Cargo scheduling decision support for offshore oil and gas production: a case study

Woodside Energy Ltd (Woodside), Australia’s largest independent oil and gas company, operates multiple oil and gas facilities off the coast of Western Australia. These facilities require regular cargo shipments from supply vessels based in Karratha, Western Australia. In this paper, we describe a decision support model for scheduling the cargo shipments to minimize travel cost and trip duration, subject to various operational restrictions including vessel capacities, cargo demands at the facilities, time windows at the facilities, and base opening times. The model is a type of non-standard vehicle routing problem involving multiple supply vessels—a primary supply vessel that visits every facility during a round trip taking at most 1 week, and other supply vessels that are used on an ad hoc basis when the primary vessel cannot meet all cargo demands. We validate the model via test simulations using real data provided by Woodside.     

Shot scale distribution in art films

The scale of shot, i.e. the apparent distance of the camera from the main subject of a scene, is one of the main stylistic and narrative functions of audiovisual products, conveying meaning and inducing the viewer’s emotional state. The statistical distribution of different shot scales in a film may be an important identifier of an individual film, an individual author, and of various narrative and affective functions of a film. In order to understand at which level shot scale distribution (SSD) of a movie might become its fingerprint, it is necessary to produce automatic recognition of shot scale on a large movie corpus. In our work we propose an automatic framework for estimating the SSD of a movie by using inherent characteristics of shots containing information about camera distance, without the need to recover the 3D structure of the scene. In the experimental investigation, the comparison of obtained results with manual SSD annotations proves the validity of the framework. Experiments conducted on movies by Michelangelo Antonioni taken from different stylistic periods (1950–57, 1960–64, 1966–75, 1980–82) show a strong similarity in shot scale distributions within each period, thus opening interesting research lines regarding the possible aesthetic and cognitive sources of such a regularity.     

Adsorption Behavior of Halogenated Anesthetic and Water Vapor on Cr‐Based MOF (MIL‐101) Adsorbent. Part I. Equilibrium and Breakthrough Characterizations

A synthesized chromium‐based metal organic framework (Cr‐MOF) was used for the adsorption of halogenated anesthetics, i.e., sevoflurane (SF). Adsorption isotherm and breakthrough experiments involving SF (reference sorbate) and water vapor were measured at 298 K and atmospheric pressure on both Cr‐MOF and a commercially used reference adsorbent. The Cr‐MOF MIL‐101 showed a significantly higher SF adsorption capacity and much higher selectivity relative to water vapor compared to the reference adsorbent. Binary‐mixture breakthrough tests demonstrated a “roll‐up effect” for SF on the reference adsorbent while no such effect was observed on MIL‐101.     

Foreign firms in core or peripheral areas? The spatial dimension of job creation and wages in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper investigates the within-country location choices of a large sample of foreign and domestic firms in 19 Sub-Saharan African countries. We show that foreign firms are more likely to locate in core regions compared to domestic ones but generate significantly more jobs per productive unit in the periphery. We find some evidence that foreign firms generate relatively better jobs in peripheral areas: more skill intensive and better paid. These results highlight a fundamental role that FDI in peripheral areas might play in rebalancing the spatial distribution of economic opportunities in developing countries where highly congested megacities exercise a strong centripetal force.     

A proactive and resilient seismic risk mitigation strategy for existing school buildings

Different methods and procedures have been developed to define prioritisation strategies of retrofit interventions aimed at reducing the seismic risk of school buildings on a large territorial scale. However, these approaches fail to demonstrate how risk analysis has been used successfully to quantitatively assess and select the optimal risk management decision. This article proposes innovative and useful metrics to measure the potential costs and benefits related to the prioritisation of retrofit intervention and the resilience of the analysed school system by directly integrating engineering, organisational, socio-economic and political aspects in the realm of seismic resilience assessment. Based on probabilistic risk assessments considering the new vulnerability of the prioritised school buildings, these measures could predict the expected economic and functional losses associated with a disastrous seismic event, as well as the possible post-disaster recovery of the system. In order to help decision-makers in selecting the optimal mitigation strategy with a multidisciplinary and multidimensional perspective, different political scenarios, the relative prioritisations of interventions and their intervention options are also defined. The proposed framework is demonstrated in a complex case study of 1,825 public schools in the Lima metropolitan area, Peru. Policymakers, planners and engineering professionals could benefit from results.     

