A CRITICAL STUDY AND COMPARISON OF MANUFACTURING SIMULATION SOFTWARES USING ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS

In a period of continuous change in global business environment, organizations, large and small, are finding it increasingly difficult to deal with, and adjust to the demands for such change. Simulation is a powerful tool for allowing designers imagines new systems and enabling them to both quantify and observe behavior. Currently the market offers a variety of simulation software packages. Some are less expensive than others. Some are generic and can be used in a wide variety of application areas while others are more specific. Some have powerful features for modeling while others provide only basic features. Modeling approaches and strategies are different for different packages. Companies are seeking advice about the desirable features of software for manufacturing simulation, depending on the purpose of its use. Because of this, the importance of an adequate approach to simulation software evaluation and comparison is apparent. This paper presents a critical evaluation of four widely used manufacturing simulators: NX-IDEAS, Star-CD, Micro Saint Sharp and ProModel. Following a review of research into simulation software evaluation, an evaluation and comparison of the above simulators is performed. This paper illustrates and assesses the role the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) played in simulation software evaluation and selection. The main purpose of this evaluation and comparison is to discover the suitability of certain types of simulators for particular purposes

A critical evaluation and comparison of four manufacturing simulators using analytic hierarchy process

In the period of continuous change in global business environment, organizations, large and small, are finding it increasingly difficult to deal with, and adjust to the demands for such change. Simulation is a powerful tool for allowing designers imagine new systems and for enabling them to both quantify and to observe behaviour. Currently the market offers a variety of simulation software packages. Some are less expensive than others. Some are generic and can be used in a wide variety of application areas while others are more specific. Some have powerful features for modelling while others provide only basic features. Modelling approaches and strategies are different for different packages. Companies are seeking advice about the desirable features of software to manufacture simulation, depending on the purpose of its use. Because of this, the importance of an adequate approach to simulation software evaluation and comparison is apparent. This paper presents a critical evaluation of four widely used manufacturing simulators: NX-IDEAS, Star-CD, Micro Saint Sharp and ProModel. Following a review of research into simulation software evaluation, an evaluation and comparison of the above simulators is performed. This paper illustrates and assesses the role the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) played in simulation software evaluation and selection. The main purpose of this evaluation and comparison is to discover the suitability of certain types of simulators for particular purposes

Improving gene trees without more data

Species tree and gene tree estimation from sequence data are two steps in many biological analyses. Computational challenges and limited amount of data often make estimating highly accurate phylogenetic trees a difficult task. Moreover, gene alignments used to estimate trees on individual loci often have low phylogenetic signal (e.g., short alignment length), resulting in poorly estimated gene trees. Species tree estimation on the other hand is challenged by individual loci having different evolutionary histories caused by a biological phenomenon known as incomplete lineage sorting (ILS). In the presence of ILS, summary methods like MP-EST, ASTRAL2, and ASTRID are often used to estimate the species tree from gene trees. Summary methods operate by combining estimated gene trees and thus suffer in the presence of low phylogenetic signal. To tackle this problem the Statistical Binning and Weighted Statistical Binning pipelines were designed to improve gene tree estimation, which in turn can improve species tree estimation. Experimental studies of these pipelines revealed that they helped in improving gene tree and species tree estimation. However, these studies only tested the weighted statistical binning and statistical binning pipelines using multi-locus bootstrapping (MLBS) and not using BestML, where MLBS and BestML are different ways to run a phylogenetic pipeline. In this thesis, a novel phylogenetic pipeline named WSB+WQMC is proposed. This pipeline shares several design features with the weighted statistical binning pipeline (referred as WSB+CAML in this thesis) but has some other desirable properties. The WSB+WQMC pipeline is also shown to be statistically consistent under the GTR+MSC model when a slightly different version of WQMC is used. In this study WSB+WQMC was evaluated and compared with the WSB+CAML pipeline on various simulated datasets using BestML analysis. Most of the trends seen in MLBS analyses were also observed for WSB+WQMC and WSB+CAML in BestML analyses with some important differences. It is shown that WSB+WQMC substantially improved the accuracy of gene tree and species tree estimation using ASTRAL2 and ASTRID on most datasets having low, medium, and moderately high levels of ILS. Compared to WSB+CAML, it was found that WSB+WQMC computed less accurate gene trees and species trees in certain model conditions having low and medium levels of ILS. However, WSB+WQMC was found to be better and at least as accurate as WSB+CAML in computing gene trees and species trees on all datasets having moderately high and high ILS levels. WSB+WQMC is also shown to be better in estimating gene trees on certain medium and low ILS datasets. Thus, WSB+WQMC is a potential alternative to WSB+CAML for gene tree and species tree estimation in the presence of low phylogenetic signal

