Towards an integrated quality control procedure for eddy-covariance data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vitale, Domenico; Papale, Dario

2017-04-01

The eddy-covariance technique is nowadays the most reliable and direct way, allowing to calculate the main fluxes of Sensible and Latent Heat and of Net Ecosystem Exchange, this last being the result of the difference between the CO2 assimilated by photosynthetic activities and those released to the atmosphere through the ecosystem respiration processes. Despite the improvements in accuracy of measurement instruments and software development, the eddy-covariance technique is not suitable under non-ideal conditions respect to the instruments characteristics and the physical assumption behind the technique mainly related to the well-developed and stationary turbulence conditions. Under these conditions the calculated fluxes are not reliable and need to be flagged and discarded. In order to discover these unavoidable "bad" fluxes and build dataset with the highest quality, several tests applied both on high-frequency (10-20 Hz) raw data and on half-hourly times series have been developed in the past years. Nevertheless, there is an increasing need to develop a standardized quality control procedure suitable not only for the analysis of long-term data, but also for the near-real time data processing. In this paper, we review established quality assessment procedures and present an innovative quality control strategy with the purpose of integrating the existing consolidated procedures with robust and advanced statistical tests more suitable for the analysis of time series data. The performance of the proposed quality control strategy is evaluated both on simulated and EC data distributed by the ICOS research infrastructure. It is concluded that the proposed strategy is able to flag and exclude unrealistic fluxes while being reproducible and retaining the largest possible amount of high quality data.

Quality assurance and gastrointestinal endoscopy: an audit of 500 colonoscopic procedures.

PubMed

Denis, Bernard; Weiss, Anne-Marie; Peter, André; Bottlaender, Jacques; Chiappa, Pascale

2004-12-01

The aim of this study was to assess the quality of colonoscopic procedures in our endoscopy unit with the goal of improving performance. We prospectively audited 500 consecutive colonoscopic procedures and assessed sixty-two process or outcome indicators for each procedure. Most of the measured indicators were within standard limits: cecal intubation rate (92%), inadequate bowel preparations (24%), inappropriate procedures (9.7%), normal procedures (54%), yield for neoplasia (32%), morbidity (0.4%), and overall patient satisfaction (95.8%). Some indicators were outside standard limits suggesting our practices should be modified: endoscopy withdrawal time less than 6 minutes (78%), forceps removal of polyps (31%), resected polyps not recovered for pathological examination (12%), adenomas with villous elements (22%), patients unsatisfied because of time spent waiting for the procedure (19%), patients unsatisfied because of inadequate explanations (10%). There was no standard for a few indicators: patient discomfort (6.9%), diagnostic success (89%), therapeutic success (92%). Three new indicators were proposed: proportion of patients aged<50 years, number of normal colonoscopic procedures to perform to detect one advanced adenoma or cancer, and proportion of colonoscopic procedures causing discomfort. The diagnostic yield of colonoscopy was dependent on age, gender, indication and appropriateness of indication but not on the prescriber. This audit allowed us to evaluate our endoscopic practices and to detect certain shortcomings and deviations from standards. It enabled us to change some of our practices with the goal of improving the quality of our colonoscopic procedures.

Improving the safety and quality of nursing care through standardized operating procedures in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

PubMed

Ausserhofer, Dietmar; Rakic, Severin; Novo, Ahmed; Dropic, Emira; Fisekovic, Eldin; Sredic, Ana; Van Malderen, Greet

2016-06-01

We explored how selected 'positive deviant' healthcare facilities in Bosnia and Herzegovina approach the continuous development, adaptation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of nursing-related standard operating procedures. Standardized nursing care is internationally recognized as a critical element of safe, high-quality health care; yet very little research has examined one of its key instruments: nursing-related standard operating procedures. Despite variability in Bosnia and Herzegovina's healthcare and nursing care quality, we assumed that some healthcare facilities would have developed effective strategies to elevate nursing quality and safety through the use of standard operating procedures. Guided by the 'positive deviance' approach, we used a multiple-case study design to examine a criterion sample of four facilities (two primary healthcare centres and two hospitals), collecting data via focus groups and individual interviews. In each studied facility, certification/accreditation processes were crucial to the initiation of continuous development, adaptation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of nursing-related SOPs. In one hospital and one primary healthcare centre, nurses working in advanced roles (i.e. quality coordinators) were responsible for developing and implementing nursing-related standard operating procedures. Across the four studied institutions, we identified a consistent approach to standard operating procedures-related processes. The certification/accreditation process is enabling necessary changes in institutions' organizational cultures, empowering nurses to take on advanced roles in improving the safety and quality of nursing care. Standardizing nursing procedures is key to improve the safety and quality of nursing care. Nursing and Health Policy are needed in Bosnia and Herzegovina to establish a functioning institutional framework, including regulatory bodies, educational systems for developing nurses' capacities or the

Systematic reviews of surgical procedures in children: quantity, coverage and quality.

PubMed

McGee, Richard G; Craig, Jonathan C; Rogerson, Thomas E; Webster, Angela C

2013-04-01

Systematic reviews have the potential to map those areas where children are under-represented in surgical research. We aimed to describe and evaluate the quantity, coverage and the quality of conduct and reporting of systematic reviews of surgical procedures in children. We searched four biomedical databases, a systematic review register, reference lists and conducted hand searching to identify relevant reviews. Two reviewers worked independently to critically appraise included studies and abstract data. We assessed reporting quality using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis statement and methodological quality using the Assessment of Multiple SysTemAtic Reviews tool. Fifteen systematic reviews were identified, representing 0.01% of all paediatric surgical citations in MEDLINE and Embase. Thirteen of the reviews were Cochrane reviews, and most reviews (12/15) addressed subspecialty interests such as otorhinolaryngology. The median number of included trials per systematic review was four (interquartile range 1 to 9.5), the median number of primary outcomes was 5.5 (interquartile range 3.5 to 7.5). In general, reporting and methodological quality was good although there were several omissions, particularly around completeness of reporting of statistical methods used, and utilisation of quality assessments in analyses. Outcomes were often not clearly defined and descriptions of procedures lacked sufficient detail to determine the similarities and differences among surgical procedures within the contributing trials. Systematic reviews of surgical procedures in children are rarely published. To improve the evidence base and guide research agendas, more systematic reviews should be conducted, using standard guidelines for conduct and reporting. © 2013 The Authors. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health © 2013 Paediatrics and Child Health Division (Royal Australasian College of Physicians).

Post-procedural evaluation of catheter contact force characteristics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koch, Martin; Brost, Alexander; Kiraly, Atilla; Strobel, Norbert; Hornegger, Joachim

2012-03-01

Minimally invasive catheter ablation of electric foci, performed in electrophysiology labs, is an attractive treatment option for atrial fibrillation (AF) - in particular if drug therapy is no longer effective or tolerated. There are different strategies to eliminate the electric foci inducing the arrhythmia. Independent of the particular strategy, it is essential to place transmural lesions. The impact of catheter contact force on the generated lesion quality has been investigated recently, and first results are promising. There are different approaches to measure catheter-tissue contact. Besides traditional haptic feedback, there are new technologies either relying on catheter tip-to-tissue contact force or on local impedance measurements at the tip of the catheter. In this paper, we present a novel tool for post-procedural ablation point evaluation and visualization of contact force characteristics. Our method is based on localizing ablation points set during AF ablation procedures. The 3-D point positions are stored together with lesion specific catheter contact force (CF) values recorded during the ablation. The force records are mapped to the spatial 3-D positions, where the energy has been applied. The tracked positions of the ablation points can be further used to generate a 3-D mesh model of the left atrium (LA). Since our approach facilitates visualization of different force characteristics for post-procedural evaluation and verification, it has the potential to improve outcome by highlighting areas where lesion quality may be less than desired.

40 CFR Appendix C to Part 61 - Quality Assurance Procedures

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 8 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Quality Assurance Procedures C Appendix C to Part 61 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS...—Quality Assurance Procedures Procedure 1—Determination of Adequate Chromatographic Peak Resolution In this...

Image processing system performance prediction and product quality evaluation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stein, E. K.; Hammill, H. B. (Principal Investigator)

1976-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. A new technique for image processing system performance prediction and product quality evaluation was developed. It was entirely objective, quantitative, and general, and should prove useful in system design and quality control. The technique and its application to determination of quality control procedures for the Earth Resources Technology Satellite NASA Data Processing Facility are described.

34 CFR 300.304 - Evaluation procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... Educational Placements Evaluations and Reevaluations § 300.304 Evaluation procedures. (a) Notice. The public... conducting the evaluation, the public agency must— (1) Use a variety of assessment tools and strategies to... evaluation procedures. Each public agency must ensure that— (1) Assessments and other evaluation materials...

34 CFR 300.304 - Evaluation procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... Placements Evaluations and Reevaluations § 300.304 Evaluation procedures. (a) Notice. The public agency must... evaluation, the public agency must— (1) Use a variety of assessment tools and strategies to gather relevant... procedures. Each public agency must ensure that— (1) Assessments and other evaluation materials used to...

Guidelines and standard procedures for continuous water-quality monitors: Station operation, record computation, and data reporting

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wagner, Richard J.; Boulger, Robert W.; Oblinger, Carolyn J.; Smith, Brett A.

2006-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey uses continuous water-quality monitors to assess the quality of the Nation's surface water. A common monitoring-system configuration for water-quality data collection is the four-parameter monitoring system, which collects temperature, specific conductance, dissolved oxygen, and pH data. Such systems also can be configured to measure other properties, such as turbidity or fluorescence. Data from sensors can be used in conjunction with chemical analyses of samples to estimate chemical loads. The sensors that are used to measure water-quality field parameters require careful field observation, cleaning, and calibration procedures, as well as thorough procedures for the computation and publication of final records. This report provides guidelines for site- and monitor-selection considerations; sensor inspection and calibration methods; field procedures; data evaluation, correction, and computation; and record-review and data-reporting processes, which supersede the guidelines presented previously in U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report WRIR 00-4252. These procedures have evolved over the past three decades, and the process continues to evolve with newer technologies.

HANDBOOK: QUALITY ASSURANCE/QUALITY CONTROL (QA/QC) PROCEDURES FOR HAZARDOUS WASTE INCINERATION

EPA Science Inventory

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act regulations for hazardous waste incineration require trial burns by permit applicants. uality Assurance Project Plan (QAPjP) must accompany a trial burn plan with appropriate quality assurance/quality control procedures. uidance on the prepa...

The implementation of a quality assurance procedure for the Veterinary Services of France.

PubMed

Gerster, F; Guerson, N; Moreau, V; Mulnet, O; Provot, S; Salabert, C

2003-08-01

Due to the increasing complexity of food production systems and the concerns that these systems raise, there has been increasing demand from the general public for more State control of these processes. In France, it is the official Veterinary Services who are responsible for food safety and who must respond to these demands. The Veterinary Service is formulating a quality assurance procedure in accordance with standard EN 45004-ISO 17020, which determines the requirements that inspection bodies must follow to be recognised, at national, European and international level, as competent and reliable. As part of this procedure, the Veterinary Service will review requirements in terms of organisation, functions, qualifications and resources. The progress of inspection service orders, from their conception by the Central Administration, to their implementation by decentralised services, must be carefully managed. It is essential that service orders be implemented effectively and systematically by using recognised methods and issuing adequate inspection reports. The training and qualifications of inspectors are very important: their skills must remain up-to-date so that there is always a network of qualified staff, that is, staff who have an understanding of production processes and who have recognised competences in terms of initial training, continuous professional development and adequate experience. The quality systems implemented will only meet expectations if they are continuously monitored by means of regular evaluations. For this reason, both internal and external audits are performed. These new practices contribute to establishing a basis for the improvement of internal evaluation. In order to facilitate the implementation of a quality assurance procedure for inspection services, several tools, that are linked with the information system of the government department responsible for food, are, or will be, at the disposal of the decentralised Veterinary Services, i

SFCHECK: a unified set of procedures for evaluating the quality of macromolecular structure-factor data and their agreement with the atomic model.

PubMed

Vaguine, A A; Richelle, J; Wodak, S J

1999-01-01

In this paper we present SFCHECK, a stand-alone software package that features a unified set of procedures for evaluating the structure-factor data obtained from X-ray diffraction experiments and for assessing the agreement of the atomic coordinates with these data. The evaluation is performed completely automatically, and produces a concise PostScript pictorial output similar to that of PROCHECK [Laskowski, MacArthur, Moss & Thornton (1993). J. Appl. Cryst. 26, 283-291], greatly facilitating visual inspection of the results. The required inputs are the structure-factor amplitudes and the atomic coordinates. Having those, the program summarizes relevant information on the deposited structure factors and evaluates their quality using criteria such as data completeness, structure-factor uncertainty and the optical resolution computed from the Patterson origin peak. The dependence of various parameters on the nominal resolution (d spacing) is also given. To evaluate the global agreement of the atomic model with the experimental data, the program recomputes the R factor, the correlation coefficient between observed and calculated structure-factor amplitudes and Rfree (when appropriate). In addition, it gives several estimates of the average error in the atomic coordinates. The local agreement between the model and the electron-density map is evaluated on a per-residue basis, considering separately the macromolecule backbone and side-chain atoms, as well as solvent atoms and heterogroups. Among the criteria are the normalized average atomic displacement, the local density correlation coefficient and the polymer chain connectivity. The possibility of computing these criteria using the omit-map procedure is also provided. The described software should be a valuable tool in monitoring the refinement procedure and in assessing structures deposited in databases.

Evaluation of site plan review procedures.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1988-01-01

The site plan review procedures of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) were evaluated. The objectives of the evaluation were to recommend (1) a set of site plan review procedures including a checklist, (2) definitions of the roles and re...

The Aristotle method: a new concept to evaluate quality of care based on complexity.

PubMed

Lacour-Gayet, François; Clarke, David R

2005-06-01

Evaluation of quality of care is a duty of the modern medical practice. A reliable method of quality evaluation able to compare fairly institutions and inform a patient and his family of the potential risk of a procedure is clearly needed. It is now well recognized that any method that purports to evaluate quality of care should include a case mix/risk stratification method. No valuable method was available until recently in pediatric cardiac surgery. The Aristotle method is a new concept of evaluation of quality of care in congenital heart surgery based on the complexity of the surgical procedures. Involving a panel of expert surgeons, the project started in 1999 and included 50 pediatric surgeons from 23 countries. The basic score adjusts the complexity of a given procedure and is calculated as the sum of potential for mortality, potential for morbidity and anticipated technical difficulty. The Comprehensive Score further adjusts the complexity according to the specific patient characteristics (anatomy, associated procedures, co-morbidity, etc.). The Aristotle method is original as it introduces several new concepts: the calculated complexity is a constant for a given patient all over the world; complexity is an independent value and risk is a variable depending on the performance; and Performance = Complexity x Outcome. The Aristotle score is a good vector of communication between patients, doctors and insurance companies and may stimulate the quality and the organization of heath care in our field and in others.

Army Blast Claims Evaluation Procedures

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-03-01

ARMY RESEARCH LABORATORY ARL-MR-131 Army Blast Claims Evaluation Procedures William P. Wright APPROVED FOR PUBUC RELEASE; DISTRIBtmON IS...NUMBERS Anny Blast Claims Evaluation Procedures 4G061-304-U2 6. AUTHOR(S) William P. Wrisht 1. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 8...of the technical review process which bas been instituted to develop an opinion as to Army responsibility. 14. SUBJECT TERMS blast effects. muzzle

42 CFR 476.160 - General quality of care review procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 42 Public Health 4 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false General quality of care review procedures. 476.160... SERVICES (CONTINUED) QUALITY IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATIONS UTILIZATION AND QUALITY CONTROL REVIEW Review Responsibilities of Utilization and Quality Control Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) Qio Review Functions...

42 CFR 476.160 - General quality of care review procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 42 Public Health 4 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false General quality of care review procedures. 476.160... SERVICES (CONTINUED) QUALITY IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATIONS QUALITY IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATION REVIEW Review Responsibilities of Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) Qio Review Functions § 476.160 General quality of care...

Major System Source Evaluation and Selection Procedures.

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-04-02

A-RIBI I" MAJOR SYSTEM SOURCE EVALUATION AND SELECTION PROCEDURES / (U) BUSINESS MANAGEMENT RESEARCH ASSOCIATES INC ARLINGTON VA 02 APR 6? ORMC-5...BRMC-85-5142-1 0 I- MAJOR SYSTEM SOURCE EVALUATION AND SELECTION PROCEDURES o I Business Management Research Associates, Inc. 1911 Jefferson Davis...FORCE SOURCE EVALUATION AND SELECTI ON PROCEDURES Prepared by Business Management Research Associates, Inc., 1911 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington

The Dutch Review Process for Evaluating the Quality of Psychological Tests: History, Procedure, and Results

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evers, Arne; Sijtsma, Klaas; Lucassen, Wouter; Meijer, Rob R.

2010-01-01

This article describes the 2009 revision of the Dutch Rating System for Test Quality and presents the results of test ratings from almost 30 years. The rating system evaluates the quality of a test on seven criteria: theoretical basis, quality of the testing materials, comprehensiveness of the manual, norms, reliability, construct validity, and…

Progressing quality control in environmental impact assessment beyond legislative compliance: An evaluation of the IEMA EIA Quality Mark certification scheme

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bond, Alan, E-mail: alan.bond@uea.ac.uk; Research Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University; Fischer, Thomas B, E-mail: fischer@liverpool.ac.uk

The effectiveness of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) systems is contingent on a number of control mechanisms: procedural; judicial; evaluative; public and government agency; professional; and development aid agency. If we assume that procedural and judicial controls are guaranteed in developed EIA systems, then progressing effectiveness towards an acceptable level depends on improving the performance of other control mechanisms over time. These other control mechanisms are either absent, or are typically centrally controlled, requiring public finances; this we argue is an unpopular model in times of greater Government austerity. Here we evaluate a market-based mechanism for improving the performance of evaluativemore » and professional control mechanisms, the UK Institute of Environmental Management and Assessments' EIA Quality Mark. We do this by defining dimensions of effectiveness for the purposes of our evaluation, and by identifying international examples of the approaches taken to delivering the other control measures to validate the approach taken in the EIA Quality Mark. We then evaluate the EIA Quality Mark, when used in combination with legal procedures and an active judiciary, against the effectiveness dimensions and use time-series analysis of registrant data to examine its ability to progress practice. We conclude that the EIA Quality Mark has merit as a model for a market-based mechanism, and may prove a more financially palatable approach for delivering effective EIA in mature systems in countries that lack centralised agency oversight. It may, therefore, be of particular interest to some Member States of the European Union for ensuring forthcoming certification requirements stemming from recent amendments to the EIA Directive. - Highlights: • Quality control mechanisms in EIA are identified. • Effectiveness of EIA is conceptualised for evaluation purposes. • The UK IEMA EIA Quality Mark is introduced as a market-based mechanism. �

A guide to evaluating linkage quality for the analysis of linked data.

PubMed

Harron, Katie L; Doidge, James C; Knight, Hannah E; Gilbert, Ruth E; Goldstein, Harvey; Cromwell, David A; van der Meulen, Jan H

2017-10-01

Linked datasets are an important resource for epidemiological and clinical studies, but linkage error can lead to biased results. For data security reasons, linkage of personal identifiers is often performed by a third party, making it difficult for researchers to assess the quality of the linked dataset in the context of specific research questions. This is compounded by a lack of guidance on how to determine the potential impact of linkage error. We describe how linkage quality can be evaluated and provide widely applicable guidance for both data providers and researchers. Using an illustrative example of a linked dataset of maternal and baby hospital records, we demonstrate three approaches for evaluating linkage quality: applying the linkage algorithm to a subset of gold standard data to quantify linkage error; comparing characteristics of linked and unlinked data to identify potential sources of bias; and evaluating the sensitivity of results to changes in the linkage procedure. These approaches can inform our understanding of the potential impact of linkage error and provide an opportunity to select the most appropriate linkage procedure for a specific analysis. Evaluating linkage quality in this way will improve the quality and transparency of epidemiological and clinical research using linked data. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association.

Comparison of quality of life between two biliary drainage procedures in laparoscopic common bile duct exploration.

PubMed

Xin, Ying; Zhu, Xin; Wei, Qi; Cai, Xiujun; Wang, Xianfa; Huang, Diyu

2007-03-01

With various kinds of minimal access surgery being introduced, quality of life must be considered as a measure of whether minimal access surgery is good or not. We evaluate the difference in quality of life using two kinds of biliary drainage procedures in laparoscopic common bile duct exploration. Forty cases of laparoscopic common bile duct exploration with cholecystectomy were studied to compare gastrointestinal quality of life index (GIQLI) preoperatively and postoperatively at two, five and sixteen weeks in two groups using different biliary drainage procedures. There was no preoperative GIQLI difference between the two groups. Cases with biliary drainage through the cystic duct achieved earlier recovery. GIQLI of all cases reached normal sixteen weeks postoperatively. Biliary drainage through the cystic duct in laparoscopic common bile duct exploration may help to improve the postoperative GIQLI in patients.

Prospective Cohort Study Investigating Changes in Body Image, Quality of Life, and Self-Esteem Following Minimally Invasive Cosmetic Procedures.

PubMed

Sobanko, Joseph F; Dai, Julia; Gelfand, Joel M; Sarwer, David B; Percec, Ivona

2018-04-13

Minimally invasive cosmetic injectable procedures are increasingly common. However, a few studies have investigated changes in psychosocial functioning following these treatments. To assess changes in body image, quality of life, and self-esteem following cosmetic injectable treatment with soft tissue fillers and neuromodulators. Open, prospective study of 75 patients undergoing cosmetic injectable procedures for facial aging to evaluate changes in psychosocial functioning within 6 weeks of treatment. Outcome measures included the Derriford appearance scale (DAS-24), body image quality of life inventory (BIQLI), and the Rosenberg self-esteem scale. Body image dissatisfaction, as assessed by the DAS-24, improved significantly 6 weeks after the treatment. Body image quality of life, as assessed by the BIQLI, improved, but the change did not reach statistical significance. Self-esteem was unchanged after the treatment. Minimally invasive cosmetic injectable procedures were associated with reductions in body image dissatisfaction. Future research, using recently developed cosmetic surgery-specific instruments, may provide further insight into the psychosocial benefits of minimally invasive procedures.

Objective speech quality evaluation of real-time speech coders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Viswanathan, V. R.; Russell, W. H.; Huggins, A. W. F.

1984-02-01

This report describes the work performed in two areas: subjective testing of a real-time 16 kbit/s adaptive predictive coder (APC) and objective speech quality evaluation of real-time coders. The speech intelligibility of the APC coder was tested using the Diagnostic Rhyme Test (DRT), and the speech quality was tested using the Diagnostic Acceptability Measure (DAM) test, under eight operating conditions involving channel error, acoustic background noise, and tandem link with two other coders. The test results showed that the DRT and DAM scores of the APC coder equalled or exceeded the corresponding test scores fo the 32 kbit/s CVSD coder. In the area of objective speech quality evaluation, the report describes the development, testing, and validation of a procedure for automatically computing several objective speech quality measures, given only the tape-recordings of the input speech and the corresponding output speech of a real-time speech coder.

[Examination of diagnosis procedure combination survey data that influence function evaluation coefficient II].

PubMed

Nakajima, Hisato; Yano, Kouya; Nagasawa, Kaoko; Kobayashi, Eiji; Yokota, Kuninobu

2015-01-01

On the basis of Diagnosis Procedure Combination (DPC) survey data, the factors that increase the value of function evaluation coefficient II were considered. A total of 1,505 hospitals were divided into groups I, II, and III, and the following items were considered. 1. Significant differences in function evaluation coefficient II and DPC survey data. 2. Examination of using the Mahalanobis-Taguchi (MT) method. 3. Correlation between function evaluation coefficient II and each DPC survey data item. 1. Function evaluation coefficient II was highest in group II. Group I hospitals showed the highest bed capacity, and numbers of hospitalization days, operations, chemotherapies, radiotherapies and general anesthesia procedures. 2. Using the MT method, we found that the number of ambulance conveyances was effective factor in group I hospitals, the number of general anesthesia procedures was effective factor in group II hospitals, and the bed capacity was effective factor in group III hospitals. 3. In group I hospitals, function evaluation coefficient II significantly correlated to the numbers of ambulance conveyances and chemotherapies. In group II hospitals, function evaluation coefficient II significantly correlated to bed capacity, the numbers of ambulance conveyances, hospitalization days, operations, general anesthesia procedures, and mean hospitalization days. In group III hospitals, function evaluation coefficient II significantly correlated to all items. The factors that improve the value of function evaluation coefficient II were the increases in the numbers of ambulance conveyances, chemotherapies and radiotherapies in group I hospitals, increases in the numbers of hospitalization days, operations, ambulance conveyances and general anesthesia procedures in group II hospitals, and increases in the numbers of hospitalization days, operations and ambulance conveyances. These results indicate that the profit of a hospital will increase, which will lead to medical

Should Title 24 Ventilation Requirements Be Amended to include an Indoor Air Quality Procedure?

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dutton, Spencer M.; Mendell, Mark J.; Chan, Wanyu R.

Minimum outdoor air ventilation rates (VRs) for buildings are specified in standards, including California?s Title 24 standards. The ASHRAE ventilation standard includes two options for mechanically-ventilated buildings ? a prescriptive ventilation rate procedure (VRP) that specifies minimum VRs that vary among occupancy classes, and a performance-based indoor air quality procedure (IAQP) that may result in lower VRs than the VRP, with associated energy savings, if IAQ meeting specified criteria can be demonstrated. The California Energy Commission has been considering the addition of an IAQP to the Title 24 standards. This paper, based on a review of prior data and newmore » analyses of the IAQP, evaluates four future options for Title 24: no IAQP; adding an alternate VRP, adding an equivalent indoor air quality procedure (EIAQP), and adding an improved ASHRAE-like IAQP. Criteria were established for selecting among options, and feedback was obtained in a workshop of stakeholders. Based on this review, the addition of an alternate VRP is recommended. This procedure would allow lower minimum VRs if a specified set of actions were taken to maintain acceptable IAQ. An alternate VRP could also be a valuable supplement to ASHRAE?s ventilation standard.« less

Procedural justice and quality of life in compensation processes.

PubMed

Elbers, Nieke A; Akkermans, Arno J; Cuijpers, Pim; Bruinvels, David J

2013-11-01

There is considerable evidence that being involved in compensation processes has a negative impact on claimants' health. Previous studies suggested that this negative effect is caused by a stressful compensation process: claimants suffered from a lack of communication, a lack of information, and feelings of distrust. However, these rather qualitative findings have not been quantitatively investigated yet. This observational study aimed to fill this gap of knowledge, investigating the claimants' perceived fairness of the compensation process, the provided information, and the interaction with lawyers and insurance companies, in relation to the claimants' quality of life. Participants were individuals injured in traffic accidents, older than 18 years, who were involved in a compensation process in the Netherlands. They were recruited by three claims settlement offices. Outcome measures were procedural, interactional, and informational justice, and quality of life. Participants (n=176) perceived the interaction with lawyers to be fairer than the interaction with insurance companies (p<.001). The length of hospital stay was positively associated with procedural justice (β=.31, p<.001). Having trunk/back injury was negatively related to procedural justice (β=-.25, p=.001). Whiplash injury and length of time involved in the claim process were not associated with any of the justice scales. Finally, procedural justice was found to be positively correlated with quality of life (rs=.22, p=.004). The finding that the interaction with insurance companies was considered less fair than the interaction with lawyers may imply that insurers could improve their interaction with claimants, e.g. by communicating more directly. The result that claimants with mild injuries and with trunk/back injuries considered the compensation process to be less fair than those with respectively severe injuries and injuries to other body parts suggests that especially the former two require an

Evaluative methodology for comprehensive water quality management planning

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dyer, H. L.

Computer-based evaluative methodologies have been developed to provide for the analysis of coupled phenomena associated with natural resource comprehensive planning requirements. Provisions for planner/computer interaction have been included. Each of the simulation models developed is described in terms of its coded procedures. An application of the models for water quality management planning is presented; and the data requirements for each of the models are noted.

29 CFR 1956.22 - Procedures for evaluation and monitoring.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 29 Labor 9 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Procedures for evaluation and monitoring. 1956.22 Section 1956.22 Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION..., Change, Evaluation and Withdrawal of Approval Procedures § 1956.22 Procedures for evaluation and...

Analytical procedure validation and the quality by design paradigm.

PubMed

Rozet, Eric; Lebrun, Pierre; Michiels, Jean-François; Sondag, Perceval; Scherder, Tara; Boulanger, Bruno

2015-01-01

Since the adoption of the ICH Q8 document concerning the development of pharmaceutical processes following a quality by design (QbD) approach, there have been many discussions on the opportunity for analytical procedure developments to follow a similar approach. While development and optimization of analytical procedure following QbD principles have been largely discussed and described, the place of analytical procedure validation in this framework has not been clarified. This article aims at showing that analytical procedure validation is fully integrated into the QbD paradigm and is an essential step in developing analytical procedures that are effectively fit for purpose. Adequate statistical methodologies have also their role to play: such as design of experiments, statistical modeling, and probabilistic statements. The outcome of analytical procedure validation is also an analytical procedure design space, and from it, control strategy can be set.

Quality assurance: Importance of systems and standard operating procedures

PubMed Central

Manghani, Kishu

2011-01-01

It is mandatory for sponsors of clinical trials and contract research organizations alike to establish, manage and monitor their quality control and quality assurance systems and their integral standard operating procedures and other quality documents to provide high-quality products and services to fully satisfy customer needs and expectations. Quality control and quality assurance systems together constitute the key quality systems. Quality control and quality assurance are parts of quality management. Quality control is focused on fulfilling quality requirements, whereas quality assurance is focused on providing confidence that quality requirements are fulfilled. The quality systems must be commensurate with the Company business objectives and business model. Top management commitment and its active involvement are critical in order to ensure at all times the adequacy, suitability, effectiveness and efficiency of the quality systems. Effective and efficient quality systems can promote timely registration of drugs by eliminating waste and the need for rework with overall financial and social benefits to the Company. PMID:21584180

Quality assurance: Importance of systems and standard operating procedures.

PubMed

Manghani, Kishu

2011-01-01

It is mandatory for sponsors of clinical trials and contract research organizations alike to establish, manage and monitor their quality control and quality assurance systems and their integral standard operating procedures and other quality documents to provide high-quality products and services to fully satisfy customer needs and expectations. Quality control and quality assurance systems together constitute the key quality systems. Quality control and quality assurance are parts of quality management. Quality control is focused on fulfilling quality requirements, whereas quality assurance is focused on providing confidence that quality requirements are fulfilled. The quality systems must be commensurate with the Company business objectives and business model. Top management commitment and its active involvement are critical in order to ensure at all times the adequacy, suitability, effectiveness and efficiency of the quality systems. Effective and efficient quality systems can promote timely registration of drugs by eliminating waste and the need for rework with overall financial and social benefits to the Company.

Enhancement of the Automated Quality Control Procedures for the International Soil Moisture Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heer, Elsa; Xaver, Angelika; Dorigo, Wouter; Messner, Romina

2017-04-01

spectrum where a high majority of values before and after is flagged and therefore a sensor malfunction is certain. For the evaluation of the enhanced automated quality control system many test data sets were chosen, and manually validated to be compared to the existing quality control procedures and the new algorithms. Improvements will be shown that assure an appropriate assessment of the ISMN data sets, which are used for validations of soil moisture data retrieved by satellite data and are the foundation many other scientific publications.

Weld procedure produces quality welds for thick sections of Hastelloy-X

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Flens, F. J.; Fletcher, C. W.; Glasier, L. F., Jr.

1967-01-01

Welding program produces premium quality, multipass welds in heavy tube sections of Hastelloy-X. It develops semiautomatic tungsten/inert gas procedures, weld wire procurement specifications material weld properties, welder-operator training, and nondestructive testing inspection techniques and procedures.

Experienced quality factors: qualitative evaluation approach to audiovisual quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jumisko-Pyykkö, Satu; Häkkinen, Jukka; Nyman, Göte

2007-02-01

Subjective evaluation is used to identify impairment factors of multimedia quality. The final quality is often formulated via quantitative experiments, but this approach has its constraints, as subject's quality interpretations, experiences and quality evaluation criteria are disregarded. To identify these quality evaluation factors, this study examined qualitatively the criteria participants used to evaluate audiovisual video quality. A semi-structured interview was conducted with 60 participants after a subjective audiovisual quality evaluation experiment. The assessment compared several, relatively low audio-video bitrate ratios with five different television contents on mobile device. In the analysis, methodological triangulation (grounded theory, Bayesian networks and correspondence analysis) was applied to approach the qualitative quality. The results showed that the most important evaluation criteria were the factors of visual quality, contents, factors of audio quality, usefulness - followability and audiovisual interaction. Several relations between the quality factors and the similarities between the contents were identified. As a research methodological recommendation, the focus on content and usage related factors need to be further examined to improve the quality evaluation experiments.

Economic Assessment and Budgetary Impact of a Telemedicine Procedure and Spirometry Quality Control in the Primary Care Setting.

PubMed

Marina, Nuria; Bayón, Juan Carlos; López de Santa María, Elena; Gutiérrez, Asunción; Inchausti, Marta; Bustamante, Victor; Gáldiz, Juan B

2016-01-01

To evaluate the economic impact of a telemedicine procedure designed to improve the quality of lung function testing (LFT) in primary care in a public healthcare system, compared with the standard method. The economic impact of 9,039 LFTs performed in 51 health centers (2010-2013) using telespirometry (TS) compared to standard spirometry (SS) was studied. TS costs more per unit than SS (€47.80 vs. €39.70) (2013), but the quality of the TS procedure is superior (84% good quality, compared to 61% using the standard procedure). Total cost of TS was €431,974 (compared with €358,306€ for SS), generating an economic impact of €73,668 (2013). The increase in cost for good quality LFT performed using TS was €34,030 (2010) and €144,295 (2013), while the costs of poor quality tests fell by €15,525 (2010) and 70,627€ (2013). The cost-effectiveness analysis concludes that TS is 23% more expensive and 46% more effective. Healthcare costs consequently fall as the number of LFTs performed by TS rises. Avoiding poor quality, invalid LFTs generates savings that compensate for the increased costs of performing LFTs with TS, making it a cost-effective method. Copyright © 2014 SEPAR. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of a Noise Reduction Procedure for Chest Radiography

PubMed Central

Fukui, Ryohei; Ishii, Rie; Kodani, Kazuhiko; Kanasaki, Yoshiko; Suyama, Hisashi; Watanabe, Masanari; Nakamoto, Masaki; Fukuoka, Yasushi

2013-01-01

Background The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of noise reduction procedure (NRP), a function in the new image processing for chest radiography. Methods A CXDI-50G Portable Digital Radiography System (Canon) was used for X-ray detection. Image noise was analyzed with a noise power spectrum (NPS) and a burger phantom was used for evaluation of density resolution. The usefulness of NRP was evaluated by chest phantom images and clinical chest radiography. We employed the Bureau of Radiological Health Method for scoring chest images while carrying out our observations. Results NPS through the use of NRP was improved compared with conventional image processing (CIP). The results in image quality showed high-density resolution through the use of NRP, so that chest radiography examination can be performed with a low dose of radiation. Scores were significantly higher than for CIP. Conclusion In this study, use of NRP led to a high evaluation in these so we are able to confirm the usefulness of NRP for clinical chest radiography. PMID:24574577

Machine-Specific Magnetic Resonance Imaging Quality Control Procedures for Stereotactic Radiosurgery Treatment Planning

PubMed Central

Taghizadeh, Somayeh; Yang, Claus Chunli; R. Kanakamedala, Madhava; Morris, Bart; Vijayakumar, Srinivasan

2017-01-01

Purpose Magnetic resonance (MR) images are necessary for accurate contouring of intracranial targets, determination of gross target volume and evaluation of organs at risk during stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) treatment planning procedures. Many centers use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) simulators or regular diagnostic MRI machines for SRS treatment planning; while both types of machine require two stages of quality control (QC), both machine- and patient-specific, before use for SRS, no accepted guidelines for such QC currently exist. This article describes appropriate machine-specific QC procedures for SRS applications. Methods and materials We describe the adaptation of American College of Radiology (ACR)-recommended QC tests using an ACR MRI phantom for SRS treatment planning. In addition, commercial Quasar MRID3D and Quasar GRID3D phantoms were used to evaluate the effects of static magnetic field (B0) inhomogeneity, gradient nonlinearity, and a Leksell G frame (SRS frame) and its accessories on geometrical distortion in MR images. Results QC procedures found in-plane distortions (Maximum = 3.5 mm, Mean = 0.91 mm, Standard deviation = 0.67 mm, >2.5 mm (%) = 2) in X-direction (Maximum = 2.51 mm, Mean = 0.52 mm, Standard deviation = 0.39 mm, > 2.5 mm (%) = 0) and in Y-direction (Maximum = 13. 1 mm , Mean = 2.38 mm, Standard deviation = 2.45 mm, > 2.5 mm (%) = 34) in Z-direction and < 1 mm distortion at a head-sized region of interest. MR images acquired using a Leksell G frame and localization devices showed a mean absolute deviation of 2.3 mm from isocenter. The results of modified ACR tests were all within recommended limits, and baseline measurements have been defined for regular weekly QC tests. Conclusions With appropriate QC procedures in place, it is possible to routinely obtain clinically useful MR images suitable for SRS treatment planning purposes. MRI examination for SRS planning can benefit from the improved localization and planning possible

Machine-Specific Magnetic Resonance Imaging Quality Control Procedures for Stereotactic Radiosurgery Treatment Planning.

PubMed

Fatemi, Ali; Taghizadeh, Somayeh; Yang, Claus Chunli; R Kanakamedala, Madhava; Morris, Bart; Vijayakumar, Srinivasan

2017-12-18

Purpose Magnetic resonance (MR) images are necessary for accurate contouring of intracranial targets, determination of gross target volume and evaluation of organs at risk during stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) treatment planning procedures. Many centers use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) simulators or regular diagnostic MRI machines for SRS treatment planning; while both types of machine require two stages of quality control (QC), both machine- and patient-specific, before use for SRS, no accepted guidelines for such QC currently exist. This article describes appropriate machine-specific QC procedures for SRS applications. Methods and materials We describe the adaptation of American College of Radiology (ACR)-recommended QC tests using an ACR MRI phantom for SRS treatment planning. In addition, commercial Quasar MRID 3D and Quasar GRID 3D phantoms were used to evaluate the effects of static magnetic field (B 0 ) inhomogeneity, gradient nonlinearity, and a Leksell G frame (SRS frame) and its accessories on geometrical distortion in MR images. Results QC procedures found in-plane distortions (Maximum = 3.5 mm, Mean = 0.91 mm, Standard deviation = 0.67 mm, >2.5 mm (%) = 2) in X-direction (Maximum = 2.51 mm, Mean = 0.52 mm, Standard deviation = 0.39 mm, > 2.5 mm (%) = 0) and in Y-direction (Maximum = 13. 1 mm , Mean = 2.38 mm, Standard deviation = 2.45 mm, > 2.5 mm (%) = 34) in Z-direction and < 1 mm distortion at a head-sized region of interest. MR images acquired using a Leksell G frame and localization devices showed a mean absolute deviation of 2.3 mm from isocenter. The results of modified ACR tests were all within recommended limits, and baseline measurements have been defined for regular weekly QC tests. Conclusions With appropriate QC procedures in place, it is possible to routinely obtain clinically useful MR images suitable for SRS treatment planning purposes. MRI examination for SRS planning can benefit from the improved localization and planning

Evaluation of Hands-Free Devices for the Display of Maintenance Procedures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Whitmore, Mihriban; Hoffman, Ronald B.; Litaker, Harry, Jr.; Solem, Jody; Holden, Kritina; Twyford, Evan; Conlee, Carl

2007-01-01

Over the past year, NASA's focus has turned to crewed long duration and exploration missions. On these journeys, crewmembers will be required to execute thousands of procedures to maintain life support systems, check out space suits, conduct science experiments, and perform medical exams. To support the many complex tasks crewmembers undertake in microgravity, NASA is interested in providing crewmembers a hands-free work environment to promote more efficient operations. The overarching objective is to allow crewmembers to use both of their hands for tasks related to their mission, versus holding a paper manual or interacting with a display. The use of advanced, hands-free tools will undoubtedly make the crewmembers task easier, but they can also add to overall task complexity if not properly designed. A leading candidate technology for supporting a hands-free environment is the Head-Mounted Display (HMD). A more recent technology (e-book reader) that could be easily temp-stowed near the work area is also a potential hands-free solution. Previous work at NASA involved the evaluation of several commercially available HMDs for visual quality, comfort, and fit, as well as suitability for use in microgravity. Based on results from this work, three HMDs were selected for further evaluation (along with an e-book reader), using International Space Station (ISS)-like maintenance procedures. Two evaluations were conducted in the Space Station Mockup and Trainer Facility (SSMTF) located at the NASA Johnson Space Center (building 9). The SSMTF is a full scale, medium fidelity replica of the pressurized portions of the ISS. It supports crew training such as ingress and egress, habitability, and emergency procedures. In each of the two evaluations, the participants performed two maintenance procedures. One maintenance procedure involved inspecting air filters in a life support system and replacing them with a clean filter if one were found to be contaminated. The second

Revisiting the Procedures for the Vector Data Quality Assurance in Practice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Erdoğan, M.; Torun, A.; Boyacı, D.

2012-07-01

of spatial data quality concepts into developments and application requires existence of conceptual, logical and most importantly physical existence of data model, rules and knowledge of realization in a form of geo-spatial data. The applicable metrics and thresholds are determined on this concrete base. This study discusses application of geo-spatial data quality issues and QA (quality assurance) and QC procedures in the topographic data production. Firstly we introduce MGCP (Multinational Geospatial Co-production Program) data profile of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) DFDD (DGIWG Feature Data Dictionary), the requirements of data owner, the view of data producers for both data capturing and QC and finally QA to fulfil user needs. Then, our practical and new approach which divides the quality into three phases is introduced. Finally, implementation of our approach to accomplish metrics, measures and thresholds of quality definitions is discussed. In this paper, especially geometry and semantics quality and quality control procedures that can be performed by the producers are discussed. Some applicable best-practices that we experienced on techniques of quality control, defining regulations that define the objectives and data production procedures are given in the final remarks. These quality control procedures should include the visual checks over the source data, captured vector data and printouts, some automatic checks that can be performed by software and some semi-automatic checks by the interaction with quality control personnel. Finally, these quality control procedures should ensure the geometric, semantic, attribution and metadata quality of vector data.

Evaluating the Relationship between Productivity and Quality in Emergency Departments

PubMed Central

Bastian, Nathaniel D.; Riordan, John P.

2017-01-01

Background In the United States, emergency departments (EDs) are constantly pressured to improve operational efficiency and quality in order to gain financial benefits and maintain a positive reputation. Objectives The first objective is to evaluate how efficiently EDs transform their input resources into quality outputs. The second objective is to investigate the relationship between the efficiency and quality performance of EDs and the factors affecting this relationship. Methods Using two data sources, we develop a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to evaluate the relative efficiency of EDs. Based on the DEA result, we performed multinomial logistic regression to investigate the relationship between ED efficiency and quality performance. Results The DEA results indicated that the main source of inefficiencies was working hours of technicians. The multinomial logistic regression result indicated that the number of electrocardiograms and X-ray procedures conducted in the ED and the length of stay were significantly associated with the trade-offs between relative efficiency and quality. Structural ED characteristics did not influence the relationship between efficiency and quality. Conclusions Depending on the structural and operational characteristics of EDs, different factors can affect the relationship between efficiency and quality. PMID:29065673

[Study on procedure of seed quality testing and seed grading scale of Phellodendron amurense].

PubMed

Liu, Yanlu; Zhang, Zhao; Dai, Lingchao; Zhang, Bengang; Zhang, Xiaoling; Wang, Han

2011-12-01

To study the procedure of seed quality testing and seed grading scale of Phellodendron amurense. Seed quality testing methods were developed, which included the test of sampling, seed purity, weight per 1 000 seeds, seed moisture, seed viability and germination rate. The related data from 62 cases of seed specimens of P. amurense were analyzed by cluster analysis. The seed quality test procedure was developed, and the seed quality grading scale was formulated.

High quality data: An evaluation of AIM data quality and data quality procedures

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The goal of every monitoring program is to collect high-quality data which can then be used to provide information to decision makers. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) program is one such data set which provides rangeland status, condition, and trend in...

[Methodological quality and reporting quality evaluation of randomized controlled trials published in China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica].

