Flow-based approach for holistic factory engineering and design

The engineering of future factories requires digital tools along life cycle phases from investment planning to ramp-up. Manufacturers need scientific-based integrated highly dynamic data management systems for the participative and integrated factory planning. The paper presents a new approach for the continuously integrated product design, factory and process planning, through a service-oriented architecture for the implementation of digital factory tools. A first prototype of the digital factory framework has been realised by a comprehensive scenario for factory, equipment and process planning. The phases of factory operation and equipment maintenance are integrated, as well. The enabling technologies, grid computing and workflow management, which supports the comprehensive and integrated engineering of products, factory and processes are shortly introduced

Thomas-Fermi Calculations of Atoms and Matter in Magnetic Neutron Stars II: Finite Temperature Effects

We present numerical calculations of the equation of state for dense matter in high magnetic fields, using a temperature dependent Thomas-Fermi theory with a magnetic field that takes all Landau levels into account. Free energies for atoms and matter are also calculated as well as profiles of the electron density as a function of distance from the atomic nucleus for representative values of the magnetic field strength, total matter density, and temperature. The Landau shell structure, which is so prominent in cold dense matter in high magnetic fields, is still clearly present at finite temperature as long as it is less than approximately one tenth of the cyclotron energy. This structure is reflected in an oscillatory behaviour of the equation of state and other thermodynamic properties of dense matter and hence also in profiles of the density and pressure as functions of depth in the surface layers of magnetic neutron stars. These oscillations are completely smoothed out by thermal effects at temperatures of the order of the cyclotron energy or higher.Comment: 37 pages, 17 figures included, submitted to Ap

Optical alignment and spinning of laser-trapped microscopic particles

Light-induced rotation of absorbing microscopic particles by transfer of angular momentum from light to the material raises the possibility of optically driven micromachines. The phenomenon has been observed using elliptically polarized laser beams or beams with helical phase structure. But it is difficult to develop high power in such experiments because of overheating and unwanted axial forces, limiting the achievable rotation rates to a few hertz. This problem can in principle be overcome by using transparent particles, transferring angular momentum by a mechanism first observed by Beth in 1936, when he reported a tiny torque developed in a quartz waveplate due to the change in polarization of transmitted light. Here we show that an optical torque can be induced on microscopic birefringent particles of calcite held by optical tweezers. Depending on the polarization of the incident beam, the particles either become aligned with the plane of polarization (and thus can be rotated through specified angles) or spin with constant rotation frequency. Because these microscopic particles are transparent, they can be held in three-dimensional optical traps at very high power without heating. We have observed rotation rates in excess of 350 Hz.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Sonographic Wrist Measurements and Detection of Anatomical Features in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

INTRODUCTION: This study compares anatomical findings at wrist level in patients with known carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and controls by ultrasonography (US). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Wrist-US investigations of 28 consecutive patients with 38 diagnosed, idiopathic CTS were compared to 49 healthy volunteers without history of CTS. Internal wrists dimensions, the presence of flexor muscle bellies in the carpal tunnel, and cross-sectional area of the median nerve were analyzed. The findings were correlated to gender, age, and BMI. RESULTS: US demonstrated a square internal carpal tunnel configuration in CTS patients compared to controls (P < 0.001). Patients with CTS showed a trend towards the presence of flexor muscles bellies in the carpal tunnel (odds ratio 1.77, 95% CI 0.337-8.33). CTS was present in women with higher BMI (P = 0.015). CONCLUSION: US allowed detection of specific anatomical features at wrist level in CTS patients. This observation may enable--following confirmation in larger prospective studies--risk evaluation for CTS development

Effect of sting size on the wake of a sphere at subcritical Reynolds numbers

Vortex shedding and turbulent motion in the wake of a sphere that is supported using a streamwise-aligned cylindrical sting are investigated at a subcritical Reynolds number of Re=3800, using high speed particle image velocimetry. The mechanism by which the presence of a sting of increasing diameter relative to the diameter of the sphere influences the wake, in terms of both the small-scale shear instability and the larger wake instability, is explored and brie y compared with the two-dimensional analog of the splitter plate introduced into a cylinder wake. The difficulties associated with obtaining converged statistics, along with the effect of free stream turbulence and sphere vibrations are detailed. An understanding of the mechanism by which the blockage, or interference, arising from the presence of the sting influences cross-wake communication and downstream development is a necessary precursor to studies of active control of the wake using surface actuation on a sting-mounted sphere

