An agile production network enabled by reconfigurable manufacturing systems

Emergencies, and efforts to address them, create disruptions to local and global supply chains and surges in demand of emergency resources, which substantially affect global production. Reconfigurable manufacturing systems are promising solutions to improve flexibility and to reduce the effort needed to adapt supply chains and production networks to fit a perturbed environment. This paper proposes a method for coordination of reconfigurable manufacturing resources from multiple enterprises to structure ad-hoc production networks for critical products required in emergencies. Network optimization models and interaction algorithms are integrated to evolve the production network through synchronous machine-level and network-level reconfiguration driven by data.     

A DBR laser tunable by resistive heating

A distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) laser tuned by resistive heating is presented. It has a tuning range greater than 10 nm with only a 33% reduction in output power and a 10% increase in linewidth. Its behavior is easily modeled, agreeing well with simple theory     

Energy-Efficient and Improved eWALL: e2WALL

eWALL framework, under development in the European eWALL project (project no. 610658: “eWALL for Active Long Living”) is meant for care of population with age related impairments, mild dementia and COPD. Expanded eWALL (e2WALL) is planned to be an integrated quality framework for long-term care services which will cover very different types of care: all healthcare (both preventive and rehabilitative), societal services, care for cognitive diseases, services delivered at home as well as support for caregivers as an integral part of the quality improvement process. Thus, we present e2WALL home system that would encompass installation (setup) of e2WALL in homes (flats, houses and aging homes) and their management and maintenance across Europe, starting from the partners involved in eWALL (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, The Netherlands and Romania) and expanding the partnership to the most of Europe (e.g. United Kingdom, Poland, Czech Republic…). This would be a direct application of the developed e2WALL platform and should be done through a network of collaborating small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs), each of whom would lead the process of setting up e2WALL system and continuing to provide support services to homes in their respective country. In this way, the growth of high tech and innovative SMEs will be ensured at pan European level, which will enable growth over restricted national market and stimulate European investments in SMEs and startups. Actually, the bigger platform will enable e2WALL European Ecosystem (e4WALL), which can then expand into other non-European markets (e.g. Asia, USA) and means sustainability beyond the life of the project. e2WALL will lead to connected tech start-up hubs to the larger European business ecosystem and will contribute to increased access of country-specific and customized new product to the pan European market, which will lead to increase of employed qualified individuals. Another important focus would be creating an energy efficient environment for a new social network where registered users would provide on-demand services.     

Operation of integrated InGaAsP-InP optical amplifier-monitoringdetector with feedback control circuit

Monolithic integration of a monitoring detector with an optical amplifier simplifies the use of an amplifier in lightwave systems. The structure and performance are described of a monolithically integrated semiconductor optical amplifier with low-loss Y-branching waveguides and a monitoring p-i-n detector. The photocurrent of the integrated detector can be used as a single control parameter for amplifier output leveling, gain optimization, and in situ monitoring of facet antireflective coatings     

System-level power-aware design techniques in real-time systems

Power and energy consumption has recently become an important issue and consequently, power-aware techniques are being devised at all levels of system design; from the circuit and device level, to the architectural, compiler, operating system, and networking layers. In this paper, we concentrate on power-aware design techniques for real-time systems. While the main focus is on hard real-time, soft real-time systems are considered as well. We start with the motivation for focusing on these systems and provide a brief discussion on power and energy objectives. We then follow with a survey of current research on a layer-by-layer basis. We conclude with illustrative examples and open research challenges. This paper provides an overview of power-aware techniques for the real-time system engineer as well as an up-to-date reference list for the researcher.     

Fault-sensitivity analysis and reliability enhancement of analog-to-digital converters

Reliability of systems used in space, avionic, and biomedical applications is highly critical. Such systems consist of an analog front-end to collect data, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to convert the collected data to digital form, and a digital unit to process it. Though a considerable amount of research has been performed to increase the reliability of digital blocks, the same cannot be claimed for mixed-signal blocks. The reliability enhancement that we employ begins with fault-sensitivity analysis followed by redesign. The data obtained from the sensitivity analysis is used to grade blocks based on their sensitivity to faults. The highly sensitive blocks can then be replaced by more reliable alternatives. The improvement gained by opting for more robust implementations might be limited due to the number of possible implementations. In these cases, alternative reliability enhancement techniques such as adding redundancy may provide further improvements. The steps involved in the reliability enhancement of ADCs are illustrated in this paper by first proposing a sensitivity analysis methodology for /spl alpha/-particle induced transients and then suggesting redesign techniques to improve the reliability of the ADC. A novel concept of node weights specific to /spl alpha/-particle transients is introduced, which improves the accuracy of the sensitivity analysis. The fault simulations show that, using techniques such as alternative robust implementations, adding redundancy, pattern detection, and transistor sizing, considerable improvements in reliability can be attained.     

Measuring empowerment in families whose children have emotional disabilities: A brief questionnaire.

Describes the development of the Family Empowerment Scale (FES), a brief questionnaire for assessing empowerment in families whose children have emotional disabilities. The questionnaire is based on a 2-dimensional conceptual framework of empowerment. One dimension reflects empowerment with respect to the family, service system, and larger community and political environment; the other dimension reflects the expression of empowerment as attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors. Analyses of reliability and validity were based on 440 responses of family members of children (aged     

Intermodulation distortion in a multiple-quantum-well semiconductor optical amplifier

The measurement of intermodulation distortion (IMD) induced by carrier-density modulation in a multiple-quantum-well (MQW) semiconductor amplifier is reported. The results show that MQW amplifiers have 15 dB less IMD than conventional buried-heterostructure semiconductor amplifiers. The IMD is dependent on the output power of the amplifiers, which confirms that the carrier-density modulation is the dominant nonlinear mechanism in MQW amplifiers. In addition, the results show that, unlike conventional buried-heterostructure amplifiers, MQW amplifiers have at least two time constants (200-250 ps and <10 ps) for the gain recovery process.<>     

Review of a home-based palliative care program for children with malignant and non-malignant diseases

The study of the incidence and etiological pattern of infectious complications included 376 patients operated for acquired valvular disease. 40,280 bacteriological tests of the materials from the patients obtained during the operations and during the postoperative period as well as 30,113 sanitary bacteriological tests of the specimens from the cardiological operation unit were conducted. The possible use of the results of bacteriological monitoring for prediction of septic complications and optimization of antibiotic prophylaxis and therapy as well as for development and operation of a system of sanitary and hygienic measures for infection prevention was shown and statistically confirmed.