PubMed

Yu, Dan-Dan; Xie, Yan-Ming; Liao, Xing; Zhi, Ying-Jie; Jiang, Jun-Jie; Chen, Wei

2018-02-01

To evaluate the methodological quality and reporting quality of randomized controlled trials(RCTs) published in China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica, we searched CNKI and China Journal of Chinese Materia webpage to collect RCTs since the establishment of the magazine. The Cochrane risk of bias assessment tool was used to evaluate the methodological quality of RCTs. The CONSORT 2010 list was adopted as reporting quality evaluating tool. Finally, 184 RCTs were included and evaluated methodologically, of which 97 RCTs were evaluated with reporting quality. For the methodological evaluating, 62 trials(33.70%) reported the random sequence generation; 9(4.89%) trials reported the allocation concealment; 25(13.59%) trials adopted the method of blinding; 30(16.30%) trials reported the number of patients withdrawing, dropping out and those lost to follow-up;2 trials （1.09%） reported trial registration and none of the trial reported the trial protocol; only 8(4.35%) trials reported the sample size estimation in details. For reporting quality appraising, 3 reporting items of 25 items were evaluated with high-quality,including: abstract, participants qualified criteria, and statistical methods; 4 reporting items with medium-quality, including purpose, intervention, random sequence method, and data collection of sites and locations; 9 items with low-quality reporting items including title, backgrounds, random sequence types, allocation concealment, blindness, recruitment of subjects, baseline data, harms, and funding;the rest of items were of extremely low quality(the compliance rate of reporting item<10%). On the whole, the methodological and reporting quality of RCTs published in the magazine are generally low. Further improvement in both methodological and reporting quality for RCTs of traditional Chinese medicine are warranted. It is recommended that the international standards and procedures for RCT design should be strictly followed to conduct high-quality trials

The medical practice of euthanasia in Belgium and The Netherlands: legal notification, control and evaluation procedures.

PubMed

Smets, Tinne; Bilsen, Johan; Cohen, Joachim; Rurup, Mette L; De Keyser, Els; Deliens, Luc

2009-05-01

To describe and compare current legal procedures for notifying, controlling and evaluating (NCE-procedures) euthanasia in Belgium and the Netherlands, and to discuss the implications for a safe and controllable euthanasia practice. We systematically studied and compared official documents relating to the Belgian and the Dutch NCE-procedures for euthanasia. In both countries, physicians are required to notify their cases to a review Committee, stimulating them to safeguard the quality of their euthanasia practice and to make societal control over the practice of euthanasia possible. However, the procedures in both countries differ. The main differences are that the Dutch notification and control procedures are more elaborate and transparent than the Belgian, and that the Belgian procedures are primarily anonymous, whereas the Dutch are not. Societal evaluation is made in both countries through the Committees' summary reports to Parliament. Transparent procedures like the Dutch may better facilitate societal control. Informing physicians about the law and the due care requirements for euthanasia, and systematic feedback about their medical actions are both pivotal to achieving efficient societal control and engendering the level of care needed when performing such far-reaching medical acts.

Influences on Evaluation Quality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooksy, Leslie J.; Mark, Melvin M.

2012-01-01

Attention to evaluation quality is commonplace, even if sometimes implicit. Drawing on her 2010 Presidential Address to the American Evaluation Association, Leslie Cooksy suggests that evaluation quality depends, at least in part, on the intersection of three factors: (a) evaluator competency, (b) aspects of the evaluation environment or context,…

29 CFR 1956.22 - Procedures for evaluation and monitoring.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

..., Change, Evaluation and Withdrawal of Approval Procedures § 1956.22 Procedures for evaluation and... enforcement authority under section 18(e) of the Act is not relevant to Phase II and III monitoring under...

[Procedure of seed quality testing and seed grading standard of Prunus humilis].

PubMed

Wen, Hao; Ren, Guang-Xi; Gao, Ya; Luo, Jun; Liu, Chun-Sheng; Li, Wei-Dong

2014-11-01

So far there exists no corresponding quality test procedures and grading standards for the seed of Prunus humilis, which is one of the important source of base of semen pruni. Therefor we set up test procedures that are adapt to characteristics of the P. humilis seed through the study of the test of sampling, seed purity, thousand-grain weight, seed moisture, seed viability and germination percentage. 50 cases of seed specimens of P. humilis tested. The related data were analyzed by cluster analysis. Through this research, the seed quality test procedure was developed, and the seed quality grading standard was formulated. The seed quality of each grade should meet the following requirements: for first grade seeds, germination percentage ≥ 68%, thousand-grain weight 383 g, purity ≥ 93%, seed moisture ≤ 5%; for second grade seeds, germination percentage ≥ 26%, thousand-grain weight ≥ 266 g, purity ≥ 73%, seed moisture ≤9%; for third grade seeds, germination percentage ≥ 10%, purity ≥ 50%, thousand-grain weight ≥ 08 g, seed moisture ≤ 13%.

Quantitative Procedures for the Assessment of Quality in Higher Education Institutions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moran, Tom; Rowse, Glenwood

The development of procedures designed to provide quantitative assessments of quality in higher education institutions are reviewed. These procedures employ a systems framework and utilize quantitative data to compare institutions or programs of similar types with one another. Three major elements essential in the development of models focusing on…

42 CFR 422.502 - Evaluation and determination procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... SERVICES (CONTINUED) MEDICARE PROGRAM MEDICARE ADVANTAGE PROGRAM Application Procedures and Contracts for Medicare Advantage Organizations § 422.502 Evaluation and determination procedures. (a) Basis for...

28 CFR 104.31 - Procedure for claims evaluation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Procedure for claims evaluation. 104.31 Section 104.31 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (CONTINUED) SEPTEMBER 11TH VICTIM... any required documents. (b) Procedural tracks. Each claim will be placed on a procedural track...

28 CFR 104.31 - Procedure for claims evaluation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Procedure for claims evaluation. 104.31 Section 104.31 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (CONTINUED) SEPTEMBER 11TH VICTIM... any required documents. (b) Procedural tracks. Each claim will be placed on a procedural track...

A framework for the evaluation of new interventional procedures.

PubMed

Lourenco, Tania; Grant, Adrian M; Burr, Jennifer M; Vale, Luke

2012-03-01

The introduction of new interventional procedures is less regulated than for other health technologies such as pharmaceuticals. Decisions are often taken on evidence of efficacy and short-term safety from small-scale usually observational studies. This reflects the particular challenges of evaluating interventional procedures - the extra facets of skill and training and the difficulty defining a 'new' technology. Currently, there is no framework to evaluate new interventional procedures before they become available in clinical practice as opposed to new pharmaceuticals. This paper proposes a framework to guide the evaluation of a new interventional procedure. A framework was developed consisting of a four-stage progressive evaluation for a new interventional procedure: Stage 1: Development; Stage 2: Efficacy and short-term safety; Stage 3: Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness; and Stage 4: Implementation. The framework also suggests the types of studies or data collection methods that can be used to satisfy each stage. This paper makes a first step on a framework for generating evidence on new interventional procedures. The difficulties and limitations of applying such a framework are discussed. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The University of Texas Houston Stroke Registry (UTHSR): implementation of enhanced data quality assurance procedures improves data quality

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Limited information has been published regarding standard quality assurance (QA) procedures for stroke registries. We share our experience regarding the establishment of enhanced QA procedures for the University of Texas Houston Stroke Registry (UTHSR) and evaluate whether these QA procedures have improved data quality in UTHSR. Methods All 5093 patient records that were abstracted and entered in UTHSR, between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2011, were considered in this study. We conducted reliability and validity studies. For reliability and validity of data captured by abstractors, a random subset of 30 records was used for re-abstraction of select key variables by two abstractors. These 30 records were re-abstracted by a team of experts that included a vascular neurologist clinician as the “gold standard”. We assessed inter-rater reliability (IRR) between the two abstractors as well as validity of each abstractor with the “gold standard”. Depending on the scale of variables, IRR was assessed with Kappa or intra-class correlations (ICC) using a 2-way, random effects ANOVA. For assessment of validity of data in UTHSR we re-abstracted another set of 85 patient records for which all discrepant entries were adjudicated by a vascular neurology fellow clinician and added to the set of our “gold standard”. We assessed level of agreement between the registry data and the “gold standard” as well as sensitivity and specificity. We used logistic regression to compare error rates for different years to assess whether a significant improvement in data quality has been achieved during 2008–2011. Results The error rate dropped significantly, from 4.8% in 2008 to 2.2% in 2011 (P < 0.001). The two abstractors had an excellent IRR (Kappa or ICC ≥ 0.75) on almost all key variables checked. Agreement between data in UTHSR and the “gold standard” was excellent for almost all categorical and continuous variables. Conclusions Establishment of a

Capsicum--production, technology, chemistry, and quality. Part IV. Evaluation of quality.

PubMed

Govindarajan, V S; Rajalakshmi, D; Chand, N

1987-01-01

Capsicum fruits are popular worldwide and are used in the cuisines of both the developing and the developed countries. With its different varieties, forms, and uses, the spice capsicum contributes to the entire gamut of sensory experience--color as finely ground paprika powder or extract in sausages, goulash, cheese, and snacks; both pungency and color as the many varieties of chillies used in Mexican, African, Indian, and southeast Asian cuisines; color, aroma, and mild pungency as the fresh green chillies used in many of the growing countries; and appearance, color, aroma, and texture as fresh fruit in salads and as a pickled and canned product. In three earlier parts in this series, the varieties, cultivation, and primary processing; the processed products, world production, and trade; and the chemistry of the color, aroma, and pungency stimuli have been reviewed. In this part, the evaluation of quality through instrumental determination of the causal components and the sensory evaluation of color, aroma, and pungency are discussed. Several methods for quantitative determination of the stimuli and the sensory evaluation of the responses to the stimuli are reviewed. The problems of sensory evaluation of color, aroma, and pungency, the dominant attributes for validation of the instrumentally determined values for carotenoids, volatiles, or particular fractions, and total and individual capsaicinoids are specifically discussed. Summarized details of selected instrumental methods for evaluating the stimuli, which are either validated by correlation to sensorily perceived responses or to adopted standards, are given along with representative data obtained for discussing the adequacy and reliability of the methods. Pungency as a specific gustatory perception and the many methods proposed to evaluate this quality are discussed. A recommended objective procedure for obtaining reproducible values is discussed, and a method for relating different panel results is shown

[Evaluation of ergonomic load of clinical nursing procedures].

PubMed

Yan, P; Zhang, L; Li, F Y; Yang, Y; Wang, Y N; Huang, A M; Dai, Y L; Yao, H

2017-08-20

Objective: To evaluate the ergonomic load of clinical nursing procedures and to provide evidence for the prevention and management of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) in nurses. Methods: Based on the nursing unit characteristics and the common departments involving patient-turning procedures, 552 nurses were selected from 6 clinical departments from July to September, 2016. The ergonomic load of four types of patient-turning procedures, i.e., turning the patient's body, changing the bed linen of in-bed patients, moving patients, and chest physiotherapy, was evaluated by the on-site inspectors and self-evaluated by the operators using the Quick Exposure Check. The exposure value, exposure level, and exposure rate of WMSDs were assessed based on the procedure-related physical loads on the back, shoulders/arms, wrists/hands and neck, as well as the loads from work rhythm and work pressure. Results: All surveyed subjects were females who were aged mostly between 26-30 years (49.46%) , with a mean age of 29.66±5.28 years. These nurses were mainly from the Department of Infection (28.99%) and Spine Surgery (21.56%) . There were significant differences in the back, shoulders/arms, neck, work rhythm, and work pressure scores between different nursing procedures ( F =16.613, 5.884, 3.431, 3.222, and 5.085, respectively; P <0.05) . Patient-turning nursing procedures resulted in high to intermediate physical load in nurses. Procedures with high to low level of WMSDs exposure were patient turning (72.69%) , bed linen changing (67.15%) , patient transfer (65.82%) , and chest physiotherapy (58.34%) . In particular, patient turning was considered as very high-risk procedure, whereas others were considered as high-risk procedures. Conclusion: Patient-turning nursing procedures result in high ergonomic load in the operators. Therefore, more focus should be placed on the ergonomics of the caretakers and nurses.

Antimicrobial Testing Methods & Procedures: MB-10-06

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Describes the procedures used to log-in, prepare, and evaluate the quality of media and reagents used in microbiological assays by the Microbiology Laboratory Branch (MLB), for use in the quality evaluation of media and reagents used by MLB.

A new tool for the evaluation of the analytical procedure: Green Analytical Procedure Index.

PubMed

Płotka-Wasylka, J

2018-05-01

A new means for assessing analytical protocols relating to green analytical chemistry attributes has been developed. The new tool, called GAPI (Green Analytical Procedure Index), evaluates the green character of an entire analytical methodology, from sample collection to final determination, and was created using such tools as the National Environmental Methods Index (NEMI) or Analytical Eco-Scale to provide not only general but also qualitative information. In GAPI, a specific symbol with five pentagrams can be used to evaluate and quantify the environmental impact involved in each step of an analytical methodology, mainly from green through yellow to red depicting low, medium to high impact, respectively. The proposed tool was used to evaluate analytical procedures applied in the determination of biogenic amines in wine samples, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon determination by EPA methods. GAPI tool not only provides an immediately perceptible perspective to the user/reader but also offers exhaustive information on evaluated procedures. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Development of the Quality Assurance/Quality Control Procedures for a Neutron Interrogation System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Obhođaš, Jasmina; Sudac, Davorin; Valković, Vladivoj

2016-06-01

In order to perform Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) procedures for a system dedicated to the neutron interrogation of objects for the presence of threat materials one needs to perform measurements of reference materials (RM) i.e. simulants having the same (or similar) atomic ratios as real materials. It is well known that explosives, drugs, and various other benign materials, contain chemical elements such as hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen in distinctly different quantities. For example, a high carbon-to-oxygen ratio (C/O) is characteristic of drugs. Explosives can be differentiated by measurement of both (C/O) and nitrogen-to-oxygen (N/O) ratios. The C/N ratio of the chemical warfare agents, coupled with the measurement of elements such as fluorine and phosphorus, clearly differentiate them from the conventional explosives. Here we present the RM preparation, calibration procedure and correlations attained between theoretical values and experimentally obtained results in laboratory conditions for C/O and N/C ratios of prepared hexogen (RDX), TNT, DLM2, TATP, cocaine, heroin, yperite, tetranitromethane, peroxide methylethylketone, nitromethane and ethyleneglycol dinitrate simulants. We have shown that analyses of the gamma ray spectra by using simple unfolding model developed for this purpose gave a nice agreement with the chemical formula of created simulants, thus the calibration quality was successfully tested.

Experience gained from the application of basic quality assurance procedures in a Greek university engineering department

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stamatelos, A. M.

2010-06-01

During the last decade, significant funding has become available to Greek public universities to support the convergence to the common European space of higher education. In a number of departments, this funding was wisely invested in the development of a quality culture, covering not only the educational process, but also the services offered by the department's administration and technical support staff. This paper presents the design and implementation of a quality-oriented studies' reform plan in the Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Thessaly in the period 2002-2008. Based on the successful experience from its application, a significant part of the personnel and students have become acquainted with basic quality assurance procedures and performance evaluation. Experience and lessons learnt from this effort are reported and discussed in this paper.

Quality evaluation and control of end cap welds in PHWR fuel elements by ultrasonic examination

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Choi, M. S.; Yang, M. S.

1991-02-01

The current quality control procedure of nuclear fuel end cap weld is mainly dependent on the destructive metallographic examination. A nondestructive examination technique, i.e., ultrasonic examination, has been developed to identify and evaluate weld discontinuities. A few interesting results of the weld quality evaluation by applying the developed ultrasonic examination technique to PHWR fuel welds are presented. In addition, the feasibility of the weld quality control by the ultrasonic examination is discussed. This study shows that the ultrasonic examination is effective and reliable method for detecting abnormal weld contours and weld discontinuities such as micro-fissure, crack, upset split and expulsion, and can be used as a quality control tool for the end cap welding process.

Evaluation of results of US corn and soybeans exploratory experiment: Classification procedures verification test. [Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, and Illinois

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carnes, J. G.; Baird, J. E. (Principal Investigator)

1980-01-01

The classification procedure utilized in making crop proportion estimates for corn and soybeans using remotely sensed data was evaluated. The procedure was derived during the transition year of the Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment. Analysis of variance techniques were applied to classifications performed by 3 groups of analysts who processed 25 segments selected from 4 agrophysical units (APU's). Group and APU effects were assessed to determine factors which affected the quality of the classifications. The classification results were studied to determine the effectiveness of the procedure in producing corn and soybeans proportion estimates.

Effectiveness of HVAC duct cleaning procedures in improving indoor air quality.

PubMed

Ahmad, I; Tansel, B; Mitrani, J D

2001-12-01

Indoor air quality has become one of the most serious environmental concerns as an average person spends about 22 hr indoors on a daily basis. The study reported in this article, was conducted to determine the effectiveness of three commercial HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning) duct cleaning processes in reducing the level of airborne particulate matter and viable bioaerosols. The three HVAC sanitation processes were: (1) Contact method (use of conventional vacuum cleaning of interior duct surfaces); (2) Air sweep method (use of compressed air to dislodging dirt and debris); (3) Rotary brush method (insertion of a rotary brush into the ductwork to agitate and dislodge the debris). Effectiveness of these sanitation processes was evaluated in terms of airborne particulate and viable bioaerosol concentrations in residential homes. Eight identical homes were selected in the same neighborhood. Two homes were cleaned using each procedure and two were used as controls. It was found that both particle count readings and bioaerosol concentrations were higher when cleaning was being performed than before or after cleaning, which suggests that dirt, debris and other pollutants may become airborne as a result of disturbances caused by the cleaning processes. Particle count readings at 0.3 micron size were found to have increased due to cigarette smoking. Particle counts at 1.0 micron size were reduced due to HVAC duct cleaning. Post-level bioaerosol concentrations, taken two days after cleaning, were found to be lower than the pre-level concentrations suggesting that the cleaning procedures were effective to some extent. Homes cleaned with the Air Sweep procedure showed the highest degree of reduction in bioaerosol concentration among the three procedures investigated.

22 CFR 96.100 - Procedures for evaluating applicants for temporary accreditation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

...) Procedures and Standards Relating to Temporary Accreditation § 96.100 Procedures for evaluating applicants... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Procedures for evaluating applicants for... entity must: (1) Review the agency's written application and supporting documentation; and (2) Verify the...

Bus service evaluation procedures : a review

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1979-03-01

The report presents the results of a literature review and survey of 71 transit properties in the U. S. and Canada regarding bus service evaluation procedures currently in use. The focus of the study was to identify service performance indicators and...

Software component quality evaluation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clough, A. J.

1991-01-01

The paper describes a software inspection process that can be used to evaluate the quality of software components. Quality criteria, process application, independent testing of the process and proposed associated tool support are covered. Early results indicate that this technique is well suited for assessing software component quality in a standardized fashion. With automated machine assistance to facilitate both the evaluation and selection of software components, such a technique should promote effective reuse of software components.

EPA's Quality Policy and Procedure CIO Policy Transmittal 09-001

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The purpose of this memo is to (1) issue the final versions of the Quality Policy and Procedure documents (with a Q&A document for your reference as well) and (2) call for members of a new advisory group to guide Policy implementation activities.

Variation in quality of care after emergency general surgery procedures in the elderly.

PubMed

Ingraham, Angela M; Cohen, Mark E; Raval, Mehul V; Ko, Clifford Y; Nathens, Avery B

2011-06-01

The elderly (age ≥65 years) comprise an increasing proportion of patients undergoing emergency general surgery (EGS) procedures and have distinct needs compared with the young. We postulated that the needs of the elderly require different processes of care than those required for the young to assure optimal outcomes. To explore this hypothesis, we evaluated 30-day outcomes following EGS procedures in the young and the elderly and determined whether hospital performance was consistent across these 2 age strata. With data from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (2005 to 2008), regression models were constructed for serious morbidity and mortality for all patients undergoing EGS procedures and separately for young and elderly patients. These models allowed for estimation of the risk of adverse outcomes associated with advanced age and the generation of hospital-level observed to expected (O/E) ratios. We evaluated the correlation between hospital O/E ratios for the young and the elderly and the concordance of outlier status (hospitals with CIs of O/E ratios excluding 1) with weighted κ across these 2 age groups. Among 68,003 procedures at 186 hospitals, elderly patients had a higher crude and adjusted risk for serious morbidity (27.9% versus 9.7%, p < 0.0001; odds ratio 1.17, 95% CI 1.10 to 1.24) and mortality (15.2% versus 2.5%, p < 0.0001; odds ratio 2.29, 95% CI 2.09 to 2.51). When outcomes for elderly versus younger patients were compared, there was fair to moderate agreement on hospital performance for serious morbidity (r = 0.43; κ = 0.30) but not for mortality (r = 0.10; κ = 0.17). Elderly patients are at substantially greater risk for adverse events following EGS procedures. Hospitals had only slight agreement in mortality outcomes in the elderly compared with those in young patients. Processes of care that may account for this disparity should be further investigated. Copyright © 2011 American College of

Systematic Evaluation of Professional Performance: Legally Supported Procedure and Process.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kerl, Stella Beatriz; Garcia, John L.; McCullough, C. Sue; Maxwell, Melissa Elaine

2002-01-01

Legal challenges to counseling students' dismissal that are based on interpersonal or clinical incompetence require sound systematic academic evaluation and adherence to procedural and substantive due process. Presents an examination of professional competency from counselor education and legal perspectives, an evaluation procedure and process,…

Evaluation of the Spies™ modalities image quality

PubMed Central

Emiliani, Esteban; Talso, Michele; Baghdadi, Mohammed; Barreiro, Aarón; Orosa, Andrea; Serviàn, Pol; Gavrilov, Pavel; Proietti, Silvia; Traxer, Olivier

2017-01-01

Introduction The Spies™ system (Karl-Storz®) was introduced into digital ureteroscopy to improve endoscopic vision. To date, there is no data to either indicate which of the Spies modalities is better for improving diagnosis and treatment procedures, nor to compare the modalities in terms of image quality. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the image quality of five Spies™ modalities (SM) to the standard white light in an in-vitro model. Materials and Methods Two standardized grids and 3 stones of different composition were recorded in white light and the 5SM (Clara, Chroma, Clara+Chroma), Spectra A and B) using 4 standardized aqueous scenarios. Twelve templates were done in order to simultaneously compare the same objective in the different modalities. Six urologists, five medical students, five urology residents, and five persons not involved with urology evaluated each video on a scale of 1 (very bad) to 5 (very good). Results Comparing white light to SM, subjects scored better the quality of Clara and Clara+Chroma than white light (p=0.0139 and p<0.05) and scored worse Spectra A and B (p=0.0005 and p=0.0023)). When comparing Clara to the other SM, it was ranked equivalent to Clara+Chroma (p=0.67) and obtained a higher rank than Chroma, Spectra A and B (p<0.05, p=0.0001 and p=0.0001). In the multivariate analysis mean scores were higher among urologists. Conclusion In all analyzed scenarios, the subjects ranked Clara and Clara+Chroma as the modalities with better image quality compared to white light. PMID:28338307

40 CFR Appendix C to Part 61 - Quality Assurance Procedures

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 9 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Quality Assurance Procedures C Appendix C to Part 61 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) NATIONAL EMISSION STANDARDS FOR HAZARDOUS AIR POLLUTANTS Pt. 61, App. C Appendix C to Part 61...

Current progress on GSN data quality evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davis, J. P.; Gee, L. S.; Anderson, K. R.; Ahern, T. K.

2012-12-01

We discuss ongoing work to assess and improve the quality of data collected from instruments deployed at the 150+ stations of the Global Seismographic Network (GSN). The USGS and the IRIS Consortium are coordinating efforts to emphasize data quality following completion of the major installation phase of the GSN and recapitalization of the network's data acquisition systems, ancillary equipment and many of the secondary seismic sensors. We highlight here procedures adopted by the network's operators, the USGS' Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory (ASL) and UCSD's Project IDA, to ensure that the quality of the waveforms collected is maximized, that published metadata accurately reflect the instrument response of the data acquisitions systems, and that the data users are informed of the status of the GSN data quality. Additional details can be found at the GSN Quality webpage (www.iris.edu/hq/programs/gsn/quality). The GSN network operation teams meet frequently to share information and techniques. While custom software developed by each network operator to identify and track known problems remains important, recent efforts are providing new resources and tools to evaluate waveform quality, including analysis provided by the Lamont Waveform Quality Center (www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~ekstrom/Projects/WQC.html) and synthetic seismograms made available through Princeton University's Near Real Time Global Seismicity Portal ( http://global.shakemovie.princeton.edu/home.jsp ) and developments such as the IRIS DMS's MUSTANG and the ASL's Data Quality Analyzer. We conclude with the concept of station certification, a comprehensive overview of a station's performance that we have developed to communicate to data users the state of data- and metadata quality. As progress is made to verify the response and performance of existing systems as well as analysis of past calibration signals and waveform data, we will update information on the GSN web portals to apprise users of the

42 CFR 476.170 - General quality of care reconsideration procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

...) Qio Review Functions § 476.170 General quality of care reconsideration procedures. (a) Right to... practitioner who is dissatisfied with a QIO's initial determination may request a reconsideration by the QIO... than 3 calendar days following receipt of the QIO's initial determination. If the QIO is unable to...

42 CFR 476.170 - General quality of care reconsideration procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... General quality of care reconsideration procedures. (a) Right to request a reconsideration. Beginning with reviews initiated after July 31, 2014, a provider or practitioner who is dissatisfied with a QIO's initial... QIO, in writing or by telephone, by no later than 3 calendar days following receipt of the QIO's...

Standard procedures and quality-control practices for the U.S. Geological Survey National Field Quality Assurance Program from 1982 through 1993

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stanley, D.L.

1995-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey operates the National Field Quality Assurance Program to provide quality- assurance reference samples to field personnel who make water-quality field measurements. The program monitors the accuracy and precision of pH, specific conductance, and alkalinity field measurements. This report documents the operational procedures and quality-control techniques used in operating the quality-assurance program.

Outlining a selection procedure for Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolated from grape marc to improve fermentation process and distillate quality.

PubMed

Bovo, Barbara; Carlot, Milena; Fontana, Federico; Lombardi, Angiolella; Soligo, Stefano; Giacomini, Alessio; Corich, Viviana

2015-04-01

Nowadays grape marc represents one of the main by-product of winemaking. Many South Europe countries valorize this ligno-cellulosic waste through fermentation and distillation for industrial alcoholic beverage production. The storage of marcs is a crucial phase in the distillation process, due to the physicochemical transformations ascribed to microbial activity. Among the methods adopted by distillers to improve the quality of spirits, the use of selected yeasts has not been explored so far, therefore in this work we evaluated the selection criteria of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains for grape marc fermentation. The proposed selection procedure included three steps: characterization of phenotypical traits, evaluation of selected strains on pasteurised grape marc at lab-scale (100 g) and pilot-scale fermentation (350 kg). This selection process was applied on 104 strains isolated from grape marcs of different origins and technological treatment. Among physiological traits, β-glucosidase activity level as quality trait seems to be only partially involved in increasing varietal flavour. More effective in describing yeast impact on distillate quality is the ratio higher alcohols/esters that indicates strain ability to increase positive flavours. Finally, evaluating grape marc as source of selected yeasts, industrial treatment rather than varietal origin seems to shape strain technological and quality traits. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Quality control procedures for dynamic treatment delivery techniques involving couch motion.

PubMed

Yu, Victoria Y; Fahimian, Benjamin P; Xing, Lei; Hristov, Dimitre H

2014-08-01

In this study, the authors introduce and demonstrate quality control procedures for evaluating the geometric and dosimetric fidelity of dynamic treatment delivery techniques involving treatment couch motion synchronous with gantry and multileaf collimator (MLC). Tests were designed to evaluate positional accuracy, velocity constancy and accuracy for dynamic couch motion under a realistic weight load. A test evaluating the geometric accuracy of the system in delivering treatments over complex dynamic trajectories was also devised. Custom XML scripts that control the Varian TrueBeam™ STx (Serial #3) axes in Developer Mode were written to implement the delivery sequences for the tests. Delivered dose patterns were captured with radiographic film or the electronic portal imaging device. The couch translational accuracy in dynamic treatment mode was 0.01 cm. Rotational accuracy was within 0.3°, with 0.04 cm displacement of the rotational axis. Dose intensity profiles capturing the velocity constancy and accuracy for translations and rotation exhibited standard deviation and maximum deviations below 3%. For complex delivery involving MLC and couch motions, the overall translational accuracy for reproducing programmed patterns was within 0.06 cm. The authors conclude that in Developer Mode, TrueBeam™ is capable of delivering dynamic treatment delivery techniques involving couch motion with good geometric and dosimetric fidelity.

Evaluation of a procedure for reducing vehicle-tree accidents.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1987-01-01

A procedure for reducing vehicle-tree accidents was evaluated. The procedure, developed by the Michigan Department of Transportation, consists of five steps: (1) preparing a base map and plotting roadway information, (2) assigning priorities for fiel...

Evaluation and treatment of failed shoulder instability procedures.

PubMed

Ho, Anthony G; Gowda, Ashok L; Michael Wiater, J

2016-09-01

Management of the unstable shoulder after a failed stabilization procedure can be difficult and challenging. Detailed understanding of the native shoulder anatomy, including its static and dynamic restraints, is necessary for determining the patient's primary pathology. In addition, evaluation of the patient's history, physical exam, and imaging is important for identifying the cause for failure after the initial procedure. Common mistakes include under-appreciation of bony defects, failure to recognize capsular laxity, technical errors, and missed associated pathology. Many potential treatment options exist for revision surgery, including open or arthroscopic Bankart repair, bony augmentation procedures, and management of Hill Sachs defects. The aim of this narrative review is to discuss in-depth the common risk factors for post-surgical failure, components for appropriate evaluation, and the different surgical options available for revision stabilization. Level of evidence Level V.

Water quality assessment of the Li Canal using a functional fuzzy synthetic evaluation model.

PubMed

Feng, Yan; Ling, Liu

2014-07-01

Through introducing functional data analysis (FDA) theory into the conventional fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) method, the functional fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FFSE) model is established. FFSE keeps the property of the conventional FSE that the fuzziness in the water quality condition can be suitably measured. Furthermore, compared with FSE, FFSE has the following advantages: (1) FFSE requires fewer conditions for observation, for example, pollutants can be monitored at different times, and missing data is accepted; (2) the dynamic variation of the water quality condition can be represented more comprehensively and intuitively. The procedure of FFSE is discussed and the water quality of the Li Canal in 2012 is evaluated as an illustration. The synthetic classification of the Li Canal is "II" in January, February and July, and "I" in other months, which can satisfy the requirement of the Chinese South-to-North Water Diversion Project.

21 CFR 106.1 - Status and applicability of the quality control procedures regulation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) FOOD FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION INFANT FORMULA QUALITY CONTROL PROCEDURES... infant formula meets the safety, quality, and nutrient requirements of section 412 of the act and the..., processing, and packaging of an infant formula shall render such formula adulterated under section 412(a)(1...

21 CFR 106.1 - Status and applicability of the quality control procedures regulation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) FOOD FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION INFANT FORMULA QUALITY CONTROL PROCEDURES... infant formula meets the safety, quality, and nutrient requirements of section 412 of the act and the..., processing, and packaging of an infant formula shall render such formula adulterated under section 412(a)(1...

Application and testing of a procedure to evaluate transferability of habitat suitability criteria

USGS Publications Warehouse

Thomas, Jeff A.; Bovee, Ken D.

1993-01-01

A procedure designed to test the transferability of habitat suitability criteria was evaluated in the Cache la Poudre River, Colorado. Habitat suitability criteria were developed for active adult and juvenile rainbow trout in the South Platte River, Colorado. These criteria were tested by comparing microhabitat use predicted from the criteria with observed microhabitat use by adult rainbow trout in the Cache la Poudre River. A one-sided X2 test, using counts of occupied and unoccupied cells in each suitability classification, was used to test for non-random selection for optimum habitat use over usable habitat and for suitable over unsuitable habitat. Criteria for adult rainbow trout were judged to be transferable to the Cache la Poudre River, but juvenile criteria (applied to adults) were not transferable. Random subsampling of occupied and unoccupied cells was conducted to determine the effect of sample size on the reliability of the test procedure. The incidence of type I and type II errors increased rapidly as the sample size was reduced below 55 occupied and 200 unoccupied cells. Recommended modifications to the procedure included the adoption of a systematic or randomized sampling design and direct measurement of microhabitat variables. With these modifications, the procedure is economical, simple and reliable. Use of the procedure as a quality assurance device in routine applications of the instream flow incremental methodology was encouraged.

[Quality of 3D magnetic resonance imaging of coronary arteries in patients with D-transposition of the great arteries after the Jatene switch procedure].

PubMed

Marín Rodríguez, C; Lancharro Zapata, Á; Rodríguez Ogando, A; Carrasco Muñoz, S; Ruiz Martín, Y; Sánchez Alegre, M L; Maroto Alvaro, E

2015-01-01

To evaluate the quality of images obtained with 3D balanced fast-field echo whole heart (WH3D) MRI sequences for assessing the coronary anastomosis and coronary stenosis in patients with D-transposition of the great arteries who have undergone the Jatene switch procedure. We retrieved 100 WH3D studies done in 83 patients who had undergone the Jatene switch procedure from our pediatric cardiac MRI database; 84 of these studies fulfilled the criteria for inclusion in the study. We evaluated coronary stenoses on WH3D MR images and their correlation with coronary CT or angiography images. We retrospectively studied the quality of the images of the proximal coronary arteries using a four-point scale and correlating the findings with age, heart rate, and heart size. Of the 84 studies, 4 (4.8%) were of a quality considered «insufficient for diagnosis», 7 (8.3%) were considered «fair», 23 (27.4%) «good», and 50 (59.5%) «excellent». The quality of the image of the coronary arteries was significantly correlated with heart rate. MRI detected stenosis in the origin of the coronary arteries in 9 (10.7%) studies. Images obtained with the WH3D MRI sequence in patients who had undergone the Jatene procedure were of diagnostic quality in most cases and were better in patients with lower heart rates. In 10.7%, stenosis in the origin of the coronary arteries that required new studies was detected. Copyright © 2014 SERAM. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Evaluation Procedures in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Career Ladder Plan.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schlechty, Phillip C.

1985-01-01

Describes faculty evaluation procedures used in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg (North Carolina) Public Schools in conjunction with career development. Covers the program's philosophy, purposes, and special characteristics; expectations set and competencies sought; the areas evaluation; evaluator characteristics; the observation process; teachers'…

APPLICATION OF SOFTWARE QUALITY ASSURANCE CONCEPTS AND PROCEDURES TO ENVIORNMENTAL RESEARCH INVOLVING SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

EPA Science Inventory

As EPA’s environmental research expands into new areas that involve the development of software, quality assurance concepts and procedures that were originally developed for environmental data collection may not be appropriate. Fortunately, software quality assurance is a ...

[Quality of the pharmacotherapeutic recommendations for the integrated care procedures in Andalusia].

PubMed

Corte, Rosa María Muñoz; Estepa, Raúl García; Ramos, Bernardo Santos; Paloma, Francisco Javier Bautista

2009-01-01

To evaluate the quality of the pharmacotherapeutic recommendations included in the Integrated Care Procedures (PAIs regarding its initials in Spanish) of the Andalusian Ministry of Health, published up to March 2008, through the design and validation of a tool. The assessment tool was designed based on similar instruments, specifically the AGREE. Other criteria included were taken from various literature sources or were devised by ourselves. The tool was validated prior to being used. After applying it to all the PAIs, we examined the degree of compliance with these pharmacotherapeutic criteria, both as a whole and by PAIs subgroups. The developed tool is a questionnaire of 20 items, divided into 4 sections. The first section consists of the essential criteria, and the rest make reference to more specific, non essential criteria: definition of the level of evidence, thoroughness of information and definition of indicators. It was found that 4 of the 60 PAIs do not contain any type of therapeutic recommendation. No PAI fulfils all the items listed in the tool, however, 70 % of them fulfil the essential quality criteria established. There is a great variability in the content of pharmacotherapeutic recommendations for each PAI. Once the validity of the tool has been proved, it could be used to assess the quality of the therapeutic recommendations in clinical practice guidelines.

Assessment of surgical discharge summaries and evaluation of a new quality improvement model.

PubMed

Stein, Ran; Neufeld, David; Shwartz, Ivan; Erez, Ilan; Haas, Ilana; Magen, Ada; Glassberg, Elon; Shmulevsky, Pavel; Paran, Haim

2014-11-01

Discharge summaries after hospitalization provide the most reliable description and implications of the hospitalization. A concise discharge summary is crucial for maintaining continuity of care through the transition from inpatient to ambulatory care. Discharge summaries often lack information and are imprecise. Errors and insufficient recommendations regarding changes in the medical regimen may harm the patient's health and may result in readmission. To evaluate a quality improvement model and training program for writing postoperative discharge summaries for three surgical procedures. Medical records and surgical discharge summaries were reviewed and scored. Essential points for communication between surgeons and family physicians were included in automated forms. Staff was briefed twice regarding required summary contents with an interim evaluation. Changes in quality were evaluated. Summaries from 61 cholecystectomies, 42 hernioplasties and 45 colectomies were reviewed. The average quality score of all discharge summaries increased from 72.1 to 78.3 after the first intervention (P < 0.0005) to 81.0 following the second intervention. As the discharge summary's quality improved, its length decreased significantly. Discharge summaries lack important information and are too long. Developing a model for discharge summaries and instructing surgical staff regarding their contents resulted in measurable improvement. Frequent interventions and supervision are needed to maintain the quality of the surgical discharge summary.

[Comparison of 4 methods of evaluating protein quality in vegetable sources].

PubMed

Muñoz de Maquiña, A; Gross, R; Schoeneberger, H; Villacorta, L

1983-12-01

This study compares the practical value of the following methods: protein efficiency ratio (PER), blood urea concentration in rats (BUC), relative nutritive value (RNV), and predicted protein value (PPV) to evaluate the protein quality of 41 diets of plant origin. Results demonstrated low correlations between PER and RNV (r = 0.66), PER and PPV (r = 0.53), RNV and PPV (r = 0.54), whereas there was a high negative correlation between PER and BUC (r = -0.89). These different procedures can be useful and valid for distinct and well-defined objectives, but the evaluation of results must be made in accordance with the purpose of the experiment. In assessing the protein quality of foodstuffs, it is therefore recommended that mathematical computer models be developed which take into account the cybernetic system of the amino acid metabolism. This would definitely reduce the actual need of expensive long-term biological assays.

76 FR 27016 - Evaluating Test Procedures for Voting Systems

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-05-10

...-02] Evaluating Test Procedures for Voting Systems AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and... Assistance Commission for use by NIST in research to develop and assess NIST's test procedures for voting... develop and assess NIST test protocols for voting equipment. NIST research is designed to: (1) Develop...

Assuring Quality in Education Evaluation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trochim, William M. K.; Visco, Ronald J.

1986-01-01

A number of quality assurance educational evaluation methods are illustrated. Evaluation data obtained from the Providence, Rhode Island, school district are used. The methods are: (1) from auditing, internal control; (2) from accounting, double bookkeeping; and (3) from industrial quality control, acceptance sampling and cumulative percentage…

Water-quality data-collection activities in Colorado and Ohio; Phase II, Evaluation of 1984 field and laboratory quality-assurance practices

USGS Publications Warehouse

Childress, Carolyn J. Oblinger; Chaney, Thomas H.; Myers, Donna; Norris, J. Michael; Hren, Janet

1987-01-01

Serious questions have been raised by Congress about the usefulness of water-quality data for addressing issues of regional and national scope and, especially, for characterizing the current quality of the Nation's streams and ground water. In response, the U.S. Geological Survey has undertaken a pilot study in Colorado and Ohio to (1) determine the characteristics of current (1984) water-quality data-collection activities of Federal, regional, State, and local agencies, and academic institutions; and (2) determine how well the data from these activities, collected for various purposes and using different procedures, can be used to improve our ability to answer major broad-scope questions, such as:A. What are (or were) natural or near-natural water-quality conditions?B. What are existing water-quality conditions?C. How has water quality changed, and how do the changes relate to human activities?Colorado and Ohio were chosen for the pilot study largely because they represent regions with different types of waterquality concerns and programs. The study has been divided into three phases, the objectives of which are: Phase I--Inventory water-quality data-collection programs, including costs, and identify those programs that met a set of broad criteria for producing data that are potentially appropriate for water-quality assessments of regional and national scope. Phase II--Evaluate the quality assurance of field and laboratory procedures used in producing the data from programs that met the broad criteria of Phase I. Phase III--Compile the qualifying data and evaluate the adequacy of this data base for addressing selected water-quality questions of regional and national scope.Water-quality data are collected by a large number of organizations for diverse purposes ranging from meeting statutory requirements to research on water chemistry. Combining these individual data bases is an appealing and potentially cost-effective way to attempt to develop a data base adequate

Disinfection procedures: their efficacy and effect on dimensional accuracy and surface quality of an irreversible hydrocolloid impression material.

PubMed

Rentzia, A; Coleman, D C; O'Donnell, M J; Dowling, A H; O'Sullivan, M

2011-02-01

This study investigated the antibacterial efficacy and effect of 0.55% ortho-phthalaldehyde (Cidex OPA(®)) and 0.5% sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) on the dimensional accuracy and surface quality of gypsum casts retrieved from an irreversible hydrocolloid impression material. A simulated clinical cast and technique was developed to compare the dimensional accuracy and surface quality changes of the test gypsum casts with controls. Dimensional accuracy measurements were completed between fixed points using a travelling microscope under low angle illumination at a magnification of ×3. Surface quality changes of "smooth" and "rough" areas on the cast were evaluated by means of optical profilometry. The efficacy of the disinfection procedures against Pseudomonas aeruginosa was evaluated by determining the number of colony forming units (cfu) recovered after disinfection of alginate discs inoculated with 1×10⁶cfu for defined intervals. The dimensional accuracy of the gypsum casts was not significantly affected by the disinfection protocols. Neither disinfectant solution nor immersion time had an effect on the surface roughness of the "smooth" area on the cast, however, a significant increase in surface roughness was observed with increasing immersion time for the "rough" surface. Complete elimination of viable Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells from alginate discs was obtained after 30 and 120 s immersion in Cidex OPA(®) and NaOCl, respectively. Immersion of irreversible hydrocolloid impressions in Cidex OPA(®) for 30 s was proved to be the most effective disinfection procedure. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Modified application of HS-SPME for quality evaluation of essential oil plant materials.

PubMed

Dawidowicz, Andrzej L; Szewczyk, Joanna; Dybowski, Michal P

2016-01-01

The main limitation in the standard application of head space analysis employing solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) for the evaluation of plants as sources of essential oils (EOs) are different quantitative relations of EO components from those obtained by direct analysis of EO which was got in the steam distillation (SD) process from the same plant (EO/SD). The results presented in the paper for thyme, mint, sage, basil, savory, and marjoram prove that the quantitative relations of EO components established by HS-SPME procedure and direct analysis of EO/SD are similar when the plant material in the HS-SPME process is replaced by its suspension in oil of the same physicochemical character as that of SPME fiber coating. The observed differences in the thyme EO composition estimated by both procedures are insignificant (F(exp)procedure, the application of the new HS-SPME procedure proposed in this paper substantially shortens the evaluation time of plant material quality and thus may improve the efficiency of analytical laboratories. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Quality dimensions in health evaluation: manager's conceptions.

PubMed

Bosi, Maria Lúcia Magalhães; Pontes, Ricardo José Soares; Vasconcelos, Suziana Martins de

2010-04-01

To understand manager's perceptions and experiences in regards to qualitative evaluations in basic health care. A qualitative study, based on the critical interpretive approach, was performed in 2006, in the city of Fortaleza, Northeastern Brazil. The sample consisted of the group responsible for planning basic health care at the state level. In order to obtain the empirical data, the focus group technique was utilized. Two central themes emerged concerning the perceptions about quality and the dimensions of quality employed in health evaluations, which were revealed in distinct ways. The concepts of quality evaluation and qualitative evaluation did not appear clearly understood, confusing qualitative evaluation with formal quality evaluations. Likewise, the inherent multidimensionality of quality was not recognized. Despite the criticism expressed by the participants regarding the improper quantification of certain dimensions, the necessary technical skills and understanding were not observed for the approach to include the distinct dimensions of quality in the evaluation process. The conceptions of managers responsible for the planning of basic health care at the state level revealed an important disassociation from the premises of qualitative evaluation, especially those evaluations oriented by the fourth generation approach. Therefore, the model adopted by these actors for the evaluation of program and service quality did not consider their multidimensionality.

Evaluation of the Spies TM modalities image quality.

