Sample records for quality standards general

  1. 42 CFR 493.1239 - Standard: General laboratory systems quality assessment.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... of general laboratory systems quality assessment reviews with appropriate staff. (c) The laboratory must document all general laboratory systems quality assessment activities. [68 FR 3703, Jan. 24, 2003... 42 Public Health 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Standard: General laboratory systems quality...

  2. 42 CFR 493.1239 - Standard: General laboratory systems quality assessment.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Standard: General laboratory systems quality... for Nonwaived Testing General Laboratory Systems § 493.1239 Standard: General laboratory systems... laboratory systems requirements specified at §§ 493.1231 through 493.1236. (b) The general laboratory systems...

  3. National standard setting for quality of care in general practice: attitudes of general practitioners and response to a set of standards.

    PubMed Central

    Grol, R

    1990-01-01

    The Nederlands Huisartsen Genootschap (NHG), the college of general practitioners in the Netherlands, has begun a national programme of standard setting for the quality of care in general practice. When the standards have been drawn up and assessed they are disseminated via the journal Huisarts en Wetenschap. In a survey, carried out among a randomized sample of 10% of all general practitioners, attitudes towards national standard setting in general and to the first set of standards (diabetes care) were studied. The response was 70% (453 doctors). A majority of the respondents said they were well informed about the national standard setting initiatives instigated by the NHG (71%) and about the content of the first standards (77%). The general practitioners had a positive attitude towards the setting of national standards for quality of care, and this was particularly true for doctors who were members of the NHG. Although a large majority of doctors said they agreed with most of the guidelines in the diabetes standards fewer respondents were actually working to the guidelines and some of the standards are certain to meet with a lot of resistance. A better knowledge of the standards and a more positive attitude to the process of national standard setting correlated with a more positive attitude to the guidelines formulated in the diabetes standards. The results could serve as a starting point for an exchange of views about standard setting in general practice in other countries. PMID:2265001

  4. A process for developing standards to promote quality in general practice.

    PubMed

    Khoury, Julie; Krejany, Catherine J; Versteeg, Roald W; Lodewyckx, Michaela A; Pike, Simone R; Civil, Michael S; Jiwa, Moyez

    2018-06-02

    Since 1991, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners' (RACGP) Standards for General Practices (the Standards) have provided a framework for quality care, risk management and best practice in the operation of Australian general practices. The Standards are also linked to incentives for general practice remuneration. These Standards were revised in 2017. The objective of this study is to describe the process undertaken to develop the fifth edition Standards published in 2017 to inform future standards development both nationally and internationally. A modified Delphi process was deployed to develop the fifth edition Standards. Development was directed by the RACGP and led by an expert panel of GPs and representatives of stakeholder groups who were assisted and facilitated by a team from RACGP. Each draft was released for stakeholder feedback and tested twice before the final version was submitted for approval by the RACGP board. Four rounds of consultation and two rounds of piloting were carried out over 32 months. The Standards were redrafted after each round. One hundred and fifty-two individuals and 225 stakeholder groups participated in the development of the Standards. Twenty-three new indicators were recommended and grouped into three sections in a new modular structure that was different from the previous edition. The Standards represent the consensus view of national stakeholders on the indicators of quality and safety in Australian general practice and primary care.

  5. 7 CFR 29.6017 - General quality.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false General quality. 29.6017 Section 29.6017 Agriculture... INSPECTION Standards Definitions § 29.6017 General quality. The quality of tobacco considered in relation to the type as a whole. General quality is distinguished from the restricted use of the term “quality...

  6. The uses and implications of standards in general practice consultations.

    PubMed

    Lippert, Maria Laura; Reventlow, Susanne; Kousgaard, Marius Brostrøm

    2017-01-01

    Quality standards play an increasingly important role in primary care through their inscription in various technologies for improving professional practice. While 'hard' biomedical standards have been the most common and debated, current quality development initiatives increasingly seek to include standards for the 'softer' aspects of care. This article explores the consequences of both kinds of quality standards for chronic care consultations. The article presents findings from an explorative qualitative field study in Danish general practice where a standardized technology for quality development has been introduced. Data from semi-structured interviews and observations among 17 general practitioners were analysed using an iterative analytical approach, which served to identify important variations in the uses and impacts of the technology. The most pronounced impact of the technology was observed among general practitioners who strictly adhered to the procedural standards on the interactional aspects of care. Thus, when allowed to function as an overall frame for consultations, those standards supported adherence to general recommendations regarding which elements to be included in chronic disease consultations. However, at the same time, adherence to those standards was observed to narrow the focus of doctor-patient dialogues and to divert general practitioners' attention from patients' personal concerns. Similar consequences of quality standards have previously been framed as manifestations of an inherent conflict between principles of patient-centredness and formal biomedical quality standards. However, this study suggests that standards on the 'softer' aspects of care may just as well interfere with a clinical approach relying on situated and attentive interactions with patients.

  7. 40 CFR 131.6 - Minimum requirements for water quality standards submission.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 21 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Minimum requirements for water quality standards submission. 131.6 Section 131.6 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS WATER QUALITY STANDARDS General Provisions § 131.6 Minimum requirements for water quality standards submission. The...

  8. 40 CFR 131.6 - Minimum requirements for water quality standards submission.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Minimum requirements for water quality standards submission. 131.6 Section 131.6 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS WATER QUALITY STANDARDS General Provisions § 131.6 Minimum requirements for water quality standards submission. The...

  9. International Metadata Standards and Enterprise Data Quality Metadata Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Habermann, Ted

    2016-01-01

    Well-documented data quality is critical in situations where scientists and decision-makers need to combine multiple datasets from different disciplines and collection systems to address scientific questions or difficult decisions. Standardized data quality metadata could be very helpful in these situations. Many efforts at developing data quality standards falter because of the diversity of approaches to measuring and reporting data quality. The one size fits all paradigm does not generally work well in this situation. I will describe these and other capabilities of ISO 19157 with examples of how they are being used to describe data quality across the NASA EOS Enterprise and also compare these approaches with other standards.

  10. Report: Examination of Pilot Peer Review Process for Inspectors General That Follow “Blue Book” Quality Standards for Inspection and Evaluation

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Report #16-N-0317, Sept 21, 2016. A peer review process that measures adherence to all the quality standards for federal Inspector General Inspection and Evaluation offices provides assurance that participating offices are being adequately evaluated.

  11. Colorado Air Quality Control Regulations and Ambient Air Quality Standards.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Colorado State Dept. of Health, Denver. Div. of Air Pollution Control.

    Regulations and standards relative to air quality control in Colorado are defined in this publication. Presented first are definitions of terms, a statement of intent, and general provisions applicable to all emission control regulations adopted by the Colorado Air Pollution Control Commission. Following this, three regulations are enumerated: (1)…

  12. Standardization and quality management in next-generation sequencing.

    PubMed

    Endrullat, Christoph; Glökler, Jörn; Franke, Philipp; Frohme, Marcus

    2016-09-01

    DNA sequencing continues to evolve quickly even after > 30 years. Many new platforms suddenly appeared and former established systems have vanished in almost the same manner. Since establishment of next-generation sequencing devices, this progress gains momentum due to the continually growing demand for higher throughput, lower costs and better quality of data. In consequence of this rapid development, standardized procedures and data formats as well as comprehensive quality management considerations are still scarce. Here, we listed and summarized current standardization efforts and quality management initiatives from companies, organizations and societies in form of published studies and ongoing projects. These comprise on the one hand quality documentation issues like technical notes, accreditation checklists and guidelines for validation of sequencing workflows. On the other hand, general standard proposals and quality metrics are developed and applied to the sequencing workflow steps with the main focus on upstream processes. Finally, certain standard developments for downstream pipeline data handling, processing and storage are discussed in brief. These standardization approaches represent a first basis for continuing work in order to prospectively implement next-generation sequencing in important areas such as clinical diagnostics, where reliable results and fast processing is crucial. Additionally, these efforts will exert a decisive influence on traceability and reproducibility of sequence data.

  13. Proposed Standards for Medical Education Submissions to the Journal of General Internal Medicine

    PubMed Central

    Bowen, Judith L.; Gerrity, Martha S.; Kalet, Adina L.; Kogan, Jennifer R.; Spickard, Anderson; Wayne, Diane B.

    2008-01-01

    To help authors design rigorous studies and prepare clear and informative manuscripts, improve the transparency of editorial decisions, and raise the bar on educational scholarship, the Deputy Editors of the Journal of General Internal Medicine articulate standards for medical education submissions to the Journal. General standards include: (1) quality questions, (2) quality methods to match the questions, (3) insightful interpretation of findings, (4) transparent, unbiased reporting, and (5) attention to human subjects’ protection and ethical research conduct. Additional standards for specific study types are described. We hope these proposed standards will generate discussion that will foster their continued evolution. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11606-008-0676-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. PMID:18612716

  14. Water Quality Standards Handbook

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The Water Quality Standards Handbook is a compilation of the EPA's water quality standards (WQS) program guidance including recommendations for states, authorized tribes, and territories in reviewing, revising, and implementing WQS.

  15. International Metadata Standards and Enterprise Data Quality Metadata Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Habermann, T.

    2016-12-01

    Well-documented data quality is critical in situations where scientists and decision-makers need to combine multiple datasets from different disciplines and collection systems to address scientific questions or difficult decisions. Standardized data quality metadata could be very helpful in these situations. Many efforts at developing data quality standards falter because of the diversity of approaches to measuring and reporting data quality. The "one size fits all" paradigm does not generally work well in this situation. The ISO data quality standard (ISO 19157) takes a different approach with the goal of systematically describing how data quality is measured rather than how it should be measured. It introduces the idea of standard data quality measures that can be well documented in a measure repository and used for consistently describing how data quality is measured across an enterprise. The standard includes recommendations for properties of these measures that include unique identifiers, references, illustrations and examples. Metadata records can reference these measures using the unique identifier and reuse them along with details (and references) that describe how the measure was applied to a particular dataset. A second important feature of ISO 19157 is the inclusion of citations to existing papers or reports that describe quality of a dataset. This capability allows users to find this information in a single location, i.e. the dataset metadata, rather than searching the web or other catalogs. I will describe these and other capabilities of ISO 19157 with examples of how they are being used to describe data quality across the NASA EOS Enterprise and also compare these approaches with other standards.

  16. Air Quality Modeling | Air Quality Planning & Standards | US ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    2016-06-08

    The basic mission of the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards is to preserve and improve the quality of our nation's air. One facet of accomplishing this goal requires that new and existing air pollution sources be modeled for compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).

  17. [CAS General Standards 2012

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education, 2011

    2011-01-01

    The mission of the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) is to promote the improvement of programs and services to enhance the quality of student learning and development. CAS is a consortium of professional associations who work collaboratively to develop and promulgate standards and guidelines and to encourage…

  18. Lessons Learned on Quality (of) Standards

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gerlich, Rainer; Gerlich, Ralf

    2011-08-01

    Standards are used to describe and ensure the quality of products, services and processes throughout almost all branches of industry, including the field of software engineering. Contractors and suppliers are obligated by their customers and certification authorities to follow a certain set of standards during development. For example, a customer can easier actively participate in and control the contractor's process when enforcing a standard process..However, as with any requirement, a standard may also impede the contractor or supplier in assuring actual quality of the product in the sense of fitness for the purpose intended by the customer.This is the case when a standard defines specific quality assurance activities requiring a considerable amount of effort while other more efficient but equivalent or even superior approaches are blocked. Then improvement of the ratio between cost and quality exceeding miniscule advances is heavily impeded.While in some parts being too specific in defining the mechanisms of the enforced process, standards are sometimes too weak in defining the principles or goals on control of product quality.Therefore this paper addresses the following issues: (1) Which conclusions can be drawn on the quality and efficiency of a standard? (2) If and how is it possible to improve or evolve a standard? (3) How well does a standard guide a user towards high quality of the end product?One conclusion is that the analyzed standards do interfere with technological innovation, though the standards leave a lot of freedom for concretization and are understood as technology-independent.Another conclusion is that standards are not only a matter of quality but also a matter of competitiveness of the industry depending on resulting costs and time-to- market. When the costs induced by a standard are not adequate to the achievable quality, industry encounters a significant disadvantage.

  19. New Federal Air Quality Standards.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stopinski, O. W.

    The report discusses the current procedures for establishing air quality standards, the bases for standards, and, finally, proposed and final National Primary and Secondary Ambient Air Quality Standards for sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nonmethane hydrocarbons, photochemical oxidants, and nitrogen dioxide. (Author/RH)

  20. Assessing Quality of Data Standards: Framework and Illustration Using XBRL GAAP Taxonomy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhu, Hongwei; Wu, Harris

    The primary purpose of data standards or metadata schemas is to improve the interoperability of data created by multiple standard users. Given the high cost of developing data standards, it is desirable to assess the quality of data standards. We develop a set of metrics and a framework for assessing data standard quality. The metrics include completeness and relevancy. Standard quality can also be indirectly measured by assessing interoperability of data instances. We evaluate the framework using data from the financial sector: the XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) taxonomy and US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings produced using the taxonomy by approximately 500 companies. The results show that the framework is useful and effective. Our analysis also reveals quality issues of the GAAP taxonomy and provides useful feedback to taxonomy users. The SEC has mandated that all publicly listed companies must submit their filings using XBRL. Our findings are timely and have practical implications that will ultimately help improve the quality of financial data.

  1. A standard for measuring metadata quality in spectral libraries

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rasaiah, B.; Jones, S. D.; Bellman, C.

    2013-12-01

    A standard for measuring metadata quality in spectral libraries Barbara Rasaiah, Simon Jones, Chris Bellman RMIT University Melbourne, Australia barbara.rasaiah@rmit.edu.au, simon.jones@rmit.edu.au, chris.bellman@rmit.edu.au ABSTRACT There is an urgent need within the international remote sensing community to establish a metadata standard for field spectroscopy that ensures high quality, interoperable metadata sets that can be archived and shared efficiently within Earth observation data sharing systems. Metadata are an important component in the cataloguing and analysis of in situ spectroscopy datasets because of their central role in identifying and quantifying the quality and reliability of spectral data and the products derived from them. This paper presents approaches to measuring metadata completeness and quality in spectral libraries to determine reliability, interoperability, and re-useability of a dataset. Explored are quality parameters that meet the unique requirements of in situ spectroscopy datasets, across many campaigns. Examined are the challenges presented by ensuring that data creators, owners, and data users ensure a high level of data integrity throughout the lifecycle of a dataset. Issues such as field measurement methods, instrument calibration, and data representativeness are investigated. The proposed metadata standard incorporates expert recommendations that include metadata protocols critical to all campaigns, and those that are restricted to campaigns for specific target measurements. The implication of semantics and syntax for a robust and flexible metadata standard are also considered. Approaches towards an operational and logistically viable implementation of a quality standard are discussed. This paper also proposes a way forward for adapting and enhancing current geospatial metadata standards to the unique requirements of field spectroscopy metadata quality. [0430] BIOGEOSCIENCES / Computational methods and data processing [0480

  2. 50 CFR 270.15 - Quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 7 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Quality standards. 270.15 Section 270.15... Quality standards. (a) Each Council may develop and submit to NMFS for approval or, upon the request of a Council, NMFS will develop quality standards for the species of fish or fish products described in the...

  3. TRIBAL WATER QUALITY STANDARDS WORKSHOP

    EPA Science Inventory

    Water quality standards are the foundation for water management actions. They provide the basis for regulating discharges of pollutants to surface waters, and provide a target for restoration of degraded waters. Water quality standards identify and protect uses of the water bod...

  4. 40 CFR 130.3 - Water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... QUALITY PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT § 130.3 Water quality standards. A water quality standard (WQS) defines the water quality goals of a water body, or portion thereof, by designating the use or uses to be made... 40 Protection of Environment 21 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Water quality standards. 130.3 Section...

  5. 40 CFR 130.3 - Water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Water quality standards. 130.3 Section 130.3 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS WATER QUALITY PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT § 130.3 Water quality standards. A water quality standard (WQS) defines...

  6. 40 CFR 130.3 - Water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 23 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Water quality standards. 130.3 Section 130.3 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS WATER QUALITY PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT § 130.3 Water quality standards. A water quality standard (WQS) defines...

  7. 40 CFR 130.3 - Water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2014-07-01 2013-07-01 true Water quality standards. 130.3 Section 130.3 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS WATER QUALITY PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT § 130.3 Water quality standards. A water quality standard (WQS) defines...

  8. 40 CFR 130.3 - Water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 23 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Water quality standards. 130.3 Section 130.3 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS WATER QUALITY PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT § 130.3 Water quality standards. A water quality standard (WQS) defines...

  9. 40 CFR 131.8 - Requirements for Indian Tribes to administer a water quality standards program.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Requirements for Indian Tribes to administer a water quality standards program. 131.8 Section 131.8 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS WATER QUALITY STANDARDS General Provisions § 131.8 Requirements for Indian Tribes to administer a wate...

  10. 40 CFR 131.8 - Requirements for Indian Tribes to administer a water quality standards program.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 21 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Requirements for Indian Tribes to administer a water quality standards program. 131.8 Section 131.8 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS WATER QUALITY STANDARDS General Provisions § 131.8 Requirements for Indian Tribes to administer a wate...

  11. 7 CFR 996.30 - Incoming quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Incoming quality standards. 996.30 Section 996.30... Agreements and Orders; Fruits, Vegetables, Nuts), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE MINIMUM QUALITY AND HANDLING STANDARDS FOR DOMESTIC AND IMPORTED PEANUTS MARKETED IN THE UNITED STATES Quality and Handling Standards...

  12. 40 CFR 439.3 - General pretreatment standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 29 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false General pretreatment standards. 439.3 Section 439.3 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) EFFLUENT GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS PHARMACEUTICAL MANUFACTURING POINT SOURCE CATEGORY General § 439.3 General pretreatment...

  13. British standard (BS) 5750--quality assurance?

    PubMed

    Pratt, D J

    1995-04-01

    BS5750 is the British Standard on "Quality Systems". Its equivalent in European Standards is EN29000 and in the International Standards Organisation ISO9000. This paper points out that these standards lay down formalised procedures and require documentation but do not ipso facto lead to quality assurance. The author points to the Japanese post-war industrial success as being an example of Total Quality Management within the framework provided by the philosophy of Dr. W. Edwards Deming (1988 and 1993). This philosophy on the management of "systems" to provide high quality products and services is briefly outlined. The author argues that improvement in prosthetic and orthotic services will not be reached through implementation of BS5750 but rather through radical rethinking and the adoption and application of the Deming philosophy.

  14. 24 CFR 983.101 - Housing quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 24 Housing and Urban Development 4 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Housing quality standards. 983.101... DEVELOPMENT PROJECT-BASED VOUCHER (PBV) PROGRAM Dwelling Units § 983.101 Housing quality standards. (a) HQS applicability. Except as otherwise provided in this section, 24 CFR 982.401 (housing quality standards) applies...

  15. Moving Forward--Shaping a Career Development Culture: Quality Standards, Quality Practice, Quality Outcomes

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    McMahon, Mary

    2004-01-01

    This paper represents the second of two papers written as part of the National Standards and Accreditation of Career Practitioners project. The first, a scoping paper titled Shaping a career development culture: Quality standards, quality practice, quality outcomes (McMahon, 2004), provided information for and guided discussion at the National…

  16. 7 CFR 29.3026 - General quality.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false General quality. 29.3026 Section 29.3026 Agriculture... General quality. The quality of tobacco considered in relation to the type as a whole. General quality is distinguished from the restricted use of the term “quality” within a group. [24 FR 8771, Oct. 29, 1959...

  17. National Water Quality Standards Database (NWQSD)

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The National Water Quality Standards Database (WQSDB) provides access to EPA and state water quality standards (WQS) information in text, tables, and maps. This data source was last updated in December 2007 and will no longer be updated.

  18. 40 CFR Appendix P to Part 50 - Interpretation of the Primary and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone P Appendix P to Part 50 Protection of Environment... Air Quality Standards for Ozone 1. General (a) This appendix explains the data handling conventions... air quality standards for ozone (O3) specified in § 50.15 are met at an ambient O3 air quality...

  19. 40 CFR Appendix P to Part 50 - Interpretation of the Primary and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone P Appendix P to Part 50 Protection of Environment... Air Quality Standards for Ozone 1. General (a) This appendix explains the data handling conventions... air quality standards for ozone (O3) specified in § 50.15 are met at an ambient O3 air quality...

  20. 40 CFR Appendix P to Part 50 - Interpretation of the Primary and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone P Appendix P to Part 50 Protection of Environment... Air Quality Standards for Ozone 1. General (a) This appendix explains the data handling conventions... air quality standards for ozone (O3) specified in § 50.15 are met at an ambient O3 air quality...

  1. 40 CFR Appendix P to Part 50 - Interpretation of the Primary and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone P Appendix P to Part 50 Protection of Environment... Air Quality Standards for Ozone 1. General (a) This appendix explains the data handling conventions... air quality standards for ozone (O3) specified in § 50.15 are met at an ambient O3 air quality...

  2. 40 CFR Appendix P to Part 50 - Interpretation of the Primary and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone P Appendix P to Part 50 Protection of Environment... Air Quality Standards for Ozone 1. General (a) This appendix explains the data handling conventions... air quality standards for ozone (O3) specified in § 50.15 are met at an ambient O3 air quality...

  3. ASVCP quality assurance guidelines: control of general analytical factors in veterinary laboratories.

    PubMed

    Flatland, Bente; Freeman, Kathy P; Friedrichs, Kristen R; Vap, Linda M; Getzy, Karen M; Evans, Ellen W; Harr, Kendal E

    2010-09-01

    Owing to lack of governmental regulation of veterinary laboratory performance, veterinarians ideally should demonstrate a commitment to self-monitoring and regulation of laboratory performance from within the profession. In response to member concerns about quality management in veterinary laboratories, the American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology (ASVCP) formed a Quality Assurance and Laboratory Standards (QAS) committee in 1996. This committee recently published updated and peer-reviewed Quality Assurance Guidelines on the ASVCP website. The Quality Assurance Guidelines are intended for use by veterinary diagnostic laboratories and veterinary research laboratories that are not covered by the US Food and Drug Administration Good Laboratory Practice standards (Code of Federal Regulations Title 21, Chapter 58). The guidelines have been divided into 3 reports on 1) general analytic factors for veterinary laboratory performance and comparisons, 2) hematology and hemostasis, and 3) clinical chemistry, endocrine assessment, and urinalysis. This report documents recommendations for control of general analytical factors within veterinary clinical laboratories and is based on section 2.1 (Analytical Factors Important In Veterinary Clinical Pathology, General) of the newly revised ASVCP QAS Guidelines. These guidelines are not intended to be all-inclusive; rather, they provide minimum guidelines for quality assurance and quality control for veterinary laboratory testing. It is hoped that these guidelines will provide a basis for laboratories to assess their current practices, determine areas for improvement, and guide continuing professional development and education efforts. ©2010 American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology.

  4. 24 CFR 982.605 - SRO: Housing quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 24 Housing and Urban Development 4 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false SRO: Housing quality standards. 982... Types Single Room Occupancy (sro) § 982.605 SRO: Housing quality standards. (a) HQS standards for SRO...) (space and security). Since the SRO units will not house children, the housing quality standards in § 982...

  5. 45 CFR 164.306 - Security standards: General rules.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... RELATED REQUIREMENTS SECURITY AND PRIVACY Security Standards for the Protection of Electronic Protected Health Information § 164.306 Security standards: General rules. (a) General requirements. Covered... covered entity to reasonably and appropriately implement the standards and implementation specifications...

  6. 45 CFR 164.306 - Security standards: General rules.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... RELATED REQUIREMENTS SECURITY AND PRIVACY Security Standards for the Protection of Electronic Protected Health Information § 164.306 Security standards: General rules. (a) General requirements. Covered... and appropriately implement the standards and implementation specifications as specified in this...

  7. Time to harmonize national ambient air quality standards.

    PubMed

    Kutlar Joss, Meltem; Eeftens, Marloes; Gintowt, Emily; Kappeler, Ron; Künzli, Nino

    2017-05-01

    The World Health Organization has developed ambient air quality guidelines at levels considered to be safe or of acceptable risk for human health. These guidelines are meant to support governments in defining national standards. It is unclear how they are followed. We compiled an inventory of ambient air quality standards for 194 countries worldwide for six air pollutants: PM 2.5 , PM 10 , ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide. We conducted literature and internet searches and asked country representatives about national ambient air quality standards. We found information on 170 countries including 57 countries that did not set any air quality standards. Levels varied greatly by country and by pollutant. Ambient air quality standards for PM 2.5 , PM 10 and SO 2 poorly complied with WHO guideline values. The agreement was higher for CO, SO 2 (10-min averaging time) and NO 2 . Regulatory differences mirror the differences in air quality and the related burden of disease around the globe. Governments worldwide should adopt science based air quality standards and clean air management plans to continuously improve air quality locally, nationally, and globally.

  8. 78 FR 54517 - Water Quality Standards Regulatory Clarifications

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-09-04

    ... 131 Water Quality Standards Regulatory Clarifications; Proposed Rule #0;#0;Federal Register / Vol. 78... AGENCY 40 CFR Part 131 [EPA-HQ-OW-2010-0606; FRL-9839-7] RIN 2040-AF 16 Water Quality Standards... Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing changes to the federal water quality standards (WQS...

  9. 7 CFR 953.43 - Minimum standards of quality.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 8 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Minimum standards of quality. 953.43 Section 953.43... SOUTHEASTERN STATES Order Regulating Handling Regulations § 953.43 Minimum standards of quality. (a) Recommendation. Whenever the committee deems it advisable to establish and maintain minimum standards of quality...

  10. 7 CFR 953.43 - Minimum standards of quality.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 8 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Minimum standards of quality. 953.43 Section 953.43... SOUTHEASTERN STATES Order Regulating Handling Regulations § 953.43 Minimum standards of quality. (a) Recommendation. Whenever the committee deems it advisable to establish and maintain minimum standards of quality...

  11. 7 CFR 953.43 - Minimum standards of quality.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 8 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Minimum standards of quality. 953.43 Section 953.43... SOUTHEASTERN STATES Order Regulating Handling Regulations § 953.43 Minimum standards of quality. (a) Recommendation. Whenever the committee deems it advisable to establish and maintain minimum standards of quality...

  12. 7 CFR 953.43 - Minimum standards of quality.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 8 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Minimum standards of quality. 953.43 Section 953.43... SOUTHEASTERN STATES Order Regulating Handling Regulations § 953.43 Minimum standards of quality. (a) Recommendation. Whenever the committee deems it advisable to establish and maintain minimum standards of quality...

  13. 7 CFR 953.43 - Minimum standards of quality.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 8 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Minimum standards of quality. 953.43 Section 953.43... SOUTHEASTERN STATES Order Regulating Handling Regulations § 953.43 Minimum standards of quality. (a) Recommendation. Whenever the committee deems it advisable to establish and maintain minimum standards of quality...

  14. 42 CFR 493.837 - Standard; General immunology.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Standard; General immunology. 493.837 Section 493.837 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES... These Tests § 493.837 Standard; General immunology. (a) Failure to attain a score of at least 80 percent...

  15. 42 CFR 493.837 - Standard; General immunology.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Standard; General immunology. 493.837 Section 493.837 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES... These Tests § 493.837 Standard; General immunology. (a) Failure to attain a score of at least 80 percent...

  16. 42 CFR 493.837 - Standard; General immunology.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Standard; General immunology. 493.837 Section 493.837 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES... These Tests § 493.837 Standard; General immunology. (a) Failure to attain a score of at least 80 percent...

  17. 47 CFR 51.503 - General pricing standard.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false General pricing standard. 51.503 Section 51.503... Pricing of Elements § 51.503 General pricing standard. (a) An incumbent LEC shall offer elements to... commission— (1) Pursuant to the forward-looking economic cost-based pricing methodology set forth in §§ 51...

  18. 40 CFR Appendix H to Part 50 - Interpretation of the 1-Hour Primary and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone H Appendix H to Part 50 Protection of... Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone 1. General This appendix explains how to... associated examples are contained in the “Guideline for Interpretation of Ozone Air Quality Standards.” For...

  19. 40 CFR Appendix H to Part 50 - Interpretation of the 1-Hour Primary and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone H Appendix H to Part 50 Protection of... Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone 1. General This appendix explains how to... associated examples are contained in the “Guideline for Interpretation of Ozone Air Quality Standards.” For...

  20. 40 CFR Appendix H to Part 50 - Interpretation of the 1-Hour Primary and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone H Appendix H to Part 50 Protection of... Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone 1. General This appendix explains how to... associated examples are contained in the “Guideline for Interpretation of Ozone Air Quality Standards.” For...

  1. 40 CFR Appendix H to Part 50 - Interpretation of the 1-Hour Primary and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone H Appendix H to Part 50 Protection of... Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone 1. General This appendix explains how to... associated examples are contained in the “Guideline for Interpretation of Ozone Air Quality Standards.” For...

  2. State Air Quality Standards.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pollution Engineering, 1978

    1978-01-01

    This article presents in tabular form the air quality standards for sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, photochemicals, non-methane hydrocarbons and particulates for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. (CS)

  3. Standards for Implementing Quality Prekindergarten Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Maryland State Dept. of Education, Baltimore. Div. of Instruction.

    These standards are provided to promote the achievement of excellence in Maryland's public school prekindergarten programs. To that end, this document delineates standards of quality and provides a list of indicators that concretely describe what a program will look like if the standards are being met. The standards and indicators address seven…

  4. BASIS FOR PRIMARY AIR QUALITY CRITERIA AND STANDARDS

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Environmental Criteria and Assessment Office and the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards are charged with responsibility for reviewing and assessing air quality criteria and air quality standards, respectively. Since adoption of the 1977 Clean Air Act Amendments, the...

  5. 40 CFR Appendix I to Part 50 - Interpretation of the 8-Hour Primary and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone I Appendix I to Part 50 Protection of... Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone 1. General. This appendix explains the data... secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone specified in § 50.10 are met at an ambient ozone air...

  6. 40 CFR Appendix I to Part 50 - Interpretation of the 8-Hour Primary and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone I Appendix I to Part 50 Protection of... Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone 1. General. This appendix explains the data... secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone specified in § 50.10 are met at an ambient ozone air...

  7. 40 CFR Appendix I to Part 50 - Interpretation of the 8-Hour Primary and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone I Appendix I to Part 50 Protection of... Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone 1. General. This appendix explains the data... secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone specified in § 50.10 are met at an ambient ozone air...

  8. 40 CFR Appendix I to Part 50 - Interpretation of the 8-Hour Primary and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone I Appendix I to Part 50 Protection of... Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone 1. General. This appendix explains the data... secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone specified in § 50.10 are met at an ambient ozone air...

  9. 40 CFR Appendix I to Part 50 - Interpretation of the 8-Hour Primary and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... and Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone I Appendix I to Part 50 Protection of... Secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone 1. General. This appendix explains the data... secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone specified in § 50.10 are met at an ambient ozone air...

  10. Maternal Quality Standards for Children's Television Programs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nikken, Peter; And Others

    1996-01-01

    Investigates the standards mothers use to evaluate four types of children's television programs: (1) cartoons; (2) news programs for children; (3) educational children's programs; and (4) dramatic children's programs. Three quality standards considered most important were comprehensibility, aesthetic quality, and elicitation of involvement.…

  11. 40 CFR 63.743 - Standards: General.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... Emission Standards for Aerospace Manufacturing and Rework Facilities § 63.743 Standards: General. (a... of the device or equipment, test data verifying the performance of the device or equipment in... chemical milling maskants, as determined in accordance with the applicable procedures set forth in § 63.750...

  12. 40 CFR 63.743 - Standards: General.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... Emission Standards for Aerospace Manufacturing and Rework Facilities § 63.743 Standards: General. (a... of the device or equipment, test data verifying the performance of the device or equipment in... chemical milling maskants, as determined in accordance with the applicable procedures set forth in § 63.750...

  13. 40 CFR 63.743 - Standards: General.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... Emission Standards for Aerospace Manufacturing and Rework Facilities § 63.743 Standards: General. (a... of the device or equipment, test data verifying the performance of the device or equipment in... chemical milling maskants, as determined in accordance with the applicable procedures set forth in § 63.750...

  14. 40 CFR 63.743 - Standards: General.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... Emission Standards for Aerospace Manufacturing and Rework Facilities § 63.743 Standards: General. (a... of the device or equipment, test data verifying the performance of the device or equipment in... chemical milling maskants, as determined in accordance with the applicable procedures set forth in § 63.750...

  15. 40 CFR 63.743 - Standards: General.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... Emission Standards for Aerospace Manufacturing and Rework Facilities § 63.743 Standards: General. (a... of the device or equipment, test data verifying the performance of the device or equipment in... chemical milling maskants, as determined in accordance with the applicable procedures set forth in § 63.750...

  16. Review of Special Standards in Quality Management Systems Audits in Automotive Production

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Šurinová, Yulia

    2013-12-01

    Quality management systems (QMS) in automotive industry generally have several differences in comparison with other industrial branches. Different customers have their own specific requirements, including requirements for quality audits. Audits are one of the coretools of quality management to make the PDCA (Plan - Do - Check - Act) cycle work. As a matter of fact, compliance with ISO/TS 16949:2009 requirements is a condition for supplying the automotive industry. However, there are some standards which co-exist together with the ISO 9001 based management systems and technical specification for QMS in automotive ISO/TS16949. Which are those specific standards in automotive industry and what standard to use and why - those are the questions to be answered in this paper. The aim of the paper is to review what standards are used for audits implementation in automotive industry in the Slovak Republic, and why the organizations keep following those "extra" standards even if certification for ISO/TS 16949 is required by all the car makers. The paper is structured as follows: after short introduction to the topic and related terms, presented is our methodology. . In the third section, the achieved results are discussed. And finally, the principal findings of the paper, limitations and conclusions are presented.

  17. Air Pollution Monitoring | Air Quality Planning & Standards ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    2016-06-08

    The basic mission of the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards is to preserve and improve the quality of our nation's air. To accomplish this, OAQPS must be able to evaluate the status of the atmosphere as compared to clean air standards and historical information.

  18. 40 CFR 61.242-1 - Standards: General.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 8 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Standards: General. 61.242-1 Section 61.242-1 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) NATIONAL EMISSION STANDARDS FOR HAZARDOUS AIR POLLUTANTS National Emission Standard for Equipment Leaks...

  19. 42 CFR 493.1463 - Standard: General supervisor responsibilities.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Standard: General supervisor responsibilities. 493.1463 Section 493.1463 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND... Testing Laboratories Performing High Complexity Testing § 493.1463 Standard: General supervisor...

  20. 42 CFR 493.1463 - Standard: General supervisor responsibilities.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Standard: General supervisor responsibilities. 493.1463 Section 493.1463 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND... Testing Laboratories Performing High Complexity Testing § 493.1463 Standard: General supervisor...

  1. 47 CFR 51.507 - General rate structure standard.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 3 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false General rate structure standard. 51.507 Section 51.507 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) COMMON CARRIER SERVICES (CONTINUED) INTERCONNECTION Pricing of Elements § 51.507 General rate structure standard. (a) Element rates...

  2. 47 CFR 51.507 - General rate structure standard.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false General rate structure standard. 51.507 Section 51.507 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) COMMON CARRIER SERVICES (CONTINUED) INTERCONNECTION Pricing of Elements § 51.507 General rate structure standard. (a) Element rates...

