Prevention of ECCD triggering explosive bursts in reversed magnetic shear tokamak plasmas for disruption avoidance

The explosive burst excited by neoclassical tearing mode (NTM) is one of the possible candidates of disruptive terminations in reversed magnetic shear (RMS) tokamak plasmas. For the purpose of disruption avoidance, numerical investigations have been implemented on the prevention of explosive burst triggered by the ill-advised application of electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) in RMS configuration. Under the situation of controlling NTMs by ECCD in RMS tokamak plasmas, a threshold in EC driven current has been found. Below the threshold, not only are the NTM islands not effectively suppressed, but also a deleterious explosive burst could be triggered, which might contribute to the major disruption of tokamak plasmas. In order to prevent this ECCD triggering explosive burst, three control strategies have been attempted in this work and two of them have been recognized to be effective. One is to apply differential poloidal plasma rotation in the proximity of outer rational surface during the ECCD control process; The other is to apply two ECCDs to control NTM islands on both rational surfaces at the same time. In the former strategy, the threshold is diminished due to the modification of classical TM index. In the latter strategy, the prevention is accomplished as a consequence of the reduction of the coupling strength between the two rational surfaces via the stabilization of inner islands. Moreover, the physical mechanism behind the excitation of the explosive burst and the control processes by different control strategies have all been discussed in detail.

The Effect of Visuomotor Latency on Steering Behavior in Virtual Reality

Visual feedback latency in virtual reality systems is inherent due to the computing time it takes to simulate the effects of user actions. Depending upon the nature of interaction and amount of latency, the impact of this latency could range from a minor degradation to a major disruption of performance. The goal of this study was to examine how visuomotor latency impacts users’ performance in a continuous steering task and how users adapt to this latency with experience. The task involved steering a bike along an illuminated path in a dark environment viewed in an HTC Vive head-mounted virtual reality display. We examined how users adapt to visuomotor latency in two different conditions: 1) when the user controlled the steering while the bike moved forward at a constant speed, and 2) when the user controlled the steering and the speed of the bike through pedaling and braking. We found that users in both conditions started with a large steering error at the beginning of exposure to visuomotor latency but then quickly adapted to the delay. We also found that when users could control their speed, they adjusted their speed based on the complexity of the path (i.e., proximity to turns) and they gradually increased their speed as they adapted to latency and gained better control over their movement. The current work supports the idea that users can adapt to visual feedback delay in virtual reality regardless of whether they control the pace of movement. The results inform the design of virtual reality simulators and teleoperation systems and give insight into perceptual-motor adaptation in the presence of latency.

Identity, Religion and Difference in the Borderland District of Poonch, Jammu and Kashmir

This article (part of a special section on South Asian border studies) is an exploration of a multi-religious ethnic group in the borderland district of Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir, India. The work focuses on the Pahari ethnicity and looks at how prominent religious identities within this group have been continuously aligning themselves along religious lines in the post-partition era. Partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 acted as a major disruption in the construction of identities. The evolution of national and ethnic identities went hand in hand with the evolution of religious identities, with the latter being more pronounced than the former. Such a fixation along religious lines in the socio-cultural and political sphere led to changes in everyday inter-community relations. Through oral histories and other accounts, this ethnography understands the new set of interactions that emerged in Poonch which have been shaping identities, while also analysing identity construction and its impact on the social organisation of space and neighbourhoods in general in the post-partition era. Key Words: Borderland, Border, Boundaries, Community, Communalism, Difference, Ethnicity, Identity, Inter-community interaction, Nation, Nation-State, Othering, Religion

Value Oriented Engineering Solutions for Business Continuity

This paper presents a systemic approach using Engineering and analytics methods to avail the fastest and safest responses to recovering business operations after Abqaiq Plants major disruption after the 2019 September 14th incident. This new approach using value and agile engineering, risk management methodologies combined with the business continuity model suggested was successfully applied to recover Abqaiq Plants Operations after catastrophic events occurred. This paper pretends to serve as example about how the business continuity plan should response to a major emergency and how this planning activity could be effectively supported using a Value Oriented Engineering Solutions (VOES). This VOES approach is based on Business continuity framework and adapted for use during emergency situations to generate effective and urgent responses to recover one of the most strategical operations in the Oil and Gas Industry worldwide ahead of the last year significant disruption. VOES approach vastly implemented during Abqaiq Plants Restoration allowed a 100% functional recovery on 9 days, 5 days in advance to the most optimistic scenario. This paper shows a case study implemented for major instrumentation and electrical equipment activities performed in UA Spheroids plant, one of the most affected area and responsible to process the 100% of the Abqaiq Plants Oil Production rate. This paper pretends to contribute with the research and practice on business continuity management. Considering a particular approach to BCM, incorporating value-oriented engineering solutions in the developing of continuity plans; we apply model-based techniques to provide quality assurance in the elaboration process, and to automate the generation/update of a BCP. On the practical side, this study converts Operational, Maintenance, Safety and Reliability perspectives in a holistic view provided from Engineering solutions responsible to generate the guidelines for an agile, effective and realizable recovery plan.

