Improving the Rapidity of Magnitude Estimation for Earthquake Early Warning Systems for Railways.

To improve the performance of earthquake early warning (EEW) systems, we propose an approach that utilizes the time-dependence of P-wave displacements to estimate the earthquake magnitude () based on the relationship between and the displacement. The traditional seismological understanding posits that this relationship achieves statistical significance when the displacement reaches its final peak value, resulting in the adoption of time-constant coefficients. However, considering the potential for earlier establishment of the relationship's significance than conventionally assumed, we analyze waveforms observed in Japan and determine the intercept in the relationship as a function of time from the P-wave onset.

Evaluation of expert skills in refinery patrol inspection: visual attention and head positioning behavior.

We aimed to clarify expert skills in refinery patrol inspection using data collected through a virtual reality experimental system. As body positioning and postural changes are relevant factors during refinery patrol inspection tasks, we measured and analyzed both visual attention and head positioning behavior among experts and "knowledgeable novices" who were engaged in the engineering of the refinery but had less inspection experience. The participants performed a simulated inspection task, and the results showed that 1) expert inspectors could find more defects compared to knowledgeable novices, 2) visual attention behavior was similar between knowledgeable novices and experts, and 3) experts tended to position their heads at various heights and further from the inspection target to obtain visual information more effectively from the target compared to knowledgeable novices.