Motion-induced vibration can be greatly reduced by properly shaping the reference command. Input shaping is one type of reference shaping method that is based largely on linear superposition. In this paper we document the impact of nonlinear crane dynamics on the effectiveness of input shaping. As typical bridge cranes are driven using Cartesian motions, they behave nearly linearly for lowand m...

Hypoxia-inducible factor-1A (HIF-1A) seems central to tumor growth and progression because it up-regulates genes essential for angiogenesis and the hypoxic adaptation of cancer cells, which is why HIF-1A inhibition is viewed as a cancer therapy strategy. Paradoxically, HIF-1A also leads to cell cycle arrest or the apoptosis of cancer cells. Thus, the possibility cannot be ruled out that HIF-1A ...

Cerebral microvascular endothelial cells form the anatomical basis of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), and the tight junctions of the BBB are critical for maintaining brain homeostasis and low permeability. Ischemia/reperfusion is known to damage the tight junctions of BBB and lead to permeability changes. Here we investigated the protective role of 3-(5'-hydroxymethyl-2'-furyl)-1-benzylindazole ...

In addition to increasing cGMP, the soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) activator 3-(5'-hydroxymethyl-2'-furyl)-1-benzylindazole (YC-1) can elevate intracellular cAMP levels. This response was assumed to be as a result of cGMP-dependent inhibition of cAMP phosphodiesterases; however, in this study, we show that YC-1-induced cAMP production in the rat pancreatic beta cell line INS-1E occurs independe...

In this paper we integrate two decision problems arising in container terminals: the berth allocation problem, which consists of assigning and scheduling incoming ships to berthing positions, and the quay crane assignment problem, which assigns to incoming ships a certain QC profile (i.e. number of quay cranes per working shift). They are indeed strictly correlated, as the QC profile assigned t...

Neurodegenerative brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been well investigated. However, significant methods for the treatment of the progression of AD are unavailable currently. Heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) plays important roles in neural protection from stress by assisting cellular protein folding. In this study, we investigated the effect and the molecular mechanism of YC-1,...

This paper develops an operator guidance system for an industrial process which involves scheduling ideas from manufacturing systems. The industrial process under study is the converter aisle in a copper smelter. Our objective is to increase throughput by improving utilization of the smelter’s resources. This paper partly addresses this objective by applying scheduling techniques to optimize th...

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and inducible nitric-oxide synthase (iNOS) have been implicated in ischemia-induced retinal neovascularization. Retinal ischemia has been shown to induce VEGF and iNOS expression. It has been postulated that one of the crucial consequences of iNOS expression in the ischemic retina is the inhibition of angiogenesis. Furthermore, iNOS was shown to be over...

Twelve beef steers (368 +/- 25.3 kg) and four beef heifers (559 +/- 79.5 kg) fitted with ruminal cannulas were used to evaluate effects of yeast culture (YC) and advancing season on dietary chemical composition, intake, and in situ CP and NDF degradation. Treatments were control and YC supplementation (28.4 g.steer-1.d-1 dosed ruminally). Steers grazed from late June to early November 1991 on m...

Effective control and operation of handling equipment in port container terminals are crucial in enhancing the overall efficiency and performance of container handling in import, export and transshipment. Nowadays, more and more container terminals are deploying automated handling equipment to improve the overall productivity. As the equipment is often unmanned and automatically controlled, it ...