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The built environment is a structural determinant of health. Here we reveal spatially heterogeneous associations of built environment indicators with objective health outcomes (morbidity) by combining a random forest (RF) approach and a multiscale geographically weighted (MGWR) regression method. Using data from six Japanese cities, we found that the ratio of morbidity has obvious spatial agglomerations. The mixed land-use diversity with 1000 m buffer, distance to hospital, proportion of park area with 300 m buffer, and house price with 2000 m buffer, negatively affect health outcomes at all locations. For most locations, high PM2.5 or high floor area ratio with 2000 m buffer are linked to a high ratio of morbidity. Our findings support the use of such data for long-term urban and health planning. We expect our study to be a starting point for further research on spatially heterogeneous associations of the built environment with comprehensive health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the energy consumption of elderly and non-elderly households, recognizing the ever-increasing importance of the aging population for energy policy. Decisions of the domestic (in-home) and transport (out-of-home) sectors at the household level are jointly incorporated by building a multivariate Hierarchical Archimedean Copula model with intra-sector and inter-sector dependencies. Data from a life-oriented behavioral survey in Japan are used, which includes 532 elderly households and 340 non-elderly households. A variety of life-related factors, together with built environment factors, are introduced into the above model. Modeling analysis results show that inter- and intra-sector dependencies are heterogeneous across households in terms of these factors. It is found that almost equal numbers of influential factors are sensitive and insensitive to age-based sample segmentation. Various similarities and dissimilarities across energy types between elderly and non-elderly households are revealed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Use of smartphone apps to detect driving risks and/or provide warning information to drivers is a hot topic in traffic safety research. However, scientific evidence on the effectiveness of such apps to reduce dangerous driving is still limited. To provide additional insights, this study examines whether and how driving risks diagnoses and real-time warning information provided through a smartphone app could assist drivers to control their vehicles on expressways safely. For this research purpose, a 3-month driving experiment was conducted in Japan, where the different combination and utilization of app functions were investigated. During the experiment, a series of questionnaire surveys were also carried out in response to six different app versions. A bivariate ordered probit model was estimated to jointly represent speed limit compliance and acceleration/deceleration simultaneously. Model estimation results show that with the warning information provided via the smartphone app, it is more effective to improve drivers' performance on speed limit compliance than on acceleration/deceleration control. The app improves speed limit compliance and acceleration/deceleration control of careless drivers but only improves speed limit compliance of irritable and excessively confident drivers and acceleration/deceleration control of aggressive drivers. Finally, implications of analysis results to traffic safety measures are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an additional effort for exploring the unknowns about the ownership behavior of autonomous vehicles (AVs), we implemented an online stated preference (SP) survey in Japan and collected 1728 responses from car users across the whole country in 2016. The SP choice set included three types of AVs (conditional, high, and full automation) and a conventional vehicle. Each respondent answered three SP profiles. SP Attributes of AVs (additional purchase cost, reduction rate of insurance, reduction rate of permanent parking cost, penetration rate in the market, and release timing to the market) were defined relative to the conventional vehicle. Changes in future income were assumed based on each respondent's historical trend for assisting him/her to show more realistic responses. It was found that on average, respondents are willing to pay an additional 402,233 to 793,611 JPY to purchase an AV in the future. Estimating a mixed logit model with repeated choices and correlations between random-effect parameters following a normal distribution confirmed the significant influence of unobserved and correlated heterogeneities with respect to SP attributes. Both expected and unexpected results with respect to the random-effect variables are observed. Policy implications of analysis results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with a general class of transformation models that contains many important semiparametric regression models as special cases. It develops a self-induced smoothing for the maximum rank correlation estimator, resulting in simultaneous point and variance estimation. The self-induced smoothing does not require bandwidth selection, yet provides the right amount of smoothness so that the estimator is asymptotically normal with mean zero (unbiased) and variance-covariance matrix consistently estimated by the usual sandwich-type estimator. An iterative algorithm is given for the variance estimation and shown to numerically converge to a consistent limiting variance estimator. The approach is applied to a data set involving survival times of primary biliary cirrhosis patients. Simulation results are reported, showing that the new method performs well under a variety of scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial language interaction is critical for human-robot interactions. However, previous findings are inconsistent in people's perspective choices for robots and humans. In two experiments, participants viewed complex spatial layouts and verbally instructed an imagined human or robot addressee to find the target location