Software for integrated manufacturing systems, part 2

Part 1 presented an overview of the unified approach to manufacturing software. The specific characteristics of the approach that allow it to realize the goals of reduced cost, increased reliability and increased flexibility are considered. Why the blending of a components view, distributed languages, generics and formal models is important, why each individual part of this approach is essential, and why each component will typically have each of these parts are examined. An example of a specification for a real material handling system is presented using the approach and compared with the standard interface specification given by the manufacturer. Use of the component in a distributed manufacturing system is then compared with use of the traditional specification with a more traditional approach to designing the system. An overview is also provided of the underlying mechanisms used for implementing distributed manufacturing systems using the unified software/hardware component approach

Software for integrated manufacturing systems, part 1

For several years, a broad, unified approach to programming manufacturing cells, factory floors, and other manufacturing systems has been developed. It is based on a blending of distributed Ada, software components, generics and formal models. Among other things the machines and devices which make up the components, and the entire manufacturing cell is viewed as an assembly of software components. The purpose of this project is to reduce cost, increase the reliability and increase the flexibility of manufacturing software. An overview is given of the approach and an experimental generic factory floor controller that was developed using the approach is described. The controller is generic in the sense that it can control any one of a large class of factory floors making an arbitrary mix of parts

Autumn Migration of Mississippi Flyway Mallards as Determined by Satellite Telemetry

We used satellite telemetry to study autumn migration timing, routes, stopover duration, and final destinations of mallards Anas platyrhynchos captured the previous spring in Arkansas from 2004 to 2007. Of those mallards that still had functioning transmitters on September 15 (n = 55), the average date when autumn migration began was October 23 (SE = 2.62 d; range = September 17–December 7). For those mallards that stopped for .1 d during migration, the average stopover length was 15.4 d (SE = 1.47 d). Ten mallards migrated nonstop to wintering sites. The eastern Dakotas were a heavily utilized stopover area. The total distance migrated per mallard averaged 1,407 km (SE = 89.55 km; range = 142–2,947 km). The average time spent on migration per individual between September 15 and December 15 was 27 d (SE = 2.88 d; range = 2–84 d). The state where most mallards were located on December 15 was Missouri (11) followed by Arkansas (8), while 5 mallards were still in Canada, and only 8 of 43 females and 0 of 10 males were present in Arkansas. The eastern Dakotas are a heavily utilized migration stopover for midcontinent mallards that may require more attention for migration habitat management. The reasons for so few mallards, especially male mallards, returning to Arkansas the following year deserves further research

Method and cost of rock excavation, Inlet Swamp Drainage District, Lee County, Illinois

The Inlet Swamp Drainage District, comprising 32000 acres of rich muck land, lies in Lee County Illinois, between the Chicago and Northwestern Railway, the Illinois Central Railway and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway. The District is fifteen miles long and from one to five miles wide. The watershed has approximately five times the area of the swamp, and in early days, as much as one-half the thirty two thousand acres was under water for practically the entire year. It was not unusual in the Spring, for the swamp to be under from two to five feet of water. The point where Inlet Swamp ends and Green River begins, is known as the Inlet. This is a limestone ledge four miles wide and of unknown depth, which acts as a dam at the lower end of the swamp --Description and History of the District, page 2

Pero López de Ayala: protohumanist?

What unites us in these essays is an interest in the linguistic and cultural aspects of works which are considered unimportant in the traditional scheme of nationalistic literary history but which were on the cutting edge of any national cultural scene in their own times. Translations shaped the intellectual present and future and without them many local literary trends or genres would not have developed. They were the books that were known and often read more assiduously than works written originally in Castilian, and they probably had a more pervasive influence than many creations which today we consider to be primary. I hate to admit that Ayala's translation of the De casibus had a larger reading public over a longer period of time and probably exerted more general influence than El libro de buen amor or the Siervo libre de amor. This is clearly demonstrated by the large number of medieval manuscripts and early printed editions of the De casibus which were produced in the period between 1400 and 155

The ``Outside-In'' Outburst of HT Cassiopeiae

We present results from photometric observations of the dwarf nova system HT Cas during the eruption of November 1995. The data include the first two--colour observations of an eclipse on the rise to outburst. They show that during the rise to outburst the disc deviates significantly from steady state models, but the inclusion of an inner-disc truncation radius of about 4 $R_{wd}$ and a ``flared'' disc of semi-opening angle of $10^{\circ}$ produces acceptable fits. The disc is found to have expanded at the start of the outburst to about $0.41R_{L1}$, as compared to quiescent measurements. The accretion disc then gradually decreases in radius reaching $<0.32R_{L1}$ during the last stages of the eruption. Quiescent eclipses were also observed prior to and after the eruption and a revised ephemeris is calculated.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures, to appear in MNRA