A Sharding Scheme Based on Graph Partitioning Algorithm for Public Blockchain

Blockchain technology,with its attributes of decentralization,immutability,and traceability,has emerged as a powerful catalyst for enhancing traditional industries in terms of optimizing business processes.However,transaction performance and scalability has become the main challenges hindering the widespread adoption of blockchain.Due to its inability to meet the demands of high-frequency trading,blockchain cannot be adopted in many scenarios.To improve the transaction capacity,researchers have proposed some on-chain scaling technologies,including lightning networks,directed acyclic graph technology,state channels,and shardingmechanisms,inwhich sharding emerges as a potential scaling technology.Nevertheless,excessive cross-shard transactions and uneven shard workloads prevent the sharding mechanism from achieving the expected aim.This paper proposes a graphbased sharding scheme for public blockchain to efficiently balance the transaction distribution.Bymitigating crossshard transactions and evening-out workloads among shards,the scheme reduces transaction confirmation latency and enhances the transaction capacity of the blockchain.Therefore,the scheme can achieve a high-frequency transaction as well as a better blockchain scalability.Experiments results show that the scheme effectively reduces the cross-shard transaction ratio to a range of 35%-56%and significantly decreases the transaction confirmation latency to 6 s in a blockchain with no more than 25 shards.

Hybrid Strategy of Partitioned and Monolithic Methods for Solving Strongly Coupled Analysis of Inverse and Direct Piezoelectric and Circuit Coupling

The inverse and direct piezoelectric and circuit coupling are widely observed in advanced electro-mechanical systems such as piezoelectric energy harvesters.Existing strongly coupled analysis methods based on direct numerical modeling for this phenomenon can be classified into partitioned or monolithic formulations.Each formulation has its advantages and disadvantages,and the choice depends on the characteristics of each coupled problem.This study proposes a new option:a coupled analysis strategy that combines the best features of the existing formulations,namely,the hybrid partitioned-monolithic method.The analysis of inverse piezoelectricity and the monolithic analysis of direct piezoelectric and circuit interaction are strongly coupled using a partitioned iterative hierarchical algorithm.In a typical benchmark problem of a piezoelectric energy harvester,this research compares the results from the proposed method to those from the conventional strongly coupled partitioned iterative method,discussing the accuracy,stability,and computational cost.The proposed hybrid concept is effective for coupled multi-physics problems,including various coupling conditions.

Restraint effect of partition wall on the tunnel floor heave in layered rock mass

The presence of horizontal layered rocks in tunnel engineering significantly impacts the stability and strength of the surrounding rock mass,leading to floor heave in the tunnel.This study focused on preparing layered specimens of rock-like material with varying thickness to investigate the failure behaviors of tunnel floors.The results indicate that thin-layered rock mass exhibits weak interlayer bonding,causing rock layers near the surface to buckle and break upwards when subjected to horizontal squeezing.With an increase in the layer thickness,a transition in failure mode occurs from upward buckling to shear failure along the plane,leading to a noticeable reduction in floor heave deformation.The primary cause of significant deformation in floor heave is upward buckling failure.To address this issue,the study proposes the installation of a partition wall in the middle of the floor to mitigate heave deformation of the rock layers.The results demonstrate that the partition wall has a considerable stabilizing effect on the floor,reducing the zone of buckling failure and minimizing floor heave deformation.It is crucial for the partition wall to be sufficiently high to prevent buckling failure and ensure stability.Through simulation calculations on an engineering example,it is confirmed that implementing a partition wall can effectively reduce floor heave and enhance the stability of tunnel floor.

