Technical Functionality Research Articles

SCADA and Smart Metering Systems in Water Companies. A Perspective based on the Value Creation Analysis

Considering the invaluable service provided to the society by the water companies, it is imperative to ensure their sustainability. To achieve this objective, these organizations must be allowed to fulfil their Mission with effectiveness and efficiency. Information Technology (IT) solutions are especially important tools in this pursuit of enhanced performance and those with greater visibility in the water sector are: (1) SCADA systems, for operation and maintenance; (2) Smart Metering systems (SM), mainly focused on sales and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Traditionally, the analysis of the advantages of these technologies has been based on the enumeration of possible and/or desired technical characteristics and functionalities, and not so much on the analysis of the value created through its impact on organizational processes. This communication presents an analysis of the benefits associated with the use of these technologies, or, more precisely, the value created through them. This analysis is based on the processes and activities they subdivide into, because these activities consume resources, hence generate costs, and it is the optimization of these costs that produces efficiency gains. Additionally, these tools generate useful information capable of creating value for the water company. This approach makes it easier to analyse the cost-benefit outcomes the water company may obtain from these technologies. Benefits for society are also taken into account, particularly water use efficiency, energy efficiency, and reduction of CO2 emissions. The quantification of these benefits was used to build the two cost-benefit analysis (CBA) models developed to assess the potential advantages for the water companies from implementing SCADA and SM systems.

Model for Energy Allocation in Heating Systems with Partial Distribution of Heat Allocators

More than 150 000 households in Croatia have centralized heating system with heated water. Most of heat energy customers are connected to one common heat meter located in the heating substation of the building. These are the buildings built before 2001 in which the piping did not provide for individual metering of heat energy for each apartment. To make cost allocation fairer for customers on a common heat meter, there is a possibility of installing heat cost allocators. For technical functionality of the system, heat cost allocators must be installed on heating fixtures in at least 50 percent of the apartments connected to the same metering point. In this paper we will analyze formula for allocation of energy consumption between customers that have cost allocators installed, primarily compared with energy distributed to customers without one. We will propose new method of energy distribution and compare its results and properties with those of formula in use.

A smart LED luminaire for energy savings in pedestrian road lighting

In this paper, an energy efficient streetlight for pedestrian roads is introduced. Energy efficiency is achieved via up-to-date light-emitting diode (LED) technology and added intelligence utilising integrated sensors and wireless control. Thermal and electrical design of the luminaire contributed to good technical functionality. The performance of the luminaire was validated with testing. The luminaire was compared with commercial lamp and LED-based street lighting technology by technical values and user acceptance. Energy savings of 19–44% through improved luminous efficacy was demonstrated without added intelligence. With smart control further power saving potential of 40–60% was shown depending on the lighting environment and pedestrian presence. User feedback of a pilot installation comparing commercial luminaires with the newly developed streetlight revealed that on average the users preferred the developed streetlight over the commercial luminaires.

Design of a Signal Conditioning Device for Remote Breath and Swallowing Sounds Recording

Design of a Signal Conditioning Device for Remote Breath and Swallowing Sounds Recording

Exploiting EST databases for the development and characterisation of 3425 gene-tagged CISP markers in biofuel crop sugarcane and their transferability in cereals and orphan tropical grasses

