ALBERT

Description: In this paper, we firstly discuss the existence of the least energy sign-changing solutions for a class of p-Kirchhoff-type problems with a -linear growth nonlinearity. The quantitative deformation lemma and Non-Nehari manifold method are used in the paper to prove the main results. Remarkably, we use a new method to verify that . The main results of our paper are the existence of the least energy sign-changing solution and its corresponding energy doubling property. Moreover, we also give the convergence property of the least energy sign-changing solution as the parameter .

Description: Stem cells as a therapeutic measure for the treatment of different diseases have a great potential to give rise to different mature cells as they could be used to treat HIV-1 patients when provided with the convenient factors. Thus, this paper proposes a new mathematical model, represented by a system of ODEs, to study the effect of stem cell transplantation for HIV-1 patients. Since stem cells lineage passes through many stages to become more specialized cell types, investigating (theorizing) the best stage for these cells to be engrafted was needed. The proposed system of ODEs can help medicine make the right decision about the proposed therapy.

Description: In this paper, a dynamical two-stage game with R&D competition and joint profit maximization is built. The stability of all the equilibrium points is discussed through Jury condition, and the stability region of the Nash equilibrium point is then given. The influence of the parameters on the system is discussed, and we find that the firm can even benefit from chaos, when it has higher innovation efficiency and higher adjusting speed. And then the coexistence of multiple attractors is studied using basin of attraction. Our research result shows that the coexisting attractors can be observed in the two-parameter bifurcation diagram. At last, the boundary of feasible region, global bifurcations, and formation mechanism of fractal structure of attracting basin are analyzed through critical curves and noninvertible map theory.

Description: The supplier is considered to be attractive under green supply chain management; supplier evaluation is also confronted with a serious challenge. Based on this background, this paper studies green supplier evaluation and selection with weights unknown in hesitant fuzzy sets and presents evaluation indexes by the DEMATEL method. On the basis of the Euclidean distance, hesitancy degree is used to construct the improved type signed distance. At last, the paper calculates relative closeness to rank green suppliers by the improved TOPSIS method and compares the results of the traditional algorithm and SAW method. The result of the example shows that the algorithm has practicability and a dipartite degree.

Description: This paper classifies environmental regulation into two types and constructs a theoretical framework to explore the influences of fee-based environmental regulation and invest-based environmental regulation on environmental pollution. It then establishes some dynamic spatial autoregressive nonlinear econometric models to test the theoretical hypothesis based on 30-area panel data from 2004 to 2016. The results illustrate that inverted “U” shape curve relationship exists between fee-based environmental regulation and environmental pollution, while a “U” shape curve relationship between invest-based environmental regulation and environmental pollution exists. In addition, the findings suggest that improving the proportion of secondary industry can directly promote the environmental quality while effectively control of foreign direct investment and fiscal decentralization is also indispensable. Thus, the government should make targeted research about the optimal intensity of fee-based environmental regulation and invest-based environmental regulation and make targeted enterprise policy for the environmental pollution reduce, which contains promoting the energy revolution and strengthening the depth and strength of opening-up step by step.

Description: This paper focuses on the problem of state estimation for certain switched time-varying systems with time-varying delay and nonlinear disturbance. By using an integral inequality technique and a method used in positive systems, we have established several explicit criteria for state estimation of the system, which reduce to stability criteria for some particular cases. The involved nonlinear disturbance of the system takes more general form including both the internal disturbance and the external disturbance. Three numerical examples are also given to verify the validity of the obtained theoretical results.

Description: Driving anger, known as “road rage”, has gradually become a serious traffic psychology issue. Although driving anger identification is solved in some studies, there is still a gap in driving anger grading which is helpful to take different intervening measures for different anger intensity, especially in real traffic environment. The main objectives of this study are: (1) explore a novel driving anger induction method based on various elicitation events, e.g., traffic congestion, vehicles weaving/cutting in line, jaywalking and red light waiting in real traffic environment; (2) apply incremental association Markov blanket (IAMB) algorithm to select typical features related to driving anger states; (3) employ least square support vector machine (LSSVM) to identify different driving anger states based on the selected features. Thirty private car drivers were enrolled to perform field experiments on a busy route selected in Wuhan, China, where drivers’ anger could be induced by the elicitation events within limited time. Meanwhile, three types of data sets including driver physiology, driving behaviors and vehicle motions, were collected by multiple sensors. The results indicate that 13 selected features including skin conductance, relative energy spectrum of β band of electroencephalogram, standard deviation (SD) of pedaling speed of gas pedal, SD of steering wheel angle rate, vehicle speed, SD of speed, SD of forward acceleration and SD of lateral acceleration have significant impact on driving anger states. The IAMB-LSSVM model achieves an accuracy with 82.20% which is 2.03%, 3.15%, 4.34%, 7.84% and 8.36% higher than IAMB using C4.5, NBC, SVM, KNN and BPNN, respectively. The results are beneficial to design driving anger detecting or intervening devices in intelligent human-machine systems.

Description: This paper is devoted to the research of some Caputo’s fractional derivative boundary value problems with a convection term. By the use of some fixed-point theorems and the properties of Green function, the existence results of at least one or triple positive solutions are presented. Finally, two examples are given to illustrate the main results.

Description: The signal gaming model based on incomplete information is used to analyze the decisions of commercial banks and medium-sized and small enterprises (SMEs) in supply chain finance business. It is found that the returns of banks are closely relied on the probability of good SMEs join which is proportional to θ (the probability of “good” SMEs in the market) and p (the probability of “good” SMEs chosen to join the supply chain finance) in supply chain finance business, and the default cost is an important constrain for determining the strategies adopted by the SMEs and the banks. To achieve higher returns, SMEs and banks should make effects to create a better supply chain finance business environment to achieve the separation equilibrium.

Description: This article utilizes perturbation method (PM) to find an analytical approximate solution for the Quasi-Steady-State Michaelis-Menten problem. From the comparison of Figures and absolute error values, between approximate and numerical solutions, it is shown that the obtained solutions are accurate, and therefore, they explain the general behaviour of the Michaelis-Menten mechanism.

Description: In this paper, we research complete convergence and almost sure convergence under the sublinear expectations. As applications, we extend some complete and almost sure convergence theorems for weighted sums of negatively dependent random variables from the traditional probability space to the sublinear expectation space.

Description: In this paper, the edge-based and node-based adaptive algorithms are established, respectively, to solve the distribution convex optimization problem. The algorithms are based on multiagent systems with general linear dynamics; each agent uses only local information and cooperatively reaches the minimizer. Compared with existing results, a damping term in the adaptive law is introduced for the adaptive algorithms, which makes the algorithms more robust. Under some sufficient conditions, all agents asymptotically converge to the consensus value which minimizes the cost function. An example is provided for the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.

Description: This paper investigates projective synchronization of nonidentical fractional-order memristive neural networks (NFMNN) via sliding mode controller. Firstly, based on the sliding mode control theory, a new fractional-order integral sliding mode controller is designed to ensure the occurrence of sliding motion. Furthermore, according to fractional-order differential inequalities and fractional-order Lyapunov direct method, the trajectories of the system converge to the sliding mode surface to carry out sliding mode motion, and some sufficient criteria are obtained to achieve global projective synchronization of NFMNN. In addition, the conclusions extend and improve some previous works on the synchronization of fractional-order memristive neural networks (FMNN). Finally, a simulation example is given to verify the effectiveness and correctness of the obtained results.

Description: In this paper, we prove that the solvability of dynamic equations of second order is sufficient for the validity of some Hardy and Opial type inequalities with two different weights on time scales. In particular, the results give new characterizations of two different weights in inequalities containing Hardy and Opial operators. The main contribution in this paper is the characterizations of weights in discrete inequalities that will be formulated from our results as special cases.

