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A comparative study of perceptions concerning the environmental quality of residential real estate in Switzerland based on empirical data collected in three different linguistic regions is presented. Responses by homeowners in the Geneva, Zurich and Lugano areas to questionnaires involving pairwise preference criteria are analysed in the framework of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Eight different environmental quality criteria are used and responses are categorised in terms of indicators concerning the personal situation of the homeowner. The results show that environmental preference levels across the three cities are in the 7‐18 per cent range. It appears that perceptions are similar for four of the eight criteria, whereas notable differences exist for the other criteria. Some possible interpretations of these results are given. Finally, possible extensions to this study are discussed, in particular how the approach could be integrated in a more detailed spatial analysis of socio‐economic data in the framework of geographic information systems.

The aim of the paper is to investigate locational attributes of commercial real estate which are defined in terms of a collection of qualitative appreciations by office users in the Geneva region in Switzerland. The empirical analysis of these environmental quality appreciations was carried out using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology with data from a questionnaire which was sent to 1,800 users of commercial real estate. The users belong to seven professional categories, thus making it possible to examine inter‐professional differences between the appreciations. Seven criteria, all quantifiable in the framework of a geographic information system, are used to evaluate the quality of the urban environment through a process of pairwise comparisons. Some general preferences concerning four pre‐defined geographic areas are also examined in the perspective of a possible further analysis based on geographic information systems. Although the value spread of the quality perceptions appears to be rather wide, it is still possible to identify with confidence a few dominant criteria for the choice of particular office locations.

To address formally the issue of uncertainty in valuing real estate.

Monte Carlo simulations are used to incorporate the uncertainty of valuation parameters. The probability distributions of the various parameters are constructed using empirical data and a simple model is suggested to compute the discount rate.

The central values of the simulations are in most cases slightly less than the hedonic values. The confidence intervals are found to be most sensitive to the long‐term equilibrium interest rate being used and to the expected growth rate of the terminal value.

Further research should focus on the stability of the model when other portfolios are used and for different periods of the real estate cycle. It would also be fruitful to dig deeper in the relation between capital expenses and property values.

Risk can be assessed by valuers as they can measure the probability that the value of a property be less than a given threshold.

By incorporating uncertainty, the analysis does not yield merely a point estimate of the property's value but rather the entire distribution of values. Also this paper constitutes a contribution to the debate about valuation variation and the margin of error in valuing properties.

To solve the problem, a mathematical model is proposed; it relies on a directed acyclic graph (DAG), in which arcs are used to indicate whether a pair of appointments can be assigned to the same route or not (and so to the same care worker). The proposed model aims at minimizing the personnel required to meet daily demand and balancing workloads among the workers while considering the varying traffic patterns derived from traffic congestion.

This paper aims at providing solution approaches for addressing the problem of assigning care workers to deliver home health-care (HHC) services, demanding different skills each. First, a capacity planning problem is considered, where it is necessary to define the number of workers required to satisfy patients' requests and then, patients are assigned to the care workers along with the sequence followed to visit them, thus solving a scheduling problem. The benefits obtained by permitting patients to propose multiple time slots where they can be served are also explored.

The results indicate that the problem can be efficiently solved for medium-sized instances, that is, up to 100 daily patient requests. It is also indicated that asking patients to propose several moments when they can receive services helps to minimize the need for care workers through more efficient route allocations without affecting significantly the balance of the workloads.

This article provides a new framework for modeling and solving a HHC routing problem with multiskilled personnel. The proposed model can be used to identify efficient daily plans and can handle realistic characteristics such as time-dependent travel times or be extended to other real-life applications such as maintenance scheduling problems.

This paper aims to discuss the sequence-dependent forward setup time (FST) and backward setup time (BST) consideration for the first time in two-sided assembly lines. Sequence-dependent FST and BST values must be considered to compute all of the operational times of each station. Thus, more realistic results can be obtained for real-life situations with this new two-sided assembly line balancing (ALB) problem with setups consideration. The goal is to obtain the most suitable solution with the least number of mated stations and total stations.

The complex structure it possesses has led to the use of certain assumptions in most of the studies in the ALB literature. In many of them, setup times have been neglected or considered superficially. In the real-life assembly process, potential setup configurations may exist between each successive task and between each successive cycle. When two tasks are in the same cycle, the setup time required (forward setup) may be different from the setup time required if the same two tasks are in consecutive cycles (backward setup).

Algorithm steps have been studied in detail on a sample solution. Using the proposed algorithm, the literature test problems are solved and the algorithm efficiency is revealed. The results of the experiments revealed that the proposed approach finds promising results.

