Delivery Chain Research Articles

ПРИРОДА МІЖНАРОДНИХ КОНФЛІКТІВ В СУЧАСНИХ УМОВАХ ГЛОБАЛЬНОГО СЕРЕДОВИЩА

The article is an attempt to study the nature of international conflicts and their impact on economic development and growth under the modern conditions of global environment. The author is trying to systematize and generalize the economic theories and strategies of safe development in conformity with logically consistent and historical evolution, emphasizing that the nature of international conflicts is determined by the relations of property distribution, resource interests and dependence, by the level of socio-economic development and growth, ecological discrimination, territorial disputes, etc. It is emphasized that the evolution of internal and external threats countries are faced by is also of great importance, since military costs may negatively affect the economic growth. However, in front of external threats, military costs may promote the economic growth as well. Otherworldly, on the one hand, a conflict is a specific tool of appropriating welfare, since it is inseparably connected with using the resources of captured territories, appropriating stolen property, capital investments and consumer goods, historical and historical values as well as with slavery. On the other hand, a conflict may acquire features of a business concerned with buying weapons, recruiting, training personnel, logistics and delivery chains, implementing R&D projects and innovations, obtaining economic benefits from activities carried out by military companies, etc. Revealing regional peculiarities of international conflicts’ development, scientific research of international conflicts in modern global environment promotes improvement of the available regional safety complexes. Key words: conflict, international conflict, globalization, global environment, economic growth.

User-Generated Video Quality Assessment: A Subjective and Objective Study

Recently, we have observed an exponential increase of user-generated content (UGC) videos. The distinguished characteristic of UGC videos originates from the video production and delivery chain, as they are usually acquired and processed by non-professional users before uploading to the hosting platforms for sharing. As such, these videos usually undergo multiple distortion stages that may affect visual quality before ultimately being viewed. Inspired by the increasing consensus that the optimization of the video coding and processing shall be fully driven by the perceptual quality, in this paper, we propose to study the quality of the UGC videos from both objective and subjective perspectives. We first construct a UGC video quality assessment (VQA) database, aiming to provide useful guidance for the UGC video coding and processing in the hosting platform. The database contains source UGC videos uploaded to the platform and their transcoded versions that are ultimately enjoyed by end-users, along with their subjective scores. Furthermore, we develop an objective quality assessment algorithm that automatically evaluates the quality of the transcoded videos based on the corrupted reference, which is in accordance with the application scenarios of UGC video sharing in the hosting platforms. The information from the corrupted reference is well leveraged and the quality is predicted based on the inferred quality maps with deep neural networks (DNN). Experimental results show that the proposed method yields superior performance. Both subjective and objective evaluations of the UGC videos also shed lights on the design of perceptual UGC video coding.

Rebate for Scheduled Delivery, Planning Reliability, and Supply Chain Coordination

Rebate for Scheduled Delivery, Planning Reliability, and Supply Chain Coordination

SERVICOM and Public Service Delivery in Nigeria: A study of Akwa Ibom State University

The quality, efficiency and impact of public service delivery remains an issue of grave concern in Nigeria as the Nation is known for its endemic poor public service delivery and productivity. To tackle this vice, its former President, Olusegun Obasanjo in March 2004, using its administrative powers ordered the establishment of SERVICOM Units in all Federal government ministries, departments and parastatals. This would later extend to the National Universities Commission and all Federal and State Universities in Nigeria. A synthesis of the SERVICOM charter shows that its central focus is on enhancing quality and measurable service delivery. The literature review and the theoretical framework grounded on Douglas McGregor’s famous Theory X and Y revealed that a third party inspector such as SERVICOM is a necessity in the public service delivery chain to ensure public services are delivered in a quantitative, qualitative, customer centric, affordable, accessible and predictable manner. Using a survey research and ANOVA, the researchers found that 93.80% of the respondents have not received the necessary awareness on the services of SERVICOM while 88.08% confirm that SERVICOM has not been monitoring their services. The study concludes that the inability to provide the needed awareness and monitoring had a significant negative effect on staff service delivery. It then made useful recommendations such as immediate commencement of a structured awareness programmes, monitoring and alignment with its sister unit in the institution towards the realization of the SERVICOM mandate.

