Buyer focus: evaluation of a new concept for supply chain integration

The goal of integrated supply chains is to remove barriers to ease the flow of materials and information. This article concentrates on an important barrier: shared resources in a supply chain. The removal of these shared resources is closely related to the recently introduced concept of buyer focus. Buyer focus is described as the singling out of resources in order to supply one buyer along the whole range of its products. The value of buyer focus for supply chain integration is evaluated and in two cases illustrated. This article suggests that there are two extreme configurations in supply chains. On the one hand, suppliers with buyer-focused operations to enable high levels of integration in order to cope with uncertainty in volume, mix and leadtime. On the other hand, shared resources and low levels of integration, which are more likely in supply chains that are dominantly cost driven.

Psychosocial aspects of androgenetic alopecia

The main objective of the studies described in this thesis is to study the psychosocial problems of men and women with androgenetic alopecia who applied for treatment. In chapter 2, the psychological characteristics of 59 men with androgenetic alopecia from a sample of the general population were compared with those of men without androgenetic alopecia and a group of men with androgenetic alopecia from a clinical population. Chapter 3 is devoted to a study at the psychological characteristics of a group of men with androgenetic alopecia who participated in a clinical triaL The questions are: I. Do men with androgenetic alopecia who apply for treatment have unfavourable personality traits and specific hair problems?, 2. Does subjectively perceived regrowth of hair lead to an improvement in social and psychological well being and a reduction in hair problems? and 3. ls the effect of perceived hair regrowth larger in younger than in older men? The study described in chapter 4 is devoted to research at the psychological and social problems of women with androgenetic alopecia. The outcome is compared with two control groups; women with nonvisible dermatological disorders and men with androgenetic alopecia from a clinical population. Chapter 5 describes additional investigations into the characteristics and the level of psychological problems in women with androgenetic alopecia and their adaptation to their hair loss. The study questions are: I. What problems exist in various life areas in the women with androgenetic alopecia who applied for treatment? and 2. How many women with androgenetic alopecia show general psychosocial maladjustment which is attributable to androgenetic alopecia

Modelling of silicon condenser microphones

Several models concerning the sensitivity of capacitive pressure sensors have been presented in the past. Modelling of condenser microphones, which can be considered to be a special type of capacitive pressure sensor, usually requires a more complicated analysis of the sensitivity, because they have a strong electric field in the air gap. It is found that the mechanical sensitivity of condenser microphones with a circular diaphragm, either with a large initial tension or without any initial tension, increases with increasing bias voltage (and the corresponding static deflection), whereas the mechanical sensitivity of other capacitive pressure sensors does not depend on the static deflection. It is also found that the mechanical sensitivity increases with increasing input capacitance of a preamplifier. In addition, the open-circuit electrical sensitivity and, consequently, the total sensitivity too, also increases with increasing bias voltage (or static deflection). However, the maximum allowable sound pressure at which the diaphragm collapses, an effect that has to be taken into account, decreases with increasing static deflection in most cases, ulthnately resulting in an optimum value for the bias voltage. The model for microphones with a circular highly tensioned diaphragm has been verified successfully for two microphone types

Cancer survivors’ experience with depressive symptoms and their (low) need for psychological care:Lessons learned from a multi-center randomized controlled trial

This thesis focused on cancer survivors that have finished curative treatment at least one year ago and experience depressive symptoms. Key findings were: 1) low levels of depressive symptoms in this group, suggesting that most cancer survivors are able to regain a sense of psychological wellbeing; 2) of those with elevated depressive symptoms, many did not want help for their symptoms. More research is needed to better understand how cancer survivors perceive and cope with depressive symptoms and reasons for (not) seeking care. Such insights are required in order to optimally guide cancer patients throughout the illness trajectory.We initially aimed to compare two psychological depression treatments (CBT vs MBCT) among cancer survivors. We approached 2,608 cancer survivors for depression screening, of whom 147 reported depressive symptoms. A large group could not participate, because they already received treatment or reported no care needs. In total, only 25 people participated in the trial. Consequently, rather than examining the efficacy, we discussed possible reasons for low care needs. We conducted additional research on mindfulness and depressive symptoms. Results showed that: (1) mindfulness was, irrespective of stress, related to lower depression levels; (2) subgroups of depressed cancer patients can be distinguished on both overall depression levels and distinct symptoms; (3) somatic depression symptoms (e.g. fatigue) should not be excluded when assessing depressive symptoms among chronic ill, as these discriminate good for mild depression; (4) cognitive-affective depression symptoms (e.g. depressed mood) better predicted patients’ care needs than somatic depression symptoms (e.g. fatigue)

Substrate control in stereoselective lanthionine biosynthesis.

Enzymes are typically highly stereoselective catalysts that enforce a reactive conformation on their native substrates. We report here a rare example in which the substrate controls the stereoselectivity of an enzyme-catalysed Michael-type addition during the biosynthesis of lanthipeptides. These natural products contain thioether crosslinks formed by a cysteine attack on dehydrated Ser and Thr residues. We demonstrate that several lanthionine synthetases catalyse highly selective anti-additions in which the substrate (and not the enzyme) determines whether the addition occurs from the re or si face. A single point mutation in the peptide substrate completely inverted the stereochemical outcome of the enzymatic modification. Quantum mechanical calculations reproduced the experimentally observed selectivity and suggest that conformational restraints imposed by the amino-acid sequence on the transition states determine the face selectivity of the Michael-type cyclization

Stimulus-salience and the timecourse of saccade trajectory deviations

The deviation of a saccade trajectory is a measure of the oculomotor competition evoked by a distractor. The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of stimulus-salience on the time-course of saccade trajectory deviations to get a better insight into how stimulus-salience influences oculomotor competition over time. Two experiments were performed in which participants were required to make a vertical saccade to a target presented in an array of nontarget line elements and one additional distractor. The distractor varied in salience, where salience was defined by an orientation contrast relative to the surrounding nontargets. In Experiment 2, target-distractor similarity was additionally manipulated. In both Experiments 1 and 2, the results revealed that the eyes deviated towards the irrelevant distractor and did so more when the distractor was salient compared to when it was not salient. Critically, salience influenced performance only when people were fast to elicit an eye movement and had no effect when saccade latencies were long. Target-distractor similarity did not influence this pattern. These results show that the impact of salience in the visual system is transient. © 2012 ARVO