| 1. |
- Akram, Usman, 1984-, et al.
(author)
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Closing Pakistan’s yield gaps through nutrient recycling
- 2018
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In: Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 2571-581X. ; , s. 1-14
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Achieving food security will require closing yield gaps in many regions, including Pakistan. Although fertilizer subsidies have facilitated increased nitrogen (N) application rates, many staple crop yields have yet to reach their maximum potential. Considering that current animal manure and human excreta (bio-supply) recycling rates are low, there is substantial potential to increase the reuse of nutrients in bio-supply. We quantified 2010 crop N, phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) needs along with bio-supply nutrient availability for Pakistani districts, and compared these values to synthetic fertilizer use and costs. We found that synthetic fertilizer use combined with low bio-supply recycling resulted in a substantial gap between nutrient supply and P and K crop needs, which would cost 3 billion USD to fill with synthetic fertilizers. If all bio-supply was recycled, it could eliminate K synthetic fertilizer needs and decrease N synthetic fertilizer needs to 43% of what was purchased in 2010. Under a full recycling scenario, farmers would still require an additional 0.28 million tons of synthetic P fertilizers, costing 2.77 billion USD. However, it may not be prohibitively expensive to correct P deficiencies. Pakistan already spends this amount of money on fertilizers. If funds used for synthetic N were reallocated to synthetic P purchases in a full bio-supply recycling scenario, crop needs could be met. Most recycling could happen within districts, with only 6% of bio-supply requiring between-district transport when optimized to meet national N crop needs. Increased recycling in Pakistan could be a viable way to decrease yield gaps.
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| 2. |
- Berglund, Per, et al.
(author)
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Linking Education and Research : A Roadmap for Higher Education Institutions at the Dawn of the Knowledge Society
- 2019
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In: Linking education and research. - Basel, Switzerland : MDPI. ; , s. 11-33
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In an era characterized by a move towards a “knowledge society”, universities are central in fostering “knowledgeability”, that is the reflexive understanding of knowledge in knowledge societies. The objective of “knowledgeability” can be met through creating a stronger link between education and research. Furthermore, overall student performance, for example in critical thinking and problem solving, can be improved if research-related activities are incorporated into the curriculum.The aim of this paper is to use international examples to discuss the research- education nexus from four different perspectives, namely context, policy, implementation and quality, with case studies from higher education institutions in Singapore and Sweden.We suggest that different integrative technologies can be used to enhance the links, but it will be essential to consider the inputs of training, service and support in using new technology. Interestingly, the act of evaluating the link between education and research will increase awareness of this linkage by stakeholders involved in both education and research. In turn the link can be strengthened, contributing to increased quality in both education and research.
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| 3. |
- Häll, Carl Henrik, 1978-, et al.
(author)
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Adjustments of public transit operations planning process for the use of electric buses
- 2019
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In: Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems / Taylor & Francis. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1547-2450 .- 1547-2442. ; 23:3, s. 216-230
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This work investigates and discusses how the introduction of electric buses (EB), both battery and plug-in hybrid EB, will and should change the operations planning of a public transit system. It is shown that some changes are required in the design of a transit route network, and in the timetabling and vehicle scheduling processes. Other changes are not required, but are advisable, using this opportunity upon the introduction of EB. The work covers the main characteristics of different types of EB with a short description, including the most popular charging technologies, and it presents the generally accepted transit operations planning process. Likewise, it describes and analytically formulates new challenges that arise when introducing EB. The outcome of the analyses shows that multiple new considerations must take place. It is also shown that the different charging techniques will influence the operations planning process in different ways and to a varying extent. With overnight, quick and continuous charging, the main challenges are in the network route design step, given the possibility of altering the existing network of routes, with efficient and optimal changes of the timetabling and vehicle scheduling components. An illustrative example, based on four bus lines in Norrköping, Sweden, is formulized and introduced using three problem instances of 48, 82, and 116 bus trips. The main results exhibit the minimum number of vehicles required using different scenarios of charging stations.
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| 4. |
- Quttineh, Nils-Hassan, 1979-, et al.
(author)
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Combined Timetabling and Vehicle Scheduling for Electric Buses
- 2017
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In: Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies (HKSTS), December 9-11, 2017, Hong Kong, China. - Hong Kong : HKSTS.
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In this paper we present a novel mathematical model, integrating the timetabling and vehicle schedulingproblems for electric buses. The objective is to minimize the number of buses while satisfying constraintsconcerning routing and charging, including design choices of where to install charging equipment. Weillustrate the different effects of tackling the timetabling and vehicle scheduling of electric buses as separateproblems or as a joint problem, both for fixed and variable headways. To do so, tests are performed with: (i) given timetable, i.e. solving only the vehicle scheduling problem, (ii) fixed headways for each line, (iii) variable headways. For these tests, a small case based on four bidirectional bus lines is used.
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| 5. |
- Quttineh, Nils-Hassan, 1979-, et al.
(author)
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Military Aircraft Mission Planning : Efficient model-based metaheuristics approaches
- 2015
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In: Optimization Letters. - Berlin Heidelberg : Springer Berlin/Heidelberg. - 1862-4472 .- 1862-4480. ; 9:8, s. 1625-1639
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We consider a military mission planning problem where a given fleet of aircraft should attack a number of ground targets. At each attack, two aircraft need to be synchronized in both space and time. Further, there are multiple attack options against each targets, with different target effects. The objective is to maximize the outcome of the entire attack, while also minimizing the mission timespan. Real-life mission planning instances involve only a few targets and a few aircraft, but are still computationally challenging. We present metaheuristic solution methods for this problem, based on an earlier presented model. The problem includes three types of decisions: attack directions, task assignments and scheduling, and the solution methods exploit this structure in a two-stage approach. In an outer stage, a heuristic search is performed with respect to attack directions, while in an inner stage the other two decisions are optimized, given the outer stage decisions. The proposed metaheuristics are capable of producing high-quality solutions and are fast enough to be incorporated in a decision support tool.
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| 6. |
- Quttineh, Nils-Hassan, 1979-, et al.
(author)
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Supply Chain Modeling for a Process Industry
- 2017
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In: International Journal of Operations Research and Information Systems. - : IGI Global. - 1947-9328 .- 1947-9336. ; 8:2, s. 36-55
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Process industries of today differ from other industries in many aspects. The purpose of this paper is to consider these special properties of process industries when developing a mathematical model that can be used as a decision support tool for the supply chain planning for a chemical process industry in Sweden. A mixed-integer linear programming model is developed, and solutions to the model present how the products will be transported between the different sites of the company, the levels of the inventories, the setups and purchases from the external suppliers and also the production rates. The mathematical model takes many special properties regarding process industries into account. By using the results from the model and test different scenarios, the model can be used as an important support tool when making decisions. The decision support tool can for example be used in the company's budget process and thereby improve the chances of future profits increases.
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