Specifically, a facile protocol is proposed by utilizing Cu mesh itself as a Cu source for fabricating CuCo2O4 on Cu mesh. By changing the dosages of the Co precursor and carbamide, various nanostructures of CuCo2O4 grown on a Cu mesh can be afforded, including nanoscale needles, flowers, and sheets. Even though the Cu mesh itself can be also transformed to a Cu-Oxide mesh, the growth of CuCo2O4 on the Cu mesh significantly improves its physical, chemical, and electrochemical properties, making these CuCo2O4@Cu meshes much more superior catalysts for activating Oxone to degrade the Azo toxicant, Acid Red 27. More interestingly, the flower-like CuCo2O4@Cu mesh exhibits a higher specific surface area and more superior electrochemical performance, enabling the flower-like CuCo2O4@Cu mesh to show the highest catalytic activity for Oxone activation to degrade Acid Red 27. The flower-like CuCo2O4@Cu mesh also exhibits a much lower aE of Acid Red 27 degradation than the reported catalysts. These results demonstrate that CuCo2O4@Cu meshes are advantageous heterogeneous catalysts for Oxone activation, and especially, the flower-like CuCo2O4@Cu mesh appears as the most effective CuCo2O4@Cu mesh to eliminate the toxic Acid Red 27.As cobalt (Co) has been the most useful element for activating Oxone to generate SO Dyes are extensively employed in the textile, paper, cosmetics, leather, and food industries, and thus effluents from these industries inevitably contain a large amount of dye compounds . Among a•OH-related AOPs, and SO4•−-related AOPs. While several •OH-related AOPs have been proposed for degrading AR, including photocatalysis [4•−-related AOPs have received increasing interest for degrading AR because SO4•− exhibits a higher oxidation power, a higher selectivity for aromatic structures [For removing AR, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) would be a practical technique as AOPs can decompose toxic dyes to lessen their toxicities ,9,10. Geatalysis  and the atalysis , SO4•−-rructures , and a lructures . 4•− [4•− from Oxone. To date, cobalt (Co) has been confirmed as the most useful element for Oxone activation and a few attempts have been made to evaluate Co3O4 as a heterogeneous alternative to Co ions for activating Oxone to degrade AR [3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) are prone to aggregate even in water, therefore losing their activities for Oxone activation [3O4 NPs and those powder-like Co-based materials are extremely hard to recover after reactions, thereby leading to the secondary pollution. Oxone (potassium monopersulfate) is a popular commercially available reagent for generating SO4•− ,16; howegrade AR ,18. Nonetivation . Moreove2O4). Since CuCo2O4 is comprised of a spinel structure comparable to Co3O4 and CuCo2O4 is also considered as a promising catalyst in various reactions [2O4 grown on a CM (CCM) should be a promising catalyst for degrading AR through Oxone activation. Therefore, it would be more practical to decorate nanoscale Co-based oxides on macroscale supports to create a hierarchical catalyst, which would possess both nanoscale functionality and macroscale convenience. Therefore, metal meshes appear as feasible and useful macroscale supports because metal meshes are robust and porous, enabling the growth of nanoscale substances on their surfaces and allowing fluids to flow through easily ,21. Amoneactions , the CuC2O4 with favorable nanostructures on the CM is expected as an excellent catalyst for activating Oxone for eliminating AR. Thus, it would be important and interesting to investigate nanoscale CuCo2O4 with different morphologies on a CM for optimizing the design of a CCM for efficient Oxone activation to eliminate AR from water. Thus, the present study aims to develop CCMs with various nanoscale morphologies of CuCo2O4 directly grown on a CM for the first time to investigate the structure–activity relationship of these CCMs via modulating CuCo2O4 nanostructures. Furthermore, as activities of catalysts would be associated with their appearances, shapes, as well as surface characteristics, CuCo3)2, carbamide, tert-butyl alcohol (TBA), 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline n-oxide (DMPO), 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine (TMP), Acid Red 27 (AR), polyvinylidene fluoride, 7,8-Benzoquinoline (BQ), 1-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone, and Oxone were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (USA). Commercial Co3O4 NPs (50–80 nm) and sodium azide (NaN3) were obtained from Alfa Aesar (USA). Copper mesh was acquired from Maychun Enterprise Co. Ltd. . The fabrication of CCMs is depicted in 2O4 nanostructures hydrothermally with different amounts of Co2+ and carbamide. All reagents used in this study were purchased commercially and employed directly without purification. Co(NO3) and carbamide  was dissolved in 20 mL of DI water, followed by the addition of the pretreated CM. The resulting mixture was then heated at 120 °C for 10 h, and the corresponding Co-modified CM was then rinsed with DI water, followed by thermal treatment in air for 2 h in 550 °C to produce CuCo2O4@CM (CCMs). For comparisons, an oxidized Cu mesh (CuOM) was prepared using the aforementioned procedure without the addition of Co(NO3) and carbamide. A piece of Cu mesh was firstly cut into a rectangular piece , which was pretreated by cleansing it with the concentrated HCl and rinsing with DI water. Next, 2 mmol of Co a as a reWhen the ratio of Co: carbamide was varied to 1:2, there was a resultant modified CM, which is displayed in Finally, the molar ratio of Co: carbamide was further changed to 1: 4, and the resultant modified CM is revealed in 2O. Specifically, the peaks at 29.5, 36.4, 42.3, 61.3, and 73.5° would correspond to the (110), (111), (200), (211), (220), and (311) planes of CuO (JCPDS#900-569), and the peaks at 35.5, 38.8, 48.7, 53.5, 61.5, 65.9, 66.6, 68.1, 72.5, and 75.1° could be ascribed to the (002), (111), (20-1), (020), (11-3), (022), (310), (113), (311), and (004) of Cu2O planes (JCPDS#152-6990)  . These c2+ and carbamide were then introduced, the XRD patterns of these Co-modified CMs preserved multiple CuO/Cu2O peaks (2O4 (JCPDS#01-1155), revealing that these nanostructures decorated on CMs could be attributed to CuCo2O4. These characterizations also unveil that modulating the molar ratio between Co2+ and carbamide would shape the morphologies of CuCo2O4 on the CM distinctly. This was because carbamide would decompose through hydrolysis during the hydrothermal process to generate CO2 and NH3 [3 would dissolve in water and become ammonium and a hydroxide ion, which reacts with Co2+ and Cu+/Cu2+ to produce Co/Cu-hydroxides. Simultaneously, NH4+ then made the reaction solution alkaline, altering rates of precipitation of Co/Cu-hydroxides, and then regulating the morphologic development. The coincidentally resulting CO2 would also pressurize the nucleation process of nanocrystals, and influence their shapes [2O4 would become fibrous, or filament-like as observed in 2O4 would be afforded as seen in After Co2O peaks b. Howeve and NH3 . Subsequr shapes ,25,26. ITo further distinguish these CCMs, the CCM decorated with “needles” is denoted as NCCM, the CCM covered with “flowers” is named as FCCM, and the CCM loaded with clusters of “sheets” is denoted as SCCM.2 adsorption in 2 adsorption of the CuOM is also included, and a very limited amount of N2 could be adsorbed onto the CuOM; the corresponding isotherm was then classified as a type III model, indicating the weak sorption of N2 onto the CuOM, and the porosity was also relatively low. Its pore size distribution  for providing more reactive surfaces.As these CCMs interestingly exhibited different morphologies, their textural properties were then determined by Nshown in d furtherFirstly, as AR could be eliminated by sorption to catalysts, it would be essential to determine if the AR was removed via sorption to the CCMs. t/C0C of AR by these CCMs could all reach zero. These results demonstrate that the CCMs seemed to activate Oxone to cause the degradation of AR. For comparison, the CuOM and Oxone were then introduced to an AR solution; the concentration of AR decreased in 60 min. However, its t/C0C over 60 min only reached 0.69. This result suggests that while the CuOM itself might also activate Oxone to cause the degradation of AR, CuCo2O4 grown on the CM seemed to accelerate Oxone activation and cause much more rapid AR degradation. On the other hand, since Co3O4 is a reference catalyst for activating Oxone, a commercially available Co3O4 nanoparticle (NP) was tested here for comparison. 