Abstract

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Abstract
Recent studies highlight the ability of inductive architectures to deliver therapeutic magnetic stimuli to target tissues and to be embedded into small-scale intracorporeal medical devices. However, to date, current micro-scale biomagnetic devices require very high electric current excitations (usually exceeding 1 A) to ensure the delivery of efficient magnetic flux densities. This is a critical problem as advanced implantable devices demand self-powering, stand-alone and long-term operation. This work provides, for the first time, a novel small-scale magnetic stimulation system that requires up to 50-fold lower electric current excitations than required by relevant biomagnetic technology recently proposed. Computational models were developed to analyse the magnetic stimuli distributions and densities delivered to cellular tissues during in vitro experiments, such that the feasibility of this novel stimulator can be firstly evaluated on cell culture tests. The results demonstrate that this new stimulative technology is able to deliver osteogenic stimuli (0.1-7 mT range) by current excitations in the 0.06-4.3 mA range. Moreover, it allows coil designs with heights lower than 1 mm without significant loss of magnetic stimuli capability. Finally, suitable core diameters and stimulator-stimulator distances allow to define heterogeneity or quasi-homogeneity stimuli distributions. These results support the design of high-sophisticated biomagnetic devices for a wide range of therapeutic applications.

Abstract
Industry 4.0 is changing disruptively all the industrial processes from their base, and metrology is being challenged by this new 'wave' of rethinking industry. Therefore, new quality control systems are being conceived for measurement purposes, as well as being installed in factories, which represents a huge management challenge, towards handling and processing a large amount of data, as well as developing the required theory for metrology assessment. In this paper, three examples of machine vision systems are presented, which are used to highlight some of the main issues that metrology must deal within this new paradigm. As a main conclusion, every company needs to design its own roadmap towards implementing the adequate methods and processes to be properly adapted and aligned with this new generation of metrology-related systems. © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Abstract
Integration of renewable generation in distribution systems aims to reduce consumption of energy from conventional sources such as coal and oil in order to minimize the negative impacts of the human ecological footprint. Massive incorporation of renewables can produce reverse power flow at distribution substations, which is against the operating philosophy and design of energy systems. To deal with this problem, the installation of a battery energy storage system (BESS) is proposed in this work. Incorporation of BESS at distribution substations can manage the excess of renewable power generation flowing in reverse, adding flexibility to the power system and allowing increased distributed generation capacity to be installed. Optimal sizing of vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) is carried out by using golden section search algorithm considering capital costs as well as operating and maintenance costs over the project lifetime. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is evaluated through the analysis of a case study. A significant reduction of both reverse flow and the power to be supplied by the substation has been observed.

Abstract
This study presents an assessment of the main research problems addressed in the literature on New Product Development (NPD) and its methodologies, for the pharmaceutical industry. The work is particularly focused on the establishment of an evolutionary perspective of the relevant modelling approaches, and on identifying the main current research challenges, considering the fast-changing business context of the industry. Main findings suggest a generalized misalignment of recent studies with today's technological and market trends, highlighting the need for new modelling strategies.