61 research outputs found
From feather to computer
No full textThe article accentuates readers' attention on the problem of the reduction of the speech culture that had appeared because of «global computerizing». The author sees the solution of the problem of the given situation in teaching pupils and student-philologists the basic foundation of the computer editing. In this connection the author reviews the textbook «Correction and Desktop publishing» by T.A. Gridina, R.U. Shebalov
Future Trends in Factory Automation
No full textThis paper is a review of contemporary manufacturing technology, from both a U.S. and world perspective. It emphasizes the historical background current trends toward computerized automation in terms of the increasing societal demands for performance, which in turn generates requirements for ever greater complexity and precision. This is the root of the "quality crisis". The author believes that the next industrial revolution is a fundamental shift from the use of human workers as "micro" decision-making (machine controllers) in factors to the use of "smart sensors" for this purpose. The paper elaborates some of the more specific implications
Automated Detection System for Diabetic Retinopathy Using Two Field Fundus Photography
No full textAbstractDiabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of vision loss, caused by damage to the retina from complications of diabetes. Analysis of the retinal photographs for key characteristics of DR can result in early diagnosis and better management of DR. This paper presents a method for automated analysis and classification of the retina as DR or non-DR using two-field mydriatic fundus photography. The optic disc region is located by multi-level wavelet decomposition and recursive region growing from an automatically identified seed point. Blood vessels are extracted by applying histogram analysis on the two median filtered images. Red lesions are detected using three stage intensity transformation and white lesions from multi-level histogram analysis. The final classification of the retina as DR or non-DR is based on an aggregate of the lesions extracted from each image. The proposed method has been validated against diagnosis by a panel of expert ophthalmologists on images from 368 patients. The observed sensitivity and specificity were 80% and 50% respectively. The results show that automated screening based on two-field photography can be applied in routine screening
(1) Future Trends in Factory Automation, (2) Technology Forecasts for CIM
No full text(1) This paper is a review of contemporary manufacturing technology, from both a U.S. and world perspective. It emphasizes the historical background of the current trends toward computerized automation in terms of the increasing societal demands for performance, which in turn generates requirements for ever greater complexity and precision. This is the root of the "quality crisis." The author believes that the next industrial revolution will present a fundamental shift from the use of human workers as "micro" decision makers (machine controllers) in factors to the use of "smart sensors" for this purpose. The paper elaborates some of the more specific implications.
(2) The second part of this report identifies a number of aggregated ("top down") measures of technological capability and penetration for CIM and discusses the problems of forecasting. The four proposed measures discussed in detail are as follows: 1.) Capital flexibility: the ratio of software costs to total invested capital; 2.) Machine utilization as a fraction of a 24-hour day (to reflect unmanned operations); 3.) Fraction of NC tools that are not 'stand-alone' but are controlled by higher level computers; and 4.) Order-to-delivery time. Rough estimates of recent and likely progress in the first three measures are given
Complexity, Reliability, and Design: Manufacturing Implications (Revised Version)
No full textA major component of IIASA's Technology-Economy-Society (TES) Program is a project to assess "Computer Integrated Manufacturing" (CIM), by which is meant the whole range of application of computers to discrete parts manufacturing and assembly. The various familiar acronyms and buzzwords, such as NC, CNC, DNC, CAD/CAM robotics, FMS, "group technology" and MRP all fit under the broad CIM umbrella. The present paper is the first to be generated, at least in part, under the project. (In fact, an earlier draft was written while the author was at Carnegie-Mellon University). The paper presents some interesting and new ideas about the nature of the forces driving the worldwide trend toward flexible automation. It suggests, in brief, that the demand for CIM arises from what Nathan Rosenberg has termed as "mismatch", i.e. a problem that was created, in effect, by technological progress itself. In this case the "problem" is that defects in manufacturing have become intolerable. The reason for that is that demand for higher and higher levels of product performance, over many decades, has required orders-of-magnitude increases in mechanical complexity, on the one hand, and higher precision, on the other. To satisfy these high standards requires a level of error control that increasingly precludes the use of human workers in direct contact with workpieces as they move through the manufacturing system.
