Search

The paper studies intermetallic coatings based on the Ti–Al system obtained by plasma-assisted vacuum-arc deposition. The coatings are deposited by three different techniques to gain the different elemental and phase compositions. The study of the oxidation kinetics shows that the coating with the gradient aluminum distribution possesses the best oxidation resistance. It is found that after 500 hours of oxidation, its structure and weight remain unchanged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transport always did play a significant role in shaping how humans developed over the millennia. Movement of goods or people from source to destination has always been the primary goal offered, and it was always improved over centuries. There have been always due improvements and modern transportation systems have come a long way, however there are still challenges that need to be addressed. In this paper we present an optimized micro services based backend system with a cross platform mobile application built on Flutter for tracking a transport vehicle. The proposed database design and the mobile application, excel in all the areas of scalability, security, reliability, speed, compatibility, integration and cost effectiveness and proposes a new method of cheap and effective system development than the existing systems [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a new family of distribution, which generalizes the Beta Weibull-G family by the introduction of a shape parameter to enhance better fit and flexibility, called the Modified Beta Weibull-G family of distributions is obtained. The mixture representation of the derived family of distributions was discussed, with the results effective in studying moments, moment generating functions, order statistics. Parameters of the family of distributions were estimated using the maximum likelihood estimation method. By utilizing this modified class of distributions, we build a new distribution called the modified beta Weibull Weibull and applied it to engineering datasets. Application revealed a better performance in model fit, compared to some other distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that fluctuations of inertial masses are found everywhere. In the field of construction and use of aviation and rocket technology, this topic is of particular importance. Like a three-dimensional plane coordinate system in coordinate plane Z, a multidimensional system with axes turned relative to each other through angles can be considered. There is an arbitrary vector emanating from the origin 0, . It is proved that points , which are the coordinates of the end of vector in the coordinate system , are the vertices of a regular polygon. The shape and dimensions of the polygon are not related to the coordinates of vector , i.e., are unchanged. The center of a regular polygon in all cases coincides with the middle of vector . In the considered (idealized) case, the polygon, at the vertices of which there are oscillating loads of masses m, lies in the Z plane (multipiston mechanism). In the considered multidimensional planar monoreactive oscillator, free harmonic linear oscillations of loads can occur. In this case, only kinetic energy is involved in the energy exchange. There is no need for elastic elements. The oscillator has no fixed natural oscillation frequency. The frequency depends on the initial speeds and positions of the loads. A regular polygon performs a double rotation (around point 0 and around point r). At the same time, the loads carry out linear harmonic oscillations with amplitude . The use of a crank-slider or crank-and-rod mechanism will allow organizing the parallel movement of goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that to understand the impact of former U.S. President Donald Trump on the U.S.-Mexico border, his presidential agenda needs to be compared with other presidential administrations from the 1990s to the present. It looks at presidential policy agendas, as seen in executive orders, legislative policies, binational initiatives, deployment of the National Guard and military, presidential visits, and use of the bully pulpit with visits to the border region. These are compared to border operations indicators, highlighting formal and informal crossings of people and movement of goods. Though Mr. Trump has been specifically negative and aggressive toward the border, the securitization of the region has been part of presidential agendas since the 1990s. A key takeaway is to think about and discuss these results to ensure the border is livable, manageable and ready for the challenges of the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we argue that urban studies should consider freight logistics as an integral part of ongoing urban transformations. The movement of goods is increasingly shaping cities, and the implications for sustainability, liveability and justice are uncertain. Still, freight logistics has been largely overlooked in urban studies. This paper seeks to remedy this. First, we review current literature on freight logistics in cities, and find that it is broadly characterised by what has been called a 'technical-rational model'. Second, we situate urban logistics in social and political processes of urban change. Finally, we point to key areas for urban scholars to explore at the intersections between urban logistics and urban change to better understand the role of freight logistics in urban sustainability transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xuan paper is one of the most famous handmade papers in China and is an important paper for conservation. However, the evenness of Xuan paper has not yet received much attention. In this study, the distribution of the in-plane grammage and mechanical properties of Xuan paper are measured. It is found that the