Stress and team performance: principles and challenges for intelligent decision aids

Advances in computer technology and artificial intelligence are providing powerful capabilities for developing intelligent decision aids (IDAs) to support operating teams in managing complex systems. Early system designs, which acted as independent computer advisors, constrained human decision making, were brittle and encountered problems of user acceptance. As a result, there has been a shift towards making IDAs more cooperative in assisting users to make decisions under stress. Although there is a growing body of research on how to design IDAs as collaborate team players, this article provides additional insights by focusing on the competencies manifested by efficient teams in adapting to stress. To this extent, a survey of how teams adapt their decision-making strategies, cooperation patterns and team structure has provided a good basis for proposing design principles for collaborative IDAs. The article concludes with some challenges for further developments in information technology and research needs in the area of teamwork under stress.     

Tracking Chinese newspaper coverage of elephant ivory through topic modeling

Mass media worldwide has contributed to increasing awareness of the illegal wildlife trade and its significant impact on wildlife conservation. We used mass media coverage as a proxy for macro-level public opinion to analyze the media framing of elephant ivory in 6394 Chinese newspaper articles published from 2000 to 2021 and thus determine the effects of wildlife policies on public opinion. We focused on 2 events: the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) approval of China as a trading partner in the purchase and import of ivory stockpiles from Africa in July 2008 and the Chinese government's announcement of a domestic ivory ban in December 2016. Using latent Dirichlet allocation topic modeling, we identified 8 topics about elephant ivory and grouped them into 3 frames: ivory arts and culture, ivory crimes, and elephant conservation. Over the last 2 decades, topics related to ivory crimes remained the most prevalent in news articles. Topics about ivory arts and culture showed a significant shift in media salience before and after the 2 events (from 0.44 to 0.19 and from 0.08 to 0.15, respectively, p < 0.05), whereas the other 2 frames did not change significantly. Contrary to popular belief, our results indicated that Chinese macro-level public opinion on ivory had become more negative following the CITES approval of ivory importation and less negative after the ivory ban announcement, at least for certain periods. The relationship between mass media, public opinion, and wildlife trade policies is complex and requires further examination of the sociopolitical dynamics that influence media narratives. Our results showed the value of topic modeling in monitoring and assessing media representations of wildlife issues in the era of big data. Conservationists should remain vigilant of mass media coverage and collaborate with media practitioners to produce comprehensive narratives on wildlife issues if resources permit.     

Relationship between conservation biology and ecology shown through machine reading of 32,000 articles

Conservation biology was founded on the idea that efforts to save nature depend on a scientific understanding of how it works. It sought to apply ecological principles to conservation problems. We investigated whether the relationship between these fields has changed over time through machine reading the full texts of 32,000 research articles published in 16 ecology and conservation biology journals. We examined changes in research topics in both fields and how the fields have evolved from 2000 to 2014. As conservation biology matured, its focus shifted from ecology to social and political aspects of conservation. The 2 fields diverged and now occupy distinct niches in modern science. We hypothesize this pattern resulted from increasing recognition that social, economic, and political factors are critical for successful conservation and possibly from rising skepticism about the relevance of contemporary ecological theory to practical conservation.     

A Simple Framework for Incorporating Seasonal Streamflow Forecasts into Existing Water Resource Management Practices1

Gong, Gavin, Lucien Wang, Laura Condon, Alastair Shearman, and Upmanu Lall, 2010. A Simple Framework for Incorporating Seasonal Streamflow Forecasts Into Existing Water Resource Management Practices. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(3):574-585. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2010.00435.x Abstract: Climate-based streamflow forecasting, coupled with an adaptive reservoir operation policy, can potentially improve decisions by water suppliers and watershed stakeholders. However, water suppliers are often wary of straying too far from their current management practices, and prefer forecasts that can be incorporated into existing system modeling tools. This paper presents a simple framework for utilizing streamflow forecasts that works within an existing management structure. Climate predictors are used to develop seasonal inflow forecasts. These are used to specify operating rules that connect to the probability of future (end of season) reservoir states, rather than to the current storage, as is done now. By considering both current storage and anticipated inflow, the likelihood of meeting management goals can be improved. The upper Delaware River Basin in the northeastern United States is used to demonstrate the basic idea. Physically plausible climate-based forecasts of March-April reservoir inflow are developed. Existing simulation tools and rule curves for the system are used to convert the inflow forecasts to reservoir level forecasts. Operating policies are revised during the forecast period to release less water during forecasts of low reservoir level. Hindcast simulations demonstrate reductions of 1.6% in the number of drought emergency days, which is a key performance measure. Forecasts with different levels of skill are examined to explore their utility.     

