Logistics service provider selection for disaster preparation: a socio-technical systems perspective

Since 1990s, the world has seen a lot of advances in providing humanitarian aid through sophisticated logistics operations. The current consensus seems to be that humanitarian relief organizations (HROs) can improve their relief operations by collaborating with logistics service providers (CLSPs) in the commercial sector. The question remains: how can HROs select the most appropriate CLSP for disaster preparation? Despite its practical significance, no explicit effort has been done to identify the criteria/factors in prioritising and selecting a CLSP for disaster relief. The present study aims to address this gap by consolidating the list of criteria from a socio-technical systems (STS) perspective. Then, to handle the interdependence among the criteria derived from the STS, we develop a hybrid multi-criteria decision making model for CLSP selection in the disaster preparedness stage. The proposed model is then evaluated by a real-life case study, providing insights into the decision-makers in both HROs and CLSPs

Swift trust and commitment: the missing links for humanitarian supply chain coordination?

Coordination among actors in a humanitarian relief supply chain decides whether a relief operation can be or successful or not. In humanitarian supply chains, due to the urgency and importance of the situation combined with scarce resources, actors have to coordinate and trust each other in order to achieve joint goals. This paper investigated empirically the role of swift trust as mediating variable for achieving supply chain coordination. Based on commitment-trust theory we explore enablers of swift-trust and how swift trust translates into coordination through commitment. Based on a path analytic model we test data from the National Disaster Management Authority of India. Our study is the first testing commitment-trust theory (CTT) in the humanitarian context, highlighting the importance of swift trust and commitment for much thought after coordination. Furthermore, the study shows that information sharing and behavioral uncertainty reduction act as enablers for swift trust. The study findings offer practical guidance and suggest that swift trust is a missing link for the success of humanitarian supply chains

Dynamic temporary blood facility location-allocation during and post-disaster periods

The key objective of this study is to develop a tool (hybridization or integration of different techniques) for locating the temporary blood banks during and post-disaster conditions that could serve the hospitals with minimum response time. We have used temporary blood centers, which must be located in such a way that it is able to serve the demand of hospitals in nearby region within a shorter duration. We are locating the temporary blood centres for which we are minimizing the maximum distance with hospitals. We have used Tabu search heuristic method to calculate the optimal number of temporary blood centres considering cost components. In addition, we employ Bayesian belief network to prioritize the factors for locating the temporary blood facilities. Workability of our model and methodology is illustrated using a case study including blood centres and hospitals surrounding Jamshedpur city. Our results shows that at-least 6 temporary blood facilities are required to satisfy the demand of blood during and post-disaster periods in Jamshedpur. The results also show that that past disaster conditions, response time and convenience for access are the most important factors for locating the temporary blood facilities during and post-disaster periods

Crystallinity improvement of ZnO nanorods by optimization of low-cost electrodeposition technique

Extremely low-cost electrodeposition technique was developed to deposit ZnO nanorods. The growth process was performed using standard DC power supply, milliammeter and two-electrode electrochemical cell. The deposition was carried out on indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrates by changing deposition parameters such as cathodic deposition current and time, solution molarity and temperature. The parameters varied to obtain optimum transparent semiconductor material for optoelectronic applications. Structural characterizations by X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicate the formation of polycrystalline phase ZnO with strong c-axis orientation and were sensitive to deposition temperatures and molarity as well. Average optical transmittance for the best two ZnO nanorod series was around 60% and 42%, respectively. The optical energy band gap of the ZnO nanorods decreased from 3.24 eV to 3.21 eV as the deposition time increased. All the nanorods were n-type with a high carrier concentration of 1 × 1020 cm.3 and low 1.2 × 10-3 ?cm resistivity. © 2015 Elsevier B.V.FEF2013YL40This work is supported by the Research Foundation of Çukurova University ( FEF2013YL40 )

WITHDRAWAL: Decompressive surgery in patients with malignant middle cerebral artery infarction: A randomized, controlled trial in a Turkish population (Demitur trial) (International Journal of Stroke, (2021), 10.1177/17474930211007671)

At the request of the authors, the following Article has been withdrawn. Decompressive surgery in patients with malignant middle cerebral artery infarction: © 2021 World Stroke Organization

Feeding strategy design for recombinant human growth hormone production by Bacillus subtilis

Defined and semi-defined medium-based feeding strategies were developed to enhance recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) production by Bacillus subtilis BGSC-1A178 (scoC (-)) strain carrying pMK4::pre(subC)::hGH. Defined medium-based feeding strategies were designed by exponential feeding of glucose and (NH4)(2)HPO4 at two pre-determined specific growth rates, A mu (0) = 0.10 and 0.17 h(-1). Semi-defined medium-based feeding strategies were designed by exponential feeding of substrate solution consisting of glucose, (NH4)(2)HPO4, peptone, and trace salt solution (PTM1) at three pre-determined specific growth rates, A mu (0) = 0.10, 0.17, and 0.25 h(-1). At all the strategies applied, transition cultivation time from batch to fed-batch operation was t (T) = 4 h. The highest rhGH concentration was obtained as C (rhGH) = 0.5 g L-1 with semi-defined medium-based feeding strategy designed with A mu (0) = 0.25 h(-1) using feed substrate stock solution containing 200 g L-1 glucose, 117 g L-1 (NH4)(2)HPO4, 100 g L-1 peptone, and 5 mL L-1 PTM1 at t = 22 h when the cell concentration reached to C (X) = 8.29 g L-1. The overall product and cell yields on glucose were obtained as = 7.21 mg g(-1) and = 0.12 g g(-1), respectively. The results indicate the requirement of designing continuous feed stream in fed-batch production to enhance rhGH production by r-B. subtilis