Modeling tool wear in end-milling using enhanced GMDH learning networks

This paper presents an enhanced approach to predictive modeling for determining tool-wear in end-milling operations based on enhanced-group method of data handling (e-GMDH). Using milling input parameters (speed, feed, and depth-of-cut) and response (tool wear), the data for the model is partitioned into training and testing datasets, and the training dataset is used to realize a predictive model that is a function of the input parameters and the coefficients determined. In our approach, we first present a methodology for modeling, and then develop predictive model(s) of the problem being solved in the form of second-order equations based on the input data and coefficients realized. This approach leads to some generalization because it becomes possible to predict not only the test data obtained during experimentation, but other test data outside the experimental results can also be used. Moreover, this approach makes it easy to present the realized solution in a form that can be further optimized for the input parameters using some optimization techniques. The results realized using our e-GMDH method are promising, and the comparative study presented shows that the e-GMDH outperforms polynomial neural network (PNN); moreover, it is more flexible than the conventional GMDH, which tends to produce nonlinear solutions even for simple problems. In the investigation, the extended particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique was applied to obtain the optimal parameters. Consequently, the modeling approach is extremely useful in realizing a computer-aided process-planning system in an advanced manufacturing environment.     

A Web-based Kanban system for job dispatching, tracking, and performance monitoring

A Kanban system facilitates lean principles in a simple and effective way. While reportedly successful in many manufacturing firms, the conventional Kanban systems using physical cards suffer from human errors, limited tracking capability, and so on. To make the information flow leaner, software providers add new features to their existing programs for manufacturing systems to computerize Kanban activities. As Web-based technologies advance rapidly, developing an entirely Web-based Kanban system appears to be feasible and promising. This paper presents the advantages, limitations, and challenges of Web-based Kanban systems. An experimental program has been developed based on PHP+MySQL, a popular Web programming platform. The server-executed program features cross-platform compatibility, real-time tracking and performance monitoring, and greatly enhanced information contents compared to physical Kanbans. Human errors are minimized by the automated transactions; nevertheless, the interfacing and data maintenance require further research efforts.     

"What is in a word? No versus Yes differentially engage the lateral orbitofrontal cortex": Correction.

Reports an error in "What is in a word? No versus Yes differentially engage the lateral orbitofrontal cortex" by Nelly Alia-Klein, Rita Z. Goldstein, Dardo Tomasi, Lei Zhang, Stephanie Fagin-Jones, Frank Telang, Gene-Jack Wang, Joanna S. Fowler and Nora D. Volkow (Emotion, 2007[Aug], Vol 7[3], 649-659). The supplemental materials link should appear as follows: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.7.3.649.supp. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2007-11660-018.) The words "No" and "Yes" are involved in conditioning to prohibit or encourage behavior, respectively. The authors, therefore, hypothesized that these words would be attributed to endogenous valence, activating neuronal circuits involved with valence and emotional control. Functional MRI (fMRI) at 4 Tesla was used to record regional brain activity while participants were exposed to emphatic vocalizations of the words. Results showed that No and Yes were associated with opposite brain-behavior responses; while No was negatively valenced, produced slower response times, and evoked a negative signal in the right lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), Yes was positively valenced, produced faster response times, and evoked a positive signal in a contiguous region of the OFC. Attribution of negative valence to No and trait anger control were associated with increased responsivity of the OFC to No. Inasmuch as sensitivity to the prohibitive command No develops during childhood through interaction with primary caregivers as the first social objects, our findings may implicate the lateral OFC in the neurobiology of emotion regulation and subsequent social development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exceptions that prove the rule--Using a theory of motivated social cognition to account for ideological incongruities and political anomalies: Reply to Greenberg and Jonas (2003).

A meta-analysis by J. T. Jost, J. Glaser, A. W. Kruglanski, and F. J. Sulloway (2003) concluded that political conservatism is partially motivated by the management of uncertainty and threat. In this reply to J. Greenberg and E. Jonas (2003), conceptual issues are clarified, numerous political anomalies are explained, and alleged counterexamples are incorporated with a dynamic model that takes into account differences between "young" and "old" movements. Studies directly pitting the rigidity-of-the-right hypothesis against the ideological extremity hypothesis demonstrate strong support for the former. Medium to large effect sizes describe relations between political conservatism and dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity; lack of openness to experience; uncertainty avoidance; personal needs for order, structure, and closure; fear of death; and system threat. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Einsatzmöglichkeiten neuronaler Netze in der Industrierobotik

Zusammenfassung Es werden die prinzipiellen Einsatzm?glichkeiten neuronaler Netwwerke zur Modellbildung, Steuerung und Regelung von Robotern sowie zur Unterstützung sensomotorischer Aktionen dargelegt. Einige ausgew?hlte neuronale Regelungskonzepte werden vorgestellt und auf ihre Stabilit?t, Robustheit, Genauigkeit sowie Echtzeitf?higkeit hin untersucht. Ferner wird gezeigt, wie sich neuronale Regelungskonzepte in industrielle Robotersteuerungen integrieren lassen.     

