Creating the brain and interacting with the brain: an integrated approach to understanding the brain

In the past two decades, brain science and robotics have made gigantic advances in their own fields, and their interactions have generated several interdisciplinary research fields. First, in the ‘understanding the brain by creating the brain’ approach, computational neuroscience models have been applied to many robotics problems. Second, such brain-motivated fields as cognitive robotics and developmental robotics have emerged as interdisciplinary areas among robotics, neuroscience and cognitive science with special emphasis on humanoid robots. Third, in brain–machine interface research, a brain and a robot are mutually connected within a closed loop. In this paper, we review the theoretical backgrounds of these three interdisciplinary fields and their recent progress. Then, we introduce recent efforts to reintegrate these research fields into a coherent perspective and propose a new direction that integrates brain science and robotics where the decoding of information from the brain, robot control based on the decoded information and multimodal feedback to the brain from the robot are carried out in real time and in a closed loop.     

A systems approach to understanding the effect of Facebook use on the quality of interpersonal communication

Social networking platforms such as Facebook have become integrated into the milieu of modern-day social interactions. Facebook, one of the most prominent social networking platforms globally, is widely used as a primary medium for communicating and networking for personal, professional and recreational purposes. To date, studies have focussed on developing an understanding of why people make use of Facebook. Limited studies have explored the effect of Facebook use on interpersonal communication. This paper then investigated the tension between the use of Facebook and the quality of interpersonal communication. From the literature, the need to belong, and the need for self-presentation, were identified as the two main set of complex relations that justifies why people use Facebook. Qualitative system dynamics modelling, specifically causal loop diagrams, was used to gain more insights on the tension between Facebook and the quality of interpersonal communication from the perspective of a potential Facebook user. This tension was represented by the trade-off arising when considering the amount of time spent on Facebook and interpersonal communication. It is argued in this paper that Facebook is not a sufficient substitute to interpersonal communication, as it tends to degrade the quality of interpersonal relationships. Future investigation will require developing a simulation model for a specific case to provide more insights on the extent of this trade-offs and potential intervention measures.     

An integrated methodology for the dynamic performance and reliability evaluation of fault-tolerant systems

We propose an integrated methodology for the reliability and dynamic performance analysis of fault-tolerant systems. This methodology uses a behavioral model of the system dynamics, similar to the ones used by control engineers to design the control system, but also incorporates artifacts to model the failure behavior of each component. These artifacts include component failure modes (and associated failure rates) and how those failure modes affect the dynamic behavior of the component. The methodology bases the system evaluation on the analysis of the dynamics of the different configurations the system can reach after component failures occur. For each of the possible system configurations, a performance evaluation of its dynamic behavior is carried out to check whether its properties, e.g., accuracy, overshoot, or settling time, which are called performance metrics, meet system requirements. Markov chains are used to model the stochastic process associated with the different configurations that a system can adopt when failures occur. This methodology not only enables an integrated framework for evaluating dynamic performance and reliability of fault-tolerant systems, but also enables a method for guiding the system design process, and further optimization. To illustrate the methodology, we present a case-study of a lateral-directional flight control system for a fighter aircraft.     

A model based approach to assess the performance of production systems in degraded mode

Nowadays production systems are asked to perform their activities in a high uncertainty environment and to guarantee their performance in this environment. Therefore, they are asked to master risks that are part of their daily activities, to maintain the performance which is considered as their key success factor. Risks may cause serious effects that threaten the production systems and degrade their performance. Nevertheless, we cannot estimate the degradation that a risk may cause to system performance, since risk analysis methods found in the literature do not allow simulating the behaviour of the system in degraded mode. In order to help production systems to assess their performance in risk situations, we propose in this paper a model-based approach that enables assessing the performance of production systems in degraded mode. Our approach is based on function, interaction, structure (FIS) modelling framework that enables modelling complex system and its failures. The resulting model is converted into an executable simulation model based on a new class of Petri Nets (PNs) called predicate-transition, prioritised, synchronous (PTPS) PN. The obtained simulation model is then executed in order to obtain performance indicators in degraded mode. This tool is used during the system design, in order to study the impact of risks on the designed production system performance. It is also used to study an existing production system in order to analyse and optimise its behaviour in degraded mode. In this article, we present our tool and apply it to a special case of production systems which is a hospital sterilisation system.     

An integrated approach to evaluating the fracture toughness of irradiated nuclear reactor pressure vessels

Current methods of predicting the inservice fracture toughness of nuclear reactor pressure vessels subject to irradiation embrittlement are briefly reviewed, and a new and integrated approach is proposed. This approach is based on the use of a wide variety of information, including the rapidly emerging understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of fracture in the ductile to brittle transition region as well as the microstructurally-mediated processes leading to embrittlement. However, the focus is on advanced, nonintrusive characterization methods for measuring composition, coarse and fine scale microstructure, and mechanical properties using small sample biopsies from operating vessels.     

