Recovery and Analysis of Transaction Scope from Scattered Information in Java Enterprise Applications

Java Enterprise Applications (JEAs) are large systems that integrate multiple technologies and programming languages. Transactions in JEAs simplify the development of code that deals with failure recovery and multi-user coordination by guaranteeing atomicity of sets of operations. The heterogeneous nature of JEAs, however, can obfuscate conceptual errors in the application code, and in particular can hide incorrect declarations of transaction scope. In this paper we present a technique to expose and analyze the application transaction scope in JEAs by merging and analyzing information from multiple sources. We also present several novel visualizations that aid in the analysis of transaction scope by highlighting anomalies in the specification of transactions and violations of architectural constraints. We have validated our approach on two versions of a large commercial case study.

A Comparative Study of Two Semantic Systems: Body Russian and Russian Phraseology

Grigorij Kreidlin (Russia). A Comparative Study of Two Semantic Systems: Body Russian and Russian Phraseology. Mr. Kreidlin teaches in the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics of the State University of Humanities in Moscow and worked on this project from August 1996 to July 1998. The classical approach to non-verbal and verbal oral communication is based on a traditional separation of body and mind. Linguists studied words and phrasemes, the products of mind activities, while gestures, facial expressions, postures and other forms of body language were left to anthropologists, psychologists, physiologists, and indeed to anyone but linguists. Only recently have linguists begun to turn their attention to gestures and semiotic and cognitive paradigms are now appearing that raise the question of designing an integral model for the unified description of non-verbal and verbal communicative behaviour. This project attempted to elaborate lexical and semantic fragments of such a model, producing a co-ordinated semantic description of the main Russian gestures (including gestures proper, postures and facial expressions) and their natural language analogues. The concept of emblematic gestures and gestural phrasemes and of their semantic links permitted an appropriate description of the transformation of a body as a purely physical substance into a body as a carrier of essential attributes of Russian culture - the semiotic process called the culturalisation of the human body. Here the human body embodies a system of cultural values and displays them in a text within the area of phraseology and some other important language domains. The goal of this research was to develop a theory that would account for the fundamental peculiarities of the process. The model proposed is based on the unified lexicographic representation of verbal and non-verbal units in the Dictionary of Russian Gestures, which the Mr. Kreidlin had earlier complied in collaboration with a group of his students. The Dictionary was originally oriented only towards reflecting how the lexical competence of Russian body language is represented in the Russian mind. Now a special type of phraseological zone has been designed to reflect explicitly semantic relationships between the gestures in the entries and phrasemes and to provide the necessary information for a detailed description of these. All the definitions, rules of usage and the established correlations are written in a semantic meta-language. Several classes of Russian gestural phrasemes were identified, including those phrasemes and idioms with semantic definitions close to those of the corresponding gestures, those phraseological units that have lost touch with the related gestures (although etymologically they are derived from gestures that have gone out of use), and phrasemes and idioms which have semantic traces or reflexes inherited from the meaning of the related gestures. The basic assumptions and practical considerations underlying the work were as follows. (1) To compare meanings one has to be able to state them. To state the meaning of a gesture or a phraseological expression, one needs a formal semantic meta-language of propositional character that represents the cognitive and mental aspects of the codes. (2) The semantic contrastive analysis of any semiotic codes used in person-to-person communication also requires a single semantic meta-language, i.e. a formal semantic language of description,. This language must be as linguistically and culturally independent as possible and yet must be open to interpretation through any culture and code. Another possible method of conducting comparative verbal-non-verbal semantic research is to work with different semantic meta-languages and semantic nets and to learn how to combine them, translate from one to another, etc. in order to reach a common basis for the subsequent comparison of units. (3) The practical work in defining phraseological units and organising the phraseological zone in the Dictionary of Russian Gestures unexpectedly showed that semantic links between gestures and gestural phrasemes are reflected not only in common semantic elements and syntactic structure of semantic propositions, but also in general and partial cognitive operations that are made over semantic definitions. (4) In comparative semantic analysis one should take into account different values and roles of inner form and image components in the semantic representation of non-verbal and verbal units. (5) For the most part, gestural phrasemes are direct semantic derivatives of gestures. The cognitive and formal techniques can be regarded as typological features for the future functional-semantic classification of gestural phrasemes: two phrasemes whose meaning can be obtained by the same cognitive or purely syntactic operations (or types of operations) over the meanings of the corresponding gestures, belong by definition to one and the same class. The nature of many cognitive operations has not been studied well so far, but the first steps towards its comprehension and description have been taken. The research identified 25 logically possible classes of relationships between a gesture and a gestural phraseme. The calculation is based on theoretically possible formal (set-theory) correlations between signifiers and signified of the non-verbal and verbal units. However, in order to examine which of them are realised in practice a complete semantic and lexicographic description of all (not only central) everyday emblems and gestural phrasemes is required and this unfortunately does not yet exist. Mr. Kreidlin suggests that the results of the comparative analysis of verbal and non-verbal units could also be used in other research areas such as the lexicography of emotions.

