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Purpose: This paper aims to present a dynamic model based on casual relationships among the most important effective factors on business–IT alignment in Agile businesses by using system dynamics modeling approach. Design/methodology/approach: To study the most important factors on agility and alignment, the data were collected by questionnaires filled by 201 experts and were analyzed by SPSS and PLS. Casual relationships among studied factors and efficiency coefficients of each factor were identified by fuzzy DEMATEL technique and analyzed by MATLAB and EXCELL. Finally, the dynamic model was plotted by VENSIM. Findings: According to the results, only "learning IT capabilities" are the most important casual factor that has the highest influence on the other factors. "Business responding capabilities" take the highest effect from the system, and "business sensing capabilities" are in the next rank. Practical implications: This study underpins effective IT deployment toward developing efficient IT capabilities to gain greater agility. Originality/value: The dynamic capabilities view (DCV) has emerged as an influential theoretical and management framework in modern IS and agility researches. In this regard, we propose a conceptualization of dynamic capabilities in the form of an alignment model. Based on the dynamic capabilities, and on the alignment perspectives found in Henderson and Venkatraman's seminal model, IT alignment is modeled as a process of reconfiguration of the firm's IT and organizational resources, competencies and capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The registration of two 3D point clouds is an essential step in many applications. The objective of our work is to estimate the isometric transformation to merge two heterogeneous point clouds obtained from two different sensors. In this paper, we present a new approach for 3D-3D registration which is distinguished by the nature of the extracted signature on each point and by the similarity criterion used to measure the degree of similarity. The descriptor that we propose is invariant to the rotation and also to the translation and overcomes the problem of multi-resolution that is related to heterogeneous data. At the end, our approach has been tested on synthetic data and applied on heterogeneous real data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts: Athenische Abteilung is the property of Verlag Philipp von Zabern GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

All previous works on sentence alignment were founded on the monotonicity assumption that coupled sentences occur in a similar sequential order on the two sides of bilingual parallel corpora (i.e., bitexts), leaving out the non-monotonicity in naturally-occurring bitexts. This paperpresents the very first attempt to specifically address this practical issue in sentence alignment, by taking advantage of two observations: (1) an initial (or seed) alignment can be made available using accessible lexical resources and (2) sentences with high affinity in one language tend to have their counterparts with similar affinity in the other. They are incorporated as two constraints into semisupervised learning to formulate a novel and generalized solution for both monotonic and non-monotonic sentence alignment. Our evaluation on real-world data from two remote domains and an end-to-end MT evaluation show that while representative monotonic aligners suffer more severely from a higher degree of non-monotonicity, our approach is able to maintain a stable and competitive performance across the full spectrum of non-monotonicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is likely a variety of causes and contributors to the nebulous consumer term "frizz." This article attempts to craft a universal definition and then progresses to further examine impacting factors. These discussions focus on methods for quantifying hair properties and assessing the positive impact of commercial hair care products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High tibial osteotomy (HTO) and distal femoral osteotomy (DFO) are utilized to correct knee malalignment in patients with coronal plane deformities. Identifying the deformity of the lower extremity using a standardized, reproducible approach is critical prior to correction of lower limb malalignment with an osteotomy procedure. Appropriate radiographs, including bilateral long-leg standing films, are critical to measure the anatomical and/or mechanical axes and calculate the required degree of correction. The femoral and tibial mechanical axes, malalignment (varus or valgus), lateral distal femoral angle (LDFA), medial proximal tibial angle (MPTA), and joint line convergence angle (JLCA) should be measured during coronal plane deformity analysis and accounted for during surgical planning. This paper focuses on the surgical technique for medial opening and lateral closing wedge HTO, as well as medial closing and lateral opening wedge DFO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A new version of dynamic time warping for samples of observed event times that are modeled as time-warped intensity processes is introduced. The approach is developed within a framework where for each experimental unit or subject in a sample, a random number of event times or random locations can be observed. As in this setting the number of observed events differs from subject to subject, usual landmark alignment methods that require the number of events to be the same across subjects are not feasible. This challenge is addressed by applying dynamic time warping, initially by aligning the event times for pairs of subjects, regardless of whether the numbers of observed events within the considered pair of subjects match. The information about pairwise alignments is then combined to extract an overall alignment of the events for each subject across the entire sample. This overall alignment provides a useful description of event data and can be used as a pre-processing step for subsequent analysis. The method is illustrated with a historical