Supply network integration in multi-organisational network systems

This paper explores supply network integration in complex product service systems involving close collaboration between primes. Four case study networks are studied (aerospace, naval, power and telecoms), each involving equipment manufacture and service provision. Factors that support network integration, identified from the literature and refined in the in-depth pilot case, were used to explore which processes support integration of the extended enterprise. Results suggests that a select set of processes support integration of the extended enterprise and that the absence of a shared view on these critical enabling processes results from contextual complexity of the network rather than from competing commercial interests. Copyright © 2011 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Part I: Binders & technologies - Basic principles

The first three reports in this series (Parts I, II and III) deals with binders and technologies used in stabilisation/ solidification (S/S) practice and research in the UK. This first part covers 'basic principles'while the second covers 'research' and the third 'applications'. The purpose of this work, which forms part of the Network STARNET on stabilisation/solidification treatment and remediation, is to identify the knowledge gaps and future research needs in this field. This paper describes the details and basic principles of available binders and technologies in the UK. The introduction in the report includes background on S/S, legislation aspects, overview of STARNET and its activities and details of commonly used binder selection criteria. The report is then divided into two main sections. The first covers binders and includes cement, blastfurnace slag, pulverised fuel ash, lime, natural and organophilic clays, bitumen, waste binders and concludes with proprietary binders. The second part details implementation processes for S/S treatment systems starting with ex-situ treatment systems, such as plant processing, direct mixing and in-drum processing and finishes with in-situ treatment processes, such as mechanical mixing and pressure mixing. © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group.

Active glass-polymer superlattice structure for photonic integration.

We propose an all-laser processing approach allowing controlled growth of organic-inorganic superlattice structures of rare-earth ion doped tellurium-oxide-based glass and optically transparent polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) polymer; the purpose of which is to illustrate the structural and thermal compatibility of chemically dissimilar materials at the nanometer scale. Superlattice films with interlayer thicknesses as low as 2 nm were grown using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) at low temperatures (100 °C). Planar waveguides were successfully patterned by femtosecond-laser micro-machining for light propagation and efficient Er(3+)-ion amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). The proposed approach to achieve polymer-glass integration will allow the fabrication of efficient and durable polymer optical amplifiers and lossless photonic devices. The all-laser processing approach, discussed further in this paper, permits the growth of films of a multitude of chemically complex and dissimilar materials for a range of optical, thermal, mechanical and biological functions, which otherwise are impossible to integrate via conventional materials processing techniques.

Paradoxical evidence integration in rapid decision processes

Decisions about noisy stimuli require evidence integration over time. Traditionally, evidence integration and decision making are described as a one-stage process: a decision is made when evidence for the presence of a stimulus crosses a threshold. Here, we show that one-stage models cannot explain psychophysical experiments on feature fusion, where two visual stimuli are presented in rapid succession. Paradoxically, the second stimulus biases decisions more strongly than the first one, contrary to predictions of one-stage models and intuition. We present a two-stage model where sensory information is integrated and buffered before it is fed into a drift diffusion process. The model is tested in a series of psychophysical experiments and explains both accuracy and reaction time distributions. © 2012 Rüter et al.