The Implementation of Cellular Manufacturing on to a Functional Factory Floor

This thesis will focus on the implementation of cellular manufacturing and the issues that must be addressed for the successful transformation from a traditional functionally partitioned manufacturing environment . A large percentage of companies who attempt to transform a functionally partitioned factory into a cellular layout fail to obtain the benefits that it can bring. Research has attributed this to the lack of planning for all the issues involved in cellular manufacturing . It is necessary to address all the issues, not just one or two, or the negative effects of partitioning a factory floor (the loss of pooling synergy) may offset some of the benefits obtained from cellular manufacturing . The purpose of this study is to provide a manual that gives a general set of guidelines covering the major issues that must be addressed if the competitive advantages of cellular manufacturing are to be obtained . Specifically, it will cover cell design, special problems that can occur when designing cells, setup time reduction, worker assignment within the cell, preventive maintenance, and labor issues involved in this type of manufacturing environment . Three business professionals participated in the study as evaluators . The evaluators work in three different disciplines; Purchasing, Operations Management, and Industrial Engineering. The evaluators were administered the manual and a questionnaire f or the purpose of gathering their professional feedback . The questionnaire asked for validity/coverage, errors, and additions that need to be made to the manual. The results of the evaluation revealed the overall coverage is good. This indicates the manual covers the major issues of cellular manufacturing and it solves the problems occurring when the transformation fails. There are a few issues that were removed as well as added to the manual . This made the manual more applicable in a real life business situation

Credible Autocoding of Convex Optimization Algorithms

International audienceThe efficiency of modern optimization methods, coupled with increasing computational resources, has led to the possibility of real-time optimization algorithms acting in safety critical roles. There is a considerable body of mathematical proofs on on-line optimization programs which can be leveraged to assist in the development and verification of their implementation. In this paper, we demonstrate how theoretical proofs of real-time optimization algorithms can be used to describe functional properties at the level of the code, thereby making it accessible for the formal methods community. The running example used in this paper is a generic semi-definite programming (SDP) solver. Semi-definite programs can encode a wide variety of optimization problems and can be solved in polynomial time at a given accuracy. We describe a top-to-down approach that transforms a high-level analysis of the algorithm into useful code annotations. We formulate some general remarks about how such a task can be incorporated into a convex programming autocoder. We then take a first step towards the automatic verification of the optimization program by identifying key issues to be adressed in future work

Nuclear receptor coregulator SNP discovery and impact on breast cancer risk

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Coregulator proteins are "master regulators", directing transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation of many target genes, and are critical in many normal physiological processes, but also in hormone driven diseases, such as breast cancer. Little is known on how genetic changes in these genes impact disease development and progression. Thus, we set out to identify novel single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within SRC-1 (NCoA1), SRC-3 (NCoA3, AIB1), NCoR (NCoR1), and SMRT (NCoR2), and test the most promising SNPs for associations with breast cancer risk.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The identification of novel SNPs was accomplished by sequencing the coding regions of these genes in 96 apparently normal individuals (48 Caucasian Americans, 48 African Americans). To assess their association with breast cancer risk, five SNPs were genotyped in 1218 familial BRCA1/2-mutation negative breast cancer cases and 1509 controls (rs1804645, rs6094752, rs2230782, rs2076546, rs2229840).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Through our resequencing effort, we identified 74 novel SNPs (30 in NCoR, 32 in SMRT, 10 in SRC-3, and 2 in SRC-1). Of these, 8 were found with minor allele frequency (MAF) >5% illustrating the large amount of genetic diversity yet to be discovered. The previously shown protective effect of rs2230782 in SRC-3 was strengthened (OR = 0.45 [0.21-0.98], p = 0.04). No significant associations were found with the other SNPs genotyped.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This data illustrates the importance of coregulators, especially SRC-3, in breast cancer development and suggests that more focused studies, including functional analyses, should be conducted.</p

The state of the Martian climate

60°N was +2.0°C, relative to the 1981–2010 average value (Fig. 5.1). This marks a new high for the record. The average annual surface air temperature (SAT) anomaly for 2016 for land stations north of starting in 1900, and is a significant increase over the previous highest value of +1.2°C, which was observed in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Average global annual temperatures also showed record values in 2015 and 2016. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of lower latitudes

Adrenal suppression: A practical guide to the screening and management of this under-recognized complication of inhaled corticosteroid therapy

Inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) are the most effective anti-inflammatory agents available for the treatment of asthma and represent the mainstay of therapy for most patients with the disease. Although these medications are considered safe at low-to-moderate doses, safety concerns with prolonged use of high ICS doses remain; among these concerns is the risk of adrenal suppression (AS). AS is a condition characterized by the inability to produce adequate amounts of the glucocorticoid, cortisol, which is critical during periods of physiological stress. It is a proven, yet under-recognized, complication of most forms of glucocorticoid therapy that can persist for up to 1 year after cessation of corticosteroid treatment. If left unnoticed, AS can lead to significant morbidity and even mortality. More than 60 recent cases of AS have been described in the literature and almost all cases have involved children being treated with ≥500 μg/day of fluticasone

