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Output from the Irish Dairy Industry has grown rapidly since the abolition of quotas in 2015, with processors investing heavily in capacity expansion to deal with the extra milk volumes. Further capacity gains may be achieved by extending the processing season into the winter, a key enabler for which being the reduction of duration of the winter maintenance overhaul period. This paper aims to investigate if Lean Six Sigma tools and techniques can be used to enhance operational maintenance performance, thereby releasing additional processing capacity.

Combining the Six-Sigma Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control (DMAIC) methodology and the structured approach of Turnaround Maintenance (TAM) widely used in process industries creates a novel hybrid model that promises substantial improvement in maintenance overhaul execution. This paper presents a case study applying the DMAIC/TAM model to Ireland’s largest dairy processing site to optimise the annual maintenance shutdown. The objective was to deliver a 30% reduction in the duration of the overhaul, enabling an extension of the processing season.

Application of the DMAIC/TAM hybrid resulted in process enhancements, employee engagement and a clear roadmap for the operations team. Project goals were delivered, and original objectives exceeded, resulting in €8.9m additional value to the business and a reduction of 36% in the duration of the overhaul.

The results demonstrate that the model provides a structure that promotes systematic working and a continuous improvement focus that can have substantial benefits for wider industry. Opportunities for further model refinement were identified and will enhance performance in subsequent overhauls.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that the structure and tools of DMAIC and TAM have been combined into a hybrid methodology and applied in an Irish industrial setting.

The paper aims to describe the positive and negative effects of night lights in historical sites, as well as the most salient challenges faced by the visitors of these sites and determine ways to address them. The study aims to suggest several light-and-shadow approaches and designs to enhance the experience of visiting historical sites.

This study identifies problems of nightlife in historical sites with an online international questionnaire to determine the preferences and difficulties faced by visitors of historical sites during day and night. After that Egypt was determined as a sample case of a developing country; its archaeological sites need to be improved. The main problems of historical Egyptian sites were investigated and approaches in developing historical sites with interactive lighting design were presented after an online questionnaire to the Egyptian society.

The paper shows that archaeological sites need some development, especially in their technological and lighting aspects, to overcome visitors’ low night-time interest in archaeological sites. Research has found certain limitations in the effects of constructing artificial illumination. The study provides modern sustainable solution for some light challenges in historical sites with approaches and solutions to solve it.

The results of that research could be applied in developing countries, but with larger specific studies to the historical urban locations according to the politics of the country.

The paper includes sustainable approaches in developing historical sites with technological lighting design required to enhance historical sites at night-time and make visits more interactive and interesting.

This paper presents an identified need of historical sites visitors’ to study applying modern approaches in enhancing urban historical sites.

This study aims to investigate the possible defects and their root causes in a soft-termination multilayered ceramic capacitor (MLCC) when subjected to a thermal reflow process.

Specimens of the capacitor assembly were subjected to JEDEC level 1 preconditioning (85 °C/85%RH/168 h) with 5× reflow at 270°C peak temperature. Then, they were inspected using a 2 µm scanning electron microscope to investigate the evidence of defects. The reliability test was also numerically simulated and analyzed using the extended finite element method implemented in ABAQUS.

Excellent agreements were observed between the SEM inspections and the simulation results. The findings showed evidence of discontinuities along the Cu and the Cu-epoxy layers and interfacial delamination crack at the Cu/Cu-epoxy interface. The possible root causes are thermal mismatch between the Cu and Cu-epoxy layers, moisture contamination and weak Cu/Cu-epoxy interface. The maximum crack length observed in the experimentally reflowed capacitor was measured as 75 µm, a 2.59% difference compared to the numerical prediction of 77.2 µm.

This work's contribution is expected to reduce the additional manufacturing cost and lead time in investigating reliability issues in MLCCs.

Despite the significant number of works on the reliability assessment of surface mount capacitors, work on crack growth in soft-termination MLCC is limited. Also, the combined experimental and numerical investigation of reflow-induced reliability issues in soft-termination MLCC is limited. These cited gaps are the novelties of this study.

This survey explores the application of real options theory to the field of health economics. The integration of options theory offers a valuable framework to address these challenges, providing insights into healthcare investments, policy analysis and patient care pathways.

