A machine control shell for next generation manufacturing machines

There is a growing pressure on many manufacturing oganisations to produce products in small volumes. However, to date, most automation projects have centred on high volume production. The major impediment to the application of programmable automation lies in the high cost of engineering solutions. Already a range of control system components are available to produce flexible automation schemes but as yet the selection and use of those components is a highly specialised exercise which is generally not well understood. This paper describes the need for an open control architecture for programmable machines and outlines findings of a proof of concept research project aimed at formalising the design of control systems. The work has resulted in a “motion control shell' which can much reduce the cost and time involved when building machine controllers

Order and nFl Behavior in UCu4Pd

We have studied the role of disorder in the non-Fermi liquid system UCu4Pd using annealing as a control parameter. Measurement of the lattice parameter indicates that this procedure increases the crystallographic order by rearranging the Pd atoms from the 16e to the 4c sites. We find that the low temperature properties depend strongly on annealing. Whereas the non-Fermi liquid behavior in the specific heat can be observed over a larger temperature range after annealing, the clear non-Fermi liquid behavior of the resistivity of the unannealed sample below 10 K disappears. We come to the conclusion that this argues against the Kondo disorder model as an explanation for the non-Fermi liquid properties of both as-prepared and annealed UCu4Pd

Semigroup Closures of Finite Rank Symmetric Inverse Semigroups

We introduce the notion of semigroup with a tight ideal series and investigate their closures in semitopological semigroups, particularly inverse semigroups with continuous inversion. As a corollary we show that the symmetric inverse semigroup of finite transformations $\mathscr{I}_\lambda^n$ of the rank $\leqslant n$ is algebraically closed in the class of (semi)topological inverse semigroups with continuous inversion. We also derive related results about the nonexistence of (partial) compactifications of classes of semigroups that we consider.Comment: With the participation of the new coauthor - Jimmie Lawson - the manuscript has been substantially revised and expanded. Accordingly, we have also changed the manuscript titl

Effect of aerosol radiative forcing uncertainty on projected exceedance year of a 1.5 °c global temperature rise

© 2020 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd. Anthropogenic aerosol emissions are predicted to decline sharply throughout the 21st century, in line with climate change and air quality mitigation policies, causing a near-term warming of climate that will impact our trajectory towards 1.5 °C above pre-industrial temperatures. However, the persistent uncertainty in aerosol radiative forcing limits our understanding of how much the global mean temperature will respond to near-term reductions in anthropogenic aerosol emissions. We quantify the model and scenario uncertainty in global mean aerosol radiative forcing up to 2050 using statistical emulation of a perturbed parameter ensemble for emission reduction scenarios consistent with three Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. We then use a simple climate model to translate the uncertainty in aerosol radiative forcing into uncertainty in global mean temperature projections, accounting additionally for the potential correlation of aerosol radiative forcing and climate sensitivity. Near-term aerosol radiative forcing uncertainty alone causes an uncertainty window of around 5 years (2034-2039) on the projected year of exceeding a global temperature rise of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial temperatures for a middle of the road emissions scenario (SSP2-RCP4.5). A correlation between aerosol radiative forcing and climate sensitivity would increase the 1.5 °C exceedance window by many years. The results highlight the importance of quantifying aerosol radiative forcing and any relationship with climate sensitivity in climate models in order to reduce uncertainty in temperature projections

Two Types of Planning in Neighborhoods

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68338/2/10.1177_0739456X8400300209.pd

The effect of autonomy, training opportunities, age and salaries on job satisfaction in the South East Asian retail petroleum industry

South East Asian petroleum retailers are under considerable pressure to improve service quality by reducing turnover. An empirical methodology from this industry determined the extent to which job characteristics, training opportunities, age and salary influenced the level of job satisfaction, an indicator of turnover. Responses are reported on a random sample of 165 site employees (a 68% response rate) of a Singaporean retail petroleum firm. A restricted multivariate regression model of autonomy and training opportunities explained the majority (35.4%) of the variability of job satisfaction. Age did not moderate these relationships, except for employees >21 years of age, who reported enhanced job satisfaction with additional salary. Human Capital theory, Life Cycle theory and Job Enrichment theory are invoked and explored in the context of these findings in the South East Asian retail petroleum industry. In the South East Asian retail petroleum industry, jobs providing employees with the opportunity to undertake a variety of tasks that enhanced the experienced meaningfulness of work are likely to promote job satisfaction, reduce turnover and increase the quality of service