Industry In Recent Decades Research Articles

Feature selection techniques for modelling tower fatigue loads of a wind turbine with neural networks

Abstract. The rapid development of the wind industry in recent decades and the establishment of this technology as a mature and cost-competitive alternative have stressed the need for sophisticated maintenance and monitoring methods. Structural health monitoring has risen as a diagnosis strategy to detect damage or failures in wind turbine structures with the help of measuring sensors. The amount of data recorded by the structural health monitoring system can potentially be used to obtain knowledge about the condition and remaining lifetime of wind turbines. Machine learning techniques provide the opportunity to extract this information, thereby improving the reliability and cost-effectiveness of the wind industry as well. This paper demonstrates the modelling of damage-equivalent loads of the fore–aft bending moments of a wind turbine tower, highlighting the advantage of using the neighbourhood component analysis. This feature selection technique is compared to common dimension reduction/feature selection techniques such as correlation analysis, stepwise regression, or principal component analysis. For this study, recordings of data were gathered during approximately 11 months, preprocessed, and filtered by different operational modes, namely standstill, partial load, and full load. The results indicate that all feature selection techniques were able to maintain high accuracy when trained with artificial neural networks. The neighbourhood component analysis yields the lowest number of features required while maintaining the interpretability with an absolute mean squared error of around 0.07 % for full load. Finally, the applicability of the resulting model for predicting loads in the wind turbine is tested by reducing the amount of data used for training by 50 %. This analysis shows that the predictive model can be used for continuous monitoring of loads in the tower of the wind turbine.

Tire defect classification using a deep convolutional sparse-coding network

Automatic quality control has garnered great interest from academia and industry in recent decades. Tire defect detection and classification are critical research topics for driving safety and improving yields. In this work, a novel deep convolutional sparse-coding network (DCScNet) is built for tire defect classification. In DCScNet, sparse coding is utilized to replace the convolution kernel of a convolutional neural network (CNN) for the extraction of features. Compared with CNN, it requires unsupervised training, reduces the subjectivity of artificially defined labels, and achieves higher classification accuracy. The experimental results validate its superior classification performance, compared with state-of-the-art classification algorithms. The classification accuracy reaches 96.8%, which meets industrial requirements.

RECENT UPDATES ON MOLECULAR DETECTION OF H9N2 AS LOW PATHOGENIC STRAIN OF AVIAN INFLUENZA VIRUS FROM POULTRY FARMS OF LAHORE, PAKISTAN

H9N2 avian influenza outbreaks have caused great economic losses to the poultry industry in recent decades due to a decrease of egg production, high morbidity, and mortality. Due to different antigenic variants, Influenza virus has become problematical because it has the ability to cross the species barrier. As it is highly pathogenic so its diagnosis and vaccines are of high importance. Hemagglutination inhibition (HI) test is mostly used for subtyping and detection of antibody titer against the virus. Furthermore, its continuous mutations in the HA gene transforms AIV subtype H9N2 (a low pathogenic subtype) into high pathogenic virus subtypes like H5N2 and H7N7 that may have pandemic potential. Thus, it is necessary to identify various antigenic variants of Influenza virus, so it is direly needed to study the HA gene, its attachment to host receptors, the release of genetic material and pathogenicity. In the present study, virus samples from poultry were isolated. Both serological and molecular confirmation was done for 100 samples collected from the different area. They were properly labeled and prepared for the process of egg inoculation in embryonated eggs. The virus was grown in amnioallantoic membrane of embryonated eggs and harvested fluid is then proceeded for confirmatory testing. Hemagglutination and Hemagglutination inhibition testing was done. RNA was extracted by the kit method and cDNA was synthesized. Reverse transcriptase (RTPCR) was performed using specific primer sets and then the PCR product was run on agarose gel. The bands obtained were sent for sequencing.

