Search

This paper is concerned with asymptotics and uniqueness of traveling wavefronts for a delayed model of the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction. It is known that this system admits traveling wavefronts for both monostable and bistable types. In this paper, we further study the monostable case. We first establish the precisely asymptotic behavior of traveling wavefronts with the help of Ikehara's Theorem. Then based on the obtained asymptotic behavior, the uniqueness of the traveling wavefronts is proved by the strong comparison principle and the sliding method, when time delay h ≠ 0 , which complements the uniqueness results obtained by Trofimchuk et al. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perception is presented as a predominant concern in the functioning of a driving system, where it is necessary to understand how the information, events, and actions of each influence the state of the environment and the objectives of the driver, immediately and in the near future. In this context, we present in this paper a driving model composed of five layers which ensure the autonomy and road safety of a driver agent, in particular, we are interested in this article in the concept of perception which is translated by the first three layers of our driving model, which are: visual perception, comprehension and projection, where the execution of these three layers is based on the driving behavior adopted by the driver agent, which is in our case the car-following driving behavior. Furthermore, we present in this paper two simulation scenarios, the first one is realized based on urban area conditions, and the second one is conducted by using Next Generation SIMulation (NGSIM) dataset of a highway in Los Angeles, California. In this context, the experimental results present the effectiveness of our driving model based on the imitation of human behavior and according to reducing the duration of perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a deterministic and stochastic SIQS epidemic model with vertical transmission and Beddington–DeAngelis incidence. Firstly, for the corresponding deterministic system, the global asymptotic stability of disease-free equilibrium and the endemic equilibrium is proved through the stability theory. Secondly, for the stochastic system, the threshold conditions which decide the extinction or permanence of the disease are derived. By constructing suitable Lyapunov functions, we investigate the oscillation behavior of the stochastic system solution near the endemic equilibrium. The results of this paper show that there exists a great difference between the deterministic and stochastic systems, which implies that the large stochastic noise contributes to inhibiting the spread of disease. Finally, in order to validate the theoretical results, a series of numerical simulations are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much to the liking of many geographers, I Forbes Magazine i 's contributor and professor in meteorology at the University of Georgia, J. Marshall Shepherd, wrote in early March 2020 an op-ed titled 'Why Geography is a key part of fighting the COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak'. The aim of this special issue of I Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie i ( I TESG i ) is to present the initial investigations of geographers and socio-spatial scientists into the emerging spaces of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Future papers on COVID-19 will also be added to a I Virtual Special Issue i , which will consist of all papers published in this issue together with new papers on the geography of the pandemic. [Extracted from the article]

We consider a novel application of inverse reinforcement learning with behavioral economics constraints to model, learn and predict the commenting behavior of YouTube viewers. Each group of users is modeled as a rationally inattentive Bayesian agent which solves a contextual bandit problem. Our methodology integrates three key components. First, to identify distinct commenting patterns, we use deep embedded clustering to estimate framing information (essential extrinsic features) that clusters users into distinct groups. Second, we present an inverse reinforcement learning algorithm that uses Bayesian revealed preferences to test for rationality: does there exist a utility function that rationalizes the given data, and if yes, can it be used to predict commenting behavior? Finally, we impose behavioral economics constraints stemming from rational inattention to characterize the attention span of groups of users. The test imposes a Rényi mutual information cost constraint which impacts how the agent can select attention strategies to maximize their expected utility. After a careful analysis of a massive YouTube dataset, our surprising result is that in most YouTube user groups, the commenting behavior is consistent with optimizing a Bayesian utility with rationally inattentive constraints. The paper also highlights how the rational inattention model can accurately predict commenting behavior. The massive YouTube dataset and analysis used in this paper are available on GitHub and completely reproducible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change can have a strong impact on plant development with negative effects on the quantity and quality of secreted nectar and changes in the entire ecosystem. The paper analyzes the implications of the evolution of meteorological factors on the behavior of bee colonies during the collection of nectar and pollen in sunflower. During June and July of the analyzed period 2018-2020, a reduction of the minimum temperature was found, with some nights that registered temperatures unsuitable for nectar secretion (7.6-9.4°C in July 2018; 8.7-9. 5°C in July 2019; 10.3-10.4°C in July 2020) and periods characterized by heavy rains and storms, in a period when, normally, the maximum temperatures negatively influenced the nectar secretion in this plant. The amount of honey made by bee colonies was affected, being necessary to apply supplementary feeds to ensure the reserves for wintering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer needs and behaviors change rapidly as they are exposed to information anywhere, at any time; the constant inflow of news about your friends’ lives, politics, global affairs, and the general overload of media create distractions day in and day out. The consumer purchase journey now than ever is hugely getting influenced by the various digital touchpoints. Consumers are switching between various online platforms before making a purchase decision. For business, the challenge is how to show up at all of these moments. This paper, is based on the qualitative methods using group discussions, and field surveys that included a total of about 120 people who were approached through remote data collection techniques. These research participants had already implemented digital marketing and data analytics in their businesses. This paper discusses the consumers linear and non-linear journey and how various digital touchpoint affect their decision-making process of a consumer. Further the paper discusses the finding from a survey done with marketing professions on Data analytics and the 3C as Consumer, Channel and Content, to understand whether or not data analytics and its implementations on the 3C’s help business in influencing the consumer journey at various touchpoints and how businesses can leverage Data analytics while planning marketing strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper proposes a background modeling-based approach for the detection of foreground objects. Often, background has dominant textural behavior with some of the dynamic entities. In order to take care of both, the paper proposes two variants of Local Binary Pattern (LBP), LBP-A and LBP-EA, for background modeling. The histograms of the proposed variants of LBP learn the new video sequence to model the complex background and accurately differentiate the foreground from the background. The proposed model learning approaches have successfully been tested with different frames of PETS sequences and the efficacy of the proposed models has been found to be better than that of LBP-based modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this second part of a two part paper, we establish a local, uniform energy-approximation estimate for the solutions to a simplified model of thin inhomogeneities with open mid-curves. This local result plays a crucial role in the proof of the global, uniform approximation results established in the first part of this paper (Asymptotic Analysis (2019)). For more details about the model we also refer the reader to (Chinese Annals of Mathematics, Series B38 (2017) 293–344). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few years, a proliferation of attempts to define, understand and fight the spread of problematic information in contemporary media ecosystems emerged. Most of these attempts focus on false content and/or bad actors detection. In this paper, we argue for a wider ecological focus. Using the frame of media manipulation and a revised version of the 'coordinated inauthentic behavior' original definition, the paper presents a study based on an unprecedented combination of Facebook data, accessed through the CrowdTangle API, and two datasets of Italian political news stories published in the run-up to the 2018 Italian general election and 2019 European election. By focusing on actors' collective behavior, we identified several networks of pages, groups, and verified public profiles ('entities'), that shared the same political news articles on Facebook within a very short period of time. Some entities in our networks were openly political, while others, despite sharing political content too, deceptively presented themselves as entertainment venues. The proportion of inauthentic entities in a network affects the wideness of the range of news media sources they shared, thus pointing to different strategies and possible motivations. The paper has both theoretical and empirical implications: it frames the concept of 'coordinated inauthentic behavior' in existing literature, introduces a method to detect coordinated link sharing behavior and points out different strategies and methods employed by networks of actors willing to manipulate the media and public opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To tackle several limitations recently highlighted in the field of fractional differentiation and fractional models, some authors have proposed new kernels for the definition of fractional integration/differentiation operators. These kernels still have some limitations, however. One goal of this paper is thus to propose other kernels with a power law type behavior that overcome these limitations. All these kernels are nonsingular and have a limited memory. They are then used to define a class of models adapted to capture input-output power law type long memory behaviors. The stability of this class of model is investigated. Finally, the paper shows that the fractional pseudo state space description, a fractional model widely used in the literature, is a special case of Volterra equations, equations introduced nearly a century ago. Volterra equations, whose memory length can be explicitly controlled, can thus be viewed as a serious alternative to fractional pseudo state space descriptions for power law type long memory behavior modeling, as fractional pseudo state space descriptions are known to exhibit serious drawbacks also discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though the concept of behavior is central to modern psychology, there is no consensus regarding what the term behavior means. The current paper focuses on disentangling two separate conceptions of the term that have added to the confusion. One meaning of the term behavior pertains to natural scientific epistemology, specifically the requirements of empirical methodology and its reliance on data that are measurable and available to public observation. The second meaning pertains to ontology and relates to the fact that at a descriptive level there are different kinds of behavioral patterns in the universe. Put simply, inanimate material objects behave differently from living organisms, which behave differently from animals, which behave differently from people. This paper introduces a "Periodic Table of Behavior" derived from Henriques', Review of General Psychology, 7, 150–182, (2003, 2011) Tree of Knowledge System to map the different kinds of behaviors that are described and examined by different sciences. It concludes by using the formulation to clarify the relationship between the methodological and ontological description of behavior and argues how the basic science of psychology can be effectively defined as the science of mental behavior going forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to detect the behavior of egg breeders in self-breeding cages rapidly, a method of target location and behavior recognition based on visual images was proposed. In this study, Hy-Line Gray chickens were bred as objects. Through manual marking, the training set, validation set and test set were established, and YOLO v3 model was adopted to detect the collected images. The value of subdivision and batch size were determined by experiment. The learning rate was dynamically adjusted according to the change of loss value in the training model. Finally, the mean average precision of the trained model on the validation set was 92.09%. In this paper, the recognition rates of six kinds of behaviors in the morning and in the afternoon and under different densities were analyzed. Furthermore, a kind of welfare indicator was tested and abnormal behavior was evaluated. The results showed that: The mean precision rate of the six behaviors was followed by mating (94.72%), stand (94.57%), feed (93.10%), spread (92.02%), fight (88.67%) and drink (86.88%). The mean false rate ranged from low to high was spread (0.11%), mating (0.14%), fight (0.20%), drink (0.25%), feed (1.17%) and stand (8.62%). The mean missing rate ranged from low to high was mating (4.65%), stand (5.01%), feed (5.15%), spread (6.25%), fight (14.69%) and drink (15.79%). The method presented in this paper has a good effect on identifying the behavior of egg breeders, which can provide technical support for the promotion of the self-breeding mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we obtain sufficient conditions for oscillation and nonoscillation of the solutions of the neutral delay differential equation y t − ∑ j = 1 k p j t y r j t ′ + q t G y g t − u t H y h t = f t , where p j and r j for each j and q , u , G , H , g , h , and f are all continuous functions and q ≥ 0 , u ≥ 0 , h t < t , g t < t , and r j t < t for each j. Further, each r j t , g t , and h t ⟶ ∞ as t ⟶ ∞. This paper improves and generalizes some known results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we obtain sufficient conditions for oscillation and nonoscillation of the solutions of the neutral delay differential equation y t − ∑ j = 1 k p j t y r j t ′ + q t G y g t − u t H y h t = f t , where p j and r j for each j and q , u , G , H , g , h , and f are all continuous functions and q ≥ 0 , u ≥ 0 , h t < t , g t < t , and r j t < t for each j. Further, each r j t , g t , and h t ⟶ ∞ as t ⟶ ∞. This paper improves and