Universal Set Of Parameters Research Articles

A General Method for Calibration of Active Scanning Thermal Probes

Scanning thermal microscopy (SThM) is a scanning probe technique aimed at quantitative characterization of local thermal properties at the length scale down to tens of nanometers. With many probe designs and approaches to interpretation of probe responses, there is a need for a universal framework, which would allow probe calibration and comparison of probe performance. Herein, a calibration framework based on an abstracted, formal, probe model for active SThM probes is developed. The calibration can be accomplished through measurements with two or three calibration samples. Requirements for calibration samples are described with examples of structures of suitable samples identified in published literature. A link to a published experimental work indirectly verifying the proposed procedure is provided. The calibration does not require knowledge of internal probe properties and yields a small and universal set of parameters that can be used to quantify thermal resistance presented to the probe by samples as well as to characterize active‐mode SThM probes of any type and at any measurement frequency. How the probe calibration parameters can be used to guide probe design is illustrated. When the calibration approach can be used directly to measure the thermal conductivity of unknown samples is also analyzed.

Sensitivity study of measured wooden board thermal properties on solid heat transfer model predictions

This work presents experimental investigation on specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity as a function of temperature and vertical density profile over the sample cross section of oriented strand board, particle board, medium density fibreboard, and plywood. A possibility of introducing an universal set of parameters describing various EWPs by averaging the parameters of the four studied materials obtained in this work is investigated. A one-dimensional heat transfer simulation sensitivity study is performed using the experimentally measured values. The study aims to investigate the effect of using spatial- and temperature-dependent properties compared to constant values and to study the importance of these parameters and their combination in predicting one-dimensional heat transfer below the thermal decomposition temperature of engineered wood products.

Statistical-based optimization of fused filament fabrication parameters for short-carbon-fiber-reinforced poly-ether-ether-ketone considering multiple loading conditions

Fused filament fabrication (FFF) is one of the most widely used additive manufacturing processes and allows the production of complex parts. FFF can manufacture lightweight and strong structural components when processing high-performance carbon-fiber-reinforced thermoplastics. Although the process feasibility for printing 20% short-carbon-fiber reinforced PEEK was already demonstrated in the literature, a systematic study addressing the influence of printing parameters on different loading conditions is still lacking. Therefore, the present study investigates the influence of selected FFF parameters – i.e., layer height (LH), printing temperature (PT) and printing speed (PS) – on three mechanical properties: tensile (UTS), bending (UBS), and impact (UIS) ultimate strengths. The analyzed samples were printed and tested according to a central composite design of experiments, and each parameter's individual and combined effects were assessed by analysis of variance (ANOVA). Different regression models were obtained for each test, allowing the optimization of the parameters for each condition and resulting in three distinct optimized parameter sets. The relationship between parameters and microstructure was also assessed via fractography analyses, showing that lower LH and PS reduce the number and size of volumetric defects observed within the printed parts, as lower values improve interlayer cohesion. Contrarily, PT showed that average values (around 385 °C) benefit the microstructure the most, as higher temperatures result in larger defects and low temperatures reduce interlayer cohesion. Finally, the contour plots of the three produced models were overlaid to identify a universal parameter set capable of simultaneously correlating and maximizing all three performances. This procedure allowed the identification of the following optimized values: LH of 0.1 mm, PT of 385 °C and PS of 17.5 mm/s, resulting in the experimental UTS, UBS and UIS values of 116.7 ± 5 MPa, 167.2 ± 11 MPa and 28.2 ± 3 kJ/m2.

Paramounter: Direct Measurement of Universal Parameters To Process Metabolomics Data in a "White Box".

Choosing appropriate data processing parameters is critical in processing liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based untargeted metabolomics data. The conventional design of experiments (DOE) approach is time-consuming and provides no intuitive explanation why the selected parameters generate the best results. After studying commonly used metabolomics data processing software, this work summarized a set of universal parameters, including mass tolerance, peak height, peak width, and instrumental shift. These universal parameters are shared among different feature extraction programs and are critical to metabolic feature extraction. We then developed Paramounter, an R program that automatically measures these universal parameters from raw LC-MS-based metabolomics data prior to metabolic feature extraction. This is made possible through novel concepts of rank-based intensity sorting, zone of interest, and many others. Paramounter also translates universal parameters to software-specific parameters for data processing in different programs. Applying Paramounter is demonstrated to provide a threefold increase in the extracted metabolites compared to using default parameters in MS-DIAL-based feature extraction. Furthermore, the comparison between Paramounter, AutoTuner, and IPO showed that Paramounter generates 3.7- and 1.6-fold more true positive features than AutoTuner and IPO, respectively. Further validation of Paramounter on 11 datasets covering different sample types, data acquisition modes, and MS vendors proved that Paramounter is a convenient and robust program. Overall, the proposed universal parameters and the development of Paramounter address a critical need in metabolomics data processing, transforming metabolomics feature extraction from a "black box" to a "white box." Paramounter is freely available on GitHub (https://github.com/HuanLab/Paramounter).

