Responsive supply in fashion mass customisation systems with consumer returns

Mass customisation systems have been well-established in the fashion industry. Some fashion brands offer the mass customisation system for their selected seasonal products, and allow unconditional returns and full refund for any unsatisfied customers. Motivated by the above mentioned observed industrial practice and based on the growing importance of responsive supply, we explore in this paper the value of quick response supply in fashion mass customisation systems with consumer returns. We focus on investigating how the consumer returns rate affects (i) the optimal inventory decision of the fashion brand, (ii) the achievability of Pareto improvement in implementing quick response supply, (iii) the respective values of quick response for the fashion brand, the fashion supplier and also the fashion supply chain, and (iv) the impact of quick response supply on the environment. We interestingly find that consumer returns enhance the value of quick response supply to the fashion supplier. Quick response supply is also found to be helpful in reducing the environmental cost under the fashion mass customisation system with consumer returns.     

A priori risk-informed approach to ensure the compliance with discharge limits for liquid radioactive effluent to be discharged from APR 1400

ABSTRACT

In order to develop a methodology to guarantee the conformance to operational discharge limits for liquid effluent from a NPP at an early stage of design, a risk-informed approach was proposed and its applicability was verified for APR 1400. Existing methodology to calculate risk-based detection limit for a single radionuclide was improved by incorporating a new model to derive more realistic pathway dose factors. A new simple expression was also proposed to adjust risk-based detection limits for multiple radionuclides mixture if necessary. In addition, a new procedure to warrant the compliance with discharge limits by controlling detection limits of only a few principal radionuclides was established in accordance with risk-informed concept. Through case studies for APR 1400 to be commissioned at a hypothetical site, it was shown that calculated pathway dose factors are more realistic for majority of radionuclides. It also turns out that neither present detection limits nor unadjusted risk-based detection limits can be justified when the radionuclide composition is unknown, however further adjustment of detection limits or increasing additional dilution factor resolves the problem. Finally, ten principal radionuclides were identified and shown to be enough for liquid effluent control at APR 1400 from a risk-informed point of view.     

Highly Bendable and Rotational Textile Structure with Prestrained Conductive Sewing Pattern for Human Joint Monitoring

Human joints have respective ranges of motion and joint forces corresponding to each kind of joint; this necessitates considerations of the characteristics of human joints to fabricate wearable strain sensors conformable to the human body, and capable of precisely monitoring complex motions of the human body. In the present study, the “all textile‐based highly stretchable structure” that is capable of precisely sensing motions (folding and rotation) of the human joints (finger, wrist, elbow, spine, and knee) is fabricated by optimizing patterns (straight, blind, and zigzag) of conductive yarns employed as the conductive part of the strain sensor, and several textile substrates (braided elastic fabric, knit fabric, and woven fabric), having preferable elasticity and conformability employed for the fabrication of strain sensors suitable for human joints. In particular, the technology, enabling the prestraining of textile substrate, is exploited to fabricate a strain sensor that is capable of outputting selective signals corresponding to the folding motion of the spinal joint over a predetermined angle of motion, and the gait pattern of the wearer of the sensor, attached to his or her knee joint doing folding and rotational motions, is analyzed.     

Hierarchical Coherent Phonons in a Superatomic Semiconductor

The coupling of phonons to electrons and other phonons plays a defining role in material properties, such as charge and energy transport, light emission, and superconductivity. In atomic solids, phonons are delocalized over the 3D lattice, in contrast to molecular solids where localized vibrations dominate. Here, a hierarchical semiconductor that expands the phonon space by combining localized 0D modes with delocalized 2D and 3D modes is described. This material consists of superatomic building blocks (Re₆Se₈) covalently linked into 2D sheets that are stacked into a layered van der Waals lattice. Using transient reflectance spectroscopy, three types of coherent phonons are identified: localized 0D breathing modes of isolated superatom, 2D synchronized twisting of superatoms in layers, and 3D acoustic interlayer deformation. These phonons are coupled to the electronic degrees of freedom to varying extents. The presence of local phonon modes in an extended crystal opens the door to controlling material properties from hierarchical phonon engineering.     

Automated delineation of non-small cell lung cancer: A step toward quantitative reasoning in medical decision science

Quantitative reasoning in medical decision science relies on the delineation of pathological objects. For example, evidence-based clinical decisions regarding lung diseases require the segmentation of nodules, tumors, or cancers. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tends to be large sized, irregularly shaped, and grows against surrounding structures imposing challenges in the segmentation, even for expert clinicians. An automated delineation tool based on spatial analysis was developed and studied on 25 sets of computed tomography scans of NSCLC. Manual and automated delineations were compared, and the proposed method exhibited robustness in terms of the tumor size (5.32–18.24 mm), shape (spherical or irregular), contouring (lobulated, spiculated, or cavitated), localization (solitary, pleural, mediastinal, endobronchial, or tagging), and laterality (left or right lobe) with accuracy between 80% and 99%. Small discrepancies observed between the manual and automated delineations may arise from the variability in the practitioners' definitions of region of interest or imaging artifacts that reduced the tissue resolution.     

