Proposed Design Principles Research Articles

Tradeoff of horizontal decomposition versus vertical stacking in rearrangeable nonblocking networks

A class of rearrangeable nonblocking networks is presented. The proposed networks are fault-tolerant, self-routing, and intended for a very-high-speed environment. Self-routing networks have one major problem when applied to switching: they are blocking networks. To solve this problem, two methods have been used to create self-routing rearrangeable nonblocking networks: horizontal cascading (HC) and vertical stacking (VS). The authors unify the two approaches and propose a novel class of switching networks. The proposed design principle allows the best tradeoffs among design parameters such as fault tolerance, hardware cost, and the frequency of rearrangement activities. A study of the frequency of rearrangement activities is also presented.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

An integrated framework for decision support in corporate planning

Corporate planning and decision making is a complex but critical management process in multidivisional organizations. This process entails a determination of the objectives and operational constraints at various levels of management. The decision-making function in such large diversified corporations proceeds by assessing the decision alternatives at each level of management with reference to their mutual tradeoffs, and arriving at an equilibrium point. In this paper, we develop a conceptual framework for the design of an integrated DSS in hierarchical organizations. The proposed framework consists of five steps: Analysis of the corporate decision making process, building a model of the decision making process, configuring a DSS for this model, pilot study and implementation. We illustrate the proposed design principles by considering a three-level hierarchical organization and modeling the decision-making process within this organization. A case analysis of the proposed integrated framework is provided. The case study has been conducted with decision makers in a simulated business environment. This research has given rise to several new avenues of exploration and extensions of the proposed design. We present the conclusions from this study and directions for future research in this area. Our experience with this approach in the case analysis has been quite positive, and this suggests that similar results may be obtained in real world organizations as well. We are currently testing the proposed approach with a local organization.

A Design Principle of Bipolar Electrodes for Electrowinning Cell from Chloride Melts

A design principle of bipolar electrodes for liquid metal electrowinning cell was discussed theoretically. By taking into consideration of volume balance and homogeneous circulation of the chloride melt, general equations were deduced for determination of each sectional area of the bipolar electrodes. The values of design parameters were checked experimentally by operating the laboratory-scale cells constructed with the proposed design principle in which following variables were supposed to be known; the number of the inter-spacing reaction zones and a total sectional area of the cell, an average surface area and thickness of the bipolar eletrodes, a distance between electrodes, specific conductivity of the chloride melts and decomposition voltage of aluminum chloride in the melt at various concentrations at operational temperatures.