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The radio frequency (RF) argon plasma induced surface modification of paper revealed novel surface characteristics and substantially changed surface topography. It was found that RF-argon glow discharge affects surface properties resulting in photo-degradation and chain-scission mechanism on paper network structure. High-power and extended treatment time caused increasing elemental carbon, while decreasing the oxygen concentration on paper surface. However, increased hydroxyls and the creation of new carbonyl functionalities were verified by trifluoroacetoanhydride and pentafluorophenylhydrazine in vapor-phase derivatization reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new method for colorimetric detection of solution concentration is presented. A paper-based microfluidic device was designed and made using printed circuit board technology. Detection zone patterns were designed and transferred to a printed circuit board by hollowing technology. The printed circuit board with patterns was stuck onto a copper sheet. The hollowed zone was filled with solid paraffin and then covered with a piece of filter paper. The paraffin wax was melted by heating the copper sheet and permeated into the filter paper. Solution to be detected was pipetted on the paper-based device with detective zones. The images of the detective zones were obtained using a microscope with charge-coupled device, which is used for calculating RGBI model to further obtain the solution concentration. Litmus was demonstrated in sample experiments. Results showed that maximum error of measured value of solution concentration to its true value is less than 2% using the presented method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a voltage differencing buffered amplifier (VDBA)-based second-order sinusoidal oscillator (SO) configuration, which provides voltage output at low impedance, is proposed. The circuit employs single VDBA, three resistors and two grounded capacitors, which presume its easy monolithic integration with preferred circuit simplicity. The nonidealities of VDBA due to parasitic and tracking errors are taken into consideration to study the nonideal behavior of proposed SO. Mathematical modeling of phase noise is computed in the paper. Active and passive sensitivities are calculated for the proposed configuration and are found to be less than unity rendering circuit insensitive to component variations followed by phase noise study. The functionality of the proposed topology is validated through cadence virtuoso ADE spectre tool at 180-nm technology node. Experimental verification is executed through commercially available ICs AD844 by good results. The total harmonic distortion (THD) is found to be below 3.5%. The observed frequency of oscillation is found to be in close agreement with the theoretical values. The PVT and Monte Carlo statistical analyses are also carried out to confirm the sensitivity of the proposed SO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to comprehensively explore the pivotal role of simulation and modeling in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It focuses on elucidating the diverse applications of simulation and modeling in training AI systems, optimizing algorithms, and enhancing decision-making processes. To achieve this objective, we conducted an extensive review of the literature from the Scopus database, employing a well-defined selection process. We utilized keywords such as "simulation," "modeling," "Artificial Intelligence," and related terms to identify relevant papers published within the last 10 years. The selection criteria included assessing the relevance, quality, contribution, and recent citations of the papers. After a rigorous screening process, we selected 40 papers with the highest overall scores for inclusion in our review. The selected papers encompass a wide range of domains where simulation and modeling play a vital role in advancing AI applications. These domains include manufacturing, healthcare, energy consumption prediction, public sector decision-making, education, environmental modeling, and more. Our review highlights how AI leverages simulation and modeling to improve predictive accuracy, optimize resource allocation, and enhance decision-making processes across diverse sectors. We also discuss the potential future directions in the integration of simulation and modeling with AI, emphasizing its significance in various fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I point out a conceptually simple way of establishing one of the main lemmas in the paper "Solvability of equations in elementary functions" by A. Kanel-Belov, A. Malistov and R. Zaytsev. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cellulose nanofibers have been showing much greater potential to enhance the mechanical and physical properties of polymer-based composite materials. The purpose of this study is to extract the cellulose nanofibers from waste bio-resources; such as waste newspaper and paper sludge. The cellulosic raw materials were treated chemically and physically in order to extract individualized cellulose nanofiber. The combination of acid hydrolysis and following mechanical treatment resulted in the extraction of cellulose nanofibers having diameter of about 40 nm. In order to examine the reinforcing effect of the extracted cellulose nanofibers, fully biodegradable green nanocomposites were fabricated by composing polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) resin with the extracted cellulose nanofibers, and then the tensile tests were conducted. The results showed that the enhancement in mechanical properties was successfully obtained in the cellulose nanofiber/PVA green nanocomposites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper chip is an efficient and inexpensive device for pesticide residues detection. However, the reasons of detection error are not clear, which is the main problem to hinder the development of pesticide residues detection. This paper focuses on error analysis for pesticide detection performed on paper-based microfluidic chip devices, which test every possible factor to build the mathematical models for detection error. In the result, double-channel structure is selected as the optimal chip structure to reduce detection error effectively. The wavelength of 599.753 nm is chosen since it is the most sensitive detection wavelength to the variation of pesticide concentration. At last, the mathematical models of detection error for detection temperature and prepared time are concluded. This research lays a theory foundation on accurate pesticide residues detection based on paper-based microfluidic chip devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the healthcare industry has faced numerous challenges in ensuring efficient and reliable supply chain management. The emergence of novel supply chain-based frameworks has presented promising solutions to these challenges. This survey paper aims to explore and analyze the latest advancements in supply chain frameworks specifically tailored for the healthcare industry. We review the existing literature, identify key trends, and highlight the potential impact of these frameworks on improving patient care, optimizing inventory management, enhancing operational efficiency, and reducing costs. Additionally, we discuss the challenges and opportunities associated with the implementation of these frameworks and suggest future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the issues in clothing pattern style migration, this paper proposes a digital simulation and re-editing method for clothing patterns based on deep learning and somatosensory interaction. First, the proposed method encodes the black-and-white line drawing image, generating random noise images through a diffusion process, introducing color information for synthesis, and using a decoder to reconstruct a colored image. Afterwards, an improved VGG19 model is used to reconstruct content features and perform linear color transformation on style images, enabling pattern style migration through the construction of a Gram matrix and resulting in colored clothing texture patterns. Finally, a KinectV2 is utilized for fabric simulation, overlaying colorful clothing texture patterns to achieve 3D virtual dressing. The experimental results show that the proposed method improves the structural similarity index measure (SSIM) by 9–11% and the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) by 3–8% when compared to existing algorithms. The experiments provide evidence that the proposed method effectively mitigates color overflow, delivers precise image coloring, and accomplishes realistic restoration of clothing texture. Furthermore, the method offers an improved garment fit to fulfill the user's interaction requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continual development necessitates innovation. One must discover seeds of innovation and then concentrate resources on these seeds. To do so, one must recognize technology trends and then adopt and execute appropriate innovation strategies. This study used advanced change point detection method to investigate leading indicators that represent changes in technology trends. We examine patents, papers, and newspaper articles in Japan and US for 55 technologies. Results suggest that patents can be more appropriate as leading indicators than either papers or newspapers. This result can contribute to appropriate innovation strategies for planning and updating, and can provide tools that are useful to decision-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let X be a projective variety of dimension n ≥ 1 over an algebraically closed field of arbitrary characteristic. We prove a Fujiki–Lieberman type theorem on the structure of the automorphism group of X. Let G be a group of zero entropy automorphisms of X and G 0 the set of elements in G which are isotopic to the identity. We show that after replacing G by a suitable finite-index subgroup, G / G 0 is a unipotent group of the derived length at most n − 1. This result was first proved by Dinh et al. for compact Kähler manifolds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this investigation, multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) paper consists of MWCNTs and cellulose was fabricated by traditional paper-making method. It was applied directly as negative electrode in flexible lithium ion battery to replace ordinary electrode which is combined with anode material and current collector. The electrochemical performances of the as-produced MWCNT paper (AMP) and carbonized MWCNT paper (CMP) were evaluated in this study. The morphology and structure of the MWCNT papers were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The electrochemical performance of the battery was operated by cell test