Operations Research for green logistics – An overview of aspects,issues, contributions and challenges

The worldwide economic growth of the last century has given rise to a vast consumption of goods while globalization has led to large streams of goods all over the world. The production, transportation, storage and consumption of all these goods, however, have created large environmental problems. Today, global warming, created by large scale emissions of greenhouse gasses, is a top environmental concern. Governments, action groups and companies are asking for measures to counter this threat. Operations Research has a long tradition in improving operations and especially in reducing costs. In this paper, we present a review that highlights the contribution of Operations Research to green logistics, which involves the integration of environmental aspects in logistics. We give a sketch of the present and possible developments, focussing on design, planning and control in a supply chain for transportation, inventory of products and facility decisions. While doing this, we also indicate several areas where environmental aspects could be included in OR models for logistics.     

Bisphosphine based hetero-capsules for the encapsulation of transition metals

Just mixing of solutions of tetracationic diphosphine ligands and tetraanionic calix[4]arene building blocks leads to the formation of supramolecular heterocapsules that coordinate a palladium metal within the cavity of the assembly, giving rise to a new class of potential supramolecular transition metal catalysts.     

Optimizing a General Optimal Replacement Model by Fractional Programming Techniques

In this paper we adapt the well-known parametric approachfrom fractional programming to solvea class of fractional programs with a noncompact feasible region.Such fractional problems belong to an important class ofsingle component preventive maintenance models.Moreover, for a special but important subclass we showthat the subproblems occurring in this parametric approachare easy solvable.To solve the problem directly we also propose for a relatedsubclass a specialized version of the bisection method.Finally, we present some computational results for these twomethods applied to an inspection model and a minimal repair modelhaving both a unimodal failure rate.     

In Memoriam: Herman F. Mark. May 3, 1895-April 6, 1992

Abstract

Professor Herman F. Mark died on April 6, 1992, one month before his 97th birthday. For almost 70 years Herman Mark was in the forefront of polymer chemistry. He was an outstanding scientist, a superb teacher, a fascinating lecturer, an excellent organizer, and a remarkable human being. In the early days of his scientific career he determined the crystal structures of cellulose and a number of other natural and synthetic polymers. He also played a leading role in the develop- ment of the kinetic theory of rubber elasticity, and he was responsible for the simple determination of polymer molecular weights based on viscosity measurements, as represented by the Mark-Houwink equation. What Mark did not actively investi- gate himself, he helped disseminate throughout the rapidly developing field of poly- mer science.     

Twinning and “natural quasi-phase matching” in Yb:YAB

Defects obtained during crystal growth of many laser and nonlinear crystals limit their commercial potential, as is the case of the yttrium aluminium borate family. Typically, in Yb:YAB, birefringent phase-matching is used to obtain self frequency doubled output from a fundamental laser operating near 1 μm. Many crystals however show signs of twin inversion defects during crystal growth resulting in the reversal of the sign of the nonlinear coefficient and hence can result in quasi-phase-matched-like structures. In this report we examine the second harmonic conversion characteristics of a 3.8 mm thick birefringently phase matched Yb:YAB crystal which is then examined in more detail by slicing into four thinner sections each approximately 400 μm thick. Etching of crystal surfaces reveals clear boundaries between reversed domains, which under illumination with a laser at 1.064 μm shows a cancellation of the nonlinear conversion along the interface of the two regions. PACS 42.55.-f; 42.65.Ky; 42.70.Mp     

Vibrational dynamics of modern lightrail modules

The vibrational frequency response of a modern lightrail module is considered in a simple model including dynamical features of the (typically aluminum) body with finite flexural rigidity, which inter alia reveals additional wheel–rail resonances. The model also allows to calculate the systems acoustic noise emission spectra, and to study the differences between aluminum and steel coaches.     

