On production planning and scheduling in food processing industry : Modelling non-triangular setups andproduct decay

Production planning and scheduling in food processing industry (FPI) requires taking specific characteristics into account. First of all, setups are usually sequence-dependent and may include the so-called non-triangular setup conditions. Secondly, planning problems in FPI must take product decay into consideration. We present an MILP model that handles these characteristics. We study its behaviour and complexity and show that optimal production schedules become significantly different when non-triangular setups and product decay are taken into account. Numerical results are provided for medium size instances, including a comparison with a standard MP-based heuristic

Quantification of cranial bone tissue modulus

status: publishe

Determination of the cranial bone tissue modulus using μFE analysis

status: publishe

Whole blood thrombin generation profiles of patients with cirrhosis explored with a near patient assay

Background and Aims Patients with cirrhosis have a rebalanced hemostasis, often with normal or elevated thrombin-generating (TG) capacity in plasma. Whole blood (WB) TG allows faster determination and, importantly, includes the influence of all circulating blood cells. We aimed to study the TG profile of patients with cirrhosis in WB and in platelet poor plasma. Methods Thrombin-generating capacity in WB and plasma were assessed with a near-patient WB-TG assay and the calibrated automated thrombinography assay, respectively. TG assays were tested in presence and absence of thrombomodulin. Conventional coagulation tests were also performed. Results Thirty-four patients with cirrhosis and twenty-two controls were analyzed. Compared with controls, patients had substantially deranged results in conventional coagulation tests. Comparable WB-TG capacity (endogenous thrombin potential until peak, ETPp) but significantly lower peak thrombin were found in patients, and these results persisted when thrombomodulin was present. TG of the patients was more resistant to thrombomodulin than controls in both WB and plasma, although the inhibitory effect of thrombomodulin was drastically weaker in WB than in plasma. The peak of WB-TG in patients correlated moderately with their hematocrit and platelet count. Significant correlations were found between TG results in WB and plasma. Conclusions The WB-TG assay shows a normal to hypocoagulable state in patients with cirrhosis with a decreased anticoagulant activity of TM compared to plasma-TG. The clinical value of this assay needs further validation

Saving Lives at Birth: The Impact of Home Births on Infant Outcomes

Abstract: Many developed countries have recently experienced sharp increases in home birth rates. This paper investigates the impact of home births on the health of low-risk newborns using data from the Netherlands, the only developed country where home births are widespread. To account for endogeneity in location of birth, we exploit the exogenous variation in distance from a mother’s residence to the closest hospital. We find that giving birth in a hospital leads to substantial reductions in newborn mortality. We provide suggestive evidence that proximity to medical technologies may be an important channel contributing to these health gains.