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White meat consumption is increasing day by day, and accordingly, there is an increase in the amount of wastewater resulting from the processes. Today, the reuse of wastewater has become a goal within the scope of the Green Deal. For this reason, wastewater treatment with high pollution and volume has gained importance. In this study, the fuzzy axiomatic design (FAD) method, one of the multi-criteria decision-making methods, has been used. With this method, coagulation, electrocoagulation (EC), dissolved air flotation (DAF), and anaerobic treatment alternatives preferred in poultry slaughterhouse wastewater (PSW) treatment were compared with each other and their information contents were calculated. The information content from the smallest to the largest is EC, DAF, coagulation, and anaerobic treatment, respectively. This treatment method was chosen because the smallest information content is in electrocoagulation. EC was applied to bloody PSW containing 1% blood by volume. The effectiveness of Fe and Al electrodes for PSW treatment in the batch EC reactor has been compared. The effective surface areas of 2 anodes and 2 cathodes connected bipolarly in the processes are 288 cm2. The electrolyte, pH, time, and current density effects on energy consumption were also investigated. The optimum conditions for Al and Fe electrodes were found to be 0.5 g·L−1 NaCl concentration, pH 5, 0.639 mA·cm−2 current density, and 5 min time. Under optimum conditions for the Fe electrode, COD, TOC, TN, and oil-grease removal efficiencies were determined as 76.3%, 71.8%, 70%, and 74%, respectively. Moreover, the highest COD, TOC, TN, and oil-grease removal efficiencies were achieved with an Al electrode (82.2%, 82.3%, 82.7%, and 78.9%, respectively). The experimental data were fit to a variety of isotherms and kinetic models to determine the characteristics of the EC. The results indicated that the pseudo-second-order equation provided the best fit for COD removal. Under optimum conditions, the operating cost was calculated as $3.39 and $3.09 for Al and Fe electrodes, respectively. In this study, the fuzzy axiomatic design method was used for the first time to select the most appropriate treatment method for PSW. In addition, blood, a major problem for the poultry slaughterhouse industry, was mixed with PSW at a ratio of 1% (v/v) and treated with EC for the first time with high removal efficiency. By treating PSW, which has a high pollution load, with electrocoagulation, the pollution load of the water to be given to secondary treatment has been greatly reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A risk analyst assesses potential financial losses based on multiple sources of information. Often, the assessment does not only depend on the specification of the loss random variable, but also on various economic scenarios. Motivated by this observation, we design a unified axiomatic framework for risk evaluation principles which quantify jointly a loss random variable and a set of plausible probabilities. We call such an evaluation principle a generalised risk measure. We present a series of relevant theoretical results. The worst-case, coherent and robust generalised risk measures are characterised via different sets of intuitive axioms. We establish the equivalence between a few natural forms of law-invariance in our framework, and the technical subtlety therein reveals a sharp contrast between our framework and the traditional one. Moreover, coherence and strong law-invariance are derived from a combination of other conditions, which provides additional support for coherent risk measures such as expected shortfall over value-at-risk, a relevant issue for risk management practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conceptual design has a significant impact on performance of the final product. Existing methods of the concept design such as quality function deployment and axiomatic design cannot decide product structures based on function requirements (FRs) to meet product specifications. An effective method is proposed to decide the product structure based on relations of FRs and physical structures using the WordNet hierarchy and association relation in this paper. Physical attributes (PAs) of FRs are searched based on similarity of FRs and functions of existing product structures. Suitable product structures are decided by comparing PAs of design structures with PAs of FRs. Relations between structures and FRs are defined by the association relation to decide the best product structure from all potential solutions using a pairwise comparison method. The proposed method is verified in a case study of the concept design of upper limb rehabilitation devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indian Railways is India's biggest employer and undeniably influences the country's transportation network, economy, and social and cultural systems. The network is split into zones for operational reasons. It is vital to evaluate these railway networks to identify their strengths and shortcomings and to improve their performance. Past works often use Data Envelopment Analysis to evaluate railway services. Our contribution lies in the inclusion of several aspects not previously considered, such as (i) both tangible and intangible criteria, (ii) the hierarchical nature of the problem, and (iii) additional useful criteria and data to analyze the performance of the zones, including physical assets, operating ratio, accidents, comfort, travel experience, flexibility, transparency, etc. We use the novel Hierarchical Fuzzy Axiomatic Design method to evaluate the performance of sixteen zones in the Indian Railways since it suits our problem well. We find that the Southern Railway zone performs best, while the Northeast Frontier zone is ranked last. We also identify the strengths and weaknesses of all railway zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are several multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) approaches presented in the literature with their characteristics. Although traditional MCDM approaches are considered a proper implementation to select the best alternative from available types, they failed to consider uncertainty which is quite high and desires to be thoughtfully measured in the selection process. This research focuses on extending MCDM in the neutrosophic environment using axiomatic design (AD) as a novel contribution to selecting appropriate Computed Tomography (CT) devices. We present a new linguistic scale for evaluating criteria and alternatives based on single-valued triangular neutrosophic numbers (SVTrN). The proposed approach is superior to other existing approaches due to its simplicity and ability to simulate natural human thinking via considering truth, indeterminacy, and falsity degrees. Then, applying it will increase the value of imaging for medical decision-making and decrease needless costs. So, this study can be valuable to researchers by helping them consider the