Cold Products Research Articles

Influence of temperature on variety‐seeking behavior

AbstractThis research investigates the influences of product temperature, and its interaction with ambient temperature on variety‐seeking behavior. Results from two studies show that product temperature exerts a significant influence on variety‐seeking behavior, with cold products stimulating a higher level of variety‐seeking behavior in participants than normal or warm products. Moreover, the effect of product temperature on variety‐seeking behavior is moderated by ambient temperature. Practical implications of these findings are included.Practical ApplicationIn terms of practical application, ice cream in supermarkets can be taken as an example of a cold product. Suppose a special offer provides consumers with a wider variety of choices, allowing them to choose various combinations of flavors such as mango, strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate. As low‐temperature environments induce greater variety‐seeking behavior in consumers, it is suggested that marketing personnel formulate strategies with this in mind. For instance, Costco has a refrigerated space for fruits and vegetables that has a lower temperature than other spaces in the warehouse. Special offers could be made for combinations of different products in this space, such as different types of mushrooms.

Unsupervised tag recommendation for popular and cold products

The rapid expansion of the Internet and its connectivity has given tremendous growth to e-commerce sites. Product reviews form an indispensable part of e-commerce sites. However, it is challenging and laborious to go through hundreds of reviews. In this paper, we address the problem of summarizing reviews by means of informative and readable tags. We present a novel unsupervised method of generating tags and rank them based on relevance. We refine the generated tags using NLP syntactic rules to make them more informative. Our proposed Tagging Product Review (TPR) system takes into consideration the opinions expressed on the product or its aspects. We also address the problem of tag generation for cold products, which have only a limited number of reviews and that too, with very short content. We use transfer learning to build a tag cloud from popular product reviews and use it to identify good tags from cold product reviews. We evaluate our proposed system using online reviews of twelve products of varying popularity, collected from Amazon.com. Our result demonstrates the effectiveness of our approach at generating relevant tags compared to three popular baseline methods. Our proposed approach gives an average tag relevance score (NDCG) of around 79% for popular products and 85% for cold products. Our approach also gives an average precision of 89% for identifying correct tags. The results suggest that our TPR system successfully summarize reviews by means of tags.

Cooling and Heating Treatment Device Based on Semiconductor Refrigeration Technology

For the traditional cold and hot compress products, it is not easy to carry, the cooling and heating speed is slow and the temperature is uncontrollable. This paper proposes a safe, pollution-free, portable cold and hot therapy device. We can view and adjust temperature by using semiconductor refrigeration chip, temperature controller, wireless Bluetooth, controller, cooling fan and other modules. With this technology, cold and hot compress function can be switched easily. Putting medicine bag with traditional Chinese herb on the device is beneficial to improve blood circulation and body immunity. It can be also promote the absorption of inflammatory exudation and edema. Putting water bag on it, the metabolism of blood seepage, blood stasis and hematoma can be reduced.

From Sleeplessness to Slumber: Person-Centered Approach to Insomnia

From Sleeplessness to Slumber: Person-Centered Approach to Insomnia

Analysis of the cold chain in the hospital pharmacy: case of the university hospital centre in Morocco

The drugs market has experienced lately a significant diversification in the types of medical treatments and some of them use medicines that require a mode of preservation under specific temperature ranges. In fact, the purpose of the drugs cold chain is to guarantee the respect of these temperature ranges throughout the drug circuit, namely transport and storage until the administration to patients. Actually, a large number of healthcare organisations suffer from the defectiveness of the cold chain products following the non-compliance of the required temperatures. Sometimes, the defect is not detected due to temperature traceability problems and the products can be administrated to the patients and have serious effects on their health. The main purpose of this paper is then to analyse the cold chain in the hospital pharmacy. The analysis will concern the general cartography proposed in this paper, namely the different actors and procedures of this chain. Finally, the failures of the drugs cold chain in the Moroccan regulation will be analysed and thus will be proposed the different orientations that the government must adopt in order to follow the progress of the international regulation.

