It’s all relative : how customer-perceived competitive advantage influences referral intentions

Better understanding the mechanisms that influence customer intentions to spread positive word-of-mouth (WOM) is crucial to both marketing scholars and managers. This multimethod research contributes to marketing knowledge by revealing how a firm’s customer-perceived competitive advantage (CPCA) influences positive WOM intentions. Analyses of (1) cross-sectional survey data on bank customers in Germany and (2) experimental data on customers of car insurance companies in the USA reveal two crucial insights. First, CPCA influences WOM intentions in both industries, over and above numerous established antecedents of customer loyalty (e.g., satisfaction, trust, and perceived value). Second, this research demonstrates a robust and pervasive CPCA-by-satisfaction interaction effect, such that the influence of CPCA on WOM intentions increases as customer satisfaction decreases. The results show that customer-perceived competitive advantage plays an important role in shaping WOM intentions, especially among less-satisfied customers. Theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed

Detection and 3D modelling of vehicles from terrestrial stereo image pairs

The detection and pose estimation of vehicles plays an important role for automated and autonomous moving objects e.g. in autonomous driving environments. We tackle that problem on the basis of street level stereo images, obtained from a moving vehicle. Processing every stereo pair individually, our approach is divided into two subsequent steps: the vehicle detection and the modelling step. For the detection, we make use of the 3D stereo information and incorporate geometric assumptions on vehicle inherent properties in a firstly applied generic 3D object detection. By combining our generic detection approach with a state of the art vehicle detector, we are able to achieve satisfying detection results with values for completeness and correctness up to more than 86%. By fitting an object specific vehicle model into the vehicle detections, we are able to reconstruct the vehicles in 3D and to derive pose estimations as well as shape parameters for each vehicle. To deal with the intra-class variability of vehicles, we make use of a deformable 3D active shape model learned from 3D CAD vehicle data in our model fitting approach. While we achieve encouraging values up to 67.2% for correct position estimations, we are facing larger problems concerning the orientation estimation. The evaluation is done by using the object detection and orientation estimation benchmark of the KITTI dataset (Geiger et al., 2012).DFG/GRK/215

Blended Learning : the next normal

Die Pandemie veränderte auch den Alltag im Hochschulumfeld – und zwar nachhaltig. Am IFM wird Blended Learning als ein zukunftsweisender, didaktischer Ansatz erachtet, der den sich veränderten Gegebenheiten einer Post-COVID-Zeit entspricht

ConsInstancy: learning instance representations for semi-supervised panoptic segmentation of concrete aggregate particles

We present a semi-supervised method for panoptic segmentation based on ConsInstancy regularisation, a novel strategy for semi-supervised learning. It leverages completely unlabelled data by enforcing consistency between predicted instance representations and semantic segmentations during training in order to improve the segmentation performance. To this end, we also propose new types of instance representations that can be predicted by one simple forward path through a fully convolutional network (FCN), delivering a convenient and simple-to-train framework for panoptic segmentation. More specifically, we propose the prediction of a three-dimensional instance orientation map as intermediate representation and two complementary distance transform maps as final representation, providing unique instance representations for a panoptic segmentation. We test our method on two challenging data sets of both, hardened and fresh concrete, the latter being proposed by the authors in this paper demonstrating the effectiveness of our approach, outperforming the results achieved by state-of-the-art methods for semi-supervised segmentation. In particular, we are able to show that by leveraging completely unlabelled data in our semi-supervised approach the achieved overall accuracy (OA) is increased by up to 5% compared to an entirely supervised training using only labelled data. Furthermore, we exceed the OA achieved by state-of-the-art semi-supervised methods by up to 1.5%

