Placement Of Items Research Articles

Placement Heuristics for Irregular Packing to Create Layouts With Exact Placements for Two Moveable Items

This paper discusses cutting and packing problems, which aim to minimize wasted material and can be found in industries such as textile, shipbuilding, wood or glass. The irregular strip packing problem is a variation of such problems in which the container has variable length and fixed width. Solution proposed uses the collision free region concept and its capability to detect exactly fitting and exactly sliding placements. These types of placements represent constrained positions for the item, and it usually constitutes a local optimum placement. The adopted algorithm uses pairwise placement such that one item is always placed in a exact fitting or exact sliding position. However, several possibilities exist, and it is necessary to pick one of them. Due to its different approach for item placement, three new placement heuristics were proposed for this implementation. Each was tested with an instance taken from literature, and compared with best result from the literature. A simulated annealing algorithm controls the sequence of item placement, and the placement position is deterministically determined. This work is a first tentative to determine the best placement position among all the local optimum placements.

Can laptops be left inside passenger bags if motion imaging is used in X-ray security screening?

This paper describes a study where a new X-ray machine for security screening featuring motion imaging (i.e., 5 views of a bag are shown as an image sequence) was evaluated and compared to single view imaging available on conventional X-ray screening systems. More specifically, it was investigated whether with this new technology X-ray screening of passenger bags could be enhanced to such an extent that laptops could be left inside passenger bags, without causing a significant impairment in threat detection performance. An X-ray image interpretation test was created in four different versions, manipulating the factors packing condition (laptop and bag separate vs. laptop in bag) and display condition (single vs. motion imaging). There was a highly significant and large main effect of packing condition. When laptops and bags were screened separately, threat item detection was substantially higher. For display condition, a medium effect was observed. Detection could be slightly enhanced through the application of motion imaging. There was no interaction between display and packing condition, implying that the high negative effect of leaving laptops in passenger bags could not be fully compensated by motion imaging. Additional analyses were carried out to examine effects depending on different threat categories (guns, improvised explosive devices, knives, others), the placement of the threat items (in bag vs. in laptop) and viewpoint (easy vs. difficult view). In summary, although motion imaging provides an enhancement, it is not strong enough to allow leaving laptops in bags for security screening.

Novel Semi-Passive RFID System for Indoor Localization

In this paper, we present a novel semi-passive radio-frequency identification (RFID) system for accurate indoor localization. The system is composed of a standard ultra high frequency (UHF) ISO-18000-6C compliant RFID reader, a set of standard passive RFID tags whose locations are known, and a newly developed tag-like RFID component, which is attached to the items that need to be localized. The new semi-passive component, referred to as sensatag (sense-a-tag), has a dual functionality: it can sense and decode communication between the reader and standard tags in its proximity, and can communicate with the reader like standard tags using backscatter modulation. Based on the information conveyed by the sensatags to the reader, localization algorithms based on binary sensor principles can be developed. We conduct a number of experiments in a laboratory to quantify the performance of our system, including two real applications, one finding the exact placement of items on shelves, and the other estimating the direction of item movement.

Assessing Students’ Attitudes Toward Forensic Science: Collecting an Expert Consensus

Abstract We report the development of an affective domain instrument for the assessment of undergraduate students’ attitudes toward forensic science. Assessment of attitudes of the respondents is important to understand mediating factors in student motivation and ultimately success in the discipline. The instrument was developed using an iterative process based on responses from an expert panel of Australian forensic science educators to an array of forensic science and teaching related topics, and refined using further feedback from the panel on more specific items. The layout of the instrument, with regard to both the wording and placement of items, was developed with regular test takers (i.e., students) in mind and through the application of basic psychometric principles. The engagement of forensic science colleagues across Australia has resulted in an outcome that could provide a source of credible and relevant evidence of student attitudes toward forensic science.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Quest Religious Orientation Scale

Batson, Schoenrade, and Ventis (1993) conceptualized their 12-item Religion as Quest Scale (Q Scale) as a multidimensional construct measured with three subscales. Flere, Edwards, and Klanjsek (2008) conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the scale and found support for the notion of Batson and colleagues that the Q Scale is composed of three separate dimensions or factors. But because of both inconsistencies in their results across samples and their alteration of placement of scale items across dimensions of the Q Scale, further research is needed to replicate and/or verify, and also extend their findings.

