bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Mainstreaming on Ambient Inteligence and the Role of eAccessibility Networking
Authors: Šimšík Dušan  , Siman Daniel  , Galajdová Alena  , Krajňák Stanislav
Published: February 2025

Paper describes our experience in activities focused on improving quality of life by mainstream ICT services equipped with an ambient intelligence, often called as ambient assisted living, and respecting the Design for all philosophy. In this meaning these components should work to support people in carrying out their everyday life activities, tasks and rituals in easy, natural way. Developing and delivering of these services and components can be made by supporting end users, students, manufacturers, developers and policy makers through social networks and/or by ultimate online knowledge places and cooperation through networking.
A High-Throughput Auditory P300 Interface for Everyone
Authors: Vamvakousis Zacharias  , Ramirez Rafael
Published: February 2025

Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) might be the only communication resort for patients with Locked In Syndrome (LIS). Auditory-P300-based interfaces might provide an communication alternative to such patients. In this study we evaluate in an on-line setting the Emotiv's Epoc performance for capturing auditory P300s. Five healthy subjects (3 male, 2 female) participated in an on-line multi-class auditory oddball paradigm. The stimuli set consisted of six musical instruments sounds, different in pitch and stereo spatialization. Two different conditions of 300 ms and 175 ms Inter Stimuli Interval (ISI) were tested. In each condition, the training data consisted of 10 sub-trial recordings, each sub-trial consisting of 25 repetitions in the 175 ms condition and of 15 ms in the 300m s condition. At the beginning of each sub-trial a target sound was presented for the subjects to focus on. Each repetition consisted of a randomized sequence of 6 stimuli appearing once each. After training a spatial filter using xDawn unsupervised algorithm and a linear discriminant analysis (LDA) classifier on a window from 250 ms to 750 ms after the stimuli presentation, the average on-line performance was 97,5% in the 175 ms condition and 90% in the 300 ms condition, resulting in an average information transfer rate (ITR) of 5.39 bits/min -in the 175 ms condition-. The average ITR is found to be 8.88 bits/min when taking into account the minimum number of repetitions is to achieve 70% accuracy, while the best performance was 9.99 bits/min.
Return on Investment in Game Accessibility for Cognition Impairments
Authors: Westin Thomas  , Wiklund Mats
Published: February 2025

The computer game industry sales are counted in billions of dollars, and gamers with disabilities play more casual games than non-disabled gamers. Yet many potential gamers are excluded and gamers with cognition impairments have not been in focus for research and development. With recently published game accessibility guidelines as a framework, professional game producers were surveyed about the number of man-hours needed to implement basic guidelines for cognition. The survey data was compared with a previous survey on the number of people with cognition impairments constituting barriers to gaming, showing that return on investment may be achieved.
Lisling 3D: A Serious Game for the Treatment of Portuguese Aphasic Patients
Authors: Rybarczyk Yves  , Fonseca José  , Martins Ricardo
Published: February 2025

The game described in this article was developed for the treatment of lusophone aphasic patients. Various information technologies were used in order to create a multimedia platform of rehabilitation. The objective of this software is to provide a complementary tool for the classical speech therapy, which enhances the patient's recovering through the completion of exercises adapted to the different symptoms of the disease. The principal features of the game are: i) a realistic 3D virtual environment that enables the interaction with modeled objects and ii) a dynamic interface that allows the addition of new therapeutic tasks in order to get a customizable and easily upgradable platform. One of the main scientific contributions of this project is the fact that it is the only product of this sort tailored to the Portuguese population of aphasics.
Continuity of Tactile Walking Surface Indicators and Audible Pedestrian Signals at Crosswalks
Authors: Fujisawa Shoichiro  , Miyazaki Tatsuya  , Ito Shin-ichi  , Sato Katsuya
Published: February 2025

Crossing an intersection is one of the most risky actions for a visually impaired person. A visually impaired pedestrian is guided to the crosswalk entrance by the tactile walking surface indicators “TWSIs”. It is then important that he/she safely and smoothly cross the intersection using the audible pedestrian signal. However, neither connectivity nor the continuity between the TWSIs and the audible pedestrian signal travel support systems has been verified. The purpose of this research is to verify this connectivity and continuity. It should be possible to acquire basic scientific data for developing guidelines from the findings of this research.
Young Practitioners' Challenges, Experience and Strategies in Usability Testing with Older Adults
Authors: de Barros Ana Correia  , Leitão Roxanne
Published: February 2025

Literature on usability practice suggests that, despite recommendations for user research and usability testing with younger or older adults being similar, practitioners working with older adults as a target audience should take special care in following the recommendations. Nevertheless, there are not many studies describing the experience of practitioners with this particular audience. Our study shares the findings obtained from semi-structured interviews with six young practitioners who have had all their practical experience with no other group beyond the older adult population. The analysis to the insights of these young practitioners 1) shows that they have learned through their own experience what are written in the literature as recommendations and guidelines, 2) confirm existing guidelines and 3) might potentially contribute to existing best practices in user research and usability testing with older adults.
Touchscreen Interaction of Older Adults: A Literature Review
Authors: Genaro Motti Lilian  , Vigouroux Nadine  , Gorce Philippe
Published: February 2025

