Search Results (897)

Additional loads from new buildings spanning existing underground utility tunnels, together with seismic action, may induce uneven settlement and structural damage in tunnel systems. To mitigate this risk, a precast cavity structure is proposed to replace the soil above the tunnel, isolating load transfer and controlling settlement. In the proposed structure, precast reinforced concrete shear walls with openings serve as key vertical load-carrying and lateral-force-resisting members. To clarify the cyclic behavior, two shear walls with openings were designed to possess the same geometry and reinforcement details but were tested under reversed cyclic loading in two orthogonal in-plane orientations. The failure modes, hysteretic behavior, backbone curves, stiffness degradation, and energy-dissipation capacity were analyzed. The results show that flexural-shear failure occurred in both wall limbs under horizontal cyclic loading, whereas flexural-shear failure developed only in the right wall limb under vertical cyclic loading. The initial stiffness, peak load, peak drift ratio, and ultimate drift ratio under horizontal cyclic loading were 1.87, 2.06, 1.76, and 1.64 times those under vertical cyclic loading, respectively, indicating that the performance of the shear wall with opening is more unfavorable under vertical cyclic loading. Further, existing models were used to predict the loading-carrying capacity. The results indicate that the strut-and-tie model (STM) and GB 50010-2010 gave the best and acceptable overall predictions, respectively. The findings provide experimental evidence for component design and seismic performance evaluation of cavity replacement structures used in projects spanning underground utility tunnels. Full article

Significant research efforts have recently focused on nanomaterial processing for gas sensors and related sensing applications. However, the major challenges in the field involve the choice of material for the sensing layer of the sensor device element, together with the right structure, assembly, and morphology through which the full sensing properties of the material can be realised. Herein, we critically review the hierarchical nanostructures of V₂O₅ nanomaterial for application in gas sensing technology. Beyond the sheet structure, which serves as the fundamental building block of the V₂O₅’smolecular arrangement, nanostructures ranging from nanobelts to nanowires, nanorods, nanoribbons, nanofibres, nanotubes, and thin films were discovered as preferred configurations and thermodynamically favourable structures, according to many synthesis processes. Ethanol (C₂H₅OH) and Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) gases were identified as preferred molecules commonly detected by various V₂O₅ morphologies, with the nanotube structure showing preferential sensitivity and selectivity to C₂H₅OH. We also discuss perspectives from density functional theory (DFT) studies of V₂O₅ nanostructures and other (2D) materials structures for gas sensing applications. The studies highlight enhanced adsorption energy, increase conductivity, and band gap variation as a result of an upper shift in the Fermi level, all as a consequence of surface interaction between semiconductor crystal orientation and chemical molecules. Finally, our calculations of the optimised parameters for α-V₂O₅ orthorhombic structure showed good agreement with experimental and other theoretical data in the literature. The adsorption energy profile for NO₂ molecules revealed that the Ag-doped surface exhibits the most negative adsorption energy compared with the clean surface and other doped surfaces. Full article

Building on Juan Linz’s well-known distinction between political religion and politicized religion, this contribution adopts the latter perspective, which involves the instrumentalization of religion for political purposes. Within this framework, the article advances the hypothesis that a new form of religiosity is emerging from the communicative practices of certain conservative right-wing and far-right party formations. Their narratives display a strong appeal to religious values by evoking forms of identification and belonging that are largely detached from lived religious practice. Drawing on three corpora comprising electoral programs, political discourses, and interview excerpts from Fratelli d’Italia (Italy), Alternative für Deutschland (Germany), and Vox (Spain), the analysis combines a keyword-in-context approach with qualitative content analysis. The resulting communicative frame is composed of terms and concepts that function as symbolic realities similar to those of traditional religion, such as religion itself, the family, and the homeland, which are rearticulated within fully secularized contexts. This symbolic and narrative reactivation of such elements not only constitutes a strategic use of religious references but also points to the emergence of a distinctively political form of religiosity, which operates both as a stimulus for electoral behavior and as a cohesive force for highly identity-oriented party communities. Full article

