Search results for: product range
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 9661

Search results for: product range

9661 Mechanism of Changing a Product Concept

Authors: Kiyohiro Yamazaki

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to examine the hypothesis explaining the mechanism in the case, where the product is deleted or reduced the fundamental function of the product through the product concept changes in the digital camera industry. This paper points out not owning the fundamental technology might cause the change of the product concept. Casio could create new competitive factor so that this paper discusses a possibility of the mechanism of changing the product concept.

Keywords: firm without fundamental technology, product development, product concept, digital camera industry, Casio

Procedia PDF Downloads 526
9660 Chiral Amine Synthesis and Recovery by Using High Molecular Weight Amine Donors

Authors: Claudia Matassa, Matthias Hohne, Dominic Ormerod, Yamini Satyawali

Abstract:

Chiral amines integrate the backbone of several active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used in modern medicine for the treatment of a vast range of diseases. Despite the demand, their synthesis remains challenging. Besides a range of chemicals and enzymatical methods, chiral amine synthesis using transaminases (EC 2.6.1.W) represents a useful alternative to access this important class of compounds. Even though transaminases exhibit excellent stereo and regioselectivity and the potential for high yield, the reaction suffers from a number of challenges, including the thermodynamic equilibrium, product inhibition, and low substrate solubility. In this work, we demonstrate a membrane assisted strategy for addressing these challenges. It involves the use of high molecular weight (HMW) amine donors for the transaminase-catalyzed synthesis of 4-phenyl-2-butylamine in both aqueous and organic solvent media. In contrast to common amine donors such as alanine or isopropylamine, these large molecules, provided in excess for thermodynamic equilibrium shifting, are easily retained by commercial nanofiltration membranes; thus a selective permeation of the desired smaller product amine is possible. The enzymatic transamination in aqueous media, combined with selective product removal shifted the equilibrium enhancing substrate conversion by an additional 25% compared to the control reaction. Along with very efficient amine product removal, there was undesirable loss of ketone substrate and low product concentration was achieved. The system was therefore further improved by performing the reaction in organic solvent (n-heptane). Coupling the reaction system with membrane-assisted product removal resulted in a highly concentrated and relatively pure ( > 97%) product solution. Moreover, a product yield of 60% was reached, compared to 15% without product removal.

Keywords: amine donor, chiral amines, in situ product removal, transamination

Procedia PDF Downloads 108
9659 Popular eReaders

Authors: Tom D. Gedeon, Ujala Rampaul

Abstract:

The evaluation of electronic consumer goods are most often done from the perspective of analysing the latest models, comparing their advantages and disadvantages with respect to price. This style of evaluation is often performed by one or a few product experts on a wide range of features that may not be applicable to each user. We instead used a scenario-based approach to evaluate a number of e-readers. The setting is similar to a user who is interested in a new product or technology and has allocated a limited budget. We evaluate the quality and usability of e-readers available within that budget range. This is based on the assumption of a rational market which prices older second hand devices the same as functionally equivalent new devices. We describe our evaluation and comparison of four branded eReaders, as the initial stage of a larger project. The scenario has a range of tasks approximating a busy person who does not bother to read the manual. We found that navigation within books to be the most significant differentiator between the eReaders in our scenario based evaluation process.

Keywords: eReader, scenario based, price comparison, Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Sony, technology adoption

Procedia PDF Downloads 476
9658 Retail of Organic Food in Poland

Authors: Joanna Smoluk-Sikorska, Władysława Łuczka

Abstract:

Organic farming is an important element of sustainable agriculture. It has been developing very dynamically in Poland, especially since Poland’s accession to the EU. Nevertheless, properly functioning organic market is a necessary condition justifying development of organic agriculture. Despite significant improvement, this market in Poland is still in the initial stage of growth. An important element of the market is distribution, especially retail, which offers specified product range to consumers. Therefore, there is a need to investigate retail outlets offering organic food in order to improve functioning of this part of the market. The inquiry research conducted in three types of outlets offering organic food, between 2011 and 2012 in the 8 largest Polish cities, shows that the majority of outlets offer cereals, processed fruit and vegetables as well as spices and the least shops – meat and sausages. The distributors mostly indicate unsatisfactory product range of suppliers as the reason for this situation. The main providers of the outlets are wholesalers, particularly in case of processed products, and in fresh products – organic farms. A very important distribution obstacle is dispersion of producers, which generates high transportation costs and what follows that, high price of organics. In the investigated shops, the most often used price calculation method is a cost method. The majority of the groceries and specialist shops apply margins between 21 and 40%. The margin in specialist outlets is the highest, in regard to the qualified service and advice. In turn, most retail networks declare the margin between 0 and 20%, which is consistent with low-price strategy applied in these shops. Some lacks in the product range of organics and in particular high prices cause that the demand volume is rather low. Therefore there is a need to support certain market actions, e.g. on-farm processing or promotion.

Keywords: organic food, retail, product range, supply sources

Procedia PDF Downloads 262
9657 Product Line Design with Customization in the Presence of Demand Uncertainty

Authors: Parisa Bagheri Tookanlou

Abstract:

In this paper, we analyze a product line design problem faced by a manufacturing firm where the product line consists of a customized product in addition to a standard product and is offered in a market in which customers are heterogeneous on aesthetic attributes of the product. The customization level of a product is defined by the fraction of aesthetic attributes of the product that the manufacturer chooses to customize. In contrast to the existing literature on product line design that predominantly assumes deterministic demand, we consider the presence of demand uncertainty and frame the product line design problem in a single period (news vendor) setting. We examine the effect of demand uncertainty on product line decisions. Furthermore, we also examine how product line decisions are influenced by channel structure. While we use the centralized channel as a benchmark, we consider the decentralized dual channel where the customized product is sold through an online channel owned by the manufacturer and the standard product is sold through a retailer. We introduce a supply contract between the manufacturer and the retailer for improving channel efficiency and coordinate the distribution channel.

Keywords: product line design, demand uncertainty, customization level, distribution channel

Procedia PDF Downloads 143
9656 Developing a Rational Database Management System (RDBMS) Supporting Product Life Cycle Appications

Authors: Yusri Yusof, Chen Wong Keong

Abstract:

This paper presents the implementation details of a Relational Database Management System of a STEP-technology product model repository. It is able support the implementation of any EXPRESS language schema, although it has been primarily implemented to support mechanical product life cycle applications. This database support the input of STEP part 21 file format from CAD in geometrical and topological data format and support a range of queries for mechanical product life cycle applications. This proposed relational database management system uses entity-to-table method (R1) rather than type-to-table method (R4). The two mapping methods have their own strengths and drawbacks.

Keywords: RDBMS, CAD, ISO 10303, part-21 file

Procedia PDF Downloads 494
9655 Integration of Quality Function Deployment and Modular Function Deployment in Product Development

Authors: Naga Velamakuri, Jyothi K. Reddy

Abstract:

Quality must be designed into a product and not inspected has become the main motto of all the companies globally. Due to the rapidly increasing technology in the past few decades, the nature of demands from the consumers has become more sophisticated. To sustain this global revolution of innovation in production systems, companies have to take steps to accommodate this technology growth. In this process of understanding the customers' expectations, all the firms globally take steps to deliver a perfect output. Most of these techniques also concentrate on the consistent development and optimization of the product to exceed the expectations. Quality Function Deployment(QFD) and Modular Function Deployment(MFD) are such techniques which rely on the voice of the customer and help deliver the needs. In this paper, Quality Function Deployment and Modular Function Deployment techniques which help in converting the quantitative descriptions to qualitative outcomes are discussed. The area of interest would be to understand the scope of each of the techniques and the application range in product development when these are applied together to any problem. The research question would be mainly aimed at comprehending the limitations using modularity in product development.

Keywords: quality function deployment, modular function deployment, house of quality, methodology

Procedia PDF Downloads 282
9654 Product Development Process to Obtain Community Standard Product Certificate: A Case of Bangkhonthi, Samut Songkhram, Thailand

Authors: Supattra Pranee

Abstract:

The objectives of this research were to study the product development process to obtain a community standard product certificate and to set a guideline for the product development process to obtain the community product certificate. Focus group discussion was conducted with many experts in the field, local government officials, and representatives from local producers in Bangkontee district. The findings revealed that there were eight important processes to obtain the community product certificate: 1) prepare document, 2) submit the document, 3) set up an appointment for onsite inspection, 4) onsite inspection and sample collections, 5) evaluate samples, 6) obtain test result, and 7) obtain certificate.

