Product Family Research Articles

COMPUTATIONAL WEARABLES DESIGN: SHOE SOLE MODELING AND PROTOTYPING

Computational wearables design is based on the integration of algorithms into the design process. The use of computational design tools offers a series of advantages in the wearable product design modelling because a complete family of products can be produced with a limited effort from the designer, while at the same time geometries with high complexity can be dealt with a manageable way. The present paper aims to create the appropriate code for modelling shoe soles. The use of a visual programming language leads to a better understanding of the produced code and aims in controlling and optimising the output models. Following the proposed methodology, 3D scanning technologies and plantar pressure diagrams are used for introducing the sole customised geometry, and then the proposed algorithm creates a variety of alternatives of the final shoe sole geometry. As a result, both the customisation and the high number of alternative designs lead to increased creativity and customer satisfaction. Due to the complexity of the geometry produced, 3D printing technologies are incorporated for the prototype implementation.

Total Synthesis of the Reported Structure of Cahuitamycin A: Insights into an Elusive Natural Product Scaffold.

In a 2016 screen of natural product extracts, a new family of natural products, the cahuitamycins, was discovered and found to inhibit biofilm formation in the human pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii. The proposed molecular structures contained an unusual piperazic acid residue, which piqued interest related to their structure/function and biosynthesis. Herein we disclose the first total synthesis of the proposed structure of cahuitamycin A in a 12-step longest linear sequence and 18% overall yield. Comparison of spectral and biological data of the authentic natural product and synthetic compound revealed inconsistentancies with the isolated metabolite. We therefore executed the diverted total synthesis of three isomeric compounds, which were also found to be disparate from the isolated natural product. This work sets the stage for future synthetic and biochemical investigations of an important class of natural products.

Performance of the PERSIANN Family of Products over the Mekong River Basin and Their Application for the Analysis of Trends in Extreme Precipitation Indices

Near-real-time satellite precipitation estimation is indispensable in areas where ground-based measurements are not available. In this study, an evaluation of two near-real-time products from the Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing at the University of California, Irvine—PERSIANN-CCS (Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks—Cloud Classification System) and PDIR-Now (PERSIANN-Dynamic Infrared Rain Rate near-real-time)—were compared to each other and evaluated against IMERG Final (Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement—Final Run) from 2015 to 2020 over the Mekong River Basin and Delta (MRB) using a spatial resolution of 0.1∘ by 0.1∘ and at a daily scale. PERSIANN-CDR (PERSIANN-Climate Data Record) was also included in the evaluation but was not compared against the real-time products. In this evaluation, PDIR-Now exhibited a superior performance to that of PERSIANN-CCS, and the performance of PERSIANN-CDR was deemed satisfactory. The second part of the study entailed performing a Mann–Kendall trend test of extreme precipitation indices using 38 years of PERSIANN-CDR data over the MRB. This annual trend analysis showed that extreme precipitation over the 95th and 99th percentiles has decreased over the Upper Mekong River Basin, and the consecutive number of wet days has increased over the Lower Mekong River Basin.

NEPS of complex unit gain graphs

A complex unit gain graph (or $\mathbb T$-gain graph) is a gain graph with gains in $\mathbb T$, the multiplicative group of complex units. Extending a classical construction for simple graphs due to Cvektovic, suitably defined noncomplete extended $p$-sums (NEPS, for short) of $\mathbb T$-gain graphs are considered in this paper. Structural properties of NEPS like balance and some spectral properties and invariants of their adjacency and Laplacian matrices are investigated, including the energy and the possible symmetry of the adjacency spectrum. It is also shown how NEPS are useful to obtain infinitely many integral graphs from the few at hands.Moreover, it is studied how NEPS of $\mathbb T$-gain graphs behave with respect to the property of being nut, i.e., having $0$ as simple adjacency eigenvalue and nowhere zero $0$-eigenvectors. Finally, a family of new products generalizing NEPS is introduced, and their few first spectral properties explored.

