Identification of Measures of Effectiveness (MOEs) for developing Pedestrian Level of Service (PLOS): A Theoretical Approach using Expert Opinion on a Fuzzy Likert (FL) Scale

A wide range of literature is available about assessing Pedestrian Level of Service (PLOS), which use different approaches and different Measures of Effectiveness (MOEs) — or attributes — to characterise the PLOS models. In recent years, there has been a growing consensus of capturing three different constructs in the PLOS model — flow characteristics of the pedestrian traffic, the built walking environment and the user\u27s perception. Existing PLOS literature has been capturing these broad constructs, but not in a combined fashion. This paper explores the MOEs responsible for developing such a PLOS and records expert opinion surveys on a Fuzzy-Likert (FL) scale. Three established rating data techniques —TOPSIS, RIDIT are GRA are then utilised to get a ranking of the MOEs that could be further used to develop the said PLOS model. It is seen from these rankings that of the top 10 MOEs preferred by the experts, nine belong to the broad construct categories of design (built walking environment) and the user\u27s perception, and only one belongs to the broad construct of flow characteristics. This result reinforces the fact that the PLOS has to be created using all the three broad constructs and not separately — or in pairs — as had been done so far. This study also deals with the effectiveness of using an FL scale compared to a Likert scale as a response measurement tool and found that an FL scale is 13.08% more accurate than a Likert scale in measuring ordinal responses

Production of He-4 and (4) in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S=2.76 TeV at the LHC

Results on the production of He-4 and (4) nuclei in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S = 2.76 TeV in the rapidity range vertical bar y vertical bar <1, using the ALICE detector, are presented in this paper. The rapidity densities corresponding to 0-10% central events are found to be dN/dy4(He) = (0.8 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.3 (syst)) x 10(-6) and dN/dy4 = (1.1 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.2 (syst)) x 10(-6), respectively. This is in agreement with the statistical thermal model expectation assuming the same chemical freeze-out temperature (T-chem = 156 MeV) as for light hadrons. The measured ratio of (4)/He-4 is 1.4 +/- 0.8 (stat) +/- 0.5 (syst). (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

Role of adenines in stabilization and exchange kinetics of cations in quadruplex DNA probed by hydrogen-1 and sodium-23 NMR

Cations play a very important role in structural stabilization of various unusual DNA structures. Quadruplexes are a class of unusual DNA structures which are formed by number of single stranded DNA molecules associating by Hoogsteen base pairing. These structures are rich in guanines and there is strong evidence to support that they are formed at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. G-quadruplex structures are intimately related to the monovalent cations like sodium and potassium, which are physiologically abundant. The role of these monovalent cations and the effect of substituting terminal thymines with adenines was investigated by multinuclear NMR. The role of terminal thymines in G-quadruplex structure has been established before, but the substitution of thymines and adenines has been dealt here for the first time. The exchange kinetics of cation e.g. 23Na+ from the quadruplex core is determined by the terminal nucleotides present in the oligonucleotide sequence. The sequences d(AAGGGGA), d(AGGGGA) and d(AAGGGGAA) were used to investigate the exchange kinetics of cations from the quadruplex core. Cations bind to the quadruplex structures in namely two ways, weak electrostatic binding and specific binding inside. The flanking adenines slow down the exchange kinetics of the cations from the quadruplex core

Patent Price Dynamics in the Context of Patent Age and Patent Latent Variables

The decision to patent a technology is a difficult one to make for the top management of any organization. The expected value that the patent might deliver in the market is an important factor that impacts this judgement. Earlier researchers have suggested that patent prices are better indicators of value of a patent and that auction prices are the best way of determining value. However, the lack of public data on pricing has prevented research on understanding the dynamics of patent pricing. Our paper uses singleton patent auction price data of Ocean Tomo LLC to study the prices of patents. We describe price characteristics of these patents. The price of these patents was correlated with their age, and a significant correlation was found. A price - age matrix was developed and we describe the price characteristics of patents using four quadrants of the matrix, namely young and old patents with low and high prices. We also found that patents owned by small firms get transacted more often and inventor owned patents attracted a better price than assignee owned patents

Comparison of North American universities with and without medical schools and their technology transfer initiatives

Empirical research available on technology transfer initiatives is either North American or European. Literature over the last two decades shows various research objectives such as identifying the variables to be measured and statistical methods to be used in the context of studying university based technology transfer initiatives. AUTM survey data from years 1996 to 2008 provides insightful patterns about the North American technology transfer initiatives, we use this data in our paper. This paper has three sections namely, a comparison of North American Universities with (n=1129) and without Medical Schools (n=786), an analysis of the top 75th percentile of these samples and a DEA analysis of these samples. We use 20 variables. Researchers have attempted to classify university based technology transfer initiative variables into multi-stages, namely, disclosures, patents and license agreements. Using the same approach, however with minor variations, three stages are defined in this paper. The first stage is to do with inputs from R&D expenditure and outputs namely, invention disclosures. The second stage is to do with invention disclosures being the input and patents issued being the output. The third stage is to do with patents issued as an input and technology transfers as outcomes

Effect of Firm Variables on Patent Price

AbstractIn this study, using singleton patent auction price data from Ocean Tomo, LLC, we analyse the effect of firm variables on patent price. Patents owned by small firms attract higher price than patents owned by large firms, if they engage in multi-country filings. The patents owned by small firms get cited more than the patents owned by large firms. The patents owned by individual inventors attract a higher price than the patents owned by organisations when multi-country filings are not included. We believe that the lack of resources is preventing individual inventors from engaging in multi-country filings and maximising the revenue from their invention. A larger representative data should be used to replicate the results before generalising it

Dynamics between patent latent variables and patent price

This paper focuses on studying the relationship between patent latent variables and patent price. From the existing literature, seven patent latent variables, namely age, generality, originality, foreign filings, technology field, forward citations, and backward citations were identified as having an influence on patent value. We used Ocean Tomo's patent auction price data in this study. We transformed the price and the predictor variables (excluding the dummy variables) to its logarithmic value. The OLS estimates revealed that forward citations and foreign filings were positively correlated to price. Both the variables jointly explained 14.79% of the variance in patent pricing. We did not find sufficient evidence to come up with any definite conclusions on the relationship between price and the variables such as age, technology field, generality, backward citations and originality. The Heckman two-stage sample selection model was used to test for selection bias. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Glucogallin Attenuates RAW 264.7 Cells from Arsenic Trioxide Induced Toxicity via the NF-&#1185;B/NLRP3 Pathway

Chronic arsenic (As) poisoning is mostly due to subsoil water contaminated with As and its salts. Exposure to As has been found to cause an elevation in reactive oxygen species (ROS), leading to the damage of DNA and proteins, and it also causes immunotoxicity. Treatment regimens are primarily based on chelation therapy and amino acid and vitamin supplementations. Recent studies have established that natural products display effective and progressive relief from arsenicosis without any side effects. &beta;-glucogallin (BGG), a gallo-tannin natural product, is reported to possess anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. In the present study, we aim to observe the protective role of BGG against As-induced cytotoxicity, apoptosis, mitochondrial dysfunction, and the underlying mechanisms in RAW 264.7 macrophage cells. We found that BGG alleviates As-induced ROS, apoptosis, and mitochondrial dysfunction in RAW 264.7 macrophage cells. Thus, BGG can be used therapeutically to prevent As-induced toxicity