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Viking Age archaeological wooden objects from the Oseberg find have undergone extensive chemical deterioration due to the original conservation treatment, based on alum salts (KAl(SO4)2·12H2O), done in the early 1900s. Today, the artefacts are highly acidic (pH ≤ 2), fragile and the wood has almost completely lost its structural integrity. This study is part of a wider research project on conservation methods for these finds, currently underway. Multi-functional organic/inorganic hybrid systems, engineered to deacidify and consolidate alum-treated wood in a single step, have been studied. These products, made of a polysiloxanes’ network and nanostructured Ca(OH)2, have given promising results in terms of penetration, deacidification, consolidation and maintenance of the wood properties. This work provides a comparison between two hybrid systems having in common a backbone of poly(dimethylsiloxane) hydroxy‑terminated (PDMS-OH) and alkaline nanoparticles (NPs) (as deacidifying agent), along with tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), methyltriethoxysilane (MTES) applied to fresh and archaeological wood, respectively. Colour, pH, dimensions, SEM-EDS and ultrasonic velocity measurements, in addition to hardness tests, were collected on the treated mock-ups to investigate the outcomes of the two systems in terms of conservation efficacy. FTIR-ATR and DVS have also been carried out for systems characterization. From the analysis performed, the most promising hybrid system seems to be the one prepared with MTES as structural polymer. In addition, it has been highlighted the requirement of a method for sol application other than immersion when objects are already treated with resins.

Rano Raraku, the crater lake constrained by basaltic tuff that served as the primary quarry used to construct themoaistatues on Rapa Nui (Easter Island), has experienced fluctuations in lake level over the past centuries. As one of the only freshwater sources on the island, understanding the present and past geochemical characteristics of the lake water is critical to understand if the lake could have been a viable freshwater source for Rapa Nui. At the time of sampling in September 2017, the maximum lake depth was ~1 m. The lake level has substantially declined in the subsequent years, with the lake drying almost completely in January 2018. The lake is currently characterized by highly anoxic conditions, with a predominance of ammonium ions on nitrates, a high concentration of organic carbon in the water-sediment interface and reducing conditions of the lake, as evidenced by Mn/Fe and Cr/V ratios. Our estimates of past salinity inferred from the chloride mass balance indicates that it was unlikely that Rano Raraku provided a viable freshwater source for early Rapa Nui people. The installation of an outlet pipe around 1950 that was active until the late 1970s, as well as grazing of horses on the lake margins appear to have significantly impacted the geochemical conditions of Rano Raraku sediments and lake water in recent decades. Such impacts are distinct from natural environmental changes and highlight the need to consider the sensitivity of the lake geochemistry to human activities.

In the last decades, an increasing set of companies adopted lean philosophy to improve their productivity and efficiency promoting the so-called continuous improvement concept, reducing waste of time and cutting off no-value added activities. In parallel, increasing attention rises toward green practice and management through the spread of the green supply chain pattern, to minimise landfilled waste, drained wastewater and pollutant emissions. Starting from a review on contributions deepening lean and green principles applied to supply chain management, the most relevant drivers to measure the performance of industrial processes are pointed out. Specific attention is paid on the role of cost because it is of key importance and it crosses both lean and green principles. This analysis leads to figure out an original reference framework for integrating lean and green principles in designing and managing supply chains. The proposed framework supports the application, to the whole value chain or to parts of it, e.g. distribution network, assembly system, job-shop, storage system etc., of the lean-green integrated perspective. Evidences show that the combination of the lean and green practices lead to great results, higher than the sum of the performances from their separate application. Lean thinking has beneficial effects on green practices and, at the same time, methods allowing environmental savings generate positive effects on time reduction and process quality increase., {"references":["C. M. Dües, K. Tan, M. Lim, \"Green as the new Lean: how to use Lean practices as a catalyst to greening your supply chain,\" Journal of cleaner production, v 40, p 93-100, 2012.","B. Verrier, B. Rose, E. Caillaud, H. Remita, \"Combining organizational performance with sustainable development issues: The Green and Lean project benchmarking repository,\" Journal of Cleaner Production, v 85, p 83-93, 2013.","A. 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Several studies have put to question and evaluated the indication and prognosis of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SNLB) as sole treatment in human breast cancer. We reviewed 1588 patients who underwent axillary surgery. In 239 patients, axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) was performed following positive fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC), and, in 299 cases, ALND was executed after positive SNLB. The most dramatic result from our data is that patients with either micrometastasis of the sentinel lymph node (SLN) or only metastatic SLN have, respectively, an 84.5% and a 75.0% chance of having no other nodal involvement. We believe a more refined patient selection is neccessary when considering ALND. Where the primary tumor is larger than 5 cm, where radio or adjuvant therapies are not indicated, in cases of FNAC+ nodes, and in cases presenting more than one metastatic sentinel node, we prefer to carry out ALND. Having thus said, however, our data suggests that it is wise not to perform ALND in almost all cases presenting positive SLNs.

