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Trustworthy federated learning typically leverages protection mechanisms to guarantee privacy. However, protection mechanisms inevitably introduce utility loss or efficiency reduction while protecting data privacy. Therefore, protection mechanisms and their parameters should be carefully chosen to strike an optimal tradeoff among privacy leakage, utility loss, and efficiency reduction. To this end, federated learning practitioners need tools to measure the three factors and optimize the tradeoff between them to choose the protection mechanism that is most appropriate to the application at hand. Motivated by this requirement, we propose a framework that (1) formulates trustworthy federated learning as a problem of finding a protection mechanism to optimize the tradeoff among privacy leakage, utility loss, and efficiency reduction and (2) formally defines bounded measurements of the three factors. We then propose a meta-learning algorithm to approximate this optimization problem and find optimal protection parameters for representative protection mechanisms, including randomization, homomorphic encryption, secret sharing, and compression. We further design estimation algorithms to quantify these found optimal protection parameters in a practical horizontal federated learning setting and provide a theoretical analysis of the estimation error. © 2024 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM.

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) offer integrated resolutions for various applications by combining computer and physical components and enabling individual machines to work together for much more excellent benefits. The ad hoc-based CPS provides a promising architecture due to its decentralized nature and destructiveresistance. A growing number of information leakage events in CPSs and the following serious consequences have aroused ubiquitous concern about information security. In this article, we combine physical layer security solutions and millimeter-wave (mmWave) techniques to safeguard the ad hoc network and investigate the reliability-security tradeoff by taking user demands for the network into account, where eavesdroppers attempt to intercept messages. For the secrecy enhancements, we adopt an artificial noise (AN) assisted transmission scheme, in which AN is employed to create non-cancellable interference to eavesdroppers. The reliability and security are correspondingly characterized by the connection outage probability and secrecy outage probability, and their analytical expressions of them are attained through theoretical analysis for the purpose of the tradeoff issue discussion. Our results reveal that secrecy performance in mmWave ad hoc networks gains significant improvement through the use of AN. It also shows that given total transmit power, there exists a tradeoff between reliability and security to achieve optimal outage performance., QC 20240502

Childhood adversity can have wide-ranging and long-lasting effects on later life. But what are the mechanisms that are responsible for these effects? This article brings together the cognitive science literature on explore–exploit tradeoffs, the empirical literature on early adversity, and the literature in evolutionary biology on ‘life history’ to explain how early experience influences later life. We propose one potential mechanism: early experiences influence ‘hyperparameters’ that determine the balance between exploration and exploitation. Adversity might ac- celerate a shift from exploration to exploitation, with broad and enduring effects on the adult brain and mind. These effects may be produced by life-history adap- tations that use early experience to tailor development and learning to the likely future states of an organism and its environment.

Purpose: Startups have significant differences compared to other companies. They have many intangible assets (e.g., team tenure and experience of founders), are risky, and tend not to generate profits in their initial years (Heirman & Clarysse, 2007; Weber & Zulehner, 2009). Does the startups’ financing choice also differ from that of traditional companies? We analyzed the capital structure of startups in their first years of life based on the classic tradeoff and pecking order theories. Methodology/approach: We collected data on 40 startups in the city of Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil, through a questionnaire on the profiles of the founders, company characteristics, bottom-line performance and financing sources. The data collected covered the year of founding and the three subsequent years. Findings: The results indicated that these startups mainly financed themselves through the founders’ capital in all four years covered. Only in the third year did they start using resources generated internally, indicating pecking order adherence. However, the presence of angel investors and government subsidies contrasted with the absence of bank debt. In line with the tradeoff theory, bank debt was not a viable financing option in the early years of these firms since they had low profitability and high risk. Theoretical/methodological contributions: We offer a theoretical contribution by analyzing the adequacy of traditional financial theories in the specific context of startups. Originality: The finance literature about startups is scarce, and few studies have analyzed these companies from the capital structure theoretical perspective. Social contributions / for management: We provide a panorama of the financing of startups to support their financial planning regarding fundraising., Objetivo: As startups apresentam diferenças significativas em relação às organizações tradicionais. Elas têm muitos ativos intangíveis, são arriscadas e tendem a não gerar lucros em seus anos iniciais (Heirman & Clarysse, 2007; Weber & Zulehner, 2009). A escolha de financiamento das startups também seria diferente das empresas tradicionais? Nosso objetivo é analisar a estrutura de capital de startups em seus primeiros anos de vida com base nas teorias clássicas de tradeoff e pecking order. Metodologia/abordagem: Coletamos dados de 40 startups na cidade de Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brasil, por meio de um questionário sobre o perfil dos fundadores, características das empresas, desempenho financeiro e fontes de financiamento. Os dados coletados abrangeram o ano de fundação da empresa e os três anos subsequentes. Resultados: Os resultados indicaram que as startups analisadas se financiaram principalmente por meio de capital dos fundadores em todos os quatro anos analisados. Somente no terceiro ano elas passaram a utilizar os recursos gerados internamente, indicando uma adesão à pecking order. No entanto, a presença de investidores-anjo e recursos subsidiados contrastou com a ausência de dívida bancária. Em consonância com a teoria do tradeoff, a dívida bancária não era uma opção viável de financiamento nos primeiros anos dessas empresas por apresentarem baixa rentabilidade e alto risco. Contribuições teóricas/metodológicas: Oferecemos uma contribuição teórica analisando a adequação das teorias financeiras tradicionais ao contexto específico das startups. Originalidade: A literatura de finanças sobre startup é escassa e poucos estudos analisaram essas empresas sob a ótica das teorias de estrutura de capital. Contribuições sociais / para gestão: Fornecemos um panorama do financiamento de startups para apoiar seu planejamento financeiro no que tange à obtenção de recursos., Objetivo: Las startups tienen diferencias significativas con las organizaciones tradicionales. Tienen muchos activos intangibles, son riesgosos y tienden a no generar ganancias en sus primeros años (Heirman & Clarysse, 2007; Weber & Zulehner, 2009). ¿La elección de financiación de las startups también sería diferente de las empresas tradicionales? Nuestro objetivo es analizar la estructura de capital de las startups en sus primeros años de vida en función de las teorías clásicas de tradeoff e pecking order. Metodología/enfoque: Recolectamos datos de 40 startups en la ciudad de Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brasil, a través de un cuestionario sobre el perfil de los fundadores, características de las empresas, su desempeño final y fuentes de financiamiento. Los datos recogidos abarcaron el año de fundación y los tres años posteriores. Resultados: Los resultados indicaron que estas nuevas empresas se financiaron principalmente a través del capital de los fundadores en los cuatro años cubiertos. Solo en el tercer año comenzaron a utilizar recursos generados internamente, lo que indica adherencia al pecking order. Sin embargo, la presencia de ángeles inversionistas y recursos subsidiados contrastó con la ausencia de deuda bancaria. De acuerdo con la teoría del trade-off, la deuda bancaria no era una opción de financiación viable en los primeros años de estas empresas debido a su baja rentabilidad y alto riesgo. Aportaciones teóricas/metodológicas: Ofrecemos una aportación teórica analizando la adecuación de las teorías financieras tradicionales al contexto específico de las startups. Originalidad: La literatura financiera sobre startups es escasa y pocos estudios han analizado estas empresas desde la perspectiva de las teorías de estructura de capital. Contribuciones sociales / de gestión: brindamos una descripción general de la financiación inicial para respaldar su planificación financiera con respecto a la recaudación de fondos.

