Development Of Reference Model Research Articles

Xenotransplantation of Human Hematopoietic Stem Cells into NBSGW Mice: A Basic Model for Preclinical Development of Gene Therapy Approaches

Background. The gene therapy based on hematopoietic cell xenotransplantation is becoming a powerful and universally applied therapeutic strategy in an ever-expanding range of human diseases. One of the current issues in implementing the techniques of genome modification in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) into clinical practice is to assure the quality and safety of gene and cell therapy products for human use. This is achieved by animal model testing at the stage of preclinical studies. With this purpose in view, NBSGW mice seem to be a unique and promising model for human HSC engraftment without pre-conditioning.
 Aim. To test the NBSGW mouse model for human HSC engraftment, to optimize the methods of assessing the state of the animals and monitoring the chimerism level for translational preclinical development of HSC-based products for gene and cell therapy.
 Materials & Methods. The xenograft models of NBSGW mice were generated using the samples of the selected peripheral blood CD34+ HSCs from a healthy donor. Serial transplantation was performed by intravenous injection of bone marrow cells from primary recipients with a high chimerism level. Engraftment efficiency was evaluated by flow cytofluorometry (FCF) and droplet digital PCR (ddPCR). Subpopulation pattern of human cell engraftment was assessed by FCF.
 Results. The tested HSC transplantation regimen is characterized by favorable toxicity profile. In the entire study sample of mice, the FCF analysis showed a long-term engraftment of human cells with a high chimerism level (23.5–93.6 %) in the bone marrow of the animals, also after serial transplantation, which was confirmed by ddPCR. The B-lineage differentiation cells predominated in all tested samples (of peripheral blood, bone marrow, and spleen) from mice after primary and serial transplantation. The ddPCR assay can be used as an additional tool for validating the level of human cell engraftment determined by FCF.
 Conclusion. NBSGW mice present a promising reference model for preclinical development of gene and cell therapy products based on human primary HSCs with a modified genome.

A 3D printed plant model for accurate and reliable 3D plant phenotyping.

This study addresses the importance of precise referencing in 3-dimensional (3D) plant phenotyping, which is crucial for advancing plant breeding and improving crop production. Traditionally, reference data in plant phenotyping rely on invasive methods. Recent advancements in 3D sensing technologies offer the possibility to collect parameters that cannot be referenced by manual measurements. This work focuses on evaluating a 3D printed sugar beet plant model as a referencing tool. Fused deposition modeling has turned out to be a suitable 3D printing technique for creating reference objects in 3D plant phenotyping. Production deviations of the created reference model were in a low and acceptable range. We were able to achieve deviations ranging from -10 mm to +5 mm. In parallel, we demonstrated a high-dimensional stability of the reference model, reaching only ±4 mm deformation over the course of 1 year. Detailed print files, assembly descriptions, and benchmark parameters are provided, facilitating replication and benefiting the research community. Consumer-grade 3D printing was utilized to create a stable and reproducible 3D reference model of a sugar beet plant, addressing challenges in referencing morphological parameters in 3D plant phenotyping. The reference model is applicable in 3 demonstrated use cases: evaluating and comparing 3D sensor systems, investigating the potential accuracy of parameter extraction algorithms, and continuously monitoring these algorithms in practical experiments in greenhouse and field experiments. Using this approach, it is possible to monitor the extraction of a nonverifiable parameter and create reference data. The process serves as a model for developing reference models for other agricultural crops.

Clinical Nurse Specialists: Professional Framework and Qualifications

Achieving enhanced healthcare quality by participating in cross-disciplinary medical teams and providing specialized, precision nursing are core professional values of clinical nurse specialists (CNSs). Although CNSs are crucial in the healthcare field, the development of CNSs in Taiwan remains in its infancy. The Taiwan Nurses Association has already announced regulations related to professional frameworks and scope of practice for advanced practice nurses and has reached a preliminary consensus and plans on the definition, qualifications, and indicators of care for CNSs. The clinical application, job titles, and certification of the professional core values of CNSs require continuous and joint deliberation and development by professional nurse organizations. In this study, the results of empirical research into professional organizational frameworks and certification of CNSs in Europe, the United States, and Australia were used to derive a reference model for CNS education and training development for advanced practice nurse specialties in Taiwan. The fundamental elements of the roles and professional frameworks and feasible qualification certification systems were also explored.

