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Dictation is a traditional technique for both teaching and testing overall language ability and listening comprehension. In a dictation, a passage is read aloud by the teacher and examinees write down what they hear. Due to the peculiar form of dictations, psychometric analysis of dictations is challenging. In a dictation, there is no clear boundary between the items and every word in the text is potentially an item. This makes the analysis of dictations with classical and modern test theories rather difficult. In this study, we suggest a procedure to make dictations analyzable with psychometric models. Our strategy entailed using several independent short passages instead of a single long passage. The number of mistakes in each passage was counted and entered into the analysis. Rasch model analysis was then applied to the passage scores (mistakes). Our findings showed that dictations fit the Rasch model very well and it is possible to measure examinees' ability on an interval scale using dictations.

Performing two actions at the same time usually results in performance costs. However, recent studies have also reported dual-action benefits: performing only one of two possible actions may necessitate the inhibition of the initially activated, but unwarranted second action, leading to single-action costs. Presumably, two preconditions determine the occurrence and strength of such inhibition-based dual-action benefits: (a) response set reductivity and (b) action prepotency. A nonreductive response set (given when all possible responses have to be kept in working memory) creates inhibitory action control demands in single-, but not in dual-action trials, and the ensuing inhibitory costs are proportional to the level of action prepotency (i.e., an action that is easy to initiate is hard to inhibit). Here, we set out to test this hypothesis by varying representational characteristics in working memory (namely response set reductivity and action prepotency) across four experiments. In Experiments 1 to 3, we compared (a) a randomized mode of trial presentation to (b) intermixed, but predictable fixed sequences of trial types and (c) a completely blocked mode of presentation. As expected, dual-action benefits were strongly present in Experiment 1, significantly reduced in Experiment 2, and absent in Experiment 3. This pattern of results matches our predictions derived from the assumption that differential inhibitory costs in single-action trials are the root cause of dual-action benefits. Crucially, however, the results of Experiment 4 (in which response conditions were only partially blocked) pointed to a secondary source of dual-action benefits that was inseparable from inhibition-based effects in previous experimental designs: semantic redundancy gains.

This quasi-experimental quantitative study investigated the effects of different formats of multimediaenhanced instruction on knowledge gain and retention of second language learners. The study focused specifically on assessing Mayer's redundancy principle. Second language learners were randomly assigned into two groups and were presented with two formats of a multimedia-enhanced lesson: (1) images with audio and (2) images with audio and on-screen text. A repeatedmeasures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was carried out to evaluate change between pretest and immediate posttest, mean differences in knowledge gain between the two groups, group differences in growth from pretest to immediate posttest, change between immediate posttest and delayed posttest, and group differences in knowledge retention as indicated by difference scores between immediate posttest and delayed posttest, using gender and English proficiency as control variables. Additionally, an independent samples t-test was performed to assess the effect of the two formats of multimedia-enhanced instruction on the learners' knowledge retention. Results showed that participants engaging with both formats of multimedia-enhanced instruction improved significantly from pretest to posttest. Moreover, participants who engaged with the multimedia-enhanced instruction where on-screen text was included were also found to perform significantly better than participants who were in the group where on-screen text was not present. Second language learners in both groups were also able to retain their knowledge at the same level. These results appear to contradict the redundancy principle as having onscreen text, which is considered redundant, presented together with images and audio in a multimedia-enhanced lesson was not detrimental to learning.

Policy observers have expressed concern over whether misalignment between pre-K and K--12 has negative consequences for children. This study considers students' exposure to redundant content across the pre-K and kindergarten years. Specifically, it asks, to what extent are skills and concepts taught in kindergarten redundant with skills and concepts taught in one state's public pre-K program, and for whom is redundancy most likely? Overall, findings from teacher surveys show that about 37% of the language, literacy, and math content covered in kindergarten is redundant with content covered in pre-K. The highest rates of redundancy seem to occur for basic (rather than advanced) content items, including the identification of letters and sight words. Moreover, children from families who live at or below the poverty line experience significantly higher rates of redundant content. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are discussed.

Redundancy effect has been investigated in many controlled experimental studies, however, it is seldom investigated whether the same redundant material may cause different results in classroom, which is a major learning place for students. Considering that it is not easy to control the internal validity in classroom environment, this study proposed a new research approach with the use of virtual reality (VR) classroom as the experimental platform to investigate this issue. In the current study, one hundred and four fifth-grade students were randomly assigned to four experimental conditions with two different presentation formats (redundant and non-redundant) and two learning environments (lab and VR classroom). The retention test scores, cognitive load, and performance efficiency were used as dependent variables. The results revealed that the redundancy effect occurred in the lab environment and the reverse redundancy effect occurred in the VR classroom environment. In the lab environment, participants who had learned with non-redundant materials demonstrated better learning performance than those who had learned with redundant materials. On the contrary, the results were reversed in the VR classroom environment. The programmed interferences in the VR classroom are suggested as the main factor influencing the results.

