Serial Design Research Articles

Gait Planning for Steady Swimming Control of Biomimetic Fish Robots

This paper is dedicated to the implementation of biological fish swimming motion onto biomimetic fish robots. By learning from different species of fish, the mechanism design and the motor control of swimming machines could be shaped in different forms. In general, they can be grouped into two major forms, from an engineering viewpoint: serial open-chain design and parallel mechanism design. The gait planning on both forms is then performed based on the well-established theory of fish swimming. By using the associated kinematics equations, the generic solution of the gait planning for multi-link fish robots in the two respective forms of mechanisms is derived. The solution is taken as the gait control input for the swimming testing of a six-link body and/or caudal fin fish prototype and an eight-link media and/or paired fin fish prototype. The experiments show that smooth steady swimming and forward/backward swimming are achievable by making use of the gait planning and control.

Konservative Therapie bei Knorpelschäden am oberen Sprunggelenk

Cartilage defects of the upper ankle joint reflect the problem that great force is transmitted and balanced out over a relatively small surface area. As a pathophysiological factor, cartilage-bone contusions play a significant role in the development of cartilage defects of the upper ankle joint. Physiotherapeutic procedures belong to the standard procedures of conservative therapy. The use and selection of the type of therapy is based on empirical considerations and experience and investigations on effectiveness of particular therapies are relatively rare. At present a symptom-oriented therapy of cartilage defects of the upper ankle joint seems to be the most sensible approach. It can be assumed that it makes sense that the symptomatic treatment of cartilage defects or initial stages of arthritis also includes the subsequent symptoms of pain, irritated condition and limited function. This leads to starting points for physiotherapy with respect to pain therapy, optimisation of pressure relationships, avoidance of pressure points, improvement of diffusion and pressure release. In addition to the differential physiotherapeutic findings, the determination of a curative, preventive or rehabilitative procedure is especially important. In physical therapy special importance is placed on a scheduled serial application corresponding to the findings, employing the necessary methods, such as physiotherapy, sport therapy, medical mechanics, manual therapy, massage, electrotherapy and warmth therapy. From this the findings-related therapy is proposed as a practical therapy concept: locomotive apparatus pain therapy, optimisation of pressure relationships, improvement of diffusion and decongestion therapy. Therapy options have been selected base on the current literature and are summarised in tabular form. The art of symptomatic therapy of cartilage defects of the upper ankle joint does not lie in the multitude of sometimes speculative procedures, but in the targeted selection of a therapy regime based on the therapeutic goal, a corresponding application dose and serial design.

Performance of serial assembly line designs under unequal operator speeds and learning

The traditional balanced assembly line designs can perform quite inefficiently under the presence of high labor turnover, low operator learning rates, and stochastic processing times. In these situations assembly line designs based on dynamic work allocation and work sharing principles have been shown to render a higher and less variable throughput. However, for situations where low labor turnover conditions and high operator learning rates exist, the traditional balanced lines still tend to be most productive. This paper has two objectives: to introduce a method based on work sharing principles, which we denominate Modified Work Sharing (MWS), and to develop some simple analytical tools that will allow us to compare the performance of this method with the traditional and other dynamic work allocation line designs. These results suggest that the traditional method is the most affected by the introduction of new operators in the production lines and thus the most affected by variability in general. On the other hand, dynamic work allocation methods appear to better absorb the variability introduced by new operators by sharing the workload of new operators with the more experienced members of the line.

Series Design of Large-Scale NC Machine Tool

Abstract Product system design is a mature concept in western developed countries. It has been applied in war industry during the last century. However, up until now, functional combination is still the main method for product system design in China. Therefore, in terms of a concept of product generation and product interaction we are in a weak position compared with the requirements of global markets. Today, the idea of serial product design has attracted much attention in the design field and the definition of product generation as well as its parameters has already become the standard in serial product designs. Although the design of a large-scale NC machine tool is complicated, it can be further optimized by the precise exercise of object design by placing the concept of platform establishment firmly into serial product design. The essence of a serial product design has been demonstrated by the design process of a large-scale NC machine tool.

Trade-offs in High-Speed Serial Link ICs

Serial IOs are widely used to expand the system bandwidth in communication systems. This paper provides an overview of serial IO design trade-offs with regard to power, cost, and performance. Circuit techniques are discussed to achieve low jitter and high bandwidth.