PubMed

Emiliani, Esteban; Talso, Michele; Baghdadi, Mohammed; Barreiro, Aaron; Orosa, Andrea; Serviàn, Pol; Gavrilov, Pavel; Proietti, Silvia; Traxer, Olivier

2017-01-01

The Spies™ system (Karl-Storz®) was introduced into digital ureteroscopy to improve endoscopic vision. To date, there is no data to either indicate which of the Spies modalities is better for improving diagnosis and treatment procedures, nor to compare the modalities in terms of image quality. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the image quality of five Spies™ modalities (SM) to the standard white light in an in-vitro model. Two standardized grids and 3 stones of different composition were recorded in white light and the 5SM (Clara, Chroma, Clara+Chroma), Spectra A and B) using 4 standardized aqueous scenarios. Twelve templates were done in order to simultaneously compare the same objective in the different modalities. Six urologists, five medical students, five urology residents, and five persons not involved with urology evaluated each video on a scale of 1 (very bad) to 5 (very good). Comparing white light to SM, subjects scored better the quality of Clara and Clara+Chroma than white light (p=0.0139 and p<0.05) and scored worse Spectra A and B (p=0.0005 and p=0.0023). When comparing Clara to the other SM, it was ranked equivalent to Clara+Chroma (p=0.67) and obtained a higher rank than Chroma, Spectra A and B (p<0.05, p=0.0001 and p=0.0001). In the multivariate analysis mean scores were higher among urologists. In all analyzed scenarios, the subjects ranked Clara and Clara+Chroma as the modalities with better image quality compared to white light. Copyright® by the International Brazilian Journal of Urology.

Student Services Program Planning and Evaluation: Responsibility, Procedures, Instrument, and Guidelines.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Repp, Charles A.; Brach, Ronald C.

The manual provides a rationale, procedural guidelines, time-schedules, instruments, and supporting documentation for student services program evaluation at SUNY Agricultural and Technical College, Delhi. Six procedural guidelines include: (1) all programs and services should be evaluated at least once every four years, with provision for annual…

Quality evaluation of extracted ion chromatograms and chromatographic peaks in liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry-based metabolomics data.

PubMed

Zhang, Wenchao; Zhao, Patrick X

2014-01-01

Extracted ion chromatogram (EIC) extraction and chromatographic peak detection are two important processing procedures in liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS)-based metabolomics data analysis. Most commonly, the LC/MS technique employs electrospray ionization as the ionization method. The EICs from LC/MS data are often noisy and contain high background signals. Furthermore, the chromatographic peak quality varies with respect to its location in the chromatogram and most peaks have zigzag shapes. Therefore, there is a critical need to develop effective metrics for quality evaluation of EICs and chromatographic peaks in LC/MS based metabolomics data analysis. We investigated a comprehensive set of potential quality evaluation metrics for extracted EICs and detected chromatographic peaks. Specifically, for EIC quality evaluation, we analyzed the mass chromatographic quality index (MCQ index) and propose a novel quality evaluation metric, the EIC-related global zigzag index, which is based on an EIC's first order derivatives. For chromatographic peak quality evaluation, we analyzed and compared six metrics: sharpness, Gaussian similarity, signal-to-noise ratio, peak significance level, triangle peak area similarity ratio and the local peak-related local zigzag index. Although the MCQ index is suited for selecting and aligning analyte components, it cannot fairly evaluate EICs with high background signals or those containing only a single peak. Our proposed EIC related global zigzag index is robust enough to evaluate EIC qualities in both scenarios. Of the six peak quality evaluation metrics, the sharpness, peak significance level, and zigzag index outperform the others due to the zigzag nature of LC/MS chromatographic peaks. Furthermore, using several peak quality metrics in combination is more efficient than individual metrics in peak quality evaluation.

Measuring quality of care: considering conceptual approaches to quality indicator development and evaluation.

PubMed

Stelfox, Henry T; Straus, Sharon E

2013-12-01

In this article, we describe one approach for developing and evaluating quality indicators. We focus on describing different conceptual approaches to quality indicator development, review one approach for developing quality indicators, outline how to evaluate quality indicators once developed, and discuss quality indicator maintenance. The key steps for developing quality indicators include specifying a clear goal for the indicators; using methodologies to incorporate evidence, expertise, and patient perspectives; and considering contextual factors and logistics of implementation. The Strategic Framework Board and the National Quality Measure Clearinghouse have developed criteria for evaluating quality indicators that complement traditional psychometric evaluations. Optimal strategies for quality indicator maintenance and dissemination have not been determined, but experiences with clinical guideline maintenance may be informative. For quality indicators to effectively guide quality improvement efforts, they must be developed, evaluated, maintained, and implemented using rigorous evidence-informed practices. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Application of newly developed Fluoro-QC software for image quality evaluation in cardiac X-ray systems.

PubMed

Oliveira, M; Lopez, G; Geambastiani, P; Ubeda, C

2018-05-01

A quality assurance (QA) program is a valuable tool for the continuous production of optimal quality images. The aim of this paper is to assess a newly developed automatic computer software for image quality (IR) evaluation in fluoroscopy X-ray systems. Test object images were acquired using one fluoroscopy system, Siemens Axiom Artis model (Siemens AG, Medical Solutions Erlangen, Germany). The software was developed as an ImageJ plugin. Two image quality parameters were assessed: high-contrast spatial resolution (HCSR) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The time between manual and automatic image quality assessment procedures were compared. The paired t-test was used to assess the data. p Values of less than 0.05 were considered significant. The Fluoro-QC software generated faster IQ evaluation results (mean = 0.31 ± 0.08 min) than manual procedure (mean = 4.68 ± 0.09 min). The mean difference between techniques was 4.36 min. Discrepancies were identified in the region of interest (ROI) areas drawn manually with evidence of user dependence. The new software presented the results of two tests (HCSR = 3.06, SNR = 5.17) and also collected information from the DICOM header. Significant differences were not identified between manual and automatic measures of SNR (p value = 0.22) and HCRS (p value = 0.46). The Fluoro-QC software is a feasible, fast and free to use method for evaluating imaging quality parameters on fluoroscopy systems. Copyright © 2017 The College of Radiographers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

USGS Blind Sample Project: monitoring and evaluating laboratory analytical quality

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ludtke, Amy S.; Woodworth, Mark T.

1997-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collects and disseminates information about the Nation's water resources. Surface- and ground-water samples are collected and sent to USGS laboratories for chemical analyses. The laboratories identify and quantify the constituents in the water samples. Random and systematic errors occur during sample handling, chemical analysis, and data processing. Although all errors cannot be eliminated from measurements, the magnitude of their uncertainty can be estimated and tracked over time. Since 1981, the USGS has operated an independent, external, quality-assurance project called the Blind Sample Project (BSP). The purpose of the BSP is to monitor and evaluate the quality of laboratory analytical results through the use of double-blind quality-control (QC) samples. The information provided by the BSP assists the laboratories in detecting and correcting problems in the analytical procedures. The information also can aid laboratory users in estimating the extent that laboratory errors contribute to the overall errors in their environmental data.

Maintenance Procedure Display: Head Mounted Display (HMD) Evaluations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Whitmore, Milrian; Litaker, Harry L., Jr.; Solem, Jody A.; Holden, Kritina L.; Hoffman, Ronald R.

2007-01-01

A viewgraph presentation describing maintenance procedures for head mounted displays is shown. The topics include: 1) Study Goals; 2) Near Eye Displays (HMDs); 3) Design; 4) Phase I-Evaluation Methods; 5) Phase 1 Results; 6) Improved HMD Mounting; 7) Phase 2 -Evaluation Methods; 8) Phase 2 Preliminary Results; and 9) Next Steps.

SeaWiFS Technical Report Series. Volume 38; SeaWiFS Calibration and Validation Quality Control Procedures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hooker, Stanford B. (Editor); Firestone, Elaine R. (Editor); McClain, Charles R.; Darzi, Michael; Barnes, Robert A.; Eplee, Robert E.; Firestone, James K.; Patt, Frederick S.; Robinson, Wayne D.; Schieber, Brian D.;

Using Third Party Data to Update a Reference Dataset in a Quality Evaluation Service

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xavier, E. M. A.; Ariza-López, F. J.; Ureña-Cámara, M. A.

2016-06-01

Nowadays it is easy to find many data sources for various regions around the globe. In this 'data overload' scenario there are few, if any, information available about the quality of these data sources. In order to easily provide these data quality information we presented the architecture of a web service for the automation of quality control of spatial datasets running over a Web Processing Service (WPS). For quality procedures that require an external reference dataset, like positional accuracy or completeness, the architecture permits using a reference dataset. However, this reference dataset is not ageless, since it suffers the natural time degradation inherent to geospatial features. In order to mitigate this problem we propose the Time Degradation & Updating Module which intends to apply assessed data as a tool to maintain the reference database updated. The main idea is to utilize datasets sent to the quality evaluation service as a source of 'candidate data elements' for the updating of the reference database. After the evaluation, if some elements of a candidate dataset reach a determined quality level, they can be used as input data to improve the current reference database. In this work we present the first design of the Time Degradation & Updating Module. We believe that the outcomes can be applied in the search of a full-automatic on-line quality evaluation platform.

The impact of a medical procedure service on patient safety, procedure quality and resident training opportunities.

PubMed

Tukey, Melissa H; Wiener, Renda Soylemez

2014-03-01

At some academic hospitals, medical procedure services are being developed to provide supervision for residents performing bedside procedures in hopes of improving patient safety and resident education. There is limited knowledge of the impact of such services on procedural complication rates and resident procedural training opportunities. To determine the impact of a medical procedure service (MPS) on patient safety and resident procedural training opportunities. Retrospective cohort analysis comparing characteristics and outcomes of procedures performed by the MPS versus the primary medical service. Consecutive adults admitted to internal medicine services at a large academic hospital who underwent a bedside medical procedure (central venous catheterization, thoracentesis, paracentesis, lumbar puncture) between 1 July 2010 and 31 December 2011. The primary outcome was a composite rate of major complications. Secondary outcomes included resident participation in bedside procedures and use of "best practice" safety process measures. We evaluated 1,707 bedside procedures (548 by the MPS, 1,159 by the primary services). There were no differences in the composite rate of major complications (1.6 % vs. 1.9 %, p = 0.71) or resident participation in bedside procedures (57.0 % vs. 54.3 %, p = 0.31) between the MPS and the primary services. Procedures performed by the MPS were more likely to be successfully completed (95.8 % vs. 92.8 %, p = 0.02) and to use best practice safety process measures, including use of ultrasound guidance when appropriate (96.8 % vs. 90.0 %, p = 0.0004), avoidance of femoral venous catheterization (89.5 vs. 82.7 %, p = 0.02) and involvement of attending physicians (99.3 % vs. 57.0 %, p < 0.0001). Although use of a MPS did not significantly affect the rate of major complications or resident opportunities for training in bedside procedures, it was associated with increased use of best practice safety process measures.

Quality of Widely Available Video Instructional Materials for Point-of-Care Ultrasound-Guided Procedure Training in Internal Medicine.

PubMed

Khandelwal, Aditi; Devine, Luke A; Otremba, Mirek

2017-07-01

Many instructional materials for point-of-care ultrasound (US)-guided procedures exist; however, their quality is unknown. This study assessed widely available educational videos for point-of-care US-guided procedures relevant to internal medicine: central venous catheterization, thoracentesis, and paracentesis. We searched Ovid MEDLINE, YouTube, and Google to identify videos for point-of-care US-guided paracentesis, thoracentesis, and central venous catheterization. Videos were evaluated with a 5-point scale assessing the global educational value and a checklist based on consensus guidelines for competencies in point-of-care US-guided procedures. For point-of-care US-guided central venous catheterization, 12 videos were found, with an average global educational value score ± SD of 4.5 ± 0.7. Indications to abort the procedure were discussed in only 3 videos. Five videos described the indications and contraindications for performing central venous catheterization. For point-of-care US-guided thoracentesis, 8 videos were identified, with an average global educational value score of 4.0 ± 0.9. Only one video discussed indications to abort the procedure, and 3 videos discussed sterile technique. For point-of-care US-guided paracentesis, 7 videos were included, with an average global educational value score of 4.1 ± 0.9. Only 1 video discussed indications to abort the procedure, and 2 described the location of the inferior epigastric artery. The 27 videos reviewed contained good-quality general instruction. However, we noted a lack of safety-related information in most of the available videos. Further development of resources is required to teach internal medicine trainees skills that focus on the safety of point-of-care US guidance. © 2017 by the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.

Factor selection for service quality evaluation: a hospital case study.

PubMed

Ameryoun, Ahmad; Najafi, Seyedvahid; Nejati-Zarnaqi, Bayram; Khalilifar, Seyed Omid; Ajam, Mahdi; Ansarimoghadam, Ahmad

2017-02-13

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a systematic approach to predict service quality dimension's influence on service quality using a novel analysis based on data envelopment and SERVQUAL. Design/methodology/approach To assess hospital service quality in Tehran, expectation and perception of those who received the services were evaluated using SERVQUAL. The hospital service quality dimensions were found by exploratory factor analysis (EFA). To compare customer expectation and perception, perceived service quality index (PSQI) was measured using a new method based on common weights. A novel sensitivity approach was used to test the service quality factor's impact on the PSQI. Findings A new service quality dimension named "trust in services" was found using EFA, which is not an original SERVQUAL factor. The approach was applied to assess the hospital's service quality. Since the PSQI value was 0.76 it showed that improvements are needed to meet customer expectations. The results showed the factor order that affect PSQI. "Trust in services" has the strongest influence on PSQI followed by "tangibles," "assurance," "empathy," and "responsiveness," respectively. Practical implications This work gives managers insight into service quality by following a systematic method; i.e., measuring perceived service quality from the customer viewpoint and service factors' impact on customer perception. Originality/value The procedure helps managers to select the required service quality dimensions which need improvement and predict their effects on customer perception.

Process perspective on image quality evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leisti, Tuomas; Halonen, Raisa; Kokkonen, Anna; Weckman, Hanna; Mettänen, Marja; Lensu, Lasse; Ritala, Risto; Oittinen, Pirkko; Nyman, Göte

2008-01-01

The psychological complexity of multivariate image quality evaluation makes it difficult to develop general image quality metrics. Quality evaluation includes several mental processes and ignoring these processes and the use of a few test images can lead to biased results. By using a qualitative/quantitative (Interpretation Based Quality, IBQ) methodology, we examined the process of pair-wise comparison in a setting, where the quality of the images printed by laser printer on different paper grades was evaluated. Test image consisted of a picture of a table covered with several objects. Three other images were also used, photographs of a woman, cityscape and countryside. In addition to the pair-wise comparisons, observers (N=10) were interviewed about the subjective quality attributes they used in making their quality decisions. An examination of the individual pair-wise comparisons revealed serious inconsistencies in observers' evaluations on the test image content, but not on other contexts. The qualitative analysis showed that this inconsistency was due to the observers' focus of attention. The lack of easily recognizable context in the test image may have contributed to this inconsistency. To obtain reliable knowledge of the effect of image context or attention on subjective image quality, a qualitative methodology is needed.

Evaluation of the indoor air quality minimum ventilation rate procedure for use in California retail buildings.

PubMed

Dutton, S M; Mendell, M J; Chan, W R; Barrios, M; Sidheswaran, M A; Sullivan, D P; Eliseeva, E A; Fisk, W J

2015-02-01

This research assesses benefits of adding to California Title-24 ventilation rate (VR) standards a performance-based option, similar to the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers 'Indoor Air Quality Procedure' (IAQP) for retail spaces. Ventilation rates and concentrations of contaminants of concern (CoC) were measured in 13 stores. Mass balance models were used to estimate 'IAQP-based' VRs that would maintain concentrations of all CoCs below health- or odor-based reference concentration limits. An intervention study in a 'big box' store assessed how the current VR, the Title 24-prescribed VR, and the IAQP-based VR (0.24, 0.69, and 1.51 air changes per hour) influenced measured IAQ and perceived of IAQ. Neither current VRs nor Title 24-prescribed VRs would maintain all CoCs below reference limits in 12 of 13 stores. In the big box store, the IAQP-based VR kept all CoCs below limits. More than 80% of subjects reported acceptable air quality at all three VRs. In 11 of 13 buildings, saving energy through lower VRs while maintaining acceptable IAQ would require source reduction or gas-phase air cleaning for CoCs. In only one of the 13 retail stores surveyed, application of the IAQP would have allowed reduced VRs without additional contaminant-reduction strategies. Published 2014. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Quality evaluation of extracted ion chromatograms and chromatographic peaks in liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry-based metabolomics data

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Extracted ion chromatogram (EIC) extraction and chromatographic peak detection are two important processing procedures in liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS)-based metabolomics data analysis. Most commonly, the LC/MS technique employs electrospray ionization as the ionization method. The EICs from LC/MS data are often noisy and contain high background signals. Furthermore, the chromatographic peak quality varies with respect to its location in the chromatogram and most peaks have zigzag shapes. Therefore, there is a critical need to develop effective metrics for quality evaluation of EICs and chromatographic peaks in LC/MS based metabolomics data analysis. Results We investigated a comprehensive set of potential quality evaluation metrics for extracted EICs and detected chromatographic peaks. Specifically, for EIC quality evaluation, we analyzed the mass chromatographic quality index (MCQ index) and propose a novel quality evaluation metric, the EIC-related global zigzag index, which is based on an EIC's first order derivatives. For chromatographic peak quality evaluation, we analyzed and compared six metrics: sharpness, Gaussian similarity, signal-to-noise ratio, peak significance level, triangle peak area similarity ratio and the local peak-related local zigzag index. Conclusions Although the MCQ index is suited for selecting and aligning analyte components, it cannot fairly evaluate EICs with high background signals or those containing only a single peak. Our proposed EIC related global zigzag index is robust enough to evaluate EIC qualities in both scenarios. Of the six peak quality evaluation metrics, the sharpness, peak significance level, and zigzag index outperform the others due to the zigzag nature of LC/MS chromatographic peaks. Furthermore, using several peak quality metrics in combination is more efficient than individual metrics in peak quality evaluation. PMID:25350128

Evaluation of image quality

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pavel, M.

1993-01-01

This presentation outlines in viewgraph format a general approach to the evaluation of display system quality for aviation applications. This approach is based on the assumption that it is possible to develop a model of the display which captures most of the significant properties of the display. The display characteristics should include spatial and temporal resolution, intensity quantizing effects, spatial sampling, delays, etc. The model must be sufficiently well specified to permit generation of stimuli that simulate the output of the display system. The first step in the evaluation of display quality is an analysis of the tasks to be performed using the display. Thus, for example, if a display is used by a pilot during a final approach, the aesthetic aspects of the display may be less relevant than its dynamic characteristics. The opposite task requirements may apply to imaging systems used for displaying navigation charts. Thus, display quality is defined with regard to one or more tasks. Given a set of relevant tasks, there are many ways to approach display evaluation. The range of evaluation approaches includes visual inspection, rapid evaluation, part-task simulation, and full mission simulation. The work described is focused on two complementary approaches to rapid evaluation. The first approach is based on a model of the human visual system. A model of the human visual system is used to predict the performance of the selected tasks. The model-based evaluation approach permits very rapid and inexpensive evaluation of various design decisions. The second rapid evaluation approach employs specifically designed critical tests that embody many important characteristics of actual tasks. These are used in situations where a validated model is not available. These rapid evaluation tests are being implemented in a workstation environment.

Evaluation models and criteria of the quality of hospital websites: a systematic review study

PubMed Central

Jeddi, Fatemeh Rangraz; Gilasi, Hamidreza; Khademi, Sahar

2017-01-01

Introduction Hospital websites are important tools in establishing communication and exchanging information between patients and staff, and thus should enjoy an acceptable level of quality. The aim of this study was to identify proper models and criteria to evaluate the quality of hospital websites. Methods This research was a systematic review study. The international databases such as Science Direct, Google Scholar, PubMed, Proquest, Ovid, Elsevier, Springer, and EBSCO together with regional database such as Magiran, Scientific Information Database, Persian Journal Citation Report (PJCR) and IranMedex were searched. Suitable keywords including website, evaluation, and quality of website were used. Full text papers related to the research were included. The criteria and sub criteria of the evaluation of website quality were extracted and classified. Results To evaluate the quality of the websites, various models and criteria were presented. The WEB-Q-IM, Mile, Minerva, Seruni Luci, and Web-Qual models were the designed models. The criteria of accessibility, content and apparent features of the websites, the design procedure, the graphics applied in the website, and the page’s attractions have been mentioned in the majority of studies. Conclusion The criteria of accessibility, content, design method, security, and confidentiality of personal information are the essential criteria in the evaluation of all websites. It is suggested that the ease of use, graphics, attractiveness and other apparent properties of websites are considered as the user-friendliness sub criteria. Further, the criteria of speed and accessibility of the website should be considered as sub criterion of efficiency. When determining the evaluation criteria of the quality of websites, attention to major differences in the specific features of any website is essential. PMID:28465807

Evaluation models and criteria of the quality of hospital websites: a systematic review study.

PubMed

Jeddi, Fatemeh Rangraz; Gilasi, Hamidreza; Khademi, Sahar

2017-02-01

Hospital websites are important tools in establishing communication and exchanging information between patients and staff, and thus should enjoy an acceptable level of quality. The aim of this study was to identify proper models and criteria to evaluate the quality of hospital websites. This research was a systematic review study. The international databases such as Science Direct, Google Scholar, PubMed, Proquest, Ovid, Elsevier, Springer, and EBSCO together with regional database such as Magiran, Scientific Information Database, Persian Journal Citation Report (PJCR) and IranMedex were searched. Suitable keywords including website, evaluation, and quality of website were used. Full text papers related to the research were included. The criteria and sub criteria of the evaluation of website quality were extracted and classified. To evaluate the quality of the websites, various models and criteria were presented. The WEB-Q-IM, Mile, Minerva, Seruni Luci, and Web-Qual models were the designed models. The criteria of accessibility, content and apparent features of the websites, the design procedure, the graphics applied in the website, and the page's attractions have been mentioned in the majority of studies. The criteria of accessibility, content, design method, security, and confidentiality of personal information are the essential criteria in the evaluation of all websites. It is suggested that the ease of use, graphics, attractiveness and other apparent properties of websites are considered as the user-friendliness sub criteria. Further, the criteria of speed and accessibility of the website should be considered as sub criterion of efficiency. When determining the evaluation criteria of the quality of websites, attention to major differences in the specific features of any website is essential.

Cross-national research on contractor evaluation procedures in public works procurement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kinoshita, Seiya; Sato, Naoyoshi; Matsumoto, Naoya

Contractor evaluation methods in Japan's public works procurement, beginning with construction business licensure, going through biennial preliminary firm rating, up to project-by-project prequalification and comprehensive point rating, were developed during the period when public works were mostly procured through designated competitive bidding. It is essential to focus attention on contractor evaluation methods for introducing different types of procurement procedures which enhance the use of technological capabilities held by private businesses. An overall review of contractor evaluation procedures should be conducted in view of the present situation, where the open competitive bidding has become mainly used in combination with comprehensive evaluation, as well as to allow for further diversification of procurement methods. In Western countries, improvements have been made for the past several years in contractor evaluation procedures with more emphasis on "Value for Money." Advanced efforts made by these countries will be useful as a reference for overhauling Japan's contractor evaluation system. This study conducts a comparative review of contractor evaluation procedures for public procurement in Western countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and France by identifying similarities and differences between those of Japan and the above mentioned countries. This reveals that a contractor's technical or professional ability is looked at separately from its economic and financial standing in those countries studied, and there is no case like Japan in which those two factors are integrated into one for evaluation.

Implementing a routine outcome assessment procedure to evaluate the quality of assistive technology service delivery for children with physical or multiple disabilities: Perceived effectiveness, social cost, and user satisfaction.

PubMed

Desideri, Lorenzo; Bizzarri, Martina; Bitelli, Claudio; Roentgen, Uta; Gelderblom, Gert-Jan; de Witte, Luc

2016-01-01

There is a lack of evidence on the effects and quality of assistive technology service delivery (ATSD). This study presents a quasi-experimental 3-months follow-up using a pre-test/post-test design aimed at evaluating outcomes of assistive technology (AT) interventions targeting children with physical and multiple disabilities. A secondary aim was to evaluate the feasibility of the follow-up assessment adopted in this study with a view to implement the procedure in routine clinical practice. Forty-five children aged 3-17 years were included. Parents were asked to complete the Individual Prioritised Problem Assessment (IPPA) for AT effectiveness; KWAZO (Kwaliteit van Zorg [Quality of Care]) and Quebec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with Assistive Technology (QUEST) 2.0 for satisfaction with ATSD; Siva Cost Analysis Instrument (SCAI) for estimating the social cost of AT interventions. At follow-up, 25 children used the AT recommended. IPPA effect sizes ranged from 1.4 to 0.7, showing a large effect of AT interventions. Overall, parents were satisfied with ATSD, but Maintenance, Professional Services, and AT Delivery were rated not satisfactory. SCAI showed more resources spent for AT intervention compared to human assistance without technological supports. AT may be an effective intervention for children with disabilities. Issues concerning responsiveness and feasibility of the IPPA and the SCAI instruments are discussed with a view to inform routine clinical practice.

Evaluation of multi-resolution satellite sensors for assessing water quality and bottom depth of Lake Garda.

PubMed

Giardino, Claudia; Bresciani, Mariano; Cazzaniga, Ilaria; Schenk, Karin; Rieger, Patrizia; Braga, Federica; Matta, Erica; Brando, Vittorio E

2014-12-15

In this study we evaluate the capabilities of three satellite sensors for assessing water composition and bottom depth in Lake Garda, Italy. A consistent physics-based processing chain was applied to Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and RapidEye. Images gathered on 10 June 2014 were corrected for the atmospheric effects with the 6SV code. The computed remote sensing reflectance (Rrs) from MODIS and OLI were converted into water quality parameters by adopting a spectral inversion procedure based on a bio-optical model calibrated with optical properties of the lake. The same spectral inversion procedure was applied to RapidEye and to OLI data to map bottom depth. In situ measurements of Rrs and of concentrations of water quality parameters collected in five locations were used to evaluate the models. The bottom depth maps from OLI and RapidEye showed similar gradients up to 7 m (r = 0.72). The results indicate that: (1) the spatial and radiometric resolutions of OLI enabled mapping water constituents and bottom properties; (2) MODIS was appropriate for assessing water quality in the pelagic areas at a coarser spatial resolution; and (3) RapidEye had the capability to retrieve bottom depth at high spatial resolution. Future work should evaluate the performance of the three sensors in different bio-optical conditions.

Reducing costs while maintaining quality in endovascular neurosurgical procedures.

PubMed

Kashlan, Osama N; Wilson, Thomas J; Chaudhary, Neeraj; Gemmete, Joseph J; Stetler, William R; Dunnick, N Reed; Thompson, B Gregory; Pandey, Aditya S

2014-11-01

extrapolation over a 1-year period, the 3 policy changes decreased costs by an estimated $323,561.34. Simple cost-saving policies can lead to substantial reductions in costs of neurointerventional procedures while maintaining high levels of quality and growth of services.

Decision dissonance: evaluating an approach to measuring the quality of surgical decision making.

PubMed

Fowler, Floyd J; Gallagher, Patricia M; Drake, Keith M; Sepucha, Karen R

2013-03-01

Good decision making has been increasingly cited as a core component of good medical care, and shared decision making is one means of achieving high decision quality. If it is to be a standard, good measures and protocols are needed for assessing the quality of decisions. Consistency with patient goals and concerns is one defining characteristic of a good decision. A new method for evaluating decision quality for major surgical decisions was examined, and a methodology for collecting the needed data was developed. For a national probability sample of fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries who had a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), a lumpectomy or a mastectomy for breast cancer, or surgery for prostate cancer during the last half of 2008, a mail-survey of selected patients was carried out about one year after the procedures. Patients' goals and concerns, knowledge, key aspects of interactions with clinicians, and feelings about the decisions were assessed. A decision dissonance score was created that measured the extent to which patient ratings of goals ran counter to the treatment received. The construct and predictive validity of the decision dissonance score was then assessed. When data were averaged across all four procedures, patients with more knowledge and those who reported more involvement reported significantly lower Decision Dissonance Scores. Patients with lower Decision Dissonance Scores also reported more confidence in their decisions and feeling more positively about how the treatment turned out, and they were more likely to say that they would make the same decision again. Surveying discharged surgery patients is a feasible way to evaluate decision making, and Decision Dissonance appears to be a promising approach to validly measuring decision quality.

Evaluation Procedures for Training Psychotherapists in Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chevron, Eve S.; And Others

The training of psychotherapists has been an ongoing process in psychiatry and clinical psychology. Recently, however, a growing demand to operationalize competence criteria to enable independent evaluation of therapists' skills in specifically defined psychotherapies has occurred. To examine this phenomenon, evaluation procedures were developed…

Water quality assessment of Australian ports using water quality evaluation indices

PubMed Central

Jahan, Sayka

2017-01-01

Australian ports serve diverse and extensive activities, such as shipping, tourism and fisheries, which may all impact the quality of port water. In this work water quality monitoring at different ports using a range of water quality evaluation indices was applied to assess the port water quality. Seawater samples at 30 stations in the year 2016–2017 from six ports in NSW, Australia, namely Port Jackson, Botany, Kembla, Newcastle, Yamba and Eden, were investigated to determine the physicochemical and biological variables that affect the port water quality. The large datasets obtained were designed to determine the Water Quality Index, Heavy metal Evaluation Index, Contamination Index and newly developed Environmental Water Quality Index. The study revealed medium water quality index and high and medium heavy metal evaluation index at three of the study ports and high contamination index in almost all study ports. Low level dissolved oxygen and higher level of total dissolved solids, turbidity, fecal coliforms, copper, iron, lead, zinc, manganese, cadmium and cobalt are mainly responsible for the poor water qualities of the port areas. Good water quality at the background samples indicated that various port activities are the likely cause for poor water quality inside the port area. PMID:29244876

The AME2016 atomic mass evaluation (I). Evaluation of input data; and adjustment procedures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, W. J.; Audi, G.; Wang, Meng; Kondev, F. G.; Naimi, S.; Xu, Xing

2017-03-01

This paper is the first of two articles (Part I and Part II) that presents the results of the new atomic mass evaluation, AME2016. It includes complete information on the experimental input data (also including unused and rejected ones), as well as details on the evaluation procedures used to derive the tables of recommended values given in the second part. This article describes the evaluation philosophy and procedures that were implemented in the selection of specific nuclear reaction, decay and mass-spectrometric results. These input values were entered in the least-squares adjustment for determining the best values for the atomic masses and their uncertainties. Details of the calculation and particularities of the AME are then described. All accepted and rejected data, including outweighted ones, are presented in a tabular format and compared with the adjusted values obtained using the least-squares fit analysis. Differences with the previous AME2012 evaluation are discussed and specific information is presented for several cases that may be of interest to AME users. The second AME2016 article gives a table with the recommended values of atomic masses, as well as tables and graphs of derived quantities, along with the list of references used in both the AME2016 and the NUBASE2016 evaluations (the first paper in this issue). AMDC: http://amdc.impcas.ac.cn/ Contents The AME2016 atomic mass evaluation (I). Evaluation of input data; and adjustment proceduresAcrobat PDF (1.2 MB) Table I. Input data compared with adjusted valuesAcrobat PDF (1.3 MB)

Slice-thickness evaluation in CT and MRI: an alternative computerised procedure.

PubMed

Acri, G; Tripepi, M G; Causa, F; Testagrossa, B; Novario, R; Vermiglio, G

2012-04-01

The efficient use of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment necessitates establishing adequate quality-control (QC) procedures. In particular, the accuracy of slice thickness (ST) requires scan exploration of phantoms containing test objects (plane, cone or spiral). To simplify such procedures, a novel phantom and a computerised LabView-based procedure have been devised, enabling determination of full width at half maximum (FWHM) in real time. The phantom consists of a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) box, diagonally crossed by a PMMA septum dividing the box into two sections. The phantom images were acquired and processed using the LabView-based procedure. The LabView (LV) results were compared with those obtained by processing the same phantom images with commercial software, and the Fisher exact test (F test) was conducted on the resulting data sets to validate the proposed methodology. In all cases, there was no statistically significant variation between the two different procedures and the LV procedure, which can therefore be proposed as a valuable alternative to other commonly used procedures and be reliably used on any CT and MRI scanner.

CTEPP STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE FOR CONDUCTING INTERNAL FIELD AUDITS AND QUALITY CONTROL (SOP-2.25)

EPA Science Inventory

This SOP describes the method for conducting internal field audits and quality control procedures. Internal field audits will be conducted to ensure the collection of high quality data. Internal field audits will be conducted by Field Auditors (the Field QA Officer and the Field...

Neurophysiological changes associated with implant-associated augmentation procedures in the lower jaw.

PubMed

Hartmann, Amely; Welte-Jzyk, Claudia; Seiler, Marcus; Daubländer, Monika

2017-08-01

Neurophysiological changes after oral and maxillofacial surgery remain one of the topics of current research. This study evaluated if implant placement associated with augmentation procedures increases the possibility of sensory disturbances or result in impaired quality of life during the healing period. Patients who had obtained an implant placement in the lower jaw in combination with augmentation procedures were examined by implementing a comprehensive Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST) protocol for extra- and intraoral use. As augmentation procedures, we used Guided Bone Regeneration (Group A) and Customized Bone Regeneration (Group B) techniques. Patients were tested bilaterally at the chin and mucosal lower lip. Results were compared to a group without augmentation procedures (Group C). Patients' quality of life and psychological comorbidity after the surgical procedures was assessed with the Oral Health Impact Profile and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. For groups A (n = 20) and B (n = 8), mechanical QST parameters showed no significant differences in all qualities of the inferior alveolar nerve compared to the contralateral side and compared to the nonaugmentation control group (n = 32) as well. Evaluation of quality of life and psychological factors showed no statistical differences. Augmentation procedures did not increase sensory disturbances, indicating no changes in the neurophysiological pathways. Extended augmentation procedures did not lead to sensory changes either or result in an impaired quality of life or modified anxiety and depression scores. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Teacher Evaluation: Practices and Procedures. ERS Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Educational Research Service, Arlington, VA.

This report presents findings of the 1988 Educational Research Service survey of teacher evaluation practices and procedures in U.S. schools. The survey instrument was mailed to a random sample of 1,730 superintendents of school districts of varying size. The response rate was 52.5 percent. The first section discusses the purposes of teacher…

48 CFR 246.470-2 - Quality evaluation data.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 246.470-2 Quality evaluation data. The contract administration office shall establish a system for the collection, evaluation, and use of the types of quality evaluation data specified in PGI 246.470-2. [71 FR... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Quality evaluation data...

48 CFR 246.470-2 - Quality evaluation data.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 246.470-2 Quality evaluation data. The contract administration office shall establish a system for the collection, evaluation, and use of the types of quality evaluation data specified in PGI 246.470-2. [71 FR... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Quality evaluation data...

48 CFR 246.470-2 - Quality evaluation data.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 246.470-2 Quality evaluation data. The contract administration office shall establish a system for the collection, evaluation, and use of the types of quality evaluation data specified in PGI 246.470-2. [71 FR... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Quality evaluation data...

48 CFR 246.470-2 - Quality evaluation data.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 246.470-2 Quality evaluation data. The contract administration office shall establish a system for the collection, evaluation, and use of the types of quality evaluation data specified in PGI 246.470-2. [71 FR... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Quality evaluation data...

Guidelines and standard procedures for continuous water-quality monitors: Site selection, field operation, calibration, record computation, and reporting

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wagner, Richard J.; Mattraw, Harold C.; Ritz, George F.; Smith, Brett A.

2000-01-01

The U.S. Geological Survey uses continuous water-quality monitors to assess variations in the quality of the Nation's surface water. A common system configuration for data collection is the four-parameter water-quality monitoring system, which collects temperature, specific conductance, dissolved oxygen, and pH data, although systems can be configured to measure other properties such as turbidity or chlorophyll. The sensors that are used to measure these water properties require careful field observation, cleaning, and calibration procedures, as well as thorough procedures for the computation and publication of final records. Data from sensors can be used in conjunction with collected samples and chemical analyses to estimate chemical loads. This report provides guidelines for site-selection considerations, sensor test methods, field procedures, error correction, data computation, and review and publication processes. These procedures have evolved over the past three decades, and the process continues to evolve with newer technologies.

Image quality evaluation of full reference algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Nannan; Xie, Kai; Li, Tong; Ye, Yushan

2018-03-01

Image quality evaluation is a classic research topic, the goal is to design the algorithm, given the subjective feelings consistent with the evaluation value. This paper mainly introduces several typical reference methods of Mean Squared Error(MSE), Peak Signal to Noise Rate(PSNR), Structural Similarity Image Metric(SSIM) and feature similarity(FSIM) of objective evaluation methods. The different evaluation methods are tested by Matlab, and the advantages and disadvantages of these methods are obtained by analyzing and comparing them.MSE and PSNR are simple, but they are not considered to introduce HVS characteristics into image quality evaluation. The evaluation result is not ideal. SSIM has a good correlation and simple calculation ,because it is considered to the human visual effect into image quality evaluation,However the SSIM method is based on a hypothesis,The evaluation result is limited. The FSIM method can be used for test of gray image and color image test, and the result is better. Experimental results show that the new image quality evaluation algorithm based on FSIM is more accurate.

A Self-Assessment Procedure for Use in Evaluation Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stufflebeam, Daniel L.; Wingate, Lori A.

2005-01-01

This article describes the Self-Assessment of Program Evaluation Expertise instrument and procedure developed to help participants assess their learning gains in a 3-week evaluation institute. Participants completed the instrument in a pre- and posttest format. To reduce both the threat of embarrassment from individual results and the temptation…

Near patient testing in general practice: attitudes of general practitioners and practice nurses, and quality assurance procedures carried out.

PubMed Central

Hilton, S; Rink, E; Fletcher, J; Sibbald, B; Freeling, P; Szczepura, A; Davies, C; Stilwell, J

1994-01-01

BACKGROUND. The evaluation of near patient testing in British general practice has largely been confined to studies examining individual tests or comparing equipment. AIM. This study set out to determine the attitudes of practice staff to near patient testing, and the extent to which staff undertook quality assessment. METHOD. Four types of near patient testing machines were introduced into 12 general practices in two regions of England, south west Thames and west Midlands. General practitioner and practice nurse attitudes to near patient testing were assessed by semi-structured interview before and six months after the introduction of the machines. The extent to which routine quality assurance procedures were carried out within the surgery and as part of local and national schemes was examined. RESULTS. Although 80% of general practitioners anticipated changing patient management with near patient testing, only two fifths reported having done so after six months. Nurses generally were enthusiastic at the outset, although one third were unhappy about incorporating near patient testing into their work schedules. Time pressure was the most important factor restricting uptake of near patient testing. Nurses performed quality control regularly but complete local external quality assurance procedures were established in only half the practices. All the practices participated in a national scheme for cholesterol assays. CONCLUSION. General practitioners in this study did not find near patient testing a very useful addition to their resources. Pressure on nurses' time was the most frequently reported limitation. PMID:7748669

Quality measures for nurse practitioner practice evaluation.

PubMed

Kleinpell, Ruth; Kapu, April N

2017-08-01

Evaluating the impact of nurse practitioner (NP) practice has become a priority area of focus for demonstrating outcomes. A number of quality measures are available to enable practice-specific evaluation of NP roles and initiatives. This article reviews sources of quality measures that can be used to facilitate quantifying the outcomes of NP practice as part of an overall evaluation agenda. National resources and published literature on NP quality measures were reviewed. Various resources and toolkits exist to assist NPs in identifying outcomes of practice using quality measures. The need to demonstrate outcomes of NP practice remains an ongoing priority area regardless of the clinical practice setting. A variety of sources of quality measures exist that can be used to showcase the effect of NP care. The use of quality measures can be effectively integrated into evaluation of NP role and NP-directed initiatives to demonstrate impact, and enhance the conduct of an NP outcomes assessment. The use of organizational, NP-specific, and national-related quality measures can help to showcase how NP care improves the quality, safety, and costs of health care. ©2017 American Association of Nurse Practitioners.

The Quality of Rare Disease Registries: Evaluation and Characterization.

PubMed

Coi, Alessio; Santoro, Michele; Villaverde-Hueso, Ana; Lipucci Di Paola, Michele; Gainotti, Sabina; Taruscio, Domenica; Posada de la Paz, Manuel; Bianchi, Fabrizio

2016-01-01

The focus on the quality of the procedures for data collection, storing, and analysis in the definition and implementation of a rare disease registry (RDR) is the basis for developing a valid and long-term sustainable tool. The aim of this study was to provide useful information for characterizing a quality profile for RDRs using an analytical approach applied to RDRs participating in the European Platform for Rare Disease Registries 2011-2014 (EPIRARE) survey. An indicator of quality was defined by choosing a small set of quality-related variables derived from the survey. The random forest method was used to identify the variables best defining a quality profile for RDRs. Fisher's exact test was employed to assess the association with the indicator of quality, and the Cochran-Armitage test was used to check the presence of a linear trend along different levels of quality. The set of variables found to characterize high-quality RDRs focused on ethical and legal issues, governance, communication of activities and results, established procedures to regulate access to data and security, and established plans to ensure long-term sustainability. The quality of RDRs is usually associated with a good oversight and governance mechanism and with durable funding. The results suggest that RDRs would benefit from support in management, information technology, epidemiology, and statistics. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Evaluation of intranuclear BrdU detection procedures for use in multicolor flow cytometry*

PubMed Central

Rothaeusler, Kristina; Baumgarth, Nicole

2010-01-01

Background Measurement of cell proliferation via BrdU incorporation in combination with multicolor cell surface staining would facilitate studies on cell subsets that require multiple markers for their identification. However, the extent to which the often harsh cell preparation procedures required affect the staining quality of more recently developed fluorescent dyes has not been assessed. Methods Three cell preparation protocols for BrdU measurement were compared for their ability to maintain fluorescent surface staining and scatter parameters of in vivo BrdU-labeled cells by flow cytometry. A 10-color fluorescent panel was developed to test the quality of surface staining following cell treatment and the ability to perform BrdU measurements on even small B lymphocyte subsets. Results All cell preparation procedures affected the quality of fluorescent and/or scatter parameters to varying degrees. Paraformaldehyde / saponin-based procedures preserved sufficient fluorescent surface staining to determine BrdU incorporation rates among all splenic B cell subsets, including B-1a cells, which constitute roughly 0.5% of cells. Turnover rates of B-1a cells were similar to immature B cells and higher than those of the other mature B cell subsets. Conclusion Paraformaldehyde / saponin-based cell preparation procedures facilitate detailed cell turnover studies on small cell subsets in vivo, revealing new functional information on rare cell populations. PMID:16538653

The relationship between competition and quality in procedural cardiac care.

PubMed

Glick, David B; Wroblewski, Kristen; Apfelbaum, Sean; Dauber, Benjamin; Woo, Joyce; Tung, Avery

2015-01-01

Anesthesiologists are frequently involved in efforts to meet perioperative quality metrics. The degree to which hospitals compete on publicly reported quality measures, however, is unclear. We hypothesized that hospitals in more competitive environments would be more likely to compete on quality and thus perform better on such measures. To test our hypothesis, we studied the relationship between competition and quality in hospitals providing procedural cardiac care and participating in a national quality database. For hospitals performing heart valve surgery (HVS) and delivering acute myocardial infarction (AMI) care in the Hospital Compare database, we assessed the degree of intrahospital competition using both geographical radius and federally defined metropolitan statistical area (MSA) to determine the degree of intrahospital competition. For each hospital, we then correlated the degree of competition with quality measure performance, mortality, patient volume, and per-patient Medicare costs for both HVS and AMI. Six hundred fifty-three hospitals met inclusion criteria for HVS and 1898 hospitals for AMI care. We found that for both definitions of competition, hospitals facing greater competition did not demonstrate better quality measure performance for either HVS or AMI. For both diagnoses, competition by number of hospitals correlated positively with cost: partial correlation coefficients = 0.40 (0.42 for MSA) (P < 0.001) for HVS and 0.52 (0.47 for MSA) (P < 0.001) for AMI. An analysis of the Hospital Compare database found that competition among hospitals correlated overall with increased Medicare costs but did not predict better scores on publicly reported quality metrics. Our results suggest that hospitals do not compete meaningfully on publicly reported quality metrics or costs.

Evaluation of lens absorbed dose with Cone Beam IGRT procedures.

