Proper Design Methods Research Articles

Design for Six Sigma and TRIZ for Inventive Design Applied to Recycle Cigarette Butts

A deep research and analysis of a “critical waste” object has been carried out, understood as a subject that does not fare high on the separate collection and recycling system yet: the cigarette butt. This acknowledged social waste is the first among all the garbage detected everywhere around neighborhoods worldwide, and is therefore the epicenter of a situation so worrying that it is necessary to find a solution concerning the environmental pollution. The present exercise was developed, by means of proper product design methods like TRIZ and QFD driven by DFSS rulings, to conceive of new products and services in order to create incentive for the smokers to lessen the environmental pollution problem. The social implications are about the possibility of modifying the bad habits of the smokers and making the user act consciously towards the environment. Throwing the cigarette-stub in the new collection device, rather than on the ground, enables users to enjoy both moral and economic returns. The “Buttalo” service is aimed to incentivize the population to fight against environmental pollution whilst helping smokers to be conscious about it.

Digital Media In The Preservation of Javanese Script Typeface Cultural Identity

Typeface is an arrangement of letters in which each shape has a character so that the letters can be easily distinguished and read clearly. Javanese script is one of the identities of Javanese culture, which is currently less attractive to young people. However, in its development, letters with shapes resembling Javanese script appeared on digital media, with the hope of preserving Javanese cultural identities such as False Javanese and Upakarti. The emergence of Javanese script typefaces as a means of cultural preservation is an interesting development; however, it is necessary to pay attention to the methods of composing typefaces so that they can be seen properly and clearly legible. This study will use a qualitative descriptive research method to see how well the design of Javanese script typefaces that already exists on digital media preserves Javanese cultural identity. It can be concluded from this study that typefaces in the form of Javanese script can be a medium for preserving Javanese culture, especially in today's digital media, by paying attention to proper typographic design methods.

Considerations for the Utilization of Questionnaires in Collegiate Team Environments

Questionnaires are commonplace in team and individual sports as a subjective tool to assess an athlete’s psychological perception and behavioral practices towards their performance and physical preparation. A consistent and systematic approach is required when administering questionnaires to an athlete or group of athletes. Proper questionnaire design and administration methods allow a strength and conditioning coach to effectively analyze the data and make actionable interventions when necessary. There are challenges in sports, especially team environments, which strength and conditioning professionals must maneuver to better help athletes. These challenges include sudden changes in practice or travel, coaching changes, administrative technicalities, athlete cooperation, and many more factors. When challenges arise, questionnaires are useful tool to gauge how an athlete responds to such changes. The purpose of this report is to outline strategies and considerations for strength and conditioning professionals to effectively implement questionnaires in the collegiate environment.

On Negotiation Building Blocks and Bridging the Worlds We Build

Each of the predominate approaches to negotiation and conflict resolution—interest‐based bargaining, basic human needs approaches, and narrative approaches—is grounded in a particular worldview with embedded assumptions about why and how parties experience conflict, the building blocks available to construct a solution to their conflict, and the proper design goals and methods for assembling those building blocks. When an approach to negotiation and conflict resolution is misaligned with the worldview(s) inhabited by one or more of the conflict parties, this mismatch may partially explain why a conflict resists resolution. Scholars and practitioners in our field should develop greater fluency in and capacity to work within and across disparate worldviews, so we and those we seek to assist are able to negotiate across worldviews more effectively.

Collision enhanced hyper-damping in nonlinear elastic metamaterial

Nonlinear elastic metamaterial, a topic which has attracted extensive attention in recent years, can enable broadband vibration reduction under relatively large amplitude. The combination of damping and strong nonlinearity in metamaterials may entail extraordinary effects and offer the capability for low-frequency and broadband vibration reduction. However, there exists a clear lack of proper design methods as well as the deficiency in understanding properties arising from this concept. To tackle this problem, this paper numerically demonstrates that the nonlinear elastic metamaterials, consisting of sandwich damping layers and collision resonators, can generate very robust hyper-damping effect, conducive to efficient and broadband vibration suppression. The collision-enhanced hyper damping is persistently presented in a large parameter space, ranging from small to large amplitudes, and for small and large damping coefficients. The achieved robust effects greatly enlarge the application scope of nonlinear metamaterials. We report the design concept, properties and mechanisms of the hyper-damping and its effect on vibration transmission. This paper reveals new properties offered by nonlinear elastic metamaterials, and offers a robust method for achieving efficient low-frequency and broadband vibration suppression.

