Quality management has been widely discussed in the literature, and recent special issues on humanitarian supply chains and relief operations have emphasized the increasing importance of quality ...management in this key emerging area. In this paper, we provide an extensive literature review in the field of quality management in humanitarian operations and disaster relief management. Our comprehensive review, comprising 61 articles published from 2009 to 2018, leads to the identification of enablers (e.g., transparency, policy framework), challenges (e.g., financial services, identity protection), and theory development approaches, as well as numerous research gaps that must be addressed.
Nitrogen‐containing molecules are the key structural constituent of many pharmaceutical compounds that play a pivotal role in drug development. Owing to their multifaceted medicinal importance, ...several synthetic approaches have been delineated in the recent past for their construction. Over the past few decades the augmented use of donor–acceptor cyclopropanes (DACs) as three‐carbon synthetic equivalents, despite their ring strain, for the construction of innumerable hetero‐ and carbocycles of pharmaceutical importance has raised the interest of synthetic chemists to this topic. Owing to their zwitterionic nature due to the vicinal disposition of donor and acceptor groups, they have been frequently used in ring‐opening reactions, cycloadditions, and rearrangements. This review is mainly focused on assorted reactions of DACs with various nitrogen‐containing dipolarophiles like imines, azides, cyanates, isothiocyanates, nitrosocarbonyls, hydrazines, diaziridines, triazinanes, diazenes, etc. towards the synthesis of nitrogen‐containing molecules of pharmaceutical and industrial importance. This review is in continuation of our review published in the Israel Journal of Chemistry in April 2016, and includes the literature from April 2016 to May 2019.
Breast cancer oncologists are challenged to personalize care with rapidly changing scientific evidence, drug approvals, and treatment guidelines. Artificial intelligence (AI) clinical ...decision-support systems (CDSSs) have the potential to help address this challenge. We report here the results of examining the level of agreement (concordance) between treatment recommendations made by the AI CDSS Watson for Oncology (WFO) and a multidisciplinary tumor board for breast cancer.
Treatment recommendations were provided for 638 breast cancers between 2014 and 2016 at the Manipal Comprehensive Cancer Center, Bengaluru, India. WFO provided treatment recommendations for the identical cases in 2016. A blinded second review was carried out by the center's tumor board in 2016 for all cases in which there was not agreement, to account for treatments and guidelines not available before 2016. Treatment recommendations were considered concordant if the tumor board recommendations were designated ‘recommended’ or ‘for consideration’ by WFO.
Treatment concordance between WFO and the multidisciplinary tumor board occurred in 93% of breast cancer cases. Subgroup analysis found that patients with stage I or IV disease were less likely to be concordant than patients with stage II or III disease. Increasing age was found to have a major impact on concordance. Concordance declined significantly (P ≤ 0.02; P < 0.001) in all age groups compared with patients <45 years of age, except for the age group 55–64 years. Receptor status was not found to affect concordance.
Treatment recommendations made by WFO and the tumor board were highly concordant for breast cancer cases examined. Breast cancer stage and patient age had significant influence on concordance, while receptor status alone did not. This study demonstrates that the AI clinical decision-support system WFO may be a helpful tool for breast cancer treatment decision making, especially at centers where expert breast cancer resources are limited.
•We review bioinformatics platforms to explore ARG in high-throughput sequencing data.•We discuss the strength and weakness of available tools for different applications.•An inclusive workflow for ...analysis of ARG in environmental microbiomes is presented.•We benchmark ARG databases using whole genomes and environmental metagenomes.
Antibiotic or antimicrobial resistance (AR) facilitated by the vertical and/or horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), is a serious global health challenge. While traditionally associated with pathogens in clinical environments, it is becoming increasingly clear that non-clinical environments may also be reservoirs of ARGs. The recent improvements in rapid and affordable next generation sequencing technologies along with sophisticated bioinformatics platforms has the potential to revolutionize diagnostic microbiology and microbial surveillance. Through the study and characterization of ARGs in bacterial genomes and complex metagenomes, we are now able to reveal the genetic scope of AR in single bacteria and complex communities, and obtain important insights into AR dynamics at species, population and community levels, providing novel epidemiological and ecological perspectives. A suite of bioinformatics pipelines and ARG databases are currently available for genomic and metagenomic data analyses. However, different platforms may significantly vary and therefore, it is crucial to choose the tools that are most suitable for the specific analysis being conducted. This review provides a detailed account of available bioinformatics platforms for identification and characterization of ARGs and associated genetic elements within single bacterial isolates and complex environmental samples. It focuses primarily on currently available ARG databases, employing a comprehensive benchmarking pipeline to identify ARGs in four bacterial genomes (Aeromonas salmonicida, Bacillus cereus, Burkholderia sp. and Escherichia coli) and three shotgun metagenomes (human gut, poultry litter and soil) providing insight into which databases should be used for different analytical scenarios.
Oil recovery by water flooding from carbonate reservoirs is considered ineffective because of the capillary forces in naturally fractured oil-wet carbonate formations. Surfactant solutions are often ...recommended to enhance the oil recovery by both wettability alteration and reduction of interfacial tension (IFT). In this study, the effects of cationic surfactants from the trimethylammonium bromide (C n TAB) family, viz., C10TAB (BTAB), C15TAB (DTAB), C16TAB (TBAB), and C19TAB (CTAB), on the surface tension, IFT, and wettability alteration of a carbonate rock along with adsorption of the surfactant on the carbonate rock were investigated. Different analyses, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDAX), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), were conducted to study the mechanism for wettability alteration of the oil-wet carbonate surface. Results demonstrated that, among the four surfactants used, C15TAB and C19TAB presented a better effect on reduction of the surface tension, IFT between oil and water, and wettability alteration of the oil-wet carbonate rock surface. Adsorption of surfactants on the carbonate rock was studied, and the results were analyzed by Langmuir and Freundlich models. A comparative study of FTIR analysis of crude oil and rock in the presence of different surfactants was performed to investigate the interactions between different phases.
