This paper presents a technique to investigate the influence of aesthetic features and brand recognition of vehicles. Visual aesthetics have been shown to impact greatly on consumer perception of products and their branding, yet there exist few tools or methods to support reasoning about their influence. To explore this influence, a procedure for visually decomposing designs into constituent aesthetic features is developed. The strategy is applied to a range of saloon cars, and a consumer survey undertaken to establish the significance and potency of individual aesthetic features. Results both validate the decomposition technique and highlight certain aesthetic features which have the greatest influence on brand recognition.

Over the last decade the UK food processing industry has become increasing competitive. This leads the sector to maintain high numbers of product variations. Although some of these products are stable over long periods, others are short lived or seasonal. The ability to handle both the complexity of process and large variations in product format creates extreme difficulties in ensuring that the existing manufacturing, handling and packaging equipment has the process flexibility to cope. This paper presents an approach for investigating the performance envelopes of machines utilizing a constraint modelling environment. The approach aims to provide the engineer with enhanced understanding of the range of functionality of a given machine and provides the possibility of redesign to process variant product.

Infusion into the superior pancreaticoduodenal artery should be a preferred route than into the splenic artery as the former method resulted in better homing and retention of labeled stem cells. Homing is least likely to occur when the intravenous route is used.

AIMTo carry out randomized trial for evaluating effects of autologous bone marrow derived stem cell therapy (ABMSCT) through different routes.METHODSBone marrow aspirate was taken from the iliac crest of patients. Bone marrow mononuclear cells were separated and purified using centrifugation. These cells were then infused in a total of 21 patients comprising three groups of 7 patients each. Cells were infused into the superior pancreaticoduodenal artery (Group I), splenic artery (Group II) and through the peripheral intravenous route (Group III). Another group of 7 patients acted as controls and a sham procedure was carried out on them (Group IV). The cells were labelled with the PET tracer F18-FDG to see their homing and in vivo distribution. Data for clinical outcome was expressed as mean ± SE. All other data was expressed as mean ± SD. Baseline and post treatment data was compared at the end of six months, using paired t-test. Cases and controls data were analyzed using independent t-test. A probability (P) value of < 0.05 was regarded as statistically significant. Measures of clinical outcome were taken as the change or improvement in the following parameters: (1) C-peptide assay; (2) HOMA-IR and HOMA-B; (3) reduction in Insulin dose; subjects who showed reduction of insulin requirement of more than 50% from baseline requirement were regarded as responders; and (4) reduction in HbA1c.RESULTSAll the patients, after being advised for healthy lifestyle changes, were evaluated at periodical intervals and at the end of 6 mo. The changes in body weight, body mass index, waist circumference and percentage of body fat in all groups were not significantly different at the end of this period. The results of intra-group comparison before and after ABMSCT at the end of six months duration was as follows: (1) the area under C-peptide response curve was increased at the end of 6 mo however the difference remained statistically non-significant (P values for fasting C-peptide were 0.973, 0.103, 0.263 and 0.287 respectively and the P values for stimulated C-peptide were 0.989, 0.395, 0.325 and 0.408 respectively for groups I to IV); (2) the Insulin sensitivity indices of HOMA IR and HOMA B also did not show any significant differences (P values for HOMA IR were 0.368, 0.223, 0.918 and 0.895 respectively and P values for HOMA B were 0.183, 0.664, 0.206 and 0.618 respectively for groups I to IV); (3) Group Ishowed a significant reduction in Insulin dose requirement (P < 0.01). Group II patients also achieved a significant reduction in Insulin dosages (P = 0.01). The Group I and Group II patients together constituted the targeted group wherein the feeding arteries to pancreas were used for infusing stem cells. Group III, which was the intravenous group, showed a non-significant reduction in Insulin dose requirement (P = 0.137). Group IV patients which comprised the control arm also showed a significant reduction in Insulin dosages at the end of six months (P < 0.05); and (4) there was a non-significant change in the Hb A1c level...

Recent European Union regulations on packaging waste have resulted in a trend towards light-weighting and greater use of recycled materials in the packaging of consumer goods. This has impacted particularly upon the folding carton industry, and has necessitated greater fundamental understanding of the machine-material interactions that take place during carton production. One way to achieve this is through the use of simulation models. Such a model has been created to simulate the behaviour of a folding carton during the critical transition between flattened and erected states. The model is able to simulate process failure (buckling) and investigate the effect of changes in pack, process, material, and tooling parameters. The model is applied here to investigate the effect of variation in two key machine settings. These are the relative orientation of tooling, and the contact points between tooling and carton. The results of the simulation reveal a strong correlation between theoretical and practical results, and as a consequence provide a means for determining the optimum tooling position(s). The study demonstrates the ability of simulation to support the set-up and operation of complex packaging machinery. It is arguable that such tools will be essential for machinery and consumer goods manufacturers to compete in today's highly competitive global markets where quality, efficiency, and flexibility are critical.

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The configuration phase for a new machine design is expensive and time consuming for special purpose machine manufacturers. This papers presents a modelling approach that can aid such companies reduce the configuration phase time and its respective costs. The approach is demonstrated with an industrial case study.