Heritability of age at menarche in girls from the Fels Longitudinal Study

Menarche is the hallmark maturational event of female childhood. Many studies indicated a significant genetic contribution to the timing of the onset of menstruation, but most of these studies were limited by the use of retrospective data and by the use of data from only certain types of relatives (i.e., mothers and daughters, sisters, or twin sisters). The primary goal of this study was to use a modern maximum likelihood quantitative genetic method to estimate the heritability (h(2)) of age at menarche, using familial data collected over the course of the 74-year-old Fels Longitudinal Study. The secondary goal was to review earlier studies of the heritability of age at menarche. The study of the heritability of age at menarche presented here is unique for two reasons. First, because of the Fels Longitudinal Study's serial design, age-at-menarche data were collected prospectively from most participants. Second, because the Fels Longitudinal Study is a family study that has been conducted for decades, age-at-menarche data are available from many types of female relatives spanning multiple households and generations. The best-fitting and most parsimonious quantitative genetic model included provision for a secular decrease in age at menarche, and estimated the h(2) of age at menarche to be 0.49+/- 0.13 (95% confidence interval of h(2),=0.24-0.73). The results of this study are in general agreement with the findings of most previous studies of genetic influences on age at menarche, and suggest that it is reasonable to consider it well-established that approximately half the phenotypic variation among girls from developed nations in the timing of menarche is due to genetic factors.

VLSI generalised digit serial architecture for multiplication, division and square root

A novel digit serial combined arithmetic unit for multiplication, division and square root which can be pipelined to the bit level is presented for the first time. The proposed module is based on radix-2 n arithmetic. As a result, it is general for any digit size, n, and can be derived in a straightforward manner without the need to bit parallel or bit serial designs as an initial starting point. Moreover, any adder can be used in the controlled add/shift/subtract basic cell of the generalised digit serial unit. Two digital basic cells are proposed; the first cell is based on the conventional carry feedback adder and hence, the digit serial structure can be pipelined to the digit level only. The second digital cell is based on the carry fed forward adder. The feed forward of the carry out bit allows subdigit pipelining to increase the computation speed. This will give designers greater flexibility in finding the best trade-off between hardware cost and throughput rate. An evaluation of the proposed structure is also presented. It is shown that the bit level pipelined digit serial architecture can achieve better performance than the conventional carry feedback digit serial design and the bit parallel one.

Efficient parallel hardware algorithms for string matching

This paper presents efficient parallel hardware algorithms for string matching. Two subproblems known as the exact matching and the k-mismatches problems are covered. Systolic array architectures are developed using dataflow algorithms. Forwarding and broadcasting mechanisms provide high-performance parallel solutions to these problems. Time complexities of these parallel algorithms are O(( n/ d)+ α), 0≤ α≤ m, where n and m represent lengths of reference and pattern strings ( n⪢ m) and d represents the degree of parallelism. The degree of parallelism is controllable by using a variable number ( d) of input (and output) streams. Special purpose VLSI chip design schemes are presented with a hierarchical and linear systolic array of cells. With the linear systolic array architecture, m identical PEs are needed for a serial design and d∗ m identical PEs are needed for a parallel design.

A New Class of Supramolecular, Mixed-Metal DNA-Binding Agents: The Interaction of Ru(II),Pt(II) and Os(II),Pt(II) Bimetallic Complexes with DNA.

A new type of mixed-metal, supramolecular complex has been designed that incorporates a platinum center to allow binding to DNA. The interaction of two such platinum heterobimetallic complexes of the general formula [(bpy)(2)M(dpb)PtCl(2)]Cl(2) (M = Ru(II), Os(II); bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine; dpb = 2,3-bis(2-pyridyl)benzoquinoxaline) with DNA is reported herein. The modular design of these systems allows for synthetic variation of individual components within this structural motif. In this case, the remote metal is varied from Ru(II) to Os(II). DNA binding was analyzed using non-denaturing agarose gel electrophoresis. The interaction of these complexes with DNA was studied relative to the known DNA cross-linkers, cis-[Pt(NH(3))Cl(2)] (cisplatin) and trans-{[PtCl(NH(3))(2)](2)(&mgr;-H(2)N(CH(2))(6)NH(2))}(2+) (1,1/t,t). Our mixed-metal Ru,Pt and Os,Pt compounds retard the migration of DNA through the gel in both a concentration- and time-dependent manner. Their effect on the migration of DNA is similar to, although much more dramatic than, that observed for either cisplatin or 1,1/t,t. Our evidence suggests a covalent binding of our mixed-metal complexes to DNA through the platinum site. The degree of retardation of DNA migration suggests a large change in DNA conformation is induced by binding of our mixed-metal complexes. This work establishes these inorganic systems as a new class of DNA-binding agents and lays the groundwork for future efforts to enhance binding in an effort to develop novel anticancer drugs through serial design and testing.

