Journal articles: 'Priority Inversion' – Grafiati (2024)

Abstract:

Pointing to the unpredictable problems that caused by the priority inversion during the period of using real-time application system, a new improved method, which based on the priority inheritance, was presented. The new method mainly considered the influence that the usage of shared resources impacted on the task scheduling, and recorded the information of each task which asked for the using of system resources by a set of task-shared-resource-link. System would schedule the task according by the records and the task waiting queues. This method was proved as a effective way to solve the phenomenon of priority inversion by experiment in ucos-ii kernel.

Abstract:

Multicore processors are increasingly used in real-time embedded systems. Better utilization of hard real-time systems requires accurate scheduling and synchronization analysis. In this paper, we characterize the major synchronization penalties arising from partitioned fixed priority scheduling for hard real-time tasks on multicore platform, including transitive remote preemption, multiple remote blocking, and multiple priority inversions. Subsequently, we propose a new response time analysis by improving the approach to bound task blocking time. The key idea of this approach is to classify the total blocking time into (i) direct blocking, including local and remote blocking, and transitive remote preemption; and (ii) multiple local interference which is incurred by multiple priority inversion. Simulation results indicate that the proposed approach produces less pessimistic results in task blocking time, and better schedulability performance.

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Background: Chiral safety, especially chiral drug inversion in vivo, is the top priority of current scientific research. Medicine researchers and pharmacists often ignore that one enantiomer will be converted or partially converted to another enantiomer when it is ingested in vivo. So that, in the context that more than 50% of the listed drugs are chiral drugs, it is necessary and important to pay attention to the inversion of chiral drugs. Methods: The metabolic and stereoselective pharmacokinetic characteristics of seven chiral drugs with one chiral center in the hydroxy group were reviewed in vivo and in vitro including the possible chiral inversion of each drug enantiomer. These seven drugs include (S)-Mandelic acid, RS-8359, Tramadol, Venlafaxine, Carvedilol, Fluoxetine and Metoprolol. Results: The differences in stereoselective pharmacokinetics could be found for all the seven chiral drugs, since R and S isomers often exhibit different PK and PD properties. However, not every drug has shown the properties of one direction or two direction chiral inversion. For chiral hydroxyl group drugs, the redox enzyme system may be one of the key factors for chiral inversion in vivo. Conclusion: In vitro and in vivo chiral inversion is a very complex problem and may occur during every process of ADME. Nowadays, research on chiral metabolism in the liver has the most attention, while neglecting the chiral transformation of other processes. Our review may provide the basis for the drug R&D and the safety of drugs in clinical therapy.

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This paper is a detailed review of the article by P.A. Orekhovsky and V.I. Razumov ‘The Carnival Time: Russian Higher School and Science in the Postmodern Era’. The author considers the main problems shown in this article. In order to study these problems the author uses a method of analysis of inverse relations in hierarchical systems as a theoretical basis. System inversion is a form of relations in hierarchical systems, in which the lowest element receives the dominant value in the system, formally remaining in the same subordinate position. This situation can occur both in the social hierarchy and, for example, in the hierarchy of values. As a result of the developed inversion, contradictions accumulate in the system, which can lead to the collapse of this system or to a radical transformation. Such processes can be observed in modern education. This is why there is a priority of the visible over the existent, as it happens in the situation of ‘carnival’. The article by P.A. Orekhovsky and V.I. Razumov examines the postmodern cultural context in which modern education functions. In this regard, the author presents an interpretation of the postmodern situation from the point of view of analyzing system inversions. The current state of the educational sector is determined by the resolution of inversion in the system of human activity. This inversion covers the instrumental and symbolic aspects of human activity. Due to this, there are features of educational activities related to the introduction of digital technologies, which P.A. Orekhovsky and V.I. Razumov pay special attention to. The authors of the article describe the status of the modern teacher’s activity as ‘spiritual prostitution’. Indeed, the activities of some teachers can be described by this term. However, this happens when both the teacher and the student experience a value inversion (as is the case with ordinary prostitution). Instead of this model of behavior, the author suggests another one, more worthy, – a ‘soldier of culture’. ‘Soldiers of culture’ do not ‘provide educational services’, they have a mission to broadcast and enrich culture, which is the highest, terminal value.

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The Saudi Arabian Glass Earth Pilot Project is a geophysical exploration program to explore the upper crust of the Kingdom for minerals, groundwater, and geothermal resources as well as strictly academic investigations. The project began with over 8000 km2 of green-field area. Airborne geophysics including electromagnetic (EM), magnetics, and gravity were used to develop several high priority targets for ground follow-up. Based on the results of airborne survey, a spectral induced polarization (SIP) survey was completed over one of the prospective targets. The field data were collected with a distributed array system, which has the potential for strong inductive coupling. This was examined in a synthetic study, and it was determined that with the geometries and conductivities in the field survey, the inductive coupling effect may be visible in the data. In this study, we also confirmed that time domain is vastly superior to frequency domain for avoiding inductive coupling, that measuring decays from 50 ms to 2 s allow discrimination of time constants from 1 ms to 5 s, and the relaxation parameter C is strongly coupled to intrinsic chargeability. We developed a method to fully include all 3D EM effects in the inversion of induced polarization (IP) data. The field SIP data were inverted using the generalized effective-medium theory of induced polarization (GEMTIP) in conjunction with an integral equation-based modeling and inversion methods. These methods can replicate all inductive coupling and EM effects, which removes one significant barrier to inversion of large bandwidth spectral IP data. The results of this inversion were interpreted and compared with results of drill hole set up in the survey area. The drill hole intersected significant mineralization which is currently being further investigated. The project can be considered a technical success, validating the methods and effective-medium inversion technique used for the project.

Abstract:

Microkernel-based virtualization is one of several popular virtualization technologies aiming for embedded devices and efficient communication between virtual machines should be provided as other virtualization solutions. Long data communication is one of main two communication methods. This paper proposes EMLDC: an efficient method of long data communication based on shared memory in the L4 Microkernel-based virtualization environments. Especially EMLDC adopting lock-free mechanism can reduce performance loss and priority inversion in the real-time virtual machines against traditional blocking algorithm. Benchmark programs have been conducted to demonstrate that EMLDC can support long data communication efficiently.

