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Copyright of Journal of the American Institute for Conservation is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Bisphenol A (BPA) is widely used as a color developer in thermal paper. Thermal paper is ubiquitous in daily life due to its use in cash register receipts, so opportunities for human contact abound. For this study, 10 blank cash register receipts were obtained from businesses in suburban Boston. BPA was extracted and analysis of concentration was performed using gas chromatograph/flame ionization detector. In some receipts, BPA was not detected but in others it was as high as 19 mg for a 12-inch long receipt, which is in line with concentrations indicated in patents. This study is intended to highlight the potential for human exposure to BPA as well as the ease with which exposure may be reduced through the use of BPA-free thermal paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews the efforts of the Martin Luther King Jr., Papers Project to prepare a definitive, multivolume edition of King's papers as part of a long-term effort to preserve the historical legacy of the African-American freedom struggle. The initial two volumes of `The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.'; Historical and intellectual context in which King's Crozer and Boston University academic papers were created; Selective use of appropriated passages; Citation and attribution practices; Details.

The article presents titles and abstracts of papers submitted at a meeting held in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1938. The paper "The Sequent Occupance of a Boston Suburban Community," presented by Edward A. Ackerman focuses on areas surrounding the Boston metropolitan district. The proximity of a large city market, plots of level land and fertile soil determine the existence of these suburban fanning communities. The article "The Recession of Victoria Falls," by Wallace W. Atwood. The world famous falls on the Zainbesi have had a strange and remarkable history in recession. The gorge is serpentine with many curious off-shoots, and located on the floor of a broad and much older flat-bottomed valley. Today the water tumbles over a ledge, fully a mile in length, and into a very narrow chasm 350 ft. deep.

Background: Digital neuropsychological tests reliably capture real-time, process-based behavior that traditional paper/pencil tests cannot detect, enabling earlier detection of neurodegenerative illness. We assessed relations between informant-based subtle and mild functional decline and process-based features extracted from the digital Trail Making Test-Part B (dTMT-B). Methods: A total of 321 community-dwelling participants (56.0% female) were assessed with the Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ) and the dTMT-B. Three FAQ groups were constructed: FAQ = 0 (unimpaired); FAQ = 1-4 (subtle impairment); FAQ = 5-8 (mild impairment). Results: Compared to the FAQ-unimpaired group, other groups required longer pauses inside target circles (p < 0.050) and produced more total pen strokes to complete the test (p < 0.016). FAQ-subtle participants required more time to complete the entire test (p < 0.002) and drew individual lines connecting successive target circles slower (p < 0.001) than FAQ-unimpaired participants. Lines connecting successive circle targets were less straight among FAQ-mild, compared to FAQ-unimpaired participants (p < 0.044). Using stepwise nominal regression (reference group = FAQ-unimpaired), pauses inside target circles classified other participants into their respective groups (p < 0.015, respectively). Factor analysis using six dTMT-B variables (oblique rotation) yielded a two-factor solution related to impaired motor/cognitive operations (48.96% variance explained) and faster more efficient motor/cognitive operations (28.88% variance explained). Conclusion: Digital assessment technology elegantly quantifies occult, nuanced behavior not previously appreciated, operationally defines critical underlying neurocognitive constructs related to functional abilities, and yields selected process-based scores that outperform traditional paper/pencil test scores for participant classification. When brought to scale, the dTMT-B test could be a sensitive tool to detect subtle-to-mild functional deficits in emergent neurodegenerative illnesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between territory and urban space, discussing the joint development processes of urban and territorial morphologies. The paper argues that territorial structure is a precursor to urban design. It also discusses how landscape architecture can respond to the morphological needs of contemporary urban design as the boundaries between city and territory