Immunostimulatory DNA: sequence-dependent production of potentially harmful or useful cytokines

Certain bacterial immunostimulatory (i.s.) DNA sequences containing unmethylated CpG motifs stimulate antigen-presenting cells (APC) to express a full complement of costimulatory molecules and to produce cytokines including interleukin (IL)-12 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha. While IL-12 is key to their T helper cell (Th)1-promoting adjuvant activity, secretion of toxic levels of TNF-alpha is harmful in that it promotes toxic shock. Given the beneficial as well as harmful consequences of i.s. DNA, we investigated the possibility of identifying DNA sequences, i.e. CpG oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN) which differentially activate IL-12 versus TNF-alpha cytokine production in APC. Here, we describe an i.s. DNA sequence with these characteristics. While its potential to induce IL-12 is preserved, its ability to trigger TNF-alpha release is strongly curtailed both in vitro and in vivo. I.s. DNA could be segregated into lethal and non-lethal in a mouse toxic shock model. The non-toxic i.s. DNA was useful as an adjuvant, thus allowing cytotoxic T cell responses to the soluble protein ovalbumin and conferring a resistant Th 1 phenotype to BALB/c mice lethally infected with Leishmania major. This i.s. CpG motif may thus be prototypic for a useful immunostimulating DNA sequence that lacks harmful side effects.     

The MiniWiD-Coater. III. Effect of Application Temperature on the Dissolution Profile of Sustained-Release Theophylline Pellets Coated with Eudragit Rs 30 D

Theophylline pellets were coated with Eudragit RS 30 D in a miniature fluid-bed pan coater called MiniWiD developed recently. The dispersions were plasticized with varying amounts of triethyl citrate (TEC), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), and polyethylene glycol 6000 (PEG) and applied at different temperatures ranging from 25 to 45 °C. Theophylline release was tested by dissolution using the USP Apparatus 2 (paddle) in 0.1 N hydrochloric acid under sink conditions over 6 hours.

At a coating level of 4 % (0.7 mg/cm²) sustained-release profiles were obtained from dispersions plasticized with TEC or DBP. By reducing the amount of plasticizer from 20 to 10%, films with higher permeabilities were obtained. This effect was compensated by tempering the pellets at 50 deg;C for 24 hours. The coating temperature had little effect on the dissolution profiles of TEC-plasticized films and no effect on films with DBP.

Coatings plasticized with 20% PEG were applied at temperatures ranging from 25 to 45 °C. These films required a coating level of about 18 % (3.3 mg/cm²) to provide comparable sustained-release properties. In contrast to DBP and TEC, a strong influence of the coating temperature on the release rates was observed in which higher temperatures led to slower release rates. This behavior can be explained by the minimum film-forming temperature (MFT). Since PEG does not lower the MFT of Eudragit RS 30 D, the application of these films below the MFT of 45 °C is associated with a lower degree of film formation.     

Refinements in validity generalization methods: Implications for the situational specificity hypothesis.

Using a large database, this study examined 3 refinements of validity generalization procedures: (1) a more accurate procedure for correcting the residual standard deviation (SD) for range restriction to estimate SDp, (2) use of r? instead of study-observed rs in the formula for sampling error variance, and (3) removal of non-Pearson rs. The 1st procedure does not affect the amount of variance accounted for by artifacts. The addition of the 2nd and 3rd procedures increased the mean percentage of validity variance accounted for by artifacts from 70 to 82%, a 17% increase. The cumulative addition of all 3 procedures decreased the mean SDp estimate from .150 to .106, a 29% decrease. Six additional variance-producing artifacts were identified that could not be corrected for. In light of these it was concluded that the obtained estimates of mean SDp and mean validity variance accounted for were consistent with the hypothesis that the true mean SDp value is close to zero. These findings provide further evidence against the situational specificity hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of nitric oxide in the regulation of the hepatic microcirculation in vivo

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Nitric oxide (NO) is an important mediator in the regulation of vascular tone. However, no data exist on the physiological role of NO in the regulation of the hepatic microcirculation. This study was designed to evaluate the role of NO in the hepatic microcirculation in vivo under physiological conditions. METHODS: The hepatic microcirculation was investigated in anesthetized rats by intravital fluorescence microscopy after injection of fluorescein-isothiocyanate-labeled erythrocytes. Following assessment of baseline sinusoidal perfusion, animals were randomly treated with L-NMMA (n=6), L-arginine (n=6), nitroprusside sodium (NPS, n=5) or a comparable volume of NaCl (n=4). Drugs were given through a portal vein catheter at three doses (Dx), each followed by intravital microscopy. L-NMMA was given: 5 mg/kg (D1), 25 mg/kg (D2), 50 mg/kg (D3); L-arginine 30 mg/kg (D1), 150 mg/kg (D2), 300 mg/kg (D3); and NPS continuously 80 microg x kg(-1) x h(-1). RESULTS: L-NMMA induced a significant increase of mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) (114 vs. 129 mm Hg; p<0.05). In contrast, MAP of NPS-treated animals decreased (107 vs. 91 mm Hg; p<0.01) whereas MAP of animals receiving L-arginine did not significantly differ. Sinusoidal blood flow revealed dose-dependent changes: L-NMMA significantly decreased perfusion of sinusoids (D1: 65%, D2: 57%, D3: 50% of baseline, p<0.05). Injection of L-arginine increased the sinusoidal flow even with the lowest dose (D1: 137%, D2: 133%, D3: 123%, p<0.05). Continuous infusion of NPS had little effect on sinusoidal blood flow at the first and second times of microscopy but sinusoidal blood flow was significantly increased at the third time (D1: 103%, D2: 106%, D3: 122%). CONCLUSIONS: Inhibition of NOS results in a dose-dependent disturbance of the hepatic microcirculation despite significantly increased MAP, whereas L-arginine increases the sinusoidal blood flow. The results indicate an important role for NO in the regulatory mechanisms of hepatic sinusoidal perfusion under physiological conditions.