The Vehicle Routing Problem with Divisible Deliveries and Pickups

The vehicle routing problem with divisible deliveries and pickups is a new and interesting model within reverse logistics. Each customer may have a pickup and delivery demand that have to be served with capacitated vehicles. The pickup and the delivery quantities may be served, if beneficial, in two separate visits. The model is placed in the context of other delivery and pickup problems and formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming problem. In this paper, we study the savings that can be achieved by allowing the pickup and delivery quantities to be served separately with respect to the case where the quantities have to be served simultaneously. Both exact and heuristic results are analysed in depth for a better understanding of the problem structure and an average estimation of the savings due to the possibility of serving pickup and delivery quantities separately

Analysis of the air pollution climate at a background site in the Po valley

The Po valley in northern Italy is renowned for its high air pollutant concentrations. Measurements of air pollutants from a background site in Modena, a town of 200 thousand inhabitants within the Po valley, are analysed. These comprise hourly data for CO, NO, NO2, NOx, and O3, and daily gravimetric equivalent data for PM10 from 1998\u20132010. The data are analysed in terms of long-term trends, annual, weekly and diurnal cycles, and auto-correlation and cross-correlation functions. CO, NO and NO2 exhibit a strongly traffic-related pattern, with daily peaks at morning and evening rush hour and lower concentrations over the weekend. Ozone shows an annual cycle with a peak in July due to local production; notwithstanding the diurnal cycle dominated by titration by nitrogen oxide, the decreasing long term trend in NO concentration did not affect the long term trend in O3, whose mean concentration remained steady over the sampling period. PM10 shows a strong seasonality with higher concentration in winter and lower concentration in summer and spring. Both PM10 and ozone show a marked weekly cycle in summer and winter respectively. Regressions of PM10 upon NOx show a consistently greater intercept in winter, representing higher secondary PM10 in the cooler months of the year. There is a seasonal pattern in primary PM10 to NOx ratios, with lower values in winter and higher values in summer, but the reasons are unclear

Structure and electronic properties of the quasi-one-dimensional Ba₂Co₁₋ₓZnₓS₃ series

This work focuses on the structure and physical properties of the solid solution Ba₂Co₁₋ₓZnₓS₃ (0 ≤ x ≤ 1), a family of quasi-one-dimensional sulfides with end members Ba₂CoS₃ and Ba₂ZnS₃. The structure of selected compounds with increasing Zn²⁺ content has been analysed using, neutron diffraction, TEM and EXAFS and the physical properties via magnetic susceptibility and resistivity measurements. The progressive substitution of the non-magnetic Zn²⁺ cation for Co²⁺ rapidly destroys the antiferromagnetic transition present at 46 K in the quasi one-dimensional Ba₂CoS₃, leading to paramagnetic behaviour down to the lowest investigated temperature (5K) for compounds with x > 0.25. For compounds with x ≥ 0.4, a pure CW regime is recovered around 300 K, yielding effective moments consistent with the g factor of the tetrahedrally coordinated Co²⁺ previously determined for Ba₂CoS₃. The Zn²⁺/Co²⁺ substitution also removes the metallic-like behaviour of Ba₂CoS₃ causing an increase in the value of the resistivity with all the Ba₂Co₁₋ₓZnₓS₃ compounds showing semiconducting behaviour. The negative magnetoresistance of Ba₂CoS₃ is improved by the Zn²⁺/Co²⁺ substitution, with values of – 6% for Ba₂Co₀.₇₅Zn₀.₂₅S₃, – 9% for Ba₂Co₀.₅Zn₀.₅S₃ and – 8% for Ba₂Co₀.₂₅Zn₀.₇₅S₃. However, there does not seem to be a correlation between the values of the resistivity and the magnetoresistance and the content of Zn²⁺, leading to the hypothesis that transport properties may be linked more closely to extrinsic properties

Detection of Ligand-induced Conformational Changes in the Activation Loop of Aurora-A Kinase by PELDOR Spectroscopy.

The structure of protein kinases has been extensively studied by protein crystallography. Conformational movement of the kinase activation loop is thought to be crucial for regulation of activity; however, in many cases the position of the activation loop in solution is unknown. Protein kinases are an important class of therapeutic target and kinase inhibitors are classified by their effect on the activation loop. Here, we report the use of pulsed electron double resonance (PELDOR) and site-directed spin labeling to monitor conformational changes through the insertion of MTSL [S-(1-oxyl-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-2,5-dihydro-1 H-pyrrol-3-yl)methyl methanesulfonothioate] on the dynamic activation loop and a stable site on the outer surface of the enzyme. The action of different ligands such as microtubule-associated protein (TPX2) and inhibitors could be discriminated as well as their ability to lock the activation loop in a fixed conformation. This study provides evidence for structural adaptations that could be used for drug design and a methodological approach that has potential to characterize inhibitors in development