  3. 47 CFR 51.507 - General rate structure standard.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 3 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false General rate structure standard. 51.507 Section 51.507 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) COMMON CARRIER SERVICES (CONTINUED) INTERCONNECTION Pricing of Elements § 51.507 General rate structure standard. (a) Element rates...

  4. 47 CFR 51.507 - General rate structure standard.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 3 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false General rate structure standard. 51.507 Section 51.507 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) COMMON CARRIER SERVICES (CONTINUED) INTERCONNECTION Pricing of Elements § 51.507 General rate structure standard. (a) Element rates...

  5. 47 CFR 51.507 - General rate structure standard.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 3 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false General rate structure standard. 51.507 Section 51.507 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) COMMON CARRIER SERVICES (CONTINUED) INTERCONNECTION Pricing of Elements § 51.507 General rate structure standard. (a) Element rates...

  6. The Explication of Quality Standards in Self-Evaluation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bronkhorst, Larike H.; Baartman, Liesbeth K. J.; Stokking, Karel M.

    2012-01-01

    Education aiming at students' competence development asks for new assessment methods. The quality of these methods needs to be assured using adapted quality criteria and accompanying standards. As such standards are not widely available, this study sets out to examine what level of compliance with quality criteria stakeholders consider…

  7. 40 CFR 52.14 - State ambient air quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false State ambient air quality standards. 52.14 Section 52.14 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS... quality standards. Any ambient air quality standard submitted with a plan which is less stringent than a...

  8. 40 CFR 52.14 - State ambient air quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 3 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false State ambient air quality standards. 52.14 Section 52.14 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS... quality standards. Any ambient air quality standard submitted with a plan which is less stringent than a...

  9. 40 CFR 52.14 - State ambient air quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 3 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false State ambient air quality standards. 52.14 Section 52.14 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS... quality standards. Any ambient air quality standard submitted with a plan which is less stringent than a...

  10. 40 CFR 52.14 - State ambient air quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 3 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false State ambient air quality standards. 52.14 Section 52.14 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS... quality standards. Any ambient air quality standard submitted with a plan which is less stringent than a...

  11. 40 CFR 52.14 - State ambient air quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 3 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false State ambient air quality standards. 52.14 Section 52.14 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS... quality standards. Any ambient air quality standard submitted with a plan which is less stringent than a...

  12. 42 CFR 493.1469 - Standard: Cytology general supervisor qualifications.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Standard: Cytology general supervisor... Nonwaived Testing Laboratories Performing High Complexity Testing § 493.1469 Standard: Cytology general supervisor qualifications. The cytology general supervisor must be qualified to supervise cytology services...

  13. 42 CFR 493.1469 - Standard: Cytology general supervisor qualifications.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Standard: Cytology general supervisor... Nonwaived Testing Laboratories Performing High Complexity Testing § 493.1469 Standard: Cytology general supervisor qualifications. The cytology general supervisor must be qualified to supervise cytology services...

  14. 42 CFR 493.1469 - Standard: Cytology general supervisor qualifications.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Standard: Cytology general supervisor... Nonwaived Testing Laboratories Performing High Complexity Testing § 493.1469 Standard: Cytology general supervisor qualifications. The cytology general supervisor must be qualified to supervise cytology services...

  15. 42 CFR 493.1469 - Standard: Cytology general supervisor qualifications.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Standard: Cytology general supervisor... Nonwaived Testing Laboratories Performing High Complexity Testing § 493.1469 Standard: Cytology general supervisor qualifications. The cytology general supervisor must be qualified to supervise cytology services...

  16. 42 CFR 493.1469 - Standard: Cytology general supervisor qualifications.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Standard: Cytology general supervisor... Nonwaived Testing Laboratories Performing High Complexity Testing § 493.1469 Standard: Cytology general supervisor qualifications. The cytology general supervisor must be qualified to supervise cytology services...

  17. Deriving Chesapeake Bay Water Quality Standards

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Tango, Peter J.; Batiuk, Richard A.

    2013-01-01

    Achieving and maintaining the water quality conditions necessary to protect the aquatic living resources of the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries has required a foundation of quantifiable water quality criteria. Quantitative criteria serve as a critical basis for assessing the attainment of designated uses and measuring progress toward meeting water quality goals of the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership. In 1987, the Chesapeake Bay Program partnership committed to defining the water quality conditions necessary to protect aquatic living resources. Under section 303(c) of the Clean Water Act, States and authorized tribes have the primary responsibility for adopting water quality standards into law or regulation. The Chesapeake Bay Program partnership worked with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop and publish a guidance framework of ambient water quality criteria with designated uses and assessment procedures for dissolved oxygen, water clarity, and chlorophyll a for Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries in 2003. This article reviews the derivation of the water quality criteria, criteria assessment protocols, designated use boundaries, and their refinements published in six addendum documents since 2003 and successfully adopted into each jurisdiction's water quality standards used in developing the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load.

  18. Higher Education Quality Assessment Model: Towards Achieving Educational Quality Standard

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Noaman, Amin Y.; Ragab, Abdul Hamid M.; Madbouly, Ayman I.; Khedra, Ahmed M.; Fayoumi, Ayman G.

    2017-01-01

    This paper presents a developed higher education quality assessment model (HEQAM) that can be applied for enhancement of university services. This is because there is no universal unified quality standard model that can be used to assess the quality criteria of higher education institutes. The analytical hierarchy process is used to identify the…

  19. The case for regime-based water quality standards

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Poole, Geoffrey C.; Dunham, J.B.; Keenan, D.M.; Sauter, S.T.; McCullough, D.A.; Mebane, Christopher; Lockwood, Jeffrey C.; Essig, Don A.; Hicks, Mark P.; Sturdevant, Debra J.; Materna, E.J.; Spalding, M.; Risley, John; Deppman, Marianne

    2004-01-01

    Conventional water quality standards have been successful in reducing the concentration of toxic substances in US waters. However, conventional standards are based on simple thresholds and are therefore poorly structured to address human-caused imbalances in dynamic, natural water quality parameters, such as nutrients, sediment, and temperature. A more applicable type of water quality standarda??a a??regime standarda??a??would describe desirable distributions of conditions over space and time within a stream network. By mandating the protection and restoration of the aquatic ecosystem dynamics that are required to support beneficial uses in streams, well-designed regime standards would facilitate more effective strategies for management of natural water quality parameters.

  20. Evaluating Education Quality in Terms of ISO9000 Standards

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fengchun, Cheng; Vogel, Linda R.; Zhaoyu, Zheng

    2014-01-01

    While nations measure the quality of educational systems by different standards, many nations, such as China, have adopted the ISO9000 quality standards to assess the quality of schools. This article explores the various elements of the the ISO9000 standards and how each element relates to the various groups that are consumers or stakeholders in…

  1. Spotlight on General Music: Teaching Toward the Standards

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2005

    2005-01-01

    General music teachers at all levels--elementary, middle school, and high school--will find ideas, suggestions, and lesson plans for teaching to the National Standards in this new addition to the popular Spotlight series. It includes sections on teaching each of the nine standards, as well as chapters about secondary general music, assessment, and…

  2. 41 CFR 50-204.2 - General safety and health standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 41 Public Contracts and Property Management 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true General safety and health... Public Contracts PUBLIC CONTRACTS, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 204-SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS FOR FEDERAL SUPPLY CONTRACTS General Safety and Health Standards § 50-204.2 General safety and health standards. (a) Every...

  3. Standardized Curriculum for General Drafting.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mississippi State Dept. of Education, Jackson. Office of Vocational, Technical and Adult Education.

    Standardized vocational education course titles and core contents for two courses in Mississippi are provided: general drafting I and II. The first course contains the following units: (1) orientation; (2) introduction to mechanical drawing; (3) lettering; (4) geometric construction; (5) basic computer-assisted design (CAD); (6) orthographic…

  4. 40 CFR 131.22 - EPA promulgation of water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 21 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false EPA promulgation of water quality standards. 131.22 Section 131.22 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS WATER QUALITY STANDARDS Procedures for Review and Revision of Water Quality Standards § 131.22 EPA promulgation of water quality...

  5. 40 CFR 131.22 - EPA promulgation of water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false EPA promulgation of water quality standards. 131.22 Section 131.22 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS WATER QUALITY STANDARDS Procedures for Review and Revision of Water Quality Standards § 131.22 EPA promulgation of water quality...

  6. Chiropractic quality assurance: standards and guidelines

    PubMed Central

    Gatterman, Meridel I; Dobson, Thomas P; LeFevbre, Ron

    2001-01-01

    Chiropractic quality assurance involves development of both clinical guidelines and standards. Confusion generated by poor differentiation of guidelines from standards contributes to mistrust of the guideline development process. Guidelines are considered to be recommendations that allow for flexibility and individual patient differences. Standards are more binding and require a high level of supporting evidence. While guidelines serve as educational tools to improve the quality of practice, standards that outline minimum competency are used more as administrative tools on which to base policy. Barriers to development of clinical guidelines and standards include fear that they will create prescriptive “cookbook” practice, and the distrust that guidelines are developed primarily for cost containment. Clinicians also criticize guidelines developed by academics that don't relate to practice, and those based on evidence that lacks clinical relevance. Conflicting guidelines perceived to be based on strong bias or conflict of interest are also suspect. To reduce barriers to acceptance and implementation, guidelines should be inclusive, patient-centered, and based on a variety of evidence and clinical experience.

  7. 78 FR 30770 - Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Illinois; Air Quality Standards...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-05-23

    ... Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Illinois; Air Quality Standards Revision AGENCY... Illinois state implementation plan (SIP) to reflect current National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS... Implementation Plan at 35 Illinois Administrative Code part 243, which updates National Ambient Air Quality...

  8. 42 CFR 493.1299 - Standard: Postanalytic systems quality assessment.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Standard: Postanalytic systems quality assessment... Nonwaived Testing Postanalytic Systems § 493.1299 Standard: Postanalytic systems quality assessment. (a) The....1291. (b) The postanalytic systems quality assessment must include a review of the effectiveness of...

  9. 42 CFR 493.1289 - Standard: Analytic systems quality assessment.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Standard: Analytic systems quality assessment. 493... Nonwaived Testing Analytic Systems § 493.1289 Standard: Analytic systems quality assessment. (a) The... through 493.1283. (b) The analytic systems quality assessment must include a review of the effectiveness...

  10. 42 CFR 493.1249 - Standard: Preanalytic systems quality assessment.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Standard: Preanalytic systems quality assessment... Nonwaived Testing Preanalytic Systems § 493.1249 Standard: Preanalytic systems quality assessment. (a) The....1241 through 493.1242. (b) The preanalytic systems quality assessment must include a review of the...

  11. General Requirements and Minimum Standards.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    2003

    This publication provides the General Requirements and Minimum Standards developed by the National Court Reporters Association's Council on Approved Student Education (CASE). They are the same for all court reporter education programs, whether an institution is applying for approval for the first time or for a new grant of approval. The first…

  12. 40 CFR 35.2111 - Revised water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Revised water quality standards. 35... ASSISTANCE STATE AND LOCAL ASSISTANCE Grants for Construction of Treatment Works § 35.2111 Revised water quality standards. After December 29, 1984, no grant can be awarded for projects that discharge into...

  13. 42 CFR 493.1471 - Standard: Cytology general supervisor responsibilities.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Standard: Cytology general supervisor... Nonwaived Testing Laboratories Performing High Complexity Testing § 493.1471 Standard: Cytology general supervisor responsibilities. The technical supervisor of cytology may perform the duties of the cytology...

  14. 42 CFR 493.1471 - Standard: Cytology general supervisor responsibilities.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Standard: Cytology general supervisor... Nonwaived Testing Laboratories Performing High Complexity Testing § 493.1471 Standard: Cytology general supervisor responsibilities. The technical supervisor of cytology may perform the duties of the cytology...

  15. 42 CFR 493.1471 - Standard: Cytology general supervisor responsibilities.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Standard: Cytology general supervisor... Nonwaived Testing Laboratories Performing High Complexity Testing § 493.1471 Standard: Cytology general supervisor responsibilities. The technical supervisor of cytology may perform the duties of the cytology...

  16. 42 CFR 493.1471 - Standard: Cytology general supervisor responsibilities.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Standard: Cytology general supervisor... Nonwaived Testing Laboratories Performing High Complexity Testing § 493.1471 Standard: Cytology general supervisor responsibilities. The technical supervisor of cytology may perform the duties of the cytology...

  17. 42 CFR 493.1471 - Standard: Cytology general supervisor responsibilities.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Standard: Cytology general supervisor... Nonwaived Testing Laboratories Performing High Complexity Testing § 493.1471 Standard: Cytology general supervisor responsibilities. The technical supervisor of cytology may perform the duties of the cytology...

  18. 45 CFR 164.306 - Security standards: General rules.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 45 Public Welfare 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Security standards: General rules. 164.306 Section 164.306 Public Welfare DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES ADMINISTRATIVE DATA STANDARDS AND RELATED REQUIREMENTS SECURITY AND PRIVACY Security Standards for the Protection of Electronic Protected...

  19. 45 CFR 164.306 - Security standards: General rules.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 45 Public Welfare 1 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Security standards: General rules. 164.306 Section 164.306 Public Welfare DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES ADMINISTRATIVE DATA STANDARDS AND RELATED REQUIREMENTS SECURITY AND PRIVACY Security Standards for the Protection of Electronic Protected...

  20. 45 CFR 164.306 - Security standards: General rules.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 45 Public Welfare 1 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Security standards: General rules. 164.306 Section 164.306 Public Welfare Department of Health and Human Services ADMINISTRATIVE DATA STANDARDS AND RELATED REQUIREMENTS SECURITY AND PRIVACY Security Standards for the Protection of Electronic Protected...

  1. The case for regime-based water quality standards

    Treesearch

    G.C. Poole; J.B. Dunham; D.M. Keenan; S.T. Sauter; D.A. McCullough; C. Mebane; J.C. Lockwood; D.A. Essig; M.P. Hicks; D.J. Sturdevant; E.J. Materna; S.A. Spalding; J. Risley; M. Deppman

    2004-01-01

    Conventional water quality standards have been successful in reducing the concentration of toxic substances in US waters. However, conventional standards are based on simple thresholds and are therefore poorly structured to address human-caused imbalances in dynamic, natural water quality parameters, such as nutrients, sediment, and temperature. A more applicable type...

  2. 40 CFR 35.2111 - Revised water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Revised water quality standards. 35... ASSISTANCE STATE AND LOCAL ASSISTANCE Grants for Construction of Treatment Works § 35.2111 Revised water... stream segments which have not, at least once since December 29, 1981, had their water quality standards...

  3. 40 CFR 35.2111 - Revised water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Revised water quality standards. 35... ASSISTANCE STATE AND LOCAL ASSISTANCE Grants for Construction of Treatment Works § 35.2111 Revised water... stream segments which have not, at least once since December 29, 1981, had their water quality standards...

  4. 40 CFR 35.2111 - Revised water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Revised water quality standards. 35... ASSISTANCE STATE AND LOCAL ASSISTANCE Grants for Construction of Treatment Works § 35.2111 Revised water... stream segments which have not, at least once since December 29, 1981, had their water quality standards...

  5. 40 CFR 35.2111 - Revised water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Revised water quality standards. 35.2111 Section 35.2111 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY GRANTS AND OTHER FEDERAL ASSISTANCE STATE AND LOCAL ASSISTANCE Grants for Construction of Treatment Works § 35.2111 Revised water quality standards. After December 29, 1984,...

  6. 42 CFR 410.144 - Quality standards for deemed entities.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 2 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Quality standards for deemed entities. 410.144...-Management Training and Diabetes Outcome Measurements § 410.144 Quality standards for deemed entities. An organization approved and recognized by CMS may accredit an entity to meet one of the following sets of quality...

  7. 42 CFR 410.144 - Quality standards for deemed entities.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 2 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Quality standards for deemed entities. 410.144...-Management Training and Diabetes Outcome Measurements § 410.144 Quality standards for deemed entities. An organization approved and recognized by CMS may accredit an entity to meet one of the following sets of quality...

  8. 42 CFR 410.144 - Quality standards for deemed entities.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Quality standards for deemed entities. 410.144...-Management Training and Diabetes Outcome Measurements § 410.144 Quality standards for deemed entities. An organization approved and recognized by CMS may accredit an entity to meet one of the following sets of quality...

  9. 42 CFR 410.144 - Quality standards for deemed entities.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 2 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Quality standards for deemed entities. 410.144...-Management Training and Diabetes Outcome Measurements § 410.144 Quality standards for deemed entities. An organization approved and recognized by CMS may accredit an entity to meet one of the following sets of quality...

  10. 42 CFR 410.144 - Quality standards for deemed entities.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 2 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Quality standards for deemed entities. 410.144...-Management Training and Diabetes Outcome Measurements § 410.144 Quality standards for deemed entities. An organization approved and recognized by CMS may accredit an entity to meet one of the following sets of quality...

  11. 12 CFR 621.13 - Content and standards-general rules.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... generally accepted accounting principles and such other accounting requirements, standards, and procedures... 12 Banks and Banking 6 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Content and standards-general rules. 621.13 Section 621.13 Banks and Banking FARM CREDIT ADMINISTRATION FARM CREDIT SYSTEM ACCOUNTING AND REPORTING...

  12. 41 CFR 50-204.2 - General safety and health standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... health standards. 50-204.2 Section 50-204.2 Public Contracts and Property Management Other Provisions Relating to Public Contracts PUBLIC CONTRACTS, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 204-SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS FOR FEDERAL SUPPLY CONTRACTS General Safety and Health Standards § 50-204.2 General safety and health...

  13. Standards--the common element in providing the safety, quality and performance of the medical practice.

    PubMed

    Greabu, Maria

    2009-01-01

    Knowing and applying standards is an opportunity of the years 2007-2008 in any kind of field where a successful activity is intended and this assures a certain way towards competence and quality. The most recent German studies highlighted, to the surprise of the specialists, that standardization holds the second place, after the material means, in the row of the elements considered to be decisive for the success of a business. The existence of standards and the concern for their implementation in the activity provides a high technical and quality level of the products/services offered to the clients and the increase in the level of competence of the personnel, who will be able to cope with all the challenges. This need comes from the process of Romania's accession to the European Union. There are a lot of reasons why standards represent a fundamental part of our daily life. Practically, we are surrounded by standards. Everything is "working" well and it is efficient if the standards used as a base for manufacturing "things" have been correctly developed and applied. Standards open communication channels and commercial channels, promote the understanding of technical products, the compatibility of products and services, facilitate mass production and, most importantly, they are the necessary base for the achievement of the objectives in the fields of health and safety and a better quality of life. The transition towards the global market needs an instrument for the removal of the barriers to the application of the latest discoveries in the field of medical instruments, materials and manual labor. Each medical device, equipment and material used in the Dental and General Medicine is standardized, in fact that leads to their better knowing and provides controllable treatment for manual labor with predictable and repeatable results. This presentation intends to make a survey of some general aspects on standardization as well as a review of the standards in the medical

  14. Effects of State Minimum Staffing Standards on Nursing Home Staffing and Quality of Care

    PubMed Central

    Park, Jeongyoung; Stearns, Sally C

    2009-01-01

    Objective To investigate the impact of state minimum staffing standards on the level of staffing and quality of nursing home care. Data Sources Online Survey and Certification Reporting System (OSCAR) merged with the Area Resource File from 1998 through 2001. Study Design Between 1998 and 2001, 16 states implemented or expanded staffing standards in excess of federal requirements, creating a natural experiment in comparison with facilities in states without new standards. Difference-in-differences models using facility fixed effects were estimated to determine the effect of state standards. Data Collection/Extraction Methods OSCAR data were linked to the data on market conditions and state policies. A total of 55,248 facility-year observations from 15,217 freestanding facilities were analyzed. Principal Findings Increased standards resulted in small staffing increases for facilities with staffing initially below or close to new standards. Yet the standards were associated with reductions in restraint use and the number of total deficiencies at all types of facilities. Conclusions Mandated staffing standards affect only low-staff facilities facing potential for penalties, and effects are small. Selected facility-level outcomes may show improvement at all facilities due to a general response to increased standards or to other quality initiatives implemented at the same time as staffing standards. PMID:18823448

  15. 77 FR 13496 - Effective Date for the Water Quality Standards for the State of Florida's Lakes and Flowing Waters

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-03-07

    ... Effective Date for the Water Quality Standards for the State of Florida's Lakes and Flowing Waters AGENCY... Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing an extension of the March 6, 2012 effective date of the ``Water Quality... INFORMATION: I. General Information Does this action apply to me? Citizens concerned with water quality in...

  16. British Thoracic Society quality standards for home oxygen use in adults

    PubMed Central

    Suntharalingam, Jay; Wilkinson, Tom; Annandale, Joseph; Davey, Claire; Fielding, Rhea; Freeman, Daryl; Gibbons, Michael; Hardinge, Maxine; Hippolyte, Sabrine; Knowles, Vikki; Lee, Cassandra; MacNee, William; Pollington, Jacqueline; Vora, Vandana; Watts, Trefor; Wijesinghe, Meme

    2017-01-01

    Introduction The purpose of the quality standards document is to provide healthcare professionals, commissioners, service providers and patients with a guide to standards of care that should be met for home oxygen provision in the UK, together with measurable markers of good practice. Quality statements are based on the British Thoracic Society (BTS) Guideline for Home Oxygen Use in Adults. Methods Development of BTS Quality Standards follows the BTS process of quality standard production based on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence process manual for the development of quality standards. Results 10 quality statements have been developed, each describing a key marker of high-quality, cost-effective care for home oxygen use, and each statement is supported by quality measures that aim to improve the structure, process and outcomes of healthcare. Discussion BTS Quality Standards for home oxygen use in adults form a key part of the range of supporting materials that the society produces to assist in the dissemination and implementation of a guideline’s recommendations. PMID:29018527

  17. 78 FR 30829 - Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Illinois; Air Quality Standards...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-05-23

    ... Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Illinois; Air Quality Standards Revision AGENCY... the Illinois State Implementation Plan (SIP) to reflect current national ambient air quality standards...) 692-2450. 4. Mail: Pamela Blakley, Chief, Control Strategies Section, Air Programs Branch (AR-18J), U...

  18. Quality standards for bone conduction implants.

    PubMed

    Gavilan, Javier; Adunka, Oliver; Agrawal, Sumit; Atlas, Marcus; Baumgartner, Wolf-Dieter; Brill, Stefan; Bruce, Iain; Buchman, Craig; Caversaccio, Marco; De Bodt, Marc T; Dillon, Meg; Godey, Benoit; Green, Kevin; Gstoettner, Wolfgang; Hagen, Rudolf; Hagr, Abdulrahman; Han, Demin; Kameswaran, Mohan; Karltorp, Eva; Kompis, Martin; Kuzovkov, Vlad; Lassaletta, Luis; Li, Yongxin; Lorens, Artur; Martin, Jane; Manoj, Manikoth; Mertens, Griet; Mlynski, Robert; Mueller, Joachim; O'Driscoll, Martin; Parnes, Lorne; Pulibalathingal, Sasidharan; Radeloff, Andreas; Raine, Christopher H; Rajan, Gunesh; Rajeswaran, Ranjith; Schmutzhard, Joachim; Skarzynski, Henryk; Skarzynski, Piotr; Sprinzl, Georg; Staecker, Hinrich; Stephan, Kurt; Sugarova, Serafima; Tavora, Dayse; Usami, Shin-Ichi; Yanov, Yuri; Zernotti, Mario; Zorowka, Patrick; de Heyning, Paul Van

    2015-01-01

    Bone conduction implants are useful in patients with conductive and mixed hearing loss for whom conventional surgery or hearing aids are no longer an option. They may also be used in patients affected by single-sided deafness. To establish a consensus on the quality standards required for centers willing to create a bone conduction implant program. To ensure a consistently high level of service and to provide patients with the best possible solution the members of the HEARRING network have established a set of quality standards for bone conduction implants. These standards constitute a realistic minimum attainable by all implant clinics and should be employed alongside current best practice guidelines. Fifteen items are thoroughly analyzed. They include team structure, accommodation and clinical facilities, selection criteria, evaluation process, complete preoperative and surgical information, postoperative fitting and assessment, follow-up, device failure, clinical management, transfer of care and patient complaints.

  19. 40 CFR 131.20 - State review and revision of water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... quality standards. 131.20 Section 131.20 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS WATER QUALITY STANDARDS Procedures for Review and Revision of Water Quality Standards § 131.20 State review and revision of water quality standards. (a) State review. The State shall...

  20. 40 CFR 131.20 - State review and revision of water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... quality standards. 131.20 Section 131.20 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS WATER QUALITY STANDARDS Procedures for Review and Revision of Water Quality Standards § 131.20 State review and revision of water quality standards. (a) State review. The State shall...

  1. 40 CFR 131.20 - State review and revision of water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... quality standards. 131.20 Section 131.20 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS WATER QUALITY STANDARDS Procedures for Review and Revision of Water Quality Standards § 131.20 State review and revision of water quality standards. (a) State review. The State shall...

  2. Office of General Counsel Total Quality Management Plan

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1989-07-01

    20503. IRT DATE 3. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED y 1989 5. FUNDING NUMBERS Office of General Counsel Total Quality Management Plan 6. AUTHOR(S) 7...of General Counsel. - r DTIC 65 LE- E CTEn’" SEP291 989 14. SUBJECT TERMS 15. NUMBER OF PAGES TQM (Total Quality Management ), Office of General...89) Pra-ifcr~bed ANSI Sid 139-1S ""-"’- ", ~ mmmmmu10n S S OFFICE OF GENERAL COUNSEL TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT PLAN Acc’, ’ 7or. .?:" t ’_7 Codes K 89

  3. Standardizing Quality Assessment of Fused Remotely Sensed Images

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pohl, C.; Moellmann, J.; Fries, K.

    2017-09-01

    The multitude of available operational remote sensing satellites led to the development of many image fusion techniques to provide high spatial, spectral and temporal resolution images. The comparison of different techniques is necessary to obtain an optimized image for the different applications of remote sensing. There are two approaches in assessing image quality: 1. Quantitatively by visual interpretation and 2. Quantitatively using image quality indices. However an objective comparison is difficult due to the fact that a visual assessment is always subject and a quantitative assessment is done by different criteria. Depending on the criteria and indices the result varies. Therefore it is necessary to standardize both processes (qualitative and quantitative assessment) in order to allow an objective image fusion quality evaluation. Various studies have been conducted at the University of Osnabrueck (UOS) to establish a standardized process to objectively compare fused image quality. First established image fusion quality assessment protocols, i.e. Quality with No Reference (QNR) and Khan's protocol, were compared on varies fusion experiments. Second the process of visual quality assessment was structured and standardized with the aim to provide an evaluation protocol. This manuscript reports on the results of the comparison and provides recommendations for future research.

  4. 40 CFR 131.21 - EPA review and approval of water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS WATER QUALITY STANDARDS Procedures for Review and Revision of Water Quality Standards § 131.21 EPA review and approval of water quality standards. (a) After the State submits its... analysis. (b) The Regional Administrator's approval or disapproval of a State water quality standard shall...

  5. ISO 9000 quality standards: a model for blood banking?

    PubMed

    Nevalainen, D E; Lloyd, H L

    1995-06-01

    The recent American Association of Blood Banks publications Quality Program and Quality Systems in the Blood Bank and Laboratory Environment, the FDA's draft guidelines, and recent changes in the GMP regulations all discuss the benefits of implementing quality systems in blood center and/or manufacturing operations. While the medical device GMPs in the United States have been rewritten to accommodate a quality system approach similar to ISO 9000, the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research of the FDA is also beginning to make moves toward adopting "quality systems audits" as an inspection process rather than using the historical approach of record reviews. The approach is one of prevention of errors rather than detection after the fact (Tourault MA, oral communication, November 1994). The ISO 9000 series of standards is a quality system that has worldwide scope and can be applied in any industry or service. The use of such international standards in blood banking should raise the level of quality within an organization, among organizations on a regional level, within a country, and among nations on a worldwide basis. Whether an organization wishes to become registered to a voluntary standard or not, the use of such standards to become ISO 9000-compliant would be a move in the right direction and would be a positive sign to the regulatory authorities and the public that blood banking is making a visible effort to implement world-class quality systems in its operations. Implementation of quality system standards such as the ISO 9000 series will provide an organized approach for blood banks and blood bank testing operations. With the continued trend toward consolidation and mergers, resulting in larger operational units with more complexity, quality systems will become even more important as the industry moves into the future.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

  6. 75 FR 44930 - Stakeholder Input; Revisions to Water Quality Standards Regulation

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-07-30

    ... Input; Revisions to Water Quality Standards Regulation AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency. ACTION... national rulemaking to make a limited set of targeted changes to EPA's water quality standards regulation... rulemaking, and to hear views from the public regarding possible changes to EPA's water quality standards...

  7. Quality, Organization Design, and Standards.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gardner, James F.

    1992-01-01

    This paper discusses regulations and voluntary standards within the context of organizational mission and management leadership for quality in human services. Regulation is seen as a measure of organizational formalism; formalism is seen as an attribute of the machine organization; and both are contrasted to organic control organization models and…

  8. Global Standards for Enhancing Quality in Online Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Martin, Florence; Polly, Drew; Jokiaho, Annika; May, Birgit

    2017-01-01

    The quality of online courses offered has been a topic of discussion in the recent years, and efforts have been taken to establish standards for developing online courses. In this study, the authors review 12 online learning standard documents and examine the standards included in each of these documents. The largest number of standards were in…

  9. [Study on seed quality test and quality standard of Lonicera macranthoides].

    PubMed

    Zhang, Ying; Xu, Jin; Li, Long-Yun; Cui, Guang-Lin; She, Yue-Hui

    2016-04-01

    Referring to the rules for agricultural seed testing (GB/T 3543-1995) issued by China, the test of sampling, purity, thousand seed weight, moisture, viability, relative conductivity and germination rate had been studied for seed quality test methods of Lonicera macranthoides. The seed quality from 38 different collection areas was measured to establish quality classification standard by K-means clustering. The results showed that at least 7.5 g seeds should be sampled, and passed 20-mesh sieve for purity analysis.The 500-seed method used to measure thousand seed weight. The moisture was determined by crushed seeds dried in high temperature (130±2) ℃ for 3 h.The viability determined by 25 ℃ 0.1% TTC stained 5h in dark. 1.0 g seeds soaked in 50 ml ultra pure water in 25 ℃ for 12 hours to determine the relative conductivity. The seed by 4 ℃stratification for 80 days were cultured on paper at 15 ℃. Quality of the seeds from different areas was divided into three grades. The primary seed quality classification standard was established.The I grade and II grade were recommend use in production. Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

  10. 7 CFR 1720.4 - General standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... GUARANTEES FOR BONDS AND NOTES ISSUED FOR ELECTRIFICATION OR TELEPHONE PURPOSES § 1720.4 General standards...) The proceeds of the guaranteed bonds will be used by the guaranteed lender to make loans to borrowers... bonds or notes previously issued by the guaranteed lender for such purposes; (2) At the time the...

  11. 7 CFR 1720.4 - General standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... GUARANTEES FOR BONDS AND NOTES ISSUED FOR ELECTRIFICATION OR TELEPHONE PURPOSES § 1720.4 General standards...) The proceeds of the guaranteed bonds will be used by the guaranteed lender to make loans to borrowers... bonds or notes previously issued by the guaranteed lender for such purposes; (2) At the time the...

  12. 7 CFR 1720.4 - General standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... GUARANTEES FOR BONDS AND NOTES ISSUED FOR ELECTRIFICATION OR TELEPHONE PURPOSES § 1720.4 General standards...) The proceeds of the guaranteed bonds will be used by the guaranteed lender to make loans to borrowers... bonds or notes previously issued by the guaranteed lender for such purposes; (2) At the time the...

  13. 7 CFR 1720.4 - General standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... GUARANTEES FOR BONDS AND NOTES ISSUED FOR ELECTRIFICATION OR TELEPHONE PURPOSES § 1720.4 General standards...) The proceeds of the guaranteed bonds will be used by the guaranteed lender to make loans to borrowers... bonds or notes previously issued by the guaranteed lender for such purposes; (2) At the time the...

  14. 7 CFR 1720.4 - General standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... GUARANTEES FOR BONDS AND NOTES ISSUED FOR ELECTRIFICATION OR TELEPHONE PURPOSES § 1720.4 General standards...) The proceeds of the guaranteed bonds will be used by the guaranteed lender to make loans to borrowers... bonds or notes previously issued by the guaranteed lender for such purposes; (2) At the time the...

  15. Quality and standardization of telecommunication switching system software

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ranko, K.; Hivensaio, J.; Myllykangas, A.

    1981-12-01

    The purpose of this paper has been to illustrate quality and standardization of switching system software from the authors point of view with the aim of developing standardization in the user environment.

  16. British Thoracic Society Quality Standards for acute non-invasive ventilation in adults

    PubMed Central

    Davies, Michael; Allen, Martin; Bentley, Andrew; Bourke, Stephen C; Creagh-Brown, Ben; D’Oliveiro, Rachel; Glossop, Alastair; Gray, Alasdair; Jacobs, Phillip; Mahadeva, Ravi; Moses, Rachael; Setchfield, Ian

    2018-01-01

    Introduction The purpose of the quality standards document is to provide healthcare professionals, commissioners, service providers and patients with a guide to standards of care that should be met for the provision of acute non-invasive ventilation in adults together with measurable markers of good practice. Methods Development of British Thoracic Society (BTS) Quality Standards follows the BTS process of quality standard production based on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence process manual for the development of quality standards. Results 6 quality statements have been developed, each describing a standard of care for the provision of acute non-invasive ventilation in the UK, together with measurable markers of good practice. Conclusion BTS Quality Standards for acute non-invasive ventilation in adults form a key part of the range of supporting materials that the Society produces to assist in the dissemination and implementation of guideline’s recommendations. PMID:29636979

  17. 40 CFR 439.4 - General limitation or standard for pH.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 29 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false General limitation or standard for pH. 439.4 Section 439.4 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) EFFLUENT GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS PHARMACEUTICAL MANUFACTURING POINT SOURCE CATEGORY General § 439.4 General...

  18. 40 CFR 131.13 - General policies.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false General policies. 131.13 Section 131.13 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS WATER QUALITY STANDARDS Establishment of Water Quality Standards § 131.13 General policies. States may, at their...

  19. The development of professional practice standards for Australian general practice nurses.

    PubMed

    Halcomb, Elizabeth; Stephens, Moira; Bryce, Julianne; Foley, Elizabeth; Ashley, Christine

    2017-08-01

    The aim of this study was to explore the current role of general practice nurses and the scope of nursing practice to inform the development of national professional practice standards for Australian general practice nurses. Increasing numbers of nurses have been employed in Australian general practice to meet the growing demand for primary care services. This has brought significant changes to the nursing role. Competency standards for nurses working in general practice were first developed in Australia in 2005, but limited attention has been placed on articulating the contemporary scope of practice for nurses in this setting. Concurrent mixed methods design. Data collection was conducted during 2013-2014 and involved two online surveys of Registered and Enrolled Nurses currently working in general practice, a series of 14 focus groups across Australia and a series of consultations with key experts. Data collection enabled the development of 22 Practice Standards separated into four domains: (i) Professional Practice; (ii) Nursing Care; (iii) General Practice Environment and (iv) Collaborative Practice. To differentiate the variations in enacting these Standards, performance indicators for the Enrolled Nurse, Registered Nurse and Registered Nurse Advanced Practice are provided under each Standard. The development of national professional practice standards for nurses working in Australian general practice will support ongoing workforce development. These Standards are also an important means of articulating the role and scope of the nurses' practice for both consumers and other health professionals, as well as being a guide for curriculum development and measurement of performance. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  20. Measuring the quality of melanoma surgery - Highlighting issues with standardization and quality assurance of care in surgical oncology.