Description: The main goal of this paper is to investigate the global asymptotic behavior of the difference system with and the initial condition . We obtain some global attractivity results of this system for different values of the parameters, which answer the open problem proposed in “Rational systems in the plane, J. Difference Equ. Appl. 15 (2009), 303-323”.

Description: The paper studies the initial-boundary value problem of a porous medium equation with exponent variable. How to deal with nonlinear term with the exponent variable is the main dedication of this paper. The existence of the weak solution is proved by the monotone convergent method. Moreover, according to the different boundary value conditions, the stability of weak solutions is studied. In some special cases, the stability of weak solutions can be proved without any boundary value condition.

Description: Traditional derivative pricing theories usually focus on the risk-neutral price or the equilibrium price. However, in highly competitive financial markets, we observed two prices which are called bid and ask prices; then the unique risk-neutral price fails to hold. In this paper, within the framework of conic finance, we provide a useful approach to evaluate the ask and bid prices of geometric Asian options and obtain the explicit formulas for the ask and bid prices. Finally, numerical examples show that the higher the market liquidity parameter , the wider the spread and hence the less the liquidity.

Description: In this paper, the bilevel programming model of the public transport network considering factors such as the per capita occupancy area and travel cost of different groups was established, to alleviate the urban transportation equity and optimize the urban public transport network under fairness constraints. The upper layer minimized the travel cost deprivation coefficient and the road area Gini coefficient as the objective function, to solve the optimization scheme of public transport network considering fairness constraints; the lower layer was a stochastic equilibrium traffic assignment model of multimode and multiuser, used to describe the complex selection behavior of different groups for different traffic modes in the bus optimization scheme given by the upper layer. The model in addition utilised the noninferior sorting genetic algorithm II to validate the model via a simple network. The results showed that (1) the travel cost deprivation coefficient of the three groups declined from 33.42 to 26.51, with a decrease of 20.68%; the Gini coefficient of the road area declined from 0.248 to 0.030, with a decrease of 87.76%; it could be seen that the transportation equity feeling of low-income groups and objective resource allocation improved significantly; (2) before the optimization of public transport network, the sharing rate of cars, buses, and bicycles was 42%, 47%, and 11%, respectively; after the optimization, the sharing rate of each mode was 7%, 82%, and 11%, respectively. Some of the high and middle income users who owned the car were transferred to the public transportation. It could be seen that the overall travel time of the optimized public transport network reduced, enhancing the attraction of the public transport network to various travel groups. The model improves the fairness of the urban public transport system effectively while ensuring the travel demand of the residents. It provides theoretical basis and model foundation for the optimization of public transit network, and it is a new attempt to improve the fairness of the traffic planning scheme.

Description: This paper investigates joint decisions on airline network design and capacity allocation by integrating an uncapacitated single allocation p-hub median location problem into a revenue management problem. For the situation in which uncertain demand can be captured by a finite set of scenarios, we extend this integrated problem with average profit maximization to a combined average-case and worst-case analysis of this integration. We formulate this problem as a two-stage stochastic programming framework to maximize the profit, including the cost of installing the hubs and a weighted sum of average and worst case transportation cost and the revenue from tickets over all scenarios. This model can give flexible decisions by putting the emphasis on the importance of average and worst case profits. To solve this problem, a genetic algorithm is applied. Computational results demonstrate the outperformance of the proposed formulation.

Description: This paper is concerned with the optimal decisions of blood banks in a blood logistics network (BLN) with the consideration of natural disasters. One of the biggest challenges is how to deal with unexpected disasters. Our idea is to consider the disasters as the natural consequences of interaction among multiple interdependent uncertain factors, such as the locations and the levels of disasters, the number of casualties, and the availabilities of rescue facilities, which work together to influence the rescue effects of the BLN. Thus, taking earthquakes as the example, a Bayesian Network is proposed to describe such uncertainties and interdependences and, then, we incorporate it into a dedicated two-stage multi-period stochastic programming model for the BLN. The planning stage in the model focuses on blood bank location and inventory decisions. The subsequent operational stage is composed of multiple periods, some of which may suffer disasters and initiate corresponding rescue operations. Numerical tests show that the proposed approach can be efficiently applied in blood management under the complicated disaster scenarios.

Description: The rural households who transfer their farmland are more likely to migrate into urban cities in China. Understanding their willingness to urbanism can provide references for promoting China’s new-type urbanization. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), this study analyzes the effect of livelihood assets on farmland-transferred households’ willingness to urbanism in Zhejiang province in China. The results show that there is no relationship between natural capital (NC) and willingness to urbanism (UI). Statistically significant negative relationships are identified between human capital (HC), financial capital (FC), and social capital (SC), respectively, and UI. Physical capital (PC) has a statistically significant and positive relationship with UI. The findings demonstrate that the farmland transfer characteristics have different effects on farmland-transferred households’ livelihood assets. Benefit of farmland transfer (BFT) has a statistically significant positive influence on HC, FC, and SC. Meanwhile, PC, FC, and SC are positively affected by openness in farmland transfer (OFT). Based on these profiles, Chinese local governments should design more livelihood-oriented policies to help farmland-transferred households raise willingness to urbanism in the process of operation right transfer under Three Rights Separation Policy for farmland.

Description: This paper is concerned with the characterization of all self-adjoint domains associated with two-interval even order singular -symmetric differential operators in terms of boundary conditions. The previously known characterizations of Lagrange symmetric differential operators are a special case of this one.

Description: After release, a product usually suffers cost reductions during its whole lifespan. Compared to the myopic, strategic consumers may have stronger incentive to delay the purchase once they perceive that a significant cost reduction will result in a markdown. The strategic (compared to the myopic) properties influence the seller both quantitatively in terms of proportion of strategic consumers and qualitatively in terms of customer patience. To forecast the reaction of the whole market under cost reduction, it is necessary to acquire the strategic properties. In this paper, we study the impacts of proportion of strategic consumers, customer patience, and cost reduction on dynamic pricing strategy when cost reduction comes from technology advancement. The seller makes pricing strategies when facing unknown future cost, and the buyer makes purchase decisions when facing unknown future price. Our study shows that generally both higher strategic consumer proportion and customer patience contribute to a delay in sales. Further, profit diversion happens under great combination of strategic properties. In addition, with the increase of customer patience, not only strategic but also myopic consumers will buy less. Finally, the strategic properties moderate the pricing strategy in latter stage when there is a cost reduction. This indicates a threshold as combination of strategic properties, upon which seller tends to offer a smaller markdown to discourage strategic waiting, and under which seller tends to offer a greater markdown to divert strategic consumers to the latter period.

Description: In this paper, we consider a fractional differential system with multistrip and multipoint mixed boundary conditions involving -Laplacian operator and fractional derivatives. The existence result of positive solutions is established by the Leggett-Williams fixed point theorem. Also, an example is presented to illustrate our main result.

Description: As a special kind of recurrent neural networks, Zhang neural network (ZNN) has been successfully applied to various time-variant problems solving. In this paper, we present three Zhang et al. discretization (ZeaD) formulas, including a special two-step ZeaD formula, a general two-step ZeaD formula, and a general five-step ZeaD formula, and prove that the special and general two-step ZeaD formulas are convergent while the general five-step ZeaD formula is not zero-stable and thus is divergent. Then, to solve the time-varying nonlinear optimization (TVNO) in real time, based on the Taylor series expansion and the above two convergent two-step ZeaD formulas, we discrete the continuous-time ZNN (CTZNN) model of TVNO and thus get a special two-step discrete-time ZNN (DTZNN) model and a general two-step DTZNN model. Theoretical analyses indicate that the sequence generated by the first DTZNN model is divergent, while the sequence generated by the second DTZNN model is convergent. Furthermore, for the step-size of the second DTZNN model, its tight upper bound and the optimal step-size are also discussed. Finally, some numerical results and comparisons are provided and analyzed to substantiate the efficacy of the proposed DTZNN models.

