Modelling Fresh Strawberry Supply "From-Farm-to-Fork" as a Complex Adaptive Network

 The purpose of this study is to model and thereby enable simulation of the complete business entity of fresh food supply. A case narrative of fresh strawberry supply provides basis for this modelling. Lamming et al. (2000) point to the importance of discerning industry-specific product features (or particularities) regarding managing supply networks when discussing elements in "an initial classification of a supply network" while Fisher (1997) and Christopher et al. (2006, 2009) point to the lack of adopting SCM models to variations in products and market types as an important source of SCM failure. In this study we have chosen to move along a research path towards developing an adapted approach to model end-to-end fresh food supply influenced by a combination of SCM, system dynamics and complex adaptive network thinking...

Requirements Engineering as Creative Problem Solving: A Research Agenda for Idea Finding

This vision paper frames requirements engineering as a creative problem solving process. Its purpose is to enable requirements researchers and practitioners to recruit relevant theories, models, techniques and tools from creative problem solving to understand and support requirements processes more effectively. It uses 4 drivers to motivate the case for requirements engineering as a creative problem solving process. It then maps established requirements activities onto one of the longest-established creative problem solving processes, and uses these mappings to locate opportunities for the application of creative problem solving in requirements engineering. The second half of the paper describes selected creativity theories, techniques, software tools and training that can be adopted to improve requirements engineering research and practice. The focus is on support for problem and idea finding - two creative problem solving processes that our investigation revealed are poorly supported in requirements engineering. The paper ends with a research agenda to incorporate creative processes, techniques, training and tools in requirements projects

Evaluating prediction models for electricity consumption

This paper presents a system for visualizing electricity consumptiondata along with the implementation of a pattern recognition approach for peakprediction. Various classification algorithms and machine learning techniques aretested and discussed; in particular, Support Vector Machine (SVM), GaussianMixture Model (GMM) and hierarchical classifiers. Most notably, the bestalgorithms are able to detect 70% of the peaks occurring within the next 24 hours.Also, various ways of correlating energy consumption are considered in the presentcontext. Finally, a few directions for future work are discussed

The discontinuous Galerkin method for fractional degenerate convection-diffusion equations

We propose and study discontinuous Galerkin methods for strongly degenerate convection-diffusion equations perturbed by a fractional diffusion (L\'evy) operator. We prove various stability estimates along with convergence results toward properly defined (entropy) solutions of linear and nonlinear equations. Finally, the qualitative behavior of solutions of such equations are illustrated through numerical experiments

The Cocktail Party Listener

A complex computational model of the human ability to listen to certain signals in preference of others, also called the cocktail party phenomenon, is built on the basis of surveys into the relevant psychological, DSP, and neural network literature. This model is basically binaural and as such it makes use of both spectral data and spatial data in determining which speaker to listen to. The model uses two neural networks for filtering and speaker identification. Results from some experimentation with type and architecture of these networks are presented along with the results of the model. These results indicate that the model has a distinctive ability to focus on a particular speaker of choice

Exercise: a path to wellness during adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer?

Background: Breast cancer treatment can represent a threat to a patient’s wellness. The role of exercise in perceived wellness in women with breast cancer merits further study. Objective: The objective of this study was to describe how exercise is perceived by women to influence their physical and psychosocial wellness at the time they were receiving chemotherapy. Methods: Five focus group interviews with a total of 27 women with early-stage breast cancer were conducted. Prior to the focus groups, the women had participated in an exercise intervention during chemotherapy treatment. Results: Three themes emerged from the analysis: exercise shapes feelings of psychological wellness; exercise stimulates feelings of physical wellness; and exercise influences social wellness. The women reported feeling stronger in a psychological sense after exercising, that the strength exercise improved their upper-limb functioning, and that engaging in exercise triggered social support and interactions. Conclusions: Exercise during breast cancer treatment is perceived to enhance the patients’ wellness on several dimensions and in particular psychological wellness. Exercise might support the patients’ efforts to restore their sense of wellness and enhance their level of daily life functioning. Implications for Practice: Cancer nurses should promote exercise as a wellness-fostering intervention during chemotherapy treatment. Focusing on how exercise can contribute to feelings of wellness may help women with breast cancer choose exercise as a health-promoting activity that contributes to their recovery