Algorithm Selection Method Based on Coupling Strength for Partitioned Analysis of Structure-Piezoelectric-Circuit Coupling

In this study, we propose an algorithm selection method based on coupling strength for the partitioned analysis ofstructure-piezoelectric-circuit coupling, which includes two types of coupling or inverse and direct piezoelectriccoupling and direct piezoelectric and circuit coupling. In the proposed method, implicit and explicit formulationsare used for strong and weak coupling, respectively. Three feasible partitioned algorithms are generated, namely(1) a strongly coupled algorithm that uses a fully implicit formulation for both types of coupling, (2) a weaklycoupled algorithm that uses a fully explicit formulation for both types of coupling, and (3) a partially stronglycoupled and partially weakly coupled algorithm that uses an implicit formulation and an explicit formulation forthe two types of coupling, respectively.Numerical examples using a piezoelectric energy harvester,which is a typicalstructure-piezoelectric-circuit coupling problem, demonstrate that the proposed method selects the most costeffectivealgorithm.

Partitioning Calculation Method of Short-Circuit Current for High Proportion DG Access to Distribution Network

Aiming at the problemthat the traditional short-circuit current calculationmethod is not applicable to Distributed Generation(DG)accessing the distribution network,the paper proposes a short-circuit current partitioning calculation method considering the degree of voltage drop at the grid-connected point of DG.Firstly,the output characteristics of DG in the process of low voltage ride through are analyzed,and the equivalent output model of DG in the fault state is obtained.Secondly,by studying the network voltage distribution law after fault in distribution networks under different DG penetration rates,the degree of voltage drop at the grid-connected point of DG is used as a partition index to partition the distribution network.Then,iterative computation is performed within each partition,and data are transferred between partitions through split nodes to realize the fast partition calculation of short-circuit current for high proportion DG access to distribution network,which solves the problems of long iteration time and large calculation error of traditional short-circuit current.Finally,a 62-node real distribution network model containing a high proportion of DG access is constructed onMATLAB/Simulink,and the simulation verifies the effectiveness of the short-circuit current partitioning calculation method proposed in the paper,and its calculation speed is improved by 48.35%compared with the global iteration method.

Airgap-harmonic-oriented Partitioned Design Method of PMV Motor with Improved Torque Performances

Here,we introduce a partitioned design method that is oriented toward airgap harmonic for permanent magnet vernier(PMV)motors.The method proposes the utilization of airgap flux harmonics as an effective bridge between the torque design region and the torque performances.To illustrate the efficacy of this method,a partitioned design PMV motor is presented and compared with the initial design.Firstly,the torque design region of the rotor is artfully divided into the torque enhancement region and ripple reduction region.Meanwhile,the main harmonics that generate output torque are chosen and enhanced,optimization.Moreover,the harmonics that generate torque ripple are selected and reduced based on torque harmonics optimization.Finally,the functions of the partitioned PMV motor torque are assessed based on the finite element method.By the purposeful design of these two regions,the output torque is strengthened while torque ripple is inhibited effectively,verifying the effectiveness and reasonability of the proposed design method.

A Two-Layer Active Power Optimization and Coordinated Control for Regional Power Grid Partitioning to Promote Distributed Renewable Energy Consumption

With the large-scale development and utilization of renewable energy,industrial flexible loads,as a kind of loadside resource with strong regulation ability,provide new opportunities for the research on renewable energy consumption problem in power systems.This paper proposes a two-layer active power optimization model based on industrial flexible loads for power grid partitioning,aiming at improving the line over-limit problem caused by renewable energy consumption in power grids with high proportion of renewable energy,and achieving the safe,stable and economical operation of power grids.Firstly,according to the evaluation index of renewable energy consumption characteristics of line active power,the power grid is divided into several partitions,and the interzone tie lines are taken as the optimization objects.Then,on the basis of partitioning,a two-layer active power optimization model considering the power constraints of industrial flexible loads is established.The upper-layer model optimizes the planned power of the inter-zone tie lines under the constraint of the minimum peak-valley difference within a day;the lower-layer model optimizes the regional source-load dispatching plan of each resource in each partition under the constraint of theminimumoperation cost of the partition,so as to reduce the line overlimit phenomenon caused by renewable energy consumption and save the electricity cost of industrial flexible loads.Finally,through simulation experiments,it is verified that the proposed model can effectively mobilize industrial flexible loads to participate in power grid operation and improve the economic stability of power grid.

