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This paper introduces a new subject called bio‐manufacturing. Bio‐manufacturing combines life science with manufacturing science, and uses manufacturing method to form materials with bio‐activity and bio‐degradability into scaffolds. In this paper, we discuss the hierarchy of bio‐manufacturing: the lower grade uses undegradable bio‐material to form permanent organ replacement such as auricular cartilage and the higher grade uses biodegradable bio‐materials to repair organ damage or organ replacement which degrades after embedded in the human body. They all adopt jetting/extrusion deposition process (fused deposition modelling or 3D printer), the distinct different point being the temperature of the forming chamber. The samples of bones and auricular cartilage produced by those processes had been practiced on dogs and rabbits, repaired their damage.

Today’s software engineers often work in teams to develop complex software systems. Therefore, successful software engineering in practice require team members to possess not only sound programming skills such as analysis, design, coding and testing but also soft skills such as communication, collaboration and self-management. However, existing examination-based assessments are often inadequate for quantifying students’ soft skill development. The purpose of this paper is to explore alternative ways for assessing software engineering students’ skills through a data-driven approach.

In this paper, the exploratory data analysis approach is adopted. Leveraging the proposed online agile project management tool – Human-centred Agile Software Engineering (HASE), a study was conducted involving 21 Scrum teams consisting of over 100 undergraduate software engineering students in multi-week coursework projects in 2014.

During this study, students performed close to 170,000 software engineering activities logged by HASE. By analysing the collected activity trajectory data set, the authors demonstrate the potential for this new research direction to enable software engineering educators to have a quantifiable way of understanding their students’ skill development, and take a proactive approach in helping them improve their programming and soft skills.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there has yet to be published previous studies using software engineering activity data to assess software engineers’ skills.

With the rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) market and requirement, low power wide area (LPWA) technologies have become popular. In various LPWA technologies, Narrow Band IoT (NB-IoT) and long range (LoRa) are two main leading competitive technologies. Compared with NB-IoT networks, which are mainly built and managed by mobile network operators, LoRa wide area networks (LoRaWAN) are mainly operated by private companies or organizations, which suggests two issues: trust of the private network operators and lack of network coverage. This study aims to propose a conceptual architecture design of a blockchain built-in solution for LoRaWAN network servers to solve these two issues for LoRaWAN IoT solution.

The study proposed modeling, model analysis and architecture design.

The proposed solution uses the blockchain technology to build an open, trusted, decentralized and tamper-proof system, which provides the indisputable mechanism to verify that the data of a transaction has existed at a specific time in the network.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that integrates blockchain technology and LoRaWAN IoT technology.

The purpose of this paper is to present a topology-based tissue scaffold design methodology to accurately represent the heterogeneous internal architecture of tissues/organs.

An image analysis technique is used that digitizes the topology information contained in medical images of tissues/organs. A weighted topology reconstruction algorithm is implemented to represent the heterogeneity with parametric functions. The parametric functions are then used to map the spatial material distribution following voxelization. The generated chronological information yields hierarchical tool-path points which are directly transferred to the three-dimensional (3D) bio-printer through a proposed generic platform called Application Program Interface (API). This seamless data corridor between design (virtual) and fabrication (physical) ensures the manufacturability of personalized heterogeneous porous scaffold structure without any CAD/STL file.

The proposed methodology is implemented to verify the effectiveness of the approach and the designed example structures are bio-fabricated with a deposition-based bio-additive manufacturing system. The designed and fabricated heterogeneous structures are evaluated which shows conforming porosity distribution compared to uniform method.

In bio-fabrication process, the generated bio-models with boundary representation (B-rep) or surface tessellation (mesh) do not capture the internal architectural information. This paper provides a design methodology for scaffold structure mimicking the native tissue/organ architecture and direct fabricating the structure without reconstructing the CAD model. Therefore, designing and direct bio-printing the heterogeneous topology of tissue scaffolds from medical images minimize the disparity between the internal architecture of target tissue and its scaffold.

The purpose of this paper is to explain bio-economy dimensions as a new stream of knowledge-based economy that exists in the new era of the information and communications technology.

