Prediction of homogeneous azeotropes with interval analysis techniques exploiting topological considerations

In this paper, we present an efficient method for the prediction of homogeneous azeotropes. The method is an adaptation of a former method based on interval analysis techniques. An interval Newton with generalized bisection (IN/GB) technique is used to find all the roots of a set of equations representing the azeotropy condition. The novel contribution is to combine this robust technique with the Zharov - Serafimov topological index theory. By checking the topological consistency, it is possible to avoid the numerical verification of the nonexistence and therefore to reduce significantly the total computation time. In addition, a simplified model is selectively used at the first stage of the algorithm for providing good starting points for the second stage, where the full model is used for solution refining. In this way, more computation time is saved without compromising the reliability of the method. As a result, the performance of the method is comparable to the one of the fastest local methods.Fil: Salomone, Hector Enrique. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo y Diseño. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo y Diseño; ArgentinaFil: Espinosa, Hector Jose Maria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo y Diseño. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo y Diseño; Argentin

Supply Chain Event Management System

The Supply Chain Management (SCM) can be defined as the set of proposals used to efficiently integrate suppliers, manufacturers and warehouses, such that the product is produced and distributed in the right quantity and at the right time, minimizing the total cost and satisfying the required service level (Simchi-Levi et al., 1999). To this aim, enterprises in a Supply Chain (SC) perform collaborative business processes (Soosay et al., 2008). Particularly, collaborative planning processes allow each enterprise to obtain production and/or distribution schedules synchronized with schedules of the other SC members (Derrouiche et al., 2008). In this chapter, a schedule is defined as a set of orders, where each order represents a supply process (production or distribution) that assigns materials to a place, states the required resources, the time period during which each resource is required and its required capacity. The execution of a schedule implies performing the operations defined in the supply process each order represents. As result of the uncertainty inherent in any supply process (Kleindorfer & Saad, 2005) disruptive events arise. The problems they cause during a schedule execution occur on a daily basis, and affect not only the organization where they are produced but also propagate throughout the SC (Lee et al., 1997; Radjou et al., 2002). That is, these disruptive events may affect the schedules and their synchronization. In this chapter a disruptive event is defined as a significant change in the order specifications or planned values of resource availability. These changes could be: rush or delay in the start or end date of the order, changes in the amount specified by the order, change in the expected future availability of a resource, and change into the current level of a resource regards to its planned value. They can be produced by changes that can take place into the enterprise or outside the enterprise. For example, an equipment breakdown, breakage of materials, change of material specification, weather conditions, traffic congestion, etc. The occurrence of disruptive events is a fact well known to the planning task, and therefore planning systems generate schedules including buffers (material, resource capacity and time) to be robust and flexible, thus the schedule can be adapted to conditions occurring during implementation (Van Landeghem & Vanmaele, 2002; Adhitya et al., 2007; Wang

Modeling dynamic interactions in supply chains using agent-based simulations

In this work, we present preliminary results of our research on the construction of an agent-based simulation framework suitable to support the analysis of complex supply chain interactions as the one required for the performance assessment in collaborative supply chains. In particular, we focus in the modeling of dynamic interactions through agent-to-agent message communication avoiding predefined supply chain network structures. For defining the internal structure of agents, we explore the application of the SCOR reference model to bring a business process perspective and adopt the requirement of making explicit separation of the execution and control and decision making processes.Fil: Dorigatti, Mariana Carolina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo y Diseño (i); ArgentinaFil: Chiotti, Omar Juan Alfredo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo y Diseño (i); ArgentinaFil: Salomone, Hector Enrique. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Santa Fe. Instituto de Desarrollo y Diseño (i); Argentin

Coordinación en un sistema de gestión de eventos autónomo basado en agentes de software

En este trabajo se propone la especificación de un mecanismo de coordinación de agentes, los cuales definen un sistema de gestión de eventos autónomo. Esta especificación se lleva a cabo mediante la definición de los procesos de negociación que se establecen entre los distintos agentes del sistema, los que tienen como objetivo elaborar una solución colaborativa que de respuestas a eventos del sistema que perturben los planes de los agentes. Un aspecto clave de la propuesta es el proponer un mecanismo distribuido para lograr la coordinación.Eje: Ingeniería de Software y Bases de Datos (ISBD)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Support system for process flow scheduling

