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In this paper, the research is based on iron hydroxide colloids that combine loose kaolin clay media to form artificial laterite samples. A method and device for the preparation of colloids have been developed. The compressive strength test method is used to explore the regularity and mechanism of free iron oxides which in the process of the formation and strength increase of laterite structure. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) were used to study the mineral composition of the laterite, the cementation of microscopic aggregates of the particles, and the changes in the internal porosity of the laterite. The results show that the free iron oxide can improve the macro-mechanical properties of laterite. The iron morphology has a tendency to change from colloid to hematite and goethite. It is found that the free iron oxide aggregated in the space or on the surface of clay particles. Distribution; gel particles were found to fill the pores of laterite particles or aggregates by nuclear magnetic resonance experiments, indicating that the changes in the mechanical strength of laterite are mainly due to the content of free iron oxide, the formation of free iron oxide, the connection of cementing iron and the distribution of iron. Based on the SEM results, a contact model of laterite particles that can reflect the macro-mechanical failure behavior of soil samples is established.

An accurate quantitative description of interception is necessary to understand regional water circulation. The revised sparse Gash model (RSGM) is currently used to estimate interception loss. Previous studies have proven that changes in initial plant density, which are caused by thinning, affect the accuracy of RSGM; however, the direct effect of initial density on modeling accuracy remains poorly understood because few studies have collected field data of the same species with various initial densities under similar site conditions. Therefore, six Pinus tabuliformis Carr. plantations with various initial densities were assessed from May to October 2016 in northern China. In summary, RSGM performs better with higher initial densities, and it cannot be suitably applied for plantations with lower initial densities, with the relative error ranging from 18.38 to 53.03%. Sensitivity analysis indicated that the predicted interception is highest sensitive to canopy structure, irrespective of initial density. The influence of climate parameters on simulated results decreased, as initial density increased. These support the notion that amending the representation of the canopy structure in the model and improving the estimation methods for determining the evaporation rate in open canopies can improve accuracy, and that the use of RSGM must first involve the consideration of initial density. HIGHLIGHTS Application of the revised sparse Gash model (RSGM) in six Chinese pine plantations of different initial densities.; RSGM still does not perform well at the sparse initial densities.; Changes in initial plant density can affect the simulation accuracy of RSGM.; Discuss the possibility of perfecting RSGM to improve its accuracy.; Explore the changes in sensitivity of the parameters in RSGM under different initial densities.

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communications have recently drawn great attention. To analyze and optimize the UAV communication systems, accurate and efficient UAV channel models are essential. Most existing UAV channel models are based on the assumption that both transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) have fixed velocity and moving direction. However, in the realistic communication scenarios, the Tx and Rx of UAV may experience changes in both speeds and trajectories. In this paper, a three-dimensional (3D) non-stationary geometry-based stochastic model (GBSM) is proposed for air-to-air (A2A) channels in UAV communication scenarios. A 3D Markov mobility model is used to characterize the movements of the UAV in both horizontal and vertical directions. The mobility model enables to adjust the degree of mobility randomness and covers different UAV mobility trajectories, which makes it more realistic and suitable for simulating various scenarios. In addition, some important statistical properties such as time-frequency correlation function and Doppler power spectrum are derived and analyzed. The numerical results show that the impact of vertical movement of the UAV on the time correlation function under constant-speed is larger than that of horizontal movement, however, the above phenomenon is mitigated and the non-stationarity properties of the channel are significantly affected when randomness of the mobility model is introduced. Furthermore, it is found that the movement properties of the UAV only lead to non-stationarity in the time domain. The results are useful for A2A non-stationary channel simulation and UAV communication system evaluation.

In recent years, with the spectrum resources in low frequency bands becoming increasingly insufficient, the carrier frequency of wireless communication has started its evolution to the Terahertz (THz) frequency band, and meanwhile the THz communication system has become one of the research hot spots. In this paper, we investigate the problem of concurrent transmission scheduling for THz wireless backhaul network. To increase the weighted sum of completed flows with their quality of service (QoS) requirements satisfied in THz wireless backhaul network, we propose an algorithm of QoS-aware bandwidth allocation and concurrent scheduling (IHQB). Considering the priority of the flow, the reciprocal of the priority is taken as the weight of the flow. In this algorithm, QoS awareness and bandwidth allocation are exploited to achieve more successfully scheduled flows and higher network throughput. The concurrent scheduling with the maximum independent set (MIS) is allocated to different frequency bands. And the mentioned MIS is obtained from the conflict graph which has been established under the conditions of half-duplex and interference threshold. Simulation results show that IHQB performs better than other algorithms in terms of the weighted sum of completed flows and system throughput, especially compared with STDMA.

High speed train system has proven to be a very flexible and attractive system that can be developed under various circumstances and in different contexts and cultures. As a result, high speed trains are widely deployed around the world. Providing more reliable and higher data rate communication services for high speed trains has become one of the most urgent challenges. With vast amounts of spectrum available, the millimeter wave (mmWave) system is able to provide transmission rates of several gigabits per second for high speed trains. At the same time, mmWave communication also suffers from high attenuation, thus higher energy efficiency should be considered. This paper proposes an energy efficient power control scheme of train-ground mmWave communication for high speed trains. Considering a beam switching method for efficient beam alignment, we first establish position prediction model, the realistic direction antenna model and receive power model. And then we allocate the transmission power rationally through the power minimization algorithm while ensuring the total amount of transmission data. Based on this, this paper also develops a hybrid optimization scheme and finds the limit of total energy consumption when the number of segments goes to infinity. Through simulation with various system parameters and taking velocity estimation error into account, we demonstrate the superior performance of our schemes., Comment: 11 pages, 17 figures, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology

Heterogeneous cellular networks (HCNs) with millimeter wave (mm-wave) communications are considered as a promising technology for the fifth generation mobile networks. Mm-wave has the potential to provide multiple gigabit data rate due to the broad spectrum. Unfortunately, additional free space path loss is also caused by the high carrier frequency. On the other hand, mm-wave signals are sensitive to obstacles and more vulnerable to blocking effects. To address this issue, highly directional narrow beams are utilized in mm-wave networks. Additionally, device-to-device (D2D) users make full use of their proximity and share uplink spectrum resources in HCNs to increase the spectrum efficiency and network capacity. Towards the caused complex interferences, the combination of D2D-enabled HCNs with small cells densely deployed and mm-wave communications poses a big challenge to the resource allocation problems. In this paper, we formulate the optimization problem of D2D communication spectrum resource allocation among multiple micro-wave bands and multiple mm-wave bands in HCNs. Then, considering the totally different propagation conditions on the two bands, a heuristic algorithm is proposed to maximize the system transmission rate and approximate the solutions with sufficient accuracies. Compared with other practical schemes, we carry out extensive simulations with different system parameters, and demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed scheme. In addition, the optimality and complexity are simulated to further verify effectiveness and efficiency., 13 pages, 11 figures, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology

Heterogeneous cellular networks with small cells in the millimeter wave (mmWave) band densely deployed have become one of promising candidates for future wireless networks due to huge bandwidth available in the mmWave band. To overcome high path loss in the mmWave band, the beamforming technique of directional antennas is adopted. Consequently, concurrent transmissions of links can be enabled to improve network capacity. On the other hand, multicast services can support many applications like popular content downloading and broadcast communication services. In user intensive region where multicast services usually happen, device-to-device (D2D) communications in physical proximity provide better channel conditions, and can improve multicast efficiency. In this paper, we develop an efficient multicast scheduling scheme for mmWave small cells, referred to as CONMD2D, where both concurrent transmissions and D2D communications are exploited based on a multi-level antenna codebook to optimize network performance. In CONMD2D, the multicast group is partitioned into subgroups, and D2D transmission paths are established between subgroups. Then, a concurrent scheduling algorithm schedules the multicast links concurrently into the transmission stage. Performance evaluation under various system parameters demonstrates CONMD2D achieves significant improvement in network throughput and energy efficiency compared with other state-of-the-art schemes.

To study the rock fracturing characteristics in cold-region engineering, uniaxial compression tests are conducted on double unparallel fissure-contained sandstone specimens subjected to freeze-thaw (FT) cycles. First, the effects of FT cycles on the water absorption, peak strength, initiation stress and deformation behavior of flawed sandstone specimens are investigated. The water absorption, uniaxial compressive strength, initiation stress, elastic modulus and deformation modulus of flawed sandstone specimens decrease with an increase in the number of FT cycles. However, the peak strain of flawed sandstone specimens increases with an increase in the number of FT cycles. Second, the cracking processes of flawed sandstone specimens are investigated in detail via images captured by a high-speed digital video camera system. The relationship between the real-time crack coalescence and the axial stress-strain curve of flawed specimens, which evaluates the macroscopic deformation characteristics of precracked rock subjected to FT cycles well, is considered. Third, the interaction mechanism of fissures in rock specimens is discussed. Fourth, the influence of water and temperature on the rock-weakening process is discussed. In this study, during the rock FT cycle weakening process, the effect of water, including the dissolution effect and the stress effect, is analyzed, whereas temperature damages the rock by means of different temperature gradients and the phase transition of water. Finally, the local strong fatigue-damaged zones around the fissure tips of sandstone specimens are also analyzed. These experimental results are helpful to improve the understanding of fracture mechanisms of a rock mass in cold-region engineering.

Fog computing is an epitome to enable provisioning resources and services beyond the cloud, at the edge of the network, and nearer to end devices. Fog computing is not a counterfeit for cloud computing but a persuasive counterpart. However, the mobility of end users and/or fog nodes brings a major dilemma in the implementation of real-life scenarios. Therefore, we deliver the state-of-the-art research about mobility in fog computing. By identifying the mobility problems, requirements, and features of different proposals, we discover the open problems from subsisting studies and summarize the advantages of mobility for readers. This will help the researchers and developers avoid the current misapprehensions and capture the real-life scenarios, such as business, government, and education institutions. In spite of the extensive state-of-the-art research work, we also present the diverse mobility factors to investigate the correlation between dynamic nodes with fog nodes in order to accomplish better successful tasks. We conceive that the investigations of mobility factors in the fog computing will furnish the novel perspective on not only dynamic connections but also network dynamics. To revolutionize the follow-up research, we distinguish and foreground futurity directions concerning real-life scenarios of people and vehicles in a dynamic fog environment.

In the fifth generation (5G) era, dense deployment of small cells and full-duplex (FD) technology applications are two key features of millimeter-wave (mmWave) wireless communication systems, which offer the opportunity to meet the explosive growth of data service requirements. It is the beamforming and advances in analog as well as digital self-interference (SI) cancellation schemes that improve the network capacity in mmWave wireless backhaul networks. To achieve power saving and further network performance optimization, we propose a FD concurrent transmission mechanism employed in a mmWave backhaul network. Contention graph is constructed in consideration of multi-user interference (MUI), SI, and FD transmission constraints. Then flow-grouping and power control algorithms are proposed based on the contention graph. We evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm in terms of energy consumption, achievable network throughput, and energy efficiency. The impact of the interference threshold on the system performance is also investigated when the distribution of base stations (BSs), traffic loads, and maximum transmission powers change. Simulation results illustrate that with proper SI cancellation and interference threshold, the proposed concurrent mechanism outperforms time-division multiple access (TDMA), half-duplex (HD) concurrent transmission, and FD concurrent transmission without power control.

Hybrid analog-digital (A/D) transceivers designed for millimeter wave (mmWave) systems have received substantial research attention, as a benefit of their lower cost and modest energy consumption compared to their fully-digital counterparts. We further improve their performance by conceiving a Tomlinson-Harashima precoding (THP) based nonlinear joint design for the downlink of multiuser multiple-input multipleoutput (MIMO) mmWave systems. Our optimization criterion is that of minimizing the mean square error (MSE) of the system under channel uncertainties subject both to realistic transmit power constraint and to the unit modulus constraint imposed on the elements of the analog beamforming (BF) matrices governing the BF operation in the radio frequency domain. We transform this optimization problem into a more tractable form and develop an efficient block coordinate descent (BCD) basedalgorithm for solving it. Then, a novel two-timescale nonlinear joint hybrid transceiver design algorithm is developed, which can be viewed as an extension of the BCD-based joint design algorithm for reducing both the channel state information (CSI) signalling overhead and the effects of outdated CSI. Moreover, we determine the near-optimal cancellation order for the THP structure based on the lower bound of the MSE. The proposed algorithms can be guaranteed to converge to a Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) solution of the original problem. The simulation results demonstrate that our proposed nonlinear joint hybrid transceiver design algorithms significantly outperform the existing linear hybrid transceiver algorithms and approach the performance of the fully-digital transceiver, despite its lower cost and power dissipation.

