Good Design Solutions Research Articles

Reconsidering Python Syntax to Enhance Programming Productivity

Abstract: Data analytics plays a crucial role in today's society across various domains, driven by technological advancements and exponential data growth. Handling large-scale data poses a challenge due to increased computational and storage requirements. The heterogeneity of tasks in data analytics programming languages complicates integration and interaction, necessitating effective cross-language integration for productivity and extended capabilities. This paper proposes a generalized interpreter accepting various language syntaxes, primarily based on Python and MATLAB, with comparisons to R and Julia. Findings reveal Python's beginner-friendly learning curve and rich resources, Julia's high-performance computing, MATLAB’s numerical prowess and specialized toolbox, and Python and R's focus on flexibility. Both Python and R boast active communities, while Python offers extensive portability, and Julia emphasizes interoperability. Despite syntactic differences, a common interpreter offers flexibility and efficiency, benefiting developers by enabling language selection based on project needs. Challenges can be mitigated through good design and technical solutions. Encouragement for research and innovation in universal interpreter development fosters collaboration, enhancing opportunities in data analysis and scientific computing. Active participation from developers and researchers is encouraged for continual improvement and advancement in the field.

A novel cyber-physical resilience-based strategy for water quality sensor placement in water distribution networks

ABSTRACT Water distribution networks (WDNs) employ contamination warning systems (CWS) with water quality sensors to detect water contamination. If some of these sensors are compromised during a contamination event, the consequences regarding public health can be devastating. With the emerging threat of cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure, WDNs are at risk of cyber-physical attacks that can deliberately contaminate water and concurrently mask the event by cyber-attacking sensors in the CWS. We develop a novel optimization strategy for the placement of water quality sensors that maximizes resilience under cyber-physical attack scenarios, suitable for designing a new sensor layout or upgrading an existing one. The resilient strategy is tested on multiple WDNs, focused on the upgrade problem. Results show improvement in the expected CWS detection performance under cyber-physical attacks, while the performance trade-off under nominal operation is minimal compared to classic strategies, hinting at a good design solution for cyber-wise water utilities.

Building empirical knowledge on the relationship between code smells and design patterns: An exploratory study

AbstractCode smell is a concept describing potential problems in software design. In opposition, design pattern describes good design solutions in terms of maintainability and reusability. Code smell and design pattern might be perceived as metaphors supporting software design activity in terms of understanding and communication. However, empirical evaluation is needed to investigate their effect in terms of programming activity. Our objective is to build empirical knowledge on the relationship between code smells and design patterns. We carried out an exploratory study based on mining software repositories and in a baseline study addressing software evolution. In total, we analyzed 61 software. Their classes were identified as linked to both code smells and design patterns metaphors. Then, we analyzed the co‐occurrence of these metaphors. Our findings indicate that the relationship between smells and design patterns is software dependent. Some software present many smells linked to design patterns while for other software, smelly classes are not linked to design patterns. We also found that the instability metric weakly reflects this idea. Our study supports better understanding of the topic. It presents results in the opposite direction of expectations that the presence of smells is correlated with the absence of design patterns and vice versa.

Numerical study and proposal of new design equations for steel decking concrete slabs subjected to fire

This paper presents a numerical study on structurally continuous steel decking concrete slabs subjected to fire. This is an important subject for improving the fire design methods of this type of elements. Slabs with tension, compression and/or both steel reinforcement types have been tested. The results of twelve full-scale slab fire resistance tests carried out by the authors have been used in the calibration of the numerical models. Despite the compression rebars being more thermally protected, the use of tension rebars proved to be a good design solution, because just from the initial 5 min of fire, a detachment of the steel deck was registered. In this sense, slabs without tension rebars performed like a non-reinforced concrete slab. The detachment of the steel decking suggests that this type of slabs should not be fire designed as a composite element. There is no interaction between the steel decking and the concrete just from the beginning of the fire exposure. Nevertheless, when the steel decking detaches and stops contributing to the mechanical resistance of the slab, it continues to work as a thermal barrier. Another important conclusion is that the simple calculation method of EN 1994–1-2 needs an update for taking into account these phenomena. A new methodology for the mechanical and thermal design of these slabs in case of fire is proposed.

Project Management Roles and Task for Interior Designer During Design Phase

The interior design process begins with identifying and solving a problem. Good interior design solutions have the power to positively influence people. The process to turn an empty interior into a functionally effective and aesthetically pleasing environment requires a few tasks. The continued misunderstanding of these respective disciplines enables the general public to assume that anyone who creates and furnishes a space with finishes and artworks without a clear understanding of the structural drawings and schematics of that particular space is an interior designer. It is important to ensure that the roles and tasks of an interior designer are not equated to interior decorators and/or interior architects. The aim of the analysis is to validate the importance of project management knowledge in managing interior projects with relation to the professional provision that will improve in Interior design industry needs and expectation from the interior designer towards the knowledge and skills of project management. The objective was to investigate the importance level of interior design professional practices on the Interior design’s task and duties. The quantitative approach was applied in this research to validate the roles and task of interior design project manager in design process of the project. This analysis will demonstrate the significance of a project manager's project management task in an interior design project.

