A hierarchical model for the cash transfer system design problem

This paper presents a hierarchical model that incorporates strategic, tactical, and operational decisions of cash transfer management system of a bank. The aim of the model is to decide on the location of cash management centers, the number and routes of vehicles, and the cash inventory management policies to minimize the cost of owning and operating a cash transfer system while maintaining a pre-defined service level. Owing to the difficulty of finding optimal decisions in such integrated models, an iterative solution approach is proposed in which strategic, tactical, and operational problems are solved separately via a feedback mechanism. Numerical results show that such an approach is quite effective in reaching at greatly improved solutions with just a few iterations, making it a very promising approach for similar models

Facility location and distribution planning in a disrupted supply chain

Most facility location models in the literature assume that facilities will never fail. In addition, models that focus on distribution planning assume that transportation routes are disruption-free. However, in reality, both the transportation routes and the facilities are subject to various sorts of disruptions. Further, not many supply chain models in the literature study perishable products. In this paper, we address issues of facility location and distribution planning in a supply chain network for perishable products under uncertain environments. We consider demand uncertainty along with random disruptions in the transportation routes and in the facilities. We formulate a mixed-integer optimisation model. Our model considers several capacitated manufacturers and several retailers with multiple transportation routes. We investigate optimal facility location and distribution strategies that minimise the total cost of the supply chain. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our model through an illustrative example and observe that a resilient supply chain needs to have a different design when compared to a disruption-free supply chain. The effects of various disruption uncertainties are also studied through statistical analysis

Galectin Expression Profiling Identifies Galectin-1 and Galectin-9Δ5 as Prognostic Factors in Stage I/II Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Approximately 30-40% of the patients with early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) will present with recurrent disease within two years of resection. Here, we performed extensive galectin expression profiling in a retrospective study using frozen and paraffin embedded tumor tissues from 87 stage I/II NSCLC patients. Our data show that galectin mRNA expression in NSCLC is confined to galectin-1, -3, -4, -7, -8, and -9. Next to stage, univariable Cox regression analysis identified galectin-1, galectin-9FL and galectin-9Δ5 as possible prognostic markers. Kaplan-Meier survival estimates revealed that overall survival was significantly shorter in patients that express galectin-1 above median levels, i.e., 23.0 (2.9-43.1) vs. 59.9 (47.7-72.1) months (p = 0.020) as well as in patients that express galectin-9Δ5 or galectin-9FL below the median, resp. 59.9 (41.9-75.9) vs. 32.8 (8.7-56.9) months (p = 0.014) or 23.2 (-0.4-46.8) vs. 58.9 (42.9-74.9) months (p = 0.042). All three galectins were also prognostic for disease free survival. Multivariable Cox regression analysis showed that for OS, the most significant prognostic model included stage, age, gal-1 and gal-9Δ5 while the model for DFS included stage, age and gal-9Δ5. In conclusion, the current study confirms the prognostic value of galectin-1 and identifies galectin-9Δ5 as novel potential prognostic markers in early stage NSCLC. These findings could help to identify early stage NSCLC patients that might benefit most from adjuvant chemotherapy