Complex Choices Research Articles

Choice sets for spatial discrete choice models in data rich environments

Failure to properly specify an agent's choice set in discrete choice models will generate biased parameter estimates resulting in inaccurate behavioral predictions as well as biased estimates of policy relevant metrics. We propose a method of constructing choice sets by sampling from specific points in space to model agent behavior when choice alternatives are unknown to the researcher, potentially infinite, and differ according to spatial and temporal factors. Using Monte Carlo analysis we compare the performance of this point-based sampling method to the commonly used approach of spatially aggregating choice alternatives. We then apply these alternative approaches to modelling location choice in the Pacific groundfish trawl fishery which has a complex spatial choice structure. Both the Monte Carlo and application results provide considerable support for the efficacy of the point-based approaches.

Path complexity and bicyclist route choice set quality assessment

Everyday route choices made by bicyclists are known to be more difficult to explain than vehicle routes, yet prediction of these choices is essential for guiding infrastructural investment in safe cycling. Building route choice sets is a difficult task. Even including detailed attributes such as the number of left turns, the number of speed bumps, distance and other route choice properties we still see that choice set quality measures suggest poor replication of observed paths. In this paper we study how the concept of route complexity can help generate and analyze plausible choice sets in the demand modeling process. The complexity of a given path in a graph is the minimum number of shortest paths that is required to specify that path. Complexity is a path attribute which could potentially be considered to be important for route choice in a similar way. The complexity was determined for a large set of observed routes and for routes in the generated choice sets for the corresponding origin-destination pairs. The respective distributions are shown to be significantly different so that the choice sets do not reflect the traveler preferences, this is in line with classical choice set quality indicators. Secondly, we investigate often used choice set quality methods and formulate measures that are less sensitive to small differences between routes that can be argued to be insignificant or irrelevant. Such difference may be partially due to inaccuracy in map-matching observations to dense urban road networks.

Cost-effectiveness analysis for rotavirus vaccine decision-making: How can we best inform evolving and complex choices in vaccine product selection?

Cost-effectiveness analysis for rotavirus vaccine decision-making: How can we best inform evolving and complex choices in vaccine product selection?

Towards Sustainable Entrepreneurship Holistic Construct

In recent years, conducted businesses have been increasingly expected to obtain more sustainable forms, with many added determinants. Indeed, sustainability-related entrepreneurship still faces complex choices among conventional entrepreneurial factors, while being urged to consider three main pillars of sustainability. Thus, this work is focused on the development of sustainability-related entrepreneurship by reflecting the sustainable needs of entrepreneurship. Due to the fact that it is not clear for the sustainability-related entrepreneurship what the valuable and most influential factors stimming its development are, the detection of basic components and their correlation becomes a major motivation of this work. Therefore, this paper aims to conduct an attempt to identify a comprehensive set of SE (sustainable entrepreneurship) factors providing a structural overview in making insights into the factors/determinants of SE. It assists researchers and entrepreneurs in obtaining clear, informative pictures about SE factors. The applied research methodology is based on a systematic literature review which is conducted using the PRISMA methodology, simultaneously ensuring repetitiveness and lack of bias in this process. To retrieve and condense the immense amount of bibliographic information, a bibliometric analysis is adopted to perform in co-occurrence analysis of keywords determining SE factors and different detailed forms of distribution analysis. The expected outcome is to provide the classification schema of applied keywords in sustainable entrepreneurship literature as part of a comprehensive literature review, which is presented in order to uncover, classify and systematize the current research. As a result, a co-word matrix of high frequency keywords of SE factors is also established. It offers a feasible path of investigation for researchers aiming to build a consistent body of knowledge about sustainable entrepreneurship, by providing a conceptualization and systematization that can be applied across the many contexts in which sustainable entrepreneurship is expressed, for example, sustainable actions and sustainable development contexts. The present research aims to yield a successful attempt of identifying the comprehensive set of SE factors, as well as to establish a co-word matrix of high frequency keywords of SE factors. Providing a macroscopic overview of the main factors of SE in the form of conceptualization of the proposed construct will capture the unique organizational characteristics of sustainable enterprises and facilitate the research into capability building, innovation and competitive advantage in sustainable enterprises. It supports both researchers and entrepreneurs in shaping up and refining future research activities and investments in line with the policy of SE.

