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We introduce new approaches to identify influential studies and maturity levels in the intellectual structure of disciplines. To this end, we investigate the evolution of the intellectual structure of strategic management (SM) by employing citation/co-citation analysis through network analysis for academic citations in articles published in the Strategic Management Journal (SMJ). We employed citation and co-citation analysis through social network analysis to identify influential studies. We developed an index and used the co-citations from studies in articles published in the SMJ to assess the maturity level. We identify influential papers by conducting citation analysis and using each cited article's centrality scores to identify cited papers that hold critical positions in the network as our new approach. For the maturity level, we introduce an index and detect average distance, K-core, density, small-worldness, and cluster coefficient of the co-citation network. We conclude by recommending future directions to increase maturity in the SM research domain. This paper is the first to discuss methods to identify influential studies and the maturity level in the intellectual structure of fields in a comprehensive manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in technology and an increase in the amount and complexity of data that are generated in healthcare have led to an indispensable revolution in this sector related to big data. Analytics of information based on multimodal clinical data sources requires big data projects. When starting big data projects in the healthcare sector, it is often necessary to assess the maturity of an organization with respect to big data, i.e., its capacity in managing big data. The assessment of the maturity of an organization requires multicriteria decision making as there is no single criterion or dimension that defines the maturity level regarding big data but an entire set of them. Based on the ISO 15504, this article proposes a fuzzy ELECTRE structure methodology to assess the maturity level of small- and medium-sized enterprises in the healthcare sector. The obtained experimental results provide evidence that this methodology helps to determine and compare maturity levels in big data management of organizations or the evolution of maturity over time. This is also useful in terms of diagnosing the readiness of an organization before starting to implement big data initiatives or technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Travel agencies are the mediators of the tourism industry supplying travellers with various choices to their where, when and how questions. With the digitalization of the purchasing environment, the appropriate use of integrated information systems will aid travel agencies in sustaining their place within the tourism industry. There is a lack of comprehensive measure to assess the integration maturity level of information systems (ISs) of travel agencies. Therefore, a maturity model built specifically for tourism agencies is needed to understand how well they are incorporating ISs into their operations. The purpose of this study is to provide a maturity model including important items that can be used for the assessment of travel agencies under the four domains of integration and subsequently evaluate the integration maturity level of Turkish travel agencies' ISs. To the best of the authors' knowledge, there are no studies that evaluate the level of ISs integration of travel agencies. Therefore, it can be said that this is the first study to evaluate the integration maturity of travel agencies and provide a general maturity model for ISs within the tourism industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maturity is the key factor which determines the storage life and ripening quality of fruits. In order to provide marketing flexibility and to guarantee the acceptable eating quality to the buyer it is very critical to determine the right maturity stage. Maturity indices are also important for trade regulation, marketing strategy and for the efficient use of labor and resources. The proposed system is based on implementation of image processing techniques on the JPEG images of different maturity stages of the plum variety ‘Satluj Purple’ grown under sub-tropical conditions. The external quality features like color, texture and size were analyzed. Color feature was extracted by using mean RGB values. Entropy, Local Binary Pattern and Discrete Cosine transformation were used for extracting textural features. Correlation coefficients between images of various categories were recorded to determine the most dominant factor for classification. Multi-Attribute Decision Making theory was used for taking final decision. The developed system accurately determined the maturity level. Color was found to be the most dominant factor for classifying the plums according to maturity level. The error percentage was less than 2.4%, when the length and width computed from application were compared with the manual readings. When RGB indices of fruit images were correlated with chemical properties of fruits, strong association was found between fruit acidity and mean intensity of green color (R2 = 0.9966). Significant variability in total soluble solids was also explained by variation in R/G ratio (R2 = 0.8464). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve storage of green spores by liquid nitrogen (LN), we studied the influence of spore maturity and desiccation process on storage of Osmunda japonica spores. Germination percentages of mature spores after drying for 12 h or equilibrating at 10-55 % relative humidity did not significantly differ from those of fresh spores. So we established that the critical water contents of mature spores were about 6.6 and 4.8 % by silica gel and equilibrating with saturated salt solutions, respectively. Germination percentages of post-mature spores after desication were lower than those of fresh spores. The viability of mature spores was always higher than the viability of post-mature spores following varying periods of storage in LN. The germination percentages of mature spores stored in LN after silica gel desication were comparable to those of mature spores desiccated with saturated salt solution, while desiccation with silica gel led to a marked decrease in germination percentages of post-mature spores during subsequent storage. In general, the level of maturity and desiccation process can have an impact on storage of green spores by LN storage. Mature spores can tolerate desiccation and freezing independent of the desication process. However, slow removal of intracellular water led to less damage and provided more protection to post-mature spores during storage. In addition, reduction in water contents of spores to approx. their critical levels can achieve the best results for long-term storage of spores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Embryos convert some of their reserve into structure during development. At birth, enough must be left for further maturation, which implicitly defines the minimum amount of initial reserve. The maximum amount occurs if the mother is well-fed. Yolkiness is defined as the ratio of the maximum and the minimum amounts of initial reserve of an animal egg. Embryo development is frequently slower than can be expected on the basis of late juvenile and adult development. So development accelerates during the early juvenile stage, quantified as the ratio of the lengths at metamorphosis and at birth; during acceleration maximum specific assimilation and energy conductance increase with length. Parameters of the standard DEB model have now been estimated for some 165 species, and the goodness of fit with data is typically very good. These parameters have been used to quantify yolkiness and metabolic acceleration and a clear proportionality relationship resulted. I present some suggestions for explanations in the context of life histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The composition and distribution of alkyl-substituted bi- and tricyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were studied in dispersed organic matter (DOM) samples from four levels of the Middle Jurassic sequences of the southeast of Western Siberia. It was shown that differences in the distribution of alkylnaphtalenes and alkylphenanthrenes were caused by catagenetic factors, which promoted the occurrence of the secondary reactions of isomerization, alkylation, and dealkylation. The data on the composition of saturated and alkyl aromatic hydrocarbons were examined by principal component factor analysis, the results of which were used to divide the samples into natural families. The grouping of DOM samples is based on the similarity of their characteristic compositional parameters. It was shown that the families include samples from different units occurring at different depths and mostly in widely separated localities. This indicates that sediments accumulated and were transformed under similar conditions at different time periods and in different parts of the petroleum-bearing regions of the southwestern part of Western Siberia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last three years an ESPRIT project BOOTSTRAP has assessed the capability of examples of the European software industry using a European process assessment and improvement methodology that was developed in the project. The BOOTSTRAP assessment methodology was developed by applying the original SEI model as the main background model. The original SEI approach was adopted in the methodology, and extended with features based on the guidelines from ISO 9000 quality standards and ESA (European Space Agency) process model standards. The extensions were made in order to fit the methodology into the European context, and to attain more detailed capability profiles in addition to maturity levels, separately for both organizations and projects. Although the BOOTSTRAP approach was formed by extending the original SEI model with new and reshaped features, it is still possible to distinguish the maturity levels that are equivalent to the SEI model. The methodology includes a guided assessment process, questionnaires and an algorithm for maturity and capability determination, guidelines for process improvement, an assessor training programme and licensing policy, and computer-based tools and a European database that support the consultancy activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]