Enhancing hydraulic data reliability in sewers

Recently, water utilities have been making considerable investments in sewers' monitoring; however, in most cases, assuring data reliability is yet a challenge. Often, hydraulic data is collected in sewers overlooking best practice aspects. Assuming confidence on data, while disregarding cautions verifications, might lead to inadequate uses of data. The paper presents a methodology aiming to narrow the gap between science and industry, regarding monitoring programs in urban drainage. A procedure to enhance hydraulic data reliability, in line with ISO/IEC 17025:2017, was developed, applied and validated, enabling a final evaluation on data and site adequacy and an overall identification of improvement opportunities. The availability of a valuable study case comprising 32 flowmeters from Portuguese utilities, in eastern Europe, presented an opportunity to create a story line, test the procedure's coherence, present it to the technical community and evaluate the constraints that utilities, in their everyday working context, face with. The procedure is presented in detail and a collection of examples of its application is shown. In the final evaluation, most monitoring stations alignment with best practice requirements were either high (25%) or acceptable (44%), regarding their overall performance and compliance with both data and site adequacy. For all of them, improvement opportunities were identified.

Enabling Human Rights with Universal Acceptance: The Path to the Implementation of Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) and Email Addresses Internationalization (EAI)

This paper seeks to understand the interactions between Human Rights and the technical aspects of linguistic representation in email systems and the DNS. Based on studies carried out concerning Universal Acceptance and the usage of non-ASCII characters on the Internet, it is proposed that this subject is of relevance to the IETF and the broader technical community that surrounds it. Going over results from recent research on the subject, a case is presented that while there have been advances in the representation of different scripts online, more can be done to ensure that every person is able to experience the network using their native language.

AI ethics: A framework for measuring embodied carbon in AI systems

This paper outlines the ethical implications of AI from a climate perspective. So far, much of the discussion around AI ethics have focused on bias, unexplainable outcomes, privacy and other social impacts of such systems. The role and contribution of AI towards climate change and the ethical implications of its contribution to an unjust distribution of impact on the planet, humans and flora and fauna have not yet been covered in detail within the technical community. Within this paper, we aim to raise some of the issues of AI associated with climate justice and we propose a framework that will allow the AI and ICT industries to measure their true impact on the planet, propose an organisational structure to take this work forward and propose future research areas for this important topic.

Long-Term Outcomes of Biotechnology Student Participation in Undergraduate Research Experiences at Delaware Technical Community College

This article describes the infusion of the bioscience/biotechnology program at Delaware Technical Community College with course-based and mentored research experiences, which may serve as a model for other institutions. Studies done with the Office of Institutional Research revealed a concurrent increase in enrollment and graduation rates. Interviews with program graduates highlight the critical influence of research, the mentor-student relationship, and a sense of community.

Systems engineering in the field of memristive neural networks

The article is devoted to the development, adaptation and application of methods and means of systems engineering (SE) in the field of the entire life cycle of memristive neural networks (ANNMs) of arbitrary complexity and purpose. During the review of publications, a significant discrepancy in the conceptual apparatus in the field of SE was shown among various authoritative and well-known specialists. A general approach to concepts that have not received universally recognized definitions, designations, terms in the scientific and technical community is proposed. On the basis of the general approach formed by the authors, general scientific and general technical working versions of basic concepts, designations, terms and definitions in the field of SE and their variants are proposed, coordinated with the current regulatory documents and adapted in relation to ANNM. Compiled and substantiated diagrams of connections between concepts in the field of SE. An example of application of the SE component - system design of ANNM with a given reliability is given.

INTERPOLATION OF THE DILUTION GRID IN THE BENGAL CODE

In the implementation of the equivalence-in-dilution self-shielding method, multigroup cross sections as a function of the background cross section (i.e., the dilution) are needed. The background cross section of a particular nuclide in a particular material is determined iteratively based on geometry and material composition, resulting in a large number of cross section look-ups and a continuously varying dilution as the independent variable. Typically, multigroup cross sections are interpolated based on a reference grid of a set of dilution values and corresponding cross sections. The selection of this grid and the interpolant used between the grid are not well-documented in the literature, and so the approach used by the Bengal code is of note to the technical community. This work compares the interpolation scheme of the legacy code TRANSX to a newly developed interpolation scheme based on cubic Hermite splines, both by looking at the relative error in generated cross sections and by assessing the impact on a simple reactor simulation.

SOCIAL AND PROTECTIVE ACTIVITY OF LABOR BUREAU OF “THE SOCIETY OF URAL MINING TECHNICIANS”

The article is devoted to the socio-protective activities of the Society of Ural Mining Technicians (SUMT). It was founded in 1901 in the Perm province as a professional scientific and technical community. The organization was formed at the stage of the final phase of the industrial revolution in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which contributed to the development of scientific thought in the Ural region, the formation of new social relations and the emergence of professional associations. The main staff of the Society included engineers, technicians, teachers and students of the Ural Mining School. The author considers in detail the activities of the Bureau of Labor as one of the structural subdivisions of SUMT. It began its work in 1902 and acted as an intermediary between the employee and the employer. Its purposes were to collect data from employers on the availability of vacancies at enterprises, to compile a database of unemployed members of SUMT, to resolve issues of their employment, and to prepare recommendations and guarantees when applying for a job. The Bureau of Labor also provided material support to family members of the community. In addition, the Bureau of Labor monitored the observance of the employees’ working conditions, ensured the protection of the interests of the members of the Society at work, protected their interests in case of conflicts with the employer or the abnormal position of technicians, and was engaged in workers' health insurance. The revealed violations by the employer were published by the Bureau of Labor in the journal of the Society "Ural Technician". The Bureau of Labor of the Society of Ural Mining Technicians implemented social protective functions in the Ural region associated with labor exchanges in the pre-revolutionary period of Russia’s development.