An experimental investigation of chatter effects on tool life

Tool wear is one of the most important considerations in machining operations as it affects surface quality and integrity, productivity and cost. The most commonly used model for tool life analysis is the one proposed by F.W. Taylor about a century ago. Although the extended form of this equation includes the effects of important cutting conditions on tool wear, tool life studies are mostly performed under stable cutting conditions where the effect of chatter vibrations are not considered. This paper presents an empirical attempt to understand tool life under vibratory cutting conditions. Tool wear data are collected in turning and milling on different work materials under stable and chatter conditions. The effects of cutting conditions as well as severity of chatter on tool life are analyzed. The results indicate significant reduction in tool life due to chatter as expected. They also show that the severity of chatter, and thus the vibration amplitude, strongly reduces the life of cutting tools. These results can be useful in evaluating the real cost of chatter by including the reduced tool life. They can also be useful in justifying the cost of chatter suppression and more rigid machining systems

Evolution of Conversations in the Age of Email Overload

Email is a ubiquitous communications tool in the workplace and plays an important role in social interactions. Previous studies of email were largely based on surveys and limited to relatively small populations of email users within organizations. In this paper, we report results of a large-scale study of more than 2 million users exchanging 16 billion emails over several months. We quantitatively characterize the replying behavior in conversations within pairs of users. In particular, we study the time it takes the user to reply to a received message and the length of the reply sent. We consider a variety of factors that affect the reply time and length, such as the stage of the conversation, user demographics, and use of portable devices. In addition, we study how increasing load affects emailing behavior. We find that as users receive more email messages in a day, they reply to a smaller fraction of them, using shorter replies. However, their responsiveness remains intact, and they may even reply to emails faster. Finally, we predict the time to reply, length of reply, and whether the reply ends a conversation. We demonstrate considerable improvement over the baseline in all three prediction tasks, showing the significant role that the factors that we uncover play, in determining replying behavior. We rank these factors based on their predictive power. Our findings have important implications for understanding human behavior and designing better email management applications for tasks like ranking unread emails.Comment: 11 page, 24th International World Wide Web Conferenc

MR-Eye:High-Resolution Microscopy Coil MRI for the Assessment of the Orbit and Periorbital Structures, Part 2: Clinical Applications

In the first part of this 2-part series, we described how to implement microscopy coil MR imaging of the orbits. Beyond being a useful anatomic educational tool, microscopy coil MR imaging has valuable applications in clinical practice. By depicting deep tissue tumor extension, which cannot be evaluated clinically, ophthalmic surgeons can minimize the surgical field, preserve normal anatomy when possible, and maximize the accuracy of resection margins. Here we demonstrate common and uncommon pathologies that may be encountered in orbital microscopy coil MR imaging practice and discuss the imaging appearance, the underlying pathologic processes, and the clinical relevance of the microscopy coil MR imaging findings.</p

Ocular surface epithelia contain ABCG2-dependent side population cells exhibiting features associated with stem cells.

When cell populations are incubated with the DNA-binding dye Hoechst 33342 and subjected to flow cytometry analysis for Hoechst 33342 emissions, active efflux of the dye by the ABCG2/BCRP1 transporter causes certain cells to appear as a segregated cohort, known as a side population (SP). Stem cells from several tissues have been shown to possess the SP phenotype. As the lack of specific surface markers has hindered the isolation and subsequent biochemical characterization of epithelial stem cells this study sought to determine the existence of SP cells and expression of ABCG2 in the epithelia of the ocular surface and evaluate whether such SP cells had features associated with epithelial stem cells. Human and rabbit limbal-corneal and conjunctival epithelial cells were incubated with Hoechst 33342, and analyzed and sorted by flow cytometry. Sorted cells were subjected to several tests to determine whether the isolated SP cells displayed features consistent with the stem cell phenotype. Side populations amounting to \u3c1% of total cells, which were sensitive to the ABCG2-inhibitor fumitremorgin C, were found in the conjunctival and limbal epithelia, but were absent from the stem cell-free corneal epithelium. Immunohistochemistry was used to establish the spatial expression pattern of ABCG2. The antigen was detected in clusters of conjunctival and limbal epithelia basal cells but was not present in the corneal epithelium. SP cells were characterized by extremely low light side scattering and contained a high percentage of cells that: showed slow cycling prior to tissue collection; exhibited an initial delay in proliferation after culturing; and displayed clonogenic capacity and resistance to phorbol-induced differentiation; all features that are consistent with a stem cell phenotype

Tool path pattern and feed direction selection in robotic milling for increased chatter-free material removal rate

Robotic milling becomes increasingly relevant to large-scale part manufacturing industries thanks to its cost-effective and portable manufacturing concept compared to large-scale CNC machine tools. Integration of milling processes with industrial robots is proposed to be well aligned with the aims and objective of the recent fourth industrial revolution. However, the industrial robots introduce position-dependent and asymmetrical dynamic flexibility, which may reflect to the tool tip dynamics under several conditions. Under such circumstances, the stability limits become dependent on the machining location and the feed direction. In this respect, selection of machining tool path patterns is crucial for increased chatter-free material removal rates (MRR). This paper proposes an approach to evaluate and select tool path patterns, offered by the existing CAM packages, for increased chatter-free MRR. The machining area is divided into number of machining locations. The optimal feed direction is decided based on the absolute stability at each region considering the asymmetrical and position-dependent tool tip dynamics. Then, the alternative tool path patterns are evaluated and the corresponding optimum feed direction is decided for increased chatter-free material removal. The application of the proposed approach is demonstrated through simulations and representative experiments

