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This paper explores the factors potentially responsible for the overconsumption of office paper and estimates the adverse environmental and economic impact of overconsumption. Data were collected from the employees of selected higher educational institutions in Oman. Technical factors, workplace environment, printing preferences and lack of awareness were found the main cause of overconsumption. Environmental and economic impact of the paper was estimated from the actual amount of paper consumed using standard formulas from literature. The institutions have used 5,200 reams (13 tons) of 80gm A4 size paper in one year. The economic cost of the paper was 7,800 OMR (20,280 US$). The environmental impact estimated are: cutting of 312 trees, 73,970 Ibs of CO2 gas emission, 144,742 KWh of energy consumption, solid waste produced 29,614 lbs and 247975 gallons of water were wasted. Changing printing preferences, a significant amount of economic and environmental resources to the tune of 44.8% can be saved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, electrophotographic printing and inkjet printing systems were applied to some commercial A4 office papers and their effects on print quality were determined. It is to evaluate the print quality by determining the test parameters that measure the print quality by applying electrophotographic printing and inkjet printing systems to some commercial office papers that have determined the surface properties and optical properties supplied from the market. Print quality was measured by testing with parameters such as delta gloss 60°, print lightness, print chroma, print density. As a result of the tests determined for print quality; print density values were low in A4 office papers with high roughness and porosity values, and the specular gloss values of the samples decreased in both printing applications. In electrophotographic printing; it was determined that darker colors formed with print lightness parameter, and the color scale increases in two-sided printing with print chroma values. It was determined that the color scale of print chroma values increased in two-sided prints. It was determined that mostly some commercial office papers were positively affected by printing on one side in inkjet printing and by printing on two-sided in electrophotographic printing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cerumen lubricates and protects the external auditory canal, but excess accumulation can lead to ear fullness, itching, otalgia, discharge, hearing loss, and tinnitus. Cerumen should be treated whenever symptoms are present or if it limits diagnosis by preventing a needed otoscopic examination. Clinicians should evaluate for cerumen impaction in those using hearing aids and patients with intellectual disability. Cerumen impaction can be treated with cerumenolytics, ear irrigation, and manual removal with instrumentation. Aural foreign bodies can cause ear fullness, otalgia, discharge, and hearing loss. They are more common in children than adults. The most common type of aural foreign bodies in children is jewelry, followed by paper products, parts of pens or pencils, desk supplies (eg, erasers), BBs or pellets, and earplugs or earphones. In adults, the most common aural foreign bodies are cotton swabs or cotton, followed by hearing aid parts and jewelry or ear accessories. Patients should avoid using cotto tip applicators in the external auditory canal. Alligator forceps, small right angle hooks, and ear irrigation commonly are used to remove aural foreign bodies in an outpatient clinic setting, but the choice depends on the type of foreign body. Soft and irregularly shaped objects can be removed without referral to an otolaryngologist. Patients with hard, spherical, or cylindrical objects should be referred to an otolaryngologist if previous removal attempts have failed or if there is ear trauma to avoid worsening its position in the ear canal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work the influence of different surfactants and their mass fractions on the optical characteristics of office papers, made from recycled fibres and mixed sources, was examined. Sodium lauryl ether sulfate, cocamidopropyl betaine and fatty alcohol etoksylate like surface active agent were used. The reflective spectra of treated papers were measured before and after accelerated ageing. The results have shown that fibres origin and amount of fillers in paper structure have the most important influence on reflectance spectra. Accelerated ageing has the most significant influence on virgin fibres, while this influence is decreased in office papers. Surface active agent molecules adsorbed on virgin fibres stabilise filter paper during electromagnetic radiation while this stabilisation is significantly reduced for office paper with more complex structure. Chemical composition of paper fillers and surface active agents has important influence on stabilisation possibility of office paper during accelerated ageing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on Wisconsin-based Appleton's manufacturing of carbonless paper for 50 years. Invention of an office opportunity; Introduction of the material by Appleton Coated Paper Co. 50 years ago; Tons of carbonlesss paper sold.

The article suggests that accountants and auditors use alkaline paper for those records that may be needed for more than 25 years. An experiment that simulated the aging of paper showed that most papers are acidic and become more acidic as they deteriorate. Accounting firms need two kinds of permanent paper: stationery for correspondence, minutes and other agreements; and accounting work papers which are lined and ruled with numbered columns. Current papers that are deteriorating can be photocopied on alkaline paper.

The article discusses the adoption of document management systems (DMS) and multi-functional devices (MFD) towards 'less paper office' environments. It notes that global paper usage has increased by 17 to 20 percent despite the advance of MFD and DMS technologies. The article explains the features and benefits of digitising paper documents and files with products like Konica Minolta's Scanz document capture and Kofax forms processing solution. Observers cite that DMS technology can increase productivity, promote environmental safety, and reduce costs.