High nonlinearity and limited computational resources create persistent challenges for achieving autonomous, stable, and accurate locomotion in insect-scale crawling robots, hindering their practical deployment. In this study, we build the mathematical models of the insect-scale micro crawling robot named PLioBot and propose a locomotion control strategy that eliminates the need for gait transitions. The locomotion transformation of the PLioBot prototype, from driving inputs to mechanical motion outputs, is decomposed into multiple motion processes. This study analyzes the theoretical models underlying these motion processes and develops the locomotion simulation model for the PLioBot based on the mathematical models and the multibody dynamics simulation tool. The locomotion control strategy with low computational requirements is designed based on a closed-loop PID controller, which regulates the robot’s locomotion by independently adjusting the step lengths of its left and right legs. The locomotion co-simulation system is established to validate the control strategy. The simulation results confirm that this control strategy enables the PLioBot to perform straight-line locomotion and turning without requiring any gait transition. Full article

This study examines the feasibility of predicting net repair costs (Estimated Cost, PLN) for multi-family residential buildings from data extracted from technical inspection reports. Rather than merely comparing algorithmic performance, the analysis was designed as a diagnostic sequence aimed at identifying the sources of prediction error. Four machine learning algorithms (Extra Trees, Random Forest, XGBoost, and GBM) were first applied to direct regression of repair cost. We then tested whether the difficulty of estimating exact cost values stems from the high variability of the target variable and whether this limitation can be mitigated by a two-stage approach: assigning observations to one of three cost-risk bands (Low, Moderate, High) and subsequently estimating cost within the assigned band. The empirical cost distribution was strongly right-skewed (median: 4500 PLN; mean: 63,402 PLN; maximum: 3,680,524 PLN). The best direct regression model achieved an R² of 0.452, while the best fully deployable two-stage model, combining an XGBoost classifier with a Random Forest regressor, achieved an R² of 0.392. When it was assumed that the actual cost-risk bands were known, an R² value of 0.839 was obtained, indicating that the main source of error is not regression within the bands, but rather the initial stage of assigning the bands. These results demonstrate that reporting a single global R² for highly skewed, weakly identifiable cost data can be misleading, and that decomposing predictive performance into band-assignment and within-band regression components provides a more informative evaluation. This article also points to concrete directions for improving the underlying database, particularly through the inclusion of variables describing repair quantity, unit of measure, and detailed repair scope. Full article

This article proposes the Collective Delivery Demand Matrix (CDD Matrix), which repositions the New Agile as a correspondence property between collective delivery demands and teams’ operating regimes, aiming to form teams that are simultaneously agile, high-performing, and endowed with dynamic capabilities. It addresses a gap in the agility literature: the Agile Manifesto principles have been extended to many contexts, yet no theory explains when they should be maintained, adapted, or replaced. Developed as a theoretical-conceptual essay, the work synthesizes studies on naturalistic decision-making, team learning, neurostrategy, sociotechnical systems, and decision support. It proposes a taxonomy of seven demand typologies along five classificatory axes, and a correspondence matrix that articulates demand types, operating regimes, shared heuristics, sociotechnical configurations, and managerial errors. The matrix clarifies that agility generates value when it first favors effectiveness, delivering the right objective in the right regime at the appropriate risk level, and only then efficiency. The New Manifesto reformulates the Agile Manifesto as conditional correspondence rules sensitive to demand typology, and six testable propositions guide future empirical research. The main finding is that a team becomes simultaneously agile, high-performing, and dynamically capable only when its operating regime corresponds to the demand typology it faces, matching effectiveness before efficiency, calibrating risk, and building a renewable repertoire of shared heuristics. For managers, teams, and organizations, this implies diagnosing the delivery demand before selecting a method, composing and leading teams according to the demand’s dominant axes, and protecting the psychological safety that turns reversible error into collective learning. The contribution integrates the Agile Manifesto, decision theory, the sociotechnical tradition, and neurostrategy into a single theory of Agile, High-Performance, and Dynamic Teams (EAD²), oriented toward verifiable objectives, goals, and results. Full article

