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The International Paper Conservation Seminar has now been held as four face-to-face events and four online events. It is a three-day international event delivered in Spanish and Portugese with keynote talks from national and international conservation professionals from Mexico to Chile presenting projects covering works on paper in diverse formats including documents, photographs historic books, and artworks. Countries such as Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Uruguay, Colombia, Brazil, Spain and Costa Rica have sent delegates to discuss both the social and cultural aspects of conservation work. The seminar is a completely free event for its attendees. It is intended to be suitable for all, with high-level talks addressing issues of management, preservation, conservation, restoration and disaster recovery among many others. From the third event onwards, training workshops for basic treatments have been developed, with the participation of recognized conservation professionals from universities and international institutes, allowing the number of attendees to remain constant since the Covid-19 pandemic. It creates networks and fosters collaboration for professional and institutional projects. The seminars have generated a connected and active community of paper conservators in the region, aware of our limitations, and capable of solving problems collaboratively and according to local resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Patients' death or adverse events appear to be associated with poor healthcare decision‐making. This might be due to an inability to have an adequate representation of the problem or of the connections among problem‐related elements. Changing how a problem is formulated can reduce biases in clinical reasoning. The purpose of this article is to explore the possible contributions of psychoneuroendocrinoimmunology (PNEI) and psychology of reasoning and decision‐making (PRDM) to support a new nursing theoretical frame. Design: Discursive paper. Method: This article discusses the main assumptions about nursing and nurses' ability to face patient's problems, suggesting a new approach that integrates knowledge from PNEI and PRDM. While PNEI explains the complexity of systems, highlighting the importance of systems connections in affecting health, PRDM underlines the importance of the informative context in creating a mental representation of the problem. Furthermore, PRDM suggests the need to pay attention to information that is not immediately explicit and its connections. Conclusion: Nursing recognizes the patient–nurse relationship as the axiom that governs care. The integration of PNEI and PRDM in nursing theoretics allows the expansion of the axiom by providing essential elements to read a new type of relationship: the relationship among information. PNEI explains the relationships between biological systems and the psyche and between the whole individual and the environment; PRDM provides tools for the nurse's analytical thinking system to correctly process information and its connections. Impact on Nursing Practice: A theoretical renewal is mandatory to improve nursing reasoning and nursing priority identification. Integrating PNEI and PRDM into nursing theoretics will modify the way professionals approach patients, reducing cognitive biases and medical errors. No Patient or Public Contribution: There was no patient or public involvement in the design or writing of this discursive article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) has long recognized and championed increasing diversity within the surgical workplace. SAGES initiated the Fundamentals of Leadership Development (FLD) Curriculum to address these needs and to provide surgeon leaders with the necessary tools and skills to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in surgical practice. In 2019, the American College of Surgeons issued a request for anti-racism initiatives which lead to the partnering of the two societies. The primary goal of FLD was to create the first surgeon-focused leadership curriculum dedicated to DEI. The rationale/development of this curriculum and its evaluation/feedback methods are detailed in this White Paper. Methods: The FLD curriculum was developed by a multidisciplinary task force that included surgeons, education experts, and diversity consultants. The curriculum development followed the Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation (ADDIE) instructional design model and utilized a problem-based learning approach. Competencies were identified, and specific learning objectives and assessments were developed. The implementation of the curriculum was designed to be completed in short intervals (virtual and in-person). Post-course surveys used the Kirkpatrick's model to evaluate the curriculum and provide valuable feedback. Results: The curriculum consisted of interactive online modules, an online discussion forum, and small group interactive sessions focused in three key areas: (1) increasing pipeline of underrepresented individuals in surgical leadership, (2) healthcare equity, and (3) conflict negotiation. By focusing on positive action items and utilizing a problem-solving approach, the curriculum aimed to provide a framework for surgical leaders to make meaningful changes in their institutions and organizations. Conclusion: The FLD curriculum is a novel leadership curriculum that provided surgeon leaders with the knowledge and tools to improve diversity in three areas: pipeline improvement, healthcare equity, and conflict negotiation. Future directions include using pilot course feedback to enhance curricular effectiveness and delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Action imagery describes a mental representation of an action and its consequences. Although it is widely recognized that people differ in their ability to imagine actions, objective validated tests to measure such differences are scarce. In search of an objective testing method for action imagery ability, the present study investigated whether solving mental paper-folding tasks involves action imagery. The stimuli were two-dimensional grids of six squares. A total of 99 participants mentally folded each grid into a three-dimensional cube to judge whether two highlighted lines in the grid overlapped in the imagined cube. This was done in two sessions of 214 judgements each, where the grids differed in overlaps, the least number of imagined folds, and the least number of imagined directional changes. Error rates and reaction times increased with the number of imagined folds and with the number of directional changes. Furthermore, more errors were committed with overlapping lines than with no overlaps. This was not reflected in the reaction times. Hence, the reaction times increased when the stepwise folding process was enlarged, but not when the final selection was more difficult. We concluded that the participants predominantly used action imagery as a task-solving strategy rather than for abstract problem-solving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper was one of the greatest inventions in ancient China, and it greatly promoted the rapid development of human civilization. Even in today's electronic information age, paper and paper‐derived products are still indispensable to people's daily work and life. However, the traditional paper based on cellulose fibers from plants has some problems. For instance: (1) papermaking consumes a large amount of precious natural resources such as trees; (2) the papermaking industry causes environmental pollution; (3) the traditional paper consisting of organic cellulose fibers is highly flammable and easy to burn; (4) the traditional paper based on cellulose fibers turns to yellow color with time; (5) the lifetime of the traditional paper is relatively short because of the degradation of cellulose fibers. More efforts are needed to investigate and solve these problems facing the