Sharing the ‘fame’ of ISO standard adoption: quality supply chain effects evidence

The objective of this paper is to provide an empirical evidence for whether the hierarchical position (determined by firm’s quality strength) of different types of quality supply chain categories implies the same hierarchy in terms of economic gains. Using data collected in France through a survey, we distinguish between four types of quality supply chain categories that help us to empirically construct a relationship between firms and their suppliers (quality certified/non-quality certified). Our findings, from a two-regime switching model, reveal that there is a positive correlation between the hierarchical positions of the quality supply chain categories and the impact on firm performance (measured by profit per employee).     

Analyzing dynamic performance of power systems over parameter spaceusing normal forms of vector fields-part I: identification of vulnerableregions

This is the first part of a two-part paper discussing the dynamic performance of power systems over parameter space using the method of normal forms. A new normal form transformation is derived under the second order resonance condition. By using the resonance condition as a guide to indicate detrimental system dynamic performance, the authors propose a computationally efficient method to study the system under varying parameters. An approach to determine the resonance and near-resonance region in the parameter space is developed. For the resonance case, conclusions are drawn by simply examining the analytic solutions. For the near-resonance case, the machine states showing poor performance can be found by tracing the dominant nonlinear modal interaction and mode-machine interaction. The method is tested on the IEEE 50-generator system. The results reveal many interesting characteristics of the system related to resonance and near-resonance, which validates the effectiveness of the method as a useful analytical tool for system operation and design. Further work on quantifying the effect of the modal interactions on the machine states is presented in Part II     

Synthesis of calcium hydroxyapatite from calcium carbonate and different orthophosphate sources: A comparative study

The synthesis of calcium hydroxyapatite (Ca-HA) starting from calcium carbonate and different orthophosphate sources, including orthophosphoric acid, potassium, sodium and ammonium dihydrogen orthophosphates, was investigated under ambient conditions. The reaction started with calcium carbonate dissolution in an acid medium, followed by rapid precipitation of calcium cations with orthophosphate species to form calcium phosphate based particles which were in the size range of 0.4–1 μm. These particles then agglomerated into much larger ones, up to 350 μm in diameter (aggregates). These aggregates possessed an unstable porous structure which was responsible for the porosity of the final products. The highest specific surface area and pore volume were obtained with potassium dihydrogen orthophosphate. On the other hand, orthophosphoric acid led to the highest dissolution of calcium carbonate and the complete precipitation of orthophosphate species. Under ambient conditions, calcium phosphate based solid products of low crystallinity were formed. Different intermediates were identified and a reaction pathway proposed.     

Sensory profiles and preference analysis in ornamental horticulture: The case of the rosebush

The context of ornamental horticulture is considered in order to extend the techniques of sensory and preference evaluation by taking the rosebush as a plant model. In a preliminary study (Boumaza, Demotes-Mainard, Huché-Thélier, & Guérin, 2009), a sensory evaluation was conducted in order to set up a list of attributes. Subsequently, this list was adapted to assess 10 rosebushes. After the control of the panel performance using a multivariate strategy of analysis, the average scores were used in product mapping. The evaluation of the preferences with regard to these rosebushes was undertaken: 253 subjects were asked to rank the products by decreasing order of liking. Thereafter, the preference data were subjected to an internal preference mapping and a cluster analysis. Six homogeneous segments of consumers were eventually retained. By way of performing an external preference mapping, the average ranks were regressed upon the sensory attributes using principal component regression: the preferences of 67% of the consumers were satisfactorily explained by the attributes.     

D.C. scanning thermal microscopy: Characterisation and interpretation of the measurement

The used Scanning Thermal Microscopy (SThM) probe is a thin Pt resistance wire acting as a heat source and as a detector simultaneously. Its energetic balance is investigated by the study of the temperature profile along the probe. A theoretical approach of the measurement, based on this investigation, is then proposed. Simulations with this modelling are shown to predict how the heat, electrically produced in the probe, is dissipated in the probe-sample system. In particular, it is shown that the steady-state of conduction losses to the thermal element support varies versus the thermal conductivity of the sample and can lead to bad interpretations of the measurement.     

Sequential Decision Strategies for Machine Interpretation of Speech

Recognition errors made by automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems may not prevent the development of useful dialogue applications if the interpretation strategy has an introspection capability for evaluating the reliability of the results. This paper proposes an interpretation strategy which is particularly effective when applications are developed with a training corpus of moderate size. From the lattice of word hypotheses generated by an ASR system, a short list of conceptual structures is obtained with a set of finite state machines (FSM). Interpretation or a rejection decision is then performed by a tree-based strategy. The nodes of the tree correspond to elaboration-decision units containing a redundant set of classifiers. A decision tree based and two large margin classifiers are trained with a development set to become interpretation knowledge sources. Discriminative training of the classifiers selects linguistic and confidence-based features for contributing to a cooperative assessment of the reliability of an interpretation. Such an assessment leads to the definition of a limited number of reliability states. The probability that a proposed interpretation is correct is provided by its reliability state and transmitted to the dialogue manager. Experimental results are presented for a telephone service application