117 research outputs found
Strategy of introducing a new product into a new market category
No full textA new legislation has been introduced by the Dutch government, requiring the outdoor units of ACs and heat pumps to produce no more than 40 dB at your parcel border. In many cases, sound reduction is needed to meet this new requirement.To reduce this noise, a sound reducing enclosure can be placed over the unit. Van Cappellen Sound Solutions has developed such a product called the Brockx. This company offers products for noise and vibration control. At the core of their business however, the company provides services in the maritime sector. They measure, model and predict noise and vibrations for luxury yachts. Their expertise in the acoustic area, combined with their innovativeness and the new development of the sound legislation has led to the development of the Brockx.The problem that this project tries to solve, is how to continue with this product. No strategy has been developed yet, and not much is known about the market or how to conduct marketing. Van Cappellen can be classified as a small-medium company (SME), which also needs to be taken into account. To solve these problems, a structure has been created which is shaped by three chapters: SME marketing, 4C-analysis & marketing mix.The chapter SME Marketing is intended to find out whether the situation of Van Cappellen is unique, what characterises small companies such as Van Cappellen, and how marketing is conducted. Through literature research and primary research it was found that similar situations are recognised among other SMEs. Three themes were also found which characterises SME marketing: networking, customer engagement & digital marketing.The 4C-analysis consists of competition, company, context and consumers. The main conclusions are that the Brockx can differentiate from its competitors by being the enclosure that is of high quality while offering the perfect balance between sound reduction and size and weight. Next, the company should use its reputation in creating a brand image, to differentiate among other acoustic companies. Context factors such as the growing market of ACs and heat pumps and the sound legislation indicate that the market for sound reducing enclosures will increase. Finally qualitative and quantitative research has been conducted to find out what consumers find important. Selling the Brockx in cooperation with a wholesaler is considered the most viable option, as they have all the required logistical resources. Consumers' attitudes towards the Brockx are positive, as it provides the most sought after benefits. With this information a market positioning has been determined.Continuing with these findings, the marketing mix is determined by filling in the 4P’s: product, price, place & promotion. The ‘product’ chapter describes the Brockx in more detail. Manufacturing the Brockx can be done in the Netherlands first, and later in Central Europe as this will be cheaper. The price of the Brockx is determined through a competition-oriented method. The place of the Brockx is in the Netherlands, and made available through channels of a wholesaler. For the promotion, offline and online marketing methods have been proposed, together with an implementation plan.Strategic Product Desig
Worldwide coordination in a transnational environment: an inquiry into the work and careers of global managers..
No full textAnalysis of large antenna systems
No full textThe research presented in this thesis has been conducted within the framework of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project. SKA is a next generation radio telescope that will have a receiver sensitivity two orders of magnitude larger than the most sensitive radio telescope currently in operation. To meet the specifications, various low-cost low-noise actively beamformed receiving array antennas are being considered. A major problem in designing these systems is that the present-day commercially available electromagnetic solvers need an excessive amount of memory and simulation time to solve electrically large antenna problems. Moreover, it is essential to be able to analyze the receiver sensitivity of large antenna array systems to understand the sensitivity limiting factors. No dedicated commercial software tools exist that can analyze the receiver sensitivity of entire antenna systems specifically for radio astronomy. The thesis subject deals with two major challenges: (i) To accurately compute the impedance and radiation characteristics of realistically large and complex antenna arrays using only moderate computing power, particularly, of single and dual-polarized arrays of 100+ Tapered Slot Antenna (TSA) elements that are electrically interconnected. If the collection of these elements forms a subarray of a larger system, it is also of interest to analyze an array of disjoint subarrays. (ii) To characterize the system sensitivity of actively beamformed arrays of strongly coupled antenna elements. To address the above challenges, a conventional method-of-moments approach to solving an electric-field integral equation is enhanced using the Characteristic Basis Function Method (CBFM) to handle electrically large antenna problems. The generation of the associated reduced matrix equation is expedited by combining the CBFM with the Adaptive Cross Approximation (ACA) technique. Furthermore, because an overlapping domain decom270 Bibliography position technique is employed, Characteristic Basis Functions (CBFs) are generated that partially overlap to ensure the continuity of the current between adjacent subdomains that are electrically interconnected. While generating the CBFs, edge-singular currents are avoided by a post-windowing technique. Finally, a meshing strategy is proposed to optimally exploit the quasi-Toeplitz symmetry of the reduced moment matrix. The numerical accuracy and efficiency has been determined for numerous cases, among which a dual-polarized interconnected TSA array of 112 elements that has been fabricated and subsequently validated by measurements. The receiver system has been modeled by both a numerical and a semi-analytical method. The models account for a nonuniform brightness temperature distribution of the sky, mismatch effects, noise that emanates from amplifiers inputs and re-enters the system coherently through the mutually coupled antennas (noise coupling), beamformer weights, etc. Results are shown for a practical setup and design rules are derived which demonstrate that minimum receiver noise can be reached by noise matching the low-noise amplifiers to the active antenna reflection coefficient, rather than the passive one. Finally, it is demonstrated that the radiation efficiency of antennas is an important quantity that can degrade the system sensitivity severely. Nevertheless, a number of commercial software tools have shown to be inadequate as the computed efficiency exceeds 100%. A method is proposed which is numerically efficient and robust since it guarantees an efficiency below 100%
