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The purpose of this paper is to study a transportation service procurement bid construction problem from a less than a full truckload perspective. It seeks to establish stochastic mixed integer programming to allow for the proper bundle of loads to be chosen based on price, which could improve the likelihood that carrier can earn its maximum utility.

The authors proposes a bi-level programming that integrates the bid selection and winner determination and a discrete particle swarm optimization (PSO) solution algorithm is then developed, and a numerical simulation is used to make model and algorithm analysis.

The algorithm comparison shows that although GA could find a little more Pareto solutions than PSO, it takes a longer time and the quality of these solutions is not dominant. The model analysis shows that compared with traditional approach, our model could promote the likelihood of winning bids and the decision effectiveness of the whole system because it considers the reaction of the shipper.

The highlights of this paper are considering the likelihood of winning the business and describing the conflicting and cooperative relationship between the carrier and the shipper by using a stochastic mixed integer programming, which has been rarely examined in previous research.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a pilot application of the Sustainable Transportation Analysis & Rating System (STARS), and highlight how a sustainability rating system can be used to promote sustainable urban development through a university–city partnership. STARS is an example of a second-generation “green” rating system focused on transportation planning, design, operations and maintenance.

In Fall 2013, James Madison University (JMU) initiated a STARS pilot demonstration using a local corridor that connects the university and the city of Harrisonburg. The pilot’s purposes were to develop attainable transportation-development targets, evaluate infrastructure and programmatic options in the context of a credit-based system and demonstrate a decision-making framework centered on sustainability optimization. The paper provides an overview of the STARS framework and the pilot’s collaborations, analysis, findings and recommendations for credits across sustainability dimensions.

Upon applying the rating system, the research team found that STARS may initially be easier to integrate into a comprehensive transportation planning process than a corridor-level evaluation due to data needs, in-house expertise and planning timelines for campus and city developments. A campus-wide master plan based on STARS would enable a university and a city to apply sustainability principles to their physical and/or policy interfaces to systemically create change and achieve quantifiable targets.

The STARS framework provides a novel approach for integrating multiple stakeholders (faculty, the university and city staff, students and community members) in a process of capacity building, evaluating options, policy-making, implementation and performance monitoring. The JMU pilot is the first application of STARS at a university and the only US East Coast application to date.

INDUSTRIALLY the two ‘in’ words today seem to be participation and consensus, the first leading to the second. How these can become a reality in modern business was discussed recently by the London Region of the Institute of Work Study Practitioners.

For prefabricated building construction, improper handling of the production scheduling for prefabricated components is one of the main reasons that affect project performance, which causes overspending, schedule overdue and quality issues. Prior research on prefabricated components production schedule has shown that optimizing the flow shop scheduling problem (FSSP) is the basis for solving this issue. However, some key resources and the behavior of the participants in the context of actual prefabricated components production are not considered comprehensively.

This paper characterizes the production scheduling of the prefabricated components problem into a permutation flow shop scheduling problem (PFSSP) with multi-optimization objectives, and limitation on mold and buffers size. The lean construction principles of value-based management (VBM) and just-in-time (JIT) are incorporated into the production process of precast components. Furthermore, this paper applies biogeography-based optimization (BBO) to the production scheduling problem of prefabricated components combined with some improvement measures.

This paper focuses on two specific scenarios: production planning and production rescheduling. In the production planning stage, based on the production factor, this study establishes a multi-constrained and multi-objective prefabricated component production scheduling mathematical model and uses the improved BBO for prefabricated component production scheduling. In the production rescheduling stage, the proposed model allows real-time production plan adjustments based on uncertain events. An actual case has been used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model and the improved BBO.

With respect to limitations, only linear weighted transformations are used for objective optimization. In regards to research implications, this paper considers the production of prefabricated components in an environment where all parties in the supply chain of prefabricated components participate to solve the production scheduling problem. In addition, this paper creatively applies the improved BBO to the production scheduling problem of prefabricated components. Compared to other algorithms, the results show that the improved BBO show optimized result.

The proposed approach helps prefabricated component manufacturers consider complex requirements which could be used to formulate a more scientific and reasonable production plan. The proposed plan could ensure the construction project schedule and balance the reasonable requirements of all parties. In addition, improving the ability of prefabricated component production enterprises to deal with uncertain events. According to actual production conditions (such as the occupation of mold resources and storage resources of completed components), prefabricated component manufacturers could adjust production plans to reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of the whole prefabricated construction project.

The value of this article is to provide details of the procedures and resource constraints from the perspective of the precast components supply chain, which is closer to the actual production process of prefabricated components. In addition, developing the production scheduling for lean production will be in line with the concept of sustainable development. The proposed lean production scheduling could establish relationships between prefabricated component factory manufacturers, transportation companies, on-site contractors and production workers to reduce the adverse effects of emergencies on the prefabricated component production process, and promote the smooth and efficient operation of construction projects.

It is customary these days to denounce our society for its unconscionable neglect of the elderly, while we look back romantically to some indeterminate past when the elderly were respected and well cared for. Contrary to this popular view, old people historically have enjoyed neither respect nor security. As Simone de Beauvoir so effectively demonstrates in The Coming of Age (New York: Putnam, 1972), the elderly have been almost universally ill‐treated by societies throughout the world. Even the Hebrew patriarchs admonished their children to remember them as they grew older: “Cast me not off in time of old age; when my strength fails, forsake me not” (Psalms 71:1). Primitive agrarian cultures, whose very existence depended upon the knowledge gleaned from experience, valued their elders, but even they were often moved by the harsh conditions of subsistence living to eliminate by ritual killing those who were no longer productive members of society. There was a softening of societal attitudes toward the elderly during the period of nineteenth century industrial capitalism, which again valued experience and entrepreneurial skills. Modern technocratic society, however, discredits the idea that knowledge accumulates with age and prefers to think that it grows out‐of‐date. “The vast majority of mankind,” writes de Beauvoir, “look upon the coming of old age with sorrow and rebellion. It fills them with more aversion than death itself.” That the United States in the twentieth century is not alone in its poor treatment of the aged does not excuse or explain this neglect. Rather, the pervasiveness of prejudice against the old makes it even more imperative that we now develop programs to end age discrimination and its vicious effects.