3O4 NP could also activate Oxone but the corresponding t/C0C in 60 min was merely 0.45. Even though Co3O4 and CuCo2O4 both consisted of spinel structures, these CCMs revealed much more superior catalytic activities than the Co3O4 NP. The hierarchical structure of CCMs might enable the active sites of CuCo2O4 to expose Oxone more easily, while the Co3O4 NP actually aggregated seriously, as shown in Nevertheless, when the CCMs  and Oxone were present together, the concentration of AR decreased rapidly, and t = C0 expC(-kt) to determine the rate constant k (min−1). The k of AR elimination by the NCCM was then calculated as 0.053 min−1, the k by the FCCM was 0.104 min−1, and the k by the SCCM was 0.074 min−1. In comparison to the k values by the CuOM  and Co3O4 (0.014 min−1), three CCMs all showed significantly faster degradation kinetics, validating that the growth of three amounts of CuCo2O4 on the CM substantially boosted the catalytic activities of Oxone activation. Moreover, among these three CCMs, the FCCM certainly enabled much faster AR degradation kinetics, suggesting that the FCCM possessed a much more advantageous catalytic activity than the NCCM and the SCCM.As three CCMs all led to the very rapid degradation of AR, their degradation kinetics were then quantitatively compared using the pseudo-first-order rate law As the activation of Oxone involves electron transfer and redox reactions , heterog2O to CuO, and the two noticeable reduction bands were due to the reduction of Cu2+ as well as Cu+. In comparison to the CuOM, the CCMs all exhibited much larger current responses than that of the CuOM, indicating that the growth and decoration of CuCo2O4 on the CM would enhance interfacial reaction rates [Therefore, the electrochemical characteristics of CCMs were firstly measured to probe into their redox potentials and electron transports. Firstly, the cyclic voltammetry (CV) curves of CCMs were obtained and are shown in on rates , which won rates ,30, decron rates . Moreove2O4 on the CM also enhanced electron transport. Moreover, the FCCM exhibited the smallest overpotential among these three CCMs.Next, their corresponding linear sweep voltammogram (LSV) analyses are then displayed in Additionally, the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) would be used for assessing the charge transfer ability of CCMs in terms of Nyquist plots as shown in DL) was then computed using CDL = mJ/v, where mJ represents the current density and v means the scanning rate. mJ could be then calculated by averaging values between the anodic and cathodic current densities with the central potential by mJ with v, the slopes of the fitting lines afforded CDL values of these CCMs and the CuOM as shown in DL value of 19.3 mF/cm2, followed by the SCCM (15.3 mF/cm2), then the NCCM (10.1 mF/cm2), and finally the CuOM (6.8 mF/cm2). These comparisons suggested that the FCCM exhibited the highest area of active sites among all these catalysts. These results all indicated that the FCCM possessed the much more superior electrochemical properties, thereby exhibiting significantly higher catalytic activity towards Oxone activation, and leading to the fastest rate constant. These analyses ascertained the growth of CuCo2O4 on the CM would significantly improve their electrochemical properties, making these CCMs promising catalysts for Oxone activation.On the other hand, for further comparing the active sites of these catalysts, the scan-rate-dependent CV curves of these CCMs and the CuOM in the non-Faradaic region with 1.0M of KOH were obtained, and are shown in t/C0C merely achieved 0.11 with a smaller k of 0.054 min−1. Once Oxone became 200 mg/L, the AR degradation would be slightly enhanced as its t/C0C reached zero quickly with a k of 0.104 min−1. In the case of Oxone = 300 mg/L, the AR could be completely eliminated at an even shorter time with a higher k of 0.144 min−1. This demonstrates that the dosage of Oxone was critical because the availability of Oxone greatly influences the amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS).While the FCCM was found to efficiently eliminate AR via activating Oxone, it was useful to further assess the effects of Oxone and FCCM dosages for further realizing their respective effects. k = 0.133 min−1. Such a phenomenon has been also observed in several studies of using Oxone to degrade contaminants because a higher dosage of catalyst would provide more reactive surface areas of catalysts, which would facilitate Oxone activation, and then enhance degradation [2O4 on the CM had enabled the CM to be a highly efficient catalyst for Oxone activation.On the other hand, when the FCCM changed from 200 to 100 mg/L, the AR could be still degraded completely in 60 min. Nevertheless, a relatively low FCCM dosage obviously caused the degradation to proceed more slowly as indicated in the insets of t/C0C could approach zero at 60 min with a k of 0.104 min−1, then increase to 0.144 min−1 at 40 °C, and 0.237 min−1 at 50 °C. This indicates the positive effect of the higher temperature on AR elimination.For further investigating the catalytic behaviors of the FCCM, AR degradation was then implemented at various temperatures  in k increased along with higher temperatures, the correlation of k with T was then associated with each other for obtaining aE by the following the Arrhenius equation:Moreover, since the ln k vs. 1/T, which is fitted linearly with R2 >0.980, indicating that the relationship of k vs. T was correlated via the Arrhenius equation. The aE value of AR degradation by FCCM-activated Oxone was calculated as 33.5 kJ/mol, which was smaller than most of the reported aE of AR degradation by other processes, ranging from 39 to 70 kJ/mol, in The inset of k = 0.104 min−1. As the pH was adjusted to 5, the AR elimination was slightly influenced with t/C0C = 0.35 and a k of 0.016 min−1. Such a negative influence was more obvious at pH = 3, t/C0C only achieved 0.67, and the k dropped to 0.006 min−1. AR elimination by the FCCM was also affected substantially under basic conditions. For instance, AR elimination at pH = 9 was lightly affected as t/C0C still achieved 0.13 at 60 min, and its k decreased slightly to 0.029 min−1. Once the pH rose to 11, a highly alkaline condition, the AR was barely degraded with a significantly small k of 0.007 min−1.Furthermore, it would be essential to investigate how pH affected the AR elimination. + through potential reactions as follows [Under acidic conditions, Oxone is shown to remain relatively indolent , thereby follows , causingapK of AR is 6.5 [+ would also interact with radicals at low pH [Moreover, as R is 6.5 , AR tendt low pH , therebyt low pH .52− under the basic condition as the apK of Oxone is 9.4 , Ovacancy (OV), and Ochemi-sorbed (OC). OV is proven to relate to catalytic activities of Oxone activation [2+ seemed smaller in the spent FCCM, whereas the fraction of Cu+ also became relatively low in the spent FCCM. These variations were consistent with the reported mechanism of Oxone activation, in which metal species mediate Oxone activation through the transformation of valences of metal species as follows [Moreover, the surface chemistry of the FCCM using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy before and after the recyclability was analyzed, and the core-level Co, Cu, and O spectra of the FCCM were measured and are displayed in tivation . On the  follows ,52:M+1 V in the FCCM before and after the recyclability did not significantly change, suggesting that OV might not be the principal factor contributing to the catalytic activity of the FCCM for activating Oxone.Thus, these results also validated that AR degradation by FCCM-activated Oxone might be attributed to the redox process of metal species in the FCCM . Moreover, the fraction of Oα-hydrogen, acted as a radical probe of •OH. k became much smaller from originally 0.104 to 0.050 min−1 , containing no 50 min−1 b, demons•OH and k merely reached 0.002 min−1 in the presence of methanol. Next, NaN3 was selected as a probe for detecting the existence of 1O2 as Oxone is validated to induce the formation of a nonradical ROS, singlet oxygen (1O2) [k decreased to 0.014 min−1, and thus 1O2 might be involved in AR elimination. On the other hand, 7,8-Benzoquinoline (BQ), a probe for superoxide, O2•–, was also added during AR degradation, which was noticeably influenced as the corresponding k decreased to 0.037 min−1. These results demonstrate that TBA, BQ, and NaN3 noticeably influenced AR degradation, while methanol caused an even more significant inhibition to AR degradation. Therefore, these results suggest that •OH, O2•–, and 1O2 might exist in FCCM-activated Oxone and contribute to AR degradation.On the other hand, methanol was utilized to act as a radical probe for both of en (1O2) . Figure 4 and DMPO-OH were observed, validating the presence of •OH.Furthermore, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy was then adopted to examine ROS produced from FCCM-activated Oxone. Firstly, 5,5-Dimethyl-1-pyrroline N-Oxide (DMPO) was adopted as the spin-trapping agent; almost no signal was detected using DMPO and Oxone c. After 1O2. As no notable pattern was obtained by Oxone alone  was also adopted because NBT has been also a long-lasting probe for determining the presence of O2•− which converts NBT to monoformazan. Nonetheless, no obvious peak of monoformazan at 530 nm could be detected  was then adopted as the spin-trapping agent for examining the presence of ne alone d, a notiR result e displaydetected f, suggesAs AR could be effectively degraded using Oxone activated by the FCCM, it was interesting to further study the decomposition route of AR. To this end, density functional theory (DFT) computation would then offer insights into the susceptibilities of reactive sites of AR according to the molecular orbitals (MOs) and Fukui indices of AR ,56,57. F•OH and SO4•−. On the other hand, Those electron-abundant parts might attract electrophilic attacks, especially by f–, f0, and f+. In general, a site with a higher f– index tended to accept electrophilic attacks, and N18 and N19 exhibited much higher f– indices than any other sites, demonstrating that these sites were the most possible sites for drawing electrophilic assaults. This result was in line with the aforementioned observation that the azo group of AR might be easily attacked. Moreover, in addition to the azo group, C2 showed a relatively higher f– value than other carbon sites, suggesting that AR might also receive attacks on its carbonaceous structure, possibly through ring-opening reactions. On the other hand, the list of f0 also suggests