Improving the Time Performance of Prefabricated Construction Projects: A Review

Prefabricated construction, as innovative construction technology, has been gradually applied in the construction industry in recent decades. However, little research has focused on the factors which affect the project schedule of prefabricated construction. Therefore, this review aims to systematically identify and classify determinants that influence the schedule of prefabricated constructions. Based on the literature review, 13 factors that influence the schedule performance of prefabricated construction projects are identified and classified into 7 categories: design, construction techniques, collaboration, coordination, and communication between participants, supply chain, owner, human resource, external conditions. The findings of this study provide valuable clues for both researchers and project practitioners to efficiently implement prefabricated construction projects. Future research directions are also provided.

기계학습 기반의 우리나라 익일 PM10 농도 예측지도 산출

Because of the population growth and industrialization in recent decades, the air quality over the world has been worsened with the increase of PM10 concentration. Korea is located near the eastern part of China which has many industrial complexes, so the consideration of China’s air quality is necessary for the PM10 prediction in Korea. This paper examines a machine learning-based modeling of the prediction of tomorrow’s PM10 concentration in the form of a gridded map using the AirKorea observations, Chinese cities’ air quality index, and NWP (numerical weather prediction) model data. A blind test using 23,048 cases in 2019 produced a correlation coefficient of 0.973 and an MAE (mean absolute error) of 4.097㎍/㎥, which is high accuracy due to the appropriate selection of input variables and the optimization of the machine learning model. Also, the prediction model showed stable predictability irrespective of the season and the level of PM10. It is expected that the proposed model can be applied to an operative system if a fine-tuning process using a larger database is accomplished.

A CRITICAL REVIEW OF LITERATURE IN THE RISING TIDE OF SOCIAL MEDIA TOWARDS PROMOTING TOURISM

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has been the focus of the tourism industry in recent decades, specifically for the travel and hospitality sector. The increase of usage and dependency on the Internet has escalated the growth of multiple forms and types of social channels, which have also transformed travel business for agencies and companies to communicate and market their services to the targeted demographics. Consumers would utilise the unlimited information from social media in deciding on potential destinations and leisure activities, which dramatically influences tourism marketing. Nonetheless, the interdisciplinary applications of digital platforms in the tourism industry have resulted in various studies that are found to be fragmented, resulting in gaps when translated into practice. Thus, a critical review of prior social media research is needed to interpret the precipitation and outcomes. Hence, this study had identified and synthesised 45 articles during 2012 to 2019 using extensive literature search within social media area of research interest within the field of tourism and hospitality Information System (IS). Contingent on a content analysis on the synthesised articles from both the individuals’ and firms’ perspectives, significant motivations, limitations, and conditional parameters of social media use were identified and categorised to develop a conceptual model holistically.

EFFECTS OF HUMIC SUBSTANCES ON SEED GERMINATION OF WHEAT UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF HEAVY METAL

