Ball Pen Research Articles

Understanding consumer herding behavior in online purchases and its implications for online retailers and marketers

Herding behavior refers to the imitation of the behavior of the masses. The primary purpose of this study is to determine how herding affects digital purchases. It is an under-researched area in the marketing and consumer behavior context. First, one needs to understand the circumstances under which one is likely to herd. Second, it is yet to be understood how the effect of observing others' buying behavior transmits into herding. Third, there needs to be a better understanding of the role of price in one's tendency to herd. An online experiment with 541 participants was conducted using a 3 (consumer ratings/sales volume/control) × 2 (high involvement product/low involvement product) between-subjects design. LED TV was selected as a high-involvement product and ball pen pack was selected as a low-involvement product. This research study combined three theories to propose a holistic herding model. It used the social impact theory to capture its persuasive impact, the information adoption model to analyze the acceptance of herding information, and the cue utilization theory to assess the inference from herding information in consumer decision-making. Results indicated significant negative moderating effects of perceived price and product knowledge and the positive moderating effect of perceived uncertainty between the relationship of herding cues (star rating and the number of products sold) and herding behavior. In addition, the mediating results of perceived information usefulness and perceived quality were also significant. This herding model provides a holistic view of the herding process beyond limiting it to an attempt to follow others blindly. Therefore, this study has both theoretical as well as managerial implications.

Substrate Versatile Roller Ball Pen Writing of Nanoporous MoS2 for Energy Storage Devices.

Low-cost fabrication of customizable supercapacitors and batteries to power up portable electronic devices is a much-needed step in advancing energy storage devices. The processing methods and techniques involved in developing small-sized entities in complex patterns are expensive, tedious, and time-consuming. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of customizable electrochemical supercapacitors and batteries by simply employing the universal and conventional paradigm of direct pen writing with hands and evaluating their energy storage performance. The fabrication technique involves the refilling of MoS2 ink into the pen and then scripting of MoS2 nanostructures onto various substrates. The electrode material employed here consists of nanoporous microspheres of MoS2 synthesized by a simple one-step hydrothermal method. Direct pen writing with porous MoS2 in complex patterns enables easy, affordable, and simple fabrication of energy storage devices as and when required based on user choice toward distributed manufacturing and sustainability.

A Comparative Study of Tamil Handwriting to Determine the Sex of an Individual by Analyzing the Class Characteristics

Handwriting analysis is a subset of forensic science that deals with questioned documents. The main objective of handwriting analysis is to analyze, compare and evaluate handwriting characteristics to determine the sex of an individual. The class characteristics that were analyzed in this study are alignment, spacing, slant, line quality, pen pressure, movement, size, and speed of an individual’s handwriting, the primary goal of this study is to determine the sex of an individual through handwriting analysis; thus, the total number of samples 200 in which 100 male and 100 female transitive Tamil handwriting samples were collected in the age group ranges from 20 to 40 on hp A4 sheet without any indentation marks on papers. All individuals are strictly asked to write with Rorito bright max ball pen. With the help of a Scale, Pencil, three folding magnifiers 10x (Micrometer), and a Pro illuminated magnifier 4x the sample was analyzed, and interpreted the class characteristics between males and females. The alignment, spacing, line quality, and speed of males show a significant difference from in females and entered the data in the form coding system. The area of this study is some part of Puducherry. It would be helpful for the document examiner to proceed and take initiative in cases related to the determination of sex in male and female in forensic questioned document examination. By concluding this study, the sex can be identified by analyzing the Tamil handwriting.

Ti3 C2 TX MXene Ink Direct Writing Flexible Sensors for Disposable Paper Toys.

Flexible electronics have gained great attention in recent years owing to their promising applications in biomedicine, sustainable energy, human-machine interaction, and toys for children. Paper mainly produced from cellulose fibers is attractive substrate for flexible electronics because it is biodegradable, foldable, tailorable, and light-weight. Inspired by daily handwriting, the rapid prototyping of sensing devices with arbitrary patterns can be achieved by directly drawing conductive inks on flat or curved paper surfaces; this provides huge freedom for children to design and integrate "do-it-yourself (DIY)" electronic toys. Herein, viscous and additive-free ink made from Ti3 C2 TX MXene sediment is employed to prepare disposable paper electronics through a simple ball pen drawing. The as-drawn paper sensors possess hierarchical microstructures with interweaving nanosheets, nanoflakes, and nanoparticles, therefore exhibiting superior mechanosensing performances to those based on single/fewer-layer MXene nanosheets. As proof-of-concept applications, several popular children's games are implemented by the MXene-based paper sensors, including "You say, I guess," "Emotional expression," "Rock-Paper-Scissors," "Arm wrestling," "Throwing game," "Carrot squat," and "Grab the cup," as well as a DIY smart whisker for a cartoon mouse. Moreover, MXene-based paper sensors are safe and disposable, free from producing any e-waste and hazard to the environment.

