Bidirectional Framework Research Articles

Risk-oriented assembly quality analysing approach considering product reliability degradation

Assembly process is a critical stage in the formation of product quality and reliability, but related consideration of the produced product reliability and accident risk has not attracted deserved attention in the most assembly quality analysis frameworks. To this end, this paper enhances risk analysis in assembly process quality control, which is advocated by ISO 9001:2015, and presents a risk-oriented assembly quality analysis approach considering the effects of assembly variations on the produced product reliability degradation and accident risk. First, a conceptual QRR chain is presented to illustrate the relationship among assembly process quality (Q), product reliability (R), and failure accident risk (R). Second, a risk-oriented and bidirectional framework for the analysis of assembly process quality is established based on the presented QRR chain aiming to quantitatively identify the risk sources in the assembly process and reduce the risk of failure accidents. Third, an assembly process quality risk model with key function reliability as its core is presented to establish the quantitative relationship between assembly variation and product failure accident risk. Finally, the presented approach is verified through a case study of an assembling quality risk analysing for acid-resistant grinder.

Efficient Computation for Sparse Load Shifting in Demand Side Management

This paper introduces a distributed algorithm for sparse load shifting in demand-side management with a focus on the scheduling problem of residential smart appliances. By the sparse load shifting strategy, customers’ discomfort is reduced. Although there are many game theoretic models for the demand-side management problem, the computational efficiency of finding Nash equilibrium that globally minimizes the total energy consumption cost and the peak-to-average ratio is still an outstanding issue. We develop a bidirectional framework for solving the demand-side management problem in a distributed way to substantially improve the search efficiency. A Newton method is employed to accelerate the centralized coordination of demand side management strategies that superlinearly converge to a better Nash equilibrium minimizing the peak-to-average ratio. Furthermore, dual fast gradient and convex relaxation are applied to tackle the sub-problem for customers’ best response, which is able to relieve customers’ discomfort from load shifting or interrupting. Detailed results from illustrative case studies are presented and discussed, which shows the costs of energy consumption and daily peak demand by our algorithm are reduced. Finally, some conclusions are drawn.

ImageJ-MATLAB: a bidirectional framework for scientific image analysis interoperability.

ImageJ-MATLAB is a lightweight Java library facilitating bi-directional interoperability between MATLAB and ImageJ. By defining a standard for translation between matrix and image data structures, researchers are empowered to select the best tool for their image-analysis tasks. Freely available extension to ImageJ2 ( http://imagej.net/Downloads ). Installation and use instructions available at http://imagej.net/MATLAB_Scripting. Tested with ImageJ 2.0.0-rc-54 , Java 1.8.0_66 and MATLAB R2015b. eliceiri@wisc.edu. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Including Both Voices: A New Bidirectional Framework for Understanding and Improving Intergroup Relations

Methods: If successful intergroup harmony is to be achieved between two groups, then both groups' voices must be heard. Despite this, 60 years of social psychological “intergroup” prejudice research has tended to adopt a solely majority‐centric perspective, with the majority group portrayed as the active agent of prejudice, and the minority group as passive targets.Objective: This paper critically reviews relevant literature, highlighting this unidirectional imbalance, and proposes a new, two‐stage bidirectional framework, where we encourage researchers and educators to first understand how minority and majority groups' intergroup attitudes and emotions impact intergroup dynamics, before tailoring and implementing contact and recategorisation strategies to improve intergroup relations, nationally and internationally.Conclusion: We argue that the interactive nature of the intergroup dynamic needs to be better understood, and each group's voice heard, before prejudice can be effectively reduced. Lastly, we describe an Australian study, the Dual Identity and Electronic‐contact (DIEC) programme, that has been conducted and has successfully applied this bidirectional framework.

