194 research outputs found
Electronic commerce and logistics: the last mile dilemma reference framework and simulation
No full textThe electronic commerce companies that are involved in BtoC business and physical goods delivery have to deal with the Last Mile Logistics Dilemma, looking for the most apropriate solutions according to the characteristics of business models and service concepts proposed. To provide some useful suggestions to this dilemma, the article is aimed at: a) highlighting the crucial relationship between such e-commerce aproaches and logistics planning, in which the management of physical flows plays a fundamental role in providing profitability to the business; b) proposing a reference model to underly the relevant costs in the trade off between home delivery and delivery to a shop or pick-up point; c) linking those relevant costs to the main design and management leverages that can be used to define an apropriate and coherent solution to the problem; d)showing the risk of the “e-commerce trap”, that occurs when click and mortar companies have to manage multiple delivery processes and related costs.The work offers an analytical aproach to the last mile logistics design and the implementation of main alternatives. The final section reports a simulation of the final delivery process for “family durable products” showing how the described framework can be put in practice and how the different variables identified can influence the economics of the distribution process
The interaction of deformation and metamorphic reactions
No full textFeedback relations between deformation and metamorphic mineral reactions, derived using the principles of non-equilibrium thermodynamics, indicate that mineral reactions progress to completion in high-strain areas, driven by energy dissipated from inelastic deformation. These processes, in common with other time-dependent geological processes, lead to both strain, and strain-rate, hardening/softening in rate-dependent materials. In particular, strain-rate softening leads to the formation of shear zones, folds and boudins by non-Biot mechanisms. Strain-softening alone does not produce folding or boudinage and results in low-strain shear zones; strain-rate soft- ening is necessary to produce realistic strains and structures. Reaction–mechanical feedback relations operating at the scale of 10–100 m produce structures similar to those that arise from thermal–mechanical feedback relations at coarser (kilometre) scales and reaction–diffusion– mechanical feedback relations at finer (millimetre) scales. The dominance of specific processes at various length scales but the development of similar structures by all coupled processes leads to scale invariance. The concept of non-equilibrium mineral stability diagrams is introduced. In principle, deformation influences the position of mineral stability fields relative to equilibrium stability fields; the effect is negligible for the quartz ! coesite reaction but may be important for others. Application of these results to the development of structures and mineral reactions in the Italian Alps is discussed
Avoiding the e-commerce trap
No full textThe internet ‘flop’ is still gravely etched in the imagination – yet notwithstanding the stock market setbacks of a few years ago e-commerce has been making steady progress. It appears that there is a logistics challenge (which we call the ‘e-commerce trap’) threatening the further expansion of online shopping for physical goods, and that to be effective in this area companies will need to invest more in the so-called ‘last mile’. This paper is aimed to highlight the main variables to take into consideration in a last mile logistics design
Three-dimensional evaluation of fabric evolution and metamorphic reaction progress in polycyclic and polymetamorphic terrains: a case from the Central Italian Alps
No full textThe 3D reconstruction of geological bodies is an excellent tool for the representation of crustal structures and is applied here to understand related heterogeneities in the grain-scale fabrics; the western portion of the Languard–Tonale Alpine tectono-metamorphic unit (Austroalpine domain, Central Alps) allows evaluation of the per cent volume of textural reworking during polyphase pre-Alpine and Alpine deformations. The structural and metamorphic overprinting during the last deformation imprint involved less than 50% of rock volume; this estimate is obtained by discriminating domains that homogeneously recorded structural and metamorphic re-equilibration during crenulation–decrenulation cycles. These domains are reconstructed using a geograhpical information system (GIS) to manipulate field data and interpretative cross-sections as a means to constrain their 3D volumes. The degree of fabric evolution is integrated at the microscale with the estimate of the reactants/products ratio to infer the progress of metamorphic transformation related to advancing degree of mechanical reactivation. The correlation between degree of fabric evolution and progress of synkinematic metamorphic reactions shows that differences between pristine mineral assemblages v. pre-existing fabrics influence the rate of reaction accomplishment. Fabric evolution and degree of metamorphic transformation increase proportionally once above the threshold value of 60% of volume affected by fabric rejuvenation; metamorphic degree also influences the progress of metamorphic reactions