and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurement. The charging and discharging results indicated that the CMP behaves with higher capacity than AMP. And the EIS analysis showed that a lower charge transfer resistance can be obtained in the CMP. The excellent electrochemical performance verifies the feasibility of MWCNT papers as a promising candidate for the anode in flexible lithium ion battery. Multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) paper consists of MWCNTs and cellulose was fabricated by traditional paper-making method. MWCNT paper can be directly used as electrode, and the current collector in LIB. The carbonized MWCNT paper, which turned the cellulose to amorphous carbon, has even better performance when applied as electrode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The difficulty of recycling and low photocatalytic efficiency in the visible light significantly limit the use of nano-TiO2 in water pollution control. In this work, Bucky papers (BPs), which play a vital role for adsorption of pollutants and transfer of electrons, are introduced as substrates to fabricate and anchor TiO2 nanorods by a facile hydrothermal method. The photocatalytic properties of the TiO2 and BP composites (TiO2@BP) are studied by photodegrading methylene blue in water solutions. It is found that TiO2@BP possesses four times photocatalytic efficiency for methylene blue of TiO2@Si under ultraviolet light irradiation and 10 times under visible light irradiation. This is considered to be attributed to the synergic effect of TiO2@BP system and surface defects of TiO2 nanorods. The TiO2@BP also shows a stable photocatalytic property even after five cyclic photocatalytic degradation. This study indicates that TiO2@BP is a promising candidate for photocatalytic applications, which provides a reference for further research on synthesis of reusable photocatalysts with higher efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of cultural heritage samples by PIXE involves the risk of damaging precious samples due to MeV-proton irradiation. To investigate appropriate methods to detect invisible damage due to PIXE analysis, we analyzed the change in chemical bonding of the sample surface subjected to PIXE and RBS measurement by Fourier Transform InfraRed spectroscopy (FT-IR). We used Japanese hemp paper as a simulated cultural property sample. The proton irradiation for the PIXE/RBS measurement was performed in a vacuum with an incident beam energy of 2.5 MeV, a beam current of 1 nA, and an irradiation time up to 10 min. The corresponding beam flux and fluence were 0.06 nA/mm2 and 4 μ Coulomb/cm2, respectively. When the irradiation time was 10 min, the absorbed dose was 480 kGy on the sample surface. We identified neither change of elemental composition nor visible change such as discoloration due to irradiation. However, we found changes in peak heights in the measured FT-IR spectra, which suggest the destruction of chemical bonds such as O–H and C–O due to proton-induced radiation damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) was used to observe the microscopic figure of aged insulation paper in order to analyze the microscopic ageing mechanism of power transformer insulation paper under electrical and thermal stresses. The results indicate that there are obvious concaves and convexes on the surface of aged insulation paper, and the paper samples are punctured because of chain scission and the flow of discharge current, which destroyed the compact cellulose chains structures and the diameter of punctures is about 0.5 nm. In addition, this paper analyzed the influence to the physical chemistry characteristics of insulation paper caused by partial discharge and paper ageing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current Internet of Things (IoT) technology has entered a relatively mature development stage, and more and more IoT devices can readily access the Internet. However, along with this, the IoT system still faces fragile security of device nodes, easy data tampering, and low system stability. To this end, this paper proposes a smart contract-based security model for IoT systems. The proposal is based on the super ledger Fabric blockchain platform having decentralised, tamper-proof, and programmable features. These features achieve credible authentication of IoT device nodes on the one hand and tamper-proof data storage on the other hand. Further, with these features, we gain a trustworthy environment for enhancing the security of the whole IoT system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a significant shift towards electronic commerce (e-commerce), as people have turned to various methods of e-commerce to deal with imposed mobility restrictions. This paper provides a bibliometric analysis of the research conducted in the field of e-commerce, focusing on studies related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study aims to identify the key features, most influential papers, prevalent themes and methodologies, and the relationship between the terms used in the relevant publications. The data for the analysis was obtained from the Scopus database and consisted of 629 English-language research papers, book chapters, and review papers published between August 2020 and December 2022. BibExcel and VOSviewer software tools were utilized to assist with the selection of relevant information, perform the bibliometric analysis, and generate graphical representations