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Introducing multiple active sites and constructing a heterostructure are efficient strategies to develop high-performance electrocatalysts. Herein, two-dimensional heterostructure NiFeP@FeOOH nanosheets supported by nickel foam (NF) are prepared by a hydrothermal–phosphorization–electrodeposition process. The synthesis of self-supporting heterostructure NiFeP@FeOOH nanosheets on NF increases the specific surface region, while bimetallic phosphide realizes rapid charge transfer, improving the electron transfer rate. The introduction of FeOOH and the construction of a heterostructure result in a synergistic effect among the components, and the surface-active sites are abundant. In situ Raman spectroscopy showed that the excellent oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance was due to reconstruction-induced hydroxyl oxide, which achieved a multi-active site reaction. The NiFeP@FeOOH/NF electrocatalytic activity was then significantly improved. The findings indicate that in a 1.0 M KOH alkaline solution, NiFeP@FeOOH/NF showed an OER overpotential of 235 mV at 100 mA cm−2, a Tafel slope of 46.46 mV dec−1, and it worked stably at 50 mA cm−2 for 80 h. This research proves that constructing heterostructure and introducing FeOOH are of great significance to the study of the properties of OER electrocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pygopus (Pygo) has been identified as a specific nuclear co-activator of the canonical Wingless (Wg)/Wnt signaling pathway in Drosophila melanogaster. Pygo proteins consist of two conserved domains: an N-terminal homologous domain (NHD) and a C-terminal plant homologous domain (PHD). The PHD's ability to bind to di- and trimethylated lysine 4 of histone H3 (H3K4me2/3) appears to be independent of Wnt signaling. There is ongoing debate regarding the significance of Pygo's histone-binding capacity. Drosophila Pygo orthologs have a tryptophan (W) > phenylalanine (F) substitution in their histone pocket-divider compared to vertebrates, leading to reduced histone affinity. In this research, we utilized CRISPR/Cas9 technology to introduce the Pygo-F773W point mutation in Drosophila, successfully establishing a viable homozygous Pygo mutant line for the first time. Adult mutant flies displayed noticeable abnormalities in reproduction, locomotion, heart function, and lifespan. RNA-seq and cluster analysis indicated that the mutation primarily affected pathways related to immunity, metabolism, and posttranslational modification in adult flies rather than the Wnt signaling pathway. Additionally, a reduction in H3K9 acetylation levels during the embryonic stage was observed in the mutant strains. These findings support the notion that Pygo plays a wider role in chromatin remodeling, with its involvement in Wnt signaling representing only a specific aspect of its chromatin-related functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is an editorial from the journal "Processes" discussing the importance of green manufacturing and sustainable supply chain management. It highlights the challenges posed by traditional manufacturing processes in terms of environmental pollution and resource depletion. The editorial emphasizes the need for sustainable practices and advanced technologies to minimize waste generation, reduce energy consumption, and optimize resource utilization. The document also provides a list of topics of interest for research in sustainable manufacturing and supply chain management. It concludes by expressing appreciation to the authors, reviewers, and editorial team members who contributed to the special issue on this topic. [Extracted from the article]

Ankyrin repeat and suppression-of-cytokine-signaling box (Asb) proteins, a subset of ubiquitin ligase E3, include Asb5 with six ankyrin-repeat domains. Zebrafish harbor two asb5 gene isoforms, asb5a and asb5b. Currently, the effects of asb5 gene inactivation on zebrafish embryonic development and heart function are unknown. Using CRISPR/Cas9, we generated asb5a-knockout zebrafish, revealing no abnormal phenotypes at 48 h post-fertilization (hpf). In situ hybridization showed similar asb5a and asb5b expression patterns, indicating the functional redundancy of these isoforms. Morpholino interference was used to target asb5b in wild-type and asb5a-knockout zebrafish. Knocking down asb5b in the wild-type had no phenotypic impact, but simultaneous asb5b knockdown in asb5a-knockout homozygotes led to severe pericardial cavity enlargement and atrial dilation. RNA-seq and cluster analyses identified significantly enriched cardiac muscle contraction genes in the double-knockout at 48 hpf. Moreover, semi-automatic heartbeat analysis demonstrated significant changes in various heart function indicators. STRING database/Cytoscape analyses confirmed that 11 cardiac-contraction-related hub genes exhibited disrupted expression, with three modules containing these genes potentially regulating cardiac contractile function through calcium ion channels. This study reveals functional redundancy in asb5a and asb5b, with simultaneous knockout significantly impacting zebrafish early heart development and contraction, providing key insights into asb5's mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In-depth exploration of the theory and technological applications of smart manufacturing (SM) is lacking in the current talent training model for industrial engineering (IE) majors, and there is a lack of practical education for SM environments. This makes it difficult for students of traditional IE majors to adapt to the modern trend of industrial intelligence and meet the needs of