Feasibility-Based Design Model For Road Vertical Alignment

Road vertical alignment design is a multi-objective design problem that needs to consider multiple constraints. Intelligent design based on optimization algorithms cannot wholly solve problems, such as multi-objective, uncertainty, and constraint dynamics. The article proposes a model of dynamically transforming design constraints into feasible regions as the design develops, to provide decision information before design actions rather than performing constraint evaluation after the design that reduces the empirical estimation. The design actions are divided into new design actions and modifying design actions, and corresponding feasible regions derived from constraints of design specifications and control elevations are established, respectively. Geometrical equations and program algorithms of feasible regions are described in the graphic environment, which is applied to the vertical alignment design to improve the design efficiency and decision-making level.

How Institutional Evaluation Bridges Uncertainty and Happiness: A Study of Young Chinese People

Uncertainty triggers negative psychological responses, while positive institutional evaluations elevate the sense of control in individuals and satisfy their need for structure and order. Data from the 2015 Chinese Social Survey (CSS) (N = 4,605) demonstrated that objective uncertainty negatively predicted the happiness of young people (aged 18–45 years). However, this negative relationship was attenuated among those who evaluated the institutional system (e.g., social security, local government effectiveness, and trust in government) positively; in other words, positive institutional evaluation may have protected people's happiness from the threat of uncertainty. In addition, participants from different age groups evaluated the institutional system differently. The first generation born after the Chinese economic reform, which includes young people born in the 1980s (aged 26–35 years), had unique experiences compared to the preceding (aged 36–45 years, born in the 1970s) and succeeding (aged 18–25 years, born in the 1990s) generations. Among the three age groups, young people born in the 1980s held the least positive evaluation of the institutional system. The institutional evaluation also showed the weakest moderating effect on this group's happiness.

Responding to Uncertainty

There are numerous contexts, beyond disorders of consciousness, where there is a need for decisive action in the presence of unavoidable epistemic uncertainty. The ethics of uncertainty can help. This chapter examines three complex decisional contexts with intersecting, interacting epistemic and ethical uncertainty. The first is pain. Pain, like consciousness, is a subjectively phenomenal experience, the quality and quantity of which are hard to put into words. Pain sufferers encounter testimonial injustice because of the subjectivity, invisibility, and objective uncertainty of pain. The second context is vaccine research and development, and the emergency approval of COVID-19 vaccines under conditions of time pressure and uncertainty. The third context is research with conscious nonhuman animals. There are known, certain risks of harm to the animals, but the benefits of the research are epistemically uncertain. Judging the permissibility of such research requires considering inductive risks, and the principles of inductive risk.

Decomposition-Based Approaches for a Class of Two-Stage Robust Binary Optimization Problems

In this paper, we study a class of two-stage robust binary optimization problems with objective uncertainty, where recourse decisions are restricted to be mixed-binary. For these problems, we present a deterministic equivalent formulation through the convexification of the recourse-feasible region. We then explore this formulation under the lens of a relaxation, showing that the specific relaxation we propose can be solved by using the branch-and-price algorithm. We present conditions under which this relaxation is exact and describe alternative exact solution methods when this is not the case. Despite the two-stage nature of the problem, we provide NP-completeness results based on our reformulations. Finally, we present various applications in which the methodology we propose can be applied. We compare our exact methodology to those approximate methods recently proposed in the literature under the name [Formula: see text]adaptability. Our computational results show that our methodology is able to produce better solutions in less computational time compared with the [Formula: see text]adaptability approach, as well as to solve bigger instances than those previously managed in the literature. Summary of Contribution: Our manuscript describes an exact solution approach for a class of robust binary optimization problems with mixed-binary recourse and objective uncertainty. Its development reposes first on a reformulation of the problem, then a carefully constructed relaxation of this reformulation. Our solution approach is designed to exploit the two-stage and binary structure of the problem for effective resolution. In its execution, it relies on the branch-and-price algorithm and its efficient implementation. With our computational experiments, we show that our proposed exact solution method outperforms the existing approximate methodologies and, therefore, pushes the computational envelope for the class of problems considered.

Paradox of the duplication of physical information

A thought experiment demonstrates that physicalism about consciousness entails a paradoxical duplication of physical information. Moreover, objective existence acquires the status of a physical property. To avoid this paradox, one requires a concept of objectivity in which individuation is finite and incomplete. Finite individuation requires objective uncertainty and is thus corroborated by the contemporary sciences. Finite individuation and objective uncertainty prevent existence from becoming a physical property, thus defeating physicalism about consciousness and resolving the paradox.