Factors perceived to influence exercise adherence in women with breast cancer participating in an exercise programme during adjuvant chemotherapy: a focus group study

Aims and objectives. To explore factors influencing exercise adherence among women with breast cancer while following an exercise programme. Background. Earlier research shows that women with breast cancer decrease physical activity following the cancer diagnosis and that adhering to exercise interventions can be a challenge. Research is needed to identify motivational factors and barriers for exercise adherence among women during treatment for breast cancer. Design. This was a qualitative study to explore patient’s perceptions of the challenges to exercise adherence during a randomised, controlled trial. Methods. Twenty-seven women with early-stage breast cancer were purposively sampled for focus group interviews during 2011–2012 from their participation in the exercise intervention group during 2010–2012. Five focus groups were performed, and data analysis was completed using the systematic text condensation method. Results. During the focus group study, five main themes were identified, which described factors participants perceived to influence their adherence to exercise during chemotherapy: ‘side effects of breast cancer treatment as a barrier to exercise’, ‘restoring and maintaining normality in daily life motivates exercise’, ‘other valued activities compete with exercise’, ‘constructive support enhances exercise’ and ‘positive beliefs about efficacy and outcomes motivate exercise’. Conclusion. Adherence to exercise in women with breast cancer is challenged by internal and external conditions and may be improved by attention to the impact of treatment side effects and by supporting patient self-efficacy towards changing health behaviour. Relevance to clinical practice. Nurses should be aware that exercise adherence could be a challenge among women with breast cancer. They should help identify obstacles to exercise for women and ways to overcome them, as well as support them in their beliefs that they are capable of changing their health behaviou

On Nonlinear Stochastic Balance Laws

We are concerned with multidimensional stochastic balance laws. We identify a class of nonlinear balance laws for which uniform spatial $BV$ bounds for vanishing viscosity approximations can be achieved. Moreover, we establish temporal equicontinuity in $L^1$ of the approximations, uniformly in the viscosity coefficient. Using these estimates, we supply a multidimensional existence theory of stochastic entropy solutions. In addition, we establish an error estimate for the stochastic viscosity method, as well as an explicit estimate for the continuous dependence of stochastic entropy solutions on the flux and random source functions. Various further generalizations of the results are discussed

Of Mutualism and Migration: Will Interactions with Novel Ericoid Mycorrhizal Communities Help or Hinder Northward Rhododendron Range Shifts?

Rapid climate change imperils many small-ranged endemic species as the climate envelopes of their native ranges shift poleward. In addition to abiotic changes, biotic interactions are expected to play a critical role in plant species’ responses. Below-ground interactions are of particular interest given increasing evidence of microbial effects on plant performance and the prevalence of mycorrhizal mutualisms. We used greenhouse mesocosm experiments to investigate how natural northward migration/assisted colonization of Rhododendron catawbiense, a small-ranged endemic eastern U.S. shrub, might be influenced by novel below-ground biotic interactions from soils north of its native range, particularly with ericoid mycorrhizal fungi (ERM). We compared germination, leaf size, survival, and ERM colonization rates of endemic R. catawbiense and widespread R. maximum when sown on different soil inoculum treatments: a sterilized control; a non-ERM biotic control; ERM communities from northern R. maximum populations; and ERM communities collected from the native range of R. catawbiense. Germination rates for both species when inoculated with congeners\u27 novel soils were significantly higher than when inoculated with conspecific soils, or non-mycorrhizal controls. Mortality rates were unaffected by treatment, suggesting that the unexpected reciprocal effect of each species’ increased establishment in association with heterospecific ERM could have lasting demographic effects. Our results suggest that seedling establishment of R. catawbiense in northern regions outside its native range could be facilitated by the presence of extant congeners like R. maximum and their associated soil microbiota. These findings have direct relevance to the potential for successful poleward migration or future assisted colonization efforts