Intellectual contribution of Indian periodontists to world literature: a bibliometric evaluation of Pubmed database till 1st March, 2012

Scientifically liberated and developed countries produce huge amounts of cutting-edge publications in peer-reviewed impact-creating journals. These publications may become basis for various policies/other blueprints. There is no reported study regarding the publication trends of Periodontists from India. The aim of this study was to assess the trends of Indian Periodontist’s publications in Pubmed database till 1st March, 2012 by taking quantitative bibliometric approach. Studies were identified by running select search phrases on Pubmed search engine. Search inputs included, ‘dental’, ‘oral’, ‘periodontal’, ‘gingiva’, ‘gingival’, ‘periodontology’, ‘periodontics’, ‘periodontia’, ‘periodontitis’, ‘gingivitis’, and ‘dental implant’. A parallel search with above phrases along with ‘India’ also done to assess India-specific publications. All publications with or without available abstracts were analyzed for selected parameters. Analysis was performed to determine name of the journal, number of authors, year of publication, type of institute, statewide distribution, type of study etc. The approximate contribution of Indian Dental/Periodontal literature to Pubmed database is 1.45 % till 1st March 2012. The number of articles published by Indian Periodontists is 764 across 107 journals and starting from 1960. The number of original articles published were 510 (66.75 %) as opposed to 127 (16.62 %) each for review articles and case reports/case series. The average contribution of an Indian Periodontist to Pubmed database is 0.53 articles. The contribution of Indian Periodontists to world literature through Pubmed database is not voluminous but, the publications are multiplying every passing year almost in an exponential way. There is also an increasing trend towards original articles to be published.     

On‐line reliability estimation for individual components using statistical degradation signal models

With very few exceptions, most contemporary reliability engineering methods are geared towards estimating a population characteristic(s) of a system, subsystem or component. The information so extracted is extremely valuable for manufacturers and others that deal with product in relatively large volumes. In contrast, end users are typically more interested in the behavior of a ‘particular’ component used in their system to arrive at optimal component replacement or maintenance strategies leading to improved system utilization, while reducing risk and maintenance costs. The traditional approach to addressing this need is to monitor the component through degradation signals and ‘classifying’ the state of a component into discrete classes, say ‘good’, ‘bad’ and ‘in‐between’ categories. In the event, one can develop effective degradation signal forecasting models and precisely define component failure in the degradation signal space, then, one can move beyond the classification approach to a more vigorous reliability estimation and forecasting scheme for the individual unit. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of such an approach using ‘general’ polynomial regression models for degradation signal modeling. The proposed methods allow first‐order autocorrelation in the residuals as well as weighted regression. Parametric bootstrap techniques are used for calculating confidence intervals for the estimated reliability. The proposed method is evaluated on a cutting tool monitoring problem. In particular, the method is used to monitor high‐speed steel drill‐bits used for drilling holes in stainless‐steel metal plates. A second study involves modeling and forecasting fatigue‐crack‐growth data from the literature. The task involved estimating and forecasting the reliability of plates expected to fail due to fatigue‐crack‐growth. Both studies reveal very promising results. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Literature review on the ‘Smart Factory’ concept using bibliometric tools

The objective of this paper is to depict a landscape of the scientific literature on the concept of the ‘Smart Factory’, which in recent years is gaining more and more attention from academics and practitioners because of significant innovations in the production systems within the manufacturing sector. To achieve this objective, a dynamic methodology called ‘Systematic Literature Network Analysis (SLNA)’ has been applied. This methodology combines the Systematic Literature Review approach with the analysis of bibliographic networks. The adopted methodology allows complementing traditional content-based literature reviews by extracting quantitative information from bibliographic networks to detect emerging topics, and by revealing the dynamic evolution of the scientific production of a discipline. This dynamic analysis allowed highlighting research directions and critical areas for the development of the ‘Smart Factory’. At the same time, it offers insights on the fields on which companies, associations, politicians and technology providers need to focus in order to allow a real transition towards the implementation of large-scale Smart Factory.     

