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Platform-based Supply Chains:A Dual-Layered Framework for Digital Transformation and Ecosystem Orchestration
Get PDFAs global supply chains face increasing complexity, disruption, and sustainability pressures, platform-based supply chains have emerged as a new organizational form, digitally enabled, ecosystem-centric, and strategically adaptive. Unlike traditional linear and firm-centric models, these supply chains operate through the integration of advanced technologies, stakeholder collaboration, and dynamic governance. Drawing on platform ecosystem theory and socio-technical systems theory, this study develops a dual-layered framework based on an in-depth case study of a leading Chinese supply chain solutions provider. The framework comprises a digital platform layer that supports real-time data sharing, interoperability, and automation, and a supply chain ecosystem layer that facilitates stakeholder coordination, resource orchestration, and value co-creation. The findings reveal four mechanisms of strategic evolution, ecosystem orchestration, capability co-development, governance innovation, and continuous learning, driven by the alignment between digital infrastructure and social-organizational structure. By reconceptualizing platform-based supply chains as adaptive socio-technical ecosystems, the study advances theoretical understanding of their configuration, operational mechanisms, and strategic evolutions. It also provides practical guidance on platform design, stakeholder onboarding, governance structures, and phased implementation, offering a roadmap for managers and policymakers navigating digital transformation in contemporary supply chain environments
Revisiting the gender gap in innovation:A qualitative comparative analysis of high-tech new ventures in China
Get PDFPrevailing deficit logic suggests that women entrepreneurs underperform in innovation due to resource disadvantages; yet, growing evidence shows that gender does not consistently exert a statistically significant effect. We address this puzzle through a contextual–configurational approach, examining how entrepreneurs not only do gender but also do context in achieving a high innovation outcome. Using qualitative comparative analysis on a sample of high-tech new ventures in China, we identify three distinct innovation archetypes and make several key contributions. Thus, by integrating multiple theoretical perspectives, we develop a contextualised understanding of innovation in high-tech new ventures shaped by the interplay between gender, intangible resources and environmental dynamism. In addition, we reveal that the conjunction of women, gender and resource disadvantage can, under conditions of environmental turbulence, foster high levels of innovation, and finally, we reconcile the ongoing debate regarding the role of gender in innovation, offering a more holistic understanding of gender differences in entrepreneurship
The impact of ultraviolet suppression on the rates and properties of strongly lensed Type IIn supernovae detected by LSST
Get PDFUpcoming wide-field time-domain surveys, such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) are expected to discover up to two orders of magnitude more strongly lensed supernovae per year than have so far been observed. Of these, Type IIn supernovae have been predicted to be detected more frequently than any other supernova type, despite their small relative detection fraction amongst non-lensed supernovae. However, previous studies that predict a large population of lensed Type IIn supernova detections model their time evolving spectrum as a pure blackbody. In reality, there is a deficit in the UV flux of supernovae relative to the blackbody continuum due to line-blanketing from iron-group elements in the ejecta and scattering effects. In this work we quantify the effect of this UV suppression on the detection rates by LSST of a simulated population of strongly lensed Type IIn supernovae, relative to a pure blackbody model, using a mock LSST observing run. With a blackbody model, we predict to detect ~70 lensed Type IIn supernova per year with LSST. By modelling a similar UV deficit to that seen in superluminous supernovae, we recover 60–80 per cent of the detections obtained using a pure blackbody model, of which ~10 detections per year are sufficiently bright (mi < 22.5 mag) and detected early enough (> 5 observations before light-curve peak) to enable high-cadence spectroscopic follow up
Detecting and characterising exoplanets with HARPS-N
Get PDFExoplanet follow-up with JWST requires precise masses and radii. HARPS-N is a high-resolution spectrograph on the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), predominantly used to detect and characterize exoplanets using the radial velocity (RV) method. The HARPS-N Collaboration has been characterising exoplanets with HARPS-N for over a decade. In this short paper we highlight the contributions that the HARPS-N Collaboration has made to the characterisation of small exoplanets.</p
