Inaccurate Production Research Articles

The Role of Transcribing Group Discussion Task in Promoting Autonomy and Oral Proficiency of University EFL Learners

This study investigated the effect of transcribing group-discussion tasks on the development of university students' autonomy and oral proficiency. A quasi-experimental research design was followed to compare the performances of four groups: two experimental groups and two control groups (each group divided into low and high proficiency students). The study lasted for 12 weeks, and the teacher assigned a classroom oral discussion task in each session. The students were divided into discussion groups of three or four students, with low and high proficiency learners in different groups. The participants had to record their group discussion tasks. Control groups’ students had to submit their recorded conversations to their instructor, but they did not do any post-task activity. However, the experimental groups’ students had to transcribe their recorded speaking tasks, to find their own and their peers' grammatical mistakes, and to correct them. Finally, while working in groups, students discussed the texts and reformulated their mistakes. Employing ANCOVA to analyze the results, researchers found that experimental groups significantly outperformed the students of the control groups on post-tests of oral proficiency and learner autonomy. Thus, transcription followed by reflection on inaccurate production contributed to the superior performance of participants in the experimental groups.

Analisa Perencanaan Kebutuhan Material pada Perusahaan Manufaktur Kertas dengan Metode Material Requirement Planning (MRP)

The development of the business world is currently experiencing a very rapid growth rate. Planning for the proper procurement of materials will be able to facilitate the company's production activities. Production process activities in companies often experience problems such as inaccurate production, which is caused by delays in the arrival of raw materials, and damage to raw materials due to too long storing in warehouses. This study aims to plan future needs with the Material Requirement Planning (MRP) approach by doing forecasting, making the Master Production Schedule (MPS), Material Requirement Planning (MRP) and conducting a cost analysis of the five methods used. The results of this study are forecasting product demand will be used linear regression method, and effective material requirements planning method with the lowest cost is to use the Lot For Lot (LFL) method of $ 164.48. The application of the Lot For Lot method can reduce costs by 90.06% compared to the Fixed Period Requirements (FPR) method used by the company.

Are models of volumetric production at the diametric distribution and total stand level mutually compatible?

The objective of this work was to compare estimates generated by a diametric distribution model and a total stand model against the pre-cut inventory. The model efficiency was also evaluated. Data were evaluated from 30 permanent sample plots in a Eucalyptus urophylla stand, comprising 24 sample plots used for model fitting, and six sample plots for validation. The volume of wood per hectare was estimated for different productive units (sites), using 7 years as the reference age. The model adjustment quality was verified by adjustment and precision statistics: the correlation between observed and predicted variables, root mean square error percentage, graphical analysis of residual distribution, and a frequency histogram for classes of relative errors and validation. Although the two-parameter Weibull probability density function adhered to the data for tree evolution in diameter classes for the reference age (7 years) in the different productivity classes, it generated imprecise estimates of the number of individuals. Consequently, it produced inaccurate volumetric production estimates. The total stand model provided reliable projections of production volumes in different productivity classes for both adjustment types, showing compatibility with the pre-cut inventory according to a Tukey test. In summary, the total stand model generated estimates that were compatible with the pre-cut inventory while the diametric distribution model did not.

Perception-production relations in residual speech errors before and after biofeedback training

Rhotics are among the latest-emerging, most frequently misarticulated sounds in acquisition of American English (Smit et al., 1990). Children with residual speech errors (RSE) affecting rhotics may be unable to perceive differences between their own accurate and inaccurate productions (Shuster, 1998). Visual biofeedback may be an efficacious treatment approach for these children because it can bypass deficient auditory-perceptual channels (Shuster et al., 1995). Previous research has shown a relationship between accuracy in perceiving and producing rhotic targets in typically developing (TD) children (McAllister Byun & Tiede, 2017). We used the same methods to measure rhotic perception and production in a sample of 75 children with RSE. Based on previous literature (e.g., Hearnshaw et al., 2018; Rvachew & Jamieson, 1989), we hypothesize that children with RSE will show poorer perceptual abilities on average than TD children, but that they will show a similar degree of association between perception and production. Second, we will test whether changes in auditory acuity take place after a period of biofeedback treatment for RSE. Finding such changes would suggest that biofeedback may have its effect not only by retraining a target motor plan, but also by helping children update their auditory targets.Rhotics are among the latest-emerging, most frequently misarticulated sounds in acquisition of American English (Smit et al., 1990). Children with residual speech errors (RSE) affecting rhotics may be unable to perceive differences between their own accurate and inaccurate productions (Shuster, 1998). Visual biofeedback may be an efficacious treatment approach for these children because it can bypass deficient auditory-perceptual channels (Shuster et al., 1995). Previous research has shown a relationship between accuracy in perceiving and producing rhotic targets in typically developing (TD) children (McAllister Byun & Tiede, 2017). We used the same methods to measure rhotic perception and production in a sample of 75 children with RSE. Based on previous literature (e.g., Hearnshaw et al., 2018; Rvachew & Jamieson, 1989), we hypothesize that children with RSE will show poorer perceptual abilities on average than TD children, but that they will show a similar degree of association between perception and pr...

