Anisotropic time-dependent behaviors of shale under direct shearing and associated empirical creep models

Understanding the anisotropic creep behaviors of shale under direct shearing is a challenging issue.In this context,we conducted shear-creep and steady-creep tests on shale with five bedding orientations (i.e.0°,30°,45°,60°,and 90°),under multiple levels of direct shearing for the first time.The results show that the anisotropic creep of shale exhibits a significant stress-dependent behavior.Under a low shear stress,the creep compliance of shale increases linearly with the logarithm of time at all bedding orientations,and the increase depends on the bedding orientation and creep time.Under high shear stress conditions,the creep compliance of shale is minimal when the bedding orientation is 0°,and the steady-creep rate of shale increases significantly with increasing bedding orientations of 30°,45°,60°,and 90°.The stress-strain values corresponding to the inception of the accelerated creep stage show an increasing and then decreasing trend with the bedding orientation.A semilogarithmic model that could reflect the stress dependence of the steady-creep rate while considering the hardening and damage process is proposed.The model minimizes the deviation of the calculated steady-state creep rate from the observed value and reveals the behavior of the bedding orientation's influence on the steady-creep rate.The applicability of the five classical empirical creep models is quantitatively evaluated.It shows that the logarithmic model can well explain the experimental creep strain and creep rate,and it can accurately predict long-term shear creep deformation.Based on an improved logarithmic model,the variations in creep parameters with shear stress and bedding orientations are discussed.With abovementioned findings,a mathematical method for constructing an anisotropic shear creep model of shale is proposed,which can characterize the nonlinear dependence of the anisotropic shear creep behavior of shale on the bedding orientation.

History dynamics of unified empire in China(770 BC to 476 BC)

The laws and regulations in human history can be revealed by computational models.From 221 before Christ(BC)to 1912 Anno Domini(AD),the unification pattern has dominated the main part of Chinese history for 2132 years.Before the emergence of the first unified empire,the Qin Empire in 221 BC,there existed the Eastern Zhou dynasty(770 BC to 221 BC).This long dynasty has two stages,and here we focus on the first stage.This Spring-Autumn stage was from 770 BC(with 148 states)to 476 BC(with 32 states).The whole country(China)is modelled as a multi‐agent system,which contains multiple local states.They behave autonomously under certain action rules(wars and conflicts),which forms the main reason for the annexations and disappearance of most states.Key factors(power,loyalty,bellicosity and alliance)have been considered in our model settings,and simulation outcomes will be monitored and collected.Eventually,an optimal solution is obtained,which well unveils the internal mechanism and statistical features of real big history.Furthermore,counterfactuals are used to explore the non‐linear effects of the key factors,which deepens the authors’understanding of civilisa-tion evolutions in human history.

Empirical likelihood for spatial cross-sectional data models with matrix exponential spatial specification

In this paper,we study spatial cross-sectional data models in the form of matrix exponential spatial specification(MESS),where MESS appears in both dependent and error terms.The empirical likelihood(EL)ratio statistics are established for the parameters of the MESS model.It is shown that the limiting distributions of EL ratio statistics follow chi-square distributions,which are used to construct the confidence regions of model parameters.Simulation experiments are conducted to compare the performances of confidence regions based on EL method and normal approximation method.

Assessment of the three representative empirical models for zenith tropospheric delay(ZTD)using the CMONOC data

The precise correction of atmospheric zenith tropospheric delay(ZTD)is significant for the Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS)performance regarding positioning accuracy and convergence time.In the past decades,many empirical ZTD models based on whether the gridded or scattered ZTD products have been proposed and widely used in the GNSS positioning applications.But there is no comprehensive evaluation of these models for the whole China region,which features complicated topography and climate.In this study,we completely assess the typical empirical models,the IGGtropSH model(gridded,non-meteorology),the SHAtropE model(scattered,non-meteorology),and the GPT3 model(gridded,meteorology)using the Crustal Movement Observation Network of China(CMONOC)network.In general,the results show that the three models share consistent performance with RMSE/bias of 37.45/1.63,37.13/2.20,and 38.27/1.34 mm for the GPT3,SHAtropE and IGGtropSH model,respectively.However,the models had a distinct performance regarding geographical distribution,elevation,seasonal variations,and daily variation.In the southeastern region of China,RMSE values are around 50 mm,which are much higher than that in the western region,approximately 20 mm.The SHAtropE model exhibits better performance for areas with large variations in elevation.The GPT3 model and the IGGtropSH model are more stable across different months,and the SHAtropE model based on the GNSS data exhibits superior performance across various UTC epochs.

