Methodological and empirical challenges in modelling residential location choices

The modelling of residential locations is a key element in land use and transport planning. There are significant empirical and methodological challenges inherent in such modelling, however, despite recent advances both in the availability of spatial datasets and in computational and choice modelling techniques. One of the most important of these challenges concerns spatial aggregation. The housing market is characterised by the fact that it offers spatially and functionally heterogeneous products; as a result, if residential alternatives are represented as aggregated spatial units (as in conventional residential location models), the variability of dwelling attributes is lost, which may limit the predictive ability and policy sensitivity of the model. This thesis presents a modelling framework for residential location choice that addresses three key challenges: (i) the development of models at the dwelling-unit level, (ii) the treatment of spatial structure effects in such dwelling-unit level models, and (iii) problems associated with estimation in such modelling frameworks in the absence of disaggregated dwelling unit supply data. The proposed framework is applied to the residential location choice context in London. Another important challenge in the modelling of residential locations is the choice set formation problem. Most models of residential location choices have been developed based on the assumption that households consider all available alternatives when they are making location choices. Due the high search costs associated with the housing market, however, and the limited capacity of households to process information, the validity of this assumption has been an on-going debate among researchers. There have been some attempts in the literature to incorporate the cognitive capacities of households within discrete choice models of residential location: for instance, by modelling households’ choice sets exogenously based on simplifying assumptions regarding their spatial search behaviour (e.g., an anchor-based search strategy) and their characteristics. By undertaking an empirical comparison of alternative models within the context of residential location choice in the Greater London area this thesis investigates the feasibility and practicality of applying deterministic choice set formation approaches to capture the underlying search process of households. The thesis also investigates the uncertainty of choice sets in residential location choice modelling and proposes a simplified probabilistic choice set formation approach to model choice sets and choices simultaneously. The dwelling-level modelling framework proposed in this research is practice-ready and can be used to estimate residential location choice models at the level of dwelling units without requiring independent and disaggregated dwelling supply data. The empirical comparison of alternative exogenous choice set formation approaches provides a guideline for modellers and land use planners to avoid inappropriate choice set formation approaches in practice. Finally, the proposed simplified choice set formation model can be applied to model the behaviour of households in online real estate environments.Open Acces

Stability of a functional equation deriving from cubic and quartic functions

In this paper, we obtain the general solution and the generalized Ulam-Hyers stability of the cubic and quartic functional equation &4(f(3x+y)+f(3x-y))=-12(f(x+y)+f(x-y)) &+12(f(2x+y)+f(2x-y))-8f(y)-192f(x)+f(2y)+30f(2x)

Internationalization of higher education: challenges, strategies, policies and programs

In today’s changing world, the idea of internationalization of higher education especially in developing countries has been deduced from globalization of education process. The international aspect of higher education is becoming increasingly important, composite, and confusing. The higher education has an effect on the society through policy-making, funding, and planning. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the meaning, definition, importance, necessity, and pre-requisites of internationalization of higher education. This paper also studies the programs and strategies of internationalization of higher education. Key challenges for the future direction of internationalization are identified in this paper

A slot-loaded reduced-size CPW-fed aperture antenna for UWB applications

The paper presents a co-planar wave guide (CPW)-fed slot loaded low return loss planar printed antenna with a small size designed for wireless communication and UWB applications. First, a conventional UWB antenna is modeled to provide a reference point for the modeling and then the shape is modified by a self inverted configuration to achieve higher bandwidth and size reduction. To improve the gain and efficiency, a combination of corner features and loading slots are introduced. The primary aim throughout the modeling was to achieve the minimum possible value of return loss (S11) below -10 dB over the FCC-defined UWB frequency range. The antenna was designed, simulated and modified using Agilent's Advanced Design System (ADS). It was fabricated on FR4 substrate and measured return loss results are presented

Spectrum occupancy measurements and lessons learned in the context of cognitive radio

Various measurement campaigns have shown that numerous spectrum bands are vacant even though licenses have been issued by the regulatory agencies. Dynamic spectrum access (DSA) based on Cognitive Radio (CR) has been regarded as a prospective solution to improve spectrum utilization for wireless communications. Empirical measurement of the radio environment to promote understanding of the current spectrum usage of the different wireless services is the first step towards deployment of future CR networks. In this paper we present our spectrum measurement setup and discuss lessons learned during our measurement activities. The main contribution of the paper is to introduce global spectrum occupancy measurements and address the major drawbacks of previous spectrum occupancy studies by providing a unifying methodological framework for future spectrum measurement campaigns

The challenges faced by community learning center program in community literacy development: Iran as a case study

Literacy has played a very important role in Community Development. Without literacy; people have difficulties improving their quality of lives. Iran is no exception. For this reason, Iran has implemented the various literacy programs. One of the programs is Community Learning Center Program (CLCP). So far, CLCP has been implemented into 3517 communities in the country. Therefore, the general objective of this study was to examine the challenges faced by Community Learning Center Program (CLCP) in Community Literacy Development (CLD) while the specific objective of this study was to describe the necessary actions to strengthen the CLCP in CLD