BACKGROUND Middle Palaeolithic stone artefacts referred to as 'Levallois' have caused considerable debate regarding issues of technological predetermination, cognition and linguistic capacities in extinct hominins. Their association with both Neanderthals and early modern humans has, in particular, fuelled such debate. Yet, controversy exists regarding the extent of 'predetermination' and 'stan...

Sustainability is a key issue for companies offering products and services on the global market. The ever-increasing worldwide demand for raw materials in combination with the rising costs for materials and energy challenges companies to make their products, processes and services more sustainable. More and more customers are demanding sustainable products and services due to their increased aw...

Smog in industrial zones, the depletion of the ozone layer, and global warming demonstrate exemplarily the harmful impact of business activities on environmental systems and the societies that act within them. Therefore, customers and many governments around the world are developing a more conscious and respectful attitude toward the environment, turning environmental concerns into a central el...

Against global warming and environmental degradation, many interests have been paid to the studies popularly termed reverse, closed, green or sustainable logistics (Fiksel, 2010; Nikolopoulou and Ierapetritou, 2012; Srivastava, 2007). Recently, we concerned with a reverse logistics optimization in a practical manner (Shimizu and Sakaguchi, 2013) and deployed an idea for realizing an infrastruct...

In recent years, increasing numbers of luxury groups have adopted sustainable practices in their supply chains (sourcing, manufacturing, logistics, distribution, servicing, waste and recycling). However, the report from Greenpeace International organization (2014) indicates that some luxury brands/companies did not actively conduct sustainable practices to produce items, which is likely attribu...

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Space agencies around the world are gearing up for new human space exploration missions. In order to ensure that such programs are sustainable, it is worthwhile to examine the lessons learned from past experiences with space logistics and supply chain management. This paper offers an overview of the current state of the art in logistics management for space exploration focused on information sy...

SHARED SOLUTIONS TO COMMON CHALLENGES Globalisation and advances in information and communication technologies are reshaping the world’s trading patterns. Today’s internationally competitive businesses work through strategic, integrated global networks designed to deliver efficient and high-quality response to demands from anywhere in the world. This trend has given rise to the terms "global lo...

Abstract. In this paper, a production inventory model is developed for the business enterprise which consists of three wings. The first wing is for manufacturing new items, the second wing is for collecting the returned items, while third wing is for remanufacturing the returned item. In this model we consider the fact that the storage item is deteriorated during storage periods and salvage val...

Mitogen-regulated proteins (also known as proliferin; mrp/plf) are nonclassical members of the PRL/GH family. They are expressed at high levels during midgestation when they are thought to induce angiogenesis and uterine growth. There are between four and six mrp/plf genes, and three different complementary DNAs have been cloned. Here we identify a fourth mrp/plf gene (mrp4) that we have cloned...