Economic Control of Quality of Manufactured Product.

Polyphasic taxonomy, a consensus approach to bacterial systematics.

Brucellosis remains a major zoonosis worldwide Although many countries have eradicated Brucella abortus from cattle, in some areas Brucella melitensis has emerged as a cause of infection in this species as well as in sheep and goats Despite vaccination campaigns with the Rev 1 strain, B melitensis remains the principal cause of human brucellosis Brucella suis is also emerging as an agent of infection in cattle, thus extending its opportunities to infect humans The recent isolation of distinctive strains of Brucella from marine mammals has extended its ecologic range Molecular genetic studies have demonstrated phylogenetic affiliation to Agrobacterium, Phyllobacterium, Ochrobactrum, and Rhizobium Polymerase chain reaction and gene probe development may provide more effective typing methods Pathogenicity is related to production of lipopolysaccharides containing a poly N-formyl perosamine O chain, CuZn superoxide dismutase, erythrlose phosphate dehydrogenase, stress-induced proteins related to intracellular survival, and adenine and guanine monophosphate inhibitors of phagocyte functions Protective immunity is conferred by antibody to lipopolysaccharide and T-cell-mediated macrophage activation triggered by protein antigens Diagnosis still centers on isolation of the organism and serologic test results, especially enzyme immunoassay, which is replacing other methods Polymerase chain reaction is also under evaluation Therapy is based on tetracyclines with or without rifampicin, aminoglycosides, or quinolones No satisfactory vaccines against human brucellosis are available, although attenuated purE mutants appear promising

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Brucellosis: an overview.

Project scheduling under uncertainty: survey and research potentials

http://web.nchu.edu.tw/pweb/users/arborfish/lesson/8682.pdf

A survey of variants and extensions of the resource-constrained project scheduling problem

PurposeThis research presents a multiproject scheduling and resource management (MPSRM) model that includes an M/M/c/n queue system, a p-hub median model, a parallel machine scheduling and a hub location problem solution method. This research aims to design a project network and then sequence raw materials delivery to hub factories.Design/methodology/approachThis research is implemented as a case study in construction and industrial company. It considers several mines to supply raw materials for production in hub factories. In the sequencing phase, a parallel mine scheduling problem specifies the delivery of raw materials to hub factories. Furthermore, a multisource project scheduling model is studied and designed for building project-oriented companies.FindingsThe results suggest that the proposed MPSRM model in this study significantly reduces project transportation costs. Therefore, creating accurate planning in projects, especially in construction projects where transportation plays an important role, can help reduce time and costs. Researchers, project managers and those dealing with projects can use this model to exploit their projects.Research limitations/implicationsWhen the number of construction projects in a construction company increases in a region, choosing an appropriate strategy to supply resources and raw materials becomes very important in terms of profit and loss and project completion as scheduled. An increase in transportation demands alongside the economic development on the one hand and providing competitive transportation services, on the other hand, have increasingly spotlighted the significance of hub networks in transportation systems. In addition, in this research, there is no suitable access road from the mines to the project sites, and considering the workload, if any of the projects become a hub, a proper road should be built.Originality/valueTo the best of the knowledge, there is no outstanding research in which a p-hub median location problem by considering queuing model and different transportation modes and a parallel machine scheduling problem are studied simultaneously.

A multiproject scheduling and resource management model in projects construction

We consider the problem of scheduling a number of jobs, each job having a release time, a processing time and a due date, on a single machine with the objective of minimizing the maximum lateness or tardiness. This problem often occurs as a sub-problem in solving other scheduling environments such as flow shops or job shops. We developed a genetic algorithm and compared its performance with alternative methods on diverse data sets. Based on a literature study on genetic algorithms in single machine scheduling, a fair comparison of genetic operators was made. We performed an extensive study of local search algorithms, based on the trade-off between the intensification and diversification strategy. Computational results further revealed that combining different neighborhoods in an intelligent manner can remarkably improve the solution quality.

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A Genetic Algorithm for the Single Machine Maximum Lateness Problem

In this paper, a new procedure to solve a job shop scheduling problem at a Belgian manufacturer producing industrial wheels and castors in rubber is presented. The procedure is an extension of a hybrid shifting bottleneck procedure with a tabu search algorithm while incorporating various company specific constraints. The various extensions to cope with the company specific constraints have a strong similarity with the complex job shop problem formulation of Mason et al. (2002). The new procedure is used as a simulation engine to test the relevance of various scenarios in order to improve the current planning approach of the company. A detailed computational experiment highlights the main contribution of the novel procedure for the company.

A hybrid job shop procedure for a Belgian manufacturing company producing industrial wheels and castors in rubber

Exact and heuristic procedures for the discrete time/cost trade-off problem under various assumptions

The interest in activity sensitivity from both the academics and the practitioners lies in the need to focus a project manager's attention on those activities that influence the performance of the project. When management has a certain feeling of the relative sensitivity of the various parts (activities) on the project objective, a better management's focus and a more accurate response during project tracking should positively contribute to the overall performance of the project. In the current research manuscript, a simulation study is performed to measure the ability of four basic sensitivity metrics to dynamically improve the time performance during project execution. We measure the use sensitivity information to guide the corrective action decision making process to improve a project's time performance, while varying the degree of management's attention. A large amount of simulation runs are performed on a large set of fictive project networks generated under a controlled design.

/pdf/improved-project-time-performance-using-activity-sensitivity-41fumjohgy.pdf

Mario Vanhoucke

Papers

A multiproject scheduling and resource management model in projects construction

A Genetic Algorithm for the Single Machine Maximum Lateness Problem

A hybrid job shop procedure for a Belgian manufacturing company producing industrial wheels and castors in rubber

Exact and heuristic procedures for the discrete time/cost trade-off problem under various assumptions

Improved project time performance using activity sensitivity and network topology information