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Copyright of Journal of Graphics is the property of Journal of Graphics Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article analyzes and proposes improvements to the policy of developing social consciousness during training in higher educational institutions. Furthermore, it focuses on the pedagogical aspect of this issue. Developing social consciousness is crucial in shaping modern specialists. These specialists must possess not only developed practical and theoretical professional skills, but also a high level of empathy and social awareness. The research employs the IDEF0 functional modeling method, a novel approach that goes beyond simply listing key stages. Instead, it demonstrates the place and role of additional elements within the process. As a result, a model system for enhancing the policy of developing social consciousness in higher education institutions was formed. The study acknowledges a limitation: it solely considers processes for improving pedagogical methods among students with a pedagogical profile. Future research plans to expand this study to encompass other higher education institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a domain of a safety increasing of railway and road traffic, hydraulic barrier drives installed at level crossings have an important role. Frequent traffic accidents at level crossings, involving road vehicles and trains, are result of inappropriately equipped level crossings with signalling and safety equipment. Limited use of hydraulic barrier drives is the result of complicated adaptation in the process of implementing such systems to the existing infrastructure of some of the equipment manufacturers and railway operators. Hydraulic barrier drive PBH21, which uses a modular architecture, was developed and designed in this paper. Applying modular design principles and functional modeling methods, using functional flow diagrams, PBH21 has ability to adapt on the technologies and infrastructures of other major manufacturers of such equipment within EU countries and other countries in the world that have developed railway infrastructure. Due to the protection of certain design solutions from competition, certain details are not presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been increasingly applied to condition-based maintenance (CBM), a knowledge-based method taking advantage of human expertise and other system knowledge that can serve as an alternative in cases in which machine learning is inapplicable due to a lack of training data. Functional information is seen as the most fundamental and important knowledge in maintenance decision making. This paper first proposes a mechanical functional modeling approach based on a functional modeling and reasoning methodology called multilevel flow modeling (MFM). The approach actually bridges the modeling gap between the mechanical level and the process level, which potentially extends the existing capability of MFM in rule-based diagnostics and prognostics from operation support to maintenance support. Based on this extension, a framework of optimized CBM is proposed, which can be used to diagnose potential mechanical failures from condition monitoring data and predict their future impacts in a qualitative way. More importantly, the framework uses MFM-based reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) to determine the importance of a detected potential failure, which can ensure the cost-effectiveness of CBM by adapting the maintenance requirements to specific operational contexts. This ability cannot be offered by existing CBM methods. An application to a mechanical test apparatus and hypothetical coupling with a process plant are used to demonstrate the proposed framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how engineers formulate and evolve mental models holds the potential to inform the development of materials that benefit systems thinking. A first step toward realizing this benefit is measuring and assessing change in mental models following educational interventions. In this work, engineering students' mental models are elicited from common household products before and after learning functional modeling and are compared to the mental models of students who do not learn functional modeling. Results show statistically significant improvements in mental model representations on two of the three given systems after the functional modeling intervention, whereas no significant differences were found for students who did not learn function. Furthermore, results show statistical improvements in the identification of system components common to three systems and higher mental model scores for participants with prior experience disassembling the product. Taken together, these results suggest that functional modeling likely supports the ability to communicate knowledge, retrieve knowledge, and/or interpret existing mental models of engineered systems providing a foundation for systems understanding and communication. As we improve our understanding of how students form, change, and communicate their mental models of engineered systems, educators can shape curricula to facilitate the skills necessary for the comprehensive systems understanding that is important for professional engineers and designers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding functional adaptation demands an integrative framework that captures the complex interactions between form, function, ecology, and evolutionary processes. In this review, we discuss how to integrate the following two distinct approaches to better understand functional evolution: (1) the adaptive landscape approach (ALA), aimed at finding adaptive peaks for different ecologies, and (2) the performance landscape approach (PLA), aimed at finding performance peaks for different ecologies. We focus on the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process as the evolutionary model for the ALA and on biomechanical modeling to estimate performance for the PLA. Whereas both the ALA and the PLA have each given insight into functional adaptation, separately they cannot address how