BackgroundSugarcane is an important cash crop, providing 70% of the global raw sugar as well as raw material for biofuel production. Genetic analysis is hindered in sugarcane because of its large and complex polyploid genome and lack of sufficiently informative gene-tagged markers. Modern genomics has produced large amount of ESTs, which can be exploited to develop molecular markers based on comparative analysis with EST datasets of related crops and whole rice genome sequence, and accentuate their cross-technical functionality in orphan crops like tropical grasses.FindingsUtilising 246,180 Saccharum officinarum EST sequences vis-à-vis its comparative analysis with ESTs of sorghum and barley and the whole rice genome sequence, we have developed 3425 novel gene-tagged markers — namely, conserved-intron scanning primers (CISP) — using the web program GeMprospector. Rice orthologue annotation results indicated homology of 1096 sequences with expressed proteins, 491 with hypothetical proteins. The remaining 1838 were miscellaneous in nature. A total of 367 primer-pairs were tested in diverse panel of samples. The data indicate amplification of 41% polymorphic bands leading to 0.52 PIC and 3.50 MI with a set of sugarcane varieties and Saccharum species. In addition, a moderate technical functionality of a set of such markers with orphan tropical grasses (22%) and fodder cum cereal oat (33%) is observed.ConclusionsDeveloped gene-tagged CISP markers exhibited considerable technical functionality with varieties of sugarcane and unexplored species of tropical grasses. These markers would thus be particularly useful in identifying the economical traits in sugarcane and developing conservation strategies for orphan tropical grasses.

Sociotechnical evaluation of the safety and effectiveness of point-of-care mobile computing devices: a case study conducted in India.

The potential for health information technology (IT) to enhance quality of care is limited by unanticipated problems following adoption of new systems and technologies. Proactive assessment of system vulnerabilities can help improve existing systems and ease implementation of new innovations. We applied a comprehensive socio-technical model of safe and effective health IT use to the formative evaluation of a novel tablet-based device designed to support primary care practice in rural India. Based on our conceptual model, we developed an assessment guide for the tablet system that was informed by literature review, interviews, and observations of health workers and supervisors. Our assessment revealed and addressed both technical (functionality, content, usability, user interface) and non-technical (workflow, processes and policies etc.)areas of improvement.

Building user experiences: Synchronizing user experience design and the supporting metadata and taxonomy infrastructure

AbstractEditor's SummaryFor best results in website architecture and operation, the process of user experience design and taxonomy and metadata development should be synchronized, not developed in isolation. Bringing the two work streams together enables full consideration of how users, represented as personas, would interact with the site, pursuing likely needs and preferences. The persona review informs the technical infrastructure and functionality as well as the terminology and content types. Analysis of the site design and comparison with similar sites can lead to better appreciation of the user experience and expanded vocabulary links to improve access to content. The Key Paths methodology used by the design firm Factor captures likely user journeys to define design elements, allowing for multiple routes to appropriate content. Metadata must be available to support design, and functional design and content tagging must take advantage of metadata. The dynamic interaction and mutual support of the site's content team and design team are keys to an effective product.

An Enhanced Model for Managing Change in Organizations

Change has become a “way of life” in organizations. The pace of change has increased substantially in recent years as a result of issues such as the pressures of global competition the impact of the Internet, customer demands and ever changing enhancement of technical capabilities. These changes affect what people do and how they fulfill their responsibilities, and therefore, there are varied reactions Historically, failures in change implementation have not been attributable to a lack of technical feasibility and functionality but instead have been the result of employee resistance. The difficulty of implementing organizational change has presented an ongoing challenge to managers. As we anticipate the future, paramount technological changes and shifts in strategies as a result of innovations such as cloud computing, social networks, and smart phones are on the horizon, all of which provide numerous opportunities for marketers. Customer relationship management (CRM implementation in particular, warrants consideration of a change management strategy. This paper reviews severa successful change management and implementation strategies that have been utilized to address technologica change and proposes an enhanced model to guide managers as they deal with technology-based organizational changes.

The Scale Effect of Roughness on Hydrodynamic Contact Friction

Multistage abrasive finishing processes (grinding, polishing, honing, etc.) are commonly used to produce the geometrical properties of a surface to meet its technical functionalities in the operating characteristics of contacting parts in friction, relating to their durability and reliability (running-in performance, wear resistance, load-carrying capacity, etc.). Coarse abrasive grits followed progressively finer ones are used, which leads to a multiscale stratified surface texture. In this article, a numerical model of elastohydrodynamic (EHD) contact coupled to a multiscale surface texture model was developed that allows tracking the scale effect of surface features and their interactions on friction performance and lubricant flow under hydrodynamic lubrication conditions. Because the simulation model has as an input the surface topography and to overcome the variability in surface finish formation, textured surfaces at different stages of the finishing process were simulated (virtual texturing method). Surface topography can be decomposed into two principal components: superficial roughness and valleys. Superficial roughness was modeled using a fractal model and a scaling factor was introduced to model valley patterns. The results show the relationship between friction and surface scales.

