A study on the heterogeneous fleet of alternative fuel vehicles: Reducing CO2 emissions by means of biodiesel fuel

In the context of home healthcare services, patients may need to be visited multiple times by different healthcare specialists who may use a fleet of heterogeneous vehicles. In addition, some of these visits may need to be synchronized with each other for performing a treatment at the same time. We call this problem the Heterogeneous Fleet Vehicle Routing Problem with Synchronized visits (HF-VRPS). It consists of planning a set of routes for a set of light duty vehicles running on alternative fuels. We propose three population-based hybrid Artificial Bee Colony metaheuristic algorithms for the HF-VRPS. These algorithms are tested on newly generated instances and on a set of homogeneous VRPS instances from the literature. Besides producing quality solutions, our experimental results illustrate the trade-offs between important factors, such as CO2 emissions and driver wage. The computational results also demonstrate the advantages of adopting a heterogeneous fleet rather than a homogeneous one for the use in home healthcare services

Hybrid adaptive large neighborhood search algorithm for the mixed fleet heterogeneous dial-a-ride problem

The mixed fleet heterogeneous dial-a-ride problem (MF-HDARP) consists of designing vehicle routes for a set of users by using a mixed fleet including both heterogeneous conventional and alternative fuel vehicles. In addition, a vehicle is allowed to refuel from a fuel station to eliminate the risk of running out of fuel during its service. We propose an efficient hybrid adaptive large neighborhood search (hybrid ALNS) algorithm for the MF-HDARP. The computational experiments show that the algorithm produces high quality solutions on our generated instances and on HDARP benchmarks instances. Computational experiments also highlight that the newest components added to the standard ALNS algorithm enhance intensification and diversification during the search process

Does wet-cupping therapy improve repeated sprint ability, perceived wellness, and rating of perceived exertion in young active males?

Wet-cupping therapy (WCT) is one of the oldest known medical techniques, used as a traditional and complementary therapy with a wide application all around the world for general health. Research on the effects of WCT on sports performance are sparse and inconsistent. Thus, we aimed to explore the effects of WCT on repeated sprint ability, wellness, and exertion in young active males. Forty-nine active adult males (age: [28 ​± ​5] years; body height [177 ​± ​8] cm; body mass: [79 ​± ​7] kg; body mass index: [25.4 ​± ​1.8] kg/m2) were selected for the study. The participants performed a running-based sprint test on two separate occasions (Control and Post-WCT). WCT was performed 24 ​h before the testing session. They completed the Hooper questionnaire to assess their well-being (i.e., sleep, stress, fatigue, and soreness) before each session. The rating of perceived exertion (RPE) was collected after each testing session. A higher maximum power (p ​< ​0.05, effect size [ES] ​= ​0.6), mean power (p ​< ​0.01, ES ​= ​0.5) and minimum power (p ​< ​0.01, ES ​= ​0.6) were recorded post-WCT as compared to Control session along with a better perceived sleep (p ​< ​0.01, ES ​= ​0.85). Perceived stress (p ​< ​0.01, ES ​= ​0.6) and RPE (p ​< ​0.001; ES ​= ​1.1) were lower during the post-WCT compared to the Control session. The present findings demonstrated that WCT moderately enhanced repeated sprint ability and had positive effects on perceived sleep, stress, and exertion. WCT may be an effective ergogenic aid to improve repeated sprint ability and general well-being in young adult males. Future large-scale multicentric clinical studies are paramount to confirm the results of our study

The dial-a-ride problem with electric vehicles and battery swapping stations

The Dial-a-Ride Problem (DARP) consists of designing vehicle routes and schedules for customers with special needs and/or disabilities. The DARP with Electric Vehicles and battery swapping stations (DARP-EV) concerns scheduling a fleet of EVs to serve a set of pre-specified transport requests during a certain planning horizon. In addition, EVs can be recharged by swapping their batteries with charged ones from any battery-swap stations. We propose three enhanced Evolutionary Variable Neighborhood Search (EVO-VNS) algorithms to solve the DARP-EV. Extensive computational experiments highlight the relevance of the problem and confirm the efficiency of the proposed EVO-VNS algorithms in producing high quality solutions

The effects of exercise difficulty and time-of-day on the perception of the task and soccer performance in child soccer players

In soccer, accurate kicking skills are important determinants of successful performance. A successful kick must meet several criteria, including speed, accuracy, and timing. In fact, players who are able to kick the ball more accurately under various difficulties, such as time pressure, space constraints, the opponent’s pressure, and the distance between the kicking point and the goal, have a clear advantage during soccer games. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of exercise difficulty and time-of-day on perceived task difficulty and kicking performance. Accordingly, 32 boys (age: 11 ± 0.7 years; height: 1.45 ± 0.07 m; body-mass: 38.9 ± 7.8 kg) performed shooting accuracy tests under two difficulty levels (distance (long-distance (LD) vs. short-distance (SD)) and time pressure (Without-time-pressure (WTP) vs. With-time-pressure (TP)) at 08:00 h and 17:00 h. Absolute-error, variable-error, and constant-error were evaluated during the kicking tasks, in addition to ball velocity and shooting quality. Moreover, rating-of-perceived-exertion score (RPE), feeling-scale (FS), and perceived difficulty were completed immediately at the end of each test. The results showed that shooting quality was not affected by the time-of-day, but it was better in WTP vs. TP (p p p p < 0.05). In conclusion, specific soccer skills of boys were not time-of-day dependent, but they may be associated with time pressure and task difficulty

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance.

Investment in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing in Africa over the past year has led to a major increase in the number of sequences that have been generated and used to track the pandemic on the continent, a number that now exceeds 100,000 genomes. Our results show an increase in the number of African countries that are able to sequence domestically and highlight that local sequencing enables faster turnaround times and more-regular routine surveillance. Despite limitations of low testing proportions, findings from this genomic surveillance study underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic and illuminate the distinct dispersal dynamics of variants of concern-particularly Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron-on the continent. Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve while the continent faces many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Heterogeneous vehicle routing problems with synchronization ::application to homecare scheduling routing problem

Home healthcare and home care depots are facing increasing demands and costs all over the world, because the increase of the number of dependent people that constitutes an important percentage of population and the growing necessity of some patients with special needs for support. Researchers are attracted by this issue that presents interesting customized scheduling and routing aspects. The objective is to optimize the assignment of visits to home caregivers and the sequence of visits execution. In reality, lunch break for caregivers is mandatory and heterogeneous fleet of vehicles are considered to services the patients. Thus, we introduce in this paper a new variant by taking into account breaks and heterogeneous fleet vehicles in addition to time windows and synchronization constraints. We call this specific problem as the Heterogeneous Vehicle Routing Problem with Synchronisation visit and Break (HVRPSB). We provided an Adaptive Large Neighboorhood search to solve this new variant. Numerical results on generated instances are provided to show the effectiveness of our developed algorithm to solve the HVRPSB