This article reviews automatic inspection within the pharmaceutical industry and deals, in particular, with the application of machine vision to these tasks. Although taking some…
Abstract
This article reviews automatic inspection within the pharmaceutical industry and deals, in particular, with the application of machine vision to these tasks. Although taking some time to be established within this industry, caused, in part perhaps, by unrealistic expectations of the performance available, machine vision systems are now available in a robust and reliable format, ideally suited to the demanding and security‐conscious needs of this sector. Such systems are now addressing a wide variety of applications, often aimed at the packaging, labelling and coding of products where the ever‐more‐stringent requirements of the regulatory bodies provide a considerable impetus to the improvement cycle. Given that effective quality management should recognize that improvements in products and processes should be sought continually, however good they are, all aspects of packaging, labelling and coding should come under scrutiny when the demanding standards of product security are considered. It is perhaps easy to understand why, when the implications of the accidental misuse of a drug could be severe, both in human terms and in the cost of any remedial action necessary. Therefore, in order to assure product security, inspection at strategic points in the manufacturing process will normally be required. However, the drawbacks of human inspectors being used to carry out repetitive inspection are numerous (and probably well known!) but include the maximum concentration span and the unavoidable subjectivity involved.
Bahar Manouchehri, Edgar A. Burns, Ayyoob Sharifi and Sina Davoudi
Children comprise a significant component of developing countries’ populations, but are rarely present in a substantive way in urban decision-making. The first step toward…
Abstract
Children comprise a significant component of developing countries’ populations, but are rarely present in a substantive way in urban decision-making. The first step toward changing the exclusion of children in urban planning is through analyzing the roots of the problem. Applying a critical approach, this research aimed to explore and challenge the structural patterns of society that exclude children and marginalize them in the case of Iran. The present study interviewed Iranian urban planning professionals in a range of roles, to explore the roots of the persistent failure to incorporate children’s voices. The findings revealed various obstacles to including children: on the one hand, these impediments consisted of broad macro-level barriers derived from the cultural context; on the other, obstacles included micro-level barriers associated with planning processes and the urban management system. Together these embedded sociocultural roots provide insights into mechanisms maintaining a top-down approach and preventing it from shifting to a more inclusive and child-friendly approach in planning modern Iranian cities.
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Catarina Ianni Segatto, Daniel Béland and Shannon Dinan
This chapter analyzes governmental responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in a highly decentralized federal country. Canada has a decentralized approach in many policy areas…
Abstract
This chapter analyzes governmental responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in a highly decentralized federal country. Canada has a decentralized approach in many policy areas, including health care, in which provinces are the primary decision-makers and service providers. This decentralized health-care system allowed provinces to respond according to regional and local contexts and needs. The capacity building and the policy learning related to previous crises and horizontal coordination were key to policy responses to the pandemic. Moreover, unlike other countries, Canada did not centralize decisions throughout the pandemic, and did not reinforce competition and uncoordinated actions. The federal government also has had a central role coordinating COVID-19 policy responses. Nevertheless, Canada faced some challenges stemming from the lack of uniformity across the country, especially related to regional and local restrictions, enforcement mechanisms, testing, and travel restrictions.
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CORPORATE STRATEGISTS ARE NOT CELEBRITIES. They're rarely household names. But, increasingly, it's their work that is shaping America's corporations—allowing them to compete in a…
Abstract
CORPORATE STRATEGISTS ARE NOT CELEBRITIES. They're rarely household names. But, increasingly, it's their work that is shaping America's corporations—allowing them to compete in a decade that's turning out to be far more challenging, stressful, and, nonetheless, exciting than we'd expected. In an effort to ferret out strategic planning's unsung heroes, to put titles to challenges, names to titles, and faces to names, we cast a wide net. We scoured the business press. We checked in with our advisory board as well as our regular and occasional contributors. We asked subscribers, Wall Street analysts, academics, and even the people we interviewed for other articles. In particular, we were looking for individuals whose names are not familiar, who bring unusual backgrounds to their tasks, who have recently taken on new assignments, or who, because of the company they work for, face remarkable, difficult, and unusual challenges. According to our sources, those strategists we found, whose names, titles, and challenges appear on the next four pages, share a unique capacity for visualizing where they want to be, for solving problems, and then for doing what is necessary to carry their visions through. We'll be charting their success—watch for updates in JBS as the year goes on.
The success of the pallet began with the development of the fork‐lift truck and with increased mechanisation of piece‐good transport since the Second World War. This brought with…
Abstract
The success of the pallet began with the development of the fork‐lift truck and with increased mechanisation of piece‐good transport since the Second World War. This brought with it a world‐wide revolution in distribution which has still today not yet run its full course. Specialised educational faculties, technical magazines and industrial management positions have been established for the “TOTAL DISTRIBUTION CONCEPT” discipline since the latter part of the Sixties and there is talk of enormous unexploited rationalisation reserves in this field which commences at the end of the extraction or manufacturing process and terminates either with the subsequent processor or the final consumer.
Zhijia Xu, Qinghui Wang and Jingrong Li
The purpose of this paper is to develop a general mathematic approach to model the microstructures of porous structures produced by additive manufacturing (AM), which will result…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a general mathematic approach to model the microstructures of porous structures produced by additive manufacturing (AM), which will result in fractal surface topography and higher roughness that have greater influence on the performance of porous structures.
Design/methodology/approach
The overall shapes of pores were modeled by triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS), and the micro-roughness details attached to the overall pore shapes were represented by Weierstrass–Mandelbrot (W-M) fractal representation, which was integrated with TPMS along its normal vectors. An index roughly reflecting the irregularity of fractal TPMS was proposed, based on which the influence of the fractal parameters on the fractal TPMS was qualitatively analyzed. Two complex samples of real porous structures were given to demonstrate the feasibility of the model.
