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The objective of this research is to design an approach for selecting appropriate solutions to efficiently and productively reduce environmental pollution and water, energy and raw material consumption in a recycled paper manufacturing facility, the paper mill in Latif, Iran. To reach this goal, we develop a decision-making model using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The proposed model provides a framework for cleaner production implementation specific to the paper industry. Pairwise comparisons of the results of designed questionnaires resulted in the hierarchy model being divided into five major groups: production modification; process change; preventive maintenance; renewal; and manpower resources.These five groups include 31 sub-criteria and seven alternatives. The results showed that process change yields the highest priority among the main criteria and that industrial automation and its technology level gives the highest priority among sub-criteria. Regarding the alternatives, reduction of environmental pollution is the most important solution for cleaner production in the industry. Also, product modification is the most sensitive criterion affecting the alternatives priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the following questions: What is reading all about, as our technical milieu becomes increasingly digital and our reading increasingly automated? What is entailed in closely reading a book, in studying and handling the book as an object? And what is the role of philosophy—and in reading philosophy—as we grapple with new technical modes of reading? Guided by philosopher Gilbert Simondon, this paper compares the language heuristics of large language models (LLM) with human reading practices, revealing parallel and diverging technical tactics, with the aim of increasing our understanding of how and why these algorithms are part of our technical reality. This comparison moves beyond concerns with automation and alienation, using Simondon's notions of technicity and transindividuality to philosophically analyze the nature of collaborative reading in a distraction economy, and the extent to which transformer neural network models achieve an implicit embodied or grounded sense of language-use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With new market developments and e-commerce, there is an increased use of and interest in automation for order picking. This paper presents a systematic review and content analysis of the literature. It has the purpose of understanding the relevant performance aspects for automated, or partly automated, OPSs and identifying the studied links between design and performance, i.e. identifying which combinations of design aspects and performance aspects have been studied in previous research. For this purpose, 74 papers were selected and reviewed. From the review, it is clear that there has been an increased number of papers dealing with the performance of automated, or partly automated, OPSs in recent years. Moreover, there are differences between the different OPS types, but, overall, the performance categories of throughput, lead time, and operational efficiency have received the most attention in the literature. The paper identifies links between design and performance that have been studied, as well as links that appear to be under-researched. For academics, this paper synthesises the current knowledge on the performance of automation in OPSs and identifies opportunities for future research. For practitioners, the paper provides knowledge that can support the decision-making process of automation in OPSs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this interview article, we embark on a fascinating journey through time alongside the winners of the 2023 DRUID Best Paper Award. DRUID, an annual research conference renowned as the hub of cutting-edge research on innovation and the dynamics of structural, institutional, and geographic change, bestows this award on the most innovative and exceptional conference submission. As longstanding allies of DRUID, Industry and Innovation offers an exclusive peek behind the curtains, unveiling the untold stories that underlie award-winning research. In 2023, this coveted DRUID prize was awarded to a paper by Ljubica Nedelkoska, Shreyas Gadgin Matha, James McNerney, Andre Assumpcao, Dario Diodato, and Frank Neffke. Their work stands out through an impressive data collection effort and the exploration of a compelling and urgent research question – how technological change has impacted the gender pay gap. Throughout this interview, the author team takes us down memory lane, retelling the story behind their research project. On this journey through time, we trace the genesis of the authors' innovative ideas and the intricate pathways they navigated in their quest to understand the past as a means of unravelling the future of work and its implications for gender inequality in the labour market. This journey not only takes us back in time but also points to potential avenues for future research and open questions that lie ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Industry 4.0" is a concept that focuses on automation of system and process, digitalization, and data exchange in industries. Its goal is to achieve a smart factory to reduce lead time to respond to the customers' demand or to unforeseen events and improve productivity in the system. Using this concept can lead to improvements in manufacturing, supply chain (SC), and logistics. The adoption of Industry 4.0 in supply chain management (SCM) is a new and critical subject with a need for more research. A few studies have started reviewing the existing works on Industry 4.0; however, they do not focus on its role in SCM. This paper presents a systematic review and synthesis of the current literature on Industry 4.0 in SCM that brings out some interesting findings, which will be helpful for the academic and industry, especially top managers. This work identifies three categories from the content of the papers as exploratory vs. confirmatory, qualitative vs. quantitative, management level vs. process/technology level. Additionally, based on the Topic Modeling (TM) technique, three different clusters of Supply Chain, Logistics and Manufacturing topics were extracted. Current shortcomings, challenges, and future research directions are discussed in the conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its potentialities, Lean Automation (LA) has not attracted attention for over two decades. However, due to the new opportunities offered by Industry 4.0 technologies, LA revives expectations and enthusiasm. This paper aims to test empirically the association of LA, in the form of integration of Lean practices and Industry 4.0 technologies, and operational performance. The paper used a rigorous, multi-stage empirical method and data from a set of more than 200 manufacturing firms; one representative from each of the studied companies filled in a survey on Lean practices and Industry 4.0 technology bundles, with productivity, delivery, inventory, quality as performance indicators. The extensive survey results helped in identifying underlying components of LA: one focuses on operational stability and includes practices and technologies supporting efficiency along the supply chain; the other focuses on streamlining the flow, on fastening the process to reach the customer. Moreover, it demonstrates the positive correlation between LA and operational performance. Besides its contribution to the body of knowledge on LA, this research paves the base of improving academics and practitioners understanding of the integration of new technologies with Lean Production systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to evaluate Marx's conception