从过程价值的角度出发对集成的客户方案进行定价

Integrating products and services to customized solutions can help firms to differentiate from their competitors. In practice, however, various companies fall short in extracting value from their customers. Therefore this paper focuses on pricing aspects as central means for value appropriation in the context of solutions. Following the resource-based view of the firm, we adopt a process-oriented perspective on pricing practices in order to identify crucial factors and activities. Based on 15 in-depth interviews with practitioners from various industries we derive six steps of a price management process for value appropriation in the context of solution selling and present critical activities and routines within each step.     

Fuzzy axiomatic design extension for managing model selection paradigm in decision science

The model selection paradigm is one of the focused themes within decision science. This paper addresses the consistent solution of model selection issue on the basis of the fuzzy axiomatic design (FAD) methodology. Moreover, the developed FAD–based model selection interface (FAD–MSI) is performed over the critical ship management processes in order to assign suitable (multiple criteria decision-making) MCDM techniques even if commonly utilized hybrid approaches. The outcomes of this study encourage the maritime practitioners for the further researches towards analytical modelling of ship management processes.     

Perspectives on the 21st Century Urban University from Singapore – A viewpoint forum

In this Cities viewpoint forum, we argue that there is a need to rethink U.S./U.K.-centric approaches to the urban university in policy and practice. Gathering three critical commentaries by practitioners from within the Singaporean higher education system, the forum responds to the challenges of: (1) broadened expectation placed on higher education institutions; (2) the pressures and possibilities of global urbanization; and (3) the provocation to theorize the urban, and thus the urban university, from beyond the ‘Global North’. Following an introduction detailing the history and relevance of the Singaporean case, the three viewpoints seek to illustrate the various dimensions of university urbanism in the ‘Lion City’. Each address what the idea of being an urban university means, and how it is operationalized in Singapore. Key policy and conceptual insights illuminate a higher education regime negotiating the tensions between national developmentalist agendas and the opportunities opened by global urban connectivity. Significantly, and in contrast to current urban university paradigms, we find Singapore's university sector internalizing and operating with a particular technocratic urban ontology that, while partial, helps collapses the distinction between universities being ‘in’, ‘of’, or ‘for’ the city and opens new avenues to analyze and mobilize universities in urban(izing) society.     

Enhancing classical methodological tools to foster participatory dimensions in local urban planning

This paper reflects on ways of updating tools for engagement and enhancing citizens' participation in local urban planning, and aims to reshape them according to theories that have emerged in recent decades on the conceptualization of such participation and on interdisciplinary methodologies. It does so in the context of a project investigating how local institutions try to produce new forms of engagement. The project was carried out in the Municipality of Peccioli, an ancient medieval village in Tuscany, Italy. We have revisited and combined some classical tools, such as documentary investigation, participant observation, focus groups and interviews, and proposed changes for capturing unexplored features, dimensions, and living experiences in the social body. The updating of classical methods aims to overcome existing power structures and to reshape the relationship between citizens and their local institutions, generating a more inclusive decision-making process.     

An improved scatter search algorithm for the single machine total weighted tardiness scheduling problem with sequence-dependent setup times

In this paper, a scatter search algorithm with improved component modules is proposed to solve the single machine total weighted tardiness problem with sequence-dependent setup times. For diversification generation module, both random strategy based heuristics and construction heuristic are adopted to generate the diversified population. For improvement module, variable neighborhood search based local searches are embedded into the algorithm to improve the trial solutions and the combined solutions. For reference set update module, the number of edges by which the two solutions differ from each other is counted to measure the diversification value between two solutions. We also propose a new strategy in which the length of the reference set could be adjusted adaptively to balance the computing time and solving ability. In addition, a discrete differential evolution operator is proposed with another two operators constitute the combination module to generate the new trial solutions with the solutions in the subsets. The proposed algorithm is tested on the 120 benchmark instances from the literature. Computational results indicate that the average relative percentage deviations of the improved algorithm from the ACO_AP, DPSO, DDE and GVNS are −5.16%, −3.33%, −1.81% and −0.08%, respectively. Comparing with the state-of-the-art and exact algorithms, the proposed algorithm can obtain 78 optimal solutions out of 120 instances within a reasonable computational time.     