Unique and conserved MicroRNAs in wheat chromosome 5D revealed by next-generation sequencing

MicroRNAs are a class of short, non-coding, single-stranded RNAs that act as post-transcriptional regulators in gene expression. miRNA analysis of Triticum aestivum chromosome 5D was performed on 454 GS FLX Titanium sequences of flow sorted chromosome 5D with a total of 3,208,630 good quality reads representing 1.34x and 1.61x coverage of the short (5DS) and long (5DL) arms of the chromosome respectively. In silico and structural analyses revealed a total of 55 miRNAs; 48 and 42 miRNAs were found to be present on 5DL and 5DS respectively, of which 35 were common to both chromosome arms, while 13 miRNAs were specific to 5DL and 7 miRNAs were specific to 5DS. In total, 14 of the predicted miRNAs were identified in wheat for the first time. Representation (the copy number of each miRNA) was also found to be higher in 5DL (1,949) compared to 5DS (1,191). Targets were predicted for each miRNA, while expression analysis gave evidence of expression for 6 out of 55 miRNAs. Occurrences of the same miRNAs were also found in Brachypodium distachyon and Oryza sativa genome sequences to identify syntenic miRNA coding sequences. Based on this analysis, two other miRNAs: miR1133 and miR167 were detected in B. distachyon syntenic region of wheat 5DS. Five of the predicted miRNA coding regions (miR6220, miR5070, miR169, miR5085, miR2118) were experimentally verified to be located to the 5D chromosome and three of them : miR2118, miR169 and miR5085, were shown to be 5D specific. Furthermore miR2118 was shown to be expressed in Chinese Spring adult leaves. miRNA genes identified in this study will expand our understanding of gene regulation in bread wheat

The role of tool geometry in process damped milling

The complex interaction between machining structural systems and the cutting process results in machining instability, so called chatter. In some milling scenarios, process damping is a useful phenomenon that can be exploited to mitigate chatter and hence improve productivity. In the present study, experiments are performed to evaluate the performance of process damped milling considering different tool geometries (edge radius, rake and relief angles and variable helix/pitch). The results clearly indicate that variable helix/pitch angles most significantly increase process damping performance. Additionally, increased cutting edge radius moderately improves process damping performance, while rake and relief angles have a smaller and closely coupled effect

Immunological reactions and ventilatory capacity in hemp workers

Odnos imunološkog statusa i respiratornih nalaza ispitivan je u 42 radnice profesionalno izložene prašini konoplje i u 49 radnica kontrolne skupine. Najviša prevalencija pozitivnih kožnih prick testova u radnica na preradi konoplje utvrđena je za mješavinu konoplje i lana (64% ), zatim za lan (48% ), konoplju s češljara (41%), konoplju s karda (38%), konoplju s predilica i tkalačkih strojeva (33%) i konoplju s omekšivača (20%). Prevalencija pozitivnih kožnih tekstova u radnica kontrolne skupine bila je znatno niža i varirala je od 21% do 5%. Povišen ukupni IgE utvrđen je u 35,7% radnica na preradi konoplje i u 4,1% radnica kontrolne skupine (P<0,05). U radnica na preradi konoplje s pozitivnim kožnim testovima utvrđena je značajno viša prevalencija kroničnih respirator-nih simptoma nego u onih s negativnim kožnim testovima. Akutne promjene ventilacijske funkcije pluća nisu se razlikovale prema imunološkom statusu. Vodeni ekstrakt prašine konoplje uzrokovao je kontrakciju glatke muskulature traheje u eksperimentu in vitro na nesenzibiliziranoj zamorčadi. Naši rezultati upućuju na to da prašina konoplje osim imunološkim mehanizmom može djelovati i iritativno na respiratorni sustav izloženih radnika.The relationship between immunological status and respiratory function was studied in 42 hemp workers and in 49 control workers. The highest prevalence of positive skin tests was recorded for a mixture of hemp and flax (64%), followed by flax (48%), hemp on a combing machine (41%), hemp on a carding machine (38% ), hemp on spinnin~ and weaving machines (33% ), and hemp on a softening machine (20%). The prevalence of positive skin tests in control workers was smaller and varied from 21 to 5%. Increased lgE was found in 35.7% of the hemp workers and in 5.0% of the controls (P<0.05). Hemp workers with positive skin tests had a significantly higher prevalence of chronic respiratory symptoms than those with negative skin tests. Acute ventilatory capacity reductions did not differ in respect to the immunological status. An extract of hemp dust caused a constriction of an isolated guinea pig tracheal smooth muscle in vitro. Our data suggest that hemp dust as well as producing an immunological effect may exert an irritant effect on the respiratory system in exposed textile workers