appropriate medical imaging system selection problem theoretically under uncertainty, and for governments and organizations to design better satisfying medical imaging evaluation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the population growth and the rapid development of tech-economy, the industrialization process of cities has accelerated the generation of a large number of hazardous wastes, which has caused serious harm to human health and the ecological environment. The location of hazardous waste disposal sites plays an important role in hazardous waste management. Because of the multiple conflicting criteria and the inherent ambiguity of experts' judgments, the location of hazardous waste disposal sites is regarded as a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making problem. This paper proposes an integrated method, which consists of a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) and fuzzy axiomatic design (FAD), to determine the best hazardous waste disposal site. First, from the perspective of sustainability, an evaluation index system based on economic, social, and environmental criteria is built. Then, FAHP is employed to evaluate criteria weights. In the FAD application phase, the functional requirements (FRs) are determined by the five experts from different fields, and then, we use FAD to calculate the information content of alternatives and rank them. Finally, sensitivity analysis is performed on the change of criteria weight and the change of FRs, and the results show that the proposed hybrid method is a robust decision support tool for ranking alternatives. Moreover, the proposed method is flexible and can be used to solve the problem of hazardous waste disposal site selection in other developing countries or regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concept design evaluation is the most critical part of product design, which determines the direction of the subsequent design stage. Due to the various uncertainties inherent in decision-maker (DM)'s linguistic evaluation, such as fuzziness and randomness, how to deal with these uncertainties reasonably is a challenge. Only using a single uncertainty treatment method may not be enough to select an appropriate conceptual design. Therefore, this paper aims to develop an extended information axiom concept design evaluation model combining linguistic Z-numbers (LZNs) and axiomatic design methods to deal with the uncertainty in concept design evaluation. Specifically, the LZNs are used to express DM's subjective evaluation information and the reliability of the evaluation result. In the evaluation process, the uncertainty caused by linguistic variables is represented by the cloud model. Moreover, the compatibility weights of concepts are derived objectively based on the compatibility matrix. Finally, the design combination with the minimum information content is obtained by using the extended information axiom. The feasibility and applicability of this method are verified by an evaluation example of ink pen concept design. Compared with the existing methods, the proposed method considers more uncertainty and is more in line with the actual situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the efficiency assessment of Decision Making Units (DMUs) when their inputs and outputs are fuzzy sets. An axiomatic derivation of the fuzzy production possibility set is presented and a fuzzy enhanced Russell graph measure is formulated using a fuzzy arithmetic approach. The proposed approach uses polygonal fuzzy sets and LU-fuzzy partial orders, and provides crisp efficiency measures (and associated efficiency ranking) as well as fuzzy efficient targets. The proposed approach has been compared with other fuzzy DEA approaches on different datasets from the literature, and the results show that it has more discriminant power and more flexibility in modelling the input and output data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a number of alternative ways of handling transitive binary relations that commonly occur in first-order problems, in particular equivalence relations, total orders, and transitive relations in general. We show how such relations can be discovered syntactically in an input theory, and how they can be expressed in alternative ways. We experimentally evaluate different such ways on problems from the TPTP, using resolution-based reasoning tools as well as instance-based tools. Our conclusions are that (1) it is beneficial to consider different treatments of binary relations as a user, and that (2) reasoning tools could benefit from using a preprocessor or even built-in support for certain types of binary relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reveals a mathematical bridge between compass-only geometric constructions and parametric curves. A set of construction algorithms are presented which are used to locate points on any Bézier curve or B-Spline by using an abstract compass. These constructions aim to translate the B-Spline definition of Paul de Casteljau into the modified versions of compass-only constructions explained by Aleksandr Kostovskii. Several computer scripts are developed and used to simulate these constructions while calculating and minimizing their computational complexities. The mathematical bridge explained in this article is expected to bring back to mind the synthetic and axiomatic roots of design geometries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frame creation (framing) faces the challenge of envisioning novel viewpoints that point to value. This paper examines framing and uses Dorst's definition of frame from the perspective of engineering design theories and methods to highlight three of their key characteristics: (P1) problem-domain independence, (P2) generativity, and (P3) formal definition of a valuable design outcome or process in terms of principles. These properties support two statements. Statement 1: an engineering design theory or method satisfying (P1), (P2) and (P3) holds Dorst's definition of frame. The design principles on which the engineering design theory or method is based on are the pattern of relationships that characterizes valuable outcomes and processes in that frame. Statement 2: when a designer uses an engineering design theory or method satisfying (P3), the interaction between the design problem frame (A) and the engineering design theory or method frame (B), uncovers a new frame (C) with a definition of value. Illustrative examples based on axiomatic design and C-K theory demonstrate the practical application of these statements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is an expository paper on tensor products where the standard approaches for constructing concrete instances of algebraic tensor products of linear spaces, via quotient spaces or via linear maps of bilinear maps, are reviewed by reducing them to different but isomorphic interpretations of an abstract notion, viz. the universal property, which is based on a pair of axioms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) in