Narrow Results

The model in which an individual maximizes the ordinal or cardinal total utility subject to her budget constraint has long been the paradigm of individual choice theory in economics. The ordinal total utility theory has the advantage of utility immeasurability but the disadvantage of being inconsistent with common sense such as the principle of diminishing marginal utility. The cardinal total utility theory is consistent with the aforementioned common sense but suffers from the problem of utility measurability. Lin and Peng [A rehabilitation of the law of diminishing marginal utility: An ordinal marginal utility approach, The B.E Journal of Theoretical Economics22(2) (2022) 453–481] developed the ordinal marginal utility (OMU) theory aiming to solve the above dilemma between the two theories. This paper provides a complete formal axiomatic proof for this new theory by offering the related mathematical definitions, axioms, and their derived properties. We prove that the marginal utility function of a bundle of objects can be derived from the ordinal marginal preference between two bundles of objects, and that this function exists, is continuous, and can keep the property of diminishing marginal utility.

Recommender systems have developed rapidly and successfully. The system aims to help users find relevant items from a potentially overwhelming set of choices. However, most of the existing recommender algorithms focused on the traditional user-item similarity computation, other than incorporating the social interests into the recommender systems. As we know, each user has their own preference field, they may influence their friends' preference in their expert field when considering the social interest on their friends' item collecting. In order to model this social interest, in this paper, we proposed a simple method to compute users' social interest on the specific items in the recommender systems, and then integrate this social interest with similarity preference. The experimental results on two real-world datasets Epinions and Friendfeed show that this method can significantly improve not only the algorithmic precision-accuracy but also the diversity-accuracy.

Using the 2011–2016 Japan Household Panel Survey, this study examines the intergenerational transmission of married women’s employment in Japan. The study also analyzes two driving mechanisms. The findings suggest that the wife’s labor supply is positively associated with the mother-in-law’s former employment and the mother’s former employment. The preference mechanism reveals the effect of the wife’s employment on her husband’s satisfaction differs between men raised by a working mother and those with an unemployed mother in the past. The endowment mechanism suggests that married man with working wife cooperates to do domestic tasks regardless of his mother’s former employment.

Gower plots provide a powerful graphical tool to detect cardinal and ordinal inconsistencies in a pairwise preference matrix. However, there is no systematical way to help a decision maker to reduce these inconsistencies. This paper develops a model that can assist in making a consistent decision. Gower plots are used to detect major inconsistencies. A multi-objective program is then formulated to adjust both the cardinal inconsistencies and the preference changes subjected to the constraints of ordinal consistency.

The primary purpose of this paper is to aggregate the overall rating based on guests’ online ratings by performing a social choice analysis of online hotel rating. Specifically, we first define the individual preference as the subjective judgement on the important order of the dimensions of online hotel rating, then quantify the individual preference through an analytical approach, the pessimistic and optimistic results of which are balanced by the Hurwicz criterion approach, lastly formulate the social choice result by means of the ideal-point concept. An empirical study using the real data collected from Trip.com is conducted to show the applicability and superiority of our methodology.

With the aging of the population, the prevalence of eye diseases and thus of vision impairment is increasing. The TV watching habits of people with vision impairments are comparable to normally sighted people,¹ however their vision loss prevents them from fully benefiting from this medium. For over 20 years we have been developing video image-enhancement techniques designed to assist people with visual impairments, particularly those due to central retinal vision loss. A major difficulty in this endeavor is the lack of evaluation techniques to assess and compare the effectiveness of various enhancement methods. This paper reviews our approaches to image enhancement and the results we have obtained, with special emphasis on the difficulties encountered in the evaluation of the benefits of enhancement and the solutions we have developed to date.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the how seat order in a two-seater (K2) crew boat could influence the performance time and stroke synchronization during high intensity sprint kayaking. Sixteen national team sprint kayakers formed eight K2 crews based on preference. Each crew performed two 200m segments at high intensity in their preferred order (e.g., Paddler A in front, Paddler B behind), and then the reversed order (i.e., Paddler B in front, Paddler A behind). Video analysis identified stroke synchronization based on a four-position model. Magnitude-based inferences were used for statistical analysis. The preferred seat order was $0.5\pm 1.8$s faster than the reversed seat order but the effect was possibly trivial. As four crews were faster in the reversed seat order, data were also rearranged to compare between the slower and faster trials. The faster trials were $1.5\pm 0.5$s quicker than the slower trials, which was a very likely effect. There was no clear effect of seat order on stroke synchronization between the two paddlers. Since faster timing does not always correspond with the preferred sear order, sprint kayak athletes are recommended to try both possible seat orders in a K2 crew boat rather than relying on preference alone.