market demand and enterprise development. Therefore, how to cultivate IE talents for SM has become an urgent problem for IE majors to solve. To this end, this paper proposes a new "SM+IE" talent training model, aiming to cultivate more high-quality composite application talents. This model is based on the Lean Manufacturing course and analyzes the effect of the training mode of SM. Secondly, we used the topic of "Sorting Efficiency Improvement" to verify the effectiveness of the new talent training model. The materials were divided into three types: large, medium, and small, and the materials were sorted using traditional IE practices and smart manufacturing-oriented practices. Finally, interviews were conducted with the participants, and both teachers and students indicated that the learning effect of this teaching reform practice was significantly better than that of the traditional IE teaching mode. The results show that the new talent training model improved not only the application and practical skills of the IE students, but also their teamwork and leadership skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remanufacturing used products is an important technological approach in sustainable development and circular economy. Meanwhile, redesign is the key component of remanufacturing, as it can innovate the function and structure of used products. However, due to the uncertain quality, variety, and small batches of the returned used products for remanufacturing, it is difficult to generate a sound redesign scheme to satisfy the customer demand quickly and dynamically. In addition, it is unpredictable whether the redesign scheme is suitable for the remanufacturing processes, which may lead to additional remanufacturing costs. In order to improve the efficiency of design and obtain the optimal design scheme, it is necessary to use intelligent technology to quickly generate and optimize the redesign scheme. To address this, an intelligent redesign method for used products based on the digital twin is proposed in this paper. Digital twin (DT) technology can connect the physical world with the virtual world and use the virtual model to simulate the redesign process, which is conducive to the dynamic adjustment and optimization of the redesign scheme. Firstly, the redesign process framework is constructed based on the axiomatic design (AD) method, and the redesign features of the used products are analyzed to determine the redesign problems. Then, based on the connotation of a digital twin, an intelligent redesign framework is constructed, which provides detailed guidance for building the digital-twin-driven redesign system. Henceforth, the application of the redesign process based on a digital twin is discussed, a technical approach of the digital-twin-driven redesign is proposed, and data processing methods, such as data cleaning, data integration, and data analysis, are used to realize the redesign scheme decision. Finally, the feasibility of this method is verified by the redesign of a used clutch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large and extensive manufacturing systems consume a large proportion of manufacturing energy. A key component of energy efficiency management is the accurate prediction of energy efficiency. However, the nonlinear and vibration characteristics of machining systems' energy consumption (EC) pose a challenge to the accurate prediction of system EC. To address this challenge, an energy consumption prediction method for machining systems is presented, which is based on an improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO) algorithm to optimize long short-term memory (LSTM) neural networks. The proposed method optimizes the LSTM hyperparameters by improving the particle swarm algorithm with dynamic inertia weights (DIWPSO-LSTM), which enhances the prediction accuracy and efficiency of the model. In the experimental results, we compared several improved optimization algorithms, and the proposed method has a performance improvement of more than 30% in mean absolute error (MAE)and mean error(ME). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The Przewalski's horse (Equus ferus przewalskii), the only extant species of wild horse, was extinct in the wild in 1960s. The wild horse has been successfully saved from extinction by captive breeding projects outside the historic range. Although multiple studies were conducted, the main problems such as loss of founder genes, inbreeding depression, hybridization with domestic horses, high morbidity and mortality, and a lack of reliable prevention strategies and treatment limitations of these problems are still unresolved and require further scientific effort. This review aims to increase understanding of the scientific attributes that make the survival of the species possible and how these attributes can be useful for appropriate design of conservation and management strategies oriented to improve the viability of the existing population of the species. This review summarizes studies on Przewalski's horse since its extinction in the wild in the 1960s, with a focus on the reintroduction projects in Mongolia and China, with current population status. Historical and present distribution, population trends, ecology and habitats, genetics, behaviors, conservation measures, actual and potential threats are also reviewed. Captive breeding and reintroduction projects have already been implemented, but many others are still under considerations. The review may help to understand the complexity of problem and show the directions for effective practice in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underdeveloped countries are