Evaluating cost impacts on reverse logistics using an Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) model with environmental and social considerations

Central European Journal of Operations Research - Societal awareness and legislation changes concerning sustainability have affected how organizations generate value for stakeholders, as well as...     

A volatolomic approach using cerumen as biofluid to diagnose bovine intoxication by Stryphnodendron rotundifolium

An innovative volatolomic approach employs the detection of biomarkers present in cerumen (earwax) to identify cattle intoxication by Stryphnodendron rotundifolium Mart., Fabaceae (popularly known as barbatimão). S. rotundifolium is a poisonous plant with the toxic compound undefined and widely distributed throughout the Brazilian territory. Cerumen samples from cattle of two local Brazilian breeds (‘Curraleiro Pé-Duro’ and ‘Pantaneiro’) were collected during an experimental intoxication protocol and analyzed using headspace (HS)/GC–MS followed by multivariate analysis (genetic algorithm for a partial least squares, cluster analysis, and classification and regression trees). A total of 106 volatile organic metabolites were identified in the cerumen samples of bovines. The intoxication by S. rotundifolium influenced the cerumen volatolomic profile of the bovines throughout the intoxication protocol. In this way, it was possible to detect biomarkers for cattle intoxication. Among the biomarkers, 2-octyldecanol and 9-tetradecen-1-ol were able to discriminate all samples between intoxicated and nonintoxicated bovines. The cattle intoxication diagnosis by S. rotundifolium was accomplished by applying the cerumen analysis using HS/GC–MS, in an easy, accurate, and noninvasive way. Thus, the proposed bioanalytical chromatography protocol is a useful tool in veterinary applications to determine this kind of intoxication.     

Cycloparaphenylene (CPP) series are molecular models for graphene armchair edges: trends in their aromaticity and cyclic conjugation are evaluated

Cycloparaphenylene ([r]CPP) and cyclacene ([r]CA) series are models for short carbon nanotubes. It is shown that armchair edges in model cycloparaphenylenes possess greater aromaticity and cyclic conjugation than do zigzag edges in model cyclacenes. According to Aihara’s bond resonance energy (BRE) and Bosanac and Gutman energy effect (ef) measurements, cycloparaphenylenes are twice as aromatic as cyclacenes. The general solution of all eigenvalues of all members of the cycloparaphenylene series is given. The origin of the recurrence of some eigenvalues are determined.     

Enhancing signal-to-noise ratio and resolution in low-field NMR relaxation measurements using post-acquisition digital filters

The traditional way to enhance signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signals is to increase the number of scans. However, this procedure increases the measuring time that can be prohibitive for some applications. Therefore, we have tested the use of several post-acquisition digital filters to enhance SNR up to one order of magnitude in time domain NMR (TD-NMR) relaxation measurements. The procedures were studied using continuous wave free precession (CWFP-T₁) signals, acquired with very low flip angles that contain six times more noise than the Carr–Purcell–Meiboom–Gill (CPMG) signal of the same sample and experimental time. Linear (LI) and logarithmic (LO) data compression, low-pass infinity impulse response (LP), Savitzky–Golay (SG), and wavelet transform (WA) post-acquisition filters enhanced the SNR of the CWFP-T₁ signals by at least six times. The best filters were LO, SG, and WA that have high enhancement in SNR without significant distortions in the ILT relaxation distribution data. Therefore, it was demonstrated that these post-acquisition digital filters could be a useful way to denoise CWFP-T₁, as well as CPMG noisy signals, and consequently reducing the experimental time. It was also demonstrated that filtered CWFP-T₁ method has the potential to be a rapid and nondestructive method to measure fat content in beef and certainly in other meat samples.     

Heisenberg-limited Measurements and Sub-Planck Structures in Phase Space

It is shown how sub-Planck phase-space structures can be used to achieve Heisenberg-limited sensitivity in weak force measurements. Nonclassical states of harmonic oscillators, such as superpositions of coherent states, are shown to be useful for the measurement of weak forces that cause translations or rotations in phase space, which is done by entangling the quantum oscillator with a two-level system. This method is closely related to the Loschmidt echo techniques employed in nuclear magnetic resonance experiments. Implementations of this strategy in cavity QED and ion traps are described.     

Affine Arithmetic: Concepts and Applications

Affine arithmetic is a model for self-validated numerical computation that keeps track of first-order correlations between computed and input quantities. We explain the main concepts in affine arithmetic and how it handles the dependency problem in standard interval arithmetic. We also describe some of its applications.     

