Mixed Layout Research Articles

Students’ Evaluations of Multilingual Educational Slides and Their Visual Attention Distribution on Slides with Different Layouts

Following efforts to promote internationalization at academic institutions, the use of multiple languages on educational slides (e.g., PowerPoint) has gradually increased. Multilingualism in learning has its advantages, but having multiple languages on educational slides can lead to crowding and cognitive overload. To investigate how students perceive multilingual slides, evaluations were gathered from Japanese (N = 20) and Indonesian students (N = 20) during an eye-tracking experiment in which their visual attention distribution on the slides was assessed. The slides contained text in three languages (English, Japanese, and Bahasa Indonesia) and were varied according to their layout. One group watched slides with text separated in blocks, with one text block for each language, while the other group watched slides consisting of a single, mixed block with each sentence describing the same information in a different language. The students’ evaluations showed that slides with a mixed layout were judged as more crowded and required more processing effort than slides with a separated-block layout. Furthermore, while the students dwelled their gaze significantly longer on text in their native language (either Bahasa Indonesia or Japanese) on separated-block slides, for slides with a mixed layout, the gaze patterns did not significantly differ between languages. The results of a comprehension quiz taken after the slide presentation, however, showed that students performed better after having watched the slides with the mixed layout. Thus, although judged as more crowded and requiring a wider attention distribution, slides with a mixed layout may be preferable in multilingual education.

Associations between Land-Use Patterns and Cardiovascular Disease Mortality in the Beijing—Tianjin–Hebei Megacity Region

Megacity regions where human activities are intensive are key areas for CVD prevention and control in China. Optimizing land-use patterns has been widely recognized as an important public health intervention. Ecological space, agricultural space, and construction space are three basic management objects in China’s new land-use management system. Given that most existing studies focused on a single type of land use, this study treats them as a whole and not only explores the impact of each type, but also systematically investigates the effects of the interactions between any two types of land use and the whole land-use pattern. Specifically, this study first constructs a hierarchical index system, then uses spatial error models (SEM) to explore the global associations between each index and age-standardized CVD mortality rates (ASMRs) and uses the multiple geographical weighted regression model (MGWR) to explore the spatial heterogeneity of factor effects. The possible association between land-use patterns and CVD mortality is then explored, and recommendations for policy formulation are provided. The analysis results show that the overall pattern of moderately decentralized and organically combined land use can control CVD mortality to a certain extent, but the specific influence mechanisms show significant differences according to different land-use types, relationships, and location conditions. First, in terms of single-type land-use distribution, the concentration of ecological space has positive health benefits, while a too high concentration of agricultural space has negative effects. Second, the combination of different types of land use has a significant association with CVD, in which the mixed layout of ecological and agricultural space helps to suppress CVD, while ecological and construction space need to be appropriately regularized and should not be too interspersed. Third, the same index may have different effects in different regions, suggesting that policy makers need to tailor their policies to local conditions.

Artificial Intelligence and Street Space Optimization in Green Cities: New Evidence from China

In the context of the green economy and sustainable urban development, the rapid expansion of urban construction has given rise to pressing public health concerns, notably environmental pollution and the increased prevalence of chronic illnesses linked to swift urbanization. These urban health issues are escalating, prompting significant attention to the concept of creating “healthy cities”. Meanwhile, the planning and design of urban street space have a far-reaching impact on urban residents’ quality of life and health. Urban planners are facing challenges and need to follow the principle of a green economy while meeting the needs of residents for public activities and adapting to motor vehicle traffic. This study explores the optimization of urban street space to promote the harmonious coexistence between people and cars. This study actively explores the relationship between health, urban environment, and social background, focusing on promoting the harmonious coexistence between people and vehicles, especially the optimization goal of sharing urban streets. The study’s main goal is to design a road that can meet the needs of citizens’ public activities and accommodate motor vehicles, which conforms to the principle of a green economy. To achieve this, geographic information system (GIS) technology and a genetic algorithm (GA) are employed to optimize shared urban street spaces. Among them, GIS tools are used for spatial simulation to evaluate the effect of different shared street space configurations. The urban shared street space is gradually optimized through GA’s selection, crossover, and mutation operations. Simulation experiments are conducted to determine the relationship between street space utilization and the elements of a healthy city, ultimately striving to identify the optimal design parameters for shared street spaces. The research results reveal that the urban street space is optimized from the three aspects of shared allocation of facilities resources, replacement of land use functions, and mixed layout of facilities, and the utilization rate of urban streets is finally ensured to reach 53.43%, fully assuming the essential functions of urban streets. This innovative approach bridges the gap between urban development and public health, offering valuable insights for sustainable urban space planning and enhanced living environments within the framework of the green economy.

