An examination of the inventory management system at Dominos

The aim of this research project is to examine the Inventory Management at Dominos, Te Awamutu. This is a franchise business well known for affordable pizzas. Firstly, I checked the background of this business and its daily operations to get to know with business. A SWOT analysis was conducted to identify factors affecting the business activities of the firm. An internal and external analysis was carried to find out strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats for the business. This leads to other theories like sourcing of inventory and supply chains. For this research the primary methods used to collect data were informal interviews and discussion with the manager. This information is privileged to business, therefore qualitative research methods were used. After analysing the data in the inventory system a further literature study was undertaken to find the solution to identified problems. This research was conducted within a short amount of time. In this research, ethics are considered while interviewing staff and collecting data. It also mentions the cost of research. In the end recommendations are suggested on the basis of the conclusions, found by analysing findings

Association analysis of genes controlling variation of flowering time in West and Central African sorghum

Sorghum is extremely important for the food security in the arid to semi-arid regions of West and Central Africa (WCA). A serious constraint to the sorghum production in WCA is the scattered beginning but relatively fixed end of the rainy season among years, forcing farmers to adjust their individual sowing dates according to the start of the rains. Owing to the delayed sowing and fixed end of the rainy season, farmers require varieties that flower at the end of the rainy season, regardless of the sowing date. Photoperiod sensitivity of sorghum accessions is an important adaptation trait that allows flowering or synchronized flowering of the accessions at the end of the rainy season. This is also particularly important in avoiding grain mold, insect and bird damages for early maturing varieties, and incomplete grain filling due to soil water shortage occurring at the end of the season in late maturing varieties. Cultivars with photoperiod sensitivity may have the potential to increase yield and yield stability. Unfortunately, in WCA most of the present day cultivars are photoperiod insensitive. Furthermore, unavailability of simple screening methods in selecting photoperiod sensitive cultivars complicates the situation. Breeding techniques such as marker assisted selection (MAS) by employment of molecular markers would greatly enhance the selection efficiency for this major adaptation trait. Candidate-gene (CG) based association studies can assist in investigating the effect of polymorphisms in flowering time genes on phenotypic variation. Allele-specific molecular markers can be developed after a significant marker-phenotype association is identified. These markers can effectively be used in MAS of photoperiod sensitive sorghum cultivars. In this study we carried out a CG based association analysis to investigate the association between variation for photoperiodic sensitivity of flowering time in sorghum and polymorphisms in six partially amplified genes putatively related to variation in flowering time. Five out of six CGs were known to be involved in photoperiod pathway of flowering time [CRYPTOCHROME 1 (CRY1-b1), CRYPTOCHROME 2 (CRY2), LATE ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL (LHY), GIGANTEA (GI), HEADING DATE 6 (HD6)], and the gene SbD8 was involved in the gibberellic acid (GA) pathway of flowering time. In the first part of the study we determined the presence, the expression and the molecular diversity of genes homologous to the important flowering time gene D8 in maize on a set of 26 sorghum and 20 pearl millet accessions. Homologs of D8 were successfully amplified and tested for their expression in sorghum (SbD8) and pearl millet (PgD8). Pearl millet, because of its autogamous nature, showed higher nucleotide diversity than sorghum, which is an allogamous species. In maize, a 6 bp deletion flanking the SH2-like domain of D8 was found to be significantly associated with flowering by Thornsberry et al. (2001). We found in the PgD8 gene a 3 bp insertion or deletion (Indel) flanking the SH2 domain in the region, which was only conserved between D8 and PgD8. Cluster analysis performed for the D8, SbD8, and PgD8 indicated that maize is more closely related to pearl millet than sorghum. These findings suggest that, similar to maize, the indel in PgD8 flanking the SH2 domain might play an important role in determination of flowering. It is advisable to carry out an association study