Quality planning in aerospace manufacturing: A fundamental change

Within the US aerospace industry, many manufacturing companies commonly follow a traditional process of serial design, fabricate, procure and assembly of this products. This sequence of planning events was usually done as a series of independent serially connected steps. However, there have been many difficult problems trying to manage such a system. Recently, a large aerospace company has attempted to use quality planning to restructure fundamentally the processes it currently performs in its engineering and business processes. This article describes the traditional aerospace design, fabrication, assembly and delivery of a product through its entire life cycle. With the deployment of a quality planning system, the entire framework is substantially altered. This new manufacturing process of control is then described, which depends substantially upon a total customer quality satisfaction system as input. Some problems of converting and implementing this new quality planning system will be identified and ou...

Manufacturing systems engineering and design: An intelligent, multi-model, integration architecture

Manufacturing system design is a complex process involving the integration of multiple systems designed by several designers each optimizing sub-systems. The life cycle of manufacturing systems design is also problematic because the size of the manufacturing system makes it incomprehensible by a single person, interdisciplinary in approach, asynchronous in operation, and constantly evolving. This scope also leads to long development times with requirements that are not well understood in the beginning and that change during the design/build cycle. Further, the requirements for the designers are often conflicting and non-functional. Also, individual designs must resolve concurrency issues with other individual designs. These issues are not appropriately addressed by the traditional serial design process. The problems with the current design paradigm for manufacturing systems are also exacerbated by temporal life cycle issues. Because the design life cycle of these systems often span months or years, the inevitable changes during design stages can create costly delays. In view of these issues, then, it is suggested that the manufacturing systems design process must become less serial and more concurrent, as with concurrent product design. Coordinating the design efforts of the multi-disciplinary teams involved in the design of manufacturing systems is a difficult task. These various disciplines utilize different methods and the designers have their own tools for executing these methodologies. Solving these problems requires a new technology which enables prototyping of complex multi-model manufacturing systems. Therefore, an integration technology is proposed that enables the systematic integration of new design tools and thus is readily extendible to include new design domains, methodologies, and technology. In this paper, the manufacturing systems design problem is characterized and an architecture presented which supports manufacturing engineering in this complex, data-rich environment.

A Comparison of Bit Serial and Bit Parallel DCT Designs

Bit parallel and bit serial VLSI designs for performing 1-dimensional Discrete Cosine Transforms are compared, in terms of size, complexity and throughput. It is concluded that the bit serial approach is more suited to this application, given the limitations of not only the available VLSI design tools, but also the available silicon real estate allocated for final chip fabrication.

Psychotherapy of dysthymia.

The author reviews empirical research on the psychotherapy of dysthymia. Dysthymia, a prevalent mood disorder, has been shown frequently to respond to antidepressant medication. The need for a treatment for dysthymic subjects unable or unwilling to take, or unresponsive to, medication still remains. Studies were located by computerized search and the author's knowledge of the literature. All reports of studies on psychotherapy outcome for dysthymic patients, except studies of late-life chronic major depression, were included. Psychotherapy research on dysthymia has been confined to small, usually uncontrolled studies with varying methods and limited follow-up. Cognitive approaches have been most frequently studied; the results have not been dramatic but do suggest that some dysthymic patients respond to brief cognitive therapies. Preliminary results of an ongoing study of interpersonal psychotherapy are promising. Given the public health importance of dysthymia and the availability of treatments, the time is ripe for clinical trials of antidysthymic psychotherapy. The author proposes the following guidelines for such trials: time-limited, manual-based psychotherapy, interpersonal focus, serial design, continuation and maintenance treatment, combined treatments, and follow-up assessments.

Digital optical computing with optically switched directional couplers

Optically switchable directional couplers can function as logically complete building blocks for constructing all-optical computational engines. Logically, such devices operate as all-optical five-terminal gates, where the two output signals are logical functions of two throughgoing input signals and a control input signal. Such an optically controlled exchange element is a promising functional unit for constructing general-purpose digital optical logic circuits. The implementation of such all-optical five-terminal gates using Ti:LiNbO3 electro-optic directional couplers is described. These optical logic gates utilize mature technology developed for the telecommunications industry, facilitating construction of robust optical logic hardware. Single-mode optical fiber is used for all logical interconnections. Effectively dc-coupled control circuitry converts optical pulses into electrical pulses capable of switching the transfer state of low-voltage lumped electrode directional couplers. The use of such Ti:LiNbO3 five-terminal optical logical gates in the construction of various simple circuits such as oscillators and divide-by-N circuits is shown. Such circuits demonstrate many of the issues arising in the construction of all- optical digital computing systems, and are fundamental subsections of an all-optical bit serial computer design currently under construction.