The Built Environment Assessment of Residential Areas in Wuhan during the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak.

The COVID-19 epidemic has emerged as one of the biggest challenges, and the world is focused on preventing and controlling COVID-19. Although there is still insufficient understanding of how environmental conditions may impact the COVID-19 pandemic, airborne transmission is regarded as an important environmental factor that influences the spread of COVID-19. The natural ventilation potential (NVP) is critical for airborne infection control in the micro-built environment, where infectious and susceptible people share air spaces. Taking Wuhan as the research area, we evaluated the NVP in residential areas to combat COVID-19 during the outbreak. We determined four fundamental residential area layouts (point layout, parallel layout, center-around layout, and mixed layout) based on the semantic similarity model for point of interest (POI) picking. Our analyses indicated that the center-around and point layout had a higher NVP, while the mixed and parallel layouts had a lower NVP in winter and spring. Further analysis showed that the proportion of the worst NVP has been rising, while the proportion of the poor NVP remains very high in Wuhan. This study suggested the need to efficiently improve the residential area layout in Wuhan for better urban ventilation to combat COVID-19 without losing other benefits.

Models of TV news layout: Different types of marketing narrative

The study focuses on identifying and describing the layout models of leading Ukrainian TV channels, which were formed in 2004–2020 in connection with changes in audience demands, transformations of business models, and mastering the latest technologies. The news release is a marketing narrative about current events, mediated by narrators and language as a sign system. This paper aims to emotionally engage viewers and further communicate with them (including the consumption of television commercials). In 2019–2021, a rhetorical analysis of 531 news issues of the previously created sample of TV channels was performed. The semantic, structural, technological regularities and differences in the news layout are revealed. Based on a set of criteria (principles of selection and ranking of topics, methods of presenting information, broadcasting methods), the layout of the sample news is classified. Then a general description of TV news layout models is made. Five narrative models of the leading Ukrainian TV channels are substantiated: 1) hierarchical layout; 2) standard layout; 3) social layout; 4) stress layout; and 5) mixed layout. These models are related to the implementation of marketing tasks. Their understanding allows deepening the understanding of working with the audience, as well as improving news production in the television business.

A Case Study on the Gas Drainage Optimization Based on the Effective Borehole Spacing in Sima Coal Mine

Based on the dynamic expressions of permeability and porosity of the coal seam derived in the paper, a multiphysical field coupling numerical model of gas migration under the interaction of stress field and seepage field was established. The gas drainage project #3 Coal Seam operated by Sima Coal Industry Co., Ltd., was selected as the study object. Taking different drainage time periods in various positions of drainage holes into consideration, combined with the advance situation of the 1207 working face in the Sima Coal Mine, a mixed layout gas drainage scheme featured with the effective borehole spacing was obtained through the COMSOL multiphysics simulation. In addition, a series of field industrial tests were performed to validate the research result, revealing that comprehensively considering the extraction time of coal and optimizing the layout of extraction boreholes can effectively improve the engineering economic benefits.

A hybrid vibration mitigation method based on the crowd flow control and tuned mass damper on a footbridge