Sara, a math teacher, is relocated to Lugenheimer Hall, also known as the "Pasture," due to the efforts of the department chair, Vince Darden, to encourage older faculty to retire. Sara is joined by Hugo, a former superstar researcher, and Baxa, who was sent to the Pasture for refusing to change a grade. During a colloquium by Fields Medalist Armond Viglio, Sara, Hugo, and Baxa notice a flaw in Viglio's work. They confront Viglio, who admits the mistake and asks for their help in fixing it. They collaborate and publish a paper together, which is well-received by the math community. Despite being offered a prestigious position, Sara chooses to stay at the Pasture to continue her research. [Extracted from the article]

In this paper, a spectral collection of over 150 ATR-FT-IR spectra of materials related to cultural heritage and conservation science has been presented that have been measured in the extended region of 4000-80 cm (mid-IR and far-IR region). The applicability of the spectra and, in particular, the extended spectral range, for investigation of art-related materials is demonstrated on a case study. This collection of ATRFT-IR reference spectra is freely available online () and is meant to be a useful tool for researchers in the field of conservation and materials science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the Office for National Statistics' delineation of the scope of the digital economy industry, this paper selects indicators from five industrial dimensions: digital product manufacturing, digital product service, digital technology application, digital factor drive and digital efficiency improvement, and constructs an evaluation system to measure the development level of China's digital economy at the provincial level. It is found that there is a wide gap in the development of China's provincial digital economy, with the eastern coastal provinces and cities having a high level of digital economy development. The coupling and coordination model was then applied to examine the interrelationships between the five industrial dimensions of the digital economy, and it was found that most of the coupling and coordination relationships of the five industrial dimensions are at the stage of medium-high coupling and low coupling and coordination, and each province and city has different coupling and coordination characteristics. The numerical evaluation results provide an intuitive understanding of the differences and deficiencies in the development of the digital economy in different regions, and serve as a reference for the medium and long-term digital economy development planning of provinces and municipalities as well as the whole country. In the future, the state should invest more in the digital economy in the central and western regions, and each province should cultivate and develop the digital economy in accordance with its own local conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reflects on the use of paper forms to chart the vaguaries of weather as used by the Meteorological Office in Great Britain. An overview is presented on the advertisers that worked with the journal in 1966 including Lamson Paragon Ltd., National Cash Register Co. and Tullis Russell Papermakers Ltd. Also emphasized are the need of diversification, innovation and acquisition in paper companies to survive.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a platform that manages daily life tasks to establish an interaction between things and humans. One of its applications, the smart office that uses the Internet to monitor electrical appliances and sensor data using an automation system, is presented in this study. Some of the limitations of the existing office automation system are an unfriendly user interface, lack of IoT technology, high cost, or restricted range of wireless transmission. Therefore, this paper presents the design and fabrication of an IoT-based office automation system with a user-friendly smartphone interface. Also, real-time data monitoring is conducted for the predictive maintenance of sensor nodes. This model uses an Arduino Mega 2560 Rev3 microcontroller connected to different appliances and sensors. The data collected from different sensors and appliances are sent to the cloud and accessible to the user on their smartphone despite their location. A sensor fault prediction model based on a machine learning algorithm is proposed in this paper, where the k-nearest neighbors model achieved better performance with 99.63% accuracy, 99.59% F1-score, and 99.67% recall. The performance of both models, i.e., k-nearest neighbors and naive Bayes, was evaluated using different performance metrics such as precision, recall, F1-score, and accuracy. It is a reliable, continuous, and stable automation system that provides safety and convenience to smart office employees and improves their work efficiency while saving resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the worldwide Paper Free Day event organized by the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) community. It mentions that information companies rely more on content management technologies than on paper. It cites several activities of the event including scanning and shredding, presentations on document imaging, and online collaboration space.

Provides information on personal deskside shredders. Factors that have increased the sales of shredders; Importance of a shredding policy; Advice on choosing between on-site or off-site shredding. INSETS: Office Shredder for centralised use-shreds CDs, too!;Security Counts!;Intimus-Paper Shredders from Germany;Off-site document destruction

The article reports on the decision of Staples Inc. to stop using Asia Pulp & Paper Co. Ltd. (APP) as a result of concerns about the poor environmental record of the company. Staples Inc. is one of the world's biggest office-supplies companies which used to source more than nine percent of its papers from APP. It believes that APP is destroying untouched rainforest and also contributing to the changes in climate through its pulp mills. APP is having a hard time portraying itself as environmentally friendly due to a recent report by WWF telling that APP and its affiliates are making a new logging road through a forested peat swamp in Sumatra, Indonesia.

