Sorting Centers Research Articles

Freight Volume Prediction for Logistics Sorting Centers Using an Integrated GCN-BiLSTM- Transformer Model

In this paper, a comprehensive learning model is proposed for predicting cargo volume at sorting centers, which integrates GCN (Graph Convolutional Network), BiLSTM (Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory Network), ARIMA (Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average model), and Transformer models. To achieve this, a directed weighted graph is constructed considering the transport network and average cargo volume of each sorting center. The GCN model is employed to extract spatial features from the transport connection information of the sorting centers and these features are then fed into the BiLSTM network. The BiLSTM network leverages bidirectional information flow to learn the temporal characteristics of the data. Subsequently, the GCN-BiLSTM model, which combines spatial and temporal features, is used to predict the daily cargo volume for the next 30 days. The results demonstrate that the GCN-BiLSTM model and the ARIMA-BiLSTM integrated model significantly enhance prediction performance compared to single-model approaches.

The Dsc ubiquitin ligase complex identifies transmembrane degrons to degrade orphaned proteins at the Golgi

The Golgi apparatus is essential for protein sorting, yet its quality control mechanisms are poorly understood. Here we show that the Dsc ubiquitin ligase complex uses its rhomboid pseudo-protease subunit, Dsc2, to assess the hydrophobic length of α-helical transmembrane domains (TMDs) at the Golgi. Thereby the Dsc complex likely interacts with orphaned ER and Golgi proteins that have shorter TMDs and ubiquitinates them for targeted degradation. Some Dsc substrates will be extracted by Cdc48 for endosome and Golgi associated proteasomal degradation (EGAD), while others will undergo ESCRT dependent vacuolar degradation. Some substrates are degraded by both, EGAD- or ESCRT pathways. The accumulation of Dsc substrates entails a specific increase in glycerophospholipids with shorter and asymmetric fatty acyl chains. Hence, the Dsc complex mediates the selective degradation of orphaned proteins at the sorting center of cells, which prevents their spreading across other organelles and thereby preserves cellular membrane protein and lipid composition.

Cargo Volume Forecasting for Logistics Sorting Centers Based on Random Forest Model

With the rapid development of logistics industry, logistics sorting center, as a key node in e-commerce logistics network, its cargo volume prediction and personnel scheduling strategy are of great significance to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs. The purpose of this study is to deeply analyze the cargo volume data of 57 sorting centers through machine learning method, establish an accurate cargo volume prediction model, and optimize the personnel scheduling strategy based on the prediction results. In this study, we preprocess the historical cargo data, including missing value filling, time series conversion and feature construction. Then, the random forest model was used to carry out fitting analysis on the cargo volume data of different sorting centers. By comparing the evaluation indexes such as mean square error (MSE), root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE), the superiority of random forest model compared with neural network, support vector regression and linear regression models was verified. This study not only improves the accuracy of cargo volume forecast, but also realizes the reasonable allocation of human resources, and provides scientific decision support for the operation and management of logistics sorting center.

Research on cargo volume prediction and personnel scheduling optimization of sorting center based on BP neural network and improved genetic algorithm

With the development of Internet technology, e-commerce has become the primary choice for consumers to shop, and the huge order transaction volume has generated logistics problems. As an important part of the logistics network, the sorting platform is essential to improve its management efficiency. To enhance the efficiency of the sorting center, the topological relationship diagram is used to show the logistics network, and the cargo volume of the sorting center in the next 30 days and every hour is predicted based on the BP neural network model. Based on the mixed integer linear programming model and the improved genetic algorithm SCAGA model, the total man-days are minimized to ensure that the cargo volume is processed. At the same time, to ensure that the actual hourly efficiency is as balanced as possible, the optimization problem of personnel scheduling is studied. To maintain the efficient operation of the logistics industry, the accurate prediction of the number of goods and the reasonable scheduling of personnel, to provide a set of efficient and economical personnel scheduling programs for the logistics company, thus improving the overall operational efficiency and service quality.

