Western Electric Research Articles

Analysis of door-to-needle time for thrombolysis in acute ischaemic stroke using statistical process control charts

BackgroundThrombolysis should be administered as soon as possible to suitable patients with acute ischaemic stroke. We introduced a new protocol for patients who had a stroke to achieve reduced door-to-needle times for the best possible outcome. Since then, we have closely monitored each patient who had a stroke. Our goal was to assess whether statistical process control charts could be useful in detecting deviations in door-to-needle times when using four well-known rules applied by Western Electric (WE rules 1–4).MethodsWe analysed retrospectively door-to-needle times of together 200 acute ischaemic stroke patients before and after the implementation of our new stroke protocol. In addition, 25 patients at the time of reorganisation (transition period) were analysed. Statistical process control chart rules WE 1–WE 4 were applied to detect door-to-needle deviations and to monitor process uniformity.ResultsBefore the implementation of the protocol, median door-to-needle time was 53 min and after the implementation 20 min. Statistical process control chart rules were triggered only once in 100 patients before the reorganisation but seven times in 25 patients during the transition period. None of the rules WE 1–4 were activated after the reorganisation, indicating the stability of the reorganised acute ischaemic stroke process.ConclusionsThe use of statistical process control charts demonstrated a significant reduction in door-to-needle times during the reorganisation. Further, it showed that the acute ischaemic stroke process with a 20 min door-to-needle time is very stable.

Regulars - Archives. From the IET Archive. Who knew corporate pensions could be exciting?

On Friday 5 December 1919, the Western Electric Company held a pensions event for its employees, to inform them about its company scheme. The scheme was ahead of its time, and the company's approach to communications was also unusual.

“SNET Telephone Exhibit,”

The town of Orange is celebrating its bicentennial in 2022. In the digital age, it is easy to take for granted the availability of information via smart phones, the internet, applications, and social media. The Orange Historical Society (OHS) recently compiled and opened a unique exhibit which reminds viewers that the digital age owes much to the communication technology in the late-nineteenth century through the twentieth century. Located at the OHS's Academy Building in the town's historic district, the exhibit features examples of communication technology ranging from telegraphs and turn of the century candlestick to rotary dial phones and the equipment used by electric linemen.The OHS is active in the community hosting numerous local events including hearth cooking classes and viewings of the historic district and historic homes like the Stone Otis House on Orange Center Road. Like many historical societies in the state, the OHS takes tremendous pride in the preservation of public and local history. The pieces in this collection came from many donors including former linemen who parted with their old toolbelts and climbing equipment to contribute to the exhibit. This exhibit commemorates the legacy of the Southern New England Telephone (SNET) company. SNET was a major telecommunications company founded in 1878 and headquartered in New Haven. In a time before constant connectivity, SNET employed up to 10,000 workers in the state at any given time through the twentieth century and provided telecommunications services to the residents of New Haven County including the town of Orange. New Haven was even home to one of the first telephone exchanges in the 1890s.The exhibit includes nineteen original pieces including telephones used in both the homes of Connecticut residents and in various workplaces in the state. The collection also contains vintage corded phones, nostalgic reminders of the phones on kitchen walls in suburban homes and city apartments alike, in a variety of bright and unique colors. There are no replicas or reproductions in this collection, all the pieces are originals and well-preserved. Some of the older pieces in the collection include three telegraphs, the oldest of which was manufactured by Western Electric Telegraph Key and Sound in 1892 and another that was used in Scobie's Store on Orange Center Road at the turn of the twentieth century. Organized in chronological order by year, the observer walks through nearly a century of telecommunications history, crossing the threshold from candlestick and rotary style telephones to the wall phones manufactured by Western Electric intended for use on the railroads in the state. In addition to Western Electric, the collection includes examples of telephones manufactured for home and office use through the twentieth century by Bell, Leich, and Kellogg. At the center of the exhibit rests a Bell System Desk Set from 1950 used by the Fire Department. The exhibit conveys the memory of SNET as an important business in Connecticut by blending the phones with photographs that tell the stories of SNET employees in the twentieth century.Honoring the legacy of SNET in Connecticut also meant honoring the hardworking employees. Photographs of telephone operators and electric linemen working in New Haven County, like chief operator Clara Cade in 1913 and operator Mary Pucillo in 1920, provide snapshots of a time when connectivity was an emerging labor requiring complex service. The equipment used by the electric linemen including their toolbelts, harnesses, and helmets indicate the tremendously difficult and strenuous work it took to keep Connecticut homes and businesses connected.The exhibit was built by OHS leaders Ginny Reinhard, Michelle Stannard, and Barbara Carbone. OHS opened the exhibit on May 13, 2022, and is a permanent, and growing, exhibit in the OHS's collection. The telephones alone are examples of public history nostalgia and provide the observer with a moment to reflect on how far communications have come. The unique wall phones from Leich, Western Electric, and Kellogg represent early forms of communication for workers in the railroads, emphasizing the connection between telecommunications and industry in the twentieth century. Lovers of public history and the memory of twentieth-century telecommunications alike will be transported to an era of communications history that enabled the digital age we live in today.

