Integration Of Information Flow Research Articles

Architecture and implementation of closed-loop machining system based on open STEP-NC controller

Effective approach of collecting, transmitting, and handling complete product manufacturing information during machining process is necessary for realizing high efficiency manufacturing. In this paper, the architecture and implementation of closed-loop machining system (CLMS) is discussed and the method of realizing machining process control is introduced. An integrated information flow is built based on object-oriented description method to transfer complete product manufacturing information in CLMS. The functional and informational model of CLMS is established by using integration definition method. Online and real-time machining process control is implemented on an open STEP-NC controller which is collecting and analyzing information of machining process condition and inspection results during machining process. The software kernel of CNC controller implemented on a computer platform integrates with machine tool, sensors, and probe for real-time data collecting and online inspection. Finally, test parts are machined and inspected to verify the proposed machining process control method and open STEP-NC controller.

Better together: a community- hospital integrative model of healthcare as a practical solution for providing excellence in endocrinology care in an era of limited resources.

BackgroundThe demand for endocrinology services is growing worldwide, particularly among minority and underserved populations, mainly due to the rapid global increase of diabetes. The medical education of endocrinologists is a resource consuming process and is mainly hospital-based. Yet, given the chronic nature of endocrine morbidity, the greatest demand for endocrinology services is in the community. However, an isolated endocrinologist cannot cope with the rapid changes in the field. Limited funding of hospital facilities does not allow for the establishment of a freestanding endocrine-center; thus, the Community- Hospital Integrative Model of Healthcare (Co-HIMH) was developed and implemented in an Israeli government hospital and is presented as an approach for achieving excellence in endocrinology care.AimTo describe the design, function and challenges of the Co-HIMH.Model descriptionOriginally, three pillars: 1) the hospital unit as a regional expertise resource, 2) Co-HIMH endocrine providers participating in both community and hospital services, and 3) integrated information flow between health-care providers, supported the integration between hospital and community networks.ResultsThe community and hospital endocrine human resources were increased to create attainable and accessible endocrine services in the community and hospital. Collaborative interaction between healthcare providers increased both continuity of care and efficient patient navigation. Endocrine hospital referrals for specialized procedures have grown. Within this area of low socioeconomic status, continued medical endocrine education was conducted introducing state-of-the-art treatments. The essence of these achievements was maintained by continuous training of fellows. During the years that the Co-HIMH operated, it certified 14 % of all endocrinology fellows in Israel. Unresolved issues regarding employee rights and formalization of the Co-HIMH status are significant challenges.ConclusionsIn the era of limited resources and increased healthcare demand, creative infrastructures are required. This article provides a successful example of a preliminary model and proposes future needed modifications.

Improving the efficiency of Port Community Systems through integrated information flows of logistic processes

The aim of the paper is to investigate maritime logistic processes, focusing on efficiency and coordination. The topic is timely because, in the European context, the EU Directive no. 2010/65/EU imposes the adoption of digital procedures concerning documents and information, in order to facilitate the relationships between all the actors of a port community system (PCS). From a theoretical viewpoint, we adopt the evolutionary economic approach, since it helps to understand the change processes due to its focus on organizational routines and their institutionalization. From a methodological viewpoint, we adopt a case-study approach, investigating the port of Salerno (south of Italy), which is involved in the Smart Tunnel Project, whose aim is to create a platform for intelligent logistic services. As a result, we provide a model that aims to replace the old inter-organizational routines with new more efficient ones, also improving the knowledge of the logistic processes through a facilitation of the exchange of documents and information between all the involved actors.

Smart charging of electric vehicles – integration of energy and information

The study deals with the characteristics of smart charging of electric vehicles. The study begins with the introduction of the engineering philosophy of electric vehicle system. Then the identification of key players in electric vehicles system and their different demands, namely perspectives from automakers, electricity providers, vehicle owners and charging service providers. The key is the integration of information flow and energy flow to stimulate synergy and achieving win–win ecosystem. The information should be able to provide integration and intelligence layer between grid and vehicles; to create smart charging schedules based on vehicle data, grid data and driver's desire; and to develop dynamic charging schedule based on updated demand side or grid side inputs. In summary, sustainable electro-mobility requires sustainable power system and electrification of transportation with the aid of intelligent information system.

