Modular Idea Research Articles

The Integrated Testing System for Performance Parameters of the Hydraulic Excavator

This paper designed and developed an integrated testing system for performance parameters of the Hydraulic excavator. Combined with sensing technology, computer technology and virtual instrument technology this system can detect six key parameters of the excavator including motor speed, hydraulic system pressure, attachment action time, swing speed, walking speed, current characteristics, so as to evaluate the performance of the excavator. The testing system takes full consideration of the interaction between the tester and driver, meanwhile, can automatically detect all parameters by using the parallel test method in order to make sure the whole test completed in one hour. As the testing system is designed base on the idea of modularization, it can add new modules to meet the functional requirements alone with the development of research in the future. This testing system can not only improve the test efficiency, but also be used as analysis tools for the research and optimization of performance parameters of excavators.

Experimental research on a modular miniaturization nanoindentation device

Nanoindentation technology is developing toward the in situ test which requires miniaturization of indentation instruments. This paper presents a miniaturization nanoindentation device based on the modular idea. It mainly consists of macro-adjusting mechanism, x-y precise positioning platform, z axis precise driving unit, and the load-depth measuring unit. The device can be assembled with different forms and has minimum dimensions of 200 mm × 135 mm × 200 mm. The load resolution is about 0.1 mN and the displacement resolution is about 10 nm. A new calibration method named the reference-mapping method is proposed to calibrate the developed device. Output performance tests and indentation experiments indicate the feasibility of the developed device and calibration method. This paper gives an example that combining piezoelectric actuators with flexure hinge to realize nanoindentation tests. Integrating a smaller displacement sensor, a more compact nanoindentation device can be designed in the future.

Multi-equilibrium property of metabolic networks: SSI module.

BackgroundRevealing the multi-equilibrium property of a metabolic network is a fundamental and important topic in systems biology. Due to the complexity of the metabolic network, it is generally a difficult task to study the problem as a whole from both analytical and numerical viewpoint. On the other hand, the structure-oriented modularization idea is a good choice to overcome such a difficulty, i.e. decomposing the network into several basic building blocks and then studying the whole network through investigating the dynamical characteristics of the basic building blocks and their interactions. Single substrate and single product with inhibition (SSI) metabolic module is one type of the basic building blocks of metabolic networks, and its multi-equilibrium property has important influence on that of the whole metabolic networks.ResultsIn this paper, we describe what the SSI metabolic module is, characterize the rates of the metabolic reactions by Hill kinetics and give a unified model for SSI modules by using a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations with multi-variables. Specifically, a sufficient and necessary condition is first given to describe the injectivity of a class of nonlinear systems, and then, the sufficient condition is used to study the multi-equilibrium property of SSI modules. As a main theoretical result, for the SSI modules in which each reaction has no more than one inhibitor, a sufficient condition is derived to rule out multiple equilibria, i.e. the Jacobian matrix of its rate function is nonsingular everywhere.ConclusionsIn summary, we describe SSI modules and give a general modeling framework based on Hill kinetics, and provide a sufficient condition for ruling out multiple equilibria of a key type of SSI module.

The Design and Implementation of Motion Control Card Based on DSP

A hardware implement scheme is proposed based on digital signal processor, and the complex programmable logic device and industry standard architecture bus is proposed. The dual-port random access memory communication circuit, I/O port address decoding circuit, two axis control output circuit and position detecting circuit are developed, the main program and interrupt-serving program of digital signal processor are designed by the idea of modularization. The static accuray of the motion control card is tested via special experimental device. The present analysis show that the designed circuit is effective and the static control precision of motion control card is satisfied.

Design of Precise and Efficient Synchronized Multi-Axis Control Servo System

Having studied the synchronized multi-axis control servo system, some type automatic wire striping and terminal crimping system is developed in the paper. In order to realize the precise and efficient synchronized multi-axis control, the PVT (Position-Velocity-Time) algorithm is adopted. This algorithm allows user to specify the time interval of each axis’ motion segment, so the multi-axis working sequence can be easily established in a tight way which augments the system processing speed and guarantees the system stability. Besides, by specifying the position and speed value at the processing point, the positioning accuracy and speed requirement at the processing point can be reached. In the design of the system control software, the modularization design is employed. This modularization idea simplifies the complex software design and allows people use the software more easily. Finally, the experimental result shows the system has a good synchronization performance, and meets the requirements of high efficiency, stability and positioning accuracy in practical production.

