Transition Systems Research Articles

Model independent refusal trace testing

Software Testing is normally one of the main forms of verification and validation used in software development but it is often manual and so expensive and error prone. One of the proposed solutions to this is to use model-based testing, in which testing is based on a model of how the system should behave. If the model has a formal semantics, then there is potential to automate systematic test generation. In this paper we consider the case where the semantics of the model is a set of refusal traces, also called failure traces. We show how the notions of fundamental refusal and fundamental refusal trace can be used to derive a normalised transition system, which we call an observation transition system (OTS), from the semantics. We then show how, if this OTS has finitely many states, and we are given a bound m, one can produce a corresponding complete test suite: one that is guaranteed to determine correctness as long as the number of states of the OTS defined by the semantics of the system under test has no more than m states. In practice, the choice of value for m might be based on domain knowledge or a cost-benefit analysis. As far as we are aware, this is the first work to show how a finite complete test suite can be derived when the semantics under consideration is a set of refusal traces.

Asymptotic Behavior and Numerical Simulations of a Conservative Phase-Field Model with Two Temperatures

One of the types of problem that has attracted the attention of mathematicians in recent years is the phase field system. The field of application includes materials science, where phenomena such as phase separation in alloys, crystal formation and thermal welding are legion. Among these phase transition systems, the family of conservative systems is very popular with industry. Indeed, minimising losses in production systems is a major issue for their profitability. In this paper, we study the well-posedness of the formulation and the asymptotic behaviour of the solutions, by proving the existence of a finite-dimensional global attractor for a conservative variant of the two-temperature phase field system with homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions. The inclusion of two temperatures in the definition of the enthalpy of the system is a necessity in the case of a non-simple material. In a simple material, once the phase-change temperature has been reached, the temperature of the system remains constant until the material has completely changed state. This is not true in the case of a non-simple material, where an increase in the temperature of the system is observed even after the phase-change temperature has been reached. To conclude the work, we present a method for numerically approximating the solution and carry out some numerical tests.

The Representation of Social Media in English Textbook: A Hallidayan Perspective

This Hallidayan transitivity study explores how social media is represented in the reading texts of a nationally issued English textbook for Indonesian year-twelve students. In particular, this study aims to reveal the transitivity system patterns constructed in the reading materials about social media. This study adopted qualitative perspective as the approach and content/text analysis as the method. The data were reading materials of three chapters selected purposely from an English textbook. The reading texts then were analysed into Hallidayan six types of process, namely material, mental, behavioural, verbal, existential, and relational clauses. After that, each process type was further analysed. The findings firstly reveal that material (55%), mental (30%), and relational clauses (12%) appear in sequence as the dominant process types. Other processes were also found in the data but their occurrences are limited, namely 1% for each of behavioural, verbal, and existential clauses. Secondly, the findings expose that each process type is patterned distinctively in representing different issues about social media. It is expected that the findings of this study contribute to how to represent events in English textbooks functionally so that the educational goal set by book can be obtained. Despite its findings, this study relies only on a single book as the data source. Further studies can make use of more data sets.

A Comparative Study of China's Ecological Image Constructed by Chinese and British Media Discourse on the Belt and Road Initiative in 2023 Based on Transitivity System

The paper adopts a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods to compare China’s ecological image constructed in the Belt and Road Initiative Reports in 2023 between China Daily and Reuters. It finds that China Daily's news reports on the Belt and Road involve material processes (59.8%)> verbal processes (19.5%) >mental processes (12.6%)>relational processes (6.6%)> existential processes (1.5%). Reuters’ news reports on the Belt and Road involve material processes (52.1%)>verbal processes (26.1%)>relational processes (16.1%), existential processes (3.8%)>mental processes (1.9%). The use of transitivity in the China Daily constructs an ecological image that is committed to rejecting political struggles, and pursuing peaceful and green development. In contrast, Reuters’s use of transitivity constructs an ecological image that pursues green development, but with an arrogant posture. The reason for the difference is that China Daily is influenced by the Chinese government’s ideology and political aims, while Reuters is influenced by Western values and strategic considerations of China's threat.

Immersive learning in a block teaching model: A case study of academic reform through principles, policies and practice

Universities across the globe are considering how to effect meaningful change in their higher education (HE) delivery in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and shifting student learning preferences. This paper reports on a descriptive case- study of whole-of-institution curriculum reform at one regional Australian university, where more traditional 13-week semesters have been replaced with a 6-week immersive block model known as the Southern Cross Model. Based on a synthesis of literature in best practice HE pedagogy and principles, the case study draws on both a review of policy and staff interviews (N = 5) to outline the key changes necessary for successful HE transformation. Analysis revealed themes related to the vital roles of leadership, capacity building, monitoring the transition, staff adoption, and adequate technical systems in implementing a radical, multifaceted institutional transformation. Implications for practice at institutions considering reforming their curriculum model are also discussed. The findings from this case study indicate that an institutional transformation to an immersive block model requires both a considered change in institutional policy and process, as well as the appropriate resourcing of roles, governance committees, technical solutions, and, importantly, communities of practice.

