Viability of intertwined supply networks: extending the supply chain resilience angles towards survivability. A position paper motivated by COVID-19 outbreak

An intertwined supply network (ISN) is an entirety of interconnected supply chains (SC) which, in their integrity secure the provision of society and markets with goods and services. The ISNs are open systems with structural dynamics since the firms may exhibit multiple behaviours by changing the buyer-supplier roles in interconnected or even competing SCs. From the positions of resilience, the ISNs as a whole provide services to society (e.g. food service, mobility service or communication service) which are required to ensure a long-term survival. The analysis of survivability at the level of ISN requires a consideration at a large scale as resilience of individual SCs. The recent example of coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak clearly shows the necessity of this new perspective. Our study introduces a new angle in SC resilience research when a resistance to extraordinary disruptions needs to be considered at the scale of viability. We elaborate on the integrity of the ISN and viability. The contribution of our position study lies in a conceptualisation of a novel decision-making environment of ISN viability. We illustrate the viability formation through a dynamic game-theoretic modelling of a biological system that resembles the ISN. We discuss some future research areas.     

Youth gambling behaviors: An examination of the role of resilience.

The study of resilient children has overturned many deficit-focused models concerning the ontogenesis of children raised in adversity. This study explored the relationship between risk and protective factors, resilience, and youth gambling behavior. More specifically, this study examined the relative contribution of various risk and protective domains in relation to problem gambling behavior and examined whether youth identified as resilient (high risk exposure- high internalized protection) were as likely as those identified as vulnerable (high risk exposure-low internalized protection) to engage in excessive gambling behavior. The sample consisted of 1,273 students ages 12 to 19. The findings demonstrated that risk and protective factors each provide a unique contribution to the prediction model of gambling problems. Resilient and vulnerable youth differed significantly in their self-reported gambling severity. As well, resilient youth were not statistically distinguishable from low-risk exposure groups in terms of their gambling severity. Findings are interpreted with respect to resilience and prevention research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Data mining of resilience indicators

In recent years, the Asia-Pacific region has experienced several financial setbacks, including speculative attacks in 1998 and the SARS outbreak in 2003. Financial stresses of this nature are unanticipated, and not all of the dangers can be predicted by the examination of market information and macroeconomic indicators. The Early Warning System (EWS) that has been adopted by the International Monetary Fund may not be able to predict future financial crises for all possible scenarios, because shocks come in many different forms. To supplement the EWS, this paper proposes a data mining framework to measure the resilience of an economy. The resilience framework does not predict a crisis, but rather assesses the current state of health of an economy and its ability to withstand a financial shock should one occur. The framework is based on a feedback system consisting of two stages. The first stage assigns a resilience score to each economy based on a fuzzy logic scoring scheme that is built on the ambiguous reasoning of experts. The second stage uses the classification tree approach to estimate thresholds for each economic indicator, and examines the quality of the fuzzy score. The result from the second stage is then passed back to the first stage as feedback. The final result is obtained when the feedback system reaches its equilibrium state. The proposed resilience framework is applied to the external-sector and the public-sector economies of several countries to illustrate its applicability.     

Foveation-Based Error Resilience and Unequal Error Protection over Mobile Networks

By exploiting new human-machine interface techniques, such as visual eyetrackers, it should be possible to develop more efficient visual multimedia services associated with low bandwidth, dynamic channel adaptation and robust visual data transmission. In this paper, we introduce foveation-based error resilience and unequal error protection techniques over highly error-prone mobile networks. Each frame is spatially divided into foveated and background layers according to perceptual importance. Perceptual importance is determined either through an eye tracker or by manually selecting a region of interest. We attempt to improve reconstructed visual quality by maintaining the high visual source throughput of the foveated layer using foveation-based error resilience and error correction using a combination of turbo codes and ARQ (automatic reQuest). In order to alleviate the degradation of visual quality, a foveation based bitstream partitioning is developed. In an effort to increase the source throughput of the foveated layer, we develop unequal delay-constrained ARQ (automatic reQuest) and rate compatible punctured turbo codes where the punctual pattern of RCPC (rate compatible punctured convolutional) codes in H.223 Annex C is used. In the simulation, the visual quality is significantly increased in the area of interest using foveation-based error resilience and unequal error protection; (as much as 3 dB FPSNR (foveal peak signal to noise ratio) improvement) at 40% packet error rate. Over real-fading statistics measured in the downtown area of Austin, Texas, the visual quality is increased up to 1.5 dB in PSNR and 1.8 dB in FPSNR at a channel SNR of 5 dB.     