Blockchain is a secured, shared, and distributed ledger system that records and tracks resources without requiring a centrally trusted authority. In addition to cryptocurrency, blockchain can be used for supply chain, logistics, healthcare, energy industries, and other financial services. However, blockchain technology faces several challenges, including energy consumption, security risks, governance, performance, and scalability. Hence, the government and private sectors are yet to consider blockchain-based solutions as a sustainable approach to building their business models. Addressing these challenges will enable blockchain technology to reach its full potential and become a transformative force in various industries. Scalability is a major challenge in blockchain, as reaching consensus when there is a large number of participating nodes requires significant computational power or complex repetitive communications among the nodes. This issue could be addressed with blockchain sharding. This thesis investigates various opportunities, challenges, and tradeoffs related to blockchain technologies. Based on the governance model and quality attributes, we provide a tradeoff analysis considering technical properties, such as the performance and important architectural considerations about blockchain systems. Furthermore, we address the scalability issues regarding traditional blockchain solutions and identify the possibilities of sharding solutions to improve the performance and scalability of blockchain. Sharding is a technique to improve scalability by dividing the network into smaller parts called shards. Sharding allows blockchain networks to process more transactions per second (TPS) by distributing the workload across different nodes in the network. While sharding can improve the scalability of blockchain networks, it introduces some new challenges due to the consensus process and the requirements to maintain consistency between shards, which are part of our stud

Ecosystem management aims at providing many ecosystem services simultaneously. Such ecosystem service multifunctionality can be limited by tradeoffs and increased by synergies among the underlying ecosystem functions (EF), which need to be understood to develop targeted management. Previous studies found differences in the correlation between EFs. We hypothesised that correlations between EFs are variable even under the controlled conditions of a field experiment and that seasonal and annual variation, plant species richness, and plot identity (identity effects of plots, such as the presence and proportion of functional groups) are drivers of these correlations. We used data on 31 EFs related to plants, consumers, and physical soil properties that were measured over 5 to 19 years, up to three times per year, in a temperate grassland experiment with 80 different plots, constituting six sown plant species richness levels (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 60 species). We found that correlations between pairs of EFs were variable, and correlations between two particular EFs could range from weak to strong or negative to positive correlations among the repeated measurements. To determine the drivers of pairwise EF correlations, the covariance between EFs was partitioned into contributions from species richness, plot identity, and time (including years and seasons). We found that most of the covariance for synergies was explained by species richness (26.5%), whereas for tradeoffs, most covariance was explained by plot identity (29.5%). Additionally, some EF pairs were more affected by differences among years and seasons, showing a higher temporal variation. Therefore, correlations between two EFs from single measurements are insufficient to draw conclusions on tradeoffs and synergies. Consequently, pairs of EFs need to be measured repeatedly under different conditions to describe their relationships with more certainty and be able to derive recommendations for the management of grasslands

The mechanisms underlying diversity-functioning relationships have been a consistent area of inquiry in biogeochemistry since the 1950s. Though these mechanisms remain unresolved in soil microbiomes, many approaches at varying scales have pointed to the same notion—composition matters. Confronting the methodological challenge arising from the complexity of microbiomes, this study used the model DEMENTpy, a trait-based modeling framework, to explore trait-based drivers of microbiome-dependent litter decomposition. We parameterized DEMENTpy for five sites along a climate gradient in Southern California, United States, and conducted reciprocal transplant simulations analogous to a prior empirical study. The simulations demonstrated climate-dependent legacy effects of microbial communities on plant litter decomposition across the gradient. This result is consistent with the previous empirical study across the same gradient. An analysis of community-level traits further suggests that a 3-way tradeoff among resource acquisition, stress tolerance, and yield strategies influences community assembly. Simulated litter decomposition was predictable with two community traits (indicative of two of the three strategies) plus local environment, regardless of the system state (transient vs. equilibrium). Although more empirical confirmation is still needed, community traits plus local environmental factors (e.g., environment and litter chemistry) may robustly predict litter decomposition across spatial-temporal scales. In conclusion, this study offers a potential trait-based explanation for climate-dependent community effects on litter decomposition with implications for improved understanding of whole-ecosystem functioning across scales.

The mechanisms underlying diversity-functioning relationships have been a consistent area of inquiry in biogeochemistry since the 1950s. Though these mechanisms remain unresolved in soil microbiomes, many approaches at varying scales have pointed to the same notion—composition matters. Confronting the methodological challenge arising from the complexity of microbiomes, this study used the model DEMENTpy, a trait-based modeling framework, to explore trait-based drivers of microbiome-dependent litter decomposition. We parameterized DEMENTpy for five sites along a climate gradient in Southern California, United States, and conducted reciprocal transplant simulations analogous to a prior empirical study. The simulations demonstrated climate-dependent legacy effects of microbial communities on plant litter decomposition across the gradient. This result is consistent with the previous empirical study across the same gradient. An analysis of community-level traits further suggests that a 3-way tradeoff among resource acquisition, stress tolerance, and yield strategies influences community assembly. Simulated litter decomposition was predictable with two community traits (indicative of two of the three strategies) plus local environment, regardless of the system state (transient vs. equilibrium). Although more empirical confirmation is still needed, community traits plus local environmental factors (e.g., environment and litter chemistry) may robustly predict litter decomposition across spatial-temporal scales. In conclusion, this study offers a potential trait-based explanation for climate-dependent community effects on litter decomposition with implications for improved understanding of whole-ecosystem functioning across scales.

An economy’s shift towards climate neutrality requires a massive expansion of renewable energy production. Next to wind, photovoltaic (PV) and biomass will be key renewable resources in many regions. A land-use change to PV increases local electricity production, but influences regional water and biomass availability. However, a regional quantitative guideline on biomass-PV tradeoffs on all agricultural fields under food–water–energy (FWE) nexus thinking is still missing. This work presents a comprehensive bottom-up interdependency assessment between ground-mounted PV and biomass generation on a regional scale by integrating independently established methods based on consistent input data at spatial field resolution. Furthermore, impacts on food and water availability are also quantified. Four scenarios were set up based on current policies and future trend, emphasizing PV yield, feasibility, profit, and biomass yields, respectively. The assessment and scenarios are applied to three representative German counties with distinguished land-use structures and geometries as case studies. Scenario analysis shows that the optimal technical strategy is to free the market letting individuals to maximize revenue from their lands, which likely simultaneously is good for society, achieves high PV yields with limited biomass losses, and has more significant crop water saving effects.

We develop data structures for intersection detection queries in four dimensions that involve segments, triangles and tetrahedra. Specifically, we study two main problems: (i) Preprocess a set of n tetrahedra in {ℝ}⁴ into a data structure for answering segment-intersection queries amid the given tetrahedra (referred to as segment-tetrahedron intersection queries), and (ii) Preprocess a set of n triangles in {ℝ}⁴ into a data structure that supports triangle-intersection queries amid the input triangles (referred to as triangle-triangle intersection queries). As far as we can tell, these problems have not been previously studied. For problem (i), we first present a "standard" solution which, for any prespecified value n ≤ s ≤ n⁶ of a so-called storage parameter s, yields a data structure with O^*(s) storage and expected preprocessing, which answers an intersection query in O^*(n/s^{1/6}) time (here and in what follows, the O^*(⋅) notation hides subpolynomial factors). For problem (ii), using similar arguments, we present a solution that has the same asymptotic performance bounds. We then improve the solution for problem (i), and present a more intricate data structure that uses O^*(n²) storage and expected preprocessing, and answers a segment-tetrahedron intersection query in O^*(n^{1/2}) time. Using the parametric search technique of Agarwal and Matoušek [P. K. Agarwal and J. Matoušek, 1993], we can obtain data structures with similar performance bounds for the ray-shooting problem amid tetrahedra in {ℝ}⁴. Unfortunately, so far we do not know how to obtain a similar improvement for problem (ii). Our algorithms are based on a primal-dual technique for range searching with semi-algebraic sets, based on recent advances in this area [P. K. Agarwal et al., 2021; J. Matoušek and Z. Patáková, 2015]. As this is a result of independent interest, we spell out the details of this technique. As an application, we present a solution to the problem of "continuous collision detecti