Description: Resilient suppliers can reduce supply chain risk, effectively avoid supply chain disruption, and bring profits to enterprises. However, there is no united measuring index system to evaluate the resilient supplier under supply chain environment, and the assessment language sets are usually crisp values. Therefore, in order to fill the research gap, this paper proposes a hybrid method, which combines triangular fuzzy number, the best-worst method (BWM), and the modular TOPSIS in random environments for group decision-making (GMo-RTOPSIS) to solve the above problem. Firstly, the weight of decision-maker is calculated by using fuzzy BWM which can deal with triangular fuzzy numbers. Secondly, triangular fuzzy number is introduced into GMo-RTOPSIS, and combined with fuzzy BWM, alternatives are sorted to select the best resilient supply chain partner. Finally, the feasibility and universality of this method are proved by illustrative examples.

Description: An indicator of a passive biped walker’s global stability is its domain of attraction, which is usually estimated by the simple cell mapping method. It needs to calculate a large number of cells’ Poincare mapping result in the estimating process. However, the Poincare mapping is usually computationally expensive and time-consuming due to the complex dynamical equation of the passive biped walker. How to estimate the domain of attraction efficiently and reliably is a problem to be solved. Based on the simple cell mapping method, an improved method is proposed to solve it. The proposed method uses the multiple iteration algorithm to calculate a stable domain of attraction and effectively decreases the total number of Poincare mappings. Through the simulation of the simplest passive biped walker, the improved method can obtain the same domain of attraction as that calculated using the simple cell mapping method and reduce calculation time significantly. Furthermore, this improved method not only proposes a way of rapid estimating the domain of attraction, but also provides a feasible tool for selecting the domain of interest and its discretization level.

Description: In resource-constrained project scheduling problems, renewable resources can be expanded into human resources with competency differences. A flexible resource-constrained project scheduling problem with competency differences is proposed, which is a practical extension close to Research and Development (R&D) program management, from the traditional multimode resource-constrained project scheduling problem. A parameter and estimation formula to measure staff competency is presented, and a mixed-integer programming model is established for the problem. The single-objective optimization problems of optimal duration and optimal cost are solved sequentially according to the biobjective importance. To solve the model, according to the assumptions and constraints of the model, the initial network diagram of multiple projects is determined, the enumeration algorithm satisfying constraint conditions provides the feasible solution sets, and the algorithm based on dynamic programming is designed for phased optimization. Experimental results show that the proposed optimization model considering competence differences can solve the problem effectively.

Description: This paper introduces a new Cournot duopoly game and gives an applied study for price discrimination in a market by dynamic methods. One of two oligopolies has two different prices for a homogeneous product, while the other charges one kind of price. It is found that there is only one stable equilibrium for the discrete dynamic system, and a corresponding stable condition is given. Using a discriminative price is not always beneficial to a firm in equilibrium. If both oligopolies carry out price discrimination, the market’s average price is lower than when only one oligopoly does it. The results are verified by numerical simulations.

Description: This paper puts forward the concept of integrated power, synthetically measures the voters’ ability to influence the results of decision-making by influencing others through social learning, considering the interactions between decision-makers in social networks, and offers a method for measuring integrated power. Based on the theory and model of social learning, we analyze the influence of social learning on the voting process and power indices from the perspective of individuals’ professional level, position within the social network structure, relationship closeness, and learning efficiency. A measurement model of integrated power is constructed, and the variation in integrated power compared with that of the Banzhaf index is analyzed by numerical simulation. The results show that when the individual’s professional level is higher and closeness with neighboring decision-makers is greater, then the integrated power index is higher. An individual’s integrated power index may decrease when he/she changes from an isolated node to a nonisolated node, and then his/her integrated power will increase with the increases of neighbor nodes. Social learning efficiency can promote the integrated power of individuals with lower social impact and relationship closeness, but it is not beneficial for the core and influential members of the social network.

Description: Probabilistic interval-valued hesitant fuzzy sets (PIVHFSs) are an extension of interval-valued hesitant fuzzy sets (IVHFSs) in which each hesitant interval value is considered along with its occurrence probability. These assigned probabilities give more details about the level of agreeness or disagreeness. PIVHFSs describe the belonging degrees in the form of interval along with probabilities and thereby provide more information and can help the decision makers (DMs) to obtain precise, rational, and consistent decision consequences than IVHFSs, as the correspondence of unpredictability and inaccuracy broadly presents in real life problems due to which experts are confused to assign the weights to the criteria. In order to cope with this problem, we construct the linear programming (LP) methodology to find the exact values of the weights for the criteria. Furthermore these weights are employed in the aggregation operators of PIVHFSs recently developed. Finally, the LP methodology and the actions are then applied on a certain multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) problem and a comparative analysis is given at the end.

Description: Distribution network under Omni-Channel integration contains many levels. There are one or more dealers at each level which forms a many-to-many distribution network. Consumers purchase a wide variety of products and their demands are uncertain, which constitutes a complex demand network and increases the complexity of the supply chain network. This paper focuses on the integrated optimization of supply chain distribution network and demand network and constructs the joint randomization planning model of location and routing. The goal is to minimize the total costs of the supply chain network under uncertain customer demands. Based on the traditional particle swarm optimization (PSO), this study introduces the collaborative idea to reduce the coding dimension, improves the boundary processing strategy, and adopts the mutation operator to expand the search space. A case study of distribution under Omni-Channel integration in a large enterprise was done. The validity of the model and the effectiveness of the proposed method were verified by numerical experiments.

Description: In this paper, we study Carlitz’s type -Daehee polynomials and investigate the symmetric identities for them by using the -adic -integral on under the symmetry group of degree .

Description: In this paper, the stochastic stability of internal HIV models driven by Gaussian white noise and Gaussian colored noise is analyzed. First, the stability of deterministic models is investigated. By analyzing the characteristic values of endemic equilibrium, we could obtain that internal HIV models reach a steady state under the influence of RTI and PI drugs. Then we discuss the stochastic stability of internal HIV models driven by Gaussian white noise and Gaussian colored noise, based on probability density functions. The functional methods are carried out to derive the approximate Fokker-Planck equation of stochastic internal HIV systems and further obtain the marginal probability density functions. Finally, numerical results show that the noise intensities have a great influence on uninfected cell, infected cell, and virus particles, for predicting the stability of stochastic dynamic systems subjected to Gaussian white noise and Gaussian colored noise.

Description: Everything is connected in the world. From small groups to global societies, the interactions among people, technology, and policies need sophisticated techniques to be perceived and forecasted. In social network, it has been concluded that the microblog users influence and microblog grade are nonlinearly dependent. However, to the best of our knowledge, the nonlinear influence predication of social network has not been explored in the existing literature. This article proposes a partial autoregression single index model to combine network structure (linear) and static covariates (nonparametric) flexibly. Compared with previous work, our model has fewer limits and more applications. The profile least squares estimation is employed to infer this semiparametric model, and variables selection is performed via the smoothly clipped absolute deviation penalty (SCAD). Simulations are conducted to demonstrate finite sample behaviors.

Description: To stimulate purchases from consumers, retailers nowadays use the multiple retail prices strategy (MRPS), i.e., selling the products at multiple prices simultaneously. The paper extends the current newsboy model and proposes an optimal ordering model for MRPS corresponding to uncertain consumer demands. The Lagrangian multiplier method is applied to solve the problem, and an algorithm for finding the approximate optimal total order quantity is designed. Numerical results show that MRPS is better than the single retail price strategy (SRPS). It further reveals that when there is an order quantity constraint, the retailer needs to control the number of retail prices; that is, retailer’s MRPS is affected by order quantity constraint; sensitivity analysis demonstrates that MRPS is also affected by the price discount coefficient in the case of no order quantity constraint while it is not affected by demand volatility. The research work provides some useful managerial inspirations for retailers.

