Project of productivity improvement and quality control at a smart card company based on six sigma

The development of smart cards already has a nearly 20-year history in the world. As the improvement of producing techniques and degree of the popularity become more mature, smart card’s development is stepping into a high-speed period. The application of smart cards is widely used in various fields such as telecommunication, financials, transportation, social security, medical treatment, etc. This smart card company was undergoing a downturn times due to the competitive pressure and bottleneck process on assembly line. Therefore the objectives of this project were to help the company becoming competitive by increasing the yield and maintaining the decent qualities of smart cards. The project conducted DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analysis, Improve, Control) process, a very important methodology of Six Sigma, to help this company improving the productivity in the competitive smart cards market without adding any unvalued equipment or additional labor. At the same time maintained the quality of smart cards to satisfy the customers. Nowadays Six Sigma is becoming popular especially in manufacturing fields and industrial sectors as a set of techniques and tools for process improvement. This project eventually presented the desirable results and achievements to illustrate the significance of applying Six Sigma

Fast computation of radar cross-section by fast multipole method in conjunction with lifting wavelet-like transform

The fast multipole method (FMM) in conjunction with the lifting wavelet-like transform scheme is proposed for the scattering analysis of differently shaped three-dimensional perfectly electrical conducting objects. As a flexible and efficient matrix compression technique, the proposed method can sparsify the aggregation matrix and disaggregation matrix in real time with compression ratio about 30%. The computational complexity and choice of proper wavelet are also discussed. Numerical simulation and complexity analysis have shown that the proposed method can speed up the aggregation and disaggregation steps of the FMM with lower memory requirements. © 2010 The Institution of Engineering and Technology.postprin

Effect of temperature on moromi fermentation of soy sauce with intermittent aeration

Soy sauce has been widely used as one of the main seasoning agents in Asian countries. Soy sauce is produced by two-steps fermentation processes, namely koji fermentation and moromi fermentation. Inthis study, different temperatures (25, 35 and 45°C) for moromi fermentation in bioreactor were investigated for understanding their influences on soya sauce quality, in terms of pH variations, ethanolconcentrations and total nitrogen contents in raw soy sauce during moromi fermentation. It was learned that as the aging of moromi took place, the pH level was decreased from pH 7 to 4.88. Also, the soy sauce had lower concentration of ethanol when higher temperature was used in moromi fermentation but the difference of temperature did not show significantly effect on total nitrogen content in soy sauce. This study indicated that the temperature used in the moromi fermentation, coupled with intermittent aeration, imposed significant effects on soy sauce aging and quality. Higher fermentation temperature of 45°C enhanced the aging of soy sauce, accompanying with lower contents of ethanol and higher pH level in soy sauce. However, the total nitrogen content in the soy sauce was notsignificantly influenced by the fermentation temperature

Prenatal and Early Postnatal Exposure to Cigarette Smoke Decreases BDNF/TrkB Signaling and Increases Abnormal Behaviors Later in Life

Background: Cigarette smoke exposure during prenatal and early postnatal periods increases the incidence of a variety of abnormal behaviors later in life. The purpose of this study was to identify the possible critical period of susceptibility to cigarette smoke exposure and evaluate the possibe effects of cigarette smoke during early life on brain-derived neurotrophic factor/neurotrophic tyrosine kinase receptor B signaling in the brain. Methods: Three different age of imprinting control region mice were exposed to cigarette smoke or filtered air for 10 consecutive days beginning on either gestational day 7 by maternal exposure, or postnatal days 2 or 21 by direct inhalation. A series of behavioral profiles and neurotrophins in brain were measured 24 hours after mice received acute restraint stress for 1 hour on postnatal day 59. Results: Cigarette smoke exposure in gestational day 7 and postnatal day 2 produced depression-like behaviors as evidenced by significantly increased immobility in both tail suspension and forced-swim test. Increased entry latencies, but not ambulation in the open field test, were also observed in the gestational day 7 and postnatal day 2 cigarette smoke exposure groups. Genetic analysis showed that gestational day 7 cigarette smoke exposure significantly altered mRNA level of brain derived neurotrophic factor/tyrosine kinase receptor B in the hippocampus. However, behavioral profiles and brain-derived neurotrophic factor/tyrosine kinase receptor B signaling were not significantly changed in PND21 cigarette smoke exposure group compared with FA group. Conclusions: These results suggest that a critical period of susceptibility to cigarette smoke exposure exists in the prenatal and early postnatal period, which results a downregulation in brain-derived neurotrophic factor/tyrosine kinase receptor B signaling in the hippocampus and enhances depression-like behaviors later in life

