Search Results (1,364)

Expecting that a future consequence will occur has a meaningful and powerful influence on people’s behavior, regardless of whether the expected event actually occurs. However, most people do not appreciate the substantial impact that expectations have on human behavior. In this series of studies, we investigated people’s ability to grasp the power of expectations on suspects’ confession decisions. In Experiment 1 (N = 253), mock-jurors failed to appreciate the power of expectation and believed that a defendant who confessed after being induced with an expectation regarding the length of an interrogation was more likely to be guilty than a defendant who actually experienced a lengthy interrogation. In Experiment 2 (N = 261), online participants were less likely to support reintegration services for an exoneree who falsely confessed after being induced with expectations during his interrogation compared to an exoneree who actually experienced a lengthy interrogation. Collectively, the results of Experiments 1 and 2 further our understanding of people’s difficulty in appreciating situational influences and, in particular, suspects’ decision-making and the subsequent effects of false confession evidence. Full article

Background/Objectives: Obesity is associated with respiratory infection risk, but its relationship with post-discharge healthcare burden remains unclear. This study examined the associations of body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC), evaluated separately, with hospitalization and post-discharge outcomes in analyses stratified by sex among South Korean adults with claims-defined hospitalizations involving influenza or pneumonia. Methods: This retrospective cohort study used the 2018 National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) Customized Research Database linked to health-screening data. Adults aged 20–89 years with claims-defined hospitalizations involving influenza or pneumonia were included if BMI and WC measurements were available from the most recent NHIS health-screening examination conducted within two years before the index admission. Length of stay and index hospitalization costs were summarized descriptively. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for all-cause and pneumonia-related readmission within two years after discharge, and two-part models were used to estimate readmission-related costs, expressed in US dollars (USD). Results: The cohort included 175,774 patients, of whom 80,257 (45.7%) were male. Category-specific associations varied according to the anthropometric measure, outcome, and sex stratum. In female patients, the highest WC category had the largest estimated all-cause readmission HR (HR 1.195, 95% confidence interval 1.157–1.235), and the highest model-based mean cost of the first all-cause readmission was also observed in this category (USD 1407.4). In male patients, several higher BMI categories had lower estimated readmission HRs than the reference category; however, these estimates should not be interpreted as protective effects because competing mortality was not accounted for using competing-risk methods. Patterns for pneumonia-related readmission and costs were less consistent. Conclusions: BMI and WC showed category-specific associations with readmission, while model-based mean readmission costs varied across anthropometric categories and sex strata. Higher WC categories were associated with higher all-cause readmission HRs in the female stratum; however, the independent or incremental prognostic value of BMI and WC was not evaluated. Full article

The service range of a district cooling system is strongly affected by the energy consumption of chilled-water distribution in the supply-side pipe network. With increasing cooling distance, pump operating energy consumption, pump-induced temperature-rise loss, and pipeline cooling loss all increase, which may weaken the supply-side distribution-energy advantage of centralized cooling. This study proposes a method for determining the maximum cooling distance of a district cooling system based on a supply-side energy-equivalent boundary. The boundary is defined as the distance at which the total supply-side energy consumption of the district cooling system equals that of the decentralized cooling system under the same load conditions. Unlike cost-based evaluation methods, the proposed criterion does not rely on economic parameters such as electricity price, material cost, construction cost, or maintenance cost, but determines the boundary based on supply-side energy consumption. A district cooling system in Guangzhou is used as the case study. Under the baseline condition, the maximum cooling distance is 1564 m. Increasing the supply–return water temperature difference from 7 °C to 12 °C increases the maximum cooling distance by 294.38%. Increasing the decentralized system main-pipe length from 250 m to 600 m increases it by approximately 175%. When the number of users increases from 8 to 12, the distance increases by 23.1%. A front-concentrated layout of high-load users increases the distance by 36.93% compared with a uniform layout. The proposed method provides an energy-based planning reference for cooling-source siting, user connection range determination, and district cooling pipe-network scheme evaluation. Full article

