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Summary Worldwide, a cocktail of climate change, urbanization, and population growth is increasing the vulnerability of coastal communities to flood risk. Recent experience in urban flood management from China’s Greater Bay Area shows that building “prevention” and “preparedness” into urban development plans is essential for climate adaptation and resilience.

The spatiotemporal concentration of multiple pollutants is crucial information for pollution control strategies to safeguard public health. Despite considerable efforts, however, significant uncertainty remains. In this study, a three-dimensional variational model is coupled with a data assimilation system to analyze the spatiotemporal variation of PM2.5 for the whole of China. Monthly simulations of six sensitivity scenarios in different seasons, including different assimilation cycles, are carried out to assess the impact of the assimilation frequency on the PM2.5 simulations and the model simulation accuracy afforded by data assimilation. The results show that the coupled system provides more reliable initial fields to substantially improve the model performance for PM2.5, PM10, and O3. Higher assimilation frequency improves the simulation in all geographic areas. Two statistical indicators—the root mean square error and the correlation coefficient of PM2.5 mass concentrations in the analysis field—are improved by 12.19 µg/m3 (33%) and 0.21 (48%), respectively. Although the 24-hour assimilation cycle considerably improves the model, assimilation at a 6-hour cycle raises the performance for PM2.5 to the performance goal level. The analysis shows that assimilating at a 24-hour cycle diminishes over time, whereas the positive impact of the 6-hour cycle persists. One pivotal finding is that the assimilation of PM2.5 in the outermost domain results in a substantial improvement in PM2.5 prediction for the innermost domain, which is a potential alternative method to the existing domain-wide data fusion algorithm. The effect of assimilation varies among topographies, a finding that provides essential support for further model development.

Information technology (IT) developments of large magnitude organize as collections of multiple projects into a single program, especially under dynamic conditions of market uncertainty that frequently change requirements or solutions midstream. Successful completion of an IT development program requires that the multiple teams work effectively together as well as independently in response to changes by relying on the differentiation of talent and knowledge available to the program manager. We consider and empirically support a model derived from principles in the multi-team systems (MTS) literature to determine the influence of differentiation among the IT program in the sharing of knowledge and information. The relationship from differentiation to program success is mediated by knowledge and information sharing, showing how to manage change through the dissemination of information and knowledge. Uncertainty of the market positively moderates the relation from differentiation among projects to information sharing. These findings contribute to the literature by empirically validating that MTS frameworks are exceptionally well suited for dealing with complex environments in the context of IT development.

PurposeTwo challenges faced by automotive component design projects within contracted design agencies are (1) specification changes requested by the manufacturers and (2) product information or core technology knowledge leakage to external actors. We examine the effects of targeted boundary activities that address these challenges under the contingencies of environmental uncertainty and project complexity.Design/methodology/approachBased on Boundary management theory, a bidirectional model of boundary buffering was conceptualized in the context of design agency teams developing automotive components. A survey is derived from the proposed model. Regression analysis is performed using empirical data from 234 auto component design projects in Chinese design agencies.FindingsBoundary buffering activities that strengthen outside-in boundaries and inside-out boundaries directly improve the final design quality. Further, the magnitude of effect for outside-in buffering on design quality is enhanced under environmental uncertainty, while the impact of inside-out buffering on design quality is enhanced under project complexity.Research limitations/implicationsBoundary activities should consider differences in boundary targets, directional flow of information, and context of scope.Practical implicationsAutomotive component design agents should attend to both outside-in and inside-out boundary buffering, especially under conditions of environmental uncertainty or project complexity.Originality/valueThe proposed bidirectional view on boundary buffering adds perspective to team boundary management theory. Specific contingencies include common risk elements of project complexity and environmental uncertainty not typically associated with the need for buffering activities.

