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This study primarily aims to develop and solve an enhanced optimisation model for an assembly product multi-period inbound inventory routing problem (IRP). The many-to-one (inbound) model considers the bill of materials (BOM), supply failure risks (SFR) and customer demand uncertainty. The secondary objective is to study the influence of potential time-dependent model variables on the overall supply network costs based on a full factorial design of experiments (DOE).

A five-step solution approach is proposed to derive the optimal inventory levels, best sourcing strategy and vehicle route plans for a multi-period discrete manufacturing product assembly IRP. The proposed approach considers an optimal risk mitigation strategy by considering less risk-prone suppliers to deliver the required components in a specific period. A mixed-integer linear programming formulation was solved to derive the optimal supply network costs.

The simulation results indicate that lower demand variation, lower component price and higher supply capacity can provide superior cost performance for an inbound supply network. The results also demonstrate that increasing supply capacity does not necessarily decrease product shortages. However, when demand variation is high, product shortages are reduced at the expense of the supply network cost.

A two-echelon supply network for a single assembled discrete product with homogeneous vehicle fleet availability was considered in this study.

The proposed multi-period inbound IRP model considers realistic SFR, customer demand uncertainties and product assembly requirements based on a specific BOM. The mathematical model includes various practical aspects, such as supply capacity constraints, supplier management costs and target service-level requirements. A sensitivity analysis based on a full factorial DOE provides new insights that can aid practitioners in real-life decision-making.

The study aims to cope with the problems confronted in the skin lesion datasets with less training data toward the classification of melanoma. The vital, challenging issue is the insufficiency of training data that occurred while classifying the lesions as melanoma and non-melanoma.

In this work, a transfer learning (TL) framework Transfer Constituent Support Vector Machine (TrCSVM) is designed for melanoma classification based on feature-based domain adaptation (FBDA) leveraging the support vector machine (SVM) and Transfer AdaBoost (TrAdaBoost). The working of the framework is twofold: at first, SVM is utilized for domain adaptation for learning much transferrable representation between source and target domain. In the first phase, for homogeneous domain adaptation, it augments features by transforming the data from source and target (different but related) domains in a shared-subspace. In the second phase, for heterogeneous domain adaptation, it leverages knowledge by augmenting features from source to target (different and not related) domains to a shared-subspace. Second, TrAdaBoost is utilized to adjust the weights of wrongly classified data in the newly generated source and target datasets.

The experimental results empirically prove the superiority of TrCSVM than the state-of-the-art TL methods on less-sized datasets with an accuracy of 98.82%.

Experiments are conducted on six skin lesion datasets and performance is compared based on accuracy, precision, sensitivity, and specificity. The effectiveness of TrCSVM is evaluated on ten other datasets towards testing its generalizing behavior. Its performance is also compared with two existing TL frameworks (TrResampling, TrAdaBoost) for the classification of melanoma.

Automated skin lesion analysis plays a vital role in early detection. Having relatively small-sized imbalanced skin lesion datasets impedes learning and dominates research in automated skin lesion analysis. The unavailability of adequate data poses difficulty in developing classification methods due to the skewed class distribution.

Boosting-based transfer learning (TL) paradigms like Transfer AdaBoost algorithm can compensate for such a lack of samples by taking advantage of auxiliary data. However, in such methods, beneficial source instances representing the target have a fast and stochastic weight convergence, which results in “weight-drift” that negates transfer. In this paper, a framework is designed utilizing the “Rare-Transfer” (RT), a boosting-based TL algorithm, that prevents “weight-drift” and simultaneously addresses absolute-rarity in skin lesion datasets. RT prevents the weights of source samples from quick convergence. It addresses absolute-rarity using an instance transfer approach incorporating the best-fit set of auxiliary examples, which improves balanced error minimization. It compensates for class unbalance and scarcity of training samples in absolute-rarity simultaneously for inducing balanced error optimization.

Promising results are obtained utilizing the RT compared with state-of-the-art techniques on absolute-rare skin lesion datasets with an accuracy of 92.5%. Wilcoxon signed-rank test examines significant differences amid the proposed RT algorithm and conventional algorithms used in the experiment.

Experimentation is performed on absolute-rare four skin lesion datasets, and the effectiveness of RT is assessed based on accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and area under curve. The performance is compared with an existing ensemble and boosting-based TL methods.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the application of Ni₃Al coating for boilers and other power plant equipment, which suffer severe erosion-corrosion problems resulting in substantial losses. Currently, superalloys are being used to increase the service life of the boilers. Although the superalloys have adequate mechanical strength at elevated temperature, they often lack resistance to erosion-corrosion environments.

In this paper, the erosion-corrosion performance of plasma-sprayed nickel aluminide (Ni₃Al) coating on nickel- and iron-based superalloys have been evaluated by exposing them to the low temperature primary superheater zone of the coal-fired thermal power plant at the temperature zone of 540^°C for ten cycles of 100 h duration. The exposed products were analysed along the surface and cross-section using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron micro probe analysis (EPMA).

The XRD, SEM and EPMA analyses have shown the formation of mainly NiO, NiAl₂O₄ and indicated the presence of Ni₃Al, Ni and Al₂O₃. In the boiler environment, Ni₃Al coating partially oxidizes and acts as a perfect barrier against erosion-corrosion of superalloys. The partially oxidised Ni₃Al coating remains intact even after 1,000 h cycle exposure.

The probable mechanism of attack for the plasma-sprayed Ni₃Al coating in the given boiler environment is presented.

This study aims to examine the literature from the Web of Science database published on board committees between 2002 and 2023 and outline the quantitative summary, journey of board committees’ research and suggest future research directions.