The novel paradigm of Internet of Things (IoT) is gaining recognition in the numerous scenarios promoting the pervasive presence of smart things around us through its application in various areas of society, which includes transportation, healthcare, industries, and agriculture. One more such application is in the smart office to monitor the health of devices via machine learning (ML) that makes the equipment more efficient by allowing real-time monitoring of their health. It guarantees indoor comfort as per the user's satisfaction as it emphasizes on fault prediction in real-life devices. Early identification of various types of faults in IoT devices is the key requirement in smart offices. IoT devices are becoming ubiquitous and provide an assistant to supervise an office that is regulated by ML and data received from sensors is stored in cloud. A recommender system facilitates the selection of an appropriate solution for faults in IoT-enabled devices to mitigate faults. The architecture proposed in this paper is used to monitor each and every office appliance connected via IoT technology using ML technique, and recommender system is used to recommend solutions for fault patterns without much human intervention. The ultrasonic motion sensor is used to fetch the information of employee availability in cubicles and data is sent to the cloud through the WiFi module. ATmega8 is used to control electrical appliances in the office environment. The significance of this work is to forecast the faults in IoT appliances which will have an impact on life and reliability of IoT appliances. The main objective is to design a prototype of a smart office using IoT that can control and automate workplace devices and forecast whether the device needs repairing or replacing, thus reducing the overall burden on the employee and helping out in increasing physical as well as mental health of the person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to solve the problem of office automation, this paper proposes the design and implementation of office automation system based on Internet of things technology. This method is to carry out mobile office function through smart phones to realize business message exchange and real-time processing of process approval business. The system adopts b/s structure and adopts the form of front-end machine to realize information sharing between the mobile system and the original system. When users choose to send mail or reply to mail, the client can read the current user name as the sender by itself. The number of uploaded attachments is limited to three at most, and the total size of attachments is not greater than 100 m. Conclusion. This method effectively improves the work efficiency of employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1999, Group Health Cooperative (GHC), a health system with 575,000 enrollees, launched a quality improvement initiative to systematically record patient tobacco-use status and provider intervention using an automated billing system. Performance feedback and senior-level incentives were added to foster compliance with the automated recording. Prior to this period, tobacco-use status was recorded primarily via a paper-based chart system, with billing-system recording averaging only 7.5% of primary care visits. In 2000, tobacco-use status was recorded using the billing system in an average of 82% of visits (p<0.001). Significant increases (p<0.0001) were also observed for the absolute number of visits in which automated entry of tobacco-use status was documented using the billing system, as well as for visits where intervention was documented. In 1998, tobacco use was documented in 22,086 visits, with intervention documentation in 13,235 of these visits. By 2000, tobacco-use documentation increased to 76,180, with intervention documentation in 45,527. This work demonstrates the feasibility of using automated performance feedback and senior-level incentives to increase provider compliance with a new system of tobacco status identification and intervention. Other potential uses of this system, and potential limitations, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-phase asynchronous motors have an irreplaceable role in small production fields such as household appliances and office equipment. However, due to the existence of small single-phase asynchronous motors with low power factor, low efficiency, vibration and noise, and other problems, the performance of a single-phase asynchronous motor, including efficiency, power factor, and vibration noise has been unable to meet the increasing needs of people. In this paper, a single-phase line-starting permanent magnet synchronous motor (SPLSPMSM) for air compressor is designed with the core size of Y series three-phase asynchronous motor for reference. The operating capacitance, the number of turns of the main stator winding, the turns ratio of the main and auxiliary windings, and the permanent magnet size are selected as optimization variables, and the efficiency, power factor, and starting torque are the optimization objectives. A regression model was developed by the response surface method (RSM) to optimize the performance of the motor, and the reliability of the response surface experiment was verified. The results show that the performance of the optimized motor is improved in terms of rated operation and starting performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional data automatic office system has limited mining and computing capabilities. Due to the iterative complexity of data mining algorithms, it is difficult to discover the relationships and rules existing in the Internet of Things data as well as impossible to advance the efficiency of the office system based on the existing Internet of Things data. This paper combines cloud computing and machine learning to construct an intelligent network office system, realizes large-scale IoT data processing through the combination of IoT data mining technology and cloud computing framework, and constructs the functional module structure of the intelligent network office system through demand analysis. On this basis, this paper conducts system performance verification and conducts experimental design based on network intelligent system demand. The experimental results show that the system constructed in this paper has certain practical effects, which can provide theoretical reference for subsequent related research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose and describe a method that uses recurrent problems to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the diagnosis of new product development (NPD) processes and supports the identification of improvement opportunities. The proposed method, called Diagile, is based on recurrent current reality trees (CRTs) and is a new way of building CRTs that includes best project management practices, and the identification and prioritization of improvement opportunities. To support the execution of the method, recurrent problems were identified and a computational tool to aid the diagnosis, a