Abstract

Abstract
Traditionally, scheduling literature has focused mainly on solving problems related to processing jobs with non- assembly operations. Despite the growing interest in the assembly literature in recent years, knowledge of the problem is still in its early stages in many aspects. In this regard, we are not aware of any previous contributions that address the assembly scheduling problem with just-in-time objectives. To fill this gap, this paper studies the 2-stage assembly scheduling problem minimising the sum of total earliness and total tardiness. We first analyse the relationship between the decision problem and the generation of the due dates of the jobs, and identify the equivalences with different related decision problems depending on the instances. The properties and conclusions obtained in the analysis are applied to design two constructive heuristics and a composite heuristic. To evaluate our proposals, different heuristics from the state-of-the-art of related scheduling problems are adapted, and a computational evaluation is carried out. The excellent behaviour of the proposed algorithms is demonstrated by an extensive computational evaluation.

Abstract
Industry 4.0 has brought innovative concepts and technologies that have greatly improved the development of more intelligent, flexible and reconfigurable systems. Two of these concepts, Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) and Digital Twins (DTs), have gained significant attention from various stakeholders, e.g., researchers, industry practitioners, and governmental organizations. Both are vital to support the digitalisation of products, machines, and systems, and they focus on the integration of physical and cyber processes, where one affects the other through feedback loops. Having this in mind, this paper aims to better understand how CPS and DT are correlated, particularly exploring their similarities and differences, their positioning within the Industry 4.0 paradigm, and their convergence to develop Industry 4.0 solutions. Some research challenges to develop Industry 4.0 solutions by integrating these concepts are also discussed.

Abstract
Various relevant aspects of our lives relate to the places we visit and our daily activities. The movement of individuals between regular places, such as work, school, or other important personal locations is getting increasing attention due to the pervasiveness of geolocation devices and the amount of data they generate. This paper presents an approach for personal location prediction using a probabilistic model and data mining techniques over mobility data streams. We extract the individuals’ locations from relevant events in a data stream to build and maintain a Markov Chain over the important places. We evaluate the method over 3 real-world datasets. The results show the usefulness of the proposal in comparison with other well-known approaches. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.

Abstract
The aim of this work is to determine, based on a market research, the level of passenger satisfaction with public transport services, in order to support better marketing decisions. This survey involves dimensions such as the level of satisfaction with timetables and frequency, vehicle conditions, driver attitudes and behavior, fares and information made available to passengers. The study was applied to the case of public transport in the Porto Metropolitan Area, Portugal, and aims to help define recommendations to improve the quality of service and define more effective marketing strategies.

Abstract
This special section features extended versions of papers originally published in the 2022 IEEE Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference (VPPC22), hosted by the University of California, Merced, USA. This was the first time that the VPPC took place in California, USA. It was a timely visit. California recently announced that only zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) will be allowed to be sold in the state by 2035. Other states and countries will surely follow. The VPPC, as one of the pioneer forums dedicated to electric mobility, is in a privileged position to create and disseminate knowledge that will help our communities transition toward sustainable transportation, improving air quality and reducing greenhouse emissions.