Network analysis of the Caucasus’ image

Destination image is influenced by many factors, including destination promotion materials, the mass media as a general familiarity agent, the perceivers’ own characteristics and even researchers’ methodological choices. To isolate and minimize the impact of research on destination image, different qualitative and quantitative designs and analysis techniques have been utilized. However, no previous study utilized the network analysis technique, which may be useful to reveal a picture of destination image with the interconnections and hidden dynamisms of dimensions as well as its correlates. The present study applies this technique on qualitative data from an online sample of Americans on their perceptions of a relatively remote and unfamiliar destination, the Caucasus region, in order to hone in on the dramatic impact of mass media on destination image. Results revealed networks of meanings with residue of mass media messages about Boston bombing, with some differences among different genders and education levels.     

基于数字图像处理技术的再生混凝土数值模拟

为了研究骨料形态对再生混凝土材料力学性能的影响,基于势能原理的基面力元法,利用图像处理技术和MATLAB软件,建立了再生混凝土真实骨料细观模型。应用FORTRAN分析软件对再生混凝土试件进行单轴拉伸试验的数值模拟,研究了真实骨料细观模型再生混凝土宏观应力-应变曲线变化规律和试件的破坏形态。结果显示,真实骨料模型得到的宏观应力-应变曲线和试验曲线吻合度较高,骨料形状对试件的破坏形态影响较小。模型可真实地模拟再生混凝土在单轴拉伸作用下的损伤破坏过程,准确地反映试件的实际骨料形态。     

利用改进特征金字塔模型的SAR图像多目标船舶检测

深度学习模型中的特征金字塔网络（Feature Pyramid Network，FPN）常被用作合成孔径雷达（Synthetic Aperture Radar，SAR）图像中多目标船舶的检测。针对复杂场景下多目标船舶检测问题，提出了一种基于改进锚点框的FPN模型。首先将特征金字塔模型嵌入传统的RPN（Region Proposal Network）并映射成新的特征空间用于目标检测，然后利用基于形状相似度距离（Shape Similar Distance,SSD）度量的Kmeans聚类算法优化FPN的初始锚点框，并使用SAR船舶数据集测试。实验结果表明，所提算法目标检测精确率达到98.62%，在复杂场景下与YOLO、Faster RCNN、FPN based on VGG/ResNet等模型进行对比，模型准确率提高，整体性能更好。     

基于G1法的飞行签派员资质能力评估

为了强化飞行签派员的人员资质管理,提升签派员的运行控制能力,保证民航行业持续稳定安全,结合法规和国航西南分公司运行控制中心的考核制度,从知识、技能、从业经验、专业任职资格、业绩成果及工作态度等6个方面构建了飞行签派员能力评估体系,采用G1法确定指标权重并进行综合打分,以国航"7·10"误关组件导致座舱失压后继续飞行事件为例,对评估指标进行实例验证,为航空公司评估飞行签派员资质能力提供了一套实际可用的量化指标和系统化评估方法。     

Travel information online: navigating correspondents,consensus, and conversation

Travel information exists in paper guides, word of mouth, and countless websites. Organizing a trip has never been more accessible and simultaneously riddled with doubt. Professional journalists produce travel journalism while often anonymous reviewers on TripAdvisor provide their commentaries, and in between, there are blogs, wikis, tourism boards, vendors, and a host of other information sources available. How does the twenty-first-century tourist make sense of all of this information? Through a study of tourists in Paris, this study seeks to understand the methods and strategies that they employ in order to identify trustworthy and useful information. Interviews with a sample of travellers reveal that each person has his/her own unique process guided by their personal motivations, but they also share several practices along the way. This research reveals that tourists ultimately exhibit a multistep process of verification using both professional and non-professional sources. No one type of author or website appears to be a unique or singular influencer when it comes to primary or trustworthy sources. These findings will lead to larger discussions about destination management and transparent practices among information providers.     