AN UNUSUAL SOCIAL HABIT LEADING TO A FOREIGN BODY IN TEETH

In children, discovery of a foreign body in teeth is often diagnosed accidently which may be lodged due to a traumatic injury or it may be a self-inflicted injury. However, in adults, it may be due to a social habit and the patient usually reports only when he/she experiences pain and then the foreign object is discovered in radiographic examination. In this article, we present a case report of a 23-year-old male with a ball pen nib lodged into the lower molar teeth due to an unusual social habit, which the patient himself was unaware about and the subsequent removal of the foreign body.

The candle as an improvised anal dilator following surgery for anorectal malformation.

Anal dilation with Hegar dilator is recommended as part of the post-operative management following surgical correction of anorectal malformation (ARM) in children to prevent strictures. Parents usually continue dilation at home with a personal set of dilators. However, in low-resource settings, many parents cannot afford the Hegar dilator. Devices that have been improvised as dilators include appropriately sized candles, spigot from Foley catheter, rounded ball pen ends and mothers' fingers. We aimed to report our preliminary experience with the use of candle as an improvised anal dilator following surgeries for ARM in our practice. A review of records of children who had surgery for ARMs and commenced on candle dilation between February 2018 and July 2019 at our centre was done. Relevant demographic information, type of anomaly, duration of dilation, availability of health insurance coverage, complications and parents' acceptance of improvised dilator (evaluated during scheduled follow up visits) were retrieved. The data were analysed using SPPSS version 21 (Chicago, Illinois). Nineteen patients underwent anal dilation with improvised candles during the period. Rectobulbar and rectovestibular fistulas were most frequent anomaly in boys and girls, respectively. The median age at surgery was 6 months. The median duration of dilation (completed in 9 patients) was 7 months. Candle dilation was well tolerated, and all parents were comfortable using the device. The candle as an improvised anal dilator following anorectal surgeries in children is a useful alternative to the conventional dilator. It is more affordable and gives satisfactory results.

Design of Routing of In-Vessel Diagnostic Signals for RFXmod2

Reversed Field eXperiment modified 2 (RFXmod2) is the upgraded version of the experiment RFXmod, a toroidal fusion device that can be operated both as a Reversed Field Pinch and as a Tokamak. This experiment is hosted by Consorzio RFX, Padua, Italy, and has a major radius <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$R=2$ </tex-math></inline-formula> m and a minor radius <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$a=0.5$ </tex-math></inline-formula> m. The upgrade of the previous machine consists mainly on a larger vacuum vessel and a more efficient active and passive plasma control system. Another important improvement involves the already wide set of in-vessel diagnostics, which includes now a large variety of sensors: electrostatic (single-pin, five-pin, 12-pin, ball pen), magnetic (flux loops, pick-up coils, saddle probes, halo shunts), mechanical (strain gauges), and thermal (thermocouples), for a total of about 5000 signals. The technological relevance of RFXmod2 is related indeed to the development of advanced plasma diagnostics and control systems. This work is focused on the integration of all the in-vessel diagnostics, especially from the point of view of electromagnetic compatibility and wire routing. In fact, the presence of several different families of sensors, having considerable differences in voltage and current output, together with the limited space in which those signal have to be routed, poses a challenging problem of electromagnetic compatibility. To solve this problem, the non-compatibilities between different types of signals were identified, and a series of criteria were drawn to design the cable routing of the whole machine. A preliminary and schematic routing map was developed, then a specific cable tray was designed and tested on a mock-up. This article describes all the activities related to the design of the wiring harness for the in-vessel diagnostics for RFXmod2: the signal classification, the electromagnetic compatibility problem, and the design of wire routing and cable trays.

Ball pen writing-without-ink: a truly simple and accessible method for sensitivity enhancement in lateral flow assays.

