Empty Containers Research Articles

Optimizing Empty Container Repositioning and Fleet Deployment via Configurable Semi-POMDPs

With the continuous growth of the global economy and markets, resource imbalance has risen to be one of the central issues in real logistic scenarios. In marine transportation, this trade imbalance leads to Empty Container Repositioning (ECR) problems. Once the freight has been delivered from an exporting country to an importing one, the laden will turn into empty containers that need to be repositioned to satisfy new goods requests in exporting countries. In such problems, the performance that any cooperative repositioning policy can achieve strictly depends on the routes that vessels will follow (i.e., fleet deployment). Historically, Operation Research (OR) approaches were proposed to jointly optimize the repositioning policy along with the fleet of vessels. However, the stochasticity of future supply and demand of containers, together with black-box and non-linear constraints that are present within the environment, make these approaches unsuitable for these scenarios. In this paper, we introduce a novel framework, Configurable Semi-POMDPs, to model this type of problems. Furthermore, we provide a two-stage learning algorithm, "Configure & Conquer" (CC), that first configures the environment by finding an approximation of the optimal fleet deployment strategy, and then "conquers" it by learning an ECR policy in this tuned environmental setting. We validate our approach in large and real-world instances of the problem. Our experiments highlight that CC avoids the pitfalls of OR methods and that it is successful at optimizing both the ECR policy and the fleet of vessels, leading to superior performance in world trade environments.

Process of Receiving and Disputing Empty Containers PT. Evergreen Shipping Agency Indonesia Medan

International shipping involves a joint operation between a country and its neighbors, often involving the handling of empty containers. This study aims to understand the process of empty container handling at Evergreen Shipping Agency Indonesia Branch Medan using field research, interviews, library research, and document analysis. Data collection methods include field observation, interviews, and surveys with staff. The study covers administrative tasks such as document verification, gate inspection, and container cleaning.

Can individual variation in food neophobia explain variability in dairy calf feeding behavior patterns and performance?

Can individual variation in food neophobia explain variability in dairy calf feeding behavior patterns and performance?

Environmental Contamination by Agrochemicals and Its Indiscriminate Use by Dry Season Farmers in Sudan Savannah of Katsina State

A field survey was conducted in five dry season irrigation sites consisting of Ajiwa, Zobe, Jibia, Sabke, and Sulma dams in Katsina state. The survey was carried out to find out dry-season farmers’ attitudes on the use and misuse of agrochemicals. A multi-choice structured questionnaire was administered to one hundred (100) purposively selected dry-season farmers. Data collected were analysed and interpreted using descriptive statistics in the form of bar charts of the SAS package. The result showed that many dry-season farmers obtained information on the safe use of agrochemicals from pesticide retailers (90%). The market recorded the highest (98%) of farmers purchasing agrochemicals. Most dry-season farmers throw away empty pesticide containers after use (91%) while 7% and 4% respectively burn and deep bury these containers. In others, some farmers rewash these containers for household use or resell them to hawkers. Symptoms of pesticide toxicity after application were identified with the highest percentage being recorded by skin rashes (90%). Based on the findings of this study, a poor attitude toward throwing away empty containers could serve as a chance of increased chemical residues in the environment and a high risk of attack especially by the vulnerable people in the study area. It is therefore recommended that dry season farmers be encouraged to purchase agrochemicals from reputable agents to avoid purchasing adulterated or expired chemicals and dispose of empty containers appropriately and hygienically by environmental standards.