Development reference model to build management reporter using dynamics great plain aggregated

The digital technology transformation impacts changes in business patterns that require companies to innovate to act appropriately in making strategic decisions quickly, precisely, and accurately to increase efficiency, be practical company performance, and impacts changes in business patterns that require companies to innovate to act appropriately in making strategic decisions quickly to improve the performance. An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is one step toward achieving performance. ERP system is one step to achieving performance. ERP system is essential for companies to automate the efficiency of business processes. The decisions from management in implementing the ERP system are necessary for ERP implementation to be successful. However, in practice, companies still experience complexity. For that, it needs to be considered related a business process reference model is essential to enhance efficiency in implementing the ERP used. This research discusses the business process reference model based on the ERP dynamics great plain (GP) application aggregated using management reporter (MR) to help users better understand the practical overview. The methodology utilizes a reference model based on Microsoft Dynamics GP guidelines with a business process redesign approach. This contributes to developing business processes to help users understand using the ERP dynamics GP application.

Development reference model to build management reporter using dynamics great plain aggregated

The digital technology transformation impacts changes in business patterns that require companies to innovate to act appropriately in making strategic decisions quickly, precisely, and accurately to increase efficiency, be practical company performance, and impacts changes in business patterns that require companies to innovate to act appropriately in making strategic decisions quickly to improve the performance. An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is one step toward achieving performance. ERP system is one step to achieving performance. ERP system is essential for companies to automate the efficiency of business processes. The decisions from management in implementing the ERP system are necessary for ERP implementation to be successful. However, in practice, companies still experience complexity. For that, it needs to be considered related a business process reference model is essential to enhance efficiency in implementing the ERP used. This research discusses the business process reference model based on the ERP dynamics great plain (GP) application aggregated using management reporter (MR) to help users better understand the practical overview. The methodology utilizes a reference model based on Microsoft Dynamics GP guidelines with a business process redesign approach. This contributes to developing business processes to help users understand using the ERP dynamics GP application.

Toward a logistic model of dynamic mold growth on wood

This paper deals with mathematical modeling of mold growth on wood. The logistic growth equation is used to model mold growth phenomena in changing environmental conditions. Microscopic mold coverage fraction is used in the logistic equation to represent mold development on a material surface over time. The current state-of-the-art dynamic Finnish mold growth model is used as the reference model for development of the logistic mold growth model. The optimal values of mold growth coefficient are estimated by simulations of mold growth under constant environmental conditions and by finding the best agreement with the Finnish mold growth model using mathematical optimization methods. It is shown that the mold growth coefficient can be approximated as a function of relative humidity, temperature, wood species and the quality of the surface. The model parameters are then verified by a comparison with the Finnish mold growth model. In this case, cyclic step changes of constant relative humidity are used. Finally, the logistic mold growth model is compared with published experimental observations of mold growth. The discrepancy of mold growth models and experimental mold growth data, and possible improvements are discussed.

Development of Puja Mandala as a Religious Tourism Attraction in Bali

Tourism in Bali is known by its icon as the main tourist destination in Indonesia. Bali is often used as a reference model for tourism development and is a priority for tourists looking for beach and natural tourism. In addition, Bali also has the Puja Mandala, a unique religious tourist icon that becomes its own attraction. Puja mandala is a worship area consisting of five religions: Hindu, Protestant Christian, Buddhist, Catholic, and Islam. It has become a research topic for the development of Puja Mandela as a religious travel attraction in Bali. This research is carried out using qualitative methods through observations, interviews, and library studies, and the results are analyzed descriptively. The research results show that the tourist development in Puja Mandala is good, but there are still some shortcomings, such as the small number of accommodations.