or route. In both tasks, participants only tended to describe from humans' but not robots' perspective, at the cost of taking more time to generate instructions for humans than robots. The results showed that spatial language interaction is not only a spatial but also a social task, and people do not regard robots as human-like social partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To assess the impacts of climate disasters on the behavior of tourists in Bangladesh, this study makes an initial attempt to investigate tourists’ adaptation behavior in response to climate disasters. A questionnaire survey was developed and administered to address both tourists’ previous adaptation behavior and their stated adaptation behavior in response to different future climate disasters. The choice modeling analysis of tourists’ previous behavior revealed that a cyclone is more likely to result in the cancellation of a trip, and a flood is more likely to result in a change in trip timing. As for the stated behavior analysis, it was confirmed that most variables related to disaster severity show significant influence on adaptation behavior. The results also indicate that construction of disaster-resilient transportation networks is essential to avoid trip cancellations. In addition, improving market-oriented tourism service quality in Bangladesh could play a significant role in reducing the probability of both trip cancellations and changes of destination. The findings of this study can provide the tourism industry in Bangladesh with critical insights for future disaster management and sustainable development of the tourism industry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ConclusionsEndoscopic surgery is safe and effective for children with congenital basal meningoencephaloceles (CBMs); it provides an acceptable operative outcome with a short recovery time and fewer complications and may be considered as a primary approach.ObjectivesTo explore the safety and effectiveness of using transnasal or transoral endoscopic surgery on children with CBMs.MethodsThe clinical data of eight CBMs children who underwent transnasal or transoral endoscopic surgery in a hospital from January 2011 to January 2015 were collected. The presenting symptoms, lesion locations, surgical outcomes, and complications were examined retrospectively.ResultsOf the eight children, five (62.5%) patients were male, and their ages ranged from 1 year and 6 months to 14 years (median of 9 years). Six patients presented with the transethmoidal sub-type, and two presented with the transsphenoidal sub-type. The average hospital stay of all patients was 8.6 ± 2.6 days. There were neither intra-operative nor post-operative complications observed in any of the cases during the follow-ups that occurred between 6–54 months (mean of 15.5 months). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study attempts to clarify differences in Japanese time use behaviour for people with/without responsibility for nursing care of family members by comparing the behaviour of three population groups: in-home caregivers, out-of-home caregivers and non-caregivers. The analysis is also conducted with respect to the behaviour on weekdays and weekends. After examining the differences of time use behaviour based on simple statistical tests, we develop a multilevel multiple discrete-continuous extreme value model, which simultaneously represents activity participation and time allocation. In the model, observed variations, unobserved inter-individual variations and unobserved spatial variations are distinguished. Using large-scale national time use data collected in Japan, the analysis confirms various differences of time use behaviour across the three groups, especially between in-home caregivers and non-caregivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue provides additional insights into activity-travel behaviour analysis for universal mobility design. Four papers are included, focusing on behavioural issues of elderly who need nursing care, children and parents, low-income persons and car-deficient households. Time use, travel mode usage, car allocation within households and activity scheduling behaviours are analysed in these papers, using large-scale samples. Promising methods about the representation of inter-personal interactions and diverse behavioural variations as well as empirical findings are provided. Methodological challenges and mobility policies in the future are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Optimization of key steps in the synthesis of the architecturally unique tetracyclic antitumor alkaloid (-)-agelastatin A (1) improved the overall yield of the 11-step process (eight operations) from 9% to 23%. Changing the solvent and using a more efficient N-benzyl deprotecting-group procedure enhanced the yields of the C-ring and D-ring intermediates, (-)-4 and (-)-7, respectively. Bromination of (-)-7 with 1,3-dibromo-5,5-dimethylhydantoin, rather than N-bromosuccinimide (NBS), increased the yield of (-)-1 from 69% to more than 94% yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multi-band dual-chirp linearly frequency modulated (LFM) signal-generation scheme with doubled chirp bandwidth and flexible center frequency and band numbers is proposed. In the scheme, the polarization multiplexed multi-tone optical signals with chirped phases are generated via a dual-polarization dual-parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator (DPMZM) cascaded with a polarization modulator. The two polarization multiplexed lightwaves are recombined as two linearly polarized beams by a polarization beam splitter and are detected by a balanced photodiode with a photocurrent that includes the multi-band dual-chirp LFM signal with doubled bandwidth and multiplied central frequencies but does not have a dc component. Since the orders and numbers of the generated optical sidebands are changed by adjusting the bias voltages of a DPMZM, we can obtain the multi-band dual-chirp LFM signal flexibly. Based on simulation, four-band, six-band and two seven-band dual-chirp LFM signals are generated with four groups of bias