An empirical study on the adoption of blockchain-based games from users’ perspectives

PurposeThe purpose of the research is to investigate users’ adoption of blockchain-based games in China.Design/methodology/approachThis research applied existing technology diffusion theories to develop a research model to examine users’ adoption of blockchain-based games. As a result, a research model with nine research hypotheses was developed. The developed research model was empirically tested using data collected from a survey of 210 blockchain-based games users. Structural equation modeling was applied to analyse the collected data.FindingsThe results indicated that seven of nine research hypotheses were supported. It was found that trust, perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment and perceived ease of use were key determinants for users’ behavioural intention to use blockchain-based games. The most influential relationship in the research model appeared to be the effect of perceived usefulness on users’ behavioural intention to use blockchain-based games. However, subjective norms did not have significant positive impacts on users’ behavioural intention to use blockchain-based games.Practical implicationsThe regulatory support from governmental authorities is essential to provide additional legal certainty to build users’ trust in playing blockchain-based games. Blockchain-based games providers should arrange the training program targeted to the general users to enhance their understanding of the key features associated with blockchain-based games. Blockchain-based games developers should come up with good design solutions to maximize user enjoyment with blockchain-based games by considering additional entertainment elements.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is first of its kind in investigating the adoption of blockchain-based games from users’ perspectives. This study contributes to the existing literature on the adoption of blockchain technology.

O projektovanju metalnih delova otpornih na zamor

This paper is devoted to design of metallic parts exposed to low cycle fatigue. Two flat discs, as representatives of these parts, were discussed. The first with 8, and the second with 64 eccentrically arranged holes. Their resistance to low cycle fatigue was investigated. Cyclic properties of two aerospace steels nominated for workmanship, plus planned revolves per minute and revolves per minute of 5% above planned, are taken into account. On the base of estimated low cycle fatigue life data, good design solution was discovered. On the other hand, it was shown that the both mentioned discs would have a large drop of resistance to low cycle fatigue for revolves per minute of 5% above planned.

The influence of a designers’ mind-set on their design process and design outcomes

Mind-sets are expected to influence the process of designing, which require designers to successfully integrate complex decision-making processes into good design solutions. The study reported here analyses whether differences in mind-sets shown by design students can influence their design processes and impact the quality of the design solutions that they produce. The considerations, design activities and quality of solutions that design students produced in response to a given design task are examined to make an inference of mind-sets in actual design situations. 45 undergraduate students majoring in industrial design filled in a questionnaire that assessed their mind-set, and engaged in a design task. Two general types of mindsets can be discerned empirically: discerning and opportunistic. Significant differences between design students with a discerning or opportunistic mind-set could be observed. Evidence for the cultivation of a discerning mind-set in designing is found. Building on these results, recommendations on how to potentially support design teaching and learning are discussed.

Software architectural design technology application

Many specialists work in the field of creating reliable and high-performance architectures aimed at demonstrating the high degree of influence of software architectures and the commercial success of the overwhelming majority of modern organizations. The concept and methodology of application of architectural approach at creation of complex information systems, advantages and disadvantages are considered. The questions of choice and implementation of different architectures of information systems, composition and interrelation of processes in development are considered. The developer of architecture must arrange the subsystem according to a certain management model that would complement the existing structure model. In the control models, the flow of control between the subsystems is projected. A good design solution serves as the basis for a highly productive system

Design re-use: critical application of healthcare building design evidence

Purpose The re-use of good design solutions is a key source of evidence and knowledge in the design of healthcare buildings. However, due to the unique nature of healthcare built environments, the critical application of this evidence is of paramount importance. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the features of such critical application and identify the aspects that need to be considered during the re-use of good designs. Design/methodology/approach Data from three case studies of hospital designs in the UK were used to explore the processes behind the adaption and re-use of design solutions during the design of healthcare buildings. Data were thematically analysed to distinguish the aspects that should be carefully compared and contrasted during design re-use. Findings Existing designs of healthcare buildings should be captured and evaluated along with: patient demographics, care models of the hospital, other local departmental needs and facility operational aspects in order to ensure the effectiveness of re-use. In addition, properly introducing the design to the users is also a part of successful design re-use. Research limitations/implications The findings of this research were integrated into a framework to support healthcare designers on the effective re-use of good designs. This data-driven framework could be validated further with design practitioners. Further, this research relied on memory recall of the interviewees and the accuracy and completeness of documentary records. Practical implications This research provides details of how healthcare built environment designs are embedded in project-unique circumstances. The results could therefore be used to develop meaningful and informative evaluation mechanisms for new and re-used healthcare building design features. Originality/value This research extends the understanding of the critical application of healthcare design evidence, by explaining how healthcare design solutions should be evaluated during the design process.

