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This work aims to provide greater awareness, more information and sound advice on the growing effects of computing and telecommunications on business and work. It is aimed at business managers and researchers who need up-to-date intelligence to help them to direct their operations successfully.

A major problem faced by the typical apparel manufacturer in day-to-day operations is the need for an effective scheduler to determine actions required because of operator and/or machine non-performance. The dynamic resource allocation system (DRAS) scheduler described in this paper is the natural outgrowth of previously funded research related to the design, development, technology transfer and installation of a CIM system in an apparel plant. The already developed CIM system provides a way for the DRAS scheduler (described in this paper) to change a production process dynamically. The implementation and modeling approach of the scheduler is described. The underlying system model is based on Petri nets and object-oriented databases. Petri nets provide a dynamic model of the CIM system, while object-oriented databases provide necessary information about system components and overall system activity. The data from the CIM system is used by the scheduler in the simulation mode. The daily production plan is used as a guideline to determine how to react to and correct production problems.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

This report describes an efficient strategy for determining the functions of sequenced genes in microorganisms. A large population of cells is subjected to insertional mutagenesis. The mutagenized population is then divided into representative samples, each of which is subjected to a different selection. DNA is prepared from each sample population after the selection. The polymerase chain reaction is then used to determine retrospectively whether insertions into a particular sequence affected the outcome of any selection. The method is efficient because the insertional mutagenesis and each selection need only to be performed once to enable the functions of thousands of genes to be investigated, rather than once for each gene. We tested this \"genetic footprinting\" strategy using the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

This paper summarizes a concluded 5-year funded research project (1994-1999) addressing the automated handling and manipulation of limp material, without distortion, deformation or damage. A series of prototype gripper systems (fixed-dimensioned and reconfigurable) were developed and integrated with Adept Series manipulators to demonstrate the gripper applicability to the textiles and apparel industry. A sensor-based control system based on the hierarchical control architecture paradigm (Valavanis and Saridis, Intelligent robotic systems: theory, design and applications, Kluwer, Amsterdam, 1992) controlled the operation of the integrated robotic gripper system. The research concluded with the conceptual and theoretical design of a reconfigurable robotic gripper system (RGS) followed by simulation-based design parameter validation, controlled by a fuzzy logic controller (for both position- and suction-based control). RGS simulation studies demonstrated the distortion-free manipulation of limp material panels of a variety of shapes and sizes.

We have created a strain of Dictyostelium that is deficient for the Ca2+/calmodulin-independent MLCK-A. This strain undergoes cytokinesis less efficiently than wild type, which results in an increased frequency of multinucleate cells when grown in suspension. The MLCK-A- cells are able, however, to undergo development and to cap crosslinked surface receptors, processes that require myosin heavy chain. Phosphorylated regulatory light chain (RLC) is still present in MLCK-A- cells, indicating that Dictyostelium has one or more additional protein kinases capable of phosphorylating RLC. Concanavalin A treatment was found to induce phosphorylation of essentially all of the RLC in wild-type cells, but RLC phosphorylation levels in MLCK-A- cells are unaffected by concanavalin A. Thus MLCK-A is regulated separately from the other MLCK(s) in the cell

There are post-war council houses on their left, mock-Tudor semis on their right.The road follows a gentle curve.

Val gets up and walks around the outside of the maze, picks a leaf out of the water, comes back and sits down.

[...]Phil has covered a large postcard with twenty-five smaller ones, each inscribed with a piece of graffiti that he has collected from the city's public toilets during the last few days.

Or she is in another time zone; she is stepping into a warm sea or climbing a high hill covered with snow. Reasons for not going to the pub and listening to the Tom Crouch Band: number one, he would have to pass by that vicious dog again; number two, he's thinking about Isabel and the whole business makes him feel miserable as hell, he can hardly face a room full of smiling, happy faces in this state; number three, as if the other reasons weren't enough, he doesn't like jazz, he never has done.