Analysis of the cold chain in the hospital pharmacy: case of the university hospital centre in Morocco

The drugs market has experienced lately a significant diversification in the types of medical treatments and some of them use medicines that require a mode of preservation under specific temperature ranges. In fact, the purpose of the drugs cold chain is to guarantee the respect of these temperature ranges throughout the drug circuit, namely transport and storage until the administration to patients. Actually, a large number of healthcare organisations suffer from the defectiveness of the cold chain products following the non-compliance of the required temperatures. Sometimes, the defect is not detected due to temperature traceability problems and the products can be administrated to the patients and have serious effects on their health. The main purpose of this paper is then to analyse the cold chain in the hospital pharmacy. The analysis will concern the general cartography proposed in this paper, namely the different actors and procedures of this chain. Finally, the failures of the drugs cold chain in the Moroccan regulation will be analysed and thus will be proposed the different orientations that the government must adopt in order to follow the progress of the international regulation.

Economic and environmental models for cold products with time varying demand

In response to the rising public concerns on environmental issues and the recently imposed governmental legislations and directives in this regard, companies nowadays ought to constantly adopt sustainable practices in their day-to-day operations. To that end, this paper seeks to optimize the replenishment strategy for a firm (e.g. retailer), who is facing a discrete time-varying demand for a temperature-sensitive (cold) product, while taking into account carbon emissions resulting from transportation and storage activities. In essence, the problem tackled herein is a variant of the classical dynamic lot-sizing problem (DLSP) for cold products with limited shelf life. To better resemble reality, we assume a stepwise cost function that is proportional to the number of fixed-capacity refrigerated trucks and cold stores used. We present three mathematical models, with the first being a cost minimization model, the second a carbon footprint minimization model, and the third a hybrid model that utilizes the carbon tax policy to jointly optimize both economic and environmental measures. We identify several structural properties of the optimal solution to the three models leading to the development of an exact solution algorithm based on the dynamic programming approach. The results of the computational experiments suggest that accounting for environmental aspects induces a change in the cost minimizing lot-sizing policy, resulting in a minor increase in the operational cost where the savings in the CO2 related costs outweigh this minor increase. The two-way sensitivity analysis, conducted under randomized values of the demand, truck sizes, and cold stores capacities, indicates that higher savings in cost and carbon reductions are realized for increasing values of the carbon tax rate. Furthermore, on average, more cost savings and lower carbon emissions are also achieved when the values of the shelf life, truck size, and cold store capacity are increased.

Demand Prediction of Cold Chain Logistics Under B2C E-Commerce Model

In order to meet the increasing demand, the demand of cold chain logistics under the background of B2C e-commerce mode is predicted, to provide theoretical guidance for the development of cold chain logistics. A multivariate linear regression demand prediction model based on grey relational analysis is proposed. The present situation of cold chain logistics demand is as the basis for the analysis. Using appropriate quantitative analysis method, the factors affecting the demand of cold chain logistics are screened, and the selection principles of logistics demand evaluation index for cold chain products are determined, including product supply, logistics demand scale, and cold chain efficiency and so on. The grey correlation analysis is used to standardize the data sequence and calculate the correlation degree between the factors. The factor of large correlation degree is chosen as the key factor, and the multivariate linear regression prediction equation is constructed. According to the progressive regression idea, the model is amended to improve the goodness of fit of the model. The grey multivariate regression model is applied to predict and analyze the cold chain logistics demand of a fruit product in a certain city. The result shows that the model can predict the demand of cold chain logistics accurately.

Effect of Humidity on Condensation in Vapour Compression Refrigeration System for Fresh Foods Transport Vehicles

In today’s world the developed countries rely on the refrigerated container (reefer) vehicles for the transportation of cold chain products such as fresh foods. In India this technology was introduced in late 1980s but the growth was very slow compared to other countries and failed to match the international trends. However recently, with fast development of roadways, urbanisation and connectivity the reefers get a massive response. The reefers have several advantages but they consume considerable amount of electrical energy to operate. Reefer works based on vapour compression refrigeration cycle in which condenser is an important device. This condenser uses fan-blown atmospheric air over it to remove vaporization heat from refrigerant. The temperature of refrigerant after condensation has effects on Coefficient of performance (COP) of the refrigeration system. This temperature can be altered by the relative humidity of air. The result of our project shows that the increase in air humidity by 18.60% increases the COP by 11.37% and also it reduces the power consumption.

