Research on IFR of Technological Evolution Bifurcations

AbstractIdealization is a powerful tool in TRIZ, and it plays an important role in innovation processes. In the fierce market competition, in order to adopt new technology and make their product approach to ideal product, enterprises spare no effort to improve the degree of product's idealization. At the bifurcation points of product technology evolution, the ideal result that customers need changes, but because of the existence of conventional thinking and market competition, engineers always engage in designing according to the original target ideal result, finally the technology innovation opportunities are lost, so it is of great significance to study the Ideal Final Result (IFR) at the bifurcation points. According to different innovation processes of S-curves, the IFR for product's technology evolution bifurcations are divided into four classifications, Incremental Innovation Ideal Final Result(IFR_II), Radical Innovation Ideal Final Result(IFR_RI), Low-end Disruptive Innovation Ideal Final Result(IFR_LDI) and New-market Disruptive Innovation Ideal Final Result(IFR_NDI). Product's technology system consists of several technology sub-systems, correspondingly, ideal product is made up of several idealized technology sub-systems. It is the objective of product design that realizing the idealization of technology subsystem through innovation design, however, because the presence of conflicts and design constraints among technology sub-systems, the design aim for realizing ideal final results of each sub-system is almost impossible. Therefore, in designing processes, engineers always give priority to several mainstream technology sub-systems and realize their idealization first. This paper decomposes IFR into several ideal results of sub-systems based on a technical system decomposition method, researches a process of technology evolution and a changing process of sub-systems’ ideal results, determines evolution bifurcations’ direction of technology systems through the combination of the sub-systems’ ideal results and then realizes the technology forecasting at the evolution bifurcation points

Flexible polydimethylsiloxane/multi-walled carbon nanotubes membranous metacomposites with negative permittivity

Metacomposites with negative electromagnetic parameters can be promising substitute for periodic metamaterials. In this paper, we devoted to fabricating flexible metacomposite films, which have great potential applications in the field of wearable cloaks, sensing, perfect absorption and stretchable electronic devices. The conductivity and the complex permittivity were investigated in flexible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) membranous nanocomposites, which were fabricated via in-situ polymerization process. With the increase of conductive one-dimension carbon nanotubes concentration, there was a percolation transition observed in conduction due to the formation of continuous networks. The dielectric dispersion behavior was also analyzed in the spectra of complex permittivity. It is indicated that the conduction and polarization make a combined effect on the dielectric loss in flexible PDMS/MWCNTs composites. The negative permittivity with a dielectric resonance was obtained, and was attributed to the induced electric dipoles

Myocardial tissue and metabolism characterization in men with alcohol consumption by cardiovascular magnetic resonance and 11C-acetate PET/CT

Background: Chronic alcohol consumption initially leads to asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction, but can result in myocardial impairment and heart failure if ongoing. This study sought to characterize myocardial tissues and oxidative metabolism in asymptomatic subjects with chronic alcohol consumption by quantitative cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) and 11C-acetate positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT). Methods: Thirty-four male subjects (48.8 +/- 9.1 years) with alcohol consumption > 28 g/day for > 10 years and 35 age-matched healthy male subjects (49.5 +/- 9.7 years) underwent CMR and 11C-acetate PET/CT. Native and post T1 values and extracellular volume (ECV) from CMR and Kmono and K1 from PET imaging were measured. Quantitative measurements by CMR and PET imaging were compared between subjects with moderate to heavy alcohol consumption and healthy controls, and their correlations were also analyzed. Results: Compared to healthy controls, subjects with alcohol consumption showed significantly shorter native T1 (1133 +/- 65 ms vs. 1186 +/- 31 ms, p 0.05). In contrast, subjects with heavy alcohol consumption showed significantly lower Kmono values compared to those with moderate alcohol consumption (52.9 +/- 12.1 min(- 1) x 10(- 3) vs. 63.7 +/- 9.2 min(- 1) x 10(- 3), p = 0.012). Strong and moderate correlations were found between K1 and ECV in healthy controls (r = 0.689, p = 0.013) and subjects with moderate alcohol consumption (r = 0.518, p = 0.048), respectively. Conclusion: Asymptomatic men with heavy alcohol consumption have detectable structural and metabolic changes in myocardium on CMR and 11C-acetate PET/CT. Compared with quantitative CMR, 11C-acetate PET/CT imaging may be more sensitive for detecting differences in myocardial damage among subjects with moderate to heavy alcohol consumption.</div

