1,720,961 research outputs found

    Efficient resilience portfolio design in the supply chain with consideration of preparedness and recovery investments

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    Supply chain (SC) resilience is imperative to cope with disruptions using some preparedness and recov ery capabilities such as network redundancy (e.g., backup suppliers) and process flexibility (e.g., capacity agility). These capabilities frame an SC resilience portfolio. Both designing a resilient portfolio and recov ering in case of a real disruption require investments. This paper presents a new mathematical model for designing an efficient resilience portfolio in a multi-echelon SC. Through computational and compar ative analyses using a real-life case-study, we demonstrate that our model allows increasing resilience at minimal costs by determining an optimal combination of preparedness and recovery investments. Inter estingly, the optimal solutions (i.e., efficient resilient SC designs) increase SC efficiency even in business as-usual scenarios. This result contributes to the literature on transforming resilience from an expensive spend to a value-creation asset. We illustrate our approach using a real-life industrial example that al lows for the identification of important relations between disruption duration/magnitude and efficiency of preparedness and recovery strategies. Based on computational, comparative, and case-study analyses, we deduce and generalize managerial implications at the network, supplier, and manufacturer levels. We take an extra step by extrapolating our major findings and generalized managerial implications toward the COVID-19 pandemic setting. The outcome of our research can be instructive for SC managers when deciding on investments in resilient redundancy allocation as a part of preparedness strategy and efficient recovery deployment

    Centralised healthcare supply networks for efficient and sustainable drug management: An Italian case study

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    This study aims at investigating the logistic performance of centralised healthcare supply chains and quantifies consequent benefits on the entire system sustainability. The focus is on drug inventory management and distribution inside a network of hospitals, re-designed and optimised by applying a hub and spoke perspective coupled with logistics outsourcing. An Italian HSC is analysed by a multi-method simulation modelling in order to understand the overall sustainability of the new integrated supply chain. The findings provide a comprehensive analysis of the total savings obtained: increased opportunity for healthcare professionals to focus on patient care, financial savings in terms of a reduction in annual public expenditure (-25.8%) and transportation emissions reduction inside cities (-32%). The paper suggests to managers and logisticians that more attention needs to be paid to measuring the actual sustainability of HSCs, suggesting new logistics improvements. The work is might be easily extendable to similar cases

    The performance impact of Industry 4.0 technologies on closed-loop supply chains: insights from an Italy based survey

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    Closed-Loop Supply Chain (CLSC) and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) are two significant initiatives that have engaged European and global business over the past few years. While direct effects of these initiatives on performance have been found, the nature and performance effects of interactions among these two initiatives remain largely unexamined. This exploratory study theorises and investigates how I4.0 technologies can facilitate CLSC initiatives. Data are collected and analysed from enterprises located in the northeast of Italy. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is deployed to analyse the data. The data suggest a significant and beneficial moderator of I4.0 technologies on the relationship between CLSC practices and firm environmental and social performance. The data fails to find a significant relationship between CLSC practices and financial performance. Data-driven I4.0 technologies are seen to be of greater significance in such moderator roles, comparative to process-driven I4.0 technologies. Our analysis suggests that companies may be advised to adopt a targeted, systems approach for using data-driven I4.0 applications in conjunction with CLSC practices in order to realise performance gains. The findings represent important building blocks in developing theory in this formative area of study. Further implications are discussed from theoretical and practical perspectives

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

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    We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more sophisticated methods

    Author Index

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    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    We have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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