Multimodal transport can bring the technical and economic advantages in different transportation modes into full play. While ensuring the level of service, it can reduce energy consumption and transport costs. Governments of most countries are actively promoting it. Therefore, it has become a research hot spot. Being a green, fast, and all-day transport mode, railways play an important role in multimodal transport. This article aims to analyze a multimodal transport service quality indicator system involving railways from the perspectives of customers, multimodal service providers, and governments. Qualitative and quantitative research methods were adopted to analyze the secondhand data of academic papers, government policy, and industry reports to clarify the quality characteristics of multimodal transport services. Using grounded theory and to analyze firsthand data from in-depth interviews with multimodal transport practitioners, 25 evaluation indicators of container multimodal transport service quality were chosen to be the evaluation index system. To test and improve the evaluation scale, 270 valid questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 21.0 software, including reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. The results show that all the indicators meet the standard requirements and have good reliability and validity.

Although great advances in elucidating the molecular basis and pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have been made and multifarious novel therapeutic approaches have been developed, AD remains an incurable disease. Evidence shows that AD neuropathology occurs decades before clinical presentation. AD is divided into three stages: preclinical stage, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and AD dementia. In the natural world, some animals, such as non-human primates (NHPs) and canines, can develop spontaneous AD-like dementia. However, most animals do not develop AD. With the development of transgenic techniques, both invertebrate and vertebrate animals have been employed to uncover the mechanisms of AD and study treatment methods. Most AD research focuses on early-onset familial AD (FAD) because FAD is associated with specific genetic mutations. However, there are no well-established late-onset sporadic AD (SAD) animal models because SAD is not directly linked to any genetic mutation, and multiple environmental factors are involved. Moreover, the widely used animal models are not able to sufficiently recapitulate the pathological events that occur in the MCI or preclinical stages. This review summarizes the common models used to study AD, from yeast to NHP models, and discusses the different applications, evaluation methods, and challenges related to AD animal models, as well as prospects for the evolution of future studies.

This paper proposes an optimal selection method to address the real-world problem of environmentally friendly supplier selection, based on prospect theory. This study adopted the manufacturer's point of view, and considered the manufacturer's psychological and behavioral factors in the process of choosing suppliers. The first step was to build supplier-selection indexes for manufacturers. Then, the study assessed the attribute of manufacturer expectations as a reference point. Next, index gains and losses were evaluated against the expectation reference point, yielding a payoff matrix and loss matrix. Finally, the study used prospect theory to calculate the comprehensive prospect value of each supplier; comprehensive prospect values were sorted in descending order to help manufacturers make the best choice.

Abstract:The aim of this paper is to provide a method for selecting a green supplier in a dynamic environment, while considering the psychological behavior and the time factors of the decision maker from the manufacturer's perspective. The supply selection method that is based on the Third Generation Prospect Theory (PT3) is proposed and an optimal ordinal number is obtained. First, the green supplier selection index system is established. Then, the indicators that are given by the manufacturer are used as reference points, and the income and loss matrices are established by calculating the gains and losses of the index values in the interval number relative to the reference points. Next, considering the time factor and calculating the variable weight based on the Gray correlation coefficient method and the time weight of the penalty mechanism method, the suppliers are chosen based on the comprehensive prospect value. Finally, the validity and the feasibility of the method are proven through a case analysis.

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