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Topic segmentation is one of the active research fields in natural language processing. Also, many topic segmenters have been proposed. However, the current challenge of researchers is the improvement of these segmenters by using external resources. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to integrate study and evaluate a new external semantic resource in topic segmentation.

New topic segmenters (TSS-Onto and TSB-Onto) are proposed based on the two well-known segmenters C99 and TextTiling. The proposed segmenters integrate semantic knowledge to the segmentation process by using a domain ontology as an external resource. Subsequently, an evaluation is made to study the effect of this resource on the quality of topic segmentation along with a comparative study with related works.

Based on this study, the authors showed that adding semantic knowledge, which is extracted from a domain ontology, improves the quality of topic segmentation. Moreover, TSS-Ont outperforms TSB-Ont in terms of quality of topic segmentation.

The main limitation of this study is the used test corpus for the evaluation which is not a benchmark. However, we used a collection of scientific papers from well-known digital libraries (ArXiv and ACM).

The proposed topic segmenters can be useful in different NLP applications such as information retrieval and text summarizing.

The primary original contribution of this paper is the improvement of topic segmentation based on semantic knowledge. This knowledge is extracted from an ontological external resource.

Current segmentation systems almost invariably focus on linear segmentation and can only divide text into linear sequences of segments. This suits cohesive text such as news feed but not coherent texts such as documents of a digital library which have hierarchical structures. To overcome the focus on linear segmentation in document segmentation and to realize the purpose of hierarchical segmentation for a digital library’s structured resources, this paper aimed to propose a new multi-granularity hierarchical topic-based segmentation system (MHTSS) to decide section breaks.

MHTSS adopts up-down segmentation strategy to divide a structured, digital library document into a document segmentation tree. Specifically, it works in a three-stage process, such as document parsing, coarse segmentation based on document access structures and fine-grained segmentation based on lexical cohesion.

This paper analyzed limitations of document segmentation methods for the structured, digital library resources. Authors found that the combination of document access structures and lexical cohesion techniques should complement each other and allow for a better segmentation of structured, digital library resources. Based on this finding, this paper proposed the MHTSS for the structured, digital library resources. To evaluate it, MHTSS was compared to the TT and C99 algorithms on real-world digital library corpora. Through comparison, it was found that the MHTSS achieves top overall performance.

With MHTSS, digital library users can get their relevant information directly in segments instead of receiving the whole document. This will improve retrieval performance as well as dramatically reduce information overload.

This paper proposed MHTSS for the structured, digital library resources, which combines the document access structures and lexical cohesion techniques to decide section breaks. With this system, end-users can access a document by sections through a document structure tree.

Describes the traditional money laundering methods of physical currency smuggling and the more common use of financial and other institutions. Shows how the pressure on vulnerable institutions to ensure control of conventional money laundering has induced criminals to expoit the potential of electronic money. Lists the advantages of electronic money for laundering: it has no bulk, is easily transferred, and is anonymous. Discusses how internet banking and internet casinos allow criminals to launder electronic money. Indicates the need for effective counter measures to these illegal practices, the work of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering, and the difficulty of controlling the popular pastime of internet gambling in the USA.

The study aims to investigate the effect of cultural alignment and value congruency between children and founder on intergenerational succession and on the observation of family optimal outcomes.

A game-theoretical approach is used to develop a sequential game modeling the strategic interactions behind successor selection. The authors test its main predictions by conducting an experiment with 75 subjects.

A theoretical prediction that misalignment between children and founder leads to outcomes without intergenerational succession, or to outcomes with intergenerational succession that are not family optimal. These predictions are buttressed by our experiment, which also found evidence that the family optimal outcome is focal when there are multiple equilibria.

No light is thrown on the sources of cultural (mis)alignment, but only on some of its consequences. Further studies of a different nature are needed to better understand the former.

Cultural diffusion and value congruency within the family should be timely fostered to promote harmony during the succession process and raise the chances of successful succession.

The cultural alignment and value congruency between incumbent and successors is treated as shaping the incentives that both types of agents face in the successor-selection process. Further, experimental techniques have not been used to test the results obtained in games exploring issues in family firm succession. This paper aims to begin filling this gap.