The Tyranny of Choice and the Interpretation of Standards: Why the ECtHR Uses Consensus

Recent studies in social psychology have consistently shown that individuals are inherently averse to ‘choice overload’. Faced with complex choice sets, they are unhappier with the choices they make, more likely to regret their decision, and more prone to reverse their initial choice. This article tests the hypothesis that individuals’ innate aversion to choice overload might explain why courts and tribunals interpret standards, such as fairness, necessity, and proportionality, in the way that they do. Drawing on the findings of an empirical study of 461 judgments of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, the article suggests that the Court’s consensus doctrine must be understood partially as a reaction to the ‘tyranny of choice’.

Quantum-inspired algorithm for radiotherapy planning optimization.

Modern inverse radiotherapy treatment planning requires nonconvex, large-scale optimizations that must be solved within a clinically feasible timeframe. We have developed and tested a quantum-inspired, stochastic algorithm for intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT): quantum tunnel annealing (QTA). By modeling the likelihood probability of accepting a higher energy solution after a particle tunneling through a potential energy barrier, QTA features an additional degree of freedom (the barrier width, w) not shared by traditional stochastic optimization methods such as Simulated Annealing (SA). This additional degree of freedom can improve convergence rates and achieve a more efficient and, potentially, effective treatment planning process. To analyze the character of the proposed QTA algorithm, we chose two stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) liver cases of variable complexity. The "easy" first case was used to confirm functionality, while the second case, with a more challenging geometry, was used to characterize and evaluate the QTA algorithm performance. Plan quality was assessed using dose-volume histogram-based objectives and dose distributions. Due to the stochastic nature of the solution search space, extensive tests were also conducted to determine the optimal smoothing technique, ensuring balance between plan deliverability and the resulting plan quality. QTA convergence rates were investigated in relation to the chosen barrier width function, and QTA and SA performances were compared regarding sensitivity to the choice of solution initializations, annealing schedules, and complexity of the dose-volume constraints. Finally, we investigated the extension from beamlet intensity optimization to direct aperture optimization (DAO). Influence matrices were calculated using the Eclipse scripting application program interface (API), and the optimizations were run on the University of Michigan's high-performance computing cluster, Flux. Our results indicate that QTA's barrier-width function can be tuned to achieve faster convergence rates. The QTA algorithm reached convergence up to 46.6% faster than SA for beamlet intensity optimization and up to 26.8% faster for DAO. QTA and SA were ultimately found to be equally insensitive to the initialization process, but the convergence rate of QTA was found to be more sensitive to the complexity of the dose-volume constraints. The optimal smoothing technique was found to be a combination of a Laplace-of-Gaussian (LOG) edge-finding filter implemented as a penalty within the objective function and a two-dimensional Savitzky-Golay filter applied to the final iteration; this achieved total monitor units more than 20% smaller than plans optimized by commercial treatment planning software. We have characterized the performance of a stochastic, quantum-inspired optimization algorithm, QTA, for radiotherapy treatment planning. This proof of concept study suggests that QTA can be tuned to achieve faster convergence than SA; therefore, QTA may be a good candidate for future knowledge-based or adaptive radiation therapy applications.

Haemodynamic Balance in Acute and Advanced Heart Failure: An Expert Perspective on the Role of Levosimendan.

Acute and advanced heart failure are associated with substantial adverse short- and longer-term prognosis. Both conditions necessitate complex treatment choices to restore haemodynamic stability and organ perfusion, relieve congestion, improve symptoms and allow the patient to leave the hospital and achieve an adequate quality of life. Among the available intravenous vasoactive therapies, inotropes constitute an option when an increase in cardiac contractility is needed to reverse a low output state. Within the inotrope category, levosimendan is well suited to the needs of both sets of patients since, in contrast to conventional adrenergic inotropes, it has not been linked in clinical trials or wider clinical usage with increased mortality risk and retains its efficacy in the presence of beta-adrenergic receptor blockade; it is further believed to possess beneficial renal effects. The overall haemodynamic profile and clinical tolerability of levosimendan, combined with its extended duration of action, have encouraged its intermittent use in patients with advanced heart failure. This paper summarises the key messages derived from a series of 12 tutorials held at the Heart Failure 2019 congress organised in Athens, Greece, by the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology.