to reveal the potential role of PgD8 in flowering time control in pearl millet. After successfully amplifying and confirming the expression of SbD8 and PgD8, we carried out the association analysis on the selected CGs. A panel of 219 mostly inbred accessions of sorghum from major sorghum growing areas in WCA was complied. In the second part of the study the association analysis panel of accessions was phenotyped for their flowering response in the field in 2007 in Mali. The entire panel was sown twice (June and July), photoperiod response index (PRI) was estimated as the difference between DFL50% of the two sowing dates of the accessions. The PRI of the accessions showed a wide range from close to zero (photoperiod-insensitive) up to values close to 30 or above (highly-photoperiod sensitive). This result confirmed that the range of response based on the choice of the accessions was appropriate for an association analysis. The plant height reduction observed in accessions sown in July compared to the once sown in June was in accordance with previous studies performed in West African sorghum varieties. The sorghum accessions were genotyped using 27 simple sequence repeat markers. Population structure analysis using software STRUCTURE was carried out to control the false positives in the association analysis. The results showed existence of two subgroups in our sorghum accessions. The first subgroup included mainly race guinea (83%) originating from western West African countries such as Mali and Bukina Faso and the second subgroup included accessions mainly from Nigeria and Niger and also accessions originating from other countries and other major races. The race guinea could clearly be distinguished from the other races. Fisher's exact test for the presence of earliness among subgroups showed that there are significantly (p = 0.06) more early maturing accessions in subgroup one than subgroup two. But there was an absence of a clear structuring pattern. The study suggests that the race, the geographical origin, and maturity of the accessions are the most likely forces behind the observed structuring pattern of the accessions. We found a high level of genetic diversity among the sorghum accessions. Race guinea was found to be the most diverse and race kaura was the least diverse. In general, the estimates of the gene diversity were comparable to previous studies. The results showed that clustering of early-intermediate maturing guinea varieties may have increased the linkage disequilibrium (LD) in subgroup one compared to subgroup two. The differences in the extent of LD between our study and those in the previous studies can be due to the differences in the molecular markers used as well as differences in the racial composition of the accessions studied. In the final part of the study the association analysis was carried out using a mixed-model method. This method takes both population structure and kinship information into account. The candidate genes polymorphism data were obtained by amplifying and sequencing of the chosen genes. The association analysis for the polymorphism found within the CGs was carried out using values of PRI for each accession. From the six genes studied, genes CRY1-b1 and GI had several polymorphic sites which were significantly (p < 0.005) associated with PRI variation in the sorghum panel. The most important polymorphism in the gene CRY1-b1 showed an effect on PRI value of up to -4.2 days. This single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) at position 722 in CRY1-b1 was located in the flavin adenine dinucleotide binding domain (N-terminal domain) of SbCRY1; hence, this domain appears to be important in photomorphogenesis in sorghum. In the case of the GI gene homolog, SNP888 had the largest effect on PRI of about +8 days. Similar to the studies in rice, the GI gene delayed flowering under June sowing (long-day conditons) and shortened the time to flower in sorghum under July sowing (short-day conditons). Therefore, the action of the GI gene homolog in sorghum might be revealed by a detailed investigation of GI by comparison of sorghum accessions grown under short-day and long-day conditions. In the case of gene SbD8, no significant association with PRI could be found; hence, the potential involvement of this gene in flowering time control of sorghum was not confirmed. Negative Tajima?s D values, of CGs indicated that the genes may have been subjected to adaptive selection as variation in flowering time may confer adaptive advantages in sorghum. The results showed that CG-based association analysis using a mixed model approach can be successfully applied to unravel the genetic variation related to phenotypic variation in flowering time. The polymorphisms significantly associated with PRI can be used to develop cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence markers. Functional markers could also be created directly from the significant SNPs. These molecular markers can serve as powerful tools in MAS for sorghum to identify cultivars sensitive to photoperiod.Sorghum ist äußerst wichtig für die Nahrungsmittelsicherheit in den ariden und semi-ariden Regionen West- und Zentralafrikas (WCA). Ein ernstes Hemmnis für den Sorghumanbau in WCA ist der uneinheitliche Beginn und das relativ fixe Ende der Regenzeit von Jahr zu Jahr. Dies zwingt die Bauern dazu den Aussaattermin an den Beginn des Regens anzupassen. Aufgrund zeitverzögerter Aussaat und wegen des fixen Endes der Regenzeit benötigen die Bauern Sorten, die unabhängig vom Aussaattermin am Ende der Regenzeit blühen. Die photoperiodische Empfindlichkeit von Sorghum Akzessionen ist ein wichtiges Adaptationsmerkmal, das zur Blüte oder zur einheitlichen Blüte von Akzessionen am Ende der Regenzeit führt. Dies ist besonders wichtig, um Körnerfäulnis, Beschädigungen aufgrund von Insekten und Vögeln bei frühreifen Sorten und unvollständige Kornfüllung aufgrund von Wasserknappheit am Ende der Regenzeit bei spätreifen Sorten zu vermeiden. Photoperiodisch empfindliche Sorten könnten in der Lage sein die Erträge sowie die Ertragsstabilität zu erhöhen. Allerdings sind in WCA die meisten aktuellen Sorten photoperiodisch unempfindlich. Darüber hinaus wird die Situation durch das Fehlen einfacher Prüfmethoden zur Selektion photoperiodisch empfindlicher Sorten erschwert. Züchtungsmethoden wie die Marker-gestützte Selektion (MAS) würden durch den Einsatz molekularer Marker die Selektionseffizienz für dieses wichtige Merkmal überaus erleichtern. Assoziationsstudien basierend auf Kandidatengenen (CG) können dazu beitragen, den Effekt von Polymorphismen in Blühzeitgenen auf die phänotypische Variation zu untersuchen. Wenn eine signifikante Marker-Phänotyp-Assoziation identifiziert worden ist, können Allel-spezifische molekulare Marker entwickelt werden. Diese Marker können für die MAS photoperiodisch empfindlicher Sorghumsorten effektiv genutzt werden. In der vorliegenden Studie führten wir eine CG-basierte Assoziationsanalyse durch, um die Assoziation zwischen der Variation für photoperiodische Empfindlichkeit von Sorghum für Blühzeit und Polymorphismen in sechs partiell amplifizierten Genen, die vermutlich mit der Variation für Blühzeit in Verbindung stehen, zu untersuchen. Für fünf der sechs CG war bereits bekannt, dass sie in den photoperiodischen Signalweg für Blühzeit eingebunden sind [CRYPTOCHROME 1 (CRY1-b1), CRYPTOCHROME 2 (CRY2), LATE ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL (LHY), GIGANTEA (GI), HEADING DATE 6 (HD6)]. Das Gen SbD8 war eingebunden in den Gibberellinsäure-(GA)-Signalweg für Blühzeit. Im ersten Teil der Studie bestimmten wir anhand eines Satzes von 26 Sorghum- und 20 Perlhirseakzessionen die Präsenz, die Expression und die molekulare Diversität von Genen, die homolog zu dem wichtigen Blühzeitgen D8 in Mais sind. Homologien von D8 wurden erfolgreich amplifiziert und ihre Expression in Sorghum (SbD8) und Perlhirse (PgD8) getestet. Die Perlhirse zeigte aufgrund ihrer autogamen Natur größere Nukleotiddiversität als Sorghum, welches eine allogame Art ist. In Mais wurde von Thornsberry et al. (2001) eine 6 bp lange Deletion gefunden, welche die SH2-ähnliche Domäne von D8 flankierte und signifikant mit der Blüte assoziiert war. Wir fanden im PgD8-Gen eine 3 bp lange Insertion oder Deletion (Indel), welche die SH2-Domäne in der Region flankierte, die nur zwischen D8 und PgD8 konserviert war. Eine Cluster-Analyse für D8, SbD8 und PgD8 zeigte, dass Mais näher mit Perlhirse als mit Sorghum verwandt ist. Diese Ergebnisse legen den Schluss nahe, dass, ähnlich wie bei Mais, das Indel in PgD8, welches die SH2-Domäne flankierte, eine wichtige Rolle für die Festlegung der Blüte spielen könnte. Es ist ratsam eine Assoziationsstudie durchzuführen, um die potentielle Bedeutung von PgD8 für die Kontrolle der Blühzeit in Perlhirse zu entschlüsseln. Nachdem SbD8 und PgD8 erfolgreich amplifiziert und deren Expression bestätigt worden waren, führten wir eine Assoziationsanalyse für die selektierten CG durch. Es wurde ein Satz 219 größtenteils ingezüchteter Sorghumakzessionen aus wichtigen Anbaugebieten für Sorghum in WCA zusammengestellt. Im zweiten Teil der Studie wurden die Akzessionen für die Assoziationsanalyse für ihr Blühverhalten in Mali im Jahr 2007 phänotypisiert. Der gesamte Satz wurde zweimal ausgesät (Juni und Juli). Der photoperiodische Response-Index (PRI) wurde als Differenz zwischen DFL50% von den zwei Aussaatterminen geschätzt. Der PRI der Akzessionen zeigte eine weite Spanne von fast Null (photoperiodisch unempfindlich) bis zu Werten nahe 30 oder darüber (hochgradig photoperiodisch