ChemoHyperthermic Peritoneal Perfusion (CHPP) after cytoreductive surgery is a relatively new procedure in the treatment of abdominal carcinomatosis or sarcomatosis. An assessment of the CHPP technique performed on 20 patients suffering from abdominal malignancies was carried out. After surgical debulking and gastrointestinal anastomosis, two Tenckhoff catheters were positioned for the immediate performance of CHPP, which was carried out at 42-43 degrees C for 1 h, after closing the abdomen. In 19 assessable patients, 47.3% and 36.8% complete responses (CR) were recorded at 1 and 6 months, respectively, with responses of 37.5% in patients affected with gastrointestinal cancer and 50% in patients affected with ovarian cancer. CR were obtained only in patients who had undergone accurate peritoneal debulking. Survival rate for gastrointestinal and ovarian cancer was 68% at 12 months. Patients who underwent radical cytoreductive surgery are all alive at a follow-up median time of 17 months. Two anastomotic leakages with spontaneous recovery were observed, along with one hydrothorax, which was immediately drained during the procedure, three cases of chemotherapic gastrointestinal toxicity, one sepsis, one renal failure that required a transient dialysis, and one cholecystitis that required cholecystectomy. One patient died 30 days after CHPP of a cardiac ischaemia not strictly related to the surgical procedure. In the authors' experience, CHPP with closed abdomen after reconstructive gastrointestinal surgery is a safe and feasible treatment with acceptable side effects.

In order to establish the prevalence of intrahepatic cholestasis (IHC) in chronic liver disease, we retrospectively evaluated the frequency of increased serum total bilirubin (STB), serum conjugated bilirubin (SCB) and serum alkaline phosphatase (SAP) levels in a cohort of 2520 patients with newly diagnosed chronic liver disease presenting over 2 years. 882 patients (35%) [mean age 52.2 years] had IHC involving abnormal levels of STB (mean 89.8 μmol/L), SCB (mean 52.5 μmol/L), and SAP (mean 5.7 μkat/L) together with a negative ultrasonic scan. Demographic data were not predictive of IHC. IHC was more frequent in patients with cirrhosis (43%), primary biliary cirrhosis (54%), and primary sclerosing cholangitis (67%) than in those with chronic persistent hepatitis (17%) and chronic active hepatitis (32%). 611 of 882 patients (69%) were symptomatic; there were 3 times more patients with jaundice than there were with pruritus (64 vs 22%). Age, sex and liver disease stage did not predict the occurrence of symptomatic IHC. Increased serum bilirubin was related to the presence of jaundice but not pruritus. The prevalence of IHC was similar in the geographical regions involved in the study (34.5% in Italy vs 35.6% in the UK). In conclusion, IHC is a common complication of chronic liver disease, being more frequent in advanced disease. Pruritus is a predominant complaint in 1 of 4 patients with IHC and is unrelated to IHC severity.

Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) requires the earliest possible treatment, as it increases the risk of premature delivery and fetal distress. Furthermore, the severity of pruritus in ICP may interfere with the mother’s well-being. We present results of a trial involving an additional 55 cases of ICP (mean age 29 years), who received SAMe 800 mg/day intravenously at the onset of ICP, for 10 to 30 days. Clinical assessment of pruritus and measurements of serum total bile salts (STBS), serum total and conjugated bilirubin (STB, SCB), serum alkaline phosphatase (SAP), and aspartate and alanine aminotransferases (AST, ALT) were performed before and after therapy. SAMe treatment significantly (p < 0.01) decreased STBS (18.3 ± 3.4 vs 23.1 ± 3.4 μmol/L), SCB (7.8 ± 0.8 vs 10.7 ± 1.2 μmol/L), SAP (4.7 ± 0.2 vs 6.1 ± 0.3 μkat/L), AST (0.9 ± 0.1 vs 2.0 ± 0.2 μkat/L), and ALT (1.6 ± 0.1 vs 2.9 ± 0.2 μkat/L) levels compared with basal values. At baseline, most patients exhibited normal STB and therefore no significant change in this parameter was recorded after therapy. Pruritus was significantly improved after SAMe treatment, and was reduced in 15 patients and had disappeared in 40 patients. No adverse reactions were observed. There were no cases of premature labour, and all newborns had normal Apgar scores (mean 8.2) and were of normal weight for gestational age. These results further support the use of SAMe therapy in ICP.

In order to extend the limited data concerning the anti-ischaemic activity of S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAMe), we evaluated the effect of SAMe in isolated perfused rat liver during and after normal-flow ischaemia (30 minutes) and reoxygenation (60 minutes). Application of SAMe 100 ¼mol/L in the perfusate suppressed (almost completely) the release of lactate dehydrogenase, alanine aminotransferase and sorbitol dehydrogenase into the perfusion medium. Furthermore, SAMe treatment resulted in substantial (44%) enhancement of bile flow and hepatic levels of glutathione and adenosine triphosphate compared with non-SAMe-treated livers, during both hypoxia and reoxygenation. Histological evaluation showed a marked reduction in the score for severity of liver necrosis with SAMe treatment (1.5 ± 0.5 vs 2.6 ± 0.3, score 0-4).

In 2 placebo-controlled studies a high dose of S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAMe) has proven effective in ameliorating pruritus and liver biochemistry in women with intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy. Due to the low prevalence of this disease in Europe the number of cases reported in these studies was small. To confirm and extend previous observations we contribute 9 additional cases of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (age 22 to 41 years) occurring between the twenty-first and thirty-sixth (mean thirtieth) week of pregnancy, treated with intravenous SAMe (800 mg/day in IL saline) for 2 weeks. A significant (p < 0.01, Wilcoxon’s test) decrease in serum total bile salts and amino-transferases as well as pruritus (score 0 to 3) was observed after treatment in respect to basal values. As most patients showed normal values of serum total bilirubin at baseline, no significant change in this parameter was found after SAMe treatment. No untoward effects occurred either in mother or fetus. Our findings add evidence of the efficacy and safety of SAMe treatment in intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy. Increase of liver plasma membrane fluidity and/or enhancement of biliary transport of bile salts may underlie SAMe-induced beneficial effects.

Concerns regarding a potential link between statin treatment and increased risk of cancer were raised following the increased cancer incidence observed in patients treated with pravastatin in the Cholesterol and Recurrent Events and Pravastatin in Elderly Individuals at Risk of Vascular Disease studies. The aim of the present study was to investigate the risk of cancer associated with fluvastatin treatment in clinical trials. A pooled analysis of all available, randomised, placebo-controlled trials with fluvastatin with a minimum treatment period of 24 weeks was performed. The cancer incidences were compared in 3512 patients receiving fluvastatin, 20-80 mg/day, and 3289 patients receiving placebo. Overall, fewer patients were diagnosed with cancer in the fluvastatin group compared with the placebo group [220/3512 (6.3%) vs. 263/3289 (8.0%) respectively; p = 0.0309]. Cox regression analysis, adjusted for baseline covariates and stratified by study, revealed a hazard ratio for first cancer diagnosis of 0.812 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.667-0.989; p = 0.037] for fluvastatin compared with placebo. No significant differences were observed in the incidence of cancers by site, with the exception of non-melanoma skin cancer (103 vs. 125 cases in the fluvastatin and placebo groups respectively; p = 0.047). Cox regression analysis showed that there was no association between baseline low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels and the risk of developing cancer (hazard ratio 0.998, 95% CI 0.995-1.000; p = 0.107). In conclusion, fluvastatin treatment is not associated with an increased risk of cancer compared with placebo in clinical trials, independent of patient age, treatment duration and baseline cholesterol levels.

