Abstract
An important goal in schedule production orders through a manufacturing facility is to assure that the work is completed as close as possible to its due date. Work that is late creates downstream delays, while early completion can be detrimental if storage space is limited. Production planning and control manufacturing is becoming more difficult as family products increase and quantity decreases. This paper presents an ongoing information system development that aims the production planning of special test tables equipment for automobile components manufacturers. The simulated based information system will be used to support planning and schedule activities; to compare and analyze the impact of planning rescheduling; to forecast the production completion date; to detect bottlenecks and to evaluate machines performance.

Abstract
This work investigates the impact of hybrid coherence protocols on non-scientific applications. We use execution-driven simulation of a scalable multiprocessor and compare the results obtained with a hybrid protocol with a well-known invalidate protocol and an update-based protocol. Our results show that for our sample programs a hybrid protocol with high threshold outperforms both the invalidate-based and update-based protocols, regardless of the type of parallelism exhibited by the benchmarks. We conclude that our applications can benefit from a hybrid protocol, and that multiprocessors designed for running these systems efficiently should adopt some form of hybrid protocol.

Abstract

Abstract
This paper describes a case study concerning the teaching of logistics in the Computers and Electrical Engineering degree at FEUP. The logistics course is taken in the last semester of the degree and there are no lectures given by the teachers. All the learning strategy is based upon the autonomous learning capacity of the students, following the widespread citation of Confucius, ‘I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand’. The students are organized in groups and their autonomous work is motivated by the presentation that each group leader has to give every other week. A discussion period follows each presentation, and can be used by the teachers to evaluate the involvement of each member of the group and to complement the presentation whenever necessary. All the students are leaders at least once. The leaders are responsible for the group management and must prepare for the ‘leaders’ meeting', where the presentation session is organized. Assessment is based both on the quality of the presentation and on the technical correctness and completeness in the way subjects are treated and on leadership skills. While the teachers evaluate the two first issues, peers evaluate leadership. © 2004, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Abstract

Abstract
We present and demonstrate a high-resolution absolute-distance measurement system based on multiple-wavelength interferometry. The information on a cavity length is obtained by sampling a fringe of its spectral response at different wavelengths. This is achieved by simultaneously tuning multiple fiber Bragg gratings. For a two wavelength system, an unambiguous measurement range of 262 µm was obtained with a resolution of 14.3 nm.