The use of subtitles within multimedia presentations is a common practice to develop accessible instructional materials for individuals with disabilities. However, due to various deficits in cognitive processing, individuals with symptoms of attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may not benefit from the use of subtitles to enhance their recall of information and transference of knowledge with reduced mental effort. This study evaluated learners in two different environments. The redundancy group included subtitles with a narrated multimedia presentation, and the nonredundancy group included the same presentation with narration only. The analysis of data collected indicated that an increase in ADHD symptoms resulted in an increase in mental effort and a decrease in recall and transfer. Based on these observations, designers should allow learners to control the use of subtitles in narrated multimedia presentations.

Different from other elaborate proses, academic writing needs a clear language to extend its scope of audience. Intending to be seen intellectual, competent, or more attractive, writers may inflate their manuscripts with unnecessary complicated words and pompous frills unique to specific jargons; however, such texts, called flowery writing, in an attempt to sound important or possibly gloriously elegant only create a viscous language hard to follow, ending with texts strangling in meaningless jargon that needs to be deciphered by readers with considerable effort. Obviously, the reader whose aim is simply to get a piece of information may become easily confused and irritated after a time of chasing the meaning of words inside an overwrought prose. Therefore, now that the primary purpose of a scientific writing is to reach audiences, and a simplified statement would just do fine to achieve that; why do we use a flowery language that is difficult to decode? This study investigated introduction and conclusion parts of a hundred research articles written in English by Turkish speakers, and picked up unnecessary complicated words, phrases and sentences. In addition, some pedagogical implications regarding the importance of being plain in academic writing were suggested particularly for non-native writers of English.

This study explores the development of anaphora resolution (AR) in late sequential bilinguals, namely, adult Greek learners of Spanish at three proficiency levels (intermediate, lower advanced, upper advanced). The use of an overt/null pronominal subject anaphor is investigated in three discourse contexts: topic-continuity (a single antecedent requiring a null pronoun), contrastive-focus (two same-gender potential antecedents requiring an overt pronoun to avoid ambiguity) and emphatic (three same-gender potential antecedents showing unclear preference for either overt or null pronoun). Crucially, AR behaves similarly in Greek and Spanish. Results from an offline contextualised acceptability judgement task show that similarity between the learner's first (L1) and second (L2) languages does not necessarily facilitate the learning task. Even very advanced learners show deficits, which are selective since not all discursive contexts are equally affected. The results are better accounted for by general pragmatic economy principles: Learners prefer being redundant (overuse of overt pronouns in topic-continuity contexts) to ambiguous (acceptance of null pronouns in contrastive-focus contexts). Such tolerance for redundancy may reflect a more general pragmatic tendency, as also reported in child L1 development, adult L2 development and also in native grammars.

Two experiments were conducted to investigate how individuals with persistent pain would respond to instructional materials designed to promote the modality and redundancy effects. It was predicted that persistent pain would reduce the positive impact of narrated text due to reduced working memory capacity. One hundred thirty-seven full-time teachers from six schools in Australia participated in the study. Pain and pain-free participants were identified and matched through a demographics questionnaire before being randomly assigned to selected instructional formats. In both experiments, participants viewed system-paced multimedia presentations depicting how lightning works. In Experiment 1, it was found that for pain-free participants, illustrations plus narrated text led to significantly higher learning outcomes than illustrations plus written text (a modality effect). However, for pain participants, no advantage was found for the illustrations plus narrated text format. In Experiment 2, it was found that for pain-free participants, illustrations plus narrated text led to significantly higher learning outcomes than illustrations plus narrated text plus identical written text (a redundancy effect). For pain participants, a reverse effect was found, suggesting that the replicated written text format was not redundant but beneficial for these individuals. Furthermore, despite low scores on standardized pain measures, individuals with persistent pain achieved significantly lower learning outcomes than pain-free participants in both experiments. It was concluded that clinically low levels of pain could significantly interfere with information retention and transference. For individuals with persistent pain, the use of narrated explanatory text could be a disadvantage due to its transitory nature.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of captioned vs. non-captioned instructional videos on the motivation and achievement. To this end, a pre-test and post-test experimental design was used on 109 sophomores from a Turkish state university. Videos with and without captions of the unit in question were prepared by the lecturer of the course "Graphics and Animation in Education." The first group (captioned video group; n = 57) studied the applied dimension of the course with captioned videos but the second group (non-captioned video group; n = 52) studied without captions. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected for study. Quantitative data were collected via academic achievement test and instructional materials motivation survey while qualitative data were collected by means of focus group interviews to substantiate the quantitative data. The findings indicated that, in contrast to the suggestion of the redundancy principle, motivation and achievement scores of students do not vary according to the instructional video type under investigation (captioned vs. non-captioned). Thereby, it was concluded that a moderating effect of the streaming feature of instructional material should be considered to interpret the redundancy effect. However, further research is needed to better reveal this moderating effect.

