scholarly journals Zone-Agnostic Greedy Taxi Dispatch Algorithm Based on Contextual Matching Matrix for Efficient Maximization of Revenue and Profit

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (21) ◽  
pp. 2653
Author(s):  
Youngrae Kim ◽  
Young Yoon

This paper addresses the taxi fleet dispatch problem, which is critical for many transport service platforms such as Uber, Lyft, and Didi Chuxing. We focus on maximizing the revenue and profit a taxi platform can generate through the dispatch approaches designed with various criteria. We consider determining the proportion of taxi fleets to different destination zones given the expected rewards from the future states following the distribution decisions learned through reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms. We also take into account more straightforward greedy algorithms that look ahead fewer decision time steps in the future. Our dispatch decision algorithms commonly leverage contextual information and heuristics using a data structure called Contextual Matching Matrix (CMM). The key contribution of our paper is the insight into the trade-off between different design criteria. Primarily, through the evaluation with actual taxi operation data offered by Seoul Metropolitan Government, we challenge the natural expectation that the RL-based approaches yield the best result by showing that a lightweight greedy algorithm can have a competitive advantage. Moreover, we break the norm of dissecting the service area into sub-zones and show that matching passengers beyond arbitrary boundaries generates significantly higher operating income and profit.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Katharina Spälti ◽  
Mark John Brandt ◽  
Marcel Zeelenberg

People often have to make trade-offs. We study three types of trade-offs: 1) "secular trade-offs" where no moral or sacred values are at stake, 2) "taboo trade-offs" where sacred values are pitted against financial gain, and 3) "tragic trade-offs" where sacred values are pitted against other sacred values. Previous research (Critcher et al., 2011; Tetlock et al., 2000) demonstrated that tragic and taboo trade-offs are not only evaluated by their outcomes, but are also evaluated based on the time it took to make the choice. We investigate two outstanding questions: 1) whether the effect of decision time differs for evaluations of decisions compared to decision makers and 2) whether moral contexts are unique in their ability to influence character evaluations through decision process information. In two experiments (total N = 1434) we find that decision time affects character evaluations, but not evaluations of the decision itself. There were no significant differences between tragic trade-offs and secular trade-offs, suggesting that the decisions structure may be more important in evaluations than moral context. Additionally, the magnitude of the effect of decision time shows us that decision time, may be of less practical use than expected. We thus urge, to take a closer examination of the processes underlying decision time and its perception.


Author(s):  
Zoran Vrucinic

The future of medicine belongs to immunology and alergology. I tried to not be too wide in description, but on the other hand to mention the most important concepts of alergology to make access to these diseases more understandable, logical and more useful for our patients, that without complex pathophysiology and mechanism of immune reaction,we gain some basic insight into immunological principles. The name allergy to medicine was introduced by Pirquet in 1906, and is of Greek origin (allos-other + ergon-act; different reaction), essentially representing the reaction of an organism to a substance that has already been in contact with it, and manifested as a specific response thatmanifests as either a heightened reaction, a hypersensitivity, or as a reduced reaction immunity. Synonyms for hypersensitivity are: altered reactivity, reaction, hypersensitivity. The word sensitization comes from the Latin (sensibilitas, atis, f.), which means sensibility,sensitivity, and has retained that meaning in medical vocabulary, while in immunology and allergology this term implies the creation of hypersensitivity to an antigen. Antigen comes from the Greek words, anti-anti + genos-genus, the opposite, anti-substance substance that causes the body to produce antibodies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 290
Author(s):  
Hakan Basargan ◽  
András Mihály ◽  
Péter Gáspár ◽  
Olivier Sename

Several studies exist on topics of semi-active suspension and vehicle cruise control systems in the literature, while many of them just consider actual road distortions and terrain characteristics, these systems are not adaptive and their subsystems designed separately. This study introduces a new method where the integration of look-ahead road data in the control of the adaptive semi-active suspension, where it is possible to the trade-off between comfort and stability orientation. This trade-off is designed by the decision layer, where the controller is modified based on prehistorical passive suspension simulations, vehicle velocity and road data, while the behavior of the controller can be modified by the use of a dedicated scheduling variable. The adaptive semi-active suspension control is designed by using Linear Parameter Varying (LPV) framework. In addition to this, it proposes designing the vehicle velocity for the cruise controller by considering energy efficiency and comfort together. TruckSim environment is used to validate the operation of the proposed integrated cruise and semi-active suspension control system.