    PubMed

    Pasquali, S; Sommariva, A; Spillane, A J; Bilimoria, K Y; Rossi, C R

    2017-03-01

    In an attempt to ensure high standards of cancer care, there is increasing interest in determining and monitoring the quality of interventions in surgical oncology. In recent years, this has been particularly the case for melanoma surgery. The vast majority of patients with melanoma undergo surgery. Usually, this is with combinations of wide excision, sentinel lymph node biopsy and lymphadenectomy. The indications for these procedures evolved during a time when no effective systemic adjuvant therapy was available, and whilst the rationale has been sound, the justification for differences in extent and thoroughness has generally been supported by inadequate or low-level evidence. This has led to a substantial variation among melanoma centres or even among surgeons within a centre in how these procedures are done. With recent rapid progress in the efficacy of systemic treatments that are impacting on overall survival, the prospect of long-term survival in these previously high risk patients means that more than ever long-term locoregional control of melanoma is imperative. Furthermore, the understanding of effects of systemic therapy on locoregional disease will only be interpretable if surgeons use standardized, high quality techniques. This article focuses on standardization and evolution of quality indicators for melanoma surgery and how these might have a positive impact on patient care. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd, BASO ~ the Association for Cancer Surgery, and the European Society of Surgical Oncology. All rights reserved.

  1. A potential gender bias in assessing quality of life - a standard gamble experiment among university students.

    PubMed

    Obaidi, Leath Al; Mahlich, Jörg

    2015-01-01

    There are several methodologies that can be used for evaluating patients' perception of their quality of life. Most commonly, utilities are directly elicited by means of either the time-trade-off or the standard-gamble method. In both methods, risk attitudes determine the quality of life values. Quality of life values among 31 Austrian undergraduate students were elicited by means of the standard gamble approach. The impact of several variables such as gender, side job, length of study, and living arrangements on the quality of life were identified using different types of regression techniques (ordinary least squares, generalized linear model, Betafit). Significant evidence was found that females are associated with a higher quality of life in all specifications of our estimations. The observed gender differences in quality of life can be attributed to a higher degree of risk aversion of women. A higher risk aversion leads to a higher valuation of given health states and a potential gender bias in health economic evaluations. This result could have implications for health policy planners when it comes to budget allocation decisions.

  2. 40 CFR 60.692-1 - Standards: General.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... Petroleum Refinery Wastewater Systems § 60.692-1 Standards: General. (a) Each owner or operator subject to... separate from the wastewater system and does not come in contact with or store oily wastewater, is not...

  3. 40 CFR 60.692-1 - Standards: General.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... Petroleum Refinery Wastewater Systems § 60.692-1 Standards: General. (a) Each owner or operator subject to... separate from the wastewater system and does not come in contact with or store oily wastewater, is not...

  4. 40 CFR 60.692-1 - Standards: General.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... Petroleum Refinery Wastewater Systems § 60.692-1 Standards: General. (a) Each owner or operator subject to... separate from the wastewater system and does not come in contact with or store oily wastewater, is not...

  5. 40 CFR 60.692-1 - Standards: General.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... Petroleum Refinery Wastewater Systems § 60.692-1 Standards: General. (a) Each owner or operator subject to... separate from the wastewater system and does not come in contact with or store oily wastewater, is not...

  6. 40 CFR 60.692-1 - Standards: General.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... Petroleum Refinery Wastewater Systems § 60.692-1 Standards: General. (a) Each owner or operator subject to... separate from the wastewater system and does not come in contact with or store oily wastewater, is not...

  7. Review and comparison of quality standards, guidelines and regulations for laboratories.

    PubMed

    Datema, Tjeerd A M; Oskam, Linda; Klatser, Paul R

    2012-01-01

    The variety and number of laboratory quality standards, guidelines and regulations (hereafter: quality documents) makes it difficult to choose the most suitable one for establishing and maintaining a laboratory quality management system. There is a need to compare the characteristics, suitability and applicability of quality documents in view of the increasing efforts to introduce quality management in laboratories, especially in clinical diagnostic laboratories in low income and middle income countries. This may provide valuable insights for policy makers developing national laboratory policies, and for laboratory managers and quality officers in choosing the most appropriate quality document for upgrading their laboratories. We reviewed the history of quality document development and then selected a subset based on their current use. We analysed these documents following a framework for comparison of quality documents that was adapted from the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute guideline GP26 Quality management system model for clinical laboratory services . Differences were identified between national and international, and non-clinical and clinical quality documents. The most salient findings were the absence of provisions on occurrence management and customer service in almost all non-clinical quality documents, a low number of safety requirements aimed at protecting laboratory personnel in international quality documents and no requirements regarding ethical behaviour in almost all quality documents. Each laboratory needs to investigate whether national regulatory standards are present. These are preferred as they most closely suit the needs of laboratories in the country. A laboratory should always use both a standard and a guideline: a standard sums up the requirements to a quality management system, a guideline describes how quality management can be integrated in the laboratory processes.

  8. 31 CFR 31.213 - General standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 31 Money and Finance: Treasury 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false General standards. 31.213 Section 31.... (b) Any individual who acts for or on behalf of the Treasury pursuant to an arrangement shall comply... anything of value in return for being influenced in, or because of, an official act. Violators are subject...

  9. 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...

  10. 77 FR 46298 - Phosphorus Water Quality Standards for Florida Everglades

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-08-03

    ... Phosphorus Water Quality Standards for Florida Everglades AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA... Quality Standards for Phosphorus in the Everglades Protection Area (Phosphorus Rule) and Florida's Amended... deficiencies in the Phosphorus Rule and EFA. EPA's disapproval, specific directions to the State, and this rule...

  11. Emerging developments in the standardized chemical characterization of indoor air quality.

    PubMed

    Nehr, Sascha; Hösen, Elisabeth; Tanabe, Shin-Ichi

    2017-01-01

    Despite the fact that the special characteristics of indoor air pollution make closed environments quite different from outdoor environments, the conceptual ideas for assessing air quality indoors and outdoors are similar. Therefore, the elaboration of International Standards for air quality characterization in view of controlling indoor air quality should resort to this common basis. In this short review we describe the possibilities of standardization of tools dedicated to indoor air quality characterization with a focus on the tools permitting to study the indoor air chemistry. The link between indoor exposure and health as well as the critical processes driving the indoor air quality are introduced. Available International Standards for the assessment of indoor air quality are depicted. The standards comprise requirements for the sampling on site, the analytical procedures, and the determination of material emissions. To date, these standardized procedures assure that indoor air, settled dust and material samples are analyzed in a comparable manner. However, existing International Standards exclusively specify conventional, event-driven target-screening using discontinuous measurement methods for long-lived pollutants. Therefore, this review draws a parallel between physico-chemical processes in indoor and outdoor environments. The achievements in atmospheric sciences also improve our understanding of indoor environments. The community of atmospheric scientists can be both ideal and supporter for researchers in the area of indoor air quality characterization. This short review concludes with propositions for future standardization activities for the chemical characterization of indoor air quality. Future standardization efforts should focus on: (i) the elaboration of standardized measurement methods and measurement strategies for online monitoring of long-lived and short-lived pollutants, (ii) the assessment of the potential and the limitations of non

  12. Software Quality Assurance and Controls Standard

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2010-04-27

    Software Quality Assurance d C t l St d dan on ro s an ar Sue Carroll Principal Software Quality Analyst, SAS John Wal z VP Technology and...for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that...Cycle (SLC) process? • What is in a SQA Process? • Where are SQA Controls? • What is the SQA standards history? Wh t i h i i SQA?• a s c ang ng n

  13. British Thoracic Society quality standards for the investigation and management of pulmonary nodules.

    PubMed

    Baldwin, David; Callister, Matthew; Akram, Ahsan; Cane, Paul; Draffan, Jeanette; Franks, Kevin; Gleeson, Fergus; Graham, Richard; Malhotra, Puneet; Pearson, Philip; Subesinghe, Manil; Waller, David; Woolhouse, Ian

    2018-01-01

    The purpose of the quality standards document is to provide healthcare professionals, commissioners, service providers and patients with a guide to standards of care that should be met for the investigation and management of pulmonary nodules in the UK, together with measurable markers of good practice. Development of British Thoracic Society (BTS) Quality Standards follows the BTS process of quality standard production based on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence process manual for the development of quality standards. 7 quality statements have been developed, each describing a key marker of high-quality, cost-effective care for the investigation and management of pulmonary nodules, and each statement is supported by quality measures that aim to improve the structure, process and outcomes of healthcare. BTS Quality Standards for the investigation and management of pulmonary nodules form a key part of the range of supporting materials that the Society produces to assist in the dissemination and implementation of guideline recommendations.

  14. British Thoracic Society quality standards for the investigation and management of pulmonary nodules

    PubMed Central

    Baldwin, David; Callister, Matthew; Akram, Ahsan; Cane, Paul; Draffan, Jeanette; Franks, Kevin; Gleeson, Fergus; Graham, Richard; Malhotra, Puneet; Pearson, Philip; Subesinghe, Manil; Waller, David; Woolhouse, Ian

    2018-01-01

    Introduction The purpose of the quality standards document is to provide healthcare professionals, commissioners, service providers and patients with a guide to standards of care that should be met for the investigation and management of pulmonary nodules in the UK, together with measurable markers of good practice. Methods Development of British Thoracic Society (BTS) Quality Standards follows the BTS process of quality standard production based on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence process manual for the development of quality standards. Results 7 quality statements have been developed, each describing a key marker of high-quality, cost-effective care for the investigation and management of pulmonary nodules, and each statement is supported by quality measures that aim to improve the structure, process and outcomes of healthcare. Discussion BTS Quality Standards for the investigation and management of pulmonary nodules form a key part of the range of supporting materials that the Society produces to assist in the dissemination and implementation of guideline recommendations. PMID:29682290

  15. 40 CFR 131.22 - EPA promulgation of water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... promulgation of water quality standards. (a) If the State does not adopt the changes specified by the Regional... 40 Protection of Environment 23 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false EPA promulgation of water quality standards. 131.22 Section 131.22 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER...

  16. 40 CFR 131.22 - EPA promulgation of water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... promulgation of water quality standards. (a) If the State does not adopt the changes specified by the Regional... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2014-07-01 2013-07-01 true EPA promulgation of water quality standards. 131.22 Section 131.22 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER...

  17. 40 CFR 131.22 - EPA promulgation of water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... promulgation of water quality standards. (a) If the State does not adopt the changes specified by the Regional... 40 Protection of Environment 23 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false EPA promulgation of water quality standards. 131.22 Section 131.22 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER...

  18. 25 CFR 273.38 - Equal quality and standard of education.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Equal quality and standard of education. 273.38 Section... EDUCATION ASSISTANCE ACT PROGRAM EDUCATION CONTRACTS UNDER JOHNSON-O'MALLEY ACT Funding Provisions § 273.38 Equal quality and standard of education. Contracts with State education agencies or school districts...

  19. 40 CFR 131.20 - State review and revision of water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false State review and revision of water quality standards. 131.20 Section 131.20 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS WATER QUALITY STANDARDS Procedures for Review and Revision of Water Quality Standards § 131.20 State review and revision of...

  20. Asbestos: Rationale Behind a Proposed Air Quality Standard

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bruckman, Leonard; Rubino, Robert A.

    1975-01-01

    This article proposes an asbestos air quality standard for Connecticut lower than proposed Federal regulation. Data are given relating mesothelioma incidence to occupational and non-occupational asbestos exposure. New standards lower asbestos emissions from manufacturing operations thus reducing possible asbestos-related fatalities. Rebuttals and…

  1. 40 CFR 131.20 - State review and revision of water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... accordance with provisions of State law, EPA's water quality management regulation (40 CFR 130.3(b)(6)) and... quality standards. 131.20 Section 131.20 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS WATER QUALITY STANDARDS Procedures for Review and Revision of Water Quality...

  2. 48 CFR 209.104-1 - General standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... International Contracting, OUSD(AT&L)DPAP(CPIC)), 3060 Defense Pentagon, Washington, DC 20301-3060. (ii....104-1 General standards. (e) For cost-reimbursement or incentive type contracts, or contracts which...; (iii) Risk of misallocations and mischarges are minimized; and (iv) Contract allocations and charges...

  3. Quality specifications and standard-setting for stoma care patients.

    PubMed

    Primer, M A

    1995-12-01

    Quality specifications can be used as an information resource by purchasers of health care. The nature of service provision and nursing care can be positively influenced by the formalisation of standards and quality specifications. Auditing is essential in the ongoing evaluation of a quality system.

  4. Early Childhood Standards of Quality for Prekindergarten through Second Grade.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Michigan State Board of Education, Lansing.

    Recognizing the value and need for quality early childhood education programs for children ages four through eight years, the Michigan State Board of Education appointed an ad hoc committee to develop standards of quality. Based on the draft developed by this committee, this standards guide is designed to assist administrators, teachers, and…

  5. 26 CFR 1.23-4 - Performance and quality standards. [Reserved

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 26 Internal Revenue 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 true Performance and quality standards. [Reserved] 1.23-4 Section 1.23-4 Internal Revenue INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY INCOME TAX INCOME TAXES Changes in Rates During A Taxable Year § 1.23-4 Performance and quality standards. [Reserved...

  6. Standardized Curriculum for General Industrial Maintenance Trades.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mississippi State Dept. of Education, Jackson. Office of Vocational, Technical and Adult Education.

    Standardized vocational education course titles and core contents for two courses in Mississippi are provided: general industrial maintenance trades I and II. The first course contains the following units: (1) orientation and leadership activities; (2) safety; (3) blueprint reading; (4) oxyacetylene cutting; (5) preventative maintenance; (6)…

  7. 43 CFR 3930.10 - General performance standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR MINERALS MANAGEMENT (3000) MANAGEMENT OF OIL SHALE EXPLORATION AND LEASES Management of Oil Shale Exploration Licenses and Leases § 3930.10 General performance standards... drill holes that could adversely affect the recovery of shale oil or other minerals producible under an...

  8. 43 CFR 3930.10 - General performance standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR MINERALS MANAGEMENT (3000) MANAGEMENT OF OIL SHALE EXPLORATION AND LEASES Management of Oil Shale Exploration Licenses and Leases § 3930.10 General performance standards... drill holes that could adversely affect the recovery of shale oil or other minerals producible under an...

  9. 43 CFR 3930.10 - General performance standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR MINERALS MANAGEMENT (3000) MANAGEMENT OF OIL SHALE EXPLORATION AND LEASES Management of Oil Shale Exploration Licenses and Leases § 3930.10 General performance standards... drill holes that could adversely affect the recovery of shale oil or other minerals producible under an...

  10. 42 CFR 493.837 - Standard; General immunology.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Standard; General immunology. 493.837 Section 493.837 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES... Performing Tests of Moderate Complexity (including the Subcategory), High Complexity, Or Any Combination of...

  11. 42 CFR 493.837 - Standard; General immunology.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Standard; General immunology. 493.837 Section 493.837 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES... Performing Tests of Moderate Complexity (including the Subcategory), High Complexity, Or Any Combination of...

  12. 36 CFR 905.735-201 - General standards of conduct.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... economy; (4) Losing complete independence or impartiality; (5) Making a Government decision outside... CORPORATION STANDARDS OF CONDUCT Conduct and Responsibilities of Employees § 905.735-201 General standards of conduct. (a) All employees shall conduct themselves on the job so as to efficiently discharge the work of...

  13. 78 FR 20252 - Water Quality Standards; Withdrawal of Certain Federal Water Quality Criteria Applicable to...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-04-04

    ... aquatic life water quality criteria applicable to waters of New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and California's San Francisco Bay. In 1992, EPA promulgated the National Toxics Rule or NTR to establish numeric water quality... Water Quality Standards; Withdrawal of Certain Federal Water Quality Criteria Applicable to California...

  14. 48 CFR 209.104-1 - General standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ....104-1 General standards. (e) For cost-reimbursement or incentive type contracts, or contracts which provide for progress payments based on costs or on a percentage or stage of completion, the prospective...) Applicable laws and regulations are complied with; (ii) The accounting system and cost data are reliable...

  15. 43 CFR 3930.10 - General performance standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR RANGE MANAGEMENT (4000) MANAGEMENT OF OIL SHALE EXPLORATION AND LEASES Management of Oil Shale Exploration Licenses and Leases § 3930.10 General performance standards. The operator... adversely affect the recovery of shale oil or other minerals producible under an oil shale lease during...

  16. Illinois Occupational Skill Standards: Industrial Maintenance General Maintenance Cluster.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Illinois Occupational Skill Standards and Credentialing Council, Carbondale.

    These skill standards for the industrial maintenance general maintenance cluster are intended to be a guide to workforce preparation program providers in defining content for their programs and to employers to establish the skills and standards necessary for job acquisition. An introduction provides the Illinois perspective; Illinois Occupational…

  17. Stable aesthetic standards delusion: changing 'artistic quality' by elaboration.

    PubMed

    Carbon, Claus-Christian; Hesslinger, Vera M

    2014-01-01

    The present study challenges the notion that judgments of artistic quality are based on stable aesthetic standards. We propose that such standards are a delusion and that judgments of artistic quality are the combined result of exposure, elaboration, and discourse. We ran two experiments using elaboration tasks based on the repeated evaluation technique in which different versions of the Mona Lisa had to be elaborated deeply. During the initial task either the version known from the Louvre or an alternative version owned by the Prado was elaborated; during the second task both versions were elaborated in a comparative fashion. After both tasks multiple blends of the two versions had to be evaluated concerning several aesthetic key variables. Judgments of artistic quality of the blends were significantly different depending on the initially elaborated version of the Mona Lisa, indicating experience-based aesthetic processing, which contradicts the notion of stable aesthetic standards.

  18. Prioritizing quality improvement in general surgery.

    PubMed

    Schilling, Peter L; Dimick, Justin B; Birkmeyer, John D

    2008-11-01

    Despite growing interest in quality improvement, uncertainty remains about which procedures offer the most room for improvement in general surgery. In this context, we sought to describe the relative contribution of different procedures to overall morbidity, mortality, and excess length of stay in general surgery. Using data from the American College of Surgeons' National Surgery Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP), we identified all patients undergoing a general surgery procedure in 2005 and 2006 (n=129,233). Patients were placed in 36 distinct procedure groups based on Current Procedural Terminology codes. We first examined procedure groups according to their relative contribution to overall morbidity and mortality. We then assessed procedure groups according to their contribution to overall excess length of stay. Ten procedure groups alone accounted for 62% of complications and 54% of excess hospital days. Colectomy accounted for the greatest share of adverse events, followed by small intestine resection, inpatient cholecystectomy, and ventral hernia repair. In contrast, several common procedures contributed little to overall morbidity and mortality. For example, outpatient cholecystectomy, breast procedures, thyroidectomy, parathyroidectomy, and outpatient inguinal hernia repair together accounted for 34% of procedures, but only 6% of complications (and only 4% of major complications). These same procedures accounted for < 1% of excess hospital days. A relatively small number of procedures account for a disproportionate share of the morbidity, mortality, and excess hospital days in general surgery. Focusing quality improvement efforts on these procedures may be an effective strategy for improving patient care and reducing cost.

  19. Do Energy Efficiency Standards Improve Quality? Evidence from a Revealed Preference Approach

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

    Houde, Sebastien; Spurlock, C. Anna

    Minimum energy efficiency standards have occupied a central role in U.S. energy policy for more than three decades, but little is known about their welfare effects. In this paper, we employ a revealed preference approach to quantify the impact of past revisions in energy efficiency standards on product quality. The micro-foundation of our approach is a discrete choice model that allows us to compute a price-adjusted index of vertical quality. Focusing on the appliance market, we show that several standard revisions during the period 2001-2011 have led to an increase in quality. We also show that these standards have hadmore » a modest effect on prices, and in some cases they even led to decreases in prices. For revision events where overall quality increases and prices decrease, the consumer welfare effect of tightening the standards is unambiguously positive. Finally, we show that after controlling for the effect of improvement in energy efficiency, standards have induced an expansion of quality in the non-energy dimension. We discuss how imperfect competition can rationalize these results.« less

  20. [Development and validation of quality standards for colonoscopy].

    PubMed

    Sánchez Del Río, Antonio; Baudet, Juan Salvador; Naranjo Rodríguez, Antonio; Campo Fernández de Los Ríos, Rafael; Salces Franco, Inmaculada; Aparicio Tormo, Jose Ramón; Sánchez Muñoz, Diego; Llach, Joseph; Hervás Molina, Antonio; Parra-Blanco, Adolfo; Díaz Acosta, Juan Antonio

    2010-01-30

    Before starting programs for colorectal cancer screening it is necessary to evaluate the quality of colonoscopy. Our objectives were to develop a group of quality indicators of colonoscopy easily applicable and to determine the variability of their achievement. After reviewing the bibliography we prepared 21 potential indicators of quality that were submitted to a process of selection in which we measured their facial validity, content validity, reliability and viability of their measurement. We estimated the variability of their achievement by means of the coefficient of variability (CV) and the variability of the achievement of the standards by means of chi(2). Six indicators overcome the selection process: informed consent, medication administered, completed colonoscopy, complications, every polyp removed and recovered, and adenoma detection rate in patients older than 50 years. 1928 colonoscopies were included from eight endoscopy units. Every unit included the same number of colonoscopies selected by means of simple random sampling with substitution. There was an important variability in the achievement of some indicators and standards: medication administered (CV 43%, p<0.01), complications registered (CV 37%, p<0.01), every polyp removed and recovered (CV 12%, p<0.01) and adenoma detection rate in older than fifty years (CV 2%, p<0.01). We have validated six quality indicators for colonoscopy which are easily measurable. An important variability exists in the achievement of some indicators and standards. Our data highlight the importance of the development of continuous quality improvement programmes for colonoscopy before starting colorectal cancer screening. Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved.

  1. National Standards for Quality Online Courses: Version 2

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    International Association for K-12 Online Learning, 2011

    2011-01-01

    The mission of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) is to ensure all students have access to world-class education and quality online learning opportunities that prepare them for a lifetime of success. "National Standards for Quality Online Courses" is designed to provide states, districts, online programs, and…

  2. 40 CFR 131.13 - General policies.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... STANDARDS Establishment of Water Quality Standards § 131.13 General policies. States may, at their discretion, include in their State standards, policies generally affecting their application and implementation, such as mixing zones, low flows and variances. Such policies are subject to EPA review and...

  3. Quality of haemophilia care in The Netherlands: new standards for optimal care.

    PubMed

    Leebeek, Frank W G; Fischer, Kathelijn

    2014-04-01

    In the Netherlands, the first formal haemophilia comprehensive care centre was established in 1964, and Dutch haemophilia doctors have been organised since 1972. Although several steps were taken to centralise haemophilia care and maintain quality of care, treatment was still delivered in many hospitals, and formal criteria for haemophilia treatment centres as well as a national haemophilia registry were lacking. In collaboration with patients and other stakeholders, Dutch haemophilia doctors have undertaken a formal process to draft new quality standards for the haemophilia treatment centres. First a project group including doctors, nurses, patients and the institute for harmonisation of quality standards undertook a literature study on quality standards and performed explorative visits to several haemophilia treatment centres in the Netherlands. Afterwards concept standards were defined and validated in two treatment centres. Next, the concept standards were evaluated by haemophilia doctors, patients, health insurance representatives and regulators. Finally, the final version of the standards of care was approved by Central body of Experts on quality standards in clinical care and the Dutch Ministry of Health. A team of expert auditors have been trained and, together with an independent auditor, will perform audits in haemophilia centres applying for formal certification. Concomitantly, a national registry for haemophilia and allied disorders is being set up. It is expected that these processes will lead to further concentration and improved quality of haemophilia care in the Netherlands.

  4. 40 CFR 439.4 - General limitation or standard for pH.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 31 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false General limitation or standard for pH. 439.4 Section 439.4 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) EFFLUENT... General limitation or standard for pH. The pH must remain within the range 6.0 to 9.0 in any discharge...

  5. 40 CFR 439.4 - General limitation or standard for pH.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 30 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false General limitation or standard for pH. 439.4 Section 439.4 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) EFFLUENT... General limitation or standard for pH. The pH must remain within the range 6.0 to 9.0 in any discharge...

  6. 40 CFR 439.4 - General limitation or standard for pH.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 31 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false General limitation or standard for pH. 439.4 Section 439.4 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) EFFLUENT... General limitation or standard for pH. The pH must remain within the range 6.0 to 9.0 in any discharge...

  7. Study on Quality Standard of Processed Curcuma Longa Radix

    PubMed Central

    Zhao, Yongfeng; Quan, Liang; Zhou, Haiting; Cao, Dong; Li, Wenbing; Yang, Zhuo

    2017-01-01

    To control the quality of Curcuma Longa Radix by establishing quality standards, this paper increased the contents of extract and volatile oil determination. Meanwhile, the curcumin was selected as the internal marker, and the relative correlation factors (RCFs) of demethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin were established by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The contents of multicomponents were calculated based on their RCFs. The rationality and feasibility of the methods were evaluated by comparison of the quantitative results between external standard method (ESM) and quantitative analysis of multicomponents by single-marker (QAMS). Ethanol extracts ranged from 9.749 to 15.644% and the mean value was 13.473%. The volatile oil ranged from 0.45 to 0.90 mL/100 g and the mean value was 0.66 mL/100 g. This method was accurate and feasible and could provide a reference for further comprehensive and effective control of the quality standard of Curcuma Longa Radix and its processed products. PMID:29375640

  8. 30 CFR 816.42 - Hydrologic balance: Water quality standards and effluent limitations.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Hydrologic balance: Water quality standards and effluent limitations. 816.42 Section 816.42 Mineral Resources OFFICE OF SURFACE MINING RECLAMATION AND... STANDARDS-SURFACE MINING ACTIVITIES § 816.42 Hydrologic balance: Water quality standards and effluent...

  9. 30 CFR 817.42 - Hydrologic balance: Water quality standards and effluent limitations.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 3 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Hydrologic balance: Water quality standards and effluent limitations. 817.42 Section 817.42 Mineral Resources OFFICE OF SURFACE MINING RECLAMATION AND... STANDARDS-UNDERGROUND MINING ACTIVITIES § 817.42 Hydrologic balance: Water quality standards and effluent...

  10. 30 CFR 817.42 - Hydrologic balance: Water quality standards and effluent limitations.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Hydrologic balance: Water quality standards and effluent limitations. 817.42 Section 817.42 Mineral Resources OFFICE OF SURFACE MINING RECLAMATION AND... STANDARDS-UNDERGROUND MINING ACTIVITIES § 817.42 Hydrologic balance: Water quality standards and effluent...

  11. 30 CFR 816.42 - Hydrologic balance: Water quality standards and effluent limitations.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 3 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Hydrologic balance: Water quality standards and effluent limitations. 816.42 Section 816.42 Mineral Resources OFFICE OF SURFACE MINING RECLAMATION AND... STANDARDS-SURFACE MINING ACTIVITIES § 816.42 Hydrologic balance: Water quality standards and effluent...

  12. Outcome quality standards in pancreatic oncologic surgery in Spain.

    PubMed

    Sabater, Luis; Mora, Isabel; Gámez Del Castillo, Juan Manuel; Escrig-Sos, Javier; Muñoz-Forner, Elena; Garcés-Albir, Marina; Dorcaratto, Dimitri; Ortega, Joaquín

    2018-05-18

    To establish quality standards in oncologic surgery is a complex but necessary challenge to improve surgical outcomes. Unlike other tumors, there are no well-defined quality standards in pancreatic cancer. The aim of this study is to identify quality indicators in pancreatic oncologic surgery in Spain as well as their acceptable limits of variability. Quality indicators were selected based on clinical practice guidelines, consensus conferences, reviews and national publications on oncologic pancreatic surgery between the years 2000 and 2016. Variability margins for each indicator have been determined by statistical process control techniques and graphically represented with the 99.8 and 95% confidence intervals above and below the weighted average according to sample size. The following indicators have been determined with their weighted average and acceptable quality limits: resectability rate 71% (>58%), morbidity 58% (<73%), mortality 4% (<10%), biliary leak 6% (<14%), pancreatic fistula rate 18% (<29%), hemorrhage 11% (<21%), reoperation rate 11% (<20%) and mean hospital stay (<21 days). To date, few related series have been published, and they present important methodological limitations. Among the selected indicators, the morbidity and mortality quality limits have come out higher than those obtained in international standards. It is necessary for Spanish pancreatic surgeons to adopt homogeneous criteria regarding indicators and their definitions to allow for the comparison of their results. Copyright © 2018 AEC. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

  13. New methods of MR image intensity standardization via generalized scale

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Madabhushi, Anant; Udupa, Jayaram K.

    2005-04-01

    Image intensity standardization is a post-acquisition processing operation designed for correcting acquisition-to-acquisition signal intensity variations (non-standardness) inherent in Magnetic Resonance (MR) images. While existing standardization methods based on histogram landmarks have been shown to produce a significant gain in the similarity of resulting image intensities, their weakness is that, in some instances the same histogram-based landmark may represent one tissue, while in other cases it may represent different tissues. This is often true for diseased or abnormal patient studies in which significant changes in the image intensity characteristics may occur. In an attempt to overcome this problem, in this paper, we present two new intensity standardization methods based on the concept of generalized scale. In reference 1 we introduced the concept of generalized scale (g-scale) to overcome the shape, topological, and anisotropic constraints imposed by other local morphometric scale models. Roughly speaking, the g-scale of a voxel in a scene was defined as the largest set of voxels connected to the voxel that satisfy some homogeneity criterion. We subsequently formulated a variant of the generalized scale notion, referred to as generalized ball scale (gB-scale), which, in addition to having the advantages of g-scale, also has superior noise resistance properties. These scale concepts are utilized in this paper to accurately determine principal tissue regions within MR images, and landmarks derived from these regions are used to perform intensity standardization. The new methods were qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated on a total of 67 clinical 3D MR images corresponding to four different protocols and to normal, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and brain tumor patient studies. The generalized scale-based methods were found to be better than the existing methods, with a significant improvement observed for severely diseased and abnormal patient studies.

  14. 40 CFR 50.8 - National primary ambient air quality standards for carbon monoxide.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false National primary ambient air quality standards for carbon monoxide. 50.8 Section 50.8 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS NATIONAL PRIMARY AND SECONDARY AMBIENT AIR QUALITY STANDARDS § 50.8 National primary ambient air quality standards for...

  15. 40 CFR 50.8 - National primary ambient air quality standards for carbon monoxide.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false National primary ambient air quality standards for carbon monoxide. 50.8 Section 50.8 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS NATIONAL PRIMARY AND SECONDARY AMBIENT AIR QUALITY STANDARDS § 50.8 National primary ambient air quality standards for...

  16. 40 CFR 50.8 - National primary ambient air quality standards for carbon monoxide.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false National primary ambient air quality standards for carbon monoxide. 50.8 Section 50.8 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS NATIONAL PRIMARY AND SECONDARY AMBIENT AIR QUALITY STANDARDS § 50.8 National primary ambient air quality standards for...

  17. Does a higher 'quality points' score mean better care in stroke? An audit of general practice medical records.

    PubMed

    Williams, Peter Huw; de Lusignan, Simon

    2006-01-01

    The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) have produced guidelines for stroke management in primary care; this guidance is taken to be the gold standard for the care of people with stroke. UK general practitioners now have a quality-based contract which includes a Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF). This consists of financially remunerated 'quality points' for specific disease areas, including stroke. Achievement of these quality points is measured by extracting a limited list of computer codes from practice computer systems. To investigate whether a high stroke quality score is associated with adherence to RCP guidelines. Examination of computer and written medical records of all patients with a diagnosis of stroke. Two general practices, one in southwest London, one in Surrey, with a combined practice population of over 20 000. Both practices had a similar age-sex profile and prevalence of stroke. One practice scored 93.5% (29/31) of the available stroke quality points. The other practice achieved 73.4% (22.75/31), and only did better in one stroke quality target. However, the practice scoring fewer quality points had much better adherence to RCP guidance: 96% of patients were assessed in secondary care compared with 79% (P=0.001); 64% of stroke patients were seen the same day, compared with 44%; 56% received rehabilitation compared with 37%. Higher quality points did not reflect better adherence to RCP guidance. This audit highlights a gap between relatively simplistic measures of quality in the QOF, dependent on the recording of a narrow range of computer codes, and the actual standard of care being delivered. Research is needed to see whether this finding is generalisable and how the Quality and Outcomes Framework might be better aligned with delivering best practice.

  18. Using Clinical Data Standards to Measure Quality: A New Approach.

    PubMed

    D'Amore, John D; Li, Chun; McCrary, Laura; Niloff, Jonathan M; Sittig, Dean F; McCoy, Allison B; Wright, Adam

    2018-04-01

     Value-based payment for care requires the consistent, objective calculation of care quality. Previous initiatives to calculate ambulatory quality measures have relied on billing data or individual electronic health records (EHRs) to calculate and report performance. New methods for quality measure calculation promoted by federal regulations allow qualified clinical data registries to report quality outcomes based on data aggregated across facilities and EHRs using interoperability standards.  This research evaluates the use of clinical document interchange standards as the basis for quality measurement.  Using data on 1,100 patients from 11 ambulatory care facilities and 5 different EHRs, challenges to quality measurement are identified and addressed for 17 certified quality measures.  Iterative solutions were identified for 14 measures that improved patient inclusion and measure calculation accuracy. Findings validate this approach to improving measure accuracy while maintaining measure certification.  Organizations that report care quality should be aware of how identified issues affect quality measure selection and calculation. Quality measure authors should consider increasing real-world validation and the consistency of measure logic in respect to issues identified in this research. Schattauer GmbH Stuttgart.

  19. Relationship Between General Nutrition Knowledge and Dietary Quality in Elite Athletes.

    PubMed

    Spronk, Inge; Heaney, Susan E; Prvan, Tania; O'Connor, Helen T

    2015-06-01

    This study investigated the association between general nutrition knowledge and dietary quality in a convenience sample of athletes (≥ state level) recruited from four Australian State Sport Institutes. General nutrition knowledge was measured by the validated General Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire and diet quality by an adapted version of the Australian Recommended Food Score (A-ARFS) calculated from food frequency questionnaire data. Analysis of variance and linear modeling were used to assess relationships between variables. mean (Standard Deviation). A total of 101 athletes (Males: 37; Females: 64), 18.6 (4.6) years were recruited mainly from team sports (72.0%). Females scored higher than males for both nutrition knowledge (Females: 59.9%; Males: 55.6%; p = .017) and total A-ARFS (Females: 54.2% Males: 49.4%; p = .016). There was no significant influence of age, level of education, athletic caliber or team/individual sport participation on nutrition knowledge or total A-ARFS. However, athletes engaged in previous dietetic consultation had significantly higher nutrition knowledge (61.6% vs. 56.6%; p = .034) but not total A-ARFS (53.6% vs. 52.0%; p = .466). Nutrition knowledge was weakly but positively associated with total A-ARFS (r = .261, p= .008) and A-ARFS vegetable subgroup (r = .252, p = .024) independently explaining 6.8% and 5.1% of the variance respectively. Gender independently explained 5.6% of the variance in nutrition knowledge (p= .017) and 6.7% in total A-ARFS (p = .016). Higher nutrition knowledge and female gender were weakly but positively associated with better diet quality. Given the importance of nutrition to health and optimal sports performance, intervention to improve nutrition knowledge and healthy eating is recommended, especially for young male athletes.