of alienated labour from the point of view of Alasdair MacIntyre's conception of practice. I will argue that Marx's conception of alienation in The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 (and elsewhere) is too abstract, and therefore needs to be revised to reflect the reality of the 21st century. It presupposes that, in capitalism, all salaried and waged labour is alienated (a claim recently reiterated by Amy Wendling in her otherwise outstanding Karl Marx on Technology and Alienation). Clearly, this is not the case. The key characteristics of alienation as spelled out by Marx may not be present in a great variety of contemporary jobs dominated by services, especially if they are (or can be seen as) MacIntyrean practices (for example, practicing medicine in a public hospital or working as an engineer in a private company). Drawing on some of the most notable literature on the forms of alienation and reification, I will aim to theorise the conception of meaningful non-alienated labour. Given that practices, as meaningful non-alienated activities, are small islands of human excellence and resistance against the economic pressures of institutional profit maximisation and the self-valorisation of capital, I will conclude the paper by considering the political importance of this conception of labour for anti-capitalist struggles in the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study identifies and analyzes the relative importance of the multi-faceted factors that drive the decision to automate container terminals and the realized benefits, thus establishing how accurately terminal operators predicted the benefits of automation. The empirical analysis relies on a survey-based approach and the input of senior representatives of terminal operating entities in charge of the fully and semi-automated container terminals. The analysis of the findings, using statistical tools (i.e., descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis), reveals that most of the benefits assumed by an individual terminal operator materialized once the automated terminal was in operation. It also concludes that expectations often exceed benefits and vice versa. A stepwise regression analysis enables the search of causal relationships between drivers and realized benefits with key characteristics of automated container terminals, such as their organizational features, technical dimensions, and the maritime and urban markets they serve. This article is a revised and expanded version of a paper Container Terminal Automation: Assessment of Drivers and Benefits presented at the International Association of Maritime Economists Annual Conference, Busan, Korea, 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: Poultry feed manufacturing refers to processing various raw materials to meet birds' nutrient requirements, based on knowledge of animal nutrition and mechanical engineering. Since the advent of feed mills, many technologies have been utilised to implement various feed manufacturing techniques, which are helpful to sustainably produce well-balanced, cost-effective and high-quality feed. Efforts have been made to further strengthen the environmental, social and economic sustainability of feed manufacturing via a variety of technological innovations over the years. The integration and application of new technologies will be helpful to further improve poultry feed manufacturing in the future as well. By increasing the precision and uniformity of the final feed, and reducing the risk of errors, these advancements will ultimately result in more efficient manufacturing of animal products, optimising both the nutrition supplied and the energy used. This paper will review recent advances in the feed industry for poultry, as well as envision new technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well-known that digital learning materials influence the classroom curriculum and didactics. At the same time, few studies examine the role of the data visualizations offered by digital learning materials. Data visualizations signpost the emergence of students as data subjects who can be observed and compared on a computer screen. They thus shape teachers' socio-technical ways of seeing student learning and are likely to influence student assessments. Drawing inspiration from Science and Technology Studies (STS), this paper advances an analytical framework for eliciting the politics of data visualizations, focusing on automation, agencies, and aesthetics. The framework is exemplified through a case study of a popular Danish digital mathematics platform. In a concluding discussion, the paper considers the importance of addressing unsettled and ethical questions about the role of automated digital systems in teachers' knowledge practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the recent Australian 2021 census, the socio-technical construct of algorithmically driven decision-making processes made LGBTQI+ data as a category of diversity, inclusion and belonging an absent presence. In this paper, we position the notion of 'data justice' in relation to the entrenchment of inequalities and exclusion of LGBTQI+ lives and consider the implications of LGBTQI+ data being missing in action. As we look at the notion of 'data justice', we consider five critical socio-technical imaginaries with different kinds of data to think through the implications of technical democracy, data justice and post-automation. Finally, we consider the imaginary of citizenship when LGBTQI+ data is habitually missing in action from systematic power integrated into forms of governance. This paper positions 'data' not as a static 'object or process' but as a dynamic ecology that carries with it a multi-faceted set of coded meanings requiring constant review and reconsideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an information technology that could significantly improve supply chain visibility and process automation, blockchain has been extensively applied in the field of supply chain finance (SCF). However, tradeoffs among the security, the operation cost, and the efficiency of the blockchain system may cause the SCF system dominated by a financial institution to inevitably fall into the dilemmas of risky or un-economic if the blockchain technology is applied inappropriately. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to optimise the blockchain application in the financial institution-based SCF system. We first analyse the application of blockchain security in SCF, and then the performance tradeoffs of blockchain and its impact on the performance of the supported SCF system. Based on the analysis above, an optimisation approach has been proposed and a corresponding non-linear integer programming (NIP) model has been constructed to select the best blockchain design schemes for the SCF system to achieve overall optimal in terms of security, cost, and efficiency. A designed ant colony algorithm is used to solve the optimisation problem. An application case analysis is used to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the optimisation model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased levels of digitalisation present major opportunities for efficiency in the oil and gas industry but can also contribute to new risks and vulnerabilities. Based on developments in the industry, the Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority (HAVTIL) has in recent years pursued targeted knowledge development and follow-up of company's digitalisation initiatives. This paper explores data collected through HAVTIL's audits of the development and use of automated systems within well operations. The analysis of the data resulted in the identification of five main topics related to the implementation of digital technologies. The five main topics were organisational complexity, follow-up