The Periodic Mobile Piston Pump Unit Routing Problem consists of, given a set of surface oil wells scattered over an onshore producing field, determining routes for each day of work, with limited duration work shift, that maximize the collection of oil carried by a mobile piston pump unit. This paper presents different construction and local search methods used in the composition of GRASP and I...

Health care associated infections are infections that patients acquire, while they are in contact with the healthcare system. Contact includes all procedures associated with diagnostics, treatment, care, and rehabilitation. Health care associated infections were formerly called hospital or nosocomial infections. Hospitals still account for the vast majority of cases; however, for practical reas...

Heterogeneity in the number of potentially infectious contacts amongst members of a population increases the basic reproduction ratio (R(0)) and markedly alters disease dynamics compared to traditional mean-field models. Most models describing transmission on contact networks only account for one specific route of transmission. However, for many infectious diseases multiple routes of transmissi...

Transmission of ovine progressive pneumonia virus (OPPV), a lentivirus of sheep, occurs through both maternal and non-maternal means. Currently, the contribution of each route to the overall flock OPPV prevalence is poorly understood since previous serological epidemiologic studies lacked the ability to accurately track routes of transmission within an infected flock. In this study, the amount ...

Graphical representation of bio-oil compositions in van Krevelen diagrams reveals reaction pathways to infer upgrading routes that can improve the economic potential biofuels.

Shipping activity and offshore operations in Arctic areas are increasing as a result of more effective transportation routes and oil/gas exploration. Vessels navigating in ice covered areas are exposed to additional loads from different ice conditions. In this paper the dynamic loads on propellers are investigated to better understand the impact on propeller, power transmission elements and eng...

Across animals and plants, numerous metabolic and defensive adaptations are a direct consequence of symbiotic associations with beneficial microbes. Explaining how these partnerships are maintained through evolutionary time remains one of the central challenges within the field of symbiosis research. While genome erosion and co-cladogenesis with the host are well-established features of symbion...

Multi-path routing, a routing technique that enables data transmission over multiple paths, is an effective strategy in achieving reliability in wireless sensor networks. However, multi-path routing does not guarantee deterministic transmission. This is because more than one path is available for transferring data from the source node to the destination node. A hybrid multi-path routing algorit...

This study introduces an individual-based model on a host-parasite assemblage to investigate whether hosts are necessarily selected for obstructing the transmission of virulent parasites to conspecifics. Contrary to the widespread notion, a host's ability to influence parasite transmission within the host population is a neutral character provided that parasite transmission routes are random, w...