Greening Supply Chains in China: Practical Lessons From China-Based Suppliers in Achieving Environmental Performance

Presents case studies of how five China-based suppliers are meeting international buyers' environmental requirements. Examines management processes; effective low-cost ways to reduce water pollution; and the roles of multistakeholders and third parties

Effects of vibrational excitation on the F + H2O → HF + OH reaction: dissociative photodetachment of overtone-excited [F-H-OH].

The reaction F + H2O → HF + OH is a four-atom system that provides an important benchmark for reaction dynamics. Hydrogen atom transfer at the transition state for this reaction is expected to exhibit a strong dependence on reactant vibrational excitation. In the present study, the vibrational effects are examined by photodetachment of vibrationally excited F-(H2O) precursor anions using photoelectron-photofragment coincidence (PPC) spectroscopy and compared with full six-dimensional quantum dynamical calculations on ab initio potential energy surfaces. Prior to photodetachment at hνUV = 4.80 eV, the overtone of the ionic hydrogen bond mode in the precursor F-(H2O), 2νIHB at 2885 cm-1, was excited using a tunable IR laser. Experiment and theory show that vibrational energy in the anion can be effectively carried away by the photoelectron upon a Franck-Condon photodetachment, and also show evidence for an increase of branching into the F + H2O reactant channel. The experimental results suggest a greater role for product rotational excitation than theory. Improved potential energy surfaces and longer wavepacket propagation times would be helpful to further examine the nature of the discrepancy

Investigating IoT Middleware Platforms for Smart Application Development

With the growing number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, the data generated through these devices is also increasing. By 2030, it is been predicted that the number of IoT devices will exceed the number of human beings on earth. This gives rise to the requirement of middleware platform that can manage IoT devices, intelligently store and process gigantic data generated for building smart applications such as Smart Cities, Smart Healthcare, Smart Industry, and others. At present, market is overwhelming with the number of IoT middleware platforms with specific features. This raises one of the most serious and least discussed challenge for application developer to choose suitable platform for their application development. Across the literature, very little attempt is done in classifying or comparing IoT middleware platforms for the applications. This paper categorizes IoT platforms into four categories namely-publicly traded, open source, developer friendly and end-to-end connectivity. Some of the popular middleware platforms in each category are investigated based on general IoT architecture. Comparison of IoT middleware platforms in each category, based on basic, sensing, communication and application development features is presented. This study can be useful for IoT application developers to select the most appropriate platform according to their application requirement

Neutron/proton ratio of nucleon emissions as a probe of neutron skin

The dependence between neutron-to-proton yield ratio ($R_{np}$) and neutron skin thickness ($\delta_{np}$) in neutron-rich projectile induced reactions is investigated within the framework of the Isospin-Dependent Quantum Molecular Dynamics (IQMD) model. The density distribution of the Droplet model is embedded in the initialization of the neutron and proton densities in the present IQMD model. By adjusting the diffuseness parameter of neutron density in the Droplet model for the projectile, the relationship between the neutron skin thickness and the corresponding $R_{np}$ in the collisions is obtained. The results show strong linear correlation between $R_{np}$ and $\delta_{np}$ for neutron-rich Ca and Ni isotopes. It is suggested that $R_{np}$ may be used as an experimental observable to extract $\delta_{np}$ for neutron-rich nuclei, which is very significant to the study of the nuclear structure of exotic nuclei and the equation of state (EOS) of asymmetric nuclear matter.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures; accepted by Phys. Lett.

Mechanical control of the directional stepping dynamics of the kinesin motor

Among the multiple steps constituting the kinesin's mechanochemical cycle, one of the most interesting events is observed when kinesins move an 8-nm step from one microtubule (MT)-binding site to another. The stepping motion that occurs within a relatively short time scale (~100 microsec) is, however, beyond the resolution of current experiments, therefore a basic understanding to the real-time dynamics within the 8-nm step is still lacking. For instance, the rate of power stroke (or conformational change), that leads to the undocked-to-docked transition of neck-linker, is not known, and the existence of a substep during the 8-nm step still remains a controversial issue in the kinesin community. By using explicit structures of the kinesin dimer and the MT consisting of 13 protofilaments (PFs), we study the stepping dynamics with varying rates of power stroke (kp). We estimate that 1/kp <~ 20 microsec to avoid a substep in an averaged time trace. For a slow power stroke with 1/kp>20 microsec, the averaged time trace shows a substep that implies the existence of a transient intermediate, which is reminiscent of a recent single molecule experiment at high resolution. We identify the intermediate as a conformation in which the tethered head is trapped in the sideway binding site of the neighboring PF. We also find a partial unfolding (cracking) of the binding motifs occurring at the transition state ensemble along the pathways prior to binding between the kinesin and MT.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figure

