Product Family Research Articles

Transformation of (allo)securinine to (allo)norsecurinine via a molecular editing strategy.

Securinega alkaloids have intrigued chemists since the isolation of securinine in 1956. This family of natural products comprises a securinane subfamily with a piperidine substructure and norsecurinane alkaloids featuring a pyrrolidine core. From a biosynthetic perspective, the piperidine moiety in securinane alkaloids derives from lysine, whereas the pyrrolidine moiety in norsecurinane natural products originates from ornithine, marking an early biogenetic divergence. Herein, we introduce a single-atom deletion strategy that enables the late-stage conversion of securinane to norsecurinane alkaloids. Notably, for the first time, this method enabled the transformation of piperidine-based (allo)securinine into pyrrolidine-based (allo)norsecurinine. Straightforward access to norsecurinine from securinine, which can be readily extracted from the plant Flueggea suffruticosa, abundant across the Korean peninsula, holds promise for synthetic studies of norsecurinine-based oligomeric securinega alkaloids.

Sustainable supply chains – Managing environmental impact data on product platforms

This paper addresses the importance of sustainable supply chains driven by environmental concerns in various industries. Life cycle assessment (LCA) presents a crucial tool for evaluating environmental impacts, but its case-by-case approach is costly and time-consuming. We present a product platform level solution to capture key supply chain elements and calculate emissions for each product variant using a product configuration system. The study presents a proof-of-concept implementation of a specialized software solution for generating combined greenhouse gas certificates and certificates of origin for product families. A case study on a ship engine demonstrates the solution capabilities, utilizing empirical data from a collaborative effort from an industrial company. The proposed solution is a demonstration of impact quantification for the product platform of a ship engine. In terms of the applicability of the software, a set of scenarios is presented to demonstrate decision-making parameters related to energy sources in operations and transportation modes related to supplier locations. The developed software shows the possibilities of the proposed approach to maintain authenticated environmental impact within the supply chain on a product platform level. The approach integrates the supplier and promotes transparency.

Structure-Antitumor Activity Relationships of Aza- and Diaza-Anthracene-2,9,10-Triones and Their Partially Saturated Derivatives.

The 1,8-Diazaanthracene-2,9,10-triones, their 5,8-dihydro derivatives, and 1,8-diazaanthracene-2,7,9,10-tetraones, structurally related to the diazaquinomycin family of natural products, were synthesized in a regioselective fashion employing Diels-Alder strategies. These libraries were studied for their cytotoxicity in a variety of human cancer cell lines in order to establish structure-activity relationships. From the results obtained, we conclude that some representatives of the 1,8-diazaanthracene-2,9,10-trione framework show potent and selective cytotoxicity against solid tumors. Similar findings were made for the related 1-azaanthracene-2,9,10-trione derivatives, structurally similar to the marcanine natural products, which showed improved activity over their natural counterparts. An enantioselective protocol based on the use of a SAMP-related chiral auxiliary derived was developed for the case of chiral 5-substituted 1,8-diazaanthracene-2,9,10-triones, and showed that their cytotoxicity was not enantiospecific.

Investigation into the Influence of the Process Parameters on the Stability of a Poly(Vinyl)-Alcohol-Based Coating System.

Most tablets put on the market are coated with polymers soluble in water. The Opadry II 85 series from Colorcon Inc., is a family of PVA-based products marketed since the 1990s. Despite numerous publications on the properties of PVA, to date, limited work has been undertaken to determine the physico-chemical parameters (i.e., UV light, high temperature, and relative humidity) that could affect the performance of PVA-based coatings. To this end, we performed artificial ageing processes on samples made of Opadry Orange II or of some selected components of this coating and analysed them by means of a multidisciplinary approach, using, for example, FTIR, NMR, rheology, and DMTA measurements. In this way, we analysed the influence of the critical components of the Opadry Orange II formula, such as titanium dioxide and aluminium hydroxide, on the coating characteristics under ageing conditions.

Precezomycin, a novel antibiotic biosynthetic precursor of cezomycin, from actinomycete Kitasatospora putterlickiae 10-13.