  20. Quality standards for rheumatology outpatient clinic. The EXTRELLA project.

    PubMed

    Nolla, Joan M; Martínez, Carmen; García-Vicuña, Rosario; Seoane-Mato, Daniel; Rosario Lozano, M Piedad; Alonso, Alberto; Alperi, Mercedes; Barbazán, Ceferino; Calvo, Jaime; Delgado, Concepción; Fernández-Nebro, Antonio; Mateo, Lourdes; Pérez Sandoval, Trinidad; Pérez Venegas, José; Rodríguez Lozano, Carlos; Rosas, José

    2016-01-01

    In recent years, outpatient clinics have undergone extensive development. At present, patients with rheumatic diseases are mainly assisted in this area. However, the quality standards of care are poorly documented. To develop specific quality criteria and standards for an outpatient rheumatology clinic. The project was based on the two-round Delphi method. The following groups of participants took part: scientific committee (13 rheumatologists), five nominal groups (45 rheumatologists and 12 nurses) and a group of discussion formed by 9 patients. Different drafts were consecutively generated until a final document was obtained that included the standards that received a punctuation equal or over 7 in at least 70% of the participants. 148 standards were developed, grouped into the following 9 dimensions: a) structure (22), b) clinical activity and relationship with the patients (34), c) planning (7), d) levels of priority (5), e) relations with primary care physicians, with Emergency Department and with other clinical departments, f) process (26), g) nursing (13), h) teaching and research (13) and i) activity measures (8). This study established specific quality standards for rheumatology outpatient clinic. It can be a useful tool for organising this area in the Rheumatology Department and as a reference when proposing improvement measures to health administrators. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier España, S.L.U. and Sociedad Española de Reumatología y Colegio Mexicano de Reumatología. All rights reserved.

  1. Standards to Assure Quality in Tertiary Education: The Case of Tanzania

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Manyaga, Timothy

    2008-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide information on development of standards in Tanzania which may be of help to training providers in other countries as they seek to improve the quality and standards of their provision. Design/methodology/approach: The need to provide quality assured tertiary qualifications in Tanzania to win both…

  2. 40 CFR 50.12 - National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for lead.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... air quality standards for lead. 50.12 Section 50.12 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION... National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for lead. (a) National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for lead and its compounds, measured as elemental lead by a reference method...

  3. 40 CFR 50.12 - National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for lead.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... air quality standards for lead. 50.12 Section 50.12 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION... National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for lead. (a) National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for lead and its compounds, measured as elemental lead by a reference method...

  4. 40 CFR 50.12 - National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for lead.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... air quality standards for lead. 50.12 Section 50.12 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION... National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for lead. (a) National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for lead and its compounds, measured as elemental lead by a reference method...

  5. 24 CFR 982.621 - Manufactured home: Housing quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 24 Housing and Urban Development 4 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Manufactured home: Housing quality... Types Manufactured Home § 982.621 Manufactured home: Housing quality standards. A manufactured home must meet all the HQS performance requirements and acceptability criteria in § 982.401. A manufactured home...

  6. 24 CFR 982.621 - Manufactured home: Housing quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 24 Housing and Urban Development 4 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Manufactured home: Housing quality... Types Manufactured Home § 982.621 Manufactured home: Housing quality standards. A manufactured home must meet all the HQS performance requirements and acceptability criteria in § 982.401. A manufactured home...

  7. 24 CFR 982.621 - Manufactured home: Housing quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 24 Housing and Urban Development 4 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Manufactured home: Housing quality... Types Manufactured Home § 982.621 Manufactured home: Housing quality standards. A manufactured home must meet all the HQS performance requirements and acceptability criteria in § 982.401. A manufactured home...

  8. 24 CFR 982.621 - Manufactured home: Housing quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 24 Housing and Urban Development 4 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Manufactured home: Housing quality... Types Manufactured Home § 982.621 Manufactured home: Housing quality standards. A manufactured home must meet all the HQS performance requirements and acceptability criteria in § 982.401. A manufactured home...

  9. 24 CFR 982.621 - Manufactured home: Housing quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 24 Housing and Urban Development 4 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Manufactured home: Housing quality... Types Manufactured Home § 982.621 Manufactured home: Housing quality standards. A manufactured home must meet all the HQS performance requirements and acceptability criteria in § 982.401. A manufactured home...

  10. 40 CFR 50.15 - National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... air quality standards for ozone. 50.15 Section 50.15 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL....15 National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone. (a) The level of the national 8-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone (O3) is 0.075 parts per...

  11. 40 CFR 50.15 - National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... air quality standards for ozone. 50.15 Section 50.15 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL....15 National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone. (a) The level of the national 8-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone (O3) is 0.075 parts per...

  12. 40 CFR 50.15 - National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... air quality standards for ozone. 50.15 Section 50.15 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL....15 National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone. (a) The level of the national 8-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone (O3) is 0.075 parts per...

  13. 40 CFR 50.15 - National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... air quality standards for ozone. 50.15 Section 50.15 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL....15 National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone. (a) The level of the national 8-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone (O3) is 0.075 parts per...

  14. 40 CFR 50.15 - National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... air quality standards for ozone. 50.15 Section 50.15 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL....15 National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone. (a) The level of the national 8-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone (O3) is 0.075 parts per...

  15. 40 CFR 50.16 - National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for lead.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... air quality standards for lead. 50.16 Section 50.16 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION... National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for lead. (a) The national primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for lead (Pb) and its compounds are 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter...

  16. [Application of traditional Chinese medicine reference standards in quality control of Chinese herbal pieces].

    PubMed

    Lu, Tu-Lin; Li, Jin-Ci; Yu, Jiang-Yong; Cai, Bao-Chang; Mao, Chun-Qin; Yin, Fang-Zhou

    2014-01-01

    Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) reference standards plays an important role in the quality control of Chinese herbal pieces. This paper overviewed the development of TCM reference standards. By analyzing the 2010 edition of Chinese pharmacopoeia, the application of TCM reference standards in the quality control of Chinese herbal pieces was summarized, and the problems exiting in the system were put forward. In the process of improving the quality control level of Chinese herbal pieces, various kinds of advanced methods and technology should be used to research the characteristic reference standards of Chinese herbal pieces, more and more reasonable reference standards should be introduced in the quality control system of Chinese herbal pieces. This article discussed the solutions in the aspect of TCM reference standards, and future development of quality control on Chinese herbal pieces is prospected.

  17. 40 CFR 432.3 - General limitation or standard for pH.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 29 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false General limitation or standard for pH... standard for pH. Any discharge subject to BPT, BCT, or NSPS limitations or standards in this part must remain within the pH range of 6 to 9. ...

  18. 40 CFR 432.3 - General limitation or standard for pH.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 30 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false General limitation or standard for pH... standard for pH. Any discharge subject to BPT, BCT, or NSPS limitations or standards in this part must remain within the pH range of 6 to 9. ...

  19. Drinking water quality standards and standard tests: Worldwide. (Latest citations from the Food Science and Technology Abstracts database). Published Search

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

    Not Available

    1993-06-01

    The bibliography contains citations concerning standards and standard tests for water quality in drinking water sources, reservoirs, and distribution systems. Standards from domestic and international sources are presented. Glossaries and vocabularies that concern water quality analysis, testing, and evaluation are included. Standard test methods for individual elements, selected chemicals, sensory properties, radioactivity, and other chemical and physical properties are described. Discussions for proposed standards on new pollutant materials are briefly considered. (Contains a minimum of 203 citations and includes a subject term index and title list.)

  20. General Conformity

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The General Conformity requirements ensure that the actions taken by federal agencies in nonattainment and maintenance areas do not interfere with a state’s plans to meet national standards for air quality.

  1. Ride quality criteria and the design process. [standards for ride comfort

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ravera, R. J.

    1975-01-01

    Conceptual designs for advanced ground transportation systems often hinge on obtaining acceptable vehicle ride quality while attempting to keep the total guideway cost (initial and subsequent maintenance) as low as possible. Two ride quality standards used extensively in work sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) are the DOT-Urban Tracked Air Cushion Vehicle (UTACV) standard and the International Standards Organization (ISO) reduced ride comfort criteria. These standards are reviewed and some of the deficiencies, which become apparent when trying to apply them in practice, are noted. Through the use of a digital simulation, the impact of each of these standards on an example design process is examined. It is shown that meeting the ISO specification for the particular vehicle/guideway case investigated is easier than meeting the UTACV standard.

  2. 40 CFR 432.3 - General limitation or standard for pH.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 30 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false General limitation or standard for pH... limitation or standard for pH. Any discharge subject to BPT, BCT, or NSPS limitations or standards in this part must remain within the pH range of 6 to 9. ...

  3. 40 CFR 432.3 - General limitation or standard for pH.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 31 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false General limitation or standard for pH... limitation or standard for pH. Any discharge subject to BPT, BCT, or NSPS limitations or standards in this part must remain within the pH range of 6 to 9. ...

  4. 40 CFR 432.3 - General limitation or standard for pH.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 31 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false General limitation or standard for pH... limitation or standard for pH. Any discharge subject to BPT, BCT, or NSPS limitations or standards in this part must remain within the pH range of 6 to 9. ...

  5. 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

  6. 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.

  7. 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...

  8. 42 CFR 435.811 - Medically needy income standard: General requirements.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Medically needy income standard: General requirements. 435.811 Section 435.811 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF... maximum dollar amount of income allowed for purposes of FFP under § 435.1007. (f) The income standard may...

  9. 24 CFR 982.614 - Group home: Housing quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 24 Housing and Urban Development 4 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Group home: Housing quality... Types Group Home § 982.614 Group home: Housing quality standards. (a) Compliance with HQS. The PHA may not give approval to reside in a group home unless the unit, including the portion of the unit...

  10. 24 CFR 982.614 - Group home: Housing quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 24 Housing and Urban Development 4 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Group home: Housing quality... Types Group Home § 982.614 Group home: Housing quality standards. (a) Compliance with HQS. The PHA may not give approval to reside in a group home unless the unit, including the portion of the unit...

  11. 24 CFR 982.614 - Group home: Housing quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 24 Housing and Urban Development 4 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Group home: Housing quality... Types Group Home § 982.614 Group home: Housing quality standards. (a) Compliance with HQS. The PHA may not give approval to reside in a group home unless the unit, including the portion of the unit...

  12. 24 CFR 982.614 - Group home: Housing quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 24 Housing and Urban Development 4 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Group home: Housing quality... Types Group Home § 982.614 Group home: Housing quality standards. (a) Compliance with HQS. The PHA may not give approval to reside in a group home unless the unit, including the portion of the unit...

  13. 24 CFR 982.614 - Group home: Housing quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 24 Housing and Urban Development 4 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Group home: Housing quality... Types Group Home § 982.614 Group home: Housing quality standards. (a) Compliance with HQS. The PHA may not give approval to reside in a group home unless the unit, including the portion of the unit...

  14. An Air Quality Data Analysis System for Interrelating Effects, Standards and Needed Source Reductions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Larsen, Ralph I.

    1973-01-01

    Makes recommendations for a single air quality data system (using average time) for interrelating air pollution effects, air quality standards, air quality monitoring, diffusion calculations, source-reduction calculations, and emission standards. (JR)

  15. Designing image segmentation studies: Statistical power, sample size and reference standard quality.

    PubMed

    Gibson, Eli; Hu, Yipeng; Huisman, Henkjan J; Barratt, Dean C

    2017-12-01

    Segmentation algorithms are typically evaluated by comparison to an accepted reference standard. The cost of generating accurate reference standards for medical image segmentation can be substantial. Since the study cost and the likelihood of detecting a clinically meaningful difference in accuracy both depend on the size and on the quality of the study reference standard, balancing these trade-offs supports the efficient use of research resources. In this work, we derive a statistical power calculation that enables researchers to estimate the appropriate sample size to detect clinically meaningful differences in segmentation accuracy (i.e. the proportion of voxels matching the reference standard) between two algorithms. Furthermore, we derive a formula to relate reference standard errors to their effect on the sample sizes of studies using lower-quality (but potentially more affordable and practically available) reference standards. The accuracy of the derived sample size formula was estimated through Monte Carlo simulation, demonstrating, with 95% confidence, a predicted statistical power within 4% of simulated values across a range of model parameters. This corresponds to sample size errors of less than 4 subjects and errors in the detectable accuracy difference less than 0.6%. The applicability of the formula to real-world data was assessed using bootstrap resampling simulations for pairs of algorithms from the PROMISE12 prostate MR segmentation challenge data set. The model predicted the simulated power for the majority of algorithm pairs within 4% for simulated experiments using a high-quality reference standard and within 6% for simulated experiments using a low-quality reference standard. A case study, also based on the PROMISE12 data, illustrates using the formulae to evaluate whether to use a lower-quality reference standard in a prostate segmentation study. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. Web 2.0-Based Crowdsourcing for High-Quality Gold Standard Development in Clinical Natural Language Processing

    PubMed Central

    Deleger, Louise; Li, Qi; Kaiser, Megan; Stoutenborough, Laura

    2013-01-01

    Background A high-quality gold standard is vital for supervised, machine learning-based, clinical natural language processing (NLP) systems. In clinical NLP projects, expert annotators traditionally create the gold standard. However, traditional annotation is expensive and time-consuming. To reduce the cost of annotation, general NLP projects have turned to crowdsourcing based on Web 2.0 technology, which involves submitting smaller subtasks to a coordinated marketplace of workers on the Internet. Many studies have been conducted in the area of crowdsourcing, but only a few have focused on tasks in the general NLP field and only a handful in the biomedical domain, usually based upon very small pilot sample sizes. In addition, the quality of the crowdsourced biomedical NLP corpora were never exceptional when compared to traditionally-developed gold standards. The previously reported results on medical named entity annotation task showed a 0.68 F-measure based agreement between crowdsourced and traditionally-developed corpora. Objective Building upon previous work from the general crowdsourcing research, this study investigated the usability of crowdsourcing in the clinical NLP domain with special emphasis on achieving high agreement between crowdsourced and traditionally-developed corpora. Methods To build the gold standard for evaluating the crowdsourcing workers’ performance, 1042 clinical trial announcements (CTAs) from the ClinicalTrials.gov website were randomly selected and double annotated for medication names, medication types, and linked attributes. For the experiments, we used CrowdFlower, an Amazon Mechanical Turk-based crowdsourcing platform. We calculated sensitivity, precision, and F-measure to evaluate the quality of the crowd’s work and tested the statistical significance (P<.001, chi-square test) to detect differences between the crowdsourced and traditionally-developed annotations. Results The agreement between the crowd’s annotations and the

  17. Librarian co-authors correlated with higher quality reported search strategies in general internal medicine systematic reviews.

    PubMed

    Rethlefsen, Melissa L; Farrell, Ann M; Osterhaus Trzasko, Leah C; Brigham, Tara J

    2015-06-01

    To determine whether librarian and information specialist authorship was associated with better reported systematic review (SR) search quality. SRs from high-impact general internal medicine journals were reviewed for search quality characteristics and reporting quality by independent reviewers using three instruments, including a checklist of Institute of Medicine Recommended Standards for the Search Process and a scored modification of the Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies instrument. The level of librarian and information specialist participation was significantly associated with search reproducibility from reported search strategies (Χ(2) = 23.5; P < 0.0001). Librarian co-authored SRs had significantly higher odds of meeting 8 of 13 analyzed search standards than those with no librarian participation and six more than those with mentioned librarian participation. One-way ANOVA showed that differences in total search quality scores between all three groups were statistically significant (F2,267 = 10.1233; P < 0.0001). Problems remain with SR search quality and reporting. SRs with librarian or information specialist co-authors are correlated with significantly higher quality reported search strategies. To minimize bias in SRs, authors and editors could encourage librarian engagement in SRs including authorship as a potential way to help improve documentation of the search strategy. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  18. A Microfluidic Immunostaining System Enables Quality Assured and Standardized Immunohistochemical Biomarker Analysis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kwon, Seyong; Cho, Chang Hyun; Kwon, Youngmee; Lee, Eun Sook; Park, Je-Kyun

    2017-04-01

    Immunohistochemistry (IHC) plays an important role in biomarker-driven cancer therapy. Although there has been a high demand for standardized and quality assured IHC, it has rarely been achieved due to the complexity of IHC testing and the subjective validation-based process flow of IHC quality control. We present here a microfluidic immunostaining system for the standardization of IHC by creating a microfluidic linearly graded antibody (Ab)-staining device and a reference cell microarray. Unlike conventional efforts, our system deals primarily with the screening of biomarker staining conditions for quantitative quality assurance testing in IHC. We characterized the microfluidic matching of Ab staining intensity using three HER2 Abs produced by different manufacturers. The quality of HER2 Ab was also validated using tissues of breast cancer patients, demonstrating that our system is an efficient and powerful tool for the standardization and quality assurance of IHC.

  19. Standards and Quality in Higher Education. Higher Education Policy Series 37.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brennan, John, Ed.; de Vries, Peter, Ed.; Williams, Ruth, Ed.

    The papers in this book reflect current debates on academic standards and quality assurance, and speak from the perspective of institutional leaders and national quality bodies and higher education researchers. Included are reports on the progress of several international quality initiatives and studies on the impact of external quality assurance…

  20. 40 CFR 131.21 - EPA review and approval of water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... Act remains the applicable standard until EPA approves a change, deletion, or addition to that water... 40 Protection of Environment 23 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false EPA review and approval of water... (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS WATER QUALITY STANDARDS Procedures for Review and Revision of Water Quality...

  1. 40 CFR 131.21 - EPA review and approval of water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... Act remains the applicable standard until EPA approves a change, deletion, or addition to that water... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2014-07-01 2013-07-01 true EPA review and approval of water... (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS WATER QUALITY STANDARDS Procedures for Review and Revision of Water Quality...

  2. 40 CFR 131.21 - EPA review and approval of water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... Act remains the applicable standard until EPA approves a change, deletion, or addition to that water... 40 Protection of Environment 23 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false EPA review and approval of water... (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS WATER QUALITY STANDARDS Procedures for Review and Revision of Water Quality...

  3. 40 CFR 131.21 - EPA review and approval of water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... Act remains the applicable standard until EPA approves a change, deletion, or addition to that water... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false EPA review and approval of water... (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS WATER QUALITY STANDARDS Procedures for Review and Revision of Water Quality...

  4. A Study on Students' Satisfaction Based on Quality Standards of Accreditation in Higher Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Neelaveni, C.; Manimaran S.

    2015-01-01

    Quality standards are evaluated by the Higher Educational Institutions by self evaluation at different levels and are also assessed by external agencies. Application of quality standards in administrative practices have been associated with the quality of higher education. To improve the quality of administrative practices, evaluation scales are…

  5. Consistency Across Standards or Standards in a New Business Model

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Russo, Dane M.

    2010-01-01

    Presentation topics include: standards in a changing business model, the new National Space Policy is driving change, a new paradigm for human spaceflight, consistency across standards, the purpose of standards, danger of over-prescriptive standards, a balance is needed (between prescriptive and general standards), enabling versus inhibiting, characteristics of success-oriented standards, characteristics of success-oriented standards, and conclusions. Additional slides include NASA Procedural Requirements 8705.2B identifies human rating standards and requirements, draft health and medical standards for human rating, what's been done, government oversight models, examples of consistency from anthropometry, examples of inconsistency from air quality and appendices of government and non-governmental human factors standards.

  6. A comparative analysis of quality management standards for contract research organisations in clinical trials.

    PubMed

    Murray, Elizabeth; McAdam, Rodney

    2007-01-01

    This article compares and contrasts the main quality standards in the highly regulated pharmaceutical industry with specific focus on Good Clinical Practice (GCP), the standard for designing, conducting, recording and reporting clinical trials involving human participants. Comparison is made to ISO quality standards, which can be applied to all industries and types of organisation. The study is then narrowed to that of contract research organisations (CROs) involved in the conduct of clinical trials. The paper concludes that the ISO 9000 series of quality standards can act as a company-wide framework for quality management within such organisations by helping to direct quality efforts on a long-term basis without any loss of compliance. This study is valuable because comparative analysis in this domain is uncommon.

  7. 42 CFR 440.260 - Methods and standards to assure quality of services.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Methods and standards to assure quality of services. 440.260 Section 440.260 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH... and Limits Applicable to All Services § 440.260 Methods and standards to assure quality of services...

  8. The Quality Adaptation Model: Adaptation and Adoption of the Quality Standard ISO/IEC 19796-1 for Learning, Education, and Training

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pawlowski, Jan M.

    2007-01-01

    In 2005, the new quality standard for learning, education, and training, ISO/IEC 19796-1, was published. Its purpose is to help educational organizations to develop quality systems and to improve the quality of their processes, products, and services. In this article, the standard is presented and compared to existing approaches, showing the…

  9. INCITS W1.1 development update: appearance-based image quality standards for printers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zeise, Eric K.; Rasmussen, D. René; Ng, Yee S.; Dalal, Edul; McCarthy, Ann; Williams, Don

    2008-01-01

    In September 2000, INCITS W1 (the U.S. representative of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC28, the standardization committee for office equipment) was chartered to develop an appearance-based image quality standard. (1),(2) The resulting W1.1 project is based on a proposal (3) that perceived image quality can be described by a small set of broad-based attributes. There are currently six ad hoc teams, each working towards the development of standards for evaluation of perceptual image quality of color printers for one or more of these image quality attributes. This paper summarizes the work in progress of the teams addressing the attributes of Macro-Uniformity, Colour Rendition, Gloss & Gloss Uniformity, Text & Line Quality and Effective Resolution.

  10. 7 CFR 51.1140 - General.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    .... paradisi and C. grandis). Separate U.S. standards apply to tangerines. The standards for internal quality... 7 Agriculture 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false General. 51.1140 Section 51.1140 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards, Inspections, Marketing...

  11. Enhancing Defense Standardization Specifications and Standards: Cornerstones of Quality

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1988-11-01

    Aerospace technical void f/iat is 11uIn irh’s AssNociatlonl ent it led Inipw IIc o / Iflh’rnational Standlardi_-a- ool I/ irc’,i (on /he 1..Avro.spwcc Indust...o’Defense Index oj*Spec~ fica - tions and Standards. While there are nearly 50,000 documents listed. there are only about 27,000 military specifications and...authority of the General Services Administra - tion, their assistance is necessary for full implementation; as is the assistance of the National

  12. [Study on quality standard of Mucuna pruriens var. utilis].

    PubMed

    Wu, Shi-Hong; Jiang, Wei-Zhe; Lv, Li; Wu, Ling-Ling; Lv, Cong; Shi, Xiao-Xia; Su, Gui-Liang

    2009-03-01

    To provide scientific basis for the utilization and development of Mucuna pruriens var. utilis by establishing its quality control standard. The bioactive constituents were analyzed by TLC and HPLC. Moisture, ash and the extracts of Mucuna pruriens var. utilis were all determined. The TLC spots of levodopa had similar color with the control group at the same position. The results of HPLC quantitative analysis showed that the linear range of levodopa was 26.45 to approximately 132.25 microg/mL, r = 0.9992, and the average recovery rate was 103.8%, RSD = 1.85%. This method is convenient, accurate, reliable with good reproducibility, so it can be used to establish quality standard for the medicinal material.

  13. Standard Generalized Markup Language for self-defining structured reports.

    PubMed

    Kahn, C E

    1999-01-01

    Structured reporting is the process of using standardized data elements and predetermined data-entry formats to record observations. The Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML; International Standards Organization (ISO) 8879:1986)--an open, internationally accepted standard for document interchange was used to encode medical observations acquired in an Internet-based structured reporting system. The resulting report is self-documenting: it includes a definition of its allowable data fields and values encoded as a report-specific SGML document type definition (DTD). The data-entry forms, DTD, and report document instances are based on report specifications written in a simple, SGML-based language designed for that purpose. Reporting concepts can be linked with those of external vocabularies such as the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) Metathesaurus. The use of open standards such as SGML is an important step in the creation of open, universally comprehensible structured reports.

  14. Ambient assisted living healthcare frameworks, platforms, standards, and quality attributes.

    PubMed

    Memon, Mukhtiar; Wagner, Stefan Rahr; Pedersen, Christian Fischer; Beevi, Femina Hassan Aysha; Hansen, Finn Overgaard

    2014-03-04

    Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is an emerging multi-disciplinary field aiming at exploiting information and communication technologies in personal healthcare and telehealth systems for countering the effects of growing elderly population. AAL systems are developed for personalized, adaptive, and anticipatory requirements, necessitating high quality-of-service to achieve interoperability, usability, security, and accuracy. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the AAL field with a focus on healthcare frameworks, platforms, standards, and quality attributes. To achieve this, we conducted a literature survey of state-of-the-art AAL frameworks, systems and platforms to identify the essential aspects of AAL systems and investigate the critical issues from the design, technology, quality-of-service, and user experience perspectives. In addition, we conducted an email-based survey for collecting usage data and current status of contemporary AAL systems. We found that most AAL systems are confined to a limited set of features ignoring many of the essential AAL system aspects. Standards and technologies are used in a limited and isolated manner, while quality attributes are often addressed insufficiently. In conclusion, we found that more inter-organizational collaboration, user-centered studies, increased standardization efforts, and a focus on open systems is needed to achieve more interoperable and synergetic AAL solutions.

  15. Ambient Assisted Living Healthcare Frameworks, Platforms, Standards, and Quality Attributes

    PubMed Central

    Memon, Mukhtiar; Wagner, Stefan Rahr; Pedersen, Christian Fischer; Beevi, Femina Hassan Aysha; Hansen, Finn Overgaard

    2014-01-01

    Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is an emerging multi-disciplinary field aiming at exploiting information and communication technologies in personal healthcare and telehealth systems for countering the effects of growing elderly population. AAL systems are developed for personalized, adaptive, and anticipatory requirements, necessitating high quality-of-service to achieve interoperability, usability, security, and accuracy. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the AAL field with a focus on healthcare frameworks, platforms, standards, and quality attributes. To achieve this, we conducted a literature survey of state-of-the-art AAL frameworks, systems and platforms to identify the essential aspects of AAL systems and investigate the critical issues from the design, technology, quality-of-service, and user experience perspectives. In addition, we conducted an email-based survey for collecting usage data and current status of contemporary AAL systems. We found that most AAL systems are confined to a limited set of features ignoring many of the essential AAL system aspects. Standards and technologies are used in a limited and isolated manner, while quality attributes are often addressed insufficiently. In conclusion, we found that more inter-organizational collaboration, user-centered studies, increased standardization efforts, and a focus on open systems is needed to achieve more interoperable and synergetic AAL solutions. PMID:24599192

  16. Counting quality because quality counts: differing standards in master's in medical education programmes.

    PubMed

    Pugsley, Lesley; Brigley, Stephen; Allery, Lynne; Macdonald, Janet

    2008-02-01

    In the United Kingdom the medical teacher role is being formalized. One result is that Masters level programmes in medical education are proliferating; however little or no attempt has been made to capture any differences in quality offered by them. A small scale project (Allery et al. 2006) set out to rectify this omission. Drawing on data from that study, this paper considers the variation in standards across programmes. Specifically research methods training provided in MMEd courses and levels of support for researchers is investigated. A secondary analysis of the data generated by the evaluative study and gathered via review of programme web sites, semi structured interviews with MSc course directors and case studies in two sites, identified from purposive sampling. Variations in both taught and research elements were identified. The quality of the research experience was compromised for some students many of whom were poorly prepared to undertake educational research and the question of standards raised in respect of those institutions where the examination process lacked real academic rigour. The variance in research methods training and support raises a number of issues in relation to quality standards. The medical education community needs to engage in open and critical dialogue around the whole constellation of paradigms, methods and activities that pertain in educational research. Unless or until we address these deeper concerns, research into medical education will suffer through a lack of design flair, implementation and rigour.

  17. 75 FR 71033 - Air Quality Designations for the 2008 Lead (Pb) National Ambient Air Quality Standards

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-11-22

    .... These include damage to the central nervous system, cardiovascular function, kidneys, immune system, and... growth); (5) Meteorology (weather/transport patterns); (6) Geography/topography (mountain ranges or other... Air Quality Designations for the 2008 Lead (Pb) National Ambient Air Quality Standards AGENCY...

  18. [Study thought of pharmaceutical preparations quality standards by dynamic quality control technology].

    PubMed

    Yu, Dan-Hong; Mao, Chen-Mei; Lv, Cheng-Zhe; Jin, Hui-Zhen; Yao, Xin; Jia, Xiao-Bin

    2014-07-01

    Pharmaceutical preparations, particularly as a "secret recipe" of traditional Chinese medicine in medical institutions, are the product of China's medical and health industry, and they are also an important means of competing of different medical institutions. Although pharmaceutical preparations have advantages and characteristics than institutes for drug and pharmaceutical companies, the quality standards of pharmaceutical preparations in medical institutions has not reached the desired level over the years. As we all know, the quality of pharmaceutical preparations is important to ensure the efficacy, especially under the environment of people pay more sttention on drug safety and effectiveness and contry increase emphasis on the stste of pharmaceutical preparations. In view of this, we will improve the grade, stability, and clinical efficacy of pharmaceutical preparations by the advanced equipment, testing instruments and the process dynamic quality control technology. Finally, we hope we can provide new ideas for the quality control of pharmaceutical preparations.

  19. Interpreting international governance standards for health IT use within general medical practice.

    PubMed

    Mahncke, Rachel J; Williams, Patricia A H

    2014-01-01

    General practices in Australia recognise the importance of comprehensive protective security measures. Some elements of information security governance are incorporated into recommended standards, however the governance component of information security is still insufficiently addressed in practice. The International Organistion for Standardisation (ISO) released a new global standard in May 2013 entitled, ISO/IEC 27014:2013 Information technology - Security techniques - Governance of information security. This standard, applicable to organisations of all sizes, offers a framework against which to assess and implement the governance components of information security. The standard demonstrates the relationship between governance and the management of information security, provides strategic principles and processes, and forms the basis for establishing a positive information security culture. An analysis interpretation of this standard for use in Australian general practice was performed. This work is unique as such interpretation for the Australian healthcare environment has not been undertaken before. It demonstrates an application of the standard at a strategic level to inform existing development of an information security governance framework.

  20. Optimal Multicomponent Analysis Using the Generalized Standard Addition Method.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Raymond, Margaret; And Others

    1983-01-01

    Describes an experiment on the simultaneous determination of chromium and magnesium by spectophotometry modified to include the Generalized Standard Addition Method computer program, a multivariate calibration method that provides optimal multicomponent analysis in the presence of interference and matrix effects. Provides instructions for…

  1. Evaluation of features to support safety and quality in general practice clinical software

    PubMed Central

    2011-01-01

    Background Electronic prescribing is now the norm in many countries. We wished to find out if clinical software systems used by general practitioners in Australia include features (functional capabilities and other characteristics) that facilitate improved patient safety and care, with a focus on quality use of medicines. Methods Seven clinical software systems used in general practice were evaluated. Fifty software features that were previously rated as likely to have a high impact on safety and/or quality of care in general practice were tested and are reported here. Results The range of results for the implementation of 50 features across the 7 clinical software systems was as follows: 17-31 features (34-62%) were fully implemented, 9-13 (18-26%) partially implemented, and 9-20 (18-40%) not implemented. Key findings included: Access to evidence based drug and therapeutic information was limited. Decision support for prescribing was available but varied markedly between systems. During prescribing there was potential for medicine mis-selection in some systems, and linking a medicine with its indication was optional. The definition of 'current medicines' versus 'past medicines' was not always clear. There were limited resources for patients, and some medicines lists for patients were suboptimal. Results were provided to the software vendors, who were keen to improve their systems. Conclusions The clinical systems tested lack some of the features expected to support patient safety and quality of care. Standards and certification for clinical software would ensure that safety features are present and that there is a minimum level of clinical functionality that clinicians could expect to find in any system.

  2. A Standardized Generalized Dimensionality Discrepancy Measure and a Standardized Model-Based Covariance for Dimensionality Assessment for Multidimensional Models

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Levy, Roy; Xu, Yuning; Yel, Nedim; Svetina, Dubravka

    2015-01-01

    The standardized generalized dimensionality discrepancy measure and the standardized model-based covariance are introduced as tools to critique dimensionality assumptions in multidimensional item response models. These tools are grounded in a covariance theory perspective and associated connections between dimensionality and local independence.…

  3. [Implementation of quality standard UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17043 in the External Quality Control Program of the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology].

    PubMed

    Poveda Gabaldón, Marta; Ovies, María Rosario; Orta Mira, Nieves; Serrano, M del Remedio Guna; Avila, Javier; Giménez, Alicia; Cardona, Concepción Gimeno

    2011-12-01

    The quality standard "UNE-EN-ISO 17043: 2010. Conformity assessment. General requirements for proficiency testing" applies to centers that organize intercomparisons in all areas. In the case of clinical microbiology laboratories, these intercomparisons must meet the management and technical standards required to achieve maximum quality in the performance of microbiological analysis and the preparation of test items (sample, product, data or other information used in the proficiency test) to enable them to be accredited. Once accredited, these laboratories can operate as a tool for quality control laboratories and competency assessment. In Spain, accreditation is granted by the Spanish Accreditation Body [Entidad Nacional de Acreditación (ENAC)]. The objective of this review is to explain how to apply the requirements of the standard to laboratories providing intercomparisons in the field of clinical microbiology (the organization responsible for all the tasks related to the development and operation of a proficiency testing program). This requires defining the scope and specifying the technical requirements (personnel management, control of equipment, facilities and environment, the design of the proficiency testing and data analysis for performance evaluation, communication with participants and confidentiality) and management requirements (document control, purchasing control, monitoring of complaints / claims, non-compliance, internal audits and management reviews). Copyright © 2011 Elsevier España S.L. All rights reserved.

  4. General Machinist. Apprenticeship Training Standards = Machiniste. Normes de formation en apprentissage.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ontario Ministry of Skills Development, Toronto.

    These training standards for general machinists are intended to be used by apprentice/trainees, instructors, and companies in Ontario, Canada, as a blueprint for training or as a prerequisite for accreditation/certification. The training standards identify skills required for this occupation and its related training program. They are designed…

  5. 12 CFR Appendix A to Part 1273 - Exceptions to the General Disclosure Standards

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 12 Banks and Banking 9 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Exceptions to the General Disclosure Standards A Appendix A to Part 1273 Banks and Banking FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANKS OFFICE OF FINANCE Pt. 1273, App. A Appendix A to Part 1273—Exceptions to the General Disclosure Standards...

  6. 12 CFR Appendix A to Part 1273 - Exceptions to the General Disclosure Standards

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 12 Banks and Banking 9 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Exceptions to the General Disclosure Standards A Appendix A to Part 1273 Banks and Banking FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANKS OFFICE OF FINANCE Pt. 1273, App. A Appendix A to Part 1273—Exceptions to the General Disclosure Standards...

  7. 76 FR 54293 - Review of National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Carbon Monoxide

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-08-31

    ...This rule is being issued at this time as required by a court order governing the schedule for completion of this review of the air quality criteria and the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for carbon monoxide (CO). Based on its review, the EPA concludes the current primary standards are requisite to protect public health with an adequate margin of safety, and is retaining those standards. After review of the air quality criteria, EPA further concludes that no secondary standard should be set for CO at this time. EPA is also making changes to the ambient air monitoring requirements for CO, including those related to network design, and is updating, without substantive change, aspects of the Federal reference method.