Abstract:

Multiprocessor real-time systems receive a great deal of attention. For better utilization of multiprocessors in a real-time context, an optimal approach for scheduling, allocation, and synchronization is required. In this research, a novel heuristic synchronization-aware scheduling has been proposed to reduce the blocking delays in a critical section and also bound to minimize multiple priority inversion. The key idea of this technique is to assign the task set in the same processor that accesses a common shared resource and also access them for the longest period of time; thereby, the global sharing of resource transforms into local sharing. From simulation results, it was concluded that the duration of blocking overheads should be minimized up to 25% to 30% and context switching between processors also reduced up to 10% to 15%. On the basis of result analysis, schedulability, minimization of context switching, and reduced blocking time indicate that the proposed method outperforms the existing methods and does not affect the task completion time.

Abstract:

Mixing of carbon dioxide dissolved in a multicomponent gas mixture at different pressures was researched. It was found that the mechanical equilibrium of the ternary gas mixture 0.4163H2 (1) + 0.5837CO2 (2) − N2 (3) is violated at a pressure of p = 0.7 MPa and structured flows appear in the system. The pressure area (from 0.7 to 1.5 MPa) at which the conditions of priority transfer of components with the highest molecular weight in the mixture are realised in the system is fixed. To analyse the effect of pressure on the process of changing “diffusion–convection” modes, a mathematical model, which takes into account the kinetic features of multicomponent mixing, was applied. It was shown that the change in the modes of mass transfer is associated with a significant difference in the diffusion ability of the components. It is noted that the difference in the diffusion coefficients of components results in the nonlinearity of the concentration distribution, which leads to the inversion of the density gradient of the gas mixture, which is the cause of convective flows.

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Managing a mega organization has become an extremely complex task, especially if the organization is virtual. The operating structure of such a multi-faceted organization is very difficult to construct, and traditional organization structure models seem to fall short in coping with the demands imposed by such huge and complex entities. The object-oriented (organic) structure has many attributes that are suitable for solving the complexity of such organization structure and seems successful in catering for the needs of big organizations. However, the organic structure is by nature a static model that does not allow for predicting dynamic operation problems before they occur. The goal of this paper is thereforto design a generic model, using a Petri net-based framework, to simulate the workflow of virtual organizations that follow the organic structure in essential tasks like scheduling, monitoring and supervising.This model is useful in predicting problems before they occur and is therefore quite a useful tool for resource allocation, business planning and overall monitoring. Because of its capability in predicting problems like deadlock, priority inversion and starvation, a Petri net may become an essential tool for organization management.

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Textual semantics is studied on the basis of subjective — objective reciprocal feedback, where the objective field is reconstructed from the eidetic images with the inversion of their inner relations. The priority belongs to the textual inner world, and the objective field is determined with an epoch's concrete historical conditions. Mereology is developed within the framework of phenomenology as the logical theory dealing with the relation of "part –whole" that in difference to hermeneutics is based on the irreducibility of the whole to the parts and the reciprocity of this relation. The parts are divided into the autonomous and dependent, inner and outer ones. A text is regarded as a hologram where each part represents its functions within the whole. It is the textual frameworks that play the decisive role in textual integration together with reciprocal references of the distant parts and complementary relations. The paragon of framework is to be found in the cues of a role of a dramatic persona. It is due to distanced relations that the dimensionality of a text grows, it surpasses linear and planar limits, its depth and volume are revealed. Such means of frameworks as anaphora procure the textual division onto closed cycles.

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This paper investigates the potential of Gaston Bachelard? phenomenology of imagination in the context of contemporary changes in the relationship between architectural form and architectural materials. Considering that contemporary architectural discourse is based on negation of any determined form of appearance, former modernist approach to architectural form nowadays gives way to architectural materials by which the `disappearing` form is at the same time integrated and disintegrated. Observing dematerialization of architectural form as a symbolic, sensitive and meta-poetic category, this paper identifies the influences of Bachelard's phenomenology of imagination as a suitable philosophic and model platform. The priority that Bachelard gives to material rather than to formal imagination represents the backbone for understanding physical and spatial presence in the field of architecture. By accepting material imagination as ability to `deform` perceptive images, the paper aims to identify the mechanisms for transposing such philosophical premise to a corresponding architectural domain. Dematerialization of architectural form is, therefore, observed as a process of overcoming our unconscious attempt to attach to a usual perceptual phenomenon. On one hand, such act results in denial of any visual determination of architectural form, while on the other hand, it relativizes former `moral` value of materials through the inversion of archetypal notion of their application.

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Considered as a trigger of climate change, greenhouse gas (GHG) is a global environmental issue. The City of Surakarta in Indonesia consists mainly of urban areas with high intensities of anthropogenic fossil energy consumption and, potentially, GHG emission. It is topographically a basin area and most likely prompts a Thermal Inversion, creating a risk of accumulation and entrapment of air pollutants or GHGs at low altitudes. Vegetation has been reported to mitigate the rate of increase in emissions because it acts as a natural carbon sink. This study aimed to mitigate the GHG emissions from energy consumption in Surakarta and formulate recommendations for control. It commenced with calculating the emission factors based on the IPCC formula and determining the key categories using the Level Assessment approach. It also involved computing the vegetation density according to the NDVI values of the interpretation of Sentinel 2A imagery. The estimation results showed that in 2018, the emission loads from the energy consumption in Surakarta reached 1,217,385.05 (tons of CO2e). The key categories of these emissions were electricity consumption, transportation on highways, and the domestic sector, with transportation on highways being the top priority. These loads have exceeded the local carrying capacity because they create an imbalance between emission and natural GHG sequestration by vegetations.