단열컨테이너 성능 향상을 통한 온도민감화물 수출경쟁력 강화 방안 연구

The international transport of temperature-sensitive products is an essential link between producers and consumers. The critical requirement of temperature-sensitive cargo is to deliver the products in the same condition/quality as they were shipped. Advanced postharvest technology and cold chain technology are essential to reduce food waste and to maintain high standards of safety and quality. Insulated containers are used to maintain a certain temperature for the products inside. Insulated containers are usually used to transport temperature-sensitive cargo a short distance since the insulated containers do not require a power supply. The high-insulated container has several advantages compared to a reefer container or air transportation. It can be utilized as a medium supplement between the reefer container with high logistics costs and the dry container which has no insulation performance in transportation of cold chain products. The high-insulated container shows moderate performance of conventional dry and reefer containers. The high-insulated container is economical as they are competitive on TSR and short-distance shipping routes. It has been investigated that the development of high-insulated containers would benefit both the shippers and the carriers in that they could provide new transport services.

PIH4 - Perceived Practice of Malaysian Community Pharmacists Towards the Sale of Pediatric Cough and Cold Products

PIH4 - Perceived Practice of Malaysian Community Pharmacists Towards the Sale of Pediatric Cough and Cold Products

Prototipe Alat Pemantauan Suhu untuk Rantai Dingin Produk Mengunakan Near Field Communication, Studi Kasus Distribusi Darah

Temperature monitoring apparatus is required for the distribution of certain products that are distributed using cold chain method. Temperature gauges that use analog and digital thermometers can not store temperature data in transit. The digital temperature register apparatus (logger) in the market temperature is relatively expensive and does not provide early warning if the temperature in the storage box products out of permitted temperature limits. The research developed a prototype of a temperature monitoring device for the distribution of cold chain products. Case studies on blood distribution are used as a basis for determining the need for temperature monitoring devices. The product prototype is made by stages in accordance with generic product development method. The resulting prototype can provide temperature information in the cold box during the course of blood distribution. The prototype can also provide warnings in the form of sounds and lights when the temperature inside the cold box is outside the ideal temperature limit / permitted for the blood distribution process. Temperature history data during the trip can be stored in NFC Tags. The data can then be read using smart-phone devices that feature NFC.

Trends in dextromethorphan cough and cold products: 2000–2015 National Poison Data System intentional abuse exposure calls

Context: Recent restrictions in access to and availability of dextromethorphan (DXM) cough and cold medications may correlate with changes in abuse exposures.Objective: To extend and update existing knowledge about DXM abuse, we describe recent trends and patterns of calls to poison control centers involving DXM abuse, by demographics, geography, common brands, and medical outcomes.Methods: We utilized data from the National Poison Data System (NPDS) maintained by the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC), which captures data on calls to U.S. poison centers on a near real-time basis. We analyzed demographic, geographic, brand and medical outcome data for single-substance DXM cough and cold product intentional abuse exposure calls in multiple age groups reported to NPDS from 2000 to 2015.Results: The annual rate of single-substance DXM intentional abuse calls tripled from 2000 to 2006 and subsequently plateaued from 2006 to 2015. The highest abuse call rate was observed among adolescents 14–17 years old, where the mean annual number of calls was 1761 per year, corresponding to an annual rate of 103.6 calls per million population. From 2006 to 2015, the rate for single-substance DXM abuse calls among adolescents 14–17 years decreased by 56.3%, from 143.8 to 80.9 calls per million population.Conclusion: DXM intentional abuse exposure call rates have declined among adolescents 14–17 years, since their peak in 2006. The observed decline in DXM abuse call rates corresponds to a period of growing public health efforts to curtail the abuse of over-the-counter (OTC) DXM containing products, particularly among adolescents. Further evaluation of state-level sales and abuse trends among adolescents would be valuable to better understand how restricted availability of OTC DXM cough and cold products and other efforts may affect abuse rates.

Perspectives of pharmacy staff on dispensing subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics: a theory informed qualitative study.

Background Injudicious dispensing of antibiotics in subtherapeutic doses is common in many developing countries. In Egypt, as in many developing countries, a few pills of common cold products are offered under the name cold group (CG). A cold group may contain one or more pills of antibiotics. A pharmacy client may obtain subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics upon direct request or as part of a CG. Objective To examine factors associated with the unwarranted dispensing of subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics in community pharmacies as part of a CG or upon direct request from patients among community pharmacy staff. Setting Community pharmacy staff in Alexandria, Egypt. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of community pharmacy staff. An interview guide was developed based on the theory of planned behavior. Constructs related to attitudes, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and perceived moral obligation were explored. Directed content analysis was conducted using interview data which were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Main outcome measures Community pharmacy staff's views on factors associated with the unwarranted dispensing of subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics. Results Nine Pharmacists and six pharmacy assistants were purposively sampled to assure variance in age, gender, time in practice and socioeconomic status of patients served by their corresponding pharmacies. Factors contributing to dispensing antibiotics injudiciously included incorrect beliefs about potential benefit of antibiotics, profit, client pressure, ease of obtaining antibiotics from other pharmacies, inadequate enforcement of the law, pharmacist absenteeism, and assuming that the 'nonmalfeasance' principle is not violated. Reasons for lying to clients about the actual content of CGs included protecting the patient from harm resulting from antibiotic resistance and avoiding a possible argument. Conclusions Examining constructs related to pharmacy staff's attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control as well as perceived moral obligation provided insight into community pharmacy staff's behavior related to dispensing subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics. Multi-tiered interventions are urgently needed to tackle different factors contributing to this dangerous practice.

