For companies involved in the supply chain, proper warehousing management is crucial. Warehouse layout arrangement and operation play a critical role in a company’s ability to maintain and improve its competitiveness. Reducing costs and increasing efficiency are two of the most crucial warehousing goals. Deciding on the best warehouse layout is a remarkable optimization problem. This paper uses an optimization method to set bin allocations within an automated warehouse with particular characteristics. The warehouse’s initial layout and (...) the automated platforms limit the search and define the time required to move goods within the warehouse. With the help of historical data and the definition of the time needed to move goods, a mathematical model of warehouse operation was created. An optimization procedure based on the well-known Variable Neighbourhood Search algorithm is defined and applied to the problem. Experimental results demonstrate increments in the efficiency of warehousing operations. (shrink)

" In Imagination and the Meaningful Brain, psychoanalyst Arnold Modell claims that subjective human experience must be included in any scientific...

Abstract.Since the gene splicing debates of the 1980s, the public has been exposed to an ongoing sequence of genetic and reproductive technologies. Many issue areas have outcomes that lose track of people's inner values or engender opposing religious viewpoints defying final resolution. This essay relocates the discussion of what is an acceptable application from the individual to the societal level, examining technologies that stand to address large numbers of people and thus call for policy resolution, rather than individual fiat, in (...) their application. A major source of guidance is the “Genetic Frontiers” series of professional dialogues and conferences held by the National Conference for Community and Justice from 2002 to 2004. Genetic testing, human gene therapy, genetic engineering of plants and animals, and stem cell technology are examined. While differences in perspective on the beginning of life persist, a stepwise approach to the examination of genetic testing reveals areas of general agreement. Stewardship of life, human co‐creativity with the divine, and social justice help define the bounds of application of genetic engineering and therapy; compassionate care plays a major role in establishing stem cell policy. Active, sustained dialogue is a useful resource for enabling sharing of religious values and crystallization of policies. (shrink)

Aristotle is oftentimes viewed through a strictly philosophical lens as heir to Plato and has having introduced logical rigor where an emphasis on the theory of Forms formerly prevailed. It must be appreciated that Aristotle was the son of a physician, and that his inculcation of the thought of other Greek philosophers addressing health and the natural elements led to an extremely broad set of biologically- and medically-related writings. As this article proposes, Aristotle deepened the fourfold theory of the elements (...) with anatomic and physiologic observations. In books like History of Animals, Parts of Animals, and the lost Anatomai, he actively dissected organisms and recorded his findings. The corpus of medically-related literature Aristotle developed had a direct influence on subsequent Greek thinkers, including Galen, and on Medieval Islamic and modern Western practitioners such as William Harvey. Aristotle's ideas continue to influence modern medical thinkers in Europe and America through both his interpretation by European philosophers gaining the attention of medical humanists, and his writings' enduring impact on medical researchers balancing scientific with more personalistic approaches to medicine. (shrink)

The estrangement between genetic scientists and theologians originating in the 1960s is reflected in novel combinations of human thought (subject) and genes (investigational object), paralleling each other through the universal process known in chaos theory as self-similarity. The clash and recombination of genes and knowledge captures what Philip Hefner refers to as irony, one of four voices he suggests transmit the knowledge and arguments of the religion-and-science debate. When viewed along a tangent connecting irony to leadership, journal dissemination, and the (...) activities of the "public intellectual" and the public at large, the sequence of voices is shown to resemble the passage of genetic information from DNA to mRNA, tRNA, and protein, and from cell nucleus to surrounding environment. In this light, Hefner's inquiry into the voices of Zygon is bound up with the very subject matter Zygon covers. (shrink)

This paper outlines the demographic characteristics of the Baiga tribe, one of the most primitive of the aboriginal tribal groups of Central India. The Baiga population has grown steadily since the first anthropological study of the tribe in the 1930s. Age at menarche, age at marriage, breast-feeding, and time interval between marriage and first conception are natural. There are more females than males. Sub-tribe endogamy is common; consanguineous marriage is favoured (34% of marriages are between first cousins) and marital distance (...) is low (mean 7·1 km). Though the mean menarcheal age is high (15·2 years), mean age at first marriage is low (16·6 years), giving a long reproductive period. (shrink)