Creating the value of services as a factor of efficiency of production activities of transport enterprises in the digital economy

At the present stage of economic and logistics development, information technologies, artificial intelligence, as well as other achievements of scientific and technological progress are singled out as one of the promising areas, the introduction of which exposes the conditions for creating value of services to forced transformation. Many factors have become the catalyst for such rapid changes. However, among the key ones, it is worth noting the pandemic, thanks to which contradictions between the development of elements of economic systems, both at the state level and in individual production and marketing links were revealed. The pandemic has shown that it is technology, digitalization and innovation that determine the most significant factors for increasing the efficiency of production and distribution systems, including transport and logistics. In this regard, the subject of the study is the process of creating the value of transport services in the new conditions of maritime business. The purpose of the study is to develop a conceptual approach to creating the value of transport services, which will increase the efficiency of production activities of enterprises by maximizing the satisfaction of new business conditions. The methods of studying and generalizing domestic and foreign experience, the analytical method were used in the work. A review of scientific sources was carried out, analytical materials were investigated, and an oral survey of representatives of the maritime business was conducted. It is determined that in the new conditions the value of the transport service is formed due to the coordinated interaction of all participants in the cargo delivery chain. A model of value creation of transport services based on a globally synergetic approach and considering information innovations implemented today in maritime transport is presented.

The impact of different cooperation strategies on the efficiency of rural parcel deliveries

In rural areas, parcel deliveries are characterized by a lack of drop density and high-mileage delivery. As a result, rural areas are difficult to make profitable for each individual carrier company. The VIL project “Rural Parcel Delivery” investigates the effect of 2 cooperation strategies: (1) Parcel delivery outsourced to a neutral third party from a common distribution hub and (2) Setting up a shared network of collection points between carriers. MooV has developed a model of the parcel delivery chain to assess the impact of these cooperation strategies on the efficiency of parcel deliveries as well as the location of the common hub. Given the obtained input data for the Walloon region, joint delivery in rural areas results in a reduction in costs (-35%) and CO2 emissions (-60%). Large differences exist between carriers based on the type of their delivery network and parcel volume.

Using sustainability indicators for analysis of sustainable consumption and production in the food supply chain

Delivery of food products is one of the critical points in the manufacturing of products, especially for perishable products. In addition, it is necessary to consider the delivery schedule and additional environmental load due to the need to maintain the storage temperature conditions. It has been proven that the main factors of sustainability related to local products are determined by the desire of consumers to support the local producer, the sale of higher-quality products of local production, and the efficiency of logistics management and sale of goods. Methods to analyze the sustainability of food product transportation are considered. It is emphasized that very few studies have been conducted on analyzing the logistics of the delivery of dairy raw materials and products in countries with a weak economy, especially for enterprises of local importance whose vehicle fleet is represented by outdated equipment. That is why the study of the sustainability of logistics delivery chains was conducted based on the data of two dairy enterprises. The work presents in mathematical terms an integrated model for calculating the sustainability of logistics chains, which consists of four groups of criteria: resources, climate, economic efficiency, and impact on society. The company was evaluated according to the specified criteria by a group of independent experts in dairy technology using the Delphi method to ensure the objectivity of the obtained data. The calculation of fuel costs and CO2 emissions into the atmosphere per kilogram of food products in the transportation logistics chain was carried out. This approach will ensure the objectivity of assessing the negative impact on the environment because of the use of petroleum products, the increase of greenhouse gases, and air pollution in general. The concepts of "local food" and "food miles" are tools of the protectionist policy of restoring local agriculture and alternative sources of food production. The results obtained in the work confirm the need to use individual criteria in LCA for an objective assessment of the sustainability of logistics transportation and its impact on the environment. Keywords: "food mile", food products, environment, sustainability indicators, temperature regimes.