Computer-supported learning tools: A bi-circular bi-directional framework

The paper proposes a psychological framework aimed at integrating software developers’ and teachers’ opinions about computer-supported learning tools (CSLT) with learners’ beliefs. The framework highlights how a mental model of CSLT modulates the needs and goals that motivate the use of technical instructional devices, the ways in which they are used, and the expected outcomes. The framework goes beyond a simplistic conception of the relationships between the CSLT and their effects. It stresses the importance of subjective representations and describes the network of causal relationships connecting the features of the CSLT, the user's beliefs, and the user's behaviours. The framework shows that the implementation of the CSLT is influenced by the user's mental model and that representations can change as a consequence of the use of the CSLT. The framework has implications for applied issues, suggesting a possible way to respond to a request to intervene and support an institution's attempt to introduce CSLT in training activities. In fact, the framework invites educators to clarify their tacit assumptions about CSLT and to consider trainees’ opinions; it encourages tool developers, teachers, and students to exchange their opinions in order to reach a shared conception of why and how to employ the CSLT.

Family Impact of Neurodevelopmental Late Effects in Survivors of Pediatric Cancer: Review of Research, Clinical Evidence, and Future Directions

Children and adolescents who have survived childhood cancer are vulnerable to late effects of their disease and treatment experience, including both physical and psychological sequelae. The neurodevelopmental (ND) sequelae (e.g., difficulties with attention, memory, information processing, and other executive functions) faced by children surviving central nervous system (CNS) cancers or CNS treatments can have a range of effects on their psychological adjustment and quality of life as they reintegrate into school and social settings. Survivors facing such difficulties may be influenced by their family environment, and these struggles may in turn impact the perceived burden of their parents and family system, suggesting a bidirectional framework for understanding the impact of ND late effects within the family. The current study summarizes the following: Findings of family outcomes in children with ND late effects of cancer treatment; evaluation of methodological and measurement issues; the importance of examining bidirectional family-child influences; and implications for future survivorship research and clinical care addressing the role of ND late effects from a systems perspective.

Probability-based motion analysis using bidirectional prediction-independent framework in the compressed domain

We propose a reformed method that utilizes the motion vectors (MVs) in an MPEG sequence as the motion depicter for motion analysis and representation of video contents. The MVs are converted to a uniform MV set, independent of the frame type and the direction of prediction, and then used as motion depicters in each frame. To obtain such a uniform MV set, a new motion analysis method using bidirectional prediction-independent framework is proposed. Generally, it is impossible to directly compare an I frame without MV to others such as B or P frames. But, this approach enables a frame-type-independent representation that normalizes temporal features including frame type, macroblock (MB) encoding, and MVs. Experimental results show that our method has good performance and high validity. Compared with a full-decoding method, the average of the processing time in our method is reduced about 55%, because our method is directly processed on the MPEG bit stream after variable length code (VLC) decoding. Average of the effective number of the normalized MVs in the proposed algorithm is increased about 25% than that of the conventional method.

Game-theoretic integration for image segmentation

Robust segmentation of structures from an image is essential for a variety of image analysis problems. However, the conventional methods of region-based segmentation and gradient-based boundary finding are often frustrated by poor image quality. Here we propose a method to integrate the two approaches using game theory in an effort to form a unified approach that is robust to noise and poor initialization. This combines the perceptual notions of complete boundary information using edge data and shape priors with gray-level homogeneity using two computational modules. The novelty of the method is that this is a bidirectional framework, whereby both computational modules improve their results through mutual information sharing. A number of experiments were performed both on synthetic datasets and datasets of real images to evaluate the new approach and it is shown that the integrated method typically performs better than conventional gradient-based boundary finding.

International Sales Negotiations:

Successful business negotiation in global markets requires effective cross-cultural communication between buyer and seller. Building on a growing body of literature, this paper develops a four-step, funnel-like model of international sales negotiation. This bi-directional framework traces the communications flow from broad non-selling issues to specific aspects of the international sales transaction. The four stages—non-task related activities, information exchange, persuasion, and adjustment—are then discussed individually. Finally, directions for future research in the area of international sale negotiation are presented.