Evolutionary approaches for scheduling a flexible manufacturing system with automated guided vehicles and robots

This paper addresses the scheduling of machines, an Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) and two robots in a Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) formed in three loop layouts, with objectives to minimize the makespan, mean flow time and mean tardiness. The scheduling optimization is carried out using Sheep Flock Heredity Algorithm (SFHA) and Artificial Immune System (AIS) algorithm. AGV is used for carrying jobs between the Load/Unload station and the machines. The robots are used for loading and unloading the jobs in the machines, and also used for transferring jobs between the machines. The algorithms are applied for test problems taken from the literature and the results obtained using the two algorithms are compared. The results indicate that SFHA performs better than AIS for this problem

Pro-cyclicality and the Discretionary use of Loan Loss Provisions: Evidence from GCC Banks

Of the current debate on the resilience of banking systems, what seems to be one of the most critical issues is with regards to the inherent pro-cyclicality in banking systems all over the world particularly in its capital, credit extension and loan loss provisioning. The critical nature of this problem lies in the systemic risks it poses to the economy at large during economic downturns. This study examines the pro-cyclical nature of loan loss provisions in 65 banks from the oil-rich Gulf Co-operation Council region and also estimates whether these banks use discretion in loan loss provisions to manage their regulatory capital and income. Results establish that loan loss provisions are indeed pro-cyclical and backward looking. On the other hand, the study finds that banks do not use discretionary provisions to manage their capital. The study however does not find sufficient evidence whether banks smooth their incomes using provisions or not. The evidence of pro-cyclicality in provisioning amongst GCC banks established in this study is particularly important to regulators and banks in the GCC region to adopt more prudent provisioning practises that are forward-looking and counter-cyclical in order to curtail the systemic risk banks may pose otherwise on the economy

USDA Multi-Agency Project: Collaboration in Animal Health, Food Safety & Epidemiology (CAHFSE)

Despite producer interventions, on-going research and continued surveillance, food borne outbreaks continue and multiple antimicrobial resistant bacteria have emerged. A multi-agency APublic Health Action Plan to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance@ was developed to address these concerns and one USDA response was the development of the Collaboration in Animal Health, Food Safety and Epidemiology (CAHFSE), a partnership among the Agriculture Research Service (ARS), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), and Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS. The objective of CAHFSE is to implement and expand a surveillance system patterned after the APHIS National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) which focuses on animal health and food safety. Swine is the first commodity in CAHFSE. To date, fecal samples from 8 farms have been collected and processed for culture of Salmonella, Campylobacter, Enterococci and E. coli. Preliminary results indicate that all four bacteria have been recovered from a number of operations and are currently being characterized

Salmonella serotypes from 1997-2003 NARMS swine diagnostic, on-farm, and slaughter samples

The veterinary component of the National Antimicorbial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) identified 8527 Salmonella isolates from swine samples in the years 1997-2003. Fifty-one Salmonella serotypes were identified from 3147 diagnostic, 2138 on-farm, and 3246 slaughter samples

Antimicrobial resistance in Salmonella from 1997-2003 NARMS swine samples

A total of 3246 swine slaughter and 3147 swine diagnostic Salmonella isolates from the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) for the years 1997-2003 were tested for antimicrobial resistance. No resistance was detected in any Salmonella isolates for ciprofloxacin or amikacin. For all other antimicrobics tested, more resistance was observed in diagnostic isolates compared to slaughter isolates

Optimization of Freeze Drying Conditions for Purified Pectinase from Mango (Mangifera indica cv. Chokanan) Peel

Response surface methodology (RSM) along with central composite design (CCD) was applied to optimize the freeze drying conditions for purified pectinase from mango (Mangifera indica cv. Chokanan) peel. The effect of pectinase content (−2.66, 62.66 mg/mL), Arabic gum (−1.21, 10.21%, w/v), and maltodextrin (0.73, 7.26%, w/v) as independent variables on activity, yield, and storage stability of freeze-dried enzyme was evaluated. Storage stability of pectinase was investigated after one week at 4 °C and yield percentage of the enzyme after encapsulation was also determined. The independent variables had the most significant (p < 0.05) effect on pectinase activity and yield of the enzyme. It was observed that the interaction effect of Arabic gum and maltodextrin improved the enzymatic properties of freeze-dried pectinase. The optimal conditions for freeze-dried pectinase from mango peel were obtained using 30 mg/mL of pectinase content, 4.5 (%, w/v) of Arabic gum, and 4 (%, w/v) of maltodextrin. Under these conditions, the maximum activity (11.12 U/mL), yield (86.4%) and storage stability (84.2%) of encapsulated pectinase were achieved

An improved sheep flock heredity algorithm for job shop scheduling and flow shop scheduling problems

Job Shop Scheduling Problem (JSSP) and Flow Shop Scheduling Problem (FSSP) are strong NP-complete combinatorial optimization problems among class of typical production scheduling problems. An improved Sheep Flock Heredity Algorithm (ISFHA) is proposed in this paper to find a schedule of operations that can minimize makespan. In ISFHA, the pairwise mutation operation is replaced by a single point mutation process with a probabilistic property which guarantees the feasibility of the solutions in the local search domain. A Robust-Replace (R-R) heuristic is introduced in place of chromosomal crossover to enhance the global search and to improve the convergence. The R-R heuristic is found to enhance the exploring potential of the algorithm and enrich the diversity of neighborhoods. Experimental results reveal the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, whose optimization performance is markedly superior to that of genetic algorithms and is comparable to the best results reported in the literature

Pro-cyclicality and the Discretionary use of Loan Loss Provisions: Evidence from GCC Banks

Of the current debate on the resilience of banking systems, what seems to be one of the most critical issues is with regards to the inherent pro-cyclicality in banking systems all over the world particularly in its capital, credit extension and loan loss provisioning. The critical nature of this problem lies in the systemic risks it poses to the economy at large during economic downturns. This study examines the pro-cyclical nature of loan loss provisions in 65 banks from the oil-rich Gulf Co-operation Council region and also estimates whether these banks use discretion in loan loss provisions to manage their regulatory capital and income. Results establish that loan loss provisions are indeed pro-cyclical and backward looking. On the other hand, the study finds that banks do not use discretionary provisions to manage their capital. The study however does not find sufficient evidence whether banks smooth their incomes using provisions or not. The evidence of pro-cyclicality in provisioning amongst GCC banks established in this study is particularly important to regulators and banks in the GCC region to adopt more prudent provisioning practises that are forward-looking and counter-cyclical in order to curtail the systemic risk banks may pose otherwise on the economy