Impact of the Internet of Things (IOT) on Logistics

The logistics company creates a completely digital, flexible, and integrated supply chain that is best suited for e-commerce packages. Due to the use of cutting-edge technology, digitization is growing in popularity in the transportation and logistics industry. Hardware that connects all smart devices, including sensors, motors, and gadgets, is known as the logistics industry's Internet of Things (IoT). It provides fleet management, automatic warehouse operations, and operational performance. The Internet of Things will preserve all the data produced with the assistance of the operations and logistics sector. Later analysis of this record is done to increase productivity and safety. His Internet of Things in logistics is a multi-billion-dollar industry. Moreover, the global IoT in the logistics industry is being driven by rising pricing pressures and a rising need for technological automation. Through integrated electronics, sensors, and social connections, the internet of things is a network that links many devices. The logistics market is worth billions of dollars to IoT. It enables organisations to optimise production, lower production expenses, and lower the cost of raw materials. One of the factors influencing the industry is the ability to track logistics in real time and the development of delivery chains. However, the market's expansion is constrained by a lack of skilled labour, high costs, and rigid government restrictions and norms.

On the Economics Effects of CDN-Mediated Delivery on Content Providers

Content delivery networks (CDNs) have been providing the key engineering and economic mediation between content providers (CPs) and Internet service providers (ISPs) in content delivery over the Internet. They significantly improve the quality of service experience for today’s Internet traffic. We model the CDN as a business-to-business platform that provides caching and other services in the Internet content delivery chain between the CPs and the ISPs. The CPs and ISPs that subscribe to the CDN receive a traffic boost relative to their base traffic and in return the CDN prescribes a subscription charge to the CPs, and to the ISPs. We assume that the CDN provides its service without price or quality differentiation between the CPs (or between the ISPs). In this setting we analyze the revenue maximizing prices of the CDN on the two sides of the platform, and its effect on the connection structure on the two sides. We first consider the oligopoly model, where we formulate a full information, leader-follower game. The CDN is the leader and sets the subscription prices for the CPs and the ISPs. The ISPs and CPs are the followers and they make the binary decision of subscribing to the CDN or not. We extend this model to a retail CP market, where the CDN determines the revenue maximizing price using a heuristic and the CPs make the subscription decision. Using extensive numerical analyses, we show that the CDN will always provide sufficient resources to the CPs and that the revenue maximizing price will essentially price out the CPs and ISPs that have a low monetization capability.

A Review on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency

Blockchain and cryptocurrency Blockchain generation and cryptocurrencies have emerged as groundbreaking innovations with some distance-attaining implications for finance, era, and beyond. This research paper delves into the multifaceted global of blockchain and cryptocurrency, seeking to explore the underlying generation, its diverse applications, and the ability of monetary and societal influences. The look delves into the intricacies of blockchain's decentralized ledger and cryptographic security, inspecting its evolution from a spot generation to an international phenomenon. With a focal point on the maximum well-known cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, and its broader implications, the paper assesses the transformative ability of blockchain in domains like finance, delivery chain, and identification verification. Furthermore, it seriously analyzes the challenges and regulatory considerations surrounding this nascent industry. In a technology characterized by way of technological advancement and monetary disruption, this research paper presents a vital framework for understanding the intricacies, capacity, and inherent dangers of blockchain and cryptocurrency.

A Study On Supply Chain Management In Auto Ancillary Units In The Salem District Of Tamilnadu

SCM refers to the network of interrelated transactions between clients and suppliers at every stage of the production process. These transactions begin with the purchase of raw materials at the point of origin and continue through the purchase of finished goods and work-in-progress at the point of consumption. Within this study, an effort has been made to identify the elements that have a role in determining the adequate supply chain management level in the sample units located within the Salem District. A representative sample of one hundred people who responded was taken from the Salem District. The study's evaluation utilized a straightforward percentage analysis, the chi-square test, and the Henry Garret Ranking Method. The findings indicate that efficient and environmentally friendly delivery chain procedures, on their own, will aid businesses in gaining a competitive advantage and might ensure sustained growth over the long-term.

