Choice Of Production Methods Research Articles

Simulation Software Support of Manufacturing Processes in Engineering Industry

Optimization of manufacturing processes is currently one of the most common optimization tasks in enterprises. The enterprises strive to ensure optimal consumption of inputs and choice of production methods, means and optimal use of production capacities. Nowadays, the tools of quality that are used for the engineering enterprises description or for the diagnostic analysis can be called ―Reaction Quality Tools". Allow us to answer the question "What Happened?" and then "Why did it happen?‖ To increase the autonomy of the manufacturing processes was used the simulation software Tecnomatix Plant Simulation, by which enterprises save costs and allows them using more variants and selects the optimum according to the selected criteria before the start of the production. The monitoring system allows not only to collect data from the production (information on whether the machine is or is not in operation, busy and idle, the number of produced pieces, etc.) but also to report various failures or undesirable effects.

Implications of 36Cl exposure ages from Skye, northwest Scotland for the timing of ice stream deglaciation and deglacial ice dynamics

Geochronological constraints on the deglaciation of former marine based ice streams provide information on the rates and modes by which marine based ice sheets have responded to external forcing factors such as climate change. This paper presents new 36Cl cosmic ray exposure dating from boulders located on two moraines (Glen Brittle and Loch Scavaig) in southern Skye, northwest Scotland. Ages from the Glen Brittle moraines constrain deglaciation of a major marine terminating ice stream, the Barra-Donegal Ice Stream that drained the former British-Irish Ice Sheet, depending on choice of production method and scaling model this occurred 19.9 ± 1.5–17.6 ± 1.3 ka ago. We compare this timing of deglaciation to existing geochronological data and changes in a variety of potential forcing factors constrained through proxy records and numerical models to determine what deglaciation age is most consistent with existing evidence. Another small section of moraine, the Scavaig moraine, is traced offshore through multibeam swath-bathymetry and interpreted as delimiting a later stillstand/readvance stage following ice stream deglaciation. Additional cosmic ray exposure dating from the onshore portion of this moraine indicate that it was deposited 16.3 ± 1.3–15.2 ± 0.9 ka ago. When calculated using the most up-to-date scaling scheme this time of deposition is, within uncertainty, the same as the timing of a widely identified readvance, the Wester Ross Readvance, observed elsewhere in northwest Scotland. This extends the area over which this readvance has potentially occurred, reinforcing the view that it was climatically forced.

Why Sin Stocks Have Abnormal Returns? An Experimental Investigation on the Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility on Investor's Investment Behaviour and Firm's Choice of Production Methods

In classical finance theory, social preference is assumed to play no role in investor’s portfolio choice, as the optimal portfolio is formed by considering return and risk of the stocks. While it has been known that sin stocks have abnormal returns, the causality (i.e., whether it is caused by investor’s social preference) of the phenomenon remains to be investigated. This paper first uses a data set on portfolio of 78,000 retail investors to investigate the relationship between investment in sin stocks and religiosity. We find that investors underweight sin stocks, and the degree of underweighting is positively correlated with the degree of religiosity of the region where investors reside. This is the first result reported in the literature for the correlation between investors’ moral concern and holding of sin stocks. The result is robust after we control for holding in familiar stocks, lottery stocks, and demographics. Then, we conduct laboratory experiments to cleanly identify the casual relationship between concern for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and investment. The first experiment shows that investors avoid holding sin stocks despite its return dominates the non-sin stocks. The second experiment shows that the concern for CSR induces firms to adapt clean production or to outsource production process with pollution. Overall, our paper provides the first causal evidence in the literature that investor’s concern for social responsibility leads them to underweight sin stocks. Our result highlights the importance of social preference in the financial market, and its implications for asset pricing theories.

