Addressing effective construction logistics through the lens of vehicle movements

Purpose – Construction logistics is an essential part of construction supply chain management (CSCM). However, limited attention has been paid to this issue in the New Zealand construction industry. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge about what hampers efficiency in transporting construction materials and plants to a construction site. The intention is to gain detailed understanding of the practice and obstacles in efficient construction logistics and thus identify interventions to improve logistics efficiency, especially using the numbers of vehicle movements to the construction site as an indicator. Design/methodology/approach – A case study approach was adopted with on-site observations and interviews. Observations were performed during constructions on-site from the start of construction to “hand-over” to the building owner. A selection of construction suppliers and subcontractors involved in the studied project were interviewed. Findings – Data analysis suggested that cost-related factors affecting the construction logistics, both monetary and non-monetary factors were not measured and largely ignored, especially the possible environmental and/or social impact occurred by the truck movement. Factors in the service-related sector were insufficiently managed in the observed site. The main contribution to inefficient construction logistics are related to understanding and implementing CSCM. It is noticed that there is inadequate awareness of CSCM and logistics efficiency largely due to lack of commitment from the management level and skills at the operational level. Originality/value – Significant intrinsic and extrinsic interventions necessary to enhance construction logistics were acknowledged from the data analysis. These include both qualitative and quantitative data. These intrinsic and extrinsic interventions, such as implementing appropriate logistics tools that suits individual site and introducing traffic management costs, offer plausible explanations regarding how to improve the efficiency in construction logistics through optimising transportation movements to the construction site

Rogue wave formation scenarios for the focusing nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation with parabolic-profile initial data on a compact support

We study the (1+1) focusing nonlinear Schroedinger (NLS) equation for an initial condition with concave parabolic profile on a compact support and phase depending quadratically on the spatial coordinate. In the absence of dispersion, using the natural class of self-similar solutions of the resulting elliptic system, we generalise a result by Talanov, Guervich and Shvartsburg, finding a criterion on the chirp and modulus coefficients at time equal zero to determine whether the dispersionless solution features asymptotic relaxation or a blow-up at fine time, providing an explicit formula for the time of catastrophe. In the presence of dispersion, we numerically show that the same criterion determines, even beyond the semi-classical regime, whether the solution relaxes or develops a higher order rogue wave, whose amplitude can be several multiples of the height of the initial parabola. In the latter case, for small dispersion, the time of catastrophe for the corresponding dispersionless solution predicts almost exactly the onset time of the rogue wave. In our numerical experiments, the sign of the chirp appears to determine the prevailing scenario, among two competing mechanisms leading to the formation of a rogue wave. For negative values, the simulations are suggestive of the dispersive regularisation of a gradient catastrophe described by Bertola and Tovbis for a different class of smooth, bell-shaped initial data. As the chirp becomes positive, the rogue wave seem to result from the interaction of counter-propagating dispersive dam break flows, as described for the box problem by El, Khamis and Tovbis. As the chirp and amplitude of the initial profile are relatively easy to manipulate in optical devices and water tank wave generators, we expect our observation to be relevant for experiments in nonlinear optics and fluid dynamics.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl

Rogue wave formation scenarios for the focusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation with parabolic-profile initial data on a compact support

We study the (1+1) focusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation for an initial condition with compactly supported parabolic profile and phase depending quadratically on the spatial coordinate. In the absence of dispersion, using the natural class of self-similar solutions, we provide a criterion for blowup in finite time, generalizing a result by Talanov et al. In the presence of dispersion, we numerically show that the same criterion determines, even beyond the semiclassical regime, whether the solution relaxes or develops a high-order rogue wave, whose onset time is predicted by the corresponding dispersionless catastrophe time. The sign of the chirp appears to determine the prevailing scenario among two competing mechanisms for rogue wave formation. For negative values, the numerical simulations are suggestive of the dispersive regularization of a gradient catastrophe described by Bertola and Tovbis for a different class of smooth, bell-shaped initial data. As the chirp becomes positive, the rogue wave seems to result from the interaction of counterpropagating dispersive dam break flows, as in the box problem recently studied by El, Khamis, and Tovbis. As the chirp and amplitude of the initial profile are relatively easy to manipulate in optical devices and water tank wave generators, we expect our observation to be relevant for experiments in nonlinear optics and fluid dynamics

