A Flowshop Scheduling Problem With Transportation Times and Capacity Constraints

Although there are numerous methodologies and research studies on machine scheduling, most of the literature assumes that there is an unlimited number of transporters to deliver jobs from one machine to another for further processing and that transportation times can be neglected. These two assumptions are not applicable if one intends to generate an accurate schedule for the shop floor. In this research, a flowshop scheduling problem with two machines, denoted as M1 and M2, and a single transporter with capacity c is considered. The main focus is on the development of a dynamic programming algorithm to generate a schedule that minimizes the makespan. The transporter takes t1 time units to travel with at least one job from machine M1 to machine M2, and t2 time units to return empty to machine M1. When the processing times for all n jobs on machine M1 are constant, denoted as pj1≡p1, and the capacity of the transporter c is at least ()12121−⎥⎥⎤⎢⎢⎡+ptt, the computational complexity of the proposed algorithm is shown to be

'Vernacular Voices: Black British Poetry'

ABSTRACT Black British poetry is the province of experimenting with voice and recording rhythms beyond the iambic pentameter. Not only in performance poetry and through the spoken word, but also on the page, black British poetry constitutes and preserves a sound archive of distinct linguistic varieties. In Slave Song (1984) and Coolie Odyssey (1988), David Dabydeen employs a form of Guyanese Creole in order to linguistically render and thus commemorate the experience of slaves and indentured labourers, respectively, with the earlier collection providing annotated translations into Standard English. James Berry, Louise Bennett, and Valerie Bloom adapt Jamaican Patois to celebrate Jamaican folk culture and at times to represent and record experiences and linguistic interactions in the postcolonial metropolis. Grace Nichols and John Agard use modified forms of Guyanese Creole, with Nichols frequently constructing gendered voices whilst Agard often celebrates linguistic playfulness. The borders between linguistic varieties are by no means absolute or static, as the emergence and marked growth of ‘London Jamaican’ (Mark Sebba) indicates. Asian British writer Daljit Nagra takes liberties with English for different reasons. Rather than having recourse to established Creole languages, and blending them with Standard English, his heteroglot poems frequently emulate ‘Punglish’, the English of migrants whose first language is Punjabi. Whilst it is the language prestige of London Jamaican that has been significantly enhanced since the 1990s, a fact not only confirmed by linguistic research but also by its transethnic uses both in the streets and on the page, Nagra’s substantial success and the mainstream attention he receives also indicate the clout of vernacular voices in poetry. They have the potential to connect with oral traditions and cultural memories, to record linguistic varieties, and to endow ‘street cred’ to authors and texts. In this chapter, these double-voiced poetic languages are also read as signs of resistance against residual monologic ideologies of Englishness. © Book proposal (02/2016): The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing p. 27 of 4

Identification and Characterization of a Second lexA Gene of Xanthomonas axonopodis Pathovar citri

We previously identified and characterized a lexA gene from Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri. For this study, we cloned and expressed a lexA homologue from X. axonopodis pv. citri. This gene was designated lexA2, and the previously identified lexA gene was renamed lexA1. The coding region of lexA2 is 606 bp long and shares 59% nucleotide sequence identity with lexA1. Analyses of the deduced amino acid sequence revealed that LexA2 has structures that are characteristic of LexA proteins, including a helix-turn-helix DNA binding domain and conserved amino acid residues required for the autocleavage of LexA. The lexA2 mutant, which was constructed by gene replacement, was 4 orders of magnitude more resistant to the DNA-damaging agent mitomycin C at 0.1 μg/ml and 1 order of magnitude more resistant to another DNA-damaging agent, methylmethane sulfonate at 30 μg/ml, than the wild type. A lexA1 lexA2 double mutant had the same degree of susceptibility to mitomycin C as the lexA1 or lexA2 single mutant but was 1 order of magnitude more resistant to methylmethane sulfonate at 30 μg/ml than the lexA1 or lexA2 single mutant. These results suggest that LexA1 and LexA2 play different roles in regulating the production of methyltransferases that are required for repairing DNA damage caused by methylmethane sulfonate. A mitomycin C treatment also caused LexA2 to undergo autocleavage, as seen with LexA1. The results of electrophoresis mobility shift assays revealed that LexA2 does not bind the lexA1 promoter. It binds to both the lexA2 and recA promoters. However, neither LexA2 nor LexA1 appears to regulate recA expression, as lexA1, lexA2, and lexA1 lexA2 mutants did not become constitutive for recA transcription and RecA production. These results suggest that recA expression in X. axonopodis pv. citri is regulated by mechanisms that have yet to be identified

Single machine scheduling with consideration of preventive maintenance and machine health

Because of Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things, it is easier to collect data from machines through sensors that are embedded inside machines. Once the status change of a machine is detected, production on that machine may need to be adjusted accordingly. In this research, we focus on single machine scheduling with considering the Preventive Maintenance (PM) and machine health index. Machine health index is categorized into three states: good, fair, and breakdown. When the machine moves from one state to another, the processing time of jobs will change as well as the machine failure rate. We develop a model to determine an optimal interval of performing PM and production sequence of jobs. A two-phase heuristic method is proposed to solve a large-size problem. Through different parameter settings, such as the machine failure rate, number of jobs, repair and maintenance cost, we show that the two-phase heuristic can obtain a solution with high quality

Single machine scheduling with consideration of preventive maintenance and machine health

Because of Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things, it is easier to collect data from machines through sensors that are embedded inside machines. Once the status change of a machine is detected, production on that machine may need to be adjusted accordingly. In this research, we focus on single machine scheduling with considering the Preventive Maintenance (PM) and machine health index. Machine health index is categorized into three states: good, fair, and breakdown. When the machine moves from one state to another, the processing time of jobs will change as well as the machine failure rate. We develop a model to determine an optimal interval of performing PM and production sequence of jobs. A two-phase heuristic method is proposed to solve a large-size problem. Through different parameter settings, such as the machine failure rate, number of jobs, repair and maintenance cost, we show that the two-phase heuristic can obtain a solution with high quality

Development of a computer-based visualised quantitative learning system for playing violin vibrato

Traditional methods of teaching music are largely subjective, with the lack of objectivity being particularly challenging for violin students learning vibrato because of the existence of conflicting theories. By using a computer‐based analysis method, this study found that maintaining temporal coincidence between the intensity peak and the target frequency is the crucial factor for achieving good intonation when performing vibrato. This finding prompted the development of a computer‐based visualised quantitative vibrato analysis system (VQVA‐Sys) that displays these two parameters in a user‐friendly manner for both musicians and scientists: (1) the type of frequency variation and (2) the corresponding frequencies with the highest intensities during all of the cycles constituting a vibrato note. A follow‐up preliminary experimental investigation compared a moderately expressive vibrato note played by eight experts and eight students, and demonstrated the feasibility and potential usefulness of the VQVA‐Sys as a learning tool

Optimal contract design for cloud computing service with resource service guarantee

<p>The optimal contract design for cloud computing service with resource guarantee under the consideration of resource redundancy and network externality is studied in this research. A model in which a service provider determines joint pricing and resource allocation decisions is constructed by proposing two types of contracts with different service-level agreements (SLAs). The SLA of each contract describes the price and associated penalty if the provider cannot provide the resource requested by the customers. Optimal pricing and resource allocation decisions as well as the equilibrium contracts of the service provider are analyzed based on the dynamics of the model characteristics. We found that optimal contract design is sensitive to both service levels and customers’ beliefs of compensation ratio when the requested resource is unfulfilled. Furthermore, service providers should evaluate the trade-off between benefit of price discrimination and effect of network externality when determining the optimal contract design.</p