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Rock sections in intermittent joints are important structures that prevent joints from interconnecting and maintain the stability of the rock mass, and they play a pivotal role in the strength and failure mode of the rock mass. In order to analyze the controlling effect of rock section in intermittent joints, the samples with different rock section angles were prepared and laboratory tests were carried out using Acoustic Emission and Digital Image Correlation (DIC) techniques. The results show that the uniaxial compressive strength of the samples reaches its minimum value when the orientation of the rock section in the intermittent joints coincides with the loading direction. Furthermore, as the angle of the rock section increases, the time share of the sample in the compaction stage increases and the time share in the plastic-yield stage decreases. The samples show the structural characteristics of being difficult to close at the early stage and easy to destroy at the late stage. In terms of the damage mode, the increase in the angle of the rock section reduces the difficulty of the rock section itself being penetrated, and the samples are more easily damaged. Finally, a damage constitutive model considering the compaction stage and initial damage was developed and the effect of rock section angle on the rate of rock damage was analyzed. Highlights: The influence of the angle of the rock section in the intermittent joints on the compressive strength and failure mode of the samples was investigated. Based on acoustic emission, DIC and damage constitutive models, the effect of the angle of the rock section in an intermittent joint on the deformation phase of the sample is quantified. A damage constitutive model considering the initial damage of the intermittent joints and the compaction stage of the rock is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A timesharing contract with all its specifics and elements is a sui generis contract. Given that it has elements like other national law treaties, and that it belongs to national consumer and obligation law, at the same time it is regulated by EU regulations, which is why its characteristics deserve special attention and processing. As tourism plays an increasingly important role in member states' economy, the sectors of timesharing and similar holiday products should have been encouraged to increase growth and productivity by adopting certain common rules that would apply to all timesharing contracts and similar holiday products. On 14 January 2009, the EU adopted Directive 2008/122/EC on the protection of consumers in respect of certain aspects of timeshare, long-term holiday product, resale and exchange contracts. In relation to Directive 94/47/EC, the new Directive is a directive of maximum harmonisation, which ensures equal treatment of sellers in all Member States, which contributes to greater legal certainty of both consumers and sellers. Analyzing EU legislation, legislation of modern countries in which the timesharing agreement is widespread, and the final analysis of the positive legislation of BiH in which this contract with all its elements begins to appear in practice, it is concluded that it is inadequately regulated by the existing Law of consumer protection. It is necessary to align the contract with Directive 2008/122/EC, which we are obliged to implement, since the Stabilisation and Association Agreement has committed to harmonize our legislation with eu legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a model is developed for a comparative assessment of three flight missions of multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) based on their power profiles in order to identify future technical research priorities and possible improvements in operational management. The model describes the missions (transport, facade inspection, drone show) based on the maneuver-specific parameters for hovering flight, vertical flight, and horizontal flight and calculates the respective power profiles of the missions based on the input parameters of a reference UAV with a battery-powered electric motor. The power profiles of the investigated missions show that the maximum powers occur during accelerated climb in each case. The greatest difference in maximum power occurs between the transport mission and the facade inspection. Considering the small difference in the respective payload, the significantly higher maximum power during the transport mission can mainly be attributed to the higher acceleration assumed for this mission. Consequently, the necessary power can be influenced by the choice of maximum acceleration. This also applies to the drone show, but the difference in power cannot only be linked to the acceleration since for the considered mission the mass differs significantly because no payload is needed. Concerning the different maneuvers, horizontal flight with constant flight speed has the largest time share and the largest energy requirement in all missions. Accordingly, this is where the greatest potential for energy savings is seen. It is shown that an ideal speed for minimizing the energy demand in horizontal flight results for each total mass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Melaas v. Diamond Resorts U. S. Collection Dev.. LLC. the North Dakota Supreme Court issued an opinion on matters of first impression impacting the ability to appeal from an order compelling arbitration and dismissing the underlying action. In Melaas, Kathleen Melaas met with a Diamond Re - sorts representative to discuss timeshare packages. The meeting lasted five hours, despite Melaas requesting to leave numerous times. Diamond Resorts did not let Melaas leave until she signed the timeshare agreement. Melaas was a vulnerable adult due to her diabetes leading her to experience fatigue and confusion during this long meeting. Melaas asserted she lacked the capacity to enter into the agreement. Additionally, she argued Diamond Resorts used high-pressure, abusive sales tactics and its knowledge of her medical condition to unduly influence and coerce her into signing the agreement. Last, she said her consent was obtained by duress and menace. Melaas sued Diamond Resorts and requested the district court declare her timeshare agreement with Diamond Resorts to be invalid and not binding. Diamond Resorts moved to compel arbitration and dismiss the complaint because the agreement requires arbitration of any and all claims stemming from the contract. Melaas opposed the motion, arguing the agreement and its arbitration clause are unenforceable due to being obtained by undue influence. The district court granted Diamond Resorts' motion to compel arbitration and dismissed Melaas' complaint. On appeal, the North Dakota Supreme Court reversed and held an order compelling arbitration and dismissing the underlying action is appealable, which overruled previous case law. The court also held the court must decide whether a contract was formed before ordering arbitration if a party challenges the existence of the contract containing the arbitration agreement by alleging she lacked the capacity to consent. The court examined case law and statutes from other jurisdictions, finding they were persuasive in deciding the issues of first impression. Melaas provides guidance to North Dakota practitioners about the opportunity to appeal motions to compel arbitration and dismiss the underlying action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We propose a consensus reaching strategy for social network hybrid opinion dynamics. • We present the hybrid opinion dynamics models in a social network. • We discuss the properties of the consensus reaching strategy. • We justify the effectiveness of the proposed consensus reaching strategy. Hybrid opinion dynamics which