Framework for computer integrated manufacturing

Originally published by: Touche Ros

Fluid Ontologies in the Search for MH370

This paper gives an account of the disappearance of Malaysian Airways Flight MH370 into the southern Indian Ocean in March 2014 and analyses the rare glimpses into remote ocean space this incident opened up. It follows the tenuous clues as to where the aeroplane might have come to rest after it disappeared from radar screens – seven satellite pings, hundreds of pieces of floating debris and six underwater sonic recordings – as ways of entering into and thinking about ocean space. The paper pays attention to and analyses this space on three registers – first, as a fluid, more-than-human materiality with particular properties and agencies; second, as a synthetic situation, a composite of informational bits and pieces scopically articulated and augmented; and third, as geopolitics, delineated by the protocols of international search and rescue. On all three registers – as matter, as data and as law – the ocean is shown to be ontologically fluid, a world defined by movement, flow and flux, posing intractable difficulties for human interactions with it

An Application of the Blin-Whinston Algorithm for Resolving Fuzzy Group Preferences

Important decisions regarding governmental expenditures for the public welfare require accurate assessment of preferences of the citizenry as one input. Often, strong disagreement exists regarding relative merit of various projects competing for limited resources. This paper proposes a procedure for establishing a complete social preference ordering on the set of alternative projects when the group preference is fuzzy because of individual differences. An extension of current algorithms is developed-and applied to a problem concerning public preferences for expenditures on civic projects in Houston, Texas. One thousand male and female heads-of-household were interviewed in depth to determine their preferences for investment among forty-one projects in the areas of social services, business and job development, public transportation, arts and leisure, and education. A complete preference order for group decision was obtained for a situation in which significant disagreement exists among group members and where funding is limited.unlity/preference: applications, group decisions: voting, planning: community

Rejoinder---On "A Note on MRP Lot Sizing"

Rejoinder to "On `A Note on MRP Lot Sizing'" (McClain, J., W. L. Maxwell, J. A. Muckstadt, L. T. Thomas, E. N. Weiss. 1982. A note on MRP lot sizing. Management Sci. 28 (5, May) 582--584.).