Rapid Rise In Demand Research Articles

Green supplier development and sustainable supply chain management

AbstractThe rapid rise in demand for sustainably produced goods over the last decade has made integrating environmental sustainability practices into the supply chain a strategic capability for many businesses. Despite the rapid growth of green supply chain management research, scholars have not fully examined supplier development in the context of the adoption of environmentally sustainable practices. Our study aimed to investigate the relationship between green supplier development strategies and supplier adoption of natural resource‐based view (NRBV) strategies, as well as their impact on green supply chain management (GSCM) practices. We make a significant contribution in this field by integrating a natural‐resource‐based view and a dynamic capabilities perspective to investigate how firms in developing economies overcome the environmental sustainability capability deficiencies of small and medium‐sized enterprises and are able to develop and implement environmentally sustainable practices. Based on a survey of 167 manufacturing companies in Kenya, the findings reveal that focal firms' indirect environmental sustainability supplier development strategies significantly impact environmental sustainability practices among suppliers and that the focal firm‐supplier dyadic relational capabilities significantly affected suppliers' implementation of environmental sustainability practices. Furthermore, focal firms' resource investment (financial and capital) in environmentally sustainable supply chain management programs to develop suppliers has a significant impact on suppliers' implementation of environmental sustainability practices.

Investigating the effect of customer-generated content on performance in online platform-based experience goods market

As COVID-19 persists, a new normal has emerged in our lives and consumption patterns. The rapid rise in demand for online consumption without physical contact is a prime example of this shift. Online platform-based markets have evolved into retail channels, allowing consumers to purchase both search goods and experience goods without contact. The platform provides an environment where customers can encounter a diverse range of customer-generated content (CGC) and gain insights into the purchasing experiences of others. However, despite the growing trading volume and diversification of products traded, relatively few studies exist on purchasing tangible experience goods in the online platform-based market. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of CGC (i.e., content and valence) on the market performance of experience goods, such as sales and sales rank in the platform-based market. We first examine the customer experience-related content in CGC in this market and then investigate the effect of CGC on market performance, such as sales and search ranks. We use crawled data from a platform that sells and rents artwork for empirical analysis. LDA topic modeling findings reveal that CGC has three primary topics (i.e., basic, artist, and style). The regression analysis results show that only style-related content improves performance, whereas basic-related content negatively affects search ranks. The valence of CGC does not significantly impact either performance measure. Additionally, we consider the role of rental services in this market and find that rental volume and search rank have an inverted U-shaped relationship. This study has important implications because it proposes a research framework and empirical model for examining the impact of CGC on performance in the online platform-based market for experience goods. It also has important managerial implications for platforms and sellers looking to enhance their market performance by monitoring CGC.

Modeling Relations Between Companies and CEP Service Providers in an Agent-Based Demand Model using Open-Source Data

Growing e-commerce activities cause an equally rapid rise in demand for courier, express, and parcel (CEP) transportation, resulting in increased emissions and substantial strain on the road infrastructure, especially in urban areas. Therefore, transportation planners investigate the potential of alternative concepts for parcel and freight transport. Commonly freight demand models are used, however, current models for CEP-based transportation typically focus on private parcel demand. In this paper, we extend the integrated agent-based model logiTopp of last-mile parcel delivery and private travel demand by introducing company agents and, consequently, first-mile deliveries. We present a concept for modeling (the number of) relations between companies and carriers, as these relations highly influence the resulting travel demand in the survey area. Along with implementation techniques, we provide a greedy algorithm to estimate these carrier relations, which takes carrier market shares, customer parcel demand, and carrier capacity into account. All developed model components are solely based on open-source data.

Development of a Hybrid Algorithm for efficient Task Scheduling in Cloud Computing environment using Artificial Intelligence

Cloud computing is developing as a platform for next generation systems where users can pay as they use facilities of cloud computing like any other utilities. Cloud environment involves a set of virtual machines, which share the same computation facility and storage. Due to rapid rise in demand for cloud computing services several algorithms are being developed and experimented by the researchers in order to enhance the task scheduling process of the machines thereby offering optimal solution to the users by which the users can process the maximum number of tasks through minimal utilization of the resources. Task scheduling denotes a set of policies to regulate the task processed by a system. Virtual machine scheduling is essential for effective operations in distributed environment. The aim of this paper is to achieve efficient task scheduling of virtual machines, this study proposes a hybrid algorithm through integrating two prominent heuristic algorithms namely the BAT Algorithm and the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm in order to optimize the virtual machine scheduling process. The performance evaluation of the three algorithms (BAT, ACO and Hybrid) reveal that the hybrid algorithm performs better when compared with that of the other two algorithms.