merge. The introduction and framework review section examines various approaches to studying the relationship between urban morphology and interstitial spaces or unbuilt geographies, which are often still considered empty spaces, physically incorporated but excluded from urban design. It also briefly discusses the role that green spaces and territorial morphologies have played, or not played, in defining urban form from antiquity to modernity. The paper then focuses on the role of hydromorphologies in shaping the urban form of Rome, Boston and Bari. These cities are analyzed as case studies to discuss 20th-century approaches to urban planning in relation to territorial layout. Finally, this study analyzes a marginal area of the metropolitan city of Bari in order to propose possible landscape morphologies of reconnection for the resulting interstitial areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science and technology and skills have increasingly become the driving force to lead the development of knowledge economy. With the changes in the demand for knowledge workers and the location of enterprises, a new type of innovation space—innovation districts—has emerged. Countries have begun to identify and nurture innovation districts. Therefore, how to accurately identify innovation districts in cities has become an important research topic. The existing research on identifying innovation districts is mainly based on a qualitative description method at the element level. However, whether there are other potential innovation districts in urban space can be identified by quantitative identification. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to establish an innovation district identification framework and a case study of the framework. The identification framework includes spatial identification and factor identification. In spatial identification, the identification index system is constructed based on the spatial location, range limit, and the surrounding area of innovative assets. In factor identification, the identification index system is constructed based on innovative assets, physical assets, and network assets, and Kendall Square and Boston innovation districts are used as the reference basis to determine whether the identified districts meet the standards of the constructed innovation districts. In empirical case research, spatial identification identified the Gaoxin South District (GXSD) spatial range. In factor identification, it was found that GXSD does not fully meet the standard of innovation district identification. This paper argues that the framework is essential for urban managers, planners, and urban designers to identify and evaluate high-quality innovation districts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the affective and temporal dimensions of hope's use in the non‐profit spaces of poverty governance. Drawing on 14 months of qualitative fieldwork at financial coaching programmes in Boston, Massachusetts, this paper explores how financial coaches understand the function of hope in their work with low‐ and moderate‐income clients. By tracing how financial coaches use hope to encourage clients to participate in and build allegiance to the contemporary economy, this paper argues that hope is foundational to how contemporary poverty alleviation programmes, of which financial coaching is indicative, depoliticise clients' lived experiences of impoverishment. Amid a resurgence of interest in the geographies of hope, the significance of this inquiry lies in its ability to offer an alternate reading of the seemingly benevolent, positive, or radical uses of hope by conceptualising hope as a placating force that cements existing economic arrangements and forecloses alternative political imaginaries. The inquiry undertaken in this paper, then, has implications not only for our understanding of the persistence of poverty, but also indicates the role of non‐profit organisations in the production and ongoing maintenance of broader systems of capitalist exploitation. This paper examines the affective and temporal dimensions of hope's use in the non‐profit spaces of poverty governance. Drawing on 14 months of qualitative fieldwork at financial coaching programmes in Boston, Massachusetts, this paper explores how financial coaches understand the function of hope in their work with low and moderate‐income clients. This paper argues that hope is foundational to how contemporary poverty alleviation programmes, of which financial coaching is indicative, depoliticise clients' lived experiences of impoverishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about the 2022 annual meeting of the American Finance Association (AFA), which will be held January 7-9, 2021 in Boston, Massachusetts, is presented.