Description: In this paper, we first propose two types of concepts of almost periodic functions on the quantum time scale. Secondly, we study some basic properties of almost periodic functions on the quantum time scale. Thirdly, based on these, we study the existence and uniqueness of almost periodic solutions of dynamic equations on the quantum time scale by Lyapunov method. Then, we give an equivalent definition of almost periodic functions on the quantum time scale. Finally, as an application, we propose a class of high-order Hopfield neural networks on the quantum time scale and establish the existence and global exponential stability of almost periodic solutions of this class of neural networks.

Description: Customizing products based on customer needs is an irreversible trend, and many companies strive to provide customized products to customers in less time. Customer requirements are a key factor in the company's ability to provide customized products. In order to better meet customer needs, solve the problem of incomplete and inaccurate expression, and improve the correlation between customized product performance and customer demand, a customized product method based on Bayesian network is proposed. First, the company built a custom product model based on Bayesian networks. According to the model, the customer selects some nodes and their related information. Then, we can accurately predict the final product model through the link tree algorithm, test the customer demand node to determine the focus of the customer's needs, and optimize the model. Finally, an example of a multifunctional nursing bed is used to illustrate the effectiveness of the method.

Description: In the fields of chemical graph theory, topological index is a type of a molecular descriptor that is calculated based on the graph of a chemical compound. In 1947, Wiener introduced “path number” which is now known as Wiener index and is the oldest topological index related to molecular branching. Hosoya polynomial plays a vital role in determining Wiener index. In this report, we computed the Hosoya and the Harary polynomials for , and networks. Moreover, we computed serval distance based topological indices, for example, Wiener index, Harary index, and multiplicative version of wiener index.

Description: In this paper, the discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method is applied to solve the governing equations of the dispersed two-phase flow with the two-fluid Euler/Euler approach. The resulting governing equations are simple in form and the solution process is very natural. The characteristics of the gas-particle two-phase flow in an engine nozzle are mainly analyzed, and the impacts of the particle mass fraction and particle size on the flow field and engine performance are evaluated. Because of the addition of particles, the gas flow field undergoes significant modifications. Increase in the mass fraction leads to a significant thrust loss in the gas phase, and the impact of the particles on the gas phase could be substantial. Therefore, a quantitative study of thrust loss in the nozzle due to the particle impact is made. It is found that the gas thrust in the two-phase flow is reduced, but the total thrust of the two-phase flow increases to a certain extent.

Description: In this paper, we consider the compound Poisson risk model with stochastic premium income. We propose a new estimation of Gerber-Shiu function by an efficient method: Fourier-cosine series expansion. We show that the estimator is easily computed and has a fast convergence rate. Some simulation examples are illustrated to show that the estimation has a good performance when the sample size is finite.

Description: A formal description of typical compartmental epidemic models obtained is presented by splitting the state into an infective substate, or infective compartment, and a noninfective substate, or noninfective compartment. A general formal study to obtain the reproduction number and discuss the positivity and stability properties of equilibrium points is proposed and formally discussed. Such a study unifies previous related research and it is based on linear algebraic tools to investigate the positivity and the stability of the linearized dynamics around the disease-free and endemic equilibrium points. To this end, the complete state vector is split into the dynamically coupled infective and noninfective compartments each one containing the corresponding state components. The study is then extended to the case of commensurate internal delays when all the delays are integer multiples of a base delay. Two auxiliary delay-free systems are defined related to the linearization processes around the equilibrium points which correspond to the zero delay, i.e., delay-free, and infinity delay cases. Those auxiliary systems are used to formulate stability and positivity properties independently of the delay sizes. Some examples are discussed to the light of the developed formal study.

Description: In this paper, the Lie group method is performed on a special dark fluid, the Chaplygin gas, which describes both dark matter and dark energy in the present universe. Based on an optimal system of one-dimensional subalgebras, similarity reductions and group invariant solutions are given. Finally, by means of Ibragimov’s method, conservation laws are obtained.

Description: In practical applications, lots of data such as sequentially collected economic data often exhibit some evident dependence. This paper studies the varying-coefficient regression models with different smoothing variables when the data form a stationary -mixing sequence. Both the averaged and integrated estimators of coefficient functions are proposed. The asymptotic normalities of the proposed averaged and integrated estimators are also established.

Description: In this work, we establish a new model of one prey and two predators with antipredator behavior. The basic properties on the positivity and boundedness of solutions and the existence of equilibria are established. Through analyzing the global dynamics, we find that there exist some values of the parameters such that one of the predators can be driven into being extinct by another. Furthermore, the coexistence of the three species is investigated which shows that the antipredator behavior makes the species coexist by periodic oscillation. The results give a new insight into the influence of antipredator behavior in nature selection.

Description: This paper studies dynamic models of production and exchange on graph with consideration of transportation costs. Using graph and set of matrices, we introduce superlinear multivalued mappings which describe the exchange ratio in considered system. Effective trajectories of these models are studied. It is shown that trajectories can be constructed using the simplest equilibrium type mechanisms. Characteristics of effective trajectories in Neumann type models are given. Conditions for the existence of equilibrium state of the considered model are found.

Description: In this paper, we study the global dynamics of three higher-order exponential systems of rational difference equations. This suggested work considerably extends and improves some existing results in the literature.

Description: In present paper, the number of zeros of the Abelian integral is studied, which is for some perturbed Hamiltonian system of degree 6. We prove the generating elements of the Abelian integral from a Chebyshev system of accuracy of 3; therefore there are at most 6 zeros of the Abelian integral.

Description: This paper deals with the minimal wave speed of delayed lattice dynamical systems without monotonicity in the sense of standard partial ordering in . By constructing upper and lower solutions appealing to the exponential ordering, we prove the existence of traveling wave solutions if the wave speed is not smaller than some threshold. The nonexistence of traveling wave solutions is obtained when the wave speed is smaller than the threshold. Therefore, we confirm the threshold is the minimal wave speed, which completes the known results.

Description: This paper considers a stochastic delay Gilpin-Ayala model with Markovian switching. Using Lyapunov method, we show existence and uniqueness of global positive solution. Then, by using Chebyshev’s inequality, -matrix method, and BDG’s inequality, stochastic permanence and asymptotic estimations of solutions are studied. Finally, numerical simulations illustrate the theoretical results. Our results generalize and improve the existing results.

Description: This article aims to investigate the Value at Risk of basis for stock index futures hedging in China. Since the RS-GARCH model can effectively describe the state transition of variance in VaR and the two-state Markov process can significantly reduce the dimension, this paper constructs the parameter and semiparametric RS-GARCH models based on two-state Markov process. Furthermore, the logarithm likelihood function method and the kernel estimation with invariable bandwidth method are used for VaR estimation and empirical analysis. It is found that the three fitting errors (MSE, MAD, and QLIKE) of conditional variance calculated by semiparametric model are significantly smaller than that of the parametric model. The results of Kupiec backtesting on VaR obtained by the two models show that the failure days of the former are less than or equal to that of the latter, so it can be inferred that the semiparametric RS-GARCH model constructed in this paper is more effective in estimating the Value at Risk of the basis for Chinese stock index futures. In addition, the mean value and standard deviation of VaR obtained by the semiparametric RS-GARCH model are smaller than that of the parametric method, which can prove that the former model is more conservative in risk estimation.

Description: The Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region is a top urban agglomeration of China but has the problem of severe environmental pollution. Most of the current researches on the sustainable development of this region only concentrate on the environmental pollution itself and ignore its relationship to the socioeconomic development. In this research, an entropy-based coupling model, a polynomial equation with partial least squares algorithm, and socioeconomic and environmental data in 2006–2015 were used to measure and fit the above relationship. Empirical analysis led to the following conclusions. Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei presented similar socioeconomic development modes but different environmental pollution modes. The social economy of the BTH region has been developing at the expense of environmental pollution, but the environmental cost has been decreasing year by year. At present, the BTH region has huge potential to improve its environment. Increasing the investment in the treatment of industrial pollution in Tianjin and mitigating the soot (dust) emissions in Tianjin and Hebei are the major environmental policy directions. Controlling the development of smelting and pressing of ferrous metals and other building material sectors in Hebei is the major economic policy direction.