distribution of the in-plane grammage and mechanical properties of Xuan paper is uneven. In the handmade direction, the grammage and mechanical properties of Xuan paper are overall largest in the lower area, followed by the upper and middle areas. The sheet forming process of Xuan paper has an important effect on the distribution of in-plane grammage, mechanical properties, and fiber orientation of Xuan paper. The folded state has a negative effect on the mechanical properties of the folded area of Xuan paper. This study will help raise awareness of the unevenness in physical properties of Xuan paper, which is important in both conservation and research applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the gradual depletion of natural sand due to over-exploitation, alternative building materials, such as manufactured sand aggregate (MSA), have attracted much attention. In order to interpret the evolution of pore structure and fractal characteristics in MSA mortar over long-term water saturation, the 1H low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) relaxation method was used to investigate the temporal evolution of the pore structure in five single-graded MSA mortars and synthetic-graded mortars with small amplitudes in particle size. MSA presents a fresh rock interface characterized by a scarcity of pores, which significantly reduces the porosity of the mortar. The surface-to-volume ratio (SVR) is employed for characterizing the MSA gradation. Through an analysis of parameters, such as total porosity, pore gradation, pore connectivity, and pore fractal dimension of mortar, a correlation model between pore structure parameters and aggregate SVR is constructed. The fractal characteristics of pores and their variations are discussed under three kinds of pore gradations, and the correlation model between fractal dimension and porosity is established. These results demonstrate the high impermeability and outstanding corrosion resistance of synthetic-graded mortar. The fractal model of the pore structure evolution of MSA mortar has a guiding effect on the pore distribution evolution and engineering permeability evaluation of MSA mortar in engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of a data-driven digital economy in the EU is based on data-sharing. However, the current scenario is marked by fragmented data silos and big tech dominance, hindering data interoperability in the Digital Single Market. Regulatory efforts have begun addressing this by reducing platform data control and enhancing user empowerment, promoting data portability rights in different legal instruments. Nevertheless, a unified data-sharing infrastructure is essential for the efficacy of these measures. Data spaces are anticipated to provide the needed technical framework, supported by emerging legal regulations to ensure free information movement through this infrastructure. This development raises the question of whether a new EU fundamental freedom is being established, specifically for data. The existing four freedoms – movement of goods, capital, services and people – have been instrumental in shaping the Digital Single Market. However, the progression of societal digitalisation might necessitate a distinct data-centric freedom. This article examines whether the EU’s strategies and regulations are evolving towards a fifth fundamental freedom for data, potentially acting as a cohesive force for various data-related initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to one potent challenge to the value and fairness of distribution by lot, the lottery chance of receiving a good is lacking in value or otherwise insignificant or irrelevant in comparison with actually receiving the good. To meet this challenge, I show in Section I that the far greater significance of receiving all of an undivided good needn't undermine the case for equal lottery chances of the whole good, as compared with an outcome involving equally divided portions of this good. I argue in Section II that it mislocates the value of lottery chances to assume that they must contribute, in themselves, to a person's well-being. Rather their significance primarily resides in their expected instrumental value in delivering goods of independent value. In Section III, I provide an account of when distribution by lot is perfectly fair in spite of the inevitability of an unequal outcome among equal claimants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Criterio Libre is the property of Revista Criterio Libre and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Much of the extant scholarship in supply chain management (SCM) has had a developed world focus, although most of the global population resides outside this area. SCM scholars are now recognizing this limitation in the coverage of our communities' research. They have recognized that the logistical challenges of getting products to these underserved markets at the bottom of the economic pyramid (BOP) may be fundamentally different from the "big box" mindset that prevails in the west. There is growing recognition that supply chain entrepreneurship is critical to the logistics and physical distribution systems that can get products to such markets in a cost‐effective manner. Yet, such entrepreneurs, who are often small, and weakly integrated into the global economy, face several challenges in their daily business. Many of them rely on microfinance to fund their business. Yet, the microfinance model itself is changing into a web‐supported crowdfunded model. The current study investigates how an entrepreneur's circumstances with regard to their borrowing status as a first‐time borrower, and their intent with regard to business expansion influence their success in fundraising on a crowdfunding platform. Results reveal that BOP entrepreneurs who are "repeat borrowers" have