In this paper, the authors discuss industry±university collaborative research aimed at improving the performance of truckload trucking operations for a major North American carrier through the development of alternative dispatching methods. The research detailed in this paper develops regularly scheduled delivery capacity in the form of delivery lanes, hubs and zones which regularize driver tou...

Recent findings suggest that infants are capable of distinguishing between different numbers of objects, and of performing simple arithmetical operations. But there is debate over whether these abilities result from capacities dedicated to numerical cognition, or whether infants succeed in such experiments through more general, non-numerical capacities, such as sensitivity to perceptual feature...

Abstact--This paper focuses on the processes producing the standards which make up the technical back-bone of an information infrastructure. These standards are neither ready-made nor neutral. They are currently being developed, and they 'inscribe' behaviour in complex and non-transparent ways. We explore how this takes place, identifying by whom, where and how inscriptions are made. Our princi...

It is often necessary to estimate the response of a camera under given lighting conditions, or perhaps to estimate lighting requirements for a particular camera. To assist with these calculations a number of examples are given below for common problems. It should be recognized that very accurate calculations are difficult; it is often better to start with a simple estimate and then fine tune th...

cularly when defining product architecture. Several systematic methods guide the development of functional models and produce graphical representations such as function structures. However, functional modeling is rarely considered a quantitative activity. In this paper we introduce the concept of a quantitative functional model—a vector representation of a product in which the number of distinc...

A wealth of growth factors are known to regulate the various cell functions involved in the repair process. An understanding of their therapeutic value is essential to achieve improved wound healing. Keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) seems to have a unique role as a mediator of mesenchymal±epithelial interactions: it originates from mesenchymal cells, yet acts exclusively on epithelial cells. In...

This paper presents a neural network approach with successful implementation for the robot task-sequencing problem. The problem addresses the sequencing of tasks comprising loading and unloading of parts into and from the machines by a material-handling robot. The performance criterion is to minimize a weighted objective of the total robot travel time for a set of tasks and the tardiness of the...

This paper proposes an approach to economic assessment of the impact on tourist flows of the earthquake that hit the Umbria region in Central Italy on September 26, 1997. Local arrivals in Assisi fell drastically the month following the main shock, compared to the same month of the previous year. The event study methodology, frequently applied in finance, is employed to evaluate the statistical...

The N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDA-R) is fully functional in the rat early in embryogenesis, and diverse neuronal plasticity events are regulated through its activation later in postnatal development. On the other hand, systemic administration of glutamate (Glu) to rats at birth induces neuronal degeneration in glutamatergic central nervous system regions via Glu receptor activation. Howev...

The application of focused ion beam (FIB) machining in several technologies aimed at microstructure fabrication is presented. These emergent applications include the production of micromilling tools for machining of metals and the production of microsurgical tools. An example of the use of microsurgical manipulators in a circulatory system measurement is presented. The steps needed to transform...