database of improvement opportunities and an automated spreadsheet to prioritize improvement projects were developed. Design/methodology/approach: The proposed method was evaluated through a controlled experiment at a multinational manufacturer of office supplies. Findings: The results achieved confirm that the use of the Diagile method increases the diagnostic efficiency and effectiveness when compared to diagnoses performed by the traditional CRT method. Research limitations/implications: The validity of the method must be tested on a larger scale, since this work involved only one controlled experiment for this purpose. The experiment involved the participation of postgraduate research assistants, who cannot be considered specialists in the diagnosis of NPD. One could question whether the method will be as helpful for proficient users as well. The authors did not have proficient users available to run the experiment. However, the authors believe that such a specialist would save time in carrying out a diagnosis with Diagile, and also be more effective in validating the diagnosis. However, this assumption could not be tested here and can therefore be considered a limiting factor of the experiment. Nevertheless, the positive results of the evaluations of the companies and users of the two case studies corroborate the statement that the objective of this work was attained. Practical implications: The greater efficiency and effectiveness provided by the proposed Diagile method was also evident in the identification and prioritization of improvement opportunities. The experimental group drew up a more relevant and coherent list of improvement projects than the control group, and provided documentation for these projects in the form of project charts. The authors believe these results can be of a great impact if implemented by practitioners. Originality/value: This paper proposes a new way to perform diagnostic of NPD process. In particular, this process is well known to be highly strategic, nevertheless, normally excluded out of improvement initiatives because of its complexity. The diagnostic method proposed is a powerful tool to assist practitioners finding systemic improvement opportunities, expanding the assessment to all dimensions of a business process, e.g. people, technology and process activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While prior work on coalition theories focuses either solely on office or on policy motivations of parties, more elaborate theories combine both types of motivation. Said combination makes them much more appropriate for explaining coalition formation but also more complex. One possibility to make these models broadly applicable are coalition tools. Since existing tools do not incorporate advances from such theories, we present a new coalition tool called Coalizer which takes both office and policy motivations into account and reflects the state of coalition theory. Among others, Coalizer includes features like the computation of policy utility values basing on party positions (supporting different estimation modes), the combination of office and policy utility values, and the indication of utility maximizing strategies for parties. In this paper, we present our coalition tool and illustrate its functionality with the example of the German federal elections in 2017. Coalizer is available online at [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring performance of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) during building operation enables to evaluate the appropriateness of the system's design. Such insights can help to reduce energy consumption while ensuring satisfying indoor conditions in the monitored building. Additionally, such insight can help to improve future HVAC design. The aim of this paper is to present a case study demonstrating how HVAC engineers can evaluate whether the monitored air-handling units (AHUs) were appropriately sized and performed as intended based on design requirements regarding energy-efficiency, thermal conditions, and indoor air quality (IAQ). Three months of measurements of airflow, electrical power, indoor temperature, and CO2-concentrations were collected from an office building with six AHUs. The results showed that three of the AHUs were appropriately sized and satisfied the thermal condition, IAQ and energy-efficiency requirements. The remaining three AHUs were apparently appropriately sized and satisfied IAQ requirements, but they did not satisfy the required energy-efficiency and thermal conditions. The applied approach seemed to be suitable for supporting building operating managers for on-going performance monitoring as it was able to identify discrepancies from intended performance. But it remains the task for the operating personnel to identify the cause of the identified discrepancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conducted an online survey of National Organization of Research Development Professionals (NORDP) members in the higher education research enterprise to identify trends in work modes and expand insights into how the current workforce is shaping the profession. We find: (1) Hybrid work has emerged as a dominant work mode and likely is here to stay; (2) Flexibility, communication, and expectations around RD work is critical for successful teamwork as RD professionals need to connect with leadership and investigators and meet their varying expectations; (3) Remote workers have the highest rated rates of personal productivity and personal well-being; (4) In-person workers perceived their work mode as the most permanent. Remote workers are unlikely to consider fully in-person roles in future; and (5) While institutions have done well in terms of providing basic technology support (laptop, monitors), they have neglected to provide resources for their remote workers (e.g., coverage for internet, phone and office supplies). With this first of its kind study in the RD field, our goals are to share the potential of work modes and empower our colleagues to either leverage these results into their institutions or advance the research by expanding the survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel approach for the analysis of inkjet inks is being reported. A time-of-flight mass spectrometer, coupled with a Direct Analysis in Real Time ( DART™) ion source (Accu TOF™ DART™), was used to determine if inkjet inks from various manufacturers and models of printers could be reliably differentiated, characterized, and identified. A total of 217 ink standards were analyzed. As inkjet printing often involves the use of multiple colors (e.g., cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) to form an image or text, two different approaches to creating a library of standards and sampling methods were evaluated for implementation in a standard operating procedure. This research will show that a microscopic examination of the region of interest is requisite to identify what colors were utilized during the printing process, prior to comparing with known standards. Finally, blind testing was administered