traditional paper. In recent years, a new kind of multifunctional fire‐resistant paper based on ultralong hydroxyapatite nanowires has been developed and investigated for various applications, and many research findings have been documented in the literature. This review article provides a comprehensive summary and discussion on recent research advances for this new kind of multifunctional fire‐resistant paper based on ultralong hydroxyapatite nanowires, including the synthesis, properties, applications, and future perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing pressure on natural resources and the climate has been noted by businesses and governments worldwide, who now face the difficult task of integrating paths of environmental sustainability and economic growth. One promising approach to sustainable development, reducing the pressure on natural resources and solving waste problems is circular economy. From different ways of implementing circular economy, this study focuses on the productization of industrial side streams, which carry a great deal of underutilized potential. In this article, the productization of pulp and paper industry side stream, fiber sludge, for commercial use as a dust-binding agent is studied via a descriptive, in-depth case study. Apart from inconsistent quality, fluctuating supply, cost of storage and logistics, what makes industrial side stream utilization challenging is the lack of knowledge that stakeholders have about side streams and their utilization and the lack of new value chain development for their commercial use. Therefore, it is essential for all parties involved to have a clearer vision of what is being sold for what purposes, through productization. This study found that the productization of side streams follows the same steps as the productization of any other traditional product, and the productized side streams can be added to the company's product portfolio as by-products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer-reviewed conferences, the main publication venues in CS, rely critically on matching highly qualified reviewers for each paper. Because of the growing scale of these conferences, the tight timelines on which they operate, and a recent surge in explicitly dishonest behavior, there is now no alternative to performing this matching in an automated way. This paper introduces Large Conference Matching (LCM) , a novel reviewer–paper matching approach that was recently deployed in the 35th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI 2021), and has since been adopted (wholly or partially) by other conferences including ICML 2022, AAAI 2022-2024, and IJCAI 2022-2024. LCM has three main elements: (1) collecting and processing input data to identify problematic matches and generate reviewer–paper scores; (2) formulating and solving an optimization problem to find good reviewer–paper matchings; and (3) a two-phase reviewing process that shifts reviewing resources away from papers likely to be rejected and towards papers closer to the decision boundary. This paper also describes an evaluation of these innovations based on an extensive post-hoc analysis on real data—including a comparison with the matching algorithm used in AAAI's previous (2020) iteration—and supplements this with additional numerical experimentation.2 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: With the aid of libraries, the research paper aims to assist businesses in swiftly and accurately acquiring knowledge and insights from scholarly literature to guide their inventive and decision-making processes. The foundation for achieving the goal is Connected Papers technology. Design/methodology/approach: The author's professional expertise in performing literature reviews using connected papers technology as well as using other ways, and corresponding with entrepreneurs and librarians impacted the article's research methodology. Findings: The use of Connected Papers technology in the library context for helping entrepreneurs is discussed. Libraries and entrepreneurs could benefit from using Connected Papers technology to quickly compile pertinent data from scholarly literature to solve business challenges. According to the paper, adopting this technology can speed up information gathering and drastically reduce the time needed for business owners to search through bibliographic data-bases. Using this technology can help entrepreneurs at various phases of their entrepreneurial journeys and give libraries a productive way to assist business owners with their information needs. Originality/value: This paper's novelty comes from its examination of the usage of connectedpapers.com technology to compile data from scholarly literature to assist entrepreneurs in solving their business problems. The useful piece of advice this paper offers entrepreneurs and librarians is what makes it valuable. By using connectedpapers.com technology, businesses may be able to get critical information from scholarly literature to foster a series of experimentation quickly and effectively. Also, librarians can help their patrons with systematic re-views and other research services by using this application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creativity is an important skill for engineers but many students face a lack of experience in idea generation, often compounded by low-self efficacy towards creativity. Providing students with online training modules has been suggested as one solution. However, the literature demonstrates using a computer can influence performance and self-efficacy in a different manner to using pen-and-paper. There is a current lack of research on whether computers may influence self-efficacy during idea generation tasks. Two experiments involving computer-based and pen-and-paper groups were designed. Groups were provided with templates that guided them through the process of applying an idea generation technique and were given sixteen minutes to generate ideas to solve a presented problem. Results revealed that students' performance was similar and using a computer does not negatively influence self-efficacy. This shows that students can engage in idea generation learning tasks using computer-based modes without negatively influencing performance or self-efficacy, suggesting an avenue for educators to engage students with building creativity skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed multitarget tracking (MTT) is suitable for sensors with limited field of view (FoV). Generalized covariance intersection (GCI) fusion is used to solve the MTT problem based on label probability hypothesis density (PHD) filtering in this paper. Because the traditional GCI fusion only has good fusion performance for the targets in the intersection of each sensor's FoV, and the targets outside the intersection range would be lost, this paper redivides the Gaussian components according to the FoV and distinguishes the Gaussian components of the targets inside and outside the intersection. GCI fusion is sensitive to label inconsistency between different sensors. For label fusion in the intersection region, the best match of labels is found by minimizing label inconsistency index, and then GCI fusion is performed. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed fusion method are verified by simulation, and its robustness is proved. The proposed method is obviously superior to local sensor and traditional GCI algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the paper in the title by Jian Tang, Yanfeng Luo and Xiangyun Xie in Turk J Math 42 (2018) the following lemma has been used. Lemma: Let (S, *) be a semihypergroup and ρ an equivalence relation on S. Then (i) If ρ is a congruence, then (S/ρ, ⊗) is a semihypergroup with respect to the hyperoperation (a)ρ ⊗ (b)ρ = ... (c)ρ . (ii) If ρ is a strong congruence, then (S/ρ, ⊗) is a semigroup with respect to the operation (a)ρ ⊗ (b)ρ = (c)ρ for all c ∈ a * b. The property (i) of the paper is certainly wrong as ... (c)ρ is a subset of S and not a nonempty subset of S/ρ as it should be. Property (ii) has no sense in the way is written. In addition, according to the authors, as an application of the results of this paper they solved the open problem on ordered semihypergroups given by Davvaz, Corsini and Changphas in European J Combin 44 (2015). The problem is that the above mentioned problem has not been solved in the above mentioned article; we point out the reason, and we solve it in the present paper. Some further related results; also results necessarily for the completeness of the paper are given. Examples illustrate the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the conventional treatment methods of agriculture wastewater, including chemical methods and biological methods. These methods have problems of low efficiency, secondary pollution and high cost. Based on the significant advantages of microalgae purification of wastewater that can achieve pollutant removal and wastewater resource utilization, the current research status of microalgae purification of agriculture wastewater is described, and the problems of microalgae purification of agriculture wastewater are presented with respect to the current research. In view of these problems, suggestions are given to solve the problems of microalgae purification of agriculture wastewater, which provide a reference for the future use of microalgae to purify agriculture wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims at implementing lean six sigma to evaluate the productivity and manufacturing wastes in the production line of a paper company Methodology/Approach: The study is a case study in nature. The method illustrates how lean six sigma (LSS) is used to evaluate the existing production process in a paper production company with focus on productivity and manufacturing wastes. The study considered a real-time problem of customer's dissatisfaction. Gathered data were based on machine functionality (up time, down time and cycle time); materials and labour flow at every process stage of the production line. The optimization of the production process was based on lean tools like value stream mapping, process cycle efficiency, Kaizen, 5S and pareto chart Findings: Based on lean six sigma application, it was discovered that the present production performance was below standard and more manufacturing wastes were generated. The present productivity and manufacturing wastes are reported as low process cycle efficiency (23.4 %), low takt time (4.11 sec), high lead time (43200sec), high number of products not conforming to six sigma values, high down time (32.64 %) and excess labour flow (33). After the implementation of the lean six sigma tools for certain periods, there were lots of improvements in the production lines in terms of all the parameters considered. Research Limitations/ Implications: The study has demonstrated application of lean six sigma in the case of solving real-time problems of productivity and manufacturing wastes which have a direct implication on customer's satisfaction. The lesson learnt and implications presented can still be further modeled using some lean based software for validity Originality/Value: The study has contributed to the body of knowledge in the field of LSS with focus to process-based manufacturing, unlike most literature in the field which concentrated more on discrete based manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creativity becomes an absolute necessity in this present era, so it is not something complement or dispensable, but an absolute necessity imposed by the challenges of the day, so university students are responsible for all the changes in all communities; for their enthusiasm and intelligence. Moreover, we have to educate our university students the flexible learning which enable them, How to learn? not What to learn? We have to educate them how to deal with modern technology, and also to create. Creativity is the process of developing your imagination, allowing and helping you thinking differently. By training your brain on how to think creatively; this will help you to create, solve problems, innovate, and to communicate with new ways. The last but not the least, the most important skills of creative thinking is the following: fluency, flexibility, and originality. In the end, the modern theories focus on explaining the process of creativity of being the result of creative environment, the characteristics of the creative person, and the creative output, so the important ways for developing creativity are: miscellaneous reading, produce greatest numbers of ideas, and dispose of negative thoughts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human technology interaction became the key driver for bringing new changes that improve the life wellbeing and solve society problems. Past studies paid a considerable attention in technology in manufacturing, but recently due to the repaid growth of service sector, technology developers targeted this sector, especially the profitable businesses. However, the social business such as education, has not received adequate attention. Even though e-learning and MOOCs application introduced to solve institutions' capacity and boost up their quality, the efficiency of using these technologies is questionable since less than 10%, who use MOOCs complete their courses. The literature suggests that technology motivation factors that influence users and educational quality as well as system are important to address this challenge. Even though, many studies investigated these factors, the problem still existed. Thus, this review paper aims to highlight and investigate the development process of MOOCs and their opportunities as well as challenges. The finding of this paper suggests that even though MOOCs adoption and operation are suffering of several issues, which should be addressed by future research, MOOCs are the future promise for education development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Successful problem solving relies on the availability of suitable mental representations of the task domain. Especially for more complex problems, there might be a wide variety of possible problem representations, and it might even be beneficial to change them during problem solving. In a first part, we argue that investigating the dynamics of understanding in terms of dynamically changing problem representations is an underexplored aspect of problem solving research, and that most classic tasks even preclude the opportunity of such dynamics to occur. Continuing this theoretical discussion, as an illustrative example of a task designed for the exploration of such representational dynamics, the second part of the paper discusses a novel, complex spatial transformation and problem solving task. In this task, one is asked to repeatedly mentally cross-fold a sheet of paper, and to predict the resulting sheet geometry without the use of external aids. Through its deliberate openness and difficulty, this task requires finding new and more efficient representations – ranging from kinaesthetic and visuospatial imagery to symbolic notions. We present an overview of the task domain and discuss various ways of representing the domain as well as potential dynamics between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Until recently, information behaviour scholars have mainly focused on the workplace or educational settings, and defined information as either a tool for problem solving or a means to satisfy needs. This, however, only represents a partial picture of a larger horizon. In some arenas of life, such as serious leisure, people do not seek information to necessarily solve a problem or satisfy an urgent need. They look for information to enjoy a hobby or participate in an entirely voluntary activity. Objectives. The paper introduces transcendental information as a subjective and contextual concept to provide insights on lesser explored corners of the information behaviour scholarship. This concept is