The diversification of rural development actors in China has promoted a shift from state-centered governance toward collaborative approaches, with rural operation emerging as an important pathway for resource mobilization and value creation. While existing studies have examined multi-actor participation, less attention has been paid to the institutional and socio-economic mechanisms through which polycentric governance shapes rural operation, particularly regarding market rationalities, contractual arrangements, and local capacity formation. This study develops an analytical framework conceptualizing rural polycentric governance as the interaction of institutional support, market embedding, and local agency, and examines rural operation transformation through changes in actors, rights relations, and industrial structures. Drawing on a case study of Huashu Village in Nanjing, this study explores how polycentric governance reshapes rural operation over time. The findings reveal a transition from traditional collective operation to government-led project-based operation, and ultimately to market-embedded polycentric collaborative operation. Specifically, institutional support, through property-rights reforms, policy incentives, and normative arrangements, provides foundations for multi-actor collaboration. Market embedding, through external capital, market-oriented management rationalities, and contractual norms, reshapes resource allocation and cooperative relationships. Local agency, through grassroots organization building, local resource activation, and actor capacity development, transforms external resources into endogenous development capabilities. Through continuous interaction and feedback, these dimensions jointly promote diversified actors, clarified rights arrangements, and integrated industrial development. This study expands the theoretical boundaries of rural polycentric governance by incorporating implicit governance dimensions, refining theoretical explanations of how polycentric governance enables rural operation, and providing empirical evidence on its complexity and dynamics for policy formulation. Full article

Al-Wehdat open market, originating in a mid-20th-century Palestinian refugee camp in Amman, Jordan, has evolved into a vital urban common and a paradigmatic case of Everyday Architecture of Compromise. It demonstrates significant economic, social, political, and cultural dynamism, leveraging the relational and solidary capacities of a disenfranchised migrant community to build resilience and assert their Right to the (negated) City. This paper examines how the market’s mode of production responds to intersecting geopolitical, economic, and democratic crises. Employing a constructivist, conjunctural urbanism approach and scene-based analysis, we situate Al-Wehdat market within discourses on urban commons and relationality. Our theoretical framework draws on Hannah Arendt, Gilbert Simondon, and Ash Amin to reconceptualise the Right to the City as the Right to the Open Urban Market. We foreground customary territorial communing as a counterforce to corporative commodification, as essential in the struggle for urban justice, differential individuation, and immanent re-enchantment. Findings, presented through vivid market scenes, show how everyday interactions, creative material arrangements, and rich collaborative imagination sustain these commons. Thematic analysis identifies patterns in community relations, materiality, infrastructure, and acts of repair that sustain the regenerative capacity of key everyday relational, political, techno-material and convivial practices. We conclude by advocating for community empowerment policies that recognise the centrality of everyday relational individuation in shaping inclusive cities amidst polycrisis in the Global South. Full article

Research on cultural heritage, regional resilience and Indigenous rights remains insufficiently integrated at the level of regional policy. This article develops a resilience-driven framework for analysing when Sámi cultural heritage in Norway, Sweden and Finland can support sustainable regional development. The study uses a conceptual research design based on a structured critical synthesis of the literature, model building and an illustrative policy application. The framework links environmental, social–cultural, economic and institutional dimensions of heritage with risk prevention, vulnerability reduction, adaptive capacity, transformative capacity and development capital security. It identifies land access, self-determination, effective participation, benefit-sharing and community control over knowledge as conditions governing heritage-to-resilience pathways. The country comparison illustrates a recurring gap between cultural recognition and influence over land and development decisions, while selected European instruments offer supportive but limited implementation pathways. The article does not claim causal proof. Its contribution is a conditional analytical and policy-screening framework that generates testable propositions and community-validated indicators for future empirical research. Full article

