A3 thinking approach to support knowledge-driven design

Problem solving is a crucial skill in product development. Any lack of effective decision making at an early design stage will affect productivity and increase costs and the lead time for the other stages of the product development life cycle. This could be improved by the use of a simple and informative approach which allows the designers and engineers to make decisions in product design by providing useful knowledge. This paper presents a novel A3 thinking approach to problem solving in product design, and provides a new A3 template which is structured from a combination of customised elements (e.g. the 8 Disciplines approach) and reflection practice. This approach was validated using a case study in the Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) design issue for an automotive electrical sub-assembly product. The main advantage of the developed approach is to create and capture the useful knowledge in a simple manner. Moreover, the approach provides a reflection section allowing the designers to turn their experience of design problem solving into proper learning and to represent their understanding of the design solution. These will be systematically structured (e.g. as a design checklist) to be circulated and shared as a reference for future design projects. Thus, the recurrence of similar design problems will be prevented and will aid the designers in adopting the expected EMC test results

Set-Based Concurrent Engineering process within the LeanPPD environment

This paper presents a newly defined set-based concurrent engineering process, which the authors believe addresses some of the key challenges faced by engineering enterprises in the 21st century. The main principles of Set-Based Concurrent Engineering (SBCE) have been identified via an extensive literature review. Based on these principles the SBCE baseline model was developed. The baseline model defines the stages and activities which represent the product development process to be employed in the LeanPPD (lean product and process development) project. The LeanPPD project is addressing the needs of European manufacturing companies for a new model that extends beyond lean manufacturing, and incorporates lean thinking in the product design development process

Improvement of visual acuity based on optical coherence tomography patterns following intravitreal bevacizumab treatment in patients with diabetic macular edema

<b>AIM:</b>To report the visual outcome based on various patterns of optical coherence tomography (OCT) morphology in diabetic macular edema (DME), following treatment with anti-VEGF intravitreal bevacizumab (IVB) injection.<b>METHODS:</b>Sixty-seven consecutive subjects with centre involving DME underwent intravitreal injection of Bevacizumab (1.25 mg/0.05 mL) in this retrospective, comparative, non randomized study. The DME was classified into one of four categories:focal, diffuse, focal cystoid and neurosensory detachment based on OCT. Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), macular appearance, and OCT findings were used to decide whether the subject should have a repeat injection of intravitreal bevacizumab. Outcome measures were a change in mean BCVA (Snellen converted to logMAR) and central macular thickness (CMT) in each group during the six month follow-up period.<b>RESULTS:</b>The mean BCVA improved to logMAR 0.23 at final follow-up from a baseline of 0.32 logMAR (<i>P=</i>0.040) in the focal group, logMAR 0.80 at final follow-up from a baseline of 0.82 logMAR (<i>P=</i>0.838) in the diffuse group, worsened to logMAR 0.53 at final follow-up from a baseline of 0.43 logMAR (<i>P=</i>0.276) in the focal cystoid group, and improved to logMAR 0.79 at final follow-up from a baseline of 0.93 logMAR (<i>P=</i>0.490) in the neurosensory detachment group. The mean CMT before treatment were 298.8±25.03 μm in the focal group, 310.8±40.6 μm in the diffuse group, 397.15±31.05 μm in the focal cystoid group and 401.03±75.1 μm in the neurosensory detachment group. A mean of 2.05 (range:1-5) injections in the focal group, 1.32 (range:1-2) in the diffuse group, 2.6 (range:1-6) in the focal cystoid group and 2.6 (range:1-6) in the neurosensory detachment group were performed during the six month follow-up period. Following intravitreal bevacizumab treatment, vision improved, remained unchanged or worsened in 11, 7 and 2 subjects in focal group; 11, 9 and 8 in diffuse group; 0, 2 and 4 in focal cystoid group and 5, 5 and 3 subjects respectively in neurosensory detachment group.<b>CONCLUSION:</b>OCT morpholgy patterns in DME may predict the effects of intravitreal bevacizumab treatment, and patients with focal DME are most likely to benefit from the improvent of visual acuity from this treatment

