Blockchain technology integration in vehicle dealer inventory management system

Presently the Volvo Group Trucks Operations (GTO) supply chain network is designed in such a way that there is no traceability at the individual spare part level. As industrial digitization has become a necessity, especially for the supply chain network, the Volvo group has taken the initiative to explore new technologies in order to align themselves with the modern digital age of business. In the past few years blockchain technology applications, especially in the supply chain sector, have seen an enormous interest both from the industrial sector and academic sector. Thus it was decided to explore Blockchain technology to design a proof-of-concept in the dealer inventory management which has contributed in defining the primary objective of this master thesis. The primary objective of this master thesis was the design of a proof-of-concept for integrating blockchain technology in the reverse logistics process at Volvo GTO, especially for the North European market. Along with the proof-of-concept, various challenges and opportunities for Volvo GTO as a service provider in the domain of Blockchain technology integration and Dealer inventory management are presented in this master thesis

Snakes of Telangana: An annotated checklist with new locality records and notes on natural history

With every growing human population and the resultant shrinkage of natural habitats, snakes are frequently encountered in and around human settlements, leading to widespread human-wildlife conflict. Conservation efforts involve rescue & relocation of 'stray' snakes, to mitigate snakebites, human deaths & snake mortality. We utilized snake rescue data of Friends of Snakes Society, Hyderabad, Telangana, recorded between the years 1995 and 2020, to present an annotated snake checklist for Telangana, along with their distribution. Further, opportunistic encounters and temporary captive care of the rescued species yielded significant insights into habitat preferences, dietary choices, aposematic responses, breeding cycles, etc., of various species of this region

Dynamically mapping tasks with priorities and multiple deadlines in a heterogeneous environment

Includes bibliographical references (pages 166-167).In a distributed heterogeneous computing system, the resources have different capabilities and tasks have different requirements. To maximize the performance of the system, it is essential to assign the resources to tasks (match) and order the execution of tasks on each resource (schedule) to exploit the heterogeneity of the resources and tasks. Dynamic mapping (defined as matching and scheduling) is performed when the arrival of tasks is not known a priori. In the heterogeneous environment considered in this study, tasks arrive randomly, tasks are independent (i.e., no inter-task communication), and tasks have priorities and multiple soft deadlines. The value of a task is calculated based on the priority of the task and the completion time of the task with respect to its deadlines. The goal of a dynamic mapping heuristic in this research is to maximize the value accrued of completed tasks in a given interval of time. This research proposes, evaluates, and compares eight dynamic mapping heuristics. Two static mapping schemes (all arrival information of tasks are known) are designed also for comparison. The performance of the best heuristics is 84% of a calculated upper bound for the scenarios considered

Are Tuberculosis Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Hyderabad, India Being Managed According to National Guidelines?

A tertiary health care facility (Government General and Chest hospital) in Hyderabad, India

Physicians' attitude towards evidence-based medical practice and health science library services

Background and Objectives: It has been more than a decade since evidence-based medical practice (EBMP) became a top curriculum in medicine. Developing countries, however, have problems practicing EBM since it needs skills, time, and resources. Libraries and librarians can play a vital role in providing physicians with evidence-based information. This user study was directed at exploring physicians’ attitudes towards EBMP, their awareness and practical knowledge in finding and evaluating evidence/information, and the implication of these findings for health science library services. Methodology: A survey method was adopted to carry out the study. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The target population was comprised of physicians and specialists from government and private hospitals in Hyderabad, India. One hundred twenty-four responses were received. MS Excel and SPSS software were used for statistical analyses. Results: The study revealed that physicians have positive attitudes toward EBMP. They also agree that EBMP is obligatory on the part of physicians—professionally, ethically, and legally. They indicated a high usage rate of print and electronic sources, which suggests that health science libraries should be equipped to support physicians in EBMP. Conclusion: This study concludes that efficient librarian information support services should be provided to physicians in order to enable them to practice evidence-based medicine.Published versio