Integrating Visualization into the Modeling of Business Simulations

This article demonstrates the advantages of using visualization as part of the modeling process. Several examples are given to show how visualization can help developers to more completely understand the range of behaviors for their algorithms. Specifically, the Cobb Douglas function and Gold Pray demand system are examined using a tool that combines mathematical modeling with visualization capabilities

A comparison of calculated and measured background noise rates in hard X-ray telescopes at balloon altitude

An actively shielded hard X-ray astronomical telescope has been flown on stratospheric balloons. An attempt is made to compare the measured spectral distribution of the background noise counting rates over the energy loss range 20-300 keV with the contributions estimated from a series of Monte Carlo and other computations. The relative contributions of individual particle interactions are assessed

The Circulation of Ideas in Firms and Markets

Novel early stage ideas face uncertainty on the expertise needed to elaborate them, which creates a need to circulate them widely to find a match. Yet as information is not excludable, shared ideas may be stolen, reducing incentives to innovate. Still, in idea-rich environments inventors may share them without contractual protection. Idea density is enhanced by firms ensuring rewards to inventors, while their legal boundaries limit idea leakage. As firms limit idea circulation, the innovative environment involves a symbiotic interaction: firms incubate ideas and allow employees leave if they cannot find an internal fit; markets allow for wide ideas circulation of ideas until matched and completed; under certain circumstances ideas may be even developed in both firms and markets.

PSI-based methodology to land subsidence mechanism recognition

Abstract. A methodology based on Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) is proposed in order to disentangle the contribution of different processes that act at different spatio-temporal scales in land subsidence (i.e. vadose zone processes as swelling/shrinkage of clay soils, soil consolidation and fluid extraction). The methodology was applied in different Italian geological contexts characterized by natural and anthropic processes (i.e. a Prealpine valley and the Po Plain in northern Italy)

Assessing the impact of smart lighting systems and on-site renewable generation in a distribution warehouse: a simulation-based approach

In the arena of logistics management, green warehousing has been achieving increasing attention from both practitioners and academia. On the one hand, practitioners – e.g., Logistics Service Providers (LSPs), manufacturers, and retailers – have been looking for solutions to decrease the environmental impact of their logistics facilities and incorporate measures towards greener warehousing processes. However, on the academic side, although a rising number of papers have been found addressing logistics sustainability, a need has emerged to focus on warehouses by analyzing the impact of the energy efficiency measures in place, and the related effects on warehouse consumption and environmental performance. This contribution aims at addressing this research gap. The paper proposes a simulation model based on DesignBuilder and EnergyPlus software and examines the impact of both interventions on the lighting systems and the introduction of on-site renewable generation in a distribution warehouse. Three different scenarios are proposed, and the related performance are examined in terms of consumption figures and CO2eq emissions. A discussion on the roadmap towards net-zero logistics facilities is offered, and streams for future investigation are highlighted

Explainability Methods for Natural Language Processing: Applications to Sentiment Analysis

Sentiment analysis is the process of classifying natural lan-guage sentences as expressing positive or negative sentiments, and it is a crucial task where the explanation of a prediction might arguably be as necessary as the prediction itself. We analysed di fierent explanation techniques, and we applied them to the classification task of Sentiment Analysis. We explored how attention-based techniques can be exploited to extract meaningful sentiment scores with a lower computational cost than existing XAI methods

a decoupled numerical procedure for modelling soil interaction in the computation of the dynamic response of a rail track

Abstract The problem of vibration transmitted by train traffic to the soil in the case of railway lines in urban areas is gaining increasing attention in environmental impact analysis. An efficient method to consider both the train-track interaction in detail and the vibration transmitted to the soil nearby with an affordable computational cost is desirable. The paper proposes a numerical procedure based on a substructuring approach, in which the system is divided into three main subdomains: the train running on the track, the rail subjected to the loads coming from the train and the reactions from the sleepers and the "ground" sub-system, composed by the sleepers, the ballast with its subgrade and the actual ground. The overall procedure is divided into subsequent steps: first, the finite element modelling of the sleeper-ballast-subgrade combined system, characterized within the linear elastic field by means of frequency response functions at rail-sleeper interfaces. In a second step, moving loads transmitted to the track are computed by numerical time domain integration of the equations of motion of the train running on a model of the track only, in which the subgrade is modelled as a series of spring-damper elements, whose parameters are tuned according to the results of the FE model used in the first step and therefore consistent with it. Non-linear behavior of the rail-wheel interaction can be accounted for by the time-domain procedure. The track dynamics is finally computed via direct frequency domain analysis; the track is again modelled by Finite Elements, loaded by the forces transmitted by the train wheels and by the supporting sleepers. Finally, the vibrations propagated through the soil to a general receiver point are evaluated. The procedure can exploit favorable properties of frequency domain analysis in treating moving loads; in addition, frequency dependent properties of materials can be introduced