Model-guided evaluation of consumer products

An evaluation of a consumer product is presented as an example of how ergonomics models can guide data collection and interpretation by non-ergonomists. The product, a new cooking pan, was compared with its earlier counterpart on performance and safety tests for specific features. Model-guided evaluations produced data which could be well-fitted by linear relationships, and measures derived from the data could be interpreted in physical terms by engineers. This is now the standard methodology for pan evaluation in the client company.     

虚拟企业伙伴选择中模糊因素的定量评估

针对虚拟企业伙伴选择时存在不一致区间判断的复杂评估问题,组建战略联盟决策群并确定着眼于候选伙伴实现机遇的互补竞争力评价指标体系,提出在层次分析法(AHP)框架下,运用有下限和上限的区间数表达候选伙伴之间不一致、不确定的比较比例,获得区间比较矩阵,引入模糊集的隶属度函数表示对选择方案的满意程度,构造模糊约束集合,利用线性规划方法求解具有最大满意程度的优先权矢量,计算出候选者的总体优先顺序.结果表明,该方法能够从可行域为空的不一致区间比较矩阵导出模糊优先权矢量.列举的虚拟企业伙伴选择实例验证了应用这个方法从模糊判断矩阵计算出确定的优先权重的有效性,这是其他方法难以做到的.     

ANN valuation model of material LCIA profile

Weighting model is the only valuation model of life cycle impact assessment(LCIA) profile now. It simplifies evaluation function into linear function, and makes the determination of weighting factor complicated. Therefore the valuation of LCIA profile is the most critical and controversial step in life cycle assessment(LCA). Development on valuation models, which are understood easily and accepted widely, is urgently needed in the field of LCA.The modeling approaches for the linear evaluation function were summed up. The modeling approaches for the nonlinear evaluation function were set up by function approximation theory, which include choosing preference products, forming preference data, establishing artificial neural network(ANN) and training ANN by preference data.By selecting 7 material products as preference product, experience was done with modeling approaches of the nonlinear evaluation function. The results show that the modeling approaches and valuation model of the nonlinear evaluation function are more practical than the weighting model.     

Developmental, Gustatory, and Behavioral Responses of Leafroller Larvae, Choristoneura rosaceana, to Tannic Acid and Glucose

Soluble sugars are essential nutrients generally perceived as phagostimulants to most insects studied. However, tannins are known as digestibility reducers, hence deleterious to caterpillar development, and as deterrents as well. Previous work demonstrated that larvae of the polyphagous oblique-banded leafroller, Choristoneura rosaceana, performed better when reared on a control + 0.5% tannic acid diet than on the standard control diet and that larvae reared on a control + 5% glucose diet had slower development and reduced survival. This study was designed to elucidate the behavioral and neurophysiological components of the larval responses to tannic acid and glucose. C. rosaceana larvae were reared individually from the first to the sixth instar on one of four different artificial diets: (1) control; (2) control + 5% glucose; (3) control + 0.5% tannic acid; (4) control + 5% glucose + 0.5% tannic acid. After 14 days, larvae reared on the control + 5% glucose diet had not developed past the fourth instar, whereas a considerable proportion of larvae reared on the control + 0.5% tannic acid diet had already attained the pupal stage. Insects reared on the control or the control + 5% glucose + 0.5% tannic acid diet had intermediate development, with most larvae in the fifth instar. In addition, once the mid-sixth instar was reached, the feeding preferences to 25 and 300 mM glucose, 25 mM tannic acid, and 25 mM glucose + 25 mM tannic acid over water were assessed in two-choice tests. Feeding affected preference. Control-reared insects preferred feeding on treatments containing glucose and were not deterred by tannic acid. However, larvae that had been exposed to tannic acid during their development were deterred by tannic acid and their glucose discrimination was impaired. The sensitivity to glucose was also examined from neurophysiological recordings by stimulating the sugar-sensitive cell (cell 1) on the lateral styloconic sensillum of the maxillary galea with increasing concentrations of glucose (1, 10, 25, 50, 100, 200, 300, and 500 mM). We also determined whether tannic acid was phagostimulatory, since insects develop relatively quickly on a diet containing this compound, by testing 1 mM tannic acid, 1 mM tannic acid + 300 mM glucose, and 300 mM glucose on the lateral styloconic sensilla. The traces indicated that 1 mM tannic acid was not detected by any of the four chemosensory cells in these sensilla. The combination of tannic acid and glucose produced no spikes from the sugar-sensitive cell, whereas a prominent spike activity resulted with 300 mM glucose. We concluded that, although C. rosaceana larvae develop faster on a tannic acid diet, this compound is not a phagostimulant. The converse is true for glucose; i.e., it stimulates the sugar-sensitive cell in the lateral styloconica in a concentration-dependent fashion. Previous dietary experience changes the sensory and behavioral responses of C. rosaceana to glucose. Our findings imply that not all compounds that are phagostimulatory are necessarily beneficial to an insect's fitness. Therefore, developmental studies should be interpreted in conjunction with behavioral and physiological data.     