Findings
The fractal surface topography should not be neglected at a micro-scale level. In addition, a decrease in the fractal dimension Ds may exponentially make the topography rougher; an increase in the height-scaling parameter G may linearly increase the roughness; and the number of the superposed ridges has no distinct influence on the topography. Furthermore, the synthesis method is general for all implicit surfaces.
Practical implications
The method provides an alternative way to shift the posteriori design paradigm of porous media to priori design mode through numeric simulation. Therefore, the optimization of AM process parameters, as well as the porous structure, can be potentially realized according to specific functional requirement.
Originality/value
The synthesis of TPMS and W-M fractal geometry was accomplished efficiently and was general for all implicit freeform surfaces, and the influence of the fractal parameters on the fractal TPMS was analyzed more systematically.
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Surface quality and porosity significantly influence the structural and functional properties of the final product. This study aims to establish and explain the underlying…
Abstract
Purpose
Surface quality and porosity significantly influence the structural and functional properties of the final product. This study aims to establish and explain the underlying relationships among processing parameters, top surface roughness and porosity level in additively manufactured 316L stainless steel.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic variation of printing process parameters was conducted to print cubic samples based on laser power, speed and their combinations of energy density. Melt pool morphologies and dimensions, surface roughness quantified by arithmetic mean height (Sa) and porosity levels were characterized via optical confocal microscopy.
Findings
The study reveals that the laser power required to achieve optimal top surface quality increases with the volumetric energy density (VED) levels. A smooth top surface (Sa < 15 µm) or a rough surface with humps at high VEDs (VED > 133.3 J/mm3) can serve as indicators for fully dense bulk samples, while rough top surfaces resulting from melt pool discontinuity correlate with high porosity levels. Under insufficient VED, melt pool discontinuity dominates the top surface. At high VEDs, surface quality improves with increased power as mitigation of melt pool discontinuity, followed by the deterioration with hump formation.
Originality/value
This study reveals and summarizes the formation mechanism of dominant features on top surface features and offers a potential method to predict the porosity by observing the top surface features with consideration of processing conditions.
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Joy L. Hart, Mary Bryk, Leigh E. Fine, Keith Garbutt, Jonathan Kotinek and Rebecca C. Bott-Knutson
Applying practices from online role-playing games with multiple players, we employed Reacting to the Past (RTTP) pedagogy to engage students at several universities in a…
Abstract
Purpose
Applying practices from online role-playing games with multiple players, we employed Reacting to the Past (RTTP) pedagogy to engage students at several universities in a multi-week experience. As a pedagogical method, RTTP is ripe for potential use across an array of leadership education initiatives, including interinstitutional collaborations.
Design/methodology/approach
In this essay, we describe this student learning and engagement experience as well as address innovations and potential applications in similar leadership education contexts, preliminary student and facilitator feedback and lessons learned.
Findings
As part of The Justice Challenge’s eight-week Colloquium, students developed an understanding of food justice, systems thinking and transdisciplinary collaboration, as well as skills in perspective-taking, persuasion and teamwork. Through the RTTP gameplay, students engaged firsthand with multiple perspectives and goals, differing ways of interpreting information and situations, diverse factions and political pressures.
Originality/value
We believe our use of RTTP in The Justice Challenge is novel for two reasons. First, although RTTP fits remarkably well with the basic philosophy of honors education, it is less explored as a pedagogical approach in leadership education contexts. Second, our use of RTTP in an online, multi-institutional program highlights it as a useful pedagogical tool to foster leadership learning that can work regardless of group size or modality.
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Subrata Deb Nath, Gautam Gupta, Martin Kearns, Ozkan Gulsoy and Sundar V. Atre
The purpose of this paper is to investigate effects of layer thickness on densification, surface morphology, microstructure and mechanical and corrosion properties of 420…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate effects of layer thickness on densification, surface morphology, microstructure and mechanical and corrosion properties of 420 stainless steel fabricated by laser-powder bed fusion (L-PBF).
Design/methodology/approach
Standard specimens were printed at layer thickness of 10, 20 and 30 µm to characterize Archimedes density, surface roughness, tensile strength, elongation, hardness, microstructural phases and corrosion performance in the as-printed and heat-treated condition.
Findings
Archimedes density slightly increased from 7.67 ± 0.02 to 7.70 ± 0.02g/cm3 and notably decreased to 7.35 ± 0.05 g/cm3 as the layer thickness was changed from 20 µm to 10 and 30 µm, respectively. The sensitivity to layer thickness variation was also evident in properties, the ultimate tensile strength of as-printed parts increased from 1050 ± 25 MPa to 1130 ± 35 MPa and decreased to 760 ± 35 MPa, elongation increased from 2.5 ± 0.2% to 2.8 ± 0.3% and decreased to 1.5 ± 0.2, and hardness increased from 55 ± 1 HRC to 57 ± 1 HRC and decreased to 51 ± 1 HRC, respectively. Following heat treatment, the ultimate tensile strength and elongation improved but the general trends of effects of layer thickness remained the same.
Practical implications
Properties obtained by L-PBF are superior to reported properties of 420 stainless steel fabricated by metal injection molding and comparable to wrought properties.
Originality/value
This study successfully the sensitivity of mechanical and corrosion properties of the as-printed and heat-treated parts to not only physical density but also microstructure (martensite content and tempering), as a result of changing the layer thickness. This manuscript also demonstrates porosity evolution as a combination of reduced energy flux and lower packing density for parts processed at an increasing layer thickness.