Earliest Finish Research Articles

205 An Adjusted SID-Thr:Lys Ratio Offsets Growth Performance Depressions in Finishing Pigs Fed Moderately High Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS)

Abstract Two experiments were conducted to determine the impact of dietary SID Thr:Lys ratio (THR) on the performance of grow-finishing pigs. In Experiment 1, a total of 1,152 pigs (initial BW = 21.0 ± 1.4 kg; 12 pens/treatment; 24 pigs/pen) were used in a randomized complete blocked design, with a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement of treatments containing 2 levels of DDGS (0 vs 25%) and 2 levels of THR (Low vs. High, 0.60 vs 0.67). Equal energy and nutrient levels that met or exceeded NRC (2012) requirements were achieved across treatments. A total of 1,056 pigs (initial BW=18.6 ± 1.9 kg; 16 pens/treatment; 22 pig/pen) were used in Experiment 2 with the same experimental design, except for the SID Thr:Lys ratios were formulated to 0.60, 0.60, 0.61, 0.62 and 0.63 in 5 dietary phases for Low THR, and +0.03 for all phases in High THR. The MIXED procedures were employed for statistical analysis. Orthogonal contrasts were applied to evaluate main effects of DDGS, THR, and their interactions. In the results, Experiment 1 showed from 20 to 60 kg of BW 25% DDGS inclusion reduced (P < 0.01) FBW (63.4 vs 61.2 kg), ADG (0.88 vs 0.84 kg/d), and G:F (0.50 vs 0.49). There was an interaction between DDGS and THR on G:F (P < 0.01), where High THR improved G:F in diets containing 25% DDGS. In Experiment 2, reduced ADG (0.88 vs 0.81 kg/d) and G:F (0.53 vs 0.51) were observed for pigs fed 25% DDGS in grower phase (P < 0.01). In the early finisher, increased THR in diets with 25% DDGS improved (P < 0.01) FBW (90.54 vs 94.12 kg), ADG (0.95 vs 1.07 kg/d), and tended to improve G:F (P < 0.10; 0.37 vs 0.41), but not in pigs fed 0% DDGS. In summary, these two studies demonstrated greater SID Thr:Lys ratio may help offset the negative impact of fibrous diets on BW gain and feed efficiency in grow-finishing pigs.

Optimized crew selection for scheduling of repetitive projects

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify optimum crew formations at unit execution level of repetitive projects that minimize project duration, project cost, crew work interruptions and interruption costs, simultaneously.Design/methodology/approachThe model consists of four modules. The first module quantifies uncertainties associated with the crew productivity rate and quantity of work using the fuzzy set theory. The second module identifies feasible boundaries for activity relaxation. The third module computes direct cost, indirect cost and interruption costs, including idle crew cost as well as mobilization and demobilization costs. The fourth module identifies near-optimum crew formation using a newly developed multi-objective optimization model.FindingsThe developed model was able to provide improvements of 0.2, 16.86 and 12.98% for minimization of project cost, crew work interruptions and interruption costs from US$1,505,960, 8.3 days and US$8,300, as recently reported in the literature, to US$1,502,979, 6.9 days and US$7,222, respectively, without impacting the optimized project duration.Originality/valueThe novelty of this paper lies in its activity-relaxation free float that considers the effect of postponing early finish dates of repetitive activities on crew work interruptions. The introduced new float allows for calculating the required crew productivity rate that minimizes crew work interruptions without delaying successor activities and without impacting the optimized project duration. It safeguards against assignment of unnecessary costly resources.

Determinants of lost theatre capacity.

Secondary care Trusts nationwide are continuing to fail the 18-week referral to treatment (RTT) target despite several initiatives to improve theatre efficiency (2018 NHS England review). A limitation of wasted theatre productivity is required to alleviate pressures on waiting lists. Productivity, which is a measure of treatment time as a proportion of available/allocated time, takes into consideration variations in operator performance, early (non-funded) theatre starts, and over-run, and its analysis enables the determination of theatre downtime and lost theatre capacity. We monitored productivity over a 12-week period and performed downtime analysis as reported in the NHS Improvement national audit (NHSI). Results showed a marked but predictable variation in productivity connected to turnaround and session list scheduling. Productivity and booking efficiency correlated uniformly (Pearson's r=0.82). Theatre downtime was analysed with respect to three components defined in the NHSI national audit: late starts, early finish, and turnaround. We found that lost theatre time was predominantly due to early finishes; late starts were infrequent. Transport time correlated unfavourably with productivity (Pearson's r=-0.29, p=0.037) and over-run (r=0.44), and prolonged transport times were shorter when surgery was performed in a dedicated day surgery unit. Calculating the mean transport times for lists with high compared with low productivity helped us set a benchmark for patient transport times for future audit.

