bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Impacts of the cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement on the grouper fish markets in Taiwan and mainland China
Authors: Ahn Byeong-il , Liao Pei-An , Kim Hanho 
Published: November 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) on the grouper fish markets in Taiwan and mainland China.

Design/methodology/approach
– A stochastic simulation model is developed in such a way that the oligopoly or monopoly power of grouper fish exporters plays a role for having different impacts of the ECFA.

Findings
– Taiwan's grouper sector benefits considerably from the implementation of the ECFA tariff reductions. Export of the Taiwanese grouper fish to mainland China and the overall gross revenue of the Taiwanese grouper fish farmers are simulated to increase up to 4.04 and 4.54 percent, respectively, due to a 5 percent tariff reduction implemented by the ECFA. The authors further find that a larger degree of grouper fish exporters’ market power would result in the ECFA having a lesser impact on the Taiwanese and mainland Chinese grouper fish markets.

Practical implications
– The findings suggest that Taiwan and mainland China should further negotiate reduction in tariffs over other agricultural products and/or other product categories.

Originality/value
– This study is the first empirical analysis to examine how the grouper industries on the “Early Harvest List” have responded to the ECFA tariff reductions.
Strategy development by Indian SMEs for improving coordination in supply chain
Authors: Kumar Ravinder , K. Singh Rajesh , Shankar Ravi 
Published: November 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to study the strategy development by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for improving coordination in supply chain in Indian perspective. Globalization and liberalization of the world economy has leveled the field for all competitors around the globe. To face global competition successfully, SMEs have to break isolation of their suppliers and other entities in the supply chain.

Design/methodology/approach
– For collecting data, a question-based survey was conducted. In total, 251 valid responses were received. Statistical analysis of data acquired from survey is done by one sample t-test, correlation and regression analysis.

Findings
– Uncertainty of customer order/demand, insufficient knowledge of supply chain management (SCM) and involvement of middlemen in supply chain are the main problems faced by Indian SMEs during implementation of SCM. Quality improvements, delivery on time and cost reduction are the major priorities while forming supply chain strategies. Coordination strategies are positively correlated with business performances.

Research limitations/implications
– Major implication is that SMEs should develop their strategies effectively after analyzing business environment and future plans. While developing strategies for improving coordination in supply chain of SMEs, they should give due importance to problems and risks they face. However, it is felt that this study can be further explored by considering other aspects of strategy development such as human resource, organization culture, etc.

Originality/value
– Finding and issues of the paper will be highly useful for SMEs in framing their strategies for improving coordination in supply chain, and academia for further research in the context of changing market scenario.
Poker and gambling: a positive competitive game
Authors: Hillman Jordan , E. Block Walter 
Published: November 2014

Purpose
– In the present epoch, when the witch hunt for victimless criminals continues apace and even increases, it is all the more important to protect our liberties. One of the purposes of the present paper is to do so with regard to gambling.

Design/methodology/approach
– We use logical arguments (reductios ad absurdum) and empirical case studies to make the case that online or any other kind of gambling in general, and poker in particular, are justified uses of our freedoms.

Findings
– We find that although poker, whether online or in any other format is under attack by the powers that be, the case for such initiatives is a weak one.

Originality/value
– The value of this essay is to focus attention on yet another one of our liberties that is in grave danger of being obliterated.
Swift perspective shape matching algorithm based on Phong’s model for FPC stiffener bonding systems
Authors: Su Ye , Yutang Ye , Yu Xie , Maoli Yi , Jing Zhang , Ying Luo , Chunlei Du 
Published: November 2014

Purpose
– This paper aims to solve the issue of target positioning in auto stiffener bonder (ASB) systems for flexible printed circuits.

Design/methodology/approach
– The proposed approach uses Phong’s bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) model to simulate the reflection of light off a target in ASB systems to predict the current pose of the target based on image brightness, update the template, decrease the initial errors in the template and narrow down the search range.

Findings
– The experimental results indicate that the proposed approach can predict the inclination angle of the target with precision, presenting angle prediction errors of less than three degrees. Furthermore, with larger inclined angles, the overall matching errors were less than 1.5 pixels. Comparisons with the unmodified matching algorithm revealed that the proposed approach resulted in 65 per cent less calculation time for the algorithm and 14 per cent higher overall work efficiency in the ASB system.

Originality/value
– The edge-based perspective shape matching algorithm was modified using the Phong BRDF model and enhanced algorithm efficiency with the target pose prediction method while ensuring the precision and robustness of the system. The proposed approach has high potential value and can be expanded to recognition systems for objects with varying inclination angles and highly reflective surfaces.
Greedy immunization strategy in weighted scale-free networks
Authors: Liu Zhang-Hui , Chen Guo-Long , Wang Ning-Ning , Song Biao 
Published: November 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to present a new immunization strategy for effectively solving the control of the spread of the virus.