Immersive learning in a block teaching model: A case study of academic reform through principles, policies and practice

Universities across the globe are considering how to effect meaningful change in their higher education (HE) delivery in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and shifting student learning preferences. This paper reports on a descriptive case- study of whole-of-institution curriculum reform at one regional Australian university, where more traditional 13-week semesters have been replaced with a 6-week immersive block model known as the Southern Cross Model. Based on a synthesis of literature in best practice HE pedagogy and principles, the case study draws on both a review of policy and staff interviews (N = 5) to outline the key changes necessary for successful HE transformation. Analysis revealed themes related to the vital roles of leadership, capacity building, monitoring the transition, staff adoption, and adequate technical systems in implementing a radical, multifaceted institutional transformation. Implications for practice at institutions considering reforming their curriculum model are also discussed. The findings from this case study indicate that an institutional transformation to an immersive block model requires both a considered change in institutional policy and process, as well as the appropriate resourcing of roles, governance committees, technical solutions, and, importantly, communities of practice.

Exploring novel type of lipid-bases drug delivery systems that contain one lipid and one water-soluble surfactant only

None of transitional lipid-based drug delivery systems (LBDDS) includes compositions containing one lipid and one water-soluble surfactant that form stable microemulsions. The conversion of liquid LBDDS to solid LBDDS has been limited by low drug loading. Previously, we have developed drug solid microemulsions containing one lipid and TPGS (a water-soluble surfactant) that achieved high drug loading and remarkably increased oral bioavailability. This study aimed to test if binary lipid systems (BLS), composed of one lipid and one water-soluble surfactant that form stable self-emulsifying microemulsions, is not an exclusive but widely applicable type of LBDDS for other lipids and surfactants and evaluate the influences of chemical structures of lipids and surfactants on microemulsions and solid microemulsions. We systemically identified new BLS by using a library of lipids and surfactants. Propylene glycol diesters and glycerol triesters were favorable for forming stable microemulsions with Tween 80, Cremophor EL, or TPGS. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report exploring and confirming that the BLS is a new addition to traditional LBDDS, provides a promising option for researchers, and has the potential to increase drug loading to facilitate the development of solid microemulsions.

Investigating the nursery function of the Alboran MPA on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco

Coastal habitats provide shelter and food for juvenile fish, ensuring their survival and supporting a range of species that are both commercially and ecologically important. The Alboran Marine Protected Area (MPA) off the Mediterranean coast of Morocco has been identified as a nursery area, although this role has never been the subject of characterisation. This study investigates the nursery function of habitats at six sites, two of which have seasonally flooded rivers with small persistent lagoons (transition systems) actively connected to the sea. Mixed sand-and-gravel beaches and transition systems were surveyed using a beach seine (four hauls) during two consecutive summer periods (June 2019 and July 2020), and a beam trawl was used in July 2020 in order to survey shallow waters at three depths: 3, 5 and 7 m. The use of both fishing methods provided a comprehensive assessment of juvenile fish communities. Different habitats in these coastal areas supported juvenile fish of 31 different species, with higher species richness and densities of young-of-the-year (YOY; first year of life) fish in transition systems despite their limited surface area and depth. Shallow marine waters supported fish species with specific microhabitat requirements despite lower overall YOY fish densities. The Alboran MPA coast has a nursery function, with different habitats acting as nurseries for juveniles of different fish species, creating a seascape of interconnected nursery habitats. As low densities of juvenile fish were a common concern across species and habitats, protecting these nursery habitats through enforcement of their protection regime appears to be a priority.

THE TRANSITIVITY SYSTEM ANALYSIS ON BANGTAN SONYEONDAN’S (BTS) SPEECH TEXT

The Love Myself Campaign, a collaborative project between BTS and UNICEF, is a campaign that voices the importance of loving yourself. As part of the campaign, BTS gave a speech at the 73rd UN General Assembly on September 28, 2018. The researcher used the speech text in this campaign as data in literature research, which was analyzed using a descriptive qualitative method. The study aims to discover how mental health awareness is conveyed through the transitivity system. Systemic Functional Linguistics by M.A.K. Halliday is used as a theory to analyze data, more precisely, the transitivity system in ideological meta functions. This meta function sees language as a symbol of human experience in the real world and the mind. Meanwhile, transitivity is a system that represents human experience as a process. The researcher found three dominators: the mental process (20) showed that the speaker tried to motivate the audience through his or her personal feelings and experiences; the first person "I" (42) showed that the speaker made himself the central subject of the speech. The non-circumstance clause (53) showed that the speech was global. Through these results, it can be concluded that the soft campaign method conveys the concept of mental health awareness in speech.