Amplitude des oscillations d'ondes solitaires généralisées

Various physical systems of dispersive waves admit solutions in the form of generalized solitary waves. Such waves result from the resonance between a long localized wave and short periodic oscillations. Many estimates (rigorous and numerical) have been given for the amplitude of the ripples in the tail of the generalized solitary wave when its central part has a sech² shape. This Note provides estimates (not yet rigorous) for the ripple amplitude when the central part is flat and wide. To cite this article: C. Fochesato, F. Dias, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 337 (2003).     

Biosorption of Chromium(III) by Biomass of Seaweed Sargassum sp. in a Fixed-Bed Column

This work aimed at modeling chromium biosorption using the biomass of seaweed Sargassum sp. in a fixed-bed column. The mathematical model used was obtained from the mass balance of the component in the liquid phase and in the biosorbent material. The effects of both axial dispersion in the column and the resistance to mass transfer in the solid were considered for the solution of the partial differential equations of the model, using the Galerkin method on finite elements. To represent the equilibrium data of the batch system the Langmuir isotherm were used. The chromium ion adsorption capacity of the seaweed Sargassum sp., at a temperature of 30°C and pH 3.5, was 2.61 mmol/g. The model performance was evaluated from experimental data obtained at 30°C for flow rates of 2, 6 and 8 mL/min. The parameters of the model, mass transfer and axial dispersion coefficients, were adjusted from these experimental data. The model proved adequate to describe chromium biosorption dynamics in fixed-bed columns.     

A modular integer GCD algorithm

This paper describes the first algorithm to compute the greatest common divisor (GCD) of two n-bit integers using a modular representation for intermediate values U, V and also for the result. It is based on a reduction step, similar to one used in the accelerated algorithm [T. Jebelean, A generalization of the binary GCD algorithm, in: ISSAC '93: International Symposium on Symbolic and Algebraic Computation, Kiev, Ukraine, 1993, pp. 111–116; K. Weber, The accelerated integer GCD algorithm, ACM Trans. Math. Softw. 21 (1995) 111–122] when U and V are close to the same size, that replaces U by (U−bV)/p, where p is one of the prime moduli and b is the unique integer in the interval (−p/2,p/2) such that . When the algorithm is executed on a bit common CRCW PRAM with O(nlognlogloglogn) processors, it takes O(n) time in the worst case. A heuristic model of the average case yields O(n/logn) time on the same number of processors.     

The Interaction of Shocks with Dispersive Waves II. Incompressible-Integrable Limit

This is the second in a two-part series of articles in which we analyze a system similar in structure to the well-known Zakharov equations from weak plasma turbulence theory, but with a nonlinear conservation equation allowing finite time shock formation. In this article we analyze the incompressible limit in which the shock speed is large compared to the underlying group velocity of the dispersive wave (a situation typically encountered in applications). After presenting some exact solutions of the full system, a multiscale perturbation method is used to resolve several basic wave interactions. The analysis breaks down into two categories: the nonlinear limit and the linear limit, corresponding to the form of the equations when the group velocity to shock speed ratio, denoted by ε, is zero. The former case is an integrable limit in which the model reduces to the cubic nonlinear Schrödinger equation governing the dispersive wave envelope. We focus on the interaction of a “fast” shock wave and a single hump soliton. In the latter case, the ε=0 problem reduces to the linear Schrödinger equation, and the focus is on a fast shock interacting with a dispersive wave whose amplitude is cusped and exponentially decaying. To motivate the time scales and structure of the shock-dispersive wave interactions at lowest orders, we first analyze a simpler system of ordinary differential equations structurally similar to the original system. Then we return to the fully coupled partial differential equations and develop a multiscale asymptotic method to derive the effective leading-order shock equations and the leading-order modulation equations governing the phase and amplitude of the dispersive wave envelope. The leading-order interaction equations admit a fairly complete analysis based on characteristic methods. Conditions are derived in which: (a) the shock passes through the soliton, (b) the shock is completely blocked by the soliton, or (c) the shock reverses direction. In the linear limit, a phenomenon is described in which the dispersive wave induces the formation of a second, transient shock front in the rapidly moving hyperbolic wave. In all cases, we can characterize the long-time dynamics of the shock. The influence of the shock on the dispersive wave is manifested, to leading order, in the generalized frequency of the dispersive wave: the fast-time part of the frequency is the shock wave itself. Hence, the frequency undergoes a sudden jump across the shock layer.In the last section, a sequence of numerical experiments depicting some of the interesting interactions predicted by the analysis is performed on the leading-order shock equations.