One of the greatest challenges of today is to change our behavior to act more pro-environmentally to reduce global warming. We need to make sacrifices for the environment, e.g., use a means of transportation that take a longer time but causes less CO2 emission. The present thesis aims to study different factors (intrinsic, extrinsic motivational, and extrinsic motivational-neutral information) that influence us when making tradeoffs between self and environment. Paper I examined how an anchor (a reference price) and an ecolabel influence price judgments. It was found that both a judgment of an objective fact (product price) and a subjective preference (willingness to pay for the product) were affected by an anchor. An eco-label resulted in higher judgments of objective facts. People with higher environmental concern were more affected by an anchor when stating their willingness to pay than their low concern counterparts. In Paper II and Paper III, an interaction between a high anchor and a normative message that put the emissions into context was found when making a tradeoff between CO2 emissions and travel time for a flight (Paper II) or a car journey (Paper III). People with higher concern for the environment gave a longer travel time when they received a high anchor (Paper II and Paper III) or no anchor (Paper III). Paper IV investigated how a survey measuring environmental concern can be divided to different indices and how they predict answers in a tradeoff task. The result suggests that a two-factor structure divided into ecocentric and anthropocentric concern is a possible alternative and that people scoring higher on any of the environmental concern indices were willing to travel for a longer time. Taken together, the results show that normative messages, anchors, and concern for the environment are factors that can influence and interact when people make tradeoffs between self and environment in environmental judgment and decision making., En av dagens utmaningar är att få oss att förändra vårt beteende för att minska den globala uppvärmningen. Ofta krävs uppoffringar, till exempel att välja ett transportmedel som tar längre tid men som släpper ut mindre CO2. I den här avhandlingen studeras faktorer (inre och yttre motivation och yttre motivationsneutral information) som påverkar oss när vi gör avvägningar mellan vad som är bra för oss själva respektive miljön. I artikel I undersöktes hur ett ankare (ett referenspris) och ekologisk märkning påverkade prisbedömning. Det visades att både bedömningen av objektiva fakta (produktens pris) och subjektiv preferens (betalningsviljan för produkten) påverkades av förankring. Den ekologiska märkningen resulterade i en högre bedömning av produktens pris. Personer med högre miljöoro var mer påverkade av förankring när de berättade hur mycket de skulle vara villiga att betala för produkten. I artikel II och artikel III interagerade det höga ankaret med ett normativt budskap som satte koldioxidutsläppen i en kontext. Deltagarna gjorde en tradeoff mellan CO2-utsläpp och restid för en flygresa i artikel II respektive bilresa i artikel III. Personer med högre miljöoro var villiga att resa under en längre tid när de fick ett högt ankare (artikel II och artikel III) eller inget ankare (artikel III). I artikel IV undersöktes hur frågor som mäter miljöoro kan delas in i olika index och hur väl de predicerar svar på en avvägningsuppgift. Resultatet visar att en tvåfaktorsstruktur uppdelad på ekocentrisk och antropocentrisk miljöoro är möjlig, samt att människor med högre oro för miljön enligt något av indexen är villiga att resa under en längre tid. Sammanfattningsvis visar resultaten att normativa budskap, förankring och miljöoro är faktorer som kan påverka och interagera när människor gör avvägningar mellan sig själv och miljön i miljöbedömning och beslut.

One of the greatest challenges of today is to change our behavior to act more pro-environmentally to reduce global warming. We need to make sacrifices for the environment, e.g., use a means of transportation that take a longer time but causes less CO2 emission. The present thesis aims to study different factors (intrinsic, extrinsic motivational, and extrinsic motivational-neutral information) that influence us when making tradeoffs between self and environment. Paper I examined how an anchor (a reference price) and an ecolabel influence price judgments. It was found that both a judgment of an objective fact (product price) and a subjective preference (willingness to pay for the product) were affected by an anchor. An eco-label resulted in higher judgments of objective facts. People with higher environmental concern were more affected by an anchor when stating their willingness to pay than their low concern counterparts. In Paper II and Paper III, an interaction between a high anchor and a normative message that put the emissions into context was found when making a tradeoff between CO2 emissions and travel time for a flight (Paper II) or a car journey (Paper III). People with higher concern for the environment gave a longer travel time when they received a high anchor (Paper II and Paper III) or no anchor (Paper III). Paper IV investigated how a survey measuring environmental concern can be divided to different indices and how they predict answers in a tradeoff task. The result suggests that a two-factor structure divided into ecocentric and anthropocentric concern is a possible alternative and that people scoring higher on any of the environmental concern indices were willing to travel for a longer time. Taken together, the results show that normative messages, anchors, and concern for the environment are factors that can influence and interact when people make tradeoffs between self and environment in environmental judgment and decision making., En av dagens utmaningar är att få oss att förändra vårt beteende för att minska den globala uppvärmningen. Ofta krävs uppoffringar, till exempel att välja ett transportmedel som tar längre tid men som släpper ut mindre CO2. I den här avhandlingen studeras faktorer (inre och yttre motivation och yttre motivationsneutral information) som påverkar oss när vi gör avvägningar mellan vad som är bra för oss själva respektive miljön. I artikel I undersöktes hur ett ankare (ett referenspris) och ekologisk märkning påverkade prisbedömning. Det visades att både bedömningen av objektiva fakta (produktens pris) och subjektiv preferens (betalningsviljan för produkten) påverkades av förankring. Den ekologiska märkningen resulterade i en högre bedömning av produktens pris. Personer med högre miljöoro var mer påverkade av förankring när de berättade hur mycket de skulle vara villiga att betala för produkten. I artikel II och artikel III interagerade det höga ankaret med ett normativt budskap som satte koldioxidutsläppen i en kontext. Deltagarna gjorde en tradeoff mellan CO2-utsläpp och restid för en flygresa i artikel II respektive bilresa i artikel III. Personer med högre miljöoro var villiga att resa under en längre tid när de fick ett högt ankare (artikel II och artikel III) eller inget ankare (artikel III). I artikel IV undersöktes hur frågor som mäter miljöoro kan delas in i olika index och hur väl de predicerar svar på en avvägningsuppgift. Resultatet visar att en tvåfaktorsstruktur uppdelad på ekocentrisk och antropocentrisk miljöoro är möjlig, samt att människor med högre oro för miljön enligt något av indexen är villiga att resa under en längre tid. Sammanfattningsvis visar resultaten att normativa budskap, förankring och miljöoro är faktorer som kan påverka och interagera när människor gör avvägningar mellan sig själv och miljön i miljöbedömning och beslut.

One of the greatest challenges of today is to change our behavior to act more pro-environmentally to reduce global warming. We need to make sacrifices for the environment, e.g., use a means of transportation that take a longer time but causes less CO2 emission. The present thesis aims to study different factors (intrinsic, extrinsic motivational, and extrinsic motivational-neutral information) that influence us when making tradeoffs between self and environment. Paper I examined how an anchor (a reference price) and an ecolabel influence price judgments. It was found that both a judgment of an objective fact (product price) and a subjective preference (willingness to pay for the product) were affected by an anchor. An eco-label resulted in higher judgments of objective facts. People with higher environmental concern were more affected by an anchor when stating their willingness to pay than their low concern counterparts. In Paper II and Paper III, an interaction between a high anchor and a normative message that put the emissions into context was found when making a tradeoff between CO2 emissions and travel time for a flight (Paper II) or a car journey (Paper III). People with higher concern for the environment gave a longer travel time when they received a high anchor (Paper II and Paper III) or no anchor (Paper III). Paper IV investigated how a survey measuring environmental concern can be divided to different indices and how they predict answers in a tradeoff task. The result suggests that a two-factor structure divided into ecocentric and anthropocentric concern is a possible alternative and that people scoring higher on any of the environmental concern indices were willing to travel for a longer time. Taken together, the results show that normative messages, anchors, and concern for the environment are factors that can influence and interact when people make tradeoffs between self and environment in environmental judgment and decision making., En av dagens utmaningar är att få oss att förändra vårt beteende för att minska den globala uppvärmningen. Ofta krävs uppoffringar, till exempel att välja ett transportmedel som tar längre tid men som släpper ut mindre CO2. I den här avhandlingen studeras faktorer (inre och yttre motivation och yttre motivationsneutral information) som påverkar oss när vi gör avvägningar mellan vad som är bra för oss själva respektive miljön. I artikel I undersöktes hur ett ankare (ett referenspris) och ekologisk märkning påverkade prisbedömning. Det visades att både bedömningen av objektiva fakta (produktens pris) och subjektiv preferens (betalningsviljan för produkten) påverkades av förankring. Den ekologiska märkningen resulterade i en högre bedömning av produktens pris. Personer med högre miljöoro var mer påverkade av förankring när de berättade hur mycket de skulle vara villiga att betala för produkten. I artikel II och artikel III interagerade det höga ankaret med ett normativt budskap som satte koldioxidutsläppen i en kontext. Deltagarna gjorde en tradeoff mellan CO2-utsläpp och restid för en flygresa i artikel II respektive bilresa i artikel III. Personer med högre miljöoro var villiga att resa under en längre tid när de fick ett högt ankare (artikel II och artikel III) eller inget ankare (artikel III). I artikel IV undersöktes hur frågor som mäter miljöoro kan delas in i olika index och hur väl de predicerar svar på en avvägningsuppgift. Resultatet visar att en tvåfaktorsstruktur uppdelad på ekocentrisk och antropocentrisk miljöoro är möjlig, samt att människor med högre oro för miljön enligt något av indexen är villiga att resa under en längre tid. Sammanfattningsvis visar resultaten att normativa budskap, förankring och miljöoro är faktorer som kan påverka och interagera när människor gör avvägningar mellan sig själv och miljön i miljöbedömning och beslut.

