Comparison of shipbuilding and construction industries from the product structure standpoint

Copyright © 2018 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. The use of building information modelling (BIM) in construction compares to the use of product lifecycle management (PLM) in manufacturing. Previous research has shown that it is possible to improve BIM with the features and the best practices from the PLM approach. This article provides a comparison from the standpoint of the bill of materials (BOM) and product structures. It compares the product beginning of life in both construction and shipbuilding industries. The research then tries to understand the use, form and evolution of product structures and BOM concepts in shipbuilding with the aim of identifying equivalent notions in construction. Research findings demonstrate that similar concepts for structuring information exist in construction; however, the relationship between them is unclear. Further research is therefore required to detail the links identified by the authors and develop an equivalent central structuring backbone as found in PLM platforms

The stimulus control of local enclosures and barriers over head direction and place cell spatial firing

This research was supported by a grant to P.A.D. and E.R.W. from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/P002455/1).Objective: Head direction cell and place cell spatially tuned firing is often anchored to salient visual landmarks on the periphery of a recording environment. What is less well understood is whether structural features of an environment, such as orientation of a maze sub-compartment or a polarising barrier, can likewise control spatial firing. Method: We recorded from 54 head direction cells in the medial entorhinal cortex and subicular region of male Lister Hooded rats while they explored an apparatus with four parallel or four radially-arranged compartments (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, we recorded from 130 place cells (in Lister- and Long-Evans Hooded rats) and 30 head direction cells with 90° rotations of a cue card and a barrier in a single environment (Experiment 2). Results: We found that head direction cells maintained a similar preferred firing direction across four separate maze compartments even when these faced different directions (Experiment 1). However, in an environment with a single compartment, we observed that both a barrier and a cue card exerted comparable amounts of stimulus control over head direction cells and place cells (Experiment 2). Conclusion: The maintenance of a stable directional orientation across maze compartments suggests that the head direction cell system has the capacity to provide a global directional reference that allows the animal to distinguish otherwise similar maze compartments based on the compartment’s orientation. A barrier is, however, capable of controlling spatially tuned firing in an environment in which it is the sole polarising feature.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

How did they get here from there? Detecting changes of direction in terrestrial ranging

Efficient exploitation of large-scale space is crucial to many species of animal, but the difficulties of studying how animals decide on travel routes in natural environments have hampered scientific understanding of environmental cognition. Field experiments allow researchers to define travel goals for their subjects, but practical difficulties restrict large-scale studies. In contrast, data on natural travel patterns are abundant and easy to record, but hard to interpret without circularity and subjectivity when making inferences about when and why an animal began heading to a particular location. We present a method of determining objectively the point at which an animal’s travel path becomes directed at a location, for instance a distant feeding site, based on the statistical characteristics of its route. We evaluate this method and illustrate how it can be tailored to particular problems, using data that is (a) synthetic; (b) from baboons, where travel is from a single sleeping site in an overlapping home range, and (c) from chimpanzees, where sleeping sites are unlimited within a large territory. We suggest that this ‘change- point test’ might usefully become a routine first step in interpreting the decision- making behind animal travel under natural conditions

The potential for dietary factors to prevent or treat osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease for which there are no disease-modifying drugs. It is a leading cause of disability in the UK. Increasing age and obesity are both major risk factors for OA and the health and economic burden of this disease will increase in the future. Focusing on compounds from the habitual diet that may prevent the onset or slow the progression of OA is a strategy that has been under-investigated to date. An approach that relies on dietary modification is clearly attractive in terms of risk/benefit and more likely to be implementable at the population level. However, before undertaking a full clinical trial to examine potential efficacy, detailed molecular studies are required in order to optimise the design. This review focuses on potential dietary factors that may reduce the risk or progression of OA, including micronutrients, fatty acids, flavonoids and other phytochemicals. It therefore ignores data coming from classical inflammatory arthritides and nutraceuticals such as glucosamine and chondroitin. In conclusion, diet offers a route by which the health of the joint can be protected and OA incidence or progression decreased. In a chronic disease, with risk factors increasing in the population and with no pharmaceutical cure, an understanding of this will be crucial