Managing information for collaborative networks

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the orientations of collaborative networks (CNs) for managing integrated information flow. It seeks to analyse and shed light into the main priorities of firms for sharing and coordinating information with CN partners. These priorities are needed to enhance practices to trade-off and integrate flows where appropriate for maximising profits and performance. Design/methodology/approach – In this study, inductive multiple-case logic is applied to research how six industrial firms manage integrated information flow in relation to their collaborative networked organisations (CNOs). Guided by an interpretivism epistemology, 22 face-to-face and 13 telephonic semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 key informants in six industrial firms. Interview data were analysed in line with the research agenda to understand orientations for integrated information flow. Findings – The research finds that CN management is enhanced when flow integration for industrial firms is skill, project, agreement and relationship oriented. The investigation also finds that CNO flow integration could be enhanced when industrial firms confront and prioritise schemes for fluidity prevention, systematised templates, procedural prompts, implementation checklists, confidence building, issuance policies and concern separation. Originality/value – The major contribution of this paper is an exposition on priorities for integrated information flow within CNs. It also offers insights that suggest industrial firms can boost the performance of their CNOs by: working in small knit highly skilled teams, tactically implementing manufacturability and marketability programmes, strategising their production contracts and strengthening their company-customer-supplier ties.

Knowledge management adoption in supply chain

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) of knowledge management (KM) adoption in the supply chain (SC) using the fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method through an empirical case study. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines the influencing factors of KM adoption in SC which have been identified through the literature survey and expert opinion. The fuzzy DEMATEL method has been used to evaluate identified influencing factors. Considering the interdependence among factors, the fuzzy DEMATEL method forms a structural model and then visualizes the causal relationships among factors through a cause–effect relationship diagram. On the basis of the cause–effect relationship diagram, CSFs that are extraordinarily essential for KM adoption in SC are identified. Empirical case study of an Indian automobile organization presented to illustrate the fuzzy DEMATEL method and demonstrates its usefulness. Findings – The results gathered from the implementation of the fuzzy DEMATEL method to identify CSFs of KM adoption in SC to the chosen case illustrate that factors such as top management support, employee training and education, integration of knowledge and information flow, communication among the SC members and trustworthy teamwork to exchange knowledge within SC need to be highlighted as critical factors for successful adoption of KM in SC. Practical implications – The finding not only offers a meaningful base to deepen the understanding with regard to KM adoption in SC, but also provides a clue to develop an effective adoption of KM in SC in a stepwise manner. Originality/value – The empirical case study contributes to the literature on KM adoption in SC, suggesting how an organization can identify CSFs of KM adoption in SC and implement them progressively to greatly improve the efficiency of the whole SC performance.

Managing integrated information flow for delivery reliability

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the management of information flow for delivery reliability. It analyses how the integration strategies of traceability, transaction costs and vertical integration that shape integrated information flow are managed during delivery processes of firms. While delivery reliability contributes to firm competitiveness, information flow is central to firms interaction internally and externally to facilitate delivery. Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies an exploratory multiple-case study involving 21 delivery team members in three industrial technology-based firms. Informed by a multidisciplinary framework from literature, the study captures “what” and “how” existing firms manage information flow during delivery. Individual cases from the company were compared analysed to determine themes that drive delivery-related integrated information flow management. Findings – The paper finds that case firms prioritised understanding interaction logics, maintaining process timeliness, review-oriented streamlining and communication-oriented coordination. The study also finds that for delivery reliability in technology-based firms, the interplay of vertical integration, market relations and long term, voluntary relations, especially through the use of small, dedicated and highly skilled team, is required to effectively manage delivery-related integrated information flow. Originality/value – The major contribution of this paper is an exposition on practices for facilitating information flow integration. It also offers insights that suggest integrated information flow for delivery reliability could be enhanced through the use of customer-focused communication channels, context-driven documentations, multiple and alternate communication channels as well as intuitive and user-friendly documentation strategies.