This article presents news briefs related to economics societies as of November 2005. The Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association will be held in Boston, Massachusetts from January 6 to 8, 2006. The Risk Theory Society is calling for papers to be presented at its annual Risk Theory Society Seminar to be held from April 21 to 23, 2006. Also calling for papers is the "Journal of Family and Economic Issues" for its special issue on consumer finances. The American Council of Learned Societies announces its Digital Innovation Fellowship program.

This paper examines the context, precedents, contents, distribution, and socio-economic ramifications of deed restrictions in early-nineteenth century Boston, reviewing examples of restrictions' use and a comprehensive survey of the 1800–1839 deeds of five grantors. It shows how Boston's government and then private land developers began using deed restrictions in regards to building use, materials, height, and bulk in select geographies during this period. They did so to guarantee prestigious and stable home and work environments to wealthy consumers in the fast-changing urban context, in turn bringing into existence a prized and exclusive stratum of urban residential and commercial property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we prove the compressible Euler limit from the Boltzmann equation with hard sphere collisional kernel and complete diffusive boundary condition in half-space by employing the Hilbert expansion which includes interior and Knudsen layers. This rigorously justifies the corresponding formal analysis in Sone's book [ Molecular gas dynamics , Birkhäuser Boston, Inc., Boston, MA, 2007] in the context of short time smooth solutions, and also generalizes the classic Caflisch's result [Comm. Pure Appl. Math. 33 (1980), pp. 651–666] to initial-boundary problem case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many semiparametric spatial autoregressive (SSAR) models have been used to analyze spatial data in a variety of applications; however, it is a common phenomenon that heteroscedasticity often occurs in spatial data analysis. Therefore, when considering SSAR models in this paper, it is allowed that the variance parameters of the models can depend on the explanatory variable, and these are called heterogeneous semiparametric spatial autoregressive models. In order to estimate the model parameters, a Bayesian estimation method is proposed for heterogeneous SSAR models based on B-spline approximations of the nonparametric function. Then, we develop an efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling algorithm on the basis of the Gibbs sampler and Metropolis–Hastings algorithm that can be used to generate posterior samples from posterior distributions and perform posterior inference. Finally, some simulation studies and real data analysis of Boston housing data have demonstrated the excellent performance of the proposed Bayesian method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By revisiting three empirical qualitative studies, the paper elaborates on conceptual and methodological issues pertaining to clarification of the use of the concept of politicization and "ordinary relationships to politics." The first study was conducted at the end of the 1990s on voluntary associations of young people of foreign descent in the French suburbs; the second was devoted to ordinary relationships to politics among young people in working-class neighborhoods in France; the third involves ongoing fieldwork examining non-profit organizations and their relationship to the state, focusing notably on evangelical non-profits in the Boston area of the USA. Although the research questions were different, they dealt with ordinary relationships to politics (ORP). This notion encompasses two dimensions. On the one hand, the idea that what determines one's relationship to politics is not only political, but also social: that we need to "embed" the study of relationships to politics into social dimensions. This is related to the study of the determination of relationships to politics. On the other hand, the idea that a relationship to politics is not only a relationship to the institutionalized political field, but that we need to adopt a broader definition of what politicization is, in order to grasp its ordinary forms, especially—but not only—when we deal with the working class. In this case, what is at stake is the definition of politicization. Nowadays, there is relative consensus in the literature regarding the determination of relationships to politics, but the definition of what politicization is remains much more controversial. In this paper, I present the terms of this controversy and the value in and limits of the various perspectives and, more specifically, I elaborate on how the changes in the type of fieldwork I conducted, in the national contexts, and the theoretical questions I asked impacted on the way I chose to define politicization. I suggest combining three definitions of politicization: (i) the legitimist or realist conception based on the relationship to the institutional political sphere; (ii) the conception of politicization as the identification of shared problems calling for collective solutions; and finally, (iii) approaching politicization as the readiness to be moved, to consider points of view other than those initially adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tourism Geographies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents the winner for the "The Journal of Experimental Biology" Outstanding Paper Prize, 2005. Ms. Havalee T. Henry from Richard Marsh's lab at Northeastern University in Boston bagged the first prize with her publication "Performance of guinea fowl Numida meleagris during dumping requires storage and release of elastic energy". Henry is an undergrad at the University of Connecticut, but has specialized in Molecular and Cell Biology, as well as having a great interest in muscle physiology.

Introduces a series of articles on the philosophy of science, presented at the 1998 World Congress of Philosophy in Boston, Massachusetts.

System In the volume's first contribution (in German), Neef focuses on comma placement in the contemporary German writing system. Programmatic considerations for an incorporation of punctuation into GFL teaching conclude the chapter; hope is they will resonate with the relevant communities and practitioners (also beyond the Germanophone world) as many of them can be generalized to teaching punctuation both to L2 and - arguably - L1 writers. Ström Herold & Levin analyze (in English) German, English, and Swedish non-fiction books from the 2000's - both originals and translations - in striving to rectify that punctuation (or the actual practices of using it) is usually but a footnote in translation studies. The main question, which is preliminarily answered through the analysis of comma usage in five term papers written by German L1 writers, is "whether prefields trigger non-standard commas at their right edge just because they are prefields" (p. 99). [Extracted from the article]

This article presents abstracts of papers presented at the twelfth annual meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research, which was held at the Hotel Sheraton-Plaza in Boston, Massachusetts on November 9-12, 1972. The paper presented by J.C. Jackson and F.K. Graham of the University of Wisconsin cites threshold intensity effects on two orienting response components. Sokolovian theory suggests that the orienting response should be large near psychophysical threshold, fall to a minimum around 10-20 decibels and then rise again until it is depressed by competition with the defense reflex.

The article previews the joint 2006 annual meetings of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society and the Association for the Study of Food and Society that will be held on June 7 to 11, 2006 in Boston, Massachusetts. It includes information on the meetings' theme, issues that will be addressed at various meetings, sightseeing suggestions, papers scheduled for discussion and procedures in submitting them, and giving out of awards for best student papers.