Previous research on multiple external representations (MER) indicates that sequencing representations (compared with presenting them as a whole) can, in some cases, increase conceptual understanding if there is interference between internal and external representations. We tested this mechanism by sequencing different combinations of scientific and abstract chemical representations and presenting them to 133 learners with low prior knowledge of the represented domain. The results provide insight into three separate mechanisms of learning with MER. (1) A memory (number of ideas reproduced) and (2) an accuracy (correctness of these ideas) effects occur when two representations are presented in a sequence. An accuracy and a (3) redundancy (number of redundant ideas remembered) effects occur when three representations are presented in a sequence. A necessary precondition for these effects is that descriptive formats are placed before depictive formats. The identified effects are analyzed in terms of the concept of cognitive dissonance.

The current use of two sets of units in the UK continues to be a source of muddle and confusion. Young people are taught metric (SI) units in school but, in the outside world, still have to contend with units such as inches, feet, pounds, stones and miles. Specialist teachers and practitioners of the sciences are not blameless. This paper considers the fact that some units commonly used in physics, astronomy, and physics education are unnecessary, involve time-wasting conversions and frequently lead to confusion or even error. This unsatisfactory situation is illustrated by examples, and suggestions are made for a radical improvement.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of redundancy when learning from realistic science materials. Participants received instruction where redundancy was manipulated between text and diagrams with captions, text and diagrams, and text only. Participants reported levels of cognitive load, responded to questionnaire items and completed an achievement test. Findings indicated there were no significant differences in perceived mental effort between groups, though there were differences in experienced material difficulty. In contrast with the redundancy effect described by cognitive load theory, the manipulation of redundancy in lengthier text materials paired with diagrams did not affect performance on the achievement test.

The "bounce" (coined by students at Susan Leigh's last campus) refers to the amount of time students spent chasing signatures and removing often-unnecessary registration "holds" in order to attend their classes. Leigh explains that all this chaos from complex, separately housed transactional business processes has led to the creation of many successful so-called "One Stop" or integrated student services in colleges and universities across the U.S. and Canada. Centralizing critical services such as student records, financial aid and student financial accounts in one location is part of the solution but to really eliminate the "bounce," Leigh says the offices responsible have to unpack the processes that are causing the chaos. In this brief article, she suggests a few things that can be done without a One Stop to eliminate the "bounce."