PubMed

Palomo, R; Pujades, M C; Gimeno-Olmos, J; Carmona, V; Lliso, F; Candela-Juan, C; Vijande, J; Ballester, F; Perez-Calatayud, J

2015-12-01

The purpose of this work is to evaluate the absorbed dose to the eye lenses due to the cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) system used to accurately position the patient during head-and-neck image guided procedures. The on-board imaging (OBI) systems (v.1.5) of Clinac iX and TrueBeam (Varian) accelerators were used to evaluate the imparted dose to the eye lenses and some additional points of the head. All CBCT scans were acquired with the Standard-Dose Head protocol from Varian. Doses were measured using thermoluminescence dosimeters (TLDs) placed in an anthropomorphic phantom. TLDs were calibrated at the beam quality used to reduce their energy dependence. Average dose to the lens due to the OBI systems of the Clinac iX and the TrueBeam were 0.71  ±  0.07 mGy/CBCT and 0.70  ±  0.08 mGy/CBCT, respectively. The extra absorbed dose received by the eye lenses due to one CBCT acquisition with the studied protocol is far below the 500 mGy threshold established by ICRP for cataract formation (ICRP 2011 Statement on Tissue Reactions). However, the incremental effect of several CBCT acquisitions during the whole treatment should be taken into account.

The Application of Six Sigma Techniques in the Evaluation of Enzyme Measurement Procedures in China.

PubMed

Zhang, Chuanbao; Zhao, Haijian; Wang, Jing; Zeng, Jie; Wang, Zhiguo

2015-01-01

Recently, Six Sigma techniques have been adopted by clinical laboratories to evaluate laboratory performance. Measurement procedures in laboratories can be categorized as "excellent", "good", and "improvement needed" based on sigma (σ) metrics of σ ≥ 6, 3 ≤ σ < 6, and σ < 3, respectively. The quality goal index (QGI) was further investigated for measurement procedures with σ ≤ 3. Improvements of the procedures were recommended based on QGI: QGI < 0.8 indicates that the precision of the procedure needs to be improved; QGI > 1.2 indicates that the trueness of the procedure needs to be improved; 0.8 ≤ QGI ≤ 1.2 indicates that both the precision and trueness of the procedure need to be improved. Fresh frozen sera containing seven enzymes (ALT, ALP, AMY, AST, CK, GGT, and LDH) were sent to 78 clinical laboratories in China. The biases for measurement procedures in each laboratory (Bias) were calculated based on the target values assigned by 18 laboratories performing IFCC (International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory medicine) recommended reference methods. The imprecision of each measurement procedure was represented by coefficient variations (CV) calculated based on internal quality control (IQC) data. The σ and QGI values were calculated as follows: σ = (TEa-Bias)/CV; QGI = Bias/(1.5 x CV). TEa is allowable total error for each enzyme derived from biological variation. Our study indicated that 7.9% (6/76, ALP) to 31.0% (18/58, AMY) of the participating laboratories were scored as "excellent" (σ ≥ 6), 21.1% (16/76, ALP) to 41.3% (31/75, CK) of the laboratories were scored as "good" (3 ≤ σ < 6), and 31.0% (18/58, AMY) to 71.1% (54/76, ALP) of the laboratories need to improve their enzyme measurement procedures (σ < 3). For those with σ < 3, QGIs were further calculated. Based on QGI values, 8.6% (5/58, AMY) to 35.9% (28/78, LDH) of the laboratories (QGI < 0.8) need to improve the precision of the procedures, 8.0% (6/75, CK) to

Evaluation of the FAA Advanced Flow Control Procedures.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1972-01-01

The report is an evaluation of the present FAA Advanced Flow Control Procedures (AFCP), based on data gathered from its implementation on February 5, 1971 and on a fast-time digital simulation of traffic feeding into the NY airports on that day. The ...

Decision Dissonance: Evaluating an Approach to Measuring the Quality of Surgical Decision Making

PubMed Central

Fowler, Floyd J.; Gallagher, Patricia M.; Drake, Keith M.; Sepucha, Karen R.

2013-01-01

Background Good decision making has been increasingly cited as a core component of good medical care, and shared decision making is one means of achieving high decision quality. If it is to be a standard, good measures and protocols are needed for assessing the quality of decisions. Consistency with patient goals and concerns is one defining characteristic of a good decision. A new method for evaluating decision quality for major surgical decisions was examined, and a methodology for collecting the needed data was developed. Methods For a national probability sample of fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries who had a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), a lumpectomy or a mastectomy for breast cancer, or surgery for prostate cancer during the last half of 2008, a mail survey of selected patients was carried out about one year after the procedures. Patients’ goals and concerns, knowledge, key aspects of interactions with clinicians, and feelings about the decisions were assessed. A Decision Dissonance Score was created that measured the extent to which patient ratings of goals ran counter to the treatment received. The construct and predictive validity of the Decision Dissonance Score was then assessed. Results When data were averaged across all four procedures, patients with more knowledge and those who reported more involvement reported significantly lower Decision Dissonance Scores. Patients with lower Decision Dissonance Scores also reported more confidence in their decisions and feeling more positively about how the treatment turned out, and they were more likely to say that they would make the same decision again. Conclusions Surveying discharged surgery patients is a feasible way to evaluate decision making, and Decision Dissonance appears to be a promising approach to validly measuring decision quality. PMID:23516764

Enhancing E-Learning Quality through the Application of the AKUE Procedure Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bremer, C.

2012-01-01

The paper describes the procedure model AKUE, which aims at the improvement and assurance of quality and cost efficiency in the context of the introduction of e-learning and the development of digital learning material. AKUE divides the whole planning and implementation process into four different phases: analysis, conception, implementation, and…

48 CFR 246.470-2 - Quality evaluation data.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Quality evaluation data... SYSTEM, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE CONTRACT MANAGEMENT QUALITY ASSURANCE Government Contract Quality Assurance 246.470-2 Quality evaluation data. The contract administration office shall establish a system for the...

Evaluation of quality improvement programmes

PubMed Central

Ovretveit, J; Gustafson, D

2002-01-01



 In response to increasing concerns about quality, many countries are carrying out large scale programmes which include national quality strategies, hospital programmes, and quality accreditation, assessment and review processes. Increasing amounts of resources are being devoted to these interventions, but do they ensure or improve quality of care? There is little research evidence as to their effectiveness or the conditions for maximum effectiveness. Reasons for the lack of evaluation research include the methodological challenges of measuring outcomes and attributing causality to these complex, changing, long term social interventions to organisations or health systems, which themselves are complex and changing. However, methods are available which can be used to evaluate these programmes and which can provide decision makers with research based guidance on how to plan and implement them. This paper describes the research challenges, the methods which can be used, and gives examples and guidance for future research. It emphasises the important contribution which such research can make to improving the effectiveness of these programmes and to developing the science of quality improvement. PMID:12486994

Evaluation of combinations of procedures in cesarean section.

PubMed

Stark, M; Chavkin, Y; Kupfersztain, C; Guedj, P; Finkel, A R

1995-03-01

To evaluate a procedure for cesarean section, consisting of a number of surgical techniques adopted from various sources and further developed. The principal elements of the cesarean section procedure followed were: the Joel-Cohen method for opening the abdomen, suturing the uterus in one layer, and non-closure of the visceral and parietal peritoneal layers. The postoperative recovery of women who underwent this procedure (JCl--group) was compared with that of women who had undergone a Pfannenstiel incision, in which the uterus is sutured in two layers, and both peritoneal layers sutured (Pf2++ group). The incidence of postoperative febrile morbidity was 7.7% in the JCl--group compared with 19.8% in the Pf2++ group (P < 0.05). Adhesions were found in 6.3% of repeat operations after the JCl--operation compared with 28.8% after the Pf2++ operation (P < 0.05), and there was a non-significant trend toward fewer postoperative analgesics in the JCl--group. The cesarean section procedure we have devised is not only safe, but has a lower risk of long- and short-term complications.

An Automated Inpatient Split-dose Bowel Preparation System Improves Colonoscopy Quality and Reduces Repeat Procedures.

PubMed

Yadlapati, Rena; Johnston, Elyse R; Gluskin, Adam B; Gregory, Dyanna L; Cyrus, Rachel; Werth, Lindsay; Ciolino, Jody D; Grande, David P; Keswani, Rajesh N

2017-07-19

Inpatient colonoscopy preparations are often inadequate, compromising patient safety and procedure quality, while resulting in greater hospital costs. The aims of this study were to: (1) design and implement an electronic inpatient split-dose bowel preparation order set; (2) assess the intervention's impact upon preparation adequacy, repeated colonoscopies, hospital days, and costs. We conducted a single center prospective pragmatic quasiexperimental study of hospitalized adults undergoing colonoscopy. The experimental intervention was designed using DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, and control) methodology. Prospective data collected over 12 months were compared with data from a historical preintervention cohort. The primary outcome was bowel preparation quality and secondary outcomes included number of repeated procedures, hospital days, and costs. On the basis of a Delphi method and DMAIC process, we created an electronic inpatient bowel preparation order set inclusive of a split-dose bowel preparation algorithm, automated orders for rescue medications, and nursing bowel preparation checks. The analysis data set included 969 patients, 445 (46%) in the postintervention group. The adequacy of bowel preparation significantly increased following intervention (86% vs. 43%; P<0.01) and proportion of repeated procedures decreased (2.0% vs. 4.6%; P=0.03). Mean hospital days from bowel preparation initiation to discharge decreased from 8.0 to 6.9 days (P=0.02). The intervention resulted in an estimated 1-year cost-savings of $46,076 based on a reduction in excess hospital days associated with repeated and delayed procedures. Our interdisciplinary initiative targeting inpatient colonoscopy preparations significantly improved quality and reduced repeat procedures, and hospital days. Other institutions should consider utilizing this framework to improve inpatient colonoscopy value.

A procedure for testing the quality of LANDSAT atmospheric correction algorithms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dias, L. A. V. (Principal Investigator); Vijaykumar, N. L.; Neto, G. C.

1982-01-01

There are two basic methods for testing the quality of an algorithm to minimize atmospheric effects on LANDSAT imagery: (1) test the results a posteriori, using ground truth or control points; (2) use a method based on image data plus estimation of additional ground and/or atmospheric parameters. A procedure based on the second method is described. In order to select the parameters, initially the image contrast is examined for a series of parameter combinations. The contrast improves for better corrections. In addition the correlation coefficient between two subimages, taken at different times, of the same scene is used for parameter's selection. The regions to be correlated should not have changed considerably in time. A few examples using this proposed procedure are presented.

A sound quality model for objective synthesis evaluation of vehicle interior noise based on artificial neural network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Y. S.; Shen, G. Q.; Xing, Y. F.

2014-03-01

Based on the artificial neural network (ANN) technique, an objective sound quality evaluation (SQE) model for synthesis annoyance of vehicle interior noises is presented in this paper. According to the standard named GB/T18697, firstly, the interior noises under different working conditions of a sample vehicle are measured and saved in a noise database. Some mathematical models for loudness, sharpness and roughness of the measured vehicle noises are established and performed by Matlab programming. Sound qualities of the vehicle interior noises are also estimated by jury tests following the anchored semantic differential (ASD) procedure. Using the objective and subjective evaluation results, furthermore, an ANN-based model for synthetical annoyance evaluation of vehicle noises, so-called ANN-SAE, is developed. Finally, the ANN-SAE model is proved by some verification tests with the leave-one-out algorithm. The results suggest that the proposed ANN-SAE model is accurate and effective and can be directly used to estimate sound quality of the vehicle interior noises, which is very helpful for vehicle acoustical designs and improvements. The ANN-SAE approach may be extended to deal with other sound-related fields for product quality evaluations in SQE engineering.

Principles and Practices for Quality Assurance and Quality Control

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jones, Berwyn E.

1999-01-01

Quality assurance and quality control are vital parts of highway runoff water-quality monitoring projects. To be effective, project quality assurance must address all aspects of the project, including project management responsibilities and resources, data quality objectives, sampling and analysis plans, data-collection protocols, data quality-control plans, data-assessment procedures and requirements, and project outputs. Quality control ensures that the data quality objectives are achieved as planned. The historical development and current state of the art of quality assurance and quality control concepts described in this report can be applied to evaluation of data from prior projects.

User-Centered Evaluation of the Quality of Blogs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chuenchom, Sutthinan

2011-01-01

Blogs serve multiple purposes, resulting in several types of blogs that vary greatly in terms of quality and content. It is important to evaluate the quality of blogs, which requires appropriate evaluation criteria. Unfortunately, there are minimal studies on framework and the specific criteria and indicators for evaluating the quality of blogs.…

Evaluation of Hardware and Procedures for Astronaut Assembly and Repair of Large Precision Reflectors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lake, Mark S.; Heard, Walter L., Jr.; Watson, Judith J.; Collins, Timothy J.

2000-01-01

A detailed procedure is presented that enables astronauts in extravehicular activity (EVA) to efficiently assemble and repair large (i.e., greater than 10m-diameter) segmented reflectors, supported by a truss, for space-based optical or radio-frequency science instruments. The procedure, estimated timelines, and reflector hardware performance are verified in simulated 0-g (neutral buoyancy) assembly tests of a 14m-diameter, offset-focus, reflector test article. The test article includes a near-flight-quality, 315-member, doubly curved support truss and 7 mockup reflector panels (roughly 2m in diameter) representing a portion of the 37 total panels needed to fully populate the reflector. Data from the tests indicate that a flight version of the design (including all reflector panels) could be assembled in less than 5 hours - less than the 6 hours normally permitted for a single EVA. This assembly rate essentially matches pre-test predictions that were based on a vast amount of historical data on EVA assembly of structures produced by NASA Langley Research Center. Furthermore, procedures and a tool for the removal and replacement of a damaged reflector panel were evaluated, and it was shown that EVA repair of this type of reflector is feasible with the use of appropriate EVA crew aids.

Procedural training and assessment of competency utilizing simulation.

PubMed

Sawyer, Taylor; Gray, Megan M

2016-11-01

This review examines the current environment of neonatal procedural learning, describes an updated model of skills training, defines the role of simulation in assessing competency, and discusses potential future directions for simulation-based competency assessment. In order to maximize impact, simulation-based procedural training programs should follow a standardized and evidence-based approach to designing and evaluating educational activities. Simulation can be used to facilitate the evaluation of competency, but must incorporate validated assessment tools to ensure quality and consistency. True competency evaluation cannot be accomplished with simulation alone: competency assessment must also include evaluations of procedural skill during actual clinical care. Future work in this area is needed to measure and track clinically meaningful patient outcomes resulting from simulation-based training, examine the use of simulation to assist physicians undergoing re-entry to practice, and to examine the use of procedural skills simulation as part of a maintenance of competency and life-long learning. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

21 CFR 106.30 - Finished product evaluation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION INFANT FORMULA QUALITY CONTROL PROCEDURES Quality Control Procedures for... maintenance of nutrient content throughout the shelf life of the product. (c) The manufacturer shall evaluate... the biological quality of the protein. A protein biological quality analysis is not necessary for a...

21 CFR 106.30 - Finished product evaluation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION INFANT FORMULA QUALITY CONTROL PROCEDURES Quality Control Procedures for... maintenance of nutrient content throughout the shelf life of the product. (c) The manufacturer shall evaluate... the biological quality of the protein. A protein biological quality analysis is not necessary for a...

21 CFR 106.30 - Finished product evaluation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION INFANT FORMULA QUALITY CONTROL PROCEDURES Quality Control Procedures for... maintenance of nutrient content throughout the shelf life of the product. (c) The manufacturer shall evaluate... the biological quality of the protein. A protein biological quality analysis is not necessary for a...

21 CFR 106.30 - Finished product evaluation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION INFANT FORMULA QUALITY CONTROL PROCEDURES Quality Control Procedures for... maintenance of nutrient content throughout the shelf life of the product. (c) The manufacturer shall evaluate... the biological quality of the protein. A protein biological quality analysis is not necessary for a...

Longitudinal trends with improvement in quality of life after TVT, TVT O and Burch colposuspension procedures.

PubMed

Drahoradova, Petra; Martan, Alois; Svabik, Kamil; Zvara, Karel; Otava, Martin; Masata, Jaromir

2011-02-01

Comparison of the quality of life (QoL) trends after TVT, TVT O and Burch colposuspension (BCS) procedures and comparison of long-term subjective and objective outcomes. The study included 215 women who underwent a TVT, TVT O or BCS procedure. We monitored QoL after each procedure and the effect of complications on the QoL as assessed by the IQOL questionnaire over a 3-year period. The study was completed by 74.5% of women after TVT, 74.5% after TVT O, and 65.2% after BCS procedure. In the long-term, the QoL improved from 46.9 to 88.7 and remained stable after BCS; after TVT and TVT O, it declined, but only after TVT O was the decline statistically significant compared to BCS. The IQOL for women with post-operative complications has a clear descending tendency. The effect of the complications is highly significant (p<0.001). Only the OAB complication had a statistically significant effect on QoL p<0.001. Preexistent OAB does not negatively affect postoperative results of anti-incontinence surgery. There was a statistically significant decline with the longitudinal values of IQOL with TVT O, but not with TVT or BCS. Anti-incontinence operations significantly improve quality of life for women with MI, but compared to the SI group, the quality of life is worse when measured at a longer time interval after the operation. Anti-incontinence operations significantly improve quality of life, and the difference in preoperative status in the long-term follow-up is demonstrable.

Quality-assurance procedures: Method 5G determination of particulate emissions from wood heaters from a dilution tunnel sampling location

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ward, T.E.; Hartman, M.W.; Olin, R.C.

1989-06-01

Quality-assurance procedures are contained in this comprehensive document intended to be used as an aid for wood-heater manufacturers and testing laboratories in performing particulate matter sampling of wood heaters according to EPA protocol, Method 5G. These procedures may be used in research and development, and as an aid in auditing and certification testing. A detailed, step-by-step quality assurance guide is provided to aid in the procurement and assembly of testing apparatus, to clearly describe the procedures, and to facilitate data collection and reporting. Suggested data sheets are supplied that can be used as an aid for both recordkeeping and certificationmore » applications. Throughout the document, activity matrices are provided to serve as a summary reference. Checklists are also supplied that can be used by testing personnel. Finally, for the purposes of ensuring data quality, procedures are outlined for apparatus operation, maintenance, and traceability. These procedures combined with the detailed description of the sampling and analysis protocol will help ensure the accuracy and reliability of Method 5G emission-testing results.« less

Academic research groups: evaluation of their quality and quality of their evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berche, Bertrand; Holovatch, Yuri; Kenna, Ralph; Mryglod, Olesya

2016-02-01

In recent years, evaluation of the quality of academic research has become an increasingly important and influential business. It determines, often to a large extent, the amount of research funding flowing into universities and similar institutes from governmental agencies and it impacts upon academic careers. Policy makers are becoming increasingly reliant upon, and influenced by, the outcomes of such evaluations. In response, university managers are increasingly attracted to simple metrics as guides to the dynamics of the positions of their various institutions in league tables. However, these league tables are invariably drawn up by inexpert bodies such as newspapers and magazines, using arbitrary measures and criteria. Terms such as “critical mass” and “h-index” are bandied about without understanding of what they actually mean. Rather than accepting the rise and fall of universities, departments and individuals on a turbulent sea of arbitrary measures, we suggest it is incumbent upon the scientific community itself to clarify their nature. Here we report on recent attempts to do that by properly defining critical mass and showing how group size influences research quality. We also examine currently predominant metrics and show that these fail as reliable indicators of group research quality.

Neurodevelopmental Outcome and Health-related Quality of Life in Children With Single-ventricle Heart Disease Before Fontan Procedure.

PubMed

Reich, Bettina; Heye, Kristina; Tuura, Ruth; Beck, Ingrid; Wetterling, Kristina; Hahn, Andreas; Hofmann, Karoline; Schranz, Dietmar; Akintürk, Hakan; Latal, Beatrice; Knirsch, Walter

2017-12-05

Neurodevelopmental impairment and impaired quality of life constitute a major source of morbidity among children with complex congenital heart disease, in particular for single-ventricle (SV) morphologies. Risk factors and quality of life determining clinical and neurodevelopmental outcome at 2 years of age are examined. In a 2-center cohort study, 48 patients with SV morphology (26 hypoplastic left heart syndrome and 22 other types of univentricular heart defect) have been examined before Fontan procedure between 2010 and 2015. Patients were assessed with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Version (Bayley-III), and the Preschool Children Quality of Life (TAPQOL) questionnaire. A total of 44 patients underwent hybrid procedure (n = 25), Norwood procedure (n = 7), or shunt or banding procedure (n = 12) as first surgery before subsequent bidirectional cavopulmonary anastomosis (n = 48). Median cognitive, language, and motor composite scores on the Bayley-III were 100 (range 65-120), 97 (68-124), and 97 (55-124), respectively. The language composite score was significantly below the norm (P = 0.025). Risk factors for poorer neurodevelopmental outcome were prolonged mechanical ventilation, longer days of hospital stay, and more reinterventions (all P < 0.05). Parents reported a good quality of life for their children. Children undergoing Fontan procedure show a favorable development and good quality of life. More complicated postoperative course and reinterventions constitute risk factors for impaired neurodevelopment. Improving postoperative management and implementing routine follow-up assessments aremeasures to further improve the neurodevelopmental outcome of this high-risk patient population. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[Quality control in anesthesiology].

PubMed

Muñoz-Ramón, J M

1995-03-01

The process of quality control and auditing of anesthesiology allows us to evaluate care given by a service and solve problems that are detected. Quality control is a basic element of care giving and is only secondarily an area of academic research; it is therefore a meaningless effort if the information does not serve to improve departmental procedures. Quality assurance procedures assume certain infrastructural requirements and an initial period of implementation and adjustment. The main objectives of quality control are the reduction of morbidity and mortality due to anesthesia, assurance of the availability and proper management of resources and, finally, the well-being and safety of the patient.

Test and evaluation procedures for Sandia's Teraflops Operating System (TOS) on Janus.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Barnette, Daniel Wayne

This report describes the test and evaluation methods by which the Teraflops Operating System, or TOS, that resides on Sandia's massively-parallel computer Janus is verified for production release. Also discussed are methods used to build TOS before testing and evaluating, miscellaneous utility scripts, a sample test plan, and a proposed post-test method for quickly examining the large number of test results. The purpose of the report is threefold: (1) to provide a guide to T&E procedures, (2) to aid and guide others who will run T&E procedures on the new ASCI Red Storm machine, and (3) to document some ofmore » the history of evaluation and testing of TOS. This report is not intended to serve as an exhaustive manual for testers to conduct T&E procedures.« less

Instrument Quality Control.

PubMed

Jayakody, Chatura; Hull-Ryde, Emily A

2016-01-01

Well-defined quality control (QC) processes are used to determine whether a certain procedure or action conforms to a widely accepted standard and/or set of guidelines, and are important components of any laboratory quality assurance program (Popa-Burke et al., J Biomol Screen 14: 1017-1030, 2009). In this chapter, we describe QC procedures useful for monitoring the accuracy and precision of laboratory instrumentation, most notably automated liquid dispensers. Two techniques, gravimetric QC and photometric QC, are highlighted in this chapter. When used together, these simple techniques provide a robust process for evaluating liquid handler accuracy and precision, and critically underpin high-quality research programs.

Quality of data collected for severity of illness scores in the Dutch National Intensive Care Evaluation (NICE) registry.

PubMed

Arts, Daniëlle; de Keizer, Nicolette; Scheffer, Gert-Jan; de Jonge, Evert

2002-05-01

To analyse the quality of data used to measure severity of illness in the Dutch National Intensive Care Evaluation (NICE) registry, after implementation of quality improving procedures. Data were re-abstracted from the paper records of patients or the Patient Data Management System and compared to the data contained in the registry. The re-abstracted data were considered to be the gold standard. ICUs of nine Dutch hospitals that had been collecting data for the NICE registry for at least 1 year. The mean percentages of inaccurate and incomplete data, per hospital, over all variables, were 6.1%+/-4.4 (SD) and 2.7%+/-4.4 (SD), respectively. The mean difference in severity of illness scores between registry data and re-abstracted data was 0.2 points for APACHE II and 0.4 points for SAPS II. The mean difference in predicted mortality according to APACHE II and SAPS II between registry data and re-abstracted data was 0.4% and 0.02%, respectively. The current data quality of the NICE registry is good and justifies evaluative research. These positive results might be explained by the implementation of several quality assurance procedures in the NICE registry, such as training and automatic data checks. Electronic supplementary material to this paper can be obtained by using the Springer LINK server located at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00134-002-1272-z

Evaluation of Procedures for Backcalculation of Airfield Pavement Moduli

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-08-01

to develop pavement design and structural evaluation criteria, procedures, and software to ensure that its airfield pavements can support mission...aircraft. As tire pressures and aircraft weights have increased steadily during this time, the design and evaluation software– Pavement -Transportation...the remaining life for the pavement in terms of remaining pavement life (passes-to-failure) or allowable gross aircraft loads and also to design

Continuing quality improvement procedures for a clinical PACS.

PubMed

Andriole, K P; Gould, R G; Avrin, D E; Bazzill, T M; Yin, L; Arenson, R L

1998-08-01

The University of California at San Francisco (USCF) Department of Radiology currently has a clinically operational picture archiving and communication system (PACS) that is thirty-five percent filmless, with the goal of becoming seventy-five percent filmless within the year. The design and implementation of the clinical PACS has been a collaborative effort between an academic research laboratory and a commercial vendor partner. Images are digitally acquired from three computed radiography (CR) scanners, five computed tomography (CT) scanners, five magnetic resonance (MR) imagers, three digital fluoroscopic rooms, an ultrasound mini-PACS and a nuclear medicine mini-PACS. The DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) standard communications protocol and image format is adhered to throughout the PACS. Images are archived in hierarchical staged fashion, on a RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) and on magneto-optical disk jukeboxes. The clinical PACS uses an object-oriented Oracle SQL (systems query language) database, and interfaces to the Radiology Information System using the HL7 (Health Languages 7) standard. Components are networked using a combination of switched and fast ethernet, and ATM (asynchronous transfer mode), all over fiber optics. The wide area network links six UCSF sites in San Francisco. A combination of high and medium resolution dual-monitor display stations have been placed throughout the Department of Radiology, the Emergency Department (ED) and Intensive Care Units (ICU). A continuing quality improvement (CQI) committee has been formed to facilitate the PACS installation and training, workflow modifications, quality assurance and clinical acceptance. This committee includes radiologists at all levels (resident, fellow, attending), radiology technologists, film library personnel, ED and ICU clinician end-users, and PACS team members. The CQI committee has proved vital in the creation of new management procedures, providing a

Preoperative and post-operative sleep quality evaluation in rotator cuff tear patients.

PubMed

Serbest, Sancar; Tiftikçi, Uğur; Askın, Aydogan; Yaman, Ferda; Alpua, Murat

2017-07-01

The aim of this study was to examine the potential relationship between subjective sleep quality and degree of pain in patients with rotator cuff repair. Thirty-one patients who underwent rotator cuff repair prospectively completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Western Ontario Rotator Cuff Index, and the Constant and Murley shoulder scores before surgery and at 6 months after surgery. Preoperative demographic, clinical, and radiologic parameters were also evaluated. The study analysed 31 patients with a median age of 61 years. There was a significant difference preoperatively versus post-operatively in terms of all PSQI global scores and subdivisions (p < 0.001). A statistically significant improvement was determined by the Western Ontario Rotator Cuff Scale and the Constant and Murley shoulder scores (p ˂ 0.001). Sleep disorders are commonly seen in patients with rotator cuff tear, and after repair, there is an increase in the quality of sleep with a parallel improvement in shoulder functions. However, no statistically significant correlation was determined between arthroscopic procedures and the size of the tear and sleep quality. It is suggested that rotator cuff tear repair improves the quality of sleep and the quality of life. IV.

Evaluation of prototype air carrier instrument approach procedure charts.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1995-07-31

The objective of this study was to evaluate the design features of two prototype Instrument Approach Procedure (IAP) charts. The John A. Volpe National Transportation System's Center in cooperation with the Air Transport Association's Chart and Data ...

Procedures for evaluating corrosion-inhibiting admixtures for structural concrete

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2000-06-01

The objectives of this research were to (1) develop procedures for evaluating and qualifying corrosion-inhibiting admixtures (CIAs) and (2) recommend performance criteria for their acceptance. Phase I work included a literature review of CIAs, the re...

7 CFR 980.501 - Safeguard procedures for potatoes, onions, and tomatoes exempt from grade, size, quality, and...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Safeguard procedures for potatoes, onions, and....501 Safeguard procedures for potatoes, onions, and tomatoes exempt from grade, size, quality, and... imports: (1) Potatoes, onions or tomatoes for consumption by charitable institutions or distribution by...

7 CFR 980.501 - Safeguard procedures for potatoes, onions, and tomatoes exempt from grade, size, quality, and...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 8 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Safeguard procedures for potatoes, onions, and....501 Safeguard procedures for potatoes, onions, and tomatoes exempt from grade, size, quality, and maturity requirements. (a) Each person who imports: (1) Potatoes, onions or tomatoes for consumption by...

7 CFR 980.501 - Safeguard procedures for potatoes, onions, and tomatoes exempt from grade, size, quality, and...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 8 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Safeguard procedures for potatoes, onions, and....501 Safeguard procedures for potatoes, onions, and tomatoes exempt from grade, size, quality, and maturity requirements. (a) Each person who imports: (1) Potatoes, onions or tomatoes for consumption by...

7 CFR 980.501 - Safeguard procedures for potatoes, onions, and tomatoes exempt from grade, size, quality, and...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 8 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Safeguard procedures for potatoes, onions, and....501 Safeguard procedures for potatoes, onions, and tomatoes exempt from grade, size, quality, and maturity requirements. (a) Each person who imports: (1) Potatoes, onions or tomatoes for consumption by...

7 CFR 980.501 - Safeguard procedures for potatoes, onions, and tomatoes exempt from grade, size, quality, and...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 8 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Safeguard procedures for potatoes, onions, and....501 Safeguard procedures for potatoes, onions, and tomatoes exempt from grade, size, quality, and maturity requirements. (a) Each person who imports: (1) Potatoes, onions or tomatoes for consumption by...

Current good manufacturing practices, quality control procedures, quality factors, notification requirements, and records and reports, for infant formula. Final rule.

PubMed

2014-06-10

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or we) is issuing a final rule that adopts, with some modifications, the interim final rule (IFR) entitled "Current Good Manufacturing Practices, Quality Control Procedures, Quality Factors, Notification Requirements, and Records and Reports, for Infant Formula'' (February 10, 2014). This final rule affirms the IFR's changes to FDA's regulations and provides additional modifications and clarifications. The final rule also responds to certain comments submitted in response to the request for comments in the IFR.

34 CFR 303.342 - Procedures for IFSP development, review, and evaluation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... PROGRAM FOR INFANTS AND TODDLERS WITH DISABILITIES Child Find, Evaluations and Assessments, and... development, review, and evaluation. (a) Meeting to develop initial IFSP—timelines. For a child referred to... 34 Education 2 2014-07-01 2013-07-01 true Procedures for IFSP development, review, and evaluation...

34 CFR 303.342 - Procedures for IFSP development, review, and evaluation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... PROGRAM FOR INFANTS AND TODDLERS WITH DISABILITIES Child Find, Evaluations and Assessments, and... development, review, and evaluation. (a) Meeting to develop initial IFSP—timelines. For a child referred to... 34 Education 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Procedures for IFSP development, review, and evaluation...

34 CFR 303.342 - Procedures for IFSP development, review, and evaluation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... PROGRAM FOR INFANTS AND TODDLERS WITH DISABILITIES Child Find, Evaluations and Assessments, and... development, review, and evaluation. (a) Meeting to develop initial IFSP—timelines. For a child referred to... 34 Education 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Procedures for IFSP development, review, and evaluation...

Longitudinal trends with Improvement in Quality of Life after TVT, TVT O and Burch Colposuspension Procedures

PubMed Central

Drahoradova, Petra; Martan, Alois; Svabik, Kamil; Zvara, Karel; Otava, Martin; Masata, Jaromir

2011-01-01

Summary Background Comparison of the quality of life (QoL) trends after TVT, TVT O and Burch colposuspension (BCS) procedures and comparison of long-term subjective and objective outcomes. Material/Methods The study included 215 women who underwent a TVT, TVT O or BCS procedure. We monitored QoL after each procedure and the effect of complications on the QoL as assessed by the IQOL questionnaire over a 3-year period. Results The study was completed by 74.5% of women after TVT, 74.5% after TVT O, and 65.2% after BCS procedure. In the long-term, the QoL improved from 46.9 to 88.7 and remained stable after BCS; after TVT and TVT O, it declined, but only after TVT O was the decline statistically significant compared to BCS. The IQOL for women with post-operative complications has a clear descending tendency. The effect of the complications is highly significant (p<0.001). Only the OAB complication had a statistically significant effect on QoL p<0.001. Preexistent OAB does not negatively affect postoperative results of anti-incontinence surgery. Conclusions There was a statistically significant decline with the longitudinal values of IQOL with TVT O, but not with TVT or BCS. Anti-incontinence operations significantly improve quality of life for women with MI, but compared to the SI group, the quality of life is worse when measured at a longer time interval after the operation. Anti-incontinence operations significantly improve quality of life, and the difference in preoperative status in the long-term follow-up is demonstrable. PMID:21278690

Evaluation of prototype air carrier instrument approach procedure charts

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1995-07-01

The objective of this study was to evaluate the design features of two prototype Instrument Approach Procedure (IAP) charts. The John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in cooperation with the Air Transport Association's Chart and Data D...

Standard operating procedure changed pre-hospital critical care anaesthesiologists’ behaviour: a quality control study

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Introduction The ability of standard operating procedures to improve pre-hospital critical care by changing pre-hospital physician behaviour is uncertain. We report data from a prospective quality control study of the effect on pre-hospital critical care anaesthesiologists’ behaviour of implementing a standard operating procedure for pre-hospital controlled ventilation. Materials and methods Anaesthesiologists from eight pre-hospital critical care teams in the Central Denmark Region prospectively registered pre-hospital advanced airway-management data according to the Utstein-style template. We collected pre-intervention data from February 1st 2011 to January 31st 2012, implemented the standard operating procedure on February 1st 2012 and collected post intervention data from February 1st 2012 until October 31st 2012. We included transported patients of all ages in need of controlled ventilation treated with pre-hospital endotracheal intubation or the insertion of a supraglottic airways device. The objective was to evaluate whether the development and implementation of a standard operating procedure for controlled ventilation during transport could change pre-hospital critical care anaesthesiologists’ behaviour and thereby increase the use of automated ventilators in these patients. Results The implementation of a standard operating procedure increased the overall prevalence of automated ventilator use in transported patients in need of controlled ventilation from 0.40 (0.34-0.47) to 0.74 (0.69-0.80) with a prevalence ratio of 1.85 (1.57-2.19) (p = 0.00). The prevalence of automated ventilator use in transported traumatic brain injury patients in need of controlled ventilation increased from 0.44 (0.26-0.62) to 0.85 (0.62-0.97) with a prevalence ratio of 1.94 (1.26-3.0) (p = 0.0039). The prevalence of automated ventilator use in patients transported after return of spontaneous circulation following pre-hospital cardiac arrest increased from 0.39 (0

Pesticide-sampling equipment, sample-collection and processing procedures, and water-quality data at Chicod Creek, North Carolina, 1992

USGS Publications Warehouse

Manning, T.K.; Smith, K.E.; Wood, C.D.; Williams, J.B.

1994-01-01

Water-quality samples were collected from Chicod Creek in the Coastal Plain Province of North Carolina during the summer of 1992 as part of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment Program. Chicod Creek is in the Albemarle-Pamlico drainage area, one of four study units designated to test equipment and procedures for collecting and processing samples for the solid-phase extraction of selected pesticides, The equipment and procedures were used to isolate 47 pesticides, including organonitrogen, carbamate, organochlorine, organophosphate, and other compounds, targeted to be analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Sample-collection and processing equipment equipment cleaning and set-up procedures, methods pertaining to collecting, splitting, and solid-phase extraction of samples, and water-quality data resulting from the field test are presented in this report Most problems encountered during this intensive sampling exercise were operational difficulties relating to equipment used to process samples.

Evaluating Quality Management in University Departments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Becket, Nina; Brookes, Maureen

2006-01-01

Purpose: Despite the abundance of research on quality management there is no universal consensus on how best to measure quality in higher education. This paper undertakes a critical evaluation of the different methods used to assess the quality of provision in higher education departments in the UK. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on relevant…

Implementation and evaluation of a multisite drug usage evaluation program across Australian hospitals - a quality improvement initiative

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background With the use of medicines being a broad and extensive part of health management, mechanisms to ensure quality use of medicines are essential. Drug usage evaluation (DUE) is an evidence-based quality improvement methodology, designed to improve the quality, safety and cost-effectiveness of drug use. The purpose of this paper is to describe a national DUE methodology used to improve health care delivery across the continuum through multi-faceted intervention involving audit and feedback, academic detailing and system change, and a qualitative assessment of the methodology, as illustrated by the Acute Postoperative Pain Management (APOP) project. Methods An established methodology, consisting of a baseline audit of inpatient medical records, structured patient interviews and general practitioner surveys, followed by an educational intervention and follow-up audit, is used. Australian hospitals, including private, public, metropolitan and regional, are invited to participate on a voluntary basis. De-identified data collected by hospitals are collated and evaluated nationally to provide descriptive comparative analyses. Hospitals benchmark their practices against state and national results to facilitate change. The educational intervention consists of academic detailing, group education, audit and feedback, point-of-prescribing prompts and system changes. A repeat data collection is undertaken to assess changes in practice. An online qualitative survey was undertaken to evaluate the APOP program. Qualitative assessment of hospitals' perceptions of the effectiveness of the overall DUE methodology and changes in procedure/prescribing/policy/clinical practice which resulted from participation were elicited. Results 62 hospitals participated in the APOP project. Among 23 respondents to the evaluation survey, 18 (78%) reported improvements in the documentation of pain scores at their hospital. 15 (65%) strongly agreed or agreed that participation in APOP directly

Implementation and evaluation of a multisite drug usage evaluation program across Australian hospitals - a quality improvement initiative.

PubMed

Pulver, Lisa K; Wai, Angela; Maxwell, David J; Robertson, Marion B; Riddell, Steven

2011-08-29

With the use of medicines being a broad and extensive part of health management, mechanisms to ensure quality use of medicines are essential. Drug usage evaluation (DUE) is an evidence-based quality improvement methodology, designed to improve the quality, safety and cost-effectiveness of drug use. The purpose of this paper is to describe a national DUE methodology used to improve health care delivery across the continuum through multi-faceted intervention involving audit and feedback, academic detailing and system change, and a qualitative assessment of the methodology, as illustrated by the Acute Postoperative Pain Management (APOP) project. An established methodology, consisting of a baseline audit of inpatient medical records, structured patient interviews and general practitioner surveys, followed by an educational intervention and follow-up audit, is used. Australian hospitals, including private, public, metropolitan and regional, are invited to participate on a voluntary basis. De-identified data collected by hospitals are collated and evaluated nationally to provide descriptive comparative analyses. Hospitals benchmark their practices against state and national results to facilitate change. The educational intervention consists of academic detailing, group education, audit and feedback, point-of-prescribing prompts and system changes. A repeat data collection is undertaken to assess changes in practice.An online qualitative survey was undertaken to evaluate the APOP program. Qualitative assessment of hospitals' perceptions of the effectiveness of the overall DUE methodology and changes in procedure/prescribing/policy/clinical practice which resulted from participation were elicited. 62 hospitals participated in the APOP project. Among 23 respondents to the evaluation survey, 18 (78%) reported improvements in the documentation of pain scores at their hospital. 15 (65%) strongly agreed or agreed that participation in APOP directly resulted in increased

Evaluation of a new very low dose imaging protocol: feasibility and impact on X-ray dose levels in electrophysiology procedures

PubMed Central

Bourier, Felix; Reents, Tilko; Ammar-Busch, Sonia; Buiatti, Alessandra; Kottmaier, Marc; Semmler, Verena; Telishevska, Marta; Brkic, Amir; Grebmer, Christian; Lennerz, Carsten; Kolb, Christof; Hessling, Gabriele; Deisenhofer, Isabel

2016-01-01

Aims This study presents and evaluates the impact of a new lowest-dose fluoroscopy protocol (Siemens AG), especially designed for electrophysiology (EP) procedures, on X-ray dose levels. Methods and results From October 2014 to March 2015, 140 patients underwent an EP study on an Artis zee angiography system. The standard low-dose protocol was operated at 23 nGy (fluoroscopy) and at 120 nGy (cine-loop), the new lowest-dose protocol was operated at 8 nGy (fluoroscopy) and at 36 nGy (cine-loop). Procedural data, X-ray times, and doses were analysed in 100 complex left atrial and in 40 standard EP procedures. The resulting dose–area products were 877.9 ± 624.7 µGym² (n = 50 complex procedures, standard low dose), 199 ± 159.6 µGym² (n = 50 complex procedures, lowest dose), 387.7 ± 36.0 µGym² (n = 20 standard procedures, standard low dose), and 90.7 ± 62.3 µGym² (n = 20 standard procedures, lowest dose), P < 0.01. In the low-dose and lowest-dose groups, procedure times were 132.6 ± 35.7 vs. 126.7 ± 34.7 min (P = 0.40, complex procedures) and 72.3 ± 20.9 vs. 85.2 ± 44.1 min (P = 0.24, standard procedures), radiofrequency (RF) times were 53.8 ± 26.1 vs. 50.4 ± 29.4 min (P = 0.54, complex procedures) and 10.1 ± 9.9 vs. 12.2 ± 14.7 min (P = 0.60, standard procedures). One complication occurred in the standard low-dose and lowest-dose groups (P = 1.0). Conclusion The new lowest-dose imaging protocol reduces X-ray dose levels by 77% compared with the currently available standard low-dose protocol. From an operator standpoint, lowest X-ray dose levels create a different, reduced image quality. The new image quality did not significantly affect procedure or RF times and did not result in higher complication rates. Regarding radiological protection, operating at lowest-dose settings should become standard in EP procedures. PMID:26589627

Evaluation of a new very low dose imaging protocol: feasibility and impact on X-ray dose levels in electrophysiology procedures.

PubMed

Bourier, Felix; Reents, Tilko; Ammar-Busch, Sonia; Buiatti, Alessandra; Kottmaier, Marc; Semmler, Verena; Telishevska, Marta; Brkic, Amir; Grebmer, Christian; Lennerz, Carsten; Kolb, Christof; Hessling, Gabriele; Deisenhofer, Isabel

2016-09-01

This study presents and evaluates the impact of a new lowest-dose fluoroscopy protocol (Siemens AG), especially designed for electrophysiology (EP) procedures, on X-ray dose levels. From October 2014 to March 2015, 140 patients underwent an EP study on an Artis zee angiography system. The standard low-dose protocol was operated at 23 nGy (fluoroscopy) and at 120 nGy (cine-loop), the new lowest-dose protocol was operated at 8 nGy (fluoroscopy) and at 36 nGy (cine-loop). Procedural data, X-ray times, and doses were analysed in 100 complex left atrial and in 40 standard EP procedures. The resulting dose-area products were 877.9 ± 624.7 µGym² (n = 50 complex procedures, standard low dose), 199 ± 159.6 µGym² (n = 50 complex procedures, lowest dose), 387.7 ± 36.0 µGym² (n = 20 standard procedures, standard low dose), and 90.7 ± 62.3 µGym² (n = 20 standard procedures, lowest dose), P < 0.01. In the low-dose and lowest-dose groups, procedure times were 132.6 ± 35.7 vs. 126.7 ± 34.7 min (P = 0.40, complex procedures) and 72.3 ± 20.9 vs. 85.2 ± 44.1 min (P = 0.24, standard procedures), radiofrequency (RF) times were 53.8 ± 26.1 vs. 50.4 ± 29.4 min (P = 0.54, complex procedures) and 10.1 ± 9.9 vs. 12.2 ± 14.7 min (P = 0.60, standard procedures). One complication occurred in the standard low-dose and lowest-dose groups (P = 1.0). The new lowest-dose imaging protocol reduces X-ray dose levels by 77% compared with the currently available standard low-dose protocol. From an operator standpoint, lowest X-ray dose levels create a different, reduced image quality. The new image quality did not significantly affect procedure or RF times and did not result in higher complication rates. Regarding radiological protection, operating at lowest-dose settings should become standard in EP procedures. Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2015. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

[A re-evaluation of the program for diabetes mellitus type 2. A proposal for quality indices].

