Time Budget Research Articles

Програма фізичної підготовки артилерійських розвідників з використанням елементів спортивного орієнтування

The paper presents the results of a study of the formation of artillery reconnaissance men’s readiness to perform combat missions using a physical training program with elements of orienteering. The author has identified the factors that determine the effectiveness of the development of physical qualities and the pedagogical conditions necessary to improve the quality of physical тtraining of cadets – artillery scouts by means of orienteering. The high efficiency of the author’s program has been experimentally proven. The purpose of the study is to develop and test the effectiveness of the author’s program of physical training of artillery reconnaissance men using elements of orienteering. Material and Methods of the Study. To obtain objective data, the following methods were used: theoretical methods (analysis and generalization of literary sources and empirical data); sociological methods (written and oral survey); pedagogical methods (observation, experiment); methods of mathematical statistics (processing of experimental data and evaluation of their reliability). In order to identify the pedagogical conditions for improving the quality of physical training of cadetsartillery reconnaissance men, a survey of physical training specialists (n=31) was conducted. The pedagogical experiment was used to test the effectiveness of the author’s physical training program for artillery scouts using elements of orienteering. It was conducted for two years (2021-2023). To test the effectiveness of the author’s program, EG (n=32) and CG (n=29) were formed. Results. The results of the study proved that the main pedagogical conditions for improving the quality of physical training of cadets of artillery reconnaissance men are rational distribution of physical activity in all forms of physical training; proper planning of the time budget for physical training; availability of educational and material base for the development of physical qualities; high methodological skills of class leaders; high-quality organization of control over the process of physical training. Conclusions. The study found that the methodology for the development of special physical qualities of artillery specialists is highly effective, which can significantly improve the level of physical fitness of servicemen.

Diurnal Activity Patterns of Burchelli Zebra (Equus burchelli) in Captivity at Zoological Garden, Alipore, Kolkata, India

A study was conducted on the diurnal behavioural pattern and activity time budget of a captive female burchelli zebra (Equus burchelli) in the Zoological Garden, Alipore, West Bengal, India, from 10.00 to 17.00 h between October 2022 to June 2023including winter and summer seasons by using focal sampling method with 25,200 minutes of observations. Data were analyzed by assessing mean time spent percentage for different activities in different hours and different seasons. Differences in the seasonal and hourly time budget were tested using one-way ANOVA, followed by DMRT. Grazing was dominant with significantly (P<0.05; DMRT) maximum time spent, followed by standing, feeding of offered feed, resting and then locomotion during both the seasons. Between seasons, significantly higher (P<0.05; DMRT) grazing (32.72%±0.92), walking (7.58%±0.77) and sleeping (7.18%±0.24) behaviours were observed during summer, while the other activities during the winter. During summer, from 12:00-13:00 h, grazing was the lowest, while resting was most. During winter, resting was more in the 1st hour of observation. The zebra devoted 2.12% to 2.21% of their time towards vigilance behaviour which was with higher rate during winter. This individual-based behavioural study on captive zebra will be useful for taking a well comprehensive management plan to ensure its successful in-situ conservation as well as its welfare.

Population level behavioural responses to variation in habitat quality across multiple locations in a fragmented landscape

Population level behavioural responses to variation in habitat quality across multiple locations in a fragmented landscape

Physical Exercise as Leisure Activities in Youth's Lives

Despite the known benefits of physical activity, there is a worldwide trend towards less daily physical activity. According to the latest Eurobarometer, 63% of the population of our country never do physical exercises or sports, placing them at the bottom of the ranking of EU countries. The present study aims to identify the share of physical activities in the free time budget of young people. Thus, it is desired that, through a sociological investigation, to investigate whether young people in the Oltenia area actively spend their free time. Methods. The research was carried out between April and June 2022 and consisted of the development, transmission, and interpretation of the data of a questionnaire applied in the online system, on the google.doc platform. The questionnaire contained 15 items referring to the free time of young people, which were answered by 71 young people under conditions of anonymity. Results. Most respondents exercise occasionally in their free time, with the frequency of exercise positively correlating with the perception of physical appearance (r=0.45, p