This study proposes a hybrid mitigation method based on the crowd flow control and the eddy current tuned mass damper to control the excessive vibration caused by the random crowd excitation. The vibration mitigation method is applied on an experimental footbridge under random crowd loads and then the mitigation performance is analyzed experimentally and numerically. The numerical method of the social force model is used to simulate pedestrians detour behaviour in a blocking scenario. The time-varying coupling model of the crowd-structure-tuned mass damper is established, and the structure response is investigated. A virtual three dimensional obstacle based on the pedestrian stereo vision on the laboratory footbridge is designed to avoid the accident that pedestrians may encounter caused by the actual obstacles. It was found that the numerical response is in an appropriate agreement with the experimental data, implying that the social force model can simulate the detour behaviour accurately. Finally, the mitigation strategies are numerically implemented on an indoor footbridge, and the factors influencing the vibration mitigation rate are further analyzed using three different layouts. The layouts include Layout 1, for forcing pedestrian diversion separation, and Layout 2, for generating a bottle neck effect, and Layout 3, a nonlinear layout mode of obstacles, which is a combination of Layouts 1 and 2. The results show that the performance of the proposed hybrid mitigation method is more effective than the single mitigation method. In addition, the results show that the number and layout of obstacles determine the mitigation efficiency. It was also found that the vibration mitigation rate of the hybrid method with Layout 3 increases with the crowd density and tends to be stable when the crowd density exceeds 0.92 ped./m2. In addition, the mixed layout scheme may have more advantages in controlling crowd motion under high crowd density, while the linear layout schemes have certain competitiveness under low crowd density.

Influence of Waterside Buildings’ Layout on Wind Environment and the Relation with Design Based on a Case Study of the She Kou Residential District

It is important to improve residential thermal comfort in the high dense cities, in which wind environment is crucial. Waterside buildings take an advantage of micro-hydrological-climate in summer that should be used to enhance residential thermal comfort especially in the subtropical region. In order to propose design approaches according to the outdoor thermal comfort of the waterside residential, a case study of Shenzhen She Kou residential district has been made. It focused on various factors that could have influence on wind environment for improving thermal comfort. Using wind velocity ratio (ΔRi) criterion, factors of building development volume, building direction and layout pattern, open space arrangement etc. have been broadly explored using FLUENT simulation. To planning parameters, the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) is significantly influence wind environment, the smaller FAR is better. To the vertical layout of the buildings, multi-storey layout and multi-storey & sub high-rise mixed layout would provide better wind environment. To the horizontal layout, the determinant is better than the peripheral. Other factors such as the buildings’ direction towards the road, buildings’ height, and open space setting, have influence on wind environment yet. In general, the more benefit of design layout for wind breezing, the better wind environment it could get

Content Analysis of Preceding Researches on Social-Mixed Housing Complex

This study aims to investigate the research trends related to the social mixed housing complex and to analyze the outcome of the research based on resident perception, residential satisfaction, preferred mixed layout types and social interaction. As a research method, literature review was conducted on 49 preceding researches. The results are as follows. First, sale households tended to have a negative perception of social mixed housing. Even if social mixed housing was positively perceived, they would still negatively perceive the direct and active mixed-approach. In contrast, rental households had a relatively positive perception of social mixed housing. Second, residential satisfaction tended to be low for sale households, but high for rental households, especially for the ‘building mixture type.’ Third, when living in the rental housing and considering its occupancy, there was a tendency not to care about the type of arrangement or to prefer mixed layouts such as ‘building mixture’ and ‘site mixture’. Those with experience living in social mixed housing and sale households of social mixed housing preferred the ‘separation type.’ Fourth, voluntary social interaction between the sale households and the rental households were not actively conducted, and even if they were, they were limited to non-face-to-face interactions.

Layout algorithm for carrier aircraft in hangar based on basic spatial combination relationship

Objectives This paper proposes an algorithm for optimizing the layout of carrier aircraft in a hangar. Methods To solve the problem of the mixed layout of aircraft in a hangar, based on the basic spatial combination relationship, this paper sets up a combinatorial relationship library, optimizes the solution space and converts the constrained two-dimensional layout problem into a combinatorial optimization problem. A hangar layout model is established with the maximum number of carrier aircraft and maximum number of emergency dispatch aircraft, and a heuristic algorithm is used to solve the model. Results Using the case study of a USS Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, the resulting layout scheme can maximize the total number of carrier aircraft while ensuring the number of emergency dispatch aircraft, and the results satisfy actual business constraints and requirements. Compared with the layout scheme of USS aircraft carrier, the area utilization rate of hangar deck is increased by 16.92%. Conclusions The proposed algorithm can be used to effectively solve the layout problem of carrier aircraft in a hangar.

