Scheduling unit processing time arc shutdown jobs to maximize network flow over time: complexity results

We study the problem of scheduling maintenance on arcs of a capacitated network so as to maximize the total flow from a source node to a sink node over a set of time periods. Maintenance on an arc shuts down the arc for the duration of the period in which its maintenance is scheduled, making its capacity zero for that period. A set of arcs is designated to have maintenance during the planning period, which will require each to be shut down for exactly one time period. In general this problem is known to be NP-hard. Here we identify a number of characteristics that are relevant for the complexity of instance classes. In particular, we discuss instances with restrictions on the set of arcs that have maintenance to be scheduled; series parallel networks; capacities that are balanced, in the sense that the total capacity of arcs entering a (non-terminal) node equals the total capacity of arcs leaving the node; and identical capacities on all arcs

A reclaimer scheduling problem arising in coal stockyard management

We study a number of variants of an abstract scheduling problem inspired by the scheduling of reclaimers in the stockyard of a coal export terminal. We analyze the complexity of each of the variants, providing complexity proofs for some and polynomial algorithms for others. For one, especially interesting variant, we also develop a constant factor approximation algorithm.Comment: 26 page

Role of antenatal care in reducing incidence of eclampsia in eastern Uttar Pradesh, India

Background: Eclampsia is characterized by sudden onset of generalized tonic-clonic convulsions or coma in pregnancy or postpartum. It is a major cause of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality in developing countries. This study was conducted to determine the incidence of eclampsia and role of antenatal care in reducing the incidence.Methods: This was a prospective study (July 2015-June 2016) conducted in labour room of department of obstetrics and Gynecology, BRD Medical college, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. A total no. of 141 women presenting with eclampsia were included in the study. Risk factors like antenatal care and sociodemographic status were studied for their role in increased incidence of eclampsia.Results: There were 141 eclampsia cases out of 3536 deliveries, during the study period. The incidence of eclampsia was found to be 4%. Out of 141 eclampsia cases 35.5% did not receive any antenatal care. 56.7% received substandard care in less than 4 antenatal visits. Out of those who received antenatal care (91/141), 67% received irregular, substandard care in primary health centre of their locality. Majority of eclampsia cases were between 16-25 years of age (85.1%) and were primigravida (62.4%). Majority of eclampsia cases were uneducated (89.4%), of lower socioeconomic status (71.4%) and belonged to rural area (67.4%).Conclusions: High incidence of eclampsia in B.R.D. Medical College reflects the status of eclampsia in eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. To prevent eclampsia our health care centres should be strengthened by well trained medical officers, other health care workers and adequate antenatal care facilities

Natural compounds as safe therapeutic options for ulcerative colitis

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease of unknown etiology. Several conventional treatments for UC such as corticosteroids, immunosuppressive agents, tumor necrosis factor antagonist, integrin blockers, and interleukin antagonist, and salicylates are available but are associated with the various limitations and side-effects. None of the above treatments helps to achieve the ultimate goal of the therapy, i.e., maintenance of remission in the long-term. Natural remedies for the treatment of UC show comparatively less side effects as compared to conventional approaches, and affordable. The current review presents details on the role of herbal drugs in the treatment and cure of UC. Google, PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus portals have been searched for potentially relevant literature to get the latest developments and updated information related to use of natural drugs in the treatment of UC. Natural products have been used over centuries to treat UC. Some of the essential herbal constituents exhibiting antiulcerogenic activity include gymnemic acid (Gymnema sylvestre), shagoal (Zingiber officinale), catechin (Camellia sinensis), curcumin (Curcuma longa), arctigenin (Arctium lappa), and boswellic acid (Boswellia serrata). Although many plant-derived products have been recommended for UC, further research to understand the exact molecular mechanism is still warranted to establish their usefulness clinically

Movement Analytics: Current Status, Application to Manufacturing, and Future Prospects from an AI Perspective

Data-driven decision making is becoming an integral part of manufacturing companies. Data is collected and commonly used to improve efficiency and produce high quality items for the customers. IoT-based and other forms of object tracking are an emerging tool for collecting movement data of objects/entities (e.g. human workers, moving vehicles, trolleys etc.) over space and time. Movement data can provide valuable insights like process bottlenecks, resource utilization, effective working time etc. that can be used for decision making and improving efficiency. Turning movement data into valuable information for industrial management and decision making requires analysis methods. We refer to this process as movement analytics. The purpose of this document is to review the current state of work for movement analytics both in manufacturing and more broadly. We survey relevant work from both a theoretical perspective and an application perspective. From the theoretical perspective, we put an emphasis on useful methods from two research areas: machine learning, and logic-based knowledge representation. We also review their combinations in view of movement analytics, and we discuss promising areas for future development and application. Furthermore, we touch on constraint optimization. From an application perspective, we review applications of these methods to movement analytics in a general sense and across various industries. We also describe currently available commercial off-the-shelf products for tracking in manufacturing, and we overview main concepts of digital twins and their applications

Application of Liposomes in Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis: Quo Vadis

