A Fuzzy inference expert system to support the decision of deploying a military naval unit to a mission

Naval military units are complex systems required to operate in xed time frames in o shore tasks where maintenance operations are drastically limited. A failure during a mission is a critical event that can drastically in uence the mission success. The decision of switching a unit to a mission hence requires complex judgments involving information about the health status of machineries and the environmental conditions. The present procedure aims to support the decision about switching a unit to a mission considering the vagueness and uncertainty of information by means of fuzzy theory and emulates the decision process of a human expert by means of a rule-based inference engine. A numerical application is presented to prove the e ectiveness of the approach

The Design of Effective Maintenance Outsourcing Contracts

Recent developments in maintenance planning and management demonstrate that the establishment of optimized maintenance policies may drastically improve the performance and reduce the operating cost of facilities. However maintenance activities are typically outside of the core business of production facilities, hence enterprises often fail to catch the opportunities that may originate by properly optimized management strategies. A strategic maintenance management should hence encompass the possibility of outsourcing maintenance activities to ensure the necessary perfomance of production systems, while allowing enterprises to concentrate their resources on their core activities. In order to be effectively undertaken an outsourcing strategy must be supported by a proper performance oriented contract. The present paper aims to provide an adequate methodology to address such issues and to define a framework for the definition of the relevant contract variables such as availability levels, penalty policies, rewards and service cost. The methodology here proposed is based upon the evaluation of the expected profit function of both the outsourcer and the provider, by performing a trade-off analysis on the basis of the transaction costs

nanostructured electrodes for biosensing an innovative technology with huge potential applications

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A multi objective approach to short food supply chain management

Conventional supply chains, involving several stages and various intermediaries, are affected by some wellknown forms of inefficiencies and drawbacks. Besides the increase of market price consequent to multiple marginalization, such supply chains generally suffer of significant post-harvest losses and product waste. In this context, short food supply chains have been recently proposed as different systems capable of delivering higher quality products while promoting sustainability and efficiency. Across the EU, a growing number of consumers choose to buy food products on local farmers' markets, associating local products with higher quality standards (freshness, nutritional value), healthy eating, more environment-friendly production methods and lower carbon footprint. Such elements seem to confirm a higher performance of short food supply chains (SFSCs) compared to traditional (long) chains in terms of sustainability and quality of products. Nevertheless, the performance of SFSCs is significantly affected by the local contexts and the market situations in which they operate. In particular, although SFSCs are localized in relatively small geographical areas, the elimination of intermediaries, such as distributors/packagers, and quality preserving processes generally results in shorter shelf-life of products. The management of such systems, hence, is focused on the problem of ensuring superior quality of local product at reasonable costs, without the possibility of employing advanced packaging solutions. Therefore, due to their peculiarities, SFSCs require proper logistic policies to cope with these problems, taking into account the variability of demand and the effects of seasonality. This paper in particular focuses on the logistics of SFSCs and proposes a methodology for optimal inventory management, with the aim to preserve the shelf-life of the products, and to ensure supply chain efficiency. The methodology developed is based on a multi-objective approach to inventory management in a serial two-echelon system. A numerical application is proposed in order to prove the effectiveness of the model

Initial Results and Literature Review

Aim: To evaluate the role of stereotactic body radiation therapy in the retreatment of locally recurrent cervical cancers. Brachytherapy is the main choice to treat gynecologic cancers. Methods: Patients with recurrent cervical cancer, previously submitted to radiotherapy, were treated with stereotactic body radiation therapy using a CyberKnife system (Accuray Incorporated, Sunnyvale, California) with a fiducial tracking system. Results: From August 2011 to October 2014, 5 patients have been treated. Median age was 81 years (range, 70-84 years). Two patients were diagnosed with adenocarcinoma endometrioid and 3 with squamous cell carcinoma. Toxicity was scored according to the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group/European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer criteria. After a median follow-up of 12 months (range, 8-34 months), no severe (>grade 3) acute/late genitourinary or low gastrointestinal toxicity was observed. Conclusion: Our preliminary results of stereotactic body radiation therapy "simulating" high dose rate for recurrent cervical cancers confirm a minimal toxicity and an optimal outcome. The stereotactic body radiation therapy is an alternative to high dose rate brachytherapy for gynecologic tumors

