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The paper explores and characterizes antifragility in simple inventory systems exposed to demand variability, providing the initial inroads to operationalizing antifragility in the context of inventory management. Antifragility refers to the feature of a system that can benefit from uncertainty, rather than suffer from it. The paper expands the concept of inventory beyond that of risk mitigation and towards one of enabling antifragility.

The study employs analytical and simulation modelling of an inventory system with two classes of demand. To separate the influence of factors, a simple inventory policy with a range of fixed order quantities is modelled, allowing for the identification of antifragile regions in an experimental space.

Outputs uncover a variety of performance outcomes, ranging from settings where additional inventory yields no benefit, to areas where additional inventory results in increasing normalized profit with increasing uncertainty, demonstrating antifragility. In between these regions, increases in normalized profit are bounded, and confined to specific regions.

This research expands academic understanding of inventory as a vehicle to achieving antifragile outcomes. Although this paper does not solve for an optimal policy as typical inventory research does, it instead characterizes the antifragile outcomes within simple inventory systems. Further research should be carried out to investigate antifragility in settings of greater complexity and design ordering policies leveraging inventory towards a gain from uncertainty.

Typically, inventory is used to buffer against uncertainty, and, with a given amount of inventory, the performance is expected to degrade with increasing variability. In this paper, the authors demonstrate that certain levels of additional inventory can result in antifragility and increase profitability as uncertainty increases, extending beyond traditional conceptualizations of inventory and uncertainty.

Empirical research into designing antifragile outcomes is limited, with very few examples of increasing performance with increases in uncertainty. This article presents an initial empirical exploration of how additional inventory can result in antifragility.

Drawing from social cognitive theory, the purpose of this study is to examine how personal, environmental and behavioral factors can interplay to influence people's use of YouTube as a learning resource.

This study proposed a conceptual model, which was then tested with data collected from a survey with 150 participants who had the experience of using YouTube for learning. The bootstrap method was employed to test the direct and mediation hypotheses in the model.

The results revealed that personal factors, i.e. learning outcome expectations and attitude, had direct effects on using YouTube as a learning resource (person → behavior). The environmental factor, i.e. the sociability of YouTube, influenced the attitude (environment → person), while the behavioral factor, i.e. prior experience of learning on YouTube, affected learning outcome expectations (behavior → person). Moreover, the two personal factors fully mediated the influences of sociability and prior experience on YouTube usage for learning.

The factors and their relationships identified in this study provide important implications for individual learners, platform designers, educators and other stakeholders who encourage the use of YouTube as a learning resource.

This study draws on a comprehensive theoretical perspective (i.e. social cognitive theory) to investigate the interplay of critical components (i.e. individual, environment and behavior) in YouTube's learning ecosystem. Personal factors not only directly influenced the extent to which people use YouTube as a learning resource but also mediated the effects of environmental and behavioral factors on the usage behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how perceived usability and user characteristics influence the intention to use a crowdsourcing application for finding potentially trafficked children. As part of this effort, the authors also attempt to uncover the usability concerns surrounding the use of this application.

The authors first describe Zhongxun, which is the application used in the present paper. Next, they conducted a survey eliciting usability perceptions of Zhongxun. A total of 287 participants were recruited for the survey which used constructs adapted from the Computer System Usability Questionnaire as well as various demographic variables. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to ascertain factors influencing intention to use Zhongxun. Participants' qualitative feedback was also analyzed to derive themes pertaining to areas of improvement.

The results showed that system usefulness was the factor that most positively influenced intention to use Zhongxun, followed by information quality and interface quality. Interestingly, a higher level of education was negatively associated with intention to use the application. Qualitative feedback suggested various ways of improving Zhongxun's functionality. Participants recommended the incorporation of gamification mechanisms as a new feature of the application. Cultivating awareness of Zhongxun was also suggested as a means to attract new users.

The work can help inform the design of crowdsourcing applications for finding missing and potentially trafficked children, as well as similar systems. Implications include the need for simplicity of design, communication strategies to attract new and retain existing users, and instilling confidence in the quality of crowdsourced contributions.

Prior research in evaluating the usability of crowdsourcing applications has been performed but not in the context of finding missing and potentially trafficked children. The task of finding such children is markedly different from previous usage contexts and could impact perceptions of usability and usefulness. Hence, the present study attempts to plug this research gap.

The objective of this research is to model supply chain network resilience for low frequency high impact disruptions. The outputs are aimed at providing policy and practitioner guidance on ways to enhance supply chain resilience.

