Mining Google and Apple mobility data: temporal anatomy for COVID-19 social distancing

We employ the Google and Apple mobility data to identify, quantify and classify different degrees of social distancing and characterise their imprint on the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe and in the United States. We identify the period of enacted social distancing via Google and Apple data, independently from the political decisions. Our analysis allows us to classify different shades of social distancing measures for the first wave of the pandemic. We observe a strong decrease in the infection rate occurring two to five weeks after the onset of mobility reduction. A universal time scale emerges, after which social distancing shows its impact. We further provide an actual measure of the impact of social distancing for each region, showing that the effect amounts to a reduction by 20–40% in the infection rate in Europe and 30–70% in the US.

The role of temporal focus and self-congruence on consumer preference and willingness to pay

Purpose The study aims to investigate the psychological mechanism that motivates consumers to pay more for a preferred brand that reflects their actual or ideal self-concept, by examining the shift in attention between consumer’s present, future, and past moments. Design/methodology/approach First, in a survey setting, the study identifies the relationship between temporal focus and self-congruence. Subsequently, we conduct three experiments to capture the effects of temporal focus on brand preference and willingness to pay (WTP). In these experiments, we manipulate consumers’ self-congruence and temporal focus. Findings The findings show that consumers with a present focus (distant future and distant past foci) tend to evaluate a brand more preferably when the brand serves to reflect their actual (ideal) selves. However, in the absence of present focus consumers’ WTP is more for a brand that reflects their ideal selves. Research limitations/implications The study does not have an actual measure on consumers’ WTP; instead we use single-item measure. Practical implications This study sheds new light on branding strategy. The results suggest that authentic and aspirational branding strategies are relevant to publicly consumed products. Brand managers could incorporate consumers’ temporal focus into branding strategy that could significantly influence consumer preference and WTP for their brands. Originality/value This study expands our understanding of brand usage imagery congruity by showing that temporal focus is an important determinant of self-congruence. In this regard, this study empirically investigates the relationship of temporal focus, self-congruence, brand preference, and WTP. It further reveals that mere brand preference does not necessarily lead consumers to pay more for symbolic brands.

Exploration on the Relationships Based on the Offset Overprint Trapping between the Optical Density and Color Ink Film Thickness

The research finds out some existing certain regularity, and further revises the formula D=D∞(1-e-ml). The formula means the relationship between ink thickness and ink in density. By using the formal of one-color ink thickness and ink density, the second density that correspond the first major density is transferred to the equal thickness. Then they are added together. According to the formula the real ink density is calculate. Then use the above formula to work out ink thickness. In this way, overprint densities come out, and make contrast with the actual measure data, so the new model formula is built up. The result shows that the average error between the overprint density calculated by ink thickness and the actual measure data is about 0.07. However, the average error between the calculated density using the simple adding method and the actual measure data is about 0.5, so this method is practical and more accurate.

Characteristics Simulation of Ultra-High Frequency Electromagnetic Wave Excited by Equivalent Partical Discharge Mathematical Model in GIS

UHF electromagnetic waves radiated by PD in GIS can range from several hundreds of MHz to several GHz. FDTD method is usually used to simulate the characteristics of the UHF electromagnetic waves. Compared with the traditional ideal Gaussian pulses in simulation, one equivalent PD mathematical model based on the actual measure PD sources was considered to simulate the propagation characteristics. Time domain and frequency domain spectrum of signals excited by the two PD sources were studied to analyze the propagation characteristics. It can draw the conclusions that each insulator detect leads to each electromagnetic and its time domain and frequency domain spectrum. So it is recommended to use equivalent PD mathematical model to simulator the propagation characteristics.

Low-Cycle Fatigue Crack Growth in Ti-6242 at Elevated Temperature

During low-cycle fatigue test with smooth bars the number of cycles to initiation is commonly defined from a measured relative drop in aximum load. This criterion cannot be directly related to the actual measure of interest - the crack length. By relating data from controlled crack growth tests under low-cycle fatigue conditions of a high strength Titanium alloy at 350°C and numerical simulation of these tests, it is shown that it is possible to determine the relationship between load drop and crack length, provided that care is taken to consider all relevant aspects of the materials stress-strain response.