Career demands on the information technology (IT) professional have evolved. No longer do organizations demand strictly managerial or technical competencies. Instead, IT professionals face demands that require the ability to produce technically proficient software or systems while managing projects and stakeholders in a variety of situations. Prior research in desired career demands and job burnout indicates that this will lead to lower levels of career satisfaction and higher levels of turnover. To address this issue, we draw on the career orientation literature to build and test a model of career satisfaction derived from the organizational demands placed on the IT professional. The results suggest that pure managerial demands lead to the highest satisfaction while adding technical demands lessens satisfaction but in a complex pattern that allows potential compromises. Prior models of career paths should be reconsidered in light of newer career demands.

Problems with PM

One of the major challenges for Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) is the limited field of vision (FOV) of the endoscope. A previous study by the authors designed a MIS Panoramic Endoscope (MISPE) that gives the physician a broad field of view, but this approach is still limited, in terms of performance and quality because it encounters difficulty when there is smoke, specular reflections, or a change in viewpoint. This study proposes a novel algorithm that increases the MISPE’s performance. The method calculates the disparity for the region that is overlapped by the two cameras to allow image stitching. An improved evaluation of the homography matrix uses a frame-by-frame calculation, so the stitched videos are more stable for MIS. The experimental results show that the revised MISPE has a FOV that is 55% greater, and the system operates stably in real time. The proposed system allows a frame rate of 26.7 fps on a single CPU computer. The proposed stitching method is 1.55 times faster than the previous method. The stitched image that is obtained using the proposed method is as similar as the ground truth as the SURF-based stitching method that was used in the previous study.

Highlights • Locatability, personalization and social benefit affect information disclosure intention. • Locatability shows the greatest impact on information disclosure intention in LBS. • Locatability and personalization are more important for female users in predicting information disclosure intention. • Social benefit has a more salient effect on information disclosure intention for male users than female users., The prior studies on information disclosure in location-based services (LBS) suggested that the perceived benefits of information disclosure in LBS were manifested by three benefits, namely, locatability, personalization, and social benefits. The three benefits might affect information disclosure intention differently. As an extension, individual factors, such as gender, may affect the relationship. However, according to literature, little research has investigated on the combined influence of the three benefits on the information disclosure intention in LBS with the gender as a moderator. Based upon the self-determination and social role theories, this study intends to bridge the gap empirically. The hypotheses are largely supported by 215 respondents. Unexpectedly, the research findings show that for females, locatability and personalization are more important in predicting their information disclosure intention, whereas for males, the social benefit has more of an impact on information disclosure intention, which is opposite to the hypotheses and convention. Furthermore, the research findings indicate that the behaviors of males and females may conform to the roles distributed within a society of this information age rather than to the personalities of the individuals. Finally, the implications are presented.

Social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, have grown rapidly in recent years. Friend recommendation systems, as an important emerging component of social media, may efficiently expand social media networks by proactively recommending new and potentially high-quality friends to users. Literature review has shown that prior research work on friend recommendation mainly focuses on the linking relation between users in social media but largely neglects the influence of users' attributes. In this study, we have systematically reviewed and evaluated the existing state-of-the-art friend recommendation algorithms. We introduce a new Friend Recommendation system using a User's Total Attributes Information (FRUTAI) based on the law of total probability. The proposed method can be easily extended according to the increasing number of a user's attributes with low computation cost. Furthermore, the FRUTAI is a universal friend recommendation method and can be applied in different types of social media because it does not distinguish the structure of the network. We have collected 7 million users' public information and their friend relationships from RenRen, commonly regarded as the Facebook of China. Using the real-world data from a dominant social media provider, we extensively evaluate the proposed method with other existing friend recommendation algorithms. Our experimental results have demonstrated the comparatively better performance of FRUTAI. In our empirical studies, we have observed that the performance of FRUTAI is related to the number of a user's friends. In particular, when a user has a small number of friends, the proposed FRUTAI algorithm performs better than other algorithms; when a user has a large number of friends, the overall performance of FRUTAI becomes less competitive but is still comparable to those of other providers, and its precision rate is quite outstanding. Our findings may provide some important practical implications to social media design and performance. Propose a new friend recommendation method and algorithm, FRUTAIFRUTAI has a flexible format that can be easily extended to adding users' additional important attributes.Use the real-world data from a dominant social media provider in China

