Study on China＇s Economic Vulnerability to Energy Import Using Decomposition Method

Vulnerability means the degree to which that a system is susceptible to suffer damage. This paper focuses on the economic vulnerability to risk of energy import by employing ratio of net energy import to GDP as indicator, and decomposes the vulnerability change into effects of energy import, structure and intensity in order to find out key factors that influence economic security to energy import. Decomposition analysis on China indicates that effect of rising energy import takes more than 90 percent of total vulnerability change during the last 10 years, along with insignificant effect of structural change and intensity decline. International analysis on cross- section data of net energy importers also presents the positive relationship between external energy dependence and economic vulnerability. However, results of America show that long-term effect of energy intensity is much larger than China from 1954 to 2007, which is 70.8% of its total vulnerability change. Experience from developed countries confirms the necessary and validity of improving energy efficiency on depressing economic vulnerability to energy import, which provides lessons for the energy development of China.     

The Action of Structure and Efficiency on Energy Intensity Variation in China- An Empirical Analysis Based on AWD

This paper discusses the factors influencing Chinese energy intensity from 1980 to 2003 based on adaptive weighting Divisia index method and the analyzing results are different in different phase. In period of 1980～1990, both the structure factor and the technology factor effected positively Chinese energy intensity＇s fall but the former became inefficacy and even turned out to be negative in 1991～2001 meanwhile the later factor strengthened its function. After 2001, the two factors promoted Chinese energy intensity＇s rising together. The conclusion is given in the end.     

Structural Decomposition Analysis to Investigate the Changes in Energy Consumption in Pakistan

The world energy demand is increasing due to rapid growth in the global economy, industrialization, and urbanization. Pakistan is also confronted with increasing energy demand on one hand and is confronted with the challenge of energy demand-supply gap on the other hand. Since energy is the major driver for growth, it becomes important to investigate the trends of energy consumption in a country and the factors that are most affecting the changes in the use of energy. This particular study aims to investigate the use of energy by all the economic sectors of Pakistan during 2000–2012.The major contribution is the first time application of structural decomposition analysis(SDA) for energy usage along with using Input-Output data for the period of 2002–2012. The results show the fluctuation of the energy intensity of the sectors throughout the study period. Also, the overall effect of energy intensity is negative on energy consumption and it shows a negative contribution value of-80.90% for the study period. Furthermore, the focus on more energy-intensive products like cement,automobiles, iron, steel products and the increasing final demand of the economy contributes to the growth of energy consumption in Pakistan during 2000–2012.     

The impacts of pricing schemes on decentralized assembly systems

We study an assembly system where one assembler produces a final product to satisfy the price sensitive and uncertain demands. One unit of final product needs inputs from n complementary components each provided from a distinct supplier. The assembler orders from the suppliers and their relationships are governed by price-only contracts. The assembler practices two alternative pricing schemes： a fixed pricing scheme by which she fixes a retail price in all market situations, and a responsive pricing scheme by which she adjusts retail prices after observing actual demand curves. We find that, when the assembler practices the two pricing schemes, the suppliers charge the same wholesale prices, channel profit is allocated among the firms according to the same proportions, and the relative performances of the system under decentralized decision makings with respect to those under centralized decision makings are the same. Furthermore, responsive pricing improves the assembler＇s absolute performance, and the gains pass over to the suppliers in terms of higher profits and to the customers in terms of enhanced product availability and lowered market price.     

OPTIMAL PRICING OF A PERSONALIZED PRODUCT

This paper deals with optimal pricing of a personalized product such as a personal portrait or photo. A new model of the pricing structure inspired by two real-life cases is introduced to the literature and solved to obtain optimal photo sitting fees and the final product price. A sensitivity analysis with respect to the problem parameters is performed.     

A Factor Decomposing Model of Water Use Efficiency at Sector Level and Its Application in Beijing

The paper explores the contribution of different factors affecting water use efficiency(WUE) of each sector and explores ways to improve WUE.A new Multi-Sector and Multi-Factors Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index(MLMDI) decomposition method was developed that enabled the identification of WUE by sector into 11 factors in terms of their order of importance.An application to Beijing at the 19 sector level was made for the period between 2002–2007.The water conservation effects of six measures proposed during the 12th-Five-Year-Plan of Beijing were assessed.It was found that,to decrease the transferred out and export of agriculture products and increasing water prices would be the top two most effective measures to promote water conservation.While the adjustment of direct water use structure would contribute in less significant way,the adjustment of industrial structure would have a negative effect.     

