1,360 research outputs found
Using the AHP to determine the correlation of product issues to profit
Analyzes the correlation between product issues and product profit using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Estimation on the effect of profit on product issues by AHP; failure of the AHP to determine the correlation factors; development of procedure for determining correlation factors
An experimental investigation into the constant velocity water entry of wedge-shaped sections
Constant velocity water entry is important in understanding planing and slamming of marine vessels. A test rig has been developed that drives a wedge section with end plates down guides to enter the water vertically at near constant velocity. Entry force and velocity are measured. Analysis of the test data shows that the wetting factor is about 1.6 at low deadrise angles and reduces nearly linearly to 1.3 at 451 deadrise angle. The added mass increases quadratically with immersed depth until the chines become wetted. It then continues to increase at a reducing rate, reaching a maximum value between 20% and 80% greater than at chine immersion. The flow momentum drag coefficient is estimated from the results to be 0.78 at 51 deadrise angle reducing to 0.41 at 451 deadrise angles. Constant velocity exit tests show that the momentum of the added mass is expended in driving the water above the surface level and that exit forces are low and equivalent to a drag coefficient of about 1.0-1.3. Considerable dynamic noise limits the accuracy of the results, particularly after chine immersion
Operative fixation of fractures in children
A total of 39 fractures of the diaphyses of long bones in 31 children were subjected to operative fixation. Indications for surgery included concomitant severe head injury, multiple injuries, patients nearing skeletal maturity, inability to obtain a satisfactory reduction by conservative means, severe soft tissue injury with or without vascular trauma, long-standing neurological disorder with incapacity and contractures, malunion, and delayed union. Although long-bone diaphyseal fractures in children are generally managed non-operatively, the use of fixation may be indicated in certain cases
The evaluation of manufacturing issues in the product development process
Many companies still do not achieve the success rates they desire with new product introductions to the market. A method has been developed to aid companies to self-evaluate their product development processes (PDP). The method meets an identified need for a non-prescriptive procedure to evaluate an existing or proposed PDP at a detailed level, both in the context of the company's own products, processes, procedures and markets, and in the context of accepted good practice.
The specification and development of the process and facilities needed for the manufacture of a product are identified as fundamental generic issues within the PDP that must be handled effectively to achieve successful product outcomes. The paper describes the main constructs of the evaluation method in relation to manufacturing issues, and presents results and findings from trials conducted in industry. It is seen that great care is needed to ensure that company practitioners make objective assessments of the important factors. Further work is planned to develop the method as an interactive computer tool and to conduct more trials
Expressiveness and Completeness in Abstraction
We study two notions of expressiveness, which have appeared in abstraction
theory for model checking, and find them incomparable in general. In
particular, we show that according to the most widely used notion, the class of
Kripke Modal Transition Systems is strictly less expressive than the class of
Generalised Kripke Modal Transition Systems (a generalised variant of Kripke
Modal Transition Systems equipped with hypertransitions). Furthermore, we
investigate the ability of an abstraction framework to prove a formula with a
finite abstract model, a property known as completeness. We address the issue
of completeness from a general perspective: the way it depends on certain
abstraction parameters, as well as its relationship with expressiveness.Comment: In Proceedings EXPRESS/SOS 2012, arXiv:1208.244
Tracing Ghost Cavities with Low Frequency Radio Observations
We present X-ray and multi-frequency radio observations of the central radio
sources in several X-ray cavity systems. We show that targeted radio
observations are key to determining if the lobes are being actively fed by the
central AGN. Low frequency observations provide a unique way to study both the
lifecycle of the central radio source as well as its energy input into the ICM
over several outburst episodes.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, To appear in the Proceedings of "Heating vs.
Cooling in Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies", eds. H. Boehringer, P.
Schuecker, G. W. Pratt & A. Finoguenov (ESO Astrophysics Symposia,
Springer-Verlag), Garching (Germany), August 200
Virus diseases of lupins virus diseases of pastures
Virus diseases of lupins.
Bean yellow mosaic virus and cucumber mosaic virus
Effect of CMV isolate
Effect of pod position
Effect of dry conditions on establishment
Effect of cultivar on seed transmission rates
Effect of reflective mulch
Survey of commercial seed stocks.
Virus disease of pastures
Bean yellow mosaic virus and cucumber and alfalfa mosaic viruses
Symptoms
Distribution
Seed-borne infection
Persistence
Recommendations for control
Lupin phyllody disorder
Barley yellow dwarf virus
Publication
Beclin 1-independent autophagy contributes to apoptosis in cortical neurons.
Neuronal autophagy is enhanced in many neurological conditions, such as cerebral ischemia and traumatic brain injury, but its role in associated neuronal death is controversial, especially under conditions of apoptosis. We therefore investigated the role of autophagy in the apoptosis of primary cortical neurons treated with the widely used and potent pro-apoptotic agent, staurosporine (STS). Even before apoptosis, STS enhanced autophagic flux, as shown by increases in autophagosomal (LC3-II level, LC3 punctate labeling) and lysosomal (cathepsin D, LAMP1, acid phosphatase, β-hexasominidase) markers. Inhibition of autophagy by 3-methyladenine, or by lentivirally-delivered shRNAs against Atg5 and Atg7, strongly reduced the STS-induced activation of caspase-3 and nuclear translocation of AIF, and gave partial protection against neuronal death. Pan-caspase inhibition with Q-VD-OPH likewise protected partially against neuronal death, but failed to affect autophagy. Combined inhibition of both autophagy and caspases gave strong synergistic neuroprotection. The autophagy contributing to apoptosis was Beclin 1-independent, as shown by the fact that Beclin 1 knockdown failed to reduce it but efficiently reduced rapamycin-induced autophagy. Moreover the Beclin 1 knockdown sensitized neurons to STS-induced apoptosis, indicating a cytoprotective role of Beclin 1 in cortical neurons. Caspase-3 activation and pyknosis induced by two other pro-apoptotic stimuli, MK801 and etoposide, were likewise found to be associated with Beclin 1-independent autophagy and reduced by the knockdown of Atg7 but not Beclin 1. In conclusion, Beclin 1-independent autophagy is an important contributor to both the caspase-dependent and -independent components of neuronal apoptosis and may be considered as an important therapeutic target in neural conditions involving apoptosis
Analysing the Control Software of the Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment at the Large Hadron Collider
The control software of the CERN Compact Muon Solenoid experiment contains
over 30,000 finite state machines. These state machines are organised
hierarchically: commands are sent down the hierarchy and state changes are sent
upwards. The sheer size of the system makes it virtually impossible to fully
understand the details of its behaviour at the macro level. This is fuelled by
unclarities that already exist at the micro level. We have solved the latter
problem by formally describing the finite state machines in the mCRL2 process
algebra. The translation has been implemented using the ASF+SDF
meta-environment, and its correctness was assessed by means of simulations and
visualisations of individual finite state machines and through formal
verification of subsystems of the control software. Based on the formalised
semantics of the finite state machines, we have developed dedicated tooling for
checking properties that can be verified on finite state machines in isolation.Comment: To appear in FSEN'11. Extended version with details of the ASF+SDF
translation of SML into mCRL
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