of the results. The analysis indicates that China was the most productive geographical region, with the United States and India following closely behind. Sustainability journal from Switzerland was found to be the most productive in the field, followed by Frontiers in Psychology and the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. Bina Nusantara University in Indonesia was identified as the most productive institution, with Bucharest University of Economic Studies in Romania and Zhejiang University in China following closely behind. The most influential paper was found to be by Kim (2020), followed by Dannenberg et al. (2020), and Tran (2021). To address the limitations in the current literature, future research can undertake a comparative study of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the field of e-commerce over time, as well as analyze the dominant themes both prior to and post-pandemic. Investigating the correlation between disruptive events like the COVID-19 pandemic and the factors that drive e-commerce adoption constitutes a worthy and captivating field for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on Dupuytren's contracture is vast yet little information is known as to which papers have been the most influential. The purpose of this study was to identify the 50 most cited papers on Dupuytren's contracture and perform a citation analysis. Utilizing the Web of Science™, 23 surgical, medical, plastic and hand surgery journals were searched for papers on Dupuytren's contracture. Resulting articles were ranked in order of times cited and each paper was analyzed for article-type, year of publication, country of origin, institution and level of evidence. The 50 most cited articles represent many important landmarks in Dupuytren's treatment and contain several seminal works by experts in the field. Whilst the top 50 list highlights the important papers on the condition, they certainly do not provide information about the quality of the evidence of the research, as most papers presented level 4 or 5 evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evolutionary studies of cultural complexity often assume that group members select the best information available in the group, effectively diffusing the best innovations, whose advantages are subsequently passed on to the next generation. This would seem to describe the ideal of the scientific process — each cohort of papers in a field surfacing the best innovations, refining them and passing on to the next "layer" or cohort of scientific works. Here, we use academic journal databases to explore this "forking" (branching) process in the evolution of a scientific paradigm. We apply citation network visualization and Latent Dirichlet allocation topic analysis to three different paradigms defined pragmatically as the set of papers citing a highly influential paper in each respective case. Our three case studies indicate a founder effect in how the seminal paper is highly-embedded in the citation network, and yet peripheral to the evolution of topics in subsequent "layers" of publications within the paradigm. This and additional evidence suggest certain topics are selected and followed, while others are left behind. From these case studies, we discuss how hitherto undeveloped ideas of the past might be located in the topic space of seminal works of the same fruitful time period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel three-dimensional porous conductive papers have been successfully synthesized via a simple physical route. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)@SnO2 composite anode materials are embedded in porous conductive papers. The peculiar structure can accommodate the huge volume expansion of MWCNTs@SnO2 composite anode materials during charge-discharge process. The framework formed by MWCNTs and cellulose can greatly improve the strength, stability and flexibility of the electrode. In addition, the structure successfully prevent the aggregation of SnO2 nanoparticles and collapse of MWCNTs@SnO2 composite electrode, leading to the improvement in electrochemical utilization and stable cyclability. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), respectively. The electrochemical properties and application were evaluated by galvanostatic discharge-charge testing and cycling voltammetry. As a result, the MWCNTs@SnO2 composite electrode showed excellent rate performance. The discharge capacity remains about 680mAh g after 100 cycles at 200mA g, and even around 300mAh g at 1000mA g. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)@SnO2 composite anode materials are embedded in a novel three-dimensional porous conductive papers. The flexible structure can accommodate the huge volume expansion of anode materials during charge-discharge process. The LIB showed excellent electrochemical performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study Kauffman's model of folded ribbon knots: knots made of a thin strip of paper folded flat in the plane. The ribbonlength is the length to width ratio of such a folded ribbon knot. We show for any knot or link type that there exist constants c 1 , c 2 > 0 such that the ribbonlength is bounded above by c 1 Cr (K) 2 , and also by c 2 Cr (K) 3 / 2 . We use a different method for each bound. The constant c 1 is quite small in comparison to c 2 , and the first bound is lower than the second for knots and links with Cr (K) ≤ 12,748. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, environmental problems have attracted the attention of many craftsmen and researchers. They have developed various policies and practices to protect the environment throughout the supply chain. Since suppliers are one of the supply chain partners, paying attention to these policies by them will be very effective in keeping the supply chain green. In today's dynamic environment, there is uncertainty in all decisions of the organizations. The wood and paper industry also faces uncertainty in choosing green and environmentally friendly suppliers. These uncertainties must be taken into account when selecting suppliers. Decision-making techniques will cover uncertainty if developed in a gray environment. Many techniques have been developed in a gray environment. But using a combination of DANP and MABAC techniques in a gray environment will be very useful because of the benefits of each. Therefore, using the combination of DANP and MABAC in a gray environment in order to select a green supplier in the wood and paper industry is a gap that is felt and in this paper we try to overcome it. The research findings show that the identified criteria will be very effective in selecting the green supplier and Gray DANP–MABAC can be used for managers' decisions in the wood and paper industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of a recent paper, we revisit the Compton scale region and point out that in this region there is stochastic behavior which can be modeled by Ito's method. All these lead to a QCD and quark-like behavior completely consistent with known empirical facts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expressions for the pressure dependences of bulk modulus and the Grüneisen parameter used by Arafin and Singh [Int. J. Mod. Phys. B 30, 1750031 (2016)] in the Lindemann law for determining melting curves of 14 alkali halides have been found to yield no results which are consistent with the recent studies on equations of state. It is demonstrated here that Arafin–Singh's expressions are physically not acceptable as they are shown here to give unrealistic values of bulk modulus and Grüneisen parameter for the materials at high pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecotourism potential is a fundamental research effort needed to promote sustainable regional tourism development, and scholars have paid greater attention to it in recent years, which has led to an increase in the publication of literature on this important and widely recognized topic. However, there is still no clear picture of the development direction of research on ecotourism potential. To address this issue, this study attempts to provide a comprehensive analysis of the existing research state in this field. This paper presents a more detailed review of ecotourism potential, a bibliometric analysis of 949 articles selected from 1,027 publications retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database, and a systematic descriptive and network analysis of the bibliometric data using the Biblioshiny tool. Here are some interesting findings: (1) research on the ecotourism potential in the academy started in 1992, with a rapid growth in the number of publications after 2013, with an overall interdisciplinary character and the emergence of a research community represented by Milcu, Balmford, Gallagher, and others; (2) ecotourism, conservation, tourism, management, and biodiversity are high-frequency keywords in this field, revealing the main research directions; (3) the development and evolution of research focus are mainly on three aspects: wildlife and biodiversity conservation, nature-based tourism and environmental values, and the modes and contributions of community participation. Future research should focus on the scientific references of ecotourism potential for promoting regional sustainable development. This paper sheds some light on the comprehensive bibliometric studies on ecotourism potential and improves our understanding of the evolution of this academic discourse theme over the last three decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) serve as a common aim that brings many nations together, led by the United Nations with the purpose to achieve a set of 17 targets by 2030. One very important factor in achieving these aims is finance. The advancement in financial development all around the world will be able to speed up achieving SDGs where governments, policymakers, and people will be able to grow the economic development and infrastructure of the country, provide adequate job opportunities for many people, reduce poverty, as well as improve sustainability around the world. In opposition to that, some researchers see the advancement in financial development as an activity that will jeopardize achieving SDGs as financial development might lead to the production of carbon footprints at a faster rate. Using bibliometric analysis, this paper was able to discover that there is an increase in attention and interest in the field with the rise in publications in recent years, especially in 2022. Furthermore, this paper also identifies research hotspots within the field while also finding and analyzing the most impactful authors and publications on the topic. Ultimately, this paper hopes to provide a better definition for the relationship between financial development and SDGs with the use of bibliometric analysis, where data is collected from