Estudo exploratório da precificação dos cortes ovinos comercializados em mercados on line em diferentes países

O objetivo deste trabalho foi verificar o comportamento da precificação de cortes ovinos em diferentes mercados de comercialização on-line com o intuito de identificar fatores de agregação de valor para a cadeia produtiva da ovinocultura brasileira. Foram analisados 601 dados de diferentes países, nos meses de fevereiro, março e abril do ano de 2015 com base em uma pesquisa on-line. Os resultados mostram que a maior média de preço entre todos os países pesquisados é a dos Estados Unidos. Considerando somente o continente americano, Estados Unidos e Brasil apresentaram os primeiros lugares; no continente europeu a Escócia e na Oceania a Nova Zelândia foram os que apresentaram os primeiros lugares. Quanto ao porcionamento, os valores oscilaram de US$ 9,58/kg a US$ 28,25/kg, e os maiores valores foram observados para produtos em pedaços ou fatiados. Quanto à conservação, entre as observações com categorias informadas, resfriado, congelado e vácuo tiveram preços entre US$ 10,54/kg a US$ 15,78/kg. Nos miúdos comestíveis a maior média de preço foi para o pâncreas (US$ 31,08/kg). Entre as categorias carnes de cordeiro e carnes de ovelha, a primeira apresentou maior preço (US$ 20,53/kg) em relação à segunda (US$ 10,15/kg). Os preços mostraram alta variabilidade, provavelmente devido às variações culturais, de renda e hábitos gastronômicos de cada mercado.

Sensory evaluation of boar meat products by trained experts

Rearing entire male pigs, one of the alternatives for surgical castration, entails the possible occurrence of boar taint. This study aimed at the investigation of the acceptability of meat from entire male pigs in 8 different meat products (cutlets, bacon, blade loin, tenderloin, dry fermented sausage, cooked ham, dry-cured ham and minced meat) by trained assessors. Generally, the sensory evaluation of meat samples was affected the most in the androstenone (AEON) group, indicating that AEON is the most offensive boar taint compound for sensitive assessors. Differences between the meat products showed the highest potential for processing tainted meat in cold meat products, which was most likely due to the serving temperature on the one hand and production-related influences on the other. However, more insights regarding reducing and masking effects of production-related factors on boar taint are necessary.

Injudicious Provision of Subtherapeutic Doses of Antibiotics in Community Pharmacies

Background: Egyptian pharmacists routinely provide antibiotics without a prescription. A few pills of common cold products are offered under the name “cold group”. A cold group may contain one or more pills of antibiotics. This study aimed to estimate the proportion of pharmacies that provide subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics in community pharmacies as part of a CG or upon direct request from a simulated client. Methods: A probability sample of community pharmacies in Alexandria, Egypt was selected. A simulated client approached pharmacy staff using a standardized scenario. He initially requested a cold group and followed by requesting two antibiotic pills.Results: The simulated client visited 104 pharmacies and was sold an antibiotic at 68 pharmacies in total. A cold group with one or more antibiotic pills was provided in 31 pharmacies. Upon request for two antibiotic pills, 2-8 antibiotic pills were provided in 30 pharmacies whereas an antibiotic carton was provided in three pharmacies. In four pharmacies, the simulated client was sold a cold group containing an antibiotic as well as another antibiotic upon request. Beta-lactam antibiotics comprised 76% of antibiotics provided. In five encounters, the simulated client was told that the cold group contained an antibiotic when, in fact, it did not. Conclusions: Subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics are provided at dangerous rates in Alexandria’s community pharmacies. Interventions are urgently needed to tackle different factors contributing to this dangerous practice.
 Conflict of Interest
 We declare no conflicts of interest or financial interests that the authors or members of their immediate families have in any product or service discussed in the manuscript, including grants (pending or received), employment, gifts, stock holdings or options, honoraria, consultancies, expert testimony, patents and royalties
 
