Management has a large effect on the productivity of medium and large firms. But does management matter in micro and small firms, where the majority of the labor force in developing countries works? We develop 26 questions that measure business practices in marketing, stockkeeping, record-keeping, and financial planning. These questions have been administered in surveys in Bangladesh, Chile, Gh...

The paper presents an analysis of human reaching movements in the manipulation of flexible objects. Two models, the minimum hand jerk and the minimum driving hand forcechange, are used for modelling and verification of experimental data. The data are collected with the haptic system supporting dynamic simulation of the flexible object in real time. We describe some initial experimental results ...

The paper presents an analysis of human reaching movements in the manipulation of flexible objects. Two models, the minimum hand jerk and the minimum driving hand forcechange, are used for modelling and verification of experimental data. The data are collected with the haptic system supporting dynamic simulation of the flexible object in real time. We describe some initial experimental results ...

This paper presents an original approach to Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for supporting decision-making processes in Local Land-Use Planning (LLUP) which integrates a set of frameworks and methodologies into technologies based on the use of Geographic Information. The technologies embrace the domain of Planning Support Systems (PSS), whose architecture is based on the Geodesign fram...

In path planning, potential fields introduce force constraints to ensure curvature continuity of trajectories and thus to facilitate path-tracking design. In previous works, a path planning design by fractional (or non integer or generalized) repulsive potential has been developed to avoid fixed obstacles: danger level of each obstacle was characterized by the fractional order of differentiatio...

The DARPA SLS Program is developing a technology that has been justified, at least in part, by its potential relevance to military applications. In an effort to demonstrate the relevance of SIS technology to real-world military applications, BBN has undertaken the task of providing a spoken language interface to DART, a system for military logistical transportation planning. We discuss the tran...

Human motion models are finding an increasing number of novel applications in many different fields, such as building design, computer graphics and robot motion planning. The Social Force Model is one of the most popular alternatives to describe the motion of pedestrians. By resorting to a physical analogy, individuals are assimilated to point-wise particles subject to social forces which drive...

Modeling and simulation of pedestrian behavior is used in applications such as planning large buildings, disaster management, or urban planning. Realistically simulating pedestrian behavior is challenging, due to the complexity of individual behavior as well as the complexity of interactions of pedestrians with each other and with the environment. This work-in-progress paper addresses the tacti...