much performance contributes to fitness or whether evolutionary constraints have played a role in form-function evolution. We show that merging these approaches leads to a deeper understanding of these issues. By comparing the locations of performance and adaptive peaks, we can infer how much performance contributes to fitness in species' current environments. By testing for the relevance of history on phenotypic variation, we can infer the influence of past selection and constraints on functional adaptation. We apply this merged framework in a case study of turtle shell evolution and explain how to interpret different possible outcomes. Even though such outcomes can be quite complex, they represent the multifaceted relations among function, fitness, and constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accelerometers are widely used for tracking human movement and provide minute-level (or even 30 Hz level) physical activity (PA) records for detailed analysis. Instead of using day-level summary statistics to assess these densely sampled inputs, we implement functional principal component analysis (FPCA) approaches to study the temporal patterns of PA data from 245 overweight/obese women at three visits over a 1-year period. We apply longitudinal FPCA to decompose PA inputs, incorporating subject-specific variability, and then test the association between these patterns and obesity-related health outcomes by multiple mixed effect regression models. With the proposed methods, the longitudinal patterns in both densely sampled inputs and scalar outcomes are investigated and connected. The results show that the health outcomes are strongly associated with PA variation, in both subject and visit-level. In addition, we reveal that timing of PA during the day can impact changes in outcomes, a finding that would not be possible with day-level PA summaries. Thus, our findings imply that the use of longitudinal FPCA can elucidate temporal patterns of multiple levels of PA inputs. Furthermore, the exploration of the relationship between PA patterns and health outcomes can be useful for establishing weight-loss guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a domain of a safety increasing of railway and road traffic, hydraulic barrier drives installed at level crossings have an important role. Frequent traffic accidents at level crossings, involving road vehicles and trains, are result of inappropriately equipped level crossings with signalling and safety equipment. Limited use of hydraulic barrier drives is the result of complicated adaptation in the process of implementing such systems to the existing infrastructure of some of the equipment manufacturers and railway operators. Hydraulic barrier drive PBH21, which uses a modular architecture, was developed and designed in this paper. Applying modular design principles and functional modeling methods, using functional flow diagrams, PBH21 has ability to adapt on the technologies and infrastructures of other major manufacturers of such equipment within EU countries and other countries in the world that have developed railway infrastructure. Due to the protection of certain design solutions from competition, certain details are not presented in this paper.

The subject of study in this work is the land inventory process. The work increases the efficiency of the land inventory process by finding the possibility of reducing the amount of topographic surveying work by algorithmizing and systematizing the information flows with a combination of qualitatively different data. Objectives: to analyze the land inventory process within land management projects to identify possible ways of its efficiency improvement; focusing on information flows, to create an information model for the inventory process; to develop scientific-methodological basis for information support of land management projects to reduce the amount of topographic surveying for implementation into decision support systems for land management. The following results were obtained. The requirements of the current legislation on the inventory of land plots and related tasks are generalized. A set-theoretic model of information flows of the inventory process, which combines the approaches of functional modeling, is proposed. It allows us to combine the qualitatively different data, consider their dynamic nature and the logic of interaction. IDEF3-model developed. This model considers remote sensing data as a source of accurate and up-to-date information, algorithmizes the mechanism of their combination with other information about land plots and explains the dynamic nature of its changes with time. A method for creating a database of the working inventory land plan is proposed. It combines information about land plots from several sources, reduces the amount of topographic surveying by selecting plots that needed to be coordinated (determined) with the geospatial data. The developed scientific-methodological basis of information support for land projects forms the structure of information technology for land inventory. Its usage will reduce the number of resources required for the implementation of land projects, at the same time forming reliable conclusions about the state of the land by using geographic information systems (GIS) and combining dissimilar data. Conclusions. The results of the bibliographic search confirmed the following. The effectiveness of the land inventory process, which ensures compliance with legislation in the field of land management, is very difficult because of the need to analyze a large amount of different information appears, which may contain errors, inconsistent and contradictory data. This requires the development of specialized models and method focused on the use of GIS for their implementation into decision support systems for land management. Scientific-methodological basis of information support for land projects during the inventory of land plots has been developed, practical usage of which confirmed that the time costs for obtaining the land plot research data decreased by almost 33% and the accuracy of measuring geometric dimensions of the land plot increased by about 1%.

