End-User Development in Industry 4.0: Challenges and Opportunities

This position paper aims to discuss challenges and opportunities related to human-computer interaction technologies for Industry 4.0 and to explore the role that end-user development can play in new industrial scenarios. The paper highlights the gap between what Industry 4.0 and related enabling technologies promise and how the Operator 4.0 will be called on to change his/her work practice. End-user development and meta-design are here proposed as suitable methods to fill this gap and improve operators’ quality of work

Evidence of a Sticky Boundary Layer in Nanochannels: A Neutron Spin Echo Study of n

Neutron spin echo spectra of the melts of n-hexatriacontane (C36) and poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), 2 kg/mol, confined in circular channels with a mean diameter of 10 and 12 nm, respectively, in porous silicon, were recorded at Q values between 0.05 and 0.15 angstrom(-1). The spectra were successfully analyzed in terms of a two-state model where wall-adsorbed molecules are immobile and free molecules have a bulk-like dynamics. For C36, we find an adsorbed bilayer at 364 K and a monolayer at 435 K (in both cases, the long axis of the molecules is oriented parallel to the surface) and no adsorbed layer at 512 K. For PEO, we find an adsorbed monolayer at 413 K. The results support the existence of a sticky boundary layer inferred from capillary filling experiments