786 research outputs found
Estimates of body sizes at maturation and at sex change, and the spawning seasonality and sex ratio of the endemic Hawaiian grouper (Hyporthodus quernus, F. Epinephelidae)
A case study of the reproductive biology of the endemic Hawaiian grouper or hapuâupuâu (Hyporthodus quernus) is presented as a model for comprehensive future studies of
economically important epinephelid groupers. Specimens were collected throughout multiple years (1978â81, 1992â93, and 2005â08) from most reefs and banks of the Northwestern
Hawaiian Islands. The absence of small males, presence of atretic oocytes and brown bodies in testes of mature males, and both developed ovarian and testicular tissues in the gonads of five transitional fish provided evidence of protogynous hermaphroditism. No small mature males were collected, indicating that Hawaiian grouper are monandrous
(all males are sex-changed females). Complementary microscopic criteria also were used to assign reproductive
stage and estimate median body sizes (L50) at female sexual maturity and at adult sex change from female to male. The L50 at maturation and at sex change was 580 ±8 (95% confidence interval [CI]) mm total length (TL) and 895 ±20 mm TL, respectively. The adult sex ratio was strongly female
biased (6:1). Spawning seasonality was described by using gonadosomatic indices. Females began ripening in the fall and remained ripe through April. A FebruaryâJune main spawning period that followed peak ripening was deduced from the proportion of females whose ovaries contained hydrated oocytes, postovulatory follicles, or both. Testes
weights were not affected by season; average testes weight was only about 0.2% of body weightâan order of magnitude smaller than that for ovaries that peaked at 1â3% of body
weight. The speciesâ reproductive life history is discussed in relation to its management
Digitalization technologies for industrial sustainability
Digital technologies are shown to perform a potential role in developing a resource efficient industrial base. The effective adoption of them can help to deliver reduced costs and improve the flexibility and sustainability of manufacturing systems. However, these positive benefits are far from guaranteed and the way in which digital technologies favor the transition towards sustainable manufacturing systems has not been analyzed in detail yet, so more conceptual and empirical investigations are required in this field. This paper develops a conceptual framework, which explains the potential significance of using digital technologies toward efficiency, resilience and sustainability. It also includes evidence from various case studies, which illustrate the core technologies which can potentiality contribute to a sustainable industrial future. The findings show some impressive results concerning the sustainable implications of the digitalization of manufacturing processes. If the predicted benefits can be achieved through digital technologies, they could massively impact on sustainability. \ua9 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V
Les PME et lâaccĂšs aux marchĂ©s de capitaux en France : un Ă©tat des lieux.
Lâimportance des «petites et moyennes valeurs» sâest renforcĂ©e de maniĂšre significative au cours du dernier cycle boursier. Des initiatives se poursuivent pour renforcer lâadaptation du cadre rĂ©glementaire Ă cette population trĂšs spĂ©cifique.PME, petites et moyennes valeurs, Eurolist, Alternext, Plan dâaction des services financiers, AMF, introduction en bourse, liquiditĂ©, information financiĂšre.
