Public construction projects are frequently presented as occurring in complex social, political and economic settings described as being uncertain. In public administration, this uncertainty is cited as a cause for shifting from the so called "rational-comprehensive" model of policy and decision making toward an "incremental" or "mixed-scanning" approach. None of these models provides a panacea for dealing with the influences of the diverse and dynamic social and political attitudes, ethics and values that are inherent in urban settings. Where such uncertainty becomes unmanageable scientific experts are called upon to translate the problem into technical or economic language that lends itself to consideration by traditional management science analysis. This thesis describes one such translation of an urban transportation development project in the context of the political and philosophical exigencies which required its undertaking. A computer simulation approach to modelling the operation of a two-story underground parking structure, named the Capitol Mall Parking Structure, is described as well as the model's results and sensitivity in coping with various uncertainties posed by the project's decision makers. / Graduation date: 1992

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1984.

A prototype computer software was created to predict airport hourly capacities and delays~ taxiway hourly capacity, gate group hourly capacity, overall airport hourly capacity, and annual service volumes. The possibility to replace the existing Federal Aviation Administration Advisory Circular 15015060-5 in the future was also explored. The development of the computer software, ICAD--Integrated Airport Capacity and Delay Model was based primarily upon HyperCard as well as other supporting statistical and drafting computer software such as CA Cricket Graph III, Minitab 7.0, MacPaint and MacDraw II 1.1. A friendly user interfaces and internal computations were the two main concerns for ICAD development. In a. typical application interface, runway use configuration is identified from various diagrams. Input parameter are inserted in the model and outputs are readily obtained in table and graphical form. ICAD scripts have been developed i~ HyperTalk, the language associated with HyperCard. Regression equations were used to convert graphs from the FAA AC 15015060-5 into equations in ICAD. This thesis presents descriptions and validations of the prototype model. Conclusions and recommendations are also included. / Master of Science

The increasing demand on the air transportation system is causing delays due to congestion, leading to monetary losses and passenger inconvenience. Traditionally, research has been conducted to improve the airside component of the airport. This led to improvements in the airside component in tum leading to increased demand. The landside was not considered as a serious threat to the capacity of the airport. However, the increased demand and inconsistent improvements to the landside has made this airport component critical at some facilities. Research in recent years has produced many methods to assess landside capacity and to predict the behavior of the system under different demand scenarios. Many of these tools are cumbersome and are not suitable for every day use of planning professionals. This research is aimed at developing a computer based simulation model (ALPS) to estimate or predict the capacity of the landside components under varying scenarios. ALPS is a discrete-event simulation model developed using EXTEND (version 2 © Imagine That inc., 1992) a simulation software based on the 'C' programming language. This model is designed to be able to simulate a given airport in a short time with accurate results. The model runs on a Apple Macintosh computer and needs no special programming for effective use. The model is well suited for every day use of planning professionals. / Master of Science

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-91). / viii, 91 leaves, bound col. ill., col. maps 29 cm

Tez (Doktora) - Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, İşletme Anabilim Dalı, 2007. / Bibliyografya var.

We develop a novel autonomous control synthesis strategy called Phase Space Navigator for the automatic synthesis of nonlinear control systems. The Phase Space Navigator generates global control laws by synthesizing flow shapes of dynamical systems and planning and navigating system trajectories in the phase spaces. Parsing phase spaces into trajectory flow pipes provide a way to efficiently reason about the phase space structures and search for global control paths. The strategy is particularly suitable for synthesizing high-performance control systems that do not lend themselves to traditional design and analysis techniques.

Der Beitrag führt zuerst in die Halbleiterfertigung und die damit verbundene innerbetriebliche Logistik, dabei vor allem das Transport- und Handhabungssystem, ein. Bei der Planung und Steuerung solcher Anlagen stellen sich sehr anspruchsvolle Aufgaben, die nur mithilfe der Simulation zu lösen sind. Hierzu wird dargestellt, wie sich der Simulationseinsatz in der Halbleiterproduktion und -logistik gestaltet. Mit der Komplexität der Prozesse und Systeme wächst natürlich auch die Komplexität der eingesetzten Simulationsmodelle – auf die Frage nach einem angemessenen Abstraktionsgrad gibt es bislang jedoch keine befriedigende Antwort. Der Beitrag stellt dazu Lösungsansätze vor und zeigt, worauf künftige Forschungsarbeiten fokussieren sollten.

