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This article provides a novel and practical approach for investigating the characteristics of intercity telecommunication network whose overall and complete information is unavailable. Using a mobile phone call data set covering 4.39 million subscribers registered in a particular region, we construct two intercity mobile communication subnets and infer characteristics of the whole intercity mobile communication network of China. Results confirm that intercity communication intensity is characterized by the gravity model. The communication intensity based on mobile call number decreases along the distance with a scaling exponent 0.5, whereas the scaling exponent for the communication intensity based on mobile call duration is 0.4. Moreover, we uncover the rank-size distribution of tie strength (mobile call number and duration) between a city and its neighbours. The rank-size law of tie strengths between cities is mainly determined by the rank-size distribution of cities. The distance between cities plays a less decisive role than the size distribution in the network, but significantly impacts mobile communication patterns. The call duration of individual intercity mobile communication is generally positively correlated to the communication distance, explaining why the distance decay of communication intensity based on call durations is slower than that based on call numbers. The contribution of this research is twofold. First, we identify the distance decay effect in intercity mobile communications of China and uncover the dominant impact of the rank-size distribution of cities. Second, a method for estimating the properties of the whole network according to the observed interactions of its subnets is developed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Today, large-volume mobile phone call datasets are widely applied to investigate the spatio-temporal characteristics of human urban activity. This paper discusses several fundamental issues in estimating population distributions based on mobile call data. By adopting an individual-based call activity dataset that consists of nearly two million mobile subscribers who made over one hundred million communications over seven consecutive days, we explore the relationships among the Erlang values, the number of calls, and the number of active mobile subscribers. Then, the LandScan population density dataset is introduced to evaluate the process of estimating the population. The empirical findings indicate that: (1) Temporal variation exists in the relation between the Erlang values and the number of calls; (2) The number of calls is linearly proportional to the number of active mobile subscribers; (3) The proportion between the mobile subscribers and the actual total population varies in different areas, thus failing to represent the underlying population. Hence, the call activity reflects “activity intensity” rather than population distribution. The Erlang is a defective indicator of population distribution, whereas the number of calls serves as a better measure. This research provides an explicit clarification with respect to using call activity data for estimating population distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of the Ni addition on the microstructures of Mg-2Gd-xNi (at.%, x = 0, 0.25, 0.5 and 1) alloys were systematically investigated. A series of two-phase Mg-Gd-Ni alloys consisting of long period stacking ordered (LPSO) phase and α-Mg were obtained. The LPSO phase presented block-like shape and was distributed between α-Mg dendrite arms. Its volume fraction was found to be proportional to the Ni content, ranging from 0 to ∼40% with the Ni content increasing from 0 to 1 at.%. After a heat treatment at 500 °C for 100 h, the LPSO phase experienced a structure transformation from 18R to 14H but was hardly dissolved into the α-Mg matrix, which evidenced a high thermal stability. The mechanism for the effects of the Ni addition on the formation of the LPSO phase was discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]