The millimeter wave (mmWave) communication has drawn intensive attention with abundant band resources. In this paper, we consider the popular content distribution (PCD) problem in the mmWave vehicular network. In order to offload the communication burden of base stations (BSs), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication is introduced into the PCD problem to transmit contents between on-board units (OBUs) and improve the transmission efficiency. We propose a full-duplex (FD) cooperative scheme based on coalition formation game, and the utility function is provided based on the maximization of the number of received contents. The contribution of each member in the coalition can be transferable to its individual profit. While maximizing the number of received contents in the fixed time, the cooperative scheme also ensures the individual profit of each OBU in the coalition. We evaluate the proposed scheme by extensive simulations in mmWave vehicular networks. Compared with other existing schemes, the proposed scheme has superior performances on the number of possessed contents and system fairness. Besides, the low complexity of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by the switch operation number and CPU time., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology

In this paper, we focus on the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) assisted single-cell uplink communication network scenario. In the network, one cellular link and multiple device-to-device (D2D) links sharing the same spectrum resources combine direct and reflective channel transmissions with the assistance of the RIS, which is adopted to alleviate the interference by fully using the beamforming capability. Subjected to qualityof-service (QoS) and total power constraints, a system sumrate maximization problem is formulated by jointly optimizing transmission powers of all links and discrete phase shifts of all RIS elements. Since it is a mixed integer non-convex non-linear problem, we decompose it into two sub-problems, and apply the alternating optimization to obtain a sub-optimal solution efficiently. For the power allocation sub-problem, it is a difference of concave functions (DC) problem, which is transformed to a convex one by the multivariate Taylor expansion and then solved with the gradient descent method. For the phase shift subproblem, a local search algorithm is utilized. Simulation results verify that our proposed scheme can eliminate the interference of D2D networks better than the scheme without RIS and other benchmark schemes.

This work focuses on the hot deformation behavior and constitutive models of Ti6Al4V alloy manufactured by directed energy deposition laser (DEDL). The hot compression tests of DEDL Ti6Al4V alloy at deformation temperature of 700&ndash, 950 &deg, C and strain rate range of 0.001&ndash, 1 s&minus, 1 were carried out. Three phenomenological models including modified Johnson&ndash, Cook model, modified Fields&ndash, Backofen model, and strain-compensated Arrhenius model were introduced to predict the flow stresses during uniaxial compression. The predictability of the three models is evaluated according to correlation coefficient, average absolute relative error, and average root mean square error. Traditional linear regression method (TLRM) and nonlinear regression analysis (NRA) were used to solve the constants of modified Johnson&ndash, Cook model and strain-compensated Arrhenius model, NRA was used to solve the constants of modified Fields&ndash, Backofen model. Compared with the TLRM, the NRA improves the accuracy of modified Johnson-Cook model, while has limited effect on that of strain-compensated Arrhenius model. The accuracy of modified Fields&ndash, Backofen model and strain-compensated Arrhenius model is higher than that of modified Johnson&ndash, Cook model.

In this paper, we investigate a QoE-aware coordinated caching scheme to adaptively satisfy the diversified video streaming requirements in a high-speed railway network, which consists of multiple cells endowed with cache storage capacity. However, traditional QoS-based video streaming schemes may not accurately reflect the influence of video adaption on user satisfaction. What’s more, dynamic user demands and frequent handover impose serious challenges in terms of unknown uncertainties and short dwelling time. To overcome these challenges, we first define a perceptual QoE considering both video quality and video stalling. Second, we formulate a long-term optimization problem to maximize the perceptual QoE, with the cache storage and system stability constraints. Then, we propose a distributed online algorithm based on the Lyapunov optimization theory, which does not require future system information and is efficient for implementation. Finally, theoretical analysis and simulation results are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

With the evolution of the 5G, 6G and beyond, device-to-device (D2D) communication has been developed as an energy-, and spectrum-efficient solution. In cellular network, D2D links need to share the same spectrum resources with the cellular link. A reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) can reconfigure the phase shifts of elements and create favorable beam steering, which can mitigate aggravated interference caused by D2D links. In this paper, we study a RIS-assisted single cell uplink communication network scenario, where the cellular link and multiple D2D links utilize direct propagation and reflecting one-hop propagation. The problem of maximizing the total system rate is formulated by jointly optimizing transmission powers of all links and discrete phase shifts of all elements. The formulated problem is an NP-hard mixed integer non-convex non-linear problem. To obtain practical solutions, we capitalize on alternating maximization and the problem is decomposed into two sub-problems. For the power allocation, the problem is a difference of concave functions (DC) problem, which is solved with the gradient descent method. For the phase shift, a local search algorithm with lower complexity is utilized. Simulation results show that deploying RIS and optimizing the phase shifts have a significant effect on mitigating D2D network interference., 11 pages, 9 figures

A new method is proposed to solve edge cracking and corrosion in rolling process of the magnesium alloy plate. Usually in the process, the edge cracking is caused by the great temperature difference between the edge and the center of the alloy plate and the corrosion is by water in air. The method uses hot air wrapped around the plate to perfectly prevent edge cracking and corrosion. The method also includes cathodic protection for the magnesium alloy based on electrochemistry. The suppression of cathodic protection on the chemical activity of the magnesium alloy was studied. The experiment shows that the new method of edge heating with hot air wrapping is effective to prevent edge cracking and corrosion. Also, the cathodic protection can effectively suppress the chemical activity of the magnesium alloy and improve the surface quality in the rolling process of the magnesium plate, which provides a new concept in rolling process of the magnesium alloy.

To keep up with the rapid growth of mobile data, there are increasing interests to deploy small cells in millimeter wave (mmWave) bands to underlay the conventional homogeneous macrocell network as well as in exploiting device-to-device (D2D) communications to improve the efficiency of the multicast service that supports content-based mobile applications. To compensate for high propagation loss in the mmWave band, high-gain directional antennas have to be employed, while it is critical to optimize multicast service in order to improve the network performance. In this paper, we develop an efficient multicast scheduling scheme for small cells in the mmWave band, called MD2D, where both D2D communications in close proximity and multi-level antenna codebook are utilized. Specifically, a user partition and multicast path planning algorithm is proposed to partition the users in the multicast group into subsets and to determine the transmission node for each subset, so as to achieve optimal utilization of D2D communications and multi-level antenna codebook. Then a multicast scheduling algorithm schedules the transmission for each subset. Furthermore, in order to optimize the network performance, the optimal choice of user partition thresholds is analyzed. Extensive simulations demonstrate that the MD2D achieves the best performance, in terms of network throughput and energy efficiency, compared with other existing state-of-the-art schemes. MD2D improves the network throughput compared with the second-best scheme by about 27%.

