Prenatal psychosocial stress exposure is associated with subsequent working memory performance in young women.

The aim of the present study was to examine the association between prenatal psychosocial stress exposure and subsequent prefrontal cortex-dependent working memory performance in human adults. Working memory performance was assessed using an item-recognition task under 10 mg hydrocortisone (cortisol) and placebo conditions in a sample of 32 healthy young women (mean age = 25 ± 4.34 years) whose mothers experienced a major negative life event during their pregnancy (Prenatal Stress, PS group), and in a comparison group of 27 healthy young women (mean age = 24 ± 3.4 years). The two groups did not differ in the placebo condition, however, subjects in the PS group showed longer reaction times after hydrocortisone administration compared with subjects in the comparison group (p = .02). These findings provide support for an association between prenatal stress exposure and the potential modulatory effect of cortisol on working memory performance in young adults, which may reflect compromised development of the prefrontal cortex in prenatal life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modeling FMS with decision Petri nets

Decision point extended timed Petri nets or decision Petri nets (DPN) are introduced as an extended modeling framework for FMS performance evaluation. The decision point extension allows the explicit modeling of the control of the flow of tokens in timed Petri nets and hence represents the control of the flow of material, resources, and information in FMS. Further, the concept of a bounded transition is proposed to conveniently model the blocking logic in an FMS with limited buffer capacities. The motivation to present these conventions is to develop a user-friendly graphic model to represent FMS designs for analysis by discrete event simulation. DPN affords concise models that can be conveniently developed and easily transformed into discrete event simulation models. With the help of a simple FMS example, which includes a number of part types, loading rules, dispatching rules, and probabilistic branching (at an inspection station), we illustrate the DPN model development. As an illustration of the ease with which it can be tranformed into a simulation model, we have developed a generalized simulator called ROBSIM and outline here its methodological basis. The proposed concepts should be of interest to users of discrete event simulation in FMS design or elsewhere to tap the potential of basic Petri net concepts for graphic representation and specification purposes. In particular, our work should encourage other researchers to develop extensions relevant to their own areas of interest.     

Morphology and mechanical properties of radiation-polymerized urethane–acrylates. I. Pure oligomers

The morphology of electron beam cured polyacrylo–urethane films based on polyethylene adipate and toluene diisocyanate was characterized to explain their mechanical properties. The polyacrylo–urethane films have a one-phase morphology in which the hard urethane segments and the soft polyester segments are homogeneously mixed. The films obtained from 1000-molecular-weight oligomer are hard and somewhat brittle due to their one-phase morphology in which hard glassy segments play a dominant role. The films obtained from 4600- and 6000-molecular-weight oligomers are soft and tough, once again due to their one-phase morphology in which soft rubbery segments are more effective. The original crystalline structure of 6000-molecular-weight oligomer is retained in the precrystallized γ-irradiated film, but electron-beam-irradiated films showed partial melting of the crystallites due to the heat of polymerization. The solid state polymerized films have a lower eleongation, a higher modulus, and a higher breaking strength due to their crystallinity.     

The effect of routing flexibility on a flexible system of integrated manufacturing

Flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs) have gained consideration due to their ability to produce customised and an increasing variety of products with shorter life cycles. A considerable amount of research has been done on manufacturing flexibility from different angles. There are many different types of manufacturing flexibility being reported in the literature, and routing flexibility is one of them. The paper focuses on the study of routing flexibility in a flexible system of integrated manufacturing (FSIM) from the view of real-time control strategies. However, flexibility incurs cost hence a judicious decision is required for implementing the right level of flexibility under a different operating environment. The paper studies the impact of routing flexibility and control strategies on the performance of FSIM. The application of discrete event simulation and Taguchi's method is applied to study the various factors contributing to FSIM performance and identifies the vital parameters for improving performance. Furthermore, the most significant factor is determined by using the analysis of variance (ANOVA). The result shows that increasing routing flexibility cannot be treated as a key role in system improvement. It is also found that there is the influence of control strategies on the performance of FSIM. Finally, it is observed that, the impact on the system performance due to the system load condition is the largest, and that of the number of pallets is the smallest.     

