What is value in the New Space Economy? The end-users’ perspective on satellite data and solutions

New industrial dynamics are disrupting the space sector. New stakeholders bringing in capital, technologies, and knowledge from other industries are developing next-generation space infrastructures and services. Both commercial and institutional space projects have to be valuable for a wider set of end-users, asking not only for economic returns but also social and environmental benefits. Space organizations urge understanding and fostering value in the New Space Economy ecosystem. Indeed, end-users are still struggling to enact the expected value of satellite data and solutions for their business. This paper aims to investigate the expected value and the level of adoption (enacted value) of satellite data and satellite-based solutions in the New Space Economy ecosystem from end-users’ perspective. We interviewed 21 managers from end-user organizations in different sectors (i.e., Insurance & Finance, Energy & Utility, Transportation & Logistics). Value is deeply discussed in general management literature, and we identify Value Theory as the theoretical lens with the most explanatory power for the phenomenon under examination. From the end-users’ perspective, we frame the expected value and the enacted value in taking strategic and tactical decisions regarding their activities, services and products, laying the foundations for further studies of value mechanisms in the New Space ecosystem. Our research set a theoretical and conceptual foundation on value in the New Space ecosystem. It also delineates the blurred boundaries of the New Space ecosystem, the main stakeholders involved, and their perception of value. Insights and implications for strategic and innovation management are also provided. Practitioners may exploit our research results and leverage the end-users-oriented framework to develop next-generation space projects in the New Space ecosystem. We also discuss the limitations and further developments of this research

A data extraction system for underwater particle holography

Pulsed laser holography is an extremely powerful technique for the study of particle fields as it allows instantaneous, noninvasive high-resolution recording of substantial volumes. By replaying the real image one can obtain the size, shape, position and - if multiple exposures are made - velocity of every object in the recorded field. Manual analysis of large volumes containing thousands of particles is, however, an enormous and time-consuming task, with operator fatigue an unpredictable source of errors. Clearly the value of holographic measurements also depends crucially on the quality of the reconstructed image: not only will poor resolution degrade size and shape measurements, but aberrations such as coma and astigmatism can change the perceived centroid of a particle, affecting position and velocity measurements. For large-scale applications of particle field holography, specifically the in situ recording of marine plankton with 'HoloCam,' we have developed an automated data extraction system that can be readily switched between the in-line and off-axis geometries and provides optimised reconstruction from holograms recorded underwater. As a videocamera is automatically stepped through the 200 by 200 by 1000mm sample volume, image processing and object tracking routines locate and extract particle images for further classification by a separate software module

Magnetic resonance and ultrasound contrast imaging of polymer-shelled microbubbles loaded with iron oxide nanoparticles

Dual-mode contrast agents (CAs) have great potential for improving diagnostics. However, the effectiveness of CAs is strictly related to both the solution adopted to merge the two agents into a single probe unit, and the ratio between the two agents. In this study, two dual-mode CAs for simultaneous magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound imaging (UI) were assessed. For this purpose, different densities of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) were anchored to the external surface of polymer-shelled microbubbles (MBs) or were physically entrapped into the shell. In vitro static and dynamic experiments were carried out with a limited concentration of modified MBs (106 bubbles ml 121) by avoiding destruction during UI (performed at a peak pressure lower than 320 kPa) and by using a lowfield MRI system (with a magnetic flux density equal to 0.25 T). Under these conditions, different imaging techniques, set-up parameters and SPION densities were used to achieve satisfactory detection of the CAs by using both UI and MRI. However, when the SPION density was increased, the MRI contrast improved, whereas the UI contrast worsened due to the reduced elasticity of the MB shell. For both UI and MRI, MBs with externally anchored SPIONs provided better performance than MBs with SPIONs entrapped into the shell. In particular, a SPION density of 29% with respect to the mass of the MBs was successfully tested

Yes, construction cost, time and scope are important, but there is more: a new action plan for infrastructure success

Purpose: During the planning and delivery, iron triangle criteria, are essential for internal stakeholders (e.g. owner, sponsors and delivery company), mostly ignoring external stakeholders such as local communities (often perceived as inconvenient) or end users. In the medium-long term, infrastructure cost and benefit are far more important for external stakeholders and the environment. Design/methodology/approach: The iron triangle criteria, i.e. delivering on time, budget and quality/scope, is the traditional perspective to assess the success of infrastructure projects. Delivering on cost and time is significant, but particularly for infrastructure, there are more relevant success criteria. The authors argue which criteria are important, and explain why. Findings: The authors challenge the traditional view of judging projects based on respecting time, budget and quality/scope. The authors explain that discussing the social value and contribution to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is extremely relevant. Crucially these metrics keep changing, even after the project is terminated. Originality/value: The authors provide a new seven-step action plan for decision-makers to improve infrastructure provision by reflecting on SDGs and engaging with external stakeholders, particularly minorities and the weaker members of their communities. Such an action plan is focused on the cost and value for different stakeholders on different timeframes and progress toward social value and achieving SDGs

Epidemiology and immunogenetic background of islet cell antibody - positive nondiabetic schoolchildren : Ulm-Frankfurt population study

Islet cell antibodies (ICAs) were determined in a large cohort of white nondiabetic schoolchildren (n = 4287) from a homogenous population in southern Germany. The prevalence of ICA levels greater than or equal to 5 Juvenile Diabetes Foundation (JDF) U was 1.05% (95% confidence interval 0.8-1.4%). Analysis of HLA-DR beta and -DQ beta alleles revealed that the specificities found to be increased in insulin-dependent (type I) diabetic subjects with the same ethnic background were also associated with ICA positivity in the nondiabetic schoolchildren. HLA-DR3 (P less than 0.01) and -DR4 (P less than 0.01) phenotypes and absence of Asp residue (P less than 0.01) at codon 57 of the HLA-DQ beta-chain were significantly increased in ICA+ compared with control subjects. High levels of ICAs, which were categorized as either greater than or equal to 17 or greater than or equal to 30 JDF U, were found to be associated with amino acids other than Asp at position 57 of the HLA-DQ beta-chain. No association of ICA level was found for HLA-DR phenotypes

Analysis of particle size distribution in municipal wastewaters

Innovative membrane filtration plants for municipal wastewaters are being developed and need the support of reliable filtration models in the designing phase. In the past, semi-empirical filtration models for membrane processes have been proposed. At present, the most prominent works point out the importance of particle poly-dispersity in the development of reliable models but fail into the implementation of probability density functions (PDFs) capable of an accurate fitting of the experimental particle size distribution (PSD). We report the experimental PSDs of two different municipal wastewater samples, obtained through the laser diffraction technique. The experimental results show that the laser diffraction technique can characterize wastewater particle dimensions both in the colloidal and supra-colloidal regions. The experimental study is complemented by a comparative analysis in which many PDFs are used to fit the experimental PSDs through a least-squares approach. Some of these PDFs are proposed here for the first time to fit experimental wastewater PSDs. Among the PDFs considered for the statistical modeling, the three-parameter lognormal and the Burr PDFs are demonstrated to provide satisfactory fitting, whereas the other considered functions fail. This result is confirmed by the analysis of both the available wastewater samples

Impact of isolation procedures on the development of a preclinical synovial fibroblasts/macrophages in an in vitro model of osteoarthritis

There is a lack of in vitro models able to properly represent osteoarthritis (OA) synovial tissue (ST). We aimed to characterize OA ST and to investigate whether a mechanical or enzymatic digestion procedures influence synovial cell functional heterogeneity in vitro. Procedures using mechanical nondigested fragments (NDF), synovial digested fragments (SDF), and filtrated synovial digested cells (SDC) were compared. An immunophenotypic profile was performed to distinguish synovial fibroblasts (CD55, CD73, CD90, CD106), macrophages (CD14, CD68), M1-like (CD80, CD86), and M2-like (CD163, CD206) synovial macrophages. Pro-inflammatory (interleukin 6 IL6), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα), chemokine C-C motif ligand 3 (CCL3/MIP1α), C-X- motif chemokine ligand 10 (CXCL10/IP10) and anti-inflammatory (interleukin 10 (IL10)), transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGFβ1), C-C motif chemokine ligand 18 (CCL18) cytokines were evaluated. CD68 and CD163 markers were higher in NDF and SDF compared to the SDC procedure, while CD80, CD86, and CD206 were higher only in NDF compared to the SDC procedure. Synovial fibroblast markers showed similar percentages. TNFα, CCL3/MIP1α, CXCL10/IP10, and CCL18 were higher in NDF compared to SDC, but not compared to SDF. IL10 and TGFβ1 were higher in NDF than SDC at the molecular level, while IL6 did not show differences among procedures. We demonstrated that NDF isolation procedures better preserved the heterogeneity of specific OA synovial populations (fibroblasts, macrophages), fostering their use for testing new cell therapies or drugs for OA, reducing or avoiding the use of animal models

