Visual ratings of “softness/hardness” of rotating fabrics

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-62
Author(s):  
Naohito Jimba ◽  
Tomoharu Ishikawa ◽  
Yoshiko Yanagida ◽  
Hiroshi Mori ◽  
Kazuya Sasaki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Information ◽  
Angular Acceleration ◽  
Rotary Motion ◽  
Physical Factors ◽  
Bending Rigidity ◽  
Visual Evaluation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Acceleration Rate ◽  
Fabric Drape ◽  
Key Factor

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to find the optimal rotary motion conditions to create drapes in fabric to visually convey tactile “softness/hardness” and identify key physical factors in visual evaluations of fabric “softness/hardness” via videos of fabric draping. Design/methodology/approach Subjects evaluated visually and by touch, the “softness/hardness” of fabrics draped over a cylinder. In the visual evaluation experiment, subjects were presented with 16 videos of the movement of fabric drapes when the cylinder was rotated (four rotation speeds and four angular acceleration rates) and they evaluated the “softness/hardness” of each fabric visually. By examining the “softness/hardness” ratings in the two experiments, the optimal rotary motion condition that conveyed fabric “softness/hardness” was identified. Changes in the shape of fabric drape when moving under optimal rotary motion conditions were analyzed to determine key physical factors that affected visual evaluations of fabric “softness/hardness.” Findings Optimal rotary motion conditions (rotation speed and angular acceleration rate) that expressed each fabric’s “softness/hardness” appropriately were identified. Additionally, the magnitude of change in the angle of fabric drape when rotating under optimal rotary motion conditions was the key factor used in visual evaluation of each fabric’s “softness/hardness.” Originality/value The conditions needed to produce visual images that convey fabric “softness/hardness” only through visual information (i.e. without touching the fabric) were identified, based on the fabric’s bending rigidity. The magnitude of change in the angle of fabric drape enabled accurate visual judgments of fabric “softness/hardness.”

Designing a Cultural Heritage Articulated Warning System (CHAWS) strategy to improve disaster risk preparedness in Brazil

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-85
Author(s):  
Victor Marchezini ◽  
Allan Yu Iwama ◽  
Danilo Celso Pereira ◽  
Rodrigo Silva da Conceição ◽  
Rachel Trajber ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Civil Defense ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Scientific Challenge ◽  
Risk Preparedness

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study an articulated warning system that provides information about the heritage at risk and encourages a dialogue between the heritage sector, civil defense agencies and local communities. Design/methodology/approach The databases from the National Heritage Institute, National Civil Defense, National Geological Service and National Early Warning System were investigated and the local community provided input which helped form a participatory risk mapping strategy for a warning system in the heritage sector. Findings There is little knowledge of the Brazilian heritage that is at risk and a lack of coordination between the cultural heritage and DRR sectors. This means that there is a need to organize the geo-referenced databases so that information can be shared and the public provided with broader access. As a result, there can be a greater production, dissemination and application of knowledge to help protect the cultural heritage. Practical implications The findings can be included in the debate about the importance of framing disaster risk management (DRM) policies in the Brazilian heritage sector. Social implications The findings and maps of the case study in the town of São Luiz do Paraitinga involve the heritage sector, civil defense agencies and local people and can be used for disaster risk preparedness. Originality/value A DRM program is being formulated in Brazil. However, the kind of strategy needed to incorporate the heritage sector in this program stills needs to be planned, and the knowledge of the cultural heritage at risk is a key factor when faced with this new social and scientific challenge.

scholarly journals Competition between Metals for Binding to Methanobactin Enables Expression of Soluble Methane Monooxygenase in the Presence of Copper

2014 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 1024-1031 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhagyalakshmi Kalidass ◽  
Muhammad Farhan Ul-Haque ◽  
Bipin S. Baral ◽  
Alan A. DiSpirito ◽  
Jeremy D. Semrau
Keyword(s):  
Methane Monooxygenase ◽  
High Specificity ◽  
Copper Uptake ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Soluble Methane Monooxygenase ◽  
Sds Page ◽  
Genes Encoding ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Membrane Bound

