Time and cost securing in complex large-scale projects

Meeting time and cost objectives in complex projects involves specific problems and risks. An attempt is made to analyse the components of total cost increase of a project caused by time delay. An outline is given as to how these considerations can be used to estimate cost increases in investors' decision situations as well as to ascertain fair contractual penalties and claims for compensation and for the evaluation of justified project acceleration costs.     

Assessing the relative priority of projects

Where there are a large number of projects competing for a limited pool of resources, projects have to be assigned priorities to determine which should proceed and which should be curtailed. The traditional economic procedures for assessing the relative priority of projects are reviewed, and alternative methods of ranking projects are suggested, with particular emphasis on methods that are inexpensive and easy to use.     

基于动态联盟的一种身份信任计算模型

在动态联盟中,身份管理是确保信息安全的一种手段,但是随着联盟成员数日益增多,传统的身份管理难以妥善应对当前较为复杂的环境,尤其当成员之间无交互历史时,数据交换的可靠性无法保障。文中研究了不同计算环境中的多种信任管理方法,并把P2P的推荐评价机制应用到动态联盟的身份管理中,提出了一种基于推荐的身份信任管理的算法。在这种算法中,身份的信任值由多因素加权综合而成,其中推荐信任值在算法中起到关键的作用。该算法试图为解决复杂的动态联盟环境下的身份管理问题提供一种途径。     

Process control and risky decision-making: moderation by general mental ability and need for cognition

Human factors and ergonomics research could benefit from focusing more strongly on individual differences – especially trait variables. The present study suggests the analysis of moderator effects as a promising way to enhance understanding of trait variables and process control performance. Process control performance was studied by analysing moderator effects of general mental ability (GMA) and need for cognition (NC) on risky decision-making (RDM) and performance. Fifty engineering students were trained on a process control task using a computer-based simulation for three hours and tested twice thereafter. Risky decision-making was measured using a computerised gambling task while GMA and NC were assessed with questionnaires. Risky decision-making in interaction with each GMA and NC explained variance in performance over and above variance explained by the single effects. In conclusion, the analysis of moderator effects between individual difference variables and process control performance seems promising.

Practitioner Summary: Individual difference variables affect learning and performance, but have often not been studied to any great extent in human factors research. This article suggests a promising approach to studying individual differences – moderator analyses – and illustrates how such differences can lead to a better understanding of what determines process control performance.     

Development and evaluation of the Air Travel Stress Scale.

Despite anecdotal evidence suggesting that air travel is personally demanding, little research has examined air travel stress. To address these issues, the author developed and evaluated the 1st known measure of air travel stress--the Air Travel Stress Scale--in 3 studies. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis indicated 3 components: (a) anxious reactions to adverse air travel events, (b) angry reactions to other passengers as well as an antecedent of air travel stress, and (c) the lack of trust that the airlines/airports will ensure one's comfort and safety. Each component had good internal reliability and test-retest reliability over a 6- to 7-week interval. Each component showed evidence for discriminant and convergent validity. Implications for research into understanding and intervening on air travel stress are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

简论产品定价法

随着社会主义的不断完善，在企业的经营决策中，产品的价格确定是一个十分重要的内容．售价决策正确与否，直接关系到企业经济效益的好坏．本文对产品定价的方法作一探讨，试图找到一种对企业来说比较实用的方法．     

Agent-Mediated Electronic Commerce

Electronic commerce has been one of the traditional arenas for agent technology. The complexity of these applications has been a challenge for researchers that have developed methodologies, products, and systems, having in mind the specificities of trade, the interaction particularities of commerce, the strict notion of commitment and contract, and the clearly shaped conventions and norms that structure the field. In this paper I survey some key areas for agent technology which, although general, are of special importance in electronic commerce, namely, solid development methodologies, negotiation technologies and trust-building mechanisms. I give examples of systems in which I have directly participated, although I also try to refer to the work of other AgentLink Special Interest Group members over the last few years.     

A model to support the search for consensus with conflicting rankings: Multitrident

A general problem of collective decision‐making can be formulated in terms of the N rankings of a discrete set of alternatives expressing the preferences of the N members of the group. Helping to reach a consensus is quite important for team building and organizational development and several contributions were developed by different disciplines like organizational sciences, human resources management and operational research. However, very few models were proposed to support the process of reaching consensus and such models assume a concept of distance between rankings implying an assumption of equal distance between adjacent alternatives. Unfortunately, this hypothesis is hardly acceptable in most cases. In this paper, a model is proposed to search for a ranking in terms of the weights space avoiding the previous assumption and providing useful insights to help decision‐makers adopting such ranking as a consensus decision.     

Review of Evolution, culture and the human mind.

Reviews the book, Evolution, culture and the human mind edited by M. Schaller, et al. (see record 2009-20004-000). This current volume, Evolution, culture and the human mind, follows the lead of Wundt where an attempt is made to provide a synthesis of theory and data across psychological subfields into a holistic framework. Norenzayan, Schaller, and Heine begin the volume with an overview of the scope and themes that arose from their 2004 conference at the University of British Columbia on “Mind, Culture and Evolution.” Explicit throughout this volume is an effort to bridge the “yawning chasm” between perspectives of evolutionary determinism and cultural constructionism. In doing so, there is interest in providing a rigorous multidisciplinary scientific effort to solve this foundational problem for psychology. As such this volume provides an interesting and insightful examination of the evolution of consciousness, cognition, decision-making, actions, and cultural norms in terms of collective consequences and genetic mechanisms. The volume is divided into three sections where several dialectical themes (theory/data, top-down/bottom-up, ecological/social, diversification/integration) are woven throughout. Overall the volume offers nice flow from one collection of essays to the next as themes are picked up and let go, only to return later on. This volume shows a dominance of natural science (cross-cultural) inclinations where some readers may call for more voice given to phenomenological and hermeneutical (cultural) human science contributions. Other critics may challenge the reliance upon correlational, comparative, and post hoc data to bolster claims of causality in support of various theoretical suppositions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Synthesis of Relationship between Trust and Knowledge Transfer-in the View of Organization Cooperation

Based on the organization cooperation, from the perspective of variable correlation and variable proper ties, this paper describes the research result on relationship between trust and knowledge transfer, in which the elements correlation research is broken down relationship between trust and knowledge transfer, correlation of trust, knowledge transfer and performance relationship, and the interrelationships of trust, knowledge transfer and multiple factors. For trust perspective. There are two structural dimensions of trust： antecedents and media ting variables. Combining the literature at home and abroad in recent years, the existing research results are summed ul and the future research directions are nronosed.