Uniform cost system for grinding wheel manufacturers

The system presented here for the Grinding Wheel Manufacturers is a simple one. In a few instances two methods of accomplishing the same purpose are given. In such cases one method will be found to give more detail than the other, but either will produce satisfactory results. Much of the data necessary for the operation of this system is undoubtedly being collected by grinding wheel manufacturers already. There are few manufacturers indeed who do not possess a payroll and ledger, and it is assumed that the grinding wheel manufacturer is as well provided with these two important books as the average. If the information furnished by these books is used as recommended a large advance in the right direction will have been made, and very little, if any more, labor required. It is not necessary to install all features of this system at once. In fact it is much better if it is installed in sections as it is then possible to see that one part is in good working order before another is started

Evaluation of nonmetallic thermal protection materials for the manned space shuttle. Volume 1, task 1: Assessment of technical risks associated with utilization of nonmetallic thermal protection system

Technical problems of design and flight qualification of the proposed classes of surface insulation materials and leading edge materials were reviewed. A screening test plan, a preliminary design data test plan and a design data test plan were outlined. This program defined the apparent critical differences between the surface insulators and the leading edge materials, structuring specialized screening test plans for each of these two classes of materials. Unique testing techniques were shown to be important in evaluating the structural interaction aspects of the surface insulators and a separate task was defined to validate the test plan. In addition, a compilation was made of available information on proposed material (including metallic TPS), previous shuttle programs, pertinent test procedures, and other national programs of merit. This material was collected and summarized in an informally structured workbook

A qualitative approach for online activity recognition

We present a novel qualitative, dynamic length sliding window method which enables a mobile robot to temporally segment activities taking place in live RGB-D video. We demonstrate how activities can be learned from observations by encoding qualitative spatio-temporal relationships between entities in the scene. We also show how a Nearest Neighbour model can recognise activities taking place even if they temporally co-occur. Our system is validated on a challenging dataset of daily living activities

Grounding of Human Environments and Activities for Autonomous Robots

With the recent proliferation of robotic applications in domestic and industrial scenarios, it is vital for robots to continually learn about their environments and about the humans they share their environments with. In this paper, we present a framework for autonomous, unsupervised learning from various sensory sources of useful human ‘concepts’; including colours, people names, usable objects and simple activities. This is achieved by integrating state-of-the-art object segmentation, pose estimation, activity analysis and language grounding into a continual learning framework. Learned concepts are grounded to natural language if commentary is available, allowing the robot to communicate in a human-understandable way. We show, using a challenging, real-world dataset of human activities, that our framework is able to extract useful concepts, ground natural language descriptions to them, and, as a proof-of-concept, to generate simple sentences from templates to describe people and activities

Kalata B1 and Kalata B2 Have a Surfactant-Like Activity in Phosphatidylethanolomine-Containing Lipid Membranes

© 2017 American Chemical Society. Cyclotides are cyclic disulfide-rich peptides that are chemically and thermally stable and possess pharmaceutical and insecticidal properties. The activities reported for cyclotides correlate with their ability to target phosphatidylethanolamine (PE)-phospholipids and disrupt cell membranes. However, the mechanism by which this disruption occurs remains unclear. In the current study we examine the effect of the prototypic cyclotides, kalata B1 (kB1) and kalata B2 (kB2), on tethered lipid bilayer membranes (tBLMs) using swept frequency electrical impedance spectroscopy. We confirmed that kB1 and kB2 bind to bilayers only if they contain PE-phospholipids. We hypothesize that the increase in membrane conduction and capacitance observed upon addition of kB1 or kB2 is unlikely to result from ion channel like pores but is consistent with the formation of lipidic toroidal pores. This hypothesis is supported by the concentration dependence of effects of kB1 and kB2 being suggestive of a critical micelle concentration event rather than a progressive increase in conduction arising from increased channel insertion. Additionally, conduction behavior is readily reversible when the peptide is rinsed from the bilayer. Our results support a mechanism by which kB1 and kB2 bind to and disrupt PE-containing membranes by decreasing the overall membrane critical packing parameter, as would a surfactant, which then opens or increases the size of existing membrane defects. The cyclotides need not participate directly in the conductive pore but might exert their effect indirectly through altering membrane packing constraints and inducing purely lipidic conductive pores