Introduction. The rapid development of industry in recent decades has caused global pollution, including heavy metals. Of particular danger is the accumulation of heavy metals in plants widely cultivated in crop production practices, such as wheat. Among growth-promoting and remedying drugs, compounds of natural origin — humic substances — deserve special attention. Currently, around the world there is an increased interest in humic substances, the technologies for their production are being improved, and the raw material base is expanding, in which all new types of raw materials are involved. Of particular interest are synthetic humic substances, which are obtained from low molecular weight phenolic precursors. Strict control of the synthesis conditions allows obtaining a product with standardized properties, which is one of the advantages over natural humic substances. In addition, it is assumed that the nature of the low molecular weight phenolic precursor affects the biological activity of the final product. Purpose. The aim of our study was to study the effect of humic substances of various origins (a complex preparation of natural humic substances and synthetic fulvic acids from catechol) on the germination and morphological characteristics of wheat under the influence of heavy metals (Cu 2+ ). Methods. During the study, laboratory, accounting, analytical and mathematical-statistical methods were used. Result. A comparative study of the effect of a complex preparation of natural humic substances and synthetic fulvic acids from catechol on the germination of wheat seeds shows their stimulating effect compared to the control by 11.2% and 8.2%, respectively. The presence in the nutrient solution of Cu 2+ ions at the levels of 0.5, 1 and 5 MPC contributed to the increase of germination energy and germination of seeds in all experiments. The types of humic substances investigated intensify the growth processes in green shoots of wheat. Compared to the control, their length increased by 18.9 - 35.1%. In addition, these substances inhibit the negative effects of Cu 2+ ions even at the level of 5 MPC. Aqueous solutions of Cu 2+ ions have been found to stimulate the formation of primary roots in wheat. At the same time, ions of this heavy metal have a negative effect on root growth, reducing their length by 7.5 times compared to the control. The total length of all roots in wheat plants under the action of different types of humic substances exceeded the control values by 42 - 50%. At the same time, these substances significantly improved root growth when Cu 2+ ions were present in the nutrient solution. The presence of Cu 2+ ions in the solution adversely affected the crude mass of green shoots and roots in the studied wheat plants. However, humic substances improved these indicators compared to the control by 26.8 - 43.3%, which indicates their detoxifying effect. Conclusion. Thus, the treatment of wheat seeds with the studied preparations of natural humic substances and synthetic fulvic acids from catechol activates biological and physiological processes in the seed, thereby affecting the vital activity of the plant at the initial stage of development, affects the formation of additional primary roots and the growth of wheat seedlings. The studied preparations have a positive effect on the accumulation of fresh mass of wheat seedlings, and allow to obtain friendly and uniform seedlings. In addition, under conditions of soil pollution with Cu 2+ ions, various types of humic preparations exhibit phytoprotective properties.

Application of lean manufacturing in construction management

The construction industry in recent decades has been facing internal and external pressures, such as financial crisis, industry competitiveness and increased importance of quality required by the client. Because it is a sector, which has a low level of productivity, and high levels of waste, both with materials such as with labor, it is necessary to search for new management practices and production control. The development of a productive environment which aims to reduce waste, costs and deadlines, meeting customer needs and increasing efficiency and productivity in construction sites, made the application of the concepts of Lean Manufacturing in Civil works broke old paradigms in this area. In this way, this work has as objective the study of the implementation of Lean Manufacturing and its effect on the construction management, through the development of case studies on construction sites, where these concepts were applied and the results obtained are exposed in this work.

Teaching Material Imitating the Advanced Driver-Assistance System for Measurement and Control Education

The rapid growth of the information technology industry in recent decades requires an increasing number of programmers and engineers, as well as an excellent training environment for relevant human resources. Currently, school curricula promote information education and, since 2012, “measurement and control by programs” have become compulsory topics of study in the technology and home economics (technological field) class in junior high schools. In addition, it has been determined that programming education will be made a compulsory topic in elementary schools from 2020 onward. Thus, programming education is included in the mandatory education program and, accordingly, various associated teaching materials have been developed and distributed to date. However, adequate steps have not been taken to improve the information education skill of the teachers who use the aforementioned teaching materials. In particular, only very few teachers understand the essence of programming control, such as the role played by a program in measurement and control. Hence, there is an urgent need to train teachers to make them capable of providing programming education in school settings. Hence, in this study, we develop a teaching material that helps teachers understand the flow of measurement and control by program using an optical distance sensor and an actuator and design a class practice for the students in the faculty of education. Finally, based on this education practice, we discuss an educational effect of the aforementioned teaching material and its applicability in junior high school settings.

Application of Dually Activated Michael Acceptor to the Rational Design of Reversible Covalent Inhibitor for Enterovirus 71 3C Protease.

