Linking supply chain quality integration with mass customization and product modularity

Supply chain quality management has received increasing attention from researchers and practitioners in recent years. However, the knowledge about the effects of a manufacturer's design and production capabilities on supply chain quality management is limited. In this study, we propose a model to investigate the effects of mass customization and product modularity on supply chain quality integration (i.e. internal, supplier, and customer quality integration) and the impact of supply chain quality integration on competitive performance. We use data collected from 317 global manufacturers to empirically test the conceptual model. The results show that mass customization and product modularity directly improve internal quality integration, and product modularity also improves internal quality integration indirectly through mass customization. Product modularity improves supplier quality integration directly, and both mass customization and product modularity improve supplier quality integration indirectly through internal quality integration. Mass customization improves customer quality integration both directly and indirectly through internal quality integration, and product modularity improves customer quality integration indirectly through mass customization and internal quality integration. We also find that supplier quality integration directly enhances competitive performance, and internal quality integration enhances competitive performance both directly and indirectly through supplier quality integration. Our findings contribute to production and quality management literature and practices

Characterization, phylogeny, alternative splicing and expression of Sox30 gene

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Members of the Sox gene family isolated from both vertebrates and invertebrates have been proved to participate in a wide variety of developmental processes, including sex determination and differentiation. Among these members, <it>Sox30 </it>had been considered to exist only in mammals since its discovery, and its exact function remains unclear.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>Sox30 </it>cDNA was cloned from the Nile tilapia by RT-PCR and RACE. Screening of available genome and EST databases and phylogenetic analysis showed that <it>Sox30 </it>also exists in non-mammalian vertebrates and invertebrates, which was further supported by synteny analyses. Tissue expression in human, mouse and tilapia suggested that <it>Sox30 </it>was probably a gonad-specific gene, which was also supported by the fact that <it>Sox30 </it>EST sequences were obtained from gonads of the animal species. In addition, four alternatively spliced isoforms were isolated from tilapia gonad. Their temporal and spatial expression patterns during normal and sex reversed gonadal development were investigated by RT-PCR and <it>in situ </it>hybridization. Our data suggest that expressions of <it>Sox30 </it>isoforms are related to stage and phenotypic-sex, observed in the germ cells of male gonad and in somatic cells of the female gonad.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p><it>Sox30 </it>is not a gene only existed in mammals, but exists widely throughout the animal kingdom as supported by our bioinformatic, phylogenetic and syntenic analyses. It is very likely that <it>Sox30 </it>is expressed exclusively in gonads. Expression analyses revealed that <it>Sox30 </it>may be involved in female and male gonadal development at different stages by alternative splicing.</p

Multiple Magnetic Foreign Bodies Causing Severe Digestive Tract Injuries in a Child

Foreign body (FB) ingestion is a common emergency as well as a major cause of accidental injury and represents a severe public health problem in childhood, especially in infants. Most cases of FB ingestion reported in children aged between 6 months and 3 years depend primarily on the fact that young children are more likely to explore objects using their mouth and are not able to distinguish edible objects from nonedible ones, their teeth are physiologically lacking, and they have poor swallowing coordination. Although, sometimes it can cause serious complications, FB ingestion generally has a low mortality rate. However, accidental ingestion of magnetic toys, as a rare kind of FB mostly encountered in children, has now become more common due to the increased availability of objects and toys with magnetic elements. The majority of magnetic FB traverse the gastrointestinal (GI) system spontaneously without complication, but in rare cases may cause severe damages to the GI tract due to its special pathogenesis [Kay and Wyllie: Curr Gastroenterol Rep 2005;7: 212–218]. Ingestion of multiple magnets may be related to increased morbidity resulting in a delay of recognition of FB injury that can lead to serious complications and require surgical resolution

Agricultural Environmental Information Collection Device Based on Raspberry Pi

International audienceIntegrated agricultural environmental information real-time collection, transmission and management is extremely critical for precision agriculture (PA). This paper describes the basic knowledge and primary principles used in an agricultural environmental information collection device. The device is based on Raspberry Pi, combining with GPS module, some digital sensors and analog sensors to measure environmental temperature and humidity, barometric pressure, light intensity, soil moisture and other environmental information accurate collection. All collected data was real-time transmitted to a remote server specified database for management. In the experiment process, the device has been proved to have the ability to catch the distributed information and also can get different centralized data management. The results show the integration of operational information collection, transmission and management, as well as the use of open source software to make it easy to collect multiple types of data parallelism, which provides an important solution for the rapid transformation of agricultural production

Analysis of the Correlation between Middle-season Rice Yield and Meteorological Factors in Jingdong County from 2009 to 2016

Middle-season rice is an important food crop in southern rice areas of China, especially in Yunnan, the main rice-producing region. However, due to the impact of low temperature at the seedling stage and high or low temperature at the booting and heading stage of middle-season rice, the yield is not stable.Based on the data of yield factors of different middle-season rice varieties planted in the same ecological site in Jingdong County from 2009 to 2016, average development period was calculated using the data of development period measured in field during 2009-2016, and the average of meteorological factors (daily average temperature, daily maximum temperature, daily minimum temperature, and sunshine hours) and total precipitation were calculated. The correlation between meteorological factors in different development periods of each year and corresponding per unit area yield was analyzed. Temperature is the most important factor affecting rice yield. Sufficient light is beneficial to the increase in the number of grains per spike and thousand seed weight in the sowing-seedling emergence stage and milk maturity-maturity stage. Excessive precipitation will reduce the number of grains per spike in the booting-heading stage. Excessive precipitation decreases the number of filled grains per spike in the jointing-booting stage, and proper drainage helps increase the formation rate of ears. In this study, the main meteorological factors affecting rice yield were analyzed to provide scientific reference for rice production and management in this county in future