Using System Dynamics Approach to Construct a Performance Measurement Model for Pharmacy Supply Chain Management

A credible performance measurement system is imperative to evaluate SCM systems effectiveness. However, commonly accepted measurements for evaluating pharmacy supply chain management (SCM) are yet to be developed. This study models the dynamic behavior of pharmacy supply chains to include managerial policies and performance measuring systems based on a well-established theoretical framework. The system dynamics methodology is adopted to simulate three scenarios: (1) demand forecasting policy, (2) market need, and (3) manufacturing errors. Simulation results lead to important policy implications of pharmacy SCM

Electronic Data Interchange: Guidelines for Development, Implementation, & Use

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)provides new and expanded methods for communications between business partners. EDI is the inter-organizational transmission of business transactions in a standard format. With EDI, companies can bypass the traditional methods of sending physical documents, and instead send electronic ones. EDI is a form of communication that promises increased productivity. The original aims of EDI were to reduce cycle time and replace paper with electronically transmitted documents between trading partners (Figure 1). But, the contribution of EDI to business has grown beyond the goals of paperless high-speed communications. EDI is transforming entire industries. ATM networks and electronic-funds-transfer systems have altered the way we bank and trade securities. Now EDI is changing the face of retailing, supplier/customer relations, international trade, and many other areas. EDI represents an opportunity to directly improve business processes and business controls. Traditionally, organizations have used paper forms such as acknowledgements, orders, inquiries, checks, and the like to exchange information. But large volumes of paper-based exchanges created problems because they are slow and require extensive human handling. Many organizations have realized the importance offinding a more expedient way to communicate and process business data. There were 21,000 registered EDI users in 1991. In 1993, Data Interchange Standards Association, Inc. (DISA) reported that 37,000 companies were using EDI in the USA. Internationally,Singapore and Hong Kong both regard EDI as an important source of competitive advantage in trade. Australian Custom Service also uses EDI to communicate with European countries. Technically, there are few barriers to implementing EDI. The implementation of EDI is more a management problem; because, to really do it properly requires a complete rethinking of organizational structure, processes, procedures, and methods of doing business. This paper identifies several important issues associated with EDI development, implementation, and use. These factors, which include EDI technical considerations and implementation strategies, can serve as guidelines for organizations contemplating the use of EDI

Important Issues in Implementing Global networks

Global communication networks are used by multinational companies for instant access to information and communications. Many advantages can be obtained from implementing a global network; however, many challenges exist in designing and implementing a network that encompasses different countries. This article presents some key issues for the design and implementation of a global network

An Investigation on the Impact of Task Characteristics and Cognitive Style on Cognitive Process in a Decision-Making Environment

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between task-related attributes and the elicited cognitive processes of a human decision maker. Previous findings on the feasibility of using cognitive style as a guideline for information systems research and design were inconclusive. It is vital to design a system that meets users decision behavior, but the inherent hazards of information systems design based exclusively on user cognitive styles is suspect. This study provides a basis for understanding the potential variation of cognitive processes across different task environments

Enhancement of sp(3)-bonding in high-bias-voltage grown diamond-like carbon thin films studied by x-ray absorption and photoemission spectroscopy

[[abstract]]X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) and valence-band photoemission spectroscopy (VB-PES) were used to elucidate the electronic and mechanical properties of diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin films deposited by the plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition method at various bias voltages (Vb) using a C2H2 vapour precursor in an Ar+ atmosphere. The increase of Vb is found to increase and decrease the contents of sp3- and sp2-bonded carbon atoms, respectively, i.e. the films become more diamond-like. The Young's modulus measurements show increases with the increase of the presence of sp3-bonded carbon atoms in the structure of the DLC films.[[notice]]補正完

Design And Fabrication of Condenser Microphone Using Wafer Transfer And Micro-electroplating Technique

A novel fabrication process, which uses wafer transfer and micro-electroplating technique, has been proposed and tested. In this paper, the effects of the diaphragm thickness and stress, the air-gap thickness, and the area ratio of acoustic holes to backplate on the sensitivity of the condenser microphone have been demonstrated since the performance of the microphone depends on these parameters. The microphone diaphragm has been designed with a diameter and thickness of 1.9 mm and 0.6 $\mu$m, respectively, an air-gap thickness of 10 $\mu$m, and a 24% area ratio of acoustic holes to backplate. To obtain a lower initial stress, the material used for the diaphragm is polyimide. The measured sensitivities of the microphone at the bias voltages of 24 V and 12 V are -45.3 and -50.2 dB/Pa (at 1 kHz), respectively. The fabricated microphone shows a flat frequency response extending to 20 kHz.Comment: Submitted on behalf of EDA Publishing Association (http://irevues.inist.fr/handle/2042/16838

Plasticity of cerebellar Purkinje cells in behavioral training of body balance control

Neural responses to sensory inputs caused by self-generated movements (reafference) and external passive stimulation (exafference) differ in various brain regions. The ability to differentiate such sensory information can lead to movement execution with better accuracy. However, how sensory responses are adjusted in regard to this distinguishability during motor learning is still poorly understood. The cerebellum has been hypothesized to analyze the functional significance of sensory information during motor learning, and is thought to be a key region of reafference computation in the vestibular system. In this study, we investigated Purkinje cell (PC) spike trains as cerebellar cortical output when rats learned to balance on a suspended dowel. Rats progressively reduced the amplitude of body swing and made fewer foot slips during a 5-min balancing task. Both PC simple (SSs; 17 of 26) and complex spikes (CSs; 7 of 12) were found to code initially on the angle of the heads with respect to a fixed reference. Using periods with comparable degrees of movement, we found that such SS coding of information in most PCs (10 of 17) decreased rapidly during balance learning. In response to unexpected perturbations and under anesthesia, SS coding capability of these PCs recovered. By plotting SS and CS firing frequencies over 15-s time windows in double-logarithmic plots, a negative correlation between SS and CS was found in awake, but not anesthetized, rats. PCs with prominent SS coding attenuation during motor learning showed weaker SS-CS correlation. Hence, we demonstrate that neural plasticity for filtering out sensory reafference from active motion occurs in the cerebellar cortex in rats during balance learning. SS-CS interaction may contribute to this rapid plasticity as a form of receptive field plasticity in the cerebellar cortex between two receptive maps of sensory inputs from the external world and of efference copies from the will center for volitional movements

A theoretical investigation of orientation relationships and transformation strains in steels

The identification of orientation relationships (ORs) plays a crucial role in the understanding of solid phase transformations. In steels, the most common models of ORs are the ones by Nishiyama–Wassermann (NW) and Kurdjumov– Sachs (KS). The defining feature of these and other OR models is the matching of directions and planes in the parent face-centred cubic gamma phase to ones in the product body-centred cubic/tetragonal alpha\alpha' phase. In this article a novel method that identifies transformation strains with ORs is introduced and used to develop a new strain-based approach to phase-transformation models in steels. Using this approach, it is shown that the transformation strains that leave a close-packed plane in the gamma phase and a close-packed direction within that plane unrotated are precisely those giving rise to the NW and KS ORs when a cubic product phase is considered. Further, it is outlined how, by choosing different pairs of unrotated planes and directions, other common ORs such as the ones by Pitsch and Greninger–Troiano can be derived. One of the advantages of our approach is that it leads to a natural generalization of the NW, KS and other ORs for different ratios of tetragonality r of the product body-centred tetragonal alpha' phase. These generalized ORs predict a sharpening of the transformation textures with increasing tetragonality and are thus in qualitative agreement with experiments on steels with varying alloy concentratio

Electronic structure and bonding properties of Si-doped hydrogenated amorphous carbon films

[[abstract]]This work investigates the C K-edge x-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES), valence-band photoelectron spectroscopy (PES), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of Si-doped hydrogenated amorphous carbon films. The C K-edge XANES and valence-band PES spectra indicate that the sp2/sp3 population ratio decreases as the amount of tetramethylsilane vapor precursor increases during deposition, which suggest that Si doping% enhances sp3 and reduces sp2-bonding configurations. FTIR spectra show the formation of a polymeric sp3 C–Hn structure and Si–Hn bonds, which causes the Young’s modulus and hardness of the films to decrease with the increase of the Si content.[[incitationindex]]SCI[[booktype]]紙

Computational cytometer based on magnetically modulated coherent imaging and deep learning.

Detecting rare cells within blood has numerous applications in disease diagnostics. Existing rare cell detection techniques are typically hindered by their high cost and low throughput. Here, we present a computational cytometer based on magnetically modulated lensless speckle imaging, which introduces oscillatory motion to the magnetic-bead-conjugated rare cells of interest through a periodic magnetic force and uses lensless time-resolved holographic speckle imaging to rapidly detect the target cells in three dimensions (3D). In addition to using cell-specific antibodies to magnetically label target cells, detection specificity is further enhanced through a deep-learning-based classifier that is based on a densely connected pseudo-3D convolutional neural network (P3D CNN), which automatically detects rare cells of interest based on their spatio-temporal features under a controlled magnetic force. To demonstrate the performance of this technique, we built a high-throughput, compact and cost-effective prototype for detecting MCF7 cancer cells spiked in whole blood samples. Through serial dilution experiments, we quantified the limit of detection (LoD) as 10 cells per millilitre of whole blood, which could be further improved through multiplexing parallel imaging channels within the same instrument. This compact, cost-effective and high-throughput computational cytometer can potentially be used for rare cell detection and quantification in bodily fluids for a variety of biomedical applications