Targeted covalent inhibitors (TCIs) have attracted growing attention from the pharmaceutical industry in recent decades because they have potential advantages in terms of efficacy, selectivity, and safety. TCIs have recently evolved into a new version with reversibility that can be systematically modulated. This feature may diminish the risk of haptenization and help optimize the drug-target residence time as needed. The enteroviral 3C protease (3Cpro) is a valuable therapeutic target, but the development of 3Cpro inhibitors is far from satisfactory. Therefore, we aimed to apply a reversible TCI approach to the design of novel 3Cpro inhibitors. The introduction of various substituents onto the α-carbon of classical Michael acceptors yielded inhibitors bearing several classes of warheads. Using steady-state kinetics and biomolecular mass spectrometry, we confirmed the mode of reversible covalent inhibition and elucidated the mechanism by which the potency and reversibility were affected by electronic and steric factors. This research produced several potent inhibitors with good selectivity and suitable reversibility; moreover, it validated the reversible TCI approach in the field of viral infection, suggesting broader applications in the design of reversible covalent inhibitors for other proteases.

Driving force analysis of the consumption of water and energy in China based on LMDI method

The rapid development of urbanization and industrialization in recent decades has put huge pressure on water and energy supply. In this paper, the critical driving forces of water and energy consumption in China are investigated to reveal the linkage between water use and energy consumption changes. A modified Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index(LMDI) method is used to decompose the total effect of water and energy consumption to different driving factors with no residues generation. The total effect of water consumption change is decomposed into four driving factors including industrial water consumption, industrial structure, economic scale and population scale. Similarly, the total effect of energy consumption change is decomposed into three driving factors embracing consumption intensity, economic activity, and population. Then, we calculate contribution values of different driving forces and identify the major influencing factors. The results show that the growth of population and GDP per capita were dominant factors driving water and energy consumption, while the improvement of consumption intensity was inhibiting factor on consumption growth. The results may provide insights for synergetic management to alleviate the pressure caused by excessive water and energy consumption.

Application of lean manufacturing in construction management

The construction industry in recent decades has been facing internal and external pressures, such as financial crisis, industry competitiveness and increased importance of quality required by the client. Because it is a sector, which has a low level of productivity, and high levels of waste, both with materials such as with labor, it is necessary to search for new management practices and production control. The development of a productive environment which aims to reduce waste, costs and deadlines, meeting customer needs and increasing efficiency and productivity in construction sites, made the application of the concepts of Lean Manufacturing in Civil works broke old paradigms in this area. In this way, this work has as objective the study of the implementation of Lean Manufacturing and its effect on the construction management, through the development of case studies on construction sites, where these concepts were applied and the results obtained are exposed in this work.

Journalism History, Web Archives, and New Methods for Understanding the Evolution of Digital Journalism

Archived webpages are a critical source of data for understanding the current state of the news media industry, as well as how the industry has changed over time. Dramatic changes in the news media industry in recent decades have occurred in tandem with the evolution on the Web. Archived webpages are valuable records for understanding and analyzing how newspaper companies have adapted to technological changes such as social media feeds and sharing of news content via Twitter. This article outlines a methodological approach to utilizing Web archives as a means of examining change in the news media industry. Researchers have developed new tools to improve researcher access to archived Web data in order to advance studies of the Web, and to enable the tracking of changes in news media as they emerge over time. A case study examining local news in the United States is used to illustrate the methodological challenges and promise of working with these data, highlighting the power and potential of Web archives for journalism research. Finally, the closing sections discuss challenges associated with the scale and scope of archived Web data and point to new areas for future research.

GIS Assessment of Mass Tourism Anthropization in Sensitive Coastal Environments: Application to a Case Study in the Mar Menor Area

On the Mediterranean coast, the tourism activity which has developed since the 1950s has become a mass tourism industry in recent decades, cohabitating with natural spaces of high environmental value. These sensitive areas are thus subjected to a varied catalog of anthropizing actions (urbanization of the natural soil, modification of the dune balances by the construction of port infrastructures, alteration of marine ecosystems by recreational activities, etc.). All these inter-related elements are often difficult to analyze in a comprehensive way because of their diffuse nature. This paper proposes a methodology based on GIS analysis for the evaluation of diffuse anthropization associated to tourism in sensitive coastal environments. By using different indicators of territorial transformation, a complete method is proposed to establish the index of diffuse anthropization of a territory. This methodology, which is easily applicable in a generalized manner in different cases for developed countries, will be applied in the Mar Menor, a coastal lagoon area in the Mediterranean that has been suffering from mass tourism during recent decades. The results will show the important impact of several actions linked to tourism and the worrying inertia that the current trend can cause in the lagoon’s ecosystem.

