Hasil untuk "Communities. Classes. Races"

Wolfgang Kuhle

We study the conditions under which technological advances, in combination with a lognormal wage distribution, incentivize agents into an inefficient educational arms race. Our model emphasizes that lognormal wage distributions imply that agents' wages increase exponentially in the level of their skill as well as in the level of technology. In turn, this exponential relation between skills, technology, and wages pressures agents into an exhausting race for the tails of the economy's skill distribution. Moreover, technological advances and overinvestment in education increase GDP and inequality, while welfare may decline. In an alternative interpretation, our model studies firms that invest in artificial intelligence of their chatbots and AI agents. For a wide range of specifications, firms, just like humans, have an incentive to choose corner solutions where investment is limited only by borrowing constraints.

Yongsheng Liu, Neng Wang, Tao Kuang et al.

As a core component of the lock filling and emptying system, the operational performance of the valve significantly influences the efficiency and safety of navigation locks. To elucidate the mechanical mechanisms during valve operation, this study investigates the valve structure of the Hongjiang hub under high head conditions. A combined approach of numerical simulation and scale experiment was employed to examine both the mechanical response and hydrodynamic behaviors of the valve. (1) Numerical results indicate the stress concentration is easy to occur in the center of the bottom panel of the valve, which causes the structural displacement. Structural checks confirm that both stress and displacement remain within the allowable design limits, demonstrating the structural adequacy of the valve. The valve’s natural frequency is substantially higher than the dominant energy range of flow-induced excitations, suggesting a low likelihood of severe vibration. (2) Experimental investigations were conducted to evaluate the valve’s hydrodynamic characteristics. Pressure fluctuations on the valve surface were found to be strongly correlated with the valve opening. At small openings, the valve body lies within a high-velocity jet zone formed by the gap between the valve and the sill, resulting in pronounced pressure fluctuations. As the opening increases, the valve body shifts into the valve chamber, and measured pressures become more stable, with reduced fluctuation amplitudes. (3) During the opening process, the opening force initially increases and then decreases, with a peak value of approximately 200 kN. In contrast, the closing force during valve closure follows a “decrease–increase–decrease” trend, reaching a minimum of around −150 kN. (4) Un-der emergency closure conditions at an opening ratio of n = 0.3, the hydrodynamic load coefficient peaks at approximately 1.22. The effect of the valve opening speed on the dynamic load is found to be negligible. The findings provide theoretical insights and practical guidance for the design and manufacture of lock valves operating under high head conditions.

Foluke Oladunni Jegede, Chiagozie Mitchelle Enwonwu

The success of any architectural space depends on how users perceive and experience it, particularly in arts and cultural centres, which serve as hubs for cultural expression, engagement, and tourism. These centres must reflect local architectural identity to ensure long-term cultural relevance and contribute meaningfully to sustainability goals. This study examines users’ perceptions of the benefits of neo-vernacular architecture in selected arts and cultural centres in Lagos, addressing a gap in comparative evaluations through a quantitative analysis of perceived contributions to cultural, environmental, economic, and social sustainability. Out of 120 distributed questionnaires, 110 valid responses were collected across three centres: John Randle Centre, Terra Kulture, and KAP Hub. Data analysis using the Kruskal–Wallis H test and descriptive statistics revealed that while users generally perceive neo-vernacular architecture as beneficial across cultural, economic, environmental and social dimensions, variation exists in how these benefits are expressed across contexts. The findings highlight the need to align traditional architectural expression with sustainability, with future research incorporating objective performance metrics to complement perception-based insights.