fertility study and with on-line auction data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highly surface active super paramagnetic colloidal suspensions of nano crystalline ferrofluid have been synthesized through wet-chemical route. Entrapment of magnetic domains presented in the nano ferrofluid in a polymer matrix like poly vinyl alcohol film was accomplished by developing polymer composite film in between two magnetic poles by solvent casting method. Similarly poly vinyl alcohol-ferrofluid composite films were also developed in the absence of magnetic field. Atomic force microscopy image of nano-composite film makes it clear that the film developed in the absence of magnetic field possesses randomly oriented domains, whereas film developed with magnetic field shows well aligned flux lines. The characteristics and nature of forces acting between magnetic domains along the magnetic flux lines were explored from magnetic force microscopy imaging. The number of flux lines developed in the polymer matrix was observed to be directly proportional to applied external magnetic field. Approximate number of magnetic lines passing through unit area of composite film was evaluated from line profile data analysis of atomic force microscopy image. The particle sizes of the nanoparticles encapsulated in the polymer matrix were found to be in the range of 10–20 nm. Scanning electron microscopy micrographs confirm aggregation of ferrofluid particles of ribbon like morphology along the magnetic flux lines. Magnetic properties of the entrapped nanoparticles in polymer matrix film were analyzed using vibrating sample magnetometer at room temperature. The super paramagnetic nature and other magnetic properties were evaluated from the hysteresis loop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A standard set of preoperative plain radiographs includes the following: bilateral weight-bearing anteroposterior views in full extension, bilateral weight-bearing posteroanterior tunnel views at 30° flexion, lateral views, skyline views of the patellofemoral joint, and a standing single leg hip-to-ankle anteroposterior view. Using these radiographs, 3 preoperative planning methods for a valgus-producing high tibial osteotomy are presented. These methods can be based on the anatomic axis, the mechanical axis, or the weight-bearing line. Sagittal plane alignment is also considered. Both anterior and posterior cruciate ligament instability may be taken into account in the preoperative planning process through alterations in the posterior tibial slope. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The inner silicon detector of the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment (CMS) at CERNʼs LHC consists of 16 588 modules. Charged-particle tracks in the detector are used to improve the accuracy to which the position and orientation of the modules are known. This contribution focuses on the Millepede-II algorithm, one of the two alignment algorithms used by CMS. Recently an advanced track model has been introduced into the CMS alignment procedure, which is based on the “Broken Lines” model and is able to take multiple Coulomb scattering in the detector material properly into account. We show the unique approach needed for solving the alignment problem in a reasonable amount of time. Emphasis is given to the mathematical treatment of the problem. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Designers are increasingly relying on field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based emulation to evaluate the performance of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes empirically down to bit-error rates of 10^-12 and below. This requires decoding architectures that can take advantage of the unique characteristics of a modern FPGA to maximize the decoding throughput. This paper presents two specific optimizations called vectorization and folding to take advantage of the configurable data-width and depth of embedded memory in an FPGA to improve the throughput of a decoder for quasi-cyclic LDPC codes. With folding it is shown that quasi-cyclic LDPC codes with a very large number of circulants can be implemented on FPGAs with a small number of embedded memory blocks. A synthesis tool called QCSyn is described, which takes the \bf H matrix of a quasi-cyclic LDPC code and the resource characteristics of an FPGA and automatically synthesizes a vector or folded architecture that maximizes the decoding throughput for the code on the given FPGA by selecting the appropriate degree of folding and/or vectorization. This helps not only in reducing the design time to create a decoder but also in quickly retargeting the implementation to a different (perhaps new) FPGA or a different emulation board. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Aligned Two-Higgs-Doublet Model (A2HDM) [Pich A. and Tuzon P. Yukawa Alignment in the Two-Higgs-Doublet Model. Phys. Rev. D80, (2009), 091702. 0908.1554] describes a particular way of enlarging the scalar sector of the Standard Model (SM), with a second Higgs doublet which is aligned to first the one in flavour space. This implies the absence of flavour-changing neutral currents (FCNCs) at tree level and the presence of three complex parameters. Within this general approach, we analyze the charged Higgs phenomenology, including CP asymmetries in the K and B systems [Jung M., Pich A. and Tuzon P. Charged-Higgs phenomenology in the Aligned two-Higgs-doublet model 1006.0470]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stories became a valuable tool in a business merger that aimed to align a dispersed organisation of 500 staff spread across the African continent. Evidence shows this organisation shifted its performance and its identity, while research hints at how story delivers benefits to individuals and to corporations, and can make a wider contribution to economic performance and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultrasonic testing requirements for aerospace applications require high sensitivity as well as highly repeatable and reliable detection capability. Phased array ultrasonics