1,468 research outputs found
Barnes Hospital Record
https://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/bjc_barnes_record/1058/thumbnail.jp
Process redesign for effective use of product quality information in meat chains
To fulfil segmented consumer demand and add value, meat processors seek to exploit quality differences in meat products. Availability of product quality information is of key importance for this. We present a case study where an innovative sensor technology that provides estimates of an important meat quality feature is considered. Process design scenarios that differ with respect to sorting complexity, available product quality information, and use of temporary buffers are assessed using a discrete event simulation model. Results indicate that increasing sorting complexity by use of advanced product quality information results in a reduction of processing efficiency. Use of production buffers was found to increase processing flexibility and mitigate negative effects of high sorting complexity. This research illustrates how the use of advanced product quality information in logistics’ decision-making affects sorting performance, processing efficiency, and the optimal processing design, an area that has so far received little attention in literature
Effective sourcing strategies for perishable product supply chains
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess whether an existing sourcing strategy can effectively supply products of appropriate quality with acceptable levels of product waste if applied to an international perishable product supply chain. The authors also analyse whether the effectiveness of this sourcing strategy can be improved by including costs for expected shelf life losses while generating order policies. Design/methodology/approach – The performance of sourcing strategies is examined in a prototype international strawberry supply chain. Appropriate order policies were determined using parameters both with and without costs for expected shelf life losses. Shelf life losses during transport and storage were predicted using microbiological growth models. The performance of the resulting policies was assessed using a hybrid discrete event chain simulation model that includes continuous quality decay. Findings – The study's findings reveal that the order policies obtained with standard cost parameters result in poor product quality and large amounts of product waste. Also, including costs for expected shelf life losses in sourcing strategies significantly reduces product waste and improves product quality, although transportation costs rise. Practical implications – The study shows that in perishable product supply chain design a trade-off should be made between transportation costs, shortage costs, inventory costs, product waste, and expected shelf life losses. Originality/value – By presenting a generically applicable methodology for perishable product supply chain design, the authors contribute to research and practice efforts to reduce food waste. Furthermore, product quality information is included in supply chain network design, a research area that is still in its infancy
Efficient and accurate calculation of exact exchange and RPA correlation energies in the Adiabatic-Connection Fluctuation-Dissipation theory
Recently there has been a renewed interest in the calculation of
exact-exchange and RPA correlation energies for realistic systems. These
quantities are main ingredients of the so-called EXX/RPA+ scheme which has been
shown to be a promising alternative approach to the standard LDA/GGA DFT for
weakly bound systems where LDA and GGA perform poorly. In this paper, we
present an efficient approach to compute the RPA correlation energy in the
framework of the Adiabatic-Connection Fluctuation-Dissipation formalism. The
method is based on the calculation of a relatively small number of eigenmodes
of RPA dielectric matrix, efficiently computed by iterative density response
calculations in the framework of Density Functional Perturbation Theory. We
will also discuss a careful treatment of the integrable divergence in the
exact-exchange energy calculation which alleviates the problem of its slow
convergence with respect to Brillouin zone sampling. As an illustration of the
method, we show the results of applications to bulk Si, Be dimer and atomic
systems.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev.
A comparative study of numerical methods for the overlap Dirac operator--a status report
Improvements of various methods to compute the sign function of the hermitian
Wilson-Dirac matrix within the overlap operator are presented. An optimal
partial fraction expansion (PFE) based on a theorem of Zolotarev is given.