This study examines bibliometric-content analysis combined with a systematic literature review of articles on board committees to document the summary of the field. The authors used co-citation, co-occurrence and cluster analysis under bibliometric-content analysis to present the field summary.

Board committee composition, such as their gender, independence and expertise, as well as factors affecting corporate governance, such as reporting quality, earnings management and board monitoring, all have a significant impact on board committee literature. The field is getting growing attention from authors, journals and countries. Nevertheless, there is a need for further exploration in areas like expertise, member age and tenure, the economic crisis and the nomination and remuneration committee, which have not yet received sufficient attention.

This paper has both theoretical and practical contributions. From a theoretical perspective, this study substantiates the prevalence of agency theory within board committee literature, reinforcing the foundational role of agency theory in shaping discussions about board committees. On practical ground, the comprehensive overview of board committee literature offers scholars a road map for navigating this field and directing their future research journey. The identification of research gaps in certain areas serves as a catalyst for scholars to explore untapped dimensions, enabling them to strengthen the essence of the committees’ performance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of forced, in-line oscillation of a circular cylinder on an incoming incompressible flow field at different Reynolds numbers.

A space-time finite element approach is employed to model the flow around an oscillating cylinder.

The results show that two (2S), four (2P, two pair) and three vortices (P+S, one pair and one single) are shed in each cycle. In addition, a 2P _o mode is also observed, which is similar to the 2P mode but the vortices of the 2P _o mode differ in strength. The 2P mode of vortex shedding is observed along the entire wake of the flow field and 2P _o mode in the far wake. In some cases, the vortex street is transformed as it travels towards the exit to produce new patterns. One such pattern is observed for the first time in the present work, which is referred to as 2P _o * mode. The drag and lift coefficients observed are perfectly periodic at a Reynolds number of 200 and they reach a chaotic pattern as the Reynolds number is increased to a value of 350.

Originality of the paper lies in the observation of 2P vortex shedding mode or its variants in the downstream of the cylinder.

This paper seeks to summarise the results of available research on the use of high velocity oxy‐fuel (HVOF) thermal‐spray technique to provide protection against high temperature corrosion and erosion‐corrosion of materials.

This paper describes one of the recent thermal‐spray processes, namely HVOF thermal‐spray technology and presents a survey of the studies on the use of this technique to provide protection against corrosion and erosion‐corrosion of high temperature alloys, with a special emphasis on boiler steels.

High temperature corrosion and erosion‐corrosion are serious problems observed in steam‐powered electricity generation plants, gas turbines, internal combustion engines, fluidized bed combustors, industrial waste incinerators and recovery boilers in paper and pulp industries. These problems can be prevented by changing the material or altering the environment, or by separating the component surface from the environment. Corrosion prevention by the use of coatings for separating materials from the environment is gaining importance in surface engineering. Amongst various surface modifying techniques, thermal spraying has developed relatively rapidly due to the use of advanced coating formulations and improvements in coating application technology. One of the variants of thermal spraying, namely HVOF has gained popularity in recent times due to its flexibility for in‐situ applications and superior coating properties.

This review covers mainly information that has been reported previously in the open literature, international journals and some well‐known textbooks.

The paper presents a concise summary of information for scientists and academics, planning to start their research work in the area of surface engineering.

This paper fulfils an identified information/resources need and offers practical help to an individual starting out on a career in the area of surface engineering for erosion‐corrosion and wear.

Driven by cost reduction and improved quality of service, some firms have adopted shared services as a governance model to manage their staff functions. This paper seeks to explore this behavior using the resource‐based view.

The case of an information technology (IT) unit of a multinational manufacturing firm is presented to provide insight into the issues involved when adopting and migrating an IT resource system to a shared services model. The analysis is extended using conceptual models of the relevant sub‐systems developed through the soft systems methodology (SSM), using a set of root level definitions that are intended to express the transformation to a shared services model.

The results suggest that the major changes involved when transitioning to shared services are process and communication related. Aligning the team members and gaining their commitment are necessary for success.

The case analysis and SSM models provide some insight into the important issues to be considered when moving to a shared services model.

With the growing practice of shared services, it is important to understand how a shared services model fits successfully into the overall business strategy of the firm. This study will spawn further research into the evaluation and control techniques for the different types of IT capabilities under a shared services model.

On the one hand the world has reached the last stages of library automation, while, on the other, the Internet has revolutionized it with different concepts such as the electronic, digital, virtual and library without walls. Now, professionals are researching knowledge management, Internet cataloguing, copy cataloguing, metadata, Z39.50 retrieval protocol, and resource sharing in the context of inter‐library loan, document delivery services, Internet services through Net etc. Unfortunately in an Indian context, libraries are still in the process of the automation and digitization of their resources. This paper discusses some of the barriers to progress in these areas in university libraries in India.

During a press conference at the Imperial Hotel in Delhi on 13 March 2001, the Internet news site, Tehelka.com, showed secret video footage of senior politicians, bureaucrats, and army officers accepting money in a fake defense deal. Two journalists from Tehelka, Anirudha Bahal and Mathew Samuel, posed as arms dealers from a fictitious arms company called West End International to sell nonexistent handheld thermal cameras to senior officials of the Ministry of Defense (MOD) in India. Bahal and Samuel paid bribes to politicians, civil servants, and army officers to procure government contracts. The journalists used three hidden cameras to videotape the corrupt politicians and officials accepting the bribes, with the most dramatic video clip showing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President, Bangaru Laxman, accepting a wad of currency notes from them. Laxman later claimed that he was not guilty of wrongdoing for accepting Rs. 100,000 (US$2,170) as a donation for the BJP. Describing the episode as “concocted,” he added that he had given the donation to the BJP's treasurer (BBC News, 2001a).