difficulty in obtaining funding for their business plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A crystalline host matrix (CHM) with embedded nanoaggregates (NA) is a powerful strategy to develop high‐performance crystalline OLEDs that can combine the advantages of both crystalline and high‐exciton‐utilization‐efficiency light emitting materials. Here a CHM‐NA structure blue‐emission crystalline OLED is developed, which employs a thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) material. The CHM‐TADFNA OLED is proved to efficiently manage exciton distribution by engineering nanoaggregates. The device exhibits a remarkable EQE up to 10.4% and achieves the characteristics of rapid turn‐on, and fast ramping of luminance and current density, resulting in an enhanced photon output and a lower series‐resistance Joule‐heat loss ratio, indicating a competitive pathway to future blue‐emission OLEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research in this article aims to consider low-carbon factors, through reasonable vehicle allocation and optimization of distribution routes, to achieve high satisfaction and low total cost, and to provide an optimized solution for fresh food distribution companies. In this article, cargo damage cost, energy cost, and carbon emission cost are added to the total cost, and customer satisfaction constraints based on time and quality are added, respectively, to construct a multi-vehicle cold chain VRP model under the low-carbon perspective. In order to obtain a good initial path method, a good chromosome is generated and added to the initial chromosome population according to the constraints of the vehicle type and time window, and the local elite retention strategy is combined to speed up the population convergence. Finally, taking the data of A Fresh Food Company as an example, the MATLAB software is used to realize the programming, which verifies the validity and superiority of the multi-vehicle cold chain VRP model under the low-carbon perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the intricate relationship between macroeconomic factors and logistics performance is of paramount importance in today's globalized economy. Efficient logistics operations are not only crucial for facilitating international trade but also serve as a cornerstone for driving economic growth and fostering competitiveness on the global stage. The Logistics Performance Index (LPI), developed by the World Bank, stands as a vital tool for assessing the efficacy of logistics infrastructure and procedures in facilitating the seamless movement of goods across borders. In this study, we delve into the nexus between macroeconomic indicators--namely Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Inflation Rate, and Trade (TRD) and the Logistics Performance Index, aiming to unravel the underlying dynamics that shape logistical efficiency and trade facilitation. By analyzing data from 139 countries in 2022 and employing regression analysis, we unravel the complexities of how these macroeconomic variables interact with logistics performance. The findings reveal intriguing insights, emphasizing the substantial positive impact of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and trade openness on the Logistics Performance Index. While FDI fosters improvements in logistics infrastructure and technology, trade openness enhances logistical efficiency through streamlined customs procedures and trade facilitation measures. Conversely, the influence of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on logistics performance was found to be negligible, suggesting that other factors play a more significant role in shaping logistical efficiency. Moreover, the analysis sheds light on the nuanced relationship between the Inflation Rate and the Logistics Performance Index, with changes in inflation showing low significant impact on logistical efficiency within the scope of this study. However, further exploration is warranted to uncover potential contextual nuances and long-term effects of inflation dynamics on logistical operations. This study underscores the critical importance of considering macroeconomic factors in logistics planning and policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The examination of digital promotion in the distribution sector within the context of multichannel marketing strategy aims to uncover the reasons behind the comparatively lower adoption of new promotional tools, particularly in retail chains. The research delves into the potential implications of this disparity and seeks to identify opportunities for enhancing the use of digital promotional tools in distribution settings. Additionally, the study explores how the integration of these tools can contribute to an enriched user experience and more effective customer relationship management practices within the distribution industry. Within the conceptual framework, the study delves into the pivotal role played by an optimal blend of online and offline promotional channels, a critical aspect in the realm of contemporary digital marketing. The focal point of the research is on applications identified as a modern and digital promotional channel. The investigation not only scrutinizes the design, content, and usage patterns of mobile applications but also incorporates real-world examples from prominent retail chains. Through a comparative analysis, the study aims to provide insights into the effectiveness and nuances associated with the utilization of mobile applications as a promotional tool in the distribution sector. Furthermore, the study presents the outcomes of primary research conducted specifically on the segment of young and middle-aged consumers. This research aimed to gain insights into their experiences, attitudes, and opinions regarding the utilization of mobile applications