  8. Record keeping in Norwegian general practice.

    PubMed

    Lönberg, N C; Bentsen, B G

    1984-11-01

    Routines of medical record keeping were studied in a random sample of 50 out of 228 general practitioners in two counties, Möre & Romsdal and Sör-Tröndelag. One doctor refused to participate and one had retired. The 48 physicians were interviewed and a questionnaire was completed with details about their record keeping. The standard of the records was assessed according to legibility, quality of notes, past history and tidiness using a score system. All general practitioners had records for every patient, but the quality of the records varied considerably. More than 50 per cent used handwriting in progress notes, which varied from diagnostic labels to extended reports. Few records contained accessible background information about the patient concerned, and many records contained large amounts of old and irrelevant papers. The record-scores varied from 3 to maximum 10 with an average of 6.7. Higher Standards of recording in general practice are called for, since the quality of records does not only affect the individual patient, but, in the end, the quality of medical care in general.

  9. 78 FR 34964 - Implementation of the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone: State Implementation...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-06-11

    ...] Implementation of the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone: State Implementation Plan... Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone: State Implementation Plan Requirements'' which published in the... the 2008 ozone national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) (the ``2008 ozone NAAQS'') that were...

  10. Making Quality Health Websites a National Public Health Priority: Toward Quality Standards.

    PubMed

    Devine, Theresa; Broderick, Jordan; Harris, Linda M; Wu, Huijuan; Hilfiker, Sandra Williams

    2016-08-02

    Most US adults have limited health literacy skills. They struggle to understand complex health information and services and to make informed health decisions. The Internet has quickly become one of the most popular places for people to search for information about their health, thereby making access to quality information on the Web a priority. However, there are no standardized criteria for evaluating Web-based health information. Every 10 years, the US Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) develops a set of measurable objectives for improving the health of the nation over the coming decade, known as Healthy People. There are two objectives in Healthy People 2020 related to website quality. The first is objective Health Communication and Health Information Technology (HC/HIT) 8.1: increase the proportion of health-related websites that meet 3 or more evaluation criteria for disclosing information that can be used to assess information reliability. The second is objective HC/HIT-8.2: increase the proportion of health-related websites that follow established usability principles. The ODPHP conducted a nationwide assessment of the quality of Web-based health information using the Healthy People 2020 objectives. The ODPHP aimed to establish (1) a standardized approach to defining and measuring the quality of health websites; (2) benchmarks for measurement; (3) baseline data points to capture the current status of website quality; and (4) targets to drive improvement. The ODPHP developed the National Quality Health Website Survey instrument to assess the quality of health-related websites. The ODPHP used this survey to review 100 top-ranked health-related websites in order to set baseline data points for these two objectives. The ODPHP then set targets to drive improvement by 2020. This study reviewed 100 health-related websites. For objective HC/HIT-8.1, a total of 58 out of 100 (58.0%) websites met 3 or

  11. 29 CFR 1607.5 - General standards for validity studies.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 29 Labor 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false General standards for validity studies. 1607.5 Section 1607... studies. A. Acceptable types of validity studies. For the purposes of satisfying these guidelines, users may rely upon criterion-related validity studies, content validity studies or construct validity...

  12. 7 CFR 160.11 - Quality requirements.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Quality requirements. 160.11 Section 160.11 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards... STANDARDS FOR NAVAL STORES General § 160.11 Quality requirements. The several standards for spirits of...

  13. Using SWAT to enhance watershed-based plans to meet numeric water quality standards

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The number of states that have adopted numeric nutrient water-quality standards has increased to 23, up from ten in 1998. One state with both stream and reservoir phosphorus (P) numeric water-quality standards is Oklahoma. There were two primary objectives of this research: (1) determine if Oklaho...

  14. Impact of proposed Washington State water quality standards on Hanford

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

    Corley, J.P.; Selby, J.M.

    1967-11-03

    The proposed regulation relating to Water Quality Standards for Interstate and Coastal Waters of the State of Washington contains eight standards. Standards are established for Total Coliform Organisms, Dissolved Oxygen, Temperature, Radioactivity, pH, Turbidity, Toxic or Deleterious Material, and Aesthetic Values. The Columbia River from the Washington-Oregon border to Priest Rapids is designated as class A water. Additionally, special temperature requirements are defined for this reach of the river. This report reviews the measured and projected conditions in this reach of the river in relation to these standards. 4 figs.

  15. [Study on quality standard of Sophora flavescens root extract].

    PubMed

    Zhao, Feng-chun; Li, Hao; Chen, Liang-mian; Gao, Hui-min; Zhang, Qi-wei; Wang, Zhi-min; Wu, Pi-e

    2015-01-01

    As a part of the project for the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2015 edition), the quality standard of Sophora flavescens root extract was investigated and established. According to the methods described in the Appendix of Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2010 edition), the water and ash inspections were carried out. The marker components trifolirhizin, sophoraflavanone G, oxymatrine and oxysophocarpine in the samples were identified by qualitative TLC. The determination of oxymatrine, matrine, oxysophocarpine and sophocarpine was conducted by HPLC and the total flavonoids were measured by ultraviolet spectrophotometry, using sophoraflavanone G as reference substance. The results indicated the spots on the plate were clear with good resolution and the contents of oxymatrine, matrine, oxysophocarpine and sophocarpine in the 13 batches of the samples were 3.87% - 11.1%, 0.970% - 4.33%, 1.30% - 2.59% and 0.260% - 1.14%, respectively. The total flavoids in the 13 batches of the samples were 3.88% - 7.93%. In the study, the validated methods were reproducible and the established quality standard was feasible, which could be used for the quality control of S. flavescens root extract and related preparations.

  16. National BTS bronchiectasis audit 2012: is the quality standard being adhered to in adult secondary care?

    PubMed

    Hill, Adam T; Routh, Chris; Welham, Sally

    2014-03-01

    A significant step towards improving care of patients with non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis was the creation of the British Thoracic Society (BTS) national guidelines and the quality standard. A BTS bronchiectasis audit was conducted between 1 October and 30 November 2012, in adult patients with bronchiectasis attending secondary care, against the BTS quality standard. Ninety-eight institutions took part, submitting a total of 3147 patient records. The audit highlighted the variable adoption of the quality standard. It will allow the host institutions to benchmark against UK figures and drive quality improvement programmes to promote the quality standard and improve patient care.

  17. Langley Wind Tunnel Data Quality Assurance-Check Standard Results

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hemsch, Michael J.; Grubb, John P.; Krieger, William B.; Cler, Daniel L.

    2000-01-01

    A framework for statistical evaluation, control and improvement of wind funnel measurement processes is presented The methodology is adapted from elements of the Measurement Assurance Plans developed by the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) for standards and calibration laboratories. The present methodology is based on the notions of statistical quality control (SQC) together with check standard testing and a small number of customer repeat-run sets. The results of check standard and customer repeat-run -sets are analyzed using the statistical control chart-methods of Walter A. Shewhart long familiar to the SQC community. Control chart results are presented for. various measurement processes in five facilities at Langley Research Center. The processes include test section calibration, force and moment measurements with a balance, and instrument calibration.

  18. MUSQA: a CS method to build a multi-standard quality management system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cros, Elizabeth; Sneed, Isabelle

    2002-07-01

    CS Communication & Systèmes, through its long quality management experience, has been able to build and evolve its Quality Management System according to clients requirements, norms, standards and models (ISO, DO178, ECSS, CMM, ...), evolving norms (transition from ISO 9001:1994 to ISO 9001:2000) and the TQM approach, being currently deployed. The aim of this paper is to show how, from this enriching and instructive experience, CS has defined and formalised its method: MuSQA (Multi-Standard Quality Approach). This method allows to built a new Quality Management System or simplify and unify an existing one. MuSQA objective is to provide any organisation with an open Quality Management System, which is able to evolve easily and turns to be a useful instrument for everyone, operational as well as non-operational staff.

  19. Learning Disabilities and Achieving High-Quality Education Standards

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gartland, Debi; Strosnider, Roberta

    2017-01-01

    This is an official document of the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD), of which Council for Learning Disabilities is a long-standing, active member. With this position paper, NJCLD advocates for the implementation of high-quality education standards (HQES) for students with learning disabilities (LD) and outlines the…

  20. A Deeper Glimpse into the National Core Arts Standards for General Music

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zaffini, Erin Dineen

    2018-01-01

    The National Core Arts Standards in general music provide some exciting possibilities for music growth and understanding among our students. For those of us who are still unsure of how to read the standards or implement them in our classrooms, the standards also present some challenges for music educators. This article provides a deeper look into…

  1. Quality standards of the European Pharmacopoeia.

    PubMed

    Bouin, Anne-Sophie; Wierer, Michael

    2014-12-02

    The European Pharmacopoeia (Ph. Eur.) provides a legal and scientific reference for the quality control of medicines. It is legally binding in the 38 signatory parties of the Convention on the elaboration of a European Pharmacopoeia (37 member states and the European Union). The requirements for a specific herbal drug are prescribed in the corresponding individual monograph and the relevant general monographs. Criteria for pesticides and heavy metals for example are defined in the general monograph on Herbal drugs. The Ph. Eur. also provides general methods including methods for determination of aflatoxins B1 and ochratoxin A. Screening methods for aristolochic acids are applied for herbal drugs that may be subject to adulteration or substitution with plant material containing aristolochic acids. The Ph. Eur. collaborate in many areas with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to ensure close collaboration as regards the respective work programmes and approach. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. 40 CFR 50.10 - National 8-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... ambient air quality standards for ozone. 50.10 Section 50.10 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL....10 National 8-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone. (a) The level of the national 8-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone, measured by a...

  3. 40 CFR 50.9 - National 1-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... ambient air quality standards for ozone. 50.9 Section 50.9 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL....9 National 1-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone. (a) The level of the national 1-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone measured by a...

  4. 40 CFR 50.10 - National 8-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... ambient air quality standards for ozone. 50.10 Section 50.10 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL....10 National 8-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone. (a) The level of the national 8-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone, measured by a...

  5. 40 CFR 50.9 - National 1-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... ambient air quality standards for ozone. 50.9 Section 50.9 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL....9 National 1-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone. (a) The level of the national 1-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone measured by a...

  6. 40 CFR 50.10 - National 8-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... ambient air quality standards for ozone. 50.10 Section 50.10 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL....10 National 8-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone. (a) The level of the national 8-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone, measured by a...

  7. 40 CFR 50.9 - National 1-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... ambient air quality standards for ozone. 50.9 Section 50.9 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL....9 National 1-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone. (a) The level of the national 1-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone measured by a...

  8. 40 CFR 50.9 - National 1-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... ambient air quality standards for ozone. 50.9 Section 50.9 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL....9 National 1-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone. (a) The level of the national 1-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone measured by a...

  9. 40 CFR 50.10 - National 8-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... ambient air quality standards for ozone. 50.10 Section 50.10 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL....10 National 8-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone. (a) The level of the national 8-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone, measured by a...

  10. 40 CFR 50.10 - National 8-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... ambient air quality standards for ozone. 50.10 Section 50.10 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL....10 National 8-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone. (a) The level of the national 8-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone, measured by a...

  11. 40 CFR 50.9 - National 1-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... ambient air quality standards for ozone. 50.9 Section 50.9 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL....9 National 1-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone. (a) The level of the national 1-hour primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for ozone measured by a...

  12. 76 FR 76048 - Air Quality Designations for the 2008 Lead (Pb) National Ambient Air Quality Standards

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-12-06

    ... ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 40 CFR Part 81 [EPA-HQ-OAR-2009-0443; FRL-9492-3] RIN 2060-AR17 Air Quality Designations for the 2008 Lead (Pb) National Ambient Air Quality Standards Correction In rule document 2011-29460 appearing on pages 72097-72120 in the issues of Tuesday, November 22, 2011...

  13. Client perception of service quality at the outpatient clinics of a General hospital in Lagos, Nigeria.

    PubMed

    Ogunnowo, Babatunde Enitan; Olufunlayo, Tolulope Florence; Sule, Salami Suberu

    2015-01-01

    Service quality assessments have assumed increasing importance in the last two decades. They are useful in identifying gaps in services been provided with the ultimate aim of guaranteeing quality assurance. The objective of this study was to assess the client perception of service quality at the outpatient clinics of Randle General hospital, Lagos. A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted from March to May 2013. A multistage sampling technique was used to select respondents and data was collected with the aid of modified SERVQUAL questionnaires. The data was analysed with aid of EPI-INFO 2002 and statistical significance was set at a P value 0.05 for statistical significance. Total of 400 respondents were interviewed. The mean age was 40 years with a standard deviation of 15.2 yrs. The highest mean score of 4.35 out of a possible maximum of 5 was recorded in assurance domain while the lowest mean score of 4.00 was recorded in the responsiveness domain. The overall mean score of all the domains was 4.20 with standard deviation of 0.51. Overall majority (80.8%) of respondents rated the overall service quality as good/ very good. After linear regression, the assurance domain was the most important predictor of the overall perceived service quality (p< 0.001). The overall perceived service quality was good. The major deficiencies were in the responsiveness domain and especially the waiting time. The hospital management should implement measures to improve the responsiveness of services by ensuring prompt delivery of services.

  14. [Discussion on research thinking of traditional Chinese medicine standardization system based on whole process quality control].

    PubMed

    Dong, Ling; Sun, Yu; Pei, Wen-Xuan; Dai, Jun-Dong; Wang, Zi-Yu; Pan, Meng; Chen, Jiang-Peng; Wang, Yun

    2017-12-01

    The concept of "Quality by design" indicates that good design for the whole life cycle of pharmaceutical production enables the drug to meet the expected quality requirements. Aiming at the existing problems of the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) industry, the TCM standardization system was put forward in this paper from the national strategic level, under the guidance by the idea of quality control in international manufacturing industry and with considerations of TCM industry's own characteristics and development status. The connotation of this strategy was to establish five interrelated systems: multi-indicators system based on tri-indicators system, quality standard and specification system of TCM herbal materials and decoction pieces, quality traceability system, data monitoring system based on whole-process quality control, and whole-process quality management system of TCM, and achieve the whole process systematic and scientific study in TCM industry through "top-level design-implement in steps-system integration" workflow. This article analyzed the correlation between the quality standards of all links, established standard operating procedures of each link and whole process, and constructed a high standard overall quality management system for TCM industry chains, in order to provide a demonstration for the establishment of TCM whole-process quality control system and provide systematic reference and basis for standardization strategy in TCM industry. Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

  15. A standards-based approach to quality improvement for HIV services at Zambia Defence Force facilities: results and lessons learned.

    PubMed

    Kols, Adrienne; Kim, Young-Mi; Bazant, Eva; Necochea, Edgar; Banda, Joseph; Stender, Stacie

    2015-07-01

    The Zambia Defence Force adopted the Standards-Based Management and Recognition approach to improve the quality of the HIV-related services at its health facilities. This quality improvement intervention relies on comprehensive, detailed assessment tools to communicate and verify adherence to national standards of care, and to test and implement changes to improve performance. A quasi-experimental evaluation of the intervention was conducted at eight Zambia Defence Force primary health facilities (four facilities implemented the intervention and four did not). Data from three previous analyses are combined to assess the effect of Standards-Based Management and Recognition on three domains: facility readiness to provide services; observed provider performance during antiretroviral therapy (ART) and antenatal care consultations; and provider perceptions of the work environment. Facility readiness scores for ART improved on four of the eight standards at intervention sites, and one standard at comparison sites. Facility readiness scores for prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV increased by 15 percentage points at intervention sites and 7 percentage points at comparison sites. Provider performance improved significantly at intervention sites for both ART services (from 58 to 84%; P < 0.01) and PMTCT services (from 58 to 73%; P = 0.003); there was no significant change at comparison sites. Providers' perceptions of the work environment generally improved at intervention sites and declined at comparison sites; differences in trends between study groups were significant for eight items. A standards-based approach to quality improvement proved effective in supporting healthcare managers and providers to deliver ART and PMTCT services in accordance with evidence-based standards in a health system suffering from staff shortages.

  16. Standards of care and quality indicators for multidisciplinary care models for psoriatic arthritis in Spain.

    PubMed

    Gratacós, Jordi; Luelmo, Jesús; Rodríguez, Jesús; Notario, Jaume; Marco, Teresa Navío; de la Cueva, Pablo; Busquets, Manel Pujol; Font, Mercè García; Joven, Beatriz; Rivera, Raquel; Vega, Jose Luis Alvarez; Álvarez, Antonio Javier Chaves; Parera, Ricardo Sánchez; Carrascosa, Jose Carlos Ruiz; Martínez, Fernando José Rodríguez; Sánchez, José Pardo; Olmos, Carlos Feced; Pujol, Conrad; Galindez, Eva; Barrio, Silvia Pérez; Arana, Ana Urruticoechea; Hergueta, Mercedes; Coto, Pablo; Queiro, Rubén

    2018-06-01

    To define and give priority to standards of care and quality indicators of multidisciplinary care for patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA). A systematic literature review on PsA standards of care and quality indicators was performed. An expert panel of rheumatologists and dermatologists who provide multidisciplinary care was established. In a consensus meeting group, the experts discussed and developed the standards of care and quality indicators and graded their priority, agreement and also the feasibility (only for quality indicators) following qualitative methodology and a Delphi process. Afterwards, these results were discussed with 2 focus groups, 1 with patients, another with health managers. A descriptive analysis is presented. We obtained 25 standards of care (9 of structure, 9 of process, 7 of results) and 24 quality indicators (2 of structure, 5 of process, 17 of results). Standards of care include relevant aspects in the multidisciplinary care of PsA patients like an appropriate physical infrastructure and technical equipment, the access to nursing care, labs and imaging techniques, other health professionals and treatments, or the development of care plans. Regarding quality indicators, the definition of multidisciplinary care model objectives and referral criteria, the establishment of responsibilities and coordination among professionals and the active evaluation of patients and data collection were given a high priority. Patients considered all of them as important. This set of standards of care and quality indicators for the multidisciplinary care of patients with PsA should help improve quality of care in these patients.

  17. The History of Infant Formula: Quality, Safety, and Standard Methods.

    PubMed

    Wargo, Wayne F

    2016-01-01

    Food-related laws and regulations have existed since ancient times. Egyptian scrolls prescribed the labeling needed for certain foods. In ancient Athens, beer and wines were inspected for purity and soundness, and the Romans had a well-organized state food control system to protect consumers from fraud or bad produce. In Europe during the Middle Ages, individual countries passed laws concerning the quality and safety of eggs, sausages, cheese, beer, wine, and bread; some of these laws still exist today. But more modern dietary guidelines and food regulations have their origins in the latter half of the 19th century when the first general food laws were adopted and basic food control systems were implemented to monitor compliance. Around this time, science and food chemistry began to provide the tools to determine "purity" of food based primarily on chemical composition and to determine whether it had been adulterated in any way. Since the key chemical components of mammalian milk were first understood, infant formulas have steadily advanced in complexity as manufacturers attempt to close the compositional gap with human breast milk. To verify these compositional innovations and ensure product quality and safety, infant formula has become one of the most regulated foods in the world. The present paper examines the historical development of nutritional alternatives to breastfeeding, focusing on efforts undertaken to ensure the quality and safety from antiquity to present day. The impact of commercial infant formulas on global regulations is addressed, along with the resulting need for harmonized, fit-for-purpose, voluntary consensus standard methods.

  18. 40 CFR 439.4 - General limitation or standard for pH.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 30 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false General limitation or standard for pH. 439.4 Section 439.4 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) EFFLUENT... limitation or standard for pH. The pH must remain within the range 6.0 to 9.0 in any discharge subject to BPT...

  19. Standardized quality-assessment system to evaluate pressure ulcer care in the nursing home.

    PubMed

    Bates-Jensen, Barbara M; Cadogan, Mary; Jorge, Jennifer; Schnelle, John F

    2003-09-01

    To demonstrate reliability and feasibility of a standardized protocol to assess and score quality indicators relevant to pressure ulcer (PU) care processes in nursing homes (NHs). Descriptive. Eight NHs. One hundred ninety-one NH residents for whom the PU Resident Assessment Protocol of the Minimum Data Set was initiated. Nine quality indicators (two related to screening and prevention of PU, two focused on assessment, and five addressing management) were scored using medical record data, direct human observation, and wireless thigh monitor observation data. Feasibility and reliability of medical record, observation, and thigh monitor protocols were determined. The percentage of participants who passed each of the indicators, indicating care consistent with practice guidelines, ranged from 0% to 98% across all indicators. In general, participants in NHs passed fewer indicators and had more problems with medical record accuracy before a PU was detected (screening/prevention indicators) than they did once an ulcer was documented (assessment and management indicators). Reliability of the medical record protocol showed kappa statistics ranging from 0.689 to 1.00 and percentage agreement from 80% to 100%. Direct observation protocols yielded kappa statistics of 0.979 and 0.928. Thigh monitor protocols showed kappa statistics ranging from 0.609 to 0.842. Training was variable, with the observation protocol requiring 1 to 2 hours, medical records requiring joint review of 20 charts with average time to complete the review of 20 minutes, and the thigh monitor data requiring 1 week for training in data preparation and interpretation. The standardized quality assessment system generated scores for nine PU quality indicators with good reliability and provided explicit scoring rules that permit reproducible conclusions about PU care. The focus of the indicators on care processes that are under the control of NH staff made the protocol useful for external survey and internal

  20. Assessing the quality of radiographic processing in general dental practice.

    PubMed

    Thornley, P H; Stewardson, D A; Rout, P G J; Burke, F J T

    2006-05-13

    To determine if a commercial device (Vischeck) for monitoring film processing quality was a practical option in general dental practice, and to assess processing quality among a group of GDPs in the West Midlands with this device. Clinical evaluation. General dental practice, UK, 2004. Ten GDP volunteers from a practice based research group processed Vischeck strips (a) when chemicals were changed, (b) one week later, and (c) immediately before the next change of chemicals. These were compared with strips processed under ideal conditions. Additionally, a series of duplicate radiographs were produced and processed together with Vischeck strips in progressively more dilute developer solutions to compare the change in radiograph quality assessed clinically with that derived from the Vischeck. The Vischeck strips suggested that at the time chosen for change of processing chemicals, eight dentists had been processing films well beyond the point indicated for replacement. Solutions were changed after a wide range of time periods and number of films processed. The calibration of the Vischeck strip correlated closely to a clinical assessment of acceptable film quality. Vischeck strips are a useful aid to monitoring processing quality in automatic developers in general dental practice. Most of this group of GDPs were using chemicals beyond the point at which diagnostic yield would be affected.

  1. GENERAL VIEW, LOOKING SOUTHEAST, OF STANDARDIZING MAGNETIC OBSERVATORY (SMO) WHICH ...

    Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

    GENERAL VIEW, LOOKING SOUTHEAST, OF STANDARDIZING MAGNETIC OBSERVATORY (SMO) WHICH IS TO THE RIGHT. THE BUILDING TO THE LEFT IS 'STATION 'A'', ALSO A NON-MAGNETIC STRUCTURE, ONCE USED FOR COMPARISONS OF MAGNETIC INSTRUMENTS WITH THE SMO. THE BUILDING IN THE CENTER CONTAINED A SEARCH-LIGHT USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH MEASUREMENTS OF THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE. - Carnegie Institution of Washington, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Standardizing Magnetic Observatory, 5241 Broad Branch Drive Northwest, Washington, District of Columbia, DC

  2. Standard classification of software documentation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tausworthe, R. C.

    1976-01-01

    General conceptual requirements for standard levels of documentation and for application of these requirements to intended usages. These standards encourage the policy to produce only those forms of documentation that are needed and adequate for the purpose. Documentation standards are defined with respect to detail and format quality. Classes A through D range, in order, from the most definitive down to the least definitive, and categories 1 through 4 range, in order, from high-quality typeset down to handwritten material. Criteria for each of the classes and categories, as well as suggested selection guidelines for each are given.

  3. Making Quality Health Websites a National Public Health Priority: Toward Quality Standards

    PubMed Central

    2016-01-01

    Background Most US adults have limited health literacy skills. They struggle to understand complex health information and services and to make informed health decisions. The Internet has quickly become one of the most popular places for people to search for information about their health, thereby making access to quality information on the Web a priority. However, there are no standardized criteria for evaluating Web-based health information. Every 10 years, the US Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) develops a set of measurable objectives for improving the health of the nation over the coming decade, known as Healthy People. There are two objectives in Healthy People 2020 related to website quality. The first is objective Health Communication and Health Information Technology (HC/HIT) 8.1: increase the proportion of health-related websites that meet 3 or more evaluation criteria for disclosing information that can be used to assess information reliability. The second is objective HC/HIT-8.2: increase the proportion of health-related websites that follow established usability principles. Objective The ODPHP conducted a nationwide assessment of the quality of Web-based health information using the Healthy People 2020 objectives. The ODPHP aimed to establish (1) a standardized approach to defining and measuring the quality of health websites; (2) benchmarks for measurement; (3) baseline data points to capture the current status of website quality; and (4) targets to drive improvement. Methods The ODPHP developed the National Quality Health Website Survey instrument to assess the quality of health-related websites. The ODPHP used this survey to review 100 top-ranked health-related websites in order to set baseline data points for these two objectives. The ODPHP then set targets to drive improvement by 2020. Results This study reviewed 100 health-related websites. For objective HC/HIT-8.1, a total of 58 out

  4. 40 CFR 50.17 - National primary ambient air quality standards for sulfur oxides (sulfur dioxide).

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... standards for sulfur oxides (sulfur dioxide). 50.17 Section 50.17 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL....17 National primary ambient air quality standards for sulfur oxides (sulfur dioxide). (a) The level of the national primary 1-hour annual ambient air quality standard for oxides of sulfur is 75 parts...

  5. 40 CFR 50.17 - National primary ambient air quality standards for sulfur oxides (sulfur dioxide).

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... standards for sulfur oxides (sulfur dioxide). 50.17 Section 50.17 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL....17 National primary ambient air quality standards for sulfur oxides (sulfur dioxide). (a) The level of the national primary 1-hour annual ambient air quality standard for oxides of sulfur is 75 parts...

  6. 40 CFR 50.17 - National primary ambient air quality standards for sulfur oxides (sulfur dioxide).

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... standards for sulfur oxides (sulfur dioxide). 50.17 Section 50.17 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL....17 National primary ambient air quality standards for sulfur oxides (sulfur dioxide). (a) The level of the national primary 1-hour annual ambient air quality standard for oxides of sulfur is 75 parts...

  7. 40 CFR 50.17 - National primary ambient air quality standards for sulfur oxides (sulfur dioxide).

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... standards for sulfur oxides (sulfur dioxide). 50.17 Section 50.17 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL....17 National primary ambient air quality standards for sulfur oxides (sulfur dioxide). (a) The level of the national primary 1-hour annual ambient air quality standard for oxides of sulfur is 75 parts...

  8. 40 CFR 50.17 - National primary ambient air quality standards for sulfur oxides (sulfur dioxide).

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... standards for sulfur oxides (sulfur dioxide). 50.17 Section 50.17 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL....17 National primary ambient air quality standards for sulfur oxides (sulfur dioxide). (a) The level of the national primary 1-hour annual ambient air quality standard for oxides of sulfur is 75 parts...

  9. Developing policy, standard orders, and quality-assurance monitoring for palliative sedation therapy.

    PubMed

    Ghafoor, Virginia L; Silus, Lauren S

    2011-03-15

    The development of a policy, evidence-based standard orders, and monitoring for palliative sedation therapy (PST) is described. Concerns regarding PST at the University of Minnesota Medical Center (UMMC) arose and needed to be addressed in a formal process. A multidisciplinary group consisting of palliative care physicians, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, and clinical pharmacy specialists reached consensus on the practice model and medications to be used for PST. Major elements of the plan included the development and implementation of an institutional policy for palliative sedation; standard orders for patient care, sedation, and monitoring; education for staff, patients, and patients' family members; and quality-assurance monitoring. A literature review was performed to identify research and guidelines defining the practice of PST. Policy content includes the use of a standard order set linking patient care, medication administration, the monitoring of sedation, and symptom management. Approval of the policy involved several UMMC committees. An evaluation matrix was used to determine critical areas for PST monitoring and to guide development of a form to monitor quality. A retrospective chart audit using the quality-assurance monitoring form assessed baseline sedation medication and patient outcomes. Assessment of compliance began in the fall of 2008, after the policy and standard orders were approved by the UMMC medical executive committee. In 2008, two cases of PST were monitored using the standardized form. PST cases will be continually monitored and analyzed. Development of policy, standard orders, and quality-assurance monitoring for PST required a formal multidisciplinary process. A process-improvement process is critical to defining institutional policy, educational goals, and outcome metrics for PST.

  10. Standardized protocols for quality control of MRM-based plasma proteomic workflows.

    PubMed

    Percy, Andrew J; Chambers, Andrew G; Smith, Derek S; Borchers, Christoph H

    2013-01-04

    Mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics is rapidly emerging as a viable technology for the identification and quantitation of biological samples, such as human plasma--the most complex yet commonly employed biofluid in clinical analyses. The transition from a qualitative to quantitative science is required if proteomics is going to successfully make the transition to a clinically useful technique. MS, however, has been criticized for a lack of reproducibility and interlaboratory transferability. Currently, the MS and plasma proteomics communities lack standardized protocols and reagents to ensure that high-quality quantitative data can be accurately and precisely reproduced by laboratories across the world using different MS technologies. Toward addressing this issue, we have developed standard protocols for multiple reaction monitoring (MRM)-based assays with customized isotopically labeled internal standards for quality control of the sample preparation workflow and the MS platform in quantitative plasma proteomic analyses. The development of reference standards and their application to a single MS platform is discussed herein, along with the results from intralaboratory tests. The tests highlighted the importance of the reference standards in assessing the efficiency and reproducibility of the entire bottom-up proteomic workflow and revealed errors related to the sample preparation and performance quality and deficits of the MS and LC systems. Such evaluations are necessary if MRM-based quantitative plasma proteomics is to be used in verifying and validating putative disease biomarkers across different research laboratories and eventually in clinical laboratories.

  11. Constructing Assessment Model of Primary and Secondary Educational Quality with Talent Quality as the Core Standard

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chen, Benyou

    2014-01-01

    Quality is the core of education and it is important to standardization construction of primary and secondary education in urban (U) and rural (R) areas. The ultimate goal of the integration of urban and rural education is to pursuit quality urban and rural education. Based on analysing the related policy basis and the existing assessment models…

  12. ASCCP Colposcopy Standards: Colposcopy Quality Improvement Recommendations for the United States.

    PubMed

    Mayeaux, Edward J; Novetsky, Akiva P; Chelmow, David; Garcia, Francisco; Choma, Kim; Liu, Angela H; Papasozomenos, Theognosia; Einstein, Mark H; Massad, L Stewart; Wentzensen, Nicolas; Waxman, Alan G; Conageski, Christine; Khan, Michelle J; Huh, Warner K

    2017-10-01

    The American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP) Colposcopy Standards recommendations address the role of and approach to colposcopy and biopsy for cervical cancer prevention in the United States. The recommendations were developed by an expert working group appointed by ASCCP's Board of Directors. The ASCCP Quality Improvement Working Group developed evidence-based guidelines to promote best practices and reduce errors in colposcopy and recommended indicators to measure colposcopy quality. The working group performed a systematic review of existing major society and national guidelines and quality indicators. An initial list of potential quality indicators was developed and refined through successive iterative discussions, and draft quality indicators were proposed. The draft recommendations were then reviewed and commented on by the entire Colposcopy Standards Committee, posted online for public comment, and presented at the International Federation for Cervical Pathology and Colposcopy 2017 World Congress for further comment. All comments were considered, additional adjustments made, and the final recommendations approved by the entire Task Force. Eleven quality indicators were selected spanning documentation, biopsy protocols, and time intervals between index screening tests and completion of diagnostic evaluation. The proposed quality indicators are intended to serve as a starting point for quality improvement in colposcopy at a time when colposcopy volume is decreasing and individual procedures are becoming technically more difficult to perform.

  13. Improving the Quality of Health Care Services for Adolescents, Globally: A Standards-Driven Approach

    PubMed Central

    Nair, Manisha; Baltag, Valentina; Bose, Krishna; Boschi-Pinto, Cynthia; Lambrechts, Thierry; Mathai, Matthews

    2015-01-01

    Purpose The World Health Organization (WHO) undertook an extensive and elaborate process to develop eight Global Standards to improve quality of health care services for adolescents. The objectives of this article are to present the Global Standards and their method of development. Methods The Global Standards were developed through a four-stage process: (1) conducting needs assessment; (2) developing the Global Standards and their criteria; (3) expert consultations; and (4) assessing their usability. Needs assessment involved conducting a meta-review of systematic reviews and two online global surveys in 2013, one with primary health care providers and another with adolescents. The Global Standards were developed based on the needs assessment in conjunction with analysis of 26 national standards from 25 countries. The final document was reviewed by experts from the World Health Organization regional and country offices, governments, academia, nongovernmental organizations, and development partners. The standards were subsequently tested in Benin and in a regional expert consultation of Latin America and Caribbean countries for their usability. Results The process resulted in the development of eight Global Standards and 79 criteria for measuring them: (1) adolescents' health literacy; (2) community support; (3) appropriate package of services; (4) providers' competencies; (5) facility characteristics; (6) equity and nondiscrimination; (7) data and quality improvement; and (8) adolescents' participation. Conclusions The eight standards are intended to act as benchmarks against which quality of health care provided to adolescents could be compared. Health care services can use the standards as part of their internal quality assurance mechanisms or as part of an external accreditation process. PMID:26299556

  14. 75 FR 16459 - Draft Document Related to the Review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-04-01

    ... Review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter AGENCY: Environmental... Review of the Particulate Matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards--First External Review Draft (75... Particulate Matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards--First External Review Draft (March 2010), please...

  15. A Risk and Standards Based Approach to Quality Assurance in Australia's Diverse Higher Education Sector

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Australian Government Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, 2015

    2015-01-01

    The Australian Government Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency's (TEQSA's) role is to assure that quality standards are being met by all registered higher education providers. This paper explains how TEQSA's risk-based approach to assuring higher education standards is applied in broad terms to a diverse sector. This explanation is…

  16. Assessment of emergency general surgery care based on formally developed quality indicators.

    PubMed

    Ingraham, Angela; Nathens, Avery; Peitzman, Andrew; Bode, Allison; Dorlac, Gina; Dorlac, Warren; Miller, Preston; Sadeghi, Mahsa; Wasserman, Deena D; Bilimoria, Karl

    2017-08-01

    Emergency general surgery outcomes vary widely across the United States. The utilization of quality indicators can reduce variation and assist providers in administering care aligned with established recommendations. Previous quality indicators have not focused on emergency general surgery patients. We identified indicators of high-quality emergency general surgery care and assessed patient- and hospital-level compliance with these indicators. We utilized a modified Delphi technique (RAND Appropriateness Methodology) to develop quality indicators. Through 2 rankings, an expert panel ranked potential quality indicators for validity. We then examined historic compliance with select quality indicators after 4 nonelective procedures (cholecystectomy, appendectomy, colectomy, small bowel resection) at 4 academic centers. Of 25 indicators rated as valid, 13 addressed patient-level quality and 12 addressed hospital-level quality. Adherence with 18 indicators was assessed. Compliance with performing a cholecystectomy for acute cholecystitis within 72 hours of symptom onset ranged from 45% to 76%. Compliance with surgery start times within 3 hours from the decision to operate for uncontained perforated viscus ranged from 20% to 100%. Compliance with exploration of patients with small bowel obstructions with ischemia/impending perforation within 3 hours of the decision to operate was 0% to 88%. For 3 quality indicators (auditing 30-day unplanned readmissions/operations for patients previously managed nonoperatively, monitoring time to source control for intra-abdominal infections, and having protocols for bypass/transfer), none of the hospitals were compliant. Developing indicators for providers to assess their performance provides a foundation for specific initiatives. Adherence to quality indicators may improve the quality of emergency general surgery care provided for which current outcomes are potentially modifiable. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. 40 CFR 50.16 - National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for lead.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false National primary and secondary ambient... AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS NATIONAL PRIMARY AND SECONDARY AMBIENT AIR QUALITY STANDARDS § 50.16 National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for lead. (a) The national primary and...