The “Original” Journals of Katherine Wilmot: Women’s Travel Writing in the Salon of Helen Maria Williams

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the implications of a previously unknown Romantic-period manuscript by Anglo-Irish traveler Katherine Wilmot (1773–1824). A later version of Wilmot’s epistolary travelogue of 1801–03 has been valued as an artifact of British experience abroad during the Peace of Amiens for its descriptions of Napoleonic Paris. Yet the newly discovered draft reveals a deeper assimilation within and sympathy towards the radical political and literary networks Wilmot documented, as well as a budding relationship with author and salonnière Helen Maria Williams that is occluded from the later narrative. This article examines the complex choices surrounding authorship for British women abroad in the period by considering a refused invitation that Wilmot submit writing to The English Press, the publishing venture of Williams and her companion John Hurford Stone. The article details Wilmot’s evolving writing in terms of Williams’s influence, outlining how British women travel writers reshaped their experiences to meet the expectations of readers at home while also considering the impact of sedition, gendered agency, and political affinity on the production and reception of their writing.

Substantiation of equipment complexes for the development of brown coal deposits in the mode of coal quality management

The choice of equipment complexes, development technology is a task influencing the technical, economic, environmental, social and other indicators of the mining enterprise. The world known companies having long traditions in the production of mining construction machines and excavators are flexible companies that easily adjust to constantly changing market, this is the equipment that can be used in the current situation. The interrelation of the equipment complex parameters with the production capacity of the open pit is since the productivity of the first must be a multiple of the second value, and the costs for all types of mining and investment are minimal with the selected technological complex variant. The article studies the influence of the mine production and the bucket capacity of a hydraulic excavator (for which the corresponding variant of the technological complex was formed) on the technical and economic indicators of the mine operation for the conditions of a valid research object.

A patient-specific cerebral blood flow model

In clinical practice, many complex choices in treatment of complex cerebrovascular diseases have to be made. A patient-specific mathematical blood flow could aid these decisions. For certain cases, less accuracy is required and more simplistic models might be feasible. The current study is aiming to validate a patient-specific simplistic blood flow model in 20 healthy subjects. All subjects underwent MRI and Noninvasive Optimal Vessel Analysis (NOVA) to obtain patient-specific vascular morphology and flow measurements of all major cerebral arteries for validation. The mathematical model used was based on the Hagen-Poiseuille equations. Proximal boundary conditions were patient-specific blood pressure cuff measurements. For distal boundary conditions, a structured tree and a simple autoregulatory model were applied. Autoregulatory parameters were optimized based on the data of 10 additional healthy subjects. A median percentual flow difference of −3% (interquartile range −36% to 17%) was found. Regression analysis to an identity line resulted in R2 values of 0.71 for absolute flow values. Bland-Altman plots showed a bias (levels of agreement) of 5% (-70 to 80%) for absolute flow. Based on these results the model proved to be accurate within a range that might be feasible for use in clinic. Major limitations to the model arise from the simplifications made compared to the actual physiological situation and limitations in the validation method. As the model is validated in healthy subjects only, further validation in actual patients is needed.

Identity of Asian Multinational Corporations: influence of tax havens

The sustained growth and importance of Asia as a hub of economic, social and political activity has attracted significant foreign direct investment and opportunities for economies from the West and other parts of the world to invest in this fast growing region. Regional headquarters and global innovation hubs of large multinational corporations (MNCs) are evidence of an Asian century phenomenon. The proliferation of tax havens in the region or the use of tax havens by firms in the Asian region is no surprise. This is evidenced through a complex and systematic policy choice by power coalitions, to facilitate their interests as well as trade and growth in the region. This proliferation has also had an impact on the changing identity of Asian MNCs in Asia. In this paper, we highlight this new and pervasive trend by presenting findings from recent research in the region on the topic of tax havens and identities of Asian MNCs.

Thinking about complex decisions: How sleep and time-of-day influence complex choices.