Enhanced Heuristic Cloudlet Allocation Based on Execution Time and Earliest Finish Time

Enhanced Heuristic Cloudlet Allocation Based on Execution Time and Earliest Finish Time

Tailoring microstructure and texture of annealed Al-Mn alloy through the variation of homogenization and prior cold deformation strain

The grain structures and crystallographic textures desired for various applications of aluminium alloys are usually modified by recrystallization during annealing. In this study, the interactions between recrystallization and precipitation were investigated using the same Al-Mn alloy but with different homogenization procedures (which gives different microchemistries in terms of solute level and second phase particle state) and prior cold deformation strains, both of which are easy to realize in industrial practice. The results show that recrystallization and precipitation kinetics are both promoted at large deformations but their mutual interactions also exist. Recrystallization is retarded by precipitation through the suppressing of nucleation and pinning of grain boundary migration, while early finish of recrystallization delays precipitation by reducing their nucleation sites. The delicate interplay between recrystallization and precipitation during annealing leads to different combinations of grain structures and textures. An equiaxed fine grain structure can be obtained when recrystallization is not affected by fine particles while the combined effects of a strong fibrous deformation structure, suppressed nucleation of recrystallization and preferential growth lead to a coarse elongated grain structure. Different crystallographic textures desired for typical applications of Al-Mn alloys can be obtained after annealing simply through the different combinations of homogenization procedures and prior cold deformations.

ACCESS TO LEADERSHIP EFFICACY: Those Who Start Early Finish Ahead

An increasing number of studies point to student gains from participation in leadership development opportunities. However, very little research exists to explore who has access to these experiences. In this paper, we investigate whether a student’s employment off-campus has an impact on their ability to participate in, and experience gains in leadership efficacy from leadership training opportunities. We employ a linear regression path analysis to identify potential relationships between pre-college leadership efficacy, off-campus employment, participation in leadership training opportunities, and leadership efficacy for undergraduate students at a university in the Pacific Northwest. Pre-college leadership efficacy was the strongest predictor of leadership efficacy for undergraduate students, with hours of employment and leadership training having small, but significant, mediating effects. This begs the question: How do students build their leadership efficacy prior to entering post-secondary education and what drives students to continue to pursue experiences that develop their leadership efficacy?

Identification of Hemorrhages in Iris Using Hybrid Morphological Method

In the field of ophthalmology, hemorrhage is the term used more often because of increasing diabetic patients. It’s a challenge amidst the ophthalmologist to distinguish the hemorrhage from the blood vessels, these lands in various problems. In the past various techniques were employed for the detection of the hemorrhage but they were not so accurate and often encountered misclassification between hemorrhage and blood vessels. Precise detection and classification of hemorrhage and blood vessel is very important in the diagnosis of many problems. This paper depicts a mechanized procedure for recognizing hemorrhages in fundus pictures. The acknowledgment of hemorrhages is one of the critical factors in the early finish of diabetic retinopathy. The algorithm proceeds through several steps such as image enhancement, image subtraction, morphological operations such as image thresholding, image strengthening, image thinning, erosion, morphological closing, image complement to suppress blood vessels and to highlight the hemorrhages

An audit of operating theatre utilisation and day-of-surgery cancellations at a regional hospital in the Durban metropole.

