Wann sind Lieferaufträge profitabel?

The paper aims to optimize the final part of a firm’s value chain with regard to attended last-mile deliveries. It is assumed that to be profitable, e-commerce businesses need to maximize the overall value of fulfilled orders (rather than their number), while also limiting costs of delivery. To do so, it is essential to decide which delivery requests to accept and which time windows to offer to which consumers. This is especially relevant for attended deliveries, as delivery fees usually cannot fully compensate costs of delivery given tight delivery time windows. The literature review shows that existing order acceptance techniques often ignore either the order value or the expected costs of delivery. The paper presents an iterative solution approach: after calculating an approximate transport capacity based on forecasted are accepted or rejected expected delivery requests and a cost-minimizing routing, actual delivery requests aiming to maximize the overall value of orders given the computed transport capacity. With the final set of accepted requests, the routing solution is updated to minimize costs of delivery. The presented solution approach combines well-known methods from revenue management and time-dependent vehicle routing. In a computational study for a German metropolitan area, the potential and the limits of value-based demand fulfillment as well as its sensitivity regarding forecast accuracy and demand composition are investigated.     

Formation of Mixed Bond‐Angle Linkages in Zinc Boromolybdate Glasses

The short and medium range structure of glassy MoO₃–ZnO–B₂O₃ has been studied by neutron diffraction and reverse Monte Carlo simulation. The partial atomic pair correlation functions and coordination numbers are presented that are not yet reported for this system. We have established that the first neighbor distances do not depend on concentration within limit of error, the actual values are r_B‐O = 1.38 Å, r_Mo‐O = 1.72 Å, and r_Zn‐O = 1.97 Å. It is found that ZnO takes part in the glassy structure as network former, as ZnO₄ tetrahedral are linked both to MoO₄ and to BO₃ and BO₄ groups. It is revealed that BO₄/BO₃ increases with increasing B₂O₃ content. We have found that only small amount of boroxol ring is present, BO₃ and BO₄ groups are organized into superstructure units, and a small part is in isolated BO₃ triangles. The BO₃ and BO₄ units are linked to MoO₄ or ZnO₄ forming mixed ^[4]Mo‐O‐^[3]B, ^[4]Mo‐O‐^[4]B, ^[4]Mo‐O‐^[4]Zn, ^[3]B‐O‐^[4]Zn, ^[4]B‐O‐^[4]Zn bond linkages.     

Quantenchemische Untersuchungen zur Molekül- und Elektronenstruktur einfacher Azomethinimine und verwandter Verbindungen

Quantum Chemical Investigations of the Molecular and Electronic Structure of Simple Azomethine Imines and Related Compounds The molecular and electronic structure of simple azomethinimines are investigated by means of MINDO/3 and CNDO/2 calculations. The calculated molecular geometry is compared with X-ray results obtained for these compounds. Except for the NN-bond lengths MINDO/3 satisfactorily describes the molecular structure of azomethinimine and related π-electronic systems. The charges at the atoms along the conjugated chain are alternating as in polymethines. The terminal carbon atom carries a negative charge. This charge brings about an appreciable shielding of this carbon atom such as found in the ¹³C-n.m.r. spectrum. This result does not contradict a stabilization of azomethinimines in the crystal via = CH…︁OC interactions.     

A Toxoplasma gondii Oxopurine Transporter Binds Nucleobases and Nucleosides Using Different Binding Modes

Toxoplasma gondii is unable to synthesize purines de novo, instead salvages them from its environment, inside the host cell, for which they need high affinity carriers. Here, we report the expression of a T. gondii Equilibrative Nucleoside Transporter, Tg244440, in a Trypanosoma brucei strain from which nucleobase transporters have been deleted. Tg244440 transported hypoxanthine and guanine with similar affinity (K_m ~1 µM), while inosine and guanosine displayed K_i values of 4.05 and 3.30 µM, respectively. Low affinity was observed for adenosine, adenine, and pyrimidines, classifying Tg244440 as a high affinity oxopurine transporter. Purine analogues were used to probe the substrate-transporter binding interactions, culminating in quantitative models showing different binding modes for oxopurine bases, oxopurine nucleosides, and adenosine. Hypoxanthine and guanine interacted through protonated N1 and N9, and through unprotonated N3 and N7 of the purine ring, whereas inosine and guanosine mostly employed the ribose hydroxy groups for binding, in addition to N1H of the nucleobase. Conversely, the ribose moiety of adenosine barely made any contribution to binding. Tg244440 is the first gene identified to encode a high affinity oxopurine transporter in T. gondii and, to the best of our knowledge, the first purine transporter to employ different binding modes for nucleosides and nucleobases.     

A Polysiloxide Complex with two Chromium(III) η2-Superoxo Moieties

The isolation and identification of intermediates formed in the course of the activation of dioxygen at transition metal centers reveals important mechanistic insights concerning such processes. We previously reported the reaction of the dinuclear Cr^II complex [L₂Cr₂(MeCN)₂][Li(MeCN)]₂ (L=PhSi(OSiPh₂O⁻)₃) ( 5 ) with dioxygen, which resulted in the formation of the Cr^IV oxo complex [L₂Cr₂O₂][Li(THF)₂]₂ ( 6 ), as the final room temperature stable product. Here we now report the isolation and characterization of an intermediate en route to 6 , namely the dinuclear Cr^III superoxo complex [L₂Cr₂(O₂)₂][Li(MeCN)]₂ ( 7 ). 7 is the first example of a structurally characterized dinuclear Cr^III superoxo complex with two independent side-on bound superoxo ligands. Reactivity studies outline the capability of this superoxo complex to activate weak O−H bonds.     

Applications of one-cycle control to improve the interconnection of a solid oxide fuel cell and electric power system with a dynamic load

Adding distributed generation (DG) is a desirable strategy for providing highly efficient and environmentally benign services for electric power, heating, and cooling. The interface between a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), typical loads, and the electrical grid is simulated in Matlab/Simulink and analyzed to assess the interactions between DG and the electrical grid. A commercial building load profile is measured during both steady-state and transient conditions. The load data are combined with the following models that are designed to account for physical features: a One-Cycle Control grid-connected inverter, a One-Cycle Control active power filter, an SOFC, and capacitor storage. High penetration of DG without any power filter increases the percentage of undesirable harmonics provided by the grid, but combined use of an inverter and active power filter allows the DG system interconnection to improve the grid tie-line flow by lowering total harmonic distortion and increasing the power factor to unity.