A novel antibiotic biosynthetic precursor of cezomycin, named precezomycin (1), was isolated from culture broth of actinomycete Kitasatospora putterlickiae 10-13. The planar structure was determined by 1D/2D NMR and HR(ESI)MS data analyses, and the absolute configurations were established by TDDFT calculation of ECD spectra. Precezomycin (1) exhibited moderate antibacterial activity against gram-positive bacteria including Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis. The discovery of 1 extends the natural product family of cezomycin and provides a new insight into understanding the biosynthetic process of these polyether ionophore metabolites.

Development of platensimycin, platencin, and platensilin overproducers by biosynthetic pathway engineering and fermentation medium optimization.

Implementation of a CRISPR-Cas9 system in Streptomyces platensis CB00739 enabled the construction of a suite of designer recombinant strains for the overproduction of platensimycin, platencin, and platensilin, discovery of new diterpene synthase chemistries, and development of platform strains for future diterpenoid biosynthesis engineering.

IIoT System Canvas — From architecture patterns towards an IIoT development framework

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solutions are poised to enable digital transformation across industry verticals. However, the diversity of IIoT applications has resulted in a multitude of constantly evolving technologies, standards, and reference architectures with differing terminologies and frequent incompatibilities. A unified approach to describe and develop IIoT systems is needed not only to ease development, but also identify cross-cutting research gaps and exploit synergies.Building on a substantial literature survey, this work proposes the IIoT Development Framework, taking a systems engineering perspective to derive an IIoT Systems Development Process along with several key tools: After defining business objectives, an IIoT system is broken down into system components using the IIoT Architecture Pattern. Second, functionalities for each component are identified leveraging morphological boxes. Third, suitable technologies capable of providing these functionalities need to be selected. For this task, technology selection criteria and processes as well as technology comparison sheets are detailed, covering key technologies. Throughout the entire process of technology selection, the IIoT System Canvas is the central tool summarizing components, required functionalities and selected technologies to provide a comprehensive end-to-end view of the entire IIoT system. It may be understood as a modeling template akin to the Business Model Canvas.The IIoT Development Framework aims to achieve three objectives: Completeness (covering all aspects of IIoT systems), actionability (low barriers for researchers and practitioners) and generalizability (covering not just one product family, but cutting across industry verticals). The framework is validated by comparison to the state of the art and application to a set of use cases covering multiple industry verticals with differing requirements, showing superior results especially in terms of completeness and actionability, while maintaining generalizability.

An adversarial approach for the mixed-model assembly line design with new product variants in production generations

Assembly lines typically operate for several decades. Process engineers reconfigure the lines several times during the product family’s life cycle, whereas product families may change several times a year in response to sales and marketing demands. These reconfigurations are often expensive and inefficient if the line is not flexible enough. The current study explores the feasibility of creating a line that takes product evolution into account during the line’s life cycle. We study a line where a worker/robot and equipment pieces required are located at each station. When a new product model replaces one of the current variants in the product family, the line reconfigures to produce different product models from the same family. Reconfiguration can re-assign some tasks and rearrange equipment and resource elements. We formulate a model that accounts for the uncertainty of the product family evolution and the market demand. We propose an adversarial approach for the robust optimization of the mixed-model assembly line design for the worst-case scenario from a scenario tree for the future product family requirements. We run computational experiments using benchmark data. The results demonstrate that the developed adversarial approach outperforms the classical methods from the literature in terms of CPU time and solution quality.

Evaluating LCA product families in an approach to determine baseline emissions within aerospace manufacturing.

This paper investigates a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) based methodology to determine baseline emissions for an aerospace manufacturer. Aerospace manufacturing entails high complexity and low throughput of a vast array of components. Rather than establishing the environmental footprint through waste, electric, and gas data alone; an LCA cradle-to-gate approach extends to a product's raw material acquisition and shipment to provide a comprehensive set of environmental performance indicators. The approach combines several products that follow a similar manufacturing process and can be denoted as a product family. This paper discusses the ability that LCA product families must develop baseline emissions for products validated with a case study of an aerospace component. The methodology can be extended to other product families manufactured within the facility which when combined will accumulate to a site-wide environmental footprint. The paper further evaluates how this methodology can identify environmental hotspots at a process and product level. The aerospace component case study incorporates several manual and automated stages. This work aims to demonstrate the ease of determining baseline emissions using an LCA product family and enable aerospace manufacturing companies to adopt a similar approach to establishing environmental hotspots. This can drive strategic internal change for sustainable manufacturing aligning with company environmental, social, and financial frameworks.