Operating theatres account for a significant proportion of hospital costs. There is a paucity of data evaluating utilisation of South African (SA) state operating theatres. To measure operating theatre utilisation and the rate of day-of-surgery cancellations (DOSCs) in a state hospital theatre complex. A prospective audit of a state operating theatre complex at a Durban regional hospital was performed between 26 February and 26April 2018. Times were collected for each theatre case from the entry of the patient into theatre to their departure to the post-anaesthetic care unit. This was done on weekdays between 08h00 and 16h00. The factors causing any delays and DOSCs were identified and recorded. Over the study period, 125 220 operative minutes were available for both elective and emergency operating theatres; 655 elective cases and 359 emergency cases were performed. Overall theatre utilisation was 55.2%, with actual operating time comprising only 36.9% of all available time. Non-operative time occupied 63.1% of all available time, split between late starts (9.3%), early list finishes (16.1%), changeover times (19.4%) and anaesthetic time (18.3%). The DOSC rate was 26.2%, with 232 cases cancelled on the day of surgery. Just under half of the DOSCs were avoidable. The most common reason for cancellation was lack of operative time. Measured theatre utilisation was higher than previously quoted figures for SA state hospitals, but below international benchmarks. A significant amount of time was wasted as a result of delayed first-case starts, prolonged changeovers and early terminations of lists, all of which contributed to a high DOSC rate. Before more theatre time can be made available, theatre users must first optimise use of currently available time. Further studies quantifying the effect of staff shortages in state operating theatres on inefficient use of time are required.

Task Assignment Algorithm Based on Trust in Volunteer Computing Platforms

In volunteer computing (VC), the expected availability time and the actual availability time provided by volunteer nodes (VNs) are usually inconsistent. Scheduling tasks with precedence constraints in VC under this situation is a new challenge. In this paper, we propose two novel task assignment algorithms to minimize completion time (makespan) by a flexible task assignment. Firstly, this paper proposes a reliability model, which uses a simple fuzzy model to predict the time interval provided by a VN. This reliability model can reduce inconsistencies between the expected availability time and actual availability time. Secondly, based on the reliability model, this paper proposes an algorithm called EFTT (Earliest Finish Task based on Trust, EFTT), which can minimize makespan. However, EFTT may induce resource waste in task assignment. To make full use of computing resources and reduce task segmentation rate, an algorithm IEFTT (improved earliest finish task based on trust, IEFTT) is further proposed. Finally, experimental results verify the efficiency of the proposed algorithms.

Description, evaluation, and validation of the Teagasc Pig Production Model1.

The Teagasc Pig Production Model (TPPM), a stochastic simulation model of a farrow-to-finish pig farm, was developed to investigate effects of changes in production systems on farm profitability. The model simulates, on a weekly basis, the annual production of a farm. Biological [e.g., herd size, number of litters/sow/year, and mortality rates (%)], physical (e.g., infrastructure), and technical (e.g., feeding practices) variables and their associated costs are included as components of the model. These inputs are used to calculate physical (e.g., feed usage and number of pigs slaughtered) and financial (e.g., annual cash flow, profit and loss account, and balance sheet) outputs. The model was validated using the Delphi method and by comparing the TPPM outputs to data recorded on 20 Irish pig farms through the Teagasc e-Profit monitor system and with complete receipts for the year 2016. Results showed that the TPPM closely simulates physical and financial performance of pig farms indicating that the TPPM can be used with confidence to study pig production systems under Irish conditions. Model applicability was demonstrated by investigating the impact of 2 changes in technical performance: 1) building of extra accommodation to increase body weight (BW) at sale by 15 kg (EXTRA ROOM) and 2) a change in feeding practices by providing finisher feed from 28 kg of BW (EARLY FINISHER) compared with over 38 kg of BW. In both scenarios, the same biological parameters were used. Mortality rates, feed ingredients costs, and price per kg of meat produced were included as stochastic variables with the input distributions derived based on historical data simulated using Monte Carlo sampling using the Microsoft Excel add-in @Risk. Annual mean net profit was €198,101 (90% confidence interval [CI]: €119,606-€275,539) for the TPPM base farm, €337,078 (90% CI: €246,320-€426,809) for the EXTRA ROOM, and €225,598 (90% CI: €146,685-€303,590) for the EARLY FINISHER. EXTRA ROOM was associated with higher costs and required higher income to cover the additional costs. The 90% CI of the EARLY FINISHER was similar to the TPPM base farm while the EXTRA ROOM scenario resulted in a wider confidence interval, suggesting that a change in feeding practices could be a better option for farmers looking to improve profit with minimum investment. Thus, the TPPM could be used to facilitate decision making in farrow-to-finish pig farms.

