Scheduling of non-repetitive lean manufacturing systems under uncertainty using intelligent agent simulation

World-class manufacturing paradigms emerge from specific types of manufacturing systems with which they remain associated until they are obsolete. Since its introduction the lean paradigm is almost exclusively implemented in repetitive manufacturing systems employing flow-shop layout configurations. Due to its inherent complexity and combinatorial nature, scheduling is one application domain whereby the implementation of manufacturing philosophies and best practices is particularly challenging. The study of the limited reported attempts to extend leanness into the scheduling of non-repetitive manufacturing systems with functional shop-floor configurations confirms that these works have adopted a similar approach which aims to transform the system mainly through reconfiguration in order to increase the degree of manufacturing repetitiveness and thus facilitate the adoption of leanness. This research proposes the use of leading edge intelligent agent simulation to extend the lean principles and techniques to the scheduling of non-repetitive production environments with functional layouts and no prior reconfiguration of any form. The simulated system is a dynamic job-shop with stochastic order arrivals and processing times operating under a variety of dispatching rules. The modelled job-shop is subject to uncertainty expressed in the form of high priority orders unexpectedly arriving at the system, order cancellations and machine breakdowns. The effect of the various forms of the stochastic disruptions considered in this study on system performance prior and post the introduction of leanness is analysed in terms of a number of time, due date and work-in-progress related performance metrics

The structure of non-nilpotent CTI-groups

A subgroup H of a group G is called a TI-subgroup if H ∩ Hg ∈ 1,H, for all g ∈ G, and a group is called a CTI-group if all of its cyclic subgroups are TI-subgroups. In this paper, we determine the structure of non-nilpotent CTI-groups. Also we will show that if G is a nilpotent CTI-group, then G is either a Hamiltonian group or a non-abelian p-group. © 2013 de Gruyter

Elevation of CD56brightCD16- lymphocytes in MDR pulmonary tuberculosis

Background: Protective immune responses induced in the majority of people infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis enable them to control TB infection. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate CD56 and CD16 positive peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and leukocyte subsets from multi-drug resistant pulmonary tuberculosis (MDR-TB), and compare them with nonresistant (NR) TB patients and healthy controls. Methods: 13 MDR-tuberculosis patients, 20 NR-TB individuals and 40 healthy subjects were included. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were double stained with fluorochrome conjugated antibodies against CD56 and CD16 cell surface markers. The phenotype of positive cells was then analyzed by flow cytometry and the percent- ages of CD56+ CD16+, CD56- CD16+, CD56dimCD16+/-, and CD56brightCD16+/- subsets were calculated. Results: There was a significant decline in the percentage of CD56+CD16+ lymphocytes in both MDR and NR-TB patients compared with healthy controls. We also observed lower proportions of CD56dim/brightCD16+ in addition to higher percentages of CD56dim/brightCD16- subsets in all TB patients (p�0.05). In MDR- TB, our findings demonstrated a distinct phenotypic feature with increased levels of CD56brightCD16- in comparison with both NR-TB and healthy subjects. Conclusion: Considering the function of CD56/CD16 expressing cells in TB, we suggest that pheno- typic characteristics of PBMCs in MDR-TB may correlate with their status of drug re- sistance and probably with their high mortality rates

Prevalence of human papillomavirus genotypes in women with normal and abnormal cervical cytology in Iran

Introduction: HPV infection has a prime etiologic role in development and progression of cervical cancer, one of the most frequent forms of cancer among women in developing countries. This study was designed to determine the most prevalent HPV genotypes in women with normal and abnormal cervical cytology in Iran. Materials and Methods: Samples from134 patients, including 127 who attended gynecology clinics and 7 with solid cervical tumors were used. All 127 patients underwent routine Pap tests for cytological evaluation and at the same visit a sample of cervical epithelial cells was obtained by scraping the cervix osteum. In each case HPV infection was primarily evaluated by PCR using GP 5/6 primers and then subtyping was performed in proved infected samples with specific primers for HPV 16, 18, 31, 33, 11 and 6. After cytological evaluation, 50 patients with abnormal Pap tests were categorized as the abnormal group and the remaining 77 patients as the normal group. Results: In the normal group, HPV infection was established in 10 cases (13% infection rate), while 30 HPV positive cases were discovered in the abnormal group (60% infected). The most prevalent genotypes among the infected samples were HPV 16 (76%), HPV18 (12.7%) and HPV11/6 (8.5%). Moreover, all 7 tumor samples were positive for HPV general primers of which, 5 samples were infected with HPV 16, two were co-infected with HPV16,18 and HPV16,31 genotypes and one was infected with HPV 18. Conclusions: Infection with HPV 16 was found to be significantly higher in abnormal group in comparison with normal group (42% vs. 11.6%, P value <0.005), likewise HPV18 genotypes were proved to be more prevalent in abnormal group (8% vs. 0%, P value <0.05). No significant relation between other HPV genotypes and pathologic cervical changes was obtained. According to our study high rates of infection with HPV genotypes in sexually active Iranian women makes molecular investigation for HPV16 and 18 very essential in clinical approaches to patients with proven dysplasia in their screening tests and also for those patients with borderline (i.e. ASCUS) or incongruous pathology reports. Larger studies are required to determine the most appropriate vaccine with highest protection in Iranian women