An integrated approach to the optimum utilization of national tungsten resources: Technology gaps

A critical review of the current status of tungsten resources, of state-of-the-art processing technology and of product development in India vis-a-vis the world scenario is presented. An attempt has been made to identify technology gap areas requiring attention.     

An integrated approach to determine the block layout,AGV flow path and the location of pick-up/delivery points in single-loop systems

Layout design and material handling system design are two of the major aspects of facility planning. Although both aspects directly influence each other, the classical approach to the layout design is carried out in two separate steps: in the first step the block layout, i.e. the location of the departments in the workshop, is constructed, and in the second step, the material handling system is designed. The separate optimisation of these two aspects of the problem leads to solutions that can be far from the global optimum. In this paper, we develop an integrated algorithm to design the facilities and material handling systems. We focus on single-loop AGV systems. The proposed algorithm determines the block layout, AGV single-loop flow path and pick-up delivery stations, simultaneously. The associated from–to chart and the area of departments are the principal inputs of the algorithm. The objective is minimising total material flow distance among all departments. The results of our computational experiments show the algorithm was coded using MATLAB 7.0, and that our integrated algorithm is more efficient in terms of both the objective function value and the runtime.     

An integrated quality function deployment and capital budgeting methodology for occupational safety and health as a systems thinking approach: The case of the construction industry

In this paper, an integrated methodology for Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and a 0–1 knapsack model is proposed for occupational safety and health as a systems thinking approach. The House of Quality (HoQ) in QFD methodology is a systematic tool to consider the inter-relationships between two factors. In this paper, three HoQs are used to consider the interrelationships between tasks and hazards, hazards and events, and events and preventive/protective measures. The final priority weights of events are defined by considering their project-specific preliminary weights, probability of occurrence, and effects on the victim and the company. The priority weights of the preventive/protective measures obtained in the last HoQ are fed into a 0–1 knapsack model for the investment decision. Then, the selected preventive/protective measures can be adapted to the task design. The proposed step-by-step methodology can be applied to any stage of a project to design the workplace for occupational safety and health, and continuous improvement for safety is endorsed by the closed loop characteristic of the integrated methodology.     

A systems approach to accident causation in mining: An application of the HFACS method

This project aimed to provide a greater understanding of the systemic factors involved in mining accidents, and to examine those organisational and supervisory failures that are predictive of sub-standard performance at operator level. A sample of 263 significant mining incidents in Australia across 2007–2008 were analysed using the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS). Two human factors specialists independently undertook the analysis. Incidents occurred more frequently in operations concerning the use of surface mobile equipment (38%) and working at heights (21%), however injury was more frequently associated with electrical operations and vehicles and machinery. Several HFACS categories appeared frequently: skill-based errors (64%) and violations (57%), issues with the physical environment (56%), and organisational processes (65%). Focussing on the overall system, several factors were found to predict the presence of failures in other parts of the system, including planned inappropriate operations and team resource management; inadequate supervision and team resource management; and organisational climate and inadequate supervision. It is recommended that these associations deserve greater attention in future attempts to develop accident countermeasures, although other significant associations should not be ignored. In accordance with findings from previous HFACS-based analyses of aviation and medical incidents, efforts to reduce the frequency of unsafe acts or operations should be directed to a few critical HFACS categories at the higher levels: organisational climate, planned inadequate operations, and inadequate supervision. While remedial strategies are proposed it is important that future efforts evaluate the utility of the measures proposed in studies of system safety.     

An approach to functional synthesis of solutions in mechanical conceptual design. Part III: Spatial configuration

These three papers describe an approach to the synthesis of solutions to a class of mechanical design problems; these involve transmission and transformation of mechanical forces and motion, and can be described by a set of inputs and outputs. The approach involves(1) identifying a set of primary functional elements and rules of combining them, and(2) developing appropriate representations and reasoning procedures for synthesizing solution concepts using these elements and their combination rules; these synthesis procedures can produce an exhaustive set of solution concepts, in terms of their topological as well as spatial configurations, to a given design problem.This paper (Part III) describes a constraint propagation procedure which, using a knowledge base of spatial information about a set of primary functional elements, can produce possible spatial configurations of solution concepts generated in Part II.     

