Search results for "Preference"

Taste heterogeneity and latent preferences in the choice behaviour of freight transport operators

2013

In this paper we show that individual attitudes of road carriers and their latent preferences toward specific freight service attributes do play a role in determining their mode choices. Specifically, we contribute to the empirical literature on freight agents' mode choice by exploring the role of the "perceived importance" of the most relevant service dimensions in determining the attractiveness of two alternatives to "all-road" transport: logistics terminals and road-sea intermodal services. This is carried out through a revealed/stated preference experiment and a mixture of logit framework. Our results support the hypothesis that operators' attitudes towards time, punctuality and risk of…

Further Developments and Tests of a Progressive Algorithm for Multiple Criteria Decision Making

1993

P. Korhonen, H. Moskowitz, and J. Wallenius (1986) developed a progressive algorithm and the supporting theory for modeling and solving multiple criteria decision problems with discrete alternatives. A special feature of the algorithm is that it relaxes the usual assumption of a fixed set of available decision alternatives and complete knowledge of a decision maker's (DM's) preference structure or value function. The algorithm is based on progressively sampling the decision space, obtaining preference information from the DM, determining the likelihood of finding possibly/surely better alternatives, and based on this information, continuing the search or terminating it by making the final …

Western European Populations of the Ichneumonid Wasp Hyposoter didymator Belong to a Single Taxon

2019

Hyposoter didymator (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) is a generalist solitary endoparasitoid of noctuid larvae. In the present work, we tested whether populations of H. didymator were divided in several genetically distinct taxa as described for many other generalist parasitoid species, and whether differences in H. didymator parasitism rates were explained by the insect host species and/or by the plant on which these hosts were feeding on. The genetic analysis of natural populations collected in different regions in France and Spain on seven different insect hosts and seven different host plants (775 individuals) showed that H. didymator populations belong to a unique single taxon. However, H.…

Functional food characteristics in organic food products—the perspectives of Italian consumers on organic eggs enriched with omega-3 polyunsaturated …

2022

Abstract Innovation in organic food products plays an important role in further developing its competitiveness in the market and meeting the emerging consumers’ needs. However, few studies have analysed consumers’ points of view of innovations on organic food, limited to the change in the natural food composition or the enrichment of the nutritional contents of the product. This study, using experimental auctions, aims to overcome this gap by enriching the knowledge on organic consumers’ preference for organic food with functional characteristics. Specifically, this study analyses the willingness to pay (WTP) of 110 Italian consumers for organic eggs enriched with omega-3 polyunsaturated fa…

La preferenza dell’habitat dell’Aquila reale Aquila chrysaetos in Sicilia

2009

Food selection of a generalist herbivore exposed to native and alien seaweeds

2018

Understanding which factors influence the invasion of alien seaweed has become a central concern in ecology. Increasing evidence suggests that the feeding preferences of native herbivores influence the success of alien seaweeds in the new community. We investigated food selection of a generalist native grazer Paracentrotus lividus, in the presence of two alien seaweeds (Caulerpa cylindracea and Caulerpa taxifolia var. distichophylla) and two native seaweeds (Dictyopteris membranacea and Cystoseira compressa). Sea urchins were fed with six experimental food items: C. cylindracea, C. taxifolia var. distichophylla, a mixture of C. cylindracea and C. taxifolia var. distichophylla, D. membranace…

Stable carbon and nitrogen ratios in the sand smelt from a Mediterranean coastal area: Feeding habits and effect of season and size

2002

Enriched (δ13C values (annual average - 11·2%) suggest that in the study site (Stagnone di Marsala, Italy) the sand smelt Atherina boyeri exploited benthic prey throughout the year. In particular, Mysidacea and Isopoda seemed to dominate the diet. Stomach content data from the literature was in partial agreement with the present isotopic analysis suggesting that, while Mysidacea and Isopoda are exploited by A. boyeri, Copepoda Harpacticoida and Amphipoda are the dominant food items of the sand smelt diet. Several hypotheses are proposed to explain such partially different results from the two techniques. Both season and size influenced the δ13C and δ15N values of A. boyeri. Although through…

Evaluation of Planar Symmetry Preferences through a Physics-based Operator

2010

A Reinforcement Learning Approach for User Preference-aware Energy Sharing Systems

2021

Energy Sharing Systems (ESS) are envisioned to be the future of power systems. In these systems, consumers equipped with renewable energy generation capabilities are able to participate in an energy market to sell their energy. This paper proposes an ESS that, differently from previous works, takes into account the consumers’ preference, engagement, and bounded rationality. The problem of maximizing the energy exchange while considering such user modeling is formulated and shown to be NP-Hard. To learn the user behavior, two heuristics are proposed: 1) a Reinforcement Learning-based algorithm, which provides a bounded regret and 2) a more computationally efficient heuristic, named BPT- ${K}…

Elicitation and evaluation of zoom gestures for touchless interaction with desktop displays

2019

Touchless gestural interaction has been widely studied and adopted in many contexts. Furthermore, the growing availability of low-cost enabling devices, such as Kinect or Leap Motion, boosted up the interest in such interaction both for commercial and scientific purposes, both for large public displays and for personal displays. The problem of choosing the right touchless gesture for the right action is thus still an open issue, depending on several aspects, such as context, purpose, users' culture, etc. In this work, we first present the results of a gesture elicitation study that allowed us to identify a set of touchless gestures for performing zoom actions while interacting with desktop …