Framtagande av ett planerings- och styrsystem : Trioplast i Landskrona AB

Bakgrund: Trioplast Landskrona tillverkar och trycker plastmaterial till förpackningar. Med en prispressad marknad så upplever företaget att de har svårt att konkurrera med andra företag belagda i lågavlönade länder. Priser är pressade till nivåer där Trioplast Landskrona har svårt att konkurrera med den verksamhet som bedrivs idag, Därmed vill företaget rikta sig mot den delen av marknaden som ställer högre krav på flexibilitet, miljövänlighet eller ett nära samarbete. Företagets förändrade marknadsinriktning har även ställt nya krav på hur övriga verksamheten bedrivs, framförallt produktionsavdelningen som gått från linjeproduktion till batchproduktion. Detta skifte ställer nya krav på effektiviseringar men även närmre samarbete internt inom verksamheten. Syfte: Syftet med examensarbetet är att utveckla företagets planerings- och styrsystem. Målsättning: • Skapa ett verkställande och fortlöpande planerings- och styrsystem o Fördela ansvaret i planeringen o Stärk kommunikation över funktionsgränserna • Skapa regler för att systematisera arbetet för samtliga avdelningar Metod: Det övergripande syftet med detta examensarbete är av problemlösande karaktär, att givet formulerade problem beskriva dess ursprung och hur dessa kan lösas. Därmed faller examensarbetes val av arbetssätt på aktionsforskning vilken bygger på att förbättringar sker under tiden som fenomenet utforskas. Aktionsforskning använder sig av ett liknande resonemang som det abduktiva angreppssättet, vilket gör det naturligt att beskriva detta examensarbetes angreppssätt som abduktivt. Genom en kontinuerlig teoribildning kunna beskriva och analysera empiri, för att slutligen skapa ett förslag grundat i teorier. Den praktiska arbetsgången beskriver vi vilken ordning de olika delarna i arbetet sker. Dessa sker enligt följande punkter: 1) Studera företagets affärsplan 2) Granska operationell verksamhet med koppling till problemformulering 3) Kartlägga befintligt planerings- och styrsystem 4) Utveckla ett börläge 5) Exemplifiera genom ett praktikfall Slutsats: Trioplast Landskrona ska utveckla ett hierarkiskt planerings- och styrsystem bestående av fyra planeringsnivåer. Detta ska grundas i företagets affärsplan och sedan koppla samman företagets affärsplan med dess operationella verksamhet. De fyra planeringsnivåerna kallas sälj- och verksamhetsplanering, huvudplanering, behovsplanering och detaljplanering. För att utveckla detta nya system ifrån deras system så ska Trioplast Landskronas planeringsmöten utvecklas till en sälj- och verksamhetsplaneringsprocess med ett avslutande beslutsmöte. Planeringshierarkin ska framöver innefatta en huvudplanering som drivs av företagets planeringschef och som inkluderar ett nytt informativt huvudplaneringsmöte. Slutligen ska företagets detaljplaneringsarbete bedrivas utifrån företagets nyinrättade produktfamiljer där de två planerarna planerar olika produktfamiljer, istället för olika avdelningar i produktionsavdelningen.Background: Trioplast Landskrona manufacture and print plastic packing material. As the market pressures the prices down, the company feels that they are having a hard time competing with other companies from low salary countries. The margins are so low on the current market, that it is hard for Trioplast Landskrona to be profitable. Therefore, the company want to focus on a new market segment that valuates higher flexibility, environmental friendly products or a closer collaboration. With this new offer, new and different requirements are put on the other parts of the business. Especially on the production department, which has moved from being line production to become batch production. These changes has demands of improvements, but also a closer collaborations and communication within the company. Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis is to develop the company planning and control system. Objectives: • Create an executive and on-going planning and control system o Define a clear structure for the planning process o Distribute responsibility in planning o Strengthen communication across the functional barriers • Create rules to systemize work for all affected departments Method: The method of this master's thesis is of problem solving character; from formulated problems describe its origin and how these could be solved. Thereby, the choice of research method for this master thesis is “action research”, which builds on the continuous improvements while studying the phenomenon. “Action research” uses the same kind of reasoning as the abductive approach, which makes it naturally to describe this master thesis approach as abductive. By continuously reviewing theories being able to describe and analyse empiric acknowledges, to finally create a result based on theory. Following, the practical method is described: 1) Study the company business plan 2) Review operations link to the problem formulation 3) Map the current planning and control system. 4) Develop a “to be” state 5) Exemplify with a case description Findings: Trioplast Landskrona should develop a hierarchical planning and control system containing four separated levels of planning. This system should spring from the company’s business plan and then link operations with the business plan. The four levels of planning are called sales and operations planning, master scheduling, requirements planning and shop floor control. To develop their current system into the new, Trioplast Landskrona’s planning meeting needs to develop into a sales and operations planning process with an executive meeting. The planning hierarchy shall from now include a master scheduling that is handled by the company’s head of planning, also a new master planning meeting shall be introduced. Lastly, the company’s shop floor Control planners should divide their work in terms of product families instead of production departments

