Warehouse Layout Design for an Automotive Raw Material Supplier

The case-study company faced the limited space situation. Thus, the company decided to uninstall their temporary warehouses and locate products in two permanent warehouses. The objective of this research is to design the layouts of the two permanent warehouses so that the spaces can be efficiently used and the total picking distance is low. The past data, Invoices and Stock Data, are used for developing layouts designing processes. This research involves the collecting of Product Size Data to calculate the required space for the products. There are two phases in layout designing process. First phase is the product categories grouping. This phase categorizes product categories into two groups for the two warehouses. The second phase is the layouts designing. In this phase, the layouts of the two warehouses and the locations of the products are designed. According to the company requirements and policies, the Adapted Class-Based Turnover Assignment is adopted in order to design the layouts for the two warehouses. Layouts of the warehouses are designed, analyzed, and evaluated. And, the best layouts give the best trade-off between quantitative results, i.e., the total picking distance and the remaining space, and qualitative results, i.e., the usability and the product suitability. The designed layouts are applied in the case-study company. This research develops a systematic and practical layout designing method which is flexible and can be adopted in other layout designing.The case-study company faces the limited space situation. Thus, the company decides to uninstall their temporary warehouses and re-locate products in two permanent warehouses. The objective of this research is to design the layouts of the two permanent warehouses so that the spaces can be efficiently used and the total picking distance is low. The past data, Invoices and Stock Data, are used for developing layouts designing processes. This research involves the collecting of Product Size Data to calculate the required space for the products. There are two phases in layout designing process. The first phase is the product categories grouping. This phase categorizes product categories into two groups for the two warehouses. The second phase is the layouts designing. In this phase, the layouts of the two warehouses and the locations of the products are designed. According to the company requirements and policies, the Adapted Class-Based Turnover Assignment is adopted in order to design the layouts for the two warehouses. Layouts of the warehouses are designed, analyzed, and evaluated. The best layouts give the best trade-off between quantitative results, i.e., the total picking distance and the remaining space, and qualitative results, i.e., the usability and the product suitability. The designed layouts are applied in the case-study company. This research develops a systematic and practical layout designing method which is flexible and can be adopted in other warehouses

Antibacterial activity of crude extracts of Thai medicinal plants against clinical isolates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Acacia catechu, Garcinia mangostana, Impatiens balsamina, Peltophorum pterocarpum, Psidium guajava, Punica granatum, Quercus infectoria, Tamarindus indica, Uncaria gambir, Walsura robusta were primarily tested for their antibacterial activities against 35 clinical isolates of methicillin-resistant S. aureus and S. aureus ATCC 25923 using disc diffusion method (2.5 mg/disc). Almost all extracts, except Tamarindus indica exhibited antibacterial activity. Both aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Acacia catechu, Psidium guajava, Punica granatum, Quercus infectoria, and Uncaria gambir, and ethanolic extracts of Garcinia mangostana, Impatiens balsamina, Peltophorum pterocarpum, and Walsura robusta demonstrated inhibition zones, ranging from 6 to 22 mm. Determination of minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) values were performed using agar dilution method. The MIC/MBC values of aqueous extracts of Quercus infectoria against clinical isolates of MRSA and S. aureus were 0.2 to 0.4/0.4 to 1.6 and 0.2/1.6 mg/ ml, respectively. Ethanolic extracts of Garcinia mangostana, Punica granatum and Quercus infectoria were demonstrated to be the most effective. The MIC values against MRSA isolates and S. aureus ranged from 0.05 to 0.4 and 0.1, 0.2 to 0.4 and 0.1, 0.2 to 0.4 and 0.2 mg/ml, respectively. The MBC values against MRSA ranged from 0.1 to 0.4, 0.4 to 1.6, and 1.6 to 3.1 mg/ml and against S. aureus at 0.4, 3.2, and 1.6 mg/ml, respectively

Heptaplex-direct PCR assay for simultaneous detection of foodborne pathogens

© 2017 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (Sept 2017) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policyFoodborne pathogens pose significant problems for public health and economy. The gold standard, cultivation, is time-consuming and costly. In this study, a heptaplex-direct PCR assay for simultaneous detection of seven foodborne pathogens without DNA extraction and enrichment was developed and validated. Seven virulent genes of target strains were amplified and found that the assay provided the expected PCR fragment of 583, 490, 415, 343, 224, 209, and 105 bp for Shigella spp., Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), Streptococcus pyogenes, Campylobacter jejuni, Salmonella Typhi, Listeria monocytogenes, and Staphylococcus aureus, respectively. Validation study showed that the assay was highly reproducible, specific and sensitive (106–100 CFU/ml of detection limit). Moreover, assay application on 22 artificially-contaminated and 100 food samples provided a statistically equivalent efficiency to the culture method. A heptaplex-direct PCR assay thus can be used in microbial forensic science

Trend and seasonality analysis of milk production from dairy cooperatives in Chiang Mai

Analysis of trend and seasonality for production data is essential for establishing planning and strategy for future marketing. The aims of this study were 1) to determine the trend and seasonality of milk production and 2) to compare the quantity of milk among dairy cooperatives in Chiang Mai. Monthly milk production data from 7 dairy cooperatives and a company collected during 2016-2020 were analyzed for trend and seasonality using time series methods. Overall milk productions in 2019 was compared among dairy cooperative using a general linear mixed model. Results showed that most of the dairy cooperatives showed an increasing trend for milk production. The milk productions from all dairy cooperatives had a similar seasonality pattern as the highest milk production was found in the period of March to May. Among dairy cooperative, Chaiprakarn was the top rank in milk production (2581.73±50.46 tons/month). This study provided essential information for dairy cooperative boards, government sectors, private sectors, and other stakeholders to plan and manage the amount of milk in the future