Coherence and correspondence are classical contenders as theories of truth. In this paper we examine them instead as interacting factors in the dynamics of belief across epistemic networks. We construct an agent-based model of network contact in which agents are characterized not in terms of single beliefs but in terms of internal belief suites. Individuals update elements of their belief suites on input from other agents in order both to maximize internal belief coherence and to incorporate ‘trickled in’ elements (...) of truth as correspondence. Results, though often intuitive, prove more complex than in simpler models (Hegselmann & Krause 2002, 2006; Grim, Singer, Reade & Fisher 2015). The optimistic finding is that pressures toward internal coherence can exploit and expand on small elements of truth as correspondence is introduced into epistemic networks. Less optimistic results show that pressures for coherence can also work directly against the incorporation of truth, particularly when coherence is established first and new data is introduced later. (shrink)

The science of operations research is one of the modern sciences that have made a great revolution in all areas of life through the methods provided by it, suitable and appropriate to solve most of the problems that were facing researchers, scholars and those interested in the development of societies, and the most beneficiaries of this science were companies and institutions that are looking for scientific methods that help them manage their work so that they achieve the greatest profit and (...) the lowest cost, and one of the important methods that have been used in the management of companies we offer in this research two methods, Dynamic programming method. This method has been used in many practical matters and helped decision-makers in companies to achieve a maximum profit and less cost by formulating the reality of the state of the company and the data provided by decision-makers with a dynamic mathematical model that is solved using methods of solving dynamic models and we will provide in this research an example of this through the issue of choosing the optimal investment for the budget of a company so that it achieves a maximum profit, and the method of programming with integers: the method that provided these companies with solutions with integer values suitable for the nature of its work, through the use of the binary integer in the formulation of the appropriate mathematical model on the one hand, and on the other hand, the use of the binary integer variable helped to convert some nonlinear models that lead to some practical problems into linear models, and it should be noted here that in the previous two methods there is something indeterminable because we must make a decision in choosing or not choosing something, but the optimal solution that we will get remains A specific value because we are building the mathematical model for any realistic issue through the data provided by those responsible for the work and these data are calculated quantities and therefore they are uncertain values because their validity depends on the circumstances surrounding the work environment, they may be exposed to increase or decrease, and therefore the optimal solution on which the company will base its decision is suitable for specific values and any change in them can cause the company an uncalculated loss, so in this research we will use the concepts of neutrosophic science, the branch of science founded by the American scientist Florentin Smarandache in 1995 based on his belief that there is no absolute truth, a science that is interested in the study of ideas and concepts that are neither true nor false, but just in between, and we will take the data (calculated quantities) neutrosophic values that are specified or unspecified values are any set close to the calculated quantities, then the resulting mathematical model is a neutrosophic model and the optimal solution has neutrosophic values and thanks to the indefinite uncertainty that these values have, companies from the development of appropriate plans for all circumstances and thus achieve the greatest profit and the lowest cost, and we will clarify the above through two issues, the issue of optimal designation of a warehouse site, which we will formulate the mathematical model of using the neutrosophic integer programming method - and the issue of capital budget, which we will present in two different forms, we use in the first form the neutrosophic integer programming method and in the second the neutrosophic dynamic programming method. (shrink)

University program dropout is a problem that has important consequences not only for the student that leaves but also for the institution in which the withdrawal occurs. Therefore, higher education institutions must study the problem in greater depth to establish appropriate prevention measures in the future. However, most research papers currently focus primarily on the characteristics of students who leave university, rather than on those who choose to pursue alternative courses of study and therefore fail to take into account the (...) different kinds of abandonment. The aim of this paper is to identify the different types of dropout to define their characteristics and propose some recommendations. Thus, an ex post facto study was carried out on a sample of 1311 freshmen from a university in the north of Spain using data gathered using an ad-hoc designed questionnaire, applied by telephone or an online survey, and completed with data available in the university data warehouse. A descriptive analysis was performed to characterize the sample and identify five different groups, including 1. Students persisting in their initiated degree 2. Students who change of program (within the same university) 3. Students transferring to a different university 4. Students enrolling in non-higher-education studies 5. Students that quit studying. Also, data mining techniques (decision trees) were applied to classify the cases and generate predictive models to aid in the design of differentiated intervention strategies for each of the corresponding groups. (shrink)

Futures contracts in agricultural commodities are an agreement to buy or sell a predetermined amount of agricultural commodities (such as wheat, corn, cotton, soybeans, live pork, live cattle, cocoa, etc.) at a specific price depending on the price on a specific date in the future. Futures contracts in agricultural commodities are carried out under “commodity futures contracts” on the futures exchange. These contracts are executed in two ways in terms of the delivery of the contract subject; physical delivery and cash (...) settlement. In the physical delivery, the underlying asset is physically received at the end of maturity. In our country, physical delivery method is used in futures contracts made on commodities. In the second contract method that results in cash settlement, there is no physical delivery of the underlying asset at the end of maturity. The transaction takes place over the settlement price at the end of maturity. Futures contracts in agricultural commodities can be analyzed in two categories in terms of Islamic law. First, within the scope of sales where both the goods and the price are on credit; the second is a combined contract that includes a promise to sell and a contract of sale when due. It is more convenient to analyze in the former because the agricultural commodities in the warehouse are kept ready to be delivered when due and the commodities price is also delivered on time. In this category, it resembles the sale of a credit on credit, which is prohibited in Islamic law. We can see that there are five parties within the exchange organization regarding the futures contracts in agricultural commodities; futures and options exchange, clearing house, brokerage houses, market participants, supervisory institutions. When the transactions of the related parties are examined in terms of legal capacity and power of representation; it is observed that brokerage houses transacting on behalf of sellers and customers operate by proxy. On the other hand, the Exchange, the Clearinghouse (Takasbank) and the custody warehouse within the scope of the exchange system; carries out transactions on behalf of the parties both as a proxy and a guarantor. Therefore, this futures transaction has the nature of containing more than one contract. When analyzed in terms of the establishment of the contract; if there are agricultural commodities that are considered as legitimate property of the Islamic law (mütekavvim), there is no objection regarding the parties and the offer-acceptance. In addition the delivery time of the commodity subject to the contract must be equal to the amount sold and the amount in the warehouse, which is guaranteed to be in the warehouse. In terms of invalid condition, one-sided benefit causing conflict for the parties contains something prohibited by the legal order. It is seen that it does not contain conditions contrary to the content of the contract and established practices. However, except for the condition that the collateral is retained with interest income in direct proportion to the period of stay in the Clearinghouse (Takasbank), in order to obtain the highest return. In terms of enforcement conditions, after the approval of the buyer and seller, transactions are carried out within the exchange system without asking for the right and approval of another person. Therefore, this contract can be considered as a running contract. In terms of the bindingness of this contract; at first glance, it can be seen as a mutual promise and non-obligatory promise based on the fact that the commodity and its price are not cash. But when the subject is examined in depth, it turns out to be a different situation. Because both parties are under mutual obligation by paying the guarantee stipulated by the Exchange, one party is obliged to deliver the commodity on time and the other party to deliver the price. In addition, the contract does not allow the parties to imagine the right. So, this contract can be considered as an obligatory contract. However, based on the current functioning futures contracts in agricultural commodities as a whole, it is considered unappropriate to Islamic law. In this study, first, the nature of futures contracts in agricultural commodities that are not deemed suitable for Islamic law in its current form are determined. Then, an analysis from the point of view of Islamic law was made and some offers were made for a model that was reconfigurated according to Islamic law. (shrink)

The venerable cities of the past, such as Venice or Amsterdam, convey a feeling of wholeness, an organic unity that surfaces in every detail, large and small, in restaurants, shops, public gardens, even in balconies and ornaments. But this sense of wholeness is lacking in modern urban design, with architects absorbed in problems of individual structures, and city planners preoccupied with local ordinances, it is almost impossible to achieve. In this groundbreaking volume, architect and planner Christopher Alexander presents a new (...) theory of urban design which attempts to recapture the process by which cities develop organically. To discover the kinds of laws needed to create a growing whole in a city, Alexander proposes here a preliminary set of seven rules which embody the process at a practical level and which are consistent with the day-to-day demands of urban development. He then puts these rules to the test, setting out with a number of his graduate students to simulate the urban redesign of a high-density part of San Francisco, initiating a project that encompassed some ninety different design problems, including warehouses, hotels, fishing piers, a music hall, and a public square. This extensive experiment is documented project by project, with detailed discussion of how each project satisfied the seven rules, accompanied by floorplans, elevations, street grids, axonometric diagrams and photographs of the scaled-down model which clearly illustrate the discussion. A New Theory of Urban Design provides an entirely new theoretical framework for the discussion of urban problems, one that goes far to remedy the defects which cities have today. (shrink)

The central question of this paper is how modern liberal political theory can understand and make sense of value pluralism and the conflicts upon which it is premissed. It is a commonplace that liberalism was born out of conflict, and has been partly characterised ever since as a series of attempts to accommodate it within the framework of the nation state . However, it is also true that liberals have proposed many different routes to the resolution, or containment, of conflict, (...) and these different routes are manifestations of different understandings of conflict itself both within an individual life and between lives. Thus, some assert the irreducible heterogeneity of value: John Stuart Mill famously inveighs against the attempt to model all human life on a single pattern and tells us that ‘human beings are not sheep, and even sheep are not indistinguishably alike. A man cannot get a coat or a pair of boots to fit him unless they are either made to his measure or he has a whole warehouseful to choose from; and is it easier to fit him with a life than with a coat?’ . On Mill's account, plurality is the natural condition of humanity. We should neither hope for nor expect the elimination of conflict, and a world in which there is diversity is richer and better for it. (shrink)