Filosofía de la inseguridad social

Los estados normativos solo pueden ser percibidos a partir de su frustración. Partiendo de esta premisa, el presente artículo propone una definición filosófica de la inseguridad social, basada en la reciente revisión de la función práctica y cognitiva de dos emociones tradicionalmente entendidas como negativas: el resentimiento y la ansiedad. Se analizará el resentimiento como un potencial generador de vínculos políticos en la memoria de un pasado de protección arrebatada, y la ansiedad como un indicador epistémico en condiciones de incertidumbre objetiva. Se colige una definición de la inseguridad acotada entre la retención resentida del pasado y la proyección preventiva del futuro. Normative states can only be experienced from their frustration. Based on this premise, this article proposes a philosophical definition of social insecurity, based on the recent review of the practical and cognitive function of two emotions traditionally understood as negative: resentment and anxiety. Resentment will be analyzed as a potential generator of political links in the memory of a past of rapt protection, whereas anxiety wil be understood as an epistemic indicator in conditions of objective uncertainty. A definition insecurity will be set between the resentful retention of the past and the preventive projection of the future.

Uncoupled: American Widows in Times of Uncertainty and Ambiguous Norms

This study uses the concept of uncertainty in general, and specifically objective and subjective uncertainty, as a framework for understanding how a widow experiences grief and attempts to reestablish her sense of self. It investigates how widows understand, internalize, and act on objective and subjective uncertainty and the interplay between them. Objective uncertainty usually refers to more concrete situations or conditions, for example, health and finances, and there is more consensus regarding them, whereas subjective uncertainty is more individual and volatile, and refers to relationships or interpretation of the objective conditions. The researcher used a combination of participant observation and semistructured interviews. of widows from different socioeconomic classes and ethnic groups. The research revealed that uncertainty plays a large role in the widows’ attempt to live new “suddenly single” lives and that they experience both subjective and objective uncertainty, with subjective uncertainty playing a greater role. Further research is needed to understand the effect of different familial and societal “uncertainty avoidance cultures” on widows experiencing multi-ethnic or multinational identities either by descent of intercultural marriage.

FREEDOM OF CHOICE IN PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY IN THE CONDITIONS OF COMPUTER AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES

The article is devoted to the freedom in professional activity caused objective uncertainty of the conditions and requirements of the activity. The article shows the comparison of performance indicators of professional activity on a computer simulator depending on the degree of freedom in the activity of a railway driver. It is shown that the freedom to choose the method of action depends on professional training in the conditions of computer and information technologies.

Determining Expected Utility and Entropy Ratio in the Expected Utility-Entropy Decision Model for Stock Selection Depending on Capital Market Development

Appropriate securities selection is an important step in formation of an investment portfolio. The expected utility-entropy (EU-E) decision-making model is one of the models that can be applied to investment portfolio stock selection. The decision-maker subjective preference is reflected by the expected utility, and the objective uncertainty is measured using Shannon entropy. In this model, the measure of risky action is the weighted linear average of expected utility and entropy using a risk tradeoff factor. This chapter tests whether tradeoff coefficient depends on capital market development. With this aim, EU-E model was applied on European Union (EU) capital markets with different development according to FTSE equity country classification. It tests whether the EU-E model applied to the three different capital markets gives the best stock selection results for the same tradeoff coefficient values, or whether tradeoff coefficient depends on capital market development.

Oracle-based algorithms for binary two-stage robust optimization

In this work we study binary two-stage robust optimization problems with objective uncertainty. We present an algorithm to calculate efficiently lower bounds for the binary two-stage robust problem by solving alternately the underlying deterministic problem and an adversarial problem. For the deterministic problem any oracle can be used which returns an optimal solution for every possible scenario. We show that the latter lower bound can be implemented in a branch and bound procedure, where the branching is performed only over the first-stage decision variables. All results even hold for non-linear objective functions which are concave in the uncertain parameters. As an alternative solution method we apply a column-and-constraint generation algorithm to the binary two-stage robust problem with objective uncertainty. We test both algorithms on benchmark instances of the uncapacitated single-allocation hub-location problem and of the capital budgeting problem. Our results show that the branch and bound procedure outperforms the column-and-constraint generation algorithm.