A hybrid method for large-scale short-term scheduling of make-and-pack production processes

Due to the ongoing trend towards increased product variety, fast-moving consumer goods such as food and beverages, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals are typically manufactured through so-called make-and-pack processes. These processes consist of a make stage, a pack stage, and intermediate storage facilities that decouple these two stages. In operations scheduling, complex technological constraints must be considered, e.g., non-identical parallel processing units, sequence-dependent changeovers, batch splitting, no-wait restrictions, material transfer times, minimum storage times, and finite storage capacity. The short-term scheduling problem is to compute a production schedule such that a given demand for products is fulfilled, all technological constraints are met, and the production makespan is minimised. A production schedule typically comprises 500–1500 operations. Due to the problem size and complexity of the technological constraints, the performance of known mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) formulations and heuristic approaches is often insufficient. We present a hybrid method consisting of three phases. First, the set of operations is divided into several subsets. Second, these subsets are iteratively scheduled using a generic and flexible MILP formulation. Third, a novel critical path-based improvement procedure is applied to the resulting schedule. We develop several strategies for the integration of the MILP model into this heuristic framework. Using these strategies, high-quality feasible solutions to large-scale instances can be obtained within reasonable CPU times using standard optimisation software. We have applied the proposed hybrid method to a set of industrial problem instances and found that the method outperforms state-of-the-art methods.

Granular computing as a tool of human data interaction - a cognitive cities use case

The article proposes granular computing as a theoretical, formal and methodological basis for the newly emerging research field of human–data interaction (HDI). We argue that the ability to represent and reason with information granules is a prerequisite for data legibility. As such, it allows for extending the research agenda of HDI to encompass the topic of collective intelligence amplification, which is seen as an opportunity of today’s increasingly pervasive computing environments. As an example of collective intelligence amplification in HDI, we introduce a collaborative urban planning use case in a cognitive city environment and show how an iterative process of user input and human-oriented automated data processing can support collective decision making. As a basis for automated human-oriented data processing, we use the spatial granular calculus of granular geometry.

A Mathematical Model for Simplifying Representations of Objects in a Geographic Information System

The study of operations on representations of objects is well documented in the realm of spatial engineering. However, the mathematical structure and formal proof of these operational phenomena are not thoroughly explored. Other works have often focused on query-based models that seek to order classes and instances of objects in the form of semantic hierarchies or graphs. In some models, nodes of graphs represent objects and are connected by edges that represent different types of coarsening operators. This work, however, studies how the coarsening operator "simplification" can manipulate partitions of finite sets, independent from objects and their attributes. Partitions that are "simplified first have a collection of elements filtered (removed), and then the remaining partition is amalgamated (some sub-collections are unified). Simplification has many interesting mathematical properties. A finite composition of simplifications can also be accomplished with some single simplification. Also, if one partition is a simplification of the other, the simplified partition is defined to be less than the other partition according to the simp relation. This relation is shown to be a partial-order relation based on simplification. Collections of partitions can not only be proven to have a partial- order structure, but also have a lattice structure and are complete. In regard to a geographic information system (GIs), partitions related to subsets of attribute domains for objects are called views. Objects belong to different views based whether or not their attribute values lie in the underlying view domain. Given a particular view, objects with their attribute n-tuple codings contained in the view are part of the actualization set on views, and objects are labeled according to the particular subset of the view in which their coding lies. Though the scope of the work does not mainly focus on queries related directly to geographic objects, it provides verification for the existence of particular views in a system with this underlying structure. Given a finite attribute domain, one can say with mathematical certainty that different views of objects are partially ordered by simplification, and every collection of views has a greatest lower bound and least upper bound, which provides the validity for exploring queries in this regard.