PubMed

Espinàs, J; Salla, R M; Bellvehí, M; Reig, E; Iruela, T; Muñoz, E; Isern, R; Molas, M

1993-02-28

To find out how accurate our records are and the state of health of the patients with diabetes mellitus type II (DM) in our Base Health Area (BHA) in Osona county (Barcelona), both before and after introducing a new procedure. Quality control study based on the medical records (PCMR) of DM patients. The evaluation took place between 1.1.90 and 31.12.90; and the re-evaluation between 1.1.91 and 31.12.91, after the DM procedure had been put in place as a corrective measure. 198 patients: all of those suffering from DM type II. 110 women and 88 men, with an average age of 65.4 +/- 11.9, were under study. We observed from the records of attendance that 94.4% were or had been smokers, whereas the question of the eye fundus was only mentioned in 36.8%. The introduction of a procedure has improved the records in almost every parameter. In 1991, 36.8% of the patients had normal-weight criteria, 33.3% had good biochemical control and 15.6% fulfilled both these criteria. Those tests which could be performed with few instruments were carried out much better than those which needed more complex technology or specialist support. Arising from this study, the authors propose four indicators of quality control: 1) Weight normality. 2) Annual plasmatic fructosamine. 3) Annual eye fundus check. 4) Annual proteinuria check.

An Underwater Color Image Quality Evaluation Metric.

PubMed

Yang, Miao; Sowmya, Arcot

2015-12-01

Quality evaluation of underwater images is a key goal of underwater video image retrieval and intelligent processing. To date, no metric has been proposed for underwater color image quality evaluation (UCIQE). The special absorption and scattering characteristics of the water medium do not allow direct application of natural color image quality metrics especially to different underwater environments. In this paper, subjective testing for underwater image quality has been organized. The statistical distribution of the underwater image pixels in the CIELab color space related to subjective evaluation indicates the sharpness and colorful factors correlate well with subjective image quality perception. Based on these, a new UCIQE metric, which is a linear combination of chroma, saturation, and contrast, is proposed to quantify the non-uniform color cast, blurring, and low-contrast that characterize underwater engineering and monitoring images. Experiments are conducted to illustrate the performance of the proposed UCIQE metric and its capability to measure the underwater image enhancement results. They show that the proposed metric has comparable performance to the leading natural color image quality metrics and the underwater grayscale image quality metrics available in the literature, and can predict with higher accuracy the relative amount of degradation with similar image content in underwater environments. Importantly, UCIQE is a simple and fast solution for real-time underwater video processing. The effectiveness of the presented measure is also demonstrated by subjective evaluation. The results show better correlation between the UCIQE and the subjective mean opinion score.

The Evaluation of Published Indexes, and Abstract Journals:, Criteria and Possible Procedures

PubMed Central

Lancaster, F. W.

1971-01-01

This paper describes possible criteria by which the effectiveness of a published index may be evaluated and suggest procedures that might be used to conduct an evaluation of a published index. The procedures were developed for the National Library of Medicine and relate specifically to the recurring bibliographies produced by MEDLARS in various specialized areas of biomedicine. The methods described should, however, be applicable to other printed indexes and abstract journals. Factors affecting the performance of a published index are also discussed and some research projects relevant to the evaluation of published indexes are reviewed. PMID:5146770

77 FR 235 - Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Colorado; Procedural Rules...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-01-04

... Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Colorado; Procedural Rules; Conflicts of Interest AGENCY... its members of potential conflicts of interest. We are also reproposing approval of a portion of... federally mandate that Commission members disclose any potential conflicts of interest that arise during...

77 FR 21451 - Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Colorado; Procedural Rules...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-04-10

... Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Colorado; Procedural Rules; Conflicts of Interest AGENCY... potential conflicts of interest. We are also approving the remaining portion of Colorado's January 7, 2008... of potential conflicts of interest. (i) Incorporation by reference. (A) Department of Public Health...

Operational Procedures for Collecting Water-Quality Samples at Monitoring Sites on Maple Creek Near Nickerson and the Platte River at Louisville, Eastern Nebraska

USGS Publications Warehouse

Johnson, Steven M.; Swanson, Robert B.

1994-01-01

Prototype stream-monitoring sites were operated during part of 1992 in the Central Nebraska Basins (CNBR) and three other study areas of the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQ) Program of the U.S. Geological Survey. Results from the prototype project provide information needed to operate a net- work of intensive fixed station stream-monitoring sites. This report evaluates operating procedures for two NAWQA prototype sites at Maple Creek near Nickerson and the Platte River at Louisville, eastern Nebraska. Each site was sampled intensively in the spring and late summer 1992, with less intensive sampling in midsummer. In addition, multiple samples were collected during two high- flow periods at the Maple Creek site--one early and the other late in the growing season. Water-samples analyses included determination of pesticides, nutrients, major ions, suspended sediment, and measurements of physical properties. Equipment and protocols for the water-quality sampling procedures were evaluated. Operation of the prototype stream- monitoring sites included development and comparison of onsite and laboratory sample-processing proce- dures. Onsite processing was labor intensive but allowed for immediate preservation of all sampled constituents. Laboratory processing required less field labor and decreased the risk of contamination, but allowed for no immediate preservation of the samples.

Body Disfigurement and the Quality of Life of Adolescents with Pectus Excavatum: Effects of the Nuss Procedure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, Jillian; MacMath, Sheryl; English, Margot; Martin, Joan; Hayashi, Al; Sigalet, David L.

2006-01-01

This article takes a comprehensive look at the effects of pectus excavatum, a congenital deformity with psychosocial and physical ramifications, and the Nuss procedure on the quality of life of adolescents. The Nuss procedure is a minimally invasive corrective surgery. Twenty-five participants from Calgary, Alberta were interviewed (10 adolescents…

Report of the FELASA Working Group on evaluation of quality systems for animal units.

PubMed

Howard, B; van Herck, H; Guillen, J; Bacon, B; Joffe, R; Ritskes-Hoitinga, M

2004-04-01

This report compares and considers the merits of existing, internationally available quality management systems suitable for implementation in experimental animal facilities. These are: the Good Laboratory Practice Guidelines, ISO 9000:2000 (International Organization for Standardization) and AAALAC International (Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International). Good laboratory practice (GLP) is a legal requirement for institutions undertaking non-clinical health and environmental studies for the purpose of registering or licensing for use and which have to be 'GLP-compliant'. GLP guidelines are often only relevant for and obtainable by those institutions. ISO is primarily an external business standard, which provides a management tool to master and optimize a business activity; it aims to implement and enhance 'customer satisfaction'. AAALAC is primarily a peer-reviewed system of accreditation which evaluates the organization and procedures in programmes of animal care and use to ensure the appropriate use of animals, safeguard animal well-being (ensuring state-of-the-art housing, management, procedural techniques, etc.) as well as the management of health and safety of staff. Management needs to determine, on the basis of a facility's specific goals, whether benefits would arise from the introduction of a quality system and, if so, which system is most appropriate. The successful introduction of a quality system confers peer-recognition against an independent standard, thereby providing assurance of standards of animal care and use, improving the quality of animal studies, and contributing to the three Rs-reduction, refinement and replacement.

Evaluating supplier quality performance using analytical hierarchy process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kalimuthu Rajoo, Shanmugam Sundram; Kasim, Maznah Mat; Ahmad, Nazihah

2013-09-01

This paper elaborates the importance of evaluating supplier quality performance to an organization. Supplier quality performance evaluation reflects the actual performance of the supplier exhibited at customer's end. It is critical in enabling the organization to determine the area of improvement and thereafter works with supplier to close the gaps. Success of the customer partly depends on supplier's quality performance. Key criteria as quality, cost, delivery, technology support and customer service are categorized as main factors in contributing to supplier's quality performance. 18 suppliers' who were manufacturing automotive application parts evaluated in year 2010 using weight point system. There were few suppliers with common rating which led to common ranking observed by few suppliers'. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), a user friendly decision making tool for complex and multi criteria problems was used to evaluate the supplier's quality performance challenging the weight point system that was used for 18 suppliers'. The consistency ratio was checked for criteria and sub-criteria. Final results of AHP obtained with no overlap ratings, therefore yielded a better decision making methodology as compared to weight point rating system.

Aggregative Learning Method and Its Application for Communication Quality Evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akhmetov, Dauren F.; Kotaki, Minoru

2007-12-01

In this paper, so-called Aggregative Learning Method (ALM) is proposed to improve and simplify the learning and classification abilities of different data processing systems. It provides a universal basis for design and analysis of mathematical models of wide class. A procedure was elaborated for time series model reconstruction and analysis for linear and nonlinear cases. Data approximation accuracy (during learning phase) and data classification quality (during recall phase) are estimated from introduced statistic parameters. The validity and efficiency of the proposed approach have been demonstrated through its application for monitoring of wireless communication quality, namely, for Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) system. Low memory and computation resources were shown to be needed for the procedure realization, especially for data classification (recall) stage. Characterized with high computational efficiency and simple decision making procedure, the derived approaches can be useful for simple and reliable real-time surveillance and control system design.

A quality of service negotiation procedure for distributed multimedia presentational applications

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hafid, A.; Bochmann, G.V.; Kerherve, B.

Most of current approaches in designing and implementing distributed multimedia (MM) presentational applications, e.g. news-on-demand, have concentrated on the performance of the continuous media file servers in terms of seek time overhead, and real-time disk scheduling; particularly the QoS negotiation mechanisms they provide are used in a rather static manner that is, these mechanisms are restricted to the evaluation of the capacity of certain system components, e.g. file server a priori known to support a specific quality of service (QoS). In contrast to those approaches, we propose a general QoS negotiation framework that supports the dynamic choice of a configurationmore » of system components to support the QoS requirements of the user of a specific application: we consider different possible system configurations and select an optimal one to provide the appropriate QoS support. In this paper we document the design and implementation of a QoS negotiation procedure for distributed MM presentational applications, such as news-on-demand. The negotiation procedure described here is an instantiation of the general framework for QoS negotiation which was developed earlier Our proposal differs in many respect with the negotiation functions provided by existing approaches: (1) the negotiation process uses an optimization approach to find a configuration of system components which supports the user requirements, (2) the negotiation process supports the negotiation of a MM document and not only a single monomedia object, (3) the QoS negotiation takes into account the cost to the user, and (4) the negotiation process may be used to support automatic adaptation to react to QoS degradations, without intervention by the user/application.« less

Medicare's Hospital Compare quality reports appear to have slowed price increases for two major procedures.

PubMed

Dor, Avi; Encinosa, William E; Carey, Kathleen

2015-01-01

Previous research has found that Hospital Compare, Medicare's public reporting initiative, has had little impact on patient outcomes. However, little is known about the initiative's impact on hospital prices, which may be significant because private insurers are generally well positioned to respond to quality information when negotiating prices with hospitals. We estimated difference-in-differences models of the effects of Hospital Compare quality reporting on transaction prices for two major cardiac procedures, coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). States that had mandated their own public reporting systems before the implementation of Hospital Compare formed the control group. We found that prices for these procedures continued to increase overall after the initiation of Hospital Compare quality scores, but the rate of increase was significantly lower in states with no quality reporting metrics of their own before Hospital Compare, when compared to the control states (annual rates of increase of 4.4 percent versus 8.7 percent for PCI, and 3.9 percent versus 10.6 percent for CABG, adjusted for overall inflation). This finding implies that Hospital Compare provided leverage to purchasers in moderating price increases, while adding competitive pressures on hospitals. Providing accurate quality information on both hospitals and health plans could benefit consumers. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

Reproductive health services in Malawi: an evaluation of a quality improvement intervention.

PubMed

Rawlins, Barbara J; Kim, Young-Mi; Rozario, Aleisha M; Bazant, Eva; Rashidi, Tambudzai; Bandazi, Sheila N; Kachale, Fannie; Sanghvi, Harshad; Noh, Jin Won

2013-01-01

this study was to evaluate the impact of a quality improvement initiative in Malawi on reproductive health service quality and related outcomes. (1) post-only quasi-experimental design comparing observed service quality at intervention and comparison health facilities, and (2) a time-series analysis of service statistics. sixteen of Malawi's 23 district hospitals, half of which had implemented the Performance and Quality Improvement (PQI) intervention for reproductive health at the time of the study. a total of 98 reproductive health-care providers (mostly nurse-midwives) and 139 patients seeking family planning (FP), antenatal care (ANC), labour and delivery (L&D), or postnatal care (PNC) services. health facility teams implemented a performance and quality improvement (PQI) intervention over a 3-year period. Following an external observational assessment of service quality at baseline, facility teams analysed performance gaps, designed and implemented interventions to address weaknesses, and conducted quarterly internal assessments to assess progress. Facilities qualified for national recognition by complying with at least 80% of reproductive health clinical standards during an external verification assessment. key measures include facility readiness to provide quality care, observed health-care provider adherence to clinical performance standards during service delivery, and trends in service utilisation. intervention facilities were more likely than comparison facilities to have the needed infrastructure, equipment, supplies, and systems in place to offer reproductive health services. Observed quality of care was significantly higher at intervention than comparison facilities for PNC and FP. Compared with other providers, those at intervention facilities scored significantly higher on client assessment and diagnosis in three service areas, on clinical management and procedures in two service areas, and on counselling in one service area. Service statistics

Ontology Based Quality Evaluation for Spatial Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yılmaz, C.; Cömert, Ç.

2015-08-01

Many institutions will be providing data to the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). Current technical background of the NSDI is based on syntactic web services. It is expected that this will be replaced by semantic web services. The quality of the data provided is important in terms of the decision-making process and the accuracy of transactions. Therefore, the data quality needs to be tested. This topic has been neglected in Turkey. Data quality control for NSDI may be done by private or public "data accreditation" institutions. A methodology is required for data quality evaluation. There are studies for data quality including ISO standards, academic studies and software to evaluate spatial data quality. ISO 19157 standard defines the data quality elements. Proprietary software such as, 1Spatial's 1Validate and ESRI's Data Reviewer offers quality evaluation based on their own classification of rules. Commonly, rule based approaches are used for geospatial data quality check. In this study, we look for the technical components to devise and implement a rule based approach with ontologies using free and open source software in semantic web context. Semantic web uses ontologies to deliver well-defined web resources and make them accessible to end-users and processes. We have created an ontology conforming to the geospatial data and defined some sample rules to show how to test data with respect to data quality elements including; attribute, topo-semantic and geometrical consistency using free and open source software. To test data against rules, sample GeoSPARQL queries are created, associated with specifications.

Water-quality data-collection activities in Colorado and Ohio; Phase III, evaluation of existing data for use in assessing regional water-quality conditions and trends

USGS Publications Warehouse

Norris, J. Michael; Hren, Janet; Myers, Donna N.; Chaney, Thomas H.; Childress, Carolyn J. Oblinger

1990-01-01

During the past several years, a growing number of questions have been raised by members of Congress and others about the status of current waterquality conditions in the Nation, trends in water quality, and the major factors that affect water-quality conditions and trends. One area of particular interest and concern has been the suitability of existing water-quality data for addressing these types of questions at regional and national scales. In response to these questions and concerns, the U.S. Geological Survey began a pilot study in Colorado and Ohio to (1) determine the characteristics of current water-quality data-collection activities of Federal, State, regional, and local agencies and universities; and (2) determine how well the data from these activities, collected for various purposes and using different procedures, can be used to improve our ability to address the aforementioned questions.Colorado and Ohio were chosen for the pilot study because they represent regions with different types of water-quality issues and programs. The results of the study are specific to the two States and are not intended to be extrapolated to other States.The study was divided into three phases whose objectives were:Phase I Identify and inventory 1984 water-quality data-collection programs, including costs, in Colorado and Ohio, and identify those programs that meet a set of broad criteria for producing data that potentially are appropriate for water-quality assessments of regional and national scope. Phase II Evaluate the quality assurance of field and laboratory procedures used to produce the data from programs that met the broad criteria of Phase I. Phase III Compile the qualifying data from Phase II and evaluate the extent to which the resulting data base can be used to address selected water-quality questions for the two States.This report presents the results of Phase III, focusing on (1) the number of measurements made at each data-collection site for selected

Transfer of knowledge from sound quality measurement to noise impact evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Genuit, Klaus

2004-05-01

It is well known that the measurement and analysis of sound quality requires a complex procedure with consideration of the physical, psychoacoustical and psychological aspects of sound. Sound quality cannot be described only by a simple value based on A-weighted sound pressure level measurements. The A-weighted sound pressure level is sufficient to predict the probabilty that the human ear could be damaged by sound but the A-weighted level is not the correct descriptor for the annoyance of a complex sound situation given by several different sound events at different and especially moving positions (soundscape). On the one side, the consideration of the spectral distribution and the temporal pattern (psychoacoustics) is requested and, on the other side, the subjective attitude with respect to the sound situation, the expectation and experience of the people (psychology) have to be included in context with the complete noise impact evaluation. This paper describes applications of the newest methods of sound quality measurements-as it is well introduced at the car manufacturers-based on artifical head recordings and signal processing comparable to the human hearing used in noisy environments like community/traffic noise.

The Triangle Model for evaluating the effect of health information technology on healthcare quality and safety

PubMed Central

Kern, Lisa M; Abramson, Erika; Kaushal, Rainu

2011-01-01

With the proliferation of relatively mature health information technology (IT) systems with large numbers of users, it becomes increasingly important to evaluate the effect of these systems on the quality and safety of healthcare. Previous research on the effectiveness of health IT has had mixed results, which may be in part attributable to the evaluation frameworks used. The authors propose a model for evaluation, the Triangle Model, developed for designing studies of quality and safety outcomes of health IT. This model identifies structure-level predictors, including characteristics of: (1) the technology itself; (2) the provider using the technology; (3) the organizational setting; and (4) the patient population. In addition, the model outlines process predictors, including (1) usage of the technology, (2) organizational support for and customization of the technology, and (3) organizational policies and procedures about quality and safety. The Triangle Model specifies the variables to be measured, but is flexible enough to accommodate both qualitative and quantitative approaches to capturing them. The authors illustrate this model, which integrates perspectives from both health services research and biomedical informatics, with examples from evaluations of electronic prescribing, but it is also applicable to a variety of types of health IT systems. PMID:21857023

23 CFR 669.21 - Procedure for evaluating state compliance.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 23 Highways 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Procedure for evaluating state compliance. 669.21 Section 669.21 Highways FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING AND... FHWA. The State may develop a software system to maintain copies or images of this proof-of-payment...

23 CFR 669.21 - Procedure for evaluating state compliance.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... 23 Highways 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Procedure for evaluating state compliance. 669.21 Section 669.21 Highways FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING AND... FHWA. The State may develop a software system to maintain copies or images of this proof-of-payment...

23 CFR 669.21 - Procedure for evaluating state compliance.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 23 Highways 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Procedure for evaluating state compliance. 669.21 Section 669.21 Highways FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING AND... FHWA. The State may develop a software system to maintain copies or images of this proof-of-payment...

23 CFR 669.21 - Procedure for evaluating state compliance.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 23 Highways 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Procedure for evaluating state compliance. 669.21 Section 669.21 Highways FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING AND... FHWA. The State may develop a software system to maintain copies or images of this proof-of-payment...

The AME2016 atomic mass evaluation (I). Evaluation of input data; and adjustment procedures

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Huang, W. J.; Audi, G.; Wang, Meng

This paper is the first of two articles (Part I and Part II) that presents the results of the new atomic mass evaluation, Ame2016. It includes complete information on the experimental input data (also including unused and rejected ones), as well as details on the evaluation procedures used to derive the tables of recommended values given in the second part. This article describes the evaluation philosophy and procedures that were implemented in the selection of specific nuclear reaction, decay and mass-spectrometric results. These input values were entered in the least-squares adjustment for determining the best values for the atomic massesmore » and their uncertainties. Details of the calculation and particularities of the Ame are then described. All accepted and rejected data, including outweighted ones, are presented in a tabular format and compared with the adjusted values obtained using the least-squares fit analysis. Differences with the previous Ame2012 evaluation are discussed and specific information is presented for several cases that may be of interest to Ame users. The second Ame2016 article gives a table with the recommended values of atomic masses, as well as tables and graphs of derived quantities, along with the list of references used in both the Ame2016 and the Nubase2016 evaluations (the first paper in this issue). Amdc: http://amdc.impcas.ac.cn/« less

An evaluation of periodontal assessment procedures among Indiana dental hygienists.

PubMed

Stephan, Christine A

2014-01-01

Using a descriptive correlational design, this study surveyed periodontal assessment procedures currently performed by Indiana dental hygienists in general dentistry practices to reveal if deficiencies in assessment exist. Members (n = 354) of the Indiana Dental Hygienists' Association (IDHA) were invited to participate in the survey. A 22 multiple choice question survey, using Likert scales for responses, was open to participants for three weeks. Descriptive and non-parametric inferential statistics analyzed questions related to demographics and assessment procedures practiced. In addition, an evaluation of the awareness of periodontal assessment procedures recommended by the American Academy of Periodontology (AAP) was examined. Of the 354 Indiana dental hygienists surveyed, a 31.9% response rate was achieved. Participants were asked to identify the recommended AAP periodontal assessment procedures they perform. The majority of respondents indicated either frequently or always performing the listed assessment procedures. Additionally, significant relationships were found between demographic factors and participants' awareness and performance of recommended AAP assessment procedures. While information gathered from this study is valuable to the body of literature regarding periodontal disease assessment, continued research with larger survey studies should be conducted to obtain a more accurate national representation of what is being practiced by dental hygienists.

Application and Evaluation of an Expert Judgment Elicitation Procedure for Correlations.

PubMed

Zondervan-Zwijnenburg, Mariëlle; van de Schoot-Hubeek, Wenneke; Lek, Kimberley; Hoijtink, Herbert; van de Schoot, Rens

2017-01-01

The purpose of the current study was to apply and evaluate a procedure to elicit expert judgments about correlations, and to update this information with empirical data. The result is a face-to-face group elicitation procedure with as its central element a trial roulette question that elicits experts' judgments expressed as distributions. During the elicitation procedure, a concordance probability question was used to provide feedback to the experts on their judgments. We evaluated the elicitation procedure in terms of validity and reliability by means of an application with a small sample of experts. Validity means that the elicited distributions accurately represent the experts' judgments. Reliability concerns the consistency of the elicited judgments over time. Four behavioral scientists provided their judgments with respect to the correlation between cognitive potential and academic performance for two separate populations enrolled at a specific school in the Netherlands that provides special education to youth with severe behavioral problems: youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and youth with diagnoses other than ASD. Measures of face-validity, feasibility, convergent validity, coherence, and intra-rater reliability showed promising results. Furthermore, the current study illustrates the use of the elicitation procedure and elicited distributions in a social science application. The elicited distributions were used as a prior for the correlation, and updated with data for both populations collected at the school of interest. The current study shows that the newly developed elicitation procedure combining the trial roulette method with the elicitation of correlations is a promising tool, and that the results of the procedure are useful as prior information in a Bayesian analysis.

Defining and evaluating quality for ambulatory care educational programs.

PubMed

Bowen, J L; Stearns, J A; Dohner, C; Blackman, J; Simpson, D

1997-06-01

As the training of medical students and residents increasingly moves to ambulatory care settings, clerkship and program directors must find a way to use their limited resources to guide the development and evaluation of the quality of these ambulatory-based learning experiences. To evaluate quality, directors must first define, in operational and measurable terms, what is meant by the term "quality" as it is applied to ambulatory-based education. Using educational theories and the definition of quality used by health care systems, the authors propose an operational definition of quality for guiding the planning, implementation, and evaluation of ambulatory care educational programs. They assert that quality is achieved through the interaction of an optimal learning environment, defined educational goals and positive outcomes, participant satisfaction, and cost-effectiveness. By describing the components of quality along with examples of measurable indicators, the authors provide a foundation for the evaluation and improvement of instructional innovations in ambulatory care education for the benefit of teachers, learners, and patients.

Performance of biometric quality measures.

PubMed

Grother, Patrick; Tabassi, Elham

2007-04-01

We document methods for the quantitative evaluation of systems that produce a scalar summary of a biometric sample's quality. We are motivated by a need to test claims that quality measures are predictive of matching performance. We regard a quality measurement algorithm as a black box that converts an input sample to an output scalar. We evaluate it by quantifying the association between those values and observed matching results. We advance detection error trade-off and error versus reject characteristics as metrics for the comparative evaluation of sample quality measurement algorithms. We proceed this with a definition of sample quality, a description of the operational use of quality measures. We emphasize the performance goal by including a procedure for annotating the samples of a reference corpus with quality values derived from empirical recognition scores.

Overview of the JPEG XS objective evaluation procedures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Willème, Alexandre; Richter, Thomas; Rosewarne, Chris; Macq, Benoit

2017-09-01

JPEG XS is a standardization activity conducted by the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), formally known as ISO/IEC SC29 WG1 group that aims at standardizing a low-latency, lightweight and visually lossless video compression scheme. This codec is intended to be used in applications where image sequences would otherwise be transmitted or stored in uncompressed form, such as in live production (through SDI or IP transport), display links, or frame buffers. Support for compression ratios ranging from 2:1 to 6:1 allows significant bandwidth and power reduction for signal propagation. This paper describes the objective quality assessment procedures conducted as part of the JPEG XS standardization activity. Firstly, this paper discusses the objective part of the experiments that led to the technology selection during the 73th WG1 meeting in late 2016. This assessment consists of PSNR measurements after a single and multiple compression decompression cycles at various compression ratios. After this assessment phase, two proposals among the six responses to the CfP were selected and merged to form the first JPEG XS test model (XSM). Later, this paper describes the core experiments (CEs) conducted so far on the XSM. These experiments are intended to evaluate its performance in more challenging scenarios, such as insertion of picture overlays, robustness to frame editing, assess the impact of the different algorithmic choices, and also to measure the XSM performance using the HDR VDP metric.

Towards objective hand hygiene technique assessment: validation of the ultraviolet-dye-based hand-rubbing quality assessment procedure.

PubMed

Lehotsky, Á; Szilágyi, L; Bánsághi, S; Szerémy, P; Wéber, G; Haidegger, T

2017-09-01

Ultraviolet spectrum markers are widely used for hand hygiene quality assessment, although their microbiological validation has not been established. A microbiology-based assessment of the procedure was conducted. Twenty-five artificial hand models underwent initial full contamination, then disinfection with UV-dyed hand-rub solution, digital imaging under UV-light, microbiological sampling and cultivation, and digital imaging of the cultivated flora were performed. Paired images of each hand model were registered by a software tool, then the UV-marked regions were compared with the pathogen-free sites pixel by pixel. Statistical evaluation revealed that the method indicates correctly disinfected areas with 95.05% sensitivity and 98.01% specificity. Copyright © 2017 The Healthcare Infection Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automatic first-arrival picking based on extended super-virtual interferometry with quality control procedure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

An, Shengpei; Hu, Tianyue; Liu, Yimou; Peng, Gengxin; Liang, Xianghao

2017-12-01

Static correction is a crucial step of seismic data processing for onshore play, which frequently has a complex near-surface condition. The effectiveness of the static correction depends on an accurate determination of first-arrival traveltimes. However, it is difficult to accurately auto-pick the first arrivals for data with low signal-to-noise ratios (SNR), especially for those measured in the area of the complex near-surface. The technique of the super-virtual interferometry (SVI) has the potential to enhance the SNR of first arrivals. In this paper, we develop the extended SVI with (1) the application of the reverse correlation to improve the capability of SNR enhancement at near-offset, and (2) the usage of the multi-domain method to partially overcome the limitation of current method, given insufficient available source-receiver combinations. Compared to the standard SVI, the SNR enhancement of the extended SVI can be up to 40%. In addition, we propose a quality control procedure, which is based on the statistical characteristics of multichannel recordings of first arrivals. It can auto-correct the mispicks, which might be spurious events generated by the SVI. This procedure is very robust, highly automatic and it can accommodate large data in batches. Finally, we develop one automatic first-arrival picking method to combine the extended SVI and the quality control procedure. Both the synthetic and the field data examples demonstrate that the proposed method is able to accurately auto-pick first arrivals in seismic traces with low SNR. The quality of the stacked seismic sections obtained from this method is much better than those obtained from an auto-picking method, which is commonly employed by the commercial software.

Flight Evaluation Procedures and Quality Control of Training. Technical Report 68-3.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caro, Paul W., Jr.

Research at the United States Army Aviation School, Fort Rucker, Alabama, sought to improve the school-wide training quality control system. Investigators studied: 1) the relation between the grades a student received from instructors and those he received from a checkpilot; 2) the effect of checkpilots' prior information about students' progress…

[What is the methodological quality of articles on therapeutic procedures published in Cirugía Española?].

PubMed

Manterola, Carlos; Busquets, Juli; Pascual, Marta; Grande, Luis

2006-02-01

The aim of this study was to determine the methodological quality of articles on therapeutic procedures published in Cirugía Española and to study its association with the publication year, center, and subject-matter. A bibliometric study that included all articles on therapeutic procedures published in Cirugía Española between 2001 and 2004 was performed. All kinds of clinical designs were considered, excluding editorials, review articles, letters to editor, and experimental studies. The variables analyzed were: year of publication, center, design, and methodological quality. Methodological quality was determined by a valid and reliable scale. Descriptive statistics (calculation of means, standard deviation and medians) and analytical statistics (Pearson's chi2, nonparametric, ANOVA and Bonferroni tests) were used. A total of 244 articles were studied (197 case series [81%], 28 cohort studies [12%], 17 clinical trials [7%], 1 cross sectional study and 1 case-control study [0.8%]). The studies were performed mainly in Catalonia and Murcia (22% and 16%, respectively). The most frequent subject areas were soft tissue and hepatobiliopancreatic surgery (23% and 19%, respectively). The mean and median of the methodological quality score calculated for the entire series was 10.2 +/- 3.9 points and 9.5 points, respectively. Methodological quality significantly increased by publication year (p < 0.001). An association between methodological quality and subject area was observed but no association was detected with the center performing the study. The methodological quality of articles on therapeutic procedures published in Cirugía Española between 2001 and 2004 is low. However, a statistically significant trend toward improvement was observed.

Evaluating newly acquired authority of nurse practitioners and physician assistants for reserved medical procedures in the Netherlands: a study protocol

PubMed Central

De Bruijn-Geraets, Daisy P; Van Eijk-Hustings, Yvonne JL; Vrijhoef, Hubertus JM

2014-01-01

Aim The study protocol is designed to evaluate the effects of granting independent authorization for medical procedures to nurse practitioners and physician assistants on processes and outcomes of health care. Background Recent (temporarily) enacted legislation in Dutch health care authorizes nurse practitioners and physician assistants to indicate and perform specified medical procedures, i.e. catheterization, cardioversion, defibrillation, endoscopy, injection, puncture, prescribing and simple surgical procedures, independently. Formerly, these procedures were exclusively reserved to physicians, dentists and midwives. Design A triangulation mixed method design is used to collect quantitative (surveys) and qualitative (interviews) data. Methods Outcomes are selected from evidence-based frameworks and models for assessing the impact of advanced nursing on quality of health care. Data are collected in various manners. Surveys are structured around the domains: (i) quality of care; (ii) costs; (iii) healthcare resource use; and (iv) patient centredness. Focus group and expert interviews aim to ascertain facilitators and barriers to the implementation process. Data are collected before the amendment of the law, 1 and 2·5 years thereafter. Groups of patients, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, supervising physicians and policy makers all participate in this national study. The study is supported by a grant from the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport in March 2011. Research Ethics Committee approval was obtained in July 2011. Conclusion This study will provide information about the effects of granting independent authorization for medical procedures to nurse practitioners and physician assistants on processes and outcomes of health care. Study findings aim to support policy makers and other stakeholders in making related decisions. The study design enables a cross-national comparative analysis. PMID:24684631

Evaluation of DOTD's Existing Queue Estimation Procedures : Research Project Capsule

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2017-10-01

The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of DOTDs queue estimation procedures by comparing results with those obtained directly from site observations through video camera footage or other means. Actual queue start time...

A prototype of mammography CADx scheme integrated to imaging quality evaluation techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schiabel, Homero; Matheus, Bruno R. N.; Angelo, Michele F.; Patrocínio, Ana Claudia; Ventura, Liliane

2011-03-01

As all women over the age of 40 are recommended to perform mammographic exams every two years, the demands on radiologists to evaluate mammographic images in short periods of time has increased considerably. As a tool to improve quality and accelerate analysis CADe/Dx (computer-aided detection/diagnosis) schemes have been investigated, but very few complete CADe/Dx schemes have been developed and most are restricted to detection and not diagnosis. The existent ones usually are associated to specific mammographic equipment (usually DR), which makes them very expensive. So this paper describes a prototype of a complete mammography CADx scheme developed by our research group integrated to an imaging quality evaluation process. The basic structure consists of pre-processing modules based on image acquisition and digitization procedures (FFDM, CR or film + scanner), a segmentation tool to detect clustered microcalcifications and suspect masses and a classification scheme, which evaluates as the presence of microcalcifications clusters as well as possible malignant masses based on their contour. The aim is to provide enough information not only on the detected structures but also a pre-report with a BI-RADS classification. At this time the system is still lacking an interface integrating all the modules. Despite this, it is functional as a prototype for clinical practice testing, with results comparable to others reported in literature.

Quality assurance procedures for environmental control and monitoring in plant growth facilities. Report of the North Central Regional 101 Committee on Growth Chamber Use

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tibbitts, T. W. (Principal Investigator)

1986-01-01

This report includes procedures for ensuring the quality of the environment provided for plant growth in controlled environment facilities. Biologists and engineers may use these procedures for ensuring quality control during experiments or for ensuring quality control in the design of plant growth facilities. Environmental monitoring prior to and during experiments is included in these procedures. Specific recommendations cover control, acquisition, and calibration for sensor types for the separate parameters of radiation (light), temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, and air movement.

[Evaluation of healthcare quality for acute cerebrovascular disease in the context of the service level agreement].

PubMed

Millán, Eduardo; Olascoaga Arrate, Adela; Garai, Idoia

2009-04-01

The service level agreement establishes the quality requirements for those services contracted by the Basque Government Health Department from Osakidetza-Servicio Vasco de Salud. Acute cerebrovascular disease (ACVD) is one of the care processes with quality specifications. To outline the procedure adopted to evaluate ACVD care and the results obtained in four hospitals in Vizcaya between 2003 and 2007. In 2003, a work group consisting of clinicians, hospital and quality assurance managers, and experts from the Regional Health Board chose a series of indicators which would be measured by an external auditor. This group reviews the results annually and sets objectives for the following financial year. The improvement in almost all the indicators has been significant, and those with high ratings from the beginning have maintained their level. The percentage of patients who had a CAT scan in the first six hours after arriving at hospital increased from 57% to 85%, and the administration of anticoagulants within 12 hours increased from 70% of cases to 90%. The fibrinolysis rate was 3.8% in two hospitals. The percentage of patients who began rehabilitation whilst admitted was less than 3%. After operating for five years, the procedure adopted, which involves collaboration between clinical, management and planning staff, has been shown to be viable and effective in improving the quality of ACVD care.

34 CFR 303.342 - Procedures for IFSP development, review, and evaluation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... development, review, and evaluation. (a) Meeting to develop initial IFSP—timelines. For a child who has been... 34 Education 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Procedures for IFSP development, review, and evaluation... PROGRAM FOR INFANTS AND TODDLERS WITH DISABILITIES Program and Service Components of a Statewide System of...

34 CFR 303.342 - Procedures for IFSP development, review, and evaluation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... development, review, and evaluation. (a) Meeting to develop initial IFSP—timelines. For a child who has been... 34 Education 2 2011-07-01 2010-07-01 true Procedures for IFSP development, review, and evaluation... PROGRAM FOR INFANTS AND TODDLERS WITH DISABILITIES Program and Service Components of a Statewide System of...

A semi-automated tool for treatment plan-quality evaluation and clinical trial quality assurance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Jiazhou; Chen, Wenzhou; Studenski, Matthew; Cui, Yunfeng; Lee, Andrew J.; Xiao, Ying

2013-07-01

The goal of this work is to develop a plan-quality evaluation program for clinical routine and multi-institutional clinical trials so that the overall evaluation efficiency is improved. In multi-institutional clinical trials evaluating the plan quality is a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. In this note, we present a semi-automated plan-quality evaluation program which combines MIMVista, Java/MATLAB, and extensible markup language (XML). More specifically, MIMVista is used for data visualization; Java and its powerful function library are implemented for calculating dosimetry parameters; and to improve the clarity of the index definitions, XML is applied. The accuracy and the efficiency of the program were evaluated by comparing the results of the program with the manually recorded results in two RTOG trials. A slight difference of about 0.2% in volume or 0.6 Gy in dose between the semi-automated program and manual recording was observed. According to the criteria of indices, there are minimal differences between the two methods. The evaluation time is reduced from 10-20 min to 2 min by applying the semi-automated plan-quality evaluation program.

Current status of quality evaluation of nursing care through director review and reflection from the Nursing Quality Control Centers

PubMed Central

Duan, Xia; Shi, Yan

2014-01-01

Background: The quality evaluation of nursing care is a key link in medical quality management. It is important and worth studying for the nursing supervisors to know the disadvantages during the process of quality evaluation of nursing care and then to improve the whole nursing quality. This study was to provide director insight on the current status of quality evaluation of nursing care from Nursing Quality Control Centers (NQCCs). Material and Methods: This qualitative study used a sample of 12 directors from NQCCs who were recruited from 12 provinces in China to evaluate the current status of quality evaluation of nursing care. Data were collected by in-depth interviews. Content analysis method was used to analyze the data. Results: Four themes emerged from the data: 1) lag of evaluation index; 2) limitations of evaluation content; 3) simplicity of evaluation method; 4) excessive emphasis on terminal quality. Conclusion: It is of great realistic significance to ameliorate nursing quality evaluation criteria, modify the evaluation content based on patient needs-oriented idea, adopt scientific evaluation method to evaluate nursing quality, and scientifically and reasonably draw horizontal comparisons of nursing quality between hospitals, as well as longitudinal comparisons of a hospital’s nursing quality. These methods mentioned above can all enhance a hospital’s core competitiveness and benefit more patients. PMID:25419427

23 CFR 669.21 - Procedure for evaluating state compliance.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... automated file as evidence that proof of payment has been received before vehicles subject to the Federal... TRAFFIC OPERATIONS ENFORCEMENT OF HEAVY VEHICLE USE TAX § 669.21 Procedure for evaluating state compliance.... In lieu of retention of Schedule 1, states may make an appropriate entry in an automated file or on...

Flat panel display test and evaluation: procedures, standards, and facilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jackson, Timothy W.; Daniels, Reginald; Hopper, Darrel G.

1997-07-01

This paper addresses flat panel display test and evaluation via a discussion of procedures, standards and facilities. Procedures need to be carefully developed and documented to ensure that test accomplished in separate laboratories produce comparable results. The tests themselves must not be a source of inconsistency in test results when such comparisons are made in the course of procurements or new technology prototype evaluations. Standards are necessary to expedite the transition of the new display technologies into applications and to lower the costs of custom parts applied across disparate applications. The flat panel display industry is in the course of ascertaining and formulating such standards as they are of value to designers, manufacturers, marketers and users of civil and military products and equipment. Additionally, in order to inform the DoD and industry, the test and evaluation facilities of the Air Force Research Laboratory Displays Branch are described. These facilities are available to support procurements involving flat panel displays and to examine new technology prototypes. Finally, other government display testing facilities within the Navy and the Army are described.

Laboratory and quality assurance protocols for the analysis of herbicides in ground water from the Management Systems Evaluation Area, Princeton, Minnesota

USGS Publications Warehouse

Larson, S.J.; Capel, P.D.; VanderLoop, A.G.

1996-01-01

Laboratory and quality assurance procedures for the analysis of ground-water samples for herbicides at the Management Systems Evaluation Area near Princeton, Minnesota are described. The target herbicides include atrazine, de-ethylatrazine, de-isopropylatrazine, metribuzin, alachlor, 2,6-diethylaniline, and metolachlor. The analytical techniques used are solid-phase extraction, and analysis by gas chromatography with mass-selective detection. Descriptions of cleaning procedures, preparation of standard solutions, isolation of analytes from water, sample transfer methods, instrumental analysis, and data analysis are included.

Brief surgical procedure code lists for outcomes measurement and quality improvement in resource-limited settings.

PubMed

Liu, Charles; Kayima, Peter; Riesel, Johanna; Situma, Martin; Chang, David; Firth, Paul

2017-11-01

The lack of a classification system for surgical procedures in resource-limited settings hinders outcomes measurement and reporting. Existing procedure coding systems are prohibitively large and expensive to implement. We describe the creation and prospective validation of 3 brief procedure code lists applicable in low-resource settings, based on analysis of surgical procedures performed at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, Uganda's second largest public hospital. We reviewed operating room logbooks to identify all surgical operations performed at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital during 2014. Based on the documented indication for surgery and procedure(s) performed, we assigned each operation up to 4 procedure codes from the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification. Coding of procedures was performed by 2 investigators, and a random 20% of procedures were coded by both investigators. These codes were aggregated to generate procedure code lists. During 2014, 6,464 surgical procedures were performed at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, to which we assigned 435 unique procedure codes. Substantial inter-rater reliability was achieved (κ = 0.7037). The 111 most common procedure codes accounted for 90% of all codes assigned, 180 accounted for 95%, and 278 accounted for 98%. We considered these sets of codes as 3 procedure code lists. In a prospective validation, we found that these lists described 83.2%, 89.2%, and 92.6% of surgical procedures performed at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital during August to September of 2015, respectively. Empirically generated brief procedure code lists based on International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification can be used to classify almost all surgical procedures performed at a Ugandan referral hospital. Such a standardized procedure coding system may enable better surgical data collection for administration, research, and quality improvement in resource

Field evaluation of flight deck procedures for flying CTAS descents

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1997-01-01

Flight deck descent procedures were developed for a field evaluation of the CTAS Descent Advisor conducted in the fall of 1995. During this study, CTAS descent clearances were issued to 185 commercial flights at Denver International Airport. Data col...

Suggested Procedures For Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Freeway Hov Facilities

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1991-02-01

THIS REPORT PRESENTS THE RESULTS OF THE STATE-OF-THE-ART REVIEW OF EVALUATION PRACTICES USED WITH DIFFERENT HIGH-OCCUPANCY VEHICLE (HOV) LANE PROJECTS IN NORTH AMERICA. BASED ON THIS REVIEW, SUGGESTED PROCEDURES ARE OUTLINED FOR CONDUCTING BEFORE-AND...

THE ATMOSPHERIC MODEL EVALUATION TOOL (AMET); AIR QUALITY MODULE

EPA Science Inventory

This presentation reviews the development of the Atmospheric Model Evaluation Tool (AMET) air quality module. The AMET tool is being developed to aid in the model evaluation. This presentation focuses on the air quality evaluation portion of AMET. Presented are examples of the...

The imprecise science of evaluating scholarly performance: utilizing broad quality categories for an assessment of business and management journals.

PubMed

Lange, Thomas

2006-08-01

In a growing number of countries, government-appointed assessment panels develop ranks on the basis of the quality of scholarly outputs to apportion budgets in recognition of evaluated performance and to justify public funds for future R&D activities. When business and management journals are being grouped in broad quality categories, a recent study has noted that this procedure was placing the same journals in essentially the same categories. Drawing on journal quality categorizations by several German- and English-speaking business departments and academic associations, the author performs nonparametric tests and correlations to analyze whether this claim can be substantiated. In particular, he examines the ability of broad quality categorizations to add value to governmental, administrative, and academic decision making by withstanding the criticism traditionally levied at research quality assessments.

Perioperative outcomes for pediatric neurosurgical procedures: analysis of the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program-Pediatrics.

PubMed

Kuo, Benjamin J; Vissoci, Joao Ricardo N; Egger, Joseph R; Smith, Emily R; Grant, Gerald A; Haglund, Michael M; Rice, Henry E

2017-03-01

OBJECTIVE Existing studies have shown a high overall rate of adverse events (AEs) following pediatric neurosurgical procedures. However, little is known regarding the morbidity of specific procedures or the association with risk factors to help guide quality improvement (QI) initiatives. The goal of this study was to describe the 30-day mortality and AE rates for pediatric neurosurgical procedures by using the American College of Surgeons (ACS) National Surgical Quality Improvement Program-Pediatrics (NSQIP-Peds) database platform. METHODS Data on 9996 pediatric neurosurgical patients were acquired from the 2012-2014 NSQIP-Peds participant user file. Neurosurgical cases were analyzed by the NSQIP-Peds targeted procedure categories, including craniotomy/craniectomy, defect repair, laminectomy, shunts, and implants. The primary outcome measure was 30-day mortality, with secondary outcomes including individual AEs, composite morbidity (all AEs excluding mortality and unplanned reoperation), surgical-site infection, and unplanned reoperation. Univariate analysis was performed between individual AEs and patient characteristics using Fischer's exact test. Associations between individual AEs and continuous variables (duration from admission to operation, work relative value unit, and operation time) were examined using the Student t-test. Patient characteristics and continuous variables associated with any AE by univariate analysis were used to develop category-specific multivariable models through backward stepwise logistic regression. RESULTS The authors analyzed 3383 craniotomy/craniectomy, 242 defect repair, 1811 laminectomy, and 4560 shunt and implant cases and found a composite overall morbidity of 30.2%, 38.8%, 10.2%, and 10.7%, respectively. Unplanned reoperation rates were highest for defect repair (29.8%). The mortality rate ranged from 0.1% to 1.2%. Preoperative ventilator dependence was a significant predictor of any AE for all procedure groups, whereas

Evaluation of a radiation protection cabin for invasive electrophysiological procedures.