DEEP NEURAL NETWORKS AS A TOOL FOR ENHANCING THE EFFICIENCY OF PLASTIC WASTE SORTING

In the recycling industry, there is an urgent need for high-quality sorted material. The problems of sorting centers related to the difficulties of sorting and cleaning plastic leads to the accumulation of waste in landfills instead of recycling, emphasizing the need to develop effective automated sorting methods. This study proposes an intelligent plastic classification model developed on the basis of a convolutional neural network (CNN) using architectures such as MobileNet, ResNet and EfficientNet. The models were trained on a dataset of more than 4,000 images distributed across five categories of plastic. Among the tested architectures, proposed EfficientNet-SED demonstrated the highest classification accuracy – 99.1%, which corresponds to the results of previous research in this area. These findings highlight the potential of using advanced CNN architectures to improve the efficiency of plastic recycling processes.

Distinct circuits and molecular targets of the paraventricular hypothalamus decode visceral and somatic pain

Visceral and somatic pain serve as protective mechanisms against external threats. Accumulated evidence has confirmed that the paraventricular hypothalamus (PVH) plays an important role in the perception of visceral and somatic pain, whereas the exact neural pathways and molecules distinguishing them remain unclear. Here, we report distinct neuronal ensembles within the PVH dedicated to processing visceral and somatic pain signals. An essential discovery is the distinct expression of P2X3R and VIPR2 in visceral and somatic pain-activated PVH neuronal ensembles. Furthermore, visceral pain- and somatic pain-responsive PVH neuronal ensembles project to specific downstream regions, the ventral part of the lateral septal nucleus (LSV) and the caudal part of the zona incerta (ZIC), respectively. These findings unveil that the PVH acts as a pain sorting center that distinctly processes visceral and somatic pain, identifying potential molecular targets for specific pain processing and providing a new framework for comprehending how the brain processes nociceptive information.

Research on cargo volume prediction and personnel arrangement based on logistics network sorting centers

Research on cargo volume prediction and personnel arrangement based on logistics network sorting centers

Relative merits of offering a milk replacer, glucose-electrolyte, or whey-based diet on the blood composition and health of unweaned calves after transport

The objective of this randomized controlled trial was to assess the relative merits of offering unweaned calves 3 different types of diets to meet energy and water deficits that can occur during journeys. A total of 6 young unweaned male Holstein calves were randomly selected from within 2 body weight ranges (median 48 and 42 kg) from each of 29 loads (total n = 174 calves) transported from an auction market or a collection center to a calf sorting center before transport to a veal unit. The calves were then randomly allocated to one of 3 dietary treatments (n = 58 calves/dietary treatment). They were offered either a milk replacer diet (M), a glucose-electrolyte diet (G) or a whey-based diet with added electrolytes (W). The ability of these diets to provide sufficient nutrient energy to restore vigor, and avoid hypoglycemia and clinical signs of dehydration without increasing the risk of diarrhea was assessed. A clinical assessment of dehydration, health, and vigor was made, and the calves were blood sampled before feeding and at 2 h and 4 h after feeding. The plasma glucose concentration was increased 2 h and 4 h after feeding the M and W diets. The increases in plasma glucose concentration were greater 2 h and 4 h after (1) feeding the M than after the W diet and (2) feeding the M and W diets than after the G diet. Back-transformed means and 95% CI for the ratio of the plasma glucose concentration at 4 h compared with 0 h for the M, G, and W diets were 1.2 mM (CI = 1.21, 1.35), 0.95 mM (CI = 0.92, 0.97), and 1.09 mM (CI = 1.06, 1.14), respectively. We found no effect of diet on the change in serum total protein concentration between before feeding and 2 h and 4 h after feeding. The serum osmolality was lower 2 h after feeding the G diet. The fall in serum osmolality was greater 2 h after feeding the G diet than after feeding the M and W diets. The changes in the serum osmolality between before feeding and 2 h after feeding for the milk replacer, glucose-electrolytes and whey-based diets were -0.68 mOsmol (CI = -3.27, 1.91); -5.23 mOsmol (CI = -7.82, and -2.64); and -0.13 mOsmol (CI = -2.77, 2.51), respectively. The diet offered at the sorting center had no effect on subsequent growth on the veal-rearing farm between arrival and slaughter (milk replacer, 1.22 kg/d [CI = 1.17, 1.28]; glucose-electrolyte diet, 1.23 kg/d [CI = 1.18, 1.28]; whey-based diet 1.28 kg/d [CI = 1.23, 1.33]). The M diet provided the calves with nutrients and water to replace energy and water deficits that had accumulated before arrival at the sorting center, and these dietary benefits were still apparent 4 h after feeding. The benefits of the W diet were similar to those of the M diet, but the M diet was better able to assist the calves in maintaining their plasma glucose concentration 4 h after feeding than the W diet. The G diet had some short-term benefits in providing energy and assistance to the calves to recover from dehydration, as indicated by a decrease in serum osmolality. However, the G diet was clearly inferior to the M and W diets in providing sufficient energy to assist the calves in recovering from the effects of transport and fasting. During the 4 h after feeding, no adverse effects of offering the calves the M or W diets were observed. The benefits of the W diet in replacing energy and water deficits were similar to those of the M diet, but the M diet was better able to assist the calves in maintaining their blood glucose concentration 4 h after feeding than the W diet.

Cargo volume prediction of logistics sorting center based on GCN-BiLSTM

Taking into account the transport network and average cargo volume of each sorting center, a directed weighted graph is constructed in this paper. Next, the GCN model is used to extract the spatial characteristics of the transport connection information of the sorting center and input it into the BiLSTM network. The BiLSTM network uses the two-way information flow to learn the temporal characteristics, and then uses the GCN-BILSTM model combined with the spatio-temporal characteristics of the sorting center to predict the daily cargo volume in the next 30 days. The integrated learning model based on ARIMA and BiLSTM is then used to predict the next 30 days of hourly cargo volume, and adjust and optimize. The results show that GCN-BiLSTM model and BiLSTM model improve the prediction performance.

Condição corporal, morfologia externa, parasitologia e estudo histológico e biométrico do trato gastrointestinal de Sporophila nigricollis e Sporophila caerulescens apreendidos no Nordeste Brasileiro

ABSTRACT: The objective was to analyze Sporophila nigricollis and Sporophila caerulescens in terms of body conditions, parasitological, bacteriological, external biometric measurements, and histological analysis of the gastrointestinal tract. We used 115 individuals apprehended from 2020 to 2021 and sent to the Wild Animal Triage Center, Paraíba, Brazil. Concerning weight, S. nigricollis, females and males presented 9.36±1.36g and 9.70±1.39g, and S. caerulescens with 10.5±0.70g and 11.75±1.28g, being the second heaviest. The body condition in 69.62% of S. nigricollis and 62.50% of S. caerulescens was good. In the fecal microbiological examination, 40.25% of S. nigricollis and 40% of S. caerulescens were positive for Isospora sp. Dispharynx sp. was reported for the first time in S. nigricollis and S. caerulescens. In fecal bacteriology, 95.65% of S. nigricollis were identified with Gram-positive cocci and 73.91% with Gram-positive bacilli. Forty-one animals died and were placed under refrigeration for 48 hours; of these, 31.16% of S. nigricollis and 37.50% of S. caerulescens presented inadequate body conditions. 19.51% had gastrointestinal tract engorgement with hemorrhagic points, and 14.63% had hepatic alteration due to yellowish coloration. The study contributes with subsidies for the taxonomic elucidation of the genus Sporophila, in addition to the knowledge of the conditions in which birds are found in sorting centers, once the destination of most of the seized animals is the release, thus, a potential source of pathogens to the natural environment.

Corporative strategies of spatial warehousing development of retailers in Moscow agglomeration