offers unique advantages over conventional ultrasound for aerospace testing because the beam can be controlled in many ways without mechanical movement. In addition, enhancements to throughput and repeatability are possible through the opportunities that phased array offers to test automation. The use of ultrasonic information from the array probe allows for continual monitoring of transducer alignment and positioning relative to the test piece without operator intervention. In addition, automated classification of detected discontinuities provides improvements to test reliability and probability of detection over operator controlled systems. However, the development of procedures to compensate for probe variability during an automated alignment and calibration procedure is not straightforward. This paper will describe the automated phased array processes and methods used for alignment, calibration and data acquisition by the Turbine Engine Sustainment Initiative (TESI) ultrasonic testing system developed by the University of Dayton Research Institute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We consider character sequences evolving on a phylogenetic tree under the TKF91 model. We show that as the sequence lengths tend to infinity the topology of the phylogenetic tree and the edge lengths are determined by any one of (a) the alignment of sequences (b) the collection of sequence lengths. We also show that the probability of any homology structure on a collection of sequences related by a TKF91 process on a tree is independent of the root location. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A scheme that registers and aligns digital image lesions of psoriasis within and between sessions is proposed. Lesions to be tracked are found under the assumption of being the object of largest size in thematic maps produced by a two-step hierarchical classification scheme that uses the output of an expectation-maximization algorithm to obtain a classification window of optimal size. Advantage is taken of the fact that the shape and the size of lesions with psoriasis do not change very much along the time. A first alignment of the lesions is done assuming that the correspondence between points is given by equivalence of positions of pixels after translations and rotations. Finally, a combined contextual registration and alignment scheme is applied. The alignment and registration schemes both use an Extreme Value Detection Algorithm based on a retinal mapping model. The output of the scheme is satisfactory not only in terms of visual appreciation of the aligned lesions, but also because the variation within sessions in the aligned lesions resembles randomly distributed Gaussian noise. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper, we propose a novel approach for automatic music video summarization based on audio-visual-text analysis and alignment. The music video is separated into the music and video tracks. For the music track, the chorus is detected based on music structure analysis. For the video track, we first segment the shots and classify the shots into close-up face shots and non-late shots, then we extract the lyrics and detect the most repeated lyrics from the shots. The music video summary is generated based on the alignment of boundaries of the detected chorus, shot class and the most repeated lyrics from the music video. The experiments on chorus detection, shot classification, and lyrics detection using 20 English music videos are described. Subjective user studies have been conducted to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of summary. The comparisons with the summaries based on our previous method and the manual method indicate that the results of summarization using the proposed method are better at meeting users' expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents results from Monte Carlo (MC) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations on the shear-induced long-ranged alignment of cylindrical micelles in thin films. The surfactant is represented on a lattice and the shear flow is simulated via incorporation of a shear-induced potential energy term within the acceptance criteria in the MC simulations. The MD simulations are conducted on a coarse-grained, off-lattice surfactant while the shear flow is imposed in thin films by sliding confining walls in opposite directions. It is shown that the two methods lead to different steady state orientations of micelles. We also discuss several problematic issues concerned with incorporating shear or dynamics within MC schemes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Copyright of Fuss & Sprunggelenk is the property of Elsevier GmbH, Urban & Fischer Verlag and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In practical applications of micro-simulation models (MSMs), very little is usually known about the properties of the simulated values. This paper argues that we need to apply the same rigorous standards for inference in micro-simulation work as in scientific work generally. If not, then MSMs will loose in credibility. Differences between inference in static and dynamic models are noted and then the paper focuses on the estimation of behavioral parameters. There are four themes: calibration viewed as estimation subject to external constraints, piece meal versus system-wide estimation, simulation-based estimation and validation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Petitioners in a trade case targeting imports of Chinese stainless steel and strip are asking the US Commerce Department to align its final countervailing and anti-dumping determinations, according to a filing with the department. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Call out the challenges you expect to face, but remember that enthusiasm sells. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Several letters to the editor are presented in response to articles in previous issues including an article related to offset for the rears, another on the Pontiac GTO automobile in the January 2013 issue, and other related to the 2001 Camaro automobile.