Methodology for the design of offshore wind farms

Although still in an early stage, offshore wind development is now characterized by a boom process. This leads to the necessity of applying an integral management model for the design of offshore wind facilities, being the purpose of the model to achieve technical, economical and environmental viability, all within a sustainable development framework. The foregoing led to the research project exposed in this paper, consisting of drawing up an offshore wind farms methodological proposal; this methodology has a global and/or general nature or point of view whilst searching for optimization of the overall process of operations leading to the design of this type of installations and establishing collated theoretical bases for the further development of management tools. This methodological proposal follows a classical engineering thought scheme: it begins with the alternatives study, and ends with the detailed design. With this in mind, the paper includes the following sections: introduction, methodology used for the research project, conditioning factors, methodological proposal for the design of offshore wind farms, checking the methodological proposal, and conclusions

Application of Decision Theory methods for a Community of Madrid Soil classification case

A land classification method was designed for the Community of Madrid (CM), which has lands suitable for either agriculture use or natural spaces. The process started from an extensive previous CM study that contains sets of land attributes with data for 122 types and a minimum-requirements method providing a land quality classification (SQ) for each land. Borrowing some tools from Operations Research (OR) and from Decision Science, that SQ has been complemented by an additive valuation method that involves a more restricted set of 13 representative attributes analysed using Attribute Valuation Functions to obtain a quality index, QI, and by an original composite method that uses a fuzzy set procedure to obtain a combined quality index, CQI, that contains relevant information from both the SQ and the QI methods.

Integration of Timetable Planning and Rolling Stock in Rapid Transit Networks

The aim of this paper is to propose an integrated planning model to adequate the offered capacity and system frequencies to attend the increased passenger demand and traffic congestion around urban and suburban areas. The railway capacity is studied in line planning, however, these planned frequencies were obtained without accounting for rolling stock flows through the rapid transit network. In order to provide the problem more freedom to decide rolling stock flows and therefore better adjusting these flows to passenger demand, a new integrated model is proposed, where frequencies are readjusted. Then, the railway timetable and rolling stock assignment are also calculated, where shunting operations are taken into account. These operations may sometimes malfunction, causing localized incidents that could propagate throughout the entire network due to cascading effects. This type of operations will be penalized with the goal of selectively avoiding them and ameliorating their high malfunction probabilities. Swapping operations will also be ensured using homogeneous rolling stock material and ensuring parkings in strategic stations. We illustrate our model using computational experiments drawn from RENFE (the main Spanish operator of suburban passenger trains) in Madrid, Spain. The results show that through this integrated approach a greater robustness degree can be obtained

Geometric Study of the Weak Equilibrium in a Weighted Case for a Two-Dimensional Competition Game

In this work, an improvement of the results presented by [1] Abellanas et al. (Weak Equilibrium in a Spatial Model. International Journal of Game Theory, 40(3), 449-459) is discussed. Concretely, this paper investigates an abstract game of competition between two players that want to earn the maximum number of points from a finite set of points in the plane. It is assumed that the distribution of these points is not uniform, so an appropriate weight to each position is assigned. A definition of equilibrium which is weaker than the classical one is included in order to avoid the uniqueness of the equilibrium position typical of the Nash equilibrium in these kinds of games. The existence of this approximated equilibrium in the game is analyzed by means of computational geometry techniques.

