Reassessing the financial and social costs of public transport

This paper uses a previously developed spreadsheet cost model which simulates public transport modes operated on a 12km route to analyse the total costs of different passenger demand levels. The previous cost model was a very powerful tool to estimate the social and operator cost for different public transport technologies. However, as the model is strategic based, some assumptions are very basic and idealized and the demand was assumed to be exogenous (externally fixed). When the level of demand is high for the lower capacity public transport technologies, passengers may find the incoming vehicle full and therefore they have to wait more than one service interval. This paper applies queueing theory to investigate the probability of having to wait longer than the expected service headways which will affect the average passenger waiting time. The extra waiting time for each passenger is calculated and applied in the spreadsheet cost model. The speed-flow equation in the original spreadsheet model assumes the speed decreases according to the ratio of the current frequency and the lane capacity which is based on the safety headway without any passenger boarding. However, this may vary in different operating environments. Therefore, the speed equation is improved by moving from a linear equation to a piecewise equation that considers the features of different operating environments. To evaluate the differences after applying these equations, endogenous demand rather than exogenous demand will be investigated by using the elasticities for passenger waiting time and journey time

Human resource allocation to multiple projects based on members’ expertise, group heterogeneity and social cohesion

Project managers regularly allocate human resources to construction projects. This critical task is usually executed by fulfilling the minimum project staffing requirements normally based around the quantity and competence of project members. However, research has shown that team performance can increase by up to 10% and 18%, respectively, as a consequence of the group members’ heterogeneity and social cohesion. Also, there is currently no practical quantitative tool which incorporates these aspects to allow project managers to achieve this task efficiently and objectively. A new quantitative model for the effective allocation of human resources to multiple projects, which takes into account group heterogeneity and social cohesion is proposed. This model is easy to build, update and use in real project environments with the use of a spreadsheet and a basic optimization engine (e.g. Excel Solver). A case study is proposed and solved with a Genetic Algorithm to illustrate the model implementation. Finally, a validation example is provided to exemplify how group heterogeneity and social cohesion condition academic achievement in an academic setting

Setting up a SAM in Excel using VBA

This technical document describes how to set up a full Social Accounting Matrix from its own partition in a spreadsheet file. This is done using VBA code

Honey Sheets: What Happens to Leaked Google Spreadsheets?

Cloud-based documents are inherently valuable, due to the volume and nature of sensitive personal and business content stored in them. Despite the importance of such documents to Internet users, there are still large gaps in the understanding of what cybercriminals do when they illicitly get access to them by for example compromising the account credentials they are associated with. In this paper, we present a system able to monitor user activity on Google spreadsheets. We populated 5 Google spreadsheets with fake bank account details and fake funds transfer links. Each spreadsheet was configured to report details of accesses and clicks on links back to us. To study how people interact with these spreadsheets in case they are leaked, we posted unique links pointing to the spreadsheets on a popular paste site. We then monitored activity in the accounts for 72 days, and observed 165 accesses in total. We were able to observe interesting modifications to these spreadsheets performed by illicit accesses. For instance, we observed deletion of some fake bank account information, in addition to insults and warnings that some visitors entered in some of the spreadsheets. Our preliminary results show that our system can be used to shed light on cybercriminal behavior with regards to leaked online documents

Using a Spreadsheet SAM for GAMS CGE Modeling

This technical document provides in a single document a template to follow when using spreadsheet Social Accounting Matrix data to drive a GAMS-based Computable General Equilibrium model

Catalog of Approaches to Impact Measurement: Assessing Social Impact in Private Ventures

To inform action impact investors could take to measure impact in a coordinated manner, The Rockefeller Foundation commissioned the study of impact assessment approaches presented here.It is natural to hope to find a single, turnkey solution that can address all measurement needs. In this study we conducted a survey of impact investors and complemented it with seven years of experience in the field of impact investing to discover what these investors want from impact measurement, and conducted in-depth interviews with over twenty entities that have developed and implemented approaches to measuring impact. Our survey of existing approaches was thorough but surely is not comprehensive; however the approaches are a good representation of the current state of play. What we found is that there is not one single measurement answer. Instead the answer depends on what solution is most appropriate for a particular investor's "impact profile" defined as the investor's level of risk tolerance and desired financial return, the particular sector in which the investor operates, geography, and credibility level of information about impact that the investor requires