Survey of unified approaches to integrated-service networks

The increasing demand for communication services, coupled with recent technological advances in communication media and switching techniques, has resulted in a proliferation of new and expanded services. Currently, networks are needed which can transmit voice, data, and video services in an application-independent fashion. Unified approaches employ a single switching technique across the entire network bandwidth, thus, allowing services to be switched in an application-independent manner. This paper presents a taxonomy of integrated-service networks including a look at N-ISDN, while focusing on unified approaches to integrated-service networks.The two most promising unified approaches are burst and fast packet switching. Burst switching is a circuit switching-based approach which allocates channel bandwidth to a connection only during the transmission of "bursts" of information. Fast packet switching is a packet switching-based approach which can be characterized by very high transmission rates on network links and simple, hardwired protocols which match the rapid channel speed of the network. Both approaches are being proposed as possible implementations for integrated-service networks. We survey these two approaches, and also examine the key performance issues found in fast packet switching. We then present the results of a simulation study of a fast packet switching network

Design considerations for a monolithic, GaAs, dual-mode, QPSK/QASK, high-throughput rate transceiver

A monolithic, GaAs, dual mode, quadrature amplitude shift keying and quadrature phase shift keying transceiver with one and two billion bits per second data rate is being considered to achieve a low power, small and ultra high speed communication system for satellite as well as terrestrial purposes. Recent GaAs integrated circuit achievements are surveyed and their constituent device types are evaluated. Design considerations, on an elemental level, of the entire modem are further included for monolithic realization with practical fabrication techniques. Numerous device types, with practical monolithic compatability, are used in the design of functional blocks with sufficient performances for realization of the transceiver

Throughput enhancement with parallel redundancy in multi-product flow line system

We develop a new analytic approximation method to replace a set of parallel machines by an equivalent machine in a series-parallel flow line with finite buffer. We develop our method based on discrete state Markov chain. The proposed technique replaces a set of parallel machines at a work centre by an equivalent machine in order to obtain a traditional flow line with machines in series separated by intermediate buffers. We derive equations for the parameters of the equivalent machine when it operates in isolation as well as in flow line. The existing analytic methods for series-parallel systems can tract only lines with a maximum of two machines in series and a buffer in-between them. The method we propose in this thesis can be used in conjunction with an approximation method or simulation to solve flow lines of any length. We also model and evaluate the performance of series-parallel systems manufacturing more than one product types with predefined sequence and lot size. We address this issue for a considerable longer flow line system with finite buffer which is common in industry. We consider the set-up time of the machines as the product type changes, deterministic processing times and operation dependent failures of the machines. We analyze the effects of buffer and number of machines in parallel on the performance of series-parallel systems

Simvastatin Enhances Immune Responses to Aβ Vaccination and Attenuates Vaccination-Induced Behavioral Alterations

Statins are widely used to lower cholesterol levels by inhibiting cholesterol biosynthesis. Some evidence has indicated that statins might have therapeutic and preventive benefits for Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD). We and others also have shown the beneficial effect of statin treatment in reversing learning and memory deficits in animal models of AD. However, data from clinical trials are inconclusive. We previously documented that the adenovirus vector encoding 11 tandem repeats of Aβ1-6 fused to the receptor-binding domain (Ia) of Pseudomonas exotoxin A, AdPEDI-(Aβ1-6)(11), is effective in inducing an immune response against amyloid-β protein (Aβ) and reducing brain Aβ load in Alzheimer\u27s mouse models. In the present study, we examined whether the administration of simvastatin can modulate immune and behavioral responses of C57BL/6 mice to vaccination. Simvastatin was given to the animals as a diet admixture for four weeks, followed by nasal vaccination with AdPEDI-(Aβ1-6)(11) once per week for four weeks. The cholesterol-lowering action of simvastatin was monitored by measuring the cholesterol levels in plasma. Simvastatin significantly increased the number of the mice responding to vaccination compared with the mice receiving only AdPEDI-(Aβ1-6)(11). Immunoglobulin isotyping revealed that the vaccination predominantly induced Th2 immune responses. Simvastatin treatment prevented Aβ-induced production of IFN-γ in splenocytes. The adenovirus vaccination altered mouse behavior in T- and elevated plus-maze tests and simvastatin counteracted such behavioral changes. Our results indicate that simvastatin clearly enhances the immune responses of C57BL/6 mice to the nasal vaccination with AdPEDI-(Aβ1-6)(11). Simvastatin may be effective in preventing behavioral changes associated with vaccination

PHARMACEUTICAL SCHEDULING USING SIMULATED ANNEALING AND STEEPEST DESCENT METHOD

In the pharmaceutical manufacturing world, a deadline could be the difference between losing a multimillion-dollar contract or extending it. This, among many other reasons, is why good scheduling methods are vital. This problem report addresses Flexible Flowshop (FF) scheduling using Simulated Annealing (SA) in conjunction with the Steepest Descent heuristic (SD). FF is a generalized version of the flowshop problem, where each product goes through S number of stages, where each stage has M number of machines. As opposed to a normal flowshop problem, all ‘jobs’ do not have to flow in the same sequence from stage to stage. The SA metaheuristic is a global optimization method for solving hard combinatorial optimization problems. SD is a local search method that keeps track only of the current solution and moves only to neighboring permutations based on the largest decrease in the objective function value. The goal of this problem report is to use FF in conjunction with SA to minimize the makespan (length of schedule) in a pharmaceutical manufacturing environment. There are 4 total stages in the tentative production route: granulation, compression, coating, and packaging. This process will be uniform; as in, each stage will have the same number of identical machines. In this study, SA solved the illustrative small-scale example problems precisely and efficiently using a very small amount of computation time. Afterward, the SD heuristic is used to ensure that the best solution found by SA is a local optimum. SD did not improve upon the solutions found by SA