gradually opening remanufacturing facilities to recover end-of-life products (EOL). Locating these facilities in underdeveloped countries is quite challenging because many factors related to the environment, economics, and ethics have to be considered. This paper proposes a decision-making model for locating remanufacturing facilities, a critical factor in implementing remanufacturing in underdeveloped countries. Our principal objective is to obtain the capacity, number, and geographical locations for newly established remanufacturing facilities using a Capacitated Facility Location Problem (CFLP) approach. The mathematical model helps us find the number of facilities that will need to be opened to fully recover the EOL products and the total cost during the entire process. A case study on the establishment of SEVALO Remanufacturing Machinery Co., Ltd. in Cameroon is used to demonstrate the CFLP approach. The results and analyses show that the successful establishment of SEVALO in Cameroon will significantly help to reduce the quantity of construction machinery parts dumped into the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The operating environment and using conditions of mechanical products are complex and diverse, which has caused a large number of mechanical products to be unable to be remanufactured or have low-remanufacturability. Such products are often ignored by remanufacturing companies and society, which aggravates environmental pollution and waste of resources. Therefore, this article provides a decision-making model for two strategies of complete machine remanufacturing (CMR) and part remanufacturing (PR) for used products with low-remanufacturability. Firstly, from the perspective of the remanufacturing process under the existing technical conditions, the economic, environmental, and social benefits of different remanufacturing solutions are analyzed. Secondly, the entropy method is used to weigh the economic, environmental, and social benefits to reduce the model error, and the linear regression method is used to find the comprehensive benefits of its different remanufacturing strategies. Finally, through the decision-making research on the remanufacturing strategies of the used machine tool CA6180, the results show that the tested machine tool should choose the remanufacturing strategy of PR and put it on the market. Moreover, the decision-making strategy proposed in this paper helps to realize a resource-saving and environment-friendly manufacturing ecology and provides a new perspective for remanufacturing research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, practical optimisation models and intelligent solution algorithms for solving disassembly sequence planning are attracting more and more attention. Based on the importance of energy efficiency in product disassembly and the trend toward green remanufacturing, this paper proposes a new optimisation model for the energy-efficient disassembly sequence planning. The minimum energy consumption is used as the evaluation criterion for disassembly efficiency, so as to minimise the energy consumption during the dismantling process. As the proposed model is a complex optimization problem, called NP-hard, this study develops a new extension of the whale optimisation algorithm to allow it to solve discrete problems. The whale optimisation algorithm is a recently developed and successful meta-heuristic algorithm inspired by the behaviour of whales rounding up their prey. We have improved the whale optimisation algorithm for predation behaviour and added a local search strategy to improve its performance. The proposed algorithm is validated with a worm reducer example and compared with other state-of-the-art and recent metaheuristics. Finally, the results confirm the high solution quality and efficiency of the proposed improved whale algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Understanding the ecological processes involved in establishing a metacommunity, a collection of small communities linked by species dispersal, could help with biodiversity conservation. In this work, we examine how local community connectivity affects the distributional patterns of various bird species across metacommunities in the strikingly different Altai landscapes. We discovered that connectivity was most important for determining community composition in metacommunities. High beta diversity and a high turnover component in the research region showed that regional-scale conservation efforts should consider overall biodiversity. Although they are not part of the Altai-Sayan biodiversity ecoregion, the riparian and desert landscapes are essential to the birds that reside in the mountain ranges and should be regarded as integral parts of the ecoregion, and high connectivity stepping-stone habitats in these landscapes should be protected. Located on the southwest slope and plain areas of the Altai Mountains in China, this study aims to explore bird composition variation (beta diversity) in mountain landscape (metacommunity M), riparian landscape (metacommunity R), desert landscape (metacommunity D) and across the three landscapes (metacommunity A), and to assess how patch connectivity with environmental and spatial factors influence species distributional patterns across multiple metacommunities. In 78 transect lines over the study area, 9724 detections of 139 bird species were detected. We calculated the beta diversity, its turnover and nestedness components in four metacommunities. We used the variation partitioning method to investigate the relative importance between the environment, spatial variation and locality connectivity in driving bird community composition