Insight into the OH polarimetric structure of OH 26.5+0.6

We present the first view of the magnetic field structure in the OH shell of the extreme OH/IR star OH 26.5+0.6. MERLIN interferometric observations of this object were obtained in December 1993 in full polarisation, at 1612, 1665 and 1667 MHz. The maser spots show a spheroidal distribution both at 1612 and 1667 MHz, while at 1665 MHz emission from the blue-shifted maser peak is concentrated on the stellar position, and the red-shifted peak emission exhibits a filamentary structure oriented on a SE-NW axis. The linear polarisation in both main lines is rather faint, ranging from 9 to 20% at 1665 MHz and from 0 to 30% at 1667 MHz. At 1612 MHz most maser spots exhibit a similar range of linear polarisation although those in the outermost parts of the envelope reach values as high as 66%. This is particularly apparent in the southern part of the shell. The detailed distribution of the polarisation vectors could only be obtained at 1612 MHz. The polarisation vectors show a highly structured distribution indicative of a poloidal magnetic field inclined by 40-60$^\circ$ to the line of sight. The velocity distribution of the maser spots with respect to the radial distance is well explained by an isotropic outflow at constant velocity in the case of a prolate shaped spheroid envelope, also tilted about 45-65$^\circ$ to the line of sight.Comment: 20 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Restoration of estuarine tidal mudflat sediments after hypoxia

Ecosystem function recovery and benthic community recovery was investigated after experimentally induced depleted oxygen bottom water concentrations in a tidal mudflat (Paulinapolder, Westerschelde estuary). Macrofauna recovery developed through different succession stages and was structured by facilitative and inhibitive interactions: early colonizers had a positive effect on subsequent colonizers, while later succession species negatively affected the stable conditions created by the early colonizing tube-builders. Transitions between different stages were related to changes in environmental characteristics and biotic-environmental interactions (e.g. exploitation competition for food). Nematode community -and biogeochemical recovery were related to macrobenthic succession. Dense polychaete tube aggregations and the development of a fresh diatom bloom, as a result of the low grazing pressure by surface deposit feeding macrofauna during the first stage, stabilized the sediment and thereby enhanced macrobenthic and nematode recruitment success. Bioturbation impact of later succession species increased oxygen input in the sediment, resulting in an enhanced nitrification, denitrification and energy use

Galactic Cosmic Rays at Mars and Venus: Temporal Variations from Hours to Decades Measured as the Background Signal of Onboard Micro-Channel Plates

A Micro-Channel Plate (MCP) is a widely used component for counting particles in space. Using the background counts of MCPs on Mars Express and Venus Express orbiters operated over 17 years and 8 years, respectively, we investigate the galactic cosmic ray (GCR) characteristics in the inner solar system. The MCP background counts at Mars and Venus on a solar cycle time scale exhibit clear anti-correlation to the sunspot number. We conclude that the measured MCP background contain the GCR information. The GCR characteristics measured using the MCP background at Mars show features that are consistent with the ground-based measurement in solar cycle 24. The time lag between the sunspot number and the MCP background at Mars is found ~9 months. The shorter-term background data recorded along the orbits (with a time scale of several hours) also show evident depletion of the background counts due to the absorption of the GCR particles by the planets. Thanks to the visible planetary size change along an orbit, the GCR contribution to the MCP background can be separated from the internal contribution due to the \b{eta}-decay. Our statistical analysis of the GCR absorption signatures at Mars implies that the effective absorption size of Mars for the GCR particles have a >100 km larger radius than the solid Martian body.Comment: Submitted to ApJ (2022-03-19

