Shifting the Blame: Storm and Wildfire Dramatic Images in American News Media

Some media frames might be likely to seek to evoke a certain sentiment, and that natural disaster coverage by the media focuses on the current impact of disasters. In their coverage, American news media use polar sentiment words to create bleeding images of natural disasters, potentially counter-productive to the wisdom of dealing with the natural disaster. Identifying the sentiment words that lead to a misperception of natural disasters can help journalists adopt the wisdom that natural disasters are not a human enemy. The corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS) reported in this article investigates the American media's issues for dramatic reporting and the polar sentiment words utilized in the framing. The corpus is built from 100 news articles reporting wildfires and storms by ten major online American news media published from January 1, 2018, through December 31, 2020. It uses AntConc to generate word-list and word-link from which it identifies the dominant issues. Subsequently, it compares the AntConc word-list with A List of Sentiment Words to reveal the tones and dramatic imaging. The findings show that the dominant issues in storm reporting are description, impact, and prediction, while wildfire reporting are cause, impact, action, and prediction. The negative polar words produce dramatic images of storm as a violent beast and wildfire as a vengeful invader. Such description is provocative to blaming natural disasters as a cause of human suffering rather than improving our behaviors to reduce the suffering. Thus, it is counter-productive to acquiring wisdom for dealing with natural disasters.

Impact action of a projectiles on special protective structures and ways to increase their protective capacity

A method for studying the reaction of elastic elements of protective structures to a series of impact actions of shells has been developed. In the work, the elastic elements of the protective structure are modeled by homogeneous beams, and the dynamic action of the shells is simulated by instantaneous point-applied forces. A mathematical model of this dynamic process is constructed, which is a boundary value problem for a hyperbolic equation with an irregular right-hand side. The latter is described using Dirac delta functions. Cases of both fixed and free ends of protective elements are considered. The main ideas of perturbation methods are used for the researches carried out in the work. Analytical dependences for the description of elastic deformations of a protective element which are basic for definition of its strength characteristics are received. They and the graphical dependences built on their basis for specific cases show that the dynamic deformations of the protective element for the fixed ends are greater in the case of the projectile closer to its middle, at the same time for the free ends – closer to the end. With regard to the modernization of protective structures, the dynamic effect on their elements can be reduced by using elastic reinforcement or changing the method of fixing the ends of the protective element: elastic or with a certain angle of inclination of the bearing surfaces. It is proposed to use special plastics, soil layer, flexible wood flooring, etc. as elastic reinforcement. The technique used in the work is the basis for determining the strength characteristics of protective elements, and from so – to check the reliability of the protective structure; study of the dynamics of protective and similar types of structures, taking into account the nonlinear characteristics of the elastic elements of protective structures; study of more complex oscillations of elements of protective structures. In the case of a series of impacts, it is obvious that the amplitude of deflection of the protective element after each impact will increase over time, because the model does not take into account the force of viscoelastic friction. These tasks will be the subject of further research.

Detection of Tibiofemoral Joint Injury in High-Impact Motion Based on Neural Network Reconstruction Algorithm

In order to reduce the damage degree of joint bones, ligaments, and soft tissues caused by the high impact on the tibiofemoral joint during landing, a method for detecting the damage of tibiofemoral joint under high-impact action based on neural network reconstruction algorithm is proposed. Two dimensional X-ray images of knee joints from straightening to bending in 10 healthy volunteers were selected. CT scans were performed on the knee joint on the same side, and the 3D model from the acquired images was reconstructed. The kinematics data of the femur relative to the tibia with full degree of freedom were measured by registering the 3D model with 2D images. The results showed that in the extended position, the femur was rotated inward (5.5° ± 6.3°) relative to the tibia. The range of femoral external rotation is (18.7° ± 5.9°) from flexion to 90° in straight position. However, from 90° to 120°, a small amount of internal rotation occurred (1.4° ± 1.9°), so during the whole flexion process, the femur rotated (17.3° ± 6.9°), among which, from the straight position to 15°, the femur rotated (10.0° ± 5.6°). Damage in different areas is determined by the size of the interlayer displacement sample size method of sample space reduction. It is proved that the detection method of tibiofemoral joint injury in high-impact motion based on neural network reconstruction algorithm has high accuracy and consistency.

A Short Note about the Impact Action of a Water Jet Stabilized by a Coaxial Air Stream in the Air and Underwater

A new original method, applying a coaxial protective airflow, was tested aiming to improve the pure water jet efficiency in surface layer removal or medium hard materials cutting or blasting. The dual action of the air flow is expected: the air co-flowing the water jet with approximately the same velocity should prevent the central jet from breaking up into tiny droplets in the near field, and simultaneously, it should support jet decomposition into big parts with enough destructive potential in the far-field. A brief survey of the relevant literature dealing with the water jet instability is presented, introducing four recognized breakup regimes. An original cutting head designed to generate a waterjet surrounded by protective coaxial air flow is introduced. The submitted device is supposed to operate within the first wind-induced regime. Two types of experiments, consisting of blasting limestone bricks placed either in the air or underwater, were realized. The depths of kerfs produced with different water pressures and air overpressures were evaluated. While no substantial positive effect was recognized in the air performance, the submerged blasting of the same material under similar conditions appeared to be promising.

