Logistics Resources Research Articles

Analysis, selection and assignment of vehicles to distribution routes for finished products using mixed integer linear programming

In the present investigation, an optimization model based on mixed integer linear programming is established, which considers the analysis and careful selection of the vehicles to be used for the distribution of finished products, as well as the assignment of the route to follow from a distribution center or production plant to the different points or end customers. The main objective is to minimize the different costs related to the transfer, management and programming of the different trips to each of the clients that make up the distribution network. A basic-practical mathematical model is presented, in which the principles of the efficient allocation of each of the trips to each client based on the transport problem are established, as well as aspects of the problem addressed, such as a network of star distribution. In the same way, procedures are established for carrying out different activities within the product distribution area in order to contribute to the efficient management of the different logistical resources available to the organization.

Premières journées francophones des utilisateurs de système d’aide à la décision en pharmacie clinique : retour d’expériences et perspectives

Clinical decision support systems (CDSS) are tools that have been used for several years by clinical pharmacy teams to support pharmaceutical analysis, with a perspective of contributing to the quality of care in collaboration with the other health care team members. These tools require both technical, logistical and human resources. The growing use of these systems in different establishments in France and in Europe gave birth to the idea of meeting to share our experiences. The days organized in Lille in September 2021 aimed at proposing a time of exchange and reflection on the use of these CDSS in clinical pharmacy. A first session was devoted to feedback from each establishment. These tools are essentially used to optimize pharmaceutical analysis and to secure patient medication management. This session outlined the clear advantages and common limitations of these CDSS. Two research projects were also presented to put the use of these tools into perspective. The second session of these days, in the form of workshops, addressed 4themes that surround the implementation of CDSS: their usability, the legal aspect, the creation of rules and their possible valorization. Common problems were raised, the resolution of which requires close collaboration. This is a first step proposing a beginning of harmonization and sharing that should be deepened in order not to lose the dynamics created between the different centers. This event ended with the proposal to set up two working groups around these systems: the creation and structuring of rules for the detection of risk situations and the common valorization of the work.

How does the choice of an electrical laboratory affect the safety and reliability of a real estate object

The article discusses the actual problems of the organization and testing of electrical installations of buildings in private and public institutions. Attention is paid to the most significant factors affecting the quality of work: the current legislation in general and the state procurement system regulated by federal laws 44-FZ and 223- FZ, lack of control by state supervisory authorities, lack of information, logistical and human resources on the part of the customer and some others. The article also discusses the hypotheses and proposals of the Association "Union of Electrical Measuring Laboratories" to change the current practice, the introduction of which could improve the quality of testing and reduce the number of emergency modes of operation of electrical installations of consumers.

Optimization of multistage timeliness transit consolidation problem using adaptive-weighted genetic algorithm.

Cargo consolidation is becoming a crucial part of international transportation and changing the customer consumption patterns of the international community. Poor connections between different operations and the delay of international express have motivated sellers and logistics organizers to put timeliness first in international multimodal transport, especially during the COVID-19 epidemic. However, for cargo with small quality and multiple batches, designing an efficient consolidation network presents a set of unique challenges, including the coupling of multiple origins and destinations (ODs), and fully utilizing the capacity of the container. We defined a multistage timeliness transit consolidation problem to decouple the multiple ODs of the logistics resource. By solving this problem, we can increase the connectivity between different phases and make full use of the container. To make this systematic multistage transit consolidation more flexible, we proposed a two-stage adaptive-weighted genetic algorithm that mainly focuses on the edge area of the Pareto front space and the diversity of the population. Computational experiments indicate that the correlation between parameters has certain regular trends, and appropriate parameter settings can lead to more satisfactory results. We also confirm that the pandemic has a giant influence on the market share of different transportation modes. Moreover, the comparison with other approaches demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Operational Challenges of an Asia-Pacific Academic Oncology Clinical Trial.

The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region is a major focus for multinational clinical trials, although its cultural, linguistic, economic, and regulatory diversity pose significant challenges for trial conduct, particularly for academic clinical trials. We describe our experience running the investigator-initiated phase III randomized, fully accrued, Aspirin for Dukes C and high-risk Dukes B Colorectal cancer trial (ASCOLT, ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00565708, N = 1,587), studying the benefit of aspirin in resected high-risk colorectal cancer. ASCOLT opened in 2008 and is the first large academic adjuvant trial fully conducted in the APAC region. Centrally coordinated by the Trial Management Team at the National Cancer Centre Singapore, it has involved 74 sites across 12 APAC countries/regions, including five middle-income countries. Challenges encountered included regulatory complexity, communication and logistical barriers, limited funding and resources, disparate experience and infrastructure across sites, recruitment holds because of changes in local laws, patient attrition, and disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 100 contracts and 49 ethics board reviews were required, contributing to a lengthy prestudy preparation time of 2 years and start-up times of approximately 6 months per site. Some of the mitigating actions included engaging local cooperative groups (eg, the Australasian Gastro-Intestinal Trials Group in Australia and New Zealand) and seven contract research organizations to manage sites, regular communication with the central team, transition to electronic data management, and a centralized drug-dispensing system. To ensure an efficient and patient-centered clinical trials environment in the APAC region and sustained growth, we suggest coordinated approaches to harmonize regulatory processes, APAC academic oncology trials consortia to streamline processes and provide governance, and ongoing commitment from governments, funding agents, and industry.

Impacts of household vulnerability on hurricane logistics evacuation under COVID-19: The case of U.S. Hampton Roads

Historical data suggest that when a severe tropical storm or hurricane impacts a community, the vulnerable segment of the population suffers the most severe consequences. With an increased aging population, it is crucial to understand how vulnerability alters evacuation behavior. Emergent variables such as fear of COVID-19 require additional exploration. People afraid of COVID-19 exposure may refuse to evacuate, exposing themselves unnecessarily. Differentiation is critical to evacuation logistics since it is needed to determine what proportion would stay in a local shelter, public or other, rather than evacuating or staying in their home and guide the logistics resource allocation process. This research uses data from a web and phone survey conducted in the Hampton Roads area of U.S. Virginia, with 2,200 valid responses to analyze the influence of social and demographic vulnerability factors and risk perception on evacuation decisions. This research contributes to the existing literature by developing a multinomial order logit model based on vulnerability factors and intended evacuation decisions, including staying at home, looking for a shelter, or leaving the Hampton Roads area. Findings show that race and risk perception are the variables that influence the decision-making process the most. Fear of COVID-19 transmission is also associated with an increased likelihood of leaving homes during evacuation. The variations in findings from previous studies are discussed regarding their implications for logistics emergency managers.

Patterns of pharmaceutical supplies and medicines donations received during a natural disaster

BackgroundIn response to emergencies, such as wildfires, donations of pharmaceuticals often occur. These donations can be given directly by governments, to non-governmental organizations as corporate donations, or by private entities that donate to individual health institutions. ObjectiveThis paper aimed to collect, review and analyze pharmaceutical product donations received during the natural disaster caused by wildfires in the San Luis province, Argentina, in September and October 2020. MethodsA descriptive, cross-sectional, and retrospective study was performed. An introductory approach to good donation practices was also carried out. Medicines were classified and in the case of products that were not suitable for administration, these were discarded. ResultsA total of 15,593 units were segregated, of which 52.8% were over-the-counter products and 47.2% were prescription drugs. 86.3% (13,467 units) were accepted, while 13.7% (2126 units) had to be destroyed. The value of donations totaled USD 16,544. The analysis of the results showed that an important part of the donations was irrelevant in the emergency context. Donations were also received in incorrect amounts, which generated a large stock of medicines that couldn’t be used. In emergencies, inappropriate donations create additional work during sorting, storage, and distribution, increasing the time professionals need to complete tasks. This extra work can easily overwhelm limited human and logistical resources. ConclusionsIt is important to previously evaluate the real need for donations. In addition, the distribution of donations must be done through pre-established systems and policies. Otherwise, unsolicited and unnecessary drug donations become wasteful and should therefore be avoided.

Research on Shared Logistics Decision Based on Evolutionary Game and Income Distribution

As a green, efficient, and feasible solution, logistics resource sharing has received increasing attention in urban last-mile delivery. Instability in cooperation and unequal income distribution are significant constraints to logistics resource sharing. In this paper, we investigate the logistics resource sharing decision-making process among express delivery companies. First, according to the characteristics of the express delivery companies, symmetric and asymmetric game models based on evolutionary game theory are proposed, respectively. We examine the express delivery company’s choice of strategy and the major determinants of collaboration. Then, we examine the income distribution problem for subjects sharing logistics resources and propose an improved Raiffa solution that takes enterprise scale into account. Finally, certain management insights are offered for the express delivery companies to support the realization of logistics resource sharing. The results show that the evolution direction of the model is influenced by the initial state, enterprise scale, income distribution coefficient, and default penalty coefficient. Furthermore, the improved Raiffa solution takes into account the asymmetry of resource contribution of participating subjects and is more reasonable.