2020 ◽  
pp. bmjmilitary-2020-001455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Blair Thomas Herron ◽  
K M Heil ◽  
D Reid

In 2015, the UK government published the National Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) 2015, which laid out their vision for the future roles and structure of the UK Armed Forces. SDSR 2015 envisaged making broader use of the Armed Forces to support missions other than warfighting. One element of this would be to increase the scale and scope of defence engagement (DE) activities that the UK conducts overseas. DE activities traditionally involve the use of personnel and assets to help prevent conflict, build stability and gain influence with partner nations as part of a short-term training teams. This paper aimed to give an overview of the Specialist Infantry Group and its role in UK DE. It will explore the reasons why the SDSR 2015 recommended their formation as well as an insight into future tasks.


Author(s):  
Tian Wu ◽  
Danyan Hu ◽  
Qingfen Wang

Abstract Background Noni (Morinda citrifolia Linn.) is a tropical tree that bears climacteric fruit. Previous observations and research have shown that the second day (2 d) after harvest is the most important demarcation point when the fruit has the same appearance as the freshly picked fruit (0 d); however, they are beginning to become water spot appearance. We performed a conjoint analysis of metabolome and transcriptome data for noni fruit of 0 d and 2 d to reveal what happened to the fruit at the molecular level. Genes and metabolites were annotated to KEGG pathways and the co-annotated KEGG pathways were used as a statistical analysis. Results We found 25 pathways that were significantly altered at both metabolic and transcriptional levels, including a total of 285 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 11 differential metabolites through an integrative analysis of transcriptomics and metabolomics. The energy metabolism and pathways originating from phenylalanine were disturbed the most. The upregulated resistance metabolites and genes implied the increase of resistance and energy consumption in the postharvest noni fruit. Most genes involved in glycolysis were downregulated, further limiting the available energy. This lack of energy led noni fruit to water spot appearance, a prelude to softening. The metabolites and genes related to the resistance and energy interacted and restricted each other to keep noni fruit seemingly hard within two days after harvest, but actually the softening was already unstoppable. Conclusions This study provides a new insight into the relationship between the metabolites and genes of noni fruit, as well as a foundation for further clarification of the post-ripening mechanism in noni fruit.


ABI-Technik ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 357-364
Author(s):  
Martin Lee ◽  
Christina Riesenweber

AbstractThe authors of this article have been managing a large change project at the university library of Freie Universität Berlin since January 2019. At the time of writing this in the summer of 2020, the project is about halfway completed. With this text, we would like to give some insight into our work and the challenges we faced, thereby starting conversations with similar undertakings in the future.


1978 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-387
Author(s):  
David Hartman

Hope is a category of transcedence, by means of which a man does not permit what he senses and experiences to be the sole criterion of what is possible. It is the belief or the conviction that present reality (what I see) does not exhaust the potentialities of the given data. Hope opens the present to the future; it enables a man to look ahead, to break the fixity of what he observes, and to perceive the world as open-textured. The categories of possibility and of transcendence interweave a closely stitched fabric - hope says that tomorrow can be better than today.


foresight ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Baptiste Gossé ◽  
Dominique Plihon

Purpose – This article aims to provide insight into the future of financial markets and regulation in order to define what would be the best strategy for Europe. Design/methodology/approach – First the authors define the potential changes in financial markets and then the tools available for the regulator to tame them. Finally, they build five scenarios according to the main evolutions observed on the financial markets and on the tools used by the regulator to modify these trends. Findings – Among the five scenarios defined, two present highly unstable features since the regulator refuses to choose between financial opening and independently determining how to regulate finance in order to preserve financial stability. Three of them achieve financial stability. However, they are more or less efficient or feasible. In terms of market efficiency, the multi-polar scenario is the best and the fragmentation scenario is the worst, since gains of integration depend on the size of the new capital market. Regarding sovereignty of regulation, fragmentation is the best scenario and the multi-polar scenario is the worst, because it necessitates coordination at the global level which implies moving further away from respective national preferences. However, the more realistic option seems to be the regionalisation scenario: this level of coordination seems much more realistic than the global one; the market should be of sufficient size to enjoy substantial benefits of integration. Nevertheless, the “European government” might gradually increase the degree of financial integration outside Europe in line with the degree of cooperation with the rest of the world. Originality/value – Foresight studies on financial markets and regulation are quite rare. This may be explained by the difficulty to forecast what will be their evolution in the coming decades, not least because finance is fundamentally unstable. This paper provides a framework to consider what could be the best strategy of regulators in such an unstable environment.


2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvatore T. March ◽  
Fred Niederman

We must look ahead at today's radical changes in technology, not just as forecasters but as actors charged with designing and bringing about a sustainable and acceptable world. New knowledge gives us power for change: for good or ill, for knowledge is neutral. The problems we face go well beyond technology: problems of living in harmony with nature, and most important, living in harmony with each other. Information technology, so closely tied to the properties of the human mind, can give us, if we ask the right questions, the special insights we need to advance these goals. Herbert A. Simon (2000)


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