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A high level of transparency in reported research is critical for several reasons, such as ensuring an acceptable level of trustworthiness and enabling replication. Transparency in qualitative research permits the identification of specific circumstances which are associated with findings and observations. Thus, transparency is important for the repeatability of original studies and for explorations of the transferability of original findings. There has been no investigation into levels of transparency in reported technology education research to date. With a position that increasing transparency would be beneficial, this article presents an analysis of levels of transparency in contemporary technology education research studies which employed interviews within their methodologies, and which were published within the "International Journal of Technology and Design Education and Design and Technology Education: An International Journal" (n = 38). The results indicate room for improvement, especially in terms of documenting researcher positionality, determinations of data saturation, and how power imbalances were managed. A discussion is presented on why it is important to improve levels of transparency in reported studies, and a guide on areas to make transparent is presented for qualitative and quantitative research.

The escalating global concern regarding plastic waste accumulation and its detrimental environmental impact has driven the exploration of sustainable alternatives to conventional petroleum-based plastics. This study investigates the development of antimicrobial blends of bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) derived from plastic waste and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHB), further enhanced with essential oils. The antimicrobial activity of the resulting BNC/PHB blends was tested in vitro against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Candida albicans. The incorporation of essential oils, particularly cinnamon oil, significantly enhanced the antimicrobial properties of the BNC/PHB blends. The BNC with 5% PHB blend exhibited the highest antifungal inhibition against C. albicans at 90.25%. Additionally, blends with 2% and 10% PHB also showed antifungal activity, inhibiting 68% of C. albicans growth. These findings highlight the potential of incorporating essential oils into BNC/PHB blends to create effective antimicrobial materials. The study concludes that enhancing the antimicrobial properties of BNC/PHB significantly broadens its potential applications across various sectors, including wound dressings, nanofiltration masks, controlled-release fertilizers, and active packaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper shows how to develop an I3oT (Industrializable Industrial Internet of Things) tool for continuous improvement in production line efficiency by means of the sub-bottleneck detection method. There is a large amount of scientific literature related to the detection of bottlenecks in production lines. However, there is no scientific literature that develops tools to improve production lines based on the bottlenecks that go beyond rebalancing tasks. This article explores the concept of a sub-bottleneck. In order to detect sub-bottlenecks in a massive way, the use of one of the I3oT (Industrializable Industrial Internet of Things) tools developed in our previous work, the mini-terms, is proposed. These mini-terms use the existing sensors for the normal operation of the production lines to measure the sub-cycle times and use them to predict the deterioration of the machine components found in the production lines. The sub-bottleneck algorithms proposed are used in two real twin lines at the Ford manufacturing plant in Almussafes (Valencia), the (3LH) and (3RH), to show how the lines can be continuously improved by means of sub-bottleneck detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sarcopenia in cancer patients often negatively impacts various outcomes. Carboplatin, a first-line chemotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), is dosed based on body weight, which doesn't account for sarcopenia. This study evaluated the association between sarcopenia and carboplatin-related toxicity in NSCLC patients. Patients with locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC treated with carboplatin were included. Toxicity events during the first two cycles of treatment were recorded. Sarcopenia was assessed using pretreatment computed tomography scans analyzed with Slice-O-Matic V4.2 software, defining sarcopenia as a skeletal muscle index (SMI) of <52.4 cm2/m2 for men and <38.5 cm2/m2 for women. Among 146 patients, 52% had sarcopenia. Hematological toxicity occurred in 71.2% of all patients and 77.6% of those with sarcopenia. The fat-free mass index (FFMI) was independently associated with hematological toxicity and dose-limiting toxicity (DLT), which was observed in 55.5% of patients. Sarcopenia significantly correlates with hematological toxicity and DLT during carboplatin treatment in NSCLC patients. Given its prevalence and noninvasive detection, further research is needed to understand its impact on treatment outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the design, implementation and start-up of the first AIMW (Autonomous Industrial Mobile Warehouse) in the industry, in particular, in the factory located at Ford España S.L. in Almussafes (Valencia). This first version has been given the name of "Survival", due to its ability to survive the industrial environment commonly known as "the jungle". The motivation for the design of the first AIMW was due to the management of spare warehouses for maintenance tasks. In all factories there is a central warehouse where replacement materials with a higher probability of use are placed near the warehouse exit, thus reducing the time to obtain the replacement. However, in large factories, such as automobile manufacturing, the distance between the central warehouse and the place where the breakdown occurs may cause very long delays. For this reason, there are smaller warehouses distributed throughout the plant that replicate the part of the central warehouse where the most used materials are kept. The objective of our research is to make that part of the central warehouse mobile with the AIMW design, thus eliminating the fixed warehouses. In the factory at Ford España S.L. in Almussafes there are 170 of these warehouses distributed in a homogeneous way. In this first proposal of an AIMW, and with the primary objective of reducing costs, Survival 1.0 has been designed based on a commercial AMR. For its choice, commercial AMRs were tested in real situations within the Ford factory (Almussafes). As a result, none of them were able to pass all the tests. In addition, the current regulations for AMRs, the ANSI/ITSDF B56.5:2019 and the EN 1525:1997 standard, only define minimum test standards to describe how manufacturers and users must carry out the safety measurements of AGVs and AMRs. However, from an industry point of view, these regulations are not adequate. Therefore, there are extensions of these regulations generated by the companies themselves that imply additional developments of commercial AMRs. This paper shows the developments made to be able to integrate the first AIMW into the production line, but it also shows the gap between research and standardization of AMRs with respect to the demands and needs of the industry. There are currently three Survival 1.0 AIMWs in operation in the factory at Ford España S.L. in Almussafes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]