2D Minimum Compliance Topology Optimization Based on a Region Partitioning Strategy

This paper presents an extended sequential element rejection and admission(SERA)topology optimizationmethod with a region partitioning strategy.Based on the partitioning of a design domain into solid regions and weak regions,the proposed optimizationmethod sequentially implements finite element analysis(FEA)in these regions.After standard FEA in the solid regions,the boundary displacement of the weak regions is constrained using the numerical solution of the solid regions as Dirichlet boundary conditions.This treatment can alleviate the negative effect of the material interpolation model of the topology optimization method in the weak regions,such as the condition number of the structural global stiffness matrix.For optimization,in which the forward problem requires nonlinear structural analysis,a linear solver can be applied in weak regions to avoid numerical singularities caused by the over-deformedmesh.To enhance the robustness of the proposedmethod,the nonmanifold point and island are identified and handled separately.The performance of the proposed method is verified by three 2D minimum compliance examples.

Purification of Moringa oleifera Leaves Protease by Three-Phase Partitioning and Investigation of Its Potential Antibacterial Activity

One of plant-based products for dental care is plant-based proteolytic enzymes which are principally proteases. In order not to damage the protein and bioactive content, an efficient method should be employed for their purifications. As such, three-phase partitioning (TPP) was used to purify protease from moringa (Moringa oleifera). TPP is an emerging, promising, non-chromatographic and economical technology which is simple, quick, efficient and often one-step process for the separation and purification of bioactive molecules from natural sources. It involves the addition of salt (ammonium sulphate) to the crude extract followed by the addition of an organic solvent (butanol). The protein appears as an interfacial precipitate between upper organic solvent and lower aqueous phases. The various conditions such as ammonium sulphate, ratio of crude extract to t-butanol and pH which are required for attaining efficient purification of the protease fractions were optimized. Under optimized conditions, it was seen that, 35% of ammonium sulphate saturation with 1:0.75 ratio of crude extract to t-butanol at pH 7 gave 4.94-fold purification with 96.20% activity yield of protease in the middle phase of the TPP system. The purified enzyme from Moringa oleifera has no antimicrobial effect on the pathogenic bacteria tested. However, this purified enzyme, can be considered as a promising agent, cheap, and safe source which is suitable for using in various industries.

CD4^(+)CD25^(+) regulatory T cells decreased future liver remnant after associating liver partition and portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy

BACKGROUND Associating liver partition and portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy(ALPPS)is an innovative surgical approach for the treatment of massive hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC),the key to successful planned stage 2 ALPPS is future liver remnant(FLR)volume growth,but the exact mechanism has not been elucidated.The correlation between regulatory T cells(Tregs)and postoperative FLR regeneration has not been reported.AIM To investigate the effect of CD4^(+)CD25^(+)Tregs on FLR regeneration after ALPPS.METHODS Clinical data and specimens were collected from 37 patients who developed massive HCC treated with ALPPS.Flow cytometry was performed to detect changes in the proportion of CD4^(+)CD25^(+)Tregs to CD4^(+)T cells in peripheral blood before and after ALPPS.To analyze the relationship between peripheral blood CD4^(+)CD25^(+)Treg proportion and clinicopathological information and liver volume.RESULTS The postoperative CD4^(+)CD25^(+)Treg proportion in stage 1 ALPPS was negatively correlated with the amount of proliferation volume,proliferation rate,and kinetic growth rate(KGR)of the FLR after stage 1 ALPPS.Patients with low Treg proportion had significantly higher KGR than those with high Treg proportion(P=0.006);patients with high Treg proportion had more severe postoperative pathological liver fibrosis than those with low Treg proportion(P=0.043).The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve between the percentage of Tregs and proliferation volume,proliferation rate,and KGR were all greater than 0.70.CONCLUSION CD4^(+)CD25^(+)Tregs in the peripheral blood of patients with massive HCC at stage 1 ALPPS were negatively correlated with indicators of FLR regeneration after stage 1 ALPPS and may influence the degree of fibrosis in patients’livers.Treg percentage was highly accurate in predicting the FLR regeneration after stage 1 ALPPS.