empfindlich). Dieses Ergebnis bestätigte, dass die Spanne basierend auf der Auswahl der Akzessionen geeignet für eine Assoziationsanalyse war. Der Rückgang in der Pflanzenhöhe, der für die im Juli gesäten Akzessionen beobachtet wurde, im Vergleich zu den im Juni gesäten Akzessionen war in Übereinstimmung mit früheren Studien, die mit Westafrikanischen Sorghumsorten durchgeführt worden waren. Die Sorghumakzessionen wurden mit 27 sog. simple-sequence-repeat-Markern genotypisiert. Eine Populationsstrukturanalyse wurde mit der Software STRUCTURE durchgeführt, um falsch-positive Genotypen in der Assoziationsanalyse unter Korntrolle zu halten. Die Ergebnisse zeigten die Existenz von zwei Untergruppen in unseren Sorghumakzessionen. Die erste Untergruppe beinhaltete vor allem die Rasse Guinea (83%) aus dem westlichen Westafrika wie Mali und Burkina Faso. Die zweite Untergruppe beinhaltete vor allem Akzessionen aus Nigeria und Niger sowie Akzessionen aus anderen Ländern und andere wichtige Rassen. Die Rasse Guinea konnte klar von den anderen Rassen unterschieden werden. Fishers exakter Test auf Präsenz von Frühreife in den Untergruppen zeigte, dass es signifikant (p = 0,06) mehr frühreife Akzessionen in der ersten Untergruppe gab als in der zweiten. Allerdings war ein klares Strukturierungsmuster nicht vorhanden. Die Studie legt den Schluss nahe, dass die Rasse, die geographische Herkunft und die Reifezeit der Akzessionen die wahrscheinlichsten Kräfte hinter dem beobachteten Strukturierungsmuster der Akzessionen sind. Wir fanden ein hohes Maß an genetischer Diversität zwischen den Sorghumakzessionen. Die Rasse Guinea zeigte die höchste Diversität und die Rasse Kaura die geringste. Grundsätzlich waren die Schätzungen für die Gendiversität vergleichbar mit denen aus früheren Studien. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass verglichen mit der zweiten Untergruppe eine Häufung von Guineasorten mit früher und mittlerer Reifezeit das Kopplungsungleichgewicht (LD) in der ersten Unterguppe erhöht haben könnte. Die Unterschiede im Ausmaß des LD zwischen unsere Studie und denen in früheren Studien können durch Unterschiede in den verwendeten molekularen Marker sowie durch Unterschiede in der Rassenzusammensetzung der untersuchten Akzessionen zustande gekommen sein. Im letzten Teil der Studie wurde eine Assoziationsanalyse unter Verwendung eines gemischten Modelles durchgeführt. Diese Methode berücksichtigt sowohl die Populationsstruktur als auch Abstammungsinformation. Die Daten der Kandidatengen-Polymorphismen wurden durch Amplifizierung und Sequenzierung der ausgewählten Gene erhalten. Die Assoziationsanalyse für den Polymorphismus, der innerhalb der CG gefunden wurde, wurde mit den Werten des PRI für jede Akzession durchgeführt. Von den sechs untersuchten Genen hatten CRY1-b1 und GI einige polymorphe Stellen, die signifikant (p < 0,005) mit der Variation für PRI im Sorghumsatz assoziiert waren. Der wichtigste Polymorphismus im Gen CRY-b1 zeigte einen Effekt auf den PRI-Wert von bis zu -4,2 Tagen. Der singuläre Nukleotidpolymorphismus (SNP) bei Position 722 in CRY1-b1 war in der Flavin-Adenin-Dinukleotid-Bindungsdomäne (N-terminale Domäne) von SbCRY1 lokalisiert; damit scheint diese Domäne wichtig für die Photomorphogenese in Sorghum zu sein. Im Falle der GI-Gen-Homologie hatte SNP888 den größten Effekt auf PRI von etwa +8 Tagen. Ähnlich wie in Studien mit Reis verzögerte das GI-Gen in Sorghum die Blüte nach Aussaat im Juni (Langtagsbedingungen) und verkürzte die Zeit bis zur Blüte nach Aussaat im Juli (Kurztagsbedingungen). Die Wirkungsweise der GI-Gen-Homologie in Sorghum könnte mittels einer detaillierten Untersuchung von GI durch einen Vergleich von Sorghumakzessionen unter Kurztags- und unter Langtagsbedingungen entschlüsselt werden. Im Falle des Gens SbD8 konnten keine signifikanten Assoziationen mit PRI gefunden werden; damit wurde die mögliche Beteiligung dieses Gens in der Kontrolle der Blühzeit von Sorghum nicht bestätigt. Negative Tajima?s D-Werte der CG zeigten, dass die Gene adaptiver Selektion ausgesetzt gewesen sein könnten, da Variation in der Blühzeit zu adaptiven Vorteilen in Sorghum beitragen kann. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass die CG-basierte Assoziationsanalyse mit einem gemischten Model erfolgreich eingesetzt werden kann, um die genetische Variation in Beziehung zur phänotypischen Variation für Blühzeit zu erklären. Die Polymorphismen, die signifikant mit PRI assoziiert waren, können verwendet werden, um sog. cleaved-amplified-polymorphic-sequence-Marker zu entwickeln. Ebenso könnten funktionelle Marker direkt aus den signifikanten SNPs entwickelt werden. Diese molekularen Marker können als leistungsfähige Werkzeuge in der MAS für Sorghum dienen, um Sorten zu identifizieren, die photoperiodisch empfindlich sind