Description: Whether to use an information sharing mechanism is investigated in a dynamic supply chain, where one manufacturer, one carrier, and one retailer are faced with uncertain yield, demand, and lead time during multiple periods. Each member is modeled as an adaptive agent based on multiagent technique, and their decisions can be adjusted timely to adapt to external environment. There are two choices for the whole supply chain to deal with uncertain risks: information sharing (IS) or no information sharing (NS). Under strategy , the information about market demand and the retailer’s inventory can be shared within the supply chain. For each strategy, the effects of yield, demand, and lead time uncertainties on costs of the supply chain and channel members are studied. It is found that (i) it is rewarding for the upstream manufacturer to use a retailer’s shared information under uncertain yield or demand; (ii) however, information sharing (IS) strategy sometimes should be abandoned for other members and the whole supply chain; (iii) counterintuitively, the increase of transportation time uncertainty benefits the retailer.

Description: The nonlinear dynamics of predator-prey systems coupled into network is an important issue in recent biological advances. In this research, we consider each node of the coupled network represents a discrete predator-prey system, and the network dynamics is investigated. By applying Jacobian matrix, center manifold theorem and bifurcation theorems, stability of fixed points, flip bifurcation and Neimark-Sacker bifurcation of the discrete predator-prey system are analyzed. Via the method of Lyapunov exponents, the nonchaos-chaos transition of the coupled network along the routes to chaos induced by bifurcations is determined. Numerical simulations are performed to demonstrate the bifurcations, various attractors and dynamic transitions of the coupled network. Via comparison, we find that the coupled network exhibits far richer and more complex behaviors than single predator-prey system, including period-doubling cascades in orbits of period-2, period-4, period-8, invariant closed curves, dynamic windows for periodic orbits and invariant curves, quasiperiodic orbits, tori, and chaotic sets. Moreover, the attractors of the coupled network show more diverse and complicated structures. These results may provide a new perspective on the predator-prey dynamics in complex networks.

Description: The purpose of this article is twofold. Firstly, combining concepts of graph theory and of fixed point theory, we will present a fixed point result for Kannan type mappings, in the framework of recently introduced, graphical -metric spaces. Appropriate examples of graphs validate the established theory. Secondly, our focus is to apply the proposed results to some nonlinear problems which are meaningful in engineering and science. Some open problems are proposed.

Description: In this paper, we study the impulsive fractional differential inclusions with two different Caputo fractional derivatives and nonlinear integral boundary value conditions. Under certain assumptions, new criteria to guarantee the impulsive fractional impulsive fractional differential inclusion has at least one solution are established by using Bohnenblust-Karlin’s fixed point theorem. Also, some previous results will be significantly improved.

Description: Discrete nonlinear two and three species prey-predator models are considered. Focus is on stability and nonstationary behaviour. Regarding the two species model, depending on the fecundity of the predator, we show that the transfer from stability to instability goes through either a supercritical flip or a supercritical Neimark-Sacker bifurcation and moreover that there exist multiple attractors in the chaotic regime, one where both species coexist and another where the predator population has become extinct. Sizes of basin of attraction for these possibilities are investigated. Regarding the three species models, we show that the dynamics may differ whether both predators prey upon the prey or if the top predator preys upon the other predator only. Both the sizes of stable parameter regions as well as the qualitative structure of attractors may be different.

Description: To improve the delivery efficiency of automated storage and retrieval system, the problem of the integrated optimization of mixed cargo packing and cargo location assignment is addressed. An integrated optimization model of mixed cargo packing and location assignments with the shortest time for the stacker in a certain historical period is established and is transformed into a conditional packing problem. An improved hybrid genetic algorithm based on a group coding method is designed to solve the problem. When the initial population is generated, a new heuristic algorithm is designed to improve the convergence speed of the genetic algorithm considering the correlation and frequency of the goods outbound. A heuristic algorithm for a two-dimensional rectangular-packing problem is designed to determine whether a variety of goods can be mixed in packing. Taking actual data from an automated storage and retrieval system for an aviation food company as an example, the established model and design algorithm are verified and the influence of changes in the outbound delivery orders on the optimization result is analyzed. The results show that compared to the method of separate storage of goods based on cube-per-order index rules and a phased optimization method of mixed storage of goods, an integrated optimization method of mixed cargo packing and location assignment can improve the outbound delivery efficiency of the stacking machine by 11.43–25.98% and 1.73–5.51%, respectively, and reduce the cargo location used by 50–55% and 0–10%, respectively. The stronger the correlation of the goods leaving a warehouse, the greater the potential of the design method in this paper to improve the efficiency of the stacker.

Description: Suppose that the interest rates obey stochastic differential equations, while the exchange rate follows an uncertain differential equation; this paper proposes a new currency model. Under the proposed currency model, the pricing formula of European currency options is then derived. Some numerical examples recorded illustrate the quality of pricing formulas. Meanwhile, this paper analyzes the relationship between the pricing formula and some parameters.

Description: The scheduling problem of movie scenes refers to the reasonable ordering of the shooting sequence of the scene, thereby minimizing the total cost of the movie scenes. This paper considers the factors affecting the cost of movie scenes shooting in the real world and constructs an integer linear programming model. A tabu search based method (TSBM) and a particle swarm optimization based method (PSOBM) are designed to solve larger-scale problems. Numerical experiments show that both TSBM and PSOBM are suitable for solving small-scale movie scenes scheduling problem. Moreover, through the comparison experiments between TSBM and PSOBM, it is verified that the TSBM can effectively solve the large-scale movie scenes scheduling problem.

Description: The advanced persistent distributed denial-of-service (APDDoS) attack does a serious harm to cyber security. Establishing a mathematical model to accurately predict APDDoS attack on networks is still an important problem that needs to be solved. Therefore, to help us understand the attack mechanisms of APDDoS on networks, this paper first puts forward a novel dynamical model of APDDoS attack on networks. A systematic analysis of this new model shows that the maximum eigenvalue of the networks is a vital factor that determines the success or failure of the attack. What is more, a new sufficient condition for the global stability of attack-free equilibrium is obtained. The global attractivity of attacked equilibrium has also been proved. Eventually, this paper gives some numerical simulations to show the main results.

Description: This paper is devoted to studying the localization of -mixing property via Furstenberg families. The notion of -weakly mixing sets is extended to --weakly mixing sets with respect to a sequence, and the characterization of -weakly mixing sets is also generalized.

Description: Telemedicine is an effective way to alleviate the congestion of hospitals and improve the utilization of medical resources. In this paper, we develop a stylized queue model to study whether the hospital should adopt telemedicine service and in which form (the gatekeeper system or dual-channel service system) the hospital should provide telemedicine service. Patients’ delay sensitivity and transportation cost are also considered in our model. Our main results follow. First, in most cases, telemedicine service can help to reduce the total cost of the healthcare system, and patients treated online or offline can both benefit from the adoption of telemedicine. Second, the dual-channel healthcare system is more flexible than the traditional outpatient system and the gatekeeper system. There exists an optimal market segmentation of the two channels in the dual-channel healthcare system. Finally, we find that the hospital should implement the telemedicine when the transportation cost is high or patients have a large gap between online and offline waiting sensitivity.

Description: Workforce planning is an operation management problem in the delivery industry to improve service quality and reliability, and the working attitude and passion of drivers, as the direct implementors of delivery service, affect the service level. Consequently, assigning equal workload for drivers so as to improve drivers’ acceptance is a reasonable and efficient workforce plan for managers. This paper investigates a periodic driver routing problem to explore the relationship between workload differential among drivers and total workload; the objective of the optimization problem is to minimize the total workload. To tackle this problem, we first propose a mixed-integer linear programming model, which can be solved by an off-the-shelf mixed-integer linear programming solver, and use the local branching based method to solve larger instances of the problem. Numerical experiments are conducted to validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed model and solution method, as well as the effect of small workload differential among drivers on the total workload.

