pinecone/core-2020-05-10-deduplication huggingface dataset:
ITSDM: A methodology for IT services design

The main international Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) process frameworks such as ITIL V3 and the ISO/IEC 20000-4, includes a service design process as part of their mandatory set of processes. Nevertheless, even with such availability of processes, their used nomenclature, their phase-activity structure, and their granularity level used for their descriptions, are non-standardized. Consequently ITSM academics are faced with a useful but disparate and diffused literature, and ITSM professionals lack of a suitable step-by-step service design methodologies. In this chapter, we present ITSDM (Information Technology Service Design Methodology), which is elaborated on best practices suggested in ISO/IEC 20000-4 and ITIL v3 design process-es with the aim to provide a step-by-step guideline with phases, activities, tasks, roles, controls and input-output artifacts. We illustrate its utilization with a real IT service (Cloud Storage service) that is ready operational in a German Higher Education Institution.  We found that ITSDM provided qualitative benefits such as: ease of use, usefulness, compatibility and value. However, given the novelty of this methodology, we encourage for further empirical studies for providing more definitive results
Stability of Liquid Bridges between Equal Disks in an Axial Gravity Field

The stability of axisymmetric liquid bridges spanning two equal-diameter solid disks subjected to an axial gravity field of arbitrary intensity is analyzed for all possible liquid volumes. The boundary of the stability region for axisymmetric shapes (considering both axisymmetric and nonaxisymmetric perturbations) have been calculated. It is found that, for sufficiently small Bond numbers, three different unstable modes can appear. If the volume of liquid is decreased from that of an initially stable axisymmetric configuration the bridge either develops an axisymmetric instability (breaking in two drops as already known) or detaches its interface from the disk edges (if the length is smaller than a critical value depending on contact angle), whereas if the volume is increased the unstable mode consists of a nonaxisymmetric deformation. This kind of nonaxisymmetric deformation can also appear by decreasing the volume if the Bond number is large enough. A comparison with other previous partial theoretical analyses is presented, as well as with available experimental results
Collision-free inverse kinematics of the redundant seven-link manipulator used in a cucumber picking robot

The paper presents results of research on an inverse kinematics algorithm that has been used in a functional model of a cucumber-harvesting robot consisting of a redundant P6R manipulator. Within a first generic approach, the inverse kinematics problem was reformulated as a non-linear programming problem and solved with a Genetic Algorithm (GA). Although solutions were easily obtained, the considerable calculation time needed to solve the problem prevented on-line implementation. To circumvent this problem, a second, less generic, approach was developed which consisted of a mixed numerical-analytic solution of the inverse kinematics problem exploiting the particular structure of the P6R manipulator. Using the latter approach, calculation time was considerably reduced. During the early stages of the cucumber-harvesting project, this inverse kinematics algorithm was used off-line to evaluate the ability of the robot to harvest cucumbers using 3D-information obtained from a cucumber crop in a real greenhouse. Thereafter, the algorithm was employed successfully in a functional model of the cucumber harvester to determine if cucumbers were hanging within the reachable workspace of the robot and to determine a collision-free harvest posture to be used for motion control of the manipulator during harvesting. The inverse kinematics algorithm is presented and demonstrated with some illustrative examples of cucumber harvesting, both off-line during the design phase as well as on-line during a field test
The initiation of rotational motion of a lying object caused by wind gusts

In this paper, the initiation of motion of an object lying on a horizontal floor due to the aerodynamic force produced by a time-dependent wind is considered. It is assumed in this paper that when the aerodynamic force is large enough, the body starts to rotate around the most rearward supporting contact point, or pivoting point. This motion is analyzed by studying the dynamics of the rotation of the body around a pivoting point fixed to the floor, and placed in a gravity field under time-dependent aerodynamic loads produced by a non-steady incoming flow. This rotation initiation phase, which is relevant in the case of a time-varying gusty flow, is an intermediate phase between the two stages generally considered, namely, the initial static equilibrium without motion, and the final flight. In this intermediate phase, which is studied here, the rotational dynamics of the body should be taken into account and the gust characteristics as well, in order to determine whether once initiated the motion it leads to either a frustrated motion or to a successful one. A non-linear mathematical model has been developed, and a linear approximation is deduced, which allows us to obtain the condition for a successful flight. This condition shows two limits, valid for either long or short duration gusts, respectively. Some experiments have been performed in a gust wind tunnel, and results show a satisfactory agreement. To take into account the intrinsic random character of the phenomena in practical situations, expressions for the probability of exceeding the condition for successful flight under short duration gusts are obtained, assuming common probability density functions for the random parameters involved
Si and SixGe1-x NWs studied by Raman spectroscopy

