Simulated annealing procedure for scheduling competing tasks in flexible manufacturing

This paper presents a simulated annealing SA procedure heuristic for the problem of scheduling N tasks on a machine equipped with an automatic tool changer to minimize the makespan time. The problem is first formulated as a symmetric travelling salesman problem TSP . A local search heuristic procedure is developed, then embedded into SA algorithm to enhance its performance. The implemented SA heuristic has the following features: an exponential acceptance function with non-monotonic cooling schedule, heuristic pre-processing, and a neighbourhood of changing the sequence of a small number of tasks and named the k-interchange procedure. The algorithm is compared with an exact solution method on a set of practical-sized problems. The proposed algorithm performed very well in terms of solution quality and computation time.     

Iraqi refugees in Jordan: lessons for practice with refugees internationally

Asylum seekers, refugees who are resettled in third countries or those who are forced into refugee camps, present new challenges to social work practitioners. In an attempt to advance theory and develop specialised practice in the area of refugee studies within social work as an international profession, we argue that whatever the flight context, the country of asylum or of resettlement, there is a process underlying what Malkki referred to as refugeeness. This article focuses on the situation of Iraqi refugees in Jordan as an example of the challenges that confront today's refugees. We show that salient issues raised in a local community centre's needs assessment mirror those elements that are central to integration processes that have been discussed in much of the refugee studies literature across the world. We show how these concerns are closely linked to processes that resettled refugees and asylum seekers face, regardless of the country of resettlement. We introduce a framework for analysing an individual refugee's situation and show how an international phenomenon is linked to local practice.