In Lithuania, the real estate market has been growing fast in recent years. Such a speedy rise in the country‘s real estate market is being affected by several main factors: residents see the broad lending possibilities; the improving economic situation gives people greater hopes and expectations; the indices of available housing in Lithuania still lag behind the EU almost twice; once the demand well exceeds the supply, good conditions open to the construction companies and real estate agencies to sell their production; the expanding real estate market attracts investments from people who have free money; growing inflation in the country; etc. Due to the market expansion and higher competition, integration of information technologies to the real estate sector is more necessary today than ever before. The application of information technologies and telecommunications in the real estate sector ensures faster exchange of information among all interest groups, and allows more effective responding to market changes. Today we find internet as the field of applying information technologies and telecommunications in the real estate business. With the help of internet in any activity, the possibilities are provided to overcome time and space. By using internet, we can freely get a sufficiently big amount of exhaustive information about real estate. However, today‘s possibilities provided by internet are not limited to this. Frequently, different websites on real estate give us a... [to full text] / Pastaraisiais metais Lietuvoje nekilnojamojo turto rinka sparčiai auga. Toks spartus šalies nekilnojamojo turto rinkos augimas yra įtakojamas keleto pagrindinių veiksnių: gyventojams atsivėrė plačios skolinimosi galimybės, gerėjanti ekonominė situacija suteikia žmonėms didesnių vilčių ir lūkesčių, pagal apsirūpinimą būstu Lietuva vis dar atsilieka nuo Europos Sąjungos rodiklių beveik dvigubai, paklausai gerokai viršijant pasiūlą atsiveria geros sąlygos statybininkams bei jų produkciją pardavinėjančioms nekilnojamojo turto agentūroms, besiplečianti nekilnojamojo turto rinka traukte traukia investuoti žmones, turinčius laisvų pinigų, auganti infliacija šalyje ir kt. Dėl rinkos plėtros ir išaugusios konkurencijos, informacinių technologijų integracija į nekilnojamojo turto sektorių šiandiena yra reikalinga labiau nei bet kada anksčiau. Informacinių technologijų ir telekomunikacijų panaudojimas nekilnojamojo turto sektoriuje užtikrina spartesnį informacijos apsikeitimą tarp visų suinteresuotų grupių ir leidžia efektyviau reaguoti į rinkos pokyčius.

The growing development and use of pervasive systems, equipped with increasingly sophisticated functionalities and communication means, offer fantastic potentialities of services, particularly in the eHealth and Telemedicine domains, for the benifit of each citizen, patient or healthcare professional. One of the current societal challenges is to enable a better exploitation of the available services for all actors involved in a given domain. Nevertheless, the multiplicity of the offered services, the systems functional variety, and the heterogeneity of the needs require the development of knowledge models of these services, systems functions, and needs. In addition, the distributed computing environments heterogeneity, the availability and potential capabilities of various human and material resources (devices, services, data sources, etc.) required by the different tasks and processes, the variety of services providing users with data, the interoperability conflicts between schemas and data sources are all issues that we have to consider in our research works. Our contribution aims to empower the intelligent exploitation of ubiquitous resources and to optimize the quality of service in ambient environment. For this, we propose a knowledge meta-model of the main concepts of a pervasive environment, such as Actor, Task, Resource, Object, Service, Location, Organization, etc. This knowledge meta-model is based on ontologies describing the different aforementioned entities from a given domain and their interrelationships. We have then formalized it by using a standard language for knowledge description. After that, we have designed an architectural framework called ONOF-PAS (ONtology Oriented Framework for Pervasive Applications and Services) mainly based on ontological models, a set of rules, an inference engine, and object oriented components for tasks management and resources processing. Being generic, extensible, and applicable in different domains, ONOF-PAS has the ability to perform rule-based reasoning to handle various contexts of use and enable decision making in dynamic and heterogeneous environments while taking into account the availability and capabilities of the human and material resources required by the multiples tasks and processes executed by pervasive systems. Finally, we have instantiated ONOF-PAS in the telemedicine domain to handle the scenario of the transfer of persons victim of health problems during their presence in hostile environments such as high mountains resorts or geographically isolated areas. A prototype implementing this scenario, called T-TROIE (Telemedicine Tasks and Resources Ontologies for Inimical Environments), has been developed to validate our approach and the proposed ONOF-PAS framework.

