Two-stage security screening strategies in the face of strategic applicants, congestions and screening errors

Abstract In a security screening system, a tighter screening policy not only increases the security level, but also causes congestion for normal people, which may deter their use and decrease the approver's payoff. Adapting to the screening policies, adversary and normal applicants choose whether to enter the screening system. Security managers could use screening policies to deter adversary applicants, but could also lose the benefits of admitting normal applicants when they are deterred, which generates a tradeoff. This paper analyzes the optimal screening policies in an imperfect two-stage screening system with potential screening errors at each stage, balancing security and congestion in the face of strategic normal and adversary applicants. We provide the optimal levels of screening strategies for the approver and the best-response application strategies for each type of applicant. This paper integrates game theory and queueing theory to study the optimal two-stage policies under discriminatory and non-discriminatory screening policies. We extend the basic model to the optimal allocation of total service rate to the assumed two types of applicants at the second stage and find that most of the total service rate are assigned to the service rate for the assumed "Bad" applicants. This paper provides some novel policy insights which may be useful for security screening practices

A Framework for Integrating Transportation Into Smart Cities

In recent years, economic, environmental, and political forces have quickly given rise to “Smart Cities” -- an array of strategies that can transform transportation in cities. Using a multi-method approach to research and develop a framework for smart cities, this study provides a framework that can be employed to: Understand what a smart city is and how to replicate smart city successes; The role of pilot projects, metrics, and evaluations to test, implement, and replicate strategies; and Understand the role of shared micromobility, big data, and other key issues impacting communities. This research provides recommendations for policy and professional practice as it relates to integrating transportation into smart cities

An American Model for the EU Gas Market?

It is generally believed that the American model is not suitable for Europe, yet North America is the only large and working competitive gas market in the world. The paper shows how its model could be adapted as a target for market design within the European institutional framework. It starts from analysis of the main peculiar economic features of the gas transportation industry, which should underpin any efficient model. After the Third Package is properly implemented the EU will share several building blocks of the American model: effective unbundling of transportation and supply; regulated tariffs which, for long distance transportation, are in fact largely related to capacity and distance; investments based mostly on industry’s initiative and resources, and the related decisions are increasingly made after open and public processes. Yet Europe needs to harmonize tariff regulation criteria, which could be achieved through a monitoring process. National separation of main investment decisions should be overcome, possibly by organising a common platform where market forces and public authorities interact with private suppliers to require existing and develop new capacity, whereas industry competitively offers its solutions. Such platform would allow for long term capacity reservation, subject to caps and congestion management provisions. Auctions and possibly market coupling would play an important role in the allocation of short term capacity but a limited one in long term. Market architecture and the organisation of hubs would also be developed mostly by market forces under regulatory oversight. The continental nature of the market suggests a likely concentration of trading in a very limited number of main markets, whereas minor markets would have a limited role and would be connected to major ones, with price differences reflecting transportation costs and market conditions. Excessive interference or pursuit of political goals in less than transparent ways involves the risk of slower liquidity development and higher market fragmentation. With this view as a background, regulatory work aimed at completing the European market should be based on ensuring the viability of interconnections between current markets and on the establishment of common platforms and co-ordinated tariff systems, fostering the conditions for upstream and transportation capacity development.Hubs; infrastructure; target model; network tariffs; gas market design; capacity allocation

PERFECT HAPPINESS?: GAME THEORY AS A TOOL FOR ENHANCING PATENT QUALITY

Since its inception in 1790, the U.S. patent system has been inextricably linked to innovation, the dissemination of knowledge, and numerous other societal benefits. The adoption of a patent claiming system in 1836 has resulted in a series of historical trends, including. (1) the century-plus trend of yearly increases in applications, straining the agency beyond its capabilities,- (2) a highly labor-intensive examination process,- and, (3) the majority ofpatents issued have been valueless. Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ( PTO ) is in a selfdescribed workload crisis and under attack for quality concerns. Former Under Secretary and PTO Director James E. Rogan carefully articulated these problems. Through his leadership, Rogan successfully championed a series of initiatives to modernize the PTO. His central theme was modernizing the agency and transforming its nineteenth century business model for the twenty-first century. However, patent reform has become increasingly difficult recently due to the rigors of the legislative process and political considerations. This Article applies game theory, a branch of applied mathematics, to propose a new patent reform whereby the PTO focuses more resources on more rigorous examination offewer applications. Empirical patent scholars have concluded that only a smallfraction of all patents are valuable, and scarce examination resources are not properly allocated. Economists liken the patent system to a lottery--individuals seek windfall rewards for their efforts. The Article\u27s proposed examination paradigm avoids arbitrary and irrational resource allocation by applying a market-based mechanism. an auction. An auction will discourage lottery strategies and helps weed out worthless applications. Since our history and tradition encourage promoting innovation and entrepreneurship broadly, the proposal offers inventors a choice for the legal protection of their inventions. Through an auction, inventors could vie for an application\u27s full-scale examination. Alternatively, they would be eligible for another type ofprotection (e.g., a petty patent). Nobel Laureate William Vickrey pioneered a sealed bid, second price variety of auction. It is an ideal mechanism for the allocation of scarce public sector resources, and is also appropriate in the patent context. It permits the more robust examination of a smaller set of applications. This will help ease the PTO\u27s workload crisis, discourage specious applications, and hence enhance patent quality. The Vickrey auction does not seek to maximize revenue so as to punish new inventors, small businesses, and non-profits. Rather, it dynamically finds the most optimal price for government examination services. This Article\u27s new paradigm promises to break the century-plus cycle of dysfunction and offer public policy benefits for each of the participants and society at large