To measure dynamic crack evolution under sustained service loads during infrastructure defect inspection and structural condition assessment, a machine-vision-based methodology for high-accuracy measurement of simple crack propagation is proposed in this paper. A dynamic crack propagation characterization framework is first established to number the cracks and trace the cracks across distinct image frames, and an accurate vision-based dynamic propagation measurement method for simple concrete cracks is further developed by integrating the proposed characterization approach. Subsequently, an indoor compression experiment of a concrete specimen was carried out to measure the cracking process with the proposed method, and the dynamic variations in the subpixel-level width and length were calculated for each crack. The cracking initiation, coalescence, acceleration and ultimate failure stage were also identified and recorded. Finally, the accuracy of crack width measurement was validated via the digital image correlation (DIC) method. The results showed that the proposed method could effectively record and measure the full crack propagation process, and the dynamic crack width variation for each pixel along the skeleton line and the crack length variation could be automatically calculated. Furthermore, the cracking initiation, propagation, coalescence, acceleration and ultimate failure can be effectively identified with the cracking growth speed variations and the crack number evolution tree. Verification experiment showed that the dynamic crack width curves measured with the proposed method were in good agreement with those obtained via the DIC method, with the root mean square error (RMSE) less than 0.1 mm and the coefficient of determination (R²) greater than 0.96. The proposed method in this paper provides a new way of cracking speed measurement that is crucial for structural crack safety valuation and technical condition assessment. Full article

Delayed discharge represents a persistent challenge in healthcare systems, contributing to inefficiencies in hospital bed utilization, increased costs, and reduced patient flow. In small and centralized healthcare systems, these effects may be further amplified due to limited post-acute care capacity and restricted patient redistribution. This study quantified the prevalence of inappropriate hospital days as a proxy for delayed discharge and examined their relationship with patient demographics, medical specialty, and associated costs in an acute general hospital. A quantitative analysis of 220 medical records was conducted using a modified Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol (AEP). Descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests were applied to identify significant associations between inappropriate hospital days and selected variables. According to the findings, within this intentionally enriched sample of patients with a length of stay exceeding seven days in the selected wards, nearly half of all accumulated inpatient bed days failed to meet acute necessity criteria, with the vast majority of these service backlogs stemming from placement delays in downstream rehabilitation facilities and long-term care institutions. Within this high-risk cohort, inappropriate hospital days, used here as a proxy for delayed discharge, were more common among older patients and among medical specialties than in other specialties, while no consistent relationship was observed with gender. Cost analysis (carried out over a three-month period) indicated an order-of-magnitude estimate of the acute bed day resources associated with inappropriate hospital days in the units studied. These findings are consistent with the interpretation that inappropriate hospital days, used here as a proxy indicator of delayed discharge, may be influenced by a combination of external capacity constraints and internal operational inefficiencies, although causality cannot be established from this observational design. While the findings cannot be generalised to the entire inpatient population or health system, within this intentionally enriched cohort of long stay inpatients the study highlights the need to strengthen post-acute care provision, improve discharge coordination processes, and enhance system integration to optimise hospital efficiency and patient flow in similar operational contexts. Full article

Fischer–Tropsch (FT) wax is widely used as an organic warm-mix asphalt (WMA) additive, lowering binder viscosity during construction while improving high-temperature deformation resistance in service; however, the comparative responses of SBS-modified asphalt to different FT wax grades remain insufficiently understood. Sasobit and three FT waxes with different carbon-chain ranges (FT 80, FT 90, FT 100) were incorporated into SBS-modified asphalt at about 7.0 wt%, and their effects on macroscopic performance, rheology, molecular packing, and diffusion were evaluated using physical-property tests, rotational viscosity, dynamic shear rheometer (DSR) testing, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. In the MD analysis, the wax additives were represented by linear alkane molecules with different chain lengths, and the systems were subjected to structural optimization, annealing, and NPT equilibration using the COMPASS III force field before the molecular descriptors were evaluated. The experimental results showed that all four additives produced a trade-off between increased high-temperature stiffness and reduced low-temperature ductility. Sasobit gave the strongest viscosity reduction (>70% above 165 °C), while FT 90 and FT 100 showed more stable, predictable viscosity–temperature behavior favorable for a wider construction window. DSR results showed higher complex modulus and lower phase angle for all modified binders at low frequencies, suggesting an increased elastic contribution and greater resistance to deformation under the tested rheological conditions; FT 80 produced the greatest stiffening but also the largest free volume and loosest molecular packing, whereas FT 100 increased cohesive energy density and reduced free volume, reflecting denser packing and stronger intermolecular cohesion. MD simulations revealed that FT wax enhanced short-time local molecular mobility and segment diffusion in its molten state (explaining the warm-mix viscosity reduction), whereas macroscopic stiffening and ductility loss at ambient temperatures were dictated by wax microcrystallization and physical network constraints that restricted long-range chain relaxation. By comparing three FT wax grades and Sasobit under the same experimental dosage and testing framework, this study provides a controlled assessment of the relationships among wax-grade characteristics, binder-scale rheological responses, and MD-derived molecular descriptors. Full article

