This paper draws an analogy between developments in enterprise software and in capital goods manufacturing industry. Many branches of manufacturing industry, especially automotive industry, have grown in maturity by moving from craftsmanship to mass production. These industries subsequently move from mass production towards mass customization, introducing lean practices. Finally, full maturity ...

Purpose: 1. Assess changes in cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) from 1998-2010, controlling for decimal age and body mass index (BMI). 2. Repeat the analysis in cohorts from 20052010, controlling for maturation, deprivation and BMI. Methods: 27,942 (n = 14,247 boys) 9-10.9yr old participants from one UK city were included in this serial cross-sectional study from 1998-1999 to 2009-2010. A depriva...

A model that describes hydration and heat-mass transport in Portland cement mortar during steam curing was developed. The hydration reactions are described by a maturity function that uses the equivalent age concept, coupled to a heat and mass balance. The thermal conductivity and specific heat of mortar with water-to-cement mass ratio of 0.30 was measured during hydration, using the Transient ...

OBJECTIVES Youth exercise is associated with improved body composition, but details regarding timing and persistence are limited. We examined pre- and circum-menarcheal organized physical activity exposure (PA) as a factor in development of early post-menarcheal lean mass, fat mass and muscle strength. METHODS Participants in a longitudinal study of musculoskeletal growth using dual energy X-...

The general assumption that brain size differences are an adequate proxy for subtler differences in brain organization turned neurobiologists toward the question why some groups of mammals such as primates, elephants, and whales have such remarkably large brains. In this meta-analysis, an extensive sample of eutherian mammals (115 species distributed in 14 orders) provided data about several di...

We conducted an experiment to examine the effects of sex and food intake on growth, mass gain, and attainment of sexual maturity in Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnakes (Crotalus atrox). We also measured testosterone levels to determine whether testosterone might be involved in the male-biased sexual size dimorphism observed in this species. We collected neonate rattlesnakes and raised them in t...

The relationship between growth rate and development of function in leg and pectoral muscles was studied in four species of galliform birds ranging from 125 g to 18 kg and, for comparison, in an altricial species, the European starling (80 g). An index to neonatal maturity (muscle dry content proportion as a fraction of adult value) was higher in leg than in pectoral muscles and lower in larger...

This Research-in-Progress paper facilitates the design and provides guidelines for the development of a maturity model to achieve a coordinated, systematic and stepwise adoption of industrial internet, thus enabling the industrial internet to be used to its full potential in manufacturing enterprises. Using analogous maturity models from the fields of supply chain management and product lifecyc...

BACKGROUND/AIM Although lamellar bodies have been the center of interest over the last years, the published results of fetal pulmonary maturity determination according to their concentration in amniotic fluid are controversial. The aim of this study was to determine the significance of lamellar bodies, as well as the ratio lecithin/sphingomyelin (L/S) in amniotic fluid for the assessment of fet...