The rapid growth of the transport and logistics complex of urban agglomerations forces large companies to change spatial strategies for warehouse networks development based on current trends. Thus, there is a transformation of factors for the placement of warehouse facilities. This article examines the general and specific features of the spatial development of warehouse networks of the largest retailers and online-operators in the post-soviet period using the example of the Moscow agglomeration. The novelty of the work consists both in the comparative analysis and typologization of strategies for warehouse networks development, and in the study of shifts in their territorial development. The information base of the study was the author's database of corporations’ warehouse facilities, collected on the basis of open sources. Two multidirectional trends have been identified. The first is the shift of new construction to the periphery of the Moscow agglomeration, to the zone of influence of the Central Ring Road (CRR), and an increase in the average area of warehouse facilities. The second is the development of a network of small warehouse facilities (sorting centers, darkstores) in the core of the agglomeration, near or inside the Moscow Ring Road (MKAD). Territorial shifts have been identified in the placement of new warehouse facilities for both online-operators and retailers. Online retailers have moved from a strategy of placing warehouses near airports to placing a large warehouse in every sector of the Moscow agglomeration. For retailers, the determining factor of location remains proximity to motorways (formerly main highways, now the intersections of the main highway and the Central Ring Road/A–107 or A–108) with the possibility of expanding the service area to all regions of the Central Federal District. Based on the results obtained, a typology of strategies for the spatial development of warehouse networks of the largest retailers in the region is proposed. The analysis provides an idea of current trends in spatial strategies for the development of corporate warehouse networks in the Moscow agglomeration, which can be used in forecasting and territorial planning for other large-scale urban agglomerations, based on the concept of diffusion of innovations.

Trypanosoma cruzi RNA-binding protein DRBD3: perinuclear foci formation during benznidazole exposure.

Benznidazole (BZ) is the trypanocidal compound of choice for Chagas disease, a neglected tropical disease in the Americas. However, this drug often fails to cure the infection. The regulation of gene expression in Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease, is based on post-transcriptional mechanisms. When environmental changes cause translational arrest, RNA-binding proteins, and their target mRNAs assemble into cytoplasmic bodies, known as RNA granules, which act as RNA sorting centers. We have characterized the T. cruzi RNA-binding protein DRBD3, which has two RRMs domains, and a C-terminal low-complexity sequence rich in proline and glutamines. Using a tagged form of TcDRBD3 (rTcDRBD3), we showed that this protein resides in the cytoplasm, but localizes into perinuclear cytoplasmic foci after BZ exposure. RNA staining after BZ also showed that this molecule accumulates into perinuclear cytoplasmic foci. Moreover, BZ and puromycin treatment enhanced the colocalization of rTcDRBD3 and RNA, suggesting that TcDRBD3 granules repertoire harbors RNAs released from polysomes. Under starvation, rTcDRBD3 granules localized throughout the cytoplasm and also increased in number in the presence of puromycin. Our results suggest that TcDRBD3 accumulates into perinuclear granules that harbor RNA and also that its localization varies according to the type of stress.

Sustainable Multi-Objective Models for Waste-to-Energy and Waste Separation Site Selection

In the past, the Iranian government has excessively relied on fossil fuels, gas, and oil resources, leading to energy-related issues and increasing power outages in the provinces during peak seasons. One of the best opportunities for energy production in Iran is through the establishment of bio-methane and waste-based energy parks. This research aims to determine the optimal locations for waste sorting centers and the establishment of waste-to-energy plants. The coexistence and interaction of these two facilities will enhance system efficiency. To achieve this goal, two mathematical models, with three objectives, have been designed. The static allocation model assigns each industrial park to a waste sorting center, while the dynamic allocation model selects the shortest route from the industrial park to the waste-to-energy center. The first objective is to minimize establishment costs, while the second and third objectives aim to reduce the system’s waiting costs. Waiting for waste shipments leads to pollution, and the desirability and route length can increase the likelihood of organic pollution. Therefore, this research seeks to minimize these factors. The model results indicate that the sorting and energy production centers have been selected to incur the lowest establishment, transportation, and waiting costs. Additionally, the sensitivity analysis section of the model reveals the impact of coefficient changes on the model’s results.

