A reference model for information specification for metalworking SMEs

The work reported in this thesis offers a novel basis for the realisation of specifications for information requirements to meet the distinct operational requirements of metalworking SMEs. This has been achieved through the development of a reference SME enterprise model based on fundamental ideas of the holon and fractal factory concepts. The novel concept of a node holon is introduced, which allows the representation of the human dominated interactions in a company based on the fundamental concepts of the holon. This offers a competitive alternative to the methods for enterprise modelling and information specification which are based solely around business processes and procedural rules. A new representation for the organisation of the SME has been based on identifying the major zones of activity within the enterprise, which is seen to provide a more appropriate representation for companies whose basis for operation is informally structured. Two classes of zones have been identified, these are the business support zone and manufacturing zone. The relationship between a top down description of the enterprise as zones and the complementary bottoms up modelling of the enterprise based on concepts of the node holon are described in detail. A critical study of two candidate modelling architectures, namely CIN40SA and ARIS will show the applicability of the individual architectures for the task information specification. The constituents of the SMEE enterprise reference model is placed within the context of contemporary enterprise modelling practice by mapping against one of the architectures. This will demonstrate how the architectures can readily accommodate new modelling approaches whilst retaining their major advantages, thereby increasing their applicability and potential uptake. The reference SME enterprise model has been readily applied in the study of an SME, where a representation of the company has been achieved solely on the current organisation of its business support and manufacturing activities. The holonic aspects of the enterprise have also been successfully modelled. This process is supported by a CASE tool which has it constructs underpinned by the reference SME enterprise model

Local anaesthesia systemic toxicity (LAST) – A stroke mimicker

Local anaesthesia systemic toxicity (LAST) is an uncommon and a potentially life-threatening event that develops after peripheral nerve block. The cause may be multifactorial and may include the choice of drug, technique of block and individual patient risk factors. We report a case of a 55-year-old female who developed slurring of speech and quadriplegia after receiving a mixture of lignocaine and hydrocortisone through an intra-articular injection to the right shoulder. Neurological examination revealed hypotonia and absence of power (0/5) in all limbs. These toxic events may have resulted from an accidental intra-arterialor dural cuff injection of local anaesthesia or absorption from surrounding tissues. This case report demonstrated that an intra-articular injection in the shoulder may cause LAST and may be under-recognized as it can mimic stroke

Binding of Basic Dyes by the Algae, Chara aspera

Non-living biomass of the algae Chara aspera is capable of binding two basic dyes, methylene blue and basic blue 3, from aqueous solution. Factors such as dye concentration, contact time, sorbent dosage and pH of solution were studied. Maximum sorption capacities of the algae for methylene blue and basic blue 3 are 139.4 and 17.8 mg/g, respectively, as determined from the Langmuir isothenns

A New Interpretivist Metasemantics for Fundamental Legal Disagreements

What does it take for lawyers and others to think or talk about the same legal topic—e.g., defamation, culpability? We argue that people are able to think or talk about the same topic not when they possess a matching substantive understanding of the topic, as traditional metasemantics says, but instead when their thoughts or utterances are related to each other in certain ways. And what determines the content of thoughts and utterances is what would best serve the core purposes of the representational practice within which the thought or utterance is located. In thus favoring a “relational model” in metasemantics, we share Ronald Dworkin's goal of explaining fundamental legal disagreements, and also his reliance on constructive interpretation. But what we delineate is a far more general and explanatorily resourceful metasemantics than what Dworkin articulated, which also bypasses some controversial implications for the nature of law that Dworkin alleged

A multiple-cut analytic center cutting plane method for semidefinite feasibility problems