A multilevel model for movement rehabilitation in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) using virtual environments

This paper presents a conceptual model for movement rehabilitation of traumatic brain injury (TBI) using virtual environments. This hybrid model integrates principles from ecological systems theory with recent advances in cognitive neuroscience, and supports a multilevel approach to both assessment and treatment. Performance outcomes at any stage of recovery are determined by the interplay of task, individual, and environmental/contextual factors. We argue that any system of rehabilitation should provide enough flexibility for task and context factors to be varied systematically, based on the current neuromotor and biomechanical capabilities of the performer or patient. Thus, in order to understand how treatment modalities are to be designed and implemented, there is a need to understand the function of brain systems that support learning at a given stage of recovery, and the inherent plasticity of the system. We know that virtual reality (VR) systems allow training environments to be presented in a highly automated, reliable, and scalable way. Presentation of these virtual environments (VEs) should permit movement analysis at three fundamental levels of behaviour: (i) neurocognitive bases of performance (we focus in particular on the development and use of internal models for action which support adaptive, on-line control); (ii) movement forms and patterns that describe the patients' movement signature at a given stage of recovery (i.e, kinetic and kinematic markers of movement proficiency), (iii) functional outcomes of the movement. Each level of analysis can also map quite seamlessly to different modes of treatment. At the neurocognitive level, for example, semi-immersive VEs can help retrain internal modeling processes by reinforcing the patients' sense of multimodal space (via augmented feedback), their position within it, and the ability to predict and control actions flexibly (via movement simulation and imagery training). More specifically, we derive four - key therapeutic environment concepts (or Elements) presented using VR technologies: Embodiment (simulation and imagery), Spatial Sense (augmenting position sense), Procedural (automaticity and dual-task control), and Participatory (self-initiated action). The use of tangible media/objects, force transduction, and vision-based tracking systems for the augmentation of gestures and physical presence will be discussed in this context

Dispersion strengthening in vanadium microalloyed steels processed by simulated thin slab casting and direct charging. Part 2 - chemical characterisation of dispersion strengthening precipitates

The composition of the sub-15 nm particles in six related vanadium high strength low alloy steels, made by simulated thin slab direct charged casting, has been determined using electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). Such particles are considered to be responsible for dispersion hardening. For the first time, particles down to 4 nm in size have had their composition fully determined. In all the steels, the particles were nitrogen and vanadium rich and possibly slightly sub-stoichiometric carbonitrides. Equilibrium thermodynamics predicted much higher carbon to metal atomic ratios than observed in all cases so that kinetics and mechanical deformation clearly control the precipitation process. Thus it is important to formulate the steel with this in mind

The CEACAM1 expression is decreased in the liver of severely obese patients with or without diabetes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Type 2 diabetes is mainly caused by insulin resistance. The carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule 1 (CEACAM1) is an important candidate for causing insulin resistance.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The CEACAM1 expression was evaluated immunohistochemically in the liver tissues of 99 severely obese or non-obese subjects with or without diabetes. The CEACAM1 expression was classified into two categories: a normal expression or a decreased expression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The CEACAM1 expression was markedly decreased in the hepatocytes with macrovesicular steatosis. A decreased CEACAM1 expression was noted in 29 (29%) of 99 cases. The incidence of a decreased CEACAM1 expression was significantly higher in high grade fatty liver as well as severe obesity with or without diabetes (p < 0.05). The incidence of a decreased CEACAM1 expression was not different between the diabetic and non-diabetic groups.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This data supports that a decreased CEACAM1 expression is related to obesity and a fatty liver.</p