GOALIATH: a theory of goal-directed behavior

Commonsense and theorizing about action control agree in assuming that human behavior is (mainly) driven by goals, but no mechanistic theory of what goals are, where they come from, and how they impact action selection is available. Here I develop such a theory that is based on the assumption that GOALs guide Intentional Actions THrough criteria (GOALIATH). The theory is intended to be minimalist and parsimonious with respect to its assumptions, as transparent and mechanistic as possible, and it is based on representational assumptions provided by the Theory of Event Coding (TEC). It holds that goal-directed behavior is guided by selection criteria that activate and create competition between event files that contain action-effect codes matching one or more of the criteria—a competition that eventually settles into a solution favoring the best-matching event file. The criteria are associated with various sources, including biological drives, acquired needs (e.g., of achievement, power, or affiliation), and short-term, sometimes arbitrary, instructed aims. Action selection is, thus, a compromise that tries to satisfy various criteria related to different driving forces, which are also likely to vary in strength over time. Hence, what looks like goal-directed action emerges from, and represents an attempt to satisfy multiple constraints with different origins, purposes, operational characteristics, and timescales—which among other things does not guarantee a high degree of coherence or rationality of the eventual outcome. GOALIATH calls for a radical break with conventional theorizing about the control of goal-directed behavior, as it among other things questions existing cognitive-control theories and dual-route models of action control.

The plane problem solution of impact deformation in a preliminary unstressed incompressible elastic medium

Решается задача одномерной плоской деформации нелинейноупругого несжимаемого полупространства под действием ударной нагрузки на его границе. До момента ударного воздействия полупространство находится в свободном состоянии. Именно это условие позволяет осуществить движение разрыва в краевых условиях на границе полупространства в виде единственной плоскополяризованной ударной волны, на которой сохраняется неизменным направление предварительного сдвига. Перечисленные свойства переднего фронта ударного воздействия следуют из совместного анализа характеристических направлений задачи и видов ударных волн для одномерной плоской задачи в несжимаемой среде с произвольными предварительными деформациями. Приводятся два варианта приближенного решения задачи на основе метода сращиваемых асимптотических разложений и на основе метода лучевых рядов. The problem of one-dimensional plane deformation of a nonlinear elastic incompressible half-space under the impact load action on its boundary is solved. The half-space is in a free state until the moment of impact action. This condition leads to the discontinuity in the boundary conditions at the half-space boundary moves as the only plane-polarized shock wave, on which the direction of the preliminary shear remains unchanged. The pointed out properties of the leading edge of the shock action follow from the joint analysis of the characteristic directions of the problem and the shock waves types for a one-dimensional plane problem in an incompressible medium with arbitrary preliminary deformations. Two versions of the problem approximate solution based on the method of matched asymptotic expansions and on the basis of the ray series method are presented.

The stability of rotating rods under the action of vibro-impact load

The paper presents the investigation results of the vibro-impact loads’ influence on the stability of vibro-drilling machine’ drill-rod in the process of well in hard rock. The drilling process of such wells is significantly facilitated in case of vibro-impact action. The destroying of the rocks during the vibro-rotary drilling occurs via the complex effect of the vibration impulses and rotational motion. In this way, the task of such drill-rod study stability has actuality. In this case, the various modes of vibration and stability loss are possible. In this regard, the study was done by developed software, in which a technique of computer simulation of the oscillating motion of considerable length rotating rods under the action of axial periodic loads is implemented. Such software gives the possibility to model the oscillatory motion of rotating rods and determine the parameters by witch the dynamic stability loss of the studied system can occur. Using this software the diagrams with regions of stable and unstable motion of the rotating rod were drawn for different parameters of the considered system. The process of oscillation is considered in space with account of inertia forces and geometric nonlinearity of the rod. It is shown, that on certain rotational speeds and frequencies of vibro-impact load there are ranges of unstable motion where the run of equipment can inevitably lead to destruction. The obtained results have been analyzed. The conclusion about the possibility of running the equipment in certain frequency ranges is made.

On ways to increase protection of special structures from impact action

The technique of research of dynamic processes of elements of engineering constructions of special purpose from explosive action of projectiles is developed. Elastically reinforced beams with hinged ends were chosen for the physical model of elements of engineering structures. It is assumed that the elastic properties of the latter satisfy the nonlinear technical law of elasticity. A mathematical model of the process of a series of impact actions of projectiles at different points of the element of the protective structure is constructed. The latter is a boundary value problem for a partial differential equation. Its peculiarity is that the external dynamic action is a discrete function of linear and time variables. To determine the dynamic effect of a series of impacts on the object under study, and thus the level of protection of the structure, the basic ideas of perturbation theory methods are extended to new classes of systems. This allowed to obtain an analytical dependence of the deformation of the elastically reinforced element on the basic physical and mechanical characteristics of the material of the protective element, its reinforcement and the characteristics of the external action of the projectiles. It is shown that the most dangerous cases, given the security of the structure, are those when the impact is repeated at equal intervals, in addition, the point of impact is closer to the middle of the protective element. The obtained theoretical results can be the basis for selection at the stage of designing the main physical and mechanical characteristics of the elements of engineering structures and their reinforcement in order to reliably protect personnel and equipment from the maximum possible impact on it of the shock series of projectiles. The reliability of the obtained results is confirmed by: a) generalization of widely tested methods to new classes of dynamical systems; b) obtaining in the limit case the consequences known in scientific sources concerning the linearly elastic characteristics of the elements of protective structures; c) their consistency with the essence of the physical process itself, which is considered in the work.