Saurabh Rane

Formula 1 performance is a combination of the car's ability and the driver's ability. While a given race or season can tell you how well a car and driver performed jointly, isolating the individual impact of the driver and constructor remains challenging. This paper extends a Regularized Adjusted Plus Minus (RAPM) methodology (Sill 2010), commonly used in basketball and hockey, to parse out individual driver and constructor impact. It employs a time-decayed ridge regression with LOESS (Jacoby 2000) smoothing to predict race results for the Hybrid Engine Era (2014 - 2024). By measuring the constructor and driver coefficients over time, we measure the relative individual impact of driver and constructor throughout the period. Results show that constructors explain 64.0% of the variance in race outcomes in the Hybrid Engine Era. Additionally, constructors have increased importance in benchmarked rank-agnostic cohorts (e.g., Top 10 points finishers) and decreased importance in qualifying. By decomposing performance into individual driver and constructor metrics, we create a robust framework for inter-constructor driver comparisons that the Formula 1 points system obfuscates. Our work enhances the understanding of driver and constructor contributions to race success, offering valuable insights for strategic decision-making in Formula 1.

Shu-Jie Cao, Dongning Guo

This paper studies proof-of-work Nakamoto consensus protocols under bounded network delays, settling two long-standing questions in blockchain security: What is the most effective attack on block safety under a given block confirmation latency? And what is the resulting probability of safety violation? A Markov decision process (MDP) framework is introduced to precisely characterize the system state (including the blocktree and timings of all blocks mined), the adversary's potential actions, and the state transitions due to the adversarial action and the random block arrival processes. An optimal attack, called bait-and-switch, is proposed and proved to maximize the adversary's chance of violating block safety by "beating Nakamoto in the race". The exact probability of this violation is calculated for any given confirmation depth using Markov chain analysis, offering fresh insights into the interplay of network delay, confirmation rules, and blockchain security.

Endra Wijaya, Cipta Indralestari Rachman, Diani Kesuma et al.

Kesadaran hukum masyarakat desa dapat dibina melalui pelatihan paralegal yang melibatkan warga desa dan aparat pemerintah desa sebagai pesertanya. Kesadaran hukum merupakan unsur yang penting dalam proses penegakan hukum. Artikel ini memaparkan mengenai kegiatan pengabdian kepada masyarakat dalam bentuk pelatihan paralegal yang diselenggarakan oleh Fakultas Hukum Universitas Pancasila bekerja sama dengan beberapa lembaga negara serta pemerintah, dan juga lembaga swadaya masyarakat. Para peserta pelatihan paralegal ini ialah warga masyarakat dan perangkat pemerintah Desa Karang Suraga dan Desa Bulakan, Provinsi Banten. Simpulan yang dapat diambil ialah bahwa pelatihan paralegal merupakan program yang penting bagi upaya menumbuhkembangkan pemahaman, kesadaran serta keterampilan masyarakat di bidang hukum. Melalui pelatihan paralegal, masyarakat dan aparat desa dibekali pemahaman mengenai hukum yang kelak dapat mereka manfaatkan untuk merespons dan menyelesaikan problem hukum yang mereka hadapi sehari-hari.

Libertad Fresia Figueroa Ezzatti

En nuestro país el tema de la vejez en la mujer no ha sido lo suficientemente abordado por estudios que se dediquen exclusivamente a la temática y en lo relativo a la construcción de la identidad de género en la mujer adulta mayor hasta el momento no existen estudios que aborden la materia. Esta motivación convoca a estudiar a las mujeres mayores y específicamente conocer cómo ellas apropian las nuevas pautas de vida de la mujer actual o si continúan enfrentando la vida dentro y fuera de su hogar tal como lo hacían en su juventud. De este modo esta investigación busca conocer las transformaciones en la identidad de género de las mujeres adultas mayores en función de las representaciones sociales de género. Los resultados de este estudio muestran que las mujeres mayores en Chile viven un proceso de apropiación de los cambios en las representaciones sociales de género, siendo el más importante de ellos aprovechar la conquista del espacio público que lograron ellas en su juventud y continúan haciendo las mujeres en la actualidad.