A strategic decision framework using soft-computing for agri-food production: case study living lab in universities

Designing autonomous or semi-autonomous greenhouses that can supply food under extreme environmental conditions or restricted social distances is an endeavor that has to be considered under pandemic conditions such as COVID-19. However, generally advanced greenhouses have been designed using conventional methodologies that are not integrated easily into reconfigurable designs. Moreover, those design methodologies are complex for novice product designers. This paper proposes a novel SDF (Strategic Decision Framework) to support reconfigurable agri-food production systems design. The framework proposed is based on the Integrated Product, Process, and Manufacturing System Development (IPPMD) reference model that uses reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS) and Fuzzy Cluster Mean (FCM) algorithms in its decision support system. As a result, the proposed methodology generates fuzzy clusters using degrees of membership that can describe the design constraints straightforwardly. Those fuzzy clusters support a hierarchical decision-making process, so the design process is easily implemented. Besides, the proposed methodology is deployed in a complex, highly non-linear system (a greenhouse) that has an internal ecosystem autonomously controlled by mechanical, electrical, digital, and telecommunication subsystems. Hence, an innovative design methodology implemented for advanced reconfigurable systems is presented. The results confirm that the proposed SDF can be implemented in complex reconfigurable design systems when the manufacturing decisions are unclear to decision-makers and designers. Thus, this methodology provides useful, coherent information regarding the design process that simplifies decision-making when designing a reconfigurable greenhouse. Besides, this research shows an entirely reconfigurable greenhouse as a living lab implemented at Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico City campus to validate the proposed SDF.

Autonomous hanging tether management and experimentation for an unmanned air‐surface vehicle team

AbstractThe mission of an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) tethered to a small unmanned surface vehicle (USV) is considered. As opposed to the majority of existing tethered UAV work, which assumes a taut tether, this paper addresses the challenge of tether management for a slack, hanging tether in a dynamic ocean environment up to sea state 4 on the Douglas scale. A prototype smart reel system for a UAV–USV team was designed and experimentally validated in controlled and uncontrolled dynamic environments. A reference model for tether control based on static catenary cable theory was extended and shown to be valid through the entire operational envelop. A Kalman filter was developed to fuse slow (4 Hz) differential GPS (dGPS) relative position measurements with fast (100 Hz) inertial measurements, to output a 100 Hz estimate of relative position, relative velocity, and inertial sensor bias. A relative velocity‐based gain‐scheduled proportional‐derivative (PD) controller was developed, and demonstrated robustness to heave, pitch, and roll motion of the USV. Experimental testing with a UAV surrogate showed successful decoupling of heave motion from the UAV altitude in a controlled indoor environment. Taut tether control, in contrast, exhibited 12 times more tether tension at the UAV compared to the controller proposed here. The performance of the tuned controller with feedback from the Kalman filter exhibited minimal deviation from static catenary cable theory during the dynamic experiments. Indoor flight testing showed the developed reference model and controller essentially decoupled the dynamic motion of the USV from that of the UAV; the measured deflections of the UAV altitude and position essentially matched that of untethered flight. Outdoor flights validated the effectiveness of the controller in an unknown dynamic environment, for a larger relative position between the UAV and USV, using the dGPS Kalman filter solution to measure relative position. Initial experimental results look promising for continued on‐water testing of hanging‐tether UAV/USV teams.

Threats Detection during Human-Computer Interaction in Driver Monitoring Systems.

This paper presents an approach and a case study for threat detection during human–computer interaction, using the example of driver–vehicle interaction. We analyzed a driver monitoring system and identified two types of users: the driver and the operator. The proposed approach detects possible threats for the driver. We present a method for threat detection during human–system interactions that generalizes potential threats, as well as approaches for their detection. The originality of the method is that we frame the problem of threat detection in a holistic way: we build on the driver–ITS system analysis and generalize existing methods for driver state analysis into a threat detection method covering the identified threats. The developed reference model of the operator–computer interaction interface shows how the driver monitoring process is organized, and what information can be processed automatically, and what information related to the driver behavior has to be processed manually. In addition, the interface reference model includes mechanisms for operator behavior monitoring. We present experiments that included 14 drivers, as a case study. The experiments illustrated how the operator monitors and processes the information from the driver monitoring system. Based on the case study, we clarified that when the driver monitoring system detected the threats in the cabin and notified drivers about them, the number of threats was significantly decreased.