In this study, we systematically manipulate a person's state of sleep; Sleep-deprived and Well-rested along with Matching or Mismatching the decision time-of-day to their circadian preferred time-of-day. We assessed how these conditions influenced performance on an incentivized complex decision task. In the overall analysis of these variables no differences emerged. However, a comparison of the more cognitively depleting Sleep-deprivation/Circadian-mismatch condition to the cognitively enhancing Well-rested/Circadian-match condition showed improved performance in the Well-rested/Circadian matched group for one complex decision task but not for the other. These findings build upon the existing literature on sleep and circadian rhythm effects while uniquely observing the combined effects of these variables on complex decision making.

RodSteward: A Design‐to‐Assembly System for Fabrication using 3D‐Printed Joints and Precision‐Cut Rods

AbstractWe present RodSteward, a design‐to‐assembly system for creating furniture‐scale structures composed of 3D‐printed joints and precision‐cut rods. The RodSteward systems consists of: RSDesigner, a fabrication‐aware design interface that visualizes accurate geometries during edits and identifies infeasible designs; physical fabrication of parts automatically generated 3D‐printable joint geometries and cutting plans for rods; and RSAssembler, a guided‐assembly interface that prompts the user to place parts in order while showing a focus+context visualization of the assembly in progress. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our tools with a number of example constructions of varying complexity, style and parameter choices.

Testing the effectiveness of the Internet-based instrument PsyToolkit: A comparison between web-based (PsyToolkit) and lab-based (E-Prime 3.0) measurements of response choice and response time in a complex psycholinguistic task

To test the effectiveness of the Internet-based instrument PsyToolkit for use with complex choice tasks, a replicability study was conducted wherein an existing psycholinguistic paradigm was utilised to compare results obtained through the Internet-based implementation of PsyToolkit with those obtained through the laboratory-based implementation of E-Prime 3.0. The results indicated that PsyToolkit is a viable method for conducting both general and psycholinguistic specific experiments that utilise complex response time tasks, with effects found to replicate for both response choice and response time.

Warp-and-project tomography for rapidly deforming objects

Computed tomography has emerged as the method of choice for scanning complex shapes as well as interior structures of stationary objects. Recent progress has also allowed the use of CT for analyzing deforming objects and dynamic phenomena, although the deformations have been constrained to be either slow or periodic motions. In this work we improve the tomographic reconstruction of time-varying geometries undergoing faster, non-periodic deformations. Our method uses a warp-and-project approach that allows us to introduce an essentially continuous time axis where consistency of the reconstructed shape with the projection images is enforced for the specific time and deformation state at which the image was captured. The method uses an efficient, time-adaptive solver that yields both the moving geometry as well as the deformation field. We validate our method with extensive experiments using both synthetic and real data from a range of different application scenarios.

Channel Preferences Among Sport Consumers: Profiling Media-Dominant Consumers

How consumers decide to consume sport is a complex choice. Broadcast options have widened through new channels and content options while live attendance has improved through enhanced stadium qualit...

Target-Date Funds in 401(K) Retirement Plans

Individual responsibility for portfolio construction is a central theme for defined contribution pensions, yet the rise of target-date funds is shifting investment decisions from workers back to employers. A complex choice architecture including automatic enrollment, reenrollment, and fund mapping, is increasing the number of participants defaulting into employer-selected target-date funds. At the same time, portfolios of non-defaulted participants undergo sizeable changes, with equity share ratios widening by over 40 percent points between younger/older participants. Among active decision-makers, these funds act as a form of implicit employer-provided lifecycle investment advice. More broadly, our findings highlight malleable preferences among retirement investors and a demand for default-based guidance or simplified advice for households facing complex choices.