The sequence-dependent FST and BST consideration is applied in a two-sided assembly line approach for the first time. A genetic algorithm (GA)-based algorithm with ten different heuristic rules was used in this proposed model.

The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of high-involvement work systems (HIWS) on absorptive capacity. In addition, the mediating effect of happiness at work in the relationship between high-involvement work practices and absorptive capacity is analyzed.

A 2-1-2 bathtub multilevel mediation model was used to analyze a sample of 783 employees from 111 bank branches, gathering data at three different times.

The results reveal that HIWS positively affect absorptive capacity. In addition, they show that happiness at work partially mediates the relationship between HIWS and absorptive capacity.

Happiness at work is a fundamental element for knowledge absorption. The findings support the basic assumptions of the job demands-resources model, and demonstrate how HIWS, acting as a job resource, lead to positive attitudes (happiness at work) and, in turn, to positive outcomes (absorptive capacity). The proposed HIWS, based on the assumptions of the mutual gains model, reveal a positive employment relationship with effects on both HAW and organizational outcomes. If organizations expose their employees to management practices that have specific benefits for their HAW, employees are more likely to perform their jobs in ways that will promote their absorptive capacity.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of “Korta Vägen” (The short cut), a targeted language program for qualified migrants in Sweden, in self-maintaining, well-being and perspectives for socio-economic integration for foreigners with academic diploma.

In-class observations, individual semi-structured interviews, focus-group interviews and written essays were used for data collection. A thematic analysis was applied as a method of data analysis. Amartya Sen’s capability approach constituted a theoretical framework of the research discussion.

Korta Vägen provides various resources for the participants, some of which (language training and internship) can become real advantages for employment. Others (IT, interview training and CV writing) are less translatable into concrete outcomes. The study suggests that satisfaction with the program is modulated by commitment to one’s professional identity, initial language proficiency, scope of cultural knowledge, the participants’ goals and the flexibility of the training offered. The acculturation frame of the program does not necessarily correspond with the objective need of many participants for quick entry into the labor market.

Insights into the social-psychological aspects of targeted language training as a measure for socio-economic integration can serve to enhance educational and institutional policies and professional practice.

Electronics in the Service of Man. It has been estimated that the current publication of technical matter is 60 million pages annually. The task of the future research worker, therefore, is likely to be a heavy one as 25 per cent of the total time to complete any future research project may be needed to find, correlate and assimilate past knowledge. But the research worker of the future will have one big aid—an electronic machine, now being developed by the Battelle Memorial Institute, Ohio, U.S.A., which may be able to scan up to five million published documents per hour and identify those relating to the specific information needed.

One of the main advantages of the proposed model is that it is flexible to generate n-day pairings simultaneously. It means that, despite previous researches, one-day to n-day pairings can be generated in a single model. The flexibility in generating parings causes that the proposed model leads to better solutions compared to existing models. Another advantage of the model is minimizing the risk of COVID-19 by limitation of daily flights as well as elapsed time minimization. As airports are among high risk places in COVID-19 pandemic, minimization of infection risk is considered in this model for the first time. Genetic algorithm is used as the solution approach, and its efficiency is compared to GAMS in small and medium-size problems.

One of the most complex issues in airlines is crew scheduling problem which is divided into two subproblems: crew pairing problem (CPP) and crew rostering problem (CRP). Generating crew pairings is a tremendous and exhausting task as millions of pairings may be generated for an airline. Moreover, crew cost has the largest share in total cost of airlines after fuel cost. As a result, crew scheduling with the aim of cost minimization is one of the most important issues in airlines. In this paper, a new bi-objective mixed integer programming model is proposed to generate pairings in such a way that deadhead cost, crew cost and the risk of COVID-19 are minimized.

The proposed model is applied for domestic flights of Iran Air airline. The results of the study indicate that genetic algorithm solutions have only 0.414 and 0.380 gap on average to optimum values of the first and the second objective functions, respectively. Due to the flexibility of the proposed model, it improves solutions resulted from existing models with fixed-duty pairings. Crew cost is decreased by 12.82, 24.72, 4.05 and 14.86% compared to one-duty to four-duty models. In detail, crew salary is improved by 12.85, 24.64, 4.07 and 14.91% and deadhead cost is decreased by 11.87, 26.98, 3.27, and 13.35% compared to one-duty to four-duty models, respectively.

The authors confirm that it is an original paper, has not been published elsewhere and is not currently under consideration of any other journal.