Designing Sales Budget Forecasting and Revision System by Using Optimization Methods

The sales procedures are the most important factors for keeping companies alive and profitable. So sales and budget sales are considered as important parameters influencing all other decision variables in an organisation. Therefore, poor sales forecasting can lead to great loses in an organisation caused by inaccurate and non-comprehensive production and human resource planning. Hence, in this research, a coherent solution has been proposed for forecasting sales besides refining and revising it continuously by adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) model with consideration of time series relations. Data has been collected from the public and accessible annual financial reports related to a famous Iranian company. Moreover, for more accuracy in forecasting, the solution has been examined by back propagation neural network (BPN) and particle swarm optimisation (PSO) as optimisation methods. The comparison between taken prediction and the real data shows that PSO method can optimise some parts of prediction in contrast to the rest which is more coincident to the output of BPN analysis. As a consequence, a hybrid integrated system including them both, has been designed. This system uses them depending on their abilities to optimise each part, so it can produce more precise results relatively.

Pragmatic Difficulties in the Production of the Speech Act of Apology by Iraqi EFL Learners

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the pragmatic difficulties encountered by Iraqi EFL university students in producing the speech act of apology. Although the act of apology is easy to recognize or use by native speakers of English, non-native speakers generally encounter difficulties in discriminating one speech act from another. The problem can be attributed to two factors: pragma-linguistic and socio-pragmatic knowledge. The aim of this study is(1)to evaluate the socio-pragmatic level of interpreting apologies as understood and used by Iraqi EFL university learners, (2) find out the level of difficulty they experience in producing apologies and(3) detect the reasons behind such misinterpretations and misuses. It is hypothesized that the socio-pragmatic interpretation of apology tends to play a crucial role in comprehending what is intended by the speaker. However, cultural gaps can be the main reason behind the EFL learners' inaccurate production of the act of apology. To verify the aforementioned hypotheses, a test has been constructed and administered to a sample of 70 fourth-year Iraqi EFL university learners, morning classes. The subjects' responses have been collected and linguistically analyzed in the light of an eclectic model based on Deutschmann (2003) and Lazare (2004). It has been concluded that the misinterpretation or difficulty Iraqi EFL students have faced is mainly attributed to their lack of socio-pragmatic knowledge. The interference of the learnersʹ first language culture has led to non-native productions of speech act of apology.

The Effect of Six Different Corrective Feedback Strategies on Iranian English Language Learners’ IELTS Writing Task 2

Scholars have long studied the effect of corrective feedback strategies on the writing ability of language learners, but few have formed designs in which more than three feedback strategies have been used. In this research, the ultimate goal was to discover how International English Language Testing System (IELTS-) candidates could be helped to perform better in the writing component of the test with the feedback they get. To this end, 186 learners attending IELTS preparation classes in three different English language institutes participated in this quasi-experimental study. A one-way ANOVA was run to discover the significant difference among the six groups. The findings proposed that Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ writing ability improved as a result of the employment of writing feedback strategies but that reformulation strategy was the most effective one. Teachers can, thus, benefit from the finding of this research by studying the way they should tackle the learners’ inaccurate productions as far as different writing score band descriptors are concerned.