Discrete Multi-Criteria Methods for lands use and conservation planning on La Colacha in Arroyos Menores (Río Cuarto, Province of Córdoba, Argentina)

The study area is La Colacha sub-basins from Arroyos Menores basins, natural areas at West and South of Río Cuarto in Province of Córdoba of Argentina, fertile with loess soils and monsoon temperate climate, but with soil erosions including regressive gullies that degrade them progressively. Cultivated gently since some hundred sixty years, coordinated action planning became necessary to conserve lands while keeping good agro-production. The authors had improved data on soils and on hydrology for the study area, evaluated systems of soil uses and actions to be recommended and applied Decision Support Systems (DSS) tools for that, and were conducted to use discrete multi-criteria models (MCDM) for the more global views about soil conservation and hydraulic management actions and about main types of use of soils. For that they used weighted PROMETHEE, ELECTRE, and AHP methods with a system of criteria grouped as environmental, economic and social, and criteria from their data on effects of criteria. The alternatives resulting offer indication for planning depending somehow on sub basins and on selections of weights, but actions for conservation of soils and water management measures are recommended to conserve the basins conditions, actually sensibly degrading, mainly keeping actual uses of the lands.

Design and implementation of a modular interface to integrate CLP and tabled execution

Logic programming (LP) is a family of high-level programming languages which provides high expressive power. With LP, the programmer writes the properties of the result and / or executable specifications instead of detailed computation steps. Logic programming systems which feature tabled execution and constraint logic programming have been shown to increase the declarativeness and efficiency of Prolog, while at the same time making it possible to write very expressive programs. Tabled execution avoids infinite failure in some cases, while improving efficiency in programs which repeat computations. CLP reduces the search tree and brings the power of solving (in)equations over arbitrary domains. Similarly to the LP case, CLP systems can also benefit from the power of tabling. Previous implementations which take ful advantage of the ideas behind tabling (e.g., forcing suspension, answer subsumption, etc. wherever it is necessary to avoid recomputation and terminate whenever possible) did not offer a simple, well-documented, easy-to-understand interface. This would be necessary to make the integratation of arbitrary CLP solvers into existing tabling systems possible. This clearly hinders a more widespread usage of the combination of both facilities. In this thesis we examine the requirements that a constraint solver must fulfill in order to be interfaced with a tabling system. We propose and implement a framework, which we have called Mod TCLP, with a minimal set of operations (e.g., entailment checking and projection) which the constraint solver has to provide to the tabling engine. We validate the design of Mod TCLP by a series of use cases: we re-engineer a previously existing tabled constrain domain (difference constraints) which was connected in an ad-hoc manner with the tabling engine in Ciao Prolog; we integrateHolzbauer’s CLP(Q) implementationwith Ciao Prolog’s tabling engine; and we implement a constraint solver over (finite) lattices. We evaluate its performance with several benchmarks that implement a simple abstract interpreter whose fixpoint is reached by means of tabled execution, and whose domain operations are handled by the constraint over (finite) lattices, where TCLP avoids recomputing subsumed abstractions.---ABSTRACT---La programación lógica con restricciones (CLP) y la tabulación son extensiones de la programación lógica que incrementan la declaratividad y eficiencia de Prolog, al mismo tiempo que hacen posible escribir programasmás expresivos. Las implementaciones anteriores que integran completamente ambas extensiones, incluyendo la suspensión de la ejecución de objetivos siempre que sea necesario, la implementación de inclusión (subsumption) de respuestas, etc., en todos los puntos en los que sea necesario para evitar recomputaciones y garantizar la terminación cuando sea posible, no han proporcionan una interfaz simple, bien documentada y fácil de entender. Esta interfaz es necesaria para permitir integrar resolutores de CLP arbitrarios en el sistema de tabulación. Esto claramente dificulta un uso más generalizado de la integración de ambas extensiones. En esta tesis examinamos los requisitos que un resolutor de restricciones debe cumplir para ser integrado con un sistema de tabulación. Proponemos un esquema (y su implementación), que hemos llamadoMod TCLP, que requiere un reducido conjunto de operaciones (en particular, y entre otras, entailment y proyección de almacenes de restricciones) que el resolutor de restricciones debe ofrecer al sistema de tabulación. Hemos validado el diseño de Mod TCLP con una serie de casos de uso: la refactorización de un sistema de restricciones (difference constraints) previamente conectado de un modo ad-hoc con la tabulación de Ciao Prolog; la integración del sistema de restricciones CLP(Q) de Holzbauer; y la implementación de un resolutor de restricciones sobre retículos finitos. Hemos evaluado su rendimiento con varios programas de prueba, incluyendo la implementación de un intérprete abstracto que alcanza su punto fijo mediante el sistema de tabulación y en el que las operaciones en el dominio son realizadas por el resolutor de restricciones sobre retículos (finitos) donde TCLP evita la recomputación de valores abstractos de las variables ya contenidos en llamadas anteriores.