Description: Crisis events have significantly changed the view that extreme events in financial markets have negligible probability. Especially in the life insurance market, the price of guaranteed participating life insurance contract will be affected by a change in asset volatility which leads to the fluctuations in embedded option value. Considering the correlation of different asset prices, MEGB2 (multivariate exponential generalized beta of the second kind) distribution is proposed to price guaranteed participating life insurance contract which can effectively describe the dependence structure of assets under some extreme risks. Assuming the returns of two different assets follow the MEGB2 distribution, a multifactor fair valuation pricing model of insurance contract is split into four components: the basic contract, the annual dividend option, the terminal dividend option, and the surrender option. This paper studies the effect of death rate, minimum guaranteed yield rate, annual dividend ratio, terminal dividend ratio, and surrender on the embedded option values and calculates the single premium of the insurance contract under different influence factors. The Least-Squares Monte Carlo simulation method is used to simulate the pricing model. This article makes a comparison in the sensitivity of the pricing parameters under the MEGB2 distribution and Multivariate Normal distribution asset returns. Finally, an optimal hedging strategy is designed to cover the possible risks of the underlying assets, which can effectively hedge the risks of portfolio.

Description: In this paper, a class of chaotic finance system with double delayed feedback control is investigated. Firstly, the stability of equilibrium and the existence of periodic solutions are discussed when delays change and cross some threshold value. Then the properties of the branching periodic solutions are given by using center manifold theory. Further, we give an example and numerical simulation, which implies that chaotic behavior can be transformed into a stable equilibrium or a stable periodic solution. Also, we give the local sensitivity analysis of parameters on equilibrium.

Description: This article studies a competitive system with Beddington-DeAngelis functional response and establishes sufficient conditions on permanence, partial extinction, and the existence of a unique almost periodic solution for the system. The results supplement and generalize the main conclusions in recent literature. Numerical simulations have been presented to validate the analytical results.

Description: In this paper, we study a Lotka-Volterra competition model with two competing species moving randomly between two identical patches. A constant dispersal delay is incorporated into the dispersal process for each species. We show that the dispersal delays do not affect the stability and instability of all four symmetric equilibria. Numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate the effect of dispersal delays on the stability and instability of the symmetric coexistence equilibrium.

Description: This paper proposes a novel impulsive stochastic nonautonomous chemostat model with the saturated and bilinear growth rates in a polluted environment. Using the theory of impulsive differential equations and Lyapunov functions method, we first investigate the dynamics of the stochastic system and establish the sufficient conditions for the extinction and the permanence of the microorganisms. Then we demonstrate that the stochastic periodic system has at least one nontrivial positive periodic solution. The results show that both impulsive toxicant input and stochastic noise have great effects on the survival and extinction of the microorganisms. Furthermore, a series of numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the performance of the theoretical results.

Description: In this paper, we obtain some results for the existence of infinitely many positive solutions for a coupled discrete boundary value problem. The approach is based on variational methods.

Description: To better understand the transportation situation in rapid urbanization areas and to improve social equity, this study constructed an approach to assess the spatial differentiation of public transportation resources based on deprivation theory and an accessibility analysis. Chenggong New District in Kunming, a typical rapid urbanization area in China, was analyzed as a case study. We introduced 6 indexes to establish a public transportation spatial deprivation evaluation system and applied SPSS to screen out two main factors that reflected the spatial deprivation associated with public transportation resources and services. Then, we adopted the accessibility model and spatial cluster model to embody residents’ opportunities to obtain access to public transportation and to judge whether public transportation resource allocation is appropriate. In addition, we used ArcGIS technology to better understand the spatial deprivation characteristics of public transportation. We found that the pattern of public transportation spatial deprivation in Chenggong could be summarized as “multicore and local radiation”: the spatial accessibility characteristics of public transportation take the form of a circular layer along with the metro lines and decline progressively toward the peripheral areas, where public transportation resource allocation is lacking. These findings show that the public transportation situation in rapid urbanization areas is consistent with the local land-use context and the suitability of established methods for extracting spatial public transportation characteristics.

Description: In this paper, we study the optimal retentions for an insurer with a compound fractional Poisson surplus and a layer reinsurance treaty. Under the criterion of maximizing the adjustment coefficient, the closed form expressions of the optimal results are obtained. It is demonstrated that the optimal retention vector and the maximal adjustment coefficient are not only closely related to the parameter of the fractional Poisson process, but also dependent on the time and the claim intensity, which is different from the case in the classical compound Poisson process. Numerical examples are presented to show the impacts of the three parameters on the optimal results.

Description: This paper focuses on the numerical study and precise forecast of Zika epidemic. An early warning index algorithm of Zika epidemic is given, and the applications of this algorithm are investigated. We pay attention to the mathematical approaches to estimate the tendency of Zika epidemic in detail. A numerical experiment is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method by the numerical calculation of early warning index of Brazil.

Description: Proactive hedging European option is an exotic option for hedgers in the options market proposed recently by Wang et al. It extends the classical European option by requiring option holders to continuously trade in underlying assets according to a predesigned trading strategy, to proactively hedge part of the potential risk from underlying asset price changes. To generalize this option design for practical application, in this study, a proactive hedging option with discrete trading strategy is developed and its pricing formula is deducted assuming the underlying asset price follows Geometric Fractional Brownian Motion. Simulation studies show that proactive hedging option with discrete trading strategy still enjoys strong price advantage compared to the classical European option for majority of parameter space. The observed price advantage is stronger when the underlying asset has more volatility or when the asset price follows closer to Geometric Brownian Motion. Additionally, we found that a higher frequency trading strategy has stronger price advantage if there is no trading cost. The findings in this research strongly facilitate the practical application of the proactive hedging option, making this lower-cost trading tool more feasible.

Description: In this paper, we discuss a class of fractional differential equations of the form is the Liouville right-sided fractional derivative of order . We obtain some oscillation criteria for the equation by employing a generalized Riccati transformation technique. Some examples are given to illustrate the significance of our results.

Description: This work is concerned with the qualitative behavior of discrete time single species model with fuzzy environment where denotes the number of individuals of generation , is the intrinsic growth rate, and is interpreted as the carrying capacity of the surrounding environment. is a sequence of positive fuzzy number. and the initial value are positive fuzzy numbers. Applying difference of Hukuhara (H-difference), the existence, uniqueness of the positive solution, and global asymptotic behavior of all positive solution with the model are obtained. Moreover a numerical example is presented to show the effectiveness of theoretic results obtained.

Description: This paper uses the Baidu Index to construct indicators for measuring the public's environmental concerns in 288 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2016 and validates the public's attention to the effectiveness of environmental indicators by using provincial panel data from public environmental reports. Through the analysis of urban heterogeneity, the impact on the development of informatisation on the public's concern for the environment is considered. Also studied is the cross-cutting effect of the level of informatisation and education, the government's environmental regulation power, economic development level, and environmental pollution level on the public's concern for the environment. The influence coefficients were 0.018, 0.147, 0.689, 0.620, 0.106, and 0.089, respectively. Through subsample heterogeneity analysis, we found that the level of informatisation will also indirectly promote public attention to the environment by strengthening the influence of the government's environmental regulation power on the public's attention to the environment.

Description: In this paper, a discrete predator-prey system with the periodic boundary conditions will be considered. First, we get the conditions for producing Turing instability of the discrete predator-prey system according to the linear stability analysis. Then, we show that the discrete model has the flip bifurcation and Turing bifurcation under the critical parameter values. Finally, a series of numerical simulations are carried out in the Turing instability region of the discrete predator-prey model; some new Turing patterns such as striped, bar, and horizontal bar are observed.

Description: A function is said to be a Tribonacci function with period if , for all . In this paper, we present some properties on the Tribonacci functions with period . We show that if is a Tribonacci function with period , then , where is the root of the equation such that .

