Over the past 10 years, operating expenses for demand responsive transit (DRT) have more than doubled as demand for this mandated service has expanded. The DRT systems that we studied consist of dial-a-ride programs that transit agencies use for point-to-point pick-up and delivery of the elderly and handicapped. Many advanced technologies and management practices have been proposed and implemented to improve the efficiency of the service; but, evidence for the effectiveness of these actions has been based upon projections or small pilot studies. We present the results of a nationwide study involving 62 transit agencies. Our analysis indicates that the use of paratransit computer aided dispatching (CAD) system and agency service delivery provide a productivity benefit while the use of financial incentives has a detrimental impact on productivity. Also, the use of advanced communication technology has a beneficial impact on operating cost while the use of financial incentives has a detrimental impact.

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Evolutionary harmony search algorithm is used for its capability in finding solution space both locally and globally. In contrast, Wavelet based feature selection, for its ability to provide localized frequency information about a function of a signal, makes it a promising one for efficient classification. Research in this direction states that wavelet based neural network may be trapped to fall in a local minima whereas fuzzy harmony search based algorithm effectively addresses that problem and able to get a near optimal solution. In this, a hybrid wavelet based radial basis function (RBF) neural network (WRBF) and feature subset harmony search based fuzzy discernibility classifier (HSFD) approaches are proposed as a data mining technique for image segmentation based classification. In this paper, the authors use Lena RGB image; Magnetic resonance image (MR) and Computed Tomography (CT) Image for analysis. It is observed from the obtained simulation results that Wavelet based RBF neural network outperforms the harmony search based fuzzy discernibility classifiers.

Social Network Analysis (SNA) is becoming an important tool for investigators, but all the necessary information is often available in a distributed environment. Currently there is no information system that helps managers and team leaders to monitor the status of a social network. This chapter presents an overview of the basic concepts of social networks in data analysis including social networks analysis metrics and performances. Different problems in social networks are discussed such as uncertainty, missing data and finding the shortest path in social network. Community structure, detection and visualization in social network analysis is also discussed and reviewed. This chapter bridges the gap among the users by combining social network analysis methods and information visualization technology to help user visually identify the occurrence of a possible relationship amongst the members in a social network. In addition, briefly describing the different performance measures that have been encountered during any network analysis in order to understand the fundamental behind the comprehension. This chapter also, presents an online analysis tool called Forcoa.NET, which is built over the DBLP dataset of publications from the field of computer science, which is focused on the analysis and visualization of the co-authorship relationship based on the intensity and topic of joint publications. Challenges to be ad dressed and future directions of research are also presented and an extensive bibliography is included.order to understand the fundamental behind the comprehension. This chapter also, presents an online analysis tool called Forcoa.NET, which is built over the DBLP dataset of publications from the field of computer science, which is focused on the analysis and visualization of the co-authorship relationship based on the intensity and topic of joint publications. Challenges to be ad dressed and future directions of research are also presented and an extensive bibliography is included.