Large-scale, complex, and high-risk industrial systems such as nuclear power plants have developed detailed operating procedures. Under the expected conditions, the operators operate the system according to the operating procedures to avoid human error. However, under complex and unfamiliar conditions, once the guidance of operating procedures is lost, serious consequences may be caused. This paper proposes a No-Procedure guided Operation Supervision Technology (NoP-OST). The key idea is to identify the success paths by a forward-searching approach from source to sink functions. On this basis, the success paths are combined to generate various operation schemes to achieve the main objectives of the system. The paper illustrates the application of NoP-OST through the case of loss of the Residual Heat Removal System (RHRS) in a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) nuclear power plant. The research results show that the method proposed in this paper can provide a valuable operational reference for complex systems by making use of the available functions of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The HSV-1 (VC2) live-attenuated vaccine strain was engineered with specific deletions in the amino termini of glycoprotein K (gK) and membrane protein UL20, rendering the virus unable to enter neurons and establish latency. VC2 replicates efficiently in epithelial cell culture but produces lower viral titers and smaller viral plaques than its parental HSV-1 (F) wild-type virus. VC2 is an effective live-attenuated vaccine against HSV-1 and HSV-2 infections in mice and guinea pigs and an anti-tumor immunotherapeutic and oncolytic virus against melanoma and breast cancer in mouse models. Previously, we reported that the gK/UL20 complex interacts with the UL37 tegument protein, and this interaction is essential for virion intracellular envelopment and egress. To investigate the potential role of the UL37 deamidase functions, the recombinant virus FC819S and VC2C819S were constructed with a C819S substitution to inactivate the UL37 predicted deamidase active site on an HSV-1(F) and HSV-1(VC2) genetic background, respectively. FC819S replicated to similar levels with HSV-1(F) and produced similar size viral plaques. In contrast, VC2C819S replication was enhanced, and viral plaques increased in size, approaching those of the wild-type HSV-1(F) virus. FC819S infection of cell cultures caused enhanced GM-CSF secretion in comparison to HSV-1(F) across several cell lines, including HEp2 cells and cancer cell lines, DU145 (prostate) and Panc 04.03 (pancreas), and primary mouse peritoneal cells. VC2 infection of these cell lines caused GM-CSF secretion at similar levels to FC819S infection. However, the VC2C819S virus did not exhibit any further enhancement of GM-CSF secretion compared to the VC2 virus. These results suggest that the UL37 deamidation functions in conjunction with the gK/UL20 complex to facilitate virus replication and GM-CSF secretion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current state of regulation of the engineering services market in the world is at the level of constant development and improvement. The formation of a system for concluding contractual relations in the field of engineering services is no exception. The imperfection of the system for concluding the contract for engineering services indicates the weak state of the current management system in the field of innovation and intellectual property in the field of doing business both in a single country and throughout the world, which necessitates revising and improving the principles of concluding contracts in the field of engineering services. The contract for engineering services appeared in the world legislation relatively recently, in science there is still no unity in understanding the nature of this contract, as well as in the terminology used to designate legal relations arising on its basis. There are different, sometimes polar, approaches to the essence, features and elements of the contract for engineering services. In addition, there is still no single mechanism for forming a contract. Given this, an important step towards improving the contract for engineering servicess in civil law will be the formation of a systematic sequence of steps using the IDEF0 functional model. In this regard, the main goal of the article is to form the basic principles of consistency and algorithmization of the process of concluding the contract for engineering servicess on the basis of a functional model IDEF0.