CAMP: a hierarchical cache architecture for multi-core mixed criticality processors

CAMP proposes a hierarchical cache subsystem for multi-core mixed criticality processors, focusing on ensuring worst-case execution time (WCET) predictability in automotive applications. It incorporates criticality-aware locked L1 and L2 caches, reconfigurable at mode change intervals, along with criticality-aware last level cache partitioning. Evaluation using CACOSIM, Moola Multicore simulator, and CACTI simulation tools confirms the suitability of CAMP for keeping high-criticality jobs within timing budgets. A practical case study involving an automotive wake-up controller using the sniper v7.2 architecture simulator further validates its usability in real-world mixed criticality applications. CAMP presents a promising cache architecture for optimized multi-core mixed criticality systems.

BOOM-Explorer: RISC-V BOOM Microarchitecture Design Space Exploration

Microarchitecture parameters tuning is critical in the microprocessor design cycle. It is a non-trivial design space exploration (DSE) problem due to the large solution space, cycle-accurate simulators’ modeling inaccuracy, and high simulation runtime for performance evaluations. Previous methods require massive expert efforts to construct interpretable equations or high computing resource demands to train black-box prediction models. This article follows the black-box methods due to better solution qualities than analytical methods in general. We summarize two learned lessons and propose BOOM-Explorer accordingly. First, embedding microarchitecture domain knowledge in the DSE improves the solution quality. Second, BOOM-Explorer makes the microarchitecture DSE for register-transfer-level designs within the limited time budget feasible. We enhance BOOM-Explorer with the diversity-guidance, further improving the algorithm performance. Experimental results with RISC-V Berkeley-Out-of-Order Machine under 7-nm technology show that our proposed methodology achieves an average of 18.75% higher Pareto hypervolume, 35.47% less average distance to reference set, and 65.38% less overall running time compared to previous approaches.

Seasonal changes in herd size and time budget of springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) in southern Namibia

AbstractSpringbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) is an understudied species with a dearth of scientific work having been conducted, especially so for the Nama‐Karoo vegetation type, in southern Namibia. We studied variations in herd composition and time budget of springbok by direct observations during a dry and wet season in southern Namibia and found significant differences (p < 0.001) in mean herd size between the dry and wet seasons. Herd size decreased from early morning to late afternoon during the dry season (p = 0.037) but not the wet season (p = 0.362). Springbok spent more time browsing during the dry season compared to the wet season (p < 0.001) when they spent more time grazing (p < 0.001). However, there was no significant difference in the time springbok spent walking between the two seasons (p = 0.181). Other energy‐intensive activities such as grooming and running increased during the wet season (p < 0.001) due to favourable environmental conditions, breeding season and possibly an increase in parasite load.

Pushing MP2RAGE boundaries: Ultimate time-efficient parameterization combined with exhaustive T1 synthetic contrasts.