Antibacterial, antibiofilm, and anti-adhesion activities of Piper betle leaf extract against Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli

Piper betle leaves have traditionally been used to treat many diseases, including bacterial infections. The present studyaimed to investigate the antibacterial, antibiofilm, and anti-adhesion activities of P. betle extract against avian pathogenicEscherichia coli (APEC). The ethanol extract of P. betle leaves demonstrated strong antibacterial activity against clinicalisolates of APEC with MIC and MBC values ranging from 0.5 to 1.0 mg/mL as compared with 1% DMSO, a negative control.Disruption and breakdown of the bacterial cells were detected when the cells were challenged with the extract at 2 × MIC.Bacterial cells treated with the extract demonstrated longer cells without a septum, compared to the control. The extract at1/8, 1/4, and 1/2× MIC significantly inhibited the formation of the bacterial biofilm of all the tested isolates except the iso-late CH10 (P < 0.05) without inhibiting growth. At 1/2 × MIC, 55% of the biofilm inhibition was detected in APEC CH09,a strong biofilm producer. At 32 × MIC, 88% of the inhibition of viable cells embedded in the mature biofilm was detectedin APEC CH09. Reduction in the bacterial adhesion to surfaces was shown when APEC were treated with sub-MICs of theextract as observed by SEM. Hydroxychavicol was found to be the major compound presented in the leaf extract as detectedby GC–MS analysis. The information suggested potential medicinal benefits of P. betle extract to inhibit the growth, biofilm,and adhesion of avian pathogenic E. coli.publishe

Tiger hair morphology and its variations for wildlife forensic investigation

Tiger population has dramatically decreased due to illegal consumption and commercialisation of their body parts. Frequently, hair samples are the only evidence found in the crime scene. Thus, they play an important role in species identification for wildlife forensic investigation. In this study, we provide the first in-depth report on a variety of qualitative and quantitative characteristics of tiger guard hairs (24 hairs per individual from four individuals). The proposed method could reduce subjectivity of expert opinions on species identification based on hair morphology. Variations in 23 hair morphological characteristics were quantified at three levels: hair section, body region, and intra-species. The results indicate statistically significant variations in most morphological characteristics in all levels. Intra-species variations of four variables, namely hair length, hair index, scale separation and scale pattern, were low. Therefore, identification of tiger hairs using these multiple features in combination with other characteristics with high inter-species variations (e.g. medulla type) should bring about objective and accurate tiger hair identification. The method used should serve as a guideline and be further applied to other species to establish a wildlife hair morphology database. Statistical models could then be constructed to distinguish species and provide evidential values in terms of likelihood ratios

First-lactation milk fat-to-protein ratio in tropically-raised dairy cows: environmental and genetic influences

The objective of this research was to determine factors influencing to fat-to-protein ratio (FPR) in the first-lactation of dairy cows raised in tropical climate. The dataset included fat percentage, protein percentage, and FPR values from 160,506 records representing 23,201 first-lactation cows that calved between 1993 and 2017. These cows originated from 508 farms in all regions of Thailand. The data were analyzed using the general linear model procedure in the R program. The models included herd-year-season of records, and breed group as fixed effects, and age at calving and days in milk as covariates. The result showed that the average fat percentage, protein percentage, and FPR were 3.560±0.960, 3.130±0.390 and 1.150±0.330, respectively. Effects of herd-year-season of records, breed group, age at calving, and days in milk were highly significant for all traits (P<0.05). Cows containing less than 87.50% Holstein Friesian (HF) blood gave fat percentage, protein percentage and FPR higher than 93.75%HF and 87.50-93.74%HF. The FPR was highest in the winter and lowest in the summer. In conclusion, present results indicated that fat percentage, protein percentage and FPR are clearly influenced by both genetic and non-genetic factors. Therefore, development of different breed, feeding systems, according to season and herd is needed to produce quality of fat and protein percentage

The complete mitochondrial genome analysis of the tiger (Panthera tigris)

The complete mitochondrial genomes of five tiger samples from three subspecies (P. t. sumatrae, P. t. altica, and P. t. tigris) were successfully obtained by using 26 specifically designed Panthera-specific primer sets. The genome organization and gene arrangement of the five tiger samples were similar to each other; however polymorphic tandem repeat sequences were observed in the control region (CR). This led to a difference in the genome lengths obtained from these five samples with an average size of 16,994 bp for the five tiger mitochondrial genomes. The nucleotide base composition was on average as follows: A, 31.8%; T, 27.0%; C, 26.6%; G, 14.6% and exhibited compositional asymmetry. Most of tiger mitochondrial genome characteristics are similar to those of other common vertebrate species; however, some distinctive features were observed in the CR. First, the repetitive sequence 2 (RS 2) contained two repeat units of 80 bp and the first 15 bp of what would be the third repeat motif. The repetitive sequence 3 (RS 3) contained 47–50 repeat motifs of a shorter 8 bp (ACGTAYAC)n. Second, length heteroplasmy polycystosine (poly-C) stretches was observed at the end of the HV I locus in all tiger samples

Erratum to: The complete mitochondrial genome analysis of the tiger (Panthera tigris)

Erratum to: Mol Biol Rep (2012) 39:5745–5754 DOI 10.1007/s11033-011-1384-