A Unified Enterprise-Wide Cost Modeling Framework for Engineering Applications Based on Systems Engineering Principles

In the present research the problem of enterprise-wide cost modeling is approached from a systems engineering standpoint. What this does is to use each stage of product life cycle to obtain useful information that helps in estimating the cost of the system. Once a generic framework is developed for estimating the core cost, layers of other factors that affect the cost are applied to the core cost, such as risk and uncertainty, maintainability, supply-chain and socioeconomic conditions. The cost model is expanded to accommodate a product domain ranging from a simple object to a system in the following hierarchy: System, Product, Assembly, Object. The cost model caters to the needs of cost estimation at every stage of the life cycle and for every kind of product, big or small, simple or complex. New process selection tools have been added to the field of cost estimation, which suggests the user with applicable processes given the material and production quantity. Attributes such as materials, fabrication processes etc… are ontology based. This enables a generic category to branch into increasingly specialized categories with each step. This is very useful, since in the preliminary stages of cost estimation, not much information is available as to what exact material or process is used. In such a case data pertaining to a more generalized material or process can be used. Earlier work in the field of cost estimation has focused on specific areas of cost estimation either in terms of concept or application. In the work so far, no single-framework has been proposed that deals with cost estimation that fits the requirements at all stages of product development. Most importantly the concept of systems engineering has not been fully exploited in the area of cost estimation. The framework that we have proposed is based on systems engineering and hence can be used at any stage of the product development. Some of the previous work on cost estimation has applications in specific industries. The framework guides the user in process selection at the lower levels based on material and quantity using a tool called PRIMA. If data is not available for a particular process, then a more generic form of the process can be chosen to collect cost data and estimate on the basis of that data. A more generic process is obtained by using the DCLASS tool. The cost can be revised to reflect more accurate process when the data and information is available. This is possible within the proposed framework. The economic, environmental and social impact of the product has also been taken into account through EIOLCA models to make the framework enterprise-wide in nature. The framework has the potential to be developed into umbrella-software that has capability of estimating cost of small parts as well as large systems. The software will also have the capability to determine the economic, environmental and social impact of the products. The decisions regarding the product, the materials used, the manufacturing processes and even the mechanics of the system, are all determined and weighed against the economic, environmental and social impact. Based on this analysis, the policy makers can make micro as well as macro decisions during the initial planning phase of the system. Since the framework relies on principles of systems engineering, it can be applied to systems irrespective of industry and application. As part of future work, suggestions have been made to turn the framework into a software suite along with other capabilities such as risk analysis and uncertainty

Diversity and distribution of the cetaceans along the Indian Sea and the contiguous sea

Biodiversity is a term that describes the ecosystem complexity or taxonomic diversity at the species, genus, family and order or phylum level and distributed unevenly across different environment (Allaby, 1998; Chase and Leibold, 2002). Marine and tropical environments maintain extremely diverse species assemblages, whereas others such as dessert and alpine support a restricted range of species (Gastan 2000). The ocean makes up 97% of the biosphere and support tremendous species diversity but understanding the most species diversity in marine environment remain extremely limited. The marine mammal is one of the major neglected communities in the pelagic ecosystem of most of the oceans

DSDV, DYMO, OLSR: Link Duration and Path Stability

In this paper, we evaluate and compare the impact of link duration and path stability of routing protocols; Destination Sequence Distance vector (DSDV), Dynamic MANET On- Demand (DYMO) and Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) at different number of connections and node density. In order to improve the efficiency of selected protocols; we enhance DYMO and OLSR. Simulation and comparison of both default and enhanced routing protocols is carried out under the performance parameters; Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), Average End-to End Delay (AE2ED) and Normalized Routing Overhead (NRO). From the results, we observe that DYMO performs better than DSDV, MOD-OLSR and OLSR in terms of PDR, AE2ED, link duration and path stability at the cost of high value of NRO

On Link Availability Probability of Routing Protocols for Urban Scenario in VANETs

This paper presents the link availability probability. We evaluate and compare the link availability probability for routing protocols; Ad hoc On-demand Distance vector (AODV), Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) and Fisheye State Routing (FSR) for different number of connections and node density. A novel contribution of this work is enhancement in existing parameters of routing protocols; AODV, DSR and FSR as MOD-AODV, MOD-DSR and MOD-FSR. From the results, we observe that MOD-DSR and DSR outperform MOD-AODV, AODV, MODOLSR and OLSR in terms of Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), Average End-to End Delay (AE2ED), link availability probability at the cost of high value of Normalized Routing Overhead (NRO).Comment: IEEE Conference on Open Systems (ICOS2012)", Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 201