Comparison of Short-Term Estrogenicity Tests for Identification of Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals

The aim of this study was to compare results obtained by eight different short-term assays of estrogenlike actions of chemicals conducted in 10 different laboratories in five countries. Twenty chemicals were selected to represent direct-acting estrogens, compounds with estrogenic metabolites, estrogenic antagonists, and a known cytotoxic agent. Also included in the test panel were 17β-estradiol as a positive control and ethanol as solvent control. The test compounds were coded before distribution. Test methods included direct binding to the estrogen receptor (ER), proliferation of MCF-7 cells, transient reporter gene expression in MCF-7 cells, reporter gene expression in yeast strains stably transfected with the human ER and an estrogen-responsive reporter gene, and vitellogenin production in juvenile rainbow trout. 17β-Estradiol, 17α-ethynyl estradiol, and diethylstilbestrol induced a strong estrogenic response in all test systems. Colchicine caused cytotoxicity only. Bisphenol A induced an estrogenic response in all assays. The results obtained for the remaining test compounds—tamoxifen, ICI 182.780, testosterone, bisphenol A dimethacrylate, 4-n-octylphenol, 4-n-nonylphenol, nonylphenol dodecylethoxylate, butylbenzylphthalate, dibutylphthalate, methoxychlor, o,p′-DDT, p,p′-DDE, endosulfan, chlomequat chloride, and ethanol—varied among the assays. The results demonstrate that careful standardization is necessary to obtain a reasonable degree of reproducibility. Also, similar methods vary in their sensitivity to estrogenic compounds. Thus, short-term tests are useful for screening purposes, but the methods must be further validated by additional interlaboratory and interassay comparisons to document the reliability of the methods

"After my husband's circumcision, I know that I am safe from diseases": Women's Attitudes and Risk Perceptions Towards Male Circumcision in Iringa, Tanzania.

While male circumcision reduces the risk of female-to-male HIV transmission and certain sexually transmitted infections (STIs), there is little evidence that circumcision provides women with direct protection against HIV. This study used qualitative methods to assess women's perceptions of male circumcision in Iringa, Tanzania. Women in this study had strong preferences for circumcised men because of the low risk perception of HIV with circumcised men, social norms favoring circumcised men, and perceived increased sexual desirability of circumcised men. The health benefits of male circumcision were generally overstated; many respondents falsely believed that women are also directly protected against HIV and that the risk of all STIs is greatly reduced or eliminated in circumcised men. Efforts to engage women about the risks and limitations of male circumcision, in addition to the benefits, should be expanded so that women can accurately assess their risk of HIV or STIs during sexual intercourse with circumcised men

Organism-sediment interactions govern post-hypoxia recovery of ecosystem functioning

Hypoxia represents one of the major causes of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning loss for coastal waters. Since eutrophication-induced hypoxic events are becoming increasingly frequent and intense, understanding the response of ecosystems to hypoxia is of primary importance to understand and predict the stability of ecosystem functioning. Such ecological stability may greatly depend on the recovery patterns of communities and the return time of the system properties associated to these patterns. Here, we have examined how the reassembly of a benthic community contributed to the recovery of ecosystem functioning following experimentally-induced hypoxia in a tidal flat. We demonstrate that organism-sediment interactions that depend on organism size and relate to mobility traits and sediment reworking capacities are generally more important than recovering species richness to set the return time of the measured sediment processes and properties. Specifically, increasing macrofauna bioturbation potential during community reassembly significantly contributed to the recovery of sediment processes and properties such as denitrification, bedload sediment transport, primary production and deep pore water ammonium concentration. Such bioturbation potential was due to the replacement of the small-sized organisms that recolonised at early stages by large-sized bioturbating organisms, which had a disproportionately stronger influence on sediment. This study suggests that the complete recovery of organism-sediment interactions is a necessary condition for ecosystem functioning recovery, and that such process requires long periods after disturbance due to the slow growth of juveniles into adult stages involved in these interactions. Consequently, repeated episodes of disturbance at intervals smaller than the time needed for the system to fully recover organism-sediment interactions may greatly impair the resilience of ecosystem functioning.