Computer Versus Paper Testing in Precollege Economics

Interest is growing at the precollege level in computer testing (CT) instead of paper-and-pencil testing (PT) for subjects in the school curriculum, including economics. Before economic educators adopt CT, a better understanding of its likely effects on test-taking behavior and performance compared with PT is needed. Using two volunteer student samples of CT and PT test scores collected as part of the field testing and national norming of the Test of Economic Knowledge (Walstad, Rebeck, and Butters 2010), the present authors investigated how CT and PT affect student test responses. The authors found that eighth- and ninth-grade students perform better with CT than PT, that CT has the potential to limit item guessing, and that CT may reduce item bias from the order of item placement on a test.

Psychometric properties of the Fatigue Severity Scale in polio survivors

The objective of this study was to evaluate by means of classical test theory and Rasch analysis the scaling characteristics and psychometric properties of the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) in polio survivors. A questionnaire,consisting of five general questions (sex, age, age at time of acute polio, sequelae of polio, and new symptoms), the FSS, and three questions from the Visual Analog Scale questions on fatigue was sent to all 196 polio survivors at the Institute for Rehabilitation in Ljubljana. Responses were assessed in terms of Cronbach's a, item-to-total correlation, factor analysis, and Rasch analysis. Of the128 (65.3%) valid questionnaires returned, those presenting no missing values were used for subsequent analyses (n = 117). The FSS showed good internal consistency: Cronbach's a was greater than 0.95,item-to-total correlation ranged from 0.68 to 0.88. A reduction from seven to three rating categories was necessary to comply with criteria for correct category function. Item difficulty estimates spanned from – 0.91to + 1.09 logits. No item bias was found for sex and age.The internal consistency of FSS was high and its item separation reliability good, indicating a satisfactory replicability of item placement in other samples. In conclusion, Rasch analysis enabled us to confirm the validity of FSS (in its 8-item version, without item 1) as a measure of the severity and impact of physical symptoms of fatigue in polio survivors, so providing a useful starting point for further studies aimed at examining additional psychometric aspects and confirming the appropriateness of the simplification of its rating categories.

Exploring consumers' preferences with regard to department and specialist food stores

AbstractConsumers' lifestyle changes and striving towards better time management have resulted in the greater choice they are offered with regard to store formats. Therefore, this study was undertaken to identify the factors that influence consumers in their patronage of a particular store format and to categorize department and specialist food store consumers according to their preferences in store layout and product range in a South African context. A qualitative research approach was used and data were collected using semi‐structured interviews with open‐ended questions. Purposive sampling recruited participants shopping for food in a department store in Johannesburg. Forty semi‐structured interviews were conducted before data saturation was reached. Store‐related factors such as store location, appearance and hygiene, service quality, convenience of trading hours, and consistency in store layout predominantly influenced participants in their patronage of a specific store format. Furthermore, product‐related factors such as quality, price, product range and convenient packaging enhanced consumers' store preference. Department store consumers were orientated towards one‐stop shopping and time‐saving strategies, while specialist food consumers were focused on food shopping and the trading hours of the store. Although similarities in participants' preferences with regard to department and specialist food store were found, different preferences were found regarding the placement of specific items within the store. Participants had similar preferences regarding the product range of a food store. However, department store participants emphasized the provision of convenience food and non‐food items. The findings of this study are valuable in providing department and specialist food store retailers with guideline recommendations regarding store layout and product range in order to effectively respond to the needs and preferences of consumers within an emerging economy.

Review: "Wisely Selected ... Carefully Preserved" — 60th Anniversary of UCLA's University Archives. Shown at Powell Library, UC Los Angeles, from 22 September to 5 December, 2008.

