Dynamic Layouts Research Articles

The Mighty Bite by Nathan Hale (review)

Reviewed by: The Mighty Bite by Nathan Hale Ally Byerly Hale, Nathan The Mighty Bite; written and illus. by Nathan Hale. Amulet/Abrams, 2023 [288p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781419765537 $14.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781647008758 $13.49 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 1-4 Trilobite (an ancient arthropod which falls between a horseshoe crab and a rolypoly) lives happily and humbly on the Island of Losta Founda, a land populated by prehistoric and mythic creatures, until a vivid dream ignites his hunger for fame and fortune. Unfortunately, Trilobite and his companion, Amber the Ambulocetus (an amphibious whale that resembles a crocodile), don't quite know how they'll go about finding fame (an attempt at singing goes terribly awry) until they encounter Tiffany Timber, a paleo-newscaster who wields a taser and a tablet in her hunt for the latest scoop. Trilobite and Amber are quickly drawn into the absurdities of Timber's newscaster world, stumbling from one episodic misadventure to the next and facing everything from a claymation smear campaign to an interview with a [End Page 260] sea cucumber in their quest for fame, fortune, and journalistic integrity. The story's premise is as creative as it is absurd, and the farcical volume is structured like a series of daily strips, replete with silly gags and wry one-liners. Hale's dynamic layouts guide the eye to create a quick, accessible read, and perspective and transitions are skillfully used to produce an immersive, cinematic experience that blurs the boundaries between space, time, and genre. Hand-drawn, heavily cross-hatched illustrations brilliantly juxtapose with the modern video interface of the fame-hungry protagonists without privileging one medium over the other. Instead, the narrative plays on the commonalities between the sequential art forms—from the framing to the timing to the editing, and ultimately pays homage to the timeless craft of storytelling. This will be an absolute treat for any reader who likes their natural history with a side of whimsy. Copyright © 2023 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Comparative analysis of static and dynamic facility layouts design using the modeling of plantain flour as case study

AbstractProfit optimization at the expense of minimal resource utilization for product development has been the major focus of prospective investors. In an attempt to realize this goal, the present research consideration is tailored towards investigating the effect of introducing dynamic facility layout design. Therefore, this research study uses an existing designed plantain flour processing plant that consists of a washing machine, grating machine, dryer, milling machine and sieving machine. Modeling techniques incorporated with software development were employed on the existing static plant layout to optimize production time and cost of each of the processing units along with the layout. Also, dynamic constraints were introduced into the layouts while mathematical models were formulated to visualize how the output and production process would be. With these models, software for the optimization of static and dynamic layouts was developed. The comparative study was carried out based on the processing time, the number of machines needed for each layout type, the cost of operation and machine procurement cost for both static and dynamic layouts. The constraints introduced ensured that the system improved within the cost limit based on the current market situation and prevented unnecessary enlargement in the plant facility size while minimizing material congestion in the system. The distinction between static and dynamic layout configurations was further established by comparing the results from the layout configurations for a set of throughput masses ranging from 50 kg to 250 kg. Results showed that the cost of operation drops drastically by 69.6 % under dynamic layout configuration.

A routing-benefited deployment approach combining static and dynamic layouts for underwater optical wireless networks

A routing-benefited deployment algorithm combining static and dynamic layouts is proposed, and its comprehensive performance evaluation is given in this article. The proposed routing-benefited deployment algorithm is intended to provide a suitable network deployment and subsequent data transmission approach for underwater optical networking and communication. Static nodes are anchored for long-term monitoring, and movable nodes can adjust their depths based on the virtual force and move with the variation of area-of-interest changing. Then, nodes begin to collect data that they can monitor and transmit to sink nodes. Here, the underwater wireless optical communication model is described to actualize the real environment, and the vector-based forwarding protocol is particularly considered to compare the impact of different deployment algorithms on routing. It is shown by simulation experiment results that routing-benefited deployment algorithm outperforms several existing traditional virtual force deployment algorithms in terms of coverage, lifetime, energy consumption balance, packet-loss rate, and time-delay.

Providing adjustable and dynamic spatial layouts for multimedia applications with STyLe

Interactive multimedia applications may be presented on multiple devices with different screen sizes. Therefore, application layouts should be adapted during runtime. Besides adapting layouts to different devices, the number of visual multimedia objects may vary, thus it is desirable to provide an automatic application layout adjustment to ease the authoring effort and provide good user quality of experience. In this article, the term adjustable layout is used to refer to an application spatial layout that adjusts itself to the number of media objects to be presented. The term dynamic layout is used to refer to an application spatial layout that can change at runtime in reaction to presentation events. Multimedia declarative authoring languages, such as NCL and SMIL, provide simple layout construction using nested rectangular regions to design the application layout. However, these languages do not provide native facilities for authors to develop adjustable and dynamic layouts. This article proposes STyLe, a constraint-based template language for providing adjustable and dynamic spatial layouts for multimedia documents. It also presents an architecture that is capable of interpreting STyLe when used together with NCL to provide dynamic layouts for interactive digital TV applications. The results show that STyLe has more expressiveness and abstraction when compared to NCL and that the language is simple and effective for building adjustable and dynamic layouts.

Spatial scheduling algorithm minimising makespan at block assembly shop in shipbuilding

Spatial scheduling pursues optimal sequencing and dynamic spatial layouts that satisfy traditional restrictions in resource capacity and due dates. In shipbuilding, block spatial scheduling can be regarded as arranging some polygonal objects within rectangular work plates in an optimal sequence. This problem is important because of its impact on shipbuilding productivity and it is a NP-hard problem due to the complex constraints. In this paper, detailed analysis and mathematical description are made on block shape and block intersection. Based on the investigations of the characteristics of block shapes, the corresponding processing techniques and typical constraints, a mathematical model for block spatial scheduling is developed. Subsequently, a block spatial scheduling greedy algorithm with the objective of minimising makespan is presented using several proposed spatial scheduling strategies. The algorithm is implemented by developing a block spatial scheduling system at a block assembly shop, through which visual scheduling results of daily block layouts and the progress charts for all blocks can be obtained. Moreover, several main spatial scheduling performance indicators are proposed for comparing the proposed greedy algorithm with the existing grid algorithm and manual methods. A case study is made with real data from a shipyard, and the result shows that better performance and higher efficiency can be achieved in a short computational time.

Empirical approximation of volume distance distributions for line layout problems

A distinction is defined between line layout problems where travel distance parameter values are a static or dynamic function of the sequencing of workcentres. Static line layout problems generally feature workcentres of equal area. In dynamic line layouts, space requirements can vary among workcentres. A series of dynamic line layout problems is generated to represent a cross-section of material flow patterns and workcentre space requirements distributions. For each of these problems, a random sample of workcentre sequences is generated and used to approximate the distribution of volume distance values associated with the population of all possible line layout solutions. The accuracy of these approximations is compared for alternative sample sizes and resolutions of the histogram used to represent the volume distance distribution.

Strategic Interpolative Design of Dynamic Manufacturing Systems Layouts

This paper presents a proactive strategic methodology for designing dynamic layouts for the expansion (or decline) phase of manufacturing systems. The methodology first estimates probable scenarios of the system requirements at its maturity level, strategically designs mature layouts given the set of scenarios, then tactically interpolates intermediate layouts, backward to the initial facilities plan. For manufacturing systems with rigid facilities, the paper provides a linear programming model sustaining this proactive strategic methodology. The model efficiently generates optimal layouts for all intermediate expansion phases given a goal layout for the final mature phase of the expansion plan, the phased cell sets, the phased flow and relationships sets, and various design constraints, for an array of objectives.