Lateral flow assays (LFAs), a popular point-of-care testing platform, have found widespread applications from laboratory to clinics. However, LFA-based testing is still subject to limited detection sensitivity, especially for classical gold nanoparticle-based LFAs. Inspired by traditional pen-based writing technologies, we developed a ball pen writing-without-ink method to amplify the detection signal of LFAs through controlling fluid flow rate. An enhancement of detection sensitivity by two times was obtained. Since the underlying mechanism of this method to improve detection sensitivity is to control the flow rate of the liquid on paper, it may be suitable for most paper-based platforms.

Forensic Discrimination of Blue Ballpoint, Gel and Oil-Gel Pens: Application of Chemometrics to ATR-FTIR Data

The combination of advanced techniques with multivariate analysis methods are being used with great confidence by forensics experts due to their high precision and accuracy. The prime objective of present work was to explore the potential of chemometric tools in discriminating and predicting the blue pen inks when applied on Attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) data of pen strokes of different brands and models commercially available in Pakistani markets. The pen strokes on fine A4 paper and recycled A4 paper were obtained from 86 samples including ballpoints, gel, oil- gel and roller ball pens. ATR-FTIR spectra were first characterized for different functional groups present in ink pigments however, they were apparently indistinguishable having some common functional groups. After spectra preprocessing the principal component analysis (PCA) and agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis (AHC) showed that pen strokes could be distinguished. Both PCA and AHC analyses showed that ballpoints and gel pen could be discriminated and grouped separately. PCA analyses also showed the discrimination between local and foreign brands of ballpoints. Finally, classification method partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was successfully applied for the classification and subsequently for the identification of type of pen used in personnel’s signature to mimic a forensic case. To evaluate PLS-DA classification performance, the classification parameters such as sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and precision were also derived from confusion matrix. Overall, this work emphasized the worth of multivariate analysis in classification and prediction of type of writing pen in a document as a forensic study.

Surgical Pearl: Chemical Ball Pen for Cautery.

Surgical Pearl: Chemical Ball Pen for Cautery.

Trigger-Based Dexterous Operation with Multimodal Sensors for Soft Robotic Hand

This paper focuses on how to improve the operation ability of a soft robotic hand (SRH). A trigger-based dexterous operation (TDO) strategy with multimodal sensors is proposed to perform autonomous choice operations. The multimodal sensors include optical-based fiber curvature sensor (OFCS), gas pressure sensor (GPS), capacitive pressure contact sensor (CPCS), and resistance pressure contact sensor (RPCS). The OFCS embedded in the soft finger and the GPS series connected in the gas channel are used to detect the curvature of the finger. The CPCS attached on the fingertip and the RPCS attached on the palm are employed to detect the touch force. The framework of TDO is divided into sensor detection and action operation. Hardware layer, information acquisition layer, and decision layer form the sensor detection module; action selection layer, actuator drive layer, and hardware layer constitute the action operation module. An autonomous choice decision unit is used to connect the sensor detecting module and action operation module. The experiment results reveal that the TDO algorithm is effective and feasible, and the actions of grasping plastic framework, pinching roller ball pen and screwdriver, and handshake are executed exactly.

VSC®-8000/HS- A Robust Tool for Differentiation of Overlapped Black Pen Inks in Fraudulent Documents

Contemporary advancement and digitalization of technology has made analysis of ink extremely challenging. Selecting the best technique for ink analysis is the need of the hour. The latest version of Video spectral comparator i.e. VSC®- 8000/HS has a vast horizon of features such as multi-spectral light sources, database of currencies and passports of different countries and even micro-spectrometer for composition analysis. The present study focuses on determining the efficacy and capability of light sources of varied spectrum and spectrometer for the examination of black ball, gel and fountain pen inks particularly in questioned under scrutiny written with hand. VSC®-8000/HS have demonstrated to be substantially efficient, robust and an exhaustive nondestructive technique for analysis of documents serving as evidence which have been manipulated including obliterations, additions or overlapping of two or more black ball or fountain pen inks. However, the technique did not provide effective results for black gel pen inks in contrast to black ball and fountain pen inks. Nonetheless, it can effectively harmonize with the standard workflow of a forensic document examiner to ensure qualitative and quantitative facts and figures for the expert testimony.