Multivariate control charts for mean vector and covariance matrix with supplementary runs rules

The Shewhart control chart developed to statistically control the production process is not implemented in the actual process. It is simple and has the advantage of effectively detecting large shifts. But it is not effective in small shifts. To compensate for this, there are many several methods. In 1956, Western Electric Company presented a control chart with runs-rules added. In this paper, to compensate for the shortcomings of traditional Shewhart charts, we propose a chart for monitoring the mean vector and covariance matrix using runs rules proposed by Western Electric Company. In the run length distribution of the control chart to which the finite Markov chain embedding method and run rule were applied, it was confirmed that the mean of the run length rapidly decreased even with a small shift of the mean vector and covariance matrix. It is sensitive to small shifts. Therefore, it can be seen that the Shewhart control chart using runs rules in the production process is effective in detecting small fluctuations.

Real-time burst detection based on multiple features of pressure data

Abstract Pipe bursts are an essential issue for water loss in water distribution systems. This study proposes a real-time burst detection method that combines multiple data features of multiple time steps. The method sets burst thresholds in three dimensions according to different moments at a specific monitoring point, and achieves burst identification based on a classification model. First, three data features, namely, absolute pressure value, predicted deviation value obtained by pressure variation value, of historical pressure at each time step are scored based on the Western Electric Company rules. The scores represent different abnormalities. Then, the scores corresponding to the three features are used as input of the decision tree classification model. The trained model is used for detecting burst events. Results show that this method achieves 99.56% detection accuracy, indicating that it is effective for burst detection. The proposed method outperformed the single-feature-based method and provides good results in water distribution systems.

33⅓ rpm

33⅓ rpm

Detecting selected non-random patterns with individuals control charts

Western Electric (1956) and Nelson (1984) proposed rule sets to detect visually obvious process upsets on a control chart. Performance evaluation of these rules require simulating situations that correspond to their intended detection purposes such as linear drift, cycling, seesaw and sustained process mean shifts. These non-random process patterns become visually obvious in the presence of reduced variation. Contrary to previous assessments where variance is assumed constant, Western Electric and Nelson rule sets are shown to be preferred over Shewhart X and CUSUM charts for detecting non-random patterns of process mean in the presence of variance reduction over wide ranges of slopes, cycle period/amplitude combinations, alternating shift and sustained shift sizes. One real-data example from Deming's book Out of the Crisis is provided that affirms implications of extensive simulation analyses.

Coming together after a tragedy: how the S.S. Eastland disaster of 1915 affected welfare capitalism and helped shape the Hawthorne studies

Purpose This paper aims to conduct a historical study using both primary (archival data) and secondary sources to evaluate the social conditions of the community of employees at Hawthorne Works between 1907 and 1933. Design/methodology/approach This paper evaluates the historical and social context of the 1915 Eastland disaster, specifically, the effects of the Eastland disaster on the community and the company to improve understanding of the contextual background and conditions which influenced the Hawthorne studies. This will also serve as a case study of crisis management. Findings The findings of the paper argue that the Eastland disaster likely contributed to the expansion of welfare capitalism practices by Western Electric in the 1920s–1930s and established the social and communal conditions which made the Hawthorne studies (1924–1933) possible. Originality/value Rather than evaluating the Hawthorne studies themselves, this paper focuses on social factors which made the Hawthorne Works plant site and the community serving it an ideal locale to host the famous studies as part of Western Electric’s practice of welfare capitalism and a distraction from the traumatic event which scarred the community and urged the Western Electric company to react. This study also provides an early example of crisis management.