Rate Lifting for Stochastic Process Algebra by Transition Context Augmentation

This article presents an algorithm for determining the unknown rates in the sequential processes of a Stochastic Process Algebra (SPA) model, provided that the rates in the combined flat model are given. Such a rate lifting is useful for model reverse engineering and model repair. Technically, the algorithm works by solving systems of nonlinear equations and—if necessary—adjusting the model’s synchronisation structure, without changing its transition system. The adjustments cause an augmentation of a transition’s context and thus enable additional control over the transition rate. The complete pseudo-code of the rate lifting algorithm is included and discussed in the article, and its practical usefulness is demonstrated by two case studies. The approach taken by the algorithm exploits some structural and behavioural properties of SPA systems, which are formulated here for the first time and could be very beneficial also in other contexts, such as compositional system verification.

Exploring Transitivity System in the Speech of 1st Female Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz at her Oath Taking Ceremony

Exploring Transitivity System in the Speech of 1st Female Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz at her Oath Taking Ceremony

Patterns of interaction between experiential and interpersonal meanings in student texts in Spanish: grounds for system-based applications in an academic writing context

Abstract This paper presents a systemic functional analysis of process types in academic texts in Spanish from the Appraisal Theory perspective in order to establish connections and observe the interaction of the experiential and interpersonal metafunctions and the systems of Transitivity and Attitude. Our purpose is to explore how student writers use process types to construe their specific disciplinary experience, how they inscribe attitudinal meanings in their texts, and how the Transitivity and Attitude systems interact in student choices in academic writing. We used student texts from the CLAE corpus (Ignatieva, Natalia & M. Cecilia Colombi (eds.). 2014. CLAE: El lenguaje académico en México y los Estados Unidos, un análisis sistémico funcional. Mexico: UNAM). The texts belong to two disciplines (literature and history) and to three text types, or genres, labeled in the university setting as essays, reviews, and question-answers. The methodology included a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 1) process type realizations, 2) expressions of Attitude, classified according to type (Affect, Judgment, Appreciation) and 3) interaction between the process types and Attitude types. This was followed by a comparative analysis between the disciplines and genres, detecting both the similarities and the differences. In addition, some patterns that combine process types and Attitude expressions were found. Such patterns could represent an important tool in the teaching of academic writing in Spanish.

Data for health system comparison and assessment in the African Region: A review of 63 indicators available in international databases.

Achieving universal health coverage in the African region requires health systems strengthening. Assessing and comparing health systems contributes to this process, but requires internationally comparable data. The European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies has produced Health Systems in Transition (HiT) reviews in Europe, Asia, North America and the Caribbean with a standardised template. This study explores data availability in international databases for the quantitative health and health system indicators in the HiT template for the WHO African region. We identified ten databases which contained data for 40 of the 80 original HiT indicators and an additional 23 proxy indicators to fill some gaps. We then assessed data availability for the resulting 63 indicators by country and time, i.e. first/last year of data, years of data available overall and since 2000, and we explored for each indicator (1) against the country with the greatest availability overall and (2) against annual availability for all years since 2000. Overall data availability was greatest in South Africa (93.0% of possible total points) and least in South Sudan (59.5%). Since 2000, Uganda (60.4%) has had the highest data availability and South Sudan (37.2%) the lowest. By topic, data availability was the highest for health financing (91.4%; median start/end date 2000/2019) and background characteristics (88.5%; 1990/2020) and was considerably lower for health system performance (54.5%; 2000/2018) and physical and human resources (44.8%; 2004/2013). Data are available for different years in different countries, and at irregular intervals, complicating time series analysis. No data are available for service provision indicators. Gaps in data in international databases across time, countries, and topics undermine systematic health systems comparisons and assessments, regional health systems strengthening, and efforts to achieve universal health coverage. More efforts are needed to strengthen national data collection and management and integrate national data into international databases to support cross-country assessments, peer learning, and planning. In tandem, more research is needed to understand the specific historical, cultural, administrative, and technological determinants influencing country data availability, as well as the facilitators and barriers of data sharing between countries and international databases, and the potential of new technologies to increase timeliness of data.

Construction of Gender Equality in Arab News Media: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Women in Arabia are often seen as subjects who need liberation from the constraints of patriarchal culture. Based on a report released by the United Nation in 2020, Saudi Arabia has big challenges in terms of women's empowerment and gender equality. The subject of limited space for women in Arabia has been extensively examined in earlier works from social and political science perspectives. However, there has been a lack of research on this topic from a linguistic viewpoint, particularly in the field of critical discourse analysis. This study aims to examine how Arab media portrays gender equality in the context of reporting on Arab government policy concerning women's rights. This research uses a critical discourse analysis approach initiated by Fairclough (1995) and a transitivity system approach introduced by Halliday (2014). This study discovered that the Arab media perceives Saudi Arabia's policy change on women's rights in a positive light. It is depicted as a demonstration of gender equality, a representation of the women's liberation movement, and a significant advancement that will propel Arab nations forward. In this particular instance, it pertains to the advancement of gender equality, which is being achieved through the implementation of policy reforms by the Saudi Arabian government with regards to women's rights. The reporting that is carried out can be a tool to guide public opinion, in this case, what is being constructed is gender equality which is realized through the Saudi Arabian government's policy reforms regarding women's rights.

Optimized pyroelectric behaviors by constructing the nonergodic-ergodic transition state

Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 (BNT)-based relaxors are considered as potential candidates for pyroelectric applications due to their excellent pyroelectric performances. However, the excellent pyroelectric response in BNT-based relaxors is generally accompanied by a rapid decrease in the depolarization temperature Td, limiting the operation temperature. Herein, we find that the mixed non-ergodic and ergodic relaxor states (a kind of transition system) can promote polarization rotation and remain the reversibility of polarization transformation simultaneously, thereby improving pyroelectric performances and maintaining the Td . The Li+-doped BNKT-based relaxors which possess such a transition state exhibit excellent room temperature (RT) pyroelectric coefficients (1247 μCm−2K−1), and also, the Td can maintain at 69℃. This work provides a strategy for further insight into the enhanced pyroelectric response, which promotes the development of eco-friendly pyroelectric applications (such as infrared detection, temperature sensors, and pyroelectric energy harvesting).

A Review on Africa’s Agricultural Farming Systems and Potential for Transition

A Review on Africa’s Agricultural Farming Systems and Potential for Transition

Branch-Well-Structured Transition Systems and Extensions

We propose a relaxation to the definition of well-structured transition systems (\WSTS) while retaining the decidability of boundedness and non-termination. In this class, the well-quasi-ordered (wqo) condition is relaxed such that it is applicable only between states that are reachable one from another. Furthermore, the monotony condition is relaxed in the same way. While this retains the decidability of non-termination and boundedness, it appears that the coverability problem is undecidable. To this end, we define a new notion of monotony, called cover-monotony, which is strictly more general than the usual monotony and still allows us to decide a restricted form of the coverability problem.

Toward sustainable development: Revealing the dynamic impacts of the belt and road initiative on energy transition

AbstractThis article investigates the influence of the belt and road initiative (BRI) on energy transition within the context of sustainable development goal (SDG) 7. The study utilizes daily data from May 3, 2017, to June 30, 2023, and deploys advanced econometric methods like heatmap‐based QVAR, cross‐quantilogram, and recursive time‐varying methods. The findings determine that BRI can significantly foster the global energy transition process. Further, the Paris Agreement (PA) and green finance (GF) support the energy transition system by showing positive effects. In contrast, geopolitical risk (GPR) introduces disruptive elements that impede green energy production. Notably, the amalgamation of GF, PA, and BRI showcases the potential to not only facilitate SDG 7 but also contribute substantially to SDGs 8 and 13. Based on the above findings, the study suggests fostering synergies and collaboration between GF, PA, and BRI to maximize their combined impact on the energy transition, which may decrease the influence of GPR.

Investigating the wheel–rail dynamic response of transition system of concrete slab and ballasted tracks through train–track interaction model

Investigating the wheel–rail dynamic response of transition system of concrete slab and ballasted tracks through train–track interaction model

ERS statement on transition of care in childhood interstitial lung diseases.

Interstitial lung diseases (ILD) are a heterogeneous group of rare diffuse diseases affecting the lung parenchyma in children and adults. Childhood interstitial lung diseases (chILD) are often diagnosed at very young age, affect the developing lung, and can have different presentations and prognosis compared to adult forms of these diseases. In addition, chILD in many cases may apparently remit, and have a better response to therapy and better prognosis than adult ILD. Many affected children will reach adulthood with minimal activity or clinical remission of the disease. They need continuing care and follow-up from childhood to adulthood if the disease persists and progresses over time, but also if they are asymptomatic and in full remission. Therefore, for every chILD patient an active transition process from paediatric to adult care should be guaranteed. This European Respiratory Society (ERS) statement provides a review of the literature and current practice concerning transition of care in chILD. It draws on work in existing transition care programmes in other chronic respiratory diseases, disease-overarching transition-of-care programmes, evidence on the impact of these programmes on clinical outcomes, current evidence regarding long-term remission of chILD as well as the lack of harmonisation between the current adult ILD and chILD classifications impacting on transition of care. While the transition system is well established in several chronic diseases, such as cystic fibrosis or diabetes mellitus, we could not find sufficient published evidence on transition systems in chILD. This statement summarises current knowledge, but cannot yet provide evidence-based recommendations for clinical practice.