Several studies investigated different interaction techniques and input devices for older adults using touchscreen. This literature review analyses the population involved, the kind of tasks that were executed, the apparatus, the input techniques, the provided feedback, the collected data and author's findings and their recommendations. As conclusion, this review shows that age-related changes, previous experience with technologies, characteristics of handheld devices and use situations need to be studied.
SOKEYTO V2: A Toolkit for Designing and Evaluating Virtual Keyboards
Authors: Sauzin Damien  , Vella Frédéric  , Vigouroux Nadine
Published: February 2025

Designing virtual keyboards adapted to the needs of upper limbs motor impairment for text input or application control command requires an integrated tool to design and evaluate it. There are platforms of virtual keyboard design. These platforms enable to design virtual keyboards for text input, environment control command but also application control application like Internet. Several studies have defined models and parameters to measure the performance of text entry. Some adjustments of Fitts' law have been proposed to consider the motor behavior of upper limbs motor impairment. This paper will describe the SOftware KEYboard TOolkit (SOKEYTO v2). It is an upgrade of SOKEYTO v1. Text entry and environment controls are available functionalities of software keyboards designed by (SOKEYTO v2). SOKEYTO is the result of brainstorming sessions, review of related work on tools and test of current environment Clavicom NG, CiviKey. SOKEYTO v2 is a complete tool: it enables to design, generate and evaluate software keyboards. The evaluation process is an integral part of SOKEYTO; then it is possible to measure the impact of the layout on speed rate, for example, at each design step of virtual keyboard SOKEYTO v2 also allows the management of multi-layer of software keyboard; each layer could be customized. In regards to related work, SOKEYTO particularities are: predictive models adapted to motor impairment; possibility of customized keyboard layout and a program generator of software keyboard. Firstly, this paper will describe the method used to define the components of SOKEYTO and the characteristics of SOKEYTO with an emphasis on the SOKEYTO particularities. Then, we will report the predictive evaluation of software keyboards designed by the SOKEYTO platform.
Developing Assistive Technology with Multidisciplinary Teams: A Front-End Procedure to Stimulate Collaboration and Manage Expectations
Authors: Elprama Shirley A.  , Duysburgh Pieter  , Bleumers Lizzy  , Jacobs An
Published: February 2025

Since developing assistive technology in multidisciplinary teams can be a challenge, we propose a procedure to bring all actors in the project together using a user centered approach. This procedure starts with writing a use case of the envisioned assistive technology. Next, it continues using a questionnaire to make expectations of all partners explicit. During a multidisciplinary meeting, the survey and the use case together serve as a basis to come to a hypothetical scenario describing current and future practices. The final step is to test the extent to which the assumptions in the hypothetical scenario hold. By interviewing relevant users, the hypothetical scenario will then iteratively evolve to a current practice scenario. The case of the Fallrisk project is used in this paper to illustrate the envisioned procedure and lessons drawn from applying this procedure.
Scalable Visualization and Interactive Analysis Using Massive Data Streams
Authors: Pascucci Valerio  , Bremer Peer-Timo  , Gyulassy Attila  , Scorzelli Giorgio  , Christensen Cameron  , Summa Brian  , Kumar Sidharth
Published: February 2025

Historically, data creation and storage has always out paced the infrastructure for its movement and utilization. This trend is increasing now more than ever, with the ever growing size of scientific simulations, increased resolution of sensors, and large mosaic images. Effective exploration of massive scientific models demands the combination of data management, analysis, and visualization techniques, working together in an interactive setting. The ViSUS application framework has been designed as an environment that allows the interactive exploration and analysis of massive scientific models in a cache-oblivious, hardware-agnostic manner, enabling processing and visualization of possibly geographically distributed data using many kinds of devices and platforms.
Mammoth Data in the Cloud: Clustering Social Images
Authors: Qiu Judy  , Zhang Bingjing
Published: February 2025

Social image datasets have grown to dramatic size with images classified in vector spaces with high dimension (512-2048) and with potentially billions of images and corresponding classification vectors. We study the challenging problem of clustering such sets into millions of clusters using Iterative MapReduce. We introduce a new Kmeans algorithm in the Map phase which can tackle the challenge of large cluster and dimension size. Further we stress that the necessary parallelism of such data intensive problems are dominated by particular collective operations which are common to MPI and MapReduce and study different collective implementations, which enable cloud-HPC cluster interoperability. Extensive performance results are presented.
Performance and Programming Environment of a Combined GPU/FPGA Desktop
Authors: da Silva Bruno  , Braeken An  , D'Hollander Erik H.  , Touhafi Abdellah  , Cornelis Jan G.  , Lemeire Jan
Published: February 2025