variation. We found high beta diversities with a small contribution of nestedness components in all four metacommunities. When only a single set of predictors is contained in the model, the predictor that best explains the variation of bird community composition is connectivity in metacommunity M, R and D and spatial predictor in metacommunity A. In all three sets of predictors, 73.8~85.4% of variations of community composition can be explained in the four metacommunities, and connectivity always contributed the most. High beta diversity and a high turnover component imply that regional-scale conservation efforts should be thought of as preserving overall biodiversity. A conservation strategy is to keep stepping-stone habitats with good connectivity in the middle of the riparian landscape. Along with the Altai-Sayan biodiversity ecoregion, the desert and riparian environments are essential for birds residing in the mountainous terrain. Furthermore, they should be regarded as integral parts of the ecoregion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green design pursues maximum economic efficiency and minimum environmental impact. Green design of mechanical equipment can ensure environmentally friendly design and manufacturing. A rust-off machine is a crucial piece of equipment in remanufacturing. As attention to remanufacturing grows, the demand for rust-off machines is gradually increasing, but their green characteristics have not attracted attention. There is a need to carry out a green design for a rust-off machine that can improve its economy and environmental friendliness. In response to this need, in this study, a green design method for a rust-off machine was developed, combining the strengths of quality function deployment for environment (QFDE) and function analysis. In this method, functional analysis was used to determine the mapping relationship between functions and components. QFDE was used not only to determine the relationship between customer requirements and engineering metrics, but also to establish the relationship between engineering metrics and components and to obtain optimal structural solutions. A green design of a steel plate surface rust-off machine was taken as a case study. The results show that this method can achieve a win-win design that achieves maximum economic benefit and environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social awareness of the environment has promoted the vigorous development of remanufacturing. Traditional product design does not consider the remanufacturability, which leads to improper disposal at the end of the product's life, resulting in environmental pollution and resource waste. In this paper, a method for the generation and optimization of product design schemes was established, in which remanufacturability was included at the early design stage of the product. Firstly, based on axiomatic design, the Z-shaped mapping was upgraded to the tree topology mapping, which was then incorporated into the scheme generation model, and seven remanufacturability design constraint criteria were used as constraints to obtain a product design set of scenarios. Secondly, the entropy weight method and analytic hierarchy process were combined to calculate the weights of the four evaluation indicators: functionality, economy, stability, and environment; and a differential evolution algorithm was used to optimize the scheme. Finally, a lathe was taken as a case to illustrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed methodology. The results showed that the method could successfully generate product design schemes that improved remanufacturability and met the needs of users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active remanufacturing is an important technique that is used to reduce the uncertainty of the quality of remanufactured cores. However, the implementation of active remanufacturing too early or late will lead to a reduction in economic benefits and an increase in environmental impact during the whole life cycle of the product. To this end, an active-remanufacturing-timing decision method is proposed based on an economic, energy and environmental (3E) analysis of product life cycle. In this method, the quantitative function of the cost, energy consumption and environmental emissions of used products in the manufacturing stage, service stage, and remanufacturing stage are firstly constructed based on life-cycle assessment (LCA) and life-cycle cost (LCC). Then, a multi-objective optimization method and the particle swarm algorithm are utilized to obtain active-remanufacturing timing with the optimal economic and environmental benefits of remanufacturing. Finally, a case study on remanufacturing on used engines is demonstrated to validate the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The uncertainty failure of the used part leads the complexity selection of remanufacturing processes. The different remanufacturing process combinations among used parts of used products also make the formulation of tolerance schemes more difficult. It is hard to guarantee the optimality of process-tolerance schemes by traditional serial production modes in general, in which tolerance design is followed by process formulation. In order to generate the optimal remanufacturing scheme of process and tolerance for used products, an optimization method to integrate designs of process-tolerance (IDP-T) based on fault features was presented. In this work, the failure description set of used parts was constructed by combining the attribute characteristics and failure characteristics. Case-based reasoning (CBR) was first utilized to generate the feasible