Design/methodology/approach
– Inspired by the idea of network partition, taking two optimization targets which are the scale of sub-network and the sum of the strengths of the sub-network's nodes into account at the same time, a new immunization strategy based on greedy algorithm in the scale-free network is presented. After specifying the number of nodes through the immunization, the network is divided into the scale of sub-network and the sum of the strength of the sub-network's nodes as small as possible.

Findings
– The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has the better performance than targeted immunization which is supposed to be highly efficient at present.

Originality/value
– This paper proposes a new immunization strategy based on greedy algorithm in the scale-free network for effectively solving the control of the spread of the virus.
FPGA-based hardware implementation of arctangent and arccosine functions for the inverse kinematics of robot manipulator
Authors: Kung Ying-Shieh , Wu Ming-Kuang , Linh Bui Thi and Hai , Jung Tz-Han , Lee Feng-Chi , Chen Wen-Chuan 
Published: November 2014

Purpose– The inverse kinematics in robot manipulator have to handle the arctangent and arccosine function. However, the two functions are complicated and need much computation time so that it is difficult to be realized in the typical processing system. The purpose of this paper is to solve this problem by using Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) to speed up the computation power.Design/methodology/approach– The Taylor series expansion method is firstly applied to transfer arctangent and arccosine function to a polynomial form. And Look-Up Table (LUT) is used to store the parameters of the polynomial form. Then the behavior of the computation algorithm is described by Very high-speed IC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) and a co-simulation using ModelSim and Simulink is applied to evaluate the correctness of the VHDL code.Findings– The computation time of arctangent and arccosine function using by FPGA need only 320 and 420 ns, respectively, and the accuracy is <0.01°.Practical implications– Fast computation in arctangent and arccosine function can speed up the motion response of the real robot system when it needs to perform the inverse kinematics function.Originality/value– This is the first time such to combine the Taylor series method and LUT method in the computation the arctangent and arccosine function as well as to implement it with FPGA.
Fuzzy visual detection for human-robot interaction
Authors: Shieh Ming-Yuan , Hsieh Chung-Yu , Hsieh Tsung-Min 
Published: November 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to propose a fast object detection algorithm based on structural light analysis, which aims to detect and recognize human gesture and pose and then to conclude the respective commands for human-robot interaction control.

Design/methodology/approach
– In this paper, the human poses are estimated and analyzed by the proposed scheme, and then the resultant data concluded by the fuzzy decision-making system are used to launch respective robotic motions. The RGB camera and the infrared light module aim to do distance estimation of a body or several bodies.

Findings
– The modules not only provide image perception but also objective skeleton detection. In which, a laser source in the infrared light module emits invisible infrared light which passes through a filter and is scattered into a semi-random but constant pattern of small dots which is projected onto the environment in front of the sensor. The reflected pattern is then detected by an infrared camera and analyzed for depth estimation. Since the depth of object is a key parameter for pose recognition, one can estimate the distance to each dot and then get depth information by calculation of distance between emitter and receiver.

Research limitations/implications
– Future work will consider to reduce the computation time for objective estimation and to tune parameters adaptively.

Practical implications
– The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed system.

Originality/value
– This paper achieves real-time human-robot interaction by visual detection based on structural light analysis.
A study of risk-adjusted stock selection models using genetic algorithms
Authors: Huang Chien-Feng , Hsieh Tsung-Nan , Rong Chang Bao , Chang Chih-Hsiang 
Published: November 2014

Purpose
– Stock selection has long been identified as a challenging task. This line of research is highly contingent upon reliable stock ranking for successful portfolio construction. The purpose of this paper is to employ the methods from computational intelligence (CI) to solve this problem more effectively.

Design/methodology/approach
– The authors develop a risk-adjusted strategy to improve upon the previous stock selection models by two main risk measures – downside risk and variation in returns. Moreover, the authors employ the genetic algorithm for optimization of model parameters and selection for input variables simultaneously.

Findings
– It is found that the proposed risk-adjusted methodology via maximum drawdown significantly outperforms the benchmark and improves the previous model in the performance of stock selection.

Research limitations/implications
– Future work considers an extensive study for the risk-adjusted model using other risk measures such as Value at Risk, Block Maxima, etc. The authors also intend to use financial data from other countries, if available, in order to assess if the method is generally applicable and robust across different environments.

