On the road to digital servitization : The (dis)continuous interplay between business model and digital technology

Purpose The authors seek to understand the process of digital servitization as a shift of manufacturing companies from the provision of standard products and services to smart solutions. Specifically, the authors focus on changes in the business model (i.e. the value proposition, the value delivery system and the value capture mechanism) for digital servitization. Design/methodology/approach The authors examine a Chinese air conditioner manufacturer, Gree, who became the global leader with their smart solutions. These solutions included performance-based contracts underpinned by artificial intelligence (AI)-powered air conditioners that automatically adjust to environmental changes and are capable of remote monitoring and servicing thanks to its Internet of things (IoT) technology. Findings To successfully offer smart solution value propositions, a manufacturer needs an ecosystem value delivery system composed of suppliers, distributors, partners and customers. Once the ecosystem relationships are well aligned, the manufacturer gains value with multiple value capture mechanisms (i.e. efficiency, accountability, shared customer value and novelty). To arrive at this point, a manufacturer has to pass through different stages that are characterized by both discontinuous and continuous interplay between business models and digital technologies. At the beginning of each stage, new value propositions and value delivery systems are first discontinuously created and then enabled with digital technology. As a result, new value capture mechanisms are activated. Meanwhile, the elements of the existing business model are continuously improved. Research limitations/implications By combining process-perspective and business-model lenses, the authors offer nuanced insights into how digital servitization unfolds. Practical implications Executives can obtain insights into the business model elements, they need to change over the course of digital servitization and how to manage the process. Originality/value A longitudinal case study of a traditional manufacturer that has achieved stellar success through digital servitization business models development.© Yihua Chen, Ivanka Visnjic, Vinit Parida and Zhengang Zhang. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcodeThe authors gratefully acknowledge the help and excellent comments provided by the International Journal of Operations & Production Management editorial team and Servitization 2.0 Special IssueEditors: Rodrigo Rabetino, Marko Kohtamäki, Christian Kowalkowski, Tim S. Baines and Rui Sousa. Yihua Chen and Zhengang Zhang acknowledge financial support from the Major Project of National Social Science Fund of China (No. 18ZDA062). Ivanka Visnjic acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, Reference: PGC2018-2010;101022-A-100“SERSISTEMICS”. Vinit Parida acknowledges financial support from Vinnova and PiiA Process Industrial IT and Automation. The authors are also very grateful for the insightful and constructive comments from the anonymous reviewers.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

The operation modal analysis of the structure crack fault diagnosis based on pseudo-successive data

In order to monitor the crack propagation of the structure in the working state for a long time, an operation modal analysis method based on pseudo-successive data is proposed. The vibration response signals of the cantilever beam under white noise excitation are collected and the modal parameters are extracted by the time-frequency operation modal analysis method based on the complex Morlet wavelet. In comparison with the experimental modal analysis results of hammering method, it is revealed that the error of the time-frequency operation modal analysis method is less than 10 %. By setting cracks of different lengths on the cantilever beam, the vibration response signals are extracted, and the modal parameters are extracted by the operation modal analysis method separately. By comparing those modal parameters above, it is found that the natural frequencies of the second, the fourth and the sixth orders decrease with the increase of the crack depth, and the changes of natural frequencies show the monotonicity. So, it can be used as an index for quantitative identification of crack damage. The pseudo continuous data monitoring signals of crack propagation can be constructed by means of “first discrete, then continuous”. The modal parameters changes of the whole crack propagation can be observed in one time plane by means of the operation modal analysis method. Therefore, the effective monitoring and diagnosis of the structure can be completed in case of excessive data of long-time vibration monitoring signals

A Life-Cycle Energy and Inventory Analysis of Adiabatic Quantum-Flux-Parametron Circuits

The production process of superconductive integrated circuits is complex and consumes significant amounts of resources and energy. Therefore, it is crucial to evaluate the environmental impact of this emerging technology. An attractive option for the next generation of superconductive technology is Adiabatic Quantum-Flux-Parametron (AQFP) devices. This study is the first to present a comprehensive process-based life-cycle assessment (LCA) and inventory analysis of AQFP integrated circuits. To generate relevant outcomes, we conduct a comparative LCA that included the bulk CMOS technology. The inventory analysis considered the manufacturing, assembly, and use phases of the circuits. To ensure a fair assessment, we choose the 32-bit AQFP RISC-V single-core processor as the reference functional unit and compare its performance with that of a CMOS counterpart. Our findings reveal that the AQFP processor consumes several orders of magnitude less energy during the use phase than its CMOS counterpart. Consequently, the total life cycle energy (which encompasses manufacturing and assembly energies) of AQFP integrated circuits improves at least by two orders of magnitude