Preparation nano sized HMX by using ultrasonic waves

The researches done on particle size of explosive materials show that with reducing of particle size of explosive materials, reduced impact, friction and shock waves sensitivity. also by using of ultrafine explosive materials in propellant in comparison to larger particle size improved density, stability, calory and mechanical properties. Meanwhile the reduction of particle size of explosive materials influence on combustion mechanism of propellant and reduced burning rate and exponent pressure of different methods used for reduction of particle size, for example, milling, crystallization and etc. In this article for preparation of ultrafine HMX the method of solvent-anti solvent has been used by assistance of ultrasonic device. In optimum state the average size of particle is 106 nm and size distribution is narrow. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/2068

Antibiotic susceptibility pattern and the prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from skin and soft tissue in Tehran Razi skin hospital (2014-15)

Background: Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is the most common cause of skin and soft tissue infections. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of S. aureus isolated from skin and soft tissue and antibiotic susceptibility pattern among the patient hospitalized in Razi skin hospital (Tehran-Iran). Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on patients (n=400) with skin and soft tissue infections in Razi skin hospital. Sterilized swabs were used to collect the skin infection samples. S. aureus isolates were confirmed using biochemical tests (gram staining, catalase, coagulase, DNase test and manitol fermentation tests). Result: 51.3 ( 205 out of 400) of isolates were S. aureus. Ninety six (46.8) of isolates were methicillin and penicillin-resistant S. aureus. All of the isolates showed sensitivity to vancomycin, linezolid. 98 of the isolates were susceptible to daptomycin. One-hundred sixteen (56.6) isolates were multi- drug resistant. Conclusion: More than half of the skin and soft tissue infections were caused by S.aureus. More than 46 percent of the isolates were methicillin resistant. The highest resistance to penicillin was observed

Automatic Identification of Epileptic Seizures from EEG Signals using Sparse Representation-based Classification

Identifying seizure activities in non-stationary electroencephalography (EEG) is a challenging task, since it is time-consuming, burdensome, and dependent on expensive human resources and subject to error and bias. A computerized seizure identification scheme can eradicate the above problems, assist clinicians and benefit epilepsy research. So far, several attempts were made to develop automatic systems to help neurophysiologists accurately identify epileptic seizures. In this research, a fully automated system is presented to automatically detect the various states of the epileptic seizure. The proposed method is based on sparse representation-based classification (SRC) theory and the proposed dictionary learning using electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. Furthermore, the proposed method does not require additional preprocessing and extraction of features which is common in the existing methods. The proposed method reached the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of 100% in 8 out of 9 scenarios. It is also robust to the measurement noise of level as much as 0 dB. Compared to state-of-the-art algorithms and other common methods, the proposed method outperformed them in terms of sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. Moreover, it includes the most comprehensive scenarios for epileptic seizure detection, including different combinations of 2 to 5 class scenarios. The proposed automatic identification of epileptic seizures method can reduce the burden on medical professionals in analyzing large data through visual inspection as well as in deprived societies suffering from a shortage of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) equipment and specialized physician

Synopsis of an engineering solution for a painful problem Phantom Limb Pain

This paper is synopsis of a recently proposed solution for treating patients who suffer from Phantom Limb Pain (PLP). The underpinning approach of this research and development project is based on an extension of “mirror box” therapy which has had some promising results in pain reduction. An outline of an immersive individually tailored environment giving the patient a virtually realised limb presence, as a means to pain reduction is provided. The virtual 3D holographic environment is meant to produce immersive, engaging and creative environments and tasks to encourage and maintain patients’ interest, an important aspect in two of the more challenging populations under consideration (over-60s and war veterans). The system is hoped to reduce PLP by more than 3 points on an 11 point Visual Analog Scale (VAS), when a score less than 3 could be attributed to distraction alone