E-commerce’s rapid growth has increased demand for logistics services, pressuring logistics service providers (LSPs) to offer more competitive solutions in a fragmented industry. This drives a shift from customized to standardized services, which also impacts business processes. While configuration systems are widely adopted in manufacturing companies to support the sales process of products, their application in LSPs remains unexplored. A case study explored their feasibility in warehouse services and found that these services could be modeled and incorporated in a sales configurator, saving time on customer communication, reducing errors during the sales process, and enhancing collaboration on warehouse service design. Thus, the study points to a new application area for configurators, which neither the industry nor academia has given much focus.

As the global elderly population grows, emotional challenges unique to this demographic are often neglected in design under the assumption that older adults can regulate their emotions independently. This study highlights the importance of fostering positive emotions in the elderly through leisure activities. It examines (1) how design practitioners conceptualize emotion regulation in older adults, (2) the challenges they face in creating supportive designs, and (3) enablers identified by elderly individuals. Twelve design practitioners generated 64 interactive design concepts to enhance elderly leisure experiences, followed by interviews with five elderly participants to explore their emotional needs and preferences. The findings underscore designers’ challenges and highlight opportunities for user-centered approaches to promote emotional well-being in aging populations.

Light weight design Plans am cranial role in enhancing efficiency and sustainability. The strategic use of advanced materials, such as fiber-reinforced plastics, can help achieving lightweight designs. However, the anisotropic material properties of composite materials also lead to new challenges in the design and manufacturing process. Additionally, due to the layered structure of composite parts, the number of design points is increased drastically. Moreover, the complex manufacturing process, including curing, makes composite parts prone to variations. Therefore, this research paper presents an innovative lightweight design approach that aims to overcome the described difficulties by linking the individual simulation steps, providing a continuous simulation strategy and taking variations into account. Finally, the presented simulation strategy is applied to an electrified cross skate.

Design decision-making under competition is a critical challenge in real-world engineering design. These challenges are compounded by bounded rationality, where cognitive limitations and imperfect information influence decision-making strategies. To address these issues, we develop a game-theoretic research platform to investigate team-based design under competition. This platform abstracts and simulates real-world competitive design scenarios through controlled experiments. It features a user-friendly interface to collect behavioral data, which supports the analysis of team and individual strategies. Additionally, we validated the platform through a pilot study, demonstrating its ability to capture realistic design features and generate meaningful insights into competitive design behaviors.

Emotional symptoms are common in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and are often associated with long-term adverse outcomes. However, little is known about how emotional symptoms develop from middle childhood to early adolescence in individuals with ADHD, including how they differ between boys and girls. This study investigated the trajectories of emotional symptoms in children with ADHD during this transition period and compared to neurotypical peers, using longitudinal data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, while also examining potential sex differences. Latent growth curve modeling was employed to model emotional symptoms at ages 7, 11, and 14. Children with ADHD had significantly higher levels of emotional symptoms than neurotypical peers across all three waves, with levels remaining stable over time. Boys and girls with ADHD did not differ in their emotional symptoms levels at any wave. Girls with ADHD however did show a significant increase in emotional symptoms over time, whilst boys’ levels remained relatively stable over the same period. These findings highlight the importance of early screening for emotional symptoms in children with early-diagnosed ADHD, with particular attention to the increasing levels of emotional symptoms in girls as they transition into adolescence.

Digital Twins are widely recognized as a transformative technological trend, yet their potential to foster innovation, particularly their generative capabilities, remains underexplored. This paper investigates how they can transcend traditional optimization roles to serve as tools for advancing knowledge and generativity in the design of their physical counterparts. Leveraging C-K theory, a framework is presented for modeling design processes with Digital Twins, characterizing design scenarios and identifying two distinct forms of generativity. An illustration of these results shows how designers can leverage Digital Twin reflexive capacity to challenge and reconfigure underlying knowledge of their physical counterparts. The transformative value of this reflexivity, combined with remodeling capabilities, is highlights the exploration of new design pathway for Digital Twins themselves.

To meet the upcoming sustainability challenges, aerospace manufacturers need to develop products that both address complex sustainability factors and ensure profitable realization. Furthermore, the sustainability perspective needs to be lifted from focusing on carbon emissions, and broadened to include a system-level socio-ecological view. Manufacturers are thus challenged to balance sustainability, manufacturability, and performance, but lack the methods and tools to make well-informed decisions. We propose a method for conducting multi-domain trade-off studies in the early design phase. A functional architecture modelling approach is utilized to model performance and manufacturing aspects. Together with a relative sustainability fingerprint conducted on design alternatives, design spaces can be explored with respect to performance, manufacturability, and sustainability.