Regenerative Management of Coastal Tourism Destinations for the Anthropocene

The current geologic era—the Anthropocene—is defined by human-driven transformation of landscapes and seascapes that has profoundly altered Earth’s climate and other life-support systems. This letter advocates for a landscape-scale regenerative tourism management strategy aimed at transforming coastal destinations into carbon sinks (meaning they sequester more carbon than they release). Specifically, coastal destinations can transform product offerings into a network of restoration projects that collectively seek the landscape-scale restoration of blue carbon ecosystems such as marshes, mangroves, and seagrass meadows. Restoration of blue-carbon ecosystems is a cost-effective way to mitigate the effects of climate change. Tourism has potential to overcome obstacles in large-scale restoration of blue carbon ecosystems and can play a foundational role by providing a long-term presence at restoration sites, logistical and human resources, and a business model dependent on restored ecosystems.

Youth Hackathons in Computing for the Community: A Design Case.

As schools endeavor to provide all students with access to computational thinking and computer science, the hackathon emerges as a competitive and high-energy event that uses authentic problems to motivate learners to engage in the domain of computing. This article presents the design case of a hackathon for teenagers as enacted over five iterations by faculty and staff at a Southeastern public university in the United States. Given a problem in the local community, participating teenagers collaborated in a mentor-supported environment to design, develop, and communicate software-based solutions. Using trustworthiness from naturalistic inquiry as a guiding approach to build the design case, our methods draw on multiple data sources, peer debriefing, member checks, and thick description. This design case contributes detailed descriptions and design rationales related to the youth hackathon's evolving features. It provides all levels of designers with useful pedagogical and logistical resources to support efforts to enact hackathons in novel settings.

Spatial Differentiation of Multi-Airport Logistics in Four Urban Agglomerations in China

A Multi-airport Logistics System (MLS) involves the logistics development of multiple airports in an urban agglomeration. Calculating spatial differentiation in MLS and examining its characteristics have theoretical and practical value. Based on MLS, we established an index system and applied the entropy-criteria importance through the intercriteria correlation weighting method to data from 2019 to evaluate the development and spatial differentiation of multi-airport logistics in four Chinese urban agglomerations in three dimensions: logistics resources, service chains, and market demand. The results showed the following: (1) The Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area showed logistics resource-type development. (2) Given its considerable market demand and service support, the Yangtze River Delta ranked first in the service-chain aspect. (3) The market-demand performance of the Chengdu–Chongqing Double Cities Economic Circle was poor. (4) Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei showed mediocre performance in all three aspects. Based on the findings, we make suggestions for MLS development in urban agglomerations for the purpose of achieving high-quality development and supporting China’s overall national transportation network.

The reverse logistics resource matrix: a novel classification scheme

PurposeThis study presents a resource framework for reverse logistics operations based on widespread literature and industry experience. A common and comprehensive definition of resources that affect the implementation of reverse logistics is still patchy in the extant literature. Hence, a complete scheme, such as this, for the categorisation of resources that affect the implementation of reverse logistics is essential. This provides a useful information for business managers and extends reverse logistics research.Design/methodology/approachThis study systematically identified, and validated with the help of reverse logistics experts, the resources that affect the implementation of reverse logistics.FindingsThe result is a classification scheme, termed as “reverse logistics resource matrix” (RLRM). This matrix offers a holistic overview of the resources that affect the implementation of reverse logistics for both scholars and practitioners.Originality/valueTo best of the researchers' knowledge, the RLRM is the first attempt to comprehensively structure the resources that affect the implementation of reverse logistics in an integrated framework.

Monitoring of the microcirculation in children undergoing major abdominal and thoracic surgery: A pilot study.

Monitoring of the macrocirculation during surgery provides limited information on the quality of organ perfusion. We investigated the feasibility of perioperative microcirculatory measurements in children. Sublingual microvessels were visualized by handheld videomicroscopy in 11 children (19 mo - 10 yrs) undergoing surgery > 120 min at four time points: T0) after induction of anesthesia; T1) before end of anesthesia, T2) 6 h post surgery and T3) 24 h post surgery. Measurements were feasible in all children at T0 and T1. At T2 and T3, imaging was restricted to 6 and 4 infants, respectively, due to respiratory compromise and missing cooperation. The capillary density was reduced at T1 compared to T0 (8.1 mm/mm2 [4.0-17.0] vs. 10.6 mm/mm2 [5.1-19.3]; p = 0.01), and inversely related to norepinephrine dose (Pearson r = -0.65; p = 0.04). Microvascular flow and serum glycocalyx makers Syndecan-1 and Hyaluronan increased significantly from T0 to T1. Perioperative microcirculatory monitoring in children requires a high amount of personal and logistic resources still limiting its routine use. Major surgery is associated with microvascular alterations and glycocalyx perturbation. The possible consequences on patient outcome need further evaluation. Efforts should concentrate on the development of next generation devices designed to facilitate microcirculatory monitoring in children.