Hybrid Graph Partitioning with OLB Approach in Distributed Transactions

Online Transaction Processing(OLTP)gets support from data partitioning to achieve better performance and scalability.The primary objective of database and application developers is to provide scalable and reliable database systems.This research presents a novel method for data partitioning and load balancing for scalable transactions.Data is efficiently partitioned using the hybrid graph partitioning method.Optimized load balancing(OLB)approach is applied to calculate the weight factor,average workload,and partition efficiency.The presented approach is appropriate for various online data transaction applications.The quality of the proposed approach is examined using OLTP database benchmark.The performance of the proposed methodology significantly outperformed with respect to metrics like throughput,response time,and CPU utilization.

Numerical Study of Natural Convective Heat Transfer in an Air Filled Square Cavity Heated from Below and Symmetrically Cooled from the Sides with a Partition in the Hot Wall

A two-dimensional numerical study of laminar natural convection in a square enclosure filled with air with a wall partially heated on the bottom is presented.The heat source is located on the lower wall with different heated widths varied from 20 to 80%(ε=0.2–0.8)of the total width of the lower wall and different heights h=H/4 and H/2 of the partition.The effect of the partition height on the main system dynamics is investigated through solution of the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations and the energy equation by means of a finite volume method based on the SIMPLE algorithm.The influence of the Rayleigh number(Ra=10^(3) to 10^(6))and the hot wall length is also examined.It is shown that the average Nusselt number grows whenεincreases and when h decreases.For a given value ofεand h,the average Nusselt number increases as Ra increases.It is concluded that the partition height causes a decrease in the average Nusselt number.

Effects of Spin Transition and Cation Substitution on the Optical Properties and Iron Partitioning in Carbonate Minerals

The high-pressure behavior of deep carbonate dictates the state and dynamics of oxidized carbon in the Earth's mantle,playing a vital role in the global carbon cycle and potentially influencing long-term climate change.Optical absorption and Raman spectroscopic measurements were carried out on two natural carbonate samples in diamond-anvil cells up to 60 GPa.Mg-substitution in high-spin siderite FeCO_(3)increases the crystal field absorption band position by approximately 1000 cm^(-1),but such an effect is marginal at>40 GPa when entering the low-spin state.The crystal field absorption band of dolomite cannot be recognized upon compression to 45.8 GPa at room temperature but,in contrast,the high-pressure polymorph of dolomite exhibits a strong absorption band at frequencies higher than(Mg,Fe)CO_(3)in the lowspin state by 2000–2500 cm^(-1).Additionally,these carbonate minerals show more complicated features for the absorption edge,decreasing with pressure and undergoing a dramatic change through the spin crossover.The optical and vibrational properties of carbonate minerals are highly correlated with iron content and spin transition,indicating that iron is preferentially partitioned into low-spin carbonates.These results shed new light on how carbonate minerals evolve in the mantle,which is crucial to decode the deep carbon cycle.

Slope deformation partitioning and monitoring points optimization based on cluster analysis

The scientific and fair positioning of monitoring locations for surface displacement on slopes is a prerequisite for early warning and forecasting.However,there is no specific provision on how to effectively determine the number and location of monitoring points according to the actual deformation characteristics of the slope.There are still some defects in the layout of monitoring points.To this end,based on displacement data series and spatial location information of surface displacement monitoring points,by combining displacement series correlation and spatial distance influence factors,a spatial deformation correlation calculation model of slope based on clustering analysis was proposed to calculate the correlation between different monitoring points,based on which the deformation area of the slope was divided.The redundant monitoring points in each partition were eliminated based on the partition's outcome,and the overall optimal arrangement of slope monitoring points was then achieved.This method scientifically addresses the issues of slope deformation zoning and data gathering overlap.It not only eliminates human subjectivity from slope deformation zoning but also increases the efficiency and accuracy of slope monitoring.In order to verify the effectiveness of the method,a sand-mudstone interbedded CounterTilt excavation slope in the Chongqing city of China was used as the research object.Twenty-four monitoring points deployed on this slope were monitored for surface displacement for 13 months.The spatial location of the monitoring points was discussed.The results show that the proposed method of slope deformation zoning and the optimized placement of monitoring points are feasible.