Energy Optimization in Residential Spaces Using BEopt

The residential sector in the United states accounts for 22 percent of the total energy consumption according to the reports from U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) (2013). 31 percent of the house holds are reported facing challenges in paying their energy bills for heating or cooling their homes in 2015 according to the Residential energy consumption survey (RECS). To promote green buildings and to reduce the carbon footprints. The US Green building council has developed LEED certification to evaluate energy performance of a building. To achieve this level of energy efficiency software's such as BEopt, Equest are used. These software's help evaluate building design and identify cost optimal efficiency to save energy. This research project compares results of the software and average energy costs per household to determine housing design adjustments to minimize energy usage for different geographic regions in the Northern US. Data are taken from government website such as EIA and census.gov These results can be used to inform housing design and retrofit and remodeling actives

Flower-like supramolecular self-assembly of phosphonic acid appended naphthalene diimide and melamine

Diverse supramolecular assemblies ranging from nanometres to micrometers of small aromatic π-conjugated functional molecules have attracted enormous research interest in light of their applications in optoelectronics, chemosensors, nanotechnology, biotechnology and biomedicines. Here we study the mechanism of the formation of a flower-shaped supramolecular structure of phosphonic acid appended naphthalene diimide with melamine. The flower-shaped assembly formation was visualised by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) imaging, furthermore, XRD and DLS used to determined mode of aggregation. Characteristically, phosphonic acid-substituted at imide position of NDIs possess two important properties resulting in the formation of controlled flower-like nanostructures: (i) the aromatic core of the NDI which is designed to optimize the dispersive interactions (π-π stacking and van der Waals interactions) between the cores within a construct and (ii) phosphonic acid of NDI interact with malamine through molecular recognition i.e. strong hydrogen-bonding (H-bonding). We believe such arrangements prevent crystallization and favour the directional growth of flower-like nanostructure in 3D fashion. These works demonstrate that complex self-assembly can indeed be attained through hierarchical non-covalent interactions of two components. Furthermore, flower-like structures built from molecular recognition by these molecules indicate their potential in other fields if combined with other chemical entities