Changes in US government procurement policy

‘Shrinking government’ and ‘Empowerment” really mean something in the standards business. New US government policies will sharply curtail the use of “MIL” specifications and standards. This dramatic move offers industry a more active role by creating new ‘performance-based’ standards. This article reviews the US department of Defence (DoD) decision and its expected consequences in the context of Aerospace Fluid Power.     

Western classical music development: a statistical analysis of composers similarity,differentiation and evolution

This paper proposes a statistical analysis that captures similarities and differences between classical music composers with the eventual aim to understand why particular composers ‘sound’ different even if their ‘lineages’ (influences network) are similar or why they ‘sound’ alike if their ‘lineages’ are different. In order to do this we use statistical methods and measures of association or similarity (based on presence/absence of traits such as specific ‘ecological’ characteristics and personal musical influences) that have been developed in biosystematics, scientometrics, and bibliographic coupling. This paper also represents a first step towards a more ambitious goal of developing an evolutionary model of Western classical music.     

Four dangers in innovation policy studies – and how to avoid them

The field of innovation policy studies is at a crossroads. It has clearly been influential. However, might it be losing the critical insight necessary to remain so in future? We discuss four dangerous tendencies seen in many innovation policy studies: idealising policy rationales and policy-makers; treating policies as tools from a toolbox; putting too much faith in coordination and intelligent design of ‘policy mixes’; and taking an atemporal approach to innovation policy. Based on these we identify some ways forward that, we argue, would deal better with the complex multi-actor dynamics, fundamental uncertainties and challenges to the implementation, coordination and evaluation of policies and which would make for more relevant and impactful innovation policy studies.     

Future perspectives including fuel cells,gas turbines,USC and HGCU the US perspective

Abstract

Both the US Department of Energy (DOE) and EPRI are developing models for the evolution of a secure energy future for the USA. Our general views are very similar. However, there are some differences in approach. DOE is concerned with all energy issues in the US future, including electricity, transportation fuels, and the industrial, commercial, and residential energy sectors; EPRI is concerned specifically with the electricity component, principally in the USA, but, as does DOE, also takes a global view.

Both organizations take what is now known as a ‘Roadmapping’ approach. Roadmapping is an example of a ‘Top Down’ planning method: it involves the specification of a “destination” which the research and development program is aimed towards. In the DOE case, the destination refers to a secure energy future. Typically, Roadmapping is concerned with relatively long time scales. Time scales for different technologies are, of course, very different; in a fast-moving technology such as semiconductors, five to ten years may be a long time. For energy, the equipment is large; planning and construction times are long, and the expected lifetimes of the major components are not less than twenty years, and more typically up to forty years. The time scale that both of our organizations talk about is in the range 20–50 years in the future. The DOE model is called ‘Vision 21.’ The specific destination for Vision 21 is the technical design bases for near-zero emission fossil fueled energy plants. The EPRI model is called the ‘Electricity Technology Roadmap’, and more recently we have ‘A Vision of the Electricity System of 2020.’ An important aspect of the method common to both DOE and EPRI is that the destination is developed by what is called a ‘Stakeholder’ group: this involves not only the researchers and developers, but also the eventual customers for the technology, and the users of the products. This will include members with environmental and societal concerns.

In this paper, we will highlight some of the scenarios that emerge from these models. The first part will concentrate on the Department of Energy program; the latter part on the EPRI view, remembering that we are in close agreement on most aspects.     

The Parole of the Primitives

Abstract

Understanding very old photographs, as we know, poses a particular problem of interpretation, which is all the more difficult when we go back to the origins of photography to a time when the first ‘photographists’ still had a very innocent attitude towards the medium and used it with an almost naive confidence. We do not usually reflect on this difficulty of reading photographs, yet we do concede that the internal logic and necessity of many images of the years 1840–60 escape us; and more often than not we draw a modest veil over the poverty of our modern knowledge of such hazy notions as ‘creation’, ‘art’, and ‘personal expression’, notions that merely return the discussion to concepts with no currency in present day criticism.     