Acute Gastroenteritis Outbreak in a Rural Area in Perak, Malaysia, 2022

An outbreak of acute gastroenteritis was identified in a rural village in Perak, Malaysia, on 22 Jun 2022, following the detection of 20 cases. The Larut, Matang, and Selama District Health Office implemented public health measures to control the outbreak. We detected 25 cases during 22–24 Jun 2022, among private boarding school students and residents. Half (52%) of the cases were aged between 11 and 15 years, 68% were male, and 44% were students. Common symptoms included vomiting (88%), abdominal pain (76%), and diarrhoea (72%). No food was suspected based on food diaries, as there was no common food eaten by all cases. The epidemic curve showed a point-source pattern. Mapping of cases demonstrated that all cases used water for drinking, cooking, and other domestic usages that were supplied by the same gravity feed system. Several empty containers of carbofuran-containing insecticide and nematicide, used for agriculture, were found near the gravity feed system route at an altitude higher than its inlet. No known pathogen was isolated from the rectal swabs of cases. This acute gastroenteritis outbreak was suspected to have occurred from drinking water contaminated with chemicals such as carbofuran. After excluding other possible causes, health education to the villagers, particularly on the appropriate use of insecticides nearby the source of water supply with good cooperation from the local communities had helped successfully controlling the outbreak.

“Dirty Dry Eye”– A waste volume analysis from topical therapy in keratoconjunctivitis sicca

PurposeThe healthcare system is responsible for around 5% of CO2 emissions globally and in Germany. So far, there are no data on the amount of waste from dry eye disease (DED) therapy in ophthalmology. The aim of this project was to evaluate the amount and type of waste from single- and multi-dose units (SDU/MDU) generated by eyedrops used to treat DED in Germany.MethodsThe net waste weight (outer/inner packaging, instruction leaflet, empty container) from factory-sealed products was determined using a precision scale. Based on prescription data from PharMaAnalyst, a database of medical prescriptions from over 70 million patients in Germany, the total annual waste volume for 2016–2021 and the net weight of a 30-day treatment were calculated.ResultsThe total annual waste volume increased significantly (p < 0.0001) from 7.13 tons in 2016 to 20.64 tons in 2021. A 30-day treatment with MDUs (without/with filter) results in a significantly lower mean waste volume (paper: SDU 24.3 ± 18.7 g; MDU 4.8 ± 1.7 g/8.8 g ± 1.7 g; SDU/MDU p = 0.0003, with filter p = 0.0034; plastic: SDU 35.0 ± 4.0, MDU 6.6 ± 0.7 g/ 15.1 g ± 5.8 g, SDU/MDU p < 0.0001, with filter p < 0.0001).ConclusionPrescription-based treatment of DED in Germany causes an increasing and substantial waste volume. The use of SDUs is considerably more resource-intensive than MDUs. Due to the large and rising number of patients suffering from DED improvements in packaging could considerably reduce the CO2 footprint of DED treatment.

Empty container repositioning problem using a reinforcement learning framework with multi-weight adaptive reward function

ABSTRACT In logistics networks, empty container congestion and scarcity often stem from trade imbalance and supply-demand mismatch. This paper focuses on the problem of empty container repositioning in maritime logistics and proposes a reinforcement learning framework that integrates a self-adaptive mechanism for adjusting the weights of a multi-objective reward function. The objective is to enhance container utilization and reduce scheduling costs. By reviewing the development of the empty container repositioning problem and analysing the advantages of using reinforcement learning to address the temporal and spatial complexity, the problem is modelled as a Markov decision process and tackled using reinforcement learning techniques. To achieve the optimization objectives, which involve reducing resource shortages at various locations and minimizing resource repositioning costs, a multi-objective reward function is introduced to capture the mutually constrained preferences. The weights of the reward function are dynamically adjusted to account for the potential time-varying preferences of the agent, mitigating the issue of poor generalization performance associated with fixed-weight reward functions. Comparative experimental analysis against conventional reinforcement learning algorithms demonstrates the superior performance of the proposed approach in problem solving. Based on the results and practical requirements of the case study, relevant recommendations for addressing empty container repositioning are presented.

Tactical vessel deployment and empty container repositioning considering container turnover times

Tactical vessel deployment and empty container repositioning considering container turnover times

How to optimize container withholding decisions for reuse in the hinterland?