and implementation of technology, analysis and documentation, user-interface and alarms and competence and training. Overall, the results support research findings within human factors and technology development, pointing out that there is a lack of focus on human factors in both development projects and in operations. In addition, this paper provides insight into how digitalisation initiatives are followed-up and explores the results from the analysis in light of the current developments in the industry. To investigate automated operations and human performance, three audits were performed by the Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority (HAVTIL). These audits have been used as case studies and the basis for this paper. Results from the analysis support research findings within the field of human factors and technology development, pointing out that there is a lack of focus on human factors in both development projects and in operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the feasibility of incorporating visual cueing systems within vehicles to mitigate the risk of experiencing motion sickness. The objective is to enhance passenger awareness and the ability to anticipate the forces associated with car travel motion. Through a comprehensive literature review, the findings demonstrate that visual cues can mitigate motion sickness for particular in-vehicle configurations, whereas their influence on situational awareness is not clear yet. Each type of visual cue proved more effective when presented in the peripheral field of view rather than solely in the central vision. Promising applications can be found within interactive screens and ambient lighting, while the use of extended reality shows potential for future investigations. In addition, integrating such systems into highly automated vehicles shows potential to improve their overall user acceptance. This paper focuses on the integration of visual cues in vehicles to alleviate motion sickness. The work provides an overview of visual cueing strategies and different types of systems for display. The findings suggest that incorporating visual cues in highly automated vehicles can reduce motion sickness. Recommendations are provided for the design and integration of these displays in vehicle interiors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides direct evidence of automation's role in production using establishment-level data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of Manufacturing Technology. The data indicate that more automated plants have lower production labor share and higher capital share, higher labor productivity, and a smaller fraction of workers in production who receive higher wages. To understand the connection between automation and total factor productivity, we estimate a CES model of production where a plant chooses the degree of automation by adjusting the relative weight of capital and production labor given their relative price. The results indicate that, in the presence of heterogeneity in the extent of automation, productivity estimates are more dispersed and skewed relative to Cobb-Douglas residuals, and that the choice of functional form affects the level of productivity estimates. Overall, broad and deep automation is concentrated in larger plants with higher total factor productivity and lower labor share, consistent with a role for automation in contributing to dispersion in input utilization and market share. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis article offers a historical inquiry into behaviorism and its impact on standard of judgement concerning education policies. Drawing from Aldous Huxley’s reservation towards behaviorism as a scientific movement that naturalizes the role of control in human affairs, the paper maps the impact of behaviorism on economics of education. By tracing the influence of behaviorism in both rational (human capital theory) and quasi-rational (behavioral insight) economics, we draw attention to the activity of knowledge-making that describes and prescribes agency. The paper demonstrates how policy instruments and outcomes are intimately linked to assumptions about personhood, and in the case of behavioral insight, they contribute to the scope of decision-making entrusted to government and business. Utilizing a genealogical approach, the paper invites ethical reflections on the long-term implications of behavioral economics in light of automation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pre-emption describes a system of automated knowledge creation and intervention that steers the present towards a desirable future, by building on knowledge derived from the past. Folding together temporalities makes it impossible to disprove pre-emption. It is increasingly featured within EdTech, introducing new forms of automated governance into education. This paper examines how students and EdTech come together to make pre-emption possible, not as a single event but as a normalised governance instrument. For this, we introduce Lucy Suchman's idea of configuration to examine pre-emptive EdTech. The paper presents three openings into the configuration of students and pre-emptive EdTech. These include observations from an EdTech trade show; interviews with insiders of technology companies; and analysis of accepted papers to a learning analytics conference. We conclude the data used at the heart of pre-emptive EdTech seeks to exclude students and configures them as absent. Yet, its interventions have material consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In large aspects of contemporary career discourse, the importance of the "agile career" is asserted, although the speed of change has not been explicitly considered in relation to this concept. The political dimensions of the agile career via the lens of "speed" are explored in this theoretical paper. Particular attention is paid to Virilio's paradigm of dromology, revealing how social positionality correlates with the distribution of "fear", as well as resources to cope with the speed of change, thus promoting precarity. The embracement of speed and agility has resulted in a propaganda of progress, where those closer to the primary mode of production benefit over those at the margins, highlighting the tyranny of speed experienced by many within labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anecdotal evidence suggests that there is growing concern about increasing administrative burden within universities around the world. At the same time, the literature explicitly devoted to the issue of administrative burden within universities remains relatively scant. Drawing on various bodies of literature and reflections on the situation at Australian universities, this paper (a) presents a conceptualisation of what constitutes administrative burden, considering its organisational implications for universities, (b) interrogates a range of potential drivers of administrative burden, and (c) outlines avenues for both future research into and for practical responses to the issue. The specific contributions of this paper include, first, showing that administrative burden can impact universities' core activities not only indirectly but also more directly, and second, illustrating that some of the key changes that were meant to make universities more efficient may have inadvertently increased levels of administrative burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological systems are becoming increasingly smarter, which causes a shift in the way they are seen: from tools used to execute specific tasks to social counterparts with whom to cooperate. To ensure that these interactions are successful, trust has proven to be the most important driver. We conducted an extensive and structured review with the goal to reveal all previously researched