D-lyxose isomerase and its application for functional sugar production.

Functional sugars have attracted attention because of their wide application prospects in the food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries in recent decades. Compared with complex chemical synthesis, enzymatic methods of creating functional sugars, characterized by high specificity, moderate reaction conditions, and sustainability, are favored. D-lyxose isomerase (D-LI, EC 5.3.1.15), an important aldose-ketose isomerase, catalyzes the reverse isomerization reaction between D-xylulose and D-lyxose, as well as D-fructose and D-mannose. D-LI has drawn researchers' attention due to its broad substrate specificity and high potential for enzymatic production of some functional sugars such as D-xylulose, D-mannose, and D-ribose. In this article, an overview of recent advances in the biochemical properties of various D-LIs is explored in detail. Structural analysis, active site identification, and catalytic mechanisms are also provided. Additionally, the applications of D-LIs for functional sugar production, including D-lyxose, D-mannose, and L-ribose, are reviewed in detail in this paper.

The Glass City: Toledo and the Industry that Built It by Barbara L. Floyd

Reviewed by: The Glass City: Toledo and the Industry that Built It by Barbara L. Floyd Frederick E. Witzig Barbara L. Floyd, The Glass City: Toledo and the Industry that Built It. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2015. 272 pp. $50. If there are people still unaware of the economic plight of many midwestern industries in recent decades, a quick tour of virtually any of the region’s urban sites will probably bring them up to date. Rusting warehouses, vacant office buildings, and idle factories all too poignantly testify to the tragedy of layoffs, bankruptcies, and overseas relocations that have afflicted American manufacturing since its heyday in the past century. An acute observer may also catch the hint, implicit in the same decay, that midwestern cities used to bustle with tremendous innovation and economic vitality. This book helps explain the triumphs and travails of one of those industries in one of those cities, glassmaking in Toledo, Ohio. Barbara Floyd is the Director of the Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections at the University [End Page 99] of Toledo, which houses the Owens Corning, Owens-Illinois, Libbey-Owens-Ford, and other corporate and personal records Floyd relied on for her research. In 1868, writer and city booster Jesup W. Scott confidently outlined exactly how Toledo would fulfill its destiny as “the Future Great City of the World” (13). Taking his prediction as a theme for her book, Floyd tells the story of the rise of glassmaking in Toledo from its inception in the late 1800s, when the swampy and disease-ridden town managed to lure Edmund Drummond Libbey’s New England Glass Company away from Boston. Floyd chronicles how Libbey, the industrial manager, joined forces with Michael J. Owens, the inventor, to automate glass production by World War I. Techniques used by skilled craftsmen for hundreds of years were, almost overnight, made obsolete by the Owens Bottle Machine Company’s new bottle-making machines, with predictable results for labor. Allied with investors and inventors from across the United States, Europe and Japan, Libbey and Owens made northwest Ohio headquarters for the American glass industry. Future generations of Toledo industrialists, including Edward Ford, William Levis, John Biggers, and Harold Boeschenstein, expanded into automobile windshields, Fibreglass, and glass block construction. They also invested in asbestos insulation, a decision that later made their corporations liable for billions of dollars of damages. Unfortunately for Toledo loyalists, the city’s glassmakers always seemed to promise a bit more than they could deliver, and by the end of the twentieth century the industry nearly abandoned Toledo altogether, having barely survived rapacious corporate raiders, fierce global competition, and asbestos litigation. Of course, Toledo never did surpass Chicago, much less Paris and London, as Jesup predicted. However much Libbey and his industrial descendants personally prospered, and Toledo arts benefited from Libbey’s philanthropic largesse, the city’s impending take-off always remained impending, its greatness always in the future. But Toledo’s failure to thrive remains assumed, rather than explained, in this book. Floyd maintains such a close focus on the glass industry that the reader may feel misled by the book’s title, which implies a history of how the industry built the city. Instead, the city itself only makes an appearance at the beginning of the book, when Floyd explains why Libbey relocated his factory to Toledo; briefly in the middle of the book, dealing with postwar Toledo; and again at the end, when the industrial leaders tried, and largely failed, to revitalize the city by building glitzy, new headquarters in the last decades of the twentieth [End Page 100] century. Little is said of the interaction between the glass industry and the city’s other businesses (ironically, Ward M. Canaday’s Willys-Overland, supplier of Jeeps during World War II, gets only a brief mention), or how industrial leaders responded to Progressive politics, or racial tensions, or urban migration patterns. Only rarely does the reader get brief glimpses of the progress, or regress, of the city itself. Though not uncritical of its subjects, this is largely a corporate history. Analysis is largely reserved for critiques of business decisions, and for an explication of Libbey...

