A Constrained Fuzzy Knowledge-Based System for the Management of Container Yard Operations

The management of container yard operations is considered by yard operators to be a very challenging task due to the many uncertainties inherent in such operations. The storage of the containers is one of those operations that require proper management for the efficient utilisation of the yard, requiring rapid retrieval time and a minimum number of re-handlings. The main challenge is when containers of a different size, type, or weight need to be stored in a yard that holds a number of pre-existing containers. This challenge becomes even more complex when the date and time for the departure of the containers are unknown, as is the case when the container is collected by a third-party logistics company without any prior notice being given. The aim of this study is to develop a new system for the management of container yard operations that takes into consideration a number of factors and constraints that occur in a real-life situation. One of these factors is the duration of stay for the topmost containers of each stack, when the containers are stored. Because the duration of stay for containers in a yard varies dynamically over time, an ‘ON/OFF’ strategy is proposed to activate/deactivate the duration of stay factor constraint if the length of stay for these containers varies significantly over time. A number of tools and techniques are utilised for developing the proposed system including: discrete event simulation for the modelling of container storage and retrieval operations, a fuzzy know ledge-based model for the stack allocation of containers, and a heuristic algorithm called ‘neighbourhood’ for the container retrieval operation. Results show that by adopting the proposed ‘ON/OFF’ strategy, 5% of the number of re-handlings, 2.5% of the total retrieval time, 6.6% of the total re-handling time and 42% of the average waiting time per truck are reduced

The desmosomal cadherin desmoglein-3 acts as a keratinocyte anti-stress protein via suppression of p53

Desmoglein-3 (Dsg3), the Pemphigus Vulgaris (PV) antigen (PVA), plays an essential role in keratinocyte cell–cell adhesion and regulates various signaling pathways involved in the progression and metastasis of cancer where it is upregulated. We show here that expression of Dsg3 impacts on the expression and function of p53, a key transcription factor governing the responses to cellular stress. Dsg3 depletion increased p53 expression and activity, an effect enhanced by treating cells with UVB, mechanical stress and genotoxic drugs, whilst increased Dsg3 expression resulted in the opposite effects. Such a pathway in the negative regulation of p53 by Dsg3 was Dsg3 specific since neither E-cadherin nor desmoplakin knockdown caused similar effects. Analysis of Dsg3−/− mouse skin also indicated an increase of p53/p21WAF1/CIP1 and cleaved caspase-3 relative to Dsg3+/− controls. Finally, we evaluated whether this pathway was operational in the autoimmune disease PV in which Dsg3 serves as a major antigen involved in blistering pathogenesis. We uncovered increased p53 with diffuse cytoplasmic and/or nuclear staining in the oral mucosa of patients, including cells surrounding blisters and the pre-lesional regions. This finding was verified by in vitro studies where treatment of keratinocytes with PV sera, as well as a characterized pathogenic antibody specifically targeting Dsg3, evoked pronounced p53 expression and activity accompanied by disruption of cell–cell adhesion. Collectively, our findings suggThe study was supported by the Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry and Guizhou Medical University, China. The animal work was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (TR-SFB 156). Jutamas Uttagomol was supported by a scholarship from Naresuan University, Thailand

Compiler Supported Speculative Execution on SMT Processors

This paper introduces Simultaneous Speculation Scheduling---a combined compiler and architecture technique that enables speculative execution of alternative program paths if the program does not contain enough parallelism to utilize the processing potentials of a multithreaded processor. Separate threads that represent alternative program paths are generated by the compiler. All threads are simultaneously executed although only one of them follows the eventually correct program path. The architectural requirements are the ability to run two or more threads in parallel, and an enhancement of the instruction set by instructions that start respectively terminate threads. Our technique aims at multithreaded architectures, in particular simultaneous multithreaded, nanothreaded, and microthreaded processors. We show that Simultaneous Speculation Scheduling is superior to single-path branch speculation in case of unpredictable branches. Our evaluation uses program kernels from the SPECint95 b..

Scheduling Parallel Loops for Processing Linear Lists

Imperative languages such as C, FORTRAN 90 or Modula-2 are being increasingly used to program parallel computers. By using these languages, the normal programming environment is disposable, however runtime deteriorates. The problem is the existence of pointers and dynamic data structures, which prevent effective parallelization methods. Here we demonstrate a new technique for shared memory systems. The list approach with pipeline method works on a linear list in parallel. After a theoretical valuation the practical operation on a KSR1 system will be discussed. 1. Introduction For the programming of parallel computers, the use of normal imperative languages like C, Fortran 90 or Modula2 is becoming more frequent. This is true in explicit parallel programming and even in automatic parallelization. But today's compiler systems---for example the SUIF system [1]---are not able to handle pointer variables or dynamic data structures entirely. The reason is the lack of sufficient data depende..

Architecture-Dependent Partitioning of Dependence Graphs

Performance tuning of non-blocking threads is based on graph partitioning algorithms that create serial code blocks from dependence graphs. Previously existing algorithms are directed toward deadlock-avoidance and maximization of run-length. The latter criterion often generates a high synchronization overhead. This paper presents a partitioning algorithm for dependence graphs that uses a heuristic to determine a costefficient solution based on an architecture-dependent cost function. We present empirical results based on benchmark programs that were compiled with MIT's Id compiler, extended by our architecture-dependent partitioning algorithm. The results demonstrate a reduction in software overhead with our architecturedependent partitioning algorithm, compared with previously existing partitioning methods. The execution of the sample programs on an emulator for the Monsoon dataflow architecture shows a reduced number of processor cycles. 1 Introduction Programs that were designed t..