Conceptualising the impact of information asymmetry on through-life cost: case study of machine tools sector

Information asymmetry (IA) in terms of contextual variety and importance is one of the most challenging aspects of through-life costing in product-service systems (PSS). IA is an imbalance in the information, data and knowledge shared among the parties involved in a contractual agreement. In manufacturing systems under PSS, interaction and effective communication among several parties who are involved in a contractual agreement, rely on the continuity and accuracy of information and context. In such systems, contextual variety exhibits complexity and uncertainty in through-life costing and subsequently in PSS cost assessment. Although the economic aspect of PSS has been studied previously, the impact of IA on through-life cost and for different PSS solutions has not been detailed. Considering manufacturing value chains, this paper introduces a new concept of PSS-hierarchy to perform through-life costing in the presence of IA for various PSS solutions. Moreover, this paper proposes a generic life-cycle model for different PSS solutions to assess the total cost of ownership (TCO). The proposed model has been developed to support decisions on contract design in manufacturing systems. This study considers the manufacturer, service provider and customer perspectives to develop the TCO model using a machine tool manufacturing case study

Blocking contacts for N-type cadmium zinc telluride

A process for applying blocking contacts on an n-type CdZnTe specimen includes cleaning the CdZnTe specimen; etching the CdZnTe specimen; chemically surface treating the CdZnTe specimen; and depositing blocking metal on at least one of a cathode surface and an anode surface of the CdZnTe specimen

Evaluation of efficacy of two drug regimens of anti-retro viral therapy

Background: CD4 count is an important marker to assess the effectiveness of treatment, mortality and survival rates in HIV patients on treatment. It is an important guide to treatment as it reflects drug resistance, treatment failure and need to switch over to different regimen. Objective of the study was to assess the efficacy of tenofovir (TDF) and efavirenz (EFV) versus zidovudine (AZT) and nevirapine (NVP), in combination with lamivudine (3TC) in HIV-infected patients taking basal and after treatment CD4 count levels as tools.Methods: A retrospective observational study on 40 adult HIV patients, receiving AZT+3TC+NPV (ZLN) (group I) and 18 patients on TDF+3TC+EFV (TLE) (group II) was carried out. Demographic profile, medication prescribed, baseline CD4 cell counts, serially monitored CD4 count values and Hb% were recorded from patient's medical record. Student’s paired ‘t’ test was done to compare CD4 counts before and after treatment in individual groups. Unpaired ‘t’ test was used for the comparison of CD4 counts between the groups.Results: A very highly significant (p<0.0001) increment in CD4 count was observed in group I after treatment. Improvement in CD4 count was highly significant in group II as well with p<0.0004. The extent of improvement was significantly better (p<0.05) in group I as compared to group II. Patients in group I were better staged clinically.Conclusions: We conclude that ART regimen containing AZT/3TC/NVP is proved to be superior to TDF/3TC/EFV. However further studies need to be done, by taking drug adherence into account in a larger patient population

Study of prescribing pattern of antihypertensive drugs in diabetic patients in a tertiary care centre, Vizianagaram, India

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) and Hypertension (HTN) are the two major chronic disorders frequently coexisting, with increased incidence with age. HTN is about twice as common in patients with DM. Prescribing pattern are powerful tools to ascertain the role of drugs in society. There are many variations in prescribing patterns of antihypertensive drugs in patients with HTN and DM. Since these patients requires lifelong treatment it has enormously increased the burden of patients particularly in developing countries like India. Physician needs to be more concerned while choosing drugs for the patients with HTN and DM. In a tertiary care hospital, there is a real need for drug utilization study to determine the appropriate, more safe and effective patterns of drug therapy among diabetic hypertensive patients.Methods: A Cross sectional observational study was conducted in Maharajah’s Institute of Medical Sciences from December 2016 to May 2018. A total of 360 prescriptions of the patients with hypertension and coexisting diabetes were analyzed. The prescriptions prescribed to these patients were collected, assessed and the following parameters were noted. The treatment pattern of different group of drugs for HTN with co-existing DM was evaluated. The intended work was divided into three steps: Step 1: To collect the prescriptions of hypertensive patients with DM. Step 2: To separate the prescriptions prescribing anti hypertensive Drugs. Step 3: To statistically analyze the prescriptions. Relevant information was recorded in a structured proforma & data was evaluated.Results: In this study it was found that 36% of the patients were in the age group of 51-60 years with female preponderance among diabetic hypertensive patients. 77% of patients were treated with single antihypertensive drug and 23% of patients were treated with antihypertensive drug combinations. In monotherapy, telmisartan was most commonly prescribed. In combination therapy, amlodipine and telmisartan followed by amlodipine and atenolol were used.Conclusions: In this study monotherapy was preferred compared to combination therapy and adherence to the JNC 7 guidelines was good except in case of usage of diuretics

