Assessing advertising in a hierarchical decision model

Many destination marketing organizations in the United States and elsewhere are facing budget retrenchment for tourism marketing, especially for advertising. This study evaluates a three-stage model using Random Coefficient Logit (RCL) approach which controls for correlations between different non-independent alternatives and considers heterogeneity within individual’s responses to advertising. The results of this study indicate that the proposed RCL model results in a significantly better fit as compared to traditional logit models, and indicates that tourism advertising significantly influences tourist decisions with several variables (age, income, distance and Internet access) moderating these decisions differently depending on decision stage and product type. These findings suggest that this approach provides a better foundation for assessing, and in turn, designing more effective advertising campaigns.

Diseño de un modelo geológico-geotécnico 3D de la Vega Baja del Río Segura (Alicante, SE España)

Los modelos geológico-geotécnicos permiten al ingeniero comprender mejor las condiciones reinantes en un determinado lugar, además de identificar los principales problemas geotécnicos y hacer más realista la estimación de propiedades del suelo. En este trabajo se presenta la metodología empleada para el diseño de un modelo geológico-geotécnico tridimensional de la Vega Baja del Río Segura que consta de cuatro zonas caracterizadas por sus propiedades geotécnicas y su problemática asociada. El modelo resulta fundamentalmente de gran utilidad para la planificación de investigaciones preliminares de obras civiles.

Las maquetas como material didáctico para la enseñanza y aprendizaje de la lectura e interpretación de planos en la ingeniería

Utilizamos las maquetas como herramientas auxiliares para proyectar y mostrar proyectos de ingeniería, pero también pueden ser un excelente material didáctico para la enseñanza y aprendizaje de la lectura, interpretación y realización de los planos que definen un proyecto o sus diferentes elementos. En este trabajo se refiere la experiencia realizada por los autores con los alumnos de Ingeniería Técnica de Obras Públicas dentro de la unidad de Interpretación de Planos de la asignatura de Sistemas de Representación. La dificultad que los alumnos de la materia tienen para interpretar el lenguaje, códigos y convenciones de la expresión gráfica está entre los motivos por los que se ha utilizado las maquetas como método de representación tridimensional que permite hacer comprensibles y fácilmente interpretadas las características constructivas de los diferentes elementos y las operaciones necesarias para pasar de la representación a la realización de la unidad de obra. En la comunicación se describe la actividad realizada con los alumnos, la selección de las unidades a representar, la elaboración de las maquetas y planos, poniendo especial acento en la concordancia entre la representación gráfica y el modelo tridimensional. Asimismo se han analizado las capacidades didácticas de uno de los trabajos realizados por los alumnos así como la evaluación y conclusiones de la experiencia realizada.

Accurate Treatment of Large Supramolecular Complexes by Double-Hybrid Density Functionals Coupled with Nonlocal van der Waals Corrections

In this work, we present a thorough assessment of the performance of some representative double-hybrid density functionals (revPBE0-DH-NL and B2PLYP-NL) as well as their parent hybrid and GGA counterparts, in combination with the most modern version of the nonlocal (NL) van der Waals correction to describe very large weakly interacting molecular systems dominated by noncovalent interactions. Prior to the assessment, an accurate and homogeneous set of reference interaction energies was computed for the supramolecular complexes constituting the L7 and S12L data sets by using the novel, precise, and efficient DLPNO-CCSD(T) method at the complete basis set limit (CBS). The correction of the basis set superposition error and the inclusion of the deformation energies (for the S12L set) have been crucial for obtaining precise DLPNO-CCSD(T)/CBS interaction energies. Among the density functionals evaluated, the double-hybrid revPBE0-DH-NL and B2PLYP-NL with the three-body dispersion correction provide remarkably accurate association energies very close to the chemical accuracy. Overall, the NL van der Waals approach combined with proper density functionals can be seen as an accurate and affordable computational tool for the modeling of large weakly bonded supramolecular systems.

Three-dimensional planar model estimation using multi-constraint knowledge based on k-means and RANSAC

Plane model extraction from three-dimensional point clouds is a necessary step in many different applications such as planar object reconstruction, indoor mapping and indoor localization. Different RANdom SAmple Consensus (RANSAC)-based methods have been proposed for this purpose in recent years. In this study, we propose a novel method-based on RANSAC called Multiplane Model Estimation, which can estimate multiple plane models simultaneously from a noisy point cloud using the knowledge extracted from a scene (or an object) in order to reconstruct it accurately. This method comprises two steps: first, it clusters the data into planar faces that preserve some constraints defined by knowledge related to the object (e.g., the angles between faces); and second, the models of the planes are estimated based on these data using a novel multi-constraint RANSAC. We performed experiments in the clustering and RANSAC stages, which showed that the proposed method performed better than state-of-the-art methods.

A three-stage DEA model to evaluate learning-teaching technical efficiency: Key performance indicators and contextual variables

This study evaluates the technical efficiency of the learning-teaching process in higher education using a three-stage procedure that offers advances in comparison to previous studies and improves the quality of the results. First, it utilizes a multiple stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with contextual variables. Second, the levels of super efficiency are calculated in order to prioritize the efficiency units. And finally, through sensitivity analysis, the contribution of each key performance indicator (KPI) is established with respect to the efficiency levels without omission of variables. The analytical data was collected from a survey completed by 633 tourism students during the 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14 academic course years. The results suggest that level of satisfaction with the course, diversity of materials and satisfaction with the teacher were the most important factors affecting teaching performance. Furthermore, the effect of the contextual variables was found to be significant.