Sustainability Strategies in Supply Chain Management

Managers no longer view sustainability of organizations only in terms of profitability and economic growth of shareholders. Various competitive pressures are forcing managers to broaden the scope of sustainability to include explicit environmental and societal objectives too. These pressures are emanating from various sources such as depleting natural resources, regulatory policies from governments, erratic weather cycles, demanding customers and brand damage due to exposure about poor working conditions in supplier factories located in other countries. This dissertation consists of three essays that contribute to the practice and literature of strategic sustainable supply chain management by examining its four aspects: measure, manage, mitigate, and market. The purpose of this dissertation is to utilize a multi-method approach and multiple secondary data sources to examine sustainable supply chain management from a strategy point of view. Three separate but connected studies form the core of this dissertation. Chapter Two of this dissertation proposes a framework of seven market-oriented sustainability strategies by objectively analyzing sustainability reports of leading organizations of four industry sectors using structured content analysis and linear programming techniques. Chapter Three utilizes linear aggregation methodology and data envelopment analysis to form a sustainability index comprising of various sustainability indicators in logistics and shipping services industry. This index may be used as a decision making tool by managers to evaluate sustainability efforts of their organizations and also to benchmark their sustainability performance over the competition. Chapter Four examines the sources of differential environmental performance of manufacturing facilities using risk screening environmental indicators database and Markov chain Monte Carlo estimation procedure. The results provide support that resource-based view explains the maximum differential environmental performance of firms as opposed to industry-based view or institutional theory

Interface-dominated plasticity and kink bands in metallic nanolaminates

The theoretical and computational framework of finite deformation mesoscale field dislocation mechanics (MFDM) is used to understand the salient aspects of kink-band formation in Cu-Nb nano-metallic laminates (NMLs). A conceptually minimal, plane-strain idealization of the three-dimensional geometry, including crystalline orientation, of additively manufactured NML is used to model NMLs. Importantly, the natural jump/interface condition of MFDM imposing continuity of (certain components) of plastic strain rates across interfaces allows theory-driven `communication' of plastic flow across the laminate boundaries in our finite element implementation. Kink bands under layer parallel compression of NMLs in accord with experimental observations arise in our numerical simulations. The possible mechanisms for the formation and orientation of kink bands are discussed, within the scope of our idealized framework. We also report results corresponding to various parametric studies that provide preliminary insights and clear questions for future work on understanding the intricate underlying mechanisms for the formation of kink bands.Comment: Keywords: mesoscale plasticity, kink bands, nanometallic laminates, strain gradient plasticit

Locally Adaptive Block Thresholding Method with Continuity Constraint

We present an algorithm that enables one to perform locally adaptive block thresholding, while maintaining image continuity. Images are divided into sub-images based some standard image attributes and thresholding technique is employed over the sub-images. The present algorithm makes use of the thresholds of neighboring sub-images to calculate a range of values. The image continuity is taken care by choosing the threshold of the sub-image under consideration to lie within the above range. After examining the average range values for various sub-image sizes of a variety of images, it was found that the range of acceptable threshold values is substantially high, justifying our assumption of exploiting the freedom of range for bringing out local details.Comment: 12 Pages, 4 figures, 1 Tabl

Interventions to improve health literacy among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples : a systematic review

Background: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples continue to experience poorer health outcomes than other population groups. While data specific to Indigenous Australians are scarce, a known social health literacy gradient exists linking low health literacy and poor health outcomes within many minority populations. Improving health literacy among Indigenous Australians is an important way to support self-determination and autonomy in both individuals and communities, by enhancing knowledge and improving health outcomes. This review aims to rigorously examine the effectiveness of health literacy interventions targeting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Methods: A systematic review across six databases (The Cochrane Library, PubMed, Embase, SCOPUS, ProQuest Dissertation and Thesis and Web of Science) was performed for publications evaluating interventions to improve health literacy among Indigenous Australian adults using search terms identifying a range of related outcomes. Results: Of 824 articles retrieved, a total of five studies met the eligibility criteria and were included in this review. The included studies evaluated the implementation of workshops, structured exercise classes and the provision of discounted fruit and vegetables to improve nutrition, modify risk factors for chronic diseases, and improve oral health literacy. All interventions reported statistically significant improvement in at least one measured outcome. However, there was limited involvement of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members in the research process and participant retention rates were sub-optimal. Conclusion: There is limited evidence on interventions to improve health literacy in Indigenous Australian adults. Participation in interventions was often suboptimal and loss to follow-up was high. Future studies co-designed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members are needed to improve health literacy in this population

Individual mRNA expression profiles reveal the effects of specific microRNAs

The effect of a microRNA on the levels of its target mRNAs can be measured within a single gene expression profil

A Review on Medication Errors

Role of clinical pharmacist is to provide optimal pharmaceutical care for individual patients and optimal pharmaceutical care is attained when the right drug in the correct dosage and quality reaches the right patients at the right point in time with the right information. Any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm during medication to user is called medicational error and is in the control of the health care professional, patient and consumer. In this review on medication errors, prescr-ibing errors (67 %), administration errors (25%), dispensing errors (08%) were found on the basis of review of literature.Prescribing errors are the prime cause of MEs that further leads to subsequent dispensing and administration errors. Medication errors are common cause of adverse drug events or subtherapeutic outcomes of pharmaceutical care

Design Simulation of Improved Power Quality Conditioner System for Enhancement of Power Quality

The increased usage of power-sensitive electronic devices has prompted interest in power conditioning solutions, which is no surprise. As a result, some type of compensation must be supplied if power output remains below the standards' prescribed limitations. The UPQC (Unified Power Quality Controller) is one of numerous AC Transmission System families that can control voltage, impedance, and phase angle among other factors (FACTS). This study focuses on modern UPFC systems that have increased power quality efficiency to help utilities reduce voltage concerns. One of the FACTS controls for lowering stress sales effects is a unified power quality conditioner (UPQC). The quadrature voltage is specified using the UPQC series compensator. As a result, the compensator series never utilizes active power in a continuous scenario. As mentioned in the approach, a low power rating compensator injects voltage to remedy the system's power quality problem. The voltage is decreased and the power factor is raised when the fluid logic controller is used in conjunction with traditional UPQC. Furthermore, the load factor has been improved. The circuit is then imitated in MATLAB / SIMULINK using a fluctuating logo controller