Adaptive frequency sweep analysis for electromagnetic problems using the Thiele interpolating continued fractions

A direct rational approximation method based on Thiele interpolating continued fractions theory is proposed for fast frequency sweep analysis of electromagnetic problems. And an adaptive algorithm is also formed. Compared with the conventional rational approximation method, the proposed method can get a rational approximation directly without a great number of matrix inverse computations and doesn't need to allocate much memory for high derivatives of the dense impedance matrix. Meanwhile, the computation of surface currents by continued fractions can be sped up as compared with the traditional rational approximation. Numerical simulations for broad band scattering analysis of different shaped objects are discussed to shown the effectiveness of the present method. © 2010 IEEE.published_or_final_versionThe 2nd International Conference on Education Technology and Computer (ICETC 2010), Shanghai, China, 22-24 June 2010. In Proceedings of 2nd ICETC, 2010, v. 5, p. 126-12

Efficient Implementation and Design of A New Single-Channel Electrooculography-based Human-Machine Interface System

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Mutations on M3 helix of Plutella xylostella glutamate-gated chloride channel confer unequal resistance to abamectin by two different mechanisms

Abamectin is one of the most widely used avermectins for agricultural pests control, but the emergence of resistance around the world is proving a major threat to its sustained application. Abamectin acts by directly activating glutamate-gated chloride channels (GluCls) and modulating other Cys-loop ion channels. To date, three mutations occurring in the transmembrane domain of arthropod GluCls are associated with target-site resistance to abamectin: A309V in Plutella xylostella GluCl (PxGluCl), G323D in Tetranychus urticae GluCl1 (TuGluCl1) and G326E in TuGluCl3. To compare the effects of these mutations in a single system, A309V/I/G and G315E (corresponding to G323 in TuGluCl1 and G326 in TuGluCl3) substitutions were introduced individually into the PxGluCl channel. Functional analysis using Xenopus oocytes showed that the A309V and G315E mutations reduced the sensitivity to abamectin by 4.8- and 493-fold, respectively. In contrast, the substitutions A309I/G show no significant effects on the response to abamectin. Interestingly, the A309I substitution increased the channel sensitivity to glutamate by one order of magnitude (∼12-fold). Analysis of PxGluCl homology models indicates that the G315E mutation interferes with abamectin binding through a steric hindrance mechanism. In contrast, the structural consequences of the A309 mutations are not so clear and an allosteric modification of the binding site is the most likely mechanism. Overall the results show that both A309V and G315E mutations may contribute to target-site resistance to abamectin and may be important for the future prediction and monitoring of abamectin resistance in P. xylostella and other arthropod pests

BLM and RMI1 alleviate RPA inhibition of topoIIIα decatenase activity

RPA is a single-stranded DNA binding protein that physically associates with the BLM complex. RPA stimulates BLM helicase activity as well as the double Holliday junction dissolution activity of the BLM-topoisomerase IIIα complex. We investigated the effect of RPA on the ssDNA decatenase activity of topoisomerase IIIα. We found that RPA and other ssDNA binding proteins inhibit decatenation by topoisomerase IIIα. Complex formation between BLM, TopoIIIα, and RMI1 ablates inhibition of decatenation by ssDNA binding proteins. Together, these data indicate that inhibition by RPA does not involve species-specific interactions between RPA and BLM-TopoIIIα-RMI1, which contrasts with RPA modulation of double Holliday junction dissolution. We propose that topoisomerase IIIα and RPA compete to bind to single-stranded regions of catenanes. Interactions with BLM and RMI1 enhance toposiomerase IIIα activity, promoting decatenation in the presence of RPA

Multi-Layer Cyber-Physical Security and Resilience for Smart Grid

The smart grid is a large-scale complex system that integrates communication technologies with the physical layer operation of the energy systems. Security and resilience mechanisms by design are important to provide guarantee operations for the system. This chapter provides a layered perspective of the smart grid security and discusses game and decision theory as a tool to model the interactions among system components and the interaction between attackers and the system. We discuss game-theoretic applications and challenges in the design of cross-layer robust and resilient controller, secure network routing protocol at the data communication and networking layers, and the challenges of the information security at the management layer of the grid. The chapter will discuss the future directions of using game-theoretic tools in addressing multi-layer security issues in the smart grid.Comment: 16 page