Planning and Scheduling Transportation Vehicle Fleet in a Congested Traffic Environment

Transportation is a main component of supply chain competitiveness since it plays a major role in the inbound, inter-facility, and outbound logistics. In this context, assigning and scheduling vehicle routing is a crucial management problem. Despite numerous publications dealing with efficient scheduling methods for vehicle routing, very few addressed the inherent stochastic nature of travel times in this problem. In this paper, a vehicle routing problem with time windows and stochastic travel times due to potential traffic congestion is considered. The approach developed introduces mainly the traffic congestion component based on queueing theory. This is an innovative modeling scheme to capture the stochastic behavior of travel times. A case study is used both to illustrate the appropriateness of the approach as well as to show that time-independent solutions are often unrealistic within a congested traffic environment which is often the case on the european road networkstransportation; vehicle fleet; planning; scheduling; congested traffic

Revisiting the implications of Liouville's theorem to the anisotropy of cosmic rays

We present a solution to Liouville's equation for an ensemble of charged particles propagating in magnetic fields. The solution is presented using an expansion in spherical harmonics of the phase space density, allowing a direct interpretation of the distribution of arrival directions of cosmic rays. The results are found for chosen conditions of variability and source distributions. We show there are two conditions for an initially isotropic flux of particles to remain isotropic while traveling through a magnetic field: isotropy and homogeneity of the sources. The formalism is used to analyze the data measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory, contributing to the understanding of the dependence of the dipole amplitude with energy and predicting the energy in which the quadrupole signal should be measured

Observation of a large-scale anisotropy in the arrival directions of cosmic rays above 8 × 10 18 eV

Cosmic rays are atomic nuclei arriving from outer space that reach the highest energies observed in nature. Clues to their origin come from studying the distribution of their arrival directions. Using 3 × 10 4 cosmic rays with energies above 8 × 10 18 electron volts, recorded with the Pierre Auger Observatory from a total exposure of 76,800 km2 sr year, we determined the existence of anisotropy in arrival directions. The anisotropy, detected at more than a 5.2σ level of significance, can be described by a dipole with an amplitude of 6.5 +1.3 -0.9 percent toward right ascension αd = 100 ± 10 degrees and declination δd = -24 +12 -13 degrees. That direction indicates an extragalactic origin for these ultrahighenergy particles.La nómina completa de autores puede verse en el archivo asociado a este ítem.Facultad de Ciencias Exacta

Observation of a large-scale anisotropy in the arrival directions of cosmic rays above 8 × 10 18 eV

Cosmic rays are atomic nuclei arriving from outer space that reach the highest energies observed in nature. Clues to their origin come from studying the distribution of their arrival directions. Using 3 × 10 4 cosmic rays with energies above 8 × 10 18 electron volts, recorded with the Pierre Auger Observatory from a total exposure of 76,800 km2 sr year, we determined the existence of anisotropy in arrival directions. The anisotropy, detected at more than a 5.2σ level of significance, can be described by a dipole with an amplitude of 6.5 +1.3 -0.9 percent toward right ascension αd = 100 ± 10 degrees and declination δd = -24 +12 -13 degrees. That direction indicates an extragalactic origin for these ultrahighenergy particles.La nómina completa de autores puede verse en el archivo asociado a este ítem.Facultad de Ciencias Exacta

EUSO-SPB1 mission and science

The Extreme Universe Space Observatory on a Super Pressure Balloon 1 (EUSO-SPB1) was launched in 2017 April from Wanaka, New Zealand. The plan of this mission of opportunity on a NASA super pressure balloon test flight was to circle the southern hemisphere. The primary scientific goal was to make the first observations of ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray extensive air showers (EASs) by looking down on the atmosphere with an ultraviolet (UV) fluorescence telescope from suborbital altitude (33 km). After 12 days and 4 h aloft, the flight was terminated prematurely in the Pacific Ocean. Before the flight, the instrument was tested extensively in the West Desert of Utah, USA, with UV point sources and lasers. The test results indicated that the instrument had sensitivity to EASs of ⪆ 3 EeV. Simulations of the telescope system, telescope on time, and realized flight trajectory predicted an observation of about 1 event assuming clear sky conditions. The effects of high clouds were estimated to reduce this value by approximately a factor of 2. A manual search and a machine-learning-based search did not find any EAS signals in these data. Here we review the EUSO-SPB1 instrument and flight and the EAS search

Behaviour of clamp-enhanced palm tendons reinforced concrete

The authors wish to thank the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) of Nigeria for sponsoring this study.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

EU External Action, Intention and Explanation

“Unintended consequences” is an umbrella concept. It comprises phenomena that differ in crucial respects and consequently, without refinement, it remains a rather blunt instrument for policy analysis. The contributions in this volume, however, show that disentangling unintended consequences by making clear distinctions between various types, makes the concept much more useful for policy analysis. Assessing the impact of EU foreign policies as studied in this volume, we show that “bonuses”, “windfalls”, “accidents”, and “trade-offs” – all unintended – are very different when it comes to the explanation of policy outcomes, or to allocating responsibility for them.The Institutions of Politics; Design, Workings, and implications ( do not use, ended 1-1-2020