Investigation of the Relationship between Right Coronary Artery–Aorta Angle and Coronary Artery Disease and Associated Risk Factors

At the level of the left coronary artery tree, there is evidence showing an association between bifurcation angle and coronary artery disease (CAD), and this motivated us to explore similar associations at the level of the right coronary artery (RCA). The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a relationship between RCA–aorta angle and CAD and age, sex, body mass index, smoking status, hypertension, and high blood cholesterol. The coronary computed tomography angiography datasets and CAD risk factor checklists of 250 patients were retrospectively reviewed, with RCA–aorta angles measured via multiplanar reformation images. Independent t-tests were used to compare mean RCA–aorta angle measurements between groups, correlations between continuous variables were assessed using Pearson and Spearman correlations, and a general linear model was used to adjust for potentially confounding variables. Coronary angle measurements were conducted by two independent assessors with very strong intraclass correlation (r=0.999, p<0.001 ). A significantly smaller mean RCA–aorta angle was observed in the CAD group (79.07 ± 24.88°) compared to the normal group (92.08 ± 19.51°, p=0.001 ), in smokers (76.63 ± 22.94°) compared to non-smokers (85.25 ± 23.84°, p=0.016 ), and a narrow RCA–aorta angle was negatively correlated with BMI (r=−0.174, p=0.010). This study suggests a relationship between narrow RCA–aorta angles and CAD, smoking, and increasing BMI

Derandomizing Isolation Lemma for K3,3-free and K5-free Bipartite Graphs

The perfect matching problem has a randomized NC algorithm, using the celebrated Isolation Lemma of Mulmuley, Vazirani and Vazirani. The Isolation Lemma states that giving a random weight assignment to the edges of a graph, ensures that it has a unique minimum weight perfect matching, with a good probability. We derandomize this lemma for K3,3-free and K5-free bipartite graphs, i.e. we give a deterministic log-space construction of such a weight assignment for these graphs. Such a construction was known previously for planar bipartite graphs. Our result implies that the perfect matching problem for K3,3-free and K5-free bipartite graphs is in SPL. It also gives an alternate proof for an already known result – reachability for K3,3-free and K5-free graphs is in UL.

Short clinical crowns (SCC) ' treatment considerations and techniques

When the clinical crowns of teeth are dimensionally inadequate, esthetically and biologically acceptable restoration of these dental units is difficult. Often an acceptable restoration cannot be accomplished without first surgically increasing the length of the existing clinical crowns; therefore, successful management requires an understanding of both the dental and periodontal parameters of treatment. The complications presented by teeth with short clinical crowns demand a comprehensive treatment plan and proper sequencing of therapy to ensure a satisfactory result. Visualization of the desired result is a prerequisite of successful therapy. This review examines the periodontal and restorative factors related to restoring teeth with short clinical crowns. Modes of therapy are usually combined to meet the biologic, restorative, and esthetic requirements imposed by short clinical crowns. In this study various methods for treating short clinical crowns are reviewed, the role that restoration margin location play in the maintenance of periodontal and dental symbiosis and the effects of violation of the supracrestal gingivae by improper full-coverage restorations has also been discussed

Pulmonary lymphoma mimicking metastases: a case report

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

History of materials used for recording static and dynamic occlusal contact marks: a literature review

In the discipline of prosthetic dentistry it is important not only to examine the occlusion, but to be able to record, store, and transfer the information. Over the years many occlusion testing materials have been used. It has been suggested the clinical recording and transfer of information using waxes and other occlusion recording materials have disadvantages relating to inaccuracy and problems of manipulation. Therefore, there has been introduction of many new systems for recording occlusion contacts to overcome such problems. The correct physiological recovery of occlusion posses as much a challenge as ever for every dentist and technician. Even the smallest high spots measuring just a few microns can cause dysfunctions like temporo-mandibular pain. Occlusal proportions are being constantly changed with every procedure. Therefore, an understanding of the synergy of the teeth in static and dynamic occlusion forms the basis of good dentistry. The purpose of this review article is to give and overview of the various materials and methods that have been used to record occlusal contact marks