Cockpit crew pairing Pareto optimisation in a budget airline

Crew pairing is the primary cost checkpoint in airline crew scheduling. Because the crew cost comes second after the fuel cost, a substantial cost saving can be gained from effective crew pairing. In this paper, the cockpit crew pairing problem (CCPP) of a budget airline was studied. Unlike the conventional CCPP that focuses solely on the cost component, many more objectives deemed to be no less important than cost minimisation were also taken into consideration. The adaptive non-dominated sorting differential algorithm III (ANSDE III) was proposed to optimise the CCPP against many objectives simultaneously. The performance of ANSDE III was compared against the NSGA III, MOEA/D, and MODE algorithms under several Pareto optimal measurements, where ANSDE III outperformed the others in every metric.

Potentials of Endophytic Fungi in the Biosynthesis of Versatile Secondary Metabolites and Enzymes

World population growth and modernization have engendered multiple environmental problems: the propagation of humans and crop diseases and the development of multi-drug-resistant fungi, bacteria and viruses. Thus, a considerable shift towards eco-friendly products has been seen in medicine, pharmacy, agriculture and several other vital sectors. Nowadays, studies on endophytic fungi and their biotechnological potentials are in high demand due to their substantial, cost-effective and eco-friendly contributions in the discovery of an array of secondary metabolites. For this review, we provide a brief overview of plant–endophytic fungi interactions and we also state the history of the discovery of the untapped potentialities of fungal secondary metabolites. Then, we highlight the huge importance of the discovered metabolites and their versatile applications in several vital fields including medicine, pharmacy, agriculture, industry and bioremediation. We then focus on the challenges and on the possible methods and techniques that can be used to help in the discovery of novel secondary metabolites. The latter range from endophytic selection and culture media optimization to more in-depth strategies such as omics, ribosome engineering and epigenetic remodeling.

Cost and Efficiency in Government Outsourcing: Evidence from the Dredging Industry

This paper investigates the how government outsourcing affects efficiency and expenditures by considering how outsourcing decisions are determined along two dimensions: (i) cost differences between private firms and government suppliers of public goods and (ii) dynamics arising from cost complementarities and capacity constraints. I formulate and estimate a dynamic model of government outsourcing using project-level data from the dredging industry. Model estimates indicate substantial cost savings due to outsourcing but also that government presence in the market yields cost reduction. A counterfactual policy featuring direct competition between government and private sector firms finds a total expenditure reduction of 15.7 percent. (JEL D44, H41, H57, L84)

A Capacity Market for the Transition towards Renewable-Based Electricity Generation with Enhanced Political Feasibility

There is a debate if electricity markets on the basis of energy-only markets ensure a sufficient generation capacity. Various capacity mechanisms are discussed to tackle this potential problem. Capacity auctions with reliability options are seen as one market-based solution. Assuming a perfect energy-only market, this mechanism leads to an equilibrium with an optimal capacity mix. This optimum is missed if there are distorted price signals at the electricity market. This is a serious problem since, despite substantial cost reductions, renewable-based electricity generation still depends on subsidies, which are not internalized at electricity markets. We develop a capacity market that internalizes subsidies for RES without direct intervention in the electricity market. The result is an endogenous discrimination of capacity prices, which enhances acceptance for a capacity market. Arising incentives direct the capacity mix to an equilibrium where discriminated prices converge to one uniform capacity price. The equilibrium is the optimal answer of fossil capacity to RES-based electricity generation.

Port Adaptation and Efficiency: An Empirical Study of Ghanaian Ports

The port being an economical leg of countries development and thereby affected by climate change creates a substantial cost to the various stakeholders since is described as a “business” hub. It is, therefore, essential that ports across the globe attribute much importance to climate adaptation and its relation to port efficiency, especially for the coming years. The need to establish the effect these variables have on each other has become paramount. For this study, an empirical analysis of Ghanaian ports is being reviewed for the past and future annual efficiencies and adaptation scores. The annual efficiencies of both ports are calculated using various variables as inputs and outputs with the DEA Frontier software to calculate the DEA-CCR of the study ports. To assess the adaptation scores of each port, questionnaires and interviews were conducted based on four (4) major factors that affect port adaptation. This research also employs the linear mixed model and one-way ANOVA to assess the means of the data groups obtained for 2009-2020 & 2021-2040 respectively. This research aimed to analyse the significant relationship between port adaptation and efficiency for past and future years while highlighting the adaptative strategies of Ghanaian ports. The concluding chapters of this research represent the data analysis, policy recommendation for the stakeholders of Ghanaian ports, and also recommendations that are deemed useful for further research.