Study on the Relationships between the Optical Printing Density Based on the Offset Overprint Trapping and Ink Film Thickness

The research finds out some existing certain regularity, and further revises the formula D=D(1-e-ml). The formula means the relationship between ink thickness and ink in density. By using the formal of one-color ink thickness and ink density, the second density that correspond the first major density is transferred to the equal thickness. Then they are added together. According to the formula the real ink density is calculate. Then use the above formula to work out ink thickness. In this way, overprint densities come out, and make contrast with the actual measure data, so the new model formula is built up. The result shows that the average error between the overprint density calculated by ink thickness and the actual measure data is about 0.07. However, the average error between the calculated density using the simple adding method and the actual measure data is about 0.5, so this method is practical and more accurate.

Damage Detection of Bridge Structure Based on SVM

For bridge management and maintenance, it is important to detect the damage of bridge pier. Due to the complexity of damage detection, an effective method is very interesting. Support vector machine (SVM) is used to detect the damage of bridge pier in this paper. To improve the detection accuracy of SVM, Grubbs’ test method is adopted to delete the outliers for SVM. Then, a numerical analysis is used to determine the input parameters for SVM. Lastly, the comparison results between the proposed SVM and the actual measure value suggested that the proposed SVM is a powerful tool for detecting damage of bridge pier.

Study on the Relationships between the Optical Density and Ink Film Thickness Based on the Offset Overprint Trapping

The research finds out some existing certain regularity, and further revises the formula D=D∞(1-e-ml). The formula means the relationship between ink thickness and ink in density. By using the formal of one-color ink thickness and ink density, the second density that correspond the first major density is transferred to the equal thickness. Then they are added together. According to the formula the real ink density is calculate. Then use the above formula to work out ink thickness. In this way, overprint densities come out, and make contrast with the actual measure data, so the new model formula is built up. The result shows that the average error between the overprint density calculated by ink thickness and the actual measure data is about 0.07. However, the average error between the calculated density using the simple adding method and the actual measure data is about 0.5, so this method is practical and more accurate.

Analysis of Surface Deformation by Tunneling Excavation under Small Strain

In this paper, small strain model, being able to reflect the small strain characteristics of soil, was adopted to calculate and analyze surface deformation caused by shield tunnel construction. Under the single tunneling, the maximum surface settlement is generally just above the tunnel axis, and surface settlement is symmetric distribution on both sides of the tunnel axis, and decreases with the increase of the horizontal distance; the longitudinal surface settlement is "tilted S-shaped" curve, and tends to basically stabilize at a certain position behind the excavation face; The comprehensive comparison shows better consistency between the data from small strain model and those from actual measure, and then verifies the feasibility and effectiveness of the small strain model applied for surface deformation analysis caused by urban metro shield construction.

Research on SCS-CN in Lanhe Basin Distributed Rainfall Runoff Event

Based on the data from Basin hydrology, weather, runoff, land use, soil, DEM and with ARCGIS9.0 and WMS7.0 applications, SCS small basin hydrological model can be applied in Lanhe basin Distributed Hydrological Model. Within each sub-unit, net rainfall can be calculated with SCS-CN, and conflux using SCS dimensionless unit hydrograph, while river network flow concentration using subsection Muskingum method. By conducting the simulation of distributed rainfall runoff where measured runoff value are selected from 20 historical flood, the results indicate there are 14 values that are effective and the ratio comes to 70 percent. And there are 11 effective values after conflux test to the 14 floods where the ratio comes to 80 percent. The process of calculating runoff matches well with actual measure which indicates that the Distributed Hydrological Model is a scientific and precise model and can be applied to basin water flood forecast and water resource management.