A Selective, Efficient and Environmentally Friendly Method for the Oxidative Cleavage of Glycols

A catalytic methodology for the oxidative cleavage of vicinal diols is described as an advantageous alternative in terms of the environmental impact on classical methods involving toxic oxidants. The novel strategy is based on the use of dioxomolybdenum(VI) complexes as catalysts and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as an oxidant and displays high selectivity and a broad scope for glycol cleavage. In addition, the developed system is also useful for the oxidation of acyloins to diketones.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) and FEDER (CTQ2013-48937-C2-1-P) and Junta de Castilla y León (BU237U13

Crowdsourced logistics : the pickup and delivery problem with transshipments and occasional drivers

This article considers a setting in which a courier, express, and parcel service provider operates a fleet of vehicles with regular drivers (RDs) to ship parcels from pickup to delivery points. Additionally, the company uses a platform where occasional drivers (ODs) offer their willingness to take on requests that are on or near the route they had originally planned. There exist transshipment points (TPs) to better integrate these ODs. ODs or RDs may transfer load at these predetermined TPs. The problem is modeled as a mixed-integer programming model and called pickup and delivery problem with transshipments and occasional drivers (PDPTOD). We develop a solution approach based on an adaptive large neighborhood search. The article provides insights on how the number and location of TPs impact the cost advantages achieved by integrating ODs. It also shows that the cost savings are highly sensitive to the assumed flexibility and compensation scheme

Industry 4.0 and Service Companies: The Case of the French Postal Service

International audienceThe aim of this article is to overview the transition of smart logistic companies towards the Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 is a generic concept that subscribes to the idea of a general awareness of the importance of new technologies for the manufacturing industry. This reflection aims to conserve and develop a strong and innovative industrial activity to support the modernization of different fields. In the case of high volumes service companies, many reasons have led to this modernization; remarkable increase in the volume of items to deliver, complexity of managing the transportation system and the personnel scheduling, humanization of work conditions, etc. In this work, The French postal service company, La Poste, is given as a particular case of study. La Poste daily treats high volumes of mail and parcel items. In this article, the organization of the French postal service system from the collect to the delivery is explicitly described. A literature review of different concerned research axes is presented. Finally, we present what we think are the future needs for researches in these axes