Cost estimation for remanufacture with limited and uncertain information using case based reasoning

Assessing products prior to remanufacture is an important part of the remanufacturing process, ensuring that unsuitable cores are removed at an early stage to avoid unnecessary processing. In particular, understanding the economic cost of remanufacturing a product can be an important aspect of the assessment, especially for businesses operating in low volumes and on high value products, where the risk associated with unexpected costs or failure to complete remanufacture are much greater. Estimating these costs can however be difficult, as important information required to make a prediction is often uncertain, such as the product design, its condition and also the understanding of the resource requirements for remanufacture. Within this research a method has been developed to estimate the economic cost and risks of conducting a remanufacturing activity to a product when information is uncertain. Summation of the individual activities can then be conducted to determine the economic cost and risks of the entire remanufacturing process. The method utilises a combination of case based reasoning and probability theory to identify similarities between historical data records and the product under assessment, to predict the cost and risks of remanufacture. In particular this method enables cost estimation when important product information is missing including the manufacturer, model or condition. Additionally estimates can be made when exact historical information is not present, which can be useful to business remanufacturing bespoke or rare products. The method is then implemented within a service oriented architecture and functionally demonstrated using an example of an independent wind turbine gearbox remanufacturer

A Computational Model of Analogical Reasoning in Dementia Care

This paper reports a practical application of a computational model of analogical reasoning to a pressing social problem, which is to improve the care of older people with dementia. Underpinning the support for carers for people with dementia is a computational model of analogical reasoning that retrieves information about cases from analogical problem domains. The model implements structure-mapping theory adapted to match source and target domains expressed in unstructured natural language. The model is implemented as a computational service invoked by a mobile app used by carers during their care shifts

A software app to support creativity in dementia care

This paper reports a new mobile software app to support creative thinking by carers for people with dementia. The design of the app was informed by both pre-studies that demonstrated the potential of investigating challenging behaviors in non-care domains to improve person-centered care, and a model of creative problem solving adapted to dementia care. The resulting app implements different versions of the Other Worlds creativity technique to generate then reflect on ideas to improve resident care. An evaluation of the app in one residential home revealed that carers were able to use the app as described in the model, and deliver novel care to one resident in the home

Nonuniform traffic distribution model in reverse link of multilaterate/multiservie WCDMA/based systems

This paper focuses on the modeling of the reverse link of a wideband code division multiple access system in a nonhomogeneous environment with a single cell. Multiple traffic spatial and service nonuniformities are considered in the analytical model, and then, expressions for required transmitted power and the associated outage probability and block error rate are derived. Special attention is also paid to the effect caused by different transmission bit rates and the spatial location of the traffic nonuniformities. From the presented expressions, it is possible to set appropriate load thresholds to control the desired error rate. Although the model considers a single cell, results in terms of maximum allowable load can also be applicable in multicell scenarios.Peer Reviewe

Digital Creativity in Dementia Care Support

This paper reports the application of digital creativity to the care for people with dementia. A digital app was developed for use by staff in residential homes caring for people with dementia. The app invokes a set of computational services to undertake creative work, the results of which are presented to encourage and support cognitive creativity by care staff. The services undertake computational work such as retrieving resolutions to care problems encountered previously, matching care situations to situations in analogical domains such as parenting, teaching and prison life, and automatically generating customized creativity prompts. The app was designed so that care staff can generate contributions to resident care plans that are novel and hence individualized to the resident as part of a shift towards more person-centred care