FIMCAR XII: Influence on Other Impact Types

The objective of this deliverable is to describe the expected influence of the candidate test procedures developed in FIMCAR for frontal impact on other impact types. The other impact types of primary interest are front-to-side impacts, collisions with road restraint systems (e.g. guardrails), and heavy goods vehicle impacts. These collision types were chosen as they involve structures that can be adapted to improve safety. Collisions with vulnerable road users (VRU) were not explicitly investigated in FIMCAR. It is expected that the vehicle structures of interest in FIMCAR can be designed into a VRU friendly shell. Information used for this deliverable comes from simulations and car-to-car crash tests conducted in FIMCAR or review of previous research. Three test configurations (full width, offset, and moving deformable barriers) were the input to the FIMCAR selection process. There are three different types of offset tests and two different full width tests. During the project test procedures could be divided into three groups that provide different influences or outcomes on vehicle designs: 1. The ODB barrier provides a method to assess part of the vehicles energy absorption capabilities and compartment test in one test 2. The FWRB and FWDB have similar capabilities to control structural alignment, further assess energy absorption capabilities, and promote the improvements in the occupant restraint system for high deceleration impacts. 3. The PDB and MPDB can be used to promote better load spreading in the vehicle structures, in addition to assessing energy absorption and occupant compartment strength in an offset configuration. The consortium selected the ODB and FWDB as the two best candidates for short term application in international rulemaking. The review of how all candidates would affect vehicle performance in other impacts (beside front-to-front vehicle or frontal impacts with fixed obstacles) however is reported in this deliverable to support the benefit analysis reported in FIMCAR. The grouping presented above is used to discuss all five test candidates using similarities between certain tests and thereby simplify the discussion

Soft OR and practice : the contribution of the founders of Operation Research

This paper explores the work of some 43 founders of operations research. In particular, it considers the links between soft operations research (OR) and these founders. Several of the founders were direct influencers of the soft OR proponents, whereas others related to the context, process, and content of soft OR. Coupled with the deductive and inductive reasoning approaches of soft OR, it is argued that soft OR is a legitimate branch of OR. The paper also focuses on the embeddedness of the founders, and the soft OR proponents, in practice and argues that, for academics, engagement with practice has been and will continue to be an important driver for the health and development of operations research

Intensive simulation versus control in the assessment of time to skill competency and confidence of medical students to assess and manage cardiovascular and respiratory conditions—a pseudo-randomised trial

Background: The Clinical Placement Enhancement Program (CPEP) is a simulation course for medical students learning the core topics of cardiovascular and respiratory medicine, incorporating patient safety and professionalism teaching and based on adult learning principles and proven educational theory. The aims of this study are to assess whether the CPEP delivered at the beginning of a clinical rotation would result in competency outcomes that are at least equivalent to those achieved through a standard 6-week programme and whether this programme would increase student confidence levels in assessing and managing patients with cardiovascular and respiratory conditions. Methods: This was a pseudo-randomised control trial between two groups of medical students from one clinical school. The intervention group participated in CPEP, a 4-day immersive simulation course, in the first week of their cardiac and respiratory medicine clinical rotation. The control group participants attended the normal programme of the 6-week cardiovascular and respiratory medicine clinical rotation. The programme and student competence was assessed using Observed Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) and self-reported confidence surveys. Results: There was no significant difference in OSCE scoring between the intervention group (examined in week one of their clinical rotation following CPEP) and the control group (examined at the end of their full clinical rotation). Students exposed to CPEP started their clinical rotation with confidence levels similar to those reported by the control group at the end of their rotation. Confidence levels of CPEP students were higher at the end of the rotation compared to those of the control group. Conclusions: Based on OSCE results, immersion into a 4-day simulation-based teaching programme at the start of a clinical rotation resulted in skill competency levels that were equivalent to those obtained after a full clinical rotation of 6 weeks. CPEP improved students' confidence levels in the assessment and management of patients presenting with cardiovascular and respiratory conditions. Simulation utilised in courses such as CPEP has the potential to enhance the overall learning experience in medical school clinical rotations

Enhanced lipid production by Rhodosporidium toruloides using different fed-batch feeding strategies with lignocellulosic hydrolysate as the sole carbon source

Additional file 3: Figure S3. Time course of dissolved oxygen (DO) value during the pulse fed-batch (FB) cultures

Open innovation for sustainability: Lessons from the GreenXchange experience

Despite its rising popularity, open innovation has received relatively limited attention in the discussion of how to implement ‘green’ innovation, a fact which is of particular relevance within the context of the Rio+20 summit 2012. The GreenXchange (GX), which was launched in 2010 by Nike along with nine other organizations, is an important exception to this trend. The GX is a web-based marketplace for intellectual property (IP), which appears not to have lived up entirely to the original expectations set out at its creation. Other than Nike, only one other company – Best Buy – has agreed to place its IP assets on the GX and the vast majority of the posted IP cannot be used in the creation of commercial products. This paper explores in what ways the GX exemplifies both the usefulness and limitations of open innovation for sustainability and discusses the lessons that can be drawn from the GX experience in terms of the broader thinking on innovation, intellectual property and sustainability. It concludes by proposing ways that can help such initiatives be made to function better

Open innovation for sustainability: Lessons from the GreenXchange experience

Despite its rising popularity, open innovation has received relatively limited attention in the discussion of how to implement ‘green’ innovation, a fact which is of particular relevance within the context of the Rio+20 summit 2012. The GreenXchange (GX), which was launched in 2010 by Nike along with nine other organizations, is an important exception to this trend. The GX is a web-based marketplace for intellectual property (IP), which appears not to have lived up entirely to the original expectations set out at its creation. Other than Nike, only one other company – Best Buy – has agreed to place its IP assets on the GX and the vast majority of the posted IP cannot be used in the creation of commercial products. This paper explores in what ways the GX exemplifies both the usefulness and limitations of open innovation for sustainability and discusses the lessons that can be drawn from the GX experience in terms of the broader thinking on innovation, intellectual property and sustainability. It concludes by proposing ways that can help such initiatives be made to function better

Visualizing Rank Deficient Models: A Row Equation Geometry of Rank Deficient Matrices and Constrained-Regression

Situations often arise in which the matrix of independent variables is not of full column rank. That is, there are one or more linear dependencies among the independent variables. This paper covers in detail the situation in which the rank is one less than full column rank and extends this coverage to include cases of even greater rank deficiency. The emphasis is on the row geometry of the solutions based on the normal equations. The author shows geometrically how constrained-regression/generalized-inverses work in this situation to provide a solution in the face of rank deficiency

Lanthanum halide nanoparticle scintillators for nuclear radiation detection

Nanoparticles with sizesscintillators, in order to determine the viability of using scintillators employing nanostructured lanthanum trifluoride. Preliminary results of this investigation are consistent with the idea that these materials have an intrinsic response to nuclear radiation that may be correlated to the energy of the incident radiation