Towards Sustainable Production Processes Reengineering: Case Study at INCOM Egypt

INCOM Egypt has undergone automation in some processes where critical aspects of its operations are transformed and automated. This paper presents an overview of INCOM Egypt processes using Ould Riva and analyses the process of ‘handling a product’. It aims to demonstrate effective automation of the production of wires and cables process accompanied to Industry 4.0 while considering environmental and economic sustainability goals that were inhibited by COVID-19 restrictions. Ould’s Riva method is used to analyse the production process of wires and cables to propose improvements for automating the process. Business process modelling is utilised to study the processes for clearer understating. The flow of information within the process is also analysed to integrate the production process with other processes and supply chains, which helps to identify which production activities can be automated and mainstreamed into the information flow to achieve environmental and economic sustainability. The context of INCOM Egypt, as a case study, is presented along with the Riva model of its operations. The paper identifies the before, i.e., As-Is process, and after, i.e., To-Be Process, automation of the ‘handle a product’ process using the Role Activity Diagram (RAD). The process involved redesigning and improving different activities to increase resource-use efficiency to participate in achieving the goals of sustainability. The focus of this paper is to investigate the negative impact of COVID-19 on sustainability and to examine the accomplishments of process automation of wire production towards environmental and economic sustainability. The results of the research reveal a relationship between business process modelling and sustainability. Moreover, automation of processes (Industry 4.0) is found to reduce the negative effect of COVID-19 on production. A triangulation between process modelling, process automation (Industry 4.0), and sustainability was determined. Each one is reinforcing and impacting one another. The RAD model demonstrates that automation of the activities in the process reduces waste, time, cost, and redundant processes as factors of sustainability, which may also help to lessen the unfavorable effects of the pandemic. The results proved generalisation on other organisations in the same line of business

Methods of determination of oxygen to uranium ratios in uranium dioxide

Methods used for the determination of oxygen to uranium ratios has been collected and discussed. These methods are destructive and non destructive. The experimental procedures are written in form of manuals to help their easy use in nuclear fuel quality control laboratories. It is of special importance in nuclear fuel laboratories of the nuclear metallurgy department of ARE-AEA in connection with the R&D fuel programme conceived within the scope or German - Egyptian cooperation between the Jülich Nuclear Research Centre and the Nuclear Research Centre at Inchas, AEA - Egypt. The accuracy and place of use of each method has been tabulated

Prostaglandin D2 inhibits airway dendritic cell migration and function in steady state conditions by selective activation of the D prostanoid receptor 1

PGD(2) is the major mediator released by mast cells during allergic responses, and it acts through two different receptors, the D prostanoid receptor 1 (DP1) and DP2, also known as CRTH2. Recently, it has been shown that PGD(2) inhibits the migration of epidermal Langerhans cells to the skin draining lymph nodes (LNs) and affects the subsequent cutaneous inflammatory reaction. However, the role of PGD(2) in the pulmonary immune response remains unclear. Here, we show that the intratracheal instillation of FITC-OVA together with PGD(2) inhibits the migration of FITC(+) lung DC to draining LNs. This process is mimicked by the DP1 agonist BW245C, but not by the DP2 agonist DK-PGD(2). The ligation of DP1 inhibits the migration of FITC-OVA(+) DCs only temporarily, but still inhibits the proliferation of adoptively transferred, OVA-specific, CFSE-labeled, naive T cells in draining LNs. These T cells produced lower amounts of the T cell cytokines IL-4, IL-10, and IFN-gamma compared with T cells from mice that received FITC-OVA alone. Taken together, our data suggest that the activation of DP receptor by PGD(2) may represent a pathway to control airway DC migration and to limit the activation of T cells in the LNs under steady state conditions, possibly contributing to homeostasis in th

Erratum to: An Entropy Functional for Riemann-Cartan Space-Times

We correct the entropy functional constructed in Int. J. Theor. Phys. 51:362 (2012). The 'on-shell' functional one obtains from this correct functional possesses a holographic structure without imposing any constraint on the spin-angular momentum tensor of matter, in contrast to the conclusion made in the above paper.Comment: 15 pages. These are the preprints of the original paper and its erratum published in Int. J. Theor. Phy

Irradiation embrittlement of pressure vessel steels : analysis of IAEA coordinated programme results

The results of the IAEA "Coordinated Research Programme on Irradiation Embrittlement of Pressure Vessel Steels" were examined again to analyse the reasons behind the reported large scattering and discrepancies in the effect of irradiation on the ductile-brittle transition temperature (DBTT). It is concluded that using specimens from different locations throughout the HSST steel plate thickness was the main reason behind the scattering in these results. Specimens from different locations bad different microstructures and different initial mechanical properties which led to different irradiation sensitivities. The analysis showed that the specimens used can be considered to consist of two sets different in microstructure, mechanical properties and irradiation sensitivity. Set 1 composed of specimens taken from positions between $\frac{T}{4}$ and $\frac{T}{2}$throughout the plate thickness while set 2 composed ofspecimens taken from positions between the surface and $\frac{T}{4}$.In this way the scattering became very small and evennegligable and the discrepancies were explained