Dynamic-mechanical properties of polybutadiene rubbers

The dynamic properties of high-cis (98%) and cis-trans (42% cis) polybutadienes, crosslinked with 0.1 to 1.0% of crosslinking agent, have been studied using a torsion pendulum method over the temperature range ?170 to +20°C. For the high-cis rubber plots of damping factor (tan δ) against temperature showed the expected peak in the glass-transition region with an additional peak in the neighbourhood of 0°C attributable to crystallization. The cis-trans rubber showed two damping maxima in the transition region, separated by 30 to 40°C (depending on the degree of crosslinking), suggesting incipient phase separation of the component structures. The rebound resilience of the high-cis rubber at room temperature exceeded that of the cis-trans, reaching 92% at the highest crosslink density. Plots of resilience versus temperature for both rubbers showed a single minimum in the glass transition region.     

组建实时可靠安全的工业以太网

工业以太网在企业的信息层、控制层和设备层网络中得到了越来越多的应用。本文从实时性、网络弹性、可靠性和安全性的角度对工业应用的具体要求进行了分析，提出了在组建工业以太网时需要注意的若干主要问题。     

Resilience to Loss in Bereaved Spouses, Bereaved Parents, and Bereaved Gay Men.

Recent research has indicated that many people faced with highly aversive events suffer only minor, transient disruptions in functioning and retain a capacity for positive affect and experiences. This article reports 2 studies that replicate and extend these findings among bereaved parents, spouses, and caregivers of a chronically ill life partner using a range of self-report and objective measures of adjustment. Resilience was evidenced in half of each bereaved sample when compared with matched, nonbereaved counterparts and 36% of the caregiver sample in a more conservative, repeated-measures ipsative comparison. Resilient individuals were not distinguished by the quality of their relationship with spouse/partner or caregiver burden but were rated more positively and as better adjusted by close friends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of extreme floods on macroinvertebrate assemblages in tributaries to the Mohawk River,New York,USA

Climate change is forecast to bring more frequent and intense precipitation to New York which has motivated research into the effects of floods on stream ecosystems. Macroinvertebrate assemblages were sampled at 13 sites in the Mohawk River basin during August 2011, and again in October 2011, following historic floods caused by remnants of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. The annual exceedance probabilities of floods at regional flow‐monitoring sites ranged from 0.5 to 0.001. Data from the first 2 surveys, and from additional surveys done during July and October 2014, were assessed to characterize the severity of flood impacts, effect of seasonality, and recovery. Indices of total taxa richness; Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera (EPT) richness; Hilsenhoff's biotic index; per cent model affinity; and nutrient biotic index‐phosphorus were combined to calculate New York State Biological Assessment Profile scores. Analysis of variance tests were used to determine if the Biological Assessment Profile, its component metrics, relative abundance, and diversity differed significantly (p ≤ .05) among the four surveys. Only total taxa richness and Shannon–Wiener diversity increased significantly, and abundance decreased significantly, following the floods. No metrics differed significantly between the July and August 2014 surveys which indicates that the differences denoted between the August and October 2011 surveys were caused by the floods. Changes in taxa richness, EPT richness, and diversity were significantly correlated with flood annual exceedance probabilities. This study increased our understanding of the resistance and resilience of benthic macroinvertebrate communities by showing that their assemblages were relatively impervious to extreme floods across the region.     

尺寸效应和约束条件对土基回弹模量的影响

室内承载板法是测定土基回弹模量的标准试验方法。尺寸效应和约束条件的影响使得室内测定的回弹模量往往与现场不符,不能直接用于公路结构设计。以红黏土为研究对象,采用室内试验和数值模拟的方法研究了试样的尺寸效应和约束条件对土基回弹模量的影响。结果表明:试样的尺寸效应(试样直径和高度)对回弹模量的影响较大,随着试样直径的增大回弹模量增大,随着试样高度的增大回弹模量减小;无侧限条件下测定的回弹模量乘以约束条件系数1.2即得有侧限条件下回弹模量值。研究成果为室内合理测定土基回弹模量值提供参考依据。     

碟形弹簧竖向减震装置的性能试验研究

基础隔震技术是目前应用最广泛的结构控制方法,但是,目前这种技术只是最大限度地减少或隔离水平地震作用,而对竖向地震作用几乎没有影响。为改善隔震技术在隔离竖向地震中的限制,研制了一种由碟形弹簧和粘弹性阻尼器组合而成的碟形弹簧竖向减震装置,并对其进行了在静载和动载作用下的力学性能试验研究,给出了该装置在竖向静力和动力作用下的等效刚度和阻尼比,建立了恢复力模型,试验研究表明,碟形弹簧竖向减震装置能有效的解决竖向大承载力和竖向阻尼的难题,力学性能优良且稳定,加工制作容易,是一种比较理想的竖向减震装置。