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“High-quality development” is an important objective for China’s current development projects. For the betterment of the current situation of the underdeveloped regions, high-quality development is necessary. The comprehensive index method is one of the most widely used methods for evaluating high-quality development works, and indicator weighting is its key and at the same time the most controversial step. Among many weighting methods, the entropy weighting method is widely applied due to its easier understandability and use. This article focuses on the problem of weight distortion when the entropy values of indicators are close to 1 and the improvements to this problem. To verify these improvements, this article deduces with mathematical analysis, the underlying assumptions of the problem and evaluates the level of high-quality development in Qinghai Province, which is assumed to be an appropriate example of the underdeveloped regions in western China. Our mathematical deductions demonstrate that these underlying assumptions do not theoretically exist. In addition, both the improved and the original methods have similar performances in practice or, more specifically, have shown an overall upward trend in the level of high-quality development in Qinghai Province. Because the “problem” is extremely stringent and difficult to reproduce, we conclude that further improvements on the entropy weighting method should not be a focus of future research. To address the subjectivity or objectivity issues of weighting, weightless methods may be of use and should be developed.

Accommodating multiple tasks within a tiny metasurface unit cell without them interfering with each other is a significant challenge. In this paper, an electromagnetic (EM) wave modulation metasurface capable of reflection, transmission, and absorption is proposed. This multitasking capability is achieved through a cleverly designed multi-layer structure comprising an EM Wave Shield Layer (ESL), a Polarization Modulation Layer (PML), and a Bottom Plate Layer (BPL). The functionality can be arbitrarily switched by embedding control materials within the structure. Depending on external excitation conditions, the proposed metasurface can realize reflection-type co-planar polarization to cross-polarization conversion, transmission-type electromagnetically induced transparency-like (EIT-like) modes, and broadband absorption. Notably, all tasks operate approximately within the same operating frequency band, and their performance can be regulated by the intensity of external excitation. Additionally, the operating principle of the metasurface is analyzed through impedance matching, an oscillator coupling model, and surface current distribution. This metasurface design offers a strategy for integrated devices with multiple functionalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asian‐African countries face challenges in achieving the 2030 Agenda and require scientific support for progress. Studies have focused on reorganizing important Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets to assess their priorities in these countries considering internal interactions. While previous studies mainly considered first‐order interactions among SDGs, some scholars have emphasized the significance of high‐order interactions that amplify SDG impacts and lead to systemic transformations. To address this, we propose a network hierarchy analysis‐based method to quantify what we called "systemic importance" of SDGs considering high‐order interactions of SDGs in 26 Asian‐African countries using country‐specific target level interaction networks. By analyzing the results, we draw the following conclusions. Goals 13–17 have the highest systemic importance, with the majority of targets being important in the system. Goals with lower systemic importance still include exceptional targets, such as targets related to technological capacity, international representation, and scholarships within Goals 4, 10, and 12, respectively. The rankings of systemic importance for targets and SDGs are similar among the 26 Asian‐African countries, but Lao PDR and Indonesia exhibit larger numerical ranges that require further attention to systemically important targets and goals. Additionally, certain countries show significantly higher systemic importance in specific goals, such as Goal 4 in the Republic of Korea and Goal 7 in Singapore. This study offers quantitative support for prioritizing SDGs in Asian‐African countries by considering the profound impacts resulting from high‐order interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An event-triggered neural adaptive cooperative control is proposed for the towing system (TS) with model parameter uncertainties and unknown disturbances. Different from ordinary multi-vessel formation control, the tugs and unactuated offshore platform in the TS are connected together by towlines, and the resultant tension of the towlines serves as the actual drag force for the platform. Initially, based on the radial basis function neural network (RBFNN), an adaptive RBFNN is designed to compensate unknown disturbances and model parameter uncertainties of the TS, and we use minimal learning parameter (MLP) algorithm to reduce the online learning parameters of adaptive RBFNN. Combined with dynamic surface technology and event-triggered control (ETC) mechanism, an event-triggered neural adaptive virtual controller is designed to obtain the desired drag force of the platform. According to the quadratic programming algorithm, the desired drag force is allocated as the desired tensions of towlines. Subsequently, the desired towline length and the desired position information of the tugs are obtained sequentially through the towline model and the position relationship between the tugs and the platform. Then, according to the desired positions of tugs, an event-triggered neural adaptive distributed cooperative controller is designed for achieving the multi-tug towing of the offshore platform. The ETC mechanism is introduced to reduce the communication burden within the TS and the execution frequency of the tugs' thrusters. Finally, the stability of the closed-loop system is proven using the Lyapunov theory, and the ETC mechanism proves that no Zeno behavior occurs. The effectiveness of the ETC mechanism and the MLP-based adaptive RBFNN on the controllers of TS is verified through simulations and comparison analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]