TRANSPORTATION - WORK GROUP DISCUSSION

Agribusiness,

Automated Assembly Time Prediction Tool Using Predefined Mates From CAD Assemblies

Current Design for Assembly (DFA) methods and tools require extensive amounts and types of user inputs to complete the analysis. Since the methods require extensive amounts and types of inputs, certain issues arise: the analysis can become tedious, time consuming, error prone, and not repeatable. These issues eventually lead to the DFA methods being used as a redesign tool or not being implemented at all. The research presented in this thesis addresses the current DFA limitations and issues by developing and implementing an automated assembly time prediction tool that: extracts explicitly defined connections from SolidWorks assembly models, determines the structural complexity vector of the connections, and inputs the complexity vector into trained artificial neural networks (ANNs) to predict an assembly time. The automated assembly time prediction tool does not require any user inputs other than a mated assembly model. To complete the analysis with the automated tool, the user has to open up the assembly model and click on the developed SW add-in button. Since no additional inputs are required to complete the analysis, the results are completely repeatable when given the same SolidWorks assembly model to evaluate. The results in this thesis show that the developed tool can predict a product\u27s assembly time with as little as 4% error or with as much as +68% error depending on the ANN training set used. Eight different ANN training sets are tested in this thesis, the results show that larger more variable ANN training sets typically predict assembly times with less percent error than smaller less variable ANN training sets. Since the tool extracts mates from assembly models, the sensitivity of the method with respect to different mating styles is also investigated. It is determined that the mating style does have an effect on the predicted assembly time, but this effect is typically within the normal variation ranges of existing DFA methods

Managing Kansas Flint Hills Grasslands

The Tallgrass Prairie once encompassed some 150+ million acres in the central Great Plains area. Because of the relatively high rainfall in the region and the grassland dominance, the soils there were among the best in the world for crop production

Is the Section 1983 Civil Rights Statute Overworked? Expanded Use of Magistrates--An Alternative to Exhaustion

Part I of this Note discusses the history and purpose of section 1983 and identifies the danger unmanaged growth of 1983 suits poses to civil rights. Part II examines several judicial responses to the 1983 caseload problem and concludes that congressional action is more appropriate. Parts III and IV explore two areas of possible legislative action. Part III questions the efficacy of a legislatively imposed requirement that the claimant exhaust state administrative remedies as a prerequisite to a 1983 suit in federal court. Part IV proposes an alternative congressional response to the 1983 caseload problem: a carefully tailored use of the existing magistracy apparatus. The Note concludes that magistrates can handle many of the issues in 1983 suits that strain judicial resources, and no other measure, short of a substantial increase in the number of federal judges, can effectively manage the 1983 caseload problem, while at the same time preserving section 1983\u27s central purpose of providing a federal forum to civil rights litigants

Kripke, Chalmers and the Immediate Phenomenal Quality of Pain

One common element of Kripke’s and Chalmers’ reactions to physicalist theories of mind is their reliance upon the intuition that concepts about conscious experiences are essentially identified by the “immediate phenomenal quality” of the conscious experience, how the experience feels from the subjective point of view. I examine how Kripke’s and Chalmers’ critiques require that concepts about conscious experiences be identified by their subjective feel and then move on to provide some ways in which this intuition about concepts of conscious experience could be wrong. Specifically, the intuition is not consistent with our intuitions about unusual cases reported by pain researchers and does not take such cases to be genuine cases of pain. These inconsistencies weaken the intuition, making it problematic for any critique of identity theory or physicalism to rely heavily upon it

Assembly Time Estimation: Assembly Mate Based Structural Complexity Metric Predictive Modeling

This paper presents an automated tool for estimating assembly times of products based on a three step process: connectivity graph generation from assembly mate information, structural complexity metric analysis of the graph, and application of the complexity metric vector to predictive artificial neural network models. The tool has been evaluated against different training set cases, suggesting that partially defined assembly models and training product variety are critical characteristics. Moreover, the tool is shown to be robust and insensitive to different modeling engineers. The tool has been implemented in a commercial CAD system and shown to yield results of within ±25% of predicted values. Additional extensions and experiments are recommended to improve the tool

Combining tower mixing ratio and community model data to estimate regional-scale net ecosystem carbon exchange by boundary layer inversion over 4 flux towers in the U.S.A.

