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This paper aims to introduce a joint DEMATEL and NK methodology to develop a process model for introducing and implementing relational supply chain practices for low-carbon supply chains. Using this process model as a guide, insights into specific practices and how to implement these relational practices to achieve competitive advantage across organizations are introduced.

Low-carbon cooperation practices framework based on the relational view is developed. A methodology based on DEMATEL and the NK model is used to construct a sequential process model for introducing and implementing these relational practices. Empirical data from three manufacturing organizations in China are utilized to validate the model.

Initial results provide a sequence of relational practices for guiding those organizations and their suppliers for healthy and low-carbon development. Interdependencies between relational practices are analyzed and evaluated from four aspects. Insights into the broader application of the methodology and initial results from both a research and managerial perspective are presented, especially with consideration of the China, an emerging economy, context.

The methodology remains relatively abstract in nature, yet the tool can provide very useful interpretations and information for both researchers and practitioners.

This paper stipulates that in addition to internal operational practices, the relational practices between buyer and supplier may be equally important to achieve a low-carbon outcome, especially in supply chain setting. This paper also shows that not only the relational practice itself but also the implementation sequence of the relational practices can relate to performance. According to the authors’ initial results, organizations in this study should first develop product development cooperation, then exchange carbon knowledge and implement effective governance and last build a trust relationship with its suppliers for low-carbon cooperation.

This is one of the few approaches that directly evaluates and identifies the interdependencies among relational practices and to construct a process model for introducing and implementing low-carbon supply chain cooperation. It is also the first time that the NK model has been integrated with DEMATEL. Focusing on Chinese supply chain carbon emissions concerns is also a unique perspective.

There are three lateral dynamic attitudes, delineated by rolling, yawing, and sideslipping. It is possible to solve for the pressures on the rolling wing by quasi‐steady analysis. This approach is, however, inapplicable for the yawing or sideslipping wing, and it is with the latter two cases that this paper deals.

A framework for the long‐term learning of user preferences in information retrieval is presented. The multiple indexing and method‐object relations (MIMOR) model tightly integrates a fusion method and a relevance feedback processor into a learning model. Several black box matching functions can be combined into a linear combination committee machine which reflects the user's vague individual cognitive concepts expressed in relevance feedback decisions. An extension based on the soft computing paradigm couples the relevance feedback processor and the matching function into a unified retrieval system.

Refractance window drying (RWD) has been identified as the method that can give high-quality products at a relatively low production cost. However, knowledge about its use and adoption remains lacking both in academic curricula and industry in the developing world.

A lab-scale batch RWD of a closed-loop control system was designed, fabricated and evaluated for drying rates, evaporation rate, the energy of evaporation, energy efficiency and throughput. Testing was done using mango and tomato pulps.

Drying rates at 95°C of 1.32 gg⁻¹min⁻¹ and 0.854 gg⁻¹min⁻¹ at 2 and 3 mm, respectively, for tomato, 0.6 gg⁻¹min⁻¹ and 0.33 gg⁻¹min⁻¹ at 2 and 3 mm for mango pulp were obtained. The dryer had an evaporation rate of 4.63 × 10^–4 kg/s and 4.25 × 10^–4 kg/s, the energy of evaporation of 1.05 kW and 0.96 kW and thermal energy efficiency of 25.64% and 21.73% while drying tomato and mango pulps, respectively. Dryer throughput of 0.6 kg/h of dried mango Pulp and 0.47 kg/h of dried tomato pulp was obtained.

The designed RWD can be adequately used in laboratory experiments on different products to produce powders. This will enable the transfer of knowledge about RWD technology in developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an autoclave that can be used to assess corrosion behaviour of suitable material in high-pressure–high-temperature (HPHT) environments. Many new discoveries of oil and gas field are in HPHT environments. The development of such fields requires appropriate selection of materials that are able to withstand not just the service loads but also corrosive production fluids in the HPHT environment.

