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Cold supply chain distribution systems ensure the freshness of temperature-sensitive products during transportation. In this study, we investigated a fresh food company's cold supply chain distribution. Making fresh food available and achieving quality and safety, requires proper planning of vehicle routing, we addressed a routing problem that simultaneously considers time windows, multiple trips per vehicle, a heterogeneous fleet, parking constraints, unloading time at customer position, and limited duration, minimizing related operational costs. We formulate this problem as a mixed-integer programming model. Since this problem is NP-hard, we also propose a genetic algorithm with two adaptive-parameter mechanisms to solve it within a reasonable computational time. Extensive experiments were conducted to assess the performance of different approaches in a real-world application. The results demonstrate that the algorithms are robust and efficient. The proposed algorithms can reduce operational costs by more than 20% compared to the current practical planning approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop an alkaline electroless bath for deposition of a conformal Pt layer 40 nm thick on titania nanotubes 800 nm long. The charge storage capacity (CSC) and electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) of this Pt-coated titania nanotube array have been studied to evaluate its potential as a bio-electrode for implantable bio-electronic devices. Images from electron microscopes confirm the formation of a uniform Pt film on both the internal and external surfaces of the nanotubes. The X-ray diffraction pattern indicates a preferred (111) orientation. Analysis from X-ray absorption spectroscopy on the plating bath suggests a reduction sequence of Pt 4+  → Pt 2+  → Pt. The Pt-coated titania nanotube array has large CSC and ECSA values, attributed to the hollow tubular nanostructure with a conformal Pt coating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]