A line-balancing strategy for designing flexible assembly systems

We present a rough-cut analysis tool that quickly determines a few potential cost-effective designs at the initial design stage of flexible assembly systems (FASs) prior to a detailed analysis such as simulation. It uses quantitative methods for selecting and configuring the components of an FAS suitable for medium to high volumes of several similar products. The system is organized as a series of assembly stations linked with an automated material-handling system moving parts in a unidirectional flow. Each station consists of a single machine or of identical parallel machines. The methods exploit the ability of flexible hardware to switch almost instantaneously from product to product. Our approach is particularly suitable where the product mix is expected to be stable, since we combine the hardware-configuration phase with the task-allocation phase.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45513/1/10696_2004_Article_BF00167513.pd

Polyhedral properties of the K-median problem on a tree

The polyhedral structure of the K-median problem on a tree is examined. Even for very small connected graphs, we show that additional constraints are needed to describe the integer polytope. A complete description is given of those trees for which an optimal integer LP solution is guaranteed to exist. We present a new and simpler demonstration that an LP characterization of the 2-median problem is complete. Also, we provide a simpler proof of the value of a tight worst case bound for the LP relaxation. A new class of valid inequalities is identified. These inequalities describe a subclass of facets for the K-median problem on a general graph. Also, we provide polyhedral descriptions for several types of trees. As part of this work, we summarize most known results for the K-median problem on a tree

Evaluating The Research Output Of Australian Universities' Economics Departments

This paper presents measures of the research output of Australian economics departments. Our study covers the 640 academic staff at rank Lecturer and above in the 27 Australian universities with economics departments containing eight or more staff in April 2002. We construct publication measures based on journal articles, which can be compared with weighted publication measures, and citation measures, which can be compared with the publication measures. Our aim is to identify the robustness of rankings to the choice of method, as well as to highlight differences in focus of departments' research output. A striking feature of our measures is that the majority of economists in Australian university departments have done no research that has been published in a fairly long list of refereed journals over the last dozen years. They may publish in other outlets, but in any event their work is rarely cited. Thus, average research output is low because many academic economists in Australia do not view research as part of their job or, at least, suffer no penalty from failing to produce substantive evidence of research activity. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd/University of Adelaide and Flinders University of South Australia 2003.

Lithium as a Differential Neuroprotector During Brain Irradiation

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Separate and unequal: Prison versus free-world medical care*

Rusche and Kirchheimer argued that attempts at penal reform are limited by a principle of less eligibility, by which the regimen of punishment is made harsher than the conditions of life among the least well-off members of the working classes. In addition, Black posited that the benefits of law are inversely related to stratification and morphology; that is, inmates would be entitled to fewer benefits in law than would free-world citizens. Today the penal harm movement strives to make prison life harder, asserting that comfortable prison conditions are responsible for high crime rates. Critics frequently blame judicial intervention in prison operations for upsetting the careful calibration necessary to deter crime. In this article we examine these assertions by focusing on medical care litigation. Comparing the legal rales and precedents used to hold prison physicians liable for inadequate medical care under 42 U.S.C., Section 1983 with the standards customarily employed by courts in evaluating medical malpractice in the free world, we conclude that judicial decisions in this vital area conform to what would be expected, given the operation of the principle of less eligibility and Black’s “differentiation of law” thesis. © 1998 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences