Industry Guidelines Research Articles

In vitro blood[sbnd]brain barrier permeability study of four main active ingredients from Alpiniae oxyphyllae fructus

The fruits of Alpinia oxyphylla Miq., a broadly utilized traditional Chinese medicine, have a number of effects on the central nervous system (CNS). The main active constituents of Alpiniae oxyphyllae fructus (AOF) were nootkatone, tectochrysin, chrysin and protocatechuic acid. An immortalized human brain microvascular endothelial cell (hCMEC/D3) and astrocyte (HA1800) coculture model was used to investigate the permeability of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The validation of ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) methods for the four compounds was conducted following industry guidelines. Calibration curves were generated with mean coefficients (R2) better than 0.99. The inter-day and intra-day precisions were less than 8.53% and 7.12%, respectively. The accuracies were lower than ± 11.57%, and recoveries were greater than 86.07%. The samples of the transport experiment were examined, and the apparent permeability coefficients (Papp) were calculated. The efflux ratios of the four compounds are all less than 2. The Papp values of protocatechuic acid, chrysin, nootkatone, tectochrysin were at the level of 10−5, 10−6, 10−6, and 10−7 cm/s, respectively. All four compounds crossed the BBB by passive diffusion, with protocatechuic acid having high permeability, and tectochrysin having poor permeability. This research indicated the permeability of protocatechuic acid, chrysin, nootkatone and tectochrysin through the BBB and offered a foundation for related research on AOF in the treatment of CNS illnesses.

Thermal expansion of high‐density polyethylene in hot plate welding applications

AbstractThis research studies high‐density polyethylene (HDPE) behavior that is not easily identifiable in a production setting, but is, nevertheless, necessary for consideration when specifying equipment performance for hot plate welding (HPW) applications. Thermal expansion in polymers can depend on several factors, such as the specific type of polymer, its degree of cross‐linking, and the temperature range over which the expansion occurs. This physical behavior can affect the process by prolonging the cycle time if the equipment is not sized correctly for the application. This research uses HDPE samples with different surface areas and varying process parameters (force and temperature) to collect data on the sample size change. Experimental results are compared with a recommended industrial guideline of 0.2 to 0.5 MPa of pressure for the Matching stage (stage for surface conformation). Obtained findings indicate that this industrial guideline is very temperature dependent. Data collected in the experiment were used to develop a mathematical model for thermal expansion under different parameters. This study also presents a visual interpretation of HDPE behavior on the effect of temperature if the pressure is increased or decreased.

Identifying the skills requirements related to industrial symbiosis and energy efficiency for the European process industry

The need for sustainable production, efficient use of resources, energy efficiency and reduction in CO2 emission are currently the main drivers that are transforming the European process industry besides Industry 4.0. Since the potential of industrial symbiosis (IS) and energy efficiency (EE) about environmental, economic and social issues has been discovered, the interest in them is gradually increasing. The funding and investments for IS and EE are highly encouraged by the European Commission, while more and more policies as well as research and innovation (R&I) activities are initiated to promote European industry’s advancement towards a circular economy and CO2 neutrality. The aim is to maintain the competitiveness and economic progress of the industry. The key to build a competitive and sustainable European manufacturing industry is to create a competent, highly qualified workforce that is capable of handling the new business models coming with IS and EE requirements and digital technologies. We can generate this by identifying the skills needs and upskilling and reskilling the current workforce accordingly by delivering the suitable training programmes. Therefore, this work identifies the most critical skills needs related to IS and EE for six different energy-intensive sectors (steel, ceramic, water, cement, chemical and minerals) in Europe. The effect of the digital transformation on the skills needs is as well discussed. The identified skills are aimed to be included in vocational education and training (VET), tertiary education and other kinds of training curricula. We also identify the cross-sectoral most representative job profiles linked with EE and IS in these sectors and demonstrate the methodology for the selection process. Furthermore, we present a key tool for identifying the most significant current and future skills requirements. Also, we define the critical skill gaps of the European process industry using this tool. Once the skill gaps are defined, they can be reduced by delivering well-developed continuous trainings. We also link our work to the respectable ESCO, the European Classification of skills, competences, qualifications and occupations, to attain a common ground with other studies and frameworks, minimise the complexity and contribute to their work. Our work is developed to be an academic and industrial guideline to prepare well-developed training programmes to deliver the needed skills.

