Feedback tools

Are assessment results communicated to senior management for their use in making informed determinations Do managers routinely use feedback tools, such as performance indicators, reviews, debriefs, and lessons learned ... 

They can be used as a feedback tool to discuss the strengths and areas of concern in relation to safety. 

Performance management requires that consequences are first analysed and then restructured to encourage the preferred (safe) behaviours. The chart demonstrating the improvement in the percentage of safe behaviours is a feedback tool demonstrating the gains made. 

It s easy to see WPBAs as a tick-box exercise, and if you treat them like that, that s all they ll ever be. The word assessment is a bit of a red herring whilst they ve assessment elements, WPBAs are most important as feedback tools. Good feedback is the most effective way to develop your knowledge, skills and attitude as a doctor. To make the most of WPBAs ... 

In the majority of practical finite element simulations the mesh generation is conducted in conjunction with an interactive graphics tool to allow feedback and continuous monitoring of the computational grid. 

User feedback should be obtained periodically, not just at the time of installation. As users gain familiarity with PSM systems, they may identify potential system breakdown points and improvement opportunities. In addition, evaluation of trends in the responses from survey to survey can help to Identify areas needing improvement and measure your success in improving systems. Where user survey responses suggest an improvement opportunity, you should involve those users in defining the opporhmity and in its analysis. The tools of Total Quality Management can be veiy useful in this effort. 

Don t rely on informal customer feedback. Deliberately seek out feedback using a structured and professionally designed survey tool. 

The use of hydraulic systems for the setting, operation and control of machine tools has increased significantly. Hydraulic mechanisms being inter-linked with electronic controls and/or feedback control systems. In machine tools, hydraulic systems have the advantage of providing stepless and vibration-less transfer of power. They are particularly suitable for the linear movement of tables and slideways, to which a hydraulic piston may be directly coupled. 

Third, teaching practices might also be a factor that affects the effectiveness of multimedia tools. When using technological tools, students could benefit more from teachers who provide timely feedback, articulate expectations, model desired activities, and solve technical problems (Hoffman, Wu, Krajcik, Soloway, 2003). 

A further insight is that the best workflow depends on a combination of factors that can in many cases be expressed in closed mathematical form, allowing very rapid graphical feedback to users of what then becomes a visualization rather than a stochastic simulation tool. This particular approach is effective for simple binary comparisons of methods (e.g., use of in vitro alone vs. in silico as prefilter to in vitro). It can also be extended to evaluation of conditional sequencing for groups of compounds, using an extension of the sentinel approach [24]. 

Future medical training, diagnosis and - even surgical - treatment will increasingly be performed remotely. Thus, the combination of sophisticated sensory devices with advanced micro-manipulation equipment will, together with 3D interactive feedback models, provide new tools and approaches for the medical profession. 

Clinical trials are costly to conduct, and results are often critical to the commercial viability of a phytochemical product. Seemingly minor decisions, such as which measurement tool to use or a single entry criterion, can produce thousands of dollars in additional costs. Likewise, a great deal of time, effort and money can be saved by having experts review the study protocol to provide feedback regarding ways to improve efficiency, reduce subject burden and insure that the objectives are being met in the most scientifically sound and cost-effective manner possible. In particular, I recommend that an expert statistician is consulted regarding sample size and power and that the assumptions used in these calculations are reviewed carefully with one or more clinicians. It is not uncommon to see two studies with very similar objectives, which vary by two-fold in the number of subjects under study. Often this can be explained by differences in the assumptions employed in the sample size calculations. 

At Novartis, so-called BioavailabiUty Radar Plots [44] are used to visually display the oral absorption potential of molecules. On these plots five important calculated descriptors (log P, molecular weight, PSA, number of rotatable bonds and water solubility score [45]) are displayed on the axes of a pentagonal radar plot and compared with predefined property limits (green area) which were determined by the analysis of marketed oral drugs. These plots provide an intuitive tool that displays multiple parameters as a single chart in a straightforward but informative way, providing visual feedback about the molecule s bioavailabiUty potential (Fig. 5.5). 

The state space state feedback gain (K2) related to the output variable C2 is the same as the proportional gain obtained with root locus. Given any set of closed-loop poles, we can find the state feedback gain of a controllable system using state-space pole placement methods. The use of root locus is not necessary, but it is a handy tool that we can take advantage of. 

Figure M5.3. A sample negative feedback closed-loop generated within Simulink. This servo system has a first order process function and uses a PID controller. The output is sent to a graphing tool for plotting.

The tool supports a very flexible block diagram as shown in Fig. M6.1. The import dialog box handles all F, G, and H. The feedback can be either positive or negative. 

Unlike catecholamines and indoleamines, histamine itself is not a direct inhibitor of its biosynthetic enzyme, but it exerts feedback control through the H3 autoreceptor. Perhaps the most powerful tool in the study of the histamine system is S-a-fluoromethylhistidine, a highly selective and potent suicide inhibitor of HDC [22]. This compound has been used successfully to study many of the functions of histamine in brain. 

Integrating chemical analysis methods and physical sensors with microreactors enables monitoring of reaction conditions and composition. This ability renders instrumented microreactors powerful tools for determining chemical kinetics and identifying optimal conditions for chemical reactions. The latter can be achieved by automated feedback-controlled optimization of reaction conditions, which greatly reduces time and materials costs associated with the development of chemical synthesis procedures. 

In Chap. 15 we reviewed a tittle matrix mathematics and notation. Now that the tools are available, we will apply them in this chapter to the analysis of multivariable processes. Our primary concern is with closedloop systems. Given a process with its matrix of openloop transfer functions, we want to be able to see the effects of using various feedback controllers. Therefore we must be able to find out if the entire closedloop multivariable system is stable. And if it is stable, we want to know how stable it is. The last question considers the robustness of the controller, i.e., the tolerance of the controller to changes in parameters. If the system becomes unstable for small changes in process gains, time constants, or deadtimes, the controller is not robust. 

We developed the mathematical tool of z transformation in the last chapter. Now we are ready to apply it to analyze the dynamics of sampled-data systems. Our primary task is to design sampled-data feedback controllers for these systems. We will explore the very important impact of sampling period 7 on these designs. 

Here, a control law for chemical reactors had been proposed. The controller was designed from compensation/estimation of the heat reaction in exothermic reactor. In particular, the paper is focused on the isoparafhn/olefin alkylation in STRATCO reactors. It should be noted that control design from heat compensation leads to controllers with same structure than nonlinear feedback. This fact can allow to exploit formal mathematical tools from nonlinear control theory. Moreover, the estimation scheme yields in a linear controller. Thus, the interpretation for heat compensation/estimation is simple in the context of process control. 

A. Teel and L. Praly. Tools for semiglobal stabilization by partial state and output feedback. SIAM J. Control Optim., 33(5) 1443-1488, 1995. 

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