A data-driven ensemble ranking system of production quality across manufacturers—A case study for risk assessment in the solar industry

In many production industries, quality assurance and risk analysis are important aspects of the procurement of products. Such analysis often takes the form of during and after production inspections performed by quality assurance companies. These inspections give insight into the quality level of each individual production batch; however, it is also often important to understand a manufacturer's overall production quality and how its quality compares to other manufacturers. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a data-driven method to rank the production quality across manufacturers. The method is based on data from quality assurance inspections and consists of three steps. In the first step, a failure mode and effects analysis is applied for each individual manufacturer. This results in a risk assessment for identified failure modes. In the second step, the risk assessments are combined to create an overall failure index for each manufacturer. Step 2 can be designed in various ways. To ensure our final ranking is robust to the selected method, in step 3 we combine all methods into a unified rank of each manufacturer. We validate our proposed ensemble ranking method using a case study from the solar industry, where we compare our final ranking with the experts’ knowledge of manufacturer quality. It is shown that our data-driven method identifies the high-risk manufacturers in accordance with experts’ knowledge.     

Cells to the Rescue: Emerging Cell-Based Treatment Approaches for NMOSD and MOGAD

Cell-based therapies are gaining momentum as promising treatments for rare neurological autoimmune diseases, including neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease. The development of targeted cell therapies is hampered by the lack of adequate animal models that mirror the human disease. Most cell-based treatments, including HSCT, CAR-T cell, tolerogenic dendritic cell and mesenchymal stem cell treatment have entered early stage clinical trials or have been used as rescue treatment in treatment-refractory cases. The development of antigen-specific cell-based immunotherapies for autoimmune diseases is slowed down by the rarity of the diseases, the lack of surrogate outcomes and biomarkers that are able to predict long-term outcomes and/or therapy effectiveness as well as challenges in the manufacturing of cellular products. These challenges are likely to be overcome by future research.     

Miniaturized flow cytometer with 3D hydrodynamic particle focusing and integrated optical elements applying silicon photodiodes

In this study, the design, realization and measurement results of a novel optofluidic system capable of performing absorbance-based flow cytometric analysis is presented. This miniaturized laboratory platform, fabricated using SU-8 on a silicon substrate, comprises integrated polymer-based waveguides for light guiding and a biconcave cylindrical lens for incident light focusing. The optical structures are detached from the microfluidic sample channel resulting in a significant increase in optical sensitivity. This allows the application of standard solid-state laser and standard silicon-based photodiodes operated by lock-in-amplification resulting in a highly practical and effective detection system. The easy-to-fabricate single-layer microfluidic structure enables independently adjustable 3D hydrodynamic sample focusing to an arbitrary position in the channel. To confirm the fluid dynamics and raytracing simulations and to characterize the system, different sets of microparticles and T-lymphocyte cells (Jurkat cell line) for vital staining were investigated by detecting the extinction (axial light loss) signal. The analytical classification via signal peak height/width demonstrates the high sensitivity and sample discrimination capability of this compact low-cost/low-power microflow cytometer.     

Induced SER‐Activity in Nanostructured Ag–Silica–Au Supports via Long‐Range Plasmon Coupling

A novel Ag–silica–Au hybrid device is developed that displays a long‐range plasmon transfer of Ag to Au leading to enhanced Raman scattering of molecules largely separated from the optically excited Ag surface. A nanoscopically rough Ag surface is coated by a silica spacer of variable thickness from ～1 to 21 nm and a thin Au film of ～25 nm thickness. The outer Au surface is further functionalized by a self‐assembled monolayer (SAM) for electrostatic binding of the heme protein cytochrome c (Cyt c) that serves as a Raman probe and model enzyme. High‐quality surface‐enhanced resonance Raman (SERR) spectra are obtained with 413 nm excitation, demonstrating that the enhancement results exclusively from excitation of Ag surface plasmons. The enhancement factor is estimated to be 2 × 10⁴–8 × 10³ for a separation of Cyt c from the Ag surface by 28–47 nm, corresponding to an attenuation of the enhancement by a factor of only 2–6 compared to Cyt c adsorbed directly on a SAM‐coated Ag electrode. Upon immobilization of Cyt c on the functionalized Ag–silica–Au device, the native structure and redox properties are preserved as demonstrated by time‐ and potential‐dependent SERR spectroscopy.     

Should observations be grouped for effective monitoring of multivariate process variability?

A multivariate dispersion control chart monitors changes in the process variability of multiple correlated quality characteristics. In this article, we investigate and compare the performance of charts designed to monitor variability on the basis of individual and grouped multivariate observations. We compare one of the most well-known methods for monitoring individual observations—a multivariate exponentially weighted mean squared deviation (MEWMS) chart—with various charts based on grouped observations. In addition, we compare charts based on monitoring with overlapping and nonoverlapping subgroups. We recommend using charts based on overlapping subgroups when monitoring with subgroup data. The effect of subgroup size is also investigated. Steady-state average time to signal is used as the performance measure. We show that monitoring methods based on individual observations are the quickest in detecting sustained shifts in the process variability. We use a simulation study to obtain our results and illustrated these with a case study.     

