Implications of Virtual Reality on Environmental Sustainability in Manufacturing Industry: A Case Study

Research on Virtual Reality (VR) in manufacturing is rarely driven by environmental sustainability. This paper explores the feasibility of developing VR technologies to reduce environmental impact, drawing from a case study in an automotive company. We developed a VR demo to support the communication for design review between the technology centre in Sweden and the manufacturing site in China, thus reducing travel frequencies. This reduction was verified through user experience and feedback from focus group discussion and questionnaire. The results show a reduction of travel frequencies for design review, therefore contributing to environmental sustainability

Tungsten Oxide and Polyaniline Composite Fabricated by Surfactant-Templated Electrodeposition and Its Use in Supercapacitors

Composite nanostructures of tungsten oxide and polyaniline (PANI) were fabricated on carbon electrode by electrocodeposition using sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS) as the template. The morphology of the composite can be controlled by changing SDBS surfactant and aniline monomer concentrations in solution. With increasing concentration of aniline in surfactant solution, the morphological change from nanoparticles to nanofibers was observed. The nanostructured WO3/PANI composite exhibited enhanced capacitive charge storage with the specific capacitance of 201 F g−1 at 1.28 mA cm−2 in large potential window of -0.5~ 0.65 V versus SCE compared to the bulk composite film. The capacitance retained about 78% when the sweeping potential rate increased from 10 to 150 mV/s

Consensus measure with multi-stage fluctuation utility based on China’s urban demolition negotiation

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Utility functions are often used to reflect decision makers' (DMs') preferences. They have the following two merits: one refers to the representation of the DM's utility (satisfaction) level, the other one to the measuring of the consensus level in a negotiation process. Taking the background of China's urban house demolition, a new kind of consensus model is established by using di erent types of multi-stage fluctuation utility functions, such as concave, convex, S-shaped, reversed S-shaped, reversed U-shaped as well as their combinations, to reveal negotiators' dynamic physiological preferences and consensus level. Moreover, the eff ects of budget and the individual compensation tolerance on the consensus level are also discussed with previous research, the proposed model takes both the negotiation cost and DM's consideration, and most importantly, it is computational less complex

Interaction design for multi-user virtual reality systems: An automotive case study

Virtual reality (VR) technology have become ever matured today. Various research and practice have demonstrated the potential benefits of using VR in different application area of manufacturing, such as in factory layout planning, product design, training, etc. However, along with the new possibilities brought by VR, comes with the new ways for users to communicate with the computer system. The human computer interaction design for these VR systems becomes pivotal to the smooth integration. In this paper, it reports the study that investigates interaction design strategies for the multi-user VR system used in manufacturing context though an automotive case study

Di-μ-sulfato-κ4 O:O′-bis­[diaqua­(1H-imidazo[4,5-f][1,10]phenanthroline-κ2 N 7,N 9)cobalt(II)] dihydrate

In the centrosymmetric dinuclear title compound, [Co2(SO4)2(C13H8N4)2(H2O)4]·2H2O, the CoII atom is coord­in­ated by two N atoms from two 1H-imidazo[4,5-f][1,10]phenanthroline ligands, two O atoms from two sulfate anions and two O atoms from water mol­ecules in a distorted octa­hedral geometry. The Co⋯Co separation is 5.1167 (7) Å. The coordinated and uncoordinated water mol­ecules engage in N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen-bonding inter­actions