offered by retail distributors. By focusing on this specific consumer generation, the study aims to provide a targeted understanding of how mobile applications are perceived and utilized within the context of retail distribution. The primary question is whether and how mobile apps in the retail channel incentivize purchases. Secondly, whether the users of these applications know exactly what they are looking for on these apps. The last portion of the study includes a critical overview of the results received, as well as concluding insights that are needed for further research. The practical implications of this research are evident in its contribution to strategic marketing decisions within retail companies. By specifically targeting younger and middle-aged customers, the study provides insights that can directly inform marketing strategies tailored to these demographics. The findings aim to assist retail companies in optimizing their use of mobile applications and refining their marketing approaches to better align with the preferences and expectations of the identified consumer segments. This can potentially lead to enhanced customer engagement, satisfaction, and overall business success in the rapidly evolving landscape of retail distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The value added tax is part of the category of modern taxes and is included in the category of indirect taxes. This type of tax can be found in the economic circuit in the prices of the products, in the successive stages of each stage of the production and distribution of goods of an economic nature. From this perspective, the Value Added Tax qualifies as a universal tax and a neutral tax. The concrete applicability of the Value Added Tax (VAT) is ensured by the Fiscal Code and the Fiscal Procedure Code, which on a national scale in terms of Value Added Tax regulate the following aspects: 1. Scope of Value Added Tax (VAT); 2. The generating fact of the Value Added Tax (VAT); 3. Chargeability of Value Added Tax (VAT); 4. Tax base of Value Added Tax (VAT); 5. The tax rates of the Value Added Tax (VAT); 6. The regime of deductions related to Value Added Tax (VAT); 7. Obligations of Value Added Tax (VAT) payers; 8. Accounting for Value Added Tax (VAT) operations. The main objective of the second part of this work is to research the current legislative changes brought about by the new regulations of the Fiscal Code effective from January 1, 2024 harmonized with the community regulations regarding the common value added tax system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Avances en Ciencias e Ingeniería is the property of Avances en Ciencias e Ingenieria and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Vaccines and clean water shortages continue to give rise to cholera outbreaks in Africa. Coordinated efforts to increase vaccine distribution and improve physical infrastructure are needed while considering future outbreaks and water demands due to conflicts and climate events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transportation networks play a crucial role in society by enabling the smooth movement of people and goods during regular times and acting as arteries for evacuations during catastrophes and natural disasters. Identifying the critical road segments in a large and complex network is essential for planners and emergency managers to enhance the network's efficiency, robustness, and resilience to such stressors. We propose a novel approach to rapidly identify critical and vital network components (road segments in a transportation network) for resilience improvement or post-disaster recovery. We pose the transportation network as a graph with roads as edges and intersections as nodes and deploy a Graph Neural Network (GNN) trained on a broad range of network parameter changes and disruption events to rank the importance of road segments. The trained GNN model can rapidly estimate the criticality rank of individual road segments in the modified network resulting from an interruption. We address two main limitations in the existing literature that can arise in capital planning or during emergencies: ranking a complete network after changes to components and addressing situations in post-disaster recovery sequencing where some critical segments cannot be recovered. Importantly, our approach overcomes the computational overhead associated with the repeated calculation of network performance metrics, which can limit its use in large networks. To highlight scenarios where our method can prove beneficial, we present examples of synthetic graphs and two real-world transportation networks. Through these examples, we show how our method can support planners and emergency managers in undertaking rapid decisions for planning infrastructure hardening measures in large networks or during emergencies, which otherwise would require repeated ranking calculations for the entire network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strainburst often occurs in the loading process of tangential stress concentration from surrounding rocks after excavation and unloading of deep rock mass. The concentrated tangential stress is relatively larger on the tunnel walls, which decreases towards the interior of surrounding rocks with a certain gradient. To explore the fracture evolution characteristics of surrounding rocks under different tangential gradient stresses and understand various phenomena in the strainburst process, a large‐scale true‐triaxial gradient and hydraulic‐pneumatic composite loading rockburst test device was adopted to carry out the strainburst tests under four different gradient stresses. Based on the macroscopic failure phenomena, distribution of rockburst debris, macro‐micro morphology of failure cross section, and monitored data of acoustic emission (AE), the fracture evolution