Down the Rabbit Hole: Detecting Online Extremism, Radicalisation, and Politicised Hate Speech

Social media is a modern person’s digital voice to project and engage with new ideas and mobilise communities—a power shared with extremists. Given the societal risks of unvetted content-moderating algorithms forExtremism, Radicalisation,andHate speech(ERH)detection, responsible software engineering must understand the who, what, when, where, and why such models are necessary to protect user safetyandfree expression. Hence, we propose and examine the unique research field ofERH context miningto unify disjoint studies. Specifically, we evaluate the start-to-finish design process from socio-technical definition-building and dataset collection strategies to technical algorithm design and performance. Our 2015–2021 51-studySystematic Literature Review (SLR)provides the first cross-examination of textual, network, and visual approaches to detectingextremistaffiliation,hatefulcontent, andradicalisationtowards groups and movements. We identify consensus-driven ERH definitions and propose solutions to existing ideological and geographic biases, particularly due to the lack of research in Oceania/Australasia. Our hybridised investigation on Natural Language Processing, Community Detection, and visual-text models demonstrates the dominating performance of textual transformer-based algorithms. We conclude with vital recommendations for ERH context mining researchers and propose an uptake roadmap with guidelines for researchers, industries, and governments to enable a safer cyberspace.

PVD for Decorative Applications: A Review.

Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) is a widely utilized process in various industrial applications, serving as a protective and hard coating. However, its presence in fields like fashion has only recently emerged, as electroplating processes had previously dominated this reality. The future looks toward the replacement of the most hazardous and toxic electrochemical processes, especially those involving Cr(VI) and cyanide galvanic baths, which have been restricted by the European Union. Unfortunately, a complete substitution with PVD coatings is not feasible. Currently, the combination of both techniques is employed to achieve new aesthetic features, including a broader color range and diverse textures, rendering de facto PVD of primary interest for the decorative field and the fashion industry. This review aims to outline the guidelines for decorative industries regarding PVD processes and emphasize the recent advancements, quality control procedures, and limitations.

“Practical Guidelines for the Chemical Industry: Operation, Processes, and Sustainability in Modern Facilities”

“Practical Guidelines for the Chemical Industry: Operation, Processes, and Sustainability in Modern Facilities”

Informing Visual Display Design of Electronic Health Records: A Human Factors Cross-Industry Perspective

Background Despite their prevalence, poorly designed electronic health records (EHRs) are common, and research shows poor design consequences include clinician burnout, diagnostic error, and even patient harm. One of the major difficulties of EHR design is the visual display of information, which aims to present information in an easily digestible form for the user. High-risk industries like aviation, automotive, and nuclear have guidelines for visual displays based on human factors principles for optimized design. Purpose In this study, we reviewed the visual display guidelines from three high-risk industries—automotive, aviation, nuclear—for their applicability to EHR design and safety. Methods Human factors experts extracted guidelines related to visual displays from automotive, aviation, and nuclear human factors guideline documents. Human factors experts and a clinical expert excluded guidelines irrelevant to EHR. Human factors experts used a modified reflexive thematic analysis to group guidelines into meaningful topics. Disagreements were discussed until a consensus was reached. Results A total of 449 guidelines were extracted from the industry documents, and 283 (63.0%) were deemed relevant to EHRs. By industry, 12 of 44 (27.3%) automotive industry guidelines were relevant, 43 of 115 (37.4%) aviation industry guidelines were relevant, and 228 of 290 (78.6%) nuclear industry guidelines were relevant. Guidelines were grouped into six categories: alphanumeric; color, brightness, contrast, and luminance; comprehension; design characteristics; symbols, pictograms, and icons; and tables, figures, charts, and lists. Conclusion Our analysis identified visual display guidelines organized around six topics from the automotive, aviation, and nuclear industries to inform EHR design. Multiple stakeholders, including EHR vendors, healthcare facilities, and policymakers, can apply these guidelines to design new EHRs and optimize EHRs already in use.