Abdelghani Belgaid

This study examines the effects of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations on Formula 1 (F1) from 1990 to 2023, focusing on safety, racing dynamics, and spectacle. By analyzing data on fatalities, overtaking statistics, car weights, and significant regulatory changes, including aerodynamic modifications and the introduction of the Drag Reduction System (DRS), the study assesses whether these regulations have positively influenced safety while negatively impacting racing dynamics and spectacle. The findings reveal that while FIA regulations aim to enhance driver safety, their immediate association with fatalities is not statistically significant due to the rarity of such incidents, delayed safety effects, and methodological constraints. Contrary to initial concerns, regulations have not negatively affected overtaking opportunities. The introduction of DRS has improved overtaking, mitigating some adverse impacts of other regulations on racing excitement. The study concludes that data-driven evaluation and refinement of regulations are necessary to ensure they continue to benefit the sport holistically.

James Bockman, Matthew Howe, Adrian Orenstein et al.

Autonomous racing demands safe control of vehicles at their physical limits for extended periods of time, providing insights into advanced vehicle safety systems which increasingly rely on intervention provided by vehicle autonomy. Participation in this field carries with it a high barrier to entry. Physical platforms and their associated sensor suites require large capital outlays before any demonstrable progress can be made. Simulators allow researches to develop soft autonomous systems without purchasing a platform. However, currently available simulators lack visual and dynamic fidelity, can still be expensive to buy, lack customisation, and are difficult to use. AARK provides three packages, ACI, ACDG, and ACMPC. These packages enable research into autonomous control systems in the demanding environment of racing to bring more people into the field and improve reproducibility: ACI provides researchers with a computer vision-friendly interface to Assetto Corsa for convenient comparison and evaluation of autonomous control solutions; ACDG enables generation of depth, normal and semantic segmentation data for training computer vision models to use in perception systems; and ACMPC gives newcomers to the field a modular full-stack autonomous control solution, capable of controlling vehicles to build from. AARK aims to unify and democratise research into a field critical to providing safer roads and trusted autonomous systems.

Dvij Kalaria, Chinmay Maheshwari, Shankar Sastry

Autonomous racing extends beyond the challenge of controlling a racecar at its physical limits. Professional racers employ strategic maneuvers to outwit other competing opponents to secure victory. While modern control algorithms can achieve human-level performance by computing offline racing lines for single-car scenarios, research on real-time algorithms for multi-car autonomous racing is limited. To bridge this gap, we develop game-theoretic modeling framework that incorporates the competitive aspect of autonomous racing like overtaking and blocking through a novel policy parametrization, while operating the car at its limit. Furthermore, we propose an algorithmic approach to compute the (approximate) Nash equilibrium strategy, which represents the optimal approach in the presence of competing agents. Specifically, we introduce an algorithm inspired by recently introduced framework of dynamic near-potential function, enabling real-time computation of the Nash equilibrium. Our approach comprises two phases: offline and online. During the offline phase, we use simulated racing data to learn a near-potential function that approximates utility changes for agents. This function facilitates the online computation of approximate Nash equilibria by maximizing its value. We evaluate our method in a head-to-head 3-car racing scenario, demonstrating superior performance compared to several existing baselines.

Vittorio Cataffo, Giuseppe Silano, Luigi Iannelli et al.

A Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) strategy aimed at controlling a small-scale car model for autonomous racing competitions is presented in this paper. The proposed control strategy is concerned with minimizing the lap time while keeping the vehicle within track boundaries. The optimization problem considers both the vehicle's actuation limits and the lateral and longitudinal forces acting on the car modeled through the Pacejka's magic formula and a simple drivetrain model. Furthermore, the approach allows to safely race on a track populated by static obstacles generating collision-free trajectories and tracking them while enhancing the lap timing performance. Gazebo simulations using the F1/10 simulator showcase the feasibility and validity of the proposed control strategy. The code is released as open-source making it possible to replicate the obtained results.

Isabel Munoz, Pyeonghwa Kim, Clea O'Neil et al.