The Catalytic Conversion Of Corn Stover Sugars Into Lactic Acid

The rising global demand for addressing global warming necessitates the development of renewable-based alternatives to current fossil fuel-based chemicals and fuels. Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant energy source following fossil fuels. As a result, agricultural residues such as corn stover have attracted substantial interest for utilization as a potential feedstock for renewable chemicals.Previous research work at the University of North Dakota showed promising results in converting corn stover sugars into chemical building blocks. The most crucial of these chemicals is lactic acid, which can be used in multiple applications including food, pharmaceuticals, and biodegradable plastics. Traditionally, lactic acid is produced through fermentation. The high costs and time-consuming nature of the fermentation process acts as a barrier for lactic acid to compete with fossil-based alternatives. Substitute catalysis-based technologies are proposed as more cost effective and scalable. These advantages should allow lactic acid and other renewable chemicals to be more abundantly available at a reasonable price and be converted into more valuable products such as biodegradable plastics. Upon the success of this research, the market value of corn stover is expected to increase. This will create an additional revenue stream for farmers, thereby incentivizing them to collect stover from fields, secure the feedstock supply chain, and reduce the carbon footprint of chemical production. The goal of this research was to translate a batch, lab-scale catalytic reaction that used a powdered Sn-beta zeolite to a continuous bench-scale fixed bed reactor system utilizing catalysts in the pellet form. This catalytic reaction converts sugars derived from the cellulosic (via glucose) and hemicellulosic (via xylose) portion of corn stover into a product mixture of high-value chemicals used for polymer production. Two catalysts, tin-doped beta zeolite, and tin-doped commercial silica, were compared for their yield performance. The reaction conditions were optimized aiming for a product mixture that has a high concentration of lactic acid plus smaller concentrations of acetic, formic, and levulinic acids. Unfavorable results of yields that did not exceed 28 wt.% of inlet carbon when running in a continuous fashion suggest that neither of the Sn-beta zeolite pellets nor the Sn-silica pellets, as formulated in this work, can be used to scale up the initial technology under the conditions examined. While more operationally challenging, exploring the use of powdered Sn-doped beta zeolite catalyst in a continuous fashion is recommended based on the conclusions of this study

Guidelines for the application of recycled concrete aggregate in the Egyptian construction Industry

Construction industry is one of the most important fractions of economy worldwide. This industry consumes enormous amounts of raw materials and produces considerable waste. The optimization of construction material usage not only saves costs but also can significantly contribute towards sustainable development. The concept of recycling the construction and demolition rubble is being addressed in this study as a solution. The recycling of concrete, resulting from both the construction activities and the demolition activities, in order to be used as a source of aggregate is being focused upon in this study. Although the idea of using recycled concrete has been implemented widely in the United States and European construction industries, one can find that the idea is still limited in most of the developing countries and Egypt is one of these nations as well. This study raises the questions of: Why the use of recycled concrete, as a source of aggregate, is still limited in Egypt and why are contractors and consultants still not encouraged to adopt the Recycled Concrete Aggregate notion even in small construction jobs? In order to address these questions, a survey has been performed within a wide range of entities that are involved in the construction and demolition waste industries in Egypt. Most of those entities have figured out that the absence of the codes of practices, field experiences, and the know-how, and the environmental and economic concerns are some of the main reasons behind these questions. The study introduces the problem and an overview on the situation in Egypt concerning the recycling of concrete. It tackles the development of the concept of concrete recycling and presents the past world experiences in the field of concrete recycling. Moreover, a survey questionnaire is being presented covering the situation in the Egyptian construction and demolition waste industries. It also provides the know-how of recycling concrete in the form of the layout of production plants, recycling process and crushing mechanisms. In addition, the material (Recycled Concrete Aggregate) performance and the environmental and economic concerns in recycling concrete are being tackled in the study. The study attempts to develop both an economic model to assess the national savings that could result from recycling concrete waste and also to evaluate the viability of creating markets for recycled concrete aggregate. Moreover, some specification limits for recycled aggregate properties are being proposed by the study. The overriding conclusions of the study reveal that the government should address codes of practices and should also address taxes, levies, and subsidies in order to encourage the application of concrete recycling. Some recommendations for future studies are also presented

Enhancing Query Processing on Stock Market Cloud-based Database

Cloud computing is rapidly expanding because it allows users to save the development and implementation time on their work. It also reduces the maintenance and operational costs of the used systems. Furthermore, it enables the elastic use of any resource rather than estimating workload, which may be inaccurate, as database systems can benefit from such a trend. In this paper, we propose an algorithm that allocates the materialized view over cloud-based replica sets to enhance the database system\u27s performance in stock market using a Peer-to-Peer architecture. The results show that the proposed model improves the query processing time and network transfer cost by distributing the materialized views over cloud-based replica sets. Also, it has a significant effect on decision-making and achieving economic returns