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Under the constraints of given passenger service level and coupling travel demand with train departure time, this study optimizes the train operational plan in an urban rail corridor to minimize the numbers of train trips and rolling stocks considering the time-varying demand of urban rail passenger flow.

The authors optimize the train operational plan in a special network layout, i.e. an urban rail corridor with dead-end terminal yard, by decomposing it into two sub-problems: train timetable optimization and rolling stock circulation optimization. As for train timetable optimization, the authors propose a schedule-based passenger flow assignment method, construct the corresponding timetabling optimization model and design the bi-directional coordinated sequential optimization algorithm. For the optimization of rolling stock circulation, the authors construct the corresponding optimization assignment model and adopt the Hungary algorithm for solving the model.

The case study shows that the train operational plan developed by the study's approach meets requirements on the passenger service quality and reduces the operational cost to the maximum by minimizing the numbers of train trips and rolling stocks.

The example verifies the efficiency of the model and algorithm.

The purpose of this paper is to build a classification system which mimics the perceptual ability of human vision, in gathering knowledge about the structure, content and the surrounding environment of a real-world natural scene, at a quick glance accurately. This paper proposes a set of novel features to determine the gist of a given scene based on dominant color, dominant direction, openness and roughness features.

The classification system is designed at two different levels. At the first level, a set of low level features are extracted for each semantic feature. At the second level the extracted features are subjected to the process of feature evaluation, based on inter-class and intra-class distances. The most discriminating features are retained and used for training the support vector machine (SVM) classifier for two different data sets.

Accuracy of the proposed system has been evaluated on two data sets: the well-known Oliva-Torralba data set and the customized image data set comprising of high-resolution images of natural landscapes. The experimentation on these two data sets with the proposed novel feature set and SVM classifier has provided 92.68 percent average classification accuracy, using ten-fold cross validation approach. The set of proposed features efficiently represent visual information and are therefore capable of narrowing the semantic gap between low-level image representation and high-level human perception.

The method presented in this paper represents a new approach for extracting low-level features of reduced dimensionality that is able to model human perception for the task of scene classification. The methods of mapping primitive features to high-level features are intuitive to the user and are capable of reducing the semantic gap. The proposed feature evaluation technique is general and can be applied across any domain.

The stress–strain behaviors of rockfill materials in dams are significantly affected by the anisotropy and grain crushing. However, these factors are rarely considered in numerical simulations of high rockfill dams. This study intends to develop a reasonable and practical constitutive model for rockfill materials to overcome the above problems.

The effects of anisotropy and grain crushing are comprehensively considered by the spatial position of the reference state line. After the improved generalized plasticity model for rockfill materials (referred to as the PZR model) is developed and verified by laboratory tests, it is used with the finite element method to simulate the stress–strain behaviors of the Nuozhadu high core rockfill dam.

The simulated results agree well with the laboratory tests data and the situ monitoring data, verifying the reliability and practicability of the developed PZR model.

A new anisotropic state parameter is proposed to reflect the nonmonotonic variation in the strength as the major principal stress direction angle varies. This advantage is verified by the simulation of a set of conventional triaxial tests with different inclination angles of the compaction plane. 2) This is the first time that the elastoplastic model is verified by the situ monitoring data of high core rockfill dams. The numerical simulation results show that the PZR model can well reflect the stress–strain characteristics of rockfill materials in high core rockfill dams and is better than the traditional EB model.

The purpose of this paper is to present a finite element model capable of describing both the diffuse damage mechanism which develops first during the loading of massive brittle structures and the failure process, essentially due to the propagation of a macro‐crack responsible for the softening behaviour of the structure. The theoretical developments for such a model are presented, considering an isotropic damage model for the continuum and a Coulomb‐type criterion for the localized part.

This is achieved by activating subsequently diffuse and localized damage mechanisms. Localized phenomena are taken into account by means of the introduction of a displacement discontinuity at the element level.

It was found that, with such an approach, the final crack direction is predicted quite well, in fact much better than the prediction made by the fracture mechanics type of models considering combination of only elastic response and softening.

The presented model has the potential to describe complex damage phenomena in a cyclic and/or non‐proportional loading program, such as crack closing and re‐opening, cohesive resistance deterioration due to tangential sliding, by using only a few parameters compared to the traditional models for cyclic loading.

This study aims to explore the strategies corporations use in engaging stakeholders to sustain healthy corporate partnerships and create value for the corporate entity and the society in which they operate and their influence on the corporate manager’s cognitive abilities and decision-making.

The authors used an interpretive research approach leveraging the strengths of qualitative method of content analysis and comparative and critical analyses to report the results. Interpretive methods incorporate social theories and standpoints that view reality as the social construction of understandable events in the context of organizational communication.

