Production/maintenance cooperative scheduling using multi-agents and fuzzy logic

Within companies, production is directly concerned with the manufacturing schedule, but other services like sales, maintenance, purchasing or workforce management should also have an influence on this schedule. These services often have together a hierarchical relationship, i.e. the leading function (most of the time sales or production) generates constraints defining the framework within which the other functions have to satisfy their own objectives. We show how the multi-agent paradigm, often used in scheduling for its ability to distribute decision-making, can also provide a framework for making several functions cooperate in the schedule performance. Production and maintenance have been chosen as an example: having common resources (the machines), their activities are actually often conflicting. We show how to use a fuzzy logic in order to model the temporal degrees of freedom of the two functions, and show that this approach may allow one to obtain a schedule that provides a better compromise between the satisfaction of the respective objectives of the two functions

Importance of Appropriate Medication Administration in Patients with Nasogastric Feeding Tube

Solid dosage forms like modified release and enteric coated formulations are considered inappropriate for nasogastric feeding tube (NGFT) administration due to varying pharmacokinetics which could lead to inadequate therapeutic responses or toxicity. An analysis was conducted to assess the appropriateness of prescribed medicines for NGFT administration in hospital inpatients so that physicians can be sensitized to the importance of this. In this cross-sectional study conducted in a large tertiary care centre, prescription data of in-patients with nasogastric feeding tube (NGFT) were retrieved through electronic pharmacy transactions. Adult patients who were admitted in the hospital for more than one day and were dispensed a NGFT were included. The appropriateness of medicines administered through NGFT was assessed using standard published literature. Details of medicines that were categorized as inappropriate were collated and analysed. In case of inappropriate prescribing, availability of appropriate dosage forms was also determined. A total of 510 patients were found eligible for analyses. Majority of the patients were dispensed at least one inappropriate dosage form. Among the dispensed oral solid dosage forms, 16.38% were found to be inappropriate for NGFT administration. Of these, 21.41% were dispensed on same day as the NGFT, 34.67% were dispensed before the NGFT and were continued throughout the hospital stay and 43.92% were dispensed within or after 24 hours of NGFT dispensation. These findings will improve awareness among healthcare professionals about the need for appropriate administration of oral formulations in patients intubated with NGFT. Keywords: Inappropriate Dosage Forms, Nasogastric Feeding Tube, Appropriate Dosage Forms, Modified Release Formulation

Ecological and cultural factors underlying the global distribution of prejudice

Prejudiced attitudes and political nationalism vary widely around the world, but there has been little research on what predicts this variation. Here we examine the ecological and cultural factors underlying the worldwide distribution of prejudice. We suggest that cultures grow more prejudiced when they tighten cultural norms in response to destabilizing ecological threats. A set of seven archival analyses, surveys, and experiments (∑N = 3,986,402) find that nations, American states, and pre-industrial societies with tighter cultural norms show the most prejudice based on skin color, religion, nationality, and sexuality, and that tightness predicts why prejudice is often highest in areas of the world with histories of ecological threat. People’s support for cultural tightness also mediates the link between perceived ecological threat and intentions to vote for nationalist politicians. Results replicate when controlling for economic development, inequality, conservatism, residential mobility, and shared cultural heritage. These findings offer a cultural evolutionary perspective on prejudice, with implications for immigration, intercultural conflict, and radicalization.publishedVersio

Degradation of Potassium Rock by Earthworms and Responses of Bacterial Communities in Its Gut and Surrounding Substrates after Being Fed with Mineral

BACKGROUND: Earthworms are an ecosystem's engineers, contributing to a wide range of nutrient cycling and geochemical processes in the ecosystem. Their activities can increase rates of silicate mineral weathering. Their intestinal microbes usually are thought to be one of the key drivers of mineral degradation mediated by earthworms,but the diversities of the intestinal microorganisms which were relevant with mineral weathering are unclear. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In this report, we show earthworms' effect on silicate mineral weathering and the responses of bacterial communities in their gut and surrounding substrates after being fed with potassium-bearing rock powder (PBRP). Determination of water-soluble and HNO(3)-extractable elements indicated some elements such as Al, Fe and Ca were significantly released from mineral upon the digestion of earthworms. The microbial communities in earthworms' gut and the surrounding substrates were investigated by amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis (ARDRA) and the results showed a higher bacterial diversity in the guts of the earthworms fed with PBRP and the PBRP after being fed to earthworms. UPGMA dendrogram with unweighted UniFrac analysis, considering only taxa that are present, revealed that earthworms' gut and their surrounding substrate shared similar microbiota. UPGMA dendrogram with weighted UniFrac, considering the relative abundance of microbial lineages, showed the two samples from surrounding substrate and the two samples from earthworms' gut had similarity in microbial community, respectively. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results indicated earthworms can accelerate degradation of silicate mineral. Earthworms play an important role in ecosystem processe since they not only have some positive effects on soil structure, but also promote nutrient cycling of ecosystem by enhancing the weathering of minerals

