1,354,988 research outputs found
Harnessing customer mindset metrics to boost consumer spending: a cross-country study on routes to economic and business growth
Get PDFThe relationship between customer mindset metrics (CMMs) and consumer spending has been extensively investigated at the consumer and firm level, but little is known about it at the national level, nor about how it differs between countries. Drawing on five publicly available datasets gathered in 10 European countries over 20 years, our study traces the connections between three CMMs – customer satisfaction, perceived service quality and loyalty intentions – and consumer spending, as well as examining the moderating cross-country effects of culture, socioeconomic factors, economic structure and political–economic elements. The results show that the CMMs significantly influence consumer spending in all the countries studied, with the effects most pronounced in societies with relatively low education levels, a dominant service sector, fewer barriers to business and international trade and a foundation of survival values rather than self-expressive values. Our findings suggest that CMMs can be used to boost not just business performance but also economic growth, and therefore have significant implications for policymakers as well as practitioners and companies
Automatic rule induction in Arabic to English machine translation framework
No full textThis chapter addresses the exploitation of a supervised machine learning technique to automatically induce Arabic-to-English transfer rules from chunks of parallel aligned linguistic resources. The induced structural transfer rules encode the linguistic translation knowledge for converting an Arabic syntactic structure into a target English syntactic structure. These rules are going to be an integral part of an Arabic-English transfer-based machine translation. Nevertheless, a novel morphological rule induction method is employed for learning Arabic morphological rules that are applied in our Arabic morphological analyzer. To demonstrate the capability of the automated rule induction technique, we conducted rule-based translation experiments that use induced rules from a relatively small data set. The translation quality of the hybrid translation experiments achieved good results. in terms of WER.Khaled Shaalan and Ahmad Hany Hossn
The Thursday Murder Club: Launching a megabrand author - a publishing case study
Get PDFIn 2020, the Christmas book charts in the UK made headlines: Barack Obama’s eagerly awaited autobiography, The Promised Land, was beaten to the top spot by The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, a debut cosy crime novel set in a retirement village. Not only did Osman’s book beat the former US president’s expected bestseller, it also broke records, becoming the fastest-selling debut crime novel of all time. Although Osman has a certain level of fame in the UK from his TV appearances on shows such as Pointless, his celebrity status does not entirely explain the novel’s huge sales. This article tracks the acquisition, publication, and promotion journey of The Thursday Murder Club in order to understand the industry and cultural context of its success and to interrogate the role of celebrity in the creation of author brands. The findings suggest that the unexpected scale of the success of the book owed to a number of factors, including in-depth editing by the novel’s agent, editor, and author to tighten up the plot, an extensive and strategic promotional campaign, the pandemic (which drove interest in the book’s genre and themes), and the quality of the writing. We find that the book’s success was accentuated by Osman’s celebrity status rather than being entirely reliant on it. This research adds to the growing scholarship on celebrity authorship by means of an in-depth case study and provides insight into the processes behind publishing a ‘celebrity’ book and launching a megabrand author
Are We Ready for Industry 4.0?
Get PDFA significant number of manufacturing organisations are showing interest in Industry 4.0 due to the support it can provide for processing and visualising manufacturing data in real-time. Industry 4.0 techniques can be used to provide an assessment of machine condition by detecting and processing internal and external data of critical machine components. Currently, a few Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) still use ageing and non-computer numerical control, manufacturing assets are operated and maintained without the use of digital technologies to monitor and report operating problems before they occur. Which in return, creates a significant barrier to the implementation of Industry 4.0 applications. In order to facilitate the implementation of Industry 4.0, on ageing, manual manufacturing assets, certain technologies associated with the third industrial revolution, including electronics and information technology, should be examined.