Group IV nanostructures have attracted a great deal of attention because of their potential applications in optoelectronics and nanodevices. Raman spectroscopy has been extensively used to characterize nanostructures since it provides non destructive information about their size, by the adequate modeling of the phonon confinement effect. The Raman spectrum is also sensitive to other factors, as stress and temperature, which can mix with the size effects borrowing the interpretation of the Raman spectrum. We present herein an analysis of the Raman spectra obtained for Si and SiGe nanowires; the influence of the excitation conditions and the heat dissipation media are discussed in order to optimize the experimental conditions for reliable spectra acquisition and interpretation
Semantic Reference Model in Medical Time Series

The analysis of time series databases is very important in the area of medicine. Most of the approaches that address this problem are based on numerical algorithms that calculate distances, clusters, index trees, etc. However, a domain-dependent analyis sometimes needs to be conducted to search for the symblic rather than numerical characteristics of the time series. This paper focuses on our work on the discovery of reference models in time series of isokinetics data and a technique that transforms the numerical time series into symblic series. We briefly describe the algorithm used to create reference models for population groups an its application in the real world. Then, we describe a method based on extracting semantic information from a numerical series. This symbolic information helps users to effciently analyze and compare time series in the same or similar way as a domain expert would
Public support for the deployment of next generation access networks-Common themes, methodological caveats and further research

Next generation telecommunications infrastructures are considered as a principal example of a new technology for sustainable economic growth. From their deployment it is expected that a wealth of innovations – hopefully converted into economic growth – new sources of employment and improved quality of life will result. In line with these prospects, public administrations at supranational, national, regional and local levels have encouraged the development of these new infrastructures. Moreover, in times of economic crisis, public assistance to deploy such networks encompasses the promise of placing a weak economy on the road to prosperity. However, such arguments and political claims clearly require rigorous assessment. In particular, any such assessment must adequately address the appropriate form of modelling that best captures key elements for identifiable progress from next generation access networks (NGAN)
Review of the Performance of Residential PV systems in Belgium

The main objective of this paper is to review the state of the art of residential PV systems in Belgium by the analysis of the operational data of 993 installations. For that, three main questions are posed: how much energy do they produce? What level of performance is associated to their production? Which are the key parameters that most influence their quality? This work brings answers to these questions. A middling commercial PV system, optimally oriented, produces a mean annual energy of 892 kWh/kWp. As a whole, the orientation of PV generators causes energy productions to be some 6% inferior to optimally oriented PV systems. The mean performance ratio is 78% and the mean performance index is 85%. That is to say, the energy produced by a typical PV system in Belgium is 15% inferior to the energy produced by a very high quality PV system. Finally, on average, the real power of the PV modules falls 5% below its corresponding nominal power announced on the manufacturer's datasheet. Differences between real and nominal power of up to 16% have been detected
Organisational learning, strategic rigidity and technology adoption: Implications for electric utilities and renewable energy firms

This paper examines the implications of strategic rigidness for technology adoption behaviours among electric utilities. Such behaviours lead to heterogeneity in firm performance and consequently affect the electric utility industry. The paper's central aim is to identify and describe the implications of strategic rigidness for a utility firm's decision making in adopting newer renewable energy technologies. The findings indicate that not all utility firms are keen to adopt these new technologies, as these firms have traditionally been operating efficiently with a more conventional and mature technological arrangement that has become embedded in the organisational routine. Case studies of Iberdrola S.A. and Enel S.p.A. as major electric utilities are detailed to document mergers and acquisitions and technology adoption decisions. The results indicate that technology adoption behaviours vary widely across utility firms with different organisational learning processes and core capabilities
Energy Efficiency in Swimming Facilities