  18. 40 CFR 50.12 - National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for lead.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false National primary and secondary ambient... AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS NATIONAL PRIMARY AND SECONDARY AMBIENT AIR QUALITY STANDARDS § 50.12 National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for lead. (a) National primary and secondary...

  19. Using Learning Analytics to Enhance Student Learning in Online Courses Based on Quality Matters Standards

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Martin, Florence; Ndoye, Abdou; Wilkins, Patricia

    2016-01-01

    Quality Matters is recognized as a rigorous set of standards that guide the designer or instructor to design quality online courses. We explore how Quality Matters standards guide the identification and analysis of learning analytics data to monitor and improve online learning. Descriptive data were collected for frequency of use, time spent, and…

  20. The importance of standardized observations to evaluate nutritional care quality in the survey process.

    PubMed

    Schnelle, John F; Bertrand, Rosanna; Hurd, Donna; White, Alan; Squires, David; Feuerberg, Marvin; Hickey, Kelly; Simmons, Sandra F

    2009-10-01

    Guidelines written for government surveyors who assess nursing home (NH) compliance with federal standards contain instructions to observe the quality of mealtime assistance. However, these instructions are vague and no protocol is provided for surveyors to record observational data. This study compared government survey staff observations of mealtime assistance quality to observations by research staff using a standardized protocol that met basic standards for accurate behavioral measurement. Survey staff used either the observation instructions in the standard survey process or those written for the revised Quality Improvement Survey (QIS). Trained research staff observed mealtime care in 20 NHs in 5 states during the same time period that survey staff evaluated care in the same facilities, although it could not be determined if survey and research staff observed the same residents during the same meals. Ten NHs were evaluated by government surveyors using the QIS survey instructions and 10 NHs were evaluated by surveyors using the standard survey instructions. Research staff observations using a standardized observation protocol identified a higher proportion of residents receiving inadequate feeding assistance during meals relative to survey staff using either the standard or QIS survey instructions. For example, more than 50% of the residents who ate less than half of their meals based on research staff observation were not offered an alternative to the served meal, and the lack of alternatives, or meal substitutions, was common in all 20 NHs. In comparison, the QIS survey teams documented only 2 instances when meal substitutes were not offered in 10 NHs and the standard survey teams documented no instances in 10 NHs. Standardized mealtime observations by research staff revealed feeding assistance care quality issues in all 20 study NHs. Surveyors following the instructions in either the standard or revised QIS surveys did not detect most of these care quality

  1. 78 FR 70905 - Extension of Comment Period for the Water Quality Standards Regulatory Clarifications Proposed Rule

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-11-27

    ... Comment Period for the Water Quality Standards Regulatory Clarifications Proposed Rule AGENCY... Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is extending the comment period for the proposed rule ``Water Quality... published the proposed rule ``Water Quality Standards Regulatory Clarifications'' in the Federal Register...

  2. 42 CFR 493.1234 - Standard: Communications.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... (CONTINUED) STANDARDS AND CERTIFICATION LABORATORY REQUIREMENTS Quality System for Nonwaived Testing General Laboratory Systems § 493.1234 Standard: Communications. The laboratory must have a system in place to... laboratory and an authorized person who orders or receives test results. [68 FR 3703, Jan. 24, 2003; 68 FR...

  3. 77 FR 30160 - Implementation of the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone: Nonattainment Area...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-05-21

    ...-AR32 Implementation of the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone: Nonattainment Area Classifications Approach, Attainment Deadlines and Revocation of the 1997 Ozone Standards for Transportation... all nonattainment areas for the 2008 ozone national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) (the ``2008...

  4. 40 CFR 50.11 - National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for oxides of nitrogen (with...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... air quality standards for oxides of nitrogen (with nitrogen dioxide as the indicator). 50.11 Section... quality standards for oxides of nitrogen (with nitrogen dioxide as the indicator). (a) The level of the national primary annual ambient air quality standard for oxides of nitrogen is 53 parts per billion (ppb...

  5. 40 CFR 50.11 - National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for oxides of nitrogen (with...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... air quality standards for oxides of nitrogen (with nitrogen dioxide as the indicator). 50.11 Section... quality standards for oxides of nitrogen (with nitrogen dioxide as the indicator). (a) The level of the national primary annual ambient air quality standard for oxides of nitrogen is 53 parts per billion (ppb...

  6. 40 CFR 50.11 - National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for oxides of nitrogen (with...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... air quality standards for oxides of nitrogen (with nitrogen dioxide as the indicator). 50.11 Section... quality standards for oxides of nitrogen (with nitrogen dioxide as the indicator). (a) The level of the national primary annual ambient air quality standard for oxides of nitrogen is 53 parts per billion (ppb...

  7. Dishwashing water recycling system and related water quality standards for military use.

    PubMed

    Church, Jared; Verbyla, Matthew E; Lee, Woo Hyoung; Randall, Andrew A; Amundsen, Ted J; Zastrow, Dustin J

    2015-10-01

    As the demand for reliable and safe water supplies increases, both water quality and available quantity are being challenged by population growth and climate change. Greywater reuse is becoming a common practice worldwide; however, in remote locations of limited water supply, such as those encountered in military installations, it is desirable to expand its classification to include dishwashing water to maximize the conservation of fresh water. Given that no standards for dishwashing greywater reuse by the military are currently available, the current study determined a specific set of water quality standards for dishwater recycling systems for U.S. military field operations. A tentative water reuse standard for dishwashing water was developed based on federal and state regulations and guidelines for non-potable water, and the developed standard was cross-evaluated by monitoring water quality data from a full-scale dishwashing water recycling system using an innovative electrocoagulation and ultrafiltration process. Quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) was also performed based on exposure scenarios derived from literature data. As a result, a specific set of dishwashing water reuse standards for field analysis (simple, but accurate) was finalized as follows: turbidity (<1 NTU), Escherichia coli (<50 cfu mL(-1)), and pH (6-9). UV254 was recommended as a surrogate for organic contaminants (e.g., BOD5), but requires further calibration steps for validation. The developed specific water standard is the first for dishwashing water reuse and will be expected to ensure that water quality is safe for field operations, but not so stringent that design complexity, cost, and operational and maintenance requirements will not be feasible for field use. In addition the parameters can be monitored using simple equipment in a field setting with only modest training requirements and real-time or rapid sample turn-around. This standard may prove useful in future development

  8. Study on an Air Quality Evaluation Model for Beijing City Under Haze-Fog Pollution Based on New Ambient Air Quality Standards

    PubMed Central

    Li, Li; Liu, Dong-Jun

    2014-01-01

    Since 2012, China has been facing haze-fog weather conditions, and haze-fog pollution and PM2.5 have become hot topics. It is very necessary to evaluate and analyze the ecological status of the air environment of China, which is of great significance for environmental protection measures. In this study the current situation of haze-fog pollution in China was analyzed first, and the new Ambient Air Quality Standards were introduced. For the issue of air quality evaluation, a comprehensive evaluation model based on an entropy weighting method and nearest neighbor method was developed. The entropy weighting method was used to determine the weights of indicators, and the nearest neighbor method was utilized to evaluate the air quality levels. Then the comprehensive evaluation model was applied into the practical evaluation problems of air quality in Beijing to analyze the haze-fog pollution. Two simulation experiments were implemented in this study. One experiment included the indicator of PM2.5 and was carried out based on the new Ambient Air Quality Standards (GB 3095-2012); the other experiment excluded PM2.5 and was carried out based on the old Ambient Air Quality Standards (GB 3095-1996). Their results were compared, and the simulation results showed that PM2.5 was an important indicator for air quality and the evaluation results of the new Air Quality Standards were more scientific than the old ones. The haze-fog pollution situation in Beijing City was also analyzed based on these results, and the corresponding management measures were suggested. PMID:25170682

  9. Quality Systems and ISO 9000 in Higher Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lundquist, Robert

    1997-01-01

    Examines quality assurance systems in higher education in general and of ISO 9000, a set of international quality standards, in particular. Reports on a survey of 23 institutions worldwide concerning implementation of quality systems and application of the ISO 9000 standards. Concludes that while institutions have found the quality assurance…

  10. Water Quality Standards for Coral Reef Protection | Science ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The U.S. Clean Water Act provides a legal framework to protect coastal biological resources such as coral reefs, mangrove forests, and seagrass meadows from the damaging effects of human activities. Even though many resources are protected under this authority, water quality standards have not been effectively applied to coral reefs. The Environmental Protection Agency is promoting biocriteria and other water quality standards through collaborative development of bioassessment procedures, indicators and monitoring strategies. To support regulatory action, bioassessment indicators must be biologically meaningful, relevant to management, responsive to human disturbance, and relatively immune to natural variability. A rapid bioassessment protocol for reef-building stony corals was developed and tested for regulatory applicability. Preliminary testing in the Florida Keys found indicators had sufficient precision and provided information relevant to coral reef management. Sensitivity to human disturbance was demonstrated in the U.S. Virgin Islands for five of eight indicators tested. Once established, monitoring programs using these indicators can provide valuable, long-term records of coral condition and regulatory compliance. Development of a rapid bioassement protocol for reef-building stony corals was tested for regulatory applicability.

  11. A methodology model for quality management in a general hospital.

    PubMed

    Stern, Z; Naveh, E

    1997-01-01

    A reappraisal is made of the relevance of industrial modes of quality management to the issues of medical care. Analysis of the nature of medical care, which differentiates it from the supplier-client relationships of industry, presents the main intrinsic characteristics, which create problems in application of the industrial quality management approaches to medical care. Several examples are the complexity of the relationship between the medical action and the result obtained, the client's nonacceptance of economic profitability as a value in his medical care, and customer satisfaction biased by variable standards of knowledge. The real problems unique to hospitals are addressed, and a methodology model for their quality management is offered. Included is a sample of indicator vectors, measurements of quality care, cost of medical care, quality of service, and human resources. These are based on the trilogy of planning quality, quality control, and improving quality. The conclusions confirm the inadequacy of industrial quality management approaches for medical institutions and recommend investment in formulation of appropriate concepts.

  12. Rating educational quality: factors in the erosion of professional standards.

    PubMed

    Albanese, M

    1999-06-01

    Changes in the health care environment are putting increasing pressure on medical schools to make faculty accountable and to document the quality of the medical education they provide. Faculty's ratings of students' performances and students' ratings of faculty's teaching are important elements in these efforts to document educational quality. This article discusses selected research related to factors affecting raters' judgments, analyzes how changes in the health care environment are influencing such judgments, and links these influences to the system that upholds professional standards. Ratings are known to have a positive bias (generosity error), provide limited discrimination, and often fail to document serious deficits. The potential sources of these problems relate to the mechanics of the rating task, the system used to obtain ratings, and factors affecting rater judgment. As managed care demands reduce the time faculty have for teaching, as system-wide disincentives to provide negative ratings proliferate, and as social engineering challenges, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, impose differential standards for students, the natural tendency to avoid giving negative ratings becomes even harder to resist. Ultimately, these forces compromise the capability of faculty to uphold the standards of the profession. The author calls for a national effort to stem the erosion of those standards.

  13. 41 CFR 60-3.5 - General standards for validity studies.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... should avoid making employment decisions on the basis of measures of knowledges, skills, or abilities... General standards for validity studies. A. Acceptable types of validity studies. For the purposes of... of these guidelines, section 14 of this part. New strategies for showing the validity of selection...

  14. The Standard of Quality for HEIs in Vietnam: A Step in the Right Direction?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tran, Nga D.; Nguyen, Thanh T.; Nguyen, My T. N.

    2011-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of the Standard of Quality for higher education institutions in Vietnam which was developed in response to an urgent call for a fundamental reform to enhance the quality of educational provision, particularly of teaching and learning. Design/methodology/approach: The standard and…

  15. ANALYSIS OF INFORMATION CONTENT AND GENERAL QUALITY OF OBESITY AND EATING DISORDERS WEBSITES.

    PubMed

    Hernández-Morante, Juan José; Jiménez-Rodríguez, Diana; Cañavate, Rubén; Conesa-Fuentes, María del Carmen

    2015-08-01

    nowadays, the Internet is increasingly used by providers as a source of information for eating disorder health issues. However, health information on the Internet remains unregulated and varies in quality, accuracy and readability. the objective of this study was to determine both general and information quality of eating disorder websites, including obesity websites. three key terms (obesity, anorexia and bulimia) were entered into the Google search engine. Websites were assessed using two tests (HonCode certification and Bermudez-Tamayo et al. test) to analyze overall quality, and a third test (DISCERN test) to analyze specifically information quality. there were no significant differences regarding overall quality among the different pathologies studied (p = 0.197), although anorexia websites tended to obtain lower quality scores. Furthermore, all evaluated websites showed significant deficiencies regarding information quality (p = 0.032). Nevertheless, obesity websites showed a significant higher information quality than anorexia websites. the overall quality of eating disorders websites is moderate, but the information quality that they contain is fairly poor. Remarkably, anorexia nervosa websites showed both the lower information and general quality, while bulimia websites showed a higher general quality and obesity websites presented the most reliable information. Copyright AULA MEDICA EDICIONES 2014. Published by AULA MEDICA. All rights reserved.

  16. 42 CFR 493.1233 - Standard: Complaint investigations.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... SERVICES (CONTINUED) STANDARDS AND CERTIFICATION LABORATORY REQUIREMENTS Quality System for Nonwaived Testing General Laboratory Systems § 493.1233 Standard: Complaint investigations. The laboratory must have a system in place to ensure that it documents all complaints and problems reported to the laboratory...

  17. 42 CFR 493.1231 - Standard: Confidentiality of patient information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Standard: Confidentiality of patient information... AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) STANDARDS AND CERTIFICATION LABORATORY REQUIREMENTS Quality System for Nonwaived Testing General Laboratory Systems § 493.1231 Standard: Confidentiality of patient information...

  18. 42 CFR 493.1231 - Standard: Confidentiality of patient information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Standard: Confidentiality of patient information... AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) STANDARDS AND CERTIFICATION LABORATORY REQUIREMENTS Quality System for Nonwaived Testing General Laboratory Systems § 493.1231 Standard: Confidentiality of patient information...

  19. 42 CFR 493.1231 - Standard: Confidentiality of patient information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Standard: Confidentiality of patient information... AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) STANDARDS AND CERTIFICATION LABORATORY REQUIREMENTS Quality System for Nonwaived Testing General Laboratory Systems § 493.1231 Standard: Confidentiality of patient information...

  20. 42 CFR 493.1231 - Standard: Confidentiality of patient information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Standard: Confidentiality of patient information... AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) STANDARDS AND CERTIFICATION LABORATORY REQUIREMENTS Quality System for Nonwaived Testing General Laboratory Systems § 493.1231 Standard: Confidentiality of patient information...

  1. Evaluation of medical record quality and communication skills among pediatric interns after standardized parent training history-taking in China.

    PubMed

    Yu, Mu Xue; Jiang, Xiao Yun; Li, Yi Juan; Shen, Zhen Yu; Zhuang, Si Qi; Gu, Yu Fen

    2018-02-01

    The effect of using standardized parent training history-taking on the quality of medical records and communication skills among pediatric interns was determined. Fifth-year interns who were undertaking a pediatric clinical practice rotation were randomized to intervention and control groups. All of the pediatric interns received history-taking training by lecture and bedside teaching. The pediatric interns in the intervention group also received standardized parent history-taking training. The following two outcome measures were used: the scores of medical records, which were written by the pediatric interns after history-taking from real parents of pediatric patients; and the communication assessment tool (CAT) assessed by real parents. The general information, history of present illness (HPI), past medical history, personal history, family history, diagnosis, diagnostic analysis, and differential diagnosis scores in the intervention group were significantly higher than the control group (p < 0.05). Assessment of the CAT indicated that the real parents were more satisfied with the pediatric interns in the intervention group. Standardized parent training history-taking is effective in improving the quality of medical records by pediatric interns. Standardized parent training history-taking is a superior teaching tool for clinical reasoning ability, as well as communication skills in clinical pediatric practice.

  2. [Study on seed quality test and quality standard of Pesudostellaria heterophylla].

    PubMed

    Xiao, Cheng-Hong; Zhou, Tao; Jiang, Wei-Ke; Chen, Min; Xiong, Hou-Xi; Liao, Ming-Wu

    2014-08-01

    Referring to the rules for agricultural seed testing (GB /T 3543-1995) issued by China, the test of sampling, seed purity, weight per 1 000 seeds, seed moisture, seed viability and germination rate had been studied for screening seed quality test methods of Pesudostellaria heterophylla. The seed quality from different collection areas was measured. The results showed that at least 6.5 g seeds should be sampled and passed through 10-mesh sieve for purity analysis. The weight of 1 000 seeds was determined by using the 500-seed method. The phenotypic observation and size measurement were used for authenticity testing. The seed moisture was determined under the higher temperature (130 ± 2) degrees C for 5 hours. The seeds were dipped into 0.2% TTC sustaining 1 hour at 40 degrees C, then the viability could be determined. The break dormancy seeds were cultured on sand at 10 degrees C. K cluster analysis was applied for the data analysis, the seed quality from different collection areas grading of P. Heterophylla was described as three grades. The seed quality of each grade should reach following requirements: for first grade seeds, germination rate ≥ 86%, 1 000-grain weight ≥ 2.59 g, purity ≥ 87%, moisture ≤ 13.1%; for second grade seeds, germination rate ≥ 70%, 1 000-grain weight ≥ 2.40 g, purity ≥ 77%, moisture ≤ 14.3%; for third grade seeds, germination rate ≥ 41%, 1 000-grain weight ≥ 2.29 g, purity ≥ 76%, moisture ≤ 15.8%. The seed testing methods for quality items of P. heterophylla had been initially established, as well as the primary P. heterophylla seed quality classification standard.

  3. Russian Higher Education and European Standards of Quality Assurance

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Motova, Galina; Pykko, Ritta

    2012-01-01

    This article considers the relevance and implementation of European approaches to quality assurance in the context of the Russian educational system. It covers the issues of transformation of the higher education system during the post-Soviet period, specific features of the state accreditation system, the impact of the European Standards and…

  4. 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

  5. Prevalence of impairments, disabilities, handicaps and quality of life in the general population: a review of recent literature.

    PubMed Central

    Barbotte, E.; Guillemin, F.; Chau, N.

    2001-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence rates of morbidity in the general population through bibliographic research. METHODS: Articles relating to impairment, disability, handicap, quality of life and their prevalence in the general population, published between January 1990 and March 1998, were selected on the MEDLINE database. FINDINGS: The 20 articles retained out of 433 used 41 different indicators. Indicators of impairment, disability, handicap and low quality of life showed prevalence rates of 0.1-92%, 3.6-66%, 0.6-56% and 1.8-26% respectively, depending on age and the accuracy of indicators. The heterogeneity of the conceptual framework and insufficient recognition of the importance of indicator accuracy, the age factor and the socioeconomic characteristics of the studied populations impede reliable international comparison. CONCLUSION: Further standardization of indicators is therefore required. The revision of the International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps may make it possible to resolve some of the difficulties encountered. PMID:11731812

  6. Model for selecting quality standards for a salad bar through identifying elements of customer satisfaction.

    PubMed

    Ouellet, D; Norback, J P

    1993-11-01

    Continuous quality improvement is the new requirement of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. This means that meeting quality standards will not be enough. Dietitians will need to improve those standards and the way they are selected. Because quality is defined in terms of the customers, all quality improvement projects must start by defining what customers want. Using a salad bar as an example, this article presents and illustrates a technique developed in Japan to identify which elements in a product or service will satisfy or dissatisfy consumers. Using a model and a questionnaire format developed by Kano and coworkers, 273 students were surveyed to classify six quality elements of a salad bar. Four elements showed a dominant "must-be" characteristic: food freshness, labeling of the dressings, no spills in the food, and no spills on the salad bar. The two other elements (food easy to reach and food variety) showed a dominant one-dimensional characteristic. By better understanding consumer perceptions of quality elements, foodservice managers can select quality standards that focus on what really matters to their consumers.

  7. 40 CFR 63.7887 - What are the general standards I must meet for my affected equipment leak sources?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) NATIONAL EMISSION STANDARDS FOR HAZARDOUS... Pollutants: Site Remediation General Standards § 63.7887 What are the general standards I must meet for my...

  8. 40 CFR 63.7887 - What are the general standards I must meet for my affected equipment leak sources?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) NATIONAL EMISSION STANDARDS FOR HAZARDOUS... Pollutants: Site Remediation General Standards § 63.7887 What are the general standards I must meet for my...

  9. 40 CFR 63.7887 - What are the general standards I must meet for my affected equipment leak sources?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) NATIONAL EMISSION STANDARDS FOR HAZARDOUS... Pollutants: Site Remediation General Standards § 63.7887 What are the general standards I must meet for my...

  10. 40 CFR 63.7887 - What are the general standards I must meet for my affected equipment leak sources?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) NATIONAL EMISSION STANDARDS FOR HAZARDOUS... Pollutants: Site Remediation General Standards § 63.7887 What are the general standards I must meet for my...

  11. 40 CFR 63.7887 - What are the general standards I must meet for my affected equipment leak sources?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) NATIONAL EMISSION STANDARDS FOR HAZARDOUS... Pollutants: Site Remediation General Standards § 63.7887 What are the general standards I must meet for my...

  12. AN APPROACH FOR EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF VARIOUS OZONE AIR QUALITY STANDARDS FOR PROTECTING TREES

    EPA Science Inventory

    We demonstrate an approach for evaluating the level of protection attained using a variety of forms and levels of past, current, and proposed Air Quality Standards (AQSs). The U.S. Clean Air Act requires the establishment of ambient air quality standards to protect health and pub...

  13. 77 FR 20610 - United States Standards for Grades of Cultivated Ginseng

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-04-05

    ... ginseng in an evolving global economy. Other changes will include a revised General Section, new... authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture ``to develop and improve standards of quality, condition, quantity... GBW to revise the standards and develop new grades based solely on quality and percentage defects. AMS...

  14. Correlation pattern recognition: optimal parameters for quality standards control of chocolate marshmallow candy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Flores, Jorge L.; García-Torales, G.; Ponce Ávila, Cristina

    2006-08-01

    This paper describes an in situ image recognition system designed to inspect the quality standards of the chocolate pops during their production. The essence of the recognition system is the localization of the events (i.e., defects) in the input images that affect the quality standards of pops. To this end, processing modules, based on correlation filter, and segmentation of images are employed with the objective of measuring the quality standards. Therefore, we designed the correlation filter and defined a set of features from the correlation plane. The desired values for these parameters are obtained by exploiting information about objects to be rejected in order to find the optimal discrimination capability of the system. Regarding this set of features, the pop can be correctly classified. The efficacy of the system has been tested thoroughly under laboratory conditions using at least 50 images, containing 3 different types of possible defects.

  15. 42 CFR 493.1230 - Condition: General laboratory systems.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Condition: General laboratory systems. 493.1230... SERVICES (CONTINUED) STANDARDS AND CERTIFICATION LABORATORY REQUIREMENTS Quality System for Nonwaived Testing General Laboratory Systems § 493.1230 Condition: General laboratory systems. Each laboratory that...

  16. 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

  17. An evaluation of freshwater mussel toxicity data in the derivation of water quality guidance and standards for copper

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    March, F.A.; Dwyer, F.J.; Augspurger, T.; Ingersoll, C.G.; Wang, N.; Mebane, C.A.

    2007-01-01

    The state of Oklahoma has designated several areas as freshwater mussel sanctuaries in an attempt to provide freshwater mussel species a degree of protection and to facilitate their reproduction. We evaluated the protection afforded freshwater mussels by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) hardness-based 1996 ambient copper water quality criteria, the 2007 U.S. EPA water quality criteria based on the biotic ligand model and the 2005 state of Oklahoma copper water quality standards. Both the criterion maximum concentration and criterion continuous concentration were evaluated. Published acute and chronic copper toxicity data that met American Society for Testing and Materials guidance for test acceptability were obtained for exposures conducted with glochidia or juvenile freshwater mussels. We tabulated toxicity data for glochidia and juveniles to calculate 20 species mean acute values for freshwater mussels. Generally, freshwater mussel species mean acute values were similar to those of the more sensitive species included in the U.S. EPA water quality derivation database. When added to the database of genus mean acute values used in deriving 1996 copper water quality criteria, 14 freshwater mussel genus mean acute values included 10 of the lowest 15 genus mean acute values, with three mussel species having the lowest values. Chronic exposure and sublethal effects freshwater mussel data available for four species and acute to chronic ratios were used to evaluate the criterion continuous concentration. On the basis of the freshwater mussel toxicity data used in this assessment, the hardness-based 1996 U.S. EPA water quality criteria, the 2005 Oklahoma water quality standards, and the 2007 U.S. EPA water quality criteria based on the biotic ligand model might need to be revised to afford protection to freshwater mussels. ?? 2007 SETAC.

  18. 40 CFR 50.6 - National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for PM10.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false National primary and secondary ambient... AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS NATIONAL PRIMARY AND SECONDARY AMBIENT AIR QUALITY STANDARDS § 50.6 National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for PM10. (a) The level of the national...

  19. Evaluation of the environmental epidemiologic data and methodology for the air quality standard in Beijing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Xu; Jiang, Yanfeng; Yin, Ling; Liu, Bo; Du, Pengfei; Hassan, Mujtaba; Wang, Shigong; Li, Tanshi

    2017-09-01

    To evaluate the relationship between exposure to air pollutants and respiratory emergency room visits, a generalized additive model (GAM) was used to analyze the exposure-effect relationship between air pollutants and respiratory emergency room visits. The results showed that NO2, SO2, and PM10 have positive relationships with respiratory disease. Concentration increases of 10 μg/m3 in NO2, SO2, and PM10 corresponded to 3.90% (95%CI 3.56-4.25), 0.81% (95%CI -0.09-1.72), and 0.64% (95%CI 0.55-0.74) increases in respiratory emergency room visits. In addition, there is a strong synergic effect of PM10 and NO2 on respiratory diseases. The threshold values of the national standard grade II limits used in Beijing should be adjusted. An appropriate standard could effectively promote a significant decline in respiratory room visits and would eventually be beneficial to air quality management in residential areas.

  20. DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS FOR AIR QUALITY MONITORING AND CONTROL

    EPA Science Inventory

    This report presents a description of the activities and accomplishments of the American Society for Testing and Materials' U. S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to the International Standards Organization's Technical Committee 146 on Air Quality. The purpose of the TAG is to re...

  1. 40 CFR 63.7937 - How do I demonstrate initial compliance with the general standards?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... compliance with the general standards? 63.7937 Section 63.7937 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL... Remediation General Compliance Requirements § 63.7937 How do I demonstrate initial compliance with the general... remediation material treated or managed by the process vented through the affected process vents has an...

  2. 40 CFR 63.7937 - How do I demonstrate initial compliance with the general standards?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... compliance with the general standards? 63.7937 Section 63.7937 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL... Remediation General Compliance Requirements § 63.7937 How do I demonstrate initial compliance with the general... remediation material treated or managed by the process vented through the affected process vents has an...

  3. 40 CFR 63.7937 - How do I demonstrate initial compliance with the general standards?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... compliance with the general standards? 63.7937 Section 63.7937 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL... Remediation General Compliance Requirements § 63.7937 How do I demonstrate initial compliance with the general... remediation material treated or managed by the process vented through the affected process vents has an...

  4. Amendment of water quality standards in China: viewpoint on strategic considerations.

    PubMed

    Zhao, Xiaoli; Wang, Hao; Tang, Zhi; Zhao, Tianhui; Qin, Ning; Li, Huixian; Wu, Fengchang; Giesy, John P

    2018-02-01

    Water quality standards (WQS) are the most important tool for protection of quality of aquatic environments in China and play a decisive role in the management of China's aquatic environments. Due to limited scientific information available previously, WQS were developed largely based on water quality criteria (WQC) or WQS recommended by developed countries, which may not be suitable for current circumstances in China. The Chinese government recently initiated the revision of Environmental Quality Standards for Surface Water (EQSSW) (GB3838-2002) to meet the challenge of environmental protection. This review analyzed how the WQS developed and applied in China differ from those of more developed countries and pointed out that the lack of strong scientific bases for China's WQC pose major limitations of current WQS. We focus on discussing the six aspects that require high attention on how to establish a national WQC system to support the revision of WQS (Table 1) such as development of methodology, refining water function zoning, establish priority pollutants list, improving protection drinking water sources, development of site-specific water quality criteria, and field toxicity test. It is essential that China and other developing countries established a relatively mature system for promulgating, applying, and enforcing WQC and to implement a dynamic system to incorporate most recent research results into periodically updated WQS.

  5. 30 CFR 784.200 - Interpretive rules related to General Performance Standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... RECLAMATION AND OPERATION PLAN § 784.200 Interpretive rules related to General Performance Standards. The... ENFORCEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR SURFACE COAL MINING AND RECLAMATION OPERATIONS PERMITS AND COAL... Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. (a) Interpretation of § 784.15: Reclamation plan: Postmining...

  6. 40 CFR 63.7885 - What are the general standards I must meet for my affected process vents?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... Remediation General Standards § 63.7885 What are the general standards I must meet for my affected process...) You determine for the remediation material treated or managed by the process vented through the...

  7. 76 FR 7096 - Minimum Quality and Handling Standards for Domestic and Imported Peanuts Marketed in the United...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-02-09

    ...). Accordingly, AMS published a notice of review and request for written comments on the Standards in the April...; FV10-996-610 Review] Minimum Quality and Handling Standards for Domestic and Imported Peanuts Marketed... the Minimum Quality and Handling Standards for Domestic and Imported Peanuts Marketed in the United...

  8. 77 FR 30087 - Air Quality Designations for the 2008 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-05-21

    ...This rule establishes initial air quality designations for most areas in the United States, including areas of Indian country, for the 2008 primary and secondary national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for ozone. The designations for several counties in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin that the EPA is considering for inclusion in the Chicago nonattainment area will be designated in a subsequent action, no later than May 31, 2012. Areas designated as nonattainment are also being classified by operation of law according to the severity of their air quality problems. The classification categories are Marginal, Moderate, Serious, Severe, and Extreme. The EPA is establishing the air quality thresholds that define the classifications in a separate rule that the EPA is signing and publishing in the Federal Register on the same schedule as these designations. In accordance with that separate rule, six nonattainment areas in California are being reclassified to a higher classification.

  9. Scan-To Output Validation: Towards a Standardized Geometric Quality Assessment of Building Information Models Based on Point Clouds

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bonduel, M.; Bassier, M.; Vergauwen, M.; Pauwels, P.; Klein, R.

    2017-11-01

    The use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) for existing buildings based on point clouds is increasing. Standardized geometric quality assessment of the BIMs is needed to make them more reliable and thus reusable for future users. First, available literature on the subject is studied. Next, an initial proposal for a standardized geometric quality assessment is presented. Finally, this method is tested and evaluated with a case study. The number of specifications on BIM relating to existing buildings is limited. The Levels of Accuracy (LOA) specification of the USIBD provides definitions and suggestions regarding geometric model accuracy, but lacks a standardized assessment method. A deviation analysis is found to be dependent on (1) the used mathematical model, (2) the density of the point clouds and (3) the order of comparison. Results of the analysis can be graphical and numerical. An analysis on macro (building) and micro (BIM object) scale is necessary. On macro scale, the complete model is compared to the original point cloud and vice versa to get an overview of the general model quality. The graphical results show occluded zones and non-modeled objects respectively. Colored point clouds are derived from this analysis and integrated in the BIM. On micro scale, the relevant surface parts are extracted per BIM object and compared to the complete point cloud. Occluded zones are extracted based on a maximum deviation. What remains is classified according to the LOA specification. The numerical results are integrated in the BIM with the use of object parameters.

  10. Putting ISO 9000 Standards and Baldrige Quality Criteria To Work Now in Public Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Clark, Don

    1999-01-01

    The National Association for Industry-Education Cooperation (NAIEC) creates an approach for school system improvement that combines the necessary standards for achieving mileposts of the Baldrige Quality Criteria and the International Organization of Standardization (ISO) 9000 Standards for Education. Together, the Baldrige Criteria and ISO…

  11. 77 FR 8197 - Implementation of the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone: Nonattainment Area...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-02-14

    ...-AR32 Implementation of the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone: Nonattainment Area Classifications Approach, Attainment Deadlines and Revocation of the 1997 Ozone Standards for Transportation... proposing thresholds for classifying nonattainment areas for the 2008 ozone National Ambient Air Quality...

  12. [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%.

  13. 75 FR 1566 - Public Hearings for Reconsideration of the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-01-12

    ...-AP98 Public Hearings for Reconsideration of the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone... National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone,'' which was signed on January 6, 2010, and will be.../ttn/naaqs/standards/ozone/s_o3_cr_fr.html for the addresses and detailed instructions for submitting...

  14. The pancreatic surgery registry (StuDoQ|Pancreas) of the German Society for General and Visceral Surgery (DGAV) - presentation and systematic quality evaluation.

    PubMed

    Wellner, Ulrich F; Klinger, Carsten; Lehmann, Kai; Buhr, Heinz; Neugebauer, Edmund; Keck, Tobias

    2017-04-05

    Pancreatic resections are among the most complex procedures in visceral surgery. While mortality has decreased substantially over the past decades, morbidity remains high. The volume-outcome correlation in pancreatic surgery is among the strongest in the field of surgery. The German Society for General and Visceral Surgery (DGAV) established a national registry for quality control, risk assessment and outcomes research in pancreatic surgery in Germany (DGAV SuDoQ|Pancreas). Here, we present the aims and scope of the DGAV StuDoQ|Pancreas Registry. A systematic assessment of registry quality is performed based on the recommendations of the German network for outcomes research (DNVF). The registry quality was assessed by consensus criteria of the DNVF in regard to the domains Systematics and Appropriateness, Standardization, Validity of the sampling procedure, Validity of data collection, Validity of statistical analysis and reports, and General demands for registry quality. In summary, DGAV StuDoQ|Pancreas meets most of the criteria of a high-quality clinical registry. The DGAV StuDoQ|Pancreas provides a valuable platform for quality assessment, outcomes research as well as randomized registry trials in pancreatic surgery.

  15. Re-use of standard ontologies in a water quality vocabulary (Invited)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cox, S. J.; Simons, B.; Yu, J.

