Sustainability and transformation partnerships (STPs) were introduced to England, asking 44 local areas to submit their health and social care plans for the period from October…
Abstract
Purpose
Sustainability and transformation partnerships (STPs) were introduced to England, asking 44 local areas to submit their health and social care plans for the period from October 2016 to March 2021. This study aims to offer a deeper understanding of the complex structure in the local practice, and to discuss the associated challenges and chances.
Design/methodology/approach
Documentary analysis, qualitative interviews and questionnaire survey are used for this study. Findings have been compared and analysed thematically.
Findings
The study participants reported that apart from pooled budgets, past collaborative experience and local leadership are crucial elements for transforming health and social care integration in Greater Manchester (GM). Also, this study provides policy recommendations to promote effective collaborative partnerships in local practices and mitigate local inequity of funding progress.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this paper cannot be extrapolated to all stakeholders due to the limited samples. Meanwhile, some of the discussions about the case of GM may not be transferrable to other STPs.
Originality/value
This study argues that the success of pooled budgets is the result, rather than the cause, of effective negotiations between various stakeholders; and therefore, there is no evidence suggesting that pooled budgets can resolve the discoordination of health and social care. Moreover, due to the bottom-up approach adopted by STPs, more effective boroughs tend to receive additional funding, resulting in an increasing gap of development between effective and ineffective boroughs.
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Chiu-Lan Chang, Ming Fang, Bin Hong and Kung-Cheng Ho
To verify the effectiveness of the monetary policy, the impacts of monetary instruments on overnight spread under the interest rate corridor (IRC) are examined. The People's Bank…
Abstract
Purpose
To verify the effectiveness of the monetary policy, the impacts of monetary instruments on overnight spread under the interest rate corridor (IRC) are examined. The People's Bank of China (PBC) has operated the IRC since 2014. To understand the impacts of monetary instruments on overnight spread before and after the IRC framework, the complete samples are divided into two periods.
Design/methodology/approach
To model the overnight spread, an exponential GARCH (EGARCH) approach is used which can examine the interbank market interest rates for monetary policy purposes. The overnight money market plays an important role in the implementation of monetary policy.
Findings
Chinese interest rate liberalization and the implementation of IRC affect the overnight spread in the short-term financing market. Before the implementation of the IRC, the key factor to affect the overnight spread is mainly affected by the PBC's monetary policy control on the liquidity supply side. After the implementation of IRC, the overnight spread can be the largest part explained by the liquidity demand side and the PBC's multiple monetary instruments have significant impacts on the reduction of overnight spread.
Originality/value
The overnight spread has recently been influenced by various factors that are directly or closely related to the monetary policy instruments and the interest rate policy of the PBC. Chinese interest rate liberalization and the implementation of interest rate corridor policy affect the overnight spread in the short-term financing market.
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Mengru Tu, Ming K. Lim and Ming-Fang Yang
The purpose of this paper is threefold: to present internet of things (IoT)-based cyber-physical system (CPS) architecture framework to facilitate the integration of IoT and CPS;…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is threefold: to present internet of things (IoT)-based cyber-physical system (CPS) architecture framework to facilitate the integration of IoT and CPS; to implement an IoT-based CPS prototype based on the architecture framework for a PL application scenario of in a case study; and to devise evaluation methods and conduct experimental evaluations on an IoT-based CPS prototype.
Design/methodology/approach
The design research method, case study, emulation experiment method, and cost-benefit analysis are applied in this research. An IoT-based CPS architecture framework is proposed, and followed by the development of prototype system and testbed platform. Then, the emulation and experimental evaluation of IoT-based CPS are conducted on the testbed, and the experimental results are analyzed.
Findings
The emulation experiment results show that the proposed IoT-based CPS outperforms current barcode-based system regarding labor cost, efficiency, and operational adaptiveness. The evaluation of the IoT-based CPS prototype indicates significant improvements in PL tasks and reduced part inventory under a dynamic changing shop-floor environment.
Practical implications
The case study shows that the proposed architecture framework and prototype system can be applied to many discrete manufacturing industries, such as automobile, airplane, bicycle, home appliance, and electronics.
Originality/value
The proposed IoT-based CPS is among the first to address the need to integrate IoT and CPS for PL applications, and to conduct experimental evaluations and cost-benefit analysis of adopting IoT-based CPS for PL. This paper also contributes to the IoT research by using diverse research methods to offer broader insights into understanding IoT and CPS.
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Ming Fang, Sanjeev Chandra and Chul B. Park
The purpose of this paper is to determine conditions under which good metallurgical bonding was achieved in 3D objects formed by depositing tin droplets layer by layer.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine conditions under which good metallurgical bonding was achieved in 3D objects formed by depositing tin droplets layer by layer.
Design/methodology/approach
Molten tin droplets (0.18‐0.75 mm diameter) were deposited using a pneumatic droplet generator on an aluminum substrate. The primary parameters varied in experiments were those found to most affect bonding between droplets on different layers: droplet temperature (varied from 250 to 325°C) and substrate temperature (varied from 100 to 190°C). Droplet generation frequency was kept low enough (1‐10 Hz) that each layer of droplets solidified and cooled down before another molten droplet impinged on it.
Findings
In this paper, a one dimensional heat transfer model was used to predict the minimum droplet and substrate temperatures required to remelt a thin layer of the substrate and ensure good bonding of impinging droplets. Cross‐sections through samples confirmed that increasing either the droplet temperature or the substrate temperature to the predicted remelting region produces good bonding between deposition layers.
Originality/value
This paper used a practical model to provide reasonable prediction of conditions for droplet fusion which is essential to droplet‐based manufacturing. The feasibility of fabricating 3D metal objects by deposition of molten metal droplets has been well demonstrated.
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Mengru Tu, Ming K. Lim and Ming-Fang Yang
The lack of reference architecture for Internet of Things (IoT) modeling impedes the successful design and implementation of an IoT-based production logistics and supply chain…
Abstract
Purpose
The lack of reference architecture for Internet of Things (IoT) modeling impedes the successful design and implementation of an IoT-based production logistics and supply chain system (PLSCS). The authors present this study in two parts to address this research issue. Part A proposes a unified IoT modeling framework to model the dynamics of distributed IoT processes, IoT devices, and IoT objects. The models of the framework can be leveraged to support the implementation architecture of an IoT-based PLSCS. The second part (Part B) of this study extends the discussion of implementation architecture proposed in Part A. Part B presents an IoT-based cyber-physical system framework and evaluates its performance. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts a design research approach, using ontology, process analysis, and Petri net modeling scheme to support IoT system modeling.
Findings
The proposed IoT system-modeling approach reduces the complexity of system development and increases system portability for IoT-based PLSCS. The IoT design models generated from the modeling can also be transformed to implementation logic.
Practical implications
The proposed IoT system-modeling framework and the implementation architecture can be used to develop an IoT-based PLSCS in the real industrial setting. The proposed modeling methods can be applied to many discrete manufacturing industries.
Originality/value
The IoT modeling framework developed in this study is the first in this field which decomposes IoT system design into ontology-, process-, and object-modeling layers. A novel implementation architecture also proposed to transform above IoT system design models into implementation logic. The developed prototype system can track product and different parts of the same product along a manufacturing supply chain.
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Gives a bibliographical review of the finite element methods (FEMs) applied in biomedicine from the theoretical as well as practical points of view. The bibliography at the end…
Abstract
Gives a bibliographical review of the finite element methods (FEMs) applied in biomedicine from the theoretical as well as practical points of view. The bibliography at the end of the paper contains 748 references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations dealing with the finite element analyses and simulations in biomedicine that were published between 1985 and 1999.