ABSTRACTIt is well known that copper is a key factor regulating expression of the two forms of methane monooxygenase found in proteobacterial methanotrophs. Of these forms, the cytoplasmic, or soluble, methane monooxygenase (sMMO) is expressed only at low copper concentrations. The membrane-bound, or particulate, methane monooxygenase (pMMO) is constitutively expressed with respect to copper, and such expression increases with increasing copper. Recent findings have shown that copper uptake is mediated by a modified polypeptide, or chalkophore, termed methanobactin. Although methanobactin has high specificity for copper, it can bind other metals, e.g., gold. Here we show that inMethylosinus trichosporiumOB3b, sMMO is expressed and active in the presence of copper if gold is also simultaneously present. Such expression appears to be due to gold binding to methanobactin produced byM. trichosporiumOB3b, thereby limiting copper uptake. Such expression and activity, however, was significantly reduced if methanobactin preloaded with copper was also added. Further, quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-qPCR) of transcripts of genes encoding polypeptides of both forms of MMO and SDS-PAGE results indicate that both sMMO and pMMO can be expressed when copper and gold are present, as gold effectively competes with copper for binding to methanobactin. Such findings suggest that under certain geochemical conditions, both forms of MMO may be expressed and activein situ. Finally, these findings also suggest strategies whereby field sites can be manipulated to enhance sMMO expression, i.e., through the addition of a metal that can compete with copper for binding to methanobactin.

Exploration of factors leading to successful mediation

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yafei Zhang ◽  
Li Chen
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Gold Medal ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Effective Factors ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore possible factors leading to a successful mediation in Chinese mediation shows. In China, media always play an indispensable role in information dissemination, morality advocacy and policy explanation. Design/methodology/approach This paper employed content analysis of 166 episodes of one representative mediation show, Gold Medal Mediation, and regression technique in data analysis. Findings Results of ordinal regression suggested that “secret talking”, rather than transparency, between disputants had significant influence on successful mediation. Function of mediators is limited in reaching full mediation. The effective factors leading to full mediation include compromise of rights, secret talking, attitude of the observer cohort. It suggests that the role of mediator is limited, rather than being over-exaggerated, in successful mediation. The successful mediation is largely dependent on disputants’ motivations. Additionally, “compromise of rights” by disputants is a key factor in solving disputes. Research limitations/implications Findings of this study revealed the role of Chinese mediation shows in propagating mediation in contemporary Chinese society and supporting upheld morality values. Due to the nature of the chosen mediation show, some disputes take more than one episode to solve. However, this study looks at each episode without considering the integrity of the dispute. That is, if the disputes take two episodes, the coder codes the two episodes as two separate disputes instead of looking at it as one dispute. Originality/value By exploring various aspects of mediations shows, including the role of mediators, disputants and a cohort of observers, this study can both explicitly show predicted factors to successful mediations on the shows, and can implicitly examine the power and perceived justification of mediation in contemporary China via media.

Referring academic library chat reference patrons: how subject librarians decide

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula R. Dempsey
Keyword(s):  
Information Literacy ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Reference Services ◽  
Chat Reference ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Doctoral Universities

Purpose The purpose of this study is to learn what factors liaison librarians in academic research libraries consider in determining whether to refer chat reference patrons to subject specialists. Design/methodology/approach Subject specialists were asked what policies guided their decisions to refer to a specialist and then assessed unreferred chat session transcripts both within and outside their specializations to determine need for a referral. Findings Few respondents were guided by formal policies. Contrary to an initial hypothesis, subject area was not a key factor in referring chat. A broader set of criteria included reference interviewing, provision of relevant resources and information literacy instruction. Respondents valued both the depth that subject specialists can provide to reference interactions and the ability of a skilled generalist to support information literacy. Research limitations/implications Findings are most applicable to large, public doctoral universities with liaison librarian programs. Assignment of respondents to subject specialist categories was complicated by their broad range of background and expertise. Practical implications The study contributes new understanding of referrals to subject specialists who have potential to guide development of formal referral policies in academic library virtual reference services. Originality/value The study is the first empirical examination of chat reference referral decisions.