The mitochondrial Cu+ transporter PiC2 (SLC25A3) is a target of MTF1 and contributes to the development of skeletal muscle in vitro.

The loading of copper (Cu) into cytochrome c oxidase (COX) in mitochondria is essential for energy production in cells. Extensive studies have been performed to characterize mitochondrial cuproenzymes that contribute to the metallation of COX, such as Sco1, Sco2, and Cox17. However, limited information is available on the upstream mechanism of Cu transport and delivery to mitochondria, especially through Cu-impermeable membranes, in mammalian cells. The mitochondrial phosphate transporter SLC25A3, also known as PiC2, binds Cu+ and transports the ion through these membranes in eukaryotic cells, ultimately aiding in the metallation of COX. We used the well-established differentiation model of primary myoblasts derived from mouse satellite cells, wherein Cu availability is necessary for growth and maturation, and showed that PiC2 is a target of MTF1, and its expression is both induced during myogenesis and favored by Cu supplementation. PiC2 deletion using CRISPR/Cas9 showed that the transporter is required for proliferation and differentiation of primary myoblasts, as both processes are delayed upon PiC2 knock-out. The effects of PiC2 deletion were rescued by the addition of Cu to the growth medium, implying the deleterious effects of PiC2 knockout in myoblasts may be in part due to a failure to deliver sufficient Cu to the mitochondria, which can be compensated by other mitochondrial cuproproteins. Co-localization and co-immunoprecipitation of PiC2 and COX also suggest that PiC2 may participate upstream in the copper delivery chain into COX, as verified by in vitro Cu+-transfer experiments. These data indicate an important role for PiC2 in both the delivery of Cu to the mitochondria and COX, favoring the differentiation of primary myoblasts.

Technological advances in supply chain of processed foods during COVID-19: a review

PurposeThe novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) variant of 2019 has taken more than 3.8 million lives according to the World Health Organization. To stop the spread of such a deadly and contagious disease, lockdown of varying nature was imposed worldwide. Lockdown, preventive techniques and observation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) have effectively decreased the spread of contagious diseases but have affected various businesses and industries economically. The food industry has been hit hard by different restriction parameters, due to which a disruption in food supply and demand was observed. Therefore, this study aims to study this disruption in the supply chain of processed food.Design/methodology/approachA comprehensive review was conducted on PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus to locate articles on processed foods, food delivery and supply chain. The selected articles were evaluated using the context analysis method.FindingsThe pandemic situation has increased the consumption and demand for processed food products from retail stores, and decreased the demand for food service products. These circumstances called for technological advancement in the field of food supply from farm to fork. This study reviews research articles, policies and secondary literature. Several advances have been made to deliver safe, nutritious and wholesome food to consumers. Block chain-based food supply chains, value stream mapping, sustainable supply chain domain and online ordering systems via mobile apps have been discussed in correspondence with information and communication technology (ICT) during COVID-19.Research limitations/implicationsThis study concludes that the use of advanced software and its adequate knowledge by suppliers, logistics companies and consumers have assisted in handling shocks to the global food system and provided in-time food delivery, traceability, database information and securely processed food to consumers.Originality/valueThis study shows the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on global food systems; disruption in food demand and supply chain is overlooked and changed; use of technological advances in food supply chain to tackle pandemic; online food ordering system gained popularity and improved technically.HighlightsThe review highlights the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on global food systems.The disruption in food demand and supply chain is overlooked and changed.The use of technological advances in the food supply chain to tackle the pandemic.The online food ordering system gained popularity and improved technically.

