Integrated modelling under uncertainty in watershed-level assessment and management.

Uncertainty in water quality model predictions is inevitably high due to natural stochasticity, model uncertainty, and parameter uncertainty. An integrated modelling system (modified-BASINS) under uncertainty is described and demonstrated for use in receiving-water quality prediction and watershed management. A Monte Carlo simulation was used to investigate the effect of various uncertainty types on output prediction. Without pollution control measures in the watershed, the concentrations of total nitrogen (T-N) and total phosphorus (T-P) in the Hwaong Reservoir, considering three uncertainty types, would be less than about 4.4 and 0.23 mg L(-1), respectively, in 2012, with 90% confidence. The effects of two watershed management practices, wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) and constructed wetlands (WETLAND), were evaluated. The combined scenario (WWTP + WETLAND) was the most effective at improving reservoir water quality, bringing concentrations of T-N and T-P in the Hwaong Reservoir to less than 3.4 and 0.14 mg L(-1), 24 and 41% improvements, respectively, with 90% confidence. Overall, the Monte Carlo simulation in the integrated modelling system was practical for estimating uncertainty and reliable in water quality prediction. The approach described here may allow decisions to be made based on the probability and level of risk, and its application is recommended.     

一种微机控制的多测头凸轮轴测量系统

本文介绍一种由机械装置，高精度圆光栅编码器，光栅位移传感器，微型计算机，接口控制电路等组成的多测头凸轮轴测量系统，该系统安装调整方便，定位准确，测量精度高，操作简单，工作可靠，能快速实现对凸轮轴的自动测量。     

A run-to-run controller for a chemical mechanical planarization process using least squares generative adversarial networks

Achieving high processing quality for chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) in semiconductor manufacturing is difficult due to the distinct process variations associated with this method, such as drift and shift. Run-to-run control aims to maintain the targeted process quality by reducing the effect of process variations. The goal of controller learning is to infer an underlying output–input reverse mapping based on input–output samples considering the process variations. Existing controllers learn reverse mapping by minimizing the total mapping error for sample data. However, this approach often fails to generate inputs for unseen target outputs because conditional input distributions on target outputs are not captured in the learning. In this study, we propose a controller based on a least squares generative adversarial network (LSGAN) that can capture the input distributions. GANs are deep-learning architectures composed of two neural nets: a generator and a discriminator. In the proposed model, the generator attempts to produce fake input distributions that are similar to the real input distributions considering the process variation features extracted using convolutional layers, while the discriminator attempts to detect the fake distributions. Competition in this game drives both networks to improve their performance until the generated input distributions are indistinguishable from the real distributions. An experiment using the data obtained from a work-site CMP tool verified that the proposed model outperformed the comparison models in terms of control accuracy and computation time.

     

The implementation of technical practices and human factors of the toyota production system in different industries

The Toyota Production System (TPS) can result in huge benefits for companies and has been widely implemented around the world. Nevertheless, most adopters emphasize only the technical practices of the TPS, but neglect the critical role of human factors in the implementation of the TPS. Therefore, this study aims at developing an integrated TPS model that fully integrates the technical elements and human elements of the TPS with Total Quality Management (TQM) practices. An empirical study was conducted to confirm the causal relationships among these constructs. In the empirical study, questionnaires were mailed and e‐mailed to 620 companies that had implemented the TPS, and 151 of the completed questionnaires were valid. These 151 respondents were divided into eight categories. The results revealed that the implementation level of each construct was significantly different in each industry. The automobile and motorcycle industries have put a great deal of effort into the application of Humanity, Human Resource Management (HRM), and TQM practices and obtained good results. Other industries, however, ignored the implementation of HRM practices. The results also revealed that the early adopters enjoyed significant benefits from the implementation of the TPS, which led high‐tech companies to start adopting TPS practices and become lean enterprises. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

k-Nearest neighbor query processing algorithm for cloaking regions towards user privacy protection in location-based services

Due to the advancement of wireless internet and mobile positioning technology, the application of location-based services (LBSs) has become popular for mobile users. Since users have to send their exact locations to obtain the service, it may lead to several privacy threats. To solve this problem, a cloaking method has been proposed to blur users’ exact locations into a cloaked spatial region with a required privacy threshold (k). With the cloaked region, an LBS server can carry out a k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) search algorithm. Some recent studies have proposed methods to search k-nearest POIs while protecting a user’s privacy. However, they have at least one major problem, such as inefficiency on query processing or low precision of retrieved result. To resolve these problems, in this paper, we propose a novel k-NN query processing algorithm for a cloaking region to satisfy both requirements of fast query processing time and high precision of the retrieved result. To achieve fast query processing time, we propose a new pruning technique based on a 2D-coodinate scheme. In addition, we make use of a Voronoi diagram for retrieving the nearest POIs efficiently. To satisfy the requirement of high precision of the retrieved result, we guarantee that our k-NN query processing algorithm always contains the exact set of k nearest neighbors. Our performance analysis shows that our algorithm achieves better performance in terms of query processing time and the number of candidate POIs compared with other algorithms.     