compared with existing theories and concepts in the information behaviour area. Method. This conceptual paper is based on a critical literature review of human information behaviour, and reflects on some key concepts in the field, including the nature of information, information needs, information seeking and sharing. The paper also provides a selective literature review of the serious leisure perspective to contextualise the analysis. Results. It is found that transcendental information usually has an aesthetic and intellectual essence. It may be expressed in various imaginative forms and can appear in different non-textual and embedded formats. Moreover, it can generate joyful and inspiring impacts. The paper refers to serious leisure as an exemplary setting to contextualise transcendental information within a relevant and well-established theoretical framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present note is to discuss Problem 2 and Problem 5 on the IMO’2019 paper. The 60th edition of the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) took place in the city of Bath, United Kingdom, 11-22 July 2019, with the participation of 621 students from 112 countries. The event is the most prestigious scientific Olympiad for high school students. Problem 2 and Problem 5 are of mean difficulty on the paper. Problem 2 was solved frilly (7 points) by 98 participants, 92 students were marked with 6 points, 3 with 5 points, 6 with 4 points, 6 with 3 points, 30 with 2 points, 135 with 1 point and 251 with 0 points. The mean result of all the 621 participants in the Olympiad is 2,399. Analogously, Problem 5 was solved frilly (7 points) by 250 participants, 3 students were marked with 6 points, 7 with 5 points, 5 with 4 points, 12 with 3 points, 168 with 2 points, 20 with 1 point and 156 with 0 points. The mean result of all the 621 participants is 3,567. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present note is to discuss Problem 3 on the IMO’2019 paper. The 60th edition of the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) took place in the city of Bath, United Kingdom, 11–22 July 2019, with the participation of 621 students from 112 countries. The event is the most prestigious scientific Olympiad for high school students. Problem 3 is one of the difficult ones on the paper. It was solved fully (7 points) by 28 participants, 4 students were marked with 6 points, 9 with 5 points, 5 with 4 points, 6 with 3 points, 3 with 2 points, 46 with 1 point and 520 with 0 points. The mean result of all the 621 participants in the Olympiad is 0, 572, which shows the high level of the problem difficulty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to solve the problems of the current art circulation information is not transparent and the centralized trading authority is asymmetric, this paper proposed a art blockchain certificate traceability model based on three chains. First, in view of the large amount of data in a single piece of artwork information, this paper proposed a blockchain-based symmetric searchable encryption algorithm, and used the interplanetary file system to securely store artwork circulation records on-chain and off-chain. Secondly, for the characteristics of the increasing effective data of artwork information, this paper proposed a blockchain-based inverted fast query and traceability algorithm to help data users realize fast traceability and positioning. At the same time, this paper proposed for the first time that the false information alliance chain stores false art circulation records to realize the processing of false information. Finally, experiments verify the feasibility of the model for big data security storage and fast query traceability. Experiments show that the model is feasible and the query method is efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the increasing trend of global consumption of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), the recycling of WEEE has been thought highly of. In order to solve the problems of high economic cost, environmental detrimental caused by improper recycling, ignorance of social benefits of recycling, uncertain recycling amount and single recycling channel in recycling process of WEEE, this paper proposes a sustainable multi-objective WEEE double recycling channel fuzzy programming model based on triple bottom line (TBL) theory. First of all, TBL is used to develop sustainable multi-objective recycling models concerning economy, environment and society. Secondly, the model is fuzzed. This process includes two steps: the first step is to take WEEE recycling quantity as a triangular fuzzy parameter, and use fuzzy chance constraint method to transform fuzzy constraint into an equivalent clear condition; the second step is to fuzzify suboptimal objective in the model by defining objective membership degree, and transform multi-objective optimization problem into a single-objective optimization problem based on the maximum satisfaction. Finally, taking a recycling enterprise in Shantou, China, as an example, genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) are comparatively used to solve a calculation case related to the model and the contribution of the model is verified by comparing economic cost, environmental impact and social benefits of the dual recycling channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Executive functions develop, particularly in the first 5 years of life. This study aimed to investigate the executive functions in Persian typically-developing (TD) children aged 4 to 6 years. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 50 children (21 girls and 29 boys) participated. Executive functions (planning/problem solving, inhibition, shifting, and working memory) were measured by various performance-based tests (the Tower of London, Go/No-Go, Dimensional Change Card Sorting task (DCCS), forward Digit Span (FDS), Backward Digit Span (BDS) and Non-Word Repetition (NWR) and Behavior Rating Inventory Of Executive Function (BRIEF) questionnaire). After collecting the data, they were entered into SPSS version 16.0, and data analysis was done by Mann-Whitney U test and two-tailed Spearman test. The significant level was set at 0.05. Results: Regarding the age groups, 5-year-old children were significantly better than 4-year-old children in FDS and BDS, and regarding gender groups, performance-based tests were not significantly different between girls and boys but in the BRIEF questionnaire as parents reported, boys were significantly had better performance in daily life. BRIEF questionnaires in the boy’s group were correlated with FDS, BDS, the Tower of London, Go/No-Go, and DCCS. In the girl’s group, the BRIEF questionnaire was correlated with NWR and DCCS. In 4-year-old children, the BRIEF questionnaire was correlated with FDS, BDS, Go/No-Go, and DCCS. In 5-year-old children, the BRIEF questionnaire was correlated with BDS, the Tower of London, Go/No-Go, and DCCS. Conclusion: It seems that TD children between the ages of 4-6 years can have different working memories but does not differ in skills such as problem-solving, shifting, and inhibition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of science and technology and the appearance of various special conditions that cause signers to be unable to sign, proxy signature is gradually becoming a hot spot in cryptography research. This paper combines proxy signature, quantum teleportation, and multi-party verification and proposes a multi-party verifiable quantum proxy signature scheme based on quantum teleportation. This scheme has the following characteristics: The authentication method based on the H a s h function can effectively solve the problem of identity identification among members; in order for the proxy signer to be able to verify the correctness of the proxy authorization, a form of proxy signature authorization that concatenates the identity information of the original signer is used. The security analysis shows that our scheme is unforgeable