Environmental Enrichment Enhances Cav 2.1 Channel-Mediated Presynaptic Plasticity in Hypoxic–Ischemic Encephalopathy

Hypoxic–ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a devastating neonatal brain condition caused by lack of oxygen and limited blood flow. Environmental enrichment (EE) is a classic paradigm with a complex stimulation of physical, cognitive, and social components. EE can exert neuroplasticity and neuroprotective effects in immature brains. However, the exact mechanism of EE on the chronic condition of HIE remains unclear. HIE was induced by a permanent ligation of the right carotid artery, followed by an 8% O₂ hypoxic condition for 1 h. At 6 weeks of age, HIE mice were randomly assigned to either standard cages or EE cages. In the behavioral assessments, EE mice showed significantly improved motor performances in rotarod tests, ladder walking tests, and hanging wire tests, compared with HIE control mice. EE mice also significantly enhanced cognitive performances in Y-maze tests. Particularly, EE mice showed a significant increase in Ca_v 2.1 (P/Q type) and presynaptic proteins by molecular assessments, and a significant increase of Ca_v 2.1 in histological assessments of the cerebral cortex and hippocampus. These results indicate that EE can upregulate the expression of the Ca_v 2.1 channel and presynaptic proteins related to the synaptic vesicle cycle and neurotransmitter release, which may be responsible for motor and cognitive improvements in HIE.     

Effect of hydrothermal aging on dental multilayered zirconia for monolithic restorations: An in vitro study

The aim of this in vitro study was to investigate the changes in mechanical, optical, and surface properties of multilayered zirconia during hydrothermal aging.One conventional block (Katana Zirconia HT) and three multilayered blocks (Katana Zirconia ML, STML, and UTML) of monolithic zirconia were examined. Bar-shaped specimens were autoclaved at 134°C and 0.2MPa for 0, 5, and 10 h. The Young's modulus, three-point flexural strength, and nanoindentation hardness were measured to evaluate the mechanical properties. The surface roughness, phase distribution, surface microstructure, and elemental composition were measured to analyze the surface properties. The contrast ratio and total transmittance were measured via spectrophotometry to evaluate the optical properties. Statistical differences were analyzed using appropriate ANOVA, Tukey HSD post hoc tests, and independent and paired sample t-tests (α = .05).The monoclinic phase increased gradually after hydrothermal aging. The yttrium and zirconium concentrations decreased, and the oxygen concentration and the surface roughness increased in all specimens (P<.05) after the aging process. All specimens showed significant grain push-out and microcracks. The total transmittance increased, and the contrast ratio and Young's modulus decreased in all specimens (P<.05) after the aging process. The nanoindentation hardness and three-point flexural strength exhibited a decreasing tendency after the aging process. However, there were no statistical differences (P>.05) between the materials. Significant interactions between material grades and hydrothermal aging were found for all the properties studied (P<.001).Microstructural alterations and significant phase transformations were detected on the surface of the multilayered zirconia after hydrothermal aging. The hydrothermal aging led to increased surface roughness, opaqueness, and elasticity of multilayered zirconia. The optical, mechanical, and surface properties of multilayered zirconia were influenced by the grade of the material after hydrothermal aging. Careful consideration of the grade of materials is necessary for the appropriate selection of multilayered zirconia ceramics for monolithic restorations.     

Surface Reconstruction Engineering with Synergistic Effect of Mixed-Salt Passivation Treatment toward Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells

Surface passivation treatment is a widely used strategy to resolve trap-mediated nonradiative recombination toward high-efficiency metal-halide perovskite photovoltaics. However, a lack of passivation with mixture treatment has been investigated, as well as an in-depth understanding of its passivation mechanism. Here, a systematic study on a mixed-salt passivation strategy of formamidinium bromide (FABr) coupled with different F-substituted alkyl lengths of ammonium iodide is demonstrated. It is obtained better device performance with decreasing chain length of the F-substituted alkyl ammonium iodide in the presence of FABr. Moreover, they unraveled a synergistic passivation mechanism of the mixed-salt treatment through surface reconstruction engineering, where FABr dominates the reformation of the perovskite surface via reacting with the excess PbI₂. Meanwhile, ammonium iodide passivates the perovskite grain boundaries both on the surface and top perovskite bulk through penetration. This synergistic passivation engineer results in a high-quality perovskite surface with fewer defects and suppressed ion migration, leading to a champion efficiency of 23.5% with mixed-salt treatment. In addition, the introduction of the moisture resisted F-substituted groups presents a more hydrophobic perovskite surface, thus enabling the decorated devices with excellent long-term stability under a high humid atmosphere as well as operational conditions.     

Aqueous dispersion of 1D van der Waals Mo6S3I6 crystal using biocompatible tri-block copolymer

To achieve the stable dispersion of 1D van der Waals crystal Mo₆S₃I₆ in aqueous media, the tri-block copolymer (Poloxamer) is used as dispersant. The head group of Poloxamer, hydrophobic polypropylene oxide parts can be adsorbed to Mo₆S₃I₆ surface by hydrophobic interaction and the tail group with hydrophilic polyethylene oxide exposed to the outside of the Mo₆S₃I₆ is soluble in water and can form sufficient steric hindrance, resulting in stable aqueous dispersion in nm scale. The excellent biocompatibility of aqueous dispersed nm scale 1D Mo₆S₃I₆ was demonstrated by effective proliferation of C2C12 cells.