We contribute empirical and conceptual insights regarding the roles of digital labor platforms in online freelancing, focusing attention to social identities such as gender, race, ethnicity, and occupation. Findings highlight how digital labor platforms reinforce and exacerbate identity-based stereotypes, bias and expectations in online freelance work. We focus on online freelancing as this form of working arrangement is becoming more prevalent. Online freelancing also relies on the market-making power of digital platforms to create an online labor market. Many see this as one likely future of work with less bias. Others worry that labor platforms' market power allows them to embed known biases into new working arrangements: a platformization of inequality. Drawing on data from 108 online freelancers, we discuss six findings: 1) female freelance work is undervalued; 2) gendered occupational expectations; 3) gendered treatment; 4) shared expectations of differential values; 5) racial stereotypes and expectations; and 6) race and ethnicity as an asset. We discuss the role of design in the platformization and visibility of social identity dimensions and the implications of the reinforced identity perceptions and marginalization in digital labor platforms.

Deborah Balk, Deborah Balk, Daniela Tagtachian et al.

Cities are at the forefront of climate change action and planning for futures that are concomitantly more resilient and equitable, making local goals imperative for global sustainability. Under the multiple challenges of changing climatic, ecological and socio-economic conditions, cities need the means to meet these goals. We know cities are and will continue to be points of concentrated and diverse populations, socioeconomic vulnerability, amplified exposure, transformed ecosystems and are responsible for the bulk of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, much is also unknown and intrinsically uncertain about urban futures: there is a range of potential plausible futures which have differing implications for both potential mitigation and adaptation actions. To better assess these plausible futures, the “global change” research community developed a framework including scenarios that are applicable for global and regional policy, entitled the Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs) and scenarios exploring future emissions that will drive climate change, entitled Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs). Importantly, this global scale framework does not include specific city-level perspectives or data at the spatial scales necessary to address questions of local relevance. While the SSPs address many of the key population and socioeconomic drivers of climate change, they do not address important concerns that are particularly relevant to cities, such as racial justice, ecosystem change or migration. Nevertheless, city-level impacts will evolve, in part, as a function of the global scale change characterized by the SSPs, and in part based on demographic and social processes already underway. As such, applying a modification of this framework to cities has the potential to help limit local climate impacts, and create a more resilient, equitable city. To address these needs and respond to city and regional stakeholders, we propose a framework for science-based narratives and quantitative projections for cities and metropolitan areas, such as Greater New York City. In this paper, we review a wide-range of existing approaches to generate estimates of future populations and identify their vulnerabilities to climate-change hazards, ranging from subnational population projections or the spatially-explicit allocation of populations linked to SSPs for the US and selected cities, city-specific population forecasting without climate considerations, and participatory approaches to future scenario development and fine-scale, within-city land use change models. By showcasing the strengths and limitations of various approaches and modeling efforts, their spatial and temporal scales, and thematic breadth, we propose a novel framework that leverages state-of-the art quantitative approaches and couples it with stakeholder engagement that can help cities plan equitably under uncertainty.

Anna Zoodsma, Mary Jo Dudley, Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern

This article looks at the United States’ federal H-2A Temporary Agricultural Visa Program and reforms proposed by the Farm Workforce Mod­ernization Act. In this policy analysis, we draw on media content analysis and qualitative inter­views to compare the viewpoints of farmers, workers, grower and worker advocacy groups, intermediary agents, and politicians. We find that perspectives on the program are dependent upon actors’ level of direct interaction with workers. Moderate-sized farmers and regionally based worker advocacy groups tend to be the most concerned with day-to-day program operations and fair working condi­tions. In contrast, national-level advocacy groups, intermediary agents, and politi­cians are less critical of the program and seek to broadly expand farmer access to guestworkers, justifying proposed pro­gram reforms with dis­courses of national food security and immigration reform. Ultimately, we suggest that engaging a food systems lens to under­stand these policies provides a more nuanced per­spective, addressing national food security and immigration as related issues.

Tatyana M. Maleva , Marina A. Kartseva , Polina O. Kuznetsova

Неравенство доходов, обусловленное неравенством возможностей, может приводить к замедлению экономического развития и социальной нестабильности. В работе проводится анализ неравенства возможностей в трех регионах России (Москва, Ставропольский край, Челябинская область). Для каждого региона получены оценки вклада неравенства возможностей в неравенство доходов (объективные оценки), а также проанализировано субъективное восприятие неравенства возможностей населением (субъективные оценки). Проведено сопоставление объективных показателей неравенства возможностей на уровне регионов и на национальном уровне. Важным направлением работы является анализ соответствия субъективного восприятия неравенства возможностей населением региона его объективным оценкам. Эмпирической базой исследования являются данные специализированного социологического обследования населения, проведенного РАНХиГС в 2019 г. В работе используются методы, обеспечивающие сопоставимость наших оценок с результатами, полученными в работах российских и зарубежных ученых. На региональном уровне вклад неравенства возможностей в трудовые доходы составляет 9–12 %, а в среднедушевые — 7–13 % , что заметно ниже общенациональных оценок, полученных в более ранних исследованиях. Мы объясняем это, в частности, наличием в России существенного межрегионального неравенства. Интегральный индекс субъективного восприятия неравенства возможностей, построенный на базе информации о восприятии населением различных факторов достижения успеха, показывает, что 14–20 % населения в регионах оценивают проблему неравенства возможностей как важную или очень важную, а 6–11 % — как очень важную. С помощью регрессионного анализа факторов субъективного неравенства возможностей в работе показано, что высокий уровень образования и самооценки собственного материального положения снижает остроту восприятия неравенства возможностей. Значительных региональных различий выявлено не было — восприятие неравенства в большей степени определяется не местом проживания, а индивидуальными характеристиками респондентов. Объективные и субъективные оценки регионального неравенства возможностей заметно различаются, что согласуется с выводами международных исследований. Например, в Ставропольском крае восприятие неравенства возможностей выше, чем в других регионах, а объективная оценка вклада неравенства возможностей, наоборот, ниже. 

Soumya Vasisht, Shushman Choudhury, Nawaf Nazir et al.

We apply Bayesian Linear Regression to estimate the response rate of drivers to variable message signs at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, or SEA. Our approach uses vehicle speed and flow data measured at the entrances of the arrival and departure-ways of the airport terminal, and sign message data. Depending on the time of day, we estimate that between 5.5 and 9.1\% of drivers divert from departures to arrivals when the sign reads "departures full, use arrivals", and conversely, between 1.9 and 4.2\% of drivers divert from arrivals to departures. Though we lack counterfactual data (i.e., what would have happened had the diversionary treatment not been active), adopting a causal model that encodes time dependency with prior distributions rate can yield a measurable effect.

Zirui Zang, Renukanandan Tumu, Johannes Betz et al.

The 3rd Japan Automotive AI Challenge was an international online autonomous racing challenge where 164 teams competed in December 2021. This paper outlines the winning strategy to this competition, and the advantages and challenges of using the Autoware.Auto open source autonomous driving platform for multi-agent racing. Our winning approach includes a lane-switching opponent overtaking strategy, a global raceline optimization, and the integration of various tools from Autoware.Auto including a Model-Predictive Controller. We describe the use of perception, planning and control modules for high-speed racing applications and provide experience-based insights on working with Autoware.Auto. While our approach is a rule-based strategy that is suitable for non-interactive opponents, it provides a good reference and benchmark for learning-enabled approaches.

Julian von Schleinitz, Thomas Schwarzhuber, Lukas Wörle et al.

