Process benchmarking in the fruit and vegetable supply chain

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of an international process benchmarking and to compile models of best practice business processes. The results of our international process benchmarking study allowed us to develop a framework, comprising three models, for better meeting customers’ needs. The first model presents how to understand and meet customers’ needs generally. The second model comprises those operations, work practices and business processes, which are essential in meeting customers’ needs. The third model (organisation designing model) helps the company to check, whether or not the operations, work practises and business processes of the second model can be found in and applied to the company.process benchmarking, customers’ needs, business processes, organisation designing model, Agribusiness,

Comparison of musculoskeletal networks of the primate forelimb

Anatomical network analysis is a framework for quantitatively characterizing the topological organization of anatomical structures, thus providing a way to compare structural integration and modularity among species. Here we apply this approach to study the macroevolution of the forelimb in primates, a structure whose proportions and functions vary widely within this group. We analyzed musculoskeletal network models in 22 genera, including members of all major extant primate groups and three outgroup taxa, after an extensive literature survey and dissections. The modules of the proximal limb are largely similar among taxa, but those of the distal limb show substantial variation. Some network parameters are similar within phylogenetic groups (e.g., non-primates, strepsirrhines, New World monkeys, and hominoids). Reorganization of the modules in the hominoid hand compared to other primates may relate to functional changes such as coordination of individual digit movements, increased pronation/supination, and knuckle-walking. Surprisingly, humans are one of the few taxa we studied in which the thumb musculoskeletal structures do not form an independent anatomical module. This difference may be caused by the loss in humans of some intrinsic muscles associated with the digits or the acquisition of additional muscles that integrate the thumb more closely with surrounding structures

A generalization of the injectivity condition for Projected Entangled Pair States

We introduce a family of tensor network states that we term semi-injective Projected Entangled-Pair States (PEPS). They extend the class of injective PEPS and include other states, like the ground states of the AKLT and the CZX models in square lattices. We construct parent Hamiltonians for which semi-injective PEPS are unique ground states. We also determine the necessary and sufficient conditions for two tensors to generate the same family of such states in two spatial dimensions. Using this result, we show that the third cohomology labeling of Symmetry Protected Topological phases extends to semi-injective PEPS.Comment: 63 page

PEOPLE LEFT BEHIND: TRANSITIONS OF THE RURAL POOR

Compared to their urban counterparts, the rural poor are more likely to be employed, more apt to be members of married-couple families, less likely to be children, less likely to be minority, and more likely to have assets but a negative income. This paper examines poverty rates and factors that affect mobility in and out of poverty among major categories of the rural poor. Particular attention is paid to farm workers and the rural farm population in the South. It endeavors to identify both structural conditions that perpetuate rural poverty and government interventions that ameliorate human suffering and break the cycle of poverty reproduction.Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Non-parabolicity of the conduction band of wurtzite GaN

Using cyclotron resonance, we measure the effective mass, $m$*, of electrons in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures with densities, $n_{2D}\sim 1-6\times10^{12}$cm$^{-2}$. From our extensive data, we extrapolate a band edge mass of $(0.208\pm0.002) m_e$. By comparing our $m$* data with the results of a multi-band \textbf{k.p} calculation we infer that the effect of remote bands is essential in explaining the observed conduction band non-parabolicity (NP). Our calculation of polaron mass corrections -- including finite width and screening - suggests those to be negligible. It implies that the behavior of $m*(n_{2D})$ can be understood solely in terms of NP. Finally, using our NP and polaron corrections, we are able to reduce the large scatter in the published band edge mass values

Economics of Fish Marketing in Central Uganda: A Preliminary Analysis

The paper examines profitability and market performance of small-scale fish traders selected randomly from a cross-section of nine fish markets in four districts in Central Uganda. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire which was designed to solicit information on traders’ socio-economic characteristics, marketing characteristics, operating costs and returns, and problems associated with fish marketing in the study area. Percentages were used to describe the socio-economic characteristics, market characteristic and problems associated with fish marketing while gross profit and marketing performance models were used to determine profitability, marketing margin and operational efficiency, respectively. The results suggest that fish trade is carried out by both men and women. More men are involved in the trade of fresh fish while more women are involved in the processed (sundried/smoked) fish trade. Some traders dealt in more than one species of fish although a majority sold exclusively in one species. Gross profit was estimated at USh358.40/kg and USh234.73/kg for wholesalers and retailers, respectively, with marketing margins of 19.32% and 16.67% for wholesalers and retailers, respectively. The market operational efficiency was 279.27 percent, implying high efficiency in fish marketing in the study area. The major pressing concerns which included high supply cost, low prices, low fish supply and increased arrests for selling immature fish were common to both retail and wholesale marketing channels.Fish marketing, survey data, gross profit, market margin, operational efficiency, Uganda, Agribusiness, International Development, International Relations/Trade, Marketing, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Timing performance of 30-nm-wide superconducting nanowire avalanche photodetectors

We investigated the timing jitter of superconducting nanowire avalanche photodetectors (SNAPs, also referred to as cascade switching superconducting single photon detectors) based on 30-nm-wide nanowires. At bias currents (IB) near the switching current, SNAPs showed sub 35 ps FWHM Gaussian jitter similar to standard 100 nm wide superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors. At lower values of IB, the instrument response function (IRF) of the detectors became wider, more asymmetric, and shifted to longer time delays. We could reproduce the experimentally observed IRF time-shift in simulations based on an electrothermal model, and explain the effect with a simple physical picture