One-dimensional modelling of mixing, dispersion and segregation of multiphase fluids flowing in pipelines

The flow of immiscible liquids in pipelines has been studied in this work in order to formulate a one-dimensional model for the computer analysis of two-phase liquid-liquid flow in horizontal pipes. The model simplifies the number of flow patterns commonly encountered in liquid-liquid flow to stratified flow, fully dispersed flow and partial dispersion with the formation of one or two different emulsions. The model is based on the solution of continuity equations for dispersed and continuous phase; correlations available in the literature are used for the calculation of the maximum and mean dispersed phase drop diameter, the emulsion viscosity, the phase inversion point, the liquid-wall friction factors, liquid-liquid friction factors at interface and the slip velocity between the phases. In absence of validated models for entrainment and deposition in liquid-liquid flow, two entrainment rate correlations and two deposition models originally developed for gas-liquid flow have been adapted to liquid-liquid flow. The model was applied to the flow of oil and water; the predicted flow regimes have been presented as a function of the input water fraction and mixture velocity and compared with experimental results, showing an overall good agreement between calculation and experiments. Calculated values of oil-in-water and water-in-oil dispersed fractions were compared against experimental data for different oil and water superficial velocities, input water fractions and mixture velocities. Pressure losses calculated in the full developed flow region of the pipe, a crucial quantity in industrial applications, are reasonably close to measured values. Discrepancies and possible improvements of the model are also discussed. The model for two-phase flow was extended to three-phase liquid-liquid-gas flow within the framework of the two-fluid model. The two liquid phases were treated as a unique liquid phase with properly averaged properties. The model for three-phase flow thus developed was implemented in an existing research code for the simulation of three-phase slug flow with the formation of emulsions in the liquid phase and phase inversion phenomena. Comparisons with experimental data are presented

The Role of Ontogeny in the Evolution of Human Cooperation

To explain the evolutionary emergence of uniquely human skills and motivations for cooperation, Tomasello et al. (2012, in Current Anthropology 53(6):673–92) proposed the interdependence hypothesis. The key adaptive context in this account was the obligate collaborative foraging of early human adults. Hawkes (2014, in Human Nature 25(1):28–48), following Hrdy (Mothers and Others, Harvard University Press, 2009), provided an alternative account for the emergence of uniquely human cooperative skills in which the key was early human infants’ attempts to solicit care and attention from adults in a cooperative breeding context. Here we attempt to reconcile these two accounts. Our composite account accepts Hrdy’s and Hawkes’s contention that the extremely early emergence of human infants’ cooperative skills suggests an important role for cooperative breeding as adaptive context, perhaps in early Homo. But our account also insists that human cooperation goes well beyond these nascent skills to include such things as the communicative and cultural conventions, norms, and institutions created by later Homo and early modern humans to deal with adult problems of social coordination. As part of this account we hypothesize how each of the main stages of human ontogeny (infancy, childhood, adolescence) was transformed during evolution both by infants’ cooperative skills “migrating up” in age and by adults’ cooperative skills “migrating down” in age

Three-year-olds' understanding of the consequences of joint commitments

No external funding has supported the current work.Here we investigate the extent of children's understanding of the joint commitments inherent in joint activities. Three-year-old children either made a joint commitment to assemble a puzzle with a puppet partner, or else the child and puppet each assembled their own puzzle. Afterwards, children who had made the joint commitment were more likely to stop and wait for their partner on their way to fetch something, more likely to spontaneously help their partner when needed, and more likely to take over their partner's role when necessary. There was no clear difference in children's tendency to tattle on their partner's cheating behavior or their tendency to distribute rewards equally at the end. It thus appears that by 3 years of age making a joint commitment to act together with others is beginning to engender in children a "we"-intentionality which holds across at least most of the process of the joint activity until the shared goal is achieved, and which withstands at least some of the perturbations to the joint activity children experience.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Do domestic dogs learn words based on humans’ referential behaviour?

