System Qualities Ontology, Tradespace and Affordability (SQOTA) Project – Phase 4

This task was proposed and established as a result of a pair of 2012 workshops sponsored by the DoD Engineered Resilient Systems technology priority area and by the SERC. The workshops focused on how best to strengthen DoD’s capabilities in dealing with its systems’ non-functional requirements, often also called system qualities, properties, levels of service, and –ilities. The term –ilities was often used during the workshops, and became the title of the resulting SERC research task: “ilities Tradespace and Affordability Project (iTAP).” As the project progressed, the term “ilities” often became a source of confusion, as in “Do your results include considerations of safety, security, resilience, etc., which don’t have “ility” in their names?” Also, as our ontology, methods, processes, and tools became of interest across the DoD and across international and standards communities, we found that the term “System Qualities” was most often used. As a result, we are changing the name of the project to “System Qualities Ontology, Tradespace, and Affordability (SQOTA).” Some of this year’s university reports still refer to the project as “iTAP.”This material is based upon work supported, in whole or in part, by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Office of the Assistant of Defense for Research and Engineering (ASD(R&E)) under Contract HQ0034-13-D-0004.This material is based upon work supported, in whole or in part, by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Office of the Assistant of Defense for Research and Engineering (ASD(R&E)) under Contract HQ0034-13-D-0004

Electronic Part Total Cost Of Ownership And Sourcing Decisions For Long Life Cycle Products

The manufacture and support of long life cycle products rely on the availability of suitable parts from competent suppliers which, over long periods of time, leaves parts susceptible to a number of possible long-term supply chain disruptions. Potential supply chain failures can be supplier-related (e.g., bankruptcy, changes in manufacturing process, non-compliance), parts-related (e.g., obsolescence, reliability, design changes), logistical (e.g., transportation mishaps, natural disasters, accidental occurrences) and political/legislative (e.g., trade regulations, embargo, national conflict). Solutions to mitigating the risk of supply chain failure include the strategic formulation of suitable part sourcing strategies. Sourcing strategies refer to the selection of a set of suppliers from which to purchase parts; sourcing strategies include sole, single, dual, second and multi-sourcing. Utilizing various sourcing strategies offer one way of offsetting or avoiding the risk of part unavailability (and its associated penalties) as well as possible benefits from competitive pricing. Although supply chain risks and sourcing strategies have been extensively studied for high-volume, short life cycle products, the applicability of existing work to long life cycle products is unknown. Existing methods used to study part sourcing decisions in high-volume consumer oriented applications are procurement-centric where cost tradeoffs on the part level focus on part pricing, negotiation practices and purchase volumes. These studies are commonplace for strategic part management for short life cycle products; however, conventional procurement approaches offer only a limited view for parts used in long life cycle products. Procurement-driven decision making provides little to no insight into the accumulation of life cycle cost (attributed to the adoption, use and support of the part), which can be significantly larger than procurement costs in long life cycle products. This dissertation defines the sourcing constraints imposed by the shortage of suppliers as a part becomes obsolete or is subject to other long-term supply chain disruptions. A life cycle approach is presented to compare the total cost of ownership of introducing and supporting a set of suppliers, for electronic parts in long life cycle products, against the benefit of reduced long-term supply chain disruption risk. The estimation of risk combines the likelihood or probability of long-term supply chain disruptions (throughout the part's procurement and support life within an OEM's product portfolio) with the consequence of the disruption (impact on the part's total cost of ownership) to determine the "expected cost" associated with a particular sourcing strategy. This dissertation focuses on comparing sourcing strategies used in long life cycle systems and provides application-specific insight into the cost benefits of sourcing strategies towards proactively mitigating DMSMS type part obsolescence

The Contemporary Face of Transnational Criminal Organizations and the Threat they Pose to U.S. National Interest: A Global Perspective.

Traditional organized crime groups have consistently posed issues for la w enforcement; however, the contemporary TCOs present an even greater security risk and threat. TCOs thrive in countries with a weak rule of law and present a great threat to regional security in many parts of the world. Bribery and corruption employed by these groups further serve to destabilize already weak governments. These TCOs also present a major threat to U.S. and world financial systems by exploiting legitimate commerce, and in some cases creating parallel markets (“Transnational Organized,” 2011) . Finally, one of the most significant threats posed by contemporary TCOs is their alliances and willingness to work with terrorist and extremist organizations. This paper will focus on contemporary TCOs by giving a brief overview of the most common criminal enterprises associated with these groups, the nexus between various TCOs, the nexus between TCOs and terrorist and extremist groups, case studies highlighting the nexus, and the threats they pose to U.S. national interests

Technology Agnostic Analysis and Design for Improved Performance, Variability, and Reliability in Thin Film Photovoltaics

Thin film photovoltaics (TFPV) offer low cost alternatives to conventional crystalline Silicon (c-Si) PV, and can enable novel applications of PV technology. Their large scale adoption however, requires significant improvements in process yield, and operational reliability. In order to address these challenges, comprehensive understanding of factors affecting panel yield, and predictive models of performance reliability are needed. This has proved to be especially challenging for TFPV for two reasons in particular. First, TFPV technologies encompass a wide variety of materials, processes, and structures, which fragments the research effort. Moreover, the monolithic manufacturing of TFPV modules differs significantly from that of c-Si technology, and requires new integrated approaches to analysis and design for these technologies. In this thesis, we identify a number of features affecting the variability and reliability of TFPV technologies in general, and propose technology agnostic design solutions for improved performance, yield, and lifetime of TFPV modules. We first discuss the universal features of current conduction in TFPV cells, for both intrinsic dark and light currents, and parasitic (shunt) leakage. We establish the universal physics of space-charge-limited shunt conduction in TFPV technologies, and develop physics based compact model for TFPV cells. We examine the statistics of parasitic shunting, and demonstrate its universal log-normal distribution across different technologies. We also evaluate the degradation behavior of cells under reverse bias stress, and identify different degradation mechanisms for intrinsic and parasitic components. We then embed the physics and statistics of cell operation and degradation, in a circuit simulation framework to analyze module performance and reliability. With this integrated circuit-device simulation, we establish log-normal shunt statistics as a major cause of module efficiency loss in TFPV, and develop a in-line technique for module efficiency and yield enhancement. Finally, we study the features of TFPV module reliability under partial shading using this circuit simulation, and propose a geometrical design solution for shade tolerant TFPV modules. The most important theme of this thesis is to establish that TFPV technologies share many universal performance, variability, and reliability challenges. And, by using a technology agnostic approach for studying these problems, we can achieve fruitful cross coupling of ideas and enable broadly applicable solutions for important technological challenges in TFPV