Expression of MDR1, HIF-1α and MRP1 in sacral chordoma and chordoma cell line CM-319

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Chordoma was a typically slow-growing tumor. The therapeutic approach to chordoma had traditionally relied mainly on surgical therapy. And the main reason for therapeutic failure was resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. However the refractory mechanism was not clear. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of three genes (<it>MDR1</it>, <it>HIF-1α</it> and <it>MRP1</it>) associated with resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy in chordoma and chordoma cell line CM-319.</p> <p>Materials and methods</p> <p>Using immunohistochemical techniques, the expression of MDR1, HIF-1α and MRP1 was investigated in 50 chordoma specimen. Using RT-PCR and Western blot, the expression of MDR1, HIF-1α and MRP1 was investigated in chordoma and chordoma cell line CM-319.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Expression of MDR1, HIF-1α and MRP1 was observed in 10%, 80% and 74% of all cases, respectively. Expression of MRP1 was correlated with HIF-1α. On the other hand, expression of MDR1 was not correlated with the expression of HIF-1α or MRP1. The expression of HIF-1α and MRP1 was observed, but MDR1 was not observed in chordoma and CM-319.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Expression of HIF-1α and MRP1 was observed in most chordoma specimen and CM-319 cell line; expression of HIF-1α correlated with MRP1. HIF-1α and MRP1 may play a role in the multidrug resistance of chordoma to chemotherapy.</p

Cortical Neural Stem Cell Lineage Progression Is Regulated by Extrinsic Signaling Molecule Sonic Hedgehog.

Neural stem cells (NSCs) in the prenatal neocortex progressively generate different subtypes of glutamatergic projection neurons. Following that, NSCs have a major switch in their progenitor properties and produce γ-aminobutyric acid (GABAergic) interneurons for the olfactory bulb (OB), cortical oligodendrocytes, and astrocytes. Herein, we provide evidence for the molecular mechanism that underlies this switch in the state of neocortical NSCs. We show that, at around E16.5, mouse neocortical NSCs start to generate GSX2-expressing (GSX2+) intermediate progenitor cells (IPCs). In&nbsp;vivo lineage-tracing study revealed that GSX2+ IPC population gives rise not only to OB interneurons but also to cortical oligodendrocytes and astrocytes, suggesting that they are a tri-potential population. We demonstrated that Sonic hedgehog signaling is both necessary and sufficient for the generation of GSX2+ IPCs by reducing GLI3R protein levels. Using single-cell RNA sequencing, we identify the transcriptional profile of GSX2+ IPCs and the process of the lineage switch of cortical NSCs

RT3D: Achieving Real-Time Execution of 3D Convolutional Neural Networks on Mobile Devices

Mobile devices are becoming an important carrier for deep learning tasks, as they are being equipped with powerful, high-end mobile CPUs and GPUs. However, it is still a challenging task to execute 3D Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) targeting for real-time performance, besides high inference accuracy. The reason is more complex model structure and higher model dimensionality overwhelm the available computation/storage resources on mobile devices. A natural way may be turning to deep learning weight pruning techniques. However, the direct generalization of existing 2D CNN weight pruning methods to 3D CNNs is not ideal for fully exploiting mobile parallelism while achieving high inference accuracy. This paper proposes RT3D, a model compression and mobile acceleration framework for 3D CNNs, seamlessly integrating neural network weight pruning and compiler code generation techniques. We propose and investigate two structured sparsity schemes i.e., the vanilla structured sparsity and kernel group structured (KGS) sparsity that are mobile acceleration friendly. The vanilla sparsity removes whole kernel groups, while KGS sparsity is a more fine-grained structured sparsity that enjoys higher flexibility while exploiting full on-device parallelism. We propose a reweighted regularization pruning algorithm to achieve the proposed sparsity schemes. The inference time speedup due to sparsity is approaching the pruning rate of the whole model FLOPs (floating point operations). RT3D demonstrates up to 29.1$\times$ speedup in end-to-end inference time comparing with current mobile frameworks supporting 3D CNNs, with moderate 1%-1.5% accuracy loss. The end-to-end inference time for 16 video frames could be within 150 ms, when executing representative C3D and R(2+1)D models on a cellphone. For the first time, real-time execution of 3D CNNs is achieved on off-the-shelf mobiles.Comment: To appear in Proceedings of the 35th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-21