Keywords: perceived values, tourist destination, visiting, product development

Procedia PDF Downloads 405
9653 The Effects of Source and Timing on the Acceptance of New Product Recommendation: A Lab Experiment

Authors: Yani Shi, Jiaqi Yan

Abstract:

A new product is important for companies to extend consumers and manifest competitiveness. New product often involves new features that consumers might not be familiar with while it may also have a competitive advantage to attract consumers compared to established products. However, although most online retailers employ recommendation agents (RA) to influence consumers’ product choice decision, recommended new products are not accepted and chosen as expected. We argue that it might also be caused by providing a new product recommendation in the wrong way at the wrong time. This study seeks to discuss how new product evaluations sourced from third parties could be employed in RAs as evidence of the superiority for the new product and how the new product recommendation could be provided to a consumer at the right time so that it can be accepted and finally chosen during the consumer’s decision-making process. A 2*2 controlled laboratory experiment was conducted to understand the selection of new product recommendation sources and recommendation timing. Human subjects were randomly assigned to one of the four treatments to minimize the effects of individual differences on the results. Participants were told to make purchase choices from our product categories. We find that a new product recommended right after a similar existing product and with the source of the expert review will be more likely to be accepted. Based on this study, both theoretical and practical contributions are provided regarding new product recommendation.

Keywords: new product recommendation, recommendation timing, recommendation source, recommendation agents

Procedia PDF Downloads 119
9652 Prioritizing Quality Dimensions in ‘Servitised’ Business through AHP

Authors: Mohita Gangwar Sharma

Abstract:

Different factors are compelling manufacturers to move towards the phenomenon of servitization i.e. when firms go beyond giving support to the customers in operating the equipment. The challenges that are being faced in this transition by the manufacturing firms from being a product provider to a product- service provider are multipronged. Product-Service Systems (PSS) lies in between the pure-product and pure-service continuum. Through this study, we wish to understand the dimensions of ‘PSS-quality’. We draw upon the quality literature for both the product and services and through an expert survey for a specific transportation sector using analytical hierarchical process (AHP) derive a conceptual model that can be used as a comprehensive measurement tool for PSS offerings.

Keywords: servitisation, quality, product-service system, AHP

Procedia PDF Downloads 269
9651 An Alternative Way to Mapping Cone

Authors: Yousuf Alkhezi

Abstract:

Since most of the literature on algebra does not make much deal with the special case of mapping cone. This paper is an alternative way to examine the special tensor product and mapping cone. Also, we show that the isomorphism that implies the mapping cone commutes with the tensor product for the ordinary tensor product no longer holds for the pinched tensor product. However, we show there is a morphism. We will introduce an alternative way of mapping cone. We are looking for more properties which is our future project. Also, we want to apply these new properties in some application. Many results and examples with classical algorithms will be provided.

Keywords: complex, tensor product, pinched tensore product, mapping cone

Procedia PDF Downloads 82
9650 Hydrothermal Treatment for Production of Aqueous Co-Product and Efficient Oil Extraction from Microalgae

Authors: Manatchanok Tantiphiphatthana, Lin Peng, Rujira Jitrwung, Kunio Yoshikawa

Abstract:

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a technique for obtaining clean biofuel from biomass in the presence of heat and pressure in an aqueous medium which leads to a decomposition of this biomass to the formation of various products. A role of operating conditions is essential for the bio-oil and other products’ yield and also quality of the products. The effects of these parameters were investigated in regards to the composition and yield of the products. Chlorellaceae microalgae were tested under different HTL conditions to clarify suitable conditions for extracting bio-oil together with value-added co-products. Firstly, different microalgae loading rates (5-30%) were tested and found that this parameter has not much significant to product yield. Therefore, 10% microalgae loading rate was selected as a proper economical solution for conditioned schedule at 250oC and 30 min-reaction time. Next, a range of temperature (210-290oC) was applied to verify the effects of each parameter by keeping the reaction time constant at 30 min. The results showed no linkage with the increase of the reaction temperature and some reactions occurred that lead to different product yields. Moreover, some nutrients found in the aqueous product are possible to be utilized for nutrient recovery.