antecedents influencing the human trust in technology-based counterparts. In doing so, we synthesised 179 papers and uncovered 479 trust antecedents. We assigned these antecedents to four main groups. Three of them have been explored before: environment, trustee, and trustor. Within this paper, we argue for a fourth group, the interaction. This quadripartition allows the inclusion of antecedents that were not considered previously. Moreover, we critically question the practice of uncovering more and more trust antecedents, which already led to an opaque plethora and thus becomes increasingly complex for practitioners. Practitioner summary: Future designers of intelligent and interactive technology will have to consider trust to a greater extent. We emphasise that there are far more trust antecedents – and interdependencies – to consider than the ethically motivated discussions about "Trustworthy AI" suggest. For this purpose, we derived a trust map as a sound basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on the literature of labor implications from technological disruptions, this paper provides a comprehensive review of recent research carried out regarding the expected effects of automation on employment levels and performs diverse empirical approaches to estimate the effects for an emerging country. To illustrate the impact, the paper presents various empirical approaches to estimate jobs gains and losses using Chile as a case study. Results from the empirical estimates suggest that jobs lost to automation technology currently match the jobs being created, thereby resulting in a negligible overall impact on the labor force. However, the occupations being created require a higher number of highly educated workers. The findings, therefore, indicate potential social exclusion effects, as the most vulnerable groups facing a high risk of losing their jobs are low-skilled, low-income workers. To counteract these effects, active public policies need to be formulated and implemented in order to achieve the potential job gains while mitigating the potential negative effects on vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) due to its ability of being flexible in nature is concerned with automatic production of different parts in medium range. In short, it can be regarded as an automated manufacturing system. In this paper, an insight on previous work in the area of FMS modelling has been provided with an overview of research and development for better understanding of FMS. It serves as a medium for investigation of work that are accomplished by using different modelling techniques in FMS like mathematical, artificial intelligence, hierarchical, multi criteria decision-making method, Petri Nets and simulation. This paper will help researchers who are keen to do research in the area of FMS modelling, by highlighting contribution of available techniques in the field of FMS. It will also help them in deciding which modelling techniques can be used for a given problem. At last, comparison of different parameters considered in the recent papers of modelling FMS has been provided in the form of Table, along with a clear vision related to those works that still need to be investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of various industries, the machinery manufacturing industry has been constantly carrying out reform and innovation, among which the introduction and use of technology is constantly increasing, so as to promote the development level of the machinery manufacturing industry. As the most cutting-edge and most potential technology, 3 D printing technology is an important direction of the development of mechanical automation processing. The purpose of this paper is to study the application of 3 D printing technology based on nanomaterials in automatic machining. This paper first introduces the basic concept and working principle of 3 D printing technology, and analyzes the types of 3 D printing technology. Then the classification and preparation of nanomaterials are introduced. This paper also studies the application of 3 D printing technology based on nanomaterials in mechanical automation. The experimental materials in this paper select gold nanoparticles of nanomaterials, and use SLS technology of 3 D printing to degrease and sintering gold nanoparticles. In this paper, the performance of the embryo was tested through two processes of degreasing and sintering, and the experimental results showed that the application of 3 D printing technology based on nanomaterials in mechanical automatic processing has certain practical significance. In this paper, the degreasing rate of the billet at different degreasing temperature is analyzed. When the degreasing temperature is 500 °C, the degreasing rate of the billet reaches 94%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractRecently, the concept of mobile labour has garnered increasing attention among mobilities scholars. Yet, the preponderance of research has emphasised workers’ movements that are fairly large-scale and routes-based. This paper proposes another kind of mobility that is of equal significance—that of micro-mobilities by labour, or more accurately by their bodies. Using original research conducted through semi-structured interviews with 40 customer service agents working in an international airport in Asia, the paper examines three kinds of aesthetic labour that these workers perform alongside passengers. Enacted through various bodily motions intended to speed up aeromobile processes and augment productivity, I argue that these performances produce a (tenuous) aesthetics of assuring presence, orderly movement, and passing time. As more and more work tasks are redistributed across the airport between staff and passengers, ‘new’ automation presents an opportunity to reflect on the mobile practices being invented as self-service technologies infiltrate customer service and other work where human relations and decision-making skills are required. More broadly, it also uncovers the gendered politics of bodily comport, gaits, gestures and other micro-movements in labour (re)production in a wider age of technological change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we develop a theoretical framework that explains how digital technologies can help small businesses generate competitive advantages for scaling. To gain and sustain competitive advantages, small businesses traditionally had to choose between cost leadership and differentiation strategies. Digital technologies enable small businesses to reduce their costs and at the same time enhance the value of their market offerings through differentiation. The aim of this paper is to explain the role of digital technologies in such hybrid strategies for small businesses. We first identify automation, individualization and interdisciplinarity as the three dimensions of digital technologies that together enable technology-driven firms to gain and sustain competitive advantages and to scale rapidly. Second, we integrate these three dimensions into a theoretical framework. Third, we test and confirm the theoretical framework in an explanatory case study and discuss the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the social power of algorithms comes to the fore through the narratives they generate about individuals. Proposing the notion of 'algorithmic emplotment', the article showcases the ways in which algorithms construct and tell narratives about us, participating in shaping people's encounters with the world and their perceptions of it. The concept denotes the processes through which data, people, experiences, and complex temporalities are ordered, woven together, and presented as coherent, frictionless narratives in the present. Through an analysis of the smartphone feature called Apple Memories, the paper seeks to