High and increasing energy use is a worldwide issue that has been reported and
documented in the literature. Various studies have been performed on renewable energy
and energy efficiency to counteract this trend. Although using renewable energy sources
reduces pollution, improvements in energy efficiency reduce total energy use and protect
the environment from further damage. In Europe, 40 % of the total energy use is linked
to buildings, making them a main objective concerning reductions in energy use. There
are many reports offering possibilities to increase energy efficiency in different building
types. However, compared with publications about residential or commercial buildings,
few publications have considered sports facilities. This building category contains a
variety of different facilities. Among sports facilities, two building types stand out due to
their excessive energy use: ice rinks and swimming facilities; this thesis addresses the
latter.
The goals of the thesis are as follows:
I Collect energy statistics from swimming facilities in European countries. An indepth
analysis of Norwegian facilities was conducted to compare them with similar
facilities in other countries and to define their potential for energy savings.
II Investigate different energy performance indicators (EPI). Few studies have
addressed the variety of different indicators for swimming facilities. In addition,
there is no consensus in the literature regarding which indicators are best to use.
III Characterise swimming facilities with the lowest energy use. Identify and describe
key figures and technologies.
A questionnaire was used to collect data, and answers from 43 Norwegian swimming
facilities were used in the analysis. All collected datasets were recalculated to match the
Oslo climate in 2010 for better comparison. A significant variation in final annual energy consumption (FAEC) was identified. The potential reduction of the FAEC in Norwegian
swimming facilities is estimated to be approximately 28 %.
Correlations between FAEC and the variables of interest were calculated. FAEC was
found to have the strongest correlation with water usage (WU), followed by the number
of visitors, the usable area (UA) and the water surface (WS). In reality, reliable values for
any of these variables are difficult to obtain except for the WS. The author recommends
using kWh/visitor as the unit for the EPI if reliable data is available, otherwise kWh/m²
WS can be used with certain limitations.
Additional data were collected to perform an in-depth analysis. Heat exchangers and heat
pumps are used to recover energy from the outgoing water and air in the facilities with
the lowest energy use. The energy is then used to warm incoming air, pool water and tap
water. The used technology is well known but the composition of the system is decisive.
However, even the best swimming facilities have potential for improvement
Studying youth transitions through a social network : first impressions

In this chapter we present an online social network created for the study of life transitions of young adults. We first give a brief overview of the overall goals of the study and outline two research questions to be studied with the online social network. We then present the rationale for using and developing our own network. Next, we describe the online social network: the concrete steps of creating the network, its functions and characteristics, and first results based on a sample of 365 young adults. These first findings reveal that the social network has so far not worked as intended: Participants are reluctant to use the network and more effort is required in motivating them to actively use it. We discuss possible reasons for the serious difficulties in attracting participants to engage with the network and relate the problems faced during the development and maintenance of the network. Finally, we outline alternative possibilities of using online social networks in future research
Fine ways to fail to secure realism

Since he proved his theorem in 1982, Fine has been challenging the traditional interpretation of the experimental violation of the Bell Inequalities (BI). A natural interpretation of Fine's theorem is that it provides us with an alternative set of assumptions on which to place blame for the failure of the BI, and opens to a new interpretation of the violation of the BI. Fine has a stronger interpretation for his theorem. He claims that his result undermines the traditional interpretation in terms of local realism. The aim of this paper is to understand and to assess Fine's claim. We distinguish three different strategies that Fine uses in order to support his view. We show that none of these strategies is successful. Fine fails to prove that local realism is not at stake in the violation of the BI by quantum phenomena
Homeostatic expansion of autoreactive immunoglobulin-secreting cells in the Rag2 mouse model of Omenn syndrome

Hypomorphic RAG mutations, leading to limited V(D)J rearrangements, cause Omenn syndrome (OS), a peculiar severe combined immunodeficiency associated with autoimmune-like manifestations. Whether B cells play a role in OS pathogenesis is so far unexplored. Here we report the detection of plasma cells in lymphoid organs of OS patients, in which circulating B cells are undetectable. Hypomorphic Rag2(R229Q) knock-in mice, which recapitulate OS, revealed, beyond severe B cell developmental arrest, a normal or even enlarged compartment of immunoglobulin-secreting cells (ISC). The size of this ISC compartment correlated with increased expression of Blimp1 and Xbp1, and these ISC were sustained by elevated levels of T cell derived homeostatic and effector cytokines. The detection of high affinity pathogenic autoantibodies toward target organs indicated defaults in B cell selection and tolerance induction. We hypothesize that impaired B cell receptor (BCR) editing and a serum B cell activating factor (BAFF) abundance might contribute toward the development of a pathogenic B cell repertoire in hypomorphic Rag2(R229Q) knock-in mice. BAFF-R blockade reduced serum levels of nucleic acid-specific autoantibodies and significantly ameliorated inflammatory tissue damage. These findings highlight a role for B cells in OS pathogenesis
Edge states in a boundary layer