that N18 and N19 (the azo group) might also attract the so-called “non-radical” attacks, possibly from the singlet oxygen.Moreover, the Fukui indices of AR were also calculated for predicting the most possible reaction sites of AR, as summarized in m/z = 603) might have transferred to its analogous intermediates after the group of sodium sulfate was replaced by the hydroxyl group, affording P1 and P2. Next, AR, P1, or P2 were then further decomposed through the cleavage of the azo group, generating a series of by-products, such as P3 (which might evolve into P5) and P4. Subsequently, P3 (and P5) might also have been oxidized to open rings and eliminated the sulfate group to become P6 (and P7). Simultaneously, P4 might then have been decomposed via the ring-opening reaction to afford P8, which might also have been derived from the decomposition of P7. Afterward, the resulting P8 would have been continuously oxidized to generate even smaller molecules, such as P9 and P10, and eventually CO2 and H2O.For further probing into the decomposition route of AR, the decomposition of AR by Oxone activated using the FCCM was then monitored using mass spectrometry as displayed in 2O4 on a CM by utilizing the CM itself as a Cu source. Through varying dosages of a Co precursor and carbamide, different nanostructures of CuCo2O4 were successfully created and decorated (grown) on the CM, including nanoscale needles, flowers, and sheets. While the CM itself could also be transformed to grow nanoneedles of Cu-O on its surfaces, becoming a CuOM, the growth of CuCo2O4 on the CM significantly improved the physical, chemical, as well as electrochemical properties, enabling these CCMs to be much more superior catalysts for activating Oxone to degrade the Azo toxicant, AR. More interestingly, among the NCCM, FCCM, and SCCM, the FCCM exhibited a higher specific surface area and more superior electrochemical performance, enabling the FCCM to show the highest catalytic activity for Oxone activation to degrade AR among these CCMs. The FCCM also exhibited a much lower aE of AR degradation than the reported catalysts. Moreover, the degradation mechanism of AR by FCCM-activated Oxone was also elucidated using the tests of radical probes and EPR for identifying the presence and contribution of ROS to AR degradation. The AR degradation mechanism could be elucidated, and the degradation pathway was also investigated and unveiled in detail via the DFT calculation. These results validate that CCMs are useful heterogeneous catalysts for Oxone activation, and especially, FCCM appears as the most favorable CCM to eliminate the toxic AR.In this study, a facile protocol was proposed for fabricating CuCo


Public holiday weeks cause specific challenges in grocery retailing as sales are raising and working days for logistics processes are reduced. The paper analyzes the operational planning challenges and solutions for demand planning and disposition as well as for warehouse and transportation management of grocery retailers in public holiday seasons. A total of 22 top managers representing 20 sales lines of 17 of the top 30 grocery retailers in Germany participated in the study. Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with logistics managers were conducted and analyzed. Uncertainties and missing resources can be identified as the two main challenges of public holiday seasons in grocery retailing. Retailers implement numerous measures that can be summarized in three categories, i.e., the adjustment of workload profiles, the adaptation of resources and modifying processes. Literature has so far considered public holidays only to a limited extent, e.g., as a parameter in forecasting models or for the application of marketing instruments. This study is the first developing a framework and providing insights into operational planning in grocery retailing. In retailing, demand fluctuates during the week, the year and especially around holidays  have different public holiday regulations within the country, which further complicates logistics planning and operations. In the event that the distribution center is affected by a public holiday but the associated stores are  not, separate delivery schedules must be created for the affected stores. In addition, these stores — if located near the state border — experience additional demand due to the holiday-shopping behavior of neighboring states celebrating a holiday. Open stores in neighboring states need sufficient stock to compensate for potential delivery shortfalls and additional demand. If replenishment authority lies with the stores, store employees must adjust their orders accordingly. These volumes accumulate in the upstream distribution centers, resulting in additional peaks.In what follows, we refer to all the logistical and operational planning challenges in grocery retailing just mentioned as the “public holiday challenge.” Given this challenging planning conditions, a careful planning of operations for public holiday seasons is essential as retailers have to cover significant operational efforts and logistics costs . A distIn the domain of mid-term sales planning, Fildes et al.  present Demand planning in turn directly impacts warehouse management defining the volumes that need to be handled and thus personnel and storage capacity requirements in the distribution centers. An overview of warehouse operations problems is given by Gu et al. . The focSimilar conclusions can be drawn when investigating literature in the transport domain. Operational transportation planning captures the transport between distribution centers and stores and is forced to meet the high requirements of both adjacent subsystems :RQ 1: How do grocery retailers deal with the public holiday challenge in logistics operations and why are specific strategies applied?RQ 2: How do context specifics in the problem settings influence their solutions?For answering the research questions, we have chosen an exploratory qualitative research study. Such a study is appropriate for uncovering such unstudied research areas as data from practice enrich the theoretical findings Stebbins .Qualitative research is useful for studying ‘how’ and ‘why’ research questions as in our case Pratt . Using aIn a preliminary study, three interviews were conducted with experts from retail logistics and relevant literature on logistics in grocery retailing was examined with regard to the public holiday challenge. The interviews lasted 60 minutes and were conducted personally with two interviewers. After these preliminary interviews the operational processes of an average week without public holidays were outlined and the terminology ‘public holiday challenge’ was clarified. All planning areas in retail logistics see Fig.  were sysGrocery retailing is characterized by country-specific patterns and shopping behaviors .Weather influences on shopping behavior. The weather forecast is crucial for how customers plan their free days and thus their holiday purchases. Previous years’ sales therefore cannot generally serve as a meaningful basis. In addition, weather forecasts are not included in automated demand planning processes at most retailers. As a consequence, the weather forecast has to be considered by short-term manual adjustments. This explains why approximately 35% of the grocery retailers indicate that the weather volatility noticeably complicates demand planning in holiday seasons.Forecasting demand for public holiday seasons is very complex. Precise planning is often only possible at short-notice because of the weather. .Short-term ordering behavior. Weather volatility and little long-term planning effort lead to shortterm ordering by store managers. This ordering practice is known to be a major factor causing out-of-stock situations .However, several retailers allow their store managers very short ordering times on a regular basis, even before public holidays, to achieve high customer service levels. This requires high stock levels and flexible personnel resources in the distribution center.Grocery retailers differentiate between the standard assortment and promotional products when developing forecasting solutions for public holiday seasons. The standard assortment includes all regular and seasonal articles, such as baking ingredients during the Christmas season. Promotional items are listed for a certain period of time such as chocolate eggs before the Easter holidays. Moreover, retailers declare regular products that are included in advertising campaigns during the holiday season as promotional items. For both the standard assortment and promotional articles dedicated solution concepts exist.Standard assortment. Basic store order proposals for the standard assortment for public holiday weeks are generated by IT systems at all interviewed retailers as rich data sets from standard weeks are available. For two thirds of the participants, the proposals are based on the previous year’s figures as these are assessed as most meaningful. The remaining retailers include further past values or use data from the year with the same weekday constellation of the public holidays.The IT system considers the calendar constellation of public holidays. For example, the sales before a public holiday at the beginning of a month are higher as the customers have more money available. .Half of the retailers mostly rely on these automatically generated order proposals, thus stores should maintain their stocks carefully. This automated procedure is, however, not applicable for the complete standard assortment. It is particularly difficult for goods sold by weight, such as fruits.Store employees use an action planner to plan the seasonal articles, especially for the dry assortment. They decide when they want to reach the maximum storage and how they can avoid large order quantities. .The other half of the retailers apply manual approaches to forecast their standard assortment in public holiday seasons. This means, order proposals by the IT system are fundamentally revised manually as an accurate parameterization of the system gets too complicated and the results are too imprecise. 