critical infrastructure face serious threats of attack, motivating research into a wide variety of defence mechanisms such as those that monitor for violations of invariants, i.e. logical properties over sensor and actuator states that should always be true. Many approaches for identifying invariants attempt to do so automatically, typically using data logs, but these can miss valid system properties if relevant behaviours are not well-represented in the data. Furthermore, as the CPS is already built, resolving any design flaws or weak points identified through this process is costly. In this paper, we propose a systematic method for deriving invariants from an analysis of a CPS design, based on principles of the axiomatic design methodology from design science. Our method iteratively decomposes a high-level CPS design to identify sets of dependent design parameters (i.e. sensors and actuators), allowing for invariants and invariant checkers to be derived in parallel to the implementation of the system. We apply our method to the designs of two CPS testbeds, SWaT and WADI, deriving a suite of invariant checkers that are able to detect a variety of single- and multi-stage attacks without any false positives. Finally, we reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of our approach, how it can be complemented by other defence mechanisms, and how it could help engineers to identify and resolve weak points in a design before the controllers of a CPS are implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a wide class of nonparametric regression models with random design, we suggest consistent weighted least square estimators, asymptotic properties of which do not depend on correlation of the design points. In contrast to the predecessors' results, the design is not required to be fixed or to consist of independent or weakly dependent random variables under the classical stationarity or ergodicity conditions; the only requirement being that the maximal spacing statistic of the design tends to zero almost surely (a.s.). Explicit upper bounds are obtained for the rate of uniform convergence in probability of these estimators to an unknown estimated random function which is assumed to lie in a Hölder space a.s. A Wiener process is considered as an example of such a random regression function. In the case of i.i.d. design points, we compare our estimators with the Nadaraya–Watson ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper a systemic approach that combines Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) and trapezoidal intuitionistic fuzzy information axiomatic design (TIFIAD) is proposed to identify the risk of railway dangerous goods transportation system (RDNGTS), which has seven steps: (1) identify potential risk factors and risk sub-indicators of RDNGTS; (2) define the failure criterion of severity of failures (S), portability of occurrence (O) and possibility of detection (D) of FMEA based on trapezoidal intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (TrIFNs); (3) invite experts to score the TrIFNs of S, O and D for each risk sub-indicator; (4) aggregate the TrIFNs of S, O and D for each risk sub-indicator; (5) calculate the TIFIAD of each risk sub-indicator; (6) calculate the total TIFIAD of each risk sub-indicator; (7) calculate the total TIFIAD of each risk factor. Compared with FMEA, FMEA–TIFIAD has the following improvements: (1) The TrIFNs are applied to score the S, O and D of each risk sub-indicator of RDNGTS; (2) The TIFIAD of the S, O and D are calculated for each risk sub-indicator, the product of the S, O and D could replace the Risk Priority Number (RPN) of FMEA; (3) The Entropy Weight Method is used to calculate the weight of each risk sub-indicator. The calculation results show that the potential human risk should be paid more attentions; the FMEA–TIFIAD is more reliable and accurate than FMEA. Finally the improvement suggestions for managers and operators of RDNGTS are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entropy is a vital concept to measure uncertainties, in order to measure the uncertainties of fuzzy sets (FSs), intuitionist fuzzy sets (IFSs) and Pythagorean fuzzy sets (PFSs) more fully, in this paper, the axiomatic definition of fuzzy entropy of FSs is modified, the entropy measures of IFSs and PFSs are categorized as fuzzy entropy and hesitancy entropy, and the axiomatic definitions of these two entropy measures are also revised. Further, the axiomatic definitions of two overall entropies are given based on fuzzy entropy and hesitancy entropy, and the expressions of overall entropy of IFSs and PFSs are constructed by special functions. Then, it is shown that three existing overall entropy formulas can be constructed by three particular functions, and their rationality is proved. Finally, the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method and overall entropy are illustrated by an example and two comparative analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Just in the past 12 months, we have witnessed significant devastating environmental events including, fires in southeast Mediterranean and Balkan countries, in the US and elsewhere, floods in Europe and Asia, and extreme temperatures including their odd fluctuation. Another example is the trade-off between carbon and water footprint for biofuels (Berger et al. [2]). The trade-off between carbon and water footprints of European biofuels. One approach to foster this is to ask of every submission, a statement regarding its impact on the environment - the Research Environmental Impact Disclosure (REID). [Extracted from the article]

In the mechanical product design, tolerance specification is a crucial process to select tolerance types to control the geometrical variation of the features on a workpiece. Tolerance specification is a kind of decision-making process which needs to consider many influential factors of the manufacturing cost and quality requirement of a workpiece. In this context, those factors are classified into two categories, that of static factors from the rules and standards, and that of dynamic factors based on the manufacturing site's information. This paper presents a novel method for computer-aided tolerance specification to evaluate both types of factors while the traditional methods only take the static factors into considerations. Those factors are assessed by the developed MADM (multiple attributes decision-making) algorithm, assisted with the rule-based algorithm and axiomatic design algorithm. A case study is undertaken, and its result shows the effect of dynamic factors on the output of tolerance specification. The results adhere to the ISO standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the AGM theory established a paradigm for the theory of belief revision, which is generally regarded as a kind of standard in the field, it is also frequently criticized as inadequate because it neglects justificational structures. Other theories of belief revision are similarly