Managing Integrated Information Flow for Industrial Service Partnerships: A Case Study of Aerospace Firms

The aim of this paper is to explore priorities of supply chain partners for the integrated flow of information during the provision of industrial services. We adopted a qualitative multi-case logic methodology and a research model of flow integration and partnership uncertainty which we applied in an exploratory study with five major companies that provide aerospace services. From the analysis, we found that in view of the challenges for reducing partnership uncertainty and for enhancing integrated flow, firms prioritised how historical service data was made available to authorised staff and how lessons were learnt from existing service projects. We also found that congruity of aircraft platforms and duologues during service phases are important priorities in decision making situations of firms towards their supply chains for industrial services; and that these priorities are often driven by unplugged communication gaps and obsolescence of technologies.

The Importance of Supply Chain Management on Financial Optimization

Many manufacturing companies are facing uncertainties and stiff competition both locally and globally, intensified by increasing needs for sophisticated and high value products from demanding customers. These companies are forced to improve the quality of their supply chain management decisions, products and reduce their manufacturing costs. With today’s volatile and very challenging global market, many manufacturing companies have started to realize the importance of the proper managing of their supply chains. Supply chain management (SCM) involves practices such as strategic supplier partnership, customer focus, lean production, postpone concept and technology & innovation. This study investigates the importance of SCM on financial optimization. The study measures production or SCM managers’ perceptions regarding SCM and level of performances in their companies. The paper also specifically investigates whether supply chain performance acts as a mediating variable in the relationship between SCM and financial optimization. These associations were analyzed through statistical methods such as Pearson’s correlation and a regression-based mediated analysis. The findings suggest that SCM has significant correlations with supply chain performance and financial optimization. In addition, the result of the regression-based mediated analysis demonstrates that supply chain performance mediates the linkage between SCM and financial optimization. The findings of the study provide a striking demonstration of the importance of SCM in enhancing the performances of Malaysian manufacturing companies. The result indicates that manufac-turing companies should emphasize greater management support for SCM implementation and a greater degree of attention for production integration and information flow integration in the manufacturing system in order to maximize profit and tzerimize cost.

On the analysis of building a public information platform based on e-Commerce for coal logistics

Purpose: Putting forward the concept and features of the public information platform for coal logistics based on electronic commerce, as well as the requirements of upper and lower intersections of the coal supply chain. Meanwhile, this paper will also probe into the current condition of statistics management in coal logistics, and then discuss how to build a public information platform based on electronic commerce for coal logistics. Design/methodology/approach: According to the further exploring the concepts and relevant characteristics and the development of coal logistics and supply chain management in China of the current period. Findings / Practical implications: An advanced public information platform for coal logistics utilizes to best advantage modern information technologies and managerial concepts in the operation of coal logistics, such as e-commerce, e-information, supply chain management, etc. This not only stimulates efficient integration of business flow, information flow, logistics and capital flow of the coal industry, brings about in-depth integration of the logistics resources of the coal industry, but also greatly improves the efficiency of the operation of coal logistics, reduces the cost of coal logistics, and enhances the overall competitiveness of upstream and downstream companies along the coal supply chain. Research limitations/implications: Although the coal logistics public information platform has been applied in some enterprises in China, not yet in a broader range of applications, which need the joint efforts of all parties. Originality/value: Fitted to the e-commerce era, the Public Information Platform for Coal Logistics envisioned in this article is highly feasible and worthy of reference to relevant institutions.

Research on Integration of Information Flow and Logistics in VMI Based on TPL

The paper reviewed the relevant literature and research and summarized on VMI, inventory control and transportation scheduling theory ,VMI mode integrated inventory and transportation problem is analyzed theoretically the internal driving force and necessity and insufficiency of the supplier's logistics capabilities and information capabilities.from the systemic view,this dissertation deeply analyzed the information flow and logistics integration in VMI&TPL mode and achieved the predicted research objectives.