PubMed

Dragusin, Octavian; Weerasooriya, Rukshen; Jaïs, Pierre; Hocini, Mélèze; Ector, Joris; Takahashi, Yoshihide; Haïssaguerre, Michel; Bosmans, Hilde; Heidbüchel, Hein

2007-01-01

Complex invasive electrophysiological procedures may result in high cumulative operator radiation exposure. Classical protection with lead aprons results in discomfort while radioprotection is still incomplete. This study evaluated the usefulness of a radiation protection cabin (RPC) that completely surrounds the operator. The evaluation was performed independently in two electrophysiology laboratories (E1-Leuven, Belgium; E2-Bordeaux, France), comparing operator radiation exposure using the RPC vs. a 0.5 mm lead-equivalent apron (total of 135 procedures). E1 used thermoluminiscent dosimeters (TLDs) placed at 16 positions in and out of the RPC and nine positions in and out of the apron. E2 used more sensitive electronic personal dosimeters (EPD), placed at waist and neck. The sensitivity thresholds of the TLDs and EPDs were 10-20 microSv and 1-1.5 microSv, respectively. All procedures could be performed unimpeded with the RPC. Median TLD dose values outside protected areas were in the range of 57-452 microSv, whereas doses under the apron or inside the RPC were all at the background radiation level, irrespective of procedure and fluoroscopy duration and of radiation energy delivered. In addition, the RPC was protecting the entire body (except the hands), whereas lead apron protection is incomplete. Also with the more sensitive EPDs, the radiation dose within the RPC was at the sensitivity threshold/background level (1.3+/-0.6 microSv). Again, radiation to the head was significantly lower within the RPC (1.9+/-1.2 microSv) than with the apron (102+/-23 microSv, P<0.001). The use of the RPC allows performing catheter ablation procedures without compromising catheter manipulation, and with negligible radiation exposure for the operator.

On evaluating clustering procedures for use in classification

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pore, M. D.; Moritz, T. E.; Register, D. T.; Yao, S. S.; Eppler, W. G. (Principal Investigator)

1979-01-01

The problem of evaluating clustering algorithms and their respective computer programs for use in a preprocessing step for classification is addressed. In clustering for classification the probability of correct classification is suggested as the ultimate measure of accuracy on training data. A means of implementing this criterion and a measure of cluster purity are discussed. Examples are given. A procedure for cluster labeling that is based on cluster purity and sample size is presented.

Quality control evaluation of Keshamasi, Keshanjana and Keshamasi eye ointment.

PubMed

Dhiman, Kartar Singh; Shukla, Vinay J; Bhalodia, Nayan R; Sharma, Vinay R

2014-01-01

Keshanjana (collyrium) is a well known Ayurvedic preparation prepared out of Keshamasi (ash prepared by scalp hairs) mixed with Goghrita (cow's ghee). This medicine is indicated for the treatment of Shushkakshipaka (dry eye syndrome) in the classical literature of Ayurveda; hence, it was under taken for standardization and clinical evaluation in an extra-mural research project from Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences, Department of AYUSH, New Delhi. To develop standard quality parameters for the Keshamasi, Keshanjana and Keshamasi ointment. Scalp hairs of male and females collected from saloons were converted to classical Masi Kalpana and mixed with cow ghee and petrolatum in the ratio of 1:5 to prepare the Keshanjana and Keshamasi ointment respectively. Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) were adopted and recorded accordingly. The raw material, furnished products and plain Goghrita were subjected for quality control parameters i.e., physico-chemical evaluation, anti-microbial study, particle size analysis, heavy metal analysis through inductive couple plasma spectroscopy with high performance thin layer liquid chromatography fingerprints. Rancidity was negative in all the samples, indicating that the physico-chemical parameters are in acceptable range. Lead and zinc were present in most of the samples; while all samples are were free from microbial contamination. As no standards are available to compare the results of the current study, the observations cannot be compared. Thus the profile generated in the current study can be considered as standard to refer in future studies.

Test Procedures for Characterizing, Evaluating, and Managing Separator Materials used in Secondary Alkaline Batteries

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Guasp, Edwin; Manzo, Michelle A.

1997-01-01

Secondary alkaline batteries, such as nickel-cadmium and silver-zinc, are commonly used for aerospace applications. The uniform evaluation and comparison of separator properties for these systems is dependent upon the measurement techniques. This manual presents a series of standard test procedures that can be used to evaluate, compare, and select separator materials for use in alkaline batteries. Detailed test procedures evaluating the following characteristics are included in this manual: physical measurements of thickness and area weight, dimensional stability measurements, electrolyte retention, resistivity, permeability as measured via bubble pressure, surface evaluation via SEM, chemical stability, and tensile strength.

5 CFR 531.508 - Evaluation of quality step increase authority.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Evaluation of quality step increase... REGULATIONS PAY UNDER THE GENERAL SCHEDULE Quality Step Increases § 531.508 Evaluation of quality step... grant quality step increases. The agency shall take any corrective action required by the Office. [60 FR...

Exploring multicriteria decision strategies in GIS with linguistic quantifiers: A case study of residential quality evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Malczewski, Jacek; Rinner, Claus

2005-06-01

Commonly used GIS combination operators such as Boolean conjunction/disjunction and weighted linear combination can be generalized to the ordered weighted averaging (OWA) family of operators. This multicriteria evaluation method allows decision-makers to define a decision strategy on a continuum between pessimistic and optimistic strategies. Recently, OWA has been introduced to GIS-based decision support systems. We propose to extend a previous implementation of OWA with linguistic quantifiers to simplify the definition of decision strategies and to facilitate an exploratory analysis of multiple criteria. The linguistic quantifier-guided OWA procedure is illustrated using a dataset for evaluating residential quality of neighborhoods in London, Ontario.

Evaluation of a technique to simplify depictions of visually complex aeronautical procedures for NextGen

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2013-10-04

Performance based navigation supports the design of more precise flight procedures. However, these new procedures can be visually complex, which may impact the usability of charts that depict the procedures. The purpose of the study was to evaluate w...

Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Perioperative Outcomes of Major Procedures: Results From the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program.

PubMed

Ravi, Praful; Sood, Akshay; Schmid, Marianne; Abdollah, Firas; Sammon, Jesse D; Sun, Maxine; Klett, Dane E; Varda, Briony; Peabody, James O; Menon, Mani; Kibel, Adam S; Nguyen, Paul L; Trinh, Quoc-Dien

2015-12-01

To determine the association between race/ethnicity and perioperative outcomes in individuals undergoing major oncologic and nononcologic surgical procedures in the United States. Prior work has shown that there are significant racial/ethnic disparities in perioperative outcomes after several types of major cardiac, general, vascular, orthopedic, and cancer surgical procedures. However, recent evidence suggests attenuation of these racial/ethnic differences, particularly at academic institutions. We utilized the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database to identify 142,344 patients undergoing one of the 16 major cancer and noncancer surgical procedures between 2005 and 2011. Eighty-five percent of the cohort was white, with black and Hispanic individuals comprising 8% and 4%, respectively. In multivariable analyses, black patients had greater odds of experiencing prolonged length of stay after 10 of the 16 procedures studied (all P < 0.05), though there was no disparity in odds of 30-day mortality after any surgery. Hispanics were more likely to experience prolonged length of stay after 5 surgical procedures (all P < 0.04), and were at greater odds of dying within 30 days after colectomy, heart valve repair/replacement, or abdominal aortic aneurysm repair (all P < 0.03). Fewer disparities were observed for Hispanics, than for black patients, and also for cancer, than for noncancer surgical procedures. Important racial/ethnic disparities in perioperative outcomes were observed among patients undergoing major cancer and noncancer surgical procedures at American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program institutions. There were fewer disparities among individuals undergoing cancer surgery, though black patients, in particular, were more likely to experience prolonged length of stay.

Evaluation of four commercial biuret reagent kits of serum total protein by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry reference measurement procedure.

PubMed

He, Meilin; Zhang, Jie

2011-06-01

In China, the traceability of clinical chemistry methods is still immature. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a reference measurement procedure and evaluate commercial reagent kits using such established procedures. We reproduced the reference measurement procedure for serum total protein, as recommended by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC). We evaluated the performance by Clinical Laboratory Standard Institute (CLSI) guidelines EP15-A and EP6-A. Subsequently, four commercial reagent kits were evaluated by the reproduced reference procedure following CLSI guideline EP9-A2. The performance of the reproduced reference procedure was as follows: CVs ranged from 0.47% to 0.85% at medical decision levels (X(c)) of 45 g/L, 60 g/L and 80 g/L. Linearity was Y=1.0022X-0.2121 (r=0.9999), and recovery ranged from 100.2% to 102.4%. The External Quality Assessment Scheme for Reference Laboratories in Laboratory Medicine (RELA) was applied, and the result was within the limit of equivalence. The linear relationships of four commercial reagent kits, Merit Choice, KHB, Leadman, and Olympus, were, respectively: Y=0.9922X+0.5776 (r=0.9961); Y=0.9936X+0.4316 (r=0.9992); Y=0.9949X+0.9129 (r=0.9987) and Y=0.9923X+0.8876 (r=0.9989). KHB showed slight negative bias, and the mean±SD was -0.03±0.60 g/L. Merit Choice, Leadman, and Olympus all showed positive bias, and the mean±SDs were 0.02±0.63 g/L, 0.55±0.77 g/L and 0.34±0.71 g/L, respectively. The correlation and bias of four commercial reagent kits for serum total protein were found to be acceptable. Thus, these reagent kits can be used reliably in China.

Content-based quality evaluation of color images: overview and proposals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tremeau, Alain; Richard, Noel; Colantoni, Philippe; Fernandez-Maloigne, Christine

2003-12-01

The automatic prediction of perceived quality from image data in general, and the assessment of particular image characteristics or attributes that may need improvement in particular, becomes an increasingly important part of intelligent imaging systems. The purpose of this paper is to propose to the color imaging community in general to develop a software package available on internet to help the user to select among all these approaches which is better appropriated to a given application. The ultimate goal of this project is to propose, next to implement, an open and unified color imaging system to set up a favourable context for the evaluation and analysis of color imaging processes. Many different methods for measuring the performance of a process have been proposed by different researchers. In this paper, we will discuss the advantages and shortcomings of most of main analysis criteria and performance measures currently used. The aim is not to establish a harsh competition between algorithms or processes, but rather to test and compare the efficiency of methodologies firstly to highlight strengths and weaknesses of a given algorithm or methodology on a given image type and secondly to have these results publicly available. This paper is focused on two important unsolved problems. Why it is so difficult to select a color space which gives better results than another one? Why it is so difficult to select an image quality metric which gives better results than another one, with respect to the judgment of the Human Visual System? Several methods used either in color imaging or in image quality will be thus discussed. Proposals for content-based image measures and means of developing a standard test suite for will be then presented. The above reference advocates for an evaluation protocol based on an automated procedure. This is the ultimate goal of our proposal.

TU-FG-201-12: Designing a Risk-Based Quality Assurance Program for a Newly Implemented Y-90 Microspheres Procedure

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vile, D; Zhang, L; Cuttino, L

2016-06-15

Purpose: To create a quality assurance program based upon a risk-based assessment of a newly implemented SirSpheres Y-90 procedure. Methods: A process map was created for a newly implemented SirSpheres procedure at a community hospital. The process map documented each step of this collaborative procedure, as well as the roles and responsibilities of each member. From the process map, different potential failure modes were determined as well as any current controls in place. From this list, a full failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) was performed by grading each failure mode’s likelihood of occurrence, likelihood of detection, and potential severity.more » These numbers were then multiplied to compute the risk priority number (RPN) for each potential failure mode. Failure modes were then ranked based on their RPN. Additional controls were then added, with failure modes corresponding to the highest RPNs taking priority. Results: A process map was created that succinctly outlined each step in the SirSpheres procedure in its current implementation. From this, 72 potential failure modes were identified and ranked according to their associated RPN. Quality assurance controls and safety barriers were then added for failure modes associated with the highest risk being addressed first. Conclusion: A quality assurance program was created from a risk-based assessment of the SirSpheres process. Process mapping and FMEA were effective in identifying potential high-risk failure modes for this new procedure, which were prioritized for new quality assurance controls. TG 100 recommends the fault tree analysis methodology to design a comprehensive and effective QC/QM program, yet we found that by simply introducing additional safety barriers to address high RPN failure modes makes the whole process simpler and safer.« less

Evaluation of hard red spring wheat quality using four different roller mills

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Domestic and overseas buyers pay premium price for hard red spring (HRS) wheat due to high protein content and excellent milling and baking performances. For efficient quality identification of wheat samples, a wheat quality laboratory needs an objective and simple experimental milling procedure and...

Subjective quality evaluation of low-bit-rate video

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Masry, Mark; Hemami, Sheila S.; Osberger, Wilfried M.; Rohaly, Ann M.

2001-06-01

A subjective quality evaluation was performed to qualify vie4wre responses to visual defects that appear in low bit rate video at full and reduced frame rates. The stimuli were eight sequences compressed by three motion compensated encoders - Sorenson Video, H.263+ and a Wavelet based coder - operating at five bit/frame rate combinations. The stimulus sequences exhibited obvious coding artifacts whose nature differed across the three coders. The subjective evaluation was performed using the Single Stimulus Continuos Quality Evaluation method of UTI-R Rec. BT.500-8. Viewers watched concatenated coded test sequences and continuously registered the perceived quality using a slider device. Data form 19 viewers was colleted. An analysis of their responses to the presence of various artifacts across the range of possible coding conditions and content is presented. The effects of blockiness and blurriness on perceived quality are examined. The effects of changes in frame rate on perceived quality are found to be related to the nature of the motion in the sequence.

Quality evaluation of poultry carcasses

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The USDA Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) has been mandated to organoleptically inspect poultry carcasses online at processing plants. For poultry quality and safety evaluation, the development of accurate and reliable instruments for online detection of unwholesomeness such as septicemia, cada...

A decision support system-based procedure for evaluation and monitoring of protected areas sustainability for the Mediterranean region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pediaditi, K.; Buono, F.; Pompigna, F.; Bogliotti, C.; Nurlu, E.; Ladisa, G.; Petropoulos, G. P.

2011-10-01

Despite common acknowledgement of the value of protected areas as instruments in ensuring sustainability, and their promotion for the achievement of policies on halting the loss of biodiversity, there is no common approach today for monitoring and evaluating them. This paper presents a novel integrated nature conservation management procedure developed to monitor and evaluate the sustainability of Mediterranean protected areas. This procedure was successfully implemented and formally evaluated by protected area managers in six Mediterranean countries, results of which are presented here together with an overview of the web-based Decision Support System (DSS) developed to facilitate its wide adoption. The DSS and procedure has been designed and evaluated by managers as a useful tool, which facilitates and provides needed procedural guidance for protected area monitoring whilst minimizing input requirements to do so. The procedure and DSS were developed following a review of existing protected area assessment tools and a detailed primary investigation of the needs and capacity of its intended users. Essentially, the procedure and DSS guides provide the facilities for protected area managers, in following a participatory approach to develop a context-specific sustainability monitoring strategy, for their protected area. Consequently, the procedure is, by design, participatory, context specific, holistic and relevant to protected area management and institutional procedures. The procedure was piloted and formally evaluated in Greece, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Malta and Cyprus. Feedback collected from the pilot evaluations is also summarised herein.

Risk of transmission of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease by surgical procedures: systematic reviews and quality of evidence.

PubMed

López, Fernando J García; Ruiz-Tovar, María; Almazán-Isla, Javier; Alcalde-Cabero, Enrique; Calero, Miguel; de Pedro-Cuesta, Jesús

2017-10-01

Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) is potentially transmissible to humans. This study aimed to summarise and rate the quality of the evidence of the association between surgery and sCJD. Firstly, we conducted systematic reviews and meta-analyses of case-control studies with major surgical procedures as exposures under study. To assess quality of evidence, we used the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE) approach. Secondly, we conducted a systematic review of sCJD case reports after sharing neurosurgical instruments. Thirteen case-control studies met the inclusion criteria for the systematic review of case-control studies. sCJD was positively associated with heart surgery, heart and vascular surgery and eye surgery, negatively associated with tonsillectomy and appendectomy, and not associated with neurosurgery or unspecified major surgery. The overall quality of evidence was rated as very low. A single case-control study with a low risk of bias found a strong association between surgery conducted more than 20 years before disease onset and sCJD. Seven cases were described as potentially transmitted by reused neurosurgical instruments. The association between surgery and sCJD remains uncertain. Measures currently recommended for preventing sCJD transmission should be strongly maintained. Future studies should focus on the potential association between sCJD and surgery undergone a long time previously.

Headache service quality: evaluation of quality indicators in 14 specialist-care centres.

PubMed

Schramm, Sara; Uluduz, Derya; Gouveia, Raquel Gil; Jensen, Rigmor; Siva, Aksel; Uygunoglu, Ugur; Gvantsa, Giorgadze; Mania, Maka; Braschinsky, Mark; Filatova, Elena; Latysheva, Nina; Osipova, Vera; Skorobogatykh, Kirill; Azimova, Julia; Straube, Andreas; Eren, Ozan Emre; Martelletti, Paolo; De Angelis, Valerio; Negro, Andrea; Linde, Mattias; Hagen, Knut; Radojicic, Aleksandra; Zidverc-Trajkovic, Jasna; Podgorac, Ana; Paemeleire, Koen; De Pue, Annelien; Lampl, Christian; Steiner, Timothy J; Katsarava, Zaza

2016-12-01

The study was a collaboration between Lifting The Burden (LTB) and the European Headache Federation (EHF). Its aim was to evaluate the implementation of quality indicators for headache care Europe-wide in specialist headache centres (level-3 according to the EHF/LTB standard). Employing previously-developed instruments in 14 such centres, we made enquiries, in each, of health-care providers (doctors, nurses, psychologists, physiotherapists) and 50 patients, and analysed the medical records of 50 other patients. Enquiries were in 9 domains: diagnostic accuracy, individualized management, referral pathways, patient's education and reassurance, convenience and comfort, patient's satisfaction, equity and efficiency of the headache care, outcome assessment and safety. Our study showed that highly experienced headache centres treated their patients in general very well. The centres were content with their work and their patients were content with their treatment. Including disability and quality-of-life evaluations in clinical assessments, and protocols regarding safety, proved problematic: better standards for these are needed. Some centres had problems with follow-up: many specialised centres operated in one-touch systems, without possibility of controlling long-term management or the success of treatments dependent on this. This first Europe-wide quality study showed that the quality indicators were workable in specialist care. They demonstrated common trends, producing evidence of what is majority practice. They also uncovered deficits that might be remedied in order to improve quality. They offer the means of setting benchmarks against which service quality may be judged. The next step is to take the evaluation process into non-specialist care (EHF/LTB levels 1 and 2).

[Quality of clinical studies published in the RBGO over one decade (1999-2009): methodological and ethical aspects and statistical procedures].

PubMed

de Sá, Joceline Cássia Ferezini; Marini, Gabriela; Gelaleti, Rafael Bottaro; da Silva, João Batista; de Azevedo, George Gantas; Rudge, Marilza Vieira Cunha

2013-11-01

To evaluate the methodological and statistical design evolution of the publications in the Brazilian Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics (RBGO) from resolution 196/96. A review of 133 articles published in 1999 (65) and 2009 (68) was performed by two independent reviewers with training in clinical epidemiology and methodology of scientific research. We included all original clinical articles, case and series reports and excluded editorials, letters to the editor, systematic reviews, experimental studies, opinion articles, besides abstracts of theses and dissertations. Characteristics related to the methodological quality of the studies were analyzed in each article using a checklist that evaluated two criteria: methodological aspects and statistical procedures. We used descriptive statistics and the χ2 test for comparison of the two years. There was a difference between 1999 and 2009 regarding the study and statistical design, with more accuracy in the procedures and the use of more robust tests between 1999 and 2009. In RBGO, we observed an evolution in the methods of published articles and a more in-depth use of the statistical analyses, with more sophisticated tests such as regression and multilevel analyses, which are essential techniques for the knowledge and planning of health interventions, leading to fewer interpretation errors.

Image aesthetic quality evaluation using convolution neural network embedded learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yu-xin; Pu, Yuan-yuan; Xu, Dan; Qian, Wen-hua; Wang, Li-peng

2017-11-01

A way of embedded learning convolution neural network (ELCNN) based on the image content is proposed to evaluate the image aesthetic quality in this paper. Our approach can not only solve the problem of small-scale data but also score the image aesthetic quality. First, we chose Alexnet and VGG_S to compare for confirming which is more suitable for this image aesthetic quality evaluation task. Second, to further boost the image aesthetic quality classification performance, we employ the image content to train aesthetic quality classification models. But the training samples become smaller and only using once fine-tuning cannot make full use of the small-scale data set. Third, to solve the problem in second step, a way of using twice fine-tuning continually based on the aesthetic quality label and content label respective is proposed, the classification probability of the trained CNN models is used to evaluate the image aesthetic quality. The experiments are carried on the small-scale data set of Photo Quality. The experiment results show that the classification accuracy rates of our approach are higher than the existing image aesthetic quality evaluation approaches.

An Automated Procedure for Evaluating Song Imitation

PubMed Central

Mandelblat-Cerf, Yael; Fee, Michale S.

2014-01-01

Songbirds have emerged as an excellent model system to understand the neural basis of vocal and motor learning. Like humans, songbirds learn to imitate the vocalizations of their parents or other conspecific “tutors.” Young songbirds learn by comparing their own vocalizations to the memory of their tutor song, slowly improving until over the course of several weeks they can achieve an excellent imitation of the tutor. Because of the slow progression of vocal learning, and the large amounts of singing generated, automated algorithms for quantifying vocal imitation have become increasingly important for studying the mechanisms underlying this process. However, methodologies for quantifying song imitation are complicated by the highly variable songs of either juvenile birds or those that learn poorly because of experimental manipulations. Here we present a method for the evaluation of song imitation that incorporates two innovations: First, an automated procedure for selecting pupil song segments, and, second, a new algorithm, implemented in Matlab, for computing both song acoustic and sequence similarity. We tested our procedure using zebra finch song and determined a set of acoustic features for which the algorithm optimally differentiates between similar and non-similar songs. PMID:24809510

Scientific evaluation and pricing of medical devices and associated procedures in France.

PubMed

Gilard, Martine; Debroucker, Frederique; Dubray, Claude; Allioux, Yves; Aper, Eliane; Barat-Leonhardt, Valérie; Brami, Michèle; Carbonneil, Cédric; Chartier-Kastler, Emmanuel; Coqueblin, Claire; Fare, Sandrine; Giri, Isabelle; Goehrs, Jean-Marie; Levesque, Karine; Maugendre, Philippe; Parquin, François; Sales, Jean-Patrick; Szwarcensztein, Karine

2013-01-01

Medical devices are many and various, ranging from tongue spatulas to implantable or invasive devices and imaging machines; their lifetimes are short, between 18 months and 5 years, due to incessant incremental innovation; and they are operator-dependent: in general, the clinical user performs a fitting procedure (hip implant or pacemaker), a therapeutic procedure using a non-implantable invasive device (arrhythmic site ablation probe, angioplasty balloon, extension spondyloplasty system, etc.) or follow-up of an active implanted device (long-term follow-up of an implanted cardiac defibrillator or of a deep brain stimulator in Parkinson's patients). A round-table held during the XXVIII(th) Giens Workshops meeting focused on the methodology of scientific evaluation of medical devices and the associated procedures with a view to their pricing and financing by the French National Health Insurance system. The working hypothesis was that the available data-set was sufficient for and compatible with scientific evaluation with clinical benefit. Post-registration studies, although contributing to the continuity of assessment, were not dealt with. Moreover, the focus was restricted to devices used in health establishments, where the association between devices and technical medical procedures is optimally representative. An update of the multiple regulatory protocols governing medical devices and procedures is provided. Issues more specifically related to procedures as such, to non-implantable devices and to innovative devices are then dealt with, and the proposals and discussion points raised at the round-table for each of these three areas are presented. © 2013 Société Française de Pharmacologie et de Thérapeutique.

Evaluation of Preanalytical Quality Indicators by Six Sigma and Pareto`s Principle.

PubMed

Kulkarni, Sweta; Ramesh, R; Srinivasan, A R; Silvia, C R Wilma Delphine

2018-01-01

Preanalytical steps are the major sources of error in clinical laboratory. The analytical errors can be corrected by quality control procedures but there is a need for stringent quality checks in preanalytical area as these processes are done outside the laboratory. Sigma value depicts the performance of laboratory and its quality measures. Hence in the present study six sigma and Pareto principle was applied to preanalytical quality indicators to evaluate the clinical biochemistry laboratory performance. This observational study was carried out for a period of 1 year from November 2015-2016. A total of 1,44,208 samples and 54,265 test requisition forms were screened for preanalytical errors like missing patient information, sample collection details in forms and hemolysed, lipemic, inappropriate, insufficient samples and total number of errors were calculated and converted into defects per million and sigma scale. Pareto`s chart was drawn using total number of errors and cumulative percentage. In 75% test requisition forms diagnosis was not mentioned and sigma value of 0.9 was obtained and for other errors like sample receiving time, stat and type of sample sigma values were 2.9, 2.6, and 2.8 respectively. For insufficient sample and improper ratio of blood to anticoagulant sigma value was 4.3. Pareto`s chart depicts out of 80% of errors in requisition forms, 20% is contributed by missing information like diagnosis. The development of quality indicators, application of six sigma and Pareto`s principle are quality measures by which not only preanalytical, the total testing process can be improved.

Evaluating the quality of Internet information for femoroacetabular impingement.

PubMed

Lee, Simon; Shin, Jason J; Haro, Marc S; Song, Sang H; Nho, Shane J

2014-10-01

The Internet has become a ubiquitous source of medical information for both the patient and the physician. However, the quality of this information is highly variable. We evaluated the quality of Internet information available for femoroacetabular impingement (FAI). Four popular search engines were used to collect 100 Web sites containing information on FAI. Web sites were evaluated based on authorship, various content criteria, and the presence of Health On the Net Code of Conduct (HONcode) certification. By use of a novel evaluation system for quality, Web sites were also classified as excellent, high, moderate, poor, or inadequate and were subsequently analyzed. Web sites were evaluated as a group, followed by authorship type, by HONcode certification, and by quality level. Of the Web sites, 73 offered the ability to contact the author, 91 offered a considerable explanation of FAI, 54 provided surgical treatment options, 58 offered nonsurgical treatment options, 27 discussed possible complications, 11 discussed eligibility criteria, 31 discussed rehabilitation, 67 discussed a differential diagnosis, and 48 included peer-reviewed citations. We categorized 40 Web sites as academic, 33 as private, 9 as industry, 9 as public education, and 9 as blogs. Our novel quality evaluation system classified 16 Web sites as excellent, 18 as high, 17 as moderate, 18 as poor, and 31 as inadequate. Only 8% of all evaluated Web sites contained HONcode certification. We found that the quality of information available on the Internet about FAI was dramatically variable. A significantly large proportion of Web sites were from academic sources, but this did not necessarily indicate higher quality. Sites with HONcode certification showed as much variability in quality as noncertified sites. This study increases clinician competence in the available Internet information about FAI and helps them to confidently guide patients to formulate appropriate medical decisions based on high-quality

Water-quality sampling by the U.S. Geological Survey-Standard protocols and procedures

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wilde, Franceska D.

2010-01-01

Thumbnail of and link to report PDF (1.0 MB) The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) develops the sampling procedures and collects the data necessary for the accurate assessment and wise management of our Nation's surface-water and groundwater resources. Federal and State agencies, water-resource regulators and managers, and many organizations and interested parties in the public and private sectors depend on the reliability, timeliness, and integrity of the data we collect and the scientific soundness and impartiality of our data assessments and analysis. The standard data-collection methods uniformly used by USGS water-quality personnel are peer reviewed, kept up-to-date, and published in the National Field Manual for the Collection of Water-Quality Data (http://pubs.water.usgs.gov/twri9A/).

A comparative study between evaluation methods for quality control procedures for determining the accuracy of PET/CT registration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cha, Min Kyoung; Ko, Hyun Soo; Jung, Woo Young; Ryu, Jae Kwang; Choe, Bo-Young

2015-08-01

The Accuracy of registration between positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) images is one of the important factors for reliable diagnosis in PET/CT examinations. Although quality control (QC) for checking alignment of PET and CT images should be performed periodically, the procedures have not been fully established. The aim of this study is to determine optimal quality control (QC) procedures that can be performed at the user level to ensure the accuracy of PET/CT registration. Two phantoms were used to carry out this study: the American college of Radiology (ACR)-approved PET phantom and National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) body phantom, containing fillable spheres. All PET/CT images were acquired on a Biograph TruePoint 40 PET/CT scanner using routine protocols. To measure registration error, the spatial coordinates of the estimated centers of the target slice (spheres) was calculated independently for the PET and the CT images in two ways. We compared the images from the ACR-approved PET phantom to that from the NEMA IEC body phantom. Also, we measured the total time required from phantom preparation to image analysis. The first analysis method showed a total difference of 0.636 ± 0.11 mm for the largest hot sphere and 0.198 ± 0.09 mm for the largest cold sphere in the case of the ACR-approved PET phantom. In the NEMA IEC body phantom, the total difference was 3.720 ± 0.97 mm for the largest hot sphere and 4.800 ± 0.85 mm for the largest cold sphere. The second analysis method showed that the differences in the x location at the line profile of the lesion on PET and CT were (1.33, 1.33) mm for a bone lesion, (-1.26, -1.33) mm for an air lesion and (-1.67, -1.60) mm for a hot sphere lesion for the ACR-approved PET phantom. For the NEMA IEC body phantom, the differences in the x location at the line profile of the lesion on PET and CT were (-1.33, 4.00) mm for the air

Evaluation of Factors Influencing Accuracy of Principal Procedure Coding Based on ICD-9-CM: An Iranian Study

PubMed Central

Farzandipour, Mehrdad; Sheikhtaheri, Abbas

2009-01-01

To evaluate the accuracy of procedural coding and the factors that influence it, 246 records were randomly selected from four teaching hospitals in Kashan, Iran. “Recodes” were assigned blindly and then compared to the original codes. Furthermore, the coders' professional behaviors were carefully observed during the coding process. Coding errors were classified as major or minor. The relations between coding accuracy and possible effective factors were analyzed by χ2 or Fisher exact tests as well as the odds ratio (OR) and the 95 percent confidence interval for the OR. The results showed that using a tabular index for rechecking codes reduces errors (83 percent vs. 72 percent accuracy). Further, more thorough documentation by the clinician positively affected coding accuracy, though this relation was not significant. Readability of records decreased errors overall (p = .003), including major ones (p = .012). Moreover, records with no abbreviations had fewer major errors (p = .021). In conclusion, not using abbreviations, ensuring more readable documentation, and paying more attention to available information increased coding accuracy and the quality of procedure databases. PMID:19471647

Quality control evaluation of Keshamasi, Keshanjana and Keshamasi eye ointment

PubMed Central

Dhiman, Kartar Singh; Shukla, Vinay J.; Bhalodia, Nayan R.; Sharma, Vinay R.

2014-01-01

Background: Keshanjana (collyrium) is a well known Ayurvedic preparation prepared out of Keshamasi (ash prepared by scalp hairs) mixed with Goghrita (cow's ghee). This medicine is indicated for the treatment of Shushkakshipaka (dry eye syndrome) in the classical literature of Ayurveda; hence, it was under taken for standardization and clinical evaluation in an extra-mural research project from Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences, Department of AYUSH, New Delhi. Aim: To develop standard quality parameters for the Keshamasi, Keshanjana and Keshamasi ointment. Materials and Methods: Scalp hairs of male and females collected from saloons were converted to classical Masi Kalpana and mixed with cow ghee and petrolatum in the ratio of 1:5 to prepare the Keshanjana and Keshamasi ointment respectively. Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) were adopted and recorded accordingly. The raw material, furnished products and plain Goghrita were subjected for quality control parameters i.e., physico-chemical evaluation, anti-microbial study, particle size analysis, heavy metal analysis through inductive couple plasma spectroscopy with high performance thin layer liquid chromatography fingerprints. Results: Rancidity was negative in all the samples, indicating that the physico-chemical parameters are in acceptable range. Lead and zinc were present in most of the samples; while all samples are were free from microbial contamination. Conclusion: As no standards are available to compare the results of the current study, the observations cannot be compared. Thus the profile generated in the current study can be considered as standard to refer in future studies. PMID:25364202

Loudness judgment procedures for evaluating hearing aid preselection decisions for severely and profoundly hearing-impaired listeners.

PubMed

Gottermeier, L; De Filippo, C L; Block, M G

1991-08-01

Hearing aid fitting involves a two-phase process of preselection and evaluation (Seewald RC and Ross M. Amplification for the Hearing Impaired 1988:213-271). The purpose of the present study was to examine alternative procedures that clinicians might use in the evaluation phase to verify the adequacy of hearing aid preselection decisions for severely and profoundly hearing-impaired listeners. Bekesy tracking, loudness rating, and conventional bracketing procedures were used to determine threshold, most comfortable listening level, and uncomfortable listening level for 10 hearing-impaired young adults. Stimuli were pulsed pure tones of 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz and filtered words. Means and standard deviations of most comfortable listening levels and uncomfortable listening levels derived from loudness judgments of the 10 subjects showed only nominal differences across procedures. However, correlation analysis (Pearson r) indicated that individuals responded to the three procedures in varying ways, producing different loudness judgments and overall dynamic ranges. Thus, test procedure may influence the clinician's final evaluation of a preselected hearing aid. Initial work suggests that closed-set response categories such as loudness rating can limit measurement variability and potentially guide the clinician's evaluation of hearing aid preselection decisions.

21 CFR 26.43 - Transmission of quality system evaluation reports.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... QUALITY SYSTEM AUDIT REPORTS, AND CERTAIN MEDICAL DEVICE PRODUCT EVALUATION REPORTS: UNITED STATES AND THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY Specific Sector Provisions for Medical Devices § 26.43 Transmission of quality system... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Transmission of quality system evaluation reports...

Atmospheric Model Evaluation Tool for meteorological and air quality simulations

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The Atmospheric Model Evaluation Tool compares model predictions to observed data from various meteorological and air quality observation networks to help evaluate meteorological and air quality simulations.

Audiovisual quality evaluation of low-bitrate video

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Winkler, Stefan; Faller, Christof

2005-03-01

Audiovisual quality assessment is a relatively unexplored topic. We designed subjective experiments for audio, video, and audiovisual quality using content and encoding parameters representative of video for mobile applications. Our focus were the MPEG-4 AVC (a.k.a. H.264) and AAC coding standards. Our goals in this study are two-fold: we want to understand the interactions between audio and video in terms of perceived audiovisual quality, and we use the subjective data to evaluate the prediction performance of our non-reference video and audio quality metrics.

Development of quality indicators to evaluate antibiotic treatment of patients with community-acquired pneumonia in Indonesia.

PubMed

Farida, Helmia; Rondags, Angelique; Gasem, M Hussein; Leong, Katharina; Adityana, A; van den Broek, Peterhans J; Keuter, Monique; Natsch, Stephanie

2015-04-01

To develop an instrument for evaluating the quality of antibiotic management of patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) applicable in a middle-income developing country. A previous study and Indonesian guidelines were reviewed to derive potential quality of care indicators (QIs). An expert panel performed a two-round Delphi consensus procedure on the QI's relevance to patient recovery, reduction of antimicrobial resistance and cost containment. Applicability in practice, including reliability, feasibility and opportunity for improvement, was determined in a data set of 128 patients hospitalised with CAP in Semarang, Indonesia. Fifteen QIs were selected by the consensus procedure. Five QIs did not pass feasibility criteria, because of inappropriate documentation, inefficient laboratory services or patient factors. Three QIs provided minor opportunity for improvement. Two QIs contradicted each other; one of these was considered not valid and excluded. A final set of six QIs was defined for use in the Indonesian setting. Using the Delphi method, we defined a list of QIs for assessing the quality of care, in particular antibiotic treatment, for CAP in Indonesia. For further improvement, a modified Delphi method that includes discussion, a sound medical documentation system, improvement of microbiology laboratory services, and multi-center applicability tests are needed to develop a valid and applicable QI list for the Indonesian setting. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Proceduralism and its role in economic evaluation and priority setting in health.

PubMed

Jan, Stephen

2014-05-01

This paper provides a critical overview of Gavin Mooney's proceduralist approach to economic evaluation and priority setting in health. Proceduralism is the notion that the social value attached to alternative courses of action should be determined not only by outcomes, but also processes. Mooney's brand of proceduralism was unique and couched within a broader critique of 'neo-liberal' economics. It operated on a number of levels. At the micro level of the individual program, he pioneered the notion that 'process utility' could be valued and measured within economic evaluation. At a macro level, he developed a framework in which the social objective of equity was defined by procedural justice in which communitarian values were used as the basis for judging how resources should be allocated across the health system. Finally, he applied the notion of procedural justice to further our understanding of the political economy of resource allocation; highlighting how fairness in decision making processes can overcome the sometimes intractable zero-sum resource allocation problem. In summary, his contributions to this field have set the stage for innovative programs of research to help in developing health policies and programs that are both in alignment with community values and implementable. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Guide for Developing and Evaluating an SFAR 36 Engineering Procedures Manual

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1997-05-22

This advisory circular (AC) sets forth an acceptable means, but not the only : means, for developing and evaluating a 14 Code of Federal Regulations (14CFR) : Special Federal Aviaton Regulation (SFAR)36 engineering procedures manual. As : such, the t...

Distress Behavior in Children With Leukemia Undergoing Medical Procedures.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Katz, Ernest R.

Improving prognosis for many forms of childhood cancer has resulted in increased attention on the quality-of-life experience. Conditioned anxiety and pain associated with recurrent diagnostic and treatment procedures have been identified as major sources of distress in children with malignant disease. To evaluate the efficacy of various…

Influence of carbon dioxide stunning procedure on quality of turkey meat.

PubMed

Mauri, S; Guijarro, A; Avilés, C; Peña, F

2017-08-01

1. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of sex and gas stunning on quality attributes of turkey breast meat. 2. One hundred B.U.T. Premium turkeys (50 males and 50 females) were divided into four groups of 25 animals and subjected to one of two CO 2 stunning procedures: G1 stepwise (step 1: 30% CO 2 , 15 s; step 2: 55% CO 2 , 40 s; step 3: 70% CO 2 , 45 s) or G2 fixed concentration (80% CO 2 , 100 s). The pH and meat colour at 20 min post-mortem, and pH, colour (L*, a*, b*), water holding capacity (WHC), drip loss (DL), cooking loss (CL) and Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF) in breast samples at 24 h and 7 d post-mortem were assessed. 3. There were significant differences between stunning groups for pH, meat colour and CL, whereas no significant differences were found for DL and WBSF. Sex had a significant effect on pH and b* and ageing of meat affected pH, colour coordinates, DL and WBSF. 4. It was concluded that the G2 treatment affected negatively the pH value and colour coordinates. However, G2 stunning affected positively the WHC parameters. Female turkeys had better results than males for pH, and the colour of female turkey breast meat was less yellow than male breast meat.

Quality of life assessment in interventional radiology.

PubMed

Monsky, Wayne L; Khorsand, Derek; Nolan, Timothy; Douglas, David; Khanna, Pavan

2014-03-01

The aim of this review was to describe quality of life (QoL) questionnaires relevant to interventional radiology. Interventional radiologists perform a large number of palliative procedures. The effect of these therapies on QoL is important. This is particularly true for cancer therapies where procedures with marginal survival benefits may result in tremendous QoL benefits. Image-guided minimally invasive procedures should be compared to invasive procedures, with respect to QoL, as part of comparative effectiveness assessment. A large number of questionnaires have been validated for measurement of overall and disease-specific quality of life. Use of applicable QoL assessments can aid in evaluating clinical outcomes and help to further substantiate the need for minimally invasive image-guided procedures. Copyright © 2014 AUR. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Report from a quality assurance program on patients undergoing the MILD procedure.

PubMed

Durkin, Brian; Romeiser, Jamie; Shroyer, A Laurie W; Schiller, Robin; Bae, Jin; Davis, Raphael P; Peyster, Robert; Benveniste, Helene

2013-05-01

To characterize trends in pain and functional outcomes and identify risk factors in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) and neurogenic claudication undergoing the "Minimally Invasive Lumbar Decompression" (MILD) procedure. Retrospective observational cohort study. Academic multidisciplinary pain center at Stony Brook Medicine. Patients undergoing the MILD procedure from October 2010 to November 2012. De-identified perioperative, pain and function related data for 50 patients undergoing MILD were extracted from the Center for Pain Management's quality assessment database. Data included numerical rating scale (NRS), symptom severity and physical function (Zurich Claudication Questionnaire), functional status (Oswestry Disability Index [ODI]), pain interference scores (National Institutes of Health Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System [PROMIS]), and patients' self-reported low back and lower extremity pain distribution. No MILD patient incurred procedure-related complications. Average NRS scores decreased postoperatively and 64.3% of patients reported less pain at 3 months. Clinically meaningful functional ODI improvements of at least 20% from baseline were present in 25% of the patients at 6 months. Preliminary analysis of changes in PROMIS scores at 3 months revealed that pre-MILD "severe" lumbar canal stenosis may be associated with high risk of "no improvement." No such impact was observed for NRS or ODI outcomes. Overall, pain is reduced and functional status improved in LSS patients following the MILD procedure at 3 and 6 months. Given the small sample size, it is not yet possible to identify patient subgroups at risk for "no improvement." Continued follow-up of longer-term outcomes appears warranted to develop evidence-based patient selection criteria. Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Evaluation of Hands-Free Devices for Space Habitat Maintenance Procedures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hoffman, R. B.; Twyford, E.; Conlee, C. S.; Litaker, H. L.; Solemn, J. A.; Holden

2007-01-01

Currently, International Space Station (ISS) crews use a laptop computer to display procedures for performing onboard maintenance tasks. This approach has been determined to be suboptimal. A heuristic evaluation and two studies have been completed to test commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) "near-eye" heads up displays (HUDs) for support of these types of maintenance tasks. In both studies, subjects worked through electronic procedures to perform simple maintenance tasks. As a result of the Phase I study, three HUDs were down-selected to one. In the Phase II study, the HUD was compared against two other electronic display devices - a laptop computer and an e-book reader. Results suggested that adjustability and stability of the HUD display were the most significant acceptability factors to consider for near-eye displays. The Phase II study uncovered a number of advantages and disadvantages of the HUD relative to the laptop and e-book reader for interacting with electronic procedures.

Single-case synthesis tools I: Comparing tools to evaluate SCD quality and rigor.