remiss in this regard. So far, little has been done to address this shortcoming. This paper aims to fill this gap. Following a critical analysis of the AGM theory, a justification operator is introduced as a formal means to incorporate justificational structures into a belief revision theory. An AGM style belief revision theory is proposed that is based on such a justification operator. The theory is presented in an axiomatic form. Representation theorems link the axioms with constructive belief change mechanisms. The proposed theory addresses the problems of the AGM theory and similar approaches that neglect justificational structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new concept for TU-values, called value dividends, is introduced. Similar to Harsanyi dividends, value dividends are defined recursively and provide new characterizations of values from the Harsanyi set. In addition, we generalize the Harsanyi set where each of the TU-values from this set is defined by the distribution of the Harsanyi dividends via sharing function systems and give an axiomatic characterization. As a TU value from the generalized Harsanyi set, we present the proportional Harsanyi solution, a new proportional solution concept. A new characterization of the Shapley value is proposed as a side effect. None of our characterizations uses additivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We revisit a problem faced by all programmers. Can one write a program that determines whether any given program is the shortest program? How does one prove that a given program is the shortest? After answering these questions, we discuss very briefly the Kolmogorov complexity of a string of zero and one, which leads to a barrier on any axiomatic system, known as Chaitin's barrier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart manufacturing system must be designed based on a set of strategic objectives and a variety of surrounding environments; therefore, it includes a series of complex decisions and trade-offs between investment and profit. The MSDD based on the axiomatic design principle has an advantage on breaking down requirements and parameters and considering the relationships of them, but there is a limit to quantify relative weights of each requirement and parameter. To complement the limitation, a quantification method applying the analytic network process is proposed. The proposed method can calculate the relative importance degrees of the requirement and parameter objectively and help us understand and focus on more important factors of the smart manufacturing system design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic programs commonly feature a capstone experience as the final building block of the course of study. Often, capstone experiences allow students to demonstrate mastery in the context of an authentic learning experience—a real-life problem or project situated in the field of practice. The growing number of academic programs conducted online raises the question of how distance environments can support an authentic experience in a program capstone. We examine the concept of the capstone, tracing connections to authentic learning frameworks; summarize some of the literature on online capstones; and propose guidelines for structuring online capstones to support rich authentic learning experiences. We then describe two examples of online capstones from our own master's programs, focusing on features highlighted in our guidelines. We conclude that online capstones can satisfy the requirements of an authentic learning model, but must be specifically designed to include critical components of authentic learning, utilizing an array of tools, strategies, good pedagogy, and good design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growth of sustainability challenges, the automotive is regarded as one of the most important and strategic industries in the manufacturing sector. Reducing time in the product development process, seeking higher product quality, maintaining sustainable products, lowering product cost in the manufacturing process, and fulfilling customers' requirements are the key factors of the success of a company. To achieve these requirements, automotive companies must consider the use of new sustainable models that ensure design efforts, customer, and societal needs from product ideation until its end-of-life. To do so, the leading companies adopt Design for X (DFX) as a concurrent approach, which considers several issues through different factors Xs. However, with the modified applications for various domains, several researchers have developed many DFX techniques. This multiplicity makes it difficult for researchers and practitioners to keep up with DFX development. Hence, the aim of this paper is first to use mixed and different techniques to organize and select the most prominent DFXs that consider quality and customer satisfaction strategies in designing automotive product. Second, a conceptual framework called, Design for Relevance (DFRelevance) is introduced. It addresses the design factors (guidelines) of each DFX and their associated modules to facilitate the collaboration between designers and all the project team during the whole product lifecycle. Furthermore, a modeling approach based on unsupervised learning is used to accomplish DFRelevance concerns. The aim of this approach is to cluster similar modules into homogenous groups to facilitate the simultaneous implementation of the concurrent engineering strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dominant methodology of Information Retrieval (IR) research has so far been empirical, i.e., progress is guided by experimental results on various data sets. Axiomatic thinking can be further applied more broadly to addressing many other problems in IR by both practitioners of IR in the industry and academia researchers. 1 IR methodology categorization [figure from Amigó et al. ([1])] The five papers selected for this special issue cover recent research efforts on applying axiomatic thinking to different problems including retrieval models, similarity functions, and evaluation metrics. [Extracted from the article]