The performance and the versatility of today's PCs exceeds many times the power of the fastest number crunchers in the 90s. Yet the computational hunger of many scientific applications has led to the development of GPU- and FPGA-accelerator cards. In this paper the programming environment and the performance analysis of a super desktop with a combined GPU/FPGA architecture is presented. A unified roofline model is used to compare the performance of the GPU and the FPGA taking into account the computational intensity of the algorithm and the resource consumption. The model is validated by two image processing kernels which are compiled using OpenCL for the GPU and a C-to-VHDL compiler for the FPGA. It is shown that an FPGA compiler outperforms handwritten code and is highly productive, but also uses more resources. While both the GPU and FPGA excel in particular applications, both devices suffer from the limited I/O bandwidth to the processor.
Palette: A Cache Leakage Energy Saving Technique for Green Computing
Authors: Mittal Sparsh  , Zhang Zhao
Published: February 2025

With each CMOS technology generation, leakage energy has been increasing at an exponential rate. Since modern processors employ large last level caches (LLCs), their leakage energy consumption has become an important concern in modern chip design. To address this issue, several techniques have been proposed. However, most of these techniques require offline profiling and hence, cannot be used in real-life systems which run trillions of instructions of arbitrary applications. In this paper, we propose Palette, a technique for saving cache leakage energy using cache coloring. Palette uses a small hardware component called reconfigurable cache emulator, to estimate performance and energy consumption of multiple cache configurations and then selects the configuration with least energy consumption. Simulations performed with SPEC2006 benchmarks show the superiority of Palette over existing cache energy saving technique. With a 2MB baseline cache, the average saving in memory sub-system energy and EDP (energy delay product) are 31.7% and 29.5%, respectively.
Using the Barkhausen Noise Frequency Spectrum for Case Depth Estimates
Authors: Drehmer Alessandra  , Gerhardt Gunther J.L.  , Missell Frank P.
Published: February 2025

We present an innovative method for case depth estimates, using Barkhausen noise, for AISI 1020 steel into which carbon had been diffused for various distances. Quenching after a short heat treatment resulted in a martensitic surface layer on top of a ferrite/pearlite nucleus. Case depths were measured by traditional destructive techniques. Barkhausen noise measurements were made and both the RMS Barkhausen pulse envelopes and the fast Fourier transforms (FFT) were obtained by numerical calculation. The areas of the Barkhausen pulses lend themselves to the construction of a calibration curve for determining the case depths. The FFT amplitudes were obtained as a function of frequency, and were associated with distance from the sample surface via the classical skin depth equation. Case depths can be estimated from a normalized power index, a quantity consistent with details of the sample microstructure. A knowledge of the material properties is especially important for determining the usefulness of this technique.
Characterization of Surface Cracks Through The Local Magnetic Field Induced by Eddy Currents
Authors: Hippert David  , Santi Gilles  , Kejik Pavel  , Picasso Marco  , Revaz Bernard  , Moser Roland  , Bleuler Hannes
Published: February 2025

It is important to reliably characterize cracks in metallic mechanical parts in order to assess the serenity of damage due to fatigue. The most important parameter for this is the crack depth. This is notoriously difficult with standard Eddy current techniques. We show here that this can be achieved by measuring the local magnetic field induced by Eddy currents flowing around the crack. This is done by using a high-density array of micro-Hall sensors integrated in a single CMOS chip with a spatial resolution of 10μm. We present the dependence of the signal on varying crack depths, liftoff and yaw angle. Finally, we study the response of the sensor to cracks in a DC magnetic field, i.e. the flux leakage due to the presence of a crack. This is especially relevant to cases where cracks appear predominantly close to edges with complex geometries for which it is difficult to induce clean Eddy currents.
Efficient GPU-based Optimization of Volume Meshes
Authors: Shaffer Eric  , Cheng Zuofu  , Yeh Raine  , Zagaris George  , Olson Luke
Published: February 2025

We describe a GPU-based algorithmic framework for optimizing the shape of elements in a simplicial volume. Optimization is done on a per-vertex basis using only local neighborhood information in order to exploit the massive fine-grained parallelism on modern GPU hardware. We propose and apply three optimization methods which have potential to be suited for local optimization of element shape and present a framework which may be generalized to other methods. Experiments which compare our method to state-of-the-art algorithms show a more than ten-fold performance increase for a similar final quality in both test and practical real-world meshes.
Simulation of Multiphase Flows in the Subsurface on GPU-based Supercomputers
Authors: Trapeznikova Marina  , Churbanova Natalia  , Lyupa Anastasiya  , Morozov Dmitry
Published: February 2025

