Collaborative product development implementation between Malaysian auto suppliers and their customer

Whilst the evidence indicated that supplier involvement in product development resulted in reduced development cost, improves product quality, reduces lead time and enhances flexibility, the mechanism for adapting and managing it to fit an.other culture and organisation is a challenging endeavour. In the Malaysian automotive industries, this collaborative effort had been mostly motivated by the government policies and initiated by the anchor firms. The work reported in the paper describes features of this collaboration carried out by Proton, the pioneer automotive manufacturing company in Malaysia. The objective of this paper is to examine the factors for successful collaborative product development endeavours. The study identifies how collaborative product development is presently being organized and managed in the automotive industry in Malaysia. The product development process is traced to the three aspects involved in collaborative product development; the buyer, the supplier and the process that involves both parties. The findings from this study suggest that from the buyer perspectives, selection of suppliers determines the success of this effort. For the supplier, it is important for them to have technical and design expertise. Factors that involve both the suppliers and buyers include early supplier involvement and buyer-supplier relationships

Impact of different mulching treatments on weed flora and productivity of maize (Zea mays L.) and sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.)

The concerns on weed control through herbicides are increasing due to their negative impacts on environment and human health. Therefore, alternative weed management methods are inevitable for sustainable crop production and lowering the negative consequences of herbicides. Mulching is an environment-friendly weed management approach capable of substituting herbicides to significant extent. Therefore, this study evaluated the role of different mulching treatments on suppressing weed flora in maize (Zea mays L.) and sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) crops. Furthermore, the impact of different mulching treatments on the productivity of both crops was also investigated. Three mulch treatments, i.e., plastic mulch (PLM), sorghum mulch (SM) and paper mulch (PM) along with two controls, i.e., weed-free (WF) and weedy-check (WC) were included in the study. Different mulch treatments significantly altered weed flora in both crops. The PLM and PM resulted in the highest suppression (43–47%) of weed flora compared to WC treatment in both crops. The highest and the lowest weed diversity was recorded for WC and WF treatments, respectively. Different allometric traits, i.e., leaf area index, crop growth rate and root length of both crops were significantly improved by PLM as compared to the WC. Overall, maize crop recorded higher density of individual and total weeds compared to sunflower with WC treatment. The density of individual and total weeds was significantly lowered by PLM compared to WC treatment in both crops. Similarly, higher growth and yield-related traits of both crops were noted with PLM compared to the rest of the mulching treatments. Results of the current study warrant that PLM could suppress weed flora and improve the productivity of both crops. However, PLM alone could not provide 100% control over weed flora; therefore, it should be combined with other weed management approaches for successful weed control in both crops

Heavy--light mesons in a bilocal effective theory

Heavy--light mesons are described in an effective quark theory with a two--body vector--type interaction. The bilocal interaction is taken to be instantaneous in the rest frame of the bound state, but formulated covariantly through the use of a boost vector. The chiral symmetry of the light flavor is broken spontaneously at mean field level. The framework for our discussion of bound states is the effective bilocal meson action obtained by bosonization of the quark theory. Mesons are described by 3--dimensional wave functions satisfying Salpeter equations, which exhibit both Goldstone solutions in the chiral limit and heavy--quark symmetry for $m_Q\rightarrow\infty$. We present numerical solutions for pseudoscalar $D$-- and $B$--mesons. Heavy--light meson spectra and decay constants are seen to be sensitive to the description of chiral symmetry breaking (dynamically generated vs.\ constant quark mass).Comment: (34 p., standard LaTeX, 7 PostScript figures appended) UNITUE-THEP-17/9

A STUDY ON SEROPREVELENCE AND RISK FACTORS OF BOVINE LEPTOSPIROSIS IN LOWER ASSAM, INDIA

The present study was conducted to ascertain the seroprevalence of Leptospira infection in cattle among certain districts of the lower Brahmaputra valley in the state of Assam from March 2017 to February 2018. Two serological tests viz. IgG ELISA and Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT) were used to detect the leptospiral antibodies. The anti-leptospiral antibodies were detected by IgG ELISA and compared with MAT using antigens from 12 pathogenic serovars. Out of 380 sera samples, 68 (17.89 %, 95% CI: 6.89-27) and 44 (11.58%) were positive by IgG ELISA and MAT respectively. The circulating Leptospira serovars identified were Autumnalis (6.05%), Ballum (2.63%), Batavia (1.31%), Ichterohaemorrhagie (0.7%), Javanica (0.5%) and Sejroe (0.2%). The sensitivity and specificity of IgG ELISA in comparison to MAT were calculated and found to be 100% and 92.85% respectively with a concordance of 93.68%. An epidemiological investigation was carried out to find the association of various risk factors with Leptospira infection under this study in cattle using a pre-tested questionnaire. The present study will serve as baseline data for the prevention and control of Leptospira infection in cattle

