Experience to understand: a methodology for integrating users into the design for kitchen interactions

The kitchen is a place where many interactions happen every day. It is a place where new technologies and tradition meet. What makes a place a smart kitchen? This article describes our research over 29 months with a group representing typical users—we will call them the kitchen heroes. We involved them in a process of interaction design (IxD) for the kitchen following the tradition of participatory design (PD), to find out the potential of such a collaboration. We asked ourselves how could we, together with the intended users design for better, seamless interaction in the kitchen? Our research showed that designing for kitchen demands a high and consistent level of engagement of all the stakeholders if we are to design a truly smart and human-centred kitchen. How then, could we integrate them into the interaction design process? As an answer we developed a methodology for the integration of all the stakeholders into the whole design process. We focused on the early design phases and the ways to trigger engagement. The methodology we developed is named EPUI and consists of four parts: exploration, participation, understanding and integration. This article illustrates the EPUI methodology for successfully integrating kitchen users into the kitchen interaction design and fruitful participatory design. It is based on and combines benefits from methodologies such as PD, ADR, PADR, while in the article we explain how it also contributes to their flaws. Additionally, we present our lessons learned while implementing the EPUI methodology and offer tools to both seasoned and less-experienced researchers.     

Main‐chain benzoxazine oligomers: Effects of molecular weight on the thermal,mechanical, and viscoelastic properties

With the intent to study materials processing properties during the curing process, oligomeric benzoxazines of different molecular weight and distribution were obtained from 4‐tert‐butylphenol, bisphenol A, 4,4′‐diaminodiphenylmethane and paraformaldehyde by varying the amounts of phenolic compounds. Average molecular weight and distribution of prepared mixtures of polybenzoxazine precursors were determined by gel permeation chromatography analysis. By knowing the molecular weight distribution of prepared mixtures of polybenzoxazine precursors its effect on thermal, mechanical, and viscoelastic properties of the resin during processing and polymerization could be investigated. Mixtures of polybenzoxazine precursors of higher average molecular weight and broader molecular weight distribution displayed faster curing, lower curing conversions, and higher crosslinking densities of cured resins leading to polybenzoxazines with improved properties. This investigation was oriented towards the material processing aspects with the focus on the effect of molecular weights and viscoelastic properties of starting materials on the proceeding of the curing, including changes in material properties, and sample molding. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135, 46659.     

Inherent defects in sol-precipitation/hydrothermally derived SrTiO3 nanopowders

We have investigated sol-precipitation, coupled with a hydrothermal treatment, as a common solution-based method for the preparation of SrTiO₃ nanostructured powders. XRD, FTIR, TG/EGA, Raman and TEM were employed for a detailed structural characterization of the sol-precipitates in comparison with subsequently hydrothermally or thermally post-annealed samples. The sol-precipitates exhibited a pseudo-cubic symmetry and adopted the morphology of the hydrolyzed Ti-precursor. The structural distortions were attributed to un-removed OH⁻ groups and A-site vacancies, arising in the crystal lattice, as a result of a low-temperature diffusion-controlled reaction. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the microstructural characteristics of sol-precipitates are directly responsible for the formation of extended defects, i.e., nanocavities, within the single-crystalline particles, appearing independently of the selected post-annealing treatment, i.e., hydrothermal or thermal. The study revealed that local distortions and peculiarities on the microscale, introduced by sol-precipitation, were not completely restored under vigorous hydrothermal conditions, but rather provoked the formation of new microstructural defects with an additional treatment.     

The impact of quality management orientation on maintenance performance

This paper aims to examine the relationship between quality management orientation dimensions and maintenance performance. The concept of quality management orientation is proposed and defined as a set of norms and values regarding customer orientation, quality responsibility, prevention and process orientation. Empirical data were drawn from a sample of Slovenian organisations in order to address the research question. The data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis. The findings indicate that quality management orientation is important predictor of maintenance performance. Data analysis results also show that quality management orientation dimensions are positively related to maintenance performance. By testing the impact of quality management orientation on maintenance performance, this study shows that strong foundation on quality management orientation is an effective way of improving maintenance performance.     