‘Every Move You Make … Every Word You Say’: Regulating Police Body Worn Cameras

The death of Minneapolis man, George Floyd, at the hands (or, knee) of a police officer in May 2020 appears to have set a nation, indeed the world, alight with outrage at ongoing, systemic racism and brutality by police officers. Body worn camera (‘BWC’) footage from officers attending this incident provides strong evidence of the circumstances of Mr Floyd’s death. In this article, we draw on criminological research and analyses of legislation in Australia and a number of international jurisdictions, to argue there is a need for improved regulation of BWCs. Despite incurring the substantial cost of deploying this technology, governments are relinquishing control of it to law enforcement agencies who, in turn, draft policies that maximise police discretion and protection while minimising the consequences of non-compliance. For governments to realise their objectives for BWCs, we argue there is a need for greater regulation to ensure BWCs are utilised effectively.

Comparing MRI and CT machine accessibility among urban and rural county hospitals

Background: In 2019, Navigant Healthcare published research showing that 1 in 5 rural hospitals in Minnesota are at risk of closing as they are not financially sustainable. With 26.7% of Minnesota’s population being rural, this is particularly worrisome. A substantial cost to rural hospitals is affording the installation, maintenance and operation of Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines. In light of the serious pressures on rural hospitals, the aim of this paper is to investigate if a disparity exists in MRI and CT machine accessibility among Minnesota’s urban and rural county hospitals.Design and Methods: Hospitals of Minnesota were contacted and asked how many MRI and CT machines they carried at their facility. This information was compiled in an excel sheet and cross referenced to the county it resided along with the counties: population, rural-urban commuting area (RUCA) classification and land area in square mileage.Results: It was found that the state of Minnesota compared well to the national average in terms of persons and square mileage per MRI and CT machine. When comparing counties of Minnesota by their RUCA classification, a disparity is found in rural counties with regards to square mileage per CT and MRI machine.Conclusions: With distance for service creating a barrier to accessibility, rural county residents would benefit from more in-hospital MRI and CT machines. With these findings, it is pertinent further research is conducted to investigate the potential vulnerability of other rural populations with regards to accessibility to radiologic resources.

Evolution of a costly immunity to cestode parasites is a pyrrhic victory

Parasites impose fitness costs on their hosts. Biologists therefore tend to assume that natural selection favors infection-resistant hosts. Yet, when the immune response itself is costly, theory suggests selection may instead favor loss of resistance. Immune costs are rarely documented in nature, and there are few examples of adaptive loss of resistance. Here, we show that when marine threespine stickleback colonized freshwater lakes they gained resistance to the freshwater-associated tapeworm, Schistocephalus solidus. Extensive peritoneal fibrosis and inflammation contribute to suppression of cestode growth and viability, but also impose a substantial cost of reduced fecundity. Combining genetic mapping and population genomics, we find that the immune differences between tolerant and resistant populations arise from opposing selection in both populations acting, respectively, to reduce and increase resistance consistent with divergent optimization.

Host-associated microbe PCR (hamPCR) enables convenient measurement of both microbial load and community composition

The ratio of microbial population size relative to the amount of host tissue, or 'microbial load', is a fundamental metric of colonization and infection, but it cannot be directly deduced from microbial amplicon data such as 16S rRNA gene counts. Because existing methods to determine load, such as serial dilution plating, quantitative PCR, and whole metagenome sequencing, add substantial cost and/or experimental burden, they are only rarely paired with amplicon sequencing. We introduce host-associated microbe PCR (hamPCR), a robust strategy to both quantify microbial load and describe interkingdom microbial community composition in a single amplicon library. We demonstrate its accuracy across multiple study systems, including nematodes and major crops, and further present a cost-saving technique to reduce host overrepresentation in the library prior to sequencing. Because hamPCR provides an accessible experimental solution to the well-known limitations and statistical challenges of compositional data, it has far-reaching potential in culture-independent microbiology.

International emotional resonance: Explaining transatlantic economic sanctions against Russia

Why did transatlantic policymakers target Russia with economic sanctions in response to its actions during the Ukraine conflict? Commentators perceived these sanctions as highly unlikely because they would have high costs for several European countries, and were surprised when they were finally adopted. Constructivist scholars employed explanations based on common norms and trust to explain the European Union’s agreement on economic sanctions in this case. I argue that the mechanism of international emotional resonance played a decisive role in altering the course of the United States and core European Union powers’ cooperation. A framework that combines resonance with emotional influence mechanisms of persuasion and contagion explains the precise timing of the policy shift, why European policymakers accepted sanctions at a substantial cost to their economy and how norms affected policy when they were empowered by intense emotions.