remanufacturing process plans of used parts. Then, based on the feasible process plans, the factors of cost, quality loss, closed-loop accuracy and machining ability of remanufacturing were comprehensively considered to construct the optimization model of IDP-T. The Beetle Antennae Search algorithm (BAS) was used for the optimal alternative selection. Finally, a used gearbox was taken as an example to illustrate the validity and practicality of the proposed method. The results showed that the proposed method was effective in the optimization of IDP-T for remanufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remanufacturing is a domain that has increasingly been exploited during recent years due to its numerous advantages and the increasing need for society to promote a circular economy leading to sustainability. Remanufacturing is one of the main end-of-life (EoL) options that can lead to a circular economy. There is therefore a strong need to prioritize this option over other available options at the end-of-life stage of a product because it is the only recovery option that maintains the same quality as that of a new product. This review focuses on the different lifecycle strategies that can help improve remanufacturing; in other words, the various strategies prior to, during or after the end-of-life of a product that can increase the chances of that product being remanufactured rather than being recycled or disposed of after its end-of-use. The emergence of the fourth industrial revolution, also known as industry 4.0 (I4.0), will help enhance data acquisition and sharing between different stages in the supply chain, as well boost smart remanufacturing techniques. This review examines how strategies like design for remanufacturing (DfRem), remaining useful life (RUL), product service system (PSS), closed-loop supply chain (CLSC), smart remanufacturing, EoL product collection and reverse logistics (RL) can enhance remanufacturing. We should bear in mind that not all products can be remanufactured, so other options are also considered. This review mainly focuses on products that can be remanufactured. For this review, we used 181 research papers from three databases; Science Direct, Web of Science and Scopus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Engineering Education Accreditation (EEA) has been adopted in colleges and universities worldwide. As a foundational component of practical teaching, cognitive internship is a focus of EEA, with the offline mode as the common teaching method, while the online mode has been increasingly used in recent years. To meet the requirements of EEA, the effects of the online and offline cognitive internships need to be analyzed and compared. Focusing on the demand, this paper proposes a comprehensive method combining the Goal Achievement Degree (GAD) and CIPP model. The majors of the School of Automotive Transport and Engineering at Wuhan University of Science and Technology (WUST), which include the fields of vehicle engineering, traffic engineering, traffic transport, and logistics engineering, are taken as the example to conduct this research. The main findings of this paper are as follows: (1) Compared with online cognitive internship, offline internship students have a stronger ability to enhance theoretical knowledge and perceive the environment. (2) Utilizing such an online teaching method could be helpful for cultivating students' analytical skills. (3) From the students' perspective, the lack of funding for teaching cognitive internships, both online and offline, is the most serious problem. (4) Students perceive that the online cognitive internship helps them to understand knowledge in class and determine career planning, but it does not provide the same effect on those as the offline cognitive internship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous pathways and narratives have been developed to shed light on how society could transform its production systems in line with the aspirational targets of the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals. Zhang et al. [[10]] address a coincineration scheme for mixing multi-component wastes in a rotary kiln for waste disposal from pesticide production. Zhang et al. [[4]] present a literature review on reverse logistics (RL) supplier selection in terms of criteria and methods and propose a three-stage typology of decision-making frameworks to understanding RL supplier selection. This Special Issue on "Green Technologies for Production Processes" will focus on publishing original research works about Green Technologies for Production Processes, including discrete production processes and process production processes, from various aspects that tackle product, process, and system issues in production. [Extracted from the article]

Despite the increasing contribution of the automotive industry to China's national economy, CO2 emissions have become a challenge. However, the research about its energy consumption and carbon emissions is lacking. The significance of this study is to fill the research gap and provide suggestions for China's automotive industry to reduce its carbon emissions. In this paper, the extended logarithmic Division index (LMDI) method is adopted to decompose the factors affecting carbon emissions and determine the key driving forces. According to provincial statistical data in China in 2017, the annual emissions of six provinces exceeded five million tons, accounting for 55.44% of the total emissions in China. The largest source of emissions in China is in Jilin Province, followed by Jiangsu, Shandong, Shanghai, Hubei and Henan. The decomposition results show that investment intensity