OSAT Production Testing of 5G, Power Discretes & 3D packaged ICs

The presentation will be segmented into three. OSAT production testing challenges of three vital product families that are important to our semiconductor industry will be showcased in each segment. The first segment will describe the products and impacts to RF production testing of both Sub-8GHz carrier frequency range and the mmWave frequency range of operation. The second segment will explore emerging MOSFET technologies that enable faster switching rates and higher voltage and current topologies. The third segment will describe the challenges of production test content for 3D-stacked advanced packages. 5G RF has enabled mmWave carrier frequencies, small cell deployment, massive MIMO (Multiple In, Multiple Out), beam forming, and full duplex wireless transmission and reception operations. These features require new production test methodologies. There is an astronomical rise in battery powered applications like toys, consumer goods, automotive and trains. Power path turn on/off with MOSFETs is in the critical path. The technology has advanced from the traditional Si to GaN and SiC based products that have a smaller size and allow for higher application efficiencies. Test specifications and limits are improving and production testing methods are evolving to account for these changes. Advanced packaging has enabled the path to integrate chiplets within a single package. Heterogeneous Integration (HI) is a powerful design innovation that allows tighter integration and, in some cases, improved signal and power performance at the system level. Production test methodologies are being streamlined to make test a competitive advantage for our customers.

Advanced Glass Carriers for Buildup Structure Warp Control and Wafer Ultra-thinning

Tailorable CTE of glass carriers enables effective warp control of buildup structures such as fan-Out wafer level package and multi-layer laminates. Corning’s Advanced Packaging Carrier (APC) product family covers CTE from 4.9-12.6 ppm/C with fine granularity down to 0.2 ppm/C, and other glass types go down in CTE all the way to 0 ppm/C. We illustrate the benefits of having such CTE capabilities using several use cases. Carrier supported wafer thinning down to single digit microns is another emerging need. In addition to CTE matching, such ultra-thinning requires the carrier and the associated temporary bonding method to deliver very low total thickness variation (TTV), typically a small fraction of the final wafer thickness. We will introduce Corning’s recently announced ultra-low-TTV (ULTTV) glass carriers as well as near-zero-TTV temporary bonding methods that enable ultra-thinning of wafers of various types.

On Hierarchically Closed Fractional Intersecting Families

For a set $L$ of positive proper fractions and a positive integer $r \geq 2$, a fractional $r$-closed $L$-intersecting family is a collection $\mathcal{F} \subset \mathcal{P}([n])$ with the property that for any $2 \leq t \leq r$ and $A_1, \dotsc, A_t \in \mathcal{F}$ there exists $\theta \in L$ such that $\lvert A_1 \cap \dotsb \cap A_t \rvert \in \{ \theta \lvert A_1 \rvert, \dotsc, \theta \lvert A_t \rvert\}$. In this paper we show that for $r \geq 3$ and $L = \{\theta\}$ any fractional $r$-closed $\theta$-intersecting family has size at most linear in $n$, and this is best possible up to a constant factor. We also show that in the case $\theta = 1/2$ we have a tight upper bound of $\lfloor \frac{3n}{2} \rfloor - 2$ and that a maximal $r$-closed $(1/2)$-intersecting family is determined uniquely up to isomorphism.

A Value Modeling Approach for Product Development Processes and Supply Chain Management