Reflecting on future research concerning the added value of FM

Purpose: This paper aims to summarize recent research findings and reflections on The Added Value of Facilities Management (FM) and to outline perspectives for future research and development of the added value of FM. Design/methodology/approach: The article is based on reflections on contributions to the recently published book “The Added Value of Facilities Management” and related future studies, as well as further exploration of five main themes. Findings: Added value is expected to be central in the future development of FM, which is confirmed by recent foresight studies. There is a need for a better understanding of alignment between FM and core business, performance measurement methods and how models such as the FM Value Map can be of value to the involved stakeholders. Corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability and branding have great potential to add value and to elevate FM to become a strategic partner with corporate top management. Management of stakeholders’ perception of value and relationships are essential aspects as well and need further attention. Research limitations/implications: The article is based on the conclusions of several studies that aimed to explore items for further research, on the ideas of all co-authors of “The Added Value of Facilities Management” anthology and on further exploration of five main themes, and not on an extensive review of recommendations for further research to be found in a huge number of research reports. Practical implications: The findings and ideas for further research on the added value of FM deliver input to further professionalization of FM. Originality/value: This paper provides important input to the future research agenda on the added value of FM and sheds new light on five particular research topics

Investigations on the Effects of Different Calcium Supply Exceeding the Requirements on Mineral Serum Concentrations and Bone Metabolism in Young Warmblood Stallions

Since mineral supplements for horses commonly contain macro minerals, although the requirement for such is usually covered by roughage-based diets, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of different dietary calcium levels on mineral serum concentrations and bone metabolism. The trial was conducted in 30 young warmblood stallions (2–3 years) that were divided into two groups for a five-month feeding trial. The groups were fed a hay- and oat-based diet and were either supplied with high (Ca-High) or moderate (Ca-Moderate) calcium excess. While in Ca-High calcium supply was about 2–2.5-fold of the requirement, in Ca-Moderate calcium requirements were slightly surpassed (1.5–1.6-fold). In order to monitor the effects of the different calcium supply, blood samples were taken during the trial and analysed for levels of macro and trace elements as well as concentrations of two bone markers. In Ca-Moderate a trend towards higher phosphorus serum levels compared to Ca-High was observed which was significant at the end of the trial (p = 0.0002). Furthermore, results showed no influence of the diet on bone markers. Results support the idea that forage-based rations for horses do not necessarily have to be supplemented with macro minerals but with trace elements

Manufacturing of W/steel composites using electro-discharge sintering process

Tungsten-steel metal matrix composites are consolidated using electro-discharge sintering. At first steel and tungsten powders are sintered separately and then 25 vol% W, 50 vol% W and 75 vol% W mixed powders are sintered. A thorough process parametric study is carried out involving analysis of the influence of particle size distribution, sintering pressure, and discharge energy on the maximum discharge current and obtained residual porosity. Thermal expansion coefficient and the specific heat capacity of the optimized sintered composites are almost same as their theoretical values, however the thermal conductivities and the mechanical properties are lower than the expected values

Metabolism of no-carrier-added 2-[18F]fluoro-L-tyrosine in rats

Background: Several fluorine-18 labelled fluoroamino acids have been evaluated as tracers for the quantitative assessment of cerebral protein synthesis in vivo by positron emission tomography (PET). Among these, 2-[18F]fluoro-L-tyrosine (2-[18F]Tyr) has been studied in mice at a low specific activity. Its incorporation into proteins is fast and metabolism via other pathways is limited. The present in vivo study was carried out in normal awake rats using no-carrier-added 2-[18F]Tyr. Under normal physiological conditions, we have studied the incorporation into proteins and the metabolism of the tracer in different brain areas. Methods: No-carrier-added 2-[18F]Tyr was administered to awake rats equipped with chronic arterial and venous catheters. The time course of the plasma activity was studied by arterial blood sampling. The biodistribution of the activity in the main organs was studied at the end of the experiment. The distribution of radioactive species in plasma and brain regions was studied by acidic precipitation of the proteins and HPLC analysis of the supernatant. Results: The absolute uptake of radioactivity in brain regions was homogenous. In awake rats, nocarrier-added 2-[18F]Tyr exhibits a fast and almost quantitative incorporation into the proteins fractions of cerebellum and cortex. In striatum, this incorporation into proteins and the unchanged fraction of the tracer detected by HPLC could be lower than in other brain regions. Conclusion: This study confirms the potential of 2-[18F]fluoro-L-tyrosine as a tracer for the assessment of the rate of protein synthesis by positron emission tomography. The observed metabolism suggests a need for a correction for the appearance of metabolites, at least in plasma