1,720,954 research outputs found
Optimal Contract Mechanism Design for Performance-Based Contracts
No full textThis report explores the possibility of implementing a performance-based contract (PBC) in highway construction and maintenance. PBC allows a state transportation agency (STA) to use an incentive structure to induce the contractor to take a long-term interest in the functionality of the highway without excessive cost to the STA. First, an overview of contract mechanisms and existing PBCs in industry is provided. Then, a summary of performance-based specifications illustrates that contractors can adopt construction and maintenance policies to significantly improve pavement performance. Finally, a framework for choosing PBCs to achieve STAs’ goals is provided, with a discussion of some of the difficulties associated with implementation. It can be seen that, in a competitive bidding process, the additional cost of incentives is not larger than the additional value gained by higher-quality work.Minnesota Department of Transportation
Research Services SectionGupta, Diwakar; Vedantam, Aditya; Azadivar, Justin. (2011). Optimal Contract Mechanism Design for Performance-Based Contracts. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/150077
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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The Binary Customer Satisfaction Model in Inventory and Queueing Systems
Full text linkThis dissertation introduces the Binary Customer Satisfaction Model for addressing logistics issues. In typical logistics problems, the arrival of customers through a demand process is considered external to the management decisions. In practice, it is typically the case that customers will respond to changes is service policy by changing their behavior. The Binary Customer Satisfaction Model provides a simple customer behavior model that directly interacts with the service policy and provides for analysis of managerial insights.The Binary Customer Satisfaction Model assigns customers to one of two satisfaction states. Satisfied customers have one demand rate, while unsatisfied customers have a different demand rate. The Binary Customer Satisfaction Model accommodates situations where satisfied customers demand more, as well as those when satisfied customers demand less, a possibility undertreated in existing literature. Satisfaction changes for each customer when the customer demands service. Satisfaction occurs when the customer receives service, while unsatisfaction occurs when the customer attempts to receive service but is unable to.The Binary Customer Satisfaction Model is generally applicable to a wide range of logistics problems. In this dissertation, we consider the application of the model to the newsvendor inventory problem as well as an M/M/s queueing model without a buffer. We also briefly consider extensions to these models and how the Binary Customer Satisfaction Model can inform management of these extended cases.Key to these insights is a well-defined concept of myopic management policies. This dissertation defines myopic policies in such a way to allow explicit comparison between optimal and myopic policies, and quantitatively present the value of considering the effect of service policy on future customer behavior.In both the inventory and queueing contexts, we find that the Binary Customer Satisfaction Model gives two major insights. The first confirms the intuitive result that, if satisfied customers are more likely to arrive, then it is worthwhile for a manager to provide a level of service that would appear too high to a myopic manager, as future increases in customer demand will offset the additional cost. Similarly, if satisfied customers are less likely to arrive, the manager should prepare a lower level of service.The second main insight is that it is not enough to simply observe the demand to find an optimal policy when customer behavior depends on service policies. Even with full knowledge of the demand, and beginning with the optimal demand level, a myopic manager will choose a suboptimal service policy, which will in turn create a suboptimal policy, which will cause the myopic manager to move further away from optimality. This spiraling effect makes clear the importance of not blindly making policies based on empirical observation of demand
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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