Towards a relational innovation

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bertrand Pauget ◽  
Ahmed Dammak
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Innovation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Relational Patterns ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
The 1960S

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to work on the relational innovation. Innovation is a key factor in understanding organizations. Emerged as a growth paradigm, it is a good indicator of their priorities. Considered in a more pragmatic way, it has been noticed that other forms of innovation linked to relationships are developing alongside the most formal technological one. Findings Highlighted in the 1960s, administrative innovation aimed to account for the stakeholders involved and how, by modifying the relationships, they were able to change the configurations of the organization. Since then, the authors mentioned the concept of organizational innovation which has been extended and modified. The term is still being discussed, but it has already appeared in the continuation of previous research. Originality/value The authors put forward a related and different form of organizational innovation: a relational innovation. This one seems to be linked to relational patterns of the organization. This theory paper aims to present relational innovation.

Social entrepreneurship: creating social value when bridging holes

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 410-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suvi Kokko
Keyword(s):  
Value Creation ◽  
Social Enterprise ◽  
Institutional Logics ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Social Value ◽  
Content Type ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Social Value Creation ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Shared Goal

Purpose This paper aims to understand how social value is created in a context characterized by institutional complexity. By identifying stakeholders interacting in a social enterprise and the logics guiding their expected and experienced value, the study describes how social value is created when different institutional logics embedded in strong-tie networks are bridged. Design/methodology/approach Concepts of structural holes and institutional logics were applied to the empirical case of a social enterprise. Interviews provided the primary empirical material, but multiple data collection methods were used. Findings A shared goal facilitated co-existence of competing value logics, and provided common space forming multiple social value outcomes as products of the different logics. Research limitations/implications Limited to one case, this study shows that the interaction of otherwise unconnected stakeholders in a social enterprise, and their embeddedness in different institutional logics, provides one explanation for why and how social value is created. Practical implications Acknowledging and addressing gaps in knowledge and resources can lead to social value creation if social enterprises remain open to different logics. This suggests that co-existence of different logics can be a key factor for successful social value creation in social enterprises, if the competing logics are turned into complementary sources. Originality/value Dependency on logics from different networks of stakeholders shapes social enterprises to produce outcomes consistent with the different logics. The multiplicity of social value outcomes poses challenges for evaluating the success of social enterprises, especially when the tendency is to use evaluation approaches from the for-profit sector, focusing on the economic logic.

scholarly journals Differential Spleen Remodeling Associated with Different Levels of Parasite Virulence Controls Disease Outcome in Malaria Parasite Infections

mSphere ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ximei Huang ◽  
Sha Huang ◽  
Lai Chun Ong ◽  
Jason Chu-Shern Lim ◽  
Rebecca Joan Mary Hurst ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Outcome ◽  
Malaria Parasite ◽  
Parasite Clearance ◽  
Biomechanical Properties ◽  
Parasite Infection ◽  
Complex Interaction ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Infected Rbcs ◽  
Rbc Deformability

ABSTRACT The spleen and its response to parasite infection are important in eliminating parasites in malaria. By comparing P. yoelii parasite lines with different disease outcomes in mice that had either intact spleens or had had their spleens removed, we showed that upon parasite infection, the spleen exhibits dramatic changes that can affect parasite clearance. The spleen itself directly impacts RBC deformability independently of parasite genetics. The data indicated that the changes in the biomechanical properties of malaria parasite-infected RBCs are the result of the complex interaction between host and parasite, and RBC deformability itself can serve as a novel predictor of clinical outcome. The results also suggest that early responses in the spleen are a key factor directing the clinical outcome of an infection. Infections by malaria parasites can lead to very different clinical outcomes, ranging from mild symptoms to death. Differences in the ability of the spleen to deal with the infected red blood cells (iRBCs) are linked to differences in virulence. Using virulent and avirulent strains of the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium yoelii, we investigated how parasite virulence modulates overall spleen function. Following parasite invasion, a difference in parasite virulence was observed in association with different levels of spleen morphology and iRBC rigidity, both of which contributed to enhanced parasite clearance. Moreover, iRBC rigidity as modulated by the spleen was demonstrated to correlate with disease outcome and thus can be used as a robust indicator of virulence. The data indicate that alterations in the biomechanical properties of iRBCs are the result of the complex interaction between host and parasite. Furthermore, we confirmed that early spleen responses are a key factor in directing the clinical outcome of an infection. IMPORTANCE The spleen and its response to parasite infection are important in eliminating parasites in malaria. By comparing P. yoelii parasite lines with different disease outcomes in mice that had either intact spleens or had had their spleens removed, we showed that upon parasite infection, the spleen exhibits dramatic changes that can affect parasite clearance. The spleen itself directly impacts RBC deformability independently of parasite genetics. The data indicated that the changes in the biomechanical properties of malaria parasite-infected RBCs are the result of the complex interaction between host and parasite, and RBC deformability itself can serve as a novel predictor of clinical outcome. The results also suggest that early responses in the spleen are a key factor directing the clinical outcome of an infection.

