914 research outputs found
Sale the seven Cs: Teaching/training aid for the (e-)retail mix
The ‘4Ps’ of the marketing mix have long been popular with students, tutors, trainers
and practitioners as a learning and teaching aid. The purpose of this paper is to present
an equivalent tool for retail and e-retail: ‘Sale the 7Cs’. The approach is by reference
to other authors’ versions of the marketing, retail and e-retail mixes, distilled into a
simplified framework: C1 Convenience; C2 Customer value and benefit; C3 Cost to
the customer; C4 Computing and category management; C5 Customer franchise; C6
Customer care and service; C7 Communication and customer relationships. This
simplified mnemonic is new for (e-)retail. Mini case examples are used to illustrate
the applicability. These have a practical value for trainers and educators as specimen
answers to activity exercises. Retailers may find the convenient 7Cs structure useful
when planning strategies and tactics
A CNL for Contract-Oriented Diagrams
We present a first step towards a framework for defining and manipulating
normative documents or contracts described as Contract-Oriented (C-O) Diagrams.
These diagrams provide a visual representation for such texts, giving the
possibility to express a signatory's obligations, permissions and prohibitions,
with or without timing constraints, as well as the penalties resulting from the
non-fulfilment of a contract. This work presents a CNL for verbalising C-O
Diagrams, a web-based tool allowing editing in this CNL, and another for
visualising and manipulating the diagrams interactively. We then show how these
proof-of-concept tools can be used by applying them to a small example
Thermodynamics of an attractive 2D Fermi gas
Thermodynamic properties of matter are conveniently expressed as functional
relations between variables known as equations of state. Here we experimentally
determine the compressibility, density and pressure equations of state for an
attractive 2D Fermi gas in the normal phase as a function of temperature and
interaction strength. In 2D, interacting gases exhibit qualitatively different
features to those found in 3D. This is evident in the normalized density
equation of state, which peaks at intermediate densities corresponding to the
crossover from classical to quantum behaviour.Comment: Contains minor revision
ALMA observations of the supergiant B[e] star Wd1-9
Mass-loss in massive stars plays a critical role in their evolution, although the precise mechanism(s) responsible – radiatively driven winds, impulsive ejection and/or binary interaction – remain uncertain. In this Letter, we present Atacama Large Millimetre/Submillimeter Array line and continuum observations of the supergiant B[e] star Wd1-9, a massive post-main-sequence object located within the starburst cluster Westerlund 1 (Wd1). We find it to be one of the brightest stellar point sources in the sky at millimetre wavelengths, with (serendipitously identified) emission in the H41α radio recombination line. We attribute these properties to a low velocity (∼100 km s-1 ) ionized wind, with an extreme mass-loss rate ≳6.4 × 105(d/5 kpc)1.5 Mȯyr-1. External to this is an extended aspherical ejection nebula indicative of a prior phase of significant mass-loss. Taken together, the millimetre properties of Wd1-9 show a remarkable similarity to those of the highly luminous stellar source MWC349A. We conclude that these objects are interacting binaries evolving away from the main sequence and undergoing rapid case-A mass transfer. As such they – and by extension the wider class of supergiant B[e] stars – may provide a unique window into the physics of a process that shapes the life-cycle of ∼70 per cent of massive stars found in binary systems
Excavations at Tas-Silg, Malta : a preliminary report on the 1996-1998 campaigns conducted by the Department of Classics and Archaeology of the University of Malta
The area known as Tas-Silg is situated in the south-eastern part of the island of Malta, close to
Marsaxlokk harbour. In reality the place name refers to the small church
dedicated to Our Lady of the Snows (hence Tas-Silg) situated at the point where the narrow ·
road from Zejtun forks out in two directions: to Delimara and Xrobb il-Ghagin due south-east
and to Marsaxlokk village due south-west. A British-period fort occupying the highest point
of the elongated hill further south along· the first road also carries the same place name. The
lower and more compact hill on which the excavations have been conducted is called 'Ta'
Berikka' , but since it is so close to the above-mentioned church (only 50 m to the north) the
tradition of calling it Tas-Silg is now well established and there is no sense in changing it.
