Management of healthcare waste collection and segregation for developing countries.

Healthcare waste (HCW) consists of hazardous material that may be radioactive, toxic or infectious. Inappropriate treatment and disposal of HCW may pose health risks to humans indirectly through the release of pathogens and toxic pollutants into the environment. The biggest problem in HCW management is its handling, which causes anxiety over sorting and categorizing the waste. Hence, the current study identifies and addresses the challenges towards sustainable environmental development by managing infectious HCW in developing countries. Fuzzy Delphi method is used in the present study to carefully examine the barrier drawn from the literature and experts' opinions. The number of barriers taken into consideration for study are 30, which are then grouped into four main categories, that is, social, environmental, technological and economic barriers. Additionally, a hybrid strategy based on the fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory is developed in this work to examine the significance and interrelationships of the identified barrier. The research outcome is a hierarchy and classification model based on the relative importance of the barriers. The results of this study indicate that: 'Lack of segregation', 'Inconsistency in waste collection', 'Unregulated disposal site' and 'Inadequate programme for training and awareness' require quick action. The conclusions obtained through the study would facilitate the preparation of check sheets for documenting HCW management procedures by the healthcare administration and Pollution Control Boards. Understanding the priority cause-group barrier would improve the long-term protection of the hospital environment from the spread of infection caused by the HCW.

Sustainable production-inventory system for perishables under dynamic fuel pricing and preservation technology investment.

In the production and inventory management of perishables, environmental considerations are gaining prominence. By reducing carbon emissions from various supply chain processes, such as production, transportation, warehousing, and waste disposal of perishable items, the present study aims to minimize the overall cost to the manufacturer through an optimized investment in green technology. Additionally, cycle time and preservation technology investment are optimized to decrease deterioration and revenue loss in order to minimize cost. The originality of the present research lies in the following considerations. Due to an increase in fuel price, the transportation cost of every subsequent order will also increase, thus resulting in an increase of average delivery cost in a production cycle. We investigate the impact of changes in fuel prices on transportation costs and production inventory model policies due to the volatile nature of fuel prices. The function of transportation cost can be used to calculate transport costs in the future. The deterioration rate is a random variable with a double triangular distribution. Precisely, the demand for any product depends on the product's price; therefore, linear price-dependent demand is considered. Per unit production cost is a function of direct material cost, tooling cost, and manpower cost. Taking into account all the aforementioned parameters, this paper simultaneously optimizes green technology investment, preservation investment, and cycle time. To achieve the solution of the proposed sustainable production system, an optimization technique for the nonlinear function is employed. Finally, numerical experiments are conducted to validate the model. A special case of a numerical example demonstrates that the expected value of the total average cost is reduced by 10.723% when investments are made in both green and preservation technology, whereas investments in green technology alone result in a cost reduction of only 2.15%. Then, managerial implications and a discussion of findings are proposed after a sensitivity analysis that examines the model's response to key parameter variation. The study concludes with a discussion of the limitations of current work and possible future scopes.

Sustainability assessment of waste cooking oil-based biodiesel plant in developing economy based on F-DEMATEL and F-ISM approaches.

Developing clean and renewable energy resources for long-term usage is a crucial concern in developing countries. In this regard, biodiesel technology is drawing a lot of public interest throughout the world. The issues associated with the sustainability of a biodiesel plant are intimately connected with restricted natural resources, political influences, energy independence, economic prosperity and global stability. Therefore, this paper aspires to identify the most influential factors that affect the sustainability of a biodiesel plant and describe interactions among them. The study focuses on identifying 36 factors based on an extensive literature review, questionnaire, experts' opinion and website in the context of developing economies. These factors include social, environmental and economic aspects. A framework based on fuzzy-interpretive structural modelling (F-ISM) and fuzzy-decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (F-DEMATEL) is applied to investigate the identified factors. The F-ISM approach allows a better understanding of the contextual interactions between the factors and classify them based on their driving and dependent powers. The fuzzy-DEMATEL technique facilitates in identifying the influential and influenced factors and categorizes them into cause-and-effect groups. The findings of the study suggest that 'Legal and regulatory compliances', 'Political constraints', 'International relations', 'Health and education' and 'Public safety and security' are the five most influential factors that are needed to be addressed for the sustainability of biodiesel plant. The paper also presents a few strategies, which can be applied as a guiding step by the decision-makers to formulate policies for the effective implementation of sustainable growth of the biodiesel plant.