involves two types of individuals (i.e., leaders and followers) communicate in real time and share opinions and knowledge have been widely used in diverse applications. In real applications of hybrid opinion dynamics, one of the main demands is how to manage a consensus among individuals. This paper aims at proposing a novel consensus reaching strategy for the hybrid opinion dynamics in a social network. Firstly, we give the network partition algorithm to divide the social network into sub-network, and introduce Floyd algorithm to calculate the shortest path between any two individuals, which can provide the assistance for determining the weights among individuals. On this basis, we present the hybrid opinion dynamics model. Next, we develop the consensus reaching model with minimum adjustments (i.e. CRMD model) in hybrid opinion dynamics, and discuss some the properties of the CRMD model. Furthermore, the detailed numerical and simulation analysis are conducted to illustrate the effectiveness of this CRMD model. The simulation results show the CRMD model has the distinct advantages over other consensus strategies. Thus, the CRMD model is helpful to manage and control the public opinions for the government and enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herbivores in quest of food have to attend areas where predators also concentrate their attacks. They have to deal with two conflicting demands, the need of feeding and that of avoiding predation. Using a theoretical approach, we study the influence of these antagonistic constraints on the shaping of an herbivore's foraging strategy and their consequences in terms of functional response.In our model, the animal may curtail predation risk by being vigilant while foraging and by limiting its time of presence in the feeding area. Being vigilant means either stopping all feeding activities to scan for predators (exclusive vigilance) or using the time spent handling resources to do so, with reduced detection capacities (routine vigilance). Using an optimization criterium, we thus determine how long the animal will stay in the feeding area and how it will share its time and attention while present there, as a function of resource density and predation risk.All behavioural variables show smooth but sometimes non‐monotonic variations in response to changes in these environmental conditions. When these variations are taken into account, the instantaneous intake rate of the herbivore, as well as the total biomass of plant consumed, increase in a decelerating but continuous manner with the patch's richness, in qualitative agreement with a type II functional response. This smooth pattern is explained by the possibility for the herbivore, when food abundance rises, to progressively redirect its attention to routine antipredator vigilance.The relative importance of routine vigilance with respect to exclusive vigilance declines when predation risk increases, as well as the duration of the patch's visit and the total quantity of food eaten. The exact shape of the functional response is thus mediated by subtle adjustments of behavioural and attentional priorities, in response to variations in both food availability and predation risk. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid rise in cancer incidence within the world's poorest nations highlights the need for equitable access to evidence‐based cancer care. It has been previously demonstrated that radiotherapy is a cost‐effective and necessary tool in cancer treatment. However, globally there is a growing divide between demand and supply of radiotherapy services. In low‐ and middle‐income countries, this resource gap is particularly problematic. By region, the Asia‐Pacific has been demonstrated to have the highest absolute deficit in radiotherapy services. Radiation oncologists in Australia and New Zealand are geographically well positioned to assist departments within the Asia‐Pacific to help to reduce these inequities. The Asia‐Pacific Radiation Oncology Special Interest Group (APROSIG) aims to support oncology professionals in the Asia‐Pacific to develop safe and sustainable cancer services. Members have already contributed to multiple projects throughout the region, supported by grants and departmental funding. However, the backbone of support comes from volunteers sharing their time and expertise. The Australasian oncological community has the skills and knowledge to help not only those within our borders but also beyond. Such efforts provide the potential to develop valuable clinical, educational, research and leadership experiences whilst establishing networking opportunities throughout the most populated regions of the world. More options for growth and work in global health must be investigated, encouraging future trainees to consider a role within the global cancer community. Without prompt and continued action, the resource deficit is likely to grow and the inequity in accessing radiotherapy and other cancer services further magnified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze the sojourn time of an entire batch in a M [ X ] / M / 1 processor sharing queue, where geometrically distributed batches arrive according to a Poisson process and individual jobs require exponentially distributed service times. By conditioning on the number of jobs in the queue and the number of jobs in a tagged batch, we establish recurrence relations for conditional sojourn times, which subsequently allow us to derive a partial differential equation for an associated bivariate generating function. This equation involves an unknown generating function, whose series expansion can be computed by solving an infinite lower triangular linear system. Once this unknown function is determined, we determine the Laplace transform and the mean value of the sojourn time of a batch in the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the novel on‐off modes including 12 conduction states is presented for H bridge in one switching period. Based on the novel on‐off mode, the dead‐time elimination pulse width modulation (PWM) is presented with good switching times sharing effect. The digital judgment method of output current polarity is proposed for the dead‐time elimination PWM. The PWM generator is integrated in the field‐programmable gate array. Simulation and experimental results are provided to validate that the proposed PWM can be applied to H‐bridge voltage source inverter with good performance. © 2021 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to provide tactical and operational decisions in multidepot recycling logistics networks with consideration of resource sharing (RS) and time window assignment (TWA) strategies. The RS strategy contributes to efficient resource allocation and utilization among recycling centers (RCs). The TWA strategy involves assigning time windows to customers to enhance the operational efficiency of logistics networks. A biobjective mathematical model is established to minimize the total operating cost and number of vehicles for solving the multidepot recycling vehicle routing problem with RS and TWA (MRVRPRSTWA). A hybrid heuristic algorithm including 3D k-means clustering algorithm and nondominated sorting genetic algorithm- (NSGA-) II (NSGA-II) is designed. The 3D k-means clustering algorithm groups customers into clusters on the basis of their spatial and temporal distances to reduce the computational complexity in optimizing the multidepot logistics networks. In comparison with NSGA algorithm, the NSGA-II algorithm incorporates an elitist strategy, which can improve the computational speed and robustness. In this study, the performance of the NSGA-II algorithm is compared with the other two algorithms. Results show that the proposed algorithm is superior in solving MRVRPRSTWA. The proposed model and algorithm are applied to an