A Stepwise Efficiency Improvement DEA Model for Airport Operations with Fixed Production Factors

In the spirit of the deregulation movement, Japan is also faced with an ÃgAsia Open SkyÃh agreement which favours aviation liberalization in international services. This means an end to Japan's aviation policy of isolation. In association with this policy change, also environmental concerns grew increasingly severe for small and local regional airports. Consequently, there is a need for an objective analysis of the efficiency of airport operations in Japan. A standard tool to judge the efficiency of such activities is Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). In the past years, much progress has been made to extend this approach in various directions. Interesting examples are the Distance Friction Minimization (DFM) model and the Context-Dependent (CD) model. The DFM model is based on a generalized distance friction function and serves to improve the performance of a Decision Making Unit (DMU) by identifying the most appropriate movement towards the efficiency frontier surface. Standard DEA models use a uniform input reduction in the improvement projections, but the DFM approach aims to enhance efficiency strategies by introducing a weighted projection function. This approach may address both input reduction and output increase as a strategy of a DMU. Likewise, the CD model yields efficient frontiers at different levels, while it is based on a level-by-level improvement projection. The Stepwise DFM model is an integration of the DFM and the CD model in order to design a stepwise efficiency-improving projection model for a conventional DEA. In general, a DEA model – and neither the mix of the DFM-CD model – doesnÃft take into account a fixed factor. Such a non-controllable of fixed factor may refer to a production factor that cannot be flexibly adjusted in the short run. In our study the newly integrated Stepwise DFM-CD model will be extended with a fixed factor model in order to adapt the DEA model to realistic circumstances in an efficiency improvement projection. The above-mentioned stepwise fixed factor projection model is illustrated on the basis of an application to the efficiency analysis of airport operations in Japan in light of the above mentioned contextual changes in aviation policy.

A Second-Order Distributed Trotter-Suzuki Solver with a Hybrid Kernel

The Trotter-Suzuki approximation leads to an efficient algorithm for solving the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation. Using existing highly optimized CPU and GPU kernels, we developed a distributed version of the algorithm that runs efficiently on a cluster. Our implementation also improves single node performance, and is able to use multiple GPUs within a node. The scaling is close to linear using the CPU kernels, whereas the efficiency of GPU kernels improve with larger matrices. We also introduce a hybrid kernel that simultaneously uses multicore CPUs and GPUs in a distributed system. This kernel is shown to be efficient when the matrix size would not fit in the GPU memory. Larger quantum systems scale especially well with a high number nodes. The code is available under an open source license.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure

Tunable far-infrared laser spectroscopy of deuterated isotopomers of Ar–H2O

Several far-infrared vibration-rotation-tunneling transitions have been measured in deuterated isotopomers of Ar–H2O for the first time. These experimental results will enable the generation of improved intermolecular potential energy surfaces for the Ar–H2O system when combined with existing microwave, far-infrared, and infrared data

Bose-Fermi Pair Correlations in Attractively Interacting Bose-Fermi Atomic Mixtures

We study static properties of attractively interacting Bose-Fermi mixtures of uniform atomic gases at zero temperature. Using Green's function formalism we calculate boson-fermion scattering amplitude and fermion self-energy in the medium to lowest order of the hole line expansion. We study ground state energy and pressure as functions of the scattering length for a few values of the boson-fermion mass ratio $m_b/m_f$ and the number ratio $N_b/N_f$. We find that the attractive contribution to energy is greatly enhanced for small values of the mass ratio. We study the role of the Bose-Fermi pair correlations in the mixture by calculating the pole of the boson-fermion scattering amplitude in the medium. The pole shows a standard quasiparticle dispersion for a Bose-Fermi pair, for $m_b/m_f\geq 1$. For small values of the mass ratio, on the other hand, a Bose-Fermi pair with a finite center-of-mass momentum experiences a strong attraction, implying large medium effects. In addition, we also study the fermion dispersion relation. We find two dispersion branches with the possibility of the avoided crossings. This strongly depends on the number rario $N_b/N_f$.Comment: 14 pages, 27 figure

