Estimating Cost Savings when Implementing a Product Platform Approach

Many market forces are driving companies to improve their targeting of increasingly small market niches. To accomplish this efficiently, products are organized into product families that typically share common platforms. To reorganize the current product offerings or new products into a product family, using a platform approach, requires estimating the savings for such a modification. One of the problems encountered in estimating development and design cost is the lack of availability of hard information during the initial design phases. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the design and development cost, when moving towards a platform approach, using simple models. The activity based product family cost models are developed from existing single product design activities, which are modified and extended to reflect activities related to development of product platform and subsequent product family members supported by the platform. Uncertainty related to cost associated with activities are included in the model, which is solved using Monte Carlo simulation. The approach is demonstrated using a hard disk drive spindle motor platform development for a family of hard disks.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Vibrio parahaemolyticus, enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli and Vibrio cholerae

This review highlighted the following: (i) pathogenic mechanism of the thermostable direct hemolysin produced by Vibrio parahaemolyticus, especially on its cardiotoxicity, (ii) heat-labile and heat-stable enterotoxins produced by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, especially structure–activity relationship of heat-stable enterotoxin, (iii) RNA N-glycosidase activity of Vero toxins (VT1 and VT2) produced by enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7, (iv) discovery of Vibrio cholerae O139, (v) isolation of new variant of Vibrio cholerae O1 El Tor that carries classical ctxB, and production of high concentration of cholera toxin by these strains, and (vi) conversion of viable but nonculturable (VBNC) Vibrio cholerae to culturable state by co-culture with eukaryotic cells

Yield and nutrient uptake by wheat as influenced by integrated use of manures and fertilizers

An experiment was conducted at the Soil Science Field Laboratory of Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during November 2011 to March 2012 to evaluate the effect of integrated use of manures and fertilizers on the growth, yield and nutrient uptake by wheat. There were six treatments such as T0 (Control), T1 [STB-CF (HYG)], T2 [CD + STB-CF (HYG)], T3 [PM + STB-CF (HYG)], T4 [COM + STB-CF (COM)] and T5 [FP (Farmers’ practice)]. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design with four replications. The integrated use of manures and fertilizers significantly influenced the yield attributes as well as grain and straw yields of wheat. The treatment T1 [STB-CF (HYG)] produced the tallest plant of 90.17 cm which was identical with T3 [PM + STB-CF (HYG)] and the lowest value was found in control. The 1000-grain weight followed the similar pattern but the tillers hill-1 , spike length and spikelets spike-1 did not follow any definite trend. The treatment T3 [PM + STB-CF (HYG)] produced the highest grain yield of 4362 kg ha-1 (90.4% increase over control) and straw yield of 5492 kg ha-1 (84.79% increase over control). The lowest grain yield (2291 kg ha-1 ) and straw yield (2972 kg ha-1 ) were found in T0 (Control). The NPKS uptake by wheat was markedly influenced by combined use of manures and fertilizers and the treatment T3 demonstrated superior performance to other treatments. So the treatment T3 comprising poultry manure in combination with chemical fertilizers on IPNS basis was found to be the best combination of manures and fertilizers for obtaining the maximum yield and quality of wheat at BAU farm

Novel genes and genetic loci associated with root morphological traits, phosphorus-acquisition efficiency and phosphorus-use efficiency in chickpea

Chickpea—the second most important grain legume worldwide—is cultivated mainly on marginal soils. Phosphorus (P) deficiency often restricts chickpea yields. Understanding the genetics of traits encoding P-acquisition efficiency and P-use efficiency will help develop strategies to reduce P-fertilizer application. A genome-wide association mapping approach was used to determine loci and genes associated with root architecture, root traits associated with P-acquisition efficiency and P-use efficiency, and any associated proxy traits. Using three statistical models—a generalized linear model (GLM), a mixed linear model (MLM), and a fixed and random model circulating probability unification (FarmCPU) —10, 51, and 40 marker-trait associations (MTAs), respectively were identified. A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) locus (Ca1_12310101) on Ca1 associated with three traits, i.e., physiological P-use efficiency, shoot dry weight, and shoot P content was identified. Genes related to shoot P concentration (NAD kinase 2, dynamin-related protein 1C), physiological P-use efficiency (fasciclin-like arabinogalactan protein), specific root length (4-coumarate–CoA ligase 1) and manganese concentration in mature leaves (ABC1 family protein) were identified. The MTAs and novel genes identified in this study can be used to improve P-use efficiency in chickpea