A Survey on National Cyber Emergency Plans

Operators of Essential services (OESs) and Critical infrastructures (CIs), whether private companies or public organizations are going through a digital transformation to pace with the evolution of technology and to bring better services to customers and countries’ citizens. Operational Technology (OT) systems like Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Distributed Control Systems (DCS) used to control and monitor functions in such infrastructures are converging with Information Technology (IT) environments. This convergence has exposed infrastructures to new cyber risks. For this reason, EU Member States have been trying to build resilience against cyber-attacks to ensure the stable operation of their states. Several countries have established cybersecurity incident response procedures as well as steps or phases of response before, during, and after a cyber incident. The sum of these procedures and guidelines constitutes their national cyber emergency plans (NCEPs). Still, these NCEPs differ widely in their approaches. These differences manifest as both managerial, governmental, legal, and technical, creating a complex environment worldwide. In this paper, we gather four major NCEPs worldwide to analyze and compare them with prominent standards and industry guidelines in cybersecurity, like the ISO 27001 and NIST 800 series. We investigate NCEP approaches to building cyber resilience based on their response models, their involved entities, the cooperation between agencies and other countries, and their risk-based categorization for cyber incidents. We elaborate on their differences, potential issues and divergences and argue whether these plans can be combined to bridge potential weaknesses. We selected and surveyed four (4) cyber emergency plans from four (4) countries that are frequent targets of cyber-attacks and have long experience in managing and responding to cyber incidents.

Reliability and Standardization for SiC Power Devices

The demand is rapidly increasing for SiC MOSFETs and diodes for power electronic conversion semiconductor (PECS) applications such as electrified vehicle charging and traction, energy storage systems and industrial power supplies. These applications employ a high quantity of large-area die per system while demanding high system-level reliability under aggressive electrical and environmental operating conditions. In addition, SiC devices exhibit some failure mechanisms that are less severe than, or non-existent, in Si devices. This situation demands thorough and novel device reliability characterization and quantification. It is also driving the development of industry consortia standards and guidelines at a much faster rate, and relatively earlier in the technology maturation phase, than occurred in the Si industry. In this paper, I will review some of the key published reliability performance data, stress procedure methodologies used, and implications for key applications. I will also compare and contrast the existing guideline and standard documents and suggest directions that are being explored for future documents. I will also discuss how future guidelines and standards are being developed to cover the SiC-specific failure mechanisms for representative mission profiles for some key applications, particularly electrified vehicles.

Expert consensus on clinical research nurse management in China

ObjectiveWith the rising number of clinical trials conducted in China, the role of clinical research nurses (CRNs) within clinical trial organizations has become increasingly crucial. However, in the absence of industry guidelines, the management of CRNs lacks clarity. This study aims to address this gap by establishing a consensus on CRN management. MethodsThe International Association of Clinical Research Nurses (IACRN)-Shanghai Chapter assembled a panel of experts to develop a consensus on the management of clinical research nurses. This consensus was formulated through an extensive literature review, expert evaluations, and collaborative conference discussions. ResultsThe consensus document offers a comprehensive professional definition of CRNs and provides detailed insights into their management. It covers aspects such as job settings, qualifications, responsibilities, training, assessment, workload management, staffing allocation, performance evaluation, and career progression. ConclusionsEstablishing a professional definition for CRNs creates a standardized reference point for clinical trial institutions to effectively manage these professionals. Consistency in CRNs’ roles, training, staffing, and corresponding assessments is essential for promoting their sustainable and healthy development within the field of clinical research.

