predicting climatic events and constructing hydraulic facilities. To overcome the inadequacy of precipitation data, regional frequency analysis was commonly used by “trading space for time”. However, with the increasing availability of gridded precipitation datasets with high spatial and temporal resolutions, the probability distributions of precipitation for these datasets have been less explored. We used L-moments and goodness-of-fit criteria to identify the probability distributions of annual, seasonal, and monthly precipitation for a 0.5° × 0.5° dataset across the Loess Plateau (LP). We examined five 3-parameter distributions, namely General Extreme Value (GEV), Generalized Logistic (GLO), Generalized Pareto (GPA), Generalized Normal (GNO), and Pearson type III (PE3), and evaluated the accuracy of estimated rainfall using the leave-one-out method. We also presented pixel-wise fit-parameters and quantiles of precipitation as supplements. Our findings indicated that precipitation probability distributions vary by location and time scale, and the fitted probability distribution functions are reliable for estimating precipitation under various return periods. Specifically, for annual precipitation, GLO was prevalent in humid and semi-humid areas, GEV in semi-arid and arid areas, and PE3 in cold-arid areas. For seasonal precipitation, spring precipitation mainly conforms to GLO distribution, summer precipitation around the 400 mm isohyet prevalently follows GEV distribution, autumn precipitation primarily meets GPA and PE3 distributions, and winter precipitation in the northwest, south, and east of the LP mainly conforms to GPA, PE3 and GEV distributions, respectively. Regarding monthly precipitation, the common distribution functions are PE3 and GPA for the less-precipitation months, whereas the distribution functions of precipitation for more-precipitation months vary substantially across different regions of the LP. Our study contributes to a better understanding of precipitation probability distributions in the LP and provides insights for future studies on gridded precipitation datasets using robust statistical methods.

Coma Off It: Regularizing Variable Point-spread Functions

We describe a rapid and direct method for regularizing, post facto, the point-spread function (PSF) of a telescope or other imaging instrument across its entire field of view (FOV). Imaging instruments in general blur point sources of light by local convolution with a PSF that varies slowly across the FOV, due to coma, spherical aberration, and similar effects. It is possible to regularize the PSF in post-processing, producing data with a homogeneous “effective PSF” across the entire FOV. In turn, the method enables seamless wide-field astronomical mosaics at higher resolution than would otherwise be achievable, and potentially changes the design trade space for telescopes, lenses, and other optical systems where data uniformity is important. For many kinds of optical aberration, simple and rapid convolution with a locally optimized “transfer PSF” produces extremely uniform imaging properties at low computational cost. PSF regularization does not require access to the instrument that obtained the data, and can be bootstrapped from existing data sets that include starfield images or other means of estimating the PSF across the field.

Envelope-Based Grid-Point Approach: Efficient Runtime Complexity for Remote Sensing Coverage Analysis

Modern remote sensing science objectives call for multi-instrument measurement collection under ever-stringent mission requirements. Distributed spacecraft missions (DSMs) answer the demand, with multisatellite mission architectures, capable of short revisit intervals and expansive coverage capacity. Variations in instrument, orbit, and the number of satellites expand the trade space combinatorically, leading to a computationally demanding mission design problem. Evaluating trade space intelligently is prevalent in literature, but the fundamental computational burden rests on figure of merit (FOM) calculation, quantifying architecture performance. The grid-point approach (GPA) and quick search and correction (QSC) methods are used to develop FOMs, but poor efficiency leads to slow evaluation of prospective DSM candidates. In this paper, a novel method is introduced, envelope grid-point approach (EGPA), fulfilling the need for faster DSM FOM calculation. The EGPA runtime is nearly invariant to temporal accuracy and varies by the inverse of grid cell size (GCS) for constant GCS-to-swath ratio, thereby scaling to high temporal and spatial resolution. The new method EGPA is validated with GPA for conical and rectangular fields of view, and then the performance of EGPA is compared against QSC, a modern improvement of GPA. Both are compared for a computationally demanding Walker Delta constellation (80°:6/3/1) over 1 day propagation, demonstrating EGPA utility in quickly determining FOMs for DSM design.

The Involvement of Podillia in the European Book Trade Space of the first half - the middle of the 19th century (by the example of Belgian Publications)

The Involvement of Podillia in the European Book Trade Space of the first half - the middle of the 19th century (by the example of Belgian Publications)

Image quality and computer vision performance: assessing the effects of image distortions and modeling performance relationships using the general image quality equation

Substantial research has explored methods to optimize convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for tasks such as image classification and object detection, but research into the image quality drivers of computer vision performance has been limited. Additionally, there are indications that image degradations such as blur and noise affect human visual interpretation and machine interpretation differently. The general image quality equation (GIQE) predicts overhead image quality for human analysis using the National Image Interpretability Rating Scale, but no such model exists to predict image quality for interpretation by CNNs. Here, we assess the relationship between image quality variables and CNN performance. Specifically, we examine the impacts of resolution, blur, and noise on CNN performance for models trained with in-distribution and out-of-distribution distortions. Using two datasets, we observe that while generalization remains a significant challenge for CNNs faced with out-of-distribution image distortions, CNN performance against low visual quality images remains strong with appropriate training, indicating the potential to expand the design trade space for sensors providing data to computer vision systems. Additionally, we find that CNN performance predictions using the functional form of the GIQE can predict CNN performance as a function of image degradation, but we observe that the legacy form of the GIQE (from GIQE versions 3 and 4) does a better job of modeling the impact of blur/relative edge response in our experiments.