No abstract

Quorum quenching (QQ) has recently been acknowledged to be a sustainable antifouling strategy and has been investigated widely using lab-scale membrane bioreactor (MBR) systems. This study attempted to bring this QQ-MBR closer to potential practical application. Two types of pilot-scale QQ-MBRs with QQ bacteria entrapping beads (QQ-beads) were installed and run at a wastewater treatment plant, feeding real municipal wastewater to test the systems' effectiveness for membrane fouling control and thus the amount of energy savings, even under harsh environmental conditions. The rate of transmembrane pressure (TMP) build-up was significantly mitigated in QQ-MBR compared to that in a conventional-MBR. Consequently, QQ-MBR can substantially reduce energy consumption by reducing coarse bubble aeration without compromising the effluent water quality. The addition of QQ-beads to a conventional MBR substantially affected the EPS concentrations, as well as microbial floc size in the mixed liquor. Furthermore, the QQ activity and mechanical stability of QQ-beads were well maintained for at least four months, indicating QQ-MBR has good potential for practical applications.

No abstract

The relationship between open innovation and company’s competitive advantage, and organisational capabilities required remains to be explained. This study was conducted to answer the following questions. Does open innovation create organisation's competitive advantage? What types of capabilities are needed in the process of open innovation reaching competitive advantage, and what kind of relationship do they have? This study extends the scope of theoretical discussion about open innovation from the point of dynamic capability view. The results confirmed the statistical significance of the path linking open innovation to competitive advantage through product innovation. From the viewpoint of capabilities, transforming capability plays a role of significant prerequisite of sensing capability and seizing capability, having a direct or indirect significant effect on product innovation performance and competitive advantage sequentially. The results suggest that the linkages between the needed capabilities of organisation must be considered for performing open innovation to secure competitive advantage.

An abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) carries one of the highest mortality rates among vascular diseases when it ruptures. To predict the role of surface curvature in rupture risk assessment, a discriminatory analysis of aneurysm geometry characterization was conducted. Data was obtained from 205 patient-specific computed tomography image sets corresponding to three AAA population subgroups: patients under surveillance, those that underwent elective repair of the aneurysm, and those with an emergent repair. Each AAA was reconstructed and their surface curvatures estimated using the biquintic Hermite finite element method (BQFE). Local surface curvatures were processed into ten global curvature indices. Statistical analysis of the data revealed that the L2-norm of the Gaussian and Mean surface curvatures can be utilized as classifiers of the three AAA population subgroups. The application of statistical machine learning on the curvature features yielded 85.5% accuracy in classifying electively and emergent repaired AAAs, compared to a 68.9% accuracy obtained by using maximum aneurysm diameter alone. Such combination of non-invasive geometric quantification and statistical machine learning methods can be used in a clinical setting to assess the risk of rupture of aneurysms during regular patient follow-ups.