Requirements practices and gaps when engineering human-centered Artificial Intelligence systems

Context:Engineering Artificial Intelligence (AI) software is a relatively new area with many challenges, unknowns, and limited proven best practices. Big companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Apple have provided a suite of recent guidelines to assist engineering teams in building human-centered AI systems. Objective:The practices currently adopted by practitioners for developing such systems, especially during Requirements Engineering (RE), are little studied and reported to date. Method:This paper presents the results of a survey conducted to understand current industry practices in RE for AI (RE4AI) and to determine which key human-centered AI guidelines should be followed. Our survey is based on mapping existing industrial guidelines, best practices, and efforts in the literature. Results:We surveyed 29 professionals and found most participants agreed that all the human-centered aspects we mapped should be addressed in RE. Further, we found that most participants were using UML or Microsoft Office to present requirements. Conclusion:We identify that most of the tools currently used are not equipped to manage AI-based software, and the use of UML and Office may pose issues with the quality of requirements captured for AI. Also, all human-centered practices mapped from the guidelines should be included in RE.

Coupled Hydromechanical Modeling and Assessment of Induced Seismicity at FWU: Utilizing Time-Lapse VSP and Microseismic Data

The objective of this work is to utilize integrated geomechanics, field vertical seismic profile (VSP) and microseismic data to characterize the complex subsurface stress conditions at the Farnsworth Unit (FWU). The model is based on a five-spot sector model extracted from a primary geomechanical model. The five-spot well injection pattern is characterized by extensive reservoir characterization data, such well logs, extracted cores and borehole geophone data, to facilitate the detailed examination of stress changes and microseismic event occurrences. The study utilizes field vertical seismic volumes acquired from the injection well 13-10A. The seismic volumes successfully provided snapshots of the behavior of the reservoir at distinct times. The use of VSP and microseismic data provided direct and indirect estimates of the dynamic stress changes occurring in the overburden, reservoir and underburden rock formations. In order to illuminate the stress regions and identify rocks that have undergone inelastic failure, microseismic event occurrences were utilized. Microseismic activity has been detected at the FWU; further study of its locations, timing, and magnitude was needed to deduce the nature of the changing stress state. The results of the study revealed that microseismic events were successfully modeled within the Morrow B formation. Moment magnitudes of seismic events were within the same magnitudes for events in the reservoir, suggesting the suitability of the model. The results of the study showed that the computed moment magnitudes for seismic events were insignificant to warrant safety concerns. The study findings showed the usefulness of coupled hydromechanical models in predicting the subsurface stress changes associated with CO2 injection. The knowledge gained from this study will serve as a guideline for industries planning to undertake underground CO2 storage, and characterize the subsurface stress changes.

Extending the Design Life of the Palm Jumeirah Revetment Considering Climate Change Effects

This paper presents potential upgrades to the Palm Jumeirah Island’s outer revetment to extend its design life for 50 years, considering the sea level rise (SLR) associated with climate change. The paper proposes several upgrade options to ensure that the hydraulic stability and wave overtopping discharges of the Palm Jumeirah revetment comply with the recommended design criteria based on industry guidelines. The performance of the existing revetment, in terms of the hydraulic stability and wave overtopping discharge criteria, is assessed using design wave heights (1- and 100-year events) extracted from an extreme wave analysis study on the Dubai coast. The results show that, based on the new design conditions, the existing structure should be upgraded to meet the armor stability criteria and recommended overtopping discharge values. Three different upgrade solutions are designed and analyzed to satisfy the required hydraulic stability and overtopping conditions. The suggested upgrade options are an extra armor layer, a flat berm, and a submerged breakwater offshore. The proposed upgrade solutions are preliminary designs that would require verification in terms of their geotechnical stability and physical model testing to evaluate their performance.