Primary Progressive Aphasia and Apraxia of Speech

Primary progressive aphasia is a neurodegenerative syndrome characterized by progressive language dysfunction. The majority of primary progressive aphasia cases can be classified into three subtypes: nonfluent/agrammatic, semantic, and logopenic variants. Each variant presents with unique clinical features, and is associated with distinctive underlying pathology and neuroimaging findings. Unlike primary progressive aphasia, apraxia of speech is a disorder that involves inaccurate production of sounds secondary to impaired planning or programming of speech movements. Primary progressive apraxia of speech is a neurodegenerative form of apraxia of speech, and it should be distinguished from primary progressive aphasia given its discrete clinicopathological presentation. Recently, there have been substantial advances in our understanding of these speech and language disorders. The clinical, neuroimaging, and histopathological features of primary progressive aphasia and apraxia of speech are reviewed in this article. The distinctions among these disorders for accurate diagnosis are increasingly important from a prognostic and therapeutic standpoint.

Integrating Activity-Based Costing with Economic Value Added

Activity-Based Costing (ABC) was developed in the mid 1980s by Kaplan and it has been applied very popular in developed countries with obvious advantages. Although ABC system has more advantages than traditional costing (TC) system, but in today’s competitive economic environment it has not met fulfilled provision of sufficient information for decision-making, especially single ABC method ignores capital cost. The lack of capital cost is the reason why some products have inaccurate product costs and as results of that they have profit under ABC method but when capital cost is charged to those products, they cause a loss because they consume high invest fund. Imprecise information provided by single ABC method to managers is the reason why managers make inaccurate decisions. How to overcome this limitation of ABC? This paper researches on the integration of ABC with Economic Value Added (EVA™) as one way to overcome its limitation and innovation management accounting. Based on the data provided by Dong Su Company, this paper calculated profits of two customer groups using the new methodology (EVA-ABC) and also the old methodology (single ABC) to show how vague or inaccurate is the results you get when you use the old methodology and how accurate is the results you get when using the new methodology. The calculation showed that under EVA-ABC group 1 generates the value (13%) for this company but group 2 reduces the value of the business and destroy its capital (-8%). However under the single ABC method, the calculation showed that both two customer groups create profits for Dong Su with profit rate are 20% and 4% respectively which was incorrect.

Model-Based Identification and Analysis of the Energy Saving Potential in Batch Chemical Processes

Optimization of energy consumption for reducing the relevant costs and environmental impacts is constantly gaining attention in chemical batch production. Existing methodologies focus on heat integration considering scheduling constraints and typically result in trade-offs between capital investment and operational costs. However, in multipurpose batch plants, even the allocation of energy flows and the consistent operation according to production recipes pose a great challenge due to batch-to-batch variability and lack of energy utility consumption meters. This paper utilizes a bottom-up modeling approach for energy utility consumption and proposes a method for model-based identification of the energy saving potential in chemical batch plants. The bottom-up models can accurately track the energy utility consumption at various production levels and are used as soft sensors for energy efficiency analysis studies. In this context, a set of energy key performance indicators (EKPIs) is proposed for quantifying efficiency in energy use, and an energy saving potential index (ESPI) based on historical plant performance serves as a shortcut method in the case of missing or inaccurate production recipes. The methodology is applied to an industrial multipurpose batch plant for specialty chemicals, exemplifying the obtained efficiency results and targeting energy saving potential for steam consumption.

Mispronounced Lexical Items in Polish English of Advanced Learners

The paper is a continuation of the author’s earlier studies in which she argues that it is the mispronunciation of whole words due to their incorrect phonological storage in the learners’ phonetic memory that is more detrimental to successful communication via English than an inaccurate production of individual segments and suprasegmentals. Consequently, phonetically difficult words deserve to be thoroughly investigated and pedagogically prioritized.
 The present study is a report on an experiment in which 20 English Department students, all advanced learners of English, were recorded having been asked to read a list of diagnostic sentences containing 80 words known to be problematic for Poles in terms of their pronunciation. This has been done in order to isolate and examine the major error types, to establish a hierarchy of difficulty among 8 sources of pronunciation errors, to compare the obtained results with the most common error types made by intermediate learners and to juxtapose the participants’ subjective evaluation of the phonetic difficulty of words with their actual phonetic performance. The final goal is to draw pedagogical implications for the phonetic training of advanced students of English.