MP2RAGE parameter optimization is redefined to allow more time-efficient MR acquisitions, whereas the T1 -based synthetic imaging framework is used to obtain on-demand T1 -weighted contrasts. Our aim was to validate this concept on healthy volunteers and patients with multiple sclerosis, using plug-and-play parallel-transmission brain imaging at 7 T. A "time-efficient" MP2RAGE sequence was designed with optimized parameters including TI and TR set as small as possible. Extended phase graph formalism was used to set flip-angle values to maximize the gray-to-white-matter contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). Several synthetic contrasts (UNI, EDGE, FGATIR, FLAWSMIN , FLAWSHCO ) were generated online based on the acquired T1 maps. Experimental validation was performed on 4 healthy volunteers at various spatial resolutions. Clinical applicability was evaluated on 6 patients with multiple sclerosis, scanned with both time-efficient and conventional MP2RAGE parameterizations. The proposed time-efficient MP2RAGE protocols reduced acquisition time by 40%, 30%, and 19% for brain imaging at (1 mm)3 , (0.80 mm)3 and (0.65 mm)3 , respectively, when compared with conventional parameterizations. They also provided all synthetic contrasts and comparable contrast-to-noise ratio on UNI images. The flexibility in parameter selection allowed us to obtain a whole-brain (0.45 mm)3 acquisition in 19 min 56 s. On patients with multiple sclerosis, a (0.67 mm)3 time-efficient acquisition enhanced cortical lesion visualization compared with a conventional (0.80 mm)3 protocol, while decreasing the scan time by 15%. The proposed optimization, associated with T1 -based synthetic contrasts, enabled substantial decrease of the acquisition time or higher spatial resolution scans for a given time budget, while generating all typical brain contrasts derived from MP2RAGE.

Geometric zoning and selective routing for surveillance and coverage operations

Taking fast action, and effectively utilizing the available resources, are important when conducting time-critical surveillance missions. In addition, the potential complexity of the search, such as the ruggedness of the terrain or large size of the search region, should be considered. Such issues can be tackled by using a heterogeneous fleet of manned and unmanned vehicles equipped with different sensors by considering speed, coverage and flexibility. This article centres on designing a fast solution approach for planning coverage missions through zoning and routing. The challenge is to cover an area where targets can be potentially found with a variable likelihood. The search area is modelled using a scoring map to support the choice of search in sub-areas, where the scores represent the importance of tasks. Heuristic approaches are proposed to automate search processes and plan missions, given a small time budget.

The effects of situational and dispositional factors on audit quality threatening behaviour: exploring the moderating influence of religiosity

PurposeUsing attribution theory, this study examined the effects of situational factors [time budget pressure (TBP), organisational ethical culture (OEC) and quality control procedures (QCPs)] and dispositional factors [auditor professional commitment (APC) and internal locus of control (ILOC)] on audit quality threatening behaviour (AQTB). In addition, it observed the moderating role of religiosity in the relationship between situational and dispositional factors and AQTB.Design/methodology/approachA total of 189 external auditors responded to the survey questionnaire. This study employed structural equation modelling via SmartPLS to analyse the proposed model.FindingsThe results documented that the OEC and QCPs situational factors were negatively related to the incidence of AQTB, whilst TBP was positively linked to the incidence of AQTB. Dispositional factors APC and ILOC were negatively connected to AQTB. Furthermore, the findings recorded the moderating effect of religiosity on most of the situational and dispositional factors related to AQTB.Practical implicationsRegulators and accounting firms' efforts to promote high audit quality (AQ) may consider the theological/religious lens and reinforce ethical culture and quality control to reduce AQTB.Originality/valueThe findings provide further insights into situational and dispositional factors that may cause or impede the incidence of AQTB in auditing practices, as well as the moderating role of religiosity in curbing AQTB.

Activity budget of a group of black-horned capuchin monkeys (Sapajus nigritus) in an urban environment

Urban growth and human impacts on the environment have forced animals to adjust to habitat fragmentation and reduced home ranges. Capuchin monkeys are known for their great social and behavioral flexibility, occupying even highly urbanized environments in a way that the time budget of this primate in synanthropic situation may be affected by the area they inhabit. This study aims to analyze the activity budget of a group of Sapajus nigritus living in an anthropized area, 1) comparing the behavioral frequencies in urbanized areas and forest fragments; 2) comparing behavioral frequencies in different sex-age classes. During the study, the number of individuals ranged from 35 to 40 individuals identified based on sex-age classes. Behavioral data were collected using the instantaneous scan sampling method, for two minutes with eight-minute intervals. We obtained 319 scans over 28 days, distributed between November 2021 and June 2022, with eight hours per day. We compared the behaviors different areas and between sex-age classes using the Kruskal-Wallis’s test. Overall, the group performed a higher frequency of traveling (21.22%), followed by foraging (18.07%), feeding (16.57%) and vigilance (15.61%). The frequency of behaviors varied between areas, with vigilance, social, resting, interaction with humans and self-activity more frequent in urbanized areas compared to forest fragments. We also found variation between the sex-age classes, primarily with juveniles foraging more and adults performing more vigilance. The differences in the behaviors performed by the group express the behavioral flexibility of S. nigritus, adapting its activity pattern according to the area occupied.

