Exploring Social Exchange Theory Dynamics in Native American Casino Settings

The proliferation of Native American casino (NAC) gambling over the past few decades has generated a concern over the social, economic, and environmental impacts. This study examined the local resident perceptions of casino gambling impacts and their subsequent support for the NACs within the Social Exchange Theory (SET) framework. It further applied a similar framework to the non-NAC settings. While majority of the impact constructs failed to generate support for the NACs in the presence of intervening variables, a significant application of SET appeared among the non-NAC communities. Benefits were found to be significant for facilitating higher levels of support for the nonNACs. Overall, the results indicated that SET is not a universal phenomena and nature of casino ownership is more likely to influence residents\u27 level of support

A comprehensive literature classification of simulation optimisation methods

Simulation Optimization (SO) provides a structured approach to the system design and configuration when analytical expressions for input/output relationships are unavailable. Several excellent surveys have been written on this topic. Each survey concentrates on only few classification criteria. This paper presents a literature survey with all classification criteria on techniques for SO according to the problem of characteristics such as shape of the response surface (global as compared to local optimization), objective functions (single or multiple objectives) and parameter spaces (discrete or continuous parameters). The survey focuses specifically on the SO problem that involves single per-formance measureSimulation Optimization, classification methods, literature survey

Scientific Endeavors of A.M. Mathai: An Appraisal on the Occasion of his Eightieth Birthday, April 2015

A.M. Mathai is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at McGill University, Canada, and Director of the Centre for Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, India. He has published over 300 research papers and more than 25 books on topics in mathematics, statistics, physics, astrophysics, chemistry, and biology. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, National Academy of Sciences of India, President of the Mathematical Society of India, and a Member of the International Statistical Institute. He is the founder of the Canadian Journal of Statistics and the Statistical Society of Canada. He is instrumental in the implementation of the United Nations Basic Space Science Initiative. The paper is an attempt to capture the broad spectrum of scientific endeavors of Professor A.M. Mathai at the occasion of his anniversary.Comment: 21 pages, LaTe

Determination of forest road surface roughness by kinect depth imaging

Roughness is a dynamic property of the gravel road surface that affects safety, ride comfort as well as vehicle tyre life and maintenance costs. A rapid survey of gravel road condition is fundamental for an effective maintenance planning and definition of the intervention priorities. Different non-contact techniques such as laser scanning, ultrasonic sensors and photogrammetry have recently been proposed to reconstruct three-dimensional topography of road surface and allow extraction of roughness metrics. The application of Microsoft Kinect\u2122 depth camera is proposed and discussed here for collection of 3D data sets from gravel roads, to be implemented in order to allow quantification of surface roughness. The objectives are to: i) verify the applicability of the Kinect sensor for characterization of different forest roads, ii) identify the appropriateness and potential of different roughness parameters and iii) analyse the correlation with vibrations recoded by 3-axis accelerometers installed on different vehicles. The test took advantage of the implementation of the Kinect depth camera for surface roughness determination of 4 different forest gravel roads and one well-maintained asphalt road as reference. Different vehicles (mountain bike, off-road motorcycle, ATV vehicle, 4WD car and compact crossover) were included in the experiment in order to verify the vibration intensity when travelling on different road surface conditions. Correlations between the extracted roughness parameters and vibration levels of the tested vehicles were then verified. Coefficients of determination of between 0.76 and 0.97 were detected between average surface roughness and standard deviation of relative accelerations, with higher values in the case of lighter vehicles

Computability and analysis: the legacy of Alan Turing

We discuss the legacy of Alan Turing and his impact on computability and analysis.Comment: 49 page

"Rotterdam econometrics": publications of the econometric institute 1956-2005

This paper contains a list of all publications over the period 1956-2005, as reported in the Rotterdam Econometric Institute Reprint series during 1957-2005.

Pranab Kumar Sen: Life and works

In this article, we describe briefly the highlights and various accomplishments in the personal as well as the academic life of Professor Pranab Kumar Sen.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/193940307000000013 the IMS Collections (http://www.imstat.org/publications/imscollections.htm) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org