Genetic clustering and parentage analysis of Western Balkan grapevines (Vitis vinifera L.)

A total of 90 grapevine samples collected in five countries of the Western Balkan region were evaluated for trueness-to-type and kinship relations based on comparative analysis with 1,130 grapevine genotypes held at the INRA "Domaine de Vassal" French Grape Germplasm Repository, using 14 microsatellite markers. In the context of the comparative analysis, twenty-four synonyms/counterparts and the putative parents for twelve Balkan accessions were identified. We discovered five pairs of homonyms, subsequently confirming the identity or parentage of three of them. Some of the examined accessions were identified either on the basis of the genotypes found in the literature, or through parentage relationships revealed in this study. For the remaining fifty accessions we were unable to establish either their pedigree or to identify them on the basis of SSR profiles available elsewhere. Finally, the Balkan genotypes that were not well classified by synonymy or parentage analysis were further studied with a Principal Coordinate Analysis to reveal genetic clustering within larger datasets of genotypes. The graphical display of the individual and group distances showed that about forty accessions (85 %) are structured within a group of Balkan and Eastern Europe genotypes and only a minor proportion resulted in admixed population assignment

HELIOSEISMOLOGY OF PRE-EMERGING ACTIVE REGIONS. I. OVERVIEW, DATA, AND TARGET SELECTION CRITERIA

ABSTRACT This first paper in a series describes the design of a study testing whether pre-appearance signatures of solar magnetic active regions were detectable using various tools of local helioseismology. The ultimate goal is to understand fluxemergence mechanisms by setting observational constraints on pre-appearance subsurface changes, for comparison with results from simulation efforts. This first paper provides details of the data selection and preparation of the samples, each containing over 100 members, of two populations: regions on the Sun that produced a numbered NOAA active region, and a "control" sample of areas that did not. The seismology is performed on data from the GONG network; accompanying magnetic data from SOHO/MDI are used for co-temporal analysis of the surface magnetic field. Samples are drawn from [2001][2002][2003][2004][2005][2006][2007], and each target is analyzed for 27.7 hr prior to an objectively determined time of emergence. The results of two analysis approaches are published separately: one based on averages of the seismology-and magnetic-derived signals over the samples, another based on Discriminant Analysis of these signals, for a statistical test of detectable differences between the two populations. We include here descriptions of a new potential-field calculation approach and the algorithm for matching sample distributions over multiple variables. We describe known sources of bias and the approaches used to mitigate them. We also describe unexpected bias sources uncovered during the course of the study and include a discussion of refinements that should be included in future work on this topic

Augmented Reality: What Motivates Late Millennials towards Fashion Mobile Apps?

Generation Z is expected to be a dominant demographic and economic group. Cyber-waviness, constant reliance on smart devices that allows them to be always connected are among some of their intrinsic characteristics. The combination of this reality with the ever-changing technological environment is compelling retailers to reshape their business strategies, to meet this group desires and expectations and to foster their engagement. Augmented reality (AR) is emerging as a technological solution that pleases both consumers and retailers. This paper aims to answer two main questions: (1) How does generation Z evaluate an AR experience? (2) Which attributes/benefits do they value or not during an AR experience? Drawing on a qualitative methodology – content analysis of 34 interviewees – we discuss six main dimensions the potential customer value of the relationship between them and AR experiences under retailer context.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Optimizing non-pharmaceutical intervention strategies against COVID-19 using artificial intelligence

One key task in the early fight against the COVID-19 pandemic was to plan non-pharmaceutical interventions to reduce the spread of the infection while limiting the burden on the society and economy. With more data on the pandemic being generated, it became possible to model both the infection trends and intervention costs, transforming the creation of an intervention plan into a computational optimization problem. This paper proposes a framework developed to help policy-makers plan the best combination of non-pharmaceutical interventions and to change them over time. We developed a hybrid machine-learning epidemiological model to forecast the infection trends, aggregated the socio-economic costs from the literature and expert knowledge, and used a multi-objective optimization algorithm to find and evaluate various intervention plans. The framework is modular and easily adjustable to a real-world situation, it is trained and tested on data collected from almost all countries in the world, and its proposed intervention plans generally outperform those used in real life in terms of both the number of infections and intervention costs

Augmenting the Eye of the Beholder: Exploring the Strategic Potential of Augmented Reality to Enhance Online Service Experiences

Driven by the proliferation of augmented reality (AR) technologies, many firms are pursuing a strategy of service augmentation to enhance customers’ online service experiences. Drawing on situated cognition theory, the authors show that AR - based service augmentation enhances customer value perceptions by simultaneously providing simulated physical control and environmental embedding. The resulting authentic situated experience, manifested in a feeling of spatial presence, funct ions as a mediator and also predicts customer decision comfort. Furthermore, the effect of spatial presence on utilitarian value perceptions is greater for customers who are disposed toward verbal rather than visual information processing, and the positive effect on decision comfort is attenuated by customers’ privacy concerns

Specifying the design for customer learning in the mixed reality experience

Peer reviewe

Technological Innovations Transforming the Consumer Retail Experience: A Review of Literature

Technological advancements are largely responsible for the intensified competiveness within the industry and the shift in consumers shopping and buying behavior. Global trends such as mobile devices and social media have led to a revolutionary change that has driven the drastic decline in traditional ‘brick and mortar’ footfall, leading to the unfortunate failure of long-standing retailers that once dominated our high streets. Despite survival to date, current retail firms remain with high pressure to change strategy to connect with the digital natives of today. The integration of online and physical worlds must focus on promoting the experiential benefits that the in-store environment provides by integrating emergent technologies into the entire retail process. The following paper provides an insight into current technological innovations that are transforming the consumer experience in a myriad of ways. Then, recommendations for practitioners regarding strategic implementation of future Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies are presented, followed by an overview of future implications of said technologies

Seeing eye to eye: social augmented reality and shared decision making in the marketplace

Firms increasingly seek to improve the online shopping experience by enabling customers to exchange product recommendations through social augmented reality (AR). We utilize socially situated cognition theory and conduct a series of five studies to explore how social AR supports shared decision making in recommender–decision maker dyads. We demonstrate that optimal configurations of social AR, that is, a static (vs. dynamic) point-of-view sharing format matched with an image-enhanced (vs. text-only) communicative act, increase recommenders’ comfort with providing advice and decision makers’ likelihood of using the advice in their choice. For both, these effects are due to a sense of social empowerment, which also stimulates recommenders’ desire for a product and positive behavioral intentions. However, recommenders’ communication motives impose boundary conditions. When recommenders have strong impression management concerns, this weakens the effect of social empowerment on recommendation comfort. Furthermore, the stronger a recommender’s persuasion goal, the less likely the decision maker is to use the recommendation in their choice

Modulation Schemes for Wireless Access

Four modulation schemes, namely minimum shift keying (MSK), Gaussian minimum shift keying (GMSK), multiamplitude minimum shift keying (MAMSK) and π/4 differential quadrature phase shift keying (π/4-QPSK) are described and their applicability to wireless access is discussed in the paper. Low complexity receiver structures based on differential detection are analysed to estimate the performance of the modulation schemes in the additive Gaussian noise and the Rayleigh and Rice envelope fast fading channel. The bandwidth efficiency is calculated to evaluate the modulation schemes. The results show that the MAMSK scheme gives the greatest bandwidth efficiency, but its performance in the Rayleigh channel is rather poor. In contrast, the MSK scheme is less bandwidth efficient, but it is more resistant to Rayleigh fading. The performance of π/4-QPSK signal is considerably improved by appropriate prefiltering