A software library for hybrid supercomputers is developed to simulate large-scale processes in the subsurface. The original kinetically based model of multiphase porous media flows and computational algorithm of the explicit type underlie the software. Adequacy of the proposed numerical approach is verified by a number of test cases such as the problem of contaminant infiltration into the soil and the problem of oil recovery at water flooding. On the basis of a priory estimation of the run time the procedure of automatic data partitioning between processing units is created to provide the optimal load distribution. High speedups of GPU computing in comparison with computations on CPUs are achieved.
XMP-IO function and its application to MapReduce on the K computer
Authors: Nakamura Tomotake  , Sato Mitsuhisa
Published: February 2025

In a large-scale parallel system, parallel I/O libraries, such as MPI-IO, are required to perform I/O operations between nodes and file systems. XcalableMP is a PGAS parallel programming language, which allows the programmer to define a distributed array over nodes to support typical data-parallel programming with global-view programming. In order to perform I/O operations of a distributed array efficiently, the information of a distributed array described in the program can be used for parallel I/O operations. XMP-IO is a parallel I/O API defined as a part of the XcalableMP specification. In this paper, we show that the productivity and performance of XMP-IO are nearly equal to those of MPI-IO. We verified that XMP-IO can be applied to the I/O of the MapReduce application. We evaluated the performance of these I/O on the K computer, which uses the Fujitsu Exabyte File System (FEFS), a high-speed parallel distributed processing file system FEFS.
Exploitation of Quality/Throughput Tradeoffs in Image Processing through Invasive Computing
Authors: Tanase Alexandru  , Lari Vahid  , Hannig Frank  , Teich Jürgen
Published: February 2025

Image processing is traditionally a very compute-intensive process. In case of stringent timing constraints, traditional approaches scale down application quality, therefore, compromising the visual clarity of processed images. In order to overcome such drawbacks, we follow a new resource-aware parallel computing paradigm called invasive computing in this paper, where an application can dynamically claim, execute, and release resources on a multi-core computing system. In this context, we show how an invasive image processing application is able to make run-time tradeoffs of quality or throughput depending on the requirements and the number of available processing resources. As a target architecture, a class of massively parallel architectures called tightly-coupled processor arrays is chosen, to show the adaptivity provided by invasive computing. The applications gain the ability to fulfill constraints in two directions: a) In case of strict throughput requirements, the image quality may be adjusted in dependence on the number of available resources by run-time selection and loading of different algorithmic kernels, e.g., image filters in dependence of the success of invasion. b) Alternatively, a certain level of quality can be guaranteed by dynamically adjusting the throughput with respect to available resources.
Global Communication Schemes for the Sparse Grid Combination Technique
Authors: Hupp Philipp  , Jacob Riko  , Heene Mario  , Pflüger Dirk  , Hegland Markus
Published: February 2025

High-dimensional simulations pose a challenge even for next-generation high-performance computers. Hierarchical methods can reduce these extreme computational demands, but they tend to introduce more complicated communication patterns. One such approach is the sparse grid combination technique that splits the problem into several smaller full grids that are synchronized regularly. We analyze this communication task for arbitrary dimension d by deriving lower bounds and giving algorithms. For the special 2-dimensional case we present an algorithm that is optimal up to constant factors. These theoretical results are supported by preliminary experiments. The baseline Sparse Grid Reduce is based on a single AllReduce. The new approach Subspace Reduce beats this baseline by up to 10x in two and 3.5x in three dimensions for large discretization levels.
A Parallel Fault Tolerant Combination Technique
Authors: Harding Brendan  , Hegland Markus
Published: February 2025

In previous works, approaches for fault tolerant computation of PDEs were described which utilise flexibility and redundancy within the sparse grid combination technique. In this paper we describe a parallel fault tolerant implementation for a two-dimensional advection problem based on this work and evaluate its robustness against simulated faults. Our results demonstrate that this approach is extremely robust.
Towards Truly Boolean Arrays in Data-Parallel Array Processing
Authors: Grelck Clemens  , Luyat Hraban
Published: February 2025

Booleans are the most basic values in computing. Machines, however, store Boolean values in larger compounds such as bytes or integers due to limitations in addressing memory locations. For individual values the relative waste of memory is huge, but the absolute waste is negligible. The latter radically changes if large numbers of Boolean values are processed in (multidimensional) arrays. Most programming languages, however, only provide sparse implementations of Boolean arrays. Thus, they waste large quantities of memory and, potentially, make poor use of cache hierarchies.
New Wheeled Mobility Aids and Parking Spaces
Authors: Ahosseini Alborz
Published: February 2025

To make the built environment accessible for all, building regulations and norms need to be updated to reflect the evolution in mobility aids in the contemporary world. This research is suggesting new proposals for norms and standards for the parking spaces by taking the evolution in new wheeled mobility aids into account.
Evaluation of Plastic Deformation in an Austenitic Stainless Steel based on Nonlinear ECT Method
Authors: Chen Hong-En  , Xie Shejuan  , Chen Zhenmao  , Uchimoto Tetsuya  , Takagi Toshiyuki  , Kensuke Yoshihara
Published: February 2025