Efficiency of Network Interaction During Import Substitution and Organization of Export Activities

Aim. The presented study aims to examine the influence of the quantitative and competence composition of the participants of an innovation network on its economic efficiency.Tasks. The author performs the benchmarking of fourteen foreign and Russian car manufacturers to develop a reference model of innovation network efficiency in the field of production of smart vehicles; collects an array of data according to two analytical indicators, including the duration of the model range update cycle and the growth rate of new car sales; evaluates the economic viability of forming an innovation network with participants balanced in terms of their specialization in the organization and implementation of innovative or production activities; compares reference data pertaining to the market of passenger cars on the one hand and integral indicators of network interaction participants in the field of creating smart vehicles on the other; analyzes the correlation between the results of evaluating the economic efficiency of network interaction and input parameters.Methods. This study uses the methods of systems and correlation-regression analysis as well as sensitivity analysis of the developed reference model. Results. It is found that a decrease in the amount of investment results in a slight decrease in the efficiency of network interaction compared to the change in the number of participants and the corresponding competence profile. Consequently, the sensitivity of the formed network to changes in the amount of investment is lower compared to changes in the competencies of network interaction participants.Conclusions. In the most general formulation, the selection of the subjects of an innovation network comes down to finding a dynamic balance between participants with an innovative area of competence and those who specialize in production. The methodology is tested using data on the activities of 45 industry enterprises and organizations, making it possible to identify predictive quantitative patterns in the influence of the balance of participants of the developed innovation network on the analyzed indicators of its innovation and production activities. The practical significance of the proposed approach lies in the possibility of using it for the organizational support of import substitution programs as well as for launching initiatives aimed at forming export networks in the Russian economy and orienting them towards creating a technological export flow.

Matching Students’ Dominant Intelligences with their Fields of Specialization: Did Students Select the Right Specialization?

Accreditation is a fundamental part in primary healthcare (PHC) systems. The purpose behind this paper is to review the literature and track down the most appropriate PHC accreditation models and norms, around the world, and to set up a complete and fair outline from looking at these models. Finding that it is less likely to be independent, and more likely to be associated with government for the accreditation programs in developing countries, where they are distinguishable from those of developed countries, the differences between countries and agencies relate to the inclusion of patients/users, managers, patient or advocacy organizations, academic organizations and professional colleges. This review has identified that the most potential comprehensive reference program or model for the development of nation accreditation programs is the JCAHO program.

Refactoring Techniques for Improving Software Quality: Practitioners’ Perspectives

Refactoring is a critical task in software maintenance and is commonly applied to improve system design or to cope with design defects. There are 68 different types of refactoring techniques and each technique has a particular purpose and effect. However, most prior studies have selected refactoring techniques based on their common use in academic research without obtaining evidence from the software industry. This is a shortcoming that points to the existence of a clear gap between academic research and the corresponding industry practices. Therefore, to bridge this gap, this study identified the most frequently used refactoring techniques, the commonly used programming language, and methods of applying refactoring techniques in the current practices of software refactoring among software practitioners in the industry, by using an online survey. The findings from the survey revealed the most used refactoring techniques, programming language, and the methods of applying the refactoring techniques. This study contributes toward the improvement of software development practices by adding empirical evidence on software refactoring used by software developers. The findings would be beneficial for researchers to develop reference models and software tools to guide the practitioners in using these refactoring techniques based on their effect on software quality attributes to improve the quality of the software systems as a whole.