PLS-DA and infrared spectroscopy based rapid and non-destructive discrimination of black ball and gel pen inks for forensic application

In the Questioned Document, the examination of ink is crucial scientific evidence to discern the difference between genuine and forged documents. The document examination which is examined by physical and chemical analysis of ink involves the matching of the source of writing material used to fabricate the document of ink. In this study, fifty black ink samples (25 ball-point and 25 gel-point pens) are used. These ink samples are analyzed with Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy conjoined with chemometric method i.e. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and PLS-Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA). The spectroscopic discrimination is determined by the absence or presence of particular peaks or bands in the fingerprint region of black ink samples. The first-order derivative graphs are used for spectral characterization of ink samples. PCA reduces the dimensionality of large datasets into small number of independent Principal Components and increases interpretability but at the same time minimizes the data information loss. The utilization of the PLS-DA algorithm gives 100 % accuracy to differentiate two classes of black ink samples. The ROC curve value of the PLS-Discrimination Analysis model is 1 which means 100 % sensitivity and specificity. This non-destructive study is an analytical approach that helped to maintain the spectral library based on spectroscopic results of all fifty samples. The adequacy of the PLS-Discrimination Analysis model is checked by running a blind test of ten unknown samples.

Ball pen probe in strongly magnetised RF plasmas

A study of ball pen probes (BPPs) in a rf strongly magnetised plasma is reported for the first time. These probes have been successfully used in fusion plasmas, with magnetic fields up to 2.5 T, to measure the plasma potential. In this paper experimental results of various ball pen designs (2 and 4 mm diameter with flat and conical collectors) are presented up to 0.5 T in a low pressure capacitively coupled rf plasma. A theory of the BPP is developed, showing that the increase of the collector potential and plateau region, with collector retraction, requires the electron current to decrease faster than the ion current. Experimentally, it is found that to develop effective electron screening the electron Larmor radius should be smaller than the tunnel internal diameter. Smaller tunnels improve screening due to the tunnel entrance wall sheaths. Inside the tunnel a plateau region forms at 81 mT reducing to a broad peak at higher field strengths. Ion shielding and surface losses (for small tunnel diameters) reduce the collector peak width and maximum potential with increasing magnetic field. Conical collectors were found to increase the length of the plateau region and broaden the peak. Particle in cell simulations were in good agreement with the experimental results. The electron shielding and plateau regions were reproduced but not the broad peak at higher field strengths. Good agreement between both 2 mm BPPs and an emissive probe was found only at 81 mT to within 3 V or 1.3 electron temperatures (Te). For all BPPs at higher field strengths (≥ 250 mT) the maximum collector potential underestimated the emissive probe by more than 2.7 Te (7 V). At these field strengths all BPPs agree with each other to within 1.5 Te (4.1 V). Possible reasons for these disagreements are discussed.

Traditional Versus Analytical Examination of Addition as Tampered Documents

Additions are the communal category among tampered documents which are frequently encountered in the division of questioned document. Additions are accomplished with an intention to gain self-benefit. In this research article the samples were prepared by add-ons of letters, words and figures on various forms of questioned documents such as cheques, bank deposit slips, memo, receipt, certificates etc. by using ball, gel and ink pen of different colors. The mere objective of the research is to trace out the best suitable non – destructive analytical technique for the detection and decipherment of the additions performed on different type of papers using different type of pens and of different colors. Samples were examined from basic instruments such as handlens, illumination sources (UV, Oblique light),stereomicroscope to advanced instruments like docubox HD, Projectina NIRVIS docucenter, docubox dragon. On examining the samples under different traditional and innovative prevailing techniques it was observed that the decipherment was easy and precise under Projectina NIRVIS docucenter, docubox HD and docubox dragon without detrimental effect on the samples in less duration of time. Infrared ranging from 715–735 and Lumi ranging from 665–830 proved to be paramount wavelength for decipherment irrespective of paper surface.

Handwritten Optical Character Extraction and Recognition from Catalogue Sheets

The dataset consists of 20000 scanned catalogues of fossils and other artifacts compiled by the Geological Sciences Department. The images look like a scanned form filled with blue ink ball pen. The character extraction and identification is the first phase of the research and in the second phase we are planning to use the HMM model to extract the entire text from the form and store it in a digitized format. We used various image processing and computer vision techniques to extract characters from the 20000 handwritten catalogues. Techniques used for character extraction are Erode, MorphologyEx, Dilate, canny edge detection, find Counters, Counter Area etc. We used Histogram of Gradients (HOGs) to extract features from the character images and applied k-means and agglomerative clustering to perform unsupervised learning. This would allow us to prepare a labelled training dataset for the second phase. We also tried converting images from RGB to CMYK to improve k-means clustering performance. We also used thresholding to extract blue ink characters from the form after converting the image in HSV color format, but the background noise was significant, and results obtained were not promising. We are researching a more robust method to extract characters that doesn’t deform the characters and takes alignment into consideration.

