Multi-objective shop floor scheduling using monitored energy data

Modern factories will become more and more directly connected to intermittent energy sources like solar systems or wind turbines as part of a smart grid or a self-sufficient supply. However, solar systems or wind turbines are not able to provide a continuous energy supply over a certain time period. In order to enable an effective use of these intermittent energy sources without using temporary energy storages, it is necessary to rapidly and flexibly adapt the energy demand of the factory to the constantly changing requirements of the energy supply. The adaption of the energy demand to the intermittent supply results in different energy-related objectives for the production system of the factory, such as reducing energy consumption, avoiding power peaks, or achieving a power use within the available power supply. Shop Floor Scheduling can help to pursue these objectives within the production system. For this purpose, a solution methodology based on a meta-heuristic will be described for Flexible Job Shop Scheduling taking into account different energy- as well as productivity-related objectives

A comparative study on wear and corrosion behaviour of tungsten carbide-nickel and tungsten carbide-cobalt high velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) for carbon steel blade

Nowadays, the demand of high wear and corrosion resistance of the components in various industry is increasing from time to time. Therefore, high velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) thermal spray was introduced to protect machine components from wear and corrosion, to restore worn components and to improve the durability of the components. HVOF is one of the process of depositing a material layer over a base metal or substrate with characteristics of high flame velocity and moderate temperature. The main purpose of this present study is to characterize the structure of the tungsten carbide 10 wt.% nickel (WC-10Ni) and tungsten carbide 12 wt.% w cobalt (WC-12Co) coating deposited by means of HVOF thermal spray onto a continuous digester (CD) blade that made up from carbon steel. The morphology and chemical composition of the coating were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), electron dispersive spectrometer (EDS), and x-ray diffraction (XRD). The hardness test was carried out by using Vickers micro-hardness tester with load of 490.3 mN (0.05 HV). The wear and corrosion behavior and mechanism for both coatings was compared. Three body wear test was carried out in term of weight loss and electrochemical test was performed in acidic media (mixture of sulfuric acid, H2SO4 and ilmenite) to obtain the corrosion rate of the coating. From the result, it shows that WC-12Co coating has finer grain size that is around 2.3 μm. WC-12Co has higher wear resistance due to high volume friction, low mean free path, high hardness and lower porosity distribution compared to WC-10Ni. Besides, the formation of secondary phase, W2C also affected the hardness of both coating, where this phase is harder than WC phase. For corrosion test, WC-12Co shows good corrosion resistance with small differences of corrison rate with WC-10Ni, that is only 0.7016 mm/y. As a conclusion, WC-12Co HVOF coating shows high potential on replacement of CD blade

Emergency department contact prior to suicide in mental health patients

ObjectivesTo describe attendance at emergency departments (EDs) in the year prior to suicide for a sample of mental health patients. To examine the characteristics of those who attended (particularly those who attended frequently) prior to suicide.DesignCase review of ED records for 286 individuals who died within 12 months of mental health contact in North West England (2003-2005).MethodCases identified through the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide were checked against regional EDs to establish attendance in the year prior to death. Records were examined to establish the number of attendances, reason for the final, non-fatal attendance, treatment offered and outcome.ResultsOne hundred and twenty-four (43%) individuals had attended the ED at least once in the year prior to their death, and of these, 35 (28%) had attended the ED on more than three occasions. These frequent attenders died by suicide significantly sooner after their final, non-fatal attendance than other attenders. A clinical history of alcohol misuse was also associated with early death following ED attendance.ConclusionsOver 40% of our clinical sample attended an ED in the year prior to death, and some individuals attended particularly frequently. EDs may therefore represent an important additional setting for suicide prevention in mental health patients. The majority of attendances prior to suicide were for self-harm or to request psychiatric help. Clinicians should be alert to the risk associated with such presentations and to the possible association between frequent attendance and suicide

Throughput Maximization of Queueing Networks with Simultaneous Minimization of Service Rates and Buffers

The throughput of an acyclic, general-service time queueing network was optimized, and the total number of buffers and the overall service rate was reduced. To satisfy these conflicting objectives, a multiobjective genetic algorithm was developed and employed. Thus, our method produced a set of efficient solutions for more than one objective in the objective function. A comprehensive set of computational experiments was conducted to determine the efficacy and efficiency of the proposed approach. Interesting insights obtained from the analysis of a complex network may assist practitioners in planning general-service queueing networks

Evaluating case studies of community-oriented integrated care.

This paper summarises a ten-year conversation within London Journal of Primary Care about the nature of community-oriented integrated care (COIC) and how to develop and evaluate it. COIC means integration of efforts for combined disease-treatment and health-enhancement at local, community level. COIC is similar to the World Health Organisation concept of a Community-Based Coordinating Hub - both require a local geographic area where different organisations align their activities for whole system integration and develop local communities for health. COIC is a necessary part of an integrated system for health and care because it enables multiple insights into 'wicked problems', and multiple services to integrate their activities for people with complex conditions, at the same time helping everyone to collaborate for the health of the local population. The conversation concludes seven aspects of COIC that warrant further attention

State enrolment and energy-carbon transitions: syndromic experimentation and atomisation in England

This article analyses how national governments seek to enrol different subjects and objects in energy-carbon restructuring. It takes analysis beyond consideration of particular subjectivities and governmentalities to consider an expanded range of objects and subjects of governing at a distance. Developing an analytical model of ‘modes of enrolment’ focusing on power modalities, forms of policy integration and policy targets, the article explores five broad modes of enrolment employed in England. The article shows how policy across all modes of enrolment in England has increasingly tended towards disordered, syndromic experimentation and government by-project rather than any systematic programme of government