Model on empirically calibrating stochastic traffic flow fundamental diagram

This paper addresses two shortcomings of the data-driven stochastic fundamental diagram for freeway traffic. The first shortcoming is related to the least-squares methods which have been widely used in establishing traffic flow fundamental diagrams. We argue that these methods are not suitable to generate the percentile-based stochastic fundamental diagrams, because the results generated by least-squares methods represent weighted sample mean, rather than percentile. The second shortcoming is widespread use of independent modeling methodology for a family of percentile-based fundamental diagrams. Existing methods are inadequate to coordinate the fundamental diagrams in the same family, and consequently, are not in alignment with the basic rules in probability theory and statistics. To address these issues, this paper proposes a holistic modeling framework based on the concept of mean absolute error minimization. The established model is convex, but non-differentiable. To efficiently implement the proposed methodology, we further reformulate this model as a linear programming problem which could be solved by the state-of-the-art solvers. Experimental results using real-world traffic flow data validate the proposed method

Analysis of Sediment Transport in the Middle Reach of the Yangtze River after Operation of the Three Gorges Project

Sediment Transport and Morphodynamic

A Study of the Impact of Tourism Economic and Non-economic Benefits on Residents\u27 Pro-Environmental Behaviors in Community-based Ecotourism

A survey was conducted on 362 residents of a classical ecotourism destination in China to explore the impacts of both tourism economic and non-economic benefits on residents’ pro-environmental behaviors. The results of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) indicated that tourism economic and non-economic benefits impacted on residents’ pro-environmental behaviors through perceived positive tourism impact as a mediator. These findings enriched literatures in ecotourism and had managerial value for the practitioners in domestic ecotourism community

A Study on the Impacts of Work-Family Conflict on Job and Life Satisfaction among Hotel Sales Managers in China

The current study investigated the effects of work-family conflict (WFC) on job and life satisfaction among hotel sales managers in China. Data were collected by a field survey on 121 sales managers in 26 hotels at the Pearl River Delta in China. A hierarchical regression analysis by GLM-Multivariate was conducted to test the hypotheses. The results indicated that in contract to the study hypotheses, hotel sales managers’ WIF (work interfering with family) had negative effects on job satisfaction but not life satisfaction, whereas FIW (family interfering with work) had negative effects on life satisfaction rather than job satisfaction. The results suggested the strategic role of family-friendly HR polices in hotel business and also remind potential limitations to the audience when implying the results in other hotels

An Investigation of the Relationships between Hospitality Employees’ Work-family Conflict and Relaxation/social Intentions

A field survey was conducted to investigate the effects of hospitality employees’ work-family conflict on relaxation and social types of leisure intentions. Hypothesis testing followed the two-step approach of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Based on 271 valid responses in four full-service hotels, the study found that work-family conflict had both direct effects on hospitality employees’ leisure intentions and indirect effects mediated by job tension. Practically, hospitality organizations can utilize the results in applying appropriate leisure activities to help employees effectively cope with work and family role conflicts

Employees' work–family conflict moderating life and job satisfaction

a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o The top-down perspective (i.e., life satisfaction influences job satisfaction) and the dispositional perspective are the focuses of the current study's research on life-work spillovers. This study investigates the impact of life satisfaction on job satisfaction under different situations of work-family conflict. The results of a field survey reveal responses from 121 sales managers from 26 hotels in China to test the moderating effects of workfamily conflict on the relationship between life and job satisfaction. Analysis involves hierarchical regression with follow-up examination utilizing simple slope analysis. The results imply that employees facing less conflict between work and family tend to carry positive aspects from daily life to the workplace. The results also support the value of managerial efforts to have an organizational climate welcoming to employees' families. Even in China, where labor resources are abundant, family-friendly policies would help to increase the business success of hotels

Study on Medication Rules of Traditional Chinese Medicine against Antineoplastic Drug-Induced Cardiotoxicity Based on Network Pharmacology and Data Mining

