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Development of the electronic precision theodolite has led to the automation of 3‐D coordinate determination.

This study aims to find the relationship of stock market returns and selected financial market variables (market capitalization, earnings per share, price-earnings multiples, dividend yield and trading volume) of Malaysia grounded by the arbitrage pricing theories.

This study empirically examines the effects of selected financial market variables on stock market returns using 64 companies listed in Malaysia's stock market with data spanning from 2005 to 2018. A systematic empirical study based on the Generalized Method of Moments following Arellano and Bond (1991) has been taken to estimate the effect.

The regression result of the financial market variables and stock market return shows that, except for trading volume, all selected financial market variables play significant roles in the stock market returns. Furthermore, market capitalization, earnings per share, price-earnings ratio, dividend yield and trading volume have a positive impact on stock market returns.

The outcome of this study can contribute by helping domestic and global investors devise strategies to minimize their risks. Also, policy administrators can use the outcomes of this study to inform the micro- and macro-level policy formulation.

This study will contribute to filling the gap in knowledge concerning the new release of factors affecting the stock market returns of Malaysia.

This paper seeks to investigate the impact of citrus tristeza virus (CTV) on the commercial value of fruit produced by navel orange trees.

Data are counts of fruit of various sizes and quality harvested from a tree in a year. The counted fruit are converted to a dollar value using a standardized pricing matrix and then normalized as a ratio of the tree value compared to trees in the same orchard and year that were free of virus. Statistical tests determine if trees at various stages of infection have different production values than virus‐free trees.

On average, trees infected with CTV have higher fruit production values than trees that did not contract the virus, after compensating for climate and location differences, even though the presence or absence of CTV explains only about 1 percent of the variation in production value.

Data are from commercially maintained orchards rather than a carefully controlled experiment in an isolated greenhouse environment.

Orange growers in the region should be reluctant to remove trees that have mild strains of CTV. The effects of a tree virus on production value should be a consideration in how to respond to the virus.

Development of a standardized pricing matrix to control for pricing fluctuations from year to year is a relatively novel concept. The applied concepts of tree status cohorts and relative crop values are original and provide valuable tools for combining data from different orchards and climate conditions.

The decision-making for additive manufacturing (AM) process selection is typically applied in the end of the product design stages based upon an already finished design. However, due to unique characteristics of AM processes, the part needs to be designed for the specific AM process. This requires potentially feasible AM techniques to be identified in early design stages. This paper aims to develop such a decision-making methodology that can seamlessly be integrated in the product design stages to facilitate AM process selection and assist product/part design.

The decision-making methodology consists of four elements, namely, initial screening, technical evaluation and selection of feasible AM processes, re-evaluation of the feasible process and production machine selection. Prior to the design phase, the methodology determines whether AM production is suitable based on the given design requirements. As the design progresses, a more accurate process selection in terms of technical and economic viability is performed using the analytic hierarchy process technique. Features that would cause potential manufacturability issues and increased production costs will be identified and modified. Finally, a production machine that is best suited for the finished product design is identified.

The methodology was found to be able to facilitate the design process by enabling designers to identify appropriate AM technique and production machine, which was demonstrated in the case study.

This study addresses the gap between the isolated product design and process selection stages by developing the decision-making methodology that can be integrated in product design stages.

In connection with the wider use of fuel oils in Czechoslovakia, accurate knowledge of the compositions of the various types of oils acquires importance, mainly in respect of the contents of various elements causing corrosion and sediments. This relates fundamentally to sulphur, vanadium, sodium, potassium and calcium. In the form of tables the author gives the compositions of 19 different types of fuel oils of the petroleum group, and of four types of fuel oils of the lignite tar group.

Fuzzy set theory supports business decision‐making processes. So far it has been implemented in many industries, but not in the hospitality industry. An attempt is made to apply general fuzzy control model to service quality processes in the hospitality industry (SQHI). In this respect, the SQHI fuzzy control model is created. The case study underlines a possible practical use of the model in controlling service quality processes in order to achieve or sustain competitive advantage.

The purpose of this paper is to present a specific case of at-home ethnography, or insider research: The German Public Employment Service (BA) commissioned its own research institute (Institute for Employment Research (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung)) to evaluate the daily implementation of its core management instruments (target management and controlling). The aim of the paper is to explain the challenges faced by the ethnographers and to reflect on them methodologically.

At-home ethnography/insider research.