Using bilateral agricultural machinery trade data for 15 RCEP member states from 2004 to 2023, this study constructs a directed weighted network and applies social network analysis and the quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) to examine structural evolution, node positions, community patterns, and factors associated with bilateral trade ties. Network density increased from 0.467 to 0.962, average path length declined from 1.533 to 1.038, and betweenness centralization fell from 0.064 to 0.021, indicating denser connections, shorter potential transmission paths, and lower dependence on intermediary nodes. After 2020, China recorded the highest centrality, while Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, Singapore, and major ASEAN economies retained complementary positions. QAP results show positive associations of trade ties with GDP differences, common language, contiguity, and exchange-rate differences, and negative associations with water-resource differences, trade-structure differences, and institutional distance. These findings demonstrate a close relationship between trade networks, the diffusion of sustainable technologies, and regional supply chain resilience. Policy priorities include supplier diversification, compatible sustainability standards, lifecycle governance, regional repair and remanufacturing capacity, and inclusive access to machinery services. Full article

Based on the rotary bending loading principle, an experimental investigation into the fatigue properties of 6201 aluminum alloy individual wires is presented. Considering the long design service life, high-cycle fatigue (HCF) behavior, and slender geometry (high length-to-diameter ratio) of these wires, a high-speed rotary bending fatigue test platform is custom-designed and constructed. The design mechanically maximizes the probability of fracture at the midpoint of the constant-cross-section specimen, even when considering clamping damage at the ends. Through mechanical derivation for the test platform, based on the beam bending theory and the finite element method, a quantitative relationship is established between the bending stress amplitude and the deflection angle at the clamped end. Using this platform, the fatigue lives of 6201 aluminum alloy individual wires under various bending stress amplitudes are tested, and the stress–life (S-N) curve is obtained. The developed experimental method and the reported fatigue data in this study provide essential experimental and material data for fatigue life prediction and engineering design of 6201 aluminum alloy individual wires. Full article

Classification algorithms for encrypted traffic are an effective means of improving the security of private networks. However, they operate a posteriori because they require collecting flow level features (packet length, inter-arrival time, and flow identifiers), which can only be extracted after observing multiple packets before reaching a classification decision. Furthermore, to achieve accurate classification, the analyzed flows must be processed by the target server or by a server that faithfully replicates its behavior. This paper proposes a Digital Twin Network (DTN) architecture to prevent unknown traffic from being initially processed by the Original Network, thereby reducing the risk of attacks that cannot be immediately detected by encrypted traffic classification. The architecture integrates SDN and P4 to implement the monitoring and traffic redirection required by the DTN, and a proof-of-concept prototype is presented to validate its functionality. This work identifies a trade-off regarding access to previously unknown external services due to redirection via the DTN until classification is complete, which can introduce significant delays. Full article

