6,354 research outputs found
Do Exchange Rates Move in Line With Uncovered Interest Parity?
According to uncovered interest rate Parity (UIP), the expected relative change in an exchange rate is equal to the difference between interest rates between the two currencies. Empirically, UIP is frequently rejected. In this paper, we examine whether exchange rates have at least any tendency to move in the direction predicted by UIP and whether exchange rates tend to move more in line with UIP in periods with large interest rate differentials.Exchange rates;Uncovered interest rate parity;Logit models
Learning from suicides: Towards an improved supervision procedure of suicides in mental health care in the Netherlands
Kerkhof, A.J.F.M. [Promotor]Robben, P.B.M. [Promotor
Comparison of heuristic approaches for the multiple depot vehicle scheduling problem
Given a set of timetabled tasks, the multi-depot vehicle scheduling problemis a well-known problem that consists of determining least-cost schedulesfor vehicles assigned to several depots such that each task is accomplishedexactly once by a vehicle. In this paper, we propose to compare theperformance of five different heuristic approaches for this problem,namely, a heuristic \\mip solver, a Lagrangian heuristic, a columngeneration heuristic, a large neighborhood search heuristic using columngeneration for neighborhood evaluation, and a tabu search heuristic. Thefirst three methods are adaptations of existing methods, while the last twoare novel approaches for this problem. Computational results on randomlygenerated instances show that the column generation heuristic performs thebest when enough computational time is available and stability is required,while the large neighborhood search method is the best alternative whenlooking for a compromise between computational time and solution quality.tabu search;column generation;vehicle scheduling;heuristics;Lagrangian heuristic;large neighborhood search;multiple depot
Delay Management with Re-Routing of Passengers
The question of delay management is whether trains should wait for a delayed feeder trainor should depart on time. In classical delay management models passengers always taketheir originally planned route. In this paper, we propose a model where re-routing ofpassengers is incorporated.To describe the problem we represent it as an event-activity network similar to the oneused in classical delay management, with some additional events to incorporate originand destination of the passengers. We present an integer programming formulation ofthis problem. Furthermore, we discuss the variant in which we assume fixed costs formaintaining connections and we present a polynomial algorithm for the special case ofonly one origin-destination pair. Finally, computational experiments based on real-worlddata from Netherlands Railways show that significant improvements can be obtained bytaking the re-routing of passengers into account in the model.public transportation;OD-pairs;delay management;re-routing
Marine benthic plants of Western Australia's shelf-edge atolls
One hundred and twenty-one species of marine algae, seagrasses and cyanobacteria are reported from the offshore atolls of northwestern Western Australia (the Rowley Shoals, Scott Reef and Seringapatam Reef). Included are 65 species of Rhodophyta, 40 species of Chlorophyta, nine species of Phaeophyceae, three species of Cyanophyta and four species of seagrasses. This report presents the first detailed account of marine benthic algae from these atolls. Twenty-four species are newly recorded for Western Australia, with four species (Anadyomene wrightii, Rhipilia nigrescens, Ceramium krameri and Zellera tawallina) also newly recorded for Australia
Decision support for crew rostering at NS
This paper describes a method for solving the cyclic crewrostering problem (CCRP). This is the problem of cyclicallyordering a set of duties for a number of crew members, such thatseveral complex constraints are satisfied and such that thequality of the obtained roster is as high as possible. Thedescribed method was tested on a number of instances of NS, thelargest operator of passenger trains in the Netherlands. Theseinstances involve the generation of rosters for groups of traindrivers or conductors of NS. The tests show that high qualitysolutions for practical instances of the CCRP can be generated inan acceptable amount of computing time. Finally, we describe anexperiment where we constructed rosters in an automatic way for agroup of conductors. They preferred our - generated - rosters overtheir own manually constructed rosters.
Air cavities at the inner cylinder of turbulent Taylor-Couette flow
Air cavities, i.e. air layers developed behind cavitators, are seen as a
promising drag reducing method in the maritime industry. Here we utilize the
Taylor-Couette (TC) geometry, i.e. the flow between two concentric,
independently rotating cylinders, to study the effect of air cavities in this
closed setup, which is well-accessible for drag measurements and optical flow
visualizations. We show that stable air cavities can be formed, and that the
cavity size increases with Reynolds number and void fraction. The streamwise
cavity length strongly depends on the axial position due to buoyancy forces
acting on the air. Strong secondary flows, which are introduced by a
counter-rotating outer cylinder, clearly decrease the stability of the
cavities, as air is captured in the Taylor rolls rather than in the cavity.
Surprisingly, we observed that local air injection is not necessary to sustain
the air cavities; as long as air is present in the system it is found to be
captured in the cavity. We show that the drag is decreased significantly as
compared to the case without air, but with the geometric modifications imposed
on the TC system by the cavitators. As the void fraction increases, the drag of
the system is decreased. However, the cavitators itself significantly increase
the drag due to their hydrodynamic resistance (pressure drag): In fact, a net
drag increase is found when compared to the standard smooth-wall TC case.
Therefore, one must first overcome the added drag created by the cavitators
before one obtains a net drag reduction.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figure
A bridge between the single-photon and squeezed-vacuum state
The two modes of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen quadrature entangled state
generated by parametric down-conversion interfere on a beam splitter of
variable splitting ratio. Detection of a photon in one of the beam splitter
output channels heralds preparation of a signal state in the other, which is
characterized using homodyne tomography. By controlling the beam splitting
ratio, the signal state can be chosen anywhere between the single-photon and
squeezed state
The influence of wall roughness on bubble drag reduction in Taylor-Couette turbulence
We experimentally study the influence of wall roughness on bubble drag
reduction in turbulent Taylor-Couette flow, i.e.\ the flow between two
concentric, independently rotating cylinders. We measure the drag in the system
for the cases with and without air, and add roughness by installing transverse
ribs on either one or both of the cylinders. For the smooth wall case (no ribs)
and the case of ribs on the inner cylinder only, we observe strong drag
reduction up to and , respectively, for a void fraction of
. However, with ribs mounted on both cylinders or on the outer
cylinder only, the drag reduction is weak, less than , and thus quite
close to the trivial effect of reduced effective density. Flow visualizations
show that stable turbulent Taylor vortices --- large scale vortical structures
--- are induced in these two cases, i.e. the cases with ribs on the outer
cylinder. These strong secondary flows move the bubbles away from the boundary
layer, making the bubbles less effective than what had previously been observed
for the smooth-wall case. Measurements with counter-rotating smooth cylinders,
a regime in which pronounced Taylor rolls are also induced, confirm that it is
really the Taylor vortices that weaken the bubble drag reduction mechanism. Our
findings show that, although bubble drag reduction can indeed be effective for
smooth walls, its effect can be spoiled by e.g.\ biofouling and omnipresent
wall roughness, as the roughness can induce strong secondary flows.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
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