50% of this group of retailers centrally quantifies these figures and pushes the associated product volumes into the stores without consulting store managers. Working at capacity limits and the high complexity of logistics processes during the holiday business are reasons why short-time orders of store managers are banned. In addition high coordination effort results. Nevertheless, the other half of retailers explicitly bases their predictions on the experience of store managers because of their knowledge of local customer behavior.We define corner articles. That are around 300–500 products out of 100,000. The automated forecasts for these corner articles need to be modified manually. We are therefore contacting the stores and plan the stockpiling. .To limit the forecasting effort, some retailers define a limited number of critical articles that have a major impact on sales or that have caused problems in previous year. Only for these products, they adjust the system proposals manually.Promotional articles. Retailers organize demand planning and allocation of promotional items quite differently, i.e., centrally or decentrally.Promotional articles are allocated by the logistics department as centralization is easier and enables a better disposition for the sales department. .40% of the interviewed retailers, among them 80% discounters, have centralized the forecasting of promotional articles. Centralization leads to a more efficient and precise forecasting process as central marketing initiatives and long supply times could be better incorporated. The latter one is especially relevant because non-food import products are mostly ordered up to one year in advance. In addition several manufacturers only produce on demand. The responsibility for these tasks varies between the retailers interviewed.60% of the retailers rely on a decentralized demand planning and allocation of promotional articles. The sales department makes a pre-selection and the store managers order their desired quantities. They use advance inquiries to avoid short-term orders and to be able to place the orders early at the manufacturers, thus increasing the chance of receiving the delivery in time. Additionally, the order lead times for the stores for promotional articles are extended depending on the merchandise category to be able to handle the order volume fluctuations due to the decentralized disposition.Summary. In holiday seasons retailers predict and dispose regular and promotional products quite differently. Regular products are forecasted and replenished by data-driven approaches if appropriate past-data are available. Alternatively, critical products of the standard assortment that feature high demand volatility are manually disposed. Promotional non-food articles are mostly forecasted and disposed on a centralized level in particular if these articles are sourced from afar. Retailers apply decentralized forecasting and disposition systems if local consumer behavior gains significance.The grocery retailers interviewed distribute on average 81% of the entire product volume sold via their own distribution centers. 50% of the retailers handle at least 95% of their product volume via DCs. This gives warehouse management a special significance.Three main issues challenge warehouse management in public holiday seasons: over utilization, delayed incoming goods, and shortage of appropriately skilled employees.Over utilization. In public holiday seasons the warehouses are running at their capacity limits. 65% of retailers report that warehouses actually are over capacity. Goods, for example, are already stored in the corridors. Especially for full-range providers this problem is prevalent due to their broad assortment. Running over capacity causes several safety and performance issues in distribution centers. Pallets stored in the corridors increase the risk of accidents and blocking situations as pickers and forklift drivers move in the same corridors. The high amount of employees working simultaneously in addition causes a shortage of warehouse utilities. Moreover, picking ways increase as pallets with the same goods are distributed over several corridors due to missing storage spaces. Furthermore, the high amount of promotional items in public holiday seasons causes additional performance issues as their handling is not as trained and efficient as for standard items. Thus, a considerable amount of extra hours has to be planned, which further increases capacity utilization.Forklift drivers and order pickers are in each other’s way. […] A doubled number of employees in the warehouse does therefore not mean a doubled output, but rather a loss of performance per employee and an increase of the stress level for everybody. .Delayed incoming goods. Delivery delays of incoming goods are common before public holidays for several reasons. The high order volumes are challenging for the suppliers and they therefore often struggle to manage the respective production volume in time. Delays are further caused by scarce transportation capacities. In addition, traffic jams around holidays postpone deliveries. Delayed deliveries are especially critical if fresh products or items with large order volumes are affected.Shortage of skilled employees. A significant amount of retailers interviewed (35%) emphasizes a shortage of skilled employees in public holiday seasons. However, a sufficiently large employee base is necessary to handle the increased volumes and the high number of additional promotional articles. Furthermore, the pressure in distribution centers before public holidays is high and error-free work is particularly important. Thus, skilled and experienced employees are required. Permanent employees alone are, however, typically not sufficient to handle the peaks. Thus, additional temporary workers are necessary. Their availability is, however, limited as temporary employment agencies are just as affected by skill shortage as the retailers.Grocery retailers apply spatial, organizational and personnel measures, and they adjust workload profiles to handle the warehouse challenges occurring in public holiday seasons.Spatial and organizational measures. Seasonal and promotional items require considerably additional effort in warehouses. The majority of retailers interviewed (80%) separates promotional articles spatially from the regular assortment. They place these items in separate locations within the warehouse or even use additional warehouses for distributing. Experienced workers are responsible for picking and packing as often special handling is required and promotional displays have to be built.We do not try to pick the promotional items for the holiday business together with the everyday business. They are separated in time and space. For example last year, a single, very experienced employee has exclusively picked and packed the displays for Christmas on our warehouse gallery from October to December. .To handle the additional volumes of regular items in holiday seasons, retailers create buffer locations or separated areas at the warehouses as far as possible. From an organizational point of view, warehouse planning prioritizes outgoing product flows as a continuous store delivery is necessary to ensure the availability of goods. On the inbound side, a close cooperation with suppliers enables just-in-time deliveries, which in turn saves storage room in the distribution center. A good supplier relationship further helps to reduce the risk of delivery failures. Several retailers foster better supplier relations by paying a higher purchasing price to suppliers in public holiday seasons. Additionally, small suppliers with little market power struggling with missing transport capacities, are supported by the retailers organizing the respective deliveries.Personnel measures. Retailers try to match personnel capacity to demand as close as possible. More than half of the retailers interviewed plan by default a build up of overtime before public holidays. This is enabled by flexible working time models. Shifts are extended up to ten hours and additional shifts are added, for example in the night or on Saturday. Weekend work is generally organized on a voluntary basis at most retailers and mainly the best-before-date-critical product groups are picked.Employees have ten hours days. This is agreed with the workers’ council already in August for Christmas, for example. .Especially before Christmas, there are holiday quotas. However, we try to release employees with children, who rely on the vacation times, over the busy days, as well. .Retailers announce a ban on taking leave in peak seasons to guarantee that the maximum number of permanent employees is available at these times. They only approve vacation inquiries in exceptional cases. Nevertheless, retailers prioritize employee friendly solutions and offer further benefits to avoid employee fluctuations in times of skill shortage and enhance their attractiveness for new potential employees. For example, retailers announce staff schedules early and establish company kindergartens.At Christmas and Easter, we have ban of leaves, recruit high school college students and the shifts start at 5 am instead of 6 am. .Especially, before holidays with more than one day free, e.g., Christmas or Easter, the own personnel resources, however, might be insufficient to handle the additional volumes. In these cases retailers contract temporal workers.Adjustment of load profiles. Shifting the workload to less busy periods is in addition to the measures named before another key concept to respond to the peak load in the holiday season. On a mid-term planning level retailers use pre-picking and stockpiling at the stores to balance distribution center workloads. For example, retailers begin to build up the holiday ambient assortment for Christmas already in September/October. Before single holidays, picking and deliveries of the ambient assortment are only adjusted up to four weeks in advance. Within the ambient assortment, slow-moving items with a low value density are considered first, followed by fast-moving items and items with a high value density. The delivery volumes of perishables, however, are increased just one or two days before public holidays. Moreover, 40% of the retailers interviewed move promotion campaigns into less busy times.The purchasing department determines for which key articles the stock ranges are adjusted because of the financial commitment. 