The intricate interplay between the variation of the stock network structure and fluctuations of that stock market is increasingly becoming a hot topic. In this work, employing a moving window to scan through every stock price time series over a period from 2 January 2001 to 7 December 2010, we...

One of the challenges facing intermodal integration is that the planning framework needed for it lacks appropriate measures of level of service that cut across the modes involved and the connections between them. In this study we develop a framework and a set of metrics of level of service in a...

Little quantitative research has been devoted to voluntary climate actions at the local level in comparison to those at federal and state levels. It is unclear why some cities act as leaders in the fight against climate change, some act as followers, while others remain laggards. This study...

A sizable empirical literature relates a nation's Olympic performance to socioeconomic factors by adopting linear regression or a Tobit approach suggested by Bernard and Busse (2004). We propose an alternative model where a nation's medal share depends on its competitiveness relative to other...

Classification arises in a wide range of applications. A variety of statistical tools have been developed for learning classification rules from data. Understanding of their relative merits and comparisons help users to choose a proper method in practice. This paper focuses on theoretical...

Regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) is important water-saving technique. Although some positive effects of RDI have been confirmed in earlier results, more knowledge is still need on how RDI can affect grain growth and drought ability of crops. A micro-plot field experiment was conducted under a...

Decomposition based algorithms perform well when a suitable set of weights are provided; however determining a good set of weights a priori for real-world problems is usually not straightforward due to a lack of knowledge about the geometry of the problem. This study proposes a novel algorithm...

Various preference-based multi-objective evolutionary algorithms have been developed to help a decision-maker search for his/her preferred solutions to multi-objective problems. In most of the existing approaches the decision-maker preferences are formulated either by mathematical expressions...

Soil erosion increasingly poses a great threat to human food security and environmental quality. It is necessary to implement the assessment of soil erosion so as to provide precautionary measures and relevant suggestions for soil conservation. In this paper, the soil erosion model, revised...

With the rapid motorization in China, parking has become increasingly difficult and costly for automobile users. However, the effects of parking on the society go far beyond vehicle owners' costs. To inform decision makers in China and cities in similar motorizing societies, this study describes...