PubMed

Zimmerman, Kathleen N; Ledford, Jennifer R; Severini, Katherine E; Pustejovsky, James E; Barton, Erin E; Lloyd, Blair P

2018-03-03

Tools for evaluating the quality and rigor of single case research designs (SCD) are often used when conducting SCD syntheses. Preferred components include evaluations of design features related to the internal validity of SCD to obtain quality and/or rigor ratings. Three tools for evaluating the quality and rigor of SCD (Council for Exceptional Children, What Works Clearinghouse, and Single-Case Analysis and Design Framework) were compared to determine if conclusions regarding the effectiveness of antecedent sensory-based interventions for young children changed based on choice of quality evaluation tool. Evaluation of SCD quality differed across tools, suggesting selection of quality evaluation tools impacts evaluation findings. Suggestions for selecting an appropriate quality and rigor assessment tool are provided and across-tool conclusions are drawn regarding the quality and rigor of studies. Finally, authors provide guidance for using quality evaluations in conjunction with outcome analyses when conducting syntheses of interventions evaluated in the context of SCD. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluating the Quality of Colorectal Cancer Care across the Interface of Healthcare Sectors

PubMed Central

Ludt, Sabine; Urban, Elisabeth; Eckardt, Jörg; Wache, Stefanie; Broge, Björn; Kaufmann-Kolle, Petra; Heller, Günther; Miksch, Antje; Glassen, Katharina; Hermann, Katja; Bölter, Regine; Ose, Dominik; Campbell, Stephen M.; Wensing, Michel; Szecsenyi, Joachim

2013-01-01

Background Colorectal cancer (CRC) has a high prevalence in western countries. Diagnosis and treatment of CRC is complex and requires multidisciplinary collaboration across the interface of health care sectors. In Germany, a new nationwide established program aims to provide quality information of healthcare delivery across different sectors. Within this context, this study describes the development of a set of quality indicators charting the whole pathway of CRC-care including data specifications that are necessary to operationalize these indicators before practice testing. Methods Indicators were developed following a systematic 10 step modified ‘RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method’ which involved a multidisciplinary panel of thirteen participants. For each indicator in the final set, data specifications relating to sources of quality information, data collection procedures, analysis and feedback were described. Results The final indicator set included 52 indicators covering diagnostic procedures (11 indicators), therapeutic management (28 indicators) and follow-up (6 indicators). In addition, 7 indicators represented patient perspectives. Primary surgical tumor resection and pre-operative radiation (rectum carcinoma only) were perceived as most useful tracer procedures initiating quality data collection. To assess the quality of CRC care across sectors, various data sources were identified: medical records, administrative inpatient and outpatient data, sickness-funds billing code systems and patient survey. Conclusion In Germany, a set of 52 quality indicators, covering necessary aspects across the interfaces and pathways relevant to CRC-care has been developed. Combining different sectors and sources of health care in quality assessment is an innovative and challenging approach but reflects better the reality of the patient pathway and experience of CRC-care. PMID:23658684

Evaluation of Various Radar Data Quality Control Algorithms Based on Accumulated Radar Rainfall Statistics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Robinson, Michael; Steiner, Matthias; Wolff, David B.; Ferrier, Brad S.; Kessinger, Cathy; Einaudi, Franco (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

The primary function of the TRMM Ground Validation (GV) Program is to create GV rainfall products that provide basic validation of satellite-derived precipitation measurements for select primary sites. A fundamental and extremely important step in creating high-quality GV products is radar data quality control. Quality control (QC) processing of TRMM GV radar data is based on some automated procedures, but the current QC algorithm is not fully operational and requires significant human interaction to assure satisfactory results. Moreover, the TRMM GV QC algorithm, even with continuous manual tuning, still can not completely remove all types of spurious echoes. In an attempt to improve the current operational radar data QC procedures of the TRMM GV effort, an intercomparison of several QC algorithms has been conducted. This presentation will demonstrate how various radar data QC algorithms affect accumulated radar rainfall products. In all, six different QC algorithms will be applied to two months of WSR-88D radar data from Melbourne, Florida. Daily, five-day, and monthly accumulated radar rainfall maps will be produced for each quality-controlled data set. The QC algorithms will be evaluated and compared based on their ability to remove spurious echoes without removing significant precipitation. Strengths and weaknesses of each algorithm will be assessed based on, their abilit to mitigate both erroneous additions and reductions in rainfall accumulation from spurious echo contamination and true precipitation removal, respectively. Contamination from individual spurious echo categories will be quantified to further diagnose the abilities of each radar QC algorithm. Finally, a cost-benefit analysis will be conducted to determine if a more automated QC algorithm is a viable alternative to the current, labor-intensive QC algorithm employed by TRMM GV.

Quality Procedures in the European Higher Education Area and Beyond--Visions for the Future: Third ENQA Survey. ENQA Occasional Papers 18

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grifoll, Josep; Hopbach, Achim; Kekalainen, Helka; Lugano, Nathalie; Rozsnyai, Christina; Shopov, Todor

2012-01-01

Higher education reforms over the last decade, resulting in the establishment of the European Higher Education Area, with new social demands and expectations, have greatly impacted quality assurance in higher education. As a follow-up activity to two previous surveys on external quality procedures, the European Association for Quality Assurance in…

Evaluation of School Library Media Centers: Demonstrating Quality.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Everhart, Nancy

2003-01-01

Discusses ways to evaluate school library media programs and how to demonstrate quality. Topics include how principals evaluate programs; sources of evaluative data; national, state, and local instruments; surveys and interviews; Colorado benchmarks; evaluating the use of electronic resources; and computer reporting options. (LRW)

Procedures for testing and evaluating spacecraft-type heat pipes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tower, L. K.; Kaufman, W. B.

1984-04-01

This report describes part of an effort to develop dependable, cost effective spacecraft thermal control heat pipes. In the program the reliability and performance of 30 commercially available heat pipes were assessed. The pipes comprised 10 groups of varying design, with aluminum and stainless steel as structural materials, and methanol and ammonia as working fluids. The factors studied were noncondensible gas accumulation and heat transfer capability in one g. The present report supplements a brief earlier report by describing in detail the procedures required to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of heat pipes for thermal control. It discusses the test facilities and testing procedures. The manner in which data may be taken for estimating useful life and comparing performance is described. Some of the pitfalls in making such judgments are illustrated. Originator supplied keywords include: heat transfer, and corrosion.

Stability evaluation of quality parameters for palm oil products at low temperature storage.

PubMed

Ramli, Nur Aainaa Syahirah; Mohd Noor, Mohd Azmil; Musa, Hajar; Ghazali, Razmah

2018-07-01

Palm oil is one of the major oils and fats produced and traded worldwide. The value of palm oil products is mainly influenced by their quality. According to ISO 17025:2005, accredited laboratories require a quality control procedure with respect to monitoring the validity of tests for determination of quality parameters. This includes the regular use of internal quality control using secondary reference materials. Unfortunately, palm oil reference materials are not currently available. To establish internal quality control samples, the stability of quality parameters needs to be evaluated. In the present study, the stability of quality parameters for palm oil products was examined over 10 months at low temperature storage (6 ± 2 °C). The palm oil products tested included crude palm oil (CPO); refined, bleached and deodorized (RBD) palm oil (RBDPO); RBD palm olein (RBDPOo); and RBD palm stearin (RBDPS). The quality parameters of the oils [i.e. moisture content, free fatty acid content (FFA), iodine value (IV), fatty acids composition (FAC) and slip melting point (SMP)] were determined prior to and throughout the storage period. The moisture, FFA, IV, FAC and SMP for palm oil products changed significantly (P < 0.05), whereas the moisture content for CPO, IV for RBDPO and RBDPOo, stearic acid composition for CPO and linolenic acid composition for CPO, RBDPO, RBDPOo and RBDPS did not (P > 0.05). The stability study indicated that the quality of the palm oil products was stable within the specified limits throughout the storage period at low temperature. The storage conditions preserved the quality of palm oil products throughout the storage period. These findings qualify the use of the palm oil products CPO, RBDPO, RBDPOo and RBDPS as control samples in the validation of test results. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

40 CFR 1515.1 - FOIA procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... Protection of Environment COUNCIL ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT PROCEDURES Purpose § 1515.1 FOIA procedures. The Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552), as amended, commonly known as... Section 552(b) of the Act. These procedures explain how the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)—one of...

40 CFR 1515.1 - FOIA procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... Protection of Environment COUNCIL ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT PROCEDURES Purpose § 1515.1 FOIA procedures. The Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552), as amended, commonly known as... Section 552(b) of the Act. These procedures explain how the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)—one of...

40 CFR 1515.1 - FOIA procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... Protection of Environment COUNCIL ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT PROCEDURES Purpose § 1515.1 FOIA procedures. The Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552), as amended, commonly known as... Section 552(b) of the Act. These procedures explain how the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)—one of...

40 CFR 1515.1 - FOIA procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... Protection of Environment COUNCIL ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT PROCEDURES Purpose § 1515.1 FOIA procedures. The Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552), as amended, commonly known as... Section 552(b) of the Act. These procedures explain how the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)—one of...

METHODOLOGICAL QUALITY OF ECONOMIC EVALUATIONS ALONGSIDE TRIALS OF KNEE PHYSIOTHERAPY.

PubMed

García-Pérez, Lidia; Linertová, Renata; Arvelo-Martín, Alejandro; Guerra-Marrero, Carolina; Martínez-Alberto, Carlos Enrique; Cuéllar-Pompa, Leticia; Escobar, Antonio; Serrano-Aguilar, Pedro

2017-01-01

The methodological quality of an economic evaluation performed alongside a clinical trial can be underestimated if the paper does not report key methodological features. This study discusses methodological assessment issues on the example of a systematic review on cost-effectiveness of physiotherapy for knee osteoarthritis. Six economic evaluation studies included in the systematic review and related clinical trials were assessed using the 10-question check-list by Drummond and the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) scale. All economic evaluations were performed alongside a clinical trial but the studied interventions were too heterogeneous to be synthesized. Methodological quality of the economic evaluations reported in the papers was not free of drawbacks, and in some cases, it improved when information from the related clinical trial was taken into account. Economic evaluation papers dedicate little space to methodological features of related clinical trials; therefore, the methodological quality can be underestimated if evaluated separately from the trials. Future economic evaluations should follow more strictly the recommendations about methodology and the authors should pay special attention to the quality of reporting.

Research on Air Quality Evaluation based on Principal Component Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Xing; Wang, Zilin; Guo, Min; Chen, Wei; Zhang, Huan

2018-01-01

Economic growth has led to environmental capacity decline and the deterioration of air quality. Air quality evaluation as a fundamental of environmental monitoring and air pollution control has become increasingly important. Based on the principal component analysis (PCA), this paper evaluates the air quality of a large city in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Area in recent 10 years and identifies influencing factors, in order to provide reference to air quality management and air pollution control.

Evaluating the Quality of the Child Care in Finland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hujala, Eeva; Fonsen, Elina; Elo, Janniina

2012-01-01

In this study we examine parents' and teachers' perceptions of the early childhood education and care (ECEC) quality in Finland. The study is based on the paradigm of inclusionary quality and the assessment is based on the quality evaluation model. The parents and teachers assess the quality to be good. The strength of the quality was the effect…

Evaluation Thesaurus. Second Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scriven, Michael

This thesaurus to the evaluation field is not restricted to educational evaluation or to program evaluation, but also refers to product, personnel, and proposal evaluation, as well as to quality control, the grading of work samples, and to all the other areas in which disciplined evaluation is practiced. It contains many suggestions, procedures,…

Exploring in integrated quality evaluation of Chinese herbal medicines: the integrated quality index (IQI) for aconite.

PubMed

Zhang, Ding-kun; Wang, Jia-bo; Yang, Ming; Peng, Cheng; Xiao, Xiao-he

2015-07-01

Good medicinal herbs, good drugs. Good evaluation method and indices are the prerequisite of good medicinal herbs. However, there exist numerous indices for quality evaluation and control in Chinese medicinal materials. However, most of these indices are non-interrelated each other, as well as having little relationship with efficiency and safety. The results of different evaluatior methods may not be consistent, even contradictory. Considering the complex material properties of Chinese medicinal materials, single method and index is difficult to objectively and comprehensively reflect the quality. Therefore, it is essential to explore the integrated evaluation methods. In this paper, oriented by the integrated evaluation strategies for traditional Chinese medicine quality, a new method called integrated quality index (IQI) by the integration of empirical evaluation, chemical evaluation, and biological evaluation was proposed. In addition, a study case of hypertoxic herb Aconitum carmichaelii Debx. was provided to explain this method in detail. The results suggested that in the view of specifications, the average weight of Jiangyou aconite was the greatest, followed by Weishan aconite, Butuo aconite, Hanzhong aconite, and Anxian aconite; from the point of chemical components, Jiangyou aconite had the characteristic with strong efficacy and weak toxicity, next was Hanzhong aconite, Butuo aconite, Weishan aconite, and Anxian aconite; taking toxicity price as the index, Hanzhong aconite and Jiangyou aconite have the lower toxicity, while Butuo aconite, Weishan aconite, and Anxian aconite have the relatively higher one. After the normalization and integration of evaluation results, we calculated the IQI value of Jiangyou aconite, Hanzhong aconite, Butuo aconite, Weishan aconite, and Anxian aconite were 0.842 +/- 0.091, 0.597 +/- 0.047, 0.442 +/- 0.033, 0.454 +/- 0.038, 0.170 +/- 0.021, respectively. The quality of Jiangyou aconite is significantly better than the

Data envelopment analysis in service quality evaluation: an empirical study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Najafi, Seyedvahid; Saati, Saber; Tavana, Madjid

2015-09-01

Service quality is often conceptualized as the comparison between service expectations and the actual performance perceptions. It enhances customer satisfaction, decreases customer defection, and promotes customer loyalty. Substantial literature has examined the concept of service quality, its dimensions, and measurement methods. We introduce the perceived service quality index (PSQI) as a single measure for evaluating the multiple-item service quality construct based on the SERVQUAL model. A slack-based measure (SBM) of efficiency with constant inputs is used to calculate the PSQI. In addition, a non-linear programming model based on the SBM is proposed to delineate an improvement guideline and improve service quality. An empirical study is conducted to assess the applicability of the method proposed in this study. A large number of studies have used DEA as a benchmarking tool to measure service quality. These models do not propose a coherent performance evaluation construct and consequently fail to deliver improvement guidelines for improving service quality. The DEA models proposed in this study are designed to evaluate and improve service quality within a comprehensive framework and without any dependency on external data.

Evaluating Air-Quality Models: Review and Outlook.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weil, J. C.; Sykes, R. I.; Venkatram, A.

1992-10-01

Over the past decade, much attention has been devoted to the evaluation of air-quality models with emphasis on model performance in predicting the high concentrations that are important in air-quality regulations. This paper stems from our belief that this practice needs to be expanded to 1) evaluate model physics and 2) deal with the large natural or stochastic variability in concentration. The variability is represented by the root-mean- square fluctuating concentration (c about the mean concentration (C) over an ensemble-a given set of meteorological, source, etc. conditions. Most air-quality models used in applications predict C, whereas observations are individual realizations drawn from an ensemble. For cC large residuals exist between predicted and observed concentrations, which confuse model evaluations.This paper addresses ways of evaluating model physics in light of the large c the focus is on elevated point-source models. Evaluation of model physics requires the separation of the mean model error-the difference between the predicted and observed C-from the natural variability. A residual analysis is shown to be an elective way of doing this. Several examples demonstrate the usefulness of residuals as well as correlation analyses and laboratory data in judging model physics.In general, c models and predictions of the probability distribution of the fluctuating concentration (c), (c, are in the developmental stage, with laboratory data playing an important role. Laboratory data from point-source plumes in a convection tank show that (c approximates a self-similar distribution along the plume center plane, a useful result in a residual analysis. At pmsent,there is one model-ARAP-that predicts C, c, and (c for point-source plumes. This model is more computationally demanding than other dispersion models (for C only) and must be demonstrated as a practical tool. However, it predicts an important quantity for applications- the uncertainty in the very high and

Comparison of the clinical and quality-of-life outcomes after the inside-out TVT-O procedure with or without concomitant transvaginal gynaecological surgery.

PubMed

Cho, M K; Kim, C H; Kang, W D; Kim, J W; Kim, S M; Kim, Y H

2012-04-01

The study was undertaken to compare the clinical and quality-of-life (QoL) outcomes of the inside-out transobturator vaginal tape (TVT-O)-only procedures and TVT-O procedures with concomitant transvaginal gynaecological surgery for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence (SUI). A review of charts from January 2006 to March 2010 identified 305 patients with urodynamic stress incontinence for whom we performed the TVT-O. Of the initial 305 patients, 272 (89.2%) were re-examined for complications 1 month, 4 months, 1 year and 2-4 years postoperatively (122 TVT-O only; 150 TVT-O + other transvaginal gynaecological surgery). They were also evaluated with the Urogenital Distress Inventory Questionnaire (UDI-6) and the Incontinence Impact Questionnaire (IIQ-7) 1-4 years after the procedure. The median follow-up was 37.3 months. The success rate was 89.3% in the TVT-O-only group vs 93.3% in the TVT-O with concomitant gynaecological surgery group (p =0.729). The QoL score was quite good for 91.8% of the TVT-O-only patients and for 96.7% of the TVT-O with concomitant gynaecologic surgery patients (p =0.405). In conclusion, gynaecological operations performed concomitantly with the TVT-O procedure do not affect the clinical and QoL outcomes of the TVT-O procedure.

Evaluating Quality in Educational Facilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abend, Allen; Ornstein, Sheila Walbe; Baltas, Emmanuel; de la Garza, Jaime; Watson, Chris; Lange, Kurt; von Ahlefeld, Hannah

2006-01-01

In 2005, the OECD Programme on Educational Building (PEB) organised two international experts' group meetings to discuss how countries define and evaluate quality in educational facilities. The research and experiences of six experts are presented in this article, in addition to the lessons learned from the experts' group meetings. The director of…

Evaluation of peak picking quality in LC-MS metabolomics data.

PubMed

Brodsky, Leonid; Moussaieff, Arieh; Shahaf, Nir; Aharoni, Asaph; Rogachev, Ilana

2010-11-15

The output of LC-MS metabolomics experiments consists of mass-peak intensities identified through a peak-picking/alignment procedure. Besides imperfections in biological samples and instrumentation, data accuracy is highly dependent on the applied algorithms and their parameters. Consequently, quality control (QC) is essential for further data analysis. Here, we present a QC approach that is based on discrepancies between replicate samples. First, the quantile normalization of per-sample log-signal distributions is applied to each group of biologically homogeneous samples. Next, the overall quality of each replicate group is characterized by the Z-transformed correlation coefficients between samples. This general QC allows a tuning of the procedure's parameters which minimizes the inter-replicate discrepancies in the generated output. Subsequently, an in-depth QC measure detects local neighborhoods on a template of aligned chromatograms that are enriched by divergences between intensity profiles of replicate samples. These neighborhoods are determined through a segmentation algorithm. The retention time (RT)-m/z positions of the neighborhoods with local divergences are indicative of either: incorrect alignment of chromatographic features, technical problems in the chromatograms, or to a true biological discrepancy between replicates for particular metabolites. We expect this method to aid in the accurate analysis of metabolomics data and in the development of new peak-picking/alignment procedures.

Programme Evaluation: Maintaining Quality in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loots, A.

2008-01-01

The evaluation of educational or social programmes is paramount for establishing success or impact in higher education. Evaluation questions about programme goals (e.g. better performance of first-year students) or about the quality of programme strategies (design and implementation) and effectiveness of delivery (coordinator inputs and…

Pancreatitis Quality of Life Instrument: A Psychometric Evaluation.

PubMed

Wassef, Wahid; DeWitt, John; McGreevy, Kathleen; Wilcox, Mel; Whitcomb, David; Yadav, Dhiraj; Amann, Stephen; Mishra, Girish; Alkaade, Samer; Romagnuolo, Joseph; Stevens, Tyler; Vargo, John; Gardner, Timothy; Singh, Vikesh; Park, Walter; Hartigan, Celia; Barton, Bruce; Bova, Carol

2016-08-01

Chronic pancreatitis is a significant medical problem that impacts a large number of patients worldwide. In 2014, we developed a disease-specific instrument for the evaluation of quality of life in this group of patients: pancreatitis quality of life instrument (PANQOLI). The goal of this study was to evaluate its psychometric properties: its reliability and its construct validity. This is a cross-sectional multi-center study that involved 12 pancreatic disease centers. Patients who met the inclusion/exclusion criteria for chronic pancreatitis were invited to participate. Those who accepted were asked to complete seven questionnaires/instruments. Only patients who completed the PANQOLI were included in the study. Its reliability and its construct validity were tested. A total of 159 patients completed the PANQOLI and were included in the study. They had a mean age of 49.03, 49% were male, and 84% were Caucasian. Six of the 24 items on the scale were removed because of lack of inter-item correlation, redundancy, or lack of correlation to quality of life issues. The final 18-item scale had excellent reliability (Cronbach's alpha coefficient: 0.914) and excellent construct validity with good correlation to generic quality of life instruments (SF-12 and EORTC QLQ-C30/QLQ-PAN26) and lack of correlation to non-quality of life instruments (MAST and DAST). Through exploratory factor analysis, the PANQOLI was found to consist of four subscales: emotional function scale, role function scale, physical function scale, and "self-worth" scale. PANQOLI is the first disease-specific instrument to be developed and validated for the evaluation of quality of life in chronic pancreatitis patients. It has a unique subscale for "self-worth" that differentiates it from other generic instruments. Studies are currently under way to evaluate its use in other populations not included in this study.

Development and evaluation of a quality score for abstracts

PubMed Central

Timmer, Antje; Sutherland, Lloyd R; Hilsden, Robert J

2003-01-01

Background The evaluation of abstracts for scientific meetings has been shown to suffer from poor inter observer reliability. A measure was developed to assess the formal quality of abstract submissions in a standardized way. Methods Item selection was based on scoring systems for full reports, taking into account published guidelines for structured abstracts. Interrater agreement was examined using a random sample of submissions to the American Gastroenterological Association, stratified for research type (n = 100, 1992–1995). For construct validity, the association of formal quality with acceptance for presentation was examined. A questionnaire to expert reviewers evaluated sensibility items, such as ease of use and comprehensiveness. Results The index comprised 19 items. The summary quality scores showed good interrater agreement (intra class coefficient 0.60 – 0.81). Good abstract quality was associated with abstract acceptance for presentation at the meeting. The instrument was found to be acceptable by expert reviewers. Conclusion A quality index was developed for the evaluation of scientific meeting abstracts which was shown to be reliable, valid and useful. PMID:12581457

Teaching Evaluation: A Critical Measure for Improving the Quality of Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ji, Zhou

2009-01-01

In the coming period, the main task for China's higher education system is to improve the quality of education, and the key to improving the quality of education is to improve the quality of teaching. Teaching evaluations are a critical measure for improving the quality of teaching. The work of evaluating teaching at institutions of higher…

Guidelines and standard procedures for studies of ground-water quality; selection and installation of wells, and supporting documentation

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lapham, W.W.; Wilde, F.D.; Koterba, M.T.

1997-01-01

This is the first of a two-part report to document guidelines and standard procedures of the U.S. Geological Survey for the acquisition of data in ground-water-quality studies. This report provides guidelines and procedures for the selection and installation of wells for water-quality studies/*, and the required or recommended supporting documentation of these activities. Topics include (1) documentation needed for well files, field folders, and electronic files; (2) criteria and information needed for the selection of water-supply and observation wells, including site inventory and data collection during field reconnaissance; and (3) criteria and preparation for installation of monitoring wells, including the effects of equipment and materials on the chemistry of ground-water samples, a summary of drilling and coring methods, and information concerning well completion, development, and disposition.

[Care quality in intensive care evaluated by the patients using a service quality scale (SERVQUAL)].

PubMed

Regaira Martínez, E; Sola Iriarte, M; Goñi Viguria, R; Del Barrio Linares, M; Margall Coscojuela, M A; Asiain Erro, M C

2010-01-01

The evaluation made by the patients on the quality of service received is important to introduce improvement strategies in the care quality. 1. To evaluate the care quality through the analysis of the differences obtained between expectations and perceptions, that the patients have of the service received in the ICU. 2. To analyze if there is any relationship between care quality evaluated by the patients and the sociodemographic variables. A total of 86 patients who were conscious and oriented during their stay in the ICU were studied prospectively. At 24h of the discharge from the ICU, the SERVQUAL (Service Quality) scale, adapted for the hospital setting by Babakus and Mangold (1992), was applied. This scale measures the care quality based on the difference in scores obtained between expectations and perceptions of the patients. The positive scores indicate that the perceptions of the patients exceed their expectations. The scale has 5 dimensions: Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurances and Empathy. It includes 15 items for perceptions and the same for expectations, with 5 grades of response (1 totally disagree - 5 totally agree). The mean score of perceptions 66.92) exceeded that of the expectations (62.30). The mean score of the difference between perceptions and expectations for the total of the SERVQUAL scale was 4.62. It was also positive for each one of the dimensions: Tangibility=1.44, Reliability=0.53, Responsiveness=0.95, Assurances=0.99, Empathy=0.71. No statistically significant associations were found between care quality evaluated by the patients and the sociodemographic variables. The care quality perceived by the patients in the ICU exceeds their expectations, and had no relationship with the sociodemographic characteristics. Copyright 2009 Elsevier España, S.L. y SEEIUC. All rights reserved.

Improving operative flow during pediatric airway evaluation: a quality-improvement initiative.

PubMed

Prager, Jeremy D; Ruiz, Amanda G; Mooney, Kristin; Gao, Dexiang; Szolnoki, Judit; Shah, Rahul K

2015-03-01

Microlaryngoscopy and bronchoscopy procedures (MLBs) are short-duration, high-acuity procedures that carry risk. Poor case flow and communication exacerbate such potential risk. Efficient operative flow is critical for patient safety and resource expenditure. To identify areas for improvement and evaluate the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary quality-improvement (QI) initiative. A QI project using the "Plan-Do-Study-Act" (PDSA) cycle was implemented to assess MLBs performed on pediatric patients in a tertiary academic children's hospital. Forty MLBs were audited using a QI evaluation tool containing 144 fields. Each MLB was evaluated for flow, communication, and timing. Opportunities for improvement were identified. Subsequently, QI interventions were implemented in an iterative cycle, and 66 MLBs were audited after the intervention. Specific QI interventions addressed issues of personnel frequently exiting the operating room (OR) and poor preoperative preparation, identified during QI audit as areas for improvement. Interventions included (1) conducting "huddles" between surgeon and OR staff to discuss needed equipment; (2) implementing improvements to surgeon case ordering and preference cards review; (3) posting an OR door sign to limit traffic during airway procedures; and (4) discouraging personnel breaks during airway procedures. Operating room exiting behavior of OR personnel, preoperative preparation, and case timing were assessed and compared before and after the QI intervention. Personnel exiting the OR during the MLB was identified as a preintervention issue, with the surgical technologist, circulator, or surgeon exiting the room in 55% of cases (n = 22). The surgical technologist and circulator left the room to retrieve equipment in 40% of cases (n = 16), which indicated the need for increased preoperative preparation to improve case timing and operative flow. The QI interventions implemented to address these concerns included education

Clinical image quality evaluation for panoramic radiography in Korean dental clinics

PubMed Central

Choi, Bo-Ram; Choi, Da-Hye; Huh, Kyung-Hoe; Yi, Won-Jin; Heo, Min-Suk; Choi, Soon-Chul; Bae, Kwang-Hak

2012-01-01

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of clinical image quality of panoramic radiographs and to analyze the parameters that influence the overall image quality. Materials and Methods Korean dental clinics were asked to provide three randomly selected panoramic radiographs. An oral and maxillofacial radiology specialist evaluated those images using our self-developed Clinical Image Quality Evaluation Chart. Three evaluators classified the overall image quality of the panoramic radiographs and evaluated the causes of imaging errors. Results A total of 297 panoramic radiographs were collected from 99 dental hospitals and clinics. The mean of the scores according to the Clinical Image Quality Evaluation Chart was 79.9. In the classification of the overall image quality, 17 images were deemed 'optimal for obtaining diagnostic information,' 153 were 'adequate for diagnosis,' 109 were 'poor but diagnosable,' and nine were 'unrecognizable and too poor for diagnosis'. The results of the analysis of the causes of the errors in all the images are as follows: 139 errors in the positioning, 135 in the processing, 50 from the radiographic unit, and 13 due to anatomic abnormality. Conclusion Panoramic radiographs taken at local dental clinics generally have a normal or higher-level image quality. Principal factors affecting image quality were positioning of the patient and image density, sharpness, and contrast. Therefore, when images are taken, the patient position should be adjusted with great care. Also, standardizing objective criteria of image density, sharpness, and contrast is required to evaluate image quality effectively. PMID:23071969

Subjective evaluation of compressed image quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Heesub; Rowberg, Alan H.; Frank, Mark S.; Choi, Hyung-Sik; Kim, Yongmin

1992-05-01

Lossy data compression generates distortion or error on the reconstructed image and the distortion becomes visible as the compression ratio increases. Even at the same compression ratio, the distortion appears differently depending on the compression method used. Because of the nonlinearity of the human visual system and lossy data compression methods, we have evaluated subjectively the quality of medical images compressed with two different methods, an intraframe and interframe coding algorithms. The evaluated raw data were analyzed statistically to measure interrater reliability and reliability of an individual reader. Also, the analysis of variance was used to identify which compression method is better statistically, and from what compression ratio the quality of a compressed image is evaluated as poorer than that of the original. Nine x-ray CT head images from three patients were used as test cases. Six radiologists participated in reading the 99 images (some were duplicates) compressed at four different compression ratios, original, 5:1, 10:1, and 15:1. The six readers agree more than by chance alone and their agreement was statistically significant, but there were large variations among readers as well as within a reader. The displacement estimated interframe coding algorithm is significantly better in quality than that of the 2-D block DCT at significance level 0.05. Also, 10:1 compressed images with the interframe coding algorithm do not show any significant differences from the original at level 0.05.

Evaluating Predictive Models of Software Quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ciaschini, V.; Canaparo, M.; Ronchieri, E.; Salomoni, D.

2014-06-01

Applications from High Energy Physics scientific community are constantly growing and implemented by a large number of developers. This implies a strong churn on the code and an associated risk of faults, which is unavoidable as long as the software undergoes active evolution. However, the necessities of production systems run counter to this. Stability and predictability are of paramount importance; in addition, a short turn-around time for the defect discovery-correction-deployment cycle is required. A way to reconcile these opposite foci is to use a software quality model to obtain an approximation of the risk before releasing a program to only deliver software with a risk lower than an agreed threshold. In this article we evaluated two quality predictive models to identify the operational risk and the quality of some software products. We applied these models to the development history of several EMI packages with intent to discover the risk factor of each product and compare it with its real history. We attempted to determine if the models reasonably maps reality for the applications under evaluation, and finally we concluded suggesting directions for further studies.

Wyoming groundwater-quality monitoring network

USGS Publications Warehouse

Boughton, Gregory K.

2011-01-01

A wide variety of human activities have the potential to contaminate groundwater. In addition, naturally occurring constituents can limit the suitability of groundwater for some uses. The State of Wyoming has established rules and programs to evaluate and protect groundwater quality based on identified uses. The Wyoming Groundwater-Quality Monitoring Network (WGQMN) is a cooperative program between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (WDEQ) and was implemented in 2009 to evaluate the water-quality characteristics of the State's groundwater. Representatives from USGS, WDEQ, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), Wyoming Water Development Office, and Wyoming State Engineer's Office formed a steering committee, which meets periodically to evaluate progress and consider modifications to strengthen program objectives. The purpose of this fact sheet is to describe the WGQMN design and objectives, field procedures, and water-quality analyses. USGS groundwater activities in the Greater Green River Basin also are described.

Review of systematic reviews on acute procedural pain in children in the hospital setting

PubMed Central

Stinson, Jennifer; Yamada, Janet; Dickson, Alison; Lamba, Jasmine; Stevens, Bonnie

2008-01-01

BACKGROUND: Acute pain is a common experience for hospitalized children. Despite mounting research on treatments for acute procedure-related pain, it remains inadequately treated. OBJECTIVE: To critically appraise all systematic reviews on the effectiveness of acute procedure-related pain management in hospitalized children. METHODS: Published systematic reviews and meta-analyses on pharmacological and nonpharmacological management of acute procedure-related pain in hospitalized children aged one to 18 years were evaluated. Electronic searches were conducted in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Medline, EMBASE, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature and PsycINFO. Two reviewers independently selected articles for review and assessed their quality using a validated seven-point quality assessment measure. Any disagreements were resolved by a third reviewer. RESULTS: Of 1469 published articles on interventions for acute pain in hospitalized children, eight systematic reviews met the inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis. However, only five of these reviews were of high quality. Critical appraisal of pharmacological pain interventions indicated that amethocaine was superior to EMLA (AstraZeneca Canada Inc) for reducing needle pain. Distraction and hypnosis were nonpharmacological interventions effective for management of acute procedure-related pain in hospitalized children. CONCLUSIONS: There is growing evidence of rigorous evaluations of both pharmacological and nonpharmacological strategies for acute procedure-related pain in children; however, the evidence underlying some commonly used strategies is limited. The present review will enable the creation of a future research plan to facilitate clinical decision making and to develop clinical policy for managing acute procedure-related pain in children. PMID:18301816

Designing Flightdeck Procedures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barshi, Immanuel; Mauro, Robert; Degani, Asaf; Loukopoulou, Loukia

2016-01-01

The primary goal of this document is to provide guidance on how to design, implement, and evaluate flight deck procedures. It provides a process for developing procedures that meet clear and specific requirements. This document provides a brief overview of: 1) the requirements for procedures, 2) a process for the design of procedures, and 3) a process for the design of checklists. The brief overview is followed by amplified procedures that follow the above steps and provide details for the proper design, implementation and evaluation of good flight deck procedures and checklists.

Evaluating Regional-Scale Air Quality Models

EPA Science Inventory

Numerical air quality models are being used to understand the complex interplay among emission loading meteorology, and atmospheric chemistry leading to the formation and accumulation of pollutants in the atmosphere. A model evaluation framework is presented here that considers ...

Evaluative procedures to detect, characterize, and assess the severity of diabetic neuropathy.

PubMed

Dyck, P J

1991-01-01

Minimal criteria for diabetic neuropathy need to be defined and universally applied. Standardized evaluative procedures need to be agreed and normal ranges determined from healthy volunteers. Types and stages of neuropathy should be established and assessments performed on representative populations of both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetic patients. Potential minimal criteria include absent ankle reflexes and vibratory sensation, and abnormalities of nerve conduction. However, the preferred criterion is the identification of more than two statistically defined abnormalities among symptoms and deficits, nerve conduction, quantitative sensory examination or quantitative autonomic examination. Various evaluative procedures are available. Symptoms should be assessed and scores can be assigned to neurological deficits. However, assessments of nerve conduction provide the most specific, objective, sensitive, and repeatable procedures, although these may be the least meaningful. Many techniques are available for quantitative sensory examination, but are poorly standardized and normal values are not available. For quantitative autonomic examination, tests are available for the adequacy of cardiovascular and peripheral vascular reflexes and increasingly for other autonomic functions. In any assessment of nerve function the conditions should be optimized and standardized, and stimuli defined. Specific instructions should be given and normal ranges established in healthy volunteers.

An improved filter elution and cell culture assay procedure for evaluating public groundwater systems for culturable enteroviruses.

PubMed

Dahling, Daniel R

2002-01-01

Large-scale virus studies of groundwater systems require practical and sensitive procedures for both sample processing and viral assay. Filter adsorption-elution procedures have traditionally been used to process large-volume water samples for viruses. In this study, five filter elution procedures using cartridge filters were evaluated for their effectiveness in processing samples. Of the five procedures tested, the third method, which incorporated two separate beef extract elutions (one being an overnight filter immersion in beef extract), recovered 95% of seeded poliovirus compared with recoveries of 36 to 70% for the other methods. For viral enumeration, an expanded roller bottle quantal assay was evaluated using seeded poliovirus. This cytopathic-based method was considerably more sensitive than the standard plaque assay method. The roller bottle system was more economical than the plaque assay for the evaluation of comparable samples. Using roller bottles required less time and manipulation than the plaque procedure and greatly facilitated the examination of large numbers of samples. The combination of the improved filter elution procedure and the roller bottle assay for viral analysis makes large-scale virus studies of groundwater systems practical. This procedure was subsequently field tested during a groundwater study in which large-volume samples (exceeding 800 L) were processed through the filters.

A ruggedness evaluation of procedures for damage threshold testing optical materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hooker, Matthew W.; Thomas, Milfred E.; Wise, Stephanie A.; Tappan, Nina D.

1995-01-01

A ruggedness evaluation of approaches to damage threshold testing was performed to determine the influence of three procedural variables on damage threshold data. The differences between the number of test sites evaluated at an applied fluence level (1 site versus 10 sites), the number of laser pulses at each test site (1 pulse versus 200 pulses), and the beam diameter (0.35 mm versus 0.70 mm) were all found to significantly influence the damage threshold data over a 99-percent confidence interval.

Parameter Trending, Geolocation Quality Control and the Procedures to Support Preparation of Next Versions of the TRMM Reprocessing Algorithm

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stocker, Erich Franz

2004-01-01

TRMM has been an imminently successful mission from an engineering standpoint but even more from a science standpoint. An important part of this science success has been the careful quality control of the TRMM standard products. This paper will present the quality monitoring efforts that the TRMM Science Data and Information System (TSDIS) conducts on a routine basis. The paper will detail parameter trending, geolocation quality control and the procedures to support the preparation of next versions of the algorithm used for reprocessing.

9 CFR 147.16 - Procedure for the evaluation of mycoplasma reactors by in vivo bio-assay (enrichment).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 9 Animals and Animal Products 1 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Procedure for the evaluation of mycoplasma reactors by in vivo bio-assay (enrichment). 147.16 Section 147.16 Animals and Animal Products... the evaluation of mycoplasma reactors by in vivo bio-assay (enrichment). This procedure has been shown...

49 CFR Appendix C to Part 242 - Procedures for Obtaining and Evaluating Motor Vehicle Driving Record Data

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 49 Transportation 4 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Procedures for Obtaining and Evaluating Motor Vehicle Driving Record Data C Appendix C to Part 242 Transportation Other Regulations Relating to... CERTIFICATION OF CONDUCTORS Pt. 242, App. C Appendix C to Part 242—Procedures for Obtaining and Evaluating Motor...

49 CFR Appendix C to Part 242 - Procedures for Obtaining and Evaluating Motor Vehicle Driving Record Data

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 49 Transportation 4 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Procedures for Obtaining and Evaluating Motor Vehicle Driving Record Data C Appendix C to Part 242 Transportation Other Regulations Relating to... CERTIFICATION OF CONDUCTORS Pt. 242, App. C Appendix C to Part 242—Procedures for Obtaining and Evaluating Motor...

COMPUTERIZED NEEDS-ORIENTED QUALITY MEASUREMENT EVALUATION SYSTEM (CONQUEST)

EPA Science Inventory

CONQUEST is an easy-to-use quality improvement software tool that uses a common structure and language to help users identity, understand, compare, evaluate, and select among 1,200 clinical performance measures that can be used to assess and improve quality of care. CONQUEST's in...

Non invasive evaluation of cardiomechanics in patients undergoing MitrClip procedure

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background In the last recent years a new percutaneous procedure, the MitraClip, has been validated for the treatment of mitral regurgitation. MitraClip procedure is a promising alternative for patients unsuitable for surgery as it reduces the risk of death related to surgery ensuring a similar result. Few data are present in literature about the variation of hemodynamic parameters and ventricular coupling after Mitraclip implantation. Methods Hemodynamic data of 18 patients enrolled for MitraClip procedure were retrospectively reviewed and analyzed. Echocardiographic measurements were obtained the day before the procedure (T0) and 21 ± 3 days after the procedure (T1), including evaluation of Ejection Fraction, mitral valve regurgitation severity and mechanism, forward Stroke Volume, left atrial volume, estimated systolic pulmonary pressure, non invasive echocardiographic estimation of single beat ventricular elastance (Es(sb)), arterial elastance (Ea) measured as systolic pressure • 0.9/ Stroke Volume, ventricular arterial coupling (Ea/Es(sb) ratio). Data were expressed as median and interquartile range. Measures obtained before and after the procedure were compared using Wilcoxon non parametric test for paired samples. Results Mitraclip procedure was effective in reducing regurgitation. We observed an amelioration of echocardiographic parameters with a reduction of estimated systolic pulmonary pressure (45 to 37,5 p = 0,0002) and left atrial volume (110 to 93 p = 0,0001). Despite a few cases decreasing in ejection fraction (37 to 35 p = 0,035), the maintained ventricular arterial coupling after the procedure (P = 0,67) was associated with an increasing in forward stroke volume (60,3 to 78 p = 0,05). Conclusion MitraClip is effective in reducing mitral valve regurgitation and determines an amelioration of hemodynamic parameters with preservation of ventricular arterial coupling. PMID:23642140

Dredged Material Evaluations: Review of Zooplankton Toxicity Test Methods for Marine Water Quality Evaluations

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-09-01

Standardization (ISO). 2015. Water quality - calanoid copepod early- life stage test with Acartia tonsa. ISO 16778:2015. International Organization for...Toxicity Test Methods for Marine Water Quality Evaluations by Alan J Kennedy, Guilherme Lotufo, Jennifer G. Laird, and J. Daniel Farrar PURPOSE: The...MPRSA evaluations in some regions. The organisms used in these test methods are not planktonic for most of their life cycles (juveniles and adults

Multiple Criteria Evaluation of Quality and Optimisation of e-Learning System Components

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kurilovas, Eugenijus; Dagiene, Valentina

2010-01-01

The main research object of the paper is investigation and proposal of the comprehensive Learning Object Repositories (LORs) quality evaluation tool suitable for their multiple criteria decision analysis, evaluation and optimisation. Both LORs "internal quality" and "quality in use" evaluation (decision making) criteria are analysed in the paper.…

Evaluating Quality of Students' Support Services in Open Distance Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nsamba, Asteria; Makoe, Mpine

2017-01-01

Evaluating the quality of students' support services in distance education institutions is vital because by nature Open Distance Learning (ODL) is a high-involvement service industry, with multiple student support service encounters. Most quality evaluation models tend to view quality from the institutional perspective. As a result, little is…

Evaluation of microarray data normalization procedures using spike-in experiments

PubMed Central

Rydén, Patrik; Andersson, Henrik; Landfors, Mattias; Näslund, Linda; Hartmanová, Blanka; Noppa, Laila; Sjöstedt, Anders

2006-01-01

Background Recently, a large number of methods for the analysis of microarray data have been proposed but there are few comparisons of their relative performances. By using so-called spike-in experiments, it is possible to characterize the analyzed data and thereby enable comparisons of different analysis methods. Results A spike-in experiment using eight in-house produced arrays was used to evaluate established and novel methods for filtration, background adjustment, scanning, channel adjustment, and censoring. The S-plus package EDMA, a stand-alone tool providing characterization of analyzed cDNA-microarray data obtained from spike-in experiments, was developed and used to evaluate 252 normalization methods. For all analyses, the sensitivities at low false positive rates were observed together with estimates of the overall bias and the standard deviation. In general, there was a trade-off between the ability of the analyses to identify differentially expressed genes (i.e. the analyses' sensitivities) and their ability to provide unbiased estimators of the desired ratios. Virtually all analysis underestimated the magnitude of the regulations; often less than 50% of the true regulations were observed. Moreover, the bias depended on the underlying mRNA-concentration; low concentration resulted in high bias. Many of the analyses had relatively low sensitivities, but analyses that used either the constrained model (i.e. a procedure that combines data from several scans) or partial filtration (a novel method for treating data from so-called not-found spots) had with few exceptions high sensitivities. These methods gave considerable higher sensitivities than some commonly used analysis methods. Conclusion The use of spike-in experiments is a powerful approach for evaluating microarray preprocessing procedures. Analyzed data are characterized by properties of the observed log-ratios and the analysis' ability to detect differentially expressed genes. If bias is not a

From quality markers to data mining and intelligence assessment: A smart quality-evaluation strategy for traditional Chinese medicine based on quality markers.

PubMed

Bai, Gang; Zhang, Tiejun; Hou, Yuanyuan; Ding, Guoyu; Jiang, Min; Luo, Guoan

2018-05-15

The quality of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) forms the foundation of its clinical efficacy. The standardization of TCM is the most important task of TCM modernization. In recent years, there has been great progress in the quality control of TCM. However, there are still many issues related to the current quality standards, and it is difficult to objectively evaluate and effectively control the quality of TCM. To face these challenge, we summarized the current quality marker (Q-marker) research based on its characteristics and benefits, and proposed a reasonable and intelligentized quality evaluation strategy for the development and application of Q-markers. Ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole/time-of-flight with partial least squares-discriminant analysis was suggested to screen the chemical markers from Chinese medicinal materials (CMM), and a bioactive-guided evaluation method was used to select the Q-markers. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), based on the distinctive wavenumber zones or points from the Q-markers, was developed for its determination. Then, artificial intelligence algorithms were used to clarify the complex relationship between the Q-markers and their integral functions. Internet and mobile communication technology helped us to perform remote analysis and determine the information feedback of test samples. The quality control research, evaluation, standard establishment and quality control of TCM must be based on the systematic analysis of Q-markers to study and describe the material basis of TCM efficacy, define the chemical markers in the plant body, and understand the process of herb drug acquisition, change and transmission laws affecting metabolism and exposure. Based on the advantages of chemometrics, new sensor technologies, including infrared spectroscopy, hyperspectral imaging, chemical imaging, electronic nose and electronic tongue, have become increasingly important in the quality evaluation of CMM. Inspired by the

Procedures to evaluate the efficiency of protective clothing worn by operators applying pesticide.