This paper presents the implementation process of an automation system for monitoring and control of a hydraulic press by firstly examining the required electronics and information systems for processing data and secondly by defining the needed tools and techniques associated with Industry 4.0 applications and the related implementation barriers
Detection of weak stochastic forces in a parametrically stabilized micro-optomechanical system
Get PDFMeasuring a weak force is an important task for micromechanical systems, both when using devices as sensitive detectors and, particularly, in experiments of quantum mechanics. The optimal strategy for resolving a weak stochastic signal force on a huge background (typically given by thermal noise) is a crucial and debated topic, and the stability of the mechanical resonance is a further, related critical issue. We introduce and analyze the parametric control of the optical spring, which allows us to stabilize the resonance and provides a phase reference for the oscillator motion, yet conserving a free evolution in one quadrature of the phase space. We also study quantitatively the characteristics of our micro-optomechanical system as detector of stochastic force for short measurement times (for quick, high-resolution monitoring) as well as for the longer-term observations that optimize the sensitivity. We compare a simple strategy based on the evaluation of the variance of the displacement which is a widely used technique) with an optimal Wiener-Kolmogorov data analysis. We show that, due to the parametric stabilization of the effective susceptibility, we can more efficiently implement Wiener filtering, and we investigate how this strategy improves the performance of our system. We finally demonstrate the possibility to resolve stochastic force variations well below 1% of the thermal noise.MicroelectronicsElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
Machine learning model for predictive maintenance of modern manufacturing assets
Get PDFPredictive maintenance is considered a powerful practice for manufacturing assets health assessment, facilitating the identification of potential failure occurrences. By proactively addressing such failures, manufacturers can avoid unplanned downtime and allocate necessary resources for required maintenance activities. Machine Learning (ML) methods have emerged as a promising tool for preventing equipment failures in Predictive Maintenance applications. However, the effectiveness of Predictive Maintenance applications is largely determined by the Machine Learning techniques utilized and the quality of the data utilised. In this research, we adapted the cross-industry standard process for data mining to develop a predictive maintenance model for a unique, large, and complex manufacturing asset, utilizing various machine learning techniques. Specifically, the research incorporate Random Forest, Support Vector Machines, K-Nearest Neighbors, eXtreme Gradient Boost, and Logistic Regression algorithms to the asset failure records. Following the fitting of all models, Random Forest emerged as the best-performing model based on the recall parameter. However, the algorithm performance was not satisfactory due to the poor data quality. In addition, an exploratory data analysis process was conducted on the data to derive insights into the failure pattern of the machine
The development of CMMS incorporating condition monitoring tools in the advances of Industry 4
Get PDFComputerized maintenance management software (CMMS) considered effective supporting tools to enhance the organisation and scheduling practices of maintenance tasks on manufacturing assets. Condition monitoring applications in the advances of Industry 4.0 applications enhances machines condition insight by utilising different sensing nodes to improve the optimisation of the scheduled maintenance tasks and support predictive maintenance applications. To overcome the disconnection between condition monitoring technology and CMMS software, the research presents a new generation of CMMS by integrating condition monitoring technologies with maintenance management functionalities under a single cloud-based platform. As an example, energy data from five-axis machine tools are included to show it is predictable and stable to be reliable for failures prediction applications
A principal in transition: an autoethnography
Get PDFThis research represents a highly personalized account of the complexities,
interpretations, and reflections of a principal in transition from one elementary school to
another elementary school in the same district. Using myself as the subject and the
researcher in the social context of an elementary school provided the impetus for this
self-study. Through an insider's vantage point, I have chronicled and traced the
experiences of my own administrative transition using the qualitative methodology of
autoethnography. This genre of qualitative research brings the reader closer to the
subculture studied through the experiences of the author. While every campus and
district has its own unique culture and environment, the introspection and evaluation
provided by the methodology of autoethnography greatly facilitates an understanding of
the processes of transition. The experiences I have encountered, the problems I face, and
the interpretations derived from them will strengthen my own practice as a public school
administrator and provide insight into the ever-changing administrative position called
the principalship. Data gathering consisted of a reflexive journal, my personal calendar, faculty
agendas, staff memos, and reflective analysis. At the completion of the school year
common strands, key attributes, and coding of the data served to provide retrospective
insights. These research tools were used to capture the experiences of my administrative
transition.
The results of this study were expressed in a personal narrative that comprises
Chapters IV through VI. Chapters I through III present a traditional dissertation model
that includes the introduction, review of literature, and research methodology. Chapter
VII offers recommendations, a discussion of the findings and concluding remarks
"Y'all come and have fun": discovering a New Jersey country and western music scene in a box of postcards
No full textSeveral years ago, Rutgers University's Special Collections and University Archives was given a checkbox containing fifty-six postcards advertising country and western music shows at venues around New Jersey. The postcards, primarily from the 1960s, promoted shows featuring Grand Ole Opry stars like Wanda Jackson, Hank Thompson, and Elton Britt. Preliminary research revealed that the postcards touted performances by regional and local musicians, as well. A closer look at the cards began to expose how a small, hyper-local ephemeral collection could bring to light and contribute to a larger history; in this case, a once thriving but little explored New Jersey country and western music scene. The research that forms this article focuses on one venue, the Copa Club in the city of Secaucus, and its owners, brothers and musicians Shorty and Smokey Warren, as a specific case study. This collection of postcards, like so much ephemeral material in archives, could have remained undervalued and under-researched. In this case, a close consideration set forth a journey that included research in local archives and interviews with scene participants. As a result, this article explores the past of an important musical genre that evolved along with social changes in the United States. This piece contributes to the scholarship around uses and value of ephemera, as well as scholarship that continues to challenge the southern origin story of country music and examine vital locales of country music outside the South.Peer reviewe
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