A Multiple Criteria Framework to Evaluate Bank Branch Potential Attractiveness

Remarkable progress has occurred over the years in the performance evaluation of bank branches. Even though financial measures are usually considered the most important in assessing branch viability, we posit that insufficient attention has been given to other factors that affect the branches’ potential profitability and attractiveness. Based on the integrated used of cognitive maps and MCDA techniques, we propose a framework that adds value to the way that potential attractiveness criteria to assess bank branches are selected and to the way that the trade-offs between those criteria are obtained. This framework is the result of a process involving several directors from the five largest banks operating in Portugal, and follows a constructivist approach. Our findings suggest that the use of cognitive maps systematically identifies previously omitted criteria that may assess potential attractiveness. The use of MCDA techniques may clarify and add transparency to the way trade-offs are dealt with. Advantages and disadvantages of the proposed framework are also discussed.

Sound production in the Meagre, Argyrosomus regius (Asso, 1801): intraspecific variability associated with size, sex and context

Many fish taxa produce sound in voluntary and in disturbance contexts but information on the full acoustic repertoire is lacking for most species. Yet, this knowledge is critical to enable monitoring fish populations in nature through acoustic monitoring.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology: PTDC/BIA-BMA/30517/2017; SFRH/BD/115562/2016; UID/MAR/04292/2019; UID/BIA/00329/2019; PTDC/BIA-BMA/29662/2017.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

TOFtracker: combination of time-of-flight and high-accuracy bidimensional tracking in a single gaseous detector

A 5-gap timing RPC equipped with patterned electrodes coupled to both charge-sensitive and timing circuits yields a time accuracy of 77 ps along with a position accuracy of 38 μm. These results were obtained by calculating the straight-line fit residuals to the positions provided by a 3-layer telescope made out of identical detectors, detecting almost perpendicular cosmic-ray muons. The device may be useful for particle identification by time-of-flight, where simultaneous measurements of trajectory and time are necessary

Quasi-Topological Quantum Field Theories and Z2Z_2 Lattice Gauge Theories

We consider a two parameter family of $Z_2$ gauge theories on a lattice discretization $T(M)$ of a 3-manifold $M$ and its relation to topological field theories. Familiar models such as the spin-gauge model are curves on a parameter space $\Gamma$. We show that there is a region $\Gamma_0$ of $\Gamma$ where the partition function and the expectation value of the Wilson loop for a curve $\gamma$ can be exactly computed. Depending on the point of $\Gamma_0$, the model behaves as topological or quasi-topological. The partition function is, up to a scaling factor, a topological number of $M$. The Wilson loop on the other hand, does not depend on the topology of $\gamma$. However, for a subset of $\Gamma_0$, depends on the size of $\gamma$ and follows a discrete version of an area law. At the zero temperature limit, the spin-gauge model approaches the topological and the quasi-topological regions depending on the sign of the coupling constant.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figure

Improvement of messages delivery time on vehicular delay-tolerant networks

“Copyright © [2009] IEEE. Reprinted from International Conference on Parallel Processing Workshops ICPPW '09.ISSN:1530-2016. This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to pubs [email protected]. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.”Vehicular Delay-Tolerant Networks (VDTNs) are an application of the Delay-Tolerant Network (DTN) concept, where the movement of vehicles and their message relaying service is used to enable network connectivity under unreliable conditions. To address the problem of intermittent connectivity, long-term message storage is combined with routing schemes that replicate messages at transfer opportunities. However, these strategies can be inefficient in terms of network resource usage. Therefore, efficient scheduling and dropping policies are necessary to improve the overall network performance. This work presents a performance analysis, based on simulation, of the impact of different scheduling and dropping policies enforced on Epidemic and Spray and Wait routing schemes. This paper evaluates these policies from the perspective of their efficiency in reducing the message’s end-to-end delay. In our scenario, it is shown that when these policies are based on the message’s lifetime criteria, the message average delay decreases significantly and the overall message delivery probability also increases for both routing protocols. Further simulations show that these results outperform the MaxProp and PRoPHET routing protocols that have their own scheduling and dropping mechanisms.Part of this work has been supported by Instituto de Telecomunicações, Next Generation Networks and Applications Group, Portugal, in the framework of the VDTN@Lab Project, and by the Euro-NF Network of Excellence from the Seventh Framework Programme of EU