Aggregated Needs and the Location Choice of Households in Taipei

This paper examines the impact of aggregated needs of household members on the choice of housing location in Taipei, Taiwan, using a sample of 11,191 households and information collected from the 1990 Census of Population and Housing. Our results indicate that the choice of housing location is significantly affected impacted by the age, family origin, past housing location, education and occupation status, and the location of the workplaces of both spouses. We also find that this decision is more significantly influenced by the attributes of the male spouse than the female. However, among the households with a female household head, the female spouse characteristics are more likely to be significant. Our results also offer a snapshot of today’s Taiwanese culture and shows that it is dramatically different from the commonly believed male-dominated traditional Chinese culture.Aggregated Needs, Location Choice, Probit Model

Short-Time Existence Theorem for the CR Torsion Flow

In this paper, we study the torsion flow which is served as the CR analogue of the Ricci flow in a closed pseudohermitian manifold. We show that there exists a unique smooth solution to the CR torsion flow in a small time interval with the CR pluriharmonic function as an initial data. In spirit, it is the CR analogue of the Cauchy-Kovalevskaya local existence and uniqueness theorem for analytic partial differential equations associated with Cauchy initial value problemsComment: 30 page

Legendrian mean curvature flow in η\eta-Einstein Sasakian manifolds

Recently, there are a great deal of work done which connects the Legendrian isotopic problem with contact invariants. The isotopic problem of Legendre curve in a contact 3-manifold was studies via the Legendrian curve shortening flow which was introduced and studied by K. Smoczyk. On the other hand, in the SYZ Conjecture, one can model a special Lagrangian singularity locally as the special Lagrangian cones in C^{3}. This can be characterized by its link which is a minimal Legendrian surface in the 5-sphere. Then in these points of view, in this paper we will focus on the existence of the long-time solution and asymptotic convergence along the Legendrian mean curvature flow in higher dimensional {\eta}-Einstein Sasakian (2n+1)-manifolds under the suitable stability condition due to the Thomas-Yau conjecture.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0906.5527 by other author

A New Photocatalytic System Using Steel Mesh and Cold Cathode Fluorescent Light for the Decolorization of Azo Dye Orange G

High color and organic composition, the effluents from the textile dyeing and finishing industry, can be treated by photocatalytic oxidation with UV/TiO2. The objective of this study was to prepare a new photocatalytic system by coating nanosized TiO2 particles on steel mesh support and using cold cathode fluorescent light (CCFL) irradiation at 365 nm in a closed reactor for the oxidation of azo dye C.I. Orange G (OG). Various factors such as reaction time, coating temperature, TiO2 dosage, pH, initial dye concentration, and service duration were studied. Results showed efficient color removal of the OG azo dye by the photocatalytic system with TiO2-coated temperature at 150°C. The optimal TiO2 dosage for color removal was 60 g m−2. An acidic pH of 2.0 was sufficient for photocatalytic oxidation whereas basic condition was not. The rate of color removal decreased with increase in the initial dye concentration. The TiO2-coated steel mesh can be used repeatedly over 10 times without losing the photocatalytic efficiency. Results of FTIR and IC indicated the breakage of N=N bonds, with sulfate as the major and nitrite and nitrate as the minor products, which implied degradation of dye molecules

Supported Zinc Oxide Photocatalyst for Decolorization and Mineralization of Orange G Dye Wastewater under UV365 Irradiation

To solve the environmental challenge of textile wastewater, a UV/ZnO photocatalytic system was proposed. The objective of this study was to prepare a photocatalytic system by utilizing both cold cathode fluorescent light (CCFL) UV irradiation and steel mesh supported ZnO nanoparticles in a closed reactor for the degradation of azo dye C.I. Orange G (OG). Various operating parameters such as reaction time, preparation temperature, mixing speed, ZnO dosage, UV intensity, pH, initial dye concentration, and service duration were studied. Results presented efficient color and total organic carbon (TOC) removal of the OG azo dye by the designed photocatalytic system. The optimal ZnO dosage for color removal was 60 g m−2. An alkaline pH of 11.0 was sufficient for photocatalytic decolorization and mineralization. The rate of color removal decreased with the increase in the initial dye concentration. However, the rate of color removal increased with the increase in the UV intensity. The steel mesh supported ZnO can be used repeatedly over 10 times without losing the color removal efficiency for 120 min reaction time. Results of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and ion chromatography (IC) indicated the breakage of N=N bonds and formation of sulfate, nitrate, and nitrite as the major and minor products. The observation indicated degradation of dye molecules

The effectiveness of IF-MADM (intuitionistic-fuzzy multi-attribute decision-making) for group decisions: methods and an empirical assessment for the selection of a senior centre

This study determines the effectiveness of intuitionistic-fuzzy multi-attribute decision-making (IF-MADM) for making group decisions in practice. The effectiveness of the method is measured in terms of four dimensions: applicability, efficacy, efficiency and informativeness. To measure the efficacy, an IF-MADM model that has been recently proposed, AHP and the TOPSIS approach, which are compensatory models for group MADM, are used to model and solve the same collective decision. Using non-parametric statistical tests for data analytics, a ‘similarity confirmation method’ is proposed for a pair-wise test. This is to determine whether the score vectors are similar. Score vectors are used to determine the final ordinal ranks and whose scales differ greatly for different MADM methods. Since the latter two MADM models are both trustworthy with a known range of applications, any similarity in the results verifies the efficacy of IF-MADM. Using this process, the applicability of IF-MADM modelling is demonstrated. The efficiency and informativeness are also benchmarked and justified in terms of the model’s ability to produce a more informed decision. These results are of interest to practitioners for the selection and application of MADM models. Finally, the selection of a senior centre, which is a real group decision problem, is used to illustrate these. This extends the empirical application of IF-MADM, as relatively few studies practically compare issues for IF-MADM with those for other MADM models. The study also supports a rarely studied non-clinical healthcare decision that is relevant because there are many aging societies