A modified anisotropic k - ω model that takes into account turbulence pulsation was proposed. The model was then used to study the flow and heat transfer characteristics of a rotating channel. The study considered Reynolds numbers ranging from 3000 to 15,000, rotation numbers from 0 to 1.31, and temperature ratios of 0.1, 0.17, and 0.22. The results obtained by the anisotropic k - ω model were compared with those obtained by the standard k - ω model. The anisotropic k - ω model was demonstrated to accurately predict the flow and heat transfer characteristics of the rotating channel and the results were in good agreement with the experimental data. By contrast, the standard k - ω model underestimated the heat transfer effect, especially for the trailing edge. Detailed flow analysis using the anisotropic k - ω model showed an inversely proportional relationship between the critical rotation number and the dimensionless distance. In addition, the study also found that the change of temperature ratio had an impact on the location of the fluid separation, the greater the temperature ratio, the earlier the fluid separation appears.

International audience; The water consumption of green space in a large region is difficult to attain through traditional methods. In this article, a practical method is developed using different sources of remote-sensing data. The green space was first derived from a high spatial resolution RapidEye image using the stratified classification method. Then the primary vegetation types of green space were identified using the object-oriented classification method. Afterwards regional green space evapotranspiration was inversed based on multi-temporal Landsat 8 images using the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land model. Finally, water consumption patterns for different types of vegetation were analysed, and regional water consumption was estimated. The method was applied to the northwest region of Beijing City with an area of 147.5 km 2 where the green space area was 56.87 km 2 , and the deciduous broadleaf forest area was the largest among six vegetation types. The total quantity of water consumption for green space in the growing period in the study region was 41.52 × 10 6 m 3 (Mm 3). The quantity of water consumed by different types of vegetation in an order from high to low were deciduous broadleaf forest, mixed green space, grassland, evergreen needleleaf forest, golf course, and aquatic vegetation, ranging from 17.43 to 0.79 Mm 3. The results are helpful for identifying vegetation types, monitoring vegetation growth status, managing green space, and optimizing green space ecological functions in the Beijing region. The method presented in this article, having higher accuracy and more convenience, has great potential to be applied to other areas across the world.

Heterogeneous cellular networks (HCNs) with millimeter wave (mmWave) communications included are emerging as a promising candidate for the fifth generation mobile network. With highly directional antenna arrays, mmWave links are able to provide several-Gbps transmission rate. However, mmWave links are easily blocked without line of sight. On the other hand, D2D communications have been proposed to support many content based applications, and need to share resources with users in HCNs to improve spectral reuse and enhance system capacity. Consequently, an efficient resource allocation scheme for D2D pairs among both mmWave and the cellular carrier band is needed. In this paper, we first formulate the problem of the resource allocation among mmWave and the cellular band for multiple D2D pairs from the view point of game theory. Then, with the characteristics of cellular and mmWave communications considered, we propose a coalition formation game to maximize the system sum rate in statistical average sense. We also theoretically prove that our proposed game converges to a Nash-stable equilibrium and further reaches the near-optimal solution with fast convergence rate. Through extensive simulations under various system parameters, we demonstrate the superior performance of our scheme in terms of the system sum rate compared with several other practical schemes., 13 pages, 12 figures

Metal pollution poses a significant threat to ecological security and human health. Current research on the causes, sources and distribution of metal pollution in the Yangtze River plain is lacking. This study investigated the accumulation, risk, distribution, and sources of heavy metals in 62 lakes along the Yangtze River, and analyzed the relationship between river-lake connectivity, economic structure, population and metal diffusion. The mean concentrations of Cr, Cu, Hg, Zn, Cd, Pb and As in the surface sediments of these lakes were 90.8, 60.1, 0.06, 102, 0.89, 42.7, and 6.01 mg/kg, respectively. Most (99%) of the lake sediments were contaminated with Cd, and the lakes in the middle reach and southern bank of the Yangtze River had a higher ecological risk. Cr originated from the natural environment, whereas Zn, Cu, Pb, Cd and As were affected by human activities. The lakes disconnected from the Yangtze River had higher concentrations of Cu, Zn, Pb and As, while the lakes connected to the river had higher concentrations of Cd and Cr. This comprehensive analysis determined the pollution characteristics of heavy metals, illustrated the causes of non-point pollution in the Yangtze River plain, and showed that soil-water erosion is important in metal diffusion.

With the rapid deployment of high speed railway (HSR) worldwide, both safety operation and comfort experience can be desired to evolve into a future era of intelligent transportation system. To eliminate boredom and provide entertainment for passengers, an intranet for internal communications among passengers named as onboard social network system (SNS) is needed. In this paper, the latest progress in HSR network architectures and technology building blocks are discussed to enable the implementation of the SNS. Meanwhile, based on the device-to-device (D2D) communication technology for proximal information interaction, SNS can be efficiently facilitated. A dynamic resource allocation algorithm is proposed to maximize the total utility of the onboard SNS, which is solved with the matching theory method. Simulation results verify the convergence and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.

For urban crowdsourcing applications, the data sensing tasks can be achieved by vehicles traveling on the roads, which can save the expenses on constructing dedicated infrastructures. In this paper, to efficiently handle the crowdsourcing recruitment problem, we propose to recruit participants with the duration-variable principle and prove that it performs better compared to the strategy that recruits vehicles for all required time periods. The duration-variable principle enables recruitment of vehicular sensing resources across different time epochs to maximize the crowdsourcing profits. To ensure the utilization of limited budget, we formulate the duration-variable participant recruitment (DPR) problem with the consideration of indeterministic trajectories to determine which vehicle subset is chosen and how many epochs are provided for each selected vehicle. Since the formulated problem is NP-hard, we propose a two-step DPR algorithm by maximizing the available sensing resource utilization efficiency in each recruitment round, which is shown to be near-optimal and has low computational complexity. Experiments on real traces show that the proposed DPR scheme exceeds three other solutions in providing higher spatial coverage for urban crowdsourcing applications.

In this study, the mode of groundwater level fluctuations is analyzed by statistical approaches for 51 monitoring wells located in a semi-arid basin in Beijing from 1998 to 2013. Firstly, a geostatistical method was performed to characterize the spatial and temporal behaviors of data sets and analyze the responding mechanism of groundwater level to hydrologic features using the Geostatistics Module of ArcGIS software. Secondly, multiple statistical methods were applied to classify groundwater hydrographs with similar fluctuation patterns. The results show that the spatial distribution of groundwater level is affected by natural factors (rainfall and temperature) as well as human activities. Combined with the method of principal component analysis, the hydrologic features of groundwater level can be classified into three groups and the dynamic characteristics of each group under different hydrogeology conditions are also different. Furthermore, a cross-correlation analysis was applied to investigate the groundwater level response to natural processes and human activities. This study provides a series of effective methods for evaluating the long-term series fluctuation features of groundwater level and its response to hydrological factors, as well as the scientific basis for the reasonable configuration and utilization of groundwater resources in arid and semi-arid regions.