Practical implications
– The authors expect this risk-adjusted model to advance the CI research for financial engineering and provide an promising solutions to stock selection in practice.

Originality/value
– The originality of this work is that maximum drawdown is being successfully incorporated into the CI-based stock selection model in which the model's effectiveness is validated with strong statistical evidence.
The impact of training on productivity: evidence from a panel of Italian firms
Authors: Colombo Emilio , Stanca Luca 
Published: November 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of training activity on labor productivity in a panel of Italian firms.

Design/methodology/approach
– The use of a large panel data of individual firms allows the author to properly account for the possible endogeneity of training activity and avoid aggregation biases typical in industry-level data.

Findings
– The paper finds that training has a positive and significant impact on productivity. While unobserved heterogeneity leads to overestimate the impact of training, failing to account for the endogeneity of training leads to underestimate its effects on productivity. Within occupational groups, training has large and significant effects for blue-collar workers, while the effects for executives and clerks are relatively small. Finally, using a measure of effective training intensity the paper finds that failing to account for training duration may lead to underestimate the effect of training on productivity.

Originality/value
– Our data set is unique in terms of size and coverage and overcomes several limitations of previous research using firm-level data. Moreover, besides estimating the overall effect of training on productivity, the paper allows to address some more specific questions. Does the effect of training depend on the type of worker being trained? What is the relevance of effective participation to training activity?
All-atom molecular-level computational analyses of polyurea/fused-silica interfacial decohesion caused by impinging tensile stress-waves
Authors: Grujicic M. , Yavari R. , Snipes J.S. , Ramaswami S. , Barsoum R.S. 
Published: November 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to address the problems of interaction of tensile stress-waves with polyurea/fused-silica and fused-silica/polyurea interfaces, and the potential for the accompanying interfacial decohesion.

Design/methodology/approach
– The problems are investigated using all-atom non-equilibrium molecular-dynamics methods and tools. Before these methods/tools are employed, previously determined material constitutive relations for polyurea and fused-silica are used, within an acoustic-impedance-matching procedure, to predict the outcome of the interactions of stress-waves with the material-interfaces in question. These predictions pertain solely to the stress-wave/interface interaction aspects resulting in the formation of transmitted and reflected stress- or release-waves, but do not contain any information regarding potential interfacial decohesion. Direct molecular-level simulations confirmed some of these predictions, but also provided direct evidence of the nature and the extent of interfacial decohesion. To properly model the initial state of interfacial cohesion and its degradation during stress-wave-loading, reactive forcefield potentials are utilized.

Findings
– Direct molecular-level simulations of the polyurea/fused-silica interfacial regions prior to loading revealed local changes in the bonding structure, suggesting the formation of an interphase. This interphase was subsequently found to greatly affect the polyurea/fused-silica decohesion strength.

Originality/value
– To the authors’ knowledge, the present work is the first public-domain report of the use of the non-equilibrium molecular dynamics and reactive force-field potentials to study the problem of interfacial decohesion caused by the interaction of tensile waves with material interfaces.
Computational analysis of gear-box roller-bearing white-etch cracking
Authors: Grujicic M. , Chenna V. , Galgalikar R. , Snipes J.S. , Ramaswami S. , Yavari R. 
Published: November 2014

Purpose
– A simple economic analysis has revealed that in order for wind energy to be a viable alternative, wind-turbines (convertors of wind energy into electrical energy) must be able to operate for at least 20 years, with only regular maintenance. However, wind-turbines built nowadays do not generally possess this level of reliability and durability. Specifically, due to the malfunction and failure of drive-trains/gear-boxes, many wind-turbines require major repairs after only three to five years in service. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach
– The subject of the present work is the so-called white etch cracking, one of the key processes responsible for the premature failure of gear-box roller-bearings. To address this problem, a multi-physics computational methodology is developed and used to analyze the problem of wind-turbine gear-box roller-bearing premature-failure. The main components of the proposed methodology include the analyses of: first, hydrogen dissolution and the accompanying grain-boundary embrittlement phenomena; second, hydrogen diffusion from the crack-wake into the adjacent unfractured material; third, the inter-granular fracture processes; and fourth, the kinematic and structural response of the bearing under service-loading conditions.

Findings
– The results obtained clearly revealed the operation of the white-etch cracking phenomenon in wind-turbine gear-box roller-bearings and its dependence on the attendant loading and environmental conditions.