Integration-centric approach to system readiness assessment based on evidential reasoning

An integration-centric approach is proposed to handle inadequate information in the system readiness level (SRL) assessment using the evidential reasoning (ER) algorithm. Current SRL assessment approaches cannot be applied to handle inadequate information as the input. The ER-based approach is proposed to synthesize inadequate input information and an integration-centric perspective is applied to reduce the computational complexity. Two case studies are performed to validate the efficiency of the proposed approach. And these studies are also performed to study how the inadequate information will affect the assessment result. And the differences caused by the system’s structure. The importance of the system’s structure in the SRL assessment is demonstrated and the contributions made in this study are summarized as conclusions.     

The Grid Algorithm of the Development Coefficient and the Combination Coefficient of Background Value in GM（1,1） Model

This article gives the algorithm of the sector in which the development coefficient is, and the steps to simultaneously calculate the development coefficient and combination coefficient of background value. Unifying the development coefficient and the background value＇s coefficient of combination to optimize the model together, avoiding the malpractice to separate the two in traditional method, and avoiding the error brought out by matrix multiplication because of matrix＇s illness and so on in the traditional way, therefore increases the precision of the model.     

The Structure Entropy of Social Networks

Micro triadic structure is an important motif and serves the building block of complex networks. In this paper, the authors define structure entropy for a social network and explain this concept by using the coded triads proposed by Davis and Leinhardt in 1972. The proposed structure entropy serves as a new macro-evolution index to measure the network’s stability at a given timestamp.Empirical analysis of real-world network structure entropy discloses rich information on the mechanism that yield...     

Research on Regional Differences and Influencing Factors of China's Carbon Emissions

This paper studies the regional differences, dynamic evolution and influencing factors of regional carbon emission intensity(CEI) in 262 cities and 5 regional urban agglomerations(UAs) in China. The Dagum Gini coefficient is used to analyze the intra-regional and inter-regional differences in carbon emissions, and the temporal evolution of the absolute differences of CEI among regions is analyzed by means of kernel density estimation(KDE). The paper provides an in-depth study on the spatial diff...     

Scheduling problems — An overview

There seems to be a significant gap between the theoretical and the practical aspects ofscheduling problems in the job shop environment. Theoretically, scheduling systems are designed onthe basis of an optimum approach to the scheduling model. However in the practice, the optimum thatis built into the scheduling applications seems to face some challenges when dealing with the dynamiccharacter of a scheduling system, for instance machine breakdown or change of orders. Schedulingsystems have become quite complex in the past few years. Competitive business environments andshorter product life cycles are the imminent challenges being faced by many companies these days.These challenges push companies to anticipate a demand driven supply chain in their businessenvironment. A demand-driven supply chain incorporates the customer view into the supply chainprocesses. As a consequence of this, scheduling as a core process of the demand-driven supply chainmust also reflect the customer view. In addition, other approaches to solving scheduling problems, forinstance approaches based on human factors, prefer the scheduling system to be more flexible in bothdesign and implementation. After discussion of these factors, the authors propose the integration of adifferent set of criteria for the development of“ scheduling systems which not only appears to have abetter flexibility but also increased customer-focus.     

Capacity commitment and pricing for substitutable products under competition

Capacity acquisition and pricing decisions are a company’s long-term strategic decisions.However, demand uncertainty and substitutability of multiple products cause the difficulty to solve capacity and pricing decision problems.In this paper,we address a multiple product pricing and multiple resource capacity acquisition problem with demand uncertainties and competition.The company needs to determine capacity commitment for each resource and product prices before demands are realized so that the total profit is maximized.If the demand exceeds the committed capacity,extra amounts can be purchased from the spot market.Variable unit production costs,capacity acquisition and maintenance costs are considered.We first analyze a single company basic problem and find the optimal solutions on prices and capacity.Based on the single company model,we address the two-product,two-firm capacity commitment and pricing problem considering across product and across company price competition factors.The existence and uniqueness of equilibrium on price and capacity commitment are proved,and then we extended the results to the multiple product,multiple company case.     