Город Екатеринбург как глобальный актор в современных международных отношениях

The research aims to study a city as an actor in international relations. A city used to be seen as an object by researchers through the theories of paradiplomacy, global cities, and new regionalism. The research goal is to show that the city has the potential and resources for being an independent participant of international relations. To explain this process, the concept of actorness is used. The variety of approaches is shown to represent actorness as an attribute of an independent participant of international relations. Due to the absence of a universal set of parameters for the city's actorness, a new model with such factors as identity, practical goal-setting, recognition, and facts of activity, is proposed. City’s actorness is considered in detail on the example of Yekaterinburg, which has implemented it in its international practices. The research base covers documents of the city council of Yekaterinburg and its departments, news reports on the city's international activities and international events, interviews with former representatives and employees of the city administration. The conclusion was made about the evolution of the city's international activities, which, while maintaining limited autonomy, is subject to close collaboration with the Sverdlovsk region.

Amply soft set and its topologies: AS and PAS topologies

Do the topologies of each dimension have to be same of any space? I show that this is not necessary with amply soft topology produced by classical topologies. For example, an amply soft topology produced by classical topologies may have got any indiscrete topologies, discrete topologies or any topological spaces in each different dimension. The amply soft topology allows to write elements of different classical topologies in its each parameter sets. The classical topologies may be finite, infinite, countable or uncountable. This situation removes the boundary in soft topology and cause it to spread over larger areas. Amply soft topology produced by classical topologies is a special case of an amply soft topology. For this, I define a new soft topology it is called as an amply soft topology. I introduce amply soft open sets, amply soft closed sets, interior and closure of an amply soft set and subspace of any amply soft topological space. I gave parametric separation axioms which are different from <i>T_i</i> separation axioms. <i>T_i</i> questions the relationship between the elements of space itself while <i>P_i</i> questions the strength of the connection between their parameters. An amply soft topology is built on amply soft sets. Amply soft sets use any kind of universal parameter set or initial universe (such as finite or infinite, countable or uncountable). Also, subset, superset, equality, empty set, whole set on amply soft sets are defined. And operations such as union, intersection, difference of two amply soft sets and complement of an amply soft set are given. Then three different amply soft point such as amply soft whole point, amply soft point and monad point are defined. And also I give examples related taking a universal set as uncountable.

The adjustable approaches to multi-criteria group decision making based on inverse fuzzy soft matrices

In this paper, we focus on the matrices representing the inverse fuzzy soft sets over both the universal object set and the universal parameter set. Some basic operations and properties of these inverse fuzzy soft matrices are investigated. Moreover, two adjustable approaches to multi-criteria group decision making (MCGDM), namely inverse fuzzy soft sum-product decision making (IFSSPDM) and inverse fuzzy soft distributive If-difference decision making (IFSDIf-dDM), are proposed. The IFSSPDM approach achieves the optimal choice for the MCGDM problem based on the inverse fuzzy soft structures consisting of multiple-discrete parameter sets and common universal object sets. The objective of IFSDIf-dDM approach is to present a solution for the MCGDM problem based on the inverse fuzzy soft structures consisting of a common universal parameter set and two discrete universal object sets. Thus, the solutions can be obtained using the practicality of inverse fuzzy soft matrices for two different types of decision making problems. Besides, the comparisons are presented showing that the proposed approaches produce more convincing outputs than the current fuzzy soft approaches.

Are there any challenges in the charmonia production and polarization at the LHC?