This research presents a quantifiable value modeling approach for tracking and optimizing value addition at different stages of the product development process (PDP) and supply chain management (SCM). While there is a vast abundance of papers in the literature harping on the need to maximize the value, especially in lean thinking context, in PDP and SCM, there is a dearth of propositions on how to quantitatively measure and optimize value at each stage of product development and supply chain. This paper presents a multi-dimensional value modeling approach that incorporates parameters and variables from different stages of PDP and SCM by mathematically mapping them on to two macroscopic metrics, namely Product Information Evolution and Risk Reduction. These two metrics are in turn modeled by incorporating value attribute variables such as performance, risk, schedule, cost, form, fit, function and timeliness from different stages of PDP-SCM such as customer needs ideation, product functions, inventory management, logistics management and product delivery. The efficacy of the proposed model was tested by utilizing it to measure value additions at different stages of PDP-SCM as well as the total value addition for an ordinance disposal (OD) robot product family, once developed and supplied using traditional production method and once using lean production method, with the underlying axiom being the lean method will result in higher value. To ensure a fair and accurate comparison, both production methods used the proposed mathematical value model and worked toward maximizing total value using nonlinear programming. The results showed that lean PDP-SCM method added higher value at each of the stages as well as total value when compared to the traditional PDP-SCM method thus establishing the proposed value model as a viable mathematical way to measure value. While the proposed value model passed test of efficacy against the lean axiom, further research is needed to test it against other established axioms to establish it as a robust mathematical way to measure value in PDP-SCM.

Effects of Product Personalization: Considering Personalizability in the Product Architecture of Modular Product Families

Abstract The modularity of a product architecture with standard, variant, and optional modules can be measured by the characteristics of commonality and combinability. Positive and negative effects of a more communal or more combinable structure are summarized and visualized in an impact model. However, due to the megatrend of personalization, the solution space of a modular product architecture needs to be extended to include personalizable modules. What remains unclear till now is how personalization impacts the different life phases. Therefore, this article derives an impact model considering product personalization. First, the modularity property of personalizability is derived, in order to then specifically investigate the effects occurring in the different life phases. Therefore, a literature review is conducted. New effects are found, and the existing effects of commonality and combinability are examined for their validity for personalizability. The findings are then combined with the known effects of commonality and combinability to create a holistic impact model of modular product families. This new model takes personalizable modules into account and can support companies in defining the goals and focus of a modularization project.

A product family-based supply chain hypernetwork resilience optimization strategy

In product manufacturing, the supply chain can be adversely affected by the occurrence of uncertain risk events. Optimizing supply chain resilience is a challenging multi-objective nonlinear programming problem. Due to the development of mass customization production modes, manufacturing enterprises are more concerned with the service supply capability for a given product family. However, optimizing supply chain resilience while considering the product family is neglected in existing works. To tackle it, this paper first establishes a product family-based supply chain hypernetwork, mapping the product bill of materials to the potential suppliers. Second, a product family-based supply chain hypernetwork resilience optimization strategy (PF-SCHROS) is proposed using an improved genetic algorithm. Experiments are carried out to compare the proposed strategy with the traditional methods including interior point method, sequential quadratic programming, and genetic algorithm. Results show that our approach greatly reduces the loss originating from supplier chain disruption and can adequately improve supply chain service capability in various disruption scenarios.

Organocatalytic Enantioselective Syntheses of Flavonoids and Cannabinoids

AbstractFlavonoids and cannabinoids comprise two large families of natural products that contain a chromane moiety in their structure. Their therapeutic potential has been extensively investigated as potential treatments to several diseases, ranging from cancer to infectious and neurodegenerative diseases. Despite their relative structural simplicity, in recent years creative synthetic methodologies were designed to overcome limitations from the previous synthetic strategies applied to these compounds. The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive overview of all the enantioselective organocatalytic strategies that have been applied to the synthesis of flavonoids and cannabinoids to date.

The Effect of Bottom Reinforcement Spacers on Reinforced Concrete Structures Loaded by Explosion

Plastic spacers create a linear and systemic weakening of the structure. The extreme loading of the structure tests the structure itself to its load-bearing limit or even locally exceeds this limit, thus revealing all its weak points, which are the spacers. Nevertheless, the influence of the spacers is not included in the design calculation of the reinforced concrete element. In addition, products intended as spacers for the placement of reinforcement do not belong to the specific families of construction products covered by a harmonized standard of European parliament regulation. For these reasons, it is not required to demonstrate any characteristics of these products. This fact allows the use of arbitrary spacers’ shapes and materials. As shown by the experiment carried out, the use of commonly used plastic liners will result in a weakening of the cross-section. The normal assessment of the ultimate or serviceability limit state is not affected by this weakening. An example of an experiment carried out where this problem was captured is the subject of this paper. With Europe’s current deteriorated safety situation, understanding the influence of spacers in blast-loaded reinforced concrete structures on structural failure is important, and it is appropriate to further address this issue. Based on this experiment, it is not possible to accurately identify the causes of the explosion cracks. In order to determine with certainty the effect of spacers on the strength of the structure under abnormal blast loadings, research needs to focus on this area. In the field experimental measurements and numerical simulations, it was found that the use of linear spacers has an effect on crack formation under the blast action of the tested slab.