Service Delivery System Practices in Malaysian Hotel Operations: An Exploratory Study

A hotel’s service delivery system is unique because it produces products as well as services. Priorresearch in this area is still scarce especially in the context of the Malaysian service industry. Thispaper investigates the extent of service delivery system practices in Malaysia’s hotels. In doing so, aquestionnaire was sent to all 474 star-rated hotels in Malaysia. A response rate of 19% was received.By using factor analysis and descriptive statistics, the results indicated that the extent of hotel servicedelivery system could be measured by the following seven dimensions – new products/services, customerparticipation, hotel operations layout, push/pull orientation, level of standardisation, use of InformationTechnology (IT), and human resource specialisation. Furthermore, on each dimension, managers ofhotels perceived that their hotels had high introduction of products/services, high customer participationfor service adaptation, mixed operations layout, pull orientation, high standardisation of processes, high use of IT for cost reduction, and low human resource specialisation.

Wind farm layout optimization for wake effect uniformity

The basic objective of wind farm layout optimization is to maximize the energy produced by wind farms. However, when wind turbines are arranged in a limited space like an onshore wind farm, specific wind turbines may have greater wake exposure than other wind turbines. This phenomenon can be conspicuous in a mixed layout that consists of turbines with different capacities and hub heights. In this study, we developed and tested a new objective function to increase wind farm energy output while making the wake loss of each wind turbine uniform. The purpose of this function is to adjust the wake effects of all of the wind turbines on a wind farm to similar levels, thereby promoting the operational stability of all of the wind turbines. Layout optimization was performed using a simulated annealing algorithm, which is a heuristic method, with actual wind conditions for an existing wind farm in operation. Then, the results obtained using the proposed method were compared with those yielded by layout optimization for energy maximization. The layout generated using the proposed objective function had lower energy output than that obtained by energy maximization. However, this difference was small and the proposed method prevented wake effect concentration on specific turbines by making the wake effect levels uniform.

A social force evacuation model considering the effect of emergency signs

In this paper, we investigate the effect of emergency signs on evacuation dynamics under smoke conditions. We assume that in a smoky hall the visual field of pedestrians is limited to a certain range, and they do not know the exact location of the exit. In this kind of evacuation process, we analyze the influence of emergency signs on movement direction and speed, and the herd behavior of pedestrians. In the analysis, we divide the emergency signs into two types: the wall signs (WS) and the ground signs (GS). Then, we analyze the variation of pedestrian behavior when they encounter the WS, the GS, and the exit in the evacuation process. Combined with the analysis results, we build our improved model based on the social force model. In the simulation, we study the evacuation process in the case of WS and GS. According to the result of the simulation, we consider that the effect of the emergency signs on herd behavior and the desired speed is an important factor to improve evacuation efficiency. We find that, from the perspective of evacuation time, the evacuation in the case of WS is more efficient, but from the perspective of the interaction between pedestrians, the evacuation in the case of GS presents less security risk. Finally, we explore how to design a mixed layout scheme of WS and GS.

Optimization of bus stops layout under the conditions of coordinated control

Abstract Arterial coordinated control and transit signal priority are effective ways to alleviate traffic congestion. Transit vehicles must enter the bus stops for passenger boarding and alighting. The research of transit signal priority should consider the impact of bus stop locations under the condition of arterial coordinated control. The objective of this paper is to analyze and optimize the bus stops layout under the conditions of coordinated control. The restrictions of relocated bus stops on public transportation planning were explained, and the impact of relocated bus stop on bus trajectory and arterial coordinated control was analyzed. The simulated optimization method was applied to optimizing bus stops layout when compared with the mathematical optimization method. Then, the arterial simulation model with ten signal controls and eight bus stops was built, and typical layouts of bus stops were planned. One bus stop at one link was defined as “single” layout, near- and far-side bus stops at the same link was defined as “pairing” layout. Single layout for some bus stops and pairing layout for others defined as “mixed” layout. Simulation experiments of each layout at the same coordinated control and traffic volume were carried out, and performance index such as delay was evaluated. The simulation result shown that delay of all bus stops at pairing layout was less than all at single or mixed layout. Furthermore, the ideal layout module composed with three bus stops at some segments was proposed, and suggestion of relocated bus stops based on ideal layout module was presented.