Pavement distresses play a pivotal role in evaluating roadway conditions and guiding maintenance strategies. In many instances, these distresses arise from construction deficiencies, substandard material quality, or inadequate maintenance practices, rather than from inherent design shortcomings. Understanding the interrelationships among different types of pavement distress is therefore essential for engineers and decision-makers seeking to enhance pavement performance and prolong service life. This study examines the statistical associations among various asphalt pavement distresses using association rule mining techniques. The dataset was collected from 18 regions in Lebanon, covering a total roadway length of 419.87 km, thereby enabling a comprehensive analysis. Ten primary categories of pavement distress were identified and analyzed using support, confidence, and Lift measures to quantify their co-occurrence patterns and dependency relationships. The results revealed strong statistical associations among most pavement distress types, with particularly strong interactions involving raveling and weathering, longitudinal cracking, alligator cracking, patching, and potholes. Raveling and weathering were the most prevalent distress factors, accounting for 20.88% of total occurrences, whereas block cracking was the least frequent, representing only 0.34%. The joint probability of raveling and weathering occurring with alligator cracking reached 37.38%, while the conditional probability of alligator cracking given the presence of raveling and weathering was 47.65%. Lift analysis further distinguished associations that were stronger than expected based on distress prevalence alone, thereby reducing the influence of frequency-driven relationships. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed analytical framework in identifying statistically grounded pavement distress interactions and provide complementary information to support pavement management, maintenance prioritization, and resource allocation. Full article

Existing vibration serviceability criteria for highway bridges were largely developed for conventional steel and concrete structures, and their applicability to lightweight aluminum bridges remains uncertain. This study numerically investigates the dynamic response and vibration serviceability of fully aluminum bridge configurations under moving vehicular loads using ABAQUS. The effects of vehicle speed and span length were examined through midspan acceleration and displacement responses. Serviceability was evaluated using the Wright–Walker acceleration limits and the frequency–deflection criterion of the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code (CSA S6:25). The results highlight a pronounced vibration sensitivity of the investigated configurations under traffic loading. Full article

Understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics of land-use and cover change (LUCC) and ecosystem service (ES) responses is essential for assessing ecological functions in regional landscapes. However, conventional LUCC simulations often rely on historical trends and inadequately represent the spatially heterogeneous effects of top-down policy constraints. Taking the Henan section of the Yellow River Basin (HYRB) as a case study, we developed a policy-to-rule framework that translated ecological redlines, urban development boundaries, and restoration requirements into explicit spatial constraints and land-use transition rules in the PLUS model. A policy-constrained High-Quality Development Scenario (HQDS) was established, with the Natural Growth Scenario (NGS) as a reference. Five ESs were assessed using InVEST from 1985 to 2050, and the results were integrated with the Minimum Cumulative Resistance (MCR) model and circuit theory to construct an ecological security pattern (ESP). Historical reconstruction of the 2022 land-use pattern achieved an overall accuracy of 90.18% and a Kappa coefficient of 86.39%. The five ESs remained relatively stable overall: water yield, soil conservation, and the sediment-related indicator increased, whereas habitat quality and carbon storage declined slightly. Ecological source areas expanded from 7140.54 km² in 1985 to 12,039.17 km² under the HQDS in 2050, a 68.6% increase. Compared with the NGS, the HQDS increased source areas by 562.42 km² (4.9%), reduced ecological corridors from 26 to 24, and increased their total length from 1068.89 to 1099.61 km. These differences represent the projected, scenario-conditioned consequences of the specified policy constraints and provide quantitative decision support for future ecological management. Full article

Sainfoin (Onobrychis spp.) is a perennial legume forage crop valued for its adaptation to dry environments, nitrogen fixation capacity, and ecosystem service benefits. Despite its agronomic importance, broad comparative evaluations of cultivated sainfoin germplasm across environments remain limited. In this study, a diverse global panel of cultivated sainfoin germplasm representing O. arenaria, O. transcaucasica and O. viciifolia was evaluated in replicated field trials in Tekirdağ, Türkiye and Salina, Kansas, USA. Significant environmental, species, and accession effects were detected for numerous agronomic and forage-related traits, indicating substantial phenotypic diversity and strong environmental responsiveness across the evaluated germplasm. Several vegetative and forage-related traits, including stem length, forage dry matter, and canopy height, exhibited moderate to relatively high entry-mean repeatability across environments. Correlation analyses revealed strong positive associations between stem morphology traits and forage biomass production, suggesting that vegetative architecture traits may serve as useful indirect selection criteria for forage improvement. Principal Component Analysis revealed substantial phenotypic overlap among cultivated sainfoin taxa, indicating that the evaluated agronomic traits alone did not clearly separate species groups. Several plant introduction accessions performed comparably to or exceeded commercial cultivars for forage-related traits, highlighting the value of broad germplasm collections for sainfoin improvement. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that cultivated sainfoin germplasm contains substantial breeding-relevant diversity and support continued multi-environment evaluation and regionally adapted breeding strategies for perennial forage improvement. Full article

