Search results for: hybridization chain reaction

Authors: Andrey Vinajera-Zamora, Norge Coello-Machado, Elke Glistau

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The objective of this research is calculate the added value in operations of electric power meters (EPM) supply chains, specifically the EPM of 220v. The tool used is composed by six steps allowing at same time the identification of calibration of EPM as the bottleneck operation according the net added value being at same time the process of higher added value. On the other hand, this methodology allows calculate the amount of money to buy the raw material. The main conclusions are related to the analyze ‘s way and calculating of added value in supply chain integrated by the echelons procurement, production and distribution or any of these.

Keywords: economic value added, supply chain management, value chain, bottleneck detection

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Authors: Nisa Nur Duman, Sümeyya Kiliç

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In global competition conditions, survival of the plants by obtaining competitive advantage relies on the effective usage of existing sources. By this way, the plants can minimize their costs without losing their quality. They also take advantage took advantage on their competitors and enlarge customer portfolio by increasing profit margins. Changing structure of market and customer demands also change the structure of the competition between companies. Furthermore, competition is not only between the companies. By this manner, supply chain and supply chain management get importance by considering company performances. Companies that want to survive, search the ways of decreasing costs and the ways of meeting customer expectations. One of the important tools for reaching these goals is inventory managemet. The best inventory management system is meeting the demands by considering plant goals.

Keywords: Supply chain, inventory management, apparel sector, garment industry

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Authors: Burcu Kiren, Alattin CAkan, Nezihe Ayas

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Hydrogen will be arguably the best fuel in the future as it is the most abundant element in the universe. Hydrogen, as a fuel, is notably environmentally benign, sustainable and has high energy content compared to other sources of energy. It can be generated from both conventional and renewable sources. The hydrolysis reaction of metal hydrides provides an option for hydrogen production in the presence of a catalyst. In this study, Ni/dolomite catalyst was synthesized by the wet impregnation method for hydrogen production by hydrolysis reaction of sodium borohydride (NaBH4). Besides, the synthesized catalysts characterizations were examined by means of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer –Emmett – Teller (BET) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The influence of reaction temperature (25-75 °C), reaction time (15-60 min.), amount of catalyst (50-250 mg) and active metal loading ratio (20,30,40 wt.%) were investigated. The catalyst prepared with 30 wt.% Ni was noted as the most suitable catalyst, achieving of 35.18% H₂ and hydrogen production rate of 19.23 mL/gcat.min at 25 °C at reaction conditions of 5 mL of 0.25 M NaOH and 100 mg NaBH₄, 100 mg Ni/dolomite.

Keywords: sodium borohydride, hydrolysis, catalyst, Ni/dolomite, hydrogen

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Authors: Shoufeng Cao, Kim Bryceson, Damian Hine

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The existing supply chain risk management (SCRM) research is currently chaotic and somewhat disorganized, and the topic has been addressed conceptually more often than empirically. This paper, using both qualitative and quantitative data, employs a modified Meta-study method to investigate the SCRM empirical research published in quality journals over the period of 12 years (2004-2015). The purpose is to outline the extent research trends and the employed research methodologies (i.e., research method, data collection and data analysis) across the sub-field that will guide future research. The synthesized findings indicate that empirical study on risk ripple effect along an entire supply chain, industry-specific supply chain risk management and global/export supply chain risk management has not yet given much attention than it deserves in the SCRM field. Besides, it is suggested that future empirical research should employ multiple and/or mixed methods and multi-source data collection techniques to reduce common method bias and single-source bias, thus improving research validity and reliability. In conclusion, this paper helps to stimulate more quality empirical research in the SCRM field via identifying promising research directions and providing some methodology guidelines.