highlight the narratives algorithms tell, how they are constructed, and the potential impacts they may have on everyday life. The concept of algorithmic emplotment is used to scrutinise the ways in which people's lives are rendered sequential, ordered, and ultimately meaningful and actionable by algorithmic processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a theoretical framework for digital co-production in public services and considers the benefits and limitations such services can have for citizens. Based on examples from the Norwegian Labour and Welfare administration, we argue that digital services are being developed in primarily four directions, depending on a choice of goal and strategy. The four types of services create value for citizens in different ways, but also have different limitations. The proposed framework, along with the examples given, provides important insight into the multiplicity and limitations of public sector digital services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional ships are rarely the focus of research projects on autonomous shipping. Nevertheless, the shipping companies are very interested in reducing fuel consumption. This paper proposes a gradual approach towards ship automation which starts with the intelligent assistance of common manual steering by means of a Maneuver Assistance System (MAS). The MAS displays a manually improved manoeuvre plan and the future motion based on the current actuator commands. These two assistance functions contribute to a more conscious use of actuators which can significantly reduce power consumption. For further automation, the improved manoeuvre plan is converted into a trajectory by forward simulation, which is then used by a control system. The control system includes feed-forward and feedback control as well as an allocation system based on a simplified dynamic motion model. A cascaded structure is used, where an outer track controller provides velocity and heading commands to an inner velocity and heading controller. The paper presents the necessary framework and the application of this approach to the digitised German research vessel DENEB with the aim to gradually introduce and realise automatic manoeuvring. Results from manual and assisted manoeuvres with the DENEB are analysed and compared. Finally, first results of automatic berthing with the vessel in the port of Rostock are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The former chief architect of the Lviv region described urban planners as people who 'own the territory' in terms of knowing the land specifics, available resources, possibilities and restrictions of each spatial intervention. At the same time, such implicit knowledge had to be codified to become usable in the decision-making process. The Soviet city constantly collected information but lacked the tools to administer all this totality. The paper discusses the role of urban professionals in conceptualizing urban environment management developed during the last decades of state socialism in Lviv, western Ukraine. It outlines the connections between academics from the Lviv Polytechnic Institute and party authorities, and between scientific approaches to automated management systems and a specific location. How could the information about the city be organized? What kind of data was necessary to build a model for urban planning? Who could (and how could they) access these materials? How were experts involved in the discussion about urban management? What were their strategies? Based on oral history interviews, memoirs and publications from the period, the author discusses how the ideas of scientific urban environment management became one of the last Soviet urban utopias, which combined technological optimism and striving towards automation with rediscovering the user and attempts to reform the decision-making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the correlation between technology and the changing labor landscape has been the subject of much research, there are growing concerns regarding the rise of automation and its impact on the job market. Research focus has been on jobs that are most likely to be affected by automation in the era of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). Very little, if any research has examined universities' readiness to meet the current and future 4IR curriculum demand needs, and their capabilities to produce graduates or skill sets that support the current and future labor market and technology changes. This insight paper explores South African universities' 4IR readiness against the backdrop of general industry 4IR adoption. An interpretive interview with three leading 4IR education training and industrial automation company directors offers insight into industry 4IR adoption in Africa, as seen against the available skills sets and/or labor force readiness. This paper has implications for curriculum redesign and planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Connectivity refers to the ability of civil engineering system components to transmit/receive data for making strategic, tactical and operational decisions towards enhanced efficiency, effectiveness, and lower costs to the system stakeholders. Automation is the capability of a system or its component to carry out control functions or decisions that are traditionally done by humans. As the benefits of these two technologies become increasingly apparent in various civil engineering disciplines, it seems useful to measure such impacts to generate information for evaluating the feasibility of past or prospective future applications related to connectivity and automation (C/A) or for comparing alternative C/A applications. This paper discusses some constructs for measuring the benefits or effectiveness (MOEs) of C/A applications. An MOE expressed in terms of an appropriate system performance indicator (SPI) can help ascertain the extent to which a C/A application has accomplished or is expected to accomplish its specified goals or to compare the efficacy of alternative C/A applications. This paper identifies a number of SPIs, and establishes a number of MOEs for measuring the effectiveness of C/A applications in terms of the relevant SPIs. The paper provides illustrations to the concepts discussed in the context of highway transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper undertakes a comparative analysis of the famous eighteenth-century chess-playing automaton known as Mechanical Turk and the Amazon microwork platform of the same name. The original Mechanical Turk was a life-sized automaton made in 1770 and publicly exhibited until the mid-1800s, and which played games of chess with the audience. Its movements were fully mechanical, but even more remarkably, it was promoted as the world's first 'thinking machine,' deciding each move of the chess pieces for itself. From the outset, it was widely assumed that the Mechanical Turk was a hoax, and that a human must be hidden inside the machine, directing the game. But it was a clever hoax whose trick was never discovered, and widely admired as such. Amazon's Mechanical Turk job platform functions in a similarly open way, this paper argues, as a sort of open technological hoax. Mechanical Turk provides a source of human cognitive labour that can be used to invisibly operate digital systems and programs that are widely assumed to be fully automated. Artificial intelligence is a twenty-first century thinking machine, it requires a human brain to make it work. Amazon's Mechanical Turk is a marketplace in which companies can hire piecemeal cognitive labour to patch gaps and train programs to keep those systems functioning. Providing what Jeff Bezos has called 'artificial artificial intelligence,' Amazon's Mechanical Turk, like Kempelen's automaton, both draws attention to and obfuscates