and undeniable and can resist intercept-resend attacks and cheating attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was to verify for older adults, the applicability of a recently developed measure of everyday problem solving, a performance-based observed assessment (the Chinese Version of Observed Tasks of Daily Living [OTDL-C]), by comparing with two other measures—a self-report questionnaire and a paper–pencil test. Totally 183 older adults (aged 60–84 years) completed demographic questionnaires and three everyday problem-solving assessments. All assessments measured the same instrumental domains of daily life (medication use, phone use, electric appliance use, and financial management). We observed significant differences in inter-individual variation, and found significant differences in the effects of age and education level on OTDL-C performance compared with self-report and paper–pencil measure performance. Additionally, the inter-individual variance was significantly greater for the OTDL-C and paper–pencil test than for the self-report questionnaire. Age remained a significant predictor of OTDL-C performance after controlling the scores of the self-report and the paper–pencil measures. Education level had more consistent effects on the total score and each domain score of the OTDL-C compared to the other two measures. Overall, our finding indicated that the OTDL-C had greater inter-individual variation, might be a more sensitive tool for examining age-related differences in the ability to solve everyday problem, and could be more applicable to older populations with diverse education levels compared to the self-report and the paper–pencil measures. In circumstances where a high sensitive assessment of everyday problem solving is needed to detect individual differences, the OTDL-C might be a more appropriate choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposed an electronic voting scheme based on one-time ring signature and blockchain to solve the problems of the current e-voting system in terms of anonymity, transparency and open vote-counting. This paper introduced one-time ring signature, blockchain and stealth address technology. The one-time ring signature technology solved the problem of voter anonymity, repeated voting and public verification. The blockchain technology could ensure the openness and transparency of the e-voting system. The one-time ring signature technology could ensure no one or institution could obtain the voting intermediate result before the voting ends. In order to improve the efficiency of vote-counting,it used the method of key sharing to improve the vote-counting algorithm. Through security and performance analysis, the scheme conforms to the basic security standards of an electronic voting system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of large passenger flow during peak hours causes serious congestion in subway stations, and passenger flow bottlenecks appear in many places, which affects travel efficiency and safety. How to eliminate the bottlenecks is an urgent problem to be solved. In this paper, we first analyze the causes and regions of bottlenecks, and we propose three decongestion solutions: (a) moving the security check machines from the station hall to the entrance channel; (b) adding isolation belts in front of the area of escalators; and (c) separating opposite passengers flow by using isolation belts. We conduct a case study on Guomao Station, Beijing, China to verify the effectiveness of the solutions. Specifically, we establish a microscopic model to simulate the passenger flow in a subway station, and the simulation results show that decongestion solutions can reduce the queueing length of security bottleneck by more than 30%, while decreasing the passenger density in non-paying areas of the station hall by more than 50%. The decongestion solutions proposed in this paper can eliminate the bottlenecks in subway stations effectively and practicably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) technique has the advantage of simple and fast calculation, the FMEA method is widely and commonly used in solving risk assessment issues. The traditional FMEA method uses the product of risk assessment factors (occurrence, severity, and detection) to calculate risk priority number (RPN) for risk ranking. Although the RPN approach is widely adopted by the military and industry, it cannot process uncertain and incomplete information, it does not consider the relative importance of three risk assessment factors and in some situations, it loses some valuable information provided by experts. This results in the same RPN value which cannot provide the accurate risk level. In order to effectively solve these problems, this paper combined the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method and 2-tuple fuzzy linguistic representation model (2-tuple FLRM) and proposed a new model, called the 2-tuple DEA method, for ranking the risk of product (system) failures. In the numerical verification section, this paper applied the risk assessment of crawler crane to verify the rationality and correctness of the 2-tuple DEA approach. The calculation results confirm that the proposed 2-tuple DEA approach provides a more accurate failure risk ranking and retains all valuable information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radial ribs are important supporting parts of umbrella antenna, and its shape is a crucial factor affecting the overall reflector accuracy. Considering the difficulty of in-orbit shape sensing, a fiber-optic shape sensing (FOSS) method for the radial rib is presented in this paper, then on the basis of FOSS a shape active control method for the radial rib driven by Macro-Fiber Composite actuators is proposed. Firstly, combining the deformation characteristics of the radial rib structure, an improved Ko displacement algorithm is proposed for its shape sensing using distributed fiber-optic. Then, establish the shape active control model with the Influence-Coefficient-Matrix method, and propose a closed-loop shape active control method with FOSS as feedback for the radial rib. In this paper, the optimization problem of solving control voltage is established by using the Least-Square method, and Root-Mean-Square error is taken as the convergence condition. Finally, numerical simulation and experiment show that the relative error of the shape sensing with fiber-optic is less than 5%, and the shape accuracy of radial rib after control is improved by more than 90% to reach submillimeter level, which verifies the effectiveness of the radial rib shape active control method based on FOSS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The result of this paper contributes to the classification of triangular maps of the square with zero topological entropy stated by A. N. Sharkovsky in the 1980s. The problem was if a triangular map of the square such that its any ω-limit set contains unique minimal set can be distributionally chaotic. So far such result was disproved only for the class of triangular maps non-decreasing on fibres [L. Paganoni, J. Smítal, Strange distributionally chaotic triangular maps, Chaos Solitons Fractals 26(2) (2005), pp. 581–589]. In this paper, we solve the problem in negative for all triangular maps of the square, correcting the original result from Balibrea and Smítal [Strong distributional chaos and minimal sets, Topology appl. 156 (2009), pp. 1673–1678]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complex spatial distribution of caves and fractures results in the low oil recovery after water flooding in paleo-subterranean river of fractured-vuggy reservoirs. This paper tries to solve the problem of how to adopt water-alternating-gas (WAG) and simultaneous-water-and-gas (SWAG) to enhance oil recovery in paleo-subterranean river reservoirs. Aiming at this objective, we constructed one physical experimental and numerical model according to the geological section in Tahe Oilfield. The research on water