the Scopus database and analyzed using VOSviewer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan's new defence white paper offers an overview of the security environment surrounding Japan and the numerous issues concerning Tokyo's defence and security policy. It highlights North Korea's increasing missile-related technologies, China's growing military power and assertive activities, and the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) infection on security issues. Japan will likely remain a cautious security policy player while emerging as a robust military power with growing deterrence and defence capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to improve the high resolution and remove the noise of composite infrared thermal wave detection image have become important research topics in machine vision. Therefore, this paper proposes a composite image enhancement algorithm based on edge adaptive total variation of direction. Using the improved adaptive directional total variation model to construct the guidance image of the guidance filter can provide better structural information for the guidance filter and conduct the guidance filter. This process is iterated to eliminate noise and ladder effect. Experimental results show that this algorithm is superior to other advanced methods in objective evaluation index and subjective vision. The algorithm proposed in this paper can not only effectively eliminate noise and ladder effect, but also highlight image details and structure information, which proves the effectiveness of this algorithm. Discover the cutting-edge algorithm for high-resolution improvement and noise elimination in infrared thermal wave detection images. Our innovative composite image enhancement technique, based on edge adaptive total variation, outperforms traditional methods. The improved directional model provides better structural information, optimizing the guidance filter process. Experimental results reveal its superiority in objective evaluation and subjective vision. This algorithm effectively eliminates noise and ladder effect while highlighting image details, validating its remarkable effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the poor transient convergence and real-time performance of the horizontal vibration state variables of the high-speed elevator car system, and the low control accuracy and stability, this paper proposes an adaptive control strategy to ensure the transient response of the elevator car system. First, a prescribed preset transient performance function is introduced into the controller design to control the variation range of the state variables and ensure the steady transient performance of the elevator car; Second, representing the information of observation error/control error through algebraic operations, designing an adaptive law based on e-correction, estimating unknown parameters in the elevator car system, and achieving online parameter updates; Then, using neural networks to learn and compensate for unknown dynamics in the elevator car system, and solving the online estimation problem of neural network weights through adaptive laws, so that the tracking error and weight estimation error converge to a tight set near zero; Finally, using MATLAB/SIMULINK to compare and analyze the four control algorithms of passive control, PID control, adaptive control based on gradient descent method and transient response adaptive control proposed in this paper under two different rail excitations: Random excitation and pulse excitation. The simulation results show that the adaptive control strategy proposed in this paper effectively suppresses the horizontal vibration of the elevator car, makes the state variables have faster convergence speed and smaller convergence error, and ensures the stable and transient performance of the elevator car system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional requirement verification methods often fail to fully consider the modeling of time-dependent behaviors during system execution, which may lead to inconsistent system requirements, thereby compromise software reliability and correctness. To address this limitation, this paper proposes the Scenario-Specific Verification Method for System Requirements Consistency via Time Modeling. The Scenario-Specific Verification Method converts use case descriptions and problem graphs into Clock Constraint Specification Language (CCSL) constraints, transformed into clock graphs for verifying requirement consistency. The resulting constraints are solved with the Z3 solver to validate correctness, thereby enhancing system reliability. The novel time modeling approach provides techniques for verifying temporal dependencies in requirements. A case study demonstrates the efficiency and accuracy of the Scenario-Specific Verification Method in detecting inconsistencies. The main contributions include that a technique is demonstrated to formalize use case descriptions as CCSL constraints, improving on natural language and a method is presented utilizing CCSL time modeling and clock graphs to analyze requirements for consistency. Overall, an innovative solution for requirement verification using time modeling is offered by this paper, contributing to the enhancement of system development process reliability and correctness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author shares his theory on market creation and evolution from his perspective as