A lean proposal: development of value stream mapping for L'Oreal's artwork process

Purpose: This research develops value stream mapping (VSM) for L’Oreal’s artwork process, to eliminate waste, reduce lead-time and identify stages that can be automated, which makes the process less prone to human error and more responsive to fulfilling business-to-business customer requirements. Additionally, amendments frequently occur slowing down the artwork process. In this context VSM is applied to L’Oreal’s artwork process to reduce lead-time, human error and missed deadlines. Design/ Methodology/ Approach: This study uses data from L’Oreal’s artwork tracker from 2018-2019, which is manually tracked by the launch team. The service level agreement and task time data has been collected from 12 employees representing the launch, factory and marketing teams working on the artwork process. Qualitative feedback was also obtained from 9 employees to validate the VSM for L’Oreal’s artwork process. Findings: VSM identified stages that can be streamlined and automated in L’Oreal’s artwork process, which makes the process more efficient and responsive to changing scope of the artworks. 50 percent of the stages have been eliminated from the manual artwork process, resulting in a reduced lead-time of 10.5 days and a reduction of 28 percent time spent on the process. This allows the artwork process to be more agile to the requirements of business-to-business customers. Moreover, the proposed VSM shows a 73% increase in value added time for a renovation and a 75% increase in value added time for new product developments (NPD). Originality/ Value: VSM has been specifically designed, developed and analyzed for L’Oreal’s artwork process, in order to make the process more efficient and responsive to business-to-business customers requirements

Darwin's small and medium ground finches might have taste preferences, but not for human foods

Urbanization is rapidly changing ecological niches. On the inhabited Galapagos Islands, Darwin's finches consume human-introduced foods preferentially; however, it remains unclear why. Here, we presented pastry with flavour profiles typical of human foods (oily, salty and sweet) to small ground finches (Geospiza fuliginosa) and medium ground finches (Geospiza fortis) to test if latent taste preferences might drive the selection of human foods. If human food flavours were consumed more than a neutral or bitter control only at sites with human foods, then we predicted tastes were acquired after urbanization; however, if no site differences were found then this would indicate latent taste preferences. Contrary to both predictions, we found little evidence that human food flavours were preferred compared with control flavours at any site. Instead, finches showed a weak aversion to oily foods, but only at remote (no human foods present) sites. This was further supported by behavioural responses, with beak-wiping occurring more often at remote sites after finches tasted flavours associated with human foods. Our results suggest, therefore, that while Darwin's finches regularly exposed to human foods might have acquired a tolerance to human food flavours, latent taste preferences are unlikely to have played a major role in their dietary response to increased urbanization.Peer reviewe

Identifying and mitigating security risks for secure and robust NGI networks

Smart city development is important to achieve sustainable cities and societies which help enhance urban services, reduce resource consumption and decrease overall cost. The incorporation of smart cities with the Internet has given us the Next Generation of Internet (NGI) where every smart device exploits the interconnected services and infrastructure of the Internet. The underlying structure of NGI is composed of large scale heterogeneous multilevel systems-of-systems (SoSs) where each system represents a sensor, mobile phone, computer or smart device. Security and privacy is a fundamental requirement of NGI which is heavily dependent on the composition of services and connectivity of the underlying systems. Meaning any unsecure system can affect the security of the entire networked infrastructure/SoSs. Therefore, it is important to analyse and understand the composition of different systems at different levels in NGI in order to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities. This paper proposes a solution to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities within multilevel SoSs, to enhance security without deploying additional security at endpoints, and quantify security levels of individual systems and the entire composed system. The solution was tested and evaluated using simulation and a network testbed. Results show that NGI security can be enhanced with better composition of systems. © 2020 Elsevier Lt

Successful use of axonal transport for drug delivery by synthetic molecular vehicles

We report the use of axonal transport to achieve intraneural drug delivery. We constructed a novel tripartite complex of an axonal transport facilitator conjugated to a linker molecule bearing up to a hundred reversibly attached drug molecules. The complex efficiently enters nerve terminals after intramuscular or intradermal administration and travels within axonal processes to neuron cell bodies. The tripartite agent provided 100-fold amplification of saturable neural uptake events, delivering multiple drug molecules per complex. _In vivo_, analgesic drug delivery to systemic and to non-targeted neural tissues was greatly reduced compared to existing routes of administration, thus exemplifying the possibility of specific nerve root targeting and effectively increasing the potency of the candidate drug gabapentin 300-fold relative to oral administration

Controlling the properties of InGaAs quantum dots by selective-area epitaxy

Selective growth of InGaAsquantum dots on GaAs is reported. It is demonstrated that selective-area epitaxy can be used for in-plane bandgap energy control of quantum dots.Atomic force microscopy and cathodoluminescence are used for characterization of the selectively growndots. Our results show that the composition, size, and uniformity of dots are determined by the dimensions of the mask used for patterning the substrate. Properties of dots can be selectively tuned by varying the mask dimensions. A single-step growth of a thin InGaAsquantum well and InGaAsquantum dots on the same wafer is demonstrated. By using a single-step growth,dots luminescing at different wavelengths, in the range 1150–1230nm, in different parts of the same wafer are achieved.The Australian Research Council is gratefully acknowledged for the financial support

Scenario planning for the Edinburgh city region

This paper examines the application of scenario planning techniques to the detailed and daunting challenge of city re-positioning when policy makers are faced with a heavy history and a complex future context. It reviews a process of scenario planning undertaken in the Edinburgh city region, exploring the scenario process and its contribution to strategies and policies for city repositioning. Strongly rooted in the recent literature on urban and regional economic development, the text outlines how key individuals and organisations involved in the process participated in far-reaching analyses of the possible future worlds in which the Edinburgh city region might find itself

Measurement and data transmission validity of a multi-biosensor system for real-time remote exercise monitoring among cardiac patients

Background: Remote telemonitoring holds great potential to augment management of patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and atrial fibrillation (AF) by enabling regular physiological monitoring during physical activity. Remote physiological monitoring may improve home and community exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (exCR) programs and could improve assessment of the impact and management of pharmacological interventions for heart rate control in individuals with AF.Objective: Our aim was to evaluate the measurement validity and data transmission reliability of a remote telemonitoring system comprising a wireless multi-parameter physiological sensor, custom mobile app, and middleware platform, among individuals in sinus rhythm and AF.Methods: Participants in sinus rhythm and with AF undertook simulated daily activities, low, moderate, and/or high intensity exercise. Remote monitoring system heart rate and respiratory rate were compared to reference measures (12-lead ECG and indirect calorimeter). Wireless data transmission loss was calculated between the sensor, mobile app, and remote Internet server.Results: Median heart rate (-0.30 to 1.10 b∙min-1) and respiratory rate (-1.25 to 0.39 br∙min-1) measurement biases were small, yet statistically significant (all P≤.003) due to the large number of observations. Measurement reliability was generally excellent (rho=.87-.97, all P<.001; intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]=.94-.98, all P<.001; coefficient of variation [CV]=2.24-7.94%), although respiratory rate measurement reliability was poor among AF participants (rho=.43, P<.001; ICC=.55, P<.001; CV=16.61%). Data loss was minimal (<5%) when all system components were active; however, instability of the network hosting the remote data capture server resulted in data loss at the remote Internet server during some trials.Conclusions: System validity was sufficient for remote monitoring of heart and respiratory rates across a range of exercise intensities. Remote exercise monitoring has potential to augment current exCR and heart rate control management approaches by enabling the provision of individually tailored care to individuals outside traditional clinical environments