Effects of non-aeronautical activities at airports on the public transport access system: A case study of Zurich Airport

Many planning authorities and airports study measures to increase public transport use for airport ground access and egress. At the same time, an increase in real estate development at and around airports is occurring, both due to airports seeking new revenue possibilities and other developers attempting to profit from high value locations. This paper considers non-aeronautical activities at large airports, largely commercial centres and transit hubs, as land uses that have the potential to improve the situation for operating public transport services. In order to assess potential benefits and disadvantages, four research questions are considered: (1) Can the additional travel volume reach levels at which it has a significant impact? (2) To what extent do non-aeronautical activities influence the public transport access system? (3) Is the resulting demand distribution better or worse regarding peaking behaviour? (4) Is there a potential for the resulting overall demand to bring about capacity shortages?A case study is conducted at the airport of Zurich, Switzerland, which finds that non-aeronautical activities in the direct airport vicinity have led to a situation where the operation of public transport services is much more viable due to overall higher passenger numbers and a more even distribution throughout the day. It is concluded that locating non-aeronautical activities at airports can, in addition to providing commercial benefits to developers, lead to a situation where improved public transport services become feasible.     

ALTERNATIVE WEIGHTING APPROACHES TO COMPUTING INDEXES OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

This paper compares the weighting schemes in the traditional, principal component and dynamic factor approaches to summarizing information from a number of component variables. To facilitate the comparison, we propose a framework to discuss the approaches with respect to their implied loadings in a latent variable model. We also propose a way to transform the dynamic factor index into an analogous index which is a weighted average of the components. The framework shows the strengths and weakness of the alternative weighting schemes and the sense in which the dynamic factor approach has the advantage of capturing both the significance and the variability of the components.     

超微红茶粉的理化性质和抗氧化活性的研究

本文采用超微粉碎技术制备超微红茶粉,研究超微粉碎时间对红茶粉末的显微结构、功能特性、流动性及抗氧化活性的影响。结果表明,超微粉碎改善了红茶的理化性质,增加了功效成分溶出率,提高了其抗氧化活性,其中20 min粉碎时间制得的超微红茶粉理化性质变化显著,30 min粉碎时间制得的超微红茶粉抗氧化活性较强。     

The role of accelerators in firm survival: An fsQCA analysis of Italian startups

Accelerators are a recent yet rapidly growing phenomenon within entrepreneurial ecosystems. The distinctive characteristics exhibited by accelerators, relative to previous incubation models, imply that accelerators may play a different role and have a different impact on the survival rates of participating firms. In this study, we explore the relationship between participation in an accelerator program and firm survival using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) with key variables related to firm survival. We analyze 38 accelerated startups from five Italian accelerators and a control group of 38 non-accelerated Italian startups. Our findings support the business accelerator literature that regards accelerators as a new and distinct generation of business incubators. Our results suggest that participation in accelerator programs on its own does not influence firm survival. However, we found a relationship between firm survival and accelerated technology-based firms that do not export and between firm survival and accelerated firms in the service sector with a small team that do not export. We conclude that factors affecting the survival of accelerated firms are different from factors affecting the survival of incubated firms, providing further evidence of the characteristics that distinguish accelerators from incubators.     

学前儿童平板电脑导航按钮交互设计评价研究

学前儿童平板电脑导航按钮交互设计评价指标的建立,有利于交互设计在学前儿童平板电脑中的优化和改良.从学前儿童体验视角出发,创建平板电脑导航按钮交互设计的多维度多层次评价指标,该方法以创建多维度多层次评价指标为基础,根据D-S证据理论设计评价指标的决策矩阵,利用层次分析法确定评价指标权重.最后以优学派儿童平板电脑"童话故事"界面导航按钮8个优化设计方案对比分析与评价为例,验证了所提出方法的合理性与有效性.     

LearnSmart,adaptive teaching,and student learning effectiveness: An empirical investigation

Facing the growing number of digital natives entering the classroom, business professors look for innovative ways to enhance the student learning experience. The authors focus on the online interactive learning tool LearnSmart (McGraw-Hill, New York, NY), and examine its impact on student learning effectiveness by testing the direct and indirect relationships among perceived competence, perceived challenge, instructors, perceived value, and satisfaction with LearnSmart. Constructionism served as the theoretical foundation for this study. About 215 students at a public university in the United States took the survey and 197 valid responses were received. Regression analysis results showed that the use of LearnSmart improved students' perceived competency, thus increasing their perceived value of using LearnSmart, as well as their satisfaction with LearnSmart. Perceived value was also found to mediate the impact of perceived competency on satisfaction with LearnSmart, and the instructor played a significant role in facilitating and improving student learning. Perceived challenge impacted student's perceived value of using LearnSmart, but it did not influence satisfaction with LearnSmart.     

IOS移动平台互动绘本的设计

绘本随着计算机软硬件的发展和无线网络技术的进步，正由纸质图书形式向数字化屏式过渡，其自身可以根据故事的画面与技术手段相结合，从而产生新的绘本形态---互动绘本。在这种应用背景的推动下，指出纸质绘本的优缺点，调查分析IOS移动平台互动绘本发展的前景与优势，从研究互动绘本的设计特征着手，探讨互动绘本设计在数字技术支撑下的设计要素与设计方法，可对互动绘本的设计与发展有所借鉴，并实现其艺术价值与市场应用价值。     

Monetary policy,endogenous transactions,and financial market segmentation

An endogenous financial market segmentation model is constructed to explore the role of costly credit as a medium of exchange in the monetary policy elasticity of financial market activity. Against inflation risk, credit is an alternative insurance device to a cash transfer from the financial market. In equilibrium, credit reduces the financial market activity rate. Monetary policy has redistributive effects across economic individuals. Inflation may not tax financial market non-participants. However, it may tax financial market participants by increasing the financial market activity rate. Welfare may increase and the optimal money growth rate can be positive.     

发包方与供应商间关系对供应商创新能力的影响

采用多元层级回归方法,对影响供应商创新能力的驱动因素以及供应商在供应链网络中的等级位置对各驱动因素与供应商创新能力间关系的调节作用进行了理论探讨和实证分析。结果显示:在跨国外包情景下,发包方支持、共享活动和联结强度对供应商的创新能力具有显著的积极影响;供应商在供应链网络中的等级位置对联结强度与供应商创新能力间关系具有显著的正向调节作用,对共享活动与供应商创新能力间关系的正向调节作用不稳定。     

Forecasting economic activity from yield curve factors

This paper provides clear-cut evidence that the slope and curvature factors of the term structure of interest rates (yield curve) contain more information about future changes in economic activity than the term spread itself, often used in the literature as a predictive regressor of economic activity. These two factors reflect different information about future economic activity, which is smoothed out by the term spread. The paper shows that the slope factor has predictive power on future economic activity over longer horizons ahead, and thus may be interpreted as reflecting future business cycle conditions. On the other hand, the curvature factor, which enters the term spread with opposite sign than the slope factor, has predictive power on shorter movements of future economic activity which may be associated with changes in the current stance of monetary policy. These results hold for a number of world developed economies.