Order picking, which is collecting a set of products from different locations in a warehouse, has repeatedly been described as one of the most laborious and time-consuming internal logistic processes. Each order is issued to pick some products located at given locations in the warehouse. In this paper, we consider an order picking problem, in which a number of orders with different delivery due dates are going to be retrieved by a limited number of order pickers in multiperiods (...) such that the total tardiness is minimized. The aim is to determine a retrieval plan in terms of order batching and order picker multitrip routing as decision variables. Besides, products are arrived and replenished at the predetermined locations at different periods. Therefore, products sitting in those locations should be delivered soon to provide empty rooms for replenishment. A mixed integer linear programming formulation is proposed for this new problem. The model is optimally solved for small-size problems. For larger instances, grouping metaheuristic algorithms are proposed based on particle swarm optimization and the league championship algorithm that use group-based operators to generate reasonable batches of orders. Improvement heuristics are designed as well. The performance of the MILP formulation and metaheuristic algorithms is analyzed for different problem instances whose designs are based on real data gathered from an auto parts warehouse. Results indicate that our algorithms can stably solve large instances of the problem in a reasonable time. (shrink)

Establishing a rapid-response mechanism to manage customer orders is very important in managing demand surges. In this study, combined with predicting order requests, we established a multiobjective optimization model to solve the warehouse space allocation problem. First, we developed a model based on the NAR neural network to predict order requests. Subsequently, we used the improved NSGA-III based on good point set theory to construct a multiobjective optimization model to minimize resource loss, maximize efficiency in goods (...) selection, and maximize goods accumulation. The following three modes were tested to allocate warehouse storage space: random, ABC, and prediction-oriented. Finally, using actual order data, we conducted a comparative analysis of the three modes regarding their efficiency in goods selection. The method proposed by this study improved goods selection efficiency by a sizable margin. (shrink)

“Holdings” was written for the 2011 Reading Artifacts Summer Institute at the Canada Science and Technology Museum. I spent a week “embedded” with the group, attending workshops and instructional sessions, mostly in a warehouse filled with curious objects from the museum’s collection: a gigantic hard drive platter, an egg-sorting machine, fire engines, iron lungs, a scale model of a Babbage Difference Engine (which had been used to weigh down the back of somebody’s rear-wheel-drive car). Some of the artifacts (...) were historically important, and some were disarmingly ordinary. Others had come loose from their stories, and were just mystifying. The group spent five days exploring the innumerable intersections between these solid things and the people who lived, and live, among them. At the end of the week, during the closing presentations, I read this poem to the group about what I’d seen and felt as I watched them work. (shrink)

Trade union leaders serve dual, seemingly contradictory roles. They must command militant organizations in conflicts with employers. Simultaneously, they must be accountable and democratically responsive to their members. Few unions possess the institutions or leadership to accomplish both. This article analyzes the practices of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, in which effective contract negotiation and an informed, active rank-and-file democracy are mutually supportive. We offer an alternative to standard accounts of union democracy. While the claims are based on (...) a detailed case study, the theoretical model and its insights hold for labor unions and organizations more broadly. (shrink)

Considering time-varying demand of online retail industry, the traditional static storage location assignment is converted into a multistage storage location assignment process based on the idea of gradual and small-step-forward optimization, which can respond to rapid changes in demand by adjusting the storage location of SKUs in the warehouse in real time and dynamically. First, the study formulates the framework dynamic storage location assignment. Then, the adjustment gain model of dynamic storage location assignment is built, and a genetic (...) algorithm is designed to find the final adjustment solution. Finally, the computer program is developed to simulate the whole process. Simulation and data analysis results show that dynamic storage location assignment can effectively improve picking efficiency when the average order size is small and large demand correlation strength. Dynamic storage location assignment simplifies the warehouse operation process by combining the picking operation and storage location assignment into one without changing the picker’s current walking route, which can offer some theoretical guidance for online retail enterprises implementing dynamic storage location assignment. (shrink)

Causality offers the first comprehensive coverage of causal analysis in many sciences, including recent advances using graphical methods. Pearl presents a unified account of the probabilistic, manipulative, counterfactual and structural approaches to causation, and devises simple mathematical tools for analyzing the relationships between causal connections, statistical associations, actions and observations. The book will open the way for including causal analysis in the standard curriculum of statistics, artificial intelligence, business, epidemiology, social science and economics.