1,720,995 research outputs found
Enabling organizations to strategically manage risks in circular supply chains
Full text linkCircular supply chains (CSCs) prioritize resource efficiency by reusing, remanufacturing, and recycling materials, offering environmental benefits and competitive advantages. However, they are facing various risks and organizational challenges that hinder their efficiency. To ensure long-term sustainability, this study identifies the key risks and introduces a prioritization model for risk management in CSC strategies proposing a framework for the risk evaluation based on the set of criteria and prioritization model using a combination of three multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) methods. The model applies fuzzy Delphi-based analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method to determine the criteria weights and fuzzy axial distance-based aggregated measurement (ADAM) method for ranking the alternatives. The findings of this study allow for the identification of the most important risks associated with CSC enabling stakeholders to allocate resources strategically and focus efforts on crucial areas. Results highlight that the most important risks are supply chain complexity, resource availability, and quality and technological challenges. The most important contributions are the identification of the most relevant risks that threaten the resilience and sustainability of CSCs, the establishment of the framework for their evaluation, and
the development of a novel hybrid MCDM model for their ranking. These contributions are also the main theoretical implications of the study. On a practical level, it enables organizations to strategically manage risks, standardize risk assessment, and improve their competitive advantage by enhancing resilience, reducing disruptions, and lowering operational cost
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe 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
Multi-Directional Non-Parametric Analysis of Agricultural Efficiency:The Case of Lithuanian Family Farms
No full textThis thesis seeks to develop methodologies for assessment of agricultural efficiency and employ them to Lithuanian family farms. In particular, we focus on three particular objectives throughout the research:(i) to perform a fully non-parametric analysis of efficiency effects,(ii) to extend the Multi-Directional Efficiency Analysis approach,(iii) to account for uncertainties via the use of probabilistic and fuzzy measures.Therefore, the thesis encompass six papers dedicated to (the combinations of) these objectives.One of the main contributions of this thesis is a number of extensions to the Multi-Directional Efficiency Analysis approach when the proposed models were employed to analyse empirical data of Lithuanian family farm performance, we saw substantial differences in efficiencies associated with different inputs. In particular, assets appeared to be the least efficiently used input relative to labour, intermediate consumption and land (in some cases land was not treated as a discretionary input). These findings call for further research on relationships among financial structure, investment decisions, and efficiency in Lithuanian family farms.Application of different techniques yielded somewhat different patterns of the determinants of efficiency in Lithuanian family farms. In the conditional framework, the negative effects of production subsidies were evident for both radial and input-specific models. Asset use intensity had a positive effect upon land and labour use efficiency. As for analysis under the assumption of no separability among environmental effects, we observed a positive influence of farm size on efficiency as well as a negative influence of crop share in the total output.The use of fuzzy clustering and fuzzy Free Disposal Hull enabled us to identify the degree of stochasticity associated with Lithuanian family farm performance. The former technique showed that the farms differed in terms of the mean values and variance of the efficiency scores over time with some clear patterns prevailing throughout the whole research period. The fuzzy Free Disposal Hull showed that the lower boundary of the fuzzy efficiency scores for livestock farms was more stable than those for other farming types. However, under increasing uncertainty, crop farms featured extremely high upper bounds of the fuzzy efficiencies.The differences among the underlying technologies were analysed by the means of Multi-Directional Efficiency Analysis in the program efficiency framework, the bias-corrected Malmquist indices, and Malmquist indices based on Multi-Directional Efficiency Analysis. The proposed techniques, thus, can be successfully employed to disentangle the underlying patterns in efficiency and productivity change avoiding the loss of information due to the use of the radial measures.<br/
Variations on the Author
Full text link“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
Full text linkWe 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
Full text linkWe 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
Aggregate Efficiency Dynamics in Lithuanian Dairy Farms
Full text linkIn this paper, we attempt to identify the major groups of decision making units (dairy farms) contributing to the aggregate efficiency change. We also suggest identifying influential peers in order to gain more insights into possible development strategies within a sector. The empirical application focuses on specialist dairy farms in Lithuania. The farm-level data cover the period 2004-2016. The results indicate the presence of structural changes and resulting shifts in the aggregate efficiency. Based on the results of decomposition of the covariance term and identification of the influential peers, two models can be followed by Lithuanian dairy farms, namely “pure” family farms with lower operational scale and large farms involving hired labour
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe 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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