Dublin City University

About: Dublin City University is a education organization based out in Dublin, Ireland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Context (language use) & Machine translation. The organization has 5904 authors who have published 17178 publications receiving 389376 citations. The organization is also known as: National Institute for Higher Education, Dublin & DCU.

A wearable patch for continuous monitoring of sweat electrolytes during exertion

Abstract: Implementation of wearable sweat sensors for continuous measurement of fluid based biomarkers (including electrolytes, metabolites and proteins) is an attractive alternative to common, yet intrusive and invasive, practices such as urine or blood analysis. Recent years have witnessed several key demonstrations of sweat based electrochemical sensing in wearable formats, however, there are still significant challenges and opportunities in this space for clinical acceptance, and thus mass implementation of these devices. For instance, there are inherent challenges in establishing direct correlations between sweat-based and gold-standard plasma-based biomarker concentrations for clinical decision-making. In addition, the wearable sweat monitoring devices themselves may exacerbate these challenges, as they can significantly alter sweat physiology (example, sweat rate and composition). Reported here is the demonstration of a fully integrated, wireless, wearable and flexible sweat sensing device for non-obtrusive and continuous monitoring of electrolytes during moderate to intense exertion as a metric for hydration status. The focus of this work is twofold: 1- design of a conformable fluidics systems to suit conditions of operation for sweat collection (to minimize sensor lag) with rapid removal of sweat from the sensing site (to minimize effects on sweat physiology). 2- integration of Na+ and K+ ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) with flexible microfluidics and low noise small footprint electronics components to enable wireless, wearable sweat monitoring. While this device is specific to electrolyte analysis during intense perspiration, the lessons in microfluidics and overall system design are likely applicable across a broad range of analytes.

A Six Sigma and DMAIC application for the reduction of defects in a rubber gloves manufacturing process

Abstract: Purpose – In this era of globalisation, as competition intensifies, providing quality products and services has become a competitive advantage and a need to ensure survival. The Six Sigma's problem-solving methodology DMAIC has been one of the several techniques used by organisations to improve the quality of their products and services. This paper aims to demonstrate the empirical application of Six Sigma and DMAIC to reduce product defects within a rubber gloves manufacturing organisation. Design/methodology/approach – The paper follows the DMAIC methodology to systematically investigate the root cause of defects and provide a solution to reduce/eliminate them. In particular, the design of experiments, hypothesis testing and two-way analysis of variance techniques were combined to statistically determine whether two key process variables, oven's temperature and conveyor's speed, had an impact on the number of defects produced, as well as to define their optimum values needed to reduce/eliminate the defe...