One of the greatest challenges of today is to change our behavior to act more pro-environmentally to reduce global warming. We need to make sacrifices for the environment, e.g., use a means of transportation that take a longer time but causes less CO2 emission. The present thesis aims to study different factors (intrinsic, extrinsic motivational, and extrinsic motivational-neutral information) that influence us when making tradeoffs between self and environment. Paper I examined how an anchor (a reference price) and an ecolabel influence price judgments. It was found that both a judgment of an objective fact (product price) and a subjective preference (willingness to pay for the product) were affected by an anchor. An eco-label resulted in higher judgments of objective facts. People with higher environmental concern were more affected by an anchor when stating their willingness to pay than their low concern counterparts. In Paper II and Paper III, an interaction between a high anchor and a normative message that put the emissions into context was found when making a tradeoff between CO2 emissions and travel time for a flight (Paper II) or a car journey (Paper III). People with higher concern for the environment gave a longer travel time when they received a high anchor (Paper II and Paper III) or no anchor (Paper III). Paper IV investigated how a survey measuring environmental concern can be divided to different indices and how they predict answers in a tradeoff task. The result suggests that a two-factor structure divided into ecocentric and anthropocentric concern is a possible alternative and that people scoring higher on any of the environmental concern indices were willing to travel for a longer time. Taken together, the results show that normative messages, anchors, and concern for the environment are factors that can influence and interact when people make tradeoffs between self and environment in environmental judgment and decision making., En av dagens utmaningar är att få oss att förändra vårt beteende för att minska den globala uppvärmningen. Ofta krävs uppoffringar, till exempel att välja ett transportmedel som tar längre tid men som släpper ut mindre CO2. I den här avhandlingen studeras faktorer (inre och yttre motivation och yttre motivationsneutral information) som påverkar oss när vi gör avvägningar mellan vad som är bra för oss själva respektive miljön. I artikel I undersöktes hur ett ankare (ett referenspris) och ekologisk märkning påverkade prisbedömning. Det visades att både bedömningen av objektiva fakta (produktens pris) och subjektiv preferens (betalningsviljan för produkten) påverkades av förankring. Den ekologiska märkningen resulterade i en högre bedömning av produktens pris. Personer med högre miljöoro var mer påverkade av förankring när de berättade hur mycket de skulle vara villiga att betala för produkten. I artikel II och artikel III interagerade det höga ankaret med ett normativt budskap som satte koldioxidutsläppen i en kontext. Deltagarna gjorde en tradeoff mellan CO2-utsläpp och restid för en flygresa i artikel II respektive bilresa i artikel III. Personer med högre miljöoro var villiga att resa under en längre tid när de fick ett högt ankare (artikel II och artikel III) eller inget ankare (artikel III). I artikel IV undersöktes hur frågor som mäter miljöoro kan delas in i olika index och hur väl de predicerar svar på en avvägningsuppgift. Resultatet visar att en tvåfaktorsstruktur uppdelad på ekocentrisk och antropocentrisk miljöoro är möjlig, samt att människor med högre oro för miljön enligt något av indexen är villiga att resa under en längre tid. Sammanfattningsvis visar resultaten att normativa budskap, förankring och miljöoro är faktorer som kan påverka och interagera när människor gör avvägningar mellan sig själv och miljön i miljöbedömning och beslut.

One of the greatest challenges of today is to change our behavior to act more pro-environmentally to reduce global warming. We need to make sacrifices for the environment, e.g., use a means of transportation that take a longer time but causes less CO2 emission. The present thesis aims to study different factors (intrinsic, extrinsic motivational, and extrinsic motivational-neutral information) that influence us when making tradeoffs between self and environment. Paper I examined how an anchor (a reference price) and an ecolabel influence price judgments. It was found that both a judgment of an objective fact (product price) and a subjective preference (willingness to pay for the product) were affected by an anchor. An eco-label resulted in higher judgments of objective facts. People with higher environmental concern were more affected by an anchor when stating their willingness to pay than their low concern counterparts. In Paper II and Paper III, an interaction between a high anchor and a normative message that put the emissions into context was found when making a tradeoff between CO2 emissions and travel time for a flight (Paper II) or a car journey (Paper III). People with higher concern for the environment gave a longer travel time when they received a high anchor (Paper II and Paper III) or no anchor (Paper III). Paper IV investigated how a survey measuring environmental concern can be divided to different indices and how they predict answers in a tradeoff task. The result suggests that a two-factor structure divided into ecocentric and anthropocentric concern is a possible alternative and that people scoring higher on any of the environmental concern indices were willing to travel for a longer time. Taken together, the results show that normative messages, anchors, and concern for the environment are factors that can influence and interact when people make tradeoffs between self and environment in environmental judgment and decision making., En av dagens utmaningar är att få oss att förändra vårt beteende för att minska den globala uppvärmningen. Ofta krävs uppoffringar, till exempel att välja ett transportmedel som tar längre tid men som släpper ut mindre CO2. I den här avhandlingen studeras faktorer (inre och yttre motivation och yttre motivationsneutral information) som påverkar oss när vi gör avvägningar mellan vad som är bra för oss själva respektive miljön. I artikel I undersöktes hur ett ankare (ett referenspris) och ekologisk märkning påverkade prisbedömning. Det visades att både bedömningen av objektiva fakta (produktens pris) och subjektiv preferens (betalningsviljan för produkten) påverkades av förankring. Den ekologiska märkningen resulterade i en högre bedömning av produktens pris. Personer med högre miljöoro var mer påverkade av förankring när de berättade hur mycket de skulle vara villiga att betala för produkten. I artikel II och artikel III interagerade det höga ankaret med ett normativt budskap som satte koldioxidutsläppen i en kontext. Deltagarna gjorde en tradeoff mellan CO2-utsläpp och restid för en flygresa i artikel II respektive bilresa i artikel III. Personer med högre miljöoro var villiga att resa under en längre tid när de fick ett högt ankare (artikel II och artikel III) eller inget ankare (artikel III). I artikel IV undersöktes hur frågor som mäter miljöoro kan delas in i olika index och hur väl de predicerar svar på en avvägningsuppgift. Resultatet visar att en tvåfaktorsstruktur uppdelad på ekocentrisk och antropocentrisk miljöoro är möjlig, samt att människor med högre oro för miljön enligt något av indexen är villiga att resa under en längre tid. Sammanfattningsvis visar resultaten att normativa budskap, förankring och miljöoro är faktorer som kan påverka och interagera när människor gör avvägningar mellan sig själv och miljön i miljöbedömning och beslut.

Plants possess an effective immune system to combat most microbial attackers. The activation of immune responses to biotrophic pathogens requires the hormone salicylic acid (SA). Accumulation of SA triggers a plethora of immune responses (like massive transcriptional reprogramming, cell wall strengthening, and production of secondary metabolites and antimicrobial proteins). A tradeoff of strong immune responses is the active suppression of plant growth and development. The tradeoff also works the opposite way, where active growth and developmental processes suppress SA production and immune responses. Here, we review research on the role of SA in the growth–immunity tradeoff and examples of how the tradeoff can be bypassed. This knowledge will be instrumental in resistance breeding of crops with optimal growth and effective immunity.