Pastaraisiais metais Lietuvoje nekilnojamojo turto rinka sparčiai auga. Toks spartus šalies nekilnojamojo turto rinkos augimas yra įtakojamas keleto pagrindinių veiksnių: gyventojams atsivėrė plačios skolinimosi galimybės, gerėjanti ekonominė situacija suteikia žmonėms didesnių vilčių ir lūkesčių, pagal apsirūpinimą būstu Lietuva vis dar atsilieka nuo Europos Sąjungos rodiklių beveik dvigubai, paklausai gerokai viršijant pasiūlą atsiveria geros sąlygos statybininkams bei jų produkciją pardavinėjančioms nekilnojamojo turto agentūroms, besiplečianti nekilnojamojo turto rinka traukte traukia investuoti žmones, turinčius laisvų pinigų, auganti infliacija šalyje ir kt. Dėl rinkos plėtros ir išaugusios konkurencijos, informacinių technologijų integracija į nekilnojamojo turto sektorių šiandiena yra reikalinga labiau nei bet kada anksčiau. Informacinių technologijų ir telekomunikacijų panaudojimas nekilnojamojo turto sektoriuje užtikrina spartesnį informacijos apsikeitimą tarp visų suinteresuotų grupių ir leidžia efektyviau reaguoti į rinkos pokyčius. Informacinės technologijos ir telekomunikacijos, kaip priemonė leidžianti pasinaudoti elektroninės terpės privalumais, tapo vienu iš svarbiausių veiksnių nekilnojamojo turto verslui. / In Lithuania, the real estate market has been growing fast in recent years. Such a speedy rise in the country‘s real estate market is being affected by several main factors: residents see the broad lending possibilities; the improving economic situation gives people greater hopes and expectations; the indices of available housing in Lithuania still lag behind the EU almost twice; once the demand well exceeds the supply, good conditions open to the construction companies and real estate agencies to sell their production; the expanding real estate market attracts investments from people who have free money; growing inflation in the country; etc. Due to the market expansion and higher competition, integration of information technologies to the real estate sector is more necessary today than ever before. The application of information technologies and telecommunications in the real estate sector ensures faster exchange of information among all interest groups, and allows more effective responding to market changes. Today we find internet as the field of applying information technologies and telecommunications in the real estate business. With the help of internet in any activity, the possibilities are provided to overcome time and space. By using internet, we can freely get a sufficiently big amount of exhaustive information about real estate. However, today‘s possibilities provided by internet are not limited to this. Frequently, different websites on real estate give us a... [to full text]

A literature review of municipal solid waste landfill design was conducted to provide the knowledge base for development of an environmental decision support system (Landfill Advisor). Landfill Advisor integrates the current knowledge of barrier systems into a software program to assist in landfill design. The choices available for each liner component (e.g., drainage layer, geomembrane liner, compacted clay liner, geosynthetic clay liner) and their suitability for different situations (e.g., final cover, base liner, lagoon liner) are presented. Landfill Advisor covers both the design and related operational issues for municipal solid waste landfills, with consideration given to the interactions between components, operating conditions, and the natural environment with a view to maximization of long-term system performance. Unique to Landfill Advisor, the service life of each engineered component is estimated based on results from the latest research. Original research is also presented on the risk of geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) desiccation in low stress applications such as solar ponds. Numerical modelling was undertaken using a thermo-hydro-mechanical model with parameters that were developed and verified by comparison to previously reported laboratory data. A parametric study was performed to establish recommendations for future investigation. The water retention curve of the GCL was found to have a significant effect on the conditions that are expected to cause desiccation. The temperature coefficient of the water retention curve was also found to have a significant effect, yet this parameter is not well defined. Poisson’s ratio was found to affect the risk of desiccation in proportion to the applied stress. As reported by previous researchers, the initial degree of saturation of a GCL was found to be important to desiccation; however, the effect is diminished at low applied stress. / Thesis (Master, Civil Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2012-09-28 18:52:20.106

Referrals to the Halifax Infirmary Neurosurgery Department are submitted with regards to spinal conditions with different degrees of complications. Although there exists a Spinal Condition Consultation Protocol to standardize spinal referrals, the information provided from referring physicians is frequently inadequate to accurately triage the patient's condition, partly due to missing diagnostic therapies. The Neurosurgery Department receives a high volume of referrals each year, which imposes a significant administrative workload on the staff. We propose to develop a protocol-driven decision support system to: 1) Provide primary care physicians with timely access to condition specific consultation treatment protocols; and 2) Automate the referral assessment process to eliminate processing delays and administration burden. To this aim, we transformed the Consultation Protocol into a semantic knowledgebase. The decision support services are integrated within a standardized electronic referral system. We believe this system can significantly improve the referral process at the Neurosurgery Division.