 Type: Original Research

Logistic Challenges Associated with Supply Chain Management of HIV/AIDS Programs in Cross River State, Nigeria

<i>Background</i>: Life-saving drugs such as anti-retroviral therapy and other critical supplies are becoming more accessible to millions of people living with HIV/AIDs. The modern pharmaceutical and laboratory commodity supply and management chain is complex and ravaged with numerous challenges. <i>Objective</i>: of this study is to examine health commodity supply chain management in relation to project implementation of HIV/AIDS and make recommendation for proper management and improvement. <i>Results</i>: ARVs and RTKs formed the basis of most expired commodities encountered. ARVs had 13 (23%) different products of different expiry dates while laboratory reagents had 39 (77%) products with different expiry dates. Two Sample T-Test and confidence interval for the parameters were carried out and T- calculated for both parameters were found to be less than T – table. The T- Cal for ARVs were -2.82 while T- Table is 1.71, also the T-Cal for lab reagents were -3.62 while T-Table was 1.69. This shows that there is no significant difference between the total cost of expired ARVs and expired laboratory reagents since the T-Cal for both products were less than T-Table. <i>Conclusion</i>: Total cost of 51,369.02USD of fund that was lost to expiry was a colossal loss to the project implementation. More funds, time and energy will still be spent on the retrieval, transportation and destruction of these expiries. Activities of different implementing partners (IPs) should be streamlined and rationalized among the IPs to prevent parallel and multiple supply of health commodities to the facilities. Also facility staff should be properly mentored and adequate technical assistance should be rendered to ensure good inventory management and proper storage of all health commodities especially all the cold chain products.

Injudicious Provision of Subtherapeutic Doses of Antibiotics in Community Pharmacies

Background: Egyptian pharmacists routinely provide antibiotics without a prescription. A few pills of common cold products are offered under the name “cold group”. A cold group may contain one or more pills of antibiotics. This study aimed to estimate the proportion of pharmacies that provide subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics in community pharmacies as part of a CG or upon direct request from a simulated client. Methods: A probability sample of community pharmacies in Alexandria, Egypt was selected. A simulated client approached pharmacy staff using a standardized scenario. He initially requested a cold group and followed by requesting two antibiotic pills.Results: The simulated client visited 104 pharmacies and was sold an antibiotic at 68 pharmacies in total. A cold group with one or more antibiotic pills was provided in 31 pharmacies. Upon request for two antibiotic pills, 2-8 antibiotic pills were provided in 30 pharmacies whereas an antibiotic carton was provided in three pharmacies. In four pharmacies, the simulated client was sold a cold group containing an antibiotic as well as another antibiotic upon request. Beta-lactam antibiotics comprised 76% of antibiotics provided. In five encounters, the simulated client was told that the cold group contained an antibiotic when, in fact, it did not. Conclusions: Subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics are provided at dangerous rates in Alexandria’s community pharmacies. Interventions are urgently needed to tackle different factors contributing to this dangerous practice. Conflict of Interest We declare no conflicts of interest or financial interests that the authors or members of their immediate families have in any product or service discussed in the manuscript, including grants (pending or received), employment, gifts, stock holdings or options, honoraria, consultancies, expert testimony, patents and royalties &nbsp; Type:&nbsp;Original Research

Smartphone determination of fat in cured meat products

A method has been developed to determine the fat content in different cold meat products by image processing using the camera of a mobile phone. Salchichón, chorizo, salami and cured ham pictures were taken with a Meizu M2 Mini mobile phone camera under fixed lighting conditions of the light emitting diode flash of the mobile phone. Images were treated with Matlab to obtain the mean pixels of average red, green and blue camera values colours (RGB) of the pixels and different data pretreatments were taken into account to correlate colour parameters with fat content values determined in a series of commercially available samples by the Soxhlet method. RGB values were used as input variable and its correlation with fat content of samples was studied using Partial Least Squares (PLS) and Support Vector Machine (SVM). The best correlation between fat content and RGB colour descriptors was found in salchichón and salami samples using SVM, with relative errors of calibration, cross-validation and prediction of 18%, 20% and 16%, respectively. So, the use of a Smartphone camera provides an easy, low-cost, eco-friendly and rapid method for fat content determination in cold meat products.