Heterogeneous cellular networks (HCNs) are emerging as a promising candidate for the fifth-generation (5G) mobile network. With base stations (BSs) of small cells densely deployed, the cost-effective, flexible, and green backhaul solution has become one of the most urgent and critical challenges. With vast amounts of spectrum available, wireless backhaul in the millimeter-wave (mmWave) band is able to provide transmission rates of several gigabits per second. The mmWave backhaul utilizes beamforming to achieve directional transmission, and concurrent transmissions under low interlink interference can be enabled to improve network capacity. To achieve an energy-efficient solution for mmWave backhauling, we first formulate the problem of minimizing the energy consumption via concurrent transmission scheduling and power control into a mixed integer nonlinear program (MINLP). Then, we develop an energy-efficient and practical mmWave backhauling scheme, which consists of the maximum independent set (MIS)-based scheduling algorithm and the power control algorithm. We also theoretically analyze the conditions that our scheme reduces energy consumption, as well as the choice of the interference threshold. Through extensive simulations under various traffic patterns and system parameters, we demonstrate the superior performance of our scheme in terms of energy efficiency and analyze the choice of the interference threshold under different traffic loads, BS distributions, and the maximum transmission power.

Millimeter-wave (mm-Wave) MIMO systems have been proposed to achieve higher spectral efficiency via the hybrid beamforming structure, which consists of analog beamforming and digital beamforming. In analog beamforming, each antenna subarray generates a codebook-based directional beam, which determines the equivalent MIMO channel. Then, digital beamforming can be applied to fully exploit the spatial multiplexing gain of MIMO channels. In this paper, we propose a low-complexity analog beam selection scheme to achieve near-optimal spectral efficiency for the split hybrid beamforming system. The core of our scheme is the beam selection criterion, which is derived from capacity analysis. Furthermore, we propose a beam switching algorithm to ensure the robustness when blockage occurs. Through simulations under different channel conditions, the near-optimal performance of our scheme is demonstrated, and the beam switching algorithm is able to ensure robust network connectivity and achieve higher channel capacity when the blockage is relived.

The small cells in millimeter wave (mmWave) have been utilized extensively for the fifth generation (5G) mobile networks. And full-duplex (FD) communications become possible with the development of self-interference (SI) cancellation technology. In this paper, we focus on the optimal allocation of the sub-channels in the small cells deployed densely underlying the mmWave networks. In order to improve the resource utilization and network capacity, device-to-device (D2D) communications are adopted in networks. For maximizing the system throughput, we propose a cooperative sub-channel allocation approach based on coalition formation game, and theoretically prove the convergence of the proposed allocation algorithm. The utility of the coalition formation game is closely related to the sum system throughput in this paper, and each link makes an individual decision to leave or join any coalition based on the principle of maximizing the utility. Besides, a threshold of the minimum transmission rate is given to improve the system fairness. Through extensive simulations, we demonstrate that our proposed scheme has a near-optimal performance on sum throughput. In addition, we verify the low complexity of the proposed scheme by simulating the number of switch operations., 15 pages, 11 figures, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology

Small cells in the millimeter wave band densely deployed underlying the macrocell have been regarded as one of promising candidates for the next generation mobile networks. In the user intensive region, device-to-device (D2D) communication in physical proximity can save power and improve spectral efficiency. In this paper, we focus on the optimal sub-channel allocation for access and D2D links in the scenario of densely deployed multiple mmWave small cells. The problem is modeled as a coalitional game to maximize the system sum rate of access and D2D links in the system. Then we propose a coalition formation game based algorithm for sub-channel allocation. Performance evaluation results demonstrate superior performance in terms of the system sum rate compared with other practical schemes., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, URSI

Natural rock joints usually contain filling materials such as sand, clay and broken rock fragments as weak bonds, which heavily affect the mechanical responses and cracking behaviors of rock mass in engineering practice. This study aims to investigate the effects of filling materials on mechanical properties and fracture behaviors of sandstone specimens containing a single dentate flaw under uniaxial compression, and to quantitatively character the damage degrees of flawed rocks. The cracking process of tested specimens is monitored and recorded by acoustic emission (AE) and photographic capturing technologies. The effects of filling on mechanical properties of flawed rocks are first studied. The relation among the AE parameters, the axial stress-time curve and the cracking process is constructed. A qualitative comparative analysis regarding the cracking behaviors between the filled and unfilled specimens is performed. The experimental results show that the filling affects the location and type of crack initiation and propagation behaviors. The chaos characteristics of flawed rocks are quantitatively explored by the entropy-value theory based on AE time-series. The dynamic entropy-value evolution characteristics can be employed to evaluate the stability of flawed rock masses, and it can be considered as an early warning of ultimate failure of flawed rocks. This study provides a better understanding of mechanical properties, fracture behaviors and damage assessment of rock mass containing unfilled and filled dentate flaw.

To complement the current studies of risk assessment on water sources which seldom consider the distribution effects of multiple risk sources concentration, and improve the efficiency of water source supervision, this study establishes a method system for risk assessment of water sources and regulatory rating evaluation under the distribution effects of multiple risk sources concentration. The method system includes: (1) utilizing the single-risk source impact index to characterize the risk impact degree of the single-risk source on the water source, the index calculation method of single-risk source impact considers the risk degree and the distribution location of risk source, (2) using the multiple risk sources impact index to characterize the risk impact degree of the multiple risk sources on the water source, the index calculation method of multiple risk sources considers the impact index of single-risk source, the number of risk sources, and the distribution concentration of multiple risk sources, (3) the environmental risk assessment and regulatory rating evaluation method consider multiple risk sources impact index, anti-risk ability of water source, and the importance of water source. This method system has been applied to the environmental risk assessment and regulatory rating of eight water sources along the Nanjing Yangtze River, with excellent achievements. As the results reveal, eight water sources suffer 437 risk impacts from 175 risk sources, 69.04% of which are low-risk impacts and 13 are high-risk impacts. Longtan water source suffers the most risk impacts of 86, among which eight are high-risk impacts. The impacts of multiply-risk sources on the eight water sources are high-risk impacts. The impact index of multiple risk sources increases from the upstream water sources to the downstream water sources, reaching the maximum value of 5.267 at the most downstream Longtan water source. Though the environmental risk and supervision rating of Longtan water source is high, those of other water sources are rated as medium.