generalizes some known results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Change, and the capacity for change is an organic and necessary part of the life of organisations, and this organisational phenomenon has been the topic of countless researches and publications. The decisive majority of change management approaches are basically functionalist and look for the tool(kit)s of managers to bring the change process to success. The focus is on managers (leaders); if they look at the employee perspective at all, they do so to identify clues for the leaders. They want to understand employee behaviour to upgrade the change management tools of managers so that the latter can achieve their goals as effectively as possible. This study follows a different approach: identifying what relationship, what type of cooperation/co-action is assumed or recommended for change processes by existing and well-known change management schools. This paper reviews the basic change types along two dimensions to identify the most popular change management theories and the change types they discuss. One fault line dividing the theories concerned into two major groups is whether they consider the relationship between change and the quasi-steady state typical of organisations to be discontinuous, incremental or continuous. Another fault line concerns control being exercised over the change process, i.e. the extent to which the initiators and/or leaders of the change can and/or want to assert their intents during the process. The nature of this paper is a narrative or integrative review, which is based on a more idiosyncratic engagement with the literature. That is, the author considered the mainstream approaches and theories as my starting basis. This paper comes to the conclusion that the more complex the changes a theory aspires to solve, the more central the partnership, cooperation and dialogue between management and employees are in the model. The deeper the changes it operates with, the more it affects the deepest cultural layers of organisations, and the more essential the dialogue component is for the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Collaborative practice is critical to optimising patient outcomes in contemporary healthcare settings. Evidence suggests interprofessional learning is an effective way to develop teamwork capabilities, yet these skills are traditionally developed in professional silos, or not at all. This study evaluated the implementation of a team development program, the Team Management Systems (TMS) program, for allied health staff within a large metropolitan health service. Methods: A mixed-methods audit–quality improvement study was conducted, using Kirkpatrick's four-level evaluation model to structure evaluation of the program. Semistructured questionnaire and workforce survey data were retrieved immediately, 6 months and 1–2 years after training and applied to each level of the model (Reaction, Learning, Behaviour, Results). Results: In all, 886 staff participated in the TMS program from 2014 to 2018. High satisfaction with the program was observed. Knowledge of what constitutes effective teamwork improved significantly (P = 0.008) in TMS participants compared with a matched untrained cohort. Participants reported positive behaviour change and continued engagement with TMS principles 6 months after training. Perceived impact of the program on patient and/or organisational outcomes was evident, although less compelling than the changes to knowledge and behaviour. Conclusions: The TMS program yielded positive effects on staff satisfaction, knowledge, team dynamics and team behaviours. These findings demonstrate the significant value of such initiatives to enhance the capability and effectiveness of interdisciplinary healthcare teams. What is known about the topic?: Complex conditions, increasing comorbidities, specialisation and scarcity of resources mean healthcare workers need to work effectively in teams to achieve quality, safe, person centred patient care. There is some evidence of the effect of teamwork initiatives on knowledge or behaviour in specific clinical specialities, single services or single professions, but limited research is available regarding the effects of teamwork programs across multiple professions, including allied health professions, and on patient and organisational outcomes. What does this paper add?: This paper describes the effect of a large-scale teamwork program implemented across multiple professions, including enablers and barriers. It presents outcomes at all four levels of Kirkpatrick's evaluation model, including the less studied behaviour and results levels. What are the implications for practitioners?: This paper supports health service leaders to consider developing and implementing interprofessional teamwork programs to foster essential teamwork capabilities. Learning together about teamwork, across professional silos, will lead to collaborative, patient-centred care, which leads to safe, quality patient outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the anomalous dispersion behavior of polyaniline–carbon nanotube (PANI–CNT) composites for various microwave bands is presented. The anomalous dispersion behavior is experimentally verified by observing group delay characteristics using vector network analyzer. In an anomalous dispersive medium, the transmission coefficient is characterized by an advancement in phase, while for a normal medium, the transmission phase shows a gradual decrease. By closely observing this property, we can correlate different material property deviations associated with the anomalous dispersion region of the sample in various microwave bands. The samples of PANI–CNT, in their powder forms, are used for the study. PANI–CNT is normally exhibiting diverse material properties compared with the normal EMI shielding materials which are inevitable for shielding applications. In this paper, the effect of anomalous behavior on various material parameters like permittivity and shielding efficiency (SE) is studied. The advantage of anomalous dispersion is that the region is characterized by a significant enhancement of SE as compared to the existing EMI shielding materials used for microwave applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of double quality of daily consumption goods is perceived negatively at present, and in this spirit, the media usually also report on it. They bring the results of the tests carried out, the reactions of manufacturers and distributors, and also the statements of politicians. The media have a major impact on consumer information perception and their purchasing behaviour, including in the subject of dual product quality. The aim of the paper is to find out whether Slovak consumers perceive the issue of dual quality of goods and from where they learned about it. The research was carried out on a representative sample of 919 consumers in the Slovak Republic. Various statistical tests were used to verify hypotheses. Research shows that the majority of customers have heard about the problem of dual quality of goods in the EU, most of them have learned about it from the media, and the media is also the source the consumers give the most priority. Manufacturing companies involved in this issue should therefore be more aware of how their products are perceived in terms of the dual quality problem to ensure their competitiveness on the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The response-to-intervention approach was initially proposed to solve a problem associated with the identification of learning disabled children. Over time, it evolved into an approach intended to prevent learning disabilities and a multi-tiered