A flexible agile assembly system requires an open architecture integration environment that is mechatronic device and computer platform independent. An interactive environment allows the users to step through programs and acquire immediate feedback from the system and is most suitable for the development of mechatronic systems used on the shop floor. Ch, an embeddable C/C++ interpreter, was developed for mechatronic‐independent task‐level programming. An experimental mechatronic system with an IBM 7575 Robotic Arm and a National Instruments' motion control board has been developed to demonstrate the capabilities and the ease in integrating mechatronic devices in Ch, which is freely available for downloading.

The sale of irradiated food is currently prohibited in the United Kingdom under The Food (Control of Irradiation) Regulations 1967. This situation seems likely to change given first the recommendation by a number of expert committees that irradiated food is safe and wholesome, and second the current need to complete the EEC internal market for food in a situation where several member states already permit the sale of irradiated produce. The controversy surrounding the irradiated food issue is, in part, politically inspired. In particular, the issue has served to articulate concern over the lack of consumer representation in food policy decision making forums, both at the UK and European level. Consumer resistance to the technology for the most part, however, reflects an exaggeration of the perceived risks associated with buying and consuming irradiated foods, together with a negative evaluation of the benefits that the process offers. Consumers perceive these benefits as accruing mainly to the food industry. The difficulty that consumers have in believing that they, too, can share in these benefits stems from the way in which consumers make sense of the knowledge that they possess about food. It is this problem which needs to be addressed.

Quality Control and/or Assurance and similar phrases are in common use but can have different meanings, depending on the type of product involved and on economic considerations. It is proposed that, from the soldering point of view, component design and solderability must be as good as possible and must be regularly checked. There must be adequate control over every aspect of the soldering process, and inspection of the completed assembly must be meaningful with realistic accept/reject levels decided upon at the outset. Having established a complete production scheme incorporating quality checking, it is proposed that no alterations should be made without full consultation and collaboration with all the personnel concerned.

Resurgent interest in the life and work of the Italian Cambridge economist Piero Sraffa is leading to New Directions in Sraffa Scholarship. This chapter introduces readers to some of these developments. First and perhaps foremost is the fact that as of September 2016 Sraffa’s archival material has been uploaded onto the website of the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge University, as digital colour images; this chapter introduces readers to the history of these events. This history provides sharp relief on the extant debates over the role of the archival material in leading to the final publication of Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities, and readers are provided a brief sketch of these matters. The varied nature of Sraffa scholarship is demonstrated by the different aspects of Sraffa’s intellectual legacy which are developed and discussed in the various entries of our Symposium. The conclusion is reached that we are on the cusp of an exciting phase change of tremendous potential in Sraffa scholarship.

The rapid, yet low-profit, expansion of the production capacity of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) represents a remarkable phenomenon. However, the motivation behind this key operational decision remains underexplored, especially concerning the prioritization of sociopolitical and financial goals in operations management. Drawing on the multiple-goal model in the behavioral theory of the firm (BTOF), the authors' study aims to examine how SOE capacity expansion is driven by performance feedback regarding the sociopolitical goal of employment provision and how SOEs differently prioritize sociopolitical and financial goals based on negative versus positive feedback on the sociopolitical goal.

The authors' study uses panel data on 826 Chinese SOEs in manufacturing industries from 2011 to 2019. The authors employ the fixed-effects model with Driscoll–Kraay standard errors, which are robust to heteroscedasticity, autocorrelation and cross-sectional dependence.

The authors find that SOEs increase capacity expansion as sociopolitical feedback becomes more negative, but they may not increase capacity expansion in response to positive sociopolitical feedback. Moreover, negative profitability feedback strengthens SOEs' capacity expansion in response to negative sociopolitical feedback. In contrast, negative profitability feedback weakens their response to positive sociopolitical feedback.

The authors' study offers a novel behavioral explanation of SOEs' operational decisions regarding capacity expansion. While the literature has traditionally assumed multiple goals as either hierarchical or compatible, the authors extend the BTOF's multiple-goal model to illuminate when firms pursue sociopolitical and financial goals as compatible (i.e. the activation rule) versus hierarchical (i.e. the sequential rule), thereby reconciling their tension in distinct performance situations. Practically, the authors provide fine-grained insights into how operations managers can prioritize multiple goals when making operational decisions. The authors' study also shows how policymakers can influence SOE operations to pursue sociopolitical goals for public benefit.