The active noise control is the best approach to limit the low-frequency noise present in any applications and also to estimate the signals, which are corrupted by interference or additive noise. In this paper, the design of an active noise control system is proposed with the hybrid combination of functional link artificial neural network and finite impulse response filter. The filter coefficients of both functional link artificial neural network and finite impulse response filters are optimized by firefly algorithm, and the ensemble mean square error value is computed through the filtered-s least mean square algorithm, in which the convergence of the filter is improved through the proposed approach. The signals like Chaotic noise signal and Gaussian noise signal are considered to assess the proposed method. Then, the noise reduction capability of the proposed active noise control with firefly algorithm is compared with that achieved by the same active noise control with another optimization algorithm known as BAT algorithm in place of firefly algorithm. The performance analysis is carried out under the MATLAB environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modal logics for reasoning about social networks is currently an active field of research. There is still a gap, however, between the state of the art in logical formalisations of concepts related to social networks and the much more mature field of social network analysis. In this paper we take a step to bridge that gap. One of the key foundations of social network analysis is balance theory, which is used to analyse signed social networks where agents can have positive ("friends") or negative ("enemies") relationships. Certain combinations of positive and negative relationships are considered to be unbalanced, or unstable—in particular the occurrence of cycles with an odd number of negative relationships. Especially relatively short cycles with an odd number of negative relationships are thought to put pressure on the agents to change one or more of the involved relationships from negative to positive or the other way around. Most existing logics for reasoning about social networks are defined for unsigned networks. In this paper we develop a modal logic for reasoning about structural properties of signed social networks, and give a sound and complete Hilbert-style axiomatic system. Furthermore, we completely axiomatise classes of signed social networks that are balanced to a certain degree n, in the sense that there are no cycles of length up to n with an odd number of negative relationships. Finally, we completely axiomatise the class of all fully balanced complete signed social networks, i.e., networks where everyone is connected with everyone else. Axiomatic completeness is non-trivial because neither the balance properties, nor the dichotomy between positive and negative relations, are modally definable. The paper thus provides a logical basis for reasoning about signed social networks in general and balanced networks in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the effects of drill geometry on cutting performance and hole quality in the drilling process were investigated. Two newly developed drill geometries were compared with two commercially available drill geometries. In the drilling tests on GGG50 cast iron, 4 different drills, 4 different cutting speeds and 4 different feed rates were used for L16 experimental design. The drilling tests were performed with and without cutting fluid. The results were evaluated using the axiomatic design method, one of the multi-criteria decision making methods, in terms of thrust force, surface roughness, deviation on hole diameter and length of adhering workpiece material around the chisel edges. From the obtained results, it was seen that the best results were obtained from one of the newly developed drill geometries. In addition, wear test was carried out without cutting fluid using the drill which performed best. With this best performed drill, after 100 drilling operations in wet and dry conditions and after 1500 drilling operations in dry conditions, SEM images were taken from the used drills. After drilling 100 holes both in dry and wet drilling conditions, there was almost no wear on the drills. However, some adhered workpiece material was seen on the drills. In addition, the amount of adhered workpiece significantly increased in dry drilling condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the problem of event-triggered H ∞ state estimation for switched genetic regulatory networks with static coupling via a sojourn-probability-dependent approach. The measurements of the network are evaluated by the event-triggers which are only undertaken at the switching times. By employing a time-delay approach, the estimation can be achieved by determining the exponential mean-square stability of the switched system with time-varying delay and known sojourn probability, while the system prescribes an H ∞ performance level. A co-design approach for the event-triggered mechanism and the estimators is presented by means of a novel Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional combining with refined Jensen-based inequalities. Finally, a numerical example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the designed estimators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In fuzzy time series, a way of representing their original numeric data through a collection of fuzzy sets plays a pivotal role and impacts the prediction performance of the constructed forecasting models. An evident shortcoming of most existing models is that fuzzy sets (their membership functions) are developed in an intuitive manner so that not all aspects of the time series could be fully captured. In this study, using an idea of axiomatic fuzzy set clustering we take the distribution of data into account to position time series in the framework of fuzzy sets. The obtained clusters exhibit well-defined semantics. To produce numeric results of forecasting, we develop a method to determine the prototypes based on the corresponding fuzzy description of the clusters. The commonly used enrollment time series is applied to demonstrate how the proposed method works. The experimental results exploiting the Taiwan Stock Exchange Capitalization Weighted Stock Index demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively improve forecasting accuracy. Furthermore, the proposed approach is of a general form and as such can be easily integrated with various fuzzy time series models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a brief overview of achievements in the field of microrobotics. The tasks that can be performed by mobile microrobots in space and the corresponding requirements for design and performance characteristics of such microrobots are formulated. The concept of a mobile space microrobot with thermomechanical silicon-polyimide actuators is proposed. The basic and technological feasibility of this concept are preliminary evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex market dynamics force enterprises to face new challenges. A manufacturing or assembly system has to create products based on customer requirements at the lowest possible price and to react rapidly to external changes such as market or political trends. In this regard, flexible and rapid changeable manufacturing and assembly systems are promising solutions to overcome these issues. In the past, small and medium-sized enterprises were less affected by unstable market dynamics thanks to their smaller and more manageable structures. This feature allowed to readapt the industrial facilities in a short time. The current market volatility also forces small and medium-sized enterprises to pursue innovative approaches. This work shows how an Axiomatic Design based approach could be successfully used to achieve these purposes by defining