The relationship between stored phonological representations and speech output

Low quality, imprecise phonological representations have been hypothesized as an underlying deficit in Specific Language Impairment (SLI). This research compared performance on a silent judgement task and a multisyllabic word naming task using the same 10 words, for 21 children with SLI (mean age 7;6), 21 age-matched (AM) (mean age 7;6) and 21 language-matched (LM) (mean age 5;6) peers. The children with SLI demonstrated significantly poorer performance on the judgement task than either AM or LM peers, while performance on the naming task followed a developmental sequence. There was no correlation between the ability to correctly reject inaccurate productions and the ability to correctly name the items. These results support the suggestion of separate input and output phonological representations and that speech output errors should not necessarily be interpreted as indicative of underlying weakness in phonological representations. The research also highlights the value of individually-designed tasks to measure the input phonological representations for specific words.

Zur objektiven Beurteilung der Zischlautbildung

The inaccurate production of 's-sounds', i. e. sibilants represents the most common speech disorder. An objective description of such inaccurate speech sound production is mandatory. Several tools have been proposed and might be of great value, amongst them spectral analysis. The latter can nowadays be performed easily without the need for expensive equipment. Different sibilants were uttered either as isolated speech sounds or embedded in test words and sentences. These were then digitized and spectral analysis was performed. Since several protocols have been put forward on how to execute the spectral analysis of sibilants, we replicated those protocols and evaluated how they exert influence on the analysis results. The selection of time windows or frequency bands regarding the computation of spectral moments will be considered in particular. Sibilants are characterised by a band-pass noise. Usage of power spectral density functions for the extraction of features from temporal and spatial signals is a standard approach. Thus, we calculated spectral moments to describe noise signals derived from sibilant productions. We demonstrate differing results based on varying frequency and time analysis windows. Unfortunately to date there is no generally accepted "gold standard" for the spectro analysis of speech sounds. For clinical routine, we recommend using a time window of 40 ms around the temporal midpoint, extracted from utterances or words. It is important, however, that recording conditions and analysis parameters are identical pre- and post therapy.

Laboratory measurements of non-Darcy flow coefficients in natural and artificial unconsolidated porous media

The estimation of non-Darcy flow regime is often a critical issue in petroleum engineering, as it is a key parameter to estimate and predict the correct production performances and behavior of hydrocarbon reservoirs. Non-Darcy flow is typically observed in gas wells when the fluids converging to the wellbore attains the velocity peculiar of turbulent flow. As a consequence, pressure drop around the wellbore cannot be estimated from the classic Darcy's law, where the pressure gradient is a linear function of the flow velocity. In fact, the use of Darcy's law would lead to inaccurate production performances evaluation. The most commonly used tool to approximate the non-linear behavior of the flow velocity is the well-known Forchheimer equation, deploying the “inertial” coefficient β that can be estimated experimentally, by means of direct measurements on core samples. In gas wells the inertial coefficient β is usually estimated by means of indirect measurements, through the analysis of multi-rate pressure tests performed on site during the routine well testing programmed after well completion. Unfortunately, such data are not easily available in many cases, and new measurements are very expensive, since well testing is accomplished by gas production shutdown for several tens of hours or days. So, it is a common practice to use particular theoretical and empirical correlations that can be derived by exploiting experimental values of the inertial coefficient. This experimental study reports non-Darcy flow laboratory investigations performed on natural and artificial unconsolidated porous media (glass beads and loose natural sands of different grain size). The inertial coefficient β and permeability has been calculated for several samples (with both peaked and flat grain size distribution, obtained by sieving glass beads and sand); experimental data suggest that also β is to some extent affected by pore structure. Moreover, the Forchheimer number has been calculated and its non-linearity with respect to superficial velocity has been checked. In the light of the above, specific laboratory equipment has been devised in order to rely on a wide range of flow rates under appropriate pressure gradients.