10.1137/S1052623400370503SIAM Journal on Optimization1241126-114

Shake till you break – bilateral neck of humerus fracture post seizure

Fractures may occur after an episode of seizures. Although rare, with a high index of suspicion and proper physical examination, delay of diagnosis and treatment can be avoided. We report a case of near missed bilateral proximal humerus fracture after an episode of generalized tonic-clonic seizure. A 58-year-old lady with a background history of epilepsy complained of generalized body ache after a generalized tonic-clonic seizure which happened few hours before presentation to our Emergency Department. On assessment, she was in pain and unable to move all four limbs. After given analgesia, patient was reassessed whereby she complained of bilateral shoulder stiffness and pain. Examination of the upper limbs revealed restricted range of movement in all directions with no shoulder squaring. X-ray showed bilateral proximal humerus fracture. Proximal humeral fractures rarely occur by itself following seizures; they are almost always associated with dislocation of the glenohumeral joint

Spectral operators of matrices

The class of matrix optimization problems (MOPs) has been recognized in recent years to be a powerful tool to model many important applications involving structured low rank matrices within and beyond the optimization community. This trend can be credited to some extent to the exciting developments in emerging fields such as compressed sensing. The Löwner operator, which generates a matrix valued function via applying a single-variable function to each of the singular values of a matrix, has played an important role for a long time in solving matrix optimization problems. However, the classical theory developed for the Löwner operator has become inadequate in these recent applications. The main objective of this paper is to provide necessary theoretical foundations from the perspectives of designing efficient numerical methods for solving MOPs. We achieve this goal by introducing and conducting a thorough study on a new class of matrix valued functions, coined as spectral operators of matrices. Several fundamental properties of spectral operators, including the well-definedness, continuity, directional differentiability and Fréchet-differentiability are systematically studied. © 2017 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg and Mathematical Optimization Society

Electrochemical quantification of iodide ions in synthetic urine using silver nanoparticles: a proof-of-concept.

Typical urinary iodide concentrations range from 0.3 μM to 6.0 μM. The conventional analytical method is based on the Sandell-Kolthoff reaction. It involves the toxic reagent, arsenic acid, and a waiting time of 30 minutes for the iodide ions to reduce the cerium(iv) ions. In the presented work, an alternative fast electrochemical method based on a silver nanoparticle modified electrode is proposed. Cyclic voltammetry was performed with a freshly modified electrode in presence of iodide ions and the voltammetric peaks corresponding to the oxidation of silver to silver iodide and the reverse reaction were recorded. The peak height of the reduction signal of silver iodide was used to plot a calibration line for the iodide ions. Two calibration plots for the iodide ions were obtained, one in 0.1 M sodium nitrate (a chloride-ion free environment to circumvent any interference from the other halides) and another in synthetic urine (which contains 0.2 M KCl). In both of the calibration plots, linear relationships were found between the reduction peak height and the iodide ion concentration of 0.3 μM to 6.0 μM. A slope of 1.46 × 10(-2) A M(-1) and a R(2) value of 0.999 were obtained for the iodide detection in sodium nitrate. For the synthetic urine experiments, a slope of 3.58 × 10(-3) A M(-1) and a R(2) value of 0.942 were measured. A robust iodide sensor with the potential to be developed into a point-of-care system has been validated

Integrating evolutionary and regulatory information with a multispecies approach implicates genes and pathways in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a severe psychiatric disorder linked to abnormalities in glutamate signaling and the cortico-striatal circuit. We sequenced coding and regulatory elements for 608 genes potentially involved in obsessive-compulsive disorder in human, dog, and mouse. Using a new method that prioritizes likely functional variants, we compared 592 cases to 560 controls and found four strongly associated genes, validated in a larger cohort. NRXN1 and HTR2A are enriched for coding variants altering postsynaptic protein-binding domains. CTTNBP2 (synapse maintenance) and REEP3 (vesicle trafficking) are enriched for regulatory variants, of which at least six (35%) alter transcription factor-DNA binding in neuroblastoma cells. NRXN1 achieves genome-wide significance (p = 6.37 x 10(-11)) when we include 33,370 population-matched controls. Our findings suggest synaptic adhesion as a key component in compulsive behaviors, and show that targeted sequencing plus functional annotation can identify potentially causative variants, even when genomic data are limited.Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a neuropsychiatric disorder with symptoms including intrusive thoughts and time-consuming repetitive behaviors. Here Noh and colleagues identify genes enriched for functional variants associated with increased risk of OCD