Assessing Criteria Weights by the Symmetry Point of Criterion (Novel SPC Method)–Application in the Efficiency Evaluation of the Mineral Deposit Multi-Criteria Partitioning Algorithm

Information about the relative importance of each criterion or theweights of criteria can have a significant influence on the ultimate rank of alternatives.Accordingly,assessing the weights of criteria is a very important task in solving multi-criteria decision-making problems.Three methods are commonly used for assessing the weights of criteria:objective,subjective,and integrated methods.In this study,an objective approach is proposed to assess the weights of criteria,called SPCmethod(Symmetry Point of Criterion).This point enriches the criterion so that it is balanced and easy to implement in the process of the evaluation of its influence on decision-making.The SPC methodology is systematically presented and supported by detailed calculations related to an artificial example.To validate the developed method,we used our numerical example and calculated the weights of criteria by CRITIC,Entropy,Standard Deviation and MEREC methods.Comparative analysis between these methods and the SPC method reveals that the developedmethod is a very reliable objective way to determine the weights of criteria.Additionally,in this study,we proposed the application of SPCmethod to evaluate the efficiency of themulti-criteria partitioning algorithm.The main idea of the evaluation is based on the following fact:the greater the uniformity of the weights of criteria,the higher the efficiency of the partitioning algorithm.The research demonstrates that the SPC method can be applied to solving different multi-criteria problems.

A Novel Incremental Attribute Reduction Algorithm Based on Intuitionistic Fuzzy Partition Distance

Attribute reduction,also known as feature selection,for decision information systems is one of the most pivotal issues in machine learning and data mining.Approaches based on the rough set theory and some extensions were proved to be efficient for dealing with the problemof attribute reduction.Unfortunately,the intuitionistic fuzzy sets based methods have not received much interest,while these methods are well-known as a very powerful approach to noisy decision tables,i.e.,data tables with the low initial classification accuracy.Therefore,this paper provides a novel incremental attribute reductionmethod to dealmore effectivelywith noisy decision tables,especially for highdimensional ones.In particular,we define a new reduct and then design an original attribute reduction method based on the distance measure between two intuitionistic fuzzy partitions.It should be noted that the intuitionistic fuzzypartitiondistance iswell-knownas aneffectivemeasure todetermine important attributes.More interestingly,an incremental formula is also developed to quickly compute the intuitionistic fuzzy partition distance in case when the decision table increases in the number of objects.This formula is then applied to construct an incremental attribute reduction algorithm for handling such dynamic tables.Besides,some experiments are conducted on real datasets to show that our method is far superior to the fuzzy rough set based methods in terms of the size of reduct and the classification accuracy.

Symplectic partitioned Runge-Kutta method based onthe eighth-order nearly analytic discrete operator and its wavefield simulations