Robust Optimization for Technician and Resource Management in Reconfigurable Assembly Lines

Research studies have rarely taken into consideration the challenge of resource selection and technician scheduling problems in the context of product evolution. Indeed, incorporating new product variants into the line’s future production generation has a significant impact on resource selection and technician scheduling. Additional resources may be necessary to produce new products, and each of these resources demands specialized skill for operation. Hence, it may be necessary to provide training for the technicians to enable them to effectively work with the new resources. This study aims to plan resource selection and technician scheduling for a reconfigurable assembly line. This line produces a given product family with a set of product variants. Moreover, a new product variant will be added after a certain period of time, named production generation. At each generation, the product family can be changed by adding or removing a product variant. We developed a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) that minimizes the total resource selection and technician training costs for the worst-case scenario. The MILP is validated through solving a simple example and the results are given.

A proposal of method for module commonization in product family (Application of diversity analysis method to servo motors and verification of its effectiveness)

A proposal of method for module commonization in product family (Application of diversity analysis method to servo motors and verification of its effectiveness)

Evaluation of Clustering Approaches and Proximity Measures for Product Family Identification

Value stream mapping is the most widely used method for analyzing material and information flows in production. The first step of the method is the identification of product families, which can be suitably supported by cluster analysis. In order to evaluate the suitability of different cluster algorithms and proximity measures, this paper conducts a study based on synthetically generated test data. Seven performance measures are used to evaluate the quality of clustering solutions. Based on the results of the study, recommendations are derived for the appropriate use of cluster analysis for product family identification.

Computation-guided scaffold exploration of 2E,6E-1,10-trans/cis-eunicellanes.

Eunicellane diterpenoids are a unique family of natural products containing a foundational 6/10-bicyclic framework and can be divided into two main classes, cis and trans, based on the configurations of their ring fusion at C1 and C10. Previous studies on two bacterial diterpene synthases, Bnd4 and AlbS, revealed that these enzymes form cis- and trans-eunicellane skeletons, respectively. Although the structures of these diterpenes only differed in their configuration at a single position, C1, they displayed distinct chemical and thermal reactivities. Here, we used a combination of quantum chemical calculations and chemical transformations to probe their intrinsic properties, which result in protonation-initiated cyclization, Cope rearrangement, and atropisomerism. Finally, we exploited the reactivity of the trans-eunicellane skeleton to generate a series of 6/6/6 gersemiane-type diterpenes via electrophilic cyclization.

Integrated synthesis of 3,4-carbazoquinone alkaloids N-Me-carbazoquinocin A, B and D-F.

Carbazole alkaloids carbazoquinocin A-F possessing a 1-alkyl-2-methyl-3,4-ortho-carabazoquinone framework were isolated from the microorganism Streptomyces violaceus 2448-SVT2 in 1995. Furthermore, they were found to exhibit strong inhibitory activity against lipid peroxidation. Herein, we report the integrated synthesis of N-Me-analogues of 5 members of the carbazoquinocin family of natural products, namely, N-Me-carbazoquinocin A, B and D-F. We employed an acid-catalyzed, intramolecular benzannulation of indole-appended Z-enoate propargylic alcohols, which was developed earlier in our laboratory, for the construction of the required carbazole framework. All five natural products were obtained in an overall yield of 50-60%, starting from a commercially available indole.

Integrative Decision on New Product Development in Configurable Product Family

Integrative Decision on New Product Development in Configurable Product Family

Life Cycle Assessment of a Jet Printing and Dispensing Machine

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a well-known methodology used to calculate the environmental impacts of a product across its life cycle. The industrial machines used to manufacture consumer products are generally heavy, bulky, and have a complex product structure which makes their environmental assessment using LCA difficult as well as time and resource-intensive. Few studies have conducted LCA of complex industrial machines. The paper presents an LCA of a jet printing and dispensing machine (MY700), an industrial machine used in the production of printed circuit boards (PCBs) carried out using ReCiPe 2016 (Hierarchist) impact assessment methodology. In this study, the use phase of the machine accounted for 91% of the total environmental impacts. The compressed air and electricity consumed in the use phase of the machine were the major environmental hotspots. Additionally, some measures to minimize energy and compressed air use are also discussed. The methodology proposed in this article can be adopted by practitioners to conduct LCA of other industrial machines. The results of this study can help the machine manufacturers to undertake relevant eco-design activities as well as a comparison of different versions/machines in the product family for their environmental impact.

