Fuzzy set based cost model of additive manufacturing with specific example of selective laser sintering

A fuzzy set based cost model for additive manufacturing is proposed. The model is illustrated through an example of selective laser sintering (SLS), a commonly used additive manufacturing (AM) process. Initially, a deterministic cost model is developed. It is then converted to a fuzzy set based model by considering uncertainty in build time estimation and cost components. For the specific case of SLS, a build time estimation procedure is developed as a part of the cost model. A method to evaluate the reliability of the cost estimate in AM and its significance is also introduced. The cost model is illustrated through two examples of products manufactured by SLS.

     

A look at the video dial-tone network

As organisations with information to sell implement an array of multimedia services for the home, others, too, are hard at work. Telephone companies, as well as cable operators, are busy developing broadband intelligent networks to underpin those broadcast and interactive offerings. The phone companies define their network as a common-carrier transport service, in that it grants equal access to all information providers, including themselves, and enables consumers to "dial up" video or multimedia applications offered by third parties. This kind of service has become known as a video dial-tone network. The user first gets a menu from the network provider. He or she then picks an information provider, which sends its own interactive menu of services to the customer     

MPEG-2 over ATM for video dial tone networks: issues and strategies

Market growth for PC multimedia and digital video owes largely to the rapid adoption of ISO compression standards by the industry. For video dial tone (VDT) services, the MPEG-2 set of standards have clearly emerged as the preferred coding method for VDT networks. For point-to-point switched video or multimedia connections, ATM has emerged as the technology of choice for switching and transport. This article describes how compressed digital video is transported over a VDT network, what some of the issues are, and how they are being addressed by the industry. It describes a generic VDT reference architecture, and the delivery method of video and multimedia information over such a network     

Monocyte diapedesis through an in vitro vessel wall construct: inhibition with monoclonal antibodies to thrombospondin

Human peripheral blood monocytes were examined for migration across an endothelial cell monolayer in an in vitro vessel wall construct. Few monocytes invaded in the absence of a chemotactic gradient, despite significant adhesion to the endothelial monolayer. However, the addition of zymosan-activated human plasma to the lower compartment, to create a chemotactic gradient across the vessel wall, resulted in significantly enhanced monocyte migration. Pretreatment of the monocytes with monoclonal antibodies to thrombospondin (TSP) dramatically inhibited monocyte diapedesis into the vessel wall. The same treatment inhibited monocyte adhesion to endothelial cells in two-dimensional monolayer cultures as well as in vessel wall constructs (no chemotactic gradient). Of interest, however, the monoclonal antibodies had no inhibitory effect on monocyte migration into collagen gels devoid of endothelial cells in response to the same chemotactic gradient, suggesting the importance of TSP in monocyte-endothelial cell interactions. Monoclonal antibodies to fibronectin and normal mouse immunoglobulin G did not inhibit migration in this model of a vessel wall. Furthermore, monoclonal antibodies to TSP showed no inhibition of human peripheral blood neutrophil migration. Previous studies have shown that monocytes synthesize TSP and express this moiety on their surface. The present data suggest that monocytes may utilize TSP to interact with endothelial cells lining the vessel wall during diapedesis.     

A time aggregation approach to Markov decision processes

We propose a time aggregation approach for the solution of infinite horizon average cost Markov decision processes via policy iteration. In this approach, policy update is only carried out when the process visits a subset of the state space. As in state aggregation, this approach leads to a reduced state space, which may lead to a substantial reduction in computational and storage requirements, especially for problems with certain structural properties. However, in contrast to state aggregation, which generally results in an approximate model due to the loss of Markov property, time aggregation suffers no loss of accuracy, because the Markov property is preserved. Single sample path-based estimation algorithms are developed that allow the time aggregation approach to be implemented on-line for practical systems. Some numerical and simulation examples are presented to illustrate the ideas and potential computational savings.     

The Content Driven Mobile Internet

The development of future mobile networks will be driven, in large part, by content and web based services. In this paper, we examine several performance, scalability and architectural challenges faced by future mobile web applications and how advanced mobile content delivery techniques can address these challenges. We review existing content delivery using a taxonomy that consists of three categories: network scaling, end system acceleration, and content and protocol optimization. While wireline content delivery focuses on network and server scalability, mobile content delivery will likely benefit most from optimizing radio link usage. We also present our ongoing work in this area, which extends the functionality of edge caching to the terminal, uses user interest correlation information to maintain low terminal power consumption and adds a new dimension to radio resource management. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Dynamic bandwidth allocation for quality-of-service over Ethernet PONs

Ethernet-based passive optical network (EPON) technology is being considered as a promising solution for next-generation broadband access networks due to the convergence of low-cost Ethernet equipment and low-cost fiber infrastructures. A major feature for this new architecture is the use of a shared transmission media between all users; hence, medium access control arbitration mechanisms are essential for the successful implementation of EPON: i.e., to ensure a contention-free transmission and provide end users with equal access to the shared media. We propose to use the multipoint control protocol defined by the IEEE 802.3ah task force to arbitrate the transmission of different users, and we present different dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) algorithms to allocate bandwidths effectively and fairly between end users. These DBA algorithms are also augmented to support differentiated services, a crucial requirement for a converged broadband access network with heterogeneous traffic. We show that queueing delays under strict bandwidth allocation algorithms result in an unexpected behavior for certain traffic classes, and we suggest the use of DBA with appropriate local queue management to alleviate this inappropriate behavior. We conduct detailed simulation experiments to study the performance and validate the effectiveness of the proposed protocols.     

Studies on the dielectric and relaxor behavior of sol-gel derived barium strontium zirconate titanate thin films

The dielectric behavior of sol-gel derived Ba_0.80Sr_0.20(Zr_xTi_1−x)O₃ (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.50) thin films is studied. A relaxor behavior is observed for x ≥ 0.35. The degree of relaxation increases with Zr content. The frequency dependence of the polar regions follows Vogel-Fulcher relation with a characteristic cooperative freezing at freezing temperature (T_f). Below T_f, a long range polarization ordering is likely to take place. The plausible mechanism of the relaxor behavior of BSZT thin films with Zr contents ≥ 0.35 has been proposed based on the measured temperature as well as frequency dependent dielectric data. The solid solution system is visualized as a mixture of Ti^+ 4 rich polar regions and Zr^+ 4 rich regions; with the increase in Zr content the volume fraction of the polar regions is progressively reduced. At and above 35.0 at.% Zr substitution the polar regions exhibit typical relaxor behavior.     

Asymptotic efficiency properties of least squares in an ultrastructural model

This paper considers the estimation of both the intercept term and the slope parameter in a linear ultrastructural model using direct regression and reverse regression methods. Without assuming the errors to be normally distributed, asymptotic expressions for the bias and the variance of the estimators are derived and analyzed. The effect of departure of the errors from normality is also studied.