15,000 pallets could be handled four weeks earlier at Christmas. .Trailers are pre-loaded although it is not yet clear which service provider will actually drive the tour. The trailer is then parked in the yard. .Short-term, 85% of the retailers switch orders in shifts with free capacities. More than half of the retailers pick orders in an earlier shift to balance the capacity load, especially for the ambient assortment. The pre-picked orders are stored in the distribution center or in trailers until delivery.Additionally, 10% of the retailers pick fresh products, fruits and vegetables on Sunday, in the night or on the public holiday itself. This facilitates goods processing, but results in significantly higher personnel costs and is regulated strictly by law.Summary. Most solution concepts presented especially target the main challenge of warehouse management which is the capacity shortage. Delivery delays are faced by stockpiling and cooperations with suppliers, while the skill shortage is tackled by providing attractive staff benefits. Generally, a close cooperation with sales and purchasing departments as well as stores and suppliers facilitates adequate warehouse operations in public holiday seasons and offers opportunities to balance capacities.Transportation between distribution centers and stores significantly contributes to total logistics costs in grocery retailing .Truck drivers for the afternoon/night tour have to wait in the distribution centers at the beginning of their shift if the trucks from the morning tour are stuck in traffic jams. .Frequent traffic jams additionally restrict the usage of transportation capacities. Delivery tours last longer and fluctuate more in those times.Shortage of drivers. Many German retailers work with employees from Eastern Europe to face the general shortage of drivers. These employees, however, have general agreements to visit their home countries on the bridging days around public holidays. Retailers provide these benefits to gain drivers’ company loyalty. This commitment, however, increases the shortage of drivers especially around public holidays. In addition, drivers’ salaries increase along with driver shortage, which is a great challenge in grocery retailing due to the comparatively low profit margins.We need a solution for the transport. We cannot continue like this as there is hardly any capacity left. Truck drivers are already attracted with a premium of three to five thousand euros. .Complexity of holiday tour planning. One quarter of the retailers emphasize the effort for designing special delivery tour plans around public holidays. Stores are often unable to process the increasing volumes at the delivery days as they do not have enough storage space and/or employees to receive the goods. Delivery quantities and frequencies therefore have to be aligned on each other.Tour adjustments are a big challenge. In total, no delivery day should be canceled; only those deliveries that lie on the holiday itself should be postponed. This is difficult and must be planned in the long-term. .One of the biggest challenges is the high complexity of the creation of delivery plans. Under consideration of the public holidays and all the other limiting factors, we try to balance the peaks and to work within capacities. .Moreover, tour time fluctuations are more likely around public holidays due to the intense traffic volume and thus, tour planning gets further complex. Various retailers also note in this context that the compliance to the working time act is challenging in those situations. Driving times and rest periods for drivers are defined by law. Thus, on the one hand, tour planning has to include time buffers for traffic jams. On the other side, the grocery retailers have to ensure a high utilization of their resources due to the lack of transportation capacity and drivers. Driving bans on Sundays and public holidays as well as local restrictions on night deliveries, vehicle weights, and store access times additionally complicate the building of feasible delivery tours.The federal structure of Germany further complicates delivery tour planning. It may happen that a distribution center is closed and some of its associated stores are open because they are located in a state not having a public holiday, and vice versa.The retailers interviewed adapt transportation capacities and adjust delivery schedules to respond to the challenges in public holiday seasons.Adapting capacities. 45% of the retailers interviewed plan more trucks and tours for the public holiday business. Regular tours are separated to more vehicles or the same tours are run multiple times. Thus, retailers plan for an increased capacity usage but assume a higher volatility of its usage.We reserve trucks before public holidays as it is hard to get anything on the daily market. But if we have booked too much, then high costs arise. For example Easter 2018, we had ten trucks for three weeks too much due to an incorrect forecast. .75% of the retailers without an own fleet reserve additional transportation capacities early in advance at their third party providers, or they mention this additional option in the annual contracts. This ensures an equivalent price for the potentially additional capacity required. Half of these retailers make a tight calculation to limit the risk of overbooking and buy additional capacities on the spot market. However, before public holidays prices can even increase up to 50 to 60% compared to standard weeks.Retailers operating their own fleet typically avoid to make recourse to spot markets. They apply different measures to ensure sufficient capacity in public holiday seasons. They, for example, switch capacities between delivery regions, or they offer their drivers special benefits, like luxuriously equipped trucks or company kindergartens to foster drivers’ loyalty.Adjustment of delivery schedules. Besides capacity measures, retailers adapt their delivery schedules in various ways to manage increasing transportation workload during public holiday seasons. In most cases they increase the tour density compared to standard weeks to save capacity. Thereby, 35% of the participating retailers adapt the designed tours of their systems, while nearly half of the retailers (45%) manually elaborate their special tour plans on the basis of predefined standard tours. The remaining 20% of the participants outsource the tour planning to third parties.Store groups are created that have the same delivery days, such as Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We decide for the whole group, whether a delivery day should be canceled or not. .Retailers operating with a heterogeneous store structure classify their stores according to size and number of delivery days. They then apply homogeneous adaption strategies to all stores of one category.Retailers increase night deliveries to those stores, which are equipped with non-personnel storage rooms. This avoids traffic jams and saves capacity during the day shift. Furthermore, 25% of the retailers interviewed extend delivery time windows to increase the flexibility for tour planning.Nevertheless, most retailers have to increase the number of delivery days to handle the additional volume, or they have to switch the regular delivery day because this just constitutes the public holiday. In the latter case, retailers move all delivery days in the week before a holiday one day on-wards (pre-delivery) or all deliveries after the public holiday one day backwards (subsequent delivery).Furthermore, 35% of the participants emphasize that they adjust tour plans already many weeks before a public holiday. This enables pre-deliveries ensuring the product availability in the stores while balancing capacity peaks. The increased delivery volumes can therefore be spread over several deliveries. Moreover, transport capacity in the public holiday week is then available for prioritized product groups like fruits and vegetables. As these adjustments directly affect store management, stores have to be involved or at least informed timely. However, 20% of the retailers (full-range providers and discounters) emphasize that stores are not involved in pre-delivery decisions because of complexity reasons.Finally, there are several full-range providers that increase direct deliveries from