We evaluated an idealized boundary layer (BL) model with simple parameterizations using vertical transport information from community model outputs (NCAR/NCEP Reanalysis and ECMWF Interim Analysis) to estimate regional-scale net CO2 fluxes from 2002 to 2007 at three forest and one grassland flux sites in the United States. The BL modeling approach builds on a mixed-layer model to infer monthly average net CO2 fluxes using high-precision mixing ratio measurements taken on flux towers. We compared BL model net ecosystem exchange (NEE) with estimates from two independent approaches. First, we compared modeled NEE with tower eddy covariance measurements. The second approach (EC-MOD) was a data-driven method that upscaled EC fluxes from towers to regions using MODIS data streams. Comparisons between modeled CO2 and tower NEE fluxes showed that modeled regional CO2 fluxes displayed interannual and intra-annual variations similar to the tower NEE fluxes at the Rannells Prairie and Wind River Forest sites, but model predictions were frequently different from NEE observations at the Harvard Forest and Howland Forest sites. At the Howland Forest site, modeled CO2 fluxes showed a lag in the onset of growing season uptake by 2 months behind that of tower measurements. At the Harvard Forest site, modeled CO2 fluxes agreed with the timing of growing season uptake but underestimated the magnitude of observed NEE seasonal fluctuation. This modeling inconsistency among sites can be partially attributed to the likely misrepresentation of atmospheric transport and/or CO2gradients between ABL and the free troposphere in the idealized BL model. EC-MOD fluxes showed that spatial heterogeneity in land use and cover very likely explained the majority of the data-model inconsistency. We show a site-dependent atmospheric rectifier effect that appears to have had the largest impact on ABL CO2 inversion in the North American Great Plains. We conclude that a systematic BL modeling approach provided new insights when employed in multiyear, cross-site synthesis studies. These results can be used to develop diagnostic upscaling tools, improving our understanding of the seasonal and interannual variability of surface CO2 fluxes

Exploring the Development and Transfer of Case Use Skills in Middle-School Project-Based Inquiry Classrooms

The ability to interpret and apply experiences, or cases (Kolodner, 1993; 1997) is a skill (Anderson, et. al, 1981; Anderson, 2000) that is key to successful learning that can be transferred (Bransford, Brown and Cocking, 1999) to new learning situations. For middle-schoolers in a project-based inquiry science classroom, interpreting and applying the experiences of experts to inform their design solutions is not always easy (Owensby and Kolodner, 2002). Interpreting and applying an expert case and then assessing the solution that results from that application are the components of a process I call case use. This work seeks to answer three questions: 1. How do small-group case use capabilities develop over time? 2. How well are students able to apply case use skills in new situations over time? 3. What difficulties do learners have as they learn case use skills and as they apply case use skills in new situations? What do these difficulties suggest about how software might further support cognitive skill development using a cognitive apprenticeship (Collins, Brown and Newman, 1989) framework? I argue that if learners in project based inquiry classrooms are able to understand, engage in, and carry out the processes involved in interpreting and applying expert cases effectively, then they will be able to do several things. They will learn those process and be able to read an expert case for understanding, glean the lessons they can learn from it, and apply those lessons to their question or challenge. Furthermore, I argue that they may also be able to transfer interpretation, application, and assessment skills to other learning situations where application of cases is appropriate.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Dr. Janet L. Kolodner; Committee Member: Dr. Amy Bruckman; Committee Member: Dr. Marcia Linn; Committee Member: Dr. Mark Guzdial; Committee Member: Dr. Nancy Nersessia

Delayed winter supplemental feeding and year-round mineral supplementation of beef cows on native range

Polled Hereford cows on native Flint Hills pasture not supplemented until February lost more weight from December to February, lost less from February to May, and were in poorer condition before calving than cows supplemented beginning in November. But calf survival, birth weight, and calf average daily gain were similar for both groups. Feeding cows a calcium, phosphorus, trace mineral mix did not improve any measure of cow or calf performance