The research models the resilience of New Zealand's log export logistical network. A two-tier approach is developed; linear programming is used to model the aggregate-level resilience of the nation's ports, then discrete event simulation is used to evaluate operational constraints and validate the capacity of operational flows from forests to ports.

The synthesis of linear programming and discrete event simulation provide a holistic approach to evaluate supply chain resilience and enhance operational efficiency. Strategically increasing redundancy can be complimented with operational flexibility to enhance network resilience in the long term.

The two-tier modelling approach has only been applied to New Zealand's log export supply chains, so further applications are needed to insure reliability. The requirement for large quantities of empirical data relating to operational flows limited the simulation component to a single region

New Zealand's log export supply chain has low resilience; in most cases the closure of a port significantly constrains export capacity. Strategic selection of location and transportation mode by foresters and log exporters can significantly enhance the resilience of their supply chains.

The use of a two-tiered analytical approach enhances validity as each level's limitations and assumptions are addressed when combined with one another. Prior predominantly theoretical research in the field is validated by the empirical investigation of supply chain resilience.

Variable fractional delay filtering is an important technology in signal processing; the research shows that all-pass variable fractional delay (VFD) filters achieve higher design accuracy than FIR VFD filters; therefore, the design, analysis and implementation of all-pass VFD filters are of great importance.

In this paper, a two-stage approach for the design of general 1-D stable VFD all-pass filters is proposed. The method takes the desired group delay range [N−1, N], where N is the filter order.

The design algorithm is decomposed into two design stages: first, a set of fixed delay all-pass filters are designed by minimizing a set of objective functions defined in terms of approximating error criterion and filter stability constraint. Then, the design result is determined by fitting each of the fixed delay all-pass filter coefficients as 1-D polynomials. A design example together with its comparisons with those of the recent literature studies is given to justify the effectiveness of the proposed design method.

An illustrating design example shows that the method proposed can achieve better filter performances than the existing ones.

Over the past several decades, scholars and universities have made efforts to increase the retention of students in higher education, but graduation rates remain low. Whereas two-thirds of high school graduates attend college, fewer than half graduate. The likelihood of graduation decreases even more for Black, Latino, American Indian, and low-income students, who have a 12–15% lower chance of earning their degree. The importance of psychosocial adjustment to student persistence has received relatively less attention than academic and social integration. Racial/ethnic minority students face unique challenges to psychosocial adjustment in college, including prejudice and discrimination, unwelcoming campus environments, underrepresentation, and a lack of culturally appropriate counseling resources. The current chapter will discuss the impact of these challenges on the persistence, academic success, and health of racial/ethnic minority students, and strategies that universities can employ to create inclusive policies, resources and campus environments that empower students of color and maximize their success.

In Chapter 2, providing a contextual introduction to the issue of university spin-offs, Hogan and Quan Zhou seek to construct a better definition of what the term ‘spin-off’ should consist. After a wide-ranging review of previous attempts to define and classify aspects of the spin-off process, the authors offer their own ‘three-point’ checklist which seeks to clarify and define the ‘spin-off’ process. In conclusion, their paper seeks to assess the advantages and drawbacks of the system they recommend. This initial paper in this section is welcome since it illustrates that not only do academics differ over how to assist the ‘spin-off’ process, but they also often do not agree on how this process is to be defined.

Today’s Internet technology provides a convenient way for us to develop an integrated network environment for the diversified applications of different robotic systems. To be successful in real‐world applications, Internet‐based robots require a high degree of autonomy and local intelligence to deal with the restricted bandwidth and arbitrary transmission delay of the Internet. This paper describes the first step toward building such an Internet‐based robotic system for teleoperation in the University of Essex. The system has a standard network protocol and an interactive human‐machine interface. Using a Web browser, a remote operator can control the mobile robot to navigate in our laboratory with visual feedback and a simulated environment map via the Internet. The employment of an intuitive user interface enables Internet users to control the mobile robot and implement useful tasks remotely. Although at its first stage, the developed system has the potential to be extended to many real‐world applications such as tele‐manufacturing, tele‐training and tele‐service.

The role of the university in the 21st century is rapidly changing, reflecting a growing interest in the commercialisation of university knowledge among scholars and policymakers. University spin-offs (USOs) represent one mechanism for commercialising knowledge that are attracting considerable attention because of their potential to (a) enhance local economic development, (b) assist universities in their major mission of teaching and research and (c) generate high-performance firms (Shane, 2004). Indeed, one study by Bray and Lee (2000), based on a small US sample, found that on average, technology transfer offices earned a higher return from equity stakes in their USOs, even allowing for a 50% failure rate, than from the average licensing agreement.