In the paper, it is argued to what extent conducting at-home ethnography, or insider research, is like “Walking the Line” – to paraphrase Johnny Cash. When examining a management instrument that is highly contested on the micropolitical level, the researchers have to navigate their way through different interests with regard to advice and support, and become micropoliticians in their own interest at the same time in order to maintain scientific autonomy. The ethnographers are deeply enmeshed in the micropolitical dynamics of their field, which gives rise to the question of how they can distance themselves in this situation. To this effect, they develop the argument that distancing is not so much about seeing what is familiar in a new light, as is mostly suggested in the literature, than about alienating a familiar research environment in order to avoid a bureaucratically contingent othering. It is shown what constitutes a bureaucratically contingent othering and how it should be met by an othering of the bureaucracy. Conclusions are drawn from this with regard to the advice and support required for the bureaucracy and concerning the methods debate surrounding insider research in general.

The paper contributes to the method debate with regard to at-home ethnography, or insider research, and particularly addresses organisational researchers and practitioners facing similar challenges when conducting ethnographic research in their own organisation.

Integrating the two‐system (reflective vs. impulsive) model and the “stimulus‐organism‐response” framework, the purpose of this paper is to construct and empirically test a model that examines online impulse buying as a phenomenon triggered by system design factors.

A laboratory experimental design with a 2×2 full factorial design involving 151 undergraduate students was used to validate the effects of system design stimuli on online impulse buying. Interactivity and vividness, two design factors, were manipulated and a fictitious VCD movie store was created, with four storefronts representing each combination of treatments.

A compelling and sociable virtual experience as conceptualized with telepresence and social presence has a significant effect on buying impulses over and above traditional marketing/product stimuli. Such virtual experience can be created through the usage of interactive and vivid website features. Furthermore, cognition positively moderates the relationship between buying impulse and the actual purchasing behavior.

The findings provide valuable guidance in website design that can stimulate online impulse buying. The results also indicate the importance of providing cognitive intervention at the purchasing stage.

A significant extension of the “stimulus‐organism‐response” framework is to introduce presence as the system stimulus that captures the overall virtual experience and to specify the associated design features; i.e. interactivity and vividness. By incorporating the two‐system model, this study offers a theoretical underpinning of the role of cognitive processing in impulse buying.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a simple chaotic circuit. The circuit can be fabricated by less discrete electronic components, within which complex dynamical behaviors can be generated.

A second-order non-autonomous inductor-free chaotic circuit is presented, which is obtained by introducing a sinusoidal voltage stimulus into the classical Wien-bridge oscillator. The proposed circuit only has two dynamic elements, and its nonlinearity is realized by the saturation characteristic of the operational amplifier in the classical Wien-bridge oscillator. After that, its dynamical behaviors are revealed by means of bifurcation diagram, Lyapunov exponent and phase portrait and further confirmed using the 0-1 test method. Moreover, an analog circuit using less discrete electronic components is implemented, and its experimental results are measured to verify the numerical simulations.

The equilibrium point located in a line segment varies with time evolution, which leads to the occurrence of periodic, quasi-periodic and chaotic behaviors in the proposed circuit.

Unlike the previously published works, the significant values of the proposed circuit with simple topology are inductor-free realization and without extra nonlinearity, which make the circuit can be used as a paradigm for academic teaching and experimental illustraction for chaos.

With the increasing attention acquired from researchers and practitioners in Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry, building information modeling (BIM) has fundamentally changed the approach we design, construct and delivery, as well as operate and maintenance of buildings and civil infrastructures. This study tries to provide an innovative perspective on BIM research. This study aims to analyze the necessity and feasibility of BIM user satisfaction research and define what BIM user satisfaction is, and then to develop a quantitative method for the measurement of BIM user satisfaction.

As it is indicated in the content, BIM user satisfaction is measured by the sum of the user's weighted reactions to a set of factors. To be specific, the entropy method was adopted to calculate the “weighting” of the factors, and the triangular fuzzy number (TFN) method was selected to compute the “scoring” of the factors. Through the literature review, methodology and tool development, as well as case study and discussions, this paper was generated sequentially.

This study found that the proposed tool for the measurement of BIM success is valid and reliable; it formerly translated the conceptual definition of BIM user satisfaction into an accurate measurement instrument. It also indicated that many factors are affecting the BIM users' satisfaction, and each of the factors inherited various importance and score, and the findings are expected to improve the performance and effectiveness of BIM management.

Through the translation of the conceptual BIM user satisfaction into a valid quantitative measurement instrument, this research provides an excellent framework for the management of BIM from the user's perspective, and it could help to stimulate user's acceptance of BIM in the AEC industry in future.