Keywords: empirical research, meta-study, methodology guideline, research direction, supply chain risk management

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Authors: André Luis Lima de Oliveira, Vera Lúcia Viana do Nascimento, Victória Maura Silva Bermudez, Mauricio Nunes Kleinberg, João Carlos da Costa Assunção, José Osvaldo Beserra Carioca

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The objective of this study was to synthesize a triglyceride with high content of unsaturated fatty acids from salmon oil (Salmo salar L.) by esterification with glycerol catalyzed dealuminized zeolite. A kinetic study was conducted to determine the reaction order and the activation energy. A statistical study was conducted to determine optimal reaction conditions. Initially, the crude oil was refined salmon physically and chemically. The crude oil was hydrolyzed and unsaturated free fatty acids were separated by urea complexation method. An experimental project to verify the parameters (temperature, glycerin and catalyst) with the greatest impact on the reaction was developed. In experiments aliquots were taken at predetermined times to measure the amount of free fatty acids. Pareto, surface, contour and hub graphs were used to determine the factors that maximized the reaction. According to the graphs the best reaction conditions were: temperature 80 ° C, the proportion glycerine/oil 5: 1 and 1% of catalyst. The kinetic data showed that the system was compatible with a second-order reaction. After analyzing the rate constant versus temperature charts a value of 85.31 kJ/mol was obtained for the reaction activation energy.

Keywords: esterification, kinect, oil, salmon

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Authors: Li Qiang, Yang Ze-Ming, Liu Bao-Xu, Jiang Zheng-Wei

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With the increasing complexity of cyberspace security, the cyber-attack attribution has become an important challenge of the security protection systems. The difficult points of cyber-attack attribution were forced on the problems of huge data handling and key data missing. According to this situation, this paper presented a reasoning method of cyber-attack attribution based on threat intelligence. The method utilizes the intrusion kill chain model and Bayesian network to build attack chain and evidence chain of cyber-attack on threat intelligence platform through data calculation, analysis and reasoning. Then, we used a number of cyber-attack events which we have observed and analyzed to test the reasoning method and demo system, the result of testing indicates that the reasoning method can provide certain help in cyber-attack attribution.

Keywords: reasoning, Bayesian networks, cyber-attack attribution, Kill Chain, threat intelligence

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Authors: Yohanes Kristianto

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The objective of this paper is to compose a sustainable supply chain that integrates product, process and networks design. An integrated life cycle assessment and techno-economic optimization is proposed that might deliver more economically feasible operations, minimizes environmental impacts and maximizes social contributions. Closed loop economy of the supply chain is achieved by reusing waste to be raw material of final products. Societal benefit is given by the supply chain by absorbing waste as source of raw material and opening new work opportunities. A case study of ethanol supply chain from rice straws is considered. The modeling results show that optimization within the scope of LCA is capable of minimizing both CO₂ emissions and energy and utility consumptions and thus enhancing raw materials utilization. Furthermore, the supply chain is capable of contributing to local economy through jobs creation. While the model is quite comprehensive, the future research recommendation on energy integration and global sustainability is proposed.

Keywords: life cycle assessment, techno-economic optimization, sustainable supply chains, closed loop economy

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Authors: Sema Kayapinar, Ismail Karaoglan, Turan Paksoy, Hadi Gokcen

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Green Supply Chain Management is gaining growing interest among researchers and supply chain management. The concept of Green Supply Chain Management is to integrate environmental thinking into the Supply Chain Management. It is the systematic concept emphasis on environmental problems such as reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency, recycling end of life products, generation of solid and hazardous waste. This study is to present a green supply chain network model integrated Internet of Things applications. Internet of Things provides to get precise and accurate information of end-of-life product with sensors and systems devices. The forward direction consists of suppliers, plants, distributions centres and sales and collect centres while, the reverse flow includes the sales and collects centres, disassembled centre, recycling and disposal centre. The sales and collection centre sells the new products are transhipped from factory via distribution centre and also receive the end-of life product according their value level. We describe green logistics activities by presenting specific examples including “recycling of the returned products and “reduction of CO2 gas emissions”. The different transportation choices are illustrated between echelons according to their CO2 gas emissions. This problem is formulated as a mixed integer linear programming model to solve the green supply chain problems which are emerged from the environmental awareness and responsibilities. This model is solved by using Gams package program. Numerical examples are suggested to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed model.