HPEFT for Hierarchical Heterogeneous Multi-DAG in a Multigroup Scan UPA System

Multidirected acyclic graph (DAG) workflow scheduling is a key problem in the heterogeneous distributed environment in the distributed computing field. A hierarchical heterogeneous multi-DAG workflow problem (HHMDP) was proposed based on the different signal processing workflows produced by different grouping and scanning modes and their hierarchical processing in specific functional signal processing modules in a multigroup scan ultrasonic phased array (UPA) system. A heterogeneous predecessor earliest finish time (HPEFT) algorithm with predecessor pointer adjustment was proposed based on the improved heterogeneous earliest finish time (HEFT) algorithm. The experimental results denote that HPEFT reduces the makespan, ratio of the idle time slot (RITS), and missed deadline rate (MDR) by 3.87–57.68%, 0–6.53%, and 13–58%, respectively, and increases relative relaxation with respect to the deadline (RLD) by 2.27–8.58%, improving the frame rate and resource utilization and reducing the probability of exceeding the real-time period. The multigroup UPA instrument architecture in multi-DAG signal processing flow was also provided. By simulating and verifying the scheduling algorithm, the architecture and the HPEFT algorithm is proved to coordinate the order of each group of signal processing tasks for improving the instrument performance.

The influence of feeding behaviour on growth performance, carcass and meat characteristics of growing pigs.

This study investigated the effect of the feeding behaviour on growth performance, and carcass and meat characteristics of 96 barrows fed ad libitum or restrictively with high or low amino acids (AA) diets according to a 2 × 2 factorial design. The feeding behaviour traits were measured with automated feeders. From 86 kg BW, half of the pigs were given feeds with high indispensable (AA) contents, while the other half received feeds with indispensable AA contents reduced by 9% in early finishing (86–118 kg BW) and by 18% in late finishing (118–145 kg BW). Body lipid and protein retentions were estimated from BW and backfat depth measures recorded at the beginning and end of each period. Pigs were slaughtered at 145 kg BW and carcass and meat quality data were recorded. Phenotypic correlations among feeding behaviours, growth performances, and carcass and meat traits were computed from all the data after adjustment for the effects of feeding treatments. As feeding rate was the behavioural trait most highly correlated with performance and carcass traits, the records of each pig were classified into feeding rate tertiles. Then, the data were statistically analysed using a mixed model, which included feed restriction (FR), AA reduction (AAR), the FR × AAR interaction and the feeding rate tertile as fixed factors, and pen as a random factor. Pigs eating faster (52.1 to 118.9 g/min) had significantly greater final body weights (16%), average daily weight gains (27%), estimated protein gains (22%), estimated lipid retention (46%), carcass weights (16%), weights of lean cuts (14%), weights of fat cuts (21%), proportions of fat in the carcass (14%), and 4% lower proportions of carcass lean cuts than pigs eating slowly (12.6 to 38.2 g/min). Manipulating the eating rate, through management or genetic strategies, could affect feed intake and subsequent growth performance, hence carcass quality, but have little influence on feed efficiency.

Meta-Heuristics Based Load Balancing Optimization in Cloud Environment on Underflow and Overflow Conditions

In cloud environment, the main challenge is load balancing as it requires distributing the load among many various virtual machines (VM) while avoiding underflow and overflow conditions. In this article, the question that which load-balancing (overflow or underflow) management will better improves the performance and quality of service has been answered with a number of experiments. For experiment purpose, scientific workflow DAG files has been used with one host configuration. Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) and BAT algorithm are used for checking underflow and overflow conditions respectively for VMs. In proposed work, initially the workflow is parsed by Predict Earliest Finish Time (PEFT) heuristic to generate initial seed for meta-heuristic algorithms which will optimize the VM in terms of makespan and cost of execution. Different workflows have been used with varying number of VMs from 2 to 20. The results shows that makespan analysis is approximately overlapped for different workflow tasks and shows no significant difference however, the cost analysis show a significant change for overflow and underflow identification with cost for overflow condition is reduced significantly.

PHEFT: Pessimistic Image Processing Workflow Scheduling for DSP Clusters

We address image processing workflow scheduling problems on a multicore digital signal processor cluster. We present an experimental study of scheduling strategies that include task labeling, prioritization, resource selection, and digital signal processor scheduling. We apply these strategies in the context of executing the Ligo and Montage applications. To provide effective guidance in choosing a good strategy, we present a joint analysis of three conflicting goals based on performance degradation. A case study is given, and experimental results demonstrate that a pessimistic scheduling approach provides the best optimization criteria trade-offs. The Pessimistic Heterogeneous Earliest Finish Time scheduling algorithm performs well in different scenarios with a variety of workloads and cluster configurations.

Effects of feed allowance and indispensable amino acid reduction on feed intake, growth performance and carcass characteristics of growing pigs.

The hypothesis that pigs placed on diets with reduced indispensable amino acid (AA) content attempts to offset the reduction in the nutrient density with increased feed intake was tested. In the experiment, feeds with a high or a low AA content were administrated to pigs fed ad-libitum or restrictively according to a 2 × 2 factorial design. Ninety-six barrows were housed in 8 pens (12 pigs/pen) equipped with automatic feeders. Within pen, and from 47 body weight (BW) onwards, 6 pigs were fed ad libitum. The others pigs were allowed to consume, as a maximum, the feed amounts indicated by the breeding company feeding plane to optimize the feed efficiency. In early (86–118 kg BW) and late (118–145 kg BW) finishing, the pigs of 4 pens received feeds with high indispensable AA contents (8.1 and 7.5 g lysine/kg in the two periods, respectively). The other pigs received feeds with reduced indispensable AA contents (lysine, methionine, threonine and tryptophan) by 9 and 18% in early and late finishing, respectively. Body lipid and protein (Pr) retentions were estimated from BW and back-fat depth measures recorded at the beginning and the end of each period. Nitrogen excretion was estimated as actual intake minus estimated N-retention (Pr/6.25). Pigs were slaughtered at 144 kg BW. Restricted feeding decreased feed intake (-7%), daily gain (-5%), carcass weight (-2.6%) and back-fat depth (-8.0%) but increased gain:feed ratio (+2%). The AA restriction increased feed intake (+5.9%), carcass weight (+4.9%) and intramuscular fat (+17.6%), and reduced carcass weight variation (-36%), with no effects on the feed efficiency and the estimated Pr (142 g/d). N excreted was reduced by feed (-9%) and dietary AA (-15%) restrictions. Irrespectively of the feeding level, the pigs responded to a reduction of the dietary essential AA content by increasing their feed intake.

Extended operating times are more efficient, save money and maintain a high staff and patient satisfaction.

Current public sector austerity measures necessitate efficiency savings throughout the NHS. Performance targets have resulted in activity being performed in the private sector, waiting list initiative lists and requests for staff to work overtime. This has resulted in staff fatigue and additional agency costs. Adoption of extended operating theatre times (0800-1800 hours) may improve productivity and efficiency, with potentially significant financial savings; however, implementation may adversely affect staff morale and patient compliance. A pilot period of four months of extended operating times (4.5 hour sessions) was completed and included all theatre surgical specialties. Outcome measures included: the number of cases completed, late starts, early finishes, cancelled operations, theatre overruns, preoperative assessment and 18-week targets. The outcomes were then compared to pre-existing normal working day operating lists (0900-1700). Theatre staff, patient and surgical trainee satisfaction with the system were also considered by use of an anonymous questionnaire. The study showed that in-session utilisation time was unchanged by extended operating hours 88.7% (vs 89.2%). The service was rated as 'good' or 'excellent' by 87.5% of patients. Over £345,000 was saved by reducing premium payments. Savings of £225,000 were made by reducing privately outsourced operation and a further £63,000 by reviewing staff hours. Day case procedures increased from 2.8 to 3.2 cases/day with extended operating. There was no significant increase in late starts (5.1% vs 6.8%) or cancellation rates (0.75% vs 1.02%). Theatre over-runs reduced from 5% to 3.4%. The 18 weeks target for surgery was achieved in 93.7% of cases (vs 88.3%). The number of elective procedures increased from 4.1 to 4.89 cases/day. Only 13.33% of trainees (n = 33) surveyed felt that extended operating had a negative impact on training. The study concludes that extended operating increased productivity from 2.8 patients per session to 3.2 patients per session with potential savings of just over £2.4 million per financial year. Extrapolating this to the other 155 trusts in England could be a potential saving of £372 million per year. Staff, trainee and patient satisfaction was unaffected. An improved 18 weeks target position was achieved with a significant reduction in private sector work. However, some staff had difficulty with arranging childcare and taking public transport and this may prevent full implementation.

Communication-aware task scheduling algorithm for heterogeneous computing

In this paper, we propose a new task scheduling algorithm for heterogeneous computing platforms, called communication-aware earliest finish time (CEFT). It combines the features of list-scheduling and task-duplication, where task priority is assigned according to communication ratio (CR), a notion defined to represent communication cost. We also present a duplication mechanism, which cooperates with CR to reduce the communication overhead. The time complexity of the algorithm is O(v2 • p), for v tasks and p processors. The experiment results show that CEFT algorithm improves performance by 11% compared with the state-of-the-art list-based algorithm PEFT, and 15.6% compared with duplication-based algorithm HDCPD, in terms of scheduling length ratio. CEFT is the best algorithm compared with PEFT, HDCPD and HEFT regarding to efficiency and average surplus time as well.

Using Critical Path Method for Making Process Layout of a T-Shirt within Earliest Finish Time

Apparel business applies different techniques to keep pace with the incremental competition conditions and changing consumer demands. The new design needs new analysis; new manufacturing technique which will take much more time. There is no practice of scientific analysis to manufacturing a new design garment. Critical path method is one of the most effective techniques which is a systematic approach to identifying and reducing manufacturing time through the earliest start time and the earliest finish time and also provides a scientific method for product manufacturing and whole production management. This study was carried out at a men’s T- shirt producer i.e., a ready wear company. The current state of the production lines was analyzed within the scope of the study. Then t-shirt production lines were organized with the CPM techniques. The main strategy of CPM was estimated actual operation time by decreasing traditional manufacturing time. As a result, using of the CPM in garment manufacturing less the lead time of production time as well as the whole manufacturing system gets a new approach and also manufacturer are able to produce the product within minimum possible time and the apparel manufacturer will be able to fabricate contemporary fashion production project.

A Security Aware Resource Allocation Model for Cloud Based Healthcare Workflows

Objective: Cloud Computing is the new model in distributed computing that provides Software as a service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and Platform as a service (PaaS). Researchers utilize the services of cloud for running large scale data and other computation intensive applications like healthcare workflows. The major issue arises while allocating the cloud resources to the task in the workflows, in this paper an efficient scheduling method for work flow has been proposed. Analysis: The applications are modeled as workflows which include dependent tasks that are represented as a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) considering every node as a job. The known algorithms cannot solve the problem of resource allocation, and are categorized as NP hard problem. Findings: The proposed hybrid workflow scheduling algorithm which is the combination of Heterogeneous Earliest Finish Time (HEFT) and Security Aware and Budget Aware (SABA) algorithm helps to schedule the workflow efficiently with reduced makespan and required security services.

Effect of Particle Size and Carbide Band on the Flow Behavior of Ferrite-Cementite Steel

A microstructure-based representative volume element (RVE) method is employed for simulating the mechanical properties of the alloy steel 42CrMo4, a typical ferrite–cementite steel with ferrite (α) and spheroid cementite (θ) phases. A series of 2D RVEs with ferrite matrix and globular cementite particles are generated according to various microstructures, among which the geometrically necessary dislocation (GND) accumulation at the α–θ interphase is introduced as a coating layer around the cementite particles. Satisfactory agreement between the simulation and experimental flow curves can be obtained when the ratio of GND layer thickness to particle diameter is 0.25. On this basis, the influences of some modeling parameters such as element type and boundary conditions, as well as some microstructure features like particle size and carbide band, on the mechanical properties are investigated. The results show that small particle size can increase the strength of the material. Carbide band leads to the microstructure inhomogeneity and early finish of uniform elongation, which is potential to cause the loss of ductility and premature failure. These adverse effects become more severe when more cementite particles remain in band or the cementite particles gather denser in carbide band.