Abstract:

<p><em>The economic and commercial worldwide impact of the Panama Canal makes this route one of the most important international maritime routes. The quality of water in communities located near the vicinity of the Canal makes conservation and understanding of water resources a priority. In order to identify the stratigraphy and to understand the infiltration processes caused by the rains in the area of Gamboa between the transition (dry to rainy season) and rainy seasons, a time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography analysis was performed. The results showed two horizons constituted mainly by clay material. The first one composed of clay and accumulation of rocks in some areas and the second, the same clay material with certain level of moisture. About the time-lapse results, the negative percent change of resistivity (between 0 and -46.5%) obtained are associated with the rainfall that reached 19 mm during the last days of the second survey; this fact demonstrates the remarkable contribution of the rains to the groundwater that feed the Panama Canal. Moreover, the positive percent change of resistivity (between 0 and 50%) are linked to artefacts which can be common linked to inversion scheme, electrode array or electrode removal and relocation process.</em></p>

Abstract:

AbstractEmerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs and personal care products can be released to the environment in untreated wastewater/stormwater mixtures following storm events. The frequency and intensity of combined sewer overflows (CSOs) has increased in some areas due to increasing urbanisation and climate change. Therefore, this review provides an up-to-date overview on CSOs as an environmental source of emerging contaminants. Other than compounds with high removal, those chiral species subject to enantioselective changes (i.e. degradation or inversion) during wastewater treatment can be effective markers of CSO discharge in the environment. A proposed framework for the selection of emerging contaminants as markers of CSOs is outlined. Studies have demonstrated that CSOs can be the main source of emerging contaminants with high removal efficiency during wastewater treatment (e.g. > 90%). However, the impact of CSOs on the environment is location specific and requires decision-making on their appropriate management at catchment level. This process would be aided by further studies on CSOs which incorporate the monitoring of emerging contaminants and their effects in the environment with those more routinely monitored pollutants (e.g. pathogens and priority substances). Mitigation and treatment strategies for emerging contaminants in CSOs are also discussed.

Abstract:

By “evil,” Kant does not designate any set of particularly pernicious acts, but the type of volition that underlies and makes possible immorality in all its forms. The evil person, Kant believes, “makes the incentives of self-love and their inclinations the condition of compliance with the moral law –whereas it is the latter that, as the supreme condition of the satisfaction of the former, should have been incorporated into the universal maxim of the power of choice as the sole incentive” (R 6:36). This inversion of the ethical order of priority does not entail the repudiation of “the moral law (…) in rebellious attitude (by revoking obedience to it)” (R 6:36), but its conditional respect. This fraudulent relation to morality is based on complex strategies of deception, self-deception, and rationalization. The “radical “nature of these tendencies has nothing to do with the intensity or magnitude of observable wrongdoing. Evil’s radicalism is a spatial metaphor intended to designate the locus of immorality (its “root”) in an agent’s “disposition (Gesinnung). What is most baffling the Kantian view is that evil so construed is perfectly compatible with good conduct. Indeed, under the conditions of civilization, Kant believes, it is impossible to distinguish a man of good conduct from a morally good man (RGV 6:30), for the dictates of self-love generally overlap with the prescriptions of duty. The persistence of war, poverty, oppression, and the infinity of vices which cast a dark shadow over the contemporary world speak of the prescience of the Kantian approach.

Abstract:

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a structured procedure for the capture and evaluation of innovative ideas in the early stages of product development. The procedure is designed to take account of internal and external factors affecting the value of innovative ideas. Design/methodology/approach The proposed procedure is based on divergent and convergent approaches to innovation. Ideas are generated and captured using targeted questions and subsequently evaluated using modifications of the Kano model and failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA). Idea evaluation considers four criteria – delight, originality, market share potential and simplicity – which are used to compute an “idea priority number”. Findings A case study looking at innovations in swimming goggles verified the validity of the proposed procedure. The procedure also supports fact-based decision making and applies a structured perspective to the innovation process that makes it easier to manage. Research limitations/implications The case study made use of a pilot survey in which 32 customers participated. Although the case study was only intended as a demonstration of the method’s use, such a sample size could lead to unreliable results in certain cases. Originality/value Applications of standard or expanded FMEA do not add value to a product because the main purpose of the approach is to prevent failure. The proposed inversion of FMEA logic combined with customer view via the Kano model offers a method for the structured analysis of product innovations. No similar approach to the evaluation of innovations has so far appeared in the literature.

Abstract:

Abstract. Carbon monoxide (CO) simulation in atmospheric chemistry models is frequently used for source–receptor analysis, emission inversion, interpretation of observations, and chemical forecasting due to its computational efficiency and ability to quantitatively link simulated CO burdens to sources. While several methods exist for modeling CO source attribution, most are inappropriate for regions where the CO budget is dominated by secondary production rather than direct emissions. Here, we introduce a major update to the linear CO-only capability in the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model that for the first time allows source–region tagging of secondary CO produced from oxidation of non-methane volatile organic compounds. Our updates also remove fundamental inconsistencies between the CO-only simulation and the standard full chemistry simulation by using consistent CO production rates in both. We find that relative to the standard chemistry simulation, CO in the original CO-only simulation was overestimated by more than 100 ppb in the model surface layer and underestimated in outflow regions. The improved CO-only simulation largely resolves these discrepancies by improving both the magnitude and location of secondary production. Despite large differences between the original and improved simulations, however, model evaluation with the global dataset used to benchmark GEOS-Chem shows negligible change to the model's ability to match the observations. This suggests that the current GEOS-Chem benchmark is not well suited to evaluate model changes in regions influenced by biogenic emissions and chemistry, and expanding the dataset to include observations from biogenic source regions (including those from recent aircraft campaigns) should be a priority for the GEOS-Chem community. Using Australasia as a case study, we show that the new ability to geographically tag secondary CO production provides significant added value for interpreting observations and model results in regions where primary CO emissions are low. Secondary production dominates the CO budget across much of the world, especially in the Southern Hemisphere, and we recommend future model–observation and multi-model comparisons implement this capability to provide a more complete understanding of CO sources and their variability.

