Day Pattern Generation System for Jointly Modeling Tours and Stops: Bi-Level Multiple Discrete Continuous Probit Model

Author(s):  
Annesha Enam ◽  
Karthik C. Konduri

The primary objective of this study was to contribute to the literature on activity pattern generation. In this paper, a new framework is proposed for simultaneously modeling the following tour and stop-making decisions: the number and purpose of tours conducted in a day, time allocated to different tours, number and purpose of stops conducted within each tour, and time allocated to different stops. The framework represents time as a continuous entity and explicitly considers the time constraints within which an individual operates when generating tours and stops. In addition, the framework is capable of accounting for the interrelationships across different tour- and stop-level decisions. The model formulation that operationalizes the proposed framework imitates a bi-level structure in which the participation (whether to pursue) and time allocation (how much time) decisions for daily tours are modeled at the upper level. Within each tour, participation and time allocation decisions for different stops are modeled at the lower level. The model formulation for the bi-level structure builds on the utility theoretic multiple discrete continuous probit modeling approach. The proposed framework and model formulation are demonstrated with an empirical case study using data from the 2008–2009 National Household Travel Survey. Replication and forecasting results are presented to demonstrate the feasibility and applicability of the proposed framework and model formulation. The results provide evidence in support of the bi-level structure and its ability to capture the various constraints and interrelationships across tour- and stop-level participation and time allocation decisions.

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Ignacio Giménez-Nadal ◽  
José Alberto Molina ◽  
Jorge Velilla

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the time-allocation decisions of individuals who work from home (i.e. teleworkers), and compare them with their commuter counterparts. Design/methodology/approach Using data from the American Time Use Survey for the years 2003–2015, the authors analyze the time spent working, and the timing of work, of both commuters and teleworkers. Findings Results show that teleworkers devote 40 percent less time to market work activities than do commuters, and less than 60 percent of teleworkers work at “regular hours,” vs around 80 percent of their commuter counterparts. Using information from the Well-being Module for the years 2012 and 2013, the authors find that male teleworkers experience lower levels of negative feelings while working than do commuters. Originality/value This paper addresses the timing of work of workers working from home; and the instant well-being experienced, exploiting information at diary level.


Author(s):  
Kailai Wang ◽  
Gulsah Akar

The emergence of autonomous vehicles (AVs) may shape the future landscape of urban mobility. Although there is a growing literature on public opinions with regard to self-driving, little attention has been explicitly given to the commuters and their preferences for their commute trips. Using data from the 2015 and 2017 Puget Sound Regional Household Travel Studies, this study investigates the factors associated with employees’ propensity for using AVs. We develop a bivariate ordered probit model to jointly estimate the determinants of levels of interest in (i) commuting alone using AVs and (ii) commuting with others using shared AVs. Not surprisingly, it was found that current solo drivers are more likely to commute alone using AVs compared with other mode users. Significant differences were not found between current drivers and other commuters when it comes to the potential use of shared AVs. The results also reveal that, controlling for other factors, commuters surveyed in 2017 are less likely to be interested in shared AVs compared with their 2015 counterparts. The conclusion is that more planning efforts are needed to support the market penetration of shared AVs.


2017 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Porgo ◽  
John K.M. Kuwornu ◽  
Pam Zahonogo ◽  
John Baptist D. Jatoe ◽  
Irene S. Egyir

Purpose Credit is central in labour allocation decisions in smallholder agriculture in developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of credit constraints on farm households’ labour allocation decisions in rural Burkina Faso. Design/methodology/approach The study used a direct elicitation approach of credit constraints and applied a farm household model to categorize households into four labour market participation regimes. A joint estimation of both the multinomial logit model and probit model was applied on survey data from Burkina Faso to assess the effect of credit constraint on the probability of choosing one of the four alternatives. Findings The results of the probit model showed that households’ endowment of livestock, access to news, and membership to an farmer-based organization were factors lowering the probability of being credit constrained in rural Burkina Faso. The multinomial logit model results showed that credit constraints negatively influenced the likelihood of a farm household to use hired labour in agricultural production and perhaps more importantly it induces farm households to hire out labour off farm. The results also showed that the other components of household characteristics and farm attributes are important factors determining the relative probability of selecting a particular labour market participation regime. Social implications Facilitating access to credit in rural Burkina Faso can encourage farm households to use hired labour in agricultural production and thereby positively impacting farm productivity and relieving unemployment pressures. Originality/value In order to identify the effect of credit constraints on farm households’ labour decisions, this study examined farm households’ decisions of hiring on-farm labour, supplying labour off-farm or simultaneously hiring on-farm labour and supplying family labour off-farm under credit constraints using the direct elicitation approach of credit constraints. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine this problem in Burkina Faso.