Research on Inventory and Transport in VMI Mode

This paper firstly analyzes the information flow and logistics factors and establish an integrated information flow based on interface and general framework of logistics integration model , to build VMI & TPL mode integrated information flow and logistics system dynamics model. From logistics integrated subsystems, information flow integrated subsystems, coordination and control subsystem and risk analysis information flow and logistics subsystem integrated system architecture, and analyze various subsystems within the relationship between the various factors, we come to each subsystem causal diagram. Thus establishing an integrated information flow and logistics system model Article demonstrates the implementation of VMI supply chain model brings improvement in the overall economic effect, get a lot of useful conclusions with a wide range of uses.

Implementation of Information Integration Platform in Chinese Tobacco Industry Enterprise Based on SOA

An SOA-based information integration platform in Chinese tobacco industry enterprise was constituted with SAP XI. SAP XI as the ESB transforms the formats of all data coming from source systems to realize the seamless integration among different systems. The service bus of SAP XI links different systems in enterprises and factories and realizes the seamless integration among multiple business systems of different levels. The application of information integration platform ensures the flexible and controllable information communication among application systems in enterprise at architectural level and solves the problems of information island, data quality and flow integration.

Design of Agricultural Product Supply Chain Based on Industrial Cluster

The article uses the theories of industrial cluster and supply chain management and researches into the industrial cluster situation and development prospects of Qiqihar Citys agricultural products. At present, although Qiqihars agricultural products industrial cluster has initially formed, the business flow, capital flow, information flow and logistics integration of agricultural products supply chain have yet to be further optimized. Based on the development status quo of Qiqihar, the article proposes the principle of designing Qiqihars agricultural products supply chain, and studies the operation mechanism of supply chain systems, aimed at providing a reference mode for Qiqihars development of agricultural industry and promoting the development of agricultural products industrial cluster.

Security-Aware Service Composition with Fine-Grained Information Flow Control

Enforcing access control in composite services is essential in distributed multidomain environment. Many advanced access control models have been developed to secure web services at execution time. However, they do not consider access control validation at composition time, resulting in high execution-time failure rate of composite services due to access control violations. Performing composition-time access control validation is not straightforward. First, many candidate compositions need to be considered and validating them can be costly. Second, some service composers may not be trusted to access protected policies and validation has to be done remotely. Another major issue with existing models is that they do not consider information flow control in composite services, which may result in undesirable information leakage. To resolve all these problems, we develop a novel three-phase composition protocol integrating information flow control. To reduce the policy evaluation cost, we use historical information to efficiently evaluate and prune candidate compositions and perform local/remote policy evaluation only on top candidates. To achieve effective and efficient information flow control, we introduce the novel concept of transformation factor to model the computation effect of intermediate services. Experimental studies show significant performance benefit of the proposed mechanism.

Inferring the effective TOR-dependent network: a computational study in yeast

BackgroundCalorie restriction (CR) is one of the most conserved non-genetic interventions that extends healthspan in evolutionarily distant species, ranging from yeast to mammals. The target of rapamycin (TOR) has been shown to play a key role in mediating healthspan extension in response to CR by integrating different signals that monitor nutrient-availability and orchestrating various components of cellular machinery in response. Both genetic and pharmacological interventions that inhibit the TOR pathway exhibit a similar phenotype, which is not further amplified by CR.ResultsIn this paper, we present the first comprehensive, computationally derived map of TOR downstream effectors, with the objective of discovering key lifespan mediators, their crosstalk, and high-level organization. We adopt a systematic approach for tracing information flow from the TOR complex and use it to identify relevant signaling elements. By constructing a high-level functional map of TOR downstream effectors, we show that our approach is not only capable of recapturing previously known pathways, but also suggests potential targets for future studies.Information flow scores provide an aggregate ranking of relevance of proteins with respect to the TOR signaling pathway. These rankings must be normalized for degree bias, appropriately interpreted, and mapped to associated roles in pathways. We propose a novel statistical framework for integrating information flow scores, the set of differentially expressed genes in response to rapamycin treatment, and the transcriptional regulatory network. We use this framework to identify the most relevant transcription factors in mediating the observed transcriptional response, and to construct the effective response network of the TOR pathway. This network is hypothesized to mediate life-span extension in response to TOR inhibition.ConclusionsOur approach, unlike experimental methods, is not limited to specific aspects of cellular response. Rather, it predicts transcriptional changes and post-translational modifications in response to TOR inhibition. The constructed effective response network greatly enhances understanding of the mechanisms underlying the aging process and helps in identifying new targets for further investigation of anti-aging regimes. It also allows us to identify potential network biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis of age-related pathologies.