This study investigates how a hinterland consignee (importer) makes decisions regarding the storage of empty containers for reuse by a shipper (exporter). The system is modeled as a double-ended queue with non-zero matching times, limited truck resources, and both consignee and shipper having fixed withholding capacities. The consignee’s withholding threshold is strategically set to minimize overall transport and detention costs. We derive closed-form expressions for performance measures in the case of a single storage facility at the shipper, utilizing a matrix-based approach. We extend this methodology numerically to the general case. Additionally, we present an accurate fixed-point approximation facilitating the determination of performance measures and optimal threshold. Our findings show the importance of withholding decisions in import and balanced areas for cost reduction. In export areas, a policy of full reuse proves nearly optimal. Analyzing dynamic state-dependent consignee decisions via a Markov decision process, we establish that the optimal policy involves withholding thresholds increasing with stored quantity at the shipper. While optimal, state-dependent thresholds yield limited cost savings compared to a fixed threshold, suggesting minimal impact from consignee-shipper information sharing. Additionally, we examine the influence of variability in matching and production times, observing decreased costs with reduced variability, particularly in export areas, but with minor impacts on withholding decisions.

Filling the Empty Container: Microhistory and the Challenges of Narrative

Filling the Empty Container: Microhistory and the Challenges of Narrative

Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of an Automated Liquid Dispensing Machine

The metering of industrial manufacturing liquids is constantly being updated. Using an automated system, metered dispense can now be more accurate to its theoretical value. This system can help reduce the difference between theoretical and metered volumes in manufacturing applications. This paper describes an automated liquid dispensing machine that uses an AT Mega 328 microcontroller to control the metered volume to the programme set point. The machine's design and implementation include hardware systems assembled from various modules with various functions, such as a microcomputer, power supply, liquid level detection, liquid discharge, conveyor and container detection, and LCD modules. The data collected by the liquid level detection module is analyzed when the system is started to determine the liquid level in the tank. A user loads empty containers onto the conveyor, which are then transferred to the discharge point. The machine calculates the equivalent time in seconds to open the discharge solenoid valve via its control relay and dispenses the desired volume based on the user set point. The experiment performed on the machine with water as the test liquid revealed that the automated dispensing machine's maximum time permissible is 35 s, which corresponds to an equivalent volume of approximately 700 mL of water. Experiments were conducted to compare the theoretical time required to obtain a specified volume to the time required for the machine to dispense the same volume. The results showed that the machine's accuracy is approximately 97.87 %. Therefore, the machine can be used in beverage manufacturing companies, pharmaceutical industries, and laboratories to dispense and fill specified fluids that meet the machine's specifications.

Factors Affecting Melon Farmers’ Knowledge Sources and Their Attitudes Towards Input Use; The Case of Hatay Province

The aim of study is to reveal the factors affecting the knowledge sources used by melon farmers in Hatay province, and their attitudes towards input use. In addition, the research also investigated farmers’ attitudes towards plant protection knowledge and support policies. In the study was surveyed with melon farmers. The data were obtained through face to face interviews during the period of Summer-2022. In the study, factor analysis was used to determine farmers’ the factors affecting the knowledge sources. Factors affecting the knowledge sources used by farmers were determined as two-way and one-way communication. The factors affecting the sources that farmers depend on in dose adjustment were determined as internal and external factors. Besides, farmers think that the knowledge sources should be understandable and accessible. On the other hand, farmers think that the sources they depend on should be accurate and reliable. In melon cultivation, chemicals are used excessively to combat diseases and pests. Also, farmers stated that if precautions are not taken while spraying, poisoning may occur. Moreover, it is thought that empty pesticide containers should be destroyed and excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides may harm products and the environment. Furthermore, farmers claimed that support policies for melon production were not sufficient. As a result, it has been understood that melon farmers have a good level of education and are conscious individuals. However, it is thought that the training and extension activities will help farmers increase their income and environmental awareness.