流域排污权初始分配模型构建及应用研究——以淮河流域为例

流域排污权初始分配受环境现状、经济发展、社会公平、科技水平等多种因素的影响,将各因素细化成污染物入河排放量、河段长度、人均GDP、地区开发指数、非农人口比例、贫困地区倾斜指数、人口总量、出境断面水质达标率等指标,通过层次分析法确定指标权重,建立了流域排污权初始分配的综合模型。以淮河流域限排总量(COD、氨氮)为目标总量,以流域内各行政单元为主体,进行了初始分配模型的应用。在淮河流域排污权初始分配中环境现状、经济发展因素权重较大,而社会公平、科技水平权重较小。模型的分配结果既弥补了以往分配模型中片面强调某些原则的缺点,具有综合全面的特点,又通过指标权重的方式区分了影响大小不同因素的作用差异。     

许昌市土地资源利用结构优化配置研究

土地资源优化配置是城市化进程中面临的主要问题,土地利用结构优化配置是土地利用总体规划的主要内容和基本方法,也是区域经济和社会发展规划的重要依据.在对许昌市土地利用变化分析的基础上,结合当地社会经济发展的需求和有关规划控制指标,借助线性规划模型求解未来许昌市土地利用结构的优化方案,力求提高土地利用的综合效益,实现土地资源永续利用和国民经济持续发展.     

农村集体建设用地流转对资源配置的影响评析

为实现土地资源优化配置,本文系统地比较分析了农村集体建设用地流转前后的资源配置状况,以确定配置方式的有效性或选择合理的调控制度.结果表明,与土地征收相比,集体建设用地流转有助于优化资源配置.但在有无相应的制度安排或制度如何安排以及利益主体行为趋向的影响下,集体建设用地流转对实现资源优化配置不一定更有效.如果缺乏合理规范或有效的制度安排,集体建设用地流转市场功能仍然是微弱的或将带来资源配置负效应.要实现土地资源最优配置,就必须在把握集体建设用地流转系统内部结构及外部环境对资源配置影响机理的基础上,对集体建设用地流转进行优化调控.本文提出如下政策建议:完善农村集体建设用地流转立法建设,为流转提供法律支持;深化集体土地产权制度建设,明确集体土地产权主体及其产权权能;加强农村集体建设用地流转市场培育与政府管制制度的系统建设和改革,实现市场机制和政府干预的耦合;转变政府职能,多方面保障政府行为规范化.     

基于DEA的我国能源R＆D经费配置评价研究

在对我国能源R＆D强度分析的基础上,运用DEA理论的C^2R模型对我国能源产业及其5个行业2001--2010年的R＆D经费投入、产出状况进行了实证分析。研究中用R＆D经费存量值来代替当年的R＆D经费值,得到各年的R＆D经费配置的相对效率和规模收益情况,找出R＆D经费配置配置存在的问题,有利于对我国能源R＆D经费的投人产出结构进行分析,提出优化国家能源R＆D经费配置的对策和建议。     

农地整治项目投资分摊博弈机理研究——以政府和企业为例

投资主体、建设主体与受益主体不一致是导致我国农地整治项目效率偏低的根本原因,公私合作(PPP)模式是从制度层面提升我国农地整治项目效率的理想模式。本文首先界定了农地整治项目PPP模式,分析了PPP模式下农地整治项目的运行机制及其博弈关系,建立了农地整治项目投资的成本收益函数;然后以政府与农业产业化企业间的博弈为例,在探讨他们博弈要素的基础上构建了投资博弈模型,提出了二者理想的投资决策边界;最后用一个典型案例论证了本文的分析结果。研究结果表明,新增耕地面积和项目建设成本是影响农地整治项目效益发挥的主要因素。农地整治项目PPP模式顺利实施的条件是:当项目政府补贴较低时,企业投入高建设成本得到的支付不低于其保留支付。项目高效运行的条件是:当项目政府补贴较高时,企业投入低建设成本得到的支付不高于其保留支付;与投入低建设成本相比,企业选择高建设成本得到农地经营收益的增加值不小于其增加的成本值。     

中国二元经济中水资源流转模式研究

农业用水效率低下及水资源在工农业两部门间的结构性短缺将成为我国经济转型中面临的主要资源问题之一。如何优化配置水资源,实现工农业两部门的"双赢"是经济发展面临的一个重要课题。文章基于刘易斯-费-拉尼斯模型对二元经济结构体制下水资源流转过程进行系统性的经济学阐述,进而得出水资源在工农业两部门中的流转是从无限供给状态到体现稀缺性的过程。并结合1949-2009年中国水资源的利用情况,对中国水资源在两部门经济中的流转进行了阶段识别和趋势研究,即"余水"流转、"低效水"流转和"竞争性用水"流转,从而为水资源流转的实际操作提供了学理性解释,并据此提出通过建设引水工程基础设施、完善用水额度和税费标准法律规范,健全水资源流转的农业补偿机制和加强农业生产部门节水意识宣传,以完善我国水资源流转制度的相应对策建议。