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Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons™
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Full-Text Articles in Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering
Investigations Of External Resources And The Impact Of Imaging On Patient Flow In The Emergency Department, Marisa Shehan
Investigations Of External Resources And The Impact Of Imaging On Patient Flow In The Emergency Department, Marisa Shehan
All Theses
The problems associated with Emergency Department (ED) crowding are numerous, varied, and complex. Though overcrowded Emergency Departments are frequently attributed to overcrowded hospitals, crowding is also impacted by bottlenecks in patient flow. While discrete-event simulation (DES) is commonly used to model ED flow, external resources are typically excluded from these models due to their complexity and the limited amount of known information for these processes. Instead, external resources such as consults, labs, and imaging are modeled using estimation and/or educated guesswork. In this study, the impact of imaging on patient flow was assessed through data analysis of specific imaging factors, …
Interdiction Models To Disrupt The Operations Of Sex Trafficking And Other Forced Illicit Labor Networks, Michael T. Clark
Interdiction Models To Disrupt The Operations Of Sex Trafficking And Other Forced Illicit Labor Networks, Michael T. Clark
All Theses
Sex traffickers often force their victims to work in both commercial sex markets and perform other illicit activities (e.g., drug dealing, theft, and fraud). Current literature has failed to address interdiction models that aim to disrupt all components of a sex traffickers’ operation, including these other illicit activities. In this thesis, we present a interdiction problem, and its single-level linear optimization reformulation, to reduce the profit of a human trafficking network concurrently operating in the commercial sex market and other illicit activity markets. Our novel formulation aims to investigate the practical implications of interdiction decisions made to disrupt a human …
A New Metaheuristic Algorithm Motivated By The Rooting Phenomena In Plants, Behzad Nemati
A New Metaheuristic Algorithm Motivated By The Rooting Phenomena In Plants, Behzad Nemati
All Theses
In this thesis, we present a new metaheuristic algorithm for analyzing challenging optimization problems. Initial testing reveals the potential for the algorithm, which is based on the rooting phenomena found in plants in nature, to quickly produce effective solutions to challenging combinatorial optimization problems in the class NP. We present computational results describing the proposed metaheuristic's efficacy for an important class of scheduling problems and discuss areas of future work and application.
Optimization And Characterization Of Biodiesel Production From Cottonseed And Canola Oil, Hem Joshi
Optimization And Characterization Of Biodiesel Production From Cottonseed And Canola Oil, Hem Joshi
All Theses
Transesterification of cottonseed oil and canola oil was carried out using low molecular weight alcohols and potassium hydroxide. For cottonseed oil, a central composite design with eight factorial, six center and six axial points was used to study the effect of catalyst concentration, molar ratio of ethanol to cottonseed oil and reaction temperature on percentage yield and percentage initial absorbance (%A385nm) of the biodiesel. Catalyst concentration and molar ratio of ethanol to cottonseed oil were the most influential variables affecting percentage conversion and percentage initial absorbance. Maximum percentage yield of 98 % is predicted at a catalyst concentration of 1.07 …