Abstract:

The 1960s myth that good vocational counseling means successful youth entry into employment is back in favor and imposing itself on educational policy as an absolute priority during this period of high unemployment. But implementation of these youth career planning and employment policies has largely been delegated to local-level authorities, where interventions now take the form of reticular projects.This is the context in which we test the hypothesis of a crisis in the work of actors providing youth vocational counseling, program coordinators of various ranks, psychological counselors, and referent teachers working with students.The methodology for the main study is based on interviews with a range of professionals. A supplementary study analyzed the content of articles in “L’echo des régions”, the magazine of the Association of the Regions of France, from 2010 to 2015.One finding to emerge from these observations is that the educational system internalizes concerns connected with job openings in occupations, while actors focused on post-scholastic job placement request more general education. This role inversion highlights the main contradictions running through youth vocational guidance. All actors attest to the limitations thwarting their voluntarism as well as to the dilemmas they face. Among the identified obstacles are the individualization of vocational paths and the emergence of case-by-case counseling, the application of the principle of equality to competing strategies, the disorganization of institutions allocated declining financial resources, conflicts of interest in partnerships, devalued courses of study, and insecure jobs. We also observed that the proffered arguments propose handling youth career counseling and entry into employment according to an “emergency response” model. In such a landscape devoid of egalitarian prospects, it nonetheless emerges that the path toward the equality of girls with boys is more open. At the same time, an opposing gender logic appears in the distribution of professional tasks, with particular consequences for women and especially female teachers.

Abstract:

The problem field of the study. The celebration of the anniversary of a historical personality gives a meaningful assessment of this person in a particular period from the point of dominant ideological paradigm, indicates his place in a particular socio-cultural space and his significance in the artistic context. This is proved by the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of L. van Beethoven in the Federal Republic of Germany. In the seventies of the 20th century, at the turn of the decade, the reputation of the classical composer as a “sacred figure of spiritual culture” became a factor that escalated the social conflict of generations in his homeland, a vivid manifestation of which were the fateful events of 1968. As a result, the reputation of the “The Great Deaf”, which had been built up over centuries, underwent a radical revision, as indicated by the general “critical pathos” of the anniversary celebration. The celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of L. Van Beethoven in the Soviet Union turned out to be completely different in terms of socio-political and artistic directions. Thus, the purpose of the study is to identify the mechanisms of ideological inversion in relation to the great German composer and his work, as well as the peculiarities of the organization of the country’s cultural and artistic life in connection with the anniversary. These issues are still of current interest because: – firstly, referring to the events that happened fifty years ago, we can note the transformation in the perception of the composer’s personality in the socio-cultural space; – secondly, it becomes possible to objectively, without ideological inversion, evaluate the artistic life of the USSR in general and Ukraine in particular (then the UkSSR); – thirdly, the analysis of the jubilee events of that time clearly highlights the fundamental tendencies of modern policy pursued by our state in the field of culture. Results for discussion. The Soviet Union formed an institutionalized image of L. van Beethoven, which was widely replicated by all possible scientific and artistic means in the culture of the 70s of the 20th century. As a result, the image of a mythologized character with a set of fundamentally mandatory, immutable, easily recognizable features that successfully distinguish him from other representatives of the artistic pantheon, was firmly implanted in the minds of the so-called “ordinary citizens” of the USSR: genius, “The Great Deaf” and favorite composer of Lenin. Thus, throughout practically the entire historical period of the USSR, according to the musical preferences of the “leader of the world proletariat”, the personality of L. van Beethoven and his work underwent an ideological inversion, the starting point of which was 1927 – the centenary of the death of the German composer. At that time, the priority goal was to demonstrate that “own” is different from “bourgeois” by marking the centenary of the death of the great German composer. The fact is that this oppositional paradigm of the 1920s formed a universal algorithm of “jubilee celebrations”, according to which a proper program of events (officially, ideologically and artistically approved) was designed and implemented throughout the existence of the Soviet Union. Thus, the 200th anniversary of L. van Beethoven in the Soviet Union at that time acquired all the hallmarks of a national holiday, manifested in governmental celebrations with mass media propaganda and appropriate repertoire in all cultural and artistic institutions in Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev and other cities of the country. A specially created commission headed by D. Shostakovich – the Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the Lenin Prize – supervised all the work on organizing the celebrations. On his behalf, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union “Pravda” on December 16 published a programmatic article “Bequeathed to the Ages” on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of L. van Beethoven. The text was a concentration of propaganda clich&#233;s that fully reproduced the ideologically inverted image of the “The Great Deaf”. Thus, the celebration was carried out in the confronting opposition to bourgeois ideology, reflected in the socio-political discourse. Conclusions. As a result, the personality of L. van Beethoven underwent those transformational processes of ideological mythologization. This is evidenced by all the propaganda rhetoric associated with the anniversary celebrations, as well as the content of artistic life in the USSR, which was provided with the necessary budgetary funds. The state cultural policy of that time, focused on the broad (popular) masses, by its nature contradicts today’s trends in meeting the individual spiritual needs of a a personality.

Abstract:

Аim. Тo assess the effectiveness of surgical treatment of consequences of burn injury of adnexa in children. Material and methods. The analysis of clinical material over the past 10 years. The clinical group consisted of 59 patients (44 - male, 15 - female) with the consequences of burn injury of adnexa in age from 2 months to 18 years (m = 9.17 ±3.23 years). The burn trauma were the following: thermal (flame, hot objects, gas explosion) - 43, chemical (acid, alkali) - 11, combined (melted lead/glass) - 5. The time that has passed after the burn until the first stage of surgical treatment ranged from 1 month to 2 years (m= 9.7 ± 5.1 months). The author describes in detail the clinical picture, noting that significant lagophthalmos is dominated by the consequences of thermal burns, the consequences of chemical burns occurred entropion, symblepharon, leucoma. 11 patients had anophthalmos. In all, 121 operations were performed in 59 patients (1 to 4 stages, m = 2,1±1,1) with an interval from 3 to 12 months (m=8.3 months): removal of lagophthalmos with method of local plastics or free skin grafting; elimination of symblepharon or reconstruction of the conjunctival cavity with lips/cheeks’ mucous grafting; the strengthening of the eyelids’ edges, eyelashes plastic. The technics of the operation is described. Follow up period for patients from 6 months to 13 years (m=6,7±2,1). Results. Wound healing in all cases took place in the usual time. Skin sutures were removed after 7-9 days, traction sutures in 3 weeks, blepharorophy in 1-6 months. Engraftment of the transplanted free skin and mucous’ grafts was without a significant reduction. Visual function were preserved and improved in all the cases (44 patients). Cosmetic contact lenses were chosen in 4 patients with Vis = 0. A stable position of the prosthesis achieved in patients with anophthalmos. Conclusion. Consequences of burn injury of adnexa in children are diverse and require a differentiated approach to the choice of timing, priority, and methods of surgical treatment. Eyelid plasty is advisable to perform in the “cold” period after the completion of processes of scar tissue formation in the absence of threats to the condition of the eye.. Reconstruction should be performed at any time to prevent the development of ulcers or perforation of the cornea in the presence of the inversion of eyelids, symblepharon, significant lagophthalmos causing suffering of cornea.