Accelerating the dynamics of technological change presents business leaders with complex innovation risks, be they manifested as opportunities or threats, and challenges to bridge the widening strategy-technology chasm. We propose a decision-support tool in the form of a new strategic lens to make sense of evolving technologies within the context of a company's strategy by transforming both the company's strategic imperatives and the technological landscape to the same functional domain through the use of corpus linguistics and interpretive text networks. This approach facilitates a strategic conversation in a company by leveling the playing field between leadership and technologists in a transparent and inclusive process. We present a real-world case study to illustrate how business leaders can proactively use this tool to create the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep mutational scanning enables high-throughput functional assessment of genetic variants. While phenotypic measurements from screening assays generally align with clinical outcomes, experimental noise may affect the accuracy of individual variant estimates. We developed the FUSE (functional substitution estimation) pipeline, which leverages measurements collectively within screening assays to improve the estimation of variant impacts. Drawing data from 115 published functional assays, FUSE assesses the mean functional effect per amino acid position and makes estimates for individual allelic variants. It enhances the correlation of variant functional effects from different assay platforms and increases the classification accuracy of missense variants in ClinVar across 29 genes (area under the receiver operating characteristic [ROC] curve [AUC] from 0.83 to 0.90). In UK Biobank patients with rare missense variants in BRCA1, LDLR, or TP53, FUSE improves the classification accuracy of associated phenotypes. FUSE can also impute variant effects for substitutions not experimentally screened. This approach improves accuracy and broadens the utility of data from functional screening., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The widespread use of machine learning, including at critical information infrastructure facilities, entails risks of security threats in the absence of reliable means of protection. The article views the processes in machine learning systems as the ones occurring in information systems susceptible to malicious influences. The results of modeling events leading to a security breach in machine learning systems operating at critical information infrastructure facilities are presented. For modeling, the technology of creating functional models SADT (Structured Analysis and Design Technique) and the IDEF0 (Integration definition for function modeling) methodology were used as a tool for transition from a verbal functional description of the process under study to a description in terms of mathematical representation. In order to study the scenarios of the transition of machine learning systems to a dangerous state and the numerical assessment of the probability of security violation, mathematical modeling of threats was carried out using the logical-probabilistic method. The authors obtained a visual functional model of system security violation in the form of a context diagram of the system and two levels of decomposition. The hazard function of the system is determined and the arithmetic polynomial of the probability function is derived. In further work the described models will allow researchers to develop methods and algorithms for protecting machine learning systems from malicious influences, as well as to apply them in assessing the level of security.

With the model-based approaches gaining popularity in the development of complex systems, formal approaches for functional modeling have attracted a lot of attention. However, existing approaches for functional modeling do not involve structural states of a system, which often makes the functional models of such systems ambiguous and incomplete. To address this issue, research on a state-integrated approach for generalized functional modeling has been conducted. First, the State-Bahvior-Function model for components is proposed, which can represent the structural states, behaviors, and functions of a component. Thereafter, an approach for generalized functional modeling of systems is proposed, which can represent different structural states of a system, as well as the functions corresponding to the states of the system. Finally, the functional modeling process of a peeler centrifuge is provided as an example, which demonstrates that the state-integrated approach for generalized functional modeling can enable engineers to establish explicit and complete functional models of systems.

The efficiency of informational support depends on the speed and quality of making management decisions, as well as their relevance and adaptability to changing conditions, which determine the efficiency of the functioning of production systems. The paper considers the development of artifacts to represent structural and functional models of organizational systems described by the set of interacting processes and subprocesses functioning under uncertainty. The creation of a new system of artifacts is caused by the necessity to distinguish the subject of management in an explicit form combining discrete and continuous processes within the framework of one model, as well as determining the efficiency of the obtained models. The eEPC, BPMN, and IDEF methodology of structural modeling served as a basis for this development. The use of the proposed system of artifacts is shown using the example of managing the product portfolio of production systems operating on a free market. The presented form of representation allows one to structure the running processes and investigate their efficiency by the methods of simulation modeling and statistical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of China Mechanical Engineering is the property of Editorial Board of China Mechanical Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The concept of Industry 4.0 has been developed a lot from a theoretical point of view. However, the real applications on production lines remain few in number, due to the difficulties of interoperability between the different production entities and also due to the lack of a control system adapted to the expected flexibility and to the management of the data generated. This article focuses on the development and deployment of a manufacturing execution system (MES) on a production