A system and methodology for evaluating manufacturers' trade promotions which may be combined with consumer promotions is described. The methodology incorporates concepts from expert systems in order to evaluate promotions on a mass scale (i.e., by geographical area and size or flavor) with a...

We present a detailed analysis of the patient and resource scheduling problem in rehabilitation hospitals. In practice, the predominantly therapeutical treatments and activities which are prescribed for the patients are typically scheduled manually. This leads to rigid and inefficient schedules...

In this paper a technique for decision support for selecting a physical configuration are presented. This technique is useful during the redesign of a proposed restructuring of production processes resulted in a BPR approach. Based on the use of simulation and from the traditional experimental...

Recently increasing attention has been paid to complementing environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with social aspects. The paper discusses the selection of social impacts and indicators from existing frameworks like Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) and Social Impact Assessment (SIA). Two...

In spite of extraordinary support programs initiated by the European Union and other national authorities, the percentage of overall freight traffic moved by train is in steady decline. This development is driven by the fact that macro-economic benefits of rail traffic, such as relief of...

This paper describes the bio-economic land use model ProLand and presents selected results for scenarios of coupled and fully decoupled Pillar One transfer payments under the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The basic assumption for the model is that land users select...

Agent-based modeling offers the technical opportunity to spatially integrate biophysical and socio-economic model components, thereby capturing the interactions between agricultural and environmental policy measures, land use decisions and ecological processes. Development paths in the use of...

The paper considers the decision that arises in climate policy where there is expert disagreement about the correct scientific model and where a group of stakeholders needs to agree on a common policy target. Policy choice is posed as a decision under Knightian uncertainty, where decision-makers...

This paper examined the potentialities of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as instrument for policy-support. To this respect, the adoption of an initiative within the Madrid Air Quality Plan (AQP) 2011–2015 regarding the substitution of diesel taxis with hybrid, natural gas and LPG alternatives was...

The long-term economic outcome of energy-related industrial investment projects is difficult to evaluate because of uncertain energy market conditions. In this article, a general, multistage, stochastic programming model for the optimization of investments in process integration and industrial...