Serial unblocked designs balanced for correlation between neighbours, II

Serial unblocked designs balanced for correlation between neighbours, II

VLSI architectures to compute the Wigner Distribution

The Wigner Distribution has always drawn the attention of researchers due to its capability of representinh the time-frequency or space-frequency characterization of signals. Its qualities have not been exploited till now due to the enormous amount of computations. needed. In recent years parallel computers have become available and with the advent of VLSI technology it is possible to conceive of concurrent arrays for computing and manipulating multiple data. The purpose of this paper is to analyze existing VLSI architectures for implementing the Wigner Distribution and to propose and discuss new hybrid designs for its computation in any dimension. We review the Wigner Distribution of one-dimensional signals. It is shown that the lower bound on AT p 2 for computing the Wigner Distribution is O( N 2 log 2 N) for a one-dimensional signal. This paper bestowes two contributions in the analysis of pipelined VLSI architectures for DSP. The first is in introducing the notion of asymptotic area efficiency ( E) which, in addition to AT 2, is used as another focal point in our analyses. The second contribution is in presenting a basic design methodology for pipelining arrays under constraints of I/O bandwidth by matching their data rate ratios. Well matched arrays yield good area time performance with hifh efficiency. Existing architectures for computing the Wigner Distribution are analyzed and discussed for area time tradeoff and efficiency. The pipeline methodology forms the basis for new architectures by a systematic construction from arrays that compute subproblems. The purpose of this paper is to systematically search for an optimal structure for computing the Wigner Distribution. For the computation of the one-dimensional Wigner Distribution we propose: • (i) Serial designs based on the single cell correlator pipelined with the N cell DFT or the cascade. These circuits are well matched with the single cell correlator and yield an AT 2 product of O( N 3 log 3 N) with an area efficiency of 0.5 and 1, respectively. • (ii) The N cell correlator pipelined with the butterfly. These two arrays are inherently well matched. They yield an optimal AT 2 product and their overall efficiency is 1. • (iii) The perfect shuffle and the N cell correlator arrays mismatch. By applying the pipelining technique yields several structures are extracted of which one is optimal.

Double-blind crossover trial of lamotrigine (Lamictal) as add-on therapy in intractable epilepsy

A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial is reported of lamotrigine as add-on treatment in therapy-resistant epilepsy. A within-patients serial design was used, with two 3-month treatment periods and an intervening 6-week washout/crossover period. An unblinded investigator adjusted lamotrigine dosage to achieve a plasma concentration within a previously predicted therapeutic range. All patients had therapy-resistant partial seizures, some in combination with other seizure types and were without serious neurological or intellectual deficit. Of 34 patients recruited only one was withdrawn because of an adverse experience (maculo-papular rash) probably related to the experimental drug and 30 completed the trial. The other 3 withdrawals were due to default during baseline, dispensing error and cholecystectomy. There was a modest statistically significant reduction in total and partial seizures on lamotrigine compared to placebo treatment. There was no difference in adverse experiences or abnormal biochemical or haematological findings between the lamotrigine and placebo periods. The plasma concentrations of concomitantly administered antiepileptic drugs were not affected by lamotrigine treatment. It is concluded that lamotrigine shows promise as an antiepileptic drug with low toxicity.

Serial unblocked designs balanced for correlation between neighbours

It is shown now one many choose a balanced unblocked serial (BUS) design “at random” (equiprobably). The method makes use of a theorem for enumerating unicursal routes in an oriented linear graph.

B.C.D. multipliers

B.C.D. versions of known multiplier designs are presented; both achieve fast multiplication times without the high hardware cost typically associated with high speed. Serial b.c.d. addition and r.o.m. single-digit multipliers permit the substantial reductions in hardware cost, while higher clock frequencies offset the inherent slowness of the serial methods.Greatest cost-effectiveness is seen to be achieved through l.s.i. implementationn of a serial design which is easily extended for higher radix b.c.d. multiplication.

Recommended procedures for cattle breed comparison trials; A guideline prepared by a Working Party of the Commission for Cattle Production of the E.A.A.P.

Recommended procedures for cattle breed comparison trials; A guideline prepared by a Working Party of the Commission for Cattle Production of the E.A.A.P.