In this paper we consider a system of non-linear integro-differential equations (IDEs) describing evolution of a clonally heterogeneous population of malignant white blood cells (leukemic cells) ...undergoing mutation and clonal selection. We prove existence and uniqueness of non-trivial steady states and study their asymptotic stability. The results are compared to those of the system without mutation. Existence of equilibria is proved by formulating the steady state problem as an eigenvalue problem and applying a version of the Krein-Rutmann theorem for Banach lattices. The stability at equilibrium is analysed using linearisation and the Weinstein-Aronszajn determinant which allows to conclude local asymptotic stability.
•We study the suitability of mid-term electricity price forecasts for scheduling.•Time-varying electricity prices are incorporated into the objective function.•The forecast accuracy is analyzed using ...extensive test sets.•A Fix-and-Optimize and a priority rule-based method are presented.•High quality solutions can be provided in less time than the MILP model-benchmark.
The paper deals with a flow shop scheduling problem, where energy costs are to be minimized with respect to time-varying electricity prices coming from the day-ahead market EPEX Spot Germany/Austria. To make efficient use of the corresponding price volatility in the production planning phase, i.e., weeks prior to the start of production, price forecasts have to be incorporated into decision making. Since the suitability of mid-term electricity price forecasts for scheduling applications has not been clarified, we analyze forecasts from the literature for their usability by means of extensive scenarios as well as an appropriate evaluation scheme. Furthermore, solution methods are provided for the considered flow shop scheduling problem. We study a Fix-and-Optimize and a priority rule-based sampling procedure in order to solve large-scale instances within a reasonable time. The performance analysis shows that Fix-and-Optimize achieves very good results in terms of solution quality. If production planners have to make quick decisions, the sampling procedure provides excellent run times.
This article addresses the importance of statistics for governing populations in the context of Palestine. On the basis of Michel Foucault's understanding of governmentality, I argue that social ...statistics represent crucial biopolitical technologies of governmentality. While statistical knowledge as a modern phenomenon originated in Western Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the case of Palestine clearly shows the importance of modern statistics beyond the OECD world. In a first step, I will elaborate on the emergence of social statistics as modern phenomena for governing populations. In this regard, the “discovery of the population” represents a fundamental prerequisite for the “birth of modern statistics” and the systematic utilization of statistical data for governing purposes. On this basis, I will argue social statistics are of crucial importance for governing the daily lives of the Palestinian population. Moreover, I will present the emergence of Palestinian statistics as a global phenomenon. It will become evident that social statistics and inferred demographic politics are essential for the sustainment of societal order in Palestine. This is particularly so regarding related inclusionary and exclusionary dynamics—namely Palestinian nation-building on the one hand and the Palestinian–Israeli demographic contestation on the other.
One month-ahead electricity prices open up a great potential for manufacturing companies that aim at reducing energy costs. On the machine level, an energy cost-oriented scheduling can be realized ...through determining the least electricity cost-intensive launch times for job processing during a day. To obtain reliable price information at production planning stage in advance, well-performing forecast models are required. In this paper, we apply a Weighted Nearest Neighbor (WNN) approach, a TBATS approach, and a Deep Feedforward Neural Network (DFNN) approach to forecast EPEX Spot day-ahead electricity prices of the European Energy Exchange in Germany/Austria, while accounting for a forecast horizon of up to one month. Model performances are compared by means of established error measures as well as by adjusted error measures to better interpret results from a production planner's point of view. For evaluation purposes, 1357 different forecasts were computed for each of the methods, allowing valid conclusions as to their performance. The results show that all approaches lead to acceptable accuracies. However, the DFNN outperforms WNN and TBATS, providing well-fitting forecasts even 29 days ahead.
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•Artificial Neural Networks outperform TBATS and Weighted Nearest Neighbor.•Forecast results are highly applicable for mid-term production planning purposes.•Neural Network forecasts for longer terms are almost as precise as for shorter ones.•On average, only 5% of the adjusted forecasts exceed the limit of a 10.00 EUR error.
