Risks associated with Logistics 4.0 and their minimization using Blockchain

Currently we are saying that we are at the dawn of the fourth revolution, which is marked by using cyber-physical systems and the Internet of Things. This is marked as Industry 4.0 (I4.0). With Industry 4.0 is also closely linked concept Logistics 4.0. The highly dynamic and uncertain logistic markets and huge logistic networks require new methods, products and services. The concept of the Internet of Things and Services (IoT&S), Big Data/Data Mining (DM), cloud computing, 3D printing, Blockchain and cyber physical system (CPS) etc. seem to be the probable technical solution for that. However, associated risks hamper its implementation and lack a comprehensive overview. In response, the paper proposes a framework of risks in the context of Logistics 4.0. They are here economic risks, that are associated e.g. with high or false investments. From a social perspective, risks the job losses, are considered too. Additionally, risks can be associated with technical risks, e.g. technical integration, information technology (IT)-related risks such as data security, and legal and political risks, such as for instance unsolved legal clarity in terms of data possession. It is therefore necessary to know the potential risks in the implementation process.Web of Science101857

Serious and Seriouser

A review of Alexander R. Galloway, The Interface Effect (Polity Press 2012) and McKenzie Wark, Telesthesia: Communication, Culture and Class (Polity Press, 2013)

Men in (Shell-)Shock: Masculinity, Trauma, and Psychoanalysis in Rebecca West\u27s The Return of the Soldier

This paper undertakes to read Rebecca West\u27s first novel, The Return of the Soldier (1918), as a critical exploration of masculine trauma on the one hand and an ambivalent engagement with Freudian psychoanalysis on the other. The novel proves interesting as a site in which two shifting cultural contexts intersect: the wartime culture of England facing the shell shock of its men, and the contemporaneous infusion of English intellectual culture with psychoanalytic ideas. Though the effects of new war technology and a newer kind of doctor, West challenge existing notions of stable masculinity, West maintains that masculinity has all along been simply a construct, a shell built around inarticulable trauma. The fact that in this novel West, despite her early pugnaciously feminist journalism, remains as much within the masculine order as critical of it forces us to expand our notions of the forms feminist narrative can take. This paper argues that the novel is a feminist narrative in the sense that it positions masculine trauma as a mark of adherence to the social order for both men and women

Phosphorus nutrition of poplar

Phosphorus (P) is a major plant nutrient required for the biosynthesis of nucleic acids, nucleotides, membrane lipids and metabolites such as organic esters. P further plays a role in enzyme regulation by phosphorylation. Plants take up P in its inorganic form H2PO4- (Pi). Pi is present only in low concentrations in the soil solution and therefore has to be replenished all the time to ensure sufficient plant nutrition. In plants different strategies can be distinguished in response to P starvation: (i) P conservation by re-use of P from P containing compounds e.g. membrane lipids and avoidance of P requiring metabolic pathways. This results in growth reduction. (ii) Enhanced acquisition of P from the soil. For this purpose plants secrete purple acid phosphatases (PAPs) to mobilize Pi from organic sources and increase the activity of phosphate transporters (PHTs) for enhanced uptake capacity. Only little is known for woody plants about the molecular responses to low P availability because to date most of our knowledge stems from the model plant Arabidopsis. The main aims of this thesis were to characterize molecular changes at the whole-transcriptome level in leaves and roots of Populus × canescens in response to P deprivation and to relate these changes to poplar growth, Pi acquisition and Pi uptake. The following questions were addressed: (a) How does P deficiency affect the nutrient states of the plant and which genes are involved in the response to P limitation in poplar? (b) How is the poplar Pi uptake kinetics affected by decreasing P availabilities and how are PHTs transcriptionally regulated by P deficiency? (c) How does low P availability affect the expression profile of PAPs and which members of the large PAP family are released into the medium upon P starvation? To address these questions transcriptome analyses for poplars (Populus × canescens) grown under reduced phosphorus availabilities were conducted using microarray technology. Plant nutrient concentrations were determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry and uptake by use of radioactive P. The secreted proteins were determined by proteome analyses using liquid-chromatography electrospray-ionization mass spectrometry. (a) Poplars exhibited strong growth reduction and increased P use efficiency in response to lower P availabilities. P starvation resulted also in changes of most other elements (S, N, K, Mg, Ca, Fe, Zn, Mn, Al) studied. A high number of genes (12068 in total) was differently expressed upon P starvation. These genes were clustered in eleven co-expression modules of which seven were correlated with distinct elements in the plant tissues. One module with 565 genes (4.7 % of all differentially expressed genes) was correlated with changes in the P concentration in the plant tissues and with the biomass. In this module, PAPs but no PHTs were identified among the highly upregulated P-related genes. The functional category “galactolipid synthesis” was enriched among the P-related genes. Galactolipids substitute phospholipids in membranes under P limitation. Two modules, one correlated with C and N and the other with biomass, S and Mg, were connected with the P-related module by co-expression. In these modules GO terms indicating DNA modification and cell division as well as defense (ethylene, respiratory burst) and RNA modification and signaling were enriched. In conclusion, most differentially expressed genes were not directly related to the tissue P concentrations and were, therefore, most likely regulated by downstream events of P starvation. (b) Whole-plant P uptake kinetics and expression profiles of members of the phosphate transporter families were studied under high, intermediate and low P availability in relation to plant performance. The maximum P uptake rate was more than 13-times higher in P-starved than in well-supplied poplars. The Km-values ranged between 20 µM and 26 µM for P starved poplars. The minimum concentration for net P uptake from the nutrient solution was 1 µM P. Among the PHT subfamilies, all PHTs of family 1 (PHT1) studied showed significant up-regulation upon P starvation and were higher expressed in roots than leaves, with the exception of PtPHT1;3. The transcript abundance of PtPHT1;3 was high in leaves under high P supply and increased further under P starvation. PtPHT1;1 and PtPHT1;2 showed root- and P-starvation specific expression. Expression profiles of distinct members of the PHT subfamilies, especially those of PHT1 were linked with changes in P uptake and allocation at whole-plant level. The regulation was tissue-specific with lower P-responsiveness in leaves than in roots. Because the Km for P uptake was higher than typical soil concentrations of Pi, non-mycorrhizal poplars are expected to suffer from P limitations in most environments. (c) To study the purple acid phosphatases, transcriptome and proteome analyses were combined with phosphatase activity assays. The family of PAPs was annotated showing 33 poplar PAPs that formed three main subfamilies. Among these PAPs, 23 had a probe set on the microarray and showed significant transcript abundances. Ten PAPs were transcriptionally upregulated in roots and leaves of P-starved poplars. The P-starved poplars further showed higher phosphatase activity on the roots than the well P-supplied plants. The protein PtaPAP4 was secreted by poplar roots under high and low P conditions, whereas PtaPAP1 was secreted only under low P conditions. These results suggest that increased P acquisition from organic P sources under low P conditions is mediated in roots by a specific PAP enzyme. Overall, the results of this thesis support that enhanced phosphate transporter and phosphatase activity can improve P uptake efficiency. Since poplar plantations for biomass production are often established on marginal sites where nutrients are limited, the present findings suggest that the selection of natural genotypes or molecular breeding can be used to improve tree P nutrition