The Bell Versus Gray Telephone Dispute: Resolving a 144-Year-Old Controversy [Scanning Our Past

On March 7, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was granted U.S. Patent No. 174,465 for the speaking telegraph, or telephone, one of the most valuable patents in history. Attorneys for Bell and Elisha Gray had submitted their respective ideas for the telephone to the U.S. Patent Office three weeks earlier, incredibly, on the same day, “Valentine’s Day, February 14.” (The year 1876 should be assumed hereafter unless otherwise designated.) Gray was a successful inventor and cofounder of Western Electric Manufacturing Company, whereas Bell was a part-time inventor, a part-time private speech teacher for the deaf, and a teacher of elocution at Boston University. Bell’s submission was a full patent application, however Gray’s was a caveat, a document designed to protect an idea for one year, with a full application required within that time. If filed before a competing patent application, a caveat could lead to an expensive and prolonged Patent Office interference hearing to determine which inventor conceived of the idea first. Although both submissions contained similar descriptions of a liquid telephone transmitter (an early microphone), the Patent Office ruled that Bell’s attorneys had filed a few hours before Gray’s on February 14, and hence the patent was granted to Bell.

The MMPI factor scales and risk of death in men during 45 years of follow-up: The Western Electric study.

We examined associations between personality traits measured in 1958 and both all-cause and cause-specific mortality assessed 45 years later in 2003. Participants were 1,862 middle-aged men employed by the Western Electric Company. Outcomes were days to death from all causes, coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer, and causes other than circulatory diseases, cancer, accidents/homicide/suicides, or injuries (other causes). Measures in 1958 included age, education, health behaviors, biomedical risk factors, and nine content factors identified in the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Four content factors-neuroticism, cynicism, extraversion, and intellectual interests-were related to the five-factor model domains of neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, and openness, respectively. The remaining five-psychoticism, masculinity versus femininity, religious orthodoxy, somatic complaints, and inadequacy-corresponded to the five-factor model's facets and styles (combinations of two domains) or were unrelated to the five-factor model. In age-adjusted and fully adjusted models, cynicism was associated with greater all-cause and cancer mortality. In fully adjusted models, inadequacy was associated with lower all-cause mortality and lower mortality from other causes. In age-adjusted models, religious orthodoxy was associated with lower cancer mortality. Further analyses revealed that the association between cynicism and all-cause mortality waned over time. Exploratory analyses of death from any disease of the circulatory system revealed no further associations. These findings reveal the importance of cynicism (disagreeableness) as a mortality risk factor, show that associations between cynicism and all-cause mortality are limited to certain periods of the lifespan, and highlight the need to study personality styles or types, such as inadequacy, that involve high neuroticism, low extraversion, and low conscientiousness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

We Stand on the Shoulders of Giants—Pioneers of Statistics in Industry

Industrial statistics has a rich and proud heritage. The field was initiated in the 1920s and picked up steam in the 1950s with the establishment of industrial statistics groups in several companies including American Cyanamid, DuPont, General Electric, Kodak, Western Electric, Procter and Gamble, General Foods, and 3M. It can be argued that we are in the third generation of the development of the profession. Indeed we are standing on the shoulders of giants. Several pioneering industrial statistics organizations are profiled in this article. The focus is on the roots of the organizations, the people involved and their contributions to their employers, advancements in the field and the development of the profession. Synthesis of this information provides some unique insights into who we are, what we have accomplished, and the needs and opportunities of the future.

Sense and sensibility: on the diagnostic value of control chart rules for detection of shifts in time series data

BackgroundThe aim of this study was to quantify and compare the diagnostic value of The Western Electric (WE) statistical process control (SPC) chart rules and the Anhoej rules for detection of non-random variation in time series data in order to make recommendations for their application in practice.MethodsSPC charts are point-and-line graphs showing a measure over time and employing statistical tests for identification of non-random variation.In this study we used simulated time series data with and without non-random variation introduced as shifts in process centre over time. The primary outcome was likelihood ratios of combined tests. Likelihood ratios are useful measures of a test’s ability to discriminate between the true presence or absence of a specific condition.ResultsWith short data series (10 data points), the WE rules 1–4 combined and the Anhoej rules alone or combined with WE rule 1 perform well for identifying or excluding persistent shifts in the order of 2 SD. For longer data series, the Anhoej rules alone or in combination with the WE rule 1 seem to perform slightly better than the WE rules combined.However, the choice of which and how many rules to apply in a given situation should be made deliberately depending on the specific purpose of the SPC analysis and the number of available data points.ConclusionsBased on these results and our own practical experience, we suggest a stepwise approach to SPC analysis: Start with a run chart using the Anhoej rules and with the median as process centre. If, and only if, the process shows random variation at the desired level, apply the 3-sigma rule in addition to the Anhoej rules using the mean as process centre.