1987 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 735-748 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Hanson ◽  
M Schwab

This paper contains an examination of the fundamental assumption underlying the use of accessibility indicators: that an individual's travel behavior is related to his or her location vis-à-vis the distribution of potential activity sites. First, the conceptual and measurement issues surrounding accessibility and its relationship to travel are reviewed; then, an access measure for individuals is formulated. Using data from the Uppsala (Sweden) Household Travel Survey and controlling for sex, automobile availability, and employment status, the authors explore the relationship between both home- and work-based accessibility and five aspects of an individual's travel: mode use, trip frequencies and travel distances for discretionary purposes, trip complexity, travel in conjunction with the journey to work, and size of the activity space. From the results it can be seen that although all of these travel characteristics are related to accessibility to some degree, the travel–accessibility relationship is not as strong as deductive formulations have implied. High accessibility levels are associated with higher proportions of travel by nonmotorized means, lower levels of automobile use, reduced travel distances for certain discretionary trip purposes, and smaller individual activity spaces. Furthermore, the density of activity sites around the workplace affects the distances travelled by employed people for discretionary purposes. Overall, accessibility level has a greater impact on mode use and travel distance than it does on discretionary trip frequency. This result was unexpected in light of the strong trip frequency–accessibility relationship posited frequently in the literature.


Author(s):  
Sheng Sheng ◽  
Yan Song ◽  
Sheraz Ahmad ◽  
Jiao Wang ◽  
Ying Shao ◽  
...  

Abstract Parasitoid wasps are key agents for controlling insect pests in integrated pest management programs. Although many studies have revealed that the behavior of parasitic wasps can be influenced by insecticides, the strategies of patch time allocation and oviposition have received less attention. In the present study, we forced the endoparasitoid Meteorus pulchricornis to phoxim exposure at the LC30 and tested the foraging behavior within patches with different densities of the host, the larvae of the tobacco cutworm Spodoptera litura. The results showed that phoxim treatment can significantly increase the patch-leaving tendency of female wasps, while host density had no impact. The number of oviposition and the number of previous patch visits also significantly influenced the patch time allocation decisions. The occurrence of oviposition behavior was negatively affected by phoxim exposure; however, progeny production was similar among patches with different host densities. Phoxim exposure shaped the offspring fitness correlates, including longer durations from cocoon to adult wasps, smaller body size, and shorter longevity. The findings of the present study highlight the sublethal effects that reduce the patch residence time and the fitness of parasitoid offspring, suggesting that the application of phoxim in association with M. pulchricornis should be carefully schemed in agroecosystems.


2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 590-615 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Perumal ◽  
David Timmons

Using data from the 2009 National Household Travel Survey, we quantify the effects of settlement patterns on individual driving habits and the resulting automotive carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. We employ CO2 emissions to capture this impact accurately, as it reflects both vehicle miles traveled and any spatial differences in vehicle fuel efficiency choices. While previous studies have compared automotive travel in urban and suburban areas, our approach characterizes emissions across the entire US rural–urban gradient, focusing on the effects of population density. Rather than using categorical measures of contextual density (city, suburb, town, etc.), we use a geographical information system to calculate continuous measures of contextual density, that is, density at different proximities to households. These measures of contextual density allow us to model travel effects induced by the gravitational pull of the population densities of urban cores. Further, our methodological approach frames location choice as an endogenous treatment effect; that is, residential locations are not randomly assigned across our sample and significantly alter driving behavior. We find that individuals living in urban cores generate the lowest per capita automotive CO2 emissions, due to close proximities of population concentrations. Rather than attracting individuals who would likely have low CO2 emissions anyway, urban location apparently mitigates the emissions of people who would otherwise tend to have high automotive CO2 emissions. We find larger elasticities with respect to density than previous studies and also find that the attractive forces of population densities affect driving patterns at distances up to sixty-one kilometers outside of urban areas.