empirical case study in Chongqing City, China, to test their applicability in real logistics operations. Four different scenarios regarding whether the RS and TWA strategies are included or not are developed to test the efficacy of the proposed methods. The results indicate that the RS and TWA strategies can optimize the recycling services and resource allocation and utilization and enhance the operational efficiency, thus promoting the sustainable development of the logistics industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epileptic seizures, sleep, and circadian timing share bilateral interactions, but concerted work to characterize these interactions and to leverage them to the advantage of patients with epilepsy remains in beginning stages. To further the field, a multidisciplinary group of sleep physicians, epileptologists, circadian timing experts, and others met to outline the state of the art, gaps of knowledge, and suggest ways forward in clinical, translational, and basic research. A multidisciplinary panel of experts discussed these interactions, centered on whether improvements in sleep or circadian rhythms improve decrease seizure frequency. In addition, education about sleep was lacking in among patients, their families, and physicians, and that focus on education was an extremely important "low hanging fruit" to harvest. Improvements in monitoring technology, experimental designs sensitive to the rigor required to dissect sleep versus circadian influences, and clinical trials in seizure reduction with sleep improvements were appropriate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a nonorthogonal multiple access based cooperative relaying system (NOMA-CRS) is considered to increase spectral efficiency. Besides, the simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) is proposed for the relay in NOMA-CRS. In SWIPT-NOMA-CRS, three different energy harvesting (EH) protocols, power sharing (PS), time sharing (TS) and ideal protocols are implemented. The outage performances of the SWIPT-NOMA-CRS are studied for all three EH protocols. In the analysis, to represent practical/reasonable scenarios, imperfect successive interference canceler (SIC) and imperfect channel state information (CSI) are taken into consideration. The derived outage probability (OP) expressions are validated via computer simulations. Besides, the OP for the benchmark scheme, NOMA-CRS without EH, is also derived under imperfect SIC and CSI. Based on extensive simulations, it is revealed that the SWIPT-NOMA-CRS outperforms NOMA-CRS without EH. Finally, the effects of all parameters on the outage performance of the SWIPT-NOMA-CRS are discussed and for the given scenarios, the optimum PS factor, TS factor and power allocation coefficients are demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tianshan Tectonic Belt is an intracontinental orogenic belt formed by continental convergence that has undergone long-term tectonic evolution. The reactivation that began during the Cenozoic Period has led to complex structural changes. The goals of this study are to review the seismic observational data obtained during 2009–2019 in the Xinjiang regional seismic network and analyze the anisotropy of the upper crust in the Tianshan area. Therefore, a shear-wave splitting system was adopted to collect and analyze shear-wave splitting parameters of 33 stations in the study area. The anisotropy of the upper crust of the Tianshan is spatially diverse, and the dominant polarization directions of fast shear-wave reflect the spatial variations of regional tectonic stress. In addition, the time delays of slow waves are proportional to the intensities of anisotropy in the upper crustal medium. The dominant polarization direction of the fast waves in the western segment of the North Tianshan Mountain, northwestern corner of the Tarim Basin, and northeastern edge of Pamir is consistent with the tectonic stress fields in the area. In the northern part of the Keping Block, the dominant polarization directions of the fast waves are consistent with the fault trends; however, they are at a high angle to the dominant directions of the regional tectonic stress field indicating that the anisotropy is affected by the faults in the area. The anisotropy of the eastern segment of the South Tianshan Mountains and the surrounding area of Urumqi are affected by the local stress field and fault structure. The polarization directions at some of the stations are sub-parallel to the directions of the regional principal stress. However, for other stations, the polarization directions are aligned with the neighboring faults. The polarization directions of the fast waves in most of the study area are consistent with the local tectonic stress fields. Thus, stress compression phenomena such as the Tarim Basin being thrusted and subducted between the Tianshan crust and the upper mantle due to the far field effects of the convergence between the Indian and Siberian plates are evident. Furthermore, the zoning of the time delays is distinct, and the time delays share an increasing trend from east to west in the North Tianshan and South Tianshan Mountain ranges. These results are consistent with the north-south convergence deformations across the Tianshan Mountains, where the deformation rate increased from east to west. The average values of time delays in northeastern Pamir are significantly higher than that in the other areas due to the occurrence of the most intensive tectonic movements suggesting that the anisotropy of the zone is significantly stronger than that of the other zones in the Tianshan Tectonic Belt. We successfully deciphered the seismic anisotropy in the upper crust and provided a comprehensive and systematic understanding of the dynamic mechanisms of the Tianshan Tectonic Belt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The best-known achievable rate region for the two-user Gaussian interference channel corresponds to the Han-Kobayashi scheme. However, mathematical expressions that characterize the Han-Kobayashi rate region are complicated. This complexity hinders a comprehensive understanding of the rate region. For instance, when interference is weak, the maximum achievable sum-rate of the Han-Kobayashi scheme has been unknown. This paper studies the sum-rate of the Han-Kobayashi scheme with Gaussian inputs and fully characterizes the maximum achievable sum-rate, when no time sharing is used. The optimal power-splitting variables and the corresponding maximum achievable sum-rate are explicitly expressed in closed forms. With the same approach, the maximum weighted sum-rate is expressed that characterizes the boundary of the Han-Kobayashi region without time sharing. Moreover, when time sharing is used, the boundary is expressed in terms of the upper concave envelope of a function of transmitters’ powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The speeches stated by influential politicians can have a decisive impact on the future of a country. In particular, the economic content of such speeches affects the economy of countries and their financial markets. For this reason, we examine a novel dataset containing the economic content of 951 speeches stated by 45 US Presidents from George Washington (April 1789) to Donald Trump (February 2017). In doing so, we use an economic glossary carried out by means of text mining techniques. The goal of our study is to examine the structure of significant interconnections within a network obtained from the economic content of presidential speeches. In such a network, nodes are represented by talks and links by values of cosine similarity, the latter computed using the occurrences of the economic terms in the speeches. The resulting network displays a peculiar structure made up of a core (i.e. a set of highly central and densely connected