Production Management Model Based on Lean Manufacturing and Change Management Aimed at Reducing Order Fulfillment Times in Micro and Small Wooden Furniture Companies in Peru

This research study seeks to identify and prioritize the causes of order fulfillment delays in a small wooden furniture manufacturing company. The authors propose a 5-phase Lean Optimization model to address and reduce this problem. Post-implementation results yielded a 54.87% reduction in material search and transportation times, a 32.86% reduction in travel times between stations, and a 19.81% increase in line efficiency. In addition, order fulfillment percentages increased from 12.5% to 60%

Universal correlations along the BEC-BCS crossover

We show that the long-distance behavior of the two-body density correlation functions and the Cooper-pair probability density of a balanced mixture of a two-component Fermi gas at $T = 0$, is universal along the BEC-BCS crossover. Our result is demonstrated by numerically solving the mean-field BCS model for different finite short-range atomic interaction potentials. We find an analytic expression for the correlation length in terms of the chemical potential and the energy gap at zero momentum.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

How Might Recharge Change Under Projected Climate Change in the Western U.S.?

Although groundwater is a major water resource in the western U.S., little research has been done on the impacts of climate change on groundwater storage and recharge in the West. Here we assess the impact of projected changes in climate on groundwater recharge in the near (2021–2050) and far (2071–2100) future across the western U.S. Variable Infiltration Capacity model was run with RCP 6.0 forcing from 11 global climate models and “subsurface runoff” output was considered as recharge. Recharge is expected to decrease in the West (−5.8 ± 14.3%) and Southwest (−4.0 ± 6.7%) regions in the near future and in the South region (−9.5 ± 24.3%) in the far future. The Northern Rockies region is expected to get more recharge in the near (+5.3 ± 9.2%) and far (+11.8 ± 12.3%) future. Overall, southern portions of the western U.S. are expected to get less recharge in the future and northern portions will get more. Climate change interacts with land surface properties to affect the amount of recharge that occurs in the future. Effects on recharge due to change in vegetation response from projected changes in climate and CO2 concentration, though important, are not considered in this study.Key PointsClimate change interacts with land surface properties to affect the amount of recharge that occurs in the futureSouthern portions of the western U.S. are expected to get less and northern portions more recharge in the futureThe large variability in projected recharge across the GCMs is associated with variability in projected precipitationPeer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139906/1/grl56569.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139906/2/grl56569_am.pd

Functional consequences of seven novel mutations in the CYP11B1 Gene: four mutations associated with nonclassic and three mutations causing classic 11 -Hydroxylase Deficiency

Context: Steroid 11β-hydroxylase (CYP11B1) deficiency (11OHD) is the second most common form of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). Cases of nonclassic 11OHD are rare compared with the incidence of nonclassic 21-hydroxylase deficiency. Objective: The aim of the study was to analyze the functional consequences of seven novel CYP11B1 mutations (p.M88I, p.W116G, p.P159L, p.A165D, p.K254_A259del, p.R366C, p.T401A) found in three patients with classic 11OHD, two patients with nonclassic 11OHD, and three heterozygous carriers for CYP11B1 mutations. Methods: We conducted functional studies employing a COS7 cell in vitro expression system comparing wild-type (WT) and mutant CYP11B1 activity. Mutants were examined in a computational three-dimensional model of the CYP11B1 protein. Results: All mutations (p.W116G, p.A165D, p.K254_A259del) found in patients with classic 11OHD have absent or very little 11β-hydroxylase activity relative to WT. The mutations detected in patients with nonclassic 11OHD showed partial functional impairment, with one patient being homozygous (p.P159L; 25% of WT) and the other patient compound heterozygous for a novel mild p.M88I (40% of WT) and the known severe p.R383Q mutation. The two mutations detected in heterozygous carriers (p.R366C, p.T401A) also reduced CYP11B1 activity by 23 to 37%, respectively. Conclusion: Functional analysis results allow for the classification of novel CYP11B1 mutations as causative for classic and nonclassic 11OHD, respectively. Four partially inactivating mutations are predicted to result in nonclassic 11OHD. These findings double the number of mild CYP11B1 mutations previously described as associated with mild 11OHD. Our data are important to predict phenotypic expression and provide important information for clinical and genetic counseling i