Author(s):  
Annesha Enam ◽  
Karthik C. Konduri

In recent years, time engagement behaviors of two generations, namely Baby Boomers and Millennials have sparked much interest because these generations constitute the bulk of the American population today and they also exhibit “atypical” activity–travel patterns compared with other generations. The objective of the current research is to conduct a systematic study of the time engagement behaviors of five American generations: the GI Generation (birth year: 1901–1924), the Silent Generation (birth year: 1925–1943), Baby Boomers (birth year: 1944–1964), Generation X (birth year: 1965–1981), and Millennials (birth year: 1982–2000). Particularly, the study aims at isolating heterogeneity in behaviors associated with structural changes in the society from those associated with inherent generational characteristics. Using data from four waves (1965, 1985, 2005, and 2012) of the American Heritage and Time Use Study, the analysis explores the time engagement behaviors while accounting for the age, period, and cohort effects in addition to different socioeconomic and demographic variables. The analysis reveals that Millennials have generally delayed participation in life-changing events such as marriage and workforce entry, and have exhibited prolonged student status compared with previous generations. Millennials show lower participation in work and higher participation in discretionary activities compared with individuals of the same age group from previous generations. On the other hand, Baby Boomers clearly exhibited increased travel engagement compared with the previous generations at different stages of their lives.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florence Canouï-Poitrine ◽  
Antoine Rachas ◽  
Martine Thomas ◽  
Laure Carcaillon-Bentata ◽  
Roméo Fontaine ◽  
...  

AbstractImportanceNursing home (NH) residents are particularly vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infections and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lethality. However, excess deaths in this population have rarely been documented.ObjectivesThe primary objective was to assess the number of excess deaths among NH residents during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in France. The secondary objectives were to determine the number of excess deaths as a proportion of the total excess deaths in the general population and determine whether a harvesting effect was present.DesignWe studied a cohort of 494,753 adults (as of March 1st, 2020) aged 60 and over in 6,515 NHs in mainland France. This cohort was exposed to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (from March 1st to May 31st, 2020) and was compared with the corresponding, reference cohorts from 2014 to 2019 (using data from the French National Health Data System).Main outcome and measuresThe main outcome was all-cause death. Weekly excess deaths and standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were estimated.ResultThere were 13,505 excess deaths among NH residents. Mortality increased by 43% (SMR: 1.43). The mortality excess was higher among males than among females (SMR: 1.51 and 1.38, respectively) and decreased with age (SMRs in females: 1.61 in the 60-74 age group, 1.58 for 75-84, 1.41 for 85-94, and 1.31 for 95 or over; Males: SMRs: 1.59 for 60-74, 1.69 for 75-84, 1.47 for 85-94, and 1.41 for 95 or over). We did not observe a harvesting effect (up until August 30th, 2020). By extrapolating to all NH residents nationally (N=570,003), the latter accounted for 51% of the total excess deaths in the general population (N=15,114 out of 29,563).ConclusionNH residents accounted for about half of the total excess deaths in France during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The excess death rate was higher among males than females and among younger residents than among older residents. We did not observe a harvesting effect. A real-time mortality surveillance system and the identification of individual and environmental risk factors might help to design the future model of care for older dependent adults.Key pointsDuring the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in France, the mortality among nursing home residents increased by 43%.Nursing home residents accounted for 51% of the total excess deaths in France.The excess mortality was higher among younger residents than among older residents.The excess mortality was higher among males than among females.We did not observe a harvesting effect during the study period (ending on August 30th, 2020, i.e., three months after the end of the first wave).


Author(s):  
Kalyani Kadam ◽  
Pooja Vinayak Kamat ◽  
Amita P. Malav

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) have turned out to be one of the life-threatening diseases in recent times. The key to effectively managing this is to analyze a huge amount of datasets and effectively mine it to predict and further prevent heart-related diseases. The primary objective of this chapter is to understand and survey various information mining strategies to efficiently determine occurrence of CVDs and also propose a big data architecture for the same. The authors make use of Apache Spark for the implementation.


Risks ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 135
Author(s):  
Jalaludeen Navas ◽  
Periyasamy Dhanavanthan ◽  
Daniel Lazar

Risk taking is an inherent element of the banking business. Banks make conscious decisions regarding risk taking as they expect to make more return if they take more risk. The primary objective of this study is to empirically investigate the efficiency of Indian banks in generating return relative to the risk they take. If the efficiency measurement is not adjusted for different risk preferences, then a bank earning lower return at lower risk may be misclassified as less efficient compared to peers earning the same level of return, but operating at a higher level of risk. This paper uses measures of liquidity risk, credit risk, market risk, and insolvency risk to develop a risk-return stochastic frontier in order to examine the risk efficiency of banks, a novel attempt in the Indian context. The paper further analyzes the efficiency of banks with respect to bank specific characteristics and risk management regimes. The models are estimated using data from a sample of 47 major banks for the period 2009–2018. The study reveals that Indian banks, on average, exhibited lower efficiency in trading risk against return during the sample period.


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