How do Virtual Badges Incentivize Voluntary Contributions to Online Communities?

Online communities rely heavily on badges to incentivize users to participate in voluntary activities. We examine the relationship between earned badges/pursued badges and contributions in the Stack Overflow question and answer community. Our main results reveal that different levels of earned and pursued badges increase the amount of subsequent answering activity. In addition, earned gold badges are the most influential in the motivation of users while earned bronze badges are the least impactful. Furthermore, the effect of badges involves positive spillovers from higher levels of earned badges to lower ones. Our findings offer important theoretical and managerial implications for online communities.     

SoSyM significantly reduces its backlog

Software and Systems Modeling -     

Predominant yeasts in the sourdoughs collected from some parts of Turkey

In the present study, a total of eight sourdough samples were collected from three different bakeries at two different times in Turkey. Also, laboratory-scale sourdough production was conducted by daily back-slopping for 7 days. Microbiological and chemical properties of the sourdoughs were investigated. Yeast species in the sourdoughs were identified by subjecting all presumptive yeast cultures to internal transcribed spacer region amplification of the 5.8S rRNA gene, restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis using Hae III, Hha I, and Hinf I endonucleases, and sequence analysis of the D1/D2 domain of the 26S rDNA gene. A total of seven profiles were determined according to the restriction fragments. Totally, 148 yeast isolates were identified at the species level (≥400 bp , 99% identity) as Saccharomyces cerevisiae (106), Kazachstania bulderi (11), Pichia fermentans (nine), Pichia membranifaciens (eight), Kazachstania servazzii (seven), Kazachstania unispora (four), and Hanseniaspora valbyensis (three). Although collected sourdoughs were produced without using baker's yeast, S. cerevisiae was the most frequently isolated yeast species. This can be related to the contamination of the bakery environment with commercial baker's yeast during the production of other bakery products. The pH and acidity levels of the collected sourdough samples ranged from 3.71 to 3.96 and 6.78 to 23.93 mL 0.1 N NaOH/10 g dough, respectively. Mean values of the content of maltose + sucrose, glucose, fructose, lactic acid, and acetic acid were 2.43, 1.57, 2.67, 7.30, and 1.40 g/kg, respectively. Due to the artisan and region-dependent handling of the sourdough, different biochemical patterns were observed among the collected samples.     

Screening various Yarrowia lipolytica strains for citric acid production

Citric acid (CA) productivity by Yarrowia lipolytica dependents on strain type, carbon source, carbon to nitrogen (C/N) molar ratio as well as physicochemical conditions (pH, temperature, oxygen transfer rate, etc.). In the current study, 10 different Y. lipolytica strains were first challenged in shake-flask culture for CA production in a glucose-based media under nitrogen-limited conditions. For the most promising one, strain K57, CA productivity was monitored during culture in batch bioreactor for three initial C/N molar ratio (167, 367, and 567 Cmol/Nmol). The highest CA yield (0.77 g/g glucose), titre (72.3 g/L CA), and productivity (0.04 g/g.h) were found for C/N ratio of 367. However, the highest growth rate was obtained for an initial C/N ratio of 167. From these results, Y. lipolytica strain K57 could be considered to produce CA at higher titre on glucose-based medium in batch bioreactor than others Y. lipolytica strain reported in the literature.     

An optimisation support for the design of hybrid production lines including assembly and disassembly tasks

The optimisation problems related to the assignment of tasks to workstations in assembly and disassembly lines have been largely discussed in the literature. They are known, respectively, as Assembly Line Balancing and Disassembly Line Balancing Problems. In this study, both types of task performed on the identical product are integrated in a common hybrid production system. Therefore, the logistic process is simplified and disassembly tasks can supply easier the assembly tasks with the required components. The considered production system has the layout of two parallel lines with common workstations. The product flow is conventional in the assembly line and reverse in the disassembly line. The paper provides a new mathematical model for designing such a hybrid system and an approximate approach based on ant colony optimisation for solving large-scale instances. The solution method is tested in a case study. The obtained results are compared with the solution provided by the design of two independent lines. The analysis of the results highlights the potential benefits of the hybrid production system.     

Monitoring of count data time series: Cumulative sum change detection in Poisson integer valued GARCH models

This article presents a cumulative sum (CUSUM) monitoring approach for count-data time series. A seasonal integer-valued generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (INGARCH(1,1)) time series model with Poisson deviates is used to develop a likelihood ratio test formulation to detect changes in the process accounting for temporal correlations and seasonality. Simulation studies show that the proposed CUSUM monitoring approach can provide significantly improved performance in applications where serial correlation or seasonality is prevalent. A case study with real traffic crash counts is presented to illustrate the application of the proposed methodology for roadway safety improvement.     

Afterclearing by ozonation: a novel approach for disperse dyeing of polyester

A set of trials has been conducted to examine the efficiency of ozonation afterclearing on poly(ethylene terephthalate) fibres dyed with disperse dyes. The afterclearing process was performed in neutral distilled water at room temperature with 12.8 ± 0.3 mg/min ozone at 400 ml/min ozone gas flow rate. The results indicate that 1 min ozonation time is adequate to achieve wash fastness results comparable with conventional reduction clearing without significant colour yield losses. Ozonation periods greater than 1 min not only caused significant colour yield losses, but also caused a severe decrease of the breaking load of the fabric. The advantages of ozonation afterclearing are: savings in energy and time, as it is performed at room temperature for only 1 min, and decrease of environmental load as it avoids the use of the harsh chemicals used in conventional reduction clearing.     

Hydroxymethylation and polymerization of plant oil triglycerides

The ene reaction between plant oil triglycerides (such as soybean and sunflower oils) and paraformaldehyde was used to introduce a homoallylic hydroxyl functionality on the triglyceride. Paraformaldehyde and triglyceride were reacted in the presence of a Lewis acid catalyst, ethylaluminum dichloride, and hydroxymethyl derivatives were obtained at yields of 42 and 55% for sunflower oil and soybean oil, respectively. In the next step, hydroxymethyl products were reacted with maleic anhydride at 100°C to produce the maleate half esters. The average number of maleate groups per triglycerides was found to be 1.7 for soybean oil and 1.3 for sunflower oil. In the final step, the free‐radical–initiated copolymerization of the maleinized triglycerides with styrene produced rigid polymers. Characterization of new monomers and polymers was done by ¹H‐NMR, ¹³C‐NMR, and infrared and mass spectrometries. The swelling behavior of the crosslinked network polymers was determined in different solvents. The glass‐transition temperature of the cured resin was also determined by differential scanning calorimetry to be 40°C for soybean‐based polymer and 30°C for sunflower‐based polymer. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 91: 4037–4046, 2004     

Application of ozone gas for the stripping of fabric ink‐jet‐printed with reactive dyes

In this study, a novel process utilizing ozone was carried out for colour stripping of fabrics misprinted with reactive dyes in ink‐jet machines. The results of ozone applications were compared with conventional colour stripping process performed by thiourea dioxide (TUDO) and soda ash. In trials, cotton‐based and viscose‐based woven fabrics were used as these fabrics were the most utilized at the textile mill in which this study was performed. Different ozone treatment times (30, 45, 60 or 90 min) were tested to find optimum process time and it was found that process times depended on fabric type. Particularly, colour stripping on high density and thick fabrics were harder than low density and thin fabric types. Fabric strengths, whiteness indexes and chemical oxygen demand (COD) values were measured. Also energy, chemical and water consumptions were calculated. Consequently, it was found that the reduction of the COD value of effluent was up to 98%. The calculations showed that the savings in time and cost in ozone treatment were up to 77%. Satisfactory colour stripping and tensile strengths were achieved.     

Equilibrium and kinetic mechanism for Reactive Black 5 sorption onto high lime Soma fly ash

Batch adsorption studies were carried out for the sorption of C.I. Reactive Black 5, a reactive dye, onto high lime fly ash, obtained from Soma Thermal Power Plant (Turkey), to be low cost adsorbent. The effect of various experimental parameters such as contact time, adsorbent dose and initial dye concentration were investigated. Determination of the adsorption equilibrium concentrations was determined by UV-vis spectrophotometry analytical method. Equilibrium data were fitted to the Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm equations and the equilibrium data were found to be well represented by the Freundlich isotherm equation. The adsorption kinetics of C.I. Reactive Black 5 onto high lime fly ash were also studied to characterize of the surface complexation reaction. A pseudo-second-order mechanism has been developed to predict the rate constant of the adsorption, the equilibrium capacity and initial adsorption rate with the effect of initial concentration. A single-stage batch adsorber design of the adsorption of C.I. Reactive Black 5 onto high lime fly ash has been studied based on the Freundlich isotherm equation.