the suppliers to the stores at Christmas or Easter seasons. This is done particularly for promotional items and displays that would lead to high extra capacity requirements at the retailer. Thus, transportation is outsourced to the suppliers and the retailers save scarce capacity.Summary. Retailers apply several measures to manage the additional transportation volume and the missing delivery days in public holiday seasons. They increase transportation capacities and adapt their tour plans in many ways. In addition, they pre-deliver stores, apply night deliveries and extend delivery time windows to be able to use the standard tours as far as possible.Our study discloses two main reasons that cause particular challenges in grocery retailing within public holiday seasons, i.e., uncertainties and missing resources. In addition we find that retailers take up these challenges by a divers set of measures, which can be categorized into three main approaches, i.e., adjustment of workload profiles, adaptation of resources, and modifying processes and organization. Figure In the further course of this section we compare the main challenges and solution approaches detected with the results already available in literature. Additionally, we portray the links between the planning areas and derive the managerial implications of our findings. In doing so, we highlight the theoretical and practical contribution of our study.Uncertainties. As known from previous contributions in literature demand generally fluctuates due to uncontrollable uncertainties such as the weather, short-term orders or promotional articles . HoweveUncertainties in public holiday seasons also effect logistics planning. Henao et al.  already The transport capacities required are not only influenced by an increased holiday demand but also by intense traffic in public holiday seasons. During these periods, delivery times fluctuate and deliveries from suppliers are delayed. In grocery retailing these delays are generally frequent and considerably impact the operating profit . This iThe challenges associated with holidays share some similarities with situations considered in the literature on supply chain risk and resilience Ivanov . DisruptLoad profile. Retailers shift workload in less utilized periods to balance the workload. That includes adjustments of delivery days, pre-picking and pre-delivery. These measures generally increase the in-store inventory level, even several weeks before public holidays. Inventory holding costs in grocery retailing, however, are typically less relevant than handling costs . For puAccording to Rogerson and Santén , balanciResources. According to van Gils et al. . Our fiLimiting the planning effort, retailers focus on pre-defined product groups during the disposition. Selection criteria are, for example, the extent of volatility due to their position in the store layout or little available data. Building product groups simplifies the forecasting process or enables forecasting for new products. This procedure in retail practice identified within our study is also suggested by several research papers. For example, Dekker et al.  classifyMoreover, retailers collaborate with up- and downstream supply chain actors to manage the public holiday challenge. Several papers analyze the pros and cons of retailer and supplier collaborations . In ourAlftan et al.  suggest Besides external cooperation, a harmonization of public holiday season plans of the different departments of a retailer  is required to allow efficient and effective public holiday operations. Collaboration of departments and the alignment of their planning is complex but improves the performance of logistics processes, resulting in less uncertainties, lower inventory levels or a higher availability  retailing (see, e.g., Schleper et al.  and DelaThe sales divisions involved in the exploratory study cover around 80% of total market sales in German grocery retailing. This confirms the high relevance of the holiday issue in practice. 81% of study participants identify the Christmas season as one of the major challenges in grocery logistics. Due to the ban on working on public holidays and therefore the missing days for logistics, the typical concepts are not enough to handle all volume fluctuations in public holiday seasons. Therefore additional dedicated measures are necessary. Our study categorizes the solution approaches on a higher level and therefore highlights the links between all explored areas. The key to overcome the challenges in demand planning are IT systems. Data maintenance is therefore a decisive factor for forecasting quality. In addition, centralization of demand planning can be an efficient possibility for retailers as costs of separate planning of promotional items before public holidays can be kept to a minimum. Short-term reordering by stores can be avoided, as store-specific demand peaks can be predicted more accurately. Without short-term reorders, capacity requirements in the warehouse can be balanced on a mid-term basis by pre-picking and pre-delivery to the stores. Retailers may initiate these processes several weeks before the respective holiday seasons. This measure leads to an increase in inventory in stores, but frees up capacities in the distribution centers and transportation that are highly needed to deliver perishable groceries, fast moving, and high-value items during the public holiday weeks. Enabling this pre-working, extensive modifications of transportation tours are made that however pay off as transport capacities can be reserved on a reliable planning basis in advance which is relevant to overcome possible short-term transportation capacity scarcity or high costs on the spot market. Additionally, the early build-up of stock in the stores also balances the volume for refilling shelves and thus the tight and costly instore personnel capacity. However, the measures taken to reduce peak demand are generally not sufficient to satisfy the additional volume that occurs during public holiday weeks completely on a mid-term basis. Moreover, the balancing measures cannot be applied for perishable groceries, and are not efficient and cost-optimal for fast moving and high value items. Consequently, retailers need to expand their capacities in the distribution centers, transport and stores, and retain qualified staff, whose experience is highly demanded in the operationally complex and stressful peak seasons. Due to the scarcity of adequate personnel resources, retailers should offer an attractive working environment to avoid personnel fluctuation.Conclusion. Grocery retailers have to deal with the public holiday challenge several times per year. Nevertheless, literature so far only considered public holidays in a very general way and analyzed the corresponding logistics processes to a very limited extent. The present study provides insights into the operational planning issues in public holiday seasons. We analyze challenges and solution approaches of German grocery retailers for public holiday seasons, focusing on demand planning and disposition, warehouse management, and transportation management. Uncertainties and a shortage of resources mainly involve the challenges of public holiday seasons in grocery retailing. Retailers take up these challenges by a divers set of measures, which can be assigned to three general solution approaches: adjustment of workload profiles, adaptation of resources, and modifying organizations. Our findings disclose that retailers simultaneously adapt multiple processes in quite different logistics areas within public holiday seasons. This reveals the complexity and the interdependence of the occurring planning tasks. Until now the literature has not discussed this with comparable extent. Theory on retail operations management benefits from the structured overview on the divers challenges, their drivers and context-specifics, and the sets of solution concepts and their application conditions in retail practice. Retail practice on the other side benefits from our comprehensive overview of solution approaches proven to be adequate in the light of the individual challenges, which allows to rethink own approaches used. Retailers can thus leverage our findings to adequately develop public holiday logistics planning considering specific contexts. Our study shows that almost all retailers have room for considerable improvements.Further research. Our study provides useful insights for research and practice of operational logistics planning and execution in grocery retailing. Nevertheless, there are numerous possibilities for future research.While we have focused on mid- and short-term planning problems, future research may consider decisions with a longer planning horizon. A further study might address for example assortment or promotion planning and their respective implications for balancing volume peaks in the supply chain in public holiday seasons.Further research could include the perspective of the upstream supply chain partners such as the suppliers and manufacturers. As noted in our findings section, there are numerous potentials for collaboration that can be further detailed and their impact on the companies’ performance could be analyzed.Future research could focus on how automation techniques can support warehouse and transportation processes to compensate the general skill shortage.Our study focuses on the German grocery market. Although we consider the findings as rather generic, future research could analyze other markets and compare the results to our findings.Finally, future work can explore similar questions in other retail branches.