the limits of automation and artificial intelligence. Taking the two iterations of the Mechanical Turk as rich cultural figures of automation for their respective periods, this paper will argue that the open secret of their artificial artificial intelligence is itself a form of misdirection that hides other, more successfully guarded secrets: the true extent of that labour, and the conditions in which it is performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the force of automation and its contradictions and resistances within (and beyond) the financial sector, with a specific focus on computational practices of credit-scoring and lending. It examines the operations and promotional discourses of fintech start-ups LendUp.com and Elevate.com that offer small loans to the sub-prime consumers in exchange for access to their online social media and mobile data, and Zest AI and LenddoEFL that sell automated decision-making tools to verify identity and assess risk. Reviewing their disciplinary reputational demands and impacts on users and communities, especially women and people of colour, the paper argues that the automated reimagination of credit and creditability disavows the formative design of its AI and redefines moral imperatives about character to align with the interests of digital capitalism. The economic, social and cultural crises precipitated by the Covid-19 pandemic have only underscored the internal contradictions of these developments, and a variety of debt resistance initiatives have emerged, aligned with broader movements for social, economic, and climate justice around the globe. Cooperative lending circles such as the Mission Asset Fund, activist groups like #NotMyDebt, and Debt Collective, a radical debt abolition movement, are examples of collective attempts to rehumanize credit and debt and resist the appropriative practices of contemporary digital finance capitalism in general. Running the gamut from accommodationist to entirely radical, these experiments in mutual aid, debt refusal, and community-building provide us with roadmaps for challenging capitalism and re-thinking credit, debt, power, and personhood within and beyond the current crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the economic implications of automation. We consider that automation is affected by disruptive technologies which entail a structural change consisting in the introduction of a new physical capital input (a combination of artificial intelligence and autonomous robots), additional to 'traditional' capital assets and labor. This new 'automatic' physical capital is assumed to carry out production activities without the need to be combined with labor. We propose a simple production function combining both traditional and new technologies, and show that the consequences of automation depend on the combination of the automatic capital adoption rate and the elasticity of substitution between traditional and automatic technology. We find out that, if the adoption rate is below a threshold that matches the marginal productivity of automatic capital, little effects are derived from automation, independently of the elasticity of substitution. However, if the automatic capital adoption rate is above the threshold level and the elasticity of substitution is higher enough, the automation process can lead to a robocalypse scenario with a total shift of both traditional capital and labor. We estimate, through the benchmark calibration of the model, that the adoption rate threshold for automatic capital is about 22.5%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elms describes a practically intelligent engineer who thinks through the behaviour of the actual structure rather than simply justfying a structural solution against the rules of a code of practice. Elms wants more specific examples of the similarities and differences between practical wisdom, intelligence, rigour and experience. I thank David Elms for his thoughtful and extensive comments on my paper "Practical wisdom in an age of computerization". [Extracted from the article]

Today's world is now more interested in the robustness and automation of machines, robots, and vehicles for accurate performance in the events of external disturbances and uncertainties in the system parameters. For that purpose, a Proportional–Integral–Derivative (PID) control has found many applications in every field of industry and academics. Many methods can be used for tuning of PID, however, these methods suffer from continual variations of parameters and exterior disturbances. Therefore, a PID controller is needed that is robust to external disturbances and possess auto-tuning feature according to varying process conditions. The main motivation of this paper is to present a PID controller that is robust, continuously auto-tuned by considering uncertainties of the plant, optimize the response by minimizing the overshoot in reference tracking, and achieve stability in minimum settling time by rejecting disturbance. The earlier models can only do two tasks, tuning and optimization but this paper is proposing a contribution to such models by rejecting external disturbances and making sure the smooth running of the system. In this paper, we have done the simulation work to demonstrate the desired behaviour of the system and evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed model and a brief analysis is done by discussing the comparison between the previous work in literature and the proposed work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue presents a collection of papers that explore from different angles the opportunities and challenges that Industry 4.0 poses to regions and cities. Papers investigate issues concerning: regional economies' potential in creating new technologies by mapping the regional distribution of technological innovation capabilities and technological adoption; the implications for jobs and labour markets of the related regional socio-economic shocks; and how the awareness and adoption of such technologies are transforming regions and places. Transversally, the role of policy, agency and stakeholders will be pulled out with current examples of visionary strategies and practical instrumental policies that are actively supporting firms, regions, and places to embrace and drive a transformation that is as testing as it is inevitable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automation and artificial intelligence, with their skill-biased characteristic, were estimated to benefit high-skilled workers while displacing the low-skilled. Their uneven distribution of technological dividends and costs led to calls for policy interventions. This paper aims to answer: ‘What kind of government and business intervention can deliver needed skills to large parts of the population?’ in facing automation challenges to labor markets by investigating Switzerland’s vocational education and training (VET) policy. This paper identifies its policy eco-system and argues that, while historically – embedded particularities are hard to replicate, the Swiss case still inspires us with cross-country implications. These implications are underpinned by a solid stock of social capital, which enables behavioral internalization and anticipated reciprocity. Viewing social capital as constructive rather than endowed, this paper argues that building social capital is a viable and practical approach to VET policy learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how elite transnational policy and research organizations are framing emergent technologies as a hypermodern risk. It outlines how innovations in artificial intelligence and machine learning are feeding into global policy imaginaries and responses oriented to education and skills as adaption and minimization of potential disruption flowing from unpredictable workforce transitions. Drawing on research reports by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, World Economic Forum, and McKinsey, the paper suggests that this emphasis on risk and uncertainty represents a shift in elite policy discourse. The paper discusses how automated uncertainty is feeding into educational policy trajectories that seek to mitigate disruption through digital learning and work synergies via agile learners of risk. The cognitive structuring of these policy trajectories reflects a closed ideological loop deflecting analysis from political economy and alternative policy futures within hypermodern capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The convergence of large datasets, increased computational power, and enhanced algorithm design has led to the increased success of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) across a wide variety of healthcare professions but which, so far, have eluded formal discussion in physiotherapy. This is a concern as we begin to see accelerating performance improvements in AI research in general, and specifically, an increase in competence within narrow domains of practice in clinical AI. In this paper we argue that the introduction of AI-based systems within the health sector is likely to have a significant influence on physiotherapy practice, leading to the automation of tasks that we might consider to be core to the discipline. We present examples of some of these AI-based systems in clinical practice, specifically video analysis, natural language processing (NLP), robotics, personalized healthcare, expert systems, and prediction algorithms. We address some of the key ethical implications of these emerging technologies, discuss the implications for physiotherapists, and explore how the resultant changes may challenge some long-held assumptions about the status of the profession in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry 4.0 revolutionizes the concept of automation and digitization within the organization leading to immense interest in academia and industry. The digitization of an organization in terms of horizontal, vertical, and end-to-end integration would change the roles an employee discharges in an organization. The main purpose of the paper is to successfully develop an employee adaptability road map for the successful implementation of Industry 4.0. This paper critically analyses the previous studies to develop a roadmap of employee adaptability skills for the successful implementation of Industry 4.0. This study uses deductive methodology using a systematic literature review to group and thematically analyse 52 articles to develop the conceptual model. Besides, this study also ranks these dimensions using an empirical study and finds the most critical employee adaptability dimensions. This is the first systematic literature review and empirical study carried out on employee adaptability skills in Industry 4.0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discourses about technological transformation tend to focus on technology, as if its introduction was neutral regarding local variabilities, and the men and women that make it effective. This paper focuses on the technical act. The body is where the technical acts are inscribed and it is through the body that they are exteriorised. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the operative modes associated with the technical acts, from a gender perspective, in the context of the technological transformation in cork industry. The analysis of the work activity performed by men (punching operators) and women (choosers) was supported by observations, collective interviews, and group sessions to validate the results. The findings show male- and female-specific body techniques; how the efficacy of the technical acts contributes to the debate about the limits of technology; and how body techniques and effects on health tend to remain in silence due to automation. Practitioner summary: The reconfiguration of the human-machine relationships hardly leaves room for the analysis of how the body techniques evolve. This paper shows how the efficacy of men and women body techniques contributes to the debate about the limits of technology, even if these uses of one's body entail health costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a case study conducted to understand the change management process for a large-scale automation implementation in a manufacturing environment producing highly complex products. Through a series of fifteen interviews of eight engineers, a model is created to understand how the company of study changed a manufacturing activity while noting obstacles identified in the process. This model illustrates the duration, sequencing, teaming, and complexity of the project. This model is compared to other change process models found in the literature to understand critical elements found within change management. The case study aligns with both a design process and a traditional change management process defined in the literature. Finally, a collaborative resistance model is applied to the process model to identify and estimate the resistance for each task in the process. Based on the analysis of the collaborative situations, the areas of highest resistance are identified. By comparing the resistance model to the interview data, the results show that the resistance model does identify the challenges found in interviews. This means that the resistance model has the potential to identify obstacles within the process and open the opportunity to mitigate those challenges before they are encountered within the change management process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Government of India offers various schemes for various classes of citizens. Most of the application forms of schemes to be filled are in English and it is observed that monolingual individuals find it difficult to access and fill the forms. This paper addresses the challenges faced by monolingual individuals in India, particularly the elderly, people with impairments, and those from marginalized communities. The proposed work is to create an interactive system called "Dhvani" voicebot, specifically designed for the Kannada language. It helps users in identifying suitable government schemes and fills forms in English. The proposed system is developed using the RASA chatbot framework and NLP techniques to comprehend user utterances. RNN and SVM algorithms are employed to ensure smooth conversation flow and interaction with the users. To enhance scheme suggestion accuracy, a knowledge graph is created, containing relevant data on government schemes. The intent classification model achieves an accuracy of 97%, indicating its ability to accurately understand user intentions. The integration of a knowledge graph improves the accuracy of scheme identification and suggestion to users. The system automates the process of filling out government scheme forms based on user inputs. Dhvani voicebot system presents a practical solution to address the challenges faced by monolingual individuals in accessing government schemes in India. The high accuracy of intent classification and the use of a knowledge graph contribute to the system's effectiveness. The study suggests that this system can be extended to other languages. An automated tool called "Dhvani" will solve the problem of aged, illiterate and physically challenged persons filling forms in post offices and banks. Most of the schemes, pension funds, cash withdrawal, cash deposit is through these organizations. So. the tool makes the process easier for the above mention persons without the help of others. An intent recognition and interactive tool developed in Kannada Language which is widely spoken in Karnataka, India. The digital resources available in Kannada