In temporal action localization, given an input video, the goal is to predict which actions it contains, where they begin, and where they end. Training and testing current state-of- the-art deep learning models requires access to large amounts of data and computational power. However, gathering such data is challenging and computational resources might be limited. This work explores and measures how current deep temporal action localization models perform in settings constrained by the amount of data or computational power. We measure data efficiency by training each model on a subset of the training set. We find that TemporalMaxer outperforms other models in data-limited settings. Furthermore, we recommend TriDet when training time is limited. To test the efficiency of the models during inference, we pass videos of different lengths through each model. We find that TemporalMaxer requires the least computational resources, likely due to its simple architecture.@en

This paper presents the concept of urban pandemic vulnerability as a crucial framework for understanding how COVID-19 affects cities and how they react to pandemics. We adapted existing social and environmental urban vulnerability frameworks to assess pandemic impacts and responses, identifying the appropriate components and spatial, environmental and socio-demographic variables of interest. Pandemic vulnerability depends on exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity features, which occur in different combinations in different parts of a city. The model was applied to the Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam (MRA) to create a map of pandemic vulnerability. This map differentiates between affected areas according to the types of vulnerability they experience, and it accurately identified the most vulnerable areas in line with real-world data. The findings contribute to clarifying the challenges brought by COVID-19, identifying vulnerability thresholds and guiding planning towards pandemic resilience@en

Heritage estate landscapes are clusters of historical estates with their gardens and agricultural land. These heritage estate landscapes suffer from climate change (abundance and shortage of water), spatial fragmentation through urbanization, and loss of identity through economic tendencies. These challenges can only be addressed from a regional point of view that takes local differences into account and takes the landscape as the basis for future strategies for further development. This paper addresses an adaptive and multi-scale landscape design approach for developing a more resilient heritage estate landscape, taking the estate landscape in the Baakse Beek region (a region in the East of the Netherlands) as a case study. Deforestation is identified as one of the critical agents of spatial change in the region, causing significant water system problems and loss of biodiversity. Based on a regional analysis of the estate landscape's historical development, forest landscape restoration (FLR) is employed as a contextual design strategy to regain ecological functionality and enhance human wellbeing in the degraded landscape across scales. This paper showcases a multi-scale spatial design approach for developing cultural heritage landscapes.@en

We systematically study the indirect interaction between a magnon mode and a cavity photon mode mediated by traveling photons of a waveguide. From a general Hamiltonian, we derive the effective coupling strength between two separated modes, and obtain the theoretical expression of the system's transmission. Accordingly, we design an experimental setup consisting of a shield cavity photon mode, a microstrip line, and a magnon system to test our theoretical predictions. From measured transmission spectra, indirect interaction, as well as mode hybridization, between two modes can be observed. All experimental observations support our theoretical predictions. In this work we clarify the mechanism of traveling photon mediated interactions between two separate modes. Even without spatial mode overlap, two separated modes can still couple with each other through their correlated dissipations into a mutual traveling photon bus. This conclusion may help us understand the recently discovered dissipative coupling effect in cavity magnonics systems. Additionally, the physics and technique developed in this work may benefit us in designing new hybrid systems based on the waveguide magnonics.

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Engineered, highly controllable quantum systems are promising simulators of emergent physics beyond the simulation capabilities of classical computers¹. An important problem in many-body physics is itinerant magnetism, which originates purely from long-range interactions of free electrons and whose existence in real systems has been debated for decades^2,3. Here we use a quantum simulator consisting of a four-electron-site square plaquette of quantum dots⁴ to demonstrate Nagaoka ferromagnetism⁵. This form of itinerant magnetism has been rigorously studied theoretically^6–9 but has remained unattainable in experiments. We load the plaquette with three electrons and demonstrate the predicted emergence of spontaneous ferromagnetic correlations through pairwise measurements of spin. We find that the ferromagnetic ground state is remarkably robust to engineered disorder in the on-site potentials and we can induce a transition to the low-spin state by changing the plaquette topology to an open chain. This demonstration of Nagaoka ferromagnetism highlights that quantum simulators can be used to study physical phenomena that have not yet been observed in any experimental system. The work also constitutes an important step towards large-scale quantum dot simulators of correlated electron systems.