Poor cost performance of construction projects has been a major concern for both contractors and clients. The effective management of risk is thus critical to the success of any construction project and the importance of risk management has grown as projects have become more complex and competition has increased. Contractors have traditionally used financial mark-ups to cover the risk associated with construction projects but as competition increases and margins have become tighter they can no longer rely on this strategy and must improve their ability to manage risk. Furthermore, the construction industry has witnessed significant changes particularly in procurement methods with clients allocating greater risks to contractors. Evidence shows that there is a gap between existing risk management techniques and tools, mainly built on normative statistical decision theory, and their practical application by construction contractors. The main reason behind the lack of use is that risk decision making within construction organisations is heavily based upon experience, intuition and judgement and not on mathematical models. This thesis presents a model for managing global risk factors affecting construction cost performance of construction projects. The model has been developed using behavioural decision approach, fuzzy logic technology, and Artificial Intelligence technology. The methodology adopted to conduct the research involved a thorough literature survey on risk management, informal and formal discussions with construction practitioners to assess the extent of the problem, a questionnaire survey to evaluate the importance of global risk factors and, finally, repertory grid interviews aimed at eliciting relevant knowledge. There are several approaches to categorising risks permeating construction projects. This research groups risks into three main categories, namely organisation-specific, global and Acts of God. It focuses on global risk factors because they are ill-defined, less understood by contractors and difficult to model, assess and manage although they have huge impact on cost performance. Generally, contractors, especially in developing countries, have insufficient experience and knowledge to manage them effectively. The research identified the following groups of global risk factors as having significant impact on cost performance: estimator related, project related, fraudulent practices related, competition related, construction related, economy related and political related factors. The model was tested for validity through a panel of validators (experts) and crosssectional cases studies, and the general conclusion was that it could provide valuable assistance in the management of global risk factors since it is effective, efficient, flexible and user-friendly. The findings stress the need to depart from traditional approaches and to explore new directions in order to equip contractors with effective risk management tools.

Building a new infrastructure facility requires a significant amount of time and expense. This is particularly true for investments in transportation for their longstanding and great degree of impact on society. The scope of time and money involved does not mean, however, we only focus on the economies of scale and may ignore other aspects of the built environment. To this extent, how can we achieve a more balanced perspective in infrastructure decision-making? In addition, what aspects should be considered when making more sustainable decisions about transportation investments? These two questions are the foundations of this study. This dissertation shares its process in part with a previous research project – Texas Urban Triangle (TUT). Although the TUT research generated diverse variables and created possible implementations of spatial decision support system (SDSS), the methodology still demands improvement. The current method has been developed to create suitable routes but is not designed to rank or make comparisons. This is admittedly one of the biggest shortfalls in the general SDSS approach, but is also where I see as an opportunity to make alternative interpretation more comprehensive and effective. The main purpose of this dissertation is to develop a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) that will lead to more balanced decision-making in transportation investment and optimize the most sustainable high-speed rail (HSR) route. The decision support system developed here explicitly elaborates the advantages and disadvantages of a transportation corridor in three particular perspectives: construction (fixed costs); operation (maintenance costs); and externalities (social and environmental costs), with a specific focus on environmental externalities. Considering more environmental features in rail routing will offset short-term economic losses and creates more sustainable environments in long-term infrastructure planning.

In this thesis, the Job Shop Scheduling Problem (JSSP) is the problem of interest. The classical JSSP is well-known as an NP-hard problem. Although with current computational capabilities, the small problems are solvable using deterministic methods, it is out of reach when they are larger in size. The complexity of JSSP is further increased when process interruptions, such as machine breakdown and/or machine unavailability, are introduced. Over the last few decades, several stochastic algorithms have been proposed to solve JSSPs. However, none of them are suitable for all kinds of problems. Genetic and Memetic algorithms have proved their effectiveness in these regards, because of their diverse searching behavior. In this thesis, we have developed one genetic algorithm and three different Memetic Algorithms (MAs) for solving JSSPs. Three priority rules are designed, namely partial re-ordering, gap reduction and restricted swapping, and these have been used as local search techniques in designing our MAs. We have solved 40 well-known benchmark problems and compared the results obtained with some of the established algorithms available in the literature. Our algorithm clearly outperforms those established algorithms. For better justification of the superiority of MAs over GA, we have performed statistical significance testing (Student's t-test). The experimental results show that MA, as compared to GA, not only significantly improves the quality of solutions, but also reduces the overall computation. We have extended our work by proposing an improved local search technique, shifted gap-reduction (SGR), which improves the performance of MAs when tested with the relatively difficult test problems. We have also modified the new algorithm to accommodate JSSPs with machine unavailability and also developed a new reactive scheduling technique to re-optimize the schedule after machine breakdowns. We have considered two scenarios of machine unavailability. Firstly, where the unavailability information is available in advance (predictive), and secondly, where the information is known after a real breakdown (reactive). We show that the revised schedule is mostly able to recover if the interruptions occur during the early stages of the schedules. We also confirm that the effect of a single continuous breakdown has more impact compared to short multiple breakdowns, even if the total durations of the breakdowns are the same. Finally, for convenience of implementation, we have developed a decision support system (DSS). In the DSS, we have built a graphical user interface (GUI) for user friendly data inputs, model choices, and output generation. This DSS tool will help users in solving JSSPs without understanding the complexity of the problem and solution approaches, as well as will contribute in reducing the computational and operational costs.