PubMed

Espanhol-Soares, Melina; Nociti, Leticia A S; Machado-Neto, Joaquim Gonçalves

2013-10-01

The evaluation of the efficiency of whole-body protective clothing against pesticides has already been carried out through field tests and procedures defined by international standards, but there is a need to determine the useful life of these garments to ensure worker safety. The aim of this article is to compare the procedures for evaluating efficiency of two whole-body protective garments, both new and previously used by applicators of herbicides, using a laboratory test with a mannequin and in the field with the operator. The evaluation of the efficiency of protective clothing used both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, leading to a proposal for classification according to efficiency, and determination of the useful life of protective clothing for use against pesticides, based on a quantitative assessment. The procedures used were in accordance with the standards of the modified American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) F 1359:2007 and International Organization for Standardization 17491-4. The protocol used in the field was World Health Organization Vector Biology and Control (VBC)/82.1. Clothing tested was personal water repellent and pesticide protective. Two varieties of fabric were tested: Beige (100% cotton) and Camouflaged (31% polyester and 69% cotton). The efficiency in exposure control of the personal protective clothing was measured before use and after 5, 10, 20, and 30 uses and washes under field conditions. Personal protective clothing was worn by workers in the field during the application of the herbicide glyphosate on weed species in mature sugar cane plantations using a knapsack sprayer. The modified ASTM 1359:2007 procedure was chosen as the most appropriate due to its greater repeatability (lower coefficient of variation). This procedure provides quantitative evaluation needed to determine the efficiency and useful life of individual protective clothing, not just at specific points of failure, but according to dermal

Quality Evaluation Scores are no more Reliable than Gestalt in Evaluating the Quality of Emergency Medicine Blogs: A METRIQ Study.

PubMed

Thoma, Brent; Sebok-Syer, Stefanie S; Colmers-Gray, Isabelle; Sherbino, Jonathan; Ankel, Felix; Trueger, N Seth; Grock, Andrew; Siemens, Marshall; Paddock, Michael; Purdy, Eve; Kenneth Milne, William; Chan, Teresa M

2018-01-30

Construct: We investigated the quality of emergency medicine (EM) blogs as educational resources. Online medical education resources such as blogs are increasingly used by EM trainees and clinicians. However, quality evaluations of these resources using gestalt are unreliable. We investigated the reliability of two previously derived quality evaluation instruments for blogs. Sixty English-language EM websites that published clinically oriented blog posts between January 1 and February 24, 2016, were identified. A random number generator selected 10 websites, and the 2 most recent clinically oriented blog posts from each site were evaluated using gestalt, the Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM) Approved Instructional Resources (AIR) score, and the Medical Education Translational Resources: Impact and Quality (METRIQ-8) score, by a sample of medical students, EM residents, and EM attendings. Each rater evaluated all 20 blog posts with gestalt and 15 of the 20 blog posts with the ALiEM AIR and METRIQ-8 scores. Pearson's correlations were calculated between the average scores for each metric. Single-measure intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) evaluated the reliability of each instrument. Our study included 121 medical students, 88 EM residents, and 100 EM attendings who completed ratings. The average gestalt rating of each blog post correlated strongly with the average scores for ALiEM AIR (r = .94) and METRIQ-8 (r = .91). Single-measure ICCs were fair for gestalt (0.37, IQR 0.25-0.56), ALiEM AIR (0.41, IQR 0.29-0.60) and METRIQ-8 (0.40, IQR 0.28-0.59). The average scores of each blog post correlated strongly with gestalt ratings. However, neither ALiEM AIR nor METRIQ-8 showed higher reliability than gestalt. Improved reliability may be possible through rater training and instrument refinement.

Quality Evaluation of Land-Cover Classification Using Convolutional Neural Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dang, Y.; Zhang, J.; Zhao, Y.; Luo, F.; Ma, W.; Yu, F.

2018-04-01

Land-cover classification is one of the most important products of earth observation, which focuses mainly on profiling the physical characters of the land surface with temporal and distribution attributes and contains the information of both natural and man-made coverage elements, such as vegetation, soil, glaciers, rivers, lakes, marsh wetlands and various man-made structures. In recent years, the amount of high-resolution remote sensing data has increased sharply. Accordingly, the volume of land-cover classification products increases, as well as the need to evaluate such frequently updated products that is a big challenge. Conventionally, the automatic quality evaluation of land-cover classification is made through pixel-based classifying algorithms, which lead to a much trickier task and consequently hard to keep peace with the required updating frequency. In this paper, we propose a novel quality evaluation approach for evaluating the land-cover classification by a scene classification method Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model. By learning from remote sensing data, those randomly generated kernels that serve as filter matrixes evolved to some operators that has similar functions to man-crafted operators, like Sobel operator or Canny operator, and there are other kernels learned by the CNN model that are much more complex and can't be understood as existing filters. The method using CNN approach as the core algorithm serves quality-evaluation tasks well since it calculates a bunch of outputs which directly represent the image's membership grade to certain classes. An automatic quality evaluation approach for the land-cover DLG-DOM coupling data (DLG for Digital Line Graphic, DOM for Digital Orthophoto Map) will be introduced in this paper. The CNN model as an robustness method for image evaluation, then brought out the idea of an automatic quality evaluation approach for land-cover classification. Based on this experiment, new ideas of quality evaluation

Evaluating the quality of perinatal anxiety information available online.

PubMed

Kirby, Paige L; Reynolds, Kristin A; Walker, John R; Furer, Patricia; Pryor, Teaghan A M

2018-06-22

The Internet is an easily accessible source of information for women experiencing anxiety in pregnancy and/or postpartum to use when seeking health information. However, the Internet has several drawbacks, including inaccurate content that may be perceived as being accurate, non-biased, and evidence-based. Prior research indicates that anxiety and postpartum mental health websites have poor quality in terms of describing treatment options. There is a lack of research and knowledge in the area of perinatal anxiety, and an absence of research evaluating perinatal anxiety websites. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of information regarding perinatal anxiety available on the Internet. Websites concerning perinatal anxiety were selected using the Google search engine. Each website was evaluated based on quality of health information, website usability, and readability. The 20 websites included in this study had low to moderate quality scores based on the DISCERN tool. There were no associations found between website order and website quality, or between website readability and website quality. Many websites had high PEMAT scores for the understandability section, which included content, style, and layout of information; however, most did not use visual aids to enhance comprehension. Most websites had low actionability scores, suggesting that information may not be useful in describing what actions may be taken to manage perinatal anxiety. This study highlights the need for high-quality websites concerning perinatal anxiety that are easy to navigate and provide the public with evidence-based information.

Water quality evaluation of Al-Gharraf river by two water quality indices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ewaid, Salam Hussein

2017-11-01

Water quality of Al-Gharraf river, the largest branch of Tigris River south of Iraq, was evaluated by the National Sanitation Foundation Water Quality Index (NFS WQI) and the Heavy Metal Pollution Index (HPI) depending on 13 physical, chemical, and biological parameters of water quality measured monthly at ten stations on the river during 2015. The NSF-WQI range obtained for the sampling sites was 61-70 indicating a medium water quality. The HPI value was 98.6 slightly below the critical value for drinking water of 100, and the water quality in the upstream stations is better than downstream due to decrease in water and the accumulation of contaminants along the river. This study explains the significance of applying the water quality indices that show the aggregate impact of ecological factors in charge of water pollution of surface water and which permits translation of the monitoring data to assist the decision makers.

Evaluation of standardized sample collection, packaging, and decontamination procedures to assess cross-contamination potential during Bacillus anthracis incident response operations

PubMed Central

Calfee, M. Worth; Tufts, Jenia; Meyer, Kathryn; McConkey, Katrina; Mickelsen, Leroy; Rose, Laura; Dowell, Chad; Delaney, Lisa; Weber, Angela; Morse, Stephen; Chaitram, Jasmine; Gray, Marshall

2016-01-01

Sample collection procedures and primary receptacle (sample container and bag) decontamination methods should prevent contaminant transfer between contaminated and non-contaminated surfaces and areas during bio-incident operations. Cross-contamination of personnel, equipment, or sample containers may result in the exfiltration of biological agent from the exclusion (hot) zone and have unintended negative consequences on response resources, activities and outcomes. The current study was designed to: (1) evaluate currently recommended sample collection and packaging procedures to identify procedural steps that may increase the likelihood of spore exfiltration or contaminant transfer; (2) evaluate the efficacy of currently recommended primary receptacle decontamination procedures; and (3) evaluate the efficacy of outer packaging decontamination methods. Wet- and dry-deposited fluorescent tracer powder was used in contaminant transfer tests to qualitatively evaluate the currently-recommended sample collection procedures. Bacillus atrophaeus spores, a surrogate for Bacillus anthracis, were used to evaluate the efficacy of spray- and wipe-based decontamination procedures. Both decontamination procedures were quantitatively evaluated on three types of sample packaging materials (corrugated fiberboard, polystyrene foam, and polyethylene plastic), and two contamination mechanisms (wet or dry inoculums). Contaminant transfer results suggested that size-appropriate gloves should be worn by personnel, templates should not be taped to or removed from surfaces, and primary receptacles should be selected carefully. The decontamination tests indicated that wipe-based decontamination procedures may be more effective than spray-based procedures; efficacy was not influenced by material type but was affected by the inoculation method. Incomplete surface decontamination was observed in all tests with dry inoculums. This study provides a foundation for optimizing current B. anthracis

Evaluation of standardized sample collection, packaging, and decontamination procedures to assess cross-contamination potential during Bacillus anthracis incident response operations.

PubMed

Calfee, M Worth; Tufts, Jenia; Meyer, Kathryn; McConkey, Katrina; Mickelsen, Leroy; Rose, Laura; Dowell, Chad; Delaney, Lisa; Weber, Angela; Morse, Stephen; Chaitram, Jasmine; Gray, Marshall

2016-12-01

Sample collection procedures and primary receptacle (sample container and bag) decontamination methods should prevent contaminant transfer between contaminated and non-contaminated surfaces and areas during bio-incident operations. Cross-contamination of personnel, equipment, or sample containers may result in the exfiltration of biological agent from the exclusion (hot) zone and have unintended negative consequences on response resources, activities and outcomes. The current study was designed to: (1) evaluate currently recommended sample collection and packaging procedures to identify procedural steps that may increase the likelihood of spore exfiltration or contaminant transfer; (2) evaluate the efficacy of currently recommended primary receptacle decontamination procedures; and (3) evaluate the efficacy of outer packaging decontamination methods. Wet- and dry-deposited fluorescent tracer powder was used in contaminant transfer tests to qualitatively evaluate the currently-recommended sample collection procedures. Bacillus atrophaeus spores, a surrogate for Bacillus anthracis, were used to evaluate the efficacy of spray- and wipe-based decontamination procedures. Both decontamination procedures were quantitatively evaluated on three types of sample packaging materials (corrugated fiberboard, polystyrene foam, and polyethylene plastic), and two contamination mechanisms (wet or dry inoculums). Contaminant transfer results suggested that size-appropriate gloves should be worn by personnel, templates should not be taped to or removed from surfaces, and primary receptacles should be selected carefully. The decontamination tests indicated that wipe-based decontamination procedures may be more effective than spray-based procedures; efficacy was not influenced by material type but was affected by the inoculation method. Incomplete surface decontamination was observed in all tests with dry inoculums. This study provides a foundation for optimizing current B. anthracis

Managing Air Quality - Ongoing Evaluation of Progress

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Describes the importance of evaluating if air quality programs are achieving the desired results to inform environmental program managers, regulated industry and the public, and provides EPA examples.

Systematic monitoring and evaluation of M7 scanner performance and data quality

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stewart, S.; Christenson, D.; Larsen, L.

1974-01-01

An investigation was conducted to provide the information required to maintain data quality of the Michigan M7 Multispectral scanner by systematic checks on specific system performance characteristics. Data processing techniques which use calibration data gathered routinely every mission have been developed to assess current data quality. Significant changes from past data quality are thus identified and attempts made to discover their causes. Procedures for systematic monitoring of scanner data quality are discussed. In the solar reflective region, calculations of Noise Equivalent Change in Radiance on a permission basis are compared to theoretical tape-recorder limits to provide an estimate of overall scanner performance. M7 signal/noise characteristics are examined.

Information Quality Evaluation of C2 Systems at Architecture Level

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-06-01

based on architecture models of C2 systems, which can help to identify key factors impacting information quality and improve the system capability at the stage of architecture design of C2 system....capability evaluation of C2 systems at architecture level becomes necessary and important for improving the system capability at the stage of architecture ... design . This paper proposes a method for information quality evaluation of C2 system at architecture level. First, the information quality model is

Habitat Evaluation Procedures (HEP) Report Wanaket Wildlife Area, Techical Report 2005-2006.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ashley, Paul

2006-02-01

The Regional HEP Team (RHT) and Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) Wildlife Program staff conducted a follow-up habitat evaluation procedures (HEP) analysis on the Wanaket Wildlife Management Area in June 2005. The 2005 HEP investigation generated 3,084.48 habitat units (HUs) for a net increase of 752.18 HUs above 1990/1995 baseline survey results. The HU to acre ratio also increased from 0.84:1.0 to 1.16:1.0. The largest increase in habitat units occurred in the shrubsteppe/grassland cover type (California quail and western meadowlark models), which increased from 1,544 HUs to 2,777 HUs (+43%), while agriculture cover type HUs were eliminatedmore » because agricultural lands (managed pasture) were converted to shrubsteppe/grassland. In addition to the agriculture cover type, major changes in habitat structure occurred in the shrubsteppe/grassland cover type due to the 2001 wildfire which removed the shrub component from well over 95% of its former range. The number of acres of all other cover types remained relatively stable; however, habitat quality improved in the riparian herb and riparian shrub cover types. The number and type of HEP species models used during the 2005 HEP analysis were identical to those used in the 1990/1995 baseline HEP surveys. The number of species models employed to evaluate the shrubsteppe/grassland, sand/gravel/mud/cobble, and riparian herb cover types, however, were fewer than reported in the McNary Dam Loss Assessment (Rassmussen and Wright 1989) for the same cover types.« less

Evaluation of Bias-Variance Trade-Off for Commonly Used Post-Summarizing Normalization Procedures in Large-Scale Gene Expression Studies

PubMed Central

Qiu, Xing; Hu, Rui; Wu, Zhixin

2014-01-01

Normalization procedures are widely used in high-throughput genomic data analyses to remove various technological noise and variations. They are known to have profound impact to the subsequent gene differential expression analysis. Although there has been some research in evaluating different normalization procedures, few attempts have been made to systematically evaluate the gene detection performances of normalization procedures from the bias-variance trade-off point of view, especially with strong gene differentiation effects and large sample size. In this paper, we conduct a thorough study to evaluate the effects of normalization procedures combined with several commonly used statistical tests and MTPs under different configurations of effect size and sample size. We conduct theoretical evaluation based on a random effect model, as well as simulation and biological data analyses to verify the results. Based on our findings, we provide some practical guidance for selecting a suitable normalization procedure under different scenarios. PMID:24941114

Integrating Program Theory and Systems-Based Procedures in Program Evaluation: A Dynamic Approach to Evaluate Educational Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grammatikopoulos, Vasilis

2012-01-01

The current study attempts to integrate parts of program theory and systems-based procedures in educational program evaluation. The educational program that was implemented, called the "Early Steps" project, proposed that physical education can contribute to various educational goals apart from the usual motor skills improvement. Basic…

40 CFR 136.7 - Quality assurance and quality control.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... quality control elements, where applicable, into the laboratory's documented standard operating procedure... quality control elements must be clearly documented in the written standard operating procedure for each... Methods contains QA/QC procedures in the Part 1000 section of the Standard Methods Compendium. The...

40 CFR 136.7 - Quality assurance and quality control.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... quality control elements, where applicable, into the laboratory's documented standard operating procedure... quality control elements must be clearly documented in the written standard operating procedure for each... Methods contains QA/QC procedures in the Part 1000 section of the Standard Methods Compendium. The...

40 CFR 136.7 - Quality assurance and quality control.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... quality control elements, where applicable, into the laboratory's documented standard operating procedure... quality control elements must be clearly documented in the written standard operating procedure for each... Methods contains QA/QC procedures in the Part 1000 section of the Standard Methods Compendium. The...

[Research on evolution and transition of quality evaluation of Shihu].

PubMed

Zhao, Yu-Jiao; Han, Bang-Xing; Peng, Hua-Sheng; Peng, Dai-Yin

2016-04-01

Shihu is one of the most valuable Chinese medicines in China. The sources of Shihu are complex and the quality evaluation of it mainly depends on morphologic characteristics distinction. In order to understand the Shihu's quality evaluation concept of Chinese herbalists in the past dynasties. This paper summarizes the methods of quality evaluation in ancient bencao systematically. The ancient bencao records that the quality of Shihu is closely related to its germplasm, habitat, processing and character. The concept of germplasm about shihu includes generalized and narrow sense, besides, the clinical applications of Dendrobium huoshanenese, D. officinale and D. nobile are focused on different diseases. D. huoshanenese has been regarded as Dao-di herbs since Qing Dynasty. The main products of Shihu contain fresh goods and dry goods, their clinical applications are also treated differently. Fengdou is one of the commodity specifications in Shihu. Its processing method probably dated from the Qing Dynasty, but now, it has become the mainstream commodityform. There was a common sense that different kinds of Shihu owed different characters and curative effects in ancient bencao, and the quality would enhance with the increasing viscidity. Therefore, the "Germplasm", "Geoherbs", "processing", "characters" were integrated into traditional quality evaluation methods of Shihu. Meanwhile, we should pay attention to the clinical efficacy of shihu with different species and processing methods. Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

Reflections on Post-Evaluation of Baccalaureate Programs: Revisiting Education Quality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jianrong, Sun

2009-01-01

This paper discusses the distinction between two types of educational quality: quality at the institutional level and quality at the student learning level. The key element for continuous institutional improvement after completion of the evaluation of institutional teaching should be on redefining quality in student learning and developing a…

Evaluating supplier quality performance using fuzzy analytical hierarchy process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahmad, Nazihah; Kasim, Maznah Mat; Rajoo, Shanmugam Sundram Kalimuthu

2014-12-01

Evaluating supplier quality performance is vital in ensuring continuous supply chain improvement, reducing the operational costs and risks towards meeting customer's expectation. This paper aims to illustrate an application of Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process to prioritize the evaluation criteria in a context of automotive manufacturing in Malaysia. Five main criteria were identified which were quality, cost, delivery, customer serviceand technology support. These criteria had been arranged into hierarchical structure and evaluated by an expert. The relative importance of each criteria was determined by using linguistic variables which were represented as triangular fuzzy numbers. The Center of Gravity defuzzification method was used to convert the fuzzy evaluations into their corresponding crisps values. Such fuzzy evaluation can be used as a systematic tool to overcome the uncertainty evaluation of suppliers' performance which usually associated with human being subjective judgments.

Four-dimensional evaluation of regional air quality models

EPA Science Inventory

We present highlights of the results obtained in the third phase of the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII3). Activities in AQMEII3 were focused on evaluating the performance of global, hemispheric and regional modeling systems over Europe and North Ame...

Evaluation Thesaurus. Third Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scriven, Michael

This is a thesaurus of terms used in evaluation. It is not restricted in scope to educational or program evaluation. It refers to product and personnel and proposal evaluation as well as to quality control and the grading of work samples. The text contains practical suggestions and procedures, comments and criticisms, as well as definitions and…

CMAQ Involvement in Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Description of Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII). Different chemical transport models are applied by different groups over North America and Europe and evaluated against observations.

Markov chain decision model for urinary incontinence procedures.

PubMed

Kumar, Sameer; Ghildayal, Nidhi; Ghildayal, Neha

2017-03-13

Purpose Urinary incontinence (UI) is a common chronic health condition, a problem specifically among elderly women that impacts quality of life negatively. However, UI is usually viewed as likely result of old age, and as such is generally not evaluated or even managed appropriately. Many treatments are available to manage incontinence, such as bladder training and numerous surgical procedures such as Burch colposuspension and Sling for UI which have high success rates. The purpose of this paper is to analyze which of these popular surgical procedures for UI is effective. Design/methodology/approach This research employs randomized, prospective studies to obtain robust cost and utility data used in the Markov chain decision model for examining which of these surgical interventions is more effective in treating women with stress UI based on two measures: number of quality adjusted life years (QALY) and cost per QALY. Treeage Pro Healthcare software was employed in Markov decision analysis. Findings Results showed the Sling procedure is a more effective surgical intervention than the Burch. However, if a utility greater than certain utility value, for which both procedures are equally effective, is assigned to persistent incontinence, the Burch procedure is more effective than the Sling procedure. Originality/value This paper demonstrates the efficacy of a Markov chain decision modeling approach to study the comparative effectiveness analysis of available treatments for patients with UI, an important public health issue, widely prevalent among elderly women in developed and developing countries. This research also improves upon other analyses using a Markov chain decision modeling process to analyze various strategies for treating UI.

[Research progress on identification and quality evaluation of glues medicines].

PubMed

Li, Hui-Hu; Ren, Gang; Chen, Li-Min; Zhong, Guo-Yue

2018-01-01

Glues medicines is a special kind of traditional Chinese medicine.As the market demand is large, the raw materials are in short supply and lacks proper quality evaluation technology, which causes inconsistent quality of products on the market. Its authentic identification and evaluation stay a problem to be solved. In this paper, the research progress of the methods and techniques of the evaluation of the identification and quality of glues medicines were reviewed. The researches of medicinal glue type identification and quality evaluation mainly concentrated in four aspects of medicinal materials of physical and chemical properties, trace elements, organic chemicals and biological genetic methods and techniques. The methods of physicochemical properties include thermal analysis, gel electrophoresis, isoelectric focusing electrophoresis, infrared spectroscopy, gel exclusion chromatography, and circular dichroism. The methods including atomic absorption spectrometry, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, plasma emission spectrometry and visible spectrophotometry were used for the study of the trace elements of glues medicines. The organic chemical composition was studied by methods of composition of amino acids, content detection, odor detection, lipid soluble component, organic acid detection. Methods based on the characteristics of biogenetics include DNA, polypeptide and amino acid sequence difference analysis. Overall, because of relative components similarity of the glues medicines (such as amino acids, proteins and peptides), its authenticity and quality evaluation index is difficult to judge objectively, all sorts of identification evaluation methods have different characteristics, but also their limitations. It indicates that further study should focus on identification of evaluation index and various technology integrated application combining with the characteristics of the production process. Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

Sodium pentothal hypnosis: a procedure for evaluating medical patients with suspected psychiatric co-morbidity.

PubMed

Russo, M B; Brooks, F R; Fontenot, J P; Dopler, B M; Neely, E T; Halliday, A W

1997-03-01

The cases presented here were patients referred for neurologic disability evaluations. They met the three selection criteria presented and underwent the four-phase pentothal hypnosis procedure described and at the conclusion were diagnosed as having psychiatric morbidity. We recommend that the sodium pentothal hypnosis procedure be considered for use whenever there is concern for psychiatric co-morbidity in a patient with presumed physiologic disease.

Predictive analysis of beer quality by correlating sensory evaluation with higher alcohol and ester production using multivariate statistics methods.

PubMed

Dong, Jian-Jun; Li, Qing-Liang; Yin, Hua; Zhong, Cheng; Hao, Jun-Guang; Yang, Pan-Fei; Tian, Yu-Hong; Jia, Shi-Ru

2014-10-15

Sensory evaluation is regarded as a necessary procedure to ensure a reproducible quality of beer. Meanwhile, high-throughput analytical methods provide a powerful tool to analyse various flavour compounds, such as higher alcohol and ester. In this study, the relationship between flavour compounds and sensory evaluation was established by non-linear models such as partial least squares (PLS), genetic algorithm back-propagation neural network (GA-BP), support vector machine (SVM). It was shown that SVM with a Radial Basis Function (RBF) had a better performance of prediction accuracy for both calibration set (94.3%) and validation set (96.2%) than other models. Relatively lower prediction abilities were observed for GA-BP (52.1%) and PLS (31.7%). In addition, the kernel function of SVM played an essential role of model training when the prediction accuracy of SVM with polynomial kernel function was 32.9%. As a powerful multivariate statistics method, SVM holds great potential to assess beer quality. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Quality management in a clinical research facility: Evaluation of changes in quality in-house figures and the appraisal of in-house quality indicators].

PubMed

Aden, Bile; Allekotte, Silke; Mösges, Ralph

2016-12-01

For long-term maintenance and improvement of quality within a clinical research institute, the implementation and certification of a quality management system is suitable. Due to the implemented quality management system according to the still valid DIN EN ISO 9001:2008 desired quality objectives are achieved effectively. The evaluation of quality scores and the appraisal of in-house quality indicators make an important contribution in this regard. In order to achieve this and draw quality assurance conclusions, quality indicators as sensible and sensitive as possible are developed. For this, own key objectives, the retrospective evaluation of quality scores, a prospective follow-up and also discussions establish the basis. In the in-house clinical research institute the measures introduced by the quality management led to higher efficiency in work processes, improved staff skills, higher customer satisfaction and overall to more successful outcomes in relation to the self-defined key objectives. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier GmbH.

40 CFR Appendix K to Part 75 - Quality Assurance and Operating Procedures for Sorbent Trap Monitoring Systems

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... until the leak check is passed. Post-test leak check ≤4% of average sampling rate After sampling ** See... the test site. The sorbent media must be obtained from a source that can demonstrate the quality...-traceable calibration gas standards and reagents shall be used for the tests and procedures required under...

The Usability of SEEQ in Quality Evaluation of Arabic Secondary Education in Malaysia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

al-Muslim, M.; Arifin, Zamri

2015-01-01

Evaluation of the quality of Arabic education in Malaysia needs to be conducted on a continuous basis to achieve the objectives of Arabic education. Student Evaluation of Education Quality (SEEQ) was proposed as one of the evaluation instruments of the quality of Arabic education. This study aimed to evaluate the usability of SEEQ in the context…

Quality Assessment of Economic Evaluations of Suicide and Self-Harm Interventions.

PubMed

Bustamante Madsen, Lizell; Eddleston, Michael; Schultz Hansen, Kristian; Konradsen, Flemming

2018-03-01

Death following self-harm constitutes a major global public health challenge and there is an urgent need for governments to implement cost-effective, national suicide prevention strategies. To conduct a systematic review and quality appraisal of the economic evaluations of interventions aimed at preventing suicidal behavior. A systematic literature search was performed in several literature databases to identify relevant articles published from 2003 to 2016. Drummond's 10-item appraisal tool was used to assess the methodological quality of the included studies. In total, 25 documents encompassing 30 economic evaluations were included in the review. Of the identified evaluations, 10 studies were found to be of poor quality, 14 were of average quality, and six studies were considered of good quality. The majority of evaluations found the interventions to be cost-effective. Several limitations were identified and discussed in the article. A notable few economic evaluations were identified. The studies were diverse, primarily set in high-income countries, and often based on modeling, emphasizing the need for more primary research into the topic. The discussion of suicide and self-harm prevention should be as nuanced as possible, including health economics along with cultural, social, and political aspects.

Projection pursuit water quality evaluation model based on chicken swam algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Zhe

2018-03-01

In view of the uncertainty and ambiguity of each index in water quality evaluation, in order to solve the incompatibility of evaluation results of individual water quality indexes, a projection pursuit model based on chicken swam algorithm is proposed. The projection index function which can reflect the water quality condition is constructed, the chicken group algorithm (CSA) is introduced, the projection index function is optimized, the best projection direction of the projection index function is sought, and the best projection value is obtained to realize the water quality evaluation. The comparison between this method and other methods shows that it is reasonable and feasible to provide decision-making basis for water pollution control in the basin.

Water Quality Evaluation of the Yellow River Basin Based on Gray Clustering Method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fu, X. Q.; Zou, Z. H.

2018-03-01

Evaluating the water quality of 12 monitoring sections in the Yellow River Basin comprehensively by grey clustering method based on the water quality monitoring data from the Ministry of environmental protection of China in May 2016 and the environmental quality standard of surface water. The results can reflect the water quality of the Yellow River Basin objectively. Furthermore, the evaluation results are basically the same when compared with the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method. The results also show that the overall water quality of the Yellow River Basin is good and coincident with the actual situation of the Yellow River basin. Overall, gray clustering method for water quality evaluation is reasonable and feasible and it is also convenient to calculate.

A Tentative Study on the Evaluation of Community Health Service Quality*

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, Zhi-qiang; Zhu, Yong-yue

Community health service is the key point of health reform in China. Based on pertinent studies, this paper constructed an indicator system for the community health service quality evaluation from such five perspectives as visible image, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and sympathy, according to service quality evaluation scale designed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry. A multilevel fuzzy synthetical evaluation model was constructed to evaluate community health service by fuzzy mathematics theory. The applicability and maneuverability of the evaluation indicator system and evaluation model were verified by empirical analysis.

Multistate Evaluation of an Ultrafiltration-Based Procedure for Simultaneous Recovery of Enteric Microbes in 100-Liter Tap Water Samples▿

PubMed Central

Hill, Vincent R.; Kahler, Amy M.; Jothikumar, Narayanan; Johnson, Trisha B.; Hahn, Donghyun; Cromeans, Theresa L.

2007-01-01

Ultrafiltration (UF) is increasingly being recognized as a potentially effective procedure for concentrating and recovering microbes from large volumes of water and treated wastewater. Because of their very small pore sizes, UF membranes are capable of simultaneously concentrating viruses, bacteria, and parasites based on size exclusion. In this study, a UF-based water sampling procedure was used to simultaneously recover representatives of these three microbial classes seeded into 100-liter samples of tap water collected from eight cities covering six hydrologic areas of the United States. The UF-based procedure included hollow-fiber UF as the primary step for concentrating microbes and then used membrane filtration for bacterial culture assays, immunomagnetic separation for parasite recovery and quantification, and centrifugal UF for secondary concentration of viruses. Water samples were tested for nine water quality parameters to investigate whether water quality data correlated with measured recovery efficiencies and molecular detection levels. Average total method recovery efficiencies were 71, 97, 120, 110, and 91% for φX174 bacteriophage, MS2 bacteriophage, Enterococcus faecalis, Clostridium perfringens spores, and Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts, respectively. Real-time PCR and reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) for seeded microbes and controls indicated that tap water quality could affect the analytical performance of molecular amplification assays, although no specific water quality parameter was found to correlate with reduced PCR or RT-PCR performance. PMID:17483281

[Grades evaluation of Scutellariae Radix slices based on quality constant].

PubMed

Deng, Zhe; Zhang, Jun; Jiao, Meng-Jiao; Zhong, Wen; Cui, Wen-Jin; Cheng, Jin-Tang; Chen, Sha; Wang, Yue-Sheng; Liu, An

2017-05-01

By measuring the morphological indexes and the marker components content of 22 batches of Scutellariae Radix slices as well as calculating the quality constant, this research was aimed to establish a new method of evaluating the specifications and grades of Scutellariae Radix slices. The quality constants of these samples were in the range of 0.04-0.49, which can be divided into several grades based on the real requirement. If they were divided into three grades, the quality constant was ≥0.39 for the first grade, <0.39 but ≥0.24 for the second grade, and <0.24 for the third grade. This work indicated that the quality constants characterizing both apparent parameters and intrinsic quality can be used as a comprehensive evaluation index to classify the grades of traditional Chinese medicine quantitatively, clearly and objectively. The research results in this paper would provide new ideas and references for evaluating the specifications and grades of traditional Chinese medicines. Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

21 CFR 26.41 - Exchange and endorsement of quality system evaluation reports.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Exchange and endorsement of quality system... DEVICE QUALITY SYSTEM AUDIT REPORTS, AND CERTAIN MEDICAL DEVICE PRODUCT EVALUATION REPORTS: UNITED STATES... endorsement of quality system evaluation reports. (a) Listed European Community (EC) conformity assessment...

21 CFR 26.41 - Exchange and endorsement of quality system evaluation reports.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Exchange and endorsement of quality system... DEVICE QUALITY SYSTEM AUDIT REPORTS, AND CERTAIN MEDICAL DEVICE PRODUCT EVALUATION REPORTS: UNITED STATES... endorsement of quality system evaluation reports. (a) Listed European Community (EC) conformity assessment...

21 CFR 26.41 - Exchange and endorsement of quality system evaluation reports.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Exchange and endorsement of quality system... DEVICE QUALITY SYSTEM AUDIT REPORTS, AND CERTAIN MEDICAL DEVICE PRODUCT EVALUATION REPORTS: UNITED STATES... endorsement of quality system evaluation reports. (a) Listed European Community (EC) conformity assessment...

21 CFR 26.41 - Exchange and endorsement of quality system evaluation reports.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Exchange and endorsement of quality system... DEVICE QUALITY SYSTEM AUDIT REPORTS, AND CERTAIN MEDICAL DEVICE PRODUCT EVALUATION REPORTS: UNITED STATES... endorsement of quality system evaluation reports. (a) Listed European Community (EC) conformity assessment...

[A quality evaluation tableau for health institutions: an educational tool].

PubMed

Moll, Marie Christine; Decavel, Frédérique; Merlet, Christine

2009-09-01

For a few years, health institutions have had to comply with the certification and the need to establish the new governance. Thanks to the accreditation version 2 (obtained in 2005), the elaboration of the hospital project (adopted in October, 2006) and the organization in poles since 2006, the quality oriented management became a priority axis at the University Hospital of Angers. The strategic adaptation to quality requirements leads to develop the hospital management, more especially at the level of the clinical, medico technical and administrative poles. The elements of the hospital project including the part about the quality, risk and evaluation aim at being adapted by every pole according to the level of its project. This adaptation which is imposed to each pole manager requires a practical and educational accompaniment allowing at the same time to realize a diagnosis of the progress of the quality approach, a measure of the impact of the global impregnation within the institution and a comparison between pole. A eight axis dashboard with criteria and a user guide were developed from certification ISO 9001, the EFQM manual and the certification manual version 2 of the Healthcare High Authorities. The criteria are transcribed in an EXCEL grid ready to use. Succeeding in estimating your own quality system means that you demonstrate the maturity of the quality approach. The results of this evaluation confirmed those of the certification. The dashboard is a management structuring tool at the service of the multidisciplinary team. Two considerations emerge from these results: First of all, for the hospital top management, the axes to be improved emerge as a priority to determine and target the next annual action plans. The results also allow to support the auto evaluation for the certification version 2010 planned in January of the same year. It is a pragmatic tool which allows auto evaluation and comparison to estimate the pole performances. It is a strategic

Evaluation of non-destructive technologies for construction quality control of HMA and PCC pavements in Louisiana.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2013-11-01

Current roadway quality control and quality acceptance (QC/QA) procedures for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and : Development (LADOTD) include coring for thickness, density, and air voids in hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavements and thickness ...

40 CFR 1517.5 - Procedure for closing meetings.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 32 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Procedure for closing meetings. 1517.5 Section 1517.5 Protection of Environment COUNCIL ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY PUBLIC MEETING PROCEDURES OF THE COUNCIL ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY § 1517.5 Procedure for closing meetings. (a) A majority of the entire...

[Evaluating quality and effectiveness in the promotion of health: approaches and methods of public health and social sciences].

PubMed

Deccache, A

1997-06-01

which necessitate the use of varied and specific instruments for action and evaluation. With the choice of health promotion ideology, there exist corresponding theories, concepts of quality, and therefore methods and techniques that differ from those used until now. The educational sciences have led to a widening of the definition of process to include both "throughput and input", which has meant that the methods of needs analysis, objective and priority setting and project development in health promotion have become objects of quality assessment. Also, the modes of action and interaction among actors are included, which has led to evaluation of ethical and ideological aspects of projects. The second section of the article discusses quality assessment versus evaluation of effectiveness. Different paradigms of evaluation such as the public health approach based on the measurement of (epidemiological) effectiveness, social marketing and communication, and the anthropological approach are briefly discussed, pointing out that there are many approaches which can both complement and contradict one another. The author explains the difference between impact (the intermediate effects, direct or indirect, planned or not planned, changes in practical or theoretical knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes) and results (final effects of mid to long term changes such as changes in morbidity, mortality, or access to services or cost of health care). He argues that by being too concerned with results of programmes, we have often ignored the issue of impact. Also, by limiting ourselves to evaluating effectiveness (i.e. that the expected effects were obtained), we ignore other possible unexpected, unplanned and positive and negative secondary effects. There are therefore many reasons to: -evaluate all possible effects rather than only those lined to objectives; -evaluate the entire process rather than only the resources, procedures and costs; -evaluate the impact rather than results

Raising the quality of rheumatology management recommendations: lessons from the EULAR process 10 years after provision of standard operating procedures.

PubMed

Colebatch-Bourn, Alexandra N; Conaghan, Philip G; Arden, Nigel K; Cooper, Cyrus; Dougados, Maxime; Edwards, Christopher J

2015-08-01

To increase understanding of how to raise the quality of rheumatology guidelines by reviewing European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) management recommendations, using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument, 10 years after publication of the EULAR standardized operating procedures (SOP) for the production of recommendations. It was hoped that this work could help inform improvements in guideline development by other societies and organizations. The SOP were published in 2004 to ensure the quality of EULAR-endorsed recommendations. We reviewed 27 published EULAR recommendations for management using the AGREE II tool. This provides a framework to assess the quality of guidelines across six broad domains using 23 specific questions. Overall the EULAR recommendations reviewed have been performed to a high standard. There are particular strengths in the methodology and presentation of the guidelines; however, the results indicate areas for development in future recommendations: in particular, stakeholder involvement and applicability of the recommendations. Improvements in quality were evident in recent years, with patient representation in 9 of 15 (60.0%) recommendations published 2010-14 compared with 4 of 12 (33.3%) published 2000-09. In the last 10 years the overall quality of recommendations was good, with standards improving over the decade following publication of the SOP. However, this review process has identified potential areas for improvement, especially in patient representation and provision of implementation tools. The lessons from this work can be applied to the development of rheumatology guidelines by other societies and organizations. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Procedure 5 Quality Assurance Requirements For Vapor Phase Mercury Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems And Sorbent Trap Monitoring Systems Used For Compliance Determination At Stationary Sources

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Promulgated quality assurance Procedure 5 Quality Assurance Requirements For Vapor Phase Mercury Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems And Sorbent Trap Monitoring Systems Used For Compliance Determination At Stationary Sources

An NCME Instructional Module on Quality Control Procedures in the Scoring, Equating, and Reporting of Test Scores

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allalouf, Avi

2007-01-01

There is significant potential for error in long production processes that consist of sequential stages, each of which is heavily dependent on the previous stage, such as the SER (Scoring, Equating, and Reporting) process. Quality control procedures are required in order to monitor this process and to reduce the number of mistakes to a minimum. In…

An evaluation of procedures to estimate monthly precipitation probabilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Legates, David R.

1991-01-01

Many frequency distributions have been used to evaluate monthly precipitation probabilities. Eight of these distributions (including Pearson type III, extreme value, and transform normal probability density functions) are comparatively examined to determine their ability to represent accurately variations in monthly precipitation totals for global hydroclimatological analyses. Results indicate that a modified version of the Box-Cox transform-normal distribution more adequately describes the 'true' precipitation distribution than does any of the other methods. This assessment was made using a cross-validation procedure for a global network of 253 stations for which at least 100 years of monthly precipitation totals were available.

A quality assurance framework for the fully automated and objective evaluation of image quality in cone-beam computed tomography.

PubMed

Steiding, Christian; Kolditz, Daniel; Kalender, Willi A

2014-03-01

Thousands of cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scanners for vascular, maxillofacial, neurological, and body imaging are in clinical use today, but there is no consensus on uniform acceptance and constancy testing for image quality (IQ) and dose yet. The authors developed a quality assurance (QA) framework for fully automated and time-efficient performance evaluation of these systems. In addition, the dependence of objective Fourier-based IQ metrics on direction and position in 3D volumes was investigated for CBCT. The authors designed a dedicated QA phantom 10 cm in length consisting of five compartments, each with a diameter of 10 cm, and an optional extension ring 16 cm in diameter. A homogeneous section of water-equivalent material allows measuring CT value accuracy, image noise and uniformity, and multidimensional global and local noise power spectra (NPS). For the quantitative determination of 3D high-contrast spatial resolution, the modulation transfer function (MTF) of centrally and peripherally positioned aluminum spheres was computed from edge profiles. Additional in-plane and axial resolution patterns were used to assess resolution qualitatively. The characterization of low-contrast detectability as well as CT value linearity and artifact behavior was tested by utilizing sections with soft-tissue-equivalent and metallic inserts. For an automated QA procedure, a phantom detection algorithm was implemented. All tests used in the dedicated QA program were initially verified in simulation studies and experimentally confirmed on a clinical dental CBCT system. The automated IQ evaluation of volume data sets of the dental CBCT system was achieved with the proposed phantom requiring only one scan for the determination of all desired parameters. Typically, less than 5 min were needed for phantom set-up, scanning, and data analysis. Quantitative evaluation of system performance over time by comparison to previous examinations was also verified. The maximum

Tools, harmonization and standardization procedures of the impact and outcome evaluation indices obtained during a kindergarten-based, family-involved intervention to prevent obesity in early childhood: the ToyBox-study.

PubMed

Mouratidou, T; Miguel, M L; Androutsos, O; Manios, Y; De Bourdeaudhuij, I; Cardon, G; Kulaga, Z; Socha, P; Galcheva, S; Iotova, V; Payr, A; Koletzko, B; Moreno, L A

2014-08-01

The ToyBox-intervention is a kindergarten-based, family-involved intervention targeting multiple lifestyle behaviours in preschool children, their teachers and their families. This intervention was conducted in six European countries, namely Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Poland and Spain. The aim of this paper is to provide a descriptive overview of the harmonization and standardization procedures of the baseline and follow-up evaluation of the study (and substudies). Steps related to the study's operational, standardization and harmonization procedures as well as the impact and outcome evaluation assessment tools used are presented. Experiences from the project highlight the importance of safeguarding the measurement process to minimize data heterogeneity derived from potential measurement error and country-by-country differences. In addition, it was made clear that continuing quality control and support is an important component of such studies. For this reason, well-supported communication channels, such as regular email updates and teleconferences, and regular internal and external meetings to ensure smooth and accurate implementation were in place during the study. The ToyBox-intervention and its harmonized and standardized procedures can serve as a successful case study for future studies evaluating the efficacy of similar interventions. © 2014 World Obesity.

Quality Evaluation of Raw Moutan Cortex Using the AHP and Gray Correlation-TOPSIS Method

PubMed Central

Zhou, Sujuan; Liu, Bo; Meng, Jiang

2017-01-01

Background: Raw Moutan cortex (RMC) is an important Chinese herbal medicine. Comprehensive and objective quality evaluation of Chinese herbal medicine has been one of the most important issues in the modern herbs development. Objective: To evaluate and compare the quality of RMC using the weighted gray correlation- Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method. Materials and Methods: The percentage composition of gallic acid, catechin, oxypaeoniflorin, paeoniflorin, quercetin, benzoylpaeoniflorin, paeonol in different batches of RMC was determined, and then adopting MATLAB programming to construct the gray correlation-TOPSIS assessment model for quality evaluation of RMC. Results: The quality evaluation results of model evaluation and objective evaluation were consistent, reliable, and stable. Conclusion: The model of gray correlation-TOPSIS can be well applied to the quality evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine with multiple components and has broad prospect in application. SUMMARY The experiment tries to construct a model to evaluate the quality of RMC using the weighted gray correlation- Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method. Results show the model is reliable and provide a feasible way in evaluating quality of traditional Chinese medicine with multiple components. PMID:28839384

Evaluating Quality of "Medical Tourism" For Heart Surgery: Measures That Matter.

PubMed

Schlosser, Michael; Lee, Felix

2017-02-01

There are some success stories. Lowe's pioneering flat-rate deal with the Cleveland Clinic for heart surgery has shown both cost savings and quality improvement. Other large employers, notably Walmart and PepsiCo, have followed suit, signing contracts with self-described, single-hospital "centers of excellence" for a handful of elective procedures.

A prospective evaluation of the ligation of the intersphincteric tract procedure for complex anal fistula in patients with Crohn's disease.

PubMed

Gingold, Daniel S; Murrell, Zuri A; Fleshner, Phillip R

2014-12-01

To evaluate 2- and 12-month outcomes after ligation of the intersphincteric fistula tract (LIFT) in Crohn's disease (CD). Surgical approaches to perianal fistulas in CD are frequently ineffective and hampered by concerns over adequate wound healing and sphincter injury. The efficacy of LIFT in CD patients is unknown. Consecutive cases of CD patients with transsphincteric fistulas were prospectively analyzed. Fistula healing and 2 validated quality-of-life indices were assessed. Fifteen CD patients (9 women; mean age = 34.8 years) were identified. Location of the fistula was lateral (n = 10; 67%) or midline (n = 5; 33%). LIFT site healing was seen in 9 patients (60%) at 2-month follow-up. No patient developed fecal incontinence. LIFT site healing was seen in 8 of the 12 patients (67%) with complete 12-month follow-up. Significant factors for long-term LIFT site healing were lateral versus midline location (P = 0.02) and longer mean fistula length (P = 0.02). Patients who had successful operations significantly improved both their mean Wexner Perianal Crohn's Disease Activity Index and McMaster Perianal Crohn's Disease Activity Index quality-of-life scores at 2-month follow-up (14.0-3.8, P = 0.001, and 10.4-1.8, P = 0.0001, respectively). CD-associated anal fistulas may be treated with LIFT. This surgical procedure is a safe, outpatient procedure that minimizes both perianal wound creation and sphincter injury.