Cellulose acetate/polysilsesquioxane composites: Thermal properties and morphological characterization by electron spectroscopy imaging

Cellulose acetate (CA) composites using two types of silane coupling agents (methyltrimethoxysilane and phenyltriethoxysilane) were prepared through two methodologies: direct reaction between CA and the specific monomer and reaction of CA with oligomers, which were produced by prehydrolysis of the same monomers. The thermal behavior and morphology of the materials were studied. The composites showed thermal stability similar to pure CA, increase of residue content at 790°C and reduction in the glass transition temperature. Complementary microscopy techniques were applied to investigate the distribution of polysilsesquioxane in the CA matrix. Silicon mapping images showed the presence of domains with higher polysilsesquioxane concentration than the matrix and also the presence of silicon‐rich nanodomains dispersed throughout the matrix. Based on mapping characterization, a schematic representation of the CA/polysilsesquioxane composite morphology was proposed. The organosilane type and architecture influenced the thermal behavior and the morphology of these materials. The results suggest that the silane coupling agents could be used to produce CA films with a range of properties. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012     

Cadmium ion-selective sorbent preconcentration method using ion imprinted poly(ethylene glycol dimethacrylate-co-vinylimidazole)

The present study focuses on the preparation of an Cd²⁺-imprinted poly(ethylene glycol dimethacrylate-co-vinylimidazole) for selective extraction/preconcentration of Cd²⁺ ions from aqueous solution, with further determination by FAAS using a flow system. Sorbent extraction/preconcentration system was optimized by using chemometric tools (factorial design and Doehlert matrix). Under optimized conditions, the method presented a limit of detection of 0.11 μg L^?1 and linear analytical curve from 1.0 up to 50.0 μg L^?1 (r = 0.993). The preconcentration factor (PF), consumptive index (CI) and concentration efficiency (CE) were found to be 38.4, 0.39 mL and 14.3 min^?1, respectively. The selectivity coefficient of ion imprinted polymer was compared with the selectivity coefficient of NIP (non-imprinted polymer) for the Cd²⁺/Pb²⁺, Cd²⁺/Cu²⁺ and Cd²⁺/Zn²⁺ binary mixtures, where the respective values of relative selectivity coefficient (k′) of 157.5, 4.44 and 1.38 were obtained. The proposed method was successfully applied for cadmium determination in different types of water samples, urine and certified reference material (Lobster Hepatopancreas).     

Personal and organizational predictors of workplace sexual harassment of women by men.

The authors investigated the predictors of workplace sexual harassment in 278 male university faculty and staff (M age?=?45 years). Workplace variables (perceptions of organizational sanctions against harassment and perceptions of a sexualized workplace) and personal variables (adversarial sexual beliefs, sexual harassment beliefs, perspective taking, and self-esteem) were studied as predictors of sexualized and gender harassment. Social desirability was controlled. Both organizational variables and beliefs about sexual harassment predicted gender harassment and sexualized harassment. Perspective taking, adversarial sexual beliefs, and sexual harassment beliefs moderated the effects of perceived organizational sanctions against harassment on sexualized harassment. Findings are discussed as they relate to organizational efforts to reduce or prevent sexual harassment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Photodegradation of decabromodiphenyl ether adsorbed onto clay minerals, metal oxides, and sediment

The photodebromination of decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-209) adsorbed onto six different solid matrixes was investigated in sunlight and by irradiation with 350 +/- 50 nm lamps (four lamps at 24 W each). After 14 days of lamp irradiation, BDE-209 degraded with a half-life of 36 and 44 days, respectively, on montmorillonite or kaolinite, with much slower degradation occurring when sorbed on organic carbon-rich natural sediment (t1/2 = 150 days). In late summer and fall sunlight (40.5 degrees N, elevation 600 ft), the half-lives of BDE-209 sorbed on montmorillonite and kaolinite were 261 and 408 days, respectively. Under both irradiation schemes, no significant loss of BDE-209 occurred when sorbed to aluminum hydroxide, iron oxide (ferrihydrite), or manganese dioxide (birnessite). Upon exposure to both lamp and solar light and in the presence of montmorillonite and kaolinite, numerous lesser brominated congeners (tri- to nonabromodiphenyl ethers) were produced. Nearly identical product distribution was evident on montmorillonite and kaolinite. Dark control experiments for each mineral showed no disappearance of BDE-209 or appearance of degradation products. These results suggest that photodegradation of BDE-209 on mineral aerosols during long-range atmospheric transport may be an important fate process for BDE-209 in the environment.