Link Ecological and Social Composite Systems to Construct Sustainable Landscape Patterns: A New Framework Based on Ecosystem Service Flows

Integrating the flow of supply and demand of ecosystem services (ESs) into the ecological security pattern (ESP) of coastal ecosystems with extremely fragile ecological backgrounds and contradictory human–land relationships is beneficial to the coordinated development of human–land systems. However, existing studies ignore the issue of scales of supply–demand linkages, making the ESP not properly guide sustainable development. Based on ESs delivery chain theory and landscape ecology approaches, we developed a sustainable development framework consisting of coupled microscopic natural–social systems. The method was tested using data from the Liao River Delta. In this study area, the natural supply potential and demand mapping distribution of key ESs were assessed to identify ecological sources in the Liao River Delta, a typical coastal zone in northern China. The resistance surface based on land use type assignment was modified using hydrological connectivity frequency and nighttime light intensity. Ecological corridors were extracted and optimized using a minimum cumulative resistance model and connectivity evaluation. The study found that the high supply area and the high demand reflection area are not consistent in location and supply level. Ecological source areas are evenly distributed, accounting for 12% of the total area. The ecological corridors are mainly concentrated in the west and southeast and do not cross the built-up areas in the east. This ESP framework safeguards the local demand for natural products and the natural potential to maintain services over the longer term and to a larger scale while informing the development of environmental management measures.

Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food system in Abeshge District, Central Ethiopia

Introduction: The agricultural-food system delivery chain, which connects producers to consumers, incorporates on-farm activities in production and distribution. The chain has faced a challenge during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic (Fan et al., 2021). It is essential to address COVID-19’s existing and potential impacts on the agri-food sector from the perspectives of both food supply and food demand. In this commentary, I report on a study conducted in 2021 to assess the effect of COVID-19 on the food system both in production and distribution aspects in the Abeshge District of central Ethiopia. The survey revealed that residents in the district had an average level of food consumption during the outbreak of COVID-19. The survey also suggests that COVID-19–related restrictions launched by the Ethiopian government could hamper crop value chains, with negative effects on farmers’ income from food production and distribution.

Role of insulin signaling pathway in apoptosis induced by food chain delivery of nano-silver under the action of environmental factors

ObjectiveTo investigate how the environmental factor affects the delivery of nano silver through food chain, we set up a two-stage food delivery chain model of Escherichia coli and Caenorhabditis elegans system. MethodsThrough a two-stage food delivery chain model of E. coli and C. elegans, the mRNA expression levels of DAF-2, age-1, PDK-1, Akt-1 and DAF-16 in the insulin growth factor 1 signaling pathway in nematode gonad cells which occurs AgNPs induced apoptosis were evaluated and the apoptosis of gonad cells in the mutant strains of the above key genes were detected. ResultsDAF-2, age-1, PDK-1 and Akt-1 could significantly negatively regulate the apoptosis of nematode cells induced by AgNPs, while DAF-16 could significantly promote the apoptosis induced by AgNPs. The DAF-16 up-regulated expression was a protective effect on the body and the phenomenon of DNA double-strand breaks was significantly increased. The damage effect induced by AgNPs was significantly enhanced in the presence of the environmental factor fulvic acid. ConclusionThe damage effect induced by AgNPs after food delivery involves the regulation of the insulin growth factor 1 signaling pathway and environmental factors have a significant impact on the biological effects.

Chemical investigation on Salvia officinalis L. Affected by multiple drying techniques – The comprehensive analytical approach (HS-SPME, GC–MS, LC-MS/MS, GC-O and NMR)

In light of large scale production of Salvia officinalis L. and its complex storage and delivery chain, the efficient preservation process is required. At this moment, the most popular preservation method is drying, therefore a comprehensive experiment to evaluate the influence of multiple drying techniques on sage was conducted. Convective drying at 40, 50 and 60 °C, vacuum-microwave drying with powers 240, 360 and 480 W and combined drying consisting of convective pre-drying at 50 °C followed by vacuum-microwave finish-drying with power 360 W were applied. To evaluate the effect of particular procedures chemical analyses were performed, namely evaluation of changes in bioactive volatile constituents, odour-active compounds and various groups of non-volatile bioactive constituents of sage. The obtained results shown, that to receive the product with expected quality, it is necessary to identify the designation of the product before treatment, since particular groups of phytochemicals react differently during drying.