In this paper, the dependence of plastic deformation on nondestructive evaluation signals of nonlinear ECT (NECT) method is investigated through experiments. The test-pieces of SUS304 austenitic stainless steel are fabricated and tensile residual strains of different scales are applied to them by using a material testing machine. NECT signals of different exciting frequencies are measured, and the experimental results reveal that there are clear relationships between the plastic strains and the feature parameters of the NECT signals especially the loop area and the coercive force, which are sensitive to plastic strain at all tested excitation frequency. It can be concluded that NECT is feasible to quantitatively evaluate the plastic deformation in structures of the 304 austenitic stainless steel.
Validations of Multifrequency ECT Algorithms for Helical SG Tubes of FBR
Authors: mihalache Ovidiu  , Yamaouchi Toshihiko  , Ueda Masashi
Published: February 2025

The present paper focus on the multifrequency and a novel window multifrequency ECT algorithm applied specifically to the magnetic SG tubes of a Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR). The algorithms parameters are determined and validated using 3D numerical Finite Element Simulations of the RF-ECT signal based on codes previously developed in-house by authors. The algorithm robustness is checked and validated using first numerical simulations and then experimental measurements conducted with a small mock-up test tank with SG tubes and full circumferential grooves or partial defects located on the external SG tube surface near tube support plate.
Modelling of specimen interaction with ferrite cored coils by coupling semi-analytical and numerical techniques
Authors: Skarlatos Anastasios  , Demaldent Edouard  , Vigneron Audrey  , Reboud Christophe
Published: February 2025

Two numerical techniques, the finite integration technique (FIT) and the surface integral equation (SIE) method are combined with the semi-analytical calculation of the field in planar conducting pieces in order to calculate the interaction of such specimens with ferrite-cored eddy-current probes. Coupling different techniques allows us to chose the best suited for each part of the configuration and to better exploit the existing symmetries.
Eddy Current Examination of Steam Generators in Molten Salt Reactor
Authors: Savin Adriana  , Steigmann Rozina  , Dobrescu Gabriel Silviu  , Grimberg Raimond
Published: February 2025

The intensively economic development in few Asian countries especially imposes the increase of electric energy consumption for which the conventional resources are not enough or are missing. Relatively recent discovery of thorium deposits has re-launched a type of nuclear reactors that uses mixtures of molten salts as fuel. Breeder molten salt reactors suppose the use of new types of steam generators; this paper proposes an eddy current nondestructive examination method for the tubes from steam generator type reentry tube boiler, which presents high characteristics of thermal transfer and safety in exploitation.
Advances in High Frequency Electromagnetic NDE
Authors: Grimberg Raimond
Published: February 2025

Metamaterial, electromagnetic structures with special properties have started to be studied especially in the last few years. One of the possible applications is in the area of electromagnetic nondestructive evaluation in the range of UHF and microwaves. This paper reviews the metamaterial concept; with a particular interest in developing a “lens” for electromagnetic nondestructive evaluation applications for increasing the spatial resolution. The goal is to use evanescent waves, to inspect materials using this “poor man's lens”.
Material Defect Identification Using Sweep Frequency Eddy Current Technique
Authors: Strapacova Tatiana  , Smetana Milan  , Capova Klara
Published: February 2025

The article deals with the utilization of the sweep frequency eddy current technique as the method for the material defect evaluation. The new eddy current probe is designed and presented. The sensitivity and the resolution of the probes are analysed as well. Experimental measurements are carried out to evaluate resolution of the various realized probes while the harmonic signal is used for the driving. The gained results are presented and discussed in the paper.
Identification of Defects in Composite Materials Using Terahertz Inspection and Self-Organizing Maps
Authors: Lopato Przemyslaw
Published: February 2025

Pulsed terahertz inspection becomes commonly utilized technique in case of dielectric and composite materials nondestructive evaluation. Obtained A-scan signals enable effective characterization of examined structures. In this paper selected features based on frequency response are calculated and utilized in identification process. Lack of knowledge about possible defects is assumed, thus non-supervised artificial neural networks (self-organizing feature maps) were applied for identification.
Design for Failure: Intelligent Systems Learning from Their Mistakes
Authors: Preuveneers Davy  , Chen Ching Yu  , Ramakrishnan Arun  , Feng Ming-Whei  , Wang Ping-Feng  , Berbers Yolande
Published: February 2025

