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As social uncertainty increases, there are changes in values such as safety, sustainability, and response to changes. The manufacturing industry is also required to improve its resilience by dynamically recombining production resources to respond to change. In the operation of a production line, if demand fluctuates due to changes in the external environment or customer needs, or if sudden production fluctuation such as equipment failure occurs, the production line will be stopped due to reconfiguration or equipment restoration. Therefore, the challenge is to continue production and improve productivity even when fluctuation occurs. In order to respond to the above challenges, this research aims to dynamically and quickly re-plan the production line using the existing equipment according to current equipment and production status. In this paper, failures of the production equipment, such as robots and tools, are regarded as production fluctuation factors. In order to continue production with the remaining resources in the event of equipment failure, it is necessary to change the process plan. However, since these are engineering tasks in the production preparation stage, there was the problem of not being able to flexibly change them at the manufacturing site during the production execution stage. In this development, an alternative plan pre-generation and selection method was developed to maintain production by re-allocating tasks during equipment failure. In this approach, first, multiple alternative plans for task allocation for failures in each piece of equipment are planned in advance using a process plan optimization technique. Next, production fluctuations due to equipment failures are detected. Finally, dynamic changes are possible by selecting alternative plans that maximize the throughput of the entire production system. Initial verification results are shown by comparison with the conventional method for equipment failure using simulation on a small-scale robot assembly line for automotive inverter.

The robot system integration (SI) business targets the construction of production lines for various products that differ from customer to customer. Improving the efficiency of line design is important for increasing profits in the SI business. Especially in the construction of assembly lines, the optimal system configuration, with an appropriate combination of robotic and human stations, is critical for maximizing the return on investment of customers. Yet, the optimal system configuration depends heavily on the task sequence in the process plan. In this paper, task sequencing and system configuration are regarded as two interdependent sub-problems of line design. The exact joint optimum of the two problems can be found only if they are solved together, in an integrated way. However, this is computationally intractable for problems of industrially relevant sizes. To overcome this challenge, a heuristic method exploiting industrial knowledge is proposed for solving the two problems simultaneously. The heuristic constructs promising task sequences according to the capabilities of the applicable resources, considering aspects such as, among others, human work quality or robot tool change times. Then, a close-to-optimal system configuration is computed by considering the promising task sequences and their various relevant combinations. The proposed method is illustrated in a case study on the assembly of electrical components in the automotive industry.

Diversification of the workforce and machinery has become a forefront issue in advanced manufacturing industries. To respond this challenge, it is necessary to create a sophisticated mechanism in which humans and machines can mutually assist and evolve together for sustainable growth. In this paper, for assembly cell production, we developed work instructions as exemplar “machine” that interact with workers, and analyzed the effect of this interaction on work efficiency. Based on the resulting statistical model, a system that provides personalized machine support for operators was prepared. Fundamental experiments are reported from an application to the assembly of simple mechanical products.

The effects of solvent and reaction conditions on the catalytic activity of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) were investigated for oxidative polymerization of phenol in water/organic mixtures using hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant. Also, the structural changes of HRP were investigated by CD and absorption spectroscopy in these solvents. The results suggest that the yield of phenol polymer (the conversion of phenol to polymer) is strongly affected by the reaction conditions due to the structural changes of HRP, that is, the changes in higher structure of the apo-protein and dissociation or decomposition of the prosthetic heme. Optimum solvent compositions for phenol polymerization depend on the nature of the organic solvents owing to different effects of the solvents on HRP structure. In addition to initial rapid changes, slower changes of HRP structure occur in water/organic solvents especially at high concentrations of organic solvents. In parallel with these structural changes, catalytic activity of HRP decreases with time in these solvents. At higher reaction temperatures, the yield of the polymer decreases, which is also ascribed to modification of HRP structure. It is known that hydrogen peroxide is an inhibitor of HRP, and the yield of phenol polymer is strongly dependent on the manner of addition of hydrogen peroxide to the reaction solutions. The polymer yield decreases significantly when hydrogen peroxide was added to the reaction solution in a large amount at once. This is probably due to inactivation of HRP by excess hydrogen peroxide. From the CD and absorption spectra, it is suggested that excess hydrogen peroxide causes not only decomposition of the prosthetic heme but also modification of the higher structure of HRP.

Introduction:Rituximab is widely used as the standard treatment for most types of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas (B-NHL). However, infusion-related reactions (IRRs), such as fever, chills, nausea, rashes, rigors, or hypotension, are a significant burden to patients and oncology practitioners. Thus, we developed a novel protocol on the rituximab administration to avoid severe IRRs during a short-time infusion in the outpatient chemotherapy center of Nihon University Itabashi Hospital.

Miura: Chugai: Honoraria; Kyowa Kirin: Honoraria. Hatta: Pfizer Japan Inc.: Honoraria; Novartis KK: Honoraria; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Honoraria; Otsuka Pharmaceutical.: Honoraria.

The Flory interaction parameter ?12in a single-phase mixture of poly(ether sulfone) and poly(hydroxy ether of bisphenol-A) was measured at various temperatures by the light scattering method based on random phase approximation. The ?12value at two-phase region above LCST (lower critical solution temperature) was estimated by curve fitting of the Flory-Huggins theory to the binodal curve observed. Combining the results, temperature dependence of ?12was obtained in a wide range. The interactional energy contribution in ?12, ?H, was estimated by the infrared spectroscopy method based on the acid-base interaction theory by Drago. The difference between ?12and ?H, which is assumed to be the free volume term in ?12, was found to be a concave function of temperature; i.e., ?(T) is an increasing function at high temperature region, as has been predicted theoretically, but it is a decreasing function at low temperature region. This may lead to a thermodynamic interpretation of the appearance of both LCST and UCST (upper critical solution temperature) in mixtures of dissimilar polymers with high molecular weights, as reported in recent literature.