Accelerated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has played an essential role in reducing data acquisition time for MRI. Acceleration can be achieved by acquiring fewer data points in k-space, which results in various artifacts in the image domain. Conventional reconstruction methods have resolved the artifacts by utilizing multi-coil information, but with limited robustness. Recently, numerous deep learning-based reconstruction methods have been developed, enabling outstanding reconstruction performances with higher acceleration. Advances in hardware and developments of specialized network architectures have produced such achievements. Besides, MRI signals contain various redundant information including multi-coil redundancy, multi-contrast redundancy, and spatiotemporal redundancy. Utilization of the redundant information combined with deep learning approaches allow not only higher acceleration, but also well-preserved details in the reconstructed images. Consequently, this review paper introduces the basic concepts of deep learning and conventional accelerated MRI reconstruction methods, followed by review of recent deep learning-based reconstruction methods that exploit various redundancies. Lastly, the paper concludes by discussing the challenges, limitations, and potential directions of future developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) are pivotal in health care and wearable technologies, enabling seamless communication between miniature sensors and devices on or within the human body. These biosensors capture critical physiological parameters, ranging from body temperature and blood oxygen levels to real-time electrocardiogram readings. However, WBANs face significant challenges during and after deployment, including energy conservation, security, reliability, and failure vulnerability. Sensor nodes, which are often battery-operated, expend considerable energy during sensing and transmission due to inherent spatiotemporal patterns in biomedical data streams. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of data-driven approaches that address these challenges, focusing on device placement and routing, sampling rate calibration, and the application of machine learning (ML) and statistical learning techniques to enhance network performance. Additionally, we validate three existing models (statistical, ML, and coding-based models) using two real datasets, namely the MIMIC clinical database and biomarkers collected from six subjects with a prototype biosensing device developed by our team. Our findings offer insights into strategies for optimizing energy efficiency while ensuring security and reliability in WBANs. We conclude by outlining future directions to leverage approaches to meet the evolving demands of healthcare applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, disruptive events pose significant threats to organizations, making resilience a critical focus. Evaluating supply chain resilience is essential to avoid escalating disruptions. However, the literature on this topic is fragmented, and the assessment of resilience remains an open gap due to the lack of a clear definition of the dimensions and elements for its evaluation. To fill this gap, this study integrates a systematic literature review (SLR) and a systematic literature network analysis (SLNA) to propose a MAturity MOdel for REsilient Supply Chains (MaMoReS). Through content analysis and stringent selection of 15 resilience maturity models (ResMMs) via SLR, along with an SLNA on 6,474 sources, this method defines dimensions and sub-dimensions. The proposed MaMoReS is framed around five levels and five dimensions: risk management, agility, flexibility and adaptability, redundancy and robustness, transparency and visibility, and collaboration and relationships. The MaMoReS is applied to two case studies, pinpointing the practicality of the MaMoReS for measuring the resilience maturity level of the two companies along with their dimensions and sub-dimensions scoring. Thus, the MaMoReS can be used as an assessment tool by supply chain managers and researchers to evaluate the resilience of a supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HVDC is a promising interconnection solution for connecting asynchronous systems and ensuring power control. In Indonesia, a remote industrial system in Sumatra is experiencing load growth and has the option to draw power from the Sumatra system. However, due to frequency differences, the use of HVDC is crucial. The Generation Expansion Planning has proposed six converters but not their interconnection points. This study will determine the most reliable interconnection locations. The chosen converters are modular multilevel converters (MMCs) with high modularity. The converter reliability modeling considers voltage levels, the number of modules, and redundancy strategies. This modeling is then implemented at the power system level to obtain the best placement at the available high-voltage (HV) substation options. Determining the best placement is based on the optimal reliability index. The optimal placement also includes the option to convert from HV to medium-voltage (MV) interconnection. MV interconnection offers higher flexibility but tends to be more expensive. The availability for HV converters is 99.69%, while for MV converters, it is slightly higher, at 99.81%. Additionally, converting from HV to MV reduces the SAIFI (system average interruption frequency index) from 0.2668 to 0.2284 occurrences per year, lowering the interruption cost from 7.804 million USD to 5.737 million USD per year. The sensitivity of interruption, investment, and maintenance costs shows that converting at least one HV converter to MV remains economical. In this case study, the optimal converter placement includes Area VI–2, recommended for conversion from HV to a more distributed MV configuration, improving reliability and economic efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud storage is one of the most crucial components of cloud computing because it makes it simpler for users to share and manage their data on the cloud with authorized users. Secure deduplication has attracted much attention in cloud storage because it may remove redundancy from encrypted data to save storage space and communication overhead. Many current safe deduplication systems usually focus on accomplishing the following characteristics regarding security and privacy: Access control, tag consistency, data privacy and defence against various attacks. But as far as we know, none can simultaneously fulfil all four conditions. In this research, we offer a safe deduplication method that is effective and provides user-defined access control to address this flaw. Because it only allows the cloud service provider to grant data access on behalf of data owners, our proposed solution (Request-response-based Elliptic Curve Cryptography) may effectively delete duplicates without compromising the security and privacy of cloud users. A thorough security investigation reveals that our approved safe deduplication solution successfully thwarts brute-force attacks while dependably maintaining tag consistency and data confidentiality. Comprehensive simulations show that our solution surpasses the evaluation in computing, communication, storage overheads, and deduplication efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) evolve for general-purpose computations besides inherently fault-tolerant graphics programs, soft error reliability becomes a first-class citizen in program design. Especially, safety-critical systems utilizing GPU devices need to employ fault-tolerance techniques to recover from errors in hardware components. While software-level redundancy approaches, based on the replication of the application code, offer high reliability for safe program execution, it is essential to perform redundancy by utilizing parallel execution units in the target architecture not to hurt performance with redundant computations. In this work, we propose redundancy approaches using the parallel GPU cores and implement a compiler-level redundancy framework that enables the programmer to configure the target GPGPU program for redundant execution. We run redundant executions for GPGPU programs from the PolyBench benchmark suite by applying our kernel-level redundancy approaches and evaluate their performance by considering the parallelism level of the programs. Our results reveal that redundancy approaches utilizing parallelism offered by GPU cores yield higher performance for redundant executions, while the programs that already make use of parallel GPU cores in their original form suffer from overhead caused by contention among redundant threads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recording