A test amplification bot for Pharo/Smalltalk

Test amplification exploits the knowledge embedded in an existing test suite to strengthen it. A typical test amplification technique transforms the initial tests into additional test methods that increase the mutation coverage. Although past research demonstrated the benefits, additional steps need to be taken to incorporate test amplifiers in the everyday workflow of developers. This paper describes a proof-of-concept bot integrating Small-Amp with GitHub-Actions. The bot decides for itself which tests to amplify and does so within a limited time budget. To integrate the bot into the GitHub-Actions workflow, we incorporate three special-purpose features: (i) prioritization (to fit the process within a given time budget), (ii) sharding (to split lengthy tests into smaller chunks), and (iii) sandboxing (to make the amplifier crash-resilient). We evaluate our approach by installing the proof-of-concept extension of Small-Amp on five open-source projects deployed on GitHub. Our results show that a test amplification bot is feasible at a project level by integrating it into the build system. Moreover, we quantify the impact of prioritization, sharding, and sandboxing so that other test amplifiers may benefit from these special-purpose features. Our proof-of-concept demonstrates that the entry barrier for adopting test amplification can be significantly lowered.

AutoMLBench: A comprehensive experimental evaluation of automated machine learning frameworks

With the booming demand for machine learning applications, it has been recognized that the number of knowledgeable data scientists cannot scale with the growing data volumes and application needs in our digital world. In response to this demand, several automated machine learning (AutoML) frameworks have been developed to fill the gap of human expertise by automating the process of building machine learning pipelines. Each framework comes with different heuristics-based design decisions. In this study, we present a comprehensive evaluation and comparison of the performance characteristics of six popular AutoML frameworks, namely, AutoWeka, AutoSKlearn, TPOT, Recipe, ATM and SmartML across 100 data sets from established AutoML benchmark suites. Our experimental evaluation considers different aspects for its comparison, including the performance impact of several design decisions, including time budget, size of search space, meta-learning, and ensemble construction. The results of our study reveal various interesting insights that can significantly guide and impact the design of AutoML frameworks.

Anthropogenic noise predicts sea turtle behavioural responses

Anthropogenic noise is a pollutant of global concern. While the effects of underwater noise pollution have been frequently studied in fish and mammals, our understanding of how this anthropogenic stressor affects marine reptiles is scant. Using a multichannel data logger equipped with a camera and hydrophone, we quantified behavioural responses of a free-ranging green turtle (Chelonia mydas) to vessel noise in the Galapagos Archipelago, an important nesting site in the eastern Pacific. We found that while travelling the turtle increased its vigilance with increasing vessel noise. However, when on the seabed the turtle did not increase its vigilance with increasing noise levels. Our findings illustrate that noise pollution has the potential to alter overall time budgets of animals. Identifying real-time responses of wild animals illustrate how in situ approaches allow to assess the effects of human activities on marine systems.