An Ecophisiological Proposal to Manage Natural Grasslands: A Long Term Trial

Natural grasslands on Southern Brazil comprise the so called “Rio de La Plata Grasslands” in South America. They are an important fodder source for ruminant pastoral systems and contribute to regional ecosystem services. Strength of these grasslands is its floristic diversity that poses a dilemma to farmers: how to choose management protocols that could be applied for hundreds of species. We propose to use a functional ecophysiological approach based on groups of grasses, the most abundant on aerial biomass of this natural grasslands. We clustered the most frequent grasses in two groups based on its leaf traits (leaf dry matter content and specific leaf area). These traits are functional clues to growth rhythms and nutritive value that could separate grasses in “resource capture” and “resource conservation” groups, both important for forage production and ecosystem services. Evaluating the most frequent grasses in each group we found they have an average of 375 degree-days, for “resource capture” and 750 degree-day for “resource conservation” groups, as its leaf elongation duration. So we evaluated a rotational grazing system based on this morphogenic trait for beef heifers rearing on natural grasslands from 2010 to 2019. We chose these experimental animals, as a model by its nutrient requirements and relevance for regional rearing and breeding systems. Our results indicate an average daily gain that is adequate to reach mating age and weight targets (0,3 kg/heifer/day to mate at 24 months) and allowed a higher stocking rate and gain per area when compared to regional standards (1,100 kg of live weight/ha and 370 kg/ha versus 600 and 70 kg/ha). All this animal performance was obtained without changing floristic diversity and also enhancing ecosystem services as CO2 sequestration. We concluded that this approach could allow farmers to conciliate the dilemma of production and conservation in pastoral ecosystems

Proteostasis Regulators in Cystic Fibrosis: Current Development and Future Perspectives

In cystic fibrosis (CF), the deletion of phenylalanine 508 (F508del) in the CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) leads to misfolding and premature degradation of the mutant protein. These defects can be targeted with pharmacological agents named potentiators and correctors. During the past years, several efforts have been devoted to develop and approve new effective molecules. However, their clinical use remains limited, as they fail to fully restore F508del-CFTR biological function. Indeed, the search for CFTR correctors with different and additive mechanisms has recently increased. Among them, drugs that modulate the CFTR proteostasis environment are particularly attractive to enhance therapy effectiveness further. This Perspective focuses on reviewing the recent progress in discovering CFTR proteostasis regulators, mainly describing the design, chemical structure, and structure-activity relationships. The opportunities, challenges, and future directions in this emerging and promising field of research are discussed, as well

Estimation of emission rate from experimental data

The estimation of the source pollutant strength is a relevant issue for atmospheric environment. This characterizes an inverse problem in the atmospheric pollution dispersion studies. In the inverse analysis, a time-dependent pollutant source is considered, where the location of such source term is assumed known. The inverse problem is formulated as a non-linear optimization approach, whose objective function is given by the least-square difference between the measured and simulated by the mathematical model, pollutant concentration, associated with a regularization operator. The forward problem is addressed by a Lagrangian model, and a quasi-Newton method is employed for minimizing the objective function. The second-order Tikhonov regularization is applied and the regularization parameter is computed by using the L-curve scheme. The inverse-problem methodology is verified with data from the tracer Copenhagen experiment

In vitro antileishmanial activity of trans-stilbene and terphenyl compounds

Leishmaniasis are globally widespread parasitic diseases which often leads to death if left untreated. Currently available drugs present different drawbacks, so there is an urgent need to develop new, safe and cost-effective drugs against leishmaniasis. In this study we tested a small library of trans-stilbene and terphenyl derivatives against promastigote, amastigotes and intramacrophage amastigote forms of Leishmania infantum. Two compounds of the series, the trans-stilbene 3 and the terphenyl 11, presented the best activity and safety profiles. Terphenyl 11 showed a leshmanicidal activity higher than pentostam and the ability to induce apoptosis selectively in Leishmania infantum while saving macrophages and primary epithelial cells. Our data indicate that terphenyl compounds, as well as stilbenes, are endowed with leishmanicidal activity, showing potential for further studies in the context of leishmanial therapy