Identifying Bots on Twitter with Benford’s Law

Over time Online Social Networks (OSNs) have grown exponentially in terms of active users and have now become an influential factor in the formation of public opinions. Due to this, the use of bots and botnets for spreading misinformation on OSNs has become a widespread concern. The biggest example of this was during the 2016 American Presidential Elections, where Russian bots on Twitter pumped out fake news to influence the election results. Identifying bots and botnets on Twitter is not just based on visual analysis and can require complex statistical methods to score a profile based on multiple features and compute a result. Benford’s Law or the Law of Anomalous Numbers states that in any naturally occurring sequence of numbers, the first significant leading digit frequency follows a particular pattern such that they are unevenly distributed and reducing. This principle can be applied to the first- degree egocentric network of a Twitter profile to assess its conformity to Benford’s Law and classify it as a bot profile or normal profile. This project focuses on leveraging Benford’s Law in combination with various Machine Learning (ML) classifiers to identify bot profiles on Twitter. In addition, the project also discusses various statistical methods that are used to verify the classification results

Numerical Analyses and Integration of Split Lot Sizing Using Lean Benchmark Model for Small Lot Manufacturing in High Mix Low Volume Production

As the global demand for automobiles has increased rapidly over the last fifty years, customers have become more particular about the characteristics of the autos they want. This change in demand, in part has pushed manufacturing to become more flexible and created a demand for alternative, more efficient processes like the High Mix Low Volume (HMLV) production of vehicles. During HMLV, manufacturers create production lot sizes and schedule to synchronize the production processes to meet customer demand on time. The demand for the automobile parts may not be uniform or parts may not be consumed by the customer immediately, Due to this variation in demand, companies avoid shortages by large production lots and storing excess inventory. However, excess inventory has to be managed differently during the production large lots. It increases the inventory holding cost; hence it is essential to know what, when and how much to produce. An excellent example of introducing controls for efficiencies is the Toyota Production System, which allows Toyota Motors to progress implement Just in Time (JIT) production, However, to achieve the JIT, needs for producing small lots have to be met. Hence, this thesis aims to assess a lot-sizing model that focuses on how to combine the production methods of high to low demand parts one machine to achieve JIT. The method was divided in two parts; first, it assesses the variable production of high to medium demand parts within a fixed amount of time described as Fixed Period Variable Amount (FPVA). The split lot technique used to minimize the inventory. Second, parts that have assess low demand were assessed within a Fixed Amount Variable Period (FAVP). It is proposed that a time-oriented method with the external changeover parameter can appropriately minimize the inventory of FAVP parts and avoid idling of the workforce. Also discussed the kaizen or continuous improvement approach for changeover with directed sequencing approaches to minimize longer changeover times, significant obstacle for the production of small lot production. The outcome of the propose model is then compared with two industry lot sizing and scheduling models, conventional lot sizing and lean benchmark lot sizing. The objective of conventional model is to minimize the cost without considering and HMLV environment and external changeover parameter. The objective of the lean benchmark model is to minimize inventory without creating idle time for the workforce. The thesis also investigates the integration and working of the Kanban scheduling system in the lean benchmark mode

An audit of drug utilization patterns, rationality, and cost analysis of antimicrobial medicines in a tertiary care teaching hospital in central suburban India

Background: Antimicrobial medicine (AMM) utilization patterns and rational drug use are important topics in today’s world wrought with AMM resistance, irrational prescription of antibiotics, and lack of proper training such as stewardship programmes for medical graduates and general practitioners. Our objective was to perform an audit of the antimicrobial drug utilization pattern, evaluate the rationality of drug use, and perform a cost analysis of these drugs.Methods: An observational cross-sectional study design was implemented. The study location was a tertiary care teaching hospital in suburban central India. Patients were recruited from the general medicine and general surgery departments.Results: Out of 189 patients, the average age was 45.714 years and 67.725% were females. A total of 595 AMMs were prescribed to 189 patients with an average of 3.148±1.578 drugs per patient. 6.5% drugs prescribed were generic, 95% prescribed were included in the national essential medicine list, and 90% of patients’ prescriptions were rational. The total expenditure on AMMs was ₹726043.610, with a median expenditure of ₹987.320.Conclusions: Drug utilization patterns vary between medicine and surgery departments. They also vary between different institutions within the same country. Creating a structured standardized training program to uniformly train healthcare professionals in conservative antibiotic prescription practices is needed. This study hopefully paves the way for future studies to target critical areas in AMM prescription and to prospectively assess the impact of a structured antibiotic stewardship program on AMM utilization patterns