Machine-Part cell formation through visual decipherable clustering of Self Organizing Map

Machine-part cell formation is used in cellular manufacturing in order to process a large variety, quality, lower work in process levels, reducing manufacturing lead-time and customer response time while retaining flexibility for new products. This paper presents a new and novel approach for obtaining machine cells and part families. In the cellular manufacturing the fundamental problem is the formation of part families and machine cells. The present paper deals with the Self Organising Map (SOM) method an unsupervised learning algorithm in Artificial Intelligence, and has been used as a visually decipherable clustering tool of machine-part cell formation. The objective of the paper is to cluster the binary machine-part matrix through visually decipherable cluster of SOM color-coding and labelling via the SOM map nodes in such a way that the part families are processed in that machine cells. The Umatrix, component plane, principal component projection, scatter plot and histogram of SOM have been reported in the present work for the successful visualization of the machine-part cell formation. Computational result with the proposed algorithm on a set of group technology problems available in the literature is also presented. The proposed SOM approach produced solutions with a grouping efficacy that is at least as good as any results earlier reported in the literature and improved the grouping efficacy for 70% of the problems and found immensely useful to both industry practitioners and researchers.Comment: 18 pages,3 table, 4 figure

The 'lost child' as figure of trauma and recovery in early post-war cinema: Fred Zinnemann's The Search (1948) and Natan Gross's Unzere Kinder (1948)

The article examines the figure of the ‘lost child’ in feature films of the immediate post-war period. The figure’s enormous symbolic value as innocent victim and future generation, granted the ‘lost child’ a key position in post-war discourse, including films which tried to grapple with the moral and physical destruction of the continent after 1945. National film industries, particularly of the perpetrator nation, employed the ‘lost child’ for genre stories in which the post-war chaos is being mastered and a new, masculine national self is re-built. However, films made by victim groups outside a national context rely on the ‘lost child’ to broach the destruction of their identity by war and persecution. Analysing two films, Fred Zinnemann’s The Search (1948) and Nata Gross’s Unzere Kinder (1948), I argue that they use the child figure to deal with traumatization and make it part of the reconstruction of communal intergenerational relations. This does not result in stories of masculine mastery but in narratives that incorporate moments of trauma process emerging around destroyed mother-child relations. The films, encoding traumatization in film language, develop a rich cinematic language along questions of identity and form a first instance of posttraumatic cinema

The impact of regular physical activity on fatigue, depression and quality of life in persons with multiple sclerosis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The purpose of this study was to compare fatigue, depression and quality of life scores in persons with multiple sclerosis who do (Exercisers) and do not (Non-exercisers) regularly participate in physical activity.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional questionnaire study of 121 patients with MS (age 25–65 yr) living in Queensland, Australia was conducted. Physical activity level, depression, fatigue and quality of life were assessed using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire, Health Status Questionnaire Short Form 36, Becks Depression Inventory and Modified Fatigue Impact Scale.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>52 participants performed at least two 30-min exercise sessions·wk^-1(Exercisers) and 69 did not participate in regular physical activity (Non-exercisers). Exercisers reported favourable fatigue, depression and quality of life scores when compared to Non-exercisers. Significant weak correlations were found between both leisure-time and overall reported physical activity levels and some subscales of the quality of life and fatigue questionnaires. Additionally, some quality of life subscale scores indicated that regular physical activity had a greater benefit in subjects with moderate MS.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Favourable fatigue, depression and quality of life scores were reported by persons with MS who regularly participated in physical activity, when compared to persons with MS who were classified as Non-exercisers.</p

The Efficacy of Exercise in Reducing Depressive Symptoms among Cancer Survivors: A Meta-Analysis

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this meta-analysis was to examine the efficacy of exercise to reduce depressive symptoms among cancer survivors. In addition, we examined the extent to which exercise dose and clinical characteristics of cancer survivors influence the relationship between exercise and reductions in depressive symptoms. METHODS: We conducted a systematic search identifying randomized controlled trials of exercise interventions among adult cancer survivors, examining depressive symptoms as an outcome. We calculated effect sizes for each study and performed weighted multiple regression moderator analysis. RESULTS: We identified 40 exercise interventions including 2,929 cancer survivors. Diverse groups of cancer survivors were examined in seven exercise interventions; breast cancer survivors were examined in 26; prostate cancer, leukemia, and lymphoma were examined in two; and colorectal cancer in one. Cancer survivors who completed an exercise intervention reduced depression more than controls, d(+) = -0.13 (95% CI: -0.26, -0.01). Increases in weekly volume of aerobic exercise reduced depressive symptoms in dose-response fashion (β = -0.24, p = 0.03), a pattern evident only in higher quality trials. Exercise reduced depressive symptoms most when exercise sessions were supervised (β = -0.26, p = 0.01) and when cancer survivors were between 47-62 yr (β = 0.27, p = 0.01). CONCLUSION: Exercise training provides a small overall reduction in depressive symptoms among cancer survivors but one that increased in dose-response fashion with weekly volume of aerobic exercise in high quality trials. Depressive symptoms were reduced to the greatest degree among breast cancer survivors, among cancer survivors aged between 47-62 yr, or when exercise sessions were supervised

Evolution of the surface integrity while turning a fillet radius in a martensitic stainless steel 15-5PH

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