The field of Walkable Neighborhood Systems is about neighborhoods as systems of land use, mobility, and transportation pricing, and how they can be understood as dense areas delineated by attractive walking distances. To date, four papers have been published in this field: Neighborhood density and travel mode (Lewis in Int J Sustain Dev World Ecol, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504509.2017.1321052), Walkable Neighborhood Systems (Lewis and Adhikari), San Francisco's neighborhoods and auto dependency (Lewis and Grande in Cities, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2018.12.017), and the Mismeasurement of Mobility for Walkable Neighborhood Systems (Lewis et al., Mismeasurement of Mobility for Walkable Neighborhood Systems, Mineta Transportation Institute, 2020). This paper summarizes the concepts and definitions of the field and replicates for Boston the methodology used in the San Francisco case study. We found 54 Boston neighborhoods using maps in a GIS and guidelines to determine neighborhood boundaries based on walking distances and land use. We establish much higher accuracy than using census blocks. We analyze neighborhood density as our independent variable and three dependent variables: sustainable modes (mode split), food sources, and walk score. The data is presented in tables, correlations, and choropleth-based graphics. Density correlated strongly with the dependent variables. The paper concludes with ideas about how to improve the performance of Walkable Neighborhood Systems for affordability, sustainability, mobility, health and safety, design, and community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A list of papers relating to Ming topics presented at the 51st annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) on March 11-14, 1999 in Boston, Massachusetts is presented, including "The Cultural Uses of the Ming Erotic Novella," by Richard G. Wang, "Lyric Complex in the Early Qing Scholar-Beauty Romance," by Chi Xiao, and "Audible and Visible Body in Ancient China," by Jane Geaney.

The article calls for papers for the 2006 Materials Research Society's 2006 Fall Meeting to be held from November 27 to December 1 in Boston, Massachusetts. Topics to be covered include: diamond electronics; structure, processing and properties of polymer nanofibers for emerging technologies; advanced electronic packaging; solid-state ionics; and thermodynamics and kinetics of phase transformations in inorganic materials.

Reports the scientific convention held at the Sheraton in Boston, Massachusetts. Effects of the sponsorship by Sun Myong Moon's Unification Church on the convention; Details on agenda's over religiosity and emphasized science in the meeting; Aims by Moon for the scientists.

With the widespread application of spatial data in fields like econometrics and geographic information science, the methods to enhance the robustness of spatial econometric model estimation and variable selection have become a central focus of research. In the context of the spatial error model (SEM), this paper introduces a variable selection method based on exponential square loss and the adaptive lasso penalty. Due to the non-convex and non-differentiable nature of this proposed method, convex programming is not applicable for its solution. We develop a block coordinate descent algorithm, decompose the exponential square component into the difference of two convex functions, and utilize the CCCP algorithm in combination with parabolic interpolation for optimizing problem-solving. Numerical simulations demonstrate that neglecting the spatial effects of error terms can lead to reduced accuracy in selecting zero coefficients in SEM. The proposed method demonstrates robustness even when noise is present in the observed values and when the spatial weights matrix is inaccurate. Finally, we apply the model to the Boston housing dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider variable selection for a class of semiparametric spatial autoregressive models based on exponential squared loss (ESL). Using the orthogonal projection technique, we propose a novel orthogonality-based variable selection procedure that enables simultaneous model selection and parameter estimation, and identifies the significance of spatial effects. Under appropriate conditions, we show that the proposed procedure is consistent and the resulting estimator has oracle properties. Furthermore, some simulation studies and an analysis of the Boston housing price data are also carried out to examine the finite-sample performance of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces the special issue, "Community Archaeology of the African Diaspora." This collection of papers grew out of a session at the 2020 Society for Historical Archaeology conference in Boston, Massachusetts, with additional authors invited to add further geographical and methodological diversity. The papers in this issue address a single question—how are archaeologists currently involved with community archaeology projects related to the African Diaspora?—and reflects the wide array of approaches currently being implemented across the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information about an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) international symposium on phased array systems and technology to be held on October 15-18, 2013 at Boston in Massachusetts inviting papers on reflect-arrays, phase-shift steering and low cost arrays.

The article discusses how student Neil Ganem from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts conducted his study aimed at dividing cancer cells successfully. Ganem used a microscope equipped with an incubator and watched thousands of cancer cells grow and divide. He then examined cells with multiple poles and follow the fate their daughter cells, which he said to get motion-sickness in the process. Ganem also investigated whether extra centrosomes contribute to cells' instability.