with 10 unknown samples to assess the validity and accuracy of the methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a new algorithm for increasing the revenue in a dynamic product assortment problem. Then, it identifies the challenges faced by managers in practice and discusses the conditions under which workers follow the algorithm. To do so, I conducted a field experiment with a beverage vending machine business. The experiment shows that, on average, workers are reluctant to follow the algorithmic advice; however, the workers are more willing to conform once their forecasts are integrated into the algorithm. Analyses using nonexperimental variations highlight the importance of taking worker and context heterogeneity into account to maximize the benefit from adopting a new algorithm. Higher worker's regret, sales volatility, and fewer delegations increase the conformity, while they mitigate the effects of integration. Workers avoid high-traffic vending machines and focus on machines with high sales volatility when adopting the algorithm. The effects on the sales are largely similar to the effects on product assortments. The results emphasize the gap between nominal and actual performance of an algorithm and several practical issues to be resolved. This paper was accepted by Matthew Shum, marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on Itasca, Illinois-based Boise Office Solutions' contract to provide the not-for profit educational buying cooperative Educational & Institutional Cooperative Service with office supplies and copy paper products. Discounts on the products.

In hot desert climates, the office buildings with high-performance glazing systems (HPGSs) provide better indoor thermal and visual comfort to the occupants due to the advanced coatings which prevent the undesired heat gain and daylight. However, these systems save energy in the use phase; it could consume more energy in the pre-use and post-use phases. Furthermore, the use of advanced materials may have negative impacts on the environment. Therefore, this paper selected the comparative life cycle assessment method as an environmental measuring tool to compare the energy consumption and the environmental impacts of three HPGSs with that of the conventional clear double-glazing system. The results show that the photovoltaic glazing system (PVGS) has the lowest energy consumption and the lowest environmental impacts, followed by the electrochromic glazing system (ECGS) and the low-E glazing system. In the use phase, both PVGS and ECGS achieved the highest energy savings, 87% and 25%, respectively. The use phase has a major contribution to the energy consumption and environmental impacts, while the pre-use and post-use phases have insignificant contributions in this study. The results could support decision-makers in choosing the most environmentally friendly HPGS for their projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper aims to propose an information-theoretic method for interpreting the inference mechanism of neural networks. The new method aims to interpret the inference mechanism minimally by disentangling complex information into simpler and easily interpretable information. This disentanglement of complex information can be realized by maximizing mutual information between input patterns and the corresponding neurons. However, because the use of mutual information has faced difficulty in computation, we use the well-known autoencoder to increase mutual information by re-interpreting the sparsity constraint, which is considered a device to increase mutual information. The computational procedures to increase mutual information are decomposed into the serial operation of equal use of neurons and specific responses to input patterns. The specific responses are realized by enhancing the results by the equal use of neurons. The method was applied to three data sets: the glass, office equipment, and pulsar data sets. With all three data sets, we could observe that, when the number of neurons was forced to increase, mutual information could be increased. Then, collective weights, or average collectively treated weights, showed that the method could extract the simple and linear relations between inputs and targets, making it possible to interpret the inference mechanism minimally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's globalised business world characterised by a high level of competition and unstable markets, businesses are called upon to utilise their resources in the most effective and efficient manner to survive. It has become critical for businesses to monitor their employees' performance and to constantly develop and train employees to eliminate inefficiencies and improve productivity. Performance management has come to play an indispensable role in helping organisations reach their productivity goals. However, research indicates that many organisations have failed to implement and maintain effective performance‐management systems owing to employees' negative attitudes towards performance‐management practices. This paper through a quantitative approach investigates the effectiveness of the Road Accident Fund (RAF) performance‐management development system (PMDS) at the RAF office in Durban, South Africa. The sample of participants were selected from different structures across the organisational hierarchy. The key findings from the study indicated that within RAF performance management review outcomes are very subjective; the performance management system is not fully implemented; there is inconsistent implementation of performance management amongst different departments; and a lack of managers' involvement in implementing the performance management system. Some of the recommendations made include the use of 360° feedback appraisal for employee performance evaluation; keeping up‐to‐date job profiles outlining the roles and responsibilities of staff; and making sure that employees are aware of performance measurements and performance criteria used during performance reviews to reduce subjectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to present the latest trends in business intelligence and ways in which nowadays organizations can implement cloud technologies. This work is going to present challenges of the market, providers of integrated cloud business intelligences tools, advantages and disadvantages of moving to the cloud. A real life use case will argue the importance of taking advantage of data, as well as the necessity and the obvious benefits of having the right tools of transforming data into correct business decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online shopping websites like Amazon stipulate a platform to the users where they can share their opinions about different products. Recently, it has been identified that prior to the purchasing, 81% of the users explore different online platforms in order to assess the reliability of product that they intend to buy. The reviews of different users are expressed by using natural language, which help a user to make an informed decision. From