system 4.0. The development stages of the system are explained in detail. The new functionalities and the expected level of performance impose a new logic in the design of advanced systems for controlling and optimizing production. Finally, a proof of concept of an MES was developed and tested on a new technology platform 4.0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teleological knowledge and functional representation are present in numerous scientific and engineering disciplines and are key aspects addressed by a broad spectrum of design and modeling frameworks. The current paper summarizes the results obtained in the area of functional modeling achieved under the umbrella of the second release of the General Formal Ontology (GFO 2.0), which is a modular top-level ontological framework actively developed by the Onto-Med Research Group. This paper presents and discusses the Function Module of GFO 2.0, which serves three objectives. (1) It supports the representation of teleological components, let it be a function or a goal-oriented process, by a blueprint of structured specifications. (2) It provides a classification of relationships enabling the construction of functional decomposition models. (3) The module enables the description of the elements of a domain in functional terms by means of a family of function ascription constructs, which handle the modeling of not only function-to-object assignments, but also of malfunctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current state of regulation of the engineering services market in the world is at the level of constant development and improvement. The formation of a system for concluding contractual relations in the field of engineering services is no exception. The imperfection of the system for concluding the contract for engineering services indicates the weak state of the current management system in the field of innovation and intellectual property in the field of doing business both in a single country and throughout the world, which necessitates revising and improving the principles of concluding contracts in the field of engineering services. The contract for engineering services appeared in the world legislation relatively recently, in science there is still no unity in understanding the nature of this contract, as well as in the terminology used to designate legal relations arising on its basis. There are different, sometimes polar, approaches to the essence, features and elements of the contract for engineering services. In addition, there is still no single mechanism for forming a contract. Given this, an important step towards improving the contract for engineering servicess in civil law will be the formation of a systematic sequence of steps using the IDEF0 functional model. In this regard, the main goal of the article is to form the basic principles of consistency and algorithmization of the process of concluding the contract for engineering servicess on the basis of a functional model IDEF0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A generalized algorithm for the verification of functional models and the rules for the verification of diagrams related by levels of detail were developed in this paper. The algorithm is based on the analysis of a tree which describes the decompose relations in functional diagrams. At each step of the algorithm, a pair consisting of a parent diagram and a functional diagram is selected, and the correlation of the arrows and their roles is checked for both. The formalization of the verification rules was based on the set-theoretic representation of functional diagrams in the form of labeled oriented graphs. The rules make it possible to map the position and roles of the arrows associated with the detailed function block of the parent diagram to the arrows of the child diagram. The following rules for each of the possible arrow roles were established: “input”, “output”, “control”, “mechanism”. The use of the logic programming language PROLOG was proposed for the implementation of the algorithm. A knowledge base structure comprised of 3 interrelated predicates to describe the tree of diagrams, nodes and edges of the graphs was suggested. A query to check the verification rules was formed, and methods of binding variables and fixing roles were considered. The analysis and verification of a fragment of a functional model for the production of vinyl acetate from ethylene was conducted as an example. The functional diagrams for the processes “Condensate separation” and “Vinyl acetate isolation” connected by a decompose relation were developed, their set-theoretic models were constructed, and the use of rules for the verification of each type of arrow were considered.

The formalized model of carbon sorbent synthesis control based on the methodology for functional modeling is constructed. The correlations between the directions of use and the properties of carbon sorbents are revealed. The characteristics that are essential regardless of the direction of use of the sorbent, in particular, sorption properties and strength are identified. The technologies based on the gas-phase method of obtaining carbon material are considered, the analysis of individual stages of the process of obtaining carbon sorbents is carried out. The analysis of the influence of the technological parameters of the synthesis on the properties of sorbents is carried out. On the basis of the established relationships, a functional model has been built that provides a hierarchically ordered, structured, visual description of the management of carbon sorbent synthesis. The simulation is performed “from top to bottom” from the most general description to the detail. The resulting model is a set of interrelated graphical diagrams. At the initial stage, the synthesis of carbon sorbent is considered as a single process, the input parameters of which are hydrocarbon gas, the activating agent and the material form factor, the output - carbon sorbent, and the control parameters are the requirements for strength and sorption properties. Then the synthesis process is decomposed. The control processes (analysis of raw material properties and matrix selection), technological processes (raw material preparation) and mixed processes are distinguished as a result of decomposition. The model includes a consistent description of the technological parameters selection (temperature, gas flow and time) for both stages of the synthesis process. The model is the base for information support providing for the production of carbon sorbents with the required properties.