The riddle of adaptation: Revisiting the Hawthorne studies

This article explores the Hawthorne studies, an industrial research programme conducted at Western Electric Company from 1924 to 1933. The analysis focuses on the longest-running experiment, in which female workers in their twenties operated a relay assembly in a room specially designed for the experiment and were monitored by a group of engineers and industrial researchers. Based on the authoritarian setting, this research situates the experiment in the wider history of making workers through complex systems of value attributions, such as classifications and technologies of characterisation. However, examination of previous research and accounts of the Hawthorne studies suggests that the relay assembly test was also an ambivalent research setting characterised by negotiations and strategies which converged into the dynamics of knowing and being known. This article thus offers a new critical perspective on the experiment by regarding the operators as active players in an industrial labour process game rather than cooperative, adaptive laboratory subjects.

Phyllis M. Tookey Kerridge and the science of audiometric standardization in Britain.

The provision of standardized hearing aids is now considered to be a crucial part of the UK National Health Service. Yet this is only explicable through reference to the career of a woman who has, until now, been entirely forgotten. Dr Phyllis Margaret Tookey Kerridge (1901-1940) was an authoritative figure in a variety of fields: medicine, physiology, otology and the construction of scientific apparatus. The astounding breadth of her professional qualifications allowed her to combine features of these fields and, later in her career, to position herself as a specialist to shape the discipline of audiometry. Rather than framing Kerridge in the classic 'heroic-woman' narrative, in this article we draw out the complexities of her career by focusing on her pursuit of standardization of hearing tests. Collaboration afforded her the necessary networks to explore the intricacies of accuracy in the measurement of hearing acuity, but her influence was enhanced by her ownership of Britain's first Western Electric (pure-tone) audiometer, which she placed in a specially designed and unique 'silence room'. The room became the centre of Kerridge's hearing aid clinic that, for the first time, allowed people to access free and impartial advice on hearing aid prescription. In becoming the guardian expert and advocate of the audiometer, Kerridge achieved an objectively quantified approach to hearing loss that eventually made the latter an object of technocratic intervention.

Negative Feedback, Amplifiers, Governors, and More [Historical

The invention of the negative feedback amplifier by Harold S. Black (1898-1983) in 1928 is considered one of the great achievements in electronics. In fact, it is listed among the IEEE Milestones, where it is credited to Bell Labs. Black was hired by Western Electric in 1921 and assigned to work on the Type C system, a newly introduced three-channel telephone network whose push-pull, vacuum-tube, repeater amplifiers produce too much harmonic distortion when connected in tandem [1]. At that time, telephone networks were spreading, and Bell Labs emerged quickly as the major research company in the telephone industry. The extension of lines over long distances required counteracting signal attenuation, which occurred, though at a reduced level, even in lines provided with Pupin's loading coils, which discretely increased the line longitudinal inductance L so as to match the Heaviside condition L/R=C/G for distortionless transmission (R being the longitudinal resistance and C and G the transverse capacitance and conductance, respectively).

When It's Time to Upgrade: HVdc and FACTS Renovation in the Western Power System

The western United States and Canada, bounded roughly by the Continental Divide and the Pacific Ocean and Mexico, form a large interconnected power system overseen by the Western Electric Coordinating Council (WECC). This interconnected system of approximately 210,000 MW has five high-voltage dc (HVdc) transmission systems dating from 1970 to 2014. Two new HVdc transmission schemes have been completed recently in Alberta, and several HVdc lines are being planned for the southwest to move power to southern California. There are also eight back-to-back converters that tie the western system to the eastern interconnection and to Texas. Other power electronic installations include a number of large transmission scale static var converters (SVCs) and two thyristor controlled series capacitors (TCSCs). These installations date from 1970, when the Vancouver Island HVdc transmission was installed.

ECS Classics: Making the Phone System More Reliable: Battery Research at Bell Labs

