The Mobile Spatial coordinate Measuring System II (MScMS-II):system description and preliminary assessmentof the measurement uncertainty

According to the increasing interest in metrological systems for the dimensional measurements of large-size objects in a wide range of industrial sectors, several solutions based on different technologies, working principles, architectures, and functionalities have recently been developed. Among all, the most flexible and easily transportable solutions are those that have aroused most interest and have found greater success. In order to address the needs of Large-Scale Metrology (LSM) applications, a distributed flexible system based on a network of low-cost InfraRed (IR) sensors – the Mobile Spatial coordinate Measuring System II (MScMS-II) – has been developed at the Industrial Quality and Metrology Laboratory of Politecnico di Torino. This paper presents a preliminary uncertainty assessment of the system referring to the measured point coordinates in the 3D space, focusing on the sources of measurement uncertainty and the related propagation laws. A preliminary metrological characterization of MScMS-II architecture, experimentally evaluated through a system prototype, is also presented and discussed

Flexible aggregation operators to support hierarchization of Engineering Characteristics in QFD

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a management tool for organizing and conducting design activities of new products and/or services together with their relevant production and/or supply processes, starting from the requirements directly expressed by the end-users. It is organized in a series of operative steps which drive from the collection of the customer needs to the definition of the technical characteristics of the production/supply processes. The first step entails the construction of the House of Quality (HoQ), a planning matrix translating the Customer Requirements (CRs) into measurable product/service technical characteristics (Engineering Characteristics – ECs). One of the main goals of this step is to transform CR importances into an EC prioritization. A robust evaluation method should consider the relationships between CRs and ECs while determining the importance levels of ECs in the HoQ. In traditional approaches, such as for example Independent Scoring Method, ordinal information is arbitrarily converted in cardinal information introducing a series of controversial assumptions. Actually, the current scientific literature presents a number of possible solutions to this problem, but the question of attributing scalar properties to information collected on ordinal scales is far from being settled. This paper proposes a method based on ME-MCDM techniques (Multi Expert / Multiple Criteria Decision Making), which is able to compute EC prioritization without operating an artificial numerical codification of the information contained in the HoQ. After a general description of the theoretical principles of the method, a series of application examples are presented and discussed

The SLAC Polarized Electron Source

The SLAC PES, developed in the early 1990s for the SLC, has been in continuous use since 1992, during which time it has undergone numerous upgrades. The upgrades include improved cathodes with their matching laser systems, modified activation techniques and better diagnostics. The source itself and its performance with these upgrades will be described with special attention given to recent high-intensity long-pulse operation for the E-158 fixed-target parity-violating experiment.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, Workshop on Polarized Electron Sources and Polarimeters (PESP 2002), September 4-6, 2002, Danvers, M

Nectar characteristics of Cologania broussonetii (Balb.) DC. (Fabaceae) and its relationship with flower visitors

La relación entre las plantas con flores y sus polinizadores es influenciada por la cantidad y calidad de la recompensa ofrecida. En este trabajo se estudiaron las características del néctar de Cologania broussonetii (Fabaceae) considerando la composición de azúcares, la dinámica de su producción a lo largo de la vida de la flor y el efecto de las extracciones sucesivas de néctar sobre la secreción y la relación de estos caracteres con sus polinizadores. La composición de azúcares del néctar reveló la presencia de sacarosa, fructosa y glucosa (62, 24 y 14%, respectivamente). La secreción de néctar fue continua durante el primer día de vida de la flor y luego se detuvo; cuando el néctar no fue extraído, la flor lo reabsorbió activamente durante el segundo día. Las extracciones sucesivas (i.e., visitas) no afectaron la cantidad total de néctar ni su ritmo de producción. Las flores de C. broussonetii fueron visitadas sólo por dos especies de abejorros: Bombus opifex y Bombus bellicosus (Hymenoptera; Apidae), ambas en baja frecuencia. Las particularidades encontradas en el modo de secreción del néctar en esta planta pueden relacionarse con polinizadores que visitan las flores en baja frecuencia. Es decir, considerando las características de la producción de néctar en esta especie sería razonable especular que el patrón encontrado tendría valor adaptativo frente a condiciones de visitación variables e impredecibles.Relationships between flowering plants and their pollinators are usually affected by the amount and quality of reward, mainly pollen or nectar, offered to pollinators. Here we analyzed nectar sugar composition, nectar secretion pattern, the effects of removal of nectar on the secretion pattern, and the relationships between these variables and the frequency of visits of the pollinators in Cologania broussonetii (Fabaceae). Nectar sugar composition showed sucrose 62%, fructose 24% and glucose 14%. Nectar secretion resulted continuous through the first day after flower opening. When flower nectar was not removed, during the second day of flower lifetime the sugar content declined due to nectar reabsorption. Nectar removal did not affect the total amount of sugar produced by the flowers. Flowers were visited in low frequencies just by two bumblebees: Bombus opifex and Bombus bellicosus (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Some of the nectar secretion traits can be related with a low frequency of pollinator visits. Thus, considering the nectar secretion pattern in these species seem to be in accordance with variables and unpredictable visit rates

FMECA methodology applied to two pathways in an orthopaedic hospital in Milan.

INTRODUCTION: Adverse events pose a challenge to medical management: they can produce mild or transient disabilities or lead to permanent disabilities or even death; preventable adverse events result from error or equipment failure. METHODS: IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Galeazzi implemented a clinical risk management program in order to study the epidemiology of adverse events and to improve new pathways for preventing clinical errors: a risk management FMECA-FMEA pro-active analysis was applied either to an existing clinical support pathway or to a new process before its implementation. RESULTS: The application of FMEA-FMECA allowed the clinical risk unit of our hospital to undertake corrective actions in order to reduce the adverse events and errors on high-risk procedure used inside the hospitals