This research employs the real options theory, a financial concept, to delve into health economics challenges. Through a systematic approach, three distinct models rooted in this theory are crafted and analyzed. Firstly, the study examines the value of investing in emerging health technology, factoring in future advantages, associated costs and unpredictability. The second model is patient-centric, evaluating the choice between immediate treatment switch and waiting for more clarity, while also weighing the associated risks. Lastly, the research assesses pandemic-related government policies, emphasizing the importance of delaying decisions in the face of uncertainties, thereby promoting data-driven policymaking.

Three different real options models are presented in this study to illustrate their applicability and value in aiding decision-makers. (1) The first evaluates investments in new technology, analyzing future benefits, discount rates and benefit volatility to determine investment value. (2) In the second model, a patient has the option of switching treatments now or waiting for more information before optimally switching treatments. However, waiting has its risks, such as disease progression. By modeling the potential benefits and risks of both options, and factoring in the time value, this model aids doctors and patients in making informed decisions based on a quantified assessment of potential outcomes. (3) The third model concerns pandemic policy: governments can end or prolong lockdowns. While awaiting more data on the virus might lead to economic and societal strain, the model emphasizes the economic value of deferring decisions under uncertainty.

This research provides a quantified perspective on various decisions in healthcare, from investments in new technology to treatment choices for patients to government decisions regarding pandemics. By applying real options theory, stakeholders can make more evidence-driven decisions.

Decisions about patient care pathways and pandemic policies have direct societal implications. For instance, choices regarding the prolongation or ending of lockdowns can lead to economic and societal strain.

The originality of this study lies in its application of real options theory, a concept from finance, to the realm of health economics, offering novel insights and analytical tools for decision-makers in the healthcare sector.

This study aims to examine how the starting of business by females can be promoted by assessing critical levels of microfinance institutions (MFIs) penetration that policymakers must endeavor to maintain and/or attain in order for female unemployment not to represent a constraint in the doing of business. A constraint in doing business is understood in terms of the procedure that a woman has to go through to start a business.

The focus of the study is on 44 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa for the period 2004–2018, while the empirical evidence is based on interactive quantile regressions.

The following findings are established. The validity of tested hypotheses is exclusively apparent in the lowest and highest quantiles of the conditional distribution of the procedure women have to go through to start a business. MFI penetration levels needed to reverse the unfavorable incidence of female unemployment in doing business are provided. These are minimum MFIs penetration thresholds that are required in order for female unemployment not to negatively affect the procedure that a woman should go through to start a business.

The study complements the extant literature by assessing critical microfinance penetration levels that are needed to promote female doing of business, contingent on existing levels of female doing of business.

Through the case of Blanca Sinchi, the following analysis presents valuation criteria that have resulted in the invisibility of social actors and cultural patrimony (cultural heritage) elements, and some contradictions in their acknowledgment process. In addition, the paper explains how architecture, among other historic assets, has made women and their contributions invisible.

Bibliographic analysis and semi-structured interviews were carried out to theorize about the thermodynamic system of lime to propose a matri-lineal system category and expand the understanding of the participation of women in the receipt, management and transmission of what is called patrimony.

In heritage places, such as Cuenca (Ecuador), cultural richness extends from the Historic Center to the rest of the territory and its actors. However, there are intrinsic elements, such as unknown, but fundamental, oral or family traditions associated with the role of women. The case of Blanca Sinchi and lime is evidence of this, as it shows the typical scenario affected by gender and by disparate power dynamics that do not consider desirable attributes (authenticity, integrity, identity, bequest, option, existence, among others) in the conservation of architectural patrimony. A deep redefinition process, or even a change in the valuation system, is needed. Also, the history behind built heritage items must be explored to find the contributions made by women.

Proposing a matri-lineal system category to expand the understanding of the participation of women in the receipt, management and transmission of what is called patrimony, allows redefining and rewriting local and global history, acknowledging the role of women. In this way, the proposal questions not only the hegemony of the term “cultural patrimony” pigeonholed in paternal legacy but also the term “cultural heritage” as a synonym and framework that, while expanding material values, it does not effectively include, at least for Ibero-Romance language territories, the broad set of tangible and intangible values, as well as the know-how and skills of artisans.

