Multi-objective decision-making methodology to create an optimal design chain partner combination

In today’s highly competitive business environment, many companies adopt the time-to-market strategy to obtain a competitive advantage. To reduce the time and cost of product development and to employ global product development resources, design chain partner evaluation and selection has become a crucial issue. Thus, establishing an optimal design chain partner combination has received significant attention because it has a far-reaching effect on the results of product development. With this perspective, this paper develops an integrated decision-making methodology to assist enterprises as they create an optimal design chain partner combination. First, this study establishes the framework and evaluation models of the criteria for the different roles of design chain partners, including system integration, functional module development and software and component development. Then, this paper applies a weight-restricted DEA (data envelopment analysis) approach to create the models for performance analysis of design chain partners to acquire the performance value of each candidate and select the efficient design chain partners. Moreover, this paper employs the multi-objective performance evaluation model proposed in this paper to analyze the synthesized performance of design chain combinations. Moreover, this research uses a multi-objective genetic algorithm (GA) to search efficiently for the optimal design chain partner combination to minimize product development cost and time and maximize product reliability. Finally, this study employs a derivative new product development project for a digital TV box as a case study to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed methodology.     

Characteristics and usage patterns of older people in a 3D online multi-user virtual environment

3D online multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) have a lot of potential in supporting older people in their daily lives, yet little research has been conducted to explore how older people engage with this type of technology. This paper aims to investigate the characteristics, user groups and activity patterns (particularly social networks and gift giving behaviour) of older users within a 3D online multi-user virtual environment. Data from approximately 5000 online user profiles of older and younger users from a 3D MUVE, namely IMVU, was collected for analysis. Overall, we identified several distinct patterns of use (e.g. size of social ties, level of reciprocity, etc.) among older users when compared with younger users. We also found that despite the capabilities of 3D MUVEs to provide the users immersion in alternative realities, a feature well embraced by younger users in this study, older users seemed more interested in activities which serve as an extension to their physical life.     

Performance impact of new product development processes for distinct scenarios under different supplier–manufacturer relationships

Although supplier involvement in new product development (NPD) projects has become increasingly important for strengthening a firm's competitive position, few studies have investigated the impact of changing research and development (R&D) workloads in NPD. According to the level of design-related characteristics including design-related communication and design-related nature, we identify four types of supplier–manufacturer relationships: sequential mode, passive supplier involvement, active supplier involvement, and strategic development. Differing from qualitative and survey-oriented research, this study proposes a system dynamics model for the quantitative exploration of workload impacts on R&D-system equilibrium under different supplier–manufacturer relationships. We justify experimentally the NPD performances of these supplier–manufacturer relationship configurations under workload impacts and provide managerial insights.     

Pursue or shoot? Effects of exercise-induced fatigue on the transition from running to rifle shooting in a pursuit task

To investigate to what degree exercise-induced fatigue influences behavioural choices, participants' transition from running to rifle shooting in a pursue-and-shoot task was assessed. Participants ran on a treadmill and chased a target in a virtual environment and were free to choose when to stop the treadmill and shoot at the target. Fatigue increased progressively throughout the 20-minute test. Results indicated that shooting accuracy was not affected by fatigue. However, the distance to the target at which participants decided to shoot showed a U-shaped relationship with fatigue, R² = 0.884, p = 0.013. At low fatigue levels (ratings of perceived exertion [RPE] < 6.5), the distance to the target at which participants shot decreased, whereas at higher fatigue levels (RPE > 6.5) shooting distance increased again. At high levels of fatigue, participants stopped running sooner, aimed at the target longer and shot less often. Findings indicate that physiological parameters influence not only perception but also actual transitions between different actions.     

Bringing Scheme programming to the iPhone—Experience

The iPhone SDK provides a powerful platform for the development of applications that make use of iPhone capabilities, such as sensors, GPS, Wi‐Fi, or Bluetooth connectivity. We observe that so far the development of iPhone applications has mostly been restricted to using Objective‐C. However, developing applications in plain Objective‐C on the iPhone OS suffers from limitations, such as the need for explicit memory management and lack of syntactic extension mechanism. Moreover, when developing distributed applications in Objective‐C, programmers have to manually deal with distribution concerns, such as service discovery, remote communication, and failure handling. In this paper, we discuss our experience in porting the Scheme programming language to the iPhone OS and how it can be used together with Objective‐C to develop iPhone applications. To support the interaction between Scheme programs and the underlying iPhone APIs, we have implemented a language symbiosis layer that enables programmers to access the iPhone SDK libraries from Scheme. In addition, we have designed high‐level distribution constructs to ease the development of distributed iPhone applications in an event‐driven style. We validate and discuss these constructs with a series of examples, including an iPod controller, a maps application, and a distributed multiplayer Scrabble‐like game. We discuss the lessons learned from this experience for other programming language ports to mobile platforms. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Understanding design patterns — what is the problem?

Design patterns codify proven solutions to recurring design problems. Their proper use within a development context requires that: (i) we understand them; (ii) we ascertain their applicability or relevance to the design problem at hand; and (iii) we apply them faithfully to the problem at hand. We argue that an explicit representation of the design problem solved by a design pattern is key to supporting the three tasks in an integrated fashion. We propose a model‐driven representation of design patterns consisting of triples < MP, MS, T > where MP is a model of the problem solved by the pattern, MS is a model of the solution proposed by the pattern, and T is a model transformation of an instance of the problem into an instance of the solution. Given an object‐oriented design model, we look for model fragments that match MP (call them instances of MP), and when one is found, we apply the transformation T yielding an instance of MS. Easier said than done. Experimentation with an Eclipse Modeling Framework‐based implementation of our approach applied to a number of open‐source software application's raised fundamental questions about: (i) the nature of design patterns in general, and the ones that lend themselves to our approach, and (ii) our understanding and codification of seemingly simple design patterns. In this paper, we present the principles behind our approach, report on the results of applying the approach to the Gang of Four (GoF) design patterns, and discuss the representability of design problems solved by these patterns. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effective user involvement in product development by improving the analysis of user needs

User involvement has been shown to be beneficial in the development of useful and usable systems. The trend of software development becoming a product-oriented activity creates challenges to user involvement. Field studies appear a promising approach, but the analysis of the gathered user needs has been shown to be demanding. This study presents, on the basis of seven case studies, an early user-involvement process showing how user needs can be analysed and how the input to product development can be identified. In addition, the process is evaluated in two industrial cases with interviews and a questionnaire. The results show that the process supports effective early user involvement; the resulted requirements were evaluated as being more successful and their quality as better than average in a company. However, the case studies show that user involvement not only provides useful information about users' needs but also increases the understanding of users' values.     

“中国模式”的逻辑发展及价值显现

"中国模式"是适合中国国情、有其自身内在逻辑演绎的全新发展模式,形成于我国四代领导人关于社会主义建设思想的逻辑发展进程中.其逻辑发展内涵是以建设社会主义市场经济为发展途径、以社会主义核心价值体系为内核、以中华民族的伟大复兴为实现目标、以人的全面发展为最终指向."中国模式"的内在发展逻辑是异质于西方世界的,显现了其所具有的历史性与世界性的价值.     

陕西体育产业发展的思考

体育产业的发展对国家的经济建设具有很强的拉动作用.本文根据陕西省体育产业发展现状,论述了陕西省体育产业发展的成就、优势以及存在的问题.提出制定体育产业发展规划,积极扶持体育产业,提高全民健身意识,加快体育场馆建设等一系列建议,以期为陕西体育产业的发展提供理论支持.