Earth's temperature is rising, and with this increase, fungal communities are responding and affecting soil carbon processes. At a long-term soil-warming experiment in a boreal forest in interior Alaska, warming and warming-associated drying alters the function of microbes, and thus, decomposition of carbon. But what genetic mechanisms and resource allocation strategies are behind these community shifts and soil carbon changes? Here, we evaluate fungal resource allocation efforts under long-term experimental warming (including associated drying) using soil metatranscriptomics. We profiled resource allocation efforts toward decomposition and cell metabolic maintenance, and we characterized community composition. We found that under the warming treatment, fungi allocate resources to cell metabolic maintenance at the expense of allocating resources to decomposition. In addition, we found that fungal orders that house taxa with stress-tolerant traits were more abundant under the warmed treatment compared to control conditions. Our results suggest that the warming treatment elicits an ecological tradeoff in resource allocation in the fungal communities, with potential to change ecosystem-scale carbon dynamics. Fungi preferentially invest in mechanisms that will ensure survival under warming and drying, such as cell metabolic maintenance, rather than in decomposition. Through metatranscriptomes, we provide mechanistic insight behind the response of fungi to climate change and consequences to soil carbon processes.

Dispersal is expected to evolve as an adaptive mechanism to optimize individual fitness across the landscape. While there is evidence that active dispersers base emigration decisions (i.e., stay vs. leave) on perceived costs associated with environmental variation and inbreeding, it is less well understood how and whether these same factors influence dispersal distances– a more comprehensive measure of dispersal. More generally, the challenge of quantifying dispersal in the field has resulted in a paucity of data on the fate and fitness of dispersing individuals, leaving us with little understanding of the factors influencing individual variation in dispersal distance. In my dissertation, I use a combination of morphological, performance, demographic, and genetic data to understand the selective forces shaping variation in dispersal distances in the stream salamander Gyrinophilus porphyriticus. I found that phenotypic attributes that facilitate long-distance dispersal restrict other locomotor performances. Specifically, salamanders that dispersed farther in the field had longer forelimbs, but swam at slower velocities under experimental conditions. These results suggest that salamanders disperse by walking, and that longer limbs may lower the cost of transport by increasing stride length. Longer limbs also impose more drag, potentially explaining the reduced swimming performance of long-distance dispersers. These results are novel in demonstrating a trade-off associated with variation in dispersal distance, and, more broadly, suggest that this and other trade-offs associated with continuous variation in dispersal distance may constrain dispersal evolution. I show that large-scale, long-term environmental variation – reflected in survival probabilities of G. porphyriticus – better predicts dispersal distances than current, local variation in habitat quality. These results provide the first empirical support for early theory that treated dispersal as an innate, ‘fixed

Earth's temperature is rising, and with this increase, fungal communities are responding and affecting soil carbon processes. At a long-term soil-warming experiment in a boreal forest in interior Alaska, warming and warming-associated drying alters the function of microbes, and thus, decomposition of carbon. But what genetic mechanisms and resource allocation strategies are behind these community shifts and soil carbon changes? Here, we evaluate fungal resource allocation efforts under long-term experimental warming (including associated drying) using soil metatranscriptomics. We profiled resource allocation efforts toward decomposition and cell metabolic maintenance, and we characterized community composition. We found that under the warming treatment, fungi allocate resources to cell metabolic maintenance at the expense of allocating resources to decomposition. In addition, we found that fungal orders that house taxa with stress-tolerant traits were more abundant under the warmed treatment compared to control conditions. Our results suggest that the warming treatment elicits an ecological tradeoff in resource allocation in the fungal communities, with potential to change ecosystem-scale carbon dynamics. Fungi preferentially invest in mechanisms that will ensure survival under warming and drying, such as cell metabolic maintenance, rather than in decomposition. Through metatranscriptomes, we provide mechanistic insight behind the response of fungi to climate change and consequences to soil carbon processes.

Non-native tree plantations (NNTP) are an increasingly relevant global source of timber. Their expansion may lead to tradeoffs with important local ecosystem services (ES) that need to be evaluated for a sound and sustainable landscape planning. For a mountain area in southern Chile, we assessed the effects of NNTP expansion and potential NNTP timber-ES tradeoffs through a spatial tradeoff typology based on ES supply variations. We evaluated changes in prioritized ES (native timber supply, forage supply, water regulation, and recreation opportunities) and NNTP timber supply based on a probabilistic projection of NNTP expansion at two administrative levels (the municipality and small, medium and large farm properties). Results show that NNTP expansion triggered an increase of 361% in NNTP timber supply at the expense of decreases in provision of selected ES, such as forage supply (16.3%), native timber supply (9.4%), water regulation (0.4%) and recreation opportunities (66.8%). Tradeoffs were restricted to small geographic areas but were considerably high in terms of the magnitude of ES supply losses. Tradeoffs were highest in medium farms as compared to small and large properties. Results corroborate that tradeoffs arise from the interplay of several factors, such as ES type and ES productivity, and they are site-specific and scale dependent. If NNTP continue to expand at the current rate (yearly 9.6%) and under the current management (large scale monocultures), significant ES supply changes are inevitable. These results can inform landowners, landscape planners and governments to better anticipate and mitigate tradeoffs arising from afforestation.

Continuity of care is critical for delivering high-quality care, yet has seldom been considered in models supporting nurse-patient assignment decisions within inpatient units. Research in the nursing literature suggests that assigning nurses to patients they have cared for previously can help reduce care-related error rates and increase patient satisfaction. However, it is also essential to ensure that patient workloads are allocated to nursing staff in a balanced manner to avoid overwork and burnout. This study investigates the tradeoffs associated with the assignment of patients to nurses in inpatient settings under the dual objective of maximizing continuity of care and minimizing workload imbalance. We develop a hybrid method that balances the need for fair workload distribution and continuity of care, and demonstrate the extent of the tradeoff between the level of continuity achieved and the associated cost in workload balance. To reduce the impact of this tradeoff, we relax the goal of maximizing continuity by introducing an acuity threshold. Here, patients with acuity values above the threshold vi are targeted for continuity-based assignment, and remaining patients are assigned to minimize workload imbalance. We evaluate the utility of introducing the threshold under a variety of hospital environmental conditions using a simulation model of the inpatient environment. Our findings show that it is possible to provide a substantial continuity assignment with a marginal impact on workload imbalance under the hybrid policy using the acuity threshold. In virtually all cases studied, the results show that it is possible to use the acuity threshold and gain the benefits of continuity of care, even under conditions of a strong preference for minimizing acuity imbalance.

Evidence for adaptation to different climates in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana is seen in reciprocal transplant experiments, but the genetic basis of this adaptation remains poorly understood. Field-based quantitative trait locus (QTL) studies provide direct but low-resolution evidence for the genetic basis of local adaptation. Using high-resolution population genomic approaches, we examine local adaptation along previously identified genetic trade-off (GT) and conditionally neutral (CN) QTLs for fitness between locally adapted Italian and Swedish A. thaliana populations [angstrom gren J, et al. (2013) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110: 21077-21082]. We find that genomic regions enriched in high F-ST SNPs colocalize with GT QTL peaks. Many of these high F-ST regions also colocalize with regions enriched for SNPs significantly correlated to climate in Eurasia and evidence of recent selective sweeps in Sweden. Examining unfolded site frequency spectra across genes containing high F-ST SNPs suggests GTs may be due to more recent adaptation in Sweden than Italy. Finally, we collapse a list of thousands of genes spanning GT QTLs to 42 genes that likely underlie the observed GTs and explore potential biological processes driving these trade-offs, from protein phosphorylation, to seed dormancy and longevity. Our analyses link population genomic analyses and field-based QTL studies of local adaptation, and emphasize that GTs play an important role in the process of local adaptation.

Evidence for adaptation to different climates in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana is seen in reciprocal transplant experiments, but the genetic basis of this adaptation remains poorly understood. Field-based quantitative trait locus (QTL) studies provide direct but low-resolution evidence for the genetic basis of local adaptation. Using high-resolution population genomic approaches, we examine local adaptation along previously identified genetic trade-off (GT) and conditionally neutral (CN) QTLs for fitness between locally adapted Italian and Swedish A. thaliana populations [angstrom gren J, et al. (2013) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110: 21077-21082]. We find that genomic regions enriched in high F-ST SNPs colocalize with GT QTL peaks. Many of these high F-ST regions also colocalize with regions enriched for SNPs significantly correlated to climate in Eurasia and evidence of recent selective sweeps in Sweden. Examining unfolded site frequency spectra across genes containing high F-ST SNPs suggests GTs may be due to more recent adaptation in Sweden than Italy. Finally, we collapse a list of thousands of genes spanning GT QTLs to 42 genes that likely underlie the observed GTs and explore potential biological processes driving these trade-offs, from protein phosphorylation, to seed dormancy and longevity. Our analyses link population genomic analyses and field-based QTL studies of local adaptation, and emphasize that GTs play an important role in the process of local adaptation.