Recently, the City of Boston implemented a mobile, cloud-based app. Originally called "Citizens Connect," but now called "Bos:311," the app allows citizens to report issues related to the city's infrastructure, e.g., graffiti. Rich information in the form of pictures and descriptions provided from mobile devices, along with GPS location information, facilitates crowdsourcing monitoring of the city's infrastructure. This app provides "straight through" processing of citizen requests, reengineering the processes of monitoring and fixing city infrastructure. As a result, operations and management accounting information can be more accurate and used in real time. In addition, the cloud-based capture of information from multiple cities allows comparisons and benchmarking of critical information that likely would not be possible in other settings, while allowing economic system use by large numbers of users. This paper investigates a number of hypotheses about the use of the mobile app generated from both Hirschman's and Hammer's theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questionnaire data from 137 panel chairs at the 2003 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences meeting in Boston reveal respondent perceptions of the conference site, overall impressions of the conference, as well as panelist attendance, and the quality of information presented by panelists. The findings reveal high marks for the conference space, hotel rooms, and the city of Boston itself, resulting in an overall positive conference experience, but responses also highlight several areas of concern, including panelist attendance problems and presentation etiquette. Recommendations are provided, which may foster positive, incremental change at future ACJS annual meetings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Atlantic Coast of the United States is subjected to damage from wind and flooding as a result of coastal storms. This paper seeks to model the joint probability of exceedance for wind speed and flood elevation, two common measures of storm severity, using the storm data provided by the North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study. A case study is performed for Boston, Massachusetts. A copula is used to model the dependence between storm severity measures. The Gaussian copula and the Archimedean copulas (i.e., Gumbel, Clayton, and Frank) are examined in this paper. The correlation matrix used to construct the Gaussian copula is estimated empirically, and the parameters of the Archimedean copulas are estimated by a semi-parametric estimation method. The Gumbel copula, which is found to describe the dependence between the severity measures better than other copulas, is used to develop a copula-based joint probability model. The methodology presented in this paper is used to estimate joint hazard curves for wind speed and flood elevation for different mean recurrence intervals. The results can be used to define hazard scenarios in a multihazard study, estimate building performance under coastal storms, and assess community resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the design of a context-based fuzzy C-means (CFCM)-based multi-granular fuzzy model (MGFM) with hierarchical tree structures. For this purpose, we propose three types of hierarchical tree structures (incremental, aggregated, and cascaded types) in the design of MGFM. In general, the conventional fuzzy inference system (FIS) has problems, such as time consumption and an exponential increase in the number of if–then rules when processing large-scale multivariate data. Meanwhile, the existing granular fuzzy model (GFM) reduces the number of rules that increase exponentially. However, the GFM not only has overlapping rules as the cluster centers become closer but also has problems that are difficult to interpret due to many input variables. To solve these problems, the CFCM-based MGFM can be designed as a smaller tree of interconnected GFMs. Here, the inputs of the high-level GFMs are taken from the output to the low-level GFMs. The hierarchical tree structure is more computationally efficient and easier to understand than a single GFM. Furthermore, since the output of the CFCM-based MGFM is a triangular fuzzy number, it is evaluated based on a performance measurement method suitable for the GFM. The prediction performance is analyzed from the automobile fuel consumption and Boston housing database to present the validity of the proposed approach. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed CFCM-based MGFM based on the hierarchical tree structure creates a small number of meaningful rules and solves prediction-related problems by making them explainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Symposium on phased array systems and technology to be held in Boston, Massachusetts during October 15-18, 2013.

The article presents information on the 2013 IEEE International Symposium on Phased Array Systems & TechnologyRevolutionary Developments in Phased Arrays to be held at the Westin Waltham Hotel in Greater Boston, Massachusetts on October 15-18, 2013.

Aiming at the problem that fuzzy neural network (FNN) is difficult to be adjusted automatically its structure when there is no the threshold of loss function, as well as the problem that the neuron number of the regularization layer of FNN is adjusted by self-organizing algorithm when the structure of FNN is not stable yet, a structural design strategy of self-organizing recursive FNN based on the Boston matrix (SORFNN-BOSTON) is proposed. Compared with other self-organizing algorithms, the method used in this paper does not need to set the threshold of loss function. In addition to the indicators representing the importance of neurons in most self-organizing algorithms, the change rate is used to represent the change of the parameters of the neural network. The change rate is used to determine when the relevant parameters are stable, which further improves the reliability of the neuron adjustment process. Through the simulation of predicting Mackey-Glass time sequence, the final number of neurons in the hidden layer and the testing error are 6 and 0.110 respectively. Comparisons with other self-organizing algorithms show that the testing error decreased by 76.6% at most and 13.3% at least, which proves the practicability of the method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores a novel high-dimensional sparse multiplicative model, which deal with data with positive responses, particularly in economical and biomedical researches. The proposed regularized method is conducted on the least product relative error (LPRE), and can be applied on various penalties including adaptive Lasso, SCAD, and MCP. An adjusted ADMM algorithm is adopted to obtain the estimators based on LPRE loss. Additionally, we prove the consistency and compute the convergence rates of the estimator. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed method, we conduct extensive numerical studies and real data analysis, yielding valuable insights and practical applications, utilizing well-known datasets of the Boston housing data and gold price data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban radio‐frequency (RF) noise generated by our cities continues to change with time. Although models exist to describe the RF noise as functions of frequency and urban land use types, very few models describe the spatial character or structure of the noise on the scales of city blocks (50–150 m). The goal of this work is to investigate the connection between urban morphology and the higher‐order spatial statistics of the noise field. To achieve this goal, a large measurement campaign was conducted in Boston, Massachusetts. Many spatial measurements allowed for calculation of spatial correlation functions of noise power in three different neighborhoods, which were used to quantify the spatial structure of the fields. A statistical point source model is then developed, with adjustable parameters relating to urban morphology. Good agreement between the model and the experimental correlation functions suggests the 25 MHz urban noise field is well described by a random network of fixed point sources, radiating with a 1/r power law behavior. Plain Language Summary: Our modern cities are filled with electronic devices. Each device can emit radiation and contribute to what is called the urban radio‐frequency noise field. The noise field is the combined effect from all these devices. If the noise field is strong enough it can negatively impact wireless communication, and the use of other electric devices. It is important to better understand the nature of the noise field in order to mitigate and plan for its negative effects. This paper describes in detail how the noise field is distributed in space, or its spatial structure. A theoretical model or tool is developed to help predict how the noise field looks spatially. Key Points: Radio‐frequency noise spatial correlation functions were calculated for three different neighborhoods in Boston, MassachusettsGood theoretical agreement suggests the noise field is well described by a random network of point sources radiating with a 1/r behavior [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper presents the results of two studies investigating human mobility patterns in the 15 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the United States. It studied 14 daily mobility parameters aggregated at the MSA level, derived from four primary mobility parameters: Number of Visited Locations (N_LOC), Number of Unique Visited Locations (N_ULOC), Radius of Gyration (R_GYR), and Distance Traveled (D_TRAV) over a 30-day period. The first study was conducted on data from two large MSAs, one coastal and one inland (Boston and Atlanta, respectively). The aim was to examine associations between daily values of mobility parameters aggregated at the MSA level and identify those carrying similar or identical information. Results of factor analysis showed that these could be adequately described by two independent factors, pointing to one or two of the mobility parameters as sufficient to represent the whole set in analyses based on associations. These could either be D_TRAV, as it had high loadings on both factors, or N_LOC and R_GYR due to their high loadings on the two extracted factors. The second study was conducted on daily mobility datasets from the 15 MSAs. The aim was to compare daily mobility patterns of these MSAs and group them based on their mobility pattern similarities. Factor analysis of the aggregated mean daily distances (D_TRAV) across different MSAs over the studied period classified them into two distinct groups: one predominantly composed of inland MSAs and the other primarily of coastal MSAs. Strong weekly cycle trends emerged in these groups. Specifically, individuals from the inland MSA group tended to travel the furthest on Fridays and the least on Sundays, whereas those from the coastal MSA group traveled the most on Saturdays and the least on Mondays. This weekly pattern was robust, with 7-day lag autocorrelations of mean daily parameter values ranging between 0.81 to 0.99, excluding the mean daily N_LOC. These findings offer a foundational understanding of MSA mobility patterns, paving the way for more detailed studies on the nuances of these patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce a new class of heterogeneous spatial autoregressive models (heterogeneous SAR models) where the variance parameters are modeled in terms of covariates. In order to estimate the model parameters, as well as their corresponding standard error estimates, we