Functional design is regarded as a design activity primarily aimed at clarifying customer needs, and developing the functional architecture and solution concepts for a system under development. Existing functional design approaches are mainly focused on how to assist designers in searching for solution principles for desired products, which, however, do not adequately take into account the interactions between a smart system under development and its environment, and cannot explicitly represent the complex functional logic of the system, resulting in that they cannot effectively assist designers in the functional design of smart systems. Therefore, this paper proposes a scenario-integrated approach for functional design of smart systems to address the above issues. Based on the concept of scenario in software engineering, the proposed approach explicitly elaborates how to employ scenarios to express subjective customer needs and how to generate the functional architectures and the corresponding solution concepts through a structured process. The functional design of the automated doors-unlocking system of a smart vehicle is employed to illustrate the proposed approach, which also demonstrates that the proposed approach is suitable for functional design of smart systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: to realize integration of the innovative organization mechanism with the system of standard design of reclamation facilities with subsequent visualization of the interaction processes of the system elements in the form of a functional model. The organization mechanism in the innovation activity is an activity aimed at the formation and, if necessary, reorganization of structures that implement innovation processes. Materials and methods. The works of Russian and foreign researchers in the field of application of innovative mechanisms in various sectors of economy were used as initial materials. The following methods of information processing were used: analysis, synthesis, logic. When constructing a functional model of interaction of system structural elements, the methodology of functional modeling was used in accordance with R 50.1.028-2001. Results and discussion. It is proposed to divide the developed structure of a convergent standard design system into three component parts, in particular, developers of standard project documentation, an organization for managing standard project documentation (institution), consumers of standard project documentation, with the subsequent endowment of each of the elements with their own areas of activity. The analysis of the activity of the elements of the system is carried out, highlighting the main functions performed. A functional model of interaction of a convergent standard design system elements has been developed. Conclusions. The core structural element of the converged system in the form of an organization for managing standard design documentation (institution), while performing its main functions, will ensure the interaction of developers and consumers of standard design documentation at a higher quality level compared to the previously existing (under the Soviet Union) standard design system.

The development of mechatronic products is complex because it deals with the interaction between different domains. In a literature review, the absence of a method capable of integrating the functional view of a mechatronic product into a single model was observed. This article aims to develop a functional modeling method to aid the conceptual design of mechatronic products. The proposed procedure describes the phases and steps required to create functional models and use cases for the different mechatronics knowledge domains and to combine them into a single functional model. The use of the proposed method is demonstrated through its application in the development of an air compressor. The method is then evaluated by experts and tested in the development of an autonomous vehicle for railway inspection, demonstrating its feasibility and the presentation of functional information in a single diagram. Factors such as effectiveness, usability and repeatability were also verified, and an efficient presentation of the function model was observed, allowing to view the relations between the mechanics, electronics and software domains in a unified diagram. The great benefit of the proposed method lies is in the possibility of also using functional models in the context of mechatronic product design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The time history response and its variance of physical system are analyzed based on the functional model converted from physical domain to time-constant domain. Since a base unit of the model in time-constant domain is time, the relationship between the model and its time history response may be apparent for analysis of the response. This approach is firstly applied to the theoretical 1st and 2nd order system in time-constant domain and to give results: (1) a ratio of time-constant to input time of 1st and 2nd order system is an explanatory variable of the time history response and its variance, and thus (2) increasing the ratio can reduce the variance of time history response. This approach is then applied to a real system called the impact excitation system which converts input electrical energy to solenoid armature movement to excite a target plate. The measured time history responses of the system such as a current, armature velocity and impact force are analyzed by the corresponding functional model in time-constant domain and give results: (3) the rapid change of time history response and its variance of armature velocity and impact force at impacting on the target can be explained as a small time-constant of armature mass and contact stiffness relative to the input time, and thus (4) it is verified that the proposed approach can provide the insight for analysis and designing the time history response and its variance of physical system in an intuitive way.

