This study presents conceptual research designed to assess how the sharing economy concept can be leveraged to increase the participation of commercial organisations, such as retailers and ...transporters, in disaster relief operations. Drawing on social exchange theory, the academic literature on the sharing economy and blockchain, as well as existing resource‐sharing practices in commercial and humanitarian logistics, the study develops a theoretical framework for analysing the structure, benefits, and prerequisites of a logistics‐sharing system in emergency response. In addition, it proposes to utilise the blockchain distributed ledger technology—a shared data platform that enables authenticated communication and the widespread sharing of real‐time information—to facilitate interactions and enhance trust between emergency responders and commercial organisations. It is argued that using commercial logistics resources, including emergency supplies, transport capacity, and storage space, has the potential to improve the mobilisation and deployment of urgently needed relief items and augment the flexibility of emergency response.
With the remarkable development of the 5G technologies, more and more real-time and complex computational tasks from the Internet-of-Things (IoT) systems can be fulfilled by 5G edge servers. While ...the ultradense deployment is required for 5G edge services, in the upcoming era of 6G with an even more limited communication range, it is almost impossible to achieve 6G service coverage with dense deployments. To address this fundamental limit, we propose EdgeGO, a mobile resource-sharing framework that employs mobile edge servers to provide a cost-effective deployment of 6G edge computing, which enables edge resource sharing for massive IoT devices. Unlike traditional mobile cloudlets, EdgeGO exploits the asynchronization between requests receiving and results returning to decouple the stringent delay and resource requirements for edge computing. As a result, the server moving and task processing could be paralleled. Besides, EdgeGO incorporates a two-layer iterative updating algorithm, which jointly optimizes path planning and task scheduling to improve the overall task efficiency. Extensive simulation results show that by careful managing mobility and task execution of the edge servers, EdgeGO is able to drastically increase the resource utilization by 166.67% and decrease the deployment cost of 6G edge computing by 25.58%.
Little has been published on the subject of resource sharing in Cuba, particularly in English. This article outlines the history of resource sharing in Cuban and US libraries, reviews the literature ...by Cuban LIS professionals on resource sharing in Cuba, and details the current resource-sharing practices at three large national Cuban libraries. Finally, there is a discussion of the technological environment in Cuba and how it influences the sharing of, and access to, information. Despite a long history of technological scarcity, the pace of change in Cuba is fast, and Cubans are quickly moving towards dialogue with the international digital LIS professional community.
Collaboration among service providers in a logistics network can greatly increase their operation efficiencies and reduce transportation emissions. This study proposes, formulates and solves a ...collaborative two-echelon multicenter vehicle routing problem based on a state–space–time (CTMCVRP-SST) network to facilitate collaboration and resource sharing in a multiperiod state–space–time (SST) logistics network. The CTMCVRP-SST aims to facilitate collaboration in logistics networks by leveraging the spatial-temporal properties of logistics demands and resources to optimize the distribution of logistics resources in space and time to meet logistics demands. A three-component solution framework is proposed to solve CTMCVRP-SST. First, a bi-objective linear programming model based on resource sharing in a multiperiod SST network is formulated to minimize the number of vehicles and the total cost of the collaborative operation. Second, an integrated algorithm consisting of SST-based dynamic programming (DP), improved K-means clustering and improved non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (Im-NSGAII) is developed to obtain optimal routes. Third, a cost gap allocation model is employed to design a collaborative mechanism that encourages cooperation among logistics service providers. Using this solution framework, the coalition sequences (i.e., the order of each logistics provider joining a collaborative coalition) are designed and the stability of the coalitions based on profit allocations is studied. Results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms existing algorithms in minimizing the total cost with all other constraints being the same. An empirical case study of a logistics network in Chongqing suggests that the proposed collaboration mechanism with SST network representation can reduce costs, improve transportation efficiency, and contribute to efficient and sustainable logistics network operations.
•Formulate the two-echelon multicenter vehicle routing problem in SST networks.•Study collaborative mechanisms in two-echelon SST networks.•Establish a bi-objective optimization model for the above problems.•Design an integrated algorithm that includes SST-based DP, K-means and Im-NSGAII.•Conduct a case study to test the proposed approach in real world.
