A method for the efficient prioritization of infrastructure renewal projects

The infrastructure renewal program at MIT consists of a large number of projects with an estimated budget that could approach $1 billion. Infrastructure renewal at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is the process of evaluating and investing in the maintenance of facility systems and basic structure to preserve existing campus buildings. The selection and prioritization of projects must be addressed with a systematic method for the optimal allocation of funds and other resources. This paper presents a case study of a prioritization method utilizing multi-attribute utility theory. This method was developed at MIT's Department of Nuclear Engineering and was deployed by the Department of Facilities after appropriate modifications were implemented to address the idiosyncrasies of infrastructure renewal projects and the competing criteria and constraints that influence the judgment of the decision-makers. Such criteria include minimization of risk, optimization of economic impact, and coordination with academic policies, programs, and operations of the Institute. A brief overview of the method is presented, as well as the results of its application to the prioritization of infrastructure renewal projects. Results of workshops held at MIT with the participation of stakeholders demonstrate the feasibility of the prioritization method and the usefulness of this approach.     

用遗传算法求解M台设备的双行布置问题

描述了车间设置布置中常见的双行布置问题的数学模型,给出了以总储运费用最少为目标的遗传寻优算法,仿真实验说明了这一方法的有效性。     

A continuous approach to considering uncertainty in facility design

This paper presents a formulation of the facilities block layout problem which explicitly considers uncertainty in material handling costs on a continuous scale by use of expected values and standard deviations of product forecasts. This formulation is solved using a genetic algorithm meta-heuristic with a flexible bay construct of the departments and total facility area. It is shown that depending on the attitude of the decision-maker towards uncertainty, the optimal design can change significantly. Furthermore, designs can be optimized directly for robustness over a range of uncertainty that is pre-specified by the user. This formulation offers a computationally tractable and intuitively appealing alternative to previous stochastic layout formulations that are based on discrete scenario probabilities.     

Framework Model for Asset Maintenance Management

This paper presents the development of a generic framework for asset maintenance management. The framework has been presented in the form of an IDEF0 process model. The process model served to illustrate the interaction and dependencies among a diverse set of knowledge areas. In this framework, outputs from one management process become inputs to another in a subsequent hierarchy. The structure of the framework model exhibited the characteristics of flexibility and robustness. Updates in knowledge can be accommodated within the framework through incorporating new management processes and/or activities, as well as establishing new sequencing logic for these processes and/or activities. In a supporting effort to the development of the framework model, the writers have objectively reviewed the general capabilities of three commercially available software applications that are known within the asset management (AM) industry. These three applications, while encompassing a wide selection of capabilities, represent a typical selection of information technology (IT) tools and techniques that are widely used in strategic AM practices. The objective of this review is to study the operational characteristics and functionalities, and to assess the capability of software interoperability, of a representative sample of IT tools known within the AM industry.     

良好设施 科学规范化管理的必要性

江西省药物研究所于2008年建立了实验动物屏障设施,同年八月取得《实验动物使用许可证》,现已正常运行两年,由于我们严格按照屏障系统设施标准操作规范进行管理,实验动物屏障设施启用后,一直比较稳定。通过对实验动物屏障设施空调净化系统两年多的运行管理,深深体会到良好设施科学规范管理是非常必要的。     

有向图的强连通性分析及判别算法

文中用可达矩阵分析了有向图的强连通性,并给出了一种判别有向图为强连通图的新方法。     

Algorithms and tools for high-throughput geometry-based analysis of crystalline porous materials

Crystalline porous materials have a variety of uses, such as for catalysis and separation. Identifying suitable materials for a given application can, in principle, be done by screening material databases. Such a screening requires automated high-throughput analysis tools that calculate structural properties for all materials contained in a database so they can be compared with search queries, grouped or classified. One important aspect of the structural analysis of materials such as zeolites and metal organic frameworks is the investigation of the geometrical parameters describing pores. Here, we present algorithms and tools to efficiently calculate some of these important parameters. Our tools are based on the Voronoi decomposition, which for a given arrangement of atoms in a periodic domain provides a graph representation of the void space. The resulting Voronoi network is analyzed to obtain the diameter of the largest included sphere and the largest free sphere, which are two geometrical parameters that are frequently used to describe pore geometry. Accessibility of nodes in the network is also determined for a given guest molecule and the resulting information is later used to retrieve dimensionality of channel systems as well as in Monte Carlo sampling of accessible surfaces and volumes. The presented algorithms are implemented in a software tool, Zeo++, which includes a modified version of the Voro++ library. We present example applications of our algorithms and tools using zeolite frameworks currently listed in the Atlas of Zeolite Frameworks.     

Global Village Media: Coming Together in the Early 1970s at Whiz Bang Quick City

Felicity D Scott , Associate Professor of Architecture at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), describes here the instant city events of the early 1970s. These foreshadowed current global village media practices in what now seems a quaintly material manner: communication between sites involved the physical mailing of videotapes and ‘wire photos’ through the postal service. The sites themselves – in the US and elsewhere – were transformed into ‘instant cities’ through the erection of physical geodesic domes, teepees and inflatables in seas of mud. The true antecedents of today's instant networking, these pioneers embraced the newest technology available at the time and the most innovative forms of temporary architecture.     

Polluting facilities and environmental justice – a study

The environmental justice movement attempts to examine the disproportionate exposure of environmental pollution on minority and low‐income people, understand the patterns of such disproportionate exposures and develop strategies to reduce and eliminate such exposures. Unlike several environmental justice studies that include all fifty states of the United States, this study examines the locations of manufacturing facilities that pollute in states with predominantly high African‐American populations. Our analysis indicates that polluting facilities tend to choose counties with higher proportion of nonwhite populations. Per capita incomes of people living within 5‐miles of the facilities are lower than per capita incomes of people living in the host counties Contrary to the conventional wisdom, population density per square mile both within 1 mile and 5 miles of the facility are much higher than the state population densities.     

市场经济下城市住区公共设施配套的新思路——以镇江南徐新城中心区规划为例

文章分析了目前我国采用的“分级配套”、“千人指标”和“谁开发谁配套”的居住区公共设施配套模式,指出其中存在的结构封闭、指标死板、公共设施提供主体定位不当的不足,然后以镇江南徐新城中心区规划中的公共设施配套带为例,提出了一种适应市场经济条件下适应市场化操作的、开放的、弹性的带状公共设施配套模式。