Optimizing Product Variety for Balancing Market Share and Complexity Cost in Product Family Design

Optimizing Product Variety for Balancing Market Share and Complexity Cost in Product Family Design

Electrochemistry and Organic Synthesis: New Adventures with Olefin Coupling Reactions and Electrode Surfaces

Electrochemistry has long offered opportunities to explore new modes of reactivity, new approaches for introducing selectivity into synthetic reactions, and new strategies for the synthesis of everything from complex molecules to complex, addressable molecular surfaces. In the talk to be given, two aspects of our efforts along these lines will be detailed. In the first, we will take a look at recent efforts to use anodically-generated reactive intermediates to convert readily available small molecules into functionalized synthetic building blocks and natural product derivatives. Key to these efforts are oxidation reactions that generate reactive radical cation and radical intermediates. In one application, newly available chiral lactols synthesized using methodology developed by the Lin (Cornell) and Miller (Yale) groups are being transformed into C-glycoside and aza-C-glycoside derivatives. The reactions take advantage of oxidation reactions of either enol ether or vinylsulfide groups. The cyclization reactions and the subsequent deprotection strategy needed for converting the cyclization products into a useful synthetic building block will be highlighted. In a second application of an anodic cyclization, the role of thioamides in reactions targeting the chrysosoporazine family of natural products will be discussed. The reactions seek to provide an efficient method for converting lignin derived building blocks into molecules that reduce the efflux of anticancer drugs from cells. Initial cyclization attempts utilizing amide based N-radicals and anodic olefin coupling reactions were not successful. Those reactions consistently led to over-oxidation of the products that contain a highly electron-rich aryl ring. The use of thio-amide derived radicals provides a method to circumvent this problem.In the second topic to be discussed, the question of how one might begin to induce asymmetry into such electrochemical cyclizations will be highlighted. The chemistry focuses on efforts to influence the course of both electrochemical oxidation and reduction reaction and non-redox based transition metal catalyzed reactions with the surface of an electrode.

Moroccan and Spanish agriculture comparative analysis 2008-2021

In the general context of Morocco's New Development Model, where public policies need all their credentials, and more specifically in the context of Morocco's new agricultural strategy (Green Plan), the challenge is to develop modern agriculture with high added value and high productivity, capable of competing with agricultural production in other countries. This article compares the overall characteristics of agricultural production in Spain and Morocco. To make this comparative analysis, we have focused on a set of agricultural statistical aggregates, such as cultivated area, level of production and yield in relation to each family of agricultural products. These are calculated, using the Laspeyres index, over the period 2008 to 2021. In addition, we have chosen 2008 as the base year for plotting the evolution of Moroccan agricultural performance against that of Spain. The results of our comparative analysis showed that agriculture in Spain is more stable than in Morocco, particularly in cereals and fresh vegetables. Thus, they showed that the majority of Spanish agricultural products outperform those of Morocco. On the other hand, this comparative analysis showed that Moroccan agriculture outperforms Spanish agriculture in the production of sheep, apples, fresh peas, carrots, turnips, broad beans, green beans, goat meat, dried lentils and chickpeas, and that Moroccan agriculture outperforms Spanish agriculture in the production of dates and unshelled peanuts.

The last 22 years of student lending – Analysis of the socio-economic impact of the student loan product family

The Student Loan Center was established 22 years ago by the first civic government with the aim of increasing access to higher education. The measure was particularly important in channeling talented students from poor financial circumstances into higher education. Over the past two decades, both higher education and the socio-economic environment surrounding higher education have changed considerably. The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which student loan instruments have been able to maintain their effectiveness over this period. Through a historical overview and the presentation of results from questionnaire data collection, the study demonstrates that student loan products have adapted to the changing environment by introducing and adapting existing products, and that they are still very popular among higher education students.