Concept for the cost prognosis in the industrialization of highly iteratively developed physical products

With the ongoing technological progress and increasing global competition, companies are facing a continuously changing market environment. Due to the volatility of the market, rapid product adjustments and shorter product life cycles are required. Changing customer requirements are rarely taken into account, leading to inventions that do not make the transition to innovations. Highly iterative product development poses a possibility to integrate the customer voice into the development process and thus shorten the time-to-market and enable companies to respond to changes in requirements. Within the scope of highly iterative product development methods, cost analysis remains one of the main challenges for companies. Since the scope of development is not known at the beginning of a project, neither development nor industrialization costs can be specified. This, however, is essential for product and process development to meet cost-related customer requirements and for forecasting the production and investment budgets. With existing methods, it is either possible to agree to a fixed development budget and target price or to enable the customer to make changes during development. The concept presented in this paper aims to counteract this challenge. Therefore, existing approaches are analyzed with regard to derived requirements for the transfer from highly iterative and integrated product and process development to agile cost analysis. Influencing factors on product and production process costs are identified based on findings from literature. By aligning the influencing factors and requirements, dependencies between target costs of a product and degrees of freedom of highly iterative product and production process development can be derived and used for the development of a framework for iterative cost analysis. In conclusion, a concept for an agile cost prognosis for the industrialization of highly iterative developed physical products is presented

Cellular Automata Models of Road Traffic

In this paper, we give an elaborate and understandable review of traffic cellular automata (TCA) models, which are a class of computationally efficient microscopic traffic flow models. TCA models arise from the physics discipline of statistical mechanics, having the goal of reproducing the correct macroscopic behaviour based on a minimal description of microscopic interactions. After giving an overview of cellular automata (CA) models, their background and physical setup, we introduce the mathematical notations, show how to perform measurements on a TCA model's lattice of cells, as well as how to convert these quantities into real-world units and vice versa. The majority of this paper then relays an extensive account of the behavioural aspects of several TCA models encountered in literature. Already, several reviews of TCA models exist, but none of them consider all the models exclusively from the behavioural point of view. In this respect, our overview fills this void, as it focusses on the behaviour of the TCA models, by means of time-space and phase-space diagrams, and histograms showing the distributions of vehicles' speeds, space, and time gaps. In the report, we subsequently give a concise overview of TCA models that are employed in a multi-lane setting, and some of the TCA models used to describe city traffic as a two-dimensional grid of cells, or as a road network with explicitly modelled intersections. The final part of the paper illustrates some of the more common analytical approximations to single-cell TCA models.Comment: Accepted for publication in "Physics Reports". A version of this paper with high-quality images can be found at: http://phdsven.dyns.cx (go to "Papers written"

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

A Solar Power Sun Tracking System

Three undergraduates engineering students combined computer, electrical and physics engineering disciplines to form a team to design and implement their senior project. In addition to constructing a solar power system, the ultimate goal of the project was to optimize the generated power. Hence, tracking the sun’s position utilizes the solar system to its fullest potential. The team transformed this idea into a sustainable design over a period of four months! A standard photovoltaic solar panel and two light sensors will rotate along one axis using a stepper motor. The optimal position of the solar panel is determined based on the difference in voltage of the light sensors. Accordingly, the solar panel will be positioned in the direction of the light sensor that detects the highest amount of light. A balance sensor will be used to obtain the angle of the solar panel. The generated power will be stored in a rechargeable battery and a microcontroller will be used to drive the motors and to analyze the light sensors’ output

A Solar Power Sun Tracking System

Three undergraduates engineering students combined computer, electrical and physics engineering disciplines to form a team to design and implement their senior project. In addition to constructing a solar power system, the ultimate goal of the project was to optimize the generated power. Hence, tracking the sun’s position utilizes the solar system to its fullest potential. The team transformed this idea into a sustainable design over a period of four months! A standard photovoltaic solar panel and two light sensors will rotate along one axis using a stepper motor. The optimal position of the solar panel is determined based on the difference in voltage of the light sensors. Accordingly, the solar panel will be positioned in the direction of the light sensor that detects the highest amount of light. A balance sensor will be used to obtain the angle of the solar panel. The generated power will be stored in a rechargeable battery and a microcontroller will be used to drive the motors and to analyze the light sensors’ output

Dermal exposure determines the outcome of repeated airway exposure in a long-term chemical-induced asthma-like mouse model

Background: Exposure to diisocyanates is an important cause of occupational asthma (OA) in the industrialized world. Since OA occurs after long-term exposure to diisocyanates, we developed a chronic mouse model of chemical-induced asthma where toluene diisocyanate (TDI) was administered at two different exposure sites. Objectives: Evaluating the effect of long-term respiratory isocyanate exposure - with or without prior dermal exposure- on sensitization, inflammatory responses and airway hyperreactivity (AHR). Methods: On days 1 and 8, BALB/c mice were dermally treated (20 mu 1/ear) with 0.5% 2,4-toluene diisocyanate TDI or the vehicle acetone olive oil (AOO) (3:2). Starting from day 15, mice received intranasal instillations with 0.1% TDI of vehicle five times in a week, for five successive weeks. One day after the last instillation airway hyperreactivity (AHR) to methacholine was assessed, followed by an evaluation of pulmonary inflammation and structural lung changes. Immune-related parameters were assessed in the lungs (BAL and tissue), blood, cervical-and auricular lymph nodes. Results: Mice repeatedly intranasally exposed to TDI showed systemic sensitization and a mixed Th1/Th2 type immune response, without the presence of AHR. However, when mice are first dermally sensitized with TDI, followed by repeated intranasal TDI challenges, this results in a pronounced Th2 response and AHR. Conclusion: Dermal exposure to TDI determines airway hyperreactivity after repeated airway exposure to TDI