Personal computer

About: Personal computer is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 58809 publications have been published within this topic receiving 800814 citations. The topic is also known as: PC.

A biosensor that monitors cell morphology with electrical fields

Abstract: Describes a "whole cell" biosensor that is very useful in the field of animal cell tissue culture and in many ways is akin to the canary in a coal mine. The heart of this method, called ECIS for electric cell-substrate impedance sensing, is a small gold electrode immersed in tissue culture medium. When cells attach and spread on this electrode, the measured electrical impedance changes because the cells constrain the current flow. This changing impedance can be interpreted to reveal useful information about cell behaviors. Since these behaviors, such as spreading and locomotion, involve the coordination of many biochemical reactions, they are extremely sensitive to most external parameters such as temperature, pH, and a myriad of chemical compounds. This broad response to changes in the environment allows this method to serve as a general biosensor. The measurements are easily automated, and the general conditions of the cells can be monitored by a personal computer controlling the necessary instrumentation. >

Smart Phones, a Powerful Tool in the Chemistry Classroom.

Abstract: Cell phones, especially “smart phones”, seem to have become ubiquitous. Actually, it is misleading to call many of these devices phones, as they are actually a portable and powerful computer that can be very valuable in the chemistry classroom. Currently, there are three major ways in which smart phones can be used for education. Smart phones include a Web browser, which gives access to the wealth of material on the World Wide Web (WWW); inexpensive applications (commonly called apps) expand this usefulness even further; and two-dimensional barcode labels can be used to create “smart objects”. Taken together, these capabilities are creating a world of mobile computing that may have an impact on society, including chemical education, that may be even greater than the changes brought about by the personal computer.

Forecasting and Inventory Management of Short Life-Cycle Products

Abstract: In this paper, we provide an integrated framework for forecasting and inventory management of short life-cycle products. The literature on forecasting and inventory management does not adequately address issues relating to short life-cycle products. We first propose a growth model that can be used to obtain accurate monthly forecasts for the entire life cycle of the product. The model avoids limiting data requirements of traditional methods. Instead, it extracts relevant information from past product histories and utilizes the information on total life-cycle sales and the peak sales timing. Using disguised demand data from a personal computer PC manufacturer, we validate the model. Next, we model the inventory management problem for the short life-cycle environment. The uncertainty in demand is modeled through the uncertainty in the realized values of the parameters of the forecasting model. The high cost of terminal inventory, shortages, and rapidly changing procurement costs are all included in the model. Extensions to the basic model are also developed. Using optimal control theory, we derive a solution that provides valuable information on procurement cutoff time and terminal service levels. A detailed example explains the characteristics of the policy and its relevance in decision making. Many of the issues covered in the models were brought to our attention while implementing a forecasting model at a PC manufacturer. The benchmark monthly forecasts and the associated inventory levels provide information that can be very helpful in planning and controlling marketing, sales, and production.

Golden Mandarin(II)-an intelligent Mandarin dictation machine for Chinese character input with adaptation/learning functions

Abstract: Golden Mandarin (II) is an intelligent single-chip based real-time Mandarin dictation machine for the Chinese language with a very large vocabulary for the input of unlimited Chinese texts into computers using voice. This dictation machine can be installed on any personal computer, in which only a single chip Motorola DSP 96002D is used, with a preliminary character correct rate around 95% at a speed of 0.6 sec per character. Various adaptation/learning functions have been developed for this machine, including fast adaptation to new speakers, on-line learning the voice characteristics, task domains, word pattern and noise environments of the users, so the machine can be easily personalized for each user. These adaptation/learning functions are the major subjects of the paper. >

ANOLEA: A WWW Server to Assess Protein Structures

Abstract: ANOLEA (Atomic Non-Local Environment Assessment) is a www server that performs energy calculations at the atomic level in protein structures. The calculations involve the non-local interactions between all the heavy atoms of the twenty standard amino acids in the molecule. The input of the server is a PDB file containing one or more protein chains. The output is an energy profile, which gives an energy value for each amino acid of the protein. High energy zones (HEZs) in the profile correlate with errors or with potential interacting zones of proteins. The output of the server also displays the structure in three dimensions, pointing out the high energy amino acids in the protein. This option requires the CHIME plug-in, which is freely available on Internet and makes possible, in real time, to rotate, translate and change the point of view and presentation of the molecule in three dimensions. Thus, a fast analysis of a protein structure can be done using a personal computer connected to Internet. The server is available at: http:@www.fundp.ac.be/pub/ANOLEA.html.