A multi-objective approach to solid waste management

The issue addressed in this paper consists in the localization and dimensioning of transfer stations, which constitute a necessary intermediate level in the logistic chain of the solid waste stream, from municipalities to the incinerator. Contextually, the determination of the number and type of vehicles involved is carried out in an integrated optimization approach. The model considers both initial investment and operative costs related to transportation and transfer stations. Two conflicting objectives are evaluated, the minimization of total cost and the minimization of environmental impact, measured by pollution. The design of the integrated waste management system is hence approached in a multi-objective optimization framework. To determine the best means of compromise, goal programming, weighted sum and fuzzy multi-objective techniques have been employed. The proposed analysis highlights how different attitudes of the decision maker towards the logic and structure of the problem result in the employment of different methodologies and the obtaining of different results. The novel aspect of the paper lies in the proposal of an effective decision support system for operative waste management, rather than a further contribution to the transportation problem. The model was applied to the waste management of optimal territorial ambit (OTA) of Palermo (Italy)

Acute inflammatory response in the subcutaneous versus periprosthethic space after incisional hernia repair: an original article

BACKGROUND: The acute inflammatory response following mesh implantation has been often evaluated in vitro and in animal models. The aim of this study was to evaluate the acute inflammatory response near the prosthesis in human by analysing some inflammatory indicators.METHODS: We used a cohort of twelve male patients affected by midline incisional hernia, who were admitted for surgical mesh repair. A suction drain was placed between the mesh and rectal muscles whereas, the other one was placed between the subcutaneous tissue and the oblique external sheath. The acute inflammatory response was analyzed by measuring the production of interleukin [IL]-1, IL-10, IL-1ra, C-Reactive Protein (CRP), total proteins, albumin and pH in the drain fluids.RESULTS: The dynamics of CRP and ILs production resulted similar in both drainages. Comparing drain over mesh and subcutaneous drain at all times, IL-1 and CRP values always resulted significantly higher in the first one, whereas IL-1ra and IL-10 values were significantly higher in the last one. Total protein and albumin were similar in both drains at all time; only in the drain over mesh fluid, pH values resulted significantly reduced in the fourth post-operative day.CONCLUSIONS: Our data showed that an acute inflammatory reaction is present in both sites examined. However, it was significantly higher in the space after mesh implantation

Machine Learning approach towards real time assessment of hand-arm vibration risk

In industry 4,0, the establishment of an interconnected environment where human operators cooperate with the machines offers the opportunity for substantially improving the ergonomics and safety conditions of the workplace. This topic is discussed in the paper referring to the vibration risk, which is a well-known cause of work-related pathologies. A wearable device has been developed to collect vibration data and to segment the signals obtained in time windows. A machine learning classifier is then proposed to recognize the worker’s activity and to evaluate the exposure to vibration risks. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the methodology proposed

Real time assessment of hand-arm vibration system based on capacitive MEMS accelerometers

Vibrations are a well known potential cause of health diseases and therefore constitute a main concern for the safety of workers in a large number of activities. In order to prevent health hazards, national and international institutions have issued laws and directives which establish recommended limits to the workers’ exposure to vibrations during operations. Consequently, if the amount of adsorbed vibration exceeds the allowable daily limits the worker has to stop his job. Recent wireless sensing and communicating technologies can effectively be employed for such purpose, allowing to develop monitoring customized devices at affordable cost which could be easily employed during the workers’ activity. In such context, the present research proposes an innovative system aimed at estimating the hand–arm exposure to vibration according to the Standard EN ISO 5349-1:2004. In particular the proposed system is based on Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology and involves the design of a compact wearable unit to be attached to the waist of the operator and a fixed station for data storage and analysis. The paper reports the design of such a system and an experimental test performed on hand held shakers commonly employed for olive harvesting. The results highlight the opportunities offered by these emerging technologies in developing intelligent devices to be included in the worker’s equipment which might significantly modify the current approach to safety management in the next future