Professional race drivers are still superior to automated systems at controlling a vehicle at its dynamic limit. Gaining insight into race drivers' vehicle handling process might lead to further development in the areas of automated driving systems. We present a method to study and evaluate race drivers on a driver-in-the-loop simulator by analysing tire grip potential exploitation. Given initial data from a simulator run, two optimiser based on physical models maximise the horizontal vehicle acceleration or the tire forces, respectively. An overall performance score, a vehicle-trajectory score and a handling score are introduced to evaluate drivers. Our method is thereby completely track independent and can be used from one single corner up to a large data set. We apply the proposed method to a motorsport data set containing over 1200 laps from seven professional race drivers and two amateur drivers whose lap times are 10-20% slower. The difference to the professional drivers comes mainly from their inferior handling skills and not their choice of driving line. A downside of the presented method for certain applications is an extensive computation time. Therefore, we propose a Long-short-term memory (LSTM) neural network to estimate the driver evaluation scores. We show that the neural network is accurate and robust with a root-mean-square error between 2-5% and can replace the optimisation based method. The time for processing the data set considered in this work is reduced from 68 hours to 12 seconds, making the neural network suitable for real-time application.

Armand Vokshi, Elfrida Shehu, Sokol Dervishi

Abstract Heritage conservation provides economic, cultural and social benefits to urban communities. The building conservation role has changed from preservation to being part of a broader strategy for urban regeneration process and sustainable development. Heritage buildings are vital in for transferring the cultural identity for upcoming generations. Where heritage buildings can no longer function with its original use, proposing a new function is necessary to preserve the significance of the heritage building. This study aims to explore the fascinating dialogue between totalitarian regimes introduced in two museums adapted within the anti-nuclear bunkers in Tirana. The architectural projects of the museum aim to preserve the identity of their interior. While the careful architectural intervention is necessary to create the atmosphere of totalitarian ideology, in many cases we have to do with the continuity of existing architectural and urban elements in these particular projects. The work explores two museums, BuncArt 1 and BunkArt 2, quite interesting reflection of the parts of history, during the years of world wars and the period of dictatorship of communism, with the facilities and elements exhibited there. In the meantime, thereafter, one can speak of a longer period for the period of the communist regime extending from 1945 to 1990. The impact of communist ideology, coming from the communist bloc of the East, also affects architecture and urban studies in Albania. In some respects, we have a silent follow-up to the monumental interventions that were made before the end of World War II. Another important element was the radical intervention in the bunkers in the territory and in the cities. Their quantity is considered with an amount of 700 thousand pieces. They were different in size and were seen more as defence-related parts rather than as a direct link to the new realist-socialist architecture. The return of some of them to the exhibition space was a good step to revitalize them. Currently they have been transformed into successful tourist attractions. Visitors come to perceive three important elements: (1) attractive military engineering, carried out in contrast to the challenges of the time, (2) the suffocating atmosphere during the communist dictatorship, which required extreme safeguards, (3) elements and historical facts of the World War period, as important elements during the Cold War. An ambitious third project, which is expected to be implemented in the future, is the conversion of the Pashaliman Naval Base in Vlora into another important military museum. This port was originally set up by mid-Fifties, by Russian troops, to have control over the Adriatic. The port is currently part of the military, thought to turn into a strong tourist pole.

Kurtis Haut, Caleb Wohn, Victor Antony et al.

Computer mediated conversations (e.g., videoconferencing) is now the new mainstream media. How would credibility be impacted if one could change their race on the fly in these environments? We propose an approach using Deepfakes and a supporting GAN architecture to isolate visual features and alter racial perception. We then crowd-sourced over 800 survey responses to measure how credibility was influenced by changing the perceived race. We evaluate the effect of showing a still image of a Black person versus a still image of a White person using the same audio clip for each survey. We also test the effect of showing either an original video or an altered video where the appearance of the person in the original video is modified to appear more White. We measure credibility as the percent of participant responses who believed the speaker was telling the truth. We found that changing the race of a person in a static image has negligible impact on credibility. However, the same manipulation of race on a video increases credibility significantly (61\% to 73\% with p $<$ 0.05). Furthermore, a VADER sentiment analysis over the free response survey questions reveals that more positive sentiment is used to justify the credibility of a White individual in a video.