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

Creative design inspired by biological knowledge: Technologies and methods

Biological knowledge is becoming an important source of inspiration for developing creative solutions to engineering design problems and even has a huge potential in formulating ideas that can help firms compete successfully in a dynamic market. To identify the technologies and methods that can facilitate the development of biologically inspired creative designs, this research briefly reviews the existing biological-knowledge-based theories and methods and examines the application of biological-knowledge-inspired designs in various fields. Afterward, this research thoroughly examines the four dimensions of key technologies that underlie the biologically inspired design (BID) process. This research then discusses the future development trends of the BID process before presenting the conclusions

Axiom-based Potential Functional Failure Analysis for Risk-free Design

Abstract. Quality and reliability of product is not established completely in detail design process, but is brought out essentially in the course of conceptual design. A potential functional failure analysis method to improve reliability of product based on design axiom in the stage of conceptual design was introduced in this paper. This method provided designers with an analytical and non-probabilistic tool to evaluate the result of conceptual design from the opinion of design axioms. Functional failure modes can be identified by function analysis based on the ideality axiom, the independence axiom and the information axiom. These potential functional failures point out working direction for the latter improving design. A speedy cutting off valve in the TRT (Top Gas Pressure Recovery Turbine) system is studied as an example to illustrate this method's potential

Clinical and Immunopathological Features of Moyamoya Disease

Background: Moyamoya disease (MMD) is a cerebrovascular disease characterized by progressive stenosis or occlusion of the terminal portion of internal carotid arteries and the formation of a vascular network at the base of the brain. The pathogenesis of MMD is still unclear. Methodology/Principal Findings: We retrospectively analyzed clinical data for 65 consecutive patients with MMD in our institutions and evaluated the histopathological and immunohistochemical findings of intracranial vessels from 3 patients. The onset age distribution was found to have 1 peak at 40–49 year-old age group, no significant difference was observed in the female-to-male ratio (F/M = 1.2). Intracranial hemorrhage was the predominant disease type (75%). Positive family history was observed in 4.6 % of patients. Histopathological findings were a narrowed lumen due to intimal fibrous thickening without significant inflammatory cell infiltration, and the internal elastic lamina was markedly tortuous and stratified. All 3 autopsy cases showed vacuolar degeneration in the cerebrovascular smooth muscle cells. Immunohistochemical study showed the migration of smooth muscle cells in the thickened intima, and aberrant expression of IgG and S100A4 protein in vascular smooth muscle cells. The Complement C3 immunoreactivity was negative. Conclusion/Significance: This study indicated that aberrant expression of IgG and S100A4 protein in intracranial vascular wall of MMD patients, which suggested that immune-related factors may be involved in the functional and morphologica

Effects of ATRA combined with citrus and ginger-derived compounds in human SCC xenografts

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>NF-κB is a survival signaling transcription factor complex involved in the malignant phenotype of many cancers, including squamous cell carcinomas (SCC). The citrus coumarin, auraptene (AUR), and the ethno-medicinal ginger (Alpinia galanga) phenylpropanoid, 1'-acetoxychavicol acetate (ACA), were previously shown to suppress 12-<it>O</it>-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) induced mouse skin tumor promotion. The goal of the present study was to determine whether AUR and ACA are effective either alone or in combination with all-<it>trans </it>retinoic acid (ATRA) for suppressing SCC tumor growth.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We first determined the effects of orally administered ACA (100 mg/kg bw) and AUR (200 mg/kg bw) on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced NF-κB activation in NF-κB-RE-luc (Oslo) luciferase reporter mice. Dietary administration of AUR and ACA ± ATRA was next evaluated in a xenograft mouse model. Female SCID/bg mice were fed diets containing the experimental compounds, injected with 1 × 10⁶SRB12-p9 cells s.c., palpated and weighed twice a week for 28 days following injection.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Both ACA and AUR suppressed LPS-induced NF-κB activation in the report mice. In the xenograft model, AUR (1000 ppm) and ACA (500 ppm) modestly suppressed tumor volume. However, in combination with ATRA at 5, 10, and 30 ppm, ACA 500 ppm significantly inhibited tumor volume by 56%, 62%, and 98%, respectively. The effect of ATRA alone was 37%, 33%, and 93% inhibition, respectively. AUR 1000 ppm and ATRA 10 ppm were not very effective when administered alone, but when combined, strongly suppressed tumor volume by 84%.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Citrus AUR may synergize the tumor suppressive effects of ATRA, while ACA may prolong the inhibitory effects of ATRA. Further studies will be necessary to determine whether these combinations may be useful in the control of human SCC.</p

Implementation of the Lean Model for Carrying out Value Stream Mapping and SMED in the Aerospace Engine Case Production

[[abstract]]The lean manufacturing has been widely applied in the most of the industry sectors. Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED) is one of lean manufacturing tools that can be used to further reduce production waste. In order to ensure waste be effectively reduced, lean manufacturing has tools to achieve its goal. The first step is analysis of current state value stream map from the production line. The second step is the use of Single Minute Exchange of Dies to propose and carry out improvement actions in bottleneck process. In this study, the aerospace engine case production lead time was reduced from 9 weeks to 7 weeks by VSM method. The SMED method was applied to improve bottleneck’s setup time from 95.68 minutes to 76.97 minutes. The lean manufacturing tool can help factory to reduce inventory in the WIP

Using the CAI software (InventionTool 3.0) to solve complexity problem

Abstract. InventionTool 3.0, which is a CAI software based on TRIZ, is created by Institute of Innovation of Hebei University of&apos; Technology. Using the CAI software, designers can solve innovation problem. During the design process, the InventionTools 3.0 plays a very important role. Firstly, the technical evolution module of the InventionTools 3.0, as an effective method, is used to obtained conceptual design and several solutions. Secondly, using the Complexity Theory based on the Axiomatic Design, the solutions are analyzed. Finally, according to analysis result, the best solution would be obtained. In this paper, the pill counting system is used as an complexity problem to show how the InventionTool 3.0 and the Complexity Theory based on the Axiomatic Design is applied

Radical Concept Generation Inspired by Cross-Domain Knowledge

Cross-domain knowledge can stimulate radical concept generation (RCG), but there is a lack of guidance to utilize the cross-domain knowledge for RCG. This paper proposes an effective process of RCG in four steps: (1) Identifying radical technology opportunities based on analysis of the dynamic relationship between demand and technical performances; (2) Applying laws and lines of the technological system evolution to determine the search direction of cross-domain knowledge in a qualitative perspective; (3) Taking the minimum complementary distance measure for appropriate cross-domain knowledge in a quantitative perspective; (4) Forming radical concepts using the cross-domain knowledge as inspirations. The method reduces risks and costs caused by uncertainty in RCG and has potential to fertilize research on radical innovation and knowledge-based innovation. A radical concept of gas generator demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method