Research on the longitudinal protection of a through-type cophase traction direct power supply system based on the empirical wavelet transform

This paper proposes a longitudinal protection scheme utilizing empirical wavelet transform(EWT)for a through-type cophase traction direct power supply system,where both sides of a traction network line exhibit a distinctive boundary structure.This approach capitalizes on the boundary’s capacity to attenuate the high-frequency component of fault signals,resulting in a variation in the high-frequency transient energy ratio when faults occur inside or outside the line.During internal line faults,the high-frequency transient energy at the checkpoints located at both ends surpasses that of its neighboring lines.Conversely,for faults external to the line,the energy is lower compared to adjacent lines.EWT is employed to decompose the collected fault current signals,allowing access to the high-frequency transient energy.The longitudinal protection for the traction network line is established based on disparities between both ends of the traction network line and the high-frequency transient energy on either side of the boundary.Moreover,simulation verification through experimental results demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed protection scheme across various initial fault angles,distances to faults,and fault transition resistances.

Incorporating empirical knowledge into data-driven variable selection for quantitative analysis of coal ash content by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS)has become a widely used atomic spectroscopic technique for rapid coal analysis.However,the vast amount of spectral information in LIBS contains signal uncertainty,which can affect its quantification performance.In this work,we propose a hybrid variable selection method to improve the performance of LIBS quantification.Important variables are first identified using Pearson's correlation coefficient,mutual information,least absolute shrinkage and selection operator(LASSO)and random forest,and then filtered and combined with empirical variables related to fingerprint elements of coal ash content.Subsequently,these variables are fed into a partial least squares regression(PLSR).Additionally,in some models,certain variables unrelated to ash content are removed manually to study the impact of variable deselection on model performance.The proposed hybrid strategy was tested on three LIBS datasets for quantitative analysis of coal ash content and compared with the corresponding data-driven baseline method.It is significantly better than the variable selection only method based on empirical knowledge and in most cases outperforms the baseline method.The results showed that on all three datasets the hybrid strategy for variable selection combining empirical knowledge and data-driven algorithms achieved the lowest root mean square error of prediction(RMSEP)values of 1.605,3.478 and 1.647,respectively,which were significantly lower than those obtained from multiple linear regression using only 12 empirical variables,which are 1.959,3.718 and 2.181,respectively.The LASSO-PLSR model with empirical support and 20 selected variables exhibited a significantly improved performance after variable deselection,with RMSEP values dropping from 1.635,3.962 and 1.647 to 1.483,3.086 and 1.567,respectively.Such results demonstrate that using empirical knowledge as a support for datadriven variable selection can be a viable approach to improve the accuracy and reliability of LIBS quantification.

Variational Mode Decomposition-Informed Empirical Wavelet Transform for Electric Vibrator Noise Analysis

Electric vibrators find wide applications in reliability testing, waveform generation, and vibration simulation, making their noise characteristics a topic of significant interest. While Variational Mode Decomposition (VMD) and Empirical Wavelet Transform (EWT) offer valuable support for studying signal components, they also present certain limitations. This article integrates the strengths of both methods and proposes an enhanced approach that integrates VMD into the frequency band division principle of EWT. Initially, the method decomposes the signal using VMD, determining the mode count based on residuals, and subsequently employs EWT decomposition based on this information. This addresses mode aliasing issues in the original method while capitalizing on VMD’s adaptability. Feasibility was confirmed through simulation signals and ultimately applied to noise signals from vibrators. Experimental results demonstrate that the improved method not only resolves EWT frequency band division challenges but also effectively decomposes signal components compared to the VMD method.

Empirical Analysis of the ESG and Financial Performance:Evidence from Chinese Technology Enterprises

To date,the concept of sustainable development has gained global attention from companies and investors.One important reason for this is the increasing interest of investors in incorporating environmental,social,and governance(ESG)elements into their investments.The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the correlation between ESG factor performance and corporate financial performance in Chinese technology enterprises.Additionally,the study focuses on Internet and medical technology companies to ensure relevance.The findings of the study provide guidance on ESG investment and sustainability for both companies and individual investors.

Security Risk Assessment in Container Terminals:Empirical Evidence from Greece

The most prominent risk assessment techniques are founded on the values of measuring and controlling the frequency and the consequences of risks in order to assure an“acceptable level”of“safeness”mainly in the lines of environmental,health and hygiene and port product issues.This paper examines security risk assessment approaches within the emerging role of ports.This paper contributes to the current literature by considering the ports of Greece as a case in point and by measuring the degree of its security risk orientation based on certain valid risk factors drawn from the current literature.Moreover,it presents a security risk assessment methodology into the domain of port container terminals.Their potential for ports were quantitatively and qualitatively assessed by discussing issues of security approaches within the maritime industry,in order to facilitate improvement strategies.A two-dimension empirical study was conducted,in a time range of ten years(2010-2020)in order to provide evidence regarding security risk assessment in the port container terminal of Thessaloniki,in Greece.The findings of this study have significant strategic policy implications and shed more light on the role of security risks in the overall risk orientation of container terminals in practice.Finally,further research directions in security risk in ports are proposed.