Malgré la multiplicité des études démontrant le comportement fascinant des animaux dans leur milieu naturel, quelques domaines de recherches demeurent difficiles à aborder. Ainsi, l’étude de certains aspects cognitifs nécessite un certain contrôle sur l’environnement afin de dissocier les influences écologiques et sociales de l’implication cognitive ; par exemple la cognition spatiale incluant la mémoire spatiale, les mécanismes d’orientation spatiale, ainsi que leur implication dans la navigation, tel que par la planification. L’étude de la cognition spatiale des chimpanzés sauvages s’est déroulée dans le Parc national de Taï, une forêt tropicale dense où les ressources potentielles sont abondantes et réparties sur un territoire de 25 km², avec une visibilité d’environ 30 mètres. De plus, les chimpanzés vivent dans une société du type fission-fusion, impliquant de multiples relations sociales. Toutefois, l’enregistrement précis de la position et des activités des chimpanzés, ainsi qu’une carte botanique précise, nous a permis de dissocier les effets écologiques, sociaux et cognitifs afin de mieux comprendre les relations entre ces différents facteurs. Par cette étude, nous montrons que les chimpanzés ont développé un mécanisme permettant une navigation précise grâce à une carte Euclidienne contenant des informations sur la direction et la distances vers des ressources connues. Ce mécanisme est extrêmement adapté et efficace par la connaissance précise de la localisation de milliers de ressources dans leur habitat. Ces capacités permettent d’augmenter leur efficacité en sélectionnant les ressources les plus productives, en les planifiant à l’avance et, de manière plus avancée, en planifiant le parcours le plus court à travers ces différentes ressources durant la journée lorsque la pression sociale requière une meilleure précision dans le choix des ressources. Ces découvertes illustrent d’abord les capacités extraordinaires des chimpanzés, et deuxièmement que les aspects cognitifs peuvent être expliqués dans le milieu naturel des animaux. / Whereas numerous studies demonstrated fascinating behaviour of animals in their natural habitat, some important areas of research were difficult to tackle in the field. This is the case of many studies on cognitive aspects that required controlled environment to dissociate ecological and social influence from cognition. One of these important areas of research is the spatial cognition including spatial memory, spatial orientation mechanisms and the practical use of these abilities to travel efficiently, such as planning skills. This study on spatial cognition in wild chimpanzees took place in Taï National Park, a tropical dense forest where potential food resources are highly abundant in their 25 km² territory, and the visibility is approximately 30 meters. Adding to this complexity, chimpanzees live in a fission-fusion society, maintaining relationships with each other. Nevertheless, with a precise recording of chimpanzee’s location and activities and a precise botanic map of the territory, we were able to dissociate the ecological, social and cognitive effects and understand some relationships between these factors. Here, we showed that wild chimpanzees developed a precise mechanism to navigate efficiently in their large area using a Euclidean map containing accurate information about direction and distance to the known resources. This mechanism is highly adapted and efficient as the chimpanzees have a precise knowledge of the resources location in their area, remembering the location of thousand trees location. These highly developed abilities allowed them to increase their efficiency by selecting the most productive resources, planning them in advanced and on a higher level to plan the shortest path through these major resources during the day when the social pressure induce a higher precision in resource selection. These findings highlight first the outstanding spatial abilities of wild chimpanzees and second that cognition can be better explained in animals’ natural complex environment. / Trotz zahlreicher Studien, die das faszinierende Verhalten von Wildtieren in ihrer natürlichen Umwelt dokumentieren, bleiben einige Studienfelder schwer erfassbar. So ist zum Beispiel bei der Erforschung von bestimmten kognitiven Aspekten die Rücksichtnahme auf den Umweltfaktor erforderlich, damit Umwelt- und Sozialeinfluss von den kognitiven Faktoren unterschieden werden können. Zu diesen Untersuchungsfeldern gehört die Raumkognition, welche das Raumgedächtnis, die Mechanismen der Raumorientierung sowie deren effizientes Nutzen durch die Schimpansen, z.B. durch ihre Fähigkeit zum Planen, einschließt. Die vorgestellte Studie über Raumkognition bei wild lebenden Schimpansen wurde im Nationalpark von Tai durchgeführt, das heißt, in einem dichten tropischen Wald, wo potentielle Ressourcen bei einer Sichtweite von ungefähr 30 Metern auf einem 25 qm großen Areal reichlich verteilt sind. Hinzu kommt, dass Schimpansen in einer Fission-Fusion Gesellschaftsstruktur leben, die vielfache soziale Beziehungen fördern. Jedoch, mit einer genauen Registrierung der räumlichen Lage und der Aktivitäten der Schimpansen und anhand einer präzisen botanischen Karte des Gebiets, konnten wir die Umwelt-, Sozial- und kognitiven Effekte gegeneinander abgrenzen und somit die zwischen diesen unterschiedlichen Faktoren bestehenden Beziehungen erfassen. In dieser Studie zeigen wir, dass Schimpansen einen besonderen Mechanismus zur Raumorientierung auf ihrem Gebiet entwickelt haben. Dabei verfügen sie über eine euklidische Mind-Karte mit präzisen Informationen über Richtungen und Entfernungen zu den bekannten Ressourcen. Durch ein genaues Wissen über die Verteilung der Nahrungsressourcen auf ihrem Gebiet ist dieser Mechanismus hoch effizient. Dank dieser Fähigkeiten werden Schimpansen immer effizienter, indem sie die ergiebigsten Ressourcen auswählen, dabei planende Fähigkeiten einsetzen und weiterhin indem sie an einem Tag die kürzeste Strecke zu den verschiedenen Ressourcen ausmachen, wenn der soziale Druck höchste Präzision in der Wahl der Nahrungsressourcen erfordert. Diese Erkenntnisse erhellen zuallererst die außergewöhnlichen Fähigkeiten der wild lebenden Schimpansen und beweisen, dass sich kognitive Mechanismen bei wild lebenden Tieren in ihrer natürlichen Umwelt besser erklären lassen.

This research investigates the problem of constrained sequencing of a set of jobs on a conveyor system with the objective of minimizing setup cost. A setup cost is associated with extra material, labor, or energy required due to the change of attributes in consecutive jobs at processing stations. A finite set of attributes is considered in this research. Sequencing is constrained by the availability of two elements ??orage buffers and conveyor junctions. The problem is motivated by the paint purge reduction problem at a major U.S. automotive manufacturer. First, a diverging junction with a sequence-independent setup cost and predefined attributes is modeled as an assignment problem and this model is extended by relaxing the initial assumptions in various ways. We also model the constrained sequencing problem with an off-line buffer and develop heuristics for efficiently getting a good quality solution by exploiting the special problem structure. Finally, we conduct sensitivity analysis using numerical experiments, explain the case study, and discuss the use of the simulation model as a supplementary tool for analyzing the constrained sequencing problem.