Association of chemerin mRNA expression in human epicardial adipose tissue with coronary atherosclerosis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Growing evidence suggests that epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) may play a key role in the pathogenesis and development of coronary artery disease (CAD) by producing several inflammatory adipokines. Chemerin, a novel adipokine, has been reported to be involved in regulating immune responses and glucolipid metabolism. Given these properties, chemerin may provide an interesting link between obesity, inflammation and atherosclerosis. In this study, we sought to determine the relationship of chemerin expression in EAT and the severity of coronary atherosclerosis in Han Chinese patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Serums and adipose tissue biopsies (epicardial and thoracic subcutaneous) were obtained from CAD (n = 37) and NCAD (n = 16) patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery. Gensini score was used to assess the severity of CAD. Serum levels of chemerin, adiponectin and insulin were measured by ELISA. Chemerin protein expression in adipose tissue was detected by immunohistochemistry. The mRNA levels of chemerin, chemR23, adiponectin and TNF-alpha in adipose tissue were detected by RT-PCR.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that EAT of CAD group showed significantly higher levels of chemerin and TNF-alpha mRNA, and significantly lower level of adiponectin mRNA than that of NCAD patients. In CAD group, significantly higher levels of chemerin mRNA and protein were observed in EAT than in paired subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), whereas such significant difference was not found in NCAD group. Chemerin mRNA expression in EAT was positively correlated with Gensini score (r = 0.365, <it>P </it>< 0.05), moreover, this correlation remained statistically significant (r = 0.357, <it>P </it>< 0.05) after adjusting for age, gender, BMI and waist circumference. Chemerin mRNA expression in EAT was also positively correlated with BMI (r = 0.305, <it>P </it>< 0.05), waist circumference (r = 0.384, <it>P </it>< 0.01), fasting blood glucose (r = 0.334, <it>P </it>< 0.05) and negatively correlated with adiponectin mRNA expression in EAT (r = -0.322, <it>P </it>< 0.05). However, there were no significant differences in the serum levels of chemerin or adiponectin between the two groups. Likewise, neither serum chemerin nor serum adiponectin was associated with Gensini score (<it>P </it>> 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The expressions of chemerin mRNA and protein are significantly higher in EAT from patients with CAD in Han Chinese patients. Furthermore, the severity of coronary atherosclerosis is positive correlated with the level of chemerin mRNA in EAT rather than its circulating level.</p

A feasibility study of goal-directed network-based real-time fMRI neurofeedback for anhedonic depression

Anhedonia is a hallmark symptom of depression that often lacks adequate interventions. The translational gap remains in clinical treatments based on neural substrates of anhedonia. Our pilot study found that depressed individuals depended less on goal-directed (GD) reward learning (RL), with reduced reward prediction error (RPE) BOLD signal. Previous studies have found that anhedonia is related to abnormal activities and/or functional connectivities of the central executive network (CEN) and salience network (SN), both of which belong to the goal-directed system. In addition, it was found that real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rt-fMRI) neurofeedback (NF) could improve the balance between CEN and SN in healthy individuals. Therefore, we speculate that rt-fMRI NF of the CEN and SN associated with the GD system may improve depressive and/or anhedonic symptoms. Therefore, this study (1) will examine individuals with anhedonic depression using GD-RL behavioral task, combined with functional magnetic resonance imaging and computational modeling to explore the role of CEN/SN deficits in anhedonic depression; and (2) will utilize network-based rt-fMRI NF to investigate whether it is feasible to regulate the differential signals of brain CEN/SN of GD system through rt-fMRI NF to alleviate depressive and/or anhedonic symptoms. This study highlights the need to elucidate the intervention effects of rt-fMRI NF and the underlying computational network neural mechanisms

The spherical distance for intuitionistic fuzzy sets and its application in decision analysis

Different from traditional distances between Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets (IFS), the spherical distance between two IFSs relies not only on their relative differences but also their absolute values. In this paper, we generalize the properties of spherical distance measures between IFSs, and investigate the applications of spherical distance measures in group decision making, pattern recognition and medical diagnosis. We develop an optimization spherical distance model with IFS preference in group decision making, and demonstrate that this model is feasible and practical with an evaluation model of drought risk. By using comparative analysis method, we show that this new spherical distance can also be applied in other fields such as pattern recognition and medical diagnosis

Apelin-13 Administration Protects Against LPS-Induced Acute Lung Injury by Inhibiting NF-κB Pathway and NLRP3 Inflammasome Activation

Background/Aims: Acute lung injury (ALI) is induced by a variety of external and internal factors and leads to acute progressive respiratory failure. Previous studies have shown that apelin-13 can decrease the acute lung injury induced by LPS, but the specific mechanism is unclear. Therefore, a mouse lung injury model and a cell model were designed to explore the mechanism of how apelin-13 alleviates the acute lung injury caused by LPS. Methods: The effect of apelin-13 on LPS-induced structural damage was determined by H&#38;E staining and by the wet/dry weight ratio. The related inflammatory factors in BALF were examined by ELISA. The apoptotic pathway and the NF-κB and NLRP3 inflammasome pathways were evaluated by using Western blotting and immunofluorescence staining. Results: LPS induced the structural damage and the production of inflammatory cytokines in the lung tissues of mice. These deleterious effects were attenuated by apelin-13 administration. The protective effects of apelin-13 were associated with decreased reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation and the inhibition of the activation of the NF-κB and NLRP3 inflammasome pathways in mice and in Raw264.7 cells. Conclusion: Taken together, these data suggest that apelin-13 administration ameliorates LPS-induced acute lung injury by suppressing ROS formation, as well as by inhibiting the NF-κB pathway and the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome in the lungs