Atrazine removal by covalent bonding to piperazine functionalized PolyHIPEs

The removal of atrazine from water by a solid phase extraction technique using insoluble polymers is described. Porous crosslinked polymers bearing piperazine moieties were prepared in a one step reaction from the precursor 4-nitrophenylacrylate incorporating polymers (PolyHIPE type prepared by the polymerization of the continuous phase of a high internal phase emulsion and polymer beads prepared by suspension polymerization). Polymers were applied to sequester atrazine from aqueous solutions with a concentration of 33 ppb and irreversible covalent bonding to the polymers was achieved. GC/MS/MS was used to monitor the dynamics of atrazine uptake and it was found that almost complete removal of atrazine was accomplished with an excess of polymer after 48 hours at room temperature. For comparison, polymer beads of identical chemistry but lower porosity were also used and showed significantly slower action (near complete removal after 72 hours).     

Indicators of sustainable production

The main cause of environmental damage is unsustainable production and consumption, especially in industrialized countries. Achieving sustainable development will require changes in industrial processes, in the type and quantity of resources used, in the treatment of waste, in the control of emissions, and in the products produced. One of the difficulties in measuring the company's level of sustainability is to determine which directions of change are leading towards sustainability. Hence, it is necessary to apply appropriate metrics that will enable these assessments. This paper presents indicators for assessing and promoting business sustainability—indicators of sustainable production. It first introduces the main concepts of such production and a set of necessary conditions that firms must fulfill in order to be sustainable. It identifies major functions of indicators and it proceeds to presenting the role of indicators.The paper focuses on sustainable production, proposing indicators of sustainable production, which could be used as strategic metrics for assessing the sustainability level of a company and for identifying more sustainable options for the future. They enable a large amount of information to be compressed into a format easier to manipulate, compare and understand. The proposed indicators focus on the environmental aspect of sustainable production. However, to achieve sustainable production, a company should incorporate social and economic indicators as well. Most of the indicators included can be applied across industry. However, they are not aimed at being uniformly applicable to all sectors. According to the flows in the manufacture they are divided into input and output indicators and they are based on commonly measured environmental aspects of sustainable production (energy use, materials use, water consumption, products, wastes, and air emissions) covering key global issues. The paper represents a new approach to the systematization of indicators and their symbols and units.List of symbols UP Unit of production (e.g. mass in t or kg, volume in m³, number, monetary value in EUR, etc.) - PO Production output     

How to model different socio-economic and environmental aspects of biomass utilisation: Case study in selected regions in Slovenia and Croatia

Wood biomass is an important renewable source of energy, especially in countries with traditional dependency on forestry resources. In these countries, wood biomass can have numerous positive socio-economical and environmental effects. This paper presents a new model (SCORE model) for estimation of 15 socio-economic and environmental aspects of increased use of biomass from the forests. The presented model enables selected estimation of different aspects in the whole chain of biomass production, preparation and use. Namely, the model enables the estimation of net labour income, net profit, regional public finance income, net direct jobs, net indirect jobs, net induced jobs, total net jobs, contribution to forest management, impact on wood waste utilisation, impact on other woody biomass utilisation, avoided costs of landfill, saving CO₂ emissions, possible impact on regional unemployment, avoided costs of unemployment, additional jobs for farmers, additional activities on farms (from indirect and induced jobs) and self-sufficiency in electricity production. The SCORE model was tested in selected regions in Slovenia and Croatia and apart from a good understanding of the socio-economic and environmental aspects, it also enables an overview of the economy of wood biomass production, given that it includes the economic analysis of wood biomass production and use. The model is not intended for a detailed economic analysis of separate phases of wood biomass production, processing and use, but particularly to show advantages or disadvantages that can result from planned and existing biomass systems.     

Magnetic proximity effect as a pathway to spintronic applications of topological insulators

Spin-based electronics in topological insulators (TIs) is favored by the long spin coherence(1,2) and consequently fault-tolerant information storage. Magnetically doped TIs are ferromagnetic up to 13 K,(3) well below any practical operating condition. Here we demonstrate that the long-range ferromagnetism at ambient temperature can be induced in Bi(2-x)Mn(x)Te(3) by the magnetic proximity effect through deposited Fe overlayer. This result opens a new path to interface-controlled ferromagnetism in TI-based spintronic devices.     

On the analytical derivation of consistent density-corrected tangent operators for simulation of compressible porous materials

In this work, we develop a strategy to derive the tangent modulus A that takes into account the corrections imposed by the evolution of the relative density in the analysis of density-dependent materials, compressible materials. Special attention is given to the analytical derivation of consistent density-corrected tangent operators, which means that explicit formulas are derived without any approximations. The whole procedure depends strongly on the choice of the stress–strain measure and on the employed algorithms. Here, we present a Lagrangian finite deformation version. Numerical examples are presented in order to attest the proposed methodology.