Description: Under low carbon environment, a multi-period emissions reduction problem for manufacturer is investigated in the paper, where we assume that the government sets mandatory carbon emissions limit to all the enterprises by free of charge and allows the carbon emission quota to be traded or banked inter-temporally in the carbon trading market. Using discrete-time optimal control theory, the optimal emission reduction strategies for each period are firstly explored for maximizing the sum of net profit under cap-and-trade. The optimal carbon emissions, permit trading quantity, and the number of buying Certified Emission Reduction (CER) are obtained in each period. Furthermore, the effects of carbon price and initial carbon quota given by the government on the firm’s emission reduction strategies are discussed. Finally, numerical examples are illustrated to verify the proposed model, and some managerial inferences for a multi-period emission reduction are provided in conclusions.

Description: As the unification and development of impulsive differential equations and difference equations, impulsive dynamic equations on time scales are a powerful tool to simulate the natural and social phenomena. In this paper, we study the interval oscillation of a type of forced second-order nonlinear impulsive dynamic equations with changing signs coefficients. By using the Riccati transformation technique, we obtain some new interval oscillation criteria, based only on information of a sequence of subintervals of positive axis. In addition, we provide an example to illustrate the use of our oscillatory results.

Description: We consider a class of stochastic nonlinear Markovian jump systems (MJSs) with partly unknown transition rate and time-varying delays. The system under consideration is subject to the mode uncertainties and nonlinear term and disturbance term which are unknown. The main mission is to design the observer-based sliding mode controller for such a complex system. An observer is first constructed, and then we design an integral sliding mode surface such that the MJSs satisfy the reaching condition. The sliding mode control law ensures the stochastic stability of the closed-loop system. Finally, an example is given to illustrate the proposed results.

Description: This paper establishes the existence of a nontrivial steady-state solution to a parabolic-parabolic coupled system with singular (or logarithmic) sensitivity and nonlinear source arising from chemotaxis. The proofs mainly rely on the maximum principle, the implicit function theorem, and the Hopf bifurcation theorem.

Description: This paper integrates carbon emission reduction via technological innovation with consumer channel preferences in both single- and dual-channel supply chains selling low-carbon products. Linear demand functions which simultaneously reflect the consumers’ channel preferences and low-carbon sensitivity are developed by considering the consumers’ segmentation. On this basis, we present two Stackelberg game models: one for each of the single- and dual-channel supply chains. In the first, the manufacturer sells low-carbon products through a traditional retailer who has a physical store, while in the second the manufacturer opens an online direct channel to compete with the traditional retailer. For the two models developed, the optimal pricing decisions, carbon emission reduction level, and profits are derived and discussed. Numerical examples are given to verify the effectiveness and practicality of the proposed models and solutions. The results show that supply chain members’ profits are affected by system parameters such as the carbon price, consumers’ low-carbon sensitivity, channel preference, etc. Furthermore, although the aforementioned parameters stimulate the manufacturer to reduce carbon emission, this does not always benefit the retailer. Comparison of the two models indicates that dual-channel selling is only the better choice for both the manufacturer and the retailer under certain conditions.

Description: Considering the rapid development of the tourist leisure industry and the surge of tourist quantity, insufficient information regarding tourists has placed tremendous pressure on traffic in scenic areas. In this paper, the author uses the Big Data technology and Call Detail Record (CDR) data with the mobile phone real-time location information to monitor the tourist flow and analyse the travel behaviour of tourists in scenic areas. By collecting CDR data and implementing a modelling analysis of the data to simultaneously reflect the distribution of tourist hot spots in Beijing, tourist locations, tourist origins, tourist movements, resident information, and other data, the results provide big data support for alleviating traffic pressure at tourist attractions and tourist routes in the city and rationally allocating traffic resources. The analysis shows that the big data analysis method based on the CDR data of mobile phones can provide real-time information about tourist behaviours in a timely and effective manner. This information can be applied for the operation management of scenic areas and can provide real-time big data support for “smart tourism”.

Description: In this paper, a new fractional-order system which has a chaotic attractor of the one-scroll structure is presented. Firstly, the stability of the equilibrium points of the system is investigated. And based on the stability analysis, the generation conditions of the one-scroll structure for the attractor are determined. In a commensurate-order case, bifurcations with the variation of a system parameter are investigated as derivative orders decrease from 0.99. In an incommensurate-order case, bifurcations with the variation of a derivative order are analyzed as other orders decrease from 1.

Description: Low-emission environmental protection concept once it replaced the low-carbon energy transformation concept, to a certain extent, disrupted the core direction of energy transformation. This paper takes the green development of electric power as the research direction, the thermal power unit is the green source control point of electricity, and the green production of the thermal power unit is the research target; based on the actual research data and the actual data, the comprehensive evaluation of the green production of a thermal power generating unit in a city is carried out by means of ANP, matter-element extension model, and principal component analysis. This paper not only reflects the quantification of green benefits in each year, but also achieves the comparison of green achievements and the analysis of increasing losses in the data years. Furthermore, the indexes of annual increase and loss of the index system are analyzed and filtered. The indexes of strong contribution index and short board of barrel are found out, and the dimension reduction management of green production of thermal power unit is realized.

Description: This work aims at investigating the impact of different tidal turbine locations on hydrodynamics in near-field and far-field flow; thus, three- and two-dimensional (3- & 2-D) models were exploited in combination and applied in a case study of Putuo-Hulu Islands’ tidal farm. We present a method for the simplification of tidal turbine which, based on the energy equation, determines turbine’s equivalent roughness by calculating resistance loss in flow passage. A 3-D turbine model of near-field flow in the frame of Computational Fluid Dynamics was constructed, and the flow velocity distributions in 7 combinations of “impeller rotating speed - inflow velocity” were simulated. Also a 2-D tidal model of far-field flow was established, and Finite Element Method was adopted to solve the 2-D shallow water circulation equations; thus, the impact of tidal turbine could be simulated by utilizing different location’s compositive roughness. The results show that the impact of turbine location on hydrodynamics is depending on the open degree of sea area, channel trend, and bathymetric and geographic features and that the farther distance from the turbine, the less impact on the flow field. Overall, the impact of turbine location on far-field flow is not significant, and the flow velocity varies below 8% relative to the velocity prior to turbine installation.

Description: From the perspective of organizational ambidexterity, we consider the choice of innovation strategy among R&D firms. By building on contractual arrangements and employing a dynamic game model, we focus on the incentive mechanism of R&D Firms’ collaborative innovation and analyze incentive contracts of benefits distribution and cost-sharing when two firms conduct market-driven innovation (exploitative innovation) strategy and technological research-driven innovation (exploratory innovation) strategy respectively, and collaborate for innovation with each other. We also discuss the influence of exploratory and exploitative innovation effects on decision-making of R&D firms regarding whether to choose collaborative innovation under different incentive contracts. The results show that the effects of exploratory innovation acts as the intrinsic motivation of collaborative innovation while exploratory innovation could be improved to some degree by exploitative innovation. In addition, both investment levels of exploratory and exploitative innovation would decrease (increase) when innovation cost (innovative efficiency) increases. Moreover, compared with a benefit-distribution contract, cost-sharing contracts would not only lead exploitative innovation to realize optimal revenue, but also provide incentives for exploratory innovation more effectively.