and analysis of neural activity are often biased toward detecting sparse subsets of highly active neurons, masking important signals carried in low-magnitude and variable responses. To investigate the contribution of seemingly noisy activity to odor encoding, we used mesoscale calcium imaging from mice of both sexes to record odor responses from the dorsal surface of bilateral olfactory bulbs (OBs). The outer layer of the mouse OB is comprised of dendrites organized into discrete "glomeruli," which are defined by odor receptor-specific sensory neuron input. We extracted activity from a large population of glomeruli and used logistic regression to classify odors from individual trials with high accuracy. We then used add-in and dropout analyses to determine subsets of glomeruli necessary and sufficient for odor classification. Classifiers successfully predicted odor identity even after excluding sparse, highly active glomeruli, indicating that odor information is redundantly represented across a large population of glomeruli. Additionally, we found that random forest (RF) feature selection informed by Gini inequality (RF Gini impurity, RFGI) reliably ranked glomeruli by their contribution to overall odor classification. RFGI provided a measure of "feature importance" for each glomerulus that correlated with intuitive features like response magnitude. Finally, in agreement with previous work, we found that odor information persists in glomerular activity after the odor offset. Together, our findings support a model of OB odor coding where sparse activity is sufficient for odor identification, but information is widely, redundantly available across a large population of glomeruli, with each glomerulus representing information about more than one odor [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Machine Tool & Hydraulics is the property of Guangzhou Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (GMERI) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper presents models for managing cross-domain redundancy to enhance the reliability of two priority communication channels within critical infrastructure systems. Employing Markov chain models, the paper analyzes the impact of two distinct redundancy management strategies: a unified reserve pool and a separate pool approach with cross-domain resource sharing. The study introduces reliability improvement factors to quantify system performance, exploring their dependency on the number of additional redundant elements, their inherent reliability, and the chosen strategy for managing cross-domain redundancy. An air traffic control system serves as a case study of the application of the proposed management algorithms. Results indicate that the integration of resources from different priority domains significantly improves communication reliability. The findings may be useful for the design and operation of secure communication networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document introduces methods for describing long texts as groups of repeating symbols or patterns. The process converts a series of real-number values into texts. Developed tailored algorithms for identifying repeated sequences in the text are applied to decompose the text into nested tree-like structures of repeating symbols and is called the Nested Repeated Sequence Decomposition Model (NRSDM). The NRSDM is especially valuable for extracting repetitive behaviors in oscillatory but non-periodic and chaotic processes where the classical Fourier transform has limited application. The NRSDM along with the two graphical representations proposed here form a promising tool for characterizing long texts configured to represent the behavior of unidimensional processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of redundancies or spares in a system is a widely adopted technique to enhance system reliability and reduce the risk of system failure. Redundancies are typically incorporated into systems at the component or system levels. It is a significant problem to allocate appropriate redundancies into a system from a set of available options for the same. In this paper, we establish sufficient conditions to compare the reliability of coherent systems of dependent components with different sets of active redundancy, whether at the component level or the system level, based on some stochastic orders. We have obtained the results for the component lifetimes following the proportional odds (PO) model (the Marshall–Olkin family of distributions) for any lifetime distribution as a baseline distribution. We have studied the problem in the most general setup, with the consideration of coherent system that includes most of the common system structures, the consideration of non-matching spares, the consideration of dependencies of the components with different associated parameters of the copulas, and the consideration of general distribution as the baseline distribution of the PO model. We provide examples satisfying the sufficient conditions of the theoretical results. Additionally, we illustrate some of the results using real-world data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Noise and error are usually considered to be disturbances negatively affecting the behavior of a system. Nevertheless, from a systemic perspective, taking into account openness and incompleteness of complex systems, noise and error may assume a creative, constructive, and positive role in that they are a source of novelty that can trigger the reorganization of the system, the growth of complexity, and the emergence of new meaning. Examples of this phenomenon can be found in evolutionary phenomena driven by affordances, the formation of new attractors in dynamic systems responding to external perturbations, and improvisation in music. We argue that it is possible to identify general properties that enable the positive effect of noise and errors in complex systems, namely, multilevel organization, redundancy, incompleteness, and criticality. These properties play a major role in living systems and can guide the design of robust and adaptive artificial systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Mass Transit is the property of Urban Mass Transit Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Urban Mass Transit is the property of Urban Mass Transit Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Even though coach behavior is known to affect learning, it is unclear which specific nonverbal behavior might optimize the teaching of a tactical content in basketball. Using eye-tracking technology, recall construction paradigm, and subjective ratings of mental effort, the present study investigated the question of whether the coach's eye gaze would affect players' visual attention and recall performance. Expert (N = 72) and novice (N = 72) players watched one of three types of video lecture in which the coach either (i) gazed at the camera while talking (ii) shifted his gaze between the camera and the whiteboard (guided gaze condition), or (iii) gazed at the whiteboard (fixed gaze condition). The results showed that the coach's guided gaze not only made the novices focus their visual attention more on the corresponding elements of the game system, but also increased their recall performance and decreased their mental effort. However, the performance of the expert players remained the same regardless of the experimental condition, indicating an expertise reversal effect. The findings suggest that the effectiveness of the coach's gaze guidance is strongly dependent on expertise levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective With regard to the equipment power supply demand for long-distance section of urban rapid transit lines, the traditional point-to-point and cross-redundant power supply method for remote equipment in urban rail transit sections with WLAN (wireless local area network) and TD-LTE (time division long term evolution) exhibits various defects such as cable waste, power resource wastage, and low redundancy. Method A resolution of using DC remote power supply technology for the long-distance power resource transmission is put up, thereby optimizing the power supply scheme for the remote equipment in long-distance sections. Result & Conclusion The DC remote power supply technology can meet the power supply demand for long distance section of urban rapid transit lines, and a single point failure will not cause interruption of wireless communication, thus further improve the redundancy and reliability of the power supply system. The monitoring subsystem installed in the equipment can be synchronously integrated into the signal microcomputer monitoring system to realize the closed-loop management of the power supply system.