Modularity in Technology, Organization, and Society

Modularity is a very general set of principles for managing complexity. By breaking up a complex system into discrete pieces--which can then communicate with one another only through standardized interfaces within a standardized architecture--one can eliminate what would otherwise be an unmanageable spaghetti tangle of systemic interconnections. Such ideas are not new in the literature of technological design, even if, as some claim, modularity is becoming more important today because of the increased complexity of modern technology. What is new is the application of the idea of modularity not only to technological design but also to organizational design. From another angle, however, the principles of modularity have an even longer pedigree in the social sciences. We can think of Adam Smith's obvious and simple system of natural liberty as among the earliest proposals for how a complex modern society might be made more productive through a modular design of social and economic institutions. In separating mine from thine, rights of private property modularize social interaction, which is then mediated through the interface of voluntary exchange, all under the governance of the systems architecture of common law. Despite its heavy emphasis on incentive issues, the economics of property rights that emerged from the work of Coase--in both its original form and its more formal recent incarnation--provides a good deal of material useful for understanding the nature and role of modularity in social institutions. This paper is an attempt to raid both the literature on modular design and the literature on property rights to create the outlines of a modularity theory of the firm. This theory will look at firms, and other organizations, in terms of the partitioning of rights--understood as protected spheres of authority--among cooperating parties. And it will assert that organizations reflect nonmodular structures, that is, structures in which decision rights, rights of alienation, and residual claims to income do not all reside in the same hands. The reasons behind alternative partitions are numerous and complex, however, calling for subtlety in the application of the idea of modularity to the firm.

Modularity in developing business services by platform approach

PurposeThis study aims to explore the literature related to modularity in developing and manufacturing physical products in order to employ the idea of modularity into the business services context.Design/methodology/approachIn order to answer the defined research question, the authors construct an empirically grounded model for modular service platform. The research design follows an abductive logic beginning with the construction of a theoretical pre‐understanding and elaborating upon it empirically. Streams of literature that are applied are service marketing and operations and product development and modularity research including product architecture design. In the empirical part of the study, the authors elaborate on these issues through a qualitative single case study.FindingsThe results show that the developed modular service platform including four modularity dimensions: service, process, organisational and customer interface dimensions can be used to create value in business services.Originality/valueWith a reviewing literature of modularisation of manufacturing products and processes, an empirically grounded model of this paper shows how the business service providers can use modularisation in platform approach to identify, develop and deliver new services cost efficiently and more flexibly.

Internalism, externalism and coding

I examine some of the issues connected with the internalist/externalist distinction in work on the ontology of language. I note that Chomskyan radical internalism necessarily leads to a passive conception of child language acquisition. I reject that passive conception, and support current versions of constructivism [Tomasello, M., 2001. The item-based nature of children’s early syntactic development. In: Tomasello, M., Bates, E. (Eds.), Language Development: The Essential Readings. Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 169–186; Deuchar, M., Vihman, M.M., 2005. A radical approach to early mixed utterances. International Journal of Bilingualism 9 (2), 137–158], according to which the child actively constructs linguistic knowledge via a process of dynamic interaction with the environment, in which knowledge of social conventions is acquired. This approach to child language acquisition is, I believe, broadly in line with the view of Spurrett and Cowley [Spurrett, D., Cowley, S.J., 2004. How to do things without words: infants, utterance-activity and distributed cognition. Language Sciences 26, 443–466], who take utterance activity to be ‘jointly controlled by the embodied activity of interacting people.’ The view I adopt here, based on the Representational Hypothesis proposed by Burton-Roberts [Burton-Roberts, N., 2000. Where and what is phonology? In: Burton-Roberts et al. (2000), pp. 39–66], takes phonological knowledge to be knowledge of conventions of physical representation. It thus proposes an intersubjective ontology for the external physical representation of radically mind-internal conceptual content. However, I now seek to abandon radical internalism. I sketch Burton-Roberts’s Representational Hypothesis. I suggest that this offers a clear distinction between the roles played by nature and by culture in the range of phenomena broadly referred to as ‘language’. I attempt here to retain B-R’s conception of physical representation, but, having rejected his radical internalism, I seek to resolve the main problem thrown up by this attempt (namely, what it is that is being represented, if not elements from an innately-endowed, universal set of semantic primitives). In adopting the idea of physical representation, I reject the idea of specific languages as systems which encode conceptual content. I therefore support the view of Love (this issue) that languages are not codes. But I seek to counter Love’s extreme scepticism. I review some of the evidence for an alternative, constructivist, view of child language acquisition from empirical work on child data provided by Brulard and Carr [Brulard, I., Carr, P., 2003. French/English bilingual acquisition of phonology: one production system or two? International Journal of Bilingualism 7 (2), 177–202] and by Vihman [Vihman, M.M., 1996. Phonological Development. Blackwell, Oxford], which supports, I suggest, the ideas of emergent modularity [Karmiloff-Smith, A., 2001. Development itself is the key to understanding developmental disorders. In: Tomasello and Bates (2001), pp. 331–350] and usage-based models of language [Bybee, J., 2001. Phonology and Language Use. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge].

