295,217 research outputs found
Landscape aesthetics: Assessing the general publics’ rural landscape preferences
working paperThe central aim of this study was to gain greater insights into the factors that
affect individuals’ preferences for a variety of landscape settings. To achieve this aim,
this paper derived dependent variables (based on a factor analysis of respondents
mean ratings of 47 landscape images) representing 5 different landscape categories.
These variables were then utilized in separate OLS regression models to examine the
effect of personal characteristics, residential location and environmental value
orientations on landscape preferences. First in terms of visual amenity the results
suggest that the general public have the strongest preference for landscapes with water
related features as its dominant attribute which was followed by cultural landscapes.
Second the results also demonstrate how there is significant heterogeneity in
landscape preferences as both personal characteristics and environmental value
orientations were found to strongly influence preferences for all the landscape types
examined. Moreover the effect of these variables often differed significantly across
the various landscape groupings. In terms of land use policy, given the diversity of
preferences a one size fits all approach will not meet the general publics’ needs and
desires
Understanding Household Preferences For Alternative-Fuel Vehicle Technologies
This report explores consumer preferences among four different alternative-fuel vehicles (AFVs): hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell (HFC) vehicles, and electric vehicles (EVs). Although researchers have been interested in understanding consumer preferences for AFVs for more than three decades, it is important to update our estimates of the trade-offs people are willing to make between cost, environmental performance, vehicle range, and refuel¬ing convenience. We conducted a nationwide, Internet-based survey to assess consumer preferences for AFVs. Respondents participated in a stated-preference ranking exercise in which they ranked a series of five vehicles (four AFVs and a traditional gasoline-fueled vehicle) that differ primarily in fuel type, price, environmental performance, vehicle range, and refueling conve¬nience. Our findings indicate that, in general, gasoline-fueled vehicles are still preferred over AFVs, however there is a strong interest in AFVs. No AFV type is overwhelmingly preferred, although HEVs seem to have an edge. Using a panel rank-ordered mixed logit model, we assessed the trade-offs people make between key AFV characteristics. We found that, in order to leave a person’s utility unchanged, a 300 savings in driving cost over 12,000 miles; (2) a 17.5 mile increase in vehicle range; or (3) a 7.8-minute decrease in total refueling time (e.g. finding a gas station and refueling)
An Experimental Investigation of Preference Misrepresentation in the Residency Match
The development and deployment of matching procedures that incentivize
truthful preference reporting is considered one of the major successes of
market design research. In this study, we test the degree to which these
procedures succeed in eliminating preference misrepresentation. We administered
an online experiment to 1,714 medical students immediately after their
participation in the medical residency match--a leading field application of
strategy-proof market design. When placed in an analogous, incentivized
matching task, we find that 23% of participants misrepresent their preferences.
We explore the factors that predict preference misrepresentation, including
cognitive ability, strategic positioning, overconfidence, expectations, advice,
and trust. We discuss the implications of this behavior for the design of
allocation mechanisms and the social welfare in markets that use them
Who\u27s on Top? The Mental Health of Men Who Have Sex with Men
Despite most men who have sex with men (MSM) expressing intercourse position preference (e.g., “top”, “versatile”, or “bottom”), there is little information regarding sexual behavior and mental health sequelae. From the perspective of gender schema theory, the current study examined how position preference related to gender roles, internalized homophobia, and mental health. A total of 70 MSM (U.S. residents, M age = 28.89 years, 68.6% White) were recruited for an online study and grouped according to position preference. Groups were mostly similar across demographic variables, although bottoms had fewer sexual partners and lower condom use than tops and versatiles. In terms of gender roles, tops and versatiles were significantly higher in both masculine and feminine traits than bottoms. Tops were significantly more likely to report internalized homophobia than versatiles and bottoms. After controlling for masculinity, versatiles had the highest mental health. Results suggest further study of different sub-populations of MSM is warranted
Learning the Designer's Preferences to Drive Evolution
This paper presents the Designer Preference Model, a data-driven solution
that pursues to learn from user generated data in a Quality-Diversity
Mixed-Initiative Co-Creativity (QD MI-CC) tool, with the aims of modelling the
user's design style to better assess the tool's procedurally generated content
with respect to that user's preferences. Through this approach, we aim for
increasing the user's agency over the generated content in a way that neither
stalls the user-tool reciprocal stimuli loop nor fatigues the user with
periodical suggestion handpicking. We describe the details of this novel
solution, as well as its implementation in the MI-CC tool the Evolutionary
Dungeon Designer. We present and discuss our findings out of the initial tests
carried out, spotting the open challenges for this combined line of research
that integrates MI-CC with Procedural Content Generation through Machine
Learning.Comment: 16 pages, Accepted and to appear in proceedings of the 23rd European
Conference on the Applications of Evolutionary and bio-inspired Computation,
EvoApplications 202
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Enterprise Risk Management: Review, Critique, and Research Directions
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. Many regulators, rating agencies, executives and academics have advocated a new approach to risk management: Enterprise Risk Management (ERM). ERM proposes the integrated management of all the risks an organization faces, which inherently requires alignment of risk management with corporate governance and strategy. Academic research on ERM is still in its infancy, with articles largely in accounting and finance journals but rarely in management journals. We argue that ERM offers an important new research domain for management scholars. A critical review of ERM research allows us to identify limitations and gaps that management scholars are best equipped to address. This paper not only identifies how management scholars can contribute to ERM research, but also points out why ERM research (and practice) needs management research for its development
Rock, Rap, or Reggaeton?: Assessing Mexican Immigrants' Cultural Assimilation Using Facebook Data
The degree to which Mexican immigrants in the U.S. are assimilating
culturally has been widely debated. To examine this question, we focus on
musical taste, a key symbolic resource that signals the social positions of
individuals. We adapt an assimilation metric from earlier work to analyze
self-reported musical interests among immigrants in Facebook. We use the
relative levels of interest in musical genres, where a similarity to the host
population in musical preferences is treated as evidence of cultural
assimilation. Contrary to skeptics of Mexican assimilation, we find significant
cultural convergence even among first-generation immigrants, which
problematizes their use as assimilative "benchmarks" in the literature.
Further, 2nd generation Mexican Americans show high cultural convergence
vis-\`a-vis both Anglos and African-Americans, with the exception of those who
speak Spanish. Rather than conforming to a single assimilation path, our
findings reveal how Mexican immigrants defy simple unilinear theoretical
expectations and illuminate their uniquely heterogeneous character.Comment: WebConf 201
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