of rockburst specimens was analyzed under different stress gradient loadings. The results indicate that the stress gradient has an obvious influence on the fracture characteristics, resulting in different rockburst phenomena. With the increase of stress gradient, the failure stress of rockburst decreases, while the dynamic failure characteristics of rockburst trends to be significant. The increase of stress gradient contributes to higher fragmentation degree of debris, more uniform distribution and better continuity. The total number of cracks in the model decreases with the rise of the stress gradient, and the proportion of shear failure increases, which is the main reason for the enhancement of the rockburst intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we suggest a brand new extension of the inverse Lomax distribution for fitting engineering time data. The newly developed distribution, termed the transmuted Topp–Leone inverse Lomax (TTLILo) distribution, is characterized by an additional shape and transmuted parameters. It is critical to notice that the skewness, kurtosis, and tail weights of the distribution are strongly influenced by these additional characteristics of the extra parameters. The TTLILo model is capable of producing right-skewed, J-shaped, uni-modal, and reversed-J-shaped densities. The proposed model's statistical characteristics, including the moments, entropy values, stochastic ordering, stress-strength model, incomplete moments, and quantile function, are examined. Moreover, characterization based on two truncated moments is offered. Using Bayesian and non-Bayesian estimating techniques, we estimate the distribution parameters of the suggested distribution. The bootstrap procedure, approximation, and Bayesian credibility are the three forms of confidence intervals that have been created. A simulation study is used to assess the efficiency of the estimated parameters. The TTLILo model is then put to the test by being applied to actual engineering datasets, demonstrating that it offers a good match when compared to alternative models. Two applications based on real engineering datasets are taken into consideration: one on the failure times of airplane air conditioning systems and the other on the active repair times of airborne communication transceivers. Also, we consider the problem of estimating the stress-strength parameter R = P (Z 2 < Z 1) with engineering application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study was to investigate the role of collaborative communication in the physical distribution service quality of soft drinks in beverage manufacturing plants. A desire to learn more about an area that has received little attention in South Africa while contributing information about the variables that influence the performance of soft drink distribution networks prompted this research. The study adopted a cross-sectional research design, which was essential in obtaining a deeper understanding of the relationship between collaborative communication and the physical distribution of beverages as per the study participants' responses. A sample size of 90 participants from thedifferent soft drink manufacturing plants around Limpopo was utilised in this study. The aspects of collaborative communication were significant determinants of physical distribution service quality. Physical distribution service quality was shown to be significantly predicted by incentive alignment and information sharing but not by decision synchronization. Incentive alignment was established as an important aspect of cooperation that predicts the quality of physical distribution services. The study recommended that different aspects of collaborative communication, such as information sharing and incentive alignment, be implemented in manufacturing plants. The study provided essential information about the role of information sharing decision synchronisation, and incentive alignment in enhancing physical distribution service quality. Different manufacturing firms can use this information to improve their physical distribution services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This manuscript develops a simultaneous navigation and gravity estimation strategy around a small body. The scheme combines dynamical model compensation with a mascon gravity fit. Dynamical compensation adds the unmodeled acceleration to the filter state. Consequently, the navigation filter is able to generate an on-orbit position-unmodeled acceleration dataset. The available measurements correspond to the landmarks-based navigation technique. Accordingly, an on-board camera is able to provide landmark pixels. The aforementioned position-unmodeled acceleration dataset serves to train a mascon gravity model on-board while in flight. The training algorithm finds the optimal mass values and locations using Adam gradient descent. By a careful choice of the mascon variables and constraints projection, the masses are ensured to be positive and within the small body shape. The numerical results provide a comprehensive analysis on the global gravity accuracy for different estimation scenarios. [Display omitted] • Dynamical model compensation and a mascon fit enable autonomous gravity estimation. • A position-unmodeled acceleration dataset is generated by the DMC-UKF. • The DMC-UKF data fits a mascon gravity distribution ensuring physical constraints. • The mascon model is very accurate under a true small body dataset. • The accuracy under stand-alone landmarks-based navigation is thoroughly analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article belongs to the field of theoretical research on map projections. It is observed that there is no unique and generally accepted definition of standard parallels in the cartographic literature. For some authors, a standard line is a line along which