The most common treatments for rheumatoid arthritis include nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), corticosteroids, disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), and some biological agents. However, none of the treatments available is able to achieve the ultimate goal of treatment, that is, drug-free remission. This limitation has shifted the focus of treatment to delivery strategies with an ability to deliver the drugs into the synovial cavity in the proper dosage while mitigating side effects to other tissues. A number of approaches like microemulsions, microspheres, liposomes, microballoons, cocrystals, nanoemulsions, dendrimers, microsponges, and so forth, have been used for intrasynovial delivery of these drugs. Amongst these, liposomes have proven to be very effective for retaining the drug in the synovial cavity by virtue of their size and chemical composition. The fast clearance of intra-synovially administered drugs can be overcome by use of liposomes leading to increased uptake of drugs by the target synovial cells, which in turn reduces the exposure of nontarget sites and eliminates most of the undesirable effects associated with therapy. This review focuses on the use of liposomes in treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and summarizes data relating to the liposome formulations of various drugs. It also discusses emerging trends of this promising technology

26th Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting (CNS*2017): Part 3 - Meeting Abstracts - Antwerp, Belgium. 15–20 July 2017

This work was produced as part of the activities of FAPESP Research,\ud Disseminations and Innovation Center for Neuromathematics (grant\ud 2013/07699-0, S. Paulo Research Foundation). NLK is supported by a\ud FAPESP postdoctoral fellowship (grant 2016/03855-5). ACR is partially\ud supported by a CNPq fellowship (grant 306251/2014-0)

Scheduling problems arising in coal export supply chains: algorithms and complexity

Research Doctorate - Doctor of PhilosophyA coal supply chain is a highly complex logistics system, comprising of several parties and components, focused on transporting coal from suppliers to end buyers. An important goal in many supply chains is to maximize the throughput. Due to the complex structure of a coal supply chain, a number of challenges arises when trying to maximize the throughput of the chain. One of the key challenges in a coal supply chain and one that plays a vital role when maximizing the throughput of the chain is the scheduling of preventive maintenance of the components of the chain that degrade over time, such as the rail network and the coal stacking machinery. During the maintenance period, the components are unavailable for work, which may result in a reduction in the throughput of the supply chain. In order to understand the complexities associated with the problem of scheduling preventative maintenance, we have analysed the complexity of an abstract version of the problem. We studied the problem of scheduling maintenance on arcs of a capacitated network so as to maximize the total flow from a source node to a sink node over a set of given time periods. Maintenance of an arc shuts down the arc for the duration of the period in which its maintenance is scheduled, reducing its capacity to zero for that period. A set of arcs is designated to have maintenance during the planning period, which will require each of the arcs to be shut down for exactly one time period. In general, this problem is known to be NP-hard. We have identified a number of characteristics that are relevant for the complexity of instance classes. In particular, we investigated instances with restrictions on the set of arcs for which maintenance is scheduled; series parallel networks; capacities that are balanced, in the sense that the total capacity of arcs entering a (non-terminal) node equals the total capacity of arcs leaving the node; and identical capacities on all arcs. Another factor that has a great impact on the throughput of the coal supply chain is the management of the stockyard, which is the interface between the land portion of the coal supply chain and the ocean portion of the coal supply chain, and where the cargoes get assembled. Given a number of vessels arriving at the port, stockyard management decisions include: assigning a location to each cargo (stockpile) of a vessel in the stockyard, scheduling the assembly of the cargoes, scheduling the stacking and reclaiming of the cargoes, etc. The resulting decision problem is challenging, but plays a crucial role in the overall performance of the logistics chain. In this thesis, we have focused on the placement of the stockpiles on the stock pads and the scheduling of the reclaiming of the stockpiles. We study a number of variants of an abstract scheduling problem inspired by the scheduling of the reclaimers in the stockyard of a coal export terminal. We have analysed the complexity of each of the variants, providing complexity proofs for some and polynomial algorithms for others. For some of the variants, we present mixed integer programming formulations, exact algorithms, such as branch and bound algorithms and dynamic programming algorithms, and constant factor approximation algorithms. Furthermore, we perform extensive computational studies to analyse the performance of the proposed solution methodologies

Clinicopathological significance of epidermal growth factor receptor and vascular endothelial growth factor expression in biliary tract malignancies

Background: Biliary tract malignancies consists of gall bladder malignancies and intrahepatic and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. Among these, the most common is gall bladder malignancies. The incidence of gall bladder carcinoma in India ranges from 1.01 per 100,000 for males and 10.1 per 100,000 for females. Aims and Objectives: This study was conducted to assess the incidence of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in biliary tract malignancies in Indian population, and to correlate the same with histological features as well as clinical staging and treatment outcomes. Materials and Methods: Fifty cases of proven biliary tract malignancy were immunohistochemically stained for EGFR and VEGF, and scoring was done as per the standard recommendations. Results: In our study, the expression of EGFR was significantly higher in advanced stage disease as well as in poorly differentiated adenocarcinomas. Conclusion: Our study shows that advanced biliary tract malignancies show increased expression of EGFR

Scheduling reclaimers serving a stock pad at a coal terminal

We study a variant of an abstract scheduling problem inspired by the management of reclaimers in the stockyard of a coal export terminal. We prove NP-completeness of the problem and formulate it as a mixed-integer program. We show that for a given reclaiming sequence, the problem can be solved in pseudo-polynomial time. In addition, we provide simple, constant-factor approximation algorithms as well as exact branch-and-bound algorithms. An extensive computational study analyzes the performance of the algorithms