Common Replenishment Strategies in Supply Chain under Uncertainty Demand Environment

This paper is based on the model proposed by Viswanathan and continue to analyze the benefit of supply chain inventories through the use of common replenishment epochs. We studied a one-vendor, multi-buyer supply chain for a single product under uncertainty demand environment. The vendor specifies common replenishment periods and asks all buyers to replenish only at those time period and the price discount to be offered by the vendor are determined by the solution to a Stackelberg game. A numerical study is conducted to evaluate the benefit of the strategy by simulation

Dynamic and Functional Characteristics of Predominant Species in Industrial Paocai as Revealed by Combined DGGE and Metagenomic Sequencing

The microbial community during the fermentation of industrial paocai, a lactic acid fermented vegetable food, was investigated via combined denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and metagenomic sequencing. Firmicutes and Proteobacteria were identified as the dominant phyla during the fermentation. DGGE results of the bacterial community analysis showed that many genera were observed during the fermentation of industrial paocai, but the same predominant genus and species were observed: Lactobacillus and Lactobacillus (L.) alimentarius/L. paralimentarius. The abundance of L. alimentarius/L. paralimentarius increased fast during the initial stage of fermentation and approximately remained constant during the later stage. Metagenomic sequencing was used to finally identify the predominant species and their genetic functions. Metabolism was the primary functions of the microbial community in industrial paocai fermentation, including carbohydrate metabolism (CM), overview (OV), amino acid metabolism (AAM), nucleotide metabolism (NM), energy metabolism (EM), etc. The predominant species L. alimentarius and L. paralimentarius were involved in plenty of pathways in metabolism and played different roles in the metabolism of carbohydrate, amino acid, lipid to form flavor compounds during industrial paocai fermentation. This study provided valuable information about the predominant species in industrial paocai and its functional properties, which could enable us to advance our understanding of the fermentation mechanism during fermentation of industrial paocai. Our results will advance the understanding of the microbial roles in the industrial paocai fermentation and provide a theoretical basis for improving the quality of industrial paocai products

Study on fluorescence characteristics of the Ho 3+ :ZBLAN fiber under ~640 nm excitation

Abstract(#br)We investigated the absorption and emission characteristics of the Ho 3+ :ZBLAN fiber under ~640 nm excitation. Based on the Judd-Ofelt theory, a detailed spectroscopic analysis on excited states 5 I 6 and 5 I 7 of the Ho 3+ -ion was performed. The population dynamics was conducted by using the rate equation method, and a set of analytical expressions for population densities of various levels were obtained at steady state. Moreover, the fluorescence intensities of the 5 S 2 , 5 F 4 → 5 I 7 , 5 I 8 and 5 I 6 → 5 I 7 , 5 I 8 and 5 I 7 → 5 I 8 transitions were measured in different pumping powers. The simulated and experimental results are quite consistent. This work could provide the spectral information for optimal design of the visible oscillations in the Ho 3+ :ZBLAN fiber excited at ~640 nm

Dinucleotides as simple models of the base stacking-unstacking component of DNA 'breathing' mechanisms

14 pagesRegulatory protein access to the DNA duplex 'interior' depends on local DNA 'breathing' fluctuations, and the most fundamental of these are thermally-driven base stacking-unstacking interactions. The smallest DNA unit that can undergo such transitions is the dinucleotide, whose structural and dynamic properties are dominated by stacking, while the ion condensation, cooperative stacking and inter-base hydrogen-bonding present in duplex DNA are not involved. We use dApdA to study stacking-unstacking at the dinucleotide level because the fluctuations observed are likely to resemble those of larger DNA molecules, but in the absence of constraints introduced by cooperativity are likely to be more pronounced, and thus more accessible to measurement. We study these fluctuations with a combination of Molecular Dynamics simulations on the microsecond timescale and Markov State Model analyses, and validate our results by calculations of circular dichroism (CD) spectra, with results that agree well with the experimental spectra. Our analyses show that the CD spectrum of dApdA is defined by two distinct chiral conformations that correspond, respectively, to a Watson-Crick form and a hybrid form with one base in a Hoogsteen configuration. We find also that ionic structure and water orientation around dApdA play important roles in controlling its breathing fluctuations.This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (5R01HD081 362-05) awarded to L.S. and N.B.A. The funding sources had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, or submission process

Quantifying the Evolution of Vascular Barrier Disruption in Advanced Atherosclerosis with Semipermeant Nanoparticle Contrast Agents

