3D Modelling of Large Urban Scenes from Diverse Sources of Information

The complex and extensive nature of urban environments creates difficulties to the task of generating virtual models. Thus a great effort in terms of human resources, time and money is needed. Nevertheless a large number of professionals and institutions devout efforts to gather and analyse data from these urban environments. As data is usually stored in a digital format, it becomes a valuable asset to incorporate it in the modelling process of virtual environments. This paper presents a three-dimensional modelling system with interoperable access to data in diverse formats and digital support, drived by an L-system based modelling process that automatically generates initial solutions for virtual environments, which can be incrementally improved

Financing Social Entrepreneurship Franchising Approach

Social organizations mainly cope with social problems that the markets and the states have trouble or even fail to solve and, therefore, social entrepreneurs have been emerging in different locations throughout the world (OECD, 2010). Instead of being driven by financial returns, social organizations are focused on creating social and/or cultural values and they are not moved by its appropriation (European Commission, 2013). Regardless of its non-profitable nature, a social enterprise needs to be financially sustainable, if it is to reach its social goals. However, it is well acknowledged that social organizations struggle to be financially independent through income generation (Zafareiropoulou & Koufopoulos, 2012). As an example, in a recent survey performed to NGO’s operating in Portugal (Project Entrance, 2018), social entrepreneurs have identified financing, as among the most critical problems they have to face. Therefore, social entrepreneurs must look for ingenious ways to solve their financial constraints. In this framework, social franchising has emerged as a strategy to overcome this problem. Moreover, franchising has also been adopted by non-profit organizations as a strategy for growth (Meuter, 2008). The alliance in a network of small social organizations allows them to gather the advantages of big organizations namely in terms of access to capital sources and rapid growth (Zafareiropoulou and Koufopoulos, 2012). However, in spite of the apparent auspicious solution it presents to social entrepreneurship, the franchising arrangements have been showing high failure rates in the social sector (Meuter, 2008).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Social and psychological product value perceptions

The distributed value is perceived by the customer as the difference between the total value and the total cost of the product (good, service, idea, information, experience), also corresponding to the perceived value of use of the product, which includes experiences, sensations and mental states. Note that the total cost to the customer comprises all types of costs, financial (price, ability to pay, opportunity cost) and non-financial costs (physical, psychological and social aspects related to the use of the product, such as accessibility, embarrassment, usability, etc.), in which he expects to incur to evaluate, obtain and use the product.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Simultaneous determination of ethanol and methanol in fuel ethanol using cyclic voltammetry

AbstractA new and simple strategy for the simultaneous determination of ethanol and methanol in fuel ethanol using cyclic voltammetry at a gold electrode is reported. A fuel ethanol aliquot was added into an electrochemical cell containing 0.5molL−1 NaOH and 0.1% (v/v) of methanol as the electrolyte and both analytes were determined using cyclic voltammetry. Ethanol was selectively detected at +0.19V and both compounds were detected at +1.20V. Current subtraction (using a correction factor) could be used for the selective determination of methanol. The limits of detection were estimated to be 0.028% and 0.045% (v/v) for ethanol and methanol, respectively. The proposed method presented similar results to those obtained by gas chromatography at a 95% confidence level

Happiness, Value, and Organizational Toughness: Three Concepts in Search of a Theory

Happiness—life satisfaction, subjective well-being, or welfare—is generally considered the ultimate goal of life. Research shows that happiness correlates positively with various resources, desirable characteristics, and favorable life circumstances. Happiness can influence productivity, emotions, health, self-esteem, social skills, creativity, hope, or integrity. As such, happiness seems to affect how individuals may go about their personal and professional lives. As complex social systems rely on competencies, attitudes, and behaviors to fulfill their goals, happiness affects organizations and vice versa in different ways. Resilience, flexibility, plasticity, and eventually organizational toughness can all be seen as emerging coping properties of complex adaptive systems needed to continue meeting their objectives, despite uncertainty and adversity in turbulent periods. These properties are valuable because they account for enhancing the viability and sustainability of individuals and organizations. However, the conceptual mechanisms through which happiness at work connects to value creation and organizational toughness are in short supply. In this chapter, we provide a conceptual model for addressing this complex relationship

The right way to kiss: directionality bias in head-turning during kissing

Humans have a bias for turning to the right in a number of settings. Here we document a bias in head-turning to the right in adult humans, as tested in the act of kissing. We investigated head-turning bias in both kiss initiators and kiss recipients for lip kissing, and took into consideration differences due to sex and handedness, in 48 Bangladeshi heterosexual married couples. We report a significant male bias in the initiation of kissing and a significant bias in head-turning to the right in both kiss initiators and kiss recipients, with a tendency among kiss recipients to match their partners’ head-turning direction. These interesting outcomes are explained by the influences of societal learning or cultural norms and the potential neurophysiological underpinnings which together offer novel insights about the mechanisms underlying behavioral laterality in humans

