Application of the QFD as a design approach to ensure comfort in using hand tools: Can the design team complete the House of Quality appropriately?

Quality Function Deployment is proposed as an effective design method to integrate ergonomics needs and comfort into hand tool design because it explicitly addresses the translation of customer needs into engineering characteristics. A crucial step during QFD concerns the linking of engineering characteristics to customer needs in the House of Quality by the design team. It is generally assumed (looking at all the QFD success stories) that design teams can accurately predict the correlations between customer needs and engineering characteristics (also referred to as “Whats”/“Hows” correlations). This paper explicitly tests this assumption by comparing the “Whats”/“Hows” correlations estimated by a design team with those observed in a systematic user evaluation study, which has not been done before. Testing the assumption is important, because inaccurate estimates may lead to ergonomically ineffective (re)design of hand tools and a waste of company resources. Results revealed that the design team's correlation estimates were not as accurate as is generally assumed. Twenty-five percent of the estimates differed significantly with those observed in the user evaluation study. Thus, QFD is a useful method to assist design teams in designing ergonomically more comfortable hand tools, but only on the condition that the correlations between customer needs and engineering characteristics are validated, preferably by means of a systematic user evaluation study.     

Traceability and management of dispersed product knowledge during design and manufacturing

Product development processes comprise highly creative and knowledge-intensive tasks that involve extensive information exchange and communication among geographically distributed teams. Due to the geographical and institutional separation between the different systems involved in the product lifecycle, product knowledge sharing is becoming a key issue in the information systems of extended enterprises. This paper addresses the issue and challenges of product knowledge traceability during the product development. The aim of this research effort is to enhance the sharing and use of product knowledge acquired during the development process using traceability information.A standardized approach is proposed to trace and share product knowledge and key constructs to support traceability during the product development process are identified and formalized. This research effort is based on the premise that an important step towards achieving product knowledge sharing is providing traceability across various product knowledge elements that are used in product development phases, i.e. design and manufacturing. Two disjointed but complementary case studies illustrating the benefit of traceability are presented. The potential role of traceability is described, first to support the decision making process during engineering change management (ECM), and second to support product-oriented modelling for knowledge sharing and exchanging to meet the quality requirements. The proposed approach has been implemented using the MEGA Suite tool and applied to each of the case studies and could be integrated to PLM systems currently in use.     

Vision Based UAV Attitude Estimation: Progress and Insights

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly replacing manned systems in situations that are dangerous, remote, or difficult for manned aircraft to access. Its control tasks are empowered by computer vision technology. Visual sensors are robustly used for stabilization as primary or at least secondary sensors. Hence, UAV stabilization by attitude estimation from visual sensors is a very active research area. Vision based techniques are proving their effectiveness and robustness in handling this problem. In this work a comprehensive review of UAV vision based attitude estimation approaches is covered, starting from horizon based methods and passing by vanishing points, optical flow, and stereoscopic based techniques. A novel segmentation approach for UAV attitude estimation based on polarization is proposed. Our future insightes for attitude estimation from uncalibrated catadioptric sensors are also discussed.     

MERIS potential for ocean colour studies in the open ocean

The interest of space observations of ocean colour for determining variations in phytoplankton distribution and for deriving primary production (via models) has been largely demonstrated by the Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS) which operated from 1978 to 1986. The capabilities of this pioneer sensor, however, were limited both in spectral resolution and radiometric accuracy. The next generation of ocean colour sensors will benefit from major improvements. The Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS), planned by the European Space Agency (ESA) for the Envisat platform, has been designed to measure radiances in 15 visible and infrared channels. Three infrared channels will allow aerosol characterization, and therefore accurate atmospheric corrections, to be performed for each pixel. For the retrieval of marine parameters, nine channels between 410 and 705nm will be available (as opposed to only four with the CZCS). In coastal waters this should, in principle, allow a separate quantification of different substances (phytoplankton, mineral particles, yellow substance) to be performed. In open ocean waters optically dominated by phytoplankton and their associate detrital matter, the basic information (i.e. the concentration of phytoplanktonic pigments) will be retrieved with improved accuracy due to the increased radiometric performances of MERIS. The adoption of multi-wavelength algorithms could also lead to additional information concerning auxiliary pigments and taxonomic groups. Finally, MERIS will be one of the first sensors to allow measurements of Sun-induced chlorophyll a in vivo fluorescence, which could provide a complementary approach for the assessment of phytoplankton abundance. The development of these next-generation algorithms, however, requires a number of fundamental studies.     