Mechanical Testing and Finite Element Simulations for the Use of Cellular Metals as Car Seat Components

AbstractDue to the high energy absorption capacity at constant compressive stress level, cellular metals may be used as crash‐energy‐absorbing elements in autobody structures or car components, e.g., car seats. Modern car seats do not only have a high technical functionality, like electronic positioning, heating, and ventilation systems; in the case of a crash they must protect the passenger. The present paper deals with an analysis of potentially suitable cellular metals for integration in car seats. By means of different quasi‐static tests, i.e., compression, tensile, shear, and bending testing of several candidate metal foams and foam sandwich structures, the general material properties, the damage behavior and the reproducibility of mechanical data are tested. The results, which include optical 3D strain distribution measurements of the chosen cellular metals during quasi‐static testing, are implemented in the engineering design of structural car seat components and finite element calculations to simulate the crash behavior. Objective of the work is the derivation of robust and reliable mechanical testing procedures and standards as well as an improved understanding of the damage mechanisms of cellular metals under different loading conditions to finally derive design guidelines for cellular metals.

The Cybercultural Scene in Contemporary Journalism: Semantic Web, Algorithms, Applications and Curation

Este trabalho discute os diferentes aspectos ciberculturais que o jornalismo contemporâneo vivencia, sobretudo a partir da emergência da web semântica e das funcionalidades técnicas dela decorrentes – como o uso de algoritmos e aplicativos. Explicamos os conceitos básicos deste conjunto técnico e sua correlação aos campos da Comunicação e do Jornalismo em particular. Apresentamos as possibilidades de aproximação de tal cenário com a atividade jornalística a partir de exemplos já em aplicação em marcas jornalísticas internacionais. Propomos a configuração do papel de curadoria para o profissional que irá atuar neste novo contexto cibercultural.

Modeling Cloud Architecture in Banking Systems

With the development of the Internet's new technical functionalities, new concepts have started to take shape. These concepts have an important role especially in the development of corporate IT. Such a concept is “the Cloud”. Cloud computing represents a big change in the way computing is done in corporations. It encompasses all the optimizations that a company needs in order to succeed nowadays. Among the base elements of many familiar technologies across the years there were the distributed systems that contributed to the development of Cloud computing, Grid computing and Utility computing. From our work experience we are going to analyze and asses the cloud adoption decision in a banking environment's context. This paper presents a use-case that shows business problems addressed by using Cloud computing and business considerations that influence an organization to use Cloud computing.

Transfer of control system interface solutions from other domains to the thermal power industry

In a thermal power plant the operators' roles are to control and monitor the process to achieve efficient and safe production. To achieve this, the human-machine interfaces have a central part. The interfaces need to be updated and upgraded together with the technical functionality to maintain optimal operation. One way of achieving relevant updates is to study other domains and see how they have solved similar issues in their design solutions. The purpose of this paper is to present how interface design solution ideas can be transferred from domains with operator control to thermal power plants. In the study 15 domains were compared using a model for categorisation of human-machine systems. The result from the domain comparison showed that nuclear power, refinery and ship engine control were most similar to thermal power control. From the findings a basic interface structure and three specific display solutions were proposed for thermal power control: process parameter overview, plant overview, and feed water view. The systematic comparison of the properties of a human-machine system allowed interface designers to find suitable objects, structures and navigation logics in a range of domains that could be transferred to the thermal power domain.

