A hybrid job-shop scheduling system

The intention of the scheduling system developed at the Fraunhofer-Institute for Material Flow and Logistics is the support of a scheduler working in a job-shop. Due to the existing requirements for a job-shop scheduling system the usage of flexible knowledge representation and processing techniques is necessary. Within this system the attempt was made to combine the advantages of symbolic AI-techniques with those of neural networks

Wavefunction extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics

Extended Lagrangian Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics [Niklasson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100 123004 (2008)] has been generalized to the propagation of the electronic wavefunctions. The technique allows highly efficient first principles molecular dynamics simulations using plane wave pseudopotential electronic structure methods that are stable and energy conserving also under incomplete and approximate self-consistency convergence. An implementation of the method within the planewave basis set is presented and the accuracy and efficiency is demonstrated both for semi-conductor and metallic materials.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

System and Method of Optical Axis Alignment Monitor and Feedback Control for a Spectrometer

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method of a real-time, monitoring and control feedback system for a 2-D spectrometer application, to correct for active optical axis pointing misalignments or jitter (i.e., tip, tilt), that result in degraded scientific image integrity, unwanted spatial crosstalk and image blurring artifacts which severely limit the applications for high resolution spectrometer image data. The present invention provides a unique system architecture which ensures the most direct optical axis motion detection and control capability that will enable sub-pixel image motion monitoring and boresight control stability, thus, maximizing the science image quality

Two-resonator circuit QED: Dissipative Theory

We present a theoretical treatment for the dissipative two-resonator circuit quantum electrodynamics setup referred to as quantum switch. There, switchable coupling between two superconducting resonators is mediated by a superconducting qubit operating in the dispersive regime, where the qubit transition frequency is far detuned from those of the resonators. We derive an effective Hamiltonian for the quantum switch beyond the rotating wave approximation and study the dissipative dynamics within a Bloch-Redfield quantum master equation approach. We derive analytically how the qubit affects the quantum switch even if the qubit has no dynamics, and we estimate the strength of this influence. The analytical results are corroborated by numerical calculations, where coherent oscillations between the resonators, the decay of coherent and Fock states, and the decay of resonator-resonator entanglement are studied. Finally, we suggest an experimental protocol for extracting the damping constants of qubit and resonators by measuring the quadratures of the resonator fields.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figure

Інвестування. Методичні рекомендації до виконання розрахункових індивідуальних завдань для студентів освітньо-професійної програми підготовки бакалаврів галузі знань 0305 Економіка і підприємництво

Методичні матеріали призначено для самостійної роботи студентів галузі знань 0305 Економіка і підприємництво за всіма напрямами підготовки для виконання індивідуального розрахункового завдання з дисципліни «Інвестування». Подано рекомендації до розв’язку задач з оцінки ефективності реальних інвестиційних проектів, доходності та ризику як окремих цінних паперів, так і портфелю ЦП, визначення вартості і доходності фінансових інструментів, вибору найкращого варіанта вкладання коштів. Наведено критерії оцінювання виконання практичних завдань. Орієнтовано на активізацію виконавчого етапу навчальної діяльності студентів

Valuing Nature in Business-A Case Study of Chemical Manufacturing and Forest Products Industries

Over the past several decades, there has been an increased realization of the extent to which the means of production in human society depend on and impact increasingly fragile natural systems. Working with our client, The Nature Conservancy, we researched trends in ecosystem valuation within the chemical manufacturing and forest product industries, discerning ways to identify and evaluate future ecosystem investment opportunities. This research resulted in a framework that businesses could use to identify future ecosystem service opportunities and then score the opportunities’ business values using a multi-criteria analysis approach. We identified potential ecosystem service opportunities by overlaying classifications of business risk on major operational subsectors within the industries, populating the resulting table with key ecosystem impacts and opportunities. Through the application of this process, we identified three hypothetical ecosystem service projects applicable to both the chemical manufacturing and forest product industries and used them to test our scoring framework. The identified projects were constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment, coastal habitat protection for storm surge protection, and forest carbon sequestration. We ranked the business value of each project using five criteria important to businesses: financial value, reputational benefits, environmental risk reduction, political and regulatory enabling conditions, and level of knowledge and activity in the field. According to our research, businesses emphasize financial benefits most highly when evaluating potential investments, so we weighted financial values most heavily in our ranking scheme. Our analysis indicated that a forest carbon sequestration project had the highest potential business value relative to the other project types due to its higher expected financial benefits. The constructed wetland project, which also had a relatively high expected financial benefit, followed second. Finally, the coastal habitat protection project had the lowest relative business value due to high costs, a low level of scientific knowledge, and weak regulatory support. The identification and ranking methodologies are designed to be flexible, allowing adaptation for use given varying business objectives. The weights on the five valuation criteria can be adjusted to reflect a business’s concerns. This scoring methodology is useful for businesses because few tools exist to enable comparative analysis of business ecosystem service investments. We believe this tool provides a useful approach to determining the value that nature and ecosystem services provide to a wide range of businesses, and we recommend its application outside the chemical manufacturing and forest products industry for further refinement