Publisher version : http://pof.aip.org/resource/1/phfle6/v23/i5/p051705_s1?isAuthorized=noThe understanding of laminar-turbulent transition in shear flows has recently progressed along new paradigms based on the central role of nonlinear exact coherent states. We follow such paradigms to identify, for the first time in a spatially developing flow, localized flow structures living on the edge of chaos, which are the precursors of turbulence. These coherent structures are constituted by hairpin vortices and streamwise streaks. The results reported here extend the dynamical systems description of transition to spatially developing flows
Interactions Between Cyclodextrins and TmIII Chelates of Polyazamacrocycles as Studied by NMR in Aqueous Solution

The interactions between α-, β-, and γ-CD and the TmIII chelates of the macrocyclic polyaminopolycarboxylates DOTA and NOTA were studied with the use of 1H- and 13C-NMR shift and relaxation rate measurements. Interactions were only observed between Tm(DOTA)- and γ-CD. The structure and the stability of the concerning supramolecular structures was elucidated by fitting of the NMR titration curves to a theoretical model. It appears that an inclusion compound is formed, where the hydrophobic macrocyclic part of the chelate sits in the γ-CD cavity. This inclusion compound binds a second Tm(DOTA)- molecule at the outside lower rim of the CD cone. The binding occurs probably via hydrogen bonds between non-chelated carboxylate oxygen atoms of the concerning Tm(DOTA)- and CH2OH groups of the γ-CD molecule, which are in a favorable position due to opening of the γ-CD cone angle as a result of the inclusion of the first γ-CD.http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-0682(19990202)1999:2<287::AID-EJIC287>3.0.CO;2-
On the role of simplicity in science

Simple assumptions represent a decisive reason to prefer one theory to
another in everyday scientific praxis. But this praxis has little philosophical
justification, since there exist many notions of simplicity, and those that can
be defined precisely strongly depend on the language in which the theory is
formulated. The language dependence is a natural feature - to some extent - but
it is also believed to be a fatal problem, because, according to a common
general argument, the simplicity of a theory is always trivial in a suitably
chosen language. But, this trivialization argument is typically either applied
to toy-models of scientific theories or applied with little regard for the
empirical content of the theory. This paper shows that the trivialization
argument fails, when one considers realistic theories and requires their
empirical content to be preserved. In fact, the concepts that enable a very
simple formulation, are not necessarily measurable, in general. Moreover, the
inspection of a theory describing a chaotic billiard shows that precisely those
concepts that naturally make the theory extremely simple are provably not
measurable. This suggests that - whenever a theory possesses sufficiently
complex consequences - the constraint of measurability prevents too simple
formulations in any language. This explains why the scientists often regard
their assessments of simplicity as largely unambiguous. In order to reveal a
cultural bias in the scientists' assessment, one should explicitly identify
different characterizations of simplicity of the assumptions that lead to
different theory selections. General arguments are not sufficient
Baryon Mass Extrapolation

Consideration of the analytical properties of pion-induced baryon self-energies leads to new functional forms for the extrapolation of light baryon masses. These functional forms reproduce the leading non-analytic behavior of chiral perturbation theory, the correct heavy-quark limit and have the advantage of containing information on the extended structure of hadrons. The forms involve only three unknown parameters which may be optimized by fitting to present lattice data. Recent dynamical fermion results from CP-PACS and UK-QCD are extrapolated using these new functional forms. We also use these functions to probe the limit of the chiral perturbative regime and shed light on the applicability of chiral perturbation theory to the extrapolation of present lattice QCD results
Cluster emission under femtosecond laser ablation of silicon

Rich populations of clusters have been observed after femtosecond laser
ablation of bulk silicon in vacuum. Size and velocity distributions of the
clusters as well as their charge states have been analyzed by reflectron
time-of-flight mass spectrometry. An efficient emission of both neutral silicon
clusters Sin (up to n = 6) and their cations Sin+ (up to n = 10) has been
observed. The clusters are formed even at very low laser fluences, below
ablation threshold, and their relative yield increases with fluence. We show
the dependencies of the cluster yield as well as the expansion dynamics on both
laser wavelength and laser fluence. The mechanisms of the cluster formation are
discussed
Echo spectroscopy and Atom Optics Billiards

We discuss a recently demonstrated type of microwave spectroscopy of trapped
ultra-cold atoms known as "echo spectroscopy" [M.F. Andersen et. al., Phys.
Rev. Lett., in press (2002)]. Echo spectroscopy can serve as an extremely
sensitive experimental tool for investigating quantum dynamics of trapped atoms
even when a large number of states are thermally populated. We show numerical
results for the stability of eigenstates of an atom-optics billiard of the
Bunimovich type, and discuss its behavior under different types of
perturbations. Finally, we propose to use special geometrical constructions to
make a dephasing free dipole trap