Pneumatic actuators are often used in industrial automation for reasons related to their good power/weight ratio, easy maintenance and assembly operations, clean operating conditions and low cost. This set of advantages, is, however, made up for by the difficulties met during the design.

Purpose The objective of this paper is to propose a methodology based on random demand inventory models and dependence structures for a set of raw materials, referred to as “components”, used by food services that produce food rations referred to as “menus”. Design/methodology/approach...

In general, any activity requires a longer action often characterized by a degree of uncertainty, insecurity, in terms of size of the objective pursued. Because of the complexity of real economic systems, the stochastic dependencies between different variables and parameters considered, not all...

This study forms part of research into the optimization of the shape of a wave energy collector to improve energy extraction using genetic algorithms. The wave energy collector geometry uses a parametric description based upon bi-cubic B-spline surfaces, generated from a relatively small number...

Wave energy extraction requires the conversion of the energy within the waves to drive the power take off system, often by means of a principal interface, or collector. This paper describes part of the development of a robust, systematic method of optimizing the collector shape to improve energy...

In recent years, a large number of research works have been carried out in transmission expansion planning (TEP) field. TEP problem has been investigated with different views, methods, constraints, and objectives. Thus, it is required to evaluate and to overview the proposed works. This paper...

<Para ID="Par1">Within the recent EU Water Framework Directive and the modification introduced into national water-related legislation, monitoring assumes great importance in the frame of territorial managerial activities. Recently, a number of public environmental agencies have invested resources in planning...</para>