nodes) and a periphery (i.e. a set of non-central and sparsely connected nodes). The presence of different economic dictionaries employed by the Presidents characterize the core-periphery structure. The Presidents' talks belonging to the network's core share the usage of generic (non-technical) economic locutions like "interest" or "trade". While the use of more technical and less frequent terms characterizes the periphery (e.g. "yield"). Furthermore, the speeches close in time share a common economic dictionary. These results together with the economics glossary usages during the US periods of boom and crisis provide unique insights on the economic content relationships among Presidents' speeches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, most piezoelectric energy harvesters (PEHs) are developed based on a single piezoelectric transducer (PZT). But in practical applications, a vibration source can be equipped with PZT array in order to harvest more power. The time-shared multiplexing scheme is mainly employed for multi-input PEHs. There is less study on the synchronized multi-input PEH. In this article, a multi-input synchronous electric charge extraction (MI-SECE) interface based on buck structure for piezoelectric energy harvesting is proposed. Both theoretical analysis and experimental test results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed interface. The results show that the MI-SECE interface can extract energy from multi-PZTs simultaneously with any phase difference (0–2π). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are developing a multi-detector pinhole-based stationary brain-dedicated SPECT system: AdaptiSPECT-C. In this work, we introduced a new design prototype with multiple adaptable pinhole apertures for each detector to modulate the multiplexing by employing temporal shuttering of apertures. Temporal shuttering of apertures over the scan time provides the AdaptiSPECT-C with the capability of multiple-frame acquisition. We investigated, through analytic simulation, the impact of projection multiplexing on image quality using several digital phantoms and a customized anthropomorphic phantom emulating brain perfusion clinical distribution. The 105 pinholes in the collimator of the system were categorized into central, axial, and lateral apertures. We generated, through simulation, collimators of different multiplexing levels. Several data acquisition schemes were also created by changing the imaging time share of the acquisition frames. Sensitivity increased by 35% compared to the single-pinhole-per-detector base configuration of the AdaptiSPECT-C when using the central, axial, and lateral apertures with equal acquisition time shares within a triple-frame scheme with a high multiplexing scenario. Axial and angular sampling of the base configuration was enhanced by adding the axial and lateral apertures. We showed that the temporal shuttering of apertures can be exploited, trading the sensitivity, to modulate the multiplexing and to acquire a set of non-multiplexed non-truncated projections. Our results suggested that reconstruction benefited from utilizing both non-multiplexed projections and projections with modulated multiplexing resulting in a noticeably reduction in the multiplexing-induced image artefacts. Contrast recovery factor improved by 20% (9%) compared to the base configuration for a Defrise (hot-rod) phantom study when the central and axial (lateral) apertures with equal time shares were combined. The results revealed that, as an overall trend at each simulated multiplexing level, lowest normalized root-mean-square errors for the brain gray-matter regions were achieved with the combined usage of the central apertures and axial/lateral apertures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adults under time pressure share with others generously, but with more time they act more selfishly. In the current study, we investigated whether young children already operate in this same way, and, if so, whether this changes over the preschool and early school age years. We tested 144 children in three age groups (3-, 5-, and 7-year olds) in a one-shot dictator game: Children were given nine stickers and had the possibility to share stickers with another child who was absent. Children in the Time Pressure condition were instructed to share quickly, whereas children in the Delay condition were instructed to take time and consider their decision carefully. Across ages, children in the Time Pressure condition shared significantly more stickers than children in the Delay condition. Moreover, the longer children waited, the less they shared. Thus, children, like adults, are more prosocial when acting spontaneously than after considering their decision more carefully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An exact method to solve small instances of the optimal ride-sharing problem. • A clustering method based on a "shareability index" to solve large-scale problems. • A heuristic approach to favor sharing opportunities at the cost of slight increases in the cost function, decreasing passenger waiting time. • The experiments performed prove that our heuristic approaches greatly improve computation time, with few compromises on optimality. • Two models (plant model and prediction model) to deal with dynamic traffic conditions. • Comparing the proposed dynamic ride-sharing system performance with different market-shares and numbers of sharing in terms of reducing traffic congestion. Can dynamic ride-sharing reduce traffic congestion? In this paper we show that the answer is yes if the trip density is high, which is usually the case in large-scale networks but not in medium-scale networks where opportunities for sharing in time and space become rather limited. When the demand density is high, the dynamic ride-sharing system can significantly improve traffic conditions, especially during peak hours. Sharing can compensate extra travel distances related to operating a mobility service. The situation is entirely different in small and medium-scale cities when trip shareability is small, even if the ride-sharing system is fully optimized based on the perfect demand prediction in the near future. The reason is simple, mobility services significantly increase the total travel distance, and sharing is simply a means of combating this trend without eliminating it when the trip density is not high enough. This paper proposes a complete framework to represent the functioning of the ride-sharing system and multiple steps to tackle the curse of dimensionality when solving the problem. We address the problem for two city scales in order to compare different trip densities. A city scale of 25 k m 2 with a total market of 11,235 shareable trips for the medium-scale network and a city scale of 80 k m 2 with 205,308 demand for service vehicles for the large-scale network over a 4-hour period with a rolling horizon of 20 minutes. The solutions are assessed using a dynamic trip-based macroscopic simulation to account for the congestion effect and dynamic travel times that may influence the optimal solution obtained with predicted travel times. This outperforms most previous studies on optimal fleet management that usually consider constant and fully deterministic travel time functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some species intrinsically have a high invasiveness capacity, shown by high phenotypic plasticity and rapid growth, enabling a wide distribution across their native habitats and successful invasion in the introduced range. For such species, information from native habitats is critically important. An example is Glechoma hederacea, native to Eurasia but introduced and widespread in the USA. Our main objective was to investigate variation in traits of native G. hederacea populations across contrasting habitats: open, forest edge and understory. Vegetation was sampled and the ecophysiological and morphological traits were measured with accompanying environmental parameters. Results showed that in native habitats environmental conditions cover wide gradients of light and soil moisture. Plants had the highest cover in nutrient-rich, shaded habitats, representing the optimal habitat, indicating shade tolerance of G. hederacea. Plants from forest understory exhibited strong similarities in investigated traits to plants from the forest edge, even though this was a drier, sunnier habitat. Plants from open, sunny habitats experienced stress as indicated by the quantum efficiency of PSII and significantly higher sexual reproduction. Results show that G. hederacea is moderately tolerant simultaneously to shade and drought, a characteristic that has been reported for numerous invasive species, while at the same time it shares some characteristics with weedy plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the downlink precoder design for two-user power-domain multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). We propose a novel user-assisted (UA) simultaneous diagonalization (SD) based MIMO-NOMA scheme that achieves SD of the MIMO channels of both users through a combination of precoder design and low-complexity self-interference cancellation at the users, thereby considerably lowering the overall decoding complexity compared to joint decoding. The achievable ergodic user rates of the proposed scheme are analyzed for Rayleigh fading channels based on a finite-size random matrix theory framework, which is further exploited to develop a statistical power allocation algorithm. Simulation and numerical results show that the proposed UA-SD MIMO-NOMA scheme significantly outperforms orthogonal multiple access and a benchmark precoder design performing SD via generalized singular value decomposition in terms of the achievable ergodic rate region for most user rates. The ergodic rate region is further enhanced by a hybrid scheme which performs time sharing between the proposed UA-SD MIMO-NOMA scheme and single-user MIMO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to ensure the strong real-time information sharing of Aerial Ad hoc Network, a low-delay information sharing algorithm for multiple-radio-per-platform networking is proposed based on the directional transmission capability of phased-array antenna. The algorithm introduces virtual nodes and virtual links in the process of topology generation first. By extracting topology information and choosing link grouping, it can effectively reduce redundant transmission and transmission latency of information sharing. Then, it is verified through simulation that the algorithm can reduce the latency by up to 49.8% and eliminate transmission redundancy. In addition, a direction selection algorithm is proposed for the variation of antenna beam direction. Simulation results show that the algorithm can further reduce the latency of information sharing and ensure the real time of information sharing, thus further improving the network performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climatic factors act on populations at multiple timescales leading to the separation of long-term climate and shorter-term weather effects. We used passerine counts from 1995 to 2019 in subarctic Alaska (Denali National Park, USA) to assess the impacts of the prior breeding season's weather on breeding season abundance and the impacts of climate measured through shifts in elevational distribution. Weather and climate appear to have had opposing effects on the abundance of some shrub-associated species as evidenced by a positive response to nesting phase temperature over a 1-year lag and a negative response to warming-induced shifts in shrub-dominated habitats over the long term. The latter response was indicated by declines in abundance which occurred in some part through portions of these populations shifting upslope of our fixed sampling frame. Overall, the abundance of species was related to one or more of the lagged effects of weather and the effects of weather alone drove nearly twofold variation in annual abundance in most species. The effect of nesting phase temperature was a strong positive predictor at both community and individual species levels, whereas arrival phase temperature had weak support at both levels. The effects of total precipitation during the nesting phase and snowmelt timing shared mixed support at community and species levels, but generally indicated higher abundance following seasons that were drier and had earlier snowmelt. Together, our findings of opposing effects of climatic variables at different timescales have implications for understanding the mechanisms of population and distributional change in passerines in the subarctic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing demand for radio frequency (RF) spectrum access poses new challenges for next-generation radar systems. To operate in a crowded electromagnetic environment, radars must coexist with other RF emitters while maintaining system performance. This work evaluates the performance of a spectrum sharing cognitive radar system, which predicts and avoids RF interference (RFI) in real time. The system applies a cognitive perception-action cycle that senses RFI, learns RFI behavior over time, and adapts the radar's frequency band of operation. Through cognition, the system learns a stochastic model describing RF activity. This model allows the cognitive radar to predict RF activity in real time and share the spectrum with emitters, such as communication systems. A set of synthetic and measured interference signals are used to evaluate the performance of this predictive spectrum sharing scheme. This work assesses the impact of RFI on the cognitive radar's range profile with respect to variation in RF environment. The system demonstrates accurate avoidance of deterministic RFI with a degradation in spectrum sharing efficiency as variability over time increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Timing can be processed explicitly or implicitly. Temporal orienting is a typical implicit timing through which we can anticipate and prepare an optimized response to forthcoming events. It is, however, not yet clear whether mechanisms such as temporal-pulse accumulation and attentional gating (more attention, more accumulated temporal pulses) underly the internal representations of temporal orienting, as in explicit timing. To clarify this, a dual-task paradigm, consisting of a temporal orienting and an interference task, was adopted. Consistent with the temporal-pulse-accumulation and attentional-gating model, reaction times to the target detection of temporal orienting increased as the interference stimuli were temporally closer to the target, i.e., a location effect for temporal orienting. This effect is likely due to attention being diverted away from temporal orienting to monitor the occurrence of the interference stimuli for a longer time, resulting in greater temporal pulse loss and less accurate temporal orienting for conditions with later interference stimuli. The temporal-pulse-accumulation aspect in temporal orienting received further support by taking an explicit duration reproduction (containing a second temporal-pulse accumulation) as the interference task. On the one hand, temporal orienting became less accurate with increased temporal-pulse-accumulation overlaps between the dual tasks; on the other hand, two-way (one for temporal orienting and the other for duration reproduction), rather than one-way, location effects were observed, implying processing conflicts between the two temporal-pulse accumulations. Taken together, these results suggest that implicit and explicit timing may share common mechanisms upon internal