SUPPLY NETWORK CONFIGURATION USING THE VALUE ENGINEERING BASED METHOD

Supply network configuration considers the whole business logistics to maximize the economic performance of an enterprise. It is a complex strategic decision problem that concerns the long-term organization of suppliers, production factories, distribution centers, and manufacturing resources, thus an efficient decision support is necessary. This paper proposes a decision support method for the supply network optimization. In this method, the business process of a supply chain is described by the Supply Chain Operations References (SCOR) models firstly. Then the value of business processes in the supply chain is evaluated using the Value Engineering (VE) methodology, wherein the processes are defined by function analysis with quantitative comparison to select key functions. And the concept of quality and robustness of Taguchi method is applied to evaluate the performance of different alternatives which are generated by key functions. A case application of global enterprise is elaborated. The results show that the proposed model can effectively optimize the supply network configuration

Warm needle acupuncture for osteoarthritis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Warm needle acupuncture (WA) is considered a potential intervention in the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA). To systematically evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of WA in the treatment of OA. Systematic review and meta-analysis METHODS: Fourteen databases were searched from their inception until May 2022. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of WA for treating OA were identified. Study selection and data extraction were performed by two independent reviewers. The Cochrane risk of bias tool and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation program were used to assess all included RCTs. A total of 66 RCTs met the inclusion criteria for this review. Most of the included studies had an unclear risk of bias, and the certainty of the evidence was very low. Twenty-four RCTs compared the effects of WA with those of oral drug therapies. Meta-analysis showed superior effects of WA for the total effective rate (risk ratio (RR): 1.22, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.17 to 1.27, I  = 26%, p < 0.001, 24 studies, n = 2278), pain, and function. Eight RCTs compared the effects of WA+drug therapy, and meta-analysis showed favorable effects for the total effective rate (RR: 1.27, 95% CI: 1.18 to 1.35, I =0%, p < 0.001, 8 studies, n = 646). Eight RCTs compared the effects of WA and intra-articular sodium hyaluronate (IASH) injection on OA and found equivalent effects of WA on the symptoms of OA. Twenty-eight RCTs compared the effects of WA+IASH injection with those of IASH injection, and meta-analysis showed superior effects of WA+IASH in terms of the total effective rate (RR: 1.15, 95% CI: 1.11 to 1.19, I =27.3%, p < 0.001, 25 studies, n = 2208), pain, and function. None of the RCTs reported serious adverse events. WA may have some distinct advantages in the treatment of OA. However, well-designed RCTs with larger sample sizes are needed. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier GmbH.. All rights reserved.

Alteration patterns of trabecular bone microarchitectural characteristics induced by osteoarthritis over time

10.2147/CIA.S32513Clinical Interventions in Aging7303-31

The Mre11-Nbs1 Interface Is Essential for Viability and Tumor Suppression

The Mre11 complex (Mre11, Rad50, and Nbs1) is integral to both DNA repair and ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM)-dependent DNA damage signaling. All three Mre11 complex components are essential for viability at the cellular and organismal levels. To delineate essential and non-essential Mre11 complex functions that are mediated by Nbs1, we used TALEN-based genome editing to derive Nbs1 mutant mice (Nbs1mid mice), which harbor mutations in the Mre11 interaction domain of Nbs1. Nbs1mid alleles that abolished interaction were incompatible with viability. Conversely, a 108-amino-acid Nbs1 fragment comprising the Mre11 interface was sufficient to rescue viability and ATM activation in cultured cells and support differentiation of hematopoietic cells in vivo. These data indicate that the essential role of Nbs1 is via its interaction with Mre11 and that most of the Nbs1 protein is dispensable for Mre11 complex functions and suggest that Mre11 and Rad50 directly activate ATM

BPS R-balls in N=4 SYM on R X S^3, Quantum Hall Analogy and AdS/CFT Holography

In this paper, we propose a new approach to study the BPS dynamics in N=4 supersymmetric U(N) Yang-Mills theory on R X S^3, in order to better understand the emergence of gravity in the gauge theory. Our approach is based on supersymmetric, space-filling Q-balls with R-charge, which we call R-balls. The usual collective coordinate method for non-topological scalar solitons is applied to quantize the half and quarter BPS R-balls. In each case, a different quantization method is also applied to confirm the results from the collective coordinate quantization. For finite N, the half BPS R-balls with a U(1) R-charge have a moduli space which, upon quantization, results in the states of a quantum Hall droplet with filling factor one. These states are known to correspond to the ``sources'' in the Lin-Lunin-Maldacena geometries in IIB supergravity. For large N, we find a new class of quarter BPS R-balls with a non-commutativity parameter. Quantization on the moduli space of such R-balls gives rise to a non-commutative Chern-Simons matrix mechanics, which is known to describe a fractional quantum Hall system. In view of AdS/CFT holography, this demonstrates a profound connection of emergent quantum gravity with non-commutative geometry, of which the quantum Hall effect is a special case.Comment: 42 pages, 2 figures; v3: a new paragraph on counting unbroken susy of NC R-balls and references adde