Emissions of Airport Monitoring with Solar Occultation Flux-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer

Both domestic and international aviation industries have experienced a boom, which results in a dramatic increase in emissions of the aviation industry in recent decades. Therefore, domestic and abroad scientists adopted different methods to measure emissions; however, there are no appropriate methods to measure the emissions of the whole airport. In order to provide data support for the relevant departments to take appropriate emission reduction measures, solar occultation flux-Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (SOF-FT-IR) is used to monitor the emissions of Beijing Capital International Airport. CO, CO2, C2H4, and CH2O are selected as the target gases and are quantitatively analyzed with the nonlinear least squares method to get the column concentration. Then, the flux can also be calculated by linking the wind velocity and direction with the column concentration. A comparison between the results measured by SOF-FT-IR and the results measured by the method published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicates that auxiliary power equipment and ground support equipment for the emission of the airport are also important emission sources besides the aircraft and the concentration distribution gives powerful and useful pieces of evidence to locate the emission sources. In order to decrease the contribution of the airport to the air pollution, the key point is to reduce the emissions of the APU and mobiles in the airport.

Introduction

Introduction Lewis G. Liu (bio) The scholarly publishing market plays a critical role in modern societies since it communicates research findings to researchers, businesses, and industries. Scientific research findings are expected to lead to innovations, inventions, and new products and services that are driving forces of countries' economic growth and development. Research findings in social sciences and business are expected to provide policy guidance for improving individuals' lives and organizational effectiveness and efficiency of businesses, nonprofit institutions, and government agencies. Academic libraries have always been part of the scholarly publishing market since they represent the demand side of the market equilibrium and play an important role in acquiring, maintaining, and delivering scholarly publications. The changes in the scholarly publishing market such as price increases for packaged journal subscriptions and ebooks can have an impact on academic libraries' budgets, and therefore affect their collections and acquisitions policies and decisions. While inflation is a factor in price increases, the oligopoly behavior of a few large commercial publishers can be a cause of price increases in journal and book prices. In fact, commercial publishers have been reshaping the scholarly publishing industry in recent decades and continue to expand their presence as a dominant force in today's scholarly publishing market, whereas the presence of noncommercial publishers, particularly the presence of university presses, has been diminishing, and some of them have been consolidated into library operations (Clement 2011) to achieve economies of scope. Commercial publishers control a larger share of scholarly information products, including print books, ebooks, open access journals, and research databases. The lack of competition in the scholarly publishing market can only lead to increased prices for these information products. It is not uncommon to see a few large corporations dominating an industry in the current global [End Page 183] economic system. They hire workers to make products, and then sell them to consumers who usually are not part of the production process. What is unique in the scholarly publishing market is that scholarly content creators are also consumers of their own products and their institutions have to buy back the very creations of their own research, in many cases at a higher price than they are willing and able to pay. In this Library Trends volume, we have gathered academic researchers, practicing librarians, and library administrators who have research expertise and working experiences in their respective subject areas to examine the role and impact of commercial and noncommercial publishers in scholarly publishing on academic libraries. Given the time constraint to complete this research project and maximum total pages allowed, we are not able to address as many topics as we would like. We, however, have covered some important issues related to the theme of this Library Trends volume. Scholarly publishing mainly consists of journal and book publishing. Although consumers, providers, and content creators of scholarly journals and books are more or less the same groups of individuals and organizations, journals and books are different types of information products. Journals are demanded in a more timely manner than are books. Researchers need the most recent research results from their fellow researchers to update their own research. Journals in general are more expensive than books partly because the timely demand for journals drives up their prices. Therefore, journals and books belong to separate information markets and will be discussed as such. The Scholarly Journal Publishing Market and Academic Libraries 1989 Studies and the Collapse of the Scholarly Journal Market The scholarly journal publishing market had been more or less in equilibrium until the late 1980s when many academic libraries' budgets could no longer keep up with escalating journal prices charged by commercial publishers and started canceling journal subscriptions. Nationwide complaints about escalating journal prices prompted the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) to investigate the issue. The ARL commissioned Economic Consulting Services, Inc. (1989) to conduct an economic cost analysis of journals published by a few major commercial publishers in the fields of science, technology, and medicine. The conclusion was that journal prices charged by these commercial publishers were much higher than their costs and inflation, revealing excessive profit made by commercial publishers. In the very same...

One size does (obviously not) fit all: Using product attributes for wine market segmentation

The intense competition affecting the wine industry in recent decades has forced wineries and retailers to reshape their marketing strategies on the basis of consumer preferences. The current study aims to identify such preferences and the effects they might have in influencing consumer decisions. Preferences for different wine attributes as well as the psychographic traits of respondents were revealed through a web-based questionnaire administered to 504 wine consumers living in the wider metropolitan area of New York. Best-worst scaling (BWS) was used to detect consumer preferences for eleven wine attributes. Based on individual best-worst scores, a latent class segmentation analysis was implemented to classify consumers into four segments on the basis of psychographic characteristics such as involvement, subjective knowledge, innovativeness and loyalty proneness. The four segments identified (i.e. experientials, connoisseurs, risk minimizers and price-sensitive) differ significantly in terms of their preferences towards wine and psychographic characteristics, suggesting that a mass marketing approach is no longer suitable. Accordingly, managers need to adapt their marketing strategies to meet the preferences of different target groups. The results provide broad implications for marketers, wineries and retailers interested in successfully targeting consumers in a highly competitive market.

Carbon emission allowance allocation with a mixed mechanism in air passenger transport

Air passenger transport carbon emissions have become a great challenge for both governments and airlines because of rapid developments in the aviation industry in recent decades. In this paper, a mixed mechanism composed of a cap-and-trade mechanism and a carbon tax mechanism is developed to assist governments in allocating carbon emission allowances to airlines operating on the routes. Combined this mixed mechanism with an equilibrium strategy, a bi-level multi-objective model is proposed for an air passenger transport carbon emission allowance allocation problem, in which a government is considered as a leader and the airlines as the followers. An interactive solution approach integrating a genetic algorithm and an interactive evolutionary mechanism is designed to search for satisfactory solutions of the proposed model. A case study is then presented to show its practicality and efficiency in mitigating carbon emissions. Sensitivity analyses under different tradable and taxable levels are also conducted, which can give the government insights as to the tradeoffs between lowering carbon intensity and improving airlines' operations. The computational results demonstrate that the mixed mechanism can assist greatly in carbon emission mitigation for air passenger transport and therefore, it should be established as part of air passenger transport carbon emission policies.