Assignment task: A local hospital blood bank collects blood from volunteer donors. The donors do not get any compensation for donating blood. Each donor donates one pint of blood one to three times per year. Attrition of blood donors, due to age, illness, or moving away, causes the pool of blood donors to decrease over time. To restore the pool of donors the blood bank A local hospital blood bank collects blood from volunteer donors. The donors do not get any compensation for donating blood. Each donor donates one pint of blood one to three times per year. Attrition of blood donors, due to age, illness, or moving away, causes the pool of blood donors to decrease over time. To restore the pool of donors the blood bank periodically organizes a drive to recruit new donors. The amount collected obviously depends on the number of active donors and on the frequency with which they are called up for donations. For various reasons, the amount collected also fluctuates on a daily basis. All blood collected is tested for various diseases. If it is disease free, it is added to the blood bank's stock of blood, available for transfusions to patients. The demand for fresh blood originates either in the hospital's accident and emergency unit or from surgeons' requests for scheduled surgery. Hence the requirements for blood also fluctuate on a daily basis. Fresh blood has a shelf life of 35 days. Thus any blood not used within 35 days of collection is outdated, i.e. removed from stock and destroyed. Some fresh blood is put aside for the production of by-products, such as platelets and plasma, immediately after collection and testing. It is by such withdrawals of fresh blood that the director of the blood bank controls the daily stock of fresh blood. Her objectives are (i) to avoid, as far as possible and reasonable, having to notify surgeons that their requests for blood cannot be met due to stock shortages, and (ii) to avoid having too much blood outdated.
Q1. Define a relevant system, including its boundary, its environment, and the world view implied.
Q2. The director of the blood bank uses the following rules to control the stock of blood for each blood type. At the end of each day she determines the amount of fresh blood that is 32 days old. If that amount is larger than some critical number, she withdraws an amount of blood equal to the excess above the critical number, using the most recently collected blood. What type of control is she using? Why do you reach that conclusion?
Q3. List some of the state variables used for specifying the state of the system. Need Assignment Help?
Q4. Discuss the boundary judgements made by the system you defined.