Design methodology for products and systems when technology is the enabler and technology change is the competitor

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 1996.Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-192).by Philip Emile.Ph.D

Creative Collaborative Circular Economics, Exponential System Design for Sustainability in Fashion Design

Associação com Universidade do Minho | Escola de Engenhariaapproaches and contributions from design to sustainability aiming to raise responsiveness and awareness among fashion design students and local communities about the conscious and sustainable production and consumption of fashion product". This thesis fits in the area of design, especially in the applicability of the multidisciplinary way of thinking, creativity, empathy and experimentation that is part of the design thinking methodology with the consumer as the starting point and centre of attention, and its interrelations with social innovation, environmental sustainability, fashion design considering the entire life cycle of products, services and systems. Undergraduate and Master of Fashion Design students at the University of Beira Interior develop collection projects and the (coordinated) clothes are kept in a closed warehouse, only eventually attending some events. Thus, the following opportunities were perceived: (i) Environmental Dimension: Promote a better designation and destination for these clothes; (ii) Collaborative Economy: Reuse through a new P2P business model; (iii) Social innovation: Sensitize and make society aware of new business models, contributing to and increasing the importance of the designer in the way of thinking and seeking creative solutions to social and environmental problems. What could one do with these practically stored clothes without public accessibility? Here are the reasons for a proposal to implement a new business model in Covilhã, Portugal. This thesis proposes the business model “Exponential System Design for Sustainability in Fashion” that can be called Exponential since it is scalable and modular, collaborative and sustainable services in fashion products. It may be replicable in its entirety, or in parts, in other places and contexts, adopting modularity as an adaptive resource. Initially identifies whether the perceived barriers to traditional Portuguese consumer behavior. But, for the new generation is a matter of awareness, as Portugal is also receiving influences from other cultures. Accelerating sustainable development requires a paradigm shift in terms of the production process in order to migrate from a linear to a circular economy. This comprises changing habits, mindsets and methods rooted in society. So far in terms of territorial innovation, there is no knowledge of business models that replace access property with the stated characteristics.objetivo geral da tese consiste em “sistematizar um modelo integrador com abordagens e contribuições do design para a sustentabilidade visando promover a sensibilização e conscientização dos estudantes de design de moda e das comunidades locais, sobre a produção e o consumo consciente e sustentável do produto de moda”. Esta tese insere-se na área do design, especialmente na aplicabilidade do modo de pensar multidisciplinar, criatividade, empatia e experimentação que faz parte da metodologia design thinking tendo o consumidor como ponto de partida e centro de atenção, e nas suas inter-relações com a inovação social, sustentabilidade ambiental, design de moda considerando todo o ciclo de vida de produtos, serviços e sistemas. Os alunos da licenciatura e do mestrado em Design de Moda na Universidade da Beira Interior desenvolvem projetos de coleção e as roupas (coordenados) ficam guardadas num armazém fechado, vindo só eventualmente a participarem em alguns eventos. Assim, percebeu-se as seguintes oportunidades: (i) Dimensão Ambiental: Promover uma melhor designação e destinação para essas roupas; (ii) Economia colaborativa: Reutilização através de novo modelo de negócio P2P; (iii) Inovação social: Sensibilizar e conscientizar a sociedade para novos modelos de negócio vindo a contribuir e ampliar a importância do designer no modo de pensar e de buscar soluções criativa para os problemas socioambiental. O que se poderia fazer com estas roupas praticamente armazenadas sem a apreciação do público? Eis aí as razões para uma proposta de implantação de um novo modelo de negócio em Covilhã, Portugal. Esta tese propõe o modelo de negócio “Design de Sistema Exponencial para a Sustentabilidade na Moda” chamamos de Exponencial por ser escalável e modular, com prestação de serviços eco-eficientes, colaborativos e sustentáveis em produtos de moda. Ele poderá ser replicável na sua totalidade, ou por partes, em outros lugares e contextos, adotando-se, para isso, a modularidade como recurso adaptativo. Inicialmente identifica se as barreiras percebidas ao comportamento do consumidor português tradicional. Porém na nova geração é uma questão de conscientização, Portugal também está a receber influências de outras culturas. Acelerar o desenvolvimento sustentável requer uma mudança do paradigma em termos do processo produtivo, a fim de migrar de uma economia linear para uma economia circular. Trata-se de mudar hábitos, mentalidades e métodos enraizados na sociedade. Até o momento em termos de inovação territorial não há conhecimento de modelos de negócios que substituam a propriedade de acesso com estas características

