With the application of Internet of Things and services to manufacturing, the fourth stage of industrialization, referred to as Industrie 4.0, is believed to be approaching. For Industrie 4.0 to come true, it is essential to implement the horizontal integration of inter-corporation value network, the end-to-end integration of engineering value chain, and the vertical integration of factory inside. In this paper, we focus on the vertical integration to implement flexible and reconfigurable smart factory. We first propose a brief framework that incorporates industrial wireless networks, cloud, and fixed or mobile terminals with smart artifacts such as machines, products, and conveyors. Then, we elaborate the operational mechanism from the perspective of control engineering, that is, the smart artifacts form a self-organized system which is assisted with the feedback and coordination blocks that are implemented on the cloud and based on the big data analytics. In addition, we outline the main technical features and beneficial outcomes and present a detailed design scheme. We conclude that the smart factory of Industrie 4.0 is achievable by extensively applying the existing enabling technologies while actively coping with the technical challenges.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1155/2016/3159805

Implementing smart factory of Industrie 4.0: an outlook

Towards smart factory for industry 4.0

As the global burden of chronic kidney disease continues to increase, so does the need for a cost-effective renal replacement therapy. In many countries, patient outcomes with peritoneal dialysis are comparable to or better than those with haemodialysis, and peritoneal dialysis is also more cost-effective. These benefits have not, however, always led to increased utilization of peritoneal dialysis. Use of this therapy is increasing in some countries, including China, the USA and Thailand, but has proportionally decreased in parts of Europe and in Japan. The variable trends in peritoneal dialysis use reflect the multiple challenges in prescribing this therapy to patients. Key strategies for facilitating peritoneal dialysis utilization include implementation of policies and incentives that favour this modality, enabling the appropriate production and supply of peritoneal dialysis fluid at a low cost, and appropriate training for nephrologists to enable increased utilization of the therapy and to ensure that rates of technique failure continue to decline. Further growth in peritoneal dialysis use is required to enable this modality to become an integral part of renal replacement therapy programmes worldwide.

Changes in the worldwide epidemiology of peritoneal dialysis

Polluting thy neighbor: Unintended consequences of China's pollution reduction mandates

New internal data from China's own police indicate that protests are growing in number and increasing in size. The struggle to control unrest will force Beijing's leaders and other countries to face riskier dilemmas than at any time since the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations.

China rethinks unrest

Report on the Work of the Government

Mapping the evolution patterns of urbanization, ecosystem service supply–demand, and human well-being: A tree-like landscape perspective

Power system restructuring has changed transmission expansion planning (TEP) and caused many complications due to conflicting and contradictory objectives. The transmission capacity expansion would significantly affect the revenue of investor-owned renewable energy sources (RESs). Thus, the investment decisions on merchant RESs must be considered in the TEP studies conducted by the transmission system operator (TSO). In this regard, this paper aims to propose a multi-objective co-planning of investment in transmission networks and merchant RESs with three objective functions: minimizing the investment cost of newly deployed transmission lines, minimizing transmission congestion cost, and minimizing load curtailment in N-1 conditions. Moreover, the TSO guarantees a desirable rate of return for private investors to finance renewable energy projects. Further, a robust optimization (RO) technique is employed to cope with the uncertainties associated with demand and renewable energy production. Also, a posteriori multi-objective optimization algorithm, i.e., the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGAII), is applied to solve the advanced optimization problem, followed by the fuzzy min-max method to acquire the final optimal solution. Finally, the IEEE RTS 24-bus test system is utilized to demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of the suggested approach. 

Li Peng

Papers

Report on the Work of the Government

Mapping the evolution patterns of urbanization, ecosystem service supply–demand, and human well-being: A tree-like landscape perspective

Developing a Robust Expansion Planning Approach for Transmission Networks and Privately-Owned Renewable Sources