Waterfront multi-pit excavation in highly permeable gravel deposits can induce complex pile deformation because excavation unloading, groundwater drawdown, and river-stage disturbance act simultaneously. This problem is particularly important for foundation pits constructed near existing pile-supported buildings, yet the combined effects of excavation sequence, pit spacing and excavation depth under river-connected gravel aquifers remain insufficiently quantified. This study fills the research gap on the seepage–stress-coupled deformation mechanism of adjacent building piles under multi-pit excavation in highly permeable gravel strata, and quantifies the spatial superposition effect of excavation disturbance. In this study, a three-dimensional seepage–stress-coupled finite-element model was established for the Yidu Green Intelligent Shipbuilding Industrial Park project on the right bank of the Yangtze River. The model was validated against field monitoring data from the slipway pit excavation, and comparisons show that the relative errors of pile horizontal displacement and ground settlement between simulation and measurement are both less than 8%, verifying the reliability of the numerical model. The validated model was then used to evaluate single-pit excavation, different multi-pit excavation sequences, pit group spacing, excavation-depth ratio and steel sheet pile parameters. The results show that pile deformation is controlled not only by the excavation of an individual pit, but also by the interaction between pit groups located on opposite sides of the building. Simultaneous excavation reduced the peak horizontal displacement of the adjacent building pile by 45.7% compared with single excavation of the slipway pit and by 31.6% compared with the slipway-first sequence. For pits on the same side of the building, a far-to-near excavation sequence produced the smallest pile displacement and settlement. The inter-pit ground deformation changed from heave-dominated to settlement-dominated when the spacing increased to approximately 90–100 m. The research results can provide reference for deformation control and safety assessment of adjacent buildings during multi-pit excavation in similar highly permeable gravel areas. These findings indicate that coordinated excavation sequence and spacing control can effectively reduce deformation risks in waterfront multi-pit projects, although the proposed thresholds should be verified for different layouts, geological conditions and hydrogeological conditions. Full article

Developmental dyslexia is a common neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent difficulties in accurate and fluent word reading despite adequate intelligence, educational opportunity, and intact sensory function. Contemporary neurobiological models have progressively shifted from localization-based explanations toward network-oriented perspectives emphasizing large-scale brain connectivity, developmental maturation, and neuroplasticity. Nevertheless, the developmental mechanisms underlying early right-hemisphere recruitment remain incompletely understood. Although increased right-hemisphere activation has traditionally been interpreted as a compensatory response to left-hemisphere dysfunction, accumulating evidence from longitudinal neuroimaging, intervention, and developmental studies indicates that this explanation alone does not adequately account for the heterogeneity of neurobiological findings observed across individuals with developmental dyslexia. This narrative review synthesizes evidence from developmental neurobiology, network neuroscience, longitudinal neuroimaging, and intervention research to examine the biological processes underlying early right-hemisphere recruitment. Across the reviewed literature, developmental dyslexia is increasingly characterized by atypical maturation of distributed reading networks involving alterations in white-matter development, functional connectivity, hemispheric lateralization, and experience-dependent neuroplasticity. Collectively, these findings suggest that reading networks remain dynamically modifiable throughout literacy acquisition and that multiple developmental pathways may contribute to diverse neurobiological and behavioral outcomes. Building on this evidence, we propose a Developmental Neuroplasticity Framework for Reading Network Reorganization that integrates existing neurobiological models within a unified developmental perspective. Rather than proposing a new neurobiological mechanism, the framework seeks to explain the heterogeneous patterns of early right-hemisphere recruitment that are not fully accounted for by compensation-based interpretations alone. Specifically, it conceptualizes early right-hemisphere recruitment as one possible adaptive developmental outcome emerging from interactions among early neurodevelopmental vulnerability, distributed network connectivity, developmental neuroplasticity, and environmental experience. By integrating evidence that has largely been considered within separate theoretical perspectives, the framework generates empirically testable predictions regarding developmental trajectories, network reorganization, and intervention-related variability, while providing a conceptual basis for earlier identification of children at risk and the development of more targeted, developmentally informed intervention strategies. Full article

This study aims to explore the formation mechanism of homestead withdrawal decisions among the agricultural transfer population from the perspective of the rationality cognition of property rights. Based on 1775 valid questionnaires collected from the agricultural transfer population in Hefei, Anhui Province, China, this study constructs a binary Probit model to examine the impacts of the rationality cognition of ownership and the rationality cognition of inheritance on the willingness to withdraw from homesteads with compensation, and employs the stepwise regression method and the KHB decomposition method to test the mediation effect of income expectation on the relationship between the rationality cognition of property rights and the willingness to withdraw from homesteads with compensation. The following results indicate: (1) both the rationality cognition of ownership and the rationality cognition of inheritance exert significant positive effects on withdrawal from homesteads among the agricultural transfer population; (2) the impact of rational property rights exhibits significant heterogeneity across gender, age, share of non-agricultural income, and migration regions; (3) income expectation plays a mediating role in the relationship between the rationality cognition of property rights and the willingness to withdraw from homesteads. In conclusion, we should deepen publicity and education on homestead ownership, and build a market-oriented and diversified compensation mechanism for homestead withdrawal to enhance the rational cognition of homestead property rights and income expectation of ATP (Agricultural transfer population). Full article