system of support for learners. The goal of the present paper is to describe the main steps of this evolution and the main components of a multi-tiered system of support. We also relate this approach explicitly to the other papers in this special issue, namely the management of its implementation and the inclusion of mathematics as a teaching subject and behaviour regulation. Finally, we briefly discuss the contribution of the response-to-intervention framework to the field of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between changes in individual beliefs and behaviours, couple relationship dynamics and gender norms – and how interventions can influence these. It draws on longitudinal qualitative research with heterosexual couples who participated in the Indashyikirwa programme in Rwanda. The couples followed a curriculum designed to improve relationship skills and reduce the gender-inequitable beliefs, behaviours and norms that underpin intimate partner violence. Qualitative findings show that the programme resulted in moderate, but significant, positive 'shifts' in individual beliefs and behaviours, couple relationship dynamics and levels of inequality - increasing men's engagement in domestic duties, women's participation in household decision making, and women's access to economic resources. They also suggest which parts of the couples' curriculum were most effective in catalysing these changes. However, the data also show that these 'shifts' occurred without fully transforming deeply-entrenched beliefs and norms around gender roles and male authority over economic resources. The paper suggests that the persistence of these beliefs and norms constrained the extent of changes among couples – and could potentially constrain their longevity and act as an obstacle to longer-term, larger-scale changes in gender inequalities and violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, it is proved that a time fractional reaction diffusion system with reaction terms of the Brusselator type admits a global solution by using the feedback method of F. Rothe [20]. Furthermore, some results on the large time behavior of the solutions are obtained. We give a positive answer to Problem 6 of the valuable paper of Gal and Warma [6]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a well-known passage from The Red Lily, Anatole France retorts ironically: "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal loaves of bread". The passage highlights the different burdens experienced by different people when deciding to act or not act in certain ways. This paper critically analyzes this problem; specifically, how we ought to allocate personal responsibility for actions performed by agents who each experience different social, economic, political, and internal and external influences. First, the paper outlines some prevailing conceptions of personal responsibility in the literature. Second, it offers a critique of these views, arguing that they each suffer from a variety of conceptual and practical flaws. Third, a basic framework I call the continuum-threshold account of responsibility is proposed. The account distinguishes between responsibility and blameworthiness, addresses many of our objections against other prevailing conceptions of responsibility, and takes into account background structural conditions while retaining the scope for responsibility and moral agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is dedicated to the asymptotic investigation of textiles as an elasticity problem on beam structures. The structure is subjected to a simultaneous homogenization and dimension reduction with respect to the asymptotic behavior of the beams' thickness and periodicity. Important for the problem are the contact conditions between the beams, which yield multiple limits depending on the order. In this paper two limiting cases are presented: a linear case and a Leray--Lions-type problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a literature review of research undertaken on the out-of-plane behaviour of masonry infilled frames. This paper also discusses the effects of bidirectional loads, openings, slenderness, boundary conditions etc. As numerous researchers have reported, these effects play a crucial role in achieving arching action cause, as they can bypass or limit its effectiveness. Namely, arching action leads to additional compressive forces which resist traversal ones. This is confirmed by inertial force methods of testing, while the same cannot be claimed for inter-storey drift or dynamical methods. It is to be acknowledged that most experimental tests were carried out using inertial force methods, mostly with the use of airbags. In contrast, only a few were undertaken with dynamical methods and just two with inter-storey drift methods. It was found that inertial force and inter-storey drift methods differ widely. In particular, inertial force methods damage the infill, leaving the frame more or less intact. Conversely, drift heavily damages the frame, while infill only slightly. Openings were investigated, albeit with contrasting results. Namely, in all cases, it was found that openings do lower the deformational but not all load-bearing capacities. Furthermore, analytical models have shown contrasting results between themselves and with experimental data. Models' stabilities were checked with single- and multi-variable parametric analysis from which governing factors, influences of frame and other parameters were identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To avoid (costly) conflict, it is imperative to uncover when negotiators cooperate. The previous study has shown that negotiators' cooperative or competitive behavior is oftentimes guided by cues about their counterpart; information about his/her traits or behavior. Using regulatory focus theory, this paper aims to investigate when this is likely to happen. The authors hypothesize and test that because prevention focus (rather than promotion focus) is associated with concerns for safety and concrete surroundings, it strengthens the impact of counterpart cues. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used two scenario studies and one behavioral negotiation study to test the general hypothesis. The authors measured or manipulated participants' regulatory focus, manipulated counterpart cues by varying the information negotiators received about their counterpart's traits and behavior, and measured participants' cooperative or competitive concession making behavior. Findings: Results from the studies confirmed that under prevention focus, negotiators' cooperative behavior depended on whether they received cooperative versus competitive counterpart cues more than under promotion focus. Furthermore, results also showed that under prevention focus, negotiators' behavior was relatively unaffected by their own social motivation – i.e. their personal goal to obtain favorable outcomes for oneself or for both negotiation parties. Originality/value: By showing that regulatory focus determines when counterpart cues affect negotiation behavior, this paper furthers the understanding of when contextual factors affect negotiators' behavior. In addition, it contributes to the understanding of the complex effects of prevention focus in interpersonal behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malicious behavior detection is a key topic that has been a focus in the field of intrusion detection. Current intrusion detection systems are primarily based on single-point monitoring and detection and cannot detect attack modes with a hidden attack frequency. The idea presented in this paper is the incorporation of API call sequence software into the analysis and the