ІМПЛЕМЕНТАЦІЯ ПРОЦЕСНОГО УПРАВЛІННЯ У СФЕРУ ТОРГІВЛІ ЯК ВАЖЛИВУ СОЦІАЛЬНО-ЕКОНОМІЧНУ СИСТЕМУ

The article focuses on the analysis of the company process management in the framework of modern organizational and economic concepts. This approach contributes to creating an extraordinary possibility of leveling out the negative influence of the environment factors and achieving a stable position for the company in the services market. The paper offers the system vision of the company's process management problems as a set of interconnected and interacting elements of the system. In present time economic reality, this county's companies' performance is entirely dependent on the ability to transform the key company processes into strategic initiatives aimed at maximizing customer satisfaction and the company's ability to react and forecast market changes. At the same time, the environment unpredictability and rapid dynamics constantly change the conditions under which companies operate. In view of this, the urgent task of operational response to various kinds of change arises, since the timely reaction of the company management of to changes in the environment can provide a long-term sustainable development of the company. Bringing the level of companies’ business process management up to meet the requirements of the internal and external environment will contribute to improving the overall level of efficiency of its business activities. As a result of the research, the process management of the enterprise has been analyzed in the framework of modern organizational and economic concepts, namely, the process approach has been considered and implemented in the field of trade as important socio-economic system. It is proved that the implementation of the process approach in the theory of management decision-making contributed to the creation of the architecture of the business process system of enterprises. The main achievements of the theory of process management are implemented in the developed reference model of the business process "Development of a strategy for the development of trade enterprises", which ultimately allows to improve the system of development and strategic management decisions. The proposed reference model can be taken as a basis for modeling the main business processes that create added value of the enterprise. The interdisciplinary nature of the process management theory is constantly gaining volume and becoming one of its distinct competencies.

A Multi-layered Psychological-Based Reference Model for Citizen Need Assessment Using AI-Powered Models

We propose an automatic, low-cost, large-scale, nonintrusive human need recognition framework that utilized a multi-layered psychological-based reference model and designed with different modules including data collection, preprocessing, feature extraction and contextualization module. The reference model comprises several classification and regression models to identify human psychological needs, measure their satisfaction levels, evaluate their surrounding environment around different life aspects during any subjective event or towards emerging topics at any time, and in any location, using their publicly available social media content. We evaluate the predictive powers of various textual, psychological, semantic, lexicon-based and Twitter-specific features. To provide benchmark results, we compare and evaluate the performance of diverse machine learning algorithms. Our results confirm the effectiveness of the developed reference model. The framework is used to recognize citizen needs in response to the New Zealand terror attacks which occurred on March 15th, 2019.

CoRiMaS—An Ontological Approach to Cooperative Risk Management in Seaports

For today’s global value chains, seaports and their operations are indispensable components. In many cases, the cargo handling takes place in close proximity to residential and/or environmentally sensitive areas. Furthermore, seaports are often not operated by a single organization, but need to be considered as communities of sometimes hundreds of internal and external stakeholders. Due to their close cooperation in the cargo handling process, risk management should be a common approach among the internal stakeholders as well in order to effectively mitigate and respond to emerging risks. However, empirical research has revealed that risk management is often limited to the organization itself, which indicates a clear lack of cooperation. Primary reasons in this regard are missing knowledge about the relations and responsibilities within the port and differing terminologies. Therefore, we propose an ontology (CoRiMaS) that implements a developed reference model for risk management that explicitly aims at seaports with a cooperative approach to risk management. CoRiMaS has been designed looking at the Semantic Web and at the Linked Data model to provide a common interoperable vocabulary in the target domain. The key concepts of our ontology comprise the hazard, stakeholder, seaport, cooperation aspect, and risk management process. We validated our ontology by applying it in a case study format to the Port of Hamburg (Germany). The CoRiMaS ontology can be widely applied to foster cooperation within and among seaports. We believe that such an ontological approach has the potential to improve current risk management practices and, thereby, to increase the resilience of operations, as well as the protection of sensitive surrounding areas.

Performance Assessment of RISC-V Architecture

This paper presents the performance evaluation of RISC – V architecture based processor using Gem5 simulator. The performance analysis metrics such as bandwidth, latency, throughput, branch prediction, pipeline stages and memory hierarchy of the processor architecture are studied using Gem5 simulator. Different simulation models are carried out to arrive the best reference model for RISC-V architecture design and development. In this reference model cache memory functionality feature is verified with the verification methodology called Universal Verification Methodology (UVM). From simulations it is found that both the program and data cache provides optimum performance in terms of execution time, hit rates, miss rate and miss latencies.