Mapping of the Bioeconomy Ecosystem in Latvia

Bioeconomy is no longer limited to being a concept in research papers and policy strategies; it presents real opportunities for regional development, i.e., by improving local employment, socio-economic development, economy and sustainable local bioresource use. But the obtaining of these opportunities is challenged by various barriers. It is proposed that analogously with other widely research fields (energy efficiency, industrial sustainability), the implementation of novel bioeconomy ideas, even when they are scientifically based, encounters the so-called ‘implementation gap’ (similarly to, e.g., the ‘energy efficiency gap’). This implementation gap is related to national, but also regional challenges, i.e., technical, economic, organizational, behavior and other barriers that hinder the most successful bioeconomy deployment. The technical obstacles can be, e.g., lack of processing or production technologies, capacity problems, while organizational barriers can manifest as logistics chain problems due to the availability of bioresources or internal organization problems of the company, lack of time, reluctance to take on new responsibilities or lack of awareness of opportunities provided by the bioeconomy. This significance of the regional analysis level for barrier assessment calls for more precise information. The first step for in-depth investigation of the bioeconomy implementation gap in Latvian context is the research of the bioeconomy ecosystem. In fact, as required by the National industrial policy guidelines, the Strategy for knowledge based bioeconomy development for Latvia was developed in 2022 by the Latvian bioeconomy ecosystem stakeholders. The current research focuses on the identification and more detailed characterization of the stakeholders of Latvian bioeconomy ecosystem, their interactions, as well as the identification of current challenges and barriers for knowledge-based bioeconomy and innovations development. In order to further elaborate the structure of the bioeconomy ecosystem, the mapping of ecosystem stakeholders was implemented.

Centrifuge Model Tests Investigating Initiation and Propagation of Pile Tip Damage during Driving

A number of incidents of pile tip damage and extrusion buckling have been reported within the offshore industry, generally arising during driving of relatively thin-walled tubular pile foundations through hard layers or potentially heterogeneous sediments. The issue has become of particular concern with modern trends toward larger diameter piles, with higher ratios of diameter to wall thickness, for monopile or jacket foundations of offshore wind turbines. The paucity of good-quality data available in the public domain about this kind of failure has impaired the development of simple design guidelines for industry to address the issue. The paper presents results from a series of centrifuge model tests where pile tip damage and extrusion buckling were observed during driving of either (1) undamaged cylindrical piles into a sand bed containing a layer of different sizes of boulders, or (2) predented piles into medium dense homogeneous sand. Following a previously reported pilot study, a new and higher energy model pile-driving hammer was designed to permit driving through the hard layers and allow pile embedment by up to five diameters. Two test beds were prepared, one of which contained boulder layers of different sizes either near the surface or at a depth of about one pile diameter, into which piles of two different diameter to wall thickness ratios were driven. The test series led to observations of pile tip damage that ranged from abrupt tip crumpling to gradual extrusion buckling. For 2 of the 22 piles installed, dent growth during installation was detected by optical fiber sensors attached to the piles. For the uninstrumented piles, damage was deduced from the trends in blow counts during installation, with later confirmation from detailed visual inspections and laser scanning, and also from careful layer by layer excavation of each sample. The high-quality database generated from the model tests forms a valuable resource for further study and validation of advanced numerical models to simulate pile tip damage and for calibration of simple guidelines for practical design.

Experimental monitoring of vibrations and the problem of amplitude quantification

Experimental monitoring of blade vibration in turbomachinery is typically based on blade-mounted strain gauges. Their signals are used to derive vibration amplitudes which are compared to previously determined modal scope limits, including a safety factor. According to industrial guidelines, this factor is chosen conservatively to ensure safe operation of the machine.For the experimental campaign with the open test case fan ECL5, which is representative for modern lightweight UHBR architectures, it is planned to conduct measurements close to the stability limit. These investigations require a close approach to the limit and hence demand for accurate quantification of vibration amplitudes to ensure secure operation without exhaustive safety margins. It is required that the surveillance is possible in real time and not only in post-processing.Historically, short-time Fourier transformations of vibration sensors are used, but the complex nature of coupled phenomena near the stability limit has an influence on the amplitude accuracy, depending on evaluation parameters. This was demonstrated in a previous study using fast response wall pressure transducers. The present study investigates the influence on blade vibration data of a modern composite material transonic fan. Different methods are compared, sensitivity to evaluation parameters is analyzed and guidelines are given for fast and robust surveillance of critical vibration modes.