Putting Yourself in the Picture: An Evaluation of Virtual Model Technology as an Online Shopping Tool

The electronic gulf between shoppers and products makes evaluating a physical product on offer at an e-store a potentially problematic activity. We propose that the outcome of the product evaluation task is determined by the fit between the type of information provided and the type of information sought by the consumer and that this, in turn, influences a consumer's attitude toward an e-store. An experiment to compare the impact of one type of advanced evaluation support technology, the virtual model, with a more basic online catalog, is then described. Results indicate that virtual models are potentially valuable when a customer is concerned with self-image and considerably less valuable when concerned with functionality. In more general terms, variation in end-user attitudes toward the object of the task (evaluative attitude) influenced how informed consumers felt about a product when using different technologies. Feeling informed, in turn, had a strong effect on consumer attitudes toward the store. Our results highlight two important issues for online stores: (1) a consumer's information requirements depend on his or her attitude to a product rather than product attributes; and (2) meeting or not meeting these information requirements affects perceptions of the store. Business success in this context therefore appears to hinge on addressing the specific functional and image-related information needs of customers rather than simply providing more interactivity or technical functionality.

The Mobile Library and Staff Preparedness: Exploring Staff Competencies Using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology Model

This paper presents preliminary findings of a study investigating the current state of preparedness of staff at institutes of technology and TAFE libraries across Australia and New Zealand in relation to delivering services through mobile technologies. In particular, the skills, knowledge, and competencies of staff in relation to mobile technologies are discussed, as well as the specific on-the-job training required to develop confident and capable staff in a mobile environment. A slightly-modified version of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model was tested as a predictor of behavioural intention and use behaviour. Initial analysis of data revealed a range of themes relating to technical functionality, management, service delivery, and adaptability as important to staff skills and knowledge.

Harnessing Context Sensing to Develop a Mobile Intervention for Depression

BackgroundMobile phone sensors can be used to develop context-aware systems that automatically detect when patients require assistance. Mobile phones can also provide ecological momentary interventions that deliver tailored assistance during problematic situations. However, such approaches have not yet been used to treat major depressive disorder.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to investigate the technical feasibility, functional reliability, and patient satisfaction with Mobilyze!, a mobile phone- and Internet-based intervention including ecological momentary intervention and context sensing.MethodsWe developed a mobile phone application and supporting architecture, in which machine learning models (ie, learners) predicted patients’ mood, emotions, cognitive/motivational states, activities, environmental context, and social context based on at least 38 concurrent phone sensor values (eg, global positioning system, ambient light, recent calls). The website included feedback graphs illustrating correlations between patients’ self-reported states, as well as didactics and tools teaching patients behavioral activation concepts. Brief telephone calls and emails with a clinician were used to promote adherence. We enrolled 8 adults with major depressive disorder in a single-arm pilot study to receive Mobilyze! and complete clinical assessments for 8 weeks.ResultsPromising accuracy rates (60% to 91%) were achieved by learners predicting categorical contextual states (eg, location). For states rated on scales (eg, mood), predictive capability was poor. Participants were satisfied with the phone application and improved significantly on self-reported depressive symptoms (betaweek = –.82, P < .001, per-protocol Cohen d = 3.43) and interview measures of depressive symptoms (betaweek = –.81, P < .001, per-protocol Cohen d = 3.55). Participants also became less likely to meet criteria for major depressive disorder diagnosis (bweek = –.65, P = .03, per-protocol remission rate = 85.71%). Comorbid anxiety symptoms also decreased (betaweek = –.71, P < .001, per-protocol Cohen d = 2.58).ConclusionsMobilyze! is a scalable, feasible intervention with preliminary evidence of efficacy. To our knowledge, it is the first ecological momentary intervention for unipolar depression, as well as one of the first attempts to use context sensing to identify mental health-related states. Several lessons learned regarding technical functionality, data mining, and software development process are discussed.Trial Registration Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01107041; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01107041 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/60CVjPH0n)

Organizational Patterns for Security and Dependability

Designing secure and dependable IT systems requires a deep analysis of organizational as well as social aspects of the environment where the system will operate. Domain experts and analysts often face security and dependability (S&amp;D) issues they have already encountered before. These concerns require the design of S&amp;D patterns to facilitate designers when developing IT systems. This article presents the experience in designing S&amp;D organizational patterns, which was gained in the course of an industry lead EU project. The authors use an agent-goal-oriented modeling framework (i.e., the SI* framework) to analyze organizational settings jointly with technical functionalities. This framework can assist domain experts and analysts in designing S&amp;D patterns from their experience, validating them by proof-of-concept implementations, and applying them to increase the security level of the system.

