Explore the vast range of titles available.

Postal sector has a significant role in promoting and improving the services intended for companies and citizens via its various services and its capacity to provide a communication network which ensures rapidity in collecting, transferring and delivering correspondences, funds and goods across the world. Therefore, optimization of the routing system for collection and transport of letters and parcels constitutes an important component of an effective delivery management system. Generally, postal distribution problems are formulated as a Capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP) that consists of designing a set of routes, starting and terminating at a central depot and utilize a set of homogenous vehicles to deliver demands to a set of vertices. The objective is to minimize the total transportation cost. Due to its NP-Hardness, we develop in this paper a hybrid metaheuristic that embeds a Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) in a Genetic Algorithm (GA) in order to accelerate the convergence of the GA to high quality solutions. This combination aims to take advantage of GA’s strength in the exploration and the VNS’s powerful exploitation of the solution space. We propose to include the VNS in the mutation operator of the GA so that the individual space is enlarged and more diversified. Hence, the hybrid algorithm is able to exploit and explore new regions of the search space. The proposed approach is compared to existing methods while applied on benchmark instances. Empirical results driven on five benchmark datasets with a total of 186 instances show that our proposed approach is very competitive in terms of the obtained solutions. Overall, our experiments illustrated that the Hybrid GA-VNS could be a very efficient method for solving the CVRP and its results are comparable with the results of the state-of-the-art. To operationalize our modeling and solution approach, we considered a real case study: the Tunisian Post Office. Results indicate that the proposed HGA-VNS approach improves considerably the solution regarding the existing methods adopted by the Tunisian Post Office.

Over the past two decades voting by mail has increased. As the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the 2020 political season, absentee voting increased to over 43% of all votes cast in the November Presidential Election. In recent years, many states have passed laws to limit the scope of absentee voting as necessary to curtail voter fraud. Though no evidence exists that fraud is more likely with mail-in voting, such laws have been found to have a disproportionate impact on some groups of voters more than others. This is true of many Native American communities that often rely on absentee voting. This study will utilize geospatial methods to examine postal realities for Native American on reservations in Montana and South Dakota. By illustrating where postal services are or are not located, a fuller contextual analysis of the issue can be provided. Such methods can enhance current methodologies utilized by political geographers.

During the Civil War his movements from battlefield to battlefield were followed in the North and in the South nearly as closely as those of generals, though he was not in the military. After the war, his swift response to Ku Klux Klan violence sparked passage of a landmark civil rights law, though he was not a politician. When he died in 1888 newspapers reported his death from coast to coast, yet he's unknown today. He was the man who delivered the most valuable ingredient in U.S. soldiers' fighting spirit during those terrible war years-letters between the front lines and the home front. He was Absalom Markland, special agent of the United States Post Office, and this is his first biography. At the beginning of the Civil War, at the request of his childhood friend Ulysses S. Grant, Markland created the most efficient military mail system ever devised, and Grant gave him the honorary title of colonel. He met regularly with President Abraham Lincoln during the war and carried important messages between Lincoln and Generals Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman at crucial points in our nation's peril. When the Ku Klux Klan waged its reign of terror and intimidation after the Civil War, Markland's decisive action secured the executive powers President Grant needed to combat the Klan. Nearly every biography of Lincoln, Sherman, and Grant includes at least one footnote about Markland, but his important, sometimes daily interaction with them during and after the war has escaped modern notice, until now. Absalom Markland is a forgotten American hero. Delivered Under Fire tells his amazing story.

Several independent reviews in the UK have recently investigated sustained, systemic failings by statutory services and government departments. These reviews document severe psychological impacts on people affected by these scandals, which have been exacerbated by miscarriages of justice, denials of accountability and lack of formal support. There is evidence that impacted people have significant, unmet mental health needs. To explore the psychological support needs of people infected and affected by the infected blood scandal in England, their experiences of seeking support and how insights from this research could inform responses to people affected by similar failings, including the Hillsborough Disaster, Windrush Scandal and Post Office Horizon IT Scandal. We used a qualitative design involving semi-structured interviews with infected and affected people in England and with mental health practitioners to explore experiences, psychological impacts and perspectives on existing support services. Our analysis was thematic, adopting an empathetic interpretive orientation toward participants' experiences. We identified significant unmet mental health needs among infected and affected people, including those who had been in contact with NHS or private psychological support services. Historically, infected and affected people have rarely accessed effective mental health support. Insights from the Infected Blood Inquiry and the subsequent development of a bespoke psychological support service could inform the setting up of skilled, tailored psychological support for people affected by other severe, systemic state failings. This response could address complex, unmet mental health needs and increase understanding of the psychological impacts of scandals resulting from systemic, statutory failings.