Evaluation of the QVT Merge Language Proposal

-STF90 A05045This report has identified 29 weighted evaluation criteria representing desired properties of a model to model transformation language. These criteria have been used to evaluate the current QVT Merge specification. We have so far only been able to evaluate 21 of these criteria, mainly due to missing tool support. Some of the criteria are considered absolute in the sense that missing to fulfil such a criterion is considered a failure. The 21 evaluated criteria give a score of 59 out of a maximum possible score of 68 (language-based + example-based testing). We have also compared the QVT-Merge submission with the QVT-Compuware/Sun submission and at the time being the QVT-Merge seems to be the preferred one due to more support on the absolute criteria and better easy-to-use score. Eight transformation examples for solving six different transformation tasks have given a lot of insight on the ease of use criteria for both simple and complex transformations. When defining transformations using QVT Merge we believe that a lot of effort may be required in order to define the source and target  metamodels. The evaluation in this report could be improved by using the reference examples with alternative approaches published in the literature. An available QVT-Merge tool is necessary in order to provide evaluations of all the suggested criteria. In order to further investigate the usability of the graphical notation, we need to define more of the transformation examples graphically. Only one of the examples has been specified graphically in this version. The current evaluation has been done by a single evaluator who has only reviewed the transformation code that was written by somebody else. The evaluation will be further improved by incorporating input from other evaluators as well as evaluation from those who wrote the transformation code. Oppdragsgiver: EU Commissio

Optimal Rate Sampling in 802.11 Systems

In 802.11 systems, Rate Adaptation (RA) is a fundamental mechanism allowing transmitters to adapt the coding and modulation scheme as well as the MIMO transmission mode to the radio channel conditions, and in turn, to learn and track the (mode, rate) pair providing the highest throughput. So far, the design of RA mechanisms has been mainly driven by heuristics. In contrast, in this paper, we rigorously formulate such design as an online stochastic optimisation problem. We solve this problem and present ORS (Optimal Rate Sampling), a family of (mode, rate) pair adaptation algorithms that provably learn as fast as it is possible the best pair for transmission. We study the performance of ORS algorithms in both stationary radio environments where the successful packet transmission probabilities at the various (mode, rate) pairs do not vary over time, and in non-stationary environments where these probabilities evolve. We show that under ORS algorithms, the throughput loss due to the need to explore sub-optimal (mode, rate) pairs does not depend on the number of available pairs, which is a crucial advantage as evolving 802.11 standards offer an increasingly large number of (mode, rate) pairs. We illustrate the efficiency of ORS algorithms (compared to the state-of-the-art algorithms) using simulations and traces extracted from 802.11 test-beds.Comment: 52 page

Audiovisual preservation strategies, data models and value-chains

This is a report on preservation strategies, models and value-chains for digital file-based audiovisual content. The report includes: (a)current and emerging value-chains and business-models for audiovisual preservation;(b) a comparison of preservation strategies for audiovisual content including their strengths and weaknesses, and(c) a review of current preservation metadata models, and requirements for extension to support audiovisual files

African American Sibling Relationships when Caring for an Alzheimer’s Parent

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most commonly occurring form of dementia that affects African Americans at 2 to 3 times higher rate than other ethnic or racial groups in the United States. As the number of older African Americans with AD grows rapidly so will the need for daily supports; therefore, informal caregivers, such as an adult offspring, often assume the role of filial caregiver. Focusing on the unique patterns of caregiving among African Americans, this generic qualitative study may help explain the adult offspring’s perspective on sibling relationships as they function in the role of primary filial caregiver. Equity theory was the conceptual framework used to explore sibling relationships among African American adult filial caregivers. A purposeful sampling in conjunction with snowballing was used to recruit participants who provided filial caregiving to a home-bound parent with AD. For this generic qualitative study, 10 participants responded to 12 open-ended interview questions related to their sibling relationships and filial caregiving. After collecting and transcribing the data, I used a thematic analysis approach, resulting in the following 5 emergent themes: (a) perception of equity, (b) continuing a close sibling relationship, (c) strategies of communication and collaborative decision-making, (d) varying siblings supports, and (e) attitudes towards caregiving and siblings. The results from this study may enhance culturally sensitive or responsive interventions/strategies and family-centered programs supporting African American adult filial caregivers and their siblings as they navigate the demands of elder care, thereby informing perceptions of fairness related to caregiving responsibilities

