Practice-Based Learning of Product Lifecycle Data Reuse

Model-Based Definition (MBD) is an emerging methodology that plays a central role in transforming traditional manual industry practices to automation through machine-to-machine communication. MBD captures and re-uses the data used by these new practices in a digital format that seamlessly transfers information to enterprise stakeholders involved in all stages of the product lifecycle. Practice-based learning with the tools and processes that manage this data gives graduates the skills to have a competitive advantage for the new jobs resulting from these technological changes. Students gain experiential learning by going through the steps of a product throughout its life, from conception through in-use, as explained in the following sections of this document. Students use Industrial Design software that brings aesthetics, user function, and design together. Computer-Aided Design (CAD) is used to refine product requirements at the engineering design level, including authoring annotations, referred to as Product and Manufacturing Information (PMI), to capture and convey tolerances required for the product to perform its function. Analyses optimize the geometric design for weight reduction. Manufacturing simulations write programs to drive Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines to automate manufacturing devices such as milling machines. Annotations are re-used to produce inspection plans, verifying as-manufactured products match their digital twin. The final product design is used to generate work instructions for the assembly of parts. Students submit assignments through a Product Data Management (PDM) software that mimics an industry installation driving relationships between data and stakeholders, allowing students to receive feedback and revise designs to rectify discrepancies

Physiological Stress and Refuge Behavior by African Elephants

Physiological stress responses allow individuals to adapt to changes in their status or surroundings, but chronic exposure to stressors could have detrimental effects. Increased stress hormone secretion leads to short-term escape behavior; however, no studies have assessed the potential of longer-term escape behavior, when individuals are in a chronic physiological state. Such refuge behavior is likely to take two forms, where an individual or population restricts its space use patterns spatially (spatial refuge hypothesis), or alters its use of space temporally (temporal refuge hypothesis). We tested the spatial and temporal refuge hypotheses by comparing space use patterns among three African elephant populations maintaining different fecal glucocorticoid metabolite (FGM) concentrations. In support of the spatial refuge hypothesis, the elephant population that maintained elevated FGM concentrations (iSimangaliso) used 20% less of its reserve than did an elephant population with lower FGM concentrations (Pilanesberg) in a reserve of similar size, and 43% less than elephants in the smaller Phinda reserve. We found mixed support for the temporal refuge hypothesis; home range sizes in the iSimangaliso population did not differ by day compared to nighttime, but elephants used areas within their home ranges differently between day and night. Elephants in all three reserves generally selected forest and woodland habitats over grasslands, but elephants in iSimangaliso selected exotic forest plantations over native habitat types. Our findings suggest that chronic stress is associated with restricted space use and altered habitat preferences that resemble a facultative refuge behavioral response. Elephants can maintain elevated FGM levels for ≥6 years following translocation, during which they exhibit refuge behavior that is likely a result of human disturbance and habitat conditions. Wildlife managers planning to translocate animals, or to initiate other management activities that could result in chronic stress responses, should consider the potential for, and consequences of, refuge behavior