344 research outputs found
Smart manufacturing of electric vehicles
International Symposium for Production Research, ISPR 2020 -- 24 September 2020 through 26 September 2020 -- -- 250869The future of the manufacturing sector is evolving with the Industry 4.0, and its repercussions are felt in the factory, the business, product launch and also impacts customer aspects in the overall cycle. These technological innovations create opportunities for new disruptive entries to the market, for instance in automotive manufacturing. It is well known that the automotive industry is under the control of large OEMs since the very beginning. It is very difficult to compete as a newcomer because the production process of the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and the chassis require high technology, investment, and a well-defined supply chain that create a monopolistic environment for the sector. Therefore, we propose a microfactory concept as a novel manufacturing method that allows a quicker entry for new players in the automotive industry especially for electric vehicles (EVs). The microfactory described in this paper, presents an alternative solution to overcome the existing monopolies with the electric motor, a tubular chassis allows for lean manufacturing, and a novel supply chain model. Digital transformation shows itself in production systems by Industry 4.0 applications and more recently in the blockchain-based supply chain applications are being investigated. Further, a detailed cost analysis to compare conventional car manufacturing and microfactory concept EV manufacturing are presented. In addition, the blockchain technology is proposed to improve the supply chain of EV manufacturing. This study indicates that the microfactory provides flexible and customized production of urban electric vehicles minimizing both ecological footprint and total investment. © 2021, The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Water affinity guided tunable superhydrophobicity and optimized wettability of selected natural minerals
The Mining Activities and the Metal Production in Arycanda in Lycia
Arykanda, doğu Lykia bölgesinde, modern Elmalı – Finike kara yolunun 35. Km’sinde yer almaktadır. 1971 yılından bu yana yapılan kazılar sırasında kentte çok miktarda madeni buluntu ve madencilik faaliyetlerine ilişkin bulgular saptanmıştır. Bulguların arasında hem madeni eser üretimi ile ilgili aletlerin bulunduğu bir mekan hem de kentin değişik yerlerine dağınık biçimde bulunan madencilik faaliyetinden arta kalan cüruflar mevcuttur. Lykia bölgesi, madencilik faaliyetlerinin durumu konusunda en az bilgiye sahip olduğumuz bölgelerden birisidir. Anadolu’ daki madencilik faaliyetleri hakkında bilgi veren antik kaynaklarda Lykia’ dan çok az bahsedilmektedir. Bölgedeki üretim konusundaki bilgilerimiz büyük ölçüde kazı buluntularından oluşmaktadır. Arykanda’ daki madencilik faaliyetlerinin değerlendirilmesinde öncelikle Lykia bölgesindeki genel durumun incelenmesi ve ardından gerek bu örneklerin incelenmesi ve gerekse maden cüruflarının analizlerinin yapılması yoluna gidilmiştir. Bu yolla elde edilen sonuçlar bu makale kapsamında ele alınacaktır.Arycanda lies in eastern Lycia, which is in 35.th km of the modern Elmalı – Finike highway. During the excavations since 1971, there were found so many metal artifacts and metal slags especially from the late Roman layers in the city. These finds revealed that there was a specific metal production in Arykanda. This production covers not only the tool production from pure metal, but also includes metal purification process around the city. This metal production industry of Arykanda adds so many important data about the city’s industrial situation and the position of city as a part of Lycia metal industry, about which we have very limited information. In this article the author mentioned the history of mining activities in Lycia and the position of Arycanda with the analyzing the slag remains and the other finds
Impedance spectroscopy of polyaniline coated hydrogel
A sulfonic acid functional hydrogel was prepared starting from the copolymerization of 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid as monomer and tetraallyl ammonium bromide as a cross-linking agent in the presence of K(2)S(2)O(8)as a radical initiator. Aniline was interacted with the hydrogel, and oxidative polymerization reaction of anilinium sulfonate salt containing hydrogel was performed by using ammonium persulfate to obtain conducting gel material. The electrical/dielectric properties of the PANI-coated hydrogel were analyzed using impedance spectroscopy. The frequency dependence of the real (epsilon ') and imaginary (epsilon '') parts of the dielectric constant (epsilon), dissipation factor, the real (sigma ') and imaginary (sigma '') parts of the ionic conductivity (sigma), Cole-Cole plots and impedance parameters values for the PANI-coated hydrogel were analyzed in the frequency range of 100 Hz-15 MHz at room temperature. PANI-coated hydrogel shows the non-Debye relaxation type in the materials. The conductivity mechanisms of PANI-coated hydrogel are super linear power law and extended pair approximation
Spring cleaning as a safety risk: results of a population-based study in two consecutive years
