1,720,969 research outputs found

    Design and optimization of a facility layout problem in virtual environment

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    Productivity improvement, due to high competition on global marketplace, requires a concurrent/reverse engineering approach to layout design, simulation and optimization in as short as possible times. Besides, a facility layout problem can be viewed as a combinatorial optimization problem solvable through heuristic methodologies. Designers, engineers and managers needs automated tools to effectively analyze layout and define an optimal configuration. Central to success is the integration of multi objective mathematical procedures with robust design techniques and virtual representation/validation in stereoscopic real scale. Flow analysis, plant design and optimal 3-D layout representation, with virtual environment validation, are the objects in our facility layout approach. In a Virtual Reality environment, using Axiomatic Design, it is possible to analyze alternative design configurations with little efforts and short time, obtaining improvements in communication, savings in changes and assuring design integration with computer tools. Encouraged by the big interest on Virtual Reality abilities, the paper presents an innovative robust design application based on a Rectangle-Packing placement optimization procedure with Virtual Reality environment validation of a real flow shop production process

    Agent-based modelling of movement rules in DRC systems for volume flexibility: human factors and technical performance

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    This research applies agent-based modelling (ABM) to study volume flexibility in a dual resource constrained (DRC) assembly flow shop environment. The simulation experiment evaluated system and human effects of varying DRC system staffing levels according to design (i.e., workforce, distance and buffer capacity), sensitivity (i.e. coefficient of variation) and operating (i.e. when rule and where rule) factors. Results showed that the rule by which workers are assigned to workstations affects WIP and flow time performances more than production rates. Furthermore per-worker productivity was found to increase, compared to the fully staffed system, particularly where the downstream movement rule was applied. Using the downstream rule when changing stations after completing current tasks reduced flow time (−15%) and WIP (−10%). If another where rule is chosen then it may be preferable for workers to move only after completing all jobs in the station (decentralised rule). For utilisation rates and mean hourly switching of work (human effects), the model shows complex relationships depending on almost all evaluated factors. The novel ABM approach used here enabled the evaluation of emergent system behaviours and showed potential to help firms understand both human and performance effects of operational choices in efforts to achieve volume flexibility

    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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