Filtering Facepiece Respirator Supply Chain Management Framework in a Disaster Such as COVID-19

Due to the lack of vaccines and treatments, filtering facepiece respirators are a primary and effective tool to dampen the spread of COVID-19. To meet the huge and continuous demand for filtering facepiece respirators, this concept paper suggests a supply chain management framework based on the disaster management principle. This concept paper adopts an exploratory and qualitative literature review to provide managerial insights for the supply chain participants. Due to implementation delay and strategic interdependency, the supply chain management strategies need to be systematically integrated. A viable way to integrate strategies is based on the disaster management cycle: mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery phases. Our model integrates innovative and successful but overlooked supply chain management strategies. First, the production capacity should be flexible so that the production mode in emergency and normal situations can be different. Second, the concept paper and development facilities can utilize their capacities for actual production in emergencies. Third, the quality certification process should accommodate the flexible production capacities. Fourth, inventory stockpiling should be renewable. This concept paper contributes to policymakers, healthcare sector decision-makers, stakeholders throughout the FFR supply chain to cope with future crises caused by pandemics by providing a systematic approach to constructing an effective, flexible, and resilient supply chain.

Firefly Optimization in IOT Applications for Wireless Mesh Networks

Internet of Things is an budding focus of technical, social, and economical importance. At the same time, Internet of Things hoist momentous challenges that may perhaps plunk in the way of apprehend its prospective reimbursement. The ‘thing’ in IoT may perhaps be a person with a heart monitor or an automobile in the midst of built-in-sensors, i.e. objects that have subsist dole out an IP address and encompass the capability to accumulate and convey data over a network without manual assistance or intervention. The business processes hosted on the wide-spread geographical distribution of sensors should retort to dissimilar sensing events congregate in the dynamic IoT environment as swift as they could. So to Produce better IoT applications, process optimization is indispensable in the IoT environment. For example, data analytics in energy embarrassed IoT Networks uses Optimization Framework to recuperate the network implementation delay and accuracy. Here we imply firefly Optimization Algorithm Framework, wherever the nodes make a decision where their data analytic tasks will be executed, in order to jointly optimize their average execution delay and accuracy, while respecting power consumption constraints compared to previous other techniques. Our new fire fly optimization techniques shows 81% better results compared to previous techniques such as Genetic and ant colony etc…

Supply Chain Performance Measurement at High Rise Building Construction Using SCOR Method Approach (Supply Chain Operations Reference)

Construction industry has a vital role in Indonesia’s economic growth. Infrastructure projects have been the priorities in the past five years consistent with RPJMN (National Medium Term Development Plan). It’s evident in the percentage of contribution of the construction industry, i.e. 10.2%, to Gross Domestic Product (PDB) and 6.34 million employments (5.3% national labors). However, it isn’t followed by efficiency of the construction industry. Increased cost, implementation, delay, conflict and dispute are some problems which arise from fragmentation and causes the construction industry to be known as an inefficient industry. A possible approach to solve fragment problem is studying the supply chain of the construction industry. The present study aimed to measure supply chain performance of construction using SCOR (supply chain) method, the impact and mitigation. The result was that the handling performed in TSM Bali project resulted in 5.56% of indirect waste, 8.63% of direct waste, and 443,711 tonCO2 of carbon footprint

Pengaruh Kerusakan Jack Hydraulic di Atas Kapal

Sea transportation is seen as the most effective means of responding to the high demand for a commodity. The development of industry 4.0 and society 5.0 has a big influence on the economic growth of a country. Loading and unloading must go well, so efforts are needed to ensure its implementation. Delay in unloading due to hydraulic leakage. The captain and guard officer as more experienced parties are expected to make efforts to prevent it. Coordinating work when unloading shows that the ship has followed procedures and efforts to repair hydraulic leaks. The method used by researchers to analyze problems is the fishbone analysis method. Research data obtained from primary data and secondary data, while data collection was obtained from observations, interviews, descriptive and literature. Fishbone analysis aims as an effort made to change the data from the results of a study into simpler information, so that it is easy to use to draw conclusions. Based on the results of this study, hydraulic maintenance was further improved and procurement of spare parts continued to be pursued by the ship. In addition, the company's management also affects the performance of the crew on the ship so that there is a need for improvement in the company's management of the ship.

