Impact of Perceived Value on Customer Satisfaction and Continuance Intention of Bicycle Sharing Service

Bicycle sharing service has been identified as one of the most significant applications in the sharing economy, yet few studies have explored its value stream from a customer perception perspective. Drawing upon value creation theoretical framework, this study proposes a research model to examine the impact mechanism of four value streams on customer satisfaction and continuance intention of bicycle sharing service. An empirical study was conducted and 293 valid data was collected from users of two leading bicycle-sharing platforms in China. Structural equation modeling technique was used to examine the research model. The empirical results suggest that emotional value is the most significant antecedent of customer satisfaction and continuance intention, followed by functional value and economic value. While environmental value has a positive but weaker influence on customer satisfaction. A post-hoc analysis further suggests that gender difference exists on the association between the four value streams and customer satisfaction

Simplified Neutrosophic Sets Based on Interval Dependent Degree for Multi-Criteria Group Decision-Making Problems

In this paper, a new approach and framework based on the interval dependent degree for multi-criteria group decision-making (MCGDM) problems with simplified neutrosophic sets (SNSs) is proposed. Firstly, the simplified dependent function and distribution function are defined. Then, they are integrated into the interval dependent function which contains interval computing and distribution information of the intervals

Local Phenomena Shape Backyard Soil Metabolite Composition

Soil covers most of Earth’s continental surface and is fundamental to life-sustaining processes such as agriculture. Given its rich biodiversity, soil is also a major source for natural product drug discovery from soil microorganisms. However, the study of the soil small molecule profile has been challenging due to the complexity and heterogeneity of this matrix. In this study, we implemented high-resolution liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry and large-scale data analysis tools such as molecular networking to characterize the relative contributions of city, state and regional processes on backyard soil metabolite composition, in 188 soil samples collected from 14 USA States, representing five USA climate regions. We observed that region, state and city of collection all influence the overall soil metabolite profile. However, many metabolites were only detected in unique sites, indicating that uniquely local phenomena also influence the backyard soil environment, with both human-derived and naturally-produced (plant-derived, microbially-derived) metabolites identified. Overall, these findings are helping to define the processes that shape the backyard soil metabolite composition, while also highlighting the need for expanded metabolomic studies of this complex environment.This research was supported by start-up funds from the University of Oklahoma (to L.-I.M.). Open Access fees paid for in whole or in part by the University of Oklahoma Libraries.Ye

Simplified Neutrosophic Sets Based on Interval Dependent Degree for Multi-Criteria Group Decision-Making Problems

In this paper, a new approach and framework based on the interval dependent degree for multi-criteria group decision-making (MCGDM) problems with simplified neutrosophic sets (SNSs) is proposed. Firstly, the simplified dependent function and distribution function are defined. Then, they are integrated into the interval dependent function which contains interval computing and distribution information of the intervals. Subsequently, the interval transformation operator is defined to convert simplified neutrosophic numbers (SNNs) into intervals, and then the interval dependent function for SNNs is deduced. Finally, an example is provided to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method, together with its comparative analysis. In addition, uncertainty analysis, which can reflect the dynamic change of the final result caused by changes in the decision makers’ preferences, is performed in different distribution function situations. That increases the reliability and accuracy of the result

Combinational Fusion and Global Attention of the Single-Shot Method for Synthetic Aperture Radar Ship Detection

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), an active remote sensing imaging radar technology, has certain surface penetration ability and can work all day and in all weather conditions. It is widely applied in ship detection to quickly collect ship information on the ocean surface from SAR images. However, the ship SAR images are often blurred, have large noise interference, and contain more small targets, which pose challenges to popular one-stage detectors, such as the single-shot multi-box detector (SSD). We designed a novel network structure, a combinational fusion SSD (CF-SSD), based on the framework of the original SSD, to solve these problems. It mainly includes three blocks, namely a combinational fusion (CF) block, a global attention module (GAM), and a mixed loss function block, to significantly improve the detection accuracy of SAR images and remote sensing images and maintain a fast inference speed. The CF block equips every feature map with the ability to detect objects of all sizes at different levels and forms a consistent and powerful detection structure to learn more useful information for SAR features. The GAM block produces attention weights and considers the channel attention information of various scale feature information or cross-layer maps so that it can obtain better feature representations from the global perspective. The mixed loss function block can better learn the positions of the truth anchor boxes by considering corner and center coordinates simultaneously. CF-SSD can effectively extract and fuse the features, avoid the loss of small or blurred object information, and precisely locate the object position from SAR images. We conducted experiments on the SAR ship dataset SSDD, and achieved a 90.3% mAP and fast inference speed close to that of the original SSD. We also tested our model on the remote sensing dataset NWPU VHR-10 and the common dataset VOC2007. The experimental results indicate that our proposed model simultaneously achieves excellent detection performance and high efficiency

Adaptive Cruise Control for Cut-In Scenarios Based on Model Predictive Control Algorithm

In a cut-in scenario, traditional adaptive cruise control usually cannot effectively identify the cut-in vehicle and respond to it in advance. This paper proposes an adaptive cruise control (ACC) strategy based on the MPC algorithm for cut-in scenarios. A finite state machine (FSM) is designed to manage vehicle control in different cut-in scenarios. For a cut-in scenario, a method to identify and quantify the possibility of cut-in of a vehicle is proposed. At the same time, a safety distance model of the cut-in vehicle is established as the basis for the state transition of the finite state machine. Taking the quantified cut-in possibility of a vehicle as a reference, the model predictive control (MPC) algorithm, which considers the constraints of driving safety and comfort, is used to realize coordinated control of the host vehicle and the cut-in vehicle. Simulink–Carsim simulation studies show that the ACC strategy for a cut-in scenario can effectively identify a cut-in vehicle and quantify the possibility of cut-in of the vehicle. Faced with a cut-in vehicle, the host vehicle using the ACC strategy can brake several seconds early and switch the following target to the cut-in vehicle. Meanwhile, the acceleration and jerk of the host vehicle changes within a reasonable range, which ensures driving safety and comfort