Description: This paper studies the distance-based congestion pricing in a network considering the day-to-day dynamic traffic flow evolution process. It is well known that, after an implementation or adjustment of a new congestion toll scheme, the network environment will change and traffic flows will be nonequilibrium in the following days; thus it is not suitable to take the equilibrium-based indexes as the objective of the congestion toll. In the context of nonequilibrium state, prior research proposed a mini–max regret model to solve the distance-based congestion pricing problem in a network considering day-to-day dynamics. However, it is computationally demanding due to the calculation of minimal total travel cost for each day among the whole planning horizon. Therefore, in order to overcome the expensive computational burden problem and make the robust toll scheme more practical, we propose a new robust optimization model in this paper. The essence of this model, which is an extension of our prior work, is to optimize the worst condition among the whole planning period and ameliorate severe traffic congestions in some bad days. Firstly, a piecewise linear function is adopted to formulate the nonlinear distance toll, which can be encapsulated to a day-to-day dynamics context. A very clear and concise model named logit-type Markov adaptive learning model is then proposed to depict commuters’ day-to-day route choice behaviors. Finally, a robust optimization model which minimizes the maximum total travel cost among the whole planning horizon is formulated and a modified artificial bee colony algorithm is developed for the robust optimization model.

Description: Based on disruptive innovation and Stackelberg noncooperative game theory, the paper focuses on supply chain coordination under the combined effects of block chain technology and random demand. Firstly, both a decentralized and a centralized supply chain decision models are built in a single-cycle newsvendor random demand situation. Then, through revenue sharing contract the study designs a brand-new supply chain coordination model which is Del trust, decentralized, and traded anonymously. Furthermore, the numerical comparative analysis on the optimal decision and supply chain coordination are conducted. It is found that the whole supply chain revenue can achieve and even beyond the performance level of the centralized supply chain with effectively expanding sales market and reducing supply chain risk. When the retail price is stable and supply chain is coordinated with revenue sharing mechanism, decentralized supply chain can achieve minimum optimal revenue. Coordination results have effect on short-term revenues of block chain members only. Implications and suggestions for future research in supply chain coordination are provided.

Description: With the rapid development of online shopping in recent years, logistics distribution has received much attention from enterprises and online consumers. Logistics distribution involves many factors and complex processes; conventional qualitative methods are unable to provide an effective analysis. Thus, this paper sets a framework to solve the above problem. A case study of an E-commerce enterprise in Shanghai on logistics distribution is proposed to discretize the whole process and minimize the total costs. Then the AnyLogic software is used to simulate and optimize the system from three aspects, including routes selection, warehouses quantity, and warehouses layout. Finally, this paper analyzes the simulation results, which would provide some valuable references for practical logistics.

Description: Crowdfunding marks a popular and sustainable means by which small and microentrepreneurs obtain financial resources for their innovative project. Consumers increasingly rely on online reviews to make purchase decisions. However, the crowdfunding nowadays lacks a form type of review system. This paper is designed to extend research on the optimal pricing decision with review system for the reward-based crowdfunding. Firstly, a Bayesian analysis is established to construct consumers’ belief update process in presence of review system. Secondly, we take the strategies without the review system as a benchmark to explore the impacts of review system under preannounced pricing and responsive pricing. Finally, through the equilibrium analysis, we find that the review system has a positive impact on the creator under responsive pricing policy. The fraction of favorable review has a large effect on the profit of preannounced pricing. When the fraction is about 80%, the profit is the maximum. Generally speaking, the review system will make more profit for the creator.

Description: This paper introduces a concession equilibrium solution without weighted aggregation operators to multiattribute group decision-making problems (in short MGDMPs). It is of practical significance for all decision-makers to find an optimal solution to MGDMPs or to sort out all candidate solutions to MGDMPs. It is proved that under certain conditions the optimal concession equilibrium solution does exist, and on this important result the optimal concession equilibrium solution is obtained by solving a single objective optimization problem. Moreover, the optimal concession equilibrium solution is equivalent to the robust optimal solution with the group weight aggregation under the worst weight condition. Finally, it is proved that the concession equilibrium solution is equivalent to a complete order, i.e. all candidate alternatives can be sorted by concession equilibrium solution. By defining the triangular fuzzy numbers of target concession value, the optimal concession equilibrium solution or the order of the alternative solutions can be obtained in the range of objective concession ambiguity. Numerical experiment shows that the solution can balance the evaluations of multiattribute group decision makers. This paper provides a new approach to solving multiattribute group decision-making problems.

Description: Special vehicles named flat transporters are used to deliver heavy ship assembly blocks in shipyards. Because each movement of assembly blocks among workshops needs transporters and the transportations are time-consuming, the scheduling of transporters is important for maintaining the overall production schedule of assembly blocks. This paper considers an optimization transporter scheduling problem for assembly blocks. The objective is to minimize logistics time, which includes empty travel time of transporters and waiting time and delay time of block tasks. Considering time windows of ship blocks, carrying capacity of transporters, and precedence relationships of tasks, a mathematical model is proposed. A hybrid topological graph is used to denote precedence and cooperating relationships of tasks. A metaheuristic algorithm based on the hybrid topological graph and genetic algorithm and Tabu search is proposed. The performance of the algorithm was evaluated by comparing the algorithm to optimal result in small-sized instances and several strategies in large-sized instances. The results showed the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Description: The ride-hailing industry is a new business form that combines traditional taxi services with Internet technology and a sharing economy. However, after its emergence, countries have focused on finding ways to regulate this industry. The regulation of ride-hailing has gone through three stages: from denial of negation to laissez-faire and prudential supervision. This study focuses on the market regulation of the ride-hailing industry, discusses whether ride-hailing platforms require strict regulation under the current Internet setting, and provides evidence for this problem from the perspective of evolutionary game theory between the behavior of the government and the platforms. This study argues that both ride-hailing platforms and the government are evolutionary game players with bounded rationality, constantly adjusting their strategies through confrontation, dependence, and restriction. Therefore, this study constructs a two-dimensional game model between the government and ride-hailing platforms and analyzes the stability strategies of the two participants in different scenarios, to clarify the game behavior and the game return matrix. Assuming that loose government regulation and the standard operation of the ride-hailing platforms are the optimal Pareto equilibrium of the game system, the study concludes that this optimal equilibrium cannot be achieved under the current conditions. Through parameter analysis and sample simulation calculations, the system can be directed toward this equilibrium by reducing government supervision cost and increasing government punishment. This provides a theoretical basis for the government to regulate the ride-hailing industry from the perspective of quantitative analysis. Related implications are finally proposed, which can help the decision-makers better understand the regulation countermeasures of the government and ride-hailing platforms.

Description: In recent years, with the rapid development of the Internet and the Internet of Things, network security is urgently needed. Malware becomes a major threat to network security. Thus, the study on malware propagation model plays an important role in network security. In the past few decades, numerous researchers put up various kinds of malware propagation models to analyze the dynamic interaction. However, many works are only concerned with the integer-order malware propagation models, while the investigation on fractional-order ones is very few. In this paper, based on the earlier works, we will put up a new fractional-order delayed malware propagation model. Letting the delay be bifurcation parameter and analyzing the corresponding characteristic equations of considered system, we will establish a set of new sufficient conditions to guarantee the stability and the existence of Hopf bifurcation of fractional-order delayed malware propagation model. The study shows that the delay and the fractional order have important effect on the stability and Hopf bifurcation of considered system. To check the correctness of theoretical analyses, we carry out some computer simulations. At last, a simple conclusion is drawn. The derived results of this paper are completely innovative and play an important guiding role in network security.

Description: There is an increase of megaproject construction worldwide. At the same time, risks involved in megaprojects have also become a wide concern. Extending from the macrolevel of qualitative analysis focusing on complexity, politics, and morality, the research conducted the microscopic empirical analysis on twenty-two typical cases by adopting the quality comparative analysis (QCA) from the auditing perspective. Different from the traditional analysis method taking each causation as independent variable, the results in the study revealed that there was complex multiple concurrent causation among eight conditions; additionally, the configuration of those would be divided into six types, among which, the coverage of the three types, namely, project management risk, preliminary and construction risk, and tendering and contract management related risk, was almost eighty percent. Finally, megaproject risks in China were caused by complicated and changeable combination conditions, which would provide a new breakthrough for seeking analyzing megaproject risks through this quantitative analysis method, and indicate the researchers and practitioners to control the megaproject risks from a more systematic way.