A novel COVID-19 epidemiological model with explicit susceptible and asymptomatic isolation compartments reveals unexpected consequences of timing social distancing

Motivated by the current COVID-19 epidemic, this work introduces an epidemiological model in which separate compartments are used for susceptible and asymptomatic “socially distant” populations. Distancing directives are represented by rates of flow into these compartments, as well as by a reduction in contacts that lessens disease transmission. The dynamical behavior of this system is analyzed, under various different rate control strategies, and the sensitivity of the basic reproduction number to various parameters is studied. One of the striking features of this model is the existence of a critical implementation delay (“CID”) in issuing separation mandates: while a delay of about two weeks does not have an appreciable effect on the peak number of infections, issuing mandates even slightly after this critical time results in a far greater incidence of infection. Thus, there is a nontrivial but tight “window of opportunity” for commencing social distancing in order to meet the capacity of healthcare resources. However, if one wants to also delay the timing of peak infections –so as to take advantage of potential new therapies and vaccines– action must be taken much faster than the CID. Different relaxation strategies are also simulated, with surprising results. Periodic relaxation policies suggest a schedule which may significantly inhibit peak infective load, but that this schedule is very sensitive to parameter values and the schedule’s frequency. Furthermore, we considered the impact of steadily reducing social distancing measures over time. We find that a too-sudden reopening of society may negate the progress achieved under initial distancing guidelines, but the negative effects can be mitigated if the relaxation strategy is carefully designed.

Feasible Policy Evaluation by Design: A Randomized Synthetic Stepped-Wedge Trial of Mandated Disclosure in King County

Evidence-based policy is limited by the perception that randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are expensive and infeasible. We argue that carefully tailored research design can overcome these challenges and enable more widespread randomized evaluations of policy implementation. We demonstrate how a stepped-wedge (randomized rollout) design that adapts synthetic control methods overcame substantial practical, administrative, political, and statistical constraints to evaluating King County’s new food safety rating system. The core RCT component of the evaluation came at little financial cost to the government, allowed the entire county to be treated, and resulted in no functional implementation delay. The case of restaurant sanitation grading has played a critical role in the scholarship on information disclosure, and our study provides the first evidence from a randomized trial of the causal effects of grading on health outcomes. We find that the grading system had no appreciable effects on foodborne illness, hospitalization, or food handling practices but that the system may have marginally increased public engagement by encouraging higher reporting.

Some results on optimal stopping under phase-type distributed implementation delay

We study optimal stopping of strong Markov processes under random implementation delay. By random implementation delay we mean the following: the payoff is not realised immediately when the process is stopped but rather after a random waiting period. The distribution of the random waiting period is assumed to be phase-type. We prove first a general result on the solvability of the problem. Then we study the case of Coxian distribution both in general and with scalar diffusion dynamics in more detail. The study is concluded with two explicit examples.

Presenting a strong and united front to tobacco industry interference : a content analysis of Australian newspaper coverage of tobacco plain packaging 2008–2014

ObjectivesIn 2012, Australia was the first country in the world to introduce plain or standardised tobacco packaging, coupled with larger graphic health warnings. This policy was fiercely opposed by industry. Media coverage can be an influential contributor to public debate, and both public health advocates and industry sought media coverage for their positions. The aim of this study was to measure the print media coverage of Australian’s plain packaging laws, from inception to roll-out, in major Australian newspapers.MethodsThis study monitored mainstream Australian print media (17 newspapers) coverage of the plain packaging policy debate and implementation, over a 7-year period from January 2008 to December 2014. Articles (n=701) were coded for article type, opinion slant and topic(s).DesignContent analysis.ResultsCoverage of plain packaging was low during preimplementation phase (2008–2009), increasing sharply in the lead into legislative processes and diminished substantially after implementation. Articles covered policy rationale, policy progress and industry arguments. Of the news articles, 96% were neutrally framed. Of the editorials, 55% were supportive, 28% were opposing, 12% were neutral and 5% were mixed.ConclusionsProtracted political debate, reflected in the media, led to an implementation delay of plain packaging. While Australian media provided comprehensive coverage of industry arguments, news coverage was largely neutral, whereas editorials were mostly supportive or neutral of the policy. Countries seeking to implement plain packaging of tobacco should not be deterred by the volume of news coverage, but should actively promote the evidence for plain packaging in the media to counteract the arguments of the tobacco industry.