Numerical and Experimental Analysis of the Cold Flow Physics of a Nonpremixed Industrial Gas Burner

Abstract The flow field of a nonpremixed industrial gas burner is analyzed with Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes computational fluid dynamics validated against velocity and pressure measurements. Combustion is not modeled because the aim is optimizing the predictive capabilities of the cold flow before including chemistry. The system's complex flow physics, affected by a 90 deg turn, backward and forward facing steps, and transversal jets in the mainstream is investigated at full and partial load. The sensitivity of the computed flow field to inflow boundary condition setup, approach for resolving/modeling wall-bounded flows, and turbulence closure is assessed. In the first sensitivity analysis, the inflow boundary condition is prescribed using measured total pressure or measured velocity field. In the second, boundary layers are resolved down to the wall or modeled with wall functions. In the third sensitivity analysis, the turbulence closure uses the k−ω shear stress transport eddy viscosity model or two variants of the Reynolds stress model. The agreement between the predictions of most simulation setups among themselves and with the measurements is good. For a given type of inflow condition and wall flow treatment, the ω-based Reynolds stress model gives the best agreement with measurements among the considered turbulence models at full load. At partial load, the comparison with measured data highlights some scatter in the predictions of different patterns of the flow measurements. Overall, the findings of this study provide insight into the fluid dynamics of industrial gas burners and guidelines for their simulation-based analysis.

Using Smart Contracts in the Proposed Blockchain Framework for an Identity Management System Based on the Internet of Things

Blockchain technology has revolutionized various sectors such as trade finance, education, healthcare, the internet of things (IoT), and user identification with its groundbreaking potential. Its transformative influence on privacy, data integrity, and transactional reliability has significantly enhanced user authentication sharing across industries. Consequently, there is a pressing demand for a robust framework capable of providing seamless authentication between devices, cloud servers, and IoT base stations. This article presents into the critical need for such a framework, meticulously evaluating its feasibility in light of the scarce existing solutions that meet industry guidelines. The proposed framework reconciles two contrasting perspectives, thoroughly examining 11 distinct factors and highlighting key features uncovered through rigorous research. The findings have implications for the future of secure authentication.

Guidelines for Competitive Advantage of Thai Software Industry

This research aims to study the guidelines for competitive advantage in the Thai software industry. For qualitative research, in-depth interviews were conducted with nine experts to create the tools used in the estimation research. A group discussion with 11 experts was conducted to obtain a consensus on the model of this research. Quantitative data were collected from a survey of 500 enterprises in the Thai software industry using descriptive, reference, and multiple statistics. The research provides guidelines for the Thai software industry's competitive advantage, comprising four elements. The essential items of each element are as follows:1) Marketing Strategies ( = 4.25) maintain customer confidentiality without disclosing or using data for any other benefit. 2) Business Sustainability ( = 4.24) builds trust and credibility in partner collaboration. 3) Internal Process ( = 4.23) analyzes current work processes to improve efficiency continuously. 4) The Business Alliance ( = 4.23) conducts business with integrity, transparency, and accountability. In addition, the hypothesis test showed that the difference in enterprise size revealed overall elements that were significantly different at the level of 0.05. The analysis of the developed structural equation model showed that it followed the empirical data and passed the evaluation criteria with chi-square probability level, relative chi-square, the goodness of fit index, and root mean square error of approximation of 0.262, 1.031, 0.928, and 0.008, respectively.

State of the Art of microRNAs Signatures as Biomarkers and Therapeutic Targets in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's Diseases: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Identifying target microRNAs (miRNAs) might serve as a basis for developing advanced therapies for Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease. This review aims to identify the main therapeutic targets of miRNAs that can potentially act in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. The publication research was conducted from May 2021 to March 2022, selected from Scopus, PubMed, Embase, OVID, Science Direct, LILACS, and EBSCO. A total of 25 studies were selected from 1549 studies evaluated. The total number of miRNAs as therapeutic targets evidenced was 90 for AD and 54 for PD. An average detection accuracy of above 84% for the miRNAs was observed in the selected studies of AD and PD. The major signatures were miR-26b-5p, miR-615-3p, miR-4722-5p, miR23a-3p, and miR-27b-3p for AD and miR-374a-5p for PD. Six miRNAs of intersection were found between AD and PD. This article identified the main microRNAs as selective biomarkers for diagnosing PD and AD and therapeutic targets through a systematic review and meta-analysis. This article can act as a microRNA guideline for laboratory research and pharmaceutical industries for treating Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and offers the opportunity to evaluate therapeutic interventions earlier in the disease process.