Evidence for adaptation to different climates in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana is seen in reciprocal transplant experiments, but the genetic basis of this adaptation remains poorly understood. Field-based quantitative trait locus (QTL) studies provide direct but low-resolution evidence for the genetic basis of local adaptation. Using high-resolution population genomic approaches, we examine local adaptation along previously identified genetic trade-off (GT) and conditionally neutral (CN) QTLs for fitness between locally adapted Italian and Swedish A. thaliana populations [angstrom gren J, et al. (2013) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110: 21077-21082]. We find that genomic regions enriched in high F-ST SNPs colocalize with GT QTL peaks. Many of these high F-ST regions also colocalize with regions enriched for SNPs significantly correlated to climate in Eurasia and evidence of recent selective sweeps in Sweden. Examining unfolded site frequency spectra across genes containing high F-ST SNPs suggests GTs may be due to more recent adaptation in Sweden than Italy. Finally, we collapse a list of thousands of genes spanning GT QTLs to 42 genes that likely underlie the observed GTs and explore potential biological processes driving these trade-offs, from protein phosphorylation, to seed dormancy and longevity. Our analyses link population genomic analyses and field-based QTL studies of local adaptation, and emphasize that GTs play an important role in the process of local adaptation.

Evidence for adaptation to different climates in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana is seen in reciprocal transplant experiments, but the genetic basis of this adaptation remains poorly understood. Field-based quantitative trait locus (QTL) studies provide direct but low-resolution evidence for the genetic basis of local adaptation. Using high-resolution population genomic approaches, we examine local adaptation along previously identified genetic trade-off (GT) and conditionally neutral (CN) QTLs for fitness between locally adapted Italian and Swedish A. thaliana populations [angstrom gren J, et al. (2013) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110: 21077-21082]. We find that genomic regions enriched in high F-ST SNPs colocalize with GT QTL peaks. Many of these high F-ST regions also colocalize with regions enriched for SNPs significantly correlated to climate in Eurasia and evidence of recent selective sweeps in Sweden. Examining unfolded site frequency spectra across genes containing high F-ST SNPs suggests GTs may be due to more recent adaptation in Sweden than Italy. Finally, we collapse a list of thousands of genes spanning GT QTLs to 42 genes that likely underlie the observed GTs and explore potential biological processes driving these trade-offs, from protein phosphorylation, to seed dormancy and longevity. Our analyses link population genomic analyses and field-based QTL studies of local adaptation, and emphasize that GTs play an important role in the process of local adaptation.

Evidence for adaptation to different climates in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana is seen in reciprocal transplant experiments, but the genetic basis of this adaptation remains poorly understood. Field-based quantitative trait locus (QTL) studies provide direct but low-resolution evidence for the genetic basis of local adaptation. Using high-resolution population genomic approaches, we examine local adaptation along previously identified genetic trade-off (GT) and conditionally neutral (CN) QTLs for fitness between locally adapted Italian and Swedish A. thaliana populations [angstrom gren J, et al. (2013) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110: 21077-21082]. We find that genomic regions enriched in high F-ST SNPs colocalize with GT QTL peaks. Many of these high F-ST regions also colocalize with regions enriched for SNPs significantly correlated to climate in Eurasia and evidence of recent selective sweeps in Sweden. Examining unfolded site frequency spectra across genes containing high F-ST SNPs suggests GTs may be due to more recent adaptation in Sweden than Italy. Finally, we collapse a list of thousands of genes spanning GT QTLs to 42 genes that likely underlie the observed GTs and explore potential biological processes driving these trade-offs, from protein phosphorylation, to seed dormancy and longevity. Our analyses link population genomic analyses and field-based QTL studies of local adaptation, and emphasize that GTs play an important role in the process of local adaptation.

The scientific method dictates how researchers can make claims about the underlying truth by confronting prior hypotheses to a random sample of data. A fundamental task of Statistics is to allow researchers to balance their hypotheses with data-optimized results. This thesis shows that current statistical approaches make it difficult to control such a tradeoff and proposes an intuitive alternative. In the process, it will be explained how the famous coefficient of determination R2 can be unpacked, so that the individual relevance of deviating from each hypothesis can be quantified. Next to presenting novel techniques for estimating and selecting parameters of the linear regression model, a convenient tradeoff is defined for weighing observations and for the search of an optimal configuration.

This chapter describes, first, the development of well-being between 1970 and 2010 from the perspective of the efforts of the societal midfield, the national government, and the business community. In the second place, the situation around 2010 is evaluated from the perspective of 1970 and a present-day perspective. From the perspective of 1970 material welfare and well-being have developed in a positive sense between 1970 and 2010. Problematic from this perspective is the increase in criminality and unemployment. In the Netherlands the crisis of nature and environment seems to be past its deepest point. The present-day perspective is described using the position of the Netherlands in European rankings for different themes and indicators. It confirms what has been said above in previous analyses: the Netherlands has a high quality of life. But this can be contested for the chances for future generations, especially in relation to human and natural capital. In addition, the Netherlands is more than ever intertwined with international supply chains for her resources and energy. In this way the Netherlands has displaced a part of its sustainability problems to foreign lands. On the other hand, international supply chains - as in the meat sector - have led to more landscape damage and environmental problems within the Netherlands.

Mobile devices could augment their ability via cloud resources in mobile cloud computing environments. This paper developed a novel two-layered reinforcement learning (TLRL) algorithm to consider task offloading for resource-constrained mobile devices. As opposed to existing literature, the utilization rate of the physical machine and the delay for offloaded tasks are taken into account simultaneously by introducing a weighted reward. The high dimensionality of the state space and action space might affect the speed of convergence. Therefore, a novel reinforcement learning algorithm with a two-layered structure is presented to address this problem. First, k clusters of the physical machines are generated based on the k-nearest neighbors algorithm (k-NN). The first layer of TLRL is implemented by a deep reinforcement learning to determine the cluster to be assigned for the offloaded tasks. On this basis, the second layer intends to further specify a physical machine for task execution. Finally, simulation examples are carried out to verify that the proposed TLRL algorithm is able to speed up the optimal policy learning and can deal with the tradeoff between physical machine utilization rate and delay.

Evidence for adaptation to different climates in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana is seen in reciprocal transplant experiments, but the genetic basis of this adaptation remains poorly understood. Field-based quantitative trait locus (QTL) studies provide direct but low-resolution evidence for the genetic basis of local adaptation. Using high-resolution population genomic approaches, we examine local adaptation along previously identified genetic trade-off (GT) and conditionally neutral (CN) QTLs for fitness between locally adapted Italian and Swedish A. thaliana populations [Ågren J, et al. (2013) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110:21077-21082]. We find that genomic regions enriched in high FST SNPs colocalize with GT QTL peaks. Many of these high FST regions also colocalize with regions enriched for SNPs significantly correlated to climate in Eurasia and evidence of recent selective sweeps in Sweden. Examining unfolded site frequency spectra across genes containing high FST SNPs suggests GTs may be due to more recent adaptation in Sweden than Italy. Finally, we collapse a list of thousands of genes spanning GT QTLs to 42 genes that likely underlie the observed GTs and explore potential biological processes driving these trade-offs, from protein phosphorylation, to seed dormancy and longevity. Our analyses link population genomic analyses and field-based QTL studies of local adaptation, and emphasize that GTs play an important role in the process of local adaptation.

Evidence for adaptation to different climates in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana is seen in reciprocal transplant experiments, but the genetic basis of this adaptation remains poorly understood. Field-based quantitative trait locus (QTL) studies provide direct but low-resolution evidence for the genetic basis of local adaptation. Using high-resolution population genomic approaches, we examine local adaptation along previously identified genetic trade-off (GT) and conditionally neutral (CN) QTLs for fitness between locally adapted Italian and Swedish A. thaliana populations [angstrom gren J, et al. (2013) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110: 21077-21082]. We find that genomic regions enriched in high F-ST SNPs colocalize with GT QTL peaks. Many of these high F-ST regions also colocalize with regions enriched for SNPs significantly correlated to climate in Eurasia and evidence of recent selective sweeps in Sweden. Examining unfolded site frequency spectra across genes containing high F-ST SNPs suggests GTs may be due to more recent adaptation in Sweden than Italy. Finally, we collapse a list of thousands of genes spanning GT QTLs to 42 genes that likely underlie the observed GTs and explore potential biological processes driving these trade-offs, from protein phosphorylation, to seed dormancy and longevity. Our analyses link population genomic analyses and field-based QTL studies of local adaptation, and emphasize that GTs play an important role in the process of local adaptation.