voltage configurations. For each case, every dual-chirp LFM signal of the generated multi-band dual-chirp LFM signal has a 5-GHz bandwidth and a time-bandwidth product of 512. The auto-correlations and ambiguity function of the generated LFM signal show good performance of pulse compression and range-Doppler resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel scheme is proposed to enlarge the spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) of microwave photonic (MWP) link by using dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator, which modifies the single sideband signal and replaces the optical carrier with an unmodulated one to remove the optical main sources of third-order intermodulation distortion (IMD3). Simulation results show that the IMD3 and fifth-order intermodulation distortion can be suppressed greatly even when the modulation depth increases to a high value, and the link is limited by seventh-order intermodulation distortion and the SFDR is improved by 34.2 dB Hz in a 1-Hz bandwidth. The error vector magnitude of the MWP link with the proposed scheme is improved significantly for the transmitted 1-Gbit/s 16- quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to multi-source data information fusion, the precision of eco-hydrology models is improving rapidly. In particular, the fractional vegetation coverage (FVC) is of great significance in the remote sensing monitoring of surface parameters. In this study, downscaling inversion was performed using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Ratio Vegetation Index (RVI) data from Land Remote-Sensing Satellite (System, Landsat-8) and RVI-Freeman data from Radarsat-2 with polarization decomposition, incorporating the scattering entropy (H) and anisotropy (α). Further, modified vegetation indices (mVIs) and corresponding calculation methods were developed to describe the FVC precisely. Two deep learning (DL) methods were used for mVI optimization. The results showed that the inclusion of H and α greatly facilitated FVC estimation and that the mVIs and DL provided higher accuracies and smaller errors than the previous methods (NDVI or RVI). HαmRVI, one of the mVIs, had the highest accuracy in FVC simulation using a vegetation index, and the particle swarm optimization neural network (PSONN) achieved the best performance. The FVC was then predicted with 8 m resolution using the mVIs and PSONN, demonstrating that the proposed method effectively compensates for the fluctuations in high-FVC valley wetlands caused by high water content, avoids overestimation in grasslands, and provides great detail while retaining the original regional variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring the chlorophyll content in tuber formation and tuber bulking stage has great significance for the nutritional status diagnosis in the potato field. In this paper, the 314 canopy spectra of potato crops were collected at four stages, respectively. The leaves were collected simultaneously to measure the chlorophyll content. After spectra pre-processing, the dynamic changes in chlorophyll content and spectral response during growth were analyzed. Two variable selection algorithms (successive projection algorithm, and random frog algorithm) were employed to select chlorophyll characteristic wavelengths. The partial least square algorithm was used for modeling analysis. The performance of sensitive wavelengths selected by two algorithms was compared, respectively, from the perspective of correlation with chlorophyll, reflecting leaf information, and model result. The sensitive wavelengths selected by random frog was optimal. The determination coefficient of calibration and validation set of the detection model established based on above sensitive wavelengths was respectively 0.827 and 0.798. The results showed the chlorophyll content of potato could be detected accurately based on the spectroscopy method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An approach to generate an optical millimeter wave is introduced with frequency octupling using two cascaded polarization modulators followed by polarizers, respectively. By adjusting the modulation indexes of polarization modulators, only the ±4th-order sidebands are generated with a pure spectrum. Since no filter is needed, the proposed technique can be used to generate a frequency-tunable millimeter wave with a large frequency-tunable range. To prove the feasibility of the proposed approach, a simulation is conducted to generate an 80-GHz millimeter wave, and then its transmission performance is checked. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Conclusion. The endoscopic approaches developed for the treatment of the chordomas according to the different clival location provide the possibility for more complete tumor resection with maximal preservation of anatomic structures and reduction of the overall incidence of complications. Objective. The endoscope has recently been applied in patients with chordomas, but rare studies report the various endoscopic approaches in the treatment of chordomas in the different regions of clivus. In this study, the authors present their experience with these techniques in patients with chordomas. Patients and methods. Four chordomas in the upper-middle clivus underwent an endoscopic transseptal transsphenoidal (ETT) approach. Five macro-chordomas involving whole clivus underwent an extended ETT approach. Three chordomas in the lower clivus underwent an endoscopic transoropharyngeal (ETOP) approach. The surgical access points were designed for each patient. After safe planes were identified along the surgical access points, the tumor was fractionally removed. Results. Seven gross total, four subtotal, and one partial resection were achieved after surgery. At 6 months to 3 years follow-up, eight patients were recurrence-free and two patients had unchanged residual tumor. One patient with recurrent chordoma underwent second surgery and subsequent intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). The other patient with a recurrent chordoma died 1 year postoperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]