Effective Clusters as Territorial Performance Engines in a Regional Development Strategy - A Triple-Layer DEA Assessment of the Aviation Valley in Poland

Regional development policy aims to cope with the challenge of spatial disparities. It is based on a smart combination of various critical capital assets in a region which functionally and spatially interact and which yield synergetic economic opportunities and promising challenges for innovation and progress. The present study regards sustainable territorial performance – as a manifestation of regional development – as the overarching principle for competitive advantages and economic growth in a system of regions, which is particularly induced by territorial capital, comprising human capital, infrastructural capital and social capital. In the long-standing tradition of regional development policy a wide variety of effective facilitators or drivers of accelerated spatial growth has been distinguished, for instance, industrial districts, growth poles, growth centers, industrial complexes, special economic zones, communication axes, and so forth. In the past decades, a new concept has been introduced, viz. economic-technological clusters. An avalanche of literature has been published on the conceptual, operational and policy foundation and relevance of this concept, especially in relation to previously developed regional growth concepts. In this paper, clusters will be regarded as the spatial foci of sustainable territorial performance strategies and synergetic actions by both public and private actors. The present paper aims to address the relevance of cluster concepts for an effective regional development policy, based on the above notion of territorial capital. It does so by introducing a new concept, viz. effective cluster, in which spatial-economic synergy, local/regional concentration of industry, and the supporting role of territorial capital are regarded as the main determinants of a highly performing cluster in a given territory. The effective cluster concept will be tested on the basis of a field study on the aviation and aerospace cluster ‘Dolina Lotnicza’ in the Podkarpackie region in South-East Poland. This is one of the most vibrant high-tech clusters in the country. A new approach based on a triple-layer architecture will be adopted here, viz.: a quantitative comparative analysis of the 16 Polish ‘voivodships’ (main administrative regions in the country, at a NUTS-2 level), a benchmark analysis of the 25 counties (‘powiats’) within the Podkarpackie voivodship (at a NUTS-4 level), and an effective industrial cluster analysis on the basis of the individual aviation firms located in the Podkarpackie region. In each step an extended Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), characterised by a merger of a Slack-Based Measure (SMB) and a super-efficiency (SE) DEA, will be used in order to achieve an unambiguous ranking of the various regions or Decision Making Units (DMUs). The study will employ an extensive database on individual actors in the cluster, in combination with a broadly composed territorial-capital database for the areas under study. The paper will be concluded with some strategic policy lessons

Perception of intentionality in investor attitudes towards financial risks

Traditionally, financial market participation has been treated as analogous to playing games of chance with a physical device such as roulette. Here, we propose that humans treat financial markets as intentional agents, with own beliefs and aspirations. As a result, the capacity to infer the intentions of others, Theory of Mind, explains behaviour. As evidence, we appeal to results from recent studies of: (i) forecasting in the presence of insiders, (ii) trading in markets with bubbles, and (iii) financial contagion. Intensity of, and skill in, Theory of Mind explains heterogeneity, not only in choices but also in neural activation

Simulation of the shape memory effect in a NiTi nano model system

The shape memory behavior of a NiTi nanoparticle is analyzed by molecular dynamics simulations. After a detailed description of the equilibrium structures of the used model potential, the multi variant martensitic ground state, which depends on the geometry of the particle, is discussed. Tensile load is applied, changing the variant configuration to a single domain state with a remanent strain after unloading. Heating the particle leads to a shape memory effect without a phase transition to the austenite, but by variant reorientation and twin boundary formation at a certain temperature. These processes are described by stress-strain and strain-temperature curves, together with a visualization of the microstructure of the nanoparticle. Results are presented for five different Ni concentrations in the vicinity of 50%, showing for example, that small deviations from this ideal composition can influence the critical temperature for shape recovery significantly.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in the "Journal of Alloys and Compounds