Evaluation and Empirical Research on Teachers’ Information Literacy in the Context of Smart Education

The development of smart education has led to the integration of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence with education.It is a prerequisite for teachers to have high information literacy for conducting education and teaching work.This study conducted a questionnaire survey on 412 teachers in a certain area.The results showed that teachers’information literacy is above the middle level,and there are significant differences in information literacy between teaching experience and educational background.The evaluation showed that information ethics,information awareness,and information application have a significant positive impact on professional development,and information knowledge and information awareness have a positive predictive effect on information ethics.

An Empirical Evaluation of the Impact of Moral and Law Course Teaching on the Effectiveness of University Students’Ideals and Beliefs Education

The Moral and Law course serves as a critical platform for educating university students about ideals and beliefs,and it has a significant impact on the effectiveness of ideals and beliefs education.This paper establishes a mechanism through which Moral and Law course teaching influences the effectiveness of ideals and beliefs education and conducts an empirical evaluation.The results reveal that factors such as the relevance and applicability of the teaching content,the integration of theory and practice,the innovation,interactivity,and participation of teaching methods,as well as classroom atmosphere,teaching facilities,and campus culture,all have a significant positive impact on the effectiveness of ideals and beliefs education for university students.

EMPIRE计算30MeV以下^(238)U中子核反应数据

为进一步完善核数据评价手段,本文将EMPIRE应用到中子引起锕系核素的核反应模型分析中,根据中子核反应机制的特点,选取恰当的核反应模型及模型参数,以实验数据为基础对模型参数进行调整,由EMPIRE计算获得30 MeV以下能区n+238 U的核反应数据。从计算结果与实验数据以及各评价库数据对比来看,EMPIRE可得到较合理的结果。

“MB”首冠!iG击败Empire获MAS总冠军

3月22日,Major All Stars总决赛在马来西亚首度吉隆坡落下帷幕,代表中国参赛的iG收获了最终冠军。值得一提的是,这也是B神加盟iG以来收获的首个线下赛冠军!MB组合线下首秀参加本次MAS总决赛的共有8支队伍,除了iG之外,还有Na’Vi、Empire、Rave等世界一线队伍。在这些参赛队中,Na’Vi和Empire无疑是iG的最大对手。

The Importance of Food Security from the Perspective of Food Issue of the Roman Empire

This paper firstly introduced characteristics of the food production( or grain production) and regulation of the prosperous period of the Roman Empire. Then,it discussed the shortcomings and summarized the experience and lessons. It is expected to provide some references for construction of China's food security.

Landslide displacement prediction based on optimized empirical mode decomposition and deep bidirectional long short-term memory network

There are two technical challenges in predicting slope deformation.The first one is the random displacement,which could not be decomposed and predicted by numerically resolving the observed accumulated displacement and time series of a landslide.The second one is the dynamic evolution of a landslide,which could not be feasibly simulated simply by traditional prediction models.In this paper,a dynamic model of displacement prediction is introduced for composite landslides based on a combination of empirical mode decomposition with soft screening stop criteria(SSSC-EMD)and deep bidirectional long short-term memory(DBi-LSTM)neural network.In the proposed model,the time series analysis and SSSC-EMD are used to decompose the observed accumulated displacements of a slope into three components,viz.trend displacement,periodic displacement,and random displacement.Then,by analyzing the evolution pattern of a landslide and its key factors triggering landslides,appropriate influencing factors are selected for each displacement component,and DBi-LSTM neural network to carry out multi-datadriven dynamic prediction for each displacement component.An accumulated displacement prediction has been obtained by a summation of each component.For accuracy verification and engineering practicability of the model,field observations from two known landslides in China,the Xintan landslide and the Bazimen landslide were collected for comparison and evaluation.The case study verified that the model proposed in this paper can better characterize the"stepwise"deformation characteristics of a slope.As compared with long short-term memory(LSTM)neural network,support vector machine(SVM),and autoregressive integrated moving average(ARIMA)model,DBi-LSTM neural network has higher accuracy in predicting the periodic displacement of slope deformation,with the mean absolute percentage error reduced by 3.063%,14.913%,and 13.960%respectively,and the root mean square error reduced by 1.951 mm,8.954 mm and 7.790 mm respectively.Conclusively,this model not only has high prediction accuracy but also is more stable,which can provide new insight for practical landslide prevention and control engineering.