Process flow scheduling is a concept that refers to the scheduling of flow shop process plants, whose scheduling calculations are guided by the process structure. In a wide variety of high-volume process industries, the process flow scheduling concept implies an integrated structure for planning and scheduling. This integrated vision of the planning function and the very particular characteristics of the process industry production environment challenge the application of the most traditional approaches to support planning/scheduling activities. We are working with the aim of developing a conceptual system foundation to support process flow scheduling. We started from a grass roots study of the current process flow planning/scheduling practices and we applied an object oriented analysis and design methodology to design a system to support process flow scheduling. Essentially, the system supports a process flow scheduling model that can be used to instantiate production resources of a particular industry, the plant structure and the products with their respective production processes. In this way, the particular scheduling problem of a production order set will be instantiated. In this work we describe the process flow scheduling problem, a process flow scheduling support system architecture, a general ontology of the process flow scheduling, an object oriented design of the system and some implementation details.Eje: Sistemas operativosRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Modeling public business processes with interaction protocols in business-to-business relationships

Today, one of the main challenges of the Business-to-Business (B2B) E-Commerce solutions is to improve the business processes that organizations carry out with their suppliers and customers. B2B relationships require the management of public business processes, which span the organizational boundaries and are jointly managed by the organizations. Although Workflow and Web Service Composition approaches have been proposed to model and manage public processes, they present shortcomings to achieve the requirements of autonomy, decentralization, P2P interaction and negotiation. A flexible approach that can achieve these requirements is the use of Interaction Protocols to model and manage public processes. Interaction Protocols allows to model public processes with a high abstraction level, which can be understood by the enterprises, people and systems. In this work we describe the modeling of public processes using interaction protocols. We discuss different aspects for representing interaction protocols in the context of B2B relationships. In addition, we describe several examples of public processes modeled with interaction protocols. These examples of public processes are derived from collaborative models for the supply chain management. Benefits of the interaction protocols for represent public processes in B2B relationships are also identified.Eje: Ingeniería de Software y Bases de Datos (ISBD)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Coordinación en un sistema de gestión de eventos autónomo basado en agentes de software

En este trabajo se propone la especificación de un mecanismo de coordinación de agentes, los cuales definen un sistema de gestión de eventos autónomo. Esta especificación se lleva a cabo mediante la definición de los procesos de negociación que se establecen entre los distintos agentes del sistema, los que tienen como objetivo elaborar una solución colaborativa que de respuestas a eventos del sistema que perturben los planes de los agentes. Un aspecto clave de la propuesta es el proponer un mecanismo distribuido para lograr la coordinación.Eje: Ingeniería de Software y Bases de Datos (ISBD)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Conceptos de sostenibilidad y orientaciones temporales en contextos educativos informales: La experiencia de los Grupos de Compra Solidaria

Los cambios profundos en nuestra sociedad de hoy ponen en evidencia nuevos fenómenos educativos. Aprendizajes informales toman forma de manera espontánea dentro de los recorridos existenciales y ambiente de vida. Muchos estudios muestran que la educación informal, más que la formal, puede afectar profundamente y durablemente las actitudes y estilos de vida, puede educar a las masas de personas, especialmente los más difíciles de lograr, a comprometerse a construir una comunidad planetaria sostenible. Este estudio examina el fenómeno de los Grupos de Compra Solidaria en cuanto experiencias educativas informales importantes para promover un futuro sostenible. Se analizan los conceptos de sostenibilidad, la orientación temporal al futuro y las dinámica educativas informales en algunos GAS italianos. La primera parte del trabajo se centra en la complejidad y el carácter fuzzy del concepto de sostenibilidad y algunas de las dimensiones clave de la educación sostenible. Las categorías conceptuales identificadas fueron utilizadas en el trabajo de campo para recoger, analizar e interpretar el material empírico. En la segunda parte del trabajo se presentan los criterios, metodología, herramientas, actividades (cuestionarios, entrevistas semi-estructuradas, observación participante, análisis de documentos) utilizados en el trabajo de campo. En la tercera parte se presenta el trabajo de campo realizado en una muestra de 148 sujetos de cuatro GAS. El primero y el segundo capítulo exponen la estructura de la muestra, las características y el modo de administración, el análisis y discusión de los resultados de los dos cuestionarios utilizados: el Inventario de la Perspectiva Temporal de Zimbardo /ZTPI) y el cuestionario abierto sobre los conceptos de sostenibilidad (desarrollado específicamente para esta investigación). El tercero presenta el corazón del trabajo de campo. A través de análisis documental, observación participante, entrevistas semi-estructuradas realizadas con algunos key informants se identifican y analizan los conceptos de sostenibilidad, la orientación temporal hacia el futuro y las dinámicas educativas en los cuatro contextos sociales en estudio. En el último capítulo se discuten algunos de los aspectos críticos que surgieron a partir del trabajo de campo, y asumimos algunos recorridos para futuras investigaciones