Keywords: green supply chain optimization, internet of things, greenhouse gas emission, recycling

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Authors: Kayode O. Afolabi, Benson C. Iweriebor, Anthony I. Okoh, Larry C. Obi

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Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is the major etiological viral agent of porcine multisystemic wasting syndrome (PWMS) and other porcine circovirus-associated diseases (PCVAD) of great economic importance in pig industry globally. In an effort to determine the status of swine herds in the Province as regarding the ‘small but powerful’ viral pathogen; a total of 375 blood, faecal and nasal swab samples were obtained from seven pig farms (commercial and communal) in Amathole, O.R. Tambo and Chris-Hani District Municipalities of Eastern Cape Province between the year 2015 and 2016. Three hundred and thirty nine (339) samples out of the total sample were subjected to molecular screening using PCV2 specific primers by conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Selected sequences were further analyzed and confirmed through genome sequencing and phylogenetic analyses. The data obtained revealed that 15.93% of the screened samples (54/339) from the swine herds of the studied areas were positive for PCV2; while the severity of occurrence of the viral pathogen as observed at farm level ranges from approximately 5.6% to 60% in the studied farms. The Majority, precisely 15 out of 17 (88%) analyzed sequences were found clustering with other PCV2b reference strains in the phylogenetic analysis. More interestingly, two other sequences obtained were also found clustering within PCV2d genogroup, which is presently another fast-spreading genotype with observable higher virulence in global swine herds. This finding confirmed the presence of this all-important viral pathogen in pigs of the region; which could result in a serious outbreak of PCVAD and huge economic loss at the instances of triggering factors if no appropriate measures are taken to curb its spread effectively.

Keywords: pigs, polymerase chain reaction, porcine circovirus type 2, South Africa

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Authors: Matloub Hussaina

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This paper investigates the impact of information sharing and capacity constraints on backlog bullwhip effect of Automatic Pipe Line Inventory and Order Based Production Control System (APIOBPCS). System dynamic simulation using iThink Software has been applied. It has been found that smooth ordering by Tier 1 can be achieved when Tier 1 has medium capacity constraints. Simulation experiments also show that information sharing helps to reduce 50% of backlog bullwhip effect in capacitated supply chains. This knowledge is of value per se, giving supply chain operations managers and designers a practical way in to controlling the backlog bullwhip effect. Future work should investigate the total cost implications of capacity constraints and safety stocks in multi-echelon supply chain.

Keywords: supply chain dynamics, information sharing, capacity constraints, simulation, APIOBPCS

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Authors: Prajakta M. Wazat, D. N. Raut

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The study consists of a fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) beverage company wherein a portion of the supply chain which deals with outbound logistics is taken for improvement in order to reduce its logistics cost by using critical path method (CPM) method. Logistics is a major portion of the supply chain where customers are not willing to pay as it adds cost to product without adding value. In this study, it is necessary to ensure that products are delivered to clients at the right time while preserving high-quality standards from the beginning to the end of the supply chain. CPM is a logical sequencing method where in the most efficient route is achieved by arranging the series of events. CPM enables to identify a critical factor in order to minimize the delays and interruption by providing a feasible solution.

Keywords: FMCG, supply chain, outbound logistics, vehicle turnaround time, critical path method, cost reduction

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Authors: Nattapong Techarattanased

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The objectives of this research were to study the influence of market orientation and supply chain management on competitive capability in case of the automotive parts industry in Thailand. This study employed by survey research and questionnaire was used to collect the data from 400 entrepreneurs in the automotive parts industry in Thailand. The descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze data. The results revealed that the overall dimensions of marketing orientation, namely, responsiveness, intelligence generation, and intelligence dissemination were rated at the high level. As well, the overall dimensions of supply chain management, namely, collaboration, communication, trust, and commitment were also rated at the high level. Furthermore, the hypothesis testing results showed that supply chain management and market orientation affected competitive capability of the automotive parts industry in Thailand which these two variables could be combined to predict competitive capability of the automotive parts industry in Thailand by 31.5 percent.

Keywords: automotive parts industry, competitive capability, market orientation, supply chain management

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Authors: Ananth Malali, Rohan Prasad, Ananth Revankar, Chiranth Hulgur

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This paper aims to show evidence that value creation by sustainable methods is achieved when a relation is shared with a sustainability attribute between two or more companies in every stage of the supply chain. The pillars of this paper, the value creation factors, attributes of sustainability and various relations that exist between firms in a horizontally integrated supply chain are defined. Further, a relational analysis was done using a simple analysis tool built based on research. Couple of case studies from the German manufacturing and Australian retail sectors were considered for the intra industry analysis and comparison. Taking the analysis ahead, for inter-industry comparison, the same cases were scrutinised in order to understand how the sustainability attributes change across each industry. Concluding, this paper gives an overview of how companies can plan their strategies to attain sustainability through horizontal integration.

