CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT IN ACTION Applying Quality Principles to Software

The software development process remains one of the most uncontrolled and poorly managed functions in all of business. Applying continuous improvement to better the quality and productivity of the process is difficult, but it is also paramount to the ongoing success of a mission critical project. This article examines how a critical manufacturing system project at Motorola evolved from an ad hoc process to a formal software development environment that produces predictable, dependable, quality results.     

Preparing Staff for Federated Searching: A Community of Practice Approach

ABSTRACT

This article outlines one library's staff-training program for a newly implemented federated search product and lessons learned from the process. The discussion examines federated searching from the patron's point of view and introduces a community of practice approach to training staff. The approach aims to help staff learn how to embrace federated searching as an additional research tool to complement search features already in place.     

Embodied imagination: a hybrid method of designing for intimacy

Abstract

Situated in the domain of research into mobile, wireless, networked and wearable computing, this exploratory paperintroduces the embodied imagination method and explains how it can contribute to the design process by creating an elastic space of performance that incorporates daily life and personal imagination into the design process. It is based on a study called Placebo Sleeves which was an experiential design phase of a larger project in wearable computing called whisper[s]. The innovation offered by this research is twofold: an integration of previously distinct methodologies, and an interdisciplinary theoretical framework relevant to the design of devices for affective, networked communication. The methodologies are shaped both by user experience models and by performance practices. We also articulate a domain of public dreaming, located at the conjunction of the private, public and secret within human existence, and suggest that shared use of mobile technologies has the potential to be situated there.     

Enhanced size-dependent trapping of particles using microvortices

Inertial microfluidics has been attracting considerable interest for size-based separation of particles and cells. The inertial forces can be manipulated by expanding the microchannel geometry, leading to formation of microvortices for selective isolation and trapping of particles or cells from a mixture. In this work, we aim to enhance our understanding of particle trapping in such microvortices by developing a model of selective particle entrapment. Design and operational parameters including flow conditions, size of the trapping region, and target particle concentration are explored to elucidate their influence on trapping behavior. Our results show that the size dependence of trapping is characterized by a threshold Reynolds number, which governs the selective entry of particles into microvortices from the main flow. We show that concentration enhancement on the order of 100,000× and isolation of targets at concentrations as low as 1/mL is possible. Ultimately, the insights gained from our systematic investigation suggest optimization solutions that enhance device performance (efficiency, size selectivity, and yield) and are applicable to selective isolation and trapping of large rare cells as well as other applications.     

Abstract stimulus-specific adaptation models

Many neurons that initially respond to a stimulus stop responding if the stimulus is presented repeatedly but recover their response if a different stimulus is presented. This phenomenon is referred to as stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA). SSA has been investigated extensively using oddball experiments, which measure the responses of a neuron to sequences of stimuli. Neurons that exhibit SSA respond less vigorously to common stimuli, and the metric typically used to quantify this difference is the SSA index (SI). This article presents the first detailed analysis of the SI metric by examining the question: How should a system (e.g., a neuron) respond to stochastic input if it is to maximize the SI of its output? Questions like this one are particularly relevant to those wishing to construct computational models of SSA. If an artificial neural network receives stimulus information at a particular rate and must respond within a fixed time, what is the highest SI one can reasonably expect? We demonstrate that the optimum, average SI is constrained by the information in the input source, the length and encoding of the memory, and the assumptions concerning how the task is decomposed.     

Fretting wear of Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb

An investigation was conducted to examine the wear behavior of gamma titanium aluminide (Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb in atomic percent) in contact with a typical nickel-base superalloy under repeated microscopic vibratory motion in air at temperatures from 296–823 K. The surface damage observed on the interacting surfaces of both Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb and superalloy consisted of fracture pits, oxides, metallic debris, scratches, craters, plastic deformation, and cracks. The Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb transferred to the superalloy at all fretting conditions and caused scuffing or galling. The increasing rate of oxidation at elevated temperatures led to a drop in Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb wear at 473 K. Mild oxidative wear was observed at 473 K. However, fretting wear increased as the temperature was increased from 473–823 K. At 723 and 823 K, oxide disruption generated cracks, loose wear debris, and pits on the Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb wear surface. Ti-48Al-2Cr-2Nb wear generally decreased with increasing fretting frequency. Both increasing slip amplitude and increasing load tended to produce more metallic wear debris, causing severe abrasive wear in the contacting metals.     

