Plastic flexible films are increasingly used in many applications due to their lightness and versatility. In 2014, the amount of plastic films represented 34% of total plastic packaging produced in UK. The flexible film waste generation rises according to the increase in number of applications. Currently, in developed countries, about 50% of plastics in domestic waste are films. Moreover, about 615,000 tonnes of agricultural flexible waste are generated in the EU every year. A review of plastic films recycling has been conducted in order to detect the shortcomings and establish guidelines for future research. This paper reviews plastic films waste management technologies from two different sources: post-industrial and post-consumer. Clean and homogeneous post-industrial waste is recycled through closed-loop or open-loop mechanical processes. The main differences between these methods are the quality and the application of the recycled materials. Further research should be focused on closing the loops to obtain the highest environmental benefits of recycling. This could be accomplished through minimizing the material degradation during mechanical processes. Regarding post-consumer waste, flexible films from agricultural and packaging sectors have been assessed. The agricultural films and commercial and industrial flexible packaging are recycled through open-loop mechanical recycling due to existing selective waste collection routes. Nevertheless, the contamination from the use phase adversely affects the quality of recycled plastics. Therefore, upgrading of current washing lines is required. On the other hand, household flexible packaging shows the lowest recycling rates mainly because of inefficient sorting technologies. Delamination and compatibilization methods should be further developed to ensure the recycling of multilayer films. Finally, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies on waste management have been reviewed. A lack of thorough LCA on plastic films waste management systems was identified.
Mainstream economic theory has generally excluded consideration of the role of managers, which has, in turn, impaired its ability to explain resource allocation by, and heterogeneity among, firms. In the real world, managers are called on to fill entrepreneurial and leadership roles: sensing opportunities, developing and implementing viable business models, building capabilities, and guiding the organization through transformations. These entrepreneurial management tasks are part of the organization׳s capabilities, which also encompass embedded organizational processes that can be slow to change. An understanding of entrepreneurial management and organizational capabilities will contribute to more realistic economic models and a better understanding by policy makers of industrial dynamics and the requirements of innovation.
The general aim of circular economy is the most efficient and comprehensive use of resources. In order to achieve this goal, new approaches of Industry 4.0 are being developed and implemented in the field of waste management. The innovative K-project: Recycling and Recovery of Waste 4.0 - "ReWaste4.0" deals with topics such as digitalisation and the use of robotic technologies in waste management. Here, a summary of the already published results in these areas, which were divided into the four focused topics, is given: Collection and Logistics, Machines and waste treatment plants, Business models and Data Tools. Presented are systems and methods already used in waste management, as well as technologies that have already been successfully applied in other industrial sectors and will also be relevant in the waste management sector for the future. The focus is set on systems that could be used in waste treatment plants or machines in the future in order to make treatment of waste more efficient. In particular, systems which carry out the sorting of (mixed) waste via robotic technologies are of interest. Furthermore "smart bins" with sensors for material detection or level measurement, methods for digital image analysis and new business models have already been developed. The technologies are often based on large amounts of data that can contribute to increase the efficiency within plants. In addition, the results of an online market survey of companies from the waste management industry on the subject of waste management 4.0 or "digital readiness" are summarized.
HighlightsFatigue, or workplace sleepiness, is a consequence of modern industrial society.Excessive sleepiness in the workplace and on highways is a serious safety hazard.The greatest cause of fatigue is insufficient or disrupted sleep.Validated sleep‐enhancement and alertness‐management strategies can mitigate fatigue. &NA; Fatigue and workplace sleepiness are consequences of modern industrial society. Fatigue is a complex biological phenomenon that occurs as a function of time awake, time‐of‐day, workload, health, and off‐duty lifestyle. Fatigue is a function of two major biological factors – the homeostatic drive for sleep and circadian rhythm of sleepiness. The greatest cause of fatigue is insufficient or disrupted sleep. Excessive sleepiness in the workplace and on highways is a serious safety hazard, and insufficient or disrupted sleep results in numerous accidents and adverse mental and physical health outcomes. Evidence‐based strategies that promote better sleep and optimize work/rest schedules can mitigate the impact of fatigue and sleep loss. Proper nap and sleep scheduling, work breaks, modeling and monitoring tools, fatigue detection technologies, and pharmacological countermeasures can be implemented at home and/or in the workplace to reduce performance and safety hazards. Education about obtaining adequate sleep, the dangers of fatigue in terms of both health and cognitive consequences, and the availability of scientifically‐proven sleep‐enhancement and alertness‐management strategies is essential.