Os benefícios obtidos com a disponibilidade de radiação solar dentro ou ao redor dos edifícios são fundamentais no planejamento urbano e provocam significativo impacto sobre o uso do solo, densidade de construção, valorização do solo urbano, conforto térmico e economia de energia. CityZoom é um ambiente computacional de apoio à decisão em projetos de arquitetura e urbanismo onde modelos de desempenho podem ser utilizados de forma integrada e associados automaticamente a Normativas Urbanísticas. Este trabalho utiliza técnicas de computação gráfica pare aferir o acesso de edifícios à luz solar a partir de um modelo de simulação de potencial construtivo de lotes urbanos já existente no ambiente CityZoom. O modelo, denominado BlockMagic, foi estendido com uma técnica de cálculo de envelope solar, recurso que permite simular se a geometria dos edifícios interferirá, positiva ou negativamente, na vizinhança imediata. Ulteriormente, foram desenvolvidas ferramentas para visualização 2D e 3D dos resultados das simulações. / The benefits obtained from the available solar radiation in and around buildings are essential to urban planning. The inclusion of such features in the planning process has an expressive impact over land use, building density, land value, thermal comfort and energy saving. CityZoom is a computational decision support system for architecture and urbanism. The software provides an environment where performance models can be used in an integrated way, and automatically associated to Building Regulations. This work uses computer graphics techniques to assess the building access the sunlight availability to simulated buildings in the CityZoom environment. The performance model used to simulate the Building Regulations, BlockMagic, was extended to use a solar envelope calculation technique, allowing it to measure the effect of a simulated buildings on its immediate neighboring buildings. Tools for 2D and 3D visualization of the simulation results were also developed.

O comércio varejista enfrenta grande dificuldade na definição do mix de produtos. Redução contínua das margens; aumento constante da concorrência; ciclo de vida dos produtos cada vez menor; alto custo financeiro; legislação fiscal complexa e carga tributária elevada são alguns dos fatores que tornam a função do responsável pela definição do mix complexa, difícil e de grande responsabilidade. Visando a reduzir essa dificuldade, o estudo propõe o desenvolvimento de um Sistema de Apoio à Decisão (SAD). O sistema desenvolvido trata de maneira sistêmica os impactos no resultado, provocados pelas variáveis que interferem no cálculo da margem gerada pelos produtos. A concepção foi antecedida pela avaliação das variáveis que influenciam o cálculo da margem dos produtos. Para a execução do estudo, foi utilizada a metodologia de análise consolidada pela pesquisa operacional, no desenvolvimento de modelos aplicados à tomada de decisão. A validação do SAD foi realizada, inicialmente, por meio de experimentos de laboratório e, posteriormente, em duas redes de comércio varejista de produtos eletroeletrônicos, sendo possível comprovar a importância e a eficiência do SAD, no apoio ao decisor na avaliação da composição do mix de produtos e, identificação de alternativas (cenários), que representam um maior retorno às empresas. Por meio da pesquisa foi possível concluir que o grande volume de variáveis que envolve o cálculo da margem dos produtos, bem como a complexidade para sua definição é fator que gera muita dificuldade ao responsável pela definição do mix e que a ferramenta desenvolvida demonstrou ser eficiente para reduzir essa dificuldade. Este estudo contribui também para evidenciar quais são as variáveis que devem ser consideradas no cálculo da rentabilidade dos produtos, e a necessidade de uma maior avaliação do efeito que cada uma delas causa na rentabilidade dos produtos. / Difficulty in defining the mix of products in retail; continuous reduction of the margins, constant increase in the competition, products' cycle life smaller and smaller, high financial cost; complex fiscal legislation and high tax burden are among the factors that make function of responsible for defining the mix complex, difficult and great responsibility. The study proposes the development of a Decision Support System (DSS), taking aim to reduce this problem. The developed system deals with a systemic manner the impacts on the outcome, caused by variables that affect the calculation of the margin generated by the products. The concept was preceded by an evaluation of the variables that influence the calculation of the margin generated by the products. The consolidated analysis methodology by the operational research was used in the applied models development for decision making, to the execution of the study. The DSS validation was accomplished, officially, through laboratory experiments and, afterwards, in two networks electronic products retail. Therefore, it is possible to prove the DSS' efficiency and importance as support to the composition evaluation from the mix of products and alternative identification (sceneries) that represent profit to the businesses. Through research it was possible to conclude that the large amount of variables that involves the calculation of the margin generated by the products, as well as the complexity for its definition, it is factor that causes great difficulty to the responsible for its mix. The strategy developed proved to be efficient in reducing this difficulty. It followed that the developed system is efficient to reduce this problem. This study also contributes to evidence what are the variables that must be considered in calculating the profitability of products, and the need of evaluating the effect that they cause in this profitability.