Abstract Unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) were used to phenotype growth trajectories of inbred maize populations under field conditions. Three recombinant inbred line populations were surveyed on a weekly basis collecting RGB images across two irrigation regimens (irrigated and non‐irrigated/rain fed). Plant height, estimated by the 95th percentile (P95) height from UAS generated 3D point clouds, exceeded 70% correlation (r) to manual ground truth measurements and 51% of experimental variance was explained by genetics. The Weibull sigmoidal function accurately modeled plant growth (R2: >99%; RMSE:

The article deals with the application of the system approach for constructing informationalgorithmic support for the pharmaceutical development of solid dosage forms. Information modeling of the life cycle of pharmaceutical drug development has been carried out starting from the stage of studying the active pharmaceutical substance and ending with the utilization of the drug. These models are built in the IDEF0 nomination. A generalized block diagram is presented that reflects, in its most general form, the iterative process of developing a ready-made dosage form as applied to the further transfer of technology. The basis of the system approach is QbD - "Quality planned in the development". To implement the QbD principle on the basis of the system approach, systemic set-theoretic models of information support of pharmaceutical development in the nomenclature of Melentiev have been constructed. A model for controlling the pressing process is also provided, which takes into account all the technological stages in the development of a solid dosage form. Functional models in the IDEF0 nomenclature of the technological process are constructed from the preparation of premises, personnel and components of the dosage form to the stage of packing and packaging of the finished dosage form. The construction of an informational intellectual control system for pharmaceutical development has been considered in detail with particular attention paid to the construction of a database of medicinal and auxiliary substances using the example of solid dosage forms. In Melentiev's bracket notation, the database of auxiliary substances necessary for the design of a solid dosage form is filled. The "Entity-relationship" model and the relational model for the database of medicinal and auxiliary substances have been constructe

The aim of the present study is to assess theoretical and practical analysis of scientific publications on solar desalination. This analysis is proposed within mechanical design theory framework. For this, inductive and statistical methods were used in analysis of the scientific publications of different specialties that deal with the design process of solar desalination. With the use of the mentioned methods a tendency was obtained that justifies applying the study results to this type of devices of the approaches of the theory of the mechanical design analyzed. Statistical analysis is conducted for the above assessment not only analytically but quantitatively. This gives responses to problems currently posed by different authors related to the possibility of linking several disciplines used today in isolation for the application of mechanical design theory to this type of solar desalination.

The article considers the application of the system approach for constructing informational support for the life cycle of the production of medicinal products. The principal difficulties of creating a single informational system of the entire life cycle are considered in this article. A brief analysis of the information and computer support of individual links in the life cycle is given. Particular attention is paid to the use of a systematic approach to the creation of information support for the pharmaceutical development of medicines. The principle of QbD - “Quality planned for development” - was taken as a basis. For the implementation the QbD principle on the basis of the system approach, it is proposed to use the Shewhart-Deming iteration cycle to create an information support for a sustainable search for the optimal version (the program) of the conducted studies. The possibility of combining the PDCA cycle and the methodology of the system approach is shown. On its basis, system-theoretic multiple models of nformation support for pharmaceutical development in the graphic-analytical nomination were constructed. The method of applying the criterial approach for the formation of global and local criteria for managing research and the construction of system management models in the Melentiev’s brackets nomination are presented. The information modeling of the stage of pharmaceutical development has been carried out. Functional models have been constructed in the IDEF0 nomination.