Keywords: bio-oil, hydrothermal liquefaction, microalgae, aqueous co-product

Procedia PDF Downloads 368
9649 Social Media as a Distribution Channel for Thailand’s Rice Berry Product

Authors: Phutthiwat Waiyawuththanapoom, Wannapong Waiyawuththanapoom, Pimploi Tirastittam

Abstract:

Nowadays, it is a globalization era which social media plays an important role to the lifestyle as an information source, tools to connect people together and etc. This research is object to find out about the significant level of the social media as a distribution channel to the agriculture product of Thailand. In this research, the agriculture product is the Rice Berry which is the cross-bred unmilled rice producing dark violet grain, is a combination of Hom Nin Rice and Thai Jasmine/ Fragrant Rice 105. Rice Berry has a very high nutrition and nice aroma so the product is in the growth stage of the product cycle. The problem for the Rice Berry product in Thailand is the production and the distribution channel. This study is to confirm that the social media is another option as the distribution channel for the product which is not a mass production product. This will be the role model for the other niche market product to select the distribution channel.

Keywords: distribution, social media, rice berry, distribution channel

Procedia PDF Downloads 395
9648 Lean Product Development and Sustainability: A Systematic Literature Review

Authors: João P. E. De Souza, Rob Dekkers

Abstract:

Whereas lean product development aims at maximising customer value whilst optimising product and process design, the question arises whether this approach includes sustainability. A systematic literature review reveals that methods associated with this conceptualisation of product development are suitable for including sustainability, but that the criteria for the triple-bottom line need to be included when using these methods; this is particularly the case for social aspects. Thus, the main finding is that not new methods should be developed, but that existing methods should be more inclusive towards all aspects of sustainability and product life-cycle thinking.

Keywords: lean product development, product life-cycle, sustainability, systematic literature review, triple bottom-line

Procedia PDF Downloads 113
9647 Counterfeit Product Detection Using Block Chain

Authors: Sharanya C. H., Pragathi M., Vathsala R. S., Theja K. V., Yashaswini S.

Abstract:

Identifying counterfeit products have become increasingly important in the product manufacturing industries in recent decades. This current ongoing product issue of counterfeiting has an impact on company sales and profits. To address the aforementioned issue, a functional blockchain technology was implemented, which effectively prevents the product from being counterfeited. By utilizing the blockchain technology, consumers are no longer required to rely on third parties to determine the authenticity of the product being purchased. Blockchain is a distributed database that stores data records known as blocks and several databases known as chains across various networks. Counterfeit products are identified using a QR code reader, and the product's QR code is linked to the blockchain management system. It compares the unique code obtained from the customer to the stored unique code to determine whether or not the product is original.

Keywords: blockchain, ethereum, QR code

Procedia PDF Downloads 134
9646 A Process of Forming a Single Competitive Factor in the Digital Camera Industry

Authors: Kiyohiro Yamazaki

Abstract:

This paper considers a forming process of a single competitive factor in the digital camera industry from the viewpoint of product platform. To make product development easier for companies and to increase product introduction ratios, development efforts concentrate on improving and strengthening certain product attributes, and it is born in the process that the product platform is formed continuously. It is pointed out that the formation of this product platform raises product development efficiency of individual companies, but on the other hand, it has a trade-off relationship of causing unification of competitive factors in the whole industry. This research tries to analyze product specification data which were collected from the web page of digital camera companies. Specifically, this research collected all product specification data released in Japan from 1995 to 2003 and analyzed the composition of image sensor and optical lens; and it identified product platforms shared by multiple products and discussed their application. As a result, this research found that the product platformation was born in the development of the standard product for major market segmentation. Every major company has made product platforms of image sensors and optical lenses, and as a result, this research found that the competitive factors were unified in the entire industry throughout product platformation. In other words, this product platformation brought product development efficiency of individual firms; however, it also caused industrial competition factors to be unified in the industry.