Systemic chemotherapy does not satisfactorily improve the poor prognosis of pancreas and biliary tract cancer unresectable or metastatic to the liver. Intra-arterial infusion of antineoplastic agents can give higher concentrations to the tumor and slighter concentrations to the whole body, with a potential of efficacy and lower toxicity, due to the hepatic clearance.Based on a safe and ambulatorial technique of transcutaneous arterial port implantation, this study was designed to evaluate feasibility and toxicity of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) intra-arterial continuous infusion combined with systemic gemcitabine with dose escalation. Seventeen patients affected by pancreatic (14) or biliary tract (3) cancer received up to six cycles of treatment. Treatment consisted of intravenous gemcitabine on d 1 and 8 and intra-arterial 5-FU continuous infusion on d 1-14 every 21 d. Dose-escalation levels were 900 and 1000 mg/m2 for gemcitabine and 8, 10, 12, 15, and 17 mg/kg/d for 5-FU. Consecutive cohorts of three patients were planned at each dose level.Gastrointestinal toxicity (vomiting and diarrhea [3rd-4th degree] and gastritis), constituted the dose-limiting toxicity, with a maximum-tolerated dose of 1000 mg/m2 for gemcitabine and 15 mg/kg/d for 5-FU. Hematological toxicity was present in a minority of patients. No patient had acute or later complications such as arterial thrombosis related to the implanted arterial port, sclerosis cholangitis, or chemical cholecistitis.5-Fluorouracil intra-arterial continuous infusion, combined with systemic gemcitabine, seems to be a feasible and safe regimen that could give interesting results in pancreatic cancer.

Myelolipoma is a rare benign pathology whose pathogenesis is still unclear. It is most frequently localised in the adrenal gland, followed by the presacral region, mediastinum, and perirenal and hepatic region. It varies in size from a few millimetres to several centimetres. The lesion is usually capsulated, detachable from the surrounding tissues and hypovascularised. In histological terms, it is composed of lipomatous and hematopoietic tissues. A 65-year-old female patient was referred to our unit after the finding of a nonbiopsied, pelvic mass during earlier surgery. The patient was in considerable pain owing to the extrinsic compression of the mass on abdominal and pelvic organs. Preoperative tests confirmed the presence of a voluminous presacral neoformation that appeared to have a possible medullary origin (chordoma or schwannoma). During surgery, the lesion was found to be capsulated and mainly adherent to the rectum. Histological analysis confirmed the myelolipomatous nature of the lesion. A review of 21 cases reported in the literature is presented.

O31 Multicentre report of the effect of caesarean section on adherence to antiretroviral therapy in a resource-constrained setting R. Akuse, J. Akuse, N. Okeji, J. Adze. Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Shika, Zaria, Nigeria, Sefa Specialist Hospital, 5 College Road, P. O. Box 3626, Kaduna, Nigeria, Nigeria Armed Forces Reference Hospital, Kaduna, Nigeria, Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital, Kaduna, Nigeria