I Left Venus and Came Back to Mars: Temporal Focus Congruence in Dyadic Relationships Following Maternity Leave

Temporal focus on past, present, and future of contributions to work is critical to understanding how employees and their line managers navigate career disruptions and minimize their potential for negative impact. This paper reframes temporal focus using a dyadic, relational perspective to explore how temporal focus (in)congruence shapes resocialization experiences for returners and their line managers following maternity leave disruption. Our qualitative study draws on 54 interviews across 27 organizations and demonstrates that a congruent, broader temporal focus—that embraces the past, present, and future—is associated with more positive relational and career outcomes than an incongruent focus, where one dyadic partner holds a narrow temporal focus. Our findings explicate how the adoption of a broad versus narrow temporal focus creates a perception of maternity leave as either a brief interlude or a major disruption. A congruent, broader temporal focus allows returners and their line managers to reduce their reliance on typical motherhood biases and instead, consider the woman’s past, present, and potential future contributions over the course of her career. We highlight the importance of temporal focus congruence at a dyadic level and the value of adopting a broader temporal focus on careers while offering new insights regarding the temporal dynamics inherent to maternity leave transitions for both returners and their managers.

Using informative features in machine learning based method for COVID-19 drug repurposing

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by a novel virus named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). This virus induced a large number of deaths and millions of confirmed cases worldwide, creating a serious danger to public health. However, there are no specific therapies or drugs available for COVID-19 treatment. While new drug discovery is a long process, repurposing available drugs for COVID-19 can help recognize treatments with known clinical profiles. Computational drug repurposing methods can reduce the cost, time, and risk of drug toxicity. In this work, we build a graph as a COVID-19 related biological network. This network is related to virus targets or their associated biological processes. We select essential proteins in the constructed biological network that lead to a major disruption in the network. Our method from these essential proteins chooses 93 proteins related to COVID-19 pathology. Then, we propose multiple informative features based on drug–target and protein−protein interaction information. Through these informative features, we find five appropriate clusters of drugs that contain some candidates as potential COVID-19 treatments. To evaluate our results, we provide statistical and clinical evidence for our candidate drugs. From our proposed candidate drugs, 80% of them were studied in other studies and clinical trials.

Eccentric Hamstring Muscle Strength during Home Confinement Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, and Football Competition Resumption in Professional Football Referees: A Prospective Observational Study

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced a major disruption for professional football leagues that has affected the physical preparation of both football players and referees. In Spain, health authorities decreed home confinement for eight weeks, supressing the normal training routines of professional referees. After home confinement, referees had four weeks to retrain as the national football league was set to resume matches to complete the 11 games remaining. The aim of the present investigation was to assess changes in eccentric hamstring muscle strength during football competition suspension/resumption due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 21 professional football referees (mean ± SD, age: 33.4 ± 5.1 years; height: 182.4 ± 5.0 cm; body mass: 75.1 ± 4.4 kg). Eccentric hamstring muscle strength was measured with the Nordic hamstring exercise at four time points. During home confinement, referees presented the lowest value of bilateral eccentric muscle strength (300 ± 14 N). Eccentric muscle strength increased by 13.2 ± 3.7% one week after the end of home confinement (339 ± 16 N; p = 0.001, effect size (ES) = 2.8) and remained stable before the first match (343 ± 17 N; p = 0.001, ES = 3.1) and after the end of the national league (328 ± 13 N; p = 0.001, ES = 2.0). In summary, home confinement produced detraining effects in professional football referees associated with hamstring muscle weakness. In this regard, strength-based activities with body loads may be insufficient to avoid muscle weakness and other means (e.g., weights) may be necessary to maintain muscle strength. However, the 4-weeks retraining period was sufficient to resolve hamstring muscle weakness induced by the restrictions of home confinement. This information may be helpful in the case of future sport competition suspension or home quarantine due to new waves of COVID-19 pandemic.