A hybrid algorithm for the integrated production planning in the pulp and paper industry

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Industrial e Gestão. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

Around Mind Reflections": Exploração da sensação de presença no contexto de instalações artísticas interativas

A presente dissertação estabelece relações entre os termos sensação de presença,o sistema preceptivo e ambientes imersivos site-specific. Num formato practise basedresearch, desenvolveu-se o desenho de um ambiente imersivo, mediante os próprioscondicionalismos do espaço, com recurso a um altifalante paramétrico. Desta forma,pretende-se investigar possíveis fatores que possam influenciar a sensação de presença eo nosso sistema preceptivo.This dissertation establishes relationships between the terms presence sensation,the perceptual system and site-specific immersive environments. In a practice-basedresearch format, it is intended to design an immersive environment, through theconstraints of the space itself, using a parametric loudspeaker. Thus, we intend toinvestigate possible factors that may influence the feeling of presence and our perceptualsystem

Industrial insights into lot sizing and schedulingmodeling

© 2015 Brazilian Operations Research Society. Lot sizing and scheduling by mixed integer programming has been a hot research topic inthe last 20 years. Researchers have been trying to develop stronger formulations, as well as to incorporatereal-world requirements from different applications. This paper illustrates some of these requirements anddemonstrates how small- and big-bucket models have been adapted and extended. Motivation comes fromdifferent industries, especially from process and fast-moving consumer goods industries

Backpack weight and load distribution: kinetic assessment tools in schoolchildren - scope review

The backpack is the most used mean of transporting school supplies among children and young people, and the weight and distribution of the load, in its inside, is often variable. The adverse consequences, resulting from these parameters, have raised a growing concern on the part of the scientific community, parents and teachers. To identify the kinetic parameters used to verify the effects of weight and load position, inside the backpack, in school aged children and young people.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pulse front tilt control using non-collimated beams in a single pass grating compressor

High power laser systems based on the chirped pulse amplification (CPA) technique make use of grating pairs to compress the pulse to a short duration. When designing the pulse compressor, it is normally assumed that good beam collimation is a strong requirement in order to avoid spatio-temporal couplings. We analyze the propagation through a single pass compressor without the good collimation approximation and show that this results in a compressed pulse exhibiting pulse front tilt, whose magnitude is proportional to the normalized distance to the beam waist, providing a simple mechanism for controlling the tilt angle. We perform experimental measurements in a large-scale CPA laser for a range of beam curvatures that confirm these results

Sentimentos de Solidão devidos à Quarentena por COVID‑19 e a sua Relação com Traços Ansiosos e Empatia

Introduction: We aimed to understand how loneliness and empathy relate to home confinement/quarantine and to explore the relation between loneliness, anxiety traits and empathy. Methods: This is an observational cross‑sectional cohort study including 364 participants. We delivered an online questionnaire composed by UCLA Loneliness scale (assessing loneliness), STAI‑Y (assessing trait anxiety), and IRI (assessing empathy). For the statistical analysis we performed  descriptive and inferential statistics. When not‑otherwise specified, two‑tailed p<0.05 was considered significant. Results: The mean for IRI was 60.46 (SD: 10.88), for UCLA Loneliness scale was 32.70 (SD: 8.11) and for STAI‑Y was 42.01 (SD: 12.29). We found no statistically significant correlation between empathy and loneliness (p>0.05). Nonetheless, loneliness and anxiety traits were positively correlated (p<0.05), and psychiatric comorbidity was associated with higher levels of loneliness and anxiety traits (p<0.05). Conclusion: Our results suggest social cohesion, solidarity and continuous online contact may have played a significant role on preservation of empathy and feelings of loneliness. The fact that loneliness may be felt in a positive way (such tightening household relationships) can explain the non‑correlationbetween the last and empathy. Ultimately, the positive correlation between anxiety traits and loneliness underlines the vulnerability of previously anxious subjects, enhancing the importance of promoting mental health during the pandemic.Introdução: Pretendemos compreender como a solidão e a empatia se relacionam com o período de quarentena/confinamento e explorar a relação entre solidão, empatia e traços ansiosos. Métodos: Trata‑se de um estudo observacional e transversal, incluindo 364 participantes. Foram distribuídos questionários de auto‑preenchimento em formato online, compostos pelas escalas UCLA Loneliness scale (avaliar a solidão), STAI‑Y (avaliar traços ansiosos) e IRI (avaliar empatia). Recorremos a métodos estatísticos descritivos e inferenciais para a análise estatística dos dados obtidos. Foi considerado estatisticamente significativo um p<0,05. Resultados: A média na escala IRI foi de 60,46 (±10,88), na UCLA Loneliness scale obtivemos uma media de 32,70 (± 8,11) e na STAI‑Y uma média de 42,01 (± 12,29). Não foi encontrada uma correlação estatisticamente significativa entre empatia e solidão (p>0,05). É de notar que a solidão correlaciona‑se positivamente com os traços ansiosos (p<0,05) e que comorbilidades psiquiátricas estavam associadas a maiores níveis de solidão e de traços ansiosos (p<0,05). Conclusão: Cremos que a coesão social, a solidariedade e o contacto online tenham tido um papel fundamental na preservação da empatia e na sensação de solidão. O facto de que a solidão possa ser experienciada de forma positiva (como por exemplo, no fortalecimento das relação dentro do agregado familiar) pode ser a razão pela qual esta não esteja estatisticamente correlacionada com a empatia. Por último, a correlação positiva entre traços ansiosos e solidão realça a vulnerabilidade de sujeitos tendencialmente ansiosos, tornando premente a promoção de saúde e bem‑estar mental durante a quarentena/confinamento

A review of simheuristics: extending metaheuristics to deal with stochastic combinatorial optimization problems

Many combinatorial optimization problems (COPs) encountered in real-world logistics, transportation, production, healthcare, financial, telecommunication, and computing applications are NP-hard in nature. These real-life COPs are frequently characterized by their large-scale sizes and the need for obtaining high-quality solutions in short computing times, thus requiring the use of metaheuristic algorithms. Metaheuristics benefit from different random-search and parallelization paradigms, but they frequently assume that the problem inputs, the underlying objective function, and the set of optimization constraints are deterministic. However, uncertainty is all around us, which often makes deterministic models oversimplified versions of real-life systems. After completing an extensive review of related work, this paper describes a general methodology that allows for extending metaheuristics through simulation to solve stochastic COPs. ‘Simheuristics’ allow modelers for dealing with real-life uncertainty in a natural way by integrating simulation (in any of its variants) into a metaheuristic-driven framework. These optimization-driven algorithms rely on the fact that efficient metaheuristics already exist for the deterministic version of the corresponding COP. Simheuristics also facilitate the introduction of risk and/or reliability analysis criteria during the assessment of alternative high-quality solutions to stochastic COPs. Several examples of applications in different fields illustrate the potential of the proposed methodology.This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (grant TRA2013-48180-C3-P), FEDER, and the Ibero-American Programme for Science and Technology for Development (CYTED2014-515RT0489). Likewise we want to acknowledge the support received by the Department of Universities, Research & Information Society of the Catalan Government (Grant 2014-CTP-00001) and the CAN Foundation (Navarre, Spain) (Grant 3CAN2014-3758)