Parenteral S-adenosylmethionine proved to be effective in reversing intrahepatic cholestasis in pregnant women. Based on these findings, a prospective multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was planned to assess whether oral S-adenosylmethionine is effective in cholestatic patients with chronic liver disease. Accordingly, 220 inpatients (26% chronic active hepatitis, 68% cirrhosis, 6% primary biliary cirrhosis) with stable (1 month or more) at least twofold increases in serum total and conjugated bilirubin and alkaline phosphatase volunteered for the trial. Serum markers of cholestasis significantly (P less than 0.01) decreased after oral S-adenosylmethionine administration (1600 mg/day), and their values were significantly (P less than 0.01) lower than the corresponding values in the placebo group. S-adenosylmethionine significantly (P less than 0.01) improved subjective symptoms such as pruritus, fatigue, and feeling of being unwell, whereas placebo was ineffective. Two patients in the S-adenosylmethionine group and 9 controls (P less than 0.05) withdrew from the trial for reduced compliance because of inefficacy of treatment. Oral S-adenosylmethionine was tolerated to the same extent as placebo. In conclusion, short-term administration of oral S-adenosylmethionine is more effective than placebo in improving clinical and laboratory measures of intrahepatic cholestasis and offers a new therapeutic modality for the symptomatic management of this syndrome.

Recent studies have established the clinical efficacy of S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAMe) in the treatment of cholestasis associated with hepatic diseases, pregnancy and the administration of estrogen-containing oral contraceptives. In 4 clinical trials involving a total of 639 patients with cholestasis due to acute or chronic liver disease, SAMe in an intravenous dose of 800 mg/day or an oral regimen of 1.6 g/day for 2 weeks was superior to placebo in relieving the symptom of pruritus and in restoring serum total bilirubin and serum alkaline phosphatase towards normal. The drug is also effective in intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP), with intravenous administration of 800 mg/day for 2 weeks producing a substantial reduction in pruritus and an improvement in abnormal liver function indices. Moreover, SAMe treatment decreases the incidence of premature labour. SAMe appears to be the first safe and effective approach to the treatment of this syndrome, and also protects against the adverse hepatic effects of small doses of estrogen in patients with a history of ICP by normalising liver biochemistry and the oversaturated biliary lipid composition of the gallbladder bile. In animal models, SAMe reverses the pathological liver changes induced by xenobiotics such as taurolithocholate and alpha-naphthyl-isothiocyanate (ANIT) and the antipsychotic chlorpromazine. Several cooperative mechanisms appear to underlie the anticholestatic action of SAMe, the most important being the restoration of normal hepatocyte membrane fluidity and Na+, K+ ATPase activity, through a reversal of the reduction in phospholipid methylation produced by hepatotoxic agents. In addition, SAMe may act by promoting trans-sulphuration pathway reactions and consequently improving the detoxifying capacity of this metabolic system.

S-Adenosylmethionine (SAMe) proved to be effective in antagonizing bile secretion impairment induced by a wide range of hepatotoxins, including ethynylestradiol, taurolithocholate, chlorpromazine and alpha-naphthyl-isothiocyanate. The anticholestatic activity of SAMe may result from its role in the intermediate metabolism as this molecule is involved in transmethylation and transsulfuration reactions. Clinical experience, carried-out on more than 1,000 cholestatic patients, supports preclinical data. In particular, controlled clinical trials have documented that intravenous SAMe (800 mg/day) induced a significant decrease of biochemical parameters of cholestasis (serum total and conjugated bilirubin, serum total bile salts, and aminotransferases), as well as a significant improvement of pruritus in women with ICP compared with placebo. In addition, other studies provided the evidence that both parenteral (800 mg/day) and oral SAMe (1600 mg/day) significantly improves subjective (pruritus, fatigue, and general discomfort) and objective (serum total and conjugated bilirubin, and serum alkaline phosphatase) parameters of cholestasis in patients with intrahepatic cholestasis complicating chronic liver diseases compared with placebo. In all these trials, SAMe treatment has been well tolerated at the same extent as placebo. In conclusion, experimental and clinical investigations indicate that SAMe represents an effective and safe approach to the management of intrahepatic cholestasis.

841 Background: Metastatic breast cancer is a challenge for medical oncologists and the mean survival after the neoplasm systemic diffusion is around 2 years. After the bone, the liver is the secon...

