DePaul University

About: DePaul University is a education organization based out in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 5658 authors who have published 11562 publications receiving 295257 citations.

Prediction of landslide displacement with an ensemble-based extreme learning machine and copula models

Abstract: Research on the dynamics of landslide displacement forms the basis for landslide hazard prevention. This paper proposes a novel data-driven approach to monitor and predict the landslide displacement. In the first part, autoregressive moving average time series models are constructed to analyze the autocorrelation of landslide triggering factors. A linear ensemble-based extreme learning machine using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator is applied in predicting the displacement of landslides. Five benchmarking data-driven models, the support vector machine, neural network, random forest, k-nearest neighbor, and the classical extreme learning machine, are considered as baseline models for validating the ensemble-based extreme learning machines. Numerical experiments demonstrated that the proposed prediction model produces the smallest prediction errors among all the algorithms tested. In the second part, parametric copula models are fitted on the predicted displacement, to investigate the relationship between the triggering factors and landslide displacement values. The Gumbel-Hougaard copula model performs best, which indicates strong upper tail correlation between the triggering factors and displacement values. Thresholds for the triggering factors can be obtained by monitoring the landslide moving patterns with large displacement values. The effectiveness and utility of the proposed data-driven approach have been confirmed with the landslide case study in the region of the Three Gorges Reservoir.

Development of an Instrument for Studying Flow in Computer Game Play

Abstract: Flow theory (Csikszentmihalyi, 1993; Csikszentmihalyi & Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Csikszentmihalyi & LeFevre, 1989) has been widely adopted in research on computer games (e.g., Fu, Su, & Yu, 2009; Sherry, 2004; Sweetser & Wyeth, 2005). According to this theory, flow leads to enjoyment, a central construct in computer games. However, no such instrument, adopting a rigorous process to measure all flow elements in the field of computer games, has been developed and validated to date. An effective measurement of flow experiences during computer game play is essential to study how a flow state can be induced. It will assist game designers in understanding the strength and flaw of the game from a player's perspective. This article reports on the development of an instrument measuring all flow elements in computer game play, based on the flow theory, and following a rigorous method introduced by Moore and Benbasat (1991). The results show that the validity and reliability of the instrument are satisfactory. This i...

Effective Design of Products/Services: An Approach Based on Integration of Marketing and Operations Management Decisions

Abstract: This paper presents an integrated framework for designing profit-maximizing products/ services, which can also be produced at reasonable operating difficulty levels. Operating difficulty is represented as a function of product and process attributes, and measures a firm's relative ease or difficulty in meeting customer demand patterns under specified operating conditions. Earlier optimum product design procedures have not considered. operational difficulty. We show that optimum profit, market share, cost, and product profiles are dependent on operating difficulty level. Empirical results from the pizza delivery industry demonstrate the value of the proposed Effective Product/Service Design approach.