Summary Project objectives This study fits into a larger research project on logistics collaboration and outsourcing decisions. The final objective of this larger project is to analyze the logistics collaboration decision in more detail to identify thresholds in these decisions. To reach the overall objectives, the first step is to get a clearer picture on the chemical and logistics service providers industry, sectors of our study, and on logistics collaboration in these sectors. The results of this first phase are presented in this report. Project Approach The study consists of two parts: literature review and five case studies within the chemical industry. The literature covers three topics: logistics collaboration, logistics outsourcing and purchasing of logistics services. The five case studies are used to refine the theoretical findings of the literature review. Conclusions Main observations during the case studies can be summarized as follows: Most analyzed collaborative relationships between shippers and logistics service providers in the chemical industry are still focused on operational execution of logistics activities with a short term horizon. Supply management design and control are often retained by the shippers. Despite the time and cost intensive character of a logistics service buying process, shippers tendering on a very regular basis. The decision to start a new tender project should more often be based on an integral approach that includes all tender related costs. A lower frequency of tendering could create more stability in supply chains. Beside, it will give both, shippers and LSPs, the possibility to improve the quality of the remaining projects. Price is still a dominating decision criterion in selecting a LSP. This is not an issue as long as the comparison of costs is based on an integral approach, and when shippers balance the cost criterion within their total set of criteria for sourcing logistics services. At the shippers' side there is an increased awareness of the need of more solid collaboration with logistics service providers. Nevertheless, in many cases this increased awareness does not actually result in the required actions to establish more intensive collaboration. Over the last years the logistics service providers industry was characterized by low profit margins, strong fragmentation and price competition. Nowadays, the market for LSPs is changing, because of an increasing demand for logistics services. To benefit from this situation a more pro-active role of the service providers is required in building stronger relationships with their customers. They should pay more attention on mid and long term possibilities in a collaborative relation, in stead of only be focused on running the daily operation.
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Het is de hoogste tijd dat Nederland, België en Duitsland gezamenlijk in actie komen voor hun ARRRA-regio. “Dat ze de klimaatambities voor de industrie in lijn brengen met de beschikbaarheid van schone energie en bijbehorende infrastructuur tegen redelijke kosten. Niet alleen in het eindplaatje, maar juist ook tijdens de tussenperiode. Opdat de ARRRA-industrie de kans krijgt haar innovatiekracht te benutten en klimaatvriendelijke productiemethoden te ontwikkelen. Zo niet, dan is veel van de industrie in de ARRRA regio gedoemd te verdwijnen naar elders. Met alle gevolgen van dien.”
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Background: Adverse outcome pathway (AOP) networks are versatile tools in toxicology and risk assessment that capture and visualize mechanisms driving toxicity originating from various data sources. They share a common structure consisting of a set of molecular initiating events and key events, connected by key event relationships, leading to the actual adverse outcome. AOP networks are to be considered living documents that should be frequently updated by feeding in new data. Such iterative optimization exercises are typically done manually, which not only is a time-consuming effort, but also bears the risk of overlooking critical data. The present study introduces a novel approach for AOP network optimization of a previously published AOP network on chemical-induced cholestasis using artificial intelligence to facilitate automated data collection followed by subsequent quantitative confidence assessment of molecular initiating events, key events, and key event relationships. Methods: Artificial intelligence-assisted data collection was performed by means of the free web platform Sysrev. Confidence levels of the tailored Bradford-Hill criteria were quantified for the purpose of weight-of-evidence assessment of the optimized AOP network. Scores were calculated for biological plausibility, empirical evidence, and essentiality, and were integrated into a total key event relationship confidence value. The optimized AOP network was visualized using Cytoscape with the node size representing the incidence of the key event and the edge size indicating the total confidence in the key event relationship. Results: This resulted in the identification of 38 and 135 unique key events and key event relationships, respectively. Transporter changes was the key event with the highest incidence, and formed the most confident key event relationship with the adverse outcome, cholestasis. Other important key events present in the AOP network include: nuclear receptor changes, intracellular bile acid accumulation, bile acid synthesis changes, oxidative stress, inflammation and apoptosis. Conclusions: This process led to the creation of an extensively informative AOP network focused on chemical-induced cholestasis. This optimized AOP network may serve as a mechanistic compass for the development of a battery of in vitro assays to reliably predict chemical-induced cholestatic injury.