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Spring cleaning is a popular tradition in Iran as well as in many other countries. The purpose of our study was to determine the pattern and compare the incidence of spring cleaning related injuries in Tehran, in the years 2007 and 2008.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In the year 2007, a household survey was performed in Tehran by random cluster sampling. The survey was repeated in May 2008 with the same clusters and starting points, but different households. The incidence of spring cleaning related injuries, the age and sex of injured person(s), the mechanism, type and cost of injuries were recorded through semi-structured interviews. The incidence rates of injuries and injuries leading to health visits (severe) according to sex and age groups were calculated. Data were analyzed using SPSS and STATA statistical softwares.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The incidence of all and severe spring cleaning related injuries were 3.8 (3.0 - 4.8) and 1.6 (1.1-2.3) per 1000, respectively. The most common mechanisms of injuries were falls, followed by cutting and lifting heavy objects or overexertion. Falls were also the main mechanism of severe injuries. The most common injuries were open wounds, followed by superficial injuries (including contusions) and sprain and strain. Among severe injuries, the most frequent injuries were open wounds and contusions, followed by dislocations. The injuries were most common among women with an incidence of about 8.4 per 1000 in women older than 18 years of age (severe injuries: 3.4 per 1000 (2.2-5.1)).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The incidence of spring cleaning related injuries is high enough to raise concern in health system authorities. It could be estimated that about 23,927 to 38,283 persons get injured during the spring cleaning in Tehran at the beginning of every Persian new year. In addition, about 8,773-18,344 of these cases are expected to be severe enough to lead to medical attention (considering 7,975,679 as the population of Tehran at the time of study). Improving awareness of families, especially young women, regarding the scope and importance of spring cleaning safety can be suggested as the first population-based strategy to decrease the incidence of these injuries.</p
Normative data and discriminative properties of short form 36 (SF-36) in Turkish urban population
BACKGROUND: SF-36 has been both translated into different languages and adapted to different cultures to obtain comparable data on health status internationally. However there have been only a limited number of studies focused on the discriminative ability of SF-36 regarding social and disease status in developing countries. The aim of this study was to obtain population norms of the short form 36 (SF-36) health survey and the association of SF-36 domains with demographic and socioeconomic variables in an urban population in Turkey. METHODS: A cross-sectional study. Face to face interviews were carried out with a sample of households. The sample was systematically selected from two urban Health Districts in Izmir, Turkey. The study group consisted of 1,279 people selected from a study population of 46,290 people aged 18 and over. RESULTS: Internal consistencies of the scales were high, with the exception of mental health and vitality. Physical health scales were associated with both age and gender. On the other hand, mental health scales were less strongly associated with age and gender. Women reported poorer health compared to men in general. Social risk factors (employment status, lower education and economic strain) were associated with worse health profiles. The SF-36 was found to be capable of discriminating disease status. CONCLUSION: Our findings, cautiously generalisable to urban population, suggest that the SF-36 can be a valuable tool for studies on health outcomes in Turkish population. SF-36 may also be a promising measure for research on health inequalities in Turkey and other developing countries
White Noise Speech Illusions: A Trait-Dependent Risk Marker for Psychotic Disorder?
Introduction: White noise speech illusions index liability for psychotic disorder in case-control comparisons. In the current study, we examined i) the rate of white noise speech illusions in siblings of patients with psychotic disorder and ii) to what degree this rate would be contingent on exposure to known environmental risk factors (childhood adversity and recent life events) and level of known endophenotypic dimensions of psychotic disorder [psychotic experiences assessed with the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE) scale and cognitive ability]. Methods: The white noise task was used as an experimental paradigm to elicit and measure speech illusions in 1,014 patients with psychotic disorders, 1,157 siblings, and 1,507 healthy participants. We examined associations between speech illusions and increasing familial risk (control -> sibling -> patient), modeled as both a linear and a categorical effect, and associations between speech illusions and level of childhood adversities and life events as well as with CAPE scores and cognitive ability scores. Results: While a positive association was found between white noise speech illusions across hypothesized increasing levels of familial risk (controls -> siblings -> patients) [odds ratio (OR) linear 1.11, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02-1.21, p = 0.019], there was no evidence for a categorical association with sibling status (OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.79-1.09, p = 0.360). The