Attitudes towards suicide following an undergraduate suicide prevention module: experience of medical students in Hong Kong

OBJECTIVES: To explore qualitative and quantitative changes in attitudes and experiences of medical students following a special study suicide prevention module. DESIGN: Pilot study. SETTING: The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. PARTICIPANTS: A 2-week intensive special studies module was delivered to third- and fourth-year medical students in June 2011. The module was elective and involved several modes of teaching. All students filled the Chinese Attitude toward Suicide Questionnaire before and after the course. They also provided written feedback about the module experience. Three students participated in in-depth interviews. RESULTS: In all, 22 students aged 20 to 23 years enrolled in the special studies module; 15 (68%) of whom were male and only one was married. Positive trends were noted in attitudes towards suicide following the participation in the special studies module, namely, reduced negative appraisal of suicide, reduced stigmatisation of the phenomena, and increased sensitivity to suicide-related facts. Feedback of the students suggested inclusion of this module into the main medical curriculum, increased confidence in dealing with issues related to suicide, and appreciation of skills focusing on interviewing in patients. Overall the module was well received by medical students. CONCLUSIONS: A suicide prevention training module seems to have been valued by students and lead to positive attitudes towards understanding suicide. Adopting this initiative as a suicide prevention strategy warrants further exploration.published_or_final_versio

Capecitabine in the management of colorectal cancer

5-Fluorouracil has been a mainstay in the treatment of colorectal cancer for nearly five decades; however, the use of oral formulations of the medication has been gaining increasing traction since capecitabine was approved for use in adjuvant settings by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2005. The use of capecitabine has since spread to a number of off-label indications, including the treatment of advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer and the neoadjuvant treatment of rectal cancer. In light of increasing utilization, it is critical that clinicians have a firm understanding of the literature supporting capecitabine across various settings as well as the attributes of the drug, such as its dosing recommendations, side-effect profile, and use in the elderly. The purpose of this review is to synthesize the literature in a fashion that can be used to help guide decisions. In a setting of increasing focus on cost, the pharmacoeconomic literature is also briefly reviewed

Unusual catch of flapnose ray in ring seine

An estimated 130 ring seiners are employed exclusively to exploit small pelagic resources such as sardines and mackerels along south Cuddalore coast. Occassionally large mobulid rays are also landed in stray numbers as by-catch in the ringseine landings at Cuddalore Fisheries Harbour. There has been no incidence of elasmobranch landings in large quantities by ring seines in this region. However on 15.07.2017, an unusually high landing of an estimated 1. 3 tonne (t) of the flapnose ray Rhinoptera javanica was observed

Novel Method of Identifying Fingerprint Using Minutiae Matching in Biometric Security System

Fingerprint is one of the best apparatus to identify human because of its uniqueness, details information, hard to change and long-term indicators of human identity where there are several biometric feature that can be recycled to endorse the individuality. Identification of fingerprint is very important in forensic science, trace any part of human, collection of crime part and proof from a crime. This paper presents a new method of identifying fingerprint in biometrics security system. Fingerprint is one of the best example in biometric security because it can identify personal information and it is much secure than any other biometric identification system. The experimental result exhibits the performance of the proposed method

A Critical Analysis of Chromotherapy and Its Scientific Evolution

Chromotherapy is a method of treatment that uses the visible spectrum (colors) of electromagnetic radiation to cure diseases. It is a centuries-old concept used successfully over the years to cure various diseases. We have undertaken a critical analysis of chromotherapy and documented its scientific evolution to date. A few researchers have tried to discover the underlying scientific principles, but without quantitative study. Sufficient published material can be found about the subject that provides a complete system of treatment focused on the treatment methodologies and healing characteristics of colors. A number of studies have elaborated the relationship between the human body and colors. We also show the possibility of carrying out diverse research into chromotherapy that is pertinent to deciphering the quantum mechanical dipole moment of water molecules. The quantum mechanical dipole moment as a result of the absorption of different colors, we conjecture, produces charge quantization phenomena. This review illustrates that the development of science in the field of electromagnetic radiation/energy can be very helpful in discovering new dimensions of this old theory

21-Hy­droxy­pregna-1,4-diene-3,20-dione

The title compound, C21H28O3, is a fungal transformed metabolite of decoxycorticosterone acetate, consisting of four fused rings A, B, C and D. Ring A is nearly planar, with a maximum deviation of 0.010 (3) Å from the least-squares plane, while the trans-fused rings B and C adopt chair conformations. The five-membered ring D is in an envelope conformation. The orientation of the side chain is stabilized by an intramolecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bond. In the crystal, adjecent mol­ecules are linked by C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds into extended zigzag chains along the a axis