Search

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2004.05.024 Byline: K.H. Widodo (a), H. Nagasawa (a), K. Morizawa (a), M. Ota (b) Keywords: Agriculture; Supply chain; Decision analysis Abstract: Total loss of agricultural fresh products amounts to 20% through 60% of the total amount of harvested products in any country, requiring an effective supply chain management model in agro-industry. This paper constructs a basic model of agricultural fresh products by formulating the plant growing process and the loss process of fresh products in mathematical forms. The model deals with periodical harvests through periodical flowering to satisfy demand. It is assumed that any on-hand inventory is not carried through more than one period and that any requirement for harvesting fresh products should be satisfied through the earliest plant maturing as possible. An optimal harvesting pattern is derived analytically to maximize the demand level satisfied. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Industrial Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka Prefecture University, Sakai, Osaka 599-8531, Japan (b) Graduate School of Business, Osaka City University, Osaka, Osaka 588-8585, Japan Article History: Received 8 December 2003; Accepted 7 May 2004

A supply-chain management model for reducing produce loss in agricultural industry is presented.

Small angle neutron scattering and gamma-ray diffractometry help analyze the defects in Czochralski-grown silicon single crystals after annealing at 750 degrees Celsius due to precipitation of oxygen. The small SiO2 particles coalesce to form large clusters, in accordance with the Huang and Stokes- Wilson theory. The cluster are at a distance of about 40,000 Angstroms from each other, while the centre of one SiO2 precipitate in the cluster is about 80 Angstroms from the other.

Fourier-transform deep level transient spectroscopy and an isochronal annealing series are used for examining the thermal stability of deep levels detected in as-grown bulk 3C-SiC in 100-1500 [degree]C temperature range. The shallower trap has annealed out at temperatures below 1200 [degree]C while the others have exhibited a high temperature stability up to at least 1500 [degree]C.

The article presents a comparative study of the various processes that are used for the thermal growth of various oxides on the n-type free standing 3C-SiC (001). The efficiency and the disadvantages of the different processes are also discussed.

The article describes an advanced oxidation process, which employs plasma enhanced deposition, as well as rapid postoxidation steps for the synthesis of n-type 3-C- and 4H-SiC epilayers. The interface trap density of the system is shown to highly decrease by the implementation of wet oxygen during the synthesis.

Sulfur ions are implanted into 6H-, 4H-, and 3C-SiC, admittance and double correlated deep level transient spectroscopy investigations have revealed that S atoms form double donors in SiC, which reside on lattice sites. The temperature dependence of the electron capture cross section is determined by the filling pulse method and it is shown that the capture of electrons into S donors is dominated by the cascade mechanism.

Polytype transformation of cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) was studied using micro Raman spectroscopy. It is argued that the physical vapor transport (PVT) growth process does not induce polytype conversion but through the heat treatment of the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) seed crystals.