proposed a computational efficient MCMC method which combines the Gibbs sampler with Metropolis-Hastings algorithm. The proposed estimate method is illustrated through numerous simulations and is applied to the Boston housing data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that the increase in coastal flood hazard is expected to continue due primarily to climate change. While, previous studies have advanced probabilistic approaches for estimating future coastal flood hazard, two seminal issues have received little attention: (1) sea level trend projections that arise as a consequence of climate change not being incorporated in nonstationary coastal flood frequency analysis and (2) traditional stationary approaches that estimate return periods are not suited for analysis of nonstationary water levels. In this paper, a regression approach for sea level rise estimation is proposed to detrend water levels. The peak-over-threshold approach is used to analyze the probabilistic behavior of detrended water levels via a generalized Pareto distribution. Two interpretations of return period—the expected waiting time until an exceedance event occurs and the time associated with the expected number of exceedance events equal to one—are elaborated in a nonstationary context. By incorporating the existing sea level trend projections and using two interpretations of return period, flood hazard curves with uncertainty (i.e., water levels vs. return periods) are developed to describe the probabilistic behavior of future coastal flood hazards. Two case studies are conducted: one for Boston, Massachusetts, and one for New York City, New York. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ride-hailing services such as Lyft, Uber, and Cabify operate through smartphone apps and are a popular and growing mobility option in cities around the world. These companies can adjust their fares in real time using dynamic algorithms to balance the needs of drivers and riders, but it is still scarcely known how prices evolve at any given time. This research analyzes ride-hailing fares before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on applications of time series forecasting and machine learning models that may be useful for transport policy purposes. The Lyft Application Programming Interface was used to collect data on Lyft ride supply in Atlanta and Boston over 2 years (2019 and 2020). The Facebook Prophet model was used for long-term prediction to analyze the trends and global evolution of Lyft fares, while the Random Forest model was used for short-term prediction of ride-hailing fares. The results indicate that ride-hailing fares are affected during the COVID-19 pandemic, with values in the year 2020 being lower than those predicted by the models. The effects of fare peaks, uncontrollable events, and the impact of COVID-19 cases are also investigated. This study comes up with crucial policy recommendations for the ride-hailing market to better understand, regulate and integrate these services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The early decades of the pastoral care movement were characterized by a remarkable collaboration with psychiatry. While historians of the religious aspects of this movement have noted the reliance of pastoral care on psychiatry and psychology, it has been less clear how and why mental health professionals elected to work with clergy. This paper uses the Michigan Society of Pastoral Care (MSPC), one of the early training programs for hospital chaplains on the model of the Boston‐based Institute for Pastoral Care, as a window to explore the interactions between psychiatry and religion at mid century. Raymond Waggoner, the nationally recognized and well‐connected chair of the psychiatry department at the University of Michigan, was instrumental in expanding the influential pastoral care program at his hospital and in his state as part of his bigger mission of emphasizing the fundamental role of psychiatry in American life. Waggoner played a key role within the MSPC, in conjunction with leaders within the medical departments of the major hospitals in the state. All of the members of the MSPC viewed psychiatry's insights as essential for pastoral care, with the caveat that chaplains should remain pupils, not practitioners of psychotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bryophytes constitute a heterogeneous group of plants which includes three clades: approximately 14,000 species of mosses (Bryophyta), 6000 species of liverworts (Marchantiophyta), and 300 species of hornworts (Anthocerotophyta). They are common in almost all ecosystems, where they play important roles. Bryophytes lack developed physical barriers, yet they are rarely attacked by herbivores or pathogens. Instead, they have acquired the ability to produce a wide range of secondary metabolites with diverse functions, such as phytotoxic, antibacterial, antifungal, insect antifeedant, and molluscicidal activities. Secondary metabolites in bryophytes can also be involved in stress tolerance, i.e., in UV-absorptive and drought- and freezing-tolerant activities. Due to these properties, for centuries bryophytes have been used to combat health problems in many cultures on different continents. Currently, scientists are discovering new, unique compounds in bryophytes with potential for practical use, which, in the age of drug resistance, may be of considerable importance. The aim of this review is to present bryophytes as a potential source of compounds with miscellaneous possible uses, with a focus on volatile compounds and antibacterial, antifungal, and cytotoxic potential, and as sources of materials for further promising research. The paper also briefly refers to the methods of compound extraction and acquisition. Formulas of compounds were drawn by the authors using ChemDraw software (PerkinElmer, Boston, MA, USA) with reference to data published in various papers, the ACD/Labs dictionary database, PubChem, and Scopus. The data were gathered in February 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to add to the collective body of knowledge on student behavior and attitudes relative to the adoption of digital textbooks. The article summarizes an ongoing research project that examines past, current and evolving behavior in the classroom related to digital textbooks and school. It includes students, faculty and administrative attitudes behaviors and perceptions. This research was undertaken at the Sawyer Business School of Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts. Student