An aggregate continuum model for production flows and supply chains with finite buffers is proposed and analyzed. The model extends earlier partial differential equations that represent deterministic coarse grained models of stochastic production systems based on mass conservation. The finite size buffers lead to a discontinuous clearing function describing the throughput as a function of the w...

Complex production systems can produce more than one part type. For these systems, production rate and priority of production for each part type is determined by production controllers. In this paper, genetic fuzzy logic control (GFLC) methodology is used to develop two production control architectures namely ‘‘genetic distributed fuzzy” (GDF), and ‘‘genetic supervisory fuzzy” (GSF) controllers...

The objective of this paper is to study a selected set of scheduling criteria commonly used in scheduling research and develop a set of simple rules that can be easily implemented in relatively small dynamic job-shops. Simulation models were developed for two dynamic production shop environments, namely, a job-shop with jumbled flow and a job-shop with limited jumbled flow. Five scheduling crit...

Multimodal interfaces combining, e.g., natural language and graphics take advantage of both the individual strength of each communication mode and the fact that several modes can be employed in parallel, e.g., in the text-picture combinations of illustrated documents. It is an important goal of this research not simply to merge the verbalization results of a natural language generator and the v...

Trip-based material handling systems such as AGV systems or lift trucks are often designed with a given flow matrix (or from-to chart), which typically shows the number of loaded trips that the devices must perform per unit time between the workstations. A from-to chart that would result from the parts flow in a facility actually is dictated by the transfer batch size; that is, the number of pa...

Multimodal interfaces combining, e.g., natural language and graphics take advantage of both the individual strength of each communication mode and the fact that several modes can be employed in parallel, e.g., in the text-picture combinations of illustrated documents. It is an important goal of this research not simply to merge the verbalization results of a natural language generator and the v...

This paper describes the design of a two-level hierarchical production scheduling engine, which captures the industrial practice of mass production semiconductor fabrication factories (fabs). The two levels of the hierarchy consist of a mid-term scheduler and a short-term scheduler, and are aimed at achieving coordination between the fab-wide objectives and local shop-floor operations. The mid-...

Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS) is an immune pathology associated with mutations in WAS protein (WASp) or in WASp interacting protein (WIP). Together with the small GTPase Cdc42 and other effectors, these proteins participate in the remodelling of the actin network downstream of BCR engagement. Here we show that mice lacking the adaptor protein ITSN2, a G-nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) for Cdc...

Myoblast fusion takes place in two steps in mammals and in Drosophila. First, founder cells (FCs) and fusion-competent myoblasts (FCMs) fuse to form a trinucleated precursor, which then recruits further FCMs. This process depends on the formation of the fusion-restricted myogenic-adhesive structure (FuRMAS), which contains filamentous actin (F-actin) plugs at the sites of cell contact. Fusion r...