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Android provided raw satellite measurements; however, the limitations of the GNSS function of smartphones results in causing large multipath errors and unstable carrier phase measurement. This makes it difficult to apply full real-time kinematic positioning. Furthermore, the provision of carrier measurements via different manufacturers is not well-performed. So, this paper proposes the code-Doppler smoothing method. The technique did not receive attention in studies based on high-performance receivers where carrier measurements could be received seamlessly. Doppler measurements are less accurate than carrier measurements, but they are more accurate than code measurements and free from cycle slips. Using the technique, it is expected that a smartphone can be used as a personal navigation system with a simple process. In fields such as formation flight where the separation between vehicles is important, obtaining the baseline vector between two vehicles by one process is more efficient than using the positions of each vehicle. When determining the baseline vector, differencing the pseudorange of two receivers that are in proximity to each other helps remove common errors. Determining the baseline vector using this approach is known as relative positioning, which is efficient and accurate. This paper uses Android smartphones for relative positioning with code-Doppler Smoothing method to obtain baseline vectors between vehicles. The efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method was evaluated under static and dynamic conditions in a routine experimental environment. High-, intermediate-, and low-grade receivers were used to verify the system performance, and the positioning error RMS has decreased up to 60%.

•The safety of child pedestrians was analyzed for urban elementary school districts.•Collision risk analysis utilized both statistical and spatial modeling techniques.•The collision-inducing factors for children and their spatial effect were concerned.•The safety of child pedestrians is a critical issue in vulnerable neighborhoods.•Urban areas with dense private educations need a secure child pedestrian space.

Purpose: Drawing on cognitive theories of information and democracy, this paper argues that carefully designed voting advice applications (VAAs) strengthen voter competence by matching voters’ preferences on important policy issues with parties' relevant positions on those issues. Design/methodology/approach: To examine the causal effect of information acquisition on voting willingness, we employed a lab experiment on the pioneering VAA program in Taiwan: iVoter. Our participants consisted of 120 undergraduates who were randomly assigned to be treated (two groups) or controlled (one group). Each participant of the respective treatment groups was provided with full or partial information. The purpose was to identify the ideological distance between the participant and the respective political parties. Individuals in the control group did not receive the respective information prior to their decision on whether to vote or not. Findings: Those who received full relevant information were most willing to vote in the forthcoming elections. We furthermore found VAA utilization to be positively associated with other aspects of democracy, such as political enthusiasm, civic duty and political efficacy. Originality/value: This paper aims to contribute to the development of VAAs and to democracy as a whole by confirming a causal link between receiving relevant information and voting willingness.

In global positioning system (GPS), inter-satellite link information enables communication between satellites, and inter-satellite range (ISR) represents the distance between satellites used for satellite maintenance. We propose a method to improve position accuracy using distance measurements between satellites, such as ISR. However, ISR information has not been made available to users until now. Therefore, we define distance measurements with inter-satellite ephemeris distance (ISED), which uses satellite coordinates calculated by GPS broadcast ephemeris rather than ISR, and propose a method to improve the position accuracy. ISED accuracy is solely determined by GPS broadcast ephemeris accuracy. GPS ephemeris has recently recorded greater accuracy; therefore, ISED can serve as an additional measurement for user navigation solution. When ISED serves as an additional measurement, the observation matrix is extended, resulting in a reduction in dilution of precision (DOP). Therefore, user accuracy is improved by applying ISED owing to the reduction in DOP. Additionally, the analysis results by applying real experimental data show that DOP, with an extended observation matrix, is more effective in the vertical than the horizontal part. Moreover, the differential GPS (DGPS) shows better performance than the standalone GPS when ISED is applied. The analysis results of applying real data to the method using the proposed ISED showed that vertical position errors were conspicuously decreased compared with horizontal position errors, and the performance was excellent for the DGPS. The proposed method is expected to be highly applicable in aircraft takeoff and landing, where the vertical sector is critical.

Much has been studied on political representation either in democratic countries or in competitive authoritarian regimes. However, few have attempted to compare across the two. This article fills this gap by comparing democratic and authoritarian representations within the same collective decision-making body: the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. The original data derives from 2465 parliamentary questions made by 243 legislators serving in the last four legislative sessions from 1998 through 2012. The empirical analysis shows that the type of election variable does not have an impact on the volume of parliamentary questions but that it has a strong effect on the composition of parliamentary policy issues.

In presidential democracies, minority governments are widespread and the size of the governing coalition varies dramatically across legislatures. Despite substantial variation across legislatures, no significant research has been conducted to explore how the size of the governing coalition shapes legislative behavior. We argue that executives supported by a legislative majority have the necessary resources to promote the party; consequently, members of the governing coalition are subject to less partisan pressure. However, as the size of the governing coalition decreases, so does the executive’s political capital; thus, party leaders are required to exert party discipline to convalesce the party’s image. Using a unique comparative research design from Argentine provincial legislatures over an 18-year period, we provide strong empirical support for our theory of the conditional effect of inter-branch relations on legislative behavior.

This research note re-examines the recent debate on mandate divide hypothesis in Taiwan (Batto, 2012; Rich, 2014). Specifically, I focus on bill sponsorship, which is relatively free from party influence and therefore more suitable for testing whether being elected either in a district or through a party list yields different parliamentary behaviors. For an empirical test, I use an original bill introduction data made by the individual legislators served in the six legislative terms from 1992 through 2012. The result supports for the mandate hypothesis: the nominal tier legislators introduce more bills than the list tier members.