The role of sexual and romantic attraction in human mate preferences

Sex differences in mate preferences are ubiquitous, having been evidenced across generations and cultures. Their prevalence and persistence have compellingly placed them in the evolutionarily adaptive context of sexual selection. However, the psycho-biological mechanisms contributing to their generation and main- tenance remain poorly understood. As such a mechanism, sexual attraction is assumed to guide interest, desire, and the affinity toward specific partner features. However, whether sexual attraction can indeed explain sex differences in partner preferences has not been explicitly tested. To better understand how sex and sexual attraction shape mate preferences in humans we assessed how partner preferences differed across the spectrum of sexual attraction in a sample of 479 individuals that identified as asexual, gray-sexual, demisexual or allosexual. We further tested whether romantic attraction predicted preference profiles better than sexual attraction. Our results show that sexual attraction accounts for highly replicable sex differences in mate preferences for high social status and financial prospects, conscientiousness, and intelligence; however, it does not account for the enhanced preference for physical attractiveness expressed by men, which persists even in individuals with low sexual attraction. Instead, sex differences in physical attractiveness preference are better explained by the degree of romantic attraction. Furthermore, effects of sexual attraction on sex differences in partner preferences were grounded in current rather than previous experiences of sexual attraction. Taken together, the results support the idea that contemporary sex differences in partner preferences are maintained by several psycho-biological mechanisms that evolved in conjunction, including not only sexual but also romantic attraction

Behaviour of the antioxidant tert-butylhydroquinone on the storage stability and corrosive character of biodiesel

AbstractThe behaviour of the antioxidant tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) on the storage stability of biodiesel was investigated. Storage conditions were simulated through static immersion corrosion tests in biodiesel (with and without TBHQ) using copper coupons. Measurements of oxidation stability (Rancimat induction period) and metal release at different stages of corrosion were performed. After 24h of the static immersion test, the neat and TBHQ-doped biodiesels presented induction times below the EN 14214 limit (6h). Copper release was more intense in the neat biodiesel which evidenced that TBHQ retarded the corrosion process as a corrosion inhibitor. Ion trap–time-of-flight mass spectrometry (IT–TOF-MS) revealed the presence of considerable amounts of tert-butylquinone (TBQ) in the TBHQ-doped biodiesel exposed to the corrosion process. As TBHQ molecules adsorb at the copper surface to inhibit corrosion, these molecules are catalytically oxidised to TBQ. IT–TOF-MS also indicated the formation of new molecules of high molecular weight only presented in the TBHQ-doped biodiesel deteriorated by the corrosion process. MS2 spectra gave clear evidence of the formation of new complexes between free radicals of long-chain molecules (fatty acid derivatives) and TBQ radicals during biodiesel deterioration

Theory of nuclear induced spectral diffusion: Spin decoherence of phosphorus donors in Si and GaAs quantum dots

We propose a model for spectral diffusion of localized spins in semiconductors due to the dipolar fluctuations of lattice nuclear spins. Each nuclear spin flip-flop is assumed to be independent, the rate for this process being calculated by a method of moments. Our calculated spin decoherence time $T_{M}=0.64$ ms for donor electron spins in Si:P is a factor of two longer than spin echo decay measurements. For $^{31}$P nuclear spins we show that spectral diffusion is well into the motional narrowing regime. The calculation for GaAs quantum dots gives $T_{M}=10-50$ $\mu$s depending on the quantum dot size. Our theory indicates that nuclear induced spectral diffusion should not be a serious problem in developing spin-based semiconductor quantum computer architectures.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Avalanches in the Weakly Driven Frenkel-Kontorova Model

A damped chain of particles with harmonic nearest-neighbor interactions in a spatially periodic, piecewise harmonic potential (Frenkel-Kontorova model) is studied numerically. One end of the chain is pulled slowly which acts as a weak driving mechanism. The numerical study was performed in the limit of infinitely weak driving. The model exhibits avalanches starting at the pulled end of the chain. The dynamics of the avalanches and their size and strength distributions are studied in detail. The behavior depends on the value of the damping constant. For moderate values a erratic sequence of avalanches of all sizes occurs. The avalanche distributions are power-laws which is a key feature of self-organized criticality (SOC). It will be shown that the system selects a state where perturbations are just able to propagate through the whole system. For strong damping a regular behavior occurs where a sequence of states reappears periodically but shifted by an integer multiple of the period of the external potential. There is a broad transition regime between regular and irregular behavior, which is characterized by multistability between regular and irregular behavior. The avalanches are build up by sound waves and shock waves. Shock waves can turn their direction of propagation, or they can split into two pulses propagating in opposite directions leading to transient spatio-temporal chaos. PACS numbers: 05.70.Ln,05.50.+q,46.10.+zComment: 33 pages (RevTex), 15 Figures (available on request), appears in Phys. Rev.