Mobile devices could augment their ability via cloud resources in mobile cloud computing environments. This paper developed a novel two-layered reinforcement learning (TLRL) algorithm to consider task offloading for resource-constrained mobile devices. As opposed to existing literature, the utilization rate of the physical machine and the delay for offloaded tasks are taken into account simultaneously by introducing a weighted reward. The high dimensionality of the state space and action space might affect the speed of convergence. Therefore, a novel reinforcement learning algorithm with a two-layered structure is presented to address this problem. First, k clusters of the physical machines are generated based on the k-nearest neighbors algorithm (k-NN). The first layer of TLRL is implemented by a deep reinforcement learning to determine the cluster to be assigned for the offloaded tasks. On this basis, the second layer intends to further specify a physical machine for task execution. Finally, simulation examples are carried out to verify that the proposed TLRL algorithm is able to speed up the optimal policy learning and can deal with the tradeoff between physical machine utilization rate and delay.

This chapter describes, first, the development of well-being between 1970 and 2010 from the perspective of the efforts of the societal midfield, the national government, and the business community. In the second place, the situation around 2010 is evaluated from the perspective of 1970 and a present-day perspective. From the perspective of 1970 material welfare and well-being have developed in a positive sense between 1970 and 2010. Problematic from this perspective is the increase in criminality and unemployment. In the Netherlands the crisis of nature and environment seems to be past its deepest point. The present-day perspective is described using the position of the Netherlands in European rankings for different themes and indicators. It confirms what has been said above in previous analyses: the Netherlands has a high quality of life. But this can be contested for the chances for future generations, especially in relation to human and natural capital. In addition, the Netherlands is more than ever intertwined with international supply chains for her resources and energy. In this way the Netherlands has displaced a part of its sustainability problems to foreign lands. On the other hand, international supply chains - as in the meat sector - have led to more landscape damage and environmental problems within the Netherlands.

Evidence for adaptation to different climates in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana is seen in reciprocal transplant experiments, but the genetic basis of this adaptation remains poorly understood. Field-based quantitative trait locus (QTL) studies provide direct but low-resolution evidence for the genetic basis of local adaptation. Using high-resolution population genomic approaches, we examine local adaptation along previously identified genetic trade-off (GT) and conditionally neutral (CN) QTLs for fitness between locally adapted Italian and Swedish A. thaliana populations [angstrom gren J, et al. (2013) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110: 21077-21082]. We find that genomic regions enriched in high F-ST SNPs colocalize with GT QTL peaks. Many of these high F-ST regions also colocalize with regions enriched for SNPs significantly correlated to climate in Eurasia and evidence of recent selective sweeps in Sweden. Examining unfolded site frequency spectra across genes containing high F-ST SNPs suggests GTs may be due to more recent adaptation in Sweden than Italy. Finally, we collapse a list of thousands of genes spanning GT QTLs to 42 genes that likely underlie the observed GTs and explore potential biological processes driving these trade-offs, from protein phosphorylation, to seed dormancy and longevity. Our analyses link population genomic analyses and field-based QTL studies of local adaptation, and emphasize that GTs play an important role in the process of local adaptation.

Evidence for adaptation to different climates in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana is seen in reciprocal transplant experiments, but the genetic basis of this adaptation remains poorly understood. Field-based quantitative trait locus (QTL) studies provide direct but low-resolution evidence for the genetic basis of local adaptation. Using high-resolution population genomic approaches, we examine local adaptation along previously identified genetic trade-off (GT) and conditionally neutral (CN) QTLs for fitness between locally adapted Italian and Swedish A. thaliana populations [angstrom gren J, et al. (2013) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110: 21077-21082]. We find that genomic regions enriched in high F-ST SNPs colocalize with GT QTL peaks. Many of these high F-ST regions also colocalize with regions enriched for SNPs significantly correlated to climate in Eurasia and evidence of recent selective sweeps in Sweden. Examining unfolded site frequency spectra across genes containing high F-ST SNPs suggests GTs may be due to more recent adaptation in Sweden than Italy. Finally, we collapse a list of thousands of genes spanning GT QTLs to 42 genes that likely underlie the observed GTs and explore potential biological processes driving these trade-offs, from protein phosphorylation, to seed dormancy and longevity. Our analyses link population genomic analyses and field-based QTL studies of local adaptation, and emphasize that GTs play an important role in the process of local adaptation.

Evidence for adaptation to different climates in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana is seen in reciprocal transplant experiments, but the genetic basis of this adaptation remains poorly understood. Field-based quantitative trait locus (QTL) studies provide direct but low-resolution evidence for the genetic basis of local adaptation. Using high-resolution population genomic approaches, we examine local adaptation along previously identified genetic trade-off (GT) and conditionally neutral (CN) QTLs for fitness between locally adapted Italian and Swedish A. thaliana populations [angstrom gren J, et al. (2013) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110: 21077-21082]. We find that genomic regions enriched in high F-ST SNPs colocalize with GT QTL peaks. Many of these high F-ST regions also colocalize with regions enriched for SNPs significantly correlated to climate in Eurasia and evidence of recent selective sweeps in Sweden. Examining unfolded site frequency spectra across genes containing high F-ST SNPs suggests GTs may be due to more recent adaptation in Sweden than Italy. Finally, we collapse a list of thousands of genes spanning GT QTLs to 42 genes that likely underlie the observed GTs and explore potential biological processes driving these trade-offs, from protein phosphorylation, to seed dormancy and longevity. Our analyses link population genomic analyses and field-based QTL studies of local adaptation, and emphasize that GTs play an important role in the process of local adaptation.

Evidence for adaptation to different climates in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana is seen in reciprocal transplant experiments, but the genetic basis of this adaptation remains poorly understood. Field-based quantitative trait locus (QTL) studies provide direct but low-resolution evidence for the genetic basis of local adaptation. Using high-resolution population genomic approaches, we examine local adaptation along previously identified genetic trade-off (GT) and conditionally neutral (CN) QTLs for fitness between locally adapted Italian and Swedish A. thaliana populations [angstrom gren J, et al. (2013) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110: 21077-21082]. We find that genomic regions enriched in high F-ST SNPs colocalize with GT QTL peaks. Many of these high F-ST regions also colocalize with regions enriched for SNPs significantly correlated to climate in Eurasia and evidence of recent selective sweeps in Sweden. Examining unfolded site frequency spectra across genes containing high F-ST SNPs suggests GTs may be due to more recent adaptation in Sweden than Italy. Finally, we collapse a list of thousands of genes spanning GT QTLs to 42 genes that likely underlie the observed GTs and explore potential biological processes driving these trade-offs, from protein phosphorylation, to seed dormancy and longevity. Our analyses link population genomic analyses and field-based QTL studies of local adaptation, and emphasize that GTs play an important role in the process of local adaptation.

