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The purpose of this paper is to present a language-agnostic approach to facilitate the discovery of “parallel passages” stored in historic and cultural heritage digital archives.

The authors explore a novel, and relatively simple approach, using a character-based statistical language model combined with a tailored version of the Basic Local Alignment Tool to extract exact and approximate string patterns shared between groups of documents.

The approach is applicable to a wide range of languages, and compensates for variability in the text of the documents as a result of differences in dialect, authorship, language change over time and errors due to inaccurate transcriptions and optical character recognition errors as a result of the digitisation process.

A number of case studies demonstrate that the approach is practical and generalisable to a wide range of archives with documents in different languages, domains and of varying quality.

The approach described can be applied to any digital archive of modern and contemporary texts. This makes the approach applicable to digital archives recording historic texts, but also those composed of more recent news articles, for example.

The analysis of “parallel passages” enables researchers to quantify the presence and extent of text-reuse in a collection of documents, which can provide useful data on author style, text genres and cultural contexts.

The approach is novel and addresses a need by humanities researchers for tools that can identify similar documents and local similarities represented by shared text sequences in a potentially vast large archive of documents. As far as the authors are aware, there are no tools currently exist that provide the same level of tolerance to the language of the documents.

Whilst beneficial, the use of evidence to improve teaching and learning in schools is proving difficult to achieve in practice. The purpose of this paper is to shed new light on this issue by examining the applicability of a model of rational behaviour as relates to the notion of evidence-informed practice (EIP). Specifically, exploring the question: “if EIP is rational behavior, why are not all teachers engaged in it?”, the authors examine whether the beliefs and perspectives of teachers in relation to EIP, align with their evidence-use behaviours. The authors then assess what factors prevent teachers/schools from engaging in EIP.

To examine beliefs, instances of, and barriers to evidence use, the authors employ a Gradient Boosted Tree predictive model to analyse data from a survey of 696 practitioners in 79 schools.

The findings suggest that, should they wish to increase EIP within their schools, school leaders need to: first, promote the vision for evidence-use (i.e. actively encourage its use); second, illustrate how research and evidence can be effectively employed to enhance aspects of teaching and learning; and third, establish effective learning environments, in which learning conversations around the use of evidence, can flourish.

Using a new, innovative model of rationality, the authors conclude that despite the focus on EIP in many school systems world-wide, evidence use will never be meaningfully realized unless school leaders prioritize EIP as a school commitment. Simultaneously, given the high-stakes accountability environments facing many school systems it is unlikely that prioritization of EIP will occur until EIP forms part of any education system’s accountability regime.

Value management (VM)'s introduction into construction practices has been debated over the years, with different researchers coming up with definitions to satisfy the desired outcome, getting the value for the project and satisfying the client with the lowest possible cost in project execution. The construction industry in England had been introduced to VM practice for a very long time. It is believed that if constructions in the country could follow the laid-down features of VM, the construction sector would develop to a summit beyond profoundness. The historical fact of how VM was introduced into England and the United Kingdom (UK) was discussed as part of the chapters of this research work. Other chapters of the work focus on VM definitions, metamorphosis of the practice, features that make up the practice, its application and resources needed to carry out VM. This chapter is summarized in the concluding part to give a brief overview of the project work.

In order to allow easy replication of this study, industry standard software that is easily attainable was used. Most of the programs used are free to download, and the ones that are not are available, students can still obtain them through their university or free download options for enrolled university students. There is also a large online community for new users to learn how to use the programs through online tutorials, message boards and free instructional material provided by the developers. As this paper expands on the work created during part 1, the models and information gathered for SLA, SLS and FDM processes were modified and updated in order to be used for the second phase. The models were created using 3ds Max, an industry standard 3D modeling program created by Autodesk Media and entertainment. All the models, textures and animations were created using 3ds Max. While the program is not free, Autodesk does allow students to download the program for free as long as they are enrolled in an accredited university. It is common for universities to get Autodesk licensing for computer labs if they have a technology program, making it possible for students to use the program through the university.

The VR system chosen was the Dell Visor: it offered the best combination of software support through SteamVR and Unity compatibility, low cost compared to other currently available VR systems, along with hardware and software requirements that could be met relatively easily (Chandramouli et al., 2018; Chandramouli et al., 2014a). Dell Visor requires 1 HDMI port and 1 USB 3.0 port to connect the headset to the computer, and can work with laptops. Dell Visor uses two hand controllers for movement tracking, Bluetooth connection is used to connect the hand controllers to the headset and computer in order to provide freedom of movement. This small number of ports and connecting wires required for the head set allows easy set up and increased flexibility of movement for the Dell Visor compared to most other VR headsets currently available. Dell Visor is also compatible with most computers, even older models thanks to use of adaptors. With the use of an adaptor and dongle for Bluetooth and HDMI support, even if the computer does not initially meet the hardware requirements of the system, it is still possible to run the Dell Visor on the computer.

The final simulation incorporates aspects of both the process and assembly aspects of the earlier scenes, but presents them using a constraint code added to sliding levers and pieces of the SLA 3D printer that lock into place when assembled. This simulation was created with the intent of being a demo for the capability of VR, as it uses the pre-build SteamVR code that is publicly available for use in Unity. This simulation uses a slide and lock constraint on a lever mechanism that allows the user to manually control the flow of the printer process, by moving the lever left and right, the user can rewind and fast forward through the printer animation as much as they wish to. There is also an assembly table to attach the individual parts of the SLA printer together. The pieces lock into place when put into the correct spot, using the base part of the printer as the starting point for them to build off.

While VR technology is still a relatively new field, the possible uses of this technology are becoming better understood in recent years. As both the general public and institutions become better acquainted with VR, more opportunities are created for instruction. VR has been associated with entertainment as the primary use for the technology, however, there is potential for VR in both business and educational as an effective learning tool. The main priority above all else for the simulations created for this study was to teach people about 3D printing in an accurate and interesting manner. Throughout the entire process this end goal was kept in mind, and achieving this goal shows the academic potential of VR for institutions. This study has provided a framework for how an institution can create a customized VR instructional model to fit their student’s needs. Using either freely available or academically partnered programs for use, any university can begin to create their own VR instructional materials that are compatible with both VR headset and desktop. Unity has a large online support network for students to troubleshoot and teach themselves how to use the software; it is compatible with modern computers so it is possible to create simulations that do not require a VR headset, and is free to use. This can allow universities to create simulations for relatively low cost and low barrier to entry, not factoring the initial cost of buying the necessary programs, hardware and time required for new users to learn the software.

Many libraries and archives maintain collections of research documents, such as administrative records, with paper-based formats that limit the documents' access to in-person use. Digitization transforms paper-based collections into more accessible and analyzable formats. As collections are digitized, there is an opportunity to incorporate deep learning techniques, such as Document Image Analysis (DIA), into workflows to increase the usability of information extracted from archival documents. This paper describes the authors' approach using digital scanning, optical character recognition (OCR) and deep learning to create a digital archive of administrative records related to the mortgage guarantee program of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, also known as the G.I. Bill.

The authors used a collection of 25,744 semi-structured paper-based records from the administration of G.I. Bill Mortgages from 1946 to 1954 to develop a digitization and processing workflow. These records include the name and city of the mortgagor, the amount of the mortgage, the location of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation agent, one or more identification numbers and the name and location of the bank handling the loan. The authors extracted structured information from these scanned historical records in order to create a tabular data file and link them to other authoritative individual-level data sources.

The authors compared the flexible character accuracy of five OCR methods. The authors then compared the character error rate (CER) of three text extraction approaches (regular expressions, DIA and named entity recognition (NER)). The authors were able to obtain the highest quality structured text output using DIA with the Layout Parser toolkit by post-processing with regular expressions. Through this project, the authors demonstrate how DIA can improve the digitization of administrative records to automatically produce a structured data resource for researchers and the public.

The authors' workflow is readily transferable to other archival digitization projects. Through the use of digital scanning, OCR and DIA processes, the authors created the first digital microdata file of administrative records related to the G.I. Bill mortgage guarantee program available to researchers and the general public. These records offer research insights into the lives of veterans who benefited from loans, the impacts on the communities built by the loans and the institutions that implemented them.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the architecture of supply chain collaboration and to propose a design for supply chain collaboration (DfC), which enables participating members to create and develop key elements of the proposed architecture.

The paper offers a concept for designing the five elements of the architecture of supply chain collaboration, namely collaborative performance system, decision synchronisation, information sharing, incentive alignment, and innovative supply chain processes. A case study was carried out to illustrate the applicability of the framework.

DfC was confirmed using a case to evaluate a supply chain system in which the chain members concurrently designed the architecture of supply chain collaboration. The findings show that design for collaboration facilitates the chain members to have a broader view to develop and ensure an effective collaboration.

Secondary data were collected to describe the collaborative practice in the company. Future research is required to elicit primary data using interview or focus group representing key players of collaboration for the purpose of model enhancement and action research.

The concept of DfC can be used by the chain members in the discussion forum to (re)design appropriate settings of the five elements of the architecture that lead to better overall performance.

Previous research has indicated the emerging school of design for collaboration. However, current researchers pay little attention to integrating and revealing the interactions of key design elements that drive the effectiveness of the chain members to realise better performance. The paper, for the first time, offers a novel framework for understanding DfC.

This study is the first that aims to investigate international transmission channels of sovereign risk among G20 and explore its influential factors by applying the multidimensional SAR model.

Multiple spatial weight matrices can capture the contiguity of spatial units from various dimensions, which could be exploited to improve the precision of inference as well as prediction accuracy. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate international transmission channels of sovereign risk among G20 and explore its influential factors by applying the multidimensional SAR model.

With network structure analysis, this study finds that they contain different information content from the perspective of graphical display, node strength and correlation. Developed and emerging countries all play major roles in trade connection, while only developed countries play major roles in financial linkage. Second, by applying the multidimensional SAR model, only the spatial autocorrelation coefficients for trade and financial linkages are significant during the full sample period, which is in sharp contrast to published studies using the SAR model with a single matrix. Third, the spillover channels that play major roles in various periods are different. Only trade channel plays a role during crisis periods and it is the most important. Fourth, the spatial correlation among countries greatly amplifies the shock’s impacts on one market. And spatial effect for developed countries is larger than those for emerging countries, while the mean spatial effect of a unit shock in the USA on emerging countries is slightly greater than that on developed countries.

Multiple spatial weight matrices can capture the contiguity of spatial units from various dimensions, which could be exploited to improve the precision of inference as well as prediction accuracy. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate international transmission channels of sovereign risk among G20 and explore its influential factors by applying the multidimensional SAR model.

With the most recent change in the industrial model toward the Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0, the advancements in digitalization and information and communication technology (ICT) have opened up opportunities for a smart logistics revolution. A comprehensive conceptualization that directs the rapidly approaching structural shift in reverse logistics is currently lacking, despite the fact that the research has been focusing intensively on improving the intelligence, autonomy, and connection of isolated logistical operations with an emphasis on the forward channels. To address this gap, this conceptual chapter offers a thorough analysis of the technological implications of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on the reverse logistics process in addition to a comprehensive definition of reverse logistics 4.0.

This chapter explores the dynamic intersection of reverse logistics, closed-loop systems, and Industry 4.0 technologies within the supply chains of the United Arab Emirates. By explicating the critical role of Industry 4.0, in the promotion of sustainability, the goal of this chapter is to facilitate UAE supply chain participants to adopt creative approaches to sustainable resource management. This study also contributes to the wider global discussion on sustainable supply chain management techniques, opening avenues for an ecologically friendly and resource-conscious industrial environment in the United Arab Emirates.

Nowadays, climate change and environmental pollution have become major international concerns, in which logistics and manufacturing activities are playing the major role. In the past decade, more attention has been directed toward environmental issues than ever before. The Paris agreement is one of the most recent milestones in this regard. Due to local and international legislation, managers are highly encouraged to seek out sustainable innovations and strategies to reduce the negative impacts of their business activities. An array of academic and practical activities has been formed around the greening of the supply chain (SC). This paper attempts to review and classify green supply chain management (GSCM) disciplines and best practices from a practical point of view. The authors also investigate the different areas of application and review the GSCM practices in some well-known companies. On this basis, the paper disclose the superiority of Apple company over the other studied cases in applying green practices, particularly in the manufacturing and design areas, while the parcel delivery company has been quite active in the green transportation and green marketing. It is also shown that all of the reviewed cases have been successful in implementing green logistics initiatives thus far.