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This paper attempts to assess the transit service reliability with taking into account the interaction between network performance and passengers' travel choice behaviors. Besides the well-known schedule reliability, a waiting-time reliability is newly defined as the probability that the passengers' average waiting time is less than a given threshold. A Monte Carlo simulation approach, which incorporates a stochastic user equilibrium transit assignment model with explicit capacity constraints and elastic frequencies, is proposed to estimate the above two reliability measures of transit service. A numerical example is used to illustrate the applicability of the reliability measures and the proposed approach.

The purpose of this paper is to advocate the emerging trend of wellness tourism in an urban setting. Cities, with dense population and hectic pace of living, pose some challenges on mental health to dwellers. Meanwhile, the populated characteristic of cities opens up opportunities for economic activity, in particular wellness tourism. To comply with the “travel to feel ‘well” trend, product offerings and demand of wellness tourism in urban tourism destinations are yet to be enumerated. The trend paper offers research insights for future investigation.

The ideas presented in the trend paper are inspired by the personal observation of the author from both scholarly and grey literature.

The research directions are delineated in the supply and demand facets. In the demand side, the motivations and behaviors of wellness tourist exerted rooms for examination. Their experiences on wellness tourism could possibly extend to the long-term influence on the cognitive, affective and behavioral changes of individuals. From the supply perspective, the current demarcation of wellness tourism is yet to be explored. Intangible supply associated with wellness tourism, namely, event and dining experiences have been ignored in scholarly studies. A fresh review of the topic from socio-cultural perspective is also viable.

The rise of urbanization and visitor arrivals to cities is expected in foreseeable future. To the best of the author’s knowledge, research insights on wellness tourism in the urban context are still at infancy. The insights on the trend paper are consolidated from a wide range of scholarly and grey literature in a holistic manner.

For flow around elongated bluff bodies, flow separations would occur over both leading and trailing edges. Interactions between these two separations can be established through acoustic perturbation. In this paper, the flow and the acoustic fields of a D-shaped bluff body (length-to-height ratio L/H = 3.64) are investigated at height-based Reynolds number Re = 23,000 by experimental and numerical methods. The purpose of this paper is to study the acoustic feedback in the interaction of these two separated flows.

The flow field is measured by particle image velocimetry, hotwire velocimetry and surface oil flow visualization. The acoustic field is modeled in two dimensions by direct aeroacoustic simulation, which solves the compressible Navier–Stokes equations. The simulation is validated against the experimental results.

Separations occur at both the leading and the trailing edges. The leading-edge separation point and the reattaching flow oscillate in accordance with the trailing-edge vortex shedding. Significant pressure waves are generated at the trailing edge by the vortex shedding rather than the leading-edge vortices. Pressure-based cross-correlation analysis is conducted to clarify the effect of the pressure waves on the leading-edge flow structures.

The understanding of interactions of separated flows over elongated bluff bodies helps to predict aerodynamic drag, structural vibration and noise in engineering applications, such as the aerodynamics of buildings, bridges and road vehicles.

This paper clarifies the influence of acoustic perturbations in the interaction of separated flows over a D-shaped bluff body. The contribution of the leading- and the trailing-edge vortex in generating acoustic perturbations is investigated as well.

Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) has been widely used in probabilistic analysis of the input‐output relationship of a complex function in various applications where probability distributions of the inputs are known. However, MCS is time‐consuming for complex analysis. In addition, it is not straightforward in revealing the relationship between the output variables and the input variables. This paper proposes an alternative analytical approach of statistical estimation, namely the integration of piecewise approach and cell technique that will significantly reduce the number of observations to be taken in a simulation process. The development of the algorithm has included estimation of two statistical parameters, which are the mean and standard deviation. The algorithm has been tested with an engineering example, which is the volumetric shrinkage analysis of a plastic injection molded part.

The paper introduced the use of a hybrid system of neural networks support vector machines (NNSVMs) consisting of artificial neural networks (ANNs) and support vector machines (SVMs) to price single-family properties.

The mechanism of the hybrid system is such that its output is given by the SVMs which utilise the results of the ANNs as their input. The results are compared to other property pricing modelling techniques including the standalone ANNs, SVMs, geographically weighted regression (GWR), spatial error model (SEM), spatial lag model (SLM) and the ordinary least squares (OLS). The techniques were applied to a dataset of 3,225 properties sold during the period, January 2012 to May 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa.

The results demonstrate that the hybrid system performed better than ANNs, SVMs and the OLS. However, in comparison to the spatial models (GWR, SEM and SLM) the hybrid system performed abysmally under with SEM favoured as the best pricing technique.

The findings extend the debate in the body of knowledge that the results of the OLS can significantly be improved through the use of spatial models that correct bias estimates and vary prices across the different property locations. Additionally, utilising the result of the hybrid system is thus affected by the black-box nature of the ANNs and SVMs limiting its use to purposes of checks on estimates predicted by the regression-based models.

This paper aims to give a brief review on behavioral economics and behavioral finance and discusses some of the previous research on agents' utility functions, applicable risk measures, diversification strategies and portfolio optimization.

The authors also cover related disciplines such as trading rules, contagion and various econometric aspects.

While scholars could first develop theoretical models in behavioral economics and behavioral finance, they subsequently may develop corresponding statistical and econometric models, this finally includes simulation studies to examine whether the estimators or statistics have good power and size. This all helps us to better understand financial and economic decision-making from a descriptive standpoint.

The research paper is original.

This study investigates the role of grit in a work setting as well as interrelationships among work-related constructs among frontline employees of hotels. Based on the framework of grit and work-related constructs, this study proposes and tests a model that attempts to understand the dynamic relationship among the two dimensions of grit, customer orientation, job satisfaction, and job performance, with an emphasis on the moderating role of organizational tenure. The results indicate that consistency of interest significantly influences customer orientation, whereas perseverance of effort significantly affects job satisfaction. Job performance is significantly influenced by customer orientation and job satisfaction. The paths from perseverance of effort to customer orientation, from perseverance of effort to job satisfaction, and from consistency of interest to job satisfaction are significantly moderated by organizational tenure.