Measuring design investment in firms: Conceptual foundations and exploratory UK survey

The importance of design to company and national performance has been widely discussed, with a number of studies investigating the value or impact of design on performance. However, none of these studies has measured design investment as an input against which performance can be compared. As yet, there is no established way in which design investment might be measured. Without such a method, we cannot develop a reliable picture, akin to that for R&D spending, on the impact of design spending on company performance. This paper presents a conceptual framework for the measurement of design investment and applies this framework in a survey of UK firms. The framework describes design as being part of the creation and commercialization of new products and services. The survey highlights some surprising patterns of design spend in the reported sample and demonstrates the viability of the underpinning framework. A revised framework is proposed that situates design investment in the context of R&D. The model has implications for policy makers trying to understand the role and scale of design in the private sector, for managers wishing to optimize their design investments and for academics seeking to measure the value of design. © 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V.

A survey of alternative once-through fast reactor core designs

Reprocessing of Light Water Reactor (LWR) spent fuel to recover plutonium or transuranics for use in Sodium cooled Fast Reactors (SFRs) is a distant prospect in the U.S.A. This has motivated our evaluation of potentially cost-effective operation of uranium startup fast reactors (USFRs) in a once-through mode. This review goes beyond findings reported earlier based on a UC fueled MgO reflected SFR to describe a broader parametric study of options. Cores were evaluated for a variety of fuel/coolant/reflector combinations: UC/UZr/UO 2/UN;Na/Pb; MgO/SS/Zr. The challenge is achieving high burnup while minimizing enrichment and respecting both cladding fluence/dpa and reactivity lifetime limits. These parametric studies show that while UC fuel is still the leading contender, UO 2 fuel and ZrH 1.7 moderated metallic fuel are also attractive if UC proves to be otherwise inadequate. Overall, these findings support the conclusion that a competitive fuel cycle cost and uranium utilization compared to LWRs is possible for SFRs operated on a once-through uranium fueled fuel cycle. In addition, eventual transition to TRU recycle mode is studied, as is a small test reactor to demonstrate key features.

A survey on technology exposure and range of abilities of elderly and disabled users in India

This paper reports a survey on people with age-related and physical impairments in India. The survey evaluates functional parameters related to human computer interaction and reports subjective attitude and exposure of users towards technology. We found a significant cognitive decline in elderly users while their functional parameters are sufficient to use existing electronic devices. However young disabled users are found to be experienced with computer but could not have access to appropriate assistive devices, which would benefit them. Most users used desktop computers and mobile phone but none used tablet, smartphone or kiosks though they are keen to learn new technologies. Overall we hope that our results will be useful for HCI practitioners in developing countries. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Floral survey of the diatom genera Cymbella and Gomphonema (Cymbellales, Bacillariophyta) from the Jolmolungma mountain region of China

We report on taxa from the diatom genera Gomphonema and Cymbella (Cymbellales, Bacillariophyta) found in the Jolmolungma Mountain region of China. This region is unique for its diversity of habitats, which include rivers, springs, moist soil, snowfields, swamps and lakes. We re-examine diatom taxa found in samples first documented in 1973 (Jao et A, 1973) and incorporate recent taxonomic revisions from the literature. In the genera Gomphonema and Cymbella we report 113 species and varieties. Of these 113 taxa, 59 are new record for China; 1 new combination, Encyonema jolmolungmensis, is made. Morphometric data and habitat features are reported for each taxon. Their distribution is strongly correlated to their microhabitats.

PCR survey of Hox genes in the goldfish Carassius auratus auratus

A tetraploidization event took place in the cyprinid lineage leading to goldfishes about 15 million years ago. A PCR survey for Hox genes in the goldfish Carassius auratus auratus (Actinopterygii: Cyprinidae) was performed to assess the consequences of this genome duplication. Not surprisingly, the genomic organization of the Hox gene clusters of goldfish is similar to that of the closely related zebrafish (Danio rerio). However, the goldfish exhibits a much larger number of recent pseudogenes, which are characterized by indels. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that dosage effects cause selection pressure to rapidly silence crucial developmental regulators after a tetraploidization event.