WDM Network Issues: QOT Impairments, Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation, Modeling and Monitoring Schemes based on ML

Machine Learning (ML) has recently drawn the interest of both academics and professionals in the optical networking area to solve several problems. This trend has been triggered largely by the vast amount of available data (i.e., signal strength metrics, network alerts, etc.) and the large range of optimization criteria available in today's optical networks (such as modulation format, light path routes, transport wavelength, etc.). WDM systems are popular in the telecommunications industry. It increases network bandwidth without laying more cable. WDM technology in optical communication transports multiple optical carrier signals on a single fibre using various wavelengths of laser light. Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is an efficient strategy for leveraging the wide bandwidth of optical fibres to meet the rapid rise in demand for bandwidth on the Internet. WDM plays an essential role in both core and access networks in the communication network and faces various issues like its network performance is affected due to QoT impairments, Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation problem, Modeling, and Monitoring issues. Physical impairments are an issue in WDM and can cause calls to be blocked if the transmission quality is calculated in terms of minimum bit-error-rate. Dynamic allocation of bandwidth in WDM provides a crucial challenge for the effective and equal usage of the passive optical network upstream bandwidth when supporting the QoS specifications of various traffic groups. Fast attack monitoring can prevent the failure of vast volumes of data on all-optical networks. So, monitoring and modeling in a WDM network is also a critical issue. To solve these issues in WDM networks, more intelligence resources in scalable optical networks are necessary. ML techniques are demonstrating superiority in solving these issues. In this paper, a small detail about the WDM network is presented. Then, some WDM issues like QOT impairments, Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation, and modeling and monitoring are discussed, and then, in the next section focus on some ML techniques for solving these issues are presented.

A role for Biofoundries in rapid development and validation of automated SARS-CoV-2 clinical diagnostics

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has shown how a rapid rise in demand for patient and community sample testing can quickly overwhelm testing capability globally. With most diagnostic infrastructure dependent on specialized instruments, their exclusive reagent supplies quickly become bottlenecks, creating an urgent need for approaches to boost testing capacity. We address this challenge by refocusing the London Biofoundry onto the development of alternative testing pipelines. Here, we present a reagent-agnostic automated SARS-CoV-2 testing platform that can be quickly deployed and scaled. Using an in-house-generated, open-source, MS2-virus-like particle (VLP) SARS-CoV-2 standard, we validate RNA extraction and RT-qPCR workflows as well as two detection assays based on CRISPR-Cas13a and RT-loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP). In collaboration with an NHS diagnostic testing lab, we report the performance of the overall workflow and detection of SARS-CoV-2 in patient samples using RT-qPCR, CRISPR-Cas13a, and RT-LAMP. The validated RNA extraction and RT-qPCR platform has been installed in NHS diagnostic labs, increasing testing capacity by 1000 samples per day.

The Colonial Roots of Forest Extraction: Rosewood Exploitation in Southern Belize

ABSTRACTIn 2013 there was a spike in the illegal export of rosewood, a highly‐valued tropical hardwood, from Belize. Hewn by Maya workers at night, logs were sold to Chinese buyers. Although protected by international conservation agreements, container‐loads of rosewood were exported unprocessed, unmarked and untaxed. This article examines the rosewood exports, providing a critical analysis that seeks its underlying causes and lessons for development. Drawing on extensive archival research, interviews with multiple actors, and data on China's rosewood imports, the authors show that the exports reflect a long‐standing pattern: the extraction and export of unprocessed primary commodities from Belize's forests. However, contemporary patterns are not simply repeating colonial history. On the demand side, the recent rosewood boom was triggered by a rapid rise in demand from urban, middle‐class consumers in China, stimulating a new commodity chain. On the supply side, the ‘rosewood crisis’ was facilitated by a peculiar legal‐political conjuncture: it occurred during a period after the Maya communities had won legal rights to their forests through the courts, but before the state had recognized those rights. Thus the incomplete recognition of indigenous land rights collided with long‐standing patterns of forest extractivism and explosive demand in China.

Agricultural commodity prices and oil prices

The world market price of many commodities including US corn (maize) peaked sharply in 2008. The US Energy Policy Act (2005) led to a rapid rise in demand for corn ethanol as a partial substitute for gasoline in the United States. In this article, we report the analysis of weekly prices of corn, wheat, sugar and crude oil, together with monthly series derived from those and other weekly prices, for two consecutive seven-year periods: 1999–2005 and 2006–2012. We find strong evidence of co-integration between prices in both series but only weak evidence of causation. We conclude that the normal stimulus to production of agricultural commodities given by a price increase is sufficient to restore equilibrium in supply and demand within a period of about a year.

Slipping away from palm-oil

The rapid rise in demand of palm oil is having a serious impact in the tropical countries that grow oil palms. The replacement of primary rainforests with plantations across south east Asia is stipping biodiversity, destroying local communities and exacerbating climate change. Large swathes of industry rely on palm oil but with palm plantations now accused of causing massive environmental harm, manufacturers are seeking greener alternatives.