there is no distortion, and for others, it is a line along which there is no distortion of length. At the same time, it is forgotten that the length distortions at any point generally change and depend on the direction. The main goal of this article is very simple: the sentence "linear deformation is zero in all directions" is expressed using a mathematical formula. Besides that, the paper introduces equidistance in a broader sense. This is a novelty in the theory of map projections. Equidistance is defined at a point, along a line and in an area, especially in the direction of the parallels and especially in the direction of the meridian. This enables an unambiguous definition of standard parallels. Theoretical considerations are illustrated with examples of cylindrical projections. The practical value of the proposed approach is manifested in the possibility of a better understanding of the distribution of distortions in any map projection used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distribution center is a transit place for goods in the logistics network, used to achieve the distribution of goods. Compared with ordinary logistics, cold chain logistics has higher requirements for timeliness due to the low temperature or ultra-low temperature requirements of transport objects. Aiming at the problems of high cost and low efficiency of cold chain distribution center location, a new location model of cold chain distribution center is developed. The Affinity Propagation (AP) clustering algorithm is used to simplify location selection. And combine the binary semantics with entropy to reduce the subjectivity of the binary semantics in the process of experiment. The results show that the location selection using the research method is optimal, and the problem that multiple secondary distribution centers are the same retailer will not appear. The research method is more objective and scientific for the location of cold chain distribution centers. Compared with ordinary logistics, cold chain logistics has higher requirements for timeliness. Distribution center is the transfer place of goods in the logistics network, which plays an important role in the logistics supply chain system. A new location model of cold chain distribution center is developed. Using Affinity Propagation (AP) clustering algorithm to simplify location selection and combining binary semantics with entropy method can further improve the objectivity of influencing factor index weights. The results show that the problem of multiple secondary distribution centers providing logistics services for the same retailer will not occur in the research method, and the location selection results are optimal. And the logistics cost can be reduced by 0.042%. This study improves the distribution efficiency, enhances the customer experience of cold chain logistics distribution, and provides certain technology and reference value for the development of cold chain logistics distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade embargoes, often imposed for political, economic, or security reasons, have long been a tool of international diplomacy. Transshipments may be employed as a strategic mechanism by nations and organizations to circumvent trade embargoes. Transshipment involves rerouting goods through intermediary ports or countries to obscure their origin, destination, or the parties involved. This practice may be subject to investigation, which could lead to exposing the entities employing it. Strategic management of transshipments has to be devised by those entities (the attackers) battling against the transshipment detection mechanisms adopted by the embargo-setters (the defenders). In this paper, we consider an entity exploiting transshipments through several intermediaries. We derive an optimal strategy for that entity wishing to minimize the probability of being exposed. Our strategy provides the optimal number of intermediaries and the optimal distribution of goods among those intermediaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The threat of rising sea levels, flooding, freeze, extreme heat and changes in the intensity and frequency of severe weather poses substantial risks to critical airport assets and infrastructure. As the gateways to cities and countries around the world and engines of economic development, airports are the backbone for the movement of people and goods across the globe. This paper presents an actionable approach to building resiliency across the airport environment to climate change threats and geophysical hazards. The four-step methodology focuses on planning, designs and engineering, prioritisation of financial investments and ongoing industry research and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effective distribution of relief goods is critical in mitigating the impact of natural disasters and preserving human life. This study addresses a relief goods distribution problem, assuming the existence of multiple relief orders that must be delivered to various disaster-stricken regions from a network of warehouses using a fleet of diverse vehicles. The objective is to identify the most suitable warehouse for each relief order, allocate relief orders to vehicles, batch the orders in the designated vehicles, and devise routing plans to minimize the total delivery time. A mixed-integer linear programming model is formulated to tackle this problem. Owing to the problem's NP-hard nature, a metaheuristic algorithm, known as the Multiple League Championship Algorithm, is developed. Furthermore, two innovative variants of the MLCA, namely the League Base Multiple League Championship Algorithm (L-MLCA) and the Playoff Multiple League Championship Algorithm (P-MLCA), are introduced. Experimental results indicate that the P-MLCA outperforms the other two algorithms. The solutions derived