A Novel Role of RASSF9 in Maintaining Epidermal Homeostasis

The physiological role of RASSF9, a member of the Ras-association domain family (RASSF), is currently unclear. Here, we report a mouse line in which an Epstein-Barr virus Latent Membrane Protein 1 (LMP1) transgene insertion has created a 7.2-kb chromosomal deletion, which abolished RASSF9 gene expression. The RASSF9-null mice exhibited interesting phenotypes that resembled human ageing, including growth retardation, short lifespan, less subcutaneous adipose layer and alopecia. In the wild-type mice, RASSF9 is predominantly expressed in the epidermal keratinocytes of skin, as determined by quantitative reverse-transcription PCR, immunofluorescence and in situ hybridization. In contrast, RASSF9−/− mice presented a dramatic change in epithelial organization of skin with increased proliferation and aberrant differentiation as detected by bromodeoxyuridine incorporation assays and immunofluorescence analyses. Furthermore, characteristic functions of RASSF9−/− versus wild type (WT) mouse primary keratinocytes showed significant proliferation linked to a reduction of p21Cip1 expression under growth or early differentiation conditions. Additionally, in RASSF9−/− keratinocytes there was a drastic down-modulation of terminal differentiation markers, which could be rescued by infection with a recombinant adenovirus, Adv/HA-RASSF9. Our results indicate a novel and significant role of RASSF9 in epidermal homeostasis

What controls gain in gain control? Mismatch negativity (MMN), priors and system biases

Repetitious patterns enable the auditory system to form prediction models specifying the most likely characteristics of subsequent sounds. Pattern deviations elicit mismatch negativity (MMN), the amplitude of which is modulated by the size of the deviation and confidence in the model. Todd et al. (2001; 2013) demonstrated that a multi-timescale sequence reveals a bias that profoundly distorts the impact of local sound statistics on the MMN amplitude. Two sounds alternate roles as repetitious “standard” and rare “deviant” rapidly (every 0.8 minutes) or slowly (every 2.4 minutes). The bias manifests as larger MMN to the sound first encountered as deviant in slow compared to fast changing sequences, but no difference for the sound first encountered as a standard. We propose that the bias is due to how Bayesian priors shape filters of sound relevance. By examining the time-course of change in MMN amplitude we show that the bias manifests immediately after roles change but rapidly disappears thereafter. The bias was reflected in the response to deviant sounds only (not in response to standards), consistent with precision estimates extracted from second order patterns modulating gain differentially for the two sounds.. Evoked responses to deviants suggest that pattern extraction and reactivation of priors can operate over tens of minutes or longer. Both MMN and deviant responses establish that: (1) priors are defined by the most proximally encountered probability distribution when one exists but; (2) when no prior exists, one is instantiated by sequence onset characteristics; and (3) priors require context interruption to be updated

Pesan Moral Islami Dalam Film Le Grand Voyage Karya Ismael Ferroukhi: Sebuah Tinjauan Struktural

Kata kunci : Film, sastra, struktural, pesan moral, Islam.Film merupakan produk budaya yang tidak hanya menjadi hiburan di masyarakat, tetapi juga sebagai sarana penyampaian pesan moral yang mengarifkan. Salah satufilm Perancis yang dianggap menginspirasi adalah film berjudul Le grand voyageyang ditulis dan disutradarai oleh Ismaël Ferroukhi. Film ini bercerita tentang perjalanan seorang muslim keturunan Maroko dan anaknya yang bernama Reda.Mereka menempuh jarak ribuan mil dari Perancis menuju ke kota Makah untukmelaksanakan haji hanya dengan mengendarai sebuah mobil tua. Penelitian inibertujuan untuk mengetahui pesan moral islami apa saja yang terkandung dalamfilm Le grand voyage dan bagaimana pesan tersebut dimunculkan dalam film.Penelitian ini menggunakan teori Struktural untuk menjawab rumusan masalah.Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kualitatif dengan menggunakan teknik studipustaka serta dokumentasi sebagai metode pengumpulan data, dan teknikdeskriptif dalam proses analisis data.Berdasarkan hasil penelitian ini, terdapat 13 pesan moral islami yang terkandungdalam film Le grand voyage. Semua pesan moral tersebut mengacu pada sebuahproses perbaikan moral dan spiritual antara manusia dengan manusia dan alam,serta antara manusia dengan TuhanPenulis menyarankan pada penelitian selanjutnya untuk meneliti film Le grandvoyage menggunakan pendekatan sosiologi sastra yang nantinya dapat mengupashal apa saja yang melatarbelakangi pembuatan film ini dan tujuan sebenarnyayang ingin dicapai oleh pembuat film Le grand voyage

Towards Establishment of a Rice Stress Response Interactome

Rice (Oryza sativa) is a staple food for more than half the world and a model for studies of monocotyledonous species, which include cereal crops and candidate bioenergy grasses. A major limitation of crop production is imposed by a suite of abiotic and biotic stresses resulting in 30%–60% yield losses globally each year. To elucidate stress response signaling networks, we constructed an interactome of 100 proteins by yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) assays around key regulators of the rice biotic and abiotic stress responses. We validated the interactome using protein–protein interaction (PPI) assays, co-expression of transcripts, and phenotypic analyses. Using this interactome-guided prediction and phenotype validation, we identified ten novel regulators of stress tolerance, including two from protein classes not previously known to function in stress responses. Several lines of evidence support cross-talk between biotic and abiotic stress responses. The combination of focused interactome and systems analyses described here represents significant progress toward elucidating the molecular basis of traits of agronomic importance