effect is the greatest factor for CO2 emissions, while R&D intensity and energy intensity are the two principal factors for emission reduction. After the identification of driving factors, mitigation measures are proposed considering the current state of affairs and real situation, including improving energy structure, accelerating product structure transformation, stimulating sound R&D investment activities, promoting energy conservation and new energy automobile industry development and boosting industrial cluster development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid increasing number of automobile products has brought great convenience to people's living, but it has also caused serious environmental issues, waste of resources and energy shortage during its whole lifecycle. Corporate Environmental Responsibility (CER) refers to the company's responsibility to avoid damage to the natural environment derived from its corporate social responsibility (CSR), and it plays an important role in solving resource and environmental problems. However, due to various internal and external reasons, it is difficult for the automobile manufacturing industry to find the key drivers for the implementation of CER. This research proposes a model framework that uses the fuzzy decision-making test and evaluation laboratory (fuzzy DEMATEL) method to analyze the drivers of CER from the perspective of the triple bottom line (TBL) of economy, environment and society. Firstly, the common drivers of CER are collected using literature review and questionnaire survey methods. Secondly, the key drivers are analyzed by using the fuzzy DEMATEL. Finally, the proposed approach was verified through a case study. The research results show that some effective measures to implement CER can be provided for the government, the automobile manufacturing industry and the public to promote sustainable development of Chinese Auto Manufacturing Industry (CAMI). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides and illustrates a design-based learning (DBL) and outcome-based education (OBE) approach for fostering the innovation, practice, and autonomous learning ability of industrial engineering students. We performed two studies with on industrial engineering students in typical educational activities. The first study used a topic of "sheet metal parts turnover protection optimization" to explore the application effect of "DBL + OBE" and its shortcomings in the implementation process, so as to help students understand this new teaching method. Then, in order to verify the use effect of "DBL + OBE", the second study used the topic of "production line balance" to divide the students into an experimental class and a control class. The experimental class adopted the design learning teaching method, while the control class adopted the traditional teaching method. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, students and teachers were interviewed. It was found that the students in the experimental class were more outstanding in personal abilities, such as systematic thinking, independent innovation ability, etc. The results show that: the rational use of design-based learning and outcome-based education concept can stimulate students' interest in learning, cultivate students' team spirit, improve students' innovation ability, practical ability and problem solving ability, and cultivate "innovative talents" needed in the new era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The optimization of blank design is the key to the implementation of a green innovation strategy. The process of blank design determines more than 80% of resource consumption and environmental emissions during the blank processing. Unfortunately, the traditional blank design method based on function and quality is not suitable for today's sustainable development concept. In order to solve this problem, a research method of blank design optimization based on a low-carbon and low-cost process route optimization is proposed. Aiming at the processing characteristics of complex box type blank parts, the concept of the workstep element is proposed to represent the characteristics of machining parts, a low-carbon and low-cost multi-objective optimization model is established, and relevant constraints are set up. In addition, an intelligent generation algorithm of a working step chain is proposed, and combined with a particle swarm optimization algorithm to solve the optimization model. Finally, the feasibility and practicability of the method are verified by taking the processing of the blank of an emulsion box as an example. The data comparison shows that the comprehensive performance of the low-carbon and low-cost multi-objective optimization is the best, which meets the requirements of low-carbon processing, low-cost, and sustainable production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To train students' practical ability in design, enterprise projects are often introduced into the industrial design courses of Chinese universities. However, such project-oriented learning activity (POA) is often not well designed. This not only makes it difficult to improve learning effectiveness, but also may bring the unpleasant learning experience to students. The learning experience and learning effectiveness are equally important, and they are mutually conditional and complementary. To consider both, POA needs to be elaborately designed. To this end, a variety of mature POA organization forms, such as project-based learning (PBL), design-based learning (DBL), and project-oriented design-based learning (PODBL), are discussed firstly. PODBL integrates and inherits the advantages of