結局,機能とは何だったのか

Much of the controversy of function revolves around two concepts, namely selected effect (SE) function and causal role (CR) function. Each of these proposals and its reciprocal critiques are examined, and it is shown that each concept embodies two different research strategies in biology, one the search for adaptation (SE function) and the other the reduction of biological phenomena (CR function). But this conceptual difference does not entail a separation in scientific practice. The proper attribution of SE function to a trait requires careful analysis of CR function in its developmental origin -- this is the idea of developmental modularity. It turns out that the ideal condition for developmental CR function analysis (i.e. near decomposability) also facilitates the mosaic evolution of -- and thus the attribution of SE function to -- organismal characters.

Examining the Modularity Concept in Evolutionary Psychology: The Level of Genes, Mind, and Culture

In this chapter we present an overview and critique of the use of the modularity concept in evolutionary biology and psychology. It is shown that, at present, there are heuristic advantages in the modularity concept that allowed to show how a modular organization of genes helps to explain ontogeny and the evolutionary organization of genetic processes while evidence for large scale evolutionary processes leading to genetic modularity is mostly restricted to mathematical modelling. While biological module concepts and the idea of mental modularity are both motivated by evolutionary considerations, there still exists a wide gap between the two. Cognitive modules have been suggested by cognitive scientists and by psychologists, so far with varying success in providing empirical evidence. It is argued that a principal motivation to postulate cognitive modularity was to include evolutionary adaptation processes and their genetic encoding in the explanation of behaviour at the expense of learning. This is shown to be a short-sighted less than useful dichotomy because adaptation in social domains is more often than not based on genetically pre-conditioned opportunistic (learning) mechanisms even with many non-human species. It is further shown that social domain modules are not informationally encapsulated or mandatory, particularly if not being studied at the time of their ontogenetic appearance and that many cultural domains are equivalent to detector-indicator systems at a higher level than the individual. Consequences for a psychological concept of mental modularity are discussed and a frame of definition suggested.

Ten Thousand Things: Module and Mass Production in Chinese Art (review)

Lothar Ledderose begins Ten Thousand Things with an observation that has broad implications for the relationship between technology and culture. He attributes the tremendous productivity of Chinese artists to "production systems to assemble objects from standardized parts" in "modules" that could be mass produced and quickly recombined to create a variety of objects from a limited repertoire of components (p. 1). He argues that modular production systems were the basis for a wide range of Chinese art, including bronzes, terra-cotta figurines, lacquer, and porcelain, architecture, printing, and painting. He also extends the notion of modularity to other "systems" within Chinese culture, such as the hexagrams of the Yijing and the Chinese language itself. The idea of modularity as a unifying characteristic of Chinese art has fascinating ramifications for several disciplines, [End Page 793] including art history, philosophy, intellectual history, and the history of science and technology.

Modularity Technology in Manufacturing: Taxonomy and Issues

The idea of modularity has gained acceptance because of so-called mass customisation and the need for shorter development time in manufacturing. Modularity is a general concept, and many engineering problems can be generalised under the umbrella of modularity. Numerous studies have been carried out on modularity-relevant issues; however, systematic classification has not been discussed for modularity in terms of its applications and methodologies for developing modularity in systems. This paper presents a taxonomy on modularity applications, research issues, and design methodologies. It provides a general framework for further systematic development of modularity in systems. General solutions to identified problems which should be studied in future are also discussed.

A Method for Modular Robots Generating Dynamics Automatically

In this paper a method for the automatic generation of dynamics for modular robots is presented. A modular reconfigurable robot consists of link modules and joint modules of various specifications. We analyze the abstract architecture of modular robots. A total of nine types of connecting forms and three types of joint forms are identified with reference to their own systems. The geometric relationships are derived by the group theory. According to the modular idea, the formulations of the velocity, acceleration and other essential equations of the link module and the joint module are formed compensatively and recursively. Then the dynamic model is generated automatically by a compensative and recursive method.