Wind is a clean source of energy which is spread over wide globe regions. This natural source of energy encourages the planners and stakeholders establishing investments towards installation of wind farms. Wind energy experts are looking through efficient alternatives for the best utilization of the wind energy. Design of wind farms is a fundamental stage of wind energy projects. This study aims to address this issue by considering wind farm design to reduce the levelized cost of the generated wind energy. In the first part of the paper, an analysis of previous research works is carried out to find the latest advancements concerning the design of the wind farm layouts. In the next step, a real application, geo-located in Iran, investigates the effect of different layouts for the wind turbines. A cost approach based on the net present value (NPV) and the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) is used. The results show the optimum positioning of the wind turbines within the site to minimize interferences among the blades maximizing the economic return on the investment.

Within cellular manufacturing systems (CMSs), families of parts are assigned to manufacturing cells, composed by homogeneous sets of machines. In conventional CMSs, each cell is devoted to the production of a specific part family, reducing material handling and work-in-process. Despite their flexibility, such systems still suffer from coping with the present market challenges asking for dynamic part mix and the need of agility in manufacturing. To meet these challenges, the recent literature explores the idea of including elements of the emerging reconfigurable manufacturing paradigm in the design and management of CMSs, leading to the cellular reconfigurable manufacturing system (CRMS) concept. The aim of this paper is to propose an original linear programming optimization model for the design of CRMSs with alternative part routing and multiple time periods. The production environment consists of multiple cells equipped with reconfigurable machine tools (RMTs) made of basic and auxiliary custom modules. By changing the auxiliary modules, different operations become available on the same RMT. The proposed approach determines the part routing mix and the auxiliary module allocation best balancing the part flows among RMTs and the effort to install the modules on the machines. The approach discussion is supported by a literature case study, while a multi-scenario analysis is performed to assess the impact of different CMS configurations on the system performances, varying both the number of cells and the RMT assignment to each of them. A benchmarking concludes the paper comparing the proposed CRMS against a conventional CMS configuration. The analysis shows relevant benefits in terms of reduction of the intercellular travel time (− 58.6%) getting a global time saving of about 53.3%. Results prove that reconfigurability is an opportunity for industries to face the dynamics of global markets.

The management of the production and procurement of the assembled parts in an assembly to order (ATO) environment is a challenging problem. Due to the high variety and high inventory space utilization of the sheet metal plate parts, many companies choose to include in their production the cutting, blending, welding and if necessary, painting processes, reducing the lead time and consequently the stocks levels. The related trade-off between the setup times and the inventory space utilization is clear. This paper aims to propose a bi-objective optimization model to properly set the MTO/MTS policy to adopt. A case study is reported to test the model and to demonstrate the practical implication of this research.

Mixed-model Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMSs) and, more recently, Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (RMSs) are widely studied as diffuse solutions for complex production environments, targeting variable markets and highly dynamic production plans. Their design and management are challenging both in new plants and for plant-redesign actions. In this field, the literature suggests the adoption of cellular configurations as effective solutions. These configurations partition the FMS and RMS machines into manufacturing cells and assign the working parts to the cells to reduce the so-called intercellular flows, causing costs and inbound congestions. This paper advances the current literature presenting and applying an optimal linear programming cost model for the redesign of mixed-model FMS/RMS cellular production environments. The model goes beyond the widely studied partitioning of the FMSs among the cells and it best balances machine relocations and redundancies, the production area layout optimization and the intercellular flow reduction. The major industrial operative constraints are included in the model together with a reference case study to exemplify its advantages toward the standard approaches.

Tobacco is among the top sectors, worldwide, for revenues and aggregate turnover with a global market arena and a group of top players progressively driving the change toward high-quality standards and a strong customer and environmental care. Behind cigarettes, the tobacco supply chain includes agricultural and industrial phases, to grow and cure the tobacco leaves and to manufacture and deliver the final products. This study addresses the goal of greening the tobacco flue-curing process, aimed at drying the tobacco leaves and known as the most energy-intensive process, presenting a joint techno-economic and environmental feasibility study for Virginia tobacco type in Italy. Starting from a review of the process, the curing barn features and the required physical conditions to obtain top quality flue-cured tobacco, this study investigates the impact of using biomass instead of fossil fuels to feed the heat generators. The input data, to support the analysis, are from Italian producers selling tobacco to an international leading company that joined the present research. Results highlight that the switch to non-fossil fuels for tobacco curing leads to annual cost savings up to 13% and to global environmental savings, i.e. emitted equivalent carbon dioxide reduction, up to 95% without product quality decrease.