Originality/value
– The present work attempts to make a contribution to the resolution of an important problem related to premature-failure and inferior reliability of wind-turbine gearboxes.
English as gatekeeper: linguistic capital and American schools
Authors: Tosky King Elena , M. Scott Lakia 
Published: November 2014

Purpose
– This paper aims to progress the dialogue on language rights in the urban classroom. Research has evidenced how language can serve as a powerful tool in mainstream ideologies; more specifically, the preferred and dominant use of Standard Written English in the American classroom has demonstrated how language serves as a gatekeeper for student success. This paper calls for a more democratic notion of language usage that denies the “gatekeeper” of English into specific educational tracks.

Design/methodology/approach
– By framing the issue of linguistic diversity through a theoretical analysis of cultural reproduction theory, this paper demonstrates how language serves as a bridge in building and negotiating cultural identities for students. In addition, an examination of how language serves as a stratification tool in educational contexts provides credence for reform initiatives.

Findings
– In the field of linguistics, the shift in verbal and language repertoires has provided a new paradigm for rethinking what constitutes as an acceptable and innovative language use. However, structures such as schools have remained static in their vision of linguistic success in the classroom, assessing students’ language abilities in the specifics of standard written English.

Originality/value
– This analysis encourages recommendations for examining current curriculum with regards to the promotion of language diversity, encouragement for teachers to reexamine their individual perceptions about language difference and the realignment of assessment and academic measurement tools to better accommodate students with linguistically diverse backgrounds.
SEC issues guidance update regarding enhanced mutual fund disclosure
Authors: Pugliese Domenick , Rosella Michael , Hearth David 
Published: November 2014

Purpose
– To explain a guidance update recently issued by the USA Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Division of Investment Management that furthers the SEC’s goal of clear and concise, user-friendly disclosure by focusing on certain specified requirements of Form N-1A and the rules under the Securities Act of 1933.

Design/methodology/approach
– Discusses five areas where the SEC staff had been providing significant numbers of comments related to mutual fund disclosure after the adoption of the amendments to Form N-1A in 2009 by summarizing the applicable instructions of Form N1-A and/or rule and the SEC staff’s observations with respect to such instruction or rule.

Findings
– Funds should ensure that during their next annual update they review their prospectus disclosure in light of this guidance update and make necessary changes so that the disclosure is clear and concise and not overly technical.

Originality/value
– A concise summary of the SEC’s guidance update from experienced investment management lawyers.
FINRA fines broker-dealer for failing to apply Class A sales charge waivers for certain eligible customers on its mutual fund platform
Authors: F. Kerr Richard 
Published: November 2014

Purpose
– To review FINRA enforcement action taken against a broker-dealer over failure to waive mutual fund sales charges for certain eligible customers and failure to establish, maintain, and enforce a supervisory system and written procedures reasonably designed to ensure eligible accounts received sales charge waivers as set forth in the mutual funds’ prospectuses.

Design/methodology/approach
– Reviews and summarizes FINRA’s finding’s regarding the broker-dealer’s failure to apply applicable mutual fund sales charge waivers, deficiencies in the broker-dealer’s supervisory system and written procedures resulting in the failure, resulting violations of FINRA rules, the broker-dealer’s remedial efforts, and the sanctions imposed.

Findings
– This settlement provides an important reminder for FINRA member broker-dealers of the need to ensure that eligible investors receive applicable sales charger waivers or are placed in the appropriate share class, and to establish, maintain, and enforce a supervisory system and written procedures reasonably designed to ensure eligible accounts received sales charge waivers as set forth in the mutual funds’ prospectuses.

Originality/value
– Practical explanation from experienced financial institutions lawyers.
Publishing student scholarship: exploring the ETD initiative at a medium-sized institution
Authors: Wang Xiaocan (Lucy) , Bulick Natalie , Muyumba Valentine 
Published: November 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to describe the Electronic Theses and Dissertations program implemented and managed by the Indiana State University since 2009. The paper illustrates issues relating to the background, policies, platform, workflow and cataloging, as well as the publication and preservation of graduate scholarship.

Design/methodology/approach
– The authors examined many aspects of the Electronic Theses and Dissertations program and addressed issues dealt before, during and after the publication of the electronic theses and dissertations collection. The approaches the authors utilized are literature review and personal management experience from working on the program.

Findings
– Implementing an Electronic Theses and Dissertations program involves providing a series of management services. These services include developing relevant policies, implementing an archiving and publication platform and creating submission and publishing workflows, as well as cataloging, disseminating and preserving the student collection. Openly publishing the collection through a range of access points significantly increases its visibility and accessibility. Adopting several archival and preservation strategies ensures the long-term readiness of the collection.

Originality/value
– This paper will provide useful practices for implementing an ETD program to those institutions new to the ETD initiative process. It also contributes to the current body of literature and to the overall improvement of ETD programs globally.