Analysis of barriers in e-waste management in developing economy: an integrated multiple-criteria decision-making approach.

An increasing amount of electronic waste (e-waste) is not a new concern. It has been causing trouble globally. This waste comprises valuable metals and harmful compounds that lead to detrimental environmental conditions. Managing this kind of waste in developing economies is difficult due to different barriers hindering the process. Therefore, the goal of this research work is to determine the barriers while taking expert opinions and through available literature, and subsequently prioritize them to address the challenges in e-waste management. Moreover, this study utilizes an integrated Fuzzy Decision-Making Trail and Evaluation Laboratory (F-DEMATEL) and Fuzzy Interpretive Structural Modeling (F-ISM) approaches to determine the interrelationship between these identified barriers. Performance data obtained from this combined approach is applied to determine an overall rank for 15 identified barriers. The F-DEMATEL technique facilitates in obtaining the influence of barriers on each other and categorizes them into causal or effect groups. In addition, a Fuzzy Matrice d'impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée an un Classeement (F-MICMAC) analysis is exercised to sort them into dependent or driving factor. The findings suggest that the underlying cause barriers include "lack of customer awareness about return," "less policies addressing e-waste problem," "lack of long-term planning," and "insensitiveness of public towards environmental issues." The methodology is integrated with fuzzy logic to take uncertainty in the data gathered into consideration. This approach aids policymakers and decision-makers in determining the barriers' mutual relationships and interconnections.

Application of ArcGIS and QFD-based model for site selection for bio-medical waste disposal.

With the increasing formalisation of the health sector in India, the bio-medical waste (BMW) disposal regulations are getting stringent and its implementation is being enforced strictly. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) created a healthcare crisis because of the highly contagious nature of the novel virus. Measures employed for the prevention and management of COVID-19 resulted in the generation of an unprecedented amount of BMW in Indian medical history. This BMW needs to be disposed of safely at a suitable site to prevent secondary infection and the potential spread of the virus in the environment. The selection of an appropriate site for BMW disposal requires comparing a wide range of social, economic and environmental factors corresponding to different site locations, which makes it a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. This study aims to solve the BMW site selection problems using a quality function deployment-based model that can consider both the subjective and the objective criteria, and evaluate them as per the user's requirements. The proposed model is applied to evaluate the suitability of waste disposal sites in the city of Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh, India. At first, eight possible locations for BMW disposal are identified, while utilising geographical information system (GIS). Consequently, the developed model is applied to evaluate the identified sites, taking 18 relevant criteria into consideration. A software prototype is developed in Visual BASIC 6 to automate the entire decision-making process, further adding to the novelty of the work.

Involvement of Different Genes Expressions during Immunological and Inflammatory Responses in Vitiligo.

Vitiligo is a condition of the skin distinguished by hypo-pigmentation. Etiology of this disorder is unknown, and several theories and mechanisms have been hypothesized. The inflammatory response in vitiligo is thought to be mediated by polymorphism in genes such as FOXP3, ACE, APE, GSTP1, TLR, SOD, CTLA-4, TAP/LMP gene cluster, etc. Theories including reactive oxygen species model, Nrf2-antioxidant response element (ARE) pathway, WNT pathway, tyrosinase activity, biochemical, molecular, and cellular alterations have been hypothesized to explain vitiligo pathogenesis. Melanosomal proteins are involved in antigen processing. The antigens are expressed to the T-cells in the form of peptides with HLA class II molecules. T-cells are activated in response to the discharge of co-stimulatory molecules such as LFA-3 as well as ICAM-1. An adaptive immune response is thus elicited, and the melanocytes eventually die or start malfunctioning and the skin undergoes hypo-pigmentation. IFN-γ is known to be a melanocyte inhibitor of paracrine origin; it is clearly involved in the early onset of symptoms of vitiligo disease. The surge in the IFN-γ levels mediates augmented expression of ICAM-1 molecule on the melanocytes, thereby establishing cytokine-mediated destruction of melanocytes. Mainly, mediators released by melanocytes and the functionality of keratinocytes decrease the disease activity. Such mediators include ET-1 as well as SCF, increase the pigmentation particularly when a patient is given with the UVB treatment. By scavenging ROS and screening UV radiation, melanin limits the damage caused to the cutaneous cells by UV radiation. Various immune responses play important roles in vitiligo.