Digital twin-driven smart supply chain

Today’s supply chain is becoming complex and fragile. Hence, supply chain managers need to create and unlock the value of the smart supply chain. A smart supply chain requires connectivity, visibility, and agility, and it needs be integrated and intelligent. The digital twin (DT) concept satisfies these requirements. Therefore, we propose creating a DT-driven supply chain (DTSC) as an innovative and integrated solution for the smart supply chain. We provide background information to explain the DT concept and to demonstrate the method for building a DTSC by using the DT concept. We discuss three research opportunities in building a DTSC, including supply chain modeling, real-time supply chain optimization, and data usage in supply chain collaboration. Finally, we highlight a motivating case from JD.COM, China’s largest retailer by revenue, in applying the DTSC platform to address supply chain network reconfiguration challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Systematic review of centrifugal valving based on digital twin modeling towards highly integrated lab-on-a-disc systems

Current, application-driven trends towards larger-scale integration (LSI) of microfluidic systems for comprehensive assay automation and multiplexing pose significant technological and economical challenges to developers. By virtue of their intrinsic capability for powerful sample preparation, centrifugal systems have attracted significant interest in academia and business since the early 1990s. This review models common, rotationally controlled valving schemes at the heart of such "Lab-on-a-Disc" (LoaD) platforms to predict critical spin rates and reliability of flow control which mainly depend on geometries, location and liquid volumes to be processed, and their experimental tolerances. In absence of larger-scale manufacturing facilities during product development, the method presented here facilitates efficient simulation tools for virtual prototyping and characterization and algorithmic design optimization according to key performance metrics. This virtual in silico approach thus significantly accelerates, de-risks and lowers costs along the critical advancement from idea, layout, fluidic testing, bioanalytical validation, and scale-up to commercial mass manufacture.

Design Optimization of Centrifugal Microfluidic “Lab-on-a-Disc” Systems towards Fluidic Larger-Scale Integration

Enhancing the degree of functional multiplexing while assuring operational reliability and manufacturability at competitive costs are crucial ingredients for enabling comprehensive sample-to-answer automation, e.g., for use in common, decentralized “Point-of-Care” or “Point-of-Use” scenarios. This paper demonstrates a model-based “digital twin” approach, which efficiently supports the algorithmic design optimization of exemplary centrifugo-pneumatic (CP) dissolvable-film (DF) siphon valves toward larger-scale integration (LSI) of well-established “Lab-on-a-Disc” (LoaD) systems. Obviously, the spatial footprint of the valves and their upstream laboratory unit operations (LUOs) have to fit, at a given radial position prescribed by its occurrence in the assay protocol, into the locally accessible disc space. At the same time, the retention rate of a rotationally actuated CP-DF siphon valve and, most challengingly, its band width related to unavoidable tolerances of experimental input parameters need to slot into a defined interval of the practically allowed frequency envelope. To accomplish particular design goals, a set of parametrized metrics is defined, which are to be met within their practical boundaries while (numerically) minimizing the band width in the frequency domain. While each LSI scenario needs to be addressed individually on the basis of the digital twin, a suite of qualitative design rules and instructive showcases structures are presented.

Secure Air Traffic Control at the Hub of Multiplexing on the Centrifugo-Pneumatic Lab-on-a-Disc Platform

Fluidic larger-scale integration (LSI) resides at the heart of comprehensive sample-to-answer automation and parallelization of assay panels for frequent and ubiquitous bioanalytical testing in decentralized point-of-use/point-of-care settings. This paper develops a novel "digital twin" strategy with an emphasis on rotational, centrifugo-pneumatic flow control. The underlying model systematically connects retention rates of rotationally actuated valves as a key element of LSI to experimental input parameters; for the first time, the concept of band widths in frequency space as the decisive quantity characterizing operational robustness is introduced, a set of quantitative performance metrics guiding algorithmic optimization of disc layouts is defined, and the engineering principles of advanced, logical flow control and timing are elucidated. Overall, the digital twin enables efficient design for automating multiplexed bioassay protocols on such "Lab-on-a-Disc" (LoaD) systems featuring high packing density, reliability, configurability, modularity, and manufacturability to eventually minimize cost, time, and risk of development and production.

Unchaining Collective Intelligence for Science, Research, and Technology Development by Blockchain-Boosted Community Participation

Since its launch just over a decade ago by the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, the distributed ledger technology (DLT) blockchain has followed a breathtaking trajectory into manifold application spaces. This study aper analyses how key factors underpinning the success of this ground-breaking “Internet of value” technology, such as staking of collateral (“skin in the game”), competitive crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, and prediction markets, can be applied to substantially innovate the legacy organization of science, research, and technology development (RTD). Here, we elaborate a highly integrative, community-based strategy where a token-based crypto-economy supports finding best possible consensus, trust, and truth by adding unconventional elements known from reputation systems, betting, secondary markets, and social networking. These tokens support the holder’s formalized reputation and are used in liquid-democracy style governance and arbitration within projects or community-driven initiatives. This participatory research model serves as a solid basis for comprehensively leveraging collective intelligence by effectively incentivizing contributions from the crowd, such as intellectual property work, validation, assessment, infrastructure, education, assessment, governance, publication, and promotion of projects. On the analogy of its current blockbusters like peer-to-peer structured decentralized finance (“DeFi”), blockchain technology can seminally enhance the efficiency of science and RTD initiatives, even permitting to fully stage operations as a chiefless decentralized autonomous organization (DAOs).