attitudes and behavior toward their use of digital textbooks (eTextbooks) in higher education was examined in an ongoing longitudinal study over two years at Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University. Students in the class were divided into six teams. Five of the teams were assigned an eTextbook device and the sixth team was given a paper textbook for use through the semester. The digital technologies examined were: Amazon Kindle, Sony eReader Touch, Apple iPad, enTourage eDGe, and CourseSmart. Student attitudes and behaviors were examined pre and post class by survey each semester, and during the semesters through quizzes, journals and classroom discussion. Differential learning was measured between the six teams. Student attitudes and behaviors are becoming more receptive to and accepting of using digital textbooks each year. There was no significant difference in learning between the eTextbook devices teams or between them and the paper textbook team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental data with a high spatio-temporal resolution is vital in informing actions toward tackling urban sustainability challenges. Yet, access to hyperlocal environmental data sources is limited due to the lack of monitoring infrastructure, consistent data quality, and data availability to the public. This paper reports environmental data (PM, NO2, temperature, and relative humidity) collected from 2020 to 2022 and calibrated in four deployments in three global cities. Each data collection campaign targeted a specific urban environmental problem related to air quality, such as tree diversity, community exposure disparities, and excess fossil fuel usage. Firstly, we introduce the mobile platform design and its deployment in Boston (US), NYC (US), and Beirut (Lebanon). Secondly, we present the data cleaning and validation process, for the air quality data. Lastly, we explain the data format and how hyperlocal environmental datasets can be used standalone and with other data to assist evidence-based decision-making. Our mobile environmental sensing datasets include cities of varying scales, aiming to address data scarcity in developing regions and support evidence-based environmental policymaking. Measurement(s) Particulate matter, gaseous pollutants Technology Type(s) Low-cost environmental sensing platform (City Scanner) Sample Characteristic - Environment City Sample Characteristic - Location Global [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the challenge of optimizing objective functions in engineering problems influenced by multiple environmental factors, such as temperature and humidity. Traditional modeling approaches often struggle to capture the complexities of non-ideal situations. In this research, we propose a novel approach called the Environment Parameter Fixed Algorithm (EPFA) for optimizing the objective function of a deep neural network (DNN) trained in a specific environment. By fixing the environmental parameters in the DNN defined objective function, we transform the original optimization problem into a control parameter optimization problem. We integrate EPFA-CLS (Controllable local-Optimal Solution) with Gradient Descent and algorithms such as Adagrad to obtain the optimal solution. To demonstrate the concept, we apply our approach to an optimal course model and validate it using optimal course and Boston house price datasets. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in handling optimization problems in complex environments, offering promising outcomes for practical engineering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epilepsy is a chronic and recurrent brain dysfunction disease. An acute epileptic attack will interfere with a patient's normal behavior and consciousness, having a great impact on their life. The purpose of this study was to design a seizure prediction model to improve the quality of patients' lives and assist doctors in making diagnostic decisions. This paper presents a transformer-based seizure prediction model. Firstly, the time-frequency characteristics of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals were extracted by short-time Fourier transform (STFT). Secondly, a three transformer tower model was used to fuse and classify the features of the EEG signals. Finally, when combined with the attention mechanism of transformer networks, the EEG signal was processed as a whole, which solves the problem of length limitations in deep learning models. Experiments were conducted with a Children's Hospital Boston and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology database to evaluate the performance of the model. The experimental results show that, compared with previous EEG classification models, our model can enhance the ability to use time, frequency, and channel information from EEG signals to improve the accuracy of seizure prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terrestrial laser scanning has become more and more popular in recent years. The according planning of the standpoint network is a crucial issue influencing the overhead and the resulting point cloud. Fully static approaches are both cost and time extensive, whereas fully kinematic approaches cannot produce the same data quality. Stop-and-go scanning, which combines the strengths of both strategies, represents a good alternative solution. In the scanning process, the standpoint planning is by now mostly a manual process based on expert knowledge and relying on the surveyor's experience. This paper provides a method based on Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) ensuring an optimal placement of scanner standpoints considering all scanner-related constraints (e.g. incidence angle), a full coverage of the scenery, a sufficient overlap for the subsequent registration and an optimal route planning solving a Traveling Salesperson Problem (TSP). This enables the fully automatic application of autonomous systems for providing a complete model while performing a stop-and-go laser scanning, e.g. with the Spot robot from Boston Dynamics. Our pre-computed solution, i.e. standpoints and trajectory, has been evaluated surveying a real-world environment using a 360° panoramic laser scanner and successfully compared with a precise LoD2 building model of the underlying scene. The performed ICP-based registration issued from our fully automatic pipeline turns out to be a very good and safe alternative of the otherwise laborious target-based registration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]