Infrared nanoscopy of Dirac plasmons at the graphene-SiO2 interface

We report on infrared (IR) nanoscopy of 2D plasmon excitations of Dirac fermions in graphene. This is achieved by confining mid-IR radiation at the apex of a nanoscale tip: an approach yielding two orders of magnitude increase in the value of in-plane component of incident wavevector q compared to free space propagation. At these high wavevectors, the Dirac plasmon is found to dramatically enhance the near-field interaction with mid-IR surface phonons of SiO2 substrate. Our data augmented by detailed modeling establish graphene as a new medium supporting plasmonic effects that can be controlled by gate voltage.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Long-term precipitation in Southwestern Europe reveals no clear trend attributable to anthropogenic forcing

We present a long-term assessment of precipitation trends in Southwestern Europe (1850-2018) using data from multiple sources, including observations, gridded datasets and global climate model experiments. Contrary to previous investigations based on shorter records, we demonstrate, using new long-term, quality controlled precipitation series, the lack of statistically significant long-term decreasing trends in precipitation for the region. Rather, significant trends were mostly found for shorter periods, highlighting the prevalence of interdecadal and interannual variability at these time-scales. Global climate model outputs from three CMIP experiments are evaluated for periods concurrent with observations. Both the CMIP3 and CMIP5 ensembles show precipitation decline, with only CMIP6 showing agreement with long term trends in observations. However, for both CMIP3 and CMIP5 large interannual and internal variability among ensemble members makes it difficult to identify a trend that is statistically different from observations. Across both observations and models, our results make it difficult to associate any declining trends in precipitation in Southwestern Europe to anthropogenic forcing at this stage

Predicting pharmaceutical powder flow from microscopy images using deep learning

The powder flowability of active pharmaceutical ingredients and excipients is a key parameter in the manufacturing of solid dosage forms used to inform the choice of tabletting methods. Direct compression is the favoured tabletting method; however, it is only suitable for materials that do not show cohesive behaviour. For materials that are cohesive, processing methods before tabletting, such as granulation, are required. Flowability measurements require large quantities of materials, significant time and human investments and repeat testing due to a lack of reproducible results when taking experimental measurements. This process is particularly challenging during the early-stage development of a new formulation when the amount of material is limited. To overcome these challenges, we present the use of deep learning methods to predict powder flow from images of pharmaceutical materials. We achieve 98.9% validation accuracy using images which by eye are impossible to extract meaningful particle or flowability information from. Using this approach, the need for experimental powder flow characterization is reduced as our models rely on images which are routinely captured as part of the powder size and shape characterization process. Using the imaging method recorded in this work, images can be captured with only 500 mg of material in just 1 hour. This completely removes the additional 30 g of material and extra measurement time needed to carry out repeat testing for traditional flowability measurements. This data-driven approach can be better applied to early-stage drug development which is by nature a highly iterative process. By reducing the material demand and measurement times, new pharmaceutical products can be developed faster with less material, reducing the costs, limiting material waste and hence resulting in a more efficient, sustainable manufacturing process. This work aims to improve decision-making for manufacturing route selection, achieving the key goal for digital design of being able to better predict properties while minimizing the amount of material required and time to inform process selection during early-stage development

Tunneling of Dirac electrons through spatial regions of finite mass

We study the tunneling of chiral electrons in graphene through a region wherethe electronic spectrum changes from the usual linear dispersion to a hyperbolic dispersion,due to the presence of a gap. It is shown that contrary to the tunneling through a potentialbarrier, the transmission of electrons is, in this case, smaller than one for normal incidence.This mechanism may be useful for designing electronic devices made of grapheneinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio