Sod Tensile Strength, Handling Quality, and Their Interrelationship for 39 Bermudagrasses

Suitable tensile strength is essential for sod harvest, transport, and installation. Thirty-nine bermudagrass (Cynodon sp.) entries were evaluated for sod handling quality (SHQ) and sod tensile strength (STS) during 2014–15. The SHQ (a discontinuous qualitative parameter) was evaluated using a 1 to 5 scale with 1 = complete pad separation during handling and 5 = no cracking or separation in the sod pad with excellent quality. The STS (a quantitative parameter) was determined using the force required to shear/separate the sod pad. Sod harvests were conducted at 14, 22, and 24 months after planting (MAP). The entry, harvest date, and their interaction affected STS and SHQ. Entries OKC 1302 and 12-TSB-1 had greater STS than ‘Patriot’ but less STS than ‘Latitude 36’, ‘Tifway’, ‘Astro’, and ‘TifGrand’. The seeded entry PST-R6T9S had the lowest STS and SHQ. The overall mean STS and SHQ were lowest at 22 MAP, which could be attributed to the slow recovery of the entries after Winter 2014. A strong positive correlation (r = 0.92) between STS and SHQ suggests that SHQ can be used as a rapid field method to estimate suitability for sod harvest. A predictive linear relationship between overall STS and overall SHQ (r2 = 0.85) found predicted STS values of 8.5, 22.6, 36.8, and 51.0 kg⋅dm–2 for overall mean SHQ ratings of 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively. The results of this work will help sod producers in cultivar selection and will aid breeders in making commercialization decisions.

The Impact of Employee Empathy on Brand Trust in Organizational Complaint Response Emails: A Closer Look at Linguistic Realization

This study investigates the effect of linguistic realizations of employee empathy (LREE) on brand trust in email responses to customer complaints. We explore possible mediating effects of perceived empathy and perceived complaint handling quality and we look into moderation effects of compensation (Study 1) or customer’s acceptance of blame (Study 2). Our aim is to find out if LREE have a negative or positive impact on the customer in cases of partial refunds, either because LREE are being perceived as insincere or as genuine expressions of concern. The results of two experiments show that LREE positively influence brand trust through higher perceived empathy and perceived complaint handling quality. However, the expected negative effect is not found, as LREE are more effective in a low versus high compensation condition. The effectiveness itself is not influenced by the acceptance of blame when a partial refund is offered.

Review of Non-Technical Losses Identification Techniques

Illegally consumption of electric power, termed as non-technical losses for the distribution companies is one of the dominant factors all over the world for many years. Although there are some conventional methods to identify these irregularities, such as physical inspection of meters at the consumer premises etc, but it requires large number of manpower and time; then also it does not seem to be adequate. Now a days there are various methods and algorithms have been developed that are proposed in different research papers, to detect non-technical losses. In this paper these methods are reviewed, their important features are highlighted and also the limitations are identified. Finally, the qualitative comparison of various non-technical losses identification algorithms is presented based on their performance, costs, data handling, quality control and execution times. It can be concluded that the graph-based classifier, Optimum-Path Forest algorithm that have both supervised and unsupervised variants, yields the most accurate result to detect non-technical losses.

Transportation of perishable goods by air: handling problems at Russian airports

The article deals with the problems of perishable goods handling process at Russian airports on delivery in international supply chains (ISC). The investigation was carried out on the basis of operational analysis. The initial stage of the study, which was performed applying statistical analysis, revealed that the major category of perishable goods which establish air transportation demand into Russia is the fresh exotic fruits. The investigation was performed taking the mango supply chain as an example, due to its non-standard thermal and storage requirements. The second stage resulted in the perishable goods airport handling quality criteria set formation: the number of mandatory cargo while handling operations, the required time for these operations, the amount of paper work, the number of multi-temperature chambers at the airport and their area, ULD temperature storage system availability. The study revealed that about 90% of perishable goods, which are imported to Russia, are handled at the airports of Moscow aviation hub because other airports in Russia lack the temperature storage facilities infrastructure. This restriction raises the price of perishable goods logistics on the territory of the country considerably as well as reduces their quality. Four international airports of strategic importance outside the boarders of the central federal district which have the potential of forming central hubs for perishable goods handling as well as processing of transit and transfer flows were chosen in the context of this study. Among them are the airports of Novosibirsk, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg and Krasnoyarsk. The airports of Moscow aviation hub were offered specialization on the subject of perishable goods export-import flow handling. The materials received from airlines, major cargo terminals at Russian airports, transport companies, specialized international air transport enterprises and logistics associations were exploited as the data for this study. The research registered that the deterrence to the speed of supply chain operation is the time of cargo ground service at Russian airports which considerably exceeds the cargo ground service time in the exporting country. The delays are connected with the poor development of perishable goods handling cargo terminals and also with loads of paper work because the system of electronic workflow and automated checking of markings doesn’t exist. The model of electronic workflow in the International Supply Chain which utilizes pre-flight and pre-loading preliminary information about the cargo was offered. Block Chain system for checking the correct presentation of documents at all stages of the supply chain was introduced which reduces the total time of cargo ground handling process.

Handling Qualities Analysis of an Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle for Agricultural Spraying

The use of unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs) for the most diverse aeronautic missions is a reality. Then, with the rise of precision agriculture (PA), the viability of the incorporation of this technology in the countryside on both big and small proprieties is under study. This work aims to analyze the handling qualities of an UAV with a mission of pest control chemical spraying. With this objective, aircraft data was used to analyze the eigenvalues of the aircraft modes. Then, the impact of mass and inertia variation during its mission was studied. Also, the longitudinal and latero-directional dynamics were evaluated based on the Cooper–Harper scale. The results found indicate that all aircraft modes are stable for both full hopper and empty hopper conditions. Moreover, the determined handling quality grades of the UAV in the Cooper–Harper scale indicate the need for some correction applied by the pilot during flight.