The family grouping philosophy

The paper explains how simple ideas in the field of group technology have led to the development of a new system of production, called the cell system, which differs from, but complements, flow-line production and traditional ‘ job and batch ’ (functional layout-based) production.

The cell system is not just a simple arrangement of similar components and similar tooling, but a new system of production, which, like the flow-line system, has rules and conditions for its practice. Only in the last two years has group technology developed sufficiently for a theory to begin to emerge.

With now production systems today, it is not enough to deal only with ‘ engineering ’ or ‘ production ’, but present clay systems must be concerned with the complex interaction of market, management, machines, and men.

This paper shows the importance of the cell system at different levels, beginning with the lowest, and leads the reader towards a rather different approach to the management of an engineering, or other multi-product firm. It is complementary to ‘ The Management Problems of Introducing Group Technology’ (Edwards 1969).     

Graph-based models to classify effective collaboration in SME networks

During the last decades, globalisation of goods’ markets and large disequilibrium amongst labour markets in different countries had a remarkable impact on small and medium enterprises – SMEs, which have been for many years the actual engine of industrial development in Europe. An ‘antidote’ to this crisis is the development of more profitable SME networks in the forms of either ‘clusters’, ‘competitiveness poles’, ‘industrial districts’ or ‘scientific parks’. A more strategic approach is needed, that builds upon existing SME aggregations and explores their main strong and weak points, such as to establish a framework for new innovative networks. The goal of this study is to offer a method to analyse the main features of existing SME networks, in order to offer to the network coordination/management committees some key parameters (KP) to evaluate the network composition and potentially to select networks modifications. The study analyses an archive of industrial networks provided by the European project CODESNET and defines different types of networks and their main KP. A further result of the analysis will be the modelling of each network type in terms of a specific graph. Graphs give a more intuitive representation of the network and an easier comprehension of its organisation. In a second stage, by a probabilistic approach, the authors propose an identification procedure to classify existing and new networks.     

Consumers’ values and behaviour in the Brazilian coffee-in-capsules market: promoting circular economy

Coffee consumption is changing. Monodose, flavoured coffee capsules provide new experiences beyond the traditional custom of brewing coffee. These pods allow access to a selection of premium coffee worldwide but create huge quantities of plastic-aluminium packaging waste. The paper examines the novelty of coffee capsule consumption in Brazil in terms of consumers’ perspectives about ethical enterprise and environmental stewardship. We argue for ‘waste to resource’ management and applying reverse logistics to the coffee production supply chain. Based on circular economy principles and fuelled by the ‘green’ awareness of Brazilian coffee consumers, we propose a conceptual framework to support business decision-making by adopting a systemic intervention from the consumer viewpoint. To structure the situation, we conducted over 40 interviews, using purposive sampling. Analytic hierarchy process, value focused thinking and Rich Picture technique informed our problem structuring approach. Findings illustrate that reverse logistics supply chain in coffee capsule manufacturing presents real challenges to achieving circular practice. Yet, the eco-values of Brazilian coffee enthusiasts may be partly considered a ‘wealth of information flow’ and a potential driving force for change. This paper should be of interest to researchers/practitioners exploring how consumers may contribute to behavioural change, towards more circular business.     