CrowdCO-OP : sharing risks and rewards in crowdsourcing
Paid micro-task crowdsourcing has gained in popularity partly due to the increasing need for large-scale manually labelled datasets which are often used to train and evaluate Artificial Intelligence systems. Modern paid crowdsourcing platforms use a piecework approach to rewards, meaning that workers are paid for each task they complete, given that their work quality is considered sufficient by the requester or the platform. Such an approach creates risks for workers; their work may be rejected without being rewarded, and they may be working on poorly rewarded tasks, in light of the disproportionate time required to complete them. As a result, recent research has shown that crowd workers may tend to choose specific, simple, and familiar tasks and avoid new requesters to manage these risks. In this paper, we propose a novel crowdsourcing reward mechanism that allows workers to share these risks and achieve a standardized hourly wage equal for all participating workers. Reward-focused workers can thereby take up challenging and complex HITs without bearing the financial risk of not being rewarded for completed work. We experimentally compare different crowd reward schemes and observe their impact on worker performance and satisfaction. Our results show that 1) workers clearly perceive the benefits of the proposed reward scheme, 2) work effectiveness and efficiency are not impacted as compared to those of the piecework scheme, and 3) the presence of slow workers is limited and does not disrupt the proposed cooperation-based approaches
Towards building a standard dataset for Arabic keyphrase extraction evaluation
Keyphrases are short phrases that best
represent a document content. They can be useful
in a variety of applications, including document
summarization and retrieval models. In this paper,
we introduce the first dataset of keyphrases for an
Arabic document collection, obtained by means of
crowdsourcing. We experimentally evaluate different
crowdsourced answer aggregation strategies and
validate their performances against expert annotations
to evaluate the quality of our dataset. We
report about our experimental results, the dataset
features
Food industry digitalization: from challenges and trends to opportunities and solutions
Over the last years, manufacturing companies have to face several challenges, mainly related to the volatility of the demand and to the continuously changing requirements, both from the customers and suppliers. In the meantime, new technological roadmaps and suggested interventions in manufacturing systems have been implemented. These solutions aim to exploit the high innovation and economic potential resulting from the continuing impact of rapidly advancing information and communication technology (ICT) in industry. This paper explores these topics focusing on the food sector. Indeed, companies belonging to this industry are facing global challenges, which can be met with the support of the information technologies (IT). The overall goal of this study is to help food companies toward digitalization, with a particular focus on the design and manufacturing processes. From the methodological point of view, Case Study has been used as research method. Furthermore, a questionnaire characterized by the different elements of the Manufacturing Value Modelling Methodology (MVMM) has been developed and used to gather information from companies. A framework for the digitalization process in the food industry has been developed basing on the results of a preliminary literature review and of different focus groups. On completion of the aforementioned framework, a list of enabling technologies has been discussed. These represent the technological solutions for the specific food issues highlighted by the framework. Finally, a case study has been accomplished in order to test and validate the contents\u2019 framework
Exploiting semantics for constructing and comparing occupational and educational-driven qualifications: the TIPTOE project
In recent years, mobility of students and workers started to be considered as a way for answering skill shortages in the European labor world. However, in order to implement eïŹective mobility practices, suitable instruments supporting transparency and readability of the outcomes of learning processes as well as of the needs of companies and employers in general have to be developed. In fact, though some instruments have been introduced (like, for instance, the European QualiïŹcation Framework, EQF, the European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training, ECVET, etc.), they are often seen as theoretical tools rather than a practical help for involved stakeholders. In this work, the results of the TIPTOE project, a transnational initiative funded by the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme are illustrated. In particular, the semantic-based methodology for the construction of a European-wide proïŹle mixing education and labor worlds perspectives in the trade sector is discussed. Furthermore, a number of tools allowing end-users to compare owned qualiïŹcations to the reference one and supporting stakeholders in the reading of national educational and occupational proïŹles in the EQF dimension are presented
Food industry digitalization: from challenges and trends to opportunities and solutions
Over the last years, manufacturing companies have to face several challenges, mainly related to the volatility of the demand and to the continuously changing requirements, both from the customers and suppliers. In the meantime, new technological roadmaps and suggested interventions in manufacturing systems have been implemented. These solutions aim to exploit the high innovation and economic potential resulting from the continuing impact of rapidly advancing information and communication technology (ICT) in industry. This paper explores these topics focusing on the food sector. Indeed, companies belonging to this industry are facing global challenges, which can be met with the support of the information technologies (IT). The overall goal of this study is to help food companies toward digitalization, with a particular focus on the design and manufacturing processes. From the methodological point of view, Case Study has been used as research method. Furthermore, a questionnaire characterized by the different elements of the Manufacturing Value Modelling Methodology (MVMM) has been developed and used to gather information from companies. A framework for the digitalization process in the food industry has been developed basing on the results of a preliminary literature review and of different focus groups. On completion of the aforementioned framework, a list of enabling technologies has been discussed. These represent the technological solutions for the specific food issues highlighted by the framework. Finally, a case study has been accomplished in order to test and validate the contents' framework. (C) 2018, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Universal quantum Controlled-NOT gate
An investigation of an optimal universal unitary Controlled-NOT gate that
performs a specific operation on two unknown states of qubits taken from a
great circle of the Bloch sphere is presented. The deep analogy between the
optimal universal C-NOT gate and the `equatorial' quantum cloning machine (QCM)
is shown. In addition, possible applications of the universal C-NOT gate are
briefly discussed.Comment: 18 reference
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