Entry Regulations, Product Differentiation and Determinants of Market Structure

We use a dynamic oligopoly model of entry and exit to evaluate how entry regulations affect profitability and market structure in retail. The model incorporates demand and store-level heterogeneity. Based on unique data for all retail food stores in Sweden, we find that the average entry costs for small and large stores are 10 and 18 percent lower, respectively, in markets with liberal compared with restrictive regulations. Counterfactual simulations show that lower entry costs in restrictive markets result in higher entry rates and allow us to quantify the consequences of regulations in light of trade-offs between small and large stores

Dimensional and hierarchical models of depression using the Beck Depression Inventory-II in an Arab college student sample

Abstract Background An understanding of depressive symptomatology from the perspective of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) could facilitate valid and interpretable comparisons across cultures. The objectives of the study were: (i) using the responses of a sample of Arab college students to the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) in CFA, to compare the "goodness of fit" indices of the original dimensional three-and two-factor first-order models, and their modifications, with the corresponding hierarchical models (i.e., higher - order and bifactor models); (ii) to assess the psychometric characteristics of the BDI-II, including convergent/discriminant validity with the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL-25). Method Participants (N = 624) were Kuwaiti national college students, who completed the questionnaires in class. CFA was done by AMOS, version 16. Eleven models were compared using eight "fit" indices. Results In CFA, all the models met most "fit" criteria. While the higher-order model did not provide improved fit over the dimensional first - order factor models, the bifactor model (BFM) had the best fit indices (CMNI/DF = 1.73; GFI = 0.96; RMSEA = 0.034). All regression weights of the dimensional models were significantly different from zero (P Conclusion The broadly adequate fit of the various models indicates that they have some merit and implies that the relationship between the domains of depression probably contains hierarchical and dimensional elements. The bifactor model is emerging as the best way to account for the clinical heterogeneity of depression. The psychometric characteristics of the BDI-II lend support to our CFA results.</p

Infections in relapsed myeloma patients treated with isatuximab plus pomalidomide and dexamethasone during the COVID-19 pandemic: Initial results of a UK-wide real-world study

© 2022 The Authors. Published by Taylor & Francis. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1080/16078454.2022.2082725Objectives There are no real-world data describing infection morbidity in relapsed/refractory myeloma (RRMM) patients treated with anti-CD38 isatuximab in combination with pomalidomide and dexamethasone (IsaPomDex). In this UK-wide retrospective study, we set out to evaluate infections experienced by routine care patients who received this novel therapy across 24 cancer centres during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods The primary endpoint was infection morbidity (incidence, grading, hospitalization) as well as infection-related deaths. Secondary outcomes were clinical predictors of increased incidence of any grade (G2–5) and high grade (≥G3) infections. Results In a total cohort of 107 patients who received a median (IQR) of 4 cycles (2–8), 23.4% of patients experienced ≥1 any grade (G2–5) infections (total of 31 episodes) and 18.7% of patients experienced ≥1 high grade (≥G3) infections (total of 22 episodes). Median time (IQR) from start of therapy to first episode was 29 days (16–75). Six patients experienced COVID-19 infection, of whom 5 were not vaccinated and 1 was fully vaccinated. The cumulative duration of infection-related hospitalizations was 159 days. The multivariate (MVA) Poisson Regression analysis demonstrated that a higher co-morbidity burden with Charlson Co-morbidity Index (CCI) score ≥4 (incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 3, p = 0.012) and sub-optimal myeloma response less than a partial response (<PR) (p = 0.048) are independent predictors of ≥ G3 infections. Conclusion Our study described initial results of infection burden during IsaPomDex treatment. We recommend close monitoring particularly in elderly patients with co-morbidities, the effective use of an-infective prophylaxis, as well as optimal vaccination strategies, to limit infections

Estimating Level Effects in Diffusion of a New Technology: Barcode Scanning at the Checkout Counter

Cross-country or cross-industry studies of technology diffusion typically estimate how independent factors affect diffusion speed or timing, often based on a two-stage approach. In many applications, however, countries (industries) differ most in the saturation level of diffusion. In a novel, single-stage econometric approach to a standard diffusion model, we therefore estimate how the saturation level covaries with independent factors. In our application to diffusion of an important retail information technology, we focus on the competitive effect of hypermarkets (superstores). We also find standard scale, income and labor substitution effects