Inventory performance of some supply chain inventory policies under impulse demands

This paper attempts to study the impact of impulsive demand disturbances on the inventory-based performance of some inventory control policies. The supply chain is modelled as a network of autonomous supply chain nodes. The customer places a constant demand except for a brief period of sudden and steep change in demand (called demand impulse). Under this setting, the behaviour of each inventory policy is analysed for inventory performance of each node. It is found that the independent decision-making by each node leads to a bullwhip effect in the supply chain whereby demand information is amplified and distorted. However, under a scenario where the retailer places a constant order irrespective of the end customer demand, the inventory variance was actually found to decrease along the supply chain. The variance of the inventory remained constant along the chain when only the actual demands are transmitted by each node. The results also showed that the inventory policy which is best for one supply chain node is generally less efficient from a supply chain perspective. Moreover, the policy which performs poorly for one node can be most efficient for the supply chain. In a way, our results also provide a case for coordinated inventory management in the supply chain where all members prepare a joint inventory management policy that is beneficial for all the supply chain nodes. The results have significant industrial implications.     

Framework for flexibility in dynamic supply chain management

Effective Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a pivotal issue in the dynamically changing business environment. Dynamic SCM requires integrated decision-making amongst autonomous chain partners with effective decision information synchronization amongst them. By exploiting flexibility in supply chain structures, better performance can be achieved. Similarly, by judiciously employing decision flexibility and the associated dynamic control amongst autonomous supply chain nodes, many improvements are possible. The paper presents a study on the role of different flexibility options (i.e. no flexibility, partial flexibility and full flexibility) in a dynamic supply chain model based on some key parameters and performance measures. Supply chain flexibility has significant potential and needs a greater research attention. The paper attempts to advance the knowledge of dynamic control on effective flexibility exploitation in the context of dynamic supply chains. A simulation model of a dynamic supply chain is used for this purpose. The key results are highlighted along with industry implications. Here each supply chain node involves decision-making. Based on the order and sample information available from the immediate buyers or customers, the supplier selection decisions are dynamically made. A seemingly good decision at a stage based on local information often ends up as detrimental not only to the total chain cost, but also to the total costs of the node itself. These observations are important for the designers and managers of the flexible supply chain systems to arrive at appropriate types and a judicious level of flexibility to attain significant improvements in total cost reduction. The modelling of dynamic supply chains with a focus on flexibility can offer enormous potential to the industry. This paper addresses this interesting and challenging domain.     

Effects of Adding Apple Polyphenols Before and After Fermentation on the Properties of Drinking Yoghurt

Adding polyphenols (PPs) to yoghurt is a convenient way to deliver the health benefits of PPs and also the probiotic effects of starter cultures. In this study, drinking yoghurts with apple PPs (chlorogenic acid, phlorizin, or apple PP extract (APE)) added pre- or post-fermentation, and pectins (low or high methoxyl) were subjected to chemical, physical, and microbiological analyses. Results show that the type of PPs and pectin affected the total extractable PP content (TEPC), PP profiles, viscosity, storage modulus of yogurt, colony number, and morphology of the starter cultures. Adding APE before fermentation produced yoghurts with a greater TEPC and more polar PPs than adding post-fermentation. Producing drinking yoghurt enhanced with apple PPs via either approach is feasible. The pre-fermentation approach may be more beneficial in terms of increased TEPC and growth of starter culture, offering a bio-process to optimise PP profiles in drinking yoghurt.     

Investigation of N + SiGe Gate Stacked V-TFET Based on Dopingless Charge Plasma for Gas Sensing Application

Silicon - In this paper, a novel n + SiGe pocket layer gate stacked VTFET doping less charge plasma is proposed and analyzed using Silvaco TCAD simulation software. The proposed device...     

A Review on—Spintronics an Emerging Technology

Silicon - This review describes an emerging field of electronics devices; electron spin exploitation use for a further degree of freedom incorporation to charge state, with the significant feature...