Optimizing Sponsored Humanitarian Parole

The United States has introduced a special humanitarian parole process for Ukrainian citizens in response to Russia 2022 invasion of Ukraine. To qualify for parole, Ukrainian applicants must have a sponsor in the United States. In collaboration with HIAS, a refugee resettlement agency involved in the parole process, we deployed RUTH (Refugees Uniting Through HIAS), a novel algorithmic matching system that is driven by the relocation preferences of refugees and the priorities of US sponsors. RUTH adapts Thakral Multiple-Waitlist Procedure (MWP) that combines the main FIFO queue with location-specific FIFO queues to effectively manage the preferences of refugees and the supply of community sponsors. RUTH also incorporates various feasibility considerations, such as community capacity religious, and medical needs. The adapted mechanism is envy-free, efficient, and strategy-proof for refugees. Our analysis shows diverse refugee location preferences, not fully explained by observables, highlighting the challenge of predicting preferences directly from them. We use our data for two counterfactual simulations. First, we consider the effects of increased waiting times for refugees on the quality of their matches. We find that with a periodic Top Trading Cycles algorithm, increasing period length from 24 days to 80 days improves the average rank of a refugees match from 3.20 to 2.44. Second, we estimate the arrival rates of sponsors in each location that would be consistent with a long-run steady state. We find that more desirable locations (regarding refugee preferences) require the highest arrival rates, suggesting that preferences might be a useful indicator for investments in sponsorship capacity. Our study highlights the potential for preference-based algorithms such as RUTH to improve the efficiency and fairness of other rapidly deployed humanitarian parole processes.Comment: In Equity and Access in Algorithms, Mechanisms, and Optimization (EAAMO23), October 30-November 1, 2023, Boston, MA, USA. 34 pages, including an appendi

Transportation and Smart City Imaginaries: A Critical Analysis of Proposals for the USDOT Smart City Challenge

Scholarly attention to the development of “smart cities” around the globe has been focused on the nature of these cities, and visions of the futures that these developments would provide for individuals, communities, and institutions. Much of the research about these information-intensive projects has been focused on the description of these cities in terms of their primary socioeconomic goals and on the influential roles in their development being played by globally active information technology firms. An important, but underexplored, focus of this research has been an examination of how local and regional governments have envisioned these projects. This article responds to that challenge through a critical analysis of proposals submitted to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Smart City Challenge. We associate the choice of population references used in these proposals with the socioeconomic characteristics of these cities and then examine the nature of changes made in the proposals by the seven finalists

Project TransmiT : Academic Review of Transmission Charging Arrangements

This report has been commissioned by the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority in support of the ‘Project TransmiT’ initiative, a review of transmission charging and associated connection arrangements. The terms of reference of this report are reproduced in Appendix 1. The objectives of Project TransmiT are to ensure that we have in place charging arrangements that facilitate the timely move to a low carbon energy sector whilst continuing to provide safe, secure, high quality network services at value for money to existing and future consumers

September 1991

Culbertson Winery Battles Fiscal Woes 3 Good Grief! What Happened to My Bank? 3 Coachella Valley Firm Nets State Workers Comp Contract 5 End of the Commute-Employees Have Offices Brought to Them 7 Regional Government: A Recipe for Disaster? 8,9 Drugger on Banking 11 Focus on Telecommunications and the High-tech Office 16,17 Attention I.E. Hotels: Travel Tops Baseball 33 Can Outside CPAs be a Part of Your Business? 34 The Missing Link 36 Technology no Longer a Luxury: It\u27s a Requirement! 38 Newsmakers 0 Answers for the Inland Empire 7 Editorial & Opinion •••8 lEBJ Close-up: Sheila Brown KCKC4 Ideas for the Inland Empire................—10 People, Places & Events.........—......—15 The Lists: Savings & Loans........ .....—.~.—12 Independent Banks.—....—...... .13 Airlines Serving I.E.. .32 Comrcl. Design Rrms 38 Inland Empire People 16 Weekend Time Out Rancho Valencia Resort 18 Letters to the Editor 25 Real Estate Focus 31 Small Business Corner. 34,35 Desert Business Journal 37 San Gorgonio Pass Area News 40 Corporate Profile: Sun World International 41 City Focus: Redlands..............................42 Inland Empire Calendar 43 Inland Empire Profile 43 Business Listings 4