construction of behavior chains to express the behavior patterns in software. This paper introduces related definitions of behavioral points and behaviors and proposes a depth-detection method for malware based on behavior chains (MALDC). The method monitors behavior points based on API calls and then uses the calling sequence of those behavior points at runtime to construct a behavior chain. Finally, we use depth detection method based on long short-term memory(LSTM) to detect malicious behavior from the behavior chains. To verify the performance of the proposed model, we conducted a large experiment on 54,324 malware and 53,361 benign samples collected from Windows systems and used those samples to train and test the model. Comparative verification by using various classifiers showed that the behavior points extracted based on the above method and the constructed behavior chains can be used to recognize malicious behavior at a high recognition rate. The method achieved an accuracy of 98.64% with a false positive rate of less than 2% in the best case, which is a satisfactory recognition rate for detecting malicious software behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study of charged particle multiplicity distribution in high-energy interactions of particles helps in revealing the dynamics of particle production and the underlying statistical patterns, by which these distributions follow. Several distributions derived from statistics have been employed to understand its behaviour. In one of our earlier papers, we introduced the shifted Gompertz distribution to investigate this variable and showed that the multiplicity distributions in a variety of processes at different energies can be very well described by this distribution. The fact that the shifted Gompertz distribution, which has been extensively used in diffusion theory, social networking and forecasting, has been used for the first time in high-energy physics collisions remains interesting. In this paper, we investigate the phenomenon of oscillatory behaviour of the counting statistics observed in the high-energy experimental data, resulting from different types of recurrence relations defining the probability distributions. We search for such oscillations in the multiplicity distributions well described by the shifted Gompertz distribution and look for retrieval of additional valuable information from these distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, electric bikers' (e-bikers') red-light running (RLR) behavior is often viewed as one of the main contributors to e-bike-related accidents, especially for traffic scenarios with high e-bike ridership. In this paper, we aim to understand e-bikers' RLR behavior based on structural equation modeling. Specifically, the predictive utility of the theory of planned behavior (TPB), prototype willingness model (PWM), and their combined form, TPB-PWM model, is used to analyze e-bikers' RLR behavior, and a comparison analysis is made. The analyses of the three modeling approaches are based on the survey data collected from two online questionnaires, where more than 1,035 participant-completed questionnaires are received. The main findings in this paper are as follows: (i) Both PWM and TPB-PWM models could work better in characterizing e-bikers' RLR behavior than the TPB model. The former two models explain more than 80% (81.3% and 81.4%, respectively) of the variance in e-bikers' RLR behavior, which is remarkably higher than that of the TPB model (only 74.3%). (ii) It is also revealed that RLR willingness contributes more on influencing the RLR behavior than RLR intention, which implies that such behavior is dominated by social reactive decision-making rather than the reasoned one. (iii) Among the examined psychological factors, attitude, perceived behavioral control, past behavior, prototype perceptions (favorability and similarity), RLR intention, and RLR willingness were the crucial predictors of e-bikers' RLR behavior. Our findings also support designing of more effective behavior-change interventions to better target e-bikers' RLR behavior by considering the influence of the identified psychological factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loess is susceptible to large and sudden volume reduction induced by loading or wetting. The work in this paper focused on compression and collapse behaviour of the intact loess under isotropic stress condition. To this purpose, an improved technique was introduced for the unsaturated triaxial apparatus that was capable of precise injecting know the amounts of water into the specimen, while continuously monitoring the suction. Tests were performed under two separate hydro-mechanical paths: isotropic compression at various suctions and wetting in steps at various net isotropic stresses. Experimental measurements indicated that the compression behaviour of the intact loess was highly affected by the extent of the level of the suction. The wetting-induced collapse behaviour depended on both the extent of applied net isotropic stress and the hydro-mechanical path. The collapse potential reached a maximum when the specimen was wetted at the initial yield stress. No unique of yield curve was identified from loading and wetting paths in a suction–net mean stress plane. For the same plastic volumetric strain, the suction decrease yield curve identified from wetting path appeared under the loading–collapse yield curve identified from loading path. Interestingly, the uniqueness of the yield curve was identified from loading and wetting paths in a suction–mean effective stress plane. An elastoplastic model of the intact loess under isotropic stress condition incorporating soil water retention behaviour was proposed, using the mean effective stress as constitutive stress. This model is able to reproduce the volumetric behaviour of the intact loess along constant suction paths and wetting paths quite well, using a single-valued compressibility index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Football has become a lucrative business with its global viewership attracting many African players to move to leagues abroad. This paper explores the sociological approaches of Weber and Granovetter to understand the behaviour change in attitudes of African players after achieving professional football status abroad. It does so by analysing 'before and after' migration to Europe which is often ascribed to professional players' social upward mobility. The paper employs a qualitative approach with structured interviews and autobiographies of some players. The literature draws from social behaviour change and football migration and mobility concepts. Findings indicate that football has a way of changing African players' behaviour and makes others become a 'different human being'. However, their behaviours should rather translate into doing good things for society than assuming noxious stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gambling behavior is a prevalent problem requiring the development of effective behavioral interventions targeting reductions in the behavior. Many theories of social cognition can be adopted to identify the specific psychological mechanisms interventions should target and how interventions can be designed to manipulate them. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate how the Reasoned Action Approach can be used to achieve these aims. The paper outlines the steps involved in identifying relevant psychological determinants for intervention when adopting the theory. Behavior change is then discussed and the importance of translating intentions and maintaining change is emphasized. It is hoped that the paper encourages the development of a greater number of theory-based interventions targeting reductions in gambling behavior. Doing so may lead to a reduction in the number of people participating in the behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is a common treatment for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In a recent volume of this journal, Sanvodal-Norton and Shkedy (2019) published a criticism of behavior analysis including the professionals and entire field as a discipline—of demonstrating unethical behavior, creating prompt dependency in the learners, destroying internal motivation, and refusing to collaborate with new and other treatment philosophies. The current paper is a response to the these claims by providing several examples of peer-reviewed studies that contradicts the authors' arguments, and summarizing the information of the included study's findings by and other objective. The primary purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that, contrary to the perspectives of Sanvodal-Norton and Shkedy (2019), ABA is scientific approach that identifies environmental variables that influence socially significant behaviors and develop strategies to cause behavior change that is practical and applicable, improve educational outcomes, and provide real-life support for parents and families who are seeking treatment for their loved one with ASD. In doing so, this paper will demonstrate that ABA is an efficacious approach that is supported by numerous scientific studies in the peer-reviewed literature [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faultless disagreement and faultless retraction have been taken to motivate relativism for predicates of personal taste, like 'tasty'. Less attention has been devoted to the question of what aspect of their meaning underlies this relativist behavior. This paper illustrates these same phenomena with a new category of expressions: appearance predicates, like 'tastes vegan' and 'looks blue'. Appearance predicates and predicates of personal taste both fall into the broader category of experiential predicates. Approaching predicates of personal taste from this angle suggests that their relativist behavior is due to their experience-sensitivity, rather than their evaluative meaning. Furthermore, appearance predicates hold interest beyond what they can teach us about predicates of personal taste. Examination of a variety of uses of appearance predicates reveals that they give rise to relativist behavior for a variety of reasons—including some that apply also to other types of expressions, such as epistemic modals and comparative terms. This paper thus serves both to probe the source of relativist behavior in discourse about personal taste, as well as to map out this kind of behavior in the rich and under-explored discourse about appearances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores factors that either motivate or constrain national judges' participation in the preliminary ruling procedure. By incorporating insights and evidence from American judicial politics literature and drawing from three models of judicial decision making: the attitudinal model, the team model, and the resource management model, it places the study of judicial behaviour with respect to the preliminary ruling procedure on more rigorous theoretical grounds. The paper is based on survey results conducted among 415 national judges from two new EU Member States: Slovenia and Croatia. In line with the theoretical predictions, the results show that the decision to make a referral to the CJEU is determined by several individual- and court-level factors. These are the position that a court occupies in a national judicial hierarchy, the judicial workload and availability of resources, and judges' knowledge and experiences with respect to EU law and Article 267 TFEU proceedings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper provides choice theoretic foundations for impulsive behavior and changing taste. Similar to other studies in the literature, revelation is possible owing to self-limitation. However, in contrast to the usual unrealistic assumption that self-limitation opportunities are exogenous and observable, we follow Laibson's classical paper by allowing for self-limitation through investing only in illiquid assets. This approach allows us to identify impulsive behavior and changing taste using only standard demand data. In addition, we provide a refinement for an individual's welfare that is based on libertarian considerations. The refinement uniquely identifies the revealed impulsiveness in our model, and ultimately leads to a notion of comparative impulsiveness. Finally, we relate the comparative impulsiveness in our model to existing measures of (ir)rationality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides guidance on the management of challenging behaviours (CBs) in dementia care, and introduces concepts from positive behavioural support not usually applied to dementia. While the use of formulations has received a lot of attention in recent years, the mechanisms of how to apply the formulation-led interventions requires more consideration. In order to assist caregivers to deliver effective interventions we need to have a better understanding of the CBs we are attempting to manage, and also produce management strategies with clearer goals. Ideally we would also want caregivers to be able to describe the skills they employ in a coherent manner in order to facilitate self-reflection and to be able to pass on their skills to junior colleagues. This paper attempts to fulfil these needs by integrating two new models with philosophies already used in dementia care. In terms of new concepts, the first is the Arousal Cycle, which gives caregivers an awareness of the five phases of a typical CB (wellbeing, trigger, escalation, CB, and recovery phase). In relation to the second, the Traffic Light analogy examines CBs in terms of four management stages: primary prevention, secondary prevention, reactive strategies, and calming strategies. It is proposed that we distinguish between these stages when composing our formulations and care plans, and thereby produce better targeted interventions. By the end of the paper the reader will have been presented with material integrating concepts from the fields of dementia and intellectual impairment, and been introduced to new ways of managing CBs. Key learning aims: After reading this article people will: (1) Be provided with more specific guidance regarding the management of challenging behaviour (CB) in dementia; such guidance was not provided by the update of the NICE guidelines for dementia (2018). (2) Appreciate that the unmet needs perspective helps us both to understand why CB occur and to select appropriate management strategies. (3) Have an increased awareness and knowledge of new models from outside of the field of dementia. For example, through the use of the 'arousal cycle' people can recognise that a CB should more realistically be seen as having different phases (beginning, middle, end) rather than being perceived as a single action. (4) Be introduced to the traffic light conceptualisation which provides a useful way for guiding management strategies. (5) Be aware of when best to use resource-intensive formulations. (6) Recognise that in addition to conceptualising the person in relation to the CB, it is helpful to conceptualise the structural elements of the behaviour too. (7) Appreciate the need to help caregivers to recognise their existing skills, and to give carers the means to be able to articulate these abilities. Many care home staff currently work intuitively in the way they deliver care; as such we think they require practical frameworks and protocols to help