Religusitas Memoderasi Pengaruh Karakteristik Internal dan Eksternal Perilaku Dysfunctional Audit di Kantor Akuntan Publik

The aim of this research is to analyze the role of religiosity in moderating internal locus of control, professional commitment, and time budget pressure on the dysfunctional behavior of auditors at the Bali Province Public Accounting Firm. Data collection was carried out using a questionnaire. The number of samples used was 57 auditors with a saturated sampling method. The data analysis technique in this research uses the PLS-SEM approach with the help of SmartPLS version 4. Based on the results of hypothesis testing, it was found that internal locus of control and professional commitment had a negative influence on dysfunctional audit behavior. Meanwhile, time budget pressure has a positive effect on dysfunctional audit behavior. The results of the moderation effect test show that religiosity is able to strengthen the influence of professional commitment on dysfunctional audit behavior. However, internal locus of control and time budget pressure are unable to moderate the influence of dysfunctional audit behavior.
 Keywords: internal locus of control; professional commitment; time budget pressure; religiousity; dysfunctional audit behavior

Pengaruh Love Of Money, Religiusitas, dan Time Budget Pressure terhadap Persepsi Etis Auditor

Ethics is still a polemic in the world of auditors, especially with the increasing number of ethical cases involving auditors. Many factors can compromise an auditor's ethical perception. This research was conducted to empirically test the influence of love of money and religiosity on auditors, as well as time budget pressure during audit assignments on auditors' ethical perceptions. This research took the population and a sample of 31 respondents in the form of auditors working at Public Accounting Firms in DKI Jakarta using the questionnaire method as the data collection method. In this research, the data analysis technique used is multiple linear regression analysis via SPSS. This research provides results that the love of money variable has a positive influence on auditors' ethical perceptions. These results explain that the higher the love of money an auditor has, the more it will influence the auditor's ethics. The religiosity variable in this study has a positive effect on auditors' ethical perceptions, where these results show that the higher the auditor's level of religiosity, the more ethical the auditor will behave in carrying out his work. The research results for the time budget pressure variable explain that time budget pressure has no influence on auditors' ethical perceptions. These results indicate that pressure on the time budget during an audit engagement does not affect the auditor's ethical behavior in his work. Even though auditors have a limited time budget, they can carry out their work in audit engagements in accordance with a professional code of ethics honestly and with integrity.

Space–time prism and accessibility incorporating monetary budget and mobility-as-a-service

Recent years in time geography have witnessed a flourishment of space–time prism (STP) modeling extensions for enhancing realism. However, there is little research on the incorporation of monetary budget in STP models to capture personal potential mobility space more realistically. This study considers both time and monetary budget constraints in STP modeling in a multimodal supernetwork integrating mobility-as-a-service and trip chains. We develop an efficient two-stage bi-criterion bidirectional search method to identify Pareto path sets to construct the resulting STP for conducting a flexible activity between two anchor nodes. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model and solution method, a case study with varying scenarios is conducted to evaluate the impacts of monetary budget on space–time accessibility and equality. The findings show that the ignorance of monetary budget overestimates accessibility and that MaaS, if not well designed, may not improve equality in accessibility as intended.

Priorities of Small Business Management

The economic stabilization of a country in a market economytransition period significantly depends on the society's stability.Small businesses are the basis of today's Georgian economics,but because of unsuitable management, advantagesof this form of business organization are not completely realized.Mostly small entrepreneur structures are handled bytheir owners, but it is not always advisable. Mainly nonhierarchicalsmall business management structures do not giverise to formal relations, what not existence of suitable managingstyle stipulates inadequate organization behavior, butunorganized management becomes primitive. It is often thereason small business entrepreneurs fail. So, suitable managementfor small business is as necessary as initial capital,tangible assets and other factors of development. Because ofsmall business managements, un-development increased followingnegative events: diversification policy directingbecomes harder because of little opportunities to overcomethe difficulties of entering and leaving from one sector toanother, effective inventions attraction opportunities arereduced while groundless business-strategy conditions;bankrupt risk is large because of uncompetitive managerialdecisions; the quality of using business consulting is low andit is often used not to make optimal decisions but to documentingalready made decisions; business educations systemin Georgia can't satisfy the requirements of small business,because neither entrepreneurs have exact formulateddemand on managerial education, nor is the active staffersre-training system market adequate. It's clear that solving theaforesaid problems is impossible without concerning consensusachievement of stakeholders and strong will. Most managersand entrepreneurs pay less attention to strategicapproaches while managing small business structures.Managers of small structures are required to be flexiblethinkers and dynamic actors in the marketplace, while estimatingstrategic alternatives for elaborating the most preferablestrategy by observation of the environment without complexresearch. They provide SWOT analyze, estimate competitiveness,foresee opportunities of outsourcing, analyze valuechains, plan business operations and project organizationprocess and etc. All of this requires a special style of management,one which must provide small business advantagessuch as: high maneuvering, flexibility, effective informational-communicative connection, entrepreneur - innovativepotential and other. Time budgeting by a manager mustinclude equal expenses for work planning-organizing andcontrol, also motivation and support for employees.