A UNIFIED FRAMEWORK OF TARGETED MARKETING USING CUSTOMER PREFERENCES

One of the fundamental tasks of targeted marketing is to elicit associations between customers and products. Based on the results from information retrieval and utility theory, this article proposes a unified framework of targeted marketing. The customer judgments of products are formally described by preference relations and the connections of customers and products are quantitatively measured by market value functions. Two marketing strategies, known as the customer‐oriented and product‐oriented marketing strategies, are investigated. Four marketing models are introduced and examined. They represent, respectively, the relationships between a group of customers and a group of products, between a group of customers and a single product, between a single customer and a group of products, and between a single customer and a single product. Linear and bilinear market value functions are suggested and studied. The required parameters of a market value function can be estimated by exploring three types of information, namely, customer profiles, product profiles, and transaction data. Experiments on a real‐world data set are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.     

Exploring the Interactions of Storylines from Informative News Events

Today＇s news readers can be easily overwhelmed by the numerous news articles online. To cope with information overload, online news media publishes timelines for continuously developing news topics. However, the timeline summary does not show the relationship of storylines, and is not intuitive for readers to comprehend the development of a complex news topic. In this paper, we study a novel problem of exploring the interactions of storylines in a news topic. An interaction of two storylines is signified by informative news events that play a key role in both storylines. Storyline interactions can indicate key phases of a news topic, and reveal the latent connections among various aspects of the story. We address the coherence between news articles which is not considered in traditional similarity-based methods, and discover salient storyline interactions to form a clear, global picture of the news topic. User preference can be naturally integrated into our method to generate query-specific results. Comprehensive experiments on ten news topics show the effectiveness of our method over alternative approaches.     

基于乘法偏好关系的群一致性偏差熵多属性群决策方法研究

在多属性群决策中, 针对每一个属性下决策者都有一个关于决策方案的乘法偏好关系的决策问题, 提出一种基于乘法偏好关系的群一致性偏差熵多属性群决策方法. 此方法考虑到不同属性下的决策者具有不同的权重, 并通过迭代运算可以达到群一致性水平, 从而得出最终的不同属性下决策者的权重; 同时, 可以利用偏差熵模型来求解属性权重, 利用这两个权重最终获得一个综合各方意见的群一致性乘法偏好关系. 最后通过算例分析验证了所提出方法的有效性.     

一种基于案例的多准则排序方法

针对带有间接偏好信息的多准则决策问题, 首先利用加性效用函数理论提出一种排序方法, 该方法通过构建一个简单的优化模型, 得到与间接偏好信息相容的各评价值的效用; 然后, 利用线性插值方法计算出剩下方案各评价值的效用, 进而得到所有方案的综合效用及排序; 最后, 通过实例验证了该方法的有效性和可行性.

     

混合偏好模型下的分布式理性秘密共享方案

理性秘密共享方案通过扩展参与者的类型后具有更好的适应性,而现有方案中的共享秘密往往依赖于秘密分发者,但在某些特定环境中秘密分发者并不一定存在.通过对传统分布式秘密共享方案的分析,给出了分布式理性秘密共享方案的一般形式化描述;同时,考虑理性参与者的眼前利益和长远利益,提出一种新的理性参与者混合偏好模型;进一步结合机制设计理论的策略一致机制,设计了一个激励相容的信誉讨价还价机制,以此有效约束理性参与者的行为,从而实现了公平的(t,n)(t,n≥2)分布式理性秘密共享方案的构造;通过从信道类型、秘密分发者的在线/离线需求、方案的通用性和偏好模型等方面与目前相关理性秘密共享方案进行对比分析,进一步分析了所提出方案的优势.     

区间数信息下的多属性群决策研究

随着决策系统的不断扩大以及复杂化,评价指标以实数值描述稍显欠妥。研究属性权重为实数值、区间数信息下的多属性群决策问题,建立集结区间数信息的非线性规划模型,采用模拟植物生长算法集结各方案中多位专家给出的区间数偏好,并利用得到的偏好区间数构成群决策偏好矩阵。结合已知权重,引入投影理论得到各方案的综合评价值,从而选出最优决策方案。算例结果表明,模拟植物生长算法不仅计算简便、灵活,并且尊重每个专家的意见,较好地保留了信息的完整性,显示出人工智能算法在信息集结方面的有效性。