them better elucidate what they do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this commentary I respond to Benjamin Bowman's Fennia paper by extending upon his central thesis that argues that the prevailing methodological tools and framings used to research youth political participation perpetuate unhelpful and inadequate dichotomies about youth. Advancing upon this, I suggest that the youth climate strikes in 2019 highlight three prevalent discourses in youth research relating to climate change: (i) the tendency to view youth as isolated individuals, neglecting the role of adults and communities; (ii) the tendency to focus on individual behavioural change rather than recognise the need for systemic and societal responses to climate change, and (iii) the tendency to overlook structural characteristics of youth such as race, gender and social class. The resulting discourses of youth autonomy, individualism and homogeneity lead to a distorted picture of young activists and perpetuate harmful narratives which lead to stigma, despair and cynicism. The paper concludes by advocating for greater care in the research methodologies and critical frameworks we use to report on youth at public events, such as climate strikes, in order to allow for the complexity of the young political agent, the ambiguity of some of their actions and for opportunities that enable young people themselves to articulate their own participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to compare the findings from a survey of a cohort of students at an Australian regional university across two time points: immediately on commencing their first semester of study and at the end of their final semester of study to determine whether, and in what ways, these students' views concerning sustainability appear to have changed. This paper reports on a longitudinal study of the attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of undergraduate business students regarding a range of sustainability issues. Design/methodology/approach: A paper-based questionnaire was delivered to approximately 250 first year and 150 third year students. Findings: A factor analysis shows small but statistically different positive differences, which indicate that the revised curriculum has been successful in raising student awareness and achieving behaviour change. Research limitations/implications: The study focussed on Australian undergraduate university business students, which reduced generalizability of the findings. Practical implications: The findings of this study can inform instructors in higher education of student attitudes towards sustainability and climate change adaption and in turn inform changes to tertiary curriculum in sustainability and climate change adaption. Originality/value: The authors confirm that the research is original and that all of the data provided in this paper is real and authentic. As the paper reports on the third phase of the longitudinal study, some parts of the methodology have been previously published but differ as they reflect the third phase of the study. The results of this study have not been previously published. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper target at examining a model antecedents toward customer Citizenship behavior (CCB). specifically, the primary goal of the paper is looking for effect of brand experience, brand trust and as an antacedent that affects consumer citizenship behavior within the use of mobile wallets in Indonesia in 2020 and as a part research disertation of the writer's dissertation for doctoral studies at Brawijaya university. 460 people as respondents throughout Indonesia using the machin formula because the variety of respondents is not recognised with certainty. The result this research show that brand experience has a negative effect on customer citizenship behaviour, a path coefficient of -0.005, but not significant, P-Values 0.474 > a significance level of 0.05. Brand experience has a positive effect on brand trust with a path coefficient of 0.229 and is significant, with a P- Values of 0.013

In this paper we present an analysis of the asymptotic behavior of damped and forced harmonic oscillators considering the (x², x²) representation, we find that from the analysis of the asymptotic behavior of boundary conditions, taking as an example the case of damped and forced harmonic oscillators, which its possible infer the dynamical behavior in this region for more complex systems, such as the nonlinear oscillator described in section 5.Some implications of the asymptotic solution for this system are discussed at the end of this section. However, a more detailed analysis of the analytical behavior of this system would be beyond the scope of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of a growing adolescent population globally, it is imperative to understand which interventions will most effectively advance their sexual and reproductive health (SRH). In India and globally, peer education is often utilised as an intervention for promoting the SRH of young people. Globally, the evidence of its effectiveness is mixed. A systematic review of the literature from the Indian context gave insight into the knowledge, attitudinal, and behavioural (KAB) outcomes affected by peer education, as well as the inputs, coverage, content, and context of such interventions. Out of the over 1500 publications initially identified through the database and bibliographic searches, 13 were included in the review; no quality assessment was done, given the dearth of publications matching the inclusion criteria. Analysis of the included publications highlights the multiple ways that peer education is implemented in the Indian context, as part of multi-component programmes and as a stand-alone intervention. The KAB outcomes from these initiatives are mixed, with some multi-component and some stand-alone initiatives affecting statistically significant outcomes and others not–a finding consistent with global literature reviewed for this paper. Despite the mixed results and the limited effects of behaviour relative to knowledge, this paper proposes that peer education has a place in an overall response to improving the SRH of young people. It calls for better research on peer education in India, and for research in relation to the optimal conditions for peer education to succeed in affecting KAB and other outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• First paper to introduce rheological impact on particle migration in tape casting. • We couple the results of particle migration to drying of tape layers. • Comprehensive modelling of drying process of a ceramic layer. • Influence of varying rheological parameters on the drying process. In this paper we studied the migration of secondary particles in tape casting of a non-Newtonian ceramic slurry through a generalised local viscosity function in order to obtain the particle distribution along tape thickness. The particle distribution was then used to calculate porosity and permeability of the tapes. We, moreover, linked the aforementioned results to a coupled free-flow-porous-media model on the representative elementary volume (REV) scale for simulating room-temperature drying of the tapes with flow of a relatively dry air (relative humidity of 25%). Finally, we investigated the influence of rheological parameters, i.e. the power-law index, η , and the consistency factor, m , of a typical Ostwald–de Waele power-law fluid on the resultant drying behaviour of the tapes. The results showed that the low consistency and low power-law index values reduce the drying rate (slightly) as well as the final drying time, that favours the manufacturing of tapes by reducing the risk of