The current research aims to present an inclusive review of latest research works performed with the aim of improving the efficiency of the hybrid renewable energy systems (HRESs) by employing diverse ranges of the optimization techniques, which aid the designers to achieve the minimum expected total cost, while satisfying the power demand and the reliability. For this purpose, a detailed analysis of the different classification drivers considering the design factors such as the optimization goals, utilized optimization methods, grid type as well as the investigated technology has been conducted. Initial results have indicated that among all optimization goals, load demand parameters including loss of power supply probability (LPSP) and loss of load probability (LLP), cost, sizing (configuration), energy production, and environmental emissions are the most frequent design variables which have been cited the most. Another result of this paper indicates that almost 70% of the research projects have been dedicated towards the optimization of the off-grid applications of the HRESs. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that, integration of the PV, wind and battery is the most frequent configuration. In the next stage of the paper, a review concerning the sizing methods is also carried out to outline the most common techniques which are used to configure the components of the HRESs. In this regard, an analysis covering the optimized indicators such as the cost drivers, energy index parameters, load indicators, battery’s state of charge, PV generator area, design parameters such as the LPSP, and the wind power generation to load ratio, is also performed.

none 4 no Packaging is typically the last task in a production process, especially in an assembly system. If an assembled product is sold as a single unit, its packaging is normally performed by the last workstation, in order to obtain a ready-for-sale product. Moreover, assembled product often comes with its accessories, packaged all together and supplied to the customer as a single unit: a sales kit. Due to the variety of products and accessories, the variety of kits is continuously increasing, requiring a complex definition of the best packaging strategy to adopt. The present paper aims to analyse the packaging problem in a production system, identifying and comparing the packaging strategies. These strategies provide, through a comparison model of total cost functions, a decision-making procedure for operations managers. Through a simulative study, a set of convenience areas for each analysed packaging strategy is derived. The findings from an industrial case study are also reported to validate the proposed methodology. M. Faccio; M. Gamberi; F. Pilati; M. Bortolini M. Faccio; M. Gamberi; F. Pilati; M. Bortolini

The impact of packaging waste on the environment is becoming unsustainable, which has necessitated a turning point in material recycling and reuse. Such a concept is highly relevant in the humanitarian supply chain due to the huge mass of packaging items that are provided to countries hit by disasters, with these bad conditions making it almost impossible to adopt a rational management of waste streams. The goal of this study is to provide an approach and feasible solutions to reduce the environmental influence of waste produced by packaging and at the same time, to help people affected by disasters. Starting from the analysis of the available materials, several solutions of packaging reuse and recycling are developed and several prototypes are realized and tested in collaboration with the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depots-Lab (UNHRD-Lab), which starts from the basic packaging materials used to supply first-aid to people, including cardboard, pallets, woods, and plastics. This paper addresses the above ideas and presents the design process, results and some quality tests. The experimental evidence encourages future on-field validation in refugee camps.

The handling activities within mixed-model assembly systems deal with two different logistic levels of the production environment. The micro-logistic level includes movements of parts across each assembly station due to pick to assembly activities. The macro-logistic level includes movements of parts within the supermarket and to deliver the stock-keeping units to the assembly stations. The most frequently adopted part-feeding policies, i.e., kanban system and kitting system, strongly influences both logistic levels with opposite effects. The former continuously refills the assembly stations; the latter prepares and delivers kits of components for each product. Moving from kanban to kitting system the time spent at the macro-logistic level increases. On the contrary, the time spent in part handling at the micro-logistic level decreases when moving from kanban to kitting system. Effective trade-offs are encouraged. This paper analyses the two introduced part-feeding policies, including hybrid possibilities, through an operative total handling time comparison model. The findings from five industrial cases belonging to different sectors and a global simulation analysis are discussed. Conclusions about the impact of some of the most important logistic variables of the production system to the whole performances drive the industrial practitioners in the part-feeding policy selection.