Automated turning and pressing apparatus and method

Method and apparatus for automated inverting and pressing of apparel components. A turning apparatus is provided for inverting run-stitched shirt collars or other apparel components and an automated pressing apparatus is provided for aligning a two-dimensional component so that a crease pressed therein will be located in the proper position

Enhanced controlling of the SLS Process during a build

Current commercial Rapid Prototyping (RP) systems like Stereolithography (3D Systems Corporation) and Selective Laser Sintering (DTM Corporation) use galvanometers from General Scanning Inc. (GSI) for the positioning of the laser beam. The GSI scanners are delivered as a ''black box". Operating Consoles which are usually Personal Computers (PC) have very few feedback from the performance of the GSI scanners. Therefore, the PC spends 9000 or more of its time waiting for the GSI scanners to be over with the building of the current layer before sending the information regarding the next layer. Also, very little process control can be performed during the scanning of a layer using the GSI scanners. This kind of setup prevents any dynamic controlling of the process that could prevent building errors like burning, warping etc. At Clemson University, our team has developed both hardware and software components that allows a dynamic control of the building process. New features like scanning one vector with laser power as a function of position and/or time are now possible. Both hardware and software issues will be presented.Mechanical Engineerin

Integrated Flight-propulsion Control Concepts for Supersonic Transport Airplanes

Integration of propulsion and flight control systems will provide significant performance improvements for supersonic transport airplanes. Increased engine thrust and reduced fuel consumption can be obtained by controlling engine stall margin as a function of flight and engine operating conditions. Improved inlet pressure recovery and decreased inlet drag can result from inlet control system integration. Using propulsion system forces and moments to augment the flight control system and airplane stability can reduce the flight control surface and tail size, weight, and drag. Special control modes may also be desirable for minimizing community noise and for emergency procedures. The overall impact of integrated controls on the takeoff gross weight for a generic high speed civil transport is presented

Method and apparatus for controlling impact force during rapid robotic acquisition of object

Proximity sensors are used to sense impending contact, i.e., a point of close approach, between a finger of a robot hand and an object. Each finger is equipped with force sensors so that finger touch force with the object can be measured and controlled. The hand is controlled by a dedicated microprocessor, which communicates with a robot arm controller through 8 digital input/output lines. A novel bi-modal control system uses information from the proximity sensors to control both solenoid (on/off) valves and a proportional servovalve which are alternatively switched into an operative mode in a pneumatic circuit which powers the pneumatic actuators of the hand. This control design achieves the two goals of rapid object acquisition and low interaction forces. Each finger of the hand is capable of implementing an acquisition strategy in which mislocated objects can be acquired

The influence of psychological flexibility on work redesign: Mediated moderation of a work reorganization intervention

This quasi-experiment tested the extent to which an individual characteristic, psychological flexibility, moderated the effects of a control-enhancing work reorganization intervention in a call center. Results indicated that, compared to a control group, this intervention produced improvements in mental heath and absence rates, but particularly for individuals with higher levels of psychological flexibility. Findings also showed that these moderated intervention effects were mediated by job control. Specifically, the intervention enhanced perceptions of job control, and hence its outcomes, for the people who received it, but particularly for those who had greater psychological flexibility. Discussion highlights the benefits of understanding the processes (e.g., mediators, moderators, and mediated moderators) involved in work reorganization interventions

A Hypothesis for the Composition of the Tardigrade Brain and its Implications for Panarthropod Brain Evolution

Incredibly disparate brain types are found in Metazoa, which raises the question of how this disparity evolved. Ecdysozoa includes representatives that exhibit ring-like brains-the Cycloneuralia-and representatives that exhibit ganglionic brains-the Panarthropoda (Euarthropoda, Onychophora, and Tardigrada). The evolutionary steps leading to these distinct brain types are unclear. Phylogenomic analyses suggest that the enigmatic Tardigrada is a closely related outgroup of a Euarthropoda + Onychophora clade; as such, the brains of tardigrades may provide insight into the evolution of ecdysozoan brains. Recently, evolutionarily salient questions have arisen regarding the composition of the tardigrade brain. To address these questions, we investigated brain anatomy in four tardigrade species-Hypsibius dujardini, Milnesium n. sp., Echiniscus n. sp., and Batillipes n. sp.-that together span Tardigrada. Our results suggest that general brain morphology is conserved across Tardigrada. Based on our results we present a hypothesis that proposes direct parallels between the tardigrade brain and the segmental trunk ganglia of the tardigrade ventral nervous system. In this hypothesis, brain neuropil nearly circumscribes the tardigrade foregut. We suggest that the tardigrade brain retains aspects of an ancestral cycloneuralian brain, while exhibiting ganglionic structure characteristic of euarthropods and onychophorans

Mindfulness and meditation in the workplace: An acceptance and commitment therapy approach

There is a wide-ranging and growing body of evidence that mental health and behavioral effectiveness are influenced more by how people interact with their thoughts and feelings than by their form (e.g., how negative they are) or frequency. Research has demonstrated this key finding in a wide range of areas. For example, in chronic pain, psychosocial disability is predicted more by the experiential avoidance of pain than by the degree of pain (McCracken 1998). A number of therapeutic approaches have been developed that share this key insight: Distress tolerance (e.g., Brown et al. 2002; Schmidt et al. 2007), thought suppression (e.g., Wenzlaff and Wegner 2000), and mindfulness (Baer 2003). It is also central to a number of the newer contextual cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) approaches to treatment, such as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT; Segal et al. 2002), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT; Linehan 1993), metacognitive therapy (Wells 2011), and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT; Hayes et al. 1999). The purpose of this chapter is to describe how ACT conceptualizes mindfulness and tries to enhance it in the pursuit of promoting mental health and behavioral effectiveness (e.g., productivity at work). To this end, we discuss ACT’s key construct of psychological flexibility, which involves mindfulness, and how it has led to a somewhat different approach not only to conceptualizing mindfulness, but also to how we try to enhance it in the workplace. In so doing, we hope to show that whilst formal meditation practice is valued in ACT, it is only one strategy that is used to promote mindfulness, as well as psychological flexibility more generally

Automated turning and pressing apparatus and method

Method and apparatus for automated inverting and pressing of apparel components. A turning apparatus is provided for inverting run-stitched shirt collars or other apparel components and an automated pressing apparatus is provided for aligning a two-dimensional component so that a crease pressed therein will be located in the proper position

Time and Space Bounds for Reversible Simulation

We prove a general upper bound on the tradeoff between time and space that suffices for the reversible simulation of irreversible computation. Previously, only simulations using exponential time or quadratic space were known. The tradeoff shows for the first time that we can simultaneously achieve subexponential time and subquadratic space. The boundary values are the exponential time with hardly any extra space required by the Lange-McKenzie-Tapp method and the ($\log 3$)th power time with square space required by the Bennett method. We also give the first general lower bound on the extra storage space required by general reversible simulation. This lower bound is optimal in that it is achieved by some reversible simulations.Comment: 11 pages LaTeX, Proc ICALP 2001, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol xxx Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 200