Development of Various Fibre Reinforced Cementitious Composites

This dissertation presents the results obtained through a comprehensive experimental work that was carried out in two different phases. Phase I determined the mechanical and durability performance of cementitious composites reinforced Kraft pulp fibres. Two engineered fibers, along with a commercially available unmodified fiber, were used in reinforcing cementitious materials. These fibres are called mechanically modified fibre and chemically treated fibre, and these are not yet commercially available. This study was completed to determine the strength, durability, and interfacial properties of the reinforced cementitious composites. Test results showed an increase in the permeability characteristics for the reinforced concretes. Hence, these fibres reduced the compressive strength and durability of reinforced concretes as compare to the unreinforced concrete. However, the two engineered fibres performed better than the unmodified fibre in terms of compressive strength, chloride ion permeability and water sorptivity. Further, the drying shrinkage strain was reduced considerably when only 1% chemically treated fiber was added. In phase II, a study was completed to experimentally determine the influence of partial and full replacement of slag with fly ash on the mechanical and durability performance of engineered cementitious composites. Test results showed that mixtures containing slag exhibited strain-hardening like behaviour and a comparable ductility property as engineered cementitious composites containing fly ash. Further, slag blends were found to be significant in reducing permeability in terms of rapid chloride penetration, sorptivity, and water absorption at both 28 and 90 days. However, higher drying shrinkage strains were observed for mixtures containing slag when compared to fly ash mixtures

Desempenho de bovinos em pastejo durante o período chuvoso recebendo diferentes suplementos minerais

The objective of the work was to evaluate the performance of beef heifers receiving two types of additives via mineral supplement. The treatments were arranged in a randomized block design and consisted of three supplementation strategies, being the mineral supplement (SM), mineral supplement with salinomycin (SS) and mineral supplement with tannin + salinomycin (STS), with an expected consumption of 18-27 , 33-44 and 33-44 g per 100 kg BW day-1. 36 Nellore heifers with an initial weight of 226 kg were used, in a phase characterized as breeding. Thus, each treatment was represented by 12 animals. The agronomic and recurrent characteristics of the forage did not differentiate (p> 0.05) between treatments. This was expected, since the factors that affect the dynamics of the pasture were the same for everyone. Supplement consumption has a difference (p <0.05) between the treatments studied, which was already foreseen, since the SM treatment supplement had an expected consumption lower than the others. However, the additives dissipated less than expected consumption, causing the additive intake to be compromised. The average daily gain of the animals was not affected (p> 0.05) with the addition of additives in mineral supplements. The performances were 0.658, 0.758, 0.679 respectively for the SM, SS, STS treatments. The consumption of supplement below the expected may have influenced this result. Another factor is that without the additives, the animals already present a good performance, making it more difficult to increase the gain when the animals are in well-managed pastures. With that it is standard that the addition of tannin and / or salinomycin diet of beef heifers, taking mineral supplement as a vehicle for ingestion, does not change the performance of animals consuming well-managed pasture in the water period.O objetivo do trabalho foi avaliar o desempenho de novilhas de corte recebendo dois tipos de aditivos via suplemento mineral. Os tratamentos foram dispostos em delineamento em blocos casualizados e compostos por três estratégias de suplementação, sendo o suplemento mineral (SM), suplemento mineral com salinomicina (SS) e suplemento mineral com tanino + salinomicina (STS), com consumo esperado de 18-27, 33-44 e 33-44 g por 100 kg PC dia-1 . Foram utilizadas 36 novilhas Nelore com peso inicial de 226 kg, em fase caracterizada como recria. Com isso, cada tratamento foi representado por 12 animais. As características agronômicas e estruturais da forragem não apresentaram diferença (p>0,05) entre os tratamentos. Isso era esperado, uma vez que os fatores que interferem na dinâmica do pasto foram iguais para todos. O consumo de suplemento apresentou diferença (p<0,05) entre os tratamentos estudados, o que já era previsto, uma vez que o suplemento do tratamento SM tinha um consumo esperado inferior os demais. No entanto os aditivados apresentaram consumo inferior ao esperado, fazendo que que a ingestão de aditivo fosse comprometida. O ganho médio diário dos animais não foi afetado (p>0,05) com a adição dos aditivos nos suplementos minerais. Os desempenhos foram de 0,658, 0,758, 0,679 respectivamente para os tratamentos SM, SS, STS. O consumo de suplemento abaixo do esperado pode ter influenciado nesse resultado. Outro fator é que sem os aditivos, os animais já apresentavam um bom desempenho, fazendo com que seja mais difícil um acréscimo no ganho quando os animais estão em pastos bem manejados.Com isso concluiu-se que a adição de tanino e/ou salinomicina na dieta de novilhas de corte, utilizando suplemento mineral como veículo de ingestão, não altera o desempenho dos animais consumindo pasto bem manejado no período das águas