Bioactive Alkaloids as Secondary Metabolites from Plant Endophytic Aspergillus Genus

Alkaloids represent a large family of natural products with diverse structures and bioactivities. These compounds and their derivatives have been widely used in clinics to treat various diseases. The endophytic Aspergillus is a filamentous fungus renowned for its extraordinary ability to produce active natural products of high therapeutic value and economic importance. This review is the first to focus on Aspergillus-derived alkaloids. Through an extensive literature review and data analysis, 263 alkaloids are categorized according to their structural features into those containing cytochalasans, diketopiperazine alkaloids, quinazoline alkaloids, quinoline alkaloids, indole alkaloids, pyrrolidine alkaloids, and others. These metabolites exhibited diverse biological activities, such as antibacterial activity, cytotoxicity, anti-inflammatory activity, and α-glucosidase, ACE, and DPPH inhibitory activities. The bioactivity, structural diversity, and occurrence of these alkaloids are reviewed in detail.

Diversity and conservation of the genome architecture of phages infecting the Alphaproteobacteria.

This study reports the results of the largest analysis of genome sequences from phages that infect the Alphaproteobacteria class of bacterial hosts. We analyzed over 100 whole genome sequences of phages to construct dotplots, categorize them into genetically distinct clusters, generate a bootstrapped phylogenetic tree, compute protein orthologs, and predict packaging strategies. We determined that the phage sequences primarily cluster by the bacterial host family, phage morphotype, and genome size. We expect that the findings reported in this seminal study will facilitate future analyses that will improve our knowledge of the phages that infect these hosts.

Total Synthesis of Cyanobactin Natural Product Balgacyclamide B.

Balgacyclamide A-C are a family of cyanobactin natural products isolated from freshwater cyanobacteria Microcystis aeruginosa. These macrocyclic peptides are characterized by their oxazoline-thiazole core, their 7 or 8 stereocenters, and their antiparasitic activities. Balgacyclamide B is known for its activity towards Plasmodium falciparum chloroquine-resistant strain K1, Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense, and Leishmania donovani. In this report, the first total synthesis of Balgacyclamide B is described in a 17-steps pathway and a 2 % overall yield. The synthetic pathway toward balgacyclamide B can be adapted for the future syntheses of balgacyclamide A and C. In addition, a brief history background of oxazolines syntheses is shown to emphasize the importance of the cyclization conditions used to interconvert or retain configuration of β-hydroxy amides via dehydrative cyclization.

Automated code-based test case reuse for software product line testing

ContextA software product line (SPL) grows in size as a new product is developed. A new product in an SPL should be tested extensively for quality assurance. For the efficient testing, previous studies suggested reusing the existing test cases of a product family. However, either their methods were not efficient because interventions from human experts, specifications, architecture and/or traceabilities for test cases were required. ObjectiveTo address these limitations, we propose an Automated Code-based Test case reuse for SPLs (ActSPL). ActSPL automatically identifies reusable test cases for new products of a product family using source code and test cases. MethodActSPL automatically constructs a hash-based traceability links between test cases and source code of a product family. Using the traceability links, ActSPL selects reusable test cases for a given new product from existing test cases of the product family. ResultsWe evaluated ActSPL in terms of the effectiveness and cost reduction of reusing test cases with five open-source SPLs. The evaluation results showed that ActSPL, on average, achieved 100 % precision and 62 % recall. In addition, ActSPL, on average, saved 47.5 % of time required for testing a new product from scratch. ConclusionOur study shows the feasibility of ActSPL reusing SPL test cases based on source code and test cases. Our results can be a basis for successive studies for automated code-based SPL testing.