Wisely Selected ... Carefully Preserved — 60th Anniversary of UCLA's University Archives. Shown at Powell Library, UC Los Angeles, from September 22 to December 5, 2008. In celebration of its 60th anniversary, the University Archives of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) mounted an exhibition in the undergraduate Powell Library in late 2008. The exhibit, which consisted of several display cases, showcased notable items from the history of the campus. Counting among its checklist both three-dimensional artifacts and paper-based materials, the exhibit sought to illustrate the range of activities that have occurred in the last century by the efforts of students and organized groups on the Westwood campus. The exhibit featured photographs and documents that have defined the history of the university, and which demonstrated impact of a particular social or intellectual nature. Items included bear paws from a mascot costume (ca. 1980s), a student newspaper article describing the evacuation and relocation order issued for Japanese residents (1942), a flier for a conference held regarding American- Russian Cultural Exchange (1945), and several black-and-white and color photographs of the early Westwood campus (from 1929, several years after the university's founding). The objects were accompanied by informative captions and mounted in such a way as to allow clear viewing as one progressed through the exhibit. Attention was given to the preservation needs of items by restricting the amount of sunlight received and, in a very few cases, presenting a reproduced surrogate of fragile documents. The exhibit was prepared by librarians of the University Archives (a unit within the UCLA Library) in coordination with the Young Research Library's Exhibition Committee and the UCLA Alumni Association. The inclusion of a range of items—including administrative documents, scholarly publications, and student-created materials—demonstrated a concerted effort to showcase a balance of both print and non-print material by the archive. The display cases were physically situated in a manner which complemented the architecture of the Powell Rotunda. Perhaps the most notable element of this exhibition was the exhibitors’ adoption of “interactive” museum display techniques, in particular the central placement of items within the room (in contrast to locating the items adjacent to a wall). This practice allowed visitors and students to view materials from all angles (not solely the obverse), engage in conversation with one another, and read detailed captions with personal inspection. The placement of archival materials within the public space of the library corroborates the importance of this collection in context of the shared university—for in this setting, the visitors are simultaneously the owners and content creators. When viewed as a collection of items by and for “the people of

2A2-G03 物流センターにおける集配ナビゲーション手法の提案

This study aims to propose the order picking navigation method in distribution center. For this purpose, we propose new solutions for two main problems, an item placement and an order batching. The objective of these problems is minimizing the order picking time. Therefore, our proposed methods optimize the item placement and order batching by using the order picking time as the fitness function. Numerical experiments using the data of the existent distribution center prove that our proposed methods improve the efficiently of order picking time.

Evaluation of the factor structure and construct validity of scores on the Male Role Norms Inventory—Revised (MRNI-R).

This article reports the results of an evaluation of the factor structure, reliability, and construct validity of the Male Role Norms Inventory—Revised (MRNI–R). Results of a principal-axis factor analysis with 593 undergraduate participants (341 men, 251 women, 1 other) support the hypothesized factor dimensionality and, to a lesser extent, item placement. Evidence was found for internal consistency of the MRNI–R total score and the seven factor scores. Analyses of the men’s scores provided evidence for convergent validity through a significant correlation of the MRNI–R with the Male Role Attitudes Scale; for divergent validity, through the nonsignificant correlation with the Personal Attributes Questionnaire; and for concurrent validity, through the significant correlations with the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory, the Gender Role Conflict Scale, and the Normative Male Alexithymia Scale.

Preschoolers begin to differentiate the times of events from throughout the lifespan

Three-, 4- and 5-year-old children were presented with simple timelines of past and future and asked to place pictures representing different events at appropriate places. Events came from three rough temporal groupings for both past and future (24 hours, 12 months and several years). Placement of items in the categories improved with age. Three-year-olds placed events that occurred years ago further away on the past timeline than events that had occurred more recently, but they failed to discriminate between the times of future events. Four-year-olds performed no better than 3-year-olds on the past timeline, but successfully differentiated daily events from more remote future events. Five-year-olds differentiated between all three temporal categories of events in both the past and future. The ability to localize events at distinct points in time appears to undergo major transition during the preschool years.

BRAND PLACEMENT AND CONSUMER CHOICE: AN IN‐STORE EXPERIMENT

An in-store experiment was performed to investigate the effects of shelf placement (high, middle, low) on consumers' purchases of potato chips. Placement of potato chips on the middle shelf was associated with the highest percentage of purchases. The results confirm the importance of item placement as a factor in consumers' buying behavior.