This study investigates the elements influencing consumer behavior in the proper disposal of e-waste to advance management practices and circularity. Anchored in Sustainable Behavior Theory and the SHIFT framework, it analyzes secondary data from 51 Brazilian e-waste management companies through document analysis. Findings reveal diverse strategies addressing behavioral barriers and gaps in consumer engagement, informing the Circular Behavior Integration Framework (CBIF). The CBIF provides actionable insights for aligning consumer behavior with reverse logistics systems, advancing material circularity. This study contributes to theory by integrating behavioral dimensions with circular economy principles and offers practical guidance for policymakers and practitioners.

Between January 29 and February 11, 2019, the Townsville region in Australia experienced a major flooding event. This study explored impacts on affected community pharmacies. Semi-structured phone interviews were conducted with six pharmacists who worked in affected Townsville community pharmacies during this flood. De-identified transcript data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The thematic analysis yielded six themes – “financial impact on pharmacy owners,” “engagement with Local Disaster Coordination Center (LDCC) important,” “workload pressures,” “preparedness,” “medication supply impacts,” and “communication and collaboration.” Financial impacts to owners included loss of property (two pharmacies were completely flooded), purchase or hire costs of generators when power was lost, and loss of revenue from complete or early closure of pharmacies and when patients could not pay or did not have a prescription and did not return to the pharmacy after the event. Engagement with the LDCC assisted pharmacy responsiveness. Medication supply issues were experienced by patients whose houses had flooded, or who had left their prescriptions with pharmacies that had flooded. Opioid Replacement Therapy (ORT) program patients were also impacted due to communication difficulties between them, their clinics, and their pharmacies. Increased customer numbers by those whose regular pharmacy was closed, reduced staff numbers, and austere working conditions increased workload pressures. Pharmacists collaborated to consolidate resources with those whose pharmacy had closed, working in pharmacies that were open. This research highlights a critical need for improved flood preparedness among Townsville pharmacists. Regardless, they collaborated to ensure there were minimal critical medication delays.

Current legislative frameworks reflect a societal consensus to prioritize sustainability, incentivizing industries to integrate environmental goals into strategic objectives. Embedding sustainability into product development requires appropriate methods and tools. Technological advancements enable the utilization and analysis of operational machine data to support the development of new generations of sustainable systems and the conduction of Life-Cycle-Assessments. This research presents a method to support data-driven product development to reduce the environmental impact of new product generations of complex mechatronic systems during operation, addressing key factors such as the technical system, organizational infrastructure, and regulations. The application of the method resulted in multiple proposed design changes able to enhance machine sustainability and operational efficiency.

Rapid pace of change and increasing complexity in today’s world demand innovative approaches to product development. Foresight methods enable the anticipation of future scenarios and the derivation of product properties. However, current approaches lack mechanisms to continuously align product development with evolving environment and customer requirements, often resulting in late changes and high costs. Early detection of deviations is needed. This paper presents an approach for continuous monitoring, bridging strategic foresight and the product engineering process (PEP). By analyzing prior work and literature, a process model was developed to identify tipping points where product adaptations are necessary using indications and indicators. Initial evaluation through a case study using coffee machines showed the approach’s usability but improvement potential was also identified.

This study explores the design of a compatibility evaluation framework for integrating 3PL warehouse clients into semi-automated warehouse setups. Using Action Design Research (ADR), an artifact was developed that combines data-driven decision-making (DDD) and multi-criteria decision analysis. The framework, implemented in Microsoft Power BI, enables the evaluation of client compatibility based on configurable criteria and relevant metrics. It was co-created with stakeholders and tested using data from 33 warehouse clients, demonstrating its practical value in identifying operational fit while facilitating data-driven discussions. The study highlights the potential of structured decision frameworks in environments with limited data, offering generalizable insights for 3PL warehouses and similar contexts.

Biodegradability is often framed as an intrinsic material property. By integrating industrial design and soil science, this research examines how material design can actively support ecological reintegration. Through a case study of Polylactic Acid (PLA)—marketed as sustainable yet resistant to breakdown in everyday soil—we challenge how biodegradability claims misalign with real-world decomposition. To address this, we designed and tested 3D printing filaments, using compost respiration analysis to show that microbial engagement depends on material composition and environmental factors. We then introduce decayability as a novel affordance that supports microbial activity. By extending affordance theory beyond human perception, this study establishes a framework for designing materials that mediate interactions between human fabrication needs and nonhuman decomposition processes.

