Prediction of job completion times and optimal overtime allocation for satisfying production due dates

One of the important aspects contributing to the competitiveness and success of a manufacturer is the efficient management for timely order delivery. After production orders are scheduled, there arises the need of a support tool to aid in the analysis with the available information, and to support managerial decision making which ultimately aims at on-time delivery. One way in which companies can meet due-dates of orders that are in jeopardy of being late, is to schedule overtime. This research presents a method used for 1) predict the completion times of scheduled jobs; and 2) optimizing overtime allocation when delays are foreseen. Mathematical mixed-integer linear program models are developed to represent the above problems for a tandem production line with single machine work stages. Non-operational downtime occurrences are considered in the production horizons which can be varied by work stage. Buffer areas (queues) are also included in the production system. These MILP models are solved using commercial optimizer ILOG-OPL studio. Using VBA script with OPL, a friendly interface is built in MS Excel for ease in user manipulation. The interface can also be used in production test to hypothetical “what if” questions. The models are verified using simulation. Runtime evaluation is also preformed to determine the capabilities and limitations of the models

Les six continents: An Exploration of Political Visual Rhetoric in Public Sculpture

Les six continents series stands as remnants of the 1878 Exposition Universelle and as a visual marker of the cultural, social, and economic culture of the time period. The series, serving as public art, continues to inform and participate in its environment and space, as it is on display by the entrance of the Musée d’Orsay today. Personified representations of Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Oceania as allegorical female figures, the series offers insight into the colonial world where it emerged, and how its impact has visually been ingrained in contemporary society. By using these six statues as a case study, this paper examines how public sculpture at the 1878 world\u27s fair provided a permanent alternative to the ephemeral cases of human display popular at other 19th century fairs and thereby perpetuated a more durable image of an ambiguous, sexualized, non-white, ethnic “other” in Europe into the 20th and 21st centuries. Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College

UNC93B1 recruits syntenin-1 to dampen TLR7 signalling and prevent autoimmunity.

At least two members of the Toll-like receptor (TLR) family, TLR7 and TLR9, can recognize self-RNA and self-DNA, respectively. Despite the structural and functional similarities between these receptors, their contributions to autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus can differ. For example, TLR7 and TLR9 have opposing effects in mouse models of systemic lupus erythematosus-disease is exacerbated in TLR9-deficient mice but attenuated in TLR7-deficient mice1. However, the mechanisms of negative regulation that differentiate between TLR7 and TLR9 are unknown. Here we report a function for the TLR trafficking chaperone UNC93B1 that specifically limits signalling of TLR7, but not TLR9, and prevents TLR7-dependent autoimmunity in mice. Mutations in UNC93B1 that lead to enhanced TLR7 signalling also disrupt binding of UNC93B1 to syntenin-1, which has been implicated in the biogenesis of exosomes2. Both UNC93B1 and TLR7 can be detected in exosomes, suggesting that recruitment of syntenin-1 by UNC93B1 facilitates the sorting of TLR7 into intralumenal vesicles of multivesicular bodies, which terminates signalling. Binding of syntenin-1 requires phosphorylation of UNC93B1 and provides a mechanism for dynamic regulation of TLR7 activation and signalling. Thus, UNC93B1 not only enables the proper trafficking of nucleic acid-sensing TLRs, but also sets the activation threshold of potentially self-reactive TLR7