KRT39, PGR, KRT40, ESR2, and PRKACB) were significantly enriched in the estrogen signaling pathway. Moreover, the missense mutation in the PGR gene  showed a homozygous mutation pattern with higher frequency (83.3%) in Dengchuan cattle. In addition, a large number of strong candidate regions matched genes and QTLs related to milk yield and composition. Our research provides a theoretical basis for analyzing the genetic mechanism underlying Dengchuan cattle with excellent lactation and adaptability, crude feed tolerance, good immune performance, and small body size and also laid a foundation for genetic breeding research of Dengchuan cattle in the future.Dengchuan cattle are the only dairy yellow cattle and endangered cattle among Yunnan native cattle breeds. However, its genetic background remains unclear. Here, we performed whole-genome sequencing of ten Dengchuan cattle. Integrating our data with the publicly available data, Dengchuan cattle were observed to be highly interbred than other cattle in the dataset. Furthermore, the positive selective signals were mainly manifested in candidate genes and pathways related to milk production, disease resistance, growth and development, and heat tolerance. Notably, five genes ( Bos taurus and Bos indicus lineages. Bos taurus mainly originated from cattle in Europe and is distributed in northern China, whereas Bos indicus originated from cattle in South Asia and is mainly distributed in southern China . Local people paid attention to selecting cattle with longer lactation periods with high milk yield, to breed their offspring, and using them to make milk fats, which is the local specialty dairy product . With thWith the development of the next-generation sequencing technology and the enrichment of re-sequencing databases, genome-wide genetic analysis plays an increasingly significant role in the investigation and selection of germplasm resources of landraces . A recenIn this study, we performed whole-genome sequencing of ten individuals of Dengchuan cattle to explore the genetic diversity and population genetic structure of the autosomal genome. In order to further explore the genetic potential of Dengchuan cattle, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of Dengchuan cattle were compared with those of commercial and native breeds previously collected from around the world.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra/) (Bos indicus) breeds (n = 10)  , includi(n = 10) . A totalBos taurus reference assembly ARS-UCD1.2. The Picard tools (http://broadinstitute.github.io/picard) were used to filter potential duplicate reads. We used “Haplotype Caller,” “Genotype GVCFs,” and “Select Variants” modules of the Genome Analysis Toolkit    to call  ANNOVAR .SNPs of 78 samples were pruned in high levels of pairwise LD by PLINK v1.90b3.40 software , excludiRuns of homozygosity (ROHs) were calculated by PLINK software . SNPs wiNucleotide diversity of each breed was investigated by VCFtools  with theLinkage disequilibrium (LD) decay with the physical distance between SNPs was calculated and visualized by PopLDdecay software  with defOnly SNPs with less than 10% missing were used for selective sweep scanning. The nucleotide diversity (θπ) and the composite likelihood ratio (CLR) test  were useFST) and cross-population composite likelihood ratio test (XP-CLR)   to identVCFtools . XP-CLR VCFtools . The ovep < 0.05 were considered to be significantly enriched in Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways and GO (Gene Ontology) annotations.Due to the complexity of biological data-mining situations, enrichment analysis was conducted to identify the possibility of biological processes associated with Dengchuan cattle . Online http://www.animalgenome.org/cgi-bin/QTLdb/BT/index) contains 163,725 QTLs. The chromosome information is annotated to the cattle QTLdb to identify the regions of interest detected by selective sweep methods contained or overlapped across the QTLs. The function and information of candidate regions were determined after annotation.Biological processes of Dengchuan cattle could be analyzed through genes annotated from candidate regions; however, there were various candidate regions in the non-annotated genic regions, although they showed strong selective signals. We used QTLs to identify possible traits in these candidate regions. The cattle QTL database  had medium (1–2 Mb) and long ROHs (2–4 Mb). Besides, the total lengths of ROHs in Dengchuan cattle were much longer than those of the other two cattle in Yunnan . This coiversity . In contan 10 KB .PPARGC1A . The result of strong positive selection was further verified by Tajima’s D and nucleotide diversity analysis  were shared in both Dengchuan cattle and Holstein cattle.A total of 217 candidate genes were detected by both θπ and the CLR test in Dengchuan cattle . Some poPPARGC1A ], milk p were detected among the four mentioned selection methods  and three overlapped genes ) in Dengchuan cattle, two missense mutations in PGR , and two missense mutations in PTPN12 , which showed distinct allelic patterns in Dengchuan cattle  overlapped with QTLs: 50 candidate regions overlapped milk, 38 candidate regions overlapped reproduction and production, six candidate regions overlapped meat and carcass, four candidate regions overlapped health, and one candidate region overlapped exterior conformation , Chinese indicine (∼22%), European taurine (10%), and Indian indicine (∼34%). It is worth noting that Dengchuan cattle have not been able to cluster completely, showing some differences amongst its individuals . SimilarITSN2 is a member of a family of proteins involved in clathrin-mediated endocytosis that encodes a cytoplasmic protein which contains SH3 domains. ITSN2 is thought to regulate the formation of clathrin-coated vesicles and may also function in the induction of T-cell antigen receptor (TCR) endocytosis  was much higher than that in Holstein cattle (∼431). PTDSS1 is used for the catalytic synthesis of lecithin. The remaining six genes were also reported to be highly associated with milk production: RERE and SLC45A1 are reported to be associated with milk production , which was suitable for subsequent analysis . InteresPLAG1 gene on chromosome 14 has been shown to be associated with the body size (Fst results showed that there exists significant genetic differentiation of the PLAG1 gene between Dengchuan cattle and Angus cattle (Milk yield and composition are typical polygenic traits . For a mody size . Fst ress cattle . It is ws cattle .In conclusion, this study provides a theoretical basis for analyzing the genetic mechanism of Dengchuan cattle with excellent lactation and adaptability, crude feed tolerance, good immune performance, and small body size, which also lays a foundation for genetic breeding research of Dengchuan cattle in the future.