Objective Under the existing modes, when a core equipment in the OCC (operation control center) fails, the BOCC (backup operation control center) needs to be activated, which greatly increases the dispatchers′ difficulty in operation command. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct research on optimization of the OCC and BOCC architecture design. Method ATS (automatic train supervision) system is taken as an example for analysis. The configuration of ATS system in OCC and BOCC is introduced. The function positioning of BOCC, the working principle and switching mode of OCC and BOCC before and after OCC and BOCC architecture design optimization are analyzed. Result & Conclusion The optimization of OCC and BOCC architecture design significantly improves the redundancy, greatly reduces the scenarios requiring dispatchers to move to BOCC for operation command, and obviously decreases the impact of ATS system faults on related external interface systems.

With the gradual development and modernization of satellite navigation systems, using observation information from multi-GNSS has become one of the hot-spot issues in recent years. Multi-system loose combinations form double-difference observation equations within their respective systems, and the positioning effect is improved. However, the interchangeability and compatible interoperability between global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) cannot be truly realized. At the same time, when the number of visible satellites decreases abruptly, the positioning performance deteriorates sharply. This paper focuses on the GNSS multi-system tight combination relative positioning technique, gives a mathematical model of multi-system tight combination relative positioning considering differential inter-system bias (DISB), and analyzes the time-varying characteristics of DISB at overlapping and non-overlapping frequencies among GPS/Galileo, GPS/BDS, and GPS/QZSS in terms of receiver brand, temperature, and receiver restart. The GNSS tight combination relative positioning performance is verified by static data from Curtin University and dynamic data measured at Taiyuan University of Technology. The results show that compared with loose combination, the ambiguity-fixed rate increases from 62.18% to 97.60% for static data and from 74.97% to 99.53% for dynamic data when the elevation mask angle is 50°, resulting in a significant improvement in positioning performance.

A bridge failure can result in significant social, economic, and environmental problems; therefore, its reliability and risk management are essential. Bridges’ system reliability and risks are governed mainly by their redundancy and robustness, which currently are not adequately included in most design code specifications. Thus, in this study, a comprehensive comparison between relevant importance, redundancy, and robustness indicators found in the literature with different levels of complexity is carried out. The indicators under analysis have been used separately in different studies but have never been addressed together. Therefore, this study presents a joint evaluation of deterministic, reliability- and risk-based indicators to evaluate the differences in interpretation and information provided by the indicators. The approach is exemplified by analyzing a prestressed concrete bridge subjected to continuous degradation due to chloride ingress. A procedure is implemented to couple a metamodel-based reliability approach with a Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis (NLFEA). Based on the analysis performed, the comparison between indicators showed how different interpretations can be obtained depending on the implemented approach. Thus, creating more uniform formulations and agreeing on target values is necessary to help with redundancy and robustness interpretation.

