How Do Test Takers Interact With Simulation-Based Tasks? A Response-Time Perspective

Many traditional educational assessments use multiple-choice items and constructed-response items to measure fundamental skills. Virtual performance assessments, such as game- or simulation-based assessments, are designed recently in the field of educational measurement to measure more integrated skills through the test takers’ interactive behaviors within an assessment in a virtual environment. This paper presents a systematic timing study based on data collected from a simulation-based task designed recently at Educational Testing Service. The study is intended to understand the response times in complex simulation-based tasks so as to shed light on possible ways of leveraging response time information in designing, assembling, and scoring of simulation-based tasks. To achieve this objective, a series of five analyses were conducted to first understand the statistical properties of the timing data, and then investigate the relationship between the timing patterns and the test takers’ performance on the items/task, demographics, motivation level, personality, and test-taking behaviors through use of different statistical approaches. We found that the five analyses complemented each other and revealed different useful timing aspects of this test-taker sample’s behavioral features in the simulation-based task. The findings were also compared with notable existing results in the literature related to timing data

Human Settlement Resilience Zoning and Optimizing Strategies for River-Network Cities under Flood Risk Management Objectives: Taking Yueyang City as an Example

The dense river network and large population in the southern region of China are vulnerable to flooding stress, which challenges the construction of human settlements. This paper analyzes the causes of flood risk and the dilemma of human settlement improvement in river-network cities, introduces the principle of resilience to human settlements, and conducts a quantitative study on the resilience of human settlements in river-network cities with the goal of flood risk management. Taking Yueyang city, a river-network city in the Yangtze River Basin, as the empirical research object, we conduct a flood resilience zoning of the human settlements based on the flood risk assessment model and use the GIS spatial overlay method to correct the resilience of the current human living space against the territorial spatial planning of Yueyang city. Ultimately, we propose a strategy for optimizing human settlements under flood risk management. The results show that (1) the highest-risk and high-risk areas of Yueyang city were mainly located in Dongting Lake and its interconnected water system, the southwest local area and the southeastern fringe, while the low-risk and lowest-risk areas were mainly located in the northeast local area and the northwestern fringe, with low flood stress risk. (2) The spatial system of human settlement resilience was constructed based on the flood risk assessment level. Among them, the human settlement flood resilience zoning of Yueyang city was divided into five categories from low to high: human settlement control zone, restriction zone, buffer zone, construction zone and expansion zone; the flood resilience zoning of Yueyang city’s current living space was divided into three categories from low to high: structure adjustment zone, flood restriction zone and development stability zone. (3) The specific control implementation and execution of the human settlements in Yueyang city mainly focus on the interrelationship between the risk of flooding in the watershed and the development of human activities through zoning regulation and collaborative management to optimize the human settlements. The study results can provide positive intervention and guidance for constructing urban and rural territorial spatial prevention planning and improving human living quality in river-network cities in China

Temporal-spatial variation and regulatory mechanism of carbon budgets in territorial space through the lens of carbon balance: A case of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River urban agglomerations, China