The coal of Anyuan Mine has the characteristic of easy spontaneous combustion. Conventional method is difficult to predict it. Coal samples from this mine were tested in laboratory. The data obtained from laboratory determination were initialized for the value which was defined as “K”. The ratio of each index gas and value of “K”, and the ratio of combination index gases and value of “K”, were analyzed simultaneously. The research results show that for this coal mine, if there is carbon monoxide in the gas sample, the phenomenon of oxidation and temperature rising for coal exists in this mine; if there is C2H4 in the gas sample, the temperature of coal perhaps exceeds 130 °C. If the coal temperature is between 35 °C and 130 °C, prediction and forecast for coal spontaneous combustion depend on the value of Φ(CO)/K mainly; if the temperature of coal is between 130 °C and 300 °C, prediction and forecast for coal spontaneous combustion depend on the value of Φ(C2H6)/Φ(C2H2) and Φ(C2H6)/K. The research results provide experimental basis for the prediction of coal spontaneous combustion in Anyuan coal mine, and have better guidance on safe production of this coal mine.

With the explosive growth of mobile demand, small cells in millimeter wave (mmWave) bands underlying the macrocell networks have attracted intense interest from both academia and industry. MmWave communications in the 60 GHz band are able to utilize the huge unlicensed bandwidth to provide multiple Gbps transmission rates. In this case, device-to-device (D2D) communications in mmWave bands should be fully exploited due to no interference with the macrocell networks and higher achievable transmission rates. In addition, due to less interference by directional transmission, multiple links including D2D links can be scheduled for concurrent transmissions (spatial reuse). With the popularity of content-based mobile applications, popular content downloading in the small cells needs to be optimized to improve network performance and enhance user experience. In this paper, we develop an efficient scheduling scheme for popular content downloading in mmWave small cells, termed PCDS (popular content downloading scheduling), where both D2D communications in close proximity and concurrent transmissions are exploited to improve transmission efficiency. In PCDS, a transmission path selection algorithm is designed to establish multi-hop transmission paths for users, aiming at better utilization of D2D communications and concurrent transmissions. After transmission path selection, a concurrent transmission scheduling algorithm is designed to maximize the spatial reuse gain. Through extensive simulations under various traffic patterns, we demonstrate PCDS achieves near-optimal performance in terms of delay and throughput, and also superior performance compared with other existing protocols, especially under heavy load., Comment: 12 pages, to appear in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology

Based on state space method, a 2-D model is established for metallic plates with composite patches as reinforcement, the governing equations for the model are derived, and the stress and strain distributions are analyzed. By means of MATLAB, the structure deflection, the adhesive peel stress, and the shear stress under tensile load are figured out. In order to validate the analytical model, the finite element analysis (FEA) is also applied and a FEA model is developed by ABAQUS. Both models give pretty identical results. In the end, using the analytical model, the interlaminar stress and in-plane stress distributions through the thickness of the patch are calculated, which are known to be key contributions to composite failure, and the damage mode is briefly analyzed as well.

60-GHz millimetre-wave (mm-wave) communication is gradually becoming a promising candidate for the next generation wireless system to meet the demands of mobile applications. To compensate for high path loss, directional links are established in mm-wave communication system, which adds opportunity for spatial reuse. As one of its most promising protocols for commercial production, IEEE 802.11ad standard provides a mechanism to support space-time division multiple access (STDMA) within a single network. However, the interference level among different co-channel networks is much lower than that inside a network, which provides greater potential for spatial reuse. In this study, based on the architecture and timing structure of IEEE 802.11ad, the authors propose a spatial reuse strategy among multiple co-channel networks. They formulate the problem as a mixed-integer non-linear programming problem, and then propose an inter-network STDMA scheduling algorithm, which considers clustering frame structure in IEEE 802.11ad, and combines greedy principle and mutual interference avoidance strategy. Extensive simulation results have shown that the proposed scheme enlarges total throughput in comparison with STDMA inside each network, as well as non-STDMA scheme. Meanwhile, it achieves the lowest packet loss rate under heavy traffic load.

Heterogeneous networks, which deploy small cells in the mmWave band underlying the macrocell network, have attracted intense interest from both academia and industry. Different from the communication systems using lower carrier frequencies, mmWave communications have unique features, such as high propagation loss, directional communications, and sensitivity to blockage. Aiming to overcome the challenging problems in mmWave networks, such as interference management, spatial reuse, anti-blockage, QoS guarantee, and load balancing, we architecturally borrow the ideas of heterogeneous cloud radio access networks and software-defined networking to propose a software-defined mmWave mobile broadband system via a cross-layer design approach. In this architecture, a centralized controller is introduced by abstracting the control functions from the network layer to the physical layer. Through quantitative simulations in a realistic indoor scenario, we demonstrate the performance advantages of our system in terms of network throughput and flow throughput. This work is the first cross-layer and software-defined design for mmWave communications, which opens up an opportunity for mmWave communications to make a significant impact on future 5G networks.

To study the time-varying dominant frequency distribution characteristics during the cracking process of intact and flawed rocks, uniaxial compression tests are carried out on three types of red sandstone specimens. Both acoustic emission (AE) and photographic technologies are performed to monitor the real-time cracking process of tested specimens. The relationship between the AE rate curve, the axial stress-time curve and the cracking process is first analyzed, which can be employed to evaluate the microscopic and macroscopic deformation characteristics of rocks. The time-varying dominant frequency and amplitude distribution characteristics in different cracking stages of tested rocks are investigated. Four modes of AE signals, i.e., AE signals with low-frequency and high-amplitude (LF-HA), AE signals with low-frequency and low-amplitude (LF-LA), AE signals with intermediate-frequency and low-amplitude (IF-LA) and AE signals with high-frequency and low-amplitude (HF-LA), are found. The coupling application of four modes of AE signals extracted from unstable deformation stages can be viewed as early warning for unstable failure of rocks. The fracture mechanism of intact and flawed rocks is discussed based on the statistical characteristics of dominant frequency during the cracking process. Micro-shear cracking mainly dominants the ultimate failure of all of tested rocks.