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Novel concepts enabling a resilient future power system and their subsequent experimental evaluation are experiencing a steadily growing challenge: large scale complexity and questionable scalability. The requirements on a research infrastructure (RI) to cope with the trends of such a dynamic system therefore grow in size, diversity and costs, making the feasibility of rigorous advancements questionable by a single RI. Analysis of large scale system complexity has been made possible by the real-time coupling of geographically separated RIs undertaking geographically distributed simulations (GDS), the concept of which brings the equipment, models and expertise of independent RIs, in combination, to optimally address the challenge. This article presents the outputs of IEEE PES Task Force on Interfacing Techniques for Simulation Tools towards standardization of GDS as a concept. First, the taxonomy for setups utilized for GDS is established followed by a comprehensive overview of the advancements in real-time couplings reported in literature. The overview encompasses fundamental technological design considerations for GDS. The article further presents four application oriented case studies (real-world implementations) where GDS setups have been utilized, demonstrating their practicality and potential in enabling the analysis of future complex power systems.

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ISO2394:2015 contains a new informative Annex D on “Reliability of Geotechnical Structures”. The emphasis in Annex D is to identify and characterize critical elements of the geotechnical reliability-based design (RBD) process, while respecting the diversity of geotechnical engineering practice arising from the influence of site-specific conditions. Annex D should pave the way for future code revisions to inject greater realism into geotechnical RBD. The most important element is the characterization of geotechnical variability. There are some noteworthy features: (1) the coefficient of variation (COV) of a geotechnical design parameter does not fall within a narrow range of values, (2) the multivariate nature of geotechnical data can be exploited to reduce the COV, (3) spatial variability affects the limit state beyond reduction in COV due to spatial averaging, and (4) statistical uncertainty may be significant, because the volume of soil sampled is a minute fraction of the volume of interest. Another important element is the characterization of model uncertainty. Geotechnical design codes, be it reliability-based or otherwise, must cater to diverse local site conditions and diverse local practices that grew and evolved over the years to suit these conditions. One obvious example is that the COVs of geotechnical parameters can vary over a wide range, because diverse property evaluation methodologies exist to cater to these diverse practice and site conditions. Another example is that deep foundations are typically installed in layered soil profiles that vary from site to site. These diverse site specific design scenarios do not surface in structural engineering. Section D.5.2 notes that reliability calibration for geotechnical RBD is more challenging for this reason.@en

The MultiScale Finite Volume (MSFV) method is known to produce non-monotone solutions. The causes of the non-monotone solutions are identified and connected to the local flux across the boundaries of primal coarse cells induced by the basis functions. We propose a monotone MSFV (m-MSFV) method based on a local stencil-fix that guarantees monotonicity of the coarse-scale operator, and thus, the resulting approximate fine-scale solution. Detection of non-physical transmissibility coefficients that lead to non-monotone solutions is achieved using local information only and is performed algebraically. For these ‘critical’ primal coarse-grid interfaces, a monotone local flux approximation, specifically, a Two-Point Flux Approximation (TPFA), is employed. Alternatively, a local linear boundary condition can be used for the dual basis functions to reduce the degree of non-monotonicity. The local nature of the two strategies allows for ensuring monotonicity in local sub-regions, where the non-physical transmissibility occurs. For practical applications, an adaptive approach based on normalized positive off-diagonal coarse-scale transmissibility coefficients is developed. Based on the histogram of these normalized coefficients, one can remove the large peaks by applying the proposed modifications only for a small fraction of the primal coarse grids. Though the m-MSFV approach can guarantee monotonicity of the solutions to any desired level, numerical results illustrate that employing the m-MSFV modifications only for a small fraction of the domain can significantly reduce the non-monotonicity of the conservative MSFV solutions. © 2015, The Author(s).@en

An integrated model for line planning and train scheduling based on the circulation of trains is proposed to reduce passenger dissatisfaction and operation costs for an urban rail transit line. The turnaround operations of trains and their departures from and arrivals at the depot were included in this model. Furthermore, binary variables were introduced to indicate whether train service existed, and a discrete event model was used to determine the order of the train services. In addition, a bi-level optimization approach is proposed to solve the integrated line-planning and train-scheduling problem, in which the number of required train services, the headways between train services, the departure times, and the arrival times were optimized simultaneously on the basis of passenger demand. The performance of the proposed integrated model and bi-level approach is illustrated with a case study of the Beijing Yizhuang line.@en