Information-Based Manufacturing in the Informational Age

The customer of the 1990s demands products and services that are fast, right, cheap, and easy. Manufacturing organizations have adopted an information-based strategy that incorporates technology to maintain and deliver the information required for knowing what, when, and how to make economical products. This strategy is explored within the context of the new economy as it is manifested in the areas of globalism, informationalism, and customer-dominated markets.     

Information-Based Dynamic Manufacturing System Scheduling

Information about the state of the system is of paramount importance in determining the dynamics underlying manufacturing systems. In this paper, we present an adaptive scheduling policy for dynamic manufacturing system scheduling using information obtained from snapshots of the system at various points in time. Specifically, the framework presented allows for information-based dynamic scheduling where information collected about the system is used to (1) adjust appropriate parameters in the system and (2) search or optimize using genetic algorithms. The main feature of this policy is that it tailors the dispatching rule to be used at a given point in time to the prevailing state of the system. Experimental studies indicate the superiority of the suggested approach over the alternative approach involving the repeated application of a single dispatching rule for randomly generated test problems as well as a real system. In pa ticular, its relative performance improves further when there are frequent disruptions and when disruptions are caused by the introduction of tight due date jobs and machine breakdown—two of the most common sources of disruption in most manufacturing systems. From an operational perspective, the most important characteristics of the pattern-directed scheduling approach are its ability to incorporate the idiosyncratic characteristics of the given system into the dispatching rule selection process and its ability to refine itself incrementally on a continual basis by taking new system parameters into account.     

Characterization of Information-Based Learning Benefits with Submovement Dynamics and Muscular Rhythmicity

For skill advancement, motor variability must be optimized based on target information during practice sessions. This study investigated structural changes in kinematic variability by characterizing submovement dynamics and muscular oscillations after practice with visuomotor tracking under different target conditions. Thirty-six participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups (simple, complex, and random). Each group practiced tracking visual targets with trajectories of varying complexity. The velocity trajectory of tracking was decomposed into 1) a primary contraction spectrally identical to the target rate and 2) an intermittent submovement profile. The learning benefits and submovement dynamics were conditional upon experimental manipulation of the target information. Only the simple and complex groups improved their skills with practice. The size of the submovements was most greatly reduced by practice with the least target information (simple > complex > random). Submovement complexity changed in parallel with learning benefits, with the most remarkable increase in practice under a moderate amount of target information (complex > simple > random). In the simple and complex protocols, skill improvements were associated with a significant decline in alpha (8–12 Hz) muscular oscillation but a potentiation of gamma (35–50 Hz) muscular oscillation. However, the random group showed no significant change in tracking skill or submovement dynamics, except that alpha muscular oscillation was reduced. In conclusion, submovement and gamma muscular oscillation are biological markers of learning benefits. Effective learning with an appropriate amount of target information reduces the size of submovements. In accordance with the challenge point hypothesis, changes in submovement complexity in response to target information had an inverted-U function, pertaining to an abundant trajectory-tuning strategy with target exactness.     

Definition of a New Information-Based Per-Residue Quality Parameter

For biomolecular NMR structures typically only a poor correspondence is observed between statistics derived from the experimental input data and structural quality indicators obtained from the structure ensembles. Here, we investigate the relationship between the amount of available NMR data and structure quality. By generating datasets with a predetermined information content and evaluating the quality of the resulting structure ensembles we show that there is, in contrast to previous findings, a linear relation between the information contained in experimental data and structural quality. From this relation, a new quality parameter is derived that provides direct insight, on a per-residue basis, into the extent to which structural quality is governed by the experimental input data.     

An Information-Based Approach to Change-Point Analysis with Applications to Biophysics and Cell Biology

This article describes the application of a change-point algorithm to the analysis of stochastic signals in biological systems whose underlying state dynamics consist of transitions between discrete states. Applications of this analysis include molecular-motor stepping, fluorophore bleaching, electrophysiology, particle and cell tracking, detection of copy number variation by sequencing, tethered-particle motion, etc. We present a unified approach to the analysis of processes whose noise can be modeled by Gaussian, Wiener, or Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes. To fit the model, we exploit explicit, closed-form algebraic expressions for maximum-likelihood estimators of model parameters and estimated information loss of the generalized noise model, which can be computed extremely efficiently. We implement change-point detection using the frequentist information criterion (which, to our knowledge, is a new information criterion). The frequentist information criterion specifies a single, information-based statistical test that is free from ad hoc parameters and requires no prior probability distribution. We demonstrate this information-based approach in the analysis of simulated and experimental tethered-particle-motion data.     

Keep Your Options Open: An Information-Based Driving Principle for Sensorimotor Systems

The central resource processed by the sensorimotor system of an organism is information. We propose an information-based quantity that allows one to characterize the efficiency of the perception-action loop of an abstract organism model. It measures the potential of the organism to imprint information on the environment via its actuators in a way that can be recaptured by its sensors, essentially quantifying the options available and visible to the organism. Various scenarios suggest that such a quantity could identify the preferred direction of evolution or adaptation of the sensorimotor loop of organisms.     