Self-Frequency-Doubling Ytterbium Lasers

Ytterbium-doped self-frequency-doubling lasers offer high efficiency, tunable, visible and near-infrared, cw and pulsed operation from compact devices. We review the performance of ytterbium-doped yttrium aluminium borate (Yb:YAB) self-frequency-doubling lasers. Because of the detailed dynaMisc of the interaction of the nonlinear pulse shaping process for mode-locking or for Q-switching self-frequency-doubled lasers, we observe pulse lengthening in each process when frequency doubling is optimised, with high average output power. However, for continuous wave operation, the self-frequency doubling process may be optimised to give highly efficient, robust, widely-tunable output in the visible as well as fundamental output in the infrared.     

Charge separation is virtually irreversible in photosystem II core complexes with oxidized primary quinone acceptor

X-ray structures of the Photosystem II (PSII) core revealed relatively large interpigment distances between the CP43 and CP47 antenna complexes and the reaction center (RC) with respect to the interpigment distances in a single unit. This finding questions the possibility of fast energy equilibration among the antenna and the RC, which has been the basic explanation for the measured PSII fluorescence kinetics for more than two decades. In this study, we present time-resolved fluorescence measurements obtained with a streak-camera setup on PSII core complexes from Thermosynechococcus elongatus at room temperature (RT) and at 77 K. Kinetic modeling of the RT data obtained with oxidized quinone acceptor Q(A), reveals that the kinetics are best described by fast primary charge separation at a time scale of 1.5 ps and slow energy transfer from the antenna into the RC, which results in an energy equilibration time between the antenna and the RC of about 44 ps. This model is consistent with structure-based computations. Primary radical pair formation was found to be a virtually irreversible process. Energy equilibration within the CP43 and CP47 complexes is shown to occur at a time scale of 8 ps. Kinetic modeling of the 77 K data reveals similar energy transfer time scales in the antenna units and among the antenna and the RC as at RT, respectively, 7 and 37 ps. We conclude that the energy transfer from the CP43/CP47 antenna to the RC is the dominant factor in the total charge separation kinetics in intact PSII cores.     

Diphosphine Capsules for Transition‐Metal Encapsulation

Self‐assembly and characterization of novel heterodimeric diphosphine capsules formed by multiple ionic interactions and composed of one tetracationic diphosphine ligand and one complementary tetraanionic calix[4]arene are described. Encapsulation of a palladium atom within a diphosphine capsule is achieved successfully by using the metal complex of the tetracationic diphosphine ligand for the assembly process. In this templated approach to metal encapsulation, the transition‐metal complex is an integrated part of the capsule with the transition metal located inside the capsule and is not involved in the assembly process. We present two approaches for capsule assembly by mixing solutions of the precharged building blocks in methanol and mixing solutions of the neutral building blocks in methanol. The scope of the diphosphine capsules and the metallodiphosphine capsules is easily extended by applying tetracationic diphosphine ligands with different backbones (ethylene, diphenyl ether, and xanthene) and cationic binding motifs (p‐C₆H₄‐CH₂‐ammonium, m‐C₆H₄‐ammonium, and m‐C₆H₄‐guanidinium). These tetracationic building blocks with different flexibilities and shapes readily associate into capsules with the proper capsular structure, as is indicated by ¹H NMR spectroscopy, 1D NOESY, ESI‐MS, and modeling studies.     

An inventory model for slow moving items subject to obsolescence

In this paper, we consider a continuous review inventory system of a slow moving item for which the demand rate drops to a lower level at a known future time instance. The inventory system is controlled according to a one-for-one replenishment policy with a fixed lead time. Adapting to lower demand is achieved by changing the control policy in advance and letting the demand take away the excess stocks. We show that the timing of the control policy change primarily determines the tradeoff between backordering penalties and obsolescence costs. We propose an approximate solution for the optimal time to shift to the new control policy minimizing the expected total cost during the transient period. We find that the advance policy change results in significant cost savings and the approximation yields near optimal expected total costs.