Postal and express shipment companies face the task to provide service between a numberof xed locations. The increasing competition and service orientation of this market sets new standards for planning. One must meet the required service level without letting costs get out of control. This paper identiies important planning tasks which have to be addressed at these companies and deenes corresp...

In this work, a statistical image object recognition system is presented, which is based on the use of Gaussian mixture densities in the context of the Bayesian decision rule. Optionally, to reduce the number of free model parameters, a linear discriminant analysis is applied. This baseline system is then extended with respect to the incorporation of invariances. To do so, we start by suitably ...

ES-84, Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35812 Universities Space Research Association CEA-CEN Saclay, Service D’Astrophysique, 91191 Gif-Sur-Yvette, Cedex, France Naval Research Lab., MS 4151, 4555 Overlook Ave., Washington, DC 20375 Instituto de Astronomia UNAM, Apdo Postal 70-264, DF04510 Mexico City, Mexico National Radio Astron. Obs., P.O. Box O, 1003 Lopezville Rd., Socorro, NM...

The talk presents two optimization problems within the part of a postal logistics network where collection takes place. First, the optimization of collection tours and, second, the allocation of pickup locations to sorting terminals. Both problems consider not only service time windows at customer locations and at terminals but also complex sorting capacities at the sorting terminals.

The collective impact or result of this messaging, coinciding with other trends, is signifi cant. The United States Postal Service reports that its First-Class Mail volume – the class of mail that comprises personal fi nancial information and supports payments – has declined by nearly 11.5 percent since 2001, in large part because of people, businesses and households switching to electronic ban...

To develop palliative care services, it is imperative first to evaluate local services and identify any gaps in provision. A mapping exercise and a postal questionnaire were used in an attempt to canvass the views of patients and carers using a service in Gloucestershire. This article reports on the methodology and the findings of the questionnaire.

BACKGROUND We developed a new single point of access to integrated palliative care, respiratory medicine and physiotherapy: the breathlessness support service for patients with advanced disease and refractory breathlessness. This study aimed to describe patients' experiences of the service and identify the aspects valued. DESIGN We attempted to survey all patients who had attended and complet...