The exposure of material samples to elevated pressure and temperature is usually done using an autoclave. The suitability of an existing autoclave for HPHT corrosion studies is provided together with suggestions on necessary design modifications. An alternative design of the autoclave is proposed based on functionality requirements and life cycle cost assessment.

It is concluded that the existing autoclave was unsuitable for HPHT corrosion tests, and modifications were very expensive to implement and/or not foolproof. A new autoclave was designed, manufactured, tested and successfully used to study the effect of aqueous solution on the corrosion of a pipe subject to a combination of axial tension, internal pressure and elevated temperature.

The maximum design pressure of 15 MPa is more than sufficient for high-pressure corrosion studies in aqueous solution where partial pressure of the dissolved gas is one of the main controlling parameters. However, the design pressure is only suitable for corrosion studies in a seawater environment of up to 1,500 m water depth.

A new design of autoclave together with all the necessary piping, assembly and control system is proposed for HPHT corrosion studies. The autoclave can be used as standalone or integrated with a mechanical testing machine and thus enables corrosion studies under a wide range of loading.

Engineering Information, Inc. (Ei) was established in 1884 and remained a relatively traditional print‐based abstracting and indexing (A&I) service for over half a century. Together with many other A&I services, Ei began to develop digital versions of its print products in the early 1960s and today finds that the use of the digital versions has begun to outstrip use of the print versions. Faced with rapidly advancing information technology, increasingly sophisticated and demanding customers and an increasing variety and volume of engineering information files, formats and media, Ei perceives a need to grow beyond the role of the traditional secondary service. To continue in its mission as the world's primary transdisciplinary engineering information service and to satisfy the evolving needs of both traditional and new customers, Ei believes it must evolve into a new type of information service — a one‐stop ‘information supermarket.’

The paper provides an overview of research published in the innovation and operations management (IOM) literature on 15 methods for cost management in new product development, and it provides a comparison to an earlier review of the management accounting (MA) literature (Wouters & Morales, 2014).

This structured literature search covers papers published in 23 journals in IOM in the period 1990–2014.

The search yielded a sample of 208 unique papers with 275 results (one paper could refer to multiple cost management methods). The top 3 methods are modular design, component commonality, and product platforms, with 115 results (42%) together. In the MA literature, these three methods accounted for 29%, but target costing was the most researched cost management method by far (26%). Simulation is the most frequently used research method in the IOM literature, whereas this was averagely used in the MA literature; qualitative studies were the most frequently used research method in the MA literature, whereas this was averagely used in the IOM literature. We found a lot of papers presenting practical approaches or decision models as a further development of a particular cost management method, which is a clear difference from the MA literature.

This review focused on the same cost management methods, and future research could also consider other cost management methods which are likely to be more important in the IOM literature compared to the MA literature. Future research could also investigate innovative cost management practices in more detail through longitudinal case studies.

This review of research on methods for cost management published outside the MA literature provides an overview for MA researchers. It highlights key differences between both literatures in their research of the same cost management methods.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a new mathematical method for the reliability analysis and evaluation of multi-state system (MSS) reliability that agrees with specifics of such system. It is possible based on the application of multiple-valued logic (MVL) that is a natural extension of Boolean algebra used in reliability analysis.

Similar to Boolean algebra, MVL is used for the constriction of the structure function of the investigated system. The interpretation of the structure function of the MSS in terms of MVL allows using mathematical methods and approaches of this logic for the analysis of the structure function.

The logical differential calculus is one of mathematical approaches in MVL. The authors develop new method for MSS reliability analysis based on logical differential calculus, in particular direct partial logical derivatives, for the investigation of critical system states (CSSs). The proposed method allows providing the qualitative and quantitative analyses of MSS: the CSS can be defined for all possible changes of any system component or group of components, and probabilities of this state can also be calculated.

The proposed method permits representing the MSS in the form of a structure function that is interpreted as MVL function and provides the system analyses without special transformation into Boolean interpretation and with acceptable computational complexity.