This working paper is being made available more widely to stimulate discussion and comment. We hope that it will succeed in that regard
Pentachlorophenol removal from slightly acidic mineral salts, commercial sand, and clay soil by recovered Arthrobacter strain ATCC 33790
No full textArthrobacter strain ATCC 33790, a pentachlorophenol (PCP)-metabolizer isolated by the author, has been recovered after 10 years of storage. The freeze-dried preparation grown on half-strength Trypticase Soy Broth adapted to utilize PCP within 1 week. Cultures grown on PCP-nutrient agar were found to utilize PCP in mineral salts medium within 2-3 days. The culture was prepared for continuous growth at pH 6.5 by successive feeding of 100-110 mg solid aliquots of PCP to a 1-l culture initially grown at pH 7.4. Continuous culture growth at pH 6.5 was possible on a mineral salts feed containing 1800 ppm PCP. Continuous cultures grown at pH 6.7 on mineral salts feeds containing 500 and 340 mg PCP/l were especially efficient in removing PCP. Less than 4 mg PCP/l were detected in the effluent at dilution rates near washout. In batch culture studies at pH 6.5 the PCP utilization kinetics were found to be similar at low PCP concentration to those at pH 7.4 for the approximately same inoculum size. Utilization of 35 mg PCP/l was very slow at pH 6.0. Growth rates at pH 6.5 at controlled PCP concentration ranges of 5-35 and 75-115 mg/l were 0.09 h-1 and 0.05 h-1, respectively. The ability of strain ATCC 33790 to utilize PCP in mineral salts media containing naphthalene, methylnaphthalenes, and cresols was examined. Naphthalene, 1-, and 2-methylnaphthalenes at their solubility limit, and o- and m-cresols at 900-1000 mg/l prevented utilization of 80-90 mg PCP/l. PCP was rapidly removed from both commercial sand at 30°C and from clay soil at room temperature. Estimated inoculum sizes of 6.6 × 106, 6.6 × 104, and 656 cells/g were found to be effective in removing approximately half the starting amount of PCP from sand in 3, 19, and 42 h, respectively. Nearly complete disappearance of extractable PCP was observed after 1 day in clay soil inoculated with 6 × 106 cells/g
Controls on dissolved cobalt in surface waters of the Sargasso Sea : comparisons with iron and aluminum
No full textAuthor Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles 26 (2012): GB2020, doi:10.1029/2011GB004155.Dissolved cobalt (dCo), iron (dFe) and aluminum (dAl) were determined in water
column samples along a meridional transect (~31°N to 24°N) south of Bermuda in
June 2008. A general north-to-south increase in surface concentrations of dFe (0.3–1.6 nM) and dAl (14–42 nM) was observed, suggesting that aerosol deposition is a significant source of dFe and dAl, whereas no clear trend was observed for near-surface dCo concentrations. Shipboard aerosol samples indicate fractional solubility values of 8–100% for aerosol Co, which are significantly higher than corresponding estimates of the solubility of aerosol Fe (0.44–45%). Hydrographic observations and analysis of time series rain samples from Bermuda indicate that wet deposition accounts for most (>80%) of the total aeolian flux of Co, and hence a significant proportion of the atmospheric input of dCo to our study region. Our aerosol data imply that the atmospheric input of dCo to the Sargasso Sea is modest, although this flux may be more significant in late summer. The water column dCo profiles reveal a vertical distribution that predominantly reflects ‘nutrient-type’ behavior, versus scavenged-type behavior for dAl, and a hybrid of nutrient- and scavenged-type behavior for dFe. Mesoscale eddies also appear to impact on the vertical distribution of dCo. The effects of biological removal of dCo from the upper water column were apparent as pronounced sub-surface minima (21 ± 4 pM dCo), coincident with maxima in Prochlorococcus abundance. These observations imply that Prochlorococcus plays a major role in removing dCo from the euphotic zone, and that the availability of dCo may regulate Prochlorococcus growth in the Sargasso Sea.This study
was supported by a University of Plymouth, Marine Institute scholarship to
R.U.S., a U.S. National Science Foundation grant to P.N.S. (OCE-0550594),
T.M.C. (OCE-0550592) and E.R.S. (OCE-0549954), and a European Commission
Marie Curie Outgoing International Fellowship under contract
PIOF-GA-2009-235418 SOLAIROS for S.J.U.2012-11-1
Globalization and Environment
No full textEconomic globalization impacts the environment and sustainable development in a wide variety of ways and through a multitude of channels. The purpose of this paper is (a) to identify the key links between globalization and environment; (b) to identify the major issues addressed in multilateral economic agreements in trade and finance that affect environmental sustainability; and (c) to review priority policy issues affecting the environment in multilateral economic agreements and environment, thus identifying incentives implicit in trade and investment policy measures that affect environmental sustainability. The author categorizes these issues under the primary areas of globalization: trade liberalization, investment and finance, and technology diffusion, the latter including intellectual property rights. In the case of the trade-environment interface, the paper examines the impact of both elements, and the causal relationship between them. It also pays special attention to multilateral environmental agreements and their potential effects on trade. An integrative section on the effects of globalization and environmental policy and performance leads to domestic and international priority policy issues and recommendations. The author concludes that globalization brings with it potentially large benefits as well as risks. The challenge is to manage the process of globalization in such a way that it promotes environmental sustainability and equitable human development. In short, the more integrated environmental and trade policies are, the more sustainable economic growth will be and the more globalization can be harnessed for the benefit of the environment.Environment, Globalization, International Trade
Thermoeconomics - A Thermodynamic Approach to Economics (Second edition)
No full textThis second edition of the book stems from work by the author published in Energy Economics, the International Journal of Exergy and follow-up working papers. Topics covered include the gas laws, the distribution of income, first and second laws of thermodynamics, economic processes, elasticity, entropy and utility, production processes, reaction kinetics, empirical monetary analysis of UK and USA economies, interest rates, bonds, yield curves, yield spread, unemployment, entropy maximisation and the cycle, empirical analysis of world energy resources and climate change as factors affecting economic output, and lastly a discussion of sustainabilityThermodynamics, economics, money, value, utility, Le Chatelier, equilibrium, entropy, production, interest rates, yield, energy, exergy, peak oil, gas, coal, climate change
Economic consequences of German reunification : 12 months after the big bang
No full textThe author discusses how East Germany is faring 12 months after the big bang unification with West Germany. The experience with the German unification to date raises the question whether there would have been alternative and better courses of action. Such options can be considered in three broad areas: (a) the initial conversion rate and, closely connected, wage policies; (b) the wisdom of transferring the economic and legal system of the Federal Republic of Germany in its entirety; and (c) the desirability of the adopted mix of adjustment measures, in particular the trade-off between social assistance, public investment spending, and incentives for private investment. The"big bang"has worked. In Germany's special situation, more gradual approaches would not have worked because it was politically unthinkable to restrict east-west migration. The German unification provides an opportunity to learn a few lessons about the immensity of this task in the best of all circumstances: the take-over by a"big brother"who is ready to lend a hand in the reconstruction task, and willing to foot most of the bill.Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management,Governance Indicators,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research
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