other learning models, and it has been preliminarily proved to improve the learning effectiveness of engineering design courses. Therefore, a cross-reference list was proposed for upgrading POA to PODBL. A lamp design course was developed based on this checklist and students were organized to study. The customer journey map tool was used to analyze the learning experience of students in the course journey, and the emotions and pain points were obtained, as well as some critical factors leading to a positive learning experience. Finally, to demonstrate the availability of the cross-reference list and critical factors, a baby strollers design project course was developed and participants were interviewed. The results show that the cross-reference list and critical factors could improve learning effectiveness and enhance the learning experience significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The internationalized higher education in Engineering has made the sustainable future of Chinese regional universities prosper in the recent decade. The teaching practices of engineering courses pose many challenges in Sino–foreign joint undergraduate programs. The design-based learning (DBL) approach addresses students learning challenges in the joint undergraduate program facilitated by the Wuhan University of Science and Technology (WUST) in central China along with Deakin University (DU), Australia. Following the seven general principles of DBL, a project of process planning was performed for teaching and learning in the Manufacturing Technology course. An implicit meta-cognitive competence was developed through performing the engineering project tutoring, diverse learning tasks and normative assessment criteria. The DBL pedagogy succeeds in bridging the diverse knowledge systems in the specialized courses of Manufacturing Technology between Chinese and Australian programs in Mechanical Engineering. Many achievements and awards won by the students demonstrate a satisfactory result in the case study on the teaching practice towards DBL. The pedagogy towards DBL truly improves the teaching quality of the courses in joint programs and further strengthens the internationalized engineering education for the sustainable development of regional universities in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ecological efficiency (EE) of the remanufacturing process occupies an important position in the whole index system of remanufacturing because it will directly affect the economic and environmental benefits of remanufacturing. Therefore, in order to study the EE of the remanufacturing process, a method is proposed to optimize and evaluate the EE of the remanufacturing process. In this method, firstly, the original remanufacturing sub-schemes of used components are designed according to the extracted fault characteristics; secondly, a set of optional process schemes are integrated by using directed graph (DG) to reduce the process schemes; thirdly, the objective function of EE is established, and then an ant colony algorithm with elite strategy (ES-ACO) is proposed to optimize the process schemes. After obtaining the optimal value of EE, the quality coefficient of used components can be calculated, and then numerical simulations (NS) are used to analyze the correlation between the quality coefficient and the optimized EE, after that, polynomial function fitting (PFF) is applied to construct the evaluation model of EE oriented to the quality coefficient, then, the evaluation model is utilized to analyze the range of quality coefficient of used components suitable for remanufacturing under cost constraints. Finally, the feasibility of this method is verified by the example of the used lathe spindle remanufacturing; and the case study shows that in the optimization phase, ES-ACO can not only optimize the process schemes but also has better performance than ACO; in the evaluation stage, the probability of deviation of the evaluation function established by using PFF is 5%, meeting the small probability event. (i.e., the occurrence of very low-frequency events), that is, the accuracy of the evaluation meets the requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The three Procapra species, Tibetan gazelle (P. picticaudata), Mongolian gazelle (P. gutturosa) and Przewalski's gazelle (P. przewalskii) are endemic to Asia. Several intraspecific genetic issues have been studied with species-specific microsatellite loci in these Asian gazelles. However, cross-species microsatellite panels are absent, which inhibits comparative conservation and evolutionary studies of the Procapra. In this study, we isolated 20 cross-species microsatellite loci for Procapra from both related species and the genomic library of P. przewalskii. Fifty-three samples of the three gazelles were used to characterize the markers. Allele numbers ranged from three to 20, with a mean of 7.93 per locus. Observed heterozygosity (H(O)) averaged 0.680 and expected heterozygosity (H(E)) 0.767. The mean polymorphic information content (PIC) was 0.757 for P. picticaudata, 0.803 for P. gutturosa and 0.590 for P. przewalskii. Nine loci were significantly deviated from Hardy-Weinberg (H-W) equilibrium in the three species. Significant linkage disequilibrium was detected in four pairs of loci in P. przewalskii, five pairs in P. gutturosa and 51 pairs in P. picticaudata. Considering the abundance of published loci and their high success rates of cross-amplification, testing and utilization of loci from related species is efficient for wild species of Bovidae. The cross-species microsatellite loci we developed will facilitate further interspecies genetic studies in Procapra.