Basic models of Data Envelopment Analysis are intrinsically preference-free, in the sense that they consider all inputs and outputs and also all decision making units of the same importance. Although this property is beneficial in many ways, it has some drawbacks simultaneously, as the decision makers’ preferences are not taken into account in the process of evaluating units.  To overcome this ...

An additional stage for a Low Voltage Lazzaro’s Winner Take All (WTA) circuit is introduced. It allows lowering the voltage supply requirements so that it can be functional in fine line CMOS technology. Electrical measurements of a prototype in CMOS 0.5μm technology verify the operation of the WTA circuit with VDD = 1.5V. Simulations in PSpice and stability issues are presented as well.

The gap between willingness-to-pay (WTP) and willingness-to-accept (WTA) benefit values typifies situations in which reference points—and direction of movement from reference points—are consequential. Why WTA-WTP discrepancies arise is not well understood. We generalize models of reference dependence to identify separate reference dependence effects for increases and decreases in environmental ...

Notation. we conform to the convention that random variables shall be denoted by capital letters, whilst constants and observed values of random variables be denoted by lowercase letters. If X is a random variable with a continuous and strictly increasing (cumulative) distribution function over its range, then the unique upper γ point ofX will be denoted byXγ , i.e. Pr{X ≥ Xγ} = γ. The sole exc...

This paper addresses the Target-Value Search (TVS) problem, which is the problem of finding a path between two nodes in a graph whose cost is as close as possible to a given target value T . This problem has been previously addressed only for directed acyclic graphs. In this work we develop the theory required to solve this problem optimally for any type of graphs. We modify traditional heurist...

In this paper, we define a class of combinatorial search problems in which the objective is to find a set of paths in a graph whose elements’ value is as close as possible to some target value. Unlike the usual shortest path problem, the goal is not necessarily to find paths with minimum length. We show that in most cases it is possible to decompose the problem into components where heuristic s...

University of Copenhagen, and to Ian Lange and two referees for very careful comments on an earlier version. Abstract Protected areas are employed worldwide as a means of conserving biodiversity. Unfortunately, restricting access to such areas imposes opportunity costs on local people who have traditionally relied on access to obtain resources such as fuelwood and bushmeat. We use contingent va...

This paper addresses the Target-Value Search (TVS) problem, which is the problem of finding a path between two nodes in a graph whose cost is as close as possible to a given target value, T . This problem has been previously addressed: first, for directed acyclic graphs; second, for general graphs under the assumption that nodes can be revisited given that the same edge can not be traversed twi...