Using and Abusing QFD Scores

In this article the authors address implementation and use of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) in organizations today. With both single and multiple houses of quality, there are questions of meaningfulness and validity of the final quantitative output. Unfortunately, the validity of the quantitative output can impact the validity of the qualitative insights into the organization's decision-making process. The meaningfulness of the quantitative output depends, to a large part, on the care and consistency with which the houses of quality were built and scored. The authors offer some advice on scoring houses of quality, based on their findings. The mathematical structure of the QFD calculations, however, dictates certain constraints on the use of its output. These constraints can impact the usefulness of a single house's output and can seriously reduce the value of multiple-house QFD studies.     

Responsiveness of ‘Conference’ pears to 1‐methylcyclopropene: the role of harvest date,orchard location and year

BACKGROUND: In some pear varieties like ‘Conference’, 1‐methylcyclopropene (1‐MCP) treatment often impairs the ripening process indefinitely and the pears remain ‘evergreen’. To better understand this behaviour, the influence of the harvest date, orchard location and year on the effectiveness of 1‐MCP treatment was investigated. RESULTS: Pear softening was inhibited by 1‐MCP treatment and the effectiveness of the treatment depended on harvest date, orchard location and year. Differences in the rate of softening in 1‐MCP‐treated pears depended mainly on the fruit physiological maturity at the moment of 1‐MCP treatment. Accordingly, the combination of the Streif index and ethylene production at harvest appeared to be able to predict the evergreen behaviour. Treated pears with a low Streif index (<0.8) and high ethylene production at harvest (≥0.23 µL kg^?1 h^?1) maintain significantly high firmness but did soften during shelf life, reaching acceptable eating quality. CONCLUSION: Evergreen behaviour was mainly influenced by the initial fruit maturity and especially by the ability of the fruit to produce ethylene at the moment of treatment. More mature fruit were able to overcome the inhibition by 1‐MCP, and the solution to prevent evergreen behaviour therefore lies in the adequate determination of harvest maturity. © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry     

The gendered division of labor among STEM faculty and the effects of critical mass.

This study explored whether there is a gendered division of labor for faculty in academic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) at research universities and examined the connections between time allocation and satisfaction for STEM faculty within the context of a critical mass of women in the discipline. Using a weighted sample of 13,884 faculty from the 2004 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF:04), we found a gendered division of labor that is mitigated by a critical mass of women faculty in the discipline. Results lend empirical support to theories that argue critical-mass attainment positively impacts equity in resource distribution and time allocation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Method for rapid and sensitive detection of Enterococcus sp. and Enterococcus faecalis/faecium cells in potable water samples

We have developed a rapid and robust technological solution including a membrane filtration and dissolution method followed by a molecular enrichment and a real-time PCR assay, for detecting the presence of Enterococcus sp. or Enterococcus faecalis/faecium per 100 mL of water in less than 5 h and we compared it to Method 1600 on mEI agar in terms of specificity, sensitivity, and limit of detection. The mEI and the Enterococcus sp.-specific assay detected respectively 73 (64.0%) and 114 (100%) of the 114 enterococcal strains tested. None of the 150 non-enterococcal strains tested was detected by both methods with the exception of Tetragenococcus solitarius for the Enterococcus sp. assay. The multiplexed E. faecalis/faecium assay efficiently amplified DNA from 47 of 47 (100%) E. faecalis and 27 of 27 (100%) E. faecium strains tested respectively, whereas none of the 191 non-E. faecalis/faecium strains tested was detected. By simultaneously detecting the predominant fecal enterococcal species, the E. faecalis/faecium-specific assay allows a better distinction between enterococcal strains of fecal origin and those provided by the environment than Method 1600. Our procedure allows the detection of 4.5 enterococcal colony forming units (CFU) per 100 mL in less than 5 h, whereas the mEI method detected 2.3 CFU/100 mL in 24 h (95% confidence). Thus, our innovative and highly effective method provides a rapid and easy approach to concentrate very low numbers of enterococcal cells present in a 100 mL water sample and allows a better distinction between fecal and environmental enterococcal cells than Method 1600.     

Bandwidth of long monomode fibre links in the presence of weak mode coupling

The bandwidth of long monomode fibre links may be reduced in the presence of weak mode coupling such as that introduced by cabling. This is in contrast to the single fibre case.