guidelines for the design of flexible and agile manufacturing and assembly systems, with a special focus on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Using the Axiomatic Design approach and the software Acclaro DFFS, customer needs and functional requirements were defined and translated into a set of design guidelines for flexible and agile manufacturing and assembly systems for SMEs. This approach helps designers to optimize their designs at a very early stage before making costly decisions or performing effortful simulations or computer-aided engineering analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a new class of allocation rules for cooperative games with transferable utility (TU-games), weighted-egalitarian Shapley values, where each rule in this class takes into account each player's contributions and heterogeneity among players to determine each player's allocation. We provide an axiomatic foundation for the rules with a given weight profile (i.e., exogenous weights) and the class of rules (i.e., endogenous weights). The axiomatization results illustrate the differences among our class of rules, the Shapley value, the egalitarian Shapley values, and the weighted Shapley values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present times, due to increase in customer demands, products complexity is on the rise. This calls for the designers to strike a balance between a wide range of design alternatives and a large set of conflicting criteria. Hence, to take a sound decision by identifying a viable combination of customer requirements and satisfy the conflicting requirements is a difficult task for both the designer and the manufacturer. This work extends the axiomatic design theory to align the customer requirements (CRs) and design parameters (DPs) and generates multiple possible design alternatives based on the weightages of analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Such design alternatives are evaluated on the basis of their overall performance in line with the expected customer attributes, and the best design is identified by integrating the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution, a ranking multi-criteria decision-making method, with AHP. This work unfolds a support tool for decision makers to accurately and effectively select CRs by a useful aggregation of function requirements and DPs. An industrial example is produced to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method. This intelligent decision-making method is useful from the customers as well as the manufacturers' perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Function integration is the way used commonly to achieve the lightweight design system. To realize the design successfully by combing two systems multifaceted issues in need to be considered. The potential functional conflicts between the existing systems are the major unfavorable factors limiting the design. In order to complete the better design, the functional and physical relationships in the systems should be figured out. This paper proposes the approach, by which the function integration process is expressed using the axiomatic design. In the design process, the mutual relationships of design parameters in the systems are investigated by means of design matrices. The design concepts are compared and evaluated by the method combining the axiomatic design and design structure matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topology optimization is a tool that supports the creativity of structural-designers and is used in various industries, from automotive to aeronautics, to reduce design iterations towards obtaining the optimal structure layout. However, this tool requires both time and experience to interpret the results into manufacturable and reliable structure layout. To improve this aspect, an interpretation support tool is being developed by our research team based on industrial knowledge and axiomatic design principles. This design tool will be very useful for aircraft structure development, for instance, as it aims to help the structural designer in the conception of stiffened panels. The tool has been divided into three modules: feature recognition, feature analysis and design support. This paper presents the first of the three modules that identifies the trusses of the optimized topology in terms of truss recognition algorithms. The purpose of the truss recognition algorithm is to translate the densities of the element of the optimized topology (low-level abstraction) to a skeletal structure (high-level abstraction) that contains nodes and branches that describe the same topology as the optimized topology. It should also ensure that the structural skeleton retains connectivity with loads and boundary conditions. The information may then be used by the design support tool for analysis, comparison, decision-making, design and optimization purposes. To do so, a novel image-based method using a binary skeleton is proposed. For this work, we identified multiple limitations existing in similar solutions and we mitigated them. Therefore, a new skeletonization method is proposed, which is specifically designed for truss recognition in the optimized topology. The capabilities of the skeletonization method are demonstrated by comparing it with existing methods, and the truss recognition algorithm is used with a test case exhibiting the algorithm’s capabilities on an airplane wing box rib. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An axiomatic approach is applied to the problem of extracting a ranking of the alternatives from a pairwise comparison ratio matrix. The ordering induced by row geometric mean method is proved to be uniquely determined by three independent axioms, anonymity (independence of the labelling of alternatives), responsiveness (a kind of monotonicity property) and aggregation invariance, which requires the preservation of group consensus, that is, the pairwise ranking between two alternatives should remain unchanged if unanimous individual preferences are combined by geometric mean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we address latent functional capabilities, capabilities that were neither intended nor recognized in the design process. We propose that latent capabilities can improve the resilience of engineering systems, enabling recovery of performance after disruptive events. Engineering systems are designed to meet their functional requirements, and have a limited ability to avoid critical failures. Normally, redundancies are put in place to reduce the impact of potential disruptions, adding to cost and complexity. An alternative is to uncover latent capabilities that can be used to recover from disruption by altering the function-form mapping. Existing design methods focus on intended, manifest functionality, and do not consider latent capabilities. With basis in design theory, we show that latent capabilities can enhance resilience, and demonstrate this using two illustrative cases. Further, we propose approaches