flooding, WAG, and SWAG were carried out through experiments and simulations. The results show that there were four kinds of remaining oil after water flooding in the paleo-subterranean river karst reservoirs, i.e., blind end remaining oil, shielded remaining oil, attic remaining oil, and corner remaining oil. WAG can extract the shielded remaining oil, attic remaining oil, and part of the corner remaining oil efficiently, while SWAG can only work on the attic remaining oil. In addition, too low injection rate lacked driving force support and restricted the expansion of the swept zone. Too small gas-water ratio and slug size can't play a good role in gas displacement. This paper is the first systematic study of the paleo-subterranean river reservoirs, and the results can provide a basis for production practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern urban traffic, vehicles and pedestrians are fundamental elements in the study of traffic dynamics. Vehicle and pedestrian detection have significant practical value in fields like autonomous driving, traffic management, and public security. However, traditional detection methods struggle in complex environments due to challenges such as varying scales, target occlusion, and high computational costs, leading to lower detection accuracy and slower performance. To address these challenges, this paper proposes an improved vehicle and pedestrian detection algorithm based on YOLOv8, with the aim of enhancing detection in complex traffic scenes. The motivation behind our design is twofold: first, to address the limitations of traditional methods in handling targets of different scales and severe occlusions, and second, to improve the efficiency and accuracy of real-time detection. The new generation of dense pedestrian detection technology requires higher accuracy, less computing overhead, faster detection speed, and more convenient deployment. Based on the above background, this paper proposes a synchronous end-to-end vehicle pedestrian detection algorithm based on improved YOLOv8, aiming to solve the detection problem in complex scenes. First of all, we have improved YOLOv8 by designing a deformable convolutional improved backbone network and attention mechanism, optimized the network structure, and improved the detection accuracy and speed. Secondly, we introduced an end-to-end target search algorithm to make the algorithm more stable and accurate in vehicle and pedestrian detection. The experimental results show that, using the algorithm designed in this paper, our model achieves an 11.76% increase in precision and a 6.27% boost in mAP. In addition, the model maintains a real-time detection speed of 41.46 FPS, ensuring robust performance even in complex scenarios. These optimizations significantly enhance both the efficiency and robustness of vehicle and pedestrian detection, particularly in crowded urban environments. We further apply our improved YOLOv8 model for real-time detection in intelligent transportation systems and achieve exceptional performance with a mAP of 95.23%, outperforming state-of-the-art models like YOLOv5, YOLOv7, and Faster R-CNN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundMethodResultsDiscussionPeople experiencing psychosis in acute crisis should be offered Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for psychosis (CBTp) however there are no protocols developed to inform delivery specifically for people in acute crisis receiving inpatient mental health care. This paper narratively describes a CBTp-informed crisis-focused therapy protocol to inform the delivery of therapy in inpatient settings.This study draws on relevant systematic reviews, qualitative interview studies with stakeholders, Delphi studies, and coproduction to develop the protocol. It draws upon crisis theories and CBTp theories to underpin it.This paper outlines a modularised approach to working with people with psychosis and in crisis. It outlines the key values underpinning the protocol, and the key modules of: engagement, assessment and identifying priorities; formulation of the crisis, stabilisation, safety, and problem solving, crisis plans and crisis cards, change strategy work focusing on crisis appraisals, and discharge and relapse planning.A crisis-focused cognitive behavioural therapy protocol is presented which can be used to inform therapy for people experiencing psychosis and in crisis. More research is required to explore the efficacy of such therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase of the running time of the subway system, long-term use will lead to the reduction of damping, the change of the operating state of the wheels and the track, and the effect of vibration damping measures will gradually weaken. In order to maintain a low level of environmental vibration in vibration sensitive areas, the reconstruction of some existing lines with high level vibration is imminent. In order to solve this problem, this paper focuses on the reconstruction of the existing line of longitudinal sleeper track, which is commonly used in the middle and high level vibration reduction measure in the subway. Because of the high cost of reconstruction of the slab and its lower part, this paper tries to realize the reconstruction of the existing longitudinal sleeper track by changing the fastener system. In this paper, the environmental vibration prediction model of longitudinal sleeper track is established by using the theory of infinite long period structure and the 2.5-dimensional finite element and boundary element (2.5D FE-BE) environmental vibration prediction model. The validity of the numerical model is determined by comparing the field experiment with the numerical simulation. On the basis of the above, the stiffness matching of longitudinal sleeper and fastener is explored by using the verified numerical model. The reasons for the poor vibration reduction effect of the existing longitudinal sleeper matching floating rail fastener (low stiffness) are analyzed. And the matching strategy of the supporting stiffness for vibration reduction of longitudinal sleeper and fastener are summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a recent overview of the exact, approximate, and hybrid optimization methods that handle Multi-Objective Mixed-Integer Non-Linear Programming (MO-MINLP) problems. Both the domains of exact and approximate research have experienced significant growth, driven by their shared goal of addressing a wide range of real-world problems. This work presents a comprehensive literature review that highlights the significant theoretical contributions in the field of hybrid approaches between these research areas. We also point out possible research gaps in the literature. Hence, the main research questions to be answered in this paper involve the following: (1) how to exactly or approximately solve a MO-MINLP problem? (2) What are the drawbacks of exact methods as well as approximate methods? (3) What are the research lines that are currently underway to enhance the performances of these methods? and (4) Where are the research gaps in this field? This work aims to provide enough descriptive information for newcomers in this area about the research that has been carried out and that is currently underway concerning exact, approximate, and hybrid methods used to solve MO-MINLP problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catch fish optimization algorithm (CFOA) is a newly proposed meta-heuristic algorithm based on human behaviors. CFOA shows better performance on multiple test functions and clustering problems. However, CFOA shows poor performance in some cases, and there is still room for improvement in convergence accuracy, getting rid of local traps, and so on. To further enhance the performance of CFOA, a multi-strategy improved catch fish optimization algorithm (MICFOA) is proposed in this paper. In the exploration phase, we propose a Lévy-based differential independent search strategy to enhance the global search capability of