Bio-economy refers to the production of a wide range of goods and services from plant, animal and forest-based material. It is more than just grain-based bio-fuels or bio-diesel as extensively highlighted in Latin America. It is related to biotechnology and other bio-activities based on knowledge generated from the bio-activities and extension of the knowledge-based economy.

The main concern of developing bio-economy is the environmental damage caused through the undesirable output produced by the bio-economy activities. Bio-economy is centred on research and development (R&D) collaborations across different sectors, including the public and private sectors, in order to breakthrough new products through invention and innovation.

For bio-economy to be realised and put into practice, it should have a well-developed regulatory framework as a platform in order to run and work smoothly.

The main objective of this paper is to illustrate an analytical view of different methods of 3D bioprinting, variations, formulations and characteristics of biomaterials. This review also aims to discover all the areas of applications and scopes of further improvement of 3D bioprinters in this era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

This paper reviewed a number of papers that carried evaluations of different 3D bioprinting methods with different biomaterials, using different pumps to print 3D scaffolds, living cells, tissue and organs. All the papers and articles are collected from different journals and conference papers from 2014 to 2022.

This paper briefly explains how the concept of a 3D bioprinter was developed from a 3D printer and how it affects the biomedical field and helps to recover the lack of organ donors. It also gives a clear explanation of three basic processes and different strategies of these processes and the criteria of biomaterial selection. This paper gives insights into how 3D bioprinters can be assisted with machine learning to increase their scope of application.

The chosen research approach may limit the generalizability of the research findings. As a result, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed hypotheses further.

This paper includes implications for developing 3D bioprinters, developing biomaterials and increasing the printability of 3D bioprinters.

This paper addresses an identified need by investigating how to enable 3D bioprinting performance.

The purpose of this paper is to characterize the effects of different micro particle reinforcement with same weight ratio in acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) feed-stocks for 3D printing process.

In this study, composite filaments were produced by using a co-rotational twin screw extruder and used as building material to print samples in a commercial fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printer. The reinforcement particles, ZrB₂ and Al, have different properties, including density, surface area, purity and particle morphology, and were expected to improve mechanical properties of 3D printed samples. Differential calorimetry scanning and melt flow index studies were applied on the materials to observe the change in glass transition temperatures and melt flow behaviors, respectively. Also, to evaluate the mechanical properties, tensile and three-point bending test were carried out. Fractured surfaces were characterized via energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy for validation of the reinforcements in the ABS matrix. Moreover, scanning electron microscope micrograph examination was conducted on the fractured surfaces to characterize fracture modes.

For 3D printed samples, a strain increase of at least 82.5 per cent was achieved by using micro particle reinforcement with a weight ratio of 1.5 per cent.

Higher filler ratios of the reinforcement particles cause loss on the printability of the feed-stocks.

Reinforced ABS stands out as a possible solution to overcome robustness problems in FDM printing.

Even though the effects of printing parameters on the mechanical properties of 3D printed parts have been vastly studied in the literature, studies conducted on improvement of the building materials are limited. This paper proposes to create novel feed-stock materials for achieving printed parts with superior properties using polymer composites.

Economics, business management

The case study is relevant for MBA, Master's and under graduate (economics, international and business economics) students.

Biocon is one of the top 20 companies from India in the Forbes list of “Best under a Billion” companies. It has emerged from being an enzyme-producing firm to a biotech powerhouse under the guidance of Ms Kiran M. Shaw. It is an innovative company with a varied scientific skill base and progressive manufacturing facilities for developing and commercializing biopharmaceuticals. This study attempts to explore the international foray of Biocon using the eclectic OLI framework. Entrepreneurship, need for integrated business model, innovation, quality control, etc. constituted the ownership (O) factors, important for Biocon to earn the more than compensating advantage in the overseas market. The locational factors were less important in case of Biocon as the global expansion was driven by a motive of either market seeking or cashing in on the cost advantage of its operations. The dominant mode of entry has been the joint ventures. The overseas patterns exhibited by Biocon can be captured fully by the O-L-I framework.

To understand the economic theory of OLI and the ownership, locational and internalisation advantages, link the OLI framework with the international foray of Biocon, Biocon's internationalization journey, major overseas deals signed and the economic rationale behind the deals.

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