The findings of this study suggest that corporations are assumed to follow and execute the principles of engaging stakeholders to achieve corporate social responsibility (CSR) claiming to manage a sustainable and responsible business practices that recognize local cultures, human rights and protect the environment. However, little attention has been paid to the cognitive reasoning of the individuals responsible for CSR and corporate sustainability (CS) as opposed to the growing concerns about strategies corporations use in engaging stakeholders to sustain healthy corporate partnerships and create value – especially the processes that take place during engagement and decision-making including cognitive offloading.

Stakeholder engagement requires practical approaches that enable corporations and individuals charged with decision-making responsibilities to understand, respond and fulfill their CSRs. To achieve CSRs, corporations and managers responsible for relevant decision-making would need to involve stakeholders in social performance planning, as social reporting/auditing has long been advocating for preventing managerial biasness, groupthink and increased information dissemination via detailed reporting practices toward more collaborative stakeholder relationships. Thus, it is crucial for corporations to implement enhanced stakeholder and managerial decision-making strategies such as integrative approaches to achieve balance in the trio elements of sustainability as well as the growing use of paradox perspective to understand the nature of the tensions being sought to balance and, in the process, provide opportunity for a better evaluation of complex sustainability issues for innovative approach to resolving them. While cognitive decision-making is at play, in practice, managers tasked with making decisions must ensure the most effective stakeholder engagement strategies that are transparent and inclusive are used.

The main contribution of this study is its argument regarding the tools corporations use in engaging key stakeholders and the cognitive reasoning of the individuals responsible for CSR and CS. The study further contributes to interpreting the integrative approach to achieving balance in the trio elements of sustainability as well as the growing use of paradox perspective to understand the nature of the tensions being sought to balance and, in the process, provide an opportunity for a better evaluation of complex sustainability issues for an innovative approach to resolving them.

This study empirically develops a framework of dominant dimensions of organisation direction. ‘Organisation direction’ denotes the paths taken by organisations through time. Isolating dominant dimensions of direction will aid planners by providing a set of directional dimensions to be considered when developing the organisation's overall strategic plan.

While the conventional portrayed strategy formulation emphasizing rationality, analysis, and linearity, this paper reexamines the thinking about strategy from a sense‐making perspective. Utilizing the organization's dominant coalition as the focus of analysis and its shared mindset as the key frame for sense‐making, we highlight strategic thinking as planned change and as much more emotional and recursive as well as socially implemented than is usually conceived.

The purpose of this investigation is to determine the nature of the flow field, temperature distribution and heat and mass transfer in a triangular solar collector enclosure with a corrugated bottom wall in the unsteady condition numerically.

Non-linear governing partial differential equations (i.e. mass, momentum, energy and concentration equations) are transformed into a system of integral equations by applying the Galerkin weighted residual method. The integration involved in each of these terms is performed using Gauss’ quadrature method. The resulting non-linear algebraic equations are modified by the imposition of boundary conditions. Finally, Newton’s method is used to modify non-linear equations into the linear algebraic equations.

Both the buoyancy ratio and thermal Rayleigh number play an important role in controlling the mode of heat transfer and mass transfer.

Calculations are performed for various thermal Rayleigh numbers, buoyancy ratios and time periods. For each specific condition, streamline contours, isotherm contours and iso-concentration contours are obtained, and the variation in the overall Nusselt and Sherwood numbers is identified for different parameter combinations.

We advance entrepreneurship research by developing a theoretical model of how founding teams form. Our neo-Carnegie model situates nascent founders in particular network-structural milieus, engaging in aspiration-driven search for and evaluation of prospective co-founders. The formation of co-founding ties between nascent founders can be divided into four theoretical steps, which we label activation, evaluation, approach, and reciprocation. Successful founding team formation is a consequence of mutually favorable evaluations by nascent founders in a multi-sided matching process. Nascent founders with higher and less flexible aspirations are more likely to undertake distant search for co-founders by seeking referrals, forming ties with strangers, and forming new ties to social foci where they might meet potential co-founders. Churn in newly formed founding teams emerges as a consequence of shifting dominant coalition dynamics in the founding team caused by organic venture evolution and intentional changes in strategic direction. Our theoretical model provides new insights on the formation pathways of founding teams, their initial task and relational resource endowments, and initial team dynamics.

In order to investigate the vibration reduction properties of a three-dimensional elastic metastructure with spherical cavities at low frequencies.

The bandgap characteristics of a three-dimensional elastic metastructure with spherical cavities are studied based on analytical and numerical approaches.

The results of both method revealed that the vibration of the vertexes masses is important for opening bandgaps. The fact that the big sphere cavity radius or short side length of the cube unit leads to a wider bandgap, is noteworthy.

This research provides theoretical guidance for realizing the vibration attenuation application of EMs in practical engineering.