temporal representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School is where adolescents spend the largest share of their waking time. The present study focused on the factors that contribute to students' adjustment to school from a self-determination perspective. We tested the predictive value of parental behaviors (autonomy support, structure, and involvement) on the different dimensions of school adjustment (social, academic, and personal-emotional) and the mediating role played by psychological need satisfaction in school (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness). The sample included 663 adolescents (55% girls) surveyed over a 3-year period. Results supported the unique contribution of parental behaviors and psychological need satisfaction for different dimensions of school adjustment. Indirect effects suggested that the need for relatedness explains the relationship from structure to school adjustment, whereas competence explained the prediction of autonomy support on social adjustment. These findings can guide interventions for students by identifying the family and personal factors that contribute to their academic, social, and personal-emotional adjustment. Educational Impact and Implications Statement: This longitudinal study suggests that maternal autonomy support, involvement, and structure predict adolescents' ability to deal with academic demands, social expectations, and pressure in the school setting. It also showed that these predictions partly occurred through the satisfaction of youths' needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Interventions aimed to improve students' adjustment in school therefore benefit from teaching parents to be autonomy supportive, involved, and structuring in their interactions with their child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main features in mobility sharing applications is the exposure of personal data provided to the system. Transportation and location data can reveal personal habits, preferences, and behaviors, and riders could be keen not to share the exact location of their origin and/or destination. But what is the price of privacy in terms of decreased efficiency of a mobility sharing system? In this paper we address the privacy issues under this point of view, and show how location privacy-preserving techniques could affect the performance of mobility-sharing applications, in terms of both system efficiency and quality of service. To this extent, we first apply different data-masking techniques to anonymize geographical information, and then compare the performance of shareability network-based trip-matching algorithms for ride-sharing, applied to real data and to privacy-preserving data. The goal of the paper is to evaluate the performance of mobility-sharing, privacy-preserving systems, and to shed light on the trade-off between data privacy and its costs. The results show that the total traveled distance increase due to the introduction of data privacy could be bounded if users are willing to spend (or "pay") for more time in order to share a trip, meaning that data location privacy affects both efficiency and quality of service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes an optimization framework for power and time resource allocation during time sharing non-orthogonal multiple access (TS-NOMA) transmissions performed by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the context of a large-scale scenario. The objective of the proposed UAV-TS-NOMA system and optimization framework is to jointly maximize the energy efficiency (EE) and the downlink throughput fairness among users within the UAV communication range. The idea behind is to propose a communication system that: i) merges the advantages of UAV communications with the ones offered by the TS-NOMA paradigm and ii) maximizes the EE and the downlink fairness among users. The resulting model finds applicability in performing energy efficient and throughput fair transmissions into power-constrained communication scenarios. Performance investigations regarding the proposed framework in finding the optimal set of resources which maximizes jointly the above mentioned network metrics, have shown the advantage of the proposed two-step optimization framework in finding the optimal configuration of both power and time resources, respecting both the power constraints at the transmitter and the quality-of-service requirement of the users. In addition, it is shown how under particular conditions the proposed framework jointly optimizes the aforementioned network metrics in only one step. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Plasmodium vivax is a neglected human malaria parasite that causes significant morbidity in the Americas, the Middle East, Asia, and the Western Pacific. Population genomic approaches remain little explored to map local and regional transmission pathways of P. vivax across the main endemic sites in the Americas, where great progress has been made towards malaria elimination over the past decades. Methodology/Principal findings: We analyze 38 patient-derived P. vivax genome sequences from Mâncio Lima (ML)–the Amazonian malaria hotspot next to the Brazil-Peru border—and 24 sequences from two other sites in Acre State, Brazil, a country that contributes 23% of malaria cases in the Americas. We show that the P. vivax population of ML is genetically diverse (π = 4.7 × 10−4), with a high polymorphism particularly in genes encoding proteins putatively involved in red blood cell invasion. Paradoxically, however, parasites display strong genome-wide linkage disequilibrium, being fragmented into discrete lineages that are remarkably stable across time and space, with only occasional recombination between them. Using identity-by-descent approaches, we identified a large cluster of closely related sequences that comprises 16 of 38 genomes sampled in ML over 26 months. Importantly, we found significant ancestry sharing between parasites at a large geographic distance, consistent with substantial gene flow between regional P. vivax populations. Conclusions/Significance: We have characterized the sustained expansion of highly inbred P. vivax lineages in a malaria hotspot that can seed regional transmission. Potential source populations in hotspots represent a priority target for malaria elimination in the Amazon. Authors' summary: Plasmodium vivax is the geographically most widespread human malaria parasite and causes 80% of the malaria burden in the Americas. Here we use whole-genome sequencing to explore levels of parasite relatedness and infer P. vivax transmission networks in the upper Juruá Valley, the main transmission hotspot in Amazonian Brazil. We characterize a genetically diverse population that displays significant linkage disequilibrium, consistent with the local circulation of highly inbred but genetically distant parasite lineages. Noteworthy, these discrete lineages remain stable over time and share recent ancestry with parasites at a large geographic distance. These results illustrate the power of genomic epidemiology approaches to map potential source parasite populations and prioritize areas for targeted control interventions to eliminate residual P. vivax transmission in the Amazon and similar endemic settings worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study is a secondary data analysis that examines the association between parent modelling of dietary intake and physical activity and the same child behaviours among different races/ethnicities using innovative, rigorous and objective measures.Design: Ecological momentary assessment surveys were sent to parents to assess whether their child had seen them exercise or consume food. Dietary recall data and accelerometry were used to determine dietary intake and physical activity behaviours of