Initial Value Sensitivity in Technology Diffusion

Initial value sensitivity in technology diffusion, an important problem for firms＇ decision making such as the timing and target market chosen for new technology or product entering the market, has long been limited by the research methodology and tool. Based on the network extension of Bass model, this paper proposes a stochastic threshold model and uses computer simulation to empirically examine three propositions on initial value sensitivity in technology diffusion process. Our findings suggest that diffusion extent is sensitive to not only the number of initial adopters but also their positions in social network, and the variance of customers＇ initial assessment as well, which can be detailed as follows： （1） the degree of technology diffusion exhibits highly positive relation to initial adopter quantity, in particular, when the quantity of initial adopters is small, diffusion extent is very sensitive; （2） diffusion extent is sensitive to the positions of initial adopters; （3） in addition, the variance of customers＇ initial evaluation displays strong negative relation to the final diffusion degree in that the larger variance, the lower of diffusion extent.     

Discontinuity-preserving optical flow algorithm

A modification of Horn and Schunk's approach is investigated, which leads to a better preservation of flow discontinuities. It improves Horn-Schunk model in three aspects: (1) It replaces the smooth weight coefficient in the energy equation by the variable weight coefficient. (2) It adopts a novel method to compute the mean velocity. The novel method also reflects the effect of the intensity difference on the image velocity diffusion. (3) It introduces a more efficient iterative method than the Ganss-Seidel method to solve the associated Euler-Lagrange equation. The experiment results validate the better effect of the improved method on preserving discontinuities.     

Life Cycle of Chinese Public Company and Competence Strategy Research

From start-up, growth, maturity to decline, a company will experience a complicated process, in which the company needs to change its anticipated objective, structure and business model with the variation of environment, in order to survive and gain sustainable development. Based on an enterprise＇s life-cycle theory, this paper makes use of both qualitative and quantitative models to do an empirical study on measurement of the life-cycle of 1135 Chinese public companies from 1991 to 2002, both FoxPro and SAS programs are used to process data. At the end of the paper, the author comes up with a company＇s value goals and relevant competence strategies in every stage of life cycle, with the purpose to promote the Chinese public companies＇ sustainable development.     

High-end equipment development task decomposition and scheme selection method

Decomposition of tasks and selection of optimal schemes are key procedures in high-end equipment development processes.However,such procedures are highly innovative,technology intensive,interdisciplinary,and multi-party engineering projects,making the decomposition and scheme selection more difficult and complicated than that in the development of ordinary equipment.In this study,we consider three factors,namely,functional structure,task granularity,and task feasibility in task decomposition of high-end equipment development.Based on the principles of systems engineering,a method of task decomposition is proposed.As for decomposition scheme selection,a method based on the superiority and inferiority ranking(SIR)method mixed information and multiple attribute decision making is proposed by considering attributes of scheme feasibility,uncertainty risk and task integration complexity.To verify the proposed method,development of a military electric vehicle is used as an example to demonstrate the calculation process.     

Evaluating Efficiency of Decision Making Units with Network Structures

This paper considers the problem of evaluating efficiency of Decision Making Units （DMUs） with network structures of divisions by the Data Envelopment Analysis （DEA） model. All divisions in the network are under a decentralized authority organiza- tion. That is, each division in a decision making unit has its own authority to adjust its input and output. By incorporating the division operations in the DEA model, we discuss the sufficient and necessary conditions for a DMU to be network efficient in series structure and general structure respectively.     

Analysis of Influencing Factors of Technical Barriers on Information Product Exports Based on the Fuzzy AHP

To the actual situation of TBT impacting information product and according to the concept of the triangular fuzzy number, this paper forms the fuzzy matrix of factors of impacting export of information product, then uses the fuzzy AHP to analyze and rate factors. We put forward suggestions on how to keep away and surpass the technical barriers to trade in the information product enterprises.     

Study on Main Component Projection Evaluation of Regional Science and Technology Development

With the further aggravation of international competition, the science ＆： technology development has already become the most important factor that it influences a country＇s competitiveness. This paper structures the evaluation index system of regional science and technology development. It also utilizes AHP and main component projection to analyze the current science and technology development situations of eight areas in our country and receive the final result.     

Research on variance of subnets in network sampling

In the recent research of network sampling, some sampling concepts are misunderstood, and the variance of subnets is not taken into account. We propose the correct definition of the sample and sampling rate in network sampling, as well as the formula for calculating the variance of subnets. Then, three commonly used sampling strategies are applied to databases of the connecting nearest-neighbor（CNN） model, random network and small-world network to explore the variance in network sampling. As proved by the results, snowball sampling obtains the most variance of subnets, but does well in capturing the network structure. The variance of networks sampled by the hub and random strategy are much smaller. The hub strategy performs well in reflecting the property of the whole network, while random sampling obtains more accurate results in evaluating clustering coefficient.