A Novel Compact Cat Swarm Optimization Based on Differential Method

ABSTRACT

A compact cat swarm optimization scheme (cCSO) is proposed in this paper, which is designed to solve application domains plagued with limited memory and less-computation power, as a member of cat swarm optimization algorithms (CSO), it composes of two sub-modes, i.e., tracing and seeking modes, so it keeps the same search logic of CSO. On the other hand, cCSO inherits the main feature of compact algorithms, a normal probabilistic model is used to represent the population of solutions instead of processing an actual population, which ensures the cCSO to have the modest memory requirement. The updating vector for the probabilistic model provides a clear moving direction for cats in next step. A cat without historical position and velocity is applied in the algorithm. When the cat is in seeking mode, it employs a differential operator to update the cat’s position, which makes it possible for the cat to have multiple searching directions. Experimental results show that cCSO has pretty performance compared with respect to some population-based testing benchmarks. And it also shows superior performance in convergence rate to some compact optimization algorithms. The case study of gray image segmentation proves that it suits for solving the optimization problem by limited hardware.     

Does board gender diversity influence firm profitability? A control function approach

We investigate the relation between board gender diversity and firm profitability using the control function (CF) approach recently suggested by Wooldridge (2015). The CF method takes account of the problem of endogenous explanatory variables that have potential to bias the results. Using a sample of firms that made up the S&P 500 over the period 2004–2015, we find that the presence of women on corporate boards (measured either by the percentage of female directors on corporate boards or the Blau index of heterogeneity) has a positive and significant (at the 1% level) effect on firm profitability (measured by the return on assets). We compare our results to more traditional approaches (such as pooled OLS or the fixed-effects model). Through this study, we shed light on the effect of women on corporate boards on firm performance, as it is still a controversial issue (Post and Byron, 2015).     

Fire sales by euro area banks and funds: What is their asset price impact?

The assets under management of investment funds have soared in recent years, triggering a debate on their possible implications for financial stability. We contribute to this debate assessing the asset price impact of fire sales in a novel partial equilibrium model of euro area funds and banks calibrated over the period between 2008 and 2017. An initial shock to yields causes funds to sell assets to address investor redemptions, while both banks and funds sell assets to keep their leverage constant. These fire sales generate second-round price effects. We find that the potential losses due to the price impact of fire sales have decreased over time for the system. The contribution of funds to this impact is lower than that of banks. However, funds’ relative contribution has risen due to their increased assets under management and banks’ lower leverage and rebalancing towards loans. Should this trend continue, funds will become an increasingly important source of systemic risk.     

Overcapacities in banking: Measurement,trends and determinants

Global banks face profitability challenges since the global financial crisis. Besides cyclical factors, structural features such as overcapacities have been identified as root causes. While policymakers agree on the need for bank consolidation, there is less consensus on the definition and measurement of overcapacities in banking. This paper contributes by conceptualising and formalising the different dimensions of overcapacities in banking and by constructing a novel measure thereof. In addition, it empirically tests the main determinants of overcapacities in banking from 2006 to 2017 and assesses their relative importance. The results indicate that non-bank competition, the interest rate environment and bank business models are the most important driving factors of banking sector overcapacities. This is because shadow banks, benefitting from regulatory arbitrage, have altered banks’ capacity needs, low rates compressed margins and increased pressure to improve cost efficiencies, and retail-oriented business models have operated extensive branch networks entailing heavy fixed costs.     

Are high–frequency traders informed?

Are high–frequency traders (HFTs) informed? To address this question, we examine HFTs' activity in the call auction environment, where speed-related trading is limited and signal processing capacity becomes more relevant. To model the call market, we consider the Kyle (1989) rational expectations framework for strategic trading. The test we propose for detecting informed HFTs in this market assesses potential deviations of the informativeness of HFTs' aggregate (net) demand, from the informativeness of the aggregate demand submitted by the rest of the traders. Data from the Euronext Paris preopening phase indicate that informed HFTs are present in the market just before the opening. Our results provide useful guidance for the assessment of the influence of HFTs’ quotes on price quality, an important issue for market regulators and policy makers.