Abstract
Cutting and packing problems generally address the cutting or packing of smaller items into a larger container object. Usually, the main methodologies used in the Circular Open Dimension Problem (CODP) are nonlinear programming methods or methods that combine different heuristics. The aim of this project is at devising and using an agent-based simulation approach to determine the length of the open rectangle in CODP; more specifically, we look into the Circular two-dimension Open Dimension Problem. Agents (circles, which can have different dimensions) were given a set of simple rules that allow them to be placed in the world (i.e. an open rectangle). These rules are inferred from the formal CODP formulation and from the behavior defined in the agents.

Abstract
This study develops a tool to assess livability in European cities covering two components of livability: human wellbeing and environmental impact. First, we propose a conceptual model to assess cities' livability, that extends the concept of urban livability to include a component related to environmental sustainability. Second, we address the measurement of cities' livability. For this purpose, a new composite indicator was constructed based on a data envelopment analysis model specified using a directional distance function. In addition to assigning a summary measure of performance for each city, the composite indicator can be used to guide improvements concerning different livability objectives. One of the innovative features of the model proposed is to enable, by the specification of different directional vectors, focusing separately on each component of livability (e.g., human wellbeing and environmental impact) or alternatively considering cities' potential for improvement in all indicators simultaneously. In addition, it is possible to incorporate a new type of weight restrictions, specified as assurance regions type I, that reflect the relative importance of both desirable and undesirable outputs in percentage terms. Finally, this paper approached the assessment of the evolution of cities' performance over time using the Luenberger productivity indicator.

Abstract
Aim of study: This work aims to provide an overview of Model Predictive Controllers (MPC) applications in supply chains, to describe the forest-based supply chain and to analyse the potential use and benefits of MPC in a case study concerning a biomass supply chain. Area of study: The proposed methods are being applied to a company located in Finland. Material and methods: Supply chains are complex systems where actions and partners' coordination influence the whole system performance. The increase of competitiveness and need of quick responses to the costumers implies the use of efficient management techniques. The control theory, particularly MPC, has been successfully used as a supply chain management tool. MPC is able to deal with dynamic interactions between the partners and to globally optimize the supply chain performance in the presence of disturbances. However, as far as is authors' knowledge, there are no applications of this methodology in the forest-based supply chains. This work proposes a control architecture to improve the performance of the forest supply chain. The controller is based on prediction models which are able to simulate the system and deal with disturbances. Main results: The preliminary results enable to evaluate the impacts of disturbances in the supply chain. Thus, it is possible to react beforehand, controlling the schedules and tasks' allocation, or alert the planning level in order to generate a new plan. Research highlights: Overview of MPC applications in supply chains; forest-based supply chain description; case study presentation: wood biomass supply chain for energy production; MPC architecture proposal to decrease the operation times.

Abstract
As in other segments of the food industry, the ice-cream industry has its own features that influence the production management of its processes. Amongst these we identify: changeover tasks, products shelf-life, raw-materials (RM) perishability and, multiple deliveries during the planning horizon. These aspects have been often left out when studying the production planning and scheduling within the batch food industries. Thus, the aim of this work is to define an optimal planning and scheduling model based on the Resource Task Network, where the profit maximization is performed taking into account the cost trade-off between the approach based on the perishable RM inventory for the planning horizon versus the just-in-time RM delivery policy. The study is motivated by a Portuguese artisanal ice-cream industry.

Abstract
A virtual enterprise management platform is proposed with the objective to simplify the formation, management, adaptation and monitoring of the dynamic manufacturing process in VE. Within this platform an integration black box is highlighted to monitor the process data. This black box is used as a smart object to collect updated data or information from the business process or equipment within the VE. The raw data for predictive maintenance is collected by the black box from programmable logic controllers via gateway interface. A dashboard user interface is also designed and developed within the scope of this research that acts as a visualization tool to display the process monitored data. The theme of this research is designed and developed within the scope of the European Commission NMP priority of the Seventh RTD Framework Programme for the ADVENTURE (ADaptive Virtual ENterprise ManufacTURing Environment) project. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.

Abstract
This article deals with a real-life waste collection routing problem. To efficiently plan waste collection, large municipalities may be partitioned into convenient sectors and only then can routing problems be solved in each sector. Three diverse situations are described, resulting in three different new models. In the first situation, there is a single point of waste disposal from where the vehicles depart and to where they return. The vehicle fleet comprises three types of collection vehicles. In the second, the garage does not match any of the points of disposal. The vehicle is unique and the points of disposal (landfills or transfer stations) may have limitations in terms of the number of visits per day. In the third situation, disposal points are multiple (they do not coincide with the garage), they are limited in the number of visits, and the fleet is composed of two types of vehicles. Computational results based not only on instances adapted from the literature but also on real cases are presented and analyzed. In particular, the results also show the effectiveness of combining sectorization and routing to solve waste collection problems. (c) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. NETWORKS, Vol. 65(2), 155-165 2015