On the scattering of longitudinal elastic waves from axisymmetric defects in coated pipes

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Journal of Sound and Vibration. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2013 Elsevier B.V.Viscoelastic coatings are widely used to protect pipelines from their surrounding environment. These coatings are known to attenuate ultrasonic waves guided along the pipe walls, which may limit the range of a pulse/echo based inspection technique that seeks to detect defects in a pipeline. This article aims to investigate the attenuation of longitudinal modes in a coated pipe by comparing predicted and measured values for the reflection coefficient of an axisymmetric defect in a pipe coated with bitumen. This extends recent work undertaken by the authors for torsional modes, and also provides an independent investigation into the validity of those values proposed by the authors for the shear properties of bitumen, based on a comparison between prediction and experiment for torsional modes. Predictions are generated using a numerical mode matching approach for axially uniform defects, and a hybrid finite element based method for non-uniform defects. Values for the shear and longitudinal properties of bitumen are investigated and it is shown that the shear properties of the viscoelastic material play a dominant role in the propagation of longitudinal modes in a coated pipeline. Moreover, by using the shear values obtained from experiments on torsional modes, it is shown that good agreement between prediction and measurement for uniform and non-uniform defects may also be obtained for the longitudinal L(0,2) mode. This provides further validation for the shear bulk acoustic properties proposed for bitumen in the low ultrasonic frequency range, although in order to apply this methodology in general it is demonstrated that one must measure independently the reflection coefficient of both the torsional T(0,1) and the longitudinal L(0,2) mode before arriving at values for the shear properties of a viscoelastic material

Moment Analysis and Zipf Law

The moment analysis method and nuclear Zipf's law of fragment size distributions are reviewed to study nuclear disassembly. In this report, we present a compilation of both theoretical and experimental studies on moment analysis and Zipf law performed so far. The relationship of both methods to a possible critical behavior or phase transition of nuclear disassembly is discussed. In addition, scaled factorial moments and intermittency are reviewed.Comment: Caption of Fig.6 was corrected. Review paper for WCI (World Consensus Initiative) Book "Dynamics and Thermodynamics with Nuclear Degrees of Freedom", published in Euorpean Physics Journal A as part of the Topical Volume. 16 pages, 21 figure

A Modified TreePM Code

We discuss the performance characteristics of using the modification of the tree code suggested by Barnes \citep{1990JCoPh..87..161B} in the context of the TreePM code. The optimisation involves identifying groups of particles and using only one tree walk to compute force for all the particles in the group. This modification has been in use in our implementation of the TreePM code for some time, and has also been used by others in codes that make use of tree structures. In this paper, we present the first detailed study of the performance characteristics of this optimisation. We show that the modification, if tuned properly can speed up the TreePM code by a significant amount. We also combine this modification with the use of individual time steps and indicate how to combine these two schemes in an optimal fashion. We find that the combination is at least a factor of two faster than the modified TreePM without individual time steps. Overall performance is often faster by a larger factor, as the scheme of groups optimises use of cache for large simulations.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures; Accepted for publication in Research In Astronomy and Astrophysics (RAA

Study on Sedation with Local Analgesia in Calves

. The effect of sedatives and analgesics on heart rate, respiration rate and rectal temperature were observed. Heart rate and respiration rate significantly decreased during sedation with xylazine hydrochloride plus 2% lignocaine hydrochloride or 0.5% bupivacaine hydrochloride. A significantly decreased heart rate and respiration rate also found during sedation with diazepam plus 2% lignocaine hydrochloride or 0.5% bupivacaine hydrochloride. Two percent lignocaine hydrochloride showed short onset, rapid spreading and no side effect. Duration of analgesia was longer with 0.5 % bupivacaine hydrochloride (55.88±1.58 min in Group B and 48±11.25 min in Group D) compared to 2% lignocaine hydrochloride (39.60±5.77 min in Group A and 43.6±5.81 min in Group C). Xylazine hydrochloride showed short onset and long duration of sedation compared to diazepam. So for herniorraphy, xylazine hydrochloride can be used as a better sedative while 0.5 % bupivacaine hydrochloride can be used as a local analgesic for longer duration of action