past few years, scientific community has payed attention to automatically specify the meaning of review through Sentiment Analysis. Sentiment Analysis is a research area which is gradually being evolved thus, helping the users to tackle the sentiment hidden in a review. To date, different sentiment analysis-based studies have been conducted in literature. For sentiment classification, the core ingredient is the exploitation of polarity bearing words present in the reviews e.g. adjectives, verbs, and adverbs etc. Different studies suggest the importance of different forms of adverbs in sentiment classification task. In literature, it has been reported that general adverbs strongly help to classify sentiments with better accuracy whereas other suggest that degree adverbs are important for sentiment classification. There are ten distinct forms of adverbs such as general adverbs, general superlative adverbs, general comparative adverbs, general-wh adverbs, degree adverbs, degree superlative adverbs, degree comparative adverbs, degree-wh adverbs, time adverbs and locative adverbs. In this paper, we intend to tackle a question that what is the impact of different forms of adverb on the classification of sentiments? For this, the impacts of all these forms have been evaluated on 51,005 reviews of two products, office products and musical DVDs acquired from Amazon. The outcomes of study revealed that two general superlative adverbs and degree-wh adverb hold more impact than the other forms of adverbs. The general superlative adverbs have attained F-measure of 0.86 and degree-wh adverbs have attained F-measure of 0.80. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the triadic relationship between project workspace (i.e. spatial context), project type and project manager's leadership style. It develops the concept of leadership construct (i.e. mental models of leadership to predispose the way leadership is performed) to explain related preferences for workspace and behaviors. Design/methodology/approach: A combination of phenomenological inquiry on preferred workspaces in different project types is combined with a conceptual study on related leadership styles in these settings. Findings: Four different leadership constructs are identified, which are conditioned by workspace and project type: one-on-one, virtual, interactive and mixed leadership. Also, four leadership patterns are identified, and these are related to open office and virtual office settings in product, service, software development and infrastructure construction projects. Research limitations/implications: The results show the interaction of workspace, project type and leadership styles, which extends existing leadership theory and provides more granularity in determining appropriate leadership styles for project managers. Practical implications: Practitioners benefit from a more conscious selection of appropriate leadership styles, which positively impacts project results. Originality/value: By linking workspace, project type and leadership styles, the study is the first of its kind and a novel contribution to theory in project leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suggests ways on how to contain the total cost of ownership of all office equipment. Method to lower the cost of a printer toner; Significance of the choice of consumables in considering the running costs of a machine; Advice on handling electronic mail message print-out; Impact of electronic commerce on consumable expenditures.

Many retailers are reducing store footprint and downsizing their assortments accordingly to improve store productivity. Some of the revenue for items removed from the assortment may be recouped by substitution, but also some of the revenue for items kept in the assortment may be lost due to basket abandonment. For a practical setting where baskets may contain any subset of items from thousands of products, estimating both substitution and basket effects is a challenge. To address this, we develop a demand model that combines a multinomial logit (MNL) model to estimate substitution within a subcategory and a purchase-incidence model to estimate basket retention. Using transaction and product availability data from 12 stores of an office supplies retail chain that were dramatically downsized from large- to small-format stores, we show that (i) storewide basket effects are substantial (our model with basket effects predicts out-of-sample transactions with mean absolute percent error (MAPE) of only 7% compared with 22% for a model with only substitution effects), (ii) poor service level can significantly exacerbate lost profit due to abandoned baskets at these stores, and (iii) consideration of the basket effect in assortment selection for the small stores can significantly improve basket retention and increase profits (by up to 16%) at these stores. This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the development of a mechatronic punch and bind office machine. Integrating smart technologies in the existing traditional business machines will ease the evolution of these systems, enabling productivity and efficiency. The development of an experimental platform that enables further advances in servitization is required. To increase the binding rate of the office document, as well as to reduce the likelihood of errors, efforts have been made to develop a measuring system that allows the document to be properly measured and specifies the appropriate binding spine at the same time. As a complement, developments have been conducted in a system that enables the verification of the inserted spine. In addition, a system for automated document binding along with an integrated platform that allows the communication between all systems is presented. In both its hardware design and its underlying sensors, the new system has several advantages, providing significant performance improvements and upgradability over existing systems. This alternative comprises a system that enables a variety of sheets of paper, plastic or other materials to be punched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines changes in skill requirements for production jobs in 93 manufacturing establishments between 1978 and 1986 and clerical jobs in 211 firms between 1978 and 1988. The unique data set allows an analysis not only of changes in the distribution of employment across jobs-the usual approach-but also of changes in skill requirements within job titles. The results suggest that significant upskilling is occurring within most production jobs in manufacturing; shifts in the composition of the work force toward higher-skill production jobs contribute a smaller amount to the overall rise in average skill requirements. Changes in clerical jobs are more complicated and suggest an even split between jobs that were upskilled and those that were deskilled The development of new office equipment appears to be associated with the deskilling of specific clerical jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the amount spent by companies for the use of paper clips by its employees.

In the design stage of energy systems in buildings, accurate load boundary conditions are the key to achieving energy supply and demand balance. Compared with the building cold and heat load, the generation of building electrical load has stronger randomness, and the current standard electrical load calculation method cannot reflect this feature. Therefore, this paper proposes a bottom-up high time resolution power load generation method for office buildings. Firstly, the non-homogeneous Markov chain is used to establish the random mobility model of personnel in office buildings, and the building electrical appliances are divided into four categories according to the different driving modes of personnel to electrical appliances in office buildings. Then, based on the personnel mobility model, the correlation between the use of electrical appliances in office buildings and the personnel in the room is established to construct the random power simulation model of different types of electrical appliances. Finally, the electric load of different types of electrical appliances is superimposed hourly to generate a random daily load curve. In order to verify the validity of the model, an office building is simulated and compared with the measured electrical load value. The verification results show that the model well reflects the daily distribution characteristics of electric load. The simulation value and the measured value are used for statistical analysis. The evaluation results show that the correlation between the simulation value and the measured value is high, which further illustrates the validity and accuracy of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the move from analog to digital copying in New Zealand's corporate copier marketplace. Percentage of market sales as of April 2000 which was represented by analog machines; Market share for digital copiers; Considerations of organizations to identify their copying requirements.

Offers information on new electronic products for the office as of March 2001. LaserJet 8150 printers and multifunctional products from Hewlett-Packard; Features of Nokia 3310 mobile phone; HSM411.2 paper shredder from Hasler Limited.

When organizations want their employees to adopt behaviors that advance prosocial and instrumental aims, which motive should they express? A groundswell of recent work suggests that highlighting prosocial actions inspires and motivates employees. Building on this work, we embed a field experiment in the context of an organizational change initiative (Study 1). A large university sought to change the behavior of administrative employees who purchase office supplies, encouraging them to place orders of at least $50, referred to as "bundling." We exploit the fact that the organization could justify the same behavior in contrasting ways. We randomly assign employees to view either a prosocial ("limiting pollution"), instrumental ("limiting costs"), or mixed motive ("limiting pollution and limiting costs") for caring about bundling each time they access the organization's procurement system. We then evaluate changes in employees' behavior by comparing a six-month baseline to a six-month experimental period, covering 10,169 purchases in 556 offices. Contrary to expectations from related research, the instrumental motive was most effective for changing behavior, leading to significantly more bundling than the prosocial motive. Two follow-up vignette experiments probe theoretical mechanisms. They indicate that an instrumental motive seems more genuine (i.e., reflecting the organization's true motive) than a prosocial motive (Study 2) and that seeming genuine increases individuals' intention to bundle (Study 3). This research reveals that prosocial justifications can be less effective than instrumental ones and suggests that perceptions of genuineness may shape the effectiveness of behavioral change efforts in organizations. This paper was accepted by Yuval Rottenstreich, decision analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a mathematical queue model for passport office system. It provides a more realistic description of queue model for passport office system on priority basis. Now a days almost in every system priority is given in some cases for example medical cases, to some officials and customers\applicants having some emergency. This model consists two rows, one for high priority and other for low priority customers. It is assumed that the arrival and service process follow the Poisson distribution. It is supposed that the service will be completed when the customer\applicant pass through all the service channels. This model can also be applicable in many real life situations like hospital management, in market, in offices etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mostly in home and office appliances, lights and fans are manually controlled which leads to power waste. They are left ON even if there is no usage of them. Their operation is not controlled by environmental conditions like daylight and temperature variation. By making a smart automated controlling system for appliances we can save huge amounts of power. In this paper, we are providing a solution for preventing the waste of home electric power in a comfortable and cost effective way. Our system utilizes the use of Infrared Object Detection Sensors and the Motion Sensors. Depending on the person's presence, devices such as lamps, fans, etc. are switched on or off. An example of an apartment is given for the system application. The cost is calculated and the investment impact on the long run is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intelligent technology has had a profound impact on working patterns and the needs of office workers. The corresponding office environments have also changed to some extent. As more and more intelligent functions are integrated, a question as to whether the intelligent office environment really meets needs of office workers needs to be considered. In this study, a methodology that is applicable to improve biophilic and intelligent designs simultaneously in office environments was developed according to the needs of office workers. The observations of office environments, interviews, and questionnaires of an office