Parameter transfer of common-metric attributes in choice analysis: implications for willingness to pay

There is a growing literature that promotes the presence of a mix of compensatory and semi-compensatory processing strategies in the way that individuals evaluate packages of attributes in real or hypothetical markets, and make choices. This paper proposes a specification for the utility form in a choice model to test if, given a pair of attributes with a common-metric (e.g., components of travel time or cost), the attribute with the dominating level defines the marginal (dis)utility that is assigned to both attributes. We refer to this processing strategy as a parameter transfer rule. We use a stated choice data set, in the context of car driving individuals choosing between tolled and non-tolled routes, to estimate a mixed logit model which incorporates the presence of the parameter transfer rule and the conventional fully compensatory rule, both existing up to a probability. We find that if this parameter transfer heuristic is part of the mix, the WTP is more than 30% higher, on average, than when only a fully compensatory rule is imposed. We also contrast the parameter transfer rule with other semi-compensatory heuristics which have been investigated in other papers, and show that the finding adds further support to the accumulating evidence that a semi-compensatory attribute processing rules tend to result in higher mean WTP estimates compared to the fully compensatory attribute processing rule.     

Equilibria of bilateral taxi–customer searching and meeting on networks

This paper proposes an equilibrium model to characterize the bilateral searching and meeting between customers and taxis on road networks. A taxi driver searches or waits for a customer by considering both the expected searching or waiting time cost and ride revenue, and a customer seeks a taxi ride to minimize full trip price. We suppose that the bilateral taxi–customer searching and meeting occurs anywhere in residential and commercial zones or at prescribed taxi stands, such as an airport or a railway station. We propose a meeting function to spell out the search and meeting frictions that arise endogenously as a result of the distinct spatial feature of the area and the taxi–customer moving decisions. With the proposed meeting function and the assumptions underlying taxi–customer search behaviors, the stationary competitive equilibrium achieved at fixed fare prices is determined when the demand of the customers matches the supply of taxis or there is market clearing at the prevailing searching and waiting times in every meeting location. We establish the existence of such an equilibrium by virtue of Brouwer’s fixed-point theorem and demonstrate its principal operational characteristics with a numerical example.     

汽车安全气囊点火算法综述

目前安全气囊已在汽车上得到普遍应用,但其点火算法却没有统一的设计标准。详细论述了设计安全气囊点火算法的理论依据,包括乘员损伤准则、气囊点火条件和点火时刻确定法则。介绍了几种传统的安全气囊点火算法,并对其优缺点进行了对比。着重阐述了几种智能安全气囊点火算法的研究成果和发展前景,指出了安全气囊点火算法未来的发展方向。     

海底埋设管线平管起吊运动分析

基于有限元软件OrcaFlex,充分考虑不规则波浪、海流、管土相互作用以及船舶管线耦合运动,建立海底埋设管线平管起吊模型。参考DNV-RP-F110计算埋深管道受到的土壤阻力,依据DNV-RP-C205确定相关水动力系数。通过数值模拟研究分析管线在平管起吊过程中管道的运动响应以及吊绳张力的时间历程变化,为实际海底管线平管起吊提供一定理论参考。     

Automatic semantic analysis of software requirements through machine learning and ontology approach

Nowadays, software requirements are still mainly analyzed manually, which has many drawbacks (such as a large amount of labor consumption, inefficiency, and even inaccuracy of the results). The problems are even worse in domain analysis scenarios because a large number of requirements from many users need to be analyzed. In this sense, automatic analysis of software requirements can bring benefits to software companies. For this purpose, we proposed an approach to automatically analyze software requirement specifications (SRSs) and extract the semantic information. In this approach, a machine learning and ontology based semantic role labeling (SRL) method was used. First of all, some common verbs were calculated from SRS documents in the E-commerce domain, and then semantic frames were designed for those verbs. Based on the frames, sentences from SRSs were selected and labeled manually, and the labeled sentences were used as training examples in the machine learning stage. Besides the training examples labeled with semantic roles, external ontology knowledge was used to relieve the data sparsity problem and obtain reliable results. Based on the SemCor and WordNet corpus, the senses of nouns and verbs were identified in a sequential manner through the K-nearest neighbor approach. Then the senses of the verbs were used to identify the frame types. After that, we trained the SRL labeling classifier with the maximum entropy method, in which we added some new features based on word sense, such as the hypernyms and hyponyms of the word senses in the ontology. Experimental results show that this new approach for automatic functional requirements analysis is effective.     

Discretionary activity location choice: in-home or out-of-home?

