Digital Servitization and Business Model Innovation in SMEs: A Model to Escape From Market Disruption

The progress and the adoption of digital technologies can rapidly make products, processes, and business models obsolete, until disrupting entire markets. In this context, small–medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in manufacturing are especially challenged due to their limited resources and smallness liabilities. Firms can implement, design, and deliver new smart and connected products that change the way they compete and trigger the provision of services—until redesigning the entire business model. However, little knowledge is available on how SMEs may effectively trigger and catalyze such transition. Using an interpretative research approach inspired by the design research methodology, in this article, we explore how SMEs may leverage digital servitization to escape from a disrupted market. Based on our findings, an original digital servitization model tailored for SMEs is proposed. Finally, the study provides a set of research and managerial implications on how SMEs can overcome market disruption in the manufacturing context through digital servitization and business model innovation

Internet of robotic things : converging sensing/actuating, hypoconnectivity, artificial intelligence and IoT Platforms

The Internet of Things (IoT) concept is evolving rapidly and influencing newdevelopments in various application domains, such as the Internet of MobileThings (IoMT), Autonomous Internet of Things (A-IoT), Autonomous Systemof Things (ASoT), Internet of Autonomous Things (IoAT), Internetof Things Clouds (IoT-C) and the Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT) etc.that are progressing/advancing by using IoT technology. The IoT influencerepresents new development and deployment challenges in different areassuch as seamless platform integration, context based cognitive network integration,new mobile sensor/actuator network paradigms, things identification(addressing, naming in IoT) and dynamic things discoverability and manyothers. The IoRT represents new convergence challenges and their need to be addressed, in one side the programmability and the communication ofmultiple heterogeneous mobile/autonomous/robotic things for cooperating,their coordination, configuration, exchange of information, security, safetyand protection. Developments in IoT heterogeneous parallel processing/communication and dynamic systems based on parallelism and concurrencyrequire new ideas for integrating the intelligent “devices”, collaborativerobots (COBOTS), into IoT applications. Dynamic maintainability, selfhealing,self-repair of resources, changing resource state, (re-) configurationand context based IoT systems for service implementation and integrationwith IoT network service composition are of paramount importance whennew “cognitive devices” are becoming active participants in IoT applications.This chapter aims to be an overview of the IoRT concept, technologies,architectures and applications and to provide a comprehensive coverage offuture challenges, developments and applications

Unified decoupling scheme for exchange and anisotropy contributions and temperature-dependent spectral properties of anisotropic spin systems

We compute the temperature-dependent spin-wave spectrum and the magnetization for a spin system using the unified decoupling procedure for the high-order Green's functions for the exchange coupling and anisotropy, both in the classical and quantum case. Our approach allows us to establish a clear crossover between quantum-mechanical and classical methods by developing the classical analog of the quantum Green's function technique. The results are compared with the classical spectral density method and numerical modeling based on the stochastic Landau-Lifshitz equation and the Monte Carlo technique. As far as the critical temperature is concerned, there is a full agreement between the classical Green's functions technique and the classical spectral density method. However, the former method turns out to be more straightforward and more convenient than the latter because it avoids any \emph{a priori} assumptions about the system's spectral density. The temperature-dependent exchange stiffness as a function of magnetization is investigated within different approaches

High energy protons from PKS 1333-33

In this letter we give an account of the possible acceleration of protons in the outer radio lobes of the active galaxy PKS 1333-33. We also make estimates of the arrival energy spectrum.Comment: 3 pages revtex, two figures, to appear in Mod. Phys. Lett.

Intention and motor representation in purposive action

Are there distinct roles for intention and motor representation in explaining the purposiveness of action? Standard accounts of action assign a role to intention but are silent on motor representation. The temptation is to suppose that nothing need be said here because motor representation is either only an enabling condition for purposive action or else merely a variety of intention. This paper provides reasons for resisting that temptation. Some motor representations, like intentions, coordinate actions in virtue of representing outcomes; but, unlike intentions, motor representations cannot feature as premises or conclusions in practical reasoning. This implies that motor representation has a distinctive role in explaining the purposiveness of action. It also gives rise to a problem: were the roles of intention and motor representation entirely independent, this would impair effective action. It is therefore necessary to explain how intentions interlock with motor representations. The solution, we argue, is to recognise that the contents of intentions can be partially determined by the contents of motor representations. Understanding this content-determining relation enables better understanding how intentions relate to actions

Thermodynamics of the Classical Planar Ferromagnet Close to the Zero-Temperature Critical Point: A Many-Body Approach