Smart environments aim to make the life of their inhabitants more comfortable by having context-aware systems continuously work together to assist people with their daily tasks. However, all too often these assistive technologies are naively or optimistically developed assuming that systems can always anticipate what users want. Furthermore, the more these smart systems grow in complexity, the more prone to failure they become. The overall goal of this paper is to define new concepts and methodologies for the development of more reliable smart applications, and propose middleware support to analyze failures in context-aware behavior, culminating in a software-based safeguard that improves robustness against unforeseen human interventions, exceptional circumstances and unexpected events.
A Reusable and Adaptable Information Model for Ambient Intelligence Systems
Authors: Rodríguez-Domínguez Carlos  , Ruiz-López Tomás  , Benghazi Kawtar  , Garrido José Luis  , Valenzuela Aurora
Published: February 2025

In Ambient Intelligence (AmI) systems, the contextual information (time, location, available resources, people behavior, etc.) usually needs to be monitored and analyzed in order to offer pro-active and context-aware functionalities to end users. Therefore, the contextual information should conform to an information model that is commonly devised to capture the specific features of a concrete AmI system. Hence, the incorporation of new functionalities to an AmI system usually involves the modification of the associated information model, which may lead to compatibility and maintainability difficulties. Moreover, the data integration and interoperability at information level between different AmI systems can be limited by the availability of shared concepts in their respective information models. To overcome those problems, this paper presents an information model that can be adapted to the specific data requirements of many different AmI systems, and reused across them. The benefits of the proposal have been validated through the development of a Mobile Forensic Workspace (MFW) for disaster scenarios.
The condition of Chinese architecture: Elaboration of a critical approach
Authors: Rizzardi Pier Alessio  , Zhang Hankun
Published: February 2025

The Paper is entitled “The Condition of Chinese Architecture: Elaboration of a critical approach.” The object of the research is the contemporary Chinese architecture. In short, the research consists of 3 sections: Nowadays reality, the contemporary architecture studied through the big numbers of its expansion, the size and quantity of projects, the issue of demolition-history, the relationship between the project and the context and the so-called “no context”, the explanation of numbers of the Chinese phenomenon and condition that determines its architecture and the will of the search for identity. Trends Panorama, they are divided between objects mega-structural, landmark buildings and buildings icons, traditional and vernacular architecture. Considerations, the opposite point of views of Rem Koolhaas and Yung Ho Chang, one focused on the understanding of the reality and the current situation in Asia and the other one defining a new type of architecture focused on the quality of the space and the against the formalism.
A Multi-agent Approach to the Maximum Weight Matching Problem
Authors: Shen Gang  , Zhang Yun
Published: February 2025

The maximum weight matching (MWM) for bipartite graphs is a fundamental combinatorial optimization problem that can be found extensively in many engineering applications such as job assignment and resource allocation. The traditional solution to MWM requires all weights to be collected on a centralized entity. In this paper, we present a multi-agent approach to solving MWM by message passing among all involved agents in a concurrent way. The proposed distributed algorithm is motivated by two related factors: first, in certain circumstances no server is available to provide centralized services, and second, the agents may not be willing to share the secret weight information to others. In the proposed approach, a MWM problem is first converted to the prime-dual linear programming setting, and a nonlinear dynamics is introduced to evolve to the solution. Each agent updates its estimates of the prime-dual variables following the dynamics, using a step parameter determined only by the size of the problem, before sending messages to other agents. In this paper, we prove the optimality, convergence of the proposed algorithm and study the experimental results by simulating some typical problem setups. The simulation experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
A Model for Storing and Presenting Design Procedures in a Distributed Service-oriented Environment
Authors: Kozintsev Oleg  , Pokhilko Alexander  , Kamalov Leonid  , Gorbachev Ivan  , Tsygankov Denis
Published: February 2025

The interoperability of distributed and concurrent design is defined by the representation of CAD systems project solutions. Nowadays the exchange of solutions performed by the means of standard ISO 10303 and STEP format, created in the frames of CALS technology. It does not allow to modify solutions. This article describes project solutions extraction capability from design activity, models of design object classes formation, as well as to store, to map and further to use information in the context of the functionally adapted representation. The functionally adapted representation concept allows exchanging solutions by the other method. In this case, the main idea is the fixation of solution creation procedure (consists of operation chain) in the procedure chain. Based on the procedure chain author's instrumental environment generates the lightweight CAD. It is a compact software application for engineering. The required operation set for the design object creation determines the lightweight CAD functionality. In this case, the logic and the modification ability of project process is stored inside of the selected project operation class.
Life Cycle Costing for Alternative Fuels
Authors: Conroy Tim  , Bil Cees
Published: February 2025

Motivated by concerns over rising costs of Jet-A fuel and the current limitations of “drop-in” fuel substitutes, it is proposed that methane (LCH4) provides a promising sustainable aviation fuel alternative. Following consideration of current aircraft fuel costs, a modified preliminary Life Cycle Costing Analysis is provided for a proposed liquid methane aircraft, providing direct economic comparison to a current comparator aircraft with regards to the annual fuel cost, aircraft acquisition costs and the cost of required airport infrastructure. Finally, a preliminary evaluation of the financial benefits of a transition to liquid methane fuel in the aviation sector is presented.
Development of Defense-Oriented Application Software under Fire: The Case of Israel
Authors: Ben-Israel Galit M.
Published: February 2025

