Six Sigma methodology: an effective tool for quality management.

The quality standards of the output, the features of delivery and the introduction of new services are becoming the most important factors to success in business performance. In this context, the application of new methodologies is essential to increase the business performance. Six Sigma can give an important solution for those companies that intend to highlight the customer satisfaction focusing on the continuous improvement of the processes. The purpose of this paper is to show the power of the Six Sigma methodology in increasing the performance level of industrial processes and systems. The paper shows a Six Sigma case study applied to the automotive market

Improvement through process integration using a simulative, dynamic method

The need for globalisation, the saturation and instability of markets, the life-cycle time reduction of products, the growth of item variety, the customer demands have been main factors contributing to a radical change of management conceptions and strategies. This complex environment has induced companies to search the keys to achieve competitiveness, focusing on process integration. The purpose of the paper is to explain how managing the internal functions of a company in an integrated way can lead to an effective improvement. In order to represent the flows and to quantify improvements, a simulative, dynamic and integrated model is developed

Design of a beamline for soft and deep lithography on third generation synchrotron radiation source

ELETTRA is a third generation synchrotron radiation source. The energy spectrum allows the design of beamlines suitable for x-ray lithography from soft to hard x-ray wavelengths. An appropriate lithographic window for micro- and nanofabrication can be obtained by a combination of selected filters and mirrors. As the beamline is interfaced to a vertical x-ray stepper, a uniformity in the beam intensity better than 3% (3σ) in the horizontal direction has to be reached. The present beamline is designed by taking into account the main factors which can affect the beam quality, namely, thermal loading on mirrors and filters, slope errors, and surface roughness of the mirrors. The resulting lithographic resolution at soft x-ray wavelengths is better than 100 nm

Shear-induced reaction-limited aggregation kinetics of Brownian particles at arbitrary concentrations

The aggregation of interacting Brownian particles in sheared concentrated suspensions is an important issue in colloid and soft matter science per se. Also, it serves as a model to understand biochemical reactions occurring in vivo where both crowding and shear play an important role. We present an effective medium approach within the Smoluchowski equation with shear which allows one to calculate the encounter kinetics through a potential barrier under shear at arbitrary colloid concentrations. Experiments on a model colloidal system in simple shear flow support the validity of the model in the range considered. By generalizing Kramers' rate theory to the presence of collective hydrodynamics, our model explains the significant increase in the shear-induced reaction-limited aggregation kinetics upon increasing the colloid concentration

Laccobius leopardus sp. nov. from the Western Cape of South Africa (Coleoptera: Hydrophilidae).

Bilton, David T., Gentili, Elio (2014): Laccobius leopardus sp. nov. from the Western Cape of South Africa (Coleoptera: Hydrophilidae). Zootaxa 3835 (3): 397-400, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3835.3.1

Rimozione di sedimenti per fluitazione dal serbatoio di Sernio (SO)

Il presente lavoro descrive la rimozione di un ingente quantitativo di sedimenti (circa 100'000 tonnellate) dal serbatoio di Sernio, in provincia di Sondrio, effettuata tra maggio e luglio del 2009. Il sedimento \ue8 stato evacuato per fluitazione (flushing), nel sostanziale rispetto dei vincoli preventivamente stabiliti sulla concentrazione di solidi sospesi (CSS) delle acque scaricate. Tali limitazioni hanno lo scopo di contenere l\u2019impatto delle operazioni sugli ecosistemi acquatici coinvolti. La CSS \ue8 stata controllata regolando il livello nel serbatoio, la portata in uscita e, in un secondo tempo, mediante l\u2019utilizzo di escavatori meccanici. La gestione delle operazioni si \ue8 basata sul costante monitoraggio della CSS poco a valle dell\u2019area di intervento. La campagna di misura \ue8 stata ulteriormente estesa a valle, per un tratto di circa 40 km lungo l\u2019asta dell\u2019Adda, al fine di quantificare la riduzione della CSS per effetto combinato di diluizione e deposizione