This paper examines the location choice associated with discretionary activities (in-home vs. out-of-home). These substitution patterns are important in terms of travel demand as in-home activities do not necessitate travel while out-of-home activities incur travel. Mixed logit models are estimated using an activity dataset (2003 CHASE data) to analyze the factors associated with this choice at the individual activity-level. Results suggest that the attributes of an activity significantly contribute to understanding the likelihood of engaging in out-of-home activities. Activity type interaction terms reveal the varying influence that socio-demographics, activity attributes and travel have over four different activity types modeled. The results reveal that the location choice (in-home vs. out-of-home) is sensitive to travel characteristics. As the travel time and cost increases, an individual is less likely to engage in an activity out-of-home. Compared to passive and social activities, the location of active activities is more sensitive to changes in travel attributes.     

Uncertainty analysis of value for money assessment for public-private partnership projects

In recent years, private sectors are encouraged to take an active part in franchising of urban infrastructure investments and operations, which promotes the rapid development of public-private partnership (PPP) in infrastructure and public service supply. Value for money (VFM) assessment has been officially proposed to provide a reference for selection of projects planning to adopt PPP. Based on the bottlenecks of VFM application in China and the uncertainties for urban infrastructure PPP projects, a discounted cash flow (DCF) model is established for VFM of infrastructure PPP projects. Then, a Monte Carlo simulation model is established on the basis of uncertainty factors for VFM. Through the analysis of Huai’an trams PPP project, coping strategies of uncertainties for VFM are put forward. Findings of the research may propel the establishment of a complete VFM evaluation system for PPP projects. Key instructional functions of VFM during the process of decision-making can be brought into full play and PPP may develop orderly.     

钢夹层板数值模拟技术(英文)

Sandwich plate systems (SPS) are advanced materials that have begun to receive extensive attention in naval architecture and ocean engineering. At present, according to the rules of classification societies, a mixture of shell and solid elements are required to simulate an SPS. Based on the principle of stiffness decomposition, a new numerical simulation method for shell elements was proposed. In accordance with the principle of stiffness decomposition, the total stiffness can be decomposed into the bending stiffness and shear stiffness. Displacement and stress response related to bending stiffness was calculated with the laminated shell element. Displacement and stress response due to shear was calculated by use of a computational code write by FORTRAN language. Then the total displacement and stress response for the SPS was obtained by adding together these two parts of total displacement and stress. Finally, a rectangular SPS plate and a double-bottom structure were used for a simulation. The results show that the deflection simulated by the elements proposed in the paper is larger than the same simulated by solid elements and the analytical solution according to Hoff theory and approximate to the same simulated by the mixture of shell-solid elements, and the stress simulated by the elements proposed in the paper is approximate to the other simulating methods. So compared with calculations based on a mixture of shell and solid elements, the numerical simulation method given in the paper is more efficient and easier to do.     

Study on launch dynamics of the tank marching fire

As an army main battle equipment, it is required that the tank should have high firing accuracy and high first round hit probability during marching. The initial disturbance of the projectile is the premier factor that takes effect on the marching fire accuracy of the tank. And the marching fire accuracy of the tank depends on the launch dynamics behaviors of the tank. In this paper, the launch dynamics theory of a tank marching fire is studied, and its launch dynamics model is established. Based on the transfer matrix method for multibody system(MSTMM) and the automatic deduction theorem of overall transfer equations, the overall transfer equation and the overall transfer matrix of a tank multibody system are deduced; the launch dynamics equations of the tank marching fire are deduced, and the dynamic response of the tank system, the motion of projectile in barrel, the initial disturbance of the projectile and the vertical target dispersion are exactly simulated; meanwhile, the results of simulation are verified by tests. This work provides both theoretical foundation and simulation approaches for improving the marching fire accuracy of the tank.     

Fusion of remote sensing images based on nonsubsampled contourlet transform and region segmentation

The purpose of remote sensing images fusion is to produce a fused image that contains more clear, accurate and comprehensive information than any single image. A novel fusion method is proposed in this paper based on nonsubsampled contourlet transform (NSCT) and region segmentation. Firstly, the multispectral image is transformed to intensity-hue-saturation (IHS) system. Secondly, the panchromatic image and the component intensity of the multispectral image are decomposed by NSCT. Then the NSCT coefficients of high and low frequency subbands are fused by different rules, respectively. For the high frequency subbands, the fusion rules are also unalike in the smooth and edge regions. The two regions are segregated in the panchromatic image, and the segmentation is based on particle swarm optimization. Finally, the fusion image can be obtained by performing inverse NSCT and inverse IHS transform. The experimental results are evaluated by both subjective and objective criteria. It is shown that the proposed method can obtain superior results to others.