Method for Developing an Implementation Strategy of Cyber-Physical Production Systems for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in China

Enabled by the development of internet technologies, cyber-physical production systems (CPPS) are expected to open up entirely new possibilities to improve the efficiency of existing assembly systems of industrial companies. Nevertheless, realizing the potential of CPPS still remains a difficult task for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), given the high variety of improvement possibilities offered by CPPS enabling technologies and the limited resources for their deployment. Hence, it is necessary to develop an implementation strategy of CPPS. Meanwhile, the consideration of location factors could support industrial companies to identify the appropriate CPPS implementation strategy since the location factors highly effect assembly system environment. In this context, a new approach to analyse the influence of location factors on the implementation of CPPS is exposed in this paper, which aims at investigating and identifying of relationships in between. Firstly, an application map of CPPS is generated. Secondly, the manufacturing industry status analyzed and subsequently a catalog of currently important location factors for the assembly systems are identified. Then a qualitative model of a relational analysis is established by an agglomerative hierarchical clustering algorithm. An industrial case study is used to demonstrate the applicability and the validity of the proposed approach

A comparative study between children and adults with bacterial neuroinfections

Abstract Introduction: Bacterial meningitis is an acute purulent infection of the meninges. There are significant differences in the etiological spectrum, clinical course and outcome of bacterial meningitis in the age groups, and their recognition is important for early diagnosis and adequate therapy. Aim: The study aims to determine the differences in the etiology and clinical presentation of bacterial meningitis between children and adults. Materials and methods: The study included 90 patients (25 children and 65 adults) with bacterial neuroinfection admitted to St George University Hospital, Plovdiv between January 1, 2016 and September 31, 2019. We applied epidemiological and clinical analysis, microbiological and statistical methods. Results: In adults, the most common etiological agent was Streptococcus pneumoniae (20%), followed by Staphylococcus spp. (18.5%), Listeria monocytogenes (12.3%), Streptococcus spp. (3.1%), Haemophilus influenzae (3.1%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (1.5%), and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (1.5%). The etiological structure in children was different: Neisseria meningitidis (20%), Streptococcus pneumoniae (16%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (8%), Enterococcus faecium (8%), Streptococcus salivarius (4%), and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (4%). In 40% of the cases, both children and adults, the causative agent was not identified. Conclusions: Regarding the clinical presentation, a statistical significance between the age groups was found with headache and alterations in consciousness, more commonly seen in adults, while vomiting, ear pain was more common in children (p<0.05). Concomitant otitis, sinusitis, pneumonia, and sepsis were often observed. The mortality rate was much higher in adults (43%) when compared with children (8%)

Numerical Investigation of the Changing Cutting Force Caused by the Effects of Process Machine Interaction While Broaching

AbstractDuring broaching, interactions between the process and the machine are inevitable and affect the process itself and the resulting work piece. To understand these effects profoundly, they have to be analyzed and investigated. One of these effects is the vibration of the cutting edge which results for example in a change in rake angle or cutting thickness during the cutting process. Therefore, the first part of this paper presents results o f investigations concerning a variable cutting thickness and the second includes investigations of the variable rake angle during broaching, in both cases the effects on the cutting forces by means of two-dimensional (2D) cutting simulations

Diet of Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca) in Bulgaria: composition, distribution and variation

The Eastern Imperial Eagle (EIE) is a top predator exploiting different prey in different parts of its distribution. In this study, we summarise data collected over a long period of time (for 25 consecutive years), identifying key prey species in the different regions, as well as clarifying seasonal preferences in the eagle’s diet. Most studies on the EIE food composition covering different parts of the species distribution range analyse the breeding season, while data about the winter diet are scarce. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study detailing the differences in EIE’s dietary preferences between the breeding and the winter periods. We identified 4891 specimens belonging to 196 different taxa, which represents the most comprehensive study considering the diet diversity of this threatened species. Mammals represented the largest proportion of the diet, followed by birds and reptiles. Northern White-breasted Hedgehog was the most common prey, accounting for 25.7% of the total prey caught and 26.75% of the biomass. The European Souslik was the second most important prey with 14.35% participation in the eagle’s diet, but with a 3.75% contribution to the biomass. As we predicted, prey composition and main prey species varied spatially and seasonally. Modelling differences in the EIE diet, we found that the “territory effect” had the strongest impact on the dietary variations. Diet diversity differed significantly between regions (F = 12.6, df = 4, p = 0.01). During the breeding season, eagles fed mainly on Hedgehogs (29.88%), Sousliks (16.85%) and Storks (7.74%), while the winter diet was predominantly small rodents (44.17%) and songbirds (13.96%). We found that top predators, such as EIE, have successfully adapted to a novel food source, which is abundant in the area. The detected flexibility in the diet of the species and its ability to switch to alternative prey, if available, when the primary prey decreased, should be considered when planning species conservation efforts. Investigating the temporal change of the main prey in the eagle’s diet is also crucial for further species conservation measures