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Abstract. Currently two polar orbiting satellite instruments measure CO2 concentrations in the Earth's atmosphere, while other missions are planned for the coming years. In the future such instruments might become powerful tools for monitoring changes in the atmospheric CO2 abundance and to improve our quantitative understanding of the leading processes controlling this. At the moment, however, we are still in an exploratory phase where first experiences are collected and promising new space-based measurement concepts are investigated. This study assesses the potential of some of these concepts to improve CO2 source and sink estimates obtained from inverse modelling. For this purpose the performance of existing and planned satellite instruments is quantified by synthetic simulations of their ability to reduce the uncertainty of the current source and sink estimates in comparison with the existing ground-based network of sampling sites. Our high resolution inversion of sources and sinks (at 8°x10°) allows us to investigate the variation of instrument performance in space and time and at various temporal and spatial scales. The results of our synthetic tests clearly indicate that the satellite performance increases with increasing sensitivity of the instrument to CO2 near the Earth's surface, favoring the near infra-red technique. Thermal infrared instruments, on the contrary, reach a better global coverage, because the performance in the near infrared is reduced over the oceans owing to a low surface albedo. Near infra-red sounders can compensate for this by measuring in sun-glint, which will allow accurate measurements over the oceans, at the cost, however, of a lower measurement density. Overall, the sun-glint pointing near infrared instrument is the most promising concept of those tested. We show that the ability of satellite instruments to resolve fluxes at smaller temporal and spatial scales is also related to surface sensitivity. All the satellite instruments performed relatively well over the continents resulting mainly from the larger prior flux uncertainties over land than over the oceans. In addition, the surface networks are rather sparse over land increasing the additional benefit of satellite measurements there. Globally, challenging satellite instrument precisions are needed to compete with the current surface network (about 1ppm for weekly and 8°x10° averaged SCIAMACHY columns). Regionally, however, these requirements relax considerably, increasing to 5ppm for SCIAMACHY over tropical continents. This points not only to an interesting research area using SCIAMACHY data, but also to the fact that satellite requirements should not be quantified by only a single number. The applicability of our synthetic results to real satellite instruments is limited by rather crude representations of instrument and data retrieval related uncertainties. This should receive high priority in future work.

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Abstract. This paper aims to summarise the current performance of ozone data assimilation (DA) systems, to show where they can be improved, and to quantify their errors. It examines 11 sets of ozone analyses from 7 different DA systems. Two are numerical weather prediction (NWP) systems based on general circulation models (GCMs); the other five use chemistry transport models (CTMs). The systems examined contain either linearised or detailed ozone chemistry, or no chemistry at all. In most analyses, MIPAS (Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding) ozone data are assimilated; two assimilate SCIAMACHY (Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography) observations instead. Analyses are compared to independent ozone observations covering the troposphere, stratosphere and lower mesosphere during the period July to November 2003. Biases and standard deviations are largest, and show the largest divergence between systems, in the troposphere, in the upper-troposphere/lower-stratosphere, in the upper-stratosphere and mesosphere, and the Antarctic ozone hole region. However, in any particular area, apart from the troposphere, at least one system can be found that agrees well with independent data. In general, none of the differences can be linked to the assimilation technique (Kalman filter, three or four dimensional variational methods, direct inversion) or the system (CTM or NWP system). Where results diverge, a main explanation is the way ozone is modelled. It is important to correctly model transport at the tropical tropopause, to avoid positive biases and excessive structure in the ozone field. In the southern hemisphere ozone hole, only the analyses which correctly model heterogeneous ozone depletion are able to reproduce the near-complete ozone destruction over the pole. In the upper-stratosphere and mesosphere (above 5 hPa), some ozone photochemistry schemes caused large but easily remedied biases. The diurnal cycle of ozone in the mesosphere is not captured, except by the one system that includes a detailed treatment of mesospheric chemistry. These results indicate that when good observations are available for assimilation, the first priority for improving ozone DA systems is to improve the models. The analyses benefit strongly from the good quality of the MIPAS ozone observations. Using the analyses as a transfer standard, it is seen that MIPAS is ~5% higher than HALOE (Halogen Occultation Experiment) in the mid and upper stratosphere and mesosphere (above 30 hPa), and of order 10% higher than ozonesonde and HALOE in the lower stratosphere (100 hPa to 30 hPa). Analyses based on SCIAMACHY total column are almost as good as the MIPAS analyses; analyses based on SCIAMACHY limb profiles are worse in some areas, due to problems in the SCIAMACHY retrievals.

Abstract:

The middle Eocene Kalol Formation in the north Cambay Basin of India is producing hydrocarbons in commercial quantity from a series of thin clastic reservoirs. These reservoirs are sandwiched between coal and shale layers, and are discrete in nature. The Kalol Formation has been divided into eleven units (K‐I to K‐XI) from top to bottom. Multipay sands of the K‐IX unit 2–8 m thick are the main hydrocarbon producers in the study area. Apart from their discrete nature, these sands exhibit lithological variation, which affects the porosity distribution. Low‐porosity zones are found devoid of hydrocarbons. In the available 3D seismic data, these sands are not resolved and generate a composite detectable seismic response, making reservoir characterization through seismic attributes impossible. After proper well‐to‐seismic tie, the major stratigraphic markers were tracked in the 3D seismic data volume for structural mapping and carrying out attribute analysis. The 3D seismic volume was inverted to obtain an acoustic impedance volume using a model‐based inversion algorithm, improving the vertical resolution and resolving the K‐IX pay sands. For better reservoir characterization, effective porosity distribution was estimated through different available techniques taking the K‐IX upper sand as an example. Various sample‐based seismic attributes, the impedance volume, and effective porosity logs were used as inputs for this purpose. These techniques are map‐based geostatistical methods using the acoustic impedance volume, stepwise multilinear regression, probabilistic neural networks (PNN) using multiattribute transforms, and a new technique that incorporates both geostatistics and multiattribute transforms (either linear or nonlinear). This paper is an attempt to compare different available techniques for porosity estimation. On comparison, it is found that the PNN‐based approach using ten sample‐based attributes showed highest crosscorrelation (0.9508) between actual and predicted effective porosity logs at eight wells in the study area. After validation, the predicted effective porosity maps for the K‐IX upper sand are generated using different techniques, and a comparison among them is made. The predicted effective porosity map obtained from PNN‐based model provides more meaningful information about the K‐IX upper sand reservoir. In order to give priority to the actual effective porosity values at wells, the predicted effective porosity map obtained from PNN‐based model for the K‐IX upper sand was combined with actual effective porosity values using co‐kriging geostatistical technique. This final map provides geologically more realistic predicted effective porosity distribution and helps in understanding the subsurface image. The implication of this work in exploration and development of hydrocarbons in the study area is discussed.