Investigating the current situation of chemical pesticides trade in Tripoli region and its suburbs in Libya

This study was conducted within the framework of a research program at the Agricultural Research Center for Sustainable Development during the 2021-2022 agricultural season through field visits to pesticide marketing and storage sites in Tripoli and its suburbs to investigate the condition of commercial stores and their suitability to health conditions, the nature of their activity and their legal status, along with the status of the people working in them, their educational level and the extent to which their awareness of the dangers of pesticides and their impact on their health. Some questions were also about the types of pesticides traded in the Libyan market, their physical condition, their specialties, their commercial sources, and how to dispose of their empty containers. It became clear from this study that approximately half of the pesticide shops were in the main streets of Tripoli, and only 27% of them were in rural areas. Moreover, no less than 50% of the stores do not have warehouses, and those that do have warehouses are considered inappropriate for storing these dangerous materials. It was also shown that there is a lack of attention and implementation of the sanitary conditions in pesticide stores, including ventilation, air conditioners, and the height of the stores. We also noticed that the percentage of licensed shops designated for selling pesticides did not exceed 35%, and that many of them hold licenses not designated for selling pesticides, and some of them don’t have license. As for the materials that are marketed alongside pesticides, most of them are agricultural equipment, with the presence of fertilizers and seeds. Regarding the persons that are selling pesticides, their ages range from the twenties to the fifties, and their educational levels vary, as the percentage of illiterate people was 15%, the percentage of those who obtained compulsory primary, middle, and secondary education was 49%, the percentage of those who obtained an intermediate and higher diploma was 23%, and the percentage of university salespeople was 13%. It is striking that 79% of the sellers are not specialized in the agricultural field. As for the level of knowledge of the sellers about the dangers of chemical pesticides, it was found that 72% of them have little to moderate knowledge. In addition, 77% of them do not wear protective clothing, and only sometimes at best, which shows that 43% of the workers’ health was negatively affected by their handling of pesticides. Finally, this study showed that the pesticides circulating in the Tripoli area are liquid, solid and gaseous in approximately equal proportions. As for the specialties of pesticides on offer, it turned out that 22% of them are insecticides, 21% are herbicides, 21% are fungicides, 19% are rodenticides, and 17% are acaricides. As for the sources of pesticides offered on the market, 36% of them were issued by commercial agents of international companies or from well-known wholesalers with clear addresses. However, 27% of the pesticides offered were imported by unknown importers or obtained through unlicensed and often unknown street traders. As for the methods used to dispose of containers, the study showed that 50% of the containers are disposed of by filling them up, burning them, or using the containers to place other materials such as food and medicines, which is generally considered a violation of internationally recognized health methods. This study is considered a model for the other Libyan cities and will contribute to providing decision-makers with important and vital information for regulating the pesticide trading sector in Libya.

Farmers Perspectives on Negative Impacts of Chemical Pesticide Usage in Vegetable Cultivations: Case Study from the Periyaneelavanai Area, Ampara District