children.Setting: Participants were randomly selected from primary care clinics, serving low-income and racially/ethnically diverse families in Minnesota, USA.Participants: Participants were families with children aged 5-7 years old who lived with parents 50 % of the time and shared at least one meal together.Results: A 10 percentage point higher prevalence in parent modelling of fruit and vegetable intake was associated with 0·12 higher serving intake of those same foods in children. The prevalence of parent modelling of eating energy dense foods (10 % prevalence units) was associated with 0·09 higher serving intake of sugar-sweetened beverages. Furthermore, accelerometry-measured parent sedentary hours was strongly correlated with child sedentary time (0·37 child sedentary hours per parent sedentary hours). An exploratory interaction analysis did not reveal any statistical evidence that these relationships depended on the child's race/ethnic background.Conclusions: Interventions that increase parent modelling of healthy eating and minimise modelling of energy dense foods may have favourable effects on child dietary quality. Additionally, future research is needed to clarify the associations of parent modelling of physical activity and children's physical activity levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ROC curve is a fundamental evaluation tool in medical researches and survival analysis. The estimation of ROC curve has been studied extensively with complete data and right-censored survival data. However, these methods are not suitable to analyze the length-biased and right-censored data. Since this kind of data includes the auxiliary information that truncation time and residual time share the same distribution, the two new estimators for the ROC curve are proposed by taking into account this auxiliary information to improve estimation efficiency. Numerical simulation studies with different assumed cases and real data analysis are conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Factors that influence the distribution, abundance, and diversification of species can simultaneously affect multiple evolutionary lineages within or across communities. These include changes to the environment or inter‐specific ecological interactions that cause ranges of multiple species to contract, expand, or fragment. Such processes predict temporally clustered evolutionary events across species, such as synchronous population divergences and/or changes in population size. There have been a number of methods developed to infer shared divergences or changes in population size, but not both, and the latter has been limited to approximate methods. We introduce a full‐likelihood Bayesian method that uses genomic data to estimate temporal clustering of an arbitrary mix of population divergences and population‐size changes across taxa. Using simulated data, we find that estimating the timing and sharing of demographic changes tends to be inaccurate and sensitive to prior assumptions, which is in contrast to accurate, precise, and robust estimates of shared divergence times. We also show that previous estimates of co‐expansion among five Alaskan populations of three‐spine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) were likely driven by prior assumptions and ignoring invariant characters. We conclude by discussing potential avenues to improve the estimation of synchronous demographic changes across populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is aimed to examine the domestic tractor market share with time series analysis to forecast the future probabilities with the help of the models which are created according to the Box-Jenkins method. The study was planned for year 2010, based on 5 different domestic tractor brands which are separately estimated for the domestic tractor market and included the total tractor numbers. It has been observed that the projected value of tractor companies whose market shares are estimated by time series analysis and the total tractor number are very close to their actual values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conversation was held on 19 February 2020 at the International Research Center 'Interweaving Performance Cultures' in Berlin shortly after Nanako Nakajima's final presentation of her Valeska Gert Professorship. 1Nanako Nakajima developed the Berlin version of the project Dance Archive Box with Dance Studies students from the Freie Universität Berlin. Initially proposed by theatre maker Ong Keng Sen, and conceived and facilitated by him, Daisuke Muto and Nanako Nakajima – and later Margie Medlin together with seven dance artists – the Dance Archive Box was initially launched with the Saison Foundation, Tokyo, in 2014, and exchanged and further developed in Japan and Singapore with artists of contemporary and traditional dance from the Asia-Pacific region. In the previous project, seven contemporary dance makers from Japan archived their works through their respective methods, each creating an archive box and then handing it over to another artist from a different background for re-performance. This time, Dance Studies students from the Freie Universität Berlin received these archive boxes from Japan and investigated how they could be used for recreation. There they found traces and documents of unknown dance movements: notes and drawings, pieces from costumes, sound recordings, or just one short letter. Dance Archive Box Berlin – a practical investigation into the archiving and reconstruction of movement – has been created through dramaturgical and performative explorations of the boxed material. In the field of Japanese contemporary dance, which has emancipated itself from the familial master-student relationship that long governed the Japanese system of passing on an art tradition, the project posed the following questions: how is it possible to separate a dance from the communal histories of the dance maker and to produce a Dance Archive Box as a creative common ground for all people? what does it mean to share a dance without sharing time with the dance makers themselves? how do we reconstruct whose histories for whom? what aspects of dance in the past should be passed on as an archive for the future? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates that a three-quarter view became a typical mode of representing the face of Guru Nanak through his depiction in paintings of the Janam-sakhis, hagiographic accounts of Guru Nanak, from the eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries. In the B-40 set, completed in 1733, Guru Nanak was already painted in three-quarter view, which enabled audiences to distinguish him from other figures. The images of him in the set were likely used to those of the Guler set and the Unbound set, which depicted the late eighteenth century. This is because Panjabi painters of the time shared similar preliminary sketches across workshops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The present study aims to explore the setting of consultation and communication between physicians and patients affected by genetic cardiomyopathies, investigating how the two parts of the therapeutic relationship participate and share information. Methods and results: 45 adult patients affected by various cardiomyopathies took part in a prospective case study while attending consultations at a cardiologic outpatient clinic constituting an Italian referral centre for cardiomyopathies. A researcher observed the consultations, which were audio-recorded and transcribed. Transcripts were coded and an analysis of setting, type of communication implemented and participation of doctors and patients in terms of word-count and type of questions/answers was carried out. Overall word-count was significantly higher for physicians than for patients (t(44) = 9,506; p<0.001). Doctors