Gate elements at injection locations in numerical simulations of flow through porous media: applications to mold filling

Mold filling in polymer and composite processing is usually modelled as a special case of Darcy flow in porous media. The flow pattern and the time necessary to fill the mold depend on the ‘gate’ locations where resin is injected into the closed mold. In composite manufacturing, these are commonly outlets of small tubes transporting resin from a reservoir and their diameters are several orders of magnitude smaller than the mold dimensions. Similar size issue is also encountered in other applications of flow through porous media, such as oil and water pumping and drilling. Traditionally, these inlets are modelled by pressure or flow rate boundary condition as applied at a node of the finite element mesh that represents the injection gate. The omission of the inlet radius in the model results in a mathematical singularity as the mesh gets refined. The computed pressure or flow field depends on the mesh size and does not converge to the accurate solution, as the finite element mesh is refined. It is possible to deal with this phenomenon by modelling the inlet geometry more accurately but this approach is inefficient, as it requires additional degrees of freedom and, above all, significantly complicates the modelling process if the inlet location is not fixed a priori. This paper presents a more efficient alternate solution. It uses special ‘gate’ elements embedded in the mesh around the injection locations. Instead of adjusting the geometrical modelling of the injection location, the adjacent elements use modified shape functions to accurately model pressure field in the neighbourhood of small radial inlet. The proper pressure field shape‐functions for ‘gate’ elements based on linear finite elements are derived. The implementation in an existing mold filling simulation and how the ‘gate elements’ are automatically selected is described. An example to demonstrate the use of ‘gate’ elements and convergence towards the accurate solution with mesh refinement is presented. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimal piecewise-constant price under heterogeneous sensitivity to product freshness

When perishable products are priced uniformly, regardless of the amount of time remaining until expiration, consumers may gravitate towards fresher products, leaving some inventory unsold. This research considers dynamic pricing policies as well as replenishment policies in the context of perishable products with a fixed shelf life. Consumers are assumed to be heterogeneous in their sensitivity to freshness, i.e. their willingness to pay more for fresher products. We develop a model for identifying an optimal (profit-maximising) dynamic pricing policy and for evaluating the extent to which both the retailer and the consumer benefit from the implementation of a dynamic pricing policy as opposed to a static policy. The model assumes that the retailer is able to utilise knowledge regarding the heterogeneous characteristics of incoming customers (e.g. the retailer can gather specific information about customers’ historical purchases). Unexpectedly, it is proven that in an optimal pricing policy, the retailer should assign a lower price to fresher products and then raise the price as the products approach expiration. A numerical illustration shows that profits are strongly influenced by the volatility of consumer sensitivity to freshness; specifically, this variable has the potential to reduce optimal profits by up to 8%.     

High dimension dynamic programming model for water resources expansion projects

An optimization model for High Dimension Dynamic Programming (HDDP) was developed to determine the optimal size of water resources projects within a planning period. The model uses Objective Space Dynamic Programming (OSDP) technique to determine the size of the projects and a Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) formulation to overcome the ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ problems of OSDP and to check for the global optimality of the solution. The model is applied to determine the optimal capacity of proposed desalination plants needed to satisfy a number of demand points from different cities, during a planning period of 20 years in Egypt. The model’s speed towards the optimal solution depends on the objective space bounds and search method for these bounds. The integration of OSDP and MIP is shown to be an efficient approach for solving optimization problems. Results show that the model is well suited for solving large-scale water resources expansion problems.     

Flexible job-shop scheduling/rescheduling in dynamic environment: a hybrid MAS/ACO approach

In real-world manufacturing, disruptions are often encountered during the execution of a predetermined schedule, leading to the degradation of its optimality and feasibility. This study presents a hybrid approach for flexible job-shop scheduling/rescheduling problems under dynamic environment. The approach, coined as ‘HMA’ is a combination of multi-agent system (MAS) negotiation and ant colony optimisation (ACO). A fully distributed MAS structure has been constructed to support the solution-finding process by negotiation among the agents. The features of ACO are introduced into the negotiation mechanism in order to improve the performance of the schedule. Experimental studies have been carried out to evaluate the performance of the approach for scheduling and rescheduling under different types of disruptions. Different rescheduling policies are compared and discussed. The results have shown that the proposed approach is a competitive method for flexible job-shop scheduling/rescheduling for both schedule optimality and computation efficiency.     

