Analysis of Remote Diagnosis Architecture for a PLCBbased Automated Assembly System

To troubleshoot equipment installed in geographically distant locations, equipment manufacturers and system integrators are increasingly resorting to remote diagnosis in order to reduce the down time of the equipment, thereby achieving savings in cost and time on both the customer and manufacturer side. Remote diagnosis involves the use of communication technologies to perform fault diagnosis of a system located at a site distant to a troubleshooter. In order to achieve remote diagnosis, several frameworks have been proposed incorporating advancements such as automated fault diagnosis, collaborative diagnosis and mobile communication techniques. Standards exist for the capabilities representative of different levels of remote equipment diagnosis. Several studies have been performed to analyze the ability of human machine interface to assist troubleshooters in local fault diagnosis. However, the ability of a remote diagnosis system architecture to assist the troubleshooter in performing diagnosis and the effects of the failure types and other factors in a remote diagnosis environment on remote troubleshooting performance are not frequently addressed. In this thesis, an attempt is made to understand the factors that affect remote troubleshooting performance: remote diagnosis architecture, nature of failure, skill level of the local operator and level of expertise of the remote troubleshooter. For this purpose, three hierarchical levels of remote diagnosis architectures to diagnose failures in a PLC based automated assembly system were built based on existing standards. Common failures in automated assembly systems were identified and duplicated. Experiments were performed in which expert and novice troubleshooters used these remote diagnosis architectures to diagnose different types of failures while working with novice and engineer operators. The results suggest that in the diagnosis of failures related to measured or monitored system variables by remote expert troubleshooters, remote troubleshooting performance improved with the increase in the levels of the remote diagnosis architectures. In contrast, in the diagnosis of these failures by novice troubleshooters, no significant difference was observed among the three architectures in terms of remote troubleshooting performance and the novice troubleshooters experienced problems with managing the increased information available. Failures unrelated to monitored system parameters resulted in significantly reduced remote troubleshooting performance with all the three architectures in comparison to the failures related to monitored system parameters for both expert and novice troubleshooters. The experts exhibited better information gathering capabilities by spending more time per information source and making fewer transitions between information sources while diagnosing failures. The increase in capabilities of the architectures resulted in reduced operator interaction to a to a greater extent with experts. The difference in terms of overall remote troubleshooting performance between engineer and novice operators was not found to be significant

Hypothesis Aromatic-aromatic interactions in structures of proteins and protein-DNA complexes: a study based on orientation and distance

Abstract: Interactions between the aromatic amino acid residues have a significant influence on the protein structures and protein-DNA complexes. These interactions individually provide little stability to the structure; however, together they contribute significantly to the conformational stability of the protein structure. In this study, we focus on the four aromatic amino acid residues and their interactions with one another and their individual interactions with the four nucleotide bases. These are analyzed in order to determine the extent to which their orientation and the number of interactions contribute to the protein and protein-DNA complex structures. Background: Aromatic compounds are unsaturated cyclic and planar molecules that contain an aromatic ring. They possess additional stability as a result of the arrangement of the π -electrons situated above and below the plane of the aromatic ring. These electrons give rise to what is known as a π-electron cloud over the ring. Aromaticity is a chemical property associated with such cyclic and planar compounds and is attributed to these π-electrons which are free to cycle around the circular arrangements of atoms found in the aromatic moieties. It can be considered as a manifestation of cyclic delocalization and resonance which is found in planar ring systems such as benzene [1, 2]. The flat face of an aromatic ring has a partial negative charge owing to these π electrons. Out of the 20 amino acids found in protein structures, four are aromatic. They are phenylalanine, tyrosine, tryptophan and histidine [3]. The interactions that take place between the sidechains of the aromatic amino acid residues are referred to as aromatic-aromatic interactions. Formally, aromatic-aromatic interactions are defined as pairs of interacting aromatic residues which satisfy the following criteria: (i) the centers of th

Congeners of Pyrromethene-567 Dye: Perspectives from Synthesis, Photophysics, Photostability, Laser, and TD-DFT Theory

In an attempt to develop photostable and efficient BODIPY (PM) dyes for use in liquid dye lasers, three new congeners of widely used laser dye, PM567, were synthesized and their photophysical properties in various organic solvents, laser performances, and photostabilities in a selected solvent, 1,4-dioxane, have been investigated using a frequency doubled Q-switched (10 Hz) Nd:YAG laser at 532 nm. The results of photostability study in nonpolar 1,4-dioxane revealed the remarkable enhancement in stability of the novel dyes compared to that of PM567 as well as improved laser performances. Cyclic voltammetry study strongly supports the observed enhancement in photostability of the novel dyes compared to that of PM567. The observed properties of the novel dyes in relation to those of PM567 have been rationalized by extensive use of DFT and TD-DFT using the B3LYP/6-31G­(d) method of theory