Managing Complex Supply Chains: Lessons from Military Logistics

The prerogative of modern life is the door-step delivery of the desired products within days or a few hours of placing the order with the vendor/s. This necessitates the creation, maintenance and management of an efficient network of people and processes for production and timely delivery of the product in demand – a robust supply chain. The article is a comprehensive approach towards modern supply chain management. The purpose of this article is to illustrate the complexities faced by commercial organization in managing their supply chains, especially the ones that are spread across the globe. This article explains how the commercial world can learn from the military the ways to handle their supply chains effectively even in disruptive situations such as diseases and natural disasters in order to ensure non disruption of operations. Supply chains being lifeline of any business it pays to learn from those who are the best in managing supply chains under dire circumstances. Though blindly copying and trying to replicate supply chain management (SCM) practices adopted by the military may prove futile, a modified version to suit company-specific needs will make important differences in the efficiency of commercial operation of enterprises. We scrutinized an assortment of secondary sources including peer reviewed journal, magazines, online publications, books and newspapers to arrive at this conclusion

Concept of Gouty Arthritis (Vatarakta) in Ayurveda

The understanding of ideal definition of health and dhatusamya is very essential for human beings in order to attain the first pursuit of life for attaining hita-ayu and sukha-ayu. In Ayurveda health means the state of Doshasamya, Agnisamya and Dhatusamya as well as wellness of Atma, Indriya and Mana. Acharya Charaka says that a man desirous of happiness should observe the rules which are related with the prevention of unborn diseases and the cure of those which have already arisen. The ultimate aim of life is to achieve the Dharma, Artha, Kama & Moksha. For obtaining the above-mentioned goals, it is very essential to be fit physically, mentally and spiritually. So, directions of the Ayurveda in this regard should be followed strictly. When the person does not follow the directions of Ayurveda in regard to Ahara, Nidra, Brahmacharya collectively known as “Tri-upstambha” the person becomes ill. Improper use of the above three supports of life is the cause of so many diseases takes place, out of them, one is the Vatarakta (Gout), which consists of swelling including burning pain in metatarsophalangeal joints initially followed by the other joints, resulting in inability to the walk

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN INDIA: AN ANALYSIS

Corporate governance is a process, relation and mechanism set up for the corporations and firms based on certain guidelines and principles by which a company is controlled and directed. The principles provided in the system ensure that the company is governed in a way that it is able to set and achieve its goals and objectives in the context of the social, regulatory and market environment, and is able to maximize profits and also benefit those whose interest is involved in it, in the long run. The division and distribution of rights and responsibilities among different participants in the corporation (such as the board of directors, managers, shareholders, creditors, auditors, regulators, and other stakeholders) and inclusion of the rules and procedures for making decisions in corporate affairs are identified with the help of Corporate Governance mechanism and guidelines. The need to make corporate governance in India transparent was felt after the high profile corporate governance failure scams like the stock market scam, the UTI scam, Ketan Parikh scam, Satyam scam, which were severely criticized by the shareholders. Thus, Corporate Governance is not just company administration but more than that and includes monitoring the actions, policies, practices, and decisions of corporations, their agents, and affected stakeholders thereby ensuring fair, efficient and transparent functioning of the corporate management system. By this paper, the authors intend to examine the concept of corporate governance in India with regard to the provisions of corporate governance under the Companies Act 2013. The paper will highlight the importance and need of corporate governance in India. We will also discuss the important case laws which contributed immensely in the emergence of corporate governance in India

Finite difference method in prolate spheroidal coordinates for freely suspended spheroidal particles in linear flows of viscous and viscoelastic fluids

A finite difference scheme is used to develop a numerical method to solve the flow of an unbounded viscoelastic fluid with zero to moderate inertia around a prolate spheroidal particle. The equations are written in prolate spheroidal coordinates, and the shape of the particle is exactly resolved as one of the coordinate surfaces representing the inner boundary of the computational domain. As the prolate spheroidal grid is naturally clustered near the particle surface, good resolution is obtained in the regions where the gradients of relevant flow variables are most significant. This coordinate system also allows large domain sizes with a reasonable number of mesh points to simulate unbounded fluid around a particle. Changing the aspect ratio of the inner computational boundary enables simulations of different particle shapes ranging from a sphere to a slender fiber. Numerical studies of the latter particle shape allow testing of slender body theories. The mass and momentum equations are solved with a Schur complement approach allowing us to solve the zero inertia case necessary to isolate the viscoelastic effects. The singularities associated with the coordinate system are overcome using L'Hopital's rule. A straightforward imposition of conditions representing a time-varying combination of linear flows on the outer boundary allows us to study various flows with the same computational domain geometry. {For the special but important case of zero fluid and particle inertia we obtain a novel formulation that satisfies the force- and torque-free constraint in an iteration-free manner.} The numerical method is demonstrated for various flows of Newtonian and viscoelastic fluids around spheres and spheroids (including those with large aspect ratio). Good agreement is demonstrated with existing theoretical and numerical results.Comment: 32 pages, 12 figures. Accepted at Journal of Computational Physic

Pre-teens, Audio Analgesia and Dental Care: A Cross-Sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: Research has proven that music plays an important role in alleviating fear and anxiety among patients.AIM: To assess the effect of audio analgesia in pre-teen children aged 8-12 years undergoing dental restorations. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Data was collected using a pre-tested and pre-validated proforma filled by the child prior to start of the treatment by circling the number corresponding to the expected pain during the procedure [Ranged 0 (No pain) -10 (Maximum pain)]. Children who reported their expected pain above 5, were enrolled in group 1 (The ones receiving audio analgesia) while the remaining were assigned group 2 (controls). Children in group 1 were asked to put on their favourite song using noise cancellation headphones and the procedure was commenced. After completion of the treatment, the VAS scale was re-introduced and the children were asked to re-circle the actual pain experienced during the procedure. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 using the chi-squared test and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. A significant value was obtained when p was≤ 0.05. RESULTS: Of the total 80 children enrolled in the present study, there were an equal number of males and females (40 each). It was observed that 70.3% of children in group 1 had an increased pain tolerance as compared to only 37.2% of children in the control group(p=0.01). Pearson’s Correlation revealed a positive and linear association (r: +0.721) and a significant relationship (p = 0.03) between both groups. CONCLUSION: Audio analgesia has been proven to a promising alternative to distract the patient from the anxiety faced in the dental setting and is recommended for nervous and anxious patients