Constraint programming methods in three-dimensional container packing

Cutting and packing problems are present in many, at first glance unconnected, areas, therefore it's beneficial to have a good understanding of their underlying structure, to select proper techniques for finding solutions. Cutting and packing problems are a class of combinatorial problems in which there are specified two classes of objects: big and small items and the task is to place the small items within big items. Even in the 1-dimensional case, bin-packing is strongly NP-hard (Garey 1978), which suggests, that exact solutions may not be found in a reasonable time for bigger instances. In the literature, there are presented many various approaches to packing problems, e.g. mixed-integer programming, approximation algorithms, heuristic solutions, and local search algorithms, including metaheuristic approaches like Tabu Search or Simulated Annealing. The main goal of this work is to review existing solutions, survey the variants arising from the industry applications, present a solution based on constraint programming and compare its performance with the results in the literature. Optimization with constraint programming is a method searching for the global optima, hence it may require a higher workload compared to the heuristic and local search approaches, which may finish in a local optimum. The performance of the presented model will be measured on test data used in the literature, which were used in many articles presenting a variety of approaches to three-dimensional container packing, which will allow us to compare the efficiency of the constraint programming model with other methods used in the operational research

The new Leviathan is an autonomous digital machine

Leviathan, a mythical creature in Judaism, was used by philosopher Thomas Hobbes to symbolise the rule of law standing above all other human powers. Szymon Wróbel writes that the automation of technology risks becoming a new Leviathan. As autonomous technology removes humans from interactions or transactions loops, a political economy running on asymmetries of information as a form of control is being born before our eyes. The new ruling class owns neither land or factories but instead owns the algorithms with which information is gathered and used

Efekt interpelacji

W drugiej dekadzie XXI wieku, w stwierdzeniu, że podmiot jest efektem gier władzy, użycia perswazyjnych form językowych, zabiegów ideologicznych, internalizacji stosunków dominacji etc. nie ma już nic zaskakującego. Jesteśmy dość zblazowani, aby przyjąć taką nowinę z godnością i bez mrugnięcia okiem. Teoria aparatów ideologicznych Louisa Althussera, archeologia wiedzy Michela Foucaulta, a potem rozplenienie się pasożytniczych teorii dyskursu we wszystkich jej odmianach – tej ściśle politycznej w ujęciu rozumu populistycznego Ernesto Laclaua i tej bardziej kognitywistycznej, tj. krytycznej analizy dyskursu, w ujęciu Teuna Adrianusa van Dijka, pozwala nam dziś pojmować podmiot jako zaledwie pozycję lub zbiór pozycji zajętych w sieci dyskursywnej. Mówimy sobie „tak, owszem, jesteśmy zaledwie i tylko miejscem lub zbiorem miejsc w złożonej i wielokrotnie nas przekraczającej sieci relacji znaczeń i relacji sił”. Więcej, bylibyśmy pewnie bardziej zdziwieni, gdyby komuś przyszło do głowy podważyć tę oficjalną doktrynę, której jawną intencją jest zamazanie rozróżnienia na działanie i mówienie, wiedzę o świecie (encyklopedię) oraz wiedzę o języku (leksykon), wreszcie zamazanie dystynkcji, kiedyś świętej, tj. kompetencji i wykonania, oraz – w rezultacie – teorii kompetencji czyli idealnego mówcy/słuchacza oraz teorii wykonania czyli ograniczonego i niejednorodnego językowo, zdeformowanego, spontanicznego, jąkającego się wykonawcy

Problem władzy moralnej. Specyfika wyjaśnienia funkcjonowania gramatyki moralnej w ujęciu Marca D. Hausera

Z pewnością czasy współczesne sprzyjają poszukiwaniu nowych uzasadnień moralnych, a nawet samych projektów etycznych. Równocześnie poczucie, że refleksja filozoficzna nad sferą etyczną znajduje się w sferze kryzysu nie wydaje się być szczególnie ekscentryczne i zawężone do pewnego tylko rodzaju dyskursów, a liczba „nowych etyk

Identification of differentiating metabolic pathways between infant gut microbiome populations reveals depletion of function-level adaptation to human milk in the finnish population

ABSTRACT A variety of autoimmune and allergy events are becoming increasingly common, especially in Western countries. Some pieces of research link such conditions with the composition of microbiota during infancy. In this period, the predominant form of nutrition for gut microbiota is oligosaccharides from human milk (HMO). A number of gut-colonizing strains, such as Bifidobacterium and Bacteroides, are able to utilize HMO, but only some Bifidobacterium strains have evolved to digest the specific composition of human oligosaccharides. Differences in the proportions of the two genera that are able to utilize HMO have already been associated with the frequency of allergies and autoimmune diseases in the Finnish and the Russian populations. Our results show that differences in terms of the taxonomic annotation do not explain the reason for the differences in the Bifidobacterium/Bacteroides ratio between the Finnish and the Russian populations. In this paper, we present the results of function-level analysis. Unlike the typical workflow for gene abundance analysis, BiomeScout technology explains the differences in the Bifidobacterium/Bacteroides ratio. Our research shows the differences in the abundances of the two enzymes that are crucial for the utilization of short type 1 oligosaccharides. IMPORTANCE Knowing the limitations of taxonomy-based research, there is an emerging need for the development of higher-resolution techniques. The significance of this research is demonstrated by the novel method used for the analysis of function-level metagenomes. BiomeScout—the presented technology—utilizes proprietary algorithms for the detection of differences between functionalities present in metagenomic samples

Novel bioresorbable tricalcium phosphate/polyhydroxyoctanoate (TCP/PHO) composites as scaffolds for bone tissue engineering applications

Development of new composite materials for bone tissue engineering is a constantly growing field of medicine. Therefore there is a continuous need in creating novel materials that can not only regenerate the defected tissue but also nourish it while the healing process progresses. Here we present a novel type of composite material that fulfils these requirements. The study describes creation of a composite with macroporous bioceramic core that is infiltrated with a thin biopolymer layer. The ceramic component, namely tricalcium phosphate (TCP), due to its mechanistic and bioactive properties may promote new bone creation as shown through the in vitro studies. To the best of our knowledge the coating layer was created for the first time from a representative of bacterially derived medium chain length polyhydroxyalkanoate polymers (mcl-PHA), namely polyhydroxyoctanoate (PHO). This polymer layer not only profoundly changed the stress-strain characteristics of the bioceramic foam but also released (R)-3-hydroxyacids and their dimers/trimers to the investigated environment. In the manuscript we have in depth characterised these materials employing a set of basic procedures, through 3D structure reconstruction and finishing with prolonged in vitro experiments