Growth performance and oxidative status in piglets supplemented with verbascoside and teupolioside

Two hundred forty piglets, half female and half barrows, 8.1 ± 1.40 kg LW, were divided into 6 experimental groups and fed ad libitum with a diet supplemented with the following levels of antioxidants: 0 (CON + = positive control added with 100 mg lincomicine/kg), 5 (LT = low teupolioside or LV = low verbascoside), 10 (HT = high teupolioside; HV = high verbascoside; LT+LV) mg/kg of diet for 56 days. Body weight and feed intake were recorded on d0, 14 and 56 of the trial. Ten piglets from each group were selected and blood collected by anterior vena cava puncture at 0, 14 and 56 d for reactive oxygen metabolite (ROMs) determination. HV showed final weight higher than the other groups (P<0.05), and oxidative stability was improved by both integrations of verbascoside. These results support the view that Verbascoside influences the growth performances and oxidative status of piglets

A sensory study on loin quality from pigs slaughtered at 120 or 160 kg liveweight

Effects of different slaughter weights (160 vs. 120 kg) on chemical, physical and sensory characteristics of pig loin were investigated. Physical and chemical traits were similar for the two typologies of weight, whereas lower values of moisture (P<0.01) and higher fat content (P<0.05) were found in heavy pork loin; furthermore increased slaughter weight resulted in redder, more yellow and intensive colour (P<0.05). A selected and trained panel carried out difference from control test showing that heavy pig loin scored higher for appearance and taste parameters (P<0.05), but lower for tenderness (P<0.05). Heavy pig loin was redder, more marbling, wetter, sweeter, and saltier and had higher metallic flavour and lower tenderness

Contracts for Abstract Processes in Service Composition

Contracts are a well-established approach for describing and analyzing behavioral aspects of web service compositions. The theory of contracts comes equipped with a notion of compatibility between clients and servers that ensures that every possible interaction between compatible clients and servers will complete successfully. It is generally agreed that real applications often require the ability of exposing just partial descriptions of their behaviors, which are usually known as abstract processes. We propose a formal characterization of abstraction as an extension of the usual symbolic bisimulation and we recover the notion of abstraction in the context of contracts.Comment: In Proceedings FIT 2010, arXiv:1101.426

Noninvasive evaluation of coronary artery stents patency after PTCA: role of Multislice Computed Tomography.

Restenosis of a coronary artery treated with stent implantation is a well-known process that can compromise over time the success of a coronary angioplasty and, accordingly, treated patients must undergo periodic controls. We have recently witnessed a shift towards a greater use of Multi-slice CT (msCT) in the study of coronary disease without its precise indications and limits having yet been underlined. The purpose of our study is to assess the role of msCT in the follow-up of patients treated with coronary angioplasty.Forty-eight patients, for a total of 72 lesions, who underwent treatment with a slotted tube stent implant, had an msCT examination 1 week before scheduled coronary angiography, and the results were compared. 34 stents/72 (47.2\%) were inserted on the left anterior descending; 21/72 (29.2\%) on the right coronary; 17/72 (23.6\%) on the circumflex artery or obtuse marginal branches.The observation of the opacification of the vessel located distally to treated segments allowed us to assess the patency of all stents. Coronary angiography identified a significant intrastent restenosis or a stent occlusion in 12 of the 72 stents analysed (16.7\%). msCT enabled easier visualization of the lumen of the treated artery and its differentiation from the stent struts in the ones located on the left anterior descending artery than those on the circumflex (28 stents out of 34 [82.4\%] vs 13/17 [76.5\%]; p3.5 mm (OR 2.97 [IC 95\%: from 1.67 to 4.86]; p<0.01).The msCT technology available at present makes the study of smaller stents and those positioned on the right coronary artery and circumflex rather complex; on the other hand msCT appears a promising study method for stents greater then 3.5 mm and for those positioned on the proximal segment of the left anterior descending artery

IC 4406: a radio-infrared view

IC 4406 is a large (about 100'' x 30'') southern bipolar planetary nebula, composed of two elongated lobes extending from a bright central region, where there is evidence for the presence of a large torus of gas and dust. We show new observations of this source performed with IRAC (Spitzer Space Telescope) and the Australia Telescope Compact Array. The radio maps show that the flux from the ionized gas is concentrated in the bright central region and originates in a clumpy structure previously observed in H_alpha, while in the infrared images filaments and clumps can be seen in the extended nebular envelope, the central region showing toroidal emission. Modeling of the infrared emission leads to the conclusion that several dust components are present in the nebula.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal; v.2 has changes in both figures and content; preprint forma