Project 2000: amodular approach to course planning

Project 2000 has given nurse educatorsan opportunity to consider and plan educational programmes that will endure until the year 2000 and beyond. The United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (1986) highlighted the need for preparing practitioners for uncertainty by developing structures that adapt to rapid change. This includes planning smaller units of study, that are accessible and allow for credit transfers. This article describes the development of a semester based, modular programme of study, for Project 2000. The idea of modularity, both from the higher education and nurse education perspective is examined. An outline of the course is offered and for the benefit of colleagues who may be considering embarking on a similar remit, areas of difficulty encountered on implementation are highlighted with some resolutions.

Connectionism, modularity, and tacit knowledge

In this paper, I define tacit knowledge as a kind of causal-explanatory structure, mirroring the derivational structure in the theory that is tacitly known. On this definition, tacit knowledge does not have to be explicitly represented. I then take the notion of a modular theory, and project the idea of modularity to several different levels of description; in particular, to the processing level and the neurophysiological level. The fundamental description of a connectionist network lies at a level between the processing level and the physiological level. At this level, connectionism involves a characteristic departure from modularity, and a correlative absence of syntactic structure. This is linked to the fact that tacit knowledge descriptions of networks are only approximately true. A consequence is that strict causal systematicity in cognitive processes poses a problem for the connectionist programme.

Assuring good style for object-oriented programs

The language-independent Law of Demeter, which encodes the ideas of encapsulation and modularity in an easy-to-follow form for object-oriented programmers, is presented. The law was developed during the design and implementation of the Demeter system, which provides a high-level interface to class-based, object-oriented systems. Two forms of the law, the class and object forms, are described. Its motivation is to ensure that the software is as modular as possible. Principles covered by the law include coupling control, information hiding, information restriction, information localization, and structured induction. An example is given to show how the law is applied, and valid violations are identified. It is shown how to transform a method that does not satisfy the law into one that does.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Parallel running of a modular simulation scheme

The idea of modularity in simulation is discussed in relation to parallel processing. A mathematical model for parallel simulation is presented. In this model a possibly nonlinear set of consistency conditions is satisfied in between time steps. Two examples are given which are fundamental to HVAC simulation: (1) heat flow in networks of heat paths and thermal capacitors, and (2) inertialess flow of fluid in networks of pipes and other components. These examples present in abstract from many of the difficulties encountered in thermal simulation of buildings with heating and ventilating plants. The question of convergence of networks of parallel processes is discussed, convergence is proved for the two examples, and a general theorem which implies unconditional convergence is developed. This theorem applies in many cases in which the processes represent physical components, and each process resets some variables to attain local steady state with its neighbors, so the sum of the local distances from steady state is at least not increased by any process.

Object-oriented programming: an objective sense of style

We introduce a simple, programming language independent rule (known in-house as the Law of Demeter™) which encodes the ideas of encapsulation and modularity in an easy to follow form for the object-oriented programmer. You tend to get the following related benefits when you follow the Law of Demeter while minimizing simultaneously code duplication, the number of method arguments and the number of methods per class: Easier software maintenance, less coupling between your methods, better information hiding, narrower interfaces, methods which are easier to reuse, and easier correctness proofs using structural induction. We discuss two important interpretations of the Law (strong and weak) and we prove that any object-oriented program can be transformed to satisfy the Law. We express the Law in several languages which support object-oriented programming, including Flavors, Smalltalk-80, CLOS, C++ and Eiffel.

L'habitation rurale traditionnelle : une étude ethno-botanique en territoire Maya

The results of this research show, the architecture and engineering of a traditional house in two "Ejidos" of the yucatan-maya area : Ruins of Cobâ and Macario Gomez, located in the northwest region of Quintana Roo State. The different parts of the house structure are described and the plant materials which were used have been identified. Data on the function of these materials as part of the structure are given as well as their names in the maya-yucatecan language. Most of the villagers prefer certain types of wood for building definite pieces. This uses are correlated with the presence of certain types of vegetation and with characteristic cultural patterns. The building of the house is done through and oral and practical tradition. There is no need for plans ; the house is built around a modular idea for the construction of a demountable structure.