Research background: As humanity evolves, so do the new payment options. Today, one of the most popular and powerful electronic money is Bitcoin. Over time, virtual currency is becoming one of the most widely available and used means of payment. Purpose of the article: The aim of this paper is to analyse ATMs in post offices, focusing on virtual currency ATMs. The paper also includes an analysis of available ATMs for virtual currencies and a comparison of their capabilities. Methods: We compare three most important ATM manufacturers and their most used models. It examines the use of those ATMs in post offices in Slovakia and abroad. Paper also analyses the attitude of customers of Slovak Post towards the deployment of virtual currency ATMs at its branches (on a sample of 400 respondents). Findings & Value added: In the Slovak Republic postal services are offered by several companies (19 out of 24 providers responded to our questionnaire). Slovak Post is leading provider of distribution, communication, and payment services in Slovakia. Czech Post is an example of country where virtual currency ATMs were introduced but subsequently withdrawn from post offices. In turn, Austrian Post Office is an example of a country where this system still operates and expands. While Slovak market still lacks such a service in the postal business, these trends will adapt over time. The virtual currency ATMs we have in Slovakia, are not operated by postal enterprises.

Purpose This study examines the impact of service quality on customer satisfaction and purchase intention in the Egyptian Post Office. Design/methodology/approach A mixed-method approach was employed, combining qualitative interviews with postal customers and industry experts and a quantitative survey of 334 customers. Time-series data from 2013 to 2023 were analyzed using dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) to examine long-term trends. Findings Survey results confirmed that service quality significantly influences satisfaction ( β  = 0.736, p  < 0.01) and purchase intention ( β  = 0.794, p  < 0.01). DOLS estimates showed a 1% increase in postal service performance raised satisfaction by 0.68%, while inflation had a temporary negative effect. The consistency between qualitative, survey, and time-series findings supports strong triangulation. Originality/value This study integrates SERVQUAL with longitudinal economic analysis, offering a novel, evidence-based perspective on how public service quality reforms influence consumer behavior over time. Practical implications Policymakers are advised to enhance service reliability, invest in digital infrastructure (e.g., ATM expansion and mobile apps), and mitigate inflation’s adverse effects. Improving employee empathy and responsiveness is also essential to drive customer retention and loyalty.

The change of number delivery goods through PT. Pos Regional VII East Java Indonesia indicates that the trend of increasing and decreasing the delivery of documents and non-documents in PT. Pos Regional VII East Java Indonesia is strongly influenced by conditions outside of PT. Pos Regional VII East Java Indonesia so that the prediction the number of document and non-documents requires a model that can accommodate it. Based on the time series plot monthly data fluctuations occur from 2013-2016 then the model is done using ARIMA or seasonal ARIMA and selected the best model based on the smallest AIC value. The results of data analysis about the number of shipments on each product sent through the Sub-Regional Postal Office VII East Java indicates that there are 5 post offices of 26 post offices entering the territory. The largest number of shipments is available on the PPB (Paket Pos Biasa is regular package shipment/non-document ) and SKH (Surat Kilat Khusus is Special Express Mail/document) products. The time series model generated is largely a Random walk model meaning that the number of shipment in the future is influenced by random effects that are difficult to predict. Some are AR and MA models, except for Express shipment products with Malang post office destination which has seasonal ARIMA model on lag 6 and 12. This means that the number of items in the following month is affected by the number of items in the previous 6 months.

Development of information and communication technology changed mail delivery services in various parts of the world in the twenty centuries. In Java, the increase in postal services as Dutch East Indies government infrastructure) grew along with the construction of the Postweg line (postal road) in 1809–1811. The road networks pass through Jakarta – Semarang, Surabaya, and another small-town facility and now the postal networks became a heritage. The networks of post building in Semarang are unique compared to other big cities in Java. The Dutch East Indies government anticipated the geography of Semarang when they developed the expansion of the town to the south and utilized it by postal services. The government has issued a cultural heritage regulation for buildings and areas, but has not touched the conservation network of heritage. Based on that problem, this paper aimed to reveal Semarang city pattern used post office and infrastructure as a tool for analysing city morphology and suggested to conserve the heritage network. The method used was urban design with the historical approach, the post office location, settlements, road networks, and geographic conditions. The research findings showed that the postal infrastructure formed the sustainability of Semarang city from local-Dutch Indies rule in triangle form. The city’s geographical factor also influenced the city’s layout. The local and colonial city character in this triangle area is still preserved, although some minor changes in the area postweg road. The sustainability city layout from the era of local government – the Dutch East Indies in Semarang by making the city centre of the local government (in the top of the triangle) as the centre of urban design should be input on the heritage regulation as areas conservation.