Information lifecycle management with RFID for material control on construction sites

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is an emerging technology in the building industry. Many researchers have demonstrated how to enhance material control or production management with RFID. However, there is a lack of integrated understanding of lifecycle management. This paper develops and demonstrates a framework to Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) with RFID for material control. The ILM framework includes key RFID checkpoints and material types to facilitate material control on construction sites. In addition, this paper presents a context-aware scenario to examine multiple on-site context and RFID parameters. From tagging nodes at the factory to reading nodes at each lifecycle stage, this paper demonstrates how to manage complex construction materials with RFID and how to construct integrated information flows at different lifecycle stages. To validate key material types and the scenario, the study reports on two on-site trials: read distance test and on-site simulation. Finally, the research provides discussion and recommended approaches to implementing ILM. The results show that the ILM framework has the potential for a variety of stakeholders to adopt RFID in the building industry. This paper provides the understanding about the effectiveness of ILM with RFID for material control, which can serve as a base for adopting other IT technologies in the building industry.

Research on Integrated Assembling Technology of Passenger Vehicle Clutches Cover Assembly

For passenger vehicle clutches cover assembly assembling requirement, the integrated assembling system was designed and considered fully to meet the flexible, reliability and traceability requirements. It realized integration of products and processes, integration of processed and equipment, tooling, conveying equipment, integration of logistics and information flow. It puts forward new solutions about process flow and key equipments and reasonable evaluation method of assembly line.

Functional non-coding ncRNA in immunity and tolerance: what can be learned from structures and functions of transfer factors of delayed-type[-IV] hypersensititvity on genetics, epigenetics and recognition repertoires (62.12)

Abstract AIM: Immunity and [self-]tolerance are usually considered orchestrated by protein repertoires upon genetic [Mendelian] and epigenetic [non-Mendelian] variation mechanisms. All is still not fully understood, as evident from transfer factor and LeDouarin phenomena, environmental influences, peptidome complexity and diversity [Adv.Immunol.11,195-266,1969; Int.J.Dev.Biol.49,131-136,2005]. Endogenous ncRNA incl. microRNA mostly escaped consideration. METHODS: Ann.N.Y.Acad.Sci.1137,316-342,2008. RESULTS: Landsteiner-Chase-Lawrence transfer factors showed up as paradigmatic guides in some terra incognita of adaptive immune memory. Original crude preparations were found as paucidisperse solute systems of numerous functional small ncRNA [<200n] in interaction with proteins. Some environment-modified redox- and metalloregulated small hairpin shRNA [<200 bases] were sequenced. By 5'-CUG-3’-hairpin loops, they may address conserved homologous helix-nucleating domains shared in self and foreign proteofactors of tolerated growth, metabolism, vascularization, cancer and epigenome indexing. CONCLUSIONS: Immune cells are not restricted to known protein recognition systems. They have further repertoires of environment-adapted ncRNA as earliest outputs in transcription and translation. These are superior in diversity/specificity [≥10E17] to immune proteins repertoires [~10E13]. All attributes make them competent to integrate information flow on possible molecular shapes into genomic mechanisms.

Value of Information Integration to Supply Chain Management

While integrating information flows between internal organizational functions and across partner firms is widely acknowledged as a contributor to organizational competitiveness, there is little emp...