from the P-MLCA are compared with the optimal solutions obtained by a commercial solver for small-scale problems. This comparative analysis demonstrates the promising performance of the P-MLCA in finding the optimal distribution of relief goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transport problems related to the distribution of goods and services from various production centers to several points of sale. Distribution plays an important role because without the right distribution model, the distribution process can take a high cost and a relatively long time. In this study using the least cost method where its use is based on rules or normative allocation of supply and resource needs in a transport matrix without calculating the economic magnitude, from the results of this study, the cost of Minimum shipment is IDR 325,050,000 with consolidated delivery as follows because Tangerang factory ships to Balikpapan, Cirebon and Palembang cities. For Karawang factory to send products to Jakarta city, Surabaya, Bali, Yogyakarta and Cirebon Meanwhile, the Sidoarjo factory ships products to the cities of Surabaya and Makassar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the differences between an industrial strategy approach and a foundational economy approach in improving people's lives and achieving decarbonization. The industrial strategy approach focuses on growing GDP through financial stability, innovation, and start-ups, while the foundational economy approach prioritizes the necessities of a good life for households, including distribution and access to goods and services. The article criticizes the UK's reliance on industrial policy based on the US model and highlights the importance of considering the limitations and challenges of industrial and innovation strategies. It suggests that a focus on the household and the provision of actual goods and services is necessary for economic policy and decarbonization efforts. The article concludes by advocating for a more modest politics that emphasizes improvement and imitation rather than rhetoric and social misery. [Extracted from the article]

Distribution network for e-commerce is an important supply chain (SC) networks required for effective management of warehousing. Due to the recent disruption in the SC, minimal lead times for product delivery days can no longer be guaranteed, thereby causing an increase in distribution and delivery of goods. This paper investigated some human factors (HFs) to understand the root cause of the ongoing disruption in the SC system using statistical and exploratory data analysis. The findings revealed that HFs has a huge significance in a distribution system. To our best knowledge, these findings are seldom reported in literature of e-commerce systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ground motion record selection is a standard step in state‐of‐the‐art performance‐based earthquake engineering (PBEE) applications. It links the structural response to seismic hazard of the site of interest. In this process, suites of hazard‐consistent ground motion recordings of a wide range of intensity levels are selected (and often scaled) from a database of ground motions to be used as input to nonlinear dynamic response analysis. The ideal practice would be to select ground motions from a database of recorded accelerograms in such a way that they are consistent with the seismic hazard at as many intensity measure (IM) levels as possible and for all important causative scenarios. However, the available databases are not heavily populated, especially for the large‐magnitude short‐distance scenarios. Therefore, synthetic ground motions are the natural candidates to enlarge the database of recordings for scenarios that are important to the site hazard but lack, completely or partially, recorded accelerograms. The usage of such recordings, however, can be recommended only after they are proven to be "realistic" through a battery of seismological and statistical tests. In this study, we propose and implement a multi‐fold testing framework for such an evaluation. We first generate a ground motion database of simulated ground motions (SDB) whose values of the parameters of the causative earthquakes are, to the extent possible, the same of those that caused the ground motions in a mirror database of recorded ground motions (RDB). We then utilize the conditional spectrum (CS) approach computed for a hypothetical rock site in Perugia, Italy, to select hazard consistent records separately from the RDB and SDB databases. A comprehensive set of comparisons of distributions of several IMs, computed from the selected sets, and of distributions of engineering demand parameters (EDPs), that such record sets induce on simple SDoF structures suggests the adequacy of using the proposed simulated ground motions for structural response analyses of structures on stiff and rock sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world economy has recently navigated through the pandemic caused by the coronavirus. Almost all the affected countries have responded with stringency measures to control the pandemic. However, these restrictions appear to have critically impacted the global supply chain and cross-border movement of goods. In this regard, we attempt to investigate the impact of pandemic-related stringency measures on India's import demand. For this purpose, we use bilateral monthly import data of India with its major trading counterparts. Our findings suggest that stringency measures have a positive impact on imports, indicating that the economy relies more on imported items when its domestic production and supply chain are disrupted by the pandemic-related restrictions. Conversely, the import origin countries' restrictions have a negative impact on Indian imports, indicating that these restrictions have