The development dilemma and countermeasures of Chinese cross-border e-commerce enterprises under the background of big data

Cross-border e-commerce has gradually emerged with the popularity of the Internet in the world. It represents a new business model of e-commerce. The public is still the same as the daily shopping model on e-commerce platforms. However, cross-border e-commerce can be divided into two parts at home and abroad. With the continuous emergence of new social models such as the Metaverse, the data generated by online social networking is becoming larger and larger, and data science has developed accordingly, and the effective use of data has become the key to the rapid development of various industries. Big data technology is the key to data science. A data processing and analysis technology generated in the development process, its use in the development of cross-border e-commerce enterprises will help enterprises to create products that are more in line with the actual requirements of the masses, increase the profits of enterprise operations, and allow enterprises to complete the era of data science smooth transition. This paper first describes the big data technology and related theories of cross-border e-commerce, and then takes Alibaba as an example to describe the SWOT analysis of my country’s cross-border e-commerce enterprises, and then analyzes the development dilemma of China’s cross-border e-commerce enterprises, and finally designs The development strategy of my country’s cross-border e-commerce enterprises based on big data is presented. Through a questionnaire survey of cross-border e-commerce enterprises that use big data technology in my country, it is found that cross-border e-commerce enterprises that combine big data technology have a greater understanding of overseas customers’ consumption psychology, integration of warehousing and logistics resources, and talent training. promote.

International experience and recommendations on audiological screening of schoolchildren: review.

Permanent childhood hearing loss is crucial for speech development and restricts learning abilities. Universal newborn hearing screening programs are well established to detect congenital hearing loss and address the need of hearing-impaired babies. Progressive or acquired permanent hearing loss can manifest later due to genetic causes, intrauterine or postnatal infections, middle ear diseases and excessive exposure to noise when listening the personal audio devices. The hearing loss prevalence in the population of 9 year-olds three times higher compared with newborns. School hearing screening is a part of hearing across the lifespan conception. The article presents international experience and recommendations for the organization of school hearing screening programs. A school-entry hearing test is mandatory, other grades might be screened also. The basic method is pure tone audiometry at frequencies of 500, 1 000, 2 000, 4 000 Hz at 20 dB. Otoscopy and tympanometry can be performed also, while whisper voice speech test is of low sensitivity. The main hearing screening issue is low follow-up of referrals to ascertain audiological assessment. Modern approaches to the prevention of hearing loss in schoolchildren and management of hearing impairements are described. Planning of hearing screening programs requires sufficient human and logistical resources, monitoring of results and quality improvement, all stakeholders engagement.

Formation of Coordinated Alliance for China Railway Express Platforms Considering Logistics Cost Sharing

Lack of coordination, mutual independence and disorderly competition among China Railway Express platforms gives rise to high logistics costs; in contrast, horizontal collaboration could form a pool of logistics resources with a scale effect to effectively reduce operating costs. This paper presents a methodology to build a coordinated alliance of China Railway Express platforms in a cost-sharing model. A hybrid approach is proposed, using the gravity model of cross-border logistics, variable-weighted Shapley value, cargo volume decision-making model, and cross-border logistics cost analysis model. Seven China Railway Express platforms in southwest China: Chengdu, Chongqing, Guiyang, Kunming, Liuzhou, Nanning and Zunyi, are selected as examples for empirical analysis. The results demonstrate that alliance is an effective way to control costs, however, issues of railway connectivity can lead to deflection of the optimal alliance and insufficient capacity can affect the stability of the alliance.

Conditions and strategies influencing sustainability of a community-based exercise program incorporating a healthcare-community partnership for people with balance and mobility limitations in Canada: A collective case study of the Together in Movement and Exercise (TIME™) program.