The purpose of this study is to develop a domain independent, cost-effective, time-saving and semi-automated ontology generation framework that could extract taxonomic concepts from unstructured text corpus. In the human disease domain, ontologies are found to be extremely useful for managing the diversity of technical expressions in favour of information retrieval objectives. The boundaries of these domains are expanding so fast that it is essential to continuously develop new ontologies or upgrade available ones.

This paper proposes a semi-automated approach that extracts entities/relations via text mining of scientific publications. Text mining-based ontology (TmbOnt)-named code is generated to assist a user in capturing, processing and establishing ontology elements. This code takes a pile of unstructured text files as input and projects them into high-valued entities or relations as output. As a semi-automated approach, a user supervises the process, filters meaningful predecessor/successor phrases and finalizes the demanded ontology-taxonomy. To verify the practical capabilities of the scheme, a case study was performed to drive glaucoma ontology-taxonomy. For this purpose, text files containing 10,000 records were collected from PubMed.

The proposed approach processed over 3.8 million tokenized terms of those records and yielded the resultant glaucoma ontology-taxonomy. Compared with two famous disease ontologies, TmbOnt-driven taxonomy demonstrated a 60%–100% coverage ratio against famous medical thesauruses and ontology taxonomies, such as Human Disease Ontology, Medical Subject Headings and National Cancer Institute Thesaurus, with an average of 70% additional terms recommended for ontology development.

According to the literature, the proposed scheme demonstrated novel capability in expanding the ontology-taxonomy structure with a semi-automated text mining approach, aiming for future fully-automated approaches.

This study aims to analyse the influence of digitalisation on the management control function of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In particular, it aims to illuminate how digitalisation influences management control elements, organisation and roles/competencies and to identify obstacles to digitalisation of management control in SMEs and measures taken to overcome them.

The study is based on guideline-supported expert interviews conducted with 14 financial managers from SMEs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

This study reveals the influence of digitalisation on management control elements, organisation, and roles/competencies. The automation and standardisation of management control processes result in new elements for management control, such as strategic support for management. In addition, the increased availability and transparency of data enable the use of instruments within a company that allow for quick analyses of the company's development. Digitalisation leads to the integration of management control into the corporate network and, thus, a change in the organisation of management control. It also triggers the expansion of management control competencies, especially IT competencies. A shortage of internal digitalisation resources, unclear corporate roadmaps, and a lack of managerial experience loom as central challenges for digitalising the management control function. Measures derived from the interviews can help SMEs overcome the obstacles to the digitalisation of management control.

This research is the first interview-based study of the impact of digitalisation on management control in SMEs, potential obstacles to that digitalisation, and measures to overcome those obstacles. Thus, it contributes to the emerging debate on factors that may explain why SMEs lag in terms of the digitalisation of their internal processes.

This study aims to delve into the lived experiences, challenges and visions of women entrepreneurs in Jordan, placing a magnifying glass on those spearheading or co-pioneering start-ups. It aims to understand the myriad factors that influence their entrepreneurial journey, from motivation to the future of their niche.

Adopting a qualitative lens, this study is anchored in semi-structured interviews encompassing 20 Jordanian women entrepreneurs. Following this, thematic analysis was deployed to dissect and categorize the garnered insights into ten salient themes.

The study reveals that personal experiences and challenges are pivotal in directing these women towards niche markets, aligning with the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Tools such as digital instruments, customer feedback and innovative strategies like storytelling and augmented reality are integral to their entrepreneurial success, resonating with the resource-based view (RBV). Additionally, challenges like cultural barriers and infrastructural limitations are navigated through adaptive strategies, reflecting the resilience inherent in these entrepreneurs. Networking, mentorship, embracing technological advancements and implementing sustainable practices are highlighted as crucial elements underpinned by the social identity theory (SIT).

Contrary to the extant body of research, this study provides new insights into the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in Jordan, highlighting the practical relevance of theories like TPB, RBV and SIT for both policymakers and the start-up community in niche markets.