Intracellular CD24 disrupts the ARF–NPM interaction and enables mutational and viral oncogene-mediated p53 inactivation

CD24 is overexpressed in nearly 70% human cancers, whereas TP53 is the most frequently mutated tumour-suppressor gene that functions in a context-dependent manner. Here we show that both targeted mutation and short hairpin RNA (shRNA) silencing of CD24 retard the growth, progression and metastasis of prostate cancer. CD24 competitively inhibits ARF binding to NPM, resulting in decreased ARF, increase MDM2 and decrease levels of p53 and the p53 target p21/CDKN1A. CD24 silencing prevents functional inactivation of p53 by both somatic mutation and viral oncogenes, including the SV40 large T antigen and human papilloma virus 16 E6-antigen. In support of the functional interaction between CD24 and p53, in silico analyses reveal that TP53 mutates at a higher rate among glioma and prostate cancer samples with higher CD24 mRNA levels. These data provide a general mechanism for functional inactivation of ARF and reveal an important cellular context for genetic and viral inactivation of TP53. P53 is a tumour suppressor that is frequently mutated or downregulated in cancer. Here, Wang et al. show that CD24, a molecule frequently overexpressed in cancer, promotes p53 degradation by disrupting a regulatory ARF–MDM2 interaction, and silencing CD24 prevents the downregulation of p53

Predicting in-service fatigue life of flexible pavements based on accelerated pavement testing

Pavement performance prediction in terms of fatigue cracking and surface rutting are essential for any mechanistically-based pavement design method. Traditionally, the estimation of the expected fatigue field performance has been based on the laboratory bending beam test. Full-scale Accelerated Pavement Testing (APT) is an alternative to laboratory testing leading to advances in practice and economic savings for the evaluation of new pavement configurations, stress level related factors, new materials and design improvements. This type of testing closely simulates field conditions; however, it does not capture actual performance because of the limited ability to address long-term phenomena. The same pavement structure may exhibit different response and performance under APT than when in-service. Actual field performance is better captured by experiments such as Federal Highway Administration's Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) studies. Therefore, to fully utilize the benefits of APT, there is a need for a methodology to predict the long-term performance of in-service pavement structures from the results of APT tests that will account for such differences. Three models are generally suggested to account for the difference: shift factors, statistical and mechanistic approaches. A reliability based methodology for fatigue cracking prediction is proposed in this research, through which the three models suggested previously are combined into one general approach that builds on their individual strengths to overcome some of the shortcomings when the models are applied individually. The Bias Correction Factor (BCF) should account for all quantifiable differences between the fatigue life of the pavement site under APT and in-service conditions. In addition to the Bias Correction Factor, a marginal shift factor, M, should be included to account for the unquantifiable differences when predicting the in-service pavement fatigue life from APT. The Bias Correction Factor represents an improvement of the currently used "shift factors" since they are more general and based on laboratory testing or computer simulation. By applying the proposed methodology, APT performance results from a structure similar to an in-service structure can be used to perform four-point bending beam tests and structural analysis to obtain an accurate estimate of the necessary Bias Correction Factor to estimate in-service performance.Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin

Investigation of Long-Term Performance and Deicing Longevity Prediction of Self-Ice-Melting Asphalt Pavement