group were performed. The physical and psychological health needs of office workers, as well as the correlations between six office environmental factors and six intelligent functions were discussed using the data of 211 office workers. Then, 12 patterns of biophilic design were addressed from existing biophilic theory, and the results of a user study, as well as the corresponding design framework of intelligent office products, which are the carriers of intelligent functions, were described. The feasibility and the positive influence in the office have been illustrated through a design case and its evaluation in real office environments. This study mainly explores the design of office environments from the perspective of humans with the hope to provide helpful guidance for intelligent offices and related workspace design in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enterprise information systems (IS) should align processes in organizations to ease strategies success and solve problems using different approaches. Modelling is a way to represent processes and supporting enterprise architecture (EA) which should comply with a set of rules and constraints. Model-checking becomes a major area of research which used for formal verification of various properties translated into mathematical logic. In this paper, an approach of model checking on hypergraph representation based on a finite state machine(FSM) which supports the alignment of business process(BP) requirements will be presented to check its correctness and the satisfaction of some properties which need the checking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power quality is a major consideration in all office equipment, manufacturies and residential home appliances. Harmonic distortion is one of the crucial power quality issues. In order to mitigate the harmonic distortion, the performance of shunt active power filter (SAPF) is judged in terms of the accuracy and response time of its designed controller. In this context, the controller consists of three parts: harmonic extraction, switching control, and DC-link capacitor. The harmonic extraction technique serves the major role of deriving the required reference current to ensure successful mitigation of current harmonics by SAPF. Among the existing techniques, harmonic extraction algorithms based on time-domain approaches are most widely applied as they offer simple implementation features with increased speed and reduced computational burden. This paper presents detailed investigation and analysis regarding the performance of two famous time-domain harmonic extraction techniques namely, synchronous reference frame (SRF) and instantaneous power (PQ) theory. Extensive simulation work is conducted in MATLAB-Simulink platform under two conditions, which are, steady-state conditions and dynamic-state conditions, considering various highly nonlinear loads. For evaluation purposes, each control algorithm is incorporated into the controller of a three-phase SAPF, developed using a three-level neutral-point-clamped (NPC) inverter. Comprehensive results are provided to confirm mitigation performance of the SAPF utilizing each harmonic extraction algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The warehouse operation planning in the scholar and office supplies industry encompasses the activities of receiving, storing, order picking, and shipping products. The order picking operation is a laborious and capital intensive procedure. Despite the extensive literature to solve practical problems of warehouse routing as a step of the order picking process, the application of general approaches to deal with the routing of the warehouse pickers is not straightforward given the specific conditions and configurations and the singular design and operational policies commonly found in practice. In this paper, we present an optimization approach to the stacker routing problem found in the order picking of a Brazilian scholar and office supplies company. The approach is based on a routing algorithm that solves different integer linear problems to define the optimal routes of the stacker inside the facility. The solutions of several numerical experiments show the potential and effectiveness of the approach, for instance, that only one fifth of the routes actually performed by the company are optimal and that the algorithm application to a real set of batches reduced by more than one fourth the total distance monthly traveled by the stacker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By the year 2050, 67% of the global population will be living in cities where water demand is projected to outstrip supply. This shortage calls for identifying ways through which urban residents and commercial interests can adapt to water stress. As commercial buildings contribute significantly to water consumption in cities, building facilities managers (BFMs) have a significant role in formulation and implementation of the adaptation approaches. Their perceptions of alternative water sources, including reclaimed water, are, therefore, important. In this study, the perceptions of 40 BFMs on reclaimed water use in buildings were analyzed using Q‐methodology. Analysis correlated the responses of different people, factoring out the groups of people who hold similar viewpoints. Results showed that participants could be categorized under four factors. Participants in Factor 1 perceived reclaimed water as being healthy and a worthy investment. Those in Factor 2, however, had negative perceptions and did not trust local governments to appropriately manage the treatment process, thus presenting health concerns. They also found reclaimed water repulsive. Participants in Factor 3 were also less willing to adopt reclaimed water, but felt that its use for non‐potable purposes would be acceptable. The final group, those in Factor 4 focused more on the cost efficiency and sustainability of reclaimed water, finding it acceptable on those grounds. However, they thought that decisions on its use should be the building owners' prerogative rather than the BFMs. The implications of these findings with respect to encouraging reclaimed water use in commercial office buildings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]