Building memories: commemorative deposits at Çatalhöyük

Russell N., Martin L. & Twiss K.C. 2009. — Building memories: commemorative deposits at Çatalhöyük. Anthropozoologica 44(1): 103-128.Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey, is well known for its incorporation of animal parts into architecture: bucrania, horns in benches, etc. We examine the less visible placement of items in pits or built into remodeling inside houses to commemorate particular events. Animal parts feature prominently in these deposits, typically found under platforms on the south and west of the house, while human burials are usually in the north and east. We examine the range of contents of these commemorative deposits in relation to other lines of evidence regarding the consumption and meanings of animals at Çatalhöyük.

Misplacing objects in mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease: a descriptive analysis from the VISTA clinical trial

Background:Misplacing objects is a commonly reported symptom of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) but it is little described systematically and conflicting characterisations (losing/forgetting the location of objects versus inappropriate placement) of this...

Balloon Focus: a Seamless Multi-Focus+Context Method for Treemaps

The treemap is one of the most popular methods for visualizing hierarchical data. When a treemap contains a large number of items, inspecting or comparing a few selected items in a greater level of detail becomes very challenging. In this paper, we present a seamless multi-focus and context technique, called Balloon Focus, that allows the user to smoothly enlarge multiple treemap items served as the foci, while maintaining a stable treemap layout as the context. Our method has several desirable features. First, this method is quite general and hence can be used with different treemap layout algorithms. Second, as the foci are enlarged, the relative positions among all items are preserved. Third, the foci are placed in a way that the remaining space is evenly distributed back to the non-focus treemap items. When Balloon Focus enlarges the focus items to a maximum degree, the above features ensure that the treemap will maintain a consistent appearance and avoid any abrupt layout changes. In our algorithm, a DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) is used to maintain the positional constraints, and an elastic model is employed to govern the placement of the treemap items. We demonstrate a treemap visualization system that integrates data query, manual focus selection, and our novel multi-focus+context technique, Balloon Focus, together. A user study was conducted. Results show that with Balloon Focus, users can better perform the tasks of comparing the values and the distribution of the foci.

A scale to measure non‐traumatic military operational stress

AbstractMilitary operations involve both traumatic and non‐traumatic stressors. The authors developed a scale to measure non‐traumatic operational stressors. In Study 1, a list of stressors identified by military personnel was compared across responses from two operations in East Timor. Exploratory factor analysis yielded three similar factors for each dataset. A confirmatory factor analysis on the combined data determined item placement. Item analysis then reduced the questionnaire to 22 items. In Study 2, the questionnaire was administered to personnel from operations in the Middle East. Correlations with similar scales measured the content validity of the three subscales (work concerns, operational concerns and separation concerns). The authors conclude the questionnaire is a robust measure of operational non‐traumatic stressors applicable across operations. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Chase Home Museum of Utah Folk Arts (review)