Biomedical programs operations plans

Operational guidelines for the space shuttle life sciences payloads are presented. An operational assessment of the medical experimental altitude test for Skylab, and Skylab life sciences documentation are discussed along with the operations posture and collection of space shuttle operational planning data

Quién, cómo y qué regular (o no regular) frente a la desinformación

La respuesta regulatoria frente a la desinformación es compleja tanto por quiénes y cómo deben realizarla, cuanto porque están en juego las libertades de expresión e información de usuarios y también de redes y plataformas. Hay que asumir que muchos fenómenos de desinformación que se quieren evitar tendrán que quedar fuera de la respuesta jurídica. Se afirma que en muchos ámbitos lo mejor es no regular o que hay que evitar que órganos gubernamentales no independientes evalúen o restrinjan los contenidos y puedan orquestar debate político. La Unión Europea establece el marco regulatorio y a partir del mismo actúan y regulan tanto las redes y plataformas cuanto los Estados. Se examinan las políticas, Código de buenas prácticas, futura Digital Services Act y la regulación internacional de la desinformación como operaciones de influencia indebidas. Se consideran positivos los modelos de autorregulación o corregulación como la futura DSA, que puede encauzar e impulsar los actuales esfuerzos voluntarios de las redes y plataformas. También se formulan las líneas de (auto)regulación de la verificación de noticias. En el ámbito concreto español, se describen las inercias que ha habido, la necesidad de mejorar la opaca regulación española de la seguridad de la información aplicable, así como el inconstitucional «decretazo digital». En especial, se analiza la polémica Orden de 2020 y se señalan posibles mejoras de la regulación institucional y orgánica de la desinformación. Finalmente, se tienen en cuenta algunas regulaciones comparadas para el ámbito electoral (sobre operaciones de influencia, retirada judicial de contenidos o deepfakes). Se formulan concretas propuestas de regulación del régimen electoral, también respecto de la publicidad política y protección de datos para plataformas

On Discrete-Event Simulation and Integration in the Manufacturing System Development Process

DES is seldom used in the manufacturing system development process, instead it is usually used to cure problems in existent systems. This has the effect that the simulation study alone is considered being the cost driver for the analysis of the manufacturing system. It is argued that this is not a entirely correct view since the analysis has to be performed anyway, and the cost directly related to the simulation study is mainly in the model realization phase. It is concluded that it is preferred if the simulation study life cycle coincides with the corresponding manufacturing system's life cycle to increase the usability of the simulation model and to increase efficiency in the simulation study process. A model is supplied to be used for management and engineering process improvements and for improvements of the organizational issues to support simulation activities. By institutionalizing and utilizing well defined processes the conceived complexity related to DES is considered to be reduced over time. Cost is highly correlated to the time consumed in a simulation study. The presented methodology tries to reduce time consumption and lead-time in the simulation study by: (i)~reducing redundant work, (ii)~reducing rework, and (iii)~moving labor intensive activities forward in time. To reduce the time to collect and analyze input data a framework is provided that aims at delivering high granularity input data without dependencies. The input data collection framework is designed to provide data for operation and analysis of the manufacturing system in several domains. To reduce the model realization time two approaches are presented. The first approach supplies a set of modules that enables parameterized models of automated subassembly systems. The second approach builds and runs the simulation model based on a copy of an MRP database, i.e. there is no manual intervention required to build the simulation model. The approach is designed to forecast the performance of an entire enterprise. Since the model is generated from a database, the approach is highly scalable. Furthermore, the maintenance of the simulation model is reduced considerably