Search

The global context of cooperative intelligent public transport systems (C-ITS) in Smart Cities calls for a solution that integrates the perspectives of the travelers, public administration, vehicle manufacturers and transport operators in the joint effort of standardization, interconnection and assimilation of emerging technologies to meet operational, safety and environmental objectives at metropolitan, national or international level. The article proposes a definition for the capabilities maturity levels of the mobility ecosystem, and functional architecture for the collaborative decision-making system for implementing the C-ITS in the future Smart Cities. The paper contributes to the literature and practice in four manners. The first one is enhancing the awareness and understanding of maturity capability model (CMM) for all the stakeholders throughout the mobility ecosystem, emphasizing the key capabilities required for each maturity level. The second way is manifested throughout public and private companies acting on the same territory in the mobility ecosystem assess the existing capabilities and collaborate for achieving a superior maturity level of mobility processes, stable and repeatable results. In addition, the third one, based on CMM, is that governments regulate, conduct and control, establishing a stable and mature processes institutionalization for C-ITS. Finally, the fourth practice is defining a C-ITS functional architecture for the future Smart Cities to support collaborative decision-making applied for public transport implementation in big Smart Cities with the final objective of increasing the citizen's quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polymers involved as adsorbent materials during Eu(III) removal tests were prepared by functionalization of a natural polymer – cellulose, and a commercial one represented by Amberlite XAD7. As extractant, we used tetrabutil ammonium di-hydrogen phosphate (TBAH2P) which is a cheap and environmentally friendly product. Impregnated polymers using a rotavapor system in which the quaternary ammonium salt used as extractant was concentrated on to the used polymer. Later obtained materials were characterized by Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-Ray electron dispersion (EDX). During experimental test we determine pH, contact time, Eu(III) initial concentration and temperature effect on the functionalized polymers adsorption capacity. Therewith for both functionalized polymers, a comparison was made between the adsorption process characteristics based on kinetics and thermodynamic studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the specializedliterature, there are many approaches developed for capturing textual measures: textual similarity, textual readability and textual sentiment. This paper proposes a new sentiment similarity measures between pairs of words using a fuzzy-based approach in which words are considered single-valued neutrosophic sets. We build our study with the aid of the lexical resource SentiWordNet 3.0 as our intended scope is to design a new word-level similarity measure calculated by means of the sentiment scores of the involved words. Our study pays attention to the polysemous words because these words are a real challenge for any application that processes natural language data. After our knowledge, this approach is quite new in the literature and the obtained results give us hope for further investigations. • A new word-level similarity measure defined by means of the words' sentiment scores. • The similarity measure is defined without considering the words' lexical category. • The resulted scores correctly distance the neutral words from the sentiment words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kano requirement model is based on the need to provide superior quality to clients. Thus, it classifies different product attributes based on their contribution to perceived quality. Nevertheless, in the case of new products or services their value is not perceived, but demanded by consumers. Therefore, literature presents the HWWP (Health, Weapon, Wealth, and Prospect) four quadrant model as an alternative for first time right design. The authors analyse the HWWP's value-added and customer importance principles and provide a refined model with a natural distribution of information and a strategic orientation. This refined perspective of customer needs evaluation is based on mathematical modelling and a thorough delimitation of quality attributes for managerial thinking by using elasticity curves from the economic domain in a previous case study. The present article aims to provide logical classification criteria for customer requirements as a first step towards strategic decision support in new product or service design. The refinement of the HWWP model deepens its position in the theory of attractive quality and transforms it in an innovative strategic tool for new product and service design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of the paper is to identify if SMEs managers undertake marketing activities (in the sense of having a responsible employee or a department for marketing activities) out of need (in the sense of competitiveness level in the market) or starting from available resources (financial and human assets). Therefore to shed some light on this nexus, the authors analyze the relationship between who has the responsibility of marketing activities within SMEs, its size (in terms of financial and human assets) and business sector. However, even if we find no generalized model, the paper still rises awareness for academics and practitioners, that SMEs need simplified marketing tools/applications (regardless of their level of financial and human resources and field of business) for coping with the continuously growing market competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Vitamin D deficiency is associated with heart failure (HF) events, and in animal models vitamin D down-regulates renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system hormones. Methods: Patients with New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class II-IV HF and a 25OH-D level <37.5 ng/mL received 50,000 IU vitamin D3 weekly (n = 31) or placebo (n = 33) for 6 months. Serum aldosterone, renin, echocardiography, and health status were determined at baseline and 6 months. Results: Mean age of participants was 65.9 ± 10.4 years, 48% were women, 64% were African American, mean ejection fraction was 37.6 ± 13.9%, 36% were in NYHA functional class III, and 64% were in class II. The vitamin D group increased serum 25OH-D (19.1 ± 9.3 to 61.7 ± 20.3 ng/mL) and the placebo group did not (17.8 ± 9.0 to 17.4 ± 9.8 ng/mL). Aldosterone decreased in the vitamin D group (10.0 ± 11.9 to 6.2 ± 11.6 ng/dL) and not in the placebo group (8.9 ± 8.6 to 9.0 ± 12.4 ng/dL; P = .02). There was no difference between groups in renin, echocardiographic measures, or health status from baseline to 6 months. Modeling indicated that variables which predicted change in aldosterone included receiving vitamin D, increasing age, African American race, and lower glomerular filtration rate. Conclusions: Vitamin D3 repletion decreases aldosterone in patients with HF and low serum vitamin D. Vitamin D may be an important adjunct to standard HF therapy. Further study will assess if vitamin D provides long-term benefit for patients with HF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Using an emerging market dataset, we find that overconfidence has a positive influence on individual returns of Romanian investors;. • An overconfidence index is constructed through principal component analysis using three variables: trading frequency, volume and portfolio diversification;. • Overconfidence has a larger positive effect on higher returns for shorter investment horizons;. • Marginal benefits of overconfident behavior diminish as the holding period increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]