Jyotirmoyee Bhattacharjya

Butterfly pitch-angle distributions observed by ISEE-1

Abstract The ISEE-1 satellite has observed butterfly pitch-angle distributions (PAD) in protons and electrons from 20 keV to 2 MeV in the low latitude outer magnetosphere, which showed a sharp dropout in the flux of 90° pitch angle particles. These distributions were present on the nightside near the magnetic equatorial plane and were far more prevalent in electrons than in protons. These distributions have been known for some time and have been associated with drift shell splitting in combination with either shadowing by the magnetopause or with a radial intensity gradient close to the Earth as equatorially mirroring particles drift around the Earth at radial distances from 6 to 12 R E . In both a study of individual three-dimensional distributions and in a statistical survey, the occurrence of the butterfly PADs was found to have the following consistent behavior: (1) The anisotropy in the distributions increased with an increase in particle energy for both the protons and the electrons. (2) The anisotropy was less pronounced in the protons than in the electrons and usually disappeared altogether for the higher energy protons. (3) The radial location of the transition from and to the butterfly distribution was found to have a dependence on particle energy. (3a) The transition position occurred closer to the Earth with increasing particle energy for the butterfly PAD to normal PAD transition whereas (3b) the transition from the butterfly PAD to isotropic PAD occurred closer to the Earth with decreasing particle energy. In other words, the PADs were isotropic near the apogee of ISEE-1, peaked at 90° pitch angle close to the Earth, and butterfly over a range of radial distances, the width of which expanded in both directions with increasing energy. Modeling results are presented that are interpreted to demonstrate that the magnetopause and its motion are responsible for producing the butterfly PADs. The differences between ion and electron butterfly PADs are interpreted to indicate that the magnetopause has a layer of energetic particles that becomes a source of energetic particles to the inner magnetosphere and preferentially provides ions as close as the geostationary orbit routinely. These ions have a softer spectrum than the ions present at the same location on stably trapped drift trajectories (i.e., for those particles mirroring well away from the equator).

The Role of IT Governance in the Evolution of Organizations in the Digital Economy: Cases in Australian Higher Education

In recent years, IT governance has become a key concern issue for senior IT decision makers across various industries. When appropriately implemented, IT governance can play the role of a central nervous system effectively ensuring the well being of the organizational system. The health of the organizational system ultimately contributes to the health of the distributed business ecosystem in which the organization co-exists with other organizations. The underlying goals for adopting formal IT governance practices are improvement of business performance and conformance with regulations. This exploratory study examined how IT governance is implemented in four Australian institutions of higher education through a number of IT governance structures, processes, and relational mechanisms. This paper discusses the importance of these practices as these institutions increasingly compete and collaborate with each other, various government agencies and other research institutions in the digital economy.

Drivers of falling interaction costs in global business networks

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the interactions that are engaged in when specialist organizations collaborate in business networks organized around global value chains. Interaction costs are defined as including transaction costs plus the costs for exchanging information and ideas. The view is forwarded that as interaction costs decrease, potential business partners have greater scope to interlink their business strategies and operations to co‐create value.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on ideas linking the emergence of new forms of organization, technology and innovation, and global business strategy. In particular, its focus is on how ICT is transforming the ways in which organizations around the globe interlink through innovative approaches to operational and strategic imperatives.Findings – Three factors that are either reducing interaction costs or increasing the effectiveness or frequency of interactions are identified and examined: the convergence of technologies, ...

Maritime Empty Container Repositioning: A Problem Review

Maritime shipping containers are important to a number of different industries as they facilitate the reduction of transportation costs. To address the needs of shippers, empty containers need to be repositioned globally between seaports. Since the cost of empty container repositioning (ECR) constitutes a significant element of the total cost of running a global container fleet operation, the problem has been receiving increasing attention from scholars. The diversity of this literature necessitates the development an appropriate classification scheme to identify trends, gaps, and directions for future research. This paper reviews publications on maritime ECR over the last two decades and examines such trends and potential research directions.

