<title>Abstract</title> This paper documents some thoughts on the reform agenda in public transit that is occurring throughout the world. The specific focus is on a growing commitment to competitive regulation through competitive tendering, and the efforts by a few governments (notably in Australia) to take...

Two fast group subset selection (GSS) algorithms for the linear regression model are proposed in this paper. GSS finds the best combinations of groups up to a specified size minimising the residual sum of squares. This imposes an l0 constraint on the regression coefficients in a group context....

The World Wide Web contains a vast corpus of consumer-generated content that holds invaluable insights for improving the product and service offerings of firms. Yet the typical method for extracting diagnostic information from online content--text mining--has limitations. As a starting point, we...

This paper constructs the positive arbitrage position by alternating the spot index with Chinese Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) portfolio and estimating the arbitrage-free interval of futures with the latest trade data. Then, an improved Delta-normal method was used, which replaces the simple linear...

Biomass can be converted to liquid product for fuels and for chemicals by hydrothermal treatment. A method for further treatment of the liquid product much depends on the composition determination, and therefore analysis of the liquid product is important. The much water makes the analysis...

Coal bio-oil slurries (CBSs) were prepared by blending coal with bio-oil from the fast pyrolysis, and their apparent viscosities were measured by a rotary viscometer. The influences of coal rank, solid concentration, particle size distribution and temperature on the apparent viscosity and...

Thermal gravimetric (TG) analysis was conducted to compare the fundamental pyrolytic behaviors between the lignocellulose fermentation residue (LFR) and three other biomass raw materials. It was found that the TG weight loss curve of LFR appeared very close to the curve of acidified alkaline...

Triethylamine was found to be effective in promoting the cracking of heptane at the temperature of 550–650°C. The experimental yields of ethylene and propylene are more than twice as high as the calculated values on hypothesis of no interaction between triethylamine and heptane, when the mass...

Contrary to the usual assumption of fixed, well-defined preferences, it is increasingly evident that individuals are likely to approach a choice task using rules and decision heuristics that are dependent on the choice environment. More specifically, heuristics that are defined by the local...