Accounting for Decision Making and Control

Table of Contents: Chapter 1)Introduction Chapter 2)The nature of costs Chapter 3)Opportunity cost of capital and capital budgeting Chapter 4)Organizational architecture Chapter 5)Responsibility accounting and transfer pricing Chapter 6)Budgeting Chapter 7)Cost allocation: Theory Chapter 8)Cost allocation: Practices Chapter 9)Absorption cost system Chapter 10)Criticisms of absorption cost systems: Incentives to overproduce Chapter 11)Criticisms of absorption cost systems: Inaccurate product costs Chapter 12)Standard costs: Direct labor and materials Chapter 13)Overhead and marketing variances Chapter 14) Management accounting in a changing environment

Investigating the functionality and performance of online shopping bots for electronic commerce: a follow-up study

Shopping bots are automated software applications that allow consumers to easily search for and compare product prices from online retailers. In a previous project, researchers investigated the functionality and performance of e-commerce shopping bots. The purpose of this project is to test the temporal stability of their findings two years later. Both studies concur that no 'best' shopping bot exists, and all bots often present inaccurate product price and availability information. A positive relationship between the amount of incorrect product information and the number of online vendors was confirmed. Supplemental information provided to users still remains deficient. Differences in product prices were observed.

Trends in capacity utilization for therapeutic monoclonal antibody production

The administration of high doses of therapeutic antibodies requires large-scale, efficient, cost effective manufacturing processes. An understanding of how the industry is using its available production capacity is important for production planning, and facility expansion analysis. Inaccurate production planning for therapeutic antibodies can have serious financial ramifications. In the recent 5th Annual Report and Survey of Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Capacity and Production, 434 qualified respondents from 39 countries were asked to indicate, among other manufacturing issues, their current trends and future predictions with respect to the production capacity utilization of monoclonal antibodies in mammalian cell culture systems. While overall production of monoclonals has expanded dramatically since 2003, the average capacity utilization for mammalian cell culture systems, has decreased each year since 2003. Biomanufacturers aggressively attempt to avoid unanticipated high production demands that can create a capacity crunch. We summarize trends associated with capacity utilization and capacity constraints which indicate that biopharmaceutical manufacturers are doing a better job planning for capacity. The results have been a smoothing of capacity use shifts and an improved ability to forecast capacity and outsourcing needs. Despite these data, today, the instability and financial constraints caused by the current global economic crisis are likely to create unforeseen shifts in our capacity utilization and capacity expansion trends. These shifts will need to be measured in subsequent studies.

Intelligent supply chain by using prognostic logistics

The use of technological tools in logistics is intended to increase visibility, capacity and control in the supply chain. Decrease of uncertainties due to asymmetric data has been the constant challenge of management. Misdiagnosis of situations and equipment, inaccurate production planning, shrinkage and counterfeiting are some of the consequences of erroneous information. The idea of prognostic logistics is to use real time information and an intelligent system to diagnose and predict early failures and hazardous situations. The automatic capture of information in prognostic logistics has the intent to reduce human errors. Automatic identification technologies enable the creation of a prognostic logistic network where real time information is used to make accurate forecasting, pushing a proactive supply chain instead of a reactive one.

Manufacturing lead-time rules: Customer retention versus tardiness costs

Inaccurate production backlog information is a major cause of late deliveries, which can result in penalty fees and loss of reputation. We identify conditions when it is particularly worthwhile to improve an information system to provide good lead-time information. We first analyze a sequential decision process model of lead-time decisions at a firm which manufactures standard products to order, and has complete backlog information. There are Poisson arrivals, stochastic processing times, customers may balk in response to quoted delivery dates, and revenues are offset by tardiness penalties. We characterize an optimal policy and show how to accelerate computations. The second part of the paper is a computational comparison of this optimum (with full backlog information) with a lead-time quotation rule that is optimal with statistical shop-status information. This reveals when the partial-information method does well and when it is worth implementing measures to improve information transfer between operations and sales.

Accuracy of Service Cost Allocations

Abstract Within most multiple cost pool allocation systems, the direct and step methods are commonly used to allocate service activity costs to production activities. But because they ignore service activity interactions, these methods can produce significant allocation errors, inaccurate product costs, and poor operating decisions. This paper provides data on allocation errors for 54,000 computer generated firms across a variety of service environments. The results show that allocation errors can vary a great deal, can be quite large, and are dependent on specific measurable service activity characteristics. The data can assist individual managers in determining if a switch to the theoretically correct reciprocal allocation method is justified, thus helping to further improve existing cost allocation systems.