the algorithm while minimizing the impact on the convergence speed. Secondly, in the exploitation phase, a weight-balanced selection mechanism is used to maintain population diversity, enhance the algorithm's ability to get rid of local optima during the search process, and effectively boost the convergence accuracy. Furthermore, the structure of CFOA is also modified in this paper. A fishermen position replacement strategy is added at the end of the algorithm as a way to strengthen the robustness of the algorithm. To evaluate the performance of MICFOA, a comprehensive comparison with nine other metaheuristic algorithms is performed on the 10/30/50/100 dimensions of the CEC 2017 test functions and the 10/20 dimensions of the CEC2022 test functions. Statistical experiments show that MICFOA has more significant dominance in numerical optimization problems, and its overall performance outperforms the CFOA, PEOA, TLBO, COA, ARO, EDO, YDSE, and other state-of-the-art algorithms such as LSHADE, JADE, IDE-EDA, and APSM-jSO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the proper noun for geographical entities, place names provide an intuitive way to identify and access specific geographic locations, playing a key role in semantic expression and spatial retrieval. However, existing research has insufficiently explored the spatio-temporal derivation relationships of place names, failing to fully utilize these relationships to enhance the connectivity between place names and improve spatial retrieval capabilities. Therefore, this paper conducts research on the spatio-temporal derivation relationships of place names, defines them in a standardized manner, clarifies the boundary conditions and identification methods, and then constructs a spatio-temporal derivation network of place names for expression and uses this network to carry out reasoning research on spatial adjacency relationships. Experiments and results showed that using the theory and methods of this paper to identify the spatio-temporal derivation relationships of Canadian place names achieves an accuracy rate of 98.5% and a recall rate of 93.4%, and the reasoning results can effectively improve the accuracy of query results. The research enriches the theoretical framework of spatio-temporal derivation relationships of place names, solves the current problems of unclear definition and inability to automatically identify spatio-temporal derivation relationships, and provides new perspectives and tools for the application practice in the field of geographical information science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: of the paper is to present and criticize the statements of the new science of theology (New Kalam) in the field of prophecies and the effect of its supplanting the old science of theology in solving objections and problems, and to explain the motives and consequences resulting from such innovative opinions. This paper deals with the position of the new science of Kalam (Islamic theology) regarding prophecies. Its pioneers criticized selection, the miracle, supernaturalty, and other concepts adopted by ancient theologians. They also developed a new approach to proving prophecy that is compatible with their modern vision and environments and time. Their critisizm started by denying the rational evidences upon which old Kalam built its conclusions, and by highlighting some of old Kalam problems as they claim, New Kalam pioneers agreed on the liberal view of the statements of ancient theology and urged its renewal through religious expansion with the help of modern sciences. They made this renewal process completely open, so there is no specific approach through which this upgrade must follow, evaluated, or controlled. Even a single issue has led so often to multiple and varying results, some of which may be due to false premises or a relative view, and they did not stipulate at all that the science of Kalam provides certain or definitive knowledge at all in the first place. Methods: of induction, deduction, comparison, and criticism. Conclusion. The definitions from which those who advocate the new science of theology started and the introductions from which they started are false introductions, or for which there is no evidence. The positions of the advocates of renewing the science of theology have varied regarding the issue of prophecy, whether in the concept of revelation, the concept of prophecy, or acceptance of the miracle, and some of them went on to renew it to understand these issues. Some of them focused on other cultural topics, such as women’s rights. Recommendation: the necessity of making comparisons between those who advocate ancient and new theology in more specialized topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though much attention has been paid to the navigational safety of MASS, very few have examined the major challenges that MASS presents to COLREGs from the standpoint of practical vessel manoeuvring. The introduction of MASS may alter the traditional paradigm of vessels depending on seamen for vessel manoeuvring. COLREGs safeguard the orderly statutory nature of vessel navigation. This paper discussed the proper understanding of COLREGs and the ethical MASS issues that can arise from vessel manoeuvring practices in restricted and heavy waters in coastal ports, challenging “look-out,” “good seamanship,” and navigational safety in COLREGs. The paper also discusses the feasibility of modifying COLREGs and how to solve these problems without modifying COLREGs. The paper suggests expanding the pilotage distances and applying the legal system of maritime traffic management in an integrated manner so as to ensure the safety of MASS navigation in the restricted waters of coastal ports and in heavy waters from the perspective of pilotage and the legal system. This paper suggests that it would be prudent for the IMO not to apply COLREGs directly to MASS until the navigational safety of MASS has been fully considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional machine learning-based entity extraction methods rely heavily on feature engineering by experts, and the generalization ability of the model is poor. Prototype networks, on the other hand, can effectively use a small amount of labeled data to train models while using category prototypes to enhance the generalization ability of the models. Therefore, this paper proposes a prototype network-based named entity recognition (NER) method, namely the FSPN-NER model, to solve the problem of difficult recognition of sensitive data in data-sparse text. The model utilizes the positional coding model (PCM) to pre-train the data and perform feature extraction, then computes the prototype vectors to achieve entity matching, and finally introduces a boundary detection module to enhance the performance of the prototype network in the named entity recognition task. The model in this paper is compared with LSTM, BiLSTM, CRF, Transformer and their combination models, and the experimental results on the test dataset show that the model outperforms the comparative models with an accuracy of 84.8%, a recall of 85.8% and an F1 value of 0.853. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As people age, abnormal gait recognition becomes a critical problem in the field of healthcare. Currently, some algorithms can classify gaits with different pathologies, but they cannot guarantee high accuracy while keeping the model lightweight. To address these issues, this paper proposes a lightweight network (NSVGT-ICBAM-FACN) based on the new side-view gait template (NSVGT), improved convolutional block attention module (ICBAM), and transfer learning that fuses convolutional features containing high-level information and attention features containing semantic information of interest to achieve robust pathological gait recognition. The NSVGT contains different levels of information such as gait shape, gait dynamics, and energy distribution at different parts of the body, which integrates and compensates for the strengths and limitations of each feature, making gait characterization more robust. The ICBAM employs parallel concatenation and depthwise separable convolution (DSC). The former strengthens the interaction between features. The latter improves the efficiency of processing gait information. In the classification head, we choose to employ DSC instead of global average pooling. This method preserves the spatial information and learns the weights of different locations, which solves the problem that the corner points and center points in the feature map have the same weight. The classification accuracies for this paper's model on the self-constructed dataset and GAIT-IST dataset are 98.43% and 98.69%, which are 0.77% and 0.59% higher than that of the SOTA model, respectively. The experiments demonstrate that the method achieves good balance between lightweightness and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the aim to systematically analyze the ambient relative humidity on the shrinkage strain of Engineered Geopolymer Composites (EGCs), this paper studied four variables (fly ash to ground granulated blast furnace slag mass ratio, alkali content, water–binder ratio, and fiber volume content) though orthogonal experimental design and three different relative humidity values (30%, 60%, and 100% RH). The results indicated that, for EGC specimens under 30% RH and 60% RH, the decrease in slag content and increase in alkali content both resulted in greater drying shrinkage. The addition of fibers effectively reduced the shrinkage strain, while a minor impact on shrinkage was presented by the W/B ratio. The first and second key factors affecting the drying shrinkage strain were the FA/GGBS ratio and the alkali content. The optimal ratio of FA/GGBS, alkali content, and fiber volume fraction were 0/100, 4%, and 1.5%, respectively. Dring shrinkage strain was decreased with the increase in ambient relative humidity. Compared with the shrinkage strain under 30% RH, the reduction in shrinkage strain under 60% RH and 100%RH was up to 46.1% and 107.5%, respectively. At last, a relationship between shrinkage strain and curing age under 30% and 60% RH was established with a fitting degree from 0.9492 to 0.9987, while no clear relationship was presented under 100% RH. The results in this paper provide a practical method for solving the shrinkage problem of EGCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conversation circles in kindergartens can foster discursive abilities such as argumentation. This paper analyzes argumentation in conversation circles in a kindergarten with respect to the function of narrative argumentation. We focus on second stories as a specific narrative form that is characterized by relating in content and form to a before told narrative thereby displaying similarity and alignment. In this paper, we will analyze videographed conversation circles in a kindergarten. Our methodological approach is interactional and qualitative, informed by conversation analysis and narrative analysis. We will argue that preschool children use second stories for argumentative purposes in cooperative argumentative exchanges and through them produce interactional alignment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the distributed unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem with machining constraints, this paper proposed an extended empire competition algorithm to solve the problem, which took the total transportation cost, evaluation function for simultaneous shutdown of parallel machines among factories and equilibrium evaluation function for average switching frequency of workpiece types among factories as optimization objectives. Based on the original empire competition algorithm, this algorithm added an initial factory-workpiece sequence group suitable for factory assignment. According to the shortcoming of the traditional empire competition algorithm that it was easy to fall into the local optimum, this paper divided the inferior sequence assimilation into the external assimilation mechanism and the internal assimilation mechanism. The extended empire competition algorithm combined local and global search methods to realize the intelligent search behavior. This paper used the partial matching crossover and single point mutation to update the factory-workpiece sequence group and ensure the diversity of the factory-workpiece sequence. Finally, this paper designed three different scales of 12 examples and verified the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm through simulation experiments. At the same time, this paper verified the advantages of the proposed algorithm in solving the distributed multi-objective unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem by comparing the research results in related fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a reflection on a teaching experience involving the use of the Brügner tangram, an interesting but little-known manipulative material. It details an activity conducted as part of an undergraduate mathematics education course for prospective primary school teachers. The main objective of this paper is to present the implementation of a sequence of activities designed to convey to future teachers the importance of systematically solving problems that involve searching for or constructing different cases. Specifically, participants are provided with the three pieces of the Brügner's tangram and assigned the task of identifying all possible convex polygons that can be constructed. Moreover, they are required to elucidate the methodological approach underpinning their exploratory process, with an emphasis on establishing relationships between the polygons. Graphs are introduced as one of the possible approaches for modelling the problem, offering a graphical representation that aids in the systematic search for solutions. This paper describes different activities involving the Brügner's tangram which has demonstrated its adaptability as an instructional resource. The teaching sequence adheres to the five-phase structure proposed within the framework of the van Hiele model, which is also part of the course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domain adaptation is a subfield of statistical learning theory that takes into account the shift between the distribution of training and test data, typically known as source and target domains, respectively. In this context, this paper presents an incremental approach to tackle the intricate challenge of unsupervised domain adaptation, where labeled data within the target domain is unavailable. The proposed approach, OTP-DA, endeavors to learn a sequence of joint subspaces from both the source and target domains using Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), such that the projected data into these subspaces are domain-invariant and well-separated. Nonetheless, the necessity of labeled data for LDA to derive the projection matrix presents a substantial impediment, given the absence of labels within the target domain in the setting of unsupervised domain adaptation. To circumvent this limitation, we introduce a selective label propagation technique grounded on optimal transport (OTP), to generate pseudo-labels for target data, which serve as surrogates for the unknown labels. We anticipate that the process of inferring labels for target data will be substantially streamlined within the acquired latent subspaces, thereby facilitating a self-training mechanism. Furthermore, our paper provides a rigorous theoretical analysis of OTP-DA, underpinned by the concept of weak domain adaptation learners, thereby elucidating the requisite conditions for the proposed approach to solve the problem of unsupervised domain adaptation efficiently. Experimentation across a spectrum of visual domain adaptation problems suggests that OTP-DA exhibits promising efficacy and robustness, positioning it favorably compared to several state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]