We present a stochastic optimization model for allocating and sharing a critical resource in the case of a pandemic. The demand for different entities peaks at different times, and an initial ...inventory for a central agency are to be allocated. The entities (states) may share the critical resource with a different state under a risk‐averse condition. The model is applied to study the allocation of ventilator inventory in the COVID‐19 pandemic by FEMA to different U.S. states. Findings suggest that if less than 60% of the ventilator inventory is available for non‐COVID‐19 patients, FEMA's stockpile of 20 000 ventilators (as of March 23, 2020) would be nearly adequate to meet the projected needs in slightly above average demand scenarios. However, when more than 75% of the available ventilator inventory must be reserved for non‐COVID‐19 patients, various degrees of shortfall are expected. In a severe case, where the demand is concentrated in the top‐most quartile of the forecast confidence interval and states are not willing to share their stockpile of ventilators, the total shortfall over the planning horizon (until May 31, 2020) is about 232 000 ventilator days, with a peak shortfall of 17 200 ventilators on April 19, 2020. Results are also reported for a worst‐case where the demand is at the upper limit of the 95% confidence interval. An important finding of this study is that a central agency (FEMA) can act as a coordinator for sharing critical resources that are in short supply over time to add efficiency in the system. Moreover, through properly managing risk‐aversion of different entities (states) additional efficiency can be gained. An additional implication is that ramping up production early in the planning cycle allows to reduce shortfall significantly. An optimal timing of this production ramp‐up consideration can be based on a cost‐benefit analysis.
Nowadays, business connection between firms becomes rather common so that one firm stores not only its information asset but also some of other firms' information asset. The management of information ...security is vital for these resource-sharing firms. This paper constructs a game-theoretic model between two resource-sharing firms and one hacker to examine their strategic interaction when the firms face budget constraint on security investment. We consider security information sharing between the firms, which can improve their overall security effort but meantime facilitate the hacker's learning to reduce attack costs. We find that although a tight budget constraint can help save investment cost, the firms always suffer from a poorly secure environment. It shows that although security information sharing is usually encouraged, the firms may be hurt when security information sharing is excessive so that fierce cyber-attacks are induced. We finally design an optimal compensation mechanism, in which the compensation fund is shown to increase with the degree of resource sharing.
The ‘sharing economy’ has become a new buzzword in urban life as digital technology companies set up online platforms to link together people and un- or underutilised assets with those seeking to ...rent them for short periods of time. While cloaked under the rhetoric of ‘sharing’, the exchanges they foster are usually profit-driven. These economic activities are having profound impacts on urban environments as they disrupt traditional forms of hospitality, transport, service industry and housing. While critical debates have focused on the challenges that sharing economy activities bring to existing labour and economic practices, it is necessary to acknowledge that they also have increasingly significant impacts on planning policy and urban governance. Using the case of Airbnb in London, this article looks at how these sharing or platform economy companies are involved in encouraging governments to change existing regulations, in this case by deregulating short-term letting. This has important implications for planning enforcement. We examine how the challenges around obtaining data to enforce new regulations are being addressed by local councils who struggle to balance corporate interests with public good. Finally, we address proposals for using algorithms and big data as means of urban governance and argue that the schism between regulation and enforcement is opening up new digitally mediated spaces of informal practices in cities.
数字技术公司建立了在线平台，将人员和未利用或未充分利用的资产与希望短期出租的业主联系起来。在这一方式下， “共享经济” 己经成为城市生活中的新口号。但是，虽然有 “共享” 的修辞，这些方式培养的交流通常是由利润驱动的。这些经济活动破坏了传统的酒店、交通、服务业和住房形式，对城市环境产生了深远的影响。虽然关键的辩论集中在共享经济活动给现有劳动和经济实践带来的挑战上，但有必要承认它们对规划政策和城市治理也有越来越大的影响。本文以 Airbnb 在伦敦的运行情况为案例，探讨这些共享或平台经济公司如何参与鼓励政府改变现有的法规，在伦敦的具体案例中是放松对短租的限制。这对规划的执行具有重要意义。我们研宄了地方议会如何通过努力平衡公司利益和公共利益来克服获得数据以执行新法规的挑战。最后，我们提出使用算法和大数据作为城市治理手段的建议，认为监管与执法之间的分裂正在开辟城市非正式实践的新型数字媒介空间。
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