Time budget of common cranes (Grus grus) varies between habitats: implications for management

Common cranes (Grus grus) of the growing population in Finland form flocks on cultivated fields to forage in the autumn after the breeding season, in preparation for a successful migration. However, human-crane conflicts can arise when cranes cause crop damage, and for management purposes, it is important to prevent such conflicts. To minimize crop losses, one strategy is the creation of artificial feeding fields in high-use areas. Our study area, Söderfjärden, Ostrobothnia, on the west coast of Finland, is the most important staging area for cranes in the country. We compared the time allocation in the most attractive habitats in this area, investigated the changes in flock size during the day, and considered the management implications. Cranes used the two top-rated habitats (barley fields and grasslands) for clearly different purposes: barley fields for feeding and grasslands for resting. Flock size increased from the early morning until the evening when cranes dispersed from the area to roost. This could be a result of a trade-off between food intake and risk-sensitive behaviour and predator avoidance, although at present the predation risk in the area is low. This study highlights the importance to make artificial feeding habitats to fulfil various needs of cranes while minimizing crop loss and potential conflicts with humans. Keywords: common crane, Gruidae, conservation, foraging, habitat selection, vigilance

PSXI-8 Comparison of Spectral and Motion Sensing for Grazing Behavior Determination in Extensive Systems

Abstract There is a need to classify eating behaviors of grazing animals to better understand time budgets and intake levels of extensively managed livestock. The objective of this work was to compare spectral and motion-based sensing for classification of animal grazing versus standing behaviors within extensive production systems. The sensor was an open-source setup with a TTGO-T-Beam microprocessor (Shenzhen Xin Yuan Electronic Technology Co, China), soldered with an AS7265x Spectral Triad (SparkFun Electronics, Niwot, CO) and generic 9 degree of freedom inertial motion unit. The sensors were attached to a mesh face mask and placed on 5 horses for 10 minutes of data collection. Within the data collection period, animals were allowed to graze for 5 minutes, and required to stand for 5 minutes. The order of grazing and standing was randomized among animals. Data were collected by the microprocessor at 100 hertz and averaged over a 20 second period. Average data were transmitted via long range radio (LoRa) to a base station. Data were matched by timestamp to ground truth observations of animal standing vs grazing behaviors. A random forest algorithm was used to explore predicting animal grazing versus standing behaviors based on motion data (average pitch, yaw, and roll of animals over the experimental period) individually, based on the top features selected from the spectral data individually, or based on all collected data together. The model using the motion data only returned an out of bag estimated error rate of 26.5%. The model using the top features selected from the spectral data yielded a much lower out of bag estimated error rate (8.82%), which was not improved by leveraging all data together. By comparing the spectral data with GPS coordinates attached to each observation, we were able to clearly distinguish the spatial area used for grazing compared with that used for standing. One potential impact of this preliminary exploration is in low-cost, low-power, more precise behavioral classification for grazing livestock. Because the spectral sensed data generated more reliable ability to distinguish grazing and standing behaviors, we may be able to rely on lower frequency observations, or lower data acquisition rates to achieve acceptable classification accuracies. Similarly, given the success of NIR in analyzing feed composition values, there is likelihood that spectral sensing could be used not only to identify grazing, but to character forage quality grazed.