An Investigation into Holistic Planning of Urban Factories

Value creation and manufacturing of products is an important part of cities’ sustainable development. Urban-Factories allow such value creation within urban areas. Although Urban-Factories might have unintended negative impacts on their neighborhood, mainly environmental impacts, their urban location can offer positive impacts for both the surrounding city and the companies. To achieve these positive impacts, the design of Urban-Factories requires studying other extra aspects, such as urban services and logistics. However, the logistics aspect of Urban-Factories is mostly studied when the decisions regarding other design aspects are already made. Yet, overlooking logistics (or any other aspect) in early stages might lead to losing good design solutions, potentially negatively affecting lifetime performance of Urban-Factories. Therefore, this paper proposes an approach for analyzing the design knowledge of Urban-Factories in a holistic manner, while providing attention to logistics aspects. The practicality of the proposed approach is demonstrated with a case study.

ENERGY HARVESTING TECHNIQUES IN WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

Batteries are the main source of energy for low-power electronics such as micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS), wireless sensor networks, embedded devices for remote sensing and control, etc. With the limited capacity of finite power sources and the need for supplying energy for the lifetime of a system/device there is a requirement for self-powered devices. Using conventional batteries is not always good design solution because batteries require human intervention to replace them (very often in hard-accessible and harsh-environmental conditions). Therefore, acquiring the electrical power, by using an alternative source of energy that is needed to operate these devices is a major concern. The process of extracting energy from the surrounding environment and converting it into consumable electrical energy is known as energy harvesting or power scavenging. The energy harvesting sources can be used to increase the lifetime and capability of the devices by either replacing or augmenting the battery usage. There are various forms of energy that can be scavenged, like solar, mechanical, thermal, and electromagnetic. Nowadays, there is a big interest in the field of research related to energy harvesting. This paper represents a survey for identifying the sources of energy harvesting and describes the basic operation of principles of the most common energy harvester. As first, we present, in short, the conversion principles of single energy source harvesting systems and point to their benefits and limitations in their usage. After that, hybrid structures of energy harvesters which simultaneously combine scavenged power from different ambient sources (solar, thermoelectric, electromagnetic), with aim to support higher load at the output, are considered.

Design Process of Durable and Lightweight Rally Car Frame from Ultra-High Strength Stainless Steel

To get all outstanding mechanical properties from ultra-high strength steel (UHSS) transformed into a lightweight and durable product, a comprehensive design process must be performed. The general DFMA method has been extended to get good design solutions with limited designer resources and within a relative short time period. Key steps of the extended DFMA design process are innovative brainstorming, the agile utilization of the optimization software, the heavy use of finite element analysis and fast design iteration. In this paper, the modified DFMA design method is described step by step. This method has been successfully used in the design process of the small lightweight rally car frame. The design process of the rally car is introduced as a case example of implementation of the extended DFMA.

Design optimization of helicopter rotor using kriging

Purpose The purpose of this study is to obtain optimum locations, peak deflection and chord of the twin trailing-edge flaps and optimum torsional stiffness of the helicopter rotor blade to minimize the vibration in the rotor hub with minimum requirement of flap control power. Design/methodology/approach Kriging metamodel with three-level five variable orthogonal array-based data points is used to decouple the optimization problem and actual aeroelastic analysis. Findings Some very good design solutions are obtained using this model. The best design point in minimizing vibration gives about 81 per cent reduction in the hub vibration with a penalization of increased flap power requirement, at normal cruise speed of rotor-craft flight. Practical implications One of the major challenges in the helicopters is the high vibration level in comparison with fixed wing aircraft. The reduction in vibration level in the helicopter improves passenger and crew comfort and reduces maintenance cost. Originality/value This paper presents design optimization of the helicopter rotor blade combining five design variables, such as the locations of twin trailing-edge flaps, peak deflection and flap chord and torsional stiffness of the rotor. Also, this study uses kriging metamodel to decouple the complex aeroelastic analysis and optimization problem.

Develop an Architectural Design Approach to Counter-terrorism

Abstract:Developing an Anti-terrorism Design approach will cause some loss of Design freedom. Protection systems cost money, but technology is helping to making them more affordable in Building Shape, Structure, Materials and its surrounding environment. The Proposed Approach encourage Security Design” that produce aesthetic and smart solutions with built-in security measures, based on Understanding Building behavior toward the explosions, that helps in suggesting good design solution to face this problem.The Best Solutions require innovative thinking process experienced in responding to acts of terrorism and the terrorist incidents,then consider all possibleProtection levels in early stage in designing phases.