Keywords: horizontal integration, value creation, sustainable supply chain

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Authors: Katie Wood

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Cyber criminals are constantly on the lookout for new opportunities to exploit organisation and cause destruction. This could lead to significant cause of economic loss for organisations in the form of destruction in finances, reputation and even the overall survival of the organization. Additionally, this leads to serious consequences on national security. The threat of possible cyber attacks places further pressure on organisations to ensure they are secure, at a time where international scale cyber attacks have occurred in a range of sectors. Stakeholders are wanting confidence that their data is protected. This is only achievable if a business fosters a resilient supply chain strategy which is implemented throughout its supply chain by having a strong cyber leadership culture. This paper will discuss the essential role and need for organisations to adopt a cyber leadership culture and direction to learn about own internal processes to ensure mitigating systemic vulnerability of its supply chains. This paper outlines that to protect national security there is an urgent need for cyber awareness culture change. This is required in all organisations, regardless of their sector or size, to implementation throughout the whole supplier chain to support and protect economic prosperity to make the UK more resilient to cyber-attacks. Through businesses understanding the supply chain and risk management cycle of their own operates has to be the starting point to ensure effective cyber migration strategies.

Keywords: cyber leadership, cyber migration strategies, resilient supply chain strategy, cybersecurity

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Authors: Kishore K. Pochampally

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The success of a supply chain heavily relies on the efficiency of the suppliers involved. In this paper, we propose a neural network approach to evaluate the efficiency of a supplier, which is being considered for inclusion in a supply chain, using the available linguistic (fuzzy) data of suppliers that already exist in the supply chain. The approach is carried out in three phases, as follows: In phase one, we identify criteria for evaluation of the supplier of interest. Then, in phase two, we use performance measures of already existing suppliers to construct a neural network that gives weights (importance values) of criteria identified in phase one. Finally, in phase three, we calculate the overall rating of the supplier of interest. The following are the major findings of the research conducted for this paper: (i) linguistic (fuzzy) ratings of suppliers such as 'good', 'bad', etc., can be converted (defuzzified) to numerical ratings (1 – 10 scale) using fuzzy logic so that those ratings can be used for further quantitative analysis; (ii) it is possible to construct and train a multi-level neural network in order to determine the weights of the criteria that are used to evaluate a supplier; and (iii) Borda’s rule can be used to group the weighted ratings and calculate the overall efficiency of the supplier.

Keywords: fuzzy data, neural network, supplier, supply chain

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Authors: Van Chung Nguyen

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The purpose of this study is to study the current status of the value chain for fish distribution at Quang Binh Fishing Port with 360 research samples in which the research subjects are fishermen, traders, retailers, and businesses. The research uses the approach of applying the value chain theoretical framework of Kaplinsky and Morris to quantify and describe market channels and actors participating in the value chain and analyze the value-added process of these companies according to market channels. The analysis results show that fishermen directly catch fish with high economic efficiency, but processing enterprises and, especially retailers, are the agents to obtain higher added value. Processing enterprises play a role that is not really clear due to outdated processing technology; in contrast, retailers have the highest added value. This shows that the added value of the fish supply chain at Quang Binh fishing port is still limited, leading to low output quality. Therefore, the selling price of fish to the market is still high compared to the abundant fish resources, leading to low consumption and limiting exports due to the quality of processing enterprises. This reduces demand and fishing capacity, and productivity is lower than potential. To improve the fish value chain at fishing ports, it is necessary to focus on improving product quality, strengthening linkages between actors, building brands and product consumption markets at the same time, improving the capacity of export processing enterprises.

