Gearing up for the virtual computer

The ultimate virtual computer will not model a Turing machine or even one of today's desktop computers. This computer will model complex systems that interact with people and respond to outside events continuously over time. This computational model will have a highly parallel/asynchronous architecture. Its components will interact through a future incarnation of the Internet. The paper discusses the Legion project that aims to realise the interactive/multiprocess model by meeting several design objectives. It considers how Java has all the potential programmers need to design complex systems that reflect the interactive/multiprocess model     

Associations between cow hygiene, hock injuries, and free stall usage on US dairy farms

This cross-sectional study evaluated cow comfort measures in free stall dairies across the United States as part of the National Animal Health Monitoring System's Dairy 2007 study. The study was conducted in 17 states and evaluations were completed between March 5 and September 5, 2007. Assessors recorded hygiene and hock scores, number of cows housed in the pen, the number of cows standing with only the front feet in a stall, standing fully in a stall, and lying in a stall. Facility design measures included bedding type, bedding quantity, stall length and width, presence of a neck rail or brisket locator, and relevant distances from the rear and bed of the stall. Of the 491 operations that completed the cow comfort assessment, 297 had Holstein cows housed in free stalls and were included in this analysis. Negative binomial models were constructed to evaluate the following outcomes: the number of cows that were very dirty, had severe hock injuries, stood with front feet in the stall, stood with all feet in the stall, and were lying in the stall. Hygiene was better on farms that did not tail dock cows compared with those that did (5.7 vs. 8.8% were dirty) and on farms located in the study's west region compared with those located in the east region (5.2 vs. 9.7% were dirty). Severe hock injuries were less common on farms in the west than those in the east (0.5 vs. 4.1%). In addition, severe hock injuries were less common on farms that used dirt as a stall base or sand as bedding compared with farms that did not. A higher percentage of cows was standing with front feet in the stall at higher ambient temperatures (incidence rate ratio = 1.016) and as time since feeding increased (incidence rate ratio = 1.030). A lower percentage of cows were standing with front feet in the stall when the stalls were shorter and when there were fewer cows per stall. Standing fully in a stall was performed by a higher percentage of cows during the summer than during the spring (13.6 vs. 8.1%), when cows were provided free stalls with rubber mats or mattresses, and as the distance from the rear curb to neck rail increased. A higher percentage of cows were lying in a stall when sand bedding was used, when bedding was added more frequently, and during the spring months. Results of this national survey indicate that tail docking provides no benefit to cow hygiene and that stall base and bedding are key factors influencing hock injuries and stall usage on US free stall dairy farms.     

Optical add-drop multiplexers with low crosstalk

We propose and demonstrate three new optical add-drop multiplexer (OADM) architectures with simple and compact configuration and excellent crosstalk performance. The OADMs use a single multiport optical circulator and either one or two narrow-band fiber Bragg gratings, depending on the crosstalk requirement     

Collecting Constructability Improvement Ideas

Project constructability improvement data collection techniques including voluntary survey, questionnaires, interviews, preconstruction meeting notes, and final project reports are discussed and analyzed in detail. Constructability data collected on a large refinery expansion project solicited with various collection techniques from various project personnel are presented. Considering six major types of constructability improvements, from both quantitative and qualitative points of view, two primary questions are addressed: (1) Which data collection methods are best in soliciting certain types of data; and (2) which source types are the most effective contributors in soliciting certain types of data? Numerous recommendations for effectively collecting constructability improvement data are presented.     

Productive Foremen in Industrial Construction

This paper attempts to identify characteristics which diffirentiate productive industrial construction foremen from less productive industrial construction foremen. The first section, data collection methodology, explains how the data for this paper were gathered. The next section, statistical analysis, briefly describes why certain methods of statistical analysis were performed on the data. The following section, data analysis methodology, explains both how the data were grouped for analysis and how highly productive foremen were identified. The fourth section, criteria for identifying differentiating items among foremen, is appropriately titled. The results of the research project are then presented, followed by a conclusions section which summarizes the findings of the study.     

Education for manufacturing industry: The rudimentary requirements from a student's viewpoint

There is much evidence that U.S. manufacturing is not responding to the global challenge to its manufacturing base. In addition, there are relatively few university graduates considering choosing operations management as a career. Of those who do make such a choice, many are not well-prepared. One possible reason for some of these problems lies in the fact that most programs of study are designed from the academic, rather than the students', point of view. Some common-sense suggestions to help alleviate these problems will be discussed.