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This paper is an intermediate result of a PhD research project undertaken by Lenny Visser with Cees Ruijgrok as supervisor. The final objective of this project is to measure thresholds in logistics outsourcing decisions, especially for the chemical sector. If we are able to measure the relative importance of the underlying factors of these decision processes, we can also derive recommendations for removing or relieving these thresholds. For the measurement of these thresholds a Stated Preference experiment will be used. The paper describes the first steps in the design of this experiment by using theoretical and empirical findings. The model we propose is based of the concept of profit maximizing by minimizing integral logistic costs and maximizing revenues. This theory is checked by performing interviews with representatives of a number of case studies in the chemical industry.
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For almost fifteen years, the availability and regulatory acceptance of new approach methodologies (NAMs) to assess the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME/biokinetics) in chemical risk evaluations are a bottleneck. To enhance the field, a team of 24 experts from science, industry, and regulatory bodies, including new generation toxicologists, met at the Lorentz Centre in Leiden, The Netherlands. A range of possibilities for the use of NAMs for biokinetics in risk evaluations were formulated (for example to define species differences and human variation or to perform quantitative in vitro-in vivo extrapolations). To increase the regulatory use and acceptance of NAMs for biokinetics for these ADME considerations within risk evaluations, the development of test guidelines (protocols) and of overarching guidance documents is considered a critical step. To this end, a need for an expert group on biokinetics within the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to supervise this process was formulated. The workshop discussions revealed that method development is still required, particularly to adequately capture transporter mediated processes as well as to obtain cell models that reflect the physiology and kinetic characteristics of relevant organs. Developments in the fields of stem cells, organoids and organ-on-a-chip models provide promising tools to meet these research needs in the future.
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Intermediate reports of my PhD project which reports the results of a Stated Preference Experiment conducted within 18 companies within the chemical industry
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Diverse onderzoeken hebben aangetoond dat producenten aanzienlijke kosten- en servicevoordelen kunnen behalen door betere samenwerking met logistieke dienstverleners. Daarnaast geven de huidige ontwikkelingen binnen de chemie voldoende aanleiding om de samenwerking op logistiek gebied te verbeteren. Hoewel dit door de praktijk wordt onderkend, wordt het potentieel van logistieke samenwerking tot op heden echter niet verzilverd.
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Thermal disinfection is probably the oldest water treatment method ever used. Similarly to other disinfection processes, it targets the inactivation of pathogenic (micro)organisms present in water, wastewater and other media. In this work, a pilot-scale continuous-flow thermal disinfection system was investigated using highly contaminated hospital wastewater as influent without any pre-treatment step for turbidity removal. The results proved that the tested system can be used with influent turbidity as high as 100 NTU and still provide up to log 8 microbial inactivation. Further results have shown energy consumption comparable to other commercially available thermal disinfection systems and relatively low influence on the investigated physical–chemical parameters.
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Both because of the shortcomings of existing risk assessment methodologies, as well as newly available tools to predict hazard and risk with machine learning approaches, there has been an emerging emphasis on probabilistic risk assessment. Increasingly sophisticated AI models can be applied to a plethora of exposure and hazard data to obtain not only predictions for particular endpoints but also to estimate the uncertainty of the risk assessment outcome. This provides the basis for a shift from deterministic to more probabilistic approaches but comes at the cost of an increased complexity of the process as it requires more resources and human expertise. There are still challenges to overcome before a probabilistic paradigm is fully embraced by regulators. Based on an earlier white paper (Maertens et al., 2022), a workshop discussed the prospects, challenges and path forward for implementing such AI-based probabilistic hazard assessment. Moving forward, we will see the transition from categorized into probabilistic and dose-dependent hazard outcomes, the application of internal thresholds of toxicological concern for data-poor substances, the acknowledgement of user-friendly open-source software, a rise in the expertise of toxicologists required to understand and interpret artificial intelligence models, and the honest communication of uncertainty in risk assessment to the public.
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Collaboration between university and industry has brought societal and educational benefits by promoting research and innovation, providing industry training, and promoting access to resources and technology for both academia and industry. University, industry, and government collaboration known as the triple helix was proposed in the 1990s. However, industry and university collaboration has had a long history with best practices being updated as we learn more about specific fields, needs of collaborators, and advances in research and technology.This case study aims to find the best practices for collaboration between education and industry in a project-based educational program known as Professional Practice for students studying in the field of information technology. During this four-week program, students worked on assignments formulated by the participating companies. They were guided by company-assigned supervisors, who were interviewed before and after the program. The students too were asked to fill out surveys before and after the program. From the analyses of the results of the interviews and surveys, several recommendations and ways to improve collaboration between education and industry are presented.
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