DYNAMIC FILE MIGRATION IN DISTRIBUTED COMPUTER SYSTEMS

In a distributed computer system files are shared by both local users and remote users for query and update purposes. A user performing data processing activities tends to reference the same file for some time. When the referenced file is stored remotely, large amounts of communication traffic will be generated. For example, when a customer is making a travel plan, an airline reservation database might be accessed repeatedly by a remote operation site. The inquiries will probably all be made within the time of an ordinary telephone conversation. In many recent developments in distributed computer systems, file migration operations are incorporated into the procedures for processing remote file access requests. Using file migration operations a file may be duplicated or moved to the requesting site in order to reduce communication traffic. As a result, the system is faced with dynamic file placement decisions using a file migration policy. In particular, a file migration policy is expressed as the IF-THEN rules that specify the file migration operations to be implemented at each viable system state. Based on this policy, file migration operations are triggered when the specified conditions are satisfied, and thus dynamically respond to system needs. Because of the dynamic behaviors of systems, the problem of deriving effective file migration policies is extremely complex. An elaborate analysis is required. This paper studies the impact of file migration operations on system performance and develops automatic mechanisms for incorporating file migrations as part of system operations. The mechanisms include optimization models formulated in the form of Markov decision models for deriving optimal file migration policies at system design or redesign points, and heuristic rules to generate adaptive file migration decisions for individual file access requests. The trade-off between these two types of mechanisms is clearly that of performance levels versus implementation complexities. The optimization analysis not only generates the best possible solutions, but provides insight into the problem structure, whereas the rationale for developing heuristics is their simplicity in implementation and acceptable performance levels

Conformational Preferences of 3-(Dimethylazinoyl)propanoic Acid as a Function of pH and Solvent; Intermolecular versus Intramolecular Hydrogen Bonding

The conformational equilibrium of 3-(dimethylazinoyl)propanoic acid (DMAPA, azinoyl = N^+(O^−) has a weak pH-dependence in D_2O, with a slight preference for trans in alkaline solutions. The acid ionization constants of the protonated amine oxide and carboxylic functional groups as determined by NMR spectroscopy were 7.9 × 10^(−4) and 6.3 × 10^(−6), respectively. The corresponding value of K_1/K_2 of 1.3 × 10^2 is not deemed large enough to provide experimental NMR evidence for a significant degree of intramolecular hydrogen bonding in D_2O. Conformational preferences of DMAPA are mostly close to statistical (gauche/trans = 2/1) in other protic solvents, e.g., alcohols. However, the un-ionized form of DMAPA appears to be strongly intramolecularly hydrogen-bonded and gauche in aprotic solvents

ONLINE RETAIL KEYWORD CHARACTERISTICS AND SEARCH MARKETING PERFORMANCE

To make judicious budget and resource allocation decisions, it is essential to understand the characteristics and performance of keywords used by target shoppers. Taking the approach of understanding consumers’ information needs, we construct a goal-related keyword characterization framework. Most search keywords exhibit more than one of the following characteristics - retailer specific, brand specific, product specific, feature related, or shopping intention. We analyze search engine ranking, click-through, and revenue data associated with visitor-disclosed search keywords from a top Web-only retailer over one year. Our findings show the interesting impacts of both keyword characteristics and dual-appearance of paid and organic advertisements on search marketing performance. The contributions of the research include a comprehensive search keyword characterization framework, and the analysis of the relationships between keyword characteristics and search performance. These findings have strong implications for search marketing decisions

cis-regulatory circuits regulating NEK6 kinase overexpression in transformed B cells Are super-enhancer independent

Alterations in distal regulatory elements that control gene expression underlie many diseases, including cancer. Epigenomic analyses of normal and diseased cells have produced correlative predictions for connections between dysregulated enhancers and target genes involved in pathogenesis. However, with few exceptions, these predicted cis-regulatory circuits remain untested. Here, we dissect cis-regulatory circuits that lead to overexpression of NEK6, a mitosis-associated kinase, in human B cell lymphoma. We find that only a minor subset of predicted enhancers is required for NEK6 expression. Indeed, an annotated super-enhancer is dispensable for NEK6 overexpression and for maintaining the architecture of a B cell-specific regulatory hub. A CTCF cluster serves as a chromatin and architectural boundary to block communication of the NEK6 regulatory hub with neighboring genes. Our findings emphasize that validation of predicted cis-regulatory circuits and super-enhancers is needed to prioritize transcriptional control elements as therapeutic targets

A zero density estimate and fractional imaginary parts of zeros for GL2\mathrm{GL}_2 LL-functions

We prove an analogue of Selberg's zero density estimate for $\zeta(s)$ that holds for any $\mathrm{GL}_2$ $L$-function. We use this estimate to study the distribution of the vector of fractional parts of $\gamma\mathbf{\alpha}$, where $\mathbf{\alpha}\in\mathbb{R}^n$ is fixed and $\gamma$ varies over the imaginary parts of the nontrivial zeros of a $\mathrm{GL}_2$ $L$-function.Comment: 25 page