Efficient resource allocation and user association in NOMA-enabled vehicular-aided HetNets with high altitude platforms

peer reviewedThe increasing demand for massive connectivity and high data rates has made the efficient use of existing spectrum resources an increasingly challenging problem. Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is a potential solution for future heterogeneous networks (HetNets) due to its high capacity and spectrum efficiency. In this study, we analyze an uplink NOMA-enabled vehicular-aided HetNet, where multiple vehicular user equipment (VUEs) share the access link spectrum, and a high-altitude platform (HAP) communicates with roadside units (RSUs) through a backhaul communication link. We propose an improved algorithm for user association that selects VUEs for HAPs based on channel coefficient ratios and terrestrial VUEs based on a caching-state backhaul communication link. The joint optimization problems aim to maximize a utility function that considers VUE transmission rates and cross-tier interference while meeting the constraints of backhaul transmission rates and QoS requirements of each VUE. The joint resource allocation optimization problem consists of three sub-problems: bandwidth allocation, user association, and transmission power allocation. We derive a closed-form solution for bandwidth allocation and solve the transmission power allocation sub-problem iteratively using Taylor expansion to transform a non-convex term into a convex one. Our proposed three-stage iterative algorithm for resource allocation integrates all three sub-problems and is shown to be effective through simulation results. Specifically, the results demonstrate that our solution achieves performance improvements over existing approaches. Index Terms-Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) Heterogeneous networks (HetNets) Vehicular user equipment (VUE) High altitude platform (HAP) roadside units (RSUs)

Next Generation LEO Satellite Constellation Networks:Opportunities, Applications, and Challenges

peer reviewe

Bridging Performance of X (formerly known as Twitter) Users: A Predictor of Subjective Well-Being During the Pandemic

peer reviewedThe outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic triggered the perils of misinformation over social media. By amplifying the spreading speed and popularity of trustworthy information, influential social media users have been helping overcome the negative impacts of such flooding misinformation. In this article, we use the COVID-19 pandemic as a representative global health crisisand examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these influential users’ subjective well-being (SWB), one of the most important indicators of mental health. We leverage X (formerly known as Twitter) as a representative social media platform and conduct the analysis with our collection of 37,281,824 tweets spanning almost two years. To identify influential X users, we propose a new measurement called user bridging performance (UBM) to evaluate the speed and wideness gain of information transmission due to their sharing. With our tweet collection, we manage to reveal the more significant mental sufferings of influential users during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to this observation, through comprehensive hierarchical multiple regression analysis, we are the first to discover the strong relationship between individual social users’ subjective well-being and their bridging performance. We proceed to extend bridging performance from individuals to user subgroups. The new measurement allows us to conduct a subgroup analysis according to users’ multilingualism and confirm the bridging role of multilingual users in the COVID-19 information propagation. We also find that multilingual users not only suffer from a much lower SWB in the pandemic, but also experienced a more significant SWB drop

Un master en sciences infirmières en Belgique francophone : un pas supplémentaire vers la pratique infirmière avancée

peer reviewed4. Quality educatio

Thermo-hydraulic analysis of desiccation cracked soil strata considering ground temperature and moisture dynamics under the influence of soil-atmosphere interactions

peer reviewedGlobal warming and climate change significantly affect ground temperature and flow patterns. Moreover, areas prone to cracking experience intensified temperature and moisture variations. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate ground temperature and moisture dynamics considering soil-atmosphere interaction through a coupled thermo-hydraulic analysis. Heat transfer, advective, and non-advective fluxes were simulated using CODE_BRIGHT finite element program to study water flow and energy transfer within the soil. Statistical analyses were conducted using an existing dataset to match the crack geometry with previous studies and find the best distribution for the width-to-depth ratio of cracks ( ) as a dimensionless parameter. The results indicated that variations follow a lognormal distribution. Numerical modeling scenarios were developed using statistical analysis results. The findings indicate that temperature variations decrease exponentially with depth, while surface soil temperature shows higher uncertainty due to atmospheric temperature fluctuations. Collecting various temperature trends in cracked soil at different time intervals, defined a limited region as the maximum range of temperature variations ( ). Results reveal that in cracked soil can vary up to 4 times higher than intact soil. For the prediction of , considering the impact of climate variations on cracked soil, a 3D boundary surface was developed based on two variables: soil depth ( ) and crack depth ( ). Furthermore, an equation for estimating for uncracked soils was proposed. Additionally, cracked soil showed approximately 1.4 times higher desiccation rates than uncracked soil. Deeper cracks exhibited even more severe desiccation rates, being about 1.2 times higher

Collective Bargaining about Corporate Social Responsibility

If a profit-maximising firm credibly commits to an employment-enhancing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) objective in negotiations with a trade union, the union can reduce its wage demands. Lower wages, ceteris paribus, raise profits, while the increase in employment enhances the payoff of a wage-setting trade union. Therefore, both the firm and the trade union can be better off in the presence of a collectively bargained CSR-objective than in its absence. Accordingly, establishing a CSR-objective can give rise to a Pareto-improvement and can mitigate the inefficiency resulting from collective wage negotiations

Limit theorems for pp-domain functionals of stationary Gaussian fields

Fix an integer $p\geq 1$ and refer to it as the number of growing domains. For each $i\in\{1,\ldots,p\}$, fix a compact subset $D_i\subseteq\mathbb R^{d_i}$ where $d_1,\ldots,d_p\ge 1$. Let $d= d_1+\dots+d_{p}$ be the total underlying dimension. Consider a continuous, stationary, centered Gaussian field $B=(B_x)_{x\in \mathbb R^d}$ with unit variance. Finally, let $\varphi:\mathbb R \rightarrow \mathbb R$ be a measurable function such that $\mathrm E[\varphi(N)^2]<\infty$ for $N\sim N(0,1)$. In this paper, we investigate central and non-central limit theorems as $t_1,\ldots,t_p\to\infty$ for functionals of the form $$Y(t_1,\dots,t_p):=\int_{t_1D_1\times\dots \times t_pD_p}\varphi(B_{x})dx.$$ Firstly, we assume that the covariance function $C$ of $B$ is {\it separable} (that is, $C=C_1\otimes\ldots\otimes C_{p}$ with $C_i:\mathbb R^{d_i}\to\mathbb R$), and thoroughly investigate under what condition $Y(t_1,\dots,t_p)$ satisfies a central or non-central limit theorem when the same holds for $\int_{t_iD_i}\varphi(B^{(i)}_{x_i})dx_i$ for at least one (resp. for all) $i\in \{1,\ldots,p\}$, where $B^{(i)}$ stands for a stationary, centered, Gaussian field on $\mathbb R^{d_i}$ admitting $C_i$ for covariance function. When $\varphi$ is an Hermite polynomial, we also provide a quantitative version of the previous result, which improves some bounds from A. Reveillac, M. Stauch, and C. A. Tudor, Hermite variations of the fractional brownian sheet, Stochastics and Dynamics 12 (2012). Secondly, we extend our study beyond the separable case, examining what can be inferred when the covariance function is either in the Gneiting class or is additively separable

Towards an MDA Based Multi-agent Approach for Information System Development

peer reviewedTo tackle the problem of Information Systems (IS) evolution, conceptual modeling must not only represent the organizational environments of the IS, but also take into account the strategic objectives to understand the requirements of their development. In this paper we propose a business process oriented approach. This approach is based on Meta modeling, model driven architecture, Multi-agent architecture derived from the enterprise structure. To realize this approach, we propose the use of the Visual Agent as a software development environment which allows the necessary assistance from the specification phase until the implementation phase