Based on laboratory tests, the objective of this study is to assess long-term road performance and to predict deicing longevity of self-ice-melting asphalt pavements containing salt-storage materials. Dry&ndash;wet cycles and freeze&ndash;thaw cycles were used to treat the specimens at different durations. The long-term road performance of self-ice-melting asphalt mixtures was evaluated by freeze&ndash;thaw splitting tests, high-temperature rutting tests, and low-temperature beam bending tests. In addition, the influences of coefficients of void ratio, temperature, vehicle load, crack, and Mafilon (MFL) content on salt precipitation were quantified by conductivity tests, and single consumption of snow and ice melt was quantified by total dissolved solids (TDS) tests. The results show that the long-term water stability, long-term high-temperature stability, and long-term low-temperature crack resistance of self-ice-melting asphalt pavements tended to decrease as the number of dry&ndash;wet cycles and freeze&ndash;thaw cycles increased. Freeze&ndash;thaw cycles exerted deeper influences on the deterioration of road performance than dry&ndash;wet cycles, especially on water stability. With increased void ratio and temperature, salt precipitation was accelerated by 1.1 times and 1.5~1.8 times, respectively. Under vehicle loads and cracks, salt precipitation was accelerated by 1.5 times and 1.65 times, respectively. With decreased MFL content, salt precipitation slowed down by 0.54 times. Finally, based on the proportion of each factor relative to the whole life cycle of the pavement, a dicing longevity prediction model was established considering the above factors

Applications of Steel Slag Powder and Steel Slag Aggregate in Ultra-High Performance Concrete

The applications of steel slag powder and steel slag aggregate in ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) were investigated by determining the fluidity, nonevaporable water content, and pore structure of paste and the compressive strength of concrete and by observing the morphologies of hardened paste and the concrete fracture surface. The results show that the fluidity of the paste containing steel slag is higher. The nonevaporable water content of the hardened paste containing steel slag powder is close to that of the control sample at late ages. Both steel slag powder and steel slag aggregate react and connect tightly to gels and hardened paste, respectively. When the cement replacement ratio is no more than 10%, the proportion of pores larger than 50 nm in the hardened paste containing steel slag powder is close to that of the control sample, and the UHPC containing steel slag powder can display satisfactory compressive strengths. The UHPC containing steel slag aggregate demonstrates higher compressive strengths

Dynamic Inspection Technology of Tunnel Deformation Based on Onboard LIDAR

Objective In view of the poor real-time performance, high cost and low efficiency of tunnel deformation monitoring methods in China, it is necessary to effectively improve the efficiency of tunnel deformation monitoring. Hence, a monitoring and measuring method of tunnel deformation based on onboard LIDAR (light laser detection & ranging) is proposed. Method The LIDAR sensor is used to scan and collect the three dimensional data of the whole tunnel section, and the total least squares is used to adjust the cloud data of the tunnel points and fit the surface. The deformation of tunnel section is analyzed according to the fitted ellipse parameters to realize rapid dynamic inspection of the tunnel deformation. Result & Conclusion The experimental results show that with this method the tunnel full section data can be obtained quickly and accurately. The tunnel deformation condition can be effectively obtained through the data processing and analysis with total least squares, basically realizing the dynamic real-time monitoring of the tunnel deformation without affecting the normal traffic in the tunnel

Study on Vehicle&ndash;Road Interaction for Autonomous Driving

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are becoming increasingly popular, and this can potentially affect road performance. Road performance also influences driving comfort and safety for AVs. In this study, the influence of changes in traffic volume and wheel track distribution caused by AVs on the rutting distress of asphalt pavement was investigated through finite element simulations. A vehicle-mounted three-dimensional laser profiler was used to obtain pavement roughness and texture information. The vehicle vibration acceleration was obtained through vehicle dynamics simulations, and the skid resistance indexes of 20 rutting specimens were collected. The results showed that an increase in traffic volume caused by the increasing AV traffic accelerated the occurrence of rutting distress; however, the uniform distribution of vehicles at both ends of the transverse direction could prolong the maintenance life of flexible and semi-rigid pavements by 0.041 and 0.530 years, respectively. According to Carsim and Trucksim vehicle simulations and multiple linear regression fitting, the relationship models of three factors, namely speed, road roughness, and comfort, showed high fitting accuracies; however, there were some differences among the models. Among the texture indexes, the arithmetic mean&rsquo;s height (Ra) had the greatest influence on the tire&ndash;road friction coefficient; Ra greatly influenced the safe driving of AVs. The findings of this study were used to present a speed control strategy for AVs based on the roughness and texture index for ensuring comfort and safety during automatic driving