A Survey on Domain-Specific Memory Architectures

The never-ending demand for high performance and energy efficiency is pushing designers towards an increasing level of heterogeneity and specialization in modern computing systems. In such systems, creating efficient memory architectures is one of the major opportunities for optimizing modern workloads (e.g., computer vision, machine learning, graph analytics, etc.) that are extremely data-driven. However, designers demand proper design methods to tackle the increasing design complexity and address several new challenges, like the security and privacy of the data to be elaborated.This paper overviews the current trend for the design of domain-specific memory architectures. Domain-specific architectures are tailored for the given application domain, with the introduction of hardware accelerators and custom memory modules while maintaining a certain level of flexibility. We describe the major components, the common challenges, and the state-of-the-art design methodologies for building domain-specific memory architectures. We also discuss the most relevant research projects, providing a classification based on our main topics.

The effect of applying 4-stages on learning analysis and design of algorithms

The ability of analysing and designing an algorithm is quite essential for computer science education. The students in the Analysis and Design of Algorithms (ADA) course are expected to be able to solve problems by choosing one of the proper design methods and to analyse the algorithm’s performance in terms of various aspects. Instead of using traditional teaching approaches, a new 4-stage method is proposed to improve the concept of learning and teaching of algorithms. The instructor applied 4 consecutive stages during the tutorials and practical implementations. The students were asked a series of questions for evaluating not only themselves but also the new method and the instructor capability of handling the course by applying the 4-stages. According to the evaluations, the 4-stage method met the course objectives with noticeable rates and the course learning outcomes were achieved with high success rates when compared with the previous semester. In order to attain a sustainable achievement in teaching ADA, it is recommended to apply the 4-stage method every academic year. The application of 4-stages allows the instructor to be more efficient in programming teaching and the student more confident in programming, therefore it can be suggested for other programming related courses.
 
 Keywords: Computer science education; Concepts of learning and teaching; Course learning outcomes; Programming teaching; Teaching approaches

Driving sustainable construction development through post-contract key performance indicators and drivers

PurposeThis research examines what key performance indicators (KPIs) and drivers should be applied at the post-contract phase of construction development to monitor and drive project outcomes in sustainable design and construction. It supplements the previous research which focuses on pre-contract sustainable procurement of competent professionals. Consequently, optimal sustainability can be achieved for the overall sustainable development process.Design/methodology/approachA review of empirical work was conducted to consolidate the holistic aspects of sustainability that should be considered for design and construction and their project outcome KPI measures. Based on a country-wide questionnaire survey of the university estate sector in the UK, a quantitative hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to identify the performance drivers for those KPIs.FindingsThe empirical work review demonstrates that holistic sustainability for development can be measured by project outcome KPIs: economic sustainability by cost KPIs; functional, social and environmental sustainability by quality KPIs. The quantitative hierarchical regression analysis confirmed that these four aspects of sustainability could be significantly driven by task performance and contextual performance drivers, as supported by the job performance theory.Research limitations/implicationsThe investigation was undertaken within the context of university estates forming a unique public sector in the UK. The findings form a baseline upon which further research can be conducted in other organisations in the wider public and private sectors. Ultimately, holistic sustainability can be fully driven by construction professionals to achieve government and corporate construction strategy for the benefits of sustainable built environment.Practical implicationsThe findings inform project managers and construction professionals that they should apply clear, measurable cost and quality KPIs and focus on significant performance drivers in tandem to drive holistic sustainability for design and construction. Project staff should have a high commitment, technical expertise and experience, execute the project with proper design and management methods and provide a high level of trust and collaboration to the client. Clients, designers and contractors are key stakeholders in the development process so they should be consulted for forming the contract KPIs to monitor the sustainable project outcomes.Social implicationsThe generalised results confirm that task and contextual performance drivers can be applied as project management tools for managing the professional team members to achieve sustainability deliverables in terms of KPIs. Such findings will enhance the government or corporate construction strategy for managing and achieving holistic sustainability for construction developments.Originality/valueThis research identifies post-contract performance monitoring measures (cost and quality KPIs as well as task and contextual performance drivers) that can be adopted for driving sustainable design and construction for sustainable development.

