Academic articles

The share of renewable energy sources in energy production is growing steadily. Domestic homes can be equipped with solar panels, micro combined heat and power systems, batteries, and they can become adaptive consumers. They can also deliver energy to the grid and react to the energy supply. This paper presents a hybrid simulation approach for the analysis of a grid of domestic homes equipped with different technological options with respect to efficiency and costs. For energy storage and energy flows the system dynamics modeling paradigm is used whereas control decisions are modeled as statecharts. The highly intermittent solar irradiation and also the electric power and heat demands are implemented as stochastic models. The component-based design allows for quick creation of new case studies. As examples, different homes with batteries, micro combined heat and power systems, or energy carrier carbazole as energy storage are analyzed

The problem that we are going to conquer subsequently is a slight modification of the ARGESIM Comparison 17. This comparison does ask for the simulation of a SIR-type epidemic by means of lattice gas cellular automata (LGCA). At the end of this paper we will compare the outcome of such an approach with our ABS-result. The task is to model a SIR-type epidemic, an epidemic simplified in several ways. For example we assume a constant population over the whole simulation, thus no births or deaths...

The retail sector has been identified as one of the biggest contributors to the productivity gap that persists between the UK, Europe and the USA. It is well documented that measures of UK retail productivity rank lower than those of countries with comparably developed economies. Intuitively, it seems likely that management practices are linked to a company’s productivity and performance. Significant research has been done to investigate the productivity gap and identify problems involved in estimating the size of the gap; for example the comparability of productivity indices, historical influences, general measurement issues, and varying sectoral contributions. Best practice guidelines have been developed and published, but there remains considerable inconsistency and uncertainty regarding how these are implemented and manifested at the level of the work place. Indeed, a recent report on UK productivity asserted that, “... the key to productivity remains what happens inside the firm and this is something of a ‘black box’”. Siebers and colleagues conducted a comprehensive literature review of this research area to assess linkages between management practices and firm level productivity. The authors concluded that management practices are multidimensional constructs that generally do not demonstrate a straightforward relationship with productivity variables. Empirical evidence affirms that management practices must be context specific to be effective, and in turn productivity indices must also reflect a particular organization’s activities on a local level to be a valid indicator of performance