New facets of mobile botnet: architecture and evaluation

It is without a doubt that botnets pose a growing threat to the Internet, with DDoS attacks of any kind carried out by botnets to be on the rise. Nowadays, botmasters rely on advanced Command and Control (C&C) infrastructures to achieve their goals and most importantly to remain undetected. This work introduces two novel botnet architectures that consist only of mobile devices and evaluates both their impact in terms of DNS amplification and TCP flooding attacks, and their cost pertaining to the maintenance of the C&C channel. The first one puts forward the idea of using a continually changing mobile HTTP proxy in front of the botherder, while the other capitalizes on DNS protocol as a covert channel for coordinating the botnet. That is, for the latter, the messages exchanged among the bots and the herder appear as legitimate DNS transactions. Also, a third architecture is described and assessed, which is basically an optimized variation of the first one. Namely, it utilizes a mixed layout where all the attacking bots are mobile, but the proxy machines are typical PCs not involved in the actual attack. For the DNS amplification attack, which is by nature more powerful, we report an amplification factor that fluctuates between 32.7 and 34.1. Also, regarding the imposed C&C cost, we assert that it is minimal (about 0.25 Mbps) per bot in the worst case happening momentarily when the bot learns about the parameters of the attack.

Mixed type layout design model for minimizing material handling movement

Mixed type layout design model for minimizing material handling movement

Optimization Facility Mixed Layout Based on “田” Fractal Theory

Considering the problems such as the difficulty to express layout type, build and solve model that are existing in facility mixed layout, this paper proposed a “田” fractal theory which imitates Chinese character “田” and sequentially builds “田” type layout according to logistic volume between facilities (units). A mathematic model with the objective to minimize the logistic free and the occupied area of the layout was presented considering about several “田” types that may occur. Practical test shows that “田” fractal theory can optimize facility mixed layout problem wholly and partially at the same time and provide a new research point for facility mixed layout of modern manufacturing industry.

The Design and Simulation of a CMOS Digital PLL

In this paper, the charge-pump PLL structure is well analyzed. By using top-down method, the digital PLL is designed from frequency phase detector, charge pump, loop filter, VCO to frequency divider. Based on 0.5μm CMOS mixed signal process, the schematic and layout design is finished on Cadence IC 5.1.4.1, and Hspice is used for the simulation. The layout verification and parasitic extraction is completed on industry mainstream Calibre software. Simulation results show that the digital PLL is with a 100MHz center frequency, the locking range is between 20MHz~60MHz, the locking time is less than 1.5μs, and phase noise is -105dBc/Hz. The design has implemented the digital signal lock function and it can be used as an IP hard core in the clock recovery of communication systems and frequency synthesis of digital systems.

Study on the Influences of Industry Transformation on the Sustainable Development of Resource-Exhausted City Space

Resource-exhausted cities, a special type of cities relying heavily on resource economy, take on some distinct characteristics in the development of industrial structure and urban space. The resource-oriented industrial structure has determined the loose and mixed layout of urban space, the structural imbalance of major functional land use, the crisscrossing pattern of towns and villages and the unreasonable spatial development sequence. The existing urban spatial pattern can no longer meet the demand of urban development. Considering that the evolution of the spatial structure of resource-exhausted cities is a slow process lagging behind industrial transformation, this paper analyzes the industrial transformation manifested in urban spatial structure and reveals the mechanism through which the industrial transformation affect the sustainable development of urban space, so as to provide guidance to improve the coordination and harmony of urban spatial structure and industrial structure, further promote the smooth transformation of resource-exhausted cities and achieve the sustainable development.

Genetic Algorithms in Discrete Optimization of Steel Truss Roofs

Genetic algorithms have their basis in Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest. These algorithms have been used successfully in genetics and recently in a variety of optimization problems. In this paper, the mixed layout and sizing optimization problem of a typical steel roof is solved using a genetic algorithm for the layout part, and a logic problem is used for the sizing optimization of the truss roof. The method is applied to large-design-space problems, and near-optimum solutions are found in reasonable computing time. The genetic algorithm is based on a roulette-wheel reproduction scheme, a single point crossover, and a standard mutation scheme. An elitist strategy is also used that passes the best designs of a generation to the next generation. Numerical results are presented that show the efficiency of the method. Estimates of the various parameters of the algorithm are determined, which render the method an efficient optimization method for discrete structural design problems.