Cloud computing : developing a cost estimation model for customers

Cloud computing is an essential part of the digital transformation journey. It offers many benefits to organisations, including the advantages of scalability and agility. Cloud customers see cloud computing as a moving train that every organisation needs to catch. This means that adoption decisions are made quickly in order to keep up with the new trend. Such quick decisions have led to many disappointments for cloud customers and have questioned the cost of the cloud. This is also because there is a lack of criteria or guidelines to help cloud customers get a complete picture of what is required of them before they go to the cloud. From another perspective, as new technologies force changes to the organizational structure and business processes, it is important to understand how cloud computing changes the IT and non-IT departments and how can this be translated into costs. Accordingly, this research uses the total cost of ownership approach and transaction cost theory to develop a customer-centric model to estimate the cost of cloud computing. The Research methodology used the Design Science Research approach. Expert interviews were used to develop the model. The model was then validated using four case studies. The model, named Sunny, identifies many costs that need to be estimated, which will help to make the cloud-based digital transformation journey less cloudy. The costs include Meta Services, Continuous Contract management, Monitoring and ITSM Adjustment. From an academic perspective, this research highlights the management efforts required for cloud computing and how misleading the rapid provision potential of the cloud resources can be. From a business perspective, proper estimation of these costs would help customers make informed decisions and vendors make realistic promises.Cloud Computing ist ein wesentlicher Bestandteil der Digitalisierung. Es bietet Unternehmen viele Vorteile, wie Skalierbarkeit und Agilität. Cloud-Kunden sehen Cloud Computing als einen Zug, auf den jedes Unternehmen aufspringen muss. Das bedeutet, dass Einführungsentscheidungen schnell getroffen werden, um mit dem neuen Trend Schritt zu halten. Solche Schnellschüsse haben zu vielen Enttäuschungen bei Cloud-Kunden geführt und die Kosten der Cloud in Frage gestellt. Dies ist auch darauf zurückzuführen, dass es keine Kriterien oder Leitlinien gibt, die den Cloud-Kunden helfen, sich ein vollständiges Bild davon zu machen, was von ihnen erwartet wird, bevor sie in die Cloud gehen. Aus einem anderen Blickwinkel ist es wichtig zu verstehen, wie Cloud Computing IT- und Nicht-IT-Abteilungen verändert und wie sich dies auf die Kosten auswirkt, da neue Technologien Veränderungen in der Organisationsstruktur und den Geschäftsprozessen erzwingen. Dementsprechend werden in dieser Forschungsarbeit der Total Cost of Ownership-Ansatz und die Transaktionskostentheorie verwendet, um ein kundenorientiertes Modell zur Schätzung der Kosten von Cloud Computing zu entwickeln. Die Forschungsmethodik basiert auf dem Design Science Research Ansatz. Zur Entwicklung des Modells wurden Experteninterviews durchgeführt. Anschließend wurde das Modell anhand von vier Fallstudien validiert. Das Modell mit dem Namen Sunny identifiziert viele Kosten, die geschätzt werden müssen, um die Reise zur digitalen Transformation in der Cloud weniger wolkig zu gestalten. Zu diesen Kosten gehören Meta-Services, kontinuierliches Vertragsmanagement, Überwachung und ITSM-Anpassung. Aus akademischer Sicht verdeutlicht diese Forschung, welcher Verwaltungsaufwand für Cloud Computing erforderlich ist und wie irreführend das schnelle Bereitstellungspotenzial von Cloud-Ressourcen sein kann. Aus Unternehmenssicht würde eine korrekte Einschätzung dieser Kosten den Kunden helfen, fundierte Entscheidungen zu treffen, und den Anbietern, realistische Versprechungen zu machen

Investigating Manufacturer Selection Decisions for Built Infrastructure Assets Using a Technical Performance Metric

Facility and built infrastructure asset management are necessary functions of any organization that utilizes buildings to operate their businesses. However, most organizations require facility managers to ensure the successful operation of their assets without providing sufficient resources to accomplish this task. Therefore, in resource-scarce environments, facility managers require data-driven solutions to manage their assets and make the best decisions. Facility managers need novel solutions to help make asset life-cycle decisions. This research provides such a solution. Capitalizing on available data, a technical performance metric is created, allowing facility managers to calculate their assets\u27 operational performance. This performance metric provides a criterion to make manufacturer selection decisions: choosing one manufacturer over another and picking the best brand for use in their facilities. The performance metric that informs manufacturer selection decisions provides a basis for making initial procurement decisions, thereby solving one of the life-cycle decisions facility managers must make. Performance is calculated utilizing basic attribute and condition assessment data. Leveraging real-world data from the United States Air Force, case studies are performed to calculate the performance of assets, show the utility of an organization making or validating manufacturer selection decisions, and to show the effect of local climate on asset performance

Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 314)

This bibliography lists 139 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in August, 1988