COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS OF U.S. FOOD PROCESSING PLANTS

This paper presents a model-based approach for competitive analysis of manufacturing plants in the U. S. food processing industry. As part of this approach, plant competitiveness is measured using Operational Competitiveness Ratings Analysis (OCRA) -- a new non-parametric method of computing relative inefficiency. Drivers of competitiveness are identified in terms of policies related to plant structure and infrastructure. Policies related to plant structure are those decisions that are related with "bricks and mortar" and have long term implications, such as decisions related to plant size and capacity. Policies related to plant infrastructure are decisions related to how the " bricks and mortar" are used. These policies are typically under the direct control of the operations managers and have a short-term orientation, such as decisions related to equipment, quality, inventory, workforce and confusion-engendering activities (e.g. new product introductions and product variety). The empirical analysis is based on detailed cross-sectional data on 20 processed food manufacturing plants. With respect to plant structure, the results suggest that small sized food processing plants are competitive, and both capacity underutilization and overutilization are detrimental to plant competitiveness. Among the significant results with respect to plant infrastructure, equipment maintenance, quality management programs, packaging supplies inventory, workforce training and product variety are positively associated with plant competitiveness. The results also suggest that introduction of new products disrupts plant operations, at least in the short run, and is negatively associated with plant competitiveness.Agribusiness,

Low flow low gradient aortic stenosis: clinical pathways

AbstractAortic stenosis patients with severe LV dysfunction and low cardiac output present with relatively low transvalvular gradients. It is difficult to distinguish them from aortic sclerosis and LV dysfunction with low cardiac output. The former condition is severe AS with LV dysfunction and latter is primarily a contractile dysfunction. Dobutamine stress echocardiogram is key to diagnosis.AS with LV dysfunction associated with preserved contractile reserve benefit from valve replacement and those without contractile reserve needs critical evaluation on a case to case basis. Patients of AS with LV dysfunction with associated coronary artery disease need coronary angiograms to decide regarding need for valve replacement with bypass surgery. A subset of AS patients have low flow, low mean gradients with preserved ejection fraction in whom one must evaluate global hemodynamic load to assess ventriculo-arterial impedence.In this review an approach to the clinical pathways for assessment of low flow, low gradient aortic stenosis has been discussed

Morphological Analysis of the Human Internal Iliac Artery in South Indian Population

Objectives: The accidental hemorrhage is common due to erroneous interpretation of the variant arteries during surgical procedures, hence the present study has been undertaken with reference to its morphological significance. The objectives were to examine the level of origin, length and the branching pattern of the human internal iliac artery in South Indian population. Methods: The study included 60 human bisected pelvises irrespective of their side and sex. The specimens were collected from the anatomy laboratory and were fixed with the formalin. The branching patterns were studied and demonstrated as per the guidelines of Adachi. Results: The origin of internal iliac artery was at the level of S1 vertebra in majority (58.3%) of the cases. The average length of internal iliac artery was 37 ± 4.62 mm (range, 13-54 mm). The type I pattern of the internal iliac artery was most common (83.5%) followed by types III and II. The type IV and V pattern of adachi were not observed. Conclusions: The results of this study were different from those reported by others and may be because of racial and geographical variations. Prior knowledge of the anatomical variations is beneficial for the vascular surgeons ligating the internal iliac artery or its branches and the radiologists interpreting angiograms of the pelvic region

A Crystal Chemical Approach to a Cation-Ordered Structure Model for Carbonate-Intercalated Layered Double Hydroxides

Layered double hydroxides comprise a stacking of positively charged metal hydroxide layers with anions and water molecules included in the interlayer galleries. Among the anions, the carbonate ion is the most ubiquitous in both mineral and laboratory synthesized phases. Taylor (1973) suggested that the carbonate ion (molecular symmetry D3h) prefers a trigonal prismatic interlayer site (local symmetry D3h), whereby the hydrogen bonding with the metal hydroxide layer is maximized. However, the cation ordered structure models of hexagonal symmetry include interlayer sites which are exclusively trigonal antiprisms (local symmetry D3d). In keeping with Taylor’s criterion, a hexagonal stacking of metal hydroxide layers does not permit the inclusion of carbonate ions in the interlayer. In this work, a crystal chemical approach is adopted based on the translationgleiche subgroups of hexagonal and cubic summits to arrive at a structure model based on the space group C2/m. In this structure, not only is the 3-fold symmetry of metal coordination retained, but also interlayer sites of ∼D3h symmetry are generated to host the intercalated carbonate ions. Using this model, the structures of a cohort of carbonate-intercalated layered double hydroxides are refined

High temperature carrier controlled ferromagnetism in alkali doped ZnO nanorods

Recent efforts in developing spintronic and magneto-optoelectric material for applications have relied on the use of magnetic semiconductors doped with transition metals and have met with limited success. Using a fresh synthesis approach using alkali ions we demonstrate that alkali doped zinc oxide can provide high temperature magnetic semiconductors. We report studies on nanocrystalline powder and pellets of p-type ZnO:Li and ZnO:Na that exhibit ferromagnetism up to 554 K. The ferromagnetic behavior was confirmed from magnetic hysteresis, ferromagnetic resonance, magnetic force microscopy, and explained by a model where substitutional Li+/Na+ in cation site induce local magnetic moments on oxygen atoms. Optimum dopant concentrations enable ferromagnetic exchange interaction leading to high Curie temperature

Reliability Analysis of Link Stability in Secured Routing Protocols for MANETs

The prime characteristics of Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) are infrastructure free, absence of centralized authority and dynamic nature of nodes which are more vulnerable to security attacks. Reliability and security are prime issues to protect information and nodes in a network during communication which has received more research interest in designing a dynamic secured routing scheme. QoS is set of service requirement that needs to be satisfied by the network during the data transmission in the network. From the perception of QoS best effort protocols ensure optimum network operation in a unpredictable mobile environment. The multimedia applications are intolerable towards delay and reliability which are the features of mobile network, hence the potentials of MANET were not utilized in multimedia applications. These issues of delay and reliability of packet transmission in MANET are contributed by stability of the communication link even during the mobility of the nodes Its a necessity to analyze the performance of various secured routing protocols based on the stability of the communication link in case of mobility of nodes during data transfer. This paper is focused on a comparative study of various secured reactive routing protocols in MANET signifying the connectivity stability during the mobility of the nodes

A Study on Awareness and Satisfaction towards Employee Welfare Measures

The employees are considered as major resources of all organisations including service as well as manufacturing industries. So in the present day of business world, the companies are giving more benefits to their employees and maintaining good standard measures to make them satisfy in the organisation. The present study is on the above subject which studies the welfare measures. Therefore the reason of the study is to find out how welfare measure are provided by the private organisation and how the employees are satisfied with the company accommodation given to the employees which plays a very important role in the employee satisfaction and their life in the organization. The study found that the employee welfare measures are highly satisfactory in their concern which was done through perfect analysis & interpretation. This study would be helpful for the company and also to improve some welfare and safety activities inside the company

Adaptive and Self Healing Routing for Mobile AdHoc Networks Using Cross Layer Design

The construction of reliable and stable routes in a mobile ad hoc network is one of the primary research issues in equipping each device to continuously maintain the information required to properly route traffic. Mobility of nodes often leads to link failures and hence requires route reconstruction to resume the communication between the nodes. The stability factor of a route can reduce the number of times the route is changed or reconstructed. This paper presents a novel idea for discovering a stable set of routes using the metrics from multiple layers rather than depending on network layer along with a finite set of parameters to qualify a link or connecting to a node. The link stability factor and link received signal strength are considered as the main metrics to qualify the stability of a route, derived from the physical and data link layer based on bit or packet error rate, retrieved from the soft output decoder. The simulation results based on the analysis of the proposed algorithm prove to be more efficient in terms of discovering stable routes, reducing frequent reconstruction of routes and hence improving the overall performance of the network

A Crystal Chemical Approach to a Cation-​Ordered Structure Model for Carbonate-​Intercalated Layered Double Hydroxides

Layered double hydroxides comprise a stacking of pos. charged metal hydroxide layers with anions and water mols. included in the interlayer galleries. Among the anions, the carbonate ion is the most ubiquitous in both mineral and lab. synthesized phases. Taylor (1973) suggested that the carbonate ion (mol. symmetry D3h) prefers a trigonal prismatic interlayer site (local symmetry D3h)​, whereby the hydrogen bonding with the metal hydroxide layer is maximized. However, the cation ordered structure models of hexagonal symmetry include interlayer sites which are exclusively trigonal antiprisms (local symmetry D3d)​. In keeping with Taylor's criterion, a hexagonal stacking of metal hydroxide layers does not permit the inclusion of carbonate ions in the interlayer. In this work, a crystal chem. approach is adopted based on the translationgleiche subgroups of hexagonal and cubic summits to arrive at a structure model based on the space group C2​/m. In this structure, not only is the 3-​fold symmetry of metal coordination retained, but also interlayer sites of ∼D3h symmetry are generated to host the intercalated carbonate ions. Using this model, the structures of a cohort of carbonate-​intercalated layered double hydroxides are refined

Mutual Coupling Reduction Techniques between MIMO Antennas for UWB Applications

The recent research has proved that the Multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems can substantially increase the channel capacity by employing multiple antennas at both the transmitter and receiver, without increasing either transmitter power or bandwidth. Hence it is very much essential to know all the aspects of MIMO system. Usually, in any MIMO system the antenna design plays a major role in improving the system performance and channel capacity. The antenna bandwidth must support the wireless system for transmitting larger data rates. Also, the mutual coupling effect between the antennas must be taken into consideration, while designing an efficient MIMO system. The objective of this paper is to discuss various techniques to reduce mutual coupling of MIMO antennas for UWB application