Evaluation of configurations of supply networks supported by it systems

Los sistemas transaccionales tales como los programas informáticos para la planificación de recursos empresariales (ERP software) se han implementado ampliamente mientras que los sistemas analíticos para la gestión de la cadena de suministro (SCM software) no han tenido el éxito deseado por la industria de tecnología de información (TI). Aunque se documentan beneficios importantes derivados de las implantaciones de SCM software, las empresas industriales son reacias a invertir en este tipo de sistemas. Por una parte esto es debido a la falta de métodos que son capaces de detectar los beneficios por emplear esos sistemas, y por otra parte porque el coste asociado no está identificado, detallado y cuantificado suficientemente. Los esquemas de coordinación basados únicamente en sistemas ERP son alternativas válidas en la práctica industrial siempre que la relación coste-beneficio esta favorable. Por lo tanto, la evaluación de formas organizativas teniendo en cuenta explícitamente el coste debido a procesos administrativos, en particular por ciclos iterativos, es de gran interés para la toma de decisiones en el ámbito de inversiones en TI. Con el fin de cerrar la brecha, el propósito de esta investigación es proporcionar métodos de evaluación que permitan la comparación de diferentes formas de organización y niveles de soporte por sistemas informáticos. La tesis proporciona una amplia introducción, analizando los retos a los que se enfrenta la industria. Concluye con las necesidades de la industria de SCM software: unas herramientas que facilitan la evaluación integral de diferentes propuestas de organización. A continuación, la terminología clave se detalla centrándose en la teoría de la organización, las peculiaridades de inversión en TI y la tipología de software de gestión de la cadena de suministro. La revisión de la literatura clasifica las contribuciones recientes sobre la gestión de la cadena de suministro, tratando ambos conceptos, el diseño de la organización y su soporte por las TI. La clasificación incluye criterios relacionados con la metodología de la investigación y su contenido. Los estudios empíricos en el ámbito de la administración de empresas se centran en tipologías de redes industriales. Nuevos algoritmos de planificación y esquemas de coordinación innovadoras se desarrollan principalmente en el campo de la investigación de operaciones con el fin de proponer nuevas funciones de software. Artículos procedentes del área de la gestión de la producción se centran en el análisis de coste y beneficio de las implantaciones de sistemas. La revisión de la literatura revela que el éxito de las TI para la coordinación de redes industriales depende en gran medida de características de tres dimensiones: la configuración de la red industrial, los esquemas de coordinación y las funcionalidades del software. La literatura disponible está enfocada sobre todo en los beneficios de las implantaciones de SCM software. Sin embargo, la coordinación de la cadena de suministro, basándose en el sistema ERP, sigue siendo la práctica industrial generalizada, pero el coste de coordinación asociado no ha sido abordado por los investigadores. Los fundamentos de diseño organizativo eficiente se explican en detalle en la medida necesaria para la comprensión de la síntesis de las diferentes formas de organización. Se han generado varios esquemas de coordinación variando los siguientes parámetros de diseño: la estructura organizativa, los mecanismos de coordinación y el soporte por TI. Las diferentes propuestas de organización desarrolladas son evaluadas por un método heurístico y otro basado en la simulación por eventos discretos. Para ambos métodos, se tienen en cuenta los principios de la teoría de la organización. La falta de rendimiento empresarial se debe a las dependencias entre actividades que no se gestionan adecuadamente. Dentro del método heurístico, se clasifican las dependencias y se mide su intensidad basándose en factores contextuales. A continuación, se valora la idoneidad de cada elemento de diseño organizativo para cada dependencia específica. Por último, cada forma de organización se evalúa basándose en la contribución de los elementos de diseño tanto al beneficio como al coste. El beneficio de coordinación se refiere a la mejora en el rendimiento logístico - este concepto es el objeto central en la mayoría de modelos de evaluación de la gestión de la cadena de suministro. Por el contrario, el coste de coordinación que se debe incurrir para lograr beneficios no se suele considerar en detalle. Procesos iterativos son costosos si se ejecutan manualmente. Este es el caso cuando SCM software no está implementada y el sistema ERP es el único instrumento de coordinación disponible. El modelo heurístico proporciona un procedimiento simplificado para la clasificación sistemática de las dependencias, la cuantificación de los factores de influencia y la identificación de configuraciones que indican el uso de formas organizativas y de soporte de TI más o menos complejas. La simulación de eventos discretos se aplica en el segundo modelo de evaluación utilizando el paquete de software ‘Plant Simulation’. Con respecto al rendimiento logístico, por un lado se mide el coste de fabricación, de inventario y de transporte y las penalizaciones por pérdida de ventas. Por otro lado, se cuantifica explícitamente el coste de la coordinación teniendo en cuenta los ciclos de coordinación iterativos. El método se aplica a una configuración de cadena de suministro ejemplar considerando diversos parámetros. Los resultados de la simulación confirman que, en la mayoría de los casos, el beneficio aumenta cuando se intensifica la coordinación. Sin embargo, en ciertas situaciones en las que se aplican ciclos de planificación manuales e iterativos el coste de coordinación adicional no siempre conduce a mejor rendimiento