This paper presents an analysis of the efforts to develop new application software under fire by innovators of the Israeli start-up nation. The applications were developed voluntarily by Israeli civilians living in Tel Aviv during Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012. At the time when the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) was engaged in a military attack on Gaza, codenamed “Pillar of Defense”, the armed Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad were firing Grad and Kassam rockets at civilians in the State of Israel's home front. The new applications were designated to mark and map the locations of public shelters during emergencies in Israeli cities and towns for the benefit of civilians regularly using smartphones and applications. These applications were the brainchildren of Israeli home front civilians who wanted to help themselves as well as others who could find themselves trapped under rocket fire in the “City of Tel Aviv” for the first time in their lives (apart from Iraqi missiles in the winter of 1991 during the “Gulf War”). This article originated in and was written as a result of the personal experiences of this writer on the home front of the State of Israel in the physical and digital expanses (social media, Web 2.0) during “Operation Pillar of Defense”, in November 2012.
Education as a Long-Term Strategy for Cyber Security
Authors: Pale P.
Published: February 2025

Most strategies and policies for cyber security are in essence reactive since they devise (counter) measures for known problems or quantitative forecasts of known problems. A long term strategy should predict new problems qualitatively. The problem with cyber security stems from the fact that cyberspace will invade physical space almost completely, including human bodies. The speed of changes in the way people live and work; as well as the emergence of new, related security problems, is accelerating while legislative and technical counter measures merely react on detected problems. Moreover, that critical mass of humans which should recognize risks, dangers and attacks in cyberspace does not, and does not have required knowledge and skills. In addition the general population is at risk for cyber security incidents due to his/her ignorance or to the mere statistical probability that he/she will make a mistake given the huge number of human-machine interactions in a unit of time and human nature being unsuitable for multiple, simultaneous routine tasks. While short term strategies have to rely on development and deployment of technical means for supervision and protection of systems, for (re)defining the legal framework and creating and nurturing the (new) body of cyber law enforcement, a long term strategy is also needed. It has to focus on accelerated and prompt education and increased awareness in all age groups, literally from kindergarten to retirement. This education has to be mandatory in all school systems and within the working environment in the framework of occupational safety. It has to be a major component of everyone's continuous, lifelong education. In order to support this strategy, national centers for increased awareness and broad education should be established, strongly linked with academia both because of academia's deep insight in cyber security development and its involvement in development of educational methods and tools. The long term strategy has to evolve a new culture of self preservation as well as community (self) care and preservation providing visible and omnipresent emergency response focal points. This long term strategy needs to be devised urgently and put in operation in parallel with short term strategies.
Prolongation of the Syrian Crisis and its Gravitational Force on Foreign Fighters: A Critical Analysis in Light of the Concept of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P)
Authors: Yilmaz Kamil
Published: February 2025

This article critically examines the effects of the Syrian crisis on ‘foreign fighters’ by placing a special emphasis on problems emanating from the prolongation of the crisis. In doing this, the article discusses various issues such as non-intervention, the principle of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and the ‘Paris Commune Effect’ of the activities of the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq. In a nutshell, this article argues that efforts regarding the foreign fighters issues must be supported by an actual and concrete intent to resolve the Syrian crisis. The approach of Western states, since the civil war in Syria, has proved to be counterproductive as it has caused the radicalization of more individuals living in those places.
Assuring Food Security in Agricultural Production in the Republic of Bulgaria under the Conditions of General Globalization
Authors: Arabska Ekaterina  , Shopova Ivanka
Published: February 2025

The paper scrutinizes the current situation in agricultural production in the Republic of Bulgaria as the sector of the national economy with the greatest significance in food supply and as the most vulnerable in respect to common production menaces and terrorist challenges in particular. It focuses on food quality and safety as the major priority of humanity and the ways of their achievement in the globalizing world starting from the national level plans, decisions and actions. In addition, the connection to the development of tourism in Bulgaria as the most expanding industry in recent years will be considered as well as the importance of risk management in food supply. The following questions are discussed: the importance of agriculture and food safety in the contemporary world; the state-of-art of agricultural production and food safety in the Republic of Bulgaria as a Balkan country and as a member of the European Union; common threats and probable targets of terrorist attacks affecting agricultural and tourism sector and having impacts on food quality and safety; legislation, national and local authorities’ responsibilities and competences in forecasting and preventing terrorist attacks, especially those considering agricultural produce and tourist services; recommendations for assuring food security in national and international aspects. The conclusion summarizes the findings concerning current and possible future national contributions to global antiterrorist responses. It will stress the crucial issue of international cooperation in counteracting terrorism threats and attacks.
Enhancement of Quantitative Evaluation of Wire Breakage from Measured Magnetic Field with Denoising Algorithm
Authors: Tian Shuxia  , Li Hongmei  , Zhang Dongli  , Li Yong
Published: February 2025