Benchmarks show that this PFE together with removal of converged systems within
a multi-shift CG appears to approximate the sign function times a vector most
efficiently. A posteriori error bounds are given.Comment: 3 pages, poster contribution to Lattice2001(algorithms
Numerical Methods for the QCD Overlap Operator: I. Sign-Function and Error Bounds
The numerical and computational aspects of the overlap formalism in lattice
quantum chromodynamics are extremely demanding due to a matrix-vector product
that involves the sign function of the hermitian Wilson matrix. In this paper
we investigate several methods to compute the product of the matrix
sign-function with a vector, in particular Lanczos based methods and partial
fraction expansion methods. Our goal is two-fold: we give realistic comparisons
between known methods together with novel approaches and we present error
bounds which allow to guarantee a given accuracy when terminating the Lanczos
method and the multishift-CG solver, applied within the partial fraction
expansion methods.Comment: 30 pages, 2 figure
Rigorous formulation of oblique incidence scattering from dispersive media
We formulate a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) approach to simulate
electromagnetic wave scattering from scatterers embedded in layered dielectric
or dispersive media. At the heart of our approach is a derivation of an
equivalent one-dimensional wave propagation equation for dispersive media
characterized by a linear sum of Debye-, Drude- and Lorentz-type poles. The
derivation is followed by a detailed discussion of the simulation setup and
numerical issues. The developed methodology is tested by comparison with
analytical reflection and transmission coefficients for scattering from a slab,
illustrating good convergence behavior. The case of scattering from a
sub-wavelength slit in a dispersive thin film is explored to demonstrate the
applicability of our formulation to time- and incident angle-dependent analysis
of surface waves generated by an obliquely incident plane wave.Comment: 35 pages, 8 figures, 4 table
Linear systems solvers - recent developments and implications for lattice computations
We review the numerical analysis' understanding of Krylov subspace methods
for solving (non-hermitian) systems of equations and discuss its implications
for lattice gauge theory computations using the example of the Wilson fermion
matrix. Our thesis is that mature methods like QMR, BiCGStab or restarted GMRES
are close to optimal for the Wilson fermion matrix. Consequently,
preconditioning appears to be the crucial issue for further improvements.Comment: 7 pages, LaTeX using espcrc2.sty, 2 figures, 9 eps-files, Talk
presented at LATTICE96(algorithms), submitted to Nucl. Phys. B, Proc. Supp
Large-scale electronic structure theory for simulating nanostructure process
Fundamental theories and practical methods for large-scale electronic
structure calculations are given, in which the computational cost is
proportional to the system size. Accuracy controlling methods for microscopic
freedoms are focused on two practical solver methods, Krylov-subspace method
and generalized-Wannier-state method. A general theory called the
'multi-solver' scheme is also formulated, as a hybrid between different solver
methods. Practical examples are carried out in several insulating and metallic
systems with 10^3-10^5 atoms. All the theories provide general guiding
principles of constructing an optimal calculation for simulating nanostructure
processes, since a nanostructured system consists of several competitive
regions, such as bulk and surface regions, and the simulation is designed to
reproduce the competition with an optimal computational cost.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures. To appear in J. Phys. Cond. Matt. A preprint PDF
file in better graphics is available at
http://fujimac.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/lses/index_e.htm
Performance of Pre-Cut Lettuce Packaged in Biodegradable Film Formed on Commercial Vertical-Form-Fill-and-Seal Machines
The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of using biodegradable films suitable for fresh-cut lettuce with commercial vertical-form-fill-and-seal packaging machines (VVFS) equipped with heat-sealing bars. Biodegradable high-density polyethylene (BHDPE) and polypropylene (BPP) films were tested. Commercial bags of pre-cut Romaine sealed in a polyethylene/oriented polypropylene (PE/OPP) bag formed on a WFS machine were used as the control. All bags were held at 4.4°C, 80% RH and assessed for reduction in quality during storage per a commercial (in-house) standard utilized by a large pre-cut salad packer in Salinas, California. When the biodegradable films were sealed with a VFFS machine equipped with a thermal-bar heat sealer, a 52.5% fail rate was observed due to the non-continuity of the seals. Leaks were found when bags were vacuum tested to 14 in Hg absolute for 15 seconds. However, a 45.5% fail rate was also observed for commercial bags made using the same VFFS machine, suggesting similar seal concerns for current industry film structures. Though an attempt was made to only store bags that were sealed properly, bags made from the biodegradable films sealed with the thermal-bar did not perform as well as the commercial packages and the shelf-life of the pre-cut Romaine was shortened. When biodegradable bags were sealed using a bar impulse sealer, hermetic seals were obtained. The Romaine stored in these bags had a similar rate of decay and level of pinking after 14 days storage as Romaine packaged in the commercial PE/OPP bags. These results indicate that the use of commercial impulse sealers, rather than thermal-bar heat sealers, would allow industry to utilize these biodegradable films for pre-cut lettuce mixes
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