We propose a symplectic partitioned Runge-Kutta （SPRK） method with eighth-order spatial accuracy based on the extended Hamiltonian system of the acoustic waveequation. Known as the eighth-order NSPRK method, this technique uses an eighth-orderaccurate nearly analytic discrete （NAD） operator to discretize high-order spatial differentialoperators and employs a second-order SPRK method to discretize temporal derivatives.The stability criteria and numerical dispersion relations of the eighth-order NSPRK methodare given by a semi-analytical method and are tested by numerical experiments. We alsoshow the differences of the numerical dispersions between the eighth-order NSPRK methodand conventional numerical methods such as the fourth-order NSPRK method, the eighth-order Lax-Wendroff correction （LWC） method and the eighth-order staggered-grid （SG）method. The result shows that the ability of the eighth-order NSPRK method to suppress thenumerical dispersion is obviously superior to that of the conventional numerical methods. Inthe same computational environment, to eliminate visible numerical dispersions, the eighth-order NSPRK is approximately 2.5 times faster than the fourth-order NSPRK and 3.4 timesfaster than the fourth-order SPRK, and the memory requirement is only approximately47.17% of the fourth-order NSPRK method and 49.41% of the fourth-order SPRK method,which indicates the highest computational efficiency. Modeling examples for the two-layermodels such as the heterogeneous and Marmousi models show that the wavefields generatedby the eighth-order NSPRK method are very clear with no visible numerical dispersion.These numerical experiments illustrate that the eighth-order NSPRK method can effectivelysuppress numerical dispersion when coarse grids are adopted. Therefore, this methodcan greatly decrease computer memory requirement and accelerate the forward modelingproductivity. In general, the eighth-order NSPRK method has tremendous potential value forseismic exploration and seismology research.

Fruit Photosynthesis and Assimilate Translocation and Partitioning: Their Characteristics and Role in Sugar Accumulation in Developing Citrus unshiu Fruit

Dynamics of dry- or fresh-weight of fruit, peel photosynthetic rate and chlorophyll content, and the characteristics of translocation and distribution of radiolabelled assimilates from leaf or fruit were examined in developing satsuma mandarin (Citrus unshiu Marc. cv. Miyagawa wase) fruit from primary stage of fruit enlargement up to fruit full ripe. Change in fruit photosynthetic rate was some what related to the change in the chlorophyll content of peel. Fruit photosynthetic rate markedly declined as chlorophyll degradation occurred in the peel. Before full ripe stage of the fruit, photosynthates produced by a 14C-fed leaf were mainly distributed to juice sacs even during periods when dry matter accumulation in peel was more rapid than that in juice sacs. At the full ripe stage, peel photosynthetic rate approached zero and peel became the major sink of leaf photosynthates. Most of the peel assimilates, however, remained in situ for up to 48 h after feeding 14CO 2 to the fruit, only a small portion being transported to other parts of fruit. The percentage of fruit photosynthates exported decreased with fruit development and ripening, but the peak rate of export to juice sacs amount to as high as 12%. The sugar content and dry weights of peel and juice sacs in shaded fruit were lower than that in the control fruit. These results show that peel assimilate was mainly consumed in peel respiration and growth and thus the dependence on leaf photosynthates decreased. Part of this assimiate was used in sugar accumulation in juice sacs of fruit.

A Reduced-Order Modeling of Multi-Port RC Networks by Means of Graph Partitioning

A modified reduced-order method for RC networks which takes a division-and-conquest strategy is presented.The whole network is partitioned into a set of sub-networks at first,then each of them is reduced by Krylov subspace techniques,and finally all the reduced sub-networks are incorporated together.With some accuracy,this method can reduce the number of both nodes and components of the circuit comparing to the traditional methods which usually only offer a reduced net with less nodes.This can markedly accelerate the sparse-matrix-based simulators whose performance is dominated by the entity of the matrix or the number of components of the circuits.

Comparison of spectral partitioning techniques for wind wave and swell

The ocean waves are generally mixed with wind wave and swell. In order to separate these two kinds of ocean waves, many wave spectral partitioning techniques have been proposed. In this study, a two-dimensional（2D） and three one-dimensional （1D） wave spectral partitioning techniques （denoted as PM, WH, and JP） are examined based on the model simulations and in-situ observations. It is shown that the 2D technique could provide the most reliable results as a whole. Compared with 2D technique, PM and JP techniques obviously overestimate the wind-wave components, and the same situation happens for WH technique at low wind speed. With the adjustment of the partitioning frequency ratio, the 1D PM technique is modified, in which the result agree well with that of the 2D scheme.