Background and Aim. Antineoplastic drug-induced cardiotoxicity (ADIC) becomes the second leading cause of death for tumor survivors after tumor recurrence and metastasis, and there may be great room for development in the future of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). However, the theory of anticardiotoxicity of TCM has not yet formed a system. This study aimed to explore the material basis and the rule of TCM against ADIC based on network pharmacology and data mining. Methods. The targets of antineoplastic drugs with cardiotoxicity were obtained from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database, China national knowledge infrastructure (CNKI) database, and Swiss Target Prediction platform. Then, the cardiotoxicity-related targets were derived from the Gene Cards, Disgenet, OMIM, and DrugBank databases, as well as the drug of current clinical guidelines. The targets both in these two sets were regarded as potential targets to alleviate ADIC. Then, candidate compounds and herbs were matched via Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP) platform. Cytoscape3.7.1 was used to set up the target-compound-herb network. Molecular docking between core targets and compounds was performed with AutodockVina1.1.2. The rules of herbs were summarized by analyzing their property, flavor, and channel tropism. Results. Twenty-one potential targets, 332 candidate compounds, and 400 kinds of herbs were obtained. Five core targets including potassium voltage-gated channel subfamily H member 2 (KCNH2), cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (CDK1), matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2), mitogen-activated protein kinase1 (MAPK1), and tumor protein p53 (TP53) and 29 core compounds (beta-sitosterol, quercetin, kaempferol, etc.) were collected. Five core herbs (Yanhusuo, Gouteng, Huangbai, Lianqiao, and Gancao) were identified. Also, the TCM against ADIC were mainly bitter and acrid in taste, warm in property, and distributed to the liver and lung meridians. Conclusion. TCM against ADIC has great potential. Our study provides a new method and ideas for clinical applications of integrated Chinese and western medicine in treating ADIC

A dichotomization winding scheme on a novel asymmetric head gradient coil design with an improved force and torque balance

The head gradient coil is advantageous for brain imaging compared with the conventional whole-body gradient coil; it is usually asymmetrically designed for the accommodation of human shoulders. The asymmetric head coil has a specific issue associated with an unbalanced force/torque that requires minimization for imaging applications. This work will improve the force and torque balance solution and propose a dichotomization winding scheme to augment the coil slew rate. A square force and torque optimization enables the available balanced asymmetric head gradient coil design with a force and torque approaching to the minimum level. Subsequently, two practical parallel connection winding schemes were quantitatively analyzed and evaluated. The results show that the proposed dichotomization winding scheme can increase the slew rate to almost twice that of the conventional winding counterpart, without obviously influencing the magnetic field performance

Association between Plasma Urotensin II and Risk of Hypertension: Findings from a Prospective Study

Up to date, human urotensin II (UII) is the most potent vasoconstrictor in mammalian animals. To explore whether UII played an important role in the development of hypertension, we conducted a prospective study in Changshu city, China. The baseline investigation was carried out in 2007, and the first follow-up investigation was conducted in 2013. From the participants, we randomly obtained 2000 normotensive subjects aged 40 years and older without any severe disease at baseline and examined plasma UII and endothelin-1 (ET-1) with their blood samples at baseline. Logistic models were used to analyze the association between baseline UII, baseline ET-1, and newly occurring hypertension. In 1,819 subjects with complete data, 723 subjects developed into hypertensive in about five years. After adjusting some potential confounders, the odds ratio (95% confidence interval) for risk of hypertension comparing the highest with the lowest quartile of baseline UII was 0.888 (0.689–1.144). The role of UII in the development of hypertension was not found in the current study; therefore, further research studies should be conducted to explore the relationship between UII and hypertension

Polyolefin-Based Separator with Interfacial Chemistry Regulation for Robust Potassium Metal Batteries

Potassium metal batteries (KMBs) are ideal choices for high energy density storage system owing to the low electrochemical potential and low cost of K. However, the practical KMB applications suffer from intrinsically active K anode, which would bring serious safety concerns due to easier generation of dendrites. Herein, to explore a facile approach to tackle this issue, we propose to regulate K plating/stripping via interfacial chemistry engineering of commercial polyolefin-based separator using multiple functional units integrated in tailored metal organic framework. As a case study, the functional units of MIL-101(Cr) offer high elastic modulus, facilitate the dissociation of potassium salt, improve the K+ transfer number and homogenize the K+ flux at the electrode/electrolyte interface. Benefiting from these favorable features, uniform and stable K plating/stripping is realized with the regulated separator. Full battery assembled with the regulated separator showed ∼19.9 % higher discharge capacity than that with glass fiber separator at 20 mA g−1 and much better cycling stability at high rates. The generality of our approach is validated with KMBs using different cathodes and electrolytes. We envision that the strategy to suppress dendrite formation by commercial separator surface engineering using tailor-designed functional units can be extended to other metal/metal ion batteries.</p