A study of unconscious emotional and cognitive responses to tourism images using a neuroscience method

Purpose This applied neuroscience study aims to understand how direct and unconscious emotional and cognitive responses underlie travel destination preferences. State-of-the-art neuroscience tools and methods were used, including stationary eye tracking and brain scanning electroencephalography (EEG) to assess emotional and cognitive responses to destination images and assets. To the researchers’ knowledge, this study is the first applied neuroscience study in tourism research and thus opens a new path of research and enquiry to this area. This paper is an attempt to understand specific mental processes in human tourism behaviours, and it is suggest that unconscious emotional and cognitive responses are natural processes that need to be studied and understood, not as special cases, but embedded as natural parts of tourism research. Design/methodology/approach To better understand consumers’ unconscious responses to possible travel destinations, a 3 × 5 factorial design was run with the factors being stimulus type (images, printed names and videos) and travel destination (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, New York and London). Eye-tracking calibration was done with a nine-point fixation test and the EEG calibration was done using functional localizer tests based on the ABM B-ALERT calibration process. This calibration procedure allows reliable tracking of emotional and cognitive responses over time. Thirty Emirati (nationals of the UAE) participants, consisting of equal numbers of males and females (15) were recruited from the UAE and signed informed consent. Each participant was positioned in front of an eye tracker and computer screen, and brain-scanning equipment was mounted; then, each participant underwent eye-tracking and neuroimaging calibration procedures. A Tobii T60XL eye tracker and an ABM X-10 EEG brain scanner, both running iMotions v5.1 in a Windows 7 environment, were used. Findings General emotional and cognitive differences were identified between the channels through which travel destinations are presented. Words about and names of travel destinations cause higher cognitive loads, which may not be surprising, given the greater associative load that words have than images. Of particular interest is the hypothesis that images evoke stronger affective responses than verbal representations. However, as previously noted (Holmes and Mathews, 2005), empirical evidence for this assumption seems surprisingly sparse. The present study and the context provided here suggest that decisions on travel destination have an unconscious component and a direct component that may drive or affect overt preference and actual choice. Research limitations/implications The limitations of this paper is that first, neuromarketing is not dependent on sample sizes; however, future studies could build on this paper to understand why there is a preference for cities. It is suggested that unconscious emotional and cognitive responses are natural processes that need to be studied and understood, not as special cases, but embedded as natural parts of tourism research. Originality/value Thus, tourism research may indeed be a suitable field for understanding the brain bases of complex preference formation and choice. Various researchers have found that a destination image is typically measured using cognitive, affective and behavioural components, and further stated that the cognitive image component of a destination was found to have a significant positive effect on the affective image component and overall destination image (Stylidis et al., 2017). Therefore, this research which has introduced brain scanning can be used to better understand the underlying unconscious emotional and cognitive processes that affect consumer thought and action. An understanding of what goes on in the human unconscious mind is very important for destination marketers, this can help in the integrated marketing communication process to create a destination image and brand.

On the choice of closure complexity in anisotropic drag closures for filtered Two Fluid Models

Filtered Two Fluid Models (fTFMs) aim to enable accurate industrial-scale simulations of fluidized beds by means of closures accounting for the effects of bubbles and clusters. The present study aims to improve anisotropic closures for the drift velocity, which is the primary sub-grid effect altering the filtered drag force, by deriving increasingly complex closures by considering additional independent variables (markers). Three different anisotropic closures, as well as an isotropic closure, are evaluated. A priori tests revealed a significant increase in the predictive capability of the closures as the complexity, in terms of the number of markers considered, increases. However, this improvement is relatively small when compared to the effect of considering anisotropy. Next, a posteriori tests were completed by comparing coarse-grid simulations of bubbling, turbulent and core-annular fluidization against benchmark resolved TFM simulations. This analysis shows good performance of all anisotropic closures, with negligible to minor effects of increasing the drag closure’s complexity by considering additional markers. On the other hand, the isotropic closure lacks generality and shows poor grid independence behaviour. It is therefore concluded that it is essential to include important physical effects, such as anisotropy, in fTFM closures, while complexity in terms of the number of markers considered is of lesser importance.

Сучасні дієти й особливості застосування вітамінно-мінеральних комплексів

Nutrition is necessary to maintain the life and health of a living organism, as well as the normal course of physiological processes of life activity. This article discusses the concept of vegetarianism and describes all types of vegetarian diets. Their influence on the woman’s body during pregnancy and during lactation and the development of the fetus is analyzed. Recommendations on the choice and use of vitamin-mineral complexes, in particular the drug Elevit Pronatal, are given. Key words: vegetarianism, vitamins, pregnancy, Elevit Pronatal.