Vincoli fisici e sviluppo dell’economia virtuale
No full textIl contributo definisce le principali variabili da considerare nella progettazione di una rete logistica in contesti di commercio elettronico B2C. Il lavoro presenta un modello di analisi delle alternative di progettazione della logistica distributiva, simulando il confronto tra distribuzione diretta al punto vendita e distribuzione intemediata da CEDI e piattaforma logistica
Multiscale structural analysis devoted to the reconstruction of tectonic trajectories in active margins
No full textStrain partitioning and fabric evolution as a correlation tool: the example of the Eclogitic Micaschists Complex in the Sesia-Lanzo Zone (Monte Mucrone – Monte Mars, Western Alps, Italy)
No full textMultiscale structures and tectonic trajectories in active margins
No full textSuperimposed rock fabrics can be marked by the growth of successive mineral assemblages, and thus testify as to the relative displacement of tectonic units throughout different structural levels within active zones of the lithosphere. Relicts of these deformation and growth episodes survive as mosaic-like domains with different and diachronous textures and mineral equilibria. Such apparent complexity of the meso- and micro-structure constitutes the geologic record of axial orogenic zones of the crust and may be decrypted by analysing deformation heterogeneities from map to granular scale. In naturally deformed rocks this heterogeneity may depend on pre-existing structures, on compositional variations, on the onset of localised processes of reaction softening or hardening or on the localised catalysing effects of deformation.
The memory of a single rock in a poly-deformed terrane depends on the interplay of factors such as the physical conditions of metamorphism, deformation history, diffusion and fluid infiltration. Usage of the petro-structural memory of crustal and mantle rocks leads to reinterpretation of the metamorphic structure of nappe belts of axial orogenic zones in more realistic and physical terms. Contributions include field and laboratory analysis on natural tectonic systems at various scales
Explanatory notes to the map: metamorphic structure of the Alps transition from the western Central Alps.
No full textThe northern-western Alps, located between two major tectonic structures, the Simplon and the Aosta-Ranzolla faults, represent a "transition” zone where all paleogeographic domains involved within the alpine orogenic wedge are present and clearly distinguishable on a map (e.g. BIGI et al., 1990; SCHMID et al., 2004). The structural style and metamorphic record in the area linking the West and South-West Lepontine to the Western Alps has particular characteristics, which warrant this separate chapter. This concerns the Lepontine zone from just East of Valle d’Ossola to the western limit set by the continental Bernhard nappe system in the North-West, the ocean- derived Piedmont-Ligurian zone and its prolongation to the west (Préalps), as well continental units issued either from the Adriatic continent domain (Sesia and Dent-Blanche massifs) or from the European margin (Mt Blanc massif).
All units will be described after that from east to west following Figure 1, while structural relationship between different units is described in details in SCHMID et al. (2004)
A geological transect from Kun Lun to Karakorum (Sinkiang, China): the western termination of the Tibetan Plateau. Preliminary note
No full textA geological-geophysical expedition (Ev-K2-CNR 1988) visited the area from West Kun Lun to Karakorum (K2-Gasherbrum). Seven tectonic units including sedimentary, magmatic and metamorphic rocks were distinguished in this area; the northernmost are suggested to belong to the Kun Lun and Qiangtang Microplates. The sedimentary sequence of Shaksgam is proved to extend from the Permian to the Jurassic, with Carboniferous and Cretaceous ages more doubtful. This sequence shows intermediate affinities between the Karakorum and the Qiangtang. The two southernmost units belong to the Karakorum Microplate. The Karakorum Fault Zone comprises a complex pattern of faults and thrusts, with brittle deformation and uplifting of granitoid bodies
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