An extensible product structure model for product lifecycle management in the make-to-order environment

This paper presents a product structure model with a semantic representation technique that make the product structure extensible for developing product lifecycle management (PLM) systems that is flexible for make-to-order environment. In the make-to-order business context, each product could have a number of variants with slightly different constitutions to fulfill different customer requirements. All the variants of a family have common characteristics and each variant has its specific features. A master-variant pattern is proposed for building the product structure model to explicitly represent common characteristics and specific features of individual variants. The model is capable of enforcing the consistency of a family structure and its variant structure, supporting multiple product views, and facilitating the business processes. A semantic representation technique is developed that enables entity attributes to be defined and entities to be categorized in a neutral and semantic format. As a result, entity attributes and entity categorization can be redefined easily with its configurable capability for different requirements of the PLM systems. An XML-based language is developed for semantically representing entities and entity categories. A prototype as a proof-of-concept system is presented to illustrate the capability of the proposed extensible product structure model

The Changing Landscape for Stroke\ua0Prevention in AF: Findings From the GLORIA-AF Registry Phase 2

Background GLORIA-AF (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation) is a prospective, global registry program describing antithrombotic treatment patterns in patients with newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation at risk of stroke. Phase 2 began when dabigatran, the first non\u2013vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC), became available. Objectives This study sought to describe phase 2 baseline data and compare these with the pre-NOAC era collected during phase 1. Methods During phase 2, 15,641 consenting patients were enrolled (November 2011 to December 2014); 15,092 were eligible. This pre-specified cross-sectional analysis describes eligible patients\u2019 baseline characteristics. Atrial fibrillation disease characteristics, medical outcomes, and concomitant diseases and medications were collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results Of the total patients, 45.5% were female; median age was 71 (interquartile range: 64, 78) years. Patients were from Europe (47.1%), North America (22.5%), Asia (20.3%), Latin America (6.0%), and the Middle East/Africa (4.0%). Most had high stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc [Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age  6575 years, Diabetes mellitus, previous Stroke, Vascular disease, Age 65 to 74 years, Sex category] score  652; 86.1%); 13.9% had moderate risk (CHA2DS2-VASc = 1). Overall, 79.9% received oral anticoagulants, of whom 47.6% received NOAC and 32.3% vitamin K antagonists (VKA); 12.1% received antiplatelet agents; 7.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. For comparison, the proportion of phase 1 patients (of N = 1,063 all eligible) prescribed VKA was 32.8%, acetylsalicylic acid 41.7%, and no therapy 20.2%. In Europe in phase 2, treatment with NOAC was more common than VKA (52.3% and 37.8%, respectively); 6.0% of patients received antiplatelet treatment; and 3.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. In North America, 52.1%, 26.2%, and 14.0% of patients received NOAC, VKA, and antiplatelet drugs, respectively; 7.5% received no antithrombotic treatment. NOAC use was less common in Asia (27.7%), where 27.5% of patients received VKA, 25.0% antiplatelet drugs, and 19.8% no antithrombotic treatment. Conclusions The baseline data from GLORIA-AF phase 2 demonstrate that in newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients, NOAC have been highly adopted into practice, becoming more frequently prescribed than VKA in Europe and North America. Worldwide, however, a large proportion of patients remain undertreated, particularly in Asia and North America. (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation [GLORIA-AF]; NCT01468701

National Education Policy 2020: education opportunities after school completion

The reforms under the New Education Policy 2020 make it easier for Indian students to enter reputed international universities and enhance inter-institutional collaboration between Indian and foreign universities, say Jyoti Sharma and Prasad K. D. V. Yarlagadda

A study on an intelligent system to predict the tensile stress in welding using solar energy concentration

Abstract Plastics are now rapidly displacing conventional materials in numerous engineering applications in mass production. The emerging requirement to produce larger and more complex forms of plastics and their composites has increased the need for joining, in particular, the thermoplastics. Thermoplastics can be softened and melted on heating and hardened on cooling repeatedly without considerable degradation. Therefore, thermoplastic parts can easily be joined or formed by various manufacturing processes. In this paper, an intelligent system for the selection of process parameters for obtaining the optimal tensile stress in welding using solar energy concentration (SEC) system is presented. To consider these quality characteristics for the selection of process parameters (solar radiation, temperature and duration), the factorial design is adopted to analyze the effect of each process parameter on the tensile stress, and then to determine the process parameters with the optimal tensile stress. The algorithms are obtained by the multiple regression technique. Finally, confirmation tests are performed to make a comparison between the results calculated from the developed system and the experimental results

Investigating effective wayfinding in airports: a Bayesian network approach

Effective Wayfinding is the successful interplay of human and environmental factors resulting in a person successfully moving from their current position to a desired location in a timely manner. To date this process has not been modelled to reflect this interplay. This paper proposes a complex modelling system approach of wayfinding by using Bayesian Networks to model this process, and applies the model to airports. The model suggests that human factors have a greater impact on effective wayfinding in airports than environmental factors. The greatest influences on human factors are found to be the level of spatial anxiety experienced by travellers and their cognitive and spatial skills. The model also predicted that the navigation pathway that a traveller must traverse has a larger impact on the effectiveness of an airport’s environment in promoting effective wayfinding than the terminal design

The development of a modular design workflow for 3D printable bioresorbable patient-specific bone scaffolds to facilitate clinical translation

A streamlined design workflow that facilitates the efficient design and manufacture of patient-specific scaffolds independently applied by the surgical team has been recognised as a key step in a holistic approach towards the envisioned routine clinical translation of scaffold-guided bone regeneration (SGBR). A modular design workflow was developed to semi-automatically fill defect cavities, ensure patient specificity and ideal surgical scaffold insertion for a given surgical approach, add fixation points to secure the scaffolds to the host bone and generate scaffold based on Voronoi, periodic lattice and triply periodic minimal surface pore architectures. The adopted functional representation modelling technique produces models free from 3D printing mesh errors. It was applied to a clinical case of a complicated femoral bone defect. All models were free from mesh errors and the patient-specific fit and unobstructive insertion were validated via digital inspection and physical investigation by way of 3D printed prototypes. The real-time responsiveness of the workflow to user input allows the designer to receive real-time feedback from the surgeon, which is associated with reducing the time to finalise a patient-specific scaffold design. In summary, an efficient workflow was developed that substantially facilitates routine clinical implementation of SGBR through its ability to streamline the design of 3D printed scaffolds