Supersymmetric Field-Theoretic Models on a Supermanifold

We propose the extension of some structural aspects that have successfully been applied in the development of the theory of quantum fields propagating on a general spacetime manifold so as to include superfield models on a supermanifold. We only deal with the limited class of supermanifolds which admit the existence of a smooth body manifold structure. Our considerations are based on the Catenacci-Reina-Teofillatto-Bryant approach to supermanifolds. In particular, we show that the class of supermanifolds constructed by Bonora-Pasti-Tonin satisfies the criterions which guarantee that a supermanifold admits a Hausdorff body manifold. This construction is the closest to the physicist's intuitive view of superspace as a manifold with some anticommuting coordinates, where the odd sector is topologically trivial. The paper also contains a new construction of superdistributions and useful results on the wavefront set of such objects. Moreover, a generalization of the spectral condition is formulated using the notion of the wavefront set of superdistributions, which is equivalent to the requirement that all of the component fields satisfy, on the body manifold, a microlocal spectral condition proposed by Brunetti-Fredenhagen-K\"ohler.Comment: Final version to appear in J.Math.Phy

Resummation of mass terms in perturbative massless quantum field theory

The neutral massless scalar quantum field $\Phi$ in four-dimensional space-time is considered, which is subject to a simple bilinear self-interaction. Is is well-known from renormalization theory that adding a term of the form $-\frac{m^2}{2} \Phi^2$ to the Lagrangean has the formal effect of shifting the particle mass from the original zero value to m after resummation of all two-leg insertions in the Feynman graphs appearing in the perturbative expansion of the S-matrix. However, this resummation is accompanied by some subtleties if done in a proper mathematical manner. Although the model seems to be almost trivial, is shows many interesting features which are useful for the understanding of the convergence behavior of perturbation theory in general. Some important facts in connection with the basic principles of quantum field theory and distribution theory are highlighted, and a remark is made on possible generalizations of the distribution spaces used in local quantum field theory. A short discussion how one can view the spontaneous breakdown of gauge symmetry in massive gauge theories within a massless framework is presented.Comment: 15 pages, LaTeX (style files included), one section adde

Traversed Graph Representation for Sparse Encoding of Macro-Reentrant Tachycardia

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.Macro-reentrant atrial and ventricular tachycardias originate from additional circuits in which the activation of the cardiac chambers follows a high-frequency rotating pattern. The macro-reentrant circuit can be interrupted by targeted radiofrequency energy delivery with a linear lesion transecting the pathway. The choice of the optimal ablation site is determined by the operator’s experience, thus limiting the procedure success, increasing its duration and also unnecessarily extending the ablated tissue area in the case of incorrect ablation target estimation. In this paper, an algorithm for automatic intraoperative detection of the tachycardia reentry path is proposed by modelling the propagation as a graph traverse problem. Moreover, the optimal ablation point where the path should be transected is computed. Finally, the proposed method is applied to sparse electroanatomical data to demonstrate its use when undersampled mapping occurs. Thirteen electroanatomical maps of right ventricle and right and left atrium tachycardias from patients treated for congenital heart disease were analysed retrospectively in this study, with prediction accuracy tested against the recorded ablation sites and arrhythmia termination points

Recurrence relation for relativistic atomic matrix elements

Recurrence formulae for arbitrary hydrogenic radial matrix elements are obtained in the Dirac form of relativistic quantum mechanics. Our approach is inspired on the relativistic extension of the second hypervirial method that has been succesfully employed to deduce an analogous relationship in non relativistic quantum mechanics. We obtain first the relativistic extension of the second hypervirial and then the relativistic recurrence relation. Furthermore, we use such relation to deduce relativistic versions of the Pasternack-Sternheimer rule and of the virial theorem.Comment: 10 pages, no figure

Effect of secondary annealing process on critical current density in highly textured Bi-2212 superconducting system

Bi-2212 samples prepared by a solid-state reaction technique have been grown from the melt using the laser floating zone method. After annealing the as-grown bars, the samples showed a good grain alignment and a high transport critical current density. Secondary annealing processes were performed on the annealed samples with the aim of producing Bi-2212 phase controlled decomposition. Hence, the Bi-2201 phase and the secondary phases, which act as effective pinning centers, were obtained with the secondary annealing process. After these thermal treatments, the transport critical current densities of samples significantly increased, when compared to the annealed ones. The maximum critical current density was achieved when the samples were subjected to secondary annealing at 680°C for 168 h with an improvement of ~80%, compared to the annealed ones. Moreover, it was found that magnetization of the secondarily annealed samples was also increased. The magnetic critical current densities in these secondary annealed samples were about 3 times higher than the values obtained for the annealed ones. These results clearly indicate that the secondary annealing processes lead to the formation of effective pinning centers in the bulk material.The authors acknowledge financial support from the Gobierno de Aragón (Grupos de Investigacion Consolidados T12 and T87) and the Spanish MINECO-FEDER (Project MAT2013-46505-C3-1-R).Peer Reviewe