Indiscriminate use of pesticides causes health hazards to humans and long-lasting negative impacts to the environment. The major objectives of this study are to evaluate the current status of pesticide usage in the Periyaneelavani area, to evaluate farmers‘ perception on health, environmental effects due to usage, of pesticides, to identify the awareness level of farmers about proper usage of chemical pesticides and alternatives. This study was carried out in two GN divisions of Periyaneelavanai area, Ampara district. To represent 20% respondents, 50 farmers from each GN devisions which upto total 100 were randomly surveyed using a structured questionnaire. In order to gather the necessary data on vegetable cultivation, a preliminary study involving interviews with the Agricultural Instructor-Officer in Charge and affiliated farmers in Periyaneelavanai area were conducted before the actual survey. Discriptive analysis, P test, T test, anova were performed using minitab 14.0 version to conduct data analysis. The present study revealed that Chili, Brinjal, Okra, Tomato, Long beans, Cucurbites, Onion and Leafy vegetables were primarily grown in this area. Abamactin, Coragan, Applaud and Virtako were used as insecticides and Abamactin was the most popular (42%) among farmers. Mancozeb, Propineb and Canazole were used as fungicides and the highest usage was Mancozeb (45%). Mortin rat kill was used as a rodenticide by all the respondent farmers, and they have not used herbicides for their vegetable cultivation; instead, they manually remove the weeds. Skin irritation was the most prominent (60%), acute disease, and Asthma was the most common chronic disease (31%), that can be seen among farmers. The most common adverse environmental impact in this area was the empty pesticide containers piling up along roadsides (95%). All the farmers use at least one PPE while applying pesticide though the frequency of wearing PPE is different among each other. The majority of respondents use gloves, eye protection, and foot ware but lack of awareness towards face, head and body protection. The highest number of farmers selected indoor places (51%) for pesticide storage which cause to have a high risk of exposure among farmers. Most of the farmers selected the option of burying or burning pesticide bottles after using it. Majority of respondents preferred to use chemical pesticides (76%), rather than alternative methods due to the reliability of those methods. It is proposed to educate farmers on application, storage, cleaning and carrying the pesticides, the methods of effectiveness of different individual protection facilities, and utilizing the behavior to reduce the exposure to poisons should be developed and be available to farmers. This will help to reduce negative health and environmental consequences. Moreover, it is recommended to introduce reliable and effective alternative methods for chemical pesticides.&#x0D; Keywords: Periyaneelavanai area, Vegetable cultivation, Pesticides, Environmental impacts, Disease

A collaborative decision support framework for sustainable cargo composition in container shipping services

Abstract This paper proposes a decision support system (DSS) for optimizing cargo composition, and resulting stowage plan, in a containership of a shipping company in collaboration with en-route ports in the service. Due to considerable growth in transportation over years, an increasing number of containers are being handled by containerships, and ports consequently. Trade imbalances between regions and recent disruptions, such as LA/LB/Shanghai port congestion, blocking of Suez canal, drought in Panama canal, typhoons at ports, COVID-19 restrictions and the lack- and then over-supply of empty containers, have resulted in an accumulation of containers in exporting ports around the world. These factors have underscored the urgency of sustainability and circular economy within the shipping industry. The demand for container transportation is higher than the ship capacities in the recent times. In this regard, it is essential for shipping companies to generate a cargo composition plan for each service by selecting and transporting containers with relatively high financial returns, while offering a realistic stowage plan considering ship stability, capacity limitations and port operations. Ultimately, the selected containers should enable a ship stowage plan which keeps the ship seaworthy obeying complex stability considerations and minimizes the vessel stay at the ports, and port carbon emissions consequently, through efficient collaboration with en-route ports. This study provides a bi-level programming based DSS that selects the set of containers to be loaded at each port of service and generates a detailed stowage plan considering revenue, stowage efficiency and quay crane operational considerations. Numerical experiments indicate that the proposed DSS is capable of returning high-quality solutions within reasonable solution times for all ship sizes, cargo contents and shipping routes, supporting the principles of the circular economy in the maritime domain.

Planning container inspection and repair: A case study

The aim of this paper is to introduce a real-life problem of optimal planning of container inspection and repair on several facilities over several time periods assuring effective supply of empty containers indispensable for seamless global maritime transportation. The containers are of several types and quality levels. The objective is to minimize the total holding, inspection, repair, transportation and rejection costs. We formulate a deterministic min-cost multi-commodity network flow problem and prove NP-hardness for two special cases. Values of the rejection costs are determined such that no container is rejected in an optimal solution if there exists a feasible solution with no container rejected. An algorithmic mechanism is proposed to support a negotiation of periodic container demands between the container provider and the container users with the aim to reduce the overall costs. Computer experiments with instances obtained by random deviation from industrial data demonstrate that the majority of instances with up to 4 facilities, 4 container types, 7 quality levels, and 7, 14 or 30 time periods can be solved with an acceptable quality using an academic version of CPLEX in two hours on a standard PC.