Structural Performance of RC Beams containing Tension-Only Nodes

Strut and Tie (S&T) models are used for the design of what are known as “discontinuity regions” in reinforced concrete (RC) structures. Building codes such as ACI-318 and Eurocode 2 do not give information on the nodes that only connect ties in S&T models (called TTT or tension-only nodes). However, their use is not explicitly prohibited in the design of RC structures. In this work, a comparison between solutions which have been designed both considering and not considering TTT nodes is evaluated. Four RC beams (designed with and without TTT nodes) were subjected to three-point bending. Experimental results show that TTT nodes are a good design solution for special cases of discontinuity regions in RC structures. However, the experimental campaign has proven that this type of node is more vulnerable to errors during construction than solutions designed without TTT nodes.

Circular antenna design by adaptive position inheritance artificial bee colony algorithm

Reliable communication is a key factor in the development of the fifth generation wireless communication systems. To achieve reliable communication, designing desirable antenna arrays is the basis so as to realize wireless data transmission. Artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm has shown its powerfulness in engineering design problems, though the performance of ABC could be improved further through information exchange of existing solutions. This paper proposes an adaptive position inheritance strategy for ABC algorithm. It adaptively decides the number of positions to be inherited attached with the evolutionary process of the algorithm. Take circular antenna as design example. The proposed algorithm is tested against with method of exhaustion. Simulation results show the usefulness of the proposed algorithm. Moreover, the proposed algorithm is also compared with state of the art algorithm under ABC paradigm. It turns out that the proposed algorithm attains better design solution. Thus, the proposed algorithm is useful for providing good design solutions in reliable communication.

Adapt! – Agile Project Management Supported by Axiomatic Design

This paper presents a novel approach for the use of Axiomatic Design Theory in combination with agile project management methods like Scrum for an effective, structured and combined product design and development process. Agile project management methods give a guideline how to manage a project, but there is only minor assistance regarding the actual product development process itself. Axiomatic Design can be used to support these methods in this point. In concrete terms, the results of the decomposition process of this theory can be used to formulate and structure the work packages for the agile project managing process. The Independence Axiom of Axiomatic Design Theory has a substantial contribution by ensuring the independence of the work packages which can be assigned to different project team members and can be processed independently by them. The combination of the different methods not only helps to ensure a good design solution but also helps to work more agile within a project team. The here proposed approach is one part of a holistic product design and development process for changeable production units – called Adapt! – and is described within a use case in the automotive sector.

PERFORMANCE-BASED FIRE DESIGN OF STEEL STRUCTURES OF HELSINKI OLYMPIC STADIUM

This paper presents an overview of the fire safety analysis conducted for the steel trusses of Helsinki Olympic Stadium stand. The analysis were conducted using advanced calculation models (FDS and SAFIR). It is shown that the predefined design solution (R60 fire protection with sprinklers) can be replaced by fire protection to class R15 (no sprinkler system) without sacrificing safety when some other passive protection means are applied. The good design solution in this case required highly iterative design process and smooth co-operation between client, architects, structural engineers and fire safety consultants.

An Assessment for Hydraulically Efficient Design of Uniformly Sloping Submain Lines

AbstractDetermining the actual pressure head profiles along the submain lines with a uniform slope is very important for proper hydraulic design of water distribution systems. In practice, there are three general pressure head profiles (Type I, Type II, and Type III) along submain lines depending on different uniform line slope situations. Of all types of pressure profiles, the Type IIb profile is considered the optimal (or ideal) pressure profile which can produce the minimum pressure head difference for a given pipe length. This profile occurs when the total energy loss by friction is just balanced by the total energy gain due to uniform downslope. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis based on the energy–gradient ratio (EGR) approach to identify the optimal (or ideal) pressure profile (Type IIb), to achieve the minimal point of the relative maximum pressure variation, ΦH, which can be defined as the ratio of the maximum allowable pressure head difference (∆Hmax) to the total friction drop (hf(L)). This minimal point is regarded as 'the most efficient pressure profile' or 'ideal hydraulic design' in the existing literature. For this purpose, an illustrative figure (Figure 4) was developed to compare values of the relative maximum pressure variation versus the dimensionless EGR (KS = S0/Sf) for all types of pressure profiles. In this figure, the present ϕH curve versus KS values allows the design engineer to make a decision for the best alternative for selecting the KS value, where for a given pipe slope (S0) the KS value can be selected to meet the minimum pressure variation [KS =1, (ϕH)min =0.36] or the range of pressure variation as close to the minimum point as possible. The present design technique may provide a useful decision support tool for achieving a good design solution among hydraulically possible alternatives with minimal pressure head difference, and results in a higher level of water application uniformity along the multi‐outlet pipeline system. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.