were prone to ask closed questions (t(44) = -11,90; p<0.001) while patients preferred open answers (t(44) = 5.58; p<0.001), enriched with subjective issues related to their illness experience. Partial correlation highlights a significant positive relation between doctors' closed question and patients' open answers (r =.838; p<0.001). Conclusions: Findings emphasize patients' need for adequate time and space to share their subjective illness experience with the physician, within an approach informed by the insights and recommendations of Narrative Medicine. These findings are instrumental to improving the specific clinical setting for individuals with genetic cardiomyopathies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The article examines the impact of policy change on enterprise unit subsidies that took place in 2009 on the quantity demanded for crop insurance. Design/methodology/approach: The analysis covers corn, soybeans, and wheat that are grown in six economic regions and uses various measures of purchasing such as acres insured, unit structure, coverage levels, as well as crop hail use as proxies for the quantity demanded. The analysis first employs time series econometric tools to analyze whether the time path of the share of enterprise units within buyup acres is influenced by the policy change in enterprise unit subsidies. It then comparatively examines the insurance experience between 2008 (right before the change) and 2015 (well after the change). Findings: For corn, soybean, and wheat, the analysis establishes that the time path of the share of enterprise units within buyup coverage acres is statistically and economically influenced by the intervention. The analysis further quantifies the intervention's immediate and long-term impacts and finds that farmers' unit choices are highly responsive (elastic) to subsidy rates in those units. Between 2008 and 2015, the insurance experience generally indicates that the share of enterprise units within buyup coverage surged, the share of acres under catastrophic coverage declined, and the share acres in high coverage levels increased. Meanwhile, growers have increasingly utilized crop-hail policies. Originality/value: This appears to be the first study (1) quantifying the sensitivity of farmers' unit choices with respect to subsidy rates in those units and finding that such choices are actually highly responsive (elastic), and (2) pointing out the interaction between MPCI and crop-hail products and offering insights as to their combined use. The findings should be of considerable value to policymakers, academics, bankers, and producers in regards to the design and use of risk management tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay, I show how difficult emotions, like aggression and murderous rage, are grappled with in horror movies. Patients' reactions to viewing these films can take place in a safe, creative, therapeutic space that allows for even the darkest themes. I discuss three patients who related to intense rage at the mother when viewing the films Joker and Jurassic Park. One patient watched Jurassic Park 50 times and shared his thoughts about the significance this film, and films in general, held for him throughout his life. It is theorized that when patients bring films into the clinical arena, they create a third space that exists between therapist and patient, a safe transitional space within which to explore difficult and otherwise unacceptable feelings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The study aimed to evaluate the influence of the duration times of anaerobic phases on the bacterial biocenosis characterisation while denitrifying dephosphatation in the Integrated Fixed-Film Activated Sludge – Moving-Bed Sequencing Batch Biofilm Reactor (IFAS-MBSBBR). The experiment was conducted in a laboratory model. The study consisted of four series, which differed in terms of the ratio of the anaerobic phases. duration concerning the overall reaction time in the cycle. The anaerobic phases covered from 18 to 30% of the whole cycle duration. During the reactor performance that took 9 months, the influent and effluent were monitored by analysis of COD, TKN, NH4-N, NO2-N, NO3-N, TP, PO4-P, pH, alkalinity and the phosphorus uptake batch tests. Characterisation of the activated sludge and the biofilm biocenosis was based on fluorescent in situ hybridisation (identification of PAO and GAO) and the denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis patterns. Results: The organic compounds removal was high (more than 95.7%) independently of cycle configuration. The best efficiency for nitrogen (91.1%) and phosphorus (98.8%) removal was achieved for the 30% share of the anaerobic phases in the reaction time. Denitrifying PAO (DPAO) covered more than 90% of PAO in the biofilm and usually around 70% of PAO in the activated sludge. A substantial part of the polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAO) community were Actinobacteria. The denitrifying dephosphatation activity was performed mainly by Accumulibacter phosphatis. Conclusions: High nutrient removal efficiencies may be obtained in IFAS-MBSBBR using the denitrifying dephosphatation process. It was found that the length of anaerobic phases influenced denitrification and the biological phosphorus removal. The extension of the anaerobic phases duration time in the reaction time caused an increase in the percentage share of denitrifying PAO (DPAO) in PAO. The biocenosis of the biofilm and the activated sludge reveal different species patterns and domination of the EBPR community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This retrospective, covering half a century, is a personal history of modern libertarianism. It provides some historical perspective on the growth of libertarianism and its impact on society, especially for those who were born into an existing libertarian movement, including political and academic paths. As outsiders, Austrians and libertarians can expect more than their share of difficult times and roadblocks, although that situation has improved over time. It also shows the limitations of the political path to liberty and the importance of the Austrian view that society changes via emphasis on sound economic science, its practicality, and its subsequent impact on ideology. Finally, it conveys the importance of solving practical problems and puzzles via the thin, radical version of libertarianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The number of preschool slots per child in Chicago ZIP Codes is examined. • Hispanic-concentrated and high child poverty ZIPs have lowest preschool supply. • A sociological frame is used to examine directors' support for universal preschool. • Directors in majority Hispanic ZIPs are most likely to favor universal preschool. I use multiple datasets to examine disparities in the availability of preschool across Hispanic-concentrated and non-Hispanic-concentrated Chicago ZIP Codes. First, I examine levels of preschool supply in Chicago ZIPs (n = 55). I find that communities with higher shares of Hispanic populations and higher rates of child poverty have had fewer slots per child than other communities across time (2008–2013). Using a separate but complementary dataset, I then explore Chicago area preschool directors' preference for universal, state-funded preschool (n = 225). Directors serving in majority Hispanic communities are over 20% more likely to support universal public preschool than those serving in majority White communities. Together, these results suggest that there is room to increase the availability of state-funded preschool options for Hispanic-concentrated communities, and that directors serving such communities are open to increasing universal state-funded public preschool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]