Gender differences in Taiwan’s hypermarkets

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 650-662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsung-Sheng Chang ◽  
Hsiaoping Yeh
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Customer Behavior ◽  
Marketing Strategies ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Product Categories ◽  
Traditional Markets ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose Hypermarkets face a very competitive environment, as their rivals also include traditional markets, convenient stores and supermarkets. In addition to offering innovative services, hypermarket managers must also pay attention to customer shopping patterns and behaviors in order to gain market share. The purpose of this paper is to posit that there will be significant differences between male and female hypermarket customers in terms of both shopping time and categories of goods purchased. Design/methodology/approach To investigate actual shopping behaviors, this study observed customers in hypermarkets and recorded how long they spent shopping and what they purchased. Findings The results of this study implied that gender is a key factor that affects both shopping time and the goods purchased in Taiwanese hypermarkets. The empirical findings also indicated that customers favor certain goods categories. Practical implications The results of this study provide details of the differences between male and female hypermarket customers, with which managers can use to develop better marketing strategies. Originality/value The purpose of this study is to show hypermarket retailers how gender differences affect customer behavior in this context. It also presents a consumer product categories list for hypermarkets, and this can be used as a reference for follow-up studies.

Robot hand-eye cooperation based on improved inverse reinforcement learning

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ning Yu ◽  
Lin Nan ◽  
Tao Ku
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Industrial Robots ◽  
Robot Hand ◽  
Inverse Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Generative Adversarial Network ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Coordination Model ◽  
Proposed Model

Purpose How to make accurate action decisions based on visual information is one of the important research directions of industrial robots. The purpose of this paper is to design a highly optimized hand-eye coordination model of the robot to improve the robots’ on-site decision-making ability. Design/methodology/approach The combination of inverse reinforcement learning (IRL) algorithm and generative adversarial network can effectively reduce the dependence on expert samples and robots can obtain the decision-making performance that the degree of optimization is not lower than or even higher than that of expert samples. Findings The performance of the proposed model is verified in the simulation environment and real scene. By monitoring the reward distribution of the reward function and the trajectory of the robot, the proposed model is compared with other existing methods. The experimental results show that the proposed model has better decision-making performance in the case of less expert data. Originality/value A robot hand-eye cooperation model based on improved IRL is proposed and verified. Empirical investigations on real experiments reveal that overall, the proposed approach tends to improve the real efficiency by more than 10% when compared to alternative hand-eye cooperation methods.

scholarly journals The impact of product presentation on decision-making and purchasing

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosy Boardman ◽  
Helen McCormick
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Target Market ◽  
Consumer Decision Making ◽  
Consumer Decision ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Product Presentation ◽  
The Impact

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how apparel product presentation influences consumer decision-making and whether there are any differences between age groups. Design/methodology/approach A mixed methodology was used including eye-tracking and qualitative in-depth interviews, with a purposive sample of 50 participants between age 20 and 70. Findings A higher number of product presentation features resulted in increased positive visual, cognitive and affective responses as consumers wanted as much visual information as possible to aid decision-making. Images of models attracted the most attention and were the most influential product presentation feature, followed by mannequin images and the zoom function. The 20 s spent much less time viewing and interacting with the product presentation features than middle age groups (30 s-50 s), had minimal fixations on mannequin images and had a much quicker decision-making process than other age groups. Practical implications The research informs retailers which product presentation features are the most effective for their target market to aid consumer decision-making with the aim of reducing returns. Originality/value The paper contributes to the literature by providing more in-depth insights than previous studies into the impact of online product presentation on consumer decision-making by using qualitative research and eye-tracking. The research also explores more product presentation features than previous research and investigates the presentation of apparel products, which are notoriously the most difficult products for consumers to assess online. The research is unique in its exploration of age differences in relation to product presentation features.

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