Redox-based protein posttranslational modifications, such as S-nitrosylation of critical, active site cysteine thiols have garnered significant clinical attention and research interest, reasoning for one of the crucial biological implications of reactive messenger molecule, nitric oxide in the cellular repertoire. The stringency of the S-(de)nitrosylation-based redox switch governs the activity and contribution of several susceptible enzymes in signal transduction processes and diverse pathophysiological settings, thus establishing it as a transient yet reasonable, and regulated mechanism of NO adduction and release. Notably, endogenous proteases like cytosolic and mitochondrial caspases with a molecular weight ranging from 33 to 55 kDa are susceptible to performing this biochemistry in the presence of major oxidoreductases, which further unveils the enormous redox-mediated regulational control of caspases in the etiology of diseases. In addition to advancing the progress of the current state of understanding of 'redox biochemistry' in the field of medicine and enriching the existing dynamic S-nitrosoproteome, this review stands as a testament to an unprecedented shift in the underpinnings for redundancy and redox relay between the major redoxin/antioxidant systems, fine-tuning of which can command the apoptotic control of caspases at the face of nitro-oxidative stress. These intricate functional overlaps and cellular backups, supported rationally by kinetically favorable reaction mechanisms suggest the physiological relevance of identifying and involving such cognate substrates for cellular S-denitrosylases that can shed light on the bigger picture of extensively proposing targeted therapies and redox-based drug designing to potentially alleviate the side effects of NOx/ROS in disease pathogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a hybrid modelling approach that combines physics-based electromigration modelling (PEM) and statistical methods to evaluate the electromigration (EM) limits of nano-interconnects in mesh networks. The approach, which is also compatible with standard Place and Route (P&R) tools and practises, takes into account the positive impact of network redundancy on EM current limits. The numerical simulations conducted in this study show that conventional methods underestimate the EM current limits of a power delivery network (PDN) unit-cell by 80% due to their lack of consideration for redundancy. Additionally, the time-to-failure (TTF) distributions of a PDN unit-cell obtained by the developed modelling framework adhered to a lognormal distribution, where the lognormal sigma, σlogn, exhibits a 55% reduction compared to that of the single constituent interconnects. The study also found the negative voltage (i.e., ground or Vss) grid to be more susceptible to EM than the positive voltage, i.e., Vdd grid. In the examined grid unit-cell design, both the number of interconnect sites prone to voiding and also the magnitude of the peak tensile stress within the nano-interconnects were found to be two times as high in the Vss case compared to Vdd. The lognormal sigma of TFF for the grid unit-cells, σ l o g n − t i l e , show a marked reduction compared to the lognormal sigma of the constituent single interconnects, σ l o g n , with a 50% and 66% decrease compared to single interconnects, for downstream (Vss) and upstream (Vdd), respectively. In addition, σ l o g n − t i l e was three times higher for downstream (Vss) compared to upstream (Vdd), whilst, in contrast, this difference was only 2-fold at the single interconnect level. TTF50% was predicted to be 4.13-fold higher at the grid unit-cell level for the upstream compared to downstream operation, which was also more pronounced than in the single interconnect level where the difference was only 2-fold. This research provides valuable insights into the EM ageing of nano-interconnects in mesh networks and could pragmatically enhance the accuracy of EM compliance evaluation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photostasis is the light-dependent maintenance of energy balance associated with cellular homeostasis in photoautotrophs. We review evidence that illustrates how photosynthetic adaptation in polar photoautrophs such as aquatic green algae, cyanobacteria, boreal conifers as well as terrestrial angiosperms exhibit an astonishing plasticity in structure and function of the photosynthetic apparatus. This plasticity contributes to the maintenance of photostasis, which is essential for the long-term survival in the seemingly inhospitable Antarctic and Arctic habitats. However, evidence indicates that polar photoautrophic species exhibit different functional solutions for the maintenance of photostasis. We suggest that this reflects, in part, the genetic diversity symbolized by inherent genetic redundancy characteristic of polar photoautotrophs which enhances their survival in a thermodynamically challenging environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of competitive examinations, the number of items can be extremely high. In such situations, the item review process remains essential. It enables designers to consider the complexity and scope of the assessment by reviewing each item and distractor. Identifying redundancies becomes even more critical in this context, as the variety and quality of items are crucial to ensure a fair and equitable assessment of candidates' skills. This article aims to propose an artificial intelligence model specifically designed to efficiently detect and correct these redundancies in multiple-choice tests. By combining the human expertise in item review with the massive data processing capabilities of AI, we aim to improve the quality and reliability of competitive exams, while optimizing the time and resources required for their development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel integrated sustainability index (ISI) and a related criticality index (CI) are proposed to assess the performance of nodes in a water distribution network (WDN). The ISI integrates information discerned from two hydraulic indicators (reliability and redundancy) and a topological measure (closeness centrality), which are critical for defining WDN performance. The hydraulic indicators focus on demand satisfaction with desired pressure at nodes, whereas topologic measures account for the interdependencies and interconnectedness of the network components. The CI aids in differentiating nodes with similar hydraulic or topologic characteristics to identify the most critical nodes in a WDN, whose maintenance and management are essential to ensure the smooth operation of the network. The potential of ISI over the conventional hydraulic indicators-based sustainability index and efficacy of the CI over five existing indices (betweenness centrality, closeness centrality, eigenvector centrality, demand centrality, and demand-adjusted entropic degree) is illustrated through case studies on one hypothetical and two real networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work is devoted to the analysis of the most important reliability indicators of components of electrical devices of mining dump trucks, and analytical methods of their evaluation are proposed. A mathematical model for calculating the reliability of electrical devices integrated into the electrical systems of quarry dump trucks is presented. The model takes into account various loads arising in the process of operation and their influence on reliability reduction. Optimisation of maintenance and repair schedules of electrical equipment has revealed problems for research. One of them is the classification of electrical equipment by similar residual life, which allows the formation of effective repair and maintenance cycles. The analysis of statistical data on damages revealed the regularities of their occurrence, which is an important factor in assessing the reliability of electrical equipment in mining production. For quantitative assessment of reliability, it is proposed to use the parameter of the average expected operating time per failure. This parameter characterises the relative reliability of electrical equipment and is a determining factor of its reliability. The developed mathematical model of equipment failures with differentiation of maintained equipment by repeated service life allows flexible schedules of maintenance and repair to be created. The realisation of such cycles makes it possible to move from planned repairs to the system of repair according to the actual resource of the equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The microthruster is generally chosen as the actuator of the drag‐free satellite control system, and the layout directly affects the stability of the satellite control. Due to the extremely rigorous objectives of drag‐free control, a design method for the redundant thruster layout is proposed in this paper to improve the control stability of the satellite and reduce the allocation error of the control system. First, the factors corresponding to the allocation errors of redundant thruster layouts are analyzed. And the minimum number of thrusters required for satellite control is determined through the calculation method of thruster redundancy. Then, the design criterion of reducing the allocation error and increasing the satellite control stability is put forward. To demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the design method proposed in this paper, the space gravitational wave detection satellite is taken as a simulation case. Thrust distribution models corresponding to the designed thruster layouts are established, and the results show that a proper layout can not only improve stability but also reduce fuel consumption. The research is looking forward to providing a reference for designing the microthruster layout of the gravitational wave detection satellite in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is much interest in the topic of partial information decomposition, both in developing new algorithms and in developing applications. An algorithm, based on standard results from information geometry, was recently proposed by Niu and Quinn (2019). They considered the case of three scalar random variables from an exponential family, including both discrete distributions and a trivariate Gaussian distribution. The purpose of this article is to extend their work to the general case of multivariate Gaussian systems having vector inputs and a vector output. By making use of standard results from information geometry, explicit expressions are derived for the components of the partial information decomposition for this system. These expressions depend on a real-valued parameter which is determined by performing a simple constrained convex optimisation. Furthermore, it is proved that the theoretical properties of non-negativity, self-redundancy, symmetry and monotonicity, which were proposed by Williams and Beer (2010), are valid for the decomposition I ig derived herein. Application of these results to real and simulated data show that the I ig algorithm does produce the results expected when clear expectations are available, although in some scenarios, it can overestimate the level of the synergy and shared information components of the decomposition, and correspondingly underestimate the levels of unique information. Comparisons of the I ig and I dep (Kay and Ince, 2018) methods show that they can both produce very similar results, but interesting differences are provided. The same may be said about comparisons between the I ig and I mmi (Barrett, 2015) methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The partial information decomposition (PID) aims to quantify the amount of redundant information that a set of sources provides about a target. Here, we show that this goal can be formulated as a type of information bottleneck (IB) problem, termed the "redundancy bottleneck" (RB). The RB formalizes a tradeoff between prediction and compression: it extracts information from the sources that best predict the target, without revealing which source provided the information. It can be understood as a generalization of "Blackwell redundancy", which we previously proposed as a principled measure of PID redundancy. The "RB curve" quantifies the prediction–compression tradeoff at multiple scales. This curve can also be quantified for individual sources, allowing subsets of redundant sources to be identified without combinatorial optimization. We provide an efficient iterative algorithm for computing the RB curve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Effective summarization of long documents is a challenging task. When addressing this challenge, Graph and Cluster-Based methods stand out as effective unsupervised solutions. Graph-Based Unsupervised methods are widely employed for summarization due to their success in identifying relationships within documents. Cluster-Based methods excel in minimizing redundancy by grouping similar content together before generating a concise summary. Therefore, this paper merges Cluster-Based and Graph-Based methods by applying language models for Unsupervised Extractive Summarization of long documents. The approach simultaneously extracts key information while minimizing redundancy. First, we use BERT-based sentence embeddings to create sentence clusters using k-means clustering and select the optimum number of clusters using the elbow method to ensure that sentences are categorized based on their semantic similarities. Then, the TextRank algorithm is employed within each cluster to rank sentences based on their importance and representativeness. Finally, the total similarity score of the graph is used to rank the clusters and eliminate less important sentence groups. Our method achieves comparable or better summary quality and reduced redundancy compared to both individual Cluster-Based and Graph-Based methods, as well as other supervised and Unsupervised baseline models across diverse datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of neuroimaging, more studies of abnormalities in brain regions of the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) usually focused on two brain regions connected, and less on abnormalities of higher-order interactions of brain regions. To explore the complex relationships of brain regions, we used the partial entropy decomposition (PED) algorithm to capture higher-order interactions by computing the higher-order dependencies of all three brain regions (triads). We proposed a method for examining the effect of individual brain regions on triads based on the PED and surrogate tests. The key triads were discovered by analyzing the effects. Further, the hypergraph modularity maximization algorithm revealed the higher-order brain structures, of which the link between right thalamus and left thalamus in ASD was more loose compared with the typical control (TC). Redundant key triad (left cerebellum crus 1 and left precuneus and right inferior occipital gyrus) exhibited a discernible attenuation in interaction in ASD, while the synergistic key triad (right cerebellum crus 1 and left postcentral gyrus and left lingual gyrus) indicated a notable decline. The results of classification model further confirmed the potential of the key triads as diagnostic biomarkers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How our central nervous system effciently controls our complex musculoskeletal system is still debated. The muscle synergy hypothesis is proposed to simplify this complex system by assuming the existence of functional neural modules that coordinate several muscles. Modularity based on muscle synergies can facilitate motor learning without compromising task performance. However, the effectiveness of modularity in motor control remains debated. This ambiguity can, in part, stem from overlooking that the performance of modularity depends on the mechanical aspects of modules of interest, such as the torque the modules exert. To address this issue, this study introduces two criteria to evaluate the quality of module sets based on commonly used performance metrics in motor learning studies: the accuracy of torque production and learning speed. One evaluates the regularity in the direction of mechanical torque the modules exert, while the other evaluates the evenness of its magnitude. For verification of our criteria, we simulated motor learning of torque production tasks in a realistic musculoskeletal system of the upper arm using feed-forward neural networks while changing the control conditions. We found that the proposed criteria successfully explain the tendency of learning performance in various control conditions. These result suggest that regularity in the direction of and evenness in magnitude of mechanical torque of utilized modules are significant factor for determining learning performance. Although the criteria were originally conceived for an error-based learning scheme, the approach to pursue which set of modules is better for motor control can have significant implications in other studies of modularity in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]