Divergent roles for antigenic drive in the aetiology of primary versus dasatinib-associated CD8(+) TCR-Vβ(+) expansions

CD8(+) T-cell expansions are the primary manifestation of T-cell large granular lymphocytic leukemia (T-LGLL), which is frequently accompanied by neutropenia and rheumatoid arthritis, and also occur as a secondary phenomenon in leukemia patients treated with dasatinib, notably in association with various drug-induced side-effects. However, the mechanisms that underlie the genesis and maintenance of expanded CD8(+) T-cell receptor (TCR)-V beta(+) populations in these patient groups have yet to be fully defined. In this study, we performed a comprehensive phenotypic and clonotypic assessment of expanded (TCR-V beta(+)) and residual (TCR-V beta(-)) CD8(+) T-cell populations in T-LGLL and dasatinib-treated chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) patients. The dominant CD8(+) TCR-V beta(+) expansions in T-LGLL patients were largely monoclonal and highly differentiated, whereas the dominant CD8(+) TCR-V beta(+) expansions in dasatinib-treated CML patients were oligoclonal or polyclonal, and displayed a broad range of memory phenotypes. These contrasting features suggest divergent roles for antigenic drive in the immunopathogenesis of primary versus dasatinib-associated CD8(+) TCR-V beta(+) expansions.Peer reviewe

Neuregulin and dopamine modulation of hippocampal gamma oscillations is dependent on dopamine D4 receptors

The neuregulin/ErbB signaling network is genetically associated with schizophrenia and modulates hippocampal γ oscillations—a type of neuronal network activity important for higher brain processes and altered in psychiatric disorders. Because neuregulin-1 (NRG-1) dramatically increases extracellular dopamine levels in the hippocampus, we investigated the relationship between NRG/ErbB and dopamine signaling in hippocampal γ oscillations. Using agonists for different D1- and D2-type dopamine receptors, we found that the D4 receptor (D4R) agonist PD168077, but not D1/D5 and D2/D3 agonists, increases γ oscillation power, and its effect is blocked by the highly specific D4R antagonist L-745,870. Using double in situ hybridization and immunofluorescence histochemistry, we show that hippocampal D4R mRNA and protein are more highly expressed in GAD67-positive GABAergic interneurons, many of which express the NRG-1 receptor ErbB4. Importantly, D4 and ErbB4 receptors are coexpressed in parvalbumin-positive basket cells that are critical for γ oscillations. Last, we report that D4R activation is essential for the effects of NRG-1 on network activity because L-745,870 and the atypical antipsychotic clozapine dramatically reduce the NRG-1–induced increase in γ oscillation power. This unique link between D4R and ErbB4 signaling on γ oscillation power, and their coexpression in parvalbumin-expressing interneurons, suggests a cellular mechanism that may be compromised in different psychiatric disorders affecting cognitive control. These findings are important given the association of a DRD4 polymorphism with alterations in attention, working memory, and γ oscillations, and suggest potential benefits of D4R modulators for targeting cognitive deficits

Household Preferences to Reduce Their Greenhouse Gas Footprint: A Comparative Study from Four European Cities

This paper investigates households’ preferences to reduce their carbon footprint (CF) measured in carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂e). It assumes that a substantial CF reduction of households is essential to reach the 1.5 °C goal under the Paris Agreement. Data was collected in four mid-size cities in France, Germany, Norway, and Sweden. Quantitative data was obtained from 308 households using a CF calculator based on a questionnaire, and a simulation game. The latter investigated households’ preferences when being confronted with the objective to reduce their CF by 50 percent by 2030 in a voluntary and forced scenario. Our results show that the greater the CO₂e-reduction potential of a mitigation action, the less willing a household was to implement that action. Households preferred actions with moderate lifestyle changes foremost in the food sector. Voluntarily, households reached a 25% footprint reduction by 2030. To reach a substantial reduction of 50 percent, households needed to choose actions that meant considerable lifestyle changes, mainly related to mobility. Given our results, the 1.5 °C goal is unlikely to be realizable currently, unless households receive major policy support. Lastly, the strikingly similar preferences of households in the four European cities investigated seem to justify strong EU and international policies