Limit overturning moment chuck

Limited memory capacity is one of the major constraints in Delay Tolerant Wireless Sensor Networks. Efficient management of the memory is critical to the performance of the network. This paper proposes a novel buffer management algorithm, SmartGap, a Quality of Information (QoI) targeted buffer management algorithm. That is, in a wireless sensor network that continuously measures a parameter which changes over time, such as temperature, the value of a single packet is governed by an estimation of its contribution to the recreation of the original signal. Attractive features of SmartGap include a low computational complexity and a simplified reconstruction of the original signal. An analysis and simulations in which the performance of SmartGap is compared with the performance of several commonly used buffer management algorithms in wireless sensor networks are provided in the paper. The simulations suggest that SmartGap indeed provides significantly improved QoI compared the other evaluated algorithms.QC 20150605</p

Antibacterial activity of flower extract of Caesalpinia pulcherrima, Delonix regia and Peltaphorum ferrugineum against Urinary tract Pathogens

Abstract The present study wa

SHARC II: a Caltech Submillimeter Observatory facility camera with 384 pixels

SHARC II is a background-limited 350 μm and 450 μm facility camera for the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory undergoing commissioning in 2002. The key component of SHARC II is a 12×32 array of doped silicon 'pop-up' bolometers developed at NASA/Goddard. Each 1 mm × 1 mm pixel is coated with a 400 Ω/square bismuth film and located λ/4 above a reflective backshort to achieve >75% absorption efficiency. The pixels cover the focal plane with >90% filling factor. At 350 μm, the SHARC II pixels are separated by 0.65 λ/D. In contrast to the silicon bolometers in the predecessor of SHARC II, each doped thermistor occupies nearly the full area of the pixel, which lowers the 1/f knee of the detector noise to <0.03 Hz, under load, at the bath temperature of 0.36 K. The bolometers are AC-biased and read in 'total power' mode to take advantage of the improved stability. Each bolometer is biased through a custom ~130 MΩ CrSi load resistor at 7 K and read with a commercial JFET at 120 K. The JFETs and load resistors are integrated with the detectors into a single assembly to minimize microphonic noise. Electrical connection across the 0.36 K to 4 K and 4 K to 120 K temperature interfaces is accomplished with lithographed metal wires on dielectric substrates. In the best 25% of winter nights on Mauna Kea, SHARC II is expected to have an NEFD at 350 μm of 1 Jy Hz-1/2 or better. The new camera should be at least 4 times faster at detecting known point sources and 30 times faster at mapping large areas compared to the prior instrument

Paths to Innovation in Supply Chains: The Landscape of Future Research

This chapter presents a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for supply chain and it is the result of an intensive work jointly performed involving a wide network of stakeholders from discrete manufacturing, process industry and logistics sector to put forward a vision to strengthen European Supply Chains for the next decade. The work is based on matching visions from literature and from experts with several iterations between desk research and workshops, focus groups and interviews. The result is a detailed analysis of the supply chain strategies identified as most relevant for the next years and definition of the related research and innovation topics as future developments and steps for the full implementation of the strategies, thus proposing innovative and cutting-edge actions to be implemented based on technological development and organisational change

Megatrends and Trends Shaping Supply Chain Innovation

Companies operate in a macro-environment that is changing considerably due to large, transformative global forces namely megatrends and trends. The wave of these megatrends and trends generates new prospects as well as challenges for the future of supply chains. This chapter provides a review of 23 major megatrends and 72 trends identified in multiple dimensions along Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental (PESTLE) dimensions. The results are based on a systematic literature review and an experts’ workshop, and can be used to generate future supply chain scenarios