We analyze the inclusive prompt production of $\psi^\prime$, $\chi_c$, $J/\psi$ and $\eta_c$ mesons at the LHC using the $k_T$-factorization approach. Our consideration is based on the off-shell production amplitudes for hard partonic subprocesses, nonrelativistic QCD formalism for the formation of bound states and transverse momentum dependent (or unintegrated) gluon densities in a proton derived from Catani-Ciafaloni-Fiorani-Marchesini equation. The nonperturbative color octet transitions are treated in terms of the multipole radiation theory. We extract the corresponding long-distance matrix elements from a combined fit to transverse momentum distributions measured at various LHC experiments. We make predictions for the polarization parameters $\lambda_\theta$, $\lambda_\phi$, $\lambda_{\theta \phi}$ and the frame-independent parameter $\lambda^*$ and compare them to the available $\psi^\prime$ and $J/\psi$ data. Finally, we present a universal set of parameters that provides a reasonable simultaneous description for the whole body of the LHC data (on the $p_T$ distributions, relative production rates and polarization observables) for the whole charmonium family.

New Geiger-Nuttall law for proton radioactivity

In the present work considering the contributions of the daughter nuclear charge and the orbital angular momentum taken away by the emitted proton, we propose a two-parameter formula of new Geiger-Nuttall law for proton radioactivity. A set of universal parameters of this law is obtained by fitting 44 experimental data of proton emitters in the ground state and isomeric state. The calculated results can reproduce the experimental data well. For a comparison, the calculations performed using other theoretical methods, such as UDLP proposed by Qi et al. (Phys. Rev. C 85, 011303(R) (2012)), the CPPM-Guo2013 analyzed by our previous work (Deng et al., Eur. Phys. J. A 55, 58 (2019)) and the modified Gamow-like model proposed by us (Chen et al., J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 96, 065107 (2019)) are also included. Meanwhile, we extend this new Geiger-Nuttall law to predict the proton radioactivity half-lives for $ 51 \leq Z \leq 91$ nuclei, whose proton radioactivity is energetically allowed or observed but not yet quantified in NUBASE2016.

Prompt eta _c meson production at the LHC in the NRQCD with k_T-factorization

In the framework of the k_T-factorization approach, the prompt production of eta _c mesons at the LHC conditions is studied. Our consideration is based on the off-shell amplitudes for hard partonic subprocesses and on the nonrelativistic QCD (NRQCD) formalism for the formation of bound states. We try two latest parametrizations for noncollinear, or transverse momentum dependent (TMD) gluon densities derived from the Catani–Ciafaloni–Fiorani–Marchesini (CCFM) equation. We use the values of the nonperturbative matrix elements obtained from a combined fit of the eta _c and J/psi differential cross sections. Finally, we show an universal set of parameters that provides a reasonable simultaneous description for all of the available data on the prompt J/psi and eta _c production at the LHC.

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS OF A CREWING COMPANY ACTIVITY

Topicality. Enterprises must inculcate modern economic tools in the management practice to provide efficiency of their work. The universal set of parameters that can be used equally well for all kinds of activity without the exception is absent. The complexity of forming financial results of a crewing company activity and necessity of taking into account the specific features of its functioning require to research the key parameters of effectiveness concerning specifically crewing activity. Aim and tasks. Identification of performance indicators (qualitative and quantitative) of the company, which will cover all aspects of the crewing company activity without any exceptions, taking into consideration the specifics of their activities and the peculiarities of formation of incomes and expenses for various types of crewing. Research results. Most companies use traditional techniques to assess the competitive position on the market. Besides today, more and more attention is paid to valuing the company. In our view, to assess the work of a crewing company, it is necessary to focus on the so-called key performance indicators (KPIs). They are an element of a balanced system of parameters, which should have a set of indicators that can clearly identify the company's goals and the extent to which they are achieved. In particular, it is necessary to use both financial and non-financial indicators, to determine quantitative and qualitative KPIs, as well as perspective and actual indicators. A list of KPIs must be developed for each employee of a crewing company. Their number should not exceed 5-7 indicators. They all should be simple, understandable, clear and achievable. All KPIs should be known to all employees in order to ensure proper transparency, stimulate competition and motivate employees to develop. Conclusion. Today, more emphasis is placed on traditional quantitative financial indicators that reflect the results achieved. In turn, promising indicators as KPIs provide a benchmark for company employees to the place of application of effort and reflect key improvements in the work of the crewing company. Therefore, it is necessary to make efforts and develop promising KPIs in order to determine what factors and how they affect the actual KPIs. This will help identify the specific services and processes that are key factors to the success of the company.

Dimensionless Universal Parameters of the Kramers Problem

Thermal decay of a metastable state is a useful model employed in many branches of natural sciences. The inertia parameter and friction coefficient, as well as the potential energy, might have quite a different scale in the different branches. However, the time evolution of quantities characterizing the decay process (or the Kramers problem) should be the same, e.g. the fission rate. Therefore, it is convenient to have a set of universal parameters for scaling the problem. Performing numerical modeling within the Langevin dynamics, we have managed to find such universal dimensionless parameters.