芽胞杆菌生产嘌呤核苷研究进展

嘌呤核苷在食品和医药领域都有广泛的应用。应用芽胞杆菌生产嘌呤核苷类物质的研究始于 6 0年代 ,其后对合成途径及其代谢调控机制相继进行了深入的研究 ,以下就此做详尽的综述 ,并以肌苷、鸟苷为例 ,对利用芽胞杆菌发酵生产嘌呤核苷的菌种选育和工艺调控的进展做全面的回顾。     

Biomedical cloud computing with Amazon Web Services

In this overview to biomedical computing in the cloud, we discussed two primary ways to use the cloud (a single instance or cluster), provided a detailed example using NGS mapping, and highlighted the associated costs. While many users new to the cloud may assume that entry is as straightforward as uploading an application and selecting an instance type and storage options, we illustrated that there is substantial up-front effort required before an application can make full use of the cloud's vast resources. Our intention was to provide a set of best practices and to illustrate how those apply to a typical application pipeline for biomedical informatics, but also general enough for extrapolation to other types of computational problems. Our mapping example was intended to illustrate how to develop a scalable project and not to compare and contrast alignment algorithms for read mapping and genome assembly. Indeed, with a newer aligner such as Bowtie, it is possible to map the entire African genome using one m2.2xlarge instance in 48 hours for a total cost of approximately $48 in computation time. In our example, we were not concerned with data transfer rates, which are heavily influenced by the amount of available bandwidth, connection latency, and network availability. When transferring large amounts of data to the cloud, bandwidth limitations can be a major bottleneck, and in some cases it is more efficient to simply mail a storage device containing the data to AWS (http://aws.amazon.com/importexport/). More information about cloud computing, detailed cost analysis, and security can be found in references.     

Manufacturing Consensus

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has declared that it would be illegal to advertise as or in any way claim your drug to be superior to competitors on the market, which are up to 30 times cheaper. How does a pharmaceutical company market such a product? The answer is to enlist academics to form expert panels to construct guidelines and algorithms, or participate in Delphi panels and other exercises, which can be expected to prove that newer, more costly drugs produce cost savings. These academics do so on the basis of the existing clinical trial evidence—which supposedly the FDA has used to come to its verdict that the newer compound is no better than its competitors. However, where the FDA has seen the raw data, academics later see the published data. In between intervenes a medical writing exercise, which produces the first and most important piece of advertising for any pharmaceutical product—the randomized controlled trial infomercial. This paper explores how pharmaceutical companies manufacture an apparent academic consensus and, in so doing, gives a case study of the recent controversies surrounding the marketing of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) drugs for adolescent depression.     

Manipulation of the Pelagic Food Web by Stocking with Predacious Fishes

Two water bodies, which are quite different with respect to nutrient load and hydrophysical conditions, are used to perform long-term experiments in the whole water on the manipulation of the pelagic food web. Experimental water 1: Bautzen Reservoir (Dresden County, GDR); hypereutrophic, mean depth=7.4 m; extremely exposed to wind. Experimental water 2: Small pond in a former quarry (Dresden County); mesotrophic; mean depth=7.0 m; extremely protected against wind. Only the results of Experiment 2 are given in detail. Experiment 1 is not yet finished. Experimental water 2 was investigated in 1979 and 1980 when no predatory fish species were present, and in 1981 after introduction of predators (mainly Salmo gairdneri). The response of the ecosystem can be summarized as follows: (1) The biomass of the zooplankton-eating fish (mainly Leucaspius delineatus) decreases rapidly. (2) The biomass of the herbivorous zooplankton increases to nearly 400%. (3) This finding reveals that the dense population of an invertebrate predator (Chaoborus flavicans) is not able to compensate for the feeding pressure of the small fish. But the intensive feeding activity of the young larvae of Chaoborus leads to a strong increase (200 to 300%) in the mean individual body size of the crustaceans during late summer and autumn, which supports the “balanced predation hypothesis”. (4) The remarkable enhanced grazing pressure of the herbivorous zooplankton on the phytoplankton does not exert any effect on the total phytoplankton biomass. This result is interpreted as a consequence of growth limitation of the algae due to low nutrient (Fe, P) supply in that mesotrophic water body. But the phytoplankton composition does reveal a strong response to the enhanced grazing pressure. The Secchi depth increases as a consequence of this change in the phytoplankton composition. The conclusion is drawn that, when using biomanipulation as a means of water quality management, it is obviously necessary to take into account the complex interrelationships between fish stocks, predacious invertebrates, herbivorous zooplankton, phytoplankton as well as nutrient load and hydrophysical processes in the particular water.