Keywords: Quang Binh fishing port, value chain, market, distributions channel

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Authors: Chan Ka Lok Sobel

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Recently, several famous Asian films have been remade in North America, set in the context of U.S. society and with the financial and cultural scale of Hollywood cinema. Notably, the practice of remaking films is interactive, with famous Hollywood films also being remade in Asia; for example, Charlie’s Angels (McG, 2002) was remade as So Close (Yuen, 2002), Seven (Fincher, 1995) was remade as Double Vision (Fu, 2002), and Cellular (Ellis, 2004) was remade as Connected (Chan, 2008). Conversely, Asian films such as Infernal Affairs (Lau & Mak, 2002), il Mare (Lee, 2000), and Bangkok Dangerous (Pang, 2000) were remade into Hollywood blockbuster films The Departed (Scorsese, 2006), The Lake House (Agresti, 2006), and Bangkok Dangerous (Pang, 2007), respectively. This research examined Asian cinema and Hollywood remakes from the perspective of cultural hybridization and partition in the context of global capitalism and postmodernism. Using Infernal Affairs and The Departed as a case study, key concepts such as crosscultural adaptation, intercultural and global communication competence, and cultural identity and authorship were compared and analyzed.

Keywords: remake and originality, double cultural identity, studio system, genre and authorship

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Authors: Sweta Iyer, Nemeshwaree Behary, Jinping Guan, Guoqiang Chen, Vincent Nierstrasz

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Flavin mononucleotide widely known as 'FMN' is a biobased resource derived from riboflavin. The isoalloxazine ring present in the FMN molecule attributes the photoluminescence phenomenon, whereas FMN molecule in the presence of bacterial luciferase enzyme and co-factors such as NADH, long chain aldehyde leads to bioluminescence reaction. In this study, the FMN molecule was treated on cellulosic textile using chromojet technique and the photoluminescence property was characterized using spectroscopy technique. Further, the FMN was used as a substrate along with enzymes and co-factors to treat the non-woven textile, and the bioluminescence property was explored using luminometer equipment. The investigation revealed photoluminescence property on cellulosic textile, and the emission peak was observed at a wavelength around 530 nm with an average corrected spectral intensity of 10×106 CPS/Microamps. In addition, the measurement of nonwoven textile using bioluminescence reaction system exhibited light intensity measured in the form of relative light units (RLU). The study enabled to explore the use of FMN as both photoluminescent and bioluminescent textile. Further investigation would require for stability study of the same to provide an eco-efficient approach to obtain luminescent textile.

Keywords: flavin mononucleotide, photoluminescence, bioluminescence, luminescent textile

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Authors: L. Parisi

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In this research work, neural networks were applied to classify two types of hip joint implants based on the relative hip joint implant side speed and three components of each ground reaction force. The condition of walking gait at normal velocity was used and carried out with each of the two hip joint implants assessed. Ground reaction forces’ kinetic temporal changes were considered in the first approach followed but discarded in the second one. Ground reaction force components were obtained from eighteen patients under such gait condition, half of which had a hip implant type I-II, whilst the other half had the hip implant, defined as type III by Orthoload®. After pre-processing raw gait kinetic data and selecting the time frames needed for the analysis, the ground reaction force components were used to train a MLP neural network, which learnt to distinguish the two hip joint implants in the abovementioned condition. Further to training, unknown hip implant side and ground reaction force components were presented to the neural networks, which assigned those features into the right class with a reasonably high accuracy for the hip implant type I-II and the type III. The results suggest that neural networks could be successfully applied in the performance assessment of hip joint implants.

Keywords: kinemic gait data, neural networks, hip joint implant, hip arthroplasty, rehabilitation engineering

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Authors: M. Aruna, Uma Gunasilan

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Hospitals play an ample role in securing the health of a country. Nevertheless, they also have an unhealthy side. Ecological issues strengthen ill-health throughout the domain which subsequently puts pressure on hospital supply chains. Medical waste indeed is hazardous for environment and subsequently for human. The hospital waste management is of immense prominence due to its infectious and hazardous nature that can source many effects on human health and the environment. Government regulations and public cognizance regarding hospital waste issues have imposed hospital units to admit these strategies. The innovative technologies and instruments have been developed to handle hospital wastes. Green supply chain management practices are common in the United States. In India, Green Supply Chain management (GSCM) has just started to be recognized and practiced. GSCM are green, integrated and ecologically optimized. In Green supply chain management environmental sustainability is found to be an important driver. Eleven barriers are identified in this work. Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) technique is used for ranking the obstructions.