Inventory model for empty container reposition problem considering quality dependent returns and port capacity constraint

In this study, an Economic Return Quantity (ERQ) model for the Empty Container Reposition (ECR) problem using the reverse logistics (RL) approach is developed. Some of the model’s primary considerations are the return rate that depends on the quantity and quality of the empty container, and the capacity constraints to hold the empty container in the port. The model of ERQ is optimized using an analytical approach. Based on the result of the hypothetical case, the authors examined that the acceptable quality level of reusable containers should be set at 67%, 55%, and 50% for the three types of containers to be able to obtain minimum inventory costs. Two cases of binding and nonbinding constraints are investigated, and it is found that the binding constraint gives 3.4% higher cost than the latter. The results of this study help the container depots to plan, manage, and handle empty containers so that the container utility can be increased, and inventory costs can be minimized.

Forecasting Empty Container availability for Vehicle Booking System Application

Forecasting Empty Container availability for Vehicle Booking System Application

Improving the environmental impact of empty containers in water-road hubs: a physical internet approach

Improving the environmental impact of empty containers in water-road hubs: a physical internet approach

Как структурировать историческое время

The article analyzes the research literature on the topic of time, identifies key aspects of criticism of the existing research tradition, and attempts to identify constructive ways to study this problem. It is shown that the main pathos of criticism is aimed at versions of historical time, explicitly or implicitly associated with the ideas of homogeneous time, linearity, teleology, progressivism, Eurocentrism and ethnocentrism, as well as the interpretation of the position of the historian as a passive observer of the static past. As is usually written in the literature, time, especially the past, also was interpreted as an empty container that contained certain events and processes. From the position of the supporters of this approach, the function of the historian should be precisely to be the guardian of the boundaries separating the past from the present, and this historicization of the past should presuppose the need to establish such boundaries. Moreover, researchers such as Berber Bevernage and Chris Lorenz formulate a thesis about the “political nature” of temporal boundaries. Therefore, critical authors argue that researchers of historical time have paid little attention to the “performative” nature of temporal differences and that the establishment of modes of time (past–present–future) can be interpreted as a certain type of social action, conditioned by such definite social actors. It is argued that the past is dynamic, not static, and its boundaries are constantly being revised. The idea of blurring the boundaries between the present and the past (especially the recent one) has become very popular. Researchers note the persisting or repeating character of the past in the present. They talk about a resistant past, a past penetrating the present, a haunting past. As a result, many modern researchers insist that we should talk not so much about the acceleration of time in the modern era, but about fundamentally new approaches to time as such. They characterize the new understanding of time as “multilayered”, “heterogeneous”, “multitemporal” or “polychronic”. Constructivism, based on the idea of the mediation of any social experience, was chosen as the methodological basis for the formulation of the theses put forward. The chosen concept of time (as well as historical time) is based on a phenomenological interpretation of time. It is based on the interpretation of time as a structure consisting of such modes as past–present–future, each of which represents a temporal extension consisting of such elements as beginning–middle–final. Then its completeness should be considered as the criterion for separating the past from the present. If we deal only with certain types of knowledge or representations, then it is reasonable to believe that what individuals or groups consider completed explicitly, and more often implicitly, by the very form of their practices, should be considered completed. In other words, certain objects, events or processes should be considered completed not in a chronological sense. If objects cease to be an explicit or implicit basis (motivation) for social practices, then they belong to the realm of the past. This approach assumes the possibility of coexistence and interweaving of multiple temporal streams, and therefore the need for their synchronization if some social practices come into conflict with other social practices. We believe that attitudes towards such diversity may be different. If it is possible to convince society (take responsibility) that certain processes or events continue to matter (for example, the issue of restoring justice for victims), then these objects will remain the domain of the present. If memory from certain events is limited to the area of local communities (memorial communities, for example) or reduced to forms of working through trauma (for example), then these objects can be attributed to the area of the past.