A Modified Region Approach for Multivariate Measurement System Capability Analysis

Measurement system capability analysis is to determine whether the measurement system is capable for use in quality control. The existing research has been extended from univariate to multivariate cases. Two approaches, the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and the weighted principal components (WPC), were advocated in literature. The MANOVA method is constructed based on the volume ratio that treats the volume of constant‐density contours as the variability estimations. However, it ignores the fact that the relative position change of multivariate measurement errors could affect the measurement system capability. The WPC method uses dimension reduction to reduce the complexity but is unable to build the precision‐to‐tolerance ratio because it does not include tolerance. In this paper, we propose a modified‐region‐based method to compute the precision‐to‐tolerance ratio, the percent of repeatability and reproducibility, and the signal‐to‐noise ratio. This method also incorporates the variance–covariance structure of the measurement errors when dealing with the constant‐density contours of tolerances, total variation, and process variation. The performance of the modified‐region‐based method is evaluated based on a dataset from the literature and a set of relevant simulation. The proposed method proves to be effective compared with other methods.Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reliability Analysis Method on Repairable System with Standby Structure Based on Goal Oriented Methodology

This paper presents a reliability analysis method on repairable system with standby structure based on goal oriented (GO) methodology. Firstly, a new combination of GO operator, which is composed of a new logical GO operator named Type 18A operator and a new auxiliary GO operator named Type 20 operator, is created to represent standby mode. The availability formula of standby equipment with translation exception is deduced based on Markov process theory. Then, the application method of combination of GO operator for standby mode and the analysis process of repairable system with standby structure based on GO method are proposed. Thirdly, this new combination of GO operator is applied in availability analysis of the hydraulic oil supply system of power‐shift steering transmission. Finally, the results obtained by the new GO method are compared with the results of fault tree analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, GO methods using Type 2 operator and Type 18 operator to represent the standby mode, respectively. And the comparison results show that this new GO method is applicable and reasonable for reliability analysis of repairable system with standby structure. All in all, this paper provides guidance for reliability analysis of repairable systems with standby structure. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Smart Utilization of Carbon Dots in Semiconductor Photocatalysis

Efficient capture of solar energy will be critical to meeting the energy needs of the future. Semiconductor photocatalysis is expected to make an important contribution in this regard, delivering both energy carriers (especially H₂) and valuable chemical feedstocks under direct sunlight. Over the past few years, carbon dots (CDs) have emerged as a promising new class of metal‐free photocatalyst, displaying semiconductor‐like photoelectric properties and showing excellent performance in a wide variety of photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic applications owing to their ease of synthesis, unique structure, adjustable composition, ease of surface functionalization, outstanding electron‐transfer efficiency and tunable light‐harvesting range (from deep UV to the near‐infrared). Here, recent advances in the rational design of CDs‐based photocatalysts are highlighted and their applications in photocatalytic environmental remediation, water splitting into hydrogen, CO₂ reduction, and organic synthesis are discussed.