Bachelor Culture in the Work of Adolf Loos

The issue of gender in the architecture and writing of Adolf Loos arose from an ongoing debate over gender identification and roles in Viennese culture of the fin-de-sie`cle. Loos's critique challenged what he saw as the degradation of contemporary culture through its feminization. His masculinized alternative reclaimed the public realm for the rational and the pragmatic. Through this crucial maneuver, Loos tied modernity back to its class base, to an ideology of production and progress, and brought nineteenth-century positivism forward into the twentieth century, jumping over the "effeminate" interlude of art nouveau.     

The influence of soil remediation on lead in house dust

Lead in house dust has long been recognized as a principal source of excess lead absorption among children at the Bunker Hill Superfund Site (BHSS) in northern Idaho. House dust lead concentration from homeowner's vacuum cleaner bags has been monitored since the epidemic of childhood lead poisoning in 1974. Geometric mean house dust lead concentrations decreased from >10000 mg/kg in 1974 to approximately 4000 mg/kg in 1975, in response to air pollution control initiatives at the defective primary lead smelter. After smelter closure, 1983 mean dust lead concentrations were near 3000 mg/kg and were most dependent on soil sources. Following emergency soil removals from public areas and roadsides and fugitive dust control efforts in the mid-1980s, house dust lead decreased by approximately 40-60% to 1200-1500 mg/kg. In 1992, a cleanup goal of 500 mg/kg dust lead community average, with no individual home exceeding 1000 mg/kg, was adopted. This goal was to be achieved by a combination of contaminated soil removals and fugitive dust control efforts throughout the 21 square mile BHSS. Continual reductions in house dust lead concentrations have been noted throughout the residential area soil cleanup. Geometric mean house dust lead concentrations averaged approximately 500-600 mg/kg from 1996 to 1999 and dropped below 500 mg/kg in 2000. Analysis of these data indicates that approximately 20% of the variance in dust lead concentrations is attributed to yard, neighborhood, and community soil lead concentrations. Since 1996, dust lead concentrations and dust and lead loading rates have also been measured by dust mats placed at entryways into the homes. Neighborhood soil lead concentrations, household hygiene, the number of adults living in the home, and the number of hours a child spends outdoors in summer explain approximately 26% of the variance in mat dust lead loading rates. It is estimated that post-remedial house dust lead concentrations will stabilize at 400-500 mg/kg, as compared to approximately 200 mg/kg in socio-economically similar background communities; the difference possibly attributed to residual soil concentrations (3-6 times background), recontamination of rights-of-way, tracking of non-residential mining district soils and dusts, fugitive dusts associated with the remediation, and residual structural or carpet dusts.     

Effect of medium-pressure UV irradiation on bromate concentrations in drinking water, a pilot-scale study

This study investigated the potential for bromate removal from drinking water on irradiation with medium-pressure UV lamps-a technique gaining considerable interest for drinking water disinfection. Waters from two different sources were spiked with 20microg/L of bromate and irradiated with UV fluences up to 718mJ/cm(2) utilizing a pilot-scale reactor (Calgon Carbon Corp.) at a flow of 76L/min (20 gallon/min). Essentially no removal was observed in one of the source waters. Limited bromate removal, up to 19%, was observed in the second source water at high UV fluences (696mJ/cm(2)) and a fluence-response relationship was clearly evident. All removals would be negligible at UV fluences anticipated for drinking water disinfection (< or =40mJ/cm(2)). Different water characteristics, in particular competitive absorption by nitrate and possibly DOC, were most likely responsible for the differences in bromate removal in the waters tested. The source water that did not show any removal had a higher nitrate concentration (4 vs. 0.1mg N/L) and also a higher DOC concentration (4.1 vs. 3.1mg C/L) than the other source water which showed 19% bromate removal.