The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change

Operations research (OR) methodologies in optimization have been extensively applied to problems in different agricultural value chains in recent years. We take a critical stock take of suc...

Challenges of operations research practice in agricultural value chains

Opportunities for value chain research in sugar industries

Research on real-world problems—like restoration of wetlands, the needs of the elderly, effective disaster response and the future of the airline industry—requires expert knowledge from a range of disciplines, as well as from stakeholders affected by the problem and those in a position to do something about it. This book charts new territory in taking a systematic approach to research integration using dialogue methods to bring together multiple perspectives. It links specific dialogue methods to particular research integration tasks.

Research Integration Using Dialogue Methods

In this paper, we present a public decision support system (DSS) distinguished from various DSSs in the private business sector in terms of its ownership, data scarcity, and beneficiaries. In particular, our system is intended to play a vital role in assessing and optimizing emergency response plans for rare but catastrophic events such as the September 11th attacks. While taking an agent-based microscopic simulation approach in a hierarchical framework, we used our model to estimate the effectiveness of alternative evacuation strategies to support emergency response planning as a part of business continuity planning for all private business organizations. The presented model is unique because it considers individuals with disabilities explicitly in terms of speed, ability to negotiate the environment, and normalcy bias depending on type of disability. It is also capable of classifying the environment in terms of accessibility characteristics encompassing various conditions which have been shown to have a disproportionate effect upon the behavior of individuals with disabilities during an emergency. Through a series of simulation experiments, our system identified specific locations (e.g., the NW landing) on the 3rd floor of the test bed building as possible bottleneck spots under certain conditions (e.g., the sharp increase in individuals with disabilities among residents). This way, our system provides the architect with tools to test the structure's design to determine how well it meets the identified requirements for emergency evacuation to accommodate this shifting demographic. In particular, our system strongly demonstrated the effectiveness of new emergency evacuation strategies for individuals with disabilities such as assisted evacuations which allows other healthy people to play more active roles compared to traditional strategies in which individuals with disabilities are helplessly waiting for assistants such as fire fighters at the designated area. Our system also revealed that people using wheelchairs and those with lower stamina were at the greatest risk. People with lower stamina such as the elderly, people with chronic health conditions, or those with temporary injuries are at a greater risk mainly because they are not easily identifiable. Ultimately, the proposed DSS system can be used to inform public policy professionals of more effective, evidence-based evacuation planning and environmental design methods based on a better understanding of the behavior of individuals with disabilities.

Modeling emergency evacuation of individuals with disabilities (exitus): An agent-based public decision support system

The paper provides an introduction to agent-based modelling and simulation of social processes. Reader is introduced to the worldview underlying agent-based models, some basic terminology, basic properties of agent-based models, as well as to what one can and what cannot expect from such models, particularly when they are applied to social-scientific investigation. Special attention is given to the issues of validation.

/pdf/an-introduction-to-agent-based-modelling-and-simulation-of-2d732r1gn3.pdf

An Introduction to Agent Based Modelling and Simulation of Social Processes

The paper provides an introduction to agent-based modelling and simulation of social processes Reader is introduced to the worldview underlying agent-based models, some basic terminology, basic properties of agent-based models, as well as to what one can and what cannot expect from such models, particularly when they are applied to social-scientific investigation Special attention is given to the issues of validation Classification-ACM-1998: J4 [Computer Applications]; Social and behavioral sciences - Sociology

Ognjen Škunca

Papers

An Introduction to Agent Based Modelling and Simulation of Social Processes

Agent Based Modelling and Simulation of Social Processes

An Introduction to Agent Based Modelling and Simulation of Social Processes