As China’s largest cross-regional urban agglomerations, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River urban agglomerations (MRYRUA) possess both significant societal carbon source volume and ecological carbon sequestration capacity. Nevertheless, with the uncontrolled expansion of urban energy consumption activities and the industry migration from eastern coastal regions to inland cities, the carbon budget pattern of territorial space is increasingly unbalanced in the MRYRUA. To achieve low-carbon regulation, this study utilized land use and energy consumption data from 31 cities within the MRYRUA to establish a “carbon source-carbon sink” quantification and spatiotemporal exploration model, revealing the spatial-temporal variation of carbon budgets from 2005 to 2020. Furthermore, we developed a carbon balance indicator analysis system by employing the carbon offset rate (COR), carbon productivity (CP), Gini coefficient, ecological support coefficient (ESC), economic contribution coefficient (ECC), and functional zoning was performed. Finally, using the GM (1,1) model, we derived the carbon budget pattern for 2050 and explored the differentiated regulatory mechanisms under the carbon balance perspective. The results indicated that: (1) The MRYRUA’s territorial carbon budgets have increased annually, displaying a spatial distribution pattern with the highest values in the central region, followed by the northwest, and the lowest in the southeast near water bodies. The spatiotemporal differentiation effects manifest as an east–west axial development trend, with spatiotemporal clustering effects demonstrating a propensity for outward dispersion from the northern hot spot radiation core. (2) The MRYRUA’s COR has consistently remained below 10% and decreased annually, while the CP has shown a yearly increase at an accelerating rate. The ESC and ECC exhibit evident spatial heterogeneity among cities. In response to the carbon emission economic benefits and carbon sequestration ecological carrying capacity reflected by carbon balance indicators, each city was classified into low-carbon economic zones, carbon intensity control zones, carbon sink functional zones, and high-carbon optimization zones. (3) From 2020 to 2050, the polarization trend of the carbon budget pattern continues to intensify. Subsequently, we have established a differentiated territorial spatial carbon balance regulatory mechanism. This mechanism strengthens the leading role of low-carbon economic zones in the green low-carbon transition, moderately retains the carbon sink functional zones in the southeast with solid carbon fixation capabilities, and promotes the transition of the northern carbon intensity control zones and high-carbon optimization zones to low-carbon economic zones. The research findings provide a scientific basis for formulating territorial spatial planning policies from a carbon neutrality perspective

A Method for Evaluating the Rock Breaking Efficiency of Cutters and Optimizing the PDC Cutter Profile—A Study of Igneous Rock Formations in Shunbei Oilfield

The Permian igneous rock in Shunbei Oilfield exhibits high rock strength, which results in a low rate of penetration (ROP) and shortens the cutter’s service life. It is necessary to analyze and evaluate the rock breaking effect of cutters. However, at this stage, the evaluation of the rock breaking effect has been limited to comparing the sizes of the mechanical specific energy (MSE), and the change in the rock breaking efficiency caused by the difference in the shape of the cutters’ surface has not been considered. Therefore, through the establishment of numerical simulation models of a circular cutter, bevel cutter, axe cutter, wedge cutter, and triangular cutter, the evaluation of the rock breaking efficiency of special-shaped cutters was completed. The results show that the triangular cutter and the wedge cutter are suitable for the front row cutter of the polycrystalline diamond compact bit (PDC); the triangular cutter is suitable for drilling into medium–hard formations, the wedge cutter is suitable for drilling into hard formations, and the bevel cutter is suitable for the back row cutter of the PDC, to assist other cutters in the process of rock breaking. The research results can provide the basis for the selection of PDC bit cutters and the design optimization of the bit

A Method for Evaluating the Rock Breaking Efficiency of Cutters and Optimizing the PDC Cutter Profile—A Study of Igneous Rock Formations in Shunbei Oilfield

The Permian igneous rock in Shunbei Oilfield exhibits high rock strength, which results in a low rate of penetration (ROP) and shortens the cutter’s service life. It is necessary to analyze and evaluate the rock breaking effect of cutters. However, at this stage, the evaluation of the rock breaking effect has been limited to comparing the sizes of the mechanical specific energy (MSE), and the change in the rock breaking efficiency caused by the difference in the shape of the cutters’ surface has not been considered. Therefore, through the establishment of numerical simulation models of a circular cutter, bevel cutter, axe cutter, wedge cutter, and triangular cutter, the evaluation of the rock breaking efficiency of special-shaped cutters was completed. The results show that the triangular cutter and the wedge cutter are suitable for the front row cutter of the polycrystalline diamond compact bit (PDC); the triangular cutter is suitable for drilling into medium–hard formations, the wedge cutter is suitable for drilling into hard formations, and the bevel cutter is suitable for the back row cutter of the PDC, to assist other cutters in the process of rock breaking. The research results can provide the basis for the selection of PDC bit cutters and the design optimization of the bit

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field