Drawing the hoarding line: balancing the spatial requirements of customer and contractor in occupied refurbishment of railway stations

In planning an occupied refurbishment the spatial needs of the contractor and of theongoing business have to be balanced. For the refurbishment of railway stations, aparticular concern to retailers and train operators is the disruptive effect ofconstruction works upon pedestrian movement. RaCMIT (Refurbishment andCustomer Movement Integration Tool) is a research project aimed at investigatingthis problem through concentration on decision criteria/processes of the client andmodels/observations of pedestrian movement. The objective of the research is todevelop a decision protocol and decision support tools, which assist both the clientand the construction planner in addressing these problems and which allows overalloptimisation of project value to the client?s business. The practice of spatial decisionmakingin station refurbishment projects has been investigated in two case studies.This paper concentrates on one case study where pedestrian movement was observedbefore and during the refurbishment. Research observations as well as currentliterature suggest that a) for overall decision-making, opportunities may be lost(under current practice) for minimising joint project cost/revenue (or other)disruption and b) for spatial decision-making, temporary station configuration duringconstruction may be a significant variable. In planning an occupied refurbishment the spatial needs of the contractor and of theongoing business have to be balanced. For the refurbishment of railway stations, aparticular concern to retailers and train operators is the disruptive effect ofconstruction works upon pedestrian movement. RaCMIT (Refurbishment andCustomer Movement Integration Tool) is a research project aimed at investigatingthis problem through concentration on decision criteria/processes of the client andmodels/observations of pedestrian movement. The objective of the research is todevelop a decision protocol and decision support tools, which assist both the clientand the construction planner in addressing these problems and which allows overalloptimisation of project value to the client?s business. The practice of spatial decisionmakingin station refurbishment projects has been investigated in two case studies.This paper concentrates on one case study where pedestrian movement was observedbefore and during the refurbishment. Research observations as well as currentliterature suggest that a) for overall decision-making, opportunities may be lost(under current practice) for minimising joint project cost/revenue (or other)disruption and b) for spatial decision-making, temporary station configuration duringconstruction may be a significant variable

Electricity transmission: an overview of the current debate

Electricity transmission has emerged as critical for successfully liberalising powermarkets. This paper surveys the issues currently under discussion and provides a framework for the remaining papers in this issue. We conclude that signalling the efficient location of generation investment might require even a competitive LMP system to be complemented with deep connection charges. Although a Europe-wide LMP system is desirable, it appears politically problematic, so an integrated system of market coupling, possibly evolving by voluntary participation, should have high priority. Merchant investors may be able to increase interconnector capacity, although this is not unproblematic and raises new regulatory issues. A key issue that needs further research is how to better incentivize TSOs, especially with respect to cross-border issues

Stochastic make-to-stock inventory deployment problem: an endosymbiotic psychoclonal algorithm based approach

Integrated steel manufacturers (ISMs) have no specific product, they just produce finished product from the ore. This enhances the uncertainty prevailing in the ISM regarding the nature of the finished product and significant demand by customers. At present low cost mini-mills are giving firm competition to ISMs in terms of cost, and this has compelled the ISM industry to target customers who want exotic products and faster reliable deliveries. To meet this objective, ISMs are exploring the option of satisfying part of their demand by converting strategically placed products, this helps in increasing the variability of product produced by the ISM in a short lead time. In this paper the authors have proposed a new hybrid evolutionary algorithm named endosymbiotic-psychoclonal (ESPC) to decide what and how much to stock as a semi-product in inventory. In the proposed theory, the ability of previously proposed psychoclonal algorithms to exploit the search space has been increased by making antibodies and antigen more co-operative interacting species. The efficacy of the proposed algorithm has been tested on randomly generated datasets and the results compared with other evolutionary algorithms such as genetic algorithms (GA) and simulated annealing (SA). The comparison of ESPC with GA and SA proves the superiority of the proposed algorithm both in terms of quality of the solution obtained and convergence time required to reach the optimal/near optimal value of the solution

C & A Carbone v. Clarkstown: A Wake-Up Call for the Dormant Commerce Clause

Introduction Garbage collection, transportation, and disposal have historically been the responsibility of individual towns and cities in the United States. 1 However, stringent environmental regulations, declining landfill capacity, and the implementation of costly source reduction and recycling programs have greatly increased the costs of waste management borne by towns. 2 For the past two decades, many local governments have relied on flow control ordinances to finance their solid waste management activities. 3 These ordinances designate where municipal solid waste generated within the community must be managed, stored, or disposed. 4 Recently, in C & A Carbone, Inc. v. Town of Clarkstown, 5 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that such ordinances violate the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. In this decision, the Court misapplied the dormant Commerce Clause doctrine and thereby jeopardized the financial stability of local governments that have relied on flow control ordinances to finance their waste management programs. Flow control ordinances dictate where a community\u27s garbage must be processed or disposed. 6 By enabling a local government to control its garbage, flow control helps the town meet its environmental goals, such as ensuring that recyclable materials are properly separated. 7 Typically, garbage processing and disposal facilities charge a fee per ton of garbage handled, known as a tipping fee. 8 By requiring all municipal waste to be shipped to a designated facility, flow control guarantees a stream of revenue to that facility. 9 Local governments have relied on this revenue to fund ..

Distributed simulation of city inundation by coupled surface and subsurface porous flow for urban flood decision support system

We present a decision support system for flood early warning and disaster management. It includes the models for data-driven meteorological predictions, for simulation of atmospheric pressure, wind, long sea waves and seiches; a module for optimization of flood barrier gates operation; models for stability assessment of levees and embankments, for simulation of city inundation dynamics and citizens evacuation scenarios. The novelty of this paper is a coupled distributed simulation of surface and subsurface flows that can predict inundation of low-lying inland zones far from the submerged waterfront areas, as observed in St. Petersburg city during the floods. All the models are wrapped as software services in the CLAVIRE platform for urgent computing, which provides workflow management and resource orchestration.Comment: Pre-print submitted to the 2013 International Conference on Computational Scienc