Estimated detection distance of a baiji's (Chinese river dolphin, Lipotes vexillifer) whistles using a passive acoustic survey method

Source levels and phonation intervals of whistles produced by a free-ranging baiji (Chinese river dolphin) were measured in the seminatural reserve of Shishou in Hubei, China. A total of 43 whistles were recorded over 12 recording sessions. The mean dominant frequency (the frequency at the highest energy) was 5.7 kHz (s.d.=0.67). The calculated source level was 143.2 dB rms re 1 mu Pa (s.d.=5.8). Most phonation intervals were shorter than 460 s, and the average interval was 205 s (s.d. = 254). Theoretical detection range of baiji's whistle was 6600 m at the present study site, but it could reduce a couple of hundred meters in practical noisy situation in the Yangtze River. Sporadic phonation (205 s interval on average) with relatively faint signal of baiji was considered, to be difficult to be detected by a towing hydrophone system. Stationed monitoring or slow speed towing of hydrophones along the river current is recommended. (c) 2006 Acoustical Society of America.

Linear dimensionality reduction: Survey, insights, and generalizations

© 2015 John P. Cunningham and Zoubin Ghahramani. Linear dimensionality reduction methods are a cornerstone of analyzing high dimensional data, due to their simple geometric interpretations and typically attractive computational properties. These methods capture many data features of interest, such as covariance, dynamical structure, correlation between data sets, input-output relationships, and margin between data classes. Methods have been developed with a variety of names and motivations in many fields, and perhaps as a result the connections between all these methods have not been highlighted. Here we survey methods from this disparate literature as optimization programs over matrix manifolds. We discuss principal component analysis, factor analysis, linear multidimensional scaling, Fisher's linear discriminant analysis, canonical correlations analysis, maximum autocorrelation factors, slow feature analysis, sufficient dimensionality reduction, undercomplete independent component analysis, linear regression, distance metric learning, and more. This optimization framework gives insight to some rarely discussed shortcomings of well-known methods, such as the suboptimality of certain eigenvector solutions. Modern techniques for optimization over matrix manifolds enable a generic linear dimensionality reduction solver, which accepts as input data and an objective to be optimized, and returns, as output, an optimal low-dimensional projection of the data. This simple optimization framework further allows straightforward generalizations and novel variants of classical methods, which we demonstrate here by creating an orthogonal-projection canonical correlations analysis. More broadly, this survey and generic solver suggest that linear dimensionality reduction can move toward becoming a blackbox, objective-agnostic numerical technology.

A survey of the gomphonemaceae and cymbellaceae (Bacillariophyta) from the Jolmolungma Mountain (Everest) region of China

Gomphonemaceae and Cymbellaceae from Jolmolungma Mountain region of China, comprised 79 taxa belonging to five genera. The dominant species were Gomphonema angustatum var. productum, G. gracile var. gracile, G. parvulum var. parvulum, G. hedini, Cymbella aequalis var. pisciculus, C. delicatula, C. cistula, C. cistula var. hebetata, C. cesatii, C. cymbiformis, C microcephala, C. minuta var. minuta., C. minuta var. silesiaca, C. pusilla, C. affinis. Some arctic and alpine forms also occurred, and the following taxa were unique to this region: Cymbella delicatula, C. naviculiformis, C. gracilis, C. minuta var. minuta, C. affinis, C. cistula, C. cymbiformis, C. cistula var. hebetata, C. arctica, Didymosphenia geminata, Gomphonema hedinii, G. olivaceum. Numbers of taxa in each samples varied greatly, It appears that species diversity of diatoms is related not only to macro-environments (e.g., geographic zonation) but also to microenvironments (e.g., microhabitats and microclimates). Cymbella spp. are not only comparatively widespread in the region but also outnumber Gomphonema spp. A large number of species found in the Jolmolungma Mountain region are also found in Tibet and the headwaters of Yangtze River.

Survey Propagation:一种求解SAT的高效算法

Survey propagation是一种新生的SAT(CSP)算法.它基于统计物理的spin glass模型,针对具体问题进行纵览(survey),从而极大地降低求解的复杂度.但sp算法在某些时候不收敛,或引导向错误的解.对此,G.Parisi提出一种复杂回溯(backtrack)算法,而作者在sp中加入简单回溯,也使一部分此类问题得到解决.