Book Review of The Medical Empire in 20th Century American Literature

As a book review of Medicine Empire in American Literature of the 20th Century by Jiang Tianping’s team, thispaper provides an examination of the developing process of the western medicine’s interaction with the imperialpolitics in the 20th century. It points out that the book has made a great contribution to the interdisciplinary research,medical research, especially western colonialism research.

From Regional to Intercontinental Trade： The Successive European Trade Empires From the 16th to the 18thCentury in Asia

For a very long time, the areas available for continuous long-distance trade were limited to territories of Braudel＇s Mediterrande （1949）. Whatever the commercial organizations （merchants in the Roman or the Fatimid Empires, the Hanseatic League, the Florentine Companies） were, their trade was not able to directly handle branches more than a month＇s sailing from their main base （in the best conditions）. During the three centuries after Vasco de Gama had reached India, European trading areas dramatically expanded to the shores of Asia, and a long period of harsh competition set the East India Companies of the main European powers of the time against one another. What were the elements that allowed these companies to maintain transactions over such vast areas？ And why were some of these companies far more successful than the others？ A large set of secondary sources focusing on one company or on a particular aspect of trade （Chauduri, 1978; Israel, 1989; Subrahmanyan, 1993; Ames, 1996） exist, however, none of them treat their successive successes and failures. The aim of this paper is to briefly review these sources, to extract information from them and to compare the economic adaptations and innovations that allowed these companies to be the greatest of their time.

Empirical Investigation of Treatment of Sour Gas by Novel Technology: Energy Optimization

The sour gas sweetening is one of the main processes in gas industries. Gas sweetening is done through chemical processes. Therefore, it requires high cost and energy. The results show that increasing the operating temperature increases the mass transfer coefficient and increases the mass transfer rate. Theoretical and experimental data show that sulfur removal in 4.5 W magnetic field is desirable. The increase in sulfur removal percentage in the magnetic field of 4.5 W and 6.75 W is about 16.4% and 15.2%, respectively. According to the obtained results, the effect of temperature increase from 18.8°C to 23.4°C is more evident than the effect of temperature change from 23.4°C to 32.2°C. Because more thermal energy is needed to provide higher temperatures. Therefore, the temperature of 23.4°C is reported as the optimal temperature. The results of this research show that the percentage of sulfur removal is also high at this temperature.

SPAGINS:semiempirical parameterization for fragments in gamma-induced nuclear spallation

From the empirical phenomena of fragment distributions in nuclear spallation reactions,semiempirical formulas named SPAGINS were constructed to predict fragment cross-sections in high-energyγ-induced nuclear spallation reactions(PNSR).In constructing the SPAGINS formulas,theoretical models,including the TALYS toolkit,SPACS,and Rudstam formulas,were employed to study the general phenomenon of fragment distributions in PNSR with incident energies ranging from 100 to 1000 MeV.Considering the primary characteristics of PNSR,the SPAGINS formulas modify the EPAX and SPACS formulas and efficiently reproduce the measured data.The SPAGINS formulas provide a new and effective tool for predicting fragment production in PNSR.

An Empirical Assessment and Analysis of the United Nations Convention on Contracts Judicial Applicability in China

Chinese domestic legislation on the judicial applicability of international treaties has been unsettled,especially under the Civil Code,which is silent on this issue.However,previous studies have depicted an image of a“pro-CISG”attitude in Chinese legal practice,which is distinguished from the tendency to circumvent the CISG in other jurisdictions such as the U.S.This contradictory phenomenon,namely the absence of guiding norms versus the embracement of the CISG in judicial practice,is rarely discussed,especially within the context of civil codification and recent external economic challenges.To verify this paradox,a manually collected dataset of 223 court decisions from 2013 to 2023 identifies some basic characteristics of the CISG judicial applicability in China,including the application rate,legal reasoning paths,citation frequencies of specific provisions,and some qualitative observations about the judicial behaviors in the international sales dispute resolution.The main finding is that Chinese courts have been applying the CISG at an obviously higher rate,compared with both their foreign counterparts and the general rate of applying foreign law in the international civil and commercial litigations in China.To explain this gap between“law in book”and“law in action,”the context of Chinese judicial practice should be considered.Despite the vagueness of domestic legislation,the judicial policy promotion,the innovative guiding cases system,the legal transplantation,and other factors may contribute to the“pro-CISG”attitude.As for the future promotion of CISG in the Chinese style of international commercial dispute resolution,these factors may coordinate with the legislative improvements.