Income, Time Effects and Direct Preferences in a Multimodal Choice Context: Application of Mixed RP/SP Models with Non-Linear Utilities

Transport problems typically involve at least two types of constraints, on income and on time. Therefore, the indirect utility function depends either on the income available after having subtracted the cost of the discrete alternative and on the free time left after having worked and travelled by each competing option. In the typical linear-in-the-attributes and in-the-parameters specification, that represents the first grade approximation of the indirect utility function, the effect of income and time constraints cancel out and only the cost and time of the alternatives matter in the comparison between them. From a microeconomic point of view this is equivalent to assume that income and time effects could be disregarded; which is not always the case. To account for these effects the utility function should include second order attributes; however, in non-linear utility functions it may not be easy to distinguish among several effects that could be relevant: direct preferences for good and leisure, and simple interactions between attributes other than income and time effects. This paper analyses these effects from a theoretical point of view focusing on the possible confounding problem in detecting income and time effects. We use a dataset collected for a modal choice context and containing both revealed and stated preference data, and estimate several NL models examining the effect of the different second-order terms on detecting income and time effects. We compared specifications including square cost and time attributes, interactions between time and cost, cost divided by the income available to be spent on free time, and time multiplied by free time. Our results confirm the strong effect of direct preferences for goods and leisure time on choice, and the potential confounding effect between quadratic attributes and other non-linear omitted terms. Finally, we also found that care should be taken in highlighting income and time effects using mixed data sources, since confounding effects can occur when non-linearities are accounted for in both data sets.     

Minimum spanning trees made easier via multi-objective optimization

Many real-world problems are multi-objective optimization problems and evolutionary algorithms are quite successful on such problems. Since the task is to compute or approximate the Pareto front, multi-objective optimization problems are considered as more difficult than single-objective problems. One should not forget that the fitness vector with respect to more than one objective contains more information that in principle can direct the search of evolutionary algorithms. Therefore, it is possible that a single-objective problem can be solved more efficiently via a generalized multi-objective model of the problem. That this is indeed the case is proved by investigating the computation of minimum spanning trees.This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) as part of the Collaborative Research Center Computational Intelligence (SFB 531) and by the German-Israeli Foundation (GIF) in the project Robustness Aspects of Algorithms.     

NUMERICAL ANALYSIS AND EXPERI- MENT OF UNSTEADY THERMAL FIELD OF ROTOR PLATE FOR EDDY CURRENT RETARDER

The physical model based on heat transfer theory and virtual boundary method for analyzing unsteady thermal field of rotor plate for eddy current retarder used in automobile is established and boundary conditions are also defined. The finite element governing equation is derived by Galerkin method. The time differential item is discrete based on Galerkin format that is stable at any condition. And a new style of varying time step method is used in iteration process. The thermal field on the rotor plate at the radial and axle directions is analyzed and varying temperature at appointed points on two side-surfaces is measured. The testing and analytical data are uniform approximately. Finite element method can be used for estimating thermal field of the rotor plate at initial design stage of eddy current retarder.     

Polygonal extrusion

A sweeping operation called polygonal extrusion is defined to improve the modeling power of CSG-based modeling. It is assumed that a 2D cross-sectional polygon (sweeping polygon) moves in space while its containing plane is kept orthogonal to the tangent direction of the trajectory curve, a planar polygonal chain having no self-intersections. The objective of the paper is to compute the boundary of the swept volume of the sweeping polygon as a set of polygons (or triangles). The most significant challenge to accomplishing this objective is the problem of trimming the swept volume. To solve the trimming problem, 2D-curve offsetting methods are employed. Two algorithms are presented for polygonal extrusion that are based on different offsetting methods, the Voronoi diagram and PWID offset. The proposed algorithms have been implemented and tested with various examples. Published online: 28 January 2003     

强化技改决策促进技术进步和企业发展

以有效的技改投资决策理念指导企业技改投资，加快了企业技术进步，促进了企业跨越式发展，使三钢的产能从1996年年产钢50万t钢规模发展到目前的200万t钢水平，且优化了产业结构，技术经济指标从全国同行业的中下游上升到领先水平，增强了企业实力。但是，在取得显著成绩的同时，周边民营钢铁企业异军突起，面对严峻的挑战，三钢力争两年内依靠技改使产能达到300万t钢规模，并筹谋更远大的发展。     

节能降耗提高矿山效益

节能降耗是每一个矿山提高经济效益的有效途径。我们采取提高球磨机处理能力，降低单耗；利用“分时计价”政策，采用“避峰作业”；使用新设备等措施节能降耗，提高矿山经济效益。     

What's the use of being happy? Mood states, useful objects, and repetition priming effects.

Two experiments involving 99 undergraduate participants sought to examine the influence of mood states on encoding speed within lexical decision and pronunciation tasks. Mood states were measured naturalistically in Experiment 1 and manipulated in Experiment 2. Stimuli consisted of nouns representing useful (e.g., food) and nonuseful (e.g., lint) objects. Mood states had no implications for initial encoding speed. However, when the same words were presented a 2nd time (i.e., repeated), happy individuals displayed a tendency to encode useful words faster than nonuseful ones. Thus, mood states influenced repetition priming on the basis of stimulus valence. The authors propose that happiness sensitizes individuals to useful or rewarding objects, which in turn creates a stronger memory trace for such stimuli in the future. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

CHA无机凝胶体系的研究及应用

过去低渗油藏调剖，注入性和堵塞性很难统一，新研制的CHA无机凝胶体系是一种易注入、堵塞能力强的调剖剂，而且成胶时间在一定范围内可控。研究了配比、温度对CHA无机凝胶体系成胶时间的影响，成胶前的注入性，成胶后在高温高盐条件下的堵塞能力，得到了可应用于现场的CHA无机凝胶体系。该调剖剂在濮城油田沙三段和文卫结合部等高温、高盐低渗油藏应用后，取得了很好的效果。     

Review of Arthur R. Jensen (2006)--Clocking the mind: Mental chronometry and individual differences.

Reviews the book Clocking the Mind: Mental chronometry and individual differences by Arthur Jensen (see record 2006-20276-000). Mental chronometry, as Arthur Jensen stresses, is the study of reaction time (RT) in its various guises, contexts, and applications. As with respect to much of experimental psychology (cognitive and other), there is a venerable past here lying in the background, providing a wide-ranging context in which to embed our current (that is, our 40-odd year) preoccupation with RT as a primary dependent measure in cognitive psychology. This recent book, Clocking the Mind: Mental Chronometry and Individual Differences (published by Elsevier), weds both differential psychology's concern with the measurement of individual differences in RT (e.g., Austin, Deary, Gibson, McGregor, & Dent, 1998) and experimental psychology's concern with "the effects of manipulating various external conditions on variation in the measurements of RT" (p. 1). The reader of this journal will most probably be more familiar with the latter use of RT in the literature, especially when embedded within such familiar experimental tasks as those tapping both Garner and Stroop effects (Pansky & Algom, 1999). The book should be perused with care in order to ensure the further profitable use of RT in both experimental and differential lines of research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

多部件设备维修问题研究及遗传算法求解

合理组织设备维修，缩短设备维修时间是生产运营管理的一个重要环节。本文探讨了多部件设备维修的有效组织问题。考虑到维修工人对拆分后设备的不同部分具有不同的维修效率，提出了一种基于维修时间优化的决策方法，将其与经典指派方法进行了比较；进一步地，对这一NP-hard问题设计了遗传算法，通过数值例子讨论了其求解有效性。