GPR120 is an important inflammatory regulator in the development of osteoarthritis.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the regulatory role of G-protein coupled receptor 120 (GPR120) in the development and progression of osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS: GPR120 knockout (KO) and wild-type (WT) mice were used to create an animal model of OA by means of anterior cruciate ligament transection (ACLT) surgery. The severity of OA was staged and evaluated by histological examination, microcomputed tomography scan and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The anti-inflammatory effects of the GPR120 agonist docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) on human chondrocytes were further evaluated by specific inflammatory markers. In addition, the healing progression of a skin defect model was determined with histological assays. RESULTS: The GPR120-KO mice displayed an accelerated development of OA after ACLT. The secondary inflammation, cartilage degeneration, and subchondral bone aberrant changes were significantly elevated in the early phase of OA in KO mice relative to those in WT mice. In addition, we found that GPR120 levels were downregulated in OA patients compared with control subjects, whereas GPR120 activation with DHA exhibited anti-inflammatory effects in primary human chondrocytes in vitro. Moreover, results from the skin defect model showed that GPR120 agonism with DHA enhanced wound repair in mice, as shown by the downregulation of the number of CD68+ cells. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that GPR120 is an important inflammatory mediator during the development of OA, and that it is a potential marker for the diagnosis of high-risk patients with OA

Comparison of fungal communities and nonvolatile flavor components in black Huangjiu formed using different inoculation fermentation methods

Black Huangjiu (BH) is a traditional alcoholic beverage in China, which is very popular among people. The different methods (simultaneous inoculation, sequential inoculation), were applied to ferment BH in this study, which were investigated the changes in the composition of fungal communities and non-volatile flavor compounds (nVFCs) by high-throughput sequencing (HTS) and ultraperformance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometer (UPLC MS/MS). The results showed that Rhizopus and Saccharomyces were the predominant fungal genera throughout fermentation, and 471 nVFCs were detected in BH after fermentation. Compared to that observed simultaneous inoculation, Rhizopus increased at the end of sequential fermentation, and the contents of the organic acids and their derivatives increased significantly [variable importance in the projection (VIP) &gt; 1.0, p &lt; 0.05, fold change (FC) &gt; 2], while that of lipids and lipid-like molecules decreased significantly (VIP &gt; 1.0, p &lt; 0.05, FC &lt; 0.5). Through the correlation analysis of 32 nVFCs with significant differences (VIP &gt; 1.0, p &lt; 0.05, FC &gt;32 or &lt; 0.03) and the community, it was found that lipids and lipid-like molecules (12) and organic acids and their derivatives (10) were significantly (p &lt; 0.05) negatively correlated with Saccharomyces, but they were significantly (p &lt; 0.05) positively correlated with Rhizopus. Compared with simultaneous inoculation, BH fermented by sequential inoculation, the taste was stronger, sweeter, mellow, and softer. Our findings provide information on nVFC dynamics and will aid in the selection of beneficial strains to improve BH quality

Metabolic Syndrome Increases the Risk for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Meta-Analysis

Background. Studies revealed that metabolic factors might contribute substantially to osteoarthritis (OA) pathogenesis. There has been an increasing interest to understand the relationship between knee OA and the metabolic syndrome (MetS). The purpose of this study was to explore the association between metabolic syndrome and knee osteoarthritis using meta-analysis. Methods. Databases, including PUBMED, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library, were searched to get relevant studies. Data were extracted separately by two authors and pooled odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated. Results. The meta-analysis was finished with 8 studies with a total of 3202 cases and 20968 controls finally retrieved from the database search. The crude pooled OR is 2.24 (95% CI = 1.38–3.64). Although there was significant heterogeneity among these studies, which was largely accounted for by a single study, the increase in risk was still significant after exclusion of that study. The pooled adjusted OR remained significant with pooled adjusted OR 1.05 (95% CI = 1.03–1.07, p<0.00001). No publication bias was found in the present meta-analysis. Conclusions. The synthesis of available evidence supports that metabolic syndrome increases the risk for knee osteoarthritis, even after adjustment for many risk factors