Ultrasound morphology of carotid plaque and its link with lipid: protein content and 3d microstructure of the plaque.

the 22nd Meeting of the European Society of Neurosonology and Cerebral Hemodynamics (ESNCH), 19-21 May 2017. Berlin, Germany, and published in the International Journal of Stroke 12(1S): 57 (Poster 101), May 2017. ISSN: 1747-4930, eISSN: 1747-4949

Sulforaphane represses matrix-degrading proteases and protects cartilage from destruction in vitro and in vivo:Sulforaphane is protective in the articular Joint

Sulforaphane (SFN) has been reported to regulate signaling pathways relevant to chronic diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of SFN treatment on signaling pathways in chondrocytes and to determine whether sulforaphane could block cartilage destruction in osteoarthritis

From impulses to maladaptive actions: the insula is a neurobiological gate for the development of compulsive behavior.

Impulsivity is an endophenotype of vulnerability for compulsive behaviors. However, the neural mechanisms whereby impulsivity facilitates the development of compulsive disorders, such as addiction or obsessive compulsive disorder, remain unknown. We first investigated, in rats, anatomical and functional correlates of impulsivity in the anterior insular (AI) cortex by measuring both the thickness of, and cellular plasticity markers in, the AI with magnetic resonance imaging and in situ hybridization of the immediate early gene zif268, respectively. We then investigated the influence of bilateral AI cortex lesions on the high impulsivity trait, as measured in the five-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT), and the associated propensity to develop compulsivity as measured by high drinking levels in a schedule-induced polydipsia procedure (SIP). We demonstrate that the AI cortex causally contributes to individual vulnerability to impulsive-compulsive behavior in rats. Motor impulsivity, as measured by premature responses in the 5-CSRTT, was shown to correlate with the thinness of the anterior region of the insular cortex, in which highly impulsive (HI) rats expressed lower zif268 mRNA levels. Lesions of AI reduced impulsive behavior in HI rats, which were also highly susceptible to develop compulsive behavior as measured in a SIP procedure. AI lesions also attenuated both the development and the expression of SIP. This study thus identifies the AI as a novel neural substrate of maladaptive impulse control mechanisms that may facilitate the development of compulsive disorders.This research was carried-out within the Department of Psychology and the Department of Pharmacology of the University of Cambridge as well as the INSERM AVENIR team Psychobiology of Compulsive Disorders of the University of Poitiers. It was supported by an INSERM AVENIR grant and a FYSSEN foundation grant to DB. MLD was supported by a PhD fellowship from the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (FRM) and ABR was supported by a post-doctoral fellowship from the INSERM. BJE was supported by the United Kingdom Medical Research Council (MRC) Grant 9536855.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/mp.2015.14

Predictive use of the Maximum Entropy Production principle for Past and Present Climates

In this paper, we show how the MEP hypothesis may be used to build simple climate models without representing explicitly the energy transport by the atmosphere. The purpose is twofold. First, we assess the performance of the MEP hypothesis by comparing a simple model with minimal input data to a complex, state-of-the-art General Circulation Model. Next, we show how to improve the realism of MEP climate models by including climate feedbacks, focusing on the case of the water-vapour feedback. We also discuss the dependence of the entropy production rate and predicted surface temperature on the resolution of the model

Popular attitudes to memory, the body, and social identity : the rise of external commemoration in Britain, Ireland, and New England

A comparative analysis of samples of external memorials from burial grounds in Britain, Ireland and New England reveals a widespread pattern of change in monument style and content, and exponential growth in the number of permanent memorials from the 18th century onwards. Although manifested in regionally distinctive styles on which most academic attention has so far been directed, the expansion reflects global changes in social relationships and concepts of memory and the body. An archaeological perspective reveals the importance of external memorials in articulating these changing attitudes in a world of increasing material consumption