An improved dynamic expanding cavity model for high-pressure and high-strain rate response of ceramics

An extended Mohr–Coulomb (M–C) model, capable of capturing the high pressure-dependent shear deformation of ceramics, is incorporated into a spherical dynamic expanding cavity model (d-ECM) to capture the dynamic response of semi-infinite brittle ceramics under steady-state penetration. It is shown that this improved d-ECM can better predict the target resistance of structural ceramics reported in penetration experiments. The brittle ceramic is assumed to undergo cracking when the hoop stress reaches its tensile strength and is subsequently comminuted when the radial stress reaches its compressive strength. The constitutive behavior of the comminuted ceramic is predicted using a modified form of the extended M–C model. The extended M–C model captures the strain rate-independent exponential pressure-shear response of intact ceramics in a normalized universal strength model. A single set of three parameters can be used to describe the response of all intact ceramics. This constitutive model has been suitably modified into a two-parameter exponential model, applicable to comminuted ceramics. These two parameters have been calibrated using experimental penetration data along with analytical estimations, and it has been shown that a single set of universal parameters can be used to describe the response of most comminuted ceramics. By incorporating these models, the improved d-ECM can be used to estimate the target resistance of a ceramic when relevant experimental data is not readily available. The results of the analysis further reveal that, in the case of steady-state penetration into semi-infinite monolithic targets, the properties of the comminuted material have a greater influence on the target resistance of ceramics than those of its intact state. The model proposed is applicable for thick monolithic ceramic targets under steady-state penetration conditions, and not for layered targets.

Microbial metal resistance and metabolism across dynamic landscapes: high-throughput environmental microbiology.

Multidimensional gradients of inorganic compounds influence microbial activity in diverse pristine and anthropogenically perturbed environments. Here, we suggest that high-throughput cultivation and genetics can be systematically applied to generate quantitative models linking gene function, microbial community activity, and geochemical parameters. Metal resistance determinants represent a uniquely universal set of parameters around which to study and evaluate microbial fitness because they represent a record of the environment in which all microbial life evolved. By cultivating microbial isolates and enrichments in laboratory gradients of inorganic ions, we can generate quantitative predictions of limits on microbial range in the environment, obtain more accurate gene annotations, and identify useful strategies for predicting and engineering the trajectory of natural ecosystems.

Dynamical groups and braces

Set-theoretic solutions of the quantum dynamical Yang–Baxter equation are analyzed by means of dynamical analogues of braces (=bijective 1-cocycles). It is shown that every abelian group [Formula: see text] acts on a universal parameter set [Formula: see text] such that the orbits correspond to the faithful irreducible dynamical braces with underlying abelian group [Formula: see text]. Braces correspond to the fixed points of this action. Relations between linear extendability of solutions, non-degeneracy, and existence of a double, are established for the dynamical case.

Recent progress in studies on polarity of ionic liquids

Although many ionic liquids have been reported, their polarity is not completely understood. Different empirical polarity scales for molecular solvents always lead to different polarity orders when they are applied on ionic liquids. Based on a literature survey, this review summarizes the recent polarity scales of ionic liquids according to the following 4 classes: (1) equilibrium and kinetic rate constants of chemical reactions; (2) empirical polar parameters of ionic liquids; (3) spectral properties of probe molecules; (4) multiparameter approaches. In addition, their interrelations are presented. A systematic understanding of the relationship between different polarity parameters of ionic liquids is of great importance for finding a universal set of parameters that can be used to predict the polarities of ionic liquids quantitatively. The potential utilization of the electron paramagnetic resonance in this field is also addressed.

Estimating crop yield using a satellite-based light use efficiency model

Satellite-based techniques that provide temporally and spatially continuous information over vegetated surfaces have become increasingly important in monitoring the global agriculture yield. In this study, we examine the performance of a light use efficiency model (EC-LUE) for simulating the gross primary production (GPP) and yield of crops. The EC-LUE model can explain on average approximately 90% of the variability in GPP for 36 FLUXNET sites globally. The results indicate that a universal set of parameters, independent of crop species (except for C4 crops), can be adopted in the EC-LUE model for simulating crops’ GPP. At both irrigated and rainfed sites, the EC-LUE model exhibits a similar level of performance. However, large errors are found when simulating yield based on crop harvest index. This analysis highlights the need to improve the representation of the harvest index and carbon allocation for improving crop yield estimations from satellite-based methods.