an academic and a practitioner who has been involved in financial innovation for five decades. Rather than being spontaneously created, markets appear to follow a clear set of steps (the "seven-stage" process) from inception to maturity. It is critical that the benefits from transacting are greater than the costs of establishing the market — otherwise the evolution does not occur. Historical examples of the process outlined by the author can be found in commodity, equity, fixed income and environmental markets. The author provides observations and lessons that his evolutionary framework shares with financial inventive activity in new and existing products in our rapidly evolving digital world. Recent digital innovations such as the blockchain have evolved in a framework that did not require a legislative or regulatory framework (or what the author calls a "permissionless" environment). A properly designed regulatory environment can be permissionless regarding inventive activity (withness the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the United States). A permissionless environment has historical precedent in other "analog" innovations such as wheat trading in the 19th century or financial futures in the mid-1970s. Following the seven-stage process, those innovations arose from structural changes or latent economic demands. Their standards and infrastructure were only much later understood and adopted by the regulators. Given that, the author suggests that since changes now occur at hyper speed, the implications for the future shape of derivatives markets are likely to be profound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite half a century's extensive scholarly research in the decision-making process of individuals around the adoption of new innovations, innovation practitioners are still not able to capitalise sufficiently on the existing knowledge base to successfully commercialise new products. Evidence of this stems from consumers' continued rejection of new offerings at alarming rates. This makes the marketing of innovation, with a focus on influencing consumers' decision-making process, one of the most challenging corporate challenges for new product managers. To address this gap, this paper sequentially applies a systematic literature review (SLR), followed by extensive descriptive and bibliometric analyses, to reveal and assess the current state of knowledge in this field. Furthermore, the analysis identifies six prominent future research paths that could fill identified gaps in knowledge. Using the results of the bibliometric section, practitioners can pinpoint specific research areas of interest, enabling them to access and utilise findings from past studies more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most important species of chromium (VI) formed in water are anions such as CrO42-, whereas chromium (III) is mainly present in the form of cationic species such as Cr(OH)2+. Pure water and tap water samples were artificially contaminated with mixture of chromium (VI) and chromium (III) standard solutions. Sequential filtration through commercially available Whatman P81 cellulose phosphate paper and Whatman DE81 DEAE cellulose paper was employed for separation and preconcentration of chromium (III) and chromium (VI) in these water samples, respectively. The PIXE measurements of these filter paper samples were performed using 2-MeV proton beams delivered by a tandem pelletron accelerator at Research Laboratory for Nuclear Reactors, Tokyo Tech. The beam current and the measuring time for each sample were 1 nA and 10 minutes, respectively. Instrumental detection limits were 60 ng for chromium (VI) and 120 ng for chromium (III). Detectable range for chromium (VI) and chromium (III) in water were ≧ 10 ppb and ≧ 50 ppb, respectively. For chromium (VI), the detectable range was considerably lower than the maximum allowed concentration of 50 ppb for chromium (VI) in both the drinking water standards and the environmental quality standards in many countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Journal of Semantic Computing has published a special issue on Semantic Computing, which includes five selected papers from the 17th IEEE International Conference on Semantic Computing. Semantic Computing focuses on the derivation, description, integration, and use of semantics for various resources. The papers in the special issue cover topics such as intent detection, constructing probabilistic models from knowledge graphs, unsupervised estimation of subjective content descriptions, the influence of noisy labels on question answering systems, and automatic domain-adaptive sentiment analysis. Each paper presents innovative approaches and findings in their respective areas of research. [Extracted from the article]

In the last 30 years, several distinguished researchers have proposed and discussed different fuzzy versions of well-known Saaty's Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The paper recently published by K. Zhü in the European Journal of Operational Research heavily criticizes the fuzzy approaches to AHP, claiming the fallacy of all of them. Therefore, it seems to be necessary to clarify whether the criticisms are well-founded or not. The present paper aims to rebut Zhü's claims by showing that the evidences and the reasonings in his paper are very poor and far from proving the fallacy of fuzzy AHP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]