Some domestic dogs learn to comprehend human words, although the nature and basis of this learning is unknown. In the studies presented here we investigated whether dogs learn words through an understanding of referential actions by humans rather than simple association. In three studies, each modelled on a study conducted with human infants, we confronted four word-experienced dogs with situations involving no spatial-temporal contiguity between the word and the referent; the only available cues were referential actions displaced in time from exposure to their referents. We found that no dogs were able to reliably link an object with a label based on social-pragmatic cues alone in all the tests. However, one dog did show skills in some tests, possibly indicating an ability to learn based on social-pragmatic cues

Rapid learning of an abstract language-specific category: Polish children's acquisition of the instrumental construction

Rapid acquisition of linguistic categories or constructions is sometimes regarded as evidence of innate knowledge. In this paper, we examine Polish children's early understanding of an idiosyncratic, language-specific construction involving the instrumental case – which could not be due to innate knowledge. Thirty Polish-speaking children aged 2 ; 6 and 3 ; 2 participated in a elicited production experiment with novel verbs that were demonstrated as taking nouns in the instrumental case as patients. Children heard the verbs in sentences with either masculine or feminine nouns (which take different endings in the instrumental case), and were tested with new nouns of the same and of the opposite gender. In both age groups, a substantial majority of children succeeded in generalizing from one gendered form of the instrumental case to the other (especially to the masculine), thus indicating that they have some kind of abstract understanding of the instrumental case in this construction. This relatively early abstract knowledge of an idiosyncratic construction casts doubt on the view that early acquisition requires innate linguistic knowledge

Modeling the formation of R\&D alliances: An agent-based model with empirical validation

We develop an agent-based model to reproduce the size distribution of R\&D alliances of firms. Agents are uniformly selected to initiate an alliance and to invite collaboration partners. These decide about acceptance based on an individual threshold that is compared with the utility expected from joining the current alliance. The benefit of alliances results from the fitness of the agents involved. Fitness is obtained from an empirical distribution of agent's activities. The cost of an alliance reflects its coordination effort. Two free parameters $a_{c}$ and $a_{l}$ scale the costs and the individual threshold. If initiators receive $R$ rejections of invitations, the alliance formation stops and another initiator is selected. The three free parameters $(a_{c},a_{l},R)$ are calibrated against a large scale data set of about 15,000 firms engaging in about 15,000 R\&D alliances over 26 years. For the validation of the model we compare the empirical size distribution with the theoretical one, using confidence bands, to find a very good agreement. As an asset of our agent-based model, we provide an analytical solution that allows to reduce the simulation effort considerably. The analytical solution applies to general forms of the utility of alliances. Hence, the model can be extended to other cases of alliance formation. While no information about the initiators of an alliance is available, our results indicate that mostly firms with high fitness are able to attract newcomers and to establish larger alliances

Data-driven modeling of collaboration networks: A cross-domain analysis

We analyze large-scale data sets about collaborations from two different domains: economics, specifically 22.000 R&D alliances between 14.500 firms, and science, specifically 300.000 co-authorship relations between 95.000 scientists. Considering the different domains of the data sets, we address two questions: (a) to what extent do the collaboration networks reconstructed from the data share common structural features, and (b) can their structure be reproduced by the same agent-based model. In our data-driven modeling approach we use aggregated network data to calibrate the probabilities at which agents establish collaborations with either newcomers or established agents. The model is then validated by its ability to reproduce network features not used for calibration, including distributions of degrees, path lengths, local clustering coefficients and sizes of disconnected components. Emphasis is put on comparing domains, but also sub-domains (economic sectors, scientific specializations). Interpreting the link probabilities as strategies for link formation, we find that in R&D collaborations newcomers prefer links with established agents, while in co-authorship relations newcomers prefer links with other newcomers. Our results shed new light on the long-standing question about the role of endogenous and exogenous factors (i.e., different information available to the initiator of a collaboration) in network formation.Comment: 25 pages, 13 figures, 4 table