crack initiation/growth in ceramics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between competition and innovation at the firm level. Recent papers (Aghion et al., 2005; Askenazy et al., 2013; Rafique Hashmi, 2013) advocate a non-linear relationship, conciliating the Schumpeterian and Arrowian views. In this paper, the effect of competition on innovation is studied at the firm level using a large dataset for France coming from the annual surveys on R&D, covering the period 2000–2013, where a dummy variable is available for product or process innovation. The econometric results do not confirm the inverted-U shape relationship between the Lerner index and innovation, found by Aghion et al. (2005). This may be due to the use of firm-level data rather than industry-level data. However, for most firms, there is a negative effect of competition on innovation, meaning that more competition in the industry or a small market share has a negative effect on the propensity to innovate, either in products or processes, and the effect seems to be slightly stronger for product than for process innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate the dynamical behaviour of a class of three species Lotka–Volterra competitive-competitive–cooperative models with feedback controls and time delays. By developing a new analysis technique, we obtain some sufficient conditions that ensure these models have the dynamical property of permanence. We also give some sufficient conditions that guarantee the global attractivity of positive solutions for this system by constructing a new suitable Lyapunov function. Finally, we give some numerical simulations to illustrate our results in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is known that wave equations have physically very important properties which should be respected by numerical schemes in order to predict correctly the solution over a long time period. In this paper, the long-time behaviour of momentum and actions for energy-preserving methods is analysed for semi-linear wave equations. A full discretisation of wave equations is derived and analysed by firstly using a spectral semi-discretisation in space and then by applying the adopted average vector field (AAVF) method in time. This numerical scheme can exactly preserve the energy of the semi-discrete system. The main theme of this paper is to analyse another important physical property of the scheme. It is shown that this scheme yields near conservation of a modified momentum and modified actions over long times. The results are rigorously proved based on the technique of modulated Fourier expansions in two stages. First, a multi-frequency modulated Fourier expansion of the AAVF method is constructed, and then two almost-invariants of the modulation system are derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to examine the commuting behaviour of self‐employed workers in Spain as well as its relationship with satisfaction with jobs and housing. According to our results although conventional estimations indicate that commuting trips are shorter among the self‐employed, the differences with employees vanish when the potential endogeneity of self‐employment is controlled for. We also show that the job and housing satisfaction levels of the self‐employed are less sensitive to commuting than those of employees, and that in fact no significant effect is observed for relevant segments of the former group, what gives partial support to the theoretical model that we propose where imperfect information problems affect the employees but not the self‐employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a method for generating optimum multi-level implementations of Boolean functions based on Satisfiability (SAT) and Pseudo-Boolean Optimization (PBO) problems solving. The method is able to generate one or enumerate all optimum implementations, while the allowed target gate types and gates costs can be arbitrarily specified. Polymorphic circuits represent a newly emerging computation paradigm, where one hardware structure is capable of performing two or more different intended functions, depending on instantaneous conditions in the target operating environment. In this paper we propose the first method ever, generating provably size-optimal polymorphic circuits. Scalability and feasibility of the method are documented by providing experimental results for all NPN-equivalence classes of four-input functions implemented in AND–Inverter and AND–XOR–Inverter logics without polymorphic behavior support being used and for all pairs of NPN–equivalence classes of three-input functions for polymorphic circuits. Finally, several smaller benchmark circuits were synthesized optimally, both in standard and polymorphic logics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce eye tracking as a method for capturing direct and indirect measures of online human information search behaviour. The unique contribution of eye-tracking data in studying information behaviour is examined in the context of health information research. Design/methodology/approach: The need for multiple methods of data collection when examining human online health information behaviour is described and summarised. The nature of human eye movements in information use and reading is outlined and the emergence and application of contemporary eye-tracking technology are explained. Findings: The paper summarises key contributions and insights that eye tracking has provided across multiple studies, with examples of both direct data on fixations and gaze durations as well as theoretical assessments of relevance and knowledge gain. Originality/value: The paper provides a basic introduction to the application of a unique method for information research in general and online health information search in particular and provides readers with an awareness of how such data are captured and interpreted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to model the size-dependent thermo-mechanical behaviors of a shape memory polymer (SMP) microbeam. Size-dependent constitutive equations, which can capture the size effect of the SMP, are proposed based on the modified couple stress theory (MCST). The deformation energy expression of the SMP microbeam is obtained by employing the proposed size-dependent constitutive equation and Bernoulli-Euler beam theory. An SMP microbeam model, which includes the formulations of deflection, strain, curvature, stress and couple stress, is developed by using the principle of minimum potential energy and the separation of variables together. The size-dependent thermo-mechanical and shape memory behaviors of the SMP microbeam and the influence of the Poisson ratio are numerically investigated according to the developed SMP microbeam model. Results show that the size effects of the SMP microbeam are significant when the dimensionless height is small enough. However, they are too slight to be necessarily considered when the dimensionless height is large enough. The bending flexibility and stress level of the SMP microbeam rise with the increasing dimensionless height, while the couple stress level declines with the increasing dimensionless height. The larger the dimensionless height is, the more obvious the viscous property and shape memory effect of the SMP microbeam are. The Poisson ratio has obvious influence on the size-dependent behaviors of the SMP microbeam. The paper provides a theoretical basis and a quantitatively analyzing tool for the design and analysis of SMP micro-structures in the field of biological medicine, microelectronic devices and micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) self-assembling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]