Risk analysis regarding a minimum annual utilization of combine harvesters in agricultural companies

ArticleThis article presents the results of entrepreneurial risk analysis concerning a minimum annual utilization of harvesters in a company providing agricultural services where a group of combine harvesters is used. Furthermore, this article presents the following analysed key operating parameters with the greatest influence on reaching the minimum annual utilization and performance: the changing market price of mechanized work, the volatile purchase price of the machines, average maintenance costs). Partial profit which an enterprise can reach through operating combine harvesters is directly affected by the level of their annual utilization. Not reaching the minimum annual utilization of combine harvesters would create losses that could result in termination of business activity in the specific field or even insolvency of the company. It is therefore necessary to monitor the key factors which influence the minimum annual usage and in case of negative developments to take timely corrective actions

Robot arm fuzzy control by a neuro-genetic algorithm

Robot arm control is a difficult problem. Fuzzy controllers have been applied succesfully to this control task. However, the definition of the rule base and the membership functions is itself a big problem. In this paper, an extension of a previously proposed algorithm based on neuro-genetic techniques is introduced and evaluated in a robot arm control problem. The extended algorithm can be used to generate a complete fuzzy rule base from scratch, and to define the number and shape of the membership functions of the output variables. However, in most control tasks, there are some rules and some membership functions that are obvious and can be defined manually. The algorithm can be used to extend this minimal set of fuzzy rules and membership functions, by adding new rules and new membership functions as needed. A neural network based algorithm can then be used to enhance the quality of the fuzzy controllers, by fine tuning the membership functions. The approach was evaluated in control tasks by using a robot emulator of a Philips Puma like robot called OSCAR. The fuzzy controllers generated showed to be very effective to control the arm. A complete graphical development system, together with the emulator and examples is available in Internet.Sistemas InteligentesRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Prior knowledge in evolutionary fuzzy recurrent controllers design

A fuzzy controller is usually designed by formulating the knowledge of a human expert into a set of linguistic variables and fuzzy rules. As it is well known, the use of prior knowledge can dramatically improve the performance and quality of the fuzzy system design process. In previous works we have introduced the RFV model, a representation for recurrent fuzzy controllers based on Voronoi diagrams that can represent fuzzy systems with synergistic rules, ful lling the completeness property and providing a simple way to introduce prior knowledge. In this work we present our current approach in the study of the inclusion of prior knowledge in the context of the RFV model.Eje: Inteligencia artificialRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Evolution of Voronoi based Fuzzy Recurrent Controllers

A fuzzy controller is usually designed by formulating the knowledge of a human expert into a set of linguistic variables and fuzzy rules. Among the most successful methods to automate the fuzzy controllers development process are evolutionary algorithms. In this work, we propose the Recurrent Fuzzy Voronoi (RFV) model, a representation for recurrent fuzzy systems. It is an extension of the FV model proposed by Kavka and Schoenauer that extends the application domain to include temporal problems. The FV model is a representation for fuzzy controllers based on Voronoi diagrams that can represent fuzzy systems with synergistic rules, fulfilling the $\epsilon$-completeness property and providing a simple way to introduce a priory knowledge. In the proposed representation, the temporal relations are embedded by including internal units that provide feedback by connecting outputs to inputs. These internal units act as memory elements. In the RFV model, the semantic of the internal units can be specified together with the a priori rules. The geometric interpretation of the rules allows the use of geometric variational operators during the evolution. The representation and the algorithms are validated in two problems in the area of system identification and evolutionary robotics