Community-based exercise programs delivered through healthcare-community partnerships (CBEP-HCPs) are beneficial to individuals with balance and mobility limitations. For the community to benefit, however, these programs must be sustained over time. To identify conditions influencing the sustainability of CBEP-HCPs for people with balance and mobility limitations and strategies used to promote sustainability based on experiences of program providers, exercise participants, and caregivers. Using a qualitative collective case study design, we invited stakeholders (program providers, exercise participants, and caregivers) from sites that had been running a CBEP-HCP for people with balance and mobility limitations for ≥4 years; and sites where the CBEP-HCP had been discontinued, to participate. We used two sustainability models to inform development of interview guides and data analysis. Qualitative data from each site were integrated using a narrative approach to foster deeper understanding of within-organization experiences. Twenty-nine individuals from 4 sustained and 4 discontinued sites in Ontario (n = 6) and British Columbia (n = 2), Canada, participated. Sites with sustained programs were characterized by conditions such as need for the program in the community, presence of secure funding or cost recovery mechanisms, presence of community partners, availability of experienced and motivated instructors, and the capacity to allocate resources towards program marketing and participant recruitment. For sites where programs discontinued, diminished participation and/or enrollment and an inability to allocate sufficient financial, human, and logistical resources towards the program affected program continuity. Participants from discontinued sites also identified issues such as staff with low motivation and limited experience, and presence of competing programs within the organization or the community. Staff associated the absence of referral pathways, insufficient community awareness of the program, and the inability to recover program cost due to poor participation, with program discontinuation. Sustainability of CBEP-HCPs for people with balance and mobility limitations is influenced by conditions that exist during program implementation and delivery, including the need for the program in the community, and organization and community capacity to bear the program's financial and resource requirements. Complex interactions among these factors, in addition to strategies employed by program staff to promote sustainability, influence program sustainability.

Heart disease classification using optimized Machine learning algorithms

Early detection of heart disease is exceptionally critical to saving the lives of human beings. Heart attack is one of the primary causes of high death rates throughout the world, due to the lack of human and logistical resources in addition to the high costs of diagnosing heart diseases which plays a key role in the healthcare sector, this model is suggested. In the field of cardiology, patient data plays an essential role in the healthcare system. This paper presents a proposed model that aims to identify the optimal machine learning algorithm that can predict heart attacks with high accuracy in the early stages. The concepts of machine learning are used for training and testing the model based on the patient's data for effective decision-making. The proposed model consists of three stages, the first stage is patient data collection and processing, and the second stage is data training and testing using machine learning algorithms Random Forest, Support Vector Machines, K-Nearest Neighbor, and Decision Tree) that show The best classification (94.958 percent) with the Random Forest algorithm and the third stage is optimized the classification results using one of the hyperparameters optimization techniques random search that shows The best accuracy was (95.4 percent) obtained also with RF

Global boundedness and stabilization in a forager–exploiter model with logistic growth and nonlinear resource consumption

In this paper, we consider a forager–exploiter model with logistic growth and nonlinear resource consumption ut=Δu−χ1∇⋅(u∇w)+η1(u−u2),x∈Ω,t>0,vt=Δv−χ2∇⋅(v∇u)+η2(v−v2),x∈Ω,t>0,wt=Δw−uw(1+u+v)γ−vw(1+u+v)θ−μw+r(x,t),x∈Ω,t>0in a smooth bounded domain Ω⊂Rn(n≥1) with nonnegative initial data and null Neumann boundary condition, where χ1,χ2,η1,η2,μ>0 and r is a given nonnegative function. We prove that if γ>0andθ>(n−2)+n+2,then the classical solution exists globally and remains bounded. Moreover, the large time behavior is investigated when r satisfies certain conditions.

Practical Model of Infection Prevention and Control in Intensive Care Units for Iran

Background and Objectives: Nosocomial infections, especially in intensive care units as well as increased mortality and costs associated with them are considered as one of the major health problems in the communities so that successful control of them requires awareness on their problems in the hospitals and a precise planning. This study was conducted to "provide a model for prevention and control of nosocomial infections in intensive care units". Methods and Materials: This qualitative study was conducted through purposeful sampling strategy on 21 healthcare providers selected via purposive sampling from various medical subgroups, including: anesthesiologist, nurse manager, supervisors, faculty members, head nurses, and hospital managers. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews and conventional content analysis method was used for data analysis. In the second phase, a comparative study of the situation of our country and targeted countries was conducted and in the third phase a practical model is designed. Results: The results of qualitative content analysis using conventional approach in the field of staff's experiment regarding the model of prevention and control of nosocomial infections in intensive care units, revealed 3 main themes: "barriers (human factors, environmental factors, personal factors and complexity)", "facilitating factors (organizational, external and internal stimuli) ", and "concepts of the model (effectiveness of infection control training process in ICU, the systematic nature of the process of infection control, public hospital management, resource management and organizational leadership)". After a comparative study, the applied model of control and prevention of nosocomial infection in the ICU was designed with seven models, including standards (caring-curing and structural), monitoring and supervision, education and training, logistic resources, modern technologies, translation and knowledge transfer and evidence-based practice. Conclusion: Identifying the barriers and facilitating factors of nosocomial infection control and the use of especial measures in ICU promote the patient's safety and enhance the quality of care. Prevention of these infections requires a comprehensive and integrated controlling program. This model can be applied to resolve existing gaps and cause maximum integrity between the concepts.