We explore the low-temperature thermodynamic properties and crossovers of ad-dimensional classical planar Heisenberg ferromagnet in a longitudinal magnetic field close to its field-induced zero-temperature critical point by employing the two-time Green's function formalism in classical statistical mechanics. By means of a classical Callen-like method for the magnetization and the Tyablikov-like decoupling procedure, we obtain, for anyd, a low-temperature critical scenario which is quite similar to the one found for the quantum counterpart. Remarkably, ford>2the discrimination between the two cases is found to be related to the different values of the shift exponent which governs the behavior of the critical line in the vicinity of the zero-temperature critical point. The observation of different values of the shift-exponent and of the related critical exponents along thermodynamic paths within the typical V-shaped region in the phase diagram may be interpreted as a signature of emerging quantum critical fluctuations

BATSE Observations of Gamma-Ray Burst Spectra. IV. Time-Resolved High-Energy Spectroscopy

We report on the temporal behavior of the high-energy power law continuum component of gamma-ray burst spectra with data obtained by the Burst and Transient Source Experiment. We have selected 126 high fluence and high flux bursts from the beginning of the mission up until the present. Much of the data were obtained with the Large Area Detectors, which have nearly all-sky coverage, excellent sensitivity over two decades of energy and moderate energy resolution, ideal for continuum spectra studies of a large sample of bursts at high time resolution. At least 8 spectra from each burst were fitted with a spectral form that consisted of a low-energy power law, a spectral break at middle energies and a high-energy continuum. In most bursts (122), the high-energy continuum was consistent with a power law. The evolution of the fitted high-energy power-law index over the selected spectra for each burst is inconsistent with a constant for 34% of the total sample. The sample distribution of the average value for the index from each burst is fairly narrow, centered on -2.12. A linear trend in time is ruled out for only 20% of the bursts, with hard-to-soft evolution dominating the sample (100 events). The distribution for the total change in the power-law index over the duration of a burst peaks at the value -0.37, and is characterized by a median absolute deviation of 0.39, arguing that a single physical process is involved. We present analyses of the correlation of the power-law index with time, burst intensity and low-energy time evolution. In general, we confirm the general hard-to-soft spectral evolution observed in the low-energy component of the continuum, while presenting evidence that this evolution is different in nature from that of the rest of the continuum.Comment: 30 pages, with 2 tables and 9 figures To appear in The Astrophysical Journal, April 1, 199

Risk assessment for musculoskeletal disorders in forestry: A comparison between RULA and REBA in the manual feeding of a wood-chipper

The analysis of the postural attitude of workers during the interaction with workstation\u2019s elements and working environment is essential in the evaluation and prevention of biomechanical overload risk in workplaces. RULA (Rapid Upper Limb Assessment) and REBA (Rapid Entire Body Assessment) are the two easiest methods for postural risk assessment in the workplace. Few studies investigated postural risk in forestry sector with regard to human\u2013machine interaction, in particular manually fed wood-chippers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the postures assumed by an operator during the manual feeding of a wood-chipper, and to compare RULA and REBA, in order to identify the more effective and appropriate method for the assessment of the risk of biomechanical postural overload. The results pointed out several postural issues of the upper limbs, and showed that RULA is a more precautionary method to protect operator\u2019s health during the targeted tasks. Implications to improve the human\u2013wood-chipper interaction are discussed

Evolutionary conservation and divergence of the transcriptional regulation of bivalve shell secretion across life history stages

Acknowledgements and Funding Information We are grateful to Andrew Gillis for use for paraffin histology and microscopy equipment and enthusiastic support of this work and the Rothera marine team for collecting the adult Laternula elliptica broodstock. This work was supported by UKRI Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Core Funding to the British Antarctic Survey, a DTG Studentship (Project Reference: NE/J500173/1) and a Junior Research Fellowship to V.A.S. from Wolfson College, University of Cambridge. Review History: https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway/wos/peer-review/10.1098/rsos.221022/Peer reviewedPublisher PD

X-Ray Light Curves of Gamma-ray Bursts Detected with the All-Sky Monitor on RXTE

We present X-ray light curves (1.5-12 keV) for fifteen gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by the All-Sky Monitor on the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. We compare these soft X-ray light curves with count rate histories obtained by the high-energy (>12 keV) experiments BATSE, Konus-Wind, the BeppoSAX Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor, and the burst monitor on Ulysses. We discuss these light curves within the context of a simple relativistic fireball and synchrotron shock paradigm, and we address the possibility of having observed the transition between a GRB and its afterglow. The light curves show diverse morphologies, with striking differences between energy bands. In several bursts, intervals of significant emission are evident in the ASM energy range with little or no corresponding emission apparent in the high-energy light curves. For example, the final peak of GRB 970815 as recorded by the ASM is only detected in the softest BATSE energy bands. We also study the duration of bursts as a function of energy. Simple, singly-peaked bursts seem consistent with the E^{-0.5} power law expected from an origin in synchrotron radiation, but durations of bursts that exhibit complex temporal structure are not consistent with this prediction. Bursts such as GRB 970828 that show many short spikes of emission at high energies last significantly longer at low energies than the synchrotron cooling law would predict.Comment: 15 pages with 20 figures and 2 tables. In emulateapj format. Accepted by ApJ