The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of lean practices on performance measures in the automotive industry and identify the lean criteria that can have significant impact on automotive ...supply chain. The identified lean practices can serve as a template to enhance the performance of a supply chain. The present study offers a multi-criteria decision-making approach to identify the effective performance practices in automotive lean supply chain. The decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) was applied on a matrix of observed values and the actual effect of proposed practices was observed. Further it was confirmed with the help of fuzzy-Vlsekriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR; that means multicriteria optimization and compromise solution, with pronunciation). The criteria which had the most impact are proposed for achieving the future goals of leanness. It was found that among the lean criteria considered, quality management, information management and customer management practices influence the key performance measures more than others. Although DEMATEL and fuzzy-VIKOR were applied for situation leading to setting up of priorities of factors that considered affecting automotive manufacturer, the proposed methodology can be applied in diverse industrial settings. The present study may help decision-makers to device the appropriate strategy in identifying major practices that influence the lean supply chain.
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•Systematic investigation of Rock/Fluid and Fluid/Fluid interaction has been conducted.•Rock/Fluid and Fluid/Fluid interaction shows different optimum conditions for EOR.•Fluid/Fluid ...interaction is dominated by reduced IFT and increased viscoelasticity.•Rock/Fluid interaction is dominated by electrical double layer expansion and calcite dissolution.•Secondary and sequential flooding shows the dominance of Rock/Fluid interaction on oil recovery.
The low salinity water flooding (LSWF) technique has established itself as cost-effective and environment-friendly in nature but its mechanisms are still unclear. Recovery due to LSWF mainly depends on two types of interaction, viz. fluid/fluid and rock/fluid. Despite the significant investigation, there is still no consensus on which interaction mainly governs oil recovery. This study intends to provide essential answers to the aforementioned issues, as well as additional significant insights into the dilution behaviour of Sea Water (SW) to be injected into a carbonate formation with equivalent salinity. A series of experiments were designed to assess both fluid/fluid and rock/fluid interaction thoroughly viz. compatibility test, IFT, interfacial rheology, zeta potential, and contact angle. A comprehensive number of individual and sequential coreflooding were conducted on outcrop cores to quantify the oil recovery potential of optimum salinities and gain more insight into wettability shifts due to LSWF. Rock/fluid and fluid/fluid interfaces showed different optimal conditions for improved oil recovery. Investigation of fluid/fluid interaction showed an optimal salinity of 2dSW as optimal salinity due to IFT reduction and increased viscoelastic properties. Rock/fluid interaction showed an optimal salinity of 10dSW due to enhanced zeta potential and calcite dissolution. Rock/fluid interaction showed an incremental recovery of 14% and fluid/fluid interaction showed an incremental recovery of 7% over simple SW injection. Sequential flooding based on rock/fluid interaction showed an incremental recovery of 16% over simple SW. Oil recovery based on rock/fluid interaction showed the highest recovery as compared to fluid/fluid interaction. Increased interfacial elasticity and calcite dissolution lead to wettability alteration and increased oil recovery due to LSWF. The effectiveness of LSWF depends upon optimum salinity and wettability alteration capability of low salinity slug. Results of this study also indicate that considering only one interaction either rock/fluid or fluid/fluid can lead to erroneous interpretation of LSWF data. Rock/fluid interaction and rock geochemical reactions must be considered while designing the LSWF recipe and low salinity slug should be injected right from the start to reap the benefits of LSWF.
Abundant molecules enable countless combinations of device architecture that might achieve the desirable high efficiency from organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Due to the relatively high cost of ...OLED materials and facilities, simulation approaches have become a must in further advancing the field faster and saver. We have demonstrated here the use of state-of-art simulation approaches to investigate the effect of molecular orbital energy levels on the recombination of excitons in OLED devices. The devices studied are composed of 1,1-bis(di-4-tolylamino)phenylcyclohexane (TAPC) as hole transporting material (HTM), 4,4'-Bis(9-carbazolyl)-1,1'-biphenyl (CBP) as host, 2,2',2"-(1,3,5-benzinetriyl)-tris(1-phenyl-1-H-benzimidazole) (TPBi) or bathophenanthroline (Bphen) as electron transporting materials. The outcomes reveal that exciton recombination highly sensitive to the energy-level alignment, injection barriers, and charge mobilities. A low energy-barrier (<0.4 eV) between the layers is the key to yield high recombination. The lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) levels of the organic layers have played a more pivotal role in governing the recombination dynamics than the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level do. Furthermore, the Bphen based device shows high exciton recombination across the emissive layer, which is >10
times greater than that in the TPBi based device. The high carrier mobility of Bphen whose electron mobility is 5.2 × 10
cm
V
s
may lead to low charge accumulation and hence high exciton dynamics. The current study has successfully projected an in-depth analysis on the suitable energy-level alignments, which would further help to streamline future endeavours in developing efficient organic compounds and designing devices with superior performance.
In this article, we work with a generalized Saint Venant operator introduced by Vladimir Sharafutdinov Inverse and ill-posed problems series, VSP, Utrecht, 1994 to describe the kernel of the integral ...moment transforms over symmetric m-tensor fields in n-dimensional Euclidean space. We also provide an equivalence between the injectivity question for the integral moment transforms and generalized Saint Venant operator over symmetric tensor fields of Schwartz class.
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