The study investigates the cognitive aspects of aesthetic taste, which is a subjective quality linked to individuals’ ability to make superior aesthetic judgments. It explores how evaluation modes during product choice decision-making relate to aesthetic taste. We defined taste through two dimensions: expertise (professional experience) and acumen (consumption experiences). By comparing research participants in a consumer study across these dimensions, we analyzed decision-making patterns using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Our results show that participants with low aesthetic taste (across both dimensions) express their product choice in terms of product attributes they dislike. We also find that the expression of personal preferences is associated with low aesthetic taste for the expertise dimension but is associated with high aesthetic taste for the acumen dimension.

According to Jerome Wakefield’s harmful dysfunction account, a mental disorder must involve an objective dysfunction couched in evolutionary terms. However, selected effects functions are indeterminate because (i) the same trait can be both selectively advantageous and disadvantageous, and (ii) the functional activity of a trait can be assessed according to conflicting norms, given the trait’s place in a hierarchy of functions. Therefore, there may be a dysfunction that can be described in multiple empirically adequate ways. The choices involved in these cases are value-laden. Some cases of addiction may fit this mold, involving indeterminacy that invites opposing value judgments.

Subject to techniques of perturbative renormalization, the Standard Model makes empirical predictions that are stupendously successful. But also deeply mysterious. Not every quantum field theory (qft) is renormalizable. Indeed, most aren’t. The mystery is: Why should we be so lucky, that we live in a world governed by a renormalizable qft? I explicate this Renormalizability Puzzle, and explain why Renormalization Group (RG) approaches are widely thought to resolve it. Looking under the hood of the RG resolution, I identify a load-bearing element that might not be adequate to the explanatory burden the RG resolution places upon it.

How well a team can design something depends on how well their collective understanding comes together. In the design of modern complex systems this involves multiple conceptualisations of the system undergoing design. These perspectives become instantiated in a large volume of design description that is deep, wide and diverse. This must carry shared meaning reliably, which is impossible to assure if the ontology in which every statement is nested is left implicit and unmanaged. This paper outlines a technical approach to assure ontological harmony without necessarily or only employing formal semantically rigorous knowledge representations. It empowers an incremental investment in description coverage and ontological coherence, better supporting the spectrum of thinking styles and description needs that design teams encounter when taking on complex systems development today.

In this paper, two case studies are presented to validate a process model for the future robust advancement of product portfolios. In the first case study, the process model is implemented for a supplier in the automotive industry and evaluated by two company experts. In the second case study, the process model is implemented in a medical equipment company for 6 months. The evaluation shows that the investigated model can be applied and supports the process. The success evaluation is only assessed as expected added value, as the added value can only be observed when realizing the product portfolio. The evaluation in two case studies confirms the applicability and support potential of the model in corporate practice. At the same time, the need for improvement and multi-year implementation in the companies is identified.

This study aimed to perform a cross-country validation of the Arabic version of the World Health Organization 5-item (WHO-5) Well-Being Index, in terms of factor structure, composite reliability, cross-gender measurement invariance and concurrent validity. We carried out a cross-sectional, web-based study on a total of 3,247 young adults (aged 18–35 years) from six Arab countries (Tunisia, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Kuwait). Confirmatory Factor Analysis showed that the one-factor model demonstrated acceptable fit across all six countries. In addition, the Arabic WHO-5 Well-Being Index yielded high reliability coefficients in samples from each country (McDonald’s ω and Cronbach’s α = .92–.96), across genders (ω = .95 in men and .94 in women) and age groups (ω = .94/α = .94 in participants aged ≤25 years and ω =.96/α =.96 in those aged ≥26 years). Multi-group analyses demonstrated that configural, metric and scalar invariance were supported across gender, countries and age groups. Regarding concurrent validity, WHO-5 Well-being scores were strongly and significantly inversely correlated with depression, anxiety, stress, suicidal ideation and insomnia severity. This study provides a brief, valid and reliable Arabic version of the WHO-5 Well-Being Index that can be applied cross-nationally among Arabic-speaking young adult populations for screening and research purposes.

The dragons of early modern German alchemy are inheritors of a unique cultural blend of folklore, religious custom and natural philosophy that is unrivalled in Western Europe. Whether inspired by the artwork of the Lutheran Reformation, like Stefan Michelspacher’s ‘Anfang. Exaltation’, or informed by the legends of dragon’s hoards, such as the shapes suggested by Anna Maria Zieglerin for the philosophers’ stone, serpentine monsters found within alchemical works possess more than their figurative chemical meanings. This article explores the range of cultural connotations these dragons held that served to expound their alchemical significance to an early modern German audience, as well as the ways in which alchemy brought these monsters to life through chemistry.