Railway marshalling yard inbound operations are affected by irregular train arrivals, finite receiving-yard capacity, service interruptions, and boundary states carried across operating days. This study develops a hybrid fluid–queueing and simulation framework for analyzing congestion evolution in the arrival–technical-operation–hump-disassembly process. The framework integrates continuous arrival-input construction, boundary-state stability validation (PSSBV), and daily gated integer discrete-event simulation (DGDES). Circular kernel density estimation and observed train-level sequences represent non-stationary arrivals; PSSBV determines operationally reasonable initial conditions; and DGDES captures finite-capacity admission, FIFO outside holding, parallel technical operations, hump disassembly, and service-interruption windows. The framework is evaluated under deterministic and stochastic service-time conditions using continuous-operation data from a large Chinese marshalling yard and field-observed occupancy and waiting-time indicators. The results show that congestion is driven less by daily arrival volume alone than by the interaction of concentrated arrivals, pre-disassembly backlog, residual in-yard occupancy, and insufficient hump-disassembly clearance capacity. The simulated outside holding rate follows fluctuations in the field-based track–time load ratio and is closely associated with disassembly waiting time, system sojourn time, and pre-disassembly queue length. Lagged analysis indicates that previous-day saturation and residual workload can increase next-day outside holding risk. Stochastic service times produce similar high-risk patterns while increasing variability and tail-risk exposure. The proposed threshold–probability diagnostic framework supports rapid congestion-risk identification and dispatching-oriented control under continuous and uncertain operating conditions. Full article

Concrete readily develops cracks under service loads, which poses severe risks to the overall safety of engineering structures. In this work, the discrete element method (DEM) integrated with PFC2D 5.0 numerical software is adopted to construct a mesoscale concrete numerical model containing pre-existing internal fractures, and uniaxial compressive loading simulations are subsequently carried out. Unlike previous studies that predominantly examined isolated fracture parameters, this work systematically investigates the coupled effects of fracture inclination angle, length, and quantity on crack propagation mechanisms at the mesoscale, and for the first time establishes a quantitative relationship between microcrack spatial distribution patterns and macroscopic mechanical degradation. Parametric analyses are performed to quantify the influences of fracture geometric characteristics, including fracture inclination angle (30°, 45°, 60°), fracture length (short, long and extra-long), fracture quantity (4, 8 and 16), as well as the comparison between intact and fractured concrete specimens. The fracture quantities of 4, 8, and 16 are selected to represent low, medium, and high levels of initial defect density within the concrete matrix, corresponding to approximately 1%, 2%, and 4% of the total specimen area, respectively, thereby enabling a systematic investigation into the progressive deterioration of mechanical performance with increasing internal damage severity. The whole evolution process of crack initiation, crack propagation and ultimate failure patterns of concrete is systematically explored. Numerical results reveal that specimens with larger fracture angles exhibit higher compressive strength yet generate abundant newly formed microcracks, whereas low-angle prefabricated fractures are prone to triggering abrupt brittle failure. Specimens embedded with shorter fractures achieve superior mechanical strength and develop denser, more intensive microcrack distributions; in contrast, long pre-existing fractures drastically degrade compressive strength while limiting the generation of secondary cracks. Reducing the number of internal defects simultaneously improves compressive strength and expands the coverage range of the induced fracture network. Specimens with 16 prefabricated fractures deliver the weakest mechanical performance, owing to the excessively high initial defect density inside the matrix. In comparison with fractured samples, intact concrete without pre-set fractures achieves better comprehensive performance in terms of compressive strength, deformation compatibility and uniform microcrack development. A core conclusion drawn from this study is that the total quantity of microcracks cannot serve as a direct indicator to evaluate the damage degradation degree of concrete; instead, the spatial distribution pattern of microcracks dominates the deterioration level. Evenly scattered microcrack populations maintain relatively high residual strength, whereas the concentrated coalescence of microcracks into continuous penetrating macrocracks leads to an abrupt decline in structural load-carrying capacity. The findings of this research can provide theoretical references for stability evaluation and safety diagnosis of defective concrete structures in practical engineering. Full article