Stability check of tapered steel beams in fire

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the adaptation to fire of current proposals/design methodologies at normal temperature is capable of producing accurate predictions of resistance for the out-of-plane stability of tapered beams. Design/methodology/approach The adaptation of these methodologies to fire has been done by accounting for the reduction in steel material properties with the temperature. Results were then compared to FEM calculations by performing GMNIA analyses to determine the ultimate strength of the numerical models and to ascertain the validity and accuracy of the adapted methodologies. Findings Although all methodologies produce safe results at normal temperatures, only the general method is recommended for the safety verification at elevated temperatures, although the data points were overly conservative. This investigation demonstrates the need of proper and accurate design methods for tapered beams at elevated temperatures, which should be the subject of future developments. Research limitations/implications The research in this paper is limited to the adaptation of existing room temperature design methods to fire. Therefore, possible assumptions made during the conception of the initial formulae, which may be valid exclusively for 20ºC, may have been disregarded. Originality/value For the time being, design methodologies for the safety check of tapered beams for the case of fire are inexistent. This paper investigates the adaptation of existing room temperature design to the fire situation by providing insights on their accuracy level, as well as on how to proceed. Finally, a safe design methodology for tapered beams in case of fire is provided until improved design methods are developed.

A seismic behavior and numerical model of narrow paneled cross-laminated timber building

A national research project to investigate proper structural design methods for cross-laminated timber (CLT) buildings has been initiated by a subsidiary of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan since 2011. In the final stage of the project, shaking table tests were conducted for CLT buildings designed according to a proposed structural design procedure which confirmed damage limit state, safety limit state, allowable stress, and ductile factors, etc.This paper presents results of shaking table testing for full-scaled CLT building and a design procedure. The three different systems examined are buildings composed of narrow panels, wide panels with an edge tensile connection, and wide panels with an edge tensile connection for each no-window shear part. The focus of this paper is the building of narrow panels. This building system is suitable for midrise CLT building with high ductility produced through rocking. The structure was shown to behave well during severe strong motion as specified in the Japanese building standard law and to have survived the 1995 Kobe earthquake despite the occurrence of a compressive rupture in shear walls which are support elements against the vertical load. Story shear capacity calculated from a numerical model and element tests (such as connections) were safely evaluated; but to evaluate the capacity correctly, further research is required in the element and system levels. Though a variety of undetermined issues and challenges remains, the Building Standard Law and Notification for three different CLT construction systems was enforced in April 2016 to ensure the construction of safe CLT buildings.

Key Design Considerations for Measurement of Drops-In-Flight using Machine Vision

Inkjet technology is in the process of revolutionizing traditional printing and dispensing industries. An ever-increasing number of startups and established companies have been working hard to create their own proprietary inkjet knowledge and advanced materials. Machine vision tools have become integral to this R&D process, especially for imaging and measuring drops in flight.Drop in flight imaging is usually accomplished using a strobe light synchronized with the firing frequency, together with a camera and workstation (Figure 1). Analysis is accomplished using machine vision techniques, including automatic thresholding, edge finding, and connectivity. <fig position="float" id="s46_f.1"> <label>Figure 1</label> <caption>Basic Drop Analysis System Layout</caption> <graphic mime-subtype="tif" xlink:href="Images\s46_f01.tif" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> </fig>The implementation of this type of system, however, is far from trivial. In order for measurements to be accurate and repeatable, it's very important that proper system design and analysis methods are used.In this paper, we will discuss imaging techniques and other important considerations for drop-in-flight volume and velocity measurements. Broadly speaking, categories include print controller requirements, optical design, image analysis algorithms, and calibration, as well as other factors and pitfalls. The impact of these design choices will be explained using theory, experimental data and practical examples.

Modeling and Feedback Control of LLC Resonant Converters at High Switching Frequency

The high-switching-frequency operation of power converters can achieve high power density through size reduction of passive components, such as capacitors, inductors, and transformers. However, a small-output capacitor that has small capacitance and low effective series resistance changes the small-signal model of the converter power stage. Such a capacitor can make the converter unstable by increasing the crossover frequency in the transfer function of the small-signal model. In this paper, the design and implementation of a high-frequency LLC resonant converter are presented to verify the power density enhancement achieved by decreasing the size of passive components. The effect of small output capacitance is analyzed for stability by using a proper small-signal model of the LLC resonant converter. Finally, proper design methods of a feedback compensator are proposed to obtain a sufficient phase margin in the Bode plot of the loop gain of the converter for stable operation at 500 kHz switching frequency. A theoretical approach using MATLAB, a simulation approach using PSIM, and experimental results are presented to show the validity of the proposed analysis and design methods with 100 and 500 kHz prototype converters.

Commentary: "How Much is that Player in the Window? The One with the Early Birthday?" Relative Age Influences the Value of the Best Soccer Players, but Not the Best Businesspeople.

Commentary: "How Much is that Player in the Window? The One with the Early Birthday?" Relative Age Influences the Value of the Best Soccer Players, but Not the Best Businesspeople.

Efficiency and Optimal Loads Analysis for Multiple-Receiver Wireless Power Transfer Systems

Wireless power transfer has shown revolutionary potential in challenging the conventional charging method for consumer electronic devices. Through magnetic resonance coupling, it is possible to supply power from one transmitter to multiple receivers simultaneously. In a multiple-receiver system, the overall system efficiency highly depends on the loads' and receivers' positions. This paper extends the conventional circuit-model-based analysis for the one-receiver system to investigate a general one-transmitter multiple-receiver system. It discusses the influence of the loads and mutual inductance on the system efficiency. The optimal loads, the input impedance, and power distribution are analyzed and used to discuss the proper system design and control methods. Finally, systems with a different number of receivers are designed, fabricated, and measured to validate the proposed method. Under the optimal loading conditions, an efficiency above 80% can be achieved for a system with three different receivers working at 13.56 MHz.

Comment on “Evaluation of Manual and Two-Rotary NiTi Retreatment Systems in Removing Gutta-Percha Obturated with Two Root Canal Sealers”

Proper research design, appropriate evaluation and measurement methods, use of correct statistical tests, interpretation, and inference are the essentials without which any scientific research reporting is incomplete and does not serve its proposed purpose. In this communication, some common flaws in research designing, evaluation, analysis, and inference have been explained using a published article as a reference. The purpose of the paper is to help the scientific community recognize the significance of proper research designing and planning in order to achieve the results which are worthwhile.

Experimental study on reinforced stone beams

Stone structures such as bridges, civil and worship buildings or monuments represent the largest part of the construction heritage in the world. They are indeed remarkably durable and earthquake resistant if they were correctly designed. Beside they also have very interesting environmental properties, notably in terms of life cycle analysis, so that stone has a good potential as building materials for modern architecture. The understanding of their mechanical behaviour is hence necessary to develop proper design methods for the prediction of displacements, crack opening or plastic failure in the sense of Eurocode or other modern design recommendations.The proposed article is dedicated to the study of an innovative system of reinforced stone beam in which the reinforcement is not used as a simple tie that overtakes the structure thrust but rather works with the stone together to build a system that resists vertical forces by bending. The study consists in an experimental program carried out on three beams made of dimension stones tested under four points bending. The beams are subjected to a small number of loading–unloading cycles to evidence hysteresis effects. Typical load–displacement curves are produced from data recorded by load cells, extensometers and strain gages measuring characteristic displacements, crack opening and strain in the reinforcement. Then a simple analytical model based on existing models for reinforced concrete is used to interpret the experimental results and by reverse analysis to identify some characteristics of the beams. Finally a short conclusion closes the paper on the potential of these structures for modern architecture and gives some perspectives of further investigations.

Challenges in LED Illuminations and Visions for the Future(<Special Issue>Proper Design Methods of LED Lighting)

Challenges in LED Illuminations and Visions for the Future(<Special Issue>Proper Design Methods of LED Lighting)

Introduction: Role and Idea of Lighting Design(<Special Issue>Proper Design Methods of LED Lighting)

Introduction: Role and Idea of Lighting Design(<Special Issue>Proper Design Methods of LED Lighting)

Lighting Effect by Self-Ballasted LED Lamps(<Special Issue>Proper Design Methods of LED Lighting)

Lighting Effect by Self-Ballasted LED Lamps(<Special Issue>Proper Design Methods of LED Lighting)

Expectation on Energy Saving and Space Design by LED(<Special Issue>Proper Design Methods of LED Lighting)

As the expectation put on LED lighting fixtures had been extremely positive, in deed their efficiency has been improved vigorously in one year. The trend to seek high efficiency would probably continue, but it is important not to become a supremacist on energy saving. We should go through the same steps as what has been studied through conventional fixtures, for instance illuminance, brightness sensation, and quality of lighting to create a good ambience of lighted space. On top of that, LED's feature such as its stable efficiency in dimming control would be its advantage for energy saving and physically small size would enable a different form of lighting to improve brightness sensation and quality of lighting.