Modeling of the electrostrictive, dielectric, and piezoelectric properties of ceramic PbTiO(3)

The upper and lower limits of the electrostrictive constants, dielectric permittivities, spontaneous polarizations, and piezoelectric coefficients were calculated for ceramic PbTiO(3) from theoretical single-crystal constants. Experimental ceramic data fall between these upper and lower limits. The large piezoelectric anisotropy d(33)/d(31) of ceramic PbTiO(3 ) was shown to be related to the single-crystal PbTiO(3) electrostrictive anisotropies Q(11)/Q(12 ) and Q(44)/Q(12). The possibility of a change in sign of the ceramic d(31) coefficient due to a slight variation in the single-crystal electrostrictive anisotropies was discussed. The single-crystal and predicted ceramic hydrostatic electrostrictive constants were found to be equal. Using this result the ceramic hydrostatic g(h ) coefficient is always smaller than the single-crystal g (h), but the ceramic hydrostatic d(h) coefficient can be either larger or smaller than the single-crystal d(h) depending on the dielectric anisotropy (epsilon (11)/epsilon(33)) of the single-crystal.     

Identification of Cyclophilin A as a Potential Anticancer Target of Novel Nargenicin A1 Analog in AGS Gastric Cancer Cells

We recently discovered a novel nargenicin A1 analog, 23-demethyl 8,13-deoxynargenicin (compound 9), with potential anti-cancer and anti-angiogenic activities against human gastric adenocarcinoma (AGS) cells. To identify the key molecular targets of compound 9, that are responsible for its biological activities, the changes in proteome expression in AGS cells following compound 9 treatment were analyzed using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE), followed by MALDI/TOF/MS. Analyses using chemical proteomics and western blotting revealed that compound 9 treatment significantly suppressed the expression of cyclophilin A (CypA), a member of the immunophilin family. Furthermore, compound 9 downregulated CD147-mediated mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway, including c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) by inhibiting the expression of CD147, the cellular receptor of CypA. Notably, the responses of AGS cells to CypA knockdown were significantly correlated with the anticancer and antiangiogenic effects of compound 9. CypA siRNAs reduced the expression of CD147 and phosphorylation of JNK and ERK1/2. In addition, the suppressive effects of CypA siRNAs on proliferation, migration, invasion, and angiogenesis induction of AGS cells were associated with G2/M cell cycle arrest, caspase-mediated apoptosis, inhibition of MMP-9 and MMP-2 expression, inactivation of PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, and inhibition of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression. The specific interaction between compound 9 and CypA was also confirmed using the drug affinity responsive target stability (DARTS) and cellular thermal shift assay (CETSA) approaches. Moreover, in silico docking analysis revealed that the structure of compound 9 was a good fit for the cyclosporin A binding cavity of CypA. Collectively, these findings provide a novel molecular basis for compound 9-mediated suppression of gastric cancer progression through the targeting of CypA.     

Deciphering the Binding Interactions between Acinetobacter baumannii ACP and β-ketoacyl ACP Synthase III to Improve Antibiotic Targeting Using NMR Spectroscopy

Fatty acid synthesis is essential for bacterial viability. Thus, fatty acid synthases (FASs) represent effective targets for antibiotics. Nevertheless, multidrug-resistant bacteria, including the human opportunistic bacteria, Acinetobacter baumannii, are emerging threats. Meanwhile, the FAS pathway of A. baumannii is relatively unexplored. Considering that acyl carrier protein (ACP) has an important role in the delivery of fatty acyl intermediates to other FAS enzymes, we elucidated the solution structure of A. baumannii ACP (AbACP) and, using NMR spectroscopy, investigated its interactions with β-ketoacyl ACP synthase III (AbKAS III), which initiates fatty acid elongation. The results show that AbACP comprises four helices, while Ca²⁺ reduces the electrostatic repulsion between acid residues, and the unconserved F47 plays a key role in thermal stability. Moreover, AbACP exhibits flexibility near the hydrophobic cavity entrance from D59 to T65, as well as in the α₁α₂ loop region. Further, F29 and A69 participate in slow exchanges, which may be related to shuttling of the growing acyl chain. Additionally, electrostatic interactions occur between the α₂ and α₃-helix of ACP and AbKAS III, while the hydrophobic interactions through the ACP α₂-helix are seemingly important. Our study provides insights for development of potent antibiotics capable of inhibiting A. baumannii FAS protein–protein interactions.