Environmental Concerns in the Design and Management of Pallets

Planning for sustainable reindustrialization necessitates considerations for environmentally sustainable production processes, packaging and logistics. Pallets are essential for the movement of goods around the world. Millions of pallets enter the global supply chain every year and are used, reused and either discarded or recycled. Since billions of pallets of different types are in use at any time, minimization of overall environmental impacts can be achieved only through process improvements and careful consideration of pallet types for various activities. The paper reviews the current management practices with respect to pallets and identifies issues in different points of the life cycle.

Additive Manufacturing: Current Status and Future Prospects

The potential implications of additive manufacturing or 3D printing technology are being recognized across a number of different industries. In developed countries where the traditional manufacturing sector has experienced decline, the developments in additive manufacturing present potential opportunities for growth. The paper presents the outcomes of preliminary data analysis from an exploratory survey of senior managers working in the additive manufacturing sector in the Australasian region. The analysis suggests that while there has been progress, there is scope for improving technologies and reducing costs in order to facilitate wider adoption of and greater business value from 3D printing.

Building Business Resilience with Social Media in B2B Environments: The Emergence of Responsive Customer Relationship Management Processes on Twitter

Companies operating in the business-to-consumer (B2C) space have been increasingly using the social media platform, Twitter, to conduct customer relationship management activities. Similar practices are also gradually emerging in business-to-business (B2B) environments. However, B2B service providers are yet to incorporate social media into their overall business strategy to the extent that this has become common practice amongst B2C companies. Engaging with customers over social media poses both risks and opportunities for companies. This paper examines the customer relationship management activities of a B2B service provider, Shopify, to identify opportunities for improving brand perception and business resilience.

Using the Product Life Cycle as a Basis for a Product-Service Strategy Model

The recent financial problems of the 2008/10 GFC and the likelihood of similar events occurring in 2012/13 has ‘spooked’ business and consumer confidence and has resulted in fierce competition in both B2C and in the derived demand companies in B2B markets. The problems are exacerbated by the very slow recovery response of developed economy business organizations, many facing competition from Asian companies whose business models have become sophisticated and are moving rapidly away from their traditional “high volume/low value” manufacturing expertise towards a “low volume/high value” value proposition thereby threateningwell established traditional western companies; some are moving away from tangible/hardware products towards becoming solution providers.

Creation of unstructured big data from customer service: The case of parcel shipping companies on Twitter

Customer service provision is a growing phenomenon on social media and parcel shipping companies have been among the most prominent adopters. This has coincided with greater interest in the development of analysis techniques for unstructured big data from social media platforms, such as the micro-blogging platform, Twitter. Given the growing use of dedicated customer service accounts on Twitter, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness with which parcel shipping companies use the platform.,This paper demonstrates the use of a combination of tools for retrieving, processing and analysing large volumes of customer service-related conversations generated between parcel shipping companies and their customers in Australia, UK and the USA. Extant studies using data from Twitter tend to focus on the contributions of individual entities and are unable to capture the insights provided by a holistic examination of the interactions.,This study identifies the key issues that trigger customer contact with parcel shipping companies on Twitter. It identifies similarities and differences in the approaches that these companies bring to customer engagement and identifies the opportunities for using the medium more effectively.,The development of consumer-centric supply chains and relevant theories require researchers and practitioners to have the ability to include insights from growing quantities of unstructured data gathered from consumer engagement. This study makes a methodological contribution by demonstrating the use of a set of tools to gather insight from a large volume of conversations on a social media platform.

Digitization in the Oil and Gas Industry: Challenges and Opportunities for Supply Chain Partners

Declining oil prices have made it necessary for oil and gas companies to scrutinize their operations and associated costs. The increase in data richness from the digitization of supply chain processes could help these companies manage risks, and increase collaboration and profitability. This paper explores the challenges and opportunities for oil and gas industry in this context.