Keywords: digital camera industry, product evolution trajectory, product platform, unification of competitive factors

Procedia PDF Downloads 116
9645 Product Features Extraction from Opinions According to Time

Authors: Kamal Amarouche, Houda Benbrahim, Ismail Kassou

Abstract:

Nowadays, e-commerce shopping websites have experienced noticeable growth. These websites have gained consumers’ trust. After purchasing a product, many consumers share comments where opinions are usually embedded about the given product. Research on the automatic management of opinions that gives suggestions to potential consumers and portrays an image of the product to manufactures has been growing recently. After launching the product in the market, the reviews generated around it do not usually contain helpful information or generic opinions about this product (e.g. telephone: great phone...); in the sense that the product is still in the launching phase in the market. Within time, the product becomes old. Therefore, consumers perceive the advantages/ disadvantages about each specific product feature. Therefore, they will generate comments that contain their sentiments about these features. In this paper, we present an unsupervised method to extract different product features hidden in the opinions which influence its purchase, and that combines Time Weighting (TW) which depends on the time opinions were expressed with Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF). We conduct several experiments using two different datasets about cell phones and hotels. The results show the effectiveness of our automatic feature extraction, as well as its domain independent characteristic.

Keywords: opinion mining, product feature extraction, sentiment analysis, SentiWordNet

Procedia PDF Downloads 353
9644 Enterprise Infrastructure Related to the Product Value Transferred from Intellectual Capital

Authors: Chih Chin Yang

Abstract:

The paper proposed a new theory of intellectual capital (so called IC) and a value approach in associated with production and market. After an in-depth review and research analysis of leading firms in this field, a holistic intellectual capital model is discussed, which involves transport, delivery supporting, and interface and systems of on intellectual capital. Through a quantity study, it is found that there is a significant relationship between the product value and infrastructure in a company. The product values are transferred from intellectual capital elements which includes three elements of content and the enterprise includes three elements of infrastructure in its market and product values of enterprise.

Keywords: enterprise, product value, intellectual capital, market and product values

Procedia PDF Downloads 351
9643 A Holistic Approach for Technical Product Optimization

Authors: Harald Lang, Michael Bader, A. Buchroithner

Abstract:

Holistic methods covering the development process as a whole – e.g. systems engineering – have established themselves in product design. However, technical product optimization, representing improvements in efficiency and/or minimization of loss, usually applies to single components of a system. A holistic approach is being defined based on a hierarchical point of view of systems engineering. This is subsequently presented using the example of an electromechanical flywheel energy storage system for automotive applications.

Keywords: design, product development, product optimization, systems engineering

Procedia PDF Downloads 585
9642 Effects of Animal Metaphor on Consumer Response to Product Advertising

Authors: Wen-Hsien Huang, Hsu-Ting Hsu

Abstract:

While advertisers often use animal metaphors to promote product performance, representing through the use of a product image together with an animal-like messenger to imply the undesirable health states of not using the product, the effect of such metaphors on persuasion remains unclear. The current research addresses this issue by investigating how consumers perceive and react to animal metaphor advertising in the context of product promotion. Three studies are carried out using field and experimental data. The findings demonstrate that animal metaphor ads are less persuasive than non-metaphor ads and that ads with animal-like messengers (as opposed to human messengers) activate stronger dehumanization perceptions, which in turn lead to lower product choice, product evaluation and purchase intention, regardless of whether the animal metaphors are presented visually in the picture or verbally in the headline. Furthermore, when the metaphorical pairing includes a more disliked animal, consumer reaction was less favorable. The implications of the findings for advertisers considering the use of animalized messengers are discussed.

Keywords: animal metaphor, dehumanization, product evaluation, health communication

Procedia PDF Downloads 39
9641 The Marketing Strategies of Five-Star Rated Herbal Businesses of One Tambon One Product (OTOP) Entrepreneurs in Songkhla Province, Thailand

Authors: S. Lungtae, C. Noknoi

Abstract:

The main purpose of this research is to analyze the marketing strategies of the various five-star rated herbal businesses of One Tambon One Product (OTOP) entrepreneurs in Songkhla province, Thailand. This includes the targeting, positioning and marketing mix in order to develop marketing strategies for OTOP entrepreneurs. The data were collected from the presidents of herbal-product enterprises in Songkhla province. The products of all these enterprises were selected as five-star herbal products for the OTOP project in 2012. In-depth interviews were conducted, and content analysis was used to analyze the data. The research found that the community enterprises should 1) increase the range of product sizes offered, 2) increase their distribution channels, 3) publicize more to inform consumers about their identities and products, 4) undertake promotional activities during the festival, and 5) choose salespeople who are knowledgeable about the features of their products.