Discovery and overproduction of novel highly bioactive pamamycins through transcriptional engineering of the biosynthetic gene cluster

BackgroundPamamycins are a family of highly bioactive macrodiolide polyketides produced by Streptomyces alboniger as a complex mixture of derivatives with molecular weights ranging from 579 to 705 Daltons. The large derivatives are produced as a minor fraction, which has prevented their isolation and thus studies of chemical and biological properties.ResultsHerein, we describe the transcriptional engineering of the pamamycin biosynthetic gene cluster (pam BGC), which resulted in the shift in production profile toward high molecular weight derivatives. The pam BGC library was constructed by inserting randomized promoter sequences in front of key biosynthetic operons. The library was expressed in Streptomyces albus strain with improved resistance to pamamycins to overcome sensitivity-related host limitations. Clones with modified pamamycin profiles were selected and the properties of engineered pam BGC were studied in detail. The production level and composition of the mixture of pamamycins was found to depend on balance in expression of the corresponding biosynthetic genes. This approach enabled the isolation of known pamamycins and the discovery of three novel derivatives with molecular weights of 663 Da and higher. One of them, homopamamycin 677A, is the largest described representative of this family of natural products with an elucidated structure. The new pamamycin 663A shows extraordinary activity (IC50 2 nM) against hepatocyte cancer cells as well as strong activity (in the one-digit micromolar range) against a range of Gram-positive pathogenic bacteria.ConclusionBy employing transcriptional gene cluster refactoring, we not only enhanced the production of known pamamycins but also discovered novel derivatives exhibiting promising biological activities. This approach has the potential for broader application in various biosynthetic gene clusters, creating a sustainable supply and discovery platform for bioactive natural products.

Rigidity of weighted Einstein smooth metric measure spaces

We study the geometric structure of weighted Einstein smooth metric measure spaces with weighted harmonic Weyl tensor. A complete local classification is provided, showing that either the underlying manifold is Einstein, or decomposes as a warped product in a specific way. Moreover, if the manifold is complete, then it either is a weighted analogue of a space form, or it belongs to a particular family of Einstein warped products.

Amenable wreath products with non almost finite actions of mean dimension zero

Almost finiteness was introduced in the seminal work of Kerr [J. Eur. Math. Soc. (JEMS) 22 (2020), pp. 3697–3745] as an dynamical analogue of Z \mathcal {Z} -stability in the Toms-Winter conjecture. In this article, we provide the first examples of minimal, topologically free actions of amenable groups that have mean dimension zero but are not almost finite. More precisely, we prove that there exists an infinite family of amenable wreath products that admit topologically free, minimal profinite actions on the Cantor space which fail to be almost finite. Furthermore, these actions have dynamical comparison. This intriguing new phenomenon shows that Kerr’s dynamical analogue of Toms-Winter conjecture fails for minimal, topologically free actions of amenable groups. The notion of allosteric group holds a significant position in our study. A group is allosteric if it admits a minimal action on a compact space with an invariant ergodic probability measure that is topologically free but not essentially free. We study allostery of wreath products and provide the first examples of allosteric amenable groups.

A New Strategy for the Preparation of 3‐Amino‐4‐hydroxypyrrolidinone‐4‐acetic Acid, an Unusual γ‐Amino Acid found in Microsclerodermins

AbstractAn original synthetic strategy is presented for the preparation of the sensitive 3‐amino‐4‐hydroxypyrrolidinone‐4‐acetic acid residue that is present in the structures of the microsclerodermin natural product family. The approach relies on the use of a linear γ‐amino acid surrogate, derived from asparagine, bearing a β‐dithiolanyl group. A protected dipeptide model system is used to demonstrate that selective removal of the dithioketal protection followed by cyclization gives the target structure in single diastereoisomer form and with little or no dehydration.