Evaluating the design of flexible manufacturing systems

Evaluating the design of flexible manufacturing systems is complex. Developing a measure of performance useful for evaluating alternate designs continues to be interesting. Here, total productivity of the system is proposed as an appropriate measure. Specification of parameters based upon strategic considerations for this measure are discussed. Finally, the usefulness of the measure is demonstrated through an example.     

Two-electrode DFB laser filter used as a wide tunable narrow-bandFM receiver: tuning analysis, characteristics and experimental FSK-WDMsystem

Characteristics of a two-electrode DFB laser filter are studied both theoretically and experimentally. Using a matrix analysis of spontaneous emission, a continuous tuning range of 6.7 Å is achieved by changing both net field gains of the two electrodes. A total discontinuous tuning range of over 10 nm comprising alternating mode jumps and continuous tuning range of 4 Å are measured experimentally. The laser filter presents a FWHM bandwidth of 5 GHz which depends on the optical input power. In addition, it is demonstrated that a DFB laser filter can act as a frequency discriminator/photodetector, i.e., a narrow-band FM receiver, with a uniform bandwidth of 1.5 GHz. Using the two-electrode DFB laser for both transmitter and receiver, a two-channel FSK-WDM transmission system utilizing the discontinuous tuning range is reported. The advantage of such a device is the simplicity as compared to the heterodyne technique     

Conformational effects in the reversed-phase chromatographic behavior of recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) and N-methionyl recombinant human growth hormone (Met-hGH).

This paper examines the retention behavior of recombinant DNA-derived human growth hormone (rhGH) in reversed-phase chromatography and its separation from the closely related N-methionyl variant (Met-hGH). It is first shown that retention for rhGH decreases with increasing column temperature when 1-propanol (1-PrOH) is used as organic modifier. On the other hand, retention increases with temperature when acetonitrile (CH3CN) is employed. The differences in behavior for the two organic modifiers could be related to conformational changes in the protein as determined by solution and adsorption intrinsic fluorescence spectroscopy. Specifically, desorption and elution of rhGH using 1-PrOH could be correlated with a solvent-induced conformational change, with retention decreasing with increasing temperature due to the increasing ease of structural alteration. On the other hand for CH3CN the increase in retention correlated with temperature rise was related to a partial structural change yielding a more hydrophobic species. In this case, a surface-driven process is suggested. The work then turned to the separation of rhGH and Met-hGH where it was found for both organic modifiers optimum separation occurred at 45 degrees C and pH 6.5. Separate studies revealed that during the conformational change Met-hGH appeared more hydrophobic than rhGH since protein-protein aggregation was observed at a lower 1-PrOH concentration. It is suggested that this hydrophobic difference, which was optimized under the conditions cited above, resulted in the separation. The study demonstrates the importance of conformational changes in retention behavior and separation of protein samples.     

The superflow state of 3He-B at a diffusive wall. Quasiclassical calculations

We report on first computations considering effects of a rough wall on the counterflow state in superfluid ³He-B for high flow velocities. Using the quasiclassical Green's-function formalism supplemented by the boundary conditions for a diffusive wall, we calculate the order-parameter field and the supercurrent near a container wall for various pressures and temperatures. One of our results is that the current density at the wall as a function of the flow has a maximum at the velocity which is about half of the pair breaking velocity.     

Municipal solid waste conversion to energy

In recent years it has been recognised by an increasing number of nations that there is considerable energy potential within MSW. As a result many countries have established R,D& D programmes to examine methods of exploiting this potential. The IEA's MSW Conversion Activity was set up in 1986 to provide an infrastructure for sharing information and co-ordinating work in this area internationally. This Activity was extended in 1989 and currently a total of 9 nations participate in it.

To cope with the wide scope of the area (encompassing both biological and thermal processing of MSW) the Activity was divided into three subgroups or Expert Working Groups (EWGs). Each of these dealt with a distinct area of expertise:

1. •Downstream effects of source separation and screening of MSW

2. •Sampling and analytical protocols

3. •Landfill gas

In addition to these groups a central secretariat based at Harwell (UK) has provided guidance, established and administered databases of contacts and produced a series of national reports.

This paper describes the achievements of the Activity and discusses work proposed for the future.     

Effect of heat treatments on tensile properties and microstructures of wrought Mg−Zn−Zr-RE alloys

The effect of heat treatments on the tensile properties and microstructures of wrought Mg–Zn–Zr-Rare earth alloys MB25 and MB26 have been studied in this paper. It was shown that the homogenization of the cast ingots decreased the strength of the extruded bars because some grain boundary phases were dissolved during the process of this treatment, while the ageing treatment of the extruded bars increased the strength due to the dispersive precipitation of MgZn₂ phase. The quenching + ageing treatments of the extruded bars decreases the strength and plasticity because of the growing up of the grains.Abbreviations ED electron diffraction - GB grain boundary - RE rare earth - TEM transmission electron microscope     

Parallel-decomposition algorithm for discrete computationalproblems and its application in developing an efficient discreteconvolution algorithm

The authors present a parallel-decomposition algorithm for discrete computational problems. An efficient convolution algorithm is developed under the proposed decomposition algorithm. The decomposition operation is based on integer modular arithmetic. Congruent sets are generated from integer modular operation over the index of the problem and constitute a partition. The partition is used to decompose the problem into several small subproblems. The partition under the integer modular operation is unique. Complete reconstruction of the problem is guaranteed by the uniqueness of the partition. Since the algorithm is established on the foundation of all algebraic systems, i.e. number and set theories, it is highly problem-independent, and provides an uniform approach to parallel decomposition of general problems on the discrete domain. Because the subproblems are highly regular, it is suitable for VLSI hardware implementation. The computational complexity of the developed convolution algorithm is reduced by a factor of p², and (p²)ⁿ for n-dimensional problems (p can be any common factor of the input sequences). Compared to the popular FFT methods, where round-off error is introduced, the convolution result from the algorithm is exact. In addition, it does not have restrictions on the length of the input sequences, as in the well known block convolution algorithm. As a result, the algorithm is highly efficient for convolution of large input sequences or correlation operations