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From airplanes to electric vehicles and trains, modern transportation systems require large quantities of energy. These vast amounts of energy have to be produced somewhere—ideally by using sustainable sources—and then brought to the transportation system. Energy is a scarce and costly resource, which cannot always be produced from renewable sources. Therefore, it is critical to consume energy as efficiently as possible, that is, transportation activities need to be carried out with an optimal intake of energetic means. This paper reviews existing work on the optimization of energy consumption in the area of transportation, including road freight, passenger rail, maritime, and air transportation modes. The paper also analyzes how optimization methods—of both exact and approximate nature—have been used to deal with these energy-optimization problems. Finally, it provides insights and discusses open research opportunities regarding the use of new intelligent algorithms—combining metaheuristics with simulation and machine learning—to improve the efficiency of energy consumption in transportation.

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Article (the "Article") entitled: Methodological approaches to supply chain design Article DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2017.1412526 Author(s): Gema Calleja, Albert Corominas, Carme Martinez-Costa, Rocío de la Torre To publish in the Journal: International Journal of Production Research Journal ISSN: 1366-588XThis paper reviews methodological approaches to the design (or redesign) of the supply chain (SC), including comprehensive approaches (proposals concerning the entire process of designing the SC) and those that deal with four specific aspects of the process (definition of the SC objectives, reverse SC, finance, and generation and use of scenarios) that have a decisive influence on the whole design of the SC. The comprehensive approaches include those based on typologies of products, markets and SCs and those that propose a succession of the stages to follow through the design process. The discussion shows that the use of typologies is not adequate to face SC design and that the methods proposing a succession of stages may suit, provided that they are developed and presented in a manner appropriate to their use for practitioners. The discussion leads also to suggest several research linesPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

The prevailing need for a more sustainable management of natural resources depends not only on the decisions made by governments and the will of the population, but also on the knowledge of the role of energy in our society and the relevance of preserving natural resources. In this sense, critical work is being done to instill key concepts—such as the circular economy and sustainable energy—in higher education institutions. In this way, it is expected that future professionals and managers will be aware of the importance of energy optimization, and will learn a series of computational methods that can support the decision-making process. In the context of higher education, this paper reviews the main trends and challenges related to the concepts of circular economy and sustainable energy. Besides, we analyze the role of simulation and serious games as a learning tool for the aforementioned concepts. Finally, the paper provides insights and discusses open research opportunities regarding the use of these computational tools to incorporate circular economy concepts in higher education degrees. Our findings show that, while efforts are being made to include these concepts in current programs, there is still much work to be done, especially from the point of view of university management. In addition, the analysis of the teaching methodologies analyzed shows that, although their implementation has been successful in favoring the active learning of students, their use (especially that of serious games) is not yet widespread.

The need for effective freight and human transportation systems has consistently increased during the last decades, mainly due to factors such as globalization, e-commerce activities, and mobility requirements. Traditionally, transportation systems have been designed with the main goal of reducing their monetary cost while offering a specified quality of service. During the last decade, however, sustainability concepts are also being considered as a critical component of transportation systems, i.e., the environmental and social impact of transportation activities have to be taken into account when managers and policy makers design and operate modern transportation systems, whether these refer to long-distance carriers or to metropolitan areas. This paper reviews the existing work on different scientific methodologies that are being used to promote Sustainable Transportation Systems (STS), including simulation, optimization, machine learning, and fuzzy sets. This paper discusses how each of these methodologies have been employed to design and efficiently operate STS. In addition, the paper also provides a classification of common challenges, best practices, future trends, and open research lines that might be useful for both researchers and practitioners.

Background & Aims: Despite the wide spectrum of experimental compounds tested in clinical trials, there is still no proven pharmacological treatment available for Fragile-X syndrome (FXS), since several targeted clinical trials with high expectations of success have failed to demonstrate significant improvements. Here we tested epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) as a treatment option for ameliorating core cognitive and behavioral features in FXS. Methods We conducted preclinical studies in Fmr1 knockout mice (Fmr1-/y) using novel objectrecognition memory paradigm upon acute EGCG (10 mg/kg) administration. Furthermore we conducted a double-blind placebo-controlled phase I clinical trial (TESFXS; NCT01855971). Twenty-seven subjects with FXS (18-55 years) were administered of EGCG (5-7 mg/kg/day) combined with cognitive training (CT) during 3 months with 3 months of follow-up after treatment discontinuation. Results Preclinical studies showed an improvement in memory in the novel object recognition paradigm. We found that FXS patients receiving EGCG+CT significantly improved cognition (visual episodic memory) and functional competence (ABAS II-Home Living skills) in everyday life compared to subjects receiving Placebo+CT. Conclusions Phase 2 clinical trials in larger groups of subjects are necessary to establish the therapeutic potential of EGCG for the improvement of cognition and daily life competences in FXS.

This paper proposes a model for dealing with the long term staff composition planning in public universities. University academic staff is organized in units (or departments) according to their field of expertise. The staff for each unit is distributed in a set of categories, each one characterized by their teaching hours, cost and other specificities. Besides the use for planning (and updating a plan), the model can be used to assess the impact that different strategies may have on the personnel costs and the structure of a university. The proposed model is formulated generally, so it can be applied to different types of universities attending to their characteristics. The model is applied to a real case and validated by means of a computational experiment considering several scenarios. The analysis is focused on achieving a preferable academic staff composition under service level constraints while also minimizing the associated economic expenditures considering a long term horizon. The results show that the model successes in approaching the staff composition to a previously defined pattern preferable one. staff in the medium or short term is very limited (due both to regulations on promotions and hiring and to the difficulty in finding people with enough expertise and knowledge in some areas); and second, because the available budget to use on staff decisions (mainly on hiring and promotions) is tight, especially in situations of economic crisis like the actual one, with public funding becoming lower and lower. Resources have to be used in an efficient way, and this means leading to the workforce (size and composition) that covers the needs of the organization in an appropriate way, which obviously is not possible if a correct staff plan is designed in advance. Besides, it is important to note that the staff planning in universities is also a very relevant problem for other reasons, such as the competition to attract the best professors, pupils and research funding (Taylor and Miroiu, 2002).The numerous changes (both external and internal) that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have been facing during the last decades motivated for the first time in the eighties of the 20 th century the development of the strategic management in universities (based on the experiences in companies). In the eighties also took place the widely movement of NPM (New Public Management), which hold the hypothesis that market oriented management of the public sector would lead to greater cost-efficiency for governments, without having negative side-effects on other objectives and considerations (Hood, 1991). However, the staff planning was not included in the strategic management (Llinàs-Audet et al., 2010). Several universities have carried out actions for the definition of the strategic planning. That is why the strategic staff planning in universities is a hot topic and very timely. In this sense, and as Hunt et al. (1997) pointed out, the strategic staff planning would permit universities to optimize their resources, thus achi...