Keywords: marketing mix, market positioning, marketing strategies, target market.

Procedia PDF Downloads 254
9640 Dissemination of Knowledge on Quality Control for Upgrading Product Standards for Small and Micro Community Enterprises

Authors: Niyom Suwandej

Abstract:

This research paper investigated the opinions of small and micro community enterprises from Jom Pluak Subdistrict, Bangkhontee District, Samut Songkram Province towards product quality control, and the findings are aimed to disseminate knowledge on quality control for upgrading product standards for small and micro community enterprises. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods, in which there were 23 samples in the study. The study was divided into 2 steps which were (1) studying the opinions of the respondents towards the community’s product quality control and upgrading product standards; (2) creating development guidance for product quality control and upgrading product standards for small and micro community enterprise. The demographic findings revealed female respondents as the majority, with most above 50 years of age and married. Most had more than 15 years of working experience. The education level reported by most respondents was primary school or lower followed by secondary school or lower with most respondents was vocational certificate level. Most respondents had the highest level of satisfaction with the existing condition of product quality control knowledge management. Pertaining to opinions on the guidance of knowledge creation for product quality control for small and micro community enterprise, the respondents were willing to apply the knowledge in upgrading their product standards. For the opinions of knowledge creation for product quality control and product standards, the respondents had the highest level of satisfaction. Guidance of knowledge creation for product quality control and product standards for small and micro community enterprises received the highest level of satisfaction from the respondents. Furthermore they had knowledge and comprehension in product quality control and product standards and could apply the knowledge in improving the quality of their production and product standards for small and micro community enterprises.

Keywords: product quality control, product standards, community enterprise, marketing management

Procedia PDF Downloads 428
9639 Data Mining to Capture User-Experience: A Case Study in Notebook Product Appearance Design

Authors: Rhoann Kerh, Chen-Fu Chien, Kuo-Yi Lin

Abstract:

In the era of rapidly increasing notebook market, consumer electronics manufacturers are facing a highly dynamic and competitive environment. In particular, the product appearance is the first part for user to distinguish the product from the product of other brands. Notebook product should differ in its appearance to engage users and contribute to the user experience (UX). The UX evaluates various product concepts to find the design for user needs; in addition, help the designer to further understand the product appearance preference of different market segment. However, few studies have been done for exploring the relationship between consumer background and the reaction of product appearance. This study aims to propose a data mining framework to capture the user’s information and the important relation between product appearance factors. The proposed framework consists of problem definition and structuring, data preparation, rules generation, and results evaluation and interpretation. An empirical study has been done in Taiwan that recruited 168 subjects from different background to experience the appearance performance of 11 different portable computers. The results assist the designers to develop product strategies based on the characteristics of consumers and the product concept that related to the UX, which help to launch the products to the right customers and increase the market shares. The results have shown the practical feasibility of the proposed framework.

Keywords: consumers decision making, product design, rough set theory, user experience

Procedia PDF Downloads 267
9638 Cosmetic Recommendation Approach Using Machine Learning

Authors: Shakila N. Senarath, Dinesh Asanka, Janaka Wijayanayake

Abstract:

The necessity of cosmetic products is arising to fulfill consumer needs of personality appearance and hygiene. A cosmetic product consists of various chemical ingredients which may help to keep the skin healthy or may lead to damages. Every chemical ingredient in a cosmetic product does not perform on every human. The most appropriate way to select a healthy cosmetic product is to identify the texture of the body first and select the most suitable product with safe ingredients. Therefore, the selection process of cosmetic products is complicated. Consumer surveys have shown most of the time, the selection process of cosmetic products is done in an improper way by consumers. From this study, a content-based system is suggested that recommends cosmetic products for the human factors. To such an extent, the skin type, gender and price range will be considered as human factors. The proposed system will be implemented by using Machine Learning. Consumer skin type, gender and price range will be taken as inputs to the system. The skin type of consumer will be derived by using the Baumann Skin Type Questionnaire, which is a value-based approach that includes several numbers of questions to derive the user’s skin type to one of the 16 skin types according to the Bauman Skin Type indicator (BSTI). Two datasets are collected for further research proceedings. The user data set was collected using a questionnaire given to the public. Those are the user dataset and the cosmetic dataset. Product details are included in the cosmetic dataset, which belongs to 5 different kinds of product categories (Moisturizer, Cleanser, Sun protector, Face Mask, Eye Cream). An alternate approach of TF-IDF (Term Frequency – Inverse Document Frequency) is applied to vectorize cosmetic ingredients in the generic cosmetic products dataset and user-preferred dataset. Using the IF-IPF vectors, each user-preferred products dataset and generic cosmetic products dataset can be represented as sparse vectors. The similarity between each user-preferred product and generic cosmetic product will be calculated using the cosine similarity method. For the recommendation process, a similarity matrix can be used. Higher the similarity, higher the match for consumer. Sorting a user column from similarity matrix in a descending order, the recommended products can be retrieved in ascending order. Even though results return a list of similar products, and since the user information has been gathered, such as gender and the price ranges for product purchasing, further optimization can be done by considering and giving weights for those parameters once after a set of recommended products for a user has been retrieved.

Keywords: content-based filtering, cosmetics, machine learning, recommendation system

Procedia PDF Downloads 98
9637 The Stock Price Effect of Apple Keynotes

Authors: Ethan Petersen

Abstract:

In this paper, we analyze the volatility of Apple’s stock beginning January 3, 2005 up to October 9, 2014, then focus on a range from 30 days prior to each product announcement until 30 days after. Product announcements are filtered; announcements whose 60 day range is devoid of other events are separated. This filtration is chosen to isolate, and study, a potential cross-effect. Concerning Apple keynotes, there are two significant dates: the day the invitations to the event are received and the day of the event itself. As such, the statistical analysis is conducted for both invite-centered and event-centered time frames. A comparison to the VIX is made to determine if the trend is simply following the market or deviating. Regardless of the filtration, we find that there is a clear deviation from the market. Comparing these data sets, there are significantly different trends: isolated events have a constantly decreasing, erratic trend in volatility but an increasing, linear trend is observed for clustered events. According to the Efficient Market Hypothesis, we would expect a change when new information is publicly known and the results of this study support this claim.

Keywords: efficient market hypothesis, event study, volatility, VIX

Procedia PDF Downloads 249
9636 By-Product Alcohol: Fusel Oil as an Alternative Fuel in Spark Ignition Engine

Authors: Omar Awad, R. Mamat, F. Yusop, M. M. Noor, I. M. Yusri

Abstract:

Fusel oil is a by-product obtained through the fermentation of some agricultural products. The fusel oil properties are closer to other alternative combustible types and the limited number of studies on the use of fusel oil as an alcohol derivative in SI engines constitutes to the base of this study. This paper experimentally examined the impacts of a by-product of alcohol, which is fusel oil by blending it with gasoline, on engine performance, combustion characteristics, and emissions in a 4-cylinder SI engine. The test was achieved at different engine speeds and a 60 % throttle valve (load). As results, brake power, BTE, and BSFC of F10 are higher at all engine speeds. Maximum engine BTE was 33.9%, at the lowest BSFC with F10. Moreover, it is worth seeing that the F10 under rich air-fuel ratio has less variation of COVIMEP compared to the F20 and gasoline. F10 represents shorter combustion duration, thereby, the engine power increased. NOx emission for F10 at 4500 rpm was lower than gasoline. The highest value of HC emission is obtained with F10 compared to gasoline and F20 with an average increase of 11% over the engine speed range. CO and CO2 emissions increased when using fusel oil blends.

Keywords: fusel oil, spark ignition engine, by-product alcohol, combustion characteristics, engine emissions, alternative fuel

Procedia PDF Downloads 442
9635 Inequality for Doubly Warped Product Manifolds

Authors: Morteza Faghfouri

Abstract:

In this paper we establish a general inequality involving the Laplacian of the warping functions and the squared mean curvature of any doubly warped product isometrically immersed in a Riemannian manifold.