Materials systems for interleave toughening in polymer composites

We review the literature describing the use of interleaves to increase interlaminar fracture toughness in fibre-reinforced polymer composites and hence to improve damage tolerance. From an analysis of data provided in the literature from the use of microfibre and nanofibre interleaves, we show that the performance of these widely researched systems is clearly differentiated when plotted against the mean coverage of the interleaf. Using a simple analysis, we suggest that this can be attributed to the influence of their porous architectures on the infusion of resin. We show also that the superior toughening performance of microfibre interleaves is only weakly influenced by the choice of fibre. We find also that the inclusion of carbon nanotubes within interleaves to deliver multifunctional composites can be optimised by using a hybrid system with microfibres.

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A Structure-Properties Relationship Study of Self-Healing Materials Based on Styrene and Furfuryl Methacrylate Cross-Linked via Diels–Alder Chemistry

A series of copolymers of styrene and furfuryl methacrylate characterized by various molecular structures (linear and star, block and random) is synthesized via atom transfer radical polymerization, and cross-linked with a bismaleimide by means of thermally reversible Diels–Alder (DA) reaction, to obtain self-healing materials. The prepared materials are studied in terms of gelation, swelling, thermal, and dynamic-mechanical analysis, with the aim of correlating relevant properties to their chemical structure. It is found that the furan/styrene ratio, as well as the molecular architecture, have a major influence on the properties. It is also found that the reversibility of the DA reaction is not complete in the solid state for materials with high cross-linking density. This study provides some important tools for the design of materials characterized by thermally reversible behavior, which find usually application as self-healing thermosets, coatings, or adhesives.     

ANP and BNP Exert Anti-Inflammatory Action via NPR-1/cGMP Axis by Interfering with Canonical,Non-Canonical,and Alternative Routes of Inflammasome Activation in Human THP1 Cells

Dysregulated inflammasome activation and interleukin (IL)-1β production are associated with several inflammatory disorders. Three different routes can lead to inflammasome activation: a canonical two-step, a non-canonical Caspase-4/5- and Gasdermin D-dependent, and an alternative Caspase-8-mediated pathway. Natriuretic Peptides (NPs), Atrial Natriuretic Peptide (ANP) and B-type Natriuretic Peptide (BNP), binding to Natriuretic Peptide Receptor-1 (NPR-1), signal by increasing cGMP (cyclic guanosine monophosphate) levels that, in turn, stimulate cGMP-dependent protein kinase-I (PKG-I). We previously demonstrated that, by counteracting inflammasome activation, NPs inhibit IL-1β secretion. Here we aimed to decipher the molecular mechanism underlying NPs effects on THP-1 cells stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) + ATP. Involvement of cGMP and PKG-I were assessed pre-treating THP-1 cells with the membrane-permeable analogue, 8-Br-cGMP, and the specific inhibitor KT-5823, respectively. We found that NPs, by activating NPR-1/cGMP/PKG-I axis, lead to phosphorylation of NLRP3 at Ser295 and to inflammasome platform disassembly. Moreover, by increasing intracellular cGMP levels and activating phosphodiesterases, NPs interfere with both Gasdermin D and Caspase-8 cleavage, indicating that they disturb non-canonical and alternative routes of inflammasome activation. These results showed that ANP and BNP anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory actions may involve the inhibition of all the known routes of inflammasome activation. Thus, NPs might be proposed for the treatment of the plethora of diseases caused by a dysregulated inflammasome activation.