The present work is devoted to the problems of Digital Twin development of industrial enterprises in the field of mining. The main goal of this article is to formulate the principles of designing platform solutions for the integration of the most important functional elements that ensure the implementation of technological processes of a full production cycle. Various classification schemes for heterogeneous, poorly structured information spaces that form the distributed digital environment of a mining enterprise are proposed. Based on the results of structural and functional modeling, a number of principles and requirements are formulated for the implementation of the Digital Twin technology of the transport and technological process in quarry. A conceptual diagram of the functional structure of the Digital Twin platform is proposed, taking into account the need to include Industry 4.0 technologies such as Industrial Internet of Things, Big Data (including Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning), Autonomous Haulage Systems and Dynamics 3D Optimization Modeling. Some aspects of the implementation and functioning of the prototype version of the Digital Twin platform are considered in terms of the use of instrumental solutions based on the Unity visual modeling environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) were used to phenotype growth trajectories of inbred maize populations under field conditions. Three recombinant inbred line populations were surveyed on a weekly basis collecting RGB images across two irrigation regimens (irrigated and non‐irrigated/rain fed). Plant height, estimated by the 95th percentile (P95) height from UAS generated 3D point clouds, exceeded 70% correlation (r) to manual ground truth measurements and 51% of experimental variance was explained by genetics. The Weibull sigmoidal function accurately modeled plant growth (R2: >99%; RMSE: <4 cm) from P95 genetic means. The mean asymptote was strongly correlated (r2 = 0.66–0.77) with terminal plant height. Maximum absolute growth rates (mm/day) were weakly correlated with height and flowering time. The average inflection point ranged from 57 to 60 days after sowing (DAS) and was correlated with flowering time (r2 = 0.45–0.68). Functional growth parameters (asymptote, inflection point, growth rate) alone identified 34 genetic loci, each explaining 3–15% of total genetic variation. Plant height was estimated at one‐day intervals to 85 DAS, identifying 58 unique temporal quantitative trait loci (QTL) locations. Genomic hotspots on chromosomes 1 and 3 indicated chromosomal regions associated with functional growth trajectories influencing flowering time, growth rate, and terminal growth. Temporal QTL demonstrated unique dynamic expression patterns not previously observable, and no QTL were significantly expressed throughout the entire growing season. UAS technologies improved phenotypic selection accuracy and permitted monitoring traits on a temporal scale previously infeasible using manual measurements, furthering understanding of crop development and biological trajectories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechatronic systems are the synergetic integration of software and physical parts whose characteristics are quite different. The synergistic design of these two parts is one of the main challenges of the system design of mechatronic systems. Although with divergent characteristics, these two parts are possible to be unified on the functional level. Motivated by this observation, a formal functional representation is proposed by extending the flow-based functional representation. On this basis, a system design methodology is proposed, according to which the software and physical parts can be designed separately by applying specific design methods and interactions between the two design processes can be enabled to help designers to identify design defects and constraints in early design. Following this methodology, the traditional reference architecture of mechatronic systems is refactored so that software and physical parts can be correlated in fine granularity. A mobile robot is illustrated to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In automotive drive systems, differential gear backlash degrades the control performance. Specifically, a shock torque, which is generated when the gear runs freely and collides with the backlash, increases the vibration amplitude. Consequently, it is important to develop a vibration control method to suppress the adverse effect of nonlinearity due to backlash. Furthermore, considering implementations on actual vehicles, design at the development site, and mass production, a simple and practical control method is necessary. This paper describes the configuration of a basic experimental device, which abstracts an actual vehicle to focus on the influence due to backlash while reflecting the basic structure of an automotive drive system. Next, a basic controller is designed using a mixed H2/H∞ control theory, and a servo system is constructed to track the target value. A simple control mode switching algorithm is proposed for backlash compensation. This algorithm is suited to practical applications because it uses only an output without a state estimation and it compensates for performance deteriorations due to the nonlinearity by operating a single linear controller. Finally, simulations and experiments verify the effectiveness of the proposed control system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an expert functional design model and software modeling environment for designing the architecture of industrial robots. The modeling environment comprises an integrated knowledge base, an inference engine, a working memory, and an explanation unit and is implemented in CLIPS. The functional design model is based on the authors' behaviour-driven, function-environment-structure (B-FES) formalism, which has been tailored to meet the special requirements of industrial robot design. A universal robot template has been created and a library of typical components of a robot has been compiled. Nine customized templates were generated from the universal template. Web links to the websites of manufacturers/suppliers provide easy access to data on robot components. The architectural design solutions are assessed by a set of user-defined performance criteria, such as precision, flexibility and short cycle time. Application of the approach is demonstrated through a case study of the functional design of a printed circuit board assembly robot. The authors argue that this approach is new for configuring robots and can significantly reduce the time, effort and number of errors made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]