Route Optimization for E-Commerce Logistic Systems

E-Commerce Business is widely spread all around the world, and explored by almost half the population of the world, because of its facility that it provides doorstep delivery. You just need to place the order on e-commerce website and within Two to three days max the order gets delivered at your doorstep. But it’s a challenge for e-commerce logistic department (ECL) to manage this order and delivery chain. They need to have a predefined strong network of order and delivery chain. While delivering the small parcels e-commerce department considers delivery assistant/ Boy to deliver these parcels. For a Single Delivery assistant it’s very hard and headache job to deliver packages accordingly. Here the problem arrives of last mile distribution, completing target deliveries before deadline. This project aims to solve the last-mile distribution of e-commerce logistics (ECL) for the survival of third-party logistics enterprise. Delivery assistant have software which navigates them towards the delivery address. But this creates headache and waste of time while delivering parcels one by one separately without having an optimized route which connects all the target parcels to be delivered in a day. Route Optimization software needs to develop to solve these problems. This project aims to develop an optimized solution on above problems based on multiple source multiple destination approach using Dijkstra’s algorithm and scripted using python libraries. On this basis, the improved Dijkstra was proved effective through example analysis on the said test data sets. The analysis results also reflect how the number of vehicles affects the maximum profit of the logistics enterprise and the coverage of the ECL logistics network.

PharmaChain: A blockchain to ensure counterfeit‐free pharmaceutical supply chain

Globalisation has facilitated different industries to eliminate geographical boundaries and equipped organisations to work collectively to produce goods. Pharmaceuticals is one such industry which has majorly benefited from globalisation to reduce costs and increase profitability at different aspects of research, development, manufacturing of drugs and finally distribution of drugs. Globalisation not only reduces costs and increases profits for the industry, it also makes essential medication available to all individuals even at remote areas of undeveloped, developing and developed countries. As the number of entities or participants grew in the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain (PSC), the complexity and abstractness of the drug delivery from manufacturer to consumer has increased, which raised new concerns like counterfeit medication, incorrect, incomplete or no information about the drug reaching the consumer thus undermining customer confidence and most importantly distribution delays which can cause serious impact on the life of the consumer as well as business growth. Considering all these challenges, there is a dire need for a robust PSC which can eliminate blind parties and provide a transparent chain. A transparent PSC will eliminate data fragmentation between different participating entities by creating a trail of secure, single source of truth for the entire life cycle of a medicine, thereby eliminating the introduction of counterfeits and ensuring the consumer safety. This article proposes a novel Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) based transparent supply chain for PSC and proof-of-concept is implemented to analyse the scalability and efficiency of the proposed architecture. Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is one of the technologies which can provide such transparent PSC and Smart Contracts (SC) are the most commonly used component in such systems to implement business logic and access control mechanisms. The proposed PharmaChain model investigates all the interactions between the main entities in PSC and also addresses smart contract issues such as re-entrance, randomness and lacking trustworthy data feed. Results are compared with other proposed solutions for PSC based on DLT.

Оценка возможностей транспортно-экспедиторской компании при проектировании цепи доставки груза

Purpose: To explore the ways to improve the quality of freight forwarding services, to reduce transport constituent in price as well as the possibilities to improve supply chains in modern conditions using quality management methods. To evaluate the possibilities and to select a priority freight forwarding company in accordance with cargo owner requests. To do this, first to analyze the needs of cargo owners for transportation and then to transfer the cargo owner’s requests into technical and technological requirements for being provided services with the help of “quality house” matrix. To analyze the possibilities of integration of expert assessment into quality function development methodology. Methods: Quality function development method, quality house design, pairwise matching method, order scale design. Calculating procedure for concordance value is presented. Results: The necessity to transfer cargo owner requests into technical and technological characteristics is shown in order to align the requirements on delivery chain and being provided services. The general provisions for quality house design are presented for the possibility of using the expert method at the stage of evaluation of competing freight forwarding companies. Practical importance: The possibility of improving services quality in freight forwarding companies in accordance with cargo owner requirement is shown.