A personalized measure of thermal comfort for building controls

A personalized measure for thermal comfort has been applied for use in combination with smart controls for building automation. Using data from a field study, we first show the superiority of personalized measures for thermal comfort compared to standard non-adaptive methods. Based on this knowledge we describe a methodology, using logistic regression techniques, to convert user votes to a probability of comfort. We also describe the interface used to collect the votes. We show that, for a given subject, our thermal profile converges against the probabilities found in the field study. As a case study we implemented the measure in a control algorithm to control the shading devices. The results clarify the mode of action and also show the effectiveness of the method.     

An advanced VHDL‐AMS PiN diode model: towards simulation‐based design of power converters

This paper focuses on the modeling of a power PiN diode. The focal point basis is the dependence on temperature. The PiN diode remains a difficult device to model mainly during switching transients. An advanced PiN diode temperature‐dependent model is developed and implemented in VHDL‐AMS. Heterogeneous simulation scheme including the circuit wiring parasitic components, the probe effects and the dependent diode models is successfully simulated using SIMPLORER simulator. Experimental data of several commercial PiN diodes are compared to simulation results at different temperature levels. A good rate of consistency is found. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamic mechanical analysis of the multiple glass transitions of plasticized wheat gluten biopolymer

Glass transition of thermo‐molded biomaterials made from wheat gluten and its main protein classes is studied by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). The materials are plasticized with variable contents of glycerol (30–40 wt %) and water (0–20 wt %). For all materials, three successive relaxation phases are systematically detected. Their positions shift to lower temperature as the plasticizer content of materials increases. Composition in gluten, glycerol and water of each relaxation phase is estimated using the Couchman‐Karasz model. Irrespective of the plasticizer content or composition, the relaxation phases shows rather constant plasticizer volume fractions. The low‐, middle‐, and high relaxation phases include respectively around 30, 60 and 80 vol % of gluten protein. These relaxations are assigned to the segmental motion of the surface amino‐acid side groups, to the collective motion of packed gluten proteins, and to the gain in protein conformational mobility as a 2D network of interacting plasticizer molecules forms. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43254.     

Molecular Networking for Drug Toxicities Studies: The Case of Hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 Patients

Using drugs to treat COVID-19 symptoms may induce adverse effects and modify patient outcomes. These adverse events may be further aggravated in obese patients, who often present different illnesses such as metabolic-associated fatty liver disease. In Rennes University Hospital, several drug such as hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) have been used in the clinical trial HARMONICOV to treat COVID-19 patients, including obese patients. The aim of this study is to determine whether HCQ metabolism and hepatotoxicity are worsened in obese patients using an in vivo/in vitro approach. Liquid chromatography high resolution mass spectrometry in combination with untargeted screening and molecular networking were employed to study drug metabolism in vivo (patient’s plasma) and in vitro (HepaRG cells and RPTEC cells). In addition, HepaRG cells model were used to reproduce pathophysiological features of obese patient metabolism, i.e., in the condition of hepatic steatosis. The metabolic signature of HCQ was modified in HepaRG cells cultured under a steatosis condition and a new metabolite was detected (carboxychloroquine). The RPTEC model was found to produce only one metabolite. A higher cytotoxicity of HCQ was observed in HepaRG cells exposed to exogenous fatty acids, while neutral lipid accumulation (steatosis) was further enhanced in these cells. These in vitro data were compared with the biological parameters of 17 COVID-19 patients treated with HCQ included in the HARMONICOV cohort. Overall, our data suggest that steatosis may be a risk factor for altered drug metabolism and possibly toxicity of HCQ.