association between speech illusions and linear familial risk was greater if scores on the CAPE positive scale were higher (p interaction = 0.003; ORlow CAPE positive scale 0.96, 95% CI 0.85-1.07; ORhigh CAPE positive scale 1.26, 95% CI 1.09-1.46); cognitive ability was lower (p interaction < 0.001; ORhigh cognitive ability 0.94, 95% CI 0.84-1.05; ORlow cognitive ability 1.43, 95% CI 1.23-1.68); and exposure to childhood adversity was higher (p interaction < 0.001; ORlow adversity 0.92, 95% CI 0.82-1.04; ORhigh adversity 1.31, 95% CI 1.13-1.52). A similar, although less marked, pattern was seen for categorical patient-control and sibling-control comparisons. Exposure to recent life events did not modify the association between white noise and familial risk (p interaction = 0.232). Conclusion: The association between white noise speech illusions and familial risk is contingent on additional evidence of endophenotypic expression and of exposure to childhood adversity. Therefore, speech illusions may represent a trait-dependent risk marker
Estimating Exposome Score for Schizophrenia Using Predictive Modeling Approach in Two Independent Samples: The Results From the EUGEI Study
Exposures constitute a dense network of the environment: exposome. Here, we argue for embracing the exposome paradigm to investigate the sum of nongenetic "risk" and show how predictive modeling approaches can be used to construct an exposome score (ES; an aggregated score of exposures) for schizophrenia. The training dataset consisted of patients with schizophrenia and controls, whereas the independent validation dataset consisted of patients, their unaffected siblings, and controls. Binary exposures were cannabis use, hearing impairment, winter birth, bullying, and emotional, physical, and sexual abuse along with physical and emotional neglect. We applied logistic regression (LR), Gaussian Naive Bayes (GNB), the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), and Ridge penalized classification models to the training dataset. ESs, the sum of weighted exposures based on coefficients from each model, were calculated in the validation dataset. In addition, we estimated ES based on meta-analyses and a simple sum score of exposures. Accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, area under the receiver operating characteristic, and Nagelkerke's R2 were compared. The ESMeta-analyses performed the worst, whereas the sum score and the ESGNB were worse than the ESLR that performed similar to the ESLASSO and ESRIDGE. The ESLR distinguished patients from controls (odds ratio [OR] = 1.94, P < .001), patients from siblings (OR = 1.58, P < .001), and siblings from controls (OR = 1.21, P = .001). An increase in ESLR was associated with a gradient increase of schizophrenia risk. In reference to the remaining fractions, the ESLR at top 30%, 20%, and 10% of the control distribution yielded ORs of 3.72, 3.74, and 4.77, respectively. Our findings demonstrate that predictive modeling approaches can be harnessed to evaluate the exposome
Examining the independent and joint effects of genomic and exposomic liabilities for schizophrenia across the psychosis spectrum
Psychosis spectrum disorder has a complex pathoetiology characterised by interacting environmental and genetic vulnerabilities. The present study aims to investigate the role of gene-environment interaction using aggregate scores of genetic (polygenic risk score for schizophrenia (PRS-SCZ)) and environment liability for schizophrenia (exposome score for schizophrenia (ES-SCZ)) across the psychosis continuum
Evidence, and replication thereof, that molecular-genetic and environmental risks for psychosis impact through an affective pathway
Background There is evidence that environmental and genetic risk factors for schizophrenia spectrum disorders are transdiagnostic and mediated in part through a generic pathway of affective dysregulation. Methods We analysed to what degree the impact of schizophrenia polygenic risk (PRS-SZ) and childhood adversity (CA) on psychosis outcomes was contingent on co-presence of affective dysregulation, defined as significant depressive symptoms, in (i) NEMESIS-2 (n = 6646), a representative general population sample, interviewed four times over nine years and (ii) EUGEI (n = 4068) a sample of patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder, the siblings of these patients and controls. Results The impact of PRS-SZ on psychosis showed significant dependence on co-presence of affective dysregulation in NEMESIS-2 [relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI): 1.01, p = 0.037] and in EUGEI (RERI = 3.39, p = 0.048). This was particularly evident for delusional ideation (NEMESIS-2: RERI = 1.74, p = 0.003; EUGEI: RERI = 4.16, p = 0.019) and not for hallucinatory experiences (NEMESIS-2: RERI = 0.65, p = 0.284; EUGEI: -0.37, p = 0.547). A similar and stronger pattern of results was evident for CA (RERI delusions and hallucinations: NEMESIS-2: 3.02, p < 0.001; EUGEI: 6.44, p < 0.001; RERI delusional ideation: NEMESIS-2: 3.79, p < 0.001; EUGEI: 5.43, p = 0.001; RERI hallucinatory experiences: NEMESIS-2: 2.46, p < 0.001; EUGEI: 0.54, p = 0.465). Conclusions The results, and internal replication, suggest that the effects of known genetic and non-genetic risk factors for psychosis are mediated in part through an affective pathway, from which early states of delusional meaning may arise
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