A treatment method for suppressing shoulder pain by reducing the secretion of neurotransmitters in the brain is being studied in compliance with domestic and international standards. A robot is being developed to assist physical therapists in shoulder rehabilitation exercise treatment. The robot used for rehabilitation therapy enables the training of patients to perform rehabilitation exercises repeatedly. However, the biomechanical movement (or motion) of the shoulder joint should be accurately designed to enhance efficiency using a shoulder rehabilitation robot. Furthermore, safely treating patients by accurately evaluating biomechanical movements in compliance with domestic and international standards is a major task. Therefore, an in-depth analysis of shoulder movement is essential for understanding the mechanism of shoulder rehabilitation using robots. This paper proposes a method for analyzing shoulder movements. The rotation angle and range of motion (ROM) of the shoulder joint are measured by attaching a marker to the body and analyzing the inverse kinematics. The first motion is abduction and adduction, and the second is external and internal rotation. The location information of the marker is transmitted to an application software through an infrared camera. For the analysis using an inverse kinematics solution, five males and five females participated in the motion capture experiment. The subjects did not have any disability, and abduction and adduction were repeated 10 times. As a result, ROM of the abduction and adduction were 148° with males and 138.7° in females. Moreover, ROM of the external and internal rotation were 111.2° with males and 106° in females. Because this study enables tracking of the center coordinates of the joint suitably through a motion capture system, inverse kinematics can be accurately calculated. Additionally, a mathematical inverse kinematics equation will utilize follow-up study for designing an upper rehabilitations robot. The proposed method is assessed to be able to contribute to the definition of domestic and international standardization of rehabilitation robots and motion capture for objective evaluation. Motor nerves transmit signals from the brain to muscles to induce movement of the shoulder and arm. In particular, when shoulder pain is induced, the muscle can be relaxed by physically stimulating it to relieve pain. Therefore, research is being conducted in compliance with domestic and international standards (IEC 80601-2-78:2019 and SC43) to suppress shoulder pain by reducing the neurotransmitter secretion in the brain. Shoulder pain is a common complication that can be caused by adhesive capsulitis and hemiplegia induced by a stroke [Shoulder pain in hemiplegia and adhesive capsulitis requires nonsurgical treatment and shoulder rehabilitation (SR). Rehabilitation exercises have been enabled through conventional manual therapy by physical therapists. However, owing to the development of biomedical engineering technology, the research and development of medical robots for rehabilitation treatment continues through the convergence of physical therapy and engineering ,4,5,6,7.In addition, the characteristics of the SR robot enable repetitive exercise training through the automation system, reducing the fatigue of the therapist who needs to perform extensive work, and can guide SR exercise training more accurately ,10. HoweWu et al., from the International Society of Biomechanics, proposed a shoulder model based on the definition of the shoulder joint coordinate system (JCS). In particular, the proposed method presented the standardization of the JCS for the shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hand , therebySimilar to previous studies, this study proposes a method for analyzing shoulder movements. The rotation angle and ROM of the shoulder joint were measured by attaching a marker to the body and analyzing the inverse kinematics. In particular, a rigid body was designated through a marker to accurately determine the internal center point of the joint. For the experiment, subjects of this study  without any functional disability in the body participated in the motion capture test. Based on the information, which was obtained by tracking the position of the marker, the ROM of each joint was analyzed using inverse kinematics. Consequently, motion analysis using inverse kinematics will be applied to the mechanism of rehabilitation robots. In addition, ROM information of a normal subject can be used as a database for utilizing an SR robot for rehabilitation exercises.In the process of using the robot system for rehabilitation-based training treatment, patients receiving treatment for shoulder pain disease with hemiplegia or speech impairment can communicate with the therapist using a computer, as shown in Quadriplegic, deaf, blind, and speech-impaired patients cannot express themselves accurately to therapists during exercise training programs for rehabilitation treatment . TherefoIt is desirable to use a robotic system in which such brain-computer interface (BCI) standardization (SC43) has been established. The most important aspect when moving the arm of the robot in the process of robot motion is matching the movement of the patient’s shoulder. Therefore, an objective evaluation is important to match the patient’s shoulder movement when the robot’s arm moves, and domestic or international standardization work for this evaluation method is highly important . In consThe subjects wore stretchy suits to demonstrate that the markers could be attached to the skin. The markers were coated with a material that reflects infrared light, which transmits the position data of the markers to the application software (Motive) using an infrared camera . Consequently, the position vector and direction vector of the markers were extracted in real time based on the absolute coordinate system in the software. In this study, the position data of the markers were analyzed by tracking the two rehabilitation motions. The first motion is abduction and adduction, and the second is external and internal rotation.Before interpreting an inverse kinematics solution, forward kinematics was analyzed and defined as a homogeneous transformation matrix . Figure The link offset and length  are from different subjects. Therefore, the links can be calculated through the distance formula between two points in 3-dimensional space to substitute inverse kinematics as a constant value. Equation (1) represents the distance formula of links (Based on the information in Equation (3) represents the multiplication of the matrix from points O to EE. The direction vectors are expressed as The end effector is defined as a homogeneous transformation matrix through motion capture. Subsequently, the position vector of the elbow is calculated utilizing the end effector data. In particular, In Equation (6), the Equations (10) and (11) are combined and expressed as a simultaneous equation and induced to Equations (13) and (14). In particular, the argument of Equation (15) is the equation of a sphere that has center point from point O. The distance between points S and O represents the radius of the sphere and is equal to link Two solutions are obtained in Equation (16). According to the joint structure of the upper limb, one solution is selected by considering the normal biomechanical movement. Two solutions of Equation (16) determine Based on Equations (13) and (14), the position values of The joint rotation angles are analyzed to calculate the ROM of each rehabilitation motion. In particular, the inverse kinematics solution of the 6-degree of freedom (DOF) is obtained by solving the position vectors of points E and S in advance . This stEquations (17) and (18) show the calculation process for the joint angle Equations (19)–(21) show the calculation process for the joint angle In Equation (23), both sides of the element values of (row: 1 column: 4) and (row: 2 column: 4) are compared. Equations (24) and (25) are the left element equation and are substituted with characteristics such as a and b. Subsequently, characteristics a and b are multiplied by In Equation (31), the element values of  and (row: 2 and column: 3) are compared. The left and right mathematical expression of the matrix element are replaced by P and Q, as shown in Equations (32) and (33). As a result, In the left mathematical expression of Equation (35), the element values of , , and  are substituted with α, β, and γ, respectively. On the right side, , , and  are substituted with a, b, and c, respectively. As a result, Equations (36) and (37) are divided to calculate Finally, Prior to the analysis, five randomized males and five randomized females participated in the motion capture experiment. The subjects did not show any disability. Abduction and adduction motions were repeated 10 times. 6), showed relatively small movement. As for abduction and adduction, The average ROM for the horizontal angle of the clavicle  system. Motion capture (OptiTrack) is very important for the accuracy of the sensor’s response when an object moves. Therefore, we can present the excellence of the accuracy of the proposed method by analyzing ,31,32,33Based on the results of this study, the kinematics solution for 6-DOF of ROM could be determined through the standardized motion of the SR exercise, starting with the clavicle as the base point. In particular, based on the end effector information, we tried to solve the homogeneous transformation matrix of Equations (2) and (3) at first. However, because the constant values for the parameters (shoulder position) could not be solved, we changed the direction of the study to obtain the shoulder position first, then calculate the inverse kinematics formula. As a result, our approach differs compared to the commonly known 6-DOF inverse kinematics solution that combines 3-DOF of the wrist and the other joint angle of the 3-DOF. Through solving the 6-DOF inverse kinematics, future research and development of the 6-axis rehabilitation robot will be conducted. In the follow-up study, we will consider collecting the end effector data through force and torque sensors instead of using a motion capture system. If the end effector data is collected, the rehabilitation robot follows the trajectory of the patient’s motion through a kinematics solution. At the same time, the robot measures the maximum ROM of the patients, and it is envisaged that the patient will be able to perform stretching or passive or active-assisted exercises through the designated ROM.Upper limb joints are structurally deeper than skin tissue, muscle tissue, and cartilage tissue. The existing research methods have limitations in objective evaluation because they do not select and analyze the central coordinates of the joint. However, because inverse kinematics can be automatically calculated by determining the center of the joint through motion capture, we think that it is extremely advantageous to suitably interpret the center coordinates of the joint, and the study results are more accurate and superior. Additionally, in order to reduce the standard deviation of the ROM and increase the accuracy of the experimental data, additional experiments should be conducted with increased subjects sample size.If the cause of the difference in ROM is identified in the same rehabilitation motion, it is expected to make a great contribution to the analysis of rehabilitation exercise and human body mechanics. We think of two reasons why errors occur, even after repeating the same motion 10 times and obtaining an average ROM. The first is the degree of flexibility according to the ROM and muscle mass according to the patient’s own body shape. The second is judged to be a relative error of the center position according to the attachment position of the marker, even if it is purely the same operation. The movement of the SR robot must be the same as the human rehabilitation motion. Therefore, the proposed mathematical analysis method is sufficiently applicable because it is an analysis method for the objective evaluation of the movement of the rehabilitation robot. In conclusion, this study shows that a person will be able to exercise efficiently by wearing the rehabilitation robot with suggested kinematics model. Additionally, this study facilitated the determination of the ROM in the rehabilitation robot considering the ROM of normal subjects. Using the proposed model, it is possible to increase the accuracy of the trajectory of the rehabilitation robot and contribute to the improvement in safety. Comprehensively, utilizing the mathematical inverse kinematics equation that were debuted in this study, we will fabricate an upper rehabilitation robot through designing the mechanism instructor and motor in a follow-up study. In addition, because the rehabilitation exercise training-guided robot is linked to brain-related diseases, it contributes to the definition of domestic and international standardization of rehabilitation robots, affording universal training methods, accurate results, and objective evaluation for the safe treatment of patients.