Συνελίξεις κατανομών με βαριά ουρά

223 σ.Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο--Μεταπτυχιακή Εργασία. Διεπιστημονικό-Διατμηματικό Πρόγραμμα Μεταπτυχιακών Σπουδών (Δ.Π.Μ.Σ.) “Εφαρμοσμένες Μαθηματικές Επιστήμες”Στην παρούσα εργασία αντικείμενο αποτελούν οι συνελίξεις των κατανομών με βαριά ουρά, και πιο συγκεκριμένα οι υποεκθετικές κατανομές. Οι υποεκθετικές κατανομές είναι μια υποκατηγορία των κατανομών με βαριά ουρά και έχουν εφαρμογές σε πολλά επιστημονικά αντικείμενα. Στηρίζονται στην ιδέα πως ένα άθροισμα τυχαίων μεταβλητών μπορεί να υπερβεί κάποιο μεγάλο φράγμα μόνο όταν μια από αυτές τις μεταβλητές υπερβεί αυτό το φράγμα.Σε αυτή την εργασία θα ασχοληθούμε με την εφαρμογή των υποεκθετικών κατανομών στον αναλογισμό και πιο συγκεκριμένα στη θεωρία χρεοκοπίας. Στην προσπάθεια μας να ορίσουμε μαθηματικά την θεωρία χρεοκοπίας χρησιμοποιούμε τους τυχαίους περιπάτους . Σκοπός της παρούσας εργασίας είναι να δείξουμε πως συμπεριφέρεται η πιθανότητα χρεοκοπίας κάτω από την υπόθεση των υποεκθετικών κατανομών και πώς συμπεριφέρεται όταν δεν ισχύει η υπόθεση των υποεκθετικών κατανομών.In this work, item are convolutions of heavy tailed distributions , and more specifically subexponencial distributions . Subexponencial distributions are a subclass of distributions with heavy tail and have applications in many scientific fields . Based on the idea that a sum of random variables can exceed a big bound only when one of these variables exceeds this bound.In this paper we discuss the application of subexponential distributions in actuarial science and in particular in ruin theory . In our effort to define ruin theory we use random walks. The purpose of this paper is the behavior of ruin probability under the assumption of subexponential distributions and how it behaves when it does not apply the case of subexponential distributions.Σωτήριος Ι. Λοσίδη

Competitiveness of small-medium reactors: A probabilistic study on the economy of scale factor

With steady increase in energy consumption, the vulnerability of the fossil fuel supply, and environmental concerns, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has initiated the Next Generation Nuclear Power Plants (NGNP), also known as Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR). The VHTR is planned to be operational by 2021 with possible demonstration of a hydrogen generating plant. Various engineering design studies on both the reactor plant and energy conversion system are underway. For this and related Generation IV plants, it is the goal to not only meet safety criteria but to also be efficient, economically competitive, and environmentally friendly (proliferation resistant). Traditionally, heat exchanger (HX) design is based on two main approaches: Log-Mean Temperature Difference (LMTD) and effectiveness-NTU (ε-NTU). These methods yield the dimension of the HX under anticipate condition and vice-versa. However, one is not assured that the dimension calculated give the best performing HX when economics are also considered. Here, we develop and show a specific optimization algorithm (exercise) using LMTD and simple (optimal) design theory to establish a reference case for the Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger (PCHE). Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was further used as a design tool to investigate the optimal design of PCHE thermohydraulic flow. The CFD results were validated against the Blasius correlation before being subjected to optimal design analyses. Benchmark results for the pipe flow indicated that the predictive ability of SST k-ω is superior to the other (standard and RNG k-ε and RSM) turbulence models.The difference between CFD and the empirical expression is less than 10%