Abstract
Companies are increasingly including their corporate social responsibility into their business strategy. The environmental issues assume here a priority role. In order to get a balance in economic, social and environmental trade-offs, companies need to consider multiple objectives, namely related to the allocation of resources and investments, which can cause contradictory opinions among diverse stakeholders. Companies should incorporate into the decision-making process tangible and intangible elements, identifying and structuring objectives in a consistent way, in order to choose sustainable options for the company and create compromises between stakeholders. The main motivation of this paper is to present a methodology or framework to support decision-making and appraisal of corporate environmental strategies and subsequent management approaches. In order to gain a closer view over the proposed approach, we will present the preliminary results illustrated with examples from an ongoing case study within a public passenger transport company. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.

Abstract
Industrial companies are faced today with strong competition and fast changing markets. To reduce the risk and evaluate alternatives, simulation is often considered to be an adequate tool. Industrial companies' simulation models must have enough internal detail to be useful but, at the same time, must take into account the external environmental behaviour. Distributed simulation has specific characteristics to allow the integration of these models but its complexity limits its use in industry as stated in the literature. To overcome these difficulties, a framework is proposed, using Agent-based Modelling and Simulation (ABMS) technique and offering communication and synchronization mechanisms, which allow the integration of simulation models in the industrial area. To promote semantic interoperability, a business language is also proposed based on the OASIS Universal Business Language (UBL). To validate the framework a prototype was developed. The experiments made with the prototype shows that a distributed simulation can be more efficient than a single computer simulation as the number of agents increases in the model.

Abstract
This work discusses on the simulation of a ship crew reaction in controlling damage in a single watertight compartment, taking into account ship's hydrostatics and equipment limitation. Three different simulators were built which exchange data using High Level Architecture concepts, implemented with an open source RTI called CERTI and a MatlabHLA Tollbox.

Abstract
This paper is concerned with the use of simulation as a decision support tool in maintenance systems, specifically in MFS (Maintenance Float Systems). For this purpose and due to its high complexity, in this paper the authors explore and present a way to develop a flexible MFS model, for any number of machines in the workstation, spare machines and maintenance crews, using Arena simulation language. Also in this paper, some of the most common performance measures are identified, calculated and analysed. Nevertheless this paper would concentrate on the two most important performance measures in maintenance systems: system availability and maintenance total cost. As far as these two indicators are concerned, it was then quite clear that they assumed different behaviour patterns, especially when using extreme values for periodic overhauls rates. In this respect, system availability proved to be a more sensitive parameter.

Abstract

Abstract
The adoption of mobile payment systems is known to face multiple concerns regarding security, usability and value proposition. In this work, we start from the assumption that initial acceptance will always be weak because of the lack of an established usage frame. Instead, we focus on understanding how we can leverage upon the real contact with the technology to create a solid path for gradual acceptance through the development of new practices and the increasing perception of value. In this study, we report on our findings with a real-world prototype of a NFC-based payment system. We identify a set of design lessons that may help to improve the initial phases of NFC-based payment deployments and provide a path for the adoption that focuses on positive initial user experiences and early adoption scenarios. © Springer International Publishing 2013.