57.1: Invited Paper: Novel Thin Glass for 3D Shaped Electronics Display Covers

AbstractAs the market for consumer electronic portable display devices continues to grow, designers and manufacturers of such devices are increasingly demanding display cover glasses that are extremely lightweight, with higher impact strength, better scratch resistance and impressive durability to stand up to the wear and tear of everyday life. Furthermore, the rapid emergence of innovative touch display technologies means that such glass characteristics are becoming even more important to the industry. Demand for impressive technical functionality for handheld devices is high, as is the need for strong aesthetical design to meet the needs of next generation consumer electronic devices. For example, most handheld devices today have only flat screens, but many designers are now actively looking to integrate curved glass surfaces into innovative, new designs. Lithium Aluminosilicate (LAS) glasses such as SCHOTT® LAS80 are emerging to fulfill these demanding requirements. Manufactured using hi‐tech glass production technologies such as the standard float process, LAS glasses can be easily chemically toughened to meet stringent mechanical strength and hardness specifications. Furthermore, the low transformation temperature (Tg) of LAS glasses facilitates hot forming processes to produce 3‐D shaped cover glasses, opening up a multitude of options for consumer electronic portable display device designers.

Current requirements for polymeric biomaterials in otolaryngology.

In recent years otolaryngology was strongly influenced by newly developed implants which are based on both, innovative biomaterials and novel implant technologies. Since the biomaterials are integrated into biological systems they have to fulfill all technical requirements and accommodate biological interactions. Technical functionality relating to implant specific mechanical properties, a sufficiently high stability in terms of physiological conditions, and good biocompatibility are the demands with regard to suitability of biomaterials. The goal in applying biomaterials for implants is to maintain biofunctionality over extended periods of time. These general demands to biomaterials are equally valid for use in otolaryngology. Different classes of materials can be utilized as biomaterials. Metals belong to the oldest biomaterials. In addition, alloys, ceramics, inorganic glasses and composites have been tested successfully. Furthermore, natural and synthetic polymers are widely used materials, which will be in the focus of the current article with regard to their properties and usage as cochlear implants, osteosynthesis implants, stents, and matrices for tissue engineering. Due to their application as permanent or temporary implants materials are differentiated into biostable and biodegradable polymers. The here identified general and up to date requirements for biomaterials and the illustrated applications in otolaryngology emphasize ongoing research efforts in this area and at the same time demonstrate the high significance of interdisciplinary cooperation between natural sciences, engineering, and medical sciences.

Socio-Technical Systems

Meta-design of socio-technical systems complies with the need to integrate two types of structures and processes: technical systems, which are engineered to provide anticipatable and reliable interactions between users and systems, and social systems, which are contingent in their interactions and a subject of evolution. Meta-design is focused on objectives, techniques, and processes to allow users to act as designers. It provides, rather than fixed solutions, frameworks within which all stakeholders can contribute to the development of technical functionality and the evolution of the social side, such as organizational change, knowledge construction, and collaborative learning. This paper combines the theoretical framework of meta-design and its underlying principles with the consideration of methodological aspects and practical cases. Five different principles are explored: (1) cultures of participation, (2) empowerment for adaptation and evolution, (3) seeding and evolutionary growth, (4) underdesign of models of socio-technical processes, and (5) structuring of communication. Design collaboratories and knowledge management are used as examples to analyze meta-designed systems representing socio-technical solutions as well as frameworks within which socio-technical solutions can be developed. The combination of theoretical and methodological considerations leads to a set of practical guidelines for meta-designers.