The global production and supply chain system is mostly disrupted due to widespread of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). Most of the industrial managers and policymakers are searching for adequate strategies and policies for revamping production patterns and meet consumer demand. Form global supply chain perspectives, the majority of raw materials are imported from China and other Asian developing nations. The COVID-19 pandemic has broken the most of transportation links and distribution mechanisms between suppliers, production facilities and customers. Therefore, it is imperative to discuss sustainable production and consumption pattern in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era. Most of the prominent economies around the world enforced a total lockdown, and the focus has since shifted to surge in demand for essential products and services. This has led to a decline in demand for some nonessential products and services. The production and operations management challenges of the pandemic situations are discussed and adequately proposes policy strategies for improving the resilience and sustainability of the system. This paper also discusses the different operations and supply chain perspectives for handling such disruptions in the future.
It is well known that Asia generates and receives large quantities of plastic waste. Through a detailed study of plastic waste generation and trade, the management and treatment of plastic waste in Asia were analyzed from the regional perspective. The amounts of plastic waste in municipal solid waste and in industrial solid waste were estimated to be 79 Mt and 42 Mt, respectively, in Asia. The overall treatment and recycling status in Asia are unsatisfactory. Asia imported 74% of the plastic waste in the world in 2016, and China (mainland) imported the most plastic waste until 2017, with 5.8 to 8.3 Mt. In 2017, about half the plastic waste imported by Asia came from other regions, and after subtracting the exported quantity, 98% of the plastic waste was left in Asia for treatment and disposal. The plastic waste imported by Asia declined about 72% in monetary value in 2018. There is still a large gap between the plastic waste quantity imported to Asia and that exported from Asia. China's ban of plastic waste imports caused import quantities to drop to 52 kt in 2018, simultaneously, exports from the largest exporting countries or regions such as Hong Kong (China), the USA, Japan, and Germany decreased. While Vietnam, Malaysia and some other Asian countries and regions saw significant increases in plastic waste imports from 2016 to 2018. Considering this situation, countries in Asia are starting to strictly limit plastic waste imports from other countries.
Fibers and textiles play key roles in the development and day-to-day activities of human society. Innovations related to flexible electronics-smart fibers and textiles with sensing, thermal regulation, and energy management capabilities-have drawn great interest from both academic and industrial communities. Smart fibers and textiles are anticipated to revolutionize personal health management due to their manifold features and capabilities, providing the foundation for many intelligent wearables. In this Perspective, we provide a brief overview of recent advances in the design and fabrication of smart fibers and textiles for health management applications, focusing primarily on those with sensing, thermal regulation, and energy management functions. We describe the existing challenges and opportunities and propose future development directions.
Herman Aguinis, Isabel Villamor, S. Lazzarini
et al.
We make the case that conditions and timing are right and, despite some challenges, there are many benefits to conducting management research in Latin America. Some of these conditions include an upward trend in the productivity of Latin American researchers, increased collaboration between researchers in Latin America and those in other regions, and societal, cultural, and economic characteristics that make the region an ideal “natural laboratory” to build and test management theories. Demonstrating that our arguments are not just about potential but are founded in reality, we offer a selective summary of recent research conducted in Latin America that made important contributions to micro and macro management domains and theories. These include (a) leadership; (b) small and family businesses; (c) entrepreneurship; (d) social inclusiveness, inequity, and vulnerable populations; (e) strategy and competitive dynamics in natural resource industries; (f) strategy in unstable macroeconomic contexts; (g) public (industrial) policies and business development; (h) hybrid public-private collaborations; and (i) social enterprises and blended social and economic value creation. We also describe opportunities for future research in these domains. Finally, we offer practical and actionable advice on how to address typical challenges encountered when conducting management research in Latin America. Solutions apply to those residing inside and outside of Latin America and include, among others, identifying universities with a research-oriented career path, recognizing credible university rankings and their impact, and capitalizing on local contexts to generate high-quality research. We hope our article will serve as a catalyst for future management research in Latin America.