Abstract:

Abstract. Currently two polar orbiting satellite instruments measure CO2 concentrations in the Earth's atmosphere, while other missions are planned for the coming years. In the future such instruments might become powerful tools for monitoring changes in the atmospheric CO2 abundance and to improve our quantitative understanding of the leading processes controlling this. At the moment, however, we are still in an exploratory phase where first experiences are collected and promising new space-based measurement concepts are investigated. This study assesses the potential of some of these concepts to improve CO2 source and sink estimates obtained from inverse modelling. For this purpose the performance of existing and planned satellite instruments is quantified by synthetic simulations of their ability to reduce the uncertainty of the current source and sink estimates in comparison with the existing ground-based network of sampling sites. Our high resolution inversion of sources and sinks (at 8º x 10º allows us to investigate the variation of instrument performance in space and time and at various temporal and spatial scales. The results of our synthetic tests clearly indicate that the satellite performance increases with increasing sensitivity of the instrument to CO2 near the Earth's surface, favoring the near infra-red technique. Thermal infrared instruments, on the contrary, reach a better global coverage, because the performance in the near infrared is reduced over the oceans owing to a low surface albedo. Near infra-red sounders can compensate for this by measuring in sun-glint, which will allow accurate measurements over the oceans, at the cost, however, of a lower measurement density. Overall, the sun-glint pointing near infrared instrument is the most promising concept of those tested. We show that the ability of satellite instruments to resolve fluxes at smaller temporal and spatial scales is also related to surface sensitivity. All the satellite instruments performed relatively well over the continents resulting mainly from the larger prior flux uncertainties over land than over the oceans. In addition, the surface networks are rather sparse over land increasing the additional benefit of satellite measurements there. Globally, rather challenging satellite instrument precisions are needed to compete with the surface network (about 1 ppmv for weekly and 8° × 10° averaged SCIAMACHY columns). Regionally, however, these requirements relax considerably, increasing to 5 ppmv for SCIAMACHY over tropical continents. This points not only to an interesting research area using SCIAMACHY data, but also to the fact that satellite requirements should not be quantified by only a single number. The applicability of our synthetic results to real satellite instruments is limited by rather crude representations of instrument and data retrieval related uncertainties. This should receive high priority in future work.

Abstract:

In this paper I review a number of explanations for the emergence of the modern homosexual category in Western (mainly Northwest European) cultures. I suggest there are four different emphases in respect of the social and cultural factors given priority in interpretations of the formation of the homosexual category. Of course, individual studies have often taken into consideration more than one single factor (most notably, Greenberg, 1988; Chauncey, 1994), and the grouping of previous studies that I here suggest only indicates where the focus of a given study is. The social and cultural factors emphasized in these four approaches are: 1) the effects of competitive capitalism on the bourgeois/middle class political economy of sexuality and sexual morals; 2) the rise of expert knowledges, controlling systems, and modern bureaucracies; 3) tensions within gender order and the struggle over new definitions of gender roles; 4) the rise of free wage labour, the proliferation of urban anonymity, and the unfolding of new modes of existence in the life-world of modern pluralist urban society. Finally, the article briefly considers the potential erosion of the homosexual vs. heterosexual divide in the light of the historical background. Almost thirty years have passed since ‘The Homosexual Role’, by Mary McIntosh (1968), the first notable contribution to the historical sociology of homosexuality operating within a social constructionist view of homosexuality. Since then, there have been numerous studies of the formation of the conceptual category and social aggregate of ‘modern homosexual’. Researchers have differed about whether the pedigree of ‘homosexual’ and homosexual identities and subcultures in Western societies can be traced back to the late nineteenth century or to the early eighteenth century, and whether or not some notion of ‘homosexual’ was established in the cultural imagery before the last fifty years or so. It might be fruitful to distinguish between the historically older categories of ‘molly’, ‘queen’, and ‘fairy’ on the one hand, and the more recent ‘homosexual’ on the other hand. It can be argued that the decisive feature of the first-mentioned ‘deviant men’ was their status as gender-crossers (which as a side-effect entailed an interest in homosexual conduct), whereas the modern term homosexual does not necessarily suggest gender-crossing or more generic ‘sexual inversion’ (cf. Chauncey, 1994). However, allusions to gay men's purported effeminacy and lesbian women's purported masculinity continue to surface frequently also in contemporary culture. Hence, for the sake of brevity, I here use the term modern homosexual, by which I refer to a notion that there is in some people an inherent sexual desire exclusively for persons of the same sex, and that this so-called sexual orientation is to some degree intertwined with a tendency to gender-crossing conduct.