Analytical description of the forming process of a double curvature shipbuilding plate
No full textThe forming of double curvature shipbuilding steel plates is performed by experienced craftsmen at IHC Metalix. Their experience will get lost when they retire; therefore, it can be valuable for future metal workers to capture the forming process of a double curved plate theoretically. An analytical description and understanding of the forming process will help craftsmen. In the future, it could even lead to the development of automatic forming machines.This research investigates plastic deformation initiated by a rolling and a three point bending machine forming a saddle shaped plate. A 2Doptimization for the three point bending process is performed using beam theory. A single bend is validated by a 2D Finite Element Analysis (FEA). The rolling process is analytically described by equations obtained from literature. These equations are used to find a relation between the material stretching/membrane strains and the rolling forces. Furthermore, an elastic perfectly plastic stress strain curve is used. Material hardening and residual stresses due to repeated bending or rolling operations are not taken into account.The bending optimization resulted in the least number of bending operations needed over a cross section, assuming the cross section behaves like a beam. The rolling equations resulted in required rolling forces for a desired membrane strain. The craftsmen know by experience that bending operations should be performed first to initiate a first curvature. Thereafter, the plate is rolled to initiate the second curvature and form the saddle shape.In this thesis, the first steps are taken to capture and predict the manual forming process of double curvature steel plates. Future work on this topic should take the 3D-effects of the three point bending into account which lead to more accurate analytical descriptions. Furthermore, other assumptions could be analyzed to get better understanding of their contribution.<br/
Ovarian follicle dynamics in the rat: regulation and flexibility
No full textReproduction is the most important factor for the maintenance of a species. The key event in
this process Is fertilization: combination of haploid cells from male and female parents,
spermatozoon and oocyte, respectively. Before spermatozoa and oocytes are formed and ready
for fertilization many processes have taken place. which are very different for spermatozoa
and oocytes. One of the most striking differences is the continuous production of newly
formed spermatozoa in the fertile male, while the formation of oocytes is already complete
before birth. The oocyte is surrounded by supporting cells. In the complex of the oocyte with
the surrounding cells, called the follicle, close collaboration exists between the oocyte and the
surrounding cells. The main part of this thesis describes the dynamics of follicle development
and the hormonal factors influencing this development
DNA damage induced Pol eta recruitment takes place independently of the cell cycle phase
No full textWhen DNA is damaged in cells progressing through S phase, replication blockage can be avoided by TLS (Translesion DNA synthesis). This is an auxiliary replication mechanism that relies on the function of specialized polymerases that accomplish DNA damage bypass. Intriguingly, recent evidence has linked TLS polymerases to processes that can also take place outside S phase such as nucleotide excision repair (NER). Here we show that Pol eta is recruited to UV-induced DNA lesions in cells outside S phase including cells permanently arrested in G(1). This observation was confirmed by different strategies including global UV irradiation, local UV irradiation and local multi-photon laser irradiation of single nuclei in living cells. The potential connection between Pol eta recruitment to DNA lesions outside S phase and NER was further evaluated. Interestingly, the recruitment of Pol eta to damage sites outside S phase did not depend on active NER, as UV-induced focus formation occurred normally in XPA, XPG and XPF deficient fibroblasts. Our data reveals that the re-localization of the TLS polymerase Pol eta to photo-lesions might be temporally and mechanistically uncoupled from replicative DNA synthesis and from DNA damage processing.Fil: Soria, Ramiro Gasto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Belluscio, Laura María. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: van Cappellen, W. A.. Erasmus MC; Países BajosFil: Kanaar, Roland. Erasmus MC; Países BajosFil: Essers, Jeroen. Erasmus MC; Países BajosFil: Gottifredi, Vanesa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentin
Adaptive optics for confocal laser scanning microscopy with adjustable pinhole
No full textThe pinhole plays an important role in confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) for adaptive optics (AO) as well as in imaging, where the size of the pinhole denotes a trade-off between out-of-focus rejection and wavefront distortion. This contribution proposes an AO system for a commercial CLSM with an adjustable square pinhole to cope with such a trade-off. The proposed adjustable pinhole enables to calibrate the AO system and to evaluate the imaging performance. Experimental results with fluorescence beads on the coverslip and at a depth of 40 μm in the human hepatocellular carcinoma cell spheroid demonstrate that the proposed AO system can improve the image quality by the proposed calibration method. The proposed pinhole intensity ratio also indicates the image improvement by the AO correction in intensity as well as resolution.Team Raf Van de Pla
Experimental results of a 112 element phased array feed for the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope
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