The site has a commanding view of the Marsaxlokk harbour to the south and overlooks two
other bays, Marsascala and St Thomas's bay, to the north-east. On all sides the slope is broken
up by man-made terraced fields
There is no doubt that the topography of the site must have been a determining factor in its
choice for the establishment of a religious centre in the Temple period of Maltese pehistory
(3000--2500 BC), though one must keep in mind that close to Tas-Silg there are three other
prehistoric temple sites. each one with a completely different topography. The Temple people
were quite introverted in their cultural isolation and do not seem to have been much interested
in seafaring and in the outside world. The situation changed radically in the following age, the
Bronze Age. when the island was occupied by people who set up villages on naturally defensible hilltops, occasionally fortifying them with artificial ramparts. The Tas-Silg hill
with its temple ruins was occupied by these people, but it is not as yet clear for what purpose.
The scenario changed again in historical times when the central and western Mediterranean
started to be parcelled out among the commercial powers originating in the eastern
Mediterranean. The Greeks do not seem to have even tried 10 colonize Malta as they did in
neighbouring Sicily. The Phoenicians, however, did occupy the island, apparently through a
slow process of peaceful penetration and eventual political and cultural assimi lation. It was in
this period that the ruins of the megalithic temple were transformed into a Phoenician extraurban
shrine dedicated to Astarte, which in time expanded into a full y-fledged sanctuary with
an international reputation. The last chapter in the millennia- long history of the site was
written when the colonnaded courtyard in front of the old temple was transformed into an
early Christian church. Any use made of the site in the following Arab period is, once again,
poorly understood.peer-reviewe
Ghajn Klieb, (Rabat, Malta)
Between October and December 1999 a team of local
and foreign undergraduates from the University of Malta
carried out a survey of the site at Ghajn Klieb outside
Rabat. The exercise constituted the practical part of a
unit on the Principles of Archaeological Surveying
directed by Dr Nicholas Vella of the Department of
Classics & Archaeology. For the survey the team was
joined by Hanna Stager, a graduate of the same
department, who also researched some of the references
used in this article. Initial reconnaissance of the site was
carried out on 15 October 1999 with Nathaniel Cutajar
and Michelle B uhagiar, Curator and Assistant Curator
respectively at the National Museum of Archaeology.
The scatter of surface ceramics and the existence of
previously known and unknown features revealed the
extent and potential of the site. It was decided that the
locality of Ghajn Klieb warranted systematic study that
could be carried out in various stages, with the longterm
aim being an assessment of human activity and
cultural behaviour at the site. The Museums Department
gave the go-ahead for this project, and permission to
collect the surface ceramics was granted. This short
report is intended to give an outline of the work
undertaken to date. Emphasis is placed on the field
methods adopted and on the presentation of what we
believe to be worth talking about at this stage. An effort
is here made by the senior author to unravel the
collaborative nature of the exercise by lending weight
to individual thoughts and interpretations that arose while
work progressed in the field.peer-reviewe
'Form Design For Emotion' with a Cameraphone Based Tool
Merging emotional value into products has become an essential strategy for increasing a product’s competitive edge in the consumer market. Indeed, this approach instills emotional value into products, to satisfy human emotional needs. Combined with this is the fact that designers usually work outside their design office using pen and paper, since ideas are usually stimulated. Yet, designers lack mobile computer-aided sketching (CAS) tools which truly link paper-based sketching with computer-based 3D modelling tools. As a step in this direction, this poster presents a framework that extends CAS technology to cameraphones. Furthermore, this framework is capable of providing emotional guidance about a form concept to satisfy the emotional needs of the customer, directly on cameraphones. A proof-of-concept tool has been implemented and evaluated. Preliminary evaluation results with design engineers in the cosmetic cases industry, indicate the positive impact that technology based on the framework developed will have on DFe in practice
- …