Types of suburbs in post-socialist Poland and their potential for creating public spaces

The aim of this article is to distinguish types of the suburbs that are typical for post-socialist European countries. The typology organizes the variety of suburban forms according to the degree to which they favour the creation of public spaces, or the access to such spaces in the city or nearby town. A new typology is based on six criteria: (1) the level of neighbourhood (spatial scale), (2) the time when the neighbourhood was erected, (3) spatial interaction with the nearest town/city, (4) the prevailing type of investment, (5) street layout, (6) access to the city centre by public transport. Suburbs are diversified in terms of their potential for the establishment of public spaces. It has been proved that individual housing in the form of neighbourhoods which are planned, densely populated and based on street grid is the most preferred type from the perspective of building social capital. The typology was developed for Warsaw Metropolitan Region, although it may be applied also in the research of post-socialist countries other than Poland and urban regions within them.     

Structure-guided cancer blockade between bioactive bursehernin and proteins: Molecular docking and molecular dynamics study

Bursehernin (5′-desmethoxyyatein) is a natural lignan, which has anti-tumor activity in vitro. In this study, the binding-inhibitory effects of bursehernin were screening on selected 80 proteins associated with cancer pathway. The computational analysis suggested inhibitory effect due to bursehernin towards proteins related to cancer proliferation, including FMS kinase receptor, heat shock protein 90-α (Hsp90-α), adenylate cyclase 10 (ADCY10), mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK1), and α-tubulin. Moreover, bursehernin could interfere with cell cycle progression via binding to cyclin B proteins. Among all screened proteins, the compound showed an interesting binding affinity to the FMS kinase receptor. The binding mode studies by molecular dynamic technique showed that aromatic ring of bursehernin compound was responsible for compound-protein interaction through pi-pi stacking with Tyr105 and Phe178 of the FMS kinase receptor. This study suggests that bursehernin has potential for development as an anti-tumor agent with an anti-proliferation, and cell cycle arrest inducing, although further studies are needed.     

Efficient creation of building performance simulators using automatic code generation

Building performance simulation environments are very complex software systems and the result of many person years of development and testing. The instantiation of a specific building requires additional work, depending on the quality of the user interface. We will show that with today’s software engineering environments, the development time can be drastically reduced. Simulators for specific applications can be created in a few weeks and discarded after use. A prerequisite for our development method is the partitioning of the building and its installed systems into simple components that compute and interact at run-time autonomously, as in the real world. In contrast, classical building performance simulators are typically based on global systems of differential equations that model the physical reality and are numerically solved at run-time. Our approach is based on object-oriented modeling. All effects are modeled dynamically and are executed in real-time. New physical effects can be easily integrated. As calculations are triggered by value changes, very short real-time responses are achieved if necessary. Also, fast and accurate responses to external events can be guaranteed. These features are necessary for real-time tests of building automation systems. We will present data showing that our approach results in realistic simulations and show limits of real-time computations.     

A joint method for the maximum inscribed circle and minimum circumscribed circle

A joint method based on the relative diameter is introduced for evaluating the minimum circumscribed circle and maximum inscribed circle in this article. The definition and calculation of the relative diameter is given in detail. The proposed method is an approximate method based on the least square circle solution, and just for the minimum circumscribed circle and maximum inscribed circle criteria. Several examples from the literatures have been carried out to validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

SOS on SNS: Adolescent distress on social network sites

Psychological distress and experiences of peer victimization and social rejection are common among adolescents. Nevertheless, the growing popularity of online Social Network Sites (SNS) among adolescents offers an unprecedented opportunity for early detection of adolescents' distress. This study examined the scope of, and the individual differences that may be associated with, distress sharing on SNS. A total of 413 adolescents (mean age = 15.42, 53.8% girls) completed three questionnaires assessing (a) social media usage, (b) distress sharing on SNS, and (c) feelings of social rejection. More than 15% of the sample shared personal distress and searched for help on SNS. Distress sharing did not differ between genders. Social rejection predicted distress sharing on SNS. Notably, social rejection and distress sharing were only associated among individuals with high social media use scores. Implications are discussed for early identification of adolescents' distress.