An MILP-based approach to the short-term scheduling of make-and-pack continuous production plants

Many fast moving consumers good manufacturing companies produce a moderate number of intermediates that are combined in many different ways to generate an enormous variety of end products. To do that, such companies usually run continuous production plants in a make-to-stock environment. The process structure includes a fabrication area yielding basic intermediates that are stocked in a large middle storage space, and a packing sector where finished products usually comprising several intermediates are manufactured. Intermediates all undergo the same sequence of processing stages and the production of any campaign is sequentially allocated to an ordered set of end products. An MILP continuous time scheduling problem formulation handling independently assignment and sequencing decisions and considering sequence-dependent setup times and specific due dates for export orders has been developed. The problem objective is to meet all end-product demands at minimum make-span. The proposed model is able to account for assorted products, multiple campaigns for a particular intermediate even at the same unit and the consecutive allocation of an intermediate campaign to different finished products. Moreover, it can easily embed powerful preordering rules to yielding reduced MILP formulations so as to tackle real-world industrial problems at low computational cost. The approach has been successfully applied to large-scale industrial examples. RID="*" ID="*" The authors acknowledge financial support from FONCYT under Grant 14-07004, and from “Universidad Nacional del Litoral” under CAI+D 121. Correspondence to: J. Cerdá     

A principled approach to the design of healthcare systems: Autonomy vs. governance

In this paper, we look at decision support for post-operative breast cancer care. Our main concerns are to support autonomy of decision making whilst maintaining the governance and reliability of the decision-making process. We describe the context of our work in the wider medical setting. We then present a set of decision support tools based on the situation calculus as a means of maintaining the integrity of rule bases underlying the decision-making system. The decision support system, Neptune, allows for the authoring, maintenance and delivery of decisions in a self-governing framework. Finally we discuss the implications of our work.     

Insights into the dissolution mechanisms of detergent agglomerates: An approach to assess dissolution heterogeneity

In this work, the dissolution mechanisms of detergent agglomerates with different binders were investigated in aqueous solution. The dissolution processes of detergent agglomerates were online monitored by using in situ UV–VIS spectrophotometer and electric conductivity probe. Dissolution profiles were correlated by Weibull model to evaluate the time-dependent dissolution rate coefficient and to classify the type of dissolution rate function k_t(t). The Kullback-Leibler information distance d_K-L was proposed to assess the degree of dissolution heterogeneity. The results indicate that the sodium linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (NaLAS) and sodium carbonates (Na₂CO₃) in detergent agglomerates have different dissolution behaviors, and their dissolution rates are influenced by the type and content of binders. Moreover, detergent agglomerates using semi-solid NaLAS paste or liquid linear alkylbenzene sulfonic acid (HLAS) as binders in granulation processes follow different dissolution mechanisms in water.     

An XFEM/level set approach to modelling surface/interface effects and to computing the size-dependent effective properties of nanocomposites

In a nanostructured material, the interface-to- volume ratio is so high that the interface energy, which is usually negligible with respect to the bulk energy in solid mechanics, can no longer be neglected. The interfaces in a number of nanomaterials can be appropriately characterized by the coherent interface model. According to the latter, the displacement vector field is continuous across an interface in a medium while the traction vector field across the same interface is discontinuous and must satisfy the Laplace–Young equation. The present work aims to elaborate an efficient numerical approach to dealing with the interface effects described by the coherent interface model and to determining the size-dependent effective elastic moduli of nanocomposites. To achieve this twofold objective, a computational technique combining the level set method and the extended finite element method is developed and implemented. The numerical results obtained by the developed computational technique in the two-dimensional (2D) context are compared and discussed with respect to the relevant exact analytical solutions used as benchmarks. The computational technique elaborated in the present work is expected to be an efficient tool for evaluating the overall size-dependent elastic behaviour of nanomaterials and nano-sized structures.     

Interdisciplinary safety analysis of complex socio-technological systems based on the functional resonance accident model: An application to railway trafficsupervision

This paper presents an application of functional resonance accident models (FRAM) for the safety analysis of complex socio-technological systems, i.e. systems which include not only technological, but also human and organizational components. The supervision of certain industrial domains provides a good example of such systems, because although more and more actions for piloting installations are now automatized, there always remains a decision level (at least in the management of degraded modes) involving human behavior and organizations. The field of application of the study presented here is railway traffic supervision, using modern automatic train supervision (ATS) systems. Examples taken from railway traffic supervision illustrate the principal advantage of FRAM in comparison to classical safety analysis models, i.e. their ability to take into account technical as well as human and organizational aspects within a single model, thus allowing a true multidisciplinary cooperation between specialists from the different domains involved.A FRAM analysis is used to interpret experimental results obtained from a real ATS system linked to a railway simulator that places operators (experimental subjects) in simulated situations involving incidents. The first results show a significant dispersion in performances among different operators when detecting incidents. Some subsequent work in progress aims to make these “performance conditions” more homogeneous, mainly by ergonomic modifications. It is clear that the current human-machine interface (HMI) in ATS systems (a legacy of past technologies that used LED displays) has reached its limits and needs to be improved, for example, by highlighting the most pertinent information for a given situation (and, conversely, by removing irrelevant information likely to distract operators).