Keywords: integral submanifolds, S-space forms, doubly warped product, inequality

Procedia PDF Downloads 247
9634 Optimal Selling Prices for Small Sized Poultry Farmers

Authors: Hidefumi Kawakatsu, Dong Li, Kosuke Kato

Abstract:

In Japan, meat-type chickens are mainly classified into three categories: (1) Broilers, (2) Branded chickens, and (3) Jidori (Free-range local traditional pedigree chickens). The Jidori chickens are certified by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, whilst, for the Branded chickens, there is no regulation with respect to their breed (genotype) or methods for rearing them. It is, therefore, relatively easy for poultry farmers to introduce Branded than Jidori chickens. The Branded chickens are normally fed a low-calorie diet with ingredients such as herbs, which lengthens their breeding period (compared with that of the Broilers) and increases their market value. In the field of inventory management, fast-growing animals such as broilers are categorised as ameliorating items. To the best of our knowledge, there are no previous studies that have explicitly considered smaller sized poultry farmers with limited breeding areas. This study develops an inventory model for a small sized poultry farmer that produces both the Broilers (Product 1) and the Branded chickens (Product 2) with different amelioration rates. The poultry farmer’s total profit per unit of time is formulated as a function of selling prices by using a price-dependent demand function. The existence of a unique optimal selling price for each product, which maximises the total profit, established. It has also been confirmed through numerical examples that, when the breeding area is fixed, the total profit could increase if the poultry farmer reduced the product quantity of Product 1 to introduce Product 2.

Keywords: amelioration, deterioration, small sized poultry farmers, optimal price

Procedia PDF Downloads 171
9633 A Game-Based Product Modelling Environment for Non-Engineer

Authors: Guolong Zhong, Venkatesh Chennam Vijay, Ilias Oraifige

Abstract:

In the last 20 years, Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) has shown its advantages in product development in different engineering areas such as automation, mechanical, civil and aerospace engineering in terms of digital design automation and cost reduction by automating repetitive design tasks through capturing, integrating, utilising and reusing the existing knowledge required in various aspects of the product design. However, in primary design stages, the descriptive information of a product is discrete and unorganized while knowledge is in various forms instead of pure data. Thus, it is crucial to have an integrated product model which can represent the entire product information and its associated knowledge at the beginning of the product design. One of the shortcomings of the existing product models is a lack of required knowledge representation in various aspects of product design and its mapping to an interoperable schema. To overcome the limitation of the existing product model and methodologies, two key factors are considered. First, the product model must have well-defined classes that can represent the entire product information and its associated knowledge. Second, the product model needs to be represented in an interoperable schema to ensure a steady data exchange between different product modelling platforms and CAD software. This paper introduced a method to provide a general product model as a generative representation of a product, which consists of the geometry information and non-geometry information, through a product modelling framework. The proposed method for capturing the knowledge from the designers through a knowledge file provides a simple and efficient way of collecting and transferring knowledge. Further, the knowledge schema provides a clear view and format on the data that needed to be gathered in order to achieve a unified knowledge exchange between different platforms. This study used a game-based platform to make product modelling environment accessible for non-engineers. Further the paper goes on to test use case based on the proposed game-based product modelling environment to validate the effectiveness among non-engineers.

Keywords: game-based learning, knowledge based engineering, product modelling, design automation

Procedia PDF Downloads 101
9632 Properties of Rhizophora Charcoal for Product Design

Authors: Tanutpong Phriwanrat

Abstract:

This research investigated the properties of Rhizophora charcoal for product design on 3 aspects: electrical conductor, impurity absorption, and fresh fruit shelf life. After the study, the properties of Rhizophora charcoal were applied to produce local product model at Ban Yisarn, Ampawa District, Samudsongkram Province which can add value to the Rhizophora charcoal as one of the OTOP (One-Tambon-One product). The results showed that the Rhizophora charcoal is not an electrical conductor but good liquid impurity absorber and it can extend fresh fruit shelf life.

Keywords: design, product design, properties of rhizophora, rhizophora charcoal

Procedia PDF Downloads 352