Search results for "Project management"

Applications of the vehicle routing problem with trailers and transshipments

2013

Abstract The vehicle routing problem with trailers and transshipments (VRPTT) is a recent and challenging extension of the well-known vehicle routing problem. The VRPTT constitutes an archetypal representative of the class of vehicle routing problems with multiple synchronization constraints (VRPMSs). In addition to the usual task covering constraints, VRPMSs require further synchronization between vehicles, concerning spatial, temporal, and load aspects. VRPMSs possess considerable practical relevance, but limited coverage in the scientific literature. The purpose of the present paper is to describe how several important types of VRPMSs, such as multi-echelon location-routing problems and …

CROSSMAPPER: estimating cross-mapping rates and optimizing experimental design in multi-species sequencing studies

2020

Motivation Numerous sequencing studies, including transcriptomics of host-pathogen systems, sequencing of hybrid genomes, xenografts, mixed species systems, metagenomics and meta-transcriptomics, involve samples containing genetic material from divergent organisms. A crucial step in these studies is identifying from which organism each sequencing read originated, and the experimental design should be directed to minimize biases caused by cross-mapping of reads to incorrect source genomes. Additionally, pooling of sufficiently different genetic material into a single sequencing library could significantly reduce experimental costs but requires careful planning and assessment of the impact of…

Booms, Busts and normal times in the housing market

2015

We assess the existence of duration dependence in the likelihood of an end in housing booms, busts, and normal times. Using data for 20 industrial countries and a continuous-time Weibull duration model, we find evidence of positive duration dependence suggesting that housing market cycles have become longer over the last decades. Then, we extend the baseline Weibull model and allow for the presence of a change-point in the duration dependence parameter.We show that positive duration dependence is present in booms and busts that last less than 26 quarters, but that does not seem to be the case for longer phases of the housing market cycle. For normal times, no evidence of change-points is fo…

Should all microfinance institutions mobilize microsavings? Evidence from economies of scope

2014

Published version of an article from the journal: Empirical Economics. Also available from the publisher on SpringetLink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00181-014-0861-3 We extend a recently developed generalized local polynomial estimator into a semiparametric smooth coefficient framework to estimate a generalized cost function. The advantage of the generalized local polynomial approach is that we can simultaneously choose the degree of polynomial for each continuous nonparametric regressor and the bandwidths via data-driven methods. We provide estimates of scope economies from the joint production of microloans and microdeposits for a dataset of Microfinance Institutions from over 50 countrie…

A heuristic method for estimating attribute importance by measuring choice time in a ranking task

2012

The evaluation of a product or service in terms of its attributes has been broadly studied in marketing, management and decision sciences. However, methods for finding important attributes have theoretical and practical limitations. The former are related to the selection of the most appropriate model; the latter are due to large number of variables that affect the specific experimental context. This study aims to present a new methodology that captures attribute preferences from a respondent and in particular, by using the choice time in a ranking task, it allows to indirectly obtain the importance weights for several tested attributes through a simple, fast and inexpensive procedure. More…

Mixture Analysis in Biology: Scope and Limits

1998

Degree course change and student performance: a mixed-effect approach

2015

This paper focuses on students credits earning speed over time and its determinants, dealing with the huge percentage of students who do not take the degree within the legal duration in the Italian University System. A new indicator for the performance of the student career is proposed on real data, concerning the cohort of students enrolled at a Faculty of the University of Palermo (followed for 7 years). The new indicator highlights a typical zero-inflated distribution and suggests to investigate the effect of the degree course (DC) change on the student career. A mixed-effect model for overdispersed data is considered, with the aim of taking into account the individual variability as wel…

Gossip: The Architecture of SpreadPlots

2003

A spreadplot is a visualization that simultaneously shows several different views of a dataset or model. The individual views can be dynamic, can support high-interaction direct manipulation, and can be algebraically linked with each other, possibly via an underlying statistical model. Thus, when a data analyst changes the information shown in one view of a statistical model, the changes can be processed by the model and instantly represented in the other views. Spreadplots simplify the analyst's task when many different plots are relevant to the analysis at hand, as is the case in regression analysis, where there are many plots that can be used for model building and diagnosis. On the othe…

Robust Mean Field Games

2015

Recently there has been renewed interest in large-scale games in several research disciplines, with diverse application domains as in the smart grid, cloud computing, financial markets, biochemical reaction networks, transportation science, and molecular biology. Prior works have provided rich mathematical foundations and equilibrium concepts but relatively little in terms of robustness in the presence of uncertainties. In this paper, we study mean field games with uncertainty in both states and payoffs. We consider a population of players with individual states driven by a standard Brownian motion and a disturbance term. The contribution is threefold: First, we establish a mean field syste…

Workers, the self-employed and TRADEs: Conceptualisation and collective rights in Spain

2019

The subjective scope of application of Labour Law is set by the Statute of Labour. Nevertheless, the interpretation of the Courts is crucial to understand who is a worker in Spain. In this study, the criteria set by the Spanish courts and their evolution are analysed. Recently, the Spanish Supreme Court seems to have abandoned the ‘control test’ criteria for classifying workers and has moved towards a personal conceptualisation of work. This paper shows rulings that prove this evolution. Moreover, Spain has its own Self-employed Workers’ Statute applicable to common self-employed workers and economically dependent self-employees (TRADEs). In this paper I analyse the concept of both types a…