Data Envelop Analysis (DEA) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) are widely used methods in ranking decision alternatives. However, current DEA models are difficult to discriminate decision-making units through articulating the decision makers' preferences. While AHP and Gower plot models have to specify complete pairwise preferences without providing assisting information. This study develops an iterative method of ranking decision alternatives by integrating DEA, AHP and Gower plot techniques. The developed method first utilizes a modified DEA model to narrow the ranges of a decision maker's preferences. Then, the tentative ranks of the decision alternatives, computed by embedding the decision maker's preferences, are depicted via Gower plots to illustrate the cardinal and ordinal inconsistencies of these preferences. The decision maker then adjusts the preferences iteratively until the inconsistencies are within the tolerance.

Natural ecosystems, including forest ecosystems, continue to be degraded or converted at an alarming rate. To complement or substitute regulatory approaches to ecosystem management, market-based instruments such as "payments for ecosystem services" (PES) have been introduced and are gaining popularity. One of the prominent PES schemes in the world is the Bolsa Floresta Program (BFP) in the State of Amazonas, Brazil. The BFP was established by the Government of the State of Amazonas through its Secretariat for Environment and Sustainable Development in 2006 and is implemented by the Amazonas Sustainable Foundation. The BFP, which is a voluntary program to reduce deforestation and promote sustainable development by rewarding the communities for changing their land use practices, has four main components: the Bolsa Floresta Income; Bolsa Floresta Social; Bolsa Floresta Family; and Bolsa Floresta Association. A study was conducted to assess the preferences of the participating households in three reserves, namely: Rio Negro, Juma, and Uatumã, for different payment packages with varying combinations of the bolsas relative to the status quo option. The discrete choice method and an open ended question format were used to elicit the preferences of the participant households. The discrete choice model results showed that the majority of the respondents (about 80 per cent) in the three reserves chose an alternative which offered a 20 per cent increase in direct cash payments to households as their most preferred alternative. On the other hand, the majority of respondents who were subjected to open question stated that they would like to see an increase in benefits that fall under the Bolsa Floresta Social category.

In this paper, two natural production inventory models based on fuzzy total production inventory cost with the preference of a decision maker are introduced, and combined by natural number parameters in which values are linguistic values in natural language, crisp real number variables, and fuzzy number variables. These are the one natural production inventory model for crisp production quantity, and the other natural production inventory model for fuzzy production quantity. The natural arithmetical operations of both natural numbers and fuzzy numbers by Function Principle are used to compute fuzzy total production inventory cost of each natural production inventory model. Graded k-preference integration representation method is discussed for defuzzifying fuzzy total production inventory cost by preference of decision maker. Furthermore, Extension of the Lagrangean method is used to solve inequality constrain problem in our natural production inventory model. We find out that our optimal solutions can be specified to the classical production inventory model when preference 0.5 of decision maker and natural numbers and fuzzy numbers in our models are crisp real numbers.

The diversified digital applications develop rapidly with the information technology. Therefore, there are many job seekers showing their resumes and portfolios on the internet. Thus, the content layout becomes important. The dynamic and static visual presentation has great influence in the receptions of the readers and may even affect the preference in the visual psychology.

In this study, we design two kinds of interface visual effect, which are dynamic and statics mode for the resume presentation. There are 30 students with the age 20-25 years old, and they did the QUIS (Questionnaire for User Interface Satisfaction) test. From the test results, we can understand the preference of the testers between the two kinds of interface Design.