Keywords: green supply chain management (GSCM), hospital waste management (HWM), interpretive structural modeling (ISM), medical waste (MW)

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Authors: Paul W. Murray, Marco Barajas

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Recent changes in supply chains, especially globalization and collaboration, have created new risks for enterprises of all sizes. A variety of complex frameworks, often based on enterprise risk management strategies have been presented under the heading of Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM). The literature on promotes the benefits of a robust SCRM strategy; however, implementing SCRM is difficult and resource demanding for Large Enterprises (LEs), and essentially out of reach for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). This research debunks the idea that SCRM is necessary for all enterprises and instead proposes a simple and effective Vendor Selection Template (VST). Empirical testing and a survey of supply chain practitioners provide a measure of validation to the VST. The resulting VSTis a valuable contribution because is easy to use, provides practical results, and is sufficiently flexible to be universally applied to SMEs.

Keywords: multiple regression analysis, supply chain management, risk assessment, vendor selection

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Authors: Hussain Abdullah Al-Salamin, Elias Ogutu Azariah Tembe

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Supply chain (SC) is an operational research (OR) approach and technique which acts as catalyst within central nervous system of business today. Without SC, any type of business is at doldrums, hence entropy. SC is the lifeblood of business today because it is the pivotal hub which provides imperative competitive advantage. The paper present a conceptual framework dubbed as Homomorphic Conceptual Framework for Effective Supply Chain Strategy (HCEFSC).The term homomorphic is derived from abstract algebraic mathematical term homomorphism (same shape) which also embeds the following mathematical application sets: monomorphism, isomorphism, automorphisms, and endomorphism. The HCFESC is intertwined and integrated with wide and broad sets of elements.

Keywords: homomorphism, isomorphism, monomorphisms, automorphisms, epimorphisms, endomorphism, supply chain, operational research (OR)

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Authors: Adel Elomri

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The notion of carbon footprinting is ever more widespread as companies are becoming increasingly aware that tackling carbon emissions and being seen to do so is a key issue to face governments, customers and other stakeholders’ pressures towards delivering environmentally friendly services and activities. In this contest, many firms are taking self-initiatives to reduce their own carbon emissions while some other are constrained to obey to different regulations/policies (e.g. carbon tax or carbon Cap) designed by higher authorities targeting a low-carbon environment. Using buyer-vendor framework, this paper provides some insights on how effective are these self-initiatives and regulatory policies when only concerning firms at the individual level and not the whole supply chain they are part of. We show that when firms individually engage in reducing their direct carbon emissions either under self-initiatives or regulatory policy, an opposite expected outcome resulting in a higher global supply chain emission can occur. This effect is referred to as the carbon seesaw effect. Moreover, we show that coordinating or centralizing the supply chain -contrary to what one may think at first- is not often the appropriate solution to get rid of this effect.

Keywords: carbon emissions, supply chain coordination, EOQ, sustainable operations

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Authors: Shama Ranjan Barua, Tofazzal M. Rakib, Mohammad Alamgir Hossain, Tania Ferdushy, Sharmin Chowdhury

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Rotavirus is one of the main etiologies of neonatal diarrhea in bovine calves that causes significant economic loss in Bangladesh. The present study was carried out to investigate the pathology of neonatal enteritis in calves due to bovine rotavirus infection in south-eastern part of Bangladesh. Rotavirus was identified by using ELISA, RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction), real-time RT-PCR. We examined 12 dead calves with history of diarrhea during necropsy. Among 12 dead calves, in gross examination, 6 were found with pathological changes in intestine, 5 calves had congestion of small intestine and rest one had no distinct pathological changes. Intestinal contents and/or faecal samples of all dead calves were collected and examined to confirm the presence of bovine rotavirus A using Enzyme linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA), RT-PCR and real-time RT-PCR. Out 12 samples, 5 (42%) samples revealed presence of bovine rotavirus A in three diagnostic tests. The histopathological changes were found almost exclusively limited in the small intestine. The lesions of rotaviral enteritis ranged from slight to moderate shortening (atrophy) of villi in the jejunum and ileum with necrotic crypts. The villi were blunt and covered by immature epithelial cells. Infected cells, stained with Haematoxylin and Eosin staining method, showed characteristic syncytia and eosinophilc intracytoplasmic inclusion body. The presence of intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies in enterocytes is the indication of viral etiology. The presence of rotavirus in the affected tissues and/or lesions was confirmed by three different immunological and molecular tests. The findings of histopathological changes will be helpful in future diagnosis of rotaviral infection in dead calves.