RESEARCH ON UAV IN LOGISTICS DISTRIBUTION

This article takes the COVID-19 epidemic as the starting point, and analyzes the difficulty of delivering drones in the "last mile" in the context of a severely aging population. The last mile delivery means that after customers shop through e-commerce, the purchased items are delivered to the distribution point, and then the goods are delivered to the customer from a sorting center through a certain means of transportation to achieve door-to-door service. The "last mile" of distribution is not a real mile, but refers to the distance from the logistics sorting center to the customer, and the process of delivering the goods to the customer through the means of transportation. Because it is a short distance, it is called one-kilometer delivery as the saying goes. This short-distance distribution is the last link of the entire logistics link and the only link that directly contacts customers face-to-face, which is of great significance. With the maturity of artificial intelligence technology, UAV distribution has emerged. This paper expounds the distribution scope, distribution process and technical equipment of the current development of UAV distribution, analyzes the problems of UAV endurance, airspace restrictions, and distribution safety, and puts forward corresponding countermeasures. Intelligent computing can reconstruct the logistics operation process. With the development of artificial intelligence, the logistics process may be decomposed into several parallel processes. Within the scope of the logistics system, using artificial intelligence technology, many activities such as automatic decision-making, automatic detection, and automatic repair can be automatically sorted according to the process. These activities can also not enter the cloud computing center platform, greatly improving the system computing efficiency and responsiveness. Because of its light weight and fast speed, UAVs can avoid urban traffic congestion and can cross special terrains such as mountains and lakes. The use of UAVs can shorten logistics delivery time and reduce logistics costs, so that its application scope of logistics distribution is getting wider and wider. In recent years, due to the strong contagiousness of the new crown epidemic, contactless distribution has attracted widespread attention, which has promoted the promotion and application of cutting-edge logistics distribution tools such as drones, drone vehicles and delivery robots.

Value of sorting and recovery in post-disaster relief aid distribution

In-kind donations gathered from the public after a disaster typically consist of an unknown and disorganized composition of both “useful” and “useless” items. Sending the donations directly to the affected people without any pre-processing leads to not only extra shipment and handling costs but also congestion in the disaster areas, and even chaos in local distribution. Motivated by this fact, we investigate the effect of relief aid sorting and subsequent recovery of items that do not fulfill immediate needs under demand, donation quantity, and donation type uncertainties. To this end, we propose a supply network configuration with sorting centers for pre-processing and optimize it by a three-stage stochastic programming model. We compare the case of the sorted donations with the case where donations are directly sent to points of distribution to victims. We apply the proposed model to the Istanbul earthquake case under different parameter settings and derive various managerial insights. We observe that sorting the donated relief aid items and sending only the useful ones to disaster victims may decrease the expected total cost, in addition to some intangible benefits, but at the same time may increase the expected time of the deliveries. However, it is possible to cope with this response time deterioration by increasing the workforce level at the sorting centers with an acceptable additional cost.

Does the circularity end justify the means? A life cycle assessment of preparing waste electrical and electronic equipment for reuse

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) pose a significant threat to the environment and public health due to the hazardous substances and the valuable and often scarce resources they contain. Policies for WEEE recycling have been adopted in most countries, while in the European Union the WEEE Directive renders preparing for reuse as a priority, although specific quantitative targets have not been imposed so far. Preparation for reuse to be effective requires improved WEEE collection networks and additional infrastructure, such as sorting and repair centres, all of which consume energy and materials, which also have environmental impacts. Moreover, refurbished appliances may be less energy efficient and there is a need to assess whether this benefit justifies the preparation for reuse burdens. The aim of this study was to investigate, under real-life operating conditions, whether the life cycle environmental impacts resulting from the preparation for reuse of WEEE are offset by the benefits of avoiding a new product purchase, which may have a lower energy consumption during its use lifespan. Data for desktops, laptops, monitors, printers, smartphones, and vacuum cleaners were collected from the two full-scale sorting centres in Greece, and life cycle assessments were performed. Results indicate that repair and reuse of smartphones leads to a reduction of their environmental impacts up to 25 %. To a lesser degree, laptops, desktops, and monitors, lead to reduce environmental impacts from −1.4 % to 19.2 %. For printers, the reductions are almost negligible, from 0.3 % to 3 %. On the other side, the repair and reuse of vacuum cleaners resulted in an increase of almost all their environmental impacts instead, even more than 70 % for marine and freshwater eutrophication. These findings can be used to the policy discourse for specific preparing for reuse targets and to inform decision-making. This could lead to prioritising specific categories for repair such as smartphones while avoiding specific WEEE categories from preparing for reuse such as vacuum cleaners and instead promote their substitution.

A Multi-level Resource Circularity Index based in the European Union’s Circular Economy Monitoring Framework

Purposeto propose two enhancements for the European Union’s Circular Material Use rate (CMU): inclusion of Preparation for Reuse (PfR) flows and enhanced reproducibility across lower levels of analysis.MethodsPfR flows are added to the material flow Sankey Diagram. The Local Circularity Rate (LCR) is based in the CMU and is broke down in three waste-related ratios: recovered-to-treated (RCV-to-TRT), treated-to-end-of-life and end-of-life-to-overall-material-use (EoL-to-OMU). LCR, CMU and CMU’, an alternate version of CMU, are computed and compared in the macro-level for EU27 member states and in the meso-level for Germany’s sixteen states. LCR is computed and broke down for regions in Belgium, The Netherlands and Greece. In the micro-level, LCR is computed for a network modelled around a Textile Sorting Centre (TSC) in Amsterdam.ResultsLCR showed closer average results to CMU in comparison to CMU’. Considering RCV-to-TRT and EoL-to-OMU, The Netherlands and Luxembourg are the best performing countries in the EU27. Eight countries performed worse than 0.4 in both ratios. In total, twelve German regions showed negative results, either for CMU or CMU’. Saxony-Anhalt is the most circular region in Germany, while Berlin is the less circular. The Amsterdam textiles’ network features an LCR of 12%, with the TSC contributing to 63% of all textiles recovered.ConclusionThe revised circular Sankey Diagram comprehensively illustrates the circularity gap. LCR’s three ratios enhances in-depth analysis, allowing better prioritisation of public policies. Limitations remain in data availability and harmonisation across regional and national databases.Graphic

Exploration on Environmental Education Though Construction of Global Parks in Zibo City

In this paper, the development status of environmental education in representative urban parks in Zibo City is investigated, studied, analyzed, and summarized. Besides, the role of natural resource commentary systems, waste sorting center visitations, and specialty gardens are expounded. In order to provide a reference for the integration of environmental education in the construction and renovation of parks in Zibo City, the problems in several practices like specialty gardens and WeChat public account is discussed.

Golgi-Targeting Anticancer Natural Products

The Golgi apparatus plays an important role in maintaining cell homeostasis by serving as a biosynthetic center for glycans, lipids and post-translationally modified proteins and as a sorting center for vesicular transport of proteins to specific destinations. Moreover, it provides a signaling hub that facilitates not only membrane trafficking processes but also cellular response pathways to various types of stresses. Altered signaling at the Golgi apparatus has emerged as a key regulator of tumor growth and survival. Among the small molecules that can specifically perturb or modulate Golgi proteins and organization, natural products with anticancer property have been identified as powerful chemical probes in deciphering Golgi-related pathways and, in particular, recently described Golgi stress response pathways. In this review, we highlight a set of Golgi-targeting natural products that enabled the characterization of the Golgi-mediated signaling events leading to cancer cell death and discuss the potential for selectively exploiting these pathways for the development of novel chemotherapeutic agents.

Baggage dissociation for sustainable air travel: Design study of ground baggage distribution networks

Dissociation of passenger travel from baggage delivery has been proposed as one of the radical innovations in future air travel. This concept is still relatively new and largely unexplored, so there are many issues that need to be resolved. For instance, a complete end-to-end baggage dissociation will require the ground distribution networks to deliver passenger luggage to and from the departing and arriving airports. This paper proposes to design such networks as the existing parcel delivery networks. In particular, baggage sorting centers (BSCs) can serve as local hubs for creasing a scalable, multi-level topology of the delivery network in order to manage baggage flows in a given geographical area around the selected airports. Assuming the population density as a proxy for estimating the baggage delivery service demands, the optimum locations of BSCs are determined by formulating and solving the standard p-median and the maximal covering location problems. The numerical results were obtained for Greater London, and also for the whole UK assuming all its major civilian airports. The Greater London area could be served by 36 BSCs to achieve a full service coverage. The 90% service coverage of the whole UK can be achieved by about the same number of BSCs, provided that the coverage distance is increased. In practice, the actual number of required BSCs crucially depends on the operational and capital costs, and the maximum processing capacity of each BSC. These findings have direct implications on the long-term planning and innovations in future air transport.