• International Journal of Reliability and Applications
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.27-39
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• 2006

Many real world cases in material failure analysis do not follow perfectly the normal distribution. Forcing of the normality assumption may lead to inaccurate predictions and poor product quality. We examine the failure process of the internal bond (IB or tensile strength) of medium density fiberboard (MDF). We propose a forced censoring technique that closer fits the lower tails of strength distributions and better estimates extremely smaller percentiles, which may be valuable to continuous quality improvement initiatives. Further analyses are performed to build an accelerated common-shaped Weibull model for different product types using the $JMP^{(R)}$ Survival and Reliability platform. In this paper, a forced censoring technique is implemented for the first time as a software module, using $JMP^{(R)}$ Scripting Language (JSL) to expedite data processing, which is crucial for real-time manufacturing settings. Also, we use JSL to automate the task of fitting an accelerated Weibull model and testing model homogeneity in the shape parameter. Finally, a package script is written to readily provide field engineers customized reporting for model visualization, parameter estimation, and percentile forecasting. Our approach may be more accurate for product conformance evaluation, plus help reduce the cost of destructive testing and data management due to reduced frequency of testing. It may also be valuable for preventing field failure and improved product safety even when destructive testing is not reduced by yielding higher precision intervals at the same confidence level.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.97-108
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• 2019

An automated Praat script was implemented to measure optimal formant frequencies for adults. Optimal formant analysis could be interpreted to show that the deviation of formant frequency that resulted from the two variously combined setting parameters (maximum formant and number of formants) was minimal. To increase the reliability of formant analysis, LPC order should be set differently, based on the gender or vowel type. Praat recommends 5,000 Hz and 5,500 Hz as maximum formant settings and, at the same time, recommends 5 as the number of formants for males and females. However, verification is needed to determine whether these recommended settings are valid for Korean vowels. Statistical analysis showed that formant frequencies significantly varied across the adapted scripts, especially with respect to the data on females. Formant plots and statistical results showed that linear_script and qtone_script are much more reliable in formant measurements. Among four kinds of scripts, the linear and qtone_scripts proved to be more stable and reliable. While the linear_script was designed to have a linearly increased formant step in for-loop, the increment of formant step in the qtone_script was arranged by quarter tone scale (base frequency×common ratio ($\sqrt[24]{2}$)). When looking at the tendency of the formant setting drawn by the two referred algorithms in the context of front vowel [i, e], the maximum formant was set higher; and the number of formants set at a lower value than recommended by Praat. The back vowel [o, u], on the contrary, has a lower maximum formant and a higher number of formants than the standard setting.