Keywords: calves, diarrhea, pathology, rotavirus

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Authors: Hanaa M. Abu El Einin, Ahmed T. Sharaf El- Din

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Biomphalaria snails play an integral role in the transmission of Schistosoma mansoni, the causative agent for human schistosomiasis. Two species of Biomphalaria were reported from Egypt, Biomphalaria alexandrina and Biomphalaria glabrata, and later on a hybrid of B. alexandrina and B. glabrata was reported in streams at Nile Delta. All were known to be excellent hosts of S. mansoni. Host-parasite relationship can be viewed in terms of snail susceptibility and parasite infectivity. The objective of this study will highlight the progress that has been made in using molecular approaches to describe the correct identification of snail species that participating in transmission of schistosomiasis, rapid diagnose of infection in addition to susceptibility and resistance type. Snails were identified using of molecular methods involving Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD), Polymerase Chain Reaction, Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphisms (PCR-RFLP) and Species - specific- PCR. Molecular approaches to diagnose parasite in snails from Egypt: Nested PCR assay and small subunit (SSU) rRNA gene. Also RAPD PCR for study susceptible and resistance phenotype. The results showed that RAPD- PCR, PCR-RFLP and species-specific-PCR techniques were confirmed that: no evidence for the presence of B. glabrata in Egypt, All Biomphalaria snails collected identified as B. alexandrina snail i-e B alexandrinia is a common and no evidence for hybridization with B. glabrata. The adopted specific nested PCR assay revealed much higher sensitivity which enables the detection of S. mansoni infected snails down to 3 days post infection. Nested PCR method for detection of infected snails using S. mansoni fructose -1,6- bisphosphate aldolase (SMALDO) primer, these primers are specific only for S. mansoni and not cross reactive with other schistosomes or molluscan aldolases Nested PCR for such gene is sensitive enough to detect one cercariae. Genetic variations between B. alexandrina strains that are susceptible and resistant to Schistosoma infec¬tion using a RAPD-PCR showed that 39.8% of the examined snails collected from the field were resistant, while 60.2% of these snails showed high infection rates. In conclusion the genetics of the intermediate host plays a more important role in the epidemiological control of schistosomiasis.

Keywords: biomphalaria, molecular differentiation, parasite detection, schistosomiasis

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Authors: Sakeh N. Mohd, Bahari M. N. Abdul, Abdullah S. N. Akmar

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Oil palm production generates high export earnings to many countries especially in Southeast Asian region. Infection by necrotrophic fungus, Ganoderma boninense on oil palm results in basal stem rot which compromises oil palm production leading to significant economic loss. There are no reliable disease treatments nor promising resistant oil palm variety has been cultivated to eradicate the disease up to date. Thus, understanding molecular mechanisms underlying early interactions of oil palm with Ganoderma boninense may be vital to promote preventive or control measure of the disease. In the present study, four months old oil palm seedlings were infected via artificial inoculation of Ganoderma boninense on rubber wood blocks. Roots of six biological replicates of treated and untreated oil palm seedlings were harvested at 0, 3, 7 and 11 days post inoculation. Next-generation sequencing was performed to generate high-throughput RNA-Seq data and identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) during early oil palm-Ganoderma boninense interaction. Based on de novo transcriptome assembly, a total of 427,122,605 paired-end clean reads were assembled into 30,654 unigenes. DEGs analysis revealed upregulation of 173 transcription factors on Ganoderma boninense-treated oil palm seedlings. Sixty-one transcription factors were categorized as DEGs according to stringent cut-off values of genes with log2 ratio [Number of treated oil palm seedlings/ Number of untreated oil palm seedlings] ≥ |1.0| (corresponding to 2-fold or more upregulation) and P-value ≤ 0.01. Transcription factors in response to biotic stress will be screened out from abiotic stress using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. Transcription factors unique to biotic stress will be verified using real-time polymerase chain reaction. The findings will help researchers to pinpoint defense response mechanism specific against Ganoderma boninense.

Keywords: Ganoderma boninense, necrotrophic, next-generation sequencing, transcription factors

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Authors: Lifar M. S., Tereshchenko A. A., Bulgakov A. N., Guda S. A., Guda A. A., Soldatov A. V.