Language is very sparce. Use of technology like interactive tool, Knowledge graph, RNN and SVM are used in the development of the tool. Government scheme recommendation interactively makes the users to choose the scheme faster in an interactive way. The form is filled automatically and can be edited to rectify mistakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has extensively examined in-vehicle display designs for supporting the operation of driving automation. As automation relieves drivers from various driving tasks including vehicle control (e.g. steering, accelerating, and braking), driving performance measures (e.g. speed, lane deviations) may not be informative indicators for evaluating the effectiveness of in-vehicle displays. Gaze-based measures are a better alternative given their link to driver visual attention, an indication of driver engagement. A scoping review was conducted to review the literature on the design of displays for supporting the operation of driving automation and the evaluation of these displays using gaze-based measures. Forty-three articles were included in the review. Most of the studies investigated visual (and mixed visual-auditory) displays that provide alerts to the driver for when to intervene automation classified as Level 3. The adopted gaze measures mostly relied on static areas of interest (AOIs), with fewer studies looking at more fine-grained, context dependent AOIs. The paper summarises the findings of the review, including research trends and gaps, as well as recommendations for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: digital HRM; algorithmic HRM; HRM algorithms; automation; decision making EN digital HRM algorithmic HRM HRM algorithms automation decision making 2545 2562 18 07/02/21 20210615 NES 210615 Introduction Across different disciplinary boundaries, research into algorithmic surveillance (Newlands, [36]), people analytics (Gal et al., [16]; Marler & Boudreau, [30]; Tursunbayeva et al., [49]), human resource management (HRM) algorithms (Cheng & Hackett, [9]), and algorithmic control (Kellogg et al., [24]; Veen et al., [53]) is gaining traction. Accordingly, its first two features (i.e. digital data and use of software algorithms) imply that algorithmic HRM falls within the realm of digital HRM, while the third feature, automation of HRM-related decision-making, distinguishes algorithmic HRM from other forms of digital HRM. From automating, to augmenting to controlling to co-opting HRM practice and decision-making, the papers in this special issue provide an insight into how digital HRM, generally, and algorithmic HRM more specifically are transforming the field of HRM. Algorithmic human resource management Building on previous work (Duggan et al., [11]; Kellogg et al., [24]; Lee et al., [28]; Leicht-Deobald et al., [29]; Newlands, [36]; Strohmeier, [44]; Veen et al., [53]), we define algorithmic HRM as: The use of software algorithms that operate on the basis of digital data to augment HR-related decisions and/or to automate HRM activities. [Extracted from the article]

The aim of this paper is to examine the impacts of automation on the Slovak labor market by applying automatability estimates to detailed employment data at the levels of districts and occupations. The district- and industry-level analysis shows that automation has the potential to significantly disrupt the Slovak labor market. Employees with lower incomes face greater risk of losing their jobs. The risk of automation is lower in districts with higher unemployment levels and vice versa, which indicates that technological progress does not have the potential to increase existing regional disparities in terms of employment opportunities. Policymakers should therefore consider differences among districts and industries when directing their job creation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automation is becoming increasingly common in higher education. This is generally posed around accepting large number of students while seeking to keep faculty numbers static and casualising an already fragmented academic labour market. Much of this automation is positioned around perceived gains (efficiency, time, cost) and learning personalisation (personal assistants as a means of providing support). Yet there has been little work in exploring how human and student agency, code, algorithms, and further digital instruments might be reconfigured through automation to service the teacher function. In this paper, we draw on a combination of speculative events and qualitative work conducted with students, faculty, and staff across the three colleges at the University of Edinburgh to explore automation as a component of the teacher function assemblage. Through participatory student and teacher-led research and development, narratives of teaching practice and the role of automation in performing aspects of the teacher function emerged. Consequently, this paper offer insights into debates about sociomaterial dimensions of higher education and demonstrates what mobilities are being engendered as a result of the reconfigured teacher function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teleoperated robots are introduced to hospitals, restaurants and factories and are expected to learn the task from human-teleoperated data. The automation methods from teleoperation, as known as Programming by demonstration (PbD) or imitation learning, are recently proposed increasingly, but they are focused on simple task, and training phase and execution phase should be separated. In this paper, we propose online and interactive automation method from teleoperation, online tangible robot programming, for object manipulation with multiple procedures and physical contacts. We focus on target-objects' states, split the task into motion sequences based on the states' change, and program the order of motion sequences with tangible user interface. We also implement the user interruption for mode switching, and a user can switch between autonomous and teleoperation modes and correct the programmed motion orders while continuing the task execution. For the evaluation, we did the real-world experiments with dual-arm robot and demonstrate the usefulness and efficiency of online tangible robot programming by switching from autonomous mode to teleoperation mode and immediately programming and modifing the task procedures of the box rotating and piling tasks with two arms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assistive technologies have allowed people with disabilities to perform daily tasks with greater independence and autonomy, especially for visually impaired people. Using smart home solutions allows these users to control their homes with less cognitive and physical demand. However, making such applications accessible to meet the needs of visually impaired users, especially in developing countries, remains a challenge. This paper investigates the perceptions of these users about home automation technologies through semi-structured interviews. A total of 20 visually impaired people participated in the interviews. A thematic analysis revealed results concerning the following themes: (1) how people go about their lives at home and around, how people interact with current appliances, objects and environments, (3) how people perceive their attitude to technologies, (4) the Brazilian context of smart homes, (5) what people think smart homes should do and (6) envisaging ways of interacting with smart home systems. The results obtained provide significant insight into the needs of visually-impaired people in Brazil, with analysis of issues that are common with previous studies in more developed countries and specific issues that have important particularities and implications in Brazil and other developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]