A State-of-the-art Integrated Transportation Simulation Platform

Nowadays, universities and companies have a huge need for simulation and modelling methodologies. In the particular case of traffic and transportation, making physical modifications to the real traffic networks could be highly expensive, dependent on political decisions and could be highly disruptive to the environment. However, while studying a specific domain or problem, analysing a problem through simulation may not be trivial and may need several simulation tools, hence raising interoperability issues. To overcome these problems, we propose an agent-directed transportation simulation platform, through the cloud, by means of services. We intend to use the IEEE standard HLA (High Level Architecture) for simulators interoperability and agents for controlling and coordination. Our motivations are to allow multiresolution analysis of complex domains, to allow experts to collaborate on the analysis of a common problem and to allow co-simulation and synergy of different application domains. This paper will start by presenting some preliminary background concepts to help better understand the scope of this work. After that, the results of a literature review is shown. Finally, the general architecture of a transportation simulation platform is proposed

Densifying the sparse cloud SimSaaS: The need of a synergy among agent-directed simulation, SimSaaS and HLA

Modelling & Simulation (M&S) is broadly used in real scenarios where making physical modifications could be highly expensive. With the so-called Simulation Software-as-a-Service (SimSaaS), researchers could take advantage of the huge amount of resource that cloud computing provides. Even so, studying and analysing a problem through simulation may need several simulation tools, hence raising interoperability issues. Having this in mind, IEEE developed a standard for interoperability among simulators named High Level Architecture (HLA). Moreover, the multi-agent system approach has become recognised as a convenient approach for modelling and simulating complex systems. Despite all the recent works and acceptance of these technologies, there is still a great lack of work regarding synergies among them. This paper shows by means of a literature review this lack of work or, in other words, the sparse Cloud SimSaaS. The literature review and the resulting taxonomy are the main contributions of this paper, as they provide a research agenda illustrating future research opportunities and trends

MODELLING TOURISM DEMAND: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS AND THE BOX-JENKINS METHODOLOGY

This study seeks to investigate and highlight the usefulness of the Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) methodology as an alternative to the Box-Jenkins methodology in analysing tourism demand. To this end, each of the above-mentioned methodologies is centred on the treatment, analysis and modelling of the tourism time series: “Nights Spent in Hotel Accommodation per Month”, recorded in the period from January 1987 to December 2006, since this is one of the variables that best expresses effective demand. The study was undertaken for the North and Centre regions of Portugal. The results showed that the model produced by using the ANN methodology presented satisfactory statistical and adjustment qualities, suggesting that it is suitable for modelling and forecasting the reference series, when compared with the model produced by using the Box?Jenkins methodology.Artificial Neural Networks; ARIMA Models; Time Series Forecasting

GResilient index to assess the greenness and resilience of the automotive supply chain

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to suggest an Index entitled GResilient Index to assess the greenness and resilience of the automotive companies and corresponding supply chain. Design/methodology/approach: An integrated assessment model is proposed based on Green and Resilient practices. These practices are weighted according to their importance to the automotive supply chain competitiveness. The Delphi technique is used to obtain the weights for the focused supply chain paradigms and corresponding practices. The model is then tested using a case study approach in the automotive supply chain. Findings: The case study results confirmed the applicability of this Index in a real-world supply chain. The results show that the Resilient supply chain management paradigm is the one considered as the one that more contributes for the automotive supply chain competitiveness. Research limitations/implications: The proposed Index was developed in the automotive sector context therefore it could not be adjusted to a different one. Future research could consider other aggregation methods for the Index construction. Practical implications: Supply chain participants will be able to evaluate the performance of their companies or supply chain in terms of Green and Resilient paradigms. Also, the Index can be effectively employed for functional benchmarking among competing companies and supply chains.Green; resilient; supply chain management; index; automotive industry

SASICE: Safety and sustainability in civil engineering

The performance of the built environment and the construction sector are of major importance in Europe’s long term goals of sustainable development in a changing climate. At the same time, the quality of life of all European citizens needs to be improved and the safety of the built environment with respect to man-made and natural hazards, such as flooding and earthquakes, needs to be ensured. Education has a central role to play in the transformation of a construction sector required to meet increasing demands with regard to safety and sustainability. In this work, the SASICE project is presented. The aim of this project is to promote the integration of safety and sustainability in civil engineering education. The project is organised in the context of the Lifelong Learning Programme, funded by the European Community. The coordinator organisation is the University of Bologna. Nine partner universities from different countries are involved in this transnational project. The universities participating to the project constitute a network of high level competences in the civil engineering area, with several opportunities to improve lifelong learning adopting different media: joint curricula, teaching modules and professor and student exchanges. As a response to the challenge regarding new educational methods in sustainable engineering, teaching modules are developed in 4 thematic areas: (1) Safety in construction, (2) Risk induced by Natural Hazards Assessment, (3) Sustainability in construction, and (4) Sustainability at the territorial level. The development of the teaching modules is based on an extensive analysis of the need for highly qualified education on Safety and Sustainability involving all relevant stakeholders (European and national authorities, companies, research institutes, professional organizations, and universities).The main target is enabling students to introduce these advanced topics in their study plans and curricula and reach, at the end of their studies, a specific skill and expertise in safety and sustainability in Civil Engineering. With our natural resources fading away and our infrastructure in dire need of repair, new trends and challenges in civil engineering education in the concept of “Sustainable Development” are needed to be adressed.<br/

Small quark stars in the chromodielectric model

Equations of state for strange quark matter in beta equilibrium at high densities are used to investigate the structure (mass and radius) of compact objects. The chromodielectric model is used as a general framework for the quark interactions, which are mediated by chiral mesons, $\sigma$ and $\vec \pi$, and by a confining chiral singlet dynamical field, $\chi$. Using a quartic potential for $\chi$, two equations of state for the same set of model parameters are obtained, one with a minimum at around the nuclear matter density $\rho_0$ and the other at $\rho \sim 5 \rho_0$. Using the latter equation of state in the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equations we found solutions corresponding to compact objects with $R\sim 5 - 8$ km and $M\sim M_\odot$. The phenomenology of recently discovered X-ray sources is compatible with the type of quark stars that we have obtained.Comment: 8 pages, AIP macros; Talk delivered at the Pan American Advanced Studies Institute (PASI) Conference "New States of Matter in Hadronic Interactions", Campos do Jordao, Brazil, January 200

Relationship of arterial and exhaled CO2 during elevated artificial pneumoperitoneum pressure for introduction of the first trocar.

The present study evaluated the correlation between arterial CO2 and exhaled CO2 during brief high-pressure pneumoperitoneum. Patients were randomly distributed into two groups: P12 group (n=30) received a maximum intraperitoneal pressure of 12mmHg, and P20 group (n=37) received a maximum intraperitoneal pressure of 20mmHg. Arterial CO2 was evaluated by radial arterial catheter and exhaled CO2 was measured by capnometry at the following time points: before insufflation, once intraperitoneal pressure reached 12mmHg , 5 minutes after intraperitoneal pressure reached 12mmHg for the P12 group or 20mmHg for the P20 group, and 10 minutes after intraperitoneal pressure reached 12mmHg for the P12 group or when intraperitoneal pressure had decreased from 20mmHg to 12mmHg, for the P20 group. During brief durations of very high intraperitoneal pressure (20mmHg), there was a strong correlation between arterial CO2 and exhaled CO2. Capnometry can be effectively used to monitor patients during transient increases in artificial pneumoperitoneum pressure