Coaching drives performance improvement at GM Europe

PurposeDescribes how coaching helped the spare‐parts warehouse manager at General Motors Europe to perform more effectively against the background of a rapid rise in demand for GM cars in Russia and the tripling in size of the warehouse for which he is responsible.Design/methodology/approachExplains what gave rise to the coaching initiative, the form it took, and the results it achieved.FindingsDetails how, before the coaching, the warehouse manager had struggled to delegate and had felt the need to follow all items along the supply chain. The demands he had made on his team had created low morale and poor performance and his personal life had come under strain.Practical implicationsReveals that the coaching has helped him to work closely with his superiors and direct reports to ensure there is a good understanding of what is required and by when. He is more aware of people's reactions and needs, how to delegate, how to get better performance from himself and his team and how to manage his time better.Social implicationsExplains that the manager's personal life, which had also come under strain, improved after the coaching initiative.Originality/valueReveals how adopting a coaching culture can boost profitability.

Recruiting and retaining R&D professionals in China

Since the late 1990s, R&D-related foreign direct investment (FDI) has started to surface in emerging markets, above all in China. Owing to the rapid rise in demand, recruitment and retention of local R&D professionals have increasingly become a critical success factor for multinational enterprises (MNE) operating in China. Data from 57 in-depth interviews with R&D professionals, managers and human resource managers from 35 different MNEs in China are presented and analysed. Although monetary incentives are important, career enhancement factors, such as training and promotion opportunities, high reputation of the company are keys in attracting and retaining R&D professionals in China. While some of the findings are similar to those typically observed in the West, other findings could only be explained when the Chinese context was taken into account. Detailed theoretical and practical elaborations are provided.

The Rise of Bioinformatics

The thesis studies the emergence of bioinformatics as a new scientific discipline. More specifically, it studies the rise in bioinformatics degree programs in recent years. I argue that the massive effort to sequence all DNA of human beings, the Human Genome Project (HGP) is the main culprit. The HGP needed bioinformatics to provide to tools to obtain, store and analyze DNA sequences. The fact that bioinformatics education offerings emerged just at the time when HGP was at full throttle suggests that the offerings were triggered by the demand generated by the HGP. Granted, one can identify internal forces within bioinformatics that would eventually make the development of degree programs a logical thing to do, but none of these forces are likely to have led to the emergence of degree programs at the end of the 1990s had the HGP not existed. Similarly, there may have been some problems with the supply of people with bioinformatics skills due to rigidities in the system or ineptness of life scientists, but without the rapid rise in demand they would not have surfaced. For, a continuous and rapid rise in demand really did take place. Most of it was due to industry demand, but this demand itself was triggered by the exuberant expectations of firms in the biotechnology industry that were created by the launch of the HGP and the ensuing race with Celera to sequence the human genome. It is an open question whether the emergence of so many degree programs dedicated to bioinformatics during the nineties was a good or bad thing. In any case, the U.S. Congress would have been unlikely to be able to anticipate this chain of events, had it sought to consider the effects that would flow from its approval of the Human Genome bill in 1987.

Asia looks for new power station fuels

The rapid rise in demand for electricity in Asia is distorting fuel markets. Heavy fuel oil is widely used there as a power station feedstock, unlike in Western Europe and North America, where fuel oil is sometimes a distress product. Here, refiners tend to convert as much as their residues to white products in high demand, such as gasoline and diesel, rather than producing fuel oil. Asia's growing demand for white products ought to dictate a similar policy there, but many refiners prefer instead to keep the production of fuel oil high. The result is often that there are insufficient supplies of both. The answer to the fuel oil shortage is to import from areas of surplus such as Western Europe and the US, but record freight rates in recent months have greatly reduced the trade to Asia (see 'Focus', January 2005).

Plasma bicarbonate assays--time for a new look?

The traditional 'electrolyte profile' still provided by many laboratories consists of the two principal cations of the plasma, sodium and potassium, the two principal anions, chloride and bicarbonate, together with some indicator of glomerular filtration rate, such as urea or creatinine, or both. As will be emphasized shortly, bicarbonate itself cannot readily be measured, but a clinically useful approximation can be obtained by measuring the total CO2 content of the plasma. This grouping of assays has its origins in the history of the clinical laboratory. Measurement of the anions long antedates the development of flame-emission spectrophotometry! in the early 1950s, which made measurements of sodium and potassium practical procedures for the hospital laboratory, capable of providing valuable clinical information with an acceptable turn-round time. The cation measurements were added to those of the anions already provided to give the profile. This focused attention on the electrical neutrality of the extracellular fluid, leading to the reporting of ion concentrations in milliequivalents rather than mass units and the development of the familiar bar-diagrams, in which columns of equal length represent cation and anion concentrations, and to the concept of the 'anion gap' which will be further discussed later. Increasing understanding of the pathophysiology of the body fluids, based on the earlier work of Gamble.i-' led to a rapid rise in demand for electrolyte assays. This was met by automation, mainly using Technicon AutoAnalyser equipment, culminating in the development of dedicated multichannel analysers, such as the SMA 6/60,