Inverse discrete event modeling for facility parameter estimation

Abstract

Particular applications require analysts to estimate plant throughput from external observables via inverse modeling techniques. For example, auditors, law enforcement personnel, and financial planners might need to perform these types of analyses. Researchers at the SimCenter at The University of Tennessee Chattanooga have elected to model several simple basic production models as well as a fictional bicycle factory to do a preliminary investigation into the viability of implementing an inverse model using a discrete-event simulation software package. The fictional bicycle model will eventually include several simulation features such as a discrete event component, a flow portion, an agent based part, equation based power portion, and optimization. The results indicate that the approach is viable and that inverse modeling can be used to estimate internal activities. Future work will involve more detailed models with larger parameter sets.

Interactivity in Educational Apps for Young children: A Multimodal Analysis

“…MDA, as an emerging member of discourse analysis (DA) family, focuses on understanding how non-discursive modes such as image, color, sound, and movement are employed as semiotic resource in creating meanings (Baldry & Thibault, 2006;Kress, 2010). In what follows, we will describe three aspects of this MDA study; namely, 1) the criteria for selecting a suitable educational app as the data, 2) the process that prepares the selected educational app for the study, and 3) the analytic framework for uncovering interactivity among the modes involved in the educational app.…”

“…A social semiotician would consider an educational app essentially a multimodal text that creates and transacts meaning in context (Kress, 2010, 2015, Kress and Van Leeuwin, 2015. As a key player in creating multimodal text, modes are socially and culturally shaped in enabling resource to make meaning.…”

“…From an orthodox semiotic perspective on multimodality (Burlamqui and Dong, 2014;Kress, 2010Kress, , 2015, the concept of anchorage must be evoked in locating the modes that anchor the meaning of all participating modes. Adhering to this perspective seems reasonable but in practice is not productive or illuminating in that 1) the relationships among the modes around the anchor can hardly be usefully delineated against a reliable framework, and 2) it may be interpreted as patriarchal when a particular mode is predetermined to dominate the entire meaning making process.…”

Den skönlitterära texten

“…Dagens texter, till exempel i form av webbsidor, förutsätter ett engagemang från läsaren utifrån dennes intresse på ett mycket tydligare sätt än traditionell läsning där författaren, enligt Kress, förmedlar kunskap utifrån en maktposition. 14 Sätten att läsa i informella miljöer bär ungdomarna med sig till skolan och därför bör ungdomars fritid ses som en viktig del av deras lärande, framhåller bland andra Johan Elmfeldt och Per-Olof Erixon. 15 Som en följd av att ungdomar idag socialiseras in i meningsskapande som genom den teknologiska utvecklingen utnyttjar fler teckenvärldar än den verbalspråkliga och där texterna i många fall är av annan materialitet än den tryckta skriften, sker deras meningsskapande ofta i en kombination av skrift, bild och ljud, digitalt förmedlat genom till exempel datorer och mobiltelefoner.…”