A Genetic Algorithm for Solving an Assembly Sequence Problem

If a product has more than one component, then it must be assembled. The complexity of assembling a product is often subject to the number of assembly components that lead to possible assembly sequences in various forms. Also, it is widely understood that efficiency of assembling a product by reducing assembly times (therefore costs) is vital particularly for small manufacturing companies to survive in an increasingly competitive market. Ideally, it is helpful for determining an optimal assembly sequence of a product at the early design stage. Nevertheless, it may find inefficient using the heuristic approaches in acquisition of a quick solution in terms of an optimal assembly sequence with a minimal assembly time. By contrast, the study indicates that the genetic algorithm (GA) can be used as a cost-effective way for solving an assembly sequence optimisation problem of a product. This paper presents an investigation into a GA used for solving an assembly sequence problem of a ball pen. The study demonstrates that it can provide a quick solution in obtaining an optimal or near-optimal assembly sequence of the product for a small-sized company.

Digital José Juan Tablada and the genesis of a hyper reading

This essay describes how the development of two digital projects dealing with the works of the Mexican poet José Juan Tablada affected the nature of the reading and writing practices of the author and other participants. The first project, produced in the years of 1997 and 1998, comprises two CD-ROM’s with two important sets of journalistic chronicles: La Babilonia de Hierro. Crónicas neoyorquinas (1920-1936) (724 chronicles) and México de día y de noche. Crónicas mexicanas (1928-1943) (399 chronicles). The second one resulted in another CD-ROM, José Juan Tablada: letra e imagen (poesía, prosa, obra gráfica y varia documental) (2003), which included Tablada’s graphic archive, his four visual poetry books and other works involving the relationship between word and image. The project also includes a website (www.tablada.unam.mx). The author points out how automated text searches provided by the first CD’s helped in the annotation process of the graphic archive pieces —which encompass watercolors; pencil, charcoal and ball pen drawings; photographs and clippings from reviews and journals—, and how the careful observation of these images revealed information of Tablada’s life and works. This information had remained unattended because the pieces of the archive had been considered almost exclusively in their visual dimension rather than in relation with the literary realm. The author discusses the three modalities of reading —close, hyper and machine reading— proposed by N. Katherine Hayles, in How We Think (2012), and shows how Tablada’s digital research projects lead to practice the two latter reading modalities in a natural and unperceived way. The recollection of the whole experience also demonstrated that hyper reading promoted by the construction of the website resulted in mnemonic modifications that linked the graphic archive images to Tablada’s biographical discourse.---Original in English.

Unusual Presentation of Foreign Body in Sigmoid Colon Simulating Acute Appendicitis-Chance Detection on OT table

Foreign body impacted in the rectum is a common clinical presentation but one in the sigmoid colon having migrated from rectum is not so common. We report a case of 12 year old boy who presented with abdominal pain in the right lower quadrant and irregular bowel habit for 6 months. X ray done on admission did not reveal any significant abnormality except a radio opaque linear shadow probably an artefact. Clinically it appeared to be acute appendicitis. On exploring the abdomen via McBurneys incision, a firm to hard lump was discovered in the RIF with dense adhesions. Progressive dissection of the lump revealed this to be an inflammatory sigmoid colon where as caecum and appendix appearing normal. Further exploration of the sigmoid colon lump revealed a palpable cylindrical foreign body. It appeared to be a commonly used ball pen possibly causing a micro perforation which got sealed and resulted in the lump. Sigmoid enterotomy was done and a ball point pen without cap was removed. Sharp end of the pen was found impinging on the inner wall of the colon. On table skiagram did not reveal any left over part of the pen. Postoperative period had progressive recovery and he was discharged on 5th postoperative day. These foreign bodies sometimes pose a diagnostic challenge to the surgeon because of concealment of the fact and delay in presentation.

Study on the design development of Mokumegane technique - focusing on contemporary jewelry, eyeglasses and ball pen -

Study on the design development of Mokumegane technique - focusing on contemporary jewelry, eyeglasses and ball pen -