Entropy, time irreversibility and Schroedinger equation in a primarily discrete space-time

In this paper we show that the existence of a primarily discrete space-time may be a fruitful assumption from which we may develop a new approach of statistical thermodynamics in pre-relativistic conditions. The discreetness of space-time structure is determined by a condition that mimics the Heisenberg uncertainty relations and the motion in this space-time model is chosen as simple as possible. From these two assumptions we define a path-entropy that measures the number of closed paths associated with a given energy of the system preparation. This entropy has a dynamical character and depends on the time interval on which we count the paths. We show that it exists an like-equilibrium condition for which the path-entropy corresponds exactly to the usual thermodynamic entropy and, more generally, the usual statistical thermodynamics is reobtained. This result derived without using the Gibbs ensemble method shows that the standard thermodynamics is consistent with a motion that is time-irreversible at a microscopic level. From this change of paradigm it becomes easy to derive a $H-theorem$. A comparison with the traditional Boltzmann approach is presented. We also show how our approach can be implemented in order to describe reversible processes. By considering a process defined simultaneously by initial and final conditions a well defined stochastic process is introduced and we are able to derive a Schroedinger equation, an example of time reversible equation.Comment: latex versio

Pathways to ensure universal and affordable access to hepatitis C treatment

Direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) have dramatically changed the landscape of hepatitis C treatment and prevention. The World Health Organization has called for the elimination of hepatitis C as a public health threat by 2030. However, the discrepancy in DAA prices across low-, middle- and high-income countries is considerable, ranging from less than US$100 to approximately US$ 40,000 per course, thus representing a major barrier for the scale-up of treatment and elimination. This article describes DAA pricing and pathways to accessing affordable treatment, providing case studies from Australia, Egypt and Portugal. Pathways to accessing DAAs include developing comprehensive viral hepatitis plans to facilitate price negotiations, voluntary and compulsory licenses, patent opposition, joint procurement, and personal importation schemes. While multiple factors influence the price of DAAs, a key driver is a country's capacity and willingness to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies. If negotiations do not lead to a reasonable price, governments have the option to utilise flexibilities outlined in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. Affordable access to DAAs is underpinned by collaboration between government, civil society, global organisations and pharmaceutical companies to ensure that all patients can access treatment. Promoting these pathways is critical for influencing policy, improving access to affordable DAAs and achieving hepatitis C elimination

Crystal structure of 4,6-di­methyl-2-{[3,4,5-trihy­dr­oxy-6-(hy­dr­oxy­meth­yl)tetra­hydro-2H-pyran-2-yl]sulfan­yl}nicotino­nitrile

In the title compound, C14H18N2O5S, the C—S bond lengths are unequal, with S—Cglucose = 1.8016 (15) Å and S—Cpyrid­yl = 1.7723 (13) Å. The hydro­philic glucose residues lie in the regions z ≃ 0.25 and 0.75. Four classical hydrogen bonds link the mol­ecules to form layers parallel to the ab plane, from which the pyridyl rings project; pyridyl ring stacking parallel to the a axis links adjacent layers

A haystack full of needles: scalable detection of IoT devices in the wild

Consumer Internet of Things (IoT) devices are extremely popular, providing users with rich and diverse functionalities, from voice assistants to home appliances. These functionalities often come with significant privacy and security risks, with notable recent large scale coordinated global attacks disrupting large service providers. Thus, an important first step to address these risks is to know what IoT devices are where in a network. While some limited solutions exist, a key question is whether device discovery can be done by Internet service providers that only see sampled flow statistics. In particular, it is challenging for an ISP to efficiently and effectively track and trace activity from IoT devices deployed by its millions of subscribers --all with sampled network data. In this paper, we develop and evaluate a scalable methodology to accurately detect and monitor IoT devices at subscriber lines with limited, highly sampled data in-the-wild. Our findings indicate that millions of IoT devices are detectable and identifiable within hours, both at a major ISP as well as an IXP, using passive, sparsely sampled network flow headers. Our methodology is able to detect devices from more than 77% of the studied IoT manufacturers, including popular devices such as smart speakers. While our methodology is effective for providing network analytics, it also highlights significant privacy consequences

On a (\beta,q)-generalized Fisher information and inequalities involving q-Gaussian distributions

In the present paper, we would like to draw attention to a possible generalized Fisher information that fits well in the formalism of nonextensive thermostatistics. This generalized Fisher information is defined for densities on $\mathbb{R}^{n}.$ Just as the maximum R\'enyi or Tsallis entropy subject to an elliptic moment constraint is a generalized q-Gaussian, we show that the minimization of the generalized Fisher information also leads a generalized q-Gaussian. This yields a generalized Cram\'er-Rao inequality. In addition, we show that the generalized Fisher information naturally pops up in a simple inequality that links the generalized entropies, the generalized Fisher information and an elliptic moment. Finally, we give an extended Stam inequality. In this series of results, the extremal functions are the generalized q-Gaussians. Thus, these results complement the classical characterization of the generalized q-Gaussian and introduce a generalized Fisher information as a new information measure in nonextensive thermostatistics.Comment: v2: corrected equation (A5