Contemporary morphological patterns: morphometric analysis of open spaces in different types of urban lots in the city of Uberlândia-MG

The main objective of this study is to explore the influence and reflexes of urban and environmental legislation on the production, configuration, and distribution of urban open spaces. The work is based on the premise that, over the last years, legislation has played an important role in the composition of the urban spatial mosaic, especially regarding the need and obligation of all new lots to reserve, in the lottable land, a minimum percentage of open spaces, understood in this research as the road network, public recreation areas, permanent environmental protection areas, municipal easements and property easements. The object of this observation are the urban lots approved by the city of Uberlândia since 2000, a period in which several factors forced the city to adjust to the new urban development instruments and to the master plan, mainly the city’s rapid growth, also a result of the growth of the Brazilian real estate market. We applied the morphometric methodology, using the QGIS software to quantify open space and analyze measurements and rates of the morphological elements based on the legal parameters. The result was the identification of the way open spaces were designed in the analyzed projects, their spatial relations, morphological typology and distribution patterns, uncovering recurring patterns that characterize the landscape of many medium-sized Brazilian cities.

INFN Tier–1: a distributed site

The INFN Tier-1 center at CNAF has been extended in 2016 and 2017 in order to include a small amount of resources (∼ 22 kHS06 corresponding to ∼ 10% of the CNAF pledges for LHC in 2017) physically located at the Bari-ReCas site (∼ 600 km distant from CNAF). In 2018, a significant fraction of the CPU power (∼ 170 kHS06, equivalent to ∼ 50% of the total CNAF pledges) is going to be provided via a collaboration with the PRACE Tier-0 CINECA center (a few km from CNAF), thus building a truly geographically distributed (WAN) center. The two sites are going to be interconnected via an high bandwidth link (400-1200 Gb/s), in order to ensure a transparent access to data residing on CNAF storage; the latency between the centers is small enough not to require particular caching strategies. In this contribution we describe the issues and the results of the production configuration, focusing both on the management aspects and on the performance provided to end-users.

Additive manufacturing in the spare parts supply chain: hub configuration and technology maturity

PurposeInnovative startups have begun a trend using laser sintering (LS) technology patents expiration, namely, by introducing LS additive manufacturing (AM) machines that can overcome utilization barriers, such as the costliness of machines and productivity limitation. The recent rise of this trend has led the authors to investigate this new class of machines in novel settings, including hub configuration. There are various supply chain configurations to supply spare parts in industrial operations. This paper aims to explore the promise of a production configuration that combines the benefits of centralized production with the flexibility of local manufacturing without the huge costs related to it.Design/methodology/approachThis study quantitatively examines the feasibility of different AM-enabled spare parts supply chain configurations. Using cost data extracted from a case study, three scenarios per AM machine technology are modeled and compared.FindingsResults suggest that hub production configuration depending on the utilized AM machines can provide economic efficiency and effectiveness to reduce equipment downtime. While previous studies have suggested the need for AM machines with efficiency for single part production for a distributed supply chain, the findings in this research illustrate the positive relationship between multi-part production capability and the feasibility of a hub manufacturing configuration establishment.Originality/valueThis study explores the promise of a production configuration that combines the benefits of centralized production with the flexibility of local manufacturing without the huge costs related to it. Although the existing body of knowledge contains research on production decentralization, research on various levels of decentralization is lacking. Using a real-world case study, this study aims to compare the feasibility of different levels of decentralization for AM-enabled spare parts supply chains.