This introductory article to the Special Issue MENA Political Science Research a Decade after the Arab Uprisings: Facing the Facts on Tremulous Grounds takes stock of MENA political science research ...a decade after the Arab uprisings. Engaging with key contributions from social movement and protest studies, comparative politics, and International Relations, we discuss three overarching questions that we consider as particularly important today: First, does '2011' represent a critical juncture for the respective MENA research fields? Second, what promises does a revisiting of the Area Studies Controversy hold in light of the Arab uprisings? Third, which changes has the past decade yielded for the ways political science research in/on MENA is done? Against this background, we present the six contributions to the special issue.
In many cases, Middle East Studies and International Relations (IR) fail to provide an appropriate account of governance and power and the underlying dynamics of global political order. In order to ...overcome these shortcomings, I will highlight the conceptual compatibility between Foucauldian post-structuralist governmentality studies and world society theorization from the perspective of the Stanford School's sociological neo-institutionalism. On this basis, I will conceptualize governmentality as a globally diffused pattern of political ordering in world society. This global diffusion of governmentality, however, cannot be equated with global homogenization, because decoupling dynamics can lead to significant differences between a global norm and how it is translated into a local context. Hence, governmentality denotes a specific, universalistic configuration of governmental rationalities and technologies but also takes into account localizations of diversity. I will identify biopower, surveillance, and technologies of the self as core dimensions of modern governmentality and analyze their contribution to the establishment of political order in Palestine. In this sense, the examples of modern statistics, good governance, and refugee camp governance not only serve as empirical illustrations for the materialization of modern governmentality in Palestine. They also underline the embeddedness of Palestine into the structural horizon of world society. As a result, political order that comes into existence in Palestine needs to be understood as world-societal order.
•192 papers on energy-aware production management published 2016–2020 are reviewed.•We provide a literature classification into a multi-dimensional framework.•Open research areas from previous ...reviews are structured into three main categories.•We analyse major streams of recent research developments.•An updated list of areas for future research is derived.
The substantial amount of energy consumed through industrial production has given rise to a large number of research papers that incorporate environmental aspects and increased energy-awareness into production management. Nowadays, initiatives that push sustainable energy sources like wind and solar power together with new technologies for on-site power generation and energy storage open up a multitude of new options for making industrial energy consumption more environmental friendly. With this paper, we review the recent literature that attempts to reflect these options within industrial decision support models. We conduct a systematic literature review that identifies relevant papers from fields like machine scheduling, lot sizing, and other energy-intensive processes. For classifying the literature, a multi-dimensional scheme is developed that helps identifying areas that already received substantial scientific interest and areas that are not yet well understood. To this end, we actively address areas of future research that were mentioned in earlier review papers and show to what extent these gaps where closed by recent publications. Through this, we observe substantial progress with regard to various aspects such as pushing system boundaries, coming up with advanced conceptual approaches, and striving for more practical relevance. Nevertheless, there remains a substantial number of issues that have not yet been approached thoroughly.
By the end of the 19th century, British colonisers, in particular, not only played football as a pastime, they also made use of it to consolidate the political, economic and military interests of the ...motherland. But while the so-called 'beautiful game' served as an instrument of colonial control, both 'civilising' and 'disciplining' the colonial subjects, it also evolved into a transnational beacon for independence movements, with stadiums becoming important social spaces on the local and national levels. Overall, from a longue durée perspective, the interplay of local and global factors relating to football has triggered both emancipatory and repressive dynamics throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Indeed, the emancipatory power of football has been a consistent feature across the region since the colonial age. However, more recently, the massive wealth of the Arab Gulf States and their decision to invest in football's 'soft power' has again changed the equation.
Die Beziehungen zwischen Israel und den Vereinten Nationen sind aus unterschiedlichen Gründen von komplexer Natur. Politische Spannungen zwischen Israel und dem globalen multilateralen System der ...Weltorganisation sind seit der israelischen Staatsgründung fester Bestandteil dieses Wechselverhältnisses.
The relations between Israel and the UN are of a complex nature. This contribution focuses on the multiple dimensions of the interrelation between Israel and the UN within a comprehensive global multilateral system. For this purpose, there will not only be an examination of the origins of this relationship, but also a detailed account of it in various UN organs such as the General Assembly, the Security Council, UNESCO, the Human Rights Council as well as UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). In addition, this relation will be contextualized with overarching questions of multilateral conflict governance and dynamics of international legalization.
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