adversely affected the production and supply chain in origin countries, thereby reducing the overall flow of imports to India. We also find that economic policy uncertainty of home and product origin countries has a negative impact on Indian imports. Our results also confirm that the pandemic-related restrictions and different types of uncertainty have an asymmetric effect on imports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the exponentially generated system was used to modify a two-parameter Chen distribution to a four-parameter distribution with better performance. The property of complete probability distribution function was used to verify the completeness of the resulting distribution, which shows that the distribution is a proper probability distribution function. A simulation study involving varying sample sizes was used to ascertain the asymptotic property of the new distribution. Small and large sample sizes were considered which shows the closeness of the estimates to the true value as the sample size increases. Lifetime dataset were used for model comparison which shows the superiority of exponentially generated modify Chen distribution over some existing distributions. It is therefore recommended to use the four-parameter Chen distribution in place of the well-known two-parameter Chen distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To identify the magnitude and direction of in situ stress in deeply buried tunnels, an inversion method for the stress field was proposed based on a finite number of measurement points of surface strain. Firstly, elastic strain data of finite points on the surface of tunnel surrounding rock were acquired using the borehole stress relief method at the engineering site. Secondly, a finite element model of the tunnel surrounding rock with plastic damage was established, and the parameters of the finite element model were substituted using the SIGINI subroutine. Then, an improved Surrogate Model Accelerated Random Search (SMARS) was developed using genetic algorithm programming on the MATLAB™ platform to invert and attain the globally optimal boundary conditions. Finally, the obtained optimal boundary conditions were applied to the numerical model to calculate the stress distribution in the engineering site. The reliability of this method was validated through a three-dimensional example. The method has been successfully applied to the stress-field analysis of deep tunnels in Macheng Iron Mine, Hebei Province, China. The research results show that this method is a low-cost, reliable approach for stress-field inversion in the rock around a tunnel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce a new technique, that we dub Born spreading, aimed at reducing the number of negative-weight S events in the MC@NLO matching of NLO calculations with parton-shower simulations. We show that such a technique, based on a re-distribution of Born matrix elements in the radiative phase space, achieves a sizeable reduction of negative-weight events at little computational cost. The method does not induce any biases in physical distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Physical Internet (PI) provides a solution for coping with the continuous rise in urban logistical demands by exploring same-level and cross-level paths. This research suggests a PI-based urban logistical distribution model based on PI distribution that minimizes transportation costs. It also intends to maintain the integrity of the logistical transportation process. This proposed model enhances the flexibility of goods operation and reduces the global cost of logistics' distribution using an interconnected and open PI logistics distribution mode. This model also explores the functional aspects of the operational problems of city logistical systems and relates to optimization problems. These functionalities are realized by the hierarchical functional structure and are characterized by different cost specifications. The proposed framework provides better integration and cooperation between city logistics warehouses and higher utilization level of logistical infrastructure. The experimental results show that the distribution cost of the PI logistics model is significantly better than that of a traditional logistics model. The elastic and cost advantages grow relatively as the infrastructure for distribution scales up and interruptions from emergencies occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In practical cyber-manufacturing systems (CMS), the node component is the forwarder of information and the provider of services. This dual role makes the whole system have the typical physical-services interaction characteristic, making CMS more vulnerable to cascading failures than general manufacturing systems. In this work, in order to reasonably characterize the cascading process of CMS, we first develop an interdependent network model for CMS from a physical-service networking perspective. On this basis, a realistic cascading failure model for CMS is designed with full consideration of the routing-oriented load distribution characteristics of the physical network and selective load distribution characteristics of the service network. Through extensive experiments, the soundness of the proposedmodel has been verified and some meaningful findings have been obtained: (1) attacks on the physical network are more likely to trigger cascading failures and may cause more damage; (2) interdependency failures are the main cause of performance degradation in the service network during cascading failures; and (3) isolation failures are the main cause of performance degradation in the physical network during cascading failures. The obtained results can certainly help users to design a more reliable CMS against cascading failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]