A Model for Selecting Technologies in New Product Development

Due to fast changing technologies, shortening product lifecycles, and increased global competition, companies today often need to develop new products continuously and faster. Successful introduction and acceleration of new product development (NPD) is important to obtain competitive advantage for companies. Since technology selection for NPD involves complex decision makings that are critical to the profitability and growth of a company, the selection of the most appropriate technology for a new product requires the use of a robust decision-making framework capable of evaluating several technology candidates based on multiple criteria. This paper presents an integrated model that adopts interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and fuzzy analytic network process (FANP) to evaluate various different available technologies for NPD. The ISM is used to understand the interrelationships among the factors, and the FANP is to facilitate the evaluation process of decision makers under an uncertain environment with interrelated factors. A case study of a flat panel manufacturer is performed to examine the practicality of the proposed model. The results show that the model can be applied for group decision making on the available technology evaluation and selection in new product development

Skeletal Muscle Damage after Pitching Real Games in Collegiate Baseball Pitchers

Baseball pitchers are at risk for elbow and shoulder injuries. It is believed that many arm injuries in baseball pitchers result from cumulative microtrauma. The aim of this study was to investigate skeletal muscle damage after real games in Division I c

Investigation of spectral conversion of d(TTAGGG)4 and d(TTAGGG)13 upon potassium titration by a G-quadruplex recognizer BMVC molecule

We have introduced a G-quadruplex-binding ligand, 3,6-bis(1-methyl-4-vinylpyridinium)carbazole diiodide (BMVC), to verify the major structure of d(T2AG3)4 (H24) in potassium solution and examine the structural conversion of H24 in sodium solution upon potassium titration. The studies of circular dichroism, induced circular dichroism, spectral titration and gel competition have allowed us to determine the binding mode and binding ratio of BMVC to the H24 in solution and eliminate the parallel form as the major G-quadruplex structure. Although the mixed-type form could not be eliminated as a main component, the basket and chair forms are more likely the main components of H24 in potassium solution. In addition, the circular dichroism spectra and the job plots reveal that a longer telomeric sequence d(T2AG3)13 (H78) could form two units of G4 structure both in sodium or potassium solutions. Of particular interest is that no appreciable change on the induced circular dichroism spectra of BMVC is found during the change of the circular dichroism patterns of H24 upon potassium titration. Considering similar spectral conversion detected for H24 and a long sequence H78 together with the G4 structure stabilized by BMVC, it is therefore unlikely that the rapid spectral conversion of H24 and H78 is due to structural change between different types of the G4 structures. With reference to the circular dichroism spectra of d(GAA)7 and d(GAAA)5, we suggest that the spectral conversion of H24 upon potassium titration is attributed to fast ion exchange resulting in different loop base interaction and various hydrogen bonding effects