Abstract:

Постановка задачи. Целью настоящей статьи было определение характерных черт и особенностей семейных историй в политическом дискурсе. В данном типе дискурса эта тема не является приоритетной, однако изменения, произошедшие в самой политической системе, а также развитие социальных сетей и интернет-общения привели к внедрению этой тематики и в речь российских политиков. Под семейными историями в настоящем исследовании понимаются сообщения, содержащие любую информацию о членах семьи, событиях в личной жизни, семейных традициях, родных местах, непосредственными отправителями которых выступают сами политические деятели. Результаты исследования. На материале 130 семейных историй, принадлежащих современным русским политикам, мы выявили 9 основных тематических блоков, классифицировали семейные истории на 3 основаниях и охарактеризовали наиболее распространенные лингвистические приемы, такие как инверсия, опущение грамматического подлежащего, выраженного личным местоимением, эллипсис, парцелляция, обилие риторических вопросов и восклицательных предложений на синтаксическом уровне и активное использование общественно-политической лексики, разговорных и региональных слов и выражений, слов и выражений официального стиля речи - на лексическом. Исследование также показало, что для семейных историй политических деятелей характерны отсылки к историческим и географическим данным, прецедентным именам и феноменам и интертекстуальность. Выводы. В результате проведённого исследования мы пришли к выводу, что и в семейных историях, транслируемых вовне, политики используют своеобразие языковой системы, чтобы сформировать позитивное представление о себе, создать образ достойного представителя народа, пропагандировать семейные ценности и чувство патриотизма. Любое упоминание семейной истории политиками направлено на достижение основной цели политического дискурса: успеха в карьере. Поэтому, проникая в политический дискурс, семейные истории демонстрируются исключительно со своей положительной стороны и могут рассматриваться как «эталонные модели» семьи и семейных отношений в современном российском обществе. Problem statement. The main goal of the present article was to identify the peculiarities and main features of family stories in political discourse. This theme is not a priority one in political discourse, however, the changes that have occurred in our political system at the end of XX century, as well as the development of social networks and Internet communication have resulted in the implication of this theme in the speech of Russian politicians. In this study, family stories are understood as messages containing any information about family members, events in personal life, family traditions, native places that politicians themselves produce. Research results. Based on the material of 130 family stories belonging to contemporary Russian politicians, we identified 9 main thematic blocks, classified family histories on 3 bases and characterized the most common techniques at the syntactic and lexical levels, such as inversion, omission of a grammatical subject expressed by a personal pronoun, ellipsis, parceling, a variety of rhetorical questions and exclamation sentences; active use of socio-political vocabulary, colloquial and regional words and expressions, words and expressions of the official style of speech. The research has also revealed that the family stories of politicians are characterized by various references to historical and geographical data, precedent names and phenomena, and intertextuality. Conclusion. As a result of the study, we came to the conclusion that in their family stories politicians use different opportunities of the language system to form a positive image of themselves, create an image of a worthy representative of the people, and promote family values and a sense of patriotism. Any mention of family history by politicians is aimed at achieving the main goal of political discourse: career success. Therefore, being implicated into the political discourse, family stories are demonstrated exclusively from their positive side and can be regarded as “models” of family and family relations in modern Russian society.

Abstract:

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Abstract:

This paper discusses about the availability of a complex system, which consists of two independent repairable subsystems A and B in (1-out-of-2: F) and (1-out-of-n: F) arrangement respectively. Subsystem A has two identical units arranged in parallel redundancy (1-out-of-2: G), subsystem B has n unit in series (1-out-of-n: F) with two types of failure, viz., partial and catastrophic. Except at two transitions where two types of repair namely exponential and general possible all other transitions have single possibility between any two states. The failure and repair time for both subsystems follow exponential and general distributions respectively. The model is analyzed under "preemptive-resume repair discipline" where A is considered to be in priority while B is non-priority. By employing supplementary variable technique, Laplace transformation and Gumbel-Hougaard family copula various transition state probabilities, availability, Mean Time to Failure (MTTF) and cost analysis (expected profit) are obtained along with steady-state behaviour of the system. Inversions have also been carried out so as to obtain time dependent probabilities, which determine availability of the system at any instant. At last some special cases of the system have been taken.

Abstract:

El presente trabajo es una reflexión académica sobre la situación actual por la que atraviesa la evaluación económica de proyectos de inversión pública en el Ecuador. Se toma como ejemplo emblemático el caso del Banco del Estado, que es, sin lugar a dudas, la institución pública llamada a fomentar y liderar el uso de esta metodología, por ser precisamente el banco que financia la obra pública de desarrollo del país. La importancia de someter a una rigurosa evaluación económica a los proyectos de inversión pública, radica fundamentalmente en que estos proyectos se financian con dinero público, que son recursos económicos que pertenecen a todos los ecuatorianos, y por lo mismo, todos debemos estar vigilantes de que estos recursos escasos se usen en aquellos proyectos que sean de mayor prioridad, es decir, se debe invertir fundamentalmente en los proyectos y actividades que generen un mayor impacto social (que representen un mayor beneficio para la sociedad). En tal sentido, y para asegurar que la elección entre proyectos alternativos, que tienen que realizar los gestores públicos, sea realizada con criterios de eficiencia económica y equidad, es que se propone la utilización de una evaluación económica, pero con una mayor rigurosidad que la que se viene aplicando en la actualidad.Palabras claveEficiencia en el gasto público, evaluación económica de proyectos, gestión pública, inversión pública. AbstractThe current work is an academic reflection about the actual situation that economic evaluation of public investment projects in Ecuador is going through. Taking as an emblematic example the case of the State Bank, which is undoubtedly the public institution that is called to encourage and lead the use of this methodology, by being precisely the one that finances the public developing work of the country. The importance of submitting a rigorous economic evaluation to public investment projects resides basically in the fact that these projects are funded with public money, which is an economic resource that belongs to all Ecuadorians, and because of this we should all be alert that this scarce resource is used in those projects of main priority; that is to say, it should be invested basically in projects and activities that generate a greater social impact (that represent a greater benefit for society). For that matter and to ensure that the election between alternative projects (that public managers have to do) is performed with economic efficiency and equity criterion, the use of an economic evaluation is proposed, but with greater rigor than the one that has been applied up until today.Key wordsEfficient public spending, economic evaluation of projects, public management, public investment.

