Train schedule coordination at an interchange station through agent negotiation

In open railway markets, coordinating train schedules at an interchange station requires negotiation between two independent train operating companies to resolve their operational conflicts. This paper models the stakeholders as software agents and proposes an agent negotiation model to study their interaction. Three negotiation strategies have been devised to represent the possible objectives of the stakeholders, and they determine the behavior in proposing offers to the proponent. Empirical simulation results confirm that the use of the proposed negotiation strategies lead to outcomes that are consistent with the objectives of the stakeholders

The 2007-09 financial crisis and bank opaqueness

Doubts about the accuracy with which outside investors can assess a banking firm’s value motivate many government interventions in the banking market. The recent financial crisis has reinforced concerns about the possibility that banks are unusually opaque. Yet the empirical evidence, thus far, is mixed. This paper examines the trading characteristics of bank shares over the period from January 1990 through September 2009. We find that bank share trading exhibits sharply different features before vs. during the crisis. Until mid-2007, large (NYSE-traded) banking firms appear to be no more opaque than a set of control firms, and smaller (NASD-traded) banks are, at most, slightly more opaque. During the crisis, however, both large and small banking firms exhibit a sharp increase in opacity, consistent with the policy interventions implemented at the time. Although portfolio composition is significantly related to market microstructure variables, no specific asset category(s) stand out as particularly important in determining bank opacity.Banks and banking ; Stock market ; Financial crises

Market evidence on the opaqueness of banking firms' assets.

We assess the market microstructure properties of U.S. banking firms' equity, to determine whether they exhibit more or less evidence of asset opaqueness than similar-sized nonbanking firms. The evidence strongly indicates that large banks (traded on NASDAQ) trade much less frequently despite microstructure characteristics. Problem (noncurrent) loans tend to raise the frequency with which the bank's equity trades, as well as the equity's return volatility. The implications for regulatory policy and future market microstructure research are discussed.Bank stocks ; Bank assets

Minimisation of energy consumption variance for multi-process manufacturing lines through genetic algorithm manipulation of production schedule

Typical manufacturing scheduling algorithms do not consider the energy consumption of each job, or its variance, when they generate a production schedule. This can become problematic for manufacturers when local infrastructure has limited energy distribution capabilities. In this paper, a genetic algorithm based schedule modification algorithm is presented. By referencing energy consumption models for each job, adjustments are made to the original schedule so that it produces a minimal variance in the total energy consumption in a multi-process manufacturing production line, all while operating within the constraints of the manufacturing line and individual processes. Empirical results show a significant reduction in energy consumption variance can be achieved on schedules containing multiple concurrent jobs