Focussing product innovation and fostering economies of scale based on adaptive product platforms

Current concepts to achieve product commonality follow static approaches. To achieve economies of scale, standards are defined across the product program. However, these standards typically need to be compromised at new product introductions due to unforeseen innovations and economies of scale decrease over time. Accordingly platform standards need to be re-defined.This paper presents an approach for adaptive product platforms. Degrees of freedom in product and process design are managed pro-actively based on functional and technological models. This way adaptivity towards product innovation can be ensured. The concept of adaptive modular platforms is explained based on a practical application.     

Collaboration platforms to enable global service provision in the tooling industry

The European tooling industry is strongly as ever confronted with the turbulent global economic environment. As a sole focus on price and technical feasibility does not lead to sustainable competitive advantages, toolmakers need to find new ways for differentiation. A promising approach are industrial product service systems but the lack of local presence and the small company sizes complicate the delivery of such services to global customers. Web-based collaboration platforms can link toolmakers to build up a stable network of partners around the globe and help to maintain competitive advantages. These platforms include toolmaker, tool user, tool owner and service provider for global service provision in the tooling industry. The concept of this platform and their features are presented in this paper.     

Stability of binary nanocrystalline alloys against grain growth and phase separation

Grain boundary segregation has been established through both simulation and experiments as a successful approach to stabilize nanocrystalline materials against grain growth. However, relatively few alloy systems have been studied in this context; these vary in their efficacy, and in many cases the stabilization effect is compromised by second phase precipitation. Here we address the open-ended design problem of how to select alloy systems that may be stable in a nanocrystalline state. We continue the development of a general “regular nanocrystalline solution” model to identify the conditions under which binary nanocrystalline alloy systems with positive heats of mixing are stable with respect to both grain growth (segregation removes the grain boundary energy penalty) and phase separation (the free energy of the nanocrystalline system is lower than the common tangent defining the bulk miscibility gap). We calculate a “nanostructure stability map” in terms of alloy thermodynamic parameters. Three main regions are delineated in these maps: one where grain boundary segregation does not result in a stabilized nanocrystalline structure, one in which macroscopic phase separation would be preferential (despite the presence of a nanocrystalline state stable against grain growth) and one for which the nanocrystalline state is stable against both grain growth and phase separation. Additional details about the stabilized structures are also presented in the map, which can be regarded as a tool for the design of stable nanocrystalline alloys.     

Shear transformation zone dynamics model for metallic glasses incorporating free volume as a state variable

A mesoscale model, shear transformation zone dynamics (STZ dynamics), is employed to investigate the connections between the structure and deformation of metallic glasses. The present STZ dynamics model is adapted to incorporate a structure-related state variable, and evolves via two competing processes: STZ activation, which creates free volume, vs. diffusive rearrangement, which annihilates it. The dynamical competition between these two processes gives rise to an equilibrium excess free volume that can be connected to flow viscosity via the phenomenological Vogel–Fulcher–Tammann relation in relaxed structures near the glass transition temperature. On the other hand, the excess free volume allows glasses to deform at low temperatures via shear localization into shear bands, even in the presence of internal stress distributions that arise upon cooling after processing.     

Animadversion error in student evaluations of faculty teaching effectiveness.

Compared the midterm grades of each of 86 business students to the grade the student gave the professor on his teaching effectiveness. A 1-way analysis of variance showed better than chance correspondence (h2 = .23). This tendency was entitled the animadversion error, and its importance in subordinate-supervisor ratings is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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Ohne Zusammenfassung VDI     

EM programmer's notebook-benchmark plate radar targets for thevalidation of computational electromagnetics programs

In February, 1989, a Computational Electromagnetics (CEM) validation measurement program was initiated by the Electromagnetic Code Consortium (EMCC), to fabricate and test several small radar cross-section (RCS) range models, in order to generate RCS reference data for validating existing and future codes. As part of the validation effort, the EMCG defined various sets of three- and two-dimensional targets. Measured data are presented here for five of the 3D plate targets. They are a wedge-cylinder plate, a wedge-plate cylinder, a plate cylinder, a 2×3.5 λ flat plate, and a wedge-cylinder with a gap     

Suppression of dyskinesias in advanced Parkinson's disease. I. Continuous intravenous levodopa shifts dose response for production of dyskinesias but not for relief of parkinsonism in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease

We characterized the clinical dose-response curves for relief of parkinsonism and production of dyskinesias as a function of plasma levodopa and 3-O-methyldopa levels in six patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) and fluctuating responses to oral levodopa/carbidopa. Dose response to ramped intravenous levodopa infusion was measured after overnight drug withdrawal on two occasions: first after chronic, intermittent oral levodopa/carbidopa, and second after 3 to 5 days of continuous intravenous levodopa. Continuous intravenous levodopa shifted the dyskinesia dose-response curve to the right, reduced maximum dyskinesia activity, but did not significantly alter dose response for relief of parkinsonism. Improvement in dyskinesia was apparent by the second day of continuous levodopa, during which ratios of plasma dopa/3-O-methyldopa remained constant. Our results support the hypothesis that relief of parkinsonism and production of dyskinesia by levodopa occur by separate mechanisms.