    2013-12-01

    Observations provide the key constraints on environmental and earth science investigations. Where an investigation uses data sourced from multiple providers, data fusion depends on the observation classifications being comparable. Standard models for observation metadata are available (ISO 19156) which provide slots for key classifiers, in particular, the observed property and observation procedure. While universal use of common vocabularies might be desirable in achieving interoperability, this is unlikely in practice. However, semantic web vocabularies provide the means for asserting proximity and other relationships between items in different vocabularies, thus enabling mediation as an interoperability solution. Here we report on the development of a vocabulary for water quality observations in which recording relationships with existing vocabularies was a core strategy. The vocabulary is required to enable combination of a number of groundwater, surface water and marine water quality datasets on an ongoing basis. Our vocabulary model is based on the principle that observations generally report values of specific parameters which are defined by combining a number of facets. We start from Quantities, Units, Dimensions and Data Types (QUDT), which is an OWL ontology developed by NASA and TopQuadrant. We extend this with two additional classes, for Observed Property and Identified Object, and two linking properties, which enable us to create an observed property vocabulary for water quality applications. This ontology is comparable with models for observed properties developed as part of OGC's Observations and Measurements v1.0 standard, the INSPIRE Generic Conceptual Model, and may also be compared with the W3C SSN Ontology, which is based on the DOLCE Ultralite upper-ontology. Water quality observations commonly report concentrations of chemicals, both natural and contaminant, so we tie many of the Identified Objects to items from Chemical Entities of Biological

  16. User-generated quality standards for youth mental health in primary care: a participatory research design using mixed methods

    PubMed Central

    Graham, Tanya; Rose, Diana; Murray, Joanna; Ashworth, Mark; Tylee, André

    2014-01-01

    Objectives To develop user-generated quality standards for young people with mental health problems in primary care using a participatory research model. Methods 50 young people aged 16–25 from community settings and primary care participated in focus groups and interviews about their views and experiences of seeking help for mental health problems in primary care, cofacilitated by young service users and repeated to ensure respondent validation. A second group of young people also aged 16–25 who had sought help for any mental health problem from primary care or secondary care within the last 5 years were trained as focus groups cofacilitators (n=12) developed the quality standards from the qualitative data and participated in four nominal groups (n=28). Results 46 quality standards were developed and ranked by young service users. Agreement was defined as 100% of scores within a two-point region. Group consensus existed for 16 quality standards representing the following aspects of primary care: better advertising and information (three); improved competence through mental health training and skill mix within the practice (two); alternatives to medication (three); improved referral protocol (three); and specific questions and reassurances (five). Alternatives to medication and specific questions and reassurances are aspects of quality which have not been previously reported. Conclusions We have demonstrated the feasibility of using participatory research methods in order to develop user-generated quality standards. The development of patient-generated quality standards may offer a more formal method of incorporating the views of service users into quality improvement initiatives. This method can be adapted for generating quality standards applicable to other patient groups. PMID:24920648

  17. 42 CFR 417.410 - Qualifying conditions: General rules.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... groups and to deliver a specified comprehensive range of high quality services efficiently, effectively... services, and a quality assurance program. (c) Standards. Generally, each qualifying condition is... Section 417.410 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN...

  18. OZONE AMBIENT AIR QUALITY STANDARD HAS BENEFICIAL EFFECT ON PONDEROSA PINE IN CALIFORNIA

    EPA Science Inventory

    Ambient air quality standards and control strategies are implemented to protect humans and vegetation from adverse effects. However, to date there has not been a simple and objective method to determine if the standards and resultant control strategies have reduced O3 impacts on ...

  19. 78 FR 44485 - Implementation of the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone: State Implementation...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-07-24

    ...] Implementation of the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone: State Implementation Plan... Rule Regarding ``Implementation of the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone: State... ground-level ozone formation. B. What should I consider as I prepare my comments for the EPA? 1...

  20. 40 CFR 63.7937 - How do I demonstrate initial compliance with the general standards?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... with the general standards? 63.7937 Section 63.7937 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION... SOURCE CATEGORIES (CONTINUED) National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Site Remediation... remediation material treated or managed by the process vented through the affected process vents has an...

  1. 42 CFR 493.1232 - Standard: Specimen identification and integrity.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) STANDARDS AND CERTIFICATION LABORATORY REQUIREMENTS Quality System for Nonwaived Testing General Laboratory Systems § 493.1232 Standard: Specimen identification and integrity. The laboratory must establish and follow written policies and procedures that ensure positive identification and...

  2. Improving general practitioner clinical records with a quality assurance minimal intervention.

    PubMed Central

    Del Mar, C B; Lowe, J B; Adkins, P; Arnold, E; Baade, P

    1998-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Although good medical records have been associated with good care, there is considerable room for their improvement in general practice. AIM: To improve the quality of general practice medical records at minimal cost. METHOD: A total of 150 randomly sampled general practitioners (GPs) in suburban Brisbane, Australia, were randomized in a controlled trial to receive or not receive an intervention. The intervention consisted of 6 to 12 one-hour monthly meetings when the pairs of GPs assessed samples of each other's medical records using a 12-item instrument. This was developed previously by a process of consensus of general practice teachers. Mean scores of 10 medical records selected at random from before the intervention started and one year later were compared. RESULTS: After the intervention, the increase in the total score (for which the maximum possible was 18) for the intervention GPs (from a baseline of 11.5 to 12.3) was not significantly greater than for the controls (from 11.4 to 11.7). Legibility and being able to determine the doctor's assessment of the consultation were significantly improved. The post-intervention increase of 1.06 (9.3%) of the total scores of the 47% of intervention GPs who complied with the intervention was significantly greater than that for the controls. CONCLUSION: The quality assurance activity improved some components of the quality of GPs' clinical records. However, the improvement was small, and the search for activities for Australian GPs that demonstrate an improvement in the quality of their practice must continue. Images p1311-a PMID:9747547

  3. Measuring the quality of junior hospital doctors in general medicine.

    PubMed

    Jones, J M; Sanderson, C F; Black, N A

    1992-05-01

    During the course of a larger study aimed at relating staffing levels of junior doctors in general medicine to the safety of the care provided, it became clear that consultant doctors considered the quality of their junior staff as being at least as important as the quantity. This paper describes several attempts to develop a feasible and valid method of measuring the quality of senior house officers (SHOs) and registrars using routinely available data. Having rejected three methods and had difficulties with three other methods, a modified Delphi survey was used to explore the extent to which consultants agreed on the key attributes of a high quality SHO or registrar. Sixty-seven (60%) of all consultants in the South-West Thames and Trent regions responded to two rounds of questionnaires which revealed communication skills as being consistently the most significant factor. This was confirmed in a second, anonymous survey of 198 (78%) SHO and registrar posts in the North-West Thames region. It also became clear that consultants viewed the quality of their own SHOs and registrars as generally high. This being so it is argued that the requirement to adjust for quality, when comparing SHO and registrar levels between hospitals, is of minor importance. These results also suggest that the explicit teaching of communication skills should have a high priority in undergraduate and postgraduate education.

  4. Applying policy and health effects of air pollution in South Korea: focus on ambient air quality standards

    PubMed Central

    Ha, Jongsik

    2014-01-01

    Objectives South Korea’s air quality standards are insufficient in terms of establishing a procedure for their management. The current system lacks a proper decision-making process and prior evidence is not considered. The purpose of this study is to propose a measure for establishing atmospheric environmental standards in South Korea that will take into consideration the health of its residents. Methods In this paper, the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) of the US was examined in order to suggest ways, which consider health effects, to establish air quality standards in South Korea. Up-to-date research on the health effects of air pollution was then reviewed, and tools were proposed to utilize the key results. This was done in an effort to ensure the reliability of the standards with regard to public health. Results This study showed that scientific research on the health effects of air pollution and the methodology used in the research have contributed significantly to establishing air quality standards. However, as the standards are legally binding, the procedure should take into account the effects on other sectors. Realistically speaking, it is impossible to establish standards that protect an entire population from air pollution. Instead, it is necessary to find a balance between what should be done and what can be done. Conclusions Therefore, establishing air quality standards should be done as part of an evidence-based policy that identifies the health effects of air pollution and takes into consideration political, economic, and social contexts. PMID:25300297

  5. Tooth loss and general quality of life in dentate adults from Southern Brazil.

    PubMed

    Haag, Dandara Gabriela; Peres, Karen Glazer; Brennan, David Simon

    2017-10-01

    This study aimed to estimate the association between the number of teeth and general quality of life in adults. A population-based study was conducted with 1720 individuals aged 20-59 years residing in Florianópolis, Brazil, in 2009. Data were collected at participants' households using a structured questionnaire. In 2012, a second wave was undertaken with 1222 individuals. Oral examinations were performed for number of teeth, prevalence of functional dentition (≥21 natural teeth), and shortened dental arch (SDA), which were considered the main exposures. General quality of life was the outcome and was assessed with the WHO Abbreviated Instrument for Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF). Covariates included sociodemographic factors, health-related behaviors, and chronic diseases. Multivariable linear regression models were performed to test the associations between the main exposures and the outcome adjusted for covariates. In 2012, 1222 individuals participated in the study (response rate = 71.1%). Having more teeth was associated with greater scores on physical domain of the WHOQOL-BREF [β = 0.24 (95% CI 0.01; 0.46)] after adjustment for covariates. Absence of functional dentition was associated with lower scores on the physical domain [β = -3.94 (95% CI -7.40; -0.48)] in the adjusted analysis. There was no association between both SDA definitions and the domains of general quality of life. Oral health as measured by tooth loss was associated with negative impacts on general quality of life assessed by the WHOQOL-BREF. There was a lack of evidence that SDA is a condition that negatively affects general quality of life.

  6. Setting Performance Standards for Technical and Nontechnical Competence in General Surgery.

    PubMed

    Szasz, Peter; Bonrath, Esther M; Louridas, Marisa; Fecso, Andras B; Howe, Brett; Fehr, Adam; Ott, Michael; Mack, Lloyd A; Harris, Kenneth A; Grantcharov, Teodor P

    2017-07-01

    The objectives of this study were to (1) create a technical and nontechnical performance standard for the laparoscopic cholecystectomy, (2) assess the classification accuracy and (3) credibility of these standards, (4) determine a trainees' ability to meet both standards concurrently, and (5) delineate factors that predict standard acquisition. Scores on performance assessments are difficult to interpret in the absence of established standards. Trained raters observed General Surgery residents performing laparoscopic cholecystectomies using the Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skill (OSATS) and the Objective Structured Assessment of Non-Technical Skills (OSANTS) instruments, while as also providing a global competent/noncompetent decision for each performance. The global decision was used to divide the trainees into 2 contrasting groups and the OSATS or OSANTS scores were graphed per group to determine the performance standard. Parametric statistics were used to determine classification accuracy and concurrent standard acquisition, receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves were used to delineate predictive factors. Thirty-six trainees were observed 101 times. The technical standard was an OSATS of 21.04/35.00 and the nontechnical standard an OSANTS of 22.49/35.00. Applying these standards, competent/noncompetent trainees could be discriminated in 94% of technical and 95% of nontechnical performances (P < 0.001). A 21% discordance between technically and nontechnically competent trainees was identified (P < 0.001). ROC analysis demonstrated case experience and trainee level were both able to predict achieving the standards with an area under the curve (AUC) between 0.83 and 0.96 (P < 0.001). The present study presents defensible standards for technical and nontechnical performance. Such standards are imperative to implementing summative assessments into surgical training.

  7. Quality aspects of digital radiography in general dental practice.

    PubMed

    Hellén-Halme, Kristina

    2007-01-01

    The number of dentists who have converted from conventional film radiography to digital radiography continues to grow. A digital system has numerous advantages, but there are also many new aspects to consider. The overall aim of this thesis was to study how digital radiography was used in general dental practices. The specific aims were to study how different factors affected image quality. To determine whether there were any differences in image quality between conventional film radiographs and digital radiographs, 4863 images (540 cases) were evaluated. The cases had been sent to the Swedish Dental Insurance Office for prior treatment approval. The image quality of digital radiographs was found to be significantly lower than that of film radiographs. This result led to a questionnaire study of dentists experienced in digital radiography. In 2003, a questionnaire was sent to the 139 general practice dentists who worked with digital radiography in Skine, Sweden; the response rate was 94%. Many general practice dentists had experienced several problems (65%), and less than half of the digital systems (40%) underwent some kind of quality control. One of the weaker links in the technical chain of digital radiography appeared to be the monitor. A field study to 19 dentists at their clinics found that the brightness and contrast settings of the monitors had to be adjusted to obtain the subjectively best image quality. The ambient light in the evaluation room was also found to affect the diagnostic outcome of low-contrast patterns in radiographs. To evaluate the effects of ambient light and technical adjustments of the monitor, a study using standardised set-ups was designed. Seven observers evaluated radiographs of 100 extracted human teeth for approximal caries under five different combinations of brightness and contrast settings on two different occasions with high and low ambient light levels in the evaluation room. The ability to diagnose carious lesions was found

  8. 25 CFR 273.38 - Equal quality and standard of education.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Equal quality and standard of education. 273.38 Section 273.38 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR INDIAN SELF-DETERMINATION AND EDUCATION ASSISTANCE ACT PROGRAM EDUCATION CONTRACTS UNDER JOHNSON-O'MALLEY ACT Funding Provisions § 273.38...

  9. 25 CFR 273.38 - Equal quality and standard of education.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 1 2012-04-01 2011-04-01 true Equal quality and standard of education. 273.38 Section 273.38 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR INDIAN SELF-DETERMINATION AND EDUCATION ASSISTANCE ACT PROGRAM EDUCATION CONTRACTS UNDER JOHNSON-O'MALLEY ACT Funding Provisions § 273.38...

  10. 25 CFR 273.38 - Equal quality and standard of education.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Equal quality and standard of education. 273.38 Section 273.38 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR INDIAN SELF-DETERMINATION AND EDUCATION ASSISTANCE ACT PROGRAM EDUCATION CONTRACTS UNDER JOHNSON-O'MALLEY ACT Funding Provisions § 273.38...

  11. 25 CFR 273.38 - Equal quality and standard of education.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Equal quality and standard of education. 273.38 Section 273.38 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR INDIAN SELF-DETERMINATION AND EDUCATION ASSISTANCE ACT PROGRAM EDUCATION CONTRACTS UNDER JOHNSON-O'MALLEY ACT Funding Provisions § 273.38...

  12. 40 CFR 50.7 - National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for PM2.5.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false National primary and secondary ambient... AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS NATIONAL PRIMARY AND SECONDARY AMBIENT AIR QUALITY STANDARDS § 50.7 National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for PM2.5. (a) The national primary and...

  13. 40 CFR 50.13 - National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for PM2.5.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false National primary and secondary ambient... PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS NATIONAL PRIMARY AND SECONDARY AMBIENT AIR QUALITY STANDARDS § 50.13 National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for PM2.5. (a) The national primary...

  14. Adapting total quality management for general practice: evaluation of a programme.

    PubMed Central

    Lawrence, M; Packwood, T

    1996-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: Assessment of the benefits and limitations of a quality improvement programme based on total quality management principles in general practice over a period of one year (October 1993-4). DESIGN: Questionnaires to practice team members before any intervention and after one year. Three progress reports completed by facilitators at four month intervals. Semistructured interviews with a sample of staff from each practice towards the end of the year. SETTING: 18 self selected practices from across the former Oxford Region. Three members of each practice received an initial residential course and three one day seminars during the year. Each practice was supported by a facilitator from their Medical Audit Advisory Group. MEASURES: Extent of understanding and implementation of quality improvement methodology. Number, completeness, and evaluation of quality improvement projects. Practice team members' attitudes to and involvement in team working and quality improvement. RESULTS: 16 of the 18 practices succeeded in implementing the quality improvement methods. 48 initiatives were considered and staff involvement was broad. Practice members showed increased involvement in, and appreciation of, strategic planning and team working, and satisfaction from improved patients services. 11 of the practices intend to continue with the methodology. The commonest barrier expressed was time. CONCLUSION: Quality improvement programmes based on total quality management principles produce beneficial changes in service delivery and team working in most general practices. It is incompatible with traditional doctor centred practice. The methodology needs to be adapted for primary care to avoid quality improvement being seen as separate from routine activity, and to save time. PMID:10161529

  15. A Direct sensitivity approach to predict hourly ozone resulting from compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standard

    EPA Science Inventory

    In setting primary ambient air quality standards, the EPA’s responsibility under the law is to establish standards that protect public health. As part of the current review of the ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS), the US EPA evaluated the health exposure and ...

  16. What are standardized literacy and numeracy tests testing? Evidence of the domain-general contributions to students' standardized educational test performance.

    PubMed

    Howard, Steven J; Woodcock, Stuart; Ehrich, John; Bokosmaty, Sahar

    2017-03-01

    A fundamental aim of standardized educational assessment is to achieve reliable discrimination between students differing in the knowledge, skills and abilities assessed. However, questions of the purity with which these tests index students' genuine abilities have arisen. Specifically, literacy and numeracy assessments may also engage unintentionally assessed capacities. The current study investigated the extent to which domain-general processes - working memory (WM) and non-verbal reasoning - contribute to students' standardized test performance and the pathway(s) through which they exert this influence. Participants were 91 Grade 2 students recruited from five regional and metropolitan primary schools in Australia. Participants completed measures of WM and non-verbal reasoning, as well as literacy and numeracy subtests of a national standardized educational assessment. Path analysis of Rasch-derived ability estimates and residuals with domain-general cognitive abilities indicated: (1) a consistent indirect pathway from WM to literacy and numeracy ability, through non-verbal reasoning; (2) direct paths from phonological WM and literacy ability to numeracy ability estimates; and (3) a direct path from WM to spelling test residuals. Results suggest that the constitution of this nationwide standardized assessment confounded non-targeted abilities with those that were the target of assessment. This appears to extend beyond the effect of WM on learning more generally, to the demands of different assessment types and methods. This has implications for students' abilities to demonstrate genuine competency in assessed areas and the educational supports and provisions they are provided on the basis of these results. © 2016 The British Psychological Society.

  17. Improving quality of care in general practices by self-audit, benchmarking and quality circles.

    PubMed

    Mahlknecht, Angelika; Abuzahra, Muna E; Piccoliori, Giuliano; Enthaler, Nina; Engl, Adolf; Sönnichsen, Andreas

    2016-10-01

    Guideline adherence of general practitioners (GP) regarding treatment of chronic conditions shows room for improvement. Thus, concepts have to be designed to promote quality of care. The aim of the interventional study "Improvement of Quality by Benchmarking" was to assess whether quality can be improved by self-auditing, benchmarking and quality circles in Salzburg (Austria) and South Tyrol (Italy). In this publication we present the Austrian results. Quality indicators were developed in a consensus process for eight chronic diseases based on pre-existing quality management systems. A quality score consisting of 35 indicators was calculated (0-5 points per indicator depending on fulfilment, maximum 175 points). Data were extracted from the electronic health records of participating practices in 2012, 2013 and 2014. A statistical pre-post analysis was performed using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. A total of 20 GPs participated in the project. The mean quality score increased from 62.0 at baseline to 84.0 at the second follow-up (p = 0.003). Regarding the individual quality indicators, strong improvements were achieved between baseline and first follow-up, especially in process indicators concerning documentation. Between the first and second follow-up, quality remained in most cases at the same level. The validity of results is limited because of structural and technical problems. Due to the uncontrolled pre-post design we cannot exclude external influences on the results. Nevertheless, the intervention was able to improve measured quality of care. Barriers were detected that should be considered in a possible implementation of quality control programs.

  18. 40 CFR 131.6 - Minimum requirements for water quality standards submission.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ...)(2) and 303(c)(2) of the Act. (b) Methods used and analyses conducted to support water quality... scientific basis of the standards which do not include the uses specified in section 101(a)(2) of the Act as...

  19. 40 CFR 131.6 - Minimum requirements for water quality standards submission.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ...)(2) and 303(c)(2) of the Act. (b) Methods used and analyses conducted to support water quality... scientific basis of the standards which do not include the uses specified in section 101(a)(2) of the Act as...

  20. 40 CFR 131.6 - Minimum requirements for water quality standards submission.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ...)(2) and 303(c)(2) of the Act. (b) Methods used and analyses conducted to support water quality... scientific basis of the standards which do not include the uses specified in section 101(a)(2) of the Act as...

  1. 40 CFR 121.25 - Adoption of new water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Adoption of new water quality standards. 121.25 Section 121.25 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS STATE CERTIFICATION OF ACTIVITIES REQUIRING A FEDERAL LICENSE OR PERMIT Certification by the Administrator § 121.25 Adoption of new water...

  2. 40 CFR 121.25 - Adoption of new water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 21 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Adoption of new water quality standards. 121.25 Section 121.25 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS STATE CERTIFICATION OF ACTIVITIES REQUIRING A FEDERAL LICENSE OR PERMIT Certification by the Administrator § 121.25 Adoption of new water...

  3. 40 CFR 125.61 - Existence of and compliance with applicable water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Existence of and compliance with applicable water quality standards. 125.61 Section 125.61 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS CRITERIA AND STANDARDS FOR THE NATIONAL POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM Criteria for Modifying the...

  4. 40 CFR 125.61 - Existence of and compliance with applicable water quality standards.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 21 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Existence of and compliance with applicable water quality standards. 125.61 Section 125.61 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) WATER PROGRAMS CRITERIA AND STANDARDS FOR THE NATIONAL POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM Criteria for Modifying the...

  5. [Study on quality standards of decoction pieces of salt Alpinia].

    PubMed

    Li, Wenbing; Hu, Changjiang; Long, Lanyan; Huang, Qinwan; Xie, Xiuqiong

    2010-12-01

    To establish the quality criteria for decoction pieces of salt Alpinia. Decoction pieces of salt Alpinia were measured with moisture, total ash, acid-insoluble ash, water-extract and volatile oils according to the procedures recorded in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2010. The content of Nootkatone was determined by HPLC, and NaCl, by chloridion electrode method. We obtained results of total ash, acid-insoluble ash, water-extract and volatile oils of 10 batches of decoction pieces of salt Alpinia moisture; Meanwhile we set the HPLC and chloridion electrode method. This research established a fine quality standard for decoction pieces of salt Alpinia.

  6. UK key performance indicators and quality assurance standards for colonoscopy.

    PubMed

    Rees, Colin J; Thomas Gibson, Siwan; Rutter, Matt D; Baragwanath, Phil; Pullan, Rupert; Feeney, Mark; Haslam, Neil

    2016-12-01

    Colonoscopy should be delivered by endoscopists performing high quality procedures. The British Society of Gastroenterology, the UK Joint Advisory Group on GI Endoscopy, and the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland have developed quality assurance measures and key performance indicators for the delivery of colonoscopy within the UK. This document sets minimal standards for delivery of procedures along with aspirational targets that all endoscopists should aim for. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  7. 75 FR 61413 - Notice of Availability of Biotechnology Quality Management System Audit Standard and Evaluation...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-10-05

    ...] Notice of Availability of Biotechnology Quality Management System Audit Standard and Evaluation of... Biotechnology Quality Management System Program (BQMS Program) to assist regulated entities in achieving and... customized biotechnology quality management system (BQMS) to improve their management of domestic research...

  8. E-Learning Quality Standards for Consumer Protection and Consumer Confidence: A Canadian Case Study in E-Learning Quality Assurance

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Barker, Kathryn Chang

    2007-01-01

    Emerging concerns about quality of e-learning products and services animated a project in Canada to create quality standards that derived primarily from the needs of consumer, that could be used to guide the development and choice of e-learning at all levels of education and training, and that could be implemented in a simple manner. A set of…

  9. Codex Alimentarius: food quality and safety standards for international trade.

    PubMed

    Randell, A W; Whitehead, A J

    1997-08-01

    Since 1962, the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) of the Food and Agriculture Organisation/World Health Organisation has been responsible for developing standards, guidelines and other recommendations on the quality and safety of food to protect the health of consumers and to ensure fair practices in food trade. The mission of the CAC remains relevant, but a number of factors have shown the need for new techniques to form the basis of food standards, the most important of which is risk analysis. The authors give a brief description of the role and work of the CAC and the efforts deployed by the Commission to respond to the challenges posed by new approaches to government regulation, harmonisation of national requirements based on international standards and the role of civil society.

  10. Using standard treatment protocols to manage costs and quality of hospital services.

    PubMed

    Meyer, J W; Feingold, M G

    1993-06-01

    The current health care environment has made it critically important that hospital costs and quality be managed in an integrated fashion. Promised health care reforms are expected to make cost reduction and quality enhancement only more important. Traditional methods of hospital cost and quality control have largely been replaced by such approaches as practice parameters, outcomes measurement, clinical indicators, clinical paths, benchmarking, patient-centered care, and a focus on patient selection criteria. This Special Report describes an integrated process for strategically managing costs and quality simultaneously, incorporating key elements of many important new quality and cost control tools. By using a multidisciplinary group process to develop standard treatment protocols, hospitals and their medical staffs address the most important services provided within major product lines. Using both clinical and financial data, groups of physicians, nurses, department managers, financial analysts, and administrators redesign key patterns of care within their hospital, incorporating the best practices of their own and other institutions. The outcome of this process is a new, standardized set of clinical guidelines that reduce unnecessary variation in care, eliminate redundant interventions, establish clear lines of communication for all caregivers, and reduce the cost of each stay. The hospital, medical staff, and patients benefit from the improved opportunities for managed care contracting, more efficient hospital systems, consensus-based quality measures, and reductions in the cost of care. STPs offer a workable and worthwhile approach to positioning the hospital of the 1990s for operational efficiency and cost and quality competitiveness.

  11. Quality assurance tendering and awarding contracts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    1994-12-01

    Standards relating to quality control can be significantly useful when tendering for and awarding contracts. However, because it is sometimes difficult to express these standards in palpable economic terms, they can (practically) never be applied as criteria for awarding contracts in accordance with U.A.R. (Uniform General Standards) 1986. Therefore it would be advisable in the future to regard the availability of a (certified) system of quality control as being a standard requirement. To this end, a paragraph setting requirements for a quality control plan should be included in the specification. A quality control plan will be required on awarding a contract. This envisaged scenario can best achieved through a transitional phase. During this period there will be opportunity enough for removing any shortcomings in the wording and for considering standards to be required and assessment procedures.

  12. 40 CFR 63.7938 - How do I demonstrate continuous compliance with the general standards?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... compliance with the general standards? 63.7938 Section 63.7938 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL... Remediation General Compliance Requirements § 63.7938 How do I demonstrate continuous compliance with the....7893. (2) If the remediation material treated or managed by the process vented through the affected...

  13. 40 CFR 63.7938 - How do I demonstrate continuous compliance with the general standards?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... compliance with the general standards? 63.7938 Section 63.7938 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL... Remediation General Compliance Requirements § 63.7938 How do I demonstrate continuous compliance with the....7893. (2) If the remediation material treated or managed by the process vented through the affected...

  14. 40 CFR 63.7938 - How do I demonstrate continuous compliance with the general standards?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... compliance with the general standards? 63.7938 Section 63.7938 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL... Remediation General Compliance Requirements § 63.7938 How do I demonstrate continuous compliance with the....7893. (2) If the remediation material treated or managed by the process vented through the affected...

  15. 40 CFR 63.7938 - How do I demonstrate continuous compliance with the general standards?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... compliance with the general standards? 63.7938 Section 63.7938 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL... Remediation General Compliance Requirements § 63.7938 How do I demonstrate continuous compliance with the....7893. (2) If the remediation material treated or managed by the process vented through the affected...

  16. Primary care visit length, quality, and satisfaction for standardized patients with depression.

    PubMed

    Geraghty, Estella M; Franks, Peter; Kravitz, Richard L

    2007-12-01

    The contribution of physician and organizational factors to visit length, quality, and satisfaction remains uncertain, in part, because of confounding by patient presentation. To determine associations among visit length, quality, and satisfaction when patient presentation is controlled. A factorial experiment using standardized patients to make primary care visits presenting with either major depression or adjustment disorder, and a musculoskeletal complaint. One hundred fifty-two primary care physicians, each seeing 2 standardized patients. Visit length was determined from surreptitiously obtained audiorecordings. Other key measures were derived from physician and standardized patient report. Mean visit length for 294 completed encounters was 22.3 minutes (range = 5.8-72.2, SD = 9.4). Key factors associated with visit length were: physician style (rho = 0.68 and 0.54 after multivariate adjustment), nonprofessional experience with depression (11% longer, 95% CI = 0-23%), practicing within an HMO (26% shorter, 95% CI = 61-90%), and greater practice volume (those working >9 half-day clinic sessions/week had 15% shorter visits than those working fewer than 6, 95% CI = 0-27%, and those seeing >12 patients/half-day had 27% shorter visits than those seeing <10 patients/half-day, 95% CI = 13-39%). Suicidal inquiry (a process-based quality-of-care measure for depression) was not associated with adjusted visit length. Satisfaction was linearly associated with visit length but not with suicide inquiry or follow-up interval. Despite experimental control for clinical presentation, wide variation in visit length persists, largely reflecting individual physician styles. Visit length is a significant determinant of standardized patient satisfaction.

  17. Coordinating standards and applications for optical water quality sensor networks

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Bergamaschi, B.; Pellerin, B.

    2011-01-01

    Joint USGS-CUAHSI Workshop: In Situ Optical Water Quality Sensor Networks; Shepherdstown, West Virginia, 8-10 June 2011; Advanced in situ optical water quality sensors and new techniques for data analysis hold enormous promise for advancing scientific understanding of aquatic systems through measurements of important biogeochemical parameters at the time scales over which they vary. High-frequency and real-time water quality data also provide the opportunity for early warning of water quality deterioration, trend detection, and science-based decision support. However, developing networks of optical sensors in freshwater systems that report reliable and comparable data across and between sites remains a challenge to the research and monitoring community. To address this, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI), convened a 3-day workshop to explore ways to coordinate development of standards and applications for optical sensors, as well as handling, storage, and analysis of the continuous data they produce.

  18. Minimum Essential Requirements and Standards in Medical Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wojtczak, Andrzej; Schwarz, M. Roy

    2000-01-01

    Reviews the definition of standards in general, and proposes a definition of standards and global minimum essential requirements for use in medical education. Aims to serve as a tool for the improvement of quality and international comparisons of basic medical programs. Explains the IIME (Institute for International Medical Education) project…

  19. Standards and guidelines for observational studies: quality is in the eye of the beholder.

    PubMed

    Morton, Sally C; Costlow, Monica R; Graff, Jennifer S; Dubois, Robert W

    2016-03-01

    Patient care decisions demand high-quality research. To assist those decisions, numerous observational studies are being performed. Are the standards and guidelines to assess observational studies consistent and actionable? What policy considerations should be considered to ensure decision makers can determine if an observational study is of high-quality and valid to inform treatment decisions? Based on a literature review and input from six experts, we compared and contrasted nine standards/guidelines using 23 methodological elements involved in observational studies (e.g., study protocol, data analysis, and so forth). Fourteen elements (61%) were addressed by at least seven standards/guidelines; 12 of these elements disagreed in the approach. Nine elements (39%) were addressed by six or fewer standards/guidelines. Ten elements (43%) were not actionable in at least one standard/guideline that addressed the element. The lack of observational study standard/guideline agreement may contribute to variation in study conduct; disparities in what is considered credible research; and ultimately, what evidence is adopted. A common set of agreed on standards/guidelines for conducting observational studies will benefit funders, researchers, journal editors, and decision makers. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. 40 CFR Appendix K to Part 50 - Interpretation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Interpretation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter K Appendix K to Part 50 Protection of Environment... STANDARDS Pt. 50, App. K Appendix K to Part 50—Interpretation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards...

  1. 40 CFR Appendix K to Part 50 - Interpretation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Interpretation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter K Appendix K to Part 50 Protection of Environment... STANDARDS Pt. 50, App. K Appendix K to Part 50—Interpretation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards...

  2. 40 CFR Appendix K to Part 50 - Interpretation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Interpretation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter K Appendix K to Part 50 Protection of Environment... STANDARDS Pt. 50, App. K Appendix K to Part 50—Interpretation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards...

  3. 40 CFR Appendix K to Part 50 - Interpretation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Interpretation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter K Appendix K to Part 50 Protection of Environment... STANDARDS Pt. 50, App. K Appendix K to Part 50—Interpretation of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards...

  4. 40 CFR 63.7885 - What are the general standards I must meet for my affected process vents?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... meet for my affected process vents? 63.7885 Section 63.7885 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL... Remediation General Standards § 63.7885 What are the general standards I must meet for my affected process...) You determine for the remediation material treated or managed by the process vented through the...

  5. 40 CFR 63.7885 - What are the general standards I must meet for my affected process vents?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... meet for my affected process vents? 63.7885 Section 63.7885 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL... Remediation General Standards § 63.7885 What are the general standards I must meet for my affected process...) You determine for the remediation material treated or managed by the process vented through the...

  6. 40 CFR 63.7885 - What are the general standards I must meet for my affected process vents?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... meet for my affected process vents? 63.7885 Section 63.7885 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL... Remediation General Standards § 63.7885 What are the general standards I must meet for my affected process...) You determine for the remediation material treated or managed by the process vented through the...

  7. 40 CFR 63.7885 - What are the general standards I must meet for my affected process vents?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... meet for my affected process vents? 63.7885 Section 63.7885 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL... Remediation General Standards § 63.7885 What are the general standards I must meet for my affected process...) You determine for the remediation material treated or managed by the process vented through the...

  8. Using Academy Standards of Excellence in Nutrition and Dietetics for organization self-assessment and quality improvement.

    PubMed

    Price, Joyce A; Kent, Sue; Cox, Sharon A; McCauley, Sharon M; Parekh, Janki; Klein, Catherine J

    2014-08-01

    Standards of Excellence in Nutrition and Dietetics for an Organization is a self-assessment tool to measure and evaluate an organization's program, services, and initiatives that identify and distinguish the Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) brand as the professional expert in food and nutrition. The Standards of Excellence will serve as a road map to recognize RDNs as leaders and collaborators. Standards of Excellence criteria apply to all practice segments of nutrition and dietetics: health care, education and research, business and industry, and community nutrition and public health. Given the membership's call to action to be recognized for their professional expertise, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Quality Management Committee developed four Standards of Excellence in Nutrition and Dietetics for Organizations: Quality of Leadership, Quality of Organization, Quality of Practice, and Quality of Outcomes. Within each standard, specific indicators provide strategies for an organization to demonstrate excellence. The Academy will develop a self-evaluation scoring tool to assist the organization in applying and implementing one or more of the strategies in the Standards of Excellence indicators. The organization can use the self-assessment tool to establish itself as a Center of Excellence in Nutrition and Dietetics. The role examples illustrate initiatives RDNs and organizations can take to identify themselves as a Center of Excellence in Nutrition and Dietetics. Achieving the Excellence level is an important collaborative initiative between nutrition and dietetics organizations and the Academy to provide increased autonomy, supportive management, respect within peers and community, opportunities for professional development, support for further education, and compensation for the RDN. For purposes of the Standards, "organization" means workplace or practice setting. Copyright © 2014 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier Inc

  9. 77 FR 74985 - Water Quality Standards for the State of Florida's Streams and Downstream Protection Values for...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-12-18

    ... pollution in fresh water systems can significantly negatively impact aquatic life and long-term ecosystem... Water Quality Standards for the State of Florida's Streams and Downstream Protection Values for Lakes... its numeric water quality standards for nutrients in Florida that were promulgated and published on...

  10. The "general recognition and acceptance" standard of objectivity for good faith in prescribing: legal and medical implications.

    PubMed

    Brushwood, David B

    2007-01-01

    The United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit has ruled that a jury considering charges of drug trafficking against a pain management physician should be instructed that the defendant's good faith is a defense to the charges. The court rejected a subjective standard of good faith, and instead ruled that the good faith of the defendant must be evaluated from an objective perspective. This objective standard requires that the jury determine whether the defendant was practicing in accordance with the standard generally recognized and accepted in the United States. General recognition and acceptance are determined on a case-by-case basis, within the context of a defendant's practice. Simply because a physician's practice is out of the norm for many physicians does not mean it can't be generally recognized and accepted within the standard of medical practice. Expert witness testimony of pain management physicians will assist juries in the application of this standard for good faith in prescribing.