Challenges in production of recombinant proteins

The sequencing of the human genome and genomes from lower species has led molecular biology research into the era of proteomics. Starting from the cDNA’s, a large number of proteins have to be expressed in quantities large enough to allow determining of their structure and function, which forms the basis for the development of new pharmaceutical products. The larger number of these proteins is most probably new to us, and furthermore, we expect that they will involve a high-degree of complexity. The process development relies on ‘‘trial-and-error’’ methods to provide the bases for the choice of production method since we still do not have the knowledge that could guide this choice from the cDNA structure alone. We must therefore expect that the number and complexity of the proteins will require an equally wide portfolio of production methods. For this purpose, there is thus shown a large interest in new production systems, which could be used for a multitude of proteins as well as for a unique protein. Proteins for crystallisation and functional studies must be structurally correct and produced to a high degree of purity. In the valuation of recombinant systems for the production of proteins, the emphasis is therefore also placed on product quality. This issue of Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering includes a summary of the research on a new production system based on cells from a moss. The system uses a strain, which has been genetically engineered to produce products with strictly human-specific glycosylation patterns (Decker and Reski), which gives great process advantages compared with the use of e.g., yeasts and animal cell systems. One might imagine that many years of research in bioprocess development would have led also to the development of general tools which could be used in the context of production for structural genomics too; but in many cases, these tools involve technologies which are not applicable on a small scale, since they are based on operator-supervised control systems of a technical complexity which cannot be used in a micro-scale, multi-parallel cultivation format. An example of such a very powerful control system is the fed-batch technique. This is the only cultivation technique, which allows the accumulation of cells to a high cell density. But in addition, this technique leads further to the establishment of different growth rates, which has been shown to be an important factor for the control of both productivity and product quality, particularly regarding the solubility of a protein. To achieve this on a small scale, a technology is proposed in this issue (Backlund et al.), where cell engineering is used to enable the control of substrate limitation at cell rather than at reactor level. There are great expectations that the large investments in time and money in the genome and proteome projects will lead to an increased number of new and better recombinant bioproducts. In those cases where these products are intended for use as biopharmaceuticals, great demands are made not only on the quality of the product but also on the reproducibility of the processes. This increases the demand for powerful analytical techniques capable of resolving quality steering issues very early on in the process as well as the appropriate control technology. Control algorithms are being developed in many lines of business outside the pharmaceutical sector, and the relatively weak development on the pharmaceutical G. Larsson (&) School of Biotechnology, Royal Institute of Technology, Roslagstullsbacken 21, Stockholm SE10691, Sweden e-mail: gen@biotech.kth.se

SUSPENSION CULTURE OF THE GREAT SCALLOP PECTEN MAXIMUS IN GALICIA, NW SPAIN-INTERMEDIATE PRIMARY CULTURE OF HATCHERY PRODUCED SPAT

A technique for growing small P. maximus spat in suspension culture from rafts is described. Hatchery produced spat of initial size 3.0- and 4.3-mm shell height were transferred to a sea-based primary nursery system in May. Scallop spat (3.0 mm) grew to 16.8 ± 3.0 mm during 85 days. Survival was 70.0 ± 8.1%, but decreased due to presence of predators in 33.4% of the sampling units, to between 0 and 37.4%. Important predators were the crabs Atelecyclus undecimlineatus, Liocarcinus arcuatus, and Necora puber and the starfish Asterias rubens. A significant negative correlation was found between Asterias rubens arm length and survival of scallops. Initial shell height affected growth and survival significantly whereas stocking density (50–400 spat quarter−1 and initial coverage of 1% to 17%) had significant effect on growth. Spat of 4.3 mm initial size were significantly bigger than the spat of 3.0 mm after 34 and 57 days, whereas survival was 96.4 ± 4.4% versus 71.4 ± 12.8% after 37 days. No mortality occurred during the second sampling period, but growth was negatively correlated to increased density of spat. The results give important information regarding development of economic production of scallops and showed promising opportunities for optimizing stocking density in intermediate primary culture. The choice of production methods in the next production step (secondary nursery stage) can be based on the results obtained.

The world of touch: an international survey of tactile maps. Part 1: production

This paper reports the findings of an international survey that collected data on production methods, techniques, outputs and design preferences among tactile map producers, designers and researchers worldwide. A number of consistencies and inconsistencies are identified and we speculate on the extent to which the current state of tactile map production is likely to meet the needs of the client population. In this first part of the report we describe the sample on which the report is based, and describe the output in terms of quantity of maps produced, choice of production method, types of environment mapped and intended uses of maps.