A more accurate method using MOVES (Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator) to estimate emission burden for regional-level analysis

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) is required by the EPA to replace Mobile 6 as an official on-road emission model. Incorporated with annual vehicle mile traveled (VMT) by Highways Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) vehicle class, MOVES allocates VMT from HPMS to MOVES source (vehicle) types and calculates emission burden by MOVES source type. However, the calculated running emission burden by MOVES source type may be deviated from the actual emission burden because of MOVES source population, specifically the population fraction by MOVES source type in HPMS vehicle class. The deviation is also the result of the use of the universal set of parameters, i.e., relative mileage accumulation rate (relativeMAR), packaged in MOVES default database. This paper presents a novel approach by adjusting the relativeMAR to eliminate the impact of MOVES source population on running exhaust emission and to keep start and evaporative emissions unchanged for both MOVES2010b and MOVES2014. Results from MOVES runs using this approach indicated significant improvements on VMT distribution and emission burden estimation for each MOVES source type. The deviation of VMT by MOVES source type is minimized by using this approach from 12% to less than 0.05% for MOVES2010b and from 50% to less than 0.2% for MOVES2014 except for MOVES source type 53. Source type 53 still remains about 30% variation. The improvement of VMT distribution results in the elimination of emission burden deviation for each MOVES source type. For MOVES2010b, the deviation of emission burdens decreases from −12% for particulate matter less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) and −9% for carbon monoxide (CO) to less than 0.002%. For MOVES2014, it drops from 80% for CO and 97% for PM2.5 to 0.006%.Implications: This approach is developed to more accurately estimate the total emission burdens using EPA’s MOVES, both MOVES2010b and MOVES2014, by redistributing vehicle mile traveled (VMT) by Highways Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) class to MOVES source type on the basis of comprehensive traffic study, local link-by-link VMT broken down into MOVES source type.

Vegetation-specific model parameters are not required for estimating gross primary production

Models of gross primary production (GPP) based on remote sensing measurements are currently parameterized with vegetation-specific parameter sets and therefore require accurate information on the distribution of vegetation to drive them. Can this parameterization scheme be replaced with a vegetation-invariant set of parameters that can maintain or increase model applicability by reducing errors introduced from the uncertainty of land cover classification? Based on the measurements of ecosystem carbon fluxes from 168 globally distributed sites in a range of vegetation types, we examined the predictive capacity of seven light use efficiency (LUE) models. Two model experiments were conducted: (i) a constant set of parameters for various vegetation types and (ii) vegetation-specific parameters. The results showed no significant differences in model performance in simulating GPP while using both set of parameters. These results indicate that a universal of set of parameters, which is independent of vegetation cover type and characteristics can be adopted in prevalent LUE models. Availability of this well tested and universal set of parameters would help to improve the accuracy and applicability of LUE models in various biomes and geographic regions.

Streamflow simulation methods for ungauged and poorly gauged watersheds

Abstract. Rainfall–runoff modelling procedures for ungauged and poorly gauged watersheds are developed in this study. A well-established hydrological model, the University of British Columbia (UBC) watershed model, is selected and applied in five different river basins located in Canada, Cyprus, and Pakistan. Catchments from cold, temperate, continental, and semiarid climate zones are included to demonstrate the procedures developed. Two methodologies for streamflow modelling are proposed and analysed. The first method uses the UBC watershed model with a universal set of parameters for water allocation and flow routing, and precipitation gradients estimated from the available annual precipitation data as well as from regional information on the distribution of orographic precipitation. This method is proposed for watersheds without streamflow gauge data and limited meteorological station data. The second hybrid method proposes the coupling of UBC watershed model with artificial neural networks (ANNs) and is intended for use in poorly gauged watersheds which have limited streamflow measurements. The two proposed methods have been applied to five mountainous watersheds with largely varying climatic, physiographic, and hydrological characteristics. The evaluation of the applied methods is based on the combination of graphical results, statistical evaluation metrics, and normalized goodness-of-fit statistics. The results show that the first method satisfactorily simulates the observed hydrograph assuming that the basins are ungauged. When limited streamflow measurements are available, the coupling of ANNs with the regional, non-calibrated UBC flow model components is considered a successful alternative method to the conventional calibration of a hydrological model based on the evaluation criteria employed for streamflow modelling and flood frequency estimation.