To study the classification of fracture modes of rocks during the cracking process, uniaxial compression tests were conducted on intact and flawed red sandstone specimens. Meanwhile, both acoustic emission (AE) and digital image correlation (DIC) technologies were adopted to monitor and record the real-time cracking process of the specimens tested. In this study, the interevent time function F(τ) (AE events rate) was utilized to distinguish the transition from microcracking to macrocracking for the tested specimens. An AE parameter analysis method based on two indices of RA (rise time/amplitude) and AF (AE counts/duration) values was performed to classify the different cracking modes during the loading process. The classification results of the cracking modes coincide with the cracking type of macrocracks captured by the photographic system. Moreover, the adequacy of the crack classification was also evaluated by the kernel density estimation (KDE) function, a nonparametric density estimation method. KDE is used as a parametric model to overcome the randomness found in the data set generated by AE testing and can well identify and visualize the high concentration regions of RA and AF values. A continuous increase of RA values (more than 400 ms/v) can serve as an early warning for the ultimate failure of red sandstone. The results of this present investigation can be applied in the health monitoring of rock engineering.

Pharmaceuticals vastly consumed by modern human for health and food might track anthropogenic impacts on aquatic ecosystem via their wide residual spectrum. This study investigated the spectrum of pharmaceutical residuals in stream water at confluence point of each subwatershed with various land use pattern in Jiulong River watershed, southeastern China. Stream water was sampled in both wet and dry seasons of 2016. Results showed that 59 out of the selected 94 compounds from 6 pharmaceutical categories were quantified among these stream water samples, up to 1488 ng L−1 for caffeine (CAF). Antibiotics and central nervous system drugs (CNs) collectively dominated the quantified instream pharmaceutical residuals. Outbreaks of epidemic infectious diseases for human and livestock partially but significantly matched seasonality of instream pharmaceutical residuals. Anthropogenic impact as land use composition of subwatersheds was significant on instream pharmaceutical loadings, especially urban land use. Cocktail risk of instream pharmaceutical residuals to aquatic organisms was assessed ranging from low to medium among the subwatersheds except high risk for the W-01 subwatershed in the dry season. Evidence from this study indicated that seasonality and wide spectrum of instream pharmaceutical residual determination could reveal anthropogenic impacts to aquatic ecosystem, such as epidemic disease and land use.

The development of self-interference (SI) cancelation technology makes full-duplex (FD) communication possible. Considering the quality of service (QoS) of flows in small cells densely deployed scenario with limited time slot (TS) resources, this paper introduces the FD communication into the concurrent scheduling problem of millimeter-wave (mmWave) wireless backhaul network. We propose a QoS-aware FD concurrent scheduling algorithm to maximize the number of flows with their QoS requirements satisfied. Based on the contention graph, the algorithm makes full use of the FD condition. Both residual self-interference (RSI) and multi-user interference (MUI) are considered. Besides, it also fully considers the QoS requirements of flows and ensures the flows can be transmitted at high rates. Extensive simulations at 60GHz demonstrate that with high SI cancelation level and appropriate contention threshold, the proposed FD algorithm can achieve superior performance in terms of the number of flows with their QoS requirements satisfied and the system throughput compared with other stateof-of-the-art schemes., 9 pages, 10 figures

As an extension of cloud computing, fog computing at the edge of networks provides low latency, location awareness, and real-time interactions. At the same time, millimeter wave (mmWave) communications are able to provide directional multi-gigabit transmission rates with large available bandwidth. Based on the user mobile trajectories in a region, several activity hotspots that users pass by frequently can be obtained. By caching popular content at the edge nodes near the hotspots, users can download the cached content directly at a short distance, and the user experience can be significantly improved. Considering multiple hotspots in a region, how to efficiently schedule the transmission for the caching at edge nodes becomes a key problem. In this paper, we focus on the problem of mobility aware transmission scheduling for caching at edge nodes near hotspots, and utilize multi-hop relaying and concurrent transmissions to achieve better performance. After formulating the optimal scheduling problem as a stochastic nonlinear mixed integer program, we propose a mobility aware caching scheduling scheme, called MHRC (Multi-Hop Relaying based Caching), where multi-hop D2D paths are established for edge nodes, and concurrent transmissions are exploited in the scheduling of caching at edge nodes. Extensive performance evaluation demonstrates MHRC achieves more than 1x higher expected cached data amount compared with state-of-the-art schemes., 12 pages, 12 figures, to appear in IEEE ACCESS

With the increasing quality of service (QoS) demands for indoor multimedia applications, millimeter wave (mmWave) communications are emerging as a promising candidate for the wireless personal area networks (WPANs). On the one hand, it has the advantage of providing several-Gbps transmission rate. However, due to the unique characteristics in 60-GHz frequency band, such as high propagation loss, beamforming is fully exploited for mmWave links to achieve directional transmission and reception. In this paper, we propose a novel QoS aware scheduling algorithm for concurrent transmission in mmWave WPANs based on coalition game. First, we formulate the problem of concurrent transmission scheduling into a non-convex integer programming problem. Then, we propose a coalition game based algorithm to maximize the number of flows satisfying the corresponding QoS requirements, while improving the network resource utilization effectively. Besides, our proposed algorithm converges to a Nash-stable equilibrium with greatly reduced complexity. Through extensive simulations under various system parameters, we demonstrate our scheme achieves better network performance in terms of the throughput and the number of flows scheduled successfully, compared with existed protocols.

With the explosive growth of mobile traffic, millimeter wave (mmWave) systems have gained considerable attention from both academia and industry. Although relaying and concurrent transmissions have been utilized to improve the system performance, dynamics due to human mobility are still challenges for mmWave systems. In this paper, we propose a high throughput service scheduling (HTSS) scheme, which exploits multi- hop relay and concurrent transmissions to enhance throughput with the consideration of human mobility. In HTSS, we develop a relay path planning algorithm to establish multi-hop relay paths, and then utilize a global time scheduling algorithm to compute transmission scheme to achieve mobility-aware optimization. Through extensive evaluations under realistic human mobility trajectories, we demonstrate the superior performance of HTSS in terms of the system throughput compared with the state-of-the-art schemes.

With the worldwide deployment of the railway, high-speed railway (HSR) tends to evolve into an intelligent transportation system with efficient and green transportation characteristics. To meet the explosive growth of wireless data traffic in “smart rail”, millimeter-wave (mmWave) communications are used to offer several Gbps data rate via beamforming structures by utilizing huge unlicensed bandwidth. In this paper, the beam tracking strategies for mmWave HSR communications are investigated, and a dynamic beam tracking strategy is proposed by adjusting the beam direction and beam width jointly, where the main idea is to maximize the sum-rate capacity while satisfying the critical quality of service (QoS) requirements. Then it boils down to a demanding non-convex problem, and a near-optimal solution is provided based on the problem decomposition and the genetic algorithm. Finally, along with the moving trains the proposed beam tracking scheme can provide near-optimal capacity performance with a low outage probability, and reduce the implementation complexity.