Abstract:

Abstract. Understanding the global carbon (C) cycle is of crucial importance to map current and future climate dynamics relative to global environmental change. A full characterization of C cycling requires detailed information on spatiotemporal patterns of surface–atmosphere fluxes. However, relevant C cycle observations are highly variable in their coverage and reporting standards. Especially problematic is the lack of integration of the carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange of the ocean, inland freshwaters and the land surface with the atmosphere. Here we adopt a data-driven approach to synthesize a wide range of observation-based spatially explicit surface–atmosphere CO2 fluxes from 2001 to 2010, to identify the state of today's observational opportunities and data limitations. The considered fluxes include net exchange of open oceans, continental shelves, estuaries, rivers, and lakes, as well as CO2 fluxes related to net ecosystem productivity, fire emissions, loss of tropical aboveground C, harvested wood and crops, as well as fossil fuel and cement emissions. Spatially explicit CO2 fluxes are obtained through geostatistical and/or remote-sensing-based upscaling, thereby minimizing biophysical or biogeochemical assumptions encoded in process-based models. We estimate a bottom-up net C exchange (NCE) between the surface (land, ocean, and coastal areas) and the atmosphere. Though we provide also global estimates, the primary goal of this study is to identify key uncertainties and observational shortcomings that need to be prioritized in the expansion of in situ observatories. Uncertainties for NCE and its components are derived using resampling. In many regions, our NCE estimates agree well with independent estimates from other sources such as process-based models and atmospheric inversions. This holds for Europe (mean ± 1 SD: 0.8 ± 0.1 PgC yr−1, positive numbers are sources to the atmosphere), Russia (0.1 ± 0.4 PgC yr−1), East Asia (1.6 ± 0.3 PgC yr−1), South Asia (0.3 ± 0.1 PgC yr−1), Australia (0.2 ± 0.3 PgC yr−1), and most of the Ocean regions. Our NCE estimates give a likely too large CO2 sink in tropical areas such as the Amazon, Congo, and Indonesia. Overall, and because of the overestimated CO2 uptake in tropical lands, our global bottom-up NCE amounts to a net sink of −5.4 ± 2.0 PgC yr−1. By contrast, the accurately measured mean atmospheric growth rate of CO2 over 2001–2010 indicates that the true value of NCE is a net CO2 source of 4.3 ± 0.1 PgC yr−1. This mismatch of nearly 10 PgC yr−1 highlights observational gaps and limitations of data-driven models in tropical lands, but also in North America. Our uncertainty assessment provides the basis for setting priority regions where to increase carbon observations in the future. High on the priority list are tropical land regions, which suffer from a lack of in situ observations. Second, extensive pCO2 data are missing in the Southern Ocean. Third, we lack observations that could enable seasonal estimates of shelf, estuary, and inland water–atmosphere C exchange. Our consistent derivation of data uncertainties could serve as prior knowledge in multicriteria optimization such as the Carbon Cycle Data Assimilation System (CCDAS) and atmospheric inversions, without over- or under-stating bottom-up data credibility. In the future, NCE estimates of carbon sinks could be aggregated at national scale to compare with the official national inventories of CO2 fluxes in the land use, land use change, and forestry sector, upon which future emission reductions are proposed.

Abstract:

El objetivo global de las propuestas de simplificación es garantizar que la normativa comunitaria de aplicación aporte resultados al público de manera transparente, eficaz y eficiente siempre buscando el menor coste posible con el propósito de eliminar cargas innecesarias, armonizar la legislación sin interferir en el logro de la estrategia política programada. La puesta en marcha de una política simplificadora en la política de cohesión permite también centrar más los recursos humanos y el esfuerzo administrativo que conlleva la gestión de los Fondos Estructurales y de Inversión (en adelante, Fondos EIE) en el logro de los objetivos prioritarios, y no en la recopilación y tramitación de multitud de documentos. Asimismo, la simplificación del proceso de gestión facilitará el acceso de los pequeños beneficiarios a la financiación comunitaria y conllevará a la obtención de un menor porcentaje de error contribuyendo a un uso más correcto de los Fondos.The overall objective of the simplification proposals is to ensure that the European regulations provide results to the target public in a transparent, efficient and efficient approach, always searching the lowest possible cost in order to eliminate unnecessary administrative burdens, harmonize legislation without interfering in achievement of the programming political strategy. The implementation of a simplifying policy in cohesion policy also makes it possible to focus more on the human resources and the administrative effort involved in the management of the ESI Funds in the achievement of the priority objectives, and not in the collection and processing of a large number of documents. Likewise, the simplification of the management process will facilitate the access of small beneficiaries to European funding and will lead to obtaining a lower percentage of error contributing to a more correct use of the Funds.

Abstract:

ResumenEn este trabajo se desarrolla un modelo de gestión para las empresas inmobiliarias, que permite analizar su desempeño periodo a periodo bajo un esquema de mejora continua, el cual puede ser aplicado por las empresas independientemente de su tamaño. El modelo en cuestión ha sido generado con los juicios de valor de especialistas en gestión inmobiliaria de empresas chilenas, a través del uso de la metodología de análisis jerárquico de proyectos. El método de Análisis Jerárquico de Proyectos (AHP), utilizado para determinar las prioridades de cada elemento de evaluación, ha permitido establecer valores precisos, consistentes y consecuentes de medición del desempeño de la gestión en el negocio inmobiliario. El proceso de desglose de los objetivos en criterios agrupados bajo un esquema estructurado con 26 variables, posibilita disponer de un cuadro de mando integrado, que devela los aspectos más significativos para el negocio inmobiliario, de los cuales 9 explican cerca del 70% del índice de gestión de desempeño. Destacando una preocupación equilibrada entre rentabilidad, crecimiento y estabilidad, lo cual muestra que las empresas tienen como objetivo su permanencia en el mercado y no sólo rentabilizar una inversión. De igual forma el modelo muestra una significativa preocupación por los clientes externos de la empresa y también al cliente interno, ya que, manteniendo satisfecha a las personas, se logra una mayor productividad y el logro de los objetivos de las empresas.AbstractThe development of this work is a management model of real states companies that allows analyze its performance in a time control period under a continuous improvement scheme, this model could be applied in all types of companies regardless of its size. This management model has been generated with value judgment of Chilean specialist in real states companies, through a project hierarchical analyze method. The Project Hierarchical Analyze method (AHP), used to evaluate the priority of each evaluation element, has allowed to establish precise, consistent and consequence values for measuring the development of real states management business. The process of target breakdown into grouped criteria under a structured scheme of 26 variables, allows to construct an integrated control panel, showing the most relevant indicators for the real states business, of which 9 can explain near 70% of the key performance indicators. Highlighting a balanced concern among profitability, growth and stability, which shows that companies aim their stay in the market and not just a return on investment . Similarly the model shows a significant concern for the external customers of the company and also the internal customer, since keeping people happy, higher productivity and achieving the objectives of the companies is achieved.