Integrated cost/weight optimization of aircraft structures

A methodology for a combined cost/weight optimization of aircraft components is proposed. The objective function is formed by a simplified form of direct operating cost, i.e. by a weighted sum of the manufacturing cost and the component weight. Hence, the structural engineer can perform the evaluation of a design solution based on economical values rather than pure cost or weight targets. The parameter that governs the balance between manufacturing cost and weight is called weight penalty and incorporates the effect of fuel burn, environmental impact or contractual penalties due to overweight. Unlike previous work, the analytical cost model and structural models are replaced by commercially available software packages that allow a more realistic model of the manufacturing costs; further, arbitrary constraints for the structural analysis can be implemented. By means of parametric studies it is shown that the design solution strongly depends on the magnitude of the weight penalty.     

Rechtliche Fragen zur Praxis IT-forensischer Analysen in Organisationen

Der Einsatz von Informationstechnologie (IT) in Organisationen bietet viele M?glichkeiten des Missbrauchs. Besch?ftigte k?nnen sich die besonderen Eigenschaften der IT zunutze machen, um sich etwa in gesch?ftssch?digender Weise Vorteile zu verschaffen. Gleichzeitig erm?glicht IT aber auch, verbotene Handlungen aufzuspüren und zu belegen (IT-Forensik). Der Beitrag beschreibt die technische Praxis von IT-forensischen Analysen und geht auf damit verbundene rechtliche Fragestellungen ein.     

Asymmetric multivariate normal mixture GARCH

An asymmetric multivariate generalization of the recently proposed class of normal mixture GARCH models is developed. Issues of parametrization and estimation are discussed. Conditions for covariance stationarity and the existence of the fourth moment are derived, and expressions for the dynamic correlation structure of the process are provided. In an application to stock market returns, it is shown that the disaggregation of the conditional (co)variance process generated by the model provides substantial intuition. Moreover, the model exhibits a strong performance in calculating out-of-sample Value-at-Risk measures.     

Rule cubes for causal investigations

With the complexity of modern vehicles tremendously increasing, quality engineers play a key role within today’s automotive industry. Field data analysis supports corrective actions in development, production and after sales support. We decompose the requirements and show that association rules, being a popular approach to generating explanative models, still exhibit shortcomings. Interactive rule cubes, which have been proposed recently, are a promising alternative. We extend this work by introducing a way of intuitively visualizing and meaningfully ranking them. Moreover, we present methods to interactively factorize a problem and validate hypotheses by ranking patterns based on expectations, and by browsing a cube-based network of related influences. All this is currently in use as an interactive tool for warranty data analysis in the automotive industry. A real-world case study shows how engineers successfully use it in identifying root causes of quality issues.

How the Kano model contributes to Kansei engineering in services

Recent studies show that products and services hold great appeal if they are attractively designed to elicit emotional feelings from customers. Kansei engineering (KE) has good potential to provide a competitive advantage to those able to read and translate customer affect and emotion in actual product and services. This study introduces an integrative framework of the Kano model and KE, applied to services. The Kano model was used and inserted into KE to exhibit the relationship between service attribute performance and customer emotional response. Essentially, the Kano model categorises service attribute quality into three major groups (must-be [M], one-dimensional [O] and attractive [A]). The findings of a case study that involved 100 tourists who stayed in luxury 4- and 5-star hotels are presented. As a practical matter, this research provides insight on which service attributes deserve more attention with regard to their significant impact on customer emotional needs. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: Apart from cognitive evaluation, emotions and hedonism play a big role in service encounters. Through a focus on delighting qualities of service attributes, this research enables service providers and managers to establish the extent to which they prioritise their improvement efforts and to always satisfy their customer emotions beyond expectation.     

Two‐Level Grids for Ray Tracing on GPUs

We investigate the use of two‐level nested grids as acceleration structure for ray tracing of dynamic scenes. We propose a massively parallel, sort‐based construction algorithm and show that the two‐level grid is one of the structures that is fastest to construct on modern graphics processors. The structure handles non‐uniform primitive distributions more robustly than the uniform grid and its traversal performance is comparable to those of other high quality acceleration structures used for dynamic scenes. We propose a cost model to determine the grid resolution and improve SIMD utilization during ray‐triangle intersection by employing a hybrid packetization strategy. The build times and ray traversal acceleration provide overall rendering performance superior to previous approaches for real time rendering of animated scenes on GPUs.