  11. 40 CFR 63.7884 - What are the general standards I must meet for each site remediation with affected sources?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... meet for each site remediation with affected sources? 63.7884 Section 63.7884 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) NATIONAL EMISSION STANDARDS FOR HAZARDOUS... Pollutants: Site Remediation General Standards § 63.7884 What are the general standards I must meet for each...

  12. 40 CFR 63.7884 - What are the general standards I must meet for each site remediation with affected sources?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... meet for each site remediation with affected sources? 63.7884 Section 63.7884 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) NATIONAL EMISSION STANDARDS FOR HAZARDOUS... Pollutants: Site Remediation General Standards § 63.7884 What are the general standards I must meet for each...

  13. 40 CFR 63.7884 - What are the general standards I must meet for each site remediation with affected sources?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... meet for each site remediation with affected sources? 63.7884 Section 63.7884 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) NATIONAL EMISSION STANDARDS FOR HAZARDOUS... Pollutants: Site Remediation General Standards § 63.7884 What are the general standards I must meet for each...

  14. 40 CFR 63.7884 - What are the general standards I must meet for each site remediation with affected sources?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... meet for each site remediation with affected sources? 63.7884 Section 63.7884 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) AIR PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) NATIONAL EMISSION STANDARDS FOR HAZARDOUS... Pollutants: Site Remediation General Standards § 63.7884 What are the general standards I must meet for each...

  15. Report: EPA Needs to Accelerate Adoption of Numeric Nutrient Water Quality Standards

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Report #09-P-0223, August 26, 2009. EPA’s 1998 National Strategy and Plan to promote State adoption of nutrient water quality standards (which better protect aquatic life and human health) has been ineffective.

  16. Ascorbic Acid as a Standard for Iodometric Titrations. An Analytical Experiment for General Chemistry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Silva, Cesar R.; Simoni, Jose A.; Collins, Carol H.; Volpe, Pedro L. O.

    1999-10-01

    Ascorbic acid is suggested as the weighable compound for the standardization of iodine solutions in an analytical experiment in general chemistry. The experiment involves an iodometric titration in which iodine reacts with ascorbic acid, oxidizing it to dehydroascorbic acid. The redox titration endpoint is determined by the first iodine excess that is complexed with starch, giving a deep blue-violet color. The results of the titration of iodine solution using ascorbic acid as a calibration standard were compared with the results acquired by the classic method using a standardized solution of sodium thiosulfate. The standardization of the iodine solution using ascorbic acid was accurate and precise, with the advantages of saving time and avoiding mistakes due to solution preparation. The colorless ascorbic acid solution gives a very clear and sharp titration end point with starch. It was shown by thermogravimetric analysis that ascorbic acid can be dried at 393 K for 2 h without decomposition. This experiment allows general chemistry students to perform an iodometric titration during a single laboratory period, determining with precision the content of vitamin C in pharmaceutical formulations.

  17. Impact of parenteral nutrition standardization on costs and quality in adult patients.

    PubMed

    Berlana, David; Barraquer, Anna; Sabin, Pilar; Chicharro, Luisa; Pérez, Agueda; Puiggrós, Carolina; Burgos, Rosa; Martínez-Cutillas, Julio

    2014-08-01

    Parenteral nutrition (PN) is a costly therapy that can also be associated with serious complications. Therefore, efforts are focusing on reducing rate of complications, and costs related to PN. The aim was to analyze the effect of the implementation of PN standardization on costs and quality criteria. Secondary aim was to assess the use of individualized PN based on patient's clinical condition. We compare the use of PN before and after the implementation of PN standardization. Demographic, clinical and PN characteristics were collected. Costs analysis was performed to study the costs associated to the two different periods. Quality criteria included were: 1) PN administration; 2) nutrition assessment (energy intake between 20-35 kcal/kg/day; protein contribution according to nitrogen balance); 3) safety and complications (hyperglycemia, hypertriglyceridemia, hepatic complications, catheter-related infection); 4) global efficacy (as serum albumin increase). Chi-square test was used to compare percentages; logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the use of customized PN. 296 patients were included with a total of 3,167 PN compounded. During the first period standardized PN use was 47.5% vs 85.7% within the second period (p < 0.05). No differences were found in the quality criteria tested. Use of individualized PN was related to critical care patients, hypertriglyceridemia, renal damage, and long-term PN. Mean costs of the PN decreased a 19.5%. Annual costs savings would be € 86,700. The use of customized or standard PN has shown to be efficient and flexible to specific demands; however customized PN was significantly more expensive. Copyright AULA MEDICA EDICIONES 2014. Published by AULA MEDICA. All rights reserved.

  18. Field Performance of High-Quality and Standard Northern Red Oak Seedlings in Tennessee

    Treesearch

    David S. Buckley

    2002-01-01

    First-year performance of high-quality (HQ), high-quality cull (HQC) and standard (ST) northern red oak (Quercus rubra) nursery seedlings was compared in a study established in a recent clearcut in mid-March, 2000. Objectives were to test effects of 1) seedling type, 2) planting treatment, and 3) control of competitors on the growth, browsing, and...

  19. 38 CFR 17.155 - Minimum standards of safety and quality for automotive adaptive equipment.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... safety and quality for automotive adaptive equipment. 17.155 Section 17.155 Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS MEDICAL Automotive Equipment and Driver Training § 17.155 Minimum standards of safety and quality for automotive adaptive equipment. (a) The Under Secretary for...

  20. 38 CFR 17.155 - Minimum standards of safety and quality for automotive adaptive equipment.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... safety and quality for automotive adaptive equipment. 17.155 Section 17.155 Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS MEDICAL Automotive Equipment and Driver Training § 17.155 Minimum standards of safety and quality for automotive adaptive equipment. (a) The Under Secretary for...

  1. 38 CFR 17.155 - Minimum standards of safety and quality for automotive adaptive equipment.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... safety and quality for automotive adaptive equipment. 17.155 Section 17.155 Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS MEDICAL Automotive Equipment and Driver Training § 17.155 Minimum standards of safety and quality for automotive adaptive equipment. (a) The Under Secretary for...

  2. 38 CFR 17.155 - Minimum standards of safety and quality for automotive adaptive equipment.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... safety and quality for automotive adaptive equipment. 17.155 Section 17.155 Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS MEDICAL Automotive Equipment and Driver Training § 17.155 Minimum standards of safety and quality for automotive adaptive equipment. (a) The Under Secretary for...

  3. 40 CFR 267.31 - What are the general design and operation standards?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 26 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What are the general design and operation standards? 267.31 Section 267.31 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY... hazardous waste constituents to air, soil, or surface water that could threaten human health or the...

  4. 40 CFR 50.11 - National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for oxides of nitrogen (with...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for oxides of nitrogen (with nitrogen dioxide as the indicator). 50.11 Section... quality standards for oxides of nitrogen (with nitrogen dioxide as the indicator). (a) The level of the...

  5. 40 CFR 50.11 - National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for oxides of nitrogen (with...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false National primary and secondary ambient air quality standards for oxides of nitrogen (with nitrogen dioxide as the indicator). 50.11 Section... quality standards for oxides of nitrogen (with nitrogen dioxide as the indicator). (a) The level of the...

  6. Quality Matters Rubric Potential for Enhancing Online Foreign Language Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Al Zumor, Abdul Wahed Q.

    2015-01-01

    Quality Matters Program is designed to certify the quality of online courses in colleges and universities across and beyond the U.S. The Quality Matters Rubric (QMR) consists of eight general standards and 41 specific standards which are used to evaluate and design online and blended courses. The purpose of this study is to highlight the QMR…

  7. Polarization transformation as an algorithm for automatic generalization and quality assessment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Qian, Haizhong; Meng, Liqiu

    2007-06-01

    Since decades it has been a dream of cartographers to computationally mimic the generalization processes in human brains for the derivation of various small-scale target maps or databases from a large-scale source map or database. This paper addresses in a systematic way the polarization transformation (PT) - a new algorithm that serves both the purpose of automatic generalization of discrete features and the quality assurance. By means of PT, two dimensional point clusters or line networks in the Cartesian system can be transformed into a polar coordinate system, which then can be unfolded as a single spectrum line r = f(α), where r and a stand for the polar radius and the polar angle respectively. After the transformation, the original features will correspond to nodes on the spectrum line delimited between 0° and 360° along the horizontal axis, and between the minimum and maximum polar radius along the vertical axis. Since PT is a lossless transformation, it allows a straighforward analysis and comparison of the original and generalized distributions, thus automatic generalization and quality assurance can be down in this way. Examples illustrate that PT algorithm meets with the requirement of generalization of discrete spatial features and is more scientific.

  8. Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing: New German Standards (din) Setting Quality Requirements of Products Generated by Digital Cameras, Pan-Sharpening and Classification

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reulke, R.; Baltrusch, S.; Brunn, A.; Komp, K.; Kresse, W.; von Schönermark, M.; Spreckels, V.

    2012-08-01

    10 years after the first introduction of a digital airborne mapping camera in the ISPRS conference 2000 in Amsterdam, several digital cameras are now available. They are well established in the market and have replaced the analogue camera. A general improvement in image quality accompanied the digital camera development. The signal-to-noise ratio and the dynamic range are significantly better than with the analogue cameras. In addition, digital cameras can be spectrally and radiometrically calibrated. The use of these cameras required a rethinking in many places though. New data products were introduced. In the recent years, some activities took place that should lead to a better understanding of the cameras and the data produced by these cameras. Several projects, like the projects of the German Society for Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Geoinformation (DGPF) or EuroSDR (European Spatial Data Research), were conducted to test and compare the performance of the different cameras. In this paper the current DIN (Deutsches Institut fuer Normung - German Institute for Standardization) standards will be presented. These include the standard for digital cameras, the standard for ortho rectification, the standard for classification, and the standard for pan-sharpening. In addition, standards for the derivation of elevation models, the use of Radar / SAR, and image quality are in preparation. The OGC has indicated its interest in participating that development. The OGC has already published specifications in the field of photogrammetry and remote sensing. One goal of joint future work could be to merge these formerly independent developments and the joint development of a suite of implementation specifications for photogrammetry and remote sensing.

  9. Ideology and Audit Culture: Standardized Service Quality Surveys in Academic Libraries

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lilburn, Jeff

    2017-01-01

    This article examines the relationship between the standardized service quality survey LibQUAL+ and the rise of audit culture. Recent scholarship examining assessment and accountability systems and the ideological principles driving their implementation in higher education raises concerns about the impact these systems have on teaching, learning,…

  10. Concept of Draft International Standard for a Unified Approach to Space Program Quality Assurance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stryzhak, Y.; Vasilina, V.; Kurbatov, V.

    2002-01-01

    For want of the unified approach to guaranteed space project and product quality assurance, implementation of many international space programs has become a challenge. Globalization of aerospace industry and participation of various international ventures with diverse quality assurance requirements in big international space programs requires for urgent generation of unified international standards related to this field. To ensure successful fulfillment of space missions, aerospace companies should design and process reliable and safe products with properties complying or bettering User's (or Customer's) requirements. Quality of the products designed or processed by subcontractors (or other suppliers) should also be in compliance with the main user (customer)'s requirements. Implementation of this involved set of unified requirements will be made possible by creating and approving a system (series) of international standards under a generic title Space Product Quality Assurance based on a system consensus principle. Conceptual features of the baseline standard in this system (series) should comprise: - Procedures for ISO 9000, CEN and ECSS requirements adaptation and introduction into space product creation, design, manufacture, testing and operation; - Procedures for quality assurance at initial (design) phases of space programs, with a decision on the end product made based on the principle of independence; - Procedures to arrange incoming inspection of products delivered by subcontractors (including testing, audit of supplier's procedures, review of supplier's documentation), and space product certification; - Procedures to identify materials and primary products applied; - Procedures for quality system audit at the component part, primary product and materials supplier facilities; - Unified procedures to form a list of basic performances to be under configuration management; - Unified procedures to form a list of critical space product components, and unified

  11. [Implementation of the technical requirements of the UNE-EN-ISO 15189 quality standard in a mycobacterial laboratory].

    PubMed

    Guna Serrano, M del Remedio; Ocete Mochón, M Dolores; Lahiguera, M José; Bresó, M Carmen; Gimeno Cardona, Concepción

    2013-02-01

    The UNE-EN-ISO 15189:2007 standard defines the requirements for quality and competence that must be met by medical laboratories. These laboratories should use this international standard to develop their own quality management systems and to evaluate their own competencies; in turn, this standard will be used by accreditation bodies to confirm or recognize the laboratories' competence. In clinical microbiology laboratories, application of the standard implies the implementation of the technical and specific management requirements that must be met to achieve optimal quality when carrying out microbiological tests. In Spain, accreditation is granted by the Spanish Accreditation Body (Entidad Nacional de Acreditación). This review aims to discuss the practical application of the standard's technical requirements in mycobacterial laboratory. Firstly, we define the scope of accreditation. Secondly, we specify how the items of the standard on personnel management, control of equipment, environmental facilities, method validation, internal controls and customer satisfaction surveys were developed and implemented in our laboratory. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved.

  12. 46 CFR 356.21 - General approval of standard loan or mortgage agreements.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 46 Shipping 8 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false General approval of standard loan or mortgage agreements. 356.21 Section 356.21 Shipping MARITIME ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION MISCELLANEOUS REQUIREMENTS FOR VESSELS OF 100 FEET OR GREATER IN REGISTERED LENGTH TO OBTAIN A FISHERY ENDORSEMENT TO THE...

  13. 46 CFR 356.21 - General approval of standard loan or mortgage agreements.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 46 Shipping 8 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false General approval of standard loan or mortgage agreements. 356.21 Section 356.21 Shipping MARITIME ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION MISCELLANEOUS REQUIREMENTS FOR VESSELS OF 100 FEET OR GREATER IN REGISTERED LENGTH TO OBTAIN A FISHERY ENDORSEMENT TO THE...

  14. Defining wilderness quality: the role of standards in wilderness management—a workshop proceedings.

    Treesearch

    B. Shelby; G. Stankey; B. Shindler

    1992-01-01

    Integral to maintaining wilderness quality is the implementation of ecological, social, and management standards. A substantial body of wilderness research management experience exists nationwide as a common-pool resource for professionals with a specialized interest in incorporating standards into planning processes. In a 2-day interactive workshop, wilderness...

  15. Measurement standards for interdisciplinary medical rehabilitation.

    PubMed

    Johnston, M V; Keith, R A; Hinderer, S R

    1992-12-01

    Rehabilitation must address problems inherent in the measurement of human function and health-related quality of life, as well as problems in diagnosis and measurement of impairment. This educational document presents an initial set of standards to be used as guidelines for development and use of measurement and evaluation procedures and instruments for interdisciplinary, health-related rehabilitation. Part I covers general measurement principles and technical standards, beginning with validity, the central consideration for use of measures. Subsequent sections focus on reliability and errors of measurement, norms and scaling, development of measures, and technical manuals and guides. Part II covers principles and standards for use of measures. General principles of application of measures in practice are discussed first, followed by standards to protect persons being measured and then by standards for administrative applications. Many explanations, examples, and references are provided to help professionals understand measurement principles. Improved measurement will ensure the basis of rehabilitation as a science and nourish its success as a clinical service.

  16. DEVELOPMENT OF A NATIONAL CONSENSUS STANDARD FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMS

    EPA Science Inventory

    Decisions on where and how to clean-up Federally-owned facilities contaminated by mixtures of hazardous chemical and radioactive wastes requires that quality environmental data be obtained. he Federal Government currently using several different standards or sets of requirements ...

  17. Storage quality-of-service in cloud-based scientific environments: a standardization approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Millar, Paul; Fuhrmann, Patrick; Hardt, Marcus; Ertl, Benjamin; Brzezniak, Maciej

    2017-10-01

    When preparing the Data Management Plan for larger scientific endeavors, PIs have to balance between the most appropriate qualities of storage space along the line of the planned data life-cycle, its price and the available funding. Storage properties can be the media type, implicitly determining access latency and durability of stored data, the number and locality of replicas, as well as available access protocols or authentication mechanisms. Negotiations between the scientific community and the responsible infrastructures generally happen upfront, where the amount of storage space, media types, like: disk, tape and SSD and the foreseeable data life-cycles are negotiated. With the introduction of cloud management platforms, both in computing and storage, resources can be brokered to achieve the best price per unit of a given quality. However, in order to allow the platform orchestrator to programmatically negotiate the most appropriate resources, a standard vocabulary for different properties of resources and a commonly agreed protocol to communicate those, has to be available. In order to agree on a basic vocabulary for storage space properties, the storage infrastructure group in INDIGO-DataCloud together with INDIGO-associated and external scientific groups, created a working group under the umbrella of the Research Data Alliance (RDA). As communication protocol, to query and negotiate storage qualities, the Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI) has been selected. Necessary extensions to CDMI are defined in regular meetings between INDIGO and the Storage Network Industry Association (SNIA). Furthermore, INDIGO is contributing to the SNIA CDMI reference implementation as the basis for interfacing the various storage systems in INDIGO to the agreed protocol and to provide an official Open-Source skeleton for systems not being maintained by INDIGO partners.

  18. Medicare program; standards for quality of water used in dialysis and revised guidelines on reuse of hemodialysis filters for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients--HCFA. Final rule.

    PubMed

    1995-09-18

    This final rule revises the Medicare conditions for coverage of suppliers of end-stage renal disease services. The revisions remove general language in the regulations regarding water quality; incorporate by reference standards for monitoring the quality of water used in dialysis as published by the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) in its document, "Hemodialysis Systems" (second edition); and update existing regulations to incorporate by reference the second edition of AAMI's voluntary guidelines on "Reuse of Hemodialyzers."

  19. A Delphi Study to Examine the Quality Measurement Standards by Online Instructors Using the Quality Matters™ Rubric as a Basis for Creating Instructional Materials

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Robinson, Daniel J.

    2017-01-01

    Quality measurement tools such as the Rubric for Online Instruction (ROI) and Quality Matters (QM) have developed guidelines by providing research based educational criteria for planning, creating, and implementing quality online education courses. This dissertation reviews QM program standards and identifies the primary characteristics of…

  20. Differentiation among Schools as a Factor of the Quality of General Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kozochkina, T. L.

    2009-01-01

    Russian schools differ widely in the quality of education they provide and in the socioeconomic status of the students they teach. More needs to be done to provide quality education for children from all social strata, including provision of remedial or extra tutoring where necessary. General school education provides the basic body of knowledge…

  1. International water and steam quality standards on thermal power plants at all-volatile treatment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Petrova, T. I.; Orlov, K. A.; Dooley, R. B.

    2016-12-01

    One of the methods for the improvement of reliability and efficiency of the equipment at heat power plants is the decrease in the rate of corrosion of structural materials and sedimentation in water/steam circuit. These processes can be reduced to minimum by using the water with low impurity content and coolant treatment. For many years, water and steam quality standards were developed in various countries (United States, Germany, Japan, etc.) for specific types of equipment. The International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam (IAPWS), which brings together specialists from 21 countries, developed the water and steam quality standards for various types of power equipment based on theoretical studies and long-term operating experience of power equipment. Recently, various water-chemistry conditions are applied on heatpower equipment including conventional boilers and HRSGs with combined cycle power plants (Combined Cycle Power Plants (CCPP)). In paper, the maintenance conditions of water chemistry with ammonia or volatile amine dosing are described: reducing AVT(R), oxidizing AVT(O), and oxygen OT. Each of them is provided by the water and steam quality standards and recommendations are given on their maintenance under various operation conditions. It is noted that the quality control of heat carrier must be carried out with a particular care on the HPPs with combined cycle gas turbine units, where frequent starts and halts are performed.

  2. Room for improvement? Leadership, innovation culture and uptake of quality improvement methods in general practice.

    PubMed

    Apekey, Tanefa A; McSorley, Gerry; Tilling, Michelle; Siriwardena, A Niroshan

    2011-04-01

    Leadership and innovation are currently seen as essential elements for the development and maintenance of high-quality care. Little is known about the relationship between leadership and culture of innovation and the extent to which quality improvement methods are used in general practice. This study aimed to assess the relationship between leadership behaviour, culture of innovation and adoption of quality improvement methods in general practice. Self-administered postal questionnaires were sent to general practitioner quality improvement leads in one county in the UK between June and December 2007. The questionnaire consisted of background information, a 12-item scale to assess leadership behaviour, a seven-dimension self-rating scale for culture of innovation and questions on current use of quality improvement tools and techniques. Sixty-three completed questionnaires (62%) were returned. Leadership behaviours were not commonly reported. Most practices reported a positive culture of innovation, featuring relationship most strongly, followed by targets and information but rated lower on other dimensions of rewards, risk and resources. There was a significant positive correlation between leadership behaviour and the culture of innovation (r = 0.57; P < 0.001). Apart from clinical audit and significant event analysis, quality improvement methods were not adopted by most participating practices. Leadership behaviours were infrequently reported and this was associated with a limited culture of innovation in participating general practices. There was little use of quality improvement methods beyond clinical and significant event audit. Practices need support to enhance leadership skills, encourage innovation and develop quality improvement skills if improvements in health care are to accelerate. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  3. 75 FR 65594 - Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Ohio; Particulate Matter Standards

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-10-26

    ... Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Ohio; Particulate Matter Standards AGENCY: Environmental... in Ohio Administrative Code (OAC) Chapter 3745-17, ``Particulate Matter Standards.'' The revisions were submitted by Ohio EPA to satisfy the State's 5-year review requirements. The particulate matter...

  4. Low-Cost Quality Control and Nondestructive Evaluation Technologies for General Aviation Structures

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cramer, K. Elliott; Gavinsky, Bob; Semanskee, Grant

    1998-01-01

    NASA's Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments (AGATE) Program has as a goal to reduce the overall cost of producing private aviation aircraft while maintaining the safety of these aircraft. In order to successfully meet this goal, it is necessary to develop nondestructive inspection techniques which will facilitate the production of the materials used in these aircraft and assure the quality necessary to maintain airworthiness. This paper will discuss a particular class of general aviation materials and several nondestructive inspection techniques that have proven effective for making these inspections. Additionally, this paper will discuss the investigation and application of other commercially available quality control techniques applicable to these structures.

  5. Use of MODIS Terra Imagery to Estimate Surface Water Quality Standards, Using Lake Thonotosassa, Florida, as a Case Study

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Moreno, Max J.; Al-Hamdan, Mohammad Z.; Estes, Maurice G., Jr.; Rickman, Douglas L.

    2010-01-01

    Lake Thonotosassa is a highly eutrophied lake located in an area with rapidly growing population in the Tampa Bay watershed, Florida. The Florida Administrative Code has designated its use for "recreation, propagation and maintenance of a healthy, well-balanced population of fish and wildlife." Although this lake has been the subject of efforts to improve water quality since 1970, overall water quality has remained below the acceptable state standards, and has a high concentration of nutrients. This condition is of great concern to public health since it has favored episodic blooms of Cyanobacteria. Some Cyanobacterial species release toxins that can reach humans through drinking water, fish consumption, and direct contact with contaminated water. The lake has been historically popular for fishing and water sports, and its overflow water drains into the Hillsborough River, the main supply of municipal water for the City of Tampa, this explains why it has being constantly monitored in situ for water quality by the Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County (EPC). Advances in remote sensing technology, however, open the possibility of facilitating similar types of monitoring in this and similar lakes, further contributing to the implementation of surveillance systems that would benefit not just public health, but also tourism and ecosystems. Although traditional application of this technology to water quality has been focused on much larger coastal water bodies like bays and estuaries, this study evaluates the feasibility of its application on a 46.6 km2 freshwater lake. Using surface reflectance products from Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Terra, this study evaluates associations between remotely sensed data and in situ data from the EPC. The parameters analyzed are the surface water quality standards used by the State of Florida and general indicators of trophic status.

  6. Burnout, quality of life and emotional profile in general practitioners and psychiatrists.

    PubMed

    Vicentic, Sreten; Gasic, Miroslava Jasovic; Milovanovic, Aleksandar; Tosevski, Dusica Lecic; Nenadovic, Milutin; Damjanovic, Aleksandar; Kostic, Bojana Dunjic; Jovanovic, Aleksandar A

    2013-01-01

    Many studies confirm that psychological factors and burnout in physicians are interconnected. It is however not known, whether quality of life is another factor that plays a role in this connection.The aim of this study was to explore the correlation between quality of life and emotional profile with the level of burnout in physicians. 120 physicians participated in this study, i.e., sixty general practitioners (GPs) and sixty psychiatrists. The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) were used to measure the job stress. The Quality of Life (QOL) and the Emotions Profile Index (EPI) were used to determine quality of life and emotional profile. Data were analyzed using methods of single and multiple correlation and regression methods. The QOL was higher in psychiatrists as a direct consequence of questions about finances and friendship. Analysis by gender showed that the growth of the burnout risk level (MBI) correlated with the growth of number of women who had stress coping problems. This research suggests that quality of life and individual factors represent a very significant role in burnout among physicians. Further researches in a bigger sample are required in order to identify key factors of quality of life related to burnout reducing, as well as for improvement of supervision strategies, including more the relevance of psychological profile of physicians.

  7. [Analysis of varieties and standards of Leguminosae plants used in Tibetan medicine].

    PubMed

    Cao, Lan; Du, Xiao-lang; Zhong, Wei-hong; Zhong, Wei-jin; He, Jun-wei; Mu, Ze-jing; Zhong, Guo-yue

    2015-12-01

    In this paper, the domestic varieties and quality standard of Leguminosae medicinal plants used in Tibetan medicine were analyzed. The results showed that there were 36 genera and 142 species (including varieties), as well as 64 medicinal materials varieties of Leguminosae plants were recorded in relevant literatures. In relevant Tibetan standards and literatures, there are great differences in varieties, sources, used parts, and efficacy of medicinal plants. Among them, about 38.0% (including 54 species) of the endemic plants, about 25.4% (including 36 species) of the original plants have medicinal standard legal records, except 9 kinds of traditional Chinese medicine general quality standard more fairly completed, the most varieties have only description about characters, identification, etc. Therefore it is necessary to reinforce study for the herbal textual, resources and the use present situation, chemical components and biological activity, quality standard, medicinal terms specification, to promote establishment of quality standard system for variety-terminologies-sources of Tibetan medicinal plants.

  8. Developing a framework of, and quality indicators for, general practice management in Europe.

    PubMed

    Engels, Yvonne; Campbell, Stephen; Dautzenberg, Maaike; van den Hombergh, Pieter; Brinkmann, Henrik; Szécsényi, Joachim; Falcoff, Hector; Seuntjens, Luc; Kuenzi, Beat; Grol, Richard

    2005-04-01

    To develop a framework for general practice management made up of quality indicators shared by six European countries. Two-round postal Delphi questionnaire in the setting of general practice in Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Six national expert panels, each consisting of 10 members, primarily primary care practitioners and experts in the field of quality in primary care participated in the study. The main outcome measures were: (a) a European framework with indicators for the organization of primary care; and (b) ratings of the face validity of the usefulness of the indicators by expert panels in six countries. Agreement was reached about a definition of practice management across five domains (infrastructure, staff, information, finance, and quality and safety), and a common set of indicators for the organization of general practice. The panellist response rate was 95%. Sixty-two indicators (37%) were rated face valid by all six panels. Examples include out of hours service, accessibility, the content of doctors' bags and staff involvement in quality improvement. No indicators were rated invalid by all six panels. It proved to be possible to develop a European set of indicators for assessing the quality of practice management, despite the differences in health care systems and cultures in the six different countries. These indicators will now be used in a quality assessment procedure of practice management in nine European countries. While organizational indicators are part of the new GMS contract in the UK, this research shows that many practice management issues within primary care are also of relevance in other European countries.

  9. A proteomics performance standard to support measurement quality in proteomics.

    PubMed

    Beasley-Green, Ashley; Bunk, David; Rudnick, Paul; Kilpatrick, Lisa; Phinney, Karen

    2012-04-01

    The emergence of MS-based proteomic platforms as a prominent technology utilized in biochemical and biomedical research has increased the need for high-quality MS measurements. To address this need, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) reference material (RM) 8323 yeast protein extract is introduced as a proteomics quality control material for benchmarking the preanalytical and analytical performance of proteomics-based experimental workflows. RM 8323 yeast protein extract is based upon the well-characterized eukaryote Saccharomyces cerevisiae and can be utilized in the design and optimization of proteomics-based methodologies from sample preparation to data analysis. To demonstrate its utility as a proteomics quality control material, we coupled LC-MS/MS measurements of RM 8323 with the NIST MS Quality Control (MSQC) performance metrics to quantitatively assess the LC-MS/MS instrumentation parameters that influence measurement accuracy, repeatability, and reproducibility. Due to the complexity of the yeast proteome, we also demonstrate how NIST RM 8323, along with the NIST MSQC performance metrics, can be used in the evaluation and optimization of proteomics-based sample preparation methods. © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  10. 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...

  11. 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...

  12. 75 FR 2938 - National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-01-19

    ...Based on its reconsideration of the primary and secondary national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for ozone (O3) set in March 2008, EPA proposes to set different primary and secondary standards than those set in 2008 to provide requisite protection of public health and welfare, respectively. With regard to the primary standard for O3, EPA proposes that the level of the 8-hour primary standard, which was set at 0.075 ppm in the 2008 final rule, should instead be set at a lower level within the range of 0.060 to 0.070 parts per million (ppm), to provide increased protection for children and other ``at risk'' populations against an array of O3-related adverse health effects that range from decreased lung function and increased respiratory symptoms to serious indicators of respiratory morbidity including emergency department visits and hospital admissions for respiratory causes, and possibly cardiovascular-related morbidity as well as total non-accidental and cardiopulmonary mortality. With regard to the secondary standard for O3, EPA proposes that the secondary O3 standard, which was set identical to the revised primary standard in the 2008 final rule, should instead be a new cumulative, seasonal standard expressed as an annual index of the sum of weighted hourly concentrations, cumulated over 12 hours per day (8 am to 8 pm) during the consecutive 3-month period within the O3 season with the maximum index value, set at a level within the range of 7 to 15 ppm- hours, to provide increased protection against O3-related adverse impacts on vegetation and forested ecosystems.

  13. Quality improvement activities associated with organisational capacity in general practice.

    PubMed

    Amoroso, Cheryl; Proudfoot, Judy; Bubner, Tanya; Swan, Edward; Espinel, Paola; Barton, Christopher; Beilby, Justin; Harris, Mark

    2007-01-01

    Clinical audit is recognised worldwide as a useful tool for quality improvement. A feedback report profiling capacity for chronic disease care was sent to 97 general practices. These practices were invited to complete a clinical audit activity based on that feedback. Data were analysed quantitatively and case studies were developed based on the free text responses. Eighty-two (33%) of 247 general practitioners participated in the clinical audit process, representing 57 (59%) of 97 general practices. From the data in their feedback report, 37 (65%) of the 57 practices recognised the area most in need of improvement. This was most likely where the need related to clinical practice or teamwork, and least likely where the need related to linkages with other services, and business and finance. Only 25 practices (46%) developed an action plan related to their recognised area for improvement, and 22 (39%) practices implemented their chosen activity. Participating GPs judged that change activity focused on teamwork was most successful. The clinical audit process offered participating GPs and practices an opportunity to reflect on their performance across a number of key areas and to implement change to enhance the practice's capacity for quality chronic disease care. The relationship between need and action was weak, suggesting a need for greater support to overcome barriers.

  14. EPA Region 7 and Four States Water Quality Standards Review Process Kaizen Event

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The submittal, review and approval process of the EPA–State process for developing and revising Water Quality Standards (WQS) was the focus of a Lean business process improvement kaizen event in June 2007.

  15. 77 FR 35285 - Approval of Air Quality Implementation Plan; Arizona; Attainment Plan for 1997 8-Hour Ozone Standard

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-06-13

    ... Quality Implementation Plan; Arizona; Attainment Plan for 1997 8-Hour Ozone Standard AGENCY: U.S... 1997 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) in the Phoenix-Mesa nonattainment area... required for ozone nonattainment areas under title I, part D, subpart 1 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) for the...

  16. 40 CFR 63.7886 - What are the general standards I must meet for my affected remediation material management units?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... meet for my affected remediation material management units? 63.7886 Section 63.7886 Protection of... Hazardous Air Pollutants: Site Remediation General Standards § 63.7886 What are the general standards I must meet for my affected remediation material management units? (a) For each remediation material...

  17. [The revised Dutch College of General Practitioners' standard on COPD and the first international WHO standard: differences and similarities].

    PubMed

    van Schayck, C P

    2002-02-23

    Two standards on COPD have recently been published: the revised national standard from the Dutch College of General Practitioners and the first international standard published by the World Health Organization and the US National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The reduced emphasis on the role of spirometry in the monitoring and evaluation of treatment is an important change in these new standards compared to previous ones. Cessation of smoking is considered to be central to the prevention and treatment of COPD. Doctors should strongly support this approach and, more than before, are urged to view COPD as a disease caused by addiction. Bronchodilators are the cornerstone of symptomatic treatment of COPD, particularly the long-acting ones due to their ease of administration and effective treatment of morning dyspnoea. Inhalation corticosteroids should only be administered as a trial treatment and only under certain conditions. Continuation of treatment with these agents is only justified if there is a demonstrated improvement in lung function, exacerbations or symptoms, although the precise area of indication is not yet clear.

  18. Standardized Methods for Enhanced Quality and Comparability of Tuberculous Meningitis Studies.

    PubMed

    Marais, Ben J; Heemskerk, Anna D; Marais, Suzaan S; van Crevel, Reinout; Rohlwink, Ursula; Caws, Maxine; Meintjes, Graeme; Misra, Usha K; Mai, Nguyen T H; Ruslami, Rovina; Seddon, James A; Solomons, Regan; van Toorn, Ronald; Figaji, Anthony; McIlleron, Helen; Aarnoutse, Robert; Schoeman, Johan F; Wilkinson, Robert J; Thwaites, Guy E

    2017-02-15

    Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) remains a major cause of death and disability in tuberculosis-endemic areas, especially in young children and immunocompromised adults. Research aimed at improving outcomes is hampered by poor standardization, which limits study comparison and the generalizability of results. We propose standardized methods for the conduct of TBM clinical research that were drafted at an international tuberculous meningitis research meeting organized by the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam. We propose a core dataset including demographic and clinical information to be collected at study enrollment, important aspects related to patient management and monitoring, and standardized reporting of patient outcomes. The criteria proposed for the conduct of observational and intervention TBM studies should improve the quality of future research outputs, can facilitate multicenter studies and meta-analyses of pooled data, and could provide the foundation for a global TBM data repository.

  19. The National Standards and Medieval Music in Middle School Choral and General Music.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hawkins, Patrick; Beegle, Amy

    2003-01-01

    Discusses how medieval music can be utilized in the choral and general music classroom to teach middle school students and to address the National Standards for Music Education. Provides background information on medieval music, ideas for lessons, and a glossary of key terms. (CMK)

  20. 40 CFR 50.4 - National primary ambient air quality standards for sulfur oxides (sulfur dioxide).

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... standards for sulfur oxides (sulfur dioxide). 50.4 Section 50.4 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL....4 National primary ambient air quality standards for sulfur oxides (sulfur dioxide). (a) The level...). (c) Sulfur oxides shall be measured in the ambient air as sulfur dioxide by the reference method...