logístico. Estos resultados inesperados no se pueden atribuir a ningún parámetro particular. La investigación confirma la gran importancia de nuevas dimensiones hasta ahora ignoradas en la evaluación de propuestas organizativas y herramientas de TI. A través del método heurístico se puede comparar de forma rápida, pero sólo aproximada, la eficiencia de diferentes formas de organización. Por el contrario, el método de simulación es más complejo pero da resultados más detallados, teniendo en cuenta parámetros específicos del contexto del caso concreto y del diseño organizativo. ABSTRACT Transactional systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have been implemented widely while analytical software like Supply Chain Management (SCM) add-ons are adopted less by manufacturing companies. Although significant benefits are reported stemming from SCM software implementations, companies are reluctant to invest in such systems. On the one hand this is due to the lack of methods that are able to detect benefits from the use of SCM software and on the other hand associated costs are not identified, detailed and quantified sufficiently. Coordination schemes based only on ERP systems are valid alternatives in industrial practice because significant investment in IT can be avoided. Therefore, the evaluation of these coordination procedures, in particular the cost due to iterations, is of high managerial interest and corresponding methods are comprehensive tools for strategic IT decision making. The purpose of this research is to provide evaluation methods that allow the comparison of different organizational forms and software support levels. The research begins with a comprehensive introduction dealing with the business environment that industrial networks are facing and concludes highlighting the challenges for the supply chain software industry. Afterwards, the central terminology is addressed, focusing on organization theory, IT investment peculiarities and supply chain management software typology. The literature review classifies recent supply chain management research referring to organizational design and its software support. The classification encompasses criteria related to research methodology and content. Empirical studies from management science focus on network types and organizational fit. Novel planning algorithms and innovative coordination schemes are developed mostly in the field of operations research in order to propose new software features. Operations and production management researchers realize cost-benefit analysis of IT software implementations. The literature review reveals that the success of software solutions for network coordination depends strongly on the fit of three dimensions: network configuration, coordination scheme and software functionality. Reviewed literature is mostly centered on the benefits of SCM software implementations. However, ERP system based supply chain coordination is still widespread industrial practice but the associated coordination cost has not been addressed by researchers. Fundamentals of efficient organizational design are explained in detail as far as required for the understanding of the synthesis of different organizational forms. Several coordination schemes have been shaped through the variation of the following design parameters: organizational structuring, coordination mechanisms and software support. The different organizational proposals are evaluated using a heuristic approach and a simulation-based method. For both cases, the principles of organization theory are respected. A lack of performance is due to dependencies between activities which are not managed properly. Therefore, within the heuristic method, dependencies are classified and their intensity is measured based on contextual factors. Afterwards the suitability of each organizational design element for the management of a specific dependency is determined. Finally, each organizational form is evaluated based on the contribution of the sum of design elements to coordination benefit and to coordination cost. Coordination benefit refers to improvement in logistic performance – this is the core concept of most supply chain evaluation models. Unfortunately, coordination cost which must be incurred to achieve benefits is usually not considered in detail. Iterative processes are costly when manually executed. This is the case when SCM software is not implemented and the ERP system is the only available coordination instrument. The heuristic model provides a simplified procedure for the classification of dependencies, quantification of influence factors and systematic search for adequate organizational forms and IT support. Discrete event simulation is applied in the second evaluation model using the software package ‘Plant Simulation’. On the one hand logistic performance is measured by manufacturing, inventory and transportation cost and penalties for lost sales. On the other hand coordination cost is explicitly considered taking into account iterative coordination cycles. The method is applied to an exemplary supply chain configuration considering various parameter settings. The simulation results confirm that, in most cases, benefit increases when coordination is intensified. However, in some situations when manual, iterative planning cycles are applied, additional coordination cost does not always lead to improved logistic performance. These unexpected results cannot be attributed to any particular parameter. The research confirms the great importance of up to now disregarded dimensions when evaluating SCM concepts and IT tools. The heuristic method provides a quick, but only approximate comparison of coordination efficiency for different organizational forms. In contrast, the more complex simulation method delivers detailed results taking into consideration specific parameter settings of network context and organizational design.