LEDs in our buildings, vehicles, and consumer products are rapidly gaining visible light communication capabilities. LED links however are notorious for being unreliable: shadowing, blockage, mobility, external light, all of these issues can disrupt the connectivity easily. Therefore, unless a reliable and cost-efficient data link layer is designed, VLC will be confined to niche applications. In this paper, we reveal a reason for unreliable VLC: a single type of photodetector at the receiver cannot establish a reliable link. We show that the photodetectors with complementary properties, in terms of optical spectral response and field-of-view, are necessary to handle the wide dynamic range of optical noise (such as the sun and other unwanted light sources) and mobility of users. Motivated by our experimental observations, we design a reliable and adaptive receiver for VLC (REAL-VLC) for low-end communication systems, an inexpensive receiver that senses light with complementary photodetectors and configures itself (physical and data link layers) dynamically to maintain the communication link. We implement the hardware and the software of REAL-VLC in low-end platforms, and experimentally validate it in representative test scenarios and a proofof- concept application that consists of mobile nodes maintaining a VLC link under various lighting and path conditions., Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public., Embedded Systems

Two gains play key roles in recently developed‎ MIMO ‎wireless communication systems‎: ‎"spatial diversity‎" ‎gain and "spatial multiplexing‎" ‎gain‎. ‎The diversity gain refers to the capability to decrease the error rate of the MIMO channel‎, ‎while the multiplexing gain implicitly refers to the amount of increase in the capacity of the MIMO channel‎. ‎It has been shown that there is a fundamental tradeoff between these two types of gains‎, ‎meaning interplay between increasing reliability (via an increase in the diversity gain) and increasing data rate (via an increase in the multiplexing gain)‎. ‎On the other hand‎, ‎recently‎, ‎MIMO radars have attracted much attention for their superior ability to enhance the system's performance‎. ‎As a MIMO system‎, ‎it is expected that the mentioned diversity-multiplexing tradeoff exists in a MIMO radar‎, ‎too‎. ‎In this paper‎, ‎this tradeoff is studied and verified in MIMO radars with widely separated antennas‎. ‎In more details‎, ‎it will be shown that increasing dependency between transmit-receive links results in higher diversity gain and lower multiplexing gain‎, ‎and vice versa‎. ‎Then‎, ‎the optimal tradeoff is introduced‎, ‎i.e.‎, ‎the conditions that the MIMO radar system should have‎, ‎so that the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff is at its optimum point‎, ‎are driven‎.

Two gains play key roles in recently developed‎ MIMO ‎wireless communication systems‎: ‎"spatial diversity‎" ‎gain and "spatial multiplexing‎" ‎gain‎. ‎The diversity gain refers to the capability to decrease the error rate of the MIMO channel‎, ‎while the multiplexing gain implicitly refers to the amount of increase in the capacity of the MIMO channel‎. ‎It has been shown that there is a fundamental tradeoff between these two types of gains‎, ‎meaning interplay between increasing reliability (via an increase in the diversity gain) and increasing data rate (via an increase in the multiplexing gain)‎. ‎On the other hand‎, ‎recently‎, ‎MIMO radars have attracted much attention for their superior ability to enhance the system's performance‎. ‎As a MIMO system‎, ‎it is expected that the mentioned diversity-multiplexing tradeoff exists in a MIMO radar‎, ‎too‎. ‎In this paper‎, ‎this tradeoff is studied and verified in MIMO radars with widely separated antennas‎. ‎In more details‎, ‎it will be shown that increasing dependency between transmit-receive links results in higher diversity gain and lower multiplexing gain‎, ‎and vice versa‎. ‎Then‎, ‎the optimal tradeoff is introduced‎, ‎i.e.‎, ‎the conditions that the MIMO radar system should have‎, ‎so that the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff is at its optimum point‎, ‎are driven‎.

Two gains play key roles in recently developed‎ MIMO ‎wireless communication systems‎: ‎"spatial diversity‎" ‎gain and "spatial multiplexing‎" ‎gain‎. ‎The diversity gain refers to the capability to decrease the error rate of the MIMO channel‎, ‎while the multiplexing gain implicitly refers to the amount of increase in the capacity of the MIMO channel‎. ‎It has been shown that there is a fundamental tradeoff between these two types of gains‎, ‎meaning interplay between increasing reliability (via an increase in the diversity gain) and increasing data rate (via an increase in the multiplexing gain)‎. ‎On the other hand‎, ‎recently‎, ‎MIMO radars have attracted much attention for their superior ability to enhance the system's performance‎. ‎As a MIMO system‎, ‎it is expected that the mentioned diversity-multiplexing tradeoff exists in a MIMO radar‎, ‎too‎. ‎In this paper‎, ‎this tradeoff is studied and verified in MIMO radars with widely separated antennas‎. ‎In more details‎, ‎it will be shown that increasing dependency between transmit-receive links results in higher diversity gain and lower multiplexing gain‎, ‎and vice versa‎. ‎Then‎, ‎the optimal tradeoff is introduced‎, ‎i.e.‎, ‎the conditions that the MIMO radar system should have‎, ‎so that the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff is at its optimum point‎, ‎are driven‎.

Two gains play key roles in recently developed‎ MIMO ‎wireless communication systems‎: ‎"spatial diversity‎" ‎gain and "spatial multiplexing‎" ‎gain‎. ‎The diversity gain refers to the capability to decrease the error rate of the MIMO channel‎, ‎while the multiplexing gain implicitly refers to the amount of increase in the capacity of the MIMO channel‎. ‎It has been shown that there is a fundamental tradeoff between these two types of gains‎, ‎meaning interplay between increasing reliability (via an increase in the diversity gain) and increasing data rate (via an increase in the multiplexing gain)‎. ‎On the other hand‎, ‎recently‎, ‎MIMO radars have attracted much attention for their superior ability to enhance the system's performance‎. ‎As a MIMO system‎, ‎it is expected that the mentioned diversity-multiplexing tradeoff exists in a MIMO radar‎, ‎too‎. ‎In this paper‎, ‎this tradeoff is studied and verified in MIMO radars with widely separated antennas‎. ‎In more details‎, ‎it will be shown that increasing dependency between transmit-receive links results in higher diversity gain and lower multiplexing gain‎, ‎and vice versa‎. ‎Then‎, ‎the optimal tradeoff is introduced‎, ‎i.e.‎, ‎the conditions that the MIMO radar system should have‎, ‎so that the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff is at its optimum point‎, ‎are driven‎.

Systems studies of signal transduction pathways that modulate plant growth and immunity are rapidly identifying a large number of interactions within these pathways. These interactions are frequently presented as mechanisms allowing a plant to make proper decisions with regards to how to partition energy and resources in a proposed growth versus immunity tradeoff. This is a reinterpretation of the classical costs of resistance theory that has a long history in the ecology research community. While the ecology community is reinterpreting this theory, the reinterpretation has not been introduced into the molecular systems biology community that is studying the intersection of regulatory pathways. In this article, I describe evidence against a simple growth versus immunity tradeoff concept and propose an alternative wherein the intersection of these regulatory pathways is instead designed to coordinate these pathways, and not simply link them in mutual antagonism, to optimize fitness in complex environments where resistance/immunity and growth do not have simple linear relationships with fitness.

Housing for all has been a key developmental agenda in India. Available housing stocks mostly target the higher and upper middle-income group; while supply of affordable housing remains neglected. When it comes to development of affordable housing, the built up area (BUA), cost of construction and land prices are reduced. As a result, more than often, the accessibility aspects are overlooked. Leading to non-acceptance and failure to attract target disadvantaged groups. This paper introduces a methodology to identify potential areas for the development of affordable housing as a part of rapid planning process in urban areas of developing nations. Two probable applications of this approach could be) to assess the current spatial proliferation of slums, and ii) to earmark zones of probable affordable housing. This model framework is based on the generation of chosen travel time isochrones around selected centres as nodes of origin. It is hypothesized that areas having maximum number of overlapping travel time isochrones are most accessible. Overlaying the travel time isochrones with the residential price map might enable in identifying potential areas, which will be suitable for the development of affordable housing. The methodology is then tested empirically in the Greater Mumbai region. The result shows that the city can be classified into well-patterned hierarchical zones of accessibility. It provides evidence of the growth and distribution of slums in these regions, and in the environmentally sensitive areas, as a sign of tradeoff between affordability and accessibility.

Systems studies of signal transduction pathways that modulate plant growth and immunity are rapidly identifying a large number of interactions within these pathways. These interactions are frequently presented as mechanisms allowing a plant to make proper decisions with regards to how to partition energy and resources in a proposed growth versus immunity tradeoff. This is a reinterpretation of the classical costs of resistance theory that has a long history in the ecology research community. While the ecology community is reinterpreting this theory, the reinterpretation has not been introduced into the molecular systems biology community that is studying the intersection of regulatory pathways. In this article, I describe evidence against a simple growth versus immunity tradeoff concept and propose an alternative wherein the intersection of these regulatory pathways is instead designed to coordinate these pathways, and not simply link them in mutual antagonism, to optimize fitness in complex environments where resistance/immunity and growth do not have simple linear relationships with fitness.