A search for ferromagnetism in transition-metal-doped piezoelectric ZnO

We present the results of a computational study of ZnO in the presence of Co and Mn substitutional impurities. The goal of our work is to identify potential ferromagnetic ground states within the (Zn,Co)O or (Zn,Mn)O material systems that are also good candidates for piezoelectricity. We find that, in contrast to previous results, robust ferromagnetism is not obtained by substitution of Co or Mn on the Zn site, unless additional carriers (holes) are also incorporated. We propose a practical scheme for achieving such $p$-type doping in ZnO

In vivo-mimicking microfluidic perfusion culture of pancreatic islet spheroids

Native pancreatic islets interact with neighboring cells by establishing three-dimensional (3D) structures, and are surrounded by perfusion at an interstitial flow level. However, flow effects are generally ignored in islet culture models, although cell perfusion is known to improve the cell microenvironment and to mimic in vivo physiology better than static culture systems. Here, we have developed functional islet spheroids using a microfluidic chip that mimics interstitial flow conditions with reduced shear cell damage. Dynamic culture, compared to static culture, enhanced islet health and maintenance of islet endothelial cells, reconstituting the main component of islet extracellular matrix within spheroids. Optimized flow condition allowed localization of secreted soluble factors near spheroids, facilitating diffusion-mediated paracrine interactions within islets, and enabled long-term maintenance of islet morphology and function for a month. The proposed model can aid islet preconditioning before transplantation and has potential applications as an in vitro model for diabetic drug testing

Exploring morphological correlations among H2CO, 12CO, MSX and continuum mappings

There are relatively few H2CO mappings of large-area giant molecular cloud (GMCs). H2CO absorption lines are good tracers for low-temperature molecular clouds towards star formation regions. Thus, the aim of the study was to identify H2CO distributions in ambient molecular clouds. We investigated morphologic relations among 6-cm continuum brightness temperature (CBT) data and H2CO (111-110; Nanshan 25-m radio telescope), 12CO (1--0; 1.2-m CfA telescope) and midcourse space experiment (MSX) data, and considered the impact of background components on foreground clouds. We report simultaneous 6-cm H2CO absorption lines and H110\alpha radio recombination line observations and give several large-area mappings at 4.8 GHz toward W49 (50'\times50'), W3 (70'\times90'), DR21/W75 (60'\times90') and NGC2024/NGC2023 (50'\times100') GMCs. By superimposing H2CO and 12CO contours onto the MSX color map, we can compare correlations. The resolution for H2CO, 12CO and MSX data was about 10', 8' and 18.3", respectively. Comparison of H2CO and 12CO contours, 8.28-\mu m MSX colorscale and CBT data revealed great morphological correlation in the large area, although there are some discrepancies between 12CO and H2CO peaks in small areas. The NGC2024/NGC2023 GMC is a large area of HII regions with a high CBT, but a H2CO cloud to the north is possible against the cosmic microwave background. A statistical diagram shows that 85.21% of H2CO absorption lines are distributed in the intensity range from -1.0 to 0 Jy and the \Delta V range from 1.206 to 5 km/s.Comment: 18 pages, 22 figures, 5 tables. Accepted to be published in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

Magnetic fields in cosmic particle acceleration sources

We review here some magnetic phenomena in astrophysical particle accelerators associated with collisionless shocks in supernova remnants, radio galaxies and clusters of galaxies. A specific feature is that the accelerated particles can play an important role in magnetic field evolution in the objects. We discuss a number of CR-driven, magnetic field amplification processes that are likely to operate when diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) becomes efficient and nonlinear. The turbulent magnetic fields produced by these processes determine the maximum energies of accelerated particles and result in specific features in the observed photon radiation of the sources. Equally important, magnetic field amplification by the CR currents and pressure anisotropies may affect the shocked gas temperatures and compression, both in the shock precursor and in the downstream flow, if the shock is an efficient CR accelerator. Strong fluctuations of the magnetic field on scales above the radiation formation length in the shock vicinity result in intermittent structures observable in synchrotron emission images. Resonant and non-resonant CR streaming instabilities in the shock precursor can generate mesoscale magnetic fields with scale-sizes comparable to supernova remnants and even superbubbles. This opens the possibility that magnetic fields in the earliest galaxies were produced by the first generation Population III supernova remnants and by clustered supernovae in star forming regions.Comment: 30 pages, Space Science Review

Narrow width of a glueball decay into two mesons

The widths of a glueball decay to two pions or kaons are analyzed in the pQCD framework. Our results show that the glueball ground state has small branching ratio for two-meson decay mode, which is around $10^{-2}$. The predicted values are consistent with the data of $\xi\to\pi\pi, KK$ if $\xi$ particle is a $2^{++}$ glueball. Applicability of pQCD to the glueball decay and comparison with $\chi_{cJ}$ decay are also discussed.Comment: 12 pages, revtex, 2 ps figure