A decade of solar high-fidelity spectroscopy and precise radial velocities from HARPS-N
Get PDFContext. The HARPS-N solar telescope has been observing the Sun every possible day since the summer of 2015. We have recently released 10 years of these data, which are available online.Aims. The goal of this paper is to present the different optimisations made to the ESPRESSO data reduction software used to extract the published HARPS-N solar spectra, describe the data curation, and perform some analyses that demonstrate the extreme radial velocity (RV) precision of those data.Methods. By analysing all of the HARPS-N wavelength solutions over 13 years, we brought to light instrumental systematics at the 1 m s−1 level. We mitigated those systematics by curating the thorium line list used to derive the wavelength solution and applying a correction to the drift of thorium lines induced by the aging of thorium-argon hollow cathode lamps. After optimisation, we demonstrated a peak-to-peak precision on the HARPS-N wavelength solution better than 0.75 m s−1 over 13 years. We then carefully curated the decade of HARPS-N re-reduced solar observations by rejecting 30% of the data affected either by clouds, bad atmospheric conditions, or well-understood instrumental systematics. Finally, we corrected the curated data for spurious sub-meter-per-second RV effects caused by erroneous instrumental drift measurements and by changes in the spectral blaze function over time.Results. After curation and correction, a total of 109,466 HARPS-N solar spectra and respective RVs over a decade were made available. The median photon-noise precision of the RV data is 0.28 m s−1, and on daily timescales, the median RV rms is 0.49 m s−1, which is similar to the level imposed by stellar granulation signals. On 10 year timescales, the large RV rms of 2.95 m s−1 results from the RV signature of the Sun’s magnetic cycle. Through modelling of this long-term effect using the Bremen composite magnesium II activity index, we demonstrate a long-term RV precision of 0.41 m s−1. We also analysed contemporaneous HARPS-N and NEID solar RVs and found the data from both instruments to be of similar quality and precision. However, an analysis of the RV difference between these two RV datasets over the three available years gave a surprisingly large RV rms of 1.3 m s−1. This variation is dominated by an unexplained trend that could be caused by a different sensitivity to stellar activity of the two datasets. Once this trend was modelled, the overall RV rms for three years reached 0.79 m s−1, and the RV rms during the low-activity phase decreased to 0.6 m s−1, compatible with what is expected from supergranulation.Conclusions. This decade of high-cadence HARPS-N solar observations with short- and long-term precision below one m s−1 represents a crucial dataset in the pursuit of further understanding the stellar activity signals in solar-type stars and advancing other science cases requiring such extreme precision
Determinants and outcomes of ovarian cancer diagnosis following an emergency presentation:a systematic review
Get PDFOBJECTIVE: This study aimed to identify the clinical and sociodemographic risk factors and compare cancer stage, treatment, and survival outcomes associated with ovarian cancer diagnosed following an emergency presentation versus other routes.METHODS: A systematic search of Embase and MEDLINE was conducted from January 2000 to August 2025, following PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines (PROSPERO: CRD420251111636). Studies were included if they examined risk factors associated with ovarian cancer diagnosis following an emergency presentation. Studies were also included if they compared treatment or survival outcomes between those diagnosed after an emergency presentation and those diagnosed via other routes. The quality of the studies was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale.RESULTS: Of the 3499 studies identified, 12 met the inclusion criteria and included a total of 127,395 women. All of the studies were conducted in high-income countries. Older age and socioeconomic deprivation were the most common determinants of an ovarian cancer diagnosis following an emergency presentation, although most studies did not adjust for key confounders. This diagnostic route was associated with advanced tumor stage, lower rates of treatment, shorter intervals between diagnosis and treatment initiation, and poorer survival outcomes. While the included studies were at low risk of bias, substantial heterogeneity made cross-study comparison challenging, especially as contradictory findings between larger population-based studies and single-center studies were noted.CONCLUSIONS: Women diagnosed with ovarian cancer following an emergency admission have a poor prognosis in many high-income countries. Urgent concerted action is needed to both decrease the number of women diagnosed through this diagnostic pathway and increase their treatment rates to improve survival outcomes.</p
Technological and Socio-Economic Challenges in the Development of Sensors for Precision Agriculture
Get PDFField-deployable sensors play an important role in precision agriculture and are used to enable key stakeholders (farmers, agronomists, policy makers, etc.) to make informed decisions about resource management and improve crop yields. Sensor developers must consider technological, economic, and human aspects jointly in order to design a successful sensor. The objective of this review is to describe some of the key strands of each aspect and highlight the need to develop a degree of understanding of all of these aspects in order to create technologies that will be easily and readily adopted. Rather than analyzing each area in depth, we limit our discussion to a few major aspects and try to indicate interdependency and showcase their impact on one another. We hope that this approach will instigate thoughts and ideas and stimulate the co-creation of fit-for-purpose sensors
Construction 4.0:Understanding and Awareness for Master’s Level Students
Get PDFConstruction 4.0 refers to the integration of automation, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things (IoT) in the construction industry, which has changed traditional construction practices. MSc courses play a crucial role in developing the next generation of leaders within the construction industry by equipping graduates of these courses with advanced technical, managerial, and strategic skills, including the arrival of Construction 4.0. As future professionals and construction industry leaders, it is necessary to identify the current level of awareness and understanding of Construction 4.0 amongst master’s level students. As such, this paper studies these areas to help identify the gaps in education and training requirements—essential for matching academic programs with industry needs. Through the use of a survey-based approach with 112 MSc students on various Construction Management courses, a series of revealing results were obtained. The results presented herein indicate that there is a shared definition of what constitutes Construction 4.0 amongst engineering management students. However, while they are relatively aware of Construction 4.0 technologies, they do not differentiate strongly between Industry 4.0 and Construction 4.0. Therein, they are ambivalent as to the role of Education 4.0 in improving this situation. Key to this is the requirement to keep up with industry needs. The lack of application of Construction 4.0 means students lack the necessary ‘practical skills’ to implement innovations on real construction sites. Students advocated for more hands-on training, industry-linked projects, and guest lectures within the curriculum, alongside developing the essential skills of critical thinking and problem-solving. Changes in the curricula are suggested, achievable through readily existing 4.0 Frameworks
High temperature zirconium alloys Zr-Al-Sn-(Si,Cr,V) by near-<i>α </i>titanium analogy
Get PDFThe use of conventional zirconium alloys at temperatures above 400 °C is limited by high temperature strength and creep resistance. This has prevented the consideration of zirconium alloys for fusion and Generation IV fission plant designs operating at 500 °C–1000 °C. The physical metallurgy of zirconium is similar to titanium which has seen alloying advances allowing application temperatures up to 600 °C. Although the oxidation resistance of zirconium-based alloys is expected to be poor, in a water environment, new Generation-IV and fusion reactors are designed to operate using alternative coolants such as liquid metals and molten salts. Therefore, a new class of zirconium alloys in the Zr-Al-Sn-(Si,Cr,V) system, designed by analogy to near-α titanium alloys, were synthesised by arc melting and processed in a sequence of homogenisation, hot/cold rolling, recrystallisation, and ageing treatments. Microscopy and diffraction identified a refined fully lath grain structure reinforced by nanoscale lamellar or discrete coherent Zr3Al precipitates, with morphology and crystal structure differing with ageing times. Additionally alloying with Si, Cr, and V respectively leads to Zr2Si, ZrCr2, and ZrV2 incoherent precipitates. Tensile testing revealed a strengthening effect by Al, but with significant changes to ductility on ageing depending on the evolution of Zr3Al. Creep testing showed creep rates orders of magnitude better than conventional Zircaloy-4 and nuclear ferritic/martensitic steels, approaching near-α Ti alloys. The present work offers new insights and perspectives into how high-temperature zirconium alloys might be designed to meet the requirements for fusion and Gen-IV fission
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