Transboundary water pollution has resulted in increasing conflicts between upstream and downstream administrative districts. Ecological compensation is an efficient means of restricting pollutant discharge and achieving sustainable utilization of water resources. The tri-provincial region of Taihu Basin is a typical river networks area. Pollutant flux across provincial boundaries in the Taihu Basin is hard to determine due to complex hydrologic and hydrodynamic conditions. In this study, ecological compensation estimation for the tri-provincial area based on a mathematical model is investigated for better environmental management. River discharge and water quality are predicted with the one-dimensional mathematical model and validated with field measurements. Different ecological compensation criteria are identified considering the notable regional discrepancy in sewage treatment costs. Finally, the total compensation payment is estimated. Our study indicates that Shanghai should be the receiver of payment from both Jiangsu and Zhenjiang in 2013, with 305 million and 300 million CNY, respectively. Zhejiang also contributes more pollutants to Jiangsu, and the compensation to Jiangsu is estimated as 9.3 million CNY. The proposed ecological compensation method provides an efficient way for solving the transboundary conflicts in a complex river networks area and is instructive for future policy-making.

With the explosive growth of mobile traffic, diverse mobile applications with high throughput demands have gained considerable attention from both academia and industry. However, dynamics due to human mobility impose serious issues on high throughput communications. Although millimeter-wave (mm-wave), relays, and concurrent transmission have been applied for throughput improvement, how to achieve high throughput transmission in mobility-aware scenarios is still challenging. In this paper, we propose a throughput-efficient service scheduling (TESS) scheme, which exploits multi-hop relay and concurrent transmissions with the consideration of human mobility. In TESS, we first propose a mobility-aware transmission scheduling scheme in single mm-wave cell. The proposed scheduling scheme consists of a relay path planning algorithm and a global time scheduling algorithm. In the relay path planning algorithm, we establish multi-hop relay transmission paths from base station to service points. In the global time scheduling algorithm, we schedule concurrent transmission in relay paths. Furthermore, the proposed TESS scheme is extended for multi-cell scenarios. Through extensive performance evaluations under realistic human mobility trajectories, we demonstrate the superior performance of TESS in terms of system throughput compared with the state-of-the-art schemes.

A line spring model is developed for analyzing the fracture problem of cracked metallic plate repaired with the double-sided adhesively bonded composite patch. The restraining action of the bonded patch is modeled as continuous distributed linear springs bridging the crack faces provided that the cracked plate is subjected to extensional load. The effective spring constant is determined from 1-D bonded joint theory. The hyper-singular integral equation (HSIE), which can be solved using the second kind Chebyshev polynomial expansion method, is applied to determine the crack opening displacements (COD) and the crack tip stress intensity factors (SIF) of the repaired cracked plate. The numerical result of SIF for the crack-tip correlates very well with the finite element (FE) computations based on the virtual crack closure technique (VCCT). The present analysis approaches and mathematical techniques are critical to the successful design, analysis and implementation of crack patching.

To keep pace with the rapid growth of mobile traffic demands, dense deployment of small cells in millimeter wave (mmWave) bands has become a promising candidate for next generation wireless communication systems. With a greatly increased data rate from huge bandwidth of mmWave communications, energy consumption should be mitigated for higher energy efficiency. Due to content popularity, many content-based mobile applications can be supported by the multicast service. mmWave communications exploit directional antennas to overcome high path loss, and concurrent transmissions can be enabled for better multicast service. On the other hand, device-to-device (D2D) communications in physical proximity should be exploited to improve multicast performance. In this paper, we propose an energy efficient multicast scheduling scheme, referred to as EMS, which utilizes both D2D communications and concurrent transmissions to achieve high energy efficiency. In EMS, a D2D path planning algorithm establishes multi-hop D2D transmission paths, and a concurrent scheduling algorithm allocates the links on the D2D paths into different pairings. Then the transmission power of links is adjusted by the power control algorithm. Furthermore, we theoretically analyze the roles of D2D communications and concurrent transmissions in reducing energy consumption. Extensive simulations under various system parameters demonstrate the superior performance of EMS in terms of energy consumption compared with the state-of-the-art schemes. Furthermore, we also investigate the choice of the interference threshold to optimize network performance., 17 pages, 15 figures

In this study, the hydrochemical characteristics of shallow groundwater were analyzed to get insight into the factors affecting groundwater quality in a typical agricultural dominated area of the North China Plain. Forty-four shallow groundwater samples were collected for chemical analysis. The water type changes from Ca·Na-HCO3 type in grass land to Ca·Na-Cl (+NO3) type and Na (Ca)-Cl (+NO3+SO4) type in construction and facility agricultural land, indicating the influence of human activities. The factor analysis and geostatistical analysis revealed that the two major factors contributing to the groundwater hydrochemical compositions were the water-rock interaction and contamination from sewage discharge and agricultural fertilizers. The major ions (F, HCO3) and trace element (As) in the shallow groundwater represented the natural origin, while the nitrate and sulfate concentrations were related to the application of fertilizer and sewage discharge in the facility agricultural area, which was mainly affected by the human activities. The values of pH, total dissolved solids, electric conductivity, and conventional component (K, Ca, Na, Mg, Cl) in shallow groundwater increased from grass land and cultivated land, to construction land and to facility agriculture which were originated from the combination sources of natural processes (e.g., water-rock interaction) and human activities (e.g., domestic effluents). The study indicated that both natural processes and human activities had influences on the groundwater hydrochemical compositions in shallow groundwater, while anthropogenic processes had more contribution, especially in the reclaimed water irrigation area.

Small cells in millimeter-wave (mmWave) band are able to provide multigigabit access data rates and have emerged as a cost-efficient solution to offer interference-free device-todevice (D2D) communications. In order to improve system performances and enhance user experiences, direct transmissions between devices need to be scheduled properly. We first propose a transmission scheduling scheme for radio access of small cells in the mmWave band, termed directional D2D medium accesscontrol (D3MAC), whereby a path-selection criterion is designed to enable D2D transmissions. Through extensive simulations, we demonstrate that D3MAC achieves near-optimal performances and outperforms other schemes significantly in terms of delay and throughput. Based on this near-optimal scheme, we then evaluate the impact of user behaviors, including the traffic mode and traffic load, as well as user density, denseness, and mobility, on the performance of D2D communications inmmWave small cells. Our study reveals that the performance of D2D communications is improved, as the user density and denseness increase, but this effect is only obvious under heavy traffic loads. Furthermore, user mobility is shown to be another important factor that influences the performance of D2D communications. The system performance is first improved, as the average user speed increases from static, but the performance is degraded significantly when the user speed becomes high.