Pre-investigation of water electrolysis for flexible energy storage at large scales: the case of the Spanish power system

This report analyzes the basis of hydrogen and power integration strategies, by using water electrolysis processes as a means of flexible energy storage at large scales. It is a prospective study, where the scope is to describe the characteristics of current power systems (like the generation technologies, load curves and grid constraints), and define future scenarios of hydrogen for balancing the electrical grids, considering the efficiency, economy and easiness of operations. We focus in the "Spanish case", which is a good example for planning the transition from a power system holding large reserve capacities, high penetration of renewable energies and limited interconnections, to a more sustainable energy system being capable to optimize the volumes, the regulation modes, the utilization ratios and the impacts of the installations. Thus, we explore a novel aspect of the "hydrogen economy" which is based in the potentials of existing power systems and the properties of hydrogen as energy carrier, by considering the electricity generation and demand globally and determining the optimal size and operation of the hydrogen production processes along the country; e.g. the cost production of hydrogen becomes viable for a base-load scenario with 58 TWh/year of power surplus at 0.025 V/kWh, and large number electrolyzer plants (50 MW) running in variable mode (1-12 kA/m2)

Diversity for Texts Builds in Language L(MT): Indexes Based in Theory of Information

If one has a distribution of words (SLUNs or CLUNS) in a text written in language L(MT), and is adjusted one of the mathematical expressions of distribution that exists in the mathematical literature, some parameter of the elected expression it can be considered as a measure of the diversity. But because the adjustment is not always perfect as usual measure; it is preferable to select an index that doesn't postulate a regularity of distribution expressible for a simple formula. The problem can be approachable statistically, without having special interest for the organization of the text. It can serve as index any monotonous function that has a minimum value when all their elements belong to the same class, that is to say, all the individuals belong to oneself symbol, and a maximum value when each element belongs to a different class, that is to say, each individual is of a different symbol. It should also gather certain conditions like they are: to be not very sensitive to the extension of the text and being invariant to certain number of operations of selection in the text. These operations can be theoretically random. The expressions that offer more advantages are those coming from the theory of the information of Shannon-Weaver. Based on them, the authors develop a theoretical study for indexes of diversity to be applied in texts built in modeling language L(MT), although anything impedes that they can be applied to texts written in natural languages.

Notebook of Moses Appleton, 1794-1837 (inclusive)

Contains notes taken by Moses Appleton (1773-1849) on anatomy lectures delivered at Harvard by John Warren (1753-1815). Other lecture topics included midwifery and surgery. Also includes a transcript of an examination given by Warren to his students on anatomy and surgery, as well as exams given by Harvard Professor Benjamin Waterhouse (1754-1846) and Harvard Professor Aaron Dexter (1750-1829) on the theory and practice of physic, and chemistry, respectively. There are additionally patient case notes and transcriptions of notes and correspondence from physicians Appleton consulted, and a list of operations Appleton performed between 1796 and 1828, primarily repairing dislocated joints and fractured bones. Also includes obituaries of citizens of Waterville, Maine, from 1807 to 1837.