Reviewed by: Chase Home Museum of Utah Folk Arts Jill Terry Rudy Chase Home Museum of Utah Folk Arts. Produced by the Utah Arts Council Folk Arts Program. Curated by Carol Edison. Exhibit Web site by George Schoemaker. Salt Lake City, UT. This is a permanent exhibit. A perfect fit. This describes the location, presentation, and content of the Chase Home Museum of Utah Folk Arts. The exhibit features dozens of intricate and interesting items, artfully arranged in four well-lighted, brightly painted galleries. Although the rooms are small, the careful placement of items creates a spacious sense of access. The galleries, two each on the main and upper floors of the Chase Home, highlight the creative abilities of folk artists in Utah. The Chase Home itself encapsulates the themes of everyday art, gathering, diversity, and usefulness that echo in the exhibit. The folk art takes center stage at the museum, accompanied by detailed labels with pictures of the artists. In brief but informative paragraphs, the labels describe where the artist learned to make the item, what materials and methods were used, and how the art fits into the community or with the artist’s other skills. For example, the label describing paper cuts (a traditional art form that involves creating a design on paper by drawing on or folding paper and then cutting the design) made in Blanding, Utah, mentions that the art form is popular in the community, and the artist also “sews, makes quilts, and does other needlework.” The label for the Hawaiian quilt made by Moani Revoir explains the process by which the artist works: “Moani sews traditional whole cloth quilts . . . made from two pieces of fabric, one cut into a design and appliquéd upon the other.” The detailed information in the labels comes from fieldwork and the relationship of the artists with the Utah Folk Arts Program staff. Most visitors will enter the Native Gallery first and will be immediately impressed by the large drum displayed in the center of the room and the cradleboards (decorated wooden frameworks covered with fabric or skin, used to carry or hold babies) on the walls. Items from the six Utah tribes—Goshute, Northern Ute, Paiute, Shoshone, Ute Mountain Ute, and Navajo— are represented along with artifacts created by Utah artists who come from tribes outside of the state, including Hopi and Seneca. Beadwork, baskets, and blankets are among the artistic materials on display. Carved sandstone toys shaped like trucks and horses, along with carved wood creatures with human bodies and animal heads, are some of the unexpected art forms in the room. The Rural Gallery features braided and woven rugs on two of its walls; wood carvings and paper cuts appear on the other walls. Metal sculpture depicting aspects of rural farm life occupies a central spot in the middle of the room. Wooden furniture and a totem pole with well-known Utah symbols also catch the eye. The Occupational Gallery continues the western theme suggested by the rural objects, with saddles and tack prominently featured. A colorful quilt with all the brands of the Dry Gulch Cattle Association covers much of the west wall, away from the stone gargoyle that snarls behind Plexiglas in the southeast corner. The gargoyle brings up another important Utah group that does not appear in the names of the galleries—families. The gargoyle represents several generations of a family whose occupation is stone carving. Many of the labels throughout the exhibit explain that the artist learned from a family member. Showing that Utah folk groups and art forms can be interchangeable, several items in the Occupational Gallery are made by Navajo artists, including horse cinches and saddle blankets. The Ethnic Gallery continues to display diversity with items representing emigrants from Japan, Mexico, [End Page 241] Peru, Armenia, Tonga, China, Austria, Tahiti, and Ukraine. Appliquéd quilts, lacework, paper cuts, paper flowers, painted eggs, origami cranes, woven crucifixes, and Day of the Dead figures are among the colorful and significant objects that fill the room. An understated subtheme of this gallery is another significant type of social group in Utah, one based in religion. Several thoughtful techniques enhance the appearance of the...

An Exploration of Questionnaire Sorting and Fuzzy Sorting

Questionnaire sorting is a concept for sorting mentioned by Coxon [(1999) SORTING DATA. Collection and Analysis. Thousand Oaks: Sage] and Harloff and Coxon [(2005), How to Sort. A Short Guide on Sorting Investigations. www.methodofsorting.com]. The use of questionnaire sorting is detailed herein. A paper questionnaire variant and a HTML form variant are introduced. Their equivalence among each other and with traditional sorting of paper cards is tested for two sets of items. These sets consist of 20 colors and 25 web-site content items. Results from paper questionnaires and HTML forms do not differ significantly. Contradictory results were obtained on the equivalence of paper card sorting and questionnaire sorting, depending on the item sets. Another variant allowing for placement of items in several clusters simultaneously has been termed fuzzy sorting (Harloff and Coxon, 2005, How to Sort. A Short Guide on Sorting Investigations. www.methodofsorting.com). Its first detailed application is given here for both paper card sorting and questionnaire sorting. The difference between results from fuzzy sorting and partition sorting experiments was tested using paired t-tests. The type I error is below 0.01. In contrast to current practice it is therefore advisable to use instructions and a mathematical model for sorting fitting to the methods of subsequent statistical analysis and to the designed domain. Results from two fuzzy sorting experiments are analyzed by fuzzy cluster analysis and network analysis, respectively. Fuzzy sorting and fuzzy cluster analysis provide much more detailed information than the common partition sorting and hierarchical cluster analysis. Network analysis gives valuable information about facet structure.

Type of items and the magnitude of gender differences on the Mental Rotations Test.

The present study considered the structure of the drawings used in the Mental Rotations Test (MRT) to examine whether distractors that are either a mirror image or structurally different from the target as well as response alternatives with occluded and nonoccluded parts affect the magnitude of gender differences on this test. One hundred and three women and 100 men undergraduate students were given unlimited time to complete the MRT. A gender by occlusion interaction on correct responses showed that gender differences were larger for occluded than for nonoccluded items. Examination of performance as a function of item placement in the test suggested that it is unlikely that the results could be accounted for by differential practice effects in women and men. Implications of these results for explanations of gender differences on the MRT and for the training of spatial abilities are discussed.