The circular economy (CE) concept has gained wide attention in practice as well as in academia in recent years. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art practices and research in “circular supply chain management” (CSCM), i.e., the integration of CE thinking into supply chain management (SCM) with the goal of achieving “zero wastes”. The review covers 68 real-life CE implementation cases collected by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and 124 publications in well-established, high-ranking academic journals in operations and supply chain management. The comparative review shows that CSCM encompasses multiple dimensions, including closed-loop SCM, reverse SCM, remanufacturing SCM, recycling SCM, and industrial symbiosis. A multi-dimensional CSCM (MD-CSCM) framework is developed to synthesize their interrelationships and to categorize academic publications into multiple research themes. Based on the identified research-practice gaps and pressing research needs, this study discusses important directions for future studies to advance supply chain circularity.
Abstract Digital Twins are complex digital representations of assets that are used by a variety of organizations across the Industry 4.0 value chain. As the digitization of industrial processes advances, Digital Twins will become widespread. As a result, there is a need to develop new secure data sharing models for a complex ecosystem of interacting Digital Twins and lifecycle parties. Decentralized Applications are uniquely suited to address these sharing challenges while ensuring availability, integrity and confidentiality. They rely on distributed ledgers and decentralized databases for data storage and processing, avoiding single points of trust. To tackle the need for decentralized sharing of Digital Twin data, this work proposes an owner-centric decentralized sharing model. A formal access control model addresses integrity and confidentiality aspects based on Digital Twin components and lifecycle requirements. With our prototypical implementation EtherTwin we show how to overcome the numerous implementation challenges associated with fully decentralized data sharing, enabling management of Digital Twin components and their associated information. For validation, the prototype is evaluated based on an industry use case and semi-structured expert interviews.
Currently, the development of new control approaches for asynchronous electric drives with stringent requirements for vibration-acoustic performance and spectral composition of autonomous inverter output currents represents a highly relevant research challenge. The key challenges in designing this class of electric drives stem from the relatively low effectiveness of existing technical solutions. This limitation arises either from constraints in current controller synthesis methods or from rigorous demands regarding power-to-weight and dimensional parameters. This paper presents an original method for generating control signals in an alternating current electric drive autonomous inverter. The proposed approach utilizes regulation based on the deviation of the generalized output voltage vector amplitude in the autonomous inverter. The synthesis procedure for such a controller begins with defining the desired closed-loop system transfer function. The system dynamic processes are determined by a characteristic polynomial that can be of arbitrary type. For comparative analysis, two controller types are examined: one based on a Butterworth filter and another utilizing a Newton polynomial. The study proposes employing bilinear transformation to implement the derived continuous functions in discrete form, enabling software implementation in Simulink and subsequent microprocessor-based execution. The developed model, which accounts for discrete control signal generation, has yielded the spectral composition of the drive converter output currents and voltage-frequency characteristics under parametric disturbances introduced by the control object. Results demonstrate that the Butterworth filter-based controller shows superior efficiency compared to both open-loop systems and closed-loop systems with Newton polynomial-based controllers. The obtained results can be effectively applied in the development of low-noise electric drives for specialized applications.
Abstract In computer vision, zero-shot image restoration—a technique enabling degraded image restoration without large-scale paired training data—has emerged as a pivotal technique for scenarios where data is limited or paired training data is challenging to obtain. However, existing methods face two key limitations: data consistency preservation remains challenging for out-of-domain data, and degradation process alignment is difficult when the degradation mechanism is not mathematically predetermined. To address these issues, this paper presents a novel zero-shot image restoration method (FIR-SDE). Traditional generation-oriented diffusion models (designed for image creation) are replaced with restoration-oriented models (specialized for degradation repair), expanding the range of effectively restorable images. To mitigate the noise offset (discrepancies between real and model-simulated degradation) and to enhance the alignment, a multi-step optimization strategy is employed, which evaluates the distance between real and simulated degraded images via frequency domain distribution. Experiments were conducted on two image restoration tasks (image deraining and inpainting) using three public datasets (AFHQ-dog, CelebA, and FFHQ), with Gaussian blur and motion blur superimposed as noise offsets. Results demonstrate that FIR-SDE method outperforms competitive methods in restoration quality and noise resistance. By eliminating data space constraints and exhibiting robustness against noise offsets, FIR-SDE offers a more flexible and efficient solution to broaden the practical applicability of zero-shot image restoration.
Electronic computers. Computer science, Information technology