An empirical approach to compare the performance of heterogeneous academic fields

In this paper, we propose a ‘scaling’ approach to compare the scientific performance of Italian heterogeneous academic disciplines. This method is based on the idea that, after eliminating the percentages of ‘silent’ researchers, the distribution of bibliometric parameters of the different academic fields can be superimposed and collapse into a unique master curve by a single scaling parameter. By using data on the scientific production of around 2,500 scholars of the university of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ from the Web of Science from 2004 to 2008, we (i) demonstrate the existence of a master curve, (ii) determine the scaling factors that work like rates of substitution to compare the scientific production across different academic fields on a common ground, (iii) show that the master bibliometric distribution follows a log-normal law and (iv) illustrate the relevance of the proposed approach for research assessment and allocation of competitive funding at the university level.     

Developing and validating theory in ergonomics science

This article conceptualises a new multidisciplinary field by establishing the elements of an ‘ergonomic system’ (human beings, physical space and object/machine) and defining the term ‘surroundings’ (PESTE factors) while emphasising the ecological aspects of human activities. The definition of ergoecology is explained by an etymological analysis of the names of the contributing disciplines (ergonomics and ecology). The new multidiscipline combines and extends the scope of the two foundational disciplines using new principles, notions and concepts, such as ‘built environment’, ‘surroundings’, ‘ergoecology’, ‘ecoefficiency’ and ‘ecoproductivity’. The aim of ergoecology is to provide tools for confronting twenty-first century challenges. In line with the sustainability movement, we believe in the importance of using ecologic and ergonomic perspectives (in their broadest sense) to develop action aimed towards environmental preservation and the development of sustainable products, processes and service designs.     

Specification of gas turbine disc forgings

Abstract

The cost of failures in gas turbine discs, both in human life and financial terms, is particularly high, and it has always been recognized that the component must be fully specified against the design requirement, and totally predictable in operation. This was originally achieved by making a reproducible forging consistent with the design strength assumptions and which approached the engineer's model of the material as ‘elastic, isotropic, and free from defects’. Today's improved understanding of materials behaviour in terms of the relationship between material property and microstructure, together with the designer's need for higher–strength materials, has led to an approach which now recognizes the role of both structure and ‘defects’ within the forging. This, and the need to improve the cyclic properties of components, is now imposing on the forger complex microstructural and quality requirements that can be met only by process control and by a move towards closer-to-size and more complex shape requirements. Future material needs are discussed in relation to controlling the discontinuity behaviour, together with the change in philosophy that this is bringing to the control of the manufacturing process.

MST/255     

Reconfiguring global pharmaceutical value networks through targeted technology interventions

Targeting a series of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) ‘interventions’ provides the potential for significant step changes across the pharmaceutical value chain, from early stage ‘system discovery’ and clinical trials, through to novel service supply models. This research explores future value network configurations which, when aligned with disruptive shifts in technology (process and digital), may enable alternative routes to medicines production and the delivery of additional value to ‘end-users’, i.e. patients and health care providers. We draw on a categorisation of AMTs that may enable a shift from the traditional ‘batch’ and centralised manufacturing paradigm of ‘make-to-stock’, towards more re-distributed ‘continuous’ manufacturing and ‘make-to-order’ models. Despite reported benefits in the academic literature (e.g. reduced footprints, improved quality, enhanced flexibility and inventory savings), current adoption rates of continuous technologies in this sector remain low (c. 5%). This paper presents new data sources, in our study of AMT adoption in a global pharmaceutical context – assessing the barriers to implementation, and the pathways to delivering future continuous manufacturing scenarios. Our findings capture the high level of disparity in viewpoints, highlighting the uncertainties and transformational challenges ahead – in terms of opportunity areas, technological readiness and a future vision for the sector, as a whole.