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Metal nanoparticles are widely used as heterogeneous catalysts to activate adsorbed molecules and reduce the energy barrier of the reaction. Reaction product yield depends on the interplay between elementary processes - adsorption, activation, reaction, and desorption. These processes, in turn, depend on the inlet feed concentrations, temperature, and pressure. At stationary conditions, the active surface sites may be poisoned by reaction byproducts or blocked by thermodynamically adsorbed gaseous reagents. Thus, the yield of reaction products can significantly drop. On the contrary, the dynamic control accounts for the changes in the surface properties and adjusts reaction parameters accordingly. Therefore dynamic control may be more efficient than stationary control. In this work, a reinforcement learning algorithm has been applied to control the simulation of CO oxidation on a catalyst. The policy gradient algorithm is learned to maximize the CO₂ production rate based on the CO and O₂ flows at a given time step. Nonstationary solutions were found for the regime with surface deactivation. The maximal product yield was achieved for periodic variations of the gas flows, ensuring a balance between available adsorption sites and the concentration of activated intermediates. This methodology opens a perspective for the optimization of catalytic reactions under nonstationary conditions.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, catalyst, co oxidation, reinforcement learning, dynamic control

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Authors: Sourour Ramzi, Claudia Sarrico

Abstract:

Little has been done on network DEA in education, and nobody has attempted to model the whole education supply chain using network DEA. As such the contribution of the present paper is to propose a model for measuring the efficiency of education supply chains using network DEA. First, we use a general survey of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to establish the emergent themes for research in DEA, and focus on the theme of Network DEA. Second, we use a survey on two-stage DEA models, and Network DEA to write a state of the art on Network DEA, particularly applied to supply chain management. Third, we use a survey on DEA applications to establish the most influential papers on DEA education applications, in order to establish the state of the art on applications of DEA in education, in general, and applications of DEA to education using network DEA, in particular. Finally, we propose a model for measuring the performance of education supply chains of different education systems (countries or states within a country, for instance). We then use this model on some empirical data.

Keywords: supply chain, education, data envelopment analysis, network DEA

Procedia PDF Downloads 369

Authors: Fawzia Abujalala, Asma Elmangoush, Majdi Ashibani

Abstract:

The adoption of Blockchain technology introduces the possibility to decentralize cold chain systems. This adaptation enhances them to be more efficient, accessible, verifiable, and data security. Additionally, the Internet of Things (IoT) concept is considered as an added-value to various application domains. Cargo tracking and cold chain are a few to name. However, the security of the IoT transactions and integrated devices remains one of the key challenges to the IoT application’s success. Consequently, Blockchain technology and its consensus protocols have been used to solve many information security problems. In this paper, the researchers discussed the advantages of integrating Blockchain technology into IoT platform to improve security and provide an overview of existing literature on integrating Blockchain and IoT platforms. Then, presented the immunization cold chain solution as a use-case that could apply to any critical goods based on integrating hyperledger fabric platform and IoT platform.

Keywords: blockchain, hyperledger fabric, internet of things, security, traceability

Procedia PDF Downloads 149

Authors: Vikram Singh, Parmod Kumar Sethi

Abstract:

The objective of the study was to study the effectiveness of common yoga protocol on reaction time (choice visual reaction time, measured in milliseconds/seconds) of male football players in the age group of 16 to 21 years. The 40 boys were measured initially on parameters of years of experience, level of participation. They were randomly assigned into two groups i.e. control and experimental. CVRT for both the groups was measured on day-1 and post intervention (common yoga protocol here) was measured after 45 days of training to the experimental group after they had finished with their regular fitness and soccer skill training. One way ANOVA (Univariate analysis) and Independent t-test using SPSS 23 statistical package were applied to get and analyze the results. The experimental yoga protocol group showed a significant reduction in CVRT, whereas the insignificant difference in reaction times was observed for control group after 45 days. The effect size was more than 52% for CVRT indicating that the effect of treatment was large. Power of the study was also found to be high (> .80). There was a significant difference after 45 days of yoga protocol in choice visual reaction time of experimental group (p = .000), t (21.93) = 6.410, p = .000 (two-tailed). The null hypothesis (that there would be no difference in reaction times of control and experimental groups) was rejected. Where p< .05. Therefore alternate hypothesis was accepted.

Keywords: reaction time, yoga protocol, t-test, soccer players

Procedia PDF Downloads 236