Underlying the evolution of the telecommunications network and the communications system of AT&T, research played a key role by bringing together the evolving technical needs and opportunities with experimental science and applications. Research in electrochemistry is an example of the work done at Bell Laboratories that was informed by real work problems while contributing to our basic knowledge of materials and processing. As Albert M. Clogston, Executive Director-Research, Physics, and Academic Affairs Division, Bell Laboratories, November, 1981 wrote in the volume of A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System, “the mission of Bell Labs [was] to supply the technology the Bell System need[ed] to do its job in the long term as well as in the short term.”1 Some context is needed as the telecommunications landscape has changed so dramatically from the system that developed following the invention of the telephone. Soon after the invention of a working telephone by Alexander Graham Bell, a large number of companies formed to offer phone services across the U.S. The Census of 1880 showed 148 telephone companies. Alexander Graham Bell and two investors, Gardiner Hubbard and Thomas Sanders, formed the Bell Telephone Company, which in few years became the American Bell Telephone Company, which also acquired interest in a manufacturing unit, the Western Electric Company. The enterprise became collectively known as the Bell System. The American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) was incorporated on March 3, 1885 as a wholly owned subsidiary of American Bell. AT&T acquired a controlling interest in Western Electric, a key supplier of telephone equipment, in 1882. Eventually, many of the companies providing telephone service in the U.S. were acquired into the AT&T network, which came to be operated as a regulated monopoly. As AT&T built its telecommunications network, essentially a large analog telephony system in the first decades, brand new technologies were invented that we take for granted and are widely commercially available today. As large segments of communications network were deployed, attention turned increasingly more to exploration of promising fundamental areas of science. In 1925 4,000 scientists and engineers were dedicated fully to research in the newly created Bell Telephone Laboratories. Among the technologies that came out of Bell Labs research (and, of course, research at other industrial, governmental, and academic research organizations) were electroplating and related coating technologies, thin-film material, fundamental corrosion science, basic battery research, and an array of related fundamental research. Electrochemical processes were widely used in the manufacture of much of the equipment used in the Bell System. Indeed, much of the technology being utilized in the Bell System was based on the physics and chemistry of materials. Additionally, electrochemical processes, especially corrosion and tarnishing, were important degradation mechanisms for the equipment making up the system. Further, backup energy systems based on battery technology provided the reliability that the Bell System advertised to its customers and its regulators. Research on Batteries That Provided Reliability to the Bell System

Identification of Dynamic Equivalents of Active Distribution Networks through MVMO

Abstract: This paper introduces an approach for determining the parameters of aggregated dynamic equivalents for active distribution system from a reference set of signals associated with various disturbances using mean-variance mapping optimization (MVMO) algorithm. As the penetration of renewable energy sources in the LV and MV network increases, it has become extremely important that we have models that mimic actual system response with least computational overhead for bulk transmission system studies. Full scale detailed, complex, interconnected models are most accurate but carry significant simulation time, making analysis unfeasible. Dynamic equivalents (DE) are simplified representations of larger models that mimic the dynamic response of those models. They can be used to replace the neighbor area in a study while the area of focus is modeled with great detail. This reduces the computational burden. Our test system is a small part of the German MV/LV network whose dynamic equivalent is identified and compared. The dynamic equivalent is a Western Electric Coordination Council (WECC) developed distributed PV model (PVD1). This identification is done with the use of MVMO algorithm that utilizes a single parent crossover and a unique mapping function. The results show an almost identical response with good normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) between the detailed and aggregated model. The MVMO shows fast convergence and accurate results.

And now this...

In the 1960s, AT&T and its manufacturing subsidiary, Western Electric Co., became convinced that the next big thing would be a video telephone on every desk. With great fanfare, AT&T launched the first Picturephone service in 1970, confidently predicting a million sets in use within the decade. But the offering was a spectacular flop. Its failure can be variously attributed to networking issues (it only worked if the person you were calling also had one); high cost (a lease was US $160 a month-about $970 in today's dollars); and, most damning, general dislike. The Picturephone was, by default, always on, and people just did not want to be seen all the time.

Elastic Scaling of Cloud Application Performance Based on Western Electric Rules by Injection of Aspect-oriented Code

Abstract The main benefit of cloud computing lies in the elasticity of virtual resources that are provided to end users. Cloud users do not have to pay fixed hardware costs and are charged for consumption of computing resources only. While this might be an improvement for software developers who use the cloud, application users and consumers might rather be interested in paying for application performance than resource consumption. However there is little effort on providing elasticity based on performance goals instead of resource consumption. In this paper an autoscaling method is presented which aims at providing increased application performance as it is demanded by consumers. Elastic scaling is based on “statistical process monitoring and control” and “Western Electric rules”. By demonstrating the architecture of the autoscaling method and providing performance measurements gathered in an OpenStack cloud environment, we show how the injection of aspect-oriented code into cloud applications allows for improving application performance by automatically adapting the underlying virtual environment to pre-defined performance goals. The effectiveness of the autoscaling method is verified by an experiment with a test program which shows that the program executes in only half of the time which is required if no autoscaling capabilities are provided.