There is a lack of step-by-step guides for developing evidence-based interventions through close collaboration between researchers and practitioners that emphasize genuine co-creation. The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed description of the five-year participatory action research- and iterative-design-inspired development process that resulted in a 12-week group-based intervention to support reorientation and post-traumatic growth among intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors. This paper presents a case study based on an analysis of meeting agendas and notes, observations, successive versions of the intervention, and interviews with staff at partnering women’s shelters and female victim-survivor intervention participants, conducted from 2021 to 2025. This study offers future intervention developers three actionable recommendations: (1) invest in relationship building and establish a collaborative project culture characterized by epistemic equality between academic researchers and practitioners, manifested in non-hierarchical decision-making; (2) create a purpose-built framework for genuine collaboration and co-creation, like the one presented in this project, which combines participatory action research and iterative design approaches; and (3) ensure a shared vision and a formalized agreement regarding future uses and rights connected to the intervention. By offering key transferable recommendations, this paper contributes to teams embarking on intervention development alongside end-beneficiaries and community stakeholders in women’s shelters and beyond. Full article

Sustainable Development Goal 11 makes vertical intensification a primary way to reconcile urban growth with finite land, but its land-saving promise depends on inter-building connectivity, and that is what conventional land administration cannot govern. Organized around two-dimensional cadastres and horizontally bounded property rights, existing frameworks cannot handle the overlapping volumetric claims, shared liabilities, and cross-boundary access obligations that connected vertical development generates. We treat this as a land governance problem, using the term block city for an urban configuration coordinated across vertical levels. Combining a framework grounded in socio-technical transitions and urban governance with comparative analysis of Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and Buenos Aires, and a regulatory analysis of Chile, we show that the degree of vertical integration tracks the structure of land tenure: a coordinating land-rights condition is necessary, and a registrable volumetric right alone is not sufficient, as Buenos Aires shows. In Chile the barrier is institutional rather than technical, and the same gaps leave SDG Indicator 11.3.1 blind to the land that vertical intensification saves. The same reforms that would enable inter-building connectivity would make its sustainability contribution measurable. The block city is best understood not as a design typology but as a contingent institutional trajectory, whose realization depends on whether land governance can manage interdependence across property boundaries. Full article

Enterprise green innovation driven by the market is a requirement in the new era to implement the new development concept and fulfill the “dual carbon” goals, integrate them into the new development pattern of “dual circulation”, and boost sustainable economic development. Using the moderated effect regression model and selecting data on manufacturing companies listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2014 to 2023, this paper empirically examines the impact of the most important dimension of market orientation—customer orientation—on enterprise green innovation and its internal mechanism. Research findings: Firstly, customer orientation affects corporate green innovation via demand identification, knowledge acquisition, and optimal resource allocation. Reactive customer orientation boosts incremental green innovation through economies of scale, while a proactive one drives radical green innovation via the substitution effect. The alternating effect of the two makes the impact of customer orientation on green innovation exhibit an inverted U-shaped-curve relationship, first rising and then falling. Secondly, corporate operational capacity influences the realization of customer orientation’s effect on green innovation through the following four pathways: learning capability, financial capability, managerial capability, and decision-making capability. Enterprises with a strong operational capacity exhibit a flatter inverted U-shaped curve with a right-shifted inflection point, whereas those with a weaker operational capacity demonstrate a steeper curve with a left-shifted inflection point. Thirdly, heterogeneity analysis by enterprise type reveals that customer orientation does not exert a statistically significant direct impact on green innovation in state-owned enterprises. Conversely, an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between customer orientation and green innovation in private enterprises, with operational capacity serving as a moderating effect. Finally, regional heterogeneity analysis indicates that the moderating effect of operational capacity results in a rightward shift of the inflection point in the inverted U-shaped curve for enterprises in eastern regions, while causing a leftward shift for those in central and western regions. Therefore, when enterprises choose green innovation strategies, they should clearly identify the customer-oriented type, pay attention to the trend in demands, optimize supporting measures, enhance operational capabilities, and build an innovative enterprise. Full article