Problems with PM2.5 pollution in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) have been significantly reduced since the Chinese government released a series of emission control policies including the strengthened controls in the 13th Five-Year Plan. This study assessed the efficacy of emission control measures using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model to provide data-driven support to government decision making, which is becoming increasingly important. This study aimed to quantitatively evaluate the integrated results of proposed policies for controlling PM2.5 concentrations. Accordingly, the regional 2015 emission inventory was modified with recently released government data for the PRD, and scenarios for four dynamical emission-reduction policies (S1–S4) were explored. The results show that all four proposed control measures can help to reduce PM2.5 concentrations throughout Hong Kong (HK), Macao, and the PRD economic zone (PRD EZ) by 2020. In all cases, reductions in PM2.5 concentrations were larger over PRD EZ than over HK. For HK, the predicted annual concentrations of PM2.5 were less than 20 μg/m3 for S1–S3 and less than 15 μg/m3 for S4. For Macao, the predicted annual concentrations of PM2.5 were less than 25 μg/m3 for S1 and less than 15 μg/m3 up to S3. Regionally, HK had the lowest PM2.5 levels, and the area around Foshan had the highest. Controlling the sources of air pollution (i.e., industry, transport, power production, and other sources) within PRD can get most of the PRD EZ region to below 35 μg/m3. Similar national air quality management efforts could reduce PM2.5 levels to less than 25 μg/m3 in the PRD EZ and less than 15 μg/m3 in HK. Control measures in S1 led to significant improvement in Shenzhen and HK, but the S3 option brought the greatest improvement for PRD EZ and Macao. The S4 policy option led to substantial reductions, particularly for HK.

Social media is an important data source to compliment traditional epidemic surveillance. However, misinformation in social media hinders the exploitation of valuable information. Analysis of information credibility has drawn much attention of academia in recent years. In this paper, we focus on analyzing the credibility of influenza posts published on Sina Weibo. We propose a semi-supervised probabilistic graphical model to jointly learn the interactions between user trustworthiness, content reliability, and post credibility. To test the performance of the approach, we apply it to identify credible influenza posts published from May 2013 to June 2014 on Sina Weibo. Random Forests and the Bayesian Network are used as baselines for evaluation. The results show that our approach performs effectively with the highest average accuracy of 71.7i¾?%, f-measure 51i¾?%. Our proposed framework significantly outperformed the baselines in detecting credible influenza posts on Sina Weibo.

Minimally invasive robotic surgery (MIRS) procedures are performed through small incisions on patient's body and provide the advantages of considerably reduced tissue trauma and shorter recovery time. However, loss of haptic feedback is one of the major drawbacks of minimally invasive robotic surgery. Surgeons may not always be able to control the force applied by the robotic arm because of lack of sense of tissue resistance. This study aims at determining stresses at the trocar/endoscope interface in order to limit the range of forces applied by robot on patient's skin and to avoid its inadvertent injury. Simulation of the robot movement was done using a computer aided design (CAD) software. Simulation results suggest that, due to mechanical advantage, contact forces calculated around the trocar are at least 10 times higher than the force applied on the robot arm. Therefore, surgeons need to be cautious to avoid too much pressure on patient's skin by applying high force to the robot arm.

Social network services, such as Facebook and Twitter in U.S.A., RenRen, QQ and Weibo in China, have grown substantially in recent years. Friend recommendation is an important emerging social network service component, which expands the networks by actively recommending new potential friends to users. We introduce a new friend recommendation system using a user's information of total attributes and based on the Law of total probability. The proposed method can be easily extended according to the number of user's attributes in different social networks. Our experimental results have demonstrated that superior performance the proposed method. In our empirical studies, we have observed that the performance of our algorithm is related with the number of user's friends. Our findings have important and practical applications in social network design and performance.