Konsortialforschung zur Entwicklung von Referenzmodellen für die Digitalisierung von Unternehmen – Erfahrungen aus dem Datenmanagement

Reference models are important research results with practical relevance that support companies in their digitalization initiatives. One of the challenges in developing reference models is the access to “implicit” practical knowledge that is created when technologies are implemented and used. This article illustrates how consortium research—as a multilateral, institutionalized collaboration between researchers and practitioners—facilitates knowledge transfer and the rigorous development of reference models. For the case of the Data Excellence Model (DXM), we illustrate the iterative (re)design of a reference model, which was developed by 15 companies and researchers from three universities. Based on these experiences, we derive recommendations for developing reference models in research collaborations between academics and practitioners.

Design for six sigma integrated product development reference model through systematic review

PurposeThis paper aims to present a systematic review of design for six sigma (DFSS) methods applicable to the product development process (PDP) of durables goods and identify a research opportunity on the subject proposing integration of DFSS and a reference model for the PDP. In this way, through the analysis of the theoretical references identified in the scientific databases, it was possible to propose a conceptual model for the PDP oriented to the DFSS.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on the theoretical framework presented in peer-reviewed scientific research papers during the period 2000 to 2018 on the theme DFSS applied in the PDP, as well as such as the product development tools/techniques and statistics addressed. By means of key words defined by the acronyms of DFSS methods (DMADOV, ICOV, DMEDI, IDOV, DDOV, PIDOV, DMADIC, DCCDI, DMADV, IDDOV, CDOV and DCOV), DFSS and the acronym DFSS. Applying Boolean expression during the conduction of the searches through the scientific evidence at the Brazilian scientific database platform (Capes database). This database platform is maintained by coordination for the improvement of higher education personnel, which including Emerald Insight (Emerald), Scopus (Elsevier), Science Direct, SpringerLink, Taylor Francis, Scielo (Web of Science), Wiley Online Library, Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics), etc. It was obtained, by means of the searches, 269 papers related to subject DFSS, of which 18 papers had been critically selected for the composition of a conceptual model for the process of development of product guided to the DFSS.FindingsThis study presents a review of the literature (systematic review and content analysis) on DFSS and its effectiveness for the PDP. The DFSS methodology is disseminated in the scientific literature through a variety of methods that are often mistaken for the six sigma methodology – DMAIC, which is directed toward process improvement. The PDP integrated with the DFSS concepts contributes to eliminating possible failures during the design of a new product, directing to reduce costs and improve the quality of the product and process.Practical implicationsThis paper presents a literature review that guided to a proposal of a preliminary conceptual model DFSS focused on the process of product development with the purpose of being a friendly model that meets the dynamics of the organizations and the expectations of the consumers.Originality/valueThrough the systematic review and content analysis, it was possible to observe that the DFSS methods applied to product development are not related to the PDP reference models available in the literature. In this way, the fusion of the concepts of the DFSS methods and PDP reference models for the construction and proposition of a preliminary conceptual model DFSS oriented to the process of product development intends to contribute in the development of new products with the reduction of time, reduction of the cost, competitive price and consumer satisfaction.

International principles and standards for the practice of ecological restoration. Second edition

Ecological restoration, when implemented effectively and sustainably, contributes to protecting biodiversity; improving human health and wellbeing; increasing food and water security; delivering goods, services, and economic prosperity; and supporting climate change mitigation, resilience, and adaptation. It is a solutions-based approach that engages communities, scientists, policymakers, and land managers to repair ecological damage and rebuild a healthier relationship between people and the rest of nature. When combined with conservation and sustainable use, ecological restoration is the link needed to move local, regional, and global environmental conditions from a state of continued degradation, to one of net positive improvement. The second edition of the International Principles and Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration (the Standards) presents a robust framework for restoration projects to achieve intended goals, while addressing challenges including effective design and implementation, accounting for complex ecosystem dynamics (especially in the context of climate change), and navigating trade-offs associated with land management priorities and decisions.