Acute atherothrombotic occlusion in heart attack and stroke implies disruption of the vascular endothelial barrier that exposes a highly procoagulant intimal milieu. However, the evolution, severity, and pathophysiological consequences of vascular barrier damage in atherosclerotic plaque remain unknown, in part because quantifiable methods and experimental models are lacking for its in vivo assessment.To develop quantitative nondestructive methodologies and models for detecting vascular barrier disruption in advanced plaques.Sustained hypercholesterolemia in New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits for >7-14 months engendered endothelial barrier disruption that was evident from massive and rapid passive penetration and intimal trapping of perfluorocarbon-core nanoparticles (PFC-NP: ∼250 nm diameter) after in vivo circulation for as little as 1 hour. Only older plaques (>7 mo), but not younger plaques (<3 mo) demonstrated the marked enhancement of endothelial permeability to these particles. Electron microscopy revealed a complex of subintimal spongiform channels associated with endothelial apoptosis, superficial erosions, and surface-penetrating cholesterol crystals. Fluorine ((19)F) magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy (MRI/MRS) enabled absolute quantification (in nanoMolar) of the passive permeation of PFC-NP into the disrupted vascular lesions by sensing the unique spectral signatures from the fluorine core of plaque-bound PFC-NP.The application of semipermeant nanoparticles reveals the presence of profound barrier disruption in later stage plaques and focuses attention on the disrupted endothelium as a potential contributor to plaque vulnerability. The response to sustained high cholesterol levels yields a progressive deterioration of the vascular barrier that can be quantified with fluorine MRI/MRS of passively permeable nanostructures. The possibility of plaque classification based on the metric of endothelial permeability to nanoparticles is suggested

Local Nucleic Acid Base Conformation Study by Guanine Fluorescent Analogue 6- Methyl Isoxanthopterin (6-MI) Labeled DNA

Understanding the local conformations of DNA at the level of individual nucleic acid bases is important for the study of the mechanism of DNA sequence-dependent behavior. Here we apply linear absorption, circular dichroism (CD), and fluorescence spectroscopy to study the DNA local base conformation using 6-methyl Isoxanthopterin (6-MI) labeled DNA. We interpret excitation–emission peak shift (EES) measurements of the 6-MI, both as a ribonucleotide monophosphate in solution and as a site-specific substituent for guanine in various DNA constructs, by implementing a simple two-state model. We show that the spectroscopic properties of the 6-MI probe in DNA can be used to obtain detailed information about local base conformations and conformational heterogeneity and fluctuations. Based on these findings, we apply a simple theoretical model to calculate CD of 6-MI substituted DNA constructs. We find that our model can be used to extract basesequence- dependent information about the local conformation of the 6-MI probe as modulated by the local base or base-pair environment. We next apply 6-MI to probe the ligand insertion of small molecules to duplex DNA, further extending the potential of 6- MI as a useful reporter of local nucleic acid base conformation. These studies served to establish a new level of sophistication in qualitatively analyzing 6-MI structural behavior in terms of local base stacking and unstacking conformations. v This dissertation contains previously published and unpublished co-authored material

Control of transport constraints for shuttle vehicles based on barrier Lyapunov functions

With the rapid development of the warehousing and logistics industry, a stable, accurate and efficient shuttle operation system has become a hot topic of research. In this study, a constraint controller based on the Lyapunov function is designed to improve the constraint control and disturbance problems in the operation of shuttle vehicles. The performance test results show that the difference between the system output and the reference trajectory becomes progressively smaller in the first-order non-linear system, with the difference reaching zero at 2.5 s, after which the two are almost identical. The control output moves sinusoidally at [-14, 14]. In the second order non-linear system the difference between the system output and the reference trajectory is zero after 7 s. The control output at [-18, 18] moves with decreasing amplitude and is zero after 17 s. Application test results show that the velocity constraint is almost identical to the reference velocity, the trajectory stopping accuracy is above 98.0% and the immunity to interference meets the limit and fluctuates above and below 37. It shows that the method used in the study can control the speed, trajectory and external disturbance of the shuttle car with reasonable constraints and improve the operation efficiency and safety of the shuttle car. This study can provide theoretical support for improving the efficiency and safety of shuttle vehicles, and promote the development of the warehousing and logistics industry

Stability and Linear Quadratic Differential Games of Discrete-Time Markovian Jump Linear Systems with State-Dependent Noise

We mainly consider the stability of discrete-time Markovian jump linear systems with state-dependent noise as well as its linear quadratic (LQ) differential games. A necessary and sufficient condition involved with the connection between stochastic Tn-stability of Markovian jump linear systems with state-dependent noise and Lyapunov equation is proposed. And using the theory of stochastic Tn-stability, we give the optimal strategies and the optimal cost values for infinite horizon LQ stochastic differential games. It is demonstrated that the solutions of infinite horizon LQ stochastic differential games are concerned with four coupled generalized algebraic Riccati equations (GAREs). Finally, an iterative algorithm is presented to solve the four coupled GAREs and a simulation example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of it