Antimicrobial resistance among migrants in Europe: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are rising globally and there is concern that increased migration is contributing to the burden of antibiotic resistance in Europe. However, the effect of migration on the burden of AMR in Europe has not yet been comprehensively examined. Therefore, we did a systematic review and meta-analysis to identify and synthesise data for AMR carriage or infection in migrants to Europe to examine differences in patterns of AMR across migrant groups and in different settings. METHODS: For this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, PubMed, and Scopus with no language restrictions from Jan 1, 2000, to Jan 18, 2017, for primary data from observational studies reporting antibacterial resistance in common bacterial pathogens among migrants to 21 European Union-15 and European Economic Area countries. To be eligible for inclusion, studies had to report data on carriage or infection with laboratory-confirmed antibiotic-resistant organisms in migrant populations. We extracted data from eligible studies and assessed quality using piloted, standardised forms. We did not examine drug resistance in tuberculosis and excluded articles solely reporting on this parameter. We also excluded articles in which migrant status was determined by ethnicity, country of birth of participants' parents, or was not defined, and articles in which data were not disaggregated by migrant status. Outcomes were carriage of or infection with antibiotic-resistant organisms. We used random-effects models to calculate the pooled prevalence of each outcome. The study protocol is registered with PROSPERO, number CRD42016043681. FINDINGS: We identified 2274 articles, of which 23 observational studies reporting on antibiotic resistance in 2319 migrants were included. The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or AMR infection in migrants was 25·4% (95% CI 19·1-31·8; I2 =98%), including meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (7·8%, 4·8-10·7; I2 =92%) and antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (27·2%, 17·6-36·8; I2 =94%). The pooled prevalence of any AMR carriage or infection was higher in refugees and asylum seekers (33·0%, 18·3-47·6; I2 =98%) than in other migrant groups (6·6%, 1·8-11·3; I2 =92%). The pooled prevalence of antibiotic-resistant organisms was slightly higher in high-migrant community settings (33·1%, 11·1-55·1; I2 =96%) than in migrants in hospitals (24·3%, 16·1-32·6; I2 =98%). We did not find evidence of high rates of transmission of AMR from migrant to host populations. INTERPRETATION: Migrants are exposed to conditions favouring the emergence of drug resistance during transit and in host countries in Europe. Increased antibiotic resistance among refugees and asylum seekers and in high-migrant community settings (such as refugee camps and detention facilities) highlights the need for improved living conditions, access to health care, and initiatives to facilitate detection of and appropriate high-quality treatment for antibiotic-resistant infections during transit and in host countries. Protocols for the prevention and control of infection and for antibiotic surveillance need to be integrated in all aspects of health care, which should be accessible for all migrant groups, and should target determinants of AMR before, during, and after migration. FUNDING: UK National Institute for Health Research Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, Imperial College Healthcare Charity, the Wellcome Trust, and UK National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare-associated Infections and Antimictobial Resistance at Imperial College London

Evolving trends in the management of acute appendicitis during COVID-19 waves. The ACIE appy II study

Background: In 2020, ACIE Appy study showed that COVID-19 pandemic heavily affected the management of patients with acute appendicitis (AA) worldwide, with an increased rate of non-operative management (NOM) strategies and a trend toward open surgery due to concern of virus transmission by laparoscopy and controversial recommendations on this issue. The aim of this study was to survey again the same group of surgeons to assess if any difference in management attitudes of AA had occurred in the later stages of the outbreak. Methods: From August 15 to September 30, 2021, an online questionnaire was sent to all 709 participants of the ACIE Appy study. The questionnaire included questions on personal protective equipment (PPE), local policies and screening for SARS-CoV-2 infection, NOM, surgical approach and disease presentations in 2021. The results were compared with the results from the previous study. Results: A total of 476 answers were collected (response rate 67.1%). Screening policies were significatively improved with most patients screened regardless of symptoms (89.5% vs. 37.4%) with PCR and antigenic test as the preferred test (74.1% vs. 26.3%). More patients tested positive before surgery and commercial systems were the preferred ones to filter smoke plumes during laparoscopy. Laparoscopic appendicectomy was the first option in the treatment of AA, with a declined use of NOM. Conclusion: Management of AA has improved in the last waves of pandemic. Increased evidence regarding SARS-COV-2 infection along with a timely healthcare systems response has been translated into tailored attitudes and a better care for patients with AA worldwide