The wire breakage identification of the superconducting cable is a key issue to guarantee the reliability of the magnet systems of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). A NDE method based on the measurement of magnetic fields surrounding the conductors and the reconstruction of the current distribution in the superconducting cables is considered efficient for this purpose. In this paper, the influence of the arrangement of measurement points and the noise in the measured magnetic fields on the current reconstruction is investigated numerically at first. Two de-noising techniques to enhance the S/N ratio of measured signals are then proposed and evaluated. The validity and efficiency of the proposed de-noising schemes are demonstrated through a lot of numerical simulations.
Research and Application of Cloud Non-destructive Testing and Evaluation
Authors: Lin Jun-Ming
Published: February 2025

Based on the progress of cloud computing technology and the development of nondestructive testing (NDT), some useful exploration and practice are made in the development and application of the integrated Cloud Non-Destructive Testing (CNDT). The key point of CNDT is that all the data collected by NDT sensors/transducers are sent into cloud-side, where the data is analyzed, stored, processed, evaluated, information forecasted and fed back. Bringing together a series of hardware and software resources of NDT technology, the cloud-side is a cloud computing service platform obeying related NDT standards and regulations. The client-side can share all the resources in the cloud and perform remote control and information sharing in the detection process, and can enjoy the convenient service and high efficiency of the cloud detection. In this paper, a simulation platform of CNDT is established and introduced. The platform uses X3 electromagnetic detection prototype client-side and U3 ultrasonic detection prototype client-side. Two cloud service nodes/centers are established in Xiamen and Beijing, China respectively. Based on this CNDT model, some main aspects, such as the superiority, technical points of CNDT and its possibility of further development are demonstrated and discussed.
Evaluation of Residual Strain in the Structural Materials of Nuclear Power Plants
Authors: Uchimoto Tetsuya  , Takagi Toshiyuki  , Chen Zhenmao  , Yoshihara Kensuke  , Dobmann Gerd
Published: February 2025

Residual strain measurements are required for structural integrity evaluation of components in nuclear power plants after seismic loading. In this study, various electromagnetic nondestructive testing methods are applied to estimate small residual strain in austenitic stainless steels and carbon steels that are representative structural materials of nuclear power plants. In view of practical application performance of nondestructive testing methods are evaluated and compared using identical set of specimens with residual strain.
Three Phase Rotating Field Eddy Current Probe
Authors: Ye Chaofeng  , Xin Junjun  , Udpa Lalita  , Udpa Satish S.
Published: February 2025

This paper presents a novel eddy current transceiver probe design that uses a rotating electromagnetic field for metal tube inspection. The sensitivity of the proposed design has been improved and no additional pick-up coil is required in contrast to previously presented rotating field probe design. A reduced magnetic vector potential based finite element model was developed to simulate and predict the response of the probe to a variety of defects. A prototype probe connected to a three-phase constant current source and data acquisition system was developed and tested. Experimental results validating the simulation model and demonstrating the feasibility the concept are presented.
Characterization of the Damage-induced Magnetization for X80 Steel under Large Deformation
Authors: Wan Qiang  , Wei Liming  , Sun Le  , Li Yunfei
Published: February 2025

Metal magnetic memory (MMM) method is a novel, passive magnetic method for inspecting mechanical degradation of ferromagnetic components. In this paper, the correlation between large deformation and the deformation-induced magnetic field was experimentally investigated for the X80 steel. Various tensile plastic deformations are introduced into test specimens with different initial defects. The surface strain distributions and normal natural magnetic fields component are measured after the tensile testing. The results show that an abnormal wave occurred in the stress concentration zone and its height value was sensitive to deformation levels, the relationship between the intensity of damage-induced magnetization and the maximum plastic strain follows a simple formula proposed in this paper. The magnetic field signal depend on the deformation in accordance with the simulation results based on the mechanical-magnetic coupling FEM model. Different magnetic signal characteristics in the plastic region indicate that the magnetic memory technique can identify macro yielding and early damage.
Observing, Coaching and Reflecting: A Multi-modal Natural Language-based Dialogue System in a Learning Context
Authors: Van Helvert Joy  , Van Rosmalen Peter  , Börner Dirk  , Petukhova Volha  , Alexandersson Jan
Published: February 2025

The Metalogue project aims to develop a multi-modal, multi-party dialogue system with metacognitive abilities that will advance our understanding of natural conversational human-machine interaction and dialogue interfaces. This paper introduces the vision for the system and discusses its application in the context of debate skills training where it has the potential to provide learners with a rich, immersive experience. In particular, it considers a potentially powerful learning analytics tool in the form of a performance reflection dashboard.