Leptonic and Semileptonic Decays of Charm and Bottom Hadrons

We review the experimental measurements and theoretical descriptions of leptonic and semileptonic decays of particles containing a single heavy quark, either charm or bottom. Measurements of bottom semileptonic decays are used to determine the magnitudes of two fundamental parameters of the standard model, the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements $V_{cb}$ and $V_{ub}$. These parameters are connected with the physics of quark flavor and mass, and they have important implications for the breakdown of CP symmetry. To extract precise values of $|V_{cb}|$ and $|V_{ub}|$ from measurements, however, requires a good understanding of the decay dynamics. Measurements of both charm and bottom decay distributions provide information on the interactions governing these processes. The underlying weak transition in each case is relatively simple, but the strong interactions that bind the quarks into hadrons introduce complications. We also discuss new theoretical approaches, especially heavy-quark effective theory and lattice QCD, which are providing insights and predictions now being tested by experiment. An international effort at many laboratories will rapidly advance knowledge of this physics during the next decade.Comment: This review article will be published in Reviews of Modern Physics in the fall, 1995. This file contains only the abstract and the table of contents. The full 168-page document including 47 figures is available at http://charm.physics.ucsb.edu/papers/slrevtex.p

Potential health and economic impacts of dexamethasone treatment for patients with COVID-19

Acknowledgements We thank all members of the COVID-19 International Modelling Consortium and their collaborative partners. This work was supported by the COVID-19 Research Response Fund, managed by the Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford. L.J.W. is supported by the Li Ka Shing Foundation. R.A. acknowledges funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1193472).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

ϒ production in p–Pb collisions at √sNN=8.16 TeV

ϒ production in p–Pb interactions is studied at the centre-of-mass energy per nucleon–nucleon collision √sNN = 8.16 TeV with the ALICE detector at the CERN LHC. The measurement is performed reconstructing bottomonium resonances via their dimuon decay channel, in the centre-of-mass rapidity intervals 2.03 < ycms < 3.53 and −4.46 < ycms < −2.96, down to zero transverse momentum. In this work, results on the ϒ(1S) production cross section as a function of rapidity and transverse momentum are presented. The corresponding nuclear modification factor shows a suppression of the ϒ(1S) yields with respect to pp collisions, both at forward and backward rapidity. This suppression is stronger in the low transverse momentum region and shows no significant dependence on the centrality of the interactions. Furthermore, the ϒ(2S) nuclear modification factor is evaluated, suggesting a suppression similar to that of the ϒ(1S). A first measurement of the ϒ(3S) has also been performed. Finally, results are compared with previous ALICE measurements in p–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV and with theoretical calculations.publishedVersio

Anemia prevalence in women of reproductive age in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2018

Anemia is a globally widespread condition in women and is associated with reduced economic productivity and increased mortality worldwide. Here we map annual 2000–2018 geospatial estimates of anemia prevalence in women of reproductive age (15–49 years) across 82 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), stratify anemia by severity and aggregate results to policy-relevant administrative and national levels. Additionally, we provide subnational disparity analyses to provide a comprehensive overview of anemia prevalence inequalities within these countries and predict progress toward the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target (WHO GNT) to reduce anemia by half by 2030. Our results demonstrate widespread moderate improvements in overall anemia prevalence but identify only three LMICs with a high probability of achieving the WHO GNT by 2030 at a national scale, and no LMIC is expected to achieve the target in all their subnational administrative units. Our maps show where large within-country disparities occur, as well as areas likely to fall short of the WHO GNT, offering precision public health tools so that adequate resource allocation and subsequent interventions can be targeted to the most vulnerable populations.Peer reviewe

(Anti-)deuteron production in pp collisions at 1as=13TeV

The study of (anti-)deuteron production in pp collisions has proven to be a powerful tool to investigate the formation mechanism of loosely bound states in high-energy hadronic collisions. In this paper the production of (anti-)deuterons is studied as a function of the charged particle multiplicity in inelastic pp collisions at s=13 TeV using the ALICE experiment. Thanks to the large number of accumulated minimum bias events, it has been possible to measure (anti-)deuteron production in pp collisions up to the same charged particle multiplicity (d Nch/ d \u3b7 3c 26) as measured in p\u2013Pb collisions at similar centre-of-mass energies. Within the uncertainties, the deuteron yield in pp collisions resembles the one in p\u2013Pb interactions, suggesting a common formation mechanism behind the production of light nuclei in hadronic interactions. In this context the measurements are compared with the expectations of coalescence and statistical hadronisation models (SHM)

Measurement of jet suppression in central Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN)=2.76 TeV

The transverse momentum(p(T)) spectrum and nuclear modification factor (R-AA) of reconstructed jets in 0-10% and 10-30% central Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV were measured. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-k(T) jet algorithm with a resolution parameter of R = 0.2 from charged and neutral particles, utilizing the ALICE tracking detectors and Electromagnetic Calorimeter (EMCal). The jet p(T) spectra are reported in the pseudorapidity interval of \eta(jet)\ 5 GeV/c to suppress jets constructed from the combinatorial background in Pb-Pb collisions. The leading charged particle requirement applied to jet spectra both in pp and Pb-Pb collisions had a negligible effect on the R-AA. The nuclear modification factor R-AA was found to be 0.28 +/- 0.04 in 0-10% and 0.35 +/- 0.04 in 10-30% collisions, independent of p(T), jet within the uncertainties of the measurement. The observed suppression is in fair agreement with expectations from two model calculations with different approaches to jet quenching. (C) 2015 CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe