Effects of r-HuEPO on the biophysical characteristics of erythrocyte membrane in patients with anemia of chronic renal failure

Using electron spin resonance (ESR) spin labeling technique, we have studied the conformation of sulfhydryl groups(-SH) binding sites in membrane proteins and membrane fluidity of red blood cells (RBCs) from two groups of patients with anemia of chronic renal failure (ACRF). One of the groups is composed of patients who were untreated with recombinant human erythropoietin(r-HuEPO), and the other is composed of patients who were treated with r-HuEPO. The results indicated: 1) the conformation of SH group binding site in RBC membrane proteins from former group was different from those of health people. 2)the fluidity in the region near the surface of RBC membrane from former group was lower than those of healthy people. 3) However, the above biophysical properties of RBC membrane from later group were normal. We concluded that RBC membrane in patients with ACRF was abnormal, and the treatment of r-HuEPO may promote the production of normal RBCs, thus ameliorate the biophysical properties of RBCs from the patients with ACRF.

Decomposition Methods for Manufacturing System Scheduling:A Survey

Manufacturing is the application of labor, tools,machines, chemical and biological processing, to an original raw material by changing its physical and geometrical characteristics, in order to make finished products. Since the first industrial revolution, to accommodate the large-scale production,tremendous changes have happened to manufacturing through the innovations of technology, organization, management, transportation and communication. This work first reviews the highvolume low-mix process by focusing on the quantity production,transfer line and single model assembly line. Then, it reviews the high-volume high-mix process. For such a process type,mixed/multi model assembly line is usually adopted. Hence,two main decisions on them, i.e., balancing and, sequencing are reviewed. Thereafter, it discusses the low-volume high-mix process in detail. Then, technology gap and future work is discussed, and at last, conclusions are given.

Polynomial Approach to Optimal One-wafer Cyclic Scheduling of Treelike Hybrid Multi-Cluster Tools via Petri Nets

A treelike hybrid multi-cluster tool is composed of both single-arm and dual-arm cluster tools with a treelike topology. Scheduling such a tool is challenging. For a hybrid treelike multi-cluster tool whose bottleneck individual tool is process-bound, this work aims at finding its optimal one-wafer cyclic schedule. It is modeled with Petri nets such that a onewafer cyclic schedule is parameterized as its robots' waiting time.Based on the model, this work proves the existence of its onewafer cyclic schedule that features with the ease of industrial implementation. Then, computationally efficient algorithms are proposed to find the minimal cycle time and optimal onewafer cyclic schedule. Multi-cluster tool examples are given to illustrate the proposed approach. The use of the found schedules enables industrial multi-cluster tools to operate with their highest productivity.