to uncover latent capabilities in systems design, and discuss implications of using latent capabilities to enhance resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In respond to new market requirements and competitive positioning of manufacturing companies selecting optimal machines that are consistent with manufacturing goals is of crucial importance. As it involves multiple conflicting criteria and inherent ambiguity and vagueness, election of a suitable machine can be regarded as a fuzzy multi-criteria decision making problem. In this study, for the first time in the literature, an integrated approach consisting of fuzzy simple multiattribute rating technique (SMART) approach and fuzzy weighted axiomatic design (FWAD) approach is proposed to determining the optimal continuous fluid bed tea dryer for a privately owned tea plant operating in Turkey. The weights of the evaluation criteria are calculated via fuzzy SMART and then FWAD is utilized to rank competing machine alternatives in terms of their overall performance. In the FWAD application phase, five experts have determined functional requirements (FRs) and have rated alternatives. Therefore, individual fuzzy opinions were required to be aggregated in order to set up a group consensus. A group decision analysis, referred to as the least squares distance method is used to aggregating the ratings of FRs and alternatives. It is concluded that the proposed hybrid methodology is a robust decision support tool for ranking machine alternatives under fuzzy environment and furthermore, it can be exploited for other fuzzy decision making problems, as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new, more fundamental approach is proposed to the classical bargaining problem. The give-and-take feature in the negotiation process is explicitly modelled under the new framework. A compromise set consists of all allocations a player is willing to accept as agreement. We focus on the relationship between the rationality principles (arguments) adopted by players in making mutual concessions and the formation of compromise sets. The bargaining correspondence is then defined as the intersection of players’ compromise sets. We study the non-emptiness, symmetry, efficiency and single-valuedness of the bargaining correspondence, and establish its connection to the Nash solution. Our framework provides a rational foundation to Nash’s axiomatic approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The engineer-to-order industry is under constant pressure to optimise production and handle complexity in the delivery of the right components at the right time. In many cases, e.g. in the building industry, they have to install their components at the construction site. Synchronisation between fabrication and on-site installation is difficult to realise with traditional planning techniques and instruments. The purpose of this study is to outline the potential of real-time-capable production planning and control in engineer-to-order companies as a successful approach to minimise time-dependent combinatorial complexity in the value chain. This research is based on axiomatic design theory in order to explain and confirm the hypothesis of complexity reduction through a near real-time feedback request at the installation site. We have demonstrated this through the information axiom of axiomatic design which states that complexity can be reduced to a minimum through a digitally automated continuous (re-)planning in order to avoid the system range shifting outside of the design range. Thus, the research team has described the first results of an industrial case study to develop a digital software tool to overcome this limitation. Our research contributes to complexity management in engineer-to-order manufacturing companies and further provides future direction towards digitalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study values for transferable utility games enriched by a communication graph. The most well-known such values are component-efficient and characterized by some deletion link property. We study efficient extensions of such values: for a given component-efficient value, we look for a value that (i) satisfies efficiency, (ii) satisfies the link-deletion property underlying the original component-efficient value, and (iii) coincides with the original component-efficient value whenever the underlying graph is connected. Béal et al. (Soc Choice Welf 45:819-827, 2015) prove that the Myerson value (Myerson in Math Oper Res 2:225-229, 1977) admits a unique efficient extension, which has been introduced by van den Brink et al. (Econ Lett 117:786-789, 2012). We pursue this line of research by showing that the average tree solution (Herings et al. in Games Econ Behav 62:77-92, 2008) and the compensation solution (Béal et al. in Int J Game Theory 41:157-178, 2012b) admit similar unique efficient extensions, and that there exists no efficient extension of the position value (Meessen in Communication games, 1988; Borm et al. in SIAM J Discrete Math 5:305-320, 1992). As byproducts, we obtain new characterizations of the average tree solution and the compensation solution, and of their efficient extensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Taguchi method is widely employed in several fields to manage and improve processes. It is interesting that it could be used during product development, considering it as the basic element to quantify the uncertainty of the device performance prediction. During product design, when many design aspects still must be understood by the design team, it is necessary to apply interactive approaches in order to simulate the behaviour of the device, employing CAx tools. Basically it is important to identify the most suitable “loss function” that can be associated with the characteristic function. In order to plane the investigation, the device under development ought to be described in term of the Design Matrix of Axiomatic Design, allowing the designer to characterize the relationship among the functional requirements and the corresponding design parameters. The nature of this relationship, generally not known a priori, can be revealed by the employment of the Taguchi method, once a suitable Objective Function has been chosen and the noise factors are identified. Analysing the performance of a device in a simulation of its behaviour in several operational conditions allows designers to discover whether there are correspondences or contradictions among design parameters. This can be synthetically said a robust design process. In order to enhance these aspects a design of experiment must be planned. The weak point of the procedure consists in the correct choice of the function that characterizes the device behaviour. Considering the wide academic debate on this point, the paper proposes a unique Noise Reduction function to be used in conjunction with all types of “loss function”. The Design Matrix can be checked and its nature can suggest the validity of the product under development and discover contradiction. The paper discusses an interactive procedure able to integrate the Taguchi method and the axiomatic approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive strategy of an automobilemanufacturing company describes the methodology to create value for its shareholders, i.e., customers, suppliers, employees and society at large. A strategic value chain framework has been developed for the Indian car manufacturing industry. The concept of balanced scorecard, Kaplan and Norton (Harv Bus Rev 70(1):71-79, 1992), and strategy maps, Kaplan and Norton (Strategy maps--converting intangible assets into tangible outcomes. Harvard Business School Publishing Corp., Boston, 2004), has been used in the present research. The detailed design of the strategic value chain framework has been provided by making use of decomposition approach, Carrus and Cochran (in: 2nd international conference on engineering design and automation, Maui, HI, August 9-12, 1998). The decomposition approach is based on axiomatic design principles, Suh (The principles of design. Oxford University Press, New York, 1990). The detailed design of strategic value chain framework can be used for implementing the comprehensive strategy by the car manufacturing industry. The framework can be used for formulating and implementing a comprehensive strategy depending on the short-term/long-term financial perspectives of the car manufacturing company. The application of the research work has been illustrated with the help of an industrial case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(3, 2)-Simple games are a model for voting situation in which players can vote not only in favour or against a proposal but they can also abstain. Also in this model, power indices are used to evaluate the power of players. In particular, the Banzhaf index and the Shapley–Shubik index have been generalized to define analogous power indices in the context of games with abstention. In this work we provide a new axiomatization of the Banzhaf index for games with abstention, to underline its properties and increase the justification of the use of this index as a solution concept also in the family of games with abstention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines minimum cost arborescence (mca) problems, which generalize the well-known minimum cost spanning tree (mcst) problems by allowing the cost to depend on the direction of the flow. We propose a new family of cost sharing methods that are easy to compute, as they closely relate to the network-building algorithm. These methods are called minimum incoming cost rules for arborescences (MICRAs). They include as a particular case the extension of the folk solution introduced by Dutta and Mishra [Games Econ Behav 74(1):120-143, 2012], providing a simple procedure for its computation. We also provide new axiomatizations of (a) the set of stable and symmetric MICRAs and (b) the Dutta-Mishra solution. Finally, we closely examine two MICRAs that (unlike the Dutta-Mishra rule) compensate agents who help others connect at a lower cost. The first of these two rules relates to the cycle-complete solution for mcst problems introduced by Trudeau [Games Econ Behav 75(1):402-412, 2012]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents historical studies on mathematical modeling and visualization in the mathematical and physical sciences, particularly on geometric models and biology and particle physics. Topics include the role of models in the history of geometry in connection with modern axiomatics, physical representations of idealized objects that challenge the imagination of special mathematical constructs, and Nicolas Rashevsky's 1934 paper on cell division.

We present an axiomatic characterization of the Owen-Shapley spatial power index for the case where issues are elements of two-dimensional space. This characterization employs a version of the transfer condition, which enables us to unravel a spatial game into spatial games connected to unanimity games. The other axioms include two conditions concerned particularly with the spatial positions of the players, besides spatial versions of anonymity and dummy. The last condition says that dummy players can be left out in a specific way without changing the power of the other players. We show that this condition can be weakened to requiring dummies to have zero power if we add a condition of positional continuity. We also show that the axioms in our characterization(s) are logically independent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The act of introducing an innovation into an existing product by substituting or inserting new technologies is thought to be challenging due to the problem of integrating new components and sub-system architectures into existing ones. This article aims to challenge the foundation of this problem and develop new insights into the choice of functional architecture. The article will propose that the choice of functional architecture to achieve an intended purpose locks-in a design by influencing the cost of transformation. This paper studies functional lock-in based on the transformation cost of the functional architectures of products. The transformation cost for a set of biological and biologically inspired products is compared to that of engineered products. The results show that the biological and biologically inspired products have a statistically significant lower transformation cost than the engineered products. The results indicate that the structure of functions and flows in a product will constrain its transformation. More broadly, the paper proposes minimum transformation cost as an essential property of an optimal design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever increasing functionality and complexity of products and systems challenge development companies in achieving high and consistent quality. A model-based approach is used to investigate the relationship between system complexity and system robustness. The measure for complexity is based on the degree of functional coupling and the level of contradiction in the couplings. Whilst Suh's independence axiom states that functional independence (uncoupled designs) produces more robust designs, this study proves this not to be the case for max-/min-is-best requirements, and only to be true in the general sense